《Chosen by Fate, Rejected by the Alpha》


 Chapter 1 - Trinity- A (wolf)girl like no other

    <h4>Chapter 1 - Trinity- A (wolf)girl like no other</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    My fists made contact with the leather of the focus mitts in rapid session.


    "Again." My coach yelled for the umpteenth time. He would drill me on abo until it felt like my arms were going to fall off. But that was fine with me. Better to know how to fight and protect myself than be one of those defenseless girls out there.


    "Hyaah!" I yelled out as I threw thest punch in thebo he had just taught me that morning. I had thrown my all into the final blow to signify that I was done with this current lesson, at least for now.


    "Damn Trinity, that hurt." He growled at me, but instead of looking upset, he was actually smiling. The pride I saw in his eyes made me happy.


    "If you weren''t so little then I''d say there was no way you were really a girl." Heughed when he spoke this time.


    "That was mean, Jim."


    "It''s apliment and you know it." Myining had only made himugh harder, that or it was my pouty look. "You fight better than most of the guys in my gym."


    "That''s not hard to do. Most of them think they need to be the biggest to be the best, but that just typically leaves them with less speed and more ces to hit. And most of them have no brains at all and can''t put those muscles to good use." Plus, most of them don''t have the added advantage that I have. I added in my head. At my words, Jim practically had to hold on to the wall to keep standing.


    "That''s why I like you kid, you got spunk, and definitely brains. Now go on, get changed, or you''ll bete for your next ss." Looking up, I saw he was right. I had to squeeze my training sessions in between my sses at the local college ever since Grandfather had stopped paying for my previous instructor.


    "Alright Jim, I''ll see you next week." I told him before running to the empty and very seldom useddies'' locker room.


    I hurried through a shower like I usually did before I pulled my long brown hair into its customary high ponytail, leaving the tresses to hang and dry into their natural wavy curls. I dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and topped that with a hoodie. Normal college freshmen, especially girls, probably put more effort into their appearance before they went to ss, but I just didn''t have the time. Especially not at that moment, I was seriously running behind.


    It was at times like these that I was d I actually ran somewhat faster than most people. Maybe not as fast as everyone else in my family, or everyone else in the pack, but definitely faster than a human. I had to actually make a conscious effort not to run too fast as I hurried back to campus.


    I made good time and got to ss before it started, thankfully. Though it helped that I could sense when someone wasing up in my blind spot or when there would be something in my way up ahead. It was a sort of preternatural gift that all werewolves seemed to have that was granted to us by the moon goddess. Not that I actually counted as a werewolf technically, but whatever.


    The professor came in and started her lecture. This ss was a per-req and therefore a total snore for me. I had wanted something that was going to challenge me and make me think, but they had yet to teach me anything beyond what Grandfather''s tutors had taught me when I was growing up. I had quite the high-ss education and upbringing, but that all ended when I turned eighteen. And while Grandfather still supported me financially, to an extent, it was definitely significantly less than it was when I was a kid.


    That was fine by me, though. I''m much happier now that I am out here doing things on my own. I don''t have to live my life by his strict rules anymore, not as much anyway. The only rules I really had to follow were those of the pack, and that was fine by me.


    ~~


    You see, my name is Trinity Whitton, and my family was once very high ranking in the hierarchy of the Red Springs pack. My grandfather actually used to be the Beta to the previous Alpha, however, that Alpha was killed in an attack just a few years ago and his son took his ce. But even being the Beta wasn''t enough to keep my family from losing face in a massive scandal.


    We wolves are a proud people. Those are the words that Grandfather would tell me every day since I was a little girl. As far back as I can remember. But that pride hadn''t stopped my mother from disappearing for a weekend when she was fifteen anding back to face her father''s fury. And then, to make matters worse, they found out she was pregnant. She refused to tell them who the father was. They naturally assumed that the father was not a wolf, which made me an abomination in their eyes.


    Regardless, I was still part of the pack, and the previous Alpha had ordered that I was to be treated like any other member of the pack until it was certain that I would not shift like everyone else. Our wolf forms usually show at any time between the ages of thirteen and eighteen.


    Many think that the sooner you shift the stronger your wolf will be, but that''s not always true, but boys will be boys and they stillpete however they can. Now here I was, nearly neen, and I still haven''t shifted. But I still had every other aspect of being a wolf. I had the speed, the strength, the heightened senses, the fighting instinct, everything. I was very much a member of the pack. I was clearly not human, but as of yet, I was not a werewolf either. I just didn''t belong anywhere.


    I couldn''t ask my mother about my father myself. If she was just too scared to talk to her father or if she might be less scared now after all these years. The ridicule and shame heaped on my family when she was pregnant and right after she gave birth was too much for her to handle. She ended up taking her own life when I was less than a month old.


    The only thing my mother left behind for me was a pendant that she had asked to be given to me when I was old enough. I honestly can''t believe that they followed through with it, and if it were left up to Grandfather, they probably would not have, but after my mother''s death''s I lived primarily with my Uncle Wesley and his wife Eve, they had two boys who treated me just like a sister and were the best part of my childhood.


    Honestly, life would have been pretty good if it hadn''t been for Grandfather. I swear he hates me. He had ridiculously high standards for me. Always telling me things like I would never be allowed to make the same mistakes that his poor excuse for a daughter had made.


    I had every one of his rules drilled into me every day for years. I was not allowed to attend public school with my cousins and the rest of the kids in the pack. I was made to train and learn many different things. I was taught etiquette, martial arts, ballet, boxing, fencing, foreignnguages, musical instruments, and a ridiculously hard curriculum.


    Grandfather paid for it all, hoping that I would shift by the time I turned eighteen and he could at least marry me off to a good family and use me to regain some status in the hierarchy. But then my birthday came and went, and it became more than abundantly clear to everyone that I just was not going to shift. I had no wolf. I was an abomination, a freak of nature, something that shouldn''t be mixed in with the rest of the pack.


    Yet I still had to follow all the pack rules. I still had to attend all the pack gatherings. I still had to bow my head and bend my knees when the alpha gave the order to kneel. His words were like apulsion to the pack, and we were simply unable to defy them. And even with all that, I was still treated as an outsider by most of the higher-ranking families. As someone who just didn''t belong with all the cool kids.


    ~~

 Chapter 2 - Trinity- The Harvest Moon Gathering? Oh Goddess!

    <h4>Chapter 2: Trinity- The Harvest Moon Gathering? Oh Goddess!</h4>


    ~~


    ~~


    I could tell the lecture wasing to an end, Professor Thompson''s tone of voice always gave her away, so I pulled myself out of my daydream and paid attention enough to get the homework assignment for the ss. Theposition we were to write would be all too easy for me, again. It had been a little over a month since sses had started and I was still bored. I was taking four sses, and the only one even remotely interesting was the Intro to Criminology ss. I hope this gets more exciting soon. I told myself again as I was leaving the room.


    "Hey Trin, I see you were spacing out again." I heard a man''s voice call out to me from behind.


    "Yeah, Astro, can''t you keep yourself grounded for a single ss?" Another added.


    "Ignore them Trin." Juniper sighed smacking the two of them on the arm while the four of us walked to the side of the hallway, so we didn''t block anyone walking past us. These were the only friends I had ever managed to make in my entire life.


    Juniper and her twin brother Cedar both had light ash blond hair, bright green eyes, and sharp angr features. They were both tall, but Cedar was still half a foot taller than his sister at least, he was well over six feet tall. The other man was her mate Paul. He was shorter than Cedar by a few inches, yet taller than Juniper, with hazel eyes and jet-ck hair. They were also werewolves, which meant they were also part of the pack. But they were so low ranking in status that they said they didn''t care what anyone had to say. They would form their own opinions about me.


    The day I had met them had been both a terrifying and happy one. I didn''t know how they were going to react to me, but when they epted me, it was like one of the biggest victories of my life. I had only known them for a little over a month, but that didn''t seem to mean anything to them. They treated me like I was one of them, simr to how my cousins treated me at times, and it made me happy.


    "Paul, could you not call me Astro please? It has nothing to do with my name."


    "No? I think it''s very fitting for an astronaut that spends the entire ss floating through space." He guffawed at his own joke as soon as he had spoken it.


    "Honestly." Juniperughed at him as she smacked him again. "Why do I bother to deal with you again?" She asked.


    "Because the moon goddess said that we were destined to be together forever and therefore you''re head over heels in love with me and find me irresistible." He recited, his usuale back to her exasperated question was very practiced. Probably because she asked it so often.


    "Oh yeah. That must be it." She giggled as she stretched up on her toes and pulled him toward her so she could give him a quick kiss.


    "Blech, can you wait until I am not around to do that?" Cedarined. The four of usughed at our typical daily routine.


    "Hey Trin, want us to give you a ride home today, or is your cousin here?"


    "No, Carter is probably already waiting for me, so I should hurry up. See you guys next week." I started to run toward the door.


    "What?"


    "Don''t you mean tomorrow?" I heard Paul and Cedar yell after me, causing me to skid to a halt and turn back to them.


    "What are you talking about?"


    "The Harvest Moon Gathering." Juniper spoke tly, like she was talking to a child, or someone slow.


    "Oh My Goddess! I can''t believe I forgot about that." I eximed, pping my hand to my head.


    "Good thing you have such good friends who will remind you, that way you can be prepared at least a little in advance." Paulughed at my surprised response.


    "Har-har very funny." I told him with a biting edge to my voice.


    "Ouch, rein it in Astro." I growled at him, half yfully half not.


    I ran toward the parking lot, weaving through the throngs of people on my way. I could see Carter standing by his Jeep 4x4 waiting for me. He was as close to a doting brother as I was ever going to get, and most of the time it made me really happy, though I would never admit that to him.


    "You''rete." He barked as soon as I was close enough for him to growl at me.


    "Sorry, I was talking with a couple people after ss. Good thing too, because they reminded me of something." I answered, my voice filled with annoyance that was only partially aimed at his impatience.


    "Oh yeah? What did they remind you about?" He questioned with augh. He obviously thought it was something trivial.


    "The Harvest Moon Gathering tomorrow night, I hadpletely forgotten about it."


    "Seriously Trinity, how could you possibly forget about that?"


    "Well, it''s the first time that we are gathering for the harvest moon, we usually only gather for the hunter''s moon, not both. It''s not my fault I forgot a break in tradition, especially when I am usually kept out of the loop, anyway." Honestly, could he really me me? Since my eighteenth birthday, most of the pack acted like I didn''t even exist. If it wasn''t for the monthly allowance and tuition, I would think that Grandfather had forgotten about me as well, but I guess he could just be having his secretary handle it and not even know what''s going on.


    "Come on, Trin, let''s go." He told me, climbing into the Jeep, a smile on his face, and augh in his voice told me that he would always be there for me like any brother I could ask for.


    "Why is there a gathering tomorrow, anyway?" I asked him while he was driving out of the city and toward thepound. Now I saypound because that is what the pack calls it, but the truth is, it''s actually just a gatedmunity where arge number of pack families lived.


    Thepound was bordered by the forest on the north and west and backed up to the mountains. A river snaked along the south side of thepound and around the base of the mountain. Using the Elements around us, we had created a literal fortress for us to live in. All but the exiled, those who left by choice or just those who wanted a bit more freedom (typically new adult males) lived at thepound. It was the safest way for us to protect ourselves from the humans and them from us.


    "The Alpha has to find a mate, so he has to hold as many gatherings as possible before the year is over. If he doesn''t find his Luna in our pack, then he needs to start traveling to other packs to look for a mate there. But since there is the chance that other pairs can form their mate bonds at the gatherings as well, every non-mated pack member has to go. And mated members can go because it is a gathering so it would be wrong to exclude anyone."


    "Well that exins why Juniper and Paul are going, they''re already mated." I mused. "But, honestly, why do I have to go? We all know that I am not going to be his mate. I don''t have a wolf, so I can''t form a mate bond." I whined indignantly.


    "You don''t know that, Trin." He told me automatically. He would always tell me this when I would get depressed when I was younger. Back when I actually got mad at myself, or at my mother, for me not having a wolf. There''s nothing I can do now though, so I am just going to do the best I can with my slightly enhanced life.


    "I am not human, and I am not a wolf. I don''t belong anywhere. Just ask Grandfather." I snapped, a little more anger dripping from my voice than I had intended.


    "Yeah well, sometimes I would like to tell ol'' gramps where to shove that holier than thou pride of his." Carter snapped, causing me tough. He had always hated the way Grandfather treated me the most. Probably because of my two cousins he was closer to my age at only two years older than me, unlike his brother who was six years older than me. They both loved me, but Noah grew up and moved on with his life. He had even found a mate recently, got married and moved into his own home in thepound.


    "Still Carter, we both know that no one is going to mate with me, and even if they did, they would just reject me, anyway."


    "You can''t reject a mate bond, Trinity. You know that." He sounded shocked by my words.


    "Oh, I know, but that doesn''t mean they wouldn''t try to reject me. They''d probably rather go unmated for life. They''d start the first order of Buddhist Monk wolves." I chuckled,ughing at my own joke.


    "That''s not funny." He growled.


    "Actually, it is, and you know it. There isn''t a single man in this pack, who would take me as a mate." I told him firmly.

 Chapter 3 - Reece- I dont want a mate!

    <h4>Chapter 3: Reece- I don''t want a mate!</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I was sitting at my desk listening to the reports from my personal assistant Noah. He was highly efficient at his job, which meant that the reports alwayssted longer than absolutely necessary. He could convey all the information in less time, but there was no telling what the extra info would provide in the long run.


    He reported on the restless independent wolves living in the next city over. He informed me that the pack whose territory bordered ours, but had significantly lessnd than us, was causing a bit of a stir with talks of a possible attempt to overthrow me and take mynd and people. There was talk of a rogue coven of magic users, witches and warlocks, that had decided to settle in our area. We haven''t seen the likes of them in nearly twenty years, ording to the elders and the record books.


    Noah was so thorough and good at his job that I had considered making him my Beta, his grandfather had been my father''s Beta after all. But there was all that unpleasantness that his family had following them. And it wasn''t like they could escape from it, the girl was still there as a constant reminder of what had happened. I felt bad for the guy, truly. And he was smart as hell, he really was the best wolf around to be my assistant, I just wish he wouldn''t drone on for so long. Ugh!


    "I will not need an entire night just for that. I will know within five seconds if anyone in the group is my mate." I grumbled.


    "The Elders seemed to think you should spend some time alone with each one of them if possible, but as much time with the group as a whole if not."


    "If they''re not my mate, then spending more time with them won''t make a difference. These glorified speed dating traps they''ve set up for me won''t change anything at all." I yelled.


    "Hey, don''t snap at me, I''m not the one who set all this up, alright." Noahmanded, dropping his work facade for just a moment as he smiled at my frustration. I had to remember he was my friend, and this wasn''t his fault.


    My anger was getting the better of me. I had been on edge for weeks now, and things were likely to get much worse with what was toe. Throw me into a battle with another pack and tell me I might note back alive, and I''d jump in with both feet. Tell me that a rogue is challenging me for my position as Alpha and needs to be put into his ce, and I will knock him down a peg or twenty. Tell me that a warlock has kidnapped a human child and needs to be dealt with stealth and precision, and I will be first on the scene.


    But tell me I need to be made to socialize with a gaggle of giggling she-wolves that think they have a chance to be the next Luna, or think they have a chance to be the next one to warm my bed for a night. That they think they might have a chance at my money, or the status I could offer. Whatever the reason was, it would always be the same. They would always be the same. Women were shallow, useless creatures that used you to their own end and then just left you without so much as a word.


    That''s why I don''t want a mate. Women only care for themselves. There may have been a few exceptions, like his mother. Before the incident, she was the greatest woman in the world, without a doubt. But now, now she was just a shell of her former self. She just sat there, day in and day out, in a catatonic state, like a vegetable. She sat staring out the window and drooling on herself. She hadn''t moved, spoken, showed any kind of life at all. Not since the betrayal seven years ago that had led to my father''s death. The betrayal of a woman who only cared for herself and no one else. I couldn''t let someone like that ruin my pack again, I simply wouldn''t allow it.

 Chapter 4 - Trinity- Grandfathers Visit

    <h4>Chapter 4: Trinity- Grandfather''s Visit</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    The first thing I noticed when I got home was that my Aunt Eve had made my favorite dinner, Honey Garlic Pork Chops. The second thing I noticed was that Grandfather was there. I hadn''t noticed him first because his car wasn''t there and the food overpowered his scent, otherwise I would have smelled him long before I had seen him. No matter the circumstances, Grandfather used them against me, pointing out myck of tracking his scent as further proof I was not one of them. I wish he would stop it already; I already knew I wasn''t a wolf.


    "I see you are the same as ever, Trinity."


    "It''s nice to see you too, Grandfather." I lied, with just the slightest hint of sarcasm in my voice. "To what do I owe the pleasure of having you visit me today?" I asked him. He grimaced. Grandfather knew I was forcing myself to be polite to him.


    "I havee bearing warnings for the uing full moon gatherings. And I have prepared your attire for tomorrow''s event."


    "That is very kind of you Grandfather, but I already had something picked out." I told him. I had not expected him to buy me an outfit for the gathering.


    "Did you buy it new for this asion?" He asked, already seeming to scoff at my answer as if he was predicting an unfavorable response.


    "No, but it is something that I have not really worn before."


    "Then it is uneptable. This is too important of an event. You must have a new outfit for tomorrow night and each of the subsequent events. There is still a chance you will meet your mate and be bonded from there onward. You must make the best first impression possible. For what other purpose did I spend my time and money training you?"


    "I wouldn''t know?" I told him, sounding annoyed. This was typical behavior for Grandfather, of course, but I had expected it to end when I turned eighteen and proved to be useless to him. But apparently, he was still hoping to marry me off to someone dumb enough to mate with a girl who had no wolf.


    Grandfather had his secretary show me the dress that I would be wearing to the gathering tomorrow. It wasn''t too bad, thank the Goddess. It was a dark midnight blue that wouldplement my paleplexion nicely. It was made of silk and felt wonderful to the touch. The hidden undertones in the blue were shining as the light hit it.


    The front was cut a little low for my taste, but from there it went up into three straps on either side of the bodice, the straps went over the shoulders to connect and then fan out in the opposite directions. The straps connected to the sides of the dress and another purely decorative set of three straps came out across the lower back connecting in the middle.


    Altogether, the straps created an borate design across the back. And with the bodice going up so high with the straps, the plunging line in the middle didn''t seem so bad, but time would tell when I tried it on. It must have been either specially made or hemmed to be perfect for my height. Compared to the other women in the pack, I was short. Like, really short.


    The average woman in the pack was around five-foot-nine. Some were taller, and some were shorter by only a margin of a couple inches. Me on the other hand, I was five feet five inches tall. Almost half a foot shorter than all the women. And considering that all the men were taller than the women, that made them all tower over me.


    There were the few rare cases where a man was closer to the height of the women, but none was shorter than five-foot-ten in the entire pack. That was another reason I was considered a freak among the pack. But the height could have been overlooked if only I had shifted into a wolf by the time that I was eighteen.


    "It is very lovely, Grandfather." I told him, which was the truth. "But you did not need to go through the trouble of getting something so obviously expensive." I told him, reminding him that he was supposed to have cut me off. How am I supposed to go on in peace if you show up at random like this?


    "I most certainly had to. Who knows what kind of monstrosity you would have chosen for tomorrow evening? You are the only unwed female in our family, we must put our best foot forward." He was of course slipping into his old ranting again. Couldn''t you ever just do something because you love me or cared for me, Grandfather? Is that too much to ask for? I asked myself while consciously trying to hold back the emotions that threatened me. Emotions had no effect on Grandfather, I had learned that long ago.


    Grandfather had apparently decided to stay for dinner, which was unusual to say the least. But once he was gone and life was back to normal in the house, we were all able to rx. Even uncle Wesley got tense when Grandfather was around. But soon, the night was over, and the day of the dreaded gather had arrived.


    I was so nervous about that damned Harvest Moon Gathering that I couldn''t sleep and was awake before the sun was even up. I went for my usual morning run earlier than I typically did so instead of just running the streets of thepound until I got to the exit and then running either to town or half way, depending on my mood, I decided to run out of the gates and then into the woods.


    The ground there was more difficult to run on, but it also felt so invigorating to run in the woods. Having grown up with the forest nearby had given me a deep love for running among the trees. The dark canopy of leaves above me, the musty earthy smell of the dirty churning beneath my feet. The smells of the forest were so familiar to me that I would recognize them anywhere.


    I was running at nearly top speed when there was something in the way the forest smelled that I didn''t recognize. Something that stirred something deep inside of me. Something that made all the hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention and all my senses go on high alert. They simultaneously screamed danger and I want more at the same time. I knew whatever, whoever, it was that I should not stick around.


    There was someone else in the forest, or they had recently been there. Someone who smelled like chocte, coffee, cinnamon, and the forest after the rain. It was sweet, spicy, and robust, and mixed with my favorite smells of the forest. It intrigued me to no end, but something told me that I needed to get away from that area, away from that scent, right away.


    I turned around and ran as fast as I could back to the road. I ran back through the gate of thepound and didn''t stop until I got back home. By the time I got there, my heart was about to burst out of my chest.

 Chapter 5 - Trinity- The Gathering at the Alphas House

    <h4>Chapter 5: Trinity- The Gathering at the Alpha''s House</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After I was finished being primped and pampered by Aunt Eve and put in the dress that Grandfather had brought, I was ready for the dreaded gathering. Juniper and the others were going to pick me up on their way, it would be easier for me with them there.


    When we left my house, which was located in the upper section of thepound thanks to my family''s status, or previous status, we headed to the northernmost road. I had lived in thepound my whole life, but even so, I had never actually been to the Alpha''s house before. I had gathered with everyone at the clearing where important meetings and events were usually held, unless the weather was too bad. But I had never actually been to the Alpha''s residence, and judging by Juniper''s response, neither had she.


    "This is actually exciting." She eximed as we drove up the long, long driveway that led up to the Alpha House. At the back of thepound there was a small road, but this road was actually a driveway. All the houses in thepound stopped before the forest started. All except for the Alpha''s. The Alpha House was at the end of a two-mile-long driveway, weaving between the tall, thick trees as the road sloped ever upward. The farther into the forest you went, the higher into the mountains you went. The Alpha House wasn''t very high, but it was still impressive to see.


    I noticed several strings of lights strung between the trees. I was pretty sure that they had been hung just for the gathering tonight, but how was I supposed to know for certain. Whatever the reason for the lights, though, they gave off a beautiful yet eerie glow. It was strange, we had only left at a quarter to seven, but it looked like it was full dark outside now. The sun shouldn''t have set that quickly.


    As we got closer to the house, I saw that several men about my age were directing people where to go. Cedar pulled the car to a stop and a man asked who would be attending the gathering as an unmated pack member.


    "I will." Cedar and I both said at the same time.


    "What is your name?" The man asked me, ignoring Cedar.


    "Trinity." I told him, sounding a little confused.


    "Last name?" He asked me, a stern tone in his voice. As far as I knew, I was the only pack member named Trinity.


    "Whitton." I told him, now feeling annoyed. I noticed his jolt in surprise when he heard my name, I see my legacy is well known among the entire pack.


    "Miss Whitton, you are in group number three. You will be having your one on one and group meetings with the Alpha at the gathering in two months'' time if he has yet to find a mate by then. Please, use this time to mingle with the other pack members. Should you happen to find a different mate among the pack, the Alpha would consider this gathering to be quite the sess." I had no idea what-so-ever what he was talking about, but I nodded my head anyway and Cedar drove to the parking space that the man indicated for us.


    We followed the lights further up the path. Soon, we came to a huge stone mansion. It looked like it had been there since the start of the 1900''s, but had been beautifully restored and well maintained over time. It was easily 10,000 square feet, if not more. The ce was massive. I could even see a tower sticking up in the roof, a tower of all things, like it was a castle. This is like a whole different world.


    The gathering was being held outside. That was fine with me. I was overwhelmed just looking at that house, actually going inside it would be too much. There was a dance floor set up among all the dazzling lights. A beautifully decorated, yet somewhat tacky, screened tent was where all the food for the evening was being held. It was beautiful because someone had tried their best to make it look amazing, tacky because try as you might you just can''t hide those bug screens.


    The gathering was apparently a buffet-style dinner, where we would all mingle, talk, dance, and do whatever. I just wanted to go home already. Granted, the food did smell very delicious.


    The party, as everyone around me was calling it, was just getting into full swing. Juniper was dragging me around to all her friends to introduce me. Most of them seemed like they wanted to be friends, but that they couldn''t go against what they had been told or taught for years. The end result was every single person I was introduced to sneering at me and asking why I even bothered to show up.


    "I''m so sorry, Trin." Juniper was close to tears when thest of the people she had wanted to introduce me to had snubbed me.


    "Don''t worry about it, Juniper, I''m used to it by now." I told her with a reassuring smile.


    "That makes it worse." She almost cried.


    "It''s really fine Juniper." I told her as I rubbed her arm gently.


    "I''m going to go give them a piece of my mind, and you can''t stop me." She began, seeing as I was about to try to do just that. She hurried away from me. I knew it would just end in failure for me to try to associate with so many different pack members. I was happy just having the few that I called friends now. It was more than I ever thought I would have.


    I had just decided that I was going to ignore the party when I caught the faintest trace of that intoxicatingly dangerous scent from this morning. Whoever that scent belonged to, he was here at the gathering, and I definitely did not want to see him!


    I ducked under the string of lights and followed the line of trees a little further into the forest. I could tell that whoever it was I was avoiding had been in this part of the forest as well, but the scent was very old so it was not likely that I would run into him now. I found a tree that looked as if it had fallen down in a storm a very long time ago. It was half buried in the forest floor, making it low enough that I could sit on it easily, and the bark had been smoothed down, making it less rough for me to sit on. Feeling confident the tree wouldn''t ruin my dress or feel ufortable against my legs, I settled in for a long wait.


    Unfortunately, I hadn''t been there for long before the scent started to get stronger. Much, much stronger. He wasing towards me and he wasing fast.

 Chapter 6 - Reece- My wolf smells our mate!

    <h4>Chapter 6: Reece- My wolf smells our mate!</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    The evening was already giving me a headache. I weed the main group that had already arrived by seven, Noah told me I should have waited since there was still a steady stream of pack membersing up the path.


    "If they couldn''t be here by the time it started, that''s on them." I growled as I stalked off in the direction of the group I was supposed to be ''entertaining'' for the night. The sooner I met with them and found out if any of them were my mate, the better.


    Truth be told, I had already smelled my mate. This morning, in fact. What were the odds? I had been running in the forest outside thepound, trying to burn off some of this pent-up frustration I''ve been feeling.


    I was running with no clear goal in sight, just circling around and around. And on one of myps around the forest, I happened to catch the faintest whiff of something different. Something that hadn''t been there when I had started.


    I followed the scent to where it was strongest among the trees. Whoever she was, she had been running through the trees the same as I was. The scent was intoxicating. It had my wolf on edge and was almost enough to make me lose all control over him.


    Whoever she was, she smelled like warm apples, vani, and some sort of spice. It was like an apple pie, and it was mixed with the smell of the wind just before a thunderstorm. I could smell the slightest trace of ozone and rain in her scent. She smelled sweet, warm, and exciting. And I had to find her.


    I followed the trail again, as it led out of the forest and back to the road. There were old trails that led toward town, but the freshest scent was heading back toward thepound. I followed, but the mix of all the other wolves made it more difficult, still I wouldn''t give up.


    I had reached the upper section of thepound, meaning her family was high ranking. The elders would be happy about that. I didn''t care. I didn''t want a mate, my wolf clearly did, but I needed a mate. If I didn''t find one soon, they would force me to step down and hand my pack over to my cousin Caleb. That spineless twit wouldn''t know how to run the pack, we''d be ruined in no time.


    No, I wasn''t looking for this girl cause I wanted to, I had to. It made no difference that the smell of her was already tightening things in my body, and I was currently running around on four feet instead of two. No, simply put, I needed this mate.


    "Alpha." I heard someone call out to me as I was getting close to finding where the scent was the strongest. Where my mate lived. "We have a problem." My Beta was calling out to me. Damn him, he would be getting an earful when we were back in my office. With a growl, I turned and ran back to my house in the forest.


    I was now stalking toward the group of scantily d women. They all looked like the same type I was used to seeing. The only thing they were good for was a distraction. Taking my mind off something for a night but never to warm my bed again.


    I''ve never slept with the same girl more than once. None of them have ever been worth my time for me to go back to them again. All they were after was my money, my power, my status. They never really wanted me, just what they could get from me.


    The group was exactly as I thought they would be. Giggling incessantly, grabbing onto me constantly, throwing themselves at me with no regard for their dignity or self-respect.


    I yed nice with them for as long as I could, but after nearly an hour their chatter was like nails on a chalkboard. It was driving me insane. I had to get away from them. None of them were my mate. None of them smelled like the girl from this morning.


    The longer I stayed with them, the longer it would be until I actually found her. And wasting my time with these women was angering my wolf to no end. He didn''t care about these useless she-wolves. I had to physically pull my wolf back by the scruff of his neck to stop him from changing.


    I excused myself from the group. I hoped it was politely but judging by the looks on their faces it was probably more forceful and angrier than I had intended. I didn''t care, I just wanted to get away from them and they would get over it.


    I wanted to avoid as many of the pack members as possible. I didn''t need them asking me how my mate search was going. I just wanted to be alone right now. I had to get away.


    I had only made it halfway to the edge of the trees when I smelled her. She was here. My wolf roared within me. I nearly lost control of him again. I hauled him back with a grunt of frustration and followed my nose in the direction of the scent.


    I did my best to avoid the people in my way as I hurriedly followed the scent. I admit I might have run into a few people or stepped on a few toes. But I paid no mind to them. I just kept moving with a single-minded focus.


    I passed by the edge of the dance floor. Ducked under the tacky lights the elders had insisted on stringing up everywhere. The scent was getting stronger the further I went into the trees. She was still here. It was not like this morning when she had disappeared before I got there.


    The night was dark, and the forest was darker, but that didn''t matter. I could see just fine in the dark, and tonight I would just need my nose. I closed my eyes and followed the scent. The smell was stronger with my eyes closed, so intoxicating.


    The scent had almost reached a fever pitch. My wolf was howling nonstop inside my head. I couldn''t even hear the sound of the forest around me. My entire world had zeroed in and had closed down to be nothing but the smell of the girl my wolf was searching for.


    With my eyes still closed I took onest step, and my foot collided with a fallen tree. In a disy of utter gracelessness, something I never expected toe from me, I fell onto the tree. What I discovered when I fell, was that the girl was there, hiding on the fallen tree.


    I fell, literally on top of the girl. She yelped a cute, yet muffled, scream when Inded on her. My face was filled with a mass of hair that caused me to let out an actual growl of pleasure. I felt the girl stiffen beneath me and I could smell fear instantly mingle with her intoxicating scent. Why was she afraid?


    I disentangled myself from her, standing up to get a look at the person that fate and my wolf both said was my mate. I grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her up with me.


    "Trin are you out there?" A female was saying hesitantly.


    The girl before me gasped again. And while I was distracted, looking toward the voice that had intruded on us she turned tail and ran back toward the party. She grabbed the girl''s hand and ran as fast as she could.


    I followed after her, closing in on them. I saw that they met up with two males that seemed confused and were heading down the drive. If I didn''t hurry, she would get away again.


    "Alpha Reece!" I heard one of the giggling she-wolves from earlier call out to me. In no time at all the entire group of fifteen she-wolves had surrounded me, blocking my path to follow her.


    "Where were you Alpha?" One of the gigglers asked.


    "We missed you." They were relentless.


    "Get out of my way." I growled. I heard their collective gasps of fear and indignation. I didn''t care. I had to follow them, I had to find the girl before she got away again.


    I pushed my way through the women surrounding me. I weaved my way across the entire gathering as fast as I could. But by the time I got there, they had disappeared. They were gone, and the scents were too mingled. I would have to track her another time. My wolf was furious. Unintentionally, I let loose a roar of displeasure that seemed to bring the entire gathering to a halt.


    "Everyone leave! NOW!" I Yelled at everyone in attendance. I saw the fear, shock, and confusion on every face around me as I stalked back into the house. My wolf was angrier than he had ever been and if I didn''t get him away from innocent people, they would be in danger.

 Chapter 7 - Trinity- The Alpha? Oh Goddess, Im Doomed!

    <h4>Chapter 7: Trinity- The Alpha? Oh Goddess, I''m Doomed!</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I had been sitting there on the fallen tree, trying to hide away from the party, when that dangerously intoxicating scent had gotten stronger. I had wanted to get away from it. I had wanted to stay as far away from whoever it was as I possibly could. And yet, here I was with himing right at me.


    The best thing I could hope for would be him skirting around the area I was at. Being too focused on whatever he was searching for and leaving me alone. I hoped he would just not notice me.


    "He probably doesn''t notice my scent like I notice his." I whispered to myself.


    Just as the scent was getting too strong for me to ignore, I saw his shadow in the distance. He was not going to skirt around me, he wasing right at me. I tucked myself into the tree, trying to hide as best as I could.


    He was walking awkwardly. Almost like he was blind. He was moving slower than I would normally have expected someone to, even with walking among the trees. That was when I noticed he had his head tilted up and he seemed to be following his nose.


    I still couldn''t see his face from this distance. What I could see was that he was tall, very tall. He was probably around six and a half feet tall. He was well built, more muscr than either of my cousins, or Cedar and Paul, which were the onlyparisons I had that weren''t much older than me.


    I could tell he was going to run right into me. I couldn''t do anything about it. I was too nervous to say anything to stop him. I could always pretend to have been asleep on the treeter. My best bet now was to just sit there and not move a muscle.


    He took one final step and his foot collided with the tree. He fell forwardnding right on top of me. My face mmed into his shoulder as he pushed me backward.


    I screamed as I fell toward the forest floor with him pressed against me. The feel of him against me made my body jolt with surprise and something else I didn''t quite understand yet.


    At my scream he let out a low growl. I couldn''t tell if he was mad or not. I stiffened at the sound, afraid of what he would do when he saw me.


    I felt his weight lift off me. As he stood, he grabbed my elbow, a little forcefully, and pulled me up with him.


    I pushed my hair out of my eyes, but it was still covering most of my face. As soon as I could see I looked into his face. What I saw made my heart fill with fear. The man standing before me was the Alpha. This can''t be happening. I thought to myself.


    "Oh my Goddess." I gasped in shock. But before the man could see who I was there was a mercifully angelic voice calling out to me, or it seemed that way to me.


    "Trin are you out there?" It was Juniper, she was looking for me. I had been gone for quite a long time after all. I silently thanked her as I spun on my heels and ran toward her. I heard him growl behind me. He truly was angry that it was me he had run into. Of course he would be, he was the alpha, and I was a nobody. Oh Goddess, what is he going to do when he finds me. What''s going to happen to me? I was so scared.


    "Trinity, what''s wrong?" Juniper asked me.


    "I''ve got to get out of here. Now." I told her, breathlessly.


    "What happened?" She asked me. She had not seen the man in the forest with me, so she had not known what had happened.


    "I don''t want to talk about it, I just want to get out of here." I was on the verge of tears when I answered her.


    "Trin are you ok?" Cedar asked as we came running up to them.


    "Astro what happened?" Paul asked me. I just shook my head.


    "I need to get out of here." They could see the fear in my eyes and hear the tears that threatened to spill into my voice.


    "Let''s go." Paul said, grabbing Juniper''s hand.


    We made our way to the car as quick as we could. I slid into the front seat next to Cedar, Paul, and Juniper in the back. Cedar backed out of the spot he had parked in and hurried down the drive. He went a little faster than he should have, but honestly, I wanted him to go faster.


    By the time we reached my house none of us had said a word. We made the entire drive in silence. I could not bring myself to tell them what happened. And if the alpha were to me me for what happened in the forest, I may never see them again. But still, I could not tell them what happened.


    "Will you be alright?" Juniper asked me. I shrugged my shoulders in response.


    "I''m not going to press you for details, not yet, but when you''re ready, we will all be here to listen. You hear that Astro." Paul told me. I nodded.


    "I''m worried about you Trin, but I want you to know that we are all here for you." Cedar added. I smiled at all of them.


    "Thank you, guys. And I am sorry for ruining your night."


    "You''re more important than some party." Cedar promised me.


    "Yeah, what''s a party when ites to taking care of your friends?" Paul smiled at me.


    "Call me when you''re ready, ok Trin." Juniper implored, smiling. I was nearly crying from their kindness when I got out of the car. I was scared out of my mind, but I was so d to have such great friends.


    "Trinity, what''s wrong?" Aunt Eve asked me as soon as I was inside, her green eyes opened wide in shock.


    "Did something happen?" Uncle Wesley added, his dark brown eyes mirroring the shock in Eve''s eyes. Wesley with his dark brown hair like my own, and Eve''s hair that was a much lighter and softer brown, like chestnut, the sight of them was warm andforting, they were home to me. I felt safer near them.


    "Did someone do something to you?" Aunt Eve asked.


    "No, nothing like that." I assured them. "But the party just wasn''t for me." I told them.


    "You look scared and on the verge of tears." Aunt Eve noted.


    "That looks like more than the party not being for you. If someone was intentionally cruel to you, then that is uneptable. We can lodge aint with the Alpha directly."


    "NO!" I shouted. "No, there is no need to involve the alpha. Everything is fine. Don''t worry. I just don''t like going to these types of things." I grimaced at them.


    "Are you sure?" Uncle Wesley asked me.


    "I''m sure." I could feel their love for me, they cared for me so much.


    "Hey." We heard a voice call from the door as we were talking. Carter seemed to havee home.


    "Hey Carter, why are you home so early?"


    "The party is over." He said, shrugging his shoulders. "The alpha got really upset about something and ordered everyone to go home. It was the strangest thing."


    "Wow, I wonder what it was." Aunt Eve asked him.


    "No clue." Carter muttered before looking at me. "What happened to you at the party?" He asked. I jumped at his question. Carter, unlike Eve and Wesley, had always been able to tell when I was lying to him. But I still didn''t want him to know what was going on.


    "Everyone that Juniper introduced me to was rude and mean. They all snubbed me and made fun of me for even going to the party. It just got to be more than I can handle."


    "Those assholes." He growled. "What makes them think that they''re any better than you are?"


    "They''re wolves and I''m not." I told him simply. It was the truth after all.


    "That doesn''t matter, you''re still part of the pack." He was so frustrated. I loved him for that, he would always defend me.


    "Thank you, Carter."


    "For what."


    "Nothing." I said as I threw my arms around him, hugging him tight. He was my rock in the pack and always seemed to calm me down. Looking up at him with his dark hair that was so like my own, like our whole family''s, and his green eyes that were closer to my shade of blue, I was reminded again how much like a brother he was to me.


    "You''re being weird." He noted. He sounded annoyed, but he hugged me back none-the-less.


    "I know." Iughed at him. "I''m tired though, I''m gonna get ready for bed." I tried to smile at them cheerily, but I wasn''t sure if it came out that way.


    I trudged up the stairs to my room. The sce I felt at being in a space that was all mine was almost enough to make me feel better. Almost. But there was still no telling what the alpha would do to me. It might be nothing. Then again, I could be banished from the pack.


    Banishment wasn''t so bad, except that meant never seeing my family again, or the few friends I had managed to make. And if that were to happen, then Grandfather truly would cut me offpletely. I would be on my own with no way to support myself. It was a scary thought, but I would manage somehow. Lots of other people do it every day.


    I stripped off the dress Grandfather had given me. It had begun to make me feel disgusting somehow. Like the dress itself yed a role in everything. I knew that was not true, I was just looking to pass the me somewhere.


    Once I was out of the dress, I took a long hot shower in my bathroom. One of the upsides to Uncle Wesley''s house was that all of us had our own private bathroom, and there was more than one hot water heater so we never really had to worry about someone else needing hot water at the same time. I was able to stand under the steaming water until I felt the stress from the evening start to leave my body.


    After showering and feeling somewhat calmer, I dried off and dressed for bed in a pair offy baby blue fleece pajama bottoms and matching long-sleeved tee-shirt. But after crawling into bed, the memories of the alpha''s growls returned. It seemed nothing was going to make this night any better. I really am doomed.

 Chapter 8 - Reece- She got away, AGAIN!

    <h4>Chapter 8: Reece- She got away, AGAIN!</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    After stalking back into the house, I made my way to my office. I did my best not to shift as I stomped through the halls. And I tried really hard not to destroy anything along the way. I only managed one of those tasks, and as I walked into my office on two feet, shifting was what I had not done.


    I don''t even remember what all I tossed, smashed, or threw recklessly around the rooms and halls I passed as I made my way to my office. It didn''t matter. My wolf was angry, and I would only be able to hold him back for so long before he lost all control.


    I mmed the door behind me, still wanting to be alone. I could hear the numerous sets of footsteps following behind me as they sought to know exactly what had happened tonight. Nobody knew why I had ended the event early and roared at everyone to leave. Nobody knew why I was so rightfully and thoroughly pissed off. If only they did know.


    "Doesn''t she know what''s happening?" I growled to myself as I flung my chair out from under my desk with more force than I intended. It flew toward the window, had it not been reinforced ss it would have crashed through and fallen to the ground three floors below.


    "Does she not know that she is my mate? Can she not tell by my scent like I can tell by hers? What is wrong with her? Is she just frightened? Was she just overwhelmed because I am the alpha?" These were all questions I wanted answered but had no one to ask them of. For the rest of this evening I just wanted to be alone.


    "Alpha?" I heard an insistent knock on my office door. I growled in response. "We need to talk about this evening." He demanded. Michael was the most persistent of the elders, he was the typical liaison for them and therefore one of the biggest thorns in my sidetely. I was really starting to dislike him.


    "Not now." I roared toward the door.


    "We need to discuss the events that transpired this evening Alpha." Michael insisted.


    "I said not right now." I roared in an even louder tone of voice. "We can discuss things tomorrow, but for now go away and leave me be." I made it amand knowing full well he would be forced to obey.


    "As you wish, Sir." He conceded. I could not see him through the door, but I knew he would be bowing his head at least. Good, he will not be bothering me for the rest of the night.


    I needed to run. I needed to think. I needed to find her. These were the thoughts that were running through my mind. I opened the balcony door and stepped outside, taking a breath of fresh air. If I didn''t shift soon, I was likely to lose control on the wrong person.


    Looking down at the ground three stories below I kicked off my shoes. I was too impatient to take my time, but good shoes were harder to rece than clothes.


    Once the shoes were safely set aside, I leapt from the balcony and shifted in mid-air. Inded on all fours, my paws digging into the dirt. I could feel the dirt and leaves pushing up between my toes, it was a familiar andforting feeling.


    I spent most of the night running in the mountains. The higher I climbed the harder the run got which was exactly what I needed. I could feel the frustration ebbing away with each passing hour.


    It was nearly dawn when I finally made it back to the house. I shifted and walked as quietly as I could to my room. A long hot shower was what I needed now.


    Usually I showered quickly, get in, wash, get out, there was no reason to linger. But this time I saw the merit in lingering. The hot water seemed to be melting away my anger and frustrations, leaving behind the exhaustion that I had hoped the run would leave me with.


    After the shower I dried and dressed in a pair of hunter green sleepers and a dark gray t-shirt. I was exhausted. From the morning run, finding and losing my mate twice in one day, the gathering, and the evening run. I was physically and mentally spent. I drifted into an uneasy sleep.


    I kept dreaming about a girl. A girl that I had only glimpsed fully in the distance. I had seen her figure just fine when I was up close, but I hadn''t seen her face at all. She was short, slim, but sporty. I felt the firmness of muscles beneath the skin of her arm, but that didn''t take away from the soft supple feel of her skin.


    She was so much shorter than me, it seemed she was shorter than most of the she-wolves were, but it could have just been the way we were standing. I was taller even than the average male, so all women, even pack women, were short to me.


    When she was running from me, I had seen that her hair was long and dark brown. It flowed down her back in hypnotic waves. And the color of her skin, it looked like it had been kissed by the moon. She was pale but not sickly pale, it looked like a natural color on her. And it made her look beautiful. If only I have seen her face. I kept telling myself in the dream. Then I would have aplete picture.


    My body was reacting to her, even from the memory inside the dream. I felt the jolt run through me when I first fell on her and again when I grabbed her arm. Our bodies would call to each other until the mating wasplete, until I marked her.


    As the dream progressed, things started to turn dark. There was a dark purple cloud that started to fill not just the sky but was also creeping across thend. It was unnatural and everything it touched seemed to scream in pain and agony. Pack members were running from it in fear and the girl that would be my mate was standing just out of my reach as the cloud engulfed her. When it dissipated, she was gone. I had no clue where she was.

 Chapter 9 - Reece- Meeting with the Elders, Ive got a mate!

    <h4>Chapter 9: Reece- Meeting with the Elders, I''ve got a mate!</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "Alpha!" I heard someone shout in the dream, causing me to jerk awake with a start. That was when I noticed the knocking at my door. "Alpha, it is time for you to rise, it is nearly noon." I could hear my assistant, Noah, calling to me from the other side of the door.


    "Fine." I growled at him as I got out of bed. I hurriedly washed my face and dressed for the day.


    Once I was ready and left my room, Noah was there waiting for me.


    "You have missed several appointments already this morning." He informed me.


    "It''s Sunday." I grumbled.


    "You''re a busy man, busy men never have a day off." He informed me in his straightced uptight tone of voice.


    "Is that why I have to see your ugly mug every day?" I asked him with augh.


    "Laugh it up Reece, but if I wasn''t here half of your work would never get done." He growled, dropping his butler voice.


    "I never have you do my work for me." I growled at him.


    "I never said you did, but if I weren''t here, then there would be no one to make you do your own work."


    "Fair point." I smiled at his words, like I said, he was the only one I had met capable of being my assistant. He made sure everything in the pack got done properly, and he was one of my best friends. One of the only people I could ever truly be myself around.


    "The elders have been hounding me all morning about what happenedst night. And there were several important phone calls you were supposed to take. I handled them myself as they were not beyond my ability, but honestly, you really should have been ready for work much sooner."


    "Then why did you let me sleep so long?" I asked him, annoyed.


    "I simply didn''t have the time toe and wake you myself until now. And thedies on the staff were too afraid to do so on their own. Apparently, you were so angryst night they didn''t know if you would take it out on them for disturbing you this morning." Noah was not so politely telling me that I had lost my shit, and everyone was now walking on eggshells afraid that I would snap at them or on them, literally biting them.


    "I managed to get mostly calmed down before bed. But I have to admit, I am d you woke me, I was having a crazy dream."


    "Crazy good or crazy bad." He asked, wiggling his brows.


    "If it was the good kind, I wouldn''t be happy you woke me up."


    "There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. But I don''t think you''ve ever experienced that, you minimalist." He sneered at me yfully. I just growled at him in response.


    "Growl all you want Cujo, we have work to do."


    "What''s the top of the list?" I asked him.


    "The meeting with the Elders." He smirked, pushing open my office door, revealing the five old men sitting in the various chairs and sofas. I growled low in the back of my throat. "They''re your problem now." He said as he walked into my office ahead of me. "Sorry to keep you gentlemen waiting, the Alpha is ready for his meeting with you all." I red at the back of his head, wishing I could rip it off in that moment.


    The Elders were used to being treated as the top priority, so they had not taken kindly to being pushed aside the night before and made to wait this morning.


    "Sorry gentlemen, I had ate night and overslept. My assistant was kind enough to finallye and rouse me from my slumber just recently."


    "This is all very unlike you, Reece my boy." Frederick, the oldest of the Elders and my great uncle said sounding concerned. "Is everything alright.


    "Everything is fine, I assure you." I gave them a cating smile.


    "What happenedst night boy?" Oswald, second oldest and my least favorite Elder demanded.


    "My, I thought you knew, but the Harvest Moon Gathering wasst night." I told him.


    "That''s not what I meant, and you know it." He growled at me. "I meant, why did you end the party early and demand that everyone was to leave?"


    "Ah, well, that is a bitplicated." I grumbled trying to avoid the subject.


    "Complicated how?" Michael asked me firmly. He made it clear they were not going anywhere unless I answered them or made them leave. I truly didn''t want to make five old me leave by force, so I had no choice but to answer them.


    "I believe I found my mate." I told them, making it sound simple.


    "That is wonderful."


    "Congrattions boy."


    "Excellent son."


    "This is cause for celebration."


    "You should be overjoyed." They all congratted me at once. The cacophony of voices mixed together just made my head hurt.


    "It''s not that simple." I told them.


    "What''s not simple?" Michael asked me skeptically.


    "But don''t you know everyone in the pack by face at least?" Michael asked me.


    "I didn''t see her face. There were things obstructing my line of sight, and unfortunately she ran away with her friends before I could catch her."


    "How did she manage to run away from you?" Noah scoffed.


    "That gaggle of giggling she-wolves that you all insisted I spend the entire night with surrounded me as soon as they saw mee back from the forest."


    "Was she among that group? We can track her down that way." Oswald seemed hopeful.


    "Of course she wasn''t, all the girlsst night were shallow and had no self-respect. They smelled of greed and maniption."


    "Then where did you meet this girl?" Michael asked me.

 Chapter 10 - Reece- Noahs got some bad news!

    <h4>Chapter 10 :Reece- Noah''s got some bad news!</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "I had needed a break, so I excused myself from the group. I was headed for the trees when I smelled her scent. Truth be told I had smelled her that morning too, but she had already left the woods when I came across her trail. I had almost tracked her down when Caleb called me about a rogue trying to cause problems. I had tracked her to the upper area of thepound, but that was as close as I got until the party." I could see the Elders looking at me with excitement, encouraging me to go on.


    "When I smelled her again, I hurried in her direction. I followed the scent into the forest and out to a fallen tree. There I ran into her hiding on the tree."


    "Ran into her?" Noah asked me.


    "I was following my nose, not my eyes." I snapped at him, which only made himugh. "Whatever. Anyway, I tripped andnded on her. The smell was so strong that my wolf had no doubt, she was my mate. I had just pulled her to her feet, but her hair, her long dark hair had fallen into her face when she fell. She managed to see me and notice who I was."


    "She gasped and was scared. But then a girl called out to her, and she took advantage of my momentary distraction and bolted. She grabbed the girl''s hand, and they left the party with two males. I tried to follow but that gang she-wolves wouldn''t let me pass until I snapped at them. By the time I got to where the cars were parked, they were gone, and all their scents had mingled inside the car."


    "I could have chased after them, but I would have gotten more frustrated having to track her scent mixed among so many others that way, and there was no telling if she had stayed in thepound or not after that. So, I figured the best option would be to send everyone home before they were in danger from my wolf''s frustrations."


    "This is not good."


    "We need to find her." The Elders were starting with their crap already.


    "You think I don''t know that. I need to finish the mate circle so that the pack can be whole. I know that. I understand that just fine. You do not have to lecture me. I know that with every passing day, my pack is weakened by itsck of a Luna. I''ll find her and bring her back. Don''t you worry."


    "Well, out with it boy, tell us everything you can about her. Tell us what we can use to identify her."


    "I don''t know much." I admitted to them. "I know she lives in the upper part of thepound, because her scent is strongest there. I know she is a lot shorter than me, but so is basically every woman in the pack. She had dark brown hair. And her friend called her Trin." At thatst part I heard Noah''s sharp intake of breath. I looked at him and he seemed ufortable for some reason. He noticed my stare.


    "Alpha Reece, can we talk?"


    "Talk." I told him.


    "Very well. Gentlemen, please excuse us." I left the Elders in my office and went down the hall to a rarely used conference room.


    "What is it?" I demanded of him as soon as we were in the room.


    "I think I know who the girl is." He told me.


    "Really?" I asked, sounding hopeful. But even with my mood lifting ever so slightly Noah looked as if he were about to tell someone their puppy had died. Why was he dreading this conversation so much? "Who is it?" I asked him, now not certain I wanted to know.


    "If I am right, it''s my cousin, Trinity." I should have known from the start. The nickname, Trin. There were no other girls in the entire pack named Trinity or had a name simr to it enough to have the nickname Trin. Why hadn''t I connected the dots sooner?


    "Your cousin?" I asked bewildered.


    "Yes." He looked as if he really didn''t want to be telling me this.


    "That is the girl that I think it is isn''t it?" Noah just nodded his head. "She never changed did she? She never got a wolf?"


    "No, she did not." Noah admitted, shaking his head. This was why he had not wanted to tell me. And why he had insisted on talking alone. I felt the growl start to rumble low in my chest long before I ever heard it.


    "This cannot be!" I roared. "There is no way that I can mate with a girl that does not even have a wolf. She will be too weak. She will be inferior. She will not be strong enough to be a Luna." I could see the emotions conflicting on Noah''s face. He loved the girl, she was his cousin, his family, and I had heard him say she was like a sister to him. But here he was telling his alpha that this girl was supposed to be the next Luna, and he knew she wouldn''t be strong enough.


    "There is no way she can handle the role of Luna, the threat it will pose to her and the pack. It will make us theughingstock of the entire wolfmunity. But that is beside the point. She simply would never be strong enough to handle any situation that were to arise. She would be nothing but a weak, senseless liability." I growled.


    There was no way in Hell I would take her as my mate. My wolf be damned. I would find a new mate. I would do whatever I had to do to make this problem go away. She simply was not fit to be my Luna. I never wanted a mate to begin with and I certainly wasn''t going to take a weak girl that was just one step away from being human as my mate. No way in Hell.

 Chapter 11 - Trinity- I tried to avoid trouble, now I might die?

    <h4>Chapter 11: Trinity- I tried to avoid trouble, now I might die?</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    When I woke the next morning, I had decided to skip my morning run. I didn''t think it was safe considering all that had happened. I decided to text Juniper and ask if she had any ns for the day and to see if she was willing to help distract me for the day. Her and Paul were one of the few couples who had decided to live off thepound after they were mated. They were still in school and wanted to act young and carefree. I was basically using her as an excuse to hide away somewhere off thepound, but I don''t think she would mind.


    Cedar was the one toe pick me up since he still lived on thepound with his parents. We drove into town and met up with Juniper and Paul at the movie theater. We nned to have a whole day to distract me. They didn''t ask me a thing about the night before, which made me grateful. They truly were the best.


    We saw a double feature, all the while stuffing ourselves with popcorn and junk food. After which we went to the mall and I had a little bit of retail therapy with Juniper while the guys showcased their reflexes for the whole world to see at the arcade, men never truly grew up.


    After shopping we had ate lunch where weined about everything we possibly could in our lives, it was nice to just vent and get the frustrations out. But still, I didn''t say anything about the previous night.


    We decided to go back to Juniper and Paul''s ce after that. Several card games, board games, movies, and a very unhealthy delivery dinnerter, and I was ready to pass out on their floor. I could feel someone carrying me and based on scent I could guess it was Cedar, he truly acted like a doting big brother just like my cousins did. Heid me on the couch, and someone covered me in a nket. I instantly fell into a deeper sleep.


    I Dreamt of the alphaing for me again. Banishing me. Beating me. Doing Goddess knows what to me. But every time I saw his face, it both terrified me and excited me. I wish my body would make up its mind. Does he scare me or excite me? Same with his scent. Is it dangerous or intoxicating? Why do I find it both?


    The next morning, we had our usual sses. I hadn''t intended to sleep over at their house but the early mornings and troubled sleep two nights in a row made me fall asleep much sooner than expected. So, I ended up borrowing some of Juniper''s clothes for the day. She was so much taller than me, that I had no choice but to wear shorts. Thankfully, it was still pretty warm out, even though it was the beginning of October.


    I would have to skip my training though. As much as I would like to follow my typical routine, I just couldn''t train without my gym bag. So, I texted Jim and let him know that I wouldn''t be there today. He texted back that he understood, and he''d see me next time. When I turned my phone on to send the message though, I saw that I had several voicemails and text messages from my family. Noah had left several of them, so had Carter and Aunt Eve. I was worrying them, and that broke my heart. I would have to exin everything to them when I got home.


    ss went about the same as usual. I was d that I had turned my assignments in online Friday before everything had happened. Once our day was over, I decided to grab lunch with Juniper and the guys before heading home. They had ns in the city, and I didn''t want to inconvenience them any further, so I decided to walk back to thepound. Besides, I could use the extra time to think.


    The walk from the restaurant back to thepound would take me around forty-five minutes. From the gates up to the house about another thirty. That was if I didn''t run any of it. Running would help with the pent-up frustrations, but it would get me home that much sooner. Getting home sooner meant I would have to exin things that much sooner as well. I had to make a decision here.


    Before I could think too much on the situation I spun out of his way, causing him to barrel past me and skid into a tree. There was a possibility that this was a nomad, a rogue. If that was the case, then he wouldn''t know the forest as well as I did. I turned and darted into the trees. He got to his feet quickly and followed after me.


    I could hear his rumbling growl behind me. He was faster than me, but I would have the element of surprise on my side. He would not be expecting me to know how to defend myself like this.


    I let him get closer to me, a little too close forfort in truth. Then I jumped to the side and used the tree as a springboard, flipping in the air tond a double kick on top of his head. I heard a satisfying thud as my heels made contact and heard an even more satisfying yelp of pain. He was momentarily dazed by the blow.


    Once he recovered, he was chasing me again. Gaining on the lead I had won myself in his confusion. I could hear his panting breath as he came up behind me. This time instead of using the tree as a springboard, I slid down to the ground, lying t on my back. I used thebined momentum of my slide and his run, adding to that I threw my feet up pressing them into his soft underbelly, I sent him flying up and over me to collide with the tree I had been running towards.


    He roared in frustration. He was not expecting me to catch him so off-guard like this. He thought I would be easy prey. Well, think again pal.


    No sooner had I thought that though, my foot caught the roots of the tree as I tried to stand. It wasn''t long, but it cost me dearly in my fight to gain a lead and n my next attack.


    He recovered from his collision with the tree sooner than I had expected and was after me almost immediately. I hadn''t had time to get enough of a lead.


    This time he caught up with me instantly and pounced on me. We rolled through the dirt and leaves. When we came to a halt, he was pinning me to the forest floor with his teeth bared in front of my face.


    I was scared, more terrified than I had ever been in my life. But I wasn''t about to show him that. I couldn''t move my arms with his massive paws pinning my shoulders to the ground, but I could still move my legs. I brought my knee up into his belly. I must have hit a tender spot because he growled fiercely in my ear and set his teeth against my throat.

 Chapter 12 - Trinity- Ive done what now? Oh Goddess, help me!

    <h4>Chapter 12: Trinity- I''ve done what now? Oh Goddess, help me!</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Before I could even see what happened the weight holding me down was gone. There was the sound of wolves snarling and snapping at each other. I had never seen either of these wolves before, but I definitely recognized the scent of the second wolf that had arrived. It was the Alpha. Oh Goddess, what is he doing here? I thought. But then I noticed that he seemed to be attacking the wolf that attacked me. So, either he didn''t send that wolf and wasn''t mad at me, or he wanted to deal with me himself.


    I was stunned for a moment. And hypnotized. Watching the two wolves fight each other. Plus, I had never seen the Alpha in his wolf form, and the other night was the first time I had seen his face up close. Why was I seeing so much of himtely?


    When he was in wolf form his fur was mostly ck, he had gray around his face and on his underbelly that extended down around the insides of his legs and under his tail. His wolf eyes were a bright gold, a slight contrast to the deep rich honey golden color I had seen the other night. In either form he was gorgeous. And he took my breath away. But since his wolf form stood about as tall as me with pawsrger than my head, lethal was the word I should be using for him.


    I heard more people approaching us followed by a loud yelp. The wolf who had attacked me was now lying motionless on the ground.


    Coming back to my senses I got to my feet and started to turn away from the scene. I was going to run for my life, but I was halted by a deep, smooth voice. It felt like something deep inside of me was churning just listening to that voice. I had heard it before but had never felt a reaction like this.


    "Don''t you dare run again. Stay right where you are." He told me. I had no choice but to stay. I knelt on the ground and sat on my heels with my head bowed. I was too afraid to look at him.


    "Trinity." I heard Noah''s voice, as the others I had hearding towards us were finally close enough to see what had happened. They would have made it sooner if they had changed into wolf form, but there had to be someone around to carry the extra clothes for the Alpha, and to carry the prisoner that was now lying unconscious on the ground.


    "Noah?" I called out to him, confused.


    "I figured you were all just angry at me for not telling you that I was noting homest night. I was going to exin everything when I got home."


    "Exin what?" I heard the Alpha growl behind me. It was clear he didn''t like me, his voice made that abundantly clear.


    "Why I was acting so weird thest few days and why I was gonest night."


    "Where were you?" Noah asked before the Alpha had a chance.


    "I fell asleep at Juniper''s house after spending the day hanging out with her and her mate. I hadn''t intended to, but I had two nights of broken sleep and two early mornings in a row. The exhaustion caught up to me." I was looking at Noah out of the corner of my eye. He had handed the Alpha a bundle of clothes and was staring at me in disbelief. I was still not ready to look at the Alpha.


    "Why did you leave so early yesterday? Why was your phone off all day? Why were you ignoring your family?" Noah threw question after question at me.


    "I wasn''t ignoring you. When I was with Juniper, we went to the movies and saw a double feature, I had to turn my phone off. I''m sorry Noah." I put my sincerest feelings into my voice, hoping he would understand.


    "Why didn''t you tell anyone what happened at the Harvest Moon Gathering?" He asked me.


    "What are you talking about?" I asked him, ying innocent. I heard the Alpha roar behind me. "Are you referring to how I got in the Alpha''s way and angered him? How I have been wondering how he will punish me ever since?" I asked Noah, letting the Alpha know very clearly that I hadn''t intended for it to happen and I have been stressing over it ever since.


    "Do you not know what happened?" Noah asked me.


    "What are you talking about?" I asked him.


    "Trinity, you mated."


    "Mated?" I shouted. "With who?"


    "With me." I heard the Alpha growl behind me, the sound of his voice made me shiver and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up all at the same time.


    "What are you saying?" I asked them. "That can''t be true. I can''t mate with anyone, especially the Alpha." I pleaded.


    "Trinity, when the Alpha is near, do you notice his scent stronger than anyone else''s?" Noah asked me.


    "Yes."


    "Don''t you know what that means?" He made it clear that he thought I was being slow on purpose.


    "I''ve never been around the Alpha before. I didn''t know how his presence affected the pack. How was I supposed to know that the Alpha wasn''t like that with everyone?" The Alpha growled at my words.


    "Are you ignorant of our culture as well?" He asked in a condescending tone.


    "No, I am not ignorant. But having nevere face to face with the alpha of my pack, I did not know if he would have that kind of effect on more than just me. No one ever talked about the scents of a mate bond when I was growing up, so all my knowledge is on a purely academic level." I was growing frustrated with the two of them.


    "Well, I am here to tell you now, girl, you are my mate. And you''reing with me."

 Chapter 13 - Trinity- Into the Alpha House

    <h4>Chapter 13: Trinity- Into the Alpha House</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The Alpha''s words scared me. I was his mate. How could this be? I wasn''t supposed to be able to mate with anyone in the pack. And here I was mated to the Alpha of all people. How did this happen? How could I get away from this?


    "Reece, be nice." Noah pleaded with him. The Alpha just growled in response. I had never actually heard the Alpha called by his first name before, so it was a shock to hear my cousin talk to him like a friend. "Come on Trinity, let''s go." Noah beckoned me towards him with a wave of his hand. The Alpha said nothing in protest to this, so I got up slowly and walked to Noah''s side.


    I chanced a look up at the Alpha. I wanted to see his face. To see what type of mood he was in. I regretted it instantly. The look on his face was almost cold enough to freeze me in ce. If looks could kill. I thought to myself. The only good thing was that he had managed to get dressed while my back was turned, so I didn''t have to add the embarrassment of seeing him naked to the long list of things he seemed mad at me about.


    I followed Noah to the car, the Alpha had taken the lead and was waiting for us in the driver''s seat when Noah opened the back door.


    "Get in." The Alpha grumbled to me immediately. I slid in across the seat and Noah got in next to me.


    "Do you understand what is going to happen now?" Noah asked me.


    "In theory." I admitted. This was true. I know what happened when mate bonds were formed. I knew what was expected from a normal couple. But I had no idea what would be expected of me in this situation. I could only specte. The Alpha scoffed at my answer.


    "We will discuss it in detailter then." Noah told me, a slight smile on his face. It was clear he had hoped he didn''t have to be the one exining everything to me. I just nodded my head and sat there, trying to process everything that had happened today.


    "Just a few scrapes and bruises." I told them. "If he hadn''t caught me so quickly thatst time, I would have nothing. But unfortunately, my foot caught the roots as I was getting back to my feet." I heard a snicker at my wordse from the front seat. The Alpha thought me fighting for my life was funny. "If I had not fought, I would surely be dead by now." Anger was filling my voice. Why was he scoffing andughing at everything I said? A mate isn''t supposed to act like that. I saw anger fill his eyes at my tone of voice. He wasn''t happy with how I was talking to him.


    We made it to the house. The one I thought was too big and never wanted to go inside. The one that looked so massive I was likely to get lost every time I left a room. The house that made me gulp in fear and hesitate at the threshold. Once I go inside everything will change, it will all be different.


    Noah pushed gently on my back, urging me forward to follow the Alpha as he led the way into the dark looming house. It was still daylight outside, and there were plenty of windows letting in plenty of lights, but it felt as if I would be swallowed by the dark if I went in the house.


    However, I had no choice but to follow him inside. I took a deep breath and stepped forward. We hade in through a back entrance near the garage, so we had entered through the kitchen.


    It was a kitchen so massive and pristine that it was unlike anything I had ever seen before. There were two massive side-by-side refrigerators, there seemed to be four ovens built into the walls, in a two by two square pattern. There was a massive walk in pantry that I could see out of the corner of my eye, and more kitchen utensils than I could name. It was definitely a dream kitchen.


    There seemed to be an informal dining area located in the kitchen as well. There was seating at the counter with bar stools as well as a table and chairs that seemed cozy and almost out of ce.


    Beyond the kitchen there was a hallway with some storage rooms that led down to a formal dining room that was so massive it just seemed ostentatious.


    The Alpha just continued to stomp along past all of these rooms. Down more hallways until he got to a massive set of stairs that led up. He climbed them in silence with Noah and me following.


    He went up the stairs, then even more, until we were on the third floor. He quietly continued to stomp his way down the hallway until he came to the door he was looking for. He pushed the door open with great force and led the way inside. Noah once again pushed me on the back, urging me in, so I took another deep breath and nervously entered the room.


    I saw that the Alpha had gone to stand at the back of the room, leaning against the window and ring at the room and everyone in it. Aside from the Alpha there were five elderly men I had never seen before as well as my Grandfather, my Aunt Eve and Uncle Wesley, and Carter. Since Noah hade in behind me, it meant that my whole family was here. Oh Goddess. I said to myself. This could not end well.


    "Shall we get right to business?" One of the old men spoke in a gravelly voice, standing up and walking toward me.

 Chapter 14 - Trinity- Truly Seeing the Alpha

    <h4>Chapter 14: Trinity- Truly Seeing the Alpha</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Hello young one, I am one of the five elders of the pack, my name is Michael." He said spreading both of his hands before me in a show of wee. "I would like to wee you here with us today Luna. What shall we call you?" He asked me. I could not believe the words that wereing out of his mouth. I was momentarily stunned. However, that did notst long, I caught sight of Grandfather and knew he would be disappointed if I did not keep myposure.


    "My name is Trinity." I told him with as much confidence as I could force into my voice.


    "Now then Trinity, let us discuss what all of this means for you and the pack." Michael indicated a chair for me to sit down. Knowing that it would cause more problems if I refused, I epted his offer and allowed him to guide me to the seat.


    From the seat I could see everyone in the room. It was like a throne that sat opposite of the Alpha''s desk that was almost like his own throne in the room. I saw my family looking at me with concern, everyone but Grandfather. Grandfather was looking at me with his usual sneer, but it was mixed with an unusual amount of pride and well-maintained gloating.


    The elders were all looking at me curiously. The five of them looked so simr yet so different. They were all old and wizened. They had gray hair and their skin was yellowing around the edges. But their eye colors were different, and the angles of their facial features were different.


    The most interesting person in the room by far, was the Alpha. I had always seen him from afar. And the other night I had seen him up close for the first time. The sight of which was enough to take my breath away. But seeing him now, being able to look for more than a nce, I was able to appreciate things I had never noticed before.


    I was able to appreciate things like how when the light hit his hair just right it looked like it was shining with the glint sapphires. Like the jet-ck color had started to turn blue in ces. Like how his honey-golden eyes seem to track even the smallest movements made in the room, and that they seemed so deep that I could get lost in them.


    I seemed to notice how his high cheekbones, angr jaw, and full lips were drawing all of my attention, causing me to need to force my eyes away from them. Looking down only made it worse though. I saw how the muscles in his arms and chest strained against the shirt he was wearing. The fabric was clinging to him almost like a second skin making every line stand out in eye-popping detail.


    His tall muscr frame was leaning against the window. I knew he was taller than most members of the pack. He was at least a foot taller than I was. He looked strong, powerful, and lethal.


    Yet, in that moment, seeing him and smelling him so close to me, all I felt for him was lust. I didn''t know why.


    Every time I had smelled his scent before it had frightened me. And it still did, to be honest. But the lust was overpowering it at the moment. Perhaps seeing him there, getting to see him so clearly, made it that much more powerful.


    I heard someone clear their throat, I nearly jumped in response, startled by the interruption to my ogling of the Alpha. Goddess, they probably know what was going through my head. I thought. At least he was avoiding looking at me.


    "Now then Trinity." Another of the Elders was speaking to me. "There is much we need to discuss and n so that we may all move forward. As you are probably well aware, it is a joyous asion that the Alpha has finally found his mate after nearly six long years." The old man was saying in his wizened old voice.


    I just nodded my head in response. Of course I understood, the whole pack had been waiting for him to find his mate for the longest time. That was the point of that whole gathering that would forever be the worst night of my life. But I didn''t know what he wanted me to say in response, so my nod would have to suffice.


    "Now, as you know, we will have to hold the iming ceremony. There you will be marked in front of the entire pack." Michael, the elder who spoke earlier added. My eyes opened wide at his words. In front of the whole pack?


    "Now, there is nothing to be afraid of my dear." Another man was saying. "We simply need to introduce you to the pack as the new Luna and have the Alpha mark you as his own. Of course, it won''t be the final marking, that will be private between the two of you. But it will be a show of possession in front of the entire pack. Marking you as his so no others try to stake a im."


    This man''s words were not calming me down in the slightest. What exactly did these people think I was capable of doing. I can''t do these things. Especially not in front of so many people. This would definitely not end well for me.


    "Don''t worry Trinity, it will be quick, and we will all be there for you." Noah assured, having sensed my fear and hesitation at the old man''s words. I just nodded at him. I didn''t trust myself to speak here, I would likely end up screaming instead.

 Chapter 15 - Trinity-New Home

    <h4>Chapter 15: Trinity-New Home</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "You will, of course, need to move." Michael informed, looking at me matter-of-factly.


    "Move?" I asked, shocked.


    "Did you think that my mate would live anywhere but at my house?" The Alpha growled at me.


    "No, sorry, that is not what I was meaning." I told him apologetically. He scoffed at my response, resuming his silent observations.


    "You will begin living here at the estate immediately." Michael droned. "Have you prepared everything?" He asked looking at Aunt Eve.


    "Yes." She cried looking at me with red-rimmed eyes. She was sad, she clearly didn''t want me to go. I love you Aunty Evie! I said to myself, the childish way I used to address her when I was young was enough to break my heart.


    "Yes, I intend to be awyer. I am studyingw, or I had intended to." I told him.


    "There should be no problems with you continuing your education. An educated Luna would only benefit the pack more." He smiled at me.


    "Thank you." I told him, not knowing what else to say.


    "Aside from the marking ceremony, you will also be expected to apany the Alpha on all pack-rted business that requires a Luna''s presence, they will vary in type and responsibilities. The Alpha will help you along the way, as will other pack members who assist him." Michael seemed to be the one who was handling my entire entrance into the Alpha''s life, didn''t he have anything to say about it? I snuck a look in his direction, and he was still ring at the whole room, I felt the look nearly freeze me in ce.


    "When shall we have the marking ceremony?" One of the other elders asked Michael.


    "I do not believe we should wait very long. I believe this weekend would be appropriate." He answered thoughtfully, essentially rushing my deadline right before my eyes. "If we hurry and hold it soon, then we can avoid the other pack females getting hopeful for the other gatherings." He added.


    Ahh, that was why he wanted to rush things. Let all the other unmated females in the entire pack have another reason to hate me. Not only did I not have a wolf, and they shunned me for that, now they could hate me because I had stolen the Alpha from them. Gee, thanks Michael for making this all so easy for them to understand.


    "We will work out the rest of the details, Noah, would you be so kind as to show the Luna to her room?" Michael asked. "You may all go with them. I know having her family will make things easier on her." He added, looking at the rest of my family seated around the sofas.


    "Come on Trinity." Noahmanded, guiding me by my elbow. I nced back into the room once just before leaving it behind, I found the Alpha ring at me as I left.


    Noah led us down the hall, up to the fourth floor, and to a room nearly at the end of what he called the north wing.


    "There is an elevator, if you ever want to take that instead of climbing four flights of stairs a day." He told me as he opened the door with a key.


    The room inside was massive. It was easily four times as big as my room at home, if not bigger. There was a massive dark wooden, ornately carved four-poster bed covered with a sky-blueforter and deep navy-blue pillows and curtains.


    All the furniture matched the bed, a beautiful dark wooden color, and ornately carved. There was a nightstand on either side of the bed with amp on each. There was a chest of drawers, a dresser with a mirror, an armoire, a vanity table, and chair with a navy-blue cushion, and a beautiful wooden trunk at the foot of the bed.


    On top of the regr bedroom furniture there was a sitting room areaplete with a navy-blue couch with sky-blue pillows and a wall mounted TV. There were shelves built into the wall all around the TV, that would be perfect for storing books and movies on.


    At another area of the room there was a deskplete with what looked like a state-of-the-artptop and a table and chairs that would seat four peoplefortably. Both the desk and the table set matched the rest of the furniture in the room perfectly.


    Everything was beautiful, perfect, and way too much. I felt overwhelmed just being in the room. I would never be able to rx in here.


    "Let me show you around." Noah started walking around the room.


    "You''re going to act like nothing happened?" Carter yelled at him.


    "Let me finish the tour Carter, and then we can all talk." Noah told him firmly.


    "Fine." Carter growled. I was happy Carter was saying what I was not yet capable of saying. I was still in shock over everything.


    Noah led the way around the room. He showed me where the hidden mini fridge was, though it didn''t seem so mini to me. He showed me where my not one, but two closets were. I didn''t even own enough clothes to fill one closest let alone two for crying out loud. And he showed me where my bathroom was.


    I had expected that a room this extravagant would have its own bathroom. But what I didn''t expect was the sheer wow factor of the bathroom itself. The room might be too much, but this bathroom might be just what I need to survive.


    To call the bath a soaking tub would not be doing it justice. The tub was built into the floor and even a man as big as the Alpha couldy down in itfortably and have room on every side. It was gigantic. I did not want to know how much he paid on his water bill or would be when I started using that tub.


    Adding to the luxury of the tub was the shower surrounded by ss. It was beautiful. There was a bench on the inside that apparently would have hot water running through it so it would not be cold to sit on. There were twelve different shower heads that could spray at the same time, or I could pick and choose which ones. That meant I could get one hell of a rxing shower.

 Chapter 16 - Trinity-New House, New Life

    <h4>Chapter 16: Trinity-New House, New Life</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Noah told me how the house operated. There was a full staff that worked in shifts, so there was always someone here if I needed them. There was someone to cook, someone to clean, someone to doundry.


    All of my old annoying household chores would be a thing of the past. But I would have rather been at home doing chores with the family than living here with the Alpha that I didn''t know.


    Apparently, whenever I needed to leave the house, I had to let someone know. That someone could be Noah if I was mostfortable with that. But the Luna needed to be considerate of others and let someone know where she was going and when she would being back.


    "I think this should go without saying, but your little incident fromst night will not be tolerated here." Noah said firmly.


    "What incident is that?" Grandfather asked me, looking angry.


    "Nothing to be upset over Grandfather." I assured him.


    "Clearly it is, if it is uneptable whilst living with the Alpha." He growled, looking exactly like he did when he was the Beta in his younger days.


    "I was visiting a friend yesterday, and the two sleepless nights and early morning just caught up to me. I ended up falling asleep on her couch. I had not intended to stay out overnight." I told him.


    "That is uneptable and inappropriate Trinity Faith!" Grandfather roared.


    "I didn''t mean to. I had intended to go home." I told him firmly.


    "That is besides the point. You need to be more responsible youngdy. You are the Luna of this pack now. You have duties now. Transgressions such as those will not be tolerated." I could hear the same old lecture tone entering his voice, I really didn''t want to do this, not right now.


    "Fine, Grandfather, I understand. I will be an upstanding model citizen from now on, you have my word." I ground out through clenched teeth.


    "You had better be." He demanded before stalking out of the room.


    "Dad?" Uncle Wesley called after him.


    "Don''t worry Trinity, he loves you in his own way." Aunt Eve saidfortingly. She had always tried to convince me of this, I never once believed it.


    "No, he doesn''t." I snapped back. "He hates me, he always has." The pain I had felt through the years was threatening to spill over, but now was not the time. I still had to hold it in. I had to stay strong for a while longer.


    "Don''t worry about him Trinity, I love you." Carter dered, wrapping his strong arms around me. My constant defender that he was, he never could stand to see the way Grandfather treated me, and he would always tell me he would love me twice as much in Grandfather''s ce.


    "I love you too Carter." I told him. Aunt Eve and Uncle Wesley had been the only mother and father I had ever known, Carter and Noah had been my brothers of sorts. And now here I was being told I had to leave home. To move somewhere else with someone I barely knew. I was scared, and I needed thefort of the hug he was giving me.


    "Noah, how could you let this happen?" Carter asked him. "How can you just stand there and watch as the Alpha takes her away from us?"


    "You should be happy, Carter. She has found her mate." Noah told him.


    "Her mate?" Carter scoffed. "All of you were saying that you never thought she would find a mate. That without a wolf she probably couldn''t form that bond with anyone. And here we''re supposed to just believe that the Alpha of all people is her mate. Do we have any proof?"


    "Ask her yourself." Noah said pointing at me still wrapped in Carter''s arms.


    "Trinity?" Carter and Uncle Wesley both asked me at the same time, looking for an exnation.


    "I didn''t know it was a mate bond at first. I first came across his scent in the forest." I admitted, as I started to tell them all about what had happened two days ago. I started with my run and finding the intoxicating and dangerous scent that scared me, and how I ran home. Then continued through everything up until I was attacked in the forest by a rogue today.


    I told them about how I tried to run away again, afraid to see the Alpha, who I recognized by his scent. But the Alpha ordered me not to run and to stay put. From there Noah could take the story.


    "Are you alright?" Aunt Eve asked me, motherly concern filling her voice as she reached her hands toward me. "I can''t believe I didn''t notice you were hurt sooner."


    "I''m fine Aunt Eve, I only have a few scrapes and bruises, they''re already healing." I told her. I may not have healed as fast as the other pack members did, those who have shifted, but I healed faster than a human.


    If I were topare it to anything, I''d say it''s the same rate that a cub healed at, a child of that pack that had yet to have their first shift. Just slightly eleratedpared to human healing, but it was nothingpared to the healing of a full wolf.


    A wolf could be shot, dig the bullet out and fully heal within half an hour to an hour. Me, it would take about two or three days, minimum. But it would definitely be an easier speedier recovery than a human''s recovery.


    "This is why you need to check your messages." Carter reprimanded me.


    "Agreed." Noah added.


    "I''ll check them more in the future." I told them.


    "Uh huh." Carter said, disbelievingly.

 Chapter 17 - Trinity-I Need To Get Out

    <h4>Chapter 17: Trinity-I Need To Get Out</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Noah continued to show me around the house. After which Carter grumbled about how things didn''t add up. Eventually, they all left me in my room for the night. Noah told me that he would have dinner sent to me tonight as he guessed I was too nervous to eat downstairs. He was right.


    Not long after he left an older man pushing a cart came to my room. He was not quite as old as the Elders, but he wasn''t far off. He came into the room and set the trays full of tes, a few sses and a bucket of ice down on my table. I didn''t know what was for dinner yet, but it smelled amazing.


    Dinner turned out to be fried chicken. Simple enough, but it tasted divine. Even after having been brought to the room it was hot and still crispy. It was served with creamy mashed potatoes, sweet baby carrots, steamed broli, dinner rolls, and a creamy chocte mousse pudding for dessert. It was an amazing dinner, simple but delicious.


    Noah must have told them my preferences ahead of time as well, as they even brought me my favorite juice with dinner. This was already overwhelming me. I appreciated everything that whoever it was that made the dinner had done for me, but it felt awkward.


    I was restless after dinner. Staring at my bags that my family had brought over. They had packed all my stuff and brought it over at some point during the day. That felt wrong to me. I should have been allowed to pack my own things. What if there was something they weren''t supposed to see? There wasn''t, but still, what if?


    I kept thinking I should put my stuff away. I need to settle in. I have sses tomorrow and I am getting tired, so I need to be ready for the morning. But I just kept feeling like I didn''t belong here. This wasn''t where I should be. For some reason, I felt like no one wanted me here, especially after the look that the Alpha gave me.


    Finally, I had had enough. I couldn''t stand being in this house. I had to go home. But I knew I couldn''t go home ever again. I knew I couldn''t go to Juniper''s ever again. There was nowhere in the pack safe for me anymore. Nowhere.


    I didn''t care. I had to go. I had to get out. I dressed in my own clothes, changing out of the ones I had borrowed from Juniper that morning. I decided to wear dark colors for this n. ck jeans, dark blue t-shirt, ck jacket, ck hiking shoes. I pulled my hair back in a high ponytail and braided it so it wouldn''t get in the way.


    Once I was properly dressed, I left my room. I only really knew of one route out of the house, but it was a long one. I was lucky enough to not pass any staff members most of the way down the stairs. The elderly man from before did ask me where I was heading, and I stated honestly that I was going to the kitchen. Perhaps he would think I just wanted a drink.


    After that encounter, I saw no one else. I managed to make it out the back door and out into the night without incident. The cool night air was like a breath of new life being breathed into me. I wanted to sigh in relief, but I had to remain quiet.


    I quickly, yet quietly, hurried down the slightly sloping mountainside. I hadn''t paid much attention the other night, but they must have levelled out a lot of the mountain side to make that dance floor possible. The same went for the house, it was built into the side of the mountain, it obviously had the natural supports, but they had also levelled out the side of the mountain just a little before construction.


    I had decided to run through the trees, so as not to be seen. I had not even made it a quarter of the way down the slope when I heard the voice. That deep, smooth voice that stirred things deep inside of me.


    "And where the hell do you think you''re going?" He asked me. He was in front of me somehow. He had managed to leave the house and get ahead of me. Or he was already outside. Either one.


    "Just going for a run, I didn''t get my run in thesest two mornings." I said nonchntly.


    "Do you understand what I''m telling you." He asked me. I nodded my head, my eyes wide with fear and understanding. "You look like a scared little bunny rabbit." He chuckled,ughing at me. Hisughter was enough to force the scared look off my face and rece it with one of anger.


    "I do not look like a rabbit." I growled.


    He just chuckled at my response as he threw me over his shoulder and stomped back toward the house. He moved quickly. And before I knew it, we were outside my door.


    "Get in your room, little bunny. And if I catch you outside again, I might just get myself a new lucky rabbit''s foot." He red at me menacingly in the dark. His threat was real, and I knew it. He would punish me if I tried to leave again. And before I could even open my door, I heard him calling over a subordinate and telling him to guard my room.


    "Don''t even think about going through the window, little bunny, you don''t have a balcony, and there is nothing for you to climb down. And if you tried to make a jump from this high, it''d probably kill you." He was right, that''s why I hadn''t gone through the window to begin with. I just puffed my cheeks out in frustration and red at him. He stalked off down the hall ignoring me.

 Chapter 18 - Reece-She Sure Is A Handful

    <h4>Chapter 18: Reece-She Sure Is A Handful</h4>


    ~~


    ~~


    What in the world were they thinking? Forcing me to take her as my mate. Though I knew I had no other choice, I could still be pissed off about it. What I should be asking was what was the Goddess thinking making a girl with no wolf my mate. And to top it all off, she was already a massive handful.


    First it took me forever just to find her. I was dragged away from tracking her. Then there was her running away from me. Then my assistant tells me he knew who she was all along. Well that was convenient. Those words had been music to my wolf''s ears, but they were like a death march to my human ears.


    No wolf meant she couldn''t protect herself. That meant she was weak, a liability, a weakness. I couldn''t afford to be weak dammit. But I had no choice. I had to take the girl as my mate, whether either of us liked it or not.


    And to make matters worse. While in the middle of searching for the girl, I was told that the rogue that was causing problems the other day had crossed into my territory and was making a beeline for mypound.


    That put every one of my pack members at risk. There was no telling if he had gone into a rampage, losing all connection with his human mind. If that were the case, he would have no rationality left in him and he would be a mindless killing machine.


    Another drawback, the rampage would increase his strength, so lesser wolves would be unable to fight him off. Women and children were especially at risk if they crossed a rampager. I had to deal with this rogue immediately.


    Then, what should I see when I track the intruder wolf down? The girl who is meant to be my mate. I knew instantly, her scent flooded into my nose and filled my mind. As much as I wish I could stop them, thoughts of hands off and that''s mine went through my mind. I me my wolf as he was the one I was running as.


    I could see the two of them in the distance as I was running. Trinity was losing her lead, but it looked intentional. She was setting him up. The next thing I knew, I saw her jump to the side, kick off from the tree and do a backflip. Shended with both heels crashing down on the wolf''s head. I nearlyughed at the sight. The move was quite good.


    She was back on her feet and running again. I followed to keep them in my line of sight. The wolf, having recovered, was chasing her again. This time she didn''t spring off a tree. No, she spun and slid onto her back, using her downward slide to kick upward with both feet. Thebined momentum had sent the wolf flying into a tree.


    She skidded to a stop and spun to her feet, unfortunately though her foot caught a root of a nearby tree, causing her to stumble. That, plus the fact that the wolf recovered quickly meant that he was chasing her sooner and closer than she had nned.


    The wolf caught her and tackled her to the ground. I could smell the sharp scent of blood and her scent intensified. I knew instantly that she had been injured in some way. She can''t die dammit, she''s my mate, I need toplete the circle. I roared to myself as I raced toward them.


    He had her pinned to the ground, but she still brought a knee up to his tender underbelly. I heard him growl in pain and frustration before he bared his teeth and set them against her throat. Not on my watch. I roared.


    I tackled the rogue wolf off of her and wrestled him to the ground. It was exactly as I had expected, he has lost all sense of himself. He was rampaging. I was able to knock him unconscious, eliminating him as a threat for the time being. That was when I saw that my mate was attempting to run away again.


    She had turned and was on her feet, but before she had taken more than two or three steps I had shifted back, standing there human again. I didn''t growl at her, she was plenty scared of me already, but I did issue amand.


    "Don''t you dare run again. Stay right where you are." She knelt on the ground and sat on her heels, bowing her head in deference.


    She was already a handful, that was for sure. Like when we were in the meeting with the Elders and she was too busy staring at me to pay attention to the room around her. She thought I wasn''t watching her, but she needed to learn to watch a room indirectly.


    She had probably never been in the same room with me for so long, and therefore never seen me so up close, besides the brief glimpse the other day. The same could be said of me. I had never seen her this close before. At least not when her head wasn''t bowed or blocked by her hair.


    She was pretty, that was true. But being pretty alone wasn''t all it took to be Luna. If that were the case, then any of the girls in the group from the other night could be Luna. But her looks were different from theirs somehow. Her hair was a deep, rich, dark brown that was just a few shades lighter than my ck hair.


    And where most of the women in the pack were either naturally tanned like myself, or went tanning in the summer, she was like porcin. I''m sure her skin would look like milk and mine honey if the two wereid side by side.


    And another intriguing feature was her eyes. With such dark brown hair, I would not expect to see bright crystal blue eyes that seemed to shine in the light. The eyes were unusual to say the least.


    But no matter how interesting, intriguing, or beautiful I found her. No matter how intoxicating or irresistible my wolf found her scent. I simply could not ept her as my mate. Not fully. It wasn''t safe for her. She would get herself killed. And she would bring my pack down with her.

 Chapter 19 - Reece-Shes Running Again!

    <h4>Chapter 19: Reece-She''s Running Again!</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    But she was a handful, that was for sure. That was why I had to sneak out of my own house to catch her when she was trying to run away. If Vincent had not been on night watch as he was walking the halls, he would never havee to notify me that my new mate and our soon to be Luna was trying to escape.


    Oh, she thought she was clever. Telling Peter that she was getting juice, telling me she was going for her missed run. She thought she was going to get away. I still didn''t know why she would want to run away. She was going to have everything she ever wanted right. This is what all the girls in the pack seemed to want, to be mated to me and ascend thedder. Oh well, she woulde around. Until then, I had to threaten her.


    "Let me make one thing abundantly clear to you right now. If you try to run away again, I will make it so you can''t leave the house ever again. As it is, you''re under house arrest until the marking is done. After that, I can use the mark to track you down and bring you back no matter where you run off to." I told her, causing her eyes to open wide in shock and fear. That was mostly true. I would be able to track her, but it wasn''t that easy.


    "Do you understand what I''m telling you." She made such an unusual face at this that I couldn''t help my response. "You look like a scared little bunny rabbit." Iughed at her.


    "I do not look like a rabbit." She growled at me.


    Iughed again, she squealed as I threw her over my shoulder and marched her to her room. I worked hard to ignore the feeling of her soft supple body pressing against my shoulder. When I set her down, I warned her yet again.


    "Get in your room, little bunny. And if I catch you outside again, I might just get myself a new lucky rabbit''s foot." I assigned a guard to her room and gave onest bit of advice. "Don''t even think about going through the window, little bunny, you don''t have a balcony, and there is nothing for you to climb down. And if you tried to make a jump from this high, it''d probably kill you."


    After all my threats and warnings, I left her alone. I stalked down the hallway to the southern wing where my room was. That''s why I am in this predicament that I am in now.


    I was currently tonsils deep in a bottle of whiskey, trying to take my mind off thest two days. I had just about drunk myself into a stupor and was attempting to make my wolf forget about the way our body felt when that girl was around. Things weren''t going so well.


    "I''m going to have to assign guards to her." I told myself. "But who should I choose?" There were several among the pack that were strong enough and capable enough, but not many that I would trust with being inside my home or around my mate constantly. I was really going to have to bite the bullet and branch out here a little.


    Things were going to getplicated here for a while. A long while.


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "UURRGH!" I screamed in frustration. "What an ASSHOLE!" I heard aughing from beyond the door, apparently my guard had heard me. I didn''t care, let him hear. I was too angry not to vent to myself.


    "Who does that overgrown dog think he is, anyway? Throwing me over his shoulder and carrying me back to my room. Doesn''t he know I''m more than capable of walking?" I continued to vent as I tore through my bags and found some clothes to sleep in. I didn''t care about making a mess at the moment, I just needed to change my clothes.


    "I swear if he tries something like that again I am going to give him more than just a piece of my mind. I''m going to give him my hand across his face or my boot up his ass." Theughter was continuing almost steadily at my tirade. d you''re enjoying yourself pal.


    I finished changing and flopped onto the bed, though I was certain I wouldn''t fall asleep anytime soon. But, before I knew it, my eyes were closed, and I was sleeping soundly.


    I woke up early again the next morning. Thankfully I had a dreamless sleep for once, so I didn''t have to worry about any nightmares waking me up this time. But I was really getting tired of waking up before the sun rose.


    I knew they wouldn''t let me go for a run. Not afterst night. So, I decided to take a shower. I really wanted to soak in the tub, but that would have to wait until I had more time. I had ss soon and didn''t have the time for a really long soak.


    The shower was amazing. The powerful jets of hot water that I could concentrate to specific muscle groups on my back helped to ease some of the tension I was feeling. I had a feeling I would be stressing out and would be full of tension a lot during my time here.


    "What am I thinking?" I asked myself. "It''s not like I''m ever going to live anywhere else. I am the Luna, I am his mate, this is my life now." I stated, realization hitting me hard.


    I had just finished dressing and tidying up my mess from the night before when there was a knock on my door.


    "Trinity, are you awake?" Noah asked me.


    "Yeah Noah, I''m awake." I told him.


    I heard Noah unlock my door with the same key he had used the night before.


    "I was going to give this to you. I had forgotten to give it to youst night." Noah said, indicating the key in his hand. I held my hand out to take the key from him. "But now I am not certain I should." He growled ring at me.


    "Why not?" I asked him.


    "Why not?" He asked. "Why not?" He yelled it that time. "Dammit Trinity, why the hell did you try to run awayst night?" He demanded. His eyes were full of fury as he red at me.


    I could see he was mad at me. He was hurt that I had tried to leave and tried to run away from the Alpha. I knew that he considered the Alpha to be one of his best friends, but to me the Alpha was a dangerous person that I didn''t know. It was one thing following the Alpha''s orders when they didn''t affect your daily life, but when it came to me personally it changed everything drastically. I was scared, nervous, and just didn''t know what to do.


    "I..I..I was not trying to run away." I stammered. He red at me ever harder, if that was even possible. "I had missed my morning run, so I-."


    "Don''t peddle your lies to me Trinity. I''m not buying them." He roared. "You were trying to run away. WHY?"


    "Because I''m scared Noah. Alright! Is that what you want to hear? I''m terrified. I don''t know what to do. I''m in over my head. The whole mate bond terrifies me. Just being around the Alpha, smelling him, yeah it''s exciting because of the bond but it scares the hell out of me too." He recoiled at my words, or my tone, I wasn''t sure which. The shock in his face quickly turned to pain and thenpassion. He was torn. He didn''t know where to put his loyalties right now, and that hurt.


    "I''m sorry Trinity." He began.


    "Just stop." I told him. "Just stop Noah. It''s my problem. Just tell the Alpha that I won''t run away again. I promise. I know that it''s no use. I promise that I will stay here, no matter what. Just, make sure he lets me finish my degree, alright."


    "Once you are marked, you can go again." He told me.


    "You mean I have to miss the entire week?" I asked him incredulously. "They might drop me from my sses."


    "I''ll see what I can do." He promised. "But you''re not going today, that''s for sure. Not after what happenedst night. Take that as a punishment for attempting to run."


    "Fine, but please make sure I can go tomorrow." I insisted.


    "I''ll try."


    "And don''t tell the Alpha that I am scared to be here." I told him.


    "You know, he is your mate now, you can call him by his name." Noah sighed.


    "Not a chance. I''ll do that when he gives me the permission to do so." I told him. Noah just nodded. He knew how people were when it came to the Alpha.


    So, I am a prisoner for the time being. I thought to myself. Well he did say I was under house arrest.

 Chapter 20 - Trinity-Luna Preparations and Conditions

    <h4>Chapter 20: Trinity-Luna Preparations and Conditions</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was just about to text Juniper and tell her that I wouldn''t be in ss today when I heard my door being unlocked again. That was quick for breakfast. I thought. But it wasn''t someone bringing food, it was Noah again.


    "There was onest thing I needed to tell you." He said seeing the phone in my hand. "It seems I might not have caught you in time."


    "What?" I asked him, perplexed.


    "You are to tell no one about the fact that you are the Alpha''s mate and the new Luna. That announcement will be made to the pack as a whole at the gathering this weekend." He was looking at my phone pointedly as he spoke.


    "I was just telling Juniper that I wasn''t going to be in ss today." I told him. "I hadn''t even sent the message yet." I groaned showing him the screen.


    "That''s good. Go ahead and send that message. I would really hate for them to take away your phone while we await the gathering." He told me.


    "He would really go that far?" I asked him, shock filling my voice.


    "We cannot have the news spreading prior to the gathering." He told me firmly.


    "I won''t tell anyone." I told him. "I don''t want it to be true, so I am not going to start bragging." I told him tly. Noah just nodded and left the room again. I heard the lock click once more.


    I unpacked my things and organized my room. I ate the breakfast that was brought to me. It was delicious, the same as the meal was from the night before. And I worked on the assignments Juniper texted me that were for the sses I had missed.


    Noah came around lunch time with a woman I did not know. She was slightly older, tall and thin with hair that had begun to turn from light brown to silver gray. Her bright green eyes were still sharp and focused though, and she had a friendly smile.


    "Trinity, this is Gina, she is the top-rated seamstress in the pack." I knew who she was immediately. She was the one who made all ceremonial clothing for the Alphas and former Luna. There was a seamstress before her that did the same thing. If she were here, that meant she knew who I was.


    "Good afternoon." She told me, bowing to me slightly. "It is wonderful to meet you Luna." I looked to Noah, concern filling my face.


    "There is nothing to worry about. She is sworn to secrecy, and she has been working for the Alpha''s family for a long time." Noah told me. I just nodded my head.


    "The traditional dress worn at the marking ceremony is always passed down from Luna to Luna, but the problem is, you are so much smaller than the others." She chatted, looking at me curiously. She had helped alter the previous Luna''s dress as well apparently and knew what types of changes were typically made. "And we don''t have much time." She mused aloud.


    Gina set a stool in front of me and directed me to stand on top of it. She took several measurements.


    "You''re short, and your waist is so much smaller than most of the pack women." She muttered more to herself than to anyone else. "But your bosom is just as ample as everyone else''s, but on that tiny frame of yours it still makes the bodice too big." She continued to mutter while sketching something.


    Before long she kicked Noah out of the room, telling him that there would be no men permitted in the room for the next stage. Once he was out the door, and I heard the lock click into ce again, she was directing me to take my clothes off.


    "Excuse me?" I nearly yelled before I caught myself, just barely managing to speak in a civilized tone.


    "I need to pin the dress to the right length, so you need to put it on. Chop, chop, off with those clothes so you can put the dress on."


    I understood what she wanted, but that didn''t make it any less awkward. With slow, halting movements I managed to strip down to my underwear. But as I reached for the dress, she moved toward me, the dress in hand. She was helping me into the dress. Oh Goddess, this is too weird!


    After several embarrassing minutes the dress was fully in ce. It was not sitting the way it should have, but the feel of the fabric was wonderful. It was softer than the silk of the dress Grandfather had given me.


    The base color of the dress was ck, but that was lost under the silver that adorned it. There was silver all through the skirt and train so that every time I shifted it caught the light. The bodice and straps were ck, but they were covered with silver that hung down to make long shimmering sleeves and a flowing cape that spread out behind me. The ck was barely visible unless I moved in just the right way. The dress was so mystifyingly beautiful.


    "I don''t want to cut away too much, but I fear I will have to." Gina was saying. I couldn''t let her do something so permanent to the dress.


    "No, we can make it work." I told her.


    "Really? And how?" She asked me.


    "Leave it long and flowing like it is, just tighten things up in the chest. Making it an empire waist should solve the problem." I told her. I didn''t want the dress cut more than it needed to be.


    "Hmm. That just might work." She mumbled looking at the dress and sketching something on her pad. "Yes, I think it will." She said looking at me. "You''re quite amazing Luna." She was smiling happily. I didn''t know how to respond so I just shook my head, I was nothing special after all.


    Gina helped me out of the dress. I put my clothes back on. And then she was escorted out and Noah came to join me for lunch.


    "I spoke with Reece." Noah informed me, using the Alpha''s name, probably in an attempt to make me less nervous about him. It didn''t help.


    "Ok?" I said, not knowing where he was going with this.


    "You can resume sses tomorrow."


    "Thank you." I interrupted him.


    "Under one condition." He continued.


    "What condition?" I was confused.


    "You need an escort."


    "An escort?" I was perplexed.


    "Someone from the pack to make sure you won''t run away." He said firmly.


    "I''ll be with Juniper and the others." I told him.


    "They won''t cut it. They have not been trained as warriors, at least to our knowledge, and they are your friends and might likely help you escape." He said matter-of-factly.


    "And risk the punishment?" I asked him, skeptically.


    "You never know."


    "So, who will be escorting me? You or Carter?" I was guessing it had to be one of them.


    "I cannot do it as I am Reece''s personal assistant, and Carter was not chosen."


    "Then who?" I asked, getting nervous now. Surely, he wouldn''t do it himself, would he?


    "A warrior from the pack. Someone the Alpha can trust to protect you. If you remember you were also recently attacked and will need to be guarded, in case it was not a random event." Noah was trying to use the attack yesterday as part of the cause for the guard duty.


    "And I handled myself pretty well, if you remember."


    "Yes, but you still lost the fight." He said sternly.


    "I don''t need a warrior following me around."


    "Then you don''t need to go to ss." He looked at me firmly. I growled at him.


    "Fine. But after I am marked, I will be allowed to go without the armed escort, right?" I asked him sarcastically. "He said he can track me by my mark, so I was only under house arrest until I was marked." I told him what the Alpha had told me.


    "We will discuss thatter, when the timees."


    "I am not going to have some random guy I don''t know following me around all day every day." I snapped at him.


    "Then get to know him." He snapped back.


    "Dammit, Noah."


    "You brought this on yourself. You were the one that got into that mess yesterday and you were the one that tried to run away. If only you had checked your messages, then things could have been a lot different." He growled at me. I puffed out my cheeks in frustration at him. "Deal with it, Trinity, and maybe it will go away soon enough." I growled again but nodded my head, epting his terms.

 Chapter 21 - Trinity-Breakfast With Reese

    <h4>Chapter 21: Trinity-Breakfast With Reese</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I am proud to say I behaved myself for the remainder of the night. I didn''t do anything that would make my family or the Alpha mad at me. I ended up soaking in that dream tub of mine. Note to self, have some sort of nted rest installed for my short ass to sit on or buy floaties for my bath pool.


    The following morning, after freshening up and getting dressed for the day, I actually left my room and had breakfast in the kitchen for the first time. Walking through the house felt surreal after being in my room for so long.


    I had seen so little of the house so far, but they still didn''t seem too keen on showing me around yet. Someone would have to do that soon though.


    I was being guided by the same guard that hade to watch my door the other day. I red at him, knowing he had heard me bad mouthing the Alpha.


    "Is there something wrong Luna?" He asked me with a perplexed frown.


    "No, just not in the greatest of moods." I told him. This was true. I was still irritated, but at least things were looking up.


    "I am sorry to hear that." He told me with a slight frown.


    He guided me quickly to the kitchen. There was a woman that looked to be in her fifties standing near the stove taking bacon out of a pan. The only other person in the room was the Alpha.


    "Good morning, Dearie." She called out to me as we entered the room. "How would you like your eggs this morning?"


    "Poached." I answered immediately.


    "Well, that makes two of you." She said with a littleugh in her voice. I nced at the Alpha in surprise. "Hard or soft yolk?" She asked me.


    "Soft."


    "Now ain''t that just a coincidence, I won''t have to change anything at all." She giggled, smiling wide. Apparently, the Alpha and I had the same preference in eggs, go figure.


    "Why don''t you sit down and join us." The Alpha said to the guard, breaking the ufortable silence.


    "I appreciate the offer Sir, but I have already eaten. Perhaps a raincheck? If you don''t mind though, I will go run a perimeter check before it is time to go." He declined inclining his head to the Alpha.


    "Very well, do as you must." He told the guard who nodded and left the room. Now the Alpha and I were alone aside from the cook.


    "Here you are Dears." She said sitting down two tes piled with food. There was bacon, sausage, and ham, hash browns, toast, eggs, fruit, and a pile of rice that smelled sweet.


    I had been entirely focused on the food for a few moments, so I hadn''t even noticed that the cook left the kitchen. When I looked up, I was alone with the Alpha. I sat up straight and gulped reflexively. He noticed.


    "Just eat your food." He grumbled, and without another word he started on his massive te of food. I ate a bit of everything, it was all amazing. I noticed the Alpha had put cinnamon and butter on the rice that I had never tried before so I tried it both before and after adding the same to mine, it was better with them added. I ate as much as I could, but I could only eat a little more than half of the food, she had made me too much.


    We had eaten inplete silence. He never looked at me once during the whole meal after he told me to eat my food. I felt ufortable the entire time, at least the food was good. I wonder if he would just let me eat in my room from now on.


    I had begun to rise from the table when he finally broke his silence.


    "I''m letting you out of your cage today, little bunny rabbit, don''t disappoint me." He rumbled in his deep voice. Goddess, why did that voice have to affect me so much?


    "Good." He said, his voice almost purring at me. "Though, perhaps I would like a game of chase, being an overgrown dog and all." His words flowed, almost like water, across the table to me. Uh oh, my guard had spilled the beans on me, that jerk. I gulped again from fear which only made him chuckle.


    "Just remember to be a good girl today Trinity, I don''t want there to be any problems. Remember, you now represent me as well." He exined as he stared at me intently.


    "I know. I will not do anything to embarrass you." I told him. "On purpose." I added in a whisper. He still heard it though.


    "At all." He growled.


    "I can''t ount for other people''s actions. If someone were to, say, trip and spill a drink on me identally causing my white shirt to be see through that would not be my fault and therefore should not be held against me." I had pinched my white tank top that was only partially covered by my midnight blue jean jacket.


    "There is indeed a simple solution to that problem." He offered with his eyes resting on the tank top in my hand. I quickly smoothed it back into ce. "Do not wear a white shirt, hence that problem will never exist."


    "The problem was purely hypothetical and will likely never happen. As I have gone nearly neen years without a simr incident ever happening, I believe I am safe. I was merely just using the scenario as an example."


    "Do you always talk like that when trying to win an argument?" He asked me.


    "I didn''t think we were having an argument, but merely a discussion. And I thought since I am studying to be awyer, why not practice talking like one now?" I answered his question.


    "Keep working on it." He mumbled, insulting me.


    "Hmm." I hummed, puffing out my cheeks in frustration.

 Chapter 22 - Trinity-Who Does He Think He Is?

    <h4>Chapter 22: Trinity-Who Does He Think He Is?</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Just remember the rules for now and things will go smoothly." He grumbled, ring at me. Something in me just snapped. I couldn''t hold back anymore, Alpha or not. I had been hearing this kind of bullshit from Grandfather my whole life, I didn''t need it from him too.


    "And what rules would those be?" I asked, sarcastically. "Bow down to your every whim, have no say in my own life ever again, be nothing but a piece of property like the furniture?" I asked. He grinned at me, but it was not pleasant at all.


    "You''ve got a rebellious streak, don''t you?"


    "What was your first clue?" I asked him. "Was it the first, second, third, or fourth time I tried to run away from you? Or did it take you until right now?" I couldn''t control my tone. My attitude was leaking out. The one I had worked so hard to control for years when dealing with Grandfather. I thought I could use the same disciplined strategy to deal with the Alpha, but I was having no luck there. I saw his smile widen and an evil glint enter his eyes.


    "Take care how you talk to me, I don''t like that tone with most people. I will overlook it for now, since your life is changingpletely, but I will not overlook it forever." He was growling at me as he spoke, a deep rumble low in his chest, but for some reason it didn''t frighten me as much as it used to. I was still scared of him, definitely, but I was not going to cower forever. If I was going to survive in this house with him, then I had to show my backbone sooner orter.


    "Or what Reece? You''ll get rid of me? Please do it. I dare you. Either you''ll end up mateless and have to step down as Alpha and watch someone else run the pack in your stead, or you''ll end up just as banished from the territory as I will."


    "Where did all this newfound confidence of yourse from?" He asked me.


    "It''s always been there, but I was just too shocked over the events of thest few days to truly be myself." I answered.


    "Hmmm." He seemed to hum in response to my answer. "No matter, just do as I said and follow the rules, Bunny." There he went with that annoying nickname again.


    "Once again, I am not a Bunny." I growled at him. For someone without a wolf I still had quite the impressive growl when I wanted to. "And you still haven''t told me the rules, Reece." I added. I realized that was the second time I had used his name since we had been sitting here, almost arguing. Oh Goddess, why did I just start using his name like that? But he didn''t seem angry about it at least.


    "Then listen closely, Trin-i-ty." He said my name slowly, stretching out every syble, perhaps to annoy me instead of using the Bunny nickname. "For the time being, you are not to leave this house without a guard. That is for more than one purpose. One is you being a flight risk, the other, is the unknown factor of exactly what happened the other day. You were attacked by the rogue after all, I cannot be certain that you were not the intended target. You are the Luna of the pack now, which means your safetyes before all others."


    "Shut it." He snapped at me. "You are not to tell anyone that you are the new Luna, not until after the gathering this weekend, I''m sure Noah told you that already. Also, when ites to pack rted business, you will do what I say, when I say it. There are times a Luna is expected to apany her mate, sometimes for show and sometimes to assist in other pack business." He droned tly, almost as if he were trying to push aside all emotion.


    "Aside from that your main responsibilities lie with the women and children of the pack. My job, as Alpha, is to maintain order for all, but to handle the business rted to the men. That would be things such as training warriors and the like. Up until now, I have had to handle everyone in the pack, but once the ceremony is over, you will be taking on the role you are meant to have." He was ring at me like he expected me to object. I just shrugged my shoulders.


    "I expect you to behave properly, as befitting a Luna and my mate."


    "And what exactly does that mean? How have I been known to behave improperly?" I snapped at him.


    "Oh, I don''t know, perhaps when you just fell asleep at a random friend''s house without informing your family. That will not happen now that you are Luna."


    "I know that, I had not intended for that to happen." I told him, defiance filling my voice.


    "Which makes it even worse. Acting out on purpose can be curbed easily. Forgetfulness, stupidity,ck ofmon sense, those things are not so easily fixed." He was tantly insulting me now.


    "Now listen here Fido, I am not stupid, forgetful,cking inmon sense or anything else simr to that. It just so happens that the two nights and subsequent mornings prior to that incident were to me. I had little sleep from stressing over your damned gathering and then what happened at that gathering. Then while I rxed at a friend''s house the exhaustion caught up to me. So, in truth, I guess you are to me. Since it was your gathering, and you that literally fell on top of me and at the gathering." I vented my frustrations at him.


    "First, I am only going to say this once, don''t ever call me Fido again unless you want to see what kind of punishments I can dream up for you." He said menacingly, making me shiver. "Second, I didn''t want that gathering any more than I wanted a damn mate, if anyone is to me then it''s those damn fools, the Elders." He growled. "I will let this slide only once. Just remember, behave yourself when in public from this day forward."


    "You have my word. I will behave myself in public." I fully intended to use his wording against him sometime, soon. He nodded his approval and left the room, his agitation was clear in the way he walked.

 Chapter 23 - Trinity-Guard Duty

    <h4>Chapter 23: Trinity-Guard Duty</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Luna?" The guard from earlier came into the room. It took me a moment to respond, not used to answering to the title.


    "Yes?" I asked hesitantly.


    "If you are ready, I will be driving you to ss now." He answered politely. He would be a wee change to the way Reece was treating me.


    "Thank you." I said, nodding my head. As I went to stand up, he hurried over and pulled my chair out for me.


    "Allow me." He offered. It wasn''t a heavy chair, and I could move it easily, but it was clear he was trying to be a gentleman.


    "Thank you." I said again. It seemed to be basically all I was saying to him.


    We were walking through the back door to the garage that I hade in through the other night. I hadn''t looked around before but there were about half a dozen cars at least. Some might belong to staff, but I am guessing that more than one belonged to Reece. It''s funny, I can''t even bring myself to just call him the Alpha anymore. I thought.


    "How many vehicles does Reece own?" I wondered out loud, I didn''t expect an answer, so I was surprised when my guard responded.


    "Five in total." He said. "But I believe one is being used by someone else at the moment to run an errand."


    "Excessive." I mumbled.


    He walked to the sedan and opened the passenger door for me.


    "After you Luna." He indicated that I should be gracious and just sit down. He then walked around the car and slid in behind the steering wheel. "Now shall we be off."


    "Um, can you stop calling me Luna? Especially considering that people are not supposed to know about that yet." I asked him, feeling ufortable.


    "Not to worry, the title is currently reserved only for use at the estate. I will be calling you by your name when we get to town, Trinity." He smiled at me as he spoke.


    "That reminds me, I do not know your name." I told him.


    "Ahh, you are right, we have yet to be introduced. My name is Vincent, it is a pleasure." He introduced himself, inclining his head again.


    "It''s nice to meet you Vincent." I started to smile, then I remembered something. He had ratted me out when I vented to myself the other night. I red at him sharply.


    "Is there a problem?"


    "Sort of."


    "What is it?" He asked.


    "You''re a snitch." I told him. He looked at me with his brows raised, confusion on his face. "You ratted me out after I vented to myself. You told Reece I called him an overgrown dog." To my shock Vincentughed.


    "I''m sorry Trinity. He could tell I was keeping something from him, I had no choice but to tell him. I had intended to keep that a secret for you." Hisugh and smile were infectious, I couldn''t help but join him.


    I was feeling at ease with Vincent, he had a likeable personality. And unlike Reece, he didn''t tower over me as much, so I didn''t feel like a dwarf. Vincent was a morefortable six feet tall. He had sandy blond hair and yellow-green eyes. He had the sort of good guy friend vibe. Not that I had had many guy friends until I met Cedar and Paul, but Vincent just seemed like he was a pretty nice guy overall.


    It felt nice driving into the city. I used to be able to see the skyline, the cityscape, the lights and buildings of Colorado Springs just over the horizon when I looked out the window back in my old room. Now all I saw were trees.


    We chatted the whole way to campus. Noah did tell me to get to know my guard, so that I wasn''t ufortable. I learned a lot about Vincent. He was twenty-eight years old and had been mated for eight years. They were happily married, ording to him anyway, and had two kids, a six-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl. He had been working in the Alpha house his entire adult life and he loved his job.


    He really did seem like a nice guy. But I was certain that anything I said to him he would report it right back to Reece. I had to be careful what I said to him or in front of him.


    We got to school a little earlier than I usually did, so I didn''t have to rush at all. When I went to take my messenger bag out of the backseat, Vincent took it and put it on his shoulder before I had the chance. I looked at him confused.


    "Allow me to carry this for you, Trinity." Either he was trying to be really polite or he was truly a gentleman.


    "Reece should take lessons from you." I told him jokingly as we walked into the building together. Vincentughed.


    "It''s nothing special." He told me looking embarrassed.


    As we were nearing my Intro to Criminology ss, I saw Juniper and the others waiting outside the room. She was clearly waiting for me. She started to run to me but then spotted Vincent walking beside me carrying my bag. She stopped immediately and just stared in confusion. I continued walking until I had joined them.


    "Hey guys." I greeted them, trying for cheery but failing. I was nervous talking to them with Vincent here, as nice as he was.


    "Hey Trin." Cedar called out looking at Vincent.


    "Hey Astro." Paul said, confused by the neer''s presence but still trying to act normal.


    "What happened yesterday?" Juniper asked me. "Why did you have to miss ss?"


    "It''s a long story, I''d rather not get into it right now." I told her. I wish I didn''t have to hide things from her. She looked at Vincent again, she clearly knew something was up, and she could clearly tell that he was a wolf as well.


    "I don''t think we''ve met." She told him. "I''m Juniper." She held out her hand introducing herself.


    "Vincent." He said, shaking her hand gently. "It''s a pleasure Juniper."


    "Hey, I''m Paul." They shook hands as well. Cedar eyed him suspiciously for a moment, clearly unsure of him before he eventually held his hand out as well.


    "I''m Cedar, Juniper''s twin brother. We''re all friends of Trinity''s but we''ve never heard of you before." He hissed, rather rudely. Vincentughed before responding.


    "We only met recently. I was asked to keep an eye on her after an incident the other day." He informed him, smiling.


    "What incident?" Cedar looked at me skeptically.


    "After we all had lunch and I was heading home, I was attacked by a rogue wolf." I told them.


    "Oh my Goddess, Trin, are you ok?" Juniper asked.


    "Are you serious Astro? Did he hurt you?" Paul asked, just as concerned as Juniper. Cedar continued to look at Vincent for a moment, trying to detect a lie, but what I had said was true, so he couldn''t sense anything off.


    "I knew we shouldn''t have let you walk." Cedar eximed, sounding angry with himself.


    "No Cedar, it''s not your fault, none of your guys'' fault. I wanted to walk home to clear my head. I was to me more than anyone."


    "I believe the rogue is the one to me." Vincent interjected.


    "Yes, he was primarily to me." I agreed. "But I''m fine. I defended myself pretty well until help arrived. I only got a few scrapes and bruises. Your clothes didn''t even get ruined Juniper, though I do still need to wash them." I told her.


    "I don''t care about the damn clothes." She snapped, pulling me into a bone-crushing hug. "Let me know these things in advance next time."


    "I will." I told her, hugging her back.


    It was nearly time for ss to start, so we had to hurry inside the lecture hall. Usually Juniper sat with Paul, at the back of the room. But today, all three of my friends sat around me, like they were trying to protect me.


    Vincent was not part of the ss, so I didn''t know how to exin his presence if the professor asked, but he seemed to go unnoticed.


    Sometime, in the middle of the lecture, Juniper leaned over and asked me something that I had hoped to avoid.


    "Have you heard anything about the gathering this weekend?" I shrugged my shoulders nomittally, trying to brush the subject off.


    "What do you know?" Cedar pounced on me sensing that I knew more than they did.

 Chapter 24 - Trinity- An Interrogation

    <h4>Chapter 24: Trinity- An Interrogation</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Isn''t it weird to have another gathering after just a week?" Paul asked.


    "This one isn''t for the Alpha to look for a mate though." Juniper said, staring right at me. "This gathering is for the entire pack, save for very young children."


    "Yes, I had heard that almost every member of the pack must be there." I told them.


    "Heard it from where." Cedar asked. He and Juniper were like good cop bad cop, only it was hard to tell which was which.


    "Just around."


    "Uh huh." Cedar said, not believing me at all.


    "Trinity, does this meeting have anything to do with why you are being followed around by that warrior from the pack?" She asked me.


    "I don''t know, they might bring up the rogue that attacked me. I don''t know what all is going to happen. How am I supposed to know?"


    "You''re a bad liar Astro." Paul told me matter-of-factly.


    "What are you talking about?"


    "I think you know exactly what we are talking about." Cedar snapped. I just looked at him, eyes full of regret.


    "What are you not telling us?" Juniper asked me, hurt filling her voice.


    "I can''t talk about it." I told them.


    "Does it have to do with the gathering?" She asked me.


    "I can''t talk about it." I said again.


    "Ok." She sounded like my answer had been a yes. "And does it have anything to do with why you missed school and are being followed around by a high-ranking pack warrior?"


    "I can''t talk about it." I said again. Regret was clear in my voice and on my face.


    "Last question." She whispered. I looked at her pleadingly. "Does it have anything to do with the Alpha?" I nced at Vincent before repeating the line again.


    "I can''t talk about it." I was close to tears now. I didn''t want to hide things from them.


    "That''s all I needed to hear." She said knowingly. She had understood what it all meant. They were all looking at me, Juniper with eyes narrowed in scrutiny, Cedar and Paul with eyes that had gone wide in shock.


    "Are you ok Trinity?" Paul asked me, I could hear genuine concern in his voice. "I remember how scared you looked the other day." He added in a whisper.


    I snuck a nce at Vincent, I knew he was listening to everything that we had said, but I hadn''t broken my promise. I didn''t tell anyone anything. He sensed my eyes on him and turned to look at me with a smile.


    The remainder of the day passed in its usual style, only with an extra tag along with us. Vincent had insisted on carrying my bag everywhere. Thankfully I only had two sses today, so I didn''t need to be overly embarrassed by his doting.


    We drove back to the house, or estate as I had heard others call it, I had thought the drive would be quiet, but he had a few things to say.


    "I am d you kept your promises, Luna."


    "Please don''t start with that again Vincent." I told him.


    "You''re going to have to get used to it." He told me. "You might as well get the practice in now." Heughed at me as I groaned at the thought.


    "Fine, but only at the house." I told him.


    "Fine, only at the house, Trinity." Heughed. "But like I said, I am d you kept your promises. The Alpha will be happy to hear that as well."


    "What exactly are you going to tell him?" I asked, concerned for my friends who had figured things out on their own.


    "Just as I said, that you kept your promises." He answered with a smile. He really was a nice guy.


    "Thank you, Vincent."


    "There is no need to thank me, Luna." He spoke my title, exaggerating it, as we pulled up to the house. I groaned in response all the while he wasughing at my reaction.


    The next few days passed in a blur. I went to ss apanied by Vincent every day. He continued to carry my bag everywhere we went. He got along with us fine, but he was also a lot older than us, so we felt a little ufortable letting loose with our typical brand of humor. But perhaps he would be a good influence on Paul and Cedar, hopefully he''d help them mature somewhat.


    Now, I was sitting alone in my room the night before the gathering, stressing over the uing ceremony. Gina wasing soon for the final fitting of my dress. Aside from that I would have nothing to distract me.


    They brought me an early dinner in my room. Apparently, Reece was out for the night and eating alone in the kitchen would have been ufortable, so I preferred to eat in my room instead.


    Gina came shortly after the dinner that Abigail, the cook, had made for me. The dress had been altered to the specifications we had decided on. She set up the stool, told me to strip and helped me into the dress just like before.


    The fabric felt just as luxurious as I remembered. I marveled at how it shined in the light but was so soft. Gina''s hands moved quickly and efficiently as she worked to make the dressy in just the right way.


    "Oh my Goddess, but doesn''t that look amazing on you." She gasped when she had me dressed. I turned to look at myself in the full-length mirror that stood in the corner of my room. My eyes opened wide when I saw thepleted dress.


    Gina had tightened the bodice so that it entuated and showcased my ample chest. The excess fabric had not been cut off but instead been cinched and decorative pleated in the back, still it was mostly hidden by the long, shimming silver cape.


    She had raised the waistline, creating an empire waist. The dress then red and flowed down and out around me. The length had not been altered either, so it had a very long train. The dress would be trailing behind me quite far as I walked. I would need to be very careful with every step.


    It made me look smaller and more delicate than I usually did, but it also made me look somewhat ethereally beautiful. I felt like moonlight walking. The shining silver light of the dress reflected in my eyes making them shine as well.


    I couldn''t believe how different just a dress could make me look. But it felt like I was looking at apletely different person. Someone I didn''t recognize at all.


    Gina helped me out of the dress and put it in its protective bag. She hung it in one of my closets then excused herself. It seemed more real now, having the dress so close.


    I was having a hard time rxing. I knew I would have a hard time sleeping tonight as well, so I figured I should look for a book to read. Even with as many books as my Aunt had sent over, I couldn''t find anything I wanted to read. I decided to ask the guard at my door if he could take me to the house''s library. I wanted to see if there was anything there that would interest me.


    "Leslie?" I called out to him and he opened the door almost immediately.


    "Yes Luna?" He poked his head into the room. He was an OK guy, not as likeable as Vincent, but nice enough. He had light blond hair and pale green eyes. He was tall andnky looking, but Vincent assured me he was a good fighter.


    "Can you take me to the library? I can''t find anything in here to read." I told him. He looked at the small library I had in my room.


    "Sure thing, Luna." He answered with a smile and a nod.


    He led me down to the second floor to where the library was. It was a lot bigger than I was expecting. The room was massive, and every wall was covered in floor to ceiling bookshelves. It was like my own personal heaven, as long as it had some books I would be interested in.


    I perused the shelves looking at what the room had to offer. There was some of everything it seemed. Like it was a collection gathered by many different people over many, many years.


    Finally, I found something that would satisfy my need to read. It was a collection of ssic short stories. I hadn''t seen it in years and was delighted for the chance to read it again.


    I sat on the sofa near the window, tucking my feet up under me and curling into a ball in the corner of the seat. I cracked the book open and began to read.


    I sat there reading peacefully in silence. I don''t know how long I was there. I must have fallen asleep at some point. I started having a very strange dream.

 Chapter 25 - Trinity- Strange Dream, and The Morning Of The Marking

    <h4>Chapter 25: Trinity- Strange Dream, and The Morning Of The Marking</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    In my dream, Reece was there, standing before me. He was being nice to me for once, which was how I knew it was a dream. His scent was filling my nose and my mind, making my body melt. I could feel him embracing me in a sweet gentle hug.


    "You sure are a handful." He whispered with his arms wrapped around me. He had a sweet gentle smile on his face. It was hard to visualize because I had never seen the look on him before, so his face kept going fuzzy. Nothing else seemed to happen, and the dream ended shortly after that.


    I woke to the sound of the rm ring on my cell phone, where it was lying on my nightstand. Somehow, I had gotten back to my room. I was confused and disoriented. I didn''t remember going back to my room. I started to wonder if that was really a dreamst night, or did Reece really carry me to my room?


    No, he would never do something like that. The most likely scenario was either Leslie carried me back or he woke me up enough to make me walk back but not enough for me to wake up and remember it.


    I looked down and saw I was still wearing the same clothes as the night before. Well, that''s actuallyforting. I thought. I didn''t want someone changing me in my sleep.


    I washed my face and got dressed for the day. I wouldn''t be showering until I got ready for the gathering, no need to shower twice in one day. Vincent came by shortly after I was ready for the day to take me down for breakfast, he must have been on morning duty today.


    The only thing I was looking forward to about tonight, was not being under house arrest anymore. I would be allowed to roam about freely without Reece being afraid I was going to run away again.


    It was pointless anyway. I could feel the pull of fate. I could tell I was meant to be with him. The universe was pushing us together. And that draw for each other would only get stronger. So why should I bother fighting?


    Sure, I might not love him right now. But I probably would, sometime soon. That''s how mate bonds worked. It''s what we were all taught growing up. Your mate is like your other half. Without them you feel iplete. You will feel drawn to them. Once you meet them fate will push you together at all costs.


    I''m sure it was only a matter of time for us too. Things were just so new. And there had been my bad decisions in the beginning. If I hadn''t tried to run away, maybe we would have spent this week getting to know each other instead of me being trapped in my room.


    Oh well, live and learn, right? We will make up for lost time. Once I''m marked and I can move about the house freely, I will see him more often and we should be able to talk more. I''m sure we will get along.


    During my mental ramblings we had made it down to the kitchen, it was time for me to have breakfast with Reece. Things were marginally better than the first day. We hadn''t argued or snapped at each other like we did at the first breakfast together. Mostly they were silent though.


    We were eating in silence alone in the room again and working our way through French toast, bacon, and eggs. Abigail had learned how much I could eat and had stopped over filling my tes, which was good, I hated to waste the delicious food she had made.


    We were nearly done eating when I heard him clear his throat to get my attention. I looked up to see him staring at me for once. My eyes locked onto his and held them. Looking into them I was able to feel just how strong the pull of the mate bond could be, when I was around him it was like I lost a bit of control over my rational mind.


    Staring into his eyes was like falling into a deep warm pool. But if you weren''t careful, that pool could be filled with fire or acid. Right now, he seemed to be trying for a rxing mood, so the rich honey color felt inviting.


    "I have a meeting after breakfast with the Elders, about tonight, they would like you to be there." He told me, his deep, smooth voice washing over me. I almost didn''t catch what he wanted from me, finally my brain clicked.


    "Alright." I answered, a little slow. He seemed almost annoyed at my response but said nothing. Once we were finished, I followed him to his office, moving silently behind him.


    We had not been in the office for more than two minutes when there was a knock on the door.


    "Alpha, the Elders are here." Well, he sure knows how to time things down to a T. I thought to myself. I was sitting in the same seat as before. Reece was sitting at his desk unlikest time. Noah escorted the five old men into the room and then stood at attention behind Reece. If we were living in feudal times, my cousin would be called an attendant instead of an assistant. I just hope he didn''t perform all the same jobs that they did in feudal times. I had to fight not to smile at the idea that had popped into my head.


    Reece and the Elders were discussing how tonight was going to progress. I was to get ready before sundown. The ceremony would not happen until it was full dark, but I had to be in the forest before the others. I would be waiting in the trees with my escort guards, Vincent and Leslie, while I waited for Reece to exin why the meeting had been called.


    When the time came, Reece woulde to me. He would then guide me to stand atop the stone that served as the podium and stage for gatherings in the Lunar clearing.


    The Lunar clearing was a ce of power for our pack. It was a natural clearing that had nearly a perfect view of every full moon, no matter the season. The moon shone down on us all connecting us with the Moon Goddess.


    The stone we used for the podium and stage was arge natural formation that was in the shape of a perfect circle. It was also a bright white color making it stand out among all the red of rocks and mountains around us. It actually looked like a full moon came to rest on the ground for us. And just by being in the clearing any member of the pack could feel stronger for a while.


    Once Reece escorts me to the tform, he will announce me to the pack as the new Luna and his mate. That is when Michael, one of the Elders, woulde forward and help us finish the ritual. It was like a cross between me being sworn into a political office and getting married at the same time. I had to take vows of a sort.


    The most important thing was supposed to happen after the vows, Reece would mark me. This meant that he would do a targeted shift, only bringing out his long and lethally sharp wolf teeth. Then he would sink his teeth into the soft flesh and muscle where my neck curved into my shoulder.


    I listened to them giving me the description of what was to happen. I tried to make it feel as academic as possible, detaching myself from it as much as I could. But try as I might, the thought of him biting still made me nervous.


    I looked at Reece out of the corner of my eye. I wanted to see if he was anywhere as nervous about this as I was. The look I saw on his face was one of anger and annoyance. That waspletely opposite of what I was expecting.


    The meeting wrapped up shortly after. There was not much for me to contribute. The reason for my presence had just been to make sure I understood what was expected of me. Reece stayed at his desk while Noah escorted me and the Elders out.


    "Get some rest until it''s time for you to get ready, you hear." He whispered to me before he turned and went back into the office.


    "You will do fine, child." One of the Elders told me, I didn''t know his name yet.


    "Thank you." I smiled at him.


    "Just rx and let the boy handle it. He may be young, but he is a good Alpha." He added. I nodded nervously.


    "We will be there as well, Luna, so no need to worry." Michael said, cing aforting hand on my shoulder, smiling warmly.

 Chapter 26 - Trinity-A Dream With An Ominous Feeling

    <h4>Chapter 26: Trinity-A Dream With An Ominous Feeling</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Vincent took me back to my room. I was already feeling mentally exhausted from the day, so I decided to take a nap. I was asleep almost as soon as Iid in the bed, quickly falling into a restless sleep.


    I was walking through the forest, dressed in the Luna dress. There were no guards or escorts near me like there was supposed to be. It was dark, but I could glimpse the full moon through the branches.


    There was no wind, nor the sound of any animals in the forest around me. Everything was eerily quiet. I continued to move forward, in the direction of the clearing that I knew was ahead of me.


    The silence of the forest around me was unnerving. I was growing increasingly uneasy with every step I took. I couldn''t sense anyone in the clearing ahead, no movement, no sound of breathing or heartbeats, no scent of anyone.


    I could see the opening for the clearing ahead. I started to hurry, afraid to be alone among the trees. But as I got closer to the opening, a strange purple fog started filling the world around me.


    The closer I got to the fog, the more uneasy I felt. I could hear whispersing from within the fog, several voices. But even though I could hear the voices, I couldn''t make out what they were saying.


    The voices were strange. I swear I could feel them actually crawling along my skin, raising goosebumps all over my body. I shivered at the feeling.


    When I passed the edge of the trees into the clearing, I walked into a solid wall of the fog. I pushed through it with some difficulty, it was like walking through water.


    "Ahh, I see it''s you." Spoke a man''s voice I didn''t know.


    "Who''s there?" I asked.


    "You are not the one I was expecting." He continued ignoring my question.


    "Who were you expecting?" I was confused by his words.


    "She must not have been as strong as I thought. It''s a shame." He seemed to be on the verge of tears. "No matter, we will finish this another time." He added. I felt something pushing hard against my back. I stumbled and felt myself fall.


    There was no cliff here, but it felt like I was falling from extremely high up. It didn''t make any sense. I opened my mouth, ready to scream, when I felt someone grab my shoulder.


    I jerked awake, startled by the dream and the sharp shaking of my shoulder.


    "Trinity." Noah was calling me. My heart was pounding in my ears and I almost didn''t hear him call my name.


    "Noah, you scared me." I growled with a re. "What do you want?" I asked him.


    "You need to get ready." He snapped at me.


    "What? I just went to sleep a few minutes ago." I said, shock filling my voice.


    "No, it''s been awhile since you came back to your room. Mom is here to help you get ready, as is Nikki." He answered. Nikki was Noah''s mate, the closest thing to a sister I had, she was sweet, bubbly, and super girly.


    I felt disoriented. I didn''t feel like I had slept at all. I was still exhausted, and I was covered in sweat. My heart was racing a mile a minute and I could still feel goosebumps all over my body.


    "Are you alright?" Noah asked me. I didn''t know how I should answer that question. I know it was just a dream, but it felt real and it had scared the hell out of me.


    "Yeah, I''m fine. Just nervous you know." I gave him an uneasy smile. He looked at me with concern written all over his face. It was clear he loved me, but that he was warring with his duty to the pack as well. "I''ll be alright." I assured him. "I just need somefort from family right now." I smiled. This made him smile as well.


    "You''re such a kid sometimes." Heughed at me, but he hugged me tightly.


    I needed to get ready for the night in a hurry. I rushed through a shower and wrapped myself in a towel. When I went back to my room, Aunt Eve and Nikki were there waiting for me.


    On the table in front of Nikki was a case full of make-up sorge that it actually made my eyes pop open in shock. That was way too much in there for one person to own.


    "Don''t give me that look. I do everyone''s make-up." She demanded in her bubbly voice.


    "Just as long as you know, I''m not used to using that much make-up. I wear it but not that much. I wear ents here and there that bring out natural looks instead of wearing heavy make-up." I told her nervously.


    "Trinity, how long have I known you now? You think I don''t know your make-up preference." Sheughed at me. "Come on, sit down."


    I should trust her. She had gone to school to be a make-up artist and hair stylist. She had dreams of doing hair and make-up for the rich and famous. But for now, she was happy being a stylist for the pack.


    I sat in the chair at my vanity while Nikki started running the brush through my hair, it felt good having someone brushing my hair like that. She seemed to have a vision in mind, and I was too nervous to think about what would look best right now, so I just let her work and let my mind wander.


    I had tried not to think about it over thest week, but my life would never be the same. I had gone from being a no wolf nobody to the mate of the Alpha, the Luna of the pack. Literally the second inmand in our entire wolf pack.


    But even with all that so-called power and authority it gave me, I would be severely limited for the rest of my life. I would never again be able to just do something at the spur of a moment. My life was now dedicated to hundreds of other people. This was way too much for me to process right away. I didn''t know how I was going to manage it all.


    The silk threads were ck, and they formed a diamond pattern that was hard to see against my dark brown hair. But the most important part of thebs were the silver pearl-like beads attached to it. The pearls were ced at various points along the diamond pattern.


    Thebs themselves and silk all but disappeared against my dark hair, the only thing visible were the beads. They looked like little moons nestled in my hair.


    "It looks beautiful Nikki, thank you." I told her, smiling at her in the mirror.


    "Now time for the make-up." She smiled, turning me away from the mirror.


    She put lotion on my face and rubbed it in before proceeding. She had listened to, and remembered, my make-up preference. She was not going overboard.


    She was doing my eyes first, so I just sat there with my eyes closed, letting her work. asionally she would give me instructions, like to move my eyes or mouth in a certain way. Before I knew it, she had finished and turned me to look at myself again.


    She had used a medium shade of gray, close to pewter. My eyshes were so long and dark that they made my eyes pop, they looked huge. My milky white skin stood out even more, almost making me glow like the moon. She had used no blush as it wouldn''t show in the dark tonight, anyway. And for my lips she had used a blood red color. I thought at first the color wouldn''t work with me, but the more I looked at it, the more I could tell that the whole look would go perfectly with the dress.


    "You look gorgeous." Aunt Eve gushed to me. "My little girl is all grown up." She cried, tears falling steadily from her eyes.


    "Let''s get her into the dress." Nikki called, I could hear the eagerness in her voice.


    Nikki took the dress from the closet while Aunt Eve was helping me finish getting ready. She was rubbing a thinyer of body oil on my back while I rubbed the same oil onto my arms and legs. Aunt Eve then brought over a pair of all ck diator sandals. They had leather soles and ck silk that criss-crossed over the top of my foot and then wrapped around my leg. The sandals tied halfway up my calves.


    Once the shoes were fullyced and tied, Nikki held the dress ready for me. She and Aunt Eve helped me into it so that I would not mess up my hair, make-up, or the dress itself. When they had finished settling the fabric into ce, I looked at myself in the full-length mirror.


    The fabric of the dress left my shoulders bare before it flowed down into the long flowing sleeves and the flowing cape like train. My hands were just barely visible at the ends of the sleeves, but everything else waspletely hidden by the dress. My hair spread out like a dark curtain over my shoulders, the braid swinging gently with every turn of my head.


    "You look like you could be the Moon Goddess herself." Aunt Eve gushed as she looked at me.


    "You look amazing." Nikki seemed proud, smiling at me. I knew they were saying what they honestly felt, but I looked so different from what I usually did that I didn''t feel like myself. I was starting to get even more nervous than I already was.


    While I was looking at my reflection there was a knock at the door. Steeling my nerves, I took a deep breath to settle myself before answering.


    "Come in." I called in a raised voice.


    The door opened and Noah came in, followed by Vincent and Leslie. All three of them stopped in their tracks the moment they saw me.


    "Wow." Leslie said without tact.


    "Oh my." Vincent whispered.


    "You look beautiful Trinity." Noah told me, he seemed to be the only one capable of forming a full sentence. Their reactions made me smile and I had to stifle augh.


    "Thank you." I told them, trying to hide my embarrassment.


    "Are you ready to go?" Noah asked me. "It''s time for you to head to the forest, the others will be arriving shortly."


    "Yes, I''m ready." I told him. It was time for me to begin the next phase of my life.

 Chapter 27 - Trinity- Into The Woods

    <h4>Chapter 27: Trinity- Into The Woods</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I left the room with the three of them, Aunt Eve and Nikki woulde to the forest shortly and I would see them there. No sooner had we walked out the side door of the house and into the twilight of the night, than Noah began to speak.


    "I think this should go without saying, but the two of you need to make sure that the Luna is protected at all times. Not only will the Alpha be very upset if any harmes to her, but as she is my family and very dear to me, you will have to answer to me as well." He red at the two of them. I heard Leslie gulp to my left.


    "No need to worry, Noah, I will make sure that everything goes smoothly." Vincent told him confidently with a smile.


    "You''d better." Noah told him. Seeing him be so protective of me made me happy. It reminded me of when we were little, and he was there at the house with me and Carter more.


    "Please,e this way Luna." Vincent asked, a slight smirk on his face. He knew I hated the title but that I needed to get used to it, so he used it every chance he got. He guided me in the direction of the forest with a wave of his hand. Leslie was taking the lead, so I followed after him.


    We were walking along a path that wound through the trees to the clearing. It was a different path than the one everyone else would be using. This path seemed to be only used by the Alpha and those who worked in the Alpha''s house.


    Reece''s scent was very strong along the trail, the traces of his scent made my heart race and stomach do backflips. The mate bond was getting stronger already. I shuddered to think of how it would be after he marked me.


    "Are you alright?" He asked me. I smiled sheepishly at him in embarrassment.


    "Yes, I just stumbled, that''s all."


    "Perhaps it would be better if I escorted you properly then." He said. Vincent was always a gentleman and so nice to everyone. "May I?" He asked. I nodded my head in agreement.


    Vincent gently gripped my right elbow with his right arm crossed in front of his body. He then ced his left hand lightly on my left hip. This would allow him to make sure that I would not be able to fall in either direction.


    We continued walking. Vincent making sure I would not be able to fall again. We were making good time as we proceeded silently through the trees. I was too nervous to talk, and I didn''t know what to talk about.


    When we got to the spot where we needed to wait, I had no choice but to stand there and think quietly to myself. Leslie had been standing by a tree nearby staring at me for several minutes. It was starting to make me feel ufortable.


    "You really look beautiful tonight Luna." He finally spoke, breaking the silence.


    "Thank you." I told him, not knowing what else to say.


    "It''s truly a shame." He said looking at me.


    "What is?" I asked him, confused.


    "That I don''t have a chance, the Alpha took you for himself." He answered with a strange smirk.


    "Umm.." He was making me feel awkward. I had never had a problem with him before today, so I didn''t know why today would be different. I looked over at Vincent, a pleading look in my eyes.


    "Leave her be." Vincent told him sternly.


    "I''m just saying." Leslie grumbled.


    "You''re bothering her." Vincent told him.


    "She''s fine." Leslie told him.


    Vincent was about to snap back at him when we heard footstepsing our way. I could smell Reece''s scent getting more intense. Noah was not with him, which meant he had gone to the other path with Aunt Eve and Nikki. Leslie and Vincent both stood a little taller just before Reece came into sight.


    "Wee, Sir." Vincent told him.


    "We will begin immediately. Wait for me here." He told them without pausing. He never even looked in my direction as he passed quickly by.


    "Yes Sir." They said together.


    We stood near the edge of the trees, waiting for Reece toe get me. Vincent was on my right, Leslie was on my left. After a few moments I felt Leslie brush his hand against mine. I jumped, startled by his touch. Vincent noticed my distress and red at Leslie.


    Knowing that those gathered for the ceremony would hear if they argued, Vincent decided to handle the situation quietly. He pulled me to the right, putting me on his other side and cing himself between me and Leslie. I silently thanked him for the help.


    I was standing there, watching through the trees as I heard Reece''s voice ring through the night around us. This was a sign of a true alpha, a man who knew how tomand power and attention. When he spoke everyone around him stopped and listened.


    "Wee, Red Springs Wolf Pack." I felt Reece''s voice brush over me like a warm heavy hand stroking my flesh, I shivered in response. "I appreciate youing on such short notice. I know that this is not when we would normally meet up, as that would be in three weeks during the Hunter''s Moon. But I have an announcement to make to you all."


    I heard a rush of whispered voices rise among the gathered crowd that I could barely see. Curiosity was running rampant through them.


    "There is cause for major celebration. Friends, family, pack mates, I have found my Luna." He announced. The crowd was silent for a moment before erupting into a loud and raucous cheer.


    "Thank the Goddess!" Was yelled several times.


    "Congrattions Alpha Reece." I heard more than once.


    "Who is she?" Someone yelled, and many others picked it up. Soon they were chanting.


    "Who is she? Who is she? Who is she? Who is she?" I was getting nervous hearing them chanting, it was like a demand to know if I was good enough. My heart was pounding, and I was starting to hyperventte.


    "The Alpha will be here momentarily, Luna, you will do fine. You are the best Luna we could ever ask for." Vincent said holding my left hand tightly in both of his as he looked me in the eye. "There is nothing for you to worry about. We are all here for you, I am here for you. If you ever need anything, just call and I wille to your aid." He was so kind, so much like my cousins, I needed his kindness in that moment. His words helped me to calm down.


    I could hear footstepsing towards me as Reece''s scent grew steadily stronger. It was time. I was going to be introduced to the whole pack as the new Luna. I can do this, I''ve got this. I told myself, mentally psyching myself up. I took onest deep breath before Reece came into view. When I finally saw him, I knew that I was wearing a confident, radiant smile.


    Reece passed the edge of the trees, out of the clearing and onto the path. He looked toward me for the first time that evening, the moon wasn''t full, but it was still bright enough for him to see me clearly.


    The light of the moon peeking through the branches was shimmering off the dress making me shine with an ethereal essence. I saw him stop in his tracks and gasp with his eyes open wide. He looked shocked.


    "It is time to go now." He whispered to me, his right hand extended toward me. I took his hand and held it lightly. He pulled me to his side gently, switched his hold on my hand from his right hand to his left so that he could wrap his arm around my waist. The overall effect made us appear much more intimate with each other than we were.


    Being so close to him I could hear his heartbeat. It sounded faster than normal, but as I didn''t typically hear it I had nothing topare it to. But it was pounding nearly as fast as mine that had sped up considerably when hisrge, warm hand slid around my back.


    He guided me forward, out of the trees, and into the clearing. I could see the entire pack, save for the very old and very young. Most of the faces were new to me as I had not socialized among the pack much. They, likewise, were confused upon seeing me, few of them knew what I looked like, but all of them would know me by name.

 Chapter 28 - Trinity-Marked

    <h4>Chapter 28: Trinity-Marked</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece guided me to the raised stone tform. It was shining in the moonlight just like my Luna dress was. Now that I was not hidden by the trees and I was in full view of the moonlight I seemed to be glowingpletely. The light all around me made my hair look ck instead of brown where it rested against my shoulders.


    As Reece stepped up onto the tform, he lifted me with him instead of waiting for me to step up after him. The sensation of having my feet leave the groundpletely was disorienting and disconcerting, but it onlysted a moment. After we were on the tform, he switched to only holding my hand and lightly pulling me along beside him.


    We were now in full view of everyone in the pack. I could feel all eyes on me. Most were looking at me with awe on their faces, but there were a few who seemed displeased.


    "Allow me to introduce your new Luna, Trinity Whitton." Reece''s voice rang through the silent air. I heard the collective gasp of nearly everyone in attendance. A few of those near the front with looks of awe turned to displeasure. A sharp scent started to grow among the crowd. Rage! Someone was very unhappy with me it seemed, and their scent was letting it be known.


    "NO!" A woman screamed from the middle of the crowd. I could see her pushing her way to the front. The rage wasing from her. It was rolling off her palpable waves.


    "I refused to ept her as my Luna! She doesn''t even have a wolf!" She was still yelling, her voice going shrill. "She wasn''t even in the group from thest gathering! You hadn''t even spent time with her! It wasn''t her turn yet! You could have mated with someone else! She doesn''t deserve to be our Luna, she isn''t good enough for you! She is worthless! She shouldn''t even be part of this pack!" She was screaming so loud that she was nearly iprehensible.


    Reece had already let go of me and moved to the front of the tform. I heard a rumbling growl beginning deep in his chest and growing steadily louder. His muscles tensed as if he were about to leap in front of the she-wolf who had dared to defy him. Just before he leapt, there was a sh of movement from beside the woman.


    CRACK! The satisfying sound rent through the air as someone pped the woman across the face, hard, and sent her reeling. The woman nearly lost her bnce, she just managed to recover before tumbling to the ground.


    "What?!" The woman shrieked, shocked.


    "Don''t you dare talk about my niece that way!" Aunt Eve yelled, fury and motherly love pouring off her so strongly that I could physically feel it from where I stood. Reece, taken aback by the sudden unexpected events paused momentarily in surprise.


    "You know nothing about her!" Nikki added.


    "My niece is five times the woman you will ever be. She is who the Alpha is fated to be with. It would make no difference if she met him now or in two more months when it was time for her group, the results would have been the same. No other woman would have mated with him because we wolves only have one mate in life. And whether you like it or not, Trinity is the Alpha''s mate." Aunt Eve''s voice rang through the night, silence followed her tirade.


    "She is not worthy of being a Luna!" The angry she-wolf tried saying again.


    "And what makes you think you are! What makes you think that you know what it takes to be a Luna?" Nikki demanded of her. "Trinity is smart, diligent, and fair. She will treat everyone with the respect and care they deserve. You on the other hand would divide our people with your petty prejudices." Nikki scorned the woman further. "You''re shallow, egotistical, and self-centered. That''s the absolutest thing we need for a Luna. Grow up Donna and learn that the world doesn''t revolve around you."


    "ENOUGH!" Reece had recovered from his momentary shock and apparently, he was done watching the soap opera unfolding in front of us. "All of you shut up, now." He roared. His voice held the authoritativemand of the Alpha. His power and fury were rolling off him in stronger doses than any of the emotions that any of the women were giving off.


    "What you fail to understand, Donna, and all of you who showed you displeasure upon my announcement, is that this is my mate, and it is not up for discussion. You will ept her, you will respect her, and you will deal with it. If you do anything other than that you will face the consequences." His voice held a razor-sharp edge as he spoke. "As you all know, the Goddess herself chooses our mates for us, it is not something we can defy or change. And the Goddess herself has said that Trinity is my mate." The hush continued.


    Before anything else could happen to further ruin the evening, Michael hurried onto the tform.


    "Let us finish the ceremony." He called out in a slightly nervous voice. Reece and I faced the crowd, Michael faced us with his back to the people, he was smiling confidently.


    "Trinity, you stand here before your pack, beside your Alpha mate, do you vow to put their lives before your own, from now until the day you pass from this world and ascend to the great eternalnd of the moons? Do you vow to uphold pack traditions to the best of your abilities and do what is best for your people? Do you vow to follow your Alpha mate wherever he shall go, no matter the danger, no matter the opposition, to provide him with the support, emotionally or otherwise, that he might need? Do you vow to be the Luna of the Red Springs Wolf Pack?" My heart raced hearing the words, hearing what he was asking me tomit myself to.


    "Yes, I Trinity, do so vow to be the Luna of the Red Springs Wolf Pack, performing any and all duties expected of me." I answered as I was instructed to do so. The clearing around us was silent, allowing my voice to ring through the night with a simr power and authority that Reece''s did.


    "Alpha Reece, please, mark Luna Trinity as your mate."


    Reece turned to me. I could see the moonlight glinting in his eyes, a slightly evil look seemed to be hiding behind that glint. He smirked at me with his mouth slightly open. I saw the moment he had shifted just his teeth. His mouth moved just slightly forward, not so much that it could have been called a snout, but it was further forward than a human mouth. I could also see his teeth protruding out of it as they were now too long to fit inside.


    Reece approached me slowly. He slid his right hand around my waist and his left hand around my shoulders. He tilted me to his left, my head fell onto my right shoulder. He put his mouth by my ear and inhaled deeply before he whispered to me. I shivered at the feel of him being so close and intimate with me.


    "Don''t scream." His nearly silent voice rumbled into my ear as he whispered.


    He inhaled deeply at the bend of my neck onest time before opening his mouth wide and sinking his teeth into soft tender flesh and muscles at the curve where my neck met my shoulder. The pain was instant and sharp. I gasped loudly.


    I could feel the pain shooting from my neck through my whole body. It jolted through me in waves, down to my fingers, my toes, deep areas hidden inside that no one had touched or roused in me yet. The pain was scary, exciting, and erotic all at the same time.


    My body was trembling and quivering in his arms. His jaws mped down harder, holding me in ce and causing me to gopletely still. I stifled a scream by biting my tongue. A heat was growing in my shoulder now and spreading through my whole body, a slow fire steadily growing. This was what we were waiting for. This was his mark being imprinted on me permanently.


    The heat was growing by the second. It was unbearable. But still, I remained silent. Tears were forming in my eyes, but I refused to scream or cry out. I opened my eyes wide and looked up at the moon to stop the tears from falling.


    Just as I thought I would not be able to handle the pain any further, that I had to scream or cry to let it out, the fire in my body finally stopped. I felt Reece''s jaws cken and then released me altogether. He pulled away from me, licking the bite mark once, then he held me with just one hand on my shoulder.

 Chapter 29 - Trinity-Help For The New Luna

    <h4>Chapter 29: Trinity-Help For The New Luna</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The strength in my body felt like it was quickly leaving me. I swayed a bit, nearly falling. Reece tightened his grip on me, holding me steady.


    "We are finished for tonight. I thank you all foring. Be safe my friends." Reece dismissed the crowd. I could see Aunt Eve, and the other, my entire family, smiling at me with love and respect in their eyes.


    After the crowd dispersed, the only ones left were Reece, myself, Noah, and my guards Vincent and Leslie. Reece let go of me and started speaking to Noah. Without his support I felt, again, just how much strength had left my body and how weak I was bing from the night''s events. I swayed again, more so this time, nearly falling. Vincent rushed forward catching me just in time. Noah and Reece turned to look at us in shock.


    "What''s wrong?" Noah asked.


    "The heat that rushed through me from the marking, it was so intense, so draining, that I feel weak now." I told him. Reece growled at my response.


    "I still have some work to do. Will one of you carry her back?" He asked.


    "I will." Leslie volunteered eagerly.


    "No." I said instantly. I did not want him touching me right now. Reece and Noah looked at me with suspicion.


    "I will do it." Vincent offered, silently lifting me into a bridal-like hold, cradling me in his arms and resting my head against his chest. "Shall I call someone to help her change when she is back in her room?" Vincent asked.


    "I will call someone." Noah answered firmly, taking out his phone.


    Vincent walked quickly. Off the tform, across the clearing, and through the trees. Before I knew it, we were already entering the house. I was surprised that I had not fallen asleep yet, my body just felt so very weak, but I guess I wasn''t actually tired.


    Vincent walked quickly through the house and to my room. He shifted me quickly in his arms to hold me one handed so he could open the door. As soon as he was inside, he quickly shut the door, basically mming it in Leslie''s face.


    "Hey!" I heard Leslie shout from the other side.


    Vincent carried me to the bed andid me gently in the middle of it.


    "Rest here and wait for whoever ising to assist you. I will stand guard at your door."


    "But I am not under house arrest anymore." I reminded him.


    "This is not to keep you in, Luna, but to keep other people out." His voice was strained as he was ring at the door. I looked at it as well, thinking of Leslie standing on the other side.


    "Thank you, Vincent." I said, putting all my emotions into the few words.


    "No thanks necessary, Luna." He insisted, dropping to one knee and bowing his head just like the crowd in the forest had.


    "You''re the best guard I could ask for." I told him honestly.


    "Thank you, Luna." He smiled, flipping that gratitude around on me.


    Vincent stood up then and left the room. I could just barely make out the conversation from the other side of the door. That alone told me that Vincent and Leslie were both speaking with slightly raised voices.


    "You can go now." Vincent barked.


    "No, I''m her guard the same as you." Leslie whined.


    "She only needs one to guard the door."


    "Then you leave." Leslie demanded.


    "Why? What makes you so special?" Leslie questioned him.


    "Because you make her ufortable." Vincent told him tly.


    "That''s ridiculous." Leslie scoffed.


    "No, you overstepped your bounds. You need to back off or you will reap the consequences of your actions. I will not tell you again, Leslie, go home." Vincentmanded him.


    "Fine, but this isn''t the end." Leslie dered.


    "Then make sure you change your attitude and behavior." Vincent told him.


    "Yeah, yeah." Leslie grumbled.


    The hallway became silent after that. After a few moments, the door opened yet again. Peter, the elderly butler-like man that usually brought me my food entered with my Aunt, Nikki and Vincent, he was also carrying a tray.


    "Good evening Luna. I have brought you some juice and a te of cookies. The sugar will help you to get some quick, temporary energy back."


    "Thank you, Peter." I said as he ced the tray on my table. He then inclined his head in a quick bow before leaving the room.


    "Are you alright?" Aunt Eve asked me.


    "The marking has taken a great deal of energy out of her. I''m sure youdies remember the fire that rages in the body from the marking. Well I would gather that the fire might be more intense when marked by the Alpha." Vincent answered for me.


    "Yes, the fire was so painful." Nikki agreed, nodding her head.


    "What do you need?" Aunt Eve asked, looking at Vincent.


    "We called you back here to ask if youdies would be willing to help the Luna prepare for bed. She is not capable of changing on her own tonight."


    "Oh! Yes, of course." Aunt Eve answered with a hint of shock.


    "Thank you,dies." Vincent bowed his head before leaving the room.


    Aunt Eve and Nikki got right to work. They each went to untie one of the diator-style sandals. Then they worked together to unbutton and slide the dress from my body. Nikki hurried to the bathroom to fetch a washcloth while Aunt Eve took the hairbs from my hair.


    "Should I take the braid out as well? I know you used to leave them in quite often."


    "You can leave it. It keeps the hair out of my face." I said with a slight giggle in my voice. Nikki came back then and started gently washing the make-up from my face while Aunt Eve went to my dresser to find something for me to sleep in.


    I truly hated being doted on like this. But I knew I had no other choice. I could barely move on my own.


    Once I was dressed, and thoroughly embarrassed, they helped me sit up in bed. Aunt Eve brought me the juice and cookies that Peter had brought for me.


    "Here, drink up." She told me. "You need your strength."


    "Thank you." I filled my voice with as much love and sincerity as I could. "For everything." I looked between them both. They look confused. "Both now and back in the forest."


    "We weren''t going to let anyone talk about you like that." Nikki dered.


    "That''s right. You''re my niece, but you might as well be my daughter. I will not let someone disrespect you, or indirectly the Alpha, that way." The love in their eyes filled me with joy.


    "Get some rest, I''m sure you''re going to need it." Nikki implied, wiggling her eyebrows at me andughing when she saw the shocked look that filled my face.


    She had just reminded me of what follows the marking. I was expected to consummate my mating with Reece tonight. Oh my Goddess! Now I understood why they had chosen my only sexy looking nightie. It was baby blue with thince straps,cey embroidery around the bottom and at the low neckline above my breasts.


    "Love you, see youter." Nikki called.


    "I love you sweetheart." Said Aunt Eve smiling at me as the two of them left the room.


    I was sitting up in bed about a half an hourter when I heard footstepsing down the hall. I knew immediately who it was.


    "You may go home now." I heard Reece''s voice.


    "Yes, Sir." Vincent responded immediately. I heard his light footsteps retreating immediately.


    "Trinity?" Reece said with a slight knock on the door. I was feeling better now, so I walked quickly to the door and opened it immediately. I saw him standing there still wearing what had been at the ceremony.


    I remember how soft the fabric of that shirt had felt against my hands, it felt just like the shiny silver material of my Luna dress, but it was pure ck. The long-sleeved shirt was buttoned almost all the way, but the top two buttons were left open, exposing just the barest glimpse of his chest. His ck dress pants and ck bootsbined with it almost made it look like he was trying to appear intimidating, but the idea had been to make him look like that night sky and me to look like the moon thatpleted him.


    He looked sexy. His body, his face, his whole aura, all of it mixed together to make a man that was near irresistible when I looked at him. I don''t know if all women respond to him like this. I said to myself. I could feel my heart pound, my stomach flip, and my mind go nk all at the same time, it made me feel dizzy yet happy.

 Chapter 30 - Reece-My Mate, Marked And....

    <h4>Chapter 30: Reece-My Mate, Marked And....</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Oh, that Little Bunny has been a thorn in my side and a massive handful. I swear. Coming down to breakfast in the kitchen for the first time and arguing with me. Calling me Fido of all things. Who does she think she is?


    Though I never did expect her to have that kind of backbone. She surprised me, that''s for sure. She seemed smart, and confident, once she got past the shock of everything that had happened in those few days. And the way she held herself it was clear that she would definitely make a goodwyer one day, contrary to what I said to her.


    She was still rubbing me the wrong way. Having a girl with no wolf act like she could try and tell me what to do. What in the world was the Goddess thinking? I just hope that things work out in the end.


    The night before the gathering I had a meeting with the Elders and a neighboring pack Alpha. I was out until the early hours of the morning. When I got back, I noticed the scent of one of Little Bunny''s guards down the hallway of the second floor.


    I went to investigate. It was one of the newbies, he was an independent that had joined the pack a little over a year ago. He had done well in showing his determination and dedication, so I thought I would give him a shot and try letting him guard her while she was in the house or at school. But as I saw him currently sleeping while sitting on the floor next to the library door, and Little Bunny''s scent was clearly telling me she was in the library, perhaps I should reconsider using him.


    "What are you doing here?" I growled at him. He jerked awake and stood quickly, shock written on his face.


    "Alpha?!" He cried, fear filling his voice.


    "Again, what are you doing here Leslie?"


    "The Luna wanted to read, so she asked me to bring her to the library."


    "And so, you fell asleep while on guard duty?" I asked him sternly. This man would need more training if he was going to be a guard around here.


    "Leave, get out of my sight. You had better do your job properly next time, or you''ll find out how unforgiving I can be."


    "Yes, Sir." He squeaked as he scampered off looking like a little rat. Now to make her go back to her room. Damn, why did I have to be the one to deal with her?


    I walked into the room and saw her sitting on the couch near the window, book in hand. But as I got closer, it was clear she was not reading the book. Her head had slumped onto her shoulder, resting against the cushions, and the book was being propped up by her chest.


    "Why, in Goddess''s name, do I have to be the one to deal with this?" I breathed. But I knew why. I had just sent the guard home. Not to mention she was my mate, the Elders, and most of the people in the pack, would tell me it was my responsibility. "Dammit." I snapped.


    I took the book from her hands. Trying to ignore the feeling of her breasts brushing against my hand as I took it from her. I then scooped her up into my arms.


    Her hair was hanging loose, causing it to spill down and across my arm. The feeling of that silky sheet of dark brown hair flowing across my skin was almost mystifying. A woman''s hair had never affected as much as hers had. I had first noticed it when I fell, literally, nose first into the mass of silky hair.


    I leaned my head down and lifted her slightly at the same time. I pressed my nose against her hair, inhaling, drawing in the scent from her hair and neck at the same time. The smell nearly drove my wolf insane. Why does she have to have this power over me? I thought to myself angrily.


    I carried her to her room, walking slowly so as not to wake her. Still, her eyes opened ever so slightly as she inhaled deeply, she then spoke one word.


    "Reece?" I froze, afraid she had woken and caught me carrying her. I smiled when I saw her drift back off to sleep.


    "You sure are a handful." I said.


    Afterying her in her bed I covered her with a light nket and left the room. Damn woman is making me do things I never wanted to do. What does she think I am?


    The next morning, she acted like she didn''t know I had carried her. Which was good. We went through the n for the ceremony and she was dismissed to her room. Next time I would see her would be in the forest for the gathering. If only I had paid more attention when passing through to the ceremony, but I was runningte and didn''t have time to pause, I rushed by her without a nce. I didn''t care if it hurt her feelings. She was a mate in name only right.


    After I had announced to the pack that I had found my mate and I went to retrieve that mate for everyone to see, that was when I saw her for the first time that night. The moon was shining through the trees just enough to make the dress shimmer partially. I could see her perfectly. The gray used on her eyes, the blood-red lips, the little silver moon like beads that seemed to be floating in her hair, the pale moon color of her skin.


    The sight of her stopped me in my tracks. I gasped when I saw her. My wolf was switching through howling and panting in my ears. My mate, my mate, my mate. He growled repeatedly. He was chomping at the bit, fighting to get to her. I hauled him back by the scruff of his neck, telling him NO. My wolf growled at me, but he settled onto his haunches.


    I led her to the tform and introduced her. A she-wolf of mid-rank was not happy and caused a scene. I was about to end themotion when Little Bunny''s aunt and Noah''s mate stepped forward. The aunt smacked the she-wolf so hard she nearly fell on her ass. Then the two put her in her ce. The sight was satisfying.


    After my momentary shock at seeing the scene passed, I ended allmotion and forced the pack to ept my mate. The Goddess had chosen her, and I had no other choice so neither did they.


    Michael performed the vows ceremony. After which it was time for me to mark her. I wish I didn''t have to, but there was no getting past it. I pulled her close to me, whispered in her ear to not scream. If she did, they might think her weak. Then I sunk my teeth into her soft tender flesh.


    I felt her jerk in my arms. The jolts of heat and electricity began almost immediately. They were passing from me to her with greater intensity with each passing second. The point where my mouth mped down onto her was the hottest part, but I could feel the heat spreading throughout her whole body. The heat was causing a reaction low in my body.


    When all the heat and jolts of electricity were done, and the marking was over, I released her from the bite, licked it once and pulled away from her. Michael announced to the crowd that we were the Alpha and Luna. It was official now. She would have my mark on her forever.


    She was weak from the marking and could not stand on her own. I had to have one of the guards carry her. Leslie offered, but strangely she quickly said no, a look of fear in her eyes. Vincent carried her instead. Noah also called his mom and mate and had them go and help her out of the dress and get ready for bed.


    I was on my way to her room now, following the ceremony. I saw Vincent outside her door, Leslie was nowhere in sight, his scent long gone. I dismissed Vincent and knocked on the door calling her name.


    "Trinity?" She answered it almost immediately. Nerves and a hint of fear clear in her eyes.


    What I noticed most when she answered the door, was the skimpy little nightie she was wearing. Was she trying to seduce me? Did she have expectations for this evening?


    I growled. I''m not exactly certain why. Frustration? Anger? Arousal? Whatever the reason, the sound rumbled from my chest and caused her to stiffen slightly.


    "Reece?" She asked me, confused.


    "Hello Little Bunny." I knew she hated the nickname, and that made me smile every time I used it. I saw her eyes tighten in anger.


    "I''m not a bunny." She snapped her usual retort. I wonder how long she will continue to object when I use the name.


    "We need to talk." I told her, a hint of urgency andmand in my voice. I knew that mymands would have less effect on her now that we were officially mated, and she was the Luna. She was not an ordinary pack member now so she would be able to defy me to a certain extent, but I didn''t know if she knew that.


    "Ok." She answered, stepping aside and letting me into the room. She shut the door behind me.


    As soon as we were alone, I turned on her. Pinning her in ce with a re so firm that no one in the pack had ever been able to withstand it. She would most likely cower in fear from it, from me, for the rest of her life.


    "What is it?" She asked me, her voice not quite as shaky as I expected. In fact, she looked annoyed. Interesting.


    "We need to make a few things clear."


    "About what?"


    "You and I."


    "And?"


    "We are nothing." I told her.


    "We are mates." She told me.


    "In name only. We will never be anything more. Do you understand me? I will never see you as anything more than a means to an end. You''re a weak little girl that has no wolf. You will do your duties to the pack and do as you are told. But you and I will never be official mates."


    "Really?" She questioned, looking taken aback by my words.


    "Yes. I never wanted a mate in the first ce. Women are weak. They make you weak. Having you around will only drag me down. Do your best not to drag me or my pack down. You wille with me on pack business. You will attend to the women and children, I will attend to the men, run the pack as a whole, and run my corporation. Unless we have to work together on business, we will have nothing to do with each other." I made my voice as firm and angry as I could. "You are nothing to me." I added.


    Her nostrils red, eyes narrowed, breathing deepened. She was clearly angry.


    "I''m nothing to you?" She asked me. "Really? That''s rich. I know you feel the mate bond as much as I do."


    "That doesn''t matter. I can ignore that, and you, just fine."


    "Let''s just see about that." She mumbled.


    "What''s that?" I asked her, angered by her words.


    "Nothing." She snapped at me. "Fine, I''m nothing to you, you are nothing to me. I didn''t choose you either if you remember. I tried to run away. I didn''t want to stay here in the first ce, but you forced me to, you barbaric brute. Now I am stuck with you for the rest of my life. I have no choice but to be the Luna of your pack." She was nearly hyperventting as she yelled at me. "Why the hell didn''t you tell me any of this before I agreed to be the Luna tonight?" She demanded.


    "Simple." I told her. "You wouldn''t have agreed to be the Luna if I told you."


    "You are damned right I wouldn''t." She yelled. "Why the hell would I agree to be the mate for someone who will not treat me as an official mate."


    "So are you telling me you expected us to be like a normal mate couple, falling in love, being happy, having a loving family. That will never happen. Eventually we will consummate the bond and have a child to carry on my family line, but other than that, there will never be anything between us."


    "Oh, you must be out of your damn mind if you think I''m ever going to let you touch me. If I am nothing to you, then you can''t touch me either. After all, you can''t touch nothing."


    "Oh, really? You think you can resist me?" Her eyes burned with fury at my words.


    "Just try me Fido, I will do everything in my power to make sure you never touch me in an intimate way for as long as I live." I growled when she called me that ridiculous dog name again. I stepped across the room, backing her up against the wall. One hand beside her head, the other gripping her chin firmly.


    "What did I tell you about calling me Fido, Little Bunny?" I growled at her. "You want to see just what I can do to you?"


    "Get off of me." She growled back, pushing against me with all her strength. In her fury she actually managed to move me, to my surprise. "Don''t you ever touch me again. I will do my duties to this pack as I have agreed to. But I will never consider you my mate either. You''re a self-centered, egotistical, violent brute. I would never fall for a guy like you. So, do me a favor, and stay out of my sight as much as possible, Reece." She put as much of her fury and rage into her voice as possible, turning it into amand. Had I just been a member of the pack I would have been forced to follow her order, but she couldn''t make me do anything.


    "I will dly leave you alone until I have a need for you."


    "That need will be mutual or you will lose something." She snapped back at me. Her eyes were full of hatred.


    "We will see, I''m sure you''ll be singing a different tune when the timees." I rumbled.


    "Don''t worry, I won''t change my mind." She pushed me away from her again and opened her door. "Now get out."


    "You can''t make me go."


    "Wanna bet?" She asked, her voice was nearly hysterical.


    "Next time, I won''t be nearly as nice as I was today." I told her as I left the room.


    She mmed the door behind me.


    "He calls that nice?" I heard her yell. "That damn overgrown dog. What an ASSHOLE!" She had to know I could still hear her.

 Chapter 31 - Trinity-Exploring

    <h4>Chapter 31: Trinity-Exploring</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I had seen other mate marks. My aunt and Nikki had both shown me theirs, so had Juniper. Theirs were about the size of a half dor. The crest, consisting of a wolf leaping disyed over a full moon.


    Aunt Eve had thin lines swirling around the crest that almost looked like infinity symbols. Nikki''s lines were more geometric and appeared in diamond patterns. Juniper didn''t have thin lines, she had what looked like vines of ivy weaving around the crest.


    As much as I hated Reece right now. As pissed off at him as I was and wanted to make his life a living hell. I was still interested in seeing what my mark would look like. The crest was almost fully formed now, so over the next few days I should start seeing Reece''s personal touch.


    Aside from when I was in my room, I didn''t like the mark to be seen. Everyone knew I was the Luna, they knew I had been marked by Reece, but I didn''t need them seeing it. The mark felt personal to me, intimate somehow. Like something that I should keep to myself because I was not a true mate. I guess, in a way, I was embarrassed by it.


    It was for that reason I had taken to wearing a light jacket or cover of some sort everywhere I went. I was slowly changing my sense of fashion. Adding little things here and there, eventually, I would probably be apletely different person. The thought actually made me sad.


    I was still going to my sses. Juniper and the guys were doing their best to support me through my transition into being the new Luna. Vincent was still with me regrly as I went to school. As I didn''t need to be guarded all the time anymore, the guards didn''t need to switch shifts like before. Because of this, I hadn''t seen Leslie muchtely, thankfully. Hopefully, he would be back to his old self the next time I did see him.


    Outside of school, I was allowed to do whatever I wanted. As long as it didn''t embarrass Reece or the pack. And I had to take a guard with me. For this purpose, I had been introduced to two more pack warriors, David and Jeremy. I would need to call one of my guards before I could go anywhere.


    David was a nice guy. He was simr to Vincent, but he wasn''t as quick to do gentlemanly acts. I actually preferred that. I was used to it with Vincent, but I would be too embarrassed if everyone started treating me like that. But David was always quick with a smile and kind words. And he got along with everyone. And unlike Vincent, he was a little closer to my age, so my friends would be morefortable around him.


    I hadn''t spent much time around Jeremy. He seemed alright, and I''m sure he was plenty capable. But he seemed standoffish to me. I had only met him twice, at the introduction and he guarded me once when I had an errand to run in the city. I was going to call Vincent to see if he was free, but Jeremy was already at the house, so he took me.


    Both times I had met Jeremy he acted like he wanted to be anywhere but where I was. I think he might have been among those who were displeased with me bing the Luna. There wasn''t much I could do about it now. But I didn''t want him guarding me much either.


    Today, I was bored. I didn''t have anywhere to go. No one to spend time with. And no assignments toplete. So, I was wandering the house. Since no one had taken it upon themselves to show me around, I still didn''t know where anything was.


    I could find my way down to the kitchen and dining area. I could find the library no problem. I could get to Reece''s office. And I could find my way out. But ask me about anything else along the way, and I wouldn''t know what to tell you. I could probably find Reece''s bedroom based on his scent, but I wasn''t interested in finding his bedroom so that didn''t matter to me at all.


    I had started on the first floor of the house. So far, I had investigated the massive dining area in more detail. I found a grand ballroom, and actual ballroom like I had just walked into Victorian era London. The rest of the rooms on the first floor weren''t so grand as those.


    There were severalrge and small storage rooms. I found a parlor for entertaining, a study, and a games room. There was a srium off the back of the house next to the garden and a greenhouse that I never knew about. Aside from these, the only other rooms on the first floor were theundry room, which was massive, and utilities rooms.


    I did find stairs that led to a basement. A quick search showed me that it was actually a massive wine cer next to a walk-in freezer. This house truly did have some over the top stuff.


    Almost everything from the second floor up was nothing but bedrooms, conference rooms, and offices. There were linen closets, and some rooms that were just used for storing old furniture. But there wasn''t much else when you went up from the main floor. I dide across a few different living rooms and sitting rooms.


    It looks like things had been redone in the house a while ago. It seemed like the house used to be more inviting and weing. More open to visitors, but that it was closed off now. I wish I knew what had happened to make it this way.


    I was almost done exploring the fourth floor. The same floor where my room was, and from the scent Reece''s was as well. But I was in the north wing and he seemed to be in the south wing. I had never noticed before, but there was the faintest trace of another person''s scent down this way.


    I followed my nose, curious. It was an odd scent. It was weak, but it didn''t smell like an old scent. So, the person must still be there. But I hadn''t noticed anyonee into the house at all. And the smell was distinctly female.


    I could tell that Reece''s room was getting closer. His scent was so overpowering. That is probably why I never noticed it before. His scent overpowered whoever it was that was here. Whoever she was, it must be whoever Reece was in love with. Why he had been so upset that he had found a mate. It meant that he couldn''t be with the woman he wanted to be with.


    I was standing next to the room that I was certain was Reece''s, the smell was so intense. But, oddly, her smell was noting from inside. So, his girlfriend has her own room? I thought to myself. He must have wanted to be with her so bad, and then I came and messed it all up. Well, I tried to leave, asshole, you wouldn''t let me.


    I''d be damned if I would let him keep a mistress. I know I was only a mate in name, and I definitely didn''t want himying his hands on me. I don''t care how irresistibly handsome I found him, or how I could actually feel his deep, smooth voice rubbing against me when he spoke. Or that his body looked so sculpted and sexy it drove me to fantasize about him in dreams. Nope, none of it mattered. I would never let that overgrown mutty one finger on me.


    I continued to creep down the hallway as quietly as I could. I couldn''t hear anyone moving around, but I did hear the faintest beat of someone''s heart. She must be sleeping. At least I know what room she is in now. I can confront herter. I don''t want to deal with some she-wolf who might be half naked and asleep. I turned slowly around, not making a sound, so I didn''t wake her.


    "What the hell do you think you''re doing Little Bunny?" Reece roared at me as soon as I turned around and bumped into his chest. I Jumped at seeing him so close and blinked in surprise. I wasn''t expecting him back so soon. I stepped back and walked around him.

 Chapter 32 - Trinity-Talking To Nothing

    <h4>Chapter 32: Trinity-Talking To Nothing</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Don''t walk away from me." He said walking after me. I ignored him and kept walking down the hallway at a brisk, but mostly normal pace. "Dammit Little Bunny, stop right now." I hated when he used that stupid nickname, but I wasn''t going to give him the satisfaction of a response, so I kept walking.


    He caught up to me after just a minute. I was almost to the end of the hall, almost out of the south wing and back to thefort of the north wing that I knew so well.


    "I said don''t walk away from me." He grabbed me by the wrist, forcing me to turn and look at him. He didn''t grab me hard, and it didn''t hurt in the least. That surprised me. For all his threats he''d made, he hadn''t hurt me physically, yet. Once he had me facing him, he asked me his question again. "What the hell were you doing down here Little Bunny?" He asked me, his voice growing firm and deep as he got more and more angry.


    He was only gripping my wrist lightly, so I yanked hard and pulled myself free. I then turned my back on him and continued walking. This time he had had enough. He spun me around, threw me over his shoulder, and marched me to my room, which was at the end of the hallway I had just entered. I managed not to yelp or gasp as he did this.


    He sat, or for a better word threw, me on my bed and then stalked back to the door and leaned against it. I had no escape, unless I could make it to the bathroom before he caught me. He noticed where I was looking and narrowed his eyes with annoyance.


    "Don''t even try, I would catch you." He growled, still ring at me. "Now, start talking. First why have you been ignoring me?" He demanded. I put on a smile that was filled with fifty percent fake sincerity, fifty percent annoyance, and once hundred percent I hate the Alpha.


    "Oh, well you see Reece, I just didn''t think you were in that habit of talking to nothing." I told him. He looked at me perplexed. "That''s what I am, right? I''m nothing to you. I just didn''t think you would want to talk to nothing. And believe me, I was really surprised when you managed to touch nothing too, though I would really rather you didn''t." I said in my I truly hate you, but I''m going to ruin you tone of voice.


    I saw his face go from annoyed to shocked to pissed off then he spoke.


    "Feel better yet Little Bunny?" He asked me, annoyance filling his voice.


    "Not in the least Benji." I told him. He cocked his head to the side, confused.


    "Benji?"


    "You showed an intense displeasure to Fido, so I had to rename the puppy." He growled at that.


    "You think you''re funny, don''t you?"


    "Extremely, just like you think you''re so strong, just cause you''re tall and can carry me over your shoulder."


    "No, I know I''m strong, but I''ve been holding back out of respect, don''t make me lose that for you. Got it."


    "Same to you." I grumbled at him.


    "Moving on." He shook his head, like he was trying to move past the meaningless, trivial bber. "Why were you down that hall?"


    "No one has ever shown me around, so I decided to show myself around." I said matter-of-factly. "So, who is she?" I asked him t out.


    "Who is who? I don''t know who you''re talking about." He avoided the question.


    "Don''t give me that." I thundered at him in as loud of a voice as I could. He quirked an eyebrow as if he thought my yelling was just for show.


    "Who is that woman you have staying down that hall? Is she your girlfriend? Lover? Was she who you wanted to be with before I showed up? Because remember I tried to get away fr-."


    "First, I couldn''t get you to answer me, now you won''t shut up long enough for me to answer." Heined, interrupting me.


    "You know what they say, be careful what you wish for." I told him with a smallugh.


    "Smart ass." He snapped at me.


    "Dumbass." I snapped right back. I wasn''t going to let him get me off track. I wasn''t going to let him think I was that easily quelled.


    "It''s no-." I could already tell he was going to brush me off. Then he would just think that he could walk all over me.


    "Don''t tell me it''s nothing. Whoever she is, she has her own room here at your house, she''s obviously someone that you care deeply about."


    "You don''t know what you''re talking about." Every time he spoke it was in a growl, his anger was worsening.


    "I know that there is a woman down that hallway. I smelled her scent and heard her heartbeat." I told him.


    "Drop it." He snapped at me.


    "No. You''ve told me that I must not embarrass the pack. That means that even though you and I are mates in name only, I can''t find someone else. If I can''t have someone else, then neither can you." I yelled at him.


    "You''ve got it wrong."


    "I highly doubt that. I refuse to let you have a secret lover, especially living in the same house as me. I may only be a mate in name only, but I am also the Luna of this pack and I will banish her if I have to."


    "She''s my mother for Goddess'' sake!" He screamed at me.


    His words shocked me. I was floored. His mother? The previous Luna? No one has seen or heard from her for about seven years now. Not since Reece had taken over the pack. I had assumed that she was dead, most of the pack had assumed that.


    "I thought your mother died." I told him, confused.


    "A lot of people think that." He sighed while looking down at the floor. "But in truth, my father''s death broke her."


    "Broke her? What do you mean?" His voice sounded so sad when he had spoken that I felt the need tofort him, but I fought against it and asked to know more instead.


    "She is nothing but the shell of the person she used to be. She just sits there, day in and day out. There is a maid that goes in there to take care of her. A doctor that checks on her. But she has not moved, spoken, or even looked at me in seven years."


    "She''s catatonic?" I asked, shocked at what I was hearing.


    "Yes." He sighed, nodding.


    "That must be rough." I told him. "I''m sorry to hear that."


    "I don''t need your pity." He snapped.


    "That is such a man thing to say. Empathy is not the same thing as pity you idiot." He growled at me again. "If you keep growling like that you will likely lose your voice or turn into a dog for real, one or the other." He growled yet again causing me tough at him.


    "Why am I just now hearing about your mother?" I asked him. "I''m living here with you, and obviously misunderstandings are bound to happen. Why didn''t you tell me before today?"


    "Because it''s none of your business."


    "How do you figure?" He asked.


    "Well let''s see, first is because I am your mate and therefore what affects you affects me, even if I am a mate in name only I still must know about the major things, especially those inside the house. Second is because I am the Luna, and she is a pack female which makes her my business." He opened his eyes wide at my words like he didn''t expect me to have such apelling answer for him.


    "Fine, I will tell you about major things from now on." He grumbled. "But leave my mother alone. There isn''t anything that can be done for her."


    "So, you just leave her there? Letting a maid take care of her and a doctor see her?" I asked, shocked. I loved my family, even my grandfather for some reason, I could never ignore them like that.


    "Don''t try to tell me how to run my family." He yelled. "You know nothing about me, my family, or my life."


    "And whose fault is that?" I yelled right back at him. I was on my feet now, marching across the room, I couldn''t hold my anger in any longer.


    "You don''t need to know any more than what I tell you." He growled as he flung the door open and left the room, mming the door shut behind him.


    "JERK!" I yelled after him for good measure. I knew full well he could hear me, in fact I was d he could.

 Chapter 33 - Trinity-Pack Visits Planned

    <h4>Chapter 33: Trinity-Pack Visits nned</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It was Friday now, three days since I had explored the house and found out about Reece''s mom, and six days since I was marked. The mark was still just the crest surrounded by dark gray blurs, almost like a giant bruise. It was no closer to changing into its final tattoo-like image.


    I was now being forced to have a meeting with the Elders and Reece again. Ugh! I had hoped when he said we were nothing to each other and we were going to ignore each other outside of pack business, that it would be more than three days in between each time I had to talk to him.


    Noah hade to get me when I was in the srium reading. It had quickly be a favorite ce of mine. And since I could handle the cold better than a human, though not as good as a wolf (I hated being so different sometimes), it didn''t bother me that it was October and got chilly sometimes.


    He marched me straight to Reece''s office and into the room. He had asked me how I was adjusting to my new life. If I was ok, and how my sses were going. I don''t think it was easy for him to be loyal to the pack and me at the same time. He seemed to be having a hard time since he knew that there was still a division running between us all.


    When we walked into the office, I saw Reece sitting at his desk, my eyes going to him immediately as if of their own ord. Stupid traitorous eyes. Then I saw that the only elder in the room was Michael, which was confusing, but I said nothing.


    I took my usual seat, which seemed to be reserved just for the Luna.


    "Wee, Miss Luna, how are you girl?" Michael asked me. It was a little condescending, the way he spoke to me, but I had heard him talk to Reece the same way. I know he respected Reece, so I guess it was just how he spoke, especially to someone so much younger than him. Maybe this was how other old men talked to their grandchildren and people young enough to be their grandchildren, who knows.


    "I''m fine Michael, and how are you today?" I asked him, trying to sound like a proper Luna, I noticed Noah hide his smirk behind Reece and fought the urge to re at him.


    "Wonderful, I''m simply wonderful my dear. I can already feel the power increasing among the pack now that the Alpha has formed his mate bond and finished his circle." Michael beamed at me. "I am certain that the two of you will be the greatest Alpha and Luna there ever was." Yeah, don''t hold your breath Michael. I thought to myself all while smiling sweetly at him.


    "Thank you so much for that lovely sentiment." I told him sweetly. "Now, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?" I asked.


    "I am here to discuss the Hunter''s Moon event, and there are a few packs that the Alpha needs to go and visit over the next few months, you will need to apany him on a few of those visits. Mostly as an introduction to formally introduce you as his mate." Michael was beaming as he spoke, like he couldn''t be happier.


    "Well, sounds like I will be busy then, doesn''t it?" I giggled.


    "It does indeed." Heughed as well. Reece cleared his throat to get our attention, grudgingly, I looked back at him.


    Reece was sitting at his desk wearing a dark green button-up shirt, once again he had the top two buttons undone to show just a little sh of skin at the top of his chest. He had undone the buttons at the cuffs as well, pushing the sleeves up to his elbows. I couldn''t see if the shirt was tucked in, or anything else, as he was blocked by hisrge desk, but the color of the shirt was striking against his honiedplexion.


    "I''m so sorry sweetheart, we have so much to discuss and you must be busy. We should get to work." I smiled at him sweetly. He blinked in surprise momentarily.


    "Isn''t she just so considerate?" Michael cooed looking at Reece with a smile as well.


    "You have no idea." Reece smiled as well, the tension between us was thick, and probably misunderstood. "Let us get to business. As Michael said, we have a busy scheduleing up. This time of the year isn''t usually as busy for me, but we need to introduce you to the neighboring packs. Especially the ones we have treaties with and those that swear fealty to us in exchange for protection. They may have their own Alpha and Luna, but we are still Alpha and Luna to them as well." He informed me, sounding serious.


    "So how many packs do we need to visit?" I ask him, nervously.


    "In all, we will be visiting ten packs. But we will not be visiting them all at once. We will break the visits up so that we do not leave our pack for that long." I looked at him confused.


    "Some of the visits will be a quick exchange, but it will still be difficult to visit more than one in a single day and not have to stay away for the night." Michael answered for me.


    "Ahh." I breathed, letting his words sink in. I hope we can have separate rooms, and that it''s in a hotel and not another Alpha house. I said to myself.


    "When we visit fealty packs, we will most likely spend very little time there, a morning or early afternoon meeting, then we can follow that up with a treaty meeting in the evening. We will be invited to dinner and stay in their Alpha house. The neighboring packs are close enough that we do not need to stay at most of them. If we end up needing to stay overnight, we will stay in a hotel along the way." Reece seemed to be able to read what was going on inside my head, that was disconcerting. I''ve gotta work on my poker face.


    "When will these visits start?" I asked him. "And on what days of the week?" I wanted to make sure I didn''t have to miss ss, but I had a feeling that I wasn''t going to be very lucky in this case.


    "We will begin on November the 6th and return the next day. We will try to leave either Friday evening or Saturday morning when we are able to. This should work out for the both of us, as you have your studies, and I have business to attend to."


    I was starting to think he was doing this for me, a sort of kind gesture, but then Noah spoke and almost made meugh. As it was, I barely hid my smile.


    "You would choose any weekday if I let you, but you have work, and I won''t let you push that off onto me." Noahughed, grinning at the back of Reece''s head. Reece growled at him.


    "Shut up Penguin boy." I wrinkled my eyebrow at that. He really does like making up animal nicknames for people, doesn''t he? Michaelughed while I silently thought to myself.


    "You kids are what keep me so young." He saidughing at Reece and Noah. Reece red at him while Noah smiled.


    "We will let you know the finer points of the travel ns a few days ahead of time, but for now, Noah will give you the list of prospective dates." Reece droned on, ignoring Michael.


    "Thank you."


    "Now, about the Hunter''s Moon event." Michael smiled, moving the discussion onward. "That will be in two weeks yes?" He asked.


    "I don''t see why we have to have this meeting every year, the only thing that ever changes is the date of the event. It always happens on the day of the full moon." Reece grumbled.


    Now that I thought about it, thest gathering was actually two days after the full moon. The Harvest moon on October 1st, but the gathering had been on the 3rd.


    "Umm, can I ask a question, since the pack business is still new to me?"


    "What is it, child?" Michael asked me. I know he didn''t mean it condescendingly, so I tried not to take his wording personally.


    "Why was thest gathering not actually held on the day of the full moon?"


    "Well, we felt since it wasn''t ceremonial or traditional in nature, that we could move things around a little. And since it was a party and people were supposed," he paused looking at Reece. "supposed to be out untilte, we felt it would be nice to have it on the weekend so they would be less likely to have work or school the next day." He answered with a smile.


    "That makes sense. Thank you." I smiled.


    "Not a problem. I''m d you''re trying to be a good Luna for your people."


    "Anyway." Reece grumbled, drawing the attention back to the discussion. "The Hunter''s moon event will be the same as always. Any adult member of the pack, or teenaged member with a wolf, may participate. Nothing in the way it is run will change from previous years."


    "You''re just insufferable." Reece told him, but he was actually grinning. I think he was just mentally calling Michael what you call someone who assumes something.

 Chapter 34 - Trinity- Plans For The Full Moon

    <h4>Chapter 34: Trinity- ns For The Full Moon</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "You''re just insufferable." Reece told him, but he was actually grinning. I think he was just mentally calling Michael what you call someone who assumes something.


    "Fine, we''ve got it all figured out, we will have the same event at the same time." Michael said. But as he was about to stand, I stopped him.


    "I''ve never been to the Hunter''s moon events, could you exin them to me, at least briefly?" I looked at Reece and saw the frustration sh in his eyes, I smiled at him as sweetly as I could.


    "Oh, that''s right, you wouldn''t know." Michael said in a kindly voice. "I will be happy to exin it to you."


    "Thank you, Michael, you''re so sweet."


    "No." He smiled, blushing briefly before he continued. "You see, Child, the Hunter''s moon event allows all pack members with a wolf to run through the forest and mountains in search of prey. We spend much of the night running freely. As we have to keep ourselves hidden from the humans, we''re not really able to run through the forest in our wolf forms most of the time. We can manage it in small numbers or for short periods of time. And since the impact on the wildlife in the immediate area would suffer too greatly if we all started hunting freely year-round, we are allowed one night a year when we can hunt without having to worry. Of course, we can get permission from our Alpha to hunt, but we can''t hunt in excess or it will affect the natural way of things."


    Michael''s exnation definitely helped me to understand why the Hunter''s moon event was so important to the pack members. They would look forward to it all year. In that moment, I kind of envied the rest of the pack for having their wolf.


    I started thinking about what I would be doing on that day of the Hunter''s moon. Then I remembered what day the Hunter''s moon fell on.


    "Wait a minute, what about all the children?"


    "They don''t have a wolf, they can''t participate." Reece answered firmly, as if he thought I was stupid.


    "No, that''s not what I meant. The Hunter''s moon is on Halloween. How are the children going to spend it?" I asked them.


    "Well, if they''re old enough, they can go trick-or-treating alone. Or with friends and older siblings. But if not, I guess they''ll just have to skip it."


    "I''ve heard some grandparents are taking their grandchildren into the city, but there''s simply not enough to take them all." Noah added. That broke my heart, the kids shouldn''t have to miss Halloween.


    "It''s just a silly holiday, there will be more." Reece tried to put an end to the discussion.


    "There will be others." Noah added.


    "I''m sure the children will be fine." Michael finished for them. I just nodded my head.


    This was breaking my heart. I know that it was an important day in our pack. But the parents have had several Hunter''s moon events, they could skip it. It''s not like the Hunter''s moon was always on Halloween, the next time it happened their kids would all be grown, next year they could have both, but this year put family first.


    Grandfather would alwayse on Halloween and pick me up, telling them I was not allowed to go. I had insisted on getting a costume a couple times, but then I by the time I turned four I learned that I would never be going with the others.


    Seeing them leaving without me always made me cry. Grandfather would tell me to stop my blubbering, that it was notdylike to cry as I was. I would be given extra studies on Halloween, learning something he deemed I needed to improve upon.


    Sometimes, I used to tell myself that Grandfather was just worried I would disappear on him, like his daughter did that weekend. He had failed and something happened to his daughter. He never did believe that she had betrayed him, not deep down in his heart. And I think her suicide hurt him so much more than I, or anyone else, could fathom. That he was overprotective of me, and that he was just always a man that was bad with his words. At least that''s what I used to tell myself, anyway.


    The meeting was over now, and it was time for Michael to leave. Noah was showing him out. I was about to leave, as it was just Reece and myself in the room now.


    "Did you enjoy dying my day?" He asked me.


    "I didn''t do it just to be inconvenient." I told him honestly. "I truly hadn''t ever been told about the event before." I told him.


    "But you admit you wanted to be inconvenient?" He asked me. I just shrugged my shoulders. "You''re ying with fire here." He told me.


    "Good thing you''re covered in so much ice." He arched an eyebrow at my words. "It''d be no fun if I melted you too soon after all, I need you to hang in there at least a little." He growled at me like he usually did. "Careful Benji, or I might need to rename the puppy again." I cooed as I walked to the door. "Bye, sweetie." I chanted in a sweet voice, batting my eyshes at him as I left the room.


    I hurried back to my room. I had a n, and I would need help to make it happen. I shut, and locked, my door before flopping onto my bed with my phone in hand. It only rang twice before Juniper answered.


    "Hey there Trin, what''s up?" She asked me in a cheerful voice.


    "I''ve got a n, but I need assistants to help me." I told her. I could tell that her attitude had changedpletely, she was excited on the other end of the line now.


    "What do you need?" She asked me. I smiled at her eagerness.


    "Do you know what day the Hunter''s moon falls on?"


    "Yeah, Halloween." She answered automatically.


    "Uh huh, what do you think that means for a lot of kids?" I heard the gasp as she realized what was going to happen.


    "Oh my Goddess, Trin, they''re gonna miss it." Her voice was full of anguish as she answered.


    "Yup."


    "The poor kids."


    "I want to do something about it."


    "What can you do?" She asked me curiously.


    "Well, I can''t go to the event, so-." She interrupted me immediately.


    "What do you mean you can''t go?" She demanded.


    "I don''t have a wolf, Juniper." I reminded her.


    "Oh, yeah, duh." She saidughing. "So, what are you going to do?"


    "I''m going to throw the kids a Halloween party."


    "Cool, where at?"


    "Here." I told her. I heard her gasp at my deration.


    "You mean like out in the forest?" She was still in denial.


    "Nope."


    "You''re going to throw a Halloween party for the kids, inside the Alpha house?" She asked.


    "Yup, want to help me?" I was hoping she wouldn''t be too afraid toe here and help me pull this off.


    "Oh, you bet your tiny little ass I''m going to help." She told me firmly.


    "What''s that?" I heard Paul yell in the background.


    "Trinity is throwing a Halloween party for all the kids at the Alpha house." She told him.


    "Why?" He was confused.


    "It''s the same day as the Hunter''s moon."


    "Oh Goddess, I never even put it together until now. I can''t believe we never even thought about it. We were only thinking about the wolf aspect of it I guess."


    "Hey, ask Paul if he wants to help out too, you guys will have to miss the event though."


    "You want to help Paul."


    "Hell yes." He said.


    "You''ll have to miss the event." She told him.


    "So, who cares, I''ve been to a few already, and there will be more. This is bound to be more interesting."


    "Awesome." I was smiling to myself.


    "Hey, can I help too?" I heard Cedar yell somewhere in the background. He must be at Juniper''s house right now, that saved me a call.


    "He was going to be my next call." I told Juniper.


    "She said you saved her a phone call." Juniper answered him.


    "You all shoulde by tomorrow, I don''t want the wrong guards hearing about this, and since my room isn''t being watched anymore, it''s safer here than anywhere else." With that, my n was set into motion, I just needed to get the rest of the help.


    Over the next two weeks I enlisted the help of several others, secretly of course. Carter, Aunt Eve, and Uncle Wesley were of course willing to join me. Nikki would help but Noah had to prioritize his business as assistant but promised to keep Reece out of our hair while we got everything set up. He said, Reece just so happened to, conveniently, have a board meeting that day. An in person, in corporate office, meeting. I couldn''t thank him enough, I threw my arms around him and hugged him tight as I thanked him for his help.

 Chapter 35 - Trinity-Ready For Halloween

    <h4>Chapter 35: Trinity-Ready For Halloween</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Abagail, the cook, agreed to help me make anything and everything I needed for the party and to stay to help out afterwards. Peter said he had to be here anyway, so he would help us as well.


    Vincent was happy that we were doing something, his wife was going to miss the event as she had to stay home with their three-year-old and six-year-old, and she was apparently pregnant again. So, the two of them would being to help and would be bringing their kids.


    Since about ny percent of the pack would be at the event, there was nowhere to go trick-or-treating in thepound. Anyone wanting to take their kids would have to do so by going into the city. ording to Vincent, a lot of parents didn''t want to take their kids into the city for Halloween.


    Vincent and his wife would spread the word about the party. I hoped that the word wouldn''t get back to Reece just yet, but I''d deal with him when I had to. I had started overnight and express ordering lots of Halloween decorations online. I had them delivered to Aunt Eve''s house, so Reece wouldn''t find them yet. I had the staff clean the ballroom in preparation of the party, and I nned tons of games and different treats for the kids.


    I had learned from Noah that there were about eight-hundred members of the pack total. That included adults and children. I knew that many of the pack members still didn''t trust me as the Luna yet, so I probably wouldn''t get everyone here for the party. But I would be happy with about half, which would put me at around seventy-five kids. But some of them might have a wolf and be at the event instead.


    After the two weeks of prep time, we were finally ready for the day of the Halloween party. Noah got Reece out of the house by 8 AM, that gave us all day to set up. The Hunter''s moon event started at sunset, which was at 6PM tonight. Kids would be here by 5:30 so parents had time to get to the clearing and stash their clothes. We needed to work fast. Good thing I had helpers.


    Everyone worked hard. We got the ballroom turned into a proper Halloween themed party room, a little scary, but not too scary for the little kids. We set up where the food would go, and little tables spread around for them to eat at.


    There were game stations the kids could go to and y for prizes. The games included things like ring toss onto the spider legs, zombie brain toss, pin the bandage on the mummy, and a few others.


    Being the artist that she was, Juniper wanted to let the kids do crafts, which I was all for. So, we got lots of things for them to create their own monsters, and there was a draw or color your own monster zone. Juniper had drawn a few different designs, and we made several copies.


    Wanting something more ''manly'' Paul, Cedar, and Carter suggested we turn the dining room into a haunted house full of those animatronic Halloween decorations, so we bought a bunch of them and made it as scary as possible. The first thing we did was send the guys through it when I was done setting it up, Iughed maniacally when I heard the three of them yell in fright at the end.


    Ok, ok, I might have added a personal touch just for them and have since removed it. I had blown up a picture of Reece acting like his big bad Alpha self and ced it right at the end with motion activated recording saying.


    "What are you doing?" It wasn''t even Reece''s voice, it was Vincent''s, but the effect was still priceless. They, however, were not amused. Seriously, they have no sense of humor.


    Abigail and I spent a couple days preparing things in the kitchen so we could cook everything easily the day of the party. We were going to order a bunch of pizzas to make sure the kids would all have something they would eat, just in case. But I loved to cook and invent some new things, so I wanted to have some fun.


    I made some pumpkin pie bites that would be easy to pick up and eat without a fork, best of all they had a graham cracker crust, so good. And I made some homemade cinnamon rolls with pecans and pumpkin pie filling, alright those were for the grown ups (me) cause we (I) needed something too.


    I also made a bunch of fun Halloween themed foods. I made grilled hotdogs that looked like fingers,plete with a small breadsticking out of the end for the bone and a spot cut off where the fingernail should have been, they looked pretty real.


    There were lots of different kinds of Halloween and just seasonal foods the kids would love. We also wanted them to decorate their own miniature candied apples. We used a melon baller to make tiny apple balls so the kids could cover them in caramel or chocte then add sprinkles, or nuts, or crushed cookies.


    They were all encouraged to wear a costume, and we were going to have a costume contest. The kids could vote, but they''d probably pick their own costume. So, we adults would pick winners in different categories and age groups. I went out and got prizes for each of the winners.


    I was super excited for the party. It was the first Halloween I was going to be part of. Once we were done setting up, we all dispersed so we could put on our costumes. It was almost showtime.


    I had decided to dress as Snow White for the party. It actually kind of fit me, really. I had hair that was almost ck, and myplexion was milky pale. I didn''t watch Disney much, but I''m guessing the major difference was my eyes, hers probably weren''t blue. Oh well, I couldn''t be an exact match.


    I looked at myself in the blue over yellow dress that was what Snow White apparently wore. It had slightly puffy sleeves and a cape that was red. There were red ents on the sleeves too. Along with the shoes and headband. I thought I looked ridiculous. But it''s all I had.


    I put on the blood red lipstick that Nikki had used on me before, along with some light blush and blue eyeshadow. Mascara wasst, to make myshes stand out. I felt ridiculous, but I went down to the party, anyway.


    "Oh my Goddess, Trinity, you look AMAZING!" Juniper screeched as soon as she saw me step off the elevator. I didn''t want to take the stairs in the heels I was wearing.


    "Don''t over exaggerate." I told her.


    "She''s not." Carter told me.


    "They''re right, Luna, you do look amazing." Heather, Vincent''s wife gushed.


    "I must agree." Vincent added. I blushed hearing them all praise me. I was d I was wearing the blush on my cheeks to hide it somewhat.


    "More importantly, what are you wearing?" I asked Juniper.


    "I''m dressed as Happy, one of the dwarves." She told me.


    "We''re all here." Carter indicated showing me his outfit. "I''m Doc."


    "I''m Dopey." Paul dereding up behind him.


    "Are you sure you want to admit that?" I asked him.


    "Shut it Astro." Weughed at the old joke. I watched as they all walked over. Juniper, Carter, Paul, Cedar, Nikki, and Vincent were all dressed as dwarves.


    "You''re missing one." I told them.


    "You guys are really great." I was beaming at them.


    "Don''t forget us." Aunt Eve called. I turned to look. "I''m the Evil Queen." She grinned.


    "And I am the magic mirror." Yelled Peter, the butler.


    "I''m the Evil Queen as the old witch." Abigail exined.


    "I''m the Huntsman." Uncle Wesley boasted proudly.


    "I can''t believe you all coordinated your costumes because of what I chose." I was almost ready to cry, they put so much into this for me.


    "This is your first Halloween ever, we wanted to make it special." Carter smiled as he came up and hugged me.


    "Yeah, you''re our friend, and we wanted to make this your best Halloween ever." Juniper saiding up and hugging me as well.


    "Yeah Astro, we love ya." Paul added, throwing his arms around me. It soon turned into a mass of everyone telling me they loved me and a giant hug pile. But I loved every second of it. It even made me happy that Vincent and David were part of that circle.


    "Don''t forget me. I coordinated too." Heather smiled. "I haven''t known you as long as the others, but I came as the apple." She saidughing as she pointed to the huge decorated pregnant belly that looked like a big red apple.


    "That is perfect Heather, and I am so very happy that you are here."


    Just then, we heard the approach of several vehicles outside. We all moved to the hall to greet the children for the party, opening therge double doors to wee them in. It seemed that everyone had chosen to arrive in groups.


    About twenty kids and their parents were on their way inside. Their eyes opened wide as they saw us. Most of the pack members had never been inside the house itself, they were either too low rank or had work elsewhere.


    "Wee!" I called to them, beaming. I went around introducing myself to all the children and their parents as they were dropped off. Women with young children like Heather were staying so they could partake in the celebrations since they were expected to miss the event, anyway.

 Chapter 36 - Both-Halloween Party For The Pack

    <h4>Chapter 36: Both-Halloween Party For The Pack</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Once everyone arrived and the party was about to get into full swing, we had forty-five kids altogether, less than half the kids in the pack, but a good start. I can get the people to trust me slowly over time.


    The music was ying. The kids were having fun. The food was a hit. Everyone was enjoying themselves.


    The next I knew I heard an angry voice growled quietly beside me after I handed a child a bag of treats.


    "What in the world is going on here Little Bunny?" Reece''s voice was filled with anger and frustration.


    "What a wonderful surprise." I called out, raising my voice. I knew he woulde home at some point, and I was prepared for this. "Look everyone, the Alpha hase to help us with the costume contest. Which category do you want to judge, Reece?" I tried making it clear that he had no choice since the children had all heard. He growled low in his throat. I noticed everyone else looked at me nervously.


    "We will talk about thister." He Whispered before turning to the happy kids with a smile. "Which category would you like me to judge, sweetheart?" He asked me, ying along.


    "I think it would be best if you should just pick your overall favorite. I have a special prize for the Alpha pick." I told him.


    "You nned this." He whispered, I just shrugged at him.


    I had all the children line up in front of Reece and he picked his favorite costume. I don''t know if he picked at random or not, but his choice ended up being an adorably sweet little girl who was dressed as a beautiful princess. She was so happy when he chose her that she actually started crying, it made my heart melt.


    Reece gave her the prize then excused himself to change for the event. He was ready and back down to leave in no time. He red at me slightly before walking out the door.


    We put down pillows, nkets, and bean bag chairs so they could choose a ce to sit ory down. We then put on a family friendly Halloween movie and settled in waiting for everyone to get back.


    Many of the children were asleep when their parents arrived. The parents were so happy that they and their kids got to enjoy the night. I received many thanks as I watched them carry their kids out of the house.


    Reece hadn''te back with them, as I thought he would. He must be blowing off some of his frustration or building it up some more. So, I decided to take a shower and change for bed.


    I noticed something was off as soon as I walked out of the bathroom. I didn''t even wait, I needed to say something right away.


    "What are you doing in here?" I demanded. Reece was leaning against the bedroom door, same asst time. "And why do you always do that? Do you think it makes you look cool?" It kind of did in fact. But then again, everything he did was cool, and sexy. Stupid mate bond.


    Right now, I was just d that all the towels I had in the bathroom were the oversized beach towel. They kind of swallowed me whole when I wrapped them around me, covering everything except my shins down and my shoulders up.


    I noticed the shock fill his face when he saw me.


    "Why didn''t you take clothes in there with you?" He growled.


    "Because this is my room, and I didn''t feel like it, is that alright with you Benji?" I yelled at him. Stupid overgrown brute of a dog. I growled in my head. "Stay there, I''ll take my clothes into the bathroom and get dressed." I told him.


    "Make it quick, I don''t have all night."


    "Oh, I wouldn''t dream of wasting your time." I said in my falsely sweet voice I had been using on himtely.


    "That''s going to get you in trouble, Little Bunny." He warned me. I just grabbed some clothes from my dresser and went into the bathroom,ughing.


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I had thought things were going to be alright between us, work wise at least, when she was being decently civil at the meeting for the Hunter''s Moon event. She was taking in all the information and acting like she might be a good Luna.


    But then she went and asked Michael to exin what the entire event was about after I had expressed a desire to skip the entire thing. Apparently, she just wanted to waste my time. I mean, I understand she has never been to a Hunter''s Moon event before but still, she could have asked at another time. Why waste my time?


    And her fake sentiments, well, at least she can fake those pretty well. She called me sweetheart and Michael seemed to believe it was real. That was a relief at least.


    I should have known she was nning something, and that that traitor Noah was in on it. After all, why would I have a board meeting on a Saturday, on Halloween, of all days.


    I got back and saw that my house had been decorated and overrun by a horde of pack children and mothers with young cubs. I couldn''t make a scene and scold her in front of everyone, they assumed she had my permission. This would be an issue I took up with her.


    But then she went and manipted me even further. She turned around with that fake smile of her, looking so sweet and innocent. And I had to admit that she kind of took my breath away. Her choice of costume suited her, herplexion was pale, and her hair was dark, so she made a perfect Snow White. And I saw that everyone who helped her had coordinated and dressed to amodate her costume. Traitors.


    She announced to the entire party that I had arrived to judge a special category of the costume contest, Alpha''s favorite. She had even gotten a special prize for me to give the winner. She nned the whole thing. That sneaky little devil Bunny.


    But I had to admit, she was smart. She knew how to get around things to get what she wanted. I yed along. But I told her we would talk about itter.


    So, what do I find when Ie to her room? Her taking a shower, that''s what. I have to wait and hope she doesn''t take too long. So, I just lean against the door and bide my time. I hadn''t been there long when I heard the water shut off. After a few moments, the door opens, and I have to fight to keep my jaw off the floor.


    "What are you doing in here?" She demanded as I stood there, dazed, watching the light glisten off her slightly wet skin. It nearly made my wolf lose his mind as he screamed at me. Mate, mate, mate!


    "Why didn''t you take clothes in there with you?" I growled at her.


    "Because this is my room, and I didn''t feel like it, is that alright with you Benji? Stay there, I''ll take my clothes into the bathroom and get dressed." She snapped at me.


    "Make it quick, I don''t have all night." I told her impatiently.


    "Oh, I wouldn''t dream of wasting your time." She said in that infuriatingly fake sweet voice.


    "That''s going to get you in trouble, Little Bunny." I grumble. She grabbed her clothes and went into the bathroomughing. I growled at her in response.


    Calm down! I told my wolf as I threw a metaphorical leash over him. He whined in my ears trying to tell me to im our mate. He just didn''t understand that it wasn''t time yet. I wasn''t ready for my heir now, and there was no other reason to im her.


    I heard the click of the door. Little Bunny came out wearing a pair of skin tight ck pants, I don''t know women''s fashion so don''t ask me what they were called, but it left nothing to imagination when looking at her bottom, which looked perfectly shaped. I nearly shook my head to get the thought out of it, but I couldn''t be that obvious.


    She had a red hoodie on over it. It was loose andfortable looking inparison to the pants. The color and the fact that it had a hood brought an image of little red riding hood to mind. Now that was a costume she could have chosen. After all, she already has a big bad wolf. I chuckled to myself, I couldn''t help it.


    "Is something funny?" She asked me as she sat at her table brushing her long dark hair. The brush moving slowly through her locks was nearly hypnotic. Dammit, she has too much hold over my wolf.


    "No, just thought of something forter, that was all." I told her, pushing past the thoughts. "Do you want to tell me what the hell you were thinking? What made you think you could throw a party in my house like that?" I demanded, letting my earlier anger seep back into my voice.


    "I live here too, isn''t it my house as well?" She asked, feigning innocence.


    "This is the Alpha house, you live here with me, but it is my house."


    "Then I will move elsewhere." She countered, what crazy thoughts were going through her head.


    "Like hell you will." I snapped. "I refuse to let my mate live anywhere but here. The rumors that would spread."


    "I don''t care about any damn rumors. I refuse to live with someone who treats me like a third-ss citizen. If I am the Luna, if I am your mate and live here with you, then this is just as much my house as it is yours."


    "Whatever." I yelled. "Why did you throw the party?"


    "Because the kids were going to miss Halloween otherwise. I couldn''t let that happen." Her voice sounded hurt when she spoke.


    "What does it matter to you?"


    "Kids deserve to have fun and make memories. It''s better when they can make them with their family, but as long as they aren''t made to suffer, to cry, to feel ignored, to think that they''re not as important." She was lecturing me now. "As long as I was able to make them happy, that was enough for me."


    "But why did it matter to you so much? It was just one Halloween, there will be lots of others for them."


    "You don''t know that. I never had a single Halloween growing up. I never went trick-or-treating, I never went to a Halloween party, I never dressed up. I never celebrated at all." Her words confused me. Why would she not have celebrated? Everyone else in the pack did.


    "Why didn''t you?" I asked, perplexed.


    "Grandfather never let me associate with anyone in the pack. I literally never met any pack member outside my family until I went to college."


    Her words actually made me sad for a moment, and it made sense why she was so intent on having the party for the kids tonight. This was special for them, but it was special for her too. Noah had told me that their Grandfather had been exceedingly strict with her, but I didn''t know it was that bad.


    "Just, clear it with me next time." I told her, my anger seeping away. "I would have approved of the party. It was for the pack after all. And it would help make the women and children ept you more."


    "You''ve been so against me since the beginning, and you told me to stay away from you unless we were leaving on pack business or having pack meetings, so I didn''t think you would want to hear it." She told me. She was right, so I had dug my own hole with this one.


    "Next time, I will listen if it has to do with the house. I don''t want any more surprises. Send Vincent if you have to." I told her. "He seems veryfortable plotting with you."


    "He didn''t plot, he just helped where I asked him to."


    "What''s the difference?"


    "He didn''t n anything, he just followed orders."


    "Fine, nitpick." I grumbled. "I''m leaving, goodnight." I left the room, this time not running away and not mming the door but leaving semi-peacefully.


    That girl is going to be the death of me, I swear. I need to watch myself. And I need to keep my wolf under control. He''s about to lose his mind.

 Chapter 37 - Trinity-Preparing For The First Trip

    <h4>Chapter 37: Trinity-Preparing For The First Trip</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It was nearly time for my trip with Reece. I was nervous, because I didn''t know how to be alone with him. Just the two of us. I knew he would act like his normal (asshole) Alpha self, and that would make me act like my typical grouchy, sarcastic self. Yeah, this was going to be fun. NOT!


    The nerves continued nonstop all week, almost reaching a fever pitch. That is until Vincent asked me on Thursday if I was ready for the trip we were taking.


    "You''re going too?" I asked him, confused.


    "No one told you?" He asked me, the shock clear on his face.


    "No, no one told me anyone wasing with us."


    "It would be best for you to have a guard with you, for when the Alpha is in his meeting or if you wish to explore the area a little." He spoke so matter-of-factly, like I should have known this. I was so relieved I could have kissed him in that moment.


    "I am definitely ready and looking forward to it." I told him. Now. I added mentally.


    I had meant it too. It would be easier to travel with Reece if Vincent were with us. I''m very certain Vincent would keep us in check, making it so we didn''t kill each other while trying to spread the joyous news of our mating. I mean, what could possible have gone wrong? No, I''m more than happy with the arrangements now. Thank you, Vincent. I kept saying inside my head all day long.


    We were staying overnight apparently, but just one. So, I was packing my bag now. It''s Friday afternoon, and we would be leaving shortly when Reece returned from a meeting at the office.


    Hmm. I know I am only going for one night, but Aunt Eve always told me to be prepared. Going for one night, pack for two. You never know if you''re going to mess up an outfit or get dyed. You need to have the extra clothes just in case. So, I followed her advice. Best not to chance things now. My luck, I would end up spilling something all over myself.


    My bag was packed, and I was waiting in the front hall with Vincent. Reece had gotten home a little while ago and we were now just waiting on him. I was nervous, but excited. I knew things were going to be tense and awkward still, but I would still be seeing new people and ces.


    Noah was taking some much-needed time off with Nikki since he wasn''t needed for the night. It seemed several pack members were all trying to use this trip of ours to wind down since the Alpha was going to be gone.


    As the excitement and nerves were both growing, my tension was at its max. I was basically rambling nonstop to Vincent while waiting in the hall when he got a phone call and excused himself. Great, now I''m all alone. I thought to myself. I just hoped he would get back before Reece came down. I did not need that kind of pent up frustration for the trip. I wanted to have a good time this weekend.


    I got my wish. Vincent came back almost immediately, looking distressed.


    "What''s wrong Vincent?" I asked him, worried that something had happened.


    "Heather might be going into earlybor. She''s not due for another few weeks." He confessed, still staring at his phone. "Is she alright? Will the baby be alright?" I genuinely cared for Vincent and Heather. They were some of the nicest people I had ever met. I didn''t want anything happening to their baby.


    "She is on her way to see the pack hospital now, to have things checked. They want to keep her overnight, just to make sure." His voice was full of concern for his wife and child. He clearly didn''t know what to do. Werewolf pregnancies onlysted six months, so going intobor nearly a month early could mean that something was very wrong. Then again it could also mean that they had just been wrong on conception dates, but that was unlikely with modern technology and wolf senses. He clearly wanted to be there with his mate.


    "Go Vincent." I told him.


    "But, Luna, what about the-?" He started, but I cut him off.


    "Your mate is more important right now. Go, that''s an order." I told him firmly. He smiled at me gratefully.


    "Thank you, Trinity." He said, hugging me quickly before running out of the house. He forgot his bag. Oh well, he would just have toe back for itter.


    "Now, to break the news to a certain someone. I''m sure he''s bound to be grumpy about it." I groaned as I walked up the stairs. No need to rush, this was going to be painful enough.


    When I got to the south wing of the fourth floor, I could tell that Reece was not in his room. He was, however, further down the hall in his mother''s room. I was walking toward the door when I heard his voice.


    "I''m going to be gone tonight and most of tomorrow, Mom, so I won''t be back to talk to you untilte tomorrow night, after I''m done working." His voice was gentler than I had ever heard it. "I have to go visit the other packs, it''s that time of year again. But I need to start early this time. I need to introduce my mate to them. Have I told you about her yet?" His voice held none of the anger and frustration I was used to hearing from him. It was odd, but I couldn''t stop listening.


    "She''s younger than me, just over six years, I think. Pretty, in a different way than the rest of the pack. And she''s smart, ording to her cousin at least. But she doesn''t have a wolf. I''m worried that she will not be strong enough to protect herself if she needs to. That she can''t protect the pack. I don''t know what the Goddess was thinking pairing us together." Some of his words made me happy, others infuriated me.


    "I just don''t want to see anyone in the pack get hurt, Mom, including her. It''s my responsibility to protect everyone. And now, I have to find a way to protect someone who can''t even help protect them self. What am I going to do?"


    What''s with this man? I can so protect myself. Doesn''t he know that I have been training to fight since I was a little girl? I first learned to use a sword when I was four. Dude''s gonna have to learn a lesson. I said sarcastically to myself.


    I didn''t want him to know that I had heard him talking, so I tried to sneak back down to his room. When I got there, I knocked on his door loudly and called out to him.


    "Reece, I need to talk to you." I heard him stand up down the hall and turned toward him as he opened the door.


    "What?" He snapped at me as soon as he was in the hall.


    "Oh, I didn''t know you were down there." I lied, trying to look shocked. You were nicer a minute ago, talking to your mom. I thought to myself. Are you a momma''s boy? But that wasn''t fair, his mother was in a bad state for a long time. I know she was a sore spot for him.


    "What do you need, Little Bunny?" He asked me, I swear he uses that name just to make me mad.


    "Well, I have a bit of bad news." I told him. He raised an eyebrow in curiosity then looked at the floor sighing.


    "Fine,e in." He opened his door and went into his room. I stood there, nervously for a moment, not sure if I wanted to go into his room. "Are youing or not?" He growled from inside. I took a breath to steady myself and followed him in.


    His room was set up a lot like mine. The color scheme was done in dark green and dark wood. The number and type of furniture were the same, but the style was different. My room had looked a little more feminine from the get-go, but his definitely looked masculine. There were fewer intricate carvings in the wood, the dark wood stain just brought out the natural pattern in the wood itself instead.


    The rooms were about the same size, and aside from the color scheme and design style they looked like the exact same room. At least I was being treated fairly in that aspect. He went to sit on the sofa in the sitting area, lounging into the corner.


    He sat with his right arm flung across the back of the sofa, right leg bent with his knee pressed up against the back of the cushions. He was turned with his back to the corner so he could face me.


    "Sit." He ordered.


    "Where?" I asked, looking for a chair or another piece of furniture.


    "Are you too good for the couch?" He asked me.


    "You need to get over this aversion, we are going to be in other packs, they must think that we are mated."


    "And whose fault is it that I have an aversion to you?" I snapped at him with a hint of a growl in my voice. He just red at me.


    "I''m fully aware. Be that as it may, we need to learn to put up with each other." He said, surprisingly not getting angry at my outburst.


    "I know." I told him, letting my anger dete as I sat apprehensively onto the sofa.


    "So, what is the problem?" He asked, getting straight to the point.


    "Heather is on her way to the pack hospital. They think she may be having the baby early. She isn''t due for almost a month." I told him.


    "Do they know what''s happening?" He asked, I could hear the concern in his voice.


    "Vincent didn''t have that information yet." I told him.


    "Where is Vincent now?"


    "I told him to go. He needs to be with his mate at a time like this." I saw the surprise on his face.

 Chapter 38 - Reece-A Slight Change In Plans

    <h4>Chapter 38 - Reece-A Slight Change In ns</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I was surprised when Little Bunny called out to me when I was talking to mom, but she never willingly came to me, so I knew it had to be important.


    "Reece, I need to talk to you." Her voice sounded nervous but still strong.


    "What?" I snapped when I went out to the hall. I was worried she had heard my earlier conversation.


    "Oh, I didn''t know you were down there." She looked tense.


    "What do you need, Little Bunny?"


    "Well, I have a bit of bad news." She clearly didn''t want to tell me what was going on. I raised an eyebrow in suspicion before looking at the floor sighing.


    "Fine,e in." I opened my door and invited her in. She seemed nervous, like she wasn''t going toe in at first. She really was scared of me, good. "Are youing or not?" I growled from inside. She took a breath and followed me in.


    I flopped into the corner of the couch and watched her flounder, looking around the room for somewhere to sit. Was it that bad sitting next to me?


    "Sit." I told her, that got her to talk at least.


    "Where?" She asked.


    "Are you too good for the couch?"


    "No, I just didn''t think you wanted me to sit with you." She seemed embarrassed.


    "You need to get over this aversion, we are going to be in other packs, they must think that we are mated." They would never buy it if she couldn''t even sit next to me.


    "And whose fault is it that I have an aversion to you?" She snapped at me with a hint of a growl in her voice. I just red at her in defeat.


    "I''m fully aware. Be that as it may, we need to learn to put up with each other." I tried to be calm with her tonight, usually I just yelled and growled at her, and the desire and habit to do so was warring with me still.


    "I know." She deted and sat apprehensively onto the couch.


    "So, what is the problem?" I asked, getting straight to the point.


    "Heather is on her way to the pack hospital. They think she may be having the baby early. She isn''t due for almost a month."


    "Do they know what''s happening?" I was worried for Heather the minute Little Bunny had told me what was going on. Vincent was one of my best warriors, and I considered him a friend. He had also been very vital in keeping the new Luna happy and under control.


    "Vincent didn''t have that information yet." I sensed a but in her words.


    "Where is Vincent now?" I asked.


    "I told him to go. He needs to be with his mate at a time like this." That shocked me. I know she would have preferred to have Vincent with us, of all people, but she sent him away.


    "That was a wise decision."


    "Are you saying I''m incapable of being wise?" She asked, annoyed.


    "No, just that you have made unwise decisions in the past." I told her.


    "Yeah, I''m looking at one." She snapped. I growled at that. I didn''t like that she considered me an unwise choice. I was not putting myself in that category, and as much as I wish I could have a different mate, a different Luna. I never considered that taking her was unwise because I knew I had no other choice. I just didn''t ept it on a personal level, that was different. "Anyone ever call you Cujo because you growl so much?" She asked me, sarcasm all but physically dripping from the words. I fought the urge to growl again.


    "Why do you insist on calling me the names of different fictional dogs?" I demanded.


    "Why do you insist on calling me Little Bunny?" She countered.


    "It''s amusing."


    "Right back at you Scooby Doo."


    "What was that one for?" I asked.


    "Well, I could say it''s because you''re asking questions trying to be a detective, but the real answer is, because I wanted to make a rhyme." Iughed.


    I think it was the first time I hadughed in front of her, I hadn''t intended to do it, but I couldn''t help it. I wasughing and not just chuckling at her. She was shocked at first then she alsoughed lightly. Herugh was cute, like music.


    Not bells tinkling or ringing or anything like that. It''s hard to describe. It sounded like normalughter, but when I heard it, it felt like I was listening to soft, sweet, happy music. It made my wolf stand at attention, but he was a good boy and just sniffed the air, not trying to push things at the moment.


    When theughs between us ended, and I took a deep breath to settle myself, I continued the conversation.


    "So, we need to find a recement, and fast."


    "That''s right." She agreed.


    "I will call Noah and ask him-." But she interrupted me before I could finish.


    "No can do, he took Nikki to the cabin for the weekend." She told me.


    "That''s right, I had forgotten. What about David?" I asked her, I knew she wasfortable with him as well.


    "We can give him a call." She agreed.


    I pulled out my phone and called the warrior, but there was no answer. He had better have a good reason for ignoring my call. I was not about to call my Beta and ask for his help. My Beta had not been my choice, it had been those meddling old fools who had forced my cousin on me. I didn''t think that my spineless twit of a cousin had enough brains to be a Beta. So, who did that leave me with?


    "I can call Jeremy or Leslie." I saw the revulsion on her face and wondered which one that face was for.


    "Is there anyone else you trust?" She asked me, did she not like either of them?


    "Is there a problem with my warriors?" I asked her. She looked ufortable. "Fine, you can answer thatter. And to answer your question, no, no one that I would trust to go on the trip with us. I was in the middle of having them trained. I hadn''t been able to focus on training the warriors, as much as I would have liked, I was too busy running too many things." I told her, letting her know that I clearly expect her to do her fair share.


    "So, what, we reschedule?" She asked me, confused by the situation.


    "We can''t, we have to go."


    "Then what do we do?"


    "We go alone, just the two of us." I dered. I swear, her face froze, and she looked like I told her I was going to kill her puppy. "We simply cannot reschedule."


    "I understand." She frowned, nodding her head. She may have understood, but she clearly didn''t ept it. What am I going to do with her?


    I grabbed my bag, which was already packed, and left the room with her. I led the way down the stairs, so I didn''t have to see the disappointment on her face. I know she feared me, I wanted that, counted on it, but I was no disappointment to anyone.


    I grabbed her bag and marched quickly off down the hall, forcing her to jog to keep up. I was going to show her that she was lucky to be chosen as the Luna. That even though she was Luna in name only, she was still one of the luckiest women in the pack.


    I walked past most of the cars,ing to a stop in front of the brand-new Portofino M I had purchased earlier this year. I rarely ever drove it, and I wasn''t even sure why I had gotten it. But now I want to show off a bit. The Italian sports car was usually much too shy for the roads around here, and for me really, but maybe she would like it.


    I threw the bags in the small trunk and had the passenger door opened for her before she had even caught up to me.


    "Get in." I told her trying to soften my voice. The look on her face was one of pure shock. The car probably took her breath away.


    "We''re taking this?" She asked.


    "It''s just the two of us now, we don''t need anything bigger." I smirked at her. She sighed and got into the car. I shut her door and walked around to get in. She had buckled and was ready.


    I started the car, the roar of the engine reminding me, partly, of why I had bought the car in the first ce. I revved the engine a few times, reveling in the glorious sound and grinning to myself. I shifted the car into drive and started down therge, long driveway. I sped through thepound and out of the gate in no time at all.


    This trip we were going on was to visit a cousin of mine. One I wish I could have traded for Caleb growing up. Riley grew up in a different pack and I only ever saw him on visits, but he was a hell of a lot better than Caleb, that''s for sure. We would be staying at Riley''s Alpha house tonight and then visiting a fealty pack tomorrow morning before going home. This would be a quick trip, thankfully.


    I pulled the car onto the freeway, wanting to open it up a bit. It was Friday night, most people were already home from work, so the roads were pretty empty, thankfully. I was able to let the engine roar as I sped up on the empty highway.


    "Ugh!" I heard my little bunny scoff next to me.


    "Something wrong?"


    "No, not really. Just seeing that most men truly are the same."


    "What''s that supposed to mean?" I asked her.


    "Could you be more predictable with this ostentatious death trap of yours?" She snorted. "Seriously, men are their toys."


    "Hmm. So, you don''t like the car?" I asked her. That''s a first. All the women who had seen it hadpletely adored it.


    "Not really, it''s too much. I mean, don''t get me wrong, it''s sharp and I can appreciate its beauty, but I would much rather have a car that stands out a little less." That threw me through a loop.


    "You''re not like other girls, are you?" I asked her.


    "You still hadn''t figured that out yet Marmaduke?" She asked, calling me yet another ridiculous dog name.


    "I''m still learning. And I''m not like the men you know." I told her.


    "Really? Well I guess that''s true in a way. Unless Ipare you to my grandfather. My cousins and uncle were all very nice. Grandfather not so much. The men I''ve met since have varied, so I guess you are like half of them." That kind of hurt me personally. Also to know that someone so close to her had treated her so bad for so long.


    "You''ll see, I''m one of a kind, I am the Alpha after all." I chuckled.


    "Yeah, which means you''re more conceited." She retorted with augh.


    "No, just more confident." I countered.


    Oddly enough, conversation continued easily like this until we got to Riley''s. It took about an hour and a half to get there. It wasn''t far, but Riley and I were always too busy to see each other regrly.


    Thankfully, we were both still in a good mood when we got there, it would be easier to pretend to be a proper couple that way.

 Chapter 39 - Reece-Azure River Pack

    <h4>Chapter 39 - Reece-Azure River Pack</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    It was a bit after nine when I pulled the car to a stop outside the Azure River Pack Alpha House. It was the house that my cousin Riley had been raised in and lived in still. Like me, he took charge of his pack seven years ago, we both lost our fathers in the same battle. He was lucky enough to still have the former Luna, his mother, there to help him transition into the role. My Aunt was stronger than my mother, that or my mother just loved my father more and his loss was harder on her.


    I had no sooner shut off the engine than Riley came running out of the house.


    "Reece!" He yelled, giving me a bear hug like he''s always done since we were kids. He''s two years older than me but you''d never know it based on the way he acts.


    "Hey Ri." I smiled hugging him back. He was my best friend growing up. Between the two of us, we convinced our fathers to make monthly visits just so we could spend more time with one another. But that was in a simpler time.


    "So, where is this new sister of mine?" He asked just as Little Bunny was getting out of the car without waiting for anyone to open her door. I should work on training her too. She needed to wait for someone to open doors for her, pull out her chair, things like that. That wasn''t me being chivalrous. No, she''s the Luna now, people need to treat her a certain way, and she needs to learn to let them.


    I walked around the car and slipped my arm around her shoulders, putting a smile on my face as I did so. I hoped she would understand my gesture as me saying y along Little Bunny.


    "Riley, this is my mate, Trinity." I smiled down at her. She was smiling sweetly at Riley and ying the ever devoted and loving mate properly as she had slid her arms around my waist hugging me gently but firmly. My wolf was standing at attention, panting in my ears just from her touch. Down boy. I snapped at him and told him to calm down.


    "It''s a pleasure to meet you Trinity, I''m Riley, the Alpha of the Azure River pack and Reece''s cousin. But I''ve always considered him to be more like a brother, since we were both only children, he was the closest thing I had to a brother." Riley introduced himself with a big grin.


    "Hello, it''s wonderful to meet you." She smiled brightly, the light of which looked like it nearly blinded Riley.


    "She''s absolutely gorgeous Reece, I have absolutely no clue what she sees in you." He said pointedly. To my horror Little Bunnyughed at his remark which set Rileyughing hysterically. "Oh, she''s going to be fun. Shall we go inside so I can introduce you to everyone?" He held out a hand to her. She slid her hands off of me and took his hand instead as they started walking. My wolf and I both growled simultaneously.


    Without thinking much about it, I reached out and took her hand from his and held it firmly in my own. To lock her in ce I put my arm around her shoulder. She was my mate, she was supposed to hold my hand, not his. She looked up at me perplexed while Riley justughed at us both.


    "Look at you, being all jealous, I never thought I''d see the day." He smiled at me. I wasn''t jealous, I just had to put on all appearances. "I''m not jealous." I grumbled. "Not of you, that''s for sure." Little Bunny was still looking confused and unsure of the situation, but she didn''t fight me off, good.


    When we got inside I nearly roared. I did growl low under my breath. Riley had done something he shouldn''t have. He had gathered arge number of his pack members in the house, and the moment we went inside confetti was dropped and shouts and cheers rang out.


    "Congrattions!"


    "Way to go Reece!"


    "Cheers to the happy couple!"


    "To the Alpha and Luna!" I heard so many different voices yell out to me at once that it nearly gave me a headache. It did, however, piss me off.


    "Allow us to celebrate with you tonight." Riley said, grinning like a fool. This exins why he hade running outside when we got here. This was an ambush, and since I was infortable, familiar territory I had let my guard down. Damn that meddling cousin of mine.


    I saw Riley''s mateing up to him. She seemed to be expecting again. This would make his second pup. He had found his mate four years ago. ording to him, he was the happiest man alive with his mate and a little one. I would never have that. That thought was depressing.


    Riley''s pack was smaller than my own, which is why our packs had a longsting treaty. They only have about one third of the pack members that we did, meaning if someone tried to invade theirnds, or if they were to go to war with another pack, that pack would actually be attacking me. Riley was a good Alpha to his people, I would never doubt that, but they didn''t have enough people to protect themselves. That''s why we always visited as a kid, to strengthen theirnds and borders. These people were also my people, making them Little Bunny''s people too, something I would need to fully exin to herter.


    We were forced to be the center of the party. Everyone wasing to introduce themselves to us. Everyone was eager to meet my new mate and introduce themselves to the new Luna that governed over them. I could tell that she was ufortable with all the attention, even though Little Bunny did good. She smiled through the whole thing and handled herself like a true Luna. She just might have what it takes to be there for the people. If only she had a wolf, then she would be strong enough to take care of herself and the pack.


    It was after all the introductions were done that the low music ying was cut off and I heard Riley''s voice ring out. I had a bad feeling.


    "Wee everyone and thank you for joining us in weing the new Luna of the Red Springs pack and my cousin Reece''s new mate. I''m happy for you man. You know that I think of you as a bother, so I thank you for giving me a beautiful sister-inw who will now grace us all with beautiful children who will hopefully call me Uncle Ri." He eximed,ughing. I noticed the slight blush form on my Bunny''s face, it was funny what affected her and what didn''t.


    "Now, I would like to ask you to grant a selfish request of mine. I was not there for your mate announcement. I didn''t get to see any of the typical firsts. I would like to see some here, they will be your firsts here." Riley was saying with a huge grin on his face. Yup, I was definitely getting a really bad feeling, and the Little Bunny was looking more and more like her namesake every second.


    "Yes!" Echoed throughout the room.


    "Now, Reece, dear cousin and brother from another mother, please have your first dance in this territory with your mate."


    "Dance, dance, dance." The people in the room chanted after his request. I looked down into my mates terrified eyes, the question clear on my face. She sighed, lowering her eyes momentarily, then looked at me with resolve and nodded her head.


    "Fine, let''s give them what they want." She nodded. She was at least emotionally stronger than I thought.


    "Fine." I said, turning to look at Riley with a stern look.


    "Excellent. Does thedy have a song request?" He asked. She shook her head. "No, then allow us to pick one." He and his mate, Katie, put their heads together before starting the music up. I hadn''t noticed at first. But everyone hadpletely cleared the dance floor. Little Bunny and I were now alone on the floor.


    I didn''t know the song that started, but I could tell that she did, by the look in her eyes.


    "You say you''ll be down in five." The song started with light piano music and someone snapping their fingers in a slow rhythm. "The smell of your perfume is floatin'' down the stairs." I took her left hand and pulled her close, wrapping my other hand around her waist. I knew she had had dance lessons as a kid, so she should be able to keep up, even though we had never danced together before.


    I started to slowly spin her around the floor, staring into her eyes as we went. The tempo was picking up slightly as the song went along.


    "I thank god you can read my mind, cause when you look at me with those eyes, I''m speechless." The song seemed to be a love song, a man singing his devotion to his lover. In a normal mate bond this would be perfect, but for us it didn''t fit. But I had to y the part, as did she.

 Chapter 40 - Both-The First.....

    <h4>Chapter 40 - Both-The First.....</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    We moved around the room. I spun her around a few times. But mostly, I held her close staring into her eyes, as we moved gently around the floor. I was looking into her eyes closer and more intently than I had ever really done before. I noticed that she didn''t just have that bright sky-blue color, there was also a dark blue ring inside that, and yet inside that was a thin golden ring around the pupil. She had a triple iris.


    "Kiss her!" I heard Riley yell at me. I red at him, but it was toote. The chanting had started.


    "Kiss her, kiss her, kiss her!"


    I looked at her, hoping she knew that I wished I didn''t have to do this, but we had to y along. I took my hand from hers and slid it up her arm and to the back of her head. I tilted her head back into my palm and leaning down I ced my lips on hers.


    I took advantage of her gasp. I slid my tongue into her slightly open mouth, forcing it open further. The taste of her exploded on my tongue. It was like eating her scent. I could taste warm, freshly baked apple pie one second. The next second, I could taste the air before a thunderstorm. The ozone and slight electrical charge that filled the air right before the storm started.


    I used my grip on the back of her head and her lower back to pull her closer to me and up onto her toes. I felt her hands grip my shirt tightly, I wasn''t sure if it was with fear or desire. I didn''t care. At that moment my wolf was ruling me, and I couldn''t stop myself.


    I heard apuse and whistling explode in the room around us. The sound brought me back to my senses. With a growl I let her go abruptly. So abruptly that she nearly fell, and I had to reach out to steady her.


    "I''m d you stopped there, man, we don''t have any sprinklers installed in case of fire." Riley saidughing. I red at him. It was not that great of a kiss. I tried to convince myself as my wolf called me insane.


    The party continued on for a little while longer, but Riley and I had business we needed to discuss, so I asked Little Bunny to stay put right where she was while I was gone. She promised she would, so I apanied Riley to his office upstairs. This Alpha House was not asrge as my own. So, I wouldn''t be that far away.


    "I was surprised when I saw that you have a mate that you truly care about now." Rileymented when we were inside. I wasn''t going to correct him. He was one of the people I wanted to convince the most. He didn''t need to know the truth. But I really didn''t know why he thought I cared about her so much.


    "You know how it is." I joked with him.


    "Yeah, I just never thought you would." He joked with me. "Try not to blow it, alright man."


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was beyond shocked when I got to this new territory and found out they were throwing us a mate party. I guess it was kind of like an engagement party. Most of the people in the pack run by Reece''s cousin were here. And it was overwhelming to be introduced to them so soon.


    Then, his cousin said he had to see our firsts, wanting to see our first dance in his territory. Well little did he know that it would be our first dance ever. Reece was a surprisingly good dancer. He took my hand and started moving us around the floor in perfect beat as Speechless yed over the speakers. He was staring at me intently as I stared back, like he was memorizing my face or something.


    The next thing I knew, they were chanting for him to kiss me. This was too much. We had never kissed, I had never kissed anyone ever. Reece and I were never meant to kiss. And here we were expected to do so in front of all of them. I couldn''t do it. But Reece ignored my distress as he slid his hand up my arm and to the back of my head. He pulled me to him as he leaned down and kissed me.


    His lips pressed against mine. Hot and unyielding. What surprised me though, wasn''t the pressure or intensity of his kiss. It was the intense electrical shock that seemed to flow through my whole body as he kissed me hard. I gasped as the shock ran through me.


    He took my gasp as an invitation. His tongue slid into my mouth, conquering it for his own. His tongue slid across mine and I felt a fire ze deep within me. He moved his tongue around my mouth as if he were trying to eat me, starting at my mouth. I thought of Little Red Riding Hood momentarily, and just what it would be like to be eaten by this particr big bad wolf.


    I grabbed his shirt to hold on as he lifted me onto my toes. I was terrified by the fire leaping inside of me, it felt like it was going to burn me from the inside out. But my body was very excited at the feel of his mouth on mine. If I had a wolf, she would have been howling at that moment. I imagined what it would sound like.


    I could hear the whistling and cheering around us. That brought me back to my senses. And judging by how quickly Reece let me go, it brought him back to his just as fast. I could see heat in his eyes, but there was anger clear on his face as well. He was mad, and it almost seemed like it was directed at me.


    Not long after the kiss, Reece and Riley needed to go discuss their business in the office. I was ordered to not leave the spot where I stood. I promised him, not wanting to receive the brunt of his anger from before.


    Not long after Reece left, I was surrounded by people. Several females from this pack came to talk to me.


    "That sure was something, Luna." One pretty girl about my age said.


    "I thought I was going to melt just watching." Another said as she fanned her face. I blushed at their words.


    "You''re one lucky girl." I saw a very pretty girl say as she looked at me with envy. "We all had hoped that Alpha Reece would have toe here to find a mate." She sneered whileughing.


    "Yeah, I just lucked out." Iughed nervously.


    "Alright, give her spacedies." Katie, Riley''s mate, said as she came to my rescue. Katie was pregnant, not as far along as Heather, but seeing her made me think of Vincent and their baby. I was worried about them all.


    "Excuse, I need to make a call." I mumbled, excusing myself from the group. Reece would never know I left if I made it back before him.


    I walked to the entry hall by the front door and then out into the night. I wanted privacy for this call, Vincent''s business was not their business. When I was outside and leaning against Reece''s stupidly expensive car, I pulled out my phone and opened my contact list. Vincent was at the top since I needed to call him to escort me frequently, I pressed his name and waited while the phone rang. He answered on the fourth ring.


    "Hello Luna, is something wrong?" His voice was filled with concern for me when he should have been focusing on Heather.


    "No, everything is fine. Reece is in a meeting and I was worried about you and Heather. Truth be told, the Luna of this pack is expecting as well, and she made me think of you two. I hope I am not intruding."


    "No, you''re not intruding. I am happy that you were thinking of us. Heather is resting. They have managed to stop the contractions for now. They do not know what caused them, but as long as she takes it easy from now on, she should have no problems. As long as she makes it another two weeks the doctors will have no worries."


    "That is great to hear." I told him. I was so happy and relieved to hear that. Things should hopefully be alright. I heard a branch snap somewhere in the trees near the house. It was nowhere near me, so I paid it no mind.


    "Luna, if you don''t mind me asking, besides calling me, what are you doing while you are waiting for the Alpha?" He asked, concern once again in his voice.


    "I was talking to the pack members, but then I thought of you, so I stepped out for a moment."


    "Outside?"


    "Yeah." I answered him.


    "Alone?"


    "It''s just for a few minutes. I''ll be back before Reece even knows I left." I told him. "I didn''t think that the members of this pack needed to know your business. It''s your personal matter after¡ª."

 Chapter 41 - Reece-What Happened To Little Bunny???

    <h4>Chapter 41 - Reece-What Happened To Little Bunny???</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I never got to finish my sentence. Someone hade up behind me and ced a hand over my mouth so tightly that it hurt. I couldn''t even scream. An arm wrapped around my upper body, locking my arms in ce and lifting me off the ground. In themotion my phone fell to the ground and was shattered when someone''s foot came crashing down on top of it.


    I tried to bite the hand holding my mouth even as I kicked my feet frantically behind me to try and hit the man who had a hold of me. My feet made contact in several ces. I felt the give of soft flesh and the cracking of what felt like bone at different times that I kicked him. He grunted and yelled in pain several times.


    Finally, my attacker dropped me. Inded on all fours. Spinning as I stood, I kicked out, kicking where I estimated his face should be. I made contact and felt the shattering of bone.


    "God damn it, help me with her will you." He growled through pain before he spat blood onto the ground. I sensed movement, but it was toote. Two sets of hands grabbed me from behind.


    "Tie her up." The one I had gotten free of groaned through his pain.


    These men were not wolves, but I did not know why they were here or what they wanted with me. I could tell that they were not human. There was something different about their smell that confused me.


    "Can we use-." One of them began.


    "No, human methods only." The one who tried to get me first snapped. "Don''t give them another way to track us."


    I started iling again, trying to get free. I could not let them tie me up. If they did, they would take me away from here to who knows where.


    I was kicking and snapping at them with my teeth at every chance I got. They were getting frustrated. I was not going to go down easy.


    "We''re running out of time." One of them groaned.


    "Oh hell, watch out." A Different one of them hissed. I didn''t know what he was nning or what he was going to do. He came near me, his awkward scent making me want to sneeze. I sensed him lift an arm and then suddenly I felt an intense pain in the side of my head. That was thest thing I knew before everything went ck.


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I had only been in my meeting with Riley for about twenty minutes when my phone rang. I ignored it, silencing it without even looking at the screen as I continued my conversation that was about forty percent business and sixty percent him grilling me on my new mate with a smile on his face.


    "Don''t you love having a mate? It''s the best feeling in the world for me man." He was saying.


    "I''m still adjusting, we both-." My phone rang again.


    I looked and saw that it was Vincent calling. My heart sank seeing his name. I hoped it wasn''t bad news. I ignored the call again. I would call him backter.


    "You will see man. Having your mate around is the best. Her scent will calm you down when you need it. Excite you when things are too calm. You will feel her presence and she will always be exactly what you need, no matter the situation." He smiled at me, the love for his mate clear on his face.


    "And when you finally have your first pup together, it will make you feel like you''re on top of the world." He continued. My phone rang again. It was Vincent again. I pulled it out, expecting to hear the worst about his mate and pup.


    "Vincent! I''m in a meeting right now, I will call you backter." I said curtly. I did not want to have this conversation with him in front of Riley.


    "Alpha!" He yelled, interrupting me.


    "What Vincent?"


    "Something''s wrong with the Luna."


    "No, she''s downstairs at the party." I told him. "She''s fine."


    "No, she''s not, Sir!" He yelled. "She just called me to ask about Heather and the baby. Afterwards, I asked her where she was because it was so quiet on her end and she had said you were in a meeting."


    "Quiet? Where was she? She didn''t listen to me." I growled. "I told her not to leave that spot."


    "She went outside."


    "ALONE!" I snarled.


    "Yes Sir, and as I was talking to her, she was cut off mid sentence. Then the phone cut offpletely a few secondster, but I clearly heard the sound of a struggle."


    "Dammit." I was on my feet and running out of the room already. "Why couldn''t she stay put? Why can''t she just listen to me for once?"


    "Reece, what''s wrong?" Riley asked as he caught up to me, running at my heels.


    "Something happened to my mate!" I snapped at him.


    "What? How is that possible?" He ran ahead of me to speak to someone.


    I ran to where I had left my mate, Little Bunny was not there. I followed her scent to the front door and out into the night. I could smell blood instantly. I followed her scent to the car. It was strong here. She must have been standing here when she was attacked.


    I could smell blood here, yet it wasn''t hers. But there was something off about the scent of the other person. I couldn''t make out what their scent was. It was as if their scent had faded to near nothing. Their blood was easy enough to smell at least.


    "Little Bunny managed to fight a little I see." I smiled to myself as I bent down. I found her phone where it had fallen on the ground. It had been smashed with a boot print clearly visible on the screen.


    I looked at the ground, trying to get a visual of what happened. The man hade up behind her while she was on the phone. If even I had a hard time detecting his scent, then she would have as well. But she should have heard himing at least. But she was on the phone, and she was distracted by the party.


    "Dammit Little Bunny, why didn''t you listen to me and stay inside? When I said stay put, I never thought you would get attacked, I just didn''t want to have to find you after the meeting." I growled through tightly clenched teeth.


    "Reece!" Riley was running toward me.


    "Wait." I held up a hand to stop him. "I''m still checking the tracks."


    "What happened?" He asked me.


    "From what Vincent told me and what the tracks show, she was attacked by what looks like three men. She fought them off as good as she could for a while, but they managed to take her."


    "Who were they?"


    "I can''t get a read on their scent, it seems off somehow." I growled again.


    "Are they wolves?" He asked, anger in his voice.


    "No, not wolves, and they don''t smell human either."


    "Magic users?"


    "Probably. I think they''re using a concealment spell on themselves."


    "What the hell are those dirty Warlocks doing in my territory?" Riley snarled.


    "That''s what I want to find out." I told him. "Trinity managed to fight them for a while before they took her, but we have to hurry. There are three types of blood here. Two are from her attackers and one is hers." Anger filled me and I was ready to rip someone apart.


    "Do you think she is alright?" He asked, apprehension filling his voice.


    "I don''t know." I snapped, as I finally tracked which direction the boot prints were moving. Their muted scents were partially obscuring hers. I could still get traces of her though, which was more than I got from them.


    I locked my eyes on the path and took off running in that direction, jumping mid stride to change forms. Landing the next second on four feet instead of two. I ran as fast as I could, following the faint traces of her scent along the trail they had taken. I was breathing heavy already, mostly from anger. I had to fight not to lose the trail, but I wouldn''t give up. They would pay for taking what was mine.


    Don''t worry Little Bunny, I''m on my way.

 Chapter 42 - Both-Save Little Bunny

    <h4>Chapter 42 - Both-Save Little Bunny</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    My head was pounding, and I felt disoriented. I didn''t know why at first. But then I realized that I was hanging over something, like how Reece had thrown me over his shoulder. But this time the person was not taking as much care. They were being rough, and it showed.


    My stomach wasying across someone''s shoulder just like it had Reece''s, but it was pressing against it in a way that made their shoulder dig in ufortably. I could barely breathe. And whoever this person was they were running fast. The constant movement up and down was like a stabbing pain to my gut with every step they took.


    I came to my senses, shaking thest of the fog from my head. I remembered what had happened. The attack, the struggle, the searing pain in my head, then everything going ck. They had been trying to tie me up, but I was fighting them too much. Apparently, they had given up the idea on tying me when they knocked me unconscious. They clearly didn''t expect me to wake up so soon.


    I would need to get away, and quick. If I could just get to my feet, I could run away. I was part wolf, so I was bound to be faster than them. I noticed they were going up a hill and had noticeably slowed. This was my chance.


    I grabbed a fist full of the man''s hair, yanking it back and giving myself leverage, all the while lifting myself (with the use of my grip on his hair) and bringing my knee crashing up into his throat. His grip on me loosened, I dropped and rolled to the side, he fell to his knees gasping and choking for air. I got to my feet and made a run back toward the Alpha house, but the man''s scream had alerted the others too quickly.


    I felt a hand grab me by my hair and pull hard. I cried out, involuntarily, as I was yanked off my feet. I fell backwards andnded with a crashing thud on the forest floor. The breath rushed out of me as I was momentarily dazed. I lost the precious time I needed to escape.


    "You should have just kept still." One of the men said through clenched teeth. I saw two of them approaching me. The other was just struggling to his feet. I scrambled backwards, trying to put some distance between us.


    "Stay away from me." I demanded.


    "Or what?" The man who had spoken earlier asked. He was right. I couldn''t do much. I could fight, and I would. But it would most likely end the same as before. But I still had to try.


    I couldn''t take my eyes off of them to form a n. I could only feel around in my surroundings for anything that could help me. My hand bumped into arge stick hidden under the leaf strewn ground. I closed my hand around it, halting my retreat and putting a pathetic look on my face, like I was frightened.


    "That''s right, just give up." The man spoke again, and he lunged at me. I swung out with therge branch as hard and fast as I could. It caught him hard across the face. He yelled in pain and frustration.


    "Why won''t you just stop you little bitch?" He screamed at me. The other two were lunging at me now. I swung again and hit one across the back of the head, and the other across the face on my back swing, breaking his nose. I could smell that all three of them were bleeding now. And all three were noticeably angry.


    The three of them leapt at me at the same time. I tried to swing at them as quickly as I could, but I wasn''t fast enough. They all lunged simultaneously. Two of themnded on my arms and pinned me down. The othernded on my legs, he leaned forward and he ced his hands on either side of my head.


    "We''re supposed to take you back with us, but you''re being a bit of a handful. Perhaps we need to make you morepliant." He whispered in my ear.


    "Get off of me." I yelled at him. "Don''t touch me." I spat the words in his face.


    I heard the sound of a wolf snarling in the distance, and I instantly knew who it was. I was happy to hear it, but I didn''t think he woulde for me. But it was probably only because he had to pretend that we were a proper couple while we were here.


    "Reece." I breathed his name in a sigh of relief.


    "God damn it, we''re out of time." One of them snapped, releasing me. I felt a rush of relief as they let go of me.


    "But we will be back for you." Anotherughed as he stood.


    "Here''s a parting gift." The one whose nose I broke said as he kicked me hard in the side of the head, right where they had hit me earlier. I cried out in pain and saw bright stars sh before my eyes, but I managed to stay conscious as I watched them run off.


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I was following the trail. I knew I was getting closer to them as Little Bunny''s scent was getting a little stronger. I heard a yell still a little off in the distance. A man''s cry of pain. Little Bunny must be awake and on the offense again. Then I heard the sound of her cry out in pain. I snarled. My wolf didn''t like them hurting our mate.


    I couldn''t hear anything the voices were saying yet, but I could hear the angry tones from the men and my Little Bunny. There was the sound of another scuffle, the men crying out in pain and the fresh scent of blood, none of it hers. Way to go Devil Bunny.


    Then I heard her scream something that made my blood boil.


    "Get off me! Don''t touch me!" Hands off! My wolf screamed. No one touches what''s mine, even if I don''t use it, it''s mine. Leave her alone. I snarled out loud at the sound of her screaming those words, knowing all too well what would make her say them.


    I heard them now, their voices were close enough to be clear.


    "Reece." She sighed my name in relief.


    "God damn it, we''re out of time."


    "But we will be back for you."


    "Here''s a parting gift." When thest one said this, I was close enough to see through the trees now. He had beenying somewhat on top of her, which infuriated me. When he stood up, he kicked her hard in the side of the head with his boot. She cried out in pain.


    I put on a burst of speed and tried to catch up to them. I noticed she had risen to her knees and was watching them leave. She didn''t seem to have the energy to get to her feet. I was torn between going after them and stopping to help her. I had never been torn like that before. But my duty was to my pack and she was part of my pack. I would send Riley''s men after the Warlocks.


    It took me another minute to get to her, running all out and weaving around the obstacles in my way. She didn''t even look at me, she just continued to watch the direction they had left in. I was worried she was in shock.


    I shifted, back to my human self, while crouching right next to her. She still didn''t look at me.


    "Are you alright Little Bunny?" I asked her. I knew that blow to the head had been a bad one, and she was more susceptible to injury than I was. She didn''t answer. She continued to act like I wasn''t even there. "Little Bunny, are you OK?" I asked her, trying to get her attention. She still ignored me. Fearing that she might have a head injury I knelt lower and moved to look her in the face.


    I could see her eyes now. For the first time since I found her in the woods tonight. I had looked at her from the side when I spoke the first two times, so I hadn''t seen her eyes. But now I was looking. And what I saw almost made me gasp. I was d I was the first one to find her.


    Trinity''s eyes were glowing. The bright sky blue was glowing almost white now, the inner blue ring was shining like a sapphire and the gold ring looked metallic and reflective. The inner two circles were turning to the left and right, alternatingly. Half or full turns one way then they would switch back. It was almost like a camera lens permanently trying to autofocus and zoom at the same time. I had never seen anything like it before.


    "Trinity? What''s going on?" I asked her, shocked.


    "They''re going to get away if we don''t hurry." She yelled.


    "They''ve already gotten away." I told her, they were long gone, and we couldn''t track their scent.


    "No, they haven''t, they''re right there." She said pointing somewhere in the trees. "They''re about eighteen-hundred meters that way." She added.


    "You can still see them?" I asked her.


    "You can''t?" She sounded confused.


    "No."


    "Then follow their scent, it''s a little weird, and it makes me sneeze, but I''m sure you guys can get it better than me." She sighed, further confusing me.


    "Trinity, we can''t smell them at all." I told her. She finally blinked and broke eye contact with whatever she was focusing on. She looked so confused, but she also looked tired and hurt.


    "What do you mean you can''t smell them?" She asked me.


    "None of us here can smell them, only you. It''s like they were hiding their scent and it was hiding yours too."


    "What?" She looked shocked. "So, I''m the only one? Further proof I don''t belong". For some reason that made her look depressed.


    "At least you can smell them when they''re trying to hide, be on your guard next time." She nodded. "More importantly," I started, letting anger fill my voice, "why the hell did you leave that spot. I told you to stay put." I growled at her. I could see the defiance fill her eyes. She was preparing to argue.


    "Look, Mighty Dog," she was gearing up for an argument as she was slowly getting to her feet. "I don''t ne--." She slumped toward the ground and I caught her as she fell.

 Chapter 43 - Reece-Finally, Little Bunny Is Safe. Right?

    <h4>Chapter 43 - Reece-Finally, Little Bunny Is Safe. Right?</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Just as I caught her, Riley and the others came into the clearing. Riley and one of the others had shifted, they had taken to searching the surrounding areas in pairs, using human and wolf senses to make sure nothing was missed. Riley shifted back.


    "How is she?" He asked me and I lifted her up into my arms.


    "She''s been through a lot, and she''s beaten up. I need to get her back to the house." I told him. "The men who took her left going that way. They have about a mile and half head start, maybe two miles now. They were heading south east probably toward the highway."


    "Deek, Nick, Cole track them as best as you can. Her scent may linger with them, follow that if you can." Riley told his men. They nodded and ran into the woods. "I will head back to the house and prepare a room for her. I am sorry, Reece, this should not have happened. This is my fault."


    "No, it''s mine. I left her alone. I didn''te prepared. And none of us thought this would happen."


    I held Little Bunny in my arms, cradled against my chest. She wasn''t just asleep likest time. No, this time she was unconscious and was not likely to wake up and catch me carrying her. Which was probably a good thing, since I was stark naked at the moment and she would probably take offense and have some problem with that.


    I carried her swiftly, getting to the house in no time. Still, Riley had gotten there first as he had run in his wolf form. He was waiting in the forest with a set of clothes for me to put on. I had to make a choice, set the bunny on the ground or let him hold her while I got dressed. I set her gently on the ground, propped against a tree.


    Once I was dressed, I lifted her into my arms again, doing so I heard her groan. She was in pain, and hearing that made my wolf snarl.


    I carried her into the house andid her on the bed in the room that Riley had gotten ready. I had not told him or anyone in his pack that she didn''t have a wolf. I didn''t want rumors spreading and following her everywhere. But I needed to tell him now.


    "Riley, I need to talk to you. Privately." I implored him. He cleared the room, leaving just Little Bunny, myself, and Riley.


    "What is it Reece?" He asked me, looking worried.


    "There is something I need to tell you, about Trinity." I looked at him, with a pleading look.


    "What''s wrong?" He was fearing the worst, I could tell.


    "I don''t want what I am about to tell you to leave this room, I do not want it to be public knowledge in your pack."


    "You have my word, brother." He promised, looking at me intently.


    "Trinity, is not like the other pack members, she is not like you and I."


    "Meaning?"


    "She does not have a wolf."


    "How can that be?" He asked, confusion written all over his face.


    "I don''t know exactly. But her mother was a wolf, I know that for a fact."


    "And her father?" He questioned.


    "No one knows." His eyes widened in response to my words.


    "How could no one know?"


    "Her mother either did not know or was afraid to tell anyone. Or somehow manipted into not telling." I told him. I was starting to have some thoughts concerning her lineage, I wondered if I was anywhere near the truth.


    "Do you think he was a human?"


    "No, most human and wolf half breeds still end up with a wolf, just a weaker one."


    "Do you have any theories?"


    "Just one." I said. "But I don''t know if I want to say it just yet."


    "Fair enough. I won''t push you Reece. What do you need from me right now?" He asked me, never once pressuring me to give more.


    "I want a pack doctor to look at her. Do you have one you can trust?"


    "We only have one pack doctor. She''s an OK person, but I don''t know if I can reach her on such short notice." He admitted, and that annoyed me.


    "Then I will call one from home and tell them to hurry."


    "Alright."


    I sent word to have my most trusted doctor sent over. He worked in the hospital in the city, and since I said it was an emergency and I was willing to pay out of my ass for the cost, I told him to take the helicopter to get here. I also called Vincent while I waited. I knew he would be worried sick as he had gotten cut short from both me and his Luna. He answered after only half a ring.


    "Is she alright?" He demanded the second he answered the phone. He had clearly been pacing with the phone, waiting for my call.


    "I found her, and she is resting. I am waiting for a pack doctor from the city to get here to check her out." I answered him obligingly.


    "Oh Goddess, is she hurt bad?" He still wasn''t satisfied.


    "She has been hit in the head a few times, and she is unconscious. I think that might have more to do with the spent energy and the adrenaline leaving her body than anything, but only time, and the doctor, will tell."


    "I''m so sorry, Alpha, I should have gone with you. I should not have left her earlier this evening."


    "You did as you were ordered to do. I would have told you to go as well. None of us would have expected this to happen. This is a pack we have a treaty with, and she was not attacked by wolves."


    "Wait, what?" He seemed shocked by my words. "Then who was she attacked by?" He asked, confused.


    "Warlocks."


    "WHAT!" He shouted into my ear. I growled at him and he got his tone under control. "What do Warlocks want with the Luna?"


    "I don''t know, but I intend to find out." I told him.


    "We still have our other meeting, which will have to be pushed back to ater time in the day or until Sunday. I will keep you all posted. But when we get back, she is to be watched more carefully at all times."


    "Yes sir."


    "Oh, and Vincent."


    "Yes, Sir?"


    "Why does she seem to have a problem with Leslie and Jeremy?" I asked him. If anyone would know it would be Vincent.


    "Well." He seemed ufortable, like he didn''t know if he should tell me or wait until the Luna told me.


    "Answer me." I told him.


    "As for Jeremy, he just makes her feel like he hates her. And Leslie, well the night you marked the Luna, he made her feel very ufortable." He told me in a weak voice.


    "Ufortable how?" I asked him. He went on to detail everything that Leslie had said and done the night of the marking, which made me understand why Little Bunny had shown an aversion to him ever since. Well, someone''s going to find himself getting punished.


    "Thank you for the information, Vincent, it was very enlightening."


    "You''re wee, Sir." He sounded spent and exhausted.


    "Get some sleep." I told him.


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I could hear Reece talking, but it sounded fuzzy. My head was killing me. I had a feeling that if I opened my eyes any light I saw would be like knives to my brain. I tried to shift slightly and groaned.


    "Are you awake?" I heard Reece clearly this time.


    "Not really." I answered in a muffled voice.


    "How are you feeling?"


    "Like my head is about to explode." I told him, which felt urate to me.


    "I have a doctor on their way. He should be here any minute now." He told me.


    "Does he carry a pharmacy?" I asked sarcastically.


    "I didn''t ask." He chuckled.


    "Ugh, if he doesn''t, he''s fired." I growled with deadly seriousness.


    A few minutester there was a light knock on the door, the sound of which was still too loud for my head. A man who appeared to be in his early forties came in carrying a dark blue duffle bag. He was dressed in a casual business suit and looked nice enough.


    "Hey Griffin, I need you to check her out." Reece told him, pointing to me. Reece started detailing everything that had happened tonight, my head hurt so bad I spaced it out.

 Chapter 44 - Both-A Burden

    <h4>Chapter 44 - Both-A Burden</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Little Bunny wasn''t looking so good. After I told Griffin what she had been through, he went over and started examining her. She winced and cried out several times. My wolf didn''t like that one bit. It proved that her head was in bad shape.


    "It would be best if I could get a scan, but I''m guessing that''s not an option right now?" Griffin said looking at me.


    "Do you believe there is something majorly wrong?" I asked him.


    "I can''t be certain, but things might get worse if there is."


    "I just want to take a pain pill and rest." Little Bunny grumbled.


    "And if you have a concussion and never wake up?" I asked her.


    "Well, at least the pain would be gone." She quipped. I growled at her. "Oh, drop it. If things get worse, then bring the helicopter back and fly me to the hospital, if I get better on my own then all''s well that ends well." She sounded annoyed.


    "Fine. Have it your way." I told her.


    "If you have problems with bnce or vision, I want you in the hospital ASAP, do you understand me?" Griffin told her.


    "Sure, whatever." She told him.


    "I''m serious. Agree or I don''t give you the good stuff." He demanded holding up a bottle whosebel I couldn''t see.


    "Fine, I promise, I will go to the hospital immediately if anything gets worse." She sighed. "Cross my heart." She promised, making the motion. "Now please, make my head feel better."


    "Fine." Griffinughed as he took out a syringe, filling it. "You''re going to go back to sleep for the night.


    "That''s fine with me." She held out her arm for him.


    Once the meds were administered and my Little Bunny was sound asleep, I walked Griffin out, telling him to keep this to himself. It was an order, and he was forced to obey.


    I was standing in the hall by the door when Riley called me.


    "Reece?"


    "Yeah." I frowned, turning to him.


    "I''m about to watch the security footage from tonight, I was waiting for you, so are youing?"


    "Yeah, I want to see what happened." I nodded, following him to the security room that housed the video cameras. It looked a lot like the one at my Alpha house, only fewer monitors as this estate was smaller.


    We watched as the scene unfolded before us. There had been a sound off in the trees, but that was in front of her, so she was not suspicious for something behind her. The man who snuck up behind her had done so without her noticing. But she managed to get free and was fighting him off pretty well.


    Just as I thought she was doing great, the other two ambushed her from behind, pinning her arms to her sides. Even then she was not giving up. She kicked and bit as much as she could. She was bound and determined to get free. She did manage to bloody two of them after all. But they quickly grew frustrated and one of the men lifted his arm, in it I saw a metal pipe. He brought it crashing down on the side of her head with great force.


    "That''s how they got her." I noted.


    "She''s a fighter that''s for sure." Riley praised.


    "Yeah, but if she had a wolf, she would have gotten away no problem. She''s too weak to be my Luna." I snapped, slipping back to my typical attitude.


    "REECE!" Riley yelled at me.


    "It''s the truth." I snapped at him. "Can''t you see how much of a disaster tonight was just because the Goddess gave me a mate with no wolf?"


    "But can''t you see how much worse it could have been? Think about how much farther they would have gotten if she wasn''t able to fight. Or what they could have done to her or you in return."


    "Would they be targeting her if she wasn''t the Luna?" I asked him. "Being a Luna with no wolf is just a danger to her and my wolf pack." The anger and frustration in my voice was reaching its breaking point. I stormed out of the room.


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I woke the next day feeling mostly better. My head still hurt but not quite as bad. I could get out of the bed I wasying in without feeling like I was going to die or wanting to vomit, so it was a definite improvement. Someone had put my bag in here, it was on the table near the window.


    I was getting my stuff, and hoping to find a shower, when the door opened.


    "You''re up?" Reece asked.


    "Yeah, I''m feeling better." I told him. "I wanted to shower and change. I''m sure we need to leave as well."


    "Yes, we need to hurry. The bathroom is through there." He pointed. "But before you go, I want to talk to you for a moment."


    "Alright." I frowned at him, I could feel his tension, something was wrong. We were standing by the window, Reece looking out over the front yard, away from me.


    "What happenedst night will not happen again." He seemed tense.


    "I''m sorry. I will not leave when you''ve asked me to stay put again."


    "That''s not what I meant." He said impatiently.


    "Then what is?"


    "I could mention so many aspects." He murmured, turning to look at me. "The dance for one. I won''t allow that to happen again, ever."


    "That''s fine, I found it awkward."


    "The kiss, it was never supposed to happen in the first ce."


    "Agreed. I didn''t expect it nor want it to happen. I didn''t want my first kiss forced on me like that." I noticed his eyes widen for a fraction of a second.


    "Andstly, I will not save you again. You will either save yourself, or not put yourself into such a situation like that ever again." Those words surprised me. "If you require assistance after today, call one of your guards." He added.


    "I''m sorry I was such a burden to you." I told him, looking down.


    "You''re more than a burden." He groaned, causing me to look up at him, his eyes were filled with anger and other dark emotions. "I hate you." He snapped, my heart shattered in that instant.


    I had known he would never love me, but I had hoped for a level of civility. For mutual respect at least. And maybe, just maybe, affection might grow over time. I knew I was already developing feelings for him. I couldn''t help it. But he would never return them. Even then, I kept myself from crying.


    "I understand." Was all I said.


    "Now, finish getting ready for the day." He snarled at me in anger before he left the room.


    I went into the bathroom to shower. I had intended it to be quick, but things were different now. I sat there, on the floor of the shower, with the hot water falling on my head. I didn''t know what was water and what was tears as I sat there and cried.


    I cried until the hot water ran outpletely. I continued to cry while I dried myself off and get dressed. I cried until I had no more tears left in me to cry. It was both more and less than I expected. I cried for nearly an hour, which was longer than I had ever cried before. But I couldn''t believe that was all the tears I could muster for my mate.


    When I pressed a cold cloth to my face to soothe the red, swollen skin around my eyes, I didn''t even feel like crying when I thought about Reece. Smacking him upside his big Alpha head, yes, but crying, nope.


    I don''t think the feelings I was developing would go away so quickly. They were aided by the mate bond after all. But maybe, eventually, I could manage to look at him with an empty, apathetic feeling. I could hope at least. Dammit, why did he have to go and kiss mest night, that had made my heart and body all confused.


    Reece was upset when he finally saw me.


    "You took way too long." He snapped at me. He didn''tment about my red eyes, so either he didn''t notice, or my makeup job had done the trick. I was d I decided to pack the little bag after all. I just shrugged my shoulders and ignored him. I didn''t want to talk to him yet, we would have to y the happy Alpha coupleter.


    He sped along the highway and we made it to the next pack within forty-five minutes. This pack was just as small as thest and paid fealty to ours. It meant that they didn''t actually have an Alpha. They had a Prime Beta. It was like the Alpha of a pack, and functioned as one in Reece''s absence, but they never truly had the same power over the pack members as the Alpha did. And his mate had no official role among the pack, but she did help with all the women and children still. The trip here didn''t take long.

 Chapter 45 - Trinity-Heartbroken

    <h4>Chapter 45 - Trinity-Heartbroken</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece met with the Prime Beta, telling me to sit in the dining room with the Prime Beta''s mate and not move. I thought about ignoring him and leaving the dining room, he was a jerk and didn''t deserve me listening to him, but that would just make things harder on me. So, I stayed put. I would make his life hell when we were at home. On the road, people had to see us in a certain light.


    When the meeting was over, and it was time to leave I couldn''t be happier. I went out to the car and got in, ignoring him all the while. I heard him telling them that I was still feeling tired from the incidentst night, which he had told them a little about to exin our tardiness.


    We drove home in silence, because I ignored Reece''s every attempt to talk to me. Once we were back to the estate, I retreated to my room and locked the door. I didn''t want to see him more than necessary right now. I know it will get better eventually, but right now, just the sight of him was too painful.


    As soon as Vincent picked me up for sses Monday morning, he knew something was wrong. But I refused to borate. I think he just assumed it was the trauma of the weekend and ultimately med himself. I couldn''t tell him what was really bothering me, but I did try telling him that it wasn''t his fault. I don''t think he believed me at all.


    Juniper didn''t know about the events of the weekend, and she could tell right away that something was wrong.


    "Spill it." She told me with no preamble or greeting.


    "What?" I asked her.


    "Whatever has you so down in the dumps." She told me.


    "It''s nothing, really."


    "I''ll believe that when I be the next Alpha myself. News sh, that will never happen." Her tone was firm, no hint of humor in the joke she just told.


    "Seriously Trinity, you look like hell." Paul told me.


    "Gee, thanks Paul." I snapped at him.


    "You can tell us what''s wrong Trinity." Cedar added. I just shook my head no, fighting back the tears, apparently, I had more to cry over him than I thought I had. I turned and ran into the bathroom that was just down the hall. I heard all four of them call my name and two pairs of feet chase me.


    "Trinity?" Juniper called as she came into the bathroom. Checking which stall I was currently hiding in. "What the hell is the matter with you?"


    "Just leave me alone and let me finish crying this out. Once all the tears are done, I will be able to talk about it clinically." I told her through sobs.


    "Does it have anything to do with the trip this past weekend?" She guessed, she knew I had gone away, but she doesn''t know anything that happened. I ignored her question. "Bingo." She said intuiting the non-response to mean yes as she always did.


    "Does it also have something to do with a certain tall, sexy Alpha?"


    "Just drop it." I told her.


    "Two for two I see. What did he do to you?" She asked me. She knew that Reece and I weren''t on the greatest of terms, but that we were at least civil when others were around.


    "Juniper." I pleaded with her.


    "Look, whatever it is, it''s major, otherwise I would leave you be. But this is affecting you so much that you''re having a breakdown. I''m trying to help you, because I''m your friend, I''m here for you, and I love you." She said. Those three words. Something I wish I could hear a mate say to me one day, but that was never going to happen. I would never hear a man tell me that now. Not ever. Because I was mated to a man that hated me. I cried harder.


    "Trinity." She called out, pushing the door open with sheer force and looking at me with pure worry written on her face.


    "I''m sorry Juniper." I cried, feeling so pathetic in that moment.


    "Girl, you got nothing to feel sorry for. You just need to tell me what he did to you, so I can decide if I''m going to go right to my death by trying to murder my own Alpha."


    "I''ll tell you, but just leave it be after that alright." I told her.


    "That depends."


    "Promise me." I told her again.


    "Fine, I promise." She finally gave in.


    I nodded and told her everything. From the call Vincent got to the moment Reece said he hated me. She sat there listening with rapt attention. Anger was slowly building behind her eyes. First it was at the three men who had taken me. And she was happy Reece saved me. But the moment I told her what he said to me, her face contorted with rage.


    "What the HELL is that ASSHOLE thinking?" Her voice thundered throughout the room.


    "What?" I heard Paul ask from outside.


    "How could he do that? How could he say that to you? How could he treat you like that?" She was livid. "I swear I''m going to kick his--."


    "No, you promised to just leave it be." I told her. "I''ve known all along that I am a mate in name only. But I had thought we might have a rtionship grow out of mutual respect eventually, or something. But I see now that it''s not going to happen."


    "You were ok with that?" She asked me.


    "I didn''t agree to it before bing Luna, no. But he didn''t tell me before I became Luna, so I had no choice."


    "So, he tricked you into this? How can he ignore the pull of the mate bond? Are you sure it''s even a mate bond?" She asked me.


    "I''m sure. I''ve seen how it affects him, and it affects me too. It''s real, but he just doesn''t care. He doesn''t want me. He would rather have nothing than a wolfless girl like me." I told her.


    "That man needs a wake up call." She snapped.


    "Don''t worry, eventually, things will get easier, and I never truly wanted a mate either. So, this works out best, I don''t have to have a true mate and I get all the other benefits of having a mate."


    "Yeah, and the heartache." She sighed, hugging me tight.


    We left the bathroom shortly after. I had washed my face and was calmer, but I didn''t feel up to sses today. We would just get the assignments from someone else and make them upter. Instead, Vincent offered to take me to get ice cream.


    "Why ice cream?" I asked him, perplexed.


    "It always cheers Heather up." He smiled sheepishly.


    "Yeah, let''s all go get ice cream." Juniper smiled. So, it was decided.


    Vincent took us to Heather''s favorite shop. It was a quaint little parlor on a side street in the city. They had just opened for the day so they weren''t busy yet.


    "Vincent, nice to see you. Who''re all these with you?" The old man asked.


    "Hey Eddie." He called. "Trinity, this is my Uncle Eddie, Eddie, this is our Luna, Trinity, and her friends, Juniper, Paul and Cedar." Eddie''s eyes had gone wide at the word Luna.


    "My goodness, but our new Luna sure is a pretty one, that Alpha is a lucky man." I tried not to let my eyes darken at his mention of Reece. "I take it Vincent here brought you for some of the best homemade ice cream in the whole city?" He asked, making me smile. Eddie was nice, just like Vincent was.


    "That''s right, what do you rmend?" I asked walking to the counter. Eddie went through the list of all his vors, which there were a lot. He had all the traditional ones that he could buy, but there were also the three-dozen special, homemade vors he had invented. They all sounded good. Unable to choose, I had Eddie pick for me. He gave me a bowl with several sample sized scoops so I could try quite a few.


    "Come back and we will give you another variety. We will keep it up until you try them all." He told me with a smile.


    "Thank you." I nodded, taking the bowl. When I turned around, I saw that Juniper and the guys were all talking, their heads held together. I had a feeling she was telling them everything. When they turned around, all three of the guys had a look that was a cross of pity and anger, even Vincent. Yup, she told them.


    "Juniper!" I whined at her.


    "Sorry Trinity, they were worried about you as well."


    "Astro." Paul cried,ing over and hugging me tight just like Carter would do.


    "Trin." Cedar added, joining the hug. Vincent just stood there looking sad, like he wished he had known what had been going on, but that he couldn''t do anything against the Alpha. His hands were tied, but he cared about me, same as Noah.


    We ate our ice cream and tried to have a good time. But everyone kept looking at me with worry filled eyes. It was hard for me to enjoy the ice cream. I barely even noticed the vors. It felt like a waste, really.


    Vincent drove me home in near silence. Just before we got home. He started apologizing again.


    "I''m sorry Luna. So very sorry."


    "For what Vincent?" I asked him.


    "That I wasn''t there for you. Not just this weekend, but this entire time. I didn''t know what you were going through."


    "Obviously. That''s because I didn''t tell you. It''s my problem, no one else''s."


    "Luna." He cried out, sadness filling his voice.


    "I won''t let it get to me. Today was hard, because of this weekend, but it will make me stronger in the end. Just be patient for me, alright." I smiled at him.

 Chapter 46 - Trinity- Seeing Double And What I Think Of Reece

    <h4>Chapter 46 - Trinity- Seeing Double And What I Think Of Reece</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Noah visited me that night. The look in his eyes told me he knew what happened over the weekend, but he had no idea of anything else. He had David and another man I''d never met with him.


    Noah ignored the formalities he usually tried to show at the estate, he came right over to me and wrapped his arms around me tightly.


    "Trin, I''m so sorry you were hurt, but I am so happy you''re ok." He squeezed me tight like he was trying to make sure I was real, that I was still here.


    "I''m fine Noah." I soothed, hugging him back as tight as I could. At that moment I was just happy to have a member of my family there with me.


    "Mom has been beside herself. Dad has been pacing nonstop. And Carter is livid. They wille here themselves if I don''t let them know you''re safe." He squeezed me tighter still. "Nikki and I were both worried about you as well, so expect her to bombard you sometime soon."


    "I love you, all of you guys." I felt like crying again, but I couldn''t, not with the strange man here that I didn''t know.


    I gently pulled away from Noah, breaking the hug that I wanted to continue.


    "Who is this, Noah?" I asked him.


    "Oh, yes, let me introduce you." Heposed himself while gesturing the men forward. "Obviously you know David already. This man here is Shane, he will be joining David and Vincent as your guards."


    "Nice to meet you." I greeted him. I hoped he would be better than thest ones. Jeremy didn''t make me feel weird like Leslie, but he seemed to hate me. And Leslie, well, he was nice at first but ended up creeping me out.


    "It''s a pleasure." Shane smiled, bowing his head slightly. He looked to be about my age, and he had a kind smile on his face. He was just over six feet tall and looked like he worked out quite often. He wasn''t overly handsome, about average but he had some very interesting features. He had gray eyes and hair that looked to be a gray, almost silver, color. His wolf was bound to be interesting. Just then there was a knock on the door.


    "Ahh, there is the other guard that will be joining you as well." Noah dered walking to the door. I watched as he went to the door and pulled it open. The man standing at the door was identical to the man standing in front of me.


    "Either I''m seeing double or you''re twins." I said with a sarcastic tone and a grin on my face. "That or someone slipped me some double mint." I cracked the bad joke and got noughter. "Tough crowd." I mumbled, that however did get augh from David, Shane, and his as of yet unnamed brother.


    "Stick to your day job Trinity." Noah joked,ughing at me.


    "I don''t have a day job. I''m a student, remember." Iughed. "That and I''m the Luna."


    "Yeah, well, learn all you can cause you suck as aedian." Noahughed.


    "Oh, hardy-har-har, so funny. That''sing from the man with almost a negative sense of humor." My retort earned meughter from the other three men, and we all got a re from Noah.


    "That''s almost too true, Trinity." David said between his fits ofughter.


    "My job requires me to be serious, it''s not my fault." Noah snapped. Iughed at him.


    "Is it always like this?" The neer asked.


    "Don''t look at me I just got here." Shane shook his head.


    "Nope, this is a first for me, but it''s quite the show isn''t." David answered them.


    "Enough!" Noah growled. "Let us move on. Trinity, this is indeed Shane''s twin brother, Shawn."


    So, normal names for this set of twins, got it. I noted to myself. Juniper had told me she thought her mom was a bit of a hippie wannabe and therefore gave her and her brother hippie like names in her opinion. I didn''t think it was hippie like, just fitting for the name trends in our current world.


    "Nice to meet you Shawn, and I will apologize in advance if I mix you up. I''m sure you act different as you arepletely different people, but until I know you well enough, I will probably mix you up a few times." I knew it was inevitable, so I thought it best to just apologize for it now.


    "No worries Luna, it happens all the time." Shaneughed, I only know this because he was here first and was the one wearing a blue shirt. Shawn came in wearing a red shirt.


    I didn''t see or talk to Reece again all week. Not until it was time for us to go to the next set of pack introductions. I was called to his office early Saturday morning before we left. I went in, alone, and saw that he was alone as well. I was nervous, but I refused to let it show. We were still at home, so I didn''t have to pretend anything right now.


    "Are you prepared to leave?" He asked as soon as the door shut, without even looking at me.


    "Yes." I said curtly.


    "I expect you to be as convincing as you werest time. Can you manage that?" He asked, still looking at his desk.


    "I don''t know, I guess that depends on you, doesn''t it?"


    "What''s that supposed to mean?" He looked confused as he finally looked up, questioning my meaning.


    "I''m saying it depends on if you can manage to not be an ass the entire time. If you don''t talk the way you are now. If you can behave yourself Fido, then so can I." He growled loudly as I slipped back to his favorite pet name with a grin on my face.


    "Are you trying to piss me off Little Bunny?" He asked, sneering at me with the name he knew I hated.


    "No more than you''re trying to piss me off, sweetheart." I countered batting my eyes and giving him an evil smile. He looked visibly more upset than he was before.


    "You better get this out of your system now, because this attitude will not be allowed while we are in other territories."


    "I can get it out until my heart''s content, got a baseball bat?" I gave him an angelic smile.


    "You really are an Evil Bunny, aren''t you?"


    "Only where you''re concerned?" I snapped at him.


    "As long as no one else in the pack, or any other pack sees this attitude I don''t care. Got it, nobody outside you and I are to know how things really are between us. Is that clear?"


    "Crystal. As long as you know that anytime I''m alone with you I''m going to make what I think of you be known."


    "What you think of me. And what exactly do you think of me?" Oh, I couldn''t believe he was asking me that.


    "You''re an egotistical, self-centered, high-handed brute with an ice-cold heart and the emotional maturity of a mayfly."


    "Ouch. Don''t hold back on my ount, keep going." He pretended to be hurt.


    "I think you believe you''re more special than you are just because you''re the alpha. I think you expect me to fall at your feet and worship you or fawn all over you like all the pack bimbos, but that''s never going to happen, and deep down that pisses you off. And you didn''t get to have things go your way so now you''re basically having an eternal tantrum and taking your frustrations out on me. Well fine. If you get to take it out on me, I''m going to take my frustrations at your attitude out on you. Just fair warning, be prepared because I am just getting warmed up and things will only get worse from here on out." I ranted at him until I was out of breath. I was taking slow deep breaths to calm myself while ring at him. He was looking at me like he was bored, he didn''t even have the decency to be annoyed by my rant.


    "Finished yet?" He asked me.


    "Yeah."


    "Good. We will be leaving in twenty minutes. Please do your best to convince them, the same asst time, I will y the part the same as before." He seemed so unfazed, what an annoying JERK!


    Vincent was joining us on the trip this time. He was trying to appear as unfazed as possible, but I know he was worried about Heather. I just hoped nothing happened during the trip, he could make it back if something happened to her, but then that would leave me alone with Reece again.


    We took an SUV, one that I had not seen when in the garage before. It wasrge and afforded us lots of personal space. Reece was driving again. I think he liked driving, it must be a control thing. Vincent was in the front with him, and I was in the back reading a book, d that I didn''t have to try to keep up a conversation.

 Chapter 47 - Trinity-Black Moon Pack

    <h4>Chapter 47 - Trinity-ck Moon Pack</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    We apparently had a busy schedule this weekend. It was just after eight when we left, we would be visiting three fealty packs that bordered ours. After that we would be visiting a pack that we had no treaty or fealty with.


    ording to Vincent, these were the packs we had to be wary of. They owed us nothing and tensions were often high between our packs. I would need to watch my surroundings the entire time I was there.


    The fealty pack meetings went just as they did before. Reece met with the Prime Beta, while I waited in the dining area getting to know his mate. Only this time, Vincent was standing behind me like an attendant in some feudal war drama. He said that a proper bodyguard had to be standing, which I guess was true, but it was awkward. He never stood in ss because it would look out of ce and it wouldn''t have been allowed.


    I was just happy that things were going smoothly. It was easy to be the loving show couple with Reece for these fealty packs, because we spent so little time there. We literally just introduced me, they already knew Reece, then he pretended like he didn''t want to leave me but had to for the meeting, making me promise to wait for him. Then the Prime Beta''s wife would gush about how lucky I was and how they were happy to finally have a Luna. I just needed to pretend to be embarrassed and give smiles and the asional answers in response. We left as soon as the meetings were over.


    All three fealty meetings passed in a blur. I couldn''t even tell you which house belonged to which or what their mates looked like. I Simply didn''t pay enough attention. I will meet them again and try to remember them then.


    It was a while after sunset when we got to thest pack house for the day. Their pack was about the same size as ours, but they had significantly less territory than we did. Theirnd directly bordered ours, just like the Azure River Pack did, but they had apparently lost a territory battle a long time ago and ended up losing a lot of theirnd to other packs. Because of that, they have been jealous of therger packs for a long time, including ours.


    We were supposed to stay here overnight, same as we did at Riley''s Alpha house, but I didn''t know if that was a good idea, and I hadn''t even gotten out of the car yet. I could, however, see about a dozen people stand outside their alpha house waiting for us when we arrived. That made me nervous.


    "Reece, how are you, young man?" A man asked as soon as Reece opened his door. He looked like he was in his mid-thirties with bright blond hair and eyes that were such a dark green they almost looked ck when I first saw them.


    Reece opened my door for me, he had told me that as Luna I was expected to have people treat me like this. And while we were on these trips, he had to do it. I took the hand he held out for me and immediately felt Reece pull me into his side, wrapping an arm around my back.


    "I''m wonderful Stanley, and how have you been?" He asked with just the slightest hint of annoyance. Stanley''s eyes widened when he saw me, I''m guessing he had not expected that Reece was telling the truth about having a mate, or that Reece just hadn''t mentioned me.


    "My, I thought this was just going to be another negotiation. Who might this be?" The man asked. Well, that answered that question, Reece hadn''t told him that he was mated.


    "This is my mate, and the Luna of my pack." Reece announced. "Trinity, this is Stanley, Alpha of the ck Moon Pack." He introduced us while looking at me.


    "Well, then I guess congrattions is in order. You should have told me in advance. I do not have a suitable room ready for you to stay in." Stanley sighed, his voice full of fake apologies. I could tell Reece and Stanley did not get along.


    "No worries, we will stay elsewhere tonight. Considering howte it was already, and that it would take us at least three hours, or more, to drive home, add to that the length of the meeting time, I didn''t want to fathom howte it would be if we drove home tonight. But I didn''t know where he nned for us to sleep tonight.


    "Well,e inside. Tell us all about your mate. Then we can get to business." Stanley interrupted my thoughts. His voice for some reason sent chills through my body, and not the good kind. He made me feel like I had bugs crawling on me. Something about him was off, but I just couldn''t figure it out. Most likely, it was just because he didn''t like Reece, and as much as my mate annoyed me, my bond with him didn''t let me like people who were his enemies or trying to do him harm.


    We went into the house and were taken to a grand dining hall. The men who had been standing with the Alpha outside all followed and stood stationed around the room. Stanley called in a maid and ordered her to set two more ce settings at the table as we were seated.


    "Our guest tonight seems to have brought his new Luna and another pack member along with him." The maid set the dishes in front of us and smiled before leaving the room.


    "Reece leaned down, stroking my hair and pretending to kiss my ear, but he was actually whispering to me.


    "Do not eat anything they give you. Trust no one here." I nodded but hid it in a small giggle like his kiss had tickled me. He seemed to have understood as he pulled away from me.


    Stanley was watching us and smiled when Reece pulled his mouth away from my ear.


    "You seem to have found yourself a beauty." Stanley smirked while leering at me, my skin crawled again.


    "Yes, she is very beautiful isn''t she." Reece agreed, squeezing me with his arm around my shoulder.


    "Wherever did you find such a lovely girl?" Stanley asked Reece but didn''t take his eyes off of me. I was almost ready to deal with Reece at his worst if it meant getting away from this creep.


    "She''s been hiding in my pack this whole time."


    "Really, who would have thought."


    The maid came in with the food then. I knew I wouldn''t be eating any of it, but I was happy for the distraction at least, or so I thought. Stanley still didn''t take his eyes off of me. His leering stare felt like it was boring into my skin and leaving a permanent mark. I just wanted to get out of here.


    "It''s a shame you have to leave, I''m sure we can ready something for you during the meeting, Reece. There will be no need for you to stay anywhere else." His words made me stiffen. Reece still had his arm around me protectively, so he felt the tension in my body.


    "No, I must insist that we go elsewhere. I''m sure you remember how things were when you were newly mated, Stanley." Reece mocked with a hint of finality.


    "Well, I do happen to remember those wild days." Heughed. "If you insist, then I will not push it, but the offer still stands."


    I pushed the food on the te around but didn''t actually eat. When Stanleymented, I simply told him I was tired from the long day. He smiled at that, like he thought it was a good thing. Halfway through the supposed meal, Reece stood, dering it was time that he and Stanley got on with business. The two of them left with just over half of the guards following them.


    Vincent and I were left behind with only four of the guards remaining. Not one of them had said a word yet. They hadn''t even looked directly at me since I had arrived, which was a relief since their alpha had done nothing but leer at me.


    But things seemed to change the minute Reece and Stanley left.


    "Your alpha better agree to the terms this time. This is getting ridiculous." One of the guards, a man with a dark tan and brown hair and eyes spoke with an angry tone. "I''m getting sick of having to deal with these constant meetings." He added.


    "Our alpha is not interested in an exchange of territories." Vincent stated in a t tone.


    "Hmph! Your pack has morend than it needs." Another guard said, this one pale with yellow eyes and light brown hair.


    "Lands were decided generations ago, it is no fault of ours that your previous Alpha made poor decisions." Vincent kept his voice t again as he responded but I could tell he was not happy having to respond to these men.


    "Your alpha will give up something." The biggest of the men said, he was standing by the door Reece had left through and was ring at us with ck eyes that set in his light brown skin. "He can pay with hisnd, his life, or his Luna, he can pick, or we can." He added, giving me a particrly nasty look.


    "You will noty a finger on the Luna." Vincent growled at him.


    "Is that a challenge?" The man asked with a smile.


    "It''s a fact." Vincent answered as he tensed his body in preparation to either fight or run. I knew that against this many men I would not be much help, but I would fight them off as best as I could. I looked around the room to see if there was something I could use as a weapon just in case.


    "You think you could stop us all by yourself?" Thest man said as he took a slinking step toward the table. He had an oliveplexion and hazel eyes, but he was the first werewolf I had ever seen with a shaved head.


    "I will, or I''d die trying." Vincent dered proudly. My eyes went wide. I did not want him dying right now. Not with a baby on the way and a mate and two small children at home.


    "Seems like the Luna has little faith in you." The yellow eyed manughed as he mistook my apprehension. I red at him.

 Chapter 48 - Trinity-Black Moon Pack Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 48 - Trinity-ck Moon Pack Part 2</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Vincent leaned into me slightly and whispered, the words were barely audible to me, so I know the guards didn''t hear them.


    "When I grab your hand, you run with me out of here. Got it." I nodded just slightly so he would know I heard him.


    "Trying to convince her that you''re worthy of her trust. It''s toote for that. Your pack will go down, soon enough. It would be better for you all if your alpha didn''t make it so hard on all of you." The man with the ck eyes taunted.


    "You don''t know who you''re messing with." I snapped at him. I was meaning that they didn''t know Reece, but they took it the wrong way.


    "You think you''re someone so special?" Hazel eyes sneered.


    "HA, that''s augh, you''re a pathetically weak female, no use for anything but a roll in the sack and having pups." My blood boiled at these words. I just wanted to make them shut their mouths. They were pissing me off more than anything, more than Reece ever had and that was saying something.


    "You really think that''s all a Luna is good for?" I asked him, getting to my feet. "You think women can''t be strong, huh? That''s augh. Most men are the weakest people I know, and that''s saying something. You want to try shutting your damn mouths and thinking with that thing between your ears for half a minute. Then you might not cause people so many problems. You might not find yourselves in so much trouble. You might not leave your alpha in a position where he''s going to need to clean up after your bullshit. Goddess but you''re stupid." I ranted at them.


    All four men were ring at me in disbelief when I was done yelling at them. I knew I shouldn''t have done it, but I just lost control. I couldn''t help it. Vincent was staring at me as well, shock all over his face.


    "Who do you think you are?" Brown eyes growled.


    "I''m a Luna, which is much better than an omega like you!" I yelled at him.


    "How did you know I''m an omega?" He seemed shocked that I knew. Honestly, I couldn''t exin how I knew he was an omega, the lowest ranked wolf possible. But just by looking at them I could just sense what rank they all were, and rtively how strong they all were. Perhaps it was an added benefit of being a Luna.


    "You reek of weakness, and your low status is in to see with yourck of tact." I ridiculed him.


    "You little-."


    "I wouldn''t finish that sentence if I were you." I heard a familiar deep, smooth voice growl from near the door, cutting off the man who had been talking. "Vincent, the meeting is over. We''re leaving." Reece growled stalking into the room and grabbing my hand. "Let''s go, Trinity." He growled at.


    I didn''t say a word, as he pulled me out of the room. I just red over my shoulder onest time as I tried to literally push my thoughts, my negative emotions towards them, into the room. I saw the man nearest me fall over just as I rounded the corner. I was so shocked at what I had just seen that I had to fight back myughter.


    "What? Is there something you find just so damn funny right now?" Reece snarled as he pulled the door of the SUV open and shoved me inside.


    "Yes, actually there is." Iughed as he slid in the driver''s seat. "One of those idiots closest to me was so unnerved by us leaving that he literally fell over right before we rounded the corner." I finally let out theughter I was holding in.


    "What?" Vincent asked in disbelief.


    "I''m serious, thest thing I saw was that idiot with the green eyes falling over. He wasn''t even moving. It was funny. I''m sorry, but at least I held theughter in until we got out here. Give me a little bit of credit for that." I tried to make them see the merit in my aplishment.


    Reece and Vincent just looked at each other, worry and confusion on Vincent''s face, a knowing expression on Reece''s. They seemed to think that something was off about the situation but wasn''t going to tell me about it. I didn''t care right now. I was just happy to be away from them.


    "The meeting ended much sooner than I expected, Sir, did something happen?" Vincent asked.


    "Yeah, we heard themotion. That and I was done listening to his stupid baseless demands. And I was tired of looking at that pathetic face." I snickered. I was feeling better than I had been for a long time. I felt like when I released my frustrated rant on those morons, I let out all the negative emotions I was feeling.


    "Are things going to be alright between our packs?" Vincent wondered.


    "Probably not, we will probably have a fight to keep ournds safe and boundaries intact." Reece sounded somber. I didn''t want to have my mood brought down, but I knew I needed to be serious.


    "Are they strong enough to take us on?" I asked.


    "If it were just the primary pack, then they might stand a chance, maybe. But we have the additional support of the fealty packs and the treaty packs that will lend us aid." He answered without even grumbling to me, which was surprising.


    "But you don''t expect them to y fair, do you?" I demanded.


    "Not in the least." He replied.


    Reece drove us to a hotel that was about an hour away from the Alpha House we had just left. He said it was still technically in Stanley''s territory, but we were on the fringe and in the border city now and that it was unlikely that they''d try anything. I still didn''t trust it.

 Chapter 49 - Trinity-A Night With Reece

    <h4>Chapter 49 - Trinity-A Night With Reece</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    He took us to a very nice, very expensive hotel. And apparently, he had made a reservation. He had already nned on us staying here.


    "It was supposed to beter when we got here. But I''m mentally exhausted right now, so I need some sleep before driving home." He yawned as we pulled in. I watched as a parking valet came to get the keys.


    Reece once again opened my door for me, not letting anyone touch the door but him. Vincent grabbed the three bags from the back of the SUV and followed us inside. Reece was still putting on his loving mate act even though no one was around to see it. I guessed that he thought there might be pack members here at the hotel as well.


    I had never been in a hotel this expensive before, but its splendor paled inparison to the estate. It was beautiful, for certain. But the estate was old and majestic yet beautifully maintained and perfectly modernized all at the same time. Had I not been living in the Alpha house the past month or so I would have thought this was the most beautiful ce I had ever been in.


    "Reservation for Gray." Reece informed the clerk when he had reached the concierge desk. The man behind therge ornately decorated wooden desk was a wolf and tensed when he saw Reece.


    "Yes Sir, one moment." The man prepared everything without another word from Reece, he returned with the paperwork to be signed and two thin leather pocketbooks with the room keys in them. He moved a few things around to make it more convenient for Reece, then exined which room was which.


    "Here you are, Mr. Gray, this room is the single on the fourteenth floor, number 1433, and this here is the suite you booked, on the twenty-fifth floor, number 2501." He handed the leather books over. "Enjoy your evening, Sir." He looked terrified of Reece, as if he had had a bad experience with him before. Knowing Reece, he probably did.


    We were on our way to the elevator when I held my hand out for the key card for my room. Reece looked puzzled.


    "What?" He asked me, perplexed.


    "I need the key to my room. How else will I get in?" I asked him, acting as if he were slow for a moment. Reece just raised his eyebrows and took the keys for room 1433. Finally, he understands. I thought to myself.


    "Here''s your room key Vincent." He smiled, handing the leather book for 1433 to Vincent. My eyes opened in shock and horror and the realization hit me just as the elevator doors shut in front of my face.


    Oh my goddess. He expects me to sleep in the same room as him. Holy shit! What does he think is going to happen? My inner thoughts were revving up to the level of full on panic when I heard the ding and Vincent''s gentle voice.


    "Have a good night Alpha, Luna, I will see you in the morning." He stepped off the elevator. No, not myst safety. Not the only thing keeping me safe right now. Don''t leave me alone with him dammit! I growled in my head. But it was no use, he was gone, and the doors shut once again.


    Reece didn''t say anything for the rest of the ride to the twenty-fifth floor, which turned out to be the top floor. When I heard the doors ding again. I saw that there were only two rooms up here. 2501 and 2502. They each took up half of the floor. One room each to the left and right arge window wall directly in front of the elevator.


    Reece stepped off the elevator and into the hall, I almost stayed behind, afraid to follow. But I knew he would be upset if I didn''t go with him, not that it mattered, but there were other wolves here in the hotel, so I couldn''t cause that big of a scene, yet. I reluctantly got off the elevator and followed him into the hall.


    He stalked down the hall and leaned sideways against the door, staring at me. He slowly pulled the key from its leather holder and pushed it into the lock, all the while looking at me. When he heard the click of the lock disengage, he turned the handle and slowly opened the door.


    I was getting more and more nervous by the second, it seemed like he was trying to be seductive. The next thing I knew he swept me up and held me in a bridal carry and walked into the room. I heard him push the door shut with his foot, the click of the door felt ominous.


    The room was set up like an apartment, there was a living room that we had entered after the entry hall. He walked over and set me on the sofa before flopping onto the chair across from me.


    "You should see your face Little Bunny." Heughed.


    "What''s that supposed to mean?" I asked him.


    "It means you look so scared and your face is so red, that instead of the white rabbit I usually imagine you to be you now look like the Devil Bunny I''ve sometimes called you." He chuckled at his own words.


    "I''m d you''re enjoying yourself." I red at him.


    "It was entertaining, I must admit. When you thought you were going to be staying in a different room, I had to mess with you somehow."


    "And why is that?" I demanded. I just had to know his reasoning.


    "Because I knew that if you thought I was going to try anything that you would be nervous or scared as hell." Heughed leaning forward toward me as he spoke.


    "Of course I would be, I didn''t bring my knife with me." I told him. He looked perplexed. "I told you, it was going to be mutual, or you''d lose something, didn''t I. And it''d probably be a little hard to bite it off." I said smiling at him evilly. He jerked in surprise or fear at my words. Iughed near hysterically at how my words caused him to blush a deep red. "Ha ha, look at that blush, Clifford! Now I know where they found the big red dog."


    "Stop it, it''s not funny." He snapped.


    "Stop messing with me and I''ll stop messing with you, at least for tonight." I offered holding out my hand in a peace offering.


    "Fine, deal." He agreed, shaking my hand with his muchrger hand engulfing minepletely. "But I will have you one day, Little Bunny, that''s a promise." He growled.


    "Not if I have anything to say about it." I countered.

 Chapter 50 - Trinity-More Spaced Out Than Usual

    <h4>Chapter 50 - Trinity-More Spaced Out Than Usual</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was d to be back from that particr trip. We only had one more that I had to go on, apparently. After this weekend Reece would continue to go to his annual meetings without me. My introductions would be finished, and I would no longer need to attend them. Thank the Goddess.


    Vincent was currently sitting next to me, dragging me out of one of my daydreams. I only really daydreamed in my English Composition ss, Professor Thompson''s voice just helped to lull me into a stupor.


    "Trinity." I could vaguely hear him hissing at me. "Trinity, wake up." I didn''t think I was actually asleep, why would he be telling me to wake up? "Luna." He growled harshly in a whisper. I jerked at the sound of my title being used somewhere so public. I blinked my eyes in confusion and he was ring at me.


    "Nice of you to join thend of the living." Professor Thompson sneered standing next to me.


    "I''m sorry." I said automatically as I turned with a start and looked at her apologetically.


    "Does my ss bore you?" She asked me.


    "No, not in the least, I just haven''t gotten much sleeptely." I told her. Which. that was kind of true. I''ve been stressing so much about the other packs, the stuff to do with Reece, and just my life in general, that over thisst month and a half since I moved in with Reece I have been getting a lot less sleep.


    She leaned down and growled next to my ear. "You may have an alpha for a mate, but he can''t protect you forever, take care to pay attention to what''s around you." Her voice was harsh, and her words were ominous. I had never been this close to Professor Thompson, so I had not noticed that she was a wolf until just now. There were so many in this ss that their scents simply ovepped, but with her so close it was easy for me to smell her now.


    My eyes went wide at her perceived threat. I didn''t know if she was part of my pack or not, I only knew her from ss. I would have to ask the otherster.


    ss was over shortly after that tense moment. It was my second andst ss for the day, so I would be able to leave campus and rx. I couldn''t focus on school until thest of the meetings was over. It was driving me insane. And with what just happened it was like adding fuel to the fire.


    "Why don''t we get some lunch?" I heard Vincent say as we were leaving the room.


    "Sounds good to me." I agreed. I was actually pretty hungry and some time away from the house where I didn''t have to think about Reece, the meetings, or being Luna would probably do me some good.


    "Are you free for lunch?" He turned to ask my three friends as they came out of the room behind us.


    "Paul and I can''t, we have stuff to do." Cedar declined.


    "I''ll go." Juniper smiled happily. "This makes it so that I don''t have to sit and watch them y macho men." She turned her back on them and grabbed my arm. "Bye guys." She didn''t look back at them as she dragged me out of the building, Vincent following us close behind.


    "So, what are they off to do?" I asked her.


    "They''re auditioning for a martial arts tournament. It''s not very fair of them, considering, but whatever." She saidughing. "They want to prove they know how to fight, then they n to either join the pack warriors or the police academy." She finished telling me their ns.


    "Both of them?" I asked, surprised.


    "Yeah, it''s funny, Cedar and I are the twins, but him and Paul are the ones who are so much alike. So, he finally has someone to do all his annoying stuff with." She seemed so happy talking about them.


    The three of us went to my favorite little diner, Franny''s Kitchen. Franny has been running the ce for so long that she could change the name to Granny''s Kitchen, and it wouldn''t be a lie. I found the ce as soon as I started school in August, and I loved it immediately. Her food was delicious home-style family food. Stuff you loved to eat and couldn''t get enough of.


    Franny''s was a weing and happy ce. She ran the ce with her family, and everyone was just as sweet as she was. I loveding here, especially when I was in a bad mood. It always helped to cheer me up.


    We sat in a booth in the back. Juniper sat across from me and Vincent next to me with me on the inside of the booth. We ordered our food; I got a half order pot roast and a chicken pot pie. I was hungry, and the food was really good. While we waited, we chatted about random useless things. That is until Juniper asked how things were between Reece and me.


    "Not much has changed." I tried to be evasive.


    "Things haven''t gotten any better? I thought they must have since you slept together at the hotel." Vincent just had to go and let that little tidbit out.


    "OH MY GODDESS! Trinity, you didn''t tell me about that." Juniper looked at me with hopeful eyes, eager for a story.


    "There''s nothing to tell." I countered.


    "I''m not buying that. You slept together, how is that nothing?"


    "We slept in the same hotel room. We didn''t sleep together." I saw the look of confusion on her face.


    "In the same bed?" She asked, still trying to hold on to a scrap of debauchery in my failing love life.


    "Nope, it was a suite. So, there were two separate bedrooms for us. He did try to have a little fun and mess with me on the way to the room though."


    "Fun? What kind of fun?" She asked, hopefully.


    "He was being intentionally suggestive just to scare and annoy me. But I told him nothing will happen unless it''s mutual otherwise he''s going to lose something." I said with all seriousness. Juniper and Vincent bothughed at my words.


    "Oh, I bet he just loved that." Vincentughed. He was such a nice guy, but right now he wasughing almost maniacally. But it suited him still, it made him look a little younger and twice as handsome.


    "Well, when I reminded him about that fact in the hotel and threatened to remove things through certain means he did blush."


    "NO!" Juniper gasped. "You actually made the alpha blush?"


    "Now I''ve heard it all." They were bothughing again. It was all really helping me to get past the uneasy feelings and stress I had been havingtely.


    "I hate to eat and run, but I''ve gotta go meet the guys. I''ll see you tomorrow Trin, love you." Juniper told me as we leaned across the table and gave each other a quick hug after lunch.


    "I''ll see you tomorrow." I told her then watched as she walked out of the restaurant.


    "Want to get dessert before we leave?" Vincent asked me as soon Juniper was gone.


    "Tempting, very tempting, but I''m stuffed. And I get the feeling you''re trying to make me feel better for some reason." I looked up at him suspiciously.


    "Is it that obvious?" He asked sheepishly.


    "You''re a really nice guy Vincent, so it might normally be a little hard to tell, but you''re trying a little harder than usual."


    "I''ve only suggested lunch and dessert." Heughed.


    "I know, but it''s all the little things too."


    "I just want you to be happy and safe Luna." He looked so sincere as he spoke.


    "You''re one of my biggest allies, and one of my best friends Vincent."


    "I''m very happy you feel that way." He smiled.


    "I just feel bad for you." I told him, looking down at the table.


    "Why? There''s nothing for you to feel sorry for."


    "You''re being forced to spend almost all of your time with a person ten years younger than you. You''re being forced to go through college again. And you have to spend your time with my friends too. You never get to do what you want to do." To my surprise Vincentughed at me.


    "Trinity, you have it all wrong. Ok, here''s how I see it. I have the privilege of being the personal guard of my Luna, a very high honor that was given to me. And I never went to college, so now I''m getting a free education by guarding you. And your friends are great, and what does it matter that you''re all younger than I am, we can share our perspectives and help each other learn and see things differently. I''m happy, so don''t be sorry."


    "You really are too nice." I smiled tearfully at him.


    "Too nice, or just nice enough." He joked. "Come on, let''s get you back to the estate." He stood and gestured for me to do the same. When we walked out into the midafternoon light, even the mid-November chill or the threat of impending snow wasn''t enough to bring my mood down.

 Chapter 51 - Trinity-Attacked Again

    <h4>Chapter 51 - Trinity-Attacked Again</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    We were walking back to the car at the university chatting andughing. We had parked in the back today like usual, I didn''t mind the walk and it meant not fighting for a space with the humans near the building. We were almost to the car when I sensed that someone was running right toward us.


    "Luna." Vincent shouted, grabbing me around my waist and spinning around and moving me out of the way. We took off running back toward the buildings we had just left. It was just now that I started paying attention, we were the only people in the area. That was unusual but not impossible. Most people would be in ss or attending clubs or sports. I can''t believe we didn''t notice though.


    As we ran toward the nearest building, Performing Arts I think it was, I noticed that there was more than one pursuer. And these weren''t just people chasing us. They were wolves. They had to be from another pack or rogues. But what were they doing on our territory? And why are they attacking me? Vincent spun me out of the way again, changing direction to avoid the new threat.


    "Stay behind me." Vincent growled. "I''m going to have to shift." He said through clenched teeth. I sensed a third personing at us then. Could this get any worse? I thought as the first wolf made to attack us again. But the new arrival did note toward me and Vincent. No, they went after the charging wolf, smacking into him and knocking him off course.


    I could smell the neer now. I knew the scent. I had smelt it that morning.


    "Professor Thompson" I asked confused. She turned to look at me with the bright green eyes I had grown ustomed to seeing over thest few months. "Watch out." I cried out as the second wolf charged her. Vincent charged him at the same time Professor Thompson did. They crushed the wolf between them, knocking him unconscious.


    The first wolf still hadn''t given up, he was slinking around the other two trying to get to me without them noticing. I watched him move out of the corner of my eye, letting him think I hadn''t noticed. The moment he made his move I kicked off from a car and used it to propel myself away from him. He skidded to a halt and doubled back,ing at me again.


    This time I timed his run with a backflip, just like grandfather''s tutors had taught me. I caught him in the jaw, just as I nned. I sent his head flying backward with such force that,bined with his forward momentum, his wound up doing an almost backflip as well. I heard him roar in pain and frustration when I hit him.


    Once he finished his flip, he was already scrambling to his feet, ready for another assault. That''s when we heard them, the sound of at least half a dozen more rogues that were very close by. Someone had engineered this whole event. They had deliberately cleared this particr parking lot and waited for us to return. It was an ambush.


    "Luna, we need to run." Vincent growled, grabbing my hand and running toward town. He knew the rogues were less likely to follow us wherever the humans were. He pulled me along behind him as he ran as fast as he could. I was faster than a human, but he was still faster than me and I couldn''t keep up with his speed.


    "We need to keep going." He told me.


    "I know, I''m just not as fast as you. I''m sorry Vincent."


    "Come on." He snapped, pulling me again, this time lifting me up into his arms to carry me.


    "This will just slow you down!" I protested.


    "No, this is fine." He continued running, not decreasing his speed at all. The car we had been trying to get to was now abandoned. I mentally calcted how far it was from here to thepound, and how long it would take us to run there.


    The sound of snarling wolves interrupted my thoughts, I looked over Vincent''s shoulder, worried for Professor Thompson. I didn''t see her. She must have gotten away, that was good.


    Vincent and I had made it back to town, not far from where the diner was.


    "Is there somewhere in the city you consider safe? Or someone you can trust that you would be willing to go to?" Vincent asked, setting me down at a corner just a block away from Franny''s.


    "The only person I know who lives in the city is Juniper, and I''m not sure if she''s home. I don''t know anywhere else well enough. We could go back to Franny''s but it''s bound to be mostly empty. If we''re looking for a crowd, I''d suggest the mall." I was answering his question but also musing at the same time. We needed a crowd of people to disappear until it was safe to get home.


    "Then I would say the mall is the best. The sheer number of people there will help hide our scents somewhat, but it will also likely be so full of humans that they will not show themselves in wolf forms. Come on, let''s go." He took my hand again and pulled me along.


    Vincent, for all his nice guy personality, was quite assertive when it came down to doing his job. It was a different side of him to see, but he seemed so cool. He reminded me of how I used to look up to my cousins when we were kids. As he pulled me along behind him, he pulled out his phone and pressed a number without me seeing who he was calling.


    "I need you to get the others together and get down here now." He growled into the phone. I heard a muffled voice answer but couldn''t make out what they were saying. "Don''t give me any of your games right now David, there are at least half a dozen rogues in town, and already they''ve tried attacking the Luna.


    "What." David must have yelled because I heard that clearly. Before the muffled voice continued.


    "Bring the twins and the other two. We''ll be at the mall, the smell should help mask her, hopefully." I heard the muffled voice once again. "Trinity where exactly is the mall?"


    "You don''t know? I thought you did because you just started walking. We''re not far, thankfully. It''s close to the university, just about a mile that way still." I told him, pointing. Vincent nodded.


    "Close to the university. About five miles north, follow Chancellor Blvd, we will be waiting for your call." After that he hung up and continued pulling me in the direction of the mall.


    We were sitting at the fountains in the middle of the mall, there were norge stalls or walls blocking the view of the fountains which made it the perfect vantage point. We weren''t here to shop, and I had no desire to. My heart was still thumping loudly in my chest from the adrenaline.


    "Are you alright Luna?" Vincent asked me with a concerned tone.


    "I''m fine. Just got a little over excited earlier." I smiled at him.


    "I''m sorry I didn''t do more to protect you." He looked depressed. "I was going to shift, but we were aided by your professor. Then when I realized there were so many, I knew that the odds were stacked against me. I could probably handle them myself, and possibly survive. There''s no telling for certain though because I don''t know how they fight. But I wanted to prioritize your safety over all else."


    "And I''m happy you did." I tried consoling him. "I would have fought them off too, but I know that with as many as there was, we would have most likely lost. And it would have been my fault. So, I''m happy you thought to protect me over fighting them."


    "We''ve done nothing but apologize to each other today." Heughed at my words.


    "Well, maybe we should make this thest time for a little while." Iughed as well. Wepsed back into silence.


    As I sat there in silence, looking over my section of the mall trying to spot any enemiesing our way, I smelled a wolfing right toward me. A wolf I would know anywhere. I had not expected him toe. His sweet, spicy, and robust scent of chocte, cinnamon, and coffee followed by the smell of the forest. I would know it anywhere. I tensed visibly as soon as I noticed it.


    "Is something wrong Luna?" Vincent asked when he noticed my distress.


    "Well, I''ve gotpany." I told him quietly. He looked worried, thinking I had spotted an enemy.


    "Let''s go." Reece growled the order out as soon he and the others got to the fountain.

 Chapter 52 - Trinity-A Prisoner Again

    <h4>Chapter 52 - Trinity-A Prisoner Again</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "How did you know where we were?" I asked him. This made Reece smirk for some reason. He leaned forward, putting a hand on either side of me on the edge of the fountain where I was sitting. He brought his face down close to mine before putting his nose into my hair.


    "I could have tracked your mark, but just like I''m sure you noticed my scent as soon as I was in the mall, I was able to track you by yours." He growled into my ear.


    "So,ing here would not have hidden us from the people that were after us?" I asked him.


    "No, it would hide you from them, just not me." He grinned. "Your smell is stronger to me than anyone else''s as I''m sure mine is stronger to you." I just nodded to him, there was no reason not to.


    I noticed then who all had arrived with Reece. Behind him was David, Shane, and Shawn, the rest of my guards. On his left was Noah, and on his right was Carter. There was no one else in the world who could make me feel safer than those here. Reece included. I knew how strong he was, and the others had sworn to protect me. Noah and Carter, my family, would always protect me, and I loved them for that.


    "Come on." Reece said to me. "Vincent, you, David and those two, search the area, find at least one of those rogues if you can. I want to know why there were rogues on mynd going after my Luna." He growled.


    "Yes, Sir.


    "Carter, I want you to follow us in one of the cars up to the estate, if there are no problems, drive back down here to drive some of them back home. Noah, same to you, but you lead us back." Hemanded. His words spun for a moment in my head before clicking. There were seven people here besides me. Reece had just given orders to six of them. That left two. Me and him. Oh Goddess, we''re going to be alone again.


    We walked back the way Vincent and I hade into the building. Back along the trail Reece had apparently followed. I watched as all four of my guards dispersed, then as Carter and Noah went to separate vehicles. Reece was walking to the car. It was a car I had never seen before, it was still expensive, but way less expensive than his Ferrari he had driven before. This was a Shelby Mustang.


    "Another new car?" I asked him curiously, mostly to distract myself from having to be alone with him again.


    "Well, someone doesn''t like my ostentatious sports car, so I got a much less gaudy muscle car." He spoke sarcastically. "So, stopining." He added.


    "But isn''t it a little gratuitous to have so many cars?"


    "Not when I let my staff use them too." He retorted.


    "Fair enough."


    Reece held the door opened for me like always before going around and sliding in behind the wheel. He drove us back to the estate in silence. I could see Noah driving ahead of us, and when I turned in my seat, I saw Carter, a serious look on his face, following behind.


    I could tell that something was about to change. But I refused to pay it any mind. I didn''t want to listen to it, not yet.


    "Come to my office." Reece told me as soon as we got back home. Yeah, something was definitely about to change.


    "Alright." I agreed, sensing the tension in the air. I watched as my cousins drove back down the driveway, wishing they would be there to act as a buffer for us.


    I followed him silently through the house until we got to his office. He opened the door and waved me in ahead of him, pulling the door shut with a snap behind him. I was about to take my usual seat when he stopped me.


    "Sit here." He indicated one of the armchairs near the sofa. This was to be an informal discussion then. I went where he directed me. I know I was going to lose my cool, probably sooner than I wanted to, but I would hold it in for now. He sat in the far corner of the sofa next to my chair, lounging leisurely yet looking anything but rxed.


    "What exactly happened today, Little Bunny?" He asked me, his voice full of annoyance.


    "I thought you were already informed, Vincent told David everything." I told him.


    "I want to hear it from you." He growled.


    "Fine." I snapped then took a deep breath to steady myself. "I went to ss with Vincent as usual. After-."


    "Anything happen during ss?" He asked me knowingly. I red at him.


    "Why do you ask?"


    "I need to know everything." He smirked at me.


    "My first ss went fine, I spaced out in my second."


    "Same as usual?" Heughed. I growled at him.


    "And you would know that how?"


    "You think I''m not told what happens when you''re not here?"


    "Of course, you are." I sighed. "Yes, I spaced out like usual. And Vincent had to get my attention when my professor noticed myck of attention. That was the first time I was ever close enough to her to notice she was a wolf. I''ve never seen her in our pack, but I''ve hardly met everyone in our pack. So, I don''t know if she is one of ours or not."


    "She is not from our pack, she is actually from Riley''s pack, she lives in between the packs so she canmute for work purposes. She is an ally."


    "I know that now. After ss Vincent, Juniper and I went to lunch at Franny''s Kitchen, after we ate Juniper went back to meet Paul and Cedar while Vincent and I went back to the car. On our way back we were attacked by a man in his wolf form. Vincent moved to get me out of there immediately but there was another wolf attacking us as well."


    "What happened then?"


    "That is when my professor came. She helped protect us. I would like to thank her."


    "I hear you had to defend yourself personally, what happened?"


    "One of the wolves circled around. I just jumped out of the way, then kicked him in the jaw, that''s all."


    "Hmm." He seemed annoyed by my quick exnation. "How did youe to be at the mall when there were only two attackers?"


    "At least half a dozen more were howling in the distance, they wereing to back up the others."


    "So, you would have been outnumbered eight to two."


    "Three." I corrected him.


    "You''re not supposed to be fighting." He growled at me.


    "Why, haven''t I proven that I know how to protect myself?"


    "You don''t have a wolf, so you cannot fight against one."


    "That''s crap!" I snapped at him. "I have been training to fight for almost fifteen years, you misogynistic ass."


    "I don''t care. You''re not as strong as a wolf and you know it."


    "That doesn''t mean that I can''t defend myself in the event that I am attacked. Don''t you think that it would be best to have every advantage possible."


    "My number one priority is to keep my pack safe. And whether I like it or not, my pack needs you alive."


    "All the more reason for me to protect myself."


    "Out of the question." He snapped.


    "You''re unbelievable." I couldn''t understand his reasoning at all.


    "I don''t care what you have to say, end of discussion." He said firmly. "And you''re done with school." His growling words broke my heart. "Temporarily."


    "I''m almost done with the semester. Let me finish it at least." I begged him.


    "I can''t risk you being attacked again."


    "So, I''m just going to lose all the work I put in this semester?" I could feel the tears stinging the back of my eyes.


    "I''ll work something out so you can still sit your exams. But you cannot go to ss anymore until we get this rogue situation under control."


    "How long?" I asked him.


    "I don''t know." He looked apathetic as he spoke. My control broke and the tears I was holding back started to fall.

 Chapter 53 - Reece-Facing Noahs Wrath

    <h4>Chapter 53 - Reece-Facing Noah''s Wrath</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I could see the tears streaming down her face. I knew she was heartbroken and that she med me. But I just could not risk another attack. If she was attacked once while at the university, she could be attacked again. I just wish I knew what these rogues thought they could get from me by going after my mate.


    I''m beginning to think that I have a mole in my office somewhere. Someone giving information to my enemies. I don''t know if all the attacks on Trinity are linked or not, but they''re starting to pile up and I''d be a fool to ignore them.


    The first attack I thought had just been a case of wrong ce and wrong time. And I was tempted to still think that. But it almost seemed like the rogue went right after her. Could she have been the target or was she just the first person that he came across that was alone?


    Then there was the attack by the Warlocks. There was only one way they would know when I would be there, and that my mate would be with me. Someone had to tell them. But who in my inner circle was the mole? Who was trying to help my enemies get rid of me?


    And now, these wolves, be they from another pack or rogues, were clearly trying to attack her directly. She was their target, no doubt about it. Someone was after me and they were trying to use my Luna to get to me.


    I had distanced myself from her even more than I had already been, to protect her. I need her alive to protect my pack. I don''t intend to let her get close to me, anyway. But if staying distant protects her then that is all for the best. Then I don''t run the risk of her betraying me like women usually do.


    If I can protect my pack and her by staying away, staying distant, then that is what I am going to do. I just wish I didn''t have to be here to watch her cry. I am not good with watching women be emotional. All the times I''ve seen women cry and beg for things they thought I should give them, only to turn nasty and hateful. Women were spiteful, I wouldn''t let myself get pulled in by her though. I wouldn''t let it happen.


    I sat silently watching as the tears spilled down her cheeks when I told her she was not going back to the university for a while. She looked devastated, which was probably an act. She didn''t even try to wipe the tears away. But she didn''t look at me either.


    Suddenly, as if realizing what was happening, that she was crying in front of me. Little Bunny turned her head and blushed. Embarrassed she got to her feet and stammered.


    I''ll be in my room." Her voice trembling. She ran out of the room and mmed the door behind her. I was shocked. She didn''t yell at me. She didn''t beg me for anything. She didn''t me me for anything. I was at a loss. What was going on?


    After a few minutes of quiet contemtion there was a knock on my door. The scent told me it was Noah.


    "Come in." I called out to him. The door flew open and Noah strode in with a cloud of fury surrounding him. "Looks like things didn''t go very well." I growled.


    "When Vincent and the others went back to investigate the rogues were gone. Their scents still lingered, but there was no sign of them anywhere."


    "None of them?"


    "No." I growled at him, even knowing it wasn''t his fault. I couldn''t stop the frustration and anger from overflowing.


    "What are these people after?"


    "I wish I knew, Reece."


    "What do they think they can aplish? How is attacking my mate going to get them my territory?" My blood was boiling. Whoever was pulling the strings and manipting the circumstances here was going to have to deal with me soon enough. I will find them eventually.


    "How is Trinity?" Noah asked. "How is she holding up after today?" I know what he wanted to hear from me. That I had done my job as a mate andforted her. That I was being the ever-doting lover that people thought I was, that I wish I could be. But I can''t. This lifestyle was not safe for Trinity, she would not survive if I was too close to her.


    And if I was soft on her and let her get close to me, it would ruin me and those around me, just like it did to my father and my Uncle Nn seven years ago. Mate bond or not, she had no wolf which meant she was incapable of being the devoted, once in a lifetime mate that we were all told to expect.


    "She''s in her room. She is not very happy with me right now." I told him.


    "What did you do?" He asked me with a cynical look on his face.


    "I told her she couldn''t go back to ss for a while. At least until the rogue issue is taken care of." I didn''t like telling her that, I know it broke her heart, and I truly thought that she would make a goodwyer, Goddess knows she loves to argue enough to be one.


    "She will understand, it will just take her time to process it all."


    "I know." I grimaced at him.


    "You don''t look very happy yourself Reece." The somber look on Noah''s face told me everything I needed to know. I wasn''t hiding anything from him like I thought I was. Might as well be honest then.


    I got up and started pacing the room before beginning to speak.


    "I have been keeping her at bay for a while now." I told him.


    "What! Why in Goddess''s name would you do that?" He yelled.


    "Several reasons really. First and foremost, to protect her. Look at the facts Noah, she has been attacked three times since finding out that we were mates. Do you think that it''s all been a coincidence?" Noah raised a hand and ran it through his hair nervously, I don''t think he has really thought about it as much as I had. The look of pure shock on his face just helped toplete the look.


    "Second, Noah, is that I never wanted a mate in the first ce, and I still can''t believe that the Goddess chose someone without a wolf who can''t feel the bond in its true strength and power. She will never match me at anything. She and I will never click. So, I''ve rejected her."


    "You''ve what?" I saw Noah''s eyes darken. I had never once seen Noah angry with me. He had always chosen his duty to the pack, to me, over everything else.


    "I told her she was a mate in name only, that we will never be more than two people forced together. We will eventually share a bed to have a child and carry on the family line, but until then, she was nothing to me. And I told her I hated her." I finished while looking away from him. I didn''t want to see the disgust on his face when he heard thest of what I had to say.


    I heard him get to his feet, and I heard his footsteps, but he never said a word. I turned to look at him when I knew he was close to me. I knew he was going to yell at me, in Trinity''s ce, as he should. He was like her brother after all.


    As soon as I turned to look at him, his fist smashed into the left side of my face. Had I been a weaker man, it would have knocked me off my feet. But I did feel the bone in my cheek crack under the pressure of his fist.


    "What the hell is the matter with you?!" He snarled. "What kind of man says that to his mate?" He was angrier than I even predicted.


    "In part, I did it to protect her." I told him.


    "In what messed up way is being an asshat going to protect her?"


    "Because she''s already been attacked so many times, Noah, imagine how much worse it would be if I openly showed my affection for her constantly. Or if people thought we were closer than we are. Someone is after me, after my position, and they think they can use her to get to me. So I''m pushing her away to save her."


    "Even if it means pushing her so far away that she never trusts you again?" Noah''s fury was making it hard to understand him.


    "If that''s what it takes to keep her alive, then yes. My pack needs a Luna."


    "Our pack needs an Alpha and Luna that are united. How do you not see that?" He asked me incredulously. "I can''t believe you." Noah ran both his hands through his hair roughly, discing his usually perfectly styled hair. He then stomped to the door and stormed out, mming it behind him, leaving without another word.


    That could have gone better. I thought to myself. I really just wanted to protect everyone. My pack. My Luna. And even myself. Why was it so hard to make sure that no one got hurt?

 Chapter 54 - Trinity-Visiting The Previous Luna

    <h4>Chapter 54 - Trinity-Visiting The Previous Luna</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I had to remind myself for the millionth time that Reece was doing what he thought was best. Even though he was a misogynistic overgrown cave dog that thought I couldn''t help protect myself. I knew deep down that he was right though. That who ever attacked us before coulde back. That next time I might not get away or someone I care about might get hurt. I knew it all, but that didn''t make it any easier.


    Once the shock and heartache of having no life finally settled, I had to figure out what I was going to do now. And Reece had said he would try to work out a way for me to still sit my exams, he''d worked some miracles already so he might just pull it off.


    A thought struck me. I had told Noah I only had two jobs going for me right now, student and Luna. Well, I couldn''t do one of them right now, so I guess I better do the other. Some of my jobs as a Luna included managing disputes between the females in the pack, handling social gatherings, and making sure the women and children were provided for in any way.


    So, going off those duties, I thought it was best to try and get some of the pack to trust me as the Luna more, and build my rapport. I couldn''t go to ss, fine, then I was going to work on being the Luna. But I just don''t know how to go about doing that.


    I wish I had someone to help me learn to be the Luna. Someone I could ask questions of. I''m sure Katie had it easier because Riley''s mom was still alive and could help her transition into the role. I guess Reece''s mom was still technically alive as well, but I couldn''t ask her anything.


    The thought of her sitting up there, alone most of the time made my heart hurt. I knew that Reece talked to her, but no one else did. I''m not even sure if her maid or doctor did.


    Just then I had a sudden idea. Reece was gone for the day on another one of his meetings, thest of which I was supposed to go on but was now banned from. So, I knew what I was going to do. I''m going to visit his mom. I thought to myself. I knew she wouldn''t be able to talk back to me, but if I was her, I would want someone to talk to me as often as they could.


    I didn''t want to let anyone know I was there, but Reece would probably smell my scent and figure it out anyway, so it really didn''t matter. I crept slowly down the hall while no one was around. I knew that Abigail and Peter were downstairs, but I never knew exactly who would be in the house at any given time.


    I made it down the hall and to her room with no incident and slipped in as quietly as I could, shutting the door silently behind me. I thought the room would be dark and dreary, but it was actually bright and open. The curtains open and let in lots of natural lights.


    I saw her then, sitting in a rocking chair next to the window. She was wearing a loose-fitting white nightgown. With the light shining on her golden-brown hair and reflecting off her pale nearly translucent skin she almost looked like an angel, or a ghost, sitting there. She definitely didn''t look real.


    I walked closer to her, nervous and afraid that she would choose now to wake up and catch me. But she didn''t move or make a sound at all. I pulled a chair in front of her and sat, looking her in the face. She was beautiful. Even withered away as she was. I could see how beautiful she was and how much Reece loved his mother.


    It was clear that she had been a beautiful woman when she was younger. But having spent seven years in this catatonic state she had wasted away. She looked thin and frail. Weakened by the years of mental imprisonment.


    I just wanted to help her, to make her better. Not just for her sake, but for Reece''s too. Seeing her like this for so long had to be hard on him. It broke my heart thinking about it. Even with how angry he could make me sometimes I couldn''t bring myself to hate him outright. He was a great alpha after all, and only seemed to be a jerk to me.


    I didn''t know what to do or say, so I just started talking at random.


    "Hello Luna, or former Luna, you don''t know me but I''m Reece''s mate. I''m the new Luna of the pack. And boy, do I wish you were here to help me." I sighed looking at her beautiful face full of soft features.


    "You have an amazing son." I continued, I didn''t want to lie to her, but I wasn''t going to tell her the truly terrible things either. Just in case she could hear me. "He''s been doing a great job running the pack. Everyone loves him. He''s strong, and fair, and smart when ites to keeping the pack safe and running properly." All these things were true. He was excellent at his job.


    "And he''s handsome too. So very handsome. Probably more handsome than one man has the right to be. And believe me, he knows how good he looks. He''s probably used that to his advantage far too many times." Iughed to myself, thinking about how he must have acted in the past.


    "But I know he is hurting too. I know he misses you. Your absence has hurt him so much, but he would never admit it. He''s too proud and stubborn for that. Instead, he holds it all in, bottling up everything until it gets to be too much." I could feel my heart aching. I knew how he must feel, bottling up the emotions. I had done that for years too.


    "I wish you could get better." I implored as I grabbed her hand gently, rubbing my thumb along her knuckles. "I wish you could be there for him. To see the man that he has be. To help support him where I''m failing him. To give him whatever it is he needs that Ick." I poured my heart and soul into those words, I truly wished she would wake up for Reece''s sake. Not my own selfish need for a Luna tutor, but for Reece''s.


    I sat there with her for a little while longer. I told her about all the worries I had about being the Luna. About what I wanted to do. How I wished that people would trust me more so it would be easier. After a couple hours I figured I should leave before anyone found me in the room.


    I snuck back out of the room and made it down the hall to my own once again. I was amazed that I had not been caught at all. I knew Reece woulde ask meter what I had been doing there, but I would deal with that when the time came.


    The most important thing was, I knew what I wanted to do with all my free time now. I wanted to start bringing groups of women and children here to spend time with them. To have some sort of events on a weekly basis, or even a few times a week. I needed to build my rapport with them. I needed to get them to trust me as their new Luna. Most still didn''t know anything about me except that I didn''t have a wolf.


    It was almost Thanksgiving, just five days away now. I could have a big feast for everyone, but that would take too much time to prepare and it was toost minute. But I could just have women and childrene in small groups for different activities. That would help to get everyone to know me and trust me somewhat.


    I could run arts and crafts for different groups of kids. We could do hikes in the woods for others. There was an endless list of things we could do to get the kids involved. And eventually I would need to do something to get just the women involved. There were a lot of women who didn''t have young children after all.


    Reece never came and asked me why I had been in to see his mother, though I know he noticed. The only reaction he gave was an intense re on Sunday morning at breakfast, but he never said a word. What was more exciting that happened on Sunday was Vincent calling to tell me that Heather had gone intobor, they were going to have the baby that day.


    Reece refused to let me go see Heather in the hospital, so I had to wait until she was recovered, and the baby was able toe visit me instead. But I was so excited for them that I went online and ordered a big bouquet of flowers to be sent to her. And then I went and ordered a few things for the baby. I couldn''t help myself.


    Vincent calledter that day to let me know that they had another little girl, and they were naming her Faith. I was touched because that was my middle name. I didn''t know if they chose it because of me or not, but I was still happy. Now they had Conner, Renea, and Faith.

 Chapter 55 - Trinity-A Ghost On The Fourth Floor

    <h4>Chapter 55 - Trinity-A Ghost On The Fourth Floor</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    David was taking over for Vincent for a little while, so Vincent could spend time with his family. So, he was with us on that Tuesday during an afternoon arts and crafts event when we heard a maid scream from somewhere upstairs.


    We were on the second floor in one of the spare sitting rooms so we would be out of the way. There were about half a dozen kids and their mothers, me, Juniper and David. We heard the bloodcurdling screaming from somewhere above us.


    "What was that?" One of the moms eximed as the kids all started to look frightened.


    "I''m sure it''s nothing to worry about." I told her. "I''ll go check it out."


    "No, Luna, I will." David countered.


    "We will." I corrected him.


    "But Luna-."


    "David, we''re in the house, I''m sure it was nothing major." I told him firmly. "You and I will go together."


    "Yes, Luna." He conceded.


    We left the room together, assuring the others we would be back soon. David and I headed straight for the stairs. The first thing we noticed was the sound of footsteps running toward us. David stepped in front of me protectively. Then we noticed it was just Julie, one of the housekeepers. She looked terrified.


    "Julie, what happened?" I asked her, concerned for her safety.


    "There''s a ghost on the fourth floor." She squeaked,pletely frightened by whatever she saw. She didn''t pause more than a moment before she continued to run away. David and I looked at each other incredulously.


    "Do you buy that?" He asked me.


    "Not for a second." I answered. Then I had a thought. Did she go into the room with Reece''s mom? "She might have gone into a certain room though. Reece''s mother is up there, she''s catatonic and I thought she looked like a ghost or an angel when I saw her." I told him.


    "You saw her?" He asked me in disbelief. "I can''t believe he took you in there, he never lets anyone in there." I didn''t respond to his question.


    David and I continued up the stairs steadily. We had just reached thending when we heard someone stomping up the stairs behind us. I paused and turned around, already knowing who it was.


    "Alpha?" David asked in surprise. I remained silent.


    "Why are you up here?" He demanded.


    "Julie said she saw someone." David told him nervously.


    "Go away." He growled.


    "Reece?" We heard a very weak voice call his name.


    The three of us turned in unison. I don''t know what they felt or noticed first. But for me, I thought I was seeing a ghost copse on the floor. But I knew who it was. Reece''s mother was leaning weakly against the wall, barely able to support herself.


    "Mom!" Reece gasped in shock as he ran over to her. I followed him halfway down the hall and watched as he supported her in his arms. "Mom, you''re awake." He blurted, clearly in shock.


    "Reece, my son, my boy, you''ve grown so much." She cried putting her hand to his face gently. I could see tears glistening in her eyes as I felt my heart both melting and breaking at the sight of the scene.


    "How are you awake, Mom? What happened? This is like a miracle." I could see pure joy on his face, pure happiness. I was overjoyed to see that he was so happy right now.


    "I have been lost, Reece. Lost for so long. I''m sorry I wasn''t there for you, so very sorry. Please, don''t hate me." She was nearly crying now as she held her son''s face in her small frail hands.


    "No, Mom, I could never hate you. Never." He was crying now. The tears flowing slowly down his cheeks. It was a moment that I didn''t think I should see.


    I turned around slowly and crept away. I didn''t think Reece would notice.


    "Where are you going?" He asked me.


    "There is a room full of women and children on the second floor that are waiting for me to return. Don''t worry, I won''t tell them anything about this." I told him, smiling softly.


    "You? I know you. I''ve heard your voice." Reece''s mother called out to me.


    "No, we''ve never met before Ma''am." I told her.


    "I was so certain. I feel like I know your voice." She said looking confused.


    "Perhaps I just have amon voice." I told her. "I''m going now." I sighed looking at Reece.


    I returned to the sitting room and rejoined my crafts group. They were scared and nervous about what had happened. I assured them that there was nothing to be scared of.


    "Someone just saw something that scared them, it happens to us all from time to time. Everything is fine." I told them gently. Everything calmed down and the event ended without incident. All in all, it was an exhausting day.


    I didn''t know what to make of what had happened. I was happy that Reece had his mother back, but what had caused it? Surely it had not been me going to visit her. And if it was, if that was all it took, just one visitor, how would that affect Reece? How would he feel knowing that just having someone sit there and talk to his mother, was honestly all it took to wake her up? I didn''t know how he was going to react to that.


    But I would soon find out.


    I had decided to skip dinner that night. I was too nervous to see Reece but I didn''t know how he would react to me eating in my room, so I skipped it altogether. He didn''t like that at all.


    Right after the start of dinner I could smell Reeceing down my hallway, his footsteps stomping loudly, echoing off the walls. He was angry with me. When he reached my door, he pounded on it fiercely, not bothering to say anything. I knew it was him, so I simply told him toe in, I was surprised he didn''t just storm in to begin with.


    "You''re avoiding me again I see." He snapped as he mmed my door shut. I sighed.


    "Can you not m that so hard, or you might break something." I took a steadying breath before continuing. "And I''m not avoiding you, I just wasn''t hungry." My stomach chose that moment to betray me, growling so loud that I know he heard it. He raised an eyebrow at me quizzically.


    "Really?" He asked.


    "I wasn''t before, but I am now." I amended.


    "Uh huh. What happened? I know you went to see my mother the other day, and now she is awake. What did you do?" He demanded as he stalked closed to me, backing me up against the wall.


    "What do you mean? I didn''t do anything to her." I was shocked by his usations. I hadn''t done anything.


    "Then exin it to me. How did my mother, who has been catatonic for seven years, wake up only three days after you went to see her?"


    "I don''t know what you expect me to say. I don''t even know what you think I could have done. All I did was go and talk to her."


    "Talk? That''s all?"


    "That''s all."


    "What did you tell her?" He asked me. I blushed crimson and looked away from him.


    "Tell me Little Bunny!" He growled at me.


    "I told her you were a great man, and I wished she could be there to see it." I snapped at him, nearly yelling in his face. "I told her you were a great alpha, fair and good. I told her you were handsome and that you knew it. And that you missed her, a lot." When I finished, I was nearly in tears, I didn''t want to tell him everything because I was embarrassed to admit it to him.


    I saw the shock in his eyes at hearing my confession. At knowing exactly what I had said. Learning what I said about him to his mother, and probably others, surprised him.


    "All I did was wish that she could wake up and be there for you. Because I thought you really needed that in your life. There''s something you need, something I can''t give you. I wished that she would wake up and be there for you in a way I will never be able to. I can''tfort you. I can''t mend whatever broke you so long ago. But maybe your mother can." I cried looking at the floor.


    He backed away from me. He continued to back away until he was halfway across the room. Then he turned and was at the door before I knew it. Just before he pulled the door open, I heard him whisper in a soft voice.


    "I''m sorry." Then he was gone.


    I copsed on the floor and cried. I didn''t know why. He had done nothing to me. He hadn''t even used me of anything, really. But I felt so heartbroken and hurt at his words for some reason. I just sat there, crying for several minutes.


    I wanted things to improve. I wanted things to get better. But he just didn''t want that with me. But he never would. Why did he have to treat me this way? Why couldn''t we just be civil at least?

 Chapter 56 - Trinity-Hiking With Pack Cubs

    <h4>Chapter 56 - Trinity-Hiking With Pack Cubs</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I heard her, on the other side of the door. I could hear her sobbing, and I knew that I had caused it. I didn''t know why I had gone there in anger. I was happy that my mother was awake. But I was frightened.


    I knew that my Little Bunny had gone to see Mom on Saturday while I was gone. Her scent was very strong, and it was all over the room. It had seeped into the whole room. I had known that she knew about Mom, but I had no idea why she had gone to see her.


    I said nothing about it though. I took a wait and see approach. I wanted to see if she would confess to me that she had been there, knowing that I knew about it, anyway. She had to know. But she never said anything, so I didn''t either.


    Then, when I came back inside today, I saw Julie running down the stairs in a panic. When I asked her what had happened, she rambled something about a ghost on the fourth floor. That shocked me, Julie was never supposed to go into Mom''s room. Then I caught something about the ghost being in the hall. I bolted and ran up the stairs as fast as I could.


    To my horror, David and Little Bunny were already up there. Apparently, Julie had screamed loudly when she saw whatever scared her. I was about to make them leave when someone called me in a weak voice. That was when I noticed Mom for the first time.


    Mom was leaning against the wall, barely able to stand up. I could see she was about to fall down so I rushed to support her. I couldn''t believe my eyes. And then to make matters worse, my mother who had been sick for so long, started begging me for forgiveness, like she had chosen this path.


    My heart ached just listening to her ask me to forgive her. I couldn''t stop the tears. They were from the joy of seeing her awake, and the heartache of knowing she med herself for everything.


    I saw Little Bunny trying to leave then and asked where she was going.


    "There is a room full of women and children on the second floor that are waiting for me to return. Don''t worry, I won''t tell them anything about this." She whispered, smiling nervously.


    "You? I know you. I''ve heard your voice." Mom seemed surprised to hear Little Bunny talk.


    "No, we''ve never met before Ma''am."


    "I was so certain. I feel like I know your voice." Mom looked confused.


    "Perhaps I just have amon voice. I''m going now." Little Bunny looked at me once more before fleeing the hallway.


    How was I not supposed to be suspicious of her after that? It was like she was trying to hide something. She didn''t want me or Mom to see her there.


    I don''t know what is going on. But I''m beginning to suspect that Little Bunny isn''t just what she seems. Something else is going on here, with her, with me, with everything.


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I felt like things between Reece and I were just getting more and more tense. But I couldn''t help the feelings growing inside of me. I hadn''t spent enough time with him that I could say I was in love with him, but my body wanted me to. And my heart was telling me crazy things too. My brain was the only rational organ I had left. Too bad we often forget to use it when we need to.


    The only upside was that he tended to be such a jerk when I was around him that I couldn''t stop myself from being sarcastic and snarky to him. He just naturally brought it out of me. That meant I didn''t embarrass myself by being all lovey-dovey towards him all while he hated me.


    I was continuing to have events at the estate for the women and children. I had even had some women only events that were kid free. They loved them as it gave them an excuse to get away and rx. I wanted to focus on being a better Luna.


    Reece''s Mom, L, was really nice. She was giving me advice and helping me out where she could. But she needed to get her strength back, so she needed to rest often and couldn''t do anything too strenuous yet.


    I wanted some fresh air. I had been cooped up inside the house for almost three weeks now and it was already a week into December. If I didn''t get out and get air and exercise now, then I would miss my chance before the snow fell. So, I decided to take a group of kids on a hike.


    Most of the kids were still really young, though still really rambunctious. All the older kids were still in school so I had decided that the preschoolers would like going on a hike. A group of about five moms, myself, and a dozen kids went out in the morning.


    My n for the day had been to hike up the mountain to a clearing I knew of. It overlooked the river at the base of the mountain and was pretty t at that spot, so it was perfect for the pic I wanted to have for lunch. After lunch the kids could go on a scavenger hunt and look for treasures to take home. My thought had been that all the treasures could be used to make a Christmas ornament.


    Everything was going perfect. It was a beautiful day, clear with not a cloud in the sky. The pic was perfect, and the kids were having a great time. I was happy that everything was going so well.


    After lunch, when we started the scavenger hunt, all the kids were excited. Well, all but one. Dillon Bagley just didn''t want to do it. He wanted to stay there and watch everyone else as they looked for their treasures. I knew he would regret itter, so I was looking for his scavenger hunt items for him while keeping an eye on him where he sat.


    I could hear everyoneughing and having fun. It was a wonderful day, and I couldn''t have been happier, as their Luna, as I watched them enjoying themselves.


    Then I noticed the scent in the air.


    I could smell a wolfing our way, and he wasing fast. First, I could smell just one wolf, then there were several others. Among them I could smell Reece, his scent the strongest of them all. But I also noticed Noah''s. There were other familiar scents as well, but not ones I knew the names for.


    I didn''t know what was going on. I didn''t know if Reece knew we were out here. Or if this situation was dangerous.


    "Everyone, get back to the house, NOW." Imanded. The women heard me and started gathering the children to get them back to the estate.


    I noticed movement then. A wolf running all out, right in our direction. I could see arge group following him, chasing him. My guess, another rogue had made it onto our territory, and they were bound and determined to catch him.


    Oh Goddess no! I said to myself as I noticed where the wolf was running. If he didn''t change course, he would run right into Dillon. The little boy, only four years old, had seen the big wolfing his way and was frightened. He knew it was someone he had never seen before. He was frozen in ce, standing where he had been able to look over the forest below the mountain before we all had noticed themotion.


    I didn''t stop to think. My instincts took over. I ran toward Dillon as fast as I could. I was no more than fifty yards away from him. But the big wolf was closing in fast.


    "Please, Goddess, let me save him in time." I prayed. "Please." I put on a burst of speed, pouring my all into running as fast as I could. I didn''t know if I would make it in time.


    I felt my hands push Dillon just in time. He went sprawling to the side and out of the path of the wolf that had been bearing down on him.

 Chapter 57 - Reece-Little Bunny, Over The Edge

    <h4>Chapter 57 - Reece-Little Bunny, Over The Edge</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    We were chasing thest of the rogues through the woods. There had been almost a dozen of them this time. They were determined to get onto mynd and get something. I had a feeling I knew what. They were trying to make it to my house, to my Luna, to my mate.


    We had eliminated almost all of them. But this one had stayed back and out of the fighting when it started so that he could break away and make a run for it when we were all distracted. Well, that wasn''t going to work on me. I chased after him immediately. Noah, Henry, and Will followed suit.


    We had chased him up into the mountains. Almost to the house. He was faster than most, but I was gaining on him and he knew it. I could hear his growling wolf voice as he snarled at me.


    "Why are you so fast? You can''t be fast and strong." He was upset. He would not make it to his goal, and he knew it.


    That was when I smelled them. Little Bunny, and a group of others. She must have taken some kids out in the mountains because it was a nice day. This couldn''t get any worse. I had to catch him before he got to her.


    Then things did get worse. The crazy rogue I was chasing, the one I was just about to catch, was making a beeline for a cub from my pack.


    "No!" I snarled at him. "Leave that boy alone."


    "I can''t get what I was sent to fetch, so I''m going to hurt you another way." He sneered at me.


    "Leave him alone." I howled at him.


    That was when I saw movement. I knew instantly what it was. I would never mistake her for anything else, I''ve only been watching her everyday for thest two months now. Little Bunny was running toward the boy. I knew what she was trying to do. She wanted to save the boy. She was too selfless for her own good sometimes.


    I watched in horror as she pushed the little boy to the side, he was safe. But she had reached him just in time. The crazy rogue mmed into her, the body no longer being where he had anticipated he jaws missed when biting down.


    It seemed to happen in slow motion. I could have sworn she was falling so slowly that I would get to her in no time at all. But I still had to watch in horror as she went over the edge.


    The slow motion seemed to stop as soon as she was out of sight. I knew she was falling to whatevery below. I could already smell the sharp scent of her blood filling my nose.


    The others and I caught up to the rogue then. Henry and Willtched onto him immediately, but I didn''t stop. I leapt over the edge after my Little Bunny. I instantly saw where the blood had started. I couldn''t tell what she had hit to cause the bleed, but I knew she was hurt, and badly by the look of all the smears of blood that led down the mountain.


    I ran as fast as I could down the rocky slope, but I couldn''t see her anywhere. My heart sank as my eyes locked onto the river at the base of the slope. If she was nowhere in sight, she had to have fallen into the water. If I didn''t get to her in time, if she was unconscious, I didn''t want to finish that thought. I pushed myself to run harder.


    I dove into the water. It was cold even to me with my wolf metabolism. I could smell her just slightly down stream. I searched for her frantically.


    Finally, I found her. She had been caught on arge rock, her face under the water and blood seeping from a wound on the side of her head. I roared in anger as I shifted back to my human form and pulled her to me.


    She wasn''t breathing. Oh Goddess but she wasn''t breathing. Iid her down on the riverbank, pressing my lips to hers, breathing for her. I followed that with chestpressions. I repeated this process over and over.


    "Breathe!" I whispered loudly as I pulled my mouth from hers. "Dammit Little Bunny, breath. Don''t die on me." I begged her as I went to breathe for her again.


    I felt her body jerk then as she tried to take a breath. The water in her lungs was being expelled.


    "Oh thank Goddess." I eximed as I rolled her onto her side, thumping her back to help get the water out. She took a few shaking breaths, gasping for air, before she settled into a shallower, yet wheezy, breathing.


    "Thank you." I cried over and over. "Thank you for not dying." I held her in my arms, holding her close to my chest.


    I felt her body begin to shiver. First slow, then fast hard shakes. She was freezing. The water was cold, and the air was colder. She needed to warm up fast.


    I lifted her into my arms and carried her back to the house as quickly as I could. I cradled her to my chest as I went, hoping my body temperature would help warm her somewhat. It took me five minutes to get her back home, but that was longer than I wanted to leave her outside.


    I ran through the door, not caring that I was naked and might scare the staff. I yelled for Noah to call Griffin then meet me in her room with some fresh clothes for me. I could hear Noah''s footsteps moving right behind me before he overtook me on the stairs and hurried to my room.


    I made it to Little Bunny''s room andid her gently on the bed. Wanting to stop the blood I ran to the bathroom and grabbed a handful of towels. I was back at her side almost instantly, pressing a cloth gently against the wound that was still seeping blood.


    "Here." Noah snapped thrusting a handful of clothes at me. "The rogue is in the basement, detained, along with two of the others from the city." Noah growled. He had taken charge of the prisoner personally, and if unchecked might kill the man for what he did to his cousin.


    "Good, I n to interrogate himter."


    "Not without me you won''t." He snarled.


    "Fine by me." I took the clothes and got dressed. I didn''t need to sit there naked anymore, just in case she woke up. But her stillness was beginning to worry me.


    "Is she going to be alright?" Noah asked the question that was on my mind.


    "She''d better be." Anger boiled throughout my body.


    I was dressed and pressing a warm wet washcloth to her head when Griffin came storming into the room. He didn''t pause and wait to be given permission. Given the circumstances, I was content with his attitude.


    "What happened?" He demanded as soon as he saw her lying motionless on the bed.


    "She was pushed off a mountain, hit her head, and nearly drowned." I summed it up for him quickly.


    "For crying out loud, Reece, what''s going on around here?" He asked me.


    "Someone is after my territory, and they think going after my mate is the only way to do it."


    "Are you serious?" He looked doubtful. "Someone needs to protect her."


    "She was at the estate, the rogue made it too far in." I confessed, feeling pathetic.


    I watched as he checked the wound on her head.


    "It''s already starting to close up, but if she keeps getting head injuries like this, I am going to demand a scan of her head. Faster healing or not, there could still be permanent damage."


    "We can go now." I conceded. "I want to make sure she is alright."


    "I''m more concerned about hypothermia right now. We need to warm her up." He said, looking over his shoulder at me.


    "What about her head?" I asked him, concerned about the bleeding.


    "The blood flow has almost stopped, I''ll bandage it, it might need to be changed once or twice but it will be mostly gone in a few days."


    "That''s good." I sighed in relief.


    "How are we going to warm her up?" Noah asked.


    "Well, I doubt you have any heated nkets, and I''m reluctant to use hot water, taking her out would just lower her temperature again." Griffin looked serious as he contemted what to do.


    "Then what?" I wondered. "Just pile on nkets?"


    "That''s an option, though less effective. She needs warmth. Her body isn''t warm enough to create warmth under the nkets. So, she needs someone else warm under there with her." He finished looking at me.


    "What?" I asked in disbelief. "You mean me?" I was trying to ward off his stern re. I could see Noah looking at me with a monstrously angry look as well.


    "You are her mate, who else would do it." I sighed at his words.


    "Fine, I''ll do it." Noah growled at me when I said this. He still hasn''t forgiven mepletely for what had happened. He was doing his job like usual, but he had not acted like my friend once since the day he had punched me. I didn''t me him.


    "Just go Noah, you''ve got an interrogation to get to." I encouraged him.


    "Behave yourself." He snapped at me as he left the room.


    "Make sure her temp is back to normal before you leave her. She will most likely sleep until the morning, perhaps longer. Her body has a lot to recover from."


    "Alright." I told him.


    I watched as Noah and Griffin left the room before nervously turning back toward her bed. She would kill me if she knew what I was about to do. But I had no choice. I walked slowly to the side of the bed furthest from her before I pulled back herforter and spread it over us both. I pulled her body in close to mine and I could instantly feel how cold she was.


    I stayed like that, with her cuddled against me, for at least two hours. Resisting sleep and trying to ignore where I was and who I was with. The sooner I could get out of there the better, no need for her to wake up and have yet another reason to hate me.


    I could tell her temperature had regted, but she had begun to have a nightmare. Tossing her head from side to side and moaning slightly. I didn''t know if she was in pain or if it was in response to the dream. I rubbed small circles on her back gently, just long enough for her to calm down. Once she was settled, I slipped out of the bed and rearranged theforter around her before quietly leaving the room. With luck she would never know that I had been where I was.

 Chapter 58 - Trinity-After The Fall, Real Or Dream?

    <h4>Chapter 58 - Trinity-After The Fall, Real Or Dream?</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I had felt my body falling over the cliff, and some thirty feet or more below, my head smashed into the rocky side of the mountain. That was thest thing I remember clearly for a while. I had tidbits, bits and pieces here and there, but I didn''t know if they were real or dreams.


    For one, I dreamt that Reece pulled me out of some water and gave me CPR, but I know that didn''t happen. I remembered, or dreamt, a lot about Reece. Most likely because he had been there right before I fell, I knew he was close by. I even thought I could smell him once, but it was fading now.


    I was starting to wake up. I could tell that. I had an intense headache unlike anything I had ever had before. And I felt dirty, like I hadn''t showered in days. I could smell another wolf in the room, my anxiety momentarily rising, but then I just noticed that it was Noah.


    Noah must''ve noticed that I was waking up. I heard him move from his chair and rush to the side of the bed.


    "Trinity?" He sighed, relief was clear in his voice. "Trinity are you awake now?" He asked me.


    "Noah?" I tried to talk like normal, but my throat ached from being dry. Not to mention it felt like I had the entire river pour in and then out of my throat.


    "Oh thank the Goddess, Trinity, you''re finally awake." He sighed in relief. "If you didn''t wake by this afternoon, the doctor was going to send an ambnce to take you to the hospital."


    "How long have I been out?" I fought through the pain that gripped my throat to force the words out.


    "Almost three days." He seemed so upset as he spoke. I could see his eyes darting side to side before he looked back at me again. "I was worried you would never wake up Trinity."


    "I''m sorry Noah, I just couldn''t let him hurt the boy. I moved without thinking."


    "I know Trin, I know how you are. But we''ve all been so scared." He hugged me then, pulling me into his arms. The movement sent a jolt of pain through my head causing me to cry out. "Are you alright?" His voice rushed out in a panic.


    "I just have a really bad headache." I groaned.


    "Griffin did say that would probably happen." I watched as he rose as walked toward the table. "Here, take these." He told me, handing me three pills and a ss of water. "Griffin said these would help."


    "Thank you." I immediately popped the pills into my mouth and swallowed them. The water was a relief to my dry throat, so I finished the ss before handing it back to him.


    "Thank you for saving me Noah, I would probably be dead if it wasn''t for you." I told him, trying to convey how thankful I was to have him.


    "Trinity, I''m not the one who saved you." He denied it adamantly. "Why do you think it was me?"


    "You were there. I know you were there. I smelled your scent."


    "But I wasn''t the only one there." I was confused, but he didn''t say anymore.


    "Noah, who saved me?" I asked him, I didn''t know who it could have been, of the people that had been there. Maybe one of the pack females had saved me.


    "Trinity, who do you think would save you?"


    "I don''t know Noah. You were the only one I thought would." His face fell then, like he was heartbroken.


    "He was telling the truth, he''s caused this." He mumbled to himself.


    "What?" I asked.


    "Trinity, Reece is the one who saved you." Noah''s words shocked me to my core.


    "No! There''s no way. He said he would never save me again after the attack by the Warlocks."


    "That asshat." Noah snarled. He rarely acted like this. "Look Trinity, I know he has said a lot of hurtful things to you."


    "How?" I interrupted him. "How do you know? I Never told you."


    "He told me, and I punched him in the face for it."


    "What?!" I could not believe what he had just told me. "He told you? And you punched him?" I asked him, my voice cynical.


    "I''ve always put my pack duties above everything Trinity, but I couldn''t let that slide. I couldn''t let him do that to you and get away with it."


    "Noah." I was so touched by his words, tears formed in my eyes. "Thank you."


    "I love you Trinity, you''re my family, and I won''t let him mistreat you like that."


    "They were only words but thank you Noah."


    "Anyway, as I was saying, Reece is the one who saved you. He saw you go over the edge and didn''t stop. The rest of us apprehended the rogue but Reece leapt right off the cliff after you without even a moment''s hesitation. Hended on the slope and ran down after you then pulled you out of the water. He gave you CPR and carried you back to the house."


    "It wasn''t a dream." I whispered to myself.


    "What?"


    "Nothing."


    "I know he''s said somethings, Trinity. But just so you know, he was trying to keep you at bay to protect you. Because from day one of finding out you were his mate you were attacked by a rogue, it could have been a coincidence, but it might not have been."


    "How is rejecting me and hating me protecting me?" I snapped at him.


    "That''s exactly what I asked him, but he really thought he was doing what was best. I think maybe you guys need to talk, a lot, about everything."


    "I don''t think that man is capable of talking. Not to me anyway. It always ends in an argument." I thought of ourst discussion. I had actively worked to avoid him ever since he used me of doing something to his mother. I couldn''t stand to be in the same room with him most of the time, and when I had to be, I simply ignored his existence.


    "Make an effort, or things will never get better."


    "I''ll try." I resigned myself. I didn''t know what my future might hold, but I was more confused now than when I first woke up.


    I was tired and weak for a few days. Juniper, Paul, and Cedar came to visit me in my room while I was recovering. Aunt Eve and Uncle Wesley came as well, with Nikki in tow. Carter was apparently working for the Alpha now and was away on business. Noah said he made the decision after I came to live here with Reece. He didn''t want me left without an ally fully on my side.


    I was also visited by Vincent and Heather. They brought baby Faith to see me. She was almost a month old now, and this was the first time I was seeing her. She was adorably chubby, wrinkled, and had the cutest little pink cheeks. She was a perfectly healthy little baby. I could tell that Heather and Vincent were very proud.


    "Luna, how are you feeling?" Vincent asked me very seriously during the visit.


    "I''m fine Vincent, no need to worry."


    "Don''t tell me not to worry." He snapped at me frustratedly. "Trinity, you almost died. Don''t take risks like that ever again." He looked furious with me.


    "I was not going to let a child die right in front of me."


    "I understand that, I do, but you just need to protect yourself better." He resigned. "And always take a guard with you, please." I promised, somewhat.


    "I will try to take one with me, almost everywhere I go, from now on." He red at me. "That''s the best I can do for now, Vincent."


    We spent the rest of their visit talking about the baby and everything that had changed for them so far. I had insisted on changing the subject and not talking about my life anymore. I wanted to be cheered up.


    Later, L visited me as well. She was concerned that I was taking so long to recover. She told me that Reece was acting strangely. He had been a lot more reserved and leaving the house less over the days that I had been recovering. If he could get out of leaving entirely, he would.


    "I''m worried about him." She told me with a voice full of concern and sadness. "I just came back to him, just got back myself, and now I feel like I''m losing him again."


    "I''m sorry L, I really am, but I don''t know what I can do. He won''t listen to me even if I talk to him. He doesn''t like me, he doesn''t want me around, he hates me."


    "Honey, I''m sure he doesn''t hate you." Her voice was soothing and cating as she tried to settle the issue, but she needed to know the truth now.


    "He does, he told me so himself." She gasped, cing a hand over her mouth and heart at the same time, her eyes wide in shock. My words had clearly surprised her.


    "Trinity, sweetie, tell me you''re joking." She begged.


    "I wish I was, but he told me he would never ept me, and he hated me. It''s all true." I saw the pain in her eyes at that.


    "Honey I''m so sorry." L was so distressed at what her son had done. She didn''t stay long after that, I think she was ufortable with what I had told her.

 Chapter 59 - Reece-Explained

    <h4>Chapter 59 - Reece-Exined</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~~


    After I slipped out of my Little Bunny''s room that night, I immediately went to see Noah. I wanted to know what our friends in the basement had to say for themselves.


    "Did you behave yourself?" He had asked me.


    "Did you really think I wouldn''t?" I countered. "Of course, I did. I held her to keep her warm. She had a nightmare once but settled down. Her temp is normal now. You can check on her soon."


    "Good." He continued to re at me. "Did you keep your hands to yourself?"


    "What''s that supposed to mean?"


    "You know what it means. You rejected her. I don''t want you pawing all over her."


    "She is still my mate Noah. I have every right."


    "You have no right until she gives it to you."


    "I know that." I sighed, conceding to his words. "She has told me the same thing by the way. She threatened to remove something if I didn''t have her permission." Noahughed at that and I couldn''t help butugh with him.


    "Good, she''s a strong girl, and stubborn."


    "I''m learning that."


    I learned from Noah that none of our prisoners were talking. No matter what Noah did or said. Looks like they needed a little push from the alpha to persuade them. I stalked to the basement and went into the room with the man that had pushed my Little Bunny over the edge of the cliff.


    "Do you want to exin yourself now, or do I need to get creative?" I asked him. The man had the audacity to re at me.


    "You won''t frighten me. You will never learn anything from me about our mission."


    "Creative it is." I grinned at him. "I''m going to show you what happens to anyone who hurts my mate."


    His screams echoed throughout the room for the next hour. I made sure not to kill him, otherwise I could do whatever I wanted. He would heal, eventually.


    I had just snapped his thigh bone, an excruciatingly painful injury that would only take him an hour or so to heal. His agonizing cries of pains reverberating around me were like music to my ears.


    "Who are you working for?" I growled at him again. "Why are all of you working together?"


    "Go to hell, you pathetic low life." The rogue was crying in front of me.


    "You''re not going anywhere until you tell me." I told him.


    "I''m not saying a word."


    This process went on for hours with him and the other prisoners. We never learned anything. We continued interrogating them over the next few days and still, nothing. I was getting frustrated.


    And to add to the frustration. It had been three days and my Little Bunny was still not awake. My anxiety was growing with each passing hour that she didn''t wake up. Griffin had only said she would sleep until the morning, maybe a little longer. He didn''t say anything about three days.


    Even Griffin was worried about her. He gave a deadline. If she doesn''t wake by that time, he will send an ambnce to bring her to the hospital. We were all worried, even my mother. The pack was about to lose another Luna. How could I let this happen?


    I''d been in a bit of a stupor this whole time as well and I knew it. I couldn''t help it. I was just too worried. That''s why I was currently pacing my office and staring out my window instead of working when Noah walked in without knocking.


    "Noah?" My heart sank. He had been sitting with my Little Bunny almost this whole time. "Is something wrong?"


    "You would know if you went to see her yourself." He didn''t look happy at all. Something bad must have happened.


    "Is she alright? Did something happen?" My heart ached, and I felt like a bucket of ice water had just been dumped down my spine. Noah sighed causing my stomach to drop. I sank into the chair at my desk.


    "She''s fine." He finally told me. "She''s awake." It felt like a balloon had just inted inside my chest.


    "Oh thank Goddess." I sighed so quietly he couldn''t hear me.


    "I told her the two of you need to talk." He red at me. "About everything."


    "She won''t want to talk to me."


    "I told her that you''re the one who saved her. She didn''t believe me. She didn''t think there was any way you would save her. You need to stop pushing her away." He lectured me.


    "I know. The attacks are not stopping even without me near her. And I don''t know what''s going to happen next."


    Noah continued to lecture me on what I should do when ites to my Little Bunny. But I didn''t know if she would ever let me near her again. And I was nervous. I had kept her at bay to protect her, and myself. I didn''t want to let her in.


    I had built walls, thick high walls, around my heart to protect myself from ever getting hurt and having the same problems that had nearly destroyed my pack and Riley''s pack. I didn''t want to let her destroy those walls I had built. She was so unlike the other women I had met, that I had been with, that I knew she could do it. She would worm her way in and tear them down until I was soft and exposed, vulnerable to her every touch, to her every word, to her.


    I was still avoiding her room. I had yet to go check on her, though I thought about it all the time. I wanted to see her. To see for myself that she was awake and safe. To even have her yell at me again. Hell, I''d even take her calling me Fido or Benji again, just to know that she was back to her old self. But I couldn''t bring myself to take thatst step. Not yet.


    That''s when mom came to see me. I was holed up in the music room tuning the piano. I had neglected the thing for so long that it was nearly impossible to y right now. She knew I wouldn''t leave it until I was done, unless she made me so mad that I couldn''t control it. I sat there and listened to her lecturing me.


    "What in the world have you been doing?" She yelled at me as soon as she came into the room.


    "I''m tuning this damn thing." I told her as I worked my way up the row of keys, I had just finished with middle ''C'', halfway done.


    "I meant with your mate. The story that she just told me. Honestly Reece." She snapped at me. I groaned knowing all too well what she must have heard.


    "I have no excuse good enough, but I have my reasons for why I thought it was best." I told her.


    "I don''t care what you thought. There is nothing on this that should make a man, an Alpha, say those words to his mate. Do you understand me? What you did was wrong on so many levels."


    "You don''t understand Mom, I-."


    "No Reece, you don''t understand. That girl is your mate. Don''t you see. She is your mate and will love you forever if you only give her a chance. But if you push her away like this, she will hate you with every fiber of her being. And she will hate herself, because she will still want to love you because of the bond you share."


    "But she doesn''t have a wolf Mom, the bond won''t make her love me." I looked away from her, hiding the pain in my eyes.


    "What makes you think that?" She demanded, her voice roaring in the room.


    "Only wolves can be bonded, only wolves can be dedicated, only wolves can be true mates."


    "Now, I know I''ve been lost for thest seven years, but boy I know I raised you better than that. What gave you the idea that only wolves can be true mates? Why is it you think that only someone with a wolf can be dedicated? She was born and raised as pack, she is pack, she may not change into a wolf, but she is wolf enough."


    "But look at what happened to dad and Uncle Nn, they died because a woman who wasn''t a real wolf betrayed the man who loved her. They died because she was a spy for an enemy pack and used Steven for their own personal gain, I can''t trust someone that can''t form a true mate bond with me."


    I watched my mother then as she threw her hands up in frustration. She paced away from me and over to the window, strumming her fingers across the harp as she went. I remember when I was little, I used to love watching her y the harp. It seemed so magical to me. It was why I wanted to learn to y so many different instruments.


    "Reece, you know that Steven and Mandy didn''t have a mate bond right. Steven had never met his mate, but he fell in love with Mandy and wanted to be with her, bond or no bond."


    "What are you saying?" I could feel the shock coursing through the air, almost like a pulse beating against me, I didn''t know anything about what she was saying.


    "Most people in the pack didn''t know, I guess. But no, Steven fell in love with Mandy on his trips to her family''s pack. As you know she was human, fully human. Her father was a member of the ck Moon Pack, but her mother was human. She was not fortunate enough to be like the other half wolf-half human children that are born. She was not simply a weaker wolf. She was a human. But as she was born in the pack, they raised her in the pack."


    "I knew she was human yes, she was no wolf, but I had assumed there had been a mate bonding but that she simply didn''t feel it like we do."


    "No, Reece, there never was. Steven was nearly thirty, and he was lonely. He wanted a mate, and he fell in love with a beautiful woman. She said and did everything just right to get him to trust her and fall for her. But they never had a mate bond. Steven said he didn''t care. He loved her and wanted to be with her, traditions be damned."


    "But I was right though, she was just using him."


    "Yes, but it was not because she didn''t have a wolf, it was because she was a bad person. Don''t you get it Reece?"


    "She was far from the only bad woman out there, Mom."


    "What happened to you?"


    "When I first became alpha, so many people thought I was too young. There were many men in the pack that tried to manipte me. Most directly, some by sending women my way. They would try to sweet talk their way in, worm their way into the house to control things. But I never let any of them. Any woman I was with was taken elsewhere." I told her firmly, making sure she knew I never brought those women home.


    "Those women were never allowed here at all. And when I refused to give them what they were after, when they were done prostrating and prostituting themselves for whoever sent them, when they failed, they turned ugly, nasty and mean." I remember those women clearly, those evil, vile, subus like women.


    "And as time went on almost every woman who tried to get a chance at my bed was the same way. They would degrade themselves. unt their bodies for all to see. Act like their only worth was sex. And when they got the sex, and nothing else, they turned into vile demonic creatures barely resembling the women from before."


    "With poweres the power seekers. That will always be true. I am sorry you had to deal with that on your own. And I am sorry I was not here to help you with your women troubles. I wish I could have helped you talk through it all, to stop you from getting to this point where you seem to have so much hatred built up." My mother looked at me with eyes full of sorrow.


    "It''s not your fault mom." I tried tofort her, but I was still awkward with her. In my mind my mother was a shell of a woman who sat in a room all day. Not this woman who stood here lecturing me.


    "Oh, but it is, Reece. I wasn''t strong enough to survive your father''s death. The sight of it, the feeling of having his bond ripped away from me, it broke me."


    "Mom." I said as I wrapped my arms around her.


    "You''re so much like your father, mostly with how stubborn you are." Sheughed at me.


    "Mom, what made you wake up?" I asked her, she hadn''t told me yet, and I wanted to know, now more than ever.


    "I heard a voice calling out to me. Telling me toe see you Reece."


    "What voice?"


    "Trinity''s." I knew she was going to say that.


    "Mom." I swallowed hard, a lump forming in my throat as I pulled away from her. "There''s something I want to tell you, about who I think Trinity''s real father might be." I was nervous to tell her about my suspicions. I didn''t know if I was right yet, but I had to tell her.

 Chapter 60 - Trinity-Trying To Say Thanks

    <h4>Chapter 60 - Trinity-Trying To Say Thanks</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After sleeping for three days and resting in bed for another two I was more than ready to get up. Which was why I had gotten up with the sun. I had changed my clothes recently, with the help of Aunt Eve and Nikki since everyone was treating me like I would break if I moved, but what I needed more than anything was a shower. Or a bath. Yeah, I think a nice long soak in my pool sized bath would be great, and just what the doctor ordered. Or what he should have.


    An hourter, and a million times cleaner, I was dressed and ready to be somewhere other than my room. I went to breakfast, expecting to see L and Reece, but only the former was there. Reece was once again nowhere in sight. He truly was avoiding me.


    I had wanted to thank him for saving me. He said he was never going to do it again, but Noah told me he didn''t even hesitate before rescuing me. I didn''t understand him. Was it because it happened when I was right in front of him? Was it because there were other pack members around? That seemed likely. He couldn''t afford to lose face in front of everyone.


    After eating the breakfast that Abigail made, ''special for you'' as she told me, I had intended to go read in the srium, but it had started snowing at some point this morning and it was now too dark to read in there. Bummer. Looks like the library would have to suffice.


    I was on my way to the library when I heard a sound I didn''t usually hear at the house. There was a soft, soothing musicing from the room down the hall opposite of the library. It was a piano. But who could be ying it?


    I followed the sound of the music. It was so lovely I had to see if it was someone on a recording or if they were ying right now. Then I noticed the scent, Reece was down this way? Was he the one ying the music?


    The door to the music room stood open just a crack, letting the beautiful notes slip out into the hall. Reece was sitting at the piano, his eyes loosely shut, as if he had been following the music in his mind, or heart, rather than on the paper sitting in front of him. I watched as his hands danced beautifully across the keys. I hadn''t yed the piano since I''ve been here. Actually, I hadn''t yed it in years.


    "Are you going toe in, or are you going to stand there all day, Little Bunny?" I growled at his use of the name that I hate, but I pushed the door open further and walked into the room, just barely into it.


    "I didn''t mean to spy on you, you just caught me off guard." I told him.


    "I caught you off guard? You were the one watching me." Heughed.


    "Yeah, I didn''t expect to hear you ying the piano. It''s the first time I''ve heard it since I''ve been here."


    "I just tuned it. I haven''t yed it in a long time." He looked longingly around the room.


    "It sounds great for being neglected, usually you''d need to tune it several times to get a sound like that out of a neglected piano." I was inadvertently lecturing him, trying to tell him something he mostly likely already knew. His eyes went wide.


    "You y Little Bunny?"


    "Grandfather insisted." I told him. "I can y the piano, among other instruments. Once you learn piano, they''re all that much easier. It''s the building block of all music after all. Or so Grandfather used to say." Oh Goddess., I was rambling. I had wanted to thank him, but now I didn''t know how to be around him. We had avoided each other for most of thest month, and now it was just in weird. UGH!


    "What all can you y?" He asked me. It seemed like he was making a conscious effort to be civil toward me.


    "Piano, violin, cello, oboe, and flute are my best, I dabbled in others. Then I also taught myself guitar and drums."


    "Taught yourself?" He asked, an eyebrow raised in question at my words.


    "Grandfather had this notion that I had to know the ssics, that it would somehow make me more appealing as a future mate, a better wife or something. I don''t know his reasonings really, he was alwaysing up with strange rules for me. So, I taught myself the guitar and drums as an act of rebellion." I didn''t know why I was being so honest with him. Maybe it had to do with the fact that he had yet to act like a jerk to me today.


    "Ahaha!" Heughed, long and hard, at my words. He seemed to think it was hrious.


    "Is it that funny?" I asked nervously.


    "Yeah, it is. It proves you''ve been this stubborn forever, and it''s not just me that brings it out." Heughed again, this time at his words.


    "Well, to be fair, I think it''s stubborn mules, I mean men, that brings it out of me." I joked back. It was actually kind of fun right now. I just had a feeling it wasn''t going tost.


    He stoppedughing and looked at me, a serious looking over his face. See I knew it wasn''t going tost.


    "Can we talk, Little Bunny?" His voice was strangely devoid of the anger I thought would be filling it. I nodded my head.


    "That was kind of what I wanted. I thought I was going to see you at breakfast." I could feel the nerves now, ricocheting around inside of me. I just need to thank him and go before he could get mad at me. Don''t let this turn into something horrible right now. I tried giving myself a mental pep-talk.


    Reece went over to sit on the bench seat next to the window, I sat across from him on a piano stool. Reece looked out the window before looking at me. I could see that he was tired, rings of exhaustion were forming under his eyes.


    "How is your head?" He asked me, his face as nk as he could get it. I couldn''t tell if he was angry or not.


    "I''m better, I didn''t need to sit in bed for two days."


    "It''s good you''re better but you don''t know that it wasn''t the resting that made you better. It was better to be safe than sorry."


    "Is there something specific that you need to talk about, Reece?" I felt like Reece was avoiding whatever topic it was he wanted to talk to me about.


    "It''s not easy for me to talk to you like this, so give me a break, alright." He looked at me self-consciously. "Look, I''m not going to apologize for what I''ve already done, it would be pointless. But moving forward I will attempt to not ostracize you so much." He looked so ufortable that it almost made meugh.


    "So sincere." I snickered. He red at me.


    "I''m trying here, alright. What are you doing about it?" He stood up and walked back toward the piano in anger.


    "You''re right, I''m not trying anything yet. But can you me me?" I couldn''t help the sarcastic tone of voice from creeping back in like usual.


    "You''re right." He growled back at me. "Why should we bother at all?"


    "You''re the one that''s always treated me like this." I yelled. "You''re the one who hates me, you''re the one that never wanted me around, the one that told me that I wasn''t good enough. So, excuse me if I am reluctant to ept what you''re trying to say now."


    "You''re right. I''ve said it all. You''re my mate in name only. I reject you. I don''t want you. I hate you." His teeth were clenched, and his eyes were narrowed, it was clear that he didn''t want to be anywhere near me. Why was he trying to force himself to be nice to me when he hated the sight of me? It made no sense to me at all.


    "I can''t do this right now." He snapped before he turned and stormed out of the room. The door to the music room was left standing wide open. I had wanted to thank him for saving me, but never got the chance. I had wanted to mend bridges, and now I felt like I had just burned them even more. Why did he have to be such a jerk? Why did he have to hate me so much?


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "Well, that didn''t go ording to n." I growled as I mmed my bedroom door. "Why does she have to be so damn difficult?"


    I wanted to apologize to her. I wanted to exin to her why I had said those rude things to her before. I wanted to tell her that I was wrong. Why couldn''t I do that?


    Will I ever be able to fix this? Will she ever forgive me? Will we ever be proper mates now with the mistakes that I''ve made? Have I ruined our lives forever?


    I have a feeling I am destined to be miserable and frustrated for the rest of my life now. She drives me insane. She drives my wolf wild. I just don''t know what to do anymore.

 Chapter 61 - Trinity-A Chat With Lila

    <h4>Chapter 61 - Trinity-A Chat With L</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Later, after my failed meeting with Reece, I was finally reading in the library, but I just couldn''t concentrate on any of the stories I tried to read. I was upset about my conversation with Reece that morning. And to top it off, Noah came to tell me that Reece hadn''t yet managed to get my exam situation figured out, so I was about to fail all my sses. Great.


    I was aimlessly looking through the books trying to find something interesting to read and trying to identify some of the other books as quite a few didn''t have covers on them. I had just picked up what looked like a journal on a shelf by the far window when a picture fell out of it.


    I didn''t recognize the people in the picture at all. It showed a man and a young boy, about ten years old, ying guitars together. They were smiling happily at each other. The boy had ck hair and honey-colored eyes. The man had ck hair and bright yellow eyes.


    The more I looked at the picture, the more I felt like I knew who they were, but I would have to ask L if I was right. I went looking for her and found her on the third floor. She had turned a sitting room into an art studio for herself. I have a feeling that Reece had gotten rid of every trace of his parents from the house because their memories were painful for him, but L was going to bring those memories back.


    "Hi L." I called out to her.


    "Hi there, Trinity, sweetie. How are you?" She asked as soon as I came into the room, she acted like she hadn''t just seen me at breakfast.


    "I found something that I wanted to ask you about." I told her.


    "Really? What''s that?" She seemed excited.


    I showed L the picture, it had been folded and was badly creased across the middle, but it was clear that whoever had kept it in the book had done so with love. The book that had looked like a journal had been empty, so I wasn''t able to get any clues from it.


    "Oh my, look how young Reece is." She cooed as she touched the boy''s face in the picture. "He was always so handsome. Don''t you think so?" She looked up at me with a happy smile and tears brimming in her eyes. I knew that''s who it was, and the man must be his father.


    "He was definitely a handsome little boy." I agreed. "Is the man with him your husband?" I asked.


    "You didn''t know?" She asked, me confused.


    "No, I was never really allowed out, unless it was a mandatory thing I never went to meetings. And usually my family kept me hidden at the back. I had never actually seen the previous alpha. It was purely coincidental that I had seen Reece''s face prior to forming the mate bond." I looked at the floor in shame as I confessed how my Grandfather had forced me to be raised.


    "That''s a shame." She seemed saddened. "My husband was a kind and gentle man. He would not have liked the way you were treated."


    "We can''t change the past."


    "No, but we can stop it from being repeated."


    "What are you talking about?" I asked her.


    "No one should treat you, or anyone else in the pack, like that." She seemed angry, did she and the former alpha not know how people in the pack viewed me when I was growing up? Or was I mostly ignored until I was old enough to be a topic of discussion? The previous alpha died when I was eleven, so maybe most of the pack didn''t know much about me then. I wasn''t even old enough to start trying to get my wolf at that time, so it was possible they didn''t know.


    "Trinity, have you talked to my thick headed son yet?" L asked me, her voice changing from saddened ponderings of the past to annoyance. Was she angry at me too, or at Reece?


    "We tried to talk to each other earlier, it didn''t go well."


    "Was he mean again?" She asked as if she expected this.


    "Not really, I''m sorry to say that I let my typical response to hime out, but I think it''s be a defense mechanism to him now. I can''t help it. Plus, he acts like a jerk so much that it''s just natural for me." I told her. "I''m afraid I was a bit too snarky with him." To my surprise sheughed.


    "That''s fine, he needs someone to humble him, he''s been holding himself too high for so long, do me a favor and knock him a little lower will you. Once you think he''s fallen enough,e talk to me, I have something I want to tell you."


    "Can''t you just tell me now?" I asked her, curious as to what it was.


    "No, I think it best to wait. But just know, he''s not all bad." Her knowing smile seemed a little devious at the moment. I didn''t know what she was hiding, but I was definitely curious.


    Christmas wasing up. I hadn''t even thought about it until just now. But I only have about two weeks. I shouldn''t be heartless and ignore him, I needed to get him something. The problem was, I couldn''t go to the store to pick anything out. So, I was stuck shopping for him, and everyone, online.


    I had already picked out gifts for Aunt Eve, Uncle Wesley, Carter, Noah, Nikki and Grandfather, which were the usual crowd. New to my shopping list this year was Juniper, Paul, Cedar, Vincent and his family, David, not to mention Shane and Shawn. Then there was everyone at the estate. I needed to shop for L, Abigail, Peter, get something small for the rotating housekeepers, and of course Reece. I had never had to shop for so many people in my life.


    Most people were easy, I knew what types of things they wanted because I had either spent my entire life around them or they were open and friendly, so they were easy to understand. The only person who was hard to shop for was Reece.


    "UURRGGHH!" I screamed in frustration as I tried to think of what to get the jerk that seemed to have everything and wanted nothing to do with me.


    I had figured out almost everyone''s gifts in no time at all. But here I was spending hours trying to figure out what to get that jerk. Most of what I knew about him had to do with his personality, which sucked.


    "What do you get a man with a superiorityplex that hates you?" I asked myself. "I can''t make myself invisible, which is probably all he would want from me." I was talking to myself, that''s how mad he was making me. I growled to myself as I continued to look at what to get him.


    I started to think about What L had said earlier. She said he wasn''t all bad. I guess she might be right. He saved my life twice now. And he had managed a few conversations with me that didn''t end in disaster, or that didn''t go south because of him. He wasn''t the only one to me here.


    Then I remembered the picture that I had seen. I remembered how happy he had looked in it, and I realized that I hadn''t seen a single guitar in the music room. Did he get rid of them when his father died? Would he get mad if I got him a new one? Would he be fine with a memory of his father now that his mother was back?


    I had a n, I just hoped it didn''t backfire on me. I started looking for the items I wanted to order. This n needed two things to make it work. But I wanted to get him something else too, just in case they didn''t go over very well.


    In the course of my searching I found a watch set that looked like it would be perfect for him. It was masculine and screamed alpha to me. The band was made mostly of tinum but with a line of ck gold in the middle. The face of the watch was tinum ringed in ck gold. Instead of digits for the numbers, they had small ck spinel stones embedded in the face of the watch beneath the crystal. The constant contrast of ck and tinum was mesmerizing to me that I just felt drawn to it. It also came with a matching bracelet, it was a thick, army style id type bracelet, best of all, I could put an inscription on it, but I would do so on the bottom not the top.


    I had ''Alpha'' engraved onto the watch for him. As for the bracelet, well that inscription read ''Reece "FIDO" Gray''. I just knew he would love it. There was one other gift he was going to get. I just hoped I didn''tugh too hard when I gave it to him. Thisst one was how I was going to start letting him know I might forgive him, if he was willing to try to behave himself and start over with me. I couldn''t wait for Christmas now.

 Chapter 62 - Trinity-Reece Sees My Unfinished Mark

    <h4>Chapter 62 - Trinity-Reece Sees My Unfinished Mark</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I didn''t have to wait long to talk to Reece again. Two dayster, I had just epted a delivery of gifts that I needed to wrap for Christmas, I ran into Reece on the stairs.


    "What''s all that Little Bunny?" He looked at the many, many packages in my arms.


    "Christmas presents." I answered without looking at him or stopping.


    "Seriously, you''re doing this again?" Heined?


    "What exactly am I doing Reece?" I asked as I struggled to hold on to all the packages in my arms. They weren''t heavy, not for someone with enhanced strength. No, my issue was the fact that I was smaller than people like Reece. I had smaller arms and hands than he did. I''m sure he would have no problem carrying them all, but I was struggling.


    "You''re ignoring me again." He sounded petnt. "What gives? Is this bing a hobby of yours?" I couldn''t see him as I had already moved past him, but I could hear himing up behind me.


    "I''m not ignoring you. I answered you, didn''t I?" I wanted tough at the absurdity of him in that moment, but I just didn''t have the opportunity, my precariously perched piled chose that moment to topple over. "No! Dammit!" I growled the two words in quick session before they could fall as I watched them unbnce.


    The next thing I saw was Reece''s arms reaching around me from behind, grabbing the stack of boxes and bags that had begun to spill. He kept them all from falling with ease.


    "Why did you order so much?" He snapped, but he didn''t really sound upset, he sounded like he wasughing at me.


    "My list of people to shop for got a lot bigger this year. Since I have met a lot of new people. Before I have only ever shopped for my family and no one else, this is the first time I have shopped for someone other than them." Being this honest with him, I could feel the blood rushing to my face, I looked to the floor trying to hide my embarrassment. Why did I have to be so pathetic, so different from everyone else?


    "Let me help." He said. Without waiting for an answer, he lifted most of the pile up and over my head. I looked over my shoulder in awe and I saw him holding them easily as he stared at me apathetically. "What?" He asked me as if I was the one that had done something strange. "Let''s go." He was acting like I asked for his help and was now wasting his time. Don''t snap at him, he''s helping me. I had to remind myself three times before taking a deep breath and walking the rest of the way to my room.


    Reece didn''t wait for me to invite him in, he just went inside and walked over to the table by my desk, setting the packages down before turning to me.


    "Who all did you buy for?" He looked like a little kid trying to see if they were getting a toy too.


    "My family, my friends, my guards, the staff, your mother." I told him, waiting to see the look on his face when I didn''t mention his name.


    "Hmm, should have known you wouldn''t get anything for me." He frowned looking at the pile.


    "Oh, yours was delivered yesterday." This was true, as they had been picked up from three very specific stores in town by Juniper. There was another one on its way, possibly in the pile there, but that wasn''t an important one. I noticed the shock and slight excitement as it flitted across his face, it was kind of cute to see him acting like a normal person for once.


    "Really?" I nodded my head. "What did you get me?" He grinned.


    "Now why would I tell you that?" Laughing, I red at him and went to start sorting the packages. They were all ones I had ordered from the same website, he most likely had one in this mix, but he wouldn''t realize it even if he saw it.


    "So, you''re just a tease, huh?" His voice was suddenly right next me, his breath tickling my ear as it stirred the hairs that hade loose from the ponytail that I had pulled it all into. I shivered at the feeling but refused to give in.


    "Not in the least. It''s not teasing if you dangle a treat in front of a puppy when training it, isn''t that what you''re supposed to do. Dangle the reward so they want to follow their orders and behave?" I fought the urge to shiver again and refused to turn my head and look at him.


    "Keep calling me a dog, and I''ll show just how much of a dog I really am." He whispered in my ear, it was both seductive and yful and I could hear augh in his voice.


    "Actually, I called you a puppy." I giggled turning my head just a little to the right so I could see the slightest edges of his face. I had turned more than I had intended, and I saw the heated look in his eyes, the sight of which shocked me and scared me just a little.


    "Huh! Hey, Little Bunny, what''s up with your mark?" He asked me. I had never noticed that Reece hadn''t seen my mate mark since the day he had bitten me. I immediately put my hand up and covered my mark. The cor of the thin, ck, long sleeved, cloth jacket I was wearing must have shifted enough for him to see my neck and shoulder more clearly.


    My mark still hadn''t fully formed, even after over two months. I was beyond embarrassed by the iplete mark. And to add to my humiliation, the state of the mark left it unsightly. It was currently arger than average pack seal surrounded by nothing more than a giant gray cloud. Unless the gray cloud was Reece''s personal twist on the mark like every man had something special that they left on their mate. Maybe Reece Gray left his in the form of a giant gray cloud, and maybe his mark wasrger because he was the alpha. I just didn''t know.


    "Let me see it." He demanded pulling my hand gently away from my neck.


    "I don''t think it ever finished." I told him sadly.


    "It doesn''t look like it, does it?" He agreed, tracing the crest with his finger.


    "Stop!" I demanded as I took a small step away from him. I knew we were having a decent conversation, and that my overreaction could very well set us back again, but I wasn''t ready for him to touch me so intimately. I had let him be suggestive, let him whisper into my ear, but he hadn''t actually touched me then.


    "What''s the matter?" He looked confused when I turned to look him in the eyes, I almost felt like I could see a small amount of pain hidden in his eyes.


    "I''m not a toy for you to y with whenever you feel like." I told him. I know he was trying to force himself to be nice to me, and I knew his end goal here. But I will not be an outlet for someone who hates me. "I will not be your outlet Reece. If you want satisfaction, then go get it from yourself. I told you, you''re not getting anything from me. Not unless it was a mutual thing." He was confused as he looked at me.


    "I was only looking at your mark." He smirked like I had the wrong idea.


    "Yeah, and you were intentionally suggestive. And you can look at the mark without touching it."


    "What''s the matter with you? We were actually getting along just fine for once." He seemed sad as he said thisst part, like he wanted it to go on.


    "But I know I am nothing more than a distraction to you Reece. You have nothing, or no one, better to distract you right now so you chose me to fill that role. But I won''t be that kind of distraction for someone who hates me." I could feel the tears stinging the back of my eyes.


    Why was I about to cry? I asked myself, even though I already knew the answer. Ever since day one, I had been slowly falling in love with him, even with what he had said to me. I couldn''t help it, my body made it happen, the mate bond, everything that bound us drew me to him. I just wished he felt a fraction of what I felt for him. I was already so in love with him.


    And let''s not add the attraction to that. Oh Goddess, the attraction. I could set a forest fire with the heat of the attraction I had for him. But he felt nothing but hatred, animosity, and apathy. That was always clear by the way he looked at me.


    "Fine, I''ll be leaving." He sighed in a resigned voice. Hanging his head in defeat as he left the room without another word. I felt a little better when he was gone, but I also felt lonely the minute he was gone.


    "Why does he have to hate me?" I sobbed to myself after he left.


    *~*~*~THE NEXT CHAPTER IS THIS SAME SCENE FROM REECE''S POV SKIP IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN SEEING THE SAME SCENE FROM ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE. YOU WILL GAIN WHAT HE WAS THINKING DURING THIS EXCHANGE~*~*~*

 Chapter 63 - Reece-Im Trying, Why Does She Hate Me?

    <h4>Chapter 63 - Reece-I''m Trying, Why Does She Hate Me?</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I had thought my Little Bunny was ignoring me in the hall, but as she pointed out she did answer me. I realized she was just trying to hurry before the boxes and bags that had been delivered toppled out of her arms. I would never understand why they would insist on delivering their stuff in so many different packages.


    "What''s all that Little Bunny?" She nearly jumped when I called out to her.


    "Christmas presents." She spoke but never paused or looked at me, or did anything besides continue walking.


    "Seriously, you''re doing this again?"


    "What exactly am I doing Reece?"


    "You''re ignoring me again. What gives? Is this bing a hobby of yours?" I could see the annoyance on her face as I spoke to her.


    "I''m not ignoring you. I answered you, didn''t I?"


    "No! Dammit!" I heard her cry out and noticed all the packages were about to fall.


    I went up thest two steps separating us and put my arms around her and steadied everything that she was holding.


    "Why did you order so much?" My voice held a mocking, joking edge to it as I asked her.


    "My list of people to shop for got a lot bigger this year. Since I have met a lot of new people. Before I have only ever shopped for my family and no one else, this is the first time I have shopped for someone other than them." She blushed, I always forgot how much her Grandfather had kept her hidden from people. She had never gotten the chance to buy a present for anyone except her family, that was sad, which meant no one but them had ever gotten her a gift.


    "Let me help." I lifted most of the pile up and over her head before she could protest. She looked at me holding them easily as if I were some sort of alien. "What? Let''s go." I was nervous having her watch me, so I just continued up the stairs.


    When my Little Bunny got to her room and opened the door I went in without hesitation, putting the load of packages on her table and turned to look at her yfully.


    "Who all did you buy for?" I was genuinely curious about her answer to this question. I admit I wanted to know what she would get me for Christmas.


    "My family, my friends, my guards, the staff, your mother." She never said my name, that was to be expected.


    "Hmm, should have known you wouldn''t get anything for me."


    "Oh, yours was delivered yesterday." Shocked, I felt excitement as it flitted through me.


    "Really? What did you get me?"


    "Now why would I tell you that?" Laughing, she looked at me yfully and went to start sorting the packages.


    "So, you''re just a tease, huh?" I whispered into her ear and watched as she shivered.


    "Not in the least. It''s not teasing if you dangle a treat in front of a puppy when training it, isn''t that what you''re supposed to do. Dangle the reward so they want to follow their orders and behave?" She was calling me a dog again, but I was still calling her Little Bunny that I know she hated.


    "Keep calling me a dog, and I''ll show just how much of a dog I really am." I whispered in her ear again, it was both seductive and yful and even I could hear theugh in my voice.


    "Actually, I called you a puppy." She giggled sweetly and turned her head just a little to the right so I could see the edges of the mate mark I had left on her.


    "Huh! Hey, Little Bunny, what''s up with your mark?" I had never actually gone to see it after I bit her. I remembered the night I left the mark quite vividly. She was the most beautiful woman I had seen in a really long time. She looked like the moon walking among us. And when I pulled her toward me and buried my face in her neck, scenting her and biting her, it drove me wild.


    It looked like the mark still hadn''t fully formed, even after over two months. It currently looked like arger than average pack seal surrounded by nothing more than a giant gray cloud. Unless the gray cloud was my personal twist on the mark.


    "Let me see it."


    "I don''t think it ever finished." Her voice was dripping with sorrow.


    "It doesn''t look like it, does it?" I traced the crest with my finger as I spoke.


    "Stop!" She demanded taking a small step away from me.


    "What''s the matter?" I couldn''t stop the pain from filling my eyes at her reaction.


    "I''m not a toy for you to y with whenever you feel like. I will not be your outlet Reece. If you want satisfaction, then go get it from yourself. I told you, you''re not getting anything from me. Not unless it was a mutual thing.


    "I was only looking at your mark." I tried to y off her words.


    "Yeah, and you were intentionally suggestive. And you can look at the mark without touching it."


    "What''s the matter with you? We were actually getting along just fine for once." I had been hopeful that we might finally be moving beyond all the fighting.


    "But I know I am nothing more than a distraction to you Reece. You have nothing, or no one, better to distract you right now so you chose me to fill that role. But I won''t be that kind of distraction for someone who hates me." I could feel her words like a knife to my gut and my heart.


    "Fine, I''ll be leaving." I sighed. I hung my head in defeat as I left the room without another word.


    "Why does he have to hate me?" I heard her sob after I left the room.


    "I wish we could talk, Little Bunny." My voice cracked as I whispered, like tears threatened me as well.

 Chapter 64 - Trinity-A Visit From Carter

    <h4>Chapter 64 - Trinity-A Visit From Carter</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After Reece left, I started wrapping presents. I had all but one gift now, but that one needed a little more time to get ready, so I knew not to expect it yet. I wrapped all the presents for my family first, because I had gotten them things that I knew they would like and was really happy with those presents. Then, as I started on the gifts for my friends, there was a knock on my door.


    "Trinity?" It was Carter. I hadn''t seen him in so long. I was so d I had already wrapped his presents. I bolted to my feet and ran to the door. When I flung it open and saw him there, I threw my arms around him, happy to finally see him after so long.


    "Carter!" I squealed. "Oh Goddess, I missed you. Where have you been?" I asked him when I stepped away and beamed at him.


    "Around, I had some errands to run." He was smiling at me. "I missed you too Trin." He was a sight for sore eyes. He was my partner in crime, my closest confidant, my best friend growing up, and ever since I moved in with Reece, I have barely seen him. He used to be the rock in the family for me. My protector, my healer, he was whatever I needed.


    "Jeez Carter, I leave to be Luna and you ignore your favorite cousin." I joked with him and I stepped aside so he coulde into the room.


    "Favorite?" He put his hand on his chin as if contemting.


    "I''m your only cousin." I snapped at him.


    "So, you win by default, but isn''t that just as bad as a loss."


    "Absolutely not, a win is a win, it doesn''t matter how you got it unless you cheated. If you cheated, then it''s a loss and you suck." Heughed at my yful banter just like he always did.


    "How are you feeling? I heard you were in bad shape." He asked, looking at my head with wary eyes.


    "I''m fine, no worries."


    Carter followed me over to the table I had been wrapping presents at. I sat down and continued with the gift I had left off on. It was an art supply kit for Juniper, I had also gotten her an easel and some canvases.


    Juniper was an artist at heart, but she was taking most of the prerequisite sses that I was, but we had different career ns in mind. She wanted to be a social worker or child therapist. She hadn''t decidedpletely yet. But she had to do some criminalw study to be a good social worker. Or that''s what she believed. I think it mostly had to do with the fact that Paul wanted to be a cop and was taking the criminology ss.


    "You got a lot of gifts here Trin." He seemed so shocked looking at them all. "Why do you have baby and kid toys here?"


    "For Vincent''s kids of course." That should have been obvious, but he might not know that I was so friendly with my guards that I would buy them gifts.


    "Who all did you get gifts for?"


    "Well, there''s the family of course, then friends, guards, and staff. Not to mention Reece and his Mom. I also bought for Heather, Conner, Renea, and Faith, Vincent''s family because I know them and consider Vincent such a good friend."


    "Your guard is your friend?" He was shocked to hear this.


    "Is that so wrong?" I seemed shocked by his response. "Why is it so weird that I am friends with him? He is a nice person. And his mate is a wonderful, caring woman. And they named their baby Faith, whether that was after me or not I don''t care, she''s special."


    "Just because her name is your middle name?" He asked me,ughing loudly.


    "Shut up Carter." I snapped. He instantly stoppedughing and stood up straight.


    "Damn, that Luna stuff is powerful." He growled, sounding serious.


    "Oops." It was my turn tough now, I hadn''t meant it as amand, but apparently wolfws didn''t care.


    "Don''t oops me. You can''t give me amand like that and thenugh at me." He was only pretending to be mad. I knew because I could hear theughter in his voice as he pretended to growl at me.


    "That was actually hrious." We continued tough at each other for a minute while I quickly wrapped another present.


    "So, I have something to tell you."


    "What''s that?" I asked him curiously, looking up through a spill of hair that had fallen out of my ponytail during myughing fit.


    "Well two things really. First, the Alpha has managed to get you approved to sit your exams, but only if you do them on Saturday." He had a big grin on his face.


    "OH MY GODDESS! REALLY?" I basically screamed as I jumped to my feet and hugged him again.


    "Thank you, thank you, thank you." I told him and literally jumped for joy. "I am so d I won''t have to fail all four sses."


    "You''re going to be taking them all consecutively. It will be you and a test proctor in the room. There will be a dozen guards, minimum, stationed around the building. One guard at each entrance, and the others scattered to look like casual bystanders."


    "Wow, so serious." I said jokingly.


    "Don''t joke about this Trinity!" He snapped at me. "You were attackedst time you were there, and you''ve nearly died twice. This is noughing matter. And in each of those attacks you were the one they were after. The Alpha still doesn''t know how they n to use you against him, but he knows they want to either hurt, kidnap, or kill you. Don''t take your situation so lightly." Carter was madder than I had ever seen him before.


    "I know Carter, I''m just so happy right now that nothing is going to sound like I am taking it seriously." I told him. It was the truth, but it wasn''t enough for him, he was still mad. He continued to re at me ufortably.


    "I''m just so d that I will get to start new sses next semester." I was still on my happy cloud, ignoring Carter''s bad mood as best as I could until he calmed down.


    "Yes, but not the way you think." He popped my happy cloud, forcing me to look at him with confusion.


    "What?" I snapped at him.


    "You can take sses next semester, but you have to take them remotely for right now."


    "NO!" I growled at him.


    "It''s not up to me Trinity, those are orders from the Alpha himself. He says he will get this situation cleared up as fast as he can, but to please work remotely for this one semester until he knows that everything is safe."


    "Why did I have to go and mate with him?" I roared. "My life has been turned upside-down and it will never go back. I want my life back Carter."


    "I''m sorry Trin."


    "So, was that the second thing you had to tell me?" I asked him halfheartedly.


    "No, the second thing had nothing to do with you or your little problems." He sounded annoyed now, like he wanted to tell me something but didn''t know how to do it.


    "What''s wrong Carter?" I was afraid there was going to be more bad news.


    "I found my mate." He smiled, but he sounded really upset about it.


    "That''s wonderful news Carter." I smiled at him.


    "No, it''s not. She''s in the enemy pack I was sent to scout." He looked so dejected as he spoke, like the world was going to implode upon itself and we were all going to die before he could get his mate.


    "I can''t go anywhere near her. I can''t tell her who I really am, where I''m really from, or anything. If I did, they would know that Reece sent me to spy on them all." He tried to smile through the pain he felt as he looked at me.


    "Carter." My heart broke, and I cried the tears he was fighting back for him. "We will work something out. Maybe we can convince her to leave that pack and join us." I tried to sooth him.


    "I don''t think she will, she''s the Alpha''s daughter." I gasped at his words.


    "Carter." I sighed.


    I wanted to talk for a little while longer, but Carter was suddenly in a hurry to leave.


    "Wait, Carter." I called out to him. "Take these." I had packed all the gifts for him, Aunt Eve and Uncle Wesley into arge green bag. He could take them and put them under the tree.


    "Don''t you want to deliver them yourself?" He still looked depressed.


    "I can''t go anywhere, not until the exams that is." I reminded him with a sad smile.


    "You really haven''t left the house in a month?" It must have been a shock to him to learn that.


    "Nope, except for going up into the mountains and forest, and I can''t do that anymore."


    "We will find whoever is responsible for all of this Trin, we will get your life back to normal." He dered firmly.


    "That ship has sailed, Carter, it will never be normal again."


    "You''re probably right." He agreed. Everyone who knew me, seeing the direction my life had taken, would agree that my life was never going to be normal again.

 Chapter 65 - Both-Awkward

    <h4>Chapter 65 - Both-Awkward</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I watched Carter leave, a bittersweet feeling deep inside of me. I was happy to have seen him, and happy to be continuing school, but I felt so bad for him right now. I wanted to help him somehow. Maybe I could figure something out. Eventually.


    Right now, however, I was just still so happy about what Carter had told me. I was excited for my exams, and d that I had kept up on my assignments, thanks to all my friends. I wanted to thank Reece. I needed to tell him how happy this made me. And I had never thanked him for saving mest time either.


    Just then I caught his scent. I didn''t know if he was leaving or going back to his room. I had to hurry. I ran down the hall as fast as I could and was at the top of the stairs and the connecting hallway before I knew it. I saw him, walking toward his room, his tall broad back facing me and growing smaller the farther he went down the hall.


    Without thinking I ran after him.


    "Reece!" I yelled when I was nearly to him. He was already turning before I called out to him, undoubtedly alerted by the sound of my running footsteps and my scent.


    "Little Bunny?" He asked me confused to see me running toward him. I leapt thest step and threw my arms around his waist, not caring that I had just thrown a fit about him touching me.


    "Thank you."


    "What''s this about?" He asked confused, his hands held up as if he didn''t know what to do. He was clearly not in ''the mood'' right now because he was even more hesitant to touch me than usual. It waspletely different to how he usually acted when he was being his typical suggestive self. That''s fine, I just wanted to thank him, I wasn''t after anything more.


    "I just wanted to say thank you." I told him as I pulled away. Seeing him there made me want tough. But I didn''t, that would have started another fight. He had both his hands held at about chest level, palms out, almost like he was facing down a criminal with guns drawn. It looked like the typical movie "freeze" pose, And the shock on his face.


    "Thank me for what?" His sense of what was normal must being back because he was getting his voice under control, he was talking in his usual clipped tone of voice.


    "For working out my situation with the university. I know it must have been difficult. And I''ve been meaning to tell you thank you for saving my life. I just hadn''t gotten around to it because we always ended up in arguments." I was giving him what I hoped was a thankful smile. I could see his eyes darkening. I was wearing his patience down. I should leave before he gets mad at me.


    "I need to go. I have more things to do now than I originally thought." I smiled at him again. I nodded my head and ran off, smiling happily. "I''ll see you at breakfast."


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I could smell her the moment she opened her bedroom door. She was there with another man. I had to calm my wolf by telling him that I would settle it all soon and locking him in a mental cage just to stop him from taking over. I knew the man with her was her cousin Carter. I had had a quick meeting with him earlier after all. I knew he was going toe here. But my wolf was still jealous.


    Soon after that I passed Carter on the stairs, he gave me the cursory bow and mumbled. "Alpha." He was a good man, but he waspletely on my Little Bunny''s side. If push came to shove, I knew that he would choose to help her over the pack. He loved his cousin and was fiercely loyal to her. Honestly, that made me happy. She needed more allies on her side.


    I was almost to my door when I turned around. I had heard her feet running down the hall, but at first, I thought she might have just been chasing after Carter. I thought he might have forgotten something. But her footsteps chased me down the hallway, and her scent grew stronger. As I was turning around, I heard her call my name.


    "Reece!" It was enough to stop me in my tracks. The sight of her running toward me so happily. I didn''t know what to think.


    "Little Bunny?" I asked confused, just as she threw her arms around my waist, mming into me with such force that I was rocked backward momentarily.


    "Thank you." Her voice was soft as she spoke the words, squeezing me.


    "What''s this all about?" I asked her, confused. I held my hands up above her, not knowing where to put them. I wanted to hug her back, but after what happened earlier today, I didn''t know if I should.


    "I just wanted to say thank you." She repeated her words she had said once already, but I didn''t know what she was thanking me for.


    "Thank me for what?" I tried to remain calm, to make myself sound neutral. She pulled away and continued.


    "For working out my situation with the university. I know it must have been difficult. And I''ve been meaning to tell you thank you for saving my life. I just hadn''t gotten around to it because we always ended up in arguments."


    I couldn''t believe my ears. She wasn''t acting like the Little Bunny I had grown used to. But the sound of her voice, the feel of her body when it was pressed against me, it made my wolf pant in my ears and beg for more.


    "I need to go. I have more things to do now than I originally thought. I''ll see you at breakfast." She spun around and ran back down the hall while I stood there, still dazed. Come back! My wolf whined in my head after she left. What am I supposed to do when she does things like this? First, she told me off for touching her, then she literally ran into my arms and hugged me. I was so confused. But maybe it was possible to move past all the things that had happened between us. I smiled thinking this as I finally walked into my room.

 Chapter 66 - Reece-Little Bunnys Exam Day

    <h4>Chapter 66 - Reece-Little Bunny''s Exam Day</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Today is going to be a long day. Little Bunny is taking her exams, so we had to be prepared in the event that someone tried anything. I had almost two dozen pack warriors at the ready. They would switch out and rotate who guarded the building and who would be searching the surrounding area.


    I was advised to let the warriors handle everything today. That they would report back to me when everything was all over. They told me it would be best not to allow the enemy ess to me if they were truly after my position. I refused. I was alpha around here and I would protect what was mine. Be that my pack, mynd, my mate or myself. It was all up to me to protect.


    I was also beginning to wonder if those that were after my Little Bunny were doing so to go after me or if they were after her directly. I was beginning to think she was the intended target. I don''t think she was supposed to get hurt so badly during any of the events. No, my suspicions are telling me they''re trying to get to her for something specific, and I intend to find out what that is, and soon.


    I didn''t want her to know that I was going to be close by, so I had Vincent and David ride with Little Bunny to the university. I was going to be overseeing the entire operation, running themand and following up on any scent trails personally. I would not let anyone slip between my fingers this time.


    It was just before eight in the morning when she went into the building. And we could already smell that wolves had been scouting the area. The trails weren''t fresh, they had most likely scouted sometime earlier in the week.


    My men had been informed of this mission on Wednesday, only three days in advance. The elders knew about it on Tuesday. I had been given the go ahead from the Dean on Monday. So, the leak came from either the school, the elders, or someone in my inner circle. I needed to find out who was actively working against me and make them pay. They would suffer as much as they had made my Little Bunny suffer.


    Four guards began tracing all the old trails. They said there was nothing new for them to report, that was both reassuring and disappointing. I would prefer this day to go smoothly, with no problems for her.


    But I knew that things weren''t going to go that way. I had only just thought those words when my phone vibrated in my pocket. Looking at the screen I saw that it was Keh, he was one of those tracking the old trails.


    "What do you got for me?" I asked him curtly.


    "I''m sorry Alpha, but something funny is happening to these trails." He sounded nervous as he was saying this. Like he thought I might be upset with him. In truth I was pissed, but not at him.


    "Funny? Exin Keh." I demanded. My voice held more of an edge than it normally did.


    "Well, the smell keeps fading in and out when it gets out to a certain point." His voice was definitely nervous now. He was speaking in as few words as possible.


    "Like they''re hard to smell at all?" I asked. I knew exactly what he was meaning.


    "Yes, Alpha Sir." His voice seemed clipped.


    "I''ll be right there." I told him.


    After getting his location I drove out to where he and another warrior were waiting for me. I had smelled the scent trails near the school, so I knew what these wolves had smelled like. Getting out I could still smell them partially. But as I walked closer to the men that were standing, waiting for me, I noticed the smell fading in and out.


    The smell didn''t disappear altogether, not like how it did with the Warlocksst time. But it was enough to make it hard to follow. We were far enough out of the city now that I didn''t have to worry about passersbying up at any moment. The edge of the forest was just in front of us.


    "Try to find out everywhere they went in the city. I want to know everything they touched if you can. I will follow this the best I can." I told them. "And tell the guards at the school to be extra alert. Whoever might try to attack could have the aid of Warlocks, we will not be able to detect their scent." I saw their eyes go wide at my warning.


    "Warlocks?" Keh eximed.


    "Is that why their scent is hard to track, Alpha?" Brian, one of my newest and youngest warriors asked. I nodded in response to his question as I started to unbutton my shirt, I was already walking toward the trees.


    "I expect all of you to stay alert. I want no harm toe to the Luna today." I red at them. They would know better than to disobey me.


    "Yes, Sir." They saluted me. The salutes were a bit much, this wasn''t the army, but at least they were more respectful than others.


    Once I was in the trees, and had my clothes off, I shifted into my wolf form. The feeling of being in this other form, wearing a different skin, was so freeing. I dug my ws into the dirt, savoring the feeling of the cold, snowy ground pressed against my paws.


    I raised my head to the sky with my eyes closed and searched for the scent I was trying to track. I found just the slightest trace of it nearby. It was getting harder to track the farther away from the city we went. There was definitely something strange going on here.


    Why would Warlocks be working with these wolves? Are they rogues or from a pack? Are they trying to get to me, or did they want my Little Bunny?


    I had begun to suspect something about my Little Bunny, but I didn''t know if it were true, and there was no one I could ask to confirm if it were true or not. No one in the pack knew who her father was. Her mother had never told anyone, but did she truly know? I''m beginning to think she didn''t even know anything happened until she was surprised with the baby. But with her mother dead I couldn''t ask her.


    There had just been somethings that made me wonder. Like how Little Bunny''s eyes had looked in the forest the day she had been attacked, they seemed to be tracking the Warlocks with little trouble until I broke her concentration. It was like she could see past all the trees and through the night itself to see them. Then there was the color of her eyes themselves.


    Most wolves would have green, yellow, gold, brown, or hazel eyes. There were the rare one with blue eyes, but they were the wolf equivalent of an albino. They were typically born with white, silver, or very light blond hair to go with the blue eyes. And Little Bunny had not just sky-blue eyes, but also sapphire and gold in them as well.


    The triple iris, while unique and beautiful, was definitely not a wolf trait. Was she half human? Was she half warlock? Or was she something else? I just didn''t know how to answer that question but I have more questions than answers right now.


    I was tracking the scent of the wolves slowly, moving with great care so that I didn''t lose itpletely. That made me think about how she had been able to smell them too. She was the only one among us that was able to smell them. She said their scent was weird and made her sneeze, but she was able to smell it when we couldn''t. I bet she could follow this scent. Iughed to myself.


    I hit on a new trail among the other trails, something that didn''t fade like the others. This smell shouldn''t be here at all. I could smell my beta. My cousin Caleb had been in this area, and recently. I followed the trail. What had he been doing here? He was not among those that I included in this guard mission, though he did know of it. Goddess, but I hated having that twit as my beta. I growled in my mind. If it turns out he had any part of this whole plot, he is going to pay.


    Caleb''s scent continued heading in the direction of the estate. He hadn''t been there since Tuesday, but this trail was fresher than that. What was he up to? I would be finding that out soon enough. I heard a distressed howling back from the direction I had juste. I turned and ran back.

 Chapter 67 - Reece-An Injured Wolf Means Lockdown For The Luna

    <h4>Chapter 67 - Reece-An Injured Wolf Means Lockdown For The Luna</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    The howl was female, we only had two female wolves with us today, Sarah and Lisa, they were supposed to be guarding the building unless they had already done the first switch. I raced through the trees until I came across the she-wolf that had howled.


    She was lying on her side, blood seeping from a series of gashes in her left nk. I could see her pain as she tried to keep her eyes from quivering. She didn''t want us to think she was weaker because she was a woman, and crying would make her seem weak.


    "What''s happened?" I asked in what passed for speech when in wolf form.


    "An intruder tried to make it past me, but I stopped him. He no doubt thought I would be easy because I was female. He learned otherwise." I could hear pride in the series of yips, growls, grunts, and barks she spoke with.


    "Where is he now?" I asked, this was what I needed to know the most. "Did he get away?"


    "I''m sorry Alpha, he did get away. But I did injure him as well, he should be bleeding." She was eyeing the ground as she talked.


    "You did good." I told her. "See to it she is looked after." Imanded before following the slight traces of blood and paw prints from the enemy wolf.


    I had followed the trail for nearly six miles. The blood was less frequent, he was healing, but I had his scent and prints. I needed to find him. I needed to know why he was after my mate.


    But then I hit it. It was like a barrier, but instead of stopping me in my tracks, or making me bounce back off of it, it seemed to cut off my senses. Or at least lessen them. I couldn''t smell the wolf anymore at all. I could barely see the prints on the ground. I couldn''t even hear my own breathing, ragged as it was from anger, running, and now frustration. Something wasn''t right here.


    There was definitely a powerful Warlock close by. Someone much stronger than the ones from before. This one was the true enemy. He was the one I needed to find.


    "Go back." A voice rumbled in the air around me.


    "What is it you want with me?" I demanded.


    "I don''t even know who you are, wolf." The voice seemed to be speaking through the air, not like there was a person near me at all.


    "I am the Alpha of this area." I growled.


    "Well, Alpha wolf, I don''t need you." The voice chided.


    "Then what are you after?"


    "I think you know that." The voice, whoever he was, chuckled.


    "You want my mate?"


    "Why not? You don''t want her." He seemed to be pleased with himself.


    "You can''t have her." I screamed at him.


    "I will get whatever I want, and you can''t stop me." I could feel the pressure in the air intensifying. He was trying to suffocate me.


    "I will stop you." I yelled at him once more before I turned around and ran back toward town. I heard the voice chuckling as I left. He thinks he won, just because I am leaving. Let''s see him fight me face to face. I thought.


    I went back to where I had left my clothes and shifted back. I wanted to go check on the she-wolf who had been hurt. I was sure it had been Lisa, but I wasn''t positive. Today had given me a lot to think about.


    If the man who spoke earlier was the mastermind behind all of this, then they weren''t after me, they were after my mate. But why? What could they possibly want from her? I would find out sooner orter. But it was looking like today would be herst time out of the estate for a while.


    I was dressed and had driven to where they had taken the injured she-wolf all while lost in thought. I had been right. Lisa was the one who had been hurt. She was doing better now. Just shifting was enough to take care of most of her injuries. There was nothing left but bright pink scars now. In another hour they would fade to nothing but white scars. They would look years old by the end of the day.


    "Is everything alright, Alpha?" Vincent asked me when I went to check on how things were going at the university.


    "Just thinking." I answered him. "How have things been here?" I asked him. My Little Bunny''s four primary guards had all insisted on staying at the doors all day. They said that other than a quick break, if needed, they would guard the doors all day. I was proud of all four of them in that moment.


    "No problems, Sir. I know there have been issues elsewhere, but it has not reached us here. The Luna knows nothing of what has happened." Vincent was a good family man, but when it came to his job as a warrior, he was also one of the most capable we had. He was extremely loyal, highly dedicated, and he could think quickly on his feet if he needed to. I was d I chose him for her.


    "Good, I don''t want her to know about anything that happened today. Not yet anyway." I praised his efforts in keeping her safe.


    "Might I ask why you''re keeping it from her? She would likely not be very happy were she to find out." He offered me his advice.


    "Yeah, I gather she wouldn''t be." Iughed. "But today is looking like it will be herst day out for a long time. And you know how she will respond to that too, I''m sure." I watched as he grimaced at the thought.


    "Not pleasantly." He admitted.


    "Exactly."


    "Might I offer some advice, Sir?" Shane, one of the twin guards said as he came walking over. He had apparently heard our conversation.


    "You should not have left your post." I growled at him.


    "I put someone else on the door for just a moment." He smiled sheepishly.


    "Fine, go ahead." I snapped. "Say what you wanted to."


    "If tonight is to be the Luna''sst night out for a while, you should make it as special for her as you can." He smiled as he spoke.


    "What do you mean?" I asked him.


    "Come on, Alpha, you''re a man that knows how to treat ady, aren''t you?" He joked with me.


    "I most definitely know how to treat ady and show them a good time. But are you suggesting I take her out when the city isn''t safe for her right now?" I growled.


    "The entire city isn''tpletely off limits, is it?" He asked. "There are some ces that are safer than others. For instance, Gina''s dress shop ispletely run and staffed by wolves. And then there''s Lawrence''s restaurant over on Mountainview Pass, Kaleidoscope. It''s five star, top rated, and beautiful inside. Added perk, is it''s also staffed at least fifty percent by wolves, including those at the door. A few calls and you could have things set up to enjoy a quiet night with your mate and not have to worry."


    I had to admit, he was very convincing as he spoke. And he was right too. I knew of the ces he was talking about. Little Bunny definitely deserved onest hurrah before going back into confinement. I hated making her stay inside like that, but she needed to be safe. And I could just tell her it was for havingpleted her exams. But I would still want someone to watch the restaurant from outside, in case anyone tried anything.


    "Shane, what are you and your brother doing tonight?" I smirked.


    I had everything set and ready long before my Little Bunny was due toe out of the building. The twins were going to guard us from a distance tonight. And I would take my mate on our very first date ever.? I was getting nervous. She could respond in many different ways.


    I didn''t have to wait too much longer for her toe out. She was smart and had kept up on her work even when I forbade her from going to ss. The result meant she finished her exams with four hours to spare. We had plenty of time left for the day, but I was d that we would get done sooner, this way we wouldn''t be out thatte. No need to push fate, with the other wolves or her.


    They told me they heard hering, so I got into position near the door she was likely toe out of. Vincent greeted her with a smile and asked how she had done.


    "Well, I will know soon, but I''m sure I did alright." She smiled back at him. My wolf growled at the idea of another man being on the receiving end of that smile.


    I Walked slowly toward them, as was the n, and noticed when she realized I was there.


    "Reece?" She was surprised. "What are you doing here?" She asked me.


    "Well, these guys have been here all day, I thought I would check up on them. Looks like I got here just as you got done." I smile at her. "Come on, let''s not block the door." I motioned for her to follow me. Her and Vincent both followed after me until we were under the shade of a nearby tree.


    "How did you do?" I asked her.


    "Fine, I think." She seemed nervous now.


    "Good. Well, since I''m here let''s go celebrate you passing your sses by having dinner together." I told her.


    "It''s a little early for dinner, and I''m not dressed for it." She tried to avoid the invitation, looking me up and down. I had gone home to change into a ck Armani suit with a dark green silk shirt. The sun, just an hour away from setting, was glinting off my ck leather shoes. I didn''t ruin the look with a coat, I didn''t need one right now anyway, I wouldn''t need a coat unless it was somewhere below 0oF outside.


    "Well, we can get you ready for dinner then." I smiled, taking a few steps closer to her. She took a step back.


    "I don''t know." She avoided me again.


    "Come on now, you don''t want to make me look bad in front of everyone do you?" I asked, causing her to look around. It was then that she noticed that the other three guards had joined us as well.


    "Go on Luna, you deserve to have some fun." Shane urged her.


    "Yeah, you''ve been cooped up for a while." Shawn added.


    "You should just enjoy it." David told her. Finally, she looked at Vincent.


    "Go on Trinity, it will be alright." He encouraged her. I had a feeling he knew more than the others did, but his words seemed to be what she needed to crack. She turned to me and nodded.


    "Alright, I am a bit hungry after all."


    "Good." I said, taking her hand and pulling her toward me. "Shall we get you ready?" She tried to turn back to the others. "You gentlemen can go about whatever other business you might have." I called over my shoulder.


    "Yes, Sir." I heard all four of them answer me.


    "Where are we going?" She asked me. She looked confused and worried at the same time as I walked her toward the parking lot.


    "To get ready for dinner."


    "So, back to the estate?" She wondered.


    "Nope, if I took you there, you''d likely try to get out of going to dinner."


    "I would not." She insisted. "Probably." She added. Iughed at her words. "You seem to be in a good mood today." Shemented.


    "Really? That''s thest thing I thought I would hear today, actually. Today did not go as I thought it would."


    "Did you have a busy day as well?" She inquired.


    "You can say that. I was chasing down leads all day." I said evasively.


    "Hmm." She hummed as if she might have caught my meaning.


    We were almost to the car now. Today I had no choice but to drive the Portofino. I knew she didn''t like the Ferrari because it was ostentatious, but all the other cars were currently in use by members of the staff. I heard her scoff as I opened the door for her.


    "All the others are in use." I told her as she sat down.


    "Or you just wanted to look important while wearing that sharp suit of yours." Sheughed at me.


    I shut her door and walked around to slide into the driver''s seat. The engine roaring to life drew the attention of several men, and quite a few women, on the campus. I could partly see why she didn''t like the car. She wasn''t used to all the attention. Well, we would have to get her used to getting all the attention from now on, wouldn''t we?

 Chapter 68 - Reece-Ginas Boutique

    <h4>Chapter 68 - Reece-Gina''s Boutique</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I drove her uptown to Gina''s boutique. They were expecting us. I had called earlier in the day and told them what I wanted. She had all the measurements for my Little Bunny and knew what color would suit her best.


    "Where are we?" She asked when I pulled the car to a stop in front of the beautiful, upscale shop.


    "This is Gina''s ce." I told her. "She makes the dresses for the ceremonies, but she also has her own shop."


    "I didn''t know that." She said smiling at the storefront. She always looked so radiant when she smiled genuinely like that.


    I walked around the car and opened the door for her. I was d to see that she was learning to wait for me to do that for her. She took my hand and let me help her out of the car. She must have known that if we were going somewhere with wolves, so we would have to keep up appearances. That made me happy too.


    As soon as I escorted her into the shop we were greeted by Gina and her staff. This was a full-service shop. There weren''t just dresses for sale here. You could also purchase shoes and essories. And there was a ce to get hair and makeup to match. This was truly a good choice. I would have to thank Sher.


    "Wee, Alpha and Luna, we are honored for your visit." Gina smiled as she inclined her head.


    "It''s nice to see you again Gina." Little Bunny greeted the woman like a friend.


    "I have a dress picked out for you already, Luna, please try it on." Gina implored her.


    "How did you get one ready so soon?" She asked.


    "I called ahead and told her we would being." I admitted.


    "How did you know I would agree to have dinner with you?" My Little Bunny was smiling at me with a hint of an evil smirk.


    "I hoped." I smiled back at her in return. She giggled, making my wolf wag his tail.


    Gina took her to the back of the shop then to try on the dress. It was apparently almost perfectly sized to fit her and ording to the staff, the best color choice possible. I would be the judge of that. I didn''t want to brag, but I had a pretty good sense of fashion myself.


    A little whileter Gina brought her out. They had dressed my Little Bunny in a midnight-blue strapless dress. It was cut low enough that it showed an ample amount of her milky white cleavage. It was corseted, entuating how small she really was. The skirt of the dress red out a little, but it wasn''t like a gown. It was more like severalyers of silk and whatever the sheer material they had usedbined with the way it was cut and sewn together. It looked like the skirt would twirl out around her if she were to spin, but it also went all the way down to her ankles. She was wearing matching midnight-blue stilettos with three-inch heels. They would close the distance between us a little.


    "What do you think, Alpha?" Gina asked me. It took a minute for me to get my wolf to shut up then another minute to unstick my tongue to allow me to speak.


    "You look beautiful." I choked out in as even of a tone as I could manage. I saw the smile of satisfaction on Gina''s face, but for some reason my Little Bunny looked sad.


    "Come on now, Luna, let''s get you ready." Gina directed as she led my Little Bunny to a chair in the back.


    They were there for a while. I decided to walk around the shop as I waited. There was someughter at first, and some tense voices as well. I stopped listening pretty quickly, but as I was looking at the diamond earrings in the case next to the counter, I heard something that caught me off guard.


    "What''s the point in all this?" Little Bunny asked.


    "Why would you ask that, Luna?" Gina seemed as shocked by her question as I was.


    "There''s no point to it anyway." She sounded so sad, why was my Little Bunny so sad?


    "I''m sure the Alpha would argue against that." Ginaughed.


    "He''s the reason I say there is no point."


    "What? I don''t understand Luna?" Neither do I Gina, so please keep probing. I thought to myself.


    "You heard him when he saw me. He''s always so apathetic when ites to me. He could barely find it in himself to answer how I looked. And he seemed so mad."? I was floored by what she said but Gina justughed.


    "Luna, you don''t have much experience with men, do you?" She asked her. I wanted to growl that she better not, but that would make me a hypocrite, I had been with more women than I should have been.


    "Not a lot, no." She admitted. Oh thank Goddess, thank you Little Bunny. I thought.


    "Well, the Alpha wasn''t mad honey, he was stunned. He didn''t remember how to talk for a minute. And I''m betting he had to rein his wolf in too." Gina was spot on of course.


    "I doubt that." Little Bunny wasn''t convinced. I know it was my fault. I still had a lot to make up for. The thought made my chest ache and my sense of self hate grow even more.


    "You just wait and see." Gina told her.


    I stopped listening at that. I didn''t want to hear anymore. Not to mention it sounded like they were almost done with her hair and makeup. The staff had apparently already picked out her essories for the night, so I had nothing left to do but to pay for everything.


    I was waiting near the front of the shop when they came out from the back. They had curled her hair and pinned the top of it back, they left a few strands down to frame her face, and the rest of her hair cascaded down her back.


    She was wearing a ck silk evening wrap draped over her shoulders, that mixed with her long dark hairying on her shoulders hid most of the skin that was exposed, including the iplete mark. Her makeup was once again simple, with light eye makeup and a hinting of color on the lips, but herplexion was so naturally beautiful that she didn''t need the makeup as it was.


    I walked to her slowly, giving myself more time to take in the view, before I reached my hand out toward her.


    "Gorgeous." I whispered as I kissed the back of her hand. I was trying to reassure her of how lovely I thought she really was, but I could see the skepticism in her eyes. She just wasn''t going to trust me. "Thank you, Gina." I said before leading my Little Bunny out of the shop.

 Chapter 69 - Reece-Dinner And Dessert

    <h4>Chapter 69 - Reece-Dinner And ''Dessert''</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "Where are we going now?" She asked me apprehensively.


    "To dinner of course." I told her.


    "But dinner where?" She questioned me.


    "Kaleidoscope." I answered.


    "What!" She eximed. "That ce is way too much." She seemed stressed out.


    "It''s owned by a pack member by the name of Lawrence."


    "Oh, I get it now."


    "Get what?" I asked her.


    "We''re only going to ces owned by pack members. Is that a pride thing or something to do with me?" She was figuring it out.


    "If pride had something to do with it, it would limit where I bought a lot of other things."


    "So, it is about me." She snapped.


    "Can we talk about it over dinner?" I pleaded as I pulled the car to a stop at the restaurant, a valet was alreadying to open our doors.


    "Fine." She consented.


    We were seated right away, to the groans and res of many people who were waiting near the door. I had the staff take them all a drink and some appetizers on me to appease them. I didn''t need a scene starting right now. Lawrence had also been informed of our impending arrival, so we were told that the Chef had prepared a special menu just for us, if we would be so kind to ept. We had no objections. So, the wine and water were delivered along with an hors d''oeuvres while we waited.


    "Alright, why the pack only businesses tonight?" She asked as soon as the waiter had left the table. I watched as she took a bite of the hors d''oeuvres and saw the satisfaction spread across her face. I took a bite of the food as well before I answered.


    "I wanted the extra security it would provide." I answered her honestly.


    "For me or for you?" She looked at me skeptically. I raised an eyebrow, confused. "Are you worried someone might try to hurt me, or are you worried that I might bite you if there isn''t a pack member around to keep me from misbehaving?" She smirked. I could tell thest part was a joke, but she had taken mepletely by surprise that I couldn''t help theugh that escaped.


    "If I said it was for both would that be bad?" I asked her. She smiled and giggled lightly, turning her head and looking up at me through her eyshes. I don''t think she knew how seductive she could be at times.


    "It would be more honest than I expected, that''s for sure." She giggled again. Herughter always sounded like music to me.


    "But, in all honesty Little Bunny, I chose pack businesses because, Goddess forbid, if something were to happen there would be extra help around if I needed it. I''m sure I could handle whatever came our way, but just in case you know."


    "Oh yes, you big strong man, you protect woman." She spoke in a chopped, caveman style voice.


    "I''m serious Trinity, I am Alpha for a reason you know." I told her.


    "Yeah, because your dad was Alpha." Sheughed.


    "No, not just because my father was Alpha. If I wasn''t strong enough, then I would never have been given the title. We like to keep the title in the family, yes that''s true, but if the heir is not strong enough, we admit that and give it to whoever is strong enough."


    "I didn''t know that." She admitted.


    "I noticed." I snapped at her. "I am more than capable of fighting off most, if not any, threat thates after you. The rogue that hurt youst time only managed it because he had such a head start on me. But I was about to catch him. I only needed ten more seconds to stop him, but I didn''t have that time and that pissed me off." I was exining something to her that I both wanted her to know and I never wanted to tell her.


    "Is that why you refused toe see me while I was recovering? And why you med yourself? And I know you med me as well."


    "I never med you." I said automatically.


    "What?"


    "You were performing your duties. Taking women and children out for that hike was a good idea, you didn''t know that was going to happen. And you were trying to save that boy, which you did. If you had half a second more, you would have been in the clear as well, but we all ran out of time. I should have stopped him sooner."


    "Why are you saying all this?" She asked me, confused.


    "You need to know the truth."


    "Well, while you''re on your truth kick, why did you save me?" She asked. Our soup had been delivered now, and we were slowly eating that while we talked.


    "I didn''t even stop to think about it. I just leapt over the edge. I could only think ''don''t let her be dead''."


    "Why? Wouldn''t it be better for you to find a different mate?"


    "We only get one mate." I red at her.


    "Has anyone ever tried finding a second mate?"


    "No, because that''s not how we wolves are. Do you want a different mate?" I asked her, angered by her words.


    "I''m not the one who rejected my mate."


    "Liar." I snapped at her. "You tried to run away from me multiple times, you told me you didn''t choose me either andined about being stuck with me."


    "Yeah well, I was scared when I tried to run away. I didn''t know what was happening at first, and I only tried to run once after learning you were my mate but everyone was putting a lot of information on me and nothing was going to be the same again. Also, I said all that after you rejected me." She argued.


    "What if I had never rejected you?" I asked her curiously.


    "We will never know, will we. Since you did reject me, and you do hate me and want nothing to do with me in that way." She was never going to forget those words I said.


    "Well, hypothetically?" I asked.


    "I don''t know." She answered uncertainly.


    "Hmm." I was curious about her answer.


    We continued through the meal steadily. Each dish was better than the previous one. The inside of the restaurant added to the magical feel of being here. I noticed my Little Bunny looking all around. The restaurant was bright, highly decorated, with a ss ceiling that had been cut into kaleidoscope patterns. They had even used stained ss in the ceiling as well. The ceiling was severalyers thick, so it even looked like a real kaleidoscope. Even with all its uniqueness, it was extremely elegant.


    After the tense conversation we had been having, my Little Bunny worked hard to keep us to lighter subjects. We talked about the uing holiday. She apparently loved Christmas. I was d that I had gone all out with having the staff decorate this year, it had mostly been for Mom''s return, but it worked for my Little Bunny too.


    We talked about what sses she wanted to take next now that her exams were done. But she adamantly refused to let us talk about anything truly personal. What I was truly thankful for though, was that we didn''t argue at all. Not even the tense moment we had already made it through could be counted as an argument. It was our best conversation to date.


    After dessert and a few more sips of wine, stuffed full with six courses of food, I walked her back to the car that a valet had brought back up for us. The light easy conversation continued all the way home.


    I opened her door and helped her out like usual. I was working on being the perfect gentleman for her. I walked her to the elevator, knowing she wouldn''t want to take the stairs in the stilettos she was wearing. I had wrapped my arm around her waist like I did when we were on our visits to the other packs. The move seemed so natural to me that I didn''t question it.


    I could feel the tension growing between us. Ever since we got back to the house. I didn''t know if she could feel it or if she understood it, but it was driving me, and my wolf, insane. As soon as we were in the elevator and the doors closed, it was like the tension snapped.


    I leaned down and buried my nose in her hair, inhaling her scent deeply.


    "What are you doing?" She asked, stunned.


    "Mmm, contemting having seconds for dessert." I practically purred at her.


    "What." She was shocked by my words. Her mouth was slightly open in awe. I took advantage of that.


    I pressed my lips to hers, sliding my tongue past her open lips and flicking it against hers. She squealed in surprise, jumping at the feeling at first. She put her hands on my chest, almost like she thought about pushing me away or pulling me toward her, but she couldn''t decide so she just left her hands there pressed against me.


    I growled at the feel of her lips, the taste of her on my tongue. The vor of her exploded into my mouth, apples, vani, spices, it was better than eating the apple pie she smelled like. And the danger of the taste of ozone that chased the taste of pie into my mouth, like I could get struck by lightning while devouring her kiss, it was exciting.


    With my hand at the nape of her neck and another on her waist I pulled her body toward mine, but she stumbled with the unfamiliar shoes she was wearing. She pushed me away then, looking at me with lust mixed with fear. I know my eyes must have been full of only lust, a burning desire to have her, but she didn''t know how much I needed her right now. The elevator doors chose that moment to ding open on the fourth floor.


    "I won''t be your ything, Reece, or a distraction. I won''t have any of this unless things are mutual between us." She was almost in tears for some reason before she ran off the elevator, bolting for her room.


    "Don''t you know they are?" I growled quietly to the empty elevator before going back to my room and taking a really long cold shower.

 Chapter 70 - Trinity-Christmas Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 70 - Trinity-Christmas Part 1</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The dinner date with Reece was a total surprise. I didn''t expect it at all. But I enjoyed myself, probably more than I should have. But it turns out he was only after one thing. Why can''t we get closer, get to know each other, without him wanting to move in that direction? I don''t want to be a distraction to him, just a ything to him to use when he sees fit.


    The bad thing is, it was really hard for me to turn him down, my body wants him. My heart tells me I love him. But I know that I don''t know him enough for that. I need a better connection with him, something more than just fate telling me he''s the one. I need him to tell me I''m the one for him. I need to know that he epts me and that he won''t find sce in anyone else. But will I ever get that?


    I sincerely hope so. I hope that we can have more nights like Saturday. More nights where we talk and get closer. More time where we just enjoy each other''s time.


    Tomorrow is Christmas. That was one thing for me to look forward to. I was wrapping thest gift I needed to put under the tree. I loved how borately the house had been decorated. I don''t know if it was like this all the time or not, but it was wonderful.


    The whole house had been covered in lights so just staring at its twinkling beauty was enough to make me smile. The tree that had been brought in and ced in the great room, the main living room, was massive. It had to be at least twelve feet tall and it was decorated with lights, ribbon, bulbs, tinsel, the whole works. There were little animal ornaments covered in gold and silver that decorated the tree as well. And at the very top, instead of a star or an angel, there was a full moon glowing atop the tree.


    A giant train track had been set up that went up and around the tree, circled the room, and came back to circle the base of the tree. All around the track, at different points, pieces of a miniature Christmas vige had been set up. Little houses, a church, shops, Santa''s vige, it even had trees painted with a frosting of snow. Twinkling lights lined the train tracks and followed the vige as well. There had been white fluff put around all the little houses to look like snow.


    There were snowmen scattered throughout the house. Sometimes in groups like a family, sometimes standing alone. Stars and snowke patterns had been hung from the ceiling in shining silver and gold. There was a miniature Santa with a sleigh and his reindeer strung up in the entry hall, he looked like he was flying to deliver the gifts to everyone.


    Stockings had been hung by the beautiful firece. They all looked brand newpared to the little vige pieces. There were three stockings in all. One each for L, Reece, and myself. Being included without asking was enough to make me smile. At least whoever had decorated considered me part of the household.


    There were small traces all throughout the bottom floor of the house. Wreaths, tinsel, gand, mistletoe, poinsettia nts. All the traditional decorations. It was like walking into a Christmas movie taking ce at a castle or at least a rich person''s house. Well, this ce could be a castle, and Reece was obscenely rich, so I guess that was fitting.


    There were small traces of decorations upstairs as well. Gand and ribbons decorated every banister in the house. Some lights here and there, and mistletoe hung sporadically. But nothing much had happened elsewhere on the higher floors. I took it upon myself to decorate my room and hallway slightly, no one said I couldn''t.


    I put lights up in my room, around every window, around the firece, and made a small canopy of lights above the whole room. I put snowmen, reindeer, Santa, and anything I could think of up and down the hall. It was only going to be for a short time, but I wanted to see these things to make me happy. The two weeks that I got to see them was magical to me.


    I had been trying to avoid thinking about Christmas morning. It would be my first without my family. I was sure it was going to be emotional for me, but I would have to get over it somehow. I had to grow up, and I wasn''t going to be alone after all. I would have L, and Reece I suppose. But who knows if he would behave himself?


    I was both looking forward to the morning and dreading it at the same time. Only time will tell me how it would go. I just had to face it as best as I could.


    I woke early on Christmas morning. I was nervous, and I wanted to be ready for the day. I took a quick shower and dressed nicely. I decided to wear a midnight-blue skirt that came to my knees, it was simple, no extra designs or fluff, but it was pretty and quitefortable. I paired it with a white silk shirt and gold jewelry. The look was simple but looked ssy.


    When I went downstairs, I had expected to eat breakfast first. That''s how things had always been done when I was growing up. So, it took me by surprise when Reece called out to me.


    "Where are you going Little Bunny?" He sounded confused yet amused at the same time.


    "To breakfast." I told him, bewildered.


    "Don''t you want to open gifts first?" He asked me, a slight smirk on his face.


    "Before we eat?" I asked.


    "Is it that strange?"


    "It''s different for me, I always opened them after." I informed him.


    "Hmm, well let''s not wait. I want us all to open them before we eat." He smiled at me.


    "Alright." I was d I had brought hisst gift downst night instead of waiting until this morning.


    "Come on you two." L called out from the other room. I smiled at her eager voice.


    "Let''s go." Reece said, holding his hand out toward me. I didn''t take his hand but walked next to him, he ced his hand lightly on my right hip and he walked beside me.


    As soon as we entered the room, there was a bright sh of light.


    "Memories." L said once I could see again. She had a camera in her hand.


    "Mom!" Reece growled.


    "What? It''s your first Christmas together, someone needs to take pictures." She smiled happily.


    "It''s not that special is it?" I asked her.


    "Are you kidding? It''s very special, this is the first of many Christmases together but there will never be anything like the first one." She was so happy that I just didn''t want to burst her bubble. I just don''t think Reece and I will ever have happy memories.


    "If you say so." Reece grimaced. Clearly, he didn''t think things would be happy either.


    We started passing out gifts. L wanted to go first, so she handed us all of the ones she bought for us.


    "I might have gone a little overboard." She smiled happily as she handed us gift after gift. "I just couldn''t help myself."


    "This is way too much L." I told her as she handed me my tenth present.


    "Nonsense, you''re the first daughter I ever got to buy a gift for, I am so excited." I could feel that excitement too. It just made me feel weird, getting a gift from someone that wasn''t my family. Reece and I looked at each other andughed nervously as our embarrassment kept growing along with the piles.


    "Go on, open them." L insisted.


    I did as she instructed and was stunned at the array of gifts. L had gotten me a beautiful, and delicate looking, gold watch. Several different outfits. There were books she thought I would enjoy. A violin to rece the one that had gone missing from the music room. And a bottle of perfume with a soft vani scent.


    "That perfume is developed by a wolf, so the smell is not too strong. It won''t affect a wolf''s sense of smell." She was smiling happily. "And I know how much Reece loves the smell of vani." She added mischievously.


    "Mother." He said embarrassed.


    "What, you do." She giggled.


    "Just be quiet." Reece put his head in his hands and groaned. Iughed.


    "Thank you for everything, L. They were all wonderful gifts."


    "It was my pleasure dear. I am so happy to have you here to shop for.


    "Alright, let''s move on." Reece cleared his throat loudly before he spoke. "Shall we give you all your gifts first, Mom, it would only be fair." He grinned at her.


    "No, you should exchange each other''s first." She countered. I was not in a hurry to give Reece his gifts, so I backed him up.


    "No, I think we should give you your gifts, L." I smiled at her sweetly and she caved.


    "Oh, alright. Fine, hand them over." Sheughed, holding her hands out.

 Chapter 71 - Trinity-Christmas Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 71 - Trinity-Christmas Part 2</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece gave his mother a handful of presents, less than what she had given us, but still not small. I had only gotten L three things, but I didn''t know what she would want. I felt embarrassed now. She proceeded to open the gifts, first Reece''s and then mine. I had gotten her a lovely locket that was a perfect circle, it looked like a full moon, and on the back was a wolf paw print with the words, Thank you L, Love Trinity, engraved on the back. I had also gotten her a book, one I thought should be in the library but was missing. And thest present, was a coge of restored photos I found in storage after talking to her that day. I had them sent out and restored to their original beauty and arranged in a coge. The pictures had her, Reece, and the former Alpha at various stages.


    "Oh, Collin." She sighed as she looked at the pictures. "Trinity, this is lovely, thank you so much."


    "I''m d you like it." I told her, smiling in relief.


    "I love it. I have been missing his face so much." She was nearly in tears.


    "I''m sorry, I didn''t mean to make you cry."


    "They''re happy tears." She told me. "Don''t be sad."


    Once she wiped away her tears, she said it was time for Reece and me to exchange our gifts. I turned to look at him, nervous and apprehensive. What would he think? What is he going to say about the gifts that I got him? Only time will tell. I took a deep breath to settle my nerves and got his gifts.


    I gave him the gifts that I thought of after talking to his mom first. He opened the first of the two, it was thergest of his gifts. I noticed the shock on his face, and the heartache. It was a guitar. A ssic. And it looked almost exactly like the one in the picture of him and his father. He didn''t say anything, but he opened the other gift that went with it. I had also had the picture of him and his father restored. Their smiling faces looked as if the picture had been taken recently with a digital camera instead of over a decade ago. It was no longer creased, now it was set lovingly inside a beautiful frame so he could disy how much he loved his father.


    Reece looked at me in awe, his face not hiding how shocked he was for once.


    "When did you do this?" He asked me.


    "After I was done recovering, and we had our argument. I found this picture in the library and talked to your mom about you and your dad." I was scared to tell him, I thought he would be upset about it all. "I know you don''t have reminders about your parents around the house. I thought it was hard with them both gone, but I thought, maybe, with your mom back you would be fine with having the pictures up again."


    "Little Bunny." He sighed, the emotion in his voice clear. Before I knew it, he had hugged me, not tight, but gently. "Thank you." He whispered to me softly. I was d I had done this for him.


    Afterposing himself, Reece handed me my first gift.


    "Alright, time for you to open one." He said. It was a thin box about the size of his hand. When I unwrapped it I found a jewelry set inside. There was a pendant in the shape of a wolf''s paw, and it was covered in tiny diamonds. There were matching earrings, also in the shape of paws. Andstly there was a bracelet that looked like a path of walking paw prints, it would look like a wolf walked around my wrist when I wore it. They were all stunningly beautiful, and obviously expensive.


    "They''re gorgeous." I said honestly.


    "Good, I''m d you like them. Knowing your tendency to hate over the top things I thought you might not like them." Heughed nervously.


    "I don''t hate them, not really, I just think it gets to be a little too much sometimes." I smiled at him. "But I really do love them." I admitted.


    "Here, your next one." I said, trying to hide my giggle. He noticed and raised his eyebrows.


    "Why are youughing?"


    "I''m enjoying myself." I told him, trying to hide my true agenda for the day.


    "Uh huh." He looked at the package nervously before he started to unwrap it.


    He opened the watch set I had bought him. The tinum and ck gold looked even better in person than it did when I ordered it online. The military style ID bracelet was masculine enough that he should be able to wear it no problem. He took the watch out and looked at it.


    "This is really nice, Little Bunny." Hemented. "This is actually perfect. I could use this all the time, since it would go with everything."


    "That''s great." I smirked. That''s when he turned the watched over.


    "Oh, it''s engraved." He noted. "Alpha, that''s simple." Hemented as he picked up the bracelet. "Is this engraved too?" He asked looking over the bracelet. He didn''t see anything on the top, but he flipped it over and I noticed his eyes go wide. I almost lost it then, myughter was fighting to be let out.


    "You think you''re funny, don''t you?" He asked me, a growl in his voice. Iughed, long and loud.


    "Don''t you like it?" I asked him. "I had your name put on it."


    "That''s not my name and you know it."


    "Aww, but I went through the trouble of having it engraved just for you."


    "I''m d you did something like this though, it means I don''t feel as bad about this." He said handing me another small box.


    "What''s this?"


    "Open it." He demanded with an evil glint in his eyes.


    I opened the long thin box. Inside was a beautiful charm bracelet with an engraved namete in the middle. I picked it up and looked at the charms. There was a carrot, a rabbit''s foot, and a bunny. And on the namete were the words Little Bunny.


    "You jerk." Iughed at him.


    "Right back at you." He snapped yfully.


    "I''m not a bunny."


    "And I''m not Fido." We wereughing near hysterically after that, L watching us with a smile on her face.


    "Fine, I got one more for you, big guy." I smiled at him yfully. "You''re going to love it."


    "Yeah, I have one more for you too, depending on what thisst one is, I might just say you deserve it too." I growled yfully.


    "Here." I was trying to keep myughter from bursting out of me again as I handed him thest box. It was simr in size to thest one he had handed me. When he opened it, he yelled out.


    "Oh,e on, you''ve got to be kidding me." He wasughing harder than before.


    "Read it, read it." I insisted betweenughs. He picked up the silver dog cor, it was a choke chain, and read the tag that was attached. It said "FIDO" in big bold letters.


    "You''re a brat."


    "It''s so I can yank your chain when you get out of hand." Iughed. L, who had been watching us in silence this whole time, finallyughed.


    "That''s perfect." Sheughed. "Isn''t she the greatest Reece?" She asked him.


    "Oh, just the best. And now I don''t feel so bad giving her thest gift I have either." He smirked.


    "I don''t see anything else for me to open." I told him, looking around.


    "You need to follow me." He said grabbing me by the hand and pulling me behind him.


    "Where are we going?"


    "You''ll see." He chuckled.


    He dragged me through the house and out into the garage. There sat a car I had never seen there before. It was a brand-new Jeep Cherokee with red and gold ribbons on it. The vanity te on the front read LTTL BNNY.


    "That is so not funny." I snapped at him. "There was no need to get another car."


    "This is the least conspicuous car we have now. And it''s all for you, Little Bunny."


    "That te ising off at least."


    "Not a chance." Heughed.


    "You''re so mean." I growled at him.


    "Takes one to know one." Heughed at me.


    It was a fun day. I hadn''t expected to enjoy my Christmas without my family this much, but it was great so far. After Reece showed me the car, we had our breakfast. Abigail went all out and prepared an amazing meal and was already preparing dinner.


    Just after noon my family, all of them, came to celebrate with us. I was able to give the rest of them their gifts. From Noah and Nikki, to Aunt Eve and the others, even Grandfather came. They all enjoyed their gifts, and I was happy with what they gave me. And for once Grandfather was not being overly strict and cruel to me. He did disappear with Reece briefly but there was nothing that brought the mood down.


    Juniper, Cedar, and Paul joined us shortly after my family got there. We exchanged our gifts. I was happier than I thought I had any right to be. Everyone decided to join us for dinner, which I think was nned long in advance. It was the perfect end to the day.


    We were just seeing them all off as a group when L squealed.


    "Ooooh, Finally."


    "What?" I asked her, confused.


    "I have been waiting for the two of you to end up under one of the mistletoe bunches for thest week at least, and it finally happened." She was smiling like a loon, but I just looked up at it like it was a bomb.


    "Oooohhh." I heard Aunt Eve and Nikki coo.


    "Go on then." Grandfather encouraged. Uncle Wesley smiled at me. Everyone else, just stared at me, trying to gage my reaction. I couldn''t say no, not with my family here. Reece seemed uncertain about whether he should make his move as well, so I initiated.


    I gripped Reece''s jacket and pulled him toward me. He looked shocked, stunned into immobility. Even while standing on my tiptoes I was unable to reach him unless he bent down. I tugged him again, pulling him a little closer. Finally, with him close enough, I ce my lips lightly onto his. This broke him out of his stupor, he put his hands on my hips and kissed me back.


    The kiss was quick but heated. We broke apart after just a moment, but the heat from his lips remained on mine.


    "Oh my." Aunt Eve gushed.


    "Well." Nikki added.


    Carter cleared his throat, drawing our attention back to the group.


    "Sorry." I blushed.


    "It was just a kiss, nothing to be sorry about." L said.


    "Yeah, don''t worry about it." Juniper was looking at me, her inquisitive eyes boring into me. I predict a barrage of messages soon.


    "We''ll be going now." Carter dered as he opened the door.


    "Goodbye everyone, I love you." I heard a chorus of "love you too"s before they all left the house.

 Chapter 72 - Trinity-The Last Full Moon Meeting Of The Year

    <h4>Chapter 72 - Trinity-The Last Full Moon Meeting Of The Year</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Things were slowly getting better with Reece. I didn''t get to see him all the time, with his busy schedule, but with the holiday season he had a lot of free time. The day after Christmas I was called to his office to have a meeting with him and Michael, the elder. I knew it was for the uing full moon meeting. I would have thought they would have had this meeting already, since it was only three days away now.


    When I walked in, the first thing I noticed was that my usual chair was gone. Well not gone really, just moved. It was sitting on the other side of Reece''s desk, just a few feet away from his. I wonder if the Elders didn''t like the distance that he was keeping between us.


    "Trinity, my dear Luna, how are you child?" Michael asked me in his typical over the top condescending way. I know he didn''t mean anything about it, but had I had a wolf my hackles would rise from hearing it every time.


    "Hello Michael, I''m doing well, and how are you?" I asked him as he leaned in for a slight hug. When he pulled away, I noticed an angry look in Reece''s eyes. I took my seat and sat quietly beside my mate.


    "Now, we can discuss what will happen during the full moon this month." Michael smiled happily.


    "Do I truly need to be here?" I asked him, a little miffed by the situation. "It''s not like I can be there, anyway." My voice held an edge I had not intended it to, my anger was stronger than I thought. I didn''t want to be cooped up anymore, but I knew why I was staying inside. I truly didn''t want to have anything else happen to me.


    "What do you mean you can''t go?" Michael asked me, perplexed.


    "With everything that has happenedtely, we feel it is best for her to not go anywhere for the time being." Reece answered for me. I lowered my head in depression.


    "Ahh, yes, I do understand that." Michael''s voice gave off an understanding tone as he eyed me sadly. "I''m truly sorry my dear. Perhaps we should have left you out of the meeting." He added.


    "It''s fine. Eventually I would need to attend every meeting anyway, right?" I asked him, forcing a smile.


    "Yes, that''s right dear, you will."


    "So, what is the n for this month?" I asked them, trying to lighten the mood somewhat.


    "Well, it is nearly the end of the month, so therefore the end of the year. We traditionally have a bonfire as the moon for December is called the cold moon, along with the oak moon and the long nights moon. We typically try to burn at least some oak during the bonfire, but it''s mostly staving off the long and cold night with the fire. This year though, I would like to make it a bit of a pre New Year''s party for the pack."


    "This gathering is purely voluntary right? They''re not required to attend."


    "That''s right, they wille if they choose to, which a lot decide to skip it because they''re home with their family this time of year." Reece answered for me.


    "Alright, so what kind of turn out will there be, do you think?"


    "It''s hard to know, but we will prepare for more than the usual, just to be safe. That has been the n in the past." I nodded my head.


    "Looks like you''ve got it all worked out." I told them, the regret at not being included seeping into my voice.


    "Well, since we know what will be going on, I will ry the information." Michael said as he stood and left the room alone. I was about to follow him when Reece called out to me.


    "Wait, Little Bunny." I sat back down and looked at him, confused.


    "Yes?" I asked him.


    "About the night of the full moon?" He started but seemed hesitant.


    "What about it?"


    "Will you have dinner with me?" He finally managed.


    "Don''t we always eat dinner together?" I asked him, confused.


    "I mean, just the two of us." I noticed his embarrassment. He was trying to force himself here. Apparently between his mom, the elders, and possibly Noah, they were forcing him to be a better mate to me. Well, we could hope that it would get better during this time.


    "Alright." I agreed, not sure what to expect.


    "Really?" He sounded shocked at first, but then broke out into the biggest grin I''ve ever seen on his face before. "Wonderful. I will meet you after I greet the pack at the gathering."


    "Wait, you''re going to leave the gathering?" Shock filled my voice.


    "It''s not an important event, and you can''t be there this year. I don''t want you to be alone."


    "I''ve never been to any of them before." I admitted.


    "I guessed at much." He frowned. "I don''t know why your Grandfather was so hard on you, but I''m sorry things were so tough for you."


    "It''s fine, aside from the pack rted stuff, my life was great. My family was the best I could ask for. And I never knew my mother or father so I can''t miss them." I tried to pretend like it didn''t bother me, but I felt the stinging of tears in my eyes.


    "Little Bunny?" He seemed to be asking me if I was alright with those words as he came closer and gently wrapped his arms around me. "We both have scars from our pasts. Let''s help each other ovee them, eventually." He whispered so quietly that I barely heard him.


    "Reece?" I asked him, confused. He shook his head as if to say no before kissing me softly on top of my head.


    He pulled away from me after that. Sadness and regret filling his eyes. I was sure the regret had been for being so close to me, getting emotional with me.


    "I have another meeting soon, Little Bunny, but I will see you at dinner." He smiled sadly before holding a hand out to help me to my feet. He kissed the back of my hand gently before letting me go. I left, confused and uncertain about what had just happened and my feelings.


    Over the next three days I was needlessly nervous around Reece. I didn''t know the real reason why he had asked me to have dinner with him. It surprised me when I found out that he was going to skip the gathering toe back and spend time with me. But he could just be bored with all the routine. Maybe he wasn''t going to stop until he had conquered his conquest. I just didn''t know what to think, but my body wanted to turn to a puddle whenever he was around.


    On a positive note I was fully registered for my sses for the next semester now. I had passed all my sses with near perfect scores, thanks to my friends passing along the assignments. I was lucky to have them, and I couldn''t wait to finally get to go to ss with them again.


    I had Junipere over the day before my dinner with Reece. I wanted her to help me pick out something to wear.


    "You''re going on a date?" She asked me incredulously.


    "We''re having dinner, but I don''t know where." I admitted.


    "Is this your first date?" She was in super excited inquisitive mode now.


    "No, we had onest weekend." I confessed to her.


    "What?" She gasped. "Why am I just hearing about this now?" She demanded.


    "Well, it was right before Christmas and the same day as my exams, so I kind of just forgot to mention it."


    "You forgot? Oh,e on, this is major. Girl you need to tell me these things." Iughed at her intensity. "Tell me everything that happened." She insisted.


    I obliged. I told her everything that had happened after I left the test room. From when Reece showed up to ask me to dinner, to getting my dress, and then the meal. I told her how, though awkward at times, we didn''t argue at all. And how he finished the night with a kiss that I was not prepared for. When I was done, her mouth was hanging open in shock.


    "Oh my Goddess." She breathed. "Girl, what are you going to do if he tries that again?"


    "I don''t know. Oh Goddess, why does he only want me for sex? Why can''t he fall in love with me?" I asked of no one in particr and I grabbed my head in frustration.


    "Do you love him?" Juniper seemed surprised by my question and already guessed my meaning.


    "I can''t help it. The bond made me like him already, and he''s not a bad guy."


    "Trinity! Look at what the asshole has said to you." She yelled at me.


    "I know, but he''s a great alpha to the pack, he''s fair, and when he''s not intentionally being a jerk to me, he can be really nice."


    "You''re making excuses for him." She used.


    "I can''t help but notice it. I live with him. I see how he is with everyone. And, not to mention, he has saved my life multiple times."


    "Hero syndrome or what do they call it." She put a finger to her chin as she thought. "Stockholm syndrome, that''s what you''ve got."


    "That''s when you fall in love with your kidnapper." Iughed at her.


    "Florence Nightingale Syndrome?" She asked.


    "Nope, that''s falling in love with your health care worker." I wasughing so hard at her trying to discredit my emotions that I was not feeling stressed anymore.


    "Fine, if there is no syndrome where you fall in love with your rescuer simply because they saved you then I''m making one, you have Trinity Syndrome." She pointed at me when she dered this.


    "Why name it after me? Shouldn''t it be his fault?"


    "Reece Syndrome?" She asked. "Doesn''t have the same ring to it, besides anything with him is likely never to bring you peace."


    "No peace?" I snickered. "No Reece Syndrome, then I get no peace, or pieces." I startedughing so hard I couldn''t sit up.


    "Oh Goddess, Trinity, never talk to me about Reece''s pieces. No, wait, scratch that. Tell me everything about them. That man is hot." She was blushing andughing so hard I could hardly understand a word she said.


    "I haven''t even seen Reece''s pieces yet, so shut up." I blushed. I knew my face had to be crimson with how embarrassed I felt.

 Chapter 73 - Trinity-Dinner With Reece

    <h4>Chapter 73 - Trinity-Dinner With Reece</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Somehow, we managed to settle down long enough for me to pick an outfit for the night of the full moon. I didn''t know what he had nned, but I didn''t think it was going to be another fancy restaurant. Even he said thatst week was kind of a special asion because I was going to be trapped at home for a long time. So, I had a feeling we would be staying home, but Juniper didn''t agree with me.


    I had selected a pair of jeans that were so dark blue they almost looked ck, but they were also low riders and showed an ample amount of my hips, this was Juniper''s insistence. She had told me I needed to show some skin, never mind that it was the end of December. ''Not like you''ll get cold anyway'' she had yed off the wintry weather.


    I paired them with a sky-blue halter top that left everything from my belly button down bare. Over that I would wear a ck denim jacket that was so dark the silver buttons seemed to shine. I thought the entire outfit was too flirty, but that was reining Juniper in a lot from what she had originally nned. I really did want to get to know Reece more before I slept with him, but Juniper seemed to be in a hurry for me to get him into my pants.


    The long awaited (dreaded) night arrived. I took the time to do my hair a little different than usual. I did two small yet borate braids, one down each side of my head, then pulled the hair until the braid was loose and the twists looked bigger. I left a little of my bangs to hang in my face before pulling the braids and remaining hair back into a low ponytail. It wasn''t super fancy, but I thought it would go well with what I was wearing tonight.


    After my hair was done, I did my light make-up. Just a dusting up shadow on my eyes, mascara, and some lipstick. When I looked in the mirror, I didn''t really recognize myself. I never dressed like this. Reece was going to think I was being stupid if I went out there like this. I looked at the clock, it was just after seven, if I hurried, I could pick something else.


    That''s when I heard the knock on my door.


    "Little Bunny?" Reece called from the door. Crap, I had been too focused on getting ready. I hadn''t been paying attention. I didn''t notice his scenting down the hall.


    "Coming." I answered. Oh Goddess, I don''t have time to change now. I opened the door slowly, nervously. I saw him standing there dressed in a pair of dark jeans and a light green t-shirt with a ck leather jacket over it. We almost matched, and it made me want tough.


    "You really do like the color green, don''t you?" I asked him.


    "I could say the same with you and blue." Hemented as he tugged lightly on thecey front of my halter top. The slight tug helped pull me toward him and made my breasts strain against the shirt, my eyes went wide.


    "Well, blue is my favorite color. Just like I''m guessing green is yours."


    "It used to be, but I''m really starting to like blue." He smirked at me causing me to look away as I blushed. He chuckled slightly before continuing. "Are you ready to go have dinner?" He asked me.


    "Yeah, just let me grab my shoes." I said. I hadn''t put them on yet when I opened the door for him.


    I walked over to sit on the bed, my shoe choice for the night was sitting next to it on the floor. I had chosen boots, but not ones meant for warmth or hiking. These boots had a modest heel, at leastpared to those stilettos, of only an inch and a half. I leaned forward and pulled them on, up and over the jeans, all the way to my knees. I could feel his eyes on me as I moved, but I didn''t look at him, I didn''t need that distraction.


    When I stood and looked back at him, his honey golden eyes looked nearly amber now with whatever emotion he was hiding at the moment. Usually when his eyes darkened like that he was mad at me, but he''s the one that asked me out, even though I know it was probably suggested by someone else.


    "Ready?" He asked me again.


    "Yup." I nodded my head. He held his hand out toward me like he had done before and this time I took it. He seemed satisfied, smiling as he wrapped his arm around my waist.


    "Stairs or elevator?" He asked me as we walked out of my room.


    "Stairs." I answered quickly, too quickly, he looked at me andughed.


    "I''m not going to attack you every time we''re in the elevator." He smiled darkly. "I''m not an animal."


    "Oh, you''re not? And here I thought you were the puppy that I was trying to train." I giggled. He grinned even wider.


    "Does that mean I get to act like a bad dog, so you have to train me more." I couldn''t tell if he was joking or not and just looked at him. "Hmmm, that was an interesting response. Don''t worry, I will behave myself." His evil smile turned into an angelic one. I didn''t trust it one bit.


    He didn''t take me to the garage, so I was right that we weren''t going out to dinner. Where he took me was the srium.


    "Dinner under the stars." He said smiling. I saw that there had been a small table brought into the room and covered with a white tablecloth. There was a delicious looking meal waiting for us that was clearly made by Abigail. Candles were lit on the table and around the room, the soft glowing light gave off a beautifully romantic atmosphere.


    "This looks lovely." I smiled at him as he walked to the table and pulled out a chair for me.


    "Won''t you have a seat, mia amata?" His smile was radiant and charming, and almost enough to draw me in to get lost forever.


    "Italian?" I looked at him quizzically.


    "So, you speak it as well?" He smiled sheepishly.


    "It was one of the manynguages Grandfather insisted on me learning, so yes ragazzo amante, I speak it as well."


    "Lover boy?" He grinned. "Is that how you see me?"


    "Well, Fido is already Italian, I could have called you ciolo, but I didn''t think you''d like that."


    "No, polo coniglietto, I wouldn''t."


    "Don''t call me a bunny." Heughed at my pouty face.


    "And remember that I am no puppy." He growled yfully.


    I took the seat he offered me. His hands lingered momentarily on my shoulders after he helped push my chair in. He sat across from me, the candles flickering against his honeyedplexion made him look mysterious.


    The dinner was delicious. Juicy steaks prepared so they had just the right amount of pink left. Roasted potatoes with parmesan and garlic. Grilled asparagus crisped and caramelized just slightly. There was a Caesar sd and breadsticks to go with it as well.


    Reece poured us both a ss of red wine.


    "What are you doing?" I asked him.


    "Having dinner with you." He said sarcastically.


    "I''m only eighteen, I''m not old enough to drink that." I reminded him.


    "I won''t tell if you don''t." He joked.


    "Honestly, you''re such a bad influence." I joked with him as I took the ss of wine. I had tried some before, taste-testing with my cousin when we were growing up. Carter and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about it. It was alright, but not my favorite. Hopefully that changed sometime over thest eight years.


    This wine was sweet, not too overpowering, which made it easy to drink.


    "How is it?" He asked me.


    "Better than the one I tried when I was eleven." I told him. He raised an eyebrow. "I was curious." Iughed.


    "Looks like I need to keep an eye on you, if you do whatever makes you curious." His innuendo was not lost on me.


    "Heel Fido." I snapped. "I don''t ''do'' whatever makes me curious." Heughed.


    "Fine, but I am curious as to what does interest you."


    "Why?" His curiosity confused me. Why was he so interested in me?


    "You intrigue me. You never do what I expect you to do. Just when I think I have you figured out you do the opposite of what I expect you to do."


    "So, I''m nothing more than a curiosity? Something for you to explore, figure out, y with for a bit then get bored with?"


    "Why do you do that?" He asked me.


    "Do what?"


    "Assume the worst of everything I say."


    "Maybe because I''ve been given plenty of reasons to think that way about you." I countered.


    "But can''t you see that I have been trying to apologize and make it up to you?" He almost seemed like he was pleading with me.


    "Not really."


    "What is it going to take to make you believe what I say?" He demanded.


    "I don''t know, Reece. I just don''t know yet."


    "I''m going to keep trying." His voice sounded sincere, and I truly hoped he was.


    "I hope so." I said quietly.


    We ate our dinner, and Reece brought out a small cake for dessert. It was a carrot cake, which was my favorite. I thought about asking how he knew, but I was certain Noah or Carter told him, or more likely Abigail, about my preferences. The meal was excellent, the conversation and atmosphere, not so much.

 Chapter 74 - Trinity-Under The Stars

    <h4>Chapter 74 - Trinity-Under The Stars</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I thought the night would be over once we were done eating, I didn''t know what else Reece could have in mind. So, when he pulled my chair out for me and asked me to walk with him, I was skeptical at first but joined him.


    Reece wrapped his arm around my waist like he usually did when we walked together. He led me outside and into the night. We walked silently through the trees. The stars were just bright enough to illuminate the path so we could see without having to use the sight granted to us by the Goddess.


    It didn''t take us long to reach the destination that Reece had in mind. It was not far from the house but was in the opposite direction of the gathering. There was a clearing in the trees that opened up into a small alcove in the rocky side of the mountain. It was crescent shaped faced out toward the edge of the cliffs and over the trees below. Reece had a nketid out in the middle of the alcove and a thermos sitting nearby.


    "I thought we could watch the stars and see the full moon together." He smiled confidently as he pulled me into the center of the clearing.


    "Why are you being so different? Why are you treating me like this? Did Noah say something to you?" I needed to know. I couldn''t live with not understanding anymore. "Or did the Elders tell you not to have so much distance between us anymore?"


    "What are you talking about?" He looked genuinely confused with his brows creased and his head turned to the side, I didn''t want to tell him how puppy like it looked.


    "Who made you change your mind?" I asked him.


    "Would you believe me if I said you? And that I knew everything all along."


    "Your hot and cold attitude is giving me a headache, and maybe even whish."


    "Can we just start over Little Bunny?" He pleaded. "Let''s start this all from the beginning. Tonight will be our new first, everything before today doesn''t matter."


    "Alright, let''s try. It will be better than constantly fighting."


    "Good." He smiled so brightly that it warmed me even from a distance. "Come on, watch the stars with me, please." His hand was held out toward me again, this time I took his hand willingly and let him pull me to him.


    Reece pulled me down with him as he sat, setting me between his thighs and resting me against his chest and wrapping his arms around me.


    "Is this alright, Little Bunny?" He asked me.


    "For now." I told him, my voice betraying how nervous I was with a slight trembling and a squeak near the end. I heard him chuckle at the sound as he settled me more firmly against him.


    We watched the stars, talking about nonsense things for so long that I lost track of the time. He asked me about my childhood and told me about his.


    "So, you never went to school?" He asked me, shocked.


    "Nope, Grandfather didn''t want me to embarrass him, so I was homeschooled. Noah and Carter went to school like normal though."


    "That had to suck. I knew Noah went to school, he was my best friend growing up, would be now too if he wasn''t so mad at me."


    "That''s your own fault, not mine." Iughed. "I didn''t tell him anything. I didn''t say anything to any of my family."


    "But you did tell your friends?" He questioned me.


    "More like Juniper the super sleuth figured it out on her own."


    "Vincent knows too, doesn''t he?"


    "He was there the day Juniper was asking me about everything, and while I was ordering ice cream, she told all three of the guys."


    "So, you didn''t tell them I was a jerk just to spite me?" He asked.


    "No, and I told Juniper to not be mad at you. Even recently she was trying to convince me you''re the bad guy but-." I stopped myself, thinking about what I was about to say.


    "But what?" He asked me, I could hear the curiosity in his voice.


    "No, it''s nothing." I evaded.


    "Don''t think you can do that. You''ve got to tell me now." He implored me. "Come on." He squeezed me with hisrge, muscr arms.


    "Nope, not saying." I refused firmly.


    "Tease." He said as he buried his face into my neck, we were bothughing but the feel of him against my skin, his lips just inches away from where he marked me. I shivered.


    "Cold?" He asked, tightening his hold once more but not moving his face. The feeling of his breath moving against my skin as he breathed just that one word made me squirm, my body was beyond shivering now.


    "N-n-no." I stammered.


    "Hmm." His humming sent a jolt vibrating through my whole body.


    Reece took his right arm off of me, bringing it between us. He moved my hair out of the way, the little bit that hade loose to fall down onto my shoulder.


    "You''re unique, Trinity, you know that don''t you?" He whispered into my ear. "You''re beautiful, smart, funny, stubborn. You''re my little bunny." His breath was getting closer and closer until finally I felt his lips touch gently against my mark. I shivered again and gasped at the feel of his tender kiss.


    "You drive me wild, Little Bunny." His whispered voice was nearly a growl as said the words. I felt his tongue press against my mark then, the pressure against it, of my body knowing it was him pressing against it, made my mind go nk.


    Hepped at the mark before biting it gently. I gasped at the feeling of it. He turned my head to the side, forcing me to face him. He pressed a gentle kiss to my lips and when I didn''t pull away, he pressed it further, sliding his tongue into my mouth. His kiss grew more frantic, more hungry. His tongue probed and searched the inside of my mouth like he was discovering a newnd. He turned me in his arm then, pulling me onto hisp and wrapping his arms around me and deepening the kiss. I felt his groan as he pushed me against him. He nipped at my bottom lip before pulling away.


    He was about to bury his face in my neck again when I came to my senses.


    "NO!" I cried. "We can''t." I pushed away from him and got shakily to my feet. I could see the fire, the hunger in his eyes. But I could also see the pain of my rejection in his eyes.


    "Why not?" He asked me. "I wouldn''t have gone too far, not out here."


    "I need to know that we feel the same way about each other first Reece, I don''t want to just be another notch." I sobbed. I wanted him. I really did. My heart wanted him. My body needed him. But my mind would not let me be with him until I knew how he felt.


    I ran. I couldn''t help it. I turned around and ran back toward the house. I could hear him calling after me.


    "Little Bunny?" His voice sounded hurt. "Trinity!" He called after me again and again, but I just ran back home, back to my room. I wanted him, and if I stayed, I would give in before knowing if he epted me or not, before knowing if he loved me or not.

 Chapter 75 - Reece-New Years Plans

    <h4>Chapter 75 - Reece-New Years ns</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I needed to find a way to change her mind. I needed to convince her that I was wrong when I said those things before. The look on my Little Bunny''s face when she ran away crushed me. I never wanted to see that look again.


    After she left me, sitting there in the clearing, I was at a loss. I didn''t know what to do. What I did know, no what I needed, was a cold shower, or a dip in the river. I needed to cool my head, and other things.


    I only have a few days of vacation left before life gets busy again, so I want to spend as much time with her as I can. But I was going to need to keep my hands to myself or I was likely to ruin things again. I wanted my Little Bunny to know that I was serious about her. That I didn''t hate her. I never did. I never could.


    I made my way home from the clearing alone, following her scent to make sure that she went straight home. I followed her scent all the way to her door. I heard her inside, that made me feel better. I knew she was safe.


    "I''m sorry, Little Bunny." I whispered outside her door before turning to walk back to my room.


    I was looking forward to seeing her at breakfast the next morning. I wanted to make things better between us. So, when I saw her sitting there talking with my mom when I walked in, I couldn''t stop my wolf from jumping around happily at the sight of her. I smiled at his excitement and joy for our mate.


    "Good morning, sweetie." Mom said as I sat across from her, putting myself next to my scrumptious little mate.


    "Morning, Mom." I told her. "Good morning, Little Bunny." I smiled at my timid little mate.


    "G-good morning, Reece." She stammered as she looked at me.


    "Don''t tell me you guys are fighting?" Mom asked me.


    "Not at all." I denied with a smile. It was the truth, we hadn''t fought at all, things were just weird between us still.


    "Hmmm." Mom didn''t seem convinced.


    We ate our breakfast mostly in silence, only talking about random things when Mom got an interesting idea. Most didn''t interest my Little Bunny too much, not until we were almost done eating.


    "I was talking with Gwen the other day at the store. She was telling me how all the pack females are finding it hard to get things done anymore, there is no good ce to take the kids now that there is no Phi in the pack." Mom just seemed to be rambling on, but it caught Bunny''s attention.


    "You know what would be a good idea." She said with a bright smile on her face. "We should have a pack daycare, at least a couple days a week, maybe not every day but enough that it gives the mothers in the pack time to do their stuff kid free."


    "That is such a thoughtful idea." Mom was smiling brightly. It really was a good idea. There used to be people in the pack that took it upon themselves to watch the pack pups and cubs, but once they got too old, no one ever stepped up to take their ce.


    "We can hold it here, we would need to work things out, but I think most females would love it."


    "I think they would too, what about you, Reece, do you like the idea?" Mom asked me.


    "I think it would be a very popr idea among the pack females."


    "So, you don''t like the idea." My Little Bunny looked crushed.


    "I never said that. I think it is a good idea, and that the pack mothers would like the idea." I backpedaled.


    "Then you should have said you liked it the first time you were asked. I swear, men never know how to answer a single question." Mom reprimanded me.


    "But I was giving my approval, I said it sounded like something the females would like. I didn''t say it was a bad idea."


    "But you didn''t say it was a good idea, no one will understand you if you don''t say it."


    "Fine." Little Bunny chose that moment tough, her bright smile and crinkled eyes showed how funny she thought this situation was. "Are youughing at me?" I asked her.


    "N-no." She stammered as she tried to stifle theughter, but it was no use, sheughed even harder.


    "You are, you''reughing at me."


    "I can''t help it, you''re being told off like a little kid. It''s funny."


    "I''ll show you a little kid." I growled suggestively. She gasped and stoppedughing at once. The look of shock on her face made meugh in her ce. "I''m kidding."


    "Jerk." She snapped at me, but I saw the smile on her face.


    "Fine, I''ll admit it, I''m a jerk. I just can''t help ying with my Little Bunny." I wiggled my eyebrows at her, both her and momughed at that. It was a fun end to our breakfast.


    Tomorrow was New Year''s Eve, and there was only one ce I wanted to spend it. Beside my mate. Wherever that might be. I was hoping she would agree to spending the evening with me, if I promised to be a good boy and keep my hands to myself. I could always fantasize and hope forter, I''d get no where if I didn''t start getting her used to the idea of us being together. But just the sight of her, the smell of her, was enough to drive my wolf crazy with need. I had to keep him firmly under control for a little while longer. I could hear him whining at me when I thought those words.


    I found my Little Bunny in the music room around lunch that day. I heard her ying the violin that Mom had given her for Christmas. The music was soft and sweet. She had been taught well, she yed like a professional. I would expect nothing less of her with how her Grandfather had decided to raise her.

 Chapter 76 - Reece-A Talk With Little Bunnys Grandfather

    <h4>Chapter 76 - Reece-A Talk With Little Bunny''s Grandfather</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I had taken her Grandfather aside and talked to him on Christmas. I wanted to know why he had treated her the way he did. Why he seemed to hate his only granddaughter so much. What he told me had actually surprised me, but I thought what he had to say shoulde from him and not me. Little Bunny deserved that exnation too, but it wasn''t mine to give.


    ~~


    Little Bunny was lost in conversation with her friends and family, but for some reason her Grandfather was only watching from a distance.


    "Mr. Whitton, can I have a word with you?" I seemed to have caught him off guard, he looked nervous momentarily before answering.


    "Yes, I guess it is about time we have a conversation. You are mated to my only granddaughter after all." The man was acting as if he cared about her, as if he hadn''t made her miserable her whole life.


    The old man got to his feet quickly and easily, a movement I would have thought him incapable of at his advanced age. I never knew why my father''s beta had been so much older than him, why he had chosen this man in particr. Mr. Whitton was in his mid-sixties, but my father, if he were alive, would only be as old as Little Bunny''s uncle, maybe a little older, so why was his beta almost twenty years his senior.


    I led the old man into a room down the hall, I didn''t want to be overheard. He knew there was something I wanted to talk to him about, but I think his mind was heading in the wrong direction. As soon as the door was shut behind us, he started talking.


    "I know that girl is a handful, and most likely difficult to deal with at times, but I have made certain she knows how to be a proper wife in a high-ranking family. I never dreamed she would mate with you, Alpha, but I assure you she will live up to your standards. Just let me know if she needs a reminder of the lessons she learned as a child." My blood boiled and my wolf snarled upon hearing his words.


    "And what lessons might those be?" I asked him. He seemed shocked.


    "Why, etiquette and proper behavior befitting a woman of her rank, and what is expected of her." He was perplexed by my intensity when I asked the question, that was clear, but what he didn''t seem to grasp was that he was the cause for it. The old man simply put his head in his hand and shook it, clearly frustrated.


    "She has been behaving improperly for a Luna, hasn''t she? I assure you that is not how I raised her. She should know better. That stupid girl." I couldn''t stop the growl then, my wolf and I both growled at the same time. This man was insulting my mate and I would not have it.


    "I don''t know why you think you can talk about my mate like that." I spoke through my clenched teeth.


    "I don''t follow you, young man. Aren''t you upset because she has not been behaving as you expected?" He had the self-awareness to look nervous now.


    "No, that is not why I am upset." I hissed. "I am upset because I want to know why you treated her so horribly. Why you acted like she was any different from your other grandchildren?" I red at him.


    "I did not treat her horribly. Is that what she told you?" He shouted.


    "No, she has said little about her childhood, as of yet. But Noah and Carter have told me plenty. I have learned a few things from Trinity, but she never spoke of you negatively."


    "The boys said I was cruel to her?" His eyes widened in shock, the sadness in his eyes was clear to see.


    "They said you showed her no love and made up ridiculous excuses to not let her be seen by anyone for as long as you could."


    "That is utterly ridiculous. I love my granddaughter very much. I was just intent on not repeating my mistakes." He fervently defended himself.


    "Then why did you hide her away from everyone? Why did she not make a single friend outside of that family until she went to college?"


    "I didn''t want to repeat my mistakes." He bellowed, his face immediately turning red after he shouted the words.


    "What mistakes?" He looked shocked, like he didn''t know how to answer that at first. I watched as he paled then crumpled onto the couch behind him. This man that I had only ever seen standing tall and at full attention, or sitting up straight to look perfectly poised, was now huddled nearly in a ball as he held his face in his hands.


    "I didn''t want to lose her. I didn''t want her to leave me the same way Lily left. I couldn''t bear it if I had to live through that again."


    "I don''t follow you." The confusion was leaking into my voice as I watched this once tall and proud man nearly begin to weep before me.


    "My daughter is gone forever. Lost to me. And she will nevere back." He was looking at me now, his pitiful eyes filled with unshed tears. "I failed as a father. I didn''t have my daughter ready for the world. Whatever happened to her that weekend, those two days she went missing, I know she wasn''t at her friend''s house, and she didn''t remember it at all either. It was like the time didn''t exist for her. It was just gone. But then, we found out she was pregnant. That was what broke her the most. People always thought it was the rumors, but it was the thought of being pregnant with no memory of how it happened."


    "So, are you saying she was drugged and raped?" I asked him in disbelief.


    "I don''t know if it was drugs, but something was done to her, and she didn''t get pregnant willingly. Everyone always assumed my anger at the time was directed at my daughter, specifically because she didn''t tell me who the father was. No, it was directed at whoever hurt my baby girl, and that I would never get my chance at revenge." His anger and sorrow were mixing now, his face and eyes red but there was a determined set in his jaw and brows.


    "So why treat Trinity so bad, why make her miserable?"


    "I didn''t know she was miserable. I just didn''t want to chance that she would be taken from me as well. I don''t know who her father is, but who''s to say he won''te back for her some day? He knows what he did. He knows he made a child with my little girl. What was stopping him from snatching my granddaughter like he snatched my daughter?" He had been scared for her this whole time? It just didn''t make sense.


    I saw that the anger was winning out over the sadness in his eyes, his voice was growing stronger now.


    "Maybe I should have done things a little different. Maybe I should have exined things to her. But I love my granddaughter, with every fiber of my being. And I will do whatever I can to make her life better. That''s why I made sure she had the best education possible. That''s why she had all the knowledge needed for being the perfect wife. But, unlike my daughter, Trinity knows how to defend herself."


    "Carter says as soon as Trinity turned eighteen you cut her off, no more fighting instructors, no more tutors, you paid for her college education but that was it."


    "Trinity was desperate to get out on her own, and the instructors I had teaching her to fight had nothing more to teach her. She had learned all she could from them. But I knew she would find someone else to train her, she''s resourceful and determined."


    "So, you risked her going to college at eighteen but not going to public school her whole life?"


    "She would not have settled for staying home, I''m sure you''ve learned she is a stubborn girl. Did you know she even taught herself to y contemporary instruments when I only got her ssical instructors?"


    "Yeah, actually I did. She said she learned drums and guitar just to spite you." To my surprise the old manughed, a hearty full bellyugh that looked strange on a man so tall and still athletic that he barely had a belly.


    "You see, young man, she is stubborn. If I didn''t agree to let her go, I am certain that she would have run away. I made sure that she went to a school with a heavy wolf influence though, so I could inquire about her. I was happy when I learned that she had made friends. And Iughed when I found out she daydreams in ss, I''m afraid her education was of a higher standard than most high schools, so she is a bit advanced."


    "Yeah, her guard told me she liked to zone out in sses she finds too easy." This conversation was definitely not going how I thought it was supposed to go. "You know, Mr. Whitton, there is someone who you should be telling all this to."


    "You mean I should tell Trinity?" He asked me.


    "Yes. If you truly did what you did out of love, and fear, then she deserves to know."


    "Can''t you tell her for me." He asked, nerves clear in his shaking voice and wavering eyes.


    "No, this is something that will be besting from you." The old man sighed before he looked at me, a pitiful look on his face.


    "You''re probably right." He smirked. "I will tell her, soon. Not today but soon." He smiled ruefully.


    "I will hold you to it." I assured him.


    We returned to the Christmas party after that conversation. Little Bunny seemed to have noticed our absence, but she never said anything. Thankfully, the rest of the evening went smoothly.


    ~~


    Little Bunny needed to know what her Grandfather had said, but it wasn''t my ce to say anything. But I could try to make her future a happier one than she thought she was going to get. I could make up for my mistakes and be there for my mate, protect her the best that I could.

 Chapter 77 - Reece-New Years Date With Little Bunny

    <h4>Chapter 77 - Reece-New Year''s Date With Little Bunny</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I wanted to stand there, enjoying the sound of the music, but I also wanted to go in there and see my Little Bunny. Would she be willing to y music with me sometime? I would love to produce beautiful music with her,


    I pushed the door open, and my Little Bunny didn''t even pause in her strokes when she spoke to me.


    "I was wondering how long it would take you toe in, is there a problem Snoopy?"


    "Snoopy? That''s a new one." I told her, a smile on my face.


    "Well, you''re snooping on me aren''t you." Iughed, she was funny and quick on the uptake.


    "I''m not snooping, I wanted to talk to you." She stopped ying the music, thest notes of which reverberated solemnly in my ears before they died.


    "What did you want to talk about?"


    "Your ying was lovely."


    "Thank you, but I''m pretty sure that''s not what you came here to tell me." She grinned lopsidedly, the half-smile raising one cheek making her look sweeter that I had anticipated.


    "No, but your ying distracted me. Can you really me me?" I asked sheepishly, I was embarrassed and didn''t know why. I could feel my palms sweating, my heart rate rising. I wanted this conversation to go right.


    "I''m d you liked it, now, what do you need Reece?" She looked at me full on, a look of skepticism in her eyes and a wary set to her shoulders and jaw. She was nervous too.


    "Will you have dinner with me again tomorrow?" I saw the shock register on her face, chased by the embarrassment as her eyes widened and her cheeks flushed. Her mouth opened in an attempt to speak but nothing came out, she just stood there, rooted to the spot unable to say a word.


    "I promise, I will be on my best behavior. My hands will be kept to myself. Nothing will happen unless it''s mutual, right?" I reminded her of her words, her promised threat to me. "I will not do anything to make you ufortable." I added.


    "Why?" She asked me. That one word felt like it could be the knife that finished me off.


    "Because I have to return to my normal schedule soon. This holiday and the subsequent weekend are the end of my vacation."


    "That''s nice and all, but that doesn''t answer my question. Why do you want to have dinner with me?" She still didn''t trust me yet.


    "I want us to get to know each other. I want us to learn to trust each other, to start over." She narrowed her eyes at me, like she thought I was plotting something. Herck of trust and confidence in me was painful, but I only have myself to me.


    "Alright." She finally said. "We can have dinner." I smiled, grinned really. I couldn''t help it. She was giving me another shot. Goddess knows I could have blown itpletely long ago, and she didn''t have to give me a chance at all.


    "Good, that makes me so happy. Thank you, Little Bunny. I will see you for ate dinner tomorrow around nine, will that work for you?"


    "Why sote?" She asked me warily.


    "I have a few things to do tomorrow during the day, so we have to push things back until the evening. But I promise, I will make things perfect. Do you have a preference for dinner?"


    "I''m assuming Abigail will be cooking?" She asked me.


    "That or we can order out. Anything you want." She actually thought about it for a moment, lost in thought momentarily, before she answered me.


    "No, it''s fine. I don''t need anything in particr." The smile she gave me then looked forced. She clearly wanted something specific, but she felt she shouldn''t ask. "I''m going to get back to ying, I''m out of practice." She turned away and raised the instrument again.


    I watched her for a moment as she rested the violin under her chin and ced the fingers of her left hand on the strings. The bow, held lightly in her right hand, gently began to move back and forth. She was ying Mozart''s Violin Concerto NO. 3, and it sounded beautiful.


    I left her then, the music following me out of the room. The notes chased me down the hall. I was happy, happier than I probably should have been. Given our track record, I knew something was bound to go wrong, but if I kept trying, things would get better. Right?


    I went to her room to ''pick her up'' just like I had done the other day. I knocked gently on the door and called out to her. I secretly hoped I would get to watch as she bent forward to put on her shoes again. The halter top she worest time didn''t leave much to the imagination, and the view was quite pleasant as she leaned forward. I remember having to tie my wolf up and gag him at the sight of her breasts straining against that top.


    She opened the door quickly, and unfortunately, she was fully ready to go, shoes included. I couldn''t help but feel a little disappointed at having missed out. Oh well, I got to see her still, and she hadn''t disappointed me with her choice in clothes.


    This time, instead of blue, she was wearing a deep wine-red colored dress. It was simple in its style, but it was beautiful and ttering on her. It stopped just above her knees, and it appeared to be made out of silk. The cut was low but not obscenely so. The straps went up and over her shoulders like a halter top, but there was also a set of thin straps criss-crossing three times across the back of the dress, which was cut very low.


    I wanted her the moment I saw her. The color made her look like her skin was glowing. Her hair was done in beautiful cascading curls, for once she hadn''t pulled it back at all. The amount of skin she was showing was so alluring and seductive that I needed to fight for control. I felt my palms itch, and a tightening in my jeans, when I could finally have her I would savor the moment.


    I swallowed hard, fighting past the lump in my throat.


    "Shall we go?" I asked her as I held my hand out toward her.


    "Yes." She smiled at me sweetly, testing the tenuous control I had over my wolf. I took her hand and walked toward the stairs. She was wearing a pair of strappy heels, but these heels were far from excessive so she should manage them just fine.


    I led her down just two flights of stairs to the second floor. She was not expecting this. She turned to look at me with a perplexed look, but she said nothing. We continued on in silence until we got to the library.


    I pushed the door open, allowing her to see the inside and the changes that had been made for tonight. A candlelit table for two, a roaring fire in the hearth, a serving cart with the food covered. I heard her sharp intake of breath as she gasped, I didn''t know if it was at the sight of the romantic scene I was trying to create or the smell of the special meal I had prepared.


    "Reece, is that-?" She stopped, unable to finish. She could tell what I had prepared. I think that was probably the most surprising thing of the night for her. If what Noah told me was true, then I had gotten my Little Bunny''s favorite of favorites. I grinned.


    "How? How did you do this? How did you?" She was surprised, but I could see how happy she was.


    "I asked Noah. I could tell you wanted to ask for something yesterday. I don''t know if it was this or not. But I decided to ask what a good choice would be for tonight."


    "Is it from where I think it is?" She was looking at me hopeful.


    "See for yourself." I said as I led her over to the cart of food.


    I took the lid off the tray and there was an array of white take-out containers bearing red Chinese lettering and yful looking panda bear.


    "Lucky Panda''s Garden?" She eximed happily. "Oh Goddess, I haven''t had this in months."


    "You can order take out still you know. You don''t have to eat in every night. And it would be nice to give Abigail a night or two off from time to time." I smiled at how happy she looked.


    "I just didn''t know if it would really be eptable to have this here."


    "Why wouldn''t it?" I asked her, confused.


    "Well, think about it, we''re always eating the food here but the one time you took me out it was to a super fancy restaurant. I just get the feeling that take out Chinese food would not be weed in a house like this."


    "That''s ridiculous. Yeah, we live in a big fancy house, but we''re still just people."


    "That''s easy for you to say, but to me it feels like apletely different world." She was looking nervous now, that was not what I wanted.


    "That was never my intention. I wanted you to befortable here from the start. I asked your cousin your preferences. I chose your room because he said you liked the color blue. I had the staff learn some of your food and drink choices, all so you would transition easier. I didn''t want you to stress out."


    "I think stressing was going to be inevitable. I was moving into a new home with no warning. It was a scary thought."


    "Did you find me that scary?" I asked her, a hint of sadness in my voice.


    "There were times I was afraid, but more so because I don''t, or didn''t, know much about you. But mostly, it was because I was afraid of the changes, and the choice being taken away from me."


    "I''m sorry, but you know we don''t get to choose our mates. The Goddess picks them for us, we simply need to ept that and let the bliss that follows be ours." I smiled seductively at her.


    "Yeah, except my mate told me he didn''t want me, that he rejected me, and that he hated me." I saw the pain in her eyes. It was raw and open. Even now she was hurting every time she thought about those words.


    "I''m sorry Little Bunny, I never should have said any of that to you. I was wrong." I regretted those words, from day one I regretted them. I just needed to make her understand that. "That''s why I want to start over. I want us to pretend that never happened."


    "I''m willing to try, that''s all I can promise you."


    "That''s all that I can hope for."


    We sat down to dinner then. My Little Bunny looked ted to see the food I had in store for her. We had chicken chop suey, General Tso''s chicken, Chinese rib tips, wonton soup, egg rolls, fried rice, and white rice. I got everything that Noah said she loved the most. I had never seen her eyes look as big as they did then.


    We talked about different things, typical date topics and get to know you questions. We were enjoying ourselves. I couldn''t be happier with how the dinner was going. I kept it calm and didn''t try to rush anything. I was letting everything happen naturally tonight.

 Chapter 78 - Reece-Ringing In The New Year

    <h4>Chapter 78 - Reece-Ringing In The New Year</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    When we were done with dinner, sipping our drinks andughing together, I asked her if she was willing to apany me to the music room. She didn''t seem nervous, and thankfully she agreed right away. Taking her hand like I was bing ustomed to doing, I helped her to her feet before lightly cing my hand on her hip and escorting her down the hall.


    We had spent an hourughing, talking, and getting to know each other over dinner, so it was after ten when we got to the music room. I was hoping that she might y something for me, and I something for her. And I had a stereo system set up so we could choose to listen if we wanted to dance instead of y.


    She didn''t seem skeptical or nervous, scared or angry, when we got to our destination. I saw that as a plus. She was smiling happily as she looked around the room for something that might be different.


    "I see there is a fire in here today as well." She noted when we entered the room.


    "I felt it would be fitting, it is winter after all."


    "Do you often get cold?" She asked me jokingly.


    "No, but especially not when I''m with you." I grinned at her yfully.


    "What''s that supposed to mean?"


    "Just that you''re warm and by association I feel warmer as well."


    "Hmmm." She looked at me in disbelief. "I think you should just stick with you don''t get cold." Iughed.


    "Would you like to y something with me?"


    "Time for games now?" She asked.


    "No. That''s not. I didn''t mean." I stammered until she startedughing.


    "It''s fine. I know what you meant, just calm down." She was giggling at me, at my embarrassment.


    "You like ying these games with me, don''t you?"


    "You''re fun to mess with, I can''t help it. As long as we''re not arguing, you''re fun to be around." Those words made me happier than I could describe. I felt as if I had just floated off the floor and was bouncing off the ceiling, bobbing around like a buoy.


    "I love being with you. You''re fun, intriguing, interesting. I''m definitely never bored when I''m with you."


    "Not to mention things are bound to be exciting around me." She joked.


    "I could do without some of that excitement." I sighed.


    "You and me both."


    I left her where she stood and sat at the piano. I looked at her with what I hoped was a warm and loving gaze as I beckoned her over.


    "Come on, choose an instrument and y with me." She grinned at my word choice, an eyebrow raised, and augh barely suppressed.


    "What kind of music do you want to y?"


    "Well, I guess that depends on you, and what instrument you choose."


    "Do you only y the piano and guitar?"


    "No, I can y others as well." I answered her with a confident smirk.


    "So, we''re not limited to just one choice here." I smiled at her words.


    "No, we can mix it up."


    She went to the violin first and began ying the opening bars of Melodie for violin and piano by Tchaikovsky. The notes were hauntingly beautiful. I started in with the piano part, not missing a beat. I saw the smile on her face when she saw I knew the song as well.


    "Did you think I didn''t know this one?" I asked her with augh in my voice.


    "I didn''t know, but I hoped you knew it." Sheughed as well. We finished the song together grinning like kids.


    "What next?" She asked, excitement bubbled within her making her glow. I looked around the room and thought of the instruments she had told me she could y. I went to the oboe, and after some mild prep work, and thanking myself for preparing the instruments all in advance, I started to y another song. The first two bars were all she needed before she had the flute ready to go. We yed Echo Duet, it didn''t have the same history, and it didn''t sound nearly as romantic as Melodie, but it was fun and seeing the happiness on my mate''s face was enough for me.


    We continued this for over an hour. We would each choose an instrument and a song trying to stump the other. We yed songs that were new and old, songs that were ssical and contemporary. We even yed songs we had heard on the radio, though without having learned them before, those didn''t turn out so well on anything other than the piano and guitar.


    Little Bunny''s musical skill was amazing. She yed each instrument with the same amount of passion. I was d that music was something that we could share. And when we yed "A Million Dreams" with her on the piano and me on the guitar, she sang the lyrics. The sound of her voice, singing the word to only me, my heart nearly stopped. It went beyond beautiful, I didn''t know if it was just me and my mate bond or not, but I could listen to her sing for the rest of my life and be a happy man. The sound of it even helped to soothe my overeager wolf.


    It was nearly midnight, somewhere around eleven-forty-five when I asked her if she would dance with me instead of ying more music. She agreed almost instantly. We put on a random ylist and let the music take us.


    The first song was upbeat with a fast tempo. I cared less about the lyrics or the song itself than I did about the feel of her in my hands, in my arms, pressed against my chest. We smiled at each other as we danced, song after song.


    I had nearly lost track of time when, during a slow song, I noticed it was just a minute or two until midnight. I danced her toward the balcony and grinned as I opened the door.


    "What are you doing?" She asked, her smile didn''t fade.


    "You''ll see." I teased.


    We only had to wait another few seconds before she saw what I had nned for her. We were facing out toward thepound, down the mountain. Now, in the sky between us and the houses was a massive fireworks disy. I had never done this before, I could y it off as wanting to celebrate the pack, but I just wanted to surprise my mate and see her smile. The fireworks started to explode just at the stroke of midnight.


    "So beautiful." She sighed as I held her in my arms, our dancepletely forgotten.


    "Happy New Year, Little Bunny." I smiled at her sweetly. She looked up at with me those innocent eyes that had earned her that nickname.


    "I''ve never seen the pack do fireworks before." She said excitedly.


    "We''ve never done them before now." I told her.


    "What makes this year special?" She wondered.


    "You." I saw her blush. My answer had embarrassed her.


    "This is too much." She tried to downy her role in the pack, in my life.


    "No, it''s not enough, but it''s what I can do." She looked a little ufortable with the attention but still smiled.


    "Thank you, Reece."


    "Can I ask for something, Little Bunny?"


    "What?"


    "Can I give you a New Year''s kiss? I promise it will be a small one." I almost begged her. She looked down for just a moment before she shifted her head just a little, looking at me through hershes again.


    "Yes." She nodded as she spoke.


    I lowered my head even as she raised up onto her toes. I steadied her with my hands on her hips. Gently, ever so gently, I pressed my lips to hers. The kiss was chaste and quick, but that didn''t stop the desire from sparking in my wolf. He was now howling nearly nonstop inside my head, begging me to im her. But I couldn''t, not yet, now was not the time. I pulled away reluctantly, keeping to my promise to be on my best behavior.


    "Happy New Year." I told her again, I noticed the darkening in her eyes, the hunger that was growing in her just the same as it was growing in me. If only I could get her to trust me.


    "Happy New Year, Reece." She smiled sweetly as she said the words.


    We finished watching the fireworks with her in my arms. She never once tried to pull away. When the disy was over, I knew better than to push my luck and decided to walk her back to her room. I noticed she wore a contented smile the whole way there, that made both me and my wolf want to growl in satisfaction.


    When we were outside her door, I kissed her hand gently but with a definite passion in my eyes. I know she saw that passion, but she also knows I did nothing inappropriate. If I was lucky, We would get over this hurdle soon.


    "Good night, Little Bunny." I smiled at her.


    "Good night." She disappeared into her room, as soon as she was out of sight I put on the biggest, most likely goofiest, grin I had ever worn. I couldn''t have asked for this night to have gone any better. I sauntered back to my room, just barely managing to stop myself from whistling a jaunty tune as I went.

 Chapter 79 - Trinity-Family Movie Time

    <h4>Chapter 79 - Trinity-Family Movie Time</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was giddy for the next few days. I honestly didn''t think that my New Year''s date with Reece would go so well. Maybe it''s true what they say, third time''s the charm. But we didn''t argue, fight, or end on an awkward note at all. And the only kiss I got was a quick, though still not entirely innocent, New Year''s kiss.


    All Reece did was press his lips to mine gently, and oh so briefly, but I felt like my entire body had caught on fire the moment his hands touched my hips to hold me steady. I let him hold me in his arms that night while we watched the fireworks. It was simple, but deeply romantic.


    And I saw the passionate fire in his eyes when he said goodnight. I know exactly what he was trying to tell me. He wanted me. I don''t know if it was just once or forever as he has yet to tell me how he feels about me. Does he still hate me? Does he still reject me? Has he moved beyond that so he can approve of me now? Will he ever love me? These are things I need to know before I can give into the desire that has been building inside of me. That has been building between us.


    I know he said he regretted telling me he rejects me and hates me, but he might just regret saying it. He didn''t say anything about it not being true. And if it was, and still is, true, then I don''t know if I could ever bring myself to be with him. It would be next to crazy to have sex with a man who hates you, wouldn''t it?


    On Friday night L wanted to watch a movie together, as a family. The three of us gathered in the first floor living room with bowls of popcorn and our drinks as we settled in to watch the ro she had picked out.


    "Movies sure have changed a lot over thest seven years, but a romanticedy will always be just that underneath." She was smiling happily as she settled herself morefortably into the sofa. She had her feet tucked up underneath her with a pillow lying on the arm next to her as she rested her head.


    I was sitting between L and Reece, and even though the sofa was veryrge, I was somehow sitting very close to Reece. We had decided on the same kind of popcorn, or make that ack of decision, we both wanted butter, cheese, and caramel corn. I hadn''t known about Reece, but I liked to eat a piece of each all at once, the mix of vors was scrumptious.


    Reece ate it the same way, sort of. Where I took one piece of each methodically, he took a handful of everything and popped it all into his mouth at once. Men truly did behave differently than us women. Such animals. I giggled at the thought as I watched him eat his popcorn.


    "Is something funny, Little Bunny." He had been using that name constantly, he rarely ever said my name. But where he used to say the name to sound mocking and annoy me, he now sounded like he was just saying my name but that my name was really Little Bunny. I was growing used to it, but I couldn''t let him know that. I had to argue every now and then, it wouldn''t change anything, anyway.


    "Don''t call me Bunny, Fido." I snapped at him yfully, a joyous smirk on my face.


    "You know I hate that name." He said, but he didn''t look upset at all. It had been a long time since he had actually gotten upset when I called him Fido. We giggled at each other for a minute before he asked his question again. "But seriously Little Bunny, is something funny?"


    "I was just thinking about the difference in the way we eat our popcorn. We may eat the same kind, but we are definitely different creatures." I smiled at him.


    "Of course, we are, I''m a man and you''re a sweet little rabbit."


    "You mean I''m a bunny and you''re a dog?" I asked him yfully.


    "Woof, woof." He pretended to bark, and I nearly lost it, I had to fight back myughter.


    "Shhhhh!" L vehemently shushed us, and I really didugh when I saw her face.


    Reece and I behaved ourselves after that, we watched the movie in silence, except I missed the end of it. I think I was just so tired from my exciting week that I had that Icked sleep. The next thing I knew I woke up in my bed. I could only guess that Reece had carried me there, and the thought made me blush, just thinking about him holding me in his arms.


    That got me thinking. This wasn''t the first time that Reece had carried me. He carried me back to Riley''s pack house when I was unconscious, and back to our house when I was unconscious. He threw me over his shoulder and carried me back to my room, and then there was the time I was in the library reading, then I dreamt Reece had hugged me before I woke up in my bed. I''m pretty sure he carried me then too.


    And, Oh Goddess, when he carried when at Riley''s and here when I was unconscious, he had been in his wolf form just before them. That means he had to change to carry me. That meant he must have been... he must have been¡­ he must have been naked when he carried me. Oh Goddess, why was it taking me until right now to realize that?


    I could feel that my face was bright red, the heating off my face could probably rival the sun. I was mortified. I had even looked at him in the forest when he was naked, but I was disoriented from what he had said and my head injury, so I don''t remember a single thing. And here I had told Juniper I never saw Reece''s pieces, maybe I did and just don''t remember. I do vaguely remember his chest though, smooth, tan, and muscr. He was like the perfect man, when it came to his body, anyway. I almost became a drooling mess just thinking about it.

 Chapter 80 - Trinity-An Existential Crisis

    <h4>Chapter 80 - Trinity-An Existential Crisis</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I thought with Reece going back to his usual schedule on Monday, that I should do something too. Yeah, I would be starting sses soon, but they were all online and from what I had been told about them, I could study on my schedule most of the time. So, that left me with plenty of time to still do some Luna work.


    I wanted to go see L so we could discuss the pack daycare idea I had. She seemed to love it when we talked about itst week. She hadn''t been at breakfast today, which was a rushed one with Reece needing to leave early. But thankfully, it wasn''t awkward, unless you counted the fact that when I looked at him, I subconsciously tried to see through his clothes so I could see his chest underneath. He had been curious as to why I blushed randomly, but I think I yed it off pretty well.


    L was in her room when I knocked on her door.


    "Come in." She invited me. I pushed the door open and remembered the first time I hade here, when I had found her sitting in the chair near the window. The sun shining on her making her glow like an angel, or a ghost.


    "Hi Trinity, how is your morning?" She asked me. It was closer to noon, so the morning was almost over now. I saw that L was once again sitting in the chair she had been inst time, the curtains open, sun shining just likest time. The only difference was that she was awake. But I had such a strong memory of when I had seen herst time, the emotions I had felt that day. I remember how I was pleading for her to be able to see Reece, and to be there for him in the ways that I couldn''t be.


    "Is everything alright?" She worried.


    "Yeah, I was just remembering thest time I was here." I smiled at her sadly.


    "What do you mean?"


    "When you were still, you know?" I replied sheepishly.


    "I didn''t know you came to visit me when I was lost." She smiled happily. "You should have told me, that makes me happy."


    "It was only once. I had only been here for a short time when you woke up. I''m d you did too, Reece needed you."


    "I think Reece needs you more than me." She offered, but I just shook my head in refusal of her words.


    "He would much rather have you or someone else there to help him." I denied sadly.


    "Why do you think that?" L seemed upset.


    "It''s what I told you when I came to see you that day too." I looked at her and tried to smile, but I couldn''t force the motion to make it happen.


    "When I came here, while you were ''lost'' I said that I wished you were here to support him, to give him whatever it was he needed that Icked. And that I wished you could see the wonderful man he had be."


    "I remember that." Her voice was full of awe, shock covered her face.


    "What? How do you remember that?"


    "I don''t know. I remember that I was lost in the dark somewhere. I had gotten lost the night my husband died. I remember that night clearly. I remember going with him, his beta, my husband''s brother and his mate, and my cousin Steven, and some other pack members. It wasn''t supposed to be a fight. We had been nning to sign a treaty between our packs, but when we got there, it was an ambush. I remember watching my husband die in front of me, then getting hit in the head by something really hard. The next thing I knew I was walking in the darkness. There was never any relief from that darkness."


    "So, you weren''t really catatonic?" I was shocked, what had really happened to her?


    "I don''t know what to call what happened to me. I know that once in a while I would hear things. I heard Reece''s voice. Only his voice for so long. He would tell me what was going on in his life. Sometimes he would talk about things that were good with a voice full of pride. Other times he might vent angrily. Often, he would tell me what he couldn''t tell others, his voice full of the tears he probably never shed."


    "I''m sure you were his sce in this crazy life he leads." I gave her aforting smile as I walked closer to her and took her hand.


    "I hope I was." She smiled as she looked at my hand. "But you know, I remember your touch as well. I remember when I heard your voice, I felt someone touch my hand. I looked down toward my hand, or where I knew it would be in the darkness, and what I saw then was a thin white line attached to my palm. It was the first thing I had seen in that darkness, ever."


    "What was it?" I wondered.


    "It was you, Trinity. It was you guiding me back. You wanted me toe save my son. You begged me toe back, you took my hand and guided me home." L was crying now, tears silently flowed down her cheeks.


    "I don''t understand, L. How could I do that? How could I guide you back?"


    "You''re our Luna." She told me as if that exined it all.


    "That doesn''t mean I should be able to do something like that."


    "But you''re special. Reece has told me so as well. He has said how you''re not like the others."


    "Yeah, because I don''t have a wolf, not because I''m someone that can do something like that." I vehemently denied.


    "Are you sure about that?" She asked me with a confident smile. "I told you when I first woke, I knew your voice. That''s because I kept hearing your words the entire time that I followed that light back to my consciousness. I followed you, Trinity. You brought me home because you''re special."


    L''s words shocked me to my core. I stood there frozen while her hand slipped from mine and I stared at nothing. A buzzing sound started in the back of my head, drowning out all other sounds. I vaguely registered L standing in a rush with a worried look.


    "Tri..ty" I heard her words, but they were chopped. "Are¡­..k?" I still couldn''t make out what she was saying to me. I felt her hands on my shoulders before I fell into a chair.


    Everything that she was saying. Everything that had happened to me. The time in the woods when I could smell the warlocks and Reece couldn''t. When I could see them somehow and he couldn''t. How I never got a wolf like everyone else. All the things that marked me as different from everyone else, it was alling back to me at once.


    If I didn''t have the clear indicators of being part of the pack. Part wolf at least. The hearing and the extra senses. The strength and speed. Having to obey the alpha''smands. Then there''s being mated to a wolf. If it wasn''t for all of these, I would think I wasn''t part of the pack at all, that I should be exiled, that I didn''t belong here.


    But what exactly am I? Where exactly do I belong? Who am I really? These are things I wanted answered but was never likely to find out.


    "Trinity, are you ok?" I heard L this time, she was holding my hands and looking at me with fear in her eyes.


    "I-I-I''m f-fine." I stuttered.


    "What happened?" She asked me, not convinced by my attempt to reassure her.


    "I think I just had a bit of an existential crisis, that''s all." I tried to smile at her.


    "Trinity, sweetie, what is going on with you?"


    "I don''t think I belong here. I don''t belong with Reece, and he knows it. The whole pack knows it, that''s why so many people still don''t ept me."


    "That''s crap." She snapped at me. "You''re his mate. You belong wherever he is."


    "But I don''t. I don''t have a wolf. I''m not strong enough for him or the pack. I''m not good enough for him."


    "Where is thising from, Trinity? Why are you saying this?"


    "He''s said it himself, L. He has told me I''m not allowed to fight because I don''t have a wolf and therefore, I''m not strong enough, even though I have been trained to fight for years. He has told me he doesn''t want me as a mate, that I was a weak little girl with no wolf, and I would just drag him down. He told me he hates me."


    I was hyperventting by the time I was done. Remembering the two different nights that Reece told me these words was like tearing my heart out of my chest. I was so in love with him now that I knew there was no chance for my heart to be spared. I now understood though. I knew why he rejected me, why he didn''t want me. And I don''t even me him now. I wasn''t one of them, and I never would be. I couldn''t stop the tears from falling. They fell, unhindered, down my cheeks.


    "Oh, sweetheart." L soothed as she hugged me tight to her chest. I tried to stop crying, but the silent tears turned into sobbing. I had not cried over his words since the day I told Juniper about what had happened. Not like this anyway, not since I cried in the bathroom.


    "Shh." L shushed me. "It''s alright Trinity. You have it all wrong."


    "No, I don''t. He told me all this himself, didn''t you hear me?" I implored her.


    "I know sweetie. I heard you. But there is something you don''t know."


    "It doesn''t matter. He doesn''t love me, and he never will." I wiped the tears from my face as I spoke. "I can''t be with someone who doesn''t love me."


    "Honey, can I tell you something?" L asked me as she pulled a chair closer so she could sit next to me. I nodded. "Reece told me something, something that you need to know. I probably should have told you sooner, but I wanted you to put him in his ce a few more times before I told you."


    "What are you talking about?" I asked her as I tilted my head in confusion. L sighed as if she was about to say something that was difficult.


    "Do you remember when we talked about all of this before. After you got hurt?" I nodded to answer her. "Well, the first thing I did after that was go and yell at my son. I couldn''t believe what an idiot he had been, and how cruel he had been to you."


    "You didn''t need to say anything to him, L. Things are fine the way they are."


    "No, I had to say something. And I am d I did." She smiled at me as she sat up straight in her chair. "You see, Reece exined a few things to me, and I was able to clear a few things up for him."


    "What do you mean?" I was more confused now than when she started.


    "Reece had a terrible misconception about the past. And he also told me why he wanted to keep you at bay."


    "I don''t think it matters anymore." I sighed. "We will never be true mates."


    "Please, listen to me." She begged me. "He thought that you would never be able to truly bond with him, being that you have no wolf. He thought that he would end up loving you so much more than you could ever love him because he didn''t think you could truly feel the mate bond."


    "That''s insane, if I can form the mate bond, then I can feel it. I don''t know how it feels for him, but for me, for me it''s like being near the other half of my soul, my heart. I love him more every day whether I want to or not. I want to be near him all the time, to know that he is safe and happy, but I know that I can''t have that. I know that if I were to be near him, he would not be happy, and potentially he wouldn''t be safe with the people trying to get to me. I am nothing but poison to him."


    "Wait, wait and listen, please." She pleaded. "Reece thought that a man he once knew, Steven, my cousin, had mated with a human woman born into a wolf pack. She was human yes, but he was not truly mated. She tricked him, made him fall in love with her. He got so deep into it that he said he didn''t care that there was no mate bond, and he was going to be with her forever. But she was not in love with him. She betrayed him. She was the reason my husband and brother-inw died. She was the reason I was lost to Reece for all those years." I was in shock upon hearing all this.


    "He thought that they had mated, but that she was incapable of feeling the bond like a wolf. He didn''t know the truth. Steven hadn''t told many people the truth, after all."


    "So, he thought I was going to betray him too?" I cried. "He thought that little of me?"


    "He was broken, Trinity, you have to understand that. He didn''t know the truth and was hurting." Her words broke my heart, but not for what Reece had thought of me, for what he must have been feeling.


    "There was something else he told me as well. After he became Alpha, there were people who tried to manipte him to use his power. They sent women to use him. He learned to not trust women at all. He built walls around his heart to protect himself. He was afraid to let you in. He would never tell you this himself, but he was scared."


    "I understand." I told her as I got to my feet. I had a lot to think about now. "I can understand why he said what he did. Why he has never trusted me and why he rejects me."


    "But sweetheart, he doesn''t reject you." She tried to convince me.


    "I will believe that when he tells me that himself." I smiled at her sadly before I left the room. I never got the chance to talk about the daycare like I wanted. I would try againter.

 Chapter 81 - Reece-Another Lecture From Mom

    <h4>Chapter 81 - Reece-Another Lecture From Mom</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Life was getting busy again. I didn''t get to see Mom or my Little Bunny all that muchtely. I had been back to work a little over a week and spent almost every day at the office until veryte. I did know that Mom and Little Bunny had decided on how they wanted to run the daycare they had thought of. I was brought some paperwork on the idea they had, and it really was a good n.


    They were going to take on some more help, apparently my Little Bunny had convinced her Aunt Eve to help as well. They would offer daycare services on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I was initially confused about it not just being Monday, Wednesday, and Friday which I thought made more sense, but it appears that my Little Bunny wanted to give parents a weekend day that they could be kid free as well.


    It wouldn''t be for long, and it would be early, but this way it would count as a date opportunity for them. My mate was truly generous and kind to others. She was also going to be at all the sessions unless she had business with me elsewhere. And until we got this issue with rogues and warlocks taken care of, she couldn''t go with me anywhere. I truly regretted that.


    I had gotten home from the office just after dinnertime and went straight to my home office. Things were busy right now as I was in the middle of a major acquisition at the moment. Mypany dealt with lots of minor firms. Almost any industry that wolves could want to work in needed to have a way to keep us a secret from the humans. Not just us either but the other supernaturals as well.


    So, it was with that manner of thinking that my family started this business four generations ago. In a way, we are a supernatural management firm. But what we do is make ourselves so powerful, so well known that no otherpany can turn us down. We have ties with medicine, research, securities, sports and entertainment. You name it and we probably have a wolf working in that field.


    My pack would have remained small and rtively powerless, like all the others around us, if we hadn''t done something to raise us up. We have wolves thate to us from all over the world looking for help. They don''t want help in our little patch of the world, but in theirs. The beauty of the situation though, is that we are powerful enough to make it happen.


    The empire left to me by my father when he died, that so many people thought was just going to copse because I was too young and inexperienced, has only risen higher than anyone ever predicted.


    Yes, I might have only been eighteen, but I was already a sophomore in college at the time, working on my business degree. I continued to work and go to school, and I did so while making sure that not a single person in mypany had to worry about their future.


    Did I have help? Yeah, sure I did. Who doesn''t get help from time to time? But I made certain that I was able to do what I needed to, eventually. I made sure I was the boss, the Alpha, the President, that everyone needed me to be.


    That''s why I was handling this new business personally. Major things like this always went through me. Thispany was a major security firm in LA. They handled all the high-profile bodyguard work. Their issue was poor management skills. Even though they were known as the best they were struggling just to get by. That''s where Ie in. I had wolves from all over the world who would love to work in LA, and thispany was another step to help them. It was a win-win.


    I would be flying out to meet with them in just under two weeks. I was going to have a series of meetings with their current management, I needed to know if they were trustworthy or not, if I needed to clean house in the administration when we took over. Things like that we needed to meet with them in person for, sniff them out so to speak.


    I had mountains of paperwork to go through. I was having each member of their staff investigated and thoroughly vetted so I knew if they were up to our high standards or not. I didn''t take on riffraff, that wasn''t my style at all.


    But all this work was making me tired. I think it had to do with the fact that I couldn''t see my Little Bunny. I had grown used to spending a lot of time around her during my vacation, so I wanted her by my side. But until this current business was over, I was working mainly from the corporate office and not my home office so I couldn''t make up an excuse to call her to me. My wolf whined like crazy all day long while I was trying to work, making it take even longer.


    I heard the sound of soft, feminine footstepsing down the hall. My wolf was momentarily ted at the sound, until the scent reached my nose. Mom wasing toward my office, my hopes fell, and my wolf whined. I felt guilty for being so disappointed, but I couldn''t help it.


    Mom came right in without knocking.


    "So, you are still alive. I was worried that you might be dead, or a vampire, since I hadn''t seen you in so long." She joked with me as she sat in the chair across from me at my desk.


    "I know, but it''s been crazytely." I sighed, exhausted from so many consecutivete nights in a row. I even worked straight through this past weekend.


    "You''re not alone anymore Reece, you can''t throw yourself into your work nonstop." She lectured me.


    "I know, but I have a major situation right now. Once this is done, I will have more time to spend with you."


    "I''m not talking about me." She snapped at me angrily.


    "What?" I was confused. "I thought you were mad because I wasn''t home to spend time with you now that you were awake."


    "I''m talking about your mate, Reece."


    "What about Trinity? She hasn''t seemed any differenttely."


    "How would you know? You haven''t been around to see anything." She was angrier than I had seen her in a long time.


    "Has she said something to you?" I asked worried about my Little Bunny.


    "Reece." She shook her head at me. "If only you knew how she feels, what she thinks."


    "What?" I was not liking how this conversation was going.


    "Sweetheart, she still thinks you hate her. She''s justified to herself the reasons why you rejected her and nothing I said to her was enough to make her think otherwise."


    "What? How could she still think that? Haven''t I been showing her, proving to her that I don''t hate her?" I was so confused. "I have been trying to be there, and show her that I want her, not just physically, but her to be there with me. But now that I think about it, she kept asking me who was making me spend time with her. Like she didn''t think I would be near her willingly." I sighed dejectedly. "Mom, how do I fix this?"


    "Have you talked to her?" She asked me.


    "Yes, we have talked a lot. We got to know a lot about each other on our dates. All three of them went well enough. Thest one went great. How could she possibly think like that still?" I shook my head. "I know she thinks I want her just for sex, that''s why I behaved myself perfectlyst time, to show her that I wanted her and not just her body."


    "Have you ever told her that you don''t hate her? Have you told her you don''t reject her and never truly did?"


    "I told her that I regretted saying those things." I answer.


    "Was that all you said?" Mom asked me. "You didn''t say anything like I don''t hate you, or I ept you as a true mate?"


    "Well, no. Not in those words. But I told her I regretted having told her those words." I tried to exin again, to see where I might have gone wrong.


    "You idiot."


    "What?" I yelped at hearing her yell at me again right now.


    "Think about it. Truly think about how she might see it. You regret saying those words. That doesn''t tell her that the words aren''t true, just that you wish you hadn''t told her. Like you think life would have been easier if you just kept your mouth shut."


    "But that''s not what I meant." I tried to exin it to her. "I was saying that I wish I hadn''t said them because I didn''t truly feel that way." Mom got up and began pacing at my words, she was clearly frustrated. I watched as she stalked toward the window behind me in her anger.


    "How is she supposed to know how you feel if you didn''t actually tell her?" Mom demanded.


    "I thought I had made things clear with my actions and telling her my regrets. I''ve been trying to show her that I ept her. We''ve gotten closer, in more ways than one."


    I was trying to figure out this mess I suddenly found myself in when I felt a sudden sharp pain on the back of my head. I hadn''t expected it, so my head went flying forward several inches.


    "You moron." Mom screeched. I spun around to look at her in shock and saw her holding a thick book from the shelf behind me, she had clearly used that to hit me. "How the hell do you expect her to know how you feel if you don''t say anything. No wonder she thinks you just want her for sex. Getting closer in more ways than one. You''ve tried getting physical with her without telling her how you feel, so she doesn''t trust the progress you''ve made at all. She''s going to think she''s nothing more than another notch in your belt."


    "You know, she even told me refused to be just another notch for me." I chuckled without any humor. "I really have been trying, but I didn''t know I had messed up so bad. How do I fix this?" I pleaded with Mom, I needed to know.


    "You talk to her, exin some things to her. And for Goddess''s sake Reece, keep it in your pants and your hands to yourself when you do." She was ring at me. I hung my head in shame as I nodded.


    "Alright, I will make sure I talk to her soon."


    "When?" She demanded.


    "Tomorrow. At breakfast." I answered.


    "Fine, I will take breakfast in my room tomorrow to give you privacy. I will also tell everyone to vacate the room once you''ve been served." Mom was still ring at me, she was still very angry with me.

 Chapter 82 - Reece-Finally, Things Might Be Getting Better

    <h4>Chapter 82 - Reece-Finally, Things Might Be Getting Better</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    The next morning, I dreaded my walk down to breakfast. I was dragging my feet more than usual, yet surprisingly, I was still there before my Little Bunny. I had hoped that she would be here first.


    I had just sat down when I heard her footstepsing down the hall. She walked in, a slightly forced smile on her face. She looked almost as nervous as I felt. Did she know I wanted to talk? Did Mom tell her? Or was she just always this nervous around me?


    She sat across from me and Abigail brought us our food almost immediately.


    "Here you are." She smiled as she sat the tes in front of us.


    "What about L?" My Little Bunny asked. "Shouldn''t we wait for her?" She was so considerate.


    "Mom has something to do this morning, so she won''t be joining us." I told her.


    "Oh." She looked worried for some reason.


    We ate in silence for a few minutes. I told myself that I was just waiting for the staff to be fully out of the area. In truth, I was just nervous and didn''t know how to start. After another minute or two I finally began.


    "So, um, Little Bunny, can we talk for a moment?" I asked her. She had been pushing her food around her te nervously, but the moment I spoke her head shot up, her eyes wide.


    "Is something wrong?" She asked. I could hear a slight tremble in her voice that broke my heart.


    "No, nothing is wrong. I just want to talk about a few things, that''s all." I was trying to make things better, but this didn''t seem to be helping. I hope mom was right about me talking to her like this. Mom should have been here to help exin us to each other.


    "Alright." She sat her fork down and folded her hands into herp, looking at me apprehensively. "What do you need to talk about?" I rubbed the back of my head, the memory of where Mom had hit me with that book yesterday made it throb along with my pounding heartbeat.


    "Look, it''s been, forcefully, brought to my attention recently, that I''m a bit of an idiot." I couldn''t look her in the eyes as I spoke. I was staring somewhere off over her shoulder not focusing on anything in particr. So, it surprised me when she started tough at me. I looked at her then, as she spoke.


    "Well, I''m not going to object." She said through theughter. "But what about exactly?"


    "You remember when I told you that I regretted saying certain things to you." I was being evasive, but I didn''t want to bring up negative thoughts and make her upset. But I watched in horror as her eyes darkened with emotions.


    "Yes, I remember." Her voice was strained.


    "I''m afraid I didn''t make myself clear that day." I saw fear flit across her face. "Don''t misunderstand me. I truly did regret saying that. I wish I never told you that I rejected you, because I don''t. I never did. I''m sorry, truly sorry. Can you ever forgive me?" I was pleading with her, I needed her to understand.


    "Why did you say it, if you never rejected me in the first ce?" She asked me. I knew she was going to ask questions. I was prepared for it.


    "Like I said, I''m an idiot. There''s no simpler exnation than that. I was stupid and thought it was the only way to protect myself. But I also thought I was protecting you."


    "Protecting me?" She snapped. "How could saying those things protect me? Do you know how much that hurt me?"


    "I''m sorry, I know I hurt you and I am more sorry than you can imagine." I felt her pain, all that I could see boiling in her eyes then, I felt it all. "But I thought the people that have been after you were after me and trying to get to me through you."


    "So, they''re actually after me then?" She wondered.


    "I don''t know for certain, but I think they might be."


    "Why? What do they want?"


    "I don''t know yet." I answered her honestly, angry that I didn''t have the answers.


    "What would rejecting and hating me do to help me, how would it protect me?"


    "I thought if I distanced myself from you more, then I wouldn''t have to worry about them targeting you. I thought it would be an added way to save you."


    "But that clearly would never work if we had to pretend to be a perfect match in public."


    "Yeah, I know that now."


    "Were there any other reasons?" She asked knowingly.


    "I was afraid." I wanted to look away, to stare anywhere but at her eyes so filled with pain.


    "Of me?" She sounded incredulous.


    "Of getting hurt. Of hurting my pack. Of getting too close." I sighed. "Take your pick."


    "Why did you think so little of me?" I heard the pain in her voice.


    "It wasn''t you personally. I thought little of every woman."


    "Why?"


    "I''ve had women try to use me. To try to gain status, power, wealth, whatever it is I can provide for them they have tried getting it from me by maniption."


    "And you thought I would be just like them?" She was angered by this.


    "I''m sorry, Little Bunny, it was before I knew you."


    "That''s right." She yelled at me. "You decided all this on your own without knowing a single thing about me, except you did have my cousin to talk to. I know he didn''t tell you that I was some harlot that would try to manipte you."


    "No, he told me you were sweet, kind, funny, caring, and basically the best person ever." She kept snapping and yelling at me, and I just answered dejectedly.


    "And you didn''t believe him."


    "He was your family. I just thought that women didn''t show that side of themselves to their family. But I should have listened to him. You''re not like any other woman that I''ve ever met."


    "I''d hope not, because no one else has ever mated with you." She joked. It finally felt like this might all get better, eventually.


    "I should have trusted the bond, but I was stupid. Please, forgive me." I pleaded with her again as I watched her face for clues to what she might be thinking. Her face was nk though, and I was a nervous wreck.


    "Fine, you wanted to start over, like everything we had said didn''t matter. I''m assuming that this was the reason. You wanted me to forget about you saying those things to me, right?"


    "Yes, I did." I was hopeful after she spoke.


    "We can pretend that it never happened, if you promise to never behave like that ever again."


    "I promise, I won''t ever push you away again."


    "Then I will give you a trial period and see how things go." I felt everything crumble. I was so ted when she said we could move beyond it all, now she said it was a trial period.


    "I''ll never do it again." I promised her.


    "I hope not." She didn''t sound happy, but at least she wasn''t done with me. This was a step in the right direction. Wasn''t it?

 Chapter 83 - Trinity-Antagonizing A Rabid Dog/Wolf

    <h4>Chapter 83 - Trinity-Antagonizing A Rabid Dog/Wolf</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Things were going greattely. I honestly couldn''tin. We were almost done setting up for our daycare. We had chosen a few rooms on the second floor to use for yrooms and nap rooms. Everything had finally been delivered, and we had a lot of interested moms and dads who could use a break from time to time.


    I had included a weekend day in our initial n so that people could have a date day. For these families with little ones constantly around, if they didn''t have a reliable sitter to use then they never got to go out, day or night. So, I knew that a lot of people would take advantage of the offer.


    Our first official day of business was going to be in just over a week. We hadn''t expected everything to be delivered so soon so we had told everyone that the first day would be in February. We had just ten days now, but before all that I had my first day of the new semester on Monday and then my birthday was on Thursday the 28th, which just so happened to be the day of the full moon this year.


    Thest time my birthday was on the full moon was when I turned one, so I was too young for it to matter to me. It shouldn''t matter to me now since I couldn''t attend the pack event, but it was still exciting for me.


    The January moon is the Wolf Moon, so everyone in the pack, those with wolves anyway, get together for a wolf run. I had already met with Michael, alone since Reece was busy. We discussed the event and how Reece would lead the run like always.


    I had secretly hoped that he would be able to skip it to spend time with me, like he didst time, but I knew that was selfish of me, and impossible. But still, I could hope right.


    I had managed to get all my books together for school, which I was excited about, but I also felt sad that I wouldn''t be going with my friends. They could still visit me, which they did when they could, so all was good.


    In truth, if anything was dragging me down, it was Reece. He was spending so much time at worktely that I barely saw him. Even at breakfast and dinner, he was hardly ever there. That''s why I had devised a n, and why I was secretly happy that Reece had forced me to study digitally this semester.


    Earlier this afternoon, I had sent Noah a message, asking him to pass a message to Reece for me. I was kind of miffed that I didn''t have his information in my phone. How had I been mated to him for almost four months, living with him all this time, and not gotten his contact information? No worries, I could still get a message to him.


    I had told Noah to tell him that I was going with him on the business trip. It was away from the city, away from the threat. And we were going to visit people that were neither wolves nor warlocks. It had to be the safest ce for me, right?


    I was looking forward to the trip because I hadn''t gotten to talk to Reece in a solid week, since our awkward breakfastst week. I know it wasst minute, but I knew they could manage it. It was still Friday, and we wouldn''t be leaving until Sunday morning, that was plenty of time for the miracle workers known as Reece and Noah.


    I was smiling happily at my closet, and the clothes that didn''t even fill half of it, trying to figure out what I wanted to take with me. I may have been nning to use some time during the trip to improve things between Reece and me.


    I smelled him as soon as he reached the top of the stairs.


    "Oh, he''s earlier than usual." I said to myself as I noted the time. It was just a little after seven. I had already eaten dinner without him because I expected him to beter. I noticed his scent was getting stronger and his footsteps were pounding down my hallway. "Hmmm." I hummed as I mused what he could possibly want.


    "Little Bunny?" He called out as he knocked on my door.


    "Come in, Reece." I told him. At least he''s still respecting my boundaries. He opened the door and stomped in. I wondered what could have possibly made him so angry.


    "What are you thinking?" He demanded of me. I quirked an eyebrow, confused.


    "Well, I was thinking about my clothes just now." I told him jokingly as I looked down at myself. I realized then what I had put on after my shower, it was a pair of my skimpier pajama sets, short shorts and a tank top that stopped at my belly button. Oh well, can''t change it now.


    "That''s not what I meant." He said looking displeased.


    "Then I''m afraid I don''t follow." I told him as I stepped out of my closet, shutting the door behind me.


    "What''s this about going with me?" He asked me through clenched teeth. Uh oh, are we taking a step backwards?


    "I haven''t left in over a month Reece, and you''re leaving the city. That should be far enough away from the danger, right?"


    "We don''t know how they''re finding you." He growled. "Don''t you remember how they found you at Riley''s?" He was clearly upset.


    "So, you''re saying that you don''t want me to go?"


    "I''m saying it''s not safe for you to go." He ran his hand through his hair in frustration.


    "Reece, you need to let me out once in a while." I growled at him.


    "Trinity, what don''t you get? Your life is in danger." He acted like I didn''t understand this. Like I wasn''t the one who had to recover after those attacks. I knew this probably better than he did.


    "I know that Reece, but won''t getting me away from here be a better idea?" I asked him.


    "Oh my Goddess." He snapped as he rubbed his face roughly. "Listen to me-." He started.


    "No, you listen to me Reece. We''re trying to make things better between us right. I haven''t seen you in a week, since you told me you want to do just that. Here I am offering you an opportunity for us to get closer." I smiled at him, hoping it would show him that I was done fighting him off so much.


    "How can you-." He started before stopping himself with a growl of frustration. "Listen to me." He said as he started to stalk closer to me, backing me up against the closet door.


    "Reece-." I began before he cut me off.


    "No, it''s time you listen to me. I will not put you in more danger. I have been trying to keep you safe. What if I take you and we''re attacked? It will be just Noah and myself there to protect you." He ced his hands on either side of my head as he got closer to me. Instead of taking thest step and a half to the door I leaned with him. As he leaned toward me, I leaned backward until my head rested against the door. I regretted this, as it left our bodies nearly touching.


    "Reece, I can help protect myself." I told him, my face just inches from his with how we were positioned.


    "You''re not going. I don''t want you getting hurt again. I will not watch it again. If it were to happen while we are somewhere else, I cannot guarantee that I will not reveal us to the humans." I heard the fury and anger in his voice, but there were other things as well. "I will protect you. I will keep them from you. If that means I can''t take you with me then so be it."


    "It alles down to you not wanting me to go with you, doesn''t it?"


    "Oh, trust me, that is not it. I definitely ''want you'' toe with me." I felt the meaning hidden in his words. It was like he was rubbing his hands all over me as he spoke even though his hands were still on the wall.


    "You¡­want me?" I asked him nervously and heard him growl in response. I did something then that I had never done before. Something that I never thought I would be capable of doing. I shifted my lower body, just an inch or two so it brought us together and I moved my hips very slightly side to side. "How much do you want me?


    It was like his control snapped. He pressed his lips against mine with more hunger than he had ever had before. I instantly felt the fire leap within me as I grabbed his shirt and held on for dear life. I was afraid the kiss would blow me away or burn me to a crisp, maybe both.

 Chapter 84 - Reece-Losing Control! Time To Devour A Little Bunny! (Mature Rating)

    <h4>Chapter 84 - Reece-Losing Control! Time To Devour A Little Bunny! (Mature Rating)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Oh Goddess, but my control snapped. I had been trying to hold back. Trying to keep my hands off and wait until she was ready. Then my Little Bunny pushed her hips against me, against my growing erection. She was already talking suggestively, and when she pressed her body to mine, I seized her. And I couldn''t even me my wolf for it, I was the one who lost control.


    I pressed my lips to her and growled in satisfaction when she gripped my shirt to pull me toward her. The heat of the kiss was burning, but I didn''t care, I needed more. I needed her. I slipped my tongue into her mouth, tasting her. She was sweet, spicy, and dangerous all at the same time. My apple pie chased by a thunderstorm. I swear I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when I kissed her, the electricity was that intense.


    She wrapped her arms around me then, trying to get us closer. She was kissing me back with the same level of intensity that I was kissing her. She was growing, learning to be more open with me. That just aroused me even more.


    I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her closer to me, pressing her body against mine. Everywhere she touched me burned with need. I wouldn''t be able to stop tonight. I needed my Little Bunny like I needed air. More than air, because I didn''t care if I took a breath between one kiss and the next.


    With a growl I lifted her and held her against me. I made a very unwolf like purring sound when she wrapped her legs around my waist. Still, she didn''t protest, she didn''t try to stop me.


    With a bit of a singr focus, I carried her over to the bed. I didn''t want to fall on top of her, so I crawled to the middle with her still wrapped around me. Only when I was able toy her gently down onto her pillow did I lean forward, pressing her into the mattress.


    I pulled away from her, breaking the kiss. I heard her let out a dissatisfied moan. Her eyes were unfocused and zed, and they were filled with a need so intense that I could feel it pouring off her. I propped myself up onto my knees, straddling her legs as I looked down at my mate''s beautiful face.


    "Reece?" She called my name, spurring me into action.


    I pulled my shirt up and over my head, tossing it out of sight. Her eyes went wide, and she blushed, but she sat up and put her palms against my chest. She curled her fingers slightly, just enough to scrape the tips of her nails against my skin. The rounded edges didn''t scratch, they just spurred me on even more, but I stayed put for a little longer. The next thing I knew she leaned forward and pressed a kiss to my bare chest as she ran her hands down and over my abs. When I felt her soft tongue leave a tiny trail in the middle of my chest, I couldn''t control myself anymore.


    With a growl I grabbed the hem of her shirt. I had intended to pull it up over her head, but the material gave way and ripped straight up the middle instead. She squealed, but not in fear. I smiled in pure satisfaction as the motion had caused her to fall back against the pillows.


    She wasn''t wearing a bra beneath her shirt. Her ample chest was left bare and in full view for me for the first time. Her pale, milky white skin seemed to glow. The peak of each of her ample breasts were tipped with rosy pink flesh. There wasn''t an imperfection in sight, at least not one that I could see. I fell forward, trying my best not to be a savage and take her too roughly. I wanted our first time to be special for her, even if it was unnned.


    I buried my face in her neck, taking in her scent with a deep breath. I pressed a kiss to her mark which made her squirm with a moan. I growled at the movement, if she didn''t stay still, I wouldn''t be able to take my time. I trailed kisses, down her neck to her cor bone, down her chest. I stopped when I got to her breasts.


    Ipped at her, wetting the peak of her breast and making it stand firm in front of me. I pursed my lips and blew on it gently, the cold air made it tighten even more and caused her to shudder slightly.


    I moved slowly across her chest, nipping gently at her chest along the way, until I got to her other breast. I scraped my teeth across the peak gently. She moaned and squirmed, causing me to smile before I closed my mouth around the pink flesh with a purr. I rolled the small pink peak between my tongue and the roof of my mouth before biting down gently. She moaned once again. Desire was clear in the sound.


    I pulled away slightly, letting her breast fall from my mouth. Moving lower, slowly, I trailed kisses along her stomach.


    "Reece." She moaned my name again, impatiently.


    "Shh. Don''t worry Little Bunny." I soothed her when I had reached the top of her shorts. I grinned as I thought ''I had already ripped the shirt, might as well finish the job''. Grabbing the waistband I made a fist with the fabric. One quick pullter and I heard the fabric rip. After I had grabbed both pieces of fabric and tossed them aside , removing the barriers in one go.


    She nowy beneath me with nothing to hinder us. She was naked in front of me for the first time. Her perfect little bodyying bare for me to see spurred my desire, but I wanted to stop and look for just a few moments. I had been dreaming about this for so long. I purred again, in satisfaction, before I leaned forward.


    I pressed a kiss to her navel,pping at it quickly before moving lower. I moved one hand lower, cupping the warmth between her legs. My fingers tickled her dark curls for just a moment before sliding past between her lips and finding the moisture buried there. I growled quietly, satisfied.


    Slowly, I moved my fingers up and down, the motion caused her to buck, throwing her hips up toward my hand, then she instantly pulled away like she couldn''t decide what she wanted.


    "Reece." She said her moaning voice sounded more like a whimper as her need was growing stronger.


    I moved steadily lower, pushing her knees apart with my shoulders.


    "What''re you-?" She started, but she lost the ability to talk when I pressed my tongue against her,pping at her, at her sweet dampness. She screamed, a high pitch whine of satisfaction. I flicked my tongue against the knot at the top of her slit. She screamed again, reaching down to grab fists full of my hair.


    Gently, I pulled her hands away and held them off to the side as I continued to explore her with my tongue. I could feel the tension steadily growing in her body. She was breathing heavily. Her entire body was quivering. She was moaning in pleasure as I drove her further and further, closer to her climax.


    She was close to the edge now, she was teetering, ready to be pushed over the edge into oblivion, the ecstasy of climax.


    "Reece." She moaned my name again. Ipped once more at her core, a long hard stroke of my tongue.


    She exploded all around me. Every inch of her body seemed to be on fire. Her core was throbbing in my mouth. Her body spasmed around me. Her screams of pleasure rent the air, echoing in the room around us as she howled, almost like a wolf.

 Chapter 85 - Reece-Taking My Mate (Mature Rating)

    <h4>Chapter 85 - Reece-Taking My Mate (Mature Rating)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Panting, I pulled away from her. Raising my head to stare at her as I tore at the fastening to my belt and pants. I pulled the fabric away, stripping thest of the clothes from my body in a rush. I saw that she was flushed from the chest up to her cheeks. The sight was enough to make my mouth water. I wanted to lick my way up her body just as much as I wanted to be inside her.


    I decided I could still take a little time. I leaned back over her and ced my tongue just above her knee. Slowly, I licked up her inner thigh. I skirted about her core, I didn''t need to be drawn there again, I was on a mission. I continued higher,pping at her navel again. Higher, my tongue went higher, up over her ribs. I took the time top at each breast before continuing up her chest and to her neck. I ended once again at her mark. I pressed my tongue to it firmly causing her to squirm beneath me.


    "Reece." She moaned, slightly dazed.


    "It''s time, Little Bunny." I whispered in her ear. She shivered.


    I trailed kisses across her jaw until I got to her lips. I trapped her mouth in a deep, passionate kiss. While she was distracted, I fitted myself against her core. She gasped at the feel, looking up at me with desire and uncertainty in her eyes.


    I kissed her lightly on the cheek before whispering in her ear.


    "Mine." The word came out as a low, seductive growl.


    I pressed forward, pushing past her folds, braced at her entrance. I captured her mouth once more just as I drove into her.


    She jerked her head to the side wincing as she gave a sharp hiss and a pained moan in quick session. I noticed the sharp scent of blood immediately fill the air. ''Shit'' She was a virgin. I should have been more gentle. I had driven into her too fast, too hard.


    "Are you alright?" I asked her, afraid to hear her answer.


    "I-I''ll be fine." She was still wincing.


    "Do you need me to stop?" I asked her, I didn''t know what I would do if she said yes. I would stop, of course, I refused to hurt her. But I was beyond my limit. It was driving me crazy at this point.


    "No, don''t stop." She moaned. "Reece please don''t stop." She said as she wrapped her arms around my neck. My Little Bunny then pressed her lips to mine in a soft tender kiss that was a perfect representation of her. Soft, sweet, and enough to drive me insane with need.


    I gently pulled back, leaving just the tip inside her before I pushed forward again, slowly and gently this time. She moaned again, this time in pleasure.


    "Ahh, Reece." She sighed.


    I developed a steady rhythm. Starting slow and then moving faster little by little. I leaned over her, my hands gripping her backside so I could lift her into each thrust. After a few minutes she started throwing her hips into my thrusts, moaning with each motion.


    Her breathing was ragged again. Her arms were wrapped around me, she was digging her nails into my back helping to give her more leverage for each thrust of her hips so she could meet with mine.


    After a few moments, the pleasurable feeling of her nails digging into my back, the one of nails pressing into the skin and maybe leaving a red mark but nothing more, was reced by one of near pain. The once smooth, rounded nails now felt sharp and near dangerous. I was certain I could even feel blood running down my back, but I was too distracted to notice a new scent of blood among the other one already in the room.


    I drew back slightly to look at her. I could see the sweat on her brow. The blush in her cheeks. The wolf stirring in her eyes.


    Wait wolf?


    Her eyes were shining slightly like everyone''s did just before their first change, and there, in the depth of her pupil, was the shadow of a wolf fighting to get out. ''So, she has a wolf? It''s just trapped.'' I thought to myself as I halted momentarily in my thrusts.


    "Reece?" She sounded like she was begging me. Her canine teeth, top and bottom, were slightly elongated. It wasn''t like the partial change I had done when I bit her in the forest, but it was noticeable enough to tell that they were not the teeth of a human anymore. But, somehow, she hadn''t noticed.


    "Reece?" She said my name again as she pulled me down, digging her nails into my flesh. The pain wasn''t exactly bad, it was exciting. I was pleased knowing that she had a wolf trying to get out, that it was getting closer with the pleasure we shared. That I had to help her. I would need to keep pushing her further and further until the wolf was released.


    I continued my thrusts, moving with more urgency now. Her moaning grew more intense. My nameing on her gasping breaths.


    "Reece...¡­..Reece.....Reece." Just listening to her was arousing.


    I felt that familiar tingling at the base of my spine, my breathing was growing heavier, I was getting close. I could feel her clenching more tightly around me. I knew that she woulde apart in my arms in another moment or two.


    After a few more thrusts she screamed, bucking her hips against me. I exploded as well. We rode the wave of passion and ecstasy together. When the trembling in her body subsided, I kissed her head and pulled myself free from her. She gasped when my body parted from hers like she was lonely.


    "Give me just a minute, Little Bunny." I soothed her as I rolled her over and leaned her onto a pillow. I draped my body over hers before I entered her again. She gasped and shuddered again.


    "Reece?"


    "I''m not nearly done with you yet." I breathed into her ear, stirring the hair at her neck and causing her to shiver.


    I drove into her again and again. Faster and harder now that her body was primed and ready. She was wet, ready, and fully open, her opening was perfectly slick and willing to ept me. I thrust with a fast, hard rhythm. I felt her body getting close to the edge of orgasm again. Her moans desperate, her breathing ragged. She curled around the pillow, raising her hips higher causing her to take me just a little deeper. She screamed, long and loud, as she exploded again. Her body clenched around me, dragging me with her. I came again at the same time she did.


    I took her again and again. I could see her partial changes and the wolf begging at her eyes all night. If her wolf needed this kind of night to help lure it out of hiding, I would be more than happy to oblige.


    My Little Bunny finally copsed, exhausted. Her body was spent. She moaned weakly when I pulled free of her body, a shudder ran through her. I smiled in satisfaction, as I watched herying there with a satisfied look on her face. My wolf was happy, no longer chomping at the bit. He was instead sleeping soundly, happily.


    I pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead before climbing out of the bed. I pulled my pants on and gathered the rest of my things before leaving the room as quietly as I could, heading back to my own room. It was after two in the morning, no need to wake anyone else in the house. I sank into my bed and fell asleep almost instantly, a pleased grin on my face.

 Chapter 86 - Trinity-The Morning After, So Embarrassed

    <h4>Chapter 86 - Trinity-The Morning After, So Embarrassed</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I had an extra spring in my step when I went down to breakfast the next morning. I walked in and took my seat without saying a word.


    "What''s with that look?" Mom asked me.


    "What look?" I deflected.


    "That cat that ate the canary grin that you''ve got." Mom was looking at me quizzically.


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about." I tried to sound as innocent as I could.


    "Yeah, sure you don''t." Mom clearly didn''t believe me.


    A few minutester Abigail brought our breakfast to the table, but Little Bunny still hadn''te down.


    "Where''s Trinity?" Mom asked, a look of concern on her face.


    "I haven''t seen her." Abigail answered.


    "Julie, will you go find out what is keeping her?" I asked, I wanted to see my mate before I had to leave.


    "Yes, Sir." She replied before hurrying out of the room.


    A few momentster, Julie returned. She looked worried and my Little Bunny was not with her.


    "Julie, what''s wrong?" Mom asked her.


    "I''m sorry Ma''am, but the Luna isn''t feeling very well today. She has asked me to bring her breakfast to her room." Julie was clearly worried about her Luna as well.


    "Is she alright?" Mom asked. I was pretty sure I knew what was wrong. I smirked to myself.


    "She said she''s just sore, Ma''am. Told me she should be fer."


    I was grinning as I listened. ''That''s because of me.'' I thought proudly. Then, as I thought about it more, I realized I might have gone a little overboard, if she was that sore today. ''That''s because of me.'' I thought again, this time with regret.


    "What do you know?" Mom demanded of me.


    "Nothing." I denied. I know I was blushing.


    "Reece?" Mom growled at me.


    "Oh, look at that, I''m runningte. I''ve got to go." I got hastily to my feet and ran out of the room, my breakfast not even half eaten.


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was still sleeping when Julie came knocking on my door.


    "Luna? Are you awake? The Alpha and Miss L would like you toe to breakfast." I groaned as I opened my eyes. Every inch of my body ached, not all unpleasant but a lot of it. There was an ache deep in my core that caused a flutter in my stomach every time I felt it. But the aches in my limbs, my back, and everywhere else on my body wasn''t exactlyfortable.


    I tried to sit up and winced in pain. My muscles ached, and I felt like I had a bad case of internal rug burn.


    "Julie, I don''t feel so well this morning." I told her.


    "Are you alright?" She sounded worried.


    "Yes, I''m just sore. I think I slept wrong or something. I will be fer, I''m sure."


    "Would you like toe down to breakfast?" Her wary voice made its way to me through the door.


    "Could you bring my breakfast up to me today?" I asked her.


    "Yes, Luna. I will bring it right away."


    "Thank you."


    I realized then that I had another problem. I wasying in bed, naked. I now had to get up and get dressed before Julie got back. I groaned again as I went to sit up, but I just bit my lip and pushed past the pain.


    I looked around for my clothes fromst night. I stifled a gasp that turned into augh when I saw my clothes. They had been reduced to nothing more than dust rags now. I vaguely remember Reece being a little overeagerst night.


    But this didn''t help things. I needed clothes, and I needed them fast. It just hurt so much to get up. I was going to need a serious soak in the tub, or twenty.


    I braced for the pain as I lifted myself off the bed. It still hurt way more than I was expecting it to. I winced and sucked the air in sharply through my teeth.


    "Ahh!" I cried out, my knees almost giving out as I tried to walk. "Goddess that hurts. I think it''s a good thing he''s not here right now, I''d probably hit him." I growled through the sharp pains I was feeling.


    I made it to my dresser that held my unmentionables and night clothes. I was going to soak in the tub, for a long, long time soon and I didn''t have a lot of time before Julie came back, so I just slid on a pair of loose yoga pants and a t-shirt. I didn''t bother with a bra and panties right now, it would take too long to get them on, then back off to soakter.


    I had just finished getting dressed and was making my way back to the bed when I heard two sets of footstepsing down the hallway. L wasing with Julie. Oh, this was going to be embarrassing.


    There was a faint knocking on the door followed by Julie''s voice.


    "I''ming in now Luna, I have your breakfast." The door opened almost immediately. Julie walked in, followed by L.


    "Trinity dear, I came to see how you''re doing. What happened?" She was saying as she walked through the door. The two of them noticed me then, hunched over and attempting to walk back to my bed.


    "Luna."


    "Trinity." They eximed at nearly the same time. "What happened dear?" L demanded as she rushed forward to try to help me.


    "It''s nothing, really." I waved them off. "I just woke up sore, that''s all." I told them, it was the same thing I had said to Julie earlier.


    "Luna." Julie tried to interject but couldn''t, she just bowed her head and nodded. "I will put your breakfast at the table." She said. Once she had ced the tray, she excused herself from the room.


    "So, why don''t you tell me what really happened." L demanded once Julie was far enough away from the room.


    "Nothing happened, I''m fine. Like I said, I''m just sore, really."


    "Uh huh, and I''ll believe that as soon as I believe that Reece looked as innocent as a choir boy when I saw him this morning." She snapped at me. "Did he hurt you?"


    "Goddess no!" I yelled. "He wouldn''t hurt me."


    "Then who did? Because you don''t wake up that sore without someone doing something to you." She had to know. She had to know and was just trying to make me say it.


    "No one hurt me." I tried to convince her again as I went to sit at the table. That was a mistake right now, that made the pain a lot worse. I cried out again. "Ahhh!"


    "Trinity." She scolded me. "I smell blood in this room." She informed me. I blushed scarlet at her words. I had grown used to the smell apparently and didn''t notice it, but yes, Reece had taken my virginity so there had been blood.


    "You''re imagining things." I pretended not to know anything while my face went from scarlet to crimson.


    "Trinity, you need to tell me what''s wrong with-." She stopped mid sentence and blushed, not as red as me but still an impressive shade. "Oh!" She eximed as realization finally dawned on her face. I buried my face in my hands.


    "This is actually good news." She said cheerfully. I looked at her, mortified. I did not want to have this conversation with her right now. "Don''t give me that look. It is good news, it means you''ve moved past your issues." She was smiling. "And look on the bright side, for me at least, now I will eventually get grandchildren."


    "LILA!" I yelled as I saw the proud look on her face. "We are so not talking about this."


    After being thoroughly embarrassed by L, I don''t think I can ever look her I the eye again, I ate my breakfast alone in my room. I had kicked L out for my sanity, the woman was going to make me boil my brain with how hot red my face was with shame.


    I called down and asked Julie if she could change my sheets and bring me some Epsom salts so I could soak in the tub for a while. I filled the tub with the hottest water I could stand and put in the Epsom salts. After stripping off my clothes and sliding into the water I immediately let out another hiss. The water stung as soon as it touched my raw skin. I was already healing, I knew that, but that didn''t stop it from hurting like hell right now.


    While I sat there in the water I thought about the night before. I could not believe what I did. I technically started everything. I knew how he would react if I did that. I knew that I was being too flirtatious, I was egging him on.


    "Goddess, I can''t believe I asked him how much he wanted me." I cried out as I sank further into the water, hiding myself up to my chin. "But I didn''t stop him. And I know I wouldn''t stop him if he were to do it again. I want him to do it again." Saying this out loud was even worse than thinking it, even though there was no one around to hear it.


    I soaked in the tub until the water started to get cold. Then, I took a hot shower. I know, it was a waste of water, but it was my homeopathic remedy to help me heal. I needed something. And I really did feel better after being in the hot water for so long. I barely had any soreness left at all. It only bothered me when I made quick movement and when I first sat down.

 Chapter 87 - Trinity-Even More Visitors

    <h4>Chapter 87 - Trinity-Even More Visitors</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I had just sat down to read a book until lunch when I heard a knock at the door. I was really letting myself get distracted today.


    "Come in." I said.


    "Hey." Juniper called as she opened the door.


    "Hey Juniper, what are you doing here?" I asked her, confused.


    "Well, I tried calling you, but you didn''t answer." She giggled. "But I know you can''t go anywhere so I figured you would be here." She sat on the sofa next to me.


    "Yeah, you probably called while I was taking a shower." I told her. "I missed you." I said leaning over to hug her. The motion caused a sharp pain, making me wince.


    "Trin, what''s wrong?" Juniper asked me.


    "Don''t worry about it." Iughed. I did not need another person interrogating me until they found out what I did.


    "You got hurt again? But you''ve been at the estate this whole time, right? You haven''t left." She sounded scared.


    "Well, technically, Reece and I went a short distance away into the trees for our date on the night of the full moon. But there were enough wolves nearby that it wasn''t an issue."


    "So, if you didn''t get hurt there, then what happened?"


    "Nothing, Juniper, I didn''t get hurt." I red at her, trying to get her to understand without me needing to say anything.


    "But-." She looked at me, unable to finish. She just stared at me, studying me for a moment, taking in everything that she saw. I watched as she took a quick sniff of the room as well, a deeper scenting than she had already done. I watched as her eyes went wide and a huge grin spread across her face.


    "OH MY GODDESS!" She yelled. "Trinity, oh my Goddess. Why didn''t you say anything?" I blushed again.


    "Why is it everyone whoes into my room can figure it out?" I asked of no one in particr.


    "What do you mean?"


    "L did the same thing. She thought I was hurt, I was in more pain then though, and she thought Reece had actually hurt me before she realized what really happened." I put my face into the book to hide my embarrassment. "Today has been one mortifying event after another." I told her.


    "Girl, you should be happy. This is big." She was grinning excitedly. "When did things get so much better between you two?"


    "We''ve been talking more, fighting less. We''ve talked a lot of things out and got to know each other. He also told me he never rejected me, he just wanted to keep me at bay to protect us both." She looked at me confused when she heard thatst part. "Yeah, it was a long story." Iughed. "But things have gotten better. Plus, there''s the mate bond that''s been drawing me to him, making me fall in love with him more and more each day whether I wanted to or not."


    "Yeah, that mate bond stuff is some serious business." She smiled, no doubt remembering her own bonding experience. "So." She said suggestively while wiggling her eyebrows at me.


    "So, what?" I asked her.


    "So, how was it?" She grinned. "Come on, you''ve got to tell me. And you promised to tell me all about Reece''s pieces, remember." She stuck the tip of her tongue out and bit it yfully. "Come on, Trin, give me some details here."


    "I don''t know what to say, it wasn''t nned, it just, sort of happened."


    "So, he basically jumped your bones?" She asked me,ughing.


    "No, well, not really." She looked confused now. "I kind of started it." Her eyes went wide as dinner tes.


    "Oh my Goddess, Trinity, you need to tell me everything." She demanded.


    I did as she asked and told her every detail I could remember from the night before. Her face was red, and so was mine.


    "Oh my." She was fanning her face. "You certainly lucked out in that department." Sheughed. "I mean, Paul isn''t bad, trust me he''s great, but if he was anything like the Alpha, I think I might have already died from exhaustion." She cackled.


    "I think I might." Iughed with her.


    "So, how was it?"


    "How was what? Being with him?" I asked, confused.


    "No, it." She said, being evasive. "His pieces. You haven''t told me all about Reece''s pieces yet. You''ve only told me what you were doing with those pieces all night."


    "I think it was more what those pieces were doing to me. I was definitely not the one in control."


    "I don''t care who was in control, I want to know details, dimensions. How was it, was he huge? How does he look naked? Does he look as good as I imagine?"


    "JUNIPER!" I snapped at her. "You''re married."


    "So, I''m not looking, I''m asking for information for educational purposes."


    "You mean imaginational purposes. You just want a good mental image."


    "So, as long as it''s just in my head it doesn''t matter."


    "You''re horrible."


    "No, I''m not. And I love Paul with all of my heart, that will never change, bute on girl, we''ve all been dying to know about the Alpha for years." Iughed at her, shaking my head in disbelief. "Trinity?" She pleaded onest time.


    "He''s hot as hell." I finally answered. "I don''t think there''s an ounce of fat on that man''s body. He is all muscle and sex, and more muscle or more sex. I don''t know which. He''s amazing."


    "What about size, how was it?"


    "I didn''t look directly at it, by the time he got himself fully undressed I was a little dazed, but it definitely felt very, uh,rge." I struggled to get those words out and Juniper cackled at my embarrassment.


    "Trinity, you''ve definitely got your ''hands'' full, don''t you?" We bothughed at that, even though my face was on fire.


    I spent the afternoon with Juniper. She stayed for lunch and kept mepany until it was almost dinner, but she had to get back home. Before she left though, I gave her a warning.


    "Juniper, don''t tell anyone about this." I said sternly through clenched teeth. I didn''t want to be embarrassed the next time I saw the guys.


    "Don''t worry, Trin, no need to make it an order, girl talk stays between girls."


    I was prepared to have dinner alone in my room again. I hadn''t actually left my room all day and didn''t n to. But when I heard someoneing down my hall, I knew that my evening was going to be different than I had nned.


    I was sitting at my table, trying to appearposed, when Reece came in. He didn''t knock today. ''Is this how things are going to be from now on? He''s just going to walk in without knocking now''


    "Hello Reece." I said sitting up as straight in my chair as I could. I saw that he was not empty handed. "What is that?" Reece smirked.


    "I thought we could have dinner together." He looked confident, and a little smug, but I couldn''t help but feel a little excited that he was here. But there was also a hint of nervousness.


    He was carrying a box that was filled with delicious smelling food. It smelled likefort foods. I could smell burgers, fries, and chicken. What exactly was he nning?


    "I was just nning on having dinner." I told him, letting him know that I was indeed hungry.


    "Well, I gave Abigail the night off, so you would have no luck if you don''t eat with me." He thought he had nned everything perfectly to force me to have dinner with him, it was kind of funny. I wanted to mess with him.


    "You know, I could always go down to the kitchen and cook for myself." I smiled as I spoke the words tly. His face fell and he faltered momentarily.


    "No, but I have dinner here. We should eat together." He didn''t expect me to say no and the way he responded was very cute.


    "Reece, you''re so adorable." I wasughing at him but he didn''t seem to like that. He set the box down on the table and stalked toward me.


    "You think you''re funny, don''t you?" He loomed over me, one hand on each of the arms of my chair as he leaned forward to bring his face closer to mine.


    "Yeah, I do." I smiled happily. "Don''t you think so too?" I asked him, batting my eyshes.


    "Hmmm. Funny isn''t whates to mind when I think of you." His voice rumbled into my ear as his lips moved against flesh. "Scrumptious, irresistible, unpredictable. Now those are things thate to mind when I think of you.


    I hummed with pleasure as Reece pressed his lips to mine. I couldn''t believe how much I had changed. How easy I was finding all this. But I really did want him, need him.


    My stomach growled, loudly, right as Reece was getting into the kiss. He had just put his hand on the back of my neck to deepen it when I had to go and ruin it.


    "I get the message. Dinner first, then dessert." He was smiling at me hungrily with dark passionate eyes. I used to think those eyes meant he was angry with me, but I think I had made a lot of mistakes over thesest few months.

 Chapter 88 - Trinity-Take Charge (Mature Rating)

    <h4>Chapter 88 - Trinity-Take Charge (Mature Rating)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I had thought that dinner would be awkward, what with the tense start and interrupted kiss. But we sat and ate the food he brought with no tension and easy conversation.


    "So, why the grease trap for dinner?" I asked him.


    "You don''t like it?" He seemed surprised.


    "I never said that, this is right up my alley. It just doesn''t seem like yours"


    "Why, because I''m rich?"


    "Obscenely so."


    "That''s stereotyping, you know that right?" Reece was joking with me as he wiped his hands on a napkin. The food had been greasy, but delicious, but it just wasn''t something I could imagine Reece being into with the high ss food he was probably used to eating.


    "I''m not trying to stereotype. But, I''m sure you''re used to more expensive, and upscale foods."


    "Do we typically eat that upscale food here?" He was smiling at me like he was enjoying himself.


    "Well, no, not usually." He had a point now that he mentioned it. "We typically eat a lot of homestyle meals. There are some high ss type meals, but I guess most are what a typical family would eat just with better quality and presentation. And much better skill. I don''t think anyone can beat Abigail in the kitchen." Reeceughed at that.


    "Yeah, she''s the greatest, she''s been cooking for my family since before I was born."


    The conversation continued in this easy manner until we were done eating. It was probably the mostfortable I had ever felt around him. But now that we were done eating I was nervous once again. I knew what he wanted. The thing is, I wanted it too.


    I saw that the heat was already steadily growing in his eyes. The honeyed gold color had turned nearly amber with his desire. The sight of those darkened eyes sent a shiver throughout my body. I knew that I was in for a repeat ofst night, and I was nervous, but ready for it.


    I decided not to wait for him this time. I wanted to take the lead. To show him that I wasn''t afraid of him. I eyed him seductively and gave him a small smile. He definitely noticed what I was trying to do.


    I got slowly to my feet. The light blue slip dress I was wearing fell to my mid thigh. I walked to him, barefoot, my steps not making a sound.


    Reece was watching me intently. His eyes followed every move I made, every sway of my hips as I walked the short distance to him.


    I took his hand in mine, pulling him toward me. He came willingly. Getting to his feet quickly and eagerly. I pulled him with me as I backed toward the bed, I saw the grin form on his lips. Just before I felt myself reach the bed I turned slowly, pushing him to sit on the edge of the bed.


    With him sitting and me standing he was the right height for me to look him in the eyes. I pressed forward, cing myself between his thighs and putting my hands on his shoulders. Gently, I pressed my lips to his.


    Reece let out a growl of pleasure when I kissed him. I felt him grab my hips firmly, his fingers biting into me. I knew that I would have bruises thereter but I didn''t care.


    "This isn''t like you, Little Bunny." Reece purred when I broke the kiss.


    "It''s not? Or do you just not know me that well?" I chuckled lightly as I moved my hands down to his chest. I slowly started to unbutton his shirt.


    I watched hungrily as I slowly revealed his chest, one button at a time. I greedily push his shirt off his shoulders and down his arms. I could feel his muscles rippling under his skin as he shuddered from the feeling of my hands on him.


    Looking at him, his chest bare for me to see, I was finally able to appreciate the visage. Last night, when I had seen him, I was a little beyond the point of appreciation. Now, I wanted to see him, to feel him, to take it all in.


    I ran my hands down his chest, luxuriating in the feel of his firm muscles. The memory of what it felt like to be wrapped in those arms made me blush, but I refused to look away. I wanted to take in all the sights tonight.


    Reece was watching me, waiting for my next move while I was enjoying the view. But I was inexperienced and didn''t know exactly what he wanted me to do. I knew what I wanted though, and that was to see more.


    Moving my eyes lower I saw that there was already a bulge in his pants. He was hard. His arousal was definitely clear for me to see. I reached for his belt buckle but he grabbed my wrist to stop me.


    "Are you sure, Little Bunny? If you do this I won''t be able to hold back." His voice had deepened with his desire, his eyes filled with need. He was giving me an out if I needed one, if I wanted one, but I wanted him as much as he wanted me.


    "I didn''t stop youst night, did I?" I assured him. "I don''t intend to stop you now." I leaned forward, kissing him softly.


    He dropped his hand from my wrist while I kissed him. The kiss deepened naturally, our tongues finding each other,pping at each other. I kissed him more fiercely than I had ever kissed him before.


    While Reece busied himself with the kiss, gently cupping my cheeks in the palms of his hands as he held me to him, I sought his belt buckle. I was intent on baring all of him, I wanted to see every bit of him as he had of me. Once I had his belt unfastened, I pulled it by the buckle until it was free of his waistband. I threw it haphazardly across the room, I didn''t care where itnded.


    When I had his belt free, Reece broke free of our kiss and pulled away from me. I growled low in my throat at him. Reeceughed alluringly.


    "Don''t worry, we will continue Little Bunny." His gaze was full of passion and heat as he grinned at me. I pulled impatiently at the fastening on his designer suit pants. With a chuckle Reece leaned backward, away from me, and braced his hands on the bed. I was confused and momentarily angered until I noticed he was giving me the opportunity to pull the pants off him.


    I was nervous again, but just for a moment. I wanted this, and nothing was going to stop me. I leaned over him while he was stretched away from me, and wrapped my arms around his waist. I pressed a kiss to his chest, right between the swell of muscles. I followed that with a long, slowp of my tongue. I felt his shuddering gasp at the feel.


    While I was running my tongue up his chest, I slowly slid my hands down into the back of Reece''s pants. I was embarrassed to be doing all of this, but I couldn''t stop myself, it was apulsion that was pushing me forward. That''s why, when I slid my hands into his pants I gripped him, felt the firm, toned muscles of his backside. He really was made of solid muscle. Pure strength and sexual attraction.


    When he felt me squeeze him he shuddered again. I dug my nails in momentarily, just because I could, he shuddered and gasped again.


    I moved my hands then, grabbing the waistband of his boxers and pants, both of them at the same time. I pushed them down as I stood. When I could no longer push them out of the way I stepped away and tugged on them. The clothes came easily with him leaning back and lifting his hips off the bed.


    The clothes were flung haphazardly off into the room, just the same as the belt had been. Now hey on the bed, naked and bare for me to see. His honiedplexion seemed to be shining like the sun as heid back on the sky coloredforter. I looked over him, slowly.


    I watched him smirk as I ran my eyes over him. I moved from his eyes down. I was saving the best, scariest, forst. I have been looking at him for four months now, I knew how handsome, and drop dead sexy he was, but seeing him like this was so much more intense.


    His golden eyes burned with need as he eyed me hungrily. His face was drool worthy, with a perfectly sculpted nose and jaw, not to mention high, sharp cheekbones. His prominent neck muscles swelled and flowed into the most perfectly smooth and sculpted chest I could ever imagine. Powerful arms, powerful chest, rigid abs that were already shining in the light. His abs flowed down into his perfectly sculpted hips. I followed the view and lower until I reached his groin.


    I saw that he was fully aroused, standing erect, and veryrge. My eyes went wide when I took in the sight of him. I knew that my body could handle him, it hadst night, but looking at him it was almost impossible to believe that something that big could invade my body and I''d be able to survive.

 Chapter 89 - Trinity-Reece Cant Wait (Mature Rating)

    <h4>Chapter 89 - Trinity-Reece Can''t Wait (Mature Rating)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I set aside my fear and stepped back toward him. Once again I positioned myself between his thighs. He was looking at me expectantly. He was anticipating what I was going to do next. Nervously, I tried to figure out what that might be, a little at a time.


    I kissed him, softly and slowly, on his neck. He shuddered when I scraped my teeth along his cor bone, I found his shudders intriguing and wanted to make him repeat them. I licked his neck, scraping with my teeth again. He shuddered and growled low, but not menacingly. It was filled with longing. I bit, quick but gently, onto his neck.


    While I busied myself with his neck, I moved my hands down his body once again. Rubbing along his chest and abs, then down along the top of his thighs. His legs twitched slightly in anticipation as I moved my hands to his inner thighs. I moved my hands up slowly as I moved my mouth to his


    I covered his mouth with mine at the same time as I wrapped my hands around his erection. I could barely wrap my hand around therge shaft. He moaned against my mouth when I squeezed him.


    Reece pulled away from me then. He grabbed the hem of my dress and pulled it up over my head, he tossed it off in the direction of the other discarded clothes.


    "At least you didn''t rip this one." I said sarcastically.


    "Hmm. Just wait a sec." He grinned as he grabbed the front of my panties and yanked. The silk andce covered fabric ripped and fell away from me instantly.


    His tug had pulled me toward him. I fell into his arms, which he wrapped around me and rolled us to the bed, he was on top of me. I was now naked under him, having skipped the bra when I got dressed, and he was now fully nude above me.


    "I can''t wait anymore, Little Bunny." He purred into my ear.


    Despite his words, he didn''t take me then. He kissed slowly down my neck and across my chest. Hetched onto my right breast, biting and sucking. He didn''t neglect my other breast, he grabbed the mound, kneading it with his fingers with almost bruising force. I moaned in response to his touch.


    "Reece." I called his name amid the moans, which only seemed to spur him on more. "Reece, please." He released my breast from his mouth with a popping sound.


    "What, baby, what do you want. Tell me, anything and I will do it."


    "I want you." I sighed breathlessly, my eyes shining and cheeks flushed.


    "I''m getting you ready, baby, I don''t want to hurt you."


    "Please hurry." My whine spurred him on even more.


    "I''ll try." He kissed my breast before he bit down onto my peak. I scream in surprise, not expecting the slight sharp pain.


    I felt Reece''s hand tickling its way up my inner thigh. I squirmed from the touch but was eager to feel him as well. He danced his fingers up my thigh, slowly, until his fingers tangled into the curls at my core. He pulled softly on the small hairs, the sensation wasn''t exactly painful. Actually, when he pulled, he sent a jolt of desire pulsating through me and I moaned.


    His fingers scissored up and down a few times before circling my opening. I could feel a small steady blush rising over my entire body. I felt moisture rush to my sore, dripping and waiting for him. He drove one finger into me and I called his name again.


    "Reece!" I half screamed.


    "Shhh." He soothed me with a pur in his voice. "We''re almost there." He pulled back and drove into me with two fingers this time, stretching my opening more than I am used to. My body had recovered from his previous invasion and wasn''t ready for the new assault. Now I knew why he said he was getting me ready.


    Hetched onto my breast again. He sucked on the peak and drove into my core in a matching rhythm. I began to moan steadily, and heat growing inside of me.


    "Reece!" I called his name over and over again. "Please Reece!" I begged again.


    He pulled his hand back and released my breast with another pop.


    "You''re ready enough, I guess." He grinned at me as he hovered over me. He kissed me, quick, hard, and passionately, just before he fitted himself against me.


    "Reece." I moan in anticipation.


    "Mine." Reece whispered as he pushed past all my most intimate of barriers.


    "Reece!" I called his name, wrapping my arms around his neck and clinging to him in more ways than one.


    He drove into me steadily, creating a rhythm that was designed to drive me over the edge, of climax and insanity. I felt like I wasing apart in his arms, and only his arms wrapped around me was holding me together.


    I called his name repeatedly as I ran my nails down his back.


    "Oh, Reece." I moaned. I watched as he sat up higher and stared at my eyes, but I couldn''t focus enough to see his eyes clearly, I saw his face but I couldn''t make my eyes focus beyond that.


    Reece seemed intent to stare at my eyes, he did the same thing the night before as well. I found his staring at my eyes so much to be embarrassing. I pulled him down toward me, so I could kiss his neck. Causing him to look away.


    His skin was covered in sweat and tasted like salt on top of his chocte, caramel, and spice vor that I enjoyed so much. ''Mmm, salted caramel.'' I said to myself. Ipped and kissed his neck. His scent and taste was intoxicating.


    Reece was doing the same to me. I felt his kiss followed by his tongue on my neck where my mate mark was. I didn''t care anymore that it was different than everyone else''s. I am me. I have my mate. I would be who I was from now on, and no one was going to stop me. I had the attention of the most powerful, and sexiest, wolf in the pack, and I could never be bullied by anyone ever again.


    I heard a low, seductive growl right before I felt Reece sink his teeth into the tender flesh where my mark was. I cried out, the gasping moan escaping mepletely unbidden. On instinct, I followed Reece''s lead.


    Just as I felt the heat of a mating building in my neck, I licked his neck a few times before biting him. I didn''t expect to bite into him like he had me, but I felt my teeth sink into his flesh. At that moment, I didn''t know how to feel about it, I didn''t care.


    The heat I was feeling in my neck, that had slowly been building in me since he bit me, was now flowing in a circle from me to him and back again. He stayed connected at two points. He drove into me at my core over and over, driving us both closer to the edge. All the while, the heat circled, in and out of my body as it cycled around us.


    His thrusts got more frantic the longer we stayed connected with our mouths, but neither of us were willing to let go. He was pounding into me, thrust after thrust, when finally my whole body began to get as hot as my neck when the heat was in me, but the heat wasn''t leaving me as much now. Reece''s neck and body felt as hot as mine.


    Finally, he thrust onest time, sending me into oblivion. We let each other go at the same time.


    "REECE!" I screamed.


    "TRINITY!" He yelled at the same time. My body convulsed around his, I could feel the heat of his release inside me, I knew I should be upset about that, but I couldn''t think about it yet.


    Reece copsed, rolling as he did so that I ended up on top of him. We were still joined at our cores.


    "I need to pull out now." He told me. "Are you going to be alright?"


    "I should be." I grimaced as I remembered the pain from this morning.


    "Take a deep breath." He instructed me. I did as he said and felt him pull free of my body. I shuddered, there was a little pain, but I also felt empty without him now.


    "Are you alright?" He asked.


    "Just fine." I assured him as I snuggled into his chest.


    "Are you tired?"


    "Now, whatever gave you that idea?" I joked with him.


    "Go to sleep Little Bunny."


    "So you can sneak out again?"


    "I promise I won''t sneak away tonight. If you want me to stay, then I will."


    "Good, then stay." I told him as I snuggled into him again. He wrapped his arms around me and purred.


    "Goodnight, Little Bunny."


    "Goodnight." I barely managed the response before I fell asleep.

 Chapter 90 - Reece-A Very Unhappy Noah

    <h4>Chapter 90 - Reece-A Very Unhappy Noah</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I woke to the sensation of holding my mate in my arms. The feeling of her soft, supple body pressed against mine. The warmth of her naked flesh pressed against my bare skin. It was enough to arouse me again. I wanted her, there was no doubting that. As much and as often as I could get her I wanted her.


    But now was not the time. I had a flight to catch today and a schedule to keep. I didn''t want to leave without saying anything likest time, I got the impression she wasn''t very happy about that, but I was reluctant to wake her up.


    I adjusted, rolling us both in the process. The move brought us face to face as she was currently using my shoulder as a pillow. I didn''t want this time to end, but I had to wake her.


    Gently, I pressed my lips to her forehead. Somewhere I thought wouldn''t intensify my arousal for her. It didn''t work, I wanted her more. I had to fight my wolf back, restraining him and myself from going any further.


    I felt her stir in my arms. Her full body stretch pressed her closer to me, squeezing her breasts against my chest. I hummed in satisfaction, the feeling was phenomenal.


    "Hmm, morning already, huh?" She asked me as she fluttered her eyes.


    "I''m sorry I have to wake you, but I need to leave."


    "You do, do you?" She seemed yful this morning.


    "I have to get to the airport. I know you''re mad about having to stay behind, but-."


    "Don''t worry about it, I''ve got the start of the new semester tomorrow, and it would have only been for a couple days." She interrupted me.


    "A business trip isn''t what you want, maybe we can take a proper vacation soon. We can truly get away from all the trouble following you."


    "It''s fine." She sounded upset, I know she was not happy but I would work hard to make it up to her.


    I pulled my arm out from under her with a light tug. She sat up with me, covering herself with the sheet from the bed. I tried not to be upset that she was hiding herself from me while I looked around the room for my clothes.


    Everything I had been wearing was scattered in several different directions, it took me a little while to find it all. She sat watching me the entire time. I tried not to look at her too much, seeing her would make it too hard to leave.


    Once I had pulled my clothes on, though I had left my shirt unbuttoned for the sake of time, I started toward the door, but I paused to look back at her.


    "As you know, I''m leaving today, but I will be back by Wednesday morning at thetest."


    "I know." She looked dejected as she lowered her eyes to stare at the bed instead of me.


    "Look, about what I said before."


    "Now that''s specific."


    "Stop interrupting me, please." I implored her. "I''m talking about what I said about what we are to each other."


    "REECE!" I heard Noah yelling from outside in the hallway, his voice held a biting edge of anger.


    "Don''t worry about it, I know this didn''t mean anything. Nothing''s changed, you don''t have to feel guilty. I wanted it too." I could see the pain in her eyes as she spoke.


    "Look, it''s-."


    "Reece!" Noah pounded impatiently on the door to her room. "We''re runningte, hurry up and get out here." He snapped angrily. ''Well, someone wasn''t very happy with me right now, and I could guess why.''


    "Look, I need to go, but we will talk about this when I get back, alright."


    "Whatever you say." She tried to smile but couldn''t, her face was filled with worry and apprehension. Did she seriously still think I didn''t care about her. I would have to find a way to convince her otherwise.


    "Trinity, I-" I started to speak again, but the door to her room flew open, missing me by barely an inch as it swung in front of my face.


    "Reece, let''s go." Noah growled. I saw my Little Bunny pull the covers more securely around her, her face flushed crimson.


    "NOAH!" She screamed.


    "I''m sorry Trinity, but we need to hurry or we will bete." His face was full of a murderous rage. I red at the man, he was my best friend and my mate''s cousin, but he would not be allowed to see her naked, nor would I forgive his interruptions.


    "I don''t think I gave you permission to barge in here." I growled menacingly at him.


    "It''s not your room, I don''t need your permission." He countered.


    "She didn''t give you permission either." I snapped.


    "You were taking too long. We have to go, now." He red at me, a red hot anger was burning in his dark eyes.


    "Trinity, we will talk more when I get back." I looked at her once more. The blush that crept into her cheeks also flowed down her neck and across her shoulders. The sight of her blushing skin made me want to trace the heat with my tongue, but I didn''t have the time. "I will see youter." I told her.


    "Bye." She squeaked out in her embarrassed state.


    I stomped out of the room, pulling the door shut behind me. I led the way down the hall while he followed behind me. I could feel the anger pouring off of him in waves, the intensity of it was palpable. His feet thumped loudly against the carpeted hall, echoing in the silent house.


    "I need to get dressed, give me a few minutes."


    "Make it quick." I growled loudly at his words. He had been trying to order me around ever since he barged in on me and my mate. I red at him, but decided the conversation could wait, I was running behind already.


    Ten minutester I had freshened up and changed, and we were now in the car on the way to the airport. Noah was still angry, a furrowed brow and a scowl seemed to be the newest permanent additions to his face.


    "What''s your problem?" I asked him. I had let more of my anger into my words than I had intended to.


    "I told you to keep your hands to yourself." He snapped at me.


    "Excuse me?" His words had thrown me through a loop.


    "Don''t toy with her, Reece. I won''t let you y with her heart. She''s too nice of a girl just for you to be using her for your own sick games."


    "You seem to have made up your mind about me already." I growled. "Did you forget about the part where she is MY mate."


    "No, I didn''t forget, nor did I forget about you telling her she''s nothing to you and you hate her." He yelled. "She''s my family Reece, the only sister I will ever have. She means a lot to me and I will not let you hurt her again."


    "I have been working hard to fix my mistakes with her. The two of us have talked a lot about what happened in October and November. I have exined myself to her, I don''t need to exin myself to you at all."


    "Really? Because if I don''t feel that you''re treating her right then you''ll have me to deal with."


    "Do you really think you could take me on?" I inquired, my voice was full of bold superiority.


    "If I couldn''t handle you alone, then I would have backup. I''m sure Carter, and my parents would just have a field day if I told them how you treated her."


    "Are you threatening me?"


    "You bet your ass I am. You better treat her right, Reece, or I swear to the Goddess, we will all do whatever is in our power to take you down. I don''t care if we''re banished for it afterward. If you ever hurt her again-."


    "That''s in the past, Noah. How many times do I need to tell you that?" I snapped at him.


    "I will believe it when I hear it from her." He told me.


    "Fine, ask her when we get back. Or better yet, ask her now. Call her, right now. Dammit Noah, I love her. I''m never going to hurt her again."


    "What did you just say?" He asked me, his face was full of shock like he couldn''t believe what I had just said.


    "Is it that hard to believe that I love her?" I asked him, sheepishly.


    "Kind of." His smirk actually hurt, he had no faith in me.


    "Well, I do, and I was about to tell her when you barged into the room." I snapped at him angrily again.


    "So, she doesn''t know you love her?"


    "I haven''t told her yet, no." I told him honestly.


    "You''re such an asshat." He spit the curse at me through clenched teeth. "You better treat her right."


    "I''ll treat her like a queen, because to me, that''s what she is." I smiled happily as I thought of the future I had to look forward to with my sexy little mate.


    "You better not forget that, ever." He warned me onest time.

 Chapter 91 - Trinity-Caleb And Frederick

    <h4>Chapter 91 - Trinity-Caleb And Frederick</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ''Oh my Goddess, that was embarrassing.'' I couldn''t believe Noah barged into my room while I wasying in bed naked after spending the night with Reece. I felt like I was going to die from the embarrassment. I was going to catch fire from the burning in my cheeks that was spreading throughout my whole body. Or I might just melt into a puddle from the heat.


    "Why did he have to see me like that?" I asked my empty room.


    Once the heat in my face settled slightly I decided to take a shower. I wasn''t in nearly as much pain as I was the day before. He had only taken me oncest night as opposed to the multiple times the night before, so getting out of bed was not a painful chore.


    I walked into the bathroom in a daze. Memories from thest two nights kept creeping up at random. All through my long, hot shower I would have images of Reece''s naked body pop up in my mind. The memories sent jolts of desire twisting through my core. My body wanted him back here with me already. I had hoped that this need for him would lessen after we finished the mate bond, but it only felt stronger now.


    I took my time in the shower, washing slowly then letting the hot water rx the tension in my body. I hoped I would be able to clear my mind soon, I really did have sses starting tomorrow and would need to think clearly.


    While I was drying myself I felt a dull ache throb through my neck. The pain brought back more memories. Reece had bitten me again, he had basically marked me again. And to make matters worse, I had bitten him as well. I didn''t know why, I just did it on instinct.


    I moved my hair out of the way to look at the new bite mark. I could see his teeth marks perfectly imprinted into the tender flesh at the curve of my neck and shoulder. The skin around the area was bruised, but it was already turning yellow, it was healing.


    What was more surprising to me was the area around my mate mark. The pack crest had darkened, possibly from the bruising, but it wasn''t as clear as it was before. But the dark cloudy area that surrounded it seemed to be just a little lighter than usual. I was probably imagining it though, wanting to hope that something was different after being with him.


    Thankfully, my day was less eventful that the previous one. I didn''t have as many unannounced visitors. None to be exact. Instead, I spent my day reading my text books. I had another English Comp ss with professor Thompson this semester, but I was taking some sses that were bound to be interesting this time. Violence in Society, Crime Theory, and Intro to Forensics were my other sses that went along with myst English course.


    Thankfully, when I went down to the dining room L didn''t make a big deal about me and Reece. I didn''t think I could handle that embarrassment two days in a row as well as Noah barging in on us. There was only so much my heart could take for crying out loud.


    My first day back to school didn''t go as nned. I didn''t have to attend actual sses, all my learning was done on my own time, but I wanted to have as much of a normal school day as I could for the first week at least. But I had a major issue, two of the books that were picked up for me were the wrong ones. So, I was already behind. Great.


    I was nning on asking Vincent if he could run to the bookstore for me tonight, but he was off today. We had lessened his schedule to make things easier on him and Heather, I wanted him to be there for his baby, there was so much he could miss in the beginning.


    I was getting frustrated, I needed to get these books but I didn''t want to call Vincent on his night off. I was in the living room after hanging up the phone, neither of the twins had answered their phone when I called them.


    "Ugh, what am I gonna do now?" I growled in annoyance.


    "Is something wrong Luna?" I heard an elderly voice ask me with concern.


    "Huh?" I looked up and saw two men standing at the door to the room. I hadn''t noticed theming. Their scents were familiar but I didn''t remember seeing them before.


    "You seem upset, is everything alright?" The younger of the two men asked. The younger man looked to be about Reece''s age with dark orange eyes that were close to ochre. He had dirty blond hair and a tall muscr build like all the wolves, but he just barely made it to six feet it seemed. The older man had silver hair, and bright green eyes. They resembled each other, simr jawline and nose shape, but the younger man had the same cheek bones as Reece. There were other small simrities between the younger man and Reece, but nothing significant.


    "Luna?" The older man called out to me, getting my attention.


    "I''m sorry, I was just thinking. No nothing really wrong. Just something I need and can''t get right now."


    "That won''t do." The older man smiled. The more I listened to him, the more I felt I had met him before. But where?


    "I''m sorry, excuse my rudeness, but who are you?" The older manughed with a gruff, gravelly voice.


    "You''re not rude, dear. We''ve only met once and I don''t think you''ve had the chance to meet my grandson here." He smiled at me warmly before he continued. "My name is Frederick, I am one of the elders of the pack, and Reece''s great uncle."


    "Oh, now I remember, I met you my first night here. There was so much information I had to take in that night that I forgot who a lot of people were."


    "That''s understandable. You were put through a lot that day." The younger man had the same smile as Frederick. "My name is Caleb, I''m Reece''s cousin, and his Beta."


    "Oh, it''s nice to meet you. I''m sorry we haven''t gotten the chance to meet before." I shook Caleb''s outstretched hand as I greeted him.


    "Think nothing of it. I have been away on business off and on a lottely, so you''re not the one at fault here."


    "I''m sorry to tell you though, that Reece isn''t here."


    "Oh, we missed him?" Frederick seemed disappointed. "Well, we could always try again tomorrow."


    "No, I''m afraid he won''t be back for a few days. If you want toe back Wednesday or Thursday he should be home by then."


    "Really, that''s a shame. I''ll just have to give him a call, let him know what I found out recently." Caleb sighed.


    "Have you been investigating?" I asked him, hopefully he had information that would lead to solving my problem.


    "Yeah, I''ve been checking out some leadstely. And I found out something really important."


    "Well, I hope it helps." I smiled at him.


    The conversation with Frederick and Caleb was an easy going one, but for some reason I just felt off about the whole thing. But no matter the situation, I still had the same problem.


    "Well, I''m going to make a few more phone calls." I told them, trying to excuse myself.


    "What is it you''re missing?" Caleb asked me.


    "What?"


    "You said you needed something but couldn''t get it. What can''t you get?"


    "Oh, I''m missing a couple books for my college courses that started today." I answered him, but for some reason I felt embarrassed.


    "We can''t have that, can we?" Frederick smiled at me.


    "Would you like me to get it for you?" Caleb smiled wide, showing his perfectly straight, white teeth.


    "No, I couldn''t impose on you. You just recently got back, after all."


    "It''s no problem, Luna." Caleb soothed me with his soft voice.


    "If you really don''t mind, I would appreciate it."


    "Of course, I''m here to help you as much as my cousin."


    I tried to exin to Caleb what it was I needed, and where Shane had gone wrong when he picked up my booksst week, but Caleb wasn''t certain he would be able to tell the difference between the books I already had, and the ones I needed.


    "It''s fine Caleb, I can always wait until Vincent is avable." I deted as I spoke, a defeated tone filling my voice.


    "How about youe with me?" He asked, a smile spreading across his face. I was momentarily filled with anticipation, but it was quickly reced with apprehension.


    "I don''t know, Reece would be angry if I left right now. You know, with everything that is going on."


    "If you''re not safe with the second strongest wolf in the pack, his own Beta, then who could you be safe with?" He asked, a confident look in his eyes. "Besides, it''s the only way you''ll make sure you get the right books." He had a good point. I needed these books, and as Reece''s Beta, he should be strong enough to protect me."


    "Alright, but just to the store and back."


    "Of course, Luna, I wouldn''t dream of taking you anywhere else that might be considered dangerous."


    "Just let me go get ready." I hurried from the room so I could get shoes and a jacket from my bedroom.

 Chapter 92 - Trinity-Enemies Revealed

    <h4>Chapter 92 - Trinity-Enemies Revealed</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    A little whileter Caleb was pulling the car into the parking lot near the campus bookstore. It was just a little after seven so I had plenty of time before they closed. Frederick had stayed behind at the house to wait for us. That left Caleb and I alone in the car. I''m not used to him yet so the ride was a little tense and awkward.


    Caleb parked near the back of the empty parking lot, Vincent always did the same but usually when the lots were going to be full. Maybe it was just something that they all did. One major difference that I noticed between Caleb and the other though, was he didn''t open doors like I was told to expect. Maybe that was because he wasn''t a guard but instead the Beta and just wasn''t used to it. Oh well, I could open them myself.


    Caleb was already standing at the front of the car when I got out. He was moving fast like he was in a hurry. As soon as I shut my door behind me I sensed a shift in the air. There were others in the area, and based on the scent, they were wolves.


    "Caleb?" I called him apprehensively.


    "Don''t worry Luna, everything is just fine." He said calmly.


    "Yeah, it''s all going ording to n." A voice rang through the night. I recognized it instantly, it was Leslie. I hadn''t seen him since the night I had been marked.


    "He''s right, this is all on schedule." Now it was Jeremy, another voice I hadn''t heard since that night."


    "Stop trying to y nice with the bitch, let''s just get this over with." A female voice joined the group. I had only heard it once, when she protested my mating with Reece. It was Donna. Here was everyone who had recently shown hostility toward me or made me ufortable in some other way. I was beginning to get scared. I thought it was just rogues and Warlocks I had to worry about. I didn''t think there was an enemy in my own pack.


    They had me surrounded, closing me in around the vehicle.


    "Are you in on this too?" I asked Caleb, already knowing the answer.


    "For me, this has nothing to do with you. I''m being paid to hand you over to someone else." Caleb''s voice was empty, void of all emotions.


    "Then what do you get out of this whole thing?" I snapped at him.


    "With you out of the picture, Reece will be forced to step down. When that happens, I be the new Alpha."


    "You''re stupid if you think he would ever hand his pack over to you." I growled at him.


    "He won''t have a choice. It''s ourws, he can''t rule us without a mate."


    "He can find another mate. And he had a mate, he had me."


    "You never finished your mating. Isn''t that right?" He smiled cruelly. For some reason, I thought it was best not to correct him, not to tell him the mating had been finished, just recently. "If he never finished the mating then it doesn''t count. He wasn''t mated, therefore, he will have to step down or be taken down."


    "You''re insane." I yelled at him.


    "Maybe, but I will rule this pack, and a wolfless mongrel like you isn''t wee in my pack."


    "You''re not just crazy, you''re an asshole too." I spat the words at him.


    "Thank you for thepliment." He smiled at me as he sauntered toward me slowly. The other three prowled, lower to the ground and aggressive, ready for the attack.


    "You won''t get away with this." I snapped at them all. Their maniacalughter was all that answered me.


    It happened quickly. I would like to say it was in slow motion, or that I saw everything clearly, but I didn''t. The four of them came at me together. I wasn''t going to go down without a fight, or without trying to get away.


    I first tried to jump onto the hood of the car, if I could get near people then I should be safer. But I didn''t have the time for that. Just as I had reached the other side of the hood I felt someone''s hand close painfully around my ankle. Their fingers were digging in, biting deep into my flesh.


    "Get back here." I heard Leslie growl. "It''s time for some fun."


    "What''s in this for the rest of you, huh?"


    "Jeremy and I are former ''independent'' wolves, or so we told your bleeding heart alpha. We were rogues hired to infiltrate your pack over a year ago. Our boss wanted men on the inside." Leslie had pulled me back across the hood of the car and was pressing himself against me in ways that made me sick just thinking about it. Only Reece was allowed to touch me like that.


    "Get off me." I growled at him as I tried to push him away. I managed to move him away from me several feet and was about to make a run for it when Donna stepped in front of me.


    "Don''t even think about it bitch." She said as she reached out and pped me across the face, hard. "That''s payback for what your aunt did."


    "Is that why you''re part of this? Because my aunt pped you."


    "No, I just don''t think a slut like you deserves to be my Luna. You''re a disgrace."


    "Who are you calling a slut you tramp?"


    "Watch your mouth, you wolfless girl. You''re not my Luna, and you never will be," Donna raised her hand again to smack me. I felt her hand as it whipped across my face, the striking blow made my head snap to the side.


    "Enough of this." Caleb snarled. I felt him grab a fist full of my hair and yank it backwards until I was looking up at him. "Say goodnight." Heughed as he brought a white cloth near my face. I knew what he was nning.


    "Reece." I breathed the name before the smell of the chloroform could make me lose consciousness.

 Chapter 93 - Reece-Shes Missing

    <h4>Chapter 93 - Reece-She''s Missing</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "As you can see, gentleman, mypany''s sess rate with acquired businesses has been phenomenal. I have no reason to believe that yourpany wouldn''t follow suit." I was currently in the middle of a meeting with the owners and operators of the bodyguard agency, but my mind was actually eleven hundred miles away. I couldn''t stop reliving every moment with my sexy little temptress from the past two nights. I needed to stop it, I needed to focus.


    "Mr. Gray, I see no reason not to proceed." The current owner of thepany was smiling happily.


    "Excellent. Then please, allow us to sign the contract. Once it''s all done we wi-." I stopped mid sentence. I couldn''t finish. I had just had the most intense feeling of my life. It felt like my Little Bunny had just called for help. I could feel her fear, taste the night air around her. It smelled like she was in town somewhere. Near the Thai restaurant by the university, but that made no sense, she couldn''t leave the house.


    "Mr. Gray, are you alright?" The middle aged man in the suit sitting across from me asked.


    "I''m sorry gentlemen, but something hase up. I need to go, but I will be back shortly to finalize this paperwork. Either myself or a representative on my behalf." I was already rising to my feet, gathering my things. If Noah had been here I would have had him get them as I ran out of the room. But I was on my own today, so I had to do the bare minimum.


    As soon as I left the meeting room I was on the phone with Noah. It was almost six-thirty, an hour behind home. It had gotten dark a long time ago and my Little Bunny was supposed to stay inside, so why did it feel like she was in danger, and that she was missing?


    "Is the meeting finally over? Man I didn''t think that thing was ever going to end."


    "Something''s wrong Noah." I said in a rush as I ran to the stairs.


    "What is it? Are they not selling?"


    "No, something''s wrong back home, something''s wrong with Trinity." I had reached the bottom of the three flights in no time at all. My car was parked right out front, I got in and sped off.


    "Wrong how." He asked, finally taking the call seriously.


    "I don''t know yet, but I can sense she is in danger. She''s scared, and I can tell she was near the university just now."


    "That makes no sense at all, Reece. What''s going on?"


    "I don''t know, but you call her and I will call the house."


    I hung up with Noah as I sped toward the hotel. Mom, answered the call on the second ring.


    "Hi Sweety, how-.?


    "Mom, is Trinity there?" I interrupted her.


    "What? Reece what''s wrong?"


    "Is she there?"


    "No, she left with Caleb a little while ago." I felt my heart drop into the pit of my stomach when I heard those words.


    "What are you talking about, Mom? Caleb isn''t even supposed to be in town, let alone picking my mate up from the house." I growled into the phone.


    "Is everything alright?" She asked me, I could hear the panic in her voice.


    "No, Mom, it''s not. I''m pretty sure that Caleb is in on all the attacks."


    "Reece, no." Mom gasped.


    "I''m on my way back, we need to find her."


    I called Noah back as soon as I hung up with Mom.


    "Any luck?"


    "No, her phone went straight to voicemail."


    "So they turned it off?" I snarled. "I''m almost back to the hotel, get everything ready and get out here quick, we''re going back tonight, even if I have to charter a ne."


    "I''m already on it."


    I wasn''t about to leave my mate to fight against whoever had her by herself. It was my job to protect her. It was my job to save her.


    I''ming, Little Bunny.


    Noah was waiting for me outside when I pulled into the hotel driveway. He had our bags and threw into the car as soon as it came to a stop. He jumped into the front seat even as I was starting to speed away.


    We made it to the airport just after seven. It hadn''t even been an hour since I had known that something was wrong but I felt like it had been too long already.


    I let Noah return the car while I tried to buy tickets. But I ran into a problem. There were no seats avable on any flights back to Colorado without connections that would dy me too long. I needed to hurry.


    Looks like I was going to follow through on my charteringment. I would buy a whole damned ne to get me to where I needed to be dammit. This was LA, there were plenty of private nes for rent, I just needed to find one thiste at night.


    After nearly half an hour of searching, a copious amount of threats and a hefty bribe I managed to get a pilot who would fly us back home. The problem, they couldn''t get clearance for the small airport right in our own city, the closest we could get was Denver, it was over an hour away and no where near the car we had waiting for us.


    I made another call and had a car waiting for us as well. I would not waste a second once the nended. I was going to find my mate, and quickly.


    I called Vincent to let him know what had happened. I knew it was his night off, but as the head of her security, he needed to know what had happened to Trinity, he needed to know that my Little Bunny was missing.


    "Hey Boss, this is a surprise, I didn''t expect a call from you. Aren''t you on your business trip?" Vincent sounded so unassuming. He was not prepared to hear what I was about to tell him, he would me himself as much as I med myself. If only I had brought her with me like she wanted, this wouldn''t have happened.


    "Vincent, I have some work I need you to do."


    "What''s wrong?" He could sense the tension in my voice, so I heard as it entered his to match mine.


    "I am on my way back home now, but I am still a few hours away. Trinity is missing."


    "What?!" He nearly shouted into the phone. "What happened? How can this be? She''s not supposed to leave the house, how can she be missing?"


    "Caleb came back. It seems my suspicions were right, and he took advantage of my absence."


    "Caleb? Caleb took her?" He seemed to be in a state of shock. "Why would the Beta take her?"


    "He wants to be alpha, so he has been working against me. I think he has been helping the rogues and Warlocks that are after her."


    "He''ll pay for this. I swear to you Sir, he will not get away with this."


    "I''m d to hear you say that. I intend to make him suffer for hurting her." I growled into the phone. "I need you to go investigate where she went missing, or where I think she went missing."


    "Where? I''ll get the others and go right away." His voice was alert and intense.


    "From what I could sense, it seemed like she was near the university. It smelled like it was near the Thai restaurant."


    "I will start at the house, ask if they know anything about where they went. Then, I will run a thorough search in town. I will have a report ready for you when you return."


    "I would expect nothing less of you. You''re a good man, Vincent."


    "We will find her, Sir, I promise."


    "We''d better."

 Chapter 94 - Reece-Frantic For An Update

    <h4>Chapter 94 - Reece-Frantic For An Update</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    It was nine before we were given the all clear for take off. The Liberty 75 Learjet was small and wouldn''t fly nearly as fast as amercial ne, but it was better than havingyovers thatst hours long. The result was a nearly three hour flight, and with the time change it was one in the morning when I dened and made my way toward my rental car.


    I had rented the fastest sports car I could find, and I would be putting it to the test. I raced through the night, across the empty highway. I made the seventy minute drive in just over forty-five minutes. I pulled into the garage back at home by two in the morning.


    I should have been tired, with howte it was and the hectic night, but sleep was thest thing on my mind. I found Vincent and David waiting for me in the kitchen when I went inside.


    "Tell me you found something." I begged him.


    "I''m sorry Alpha, it seems like they had help from the Warlocks. Their scents disappeared almost immediately." He hung his head in shame.


    "Dammit." I growled. "What do they want with her?"


    "I don''t know, Sir, but we will find her." He was showing his deference by refusing to look me in the eyes, he was focused on something over my shoulder.


    "Where are the others?" I demanded, she still had two more guards and they weren''t here right now, I needed to know that she hadn''t been betrayed.


    "Shane and Shawn are trying to track them as best as they can, Sir, they refused to stop until they had something to report."


    "Good, let me know when they get back."


    I left the room to change out of my suit and into something I didn''t mind getting dirty, or destroyed if I had to shift in a hurry. My tension was at its max and I would not rx until I saw my Little Bunny''s face again.


    I needed to focus. If I was going to find her I had to use the mark I had given her. It was the only way. But with how wound up I was there was no way I could focus. I needed to rx a little first.


    Perhaps a hot shower would help rx the tension in my body long enough for me to focus on the mate mark I had put on her. I set the water to nearly scalding and climbed in.


    My entire time in the shower I kept thinking about my Little Bunny''s face, her tender little body that was no match for a full grown wolf. If anyone hurt her I would kill them. Rip them apart with my bare hands, tear them to shreds with my own teeth.


    My wolf had been alternating between snarls and whines all night. His anger would overflow at the disappearance of our mate, and his hackles would rise. More than once I had to stop myself from turning after he had already initiated it. When he wasn''t snarling and growling for her return he was whining, howling to the Moon Goddess to bring her back. I felt every ounce of his pain. I needed to see my mate, to hold her in my arms again.


    When I finally got her back, I was probably never going to let her out of my sight again. I should have listened to her. I should have just brought her on the trip with us. She would have been safer. How could I have been so arrogant to believe that she would be safe as long as she was in my home. She was only safe as long as she was at my side. I would never forgive myself for this.


    When I couldn''t stand to be in the shower any longer, I finally shut the water off and stepped out. While drying myself I felt a small, sharp pain in my neck. That was when I remembered that my Little Bunny had bitten me backst night.


    The sensation of biting her while inside of her had been amazing, but when she bit me back,pleting the circle, it had turned that feeling from amazing into mind blowing. I finally knew what it was she had felt when I marked her so long ago. The heat that was pouring from her body into mine.


    The flow of heat followed the rhythm at which I drove into her small body. It poured from me into her with every thrust in, and it flowed back into me from her mouth with every pull back. The developed rhythm, the flow between us, made it the best night of my life. I couldn''t believe I had waited so long for her.


    She was also the first woman I had gone back to. The first woman I had been with more than once. And she was the first woman I had spent the entire night with. I had never fallen asleep with a lover in my arms, nor woken to the feeling of her pressed, naked, against me. It was something I could definitely grow to enjoy, and I never wanted another lover again. She was it for me. There could never be another woman for me for as long as I lived.


    I examined the point on my neck where she had bitten me. She had gotten me right where a mate mark was left. ''I wonder if she did that on purpose?'' I asked myself jokingly. But I noticed that there was a dark spot there still. Surely it wasn''t still bruised, it would have healed by now for certain.


    Sure enough, I could see something there, right where she had bitten me. I inched closer to the mirror, to get a better look. But it wasn''t a bruise I was seeing. It was a mate mark.


    How is this possible? Men have never gotten mate marks before. But there it was. I could see the outline of a crest forming where her teeth had been. She''d partially changed against night, her teeth, nails, and eyes had be wolf like just like the night before but she still hadn''t changed. With any luck she will change soon, and could possibly help defend herself even more.


    I concentrated on the mark I left on her, and the mark I could see forming on myself, they were links between us. She could link to me with my mark and I could link to her with hers. If we each had a mark that should just make the link that much stronger.


    I put my hand on my mark and closed my eyes. I thought about my mate, my Little Bunny. I pictured her beautiful face, the soft curve of her jaw, her plump, cupid''s bow shaped lips, her small, perfectly shaped nose, those big, curious, bright blue eyes of hers. The heart shape of her face. The pale, moonlike glow she had to her skin. The dark brown, almost ck, hair that smelled so wonderful. Her tight, exquisite little body.


    I imagined the feel of her. The way she smelled. Every detail about her would help me link to her. The image was so clear that I felt like I could just reach out and touch her.


    I watched as she looked around her, the serene look on her face changed into one of anger and pain. The room around her came into focus. I saw her there, sitting in a dimly lit stone room.


    I couldn''t see anyone else around her, but I could see my Little Bunny. She had a bruise across the left side of her face. Blood was running down from a split in her lip. Her eye was swollen. But there was no trace of fear in her eyes. There were no tracks in the dirt on her face, so she had not been crying. She was being brave, but how long would that hold out for.


    "Trinity." I called out to her. I saw her head turn toward the sound of my voice but she couldn''t see me, I didn''t even know if she could hear me. But the movement she made and my outburst seemed to have broken the connection. I couldn''t see the outside of the building, but she seemed to be in an old building with a stone basement. It looked like the cer of a very old house.


    "I''ll find you, please hang in there." I cried out. "I''m sorry, Little Bunny."

 Chapter 95 - Trinity-A Surprising Truth

    <h4>Chapter 95 - Trinity-A Surprising Truth</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I woke up in a room that was nearly dark, just a smallmp across the room from me. It was damp and smelled like mold, mildew, and dirt. I felt a slight chill. All these clues made me think I was underground somewhere, most likely a very old cer or basement. The table themp sat on and a single chair next to it were the only furniture I could see in the room.


    Thest thing I had remembered was calling out Reece''s name when Caleb was about to put the cloth over my mouth. Now, I was waking up groggily with my face pressed into the dirt. The left side of my face stung like I had been hit, or maybe dropped, on my face.


    I tried to push myself into a sitting position, but that was when I realized that my arms were tied behind my back. They had obviously been there for a while because they had gone numb from the position they were in. I didn''t know what time it was, or how long I''d been here, but I knew I needed to get away.


    I used my shoulder and rolled to the side to get myself into a sitting position. My head and face throbbed and it was difficult to see out of my left eye. There was also a slight taste of blood in my mouth and a stinging ache on my lips. I couldn''t tell if someone had hit me while I was unconscious or if they had just dropped me on my face when they threw in this room.


    I was looking around the room, trying to get my bearings when I heard someone whisper my name. It sounded like Reece''s voice but I didn''t see him anywhere. It was impossible for him to be here anyway, he was in LA, he didn''t even know what had happened to me. And we might have gotten closer over thest few days, but I doubt he would put that much effort into finding me. No, I was going to be here until I saved myself.


    "Finally, you''re awake." A man spoke from the shadows, his voice was ominous, deep and smooth, and? vaguely familiar.


    "Who are you?" I demanded of the dark corner.


    "I''ve been waiting a long time for you, Trinity." The man stepped forward into the dim light. He was tall if you were thinking from a human perspective, but he was shorter than most of the men in the pack, probably just shy of six feet tall. He had hair that was as white as snow yet he looked no older than thirty. His face was long and full of angr lines. But hisplexion that looked moonlight and his bright blue eyes were the exact same as mine.


    "Who are you?" I asked again but in a much weaker voice.


    "You''ve been asleep for several hours, how are you feeling?"


    "Stop ignoring me." I shouted at him. He smirked, looking at me with an odd expression, it was calm but looked frightening.


    "You don''t want my full attention yet child, so be careful what you ask for." His voice was menacing as he stalked in slow circles around the cold, damp room.


    "What do you want with me?"


    "I was bringing you home, child, back to where you belong." He was smiling now, his voice holding a fake sense of happiness and concern.


    "Home? What do you mean home? I don''t belong here. I was born in the pack, that''s where I belong."


    "You may have been born there, Trinity, but that''s not where you belong. I''m certain you know that as well as I do." His words were cutting deep, hitting me hard where I''ve always felt the most insecure.


    "No, I belong with the pack. I am the Luna, I have a mate. I belong there, with my pack, with my mate."


    "A mate who doesn''t love you? A mate who doesn''t want you? Are you certain you''re evenpatible? Could you really be mated with him?" He spoke in a calm, even voice but his words were sharp and biting.


    "Shut up. You don''t know what you''re talking about. You''re wrong. I don''t belong here, I belong with my pack, with my mate." I screamed at him.


    "We will see about that." He seemed to hum. "If hees for you, then you belong with him and the pack. But if he doesn''t, then you belong here, with your father."


    "My father?" I gasped.


    "I have been waiting for you, child. All these years I have been waiting for you to return to me."


    "You can''t be my father." I scoffed at him.


    "You wound me. Why would you deny me, my own daughter? I have finally found you after you were stolen away from me. I have never been given the chance to be part of your life, and when I finally find you you deny me." The fake sense of hurt in his voice was frightening, it was like every emotion he had was fake. Did he feel anything at all?


    "How could you be my father? You look like you''re thirty, at most, that would have made you nothing but a child when I was conceived."


    "Looks can be deceiving, especially among us with magic my dear. It is something you will learn for yourself soon. I have been leading this coven for over two hundred years."


    "Are you telling me that I am half witch?" I asked him incredulously. "That can''t be. It''s impossible. I am not a witch, I belong to the werewolf pack."


    "Do you have a wolf?" He sounded smug as he grinned at me. I didn''t answer him. "I know you don''t, there''s no use trying to hide it to me. You don''t have a wolf because it is not oftenpatible with us magic users."


    "You''re wrong. I have wolf traits. I have the enhanced abilities. That means I can''t be a witch."


    "That is why I created you."


    "Created me?" I was shocked to hear what he had just told me.


    "Yes, I created you, Trinity. I needed someone to be my pawn, my way into the wolf packs. And that''s where youe in."


    "I don''t understand? How did you create me? And how is having me around of any use to you?"


    "How did I create you? Come now, child, you''re not that young and naive are you?"


    "So, you raped my mother?" I was disgusted, just the sight of him was making me sick to my stomach.


    "She was needed to serve a purpose. If it makes you feel any better, she didn''t remember any of it."


    "No, it doesn''t. Because of you, and what you did to her, my mother killed herself."


    "Yes, but without me you wouldn''t be here." He smiled like that made it all better, like he didn''t ruin my mother''s life when she was just fifteen years old.


    "Why? Why would you do this? Why would you do that to my mother? She was only fifteen for crying out loud."


    "I''m well aware of how old she was. I chose her specifically. She was determined to be especially susceptible to my bloodline. My mistake was sending her back to her family so soon. I should have kept her longer. She might not have ended up so weak minded if I had more time with her."


    "You''re a monster, you sick son of bitch." I wanted to get away from him but I had no means to get by him at the moment. I knew he would destroy me in my current state.


    "Think what you want of me, but I will do what''s best for my coven. I have fought to live the way we see fit for centuries, I will not give up because some pathetic little girl calls me a monster." His voice was icy and held an edge of anger. It was the first emotion I had seen from him.


    "You''ve fought against wolf packs for centuries?" I asked him, confused.


    "Not just wolves. I have fought against the magic council, vampires, Fae, anyone who tries to oppose the way my coven lives."


    "If everyone thinks you''re wrong, don''t you think it''s about time to ept that they''re right and you''re wrong?" I snapped at him.


    "I don''t care who is right or wrong. My coven will continue to live the same way we always have. And I will destroy anyone who tries to stand in my way."


    "You''re insane." I breathed, unable toprehend everything that he was saying.


    "Maybe I am, but I will not give up my coven or my power, not for anyone. That''s why I needed you." There was a maniacal fire burning in his eyes now.


    "Why? What can I do?" I yelled even though he was right in front of me.


    "You will be my tool. I am going to force your magic to manifest, and when it does I will send you back to your precious wolf pack. You''ll be the agent of destruction among the wolves that I have been nning for all these years. You will simultaneously manipte them to work for me as well as bring about their ultimate downfall. I will rule the shadow world. And when I do, I will reveal my ever growing coven to the humans. When that happens, I will rule over the entire world." He was nothing more than a megalomaniacal fiend, his plot seemed like something out of aic book to me.


    "Do you seriously think that I will help you? That I will just y along with you little n."


    "You won''t have a choice. You think I can''t manipte your mind? I''ll change your memories, make you forget everything that happened here just like I made your mother forget. It will be apulsion to you. You will do anything I ask you to do." He reached his hand slowly toward me and pushed my hair out of my face. His hands were as cold as ice when they touched me. I shuddered in disgust when he touched my face.

 Chapter 96 - Trinity-Torture

    <h4>Chapter 96 - Trinity-Torture</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "It''s time for us to get to work." He grinned at me. I heard a door open in the shadows where he had appeared from. Four people walked in, three men and one woman. The men were the same group that had attacked me outside of Riley''s pack house. I had never seen the woman before.


    Two of the men came and grabbed me by the arms, yanking me to my feet. The woman went across the room to the chair. She dragged it into the middle of the room which I could now see had a pattern drawn on it in ck. I couldn''t see the whole pattern clearly but it seemed to be made up of curving lines that formed a three leaf pattern, running through the pointed tip of each leaf was the line of a circle.


    The chair was put right in the middle of the symbol. The two men carried me over to the chair, my feet dangling in the air below me. I would have kicked out at them, doing something in an attempt to get away, but the look on the third man''s face as he held a knife menacingly in his hands stopped me.


    The man with the knife was the man that had kicked me in the head before. He used the knife to cut the ropes from my hands. As soon as my hands were free the two men holding me forced me into the chair. I saw an eerie sh of light out of the corner of my eye, it was a strange purplish light so dark I almost wanted to call it ck. The next thing I knew there were ropes winding their way around my arms and legs, binding me to the chair.


    "What are you nning?" I snapped at them.


    "Shall we get started now, Master Edmond?"


    "So, that''s your name? Edmond? At least now I know the name of my father that I can hate and resent for the rest of my life."


    "Watch your tongue, mongrel. He is the high warlock of this coven. Master Edmond is the greatest of all time." The woman red at me as she spoke.


    "I don''t care who Edmond is. To me he is nothing more than a psychotic bastard."


    "I said watch your tongue." My head snapped to the side as the woman smacked me across the face with tremendous force.


    "That''s enough, Reya." Edmond spoke calmly. "Actually Edmond is my surname, child. The name you should have been given but I was not able to grant to you. Gannon Cornelius Edmond, high warlock of the Sacramentum de Mortis." Edmond boasted proudly as he leaned over me.


    "The Covenant of Death, how charming. I''m sure you have people begging to join you everywhere you go." I snapped sarcastically.


    "So you speak Latin, wonderful."


    "It''s one of thenguages I was forced to learn growing up, never thought it''d being into use like this though."


    "You''re in need of an attitude adjustment, aren''t you."


    "I don''t think so. No one else has ever had a problem with my attitude. You seem to be the only ones who don''t like it."


    "Hmm, we will just need to take care of it ourselves then. Grantham, Cormac, Beckett, why don''t you do something about this. Reya, you help them out." He grinned as he went to leave the room. "If you can''t change her attitude or make her magic manifest by tomorrow, well, then it''s my turn."


    I heard the sound of four sinisterughs as Edmond left the room. I slowly turned my head to focus on the four people who remained in the room with me.


    "This will be fun." One of the men said as he punched me in the face. I felt an explosion of pain as blood began to trickle down my face, over my lips, and onto myp. The man who hit me was about five-foot-ten with short, greasy, light brown hair and pale gray eyes.


    "Yeah, we can get some payback from before." Another of the men said as he aimed a blow right into my stomach. He was maybe an inch taller than the other one, with long, dry, dirty blond hair and muddy brown eyes.


    "Let''s not y around, we have other methods." Thest man said as he walked to the outer edge of the room. He came back carrying arge device with a crank handle on the side. This man had the muddy brown eyes of the second one but the light brown hair of the first one, he was simr in height and features to them both as well. It looked like they were all rted somehow.


    "Oooh, you brought us a toy." The woman, Reya,ughed excitedly. She looked nothing like the men. She was short, like me, but she had bright, unnaturally red hair and ck eyes. Instead of the normal paleplexion that goes with red hair she had an oliveplexion. Her overall look was wild and unkempt.


    The device the man carried in was attached to my hands, feet, and head with cables.


    "Douse her, Beckett." The man with the light brown hair and muddy brown eyes said. I didn''t see which one but one of the other men must have grabbed a bucket of water from somewhere as the next thing I knew I felt the ice cold water being dumped over my head. I shivered for a moment, letting my body get used to the feeling of the water. I had a feeling I knew what wasing next, and I was not looking forward to it.


    "Crank it Cormac." The same man instructed, by process of elimination this made him Grantham. The man with the dirty blond hair smiled as he put his hand on the device''s crank.


    "Ready to jump?" Cormac smirked as he began to turn the crank.


    I felt jolts of electricity when the crank started to turn. They started out small when he was just getting started, but the more the crank turned the more intense the currents became. It wasn''t long before it was nearly unbearable.


    I refused to cry out. I clenched my jaw and squeezed my eyes shut as my body began to jerk uncontrobly. I couldn''t move a single muscle in my body. The spasms wracking through my body was throwing me against the ropes binding me to the chair causing them to dig in painfully.


    Gradually the current running through me lessened. My body began to settle back into the chair. I slumped forward unable to hold my head up. I was breathing heavily, the breaths sawing in and out of my lungs painfully.


    I red at the man, Cormac, through the hair that was stuck to my face with water and sweat. I wanted to hurt them. I wanted to destroy them in that moment. With every fiber of my being I wanted to do harm to another person unlike never before.


    "I see your attitude hasn''t improved at all." Grantham chuckled. "I think you need another lesson." Cormac began to turn the crank again, faster this time. The spasms began once more causing my body to toss and thrash about wildly.


    The pain was more intense, but still I did not cry out. I held my cries, my screams of pain inside.


    Just as I was ready to throw my head back and scream the current stopped. I nearly sighed in relief, but I managed to hold it in. Once again I red daggers at the sadistic warlocks in front of me.


    "We need to do something about you moving all over the ce. Let''s tie her up some more." Beckett said from behind me.


    "I have just the idea." Reya said from somewhere in the dark. She came sauntering out with another cord of rope. She wrapped the cord around my neck, not quite choking me.


    "A garrote, good thinking, that will hold her in ce." Beckettughed. "But let''s add one more." He came forward, apparently he had another cord. He wrapped his cord around my upper chest, this one was much tighter than the one around my neck.


    Once again the current poured into my body. Jolt after jolt. My body jerked harder than before. Cormac was spinning the crank wildly, faster than he had either time before.


    My body spasmed and thrashed against the bindings. The cords cut into my chest and tightened around my neck. I couldn''t breathe. I could feel the ropes scraping the skin away where they rubbed against me at my neck and wrists. But the pain was nothingpared to the jolts of electricity.


    I couldn''t bear it any longer. I had tried to keep from screaming. I had tried not to cry out. But I gave in. I used thest of the air in my lungs to scream long and loud. I lost consciousness as thest of the breath left my body.

 Chapter 97 - Reece-Missing Warriors

    <h4>Chapter 97 - Reece-Missing Warriors</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I told Vincent to wait until six to call the rest of the pack warriors to the house. I wanted everyone here working on finding my Little Bunny. I wouldn''t ept anyone not putting their all into this.


    The men and women started to arrive quickly, having been summoned to the alpha house on official business. I was expecting nearly a hundred warriors to show, but imagine my surprise when I barely had eighty-five show up. We seemed to be missing quite a few people.


    I gave Noah the task of seeing who exactly was missing while I called Riley. I needed to have as much backup on this as possible.


    "Reece, you better have one hell of a good reason for calling me so damn early." Riley grumbled into my ear.


    "Someone kidnapped my matest night." I snapped back at him.


    "What the hell? Who?"


    "I don''t know, I was out of the state on business when it happened." I sighed. "I need your help Ri."


    "Yeah, anything, man, just tell me."


    "First, find out if there are any members of your pack missing. Then I need you to take everyone that is left, everyone that you trust, and help me search for clues. I need to track any one that might be missing from my pack and yours."


    "Missing from your pack? Who is missing from your pack?" Riley seemed shocked at the very thought that someone from my pack had betrayed me.


    "I''m not certain who all yet, but I seem to be missing about a dozen warriors at least. I''m not sure who else, I have a bigger pack and a muchrger territory, it will take a lot longer to find out theplete list."


    "I''ll rouse the pack and do a full roll call. Once that''s done I will wait for your instructions."


    "Thank''s Riley." I didn''t know how far this web of lies in my pack went, but at least I still had my allies.


    When Noah came back, he had a list of everyone that was missing from the warriors. Among them were the former guards that seemed to have caused problems for Trinity. There were a few other neers to the pack missing, but the rest had been in the pack their whole lives.


    I realized now that I might have gone too easy on those guards. I had reassigned them, put them back through training, and disciplined them. But I had not banished them, or better yet killed them. If they had anything to do with this directly, then I will personally see to it that are ripped to pieces.


    As for the missing pack members that had been with us since birth, their families had been here for generations. I just needed to look at who the families were. That was enough to tell me that each one of them had been loyal to Caleb, or better yet, my Uncle Frederick for years now.


    It looks like I''ve got to clean house. There are clearly some problems inside my pack that need to be rectified. Traitors will not be tolerated in my pack. If they didn''t do anything directly and walked away they might live. But if any of them so much as touched her, or knew about what was going to happen to her then they would pay dearly.


    Mom had been asleep when I had gotten home. So, even though she knew what had happened yesterday, she didn''t have any new details. She came to see me in my office just after noon, after she had lunch. She had the Whittons with her when she came .


    "Reece!" Mom eximed as she ran toward me. She threw her arms around my neck, squeezing me tight. "Oh Reece, we will find her. I know we will." She soothed me, rubbing one hand over the back of my head.


    "I hope so, Mom. I won''t ever stop looking for her." I whispered dejectedly.


    "Alpha?" Wesley, Little Bunny''s uncle, said my title as question, he seemed to be at a loss."


    "Call me Reece, we''re family now after all." I told him. He looked taken aback by that, but continued nheless.


    "Reece, what happened?"


    "I don''t know exactly, but I''m trying to figure that out."


    "How did this even happen?" Eve seemed to have been crying a lot recently.


    "Noah and I were gone on business, someone took advantage of that and orchestrated this situation."


    "You find her, boy. You need to find her so the same thing doesn''t happen to her that happened to my daughter." The old man''s face seemed to have broken, tears were falling from his eyes and sorrow filled his face. I had never seen the old man behave so emotionally.


    "I won''t let that happen to her, Mr. Whitton. I refuse to lose her to anyone." I could see Noah standing behind his family, a strange expression on his face, a mix of pain and anger. He was ming himself as much as I was. He had advocated for me to leave Trinity home as well, he didn''t want to put her at risk, now look what had happened.


    "Reece, you haven''t eaten or slept since you found out what happened, have you?" Mom sounded worried.


    "I can''t, I need to find her first."


    "What use are you going to be to her if you don''t have the energy to function? The same goes for you Noah. I know that you two will refuse to sit idly by and let others rescue her when she is found, you need at least a little rest."


    "I wouldn''t be able to rx enough mom. I can''t bring myself to sleep knowing she''s out there somewhere. Who knows what''s happening to her." I had been imagining things all night. Horrible things that they might have done to her. My imagination was running rampant.


    "Reece, you need sleep. You need to be at your best for her."


    "She''s right son, you need to rest. You too Noah. Go get something to eat and get some sleep." Eve added, backing up Mom''s insistent words.


    "I know that you''re right, it''s just not going to be easy. But I promise to try." Noah agreed.


    "That''s all I ask." Eve smiled at him.


    "Reece?" Mom implored me.


    "I''ll try." I grumbled.


    I did intend to try. Mom forced me into the kitchen where I was given a te of food made by Abigail. But all I could think about while trying to eat was how Little Bunny wasn''t there. How her not being there made the food taste nd. I managed to force myself to eat almost half of it, but that was all I could manage.

 Chapter 98 - Reece-Another Vision Of Little Bunny

    <h4>Chapter 98 - Reece-Another Vision Of Little Bunny</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I dragged my feet slowly up the stairs. Each step seemed to take its toll on me mentally, telling me I was getting further and further away from where I needed to be.


    I didn''t want to go to my room. I would find no sce in there. My room was a ce of solitude and loneliness. It was the prison I had sentenced myself to for years.


    I turned left at the top of the stairs, away from my room. I followed the scent that lingered from my mate, the smell that drove my wolf wild and made everything seem right with the world. I trudged along, down the hall to her room.


    It hurt, opening the door and seeing her room empty. She wasn''t there to brighten the space. But smelling her scent so intensely did help a little.


    I was actually starting to feel really tired, now that I was here. I walked slowly to her bed, the bed we shared so recently. The bed where I had learned so much about her body. I felt a hollow ache inside me when I thought about those nights, and how she wasn''t here for me to hold now.


    I grabbed her jacket as I passed the chair it was hanging on. The soft blue cloth held so much of her scent trapped in it''s folds. I kicked my shoes off next to the bed and pulled back the covers. I crawled into the middle of the bed, but I didn''t bother to pull the nkets around me, I didn''t need them, I just needed to smell more of my Little Bunny''s scent where it was trapped in her pillows.


    With my head resting on the soft pillows, holding her jacket close to my face, I closed my eyes. I didn''t expect to fall asleep so quickly when I came to her room, but I was more exhausted than I thought.


    I started to drift into an uneasy sleep. All I could think about was finding my mate. Finding my Little Bunny. Finding Trinity.


    I felt myself walking as if on air. The feeling was disconcerting but I paid no mind to it. I was focused on what I was seeing. I was walking through the woods toward an old run down house, approaching it at an angle. It was clearly built in thete 1800s, there was a stone foundation under the dark wooden construction.


    The front of the house had two windows and a door, and had a slightly taller pitched roof with two chimneys. The side of the house I could see had four windows, two upstairs and two down. There was a second portion of the house in the back, all one floor, with a small porch set back into the house, walls from the house closing it in on three sides. There were cer doors near the front of the house, leading down to what was likely to be a very old basement.


    I didn''t know why I was seeing this ce, why I was here, but I continued walking toward the old house. I thought it would be dpidated, void of all life, but it was clear that people were here, either living here oring here frequently.


    I saw footprints, drag marks, and scuffs in the dirt and dust around the house. Whoever was here had only starteding recently. I wasn''t able to smell anything, at all, and that was disconcerting. I couldn''t smell the dirt, the trees, the old rotting wood of the house, nothing. But I could feel how cold it was here. It felt like I was covered in ice, I had to resist the urge to shiver.


    I hadn''t heard the sound of any animals since I had been here. Not a single bird, no mouse scurrying in the woods, it was silent. Until I got to the front of the house. Then I heard the sound of someone screaming, long drawn out sound like someone was in immense pain. It sounded like my Little Bunny.


    I whipped my head side to side trying to find out where the scream wasing from, where the sound was most intense. She sounded so close to me, yet so far away.


    "Trinity?" I called out to her. "Where are you?" I ran through the house just as the screaming started to fade. "Where are you Little Bunny?" But there was nothing but silence now. The sound of her scream was still ringing in my ear. I searched every room but I could not find her.


    "Trinity?" I called out for her several times but there was no answer.


    I heard a mming from somewhere outside, and several voicesughing. When I ran outside I saw no one, but the voices still echoed. The only ce the voices could havee from was the cer.


    I threw the cer doors open and bolted down the stairs. The stairs went down farther than I expected. The long narrow staircase was dark, no light prated to help guide you down. Thankfully I didn''t need the light to make my way down.


    When I emerged I was in a stone room carved out of the rocky earth. It was square, maybe twenty feet long per side, with only amp on a small table to light the room. One chair was sat in the middle of the room on top of strange ck likes. And there in the corner of the room, was my mate.


    She was unconscious. Blood had dried on her face even though it looked like it had been rinsed off somewhat, there was blood on her clothes, like it had dripped down her face onto her jacket, shirt, and pants. I could see red marks around her neck and wrists like she had been tied to something and then thrashed around a lot. Bruises were starting to show on her face, neck, and wrists.


    My heart ached seeing her hurt like this. I ran to her, I wanted to hold her in my arms, to take her home with me. To protect her, keep her safe. To make everything better again.


    "Little Bunny." I cried out as I reached her side.


    I stretched my arms out to her, intent to scoop her up and hold her to my chest, but my arms passed right through her. I couldn''t touch her. It was like I wasn''t really here. It exined why he couldn''t hear any sound besides her scream and the voices outside, or why he couldn''t smell anything.


    "Is this where you are?" I asked her. "Is this real Little Bunny?" I tried to get an answer out of her, but she couldn''t answer me. "I''m going to find you."


    I felt myself being pulled. Like there was a tether attached to my navel, pulling me backwards. I passed through the ground, then the foundation and floor of the house. Once I was through the walls, I started moving faster, rising higher and higher.


    I saw the area around the house. It was a farmhouse with a barn, but it was surrounded by trees on all sides. Once you went past the yard it was trees for at least half a mile or more in every direction. There was a small town nearby, the biggest building in it was an ornately decorated church with a bell tower that looked out of ce in the tiny town.


    As I got higher, I saw cliffs off in the distance. ck cliffs. There was only one ce I knew that had cliffs that looked like this, the ck Canyons. But where at? Where is this house near the canyons?


    Could they seriously have taken her this far? It was almost a six hour drive from the university. Why bring her all the way here. What was the purpose?


    I woke to the sound of someone knocking on the door.


    "Reece, are you in there?" Mom was calling me.


    "Yeah, Mom, I''m in here." I said sitting up and sliding to the edge of the bed as she came into the room.


    "Sweetie, what are you doing in here?"


    "You told me to get some sleep, so I did." I yawned as I spoke, showing how little rest I had actually gotten.


    "Doesn''t look like it helped at all."


    "I was gued by strange dreams."


    "What kind of strange dreams?" She seemed concerned, but I wasn''t ready to tell her what I saw. Not until I found out if that house was real.


    "Just my worries,ing to bother me."


    "Reece, have you told her how you feel yet?" Mom asked me. My head snapped to the side, my eyes open wide in surprise. How did she know, I hadn''t told my mom how I felt about Trinity, the only one who knew was Noah. Sheughed at me before she spoke again. "Reece, I''m your mother. I may have been asleep for seven years, but there''s still no one who can read you like I can. I know you love her."


    "No, I haven''t told her yet. I was going to before I left, but Noah got in my way."


    "He is rather protective of her isn''t he?"


    "He''s like a brother to her. I''m actually grateful he was there for her. Did you know he actually punched my in the face for how I treated her?"


    "Now that''s one brave man." Mom wasughing again. "I know that with the two of you working on it, we will find her. You both love her very much. Her mate and her brother working together, what better way to find her?"


    "You know he''s not really her brother right? He''s her cousin."


    "He''s one of the only two brothers that girl will ever have. He''s her oldest brother now, he may legally and gically be her cousin, but that boy has always been her brother." Mom smiled. "And now that you''re not in denial, you will always be her mate. The two of you will find her, I know you will." She seemed so certain that it was making me more confident as well.

 Chapter 99 - Trinity-The Warlocks Return

    <h4>Chapter 99 - Trinity-The Warlocks Return</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I woke with a start when I felt cold water ssh over me. I was drenched from head to toe. When I gasped from the feel of the icy cold water I inhaled a mouthful which caused me to cough and choke uncontrobly.


    "It''s about time you wake up." Reya sneered as she stood over me holding an empty bucket. She was wearing a very pretty, flowing purple dress, she looked like she was going to a party rather than spending time in a dreary stone room.


    "Too bad she wasn''t a werefish, then she wouldn''t be choking." Beckett cackled at his own stupid joke while I tried hard to stifle the coughs.


    "What do you want?" My voice came out hoarse when I tried to snap at them causing them to lose the biting edge they might otherwise have held.


    "I see your lessons bore no fruit." I heard Grantham drawl from somewhere in the darkened room. "It''s a good thing we''re here for another round of your training."


    "We''ve got some wonderful ns in store for you this time." Cormac walked forward out of the dark, a heavy looking chain in his hands.


    A few minutester I was standing in the middle of the room, directly in the center of the circle. The chair had been moved aside, leaving the area open and free of obstacles. My hands were once again bound tightly by the thin cords of rope.


    The chain Cormac had brought in was attached to a hook in the ceiling and threaded through the ropes around my wrists. I was strung up with my feet barely reaching the floor. If I grew tired and was unable to stand, my wrists would be all that supported my weight.


    "I don''t think you''ll be needing this." Reyaughed as she pulled violently on the jacket I was still wearing. The fabric gave and tore roughly away from my body. Beneath the Jacket I had been wearing a thin, light blue, button-up shirt over a white cami and bra. All of which was already stained.


    "One more adjustment should do." Beckett sounded giddy as he approached me. I couldn''t see what he had nned as he came closer to me. But I felt the cold steel of his knife as he slid the de into the top of my shirt. He moved the knife down slowly at first but then, with a chuckle, he finished the slice in a quick flourishing move. He moved the de a little too eagerly at the end and I felt it slice into the small of my back for the briefest of moments. It stung, but the pain was tolerable.


    "Oops, my bad." He seemed to giggle as he saw what he had done. I didn''t know what they were about to do to me, but I was betting it was worse than a small cut on my back.


    I was standing there, my back now almostpletely bare to the four of them standing behind me. The cold air, and their eager gazes, were raising goosebumps all over my body. I was d they were not looking directly at my face, because I knew the fear was warring with the anger inside me and was likely visible in my eyes.


    There were suddenly different lights glowing eerily in the room. Dark green, a deep burgundy, a muddy brown, and smoky gray, colors you wouldn''t normally expect to seeing froms lights. They gave off no sense of warmth, in fact they seemed to make the already cold room even colder.


    The next thing I knew I felt a searing pain sh across my back. I bit down on my lip to keep from crying out but I couldn''t stop my body from jerking with the pain. The four of them cackled with glee at the sight of my misery.


    "That''s right, mongrel, this time it''s a dance lesson. Dance for us,e on dance." Reya almost seemed to be singing joyfully.


    Another searing pain rent across my back. I felt the skin split open this time. It felt like hot coals were being pressed against my back, the heat around the shes was so intense. I realized now what was happening, they had a whip and were beating me with it.


    "Let''s get to work." Grantham''s voice seemed to coo as he spoke. His voice was beginning to sicken me.


    I felt another sh followed quickly by another, then another and another. Four shes in quick session. They must all have a whip. Was that what those lights were? Did they have whips made of magic?


    I didn''t have time to think about it as I felt the pain searing and ying my back, strike after strike. I bit down hard on my lip to stop myself from crying out and I locked my knees to stop myself from moving as much as I could. But that just made them more determined.


    Whenever I did let a soft moan or cry of pain escape, unable to stop myself with the severe pain I was feeling, they wouldugh maniacally. They delighted in the pain I was feeling and it made them eager to hear more. I didn''t know how much more I could take, or how long it had already been.


    My vision was growing dark around the edges. My back was on fire. Not a piece of my back felt untouched by the glowing light whips in their hands. My legs were getting weak and unable to support me. I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry, but I refused. I fought to stay awake. I fought to stay conscious.


    To save a bit more of my strength I let my legs go ck, leaving me to hang from the ceiling by my hands. My arms and hands had long ago gone numb, and my back hurt so bad now that I could feel no pain anywhere else. But I remained awake. And I did not cry.


    "That should do for now." Grantham sneered from behind me. I hadn''t seen any of them since they had tied me in this position. "Cut her down."


    "Shouldn''t we just leave her?" Beckett said eagerly.


    "No, Master Edmond wants her cut down, she can''t be permanently damaged. Not beyond repair at least." Grantham seemed like he was the leader of the group and they all followed his lead.


    "Fine." Beckett grumbled, his voice growing nearer.


    I pretended to be asleep as he came closer to me. He slid the knife against my wrist, I felt the cold of the steel again as I pressed against me. He flicked his wrist quickly, slicing through the ropes holding me to the chain. I wanted to brace myself for the fall, but that would give away that I was pretending to be asleep, so I had no choice but to take the fall full force.


    I fell, the right side of my head banged against the stone floor first. The impact jostled me violently. When my upper body quickly followed all the air was pushed out of my lungs. I couldn''t breathe, I couldn''t take a breath at all. I knew I was going to lose consciousness again soon.


    Some of thest things I thought of before I could think no more were about Reece. How I wished he woulde for me. How I wanted him to save me, to rescue me. How I wished he would want to save me. And also how he was probably happy to be rid of me. How he no longer had me there to burden him. How this couldn''t havee at a better time for him, he finished his conquest and now it was out of sight.


    Wait, did he actually set this up? Did he n this whole thing? Was Reece really the one behind me being taken. Was he actually trying to get rid of me?


    Please, Reece, don''t be involved. Please don''t be a part of this pot full of crazy sauce. I can deal with you not caring enough toe save me. I know you don''t love me like I love you, but please, don''t be the one behind this whole thing.


    If I found out he was the one that caused this, the one that did all this, I would never recover. I would rather die than face that truth. I love him, there was no getting around that. That''s why it would destroy me too much.


    I heard the sound of the four maniacs leaving the basement just as I was on the verge of losing my consciousness altogether.


    "We''ll be back to y some more when she wakes up." Reyaughed. That was when my strength broke, at least temporarily. I began to cry. With my face pressed into the stone floor, unable to move my arms, unable to roll over or even sit up, I sobbed into the floor as I let the pain take me into unconsciousness.


    I fell into a state of fitful dreams, nightmares filled with words but no images. I heard Reece''s words from so long ago and Edmond''s voice from much more recently.


    "You''re more than a burden, I hate you." ''No, he said that was a lie.'' I heard my subconsciousness reject the words.


    "Are you sure you''repatible?" Edmond''s voice sneered at me. ''Yes, we are! We''re mates.'' My mind reeled again.


    "You are nothing to me." Reece''s words stung so much more than they did the first time I heard them. ''No, things are better now.'' I protested.


    "If hees for you, then you belong with him and the pack. But if he doesn''t, then you belong here, with your father." Edmond''s voice scared me. ''No, I will never stay with you, never.'' My dreams continued like this until my mind seemed to crack under the weight of doubt.

 Chapter 100 - Reece-Allies Arrive

    <h4>Chapter 100 - Reece-Allies Arrive</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I had been asleep for around five hours when mom came to get me. It was just starting to get dark again. My Little Bunny had been missing for twenty-two hours now, but if my dream was to be believed, then I had seen the house she was in.


    I had no choice but to believe it. It was the same basement I had seen her inst night when I had gotten out of the shower. I needed to find that house, if I find that house then I find her.


    I wanted to try using the mate mark again. I was sitting in the chair in her room, reluctant to leave her scent, when I put my right hand over the mark she had left on me. I had seen it in the mirror when I went to the bathroom and washed my face following my attempt at resting.


    The outlines of the mark had gotten darker. The crest in the middle was forming its picture, though it seemed to be different from the pack crest. And I could see the outline of the shape that surrounded it, the lines that flowed around it almost forming a three leaf pattern. It was a trinity symbol. I recognized it and realized that was the symbol that had been on the floor of the cer she was in, sort of. That one was a trinity symbol but it had a circle near the tips of leaf branches. Funny her pattern is her name, the thought made me smile.


    I closed my eyes, inhaling deeply of her scent that lingered in the room and on my clothes. I pictured her, every detail of her. It didn''t take as long to link with her this time.


    I saw her hanging limply from a chain in the cer. I still could not see the other people around her but I saw her clearly. The back of her shirt had been cut open, her jacket ripped away andying in tatters across the room. There were dozens upon dozens of red shes and welts all over her back. The skin split open in several ces. Blood was pouring down her back in steady streams.


    My wolf and I were ready to kill every single person who hadid a finger on her. They would all pay the ultimate price with their lives. They hadmitted the ultimate crime, the ultimate sin against me. They dared to touch and defile my mate.


    I watched as it appeared someone was about to cut her down. One moment she was hanging suspended by her wrists, then the next she fell face first against the stone floor. I ran to her side, I wanted to hold her but I couldn''t. I wanted to make sure she was alright.


    I knelt by her side, unable to touch her, As I watched hery there, the sound of the people in the room began to fade, and with it, she began to cry. I heard her cry out my name while sobbing before she drifted into a fitful sleep.


    I opened my eyes, seeing Little Bunny''s familiar room around me. I had seen the same basement this time. Every time it was the same. She had to be in that room. I just needed to find out where it was.


    I may not know where the house she was in is at, but I might know someone who does. But I''m not so sure that someone would want to help me out right now, we''re not exactly allies. Not enemies really, but not friends either.


    First, I would need to gather my pack and exin everything to them. They needed to be prepared for what we were walking into. Then, I would need to call the alpha of the ck Canyons pack. He was not someone I had ever spent much time with, I didn''t know what kind of man he was or if he would help at all. But I had to try.


    When I left Little Bunny''s room I noticed that the house was a lot busier than when I hadst been down stairs. I could smell and sense dozens of people, and they all seemed to be on the first floor. Fear and panic flooded me and I made my way down the hall and to the stairs.


    Was that dream a vision of something that had already passed? Did that happen a while ago? Have they already moved beyond the torture they were using on her then? Am I toote? These thoughts and more were running through my head as I moved down toward the crowd gathered in the formal dining room.


    The table was full of men and women, all chatting in semi-hushed voices and working their way through the piles of food on the table. I could tell that Abigail had cooked the feast, the food was easy to recognize, but she had obviously done it in a hurry as it wasn''t her best meal. Instead, the food was all things that could be cooked quickly and inrge quantities. the group gathered around didn''t seem to care.


    Among the group I noticed Riley, sitting quietly near the head of the table, next to where I would sit. He was lounging in the chair, trying to appear casual and nonchnt, but it was clear that he was upset. The line of his body was rigid and the stiff set to shoulders and jaw was a tell tale sign. He was also not eating, instead he was watching the men and women gathered eat their food instead.


    He lifted his head as I walked nearer to him. A tense look on his face.


    "Reece, how are you holding up man?" I could hear the concern in his voice.


    "I''m going to kill whoever took her." I grimaced. My voice didn''t shake, I didn''t have emotions filling my voice, but still I felt as if I sounded like a broken man. I watched as the sympathy filled Riley''s eyes.


    "Don''t worry Reece, I''ll make sure you get that chance." I saw the determination chase the sympathy away. Riley had a mate, he knew what it must feel like to be away from her.


    "How do you do it, Riley?" I asked as I sunk into my chair, my head slumped forward as my shoulders hunched.


    "Do what?" Riley was confused by my question.


    "How do you leave your mate? How do you live every day when you have to leave her at any time?"


    "You''ve fallen for her hard, haven''t you? I knew you would. It''s not like we can deny the truth the Goddess gives us, Reece. She told you that Trinity was your mate but you tried to fight it. Now, when she is in danger, you''ve only just started building you bonds with her, am I right?" I turned my head and red at him as he lectured me. "Looks like I nailed it in one. Look Reece, you have to understand that the Goddess doesn''t make mistakes. When she tells you that your mate is right in front of you it''s just a fact that you need to ept." Riley was always the immature goofy one of us, but having his mate around must have matured him somewhat.


    "I know."


    "Then why did you deny her?"


    "Because I''m a damn idiot." I admitted to him.


    "I won''t argue there."


    "Go fuck yourself." I snapped at him jokingly.


    "Nah, I''d rather have my wife, it''s more fun that way." He retorted. We bothughed for a moment as we watched the group around the table eat, but theughter felt hollow to me.

 Chapter 101 - Reece-A Talk With Riley And Noah

    <h4>Chapter 101 - Reece-A Talk With Riley And Noah</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    After everyone had eaten I gathered them all in the assembly hall so I could exin what had happened in detail. And inform them all of the visions I''d had of my Little Bunny, and where she might be. I would need to work fast to find her and get the help I needed.


    As I gave my exnations I saw that every face in the room was looking at me with rapt attention and shock. It seemed that no one could quite believe the level of betrayal that hade out of my pack. I saw several members from my own pack wearing angry looks.


    "Caleb, the former beta, and any other pack member that took direct part in the kidnapping of the Luna will be considered traitors. Your orders will be to execute them on sight or to bring them to me to do it if you feel unable to do it yourself. If you aid in their escape, you will also be considered a traitor and therefore subjected to the same fate. I will not tolerate this type of behavior in my pack." My voice held a firm edge as I stared sternly at every face in the room. I needed to make sure they all understood not to double cross me.


    "We expect cooperation from each and everyone of you. That is what it means to be part of a pack." Riley added. "This is not a matter to be taken lightly."


    "But where is the Luna? Where are the traitors? Where is the fight going to be?" One of my pack members, a man only about twenty years old named Julius, asked the questions that everyone in the entire room was waiting for me to get to.


    "I don''t know the exact location, yet. But I do know the general area. I will be heading there ahead of all of you to get things ready with that territory''s alpha."


    "What territory?" a member of Riley''s pack asked.


    "The ck Canyons." I answered solemnly and heard several people in the room gasp in response, including Riley. The ck Canyons'' Alpha was said to be ruthless and vtile. He was known to be unpredictable when angered. That was the main reason many packs ignored them in the yearly rotations, which their alpha never took part in.


    "Are you sure about this?" Riley asked me, his voice full of doubt.


    "Very sure. I know she is in that area." My voice was full of conviction as I looked over the room, trying to give them confidence.


    "But we know nothing about that pack?" Someone in the back yelled, I didn''t know whose pack they were from.


    "That''s not entirely true." I said as I thought of my mate''s other cousin, he had spent some time in the ck Canyons, it was time to use the knowledge he had gathered for us.


    "Everyone, please wait outside. Split into groups of four or five so we can prepare for the long journey." Noah ordered them, he really did act more like a beta that Caleb ever had.


    "Riley, Noah,e with me." I told them as I left the room to head for my office.


    Riley started to talk the minute my office door was shut.


    "How the hell do you know she is at the Canyons?" He asked me furiously. He had backed me up at every point in front of everyone, but alone he needed verification as much as they did.


    "I''ve seen her." I told him.


    "What!" The two of them eximed at nearly the same time. They wore nearly identical looks of shock.


    "How is that possible?" Noah asked me, doubt written all over his face.


    "Well, you all know we can use mate marks to track our mates."


    "Yeah, but I''ve never done it." Riley said sheepishly.


    "Of course."


    "Well, when you do, you get a visual." I told them. "But, what I see, might be different than anyone else''s."


    "Why, what would make you so special?" Noah snapped but it sounded half yful.


    "You mean besides the fact that I am the alpha?" I smirked at him. "There is the fact that I have this." I said, pulling aside the cor of my t-shirt.


    "What the hell is that?" Riley asked as the two of them stared at the mark on my neck and shoulder.


    "Reece, is that a mate mark?" Noah asked me incredulously. I nodded my head in response. "How the hell did you get a mate mark?" He was shocked, but still able to talk, Riley was just looking at me with his mouth hanging open.


    "Well, I imagine it happened the same way any mate mark happens." I smiled.


    "But how?"


    "Well, the other night when Trinity and I were-."


    "Stop!" Noah yelled. "I don''t need specifics." He red at me before continuing again. "How could she have bitten you though? She doesn''t have a wolf."


    "Oh, she has one, I''ve seen it in her eyes and her partial changes when we''re in the middle of-."


    "Reece." Noah growled, making me smirk in response.


    "When we were together." I amended. "She partially changed when we were together on Friday and Saturday. Her teeth and nails were longer and I could see the wolf straining in her eyes. Her wolf is in there, it''s just trapped."


    "Why is it trapped?" Riley asked, confused.


    "I have my theories about her, but I don''t know if I am right. But if I am , it exins a lot."


    "What theories." Noah seemed even more angry. It was either because I had talked about having sex with his cousin or about my theories about her.


    "They have to do with who her father might be, or more specifically, what he might be."


    "What''s that supposed to mean?" Noah asked me. His face was full of outrage. Just like Carter was said to have always done, Noah got angry whenever someone bad mouthed his cousin. He was good at hiding it around me at first but he was not doing such a good job of that any more. He was growing more and more protective of her as time went on. I was beginning to suspect that there was something else bringing out his protective instincts that he just hadn''t figured out yet.


    "No one knows exactly who her father is, right?" Noah nodded, anger clear in his jutted jaw and crossed arms. "Well, with almost every attack that has been aimed at Trinity over thest few months, what is one thing that they have inmon?"


    "Rogues." He said immediately.


    "That is one thing, but there is another simrity, the other, more important thing, is the involvement of the Warlocks." I saw his eyes go wide.


    "What do the Warlocks have to do with your mate?" Riley asked me confused.


    ""If I''m right, then everything."


    "What?" Noah was still not following me. He had never thought of her as anything other than her family, and I was happy for that, she needed that from him, and I didn''t want to change that.


    "First, Noah, promise me something."


    "What?"


    "No matter what I say, or what we find out when we save Trinity, you, and everyone in your family, will continue to treat Trinity the same way you always have. Don''t change anything even if you find out who she really is."


    "She''s my family, that''s who she really is." He snapped at me."


    "Good." I looked at him firmly as I spoke. I eyed them both, hoping they were ready to hear what I had been suspecting for a while now.


    "Alright, Noah, Riley, what I think, is that Trinity is half wolf, and half something else."


    "What else?" Riley asked me, his curiosity piqued.


    "Warlock, well witch since she''s female."


    "No, that''s impossible."


    "Is it?"


    "My aunt never would have done that." Noah was denying it vehemently.


    "And if it wasn''t a choice she made?"


    "You mean that she was raped?" Riley asked, shock and anger filling his voice for a girl he had never met.


    "But why wouldn''t she have told Grandfather what had happened then?" Noah was hurt, he was a child when his aunt died but he still remembered her, that was clear. "Why did she say she didn''t know what happened? Why did she lie about it?"


    "She might not have lied, she might not have remembered. I''m not used to dealing with warlocks and witches. They tend to keep to themselves and the coven we''re dealing with is rogue, we do know that. And it is the same coven that was here almost twenty years ago."


    I saw his eyes go wide as he thought about that. He was the one who had given me the report on the rogue coven in the area to begin with, that they were the same coven that was here almost twenty years ago. He hadn''t thought that the coven hade back for any unfinished business. In truth, it took me a while to put it all together as well.


    "So, these rogue Warlocks, they not only kidnapped my cousin, but they''re the reason my aunt killed herself?" Noah asked in a weak voice. I didn''t know much about Noah''s childhood, but I knew he never knew his grandmother, she had died when his father was younger. Because she was lonely and afraid of losing more family, his aunt and my mate''s mother, Reagan, spent a lot of time with her brother and nephews. Noah was very attached to her when she died, and this conversation was opening an old wound for him.


    "I can''t answer that with certainty, but I think so." I watched the darkness in his eyes turn to a murderous rage at my words.


    "And what exactly do you think they want with my cousin?" He spoke through his clenched teeth, his anger was reaching a boiling point.


    "I don''t know, but I can tell you what they''ve already done to her." His eyes locked onto me with a furious intensity.

 Chapter 102 - Reece-Enlisting The Help Of Another Alpha

    <h4>Chapter 102 - Reece-Enlisting The Help Of Another Alpha</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I began to detail everything I had seen when I used my mate mark both times, and in my dream. I told them that I know the images were real, and what I was seeing was actually happening to her. The first time I had seen her, she hadn''t been hurt much yet, just slightly bruised and a split lip. The second time, her face was bloodied, her neck and wrist were rubbed raw and bloody. The third time, they had just whipped her, I watched as she fell to the floor and fell unconscious, sobbing from the pain. I had been furious, outraged, and heartbroken when I had seen what they had done to her. I felt a boiling murderous rage building within me as I retold the story. Judging by the looks on their faces, Noah and Riley felt the same.


    "Are the ones doing this to her Warlocks or wolves?" Riley asked.


    "I don''t know, I couldn''t see anyone but her in the visions, and I couldn''t smell anything so that was no help either."


    "It doesn''t matter, I''m going to kill them either way." Noah growled.


    "We both are." I told him.


    "Call that alpha." Noah told me. "We need to go." He looked desperate now." I nodded.


    Noah and Riley stood near the window watching as I made the call that would determine my entire future. I waited, impatiently, while the phone seemed to ring forever.


    "Why, if it isn''t the Red Springs, I haven''t heard from you in ages Collin." His voice was slightly angry. I had called from my office phone, the phone number had been the same for thest forty years.


    "No, Collin died seven years ago, this is his son, Reece. I am the new Alpha. Were you not notified?" I was confused by his words.


    "Ah, now that you mention it, I do remember that.." All traces ofughter left his voice instantly. "What do you want boy?" He was not happy.


    "I''ve called because I need your help."


    "Isn''t that rich? You''ve been alpha for how long and you''ve not oncee to visit mynds. Now you''re asking for my help?" He scoffed at me.


    "In all fairness, you''ve never visited mynds in all this time either. If memory serves, you have spring rotation, do you not?" The older man on the phoneughed gruffly into my ear.


    "You have a point, but everyone has ignored me so why should I pay them any mind?" He grumbled at me.


    "Please forgive my rudeness, I was, and still am, a young idiot at times. I could really benefit from the knowledge a seasoned alpha such as yourself could offer me." I was buttering him up a little too much but I had to get him to help me.


    "Boy, you must want something awful bad." He chuckled. "Out with it, the sooner you tell me the sooner I can tell you no." I heard the arrogant superiority in his voice. I needed to make this worth his while.


    I need your help finding a group of rogue warlocks and wolves that I believe are on your territory. They kidnapped my mate, and I know they are currently located somewhere on yournds." I tried to word it in a way that told him I knew he wasn''t part of it, but if he didn''t help then he was part of the problem and therefore was my enemy. "We''re not allies right now, but we''re not enemies either. Let''s not be enemies because of someone else."


    "Are you telling me I don''t know what''s happening on my ownnd?" I could hear the outrage in his voice.


    "I''m saying this definitely deserves a more indepth chat, preferably face to face."


    "Yeah, I would agree." His voice held a razor''s edge with every word he spoke.


    "I''m going to fly out there to settle this. I will have my pack members that will aid in the search drive out. That will give us time to talk things over."


    "Fine, but if I don''t agree with what you say, then they''re all turning around." He snapped at me.


    "Understood." I had no choice but to agree, I needed his help to find that house.


    When my call ended Noah came to inform me of some preparations he had made while I was on the phone. He was scary fast and scary good at his job sometimes. His efficiency was amazing.


    "Reece, I have contacted the pilot for that private ne you chartered the other night."


    "He hasn''t left yet?" I asked him, perplexed.


    "I might have told him to stick around for a couple days, just to be safe." Noah said these words with an innocent expression but I could imagine the fear he had instilled into the pilot.


    "And people call me scary." I mumbled.


    "I have no idea what you''re talking about." He insisted. He probably didn''t. "Anyway, the ne will be waiting and ready for us when we get to the airport. We have clearance to leave as soon as we get there."


    "From Denver again?" I asked him.


    "No, I simply informed the airport who it was they had been denying the flight n for the other day. You now have clearance to flight in and out of our local airport anytime you need. The pilot is here in town, I put him up in a nice hotel to keep himfortable." Iughed at the efficiency and ruthlessness of what he had done. He really was the best assistant, and would have been one hell of a beta.


    Thirty minutester Noah and I were on the ne preparing for take off. Wesley, Carter,? and Samuel, the elder Mr. Whitton, were also with us. Eve and Nikki opted to stay home, knowing they would not be much help in the fight. They were going to stay with Mom and Heather at the house, helping with Vincent''s kids since he would be leaving with everyone else for the battle.? The four of them would be praying to the moon goddess for Trinity''s safe return.

 Chapter 103 - Reece-Black Canyons

    <h4>Chapter 103 - Reece-ck Canyons</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Of all of us who were making the trip to the ck Canyons pack, the only one who seemed nervous was Carter.


    "Is something wrong?" I asked him. I wanted to help him because he was my mate''s beloved cousin so therefore my family now as well, but all I could truly think about was my Little Bunny.


    "No." He said apprehensively. I noticed his eyes avoiding mine.


    "Are you worried about Trinity? Or about the fight?"


    "No, neither of those. I know we will find Trinity, and I will kill anyone who hurt her."


    "Then what?" I was perplexed by his behavior.


    "I''m just not looking forward to seeing certain people tonight." He said.


    "Ahh." I understood now. "You''re worried they will know you lied to them."


    "Basically."


    "Well, basically you did, but we can smooth things over eventually. But you can always im to have left and settled in my pack after leaving their pack."


    "True." He seemed to ept that exnation. "That might stop some people from hating me." Heughed.


    "Oh, Reece." Noah called out. "I haven''t had a chance to tell you. Some of the missing pack members from this morning have returned. They were out on their day off, they just took a little? longer to get back."


    "Which one''s?" I asked him, curious.


    "Kevin, Avery, Jose, and Jack."


    "So, most of the missing neers. Did any of the others show up."


    "No."


    The flight only took thirty minutes to get us to a small private airstrip on the ck Canyons territory. When we dened, there were two cars waiting for us with a man standing outside of each car.


    "Gentlemen, we''re here to take you to see Alpha Bryce." The man closest to me spoke when I was within earshot. "Please,e with us." I looked at others around me and nodded to show them it was alright."


    Noah and I got into one car, Wesley , Carter and the older Mr. Whitton got into the other. The driver of my car got in silently and drove us into the canyons themselves. It seems that like my pack, they had their headquarters in the national park that their territory surrounded. But where as mynds went up into the mountains, thesends started in the mountains and went down.


    The road they took us down was long, narrow, and winding. If you didn''t know it was there you would never see it. It would be a very difficult ce to find for an outsider. I''m actually very surprised that Carter managed as well as he did. I had known he had brought back a lot of valuable information, and I had been happy and congratted him before, but I will have to do so once again.


    The Alpha House that we were taken to looked simr to mine. It was built to look castle like. The framework was simr. But the coloring was the major difference. This one was primarily ck to blend in with the canyons around it. No one would notice it as much if it blends in. It was very easily camouged with therge ck stone formations standing all around the house. There wasn''t much that could be noticed. I also saw a series of caves dug into the sides of the canyons, most likely for the pack to escape in the event of an emergency.


    The drivers drove the cars into a garage that was built into the canyon edge. There were two more men waiting for us when we got there. They opened the doors on our cars for us when we came to a stop.


    "Gentlemen, please follow us, the Alpha is waiting for you in the lounge." It was just before eight-thirty, thankfully it wasn''t toote yet. So we still had plenty of this night left to figure things out.


    We followed the butler like guards into the lounge to meet the alpha named Bryce. I had never met him, or at least I didn''t remember meeting him. When I entered the room behind the men I saw a man unlike what I had pictured. I knew that this alpha was in his fifties, but I had not expected him to look like this. Bryce was nearly as tall as me, perhaps maybe two inches shorter. His hair was a rich, warm shade of auburn, but that was the only warm thing about his appearance. His eyes were an icy cold crystal green. His angr face had prominent features so sharp they looked like they could cut the skin. He was tall, and lethal looking. He may have been getting up there in age but he clearly still had a lot of fight left in him.


    "Oh, if it isn''t the envoy for the Red Springs." Bryce said, ring at me as I walked to him. The others waited near the wall.


    "Bryce, this has been a long timeing, too long really. I should havee to see you much sooner." I said as I held my hand out to him.


    "I don''t need your cating words boy." He snarled at me. "Tell me what it is you think is going on here on mynd." He demanded.


    "I know for a fact that my mate was brought to yournds and is being tortured here. She was brought here by rogue and traitorous wolves with the aid Warlocks."


    "You know this for a fact do you?" He sounded doubtful.


    "Yes, I do." I told him confidently. "I''ve seen the house, and how close it was to the canyons. I just don''t know exactly where the house is."


    "Excuse me." He inquired.


    "I''ve tracked my mate through mate bond. Through the tracking I''ve been given visuals of where she is and what she is going through." I exined to the powerful looking older man.


    "I don''t believe that is how a mate mark works." He told me dismissively.


    "Have you ever had to use one?" I snapped.


    "Absolutely not." He denied firmly.


    "Then how can you lecture me on how it works. If I''m the only one in this room who has had to use the mate mark to track someone then how can any of you dare to tell me how it works or what it looks like when it works?"


    "Heh, I guess you''re right boy. Of all of us here, you''re the only one who would know." Heughed half heartedly. "Fine, I''ll help you find this house you''re talking about. But only because if there really are trespassers on mynd I intend to deal with them personally."


    "That''s all I ask for."


    We set about discussing the house I had seen, the surrounding wooded area and small town nearby. What the likely areas could be. And who could possibly be involved. The rest of the pack would soon be on their way. They would be arriving in the morning so Bryce suggested that we should attempt to get some sleep until it was light out. We may be able to see in the dark, but that didn''t mean that it wasn''t easier for us to track in the daylight. We would be chartering helicopters as well as sending out search parties to search all possible areas. We would leave no stone unturned until we found the house.


    We were each led to a different room in Bryce''s estate. The room was shaped simr to the ones back home but they were decoratedpletely different. That didn''t matter, as long as it had a ce to sleep, that''s all that mattered right now. I tossed my bag down on the table near the door and kicked off my shoes. I wouldn''t need anything out of it until morning.


    The bed was bigger than I needed. I only nned on being here a couple days max, but it would hold over a week''s worth of clothes easy. Which was why I had chosen it, I had brought some clothes for my Little Bunny, she would need new ones when I found her, and this way she didn''t have to wait.


    I stripped off my shirt and jeans until I was down to my boxers, then Iid down in the bed. I hadn''t gotten much rest when I had slept earlier so I was asleep almost instantly when my head hit the pillow. I vaguely registered that it was a quarter to midnight before my eyes closed.

 Chapter 104 - Reece-Everyone Finds Out About The Mate Mark

    <h4>Chapter 104 - Reece-Everyone Finds Out About The Mate Mark</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I found myself standing outside the farmhouse again. I didn''t need to approach it, and I didn''t need to? search the house. But I did notice a lot more footprints and scuff marks than I didst time, that was definitely note worthy.


    I sprinted to the cer doors and threw them open. Running down them as fast as I could, I didn''t care if I fell, dream or not. I needed to see my mate, my Little Bunny.


    Once again when I got to the bottom of the stairs I only saw her and no one else. She was tied to the chair this time, her hands and feet unable to move. Her head was tied back so she could only look up at the ceiling. She was blindfolded and her nose had been taped shut. Her face was flushed but herplexion looked more pale than usual underneath the blush of her cheeks. It was an ashen gray color and not her usual milky white glow.


    I watched as a rag seemed to magically appear in her mouth as someoneughed near her. I guessed that someone had shoved it into her mouth, but as I couldn''t see them I didn''t see the act of them shoving it into her mouth. Then a piece of tape appeared over her mouth, holding the rag in ce. She was unable to move at all, not her arms, legs, head, nothing, so she could not squirm at all. Instead I watched as her face became redder and redder.


    I ran to her side, reaching for her again even though I knew that I couldn''t touch her in this state.


    "Dammit, help her, Goddess, help her." I yelled. I saw when she gasped, like she had reached her limit and was trying to get a breath at any means necessary. Her face was turning blue. "Little Bunny!" I screamed." Her whole body seemed to jerk slightly when I said her name, and she stopped trying to take a breath for a moment. I feared the worst.


    The tape disappeared from her mouth and the rag was pulled out, she took a shuddering gasp. The sound herbored breathing made set my wolf snarling. They were hurting our mate, whoever they were, they had signed their own death warrants.


    "You were getting used to this, what happened?" A female voiceughed.


    "You just can''t trust a mongrel to do anything." A man responded.


    "Shall we do one more." The woman''s voice seemed to be filled with joy.


    "Don''t you fucking dare." I snarled.


    "Go to hell." My Little Bunny snapped at them.


    "That''s my girl." I encouraged her.


    "You still haven''t learned any manners, after all this time. How pathetic." A different man''s voice spoke this time. I heard the sound of flesh striking flesh. Someone had hit her, hard. There was fresh blood at the left side of her mouth.


    "Want to try that again?" The woman asked.


    "Go fuck yourself." Little Bunny said through clenched teeth.


    "You''ll regret that." The second man yelled.


    "Grantham." There was a warning from near the door. Whatever blow they had been intending changed course and instead hit the side of my Little Bunny''s head. I saw the tremendous force they hit her with by the fact that it knocked her head free of it''s ties.


    "You''ve all failed in your duties. It is midnight. And it seems she is losing consciousness, when she wakes this time, it will be my turn." I could hear a smile in the new man''s voice. Whoever he was he was the man who was going to torture her next. His voice sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn''t ce it yet.


    "Trinity, I will find you. I''ming for you. I''m looking for you. I haven''t abandoned you. Please, hang in there and wait for me a little longer. I''ming for you, I promise." I didn''t know if she heard me. I just kept telling her over and over that I wasing to get her until I felt the pull behind my navel again.


    I was pulled up through the stone, the floorboards, the walls, then I was flying higher above the house. I saw a river close to the town that was near this house. That would help me narrow down the search. I would find her. I had to. I kept telling myself these words over and over as I flew higher and higher.


    I woke with a start. Rage burning within me and my wolf snarling in my ears. I could feel my teeth poking into my lips and my heart pounding. In my anger I had let my wolf start to take charge. I took several deep breaths to settle myself, and my wolf, back down. After a few minutes my teeth finally fit back into my mouth and heart was beating at a normal rate.


    "We will find her." I tried to soothe my wolf but it only made him whine. "I know buddy, I miss her too." He cried for her again at my words, I felt himy down in the corner of my mind nuzzling my ear to urge me forward.


    I was the first one downstairs. I once again felt like I didn''t sleep even though I had apparently been in the bed for eight hours. I stood at the window in the parlor looking out at the ck rocks around the house waiting for the others. ''Where are you?'' I thought to myself just as I sensed someone entering the room.


    "You''re up early Alpha boy." Bryce sneered at me as he came into the room. He clearly didn''t like me, but as long as he worked with me to find my mate that''s all that mattered. If he didn''t, well I had over a hundred warriors here with me if I needed to fight him too.


    "I couldn''t sleep anymore." I answered quickly and tly. I couldn''t bring myself to put much emotion into it.


    "So, why did these people take your mate?" He was getting nosy and jumping straight to the hard questions.


    "I don''t know what they want with her." I answered honestly. "I wish I knew what their end game for taking her was. Why they wanted her and what they had nned. I might be more worried if I knew though. But I will not give up on finding her, I will not abandon her. I will find her."


    "Sounds like you love the girl something fierce." He noted.


    "That I do."


    "Has it always been like that? Love at first sight and all that? For my wife and I, I was a stubborn mule at first." Heughed. "I didn''t admit nothing for the longest time."


    "I''m afraid I''m a bit more like you than I''d like to admit." Bryce chuckled at me.


    "Alpha boy, I think all us alphas are like that. Call it the alpha''s curse." He was snickering at his own joke. "You help me get rid of the trespassers on mynd, and I''ll help you get your girl back."


    "You have no objections from me." I assured him.


    "That''s good to hear, boy." He nodded with a smile. "Onest thing I wanted to ask you. What''s with the tattoo on your neck? It looks like a mate mark."


    "It is a mate mark."


    "You got a tattoo of a mate mark." He quirked an eyebrow.


    "It''s not a tattoo, it''s a mate mark. My mate marked me, and I marked her." I saw the look on his face go from confusion to realization back to confusion.


    "How in the world is that possible?"


    "I don''t know how it was possible, but it happened when we were simultaneously biting each other during an intimate moment."


    "Now why couldn''t you have used that wording when trying to exin it to me?" Noah snapped when he walked into the room. Iughed at him.


    "What''s he talking about?" Carter asked.


    "Yeah, I''d like to know as well." Wesley added.


    "Boy, are you telling me that my granddaughter marked you?" Mr. Whitton looked at me disbelievingly. This was getting more attention than I had intended, but it''s not like I was trying to hide it.


    "Yes, we''ve given each other mutual marks. The mark she''s given me is different from the pack crest, but it is a mark all the same, and it is surrounded by a trinity symbol. Isn''t that fitting for her?" I smiled again as I thought about the symbol for her name.


    "Could that be why you had such a strong connection to her when you mate linked?" Wesley asked.


    "I believe so. I have also seen her in a dream twice. Like a mate link but more in depth."


    "How can she mark you if she herself has no wolf?" Mr. Whitton asked.


    "What?" Bryce yelled. "We''re going through all this for a human?"


    "She is not a human. And she has a wolf, it''s just trapped inside of her." I red at her grandfather.


    "Alpha boy, you need to exin." Bryce demanded.


    I sighed, and gave them an abridged exnation of what was going on. How she had partial changes. How I saw the wolf stirring in her eyes. And how we couldn''t have mutual marks if she wasn''t, in fact, a wolf.


    "So my granddaughter really does have a wolf?" Mr. Whitton looked overjoyed.


    "Yes, but that''s not why we''re here." I red at him. "We''re here because she''s in danger and we need to save her."


    "I know that." He snapped at me. "I was here regardless because she is my granddaughter and I love her."


    "Then act like it."


    "Enough." Bryce''s voice cut through the room. "I don''t know what kind of weird family bullshit is going on here, but I don''t care. You''re here to help me and I''m going to help you. I''m not going to y family therapist to all of you."


    "Agreed." I wanted to put an end to the family discussions right now. "Let''s get to work on finding where my mate is."


    We divided our warriors into groups to search the ground. We had people at the different city and county offices looking for houses that might fit the bill. And we had half a dozen helicopters on their way in to help us do aerial searches. I wanted this to be the day we found her. She had been missing for almost forty hours.

 Chapter 105 - Trinity-Enduring More At The Hands Of Edmond

    <h4>Chapter 105 - Trinity-Enduring More At The Hands Of Edmond</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I had been enduring the torture for what felt like hours. They had me blind folded and my nose taped. They would gag me and tape it into my mouth. The way I was tied to the chair I couldn''t move, my head was tied back in a prone position, my hands and legs were tied so tight that it was nearly cutting off the cirction.


    The gagging would cut off all air supply. I would be unable to draw a breath, and I would also be unable to exhale. The first few times I panicked and tried to struggle futilely. Eventually I got used to the feeling of being light headed and on the verge of passing out before they removed the gag.


    Then, after what felt like the fiftieth time, I thought I heard Reece''s voice call out to me.


    "Dammit, help her, Goddess, help her." I gasped when I heard him. "Little Bunny!" He called out to me again. They took the tape away and the rag out of my mouth, finally I was able to take a shuddering breath.


    "You were getting used to this, what happened?" Reyaughed.


    "You just can''t trust a mongrel to do anything." Beckett sneered.


    "Shall we do one more." Reya sang.


    "Don''t you fucking dare." Reece snarled.


    "Go to hell." I snapped at them.


    "That''s my girl." Reece said proudly.


    "You still haven''t learned any manners, after all this time. How pathetic." Grantham''s sickening voice joined the others before he pped me hard across the face.


    "Want to try that again?" Reya asked, yful.


    "Go fuck yourself." I snarled through clenched teeth.


    "You''ll regret that." Grantham growled


    "Grantham." Edmond''s voice changed Grantham''s trajectory slightly, his fist mmed into the side on my head and I felt my consciousness slipping away again.


    "You''ve all failed in your duties. It is midnight. And it seems she is losing consciousness, when she wakes this time, it will be my turn." I could hear a smile in Edmond''s voice. It was going to be his turn to torture me next.


    "Trinity, I will find you. I''ming for you. I''m looking for you. I haven''t abandoned you. Please, hang in there and wait for me a little longer. I''ming for you, I promise." I heard Reece repeating these words over and over.


    I drifted into unconsciousness with his voice running through my mind.


    "I''ming for you. Trinity I will find you. I haven''t abandoned you." Oh, I sincerely hoped those words were real, that I really heard his voice and that I hadn''t imagined the whole thing.


    Some timeter, I didn''t know how long I woke to see Edmond sitting in front of me in another chair. It was the first new piece of furniture I had seen in the room the entire time I had been here.


    "Good evening." Edmond smiled at me. "You certainly do sleep a lot, don''t you?" He seemed amused, with a small smile on his lips, but it didn''t reach his cheeks or his eyes. He was just as emotionless as he was before.


    "I might not sleep so much if yourckeys didn''t torture me so much." I snapped at him sarcastically.


    "They''re trying to help you." He said with a false sense of hurt.


    "Yes, because it always helps people to electrocute them, whip them, choke them, what was it they called it, dry-board them, yes, torture is so helpful. I must tell all my friends how helpful it is."


    "You love your sarcasm don''t you. Is it a weapon for you?"


    "Not a weapon, more a tool, I can use it in a multitude of situations."


    "Interesting." Heughed.


    "So, what are you here to do?" I asked him.


    "To help you." He smiled.


    "I gathered as much. I meant what are you going to do to me?"


    "Oh, nothing that truly has a name. My,ckeys as you called them, used human torture methods, I will be using magical methods only." He grinned maniacally.


    "Do you think you can unlock what they couldn''t?" My voice held my skepticism as I narrowed my eyes at him. I was still strapped to the chair and unable to move anything but my head, at least I could do that much.


    "Well, I will either awaken it, or you will die in the process." He said matter of factly.


    I felt my eyes go wide at his words. He truly intended to kill me.


    "You''re going to kill me?"


    "Only if your magic doesn''t manifest. That''s what happens with all half breeds."


    "All?"


    "You think you''re the only one that we''ve made?" Heughed. "You''re the first sessful wolf, usually the pack will kill the child before they can make it to adulthood. That is why I had to fully erase your mother''s memory, and why I had to take her so young. But we''ve had several half humans, half fae, and even a half vampire."


    "You''re a monster."


    "I told you, calling me a monster won''t affect me. I will continue to run my coven the way I see fit." He grinned at me. "I will dly be the monster if that is what is best for my coven"


    "I won''t be part of your n. I won''t help you." I fervently refused.


    "As I told you before, you won''t have a choice." He smiled as he stood, pushing the chair out of the way quickly as he did so.


    He raised his right hand while staring straight into my eyes. I could see a strange, sinister purplish ck glow out of the corner of my eye, it seemed to be engulfing his hand.


    "What are you-?"I began, but I never got the chance to finish. He shot a glowing ck ball into my chest before I could form the full question.


    The pain was excruciating. It felt like my chest was on fire. I screamed and screamed. The painsted for what felt like hours, it was probably seconds or minutes, but the pain was so intense that it seemed like so much longer. By the time It was over, by the time I was done screaming, my throat already felt raw and hoarse.


    "Interesting first response. Let''s see how it goes from here." Heughed. This time theughter was genuine, it lit up his face, crinkled his eyes, and filled his whole face with pure joy.


    There was another quick sh of light, but nothing happened to me, instead the ropes disappeared from around my hands and feet. Another sh and the chair flew across the room, dumping me in the middle of the floor, smack dab in the middle of the circle. I caught myself with my hands, barely, and scraped both of my palms. Blood seeped from them slowly.


    As Iy there on the floor, dazed from the recent fall, I noticed another sh of light. Before I could react, two glowing balls mmed into my back.


    My body was ttened against the floor from the force of the hits. Then, with the ever growing pain, my body started iling around uncontrobly. I thrashed about, banging parts of my body here and there on the stone floor without meaning to. I know the painsted longer this time. I was not able to move of my own ord for at least twenty minutes, if not more.


    "That one was a lot more entertaining." Edmond sounded like a critic at a movie theater.


    "Psycho-psycho-psychopath." It took me three tries to get the word out with how heavily I was breathing from the pain. The pain didn''t pass either, it lingered and stayed with me even when I was finally able to move.


    "Thank you." He grinned even wider.


    "You im I''m your daughter, you would do this to your own child?"


    "You''re hardly my only child, just my only living half wolf child. Like I said the others were killed before they reached adulthood. In truth, you have dozens of siblings, that are alive anyway."


    "How many that aren''t alive?" I was afraid to know the answer but I had to ask.


    He grinned before he answered. "I''ve lost count really, two hundred, three hundred. Who really cares. They don''t matter anymore."


    "Two or three hundred?" I felt the shock showing on my face. How could he have killed so many of his own children. "You''ve killed so many of your own family?"


    "They weren''t strong enough." He shrugged his shoulders. I began to tremble, tears streaming down my face. "I hope you''re strong enough Trinity, I really need a wolf offspring to survive." He said it so matter-of-factly, that it made me feel dirty. "Now, let''s continue."


    He continued to shoot balls of light of varying intensity at me for the next several hours. After the balls of light he shot lightning bolts. Then shards of ice that burrowed their way under my skin. A burning fire that made me feel like I was melting without actually burning my flesh. When none of those had seeded he was growing angry. He started the routine over, only more intense but with added mental images.


    I saw images of half warlock children being tortured. Visions of what the world might look like when he became the ruler, everything was either on fire or falling apart. I saw images of everyone I cared about lying dead on the ground.


    Finally, I saw visions of Reece. He was leaving me. Telling me he never wanted me. Telling me he was leaving me here. Telling me I didn''t belong with the wolves. Telling me I should die.


    My mind reeled against these images. ''NO, Reece ising for me. I know he is.'' I screamed inside my head.


    "Haha. You still think he''sing? That''s pathetic." Edmond chastised me.


    "Shut up. You don''t know what you''re talking about." I screamed at him. I heard the door open at my outburst. My tormentors from earlier came in, followed by the four wolves who had kidnapped me.


    "Need some back up boss?" Caleb asked.


    "Like I would ever need back up from the likes of you." Edmond snapped. "Just stand over there." He ordered them.


    He sent one more giant ball of light at me, with the mental image of him killing Reece. I saw Edmond standing over Reece''s body holding his severed head, blood dripping everywhere.


    "NOOO!" I screamed. I could feel my body beginning to itch and tingle all over as I thrashed about.


    "Yes, this is what will happen if hees here. I promise you that." He ground out through his clenched teeth as he walked over to me.


    Edmond was now close enough to touch me. He knelt next to me and ced both his hands directly on me, one on my right shoulder the other on my stomach. I felt the power moving, flowing from him directly into me. It was ten times stronger this way.


    I screamed. I screamed nonstop, pausing only to take a breath. I just continued to scream and scream. The pain felt like it was enough to kill me, but I had to fight to stay awake. If I lost consciousness in front of Edmond, I was certain he would kill me. I continued to scream until I was afraid I was about to lose my voice.


    I heard a thundering noiseing down the stairs just before the door flew off its hinges. Everyone in the room looked momentarily stunned. Three big wolves came storming into the cer.


    The wolf in the lead was Reece, I recognized his jet ck wolf with gray under belly and golden eyes, he was followed by Noah''s chestnut wolf with milk chocte eyes and Vincent''s sandy colored wolf with light yellow green eyes. I was momentarily relieved, Until the four wolves in the room shifted their wolf forms to attack them and the five warlocks focused their attention on them.


    "No!" I screamed as I saw the unfair fight. Reece didn''t know the odds he was running into. "Reece! Noah! Vincent!" I called their names. I saw Caleb, Jeremy, and Leslie all attack Reece at the same time that Grantham shot a gray fireball at him. "REECE!" I screamed.


    I could hear the sounds of the fighting as if it were happening in slow motion. I could hear the snarling, snapping, and yelping of the wolves. I could hear the yells, screams, and cries of pain from the Warlocks. And in the distance, I could hear the sound of a bell tower ringing. It rang, and rang, rang. I counted neen times before it stopped.


    The moment the bells stopped it felt like my entire body was on fire. But different from when Edmond had tormented me. It felt like my body was melting from the inside out. I felt my bones snapping in several ces. The pain was nearly as bad, if not worse than thest time Edmond had set the fire on me. It felt like my skin had turned to liquid. I screamed again. Long and loud, before I was cut off by my throat melting and moving to a different position.


    I sat there on the floor holding my head in pain, wondering what was wrong with me. Was this an after effect of what Edmond had done to me? Was I dying?

 Chapter 106 - Reece-Shifting

    <h4>Chapter 106 - Reece-Shifting</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    It had taken longer to find the house than we had expected. The house was just over an hour away from the Alpha House, but unless you could see it from the top, you couldn''t see it at all. It''s possible that they had it hidden by some form of magic that was keeping us away.


    We had started our search just after noon, but with the interference, we didn''t find the house until long after dark. Once we gathered everyone back and got the extra helicopters needed to fly everyone in, it was about eleven that night. I was furious at having to wait but this wasn''t mynd so I couldn''t rush in blind here.


    I hadn''t been expecting the sheer numbers they had when wended. They had more forces than we had anticipated. We jumped and repelled from the choppers into a shit show of around seventy wolves and at least sixty Warlocks. We still had the advantage with numbers, my group had about a hundred and Bryce had sixty-five. But still, none of us knew how the Warlocks were likely to fight.


    I knew where Trinity was, and told the others I was going to head straight to her. Noah and Vincent agreed toe with us right away. Clearly, those at the hidden farmhouse never expected us to find them, or to be able to get in, because they were clearly surprised when we allnded in front of them.


    One thing I took notice of before I ran toward the cer doors, was that many of the wolves in the area were from Stanley''s ck Moon pack, so he had been helping the Warlocks as well. So, when Trinity was safe, Stanley was on my list. But I had more important things to do right now.


    I wished I could go straight to the cer doors. But unfortunately several wolves and warlocks got in my way. Everytime I stopped to fight them I heard my Little Bunny''s agonized screamsing from the cer. I had tasted the blood of several already as I ripped the heads off Warlocks and the throats out of rogue wolves. I could feel their disgusting blood sliding down my throat.


    "What are they doing to her?" Vincent asked in his wolf voice, I could hear the distress in his voice.


    "Reece? What''s going on down there?" Noah asked, just as concerned as Vincent.


    "I don''t know what they''re doing to her, but I know that the leader was going to torture her next." I exined to them.


    "No." They seemed to exim together. "Let''s go."


    Once our path was clear we hurried to the cer. I didn''t pause to open the doors. Instead I busted through them entirely. I ran down the stairs as fast as I could. I was muchrger in this form than I was in my human form so it was a tight fit in the stairwell but I made it work. I smashed into the door at the bottom of the stairs, sending it flying off its hinges.


    There were more in this room than I had nned as well. Caleb, the traitorous, spineless, piece of shit was here, as were Jeremy, Leslie, and Donna the lecherous pigs. And what appeared to be five warlocks.


    Little Bunny''s screams cut off when we smashed through the door. The lead Warlock, who had his grimy hands on her, stood up and looked at me. Without saying a word they all focused their attention on us.


    Seeing that we were now the focus of the attacks, and outnumbered, Little Bunny was instantly concerned about us.


    "No! Reece! Noah! Vincent!" She screamed with worry. When she saw that there were several attacksing my way at once, she screamed my name. "REECE!"


    I saw the attacksing though. Caleb, Jeremy, and Leslie tried to gang up on me, but the day those weak ass punk can take me on is the day I give up my pack. I lunged at Leslie, who was closest to me and closed my jaws around his throat. One quick jerk of my head and I saw red spraying across the wall. I knocked Jeremy aside with a paw, and focused my attention on my former beta.


    "You know, I never wanted you as my beta." I told him.


    "Yeah, I know. You had made that abundantly clear at the time."


    "If it wasn''t for your grandfather, my great uncle, it never would have happened." I snarled at him.


    "I should have been alpha, not you. You''re pathetic." He basically whined at me.


    "Quit crying, you baby''s ass." I snapped at him.


    "I''m not crying you pathetic excuse for an alpha."


    "At least I am an alpha." I taunted him.


    "You bastard." He screamed at me as he lunged again.


    I jumped at him in mid air, catching him in the middle. I pinned his wolf to the floor with my forepaws as I snarled in his face. With a quick bite, I tore his throat out.


    That was when I heard my mate start screaming. I thought someone had started to torture her again. I looked around for who might be attacking her, but no one was near her. She was holding her head screaming until it seemed like her throat shifted and she was not able to scream any more.


    She was changing.


    NOW!


    Well, we didn''t have any other choice. The first change was incredibly painful because it was like your entire body melted into its new form, and every bone snapped to reform into the new shape. After the first few times it wasn''t quite as painful anymore, but the first time was always excruciating.


    I noticed that the Warlocks were staring at her dumbfounded. They didn''t think this was possible, they clearly didn''t think she could get a wolf at all.


    "No!" The Head Warlock, the one with white hair, yelled. You''re supposed to have the magic not the wolf. It was deemed so. I can see the magic in you when I look at you. This is impossible. And you shouldn''t be able to get that wolf, especially if you haven''tpleted the mate bond yet, which I know you haven''t."


    "What makes you so sure of that?" I asked him after shifting back to my human form. I stood there in front of him naked with no shame, my mate was here and my body was for her.


    "Ugh, disgusting dog, can''t you cover yourself?" He sounded disgusted.


    "Don''t like it, don''t look. It''s this or you learn to speak wolf."


    "I''d rather not." He sneered. Little Bunny made another pitiful sound of pain, drawing all of our attention. She''s of no use to me like this." He scoffed. "I''ll have to kill her and start over. You see what you''ve caused." He red at me. "All my hard work is for naught."


    "You''re not going to fucking touch her." I growled at him." He smiled at that.


    "You think you can stop me Mr. Alpha?" His voice was ridiculing. I remembered where I had heard his voice now, it was in the forestst month when I hit that strange barrier.


    "Yeah, I will."


    I shifted and leapt at him as he raised his hands that were engulfed in strange ck lights. I moved faster than I had ever moved before. I reached him much sooner than he expected. The force of my attack was also stronger than I was expecting, and therefore stronger than he was expecting. I knocked him off his feet and the breath from his lungs. He gasped in surprise and shock.


    Just as I was about to put my teeth around his head to end his life I felt several things hit me at once. It felt like I had burst into mes. I howled, falling off of the Warlock.


    "Did you truly think it would be that easy?" The head Warlock asked me.


    "If you didn''t have back up." I gasped.


    "You have back up as well." He snickered.


    "Not that interfered." I was breathing heavily. "You can''t fight fair."


    "I''m a three hundred year old Warlock bent on ruling the world, you think I would ever fight fair." He smirked as he pretended to be offended by my statement.


    "Then I will make sure I stop ying fair." I snarled at him.


    At that there was onest scream of pain from Little Bunny that was cut off and reced by a howl. Everyone in the cer turned to look again. If they were even a fraction as captivated as I was they couldn''t look away.


    Trinity''s main coloring was as white as snow. There was a fringe of ck around the top of her shoulders, running out from her head on both sides just behind the ears and down her fluffy head like hair, ck was also lining the tips of the ears. There were ck lines that went above and below her eyes like make up, just the smallest amount white between those ck lines and her bright ice blue eyes. Those lines connected and went forward, halfway down her muzzle before angling down to the corners of her mouth. Her lips were ck as well.


    There were also sapphire blue marks. There was a thin blue mark running down her bottom jaw from the lip. Four smudge like marks on each cheek starting below the eyes moving up to the ears. On her forehead was a mark that matched the one on the floor here in the cer, the trinity symbol with the circle through the tip of the leaves. And on her left shoulder, where the mate mark would be, there were now six marks, all in blue.


    In the middle was an altered version of the pack crest, there was still a full moon, but now instead of one wolf leaping there were several, all leaping toward a beautiful woman descending from the top of the moon. The other five marks formed a star. One mark was a triangle with two sped hands. Another was an oval, the lower half filled with a wolf head, the upper half filled with arge tree with many branches but no leaves. There was a diamond shape that showed nothing but a night sky with a full moon. There was a square with a close up of a wolf''s eye. Thest was in the shape of a cross with a different element filling each portion of it.


    Each of those five symbols, and the altered pack crest, were connected by a chain of trinity symbols, interconnected at the tips of each subsequent symbol.


    The white of her fur was shining like crystals or like there was a light underneath her skin. The blue was glowing as well, but it was more like it caught and reflected any and all light around. She was the most beautiful wolf I had ever seen in my entire life.


    In my distraction, the Warlocks were creeping up on me. I hadn''t noticed until it was toote. I had been too captivated by the beauty that was Trinity''s wolf.


    "STOP" I heard my Little Bunny, my mate, yell at the Warlocks sneaking up on me. The sound was amplified and I could see a visible shock wave following it. It was loud for me but didn''t seem to bother me too much, however all the Warlocks and enemy wolves remaining in the cer mped their hands over their ears, wincing in pain. I looked to Noah and Vincent and they seemed fine as well.


    "Don''t you dare touch them." Her voice was at a normal volume this time.


    "So, you''ve awakened your magic, and your wolf." The head warlock sneered. "How dreadful. With a snap of his fingers he became a cloud of purple smoke and quickly disappeared up the stairs. The others tried to make a run for it as well, but Trinity moved quicker than they did, blocking the door.


    "You aren''t going anywhere." She growled at them. The four remaining individuals stared at us with fear in their eyes. They knew something was not normal about this situation.

 Chapter 107 - Trinity-Wolf

    <h4>Chapter 107 - Trinity-Wolf</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I had not expected to turn into a wolf, ever, least of all when I had been kidnapped and was being tortured by psychotic Warlocks. So imagine my surprise when I turned into one for the first time with everyone staring at me. And then to find out that Edmond had aplished his goal, I have magic as well, if that strange howl was magic.


    I was now standing in front of the door, blocking the escape of Donna, Reya, Grantham, and Jeremy. Two Warlocks and two wolves. I wanted to kill them all personally, they had all done me wrong, they had all tried to kill me personally. But I didn''t know if they would let me handle them all.


    "Reece, will you let me handle this?"


    "All of them?" He seemed surprised.


    "They all tried to kill me." I growled, low in my throat.


    "Then I should be the one to do it, not you." He tried to argue with me.


    "No!" I snapped at him. "I will handle this." I yelled at him. For some reason he looked like he waspelled to follow mymand.


    "Fine, but I am here to help if you need me."


    "Would you like us to provide crowd control?" Vincent asked. We can herd them at the back of the cer until you''re ready for the next."


    "Sounds good to me, but I don''t n on taking my time, I won''t take pleasure in the torture like they did." I spat the words out.


    Slowly I stalked towards Donna, she was one of the reasons I was here to begin with.


    "No, please, don''t do this." She was begging for her life.


    "Oh, like you tried to spare my life?" I asked. "Oh, that''s right, you didn''t!" I yelled at her. "Now you can burn in hell." I spat the words at her. The next thing I knew, fire swirled around me and flew toward her. She was engulfed in seconds. She screamed in agony for less than a minute before falling silent. There was nothing but a pile of ashes left behind.


    "That was easy. Who''s next?" I said turning to the others. They shrank away in fear. "Maybe you Jeremy. You''re one of the reasons I am here. And now you seem to be frozen in fear. Maybe you should be frozen for real." Just likest time I watched as the element swirled around me before engulfing it''s target. But this time there was no screaming, he froze instantly. I walked to him slowly and pushed him lightly. He fell instantly, shattering into thousands of pieces on impact.


    I looked to Reya next, she was trembling in fear. She was not even trying to fight back. Everyone was just watching me either with fear or awe.


    "She was so eager to electrocute me. Let''s have her get a taste of that for herself. She needs to know the shocking truth of electricity." As soon as the words were out of my mouth I could smell the ozone in the room, taste it on the air. Several bolts of lightning hit her at once. She screamed for a few seconds, less than Donna did, before the electricity became too much for her system. She copsed to the ground, dead.


    When I turned to Grantham, he didn''t plead for his life, but he did ridicule me.


    "You think you''re something special all of a sudden. You''re just a mongrel, and you always will be. You''re neither a witch nor a wolf. You belong nowhere." He sneered at me.


    "I will rip your throat out for those words." Reece threatened him.


    "You promised me Reece." I reminded him.


    "Give me the satisfaction of killing at least one of them." He pleaded with me.


    "Then shall we kill him together?" I suggested.


    "That sounds like a wonderful idea."


    Reece and I walked toward each other, meeting directly in front of Grantham. We turned at the same time, brushing against each other. Even in wolf form he towered over me by at least a foot, my wolf seemed slim and delicate even though I felt sleek and powerful. But Reece was clearly pure power in his wolf form.


    We walked pressed against each other for several feet before we separated and came at Grantham at different angles. I know this was only so easy because they were not fighting back anymore, but I was just d to have this over with so soon.


    I lunged at Grantham first, going high for the throat, I never wanted to worry about that voice of his ever again. Reece lunged for his midsection, severing himpletely in half. I didn''t mind the vor of the blood, but just knowing whose it was that was running down my throat made me sick to my stomach.


    Finally, it was all over. There was no one left here to torment me. I just wish that Edmond hadn''t gotten away. But I would track him down. I would hunt him to the ends of the earth if I had to. He would not get away with what he''d done to me and all those other innocent people.


    With the situation over, the fear, the stress, the worry of it all past, I lost all the strength that was holding my body up.


    "Trinity." Reece leaned against me, supporting me. "Hold on, I will carry you."


    "Hold on Reece, I will get you some clothes and a nket to wrap the Luna in." Vincent said as he ran from the cer.


    "I''m not cold right now." I told Reece. "I don''t need a nket."


    "It''s in case you change back. This is your first shift, it''ll take you a few times until you can shift onmand." He was right of course. I wouldn''t even know how to shift back right now even if I wanted to.


    A few minutester Vincent came back, dressed, carrying clothes for Reece and a nket for me.


    "I figured you didn''t want any drool on it." Heughed as he handed over the clothes and nket. Reece shifted and dressed in a hurry. I wasying on the floor, having no energy to stand right now.


    After Reece was dressed he came over to me and lifted me gingerly into his arms. It felt awkward to be carried as a wolf. I was a lot bigger as a wolf than I was a person so I took up a lot more space than I was used to, though I still felt small in his arms. Plus, I couldn''t curl up the way I was used to.


    When we made it up the narrow stairs and out into the night, with me in Reece''s arms, all I could smell was blood. It soaked into the ground. The night was literally running red with it. I didn''t see anyone on the ground that I recognized. But I did smell familiar scents in the air.


    I hear the sound of pounding footstepsing our way. I could barely keep my eyes open, but I recognized Paul, Carter, and Cedar in the lead.


    "Astro?" I heard Paul call out to me.


    "Trin." Cedar voice joined him.


    "Trinity." Carter and Uncle Wesley called at the same time. I sensed Grandfather as well, but he said nothing.


    "Wow!"


    "Whoa!''


    "Oh my."


    "That''s cool." The four of them said all at the same time when they saw me.


    "Astro you got your wolf." Paul followed up his coolment with an obvious statement.


    "And it looks awesome." Cedar smiled.


    "I''m d your mate seems to be fine, now can we get out of here." A tall, strong man a little older than Uncle Wesley said. "We can y show and tell back at my ce." He grumbled. He didn''t seem very friendly.


    "Call a chopper tond in the clearing. I will fly back with Trinity from here, we will bring in the choppers one at a time, most of my pack can go back home."


    Reece''s words were humming through my body. I could feel a strange tickling sensation growing inside my body. Everywhere Reece was touching me was on fire but everywhere else was ice cold. I started to shiver. I felt my bones starting to shift again and instantly I fell asleep.


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "She''s shifting back." I told the others as I pulled the nket more firmly around her, making sure that she was properly covered so nothing showed at all.


    "Have you ever seen a wolf like that before?" Bryce asked me as he stood beside me.


    "No, but if you had seen her when she was in full spirits and fighting you''d see just how beautiful she is."


    "She''s amazing." Mr. Whitton smiled looking at her.


    "She looks celestial." Wesley said in awe. We all looked at her again. She really did look like the embodiment of something celestial, didn''t she.


    We boarded the helicopter and flew back to the Alpha house, she rode in my arms the whole time. I carried her straight to the room I had slept in before. Iid her in the middle of the bed, stripped down to my boxers again, then climbed in with her and held her in my arms. This time I pulled a small nket around us for her.


    I held her against my chest, holding her tight. The sense of peace I finally felt at having her back allowed me to drift into the first actual rest I had gotten since she had been taken. I missed her so much. I loved her more than words could say, and I need to tell her that as soon as I could. I would not miss my opportunity this time.

 Chapter 108 - Trinity-Vision Of The Wolf

    <h4>Chapter 108 - Trinity-Vision Of The Wolf</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Every breath I took brought a wave of pain and nausea. With the waves came visions. The visions were a jumbled mess of memories, some recent some not. I was confused and didn''t know what was happening to me.


    I saw Caleb and the others in the parking lot, then I saw Noah telling me that Reece didn''t hesitate to rescue me. I saw Grantham and the others tying me to the chair to electrocute me, then Reece telling me he hated me. I saw Edmond telling me that I belonged with them and not my pack, then the visions went ck and I heard Reece''s voice telling me he wasing for me.


    The constant contradiction of the memories was so confusing that it was making my head spin. But what I believed, or at least what I wanted to believe, was that Reece was telling the truth. And he was, wasn''t he? He dide for me, didn''t he? That wasn''t just a dream was it?


    I remember Reeceing to save me. I remember him breaking into the room with Noah and Vincent. I remember Reece killing Leslie and Caleb. He was fighting with Edmond and was being hurt when¡­when¡­


    When I turned into a wolf! I turned into a wolf! And not only did I turn into a wolf I turned into a wolf that has magic.


    What does this mean for me? Will I be epted, or rejected? Sure, I have a wolf like everyone wanted. But I''m also not a full wolf, I''m also a witch and I have magic powers. Will anyone want a Luna like me?


    I know there are some who wouldn''t care. Like Juniper, Cedar, Paul, and Vincent. My family would love me still. But Reece, and everyone else, how would they react?


    With all these worries running through my mind, the visions changed again. This time, I was standing in the clearing back home. The one where we have important pack meetings. The same clearing where Reece marked me.


    I was standing on top of the round, white stone tform and I could feel the power radiating from it. It wasn''t just white and reflecting the moonlight like it usually did. No, it was glowing like the moon itself.


    As I stood there, staring at the sky above me, I felt like the power of the stone was coursing through my body. Breathing no longer hurt. A sense of peace and serenity was spreading throughout my body. I sensed someone in the clearing with me, but still I could feel nothing but peace.


    I turned in the direction of the presence I felt. There I saw a tall, slim wolf. It wasn''t as tall as the other wolves I had seen from the pack. Reece''s, for example, stood over five feet tall with a headrge enough to bite a man''s head clean off.


    This wolf however, whilerger than a normal wolf, only stood around four or four and half feet tall. She was slim and her head was narrow. She was snow white in color with strange ck and blue markings around her head and face.


    The wolf in front of me seemed radiant. The white was glowing like a softly shining light. The blue marks gleaming with the reflected light. The eyes were a bright ice blue that, too, seemed luminescent. The blue almost looked like the sky just after sunset whenpared to the bright radiance of the white on the rest of the wolf. And the white was like that of the full moon on the clearest of all nights.


    Looking at the wolf I felt like I was looking at the embodiment of the full moon itself.


    "Who are you?" I asked, a note of awe in my voice.


    "I am you." The wolf answered in my voice, it was not the guttural grunts and barks I had expected toe from the wolf.


    "I don''t understand. What do you mean you are me?" My face showed the confusion I felt.


    "I am you, and you are me. We are one in the same." She spoke in a calm, serene voice.


    "But I have never had a wolf before." I crossed my arms in defiance at her words.


    "I have always been inside of you. It just was not yet time for me to show myself."


    "But now is the right time?" I asked her with a hint of sarcasm and pain filling my voice as I put my hands on my hips.


    "I am sorry that you have had to suffer in my absence, but the experiences you have had will shape you into a better person, a better leader for your people because of it." She sounded as if she was indeed sincerely sorry.


    "Which people would that be? The wolves or the Warlocks?" I was bing defensive now, I didn''t mean to, and I knew I was being rude, but I couldn''t help it.


    "You know where you belong." She said firmly, tilting her head to the side.


    "Do I?"


    "You''ve always known. It''s why you''ve never tried to leave, and why you were always hurt when you were never included. You know you belong with the wolves. You are a wolf, first and foremost." Her voice was somanding, so sure of itself.


    "How do I know that though?" I seemed so uncertain, and doubtful inparison.


    "You see me standing here before you, do you not. I am your proof. I would not be here if you were not wolf enough to belong to the pack." Her words were reassuring, but still, I wasn''t sure I should believe her.


    "How am I to know that they won''t shun me for what I am?" I crossed my arms, this time to hide myself as much as I could.


    "They will not, they will see the power that lies in you for what it truly is."


    "And what power is that?" I asked her, my curiosity peaked.


    "Time will tell, young one, time will tell. There is much more power to what you have unlocked than you know. I ask that you work hard to try to understand it."


    "How? How am I to do that?" I threw my arms out, I was using my hands to talk more now than I had done in a long time.


    "Train. It is as simple as that. You must train yourself like you never have done before. As unbelievable as it may sound, try anything that may seem possible, even if it seems impossible."


    "That makes no sense." I told her, confused.


    "I know." Sheughed. "But that is what it means to learn by experimentation. You don''t know what powers you possess yet, and unless you try something new, you will not know them."


    "Can''t you just tell me what they are?" I begged her with my hands sped in front of me.


    "I am afraid I cannot, for they will be different for every person."


    "What do you mean?" I was confused, were there others like me?


    "Our time is up here. But remember, I am with you always, so never be afraid." I sensed a smile from her even though I could not see those exact motions on the wolf''s face.


    I watched as the wolf began to fade. The light in the clearing lessened immediately. It got darker and darker until, soon, all the light faded away entirely.

 Chapter 109 - Trinity-Waking Up In Reeces Arms

    <h4>Chapter 109 - Trinity-Waking Up In Reece''s Arms</h4>


    I could feel something wrapped around me, and my face was pressed against something firm, yet strangely soft. I wasn''t used to the feeling, but I remembered it. It was exactly what I felt when I woke up the day Reece slept in my room.


    I opened my eyes slowly. The room was dark but I could still make out Reece''s firm, naked chest in front of my face. His arms were wrapped tightly around me, holding me to him. I could not move away from him at all without waking him.


    I turned my head slightly, so my face wasn''t pressed directly into his chest. The movement hurt, but not as much as I thought it would. I remembered the excruciating pain I had been in before I had passed out from sheer pain and exhaustion. But still, I let out a small cry of pain.


    "Mhn." I tried to stifle the sound so I didn''t disturb Reece, but I felt him stiffen instantly.


    "Little Bunny." He called out squeezing me a little tighter.


    "I''m fine Reece." I assured him. "Though I won''t be if you keep squeezing me so tight." I giggled softly as I felt him release me and pull away. The loss of his warmth was almost painful in and of itself. My body wanted to be close to him, and I didn''t know how much longer I had with him, knowing what I found out recently.


    "You''re awake." He smiled radiantly before hugging me to him again, gently but still firmly. "I thought I had lost you forever.


    I was confused, but happy. I wasn''t used to a Reece that acted like this. If it could stay like this I would be happy. If things like this were the normal between us and we didn''t have all the problems we''ve had to deal with.


    Reece''s arms loosened around me again and he pulled back, but his hands remained on my waist. That was when I realized, I wasn''t wearing anything.


    "Um, Reece, why am I naked?" I asked him apprehensively.


    "Uh, because your clothes were destroyed when you turned into a wolfst night. Don''t you remember?" He seemed concerned.


    "Vaguely. Was it justst night?" I asked him jokingly. "I feel rested for the first time in I don''t know how long." Iughed. "How long was I gone?"


    "You don''t know?" He seemed surprised. I shook my head.


    "No, they knocked me out before taking me there and I woke up in that cer. I lost consciousness several times while I was in there, but I never knew how long I was out for. And torture feels like itsts for hours, I never knew how long I was awake. If you were to ask me, it felt like I was gone for a week at least, but sometimes I would say less, others more." I saw the pain in his eyes at my words, like he was hurting physically from just hearing it.


    "I''m so sorry Trinity." He said the words softly as he pulled me gently to him again for a brief hug. "I''m sorry it took me so long to find you. I''m sorry you were there for so long."


    "How long was I there?"


    "Fifty-two hours. That''s how long it took me to find you." He sounded so remorseful.


    "That''s it. A little over two days? It definitely felt like longer." Imented.


    "I''m sorry."


    "It wasn''t your fault Reece." I tried to reassure him.


    "But if I would have just taken you with me like you wanted, none of this would have happened." He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against mine, I could no longer see his face clearly. "But I thought I knew what was best. Noah and I both thought you would be safer if you stayed home. We didn''t think, not for a moment, that anything like this would happen if we left you at home."


    I could hear the pain, and regret in his voice. I couldn''t put this Reece together with the Reece that I''ve always known. He was acting so differently. What had he gone through to bring about this change? What had made him act so differently?


    "Reece, what happened to you?" I pulled back and asked him without thinking. My head was tilted in confusion.


    "What do you mean? Nothing happened to me."


    "You''re just not acting like yourself." He raised an eyebrow. "You''re actingpletely different than you did before."


    "Little Bunny." He sighed. "I know I''ve messed up in the past, but haven''t we moved on. Haven''t I already proven that I care about you."


    "In what way? Because we''ve slept together? That doesn''t prove anything Reece, except that you''re a horny male and I was a willing female." He growled as I finished my little rant.


    "It meant a hell of a lot more than that to me, and I hoped it would have meant more to you too."


    "Oh it did. It meant a lot to me for several reasons." I blushed, thinking of all those reasons.


    "Yeah, and what reasons are those?" He smirked mischievously.


    "W-w-well i--it was my first time for one." I tried to hide my face in embarrassment but he held my head in ce with my chin.


    "And?" He encouraged me to continue.


    "W-w-well." I stuttered, unable to talk. "W-w-why did it mean a lot to you?" He grinned wickedly causing me to swallow convulsively.


    "There were several things important about those two nights to me." He leaned forward as he spoke. "First, there is the fact that I have never before been with the same woman more than once, so that was a first for me too." He kissed me softly on the forehead as he spoke. "Also, I have never spent an entire night with someone, so that was a first as well." He kissed the tip of my nose this time. "Andstly, there''s the fact that it was the first time I have ever been with someone I am in love with. I''d say that made it really special for me." He was smirking as he leaned toward me. I was frozen in shock as he came closer, unable to move.


    Reece pressed his lips to mine. Soft and gentle. It was a kiss that was meant to convey love, affection, and adoration. It was sweet, tender, and loving. I had never felt so loved as I did in that moment.


    When Reece pulled Back I was still staring at him in shock.


    "Little Bunny?" He asked me, concerned.


    "Sorry, I think I''m just in a state of shock."


    "Why?" There was augh in his voice. He clearly knew why but wanted me to say it.


    "Did you just say what I think you said?"


    "I don''t know, what do you think I said?" Heughed.


    "Th-that you...that you...that you love me." I could feel my heart beating a mile a minute, it felt like it was about to beat right out of my chest.


    "That depends, how does that make you feel?" He asked me, his voice aloof and still yful. I just continued to stare at him, dumbfounded. His face fell, theughter fading. "How do you feel about me, Little Bunny?" He asked, a hint of worry filling his voice.


    "Well." I turned my head in embarrassment. "I-I love you."


    "I love you Little Bunny." He sighed happily as he pulled me toward him in a tight embrace. "I love you so much. I wish I never said those hurtful things to you. I''m just so d that we have been able to move on and get to this point." I hugged him back, holding him against me. "I never meant what I said back then. I never rejected you, I never hated you. I just thought that I was protecting you by keeping you at a distance from me."


    "I know that now, Reece. But let''s never do that to each other again, ok."


    "I promise Little Bunny. You couldn''t get away from me now if you tried." He locked his arms around me tightly, holding me more firmly against him.


    "You''re going to have to let me go at some point." Iughed.


    "Nope, ain''t gonna happen." Heughed right back at me.


    "Well, will you let me go long enough to take a bath?" I smirked as I tried to pull away.


    "No, I''ll just go with you."


    At those words Reece threw the nkets back and stood. The air didn''t really feel chilly or cold to me. What felt cold was the absence of his body next? to mine. But he just turned, put one knee on the bed and picked me up in a princess carry with an arm under my knees and the other around my shoulders.


    He held me close against him and I snuggled his chest as he walked toward the bathroom.


    "Reece, where are we?" I asked, as I realized this ce was not in our home.


    "We''re at the pack house of another alpha. He helped me to find you, I owe him a lot."


    "Where?" I emphasized that part of my question.


    "ck Canyons."


    "They took me that far?" I felt my eyes pop. "They went through a lot to get to me." I mumbled.


    "I didn''t care if they took you to the moon, I would have found a way to get you back." His words made me smile as I buried my face against him.

 Chapter 110 - Trinity-Bath Time With Reece

    <h4>Chapter 110 - Trinity-Bath Time With Reece</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece pushed the door to the bathroom open with his shoulder and walked in without hesitation. I was growing more nervous by the second. He carried me over to the tub and set me down on my feet next to it.


    "Want to sit on a towel to wait?" He asked me.


    "No, I''m capable of standing for a few minutes." I answered defiantly. I wasn''t that weak, even though I could feel the pain re up in my legs when he set me down. My muscles were definitely sore.


    I watched as he turned the hot water on. He added a light scented soap that seemed to be the only one in the room. After he tested the water with his hands he turned back toward me with his hands outstretched.


    "Reece, I''m not an invalid."


    "I know that." He grinned at me as he scooped me up. "But I have a lot of time to make up for." He was chuckling as he stepped into the water with me in his arms.


    The tub in this bathroom wasn''t nearly as big as the one in my bathroom back home. It was a bit narrower, more actual tub shaped but still built into the floor like mine. It also didn''t seem to be quite as deep as mine. But it was still too deeppared to me though.


    The depth didn''t seem like it was going to pose a problem though, as Reece sat me down on hisp, facing away from him, when he sat down in the tub. He wrapped his arms around me again for a gentle hug, but since they went around the front this time, it felt a lot more intimate.


    After a few moments Reece started stroking my back, gently. I picked up another wave of the soft smell of the soap.


    "What are you doing?" I asked him in disbelief.


    "Washing you. I started with your back, did you want me to start somewhere else?" I felt the purr like rumble of hisugh as it vibrated through his body into mine. The feeling made me shiver.


    "You know I can wash myself right."


    "I know. But I want to do it. Is there a problem?" His hands moved up my back to my shoulders. Then he massaged the back of my neck and shoulders gently with small circles, the sensation was amazingly rxing. I let out an involuntary moan of pleasure as he nimbly moved his fingers along my skin.


    "Does that feel good Little Bunny?" He asked me, a hint of triumph in his voice.


    "Mhmm. It''s helping with the pain I''m still feeling."


    "I''ll give you a better massageter."


    "I won''t say no to that." I let my head fall back against him, his fingers making me feel weak and rxed.


    After he finished his massage of my shoulders, hethered more soap in his hands and massaged gently down both my arms at the same time. Kneading the tense muscles and washing me at the same time.


    Hethered again and ran his hands gently across my chest. Soft, gentle circr motions, that was how he moved his hands, across my chest and lower as he moved to my belly button.


    When he leaned forward to reach toward my legs, it pressed his chests against my back. The pressure of his body pushing against mine that fully made the sharp pains re again. I could feel a shadow of whipsshing against me.


    "Ahh!" I cried out almost instantly causing Reece to pull back.


    "What''s the matter? Are you alright? Did I hurt you?" His voice was full of panic as he ran his hands over me hesitantly.


    "I''m still just really sore, that''s all. I don''t know if it is from the shift or from before. Whichever one it is though, I still hurt all over."


    "I''m sorry Bunny, I didn''t mean to hurt you."


    "You didn''t, I was already hurt." I interrupted him.


    "But I made it worse." He rested his head on my shoulder and spoke pitifully.


    "Shut up." I snapped at him.


    "What?" He cried out in surprise sitting up. I quickly, and carefully, turned myself around so that I was facing Reece. I straddled his legs and ced my hands on his shoulders.


    "Listen Reece. I am happy that we are properly together now, that we''re moving past all that bullshit from the beginning-."


    "I know, I-."


    "Stop." I cut him off just as he interrupted me. "Let me talk, you just zip it and listen for now, I think I''ve earned that. Don''t you?" He nodded his head to answer my question. "Good. Now, listen to me, and listen good, I know you didn''t mean to hurt me just now. In fact, it wasn''t you that hurt me, it was five psychotic Warlocks, four of which are already dead."


    "Still one got away-."


    "Zip it." I said again, ring at him yfully. He smiled and closed his mouth. "A lot happened to me. Yes, I am in pain, a lot of pain. But you know what Reece, I will heal. And when I heal I will be a stronger person for this because there are not many people out there who can say they have survived what I did. And not only did Ie out of it alive, I am not mentally broken like they tried to do to me. I came out of that room a wolf. A wolf unlike almost any other wolf ever. So, yeah that might make me a freak to some-."


    "You''re not a freak."


    "Thanks for that, but shut up and listen a little longer."


    "Like I said, that might make me a freak to some, but to others, it makes me more powerful. So, I guess it''s all in how I look at it. Yes, it was a horrible ordeal and a really bad situation that I truly want to forget. But I''m not going to forget it, and I''m not going to regret that time for my entire life, because I don''t know if I would be who I was meant to be without my time there."


    "Are you saying that you never would have awakened your wolf if it wasn''t for them?"


    "If it wasn''t for them attacking you." I corrected him.


    "What are you saying?" He didn''t seem to follow that.


    "I only changed when they attacked you Reece. I was there with them for two days. Two days of physical and mental torture didn''t awaken my wolf or my magic. What finished the awakening, what did the job, was them attacking you. I didn''t want them touching you, hurting you, like they had hurt me. Or worse, I didn''t want them killing you, even if it meant I had to die."


    "Trinity." I heard both Happiness and sorrow in his voice and saw a strange look in his eyes. He was obviously touched by my words.


    "I love you Reece, and I have for a long time now."


    "I love you too, Trinity, and I''m sorry I ever made you think otherwise. I loved you the moment I first smelled your scent, and I loved you more the first time I saw you. You smell sweet and delicious like an apple pie, but also dangerous like it''s being chased by a thunderstorm. You drive me crazy."


    I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his gently. A soft kiss that didn''t go too far. I could tell he wanted more, but my body just wasn''t ready.


    "You drive me crazy too, but not always in a good way." I joked as I rested my head on his left shoulder, my eyes crinkled inughter. He wasughing with me, he seemed to understand exactly what I meant.


    That was when I noticed something I had never seen before. And considering I had seen almost every part of this man naked, I would have noticed a giant ck mate mark on his neck.


    "Reece, when did you get this?" I was confused as I looked at it. It didn''t look like any pack crest I had ever seen before so it didn''t make any sense to me.


    "It started to show up after Saturday night." He pulled away from me and grinned. "After we marked each other."


    "Marked each other?" My eyes popped. "You''re saying I marked you? How?" Reece shrugged his shoulders with a huge smile on his face.


    "I don''t know Little Bunny, but when you bit me back when we were together that night, when the flow of power was coursing through us both at the same time, I think it counted as a second mating, a true mating."


    "Has something like this ever happened before?" I was awestruck as I stared at the mark, my fingers brushing over it. He shivered slightly when my fingers moved gently across the mark.


    His mark, unlike mine, was that of a jet ck wolf crouching protectively in front of a ghostly pale woman who seemed to be radiating light, a full moon could be seen partially obscured by wispy clouds in the image as well. It was beautiful. And it was surrounded with the three leaf marks that were like the one on the floor of the cer.


    "This symbol again." I said running my fingers along the chain of three leaf designs.


    "Are you talking about the trinity symbol?" He was looking at me like I should have known.


    "The what? There''s a symbol with my name?"


    "You didn''t know?" I shook my head to answer him. "Well, the Trinity means triad or group of three. They also use it in the church for religious reasons, but it predates those days."


    "I never knew that." I continued to trace the chain of trinity symbols around his mark, making him shudder.


    "Your marks changed too, you know." I stopped moving my hand along his mark and looked at him.


    "What?"


    "Yeah, they match what was on your wolf."


    "But, what was on my wolf?" I asked him yet I was afraid to hear the answer.


    "You have six marks in all. The center mark is an altered pack crest. It no longer has just a wolf leaping over the moon."


    "What does it have now?" I asked, my voice full of worry.


    "There is a pack of wolves leaping in front of the moon and a beautiful woman descending from the top of it."


    "Why would it change?" I was concerned about this more than he seemed to be.


    "I don''t know, perhaps because you''re the Luna."


    "I wonder."

 Chapter 111 - Trinity-An Intimate Moment

    <h4>Chapter 111 - Trinity-An Intimate Moment</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was deep in thought for a moment until Reece dragged my attention back to the bath by running his hands through my hair.


    "What are you doing?" I asked him, surprised.


    "Finishing your bath. This new position of yours will make it a lot easier. I don''t know why I didn''t think of it first." He grinned as he continued gently working his hands through my hair and across my scalp. I could feel the shampoothering between his hands and my head. The feeling of his fingers was like a gentle massage that I didn''t want to stop.


    I felt him moving his hands lower and lower once he was done washing my hair. His hands tickled lower until they went below my shoulders, below the surface of the water. Down they went to the small of my back. He stopped there, gripping me lightly in the water.


    "Do you want me to rinse your hair for you?" He had a wicked look in his eyes as he asked the question.


    "Normally, I wash my hair in a shower, the few times I do so in a tub, I lean back and rinse my hair."


    "How do you want to do it today?" I thought about that for a moment, it would be awkward with him in the tub as well, but I had way more than enough room to aplish the task.


    "I''ll justy back I guess." I went to move off hisp but he held me in ce.


    "I was hoping you''d say that. Which way, toward me or away?" He was giving me a triumphant smile, as if he had just won something.


    "What?"


    "Do you want to lean back away from me how you''re sitting, or turn around andy back against me?" He asked me, grinning even wider. He really wasn''t going to let me go.


    "Are you going to be clingy like that all the time?" I asked.


    "Maybe." Heughed. I just rolled my eyes and leaned back, arching my back to dip my hair into the water. Reece wrapped his arms around me a little tighter to hold me steady. I ran my hands through my hair quickly, until I felt that all the shampoo was gone.


    While I leaned back, I felt Reece remove one hand from around my back. He pressed his hand against my chest. He squeezed my breast gently, applying a light pressure with his finger tips. I moaned softly at the feel of his finger. While I continued rinsing, he ran his hand over my chest and stomach, up and down, repeatedly.


    Leaning back hadn''t been that painful. Buting back up, using the muscle that had been stretched into apletely new formst night, is what hurt. When I went to sit up I felt a stabbing pain and bit my lip to stop the cry of pain. Reece must have felt my hesitation as he gently pushed me into a sitting position on hisp again.


    "I''m sorry Little Bunny, I should have turned you around."


    "Stop it, it was my choice to lean back Reece. My muscles are just sore. I''ve got pains all over, it just seems like I don''t know where they all are." I was trying to reassure him.


    "Let''s hurry this up and get out of here then."


    "I''m not going to break Reece." He was starting to frustrate me.


    "Maybe not, but you''ve had enough pain,tely. I don''t want to cause anymore for you."


    We finished our bath in a hurry, apparently the rxation was over. Reece bundled me in a towel and carried me back to the bedroom. I knew better than to argue, he would just tell me he wanted to carry me and to let him, or something like that.


    Reece set me down on the edge of the bed, the towel still wrapped around me.


    "Reece, the sheets will get wet."


    "It doesn''t matter, I''ll be asking for them to be changed today." He dismissed my protests.


    "This isn''t a hotel." I snapped at him.


    "Treat it like it is." I rolled my eyes at him.


    "Now, let''s get dressed, and to do that we need to get dried."


    Reece snatched the edges of my towel and tugged it open. I watched in embarrassment as he purred when he looked at me.


    "I promise, I''m not going to do anything, I''m waiting until you''re better, but man are you hard to resist." The hungry look in his eyes helped to drive the words home, even with the smirk on his face. I blushed scarlet as his eyes devoured me.


    Reece took another towel that was sitting nearby and knelt in front of me before he began to pat my body dry. He gently rubbed the towel up my left leg, then my right. He rubbed the towel over my thighs, but he did not press himself forward between them.


    Reece was as close to me as he could get without touching me, his towel still wrapped around his waist while I sat exposed on the bed. He smoothly moved higher with the towel, drying me as he moved his hands up my body. I watched his face intently as his eyes stared hungrily at me. I could feel the heat radiating from him, from the look he was giving me.


    I felt hisrge, firm hands through the cloth. They wrapped almostpletely around my hips as he gripped me firmly. He slid his hands up over my waist, across my ribs, until he reached my breasts. I saw the smile that settled on his lips as he cupped my breasts in his hands. He squeezed gently for just a moment before moving on.


    "I need to behave myself." He muttered to himself as his hands reached my shoulders. He took the towel and ran it once down each of my arms quickly before he got to his feet.


    I thought he was finished but he held me in ce with a gentle hand as he climbed onto the bed. He settled himself behind me, pulling me back to nestle me between his thighs. He gently took the towel and started rubbing my hair gently. The massaging feel of his hands was almost enough to make me want to sleep again.


    After my hair was sufficiently dried he moved onto my neck, shoulders, and back. Gentle stroking motions that seemed different from how he dried me moments ago.


    "I can still see these marks." I heard him whisper behind me, I don''t know if he meant for me to hear him or not.


    "What marks?" I asked him.


    "Where they whipped you. I can still see them. Where it tore open your flesh. I remember how I felt that night, when I saw what they had done to you. I wanted to kill them. I wanted to be there in that room for real and rip them to shreds." I heard the anger he felt, but also the sorrow at having not been there to save me.


    "You did stop them, eventually. It''s not your fault, Reece. I''m alive, let''s just focus on that." I tried to soothe him.


    "But their leader got away."


    "We will find him, eventually. For now, let''s focus on the here and now." I begged him.


    "I will never forgive them." I felt him trace the lines on my back with his fingers, the towel all but forgotten now. "I will find him, and anyone else left in his coven that didn''t diest night, and I will make them all pay." I felt the bed shift as he leaned toward me, the next thing I knew I felt his lips press lightly against my back. "I will avenge you." He kissed my back again. "Every single person, Warlock, wolf, no matter what they are, they will pay for hurting you." He kissed another mark on my back. The mixture of his words, the gentle breeze of his breath across my skin, and feather light touch of his lips, together they all made me shiver in his embrace.


    I heard a rumbling purre from his chest, I knew that meant his control was on the verge of snapping.


    "I will make sure you heal, I will make sure you are made whole again. You will stand at my side and together we will lead our pack. No one will ever dare to touch you again." His words sent shivers down my spine and butterflies whirling in my stomach. He never talked like this, but I was enjoying the moment.


    Reece wrapped his arms around me then, one around my breasts the other around my waist, as he threw himself backwards and rolled to the side. We ended with me face down on the mattress with him straddling me, his knees next to my hips. I felt the bed shift again from him moving forward, his breath tickling the back of my ear.


    "You are my Luna, my mate, my everything Trinity. You are my Little Bunny after all." I felt him press his mouth to my mark, or marks now. "This here, tells me you''re meant to lead the pack." I could tell he was pressing his tongue against the first mark I received. The firm pressure of his tongue was stirring things deep in my core. Every stroke of his tongue was like a caress of somewhere much lower.


    His tongue trailed along a sensitive path making me writhe beneath him.


    "These other marks." He said as hepped at another mark that was up on the side of my neck, just below my ear. "These marks tell me you''re special." He whispered into my ear before following the path with his tongue again. The marks and the lines connecting them were still extremely sensitive to the touch.


    "These marks tell me that you will be unlike any other Luna in our pack''s history. Possibly in the history of the world." He followed the line once again after he spoke these words. "They tell me that you are strong as well as beautiful, not to mention sexy as hell and mouth wateringly delicious." I felt the hum of repressed desire as he was holding himself back while following the line again. "You may not need or want me to protect you anymore, or ever, but I hope you let me. I promise to do it properly from now on." He followed the line to thest of the outer marks. "I promise to treat you right from now on."


    His mouth made it ways back to the center of the marks, the original mark. I felt him press his lip to it gently before he opened his mouth. His lips had just settled against my mark, tongue pressing in the middle of the sensitive patch, when my stomach growled loudly. I was mortified, embarrassed beyond belief and d my face was hidden so he couldn''t see how red it was.


    "Yeah, you''re probably pretty hungry aren''t you? Did you even eat during those two days?" I could hear theughter in his voice.


    "No, I didn''t." I shook my head from side to side to emphasize the answer.


    "I should have gotten you food sooner. Your body needs it, especially after the first shift. It exins why you haven''t fully healed as well. Your body will require more calories now that you can shift. Without the calories you won''t be able to heal as fast, shift properly, or stave off the cold like we usually do." I felt him move away from me, allowing me to roll over and sit up.


    "All that if I just get too hungry? I knew that wolves ate more than other people, but I hadn''t actually thought about the why before. I had just assumed it was the natural metabolism, I didn''t think it had other implications." He was walking to the table near the door, where I noticed arge bag sitting.


    "Our metabolism is actually the cause. It''s why we heal so fast, why the cold doesn''t bother us, and of course, why we have suchrge appetites. But without that metabolism, we couldn''t be what we are. Shifters of any kind have the elerated metabolism." With the bag in hand, he walked back toward the bed. I watched the uninterrupted disy of his body as he made his way closer to me.


    "Huh." His words had given me information I had never cared to learn before. If I wasn''t a true wolf then why bother, that had been my answer when someone tried making me learn more about it. I knew what I needed to know about wolves up to that point. And academically I was ster, I just didn''t want to depress myself learning about something I would never be. Or so I thought. Guess I was wrong.


    "Come on, get dressed. I will call to have some breakfast brought up." He looked over at the clock on the nightstand. "Make that lunch." He amended with a smile and augh.


    Reece had packed the bag for both himself and me in mind. There were clothes,fortable ones. He handed me a bra and panties that weren''t picked out for their sex appeal but for their softness andfort in mind. Next he gave me a pair of dark blue satin lounge pants. Instead of the matching top that went with the lounge pants, that was kind of low cut and revealing, he handed me one of my favorite t-shirts I usually wore to bed.


    "You definitely didn''t pick this to make me look sexy." I said as I pulled the shirt over my head.


    "One, I''m trying to stop temptation. Two, you look sexy in everything you wear. And three, I thought you might need somefortable clothing after what you went through, I didn''t expect you to be shifting into a wolf and healing most of your injuries that quickly." I smiled at him and blushed at his words.


    "I look sexy in everything, huh?" I asked teasingly.


    "Yes." He purred as he leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine for a brief moment. The kiss told me he was fighting to hold back. It spoke of hunger, need, desire, and restraint. "Now, be good and don''t tempt me too much, I know my self control is good because I kept my hands off of you for almost three months, but I don''t? want to see if my control can stand another test of wills." His eyes seemed to be begging me to give him a break, I had to cut the man some ck. He was right, I was still in a lot of pain since I hadn''t healedpletely. Not to mention I was really hungry.


    "Alright, alright." Iughed at him. "I''ll be good."


    "Thank you." He pressed a kiss to my forehead before backing away.


    "By the way, Reece, is there a brush in that bag?"


    "I didn''t even think to pack one." He smacked himself in the head, realization dawning on his face. "I usually only need ab. Will that help?" I looked at him skeptically, wondering if he were serious.


    "No, Reece it won''t. Not with hair as thick as mine."


    "I''ll send someone out for everything I forgot." He promised.

 Chapter 112 - Trinity-A Gift From Reece

    <h4>Chapter 112 - Trinity-A Gift From Reece</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Ten minutester we were sitting at the table when a young woman walked in. She was pushing a cart covered in food. It smelled and looked good enough, but it wasn''t Abigail''s cooking. I missed her food already. Reece was right when he said it would be lunch that was brought. It was just after noon now so it was definitely past breakfast time. We were each served massive tes. It wasn''t an overlyplicated lunch. They had obviously prioritized speed here.


    The lunch wasrge mushroom, steak and cheese subs piled with meat, cheese, lettuce, mushrooms, onions, and smothered in Italian dressing. It had been toasted so the bread was crispy and the cheese had been melted perfectly. The sandwich was bigger than my head, but my stomach growled so loudly when I smelled it that I dug right in as soon as the maid left the room. I picked up the messy sub and sunk my teeth in.


    At that moment, I didn''t care that it wasn''t Abigail''s cooking anymore. I had ignored my hunger so long that I hadn''t realized how truly starving I was until the food was right in front of me. I quickly worked my way through the whole sandwich as well as the heaping pile of fries that was on the te next time it. Before all this happened, I might have been able to eat half at most.


    When my te was cleared, I leaned back in my seat fully satisfied. I cleaned my hands and face on several napkins before taking a long drink from the ss in front of me. Reece had asked for lemonade and soda to be brought to the room. I had opted for the lemonade to start with, and after the first sip I realized then how thirsty I was. My body had been deprived of food and drink for so long. I had been given a drink once in all the time I was held captive, and since then I had ignored my body''s screams and protests for food and water. Before I knew it, I''d drank nearly the entire pitcher of lemonade that was sitting on the table.


    "Oh Goddess, I can''t believe I just did that." I looked at Reece, embarrassed again as I noticed him smiling at me.


    "What''s wrong?" He seemed genuinely confused as his smile disappeared from his face.


    "I just ate like a total pig, that''s what." I buried my face in my hands. I heard himughing at me and just wanted to melt into a puddle.


    "Little Bunny, we''ve been eating our meals together for months, I''ve seen you eat your food before. Now was no different."


    "So, I''m always a pig?" I red at him.


    "That''s not what I meant." He stumbled over his words momentarily. "What I''m saying is it doesn''t matter to me. I love you how you are. And you shouldn''t be ashamed. You were starving, literally. Anyone who hasn''t had food in nearly three days is going to eat fast. And even though it wasn''t our home''s cooking, they were good enough. Plus, these sandwiches were messy regardless." His smile did little to settle things for me.


    "So, what you''re saying is, the foods to me for being messy and I''m allowed to be a pig cause I was so hungry?"


    "If you''re so inclined to hear it that way, sure. But I''m saying you''re fine, and you weren''t a pig." He was exasperated now.


    "Agree to disagree?" I asked him.


    "If I must." Weughed together. "Oh, before I forget, I have something for you."


    I watched as Reece went back to the bag he had gotten our clothes out of. He dug around in a pocket for something before he turned and came back to me, his hands hidden behind his back. He knelt in front of me, looking me straight in the eyes.


    "Happy birthday, Little Bunny." He said as he brought his hand out from behind his back. He was holding a small square, white box wrapped in a blue ribbon.


    "What?" I asked him, perplexed.


    "It''s Thursday, January 28th, it''s your birthday." He was smiling at me with a happy grin. "Actually, it had just struck midnight when you shifted. Today is your birthday, and the night of the wolf moon. Maybe that''s why your wolf finally decided to show." I thought back to the night before, the bells ringing.


    "It was midnight?" I asked him.


    "Didn''t you hear the twelve bells in the distance?"


    "I heard neen tolls of the bell." I was lost in thought.


    "Maybe it was just everything that was going onst night, that made it seem like neen."


    "Yeah, that''s more likely." I nodded in agreement with his words.


    "Anyway, here." He put the small box in the palm of my hand.


    "You didn''t have to get me anything, Reece." I smiled at him. "You saved me after all, that''s gift enough."


    "I bought it before you were taken." He was looking at the box expectantly. "I nned to give you this regardless. And I will always be there to save you, always." He looked up into my eyes again as he said those words. "Go on, open it." He encouraged me.


    I smiled once more before doing as he asked. I pulled the ribbon, untying the bow from around the box. The blue fabric of the ribbon made a slight noise as it slid against itself. I dropped the ribbon into myp then gripped the lid of the box. When I lifted the lid, I saw the most beautiful ne I had ever seen. It was made of tinum, both the pendant and the chain. The pendant was in the shape of a heart with two wolves, one clearly male, the other female based on the size of their heads. The wolves'' noses seemed to be touching in the center of the pendant. Below them was the symbol I had just recently learned had the same name as me. Two wolves, a heart, and a trinity symbol. The detail of the ne was exquisite.


    "It''s beautiful Reece. It''s too much really."


    "Nothing will ever be enough." He said as he pulled the ne from the box. "You deserve the world, Little Bunny, and I''m going to do my best to give it to you." He leaned forward then, putting his hands around my neck. He moved forward just a little more and pressed his lips gently against mine. I didn''t notice when he moved his hands from behind my head to holding my cheeks, but when he pulled away he was cupping my cheeks in his hands.


    "Two wolves bound to one heart with a trinity." He said as he lifted the pendant of the ne. "At first I got it because of your name, but now we both have trinity symbols on us. It''s fitting."


    "You said Trinity means group of three, but we''re only two." I reminded him.


    "Well, you can look at it two ways. One, the pack is the third, or two, our future pup is the third." He grinned at me.


    "I-I--I--I don''t think I''m ready for that yet." I stammered.


    "No worries. We will know when the time is right." He let the wolf pendant fall to rest against my chest again. "As long as I get a pup that looks like you I''m happy." He was grinning like a loon when he said that and for most of the rest of the day.

 Chapter 113 - Trinity-Vincent Visits

    <h4>Chapter 113 - Trinity-Vincent Visits</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Just after the maid hade to clear away the dishes from lunch, there was a knock on the door. I could smell the man standing in the hallway.


    "Come in Vincent." Reece called out. I tried to move from my current position, as I was sitting across Reece''sp on the sofa near the firece, but he just held me tight against him, not letting me move off of him.


    "Alpha." Vincent nodded his head in deference before looking at me. "Luna." He sighed looking at me. "It is so good to see you Trinity. I am d that you''re safe." The smile that lit up his face then was bright and happy. I was d I was able to see him again.


    "It''s good to see you again too, Vincent." I smiled at him, but for some reason his smile disappeared and his face fell.


    "I am sorry. So very sorry."


    "What''s wrong?" I asked him, frightened by the pained tone in his voice.


    "Vincent, has something happened?" Reece asked him, slipping into his Alpha voice.


    "No, nothing has happened Sir, I just came to inform you that the Luna''s family wished to meet with her. I wanted to make sure that she was up to it first."


    "Then what are you sorry for?" I was still so confused by his words and tone of voice.


    "I wasn''t there to protect you, Trinity. This is all my fault." He dropped to one knee, bowing his head. I could see how much he med himself, how full of regret he was.


    "Vincent, it wasn''t your fault." I tried to console him. "Those at fault have been punished. The one who got away, the mastermind, we will find him soon enough."


    "No, it is my fault. I wasn''t there. I am your lead guard, the head of your security, and I wasn''t there. I am to me."


    "Vincent." I made my voice soothing to stop his self directed anger. "It was your day off. That was why I didn''t call you."


    "But I shouldn''t have been off that day. I have taken too many daystely."


    "Vincent, don''t you see, I told you to take time off. You have a new baby at home. Your wife and daughter needed you. You did nothing wrong. They would have made their attempt at me no matter what. This was bound to happen."


    "You''re far too forgiving, Trinity." He looked me in the eyes, I could see his pain in them but also his respect for Reece and me as well. "You''re going to make a great Luna though, because you will listen to people. But I also know, you will cut people off who deserve it." He was smiling now.


    "That''s right, and I''m not cutting you off." I assured him. "You''re an amazing guard, and a wonderful friend to have around Vincent. I could never imagine recing you."


    "You''re too kind."


    I slid off of Reece''sp then, nearly surprised that he let me go. Slowly, I walked to Vincent.


    "Please stand up." I asked him. He looked at me briefly, sorrow still filling his eyes, before he did as I asked him. "Don''t be sad anymore, Vincent. I''m here, I''m safe, and so is everyone else that I care about. That includes you." I spoke these words with my arms wrapped around his waist. I felt him stiffen in surprise before he started stuttering.


    "W-w-what L-L-Luna, what are you doing? A-Alpha, th-this isn''t, I mean I don''t know-." He couldn''t finish his sentence at all. The slight growl that Reece had been giving turned toughter.


    "Well, my mate sure is full of surprises." He chuckled. "ept her affections Vincent, I won''t allow it often." He warned the man. "She''s trying tofort you, don''t you get it."


    "B-but the Luna is the one who needs theforting now." Vincent protested.


    "I think she will be just fine. Plus, she has me." Reece told him,ughter and dominance waring in his voice.


    "She has us all." Vincent corrected him as his arms wrapped around me to return my hug. I smiled a little, happy that I was able tofort a friend. "I''m so d you''re back safe and sound Trinity." He squeezed me for just a moment before letting me go and taking a step back. He knew that Reece would not be happy if he lingered.


    "Oh cool it, Reece, he has a mate already."


    "So." He growled at me.


    "Honestly, you''re like a child sometimes." I snapped at him.


    "I definitely don''t do things to you that a mere child would do." His voice purred as he looked at me hungrily.


    "Calm down Fido, you know what I meant." I heard Vincentugh quietly beside me, so quietly that I wasn''t sure Reece heard it.


    "Shall I bring in your family now?" His smile was back again.


    "Yes, please. Thank you Vincent."


    I watched Vincent leave the room as Reece came up behind me. I could feel him standing close long before he wrapped his arms around my shoulders.


    "Do you want me to stay while you talk to them, or should I go?" He asked.


    "That''s up to you, Reece." I answered, not certain exactly how I felt about it.


    "I''ll leave for now, give you some privacy with your family." He kissed my cheek before he followed Vincent out of the door he just left through.


    I didn''t have to wait long for my family to arrive. Vincent must have gone straight to them to let them know I was well enough to receive visitors. I heard theming long before they got to me. It sounded like one of them was running and the others were walking quickly. I could guess who was running. And as his scent was the first one I noticed I knew I was right.


    They were getting nearer, and I was getting nervous. I knew I had to tell them what I had learned during my time with the Warlocks. And I knew they would still love me. But a part of me was afraid of their reactions. I just didn''t know if I was ready to tell them everything yet.

 Chapter 114 - Trinity-Family Visit

    <h4>Chapter 114 - Trinity-Family Visit</h4>


    Carter came running into the room first. He saw me standing next to the firece, leaning against the mantle for support as much as warmth at the moment. My nerves were making me feel cold.


    "Trinity." He called out to me before he ran over and wrapped his arms around me. He lifted me off the ground in a great big hug, turning in slow circles. "Trinity, I thought I was never going to see you again." He said as he set me down, his hands on my shoulders. "Are you alright? Does anything hurt? Is there anyone I can kick the shit out of to make this all better?" He asked me the questions in rapid session, so fast I couldn''t answer him yet.


    "I''m fine Carter. I''m just d to be out of there." I smiled at him.


    "I can''t believe what happened, and to top it off, you got your wolf out of it all." He was smiling at me. "See, I told you you have a wolf, but you never believed me." Carter seemed so relieved to see me, I was just happy to see his smiling face.


    At that moment Noah and Uncle Wesley came into the room.


    "Trinity." They both called out at the same time. Noah rushed to me much like Carter had, picking me up in his arms and hugging me tight, tighter than Carter had.


    "Ah, careful Noah, I''m still sore." I warned him. His arms loosened and he set me on the floor gently, a look of pain filling his eyes. "I''m fine, just sore is all." I assured him. I had a feeling I would be telling a lot of people that.


    "I''m sorry, Trinity. I told Reece it would be best to leave you home." He was ming himself, the same as Reece and Vincent had.


    "They would have tried at another time. This would have happened anyway." These words were already feeling old.


    "I''m so sorry."


    "Calm down Noah, it''s not your fault." Uncle Wesley said as he patted Noah''s shoulder.


    "I know, Dad, but I still me myself."


    "Don''t." I told him firmly.


    "Listen to thedy." Uncle Wesleyughed softly as he pushed past Noah. "Now,e here Trinity, it''s my turn for a hug." He had his arms held out and was smiling at me with a mixture of happiness and worry.


    "I''m alright, Uncle Wesley." I said as I hugged him tight. He held me firmly, but his arms were gently around me.


    "I was scared to death when I heard you were missing." I heard Uncle Wesley say from above me. "My entire world had been flipped upside down. I was afraid I would never see you again." I felt something wet drip onto my cheek and looked up to see the man who raised me crying.


    "Uncle Wesley, there''s no reason to cry. I''m fine now. I''m alive and kicking."


    "I''m going to cry, just like I''m going to worry about you for the rest of my life." He said firmly.


    "But why Uncle Wesley? I''m out of the house now, there''s no reason to worry about me anymore." I saw Uncle Wesley bite his lip then, a wave of emotions so strong I didn''t know what to call spread across his face.


    "How can I not worry about you?" He seemed so hurt by my words. "How am I supposed to not worry when you don''t have me there to protect you anymore?"


    "Uncle Wesley?" I was confused, I didn''t know what it was he wanted from me. He took my hands and pulled me to the sofa to sit with him. I could see Noah and Carter standing behind him, looking at me.


    "Trinity, do you not see yourself as part of our family?" Uncle Wesley asked me, further confusing me.


    "What?" I nearly yelled in shock. "No, that''s the only constant that I had in my life. I knew that no matter how bad things ever got for me, I always had you guys there for me." I could feel the heat rising in my face, tears were stinging in the back of my eyes. Was my family rejecting me now? Was Uncle Wesley telling me that I am not one of them?


    "Then why would you think that we would quit worrying about you just because you no longer live with us? A parent will never stop worrying about their children, no matter where they live or how old they are." He was looking at me pleadingly. It finally dawned on me what he was getting at, what he was saying. I finally understood the pain in his voice.


    "But, I''m not your daughter, Uncle Wesley." I looked at the floor, feeling the tears drip slowly down my cheeks.


    "You are in my eyes." I could hear tears threatening his voice as well. When I looked up to meet his eyes, he stared at me with a mix of love and loss.


    "But, Uncle Wesley-." I started but he interrupted me.


    "No, let me say something first, please." He pleaded. "I know I am not your father and Eve is not your mother. We never called ourselves as such when you were growing up, and I never hid anything about your mother from you. The reason for that was simple, in my eyes anyway, I didn''t want to get rid of my sister''s memory. She left you, she left me, she left all of us too soon. And no matter how much Eve and I love you, Trinity, I didn''t want to erase my sister from your life. But I have always thought of you as my daughter, not my niece. In my eyes, you are no different than Noah and Carter. No, maybe you''re more precious, because you are my baby girl, and they were rambunctious little devils." Heughed at the end, a mixture of tears and a smile, the look on his face made my heart ache for him.


    Uncle Wesley had lost a lot when my mother died almost neen years ago. He was eleven years older than his sister, so he wasn''t always around when she was young. But when their mother died and she was lonely at home, she would spend her time with him and his family. Noah was five and Carter was just a year old. They grew close, my mother and Uncle Wesley, he was happy to finally be a major part of his sister''s life.


    "When you disappeared Trinity, all I could think was it''s happening again. I wasn''t able to protect my sister back then, and now I failed to protect her daughter, the child I raise, my little girl. I thought I was going to lose you like I lost Lily. My heart broke into a million pieces. You''re older than your mother was by a couple years, but Noah is the same age I was. Looking at you, I see so much of your mother in you. And Noah looks so much like I did back then, that I thought the past wasing back to haunt me. It terrified me Trinity. I knew I had to be there to help bring you back. I wasn''t going to sit idly by this time."


    "Uncle Wesley." I sobbed after hearing what he had to say. "I''ve always thought you and Aunt Eve were the best parents I could ever ask for. I''m sorry if I made you feel like I don''t love you." I threw my arms around him and hugged him tight. "I love you Uncle Wesley."


    I felt him hug me back, rocking me side to side like he used to do when I was a little girl. He had always been there to quell my fears when I was young, or to calm me down when my emotions were running high. He had always been there for me, why did I ever think that was going to change?


    "I love you sweetheart." I felt him kiss me softly on the side of my head just like he did when I would cry on his shoulder as a little girl. His actions brought more tears to my eyes, but these ones were of happy and fond memories.


    The four of us talked for a little while longer before they left. Carter said he would be heading home shortly and would see me when I got back. The others would be flying back with Reece and me tomorrow.

 Chapter 115 - Trinity-Grandfathers Visit Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 115 - Trinity-Grandfather''s Visit Part 1</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I thought that Reece woulde back after our talk was over, but the next person toe to the room was not Reece, but Grandfather. I hadn''t expected him toe see me. I knew he had been part of the rescue groupst night, but I didn''t think he would decide I needed a visit while here at another pack''s territory. Uncle Wesley and the others would ept me, that''s for sure, but I was pretty certain that Grandfather would call me an abomination. This could very well be thest time I ever saw him face to face.


    Grandfather came into the room like he always walked, standing tall and straight, his arms behind his back, his posture perfect as always. I was still sitting on the sofa from my conversation with the others, but I stood when Grandfather entered the room.


    "Grandfather, what a surprise, I didn''t expect to see you today." My voice shook with shock and fear as I spoke to him. I just could not stop my emotions from leaking into my words right now.


    "Trinity." He called my name in a much softer tone than I was expecting. To my surprise he hurried over to me and hugged me, awkwardly but tightly.


    "Uh, Grandfather?" I was confused, I couldn''t remember a time when he had ever hugged me before.


    "I thought you were gone forever." Grandfather had leaned forward and pressed his face against the top of my head. These were all things I had never seen him do before. His posture and his perfect behavior were signatures for him, so what was going on.


    "Trinity." He said, pulling away and looking me in the face. Grandfather put his right hand on my cheek cradling my face. "I''ve been so afraid of losing you the same way I lost her. I''ve done what I thought was best to keep you safe, but I couldn''t protect you any better than I could her." His voice was trembling and he seemed to be on the verge of tears.


    "What do you mean you tried to keep me safe?" I asked him, still so confused about everything.


    "I know your mother didn''t run away, she didn''t leave that weekend intentionally. She was taken from us. For whatever purpose they had in mind, they took her. When she came home she had no memories of it at all, but she also had you growing inside of her." He gripped both of my shoulders tightly. "I was so angry back then, angry at whoever took her, whoever had hurt my daughter, and angry at myself for not being able to prevent it."


    "But she was kidnapped, Grandfather, how could you be angry at yourself?"


    "I didn''t raise her to be a fighter. She was never that kind of girl. She was always soft spoken, sweet, and so very kind. She was never the kind of girl who would have wanted to fight. But if I would have just made her learn, the basics at least, maybe she would not have been taken, maybe they would not have been able to destroy my little girl." I saw the tears flowing silently down his cheeks. I had never seen Grandfather cry, not once in my entire life.


    "They targeted her Grandfather. They chose her, they would have done anything they could to get her, even if she knew how to fight." I tried to make my words soft and reassuring. "Look at me, I know how to fight, but they were still able to get me." I reminded him. He pulled me to him again, squeezing me tightly. I could feel my muscles and bones protest the force of his hug, but I had never experienced this before and was in a bit of shock, so I did not stop him.


    "They took you too. No matter what I did, no matter how I tried to prepare you. I''m nothing but a failure." He sobbed as he held me.


    "You''re not the failure, Grandfather, I am. I am the one who didn''t have a wolf for so long, I am the one who could not protect myself." He just shook his head in denial as he released me, copsing on the sofa beside him.


    "No, Trinity, I am the failure. I didn''t tell you what I was thinking, why I was doing all this for your entire life. I wanted to protect you, physically, but also emotionally. I wanted to spare your feelings as much as I could. I didn''t want you to know what it was I suspected this entire time."


    "That my mother had been kidnapped and raped? That my father is a psychopath?" I asked him. He just looked at me confused for a moment before he nodded his head.


    "Yes, I knew she hadn''t run off for those two days, so I knew someone had to have taken her. When she found out she was pregnant, I knew she had to have been raped. And I have always feared that your father woulde back for you. I knew it was probably just paranoia on my part, that he would have no way of knowing about you, but I always feared that he would know and he woulde back for you."


    "He did." I told him in a calm voice, but he jerked away from me as if I had pped him.


    "What are you saying?" He asked me, confused. "Are you saying the man who took you was your father?"


    "Not the one who kidnapped me directly, that was Caleb, Reece''s cousin and beta along with some other undesirables from our pack."


    "Wait." He held a hand up to stop me. "You were taken from our pack, to the man who took your mother all those years ago, by members from our own pack? And the beta no less?"


    "Yes." My answer was simple but seemed to hurt him immensely.


    "What is wrong with that man? A beta is not supposed to behave like that." I could guess this news hurt him so much because he was the former beta.


    "Grandfather?" I attempted to get his attention.


    "I''m sorry Trinity, I was just thinking." He smiled at me sheepishly, it was a look I never expected to see on his face. "Who was the man they took you to? What was he after?" He looked like he was both determined to find out, but terrified to know. This was what I was afraid to tell him, but I would not hide it. He was the one who had lost the most in this whole thing, over all these years.


    "He called himself Edmond, Gannon Cornelius Edmond." I told him, trying to dy the part that would ruin me even more in his eyes. "He is the leader of the rogue Warlock coven that has been in our areately." I lowered my eyes, afraid to see the disgust in his.


    "Edmond?" He seemed shocked and appalled. "That son of a bitch." He snapped, confusing me. I looked up at him to see anger filling his eyes.


    "Do you know him?" I asked.


    "I''ve met him, yes. When his coven was in our area years ago. He seemed emotionless, but there had been no harming to the surroundingmunity or our pack. They had already started to move on when your mother was taken, I did not even think he was behind it. Why? Why did he do it? What was his goal?" He was angry and hurt, but still he was begging me to continue. "Why did he take her?" He sobbed as he asked thest question.


    "Me." I tried to hide my face as I spoke. I knew he would hate me forever after this conversation was over.


    "What?" He hadn''t understood, as I knew he wouldn''t. I needed to exin more.


    "He wanted me. He took her to make me. He''s been making half breed Warlocks he can use to infiltrate other groups. He was trying to make a half wolf that would survive until adulthood. He said most are aborted or killed in infancy. I hope he is referring to a long time ago and not in recent days." My voice broke thinking about how many children he had caused to die or killed himself. "He said that half wolves never shift, that it''s notpatible with magic, but he needed someone raised among the wolves, trusted by them, to bring about their downfall. I don''t think he ever nned on me mating with one, and the alpha at that."


    "He was trying to make a child the whole time?" Grandfather seemed like the information broke him further.


    "Yes. They intended to get my mother with child and send her home with no memories of it at all. They hoped that I would survive until I was useful to them. He never thought I would shift into a wolfst night." I was looking away from him, unable to bear how he must be looking at me.


    "I don''t understand, why would he do that? Why take my little girl?"


    "He said that she was deemed to bepatible with his magic. That I would likely be born with magic as well. And I was. I just never knew it."


    "Was he behind all the attacks on you? Since the one when you first mated with the alpha until now?" He seemed angry now, insistent.

 Chapter 116 - Trinity-Grandfathers Visit Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 116 - Trinity-Grandfather''s Visit Part 2</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "I think so." I was nodding my head. "He didn''t say as much, but I think he was."


    "I knew it. This was why I always had you escorted whenever you left the house. You were driven to school, and half of your professors were wolves in either our pack or an ally pack. When you made your three friends that were also from our pack, I was relieved. I knew with them around, you could live a more normal teenage life. They would help to protect you."


    "You thought I would be attacked if I was ever alone?" I asked him.


    "I suspected it, dreaded it."


    "Why didn''t you tell me?" I demanded. "Why didn''t you tell me what it was you feared this whole time?" I was angry and hurt now. "Why did you make me miss out on everything as a child? Why did you treat me like an abomination, a pariah?"


    "I didn''t want you to worry." His face looked broken like he was about to break down, but his voice was sincere. "I didn''t want you to look over your shoulder every time you left the house. And I didn''t treat you like a pariah. I wanted to protect you."


    "By making me avoid everyone? By homeschooling me so I couldn''t have any friends? By making me skip halloween and all the other celebrations?"


    "I didn''t do that to be cruel, or mean. Please believe me Trinity. I didn''t know what had happened to your mother. But I had you to protect, to care for. I didn''t know if the enemy was close to home or not. I didn''t want to give the man who caused all of this ess to you if he was closer than I was expecting. I was scared and paranoid. I suspected everyone for the longest time. I didn''t mean to hurt you Trinity. I love you." I didn''t remember Grandfather ever telling me he loved me before. He had never said those words. I gasped upon hearing them, the sound unfamiliar and aliening from him.


    "You should have talked to me. As I got older at least, you should have told me. I have thought that you hated me my whole life." I was crying now, I could feel the stinging in my eyes and the wet trails the tears were leaving as they ran down my cheeks.


    "I have never hated you, Trinity. I have loved you from the day you were born. I remember the first time I held you after you were born. I cried. I was heartbroken about what had happened to Lily, but here was this tiny little baby that was pure innocence. You were not to me for what happened. You were the blessing that we got out of the curse." He smiled at me again as he cradled the side of my head once more. "I loved you so much in that moment that I knew I needed to protect you, to do a better job than I had done before. And when I lost your mother, when she was taken from this world too soon, it shattered me, I didn''t know how to go on at first. I had lost my wife and daughter." He was looking at me intently while the tears flowed unhindered down his cheeks.


    "Then, when you were taken, just a little older than your mother was all those years before, I thought I was being punished for not protecting you enough. I thought the universe was telling me I had failed again. When I heard that you were gone, Trinity,I sobbed. I refused to stay home. They had tried insisting that I was too old to help them rescue you, but I would not stay behind. I was going toe along, I was going to help, even if it killed me." I had never heard this type of convictioning from him before.


    "Grandfather." I said, my heart breaking from hearing the pain he had endured all these years. I wrapped my arms around him, squeezing him tight, trying to help him hold himself together.


    "I love you, Trinity. I''m sorry that I ever made you feel otherwise. I have no excuse for how I treated you. I was just scared, and so very stupid." He wrapped his arms around me and held me close to him. It was something that I had longed for as a child, a loving embrace, a hug, from the only Grandfather I would ever know. To know that he loved me as much as I had always loved him, despite me thinking he had hated me.


    "I love you too, Grandfather."


    We talked for a few moments longer before Grandfather excused himself. He said he needed to check on something, but I think he just wanted to clean himself up. He had been crying a lot, something he wasn''t used to doing, and his face was red and blotchy. And, as I could hear Reeceing back down the hallway, I think he just didn''t want to feel embarrassed. He hugged me again before walking out the door just moments before Reece came back in.


    "Did you have a good visit Little Bunny?" He asked me as he came back in. But then he saw my face. He could clearly tell that I had been crying. "What''s wrong? Did he say something cruel to you? He told me before that he was going to exin himself to you." Reece rushed to my side and picked me up, holding me in his arms like a princess.


    "What do you mean, he told you he was going to exin himself?" I asked, confused.


    "On Christmas, when I talked with him. He said he was going to exin everything to you."


    "So, you''ve known these things longer than I have?" I gave him a sharp look. He stuttered for a moment.


    "W-well I-I th-thought I should t-talk to him." He seemed uncertain for a moment until Iughed. "Huh?" He was confused.


    "I''m not mad Reece. Though I would like to know why you talked to him, that can wait. But to answer your question, no he was not cruel. However, we did talk about a lot of difficult things. We both cried today. And, not to mention I cried when I talked to Uncle Wesley. I feel like I have been doing a lot of crying since you left."


    "Should I have stayed? Maybe you wouldn''t have cried." He looked upset.


    "No, then I doubt we would have talked so freely. It was actually good. We got a lot of things out in the open, it was good for all of us." I smiled at him.


    "Will you tell me about it?" He asked.


    "I''ll have to, as I need to exin it all to you anyway."


    "Exin what?" He was confused.


    "What happened. Why I was taken, all that."


    "I know you were taken to the Warlocks, and that you have a wolf and magic now. I''ve suspected for a while that you''re father was likely a Warlock." His voice was so matter-of-fact that it shocked me to my core. "Am I right?" I couldn''t form words after what he said so I just nodded my head. "I thought so."


    "How did you figure it out?" I asked him.


    "Well, there was the attack at Riley''s for one. You were the only one who could smell the Warlocks even though they were blocking their scents. And remember when you were watching them retreat, following them with your eyes?" I nodded to answer his question. "Well, your eyes had begun to glow and the inner two rings of color were twisting back as forth. They looked like a camera lens trying to focus. You were zooming in on them from over a mile away."


    "I had no idea." Then there was the fact that each subsequent attack seemed to have the aid of Warlocks in some way. I''m guessing even that first attack I saved you from when we first met was also aided by the Warlocks."


    "So, you knew this whole time?" I asked him, the shock was in in my voice.


    "Well, I suspected at least. I didn''t know for certain obviously."


    "That''s one hell of a guess." I told him as he sat down on the sofa, snuggling me into his chest.


    "Well I''m not the alpha and head of a major corporation for nothing. I''m pretty smart myself." He smiled at me.


    "Really? I never would have guessed that with all the stupid shit you''ve said to me." Iughed. He growled yfully at me.


    "You rob me of all my good judgement and sense." He smiled joyfully. "But I wouldn''t change a thing." He told me.


    "Nothing?" I asked.


    "Well, you could be fully healed and naked, but I can''t change that right now, so no nothing."


    "Perv." Iughed as I pped his chest.


    "Get used to it, you''re stuck with me forever." He leaned forward and kissed me gently on the lips. I could still feel his repressed desire. He truly was holding himself back, but he didn''t try to go any further.

 Chapter 117 - Trinity-Meet Emmalee

    <h4>Chapter 117 - Trinity-Meet Emmalee</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece and I were supposed to have dinner with the alpha of the ck Canyons pack, my dilemma however, was that Reece had only packed me three pairs offortable clothing. I didn''t have anything that would be eptable to wear outside of the room. I know he meant well, and he was trying to do his best, but he had really hindered me here, a lot.


    Reece had told me he would send someone to get everything that he had forgotten, but I was still waiting. So, when I smelled a female wolfing toward the room a little while before dinner, I was surprised.


    "Hi, Trinity, can Ie in?" She asked, knocking on the door. I looked at Reece confused, clearly he didn''t recognize her either.


    "Yes,e in." I told her, seeing the angered look on Reece''s face. He wasn''t happy I was inviting a strange wolf into the room.


    When the door opened I saw a pretty wolf girl about my age. She had beautiful, long, wavy blonde hair and bright green eyes. Her skin was so clear and pretty, pale but not as light as my own. She was on the short end for a wolf, but still taller than me by a couple inches.


    "Hi, I''m so happy to meet you." She smiled at me sweetly.


    "Um, hi." I responded a little apprehensively.


    "Oh, I didn''t introduce myself." She giggled. "I''m Emmalee Evans. My father is Bryce, the alpha of this pack." I felt a little better knowing who she was at least.


    "It''s nice to meet you Emmalee." I smiled at her as well. "Was there something I could do for you?"


    "Actually, I came to help you. I was told you needed some more clothes and things that were forgotten, but no one has had a chance to go yet. I would have stopped on my way home if I knew, but will my clothes work for you?"


    "Oh." I was surprised by what she had said, she was so friendly and open. "Actually I think that would be great. Thank you."


    "Not a problem, we girls need to help each other out when we can, right."


    "I''m just not used to this is all. But I would appreciate the help a lot."


    "Well,e on to my room then, you can pick out something to wear to dinner tonight. And I can get you a brush, it looks like someone might have forgotten to bring you one." Sheughed.


    "Is it that bad?" I asked self consciously.


    "It''s not too bad, we can fix it easily."


    "Sounds good." I tried to get off Reece''sp, but he held me in ce like he had done earlier. "Reece?" I asked him, confused. "Can I get up now."


    "Trinity." He looked at me pleadingly. "You can''t just go."


    "And why not?" He really was clinging to me like crazy today, it was kind of cute but would get old really fast. "I''m not going to leave the house Reece. I will be inside and safe the whole time."


    "I''ll keep an eye on her, I promise." Emmalee was smiling at him.


    "Fine, I have to go talk to someone anyway, so I''ll walk you there." He grumbled. I was pretty sure he just wanted to know what room I was going to be in.


    "Whatever you say." I rolled my eyes at him with a smirk on my face.


    Once Reece had sessfully walked me to Emmalee''s room,plete with a quick, not so chaste, goodbye kiss, I was taken immediately to her vanity area and handed a brush while she started pulling things out of the closet.


    "Dinner isn''t going to be formal or anything, but if all he brought you was loungewear I can understand why you would want something else for tonight." She wasughing. "With how much staff we have, even I don''t feelfortable wearing my loungewear around the house."


    "See, you get it, why can''t he. No woman wants to walk around a strange house with a bunch of people she doesn''t know while basically wearing pajamas." We were bothughing now. Emmalee was very easy to get along with.


    "Still, I envy you." Emmalee said in a slightly somber voice.


    "You envy me?" I asked her in astonishment. "What for?"


    "You''ve found your mate. I want to find mine. I thought I had recently, but I guess I was wrong." She sounded so sad, like she had lost something so precious to her.


    "Yeah, well, it hasn''t been all perfect." I told her with a slight edge to my voice.


    "You seem so happy though." She noted.


    "I am, now. But we weren''t so happy when we first got together." I recalled how hard things were in the beginning.


    "I wouldn''t care, I just want to find my mate. I know that I will be happy." Her lopsided smile was both heartbreaking and encouraging.


    By the time that I heard, and smelled, Reeceing back down the hall toward Emmalee''s room, I had found something suitable to wear for the night and something to wear home tomorrow. I had also managed to brush my long, thick hair and pull it back to keep it more manageable.


    "I''ll send these back to you once I get home and have them cleaned."


    "No worries. This just makes room for something new." Sheughed, clearly she liked shopping and was going to take advantage.


    "Thank you Emmalee. If you''re ever in Colorado Springs,e say hi." I told her just as there was a knock on the door.


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I heard Little Bunny and Emmalee talking inside the room. They seemed to be getting along well, which was good I guess, since she didn''t have many friends. I just wasn''t happy with her being out of my sight. With what happened recently it made me nervous when I couldn''t see her. It would take a while for me to getfortable with the idea of letting her out of my reach.


    When Emmalee opened the door and I could see my mate standing behind her, a tension that had been steadily building eased instantly. She brought peace to my life, made me feel calm. Just seeing my Little Bunny made me so happy. I smiled involuntarily as soon as I saw her.


    "Alpha Reece, so nice of you toe and escort Trinity to dinner. You''re such a caring mate aren''t you?" Emmalee cooed as she saw me staring past her.


    "She''s my world." I told her quietly, causing my Little Bunny to blush.


    "Stop, you''re making me jealous." She joked. "I envy you two, you seem so happy. I want that too."


    "I hope you get it soon, it''s the best thing that''s ever happened to me." I hadn''t taken my eyes off my Little Bunny. She looked beautiful. Her hair neat and pulled back, a cute, loose fitting, red top and a ck skirt that came to her knees. It was simple but looked amazing on her. Everything did.


    "Come on you two love birds, let''s go down to dinner." Emmalee grabbed Trinity by the hand and pulled her out of the room and into the hallway. She then linked her arms around ours, one in my left arm, the other in my mate''s right arm, she was putting herself in between us. "I think we''re all going to get along just fine, as long as you behave yourselves." She wasughing again. I didn''t like that she was separating us, but I know she didn''t have any ulterior motives so I let it slide this time.

 Chapter 118 - Reese-Emmalee On The Loose

    <h4>Chapter 118 - Reese-Emmalee On The Loose</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    When we got to the dining hall I saw that we seemed to be thest to arrive. I hadn''t lied when I said I was going to talk to someone when I left Little Bunny earlier. I had gone to see Bryce about what the future might hold for our packs, it seemed an alliance was possible for us. But in the time it took me to fetch the girls from Emmalee''s room, everyone else had already arrived for dinner.


    Wesley and Noah were?sitting on one side of the table side by side. Bryce was sitting at the head of the table, sitting on the end to view everyone else easier. His mate was to his left holding his hand, it was the most gentle I had seen his look since meeting him. The ce on his right was open, intended for me so we may talk if needed.


    Further down the table was Bryce''s other two children, I hadn''t met them yet but he had told me about them. His son was almost my age, and his younger daughter was fourteen. Emmalee was in the middle, same age as my Little Bunny.


    Emmalee dragged us to our seats. I sat in the one intended for me. I pulled Trinity to the seat next to mine, and Emmalee sat next to her. Once we were seated two female servers came in to put the food on the table.


    "Wait, where''s Grandfather?" My Little Bunny asked.


    "He had something he needed to take care of so he left a little while ago. He told me to tell you that he is sorry he didn''t get the chance to tell you goodbye. But you will see him when we get home tomorrow." Wesley exined to his niece. I had known that the old man left, but he had asked his son to exin for him. I hope he knows what he is doing.


    "Oh." She seemed dejected for a moment, but she perked up after a moment, she seemed to trust her grandfather a lot more than she used to.


    "No worries, Trinity, you will see him again soon." I assured her. "For now, let us enjoy dinner. It is your birthday after all."


    "It is?" Emmalee eximed excitedly. "No one told me that. We need to celebrate."


    "No, please it''s not that important. Don''t trouble yourself."


    "I absolutely must, birthdays are special. Isn''t this the first one you''re celebrating with your mate? Come on Trinity, you need to treat it like the special asion that it is."


    Bryceughed as he listened to his daughter''s enthusiasm before chuckling out his response. "You might as well let her do as she wants, Trinity. She''s quite stubborn when she wants to be. And she absolutely loves birthdays."


    "I''m going to go get it ready." She rose from the table and started to leave the room.


    "Let it wait until after you''ve eaten, will you." Bryce''s mate, Bree said sternly.


    "Fine." Emmalee sounded exasperated. "But since I will have less time, then Katie and Jordan need to help me as well." She informed them excitedly.


    "Already saw thating." Jordan sighed.


    "Yay, I get to help." Katie squealed almost as excited as her sister. It was clear who was on board and who wasn''t.


    We enjoyed a pleasant meal with the Evans family. It was better than I thought it would ever be. Despite Bryce''s surly nature when you first meet him, once you get past the outer shell he''s a pretty good guy. He was a little older than my father was, but reminded me a lot of him when he was around his family. It was actually really nice to see. But it made me miss my father more than I have in a long time.


    We talked about our families a lot. Bryce quietly asked me if I was going to give my mate a human wedding to follow traditions. That way we were married in the eyes of the world and not just the pack. I told him we would discuss it. I didn''t want my overly excitable mate to hear what he was talking about. I thought she would ept a marriage, but I didn''t know for sure.


    Little Bunny was excited when she found out that Emmalee''s birthday was just a little over a month before her''s. She had apparently turned neen on December 18th. This was something that seemed to bond them even more.


    I had noticed Emmalee excitedly trying to discreetly texting someone throughout the meal. And once dinner was over she rushed her siblings out of the room and told us to wait in here and give them some time.


    "Hey, Noah, she''s your sister right, youe and help me."


    "What?" He jumped in surprise at Emmalee''smand.


    "Come help me get everything ready for her." She insisted.


    "Fine. But just so you know, we''re cousins." Noah seemed to grumble as he got up.


    "Really?" Emmalee seemed surprised. "I usually have a sense about who is family and who isn''t, you juste across as her brother." I noticed Noah smile proudly.


    "Well, I am like her brother though. My parents raised her, so I was raised with her."


    "See, you are her brother, soe on we got work to do." She grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the room. Noah looked back with a pleading look that made the five of us still at the tableugh at his desperation.


    "I hope she doesn''t go through too much trouble. I really don''t need much." Little Bunny seemed embarrassed.


    "Nonsense, I wish you would have told us sooner, we would have prepared already." Bree pushed aside the words. "To think that you would get your long awaited wolf on your birthday, and tonight being the night of the Wolf Moon as well. It''s like it was fate."


    I looked at Trinity at those words, I had remembered that it was her birthday, but with everything that had happened I hadpletely forgotten that it was the full moon. It really did seem like fate when you thought about it. Was it really seeing me in the midst of battle, or was it the stroke of midnight, ushering in her birthday and the day of the full moon that aided her shift? And just what was with the strange markings that she had? Whatever the answer to those questions were, it was clear that she would be someone special.


    "Yeah, you''ve got it, fate is probably ying a big part in it." Wesley added. "I''m sure that she is going to surprise us all." He was smiling proudly at his niece.


    "It''s definitely unique. And for it to happen when she is neen, that seemste, but I guess it''s notpletely unheard of."


    "There''s a lot to be said about the number neen if you think about it. In the world of numerology, the number neen has the power to influence life events. It''s said to contain all root numbers so while it is not a powerhouse number like eleven or twenty-two, it is still quite special. Neen usually references the sun arcana in tarot cards, but the significance with that is that it means the number is positive and influences all the cards around it, likewise those with that number tend to influence the people around them. It also signals renewal of primal energies." Bree was speaking expertly, but what she was saying was going over my head. I had never looked into numerology before.


    "Excuse her, she really loves that numerology stuff. She says it has a lot of importance on our lives." Bryce was smiling at his wife.


    "It''s true though." She looked at him harshly as if he said she was speaking gibberish. "Let''s take today for instance. The 28th, those with the number twenty-eight are said to be independent, self sufficient, original, and live with a strong sense of determination. Those with a twenty-eight and a one, as today would give, are given qualities of leadership and originality, they''re also capable of teamwork and diplomacy. So I would say that Trinity has quite the good reading with her number chart already." Bree was smiling at her adoringly. "You''re bound to be a wonderful Luna with numbers like those."


    We continued our discussion a little longer. Trinity and Bree were talking about future prospects while Wesley and I talked to Bryce about more current events. Neither of us had ever been friends with Stanley''s pack, and now with his hand in the attack on my mate and infiltrating Bryce''snd, we both had reason to want his head.


    "Whichever one of uses across him first will take the honor, but just promise me you''ll let me know if you kill him before me, will you boy?" Bryce assumed that I would find the man first. I hoped he was right.


    "As long as you do the same." I told the man as I shook his hand.


    Emmalee barged into the room, nearly bouncing with excitement, interrupting the different conversations.


    "Come on now, we''re ready for all of you." She was full of energy that just seemed to be bubbling over. She looked like a firework someone had set off, bright, cheery, and full of explosive ideas. I chuckled to myself at theparison. She was definitely an interesting person to have around.


    We were taken to the living room that the family used most frequently. It wasrge and spacious much like mine back home, but it had been beautifully decorated with balloons, streamers, and banners. I didn''t know how she had managed it all so quickly, but if she truly loved birthdays that much then I guess she probably had a stockpile of supplies.


    Katie, Jordan, Noah, and a small group of Bryce''s staff and pack members were waiting inside the room, waiting for us all to arrive.


    "Happy birthday!" They yelled when Trinity was in sight. I noticed the shock on her face when Little Bunny noticed the level of dedication Emmalee had put into this celebration for her.


    "Emmalee, this is too much." She tried to protest, but I saw how happy it was actually making her. I was d that they had managed it, just so I could see that smile. She radiated happiness and beauty in that moment.


    Emmalee had apparently managed to get people to coordinate this party all while we were having dinner. A cake was purchased from a local bakery. A few gifts were picked out by her friends, easy since they had talked earlier and she knew Trinity''s size now. The room was decorated and music was ying. It looked like a proper surprise party that had been nned long in advance.


    "So, were you surprised?" Emmalee asked her. "I mean, I know that you knew I was doing something, but did I still manage to surprise you?" Emmalee''s bubbly personality seemed to be the perfectpliment to my Little Bunny''s.


    "I definitely didn''t see thising. I don''t know how you managed this so fast." My Little Bunny''s face was flushed with embarrassment and excitement simultaneously.


    "A master will never reveal their secrets." Emmalee giggled. "I''m just d I could make your day special. And this is a good way to introduce you and Reece to our pack. I''m going to look forward to pack visits from now on, I have a friend to visit with." Emmalee hugged her tight. "We definitely need to stay close." She added, releasing her.


    "I promise." Little Bunny told her, beaming.


    The next morning we slept a littleter than we usually would have because we were upte getting to know Bryce''s pack, but we got ready and were gone before noon. Bryce and his family were nice enough, but I was eager to get my mate home. But one thing was for sure, I walked out of this whole ordeal closer to my mate and with a new powerful ally.


    We boarded the ne that had returned to the airport the night before, after Samuel Whitton had returned home suddenly. The man didn''t tell me why, but he said he had something he needed to do and wanted to use my ne. I had officially hired the man who piloted it and purchased the craft so it was, in all sense, my ne. I hope he managed to conclude his business so he could be there when his granddaughter got home.

 Chapter 119 - Trinity-Home

    <h4>Chapter 119 - Trinity-Home</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I had appreciated thest minute party that Emmalee threw together for me, but I was d to be going home. I had been gone for several days already, but it felt like weeks. I wanted to see my family and L. I missed my friends. I wanted normalcy, even though it was a life that I never thought I would call normal, I desperately wanted it back now.


    When wended at the airport back home and got off the beautiful ne, that I had recently learned that Reece bought from the pilot just because he needed to get to me, I was escorted straight to a waiting SUV limousine. I guess that was one way to get treated like a VIP, private nes and limos. People see those and they think rich and famous. Well, we may not be famous, but Reece was definitely rich. I had never really thought about it before, but I guess that made me rich as well. I just didn''t know how rich yet.


    The ride home was quiet and quick. You''d be surprised by how many people seem to be afraid to drive in front of a big ck limo. Everyone seemed to pull to the side or switchnes to avoid having us behind them. The result was a quick, peaceful ride.


    I noticed that it had snowed recently while I was gone. There were several inches of the white powder built up on the ground and pushed into giant hills around the city. I loved how the city and forest looked when covered in snow, it always seemed so magical. And just seeing the long winding drive and outside of our castle like home dusted with the white powder made me feel like I was entering a fantasy world.


    I was just stepping out of the car, holding onto Reece''s hand as he pulled me toward him, when the front door opened wide and Aunt Eve ran out, followed by L and a group of others.


    "Oh Trinity." Aunt Eve wrapped her arms around me in a tight, bone cracking hug that pulled a cry from me. "I was so worried." She said pulling away from me and inspecting my face, turning it every which way to see it from different angles. "I thought I was going to go insane waiting for you. Even after the others got back and assured me you were alright, I knew I wasn''t going to be satisfied until I saw you myself." She pulled me toward her again, hugging me and kissing my cheek repeatedly. I wrapped my arms around her as well, letting her feel that I was indeed back and just fine.


    "I''m alright now, Aunt Eve. And I missed you so much." I squeezed her tightly. "I love you." I whispered to her.


    "I love you too, baby." She seemed about to cry when she stepped back away from me.


    L filled my field of vision next, hugging me nearly as tight as Aunt Eve had.


    "Oh Trinity, I missed you. I was so worried. I should have been with you when you met with Caleb and Frederick that night, I would have stopped you from going." She was ming herself just like everyone else was.


    "If I didn''t go with them willingly, I''m sure they would have taken me by force." I tried to calm her nerves but that just seemed to make her more scared.


    "I would never forgive anyone who hurt you. You''re too important to all of us." She was smiling at me now, looking into my eyes with a somber look and a determined set to her jaw.


    It seemed that everyone that was close to me was there. Juniper, Paul, and Cedar came next to give me a group hug.


    "Don''t ever scare me like that again." Juniper scolded. "I nearly died just thinking about everything that could have happened to you."


    "Yeah Astro, don''t ever let that happen again. We were all so worried."


    "Paul and I were ready to kill someone." Cedar added.


    "I love you guys." I told them. "I''m sorry I worried you."


    Heather and Vincent were also there with the kids. David, Shane, and Shawn as well. Grandfather was also waiting at the back. He said he didn''t want to take away from my reunion with everyone else because we had seen each other so recently. Carter was standing next to him, apparently in the same mindset. Everything was so great, seeing everyone who cared for me. The only thing that felt off was the strangely intense look in Grandfather''s eyes, but with everything that had happened, I could understand why he was so intense and nervous right now.


    After the hype died down, and most of our guests finally left some time in the early evening, we were informed of a visit from the elders. Just hearing a reference to the group of old men made me nervous. Caleb had been in on the entire plot and the attack on me. Was his grandfather part of that plot or no? I needed to find out since Frederick was a member of the elders, and if he was in on the entire thing, then I still wasn''t safe.


    With a heavy heart weighed down by fear and worry, I took Reece''s hand and let him escort me to his office and the waiting elders.


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    My Little Bunny was nervous now. She seemed to be dreading this visit with the elders. I had my suspicions as to why. She was suspecting my uncle as much as I was. Frederick was not likely to be happy when he found out that I killed his grandson. Oh well, he would deal or he could face the consequences. I was surprised when someone stopped us as we were on our way to my office.


    "Reece." Little Bunny''s grandfather called out to me. "I will be joining you for this meeting with the elders." He didn''t ask me, he was informing me of what was going to happen. That was peculiar, but I didn''t want to start anything now, so I allowed him toe along.


    "Sure Mr. Whitton, please,e along." He followed behind us as we went. Noah was in the lead, Little Bunny and me in the middle, and the elder Whitton bringing up the rear.

 Chapter 120 - Reece-A Visit From MOST Of The Elders

    <h4>Chapter 120 - Reece-A Visit From MOST Of The Elders</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    The first thing that I noticed when I entered my office was that we seemed to be missing an elder. My uncle was not here. This just confirmed that he was part of the entire plot. I would be adding him to my hunting list.


    I settled in behind my desk, pulling my mate onto myp and wrapping my arms around her protectively.


    "So, gentlemen, what was so important that it couldn''t wait?" I asked them with a hint of annoyance in my voice. I saw Michael look at Mr. Whitton apprehensively before continuing when it was clear I was not going to make them leave.


    "There has been an attack." He said nervously. "With everything that has happenedtely, and given who was attacked, we thought you would like to know immediately."


    "And this message of yours could not be delivered by just one of you, or perhaps a phone call, it required all of you." I asked them.


    "If you actually pay attention, you would notice that one of us is missing." Oswald growled.


    "Oh, I noticed. I just don''t care." I snapped at him.


    "You need to care." James, one of the least outspoken elders added. "He was murdered." It took every ounce of my will power not to react to those words when they were dropped on me. I heard Little Bunny gasp and felt her stiffen in fear, but myself, Noah, and Mr. Whitton all seemed to keep our cool.


    I didn''t know if the elder Whitton kept his because he was a former beta, or because he had some information that I didn''t. When I looked at him he just stared back at me with a firm, intense stare.


    "As you can see, this is a very serious issue." Michael seemed very nervous. I guess it was time for me to go fishing. I needed to see if my uncle was the only traitor in the elders.


    "He wasn''t murdered." I told them with a t, matter-of-fact voice, I noticed the shock register on all their faces. So far, I didn''t notice any hint of deceptioning from them.


    "If he wasn''t murdered, do you mind exining what happened?" Liam asked, he was another of the typically quiet elders that did more observing than speaking at meetings with me. "The scene that we found at his house this afternoon was gruesome and disturbing. It looked personal."


    "Oh, I''m sure it was still personal. But he was not murdered. He was executed. Frederick was involved in the scheming to attack and kidnap my mate. I''m not sure if any of you had been informed yet, but the one who actually took her from our packnds was my former beta and cousin, Caleb Venoit. It was discovered that Frederick was not just a co-conspirator but the ring leader that was directing Caleb''s actions. It was then determined that Frederick Venoit was to be sentenced to death, he met the same fate as his grandson, and so will anyone else who I discover was part of this plot." I had intentionally made my voice sound menacing as I gave them all intense stares. The look of shock that covered each of their faces was identical and seemed genuine. I took sce in the thought that none of them seemed to be part of the problem as well.


    And now it seemed that I knew what Mr. Whitton''s urgent business wasst night. The man didn''t want his family to know what it was he was doing, so he had not told us what he was going to do. He probably also thought I might stop him if I knew. The only problem I had was that I didn''t get to kill him myself, or watch him die. I will punish everyone that was involved.


    Something in my eyes must have conveyed to the men that I was one hundred percent serious when I told them what was going to happen to the traitors. They did not object, nor did they try to talk me out of it. If they were loyal to the pack, they would know what this kind of betrayal meant and what the punishment was. That was good.


    "Thank you for letting us know, and I can understand why we were not informed in advance." Michael answered for the group like he always seemed to do. "You did not know who all you could trust until you met with us in person." He was rationalizing a decision I had not even made, though I would have given my permission and approval if Mr. Whitton had asked.


    "That is correct, I didn''t know if any of you had worked with the traitors or not. If I gave advance knowledge then you could have helped him escape or something along those lines." My voice was still even and t. I just hoped that my Little Bunny wasn''t too scared listening to the discussion. I had felt the fear and tension melt out of her when she had learned that Frederick was not murdered but executed. I knew she had never approved of executions before, but she would not mourn him, not with what had happened.


    "Well, it looks like all is well now, culprits are being punished and you got your mate back." Michael gave his easy smile. "This is the best ending we could have asked for."


    "There was another positive that came out of it." I smiled at them. "My mate finally got her wolf out of this whole ordeal." There was a collective gasp that ran through the four remaining elders.


    "Her long awaited wolf has finally been revealed?" Michael asked with a note of awe in? his voice.


    "Yes, she shifted for the first time at the stroke of midnight on her neenth birthday." I smiled proudly.


    "Her birthday was yesterday, correct?" Michael seemed to be in a state of shock.


    "That''s right."


    "She shifted on the day of the Wolf Moon?" James gasped.


    "Which was also her birthday?" Liam added in a breathless tone.


    "That''s not just a coincidence." Oswald added, for once not using his surly and antagonistic tone.


    "You think so?" He asked me.


    "Do you mind if we see your wolf?" Michael begged of my Little Bunny where she sat on myp. She looked at me nervously.


    "She has not had a chance to practice her shifting yet, so she can''t do it at will." She gave them a sad look. "But I could always guide her shift and help her." I smiled as she looked at me. I know she had been looking forward to shifting again, she wanted to get a feel for her fur.


    A few momentster I followed my mate into the private bathroom that was attached to my office. She would be removing her clothes so she didn''t rip them to shreds, and so she could have something to put back on when she was done. I let out a purr of satisfaction when I watched her strip in front of me.


    "Oh cool it Marmaduke, you can wait." Sheughed at me.


    "You know, you have a wolf now too." I informed her.


    "That''s different, I''m a dignified wolf, you''re a scoundrel of a dog, more like a mighty mutt." She wasughing as she made fun of me.


    "Be d I love you so much, or I would punish you for that." I said as I walked nearer to her. Her eyes went wide, but I had to touch her to guide her into her other form. "I guess I still can punish you though." I joked as I pressed a quick, heated kiss to her lips. I could feel her body heat up and her tongue seek mine in that quick kiss, but I ended it before it could go much further. The fire in her eyes told me that she was angry at myck of attention.


    "Meanie." She grumbled.


    "Consider yourself punished." I joke as I put my hand on her cheek. Normally I would put my hand on someone''s forehead, but the cheek would work just fine.


    "Now, close your eyes and picture your wolf. Call out to her and ask her to speak to you. Listen to what she had to tell you. Feel yourself be one with her. Imagine the change, the transition, as you shift from one form into the other." My voice was calm, smooth, and filled with love for the woman in front of me.


    As I watched her, I noticed a glow start around her edges. Her skin seemed to shine brightly from within. Her mate marks on her left shoulder and neck were glowing a bright blue. I saw the blue and ck marks appear on her face next, they looked different with her being in human form still, but they were still unique and beautiful. Soon, she leaned forward as her body began to stretch and change. She wore another look of pain as she shifted. This one was not going to be as painful as her first, but until she got used to it, the bending, twisting, and stretching of bones and muscle would be painful.


    It wasn''t long before I was looking at the tall, slender form of her radiant wolf. It was smaller than my wolf, that was true, but she was still muchrger than an average wolf. I looked down at her, my hand resting against her furry head. Her fur was silky and luxuriously soft, so much so that I didn''t want to take my hand away.


    She opened her bright blue eyes and looked up at me with excitement filling them.


    "I did it Reece." She eximed, only I didn''t hear it as the guttural barks and yips I was used to hearing, no I heard her voice clear as day inside my head. Was this because she was half witch? Who knew, who cared, she was perfect regardless.

 Chapter 121 - Reece-Showing Off Her Wolf

    <h4>Chapter 121 - Reece-Showing Off Her Wolf</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I stepped out of my office and saw the six men waiting for us. Her cousin had seen her first shift so he wasn''t quite as curious, her grandfather knew about it, but as she was wrapped in a nket and shifted back quickly after he hadn''t seen her wolf yet, and the elders were waiting eagerly but patiently. They all stared at me with an expectant look as I left the bathroom first.


    "Gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to my mate''s wolf." My voice was filled with pride and affection as I said the words.


    I watched as Trinity walked into the room full of elders and her family. I had thought that she might be nervous but she looked as confident as could be. Noah just smiled with pride, knowing what the wolf looked like already. Her grandfather''s jaw dropped as he said just one word.


    "Beautiful.


    The elders all looked at her with strange expressions. They seemed to be excited, proud, nervous, and scared all at the same time.


    "Reece, my dear boy, do you have any idea what this means?" Michael asked me with a voice filled with awe.


    "What exactly are you referring to?" I asked him.


    "Her wolf." Oswald answered.


    "Do you know what her wolf means?" James asked me.


    "I don''t follow you." I told them.


    "Those marks, son, do you see those marks?" Liam asked me.


    "Of course I see those marks, what about them?"


    "Those are Goddess marks." Michael breathed. "They mean she has been touched by the Moon Goddess herself. Your mate is meant for something great, that is for sure." I saw the other three elders nodding along behind him.


    "Goddess marks?" Trinity asked, a note of skepticism in her voice.


    "How did you do that?" Her grandfather asked.


    "Do what?" She wondered.


    "Trinity, you''re not talking like a wolf does." Noah told her. "You''re speaking to us inside our heads. The sound isn''ting from you directly, like it does from us, but more like a thought sent to us."


    "Really?" She asked me. I just nodded in response to her. "I don''t know how I''m doing it, I''m just talking to all of you."


    "I wonder." Michael said.


    "What?" Mr. Whitton asked.


    "Is everyone able to hear it all the time, or can she talk to just one person at a time?"


    "Good question." I told him. "Want to try it out?" I asked Trinity. She nodded, but seemed confused after that.


    "Who should I talk to?" She asked.


    "Someone other than Reece, I don''t need to hear what you''d say to him." Noah joked,ughing at his own words.


    "Say something to your grandfather." I told her. "A yes or no question, he can answer you without speaking. If we don''t hear him then we won''t know what he''s answering."


    "Alright." She turned to look at him directly and stared at him for a moment. After a few seconds I saw the old man smile and nod his head. I sensed a smileing from Trinity''s wolf, even though I couldn''t see it, I knew she was happy.


    "Well, I would say that''s a sess." I smiled as I looked around the room. "I didn''t hear what she asked him."


    "Neither did I." Noah smiled as well.


    "I heard nothing, and I''m sure the rest of the elders would answer the same." Michael beamed. "You will be a powerful Luna for us, Trinity. I can''t wait to see how you evolve." He leaned forward, bowing his head to her. The other elders followed suit making her feel ufortable.


    "I''m not that special. Please, don''t do that." She asked them.


    "You''re more than special. You''re amazing." I told her.


    After the elders left I had onest thing I wanted to take care of before I helped my mate shift back into her human form.


    "Samuel." I called out to the elder Whitton. I would need to get used to using his name now, with what I had in mind. "We seem to be down one elder." I said when he turned to look at me.


    "It would seem so." He looked calm, not worried at all. I liked that about him.


    "I''m d I can trust you to do what needs to be done." I grinned at him. "What would you say to filling our vacancy?" I asked him.


    "You want to raise me to elder status?" He seemed shocked.


    "That''s right."


    "Then I would say that I am honored, and I ept." He beamed proudly.


    "Good. Noah, would you see your grandfather out. I have to help my mate." I watched as the two men left the room.


    I went back into the bathroom to help guide Trinity back through her shift. I put my hand on top of her head and spoke in a calm voice.


    "Close your eyes, picture your human form. Your skin, your hair, how you looked right before your shift. Imagine the muscles and bones realigning themselves. Ask your wolf to retreat for now, to hand control back over to your other form." I gently talked her through the shift, and soon I was looking her in the eyes again, smiling down at her naked body. "Perfect."


    "That was a pretty amazing feeling. I''ve never felt that strong. Or maybe I did, but I barely remember my first shift." She was excited and full of energy, but I knew that she would run out of the shift high soon. We all suffered from it in the beginning.


    "Come on, get dressed, we should head back to your room." She put her hands on my shoulders and kissed my cheek quickly.


    "Thank you Reece." She smiled before getting dressed in a hurry. She seemed so much happier now.


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I dressed quickly and followed Reece out of the room. Grandfather, Noah, and the elders were gone so I didn''t have to worry about running into them. I was surprised during the meeting. I wasn''t expecting the revtion that had been dropped on me, on us all. Reece didn''t seem surprised to hear it, and apparently it was nned. I''m just d I don''t need to worry about himing after me now.


    In truth, if it had been before this whole ordeal I probably would have felt guilty, or responsible for his death somehow. But now, after having shifted, and especially after having killed people myself, I couldn''t bring myself to worry about it right now. I know that, if given the chance, Frederick would havee after me directly.


    I might not go out of my way to kill someone. But I am not going to show remorse or pity for someone who would have been just as happy to see me dead. I don''t know if that is an improvement or a set back, but personally, I don''t care.

 Chapter 122 - Trinity-A New Roommate? (Mature Rating)

    <h4>Chapter 122 - Trinity-A New Roommate? (Mature Rating)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    When I reached the top of the stairs, I had expected Reece toe with me to my room, he was being quite clingy thesest two days after all. I didn''t mind though. I was actually happy to finally have him ept me and show me the type of love I had been wanting all this time.


    We turned down my hallway toward my room, I felt more at peace in the familiar surroundings. I had truly missed being home. I''m looking forward to finding a semnce of normal in the chaos that was my life before I was taken, but I''m just happy to be back at least.


    I could tell something was off as soon as I opened my door. Reece and I had walked from the third floor up to the fourth and down to my room all in silence. That had felt normal and just fine. But as soon as I set foot into my room, I knew that something was wrong. Something was different. Something just wasn''t right.


    "What''s going on here?" I asked Reece, surprise filling my voice. I looked around my room, which was now significantly fuller than it was before. Another dresser had been brought in, somehow matching perfectly to the one that was already there. A second trunk set beside the first one at the foot of the bed. And other small odds and ends, like a jacket that shouldn''t have been there, extra stuff on top of the desk, night stands, and scattered throughout the room. It wasn''t messy or anything. On the contrary, it was all neat and perfectly organized. It just wasn''t there before.


    "What do you mean?" Reece seemed genuinely confused.


    "Why is all your stuff in here?"


    "Oh, that?" He grinned happily. "I thought it best to have my stuff in our room." He answered.


    "Our room? That''s definitely news to me." I let the shock seep into my words even more.


    "Well, I thought it was only fitting, you know." He was embarrassed now, and seemed uncertain of himself. I liked it when he got all embarrassed, the slight pink tinge on his ears, the oh shit look in his eyes. It was cute, like he thought he had messed up. I really would never be able to stop messing with him.


    "So, you''re moving in?" I asked him, mostly to see his reaction, partly to confirm his intentions.


    "Yeah, I decided it would be best."


    "You decided huh. What about the fact that it''s my room?" I teased.


    "Well, it''s my house." He countered.


    "Don''t you mean our house?"


    "If it''s our house then it''s our room." I could see him getting excited with each back and forth. He knew I was messing with him now.


    "Why would I want to share a room with you." I pretended to mock him. "I''m sure it would just cause me stress. Plus you snore." I heard the low rumble in his throat and started to back up, unfortunately I bumped into the bathroom door all too soon.


    "Why?" His voice seemed to thrum through me as he breathed the word. "I can think of a few right off the top of my head." He was grinning at me wickedly as he sauntered toward me. "For one, it will be a lot more fun living together." He was right in front of me now. I could see myself reflected in his golden eyes. He looked as excited as I felt right about now.


    "Fun?" I pretended not to know what he meant, but I knew what wasing, and I was looking forward to it as much as he was.


    "Mhmm. In fact, let''s y." His words barely reached me before his hands did.


    Reece lifted me up by my waist, stepping forward as he did. He ended up pressing me against the wall, pinning me in ce. I wrapped my legs around him to steady myself, pressing my dampening core directly against the erection I could feel through his jeans. He had definitely been holding back yesterday. He wanted me, and I wanted him. He was right, there was a benefit to us sharing a room.


    He was kissing me with a growing intensity. His tongue explored my mouth with a feverish desire. I match his fever with one of my own, returning his kiss with equal passion.


    I was tearing at the shirt he was wearing before I even realized what I was doing. He broke the kiss, pulling away to rip his t-shirt off over his head. He then grabbed the hem of the shirt I was wearing and yanked on it as well. He growled when he saw the bra that still stood in his way. Rather than take it off properly, he gripped the front of the bra, shredding it with wolf ws before pulling it quickly away. That all took less than thirty seconds and then his mouth was back on mine.


    I no longer felt any pain, it had all disappeared when I shifted, leaving me feeling exhrated and now aroused. When the kiss broke again he moved his mouth down the line of my jaw and down to my neck. I took advantage of his distraction to reach for his belt.


    "You seem to be in a hurry tonight." His voice rumbled right into my ear, his breath tickled, and the stray hairs on my neck fluttered against me. I shivered, my whole body shuddering against him and pressing him more firmly against my core.


    "Want me to slow down?" I growled into his ear, returning the shiver he had given me and rubbing my cheek against his, the scratchy feel of his stubble rubbing against my face was enticing.


    "Not at all." He growled back as he closed his mouth over my mark. The sensitive spot was like a direct link to my arousal. I moaned at the feel, throwing my head back just as I pulled his belt free and let it fall to the ground. "Would you like me to slow down?" He joked back, hisughter rumbling from him into me.


    "Do it and I might have to hurt you." I threatened him as I mped my teeth onto his mark in return. His growl went from yful to impatient instantly. He grabbed my skirt and pulled hard, tearing the fabric in one tug. It disappeared somewhere in the room behind us as he tossed it away. He followed that with grabbing the waistband of my panties at both hips and pulling hard. The ripping sound was nearly instantaneous. He let the fabric fall to the floor.


    "Reece." I breathed as I pulled his mouth back to mine. "I want you." I pressed my lips to his firmly, hungry. I needed to touch him, to feel him, to have him.

 Chapter 123 - Trinity-Frantic For Each Other (Mature Rating)

    123 Trinity-Frantic For Each Other (Mature Rating)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The tenuous hold he had on his control must have snapped. He growled into my mouth as he shifted. I felt him pushing his jeans down and out of the way. His erection was freed, pressing against me with no barriers now. The heating off of him was nearly enough to melt my already dripping body.


    Now that no barriers separated us, he shifted again, cing himself right at my opening.


    "Last chance to tell me to stop." His voice ground out through his clenched teeth, he seemed to be slowly losing the ability to speak.


    "Don''t stop, Reece." I pleaded with him. "I need you. Now." I urged him, begging him to continue, to go on.


    "Trinity." His voice held urgency, but also sounded like a thank you.


    With his hands gripping my hips firmly, he nestled at my opening for just a moment as he pressed his lips to mine. His tongue delving deep into my mouth, exploring all that he could of my mouth. With my mind distracted by his kiss, he pulled me down while thrusting up, he drove into me up to his hilt, reaching my inner limits.


    "Aahhh." I screamed in a mix of pleasure and pain as he filled me so fully, stretching my tight body around hisrge invading force.


    "Are you ok, Little Bunny?" His voice held an edge of worry as he stayedpletely still before me.


    "Yes." I sighed, looking at him with lust filled eyes and a happy smile.


    "I don''t want to hurt you." He begged, not able to stop but reluctant to continue.


    "You won''t Reece, I want you. Please, don''t stop." I begged him again. That was all he needed.


    He buried his face in the curve of my neck, not biting my mark, but cing his hot tongue against it. He held me in ce with his shoulders and upper body. Gripping my hips firmly, his fingers digging into my flesh, he angled me away from the wall while he proceeded to set a steady rhythm.


    Our bodies mmed into each other with every thrust. Skin pping against skin, our ragged breathing, my pounding heartbeat, these were the sounds I heard as he steadily drove me toward the edge.


    With my arms wrapped around his neck I pulled him closer to me, pressing my breasts against his chest and dragging his mouth to mine. I kissed him with a mindless intensity that I could not control. I explored his mouth as thoroughly as he had explored mine, entwining my tongue with him. When he tried to pull back, I bit lightly on his bottom lip, drawing a low growl from him.


    I could tell he was nearly there, nearly at the edge of his climax. I could feel it building quickly in my own body. I knew I wouldn''tst much longer either. He thrust again and again, my body gripping his. Finally, my body couldn''t take anymore. I dug my nails into his shoulders, threw my head back, and screamed his name.


    "REECE!" My body seemed to explode, toe apart at the edges, only to try to reassemble itself a few momentster as Iy slumped against him.


    "Mine." Reece whispered as he shifted his hands from my hips to my ass.


    "Yours." I agreed.


    Reece gently pulled me away from the wall. Carrying me to the bed while he was still buried deep inside of me. Each step elicited a moan and a shudder from me. When he was next to the mattress he lifted me slowly, pulling his body out of mine. I felt limp, unable to move.


    "Are you alright?" He asked me as I just sat there in his arms.


    "I''ll tell you when I can move again." Iughed.


    "You just need some rest." He assured me as heid down in the bed with me still in his arms. "Here''s another upside to living together." He said as he pulled the sheet around us, still holding me tight against him.


    "Clingy." I joked.


    "I hold your body tightly in my arms. You hold me tightly inside your body. We''re both clingy." Heughed. I was still smiling at his joke when I drifted off to sleep.


    This was the start of a new way of life for Reece and me. The threat against me seemed to be all but gone until we found Edmond, even though I was still ordered to not go anywhere alone. I was still the Luna, so I needed to stay safe. I continued to do school online so that I had time to run the daycare with L and Aunt Eve.


    I enjoyed hanging out with my friends, and dates with Reece now that things were calmer. Carter was still moping about not getting to be with his mate, I would need to make things better there when I could. If our packs were to be allies, then he should be able to be with her right?


    Grandfather was an elder now, he was busy trying to make things more peaceful all around. Noah was named Reece''s new beta, which everyone sawing. What I didn''t expect was Vincent being named the new gamma. Reece didn''t even have a gamma picked out before all this happened.


    Together Noah and Vincent did a full sweep of the pack and, though they didn''t have a hand in my kidnapping, they were able to find nearly a hundred more supporters of Caleb''s. They were offered a conditional stay if they were deemed to only be following the others. But those that were aggressive or seemed dangerous were exiled. A few didn''t want to leave quietly. They were used as examples of why you don''t cross the Alpha.


    All seemed to be right with the world for right now. But I knew that we needed to find Edmond, and soon. We had scouts from our pack searching high and low, contacting every major group in the country. Eventually, someone out there would tell us what they knew, where he went. Until then, I just had to keep my senses sharp and keep looking over my shoulder.


    Our main story hase to an end............... or has it???

 Chapter 124 - Epilogue 1

    <h4>Chapter 124 - Epilogue 1</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was running through the trees, my paws digging into the forest floor. My breath was fogging in the air in front of me as I panted. I was trying to watch where I was going while also predicting where my pursuer was likely to jump out at me.


    I didn''t hear a single noiseing from his footfalls as he chased after me. My heart was pounding, but still I could hear every sound around me, even though he didn''t seem to have a sound at all. I could see the snowbank in the distance. It was pressed right up against the edge of the trees, just on the other side would be the house. If I could get to the house I would be safe, I would have won.


    Just as I jumped to leap over the pile of snow I sensed a shift in the air, a movement nearby. I knew that he had found me, he had caught me. I lost.


    He leapt out of the trees at me while I was in midjump. His wolf form so muchrger than my own that he cleared the area quicker than I could. His powerful legs had propelled him right toward me just like a bullet.


    The wolf crashed into me, together we rolled down the bank toward the garage. I was so close to winning too. How did he catch me?"


    "I win." His voice rumbled directly into my mind.


    "Dammit Reece, how did you catch me so quick?" I growled.


    "You''re still too easy to read." He scolded me. "You give away every move you''re going to make with your bodynguage. You need to practice more."


    "Yeah, but I''m faster than you." I pouted. "How do you catch me so easily when I''m faster?"


    "If I know where you''re going to be, I can save time by going there instead of chasing you." Heughed as he held me down on the ground beneath him.


    "Alright, I get it, I''m easy to read. I''ll work on it." I tried to push him off of me but he just held me down. I had grown in strength immensely since getting my wolf. I was actually more powerful than a lot of the males in the pack. But Reece had gained a lot of strength since I marked him. We couldn''t exin it and no one really knew why. But he was nearly twice as strong as he was before. I could hold my own against him, but he was still stronger than me in a regr fight.


    "Let''s stay here for a moment." He buried his muzzle in my fur, sniffing me.


    "Reece, we''ve got ns for tonight." I reminded him.


    "We can always cancel them." He teased yfully.


    "Seriously, you perv." I joked with him. "Not right in front of the house for crying out loud." I pushed at him hard, causing him to roll off me and end up several feet away.


    I rolled to the opposite side as him, into the snowbank. I felt like my body started tingling instantly. This was the feeling I had whenever something new was happening to me. I had experienced it just a couple times before during our training sessions. I never knew what was going to happen when I had this feeling.


    I stood there, nervous and excited, and waited to see what was going to happen this time. I could feel the snow beneath my paws, the slight cold feel biting into the fleshy wolf toes.


    The tingling always made me feel warm so I could feel the heat spreading through me. Soon, I no longer felt the cold snow pressing against my feet. But all too soon, the tingling would die down and the cold would return. Already I could feel it lessening.


    I could no longer see my breath puffing out in front of me. My feet still weren''t cold. I felt like the snow was actually as warm as I was. I had a feeling that was not normal.


    "Little Bunny?" Reece''s voice eximed directly into my mind, his voice holding an edge of fear. We had learned that I could receivemunications the same way I sent them. And if someone thought a conversation directly to me then they didn''t have to talk. That worked in and out of my wolf form. It was very convenient for private conversations, but we didn''t want it to be public knowledge yet.


    "What''s wrong Reece?" I was perplexed by his tone.


    "What happened to you?" He asked, awe and fear warring this time.


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about?"


    "You''re covered in ice." His voice came out in a sigh. "You didn''t notice?"


    "What?" I looked down at my legs, sure enough they looked like they were made out of ice and snow. I was in awe staring at the luminescent white ice. It looked like my blue marks didn''t just glow from my face and shoulder now, they seemed to glow through the ice, turning my entire body into a light blue color.


    "You never cease to amaze me." Reece said with a voice full of pride. "And you look beautiful as hell."


    "Oh hush." I said sheepishly, embarrassed. "So what does this mean?" I asked him.


    "That we need to y in the snow more." He joked. "We need to learn more about this Ice form of yours." He was right of course, we would need to explore it more.


    I didn''t know what I would be capable of in that form, and I would have to figure out how to get there without snow. But hopefully it woulde in handy at some point.


    We wrapped up our training session after that. It was valentines day, our first one. Reece had nned an evening out of it. He wouldn''t tell me what the ns were, just told me to be ready to go by five.


    I dressed nice, but not too formally. He had told me that we would not be going anywhere that needed formal wear. I chose a simple, sleeveless, a-line dress in midnight blue and a pair of ck ballet ts. It would be nice if we went somewhere important, I needed to be presentable, but alsofortable and easy to wear if we were somewhere more private.


    We had Shane drive us to the airport, Reece and I sitting in the back.


    "Why the airport?" I asked as we got out of the car, we had been taken to a private runway and not the main entrance. Reece went to the trunk to retrieve a small bag.


    "We''re going out of town." He smiled. "Come on, stop worrying."


    "Just tell me where." I pleaded.


    "No, just wait."


    We ended up taking a helicopter from the airport. The view of all the mountains from this height was breathtaking. I was in awe, starting out the window intently for the entire twenty minute flight.


    I expected we would have been taken to another airport. Instead, the helicopter touched down in front of a veryrge, and very beautiful, cabin. It was made of stone and log and nestled in the mountains. There were no cars around, just us in our helicopter.


    Reece held out a hand to help me down, pulling me into his arms for a tight embrace.


    "They will be back to get us tomorrow afternoon. But we now have this ce all to ourselves." He smiled at? me.


    "This is amazing." I hugged him tight.


    "You haven''t even seen it all yet." Heughed.


    "I don''t need to see it to know it''s going to be amazing."


    Reece took me inside to show me the cabin. It was huge, with multiple bedrooms, but only the master suite had been prepared. It cameplete with a king sized bed with arge sky light over it for viewing the stars whileying in bed, and an option to close metallic shutters over it. There was also an enormous bathroom attached to it. It wasn''t as grand as mine, but I didn''t think any bathroom ever would be.


    There was a small deck off the master suite with walls up on the sides. But sitting there in the middle of the deck was a natural hot spring. It was a beautiful site that overlooked another, even more beautiful site of the mountains.


    When we got to the kitchen and dining area I saw that someone hade ahead of us and prepped dinner. Whoever they were, they had to have left just recently as the food was still warm and fresh. Steak, thick, juicy and grilled to perfection, baked potatoes, grilled asparagus, and even a sd. A bottle of wine and two sses sat waiting for us on the table.


    "I can''t believe you did this." I told him.


    "I wanted to be with just you for our first valentines day." He pulled me into his arms again and gave me a quick kiss.


    "I love you." I told him.


    "And I love and adore you." He whispered against my lips.


    We enjoyed our meal together. It was delicious and just what I would have wanted. After the meal Reece took my hand and led me to the living room.


    "I have something for you." He said as he started to reach for whatever gift he had gotten for me.


    "I got you something as well." I told him. "Though it''s not much. I couldn''t decide."


    I? added sheepishly.


    "Anything from you is fine, as long as it doesn''t say Fido again." Heughed.


    "Not this time." Iughed as well. "Can I give you mine." He nodded.


    I went to the bedroom and grabbed the small box I had for him. He took it from me when I got back and opened it. There were two things in the box. The first was a silver pendant on a leather rope. The silver pendant was of a wolf''s head, it went down around the sides like the shoulders and front legs. Just below the nose and nestled into the side parts was a set of stones, a sapphire, an emerald, and a ck diamond. Blue for me, green for him, and ck for his wolf.


    The second thing in the box was much more simple. It was a yin yang ne split into two pieces. One side had a white wolf''s face, the other a ck wolf''s face. The ck part of the ne didn''t have a chain, the white half had been attached to a keyring.


    "I figured we could split the yin yang. We will always be carrying the other half, you make my life worth living andpleted something I didn''t know was missing. So, I wanted to show you that you''re my other half." I was getting sappy and sentimental.


    "That''s amazing, Little Bunny, youplete me too." He smiled at me. "Now time for mine." He grinned and slid to the floor in front of me. He pulled a small ck box out of his pocket and opened it in front of me. I gasped at the sight.


    In the box was a beautiful tinum ring. There was a line of six ck diamonds on each side. At the top of the ring there was ayer of metal petals so that it formed a lotus flower. In the center of the lotus blossom was at least a 1 carat round diamond. It sparkled in the lighting from themp nearby.


    I covered my mouth looking at the beautiful ring in front of me.


    "Trinity, my Little Bunny, you are the love of my life. I never want to know what my life is like without you, I need you with me. As you said, you make my life worth living, you make me whole. I promise to do my best to do right by you for as long as I live. Will you marry me?" His words took mepletely by surprise. I had not expected this from him, at least not yet.


    "Reece?" I breathed, unable to say much. "Are you sure?" I asked him. This was a big moment.


    "I''ve never been more certain of anything, besides the fact that I love you with everything I am."


    "Reece." I sighed his name as I cupped his face. I pressed a quick kiss against his lips as I fought to hold back the tears.


    "Is that a yes?" He joked.


    "Yes, Reece, it''s a yes. Yes I will marry you." I saw the happy grin on his face as he heard my answer.


    "I love you." He said as he kissed me passionately. When he pulled away he pulled the ring from the box and slid onto my left ring finger. I couldn''t believe it, I was engaged.


    He scooped me up into his arms, hugging me close as he spun in a few quick circles.


    "What do you say we take advantage of those hot springs before we get to dessert?" He asked me excitedly.


    "Dessert?" I asked wiggling my eyebrows suggestively.


    "No, I brought you chocte cake and candies. Who''s the perv now?" We bothughed as he walked back toward the bedroom. "But I''m more than willing to give you any dessert you want.

 Chapter 125 - Epilogue 2

    <h4>Chapter 125 - Epilogue 2</h4>


    ~~


    Samuel Whitton


    ~~


    The night I was told that my granddaughter was kidnapped I felt my world implode. It felt like someone had just ripped my heart out. I couldn''t stop thinking that I had failed and it was all my fault somehow.


    They had tried to insist that I stay home and leave rescuing her to the young men of the pack. I refused. I would be going with them to save her the same as my son and his boys. I would not let the same thing happen to her that happened to my daughter. I couldn''t let Trinity die too.


    I was rewarded with the victorious sight of seeing my granddaughter again. I was too far away to see it properly but I saw that she had finally shifted into her wolf form. My granddaughter is a strong girl who fights. I knew her wolf was in there, somewhere.


    The worst thing about this whole ordeal was when I talked to Trinity. She told me that the Warlock from twenty years ago was the one who had taken my little girl. I had never suspected him because he had already moved on, out of town, by the time she went missing. I did suspect everyone else in my pack though and didn''t trust anyone around my daughter or granddaughter anymore.


    I was livid when she told me that members of our own pack had been involved with taking her. To know that the beta of the pack, that bastard, was the one to take her to the Warlocks. And I knew that if that moron Caleb was involved then his grandfather was involved as well. Everyone knew Caleb was too stupid to do anything on his own.


    After I left Trinity in the room she was borrowing at the ck Canyons house I went straight to talk to my son. He tried to talk me out of? doing what I had nned. I hadn''t told him directly but he had guessed.


    When Reece came in a little whileter I immediately made a request of him.


    "Reece, I need a favor." He raised an eyebrow in confusion.


    "What do you need?" He wondered.


    "I need to borrow your ne. I have to get back home tonight. It''s important." He looked skeptical but agreed just a momentter.


    "Yeah, sure, just tell the pilot toe back before the morning." He agreed.


    Less than an hourter Inded at the airport back home. I had a mission and I was going toplete it now. I took a cab to the gates and decided to walk from there. I knew exactly where I was going, even without following my nose.


    I could tell he was home when I walked up his driveway. I was d that he was a widower at that moment, I didn''t have to worry about anyone else. I knocked on the door and only waited a moment for him to answer the door.


    "Samuel, to what do I owe the pleasure?" He asked with his fake nice voice.


    "Good evening Frederick, I got word from the alpha about my granddaughter. He wanted me to tell everyone personally." I dropped my head, feigning a sense of dread and depression.


    "Oh, Samuel, was it bad news?" He asked as he patted my shoulder.


    "It''s terrible news." I kept my eyes off of him and on the floor.


    "Well,e in and tell me then." He invited. Good, this would be easier in the privacy of his house.


    Frederick led the way into his sitting room and indicated a chair for me to sit in while he took the one next to it.


    "Now, Frederick, why didn''t you tell me? Why didn''t you ever say anything?''


    "I''m afraid I don''t follow you , Samuel." He looked at me with confusion written all over his face. Frederick had started his familyte and I early, the result was nearly fifteen years, if not more between us.


    "You don''t? That''s funny, because I''m pretty sure that you already know exactly what I''m referring to."


    "No, I really don''t." Heughed as if he had said a joke.


    "I''m talking about your grandson kidnapping my granddaughter." I snapped at him as I reached across the three feet separating us, grabbing him by his throat and throwing him to the floor.


    "Samuel?" He said my name as a question.


    "I know you were telling him what to do." I screamed at him. "Did you have anything to do with what happened to my daughter? Did you help that bastard get her too?" I was kneeling with my knee pressed into his back holding him in ce while I gripped his hair. His face changed from scared to cocky nearly instantly.


    "So, you guessed that much as well, huh?"


    "So you did?"


    "Yeah, he said he needed her. I''ve been against the Gray family for decades. My mate should have inherited the family business as well as her mate being the alpha. But no, her brother got everything and I got nothing." He growled at me. "What does it matter now, she has been worm chow for almost twenty years. And you should be proud, she was finally useful to someone before she died."


    "You son of a bitch." I screeched.


    I lost all control of my sense of reason at that moment. I pulled back on his hair as hard as I could. I felt a cracking but that would not suffice. I shifted into my wolf form. I may be older and my wolf had started to go gray, but I was still powerful.


    I raked my ws down his back and face repeated, tearing ribbons of his flesh away. When I was done digging into him, trying to both dig up and bury the past, I leaned forward and ced my mouth round the back of his head. I didn''t relish the idea of tasting his blood in my mouth, but I would make an exception.


    I mped my teeth shut, severing his head from his body in one clean swipe. My family never had to worry about him ever again.


    It took me nearly an hour to calm down. During which time I wandered the woods and cleaned myself in the creek. Afterwards I went back home. I shifted, showered, settled in for the night. It was not the ending I had nned this evening, but I would happily take this ending. I would never have to wonder about him ever again. Maybe my daughter was looking down and was happy to have some sort of justice now.


    I was going to see my granddaughter again tomorrow. I would need my rest for that. I felt like I might actually sleep peacefully for once. For the first time in nearly twenty years.


    ______________________________________________


    CHECK BACK VERY SOON FOR VOLUME 2

 Chapter 126 - Trinity-Spreading The News (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 126 - Trinity-Spreading The News (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    It''s time for Volume 2! Join us on the next leg of Trinity and Reece''s journey.


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Oh my Goddess, Trinity!" Nikki squealed as I told her and Aunt Eve the news. Nikki bolted right to her feet, grabbing hold of my hands and started jumping for joy. I didn''t expect her reaction, though I was even happier than she was if that was possible. I just had more time to adjust to it.


    "Trinity, my baby girl." Aunt Eve was smiling broadly as she wrapped her arms around me. "I can''t believe it. When did you grow up so much?" She looked like she was on the verge of tears yet she was happy.


    "Aunt Eve." I said her name as I squeezed her back.


    "I have news too." Nikki dered as she finally stopped jumping. "I haven''t been able to share it with everyone with everything that has been going on, but I can tell you now." Nikki wasn''t wrong, it had been really hectictely.


    Ever since I got back from the ck Canyons Reece and I trained furiously everyday. He even took time off work to make sure he could be there to train with me, though I think he just wanted to have more time to be clingy before he had to go back to work.


    The little bit of work he had to handle directly he did so from the office. He even put a secondrge desk in the office and called it ''OUR'' office. When I wasn''t busy with my sses he was teaching me what exactly happened in thepany that he owned and was the president of. Thepany had apparently been in his family for generations, and brought in around ny billion a year, which made it the most profitablepany in the world. The money that Reece made from that personally was enough to make my head spin.


    I had gotten home from my valentine''s trip with Reece just this morning and had been so excited to share the news that I was officially engaged. I know that in the eyes of the pack we were basically already married, but I was happy that Reece wanted to make it official to the world and not just the Red Springs wolf pack.


    "What news?" I asked Nikki excitedly. "Come on, tell me. We can celebrate together right?" I was already happy for whatever news she was dying to tell me.


    "Noah and I are going to have a baby." She dropped her bomb of news on me causing my head to explode with joy. "I found out the day before you were taken, but Noah had left early that morning so I didn''t tell him until after he got back, I didn''t want to make things harder for him while he was gone."


    "Nikki." I breathed her name on a gasp. "Oh my Goddess, I am so excited."


    "You''re gonna be Aunt Trinity now." She told me.


    "Really." The name she was already giving me brought tears to my eyes. I was technically an only child, and so was Reece, but we both had family that we considered to be brothers, so Reece had two nephews from Riley and I was going to be an aunt to Noah and Carter''s kids. That thought had never actually hit me before. I was going to be an aunt. I squealed in delight just like Nikki had done.


    "What in the world is going on here?" I heard Noah ask as he and Reece came into the room.


    "Noah!" I yelled as I ran toward him, throwing my arms around him. "I''m so happy for you." I had mmed into him so hard that he lost his breath for a second before he could speak.


    "You told her Nikki?" Noah sounded hurt. "I wanted to be there with you."


    "I''m sorry babe, but she was sharing her news so I wanted to tell her."


    "Her news?" Noah looked at me with shock before settling an angry re on Reece as he growled quietly.


    "Cool it Bruiser, ask her what news it is before you try to bite my head off." Reece wasughing as he joked with Noah. Noah, not saying a word, levelled his gaze full of fierce (over)protection onto me.


    "Reece asked me to marry him, in a real ceremony. Not just the mating ceremony for the pack." I smiled at him with all the happiness I could feel bubbling inside of me. Noah''s face softened as he smiled happily at me.


    "I''m happy for you Trinity." Noah was shining as he looked at me before giving me a gentle hug. He was so protective of me that I knew he would be a good father, he may be a quiet and gentle man, but he would go to bat for the people he cared about. I loved that about him.


    "Shouldn''t you be congratting me too." Reece joked with him. Noah looked at him, his eyes once again holding anger and annoyance.


    "Not until you prove that you can behave yourself around my family." Noah snapped at him.


    "Sorry Noah, you may be my best friend, and my new beta, but I can''t promise you that." Reece''s voice held a purring edge as he reached toward me. With his hand on my upper arm, Reece pulled me swiftly away from Noah and into his arms instead. He leaned forward and buried his face into my neck, inhaling my scent. "I like how she smells with my scent all over her." Reece''s growling voice tickled my ear as he spoke, causing me to shiver.


    "Fuck you, Beethoven, she''s my family, don''t do that in front of me." Noah grabbed my hand and pulled me hard, away from Reece. Reece justughed.


    "You will learn to deal with it." Reece was chuckling as he spoke, looking at the face Noah was making.


    "Oh stop it, both of you." Aunt Eve said as she red at them both. "Honestly, can''t you two stop this. Yes Noah, we all know how protective you are, and Reece, everyone can tell what you''re thinking whenever Trinity is in the room, but I''m begging you two to please keep it to yourselves." She lectured them. "And in your pants." She added as she looked at Reece.


    "Oh,e on Aunt Eve, I''ve never done anything inappropriate with other people around." If Reece''s alluring tone of voice was meant to make her feel better, well then he failed, she just rolled her eyes and sighed.


    "Honestly, what am I going to do with you." Sheughed when she saw Reece''s yful expression.


    "No worries, Aunty Evie, I''ll make sure Trinity teaches me some more manners." His wagging eyebrows as he looked at me did not instill much confidence, and in fact it only made Aunt Eveugh even harder. He was definitely in a good mood, even going as far as calling her Evie instead of Eve. He was like a puppy, or a kid with a new toy, so full of energy and yfulness.


    "Did I hear what I think I heard?" I heard L''s call out in a stern tone.


    "What''s the matter mom?" Reece asked her with a look of confusion.


    "I started walking here when I thought I heard talk about a wedding. Did I really hear those words?" It appears that L had been walking on the other side of the first floor when her sensitive wolf ears picked up little snippets of our conversation. She had hurriedly walked over, not running as it wasn''t an emergency and that would have been udylike, but walking fast nheless.


    "I was going to tell you tonight mom." Reece looked at his mother with a guilty expression.


    "Yeah, sure you were." She snapped at him as she walked over to me. "Is it true?" She asked me in a gentle tone of voice. I wanted tough at the difference in how she treated us.


    "Yes L, it''s true. He just asked me yesterday. I told my aunt and Nikki first, but we nned to tell you at dinner tonight." I backed Reece up so she wouldn''t be angry with him anymore.


    "Oh, I''m so happy for you dear." L hugged me tight with her deceptively thin arms. Her hug was fierce and full of strength. "I am so happy to finally have a daughter." She looked like she was going to cry just like Aunt Eve had.


    "You''re not happy for me either?" Reece asked, his voice sounding hurt this time.


    "Quiet Reece, this is a time for women to celebrate." L scolded.


    "Unbelievable." Reece seemed so shocked at her words. "I''m getting married too you know, and both you and Noah act like I''m not part of it." He informed her.


    "Uh huh, and if it weren''t for you, you might already be married. But wedding nning is for women, so just hush and show up for your big day.


    Nikki and I spent about an hour nning things. Her baby shower, ideas for the wedding. For some reason, everyone was dead set on me getting married mid March. It was when L''s birthday was and she wanted us to share that day with her. I tried to tell her that it wasn''t right to take her special day from her.


    "Nonsense, I''m getting older all the time, a birthday doesn''t matter to me anymore. But having my only son marry the greatest new daughter I could ask for, now that would give me a reason to look forward to the day even more." She was so adamant about it that it made Aunt Eve, Nikki, and Noah back her up as well.


    "If you''re sure." I conceded.


    "Of course I am." She seemed so happy. Well, at least the date of the wedding was set, March 17th, it was only a month away.

 Chapter 127 - Trinity-Juniper And Emmalee’s Excitement (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 127 - Trinity-Juniper And Emmalee¡¯s Excitement (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was ready for lunch after I talked to Nikki and Aunt Eve, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I picked up my phone and called the person I knew would be most upset they didn''t find out before everyone else. But, truth be told, I felt like I had to tell my aunt first, she was the only mother I had ever known.


    "Hey Trin, what''s up?" Juniper''s voice sounded happy as she answered the call.


    "Hey, are you free for lunch right now?" I asked her with no preamble.


    "Sure, why what''s up?" She was already curious.


    "Nothing, just want to have lunch, is that so bad?" I did my best to sound innocent as I spoke to her.


    "Yeah, and I''m the queen of wolves." The sarcasm dripped from her voice as she joked with me.


    "I''ll swing by to pick you up. Well, Vincent and I will."


    "Something is up with you." She said before ending the call. I sighed, knowing she would see through everything right away.


    It didn''t take long until Vincent had driven us to her ce then took us to Franny''s Kitchen. It was the same diner that the three of us had eaten at before. It wasfortable, familiar, andid back, everything I would need to rx while we talked.


    We ordered our food, and were waiting for it to arrive when Juniper''s patience ran out and she turned on me.


    "Spill it." She snapped at me while we waited.


    "Huh!" I tried to feign innocence.


    "Don''t give me that crap." She was piercing me with her intense stare, her bright green eyes were filled with suspicion. "I know something happened. You don''t look all depressed and mopey so I know it wasn''t bad, at least not really bad, but something happened."


    I sighed, I knew she would know something was up, she already had when I called her. I think she can read minds or something.


    "Juniper, do us all a favor and be a cop." I sighed again as I looked at her.


    "Maybe I will, if you stop trying to pretend like I don''t know that you''re avoiding telling me something right now." I justughed.


    "Juniper, I''m not trying to hide things from you. I called you here so I can tell you. I just wasn''t ready to tell you right away."


    A young waitress brought our food while Juniper red at me with an evil look. I managed to take one bite of my food before she questioned me again.


    "Come on, Trinity, what happened? I need to know now. Tell me, please."


    "Hahhh." Looking at her desperation I thought she had probably had enough, I''d made her wait long enough anyway. I looked between her and Vincent before continuing. "This is going to be news to you both, so please just don''t flip out, alright." I told the two of them.


    "I swear, Trin, if that man did something else to you I''m going to-." Juniper began before I interrupted her.


    "Stop, he didn''t do anything. Actually things have been great." I told her while trying to hide my blushing face.


    "Then what is it?" She demanded.


    I was still blushing, and it was hard to tell them, they both knew how things had been between Reece and me in the beginning. To avoid more embarrassing things I could, and probably would, say I just held up my hand, the ring in full view, my hands no longer hidden by my sleeves as they had been before. The stunning engagement ring that Reece had given me was shining in the light.


    "Wow, that looks impressive." Vincent breathed when he saw it, a happy smile on his face.


    "Oh my Goddess, Trinity. Oh my GODDESS!" She was getting louder and louder as she spoke.


    "Shhh. Quiet down Juniper." I whispered to her, trying to set an example.


    "You got engaged and didn''t tell me?" She snapped at me.


    "I''m telling you now. It just happenedst night when we were in the mountains."


    "You waited this long to tell me?"


    "What, was I supposed to call you immediately?" Iughed.


    "Damn straight you were." Sheughed. "Seriously though, I''m the first one you''re telling right?" I knew she would want to know first.


    "Well, no, I told my aunt, and Nikkie was there too."


    "But I''m your best friend." She pouted.


    "I know, but Aunt Eve is like a mom to me."


    "Fine, you have to tell your mom first, but I was next right?" She looked at me intensely.


    "Not really, Reece and Noah came in and so Noah knows, and L heard us talking so she knows."


    "Ohe on! How can I be the fifth to know. I''m even tied with Vincent, I could be counted at sixth really." She wasying it on thick but I could see it was all an act, she was actually really happy for me.


    "Well, if it bothers you that much," I was drawing out my words to reel her in, I knew that she would be desperate to know what I had to say, "I guess I don''t need to ask you to be my maid of honor." I looked at her out of the corner of my eye and saw the excitement explode on her face. She lit up like a searchlight and screamed in delight.


    "Trinity!" She yelled my name. "You know I am so going to be your maid of honor. I am going to totally rock this job. You''re going to have a kick ass wedding." She was smiling so brightly. "I''m going to make sure even my own wedding is nothingpared to this. I can''t believe I get to help n the wedding for the Alpha and the Luna. Oh my Goddess." She squealed, just like Nikki had.


    "Ahem." Vincent cleared his throat to get our attention. "Let me just tell you, that I am extremely happy for you." He was smiling at me with a soft expression. "I''m certain you are going to have a wonderful wedding, I remember how happy Heather was at our wedding." His love for his wife was clear to see as he thought of those fond memories.


    "Thank you Vincent."


    "I am just d you managed to work out your differences so you can finally be happy with the Alpha."


    "Vincent." I said his name softly, he was one of the nicest people I knew. "Thank you for always taking such good care of me. Also, I want you to ask Heather if she will be one of my bridesmaids." I saw the sparkle in his eyes at my words.


    "I''m certain that she would love that." His smile was so pure.


    "Also, I was wondering if Conner and Renea could be the ring bearer and flower girl." His smile only got wider.


    "You honor me too much Trinity." He was sincerely embarrassed now. Wait until Reece dropped thest bomb on him when making him a groomsman. Riley was going to be the best man, but Vincent, Noah, and Cater were helping to fill out the ranks to equal my bridesmaids and maid of honor. I thought I should leave thatst detail for Reece to deliver though, Vincent was his new gamma after all.


    We finished eating, Juniper chatting excitedly about the wedding the entire time. After we had our fill and dropped Juniper off, Vincent took us home. Reece called him over immediately, I knew what that was for. I decided I didn''t need to be part of that conversation, so I went to our room so I could make another call.


    When I was in my room, I decided to boot up myptop for this next call, it would be easier if I didn''t have to hold the phone or tablet the entire time. With everything ready, and my nerves and excitement under control, I called Emmalee.


    Emmalee''s bright, cheery face popped up on the screen right away, it was like she had been expecting me.


    "Hey Trinity, what''s up? I just finished an assignment for ss, ugh this homework never ends." Iughed, Emmalee didn''t love school as much as I did, and I was guessing it didn''te as easy to her.


    "Hey Emmalee, how''ve you been." I chit chatted with a little small talk first.


    "Good, it''s all good."


    "Well, I wanted to ask you something." I jumped right into this, if Juniper''s revtion taught me anything it was to juste out and say it.


    "What''s wrong?" She looked worried.


    "Nothing''s wrong, I just wanted to ask you to be one of my bridesmaids." I blurted it out.


    "Oh, I''m d it''s noth-." She stopped, finally realizing what I had just said. "Did you say bridesmaid?" She asked me skeptically. I nodded my head to answer her. "EEEeeeeee!" She squealed, louder and longer than Nikki and Juniper had.


    "Oh Goddess, Trinity, if you thought I loved birthdays, wait until you see me get excited over a wedding. I am so going to help you as much as I can." She was happier than I expected, but then again, so was everyone else.

 Chapter 128 - Reece-Best Man And Groomsmen (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 128 - Reece-Best Man And Groomsmen (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    From the moment that Trinity had agreed to marry me I had been ecstatic. I felt like everything was right in the world, that there was nothing that could go wrong. Noah seemed upset at first when he was told that we had news. He guessed, incorrectly, that Trinity was already pregnant since Nikki was pregnant. He didn''t think there was any other news worth getting happy over.


    After seeing Trinity and Vincent off, I asked Noah if he would stick around for a bit so we could talk. He joined me in the kitchen while I looked for something to eat. I had intended to take mom and Trinity out to dinner so I gave Abigail the day off. I didn''t care, I could fend for myself. And I wasn''t going to let Noah''s surly attitude get to me.


    "So, you finally redeemed yourself, huh?" Noah asked as soon as we were alone in the kitchen. "I never thought I would see the day where she trusted you again, after the shit you pulled.


    "I''m sorry Noah, I never meant any of what I had said to her. I love her man." I spoke with all seriousness, hoping he would believe me.


    "I know you do. I knew you did long before you realized it. That''s why I was so pissed off when you told me what you had done. I couldn''t believe you were such an idiot."


    "Yeah, well, let''s just say that I figured it all out eventually."


    "Had some sense knocked into you did ya?" Noah looked smug, he was likely remembering the time he punched me in the face for saying cruel things to Trinity. Honestly I''m d he did, but I would never tell him that of course.


    "Yeah, someone helped me open my eyes."


    "Should have made them swell shut, then maybe you''d have learned your lesson sooner."


    "If it makes you feel any better, I had already learned my lesson by that time. And I know I was in love with her from the beginning. I just kept lying to myself."


    "How did we get saddled with such an idiot for an alpha?" Heughed at my former foolishness.


    "Yeah well, this idiot was going to ask you to be one of his groomsmen, but I dunno if I want to now." I growled at him.


    "You know I would do it even if you didn''t ask me. There''s no way I''m missing out on this." He smiled at me, I knew he would want to be there. "Can''t help but notice that I''m not the best man though." He looked at me with suspicion.


    "Yeah, sorry about that, you may be my best friend but Riley is the brother I never had."


    "Yeah, yeah, whatever. I get it." He chuckled at his own sarcasm. "Just promise me that you will never mess up again, don''t ever act like you did before."


    "I promise, I will treat her like a goddess."


    "I''m going to hold you to that." He red at me, not very jokingly.


    After Noah left, I had some free time on my hands, so I decided to do like Trinity was doing and spread the news. I called Riley to tell him our news and ask him if he wanted to be my best man.


    "If you tell me that someone else was kidnapped or you need my help, I''m tempted to tell you no." He joked when he answered the phone. "I''m still stressed out from thest time, and Katie is going to be having the baby any day now."


    "Really, that''s amazing man, I''m happy for you. Kid number two, that must be stressful." I mused as I thought about what it might be like when I had pups with Trinity, I could feel the grin spread across my face.


    "You sound different, what''s up with you? You''ve never been that happy for kids before."


    "Yeah, well, I have a new appreciation for what it means."


    "What''s that supposed to mean?" He asked me with a confused tone.


    "Things have just been really goodtely, that''s all."


    "You knocked your mate up already?" Heughed. "That was quick."


    "No, that''s not what I''m talking about." I snapped at him.


    "Then what''s got you so happy?"


    "I asked Trinity to marry me." I told him with a proud tone to my voice.


    "Did she run away again." Heughed.


    "No!" I Yelled. "Shut up you asshole. She said yes."


    "Wow, that''s actually a shock, I''m surprised she would agree to it after everything. Well, you did save her life, so maybe she only agreed to it out of guilt."


    "You know what, I''m going to kick your ass. Fuck you Fifi, you''re not my best man anymore."


    "Reece, you know I''m happy for you, I just got to make my jokes first. I''d be honored to be your best man. And did you seriously call me Fifi?"


    "Yeah, well, Trinity seems to be in the habit of calling me by dog names, and even Noah''s does it sometimes, I guess it''s rubbing off on me now."


    "Dude, that''s hrious." He wasughing almost hysterically on his end of the call. "But couldn''t you have chosen a male dog, did you have to call me Fifi?"


    "I was pissed, alright. That was the first name toe to mind."


    "That''s messed up. But I can''t wait for the wedding, I know it''s going to be special, especially with Trinity handling it."


    "Why is everyone acting like I''m not part of this with her?" I could hear the desperation in my own voice.


    "Cause you fucked up royally before and now we''re all ragging on you for it."


    "I hate you all."


    "No you don''t Fang, you love us."


    "Yeah, yeah." I scoffed at him. I didn''t even mention that he called me a dog name now too. "So you''ll be there for me?"


    "You know I will be."


    "Thanks Riley."


    With my call to Riley done, I was half finished with filling out my ranks for the wedding. I had told my little bunny that I was going to ask both of her cousins, Vincent and Riley. They were people close to me and her in various ways. They had all taken care of my mate when I needed them to be there for her and not to mention Riley was like a brother and Noah was my best friend. I trusted them all explicitly and would continue to trust them from now on.


    Plus, I didn''t have anyone else I was all that close to, I had been so guarded for so long that I just didn''t trust most people. But I was fine with that, as long as I had my mate and the people I trusted around us life would be great.

 Chapter 129 - Trinity-Who Will Walk Me Down The Aisle? (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 129 - Trinity-Who Will Walk Me Down The Aisle? (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I knew that I had to make a decision and have some important conversations. So, the next day I decided to go visit my grandfather and uncle, with Reece in tow. The benefit to having Reece there was that I didn''t need to have a bodyguard with me. I had called Uncle Wesley and asked him to meet us at Grandfather''s house then I left with Reece to meet them.


    Grandfather was a bit confused when he saw the two of using into the house together. I hadn''t been to Grandfather''s ce in a long time, it was a little surreal to be there again. I had so many unpleasant memories, but I also knew that what I thought before and what I knew now just didn''t match up. I was still just confused about some things in general.


    The four of us gathered in Grandfather''s parlor, or that''s what he called it, it was more of a small living room that he just kept as a sitting room. Reece and I sat on the loveseat together while Grandfather and Uncle Wesley each sat in the matching arm chairs opposite us. I was suddenly nervous and unsure of myself with the two of them looking at me. I steadied myself with a deep breath.


    "What''s the matter?" Uncle Wesley asked.


    "Is something wrong?" Grandfather added, the two of them looked at me with worry and concern on their faces.


    "Nothing is wrong. I just wanted to talk to the two of you." I smiled sheepishly, trying to ease the tension.


    "About what?" They asked at nearly the same time. They were so much alike that it was kind of funny to see, I nearlyughed just looking at them.


    "We have some good news." Reece took over for me. "I''ve asked Trinity if she would marry me in a human ceremony, and she said yes. She''s made me the happiest man ever." Reece smiled at them. "I would like to ask for your blessings, as the father figures in her life." I didn''t expect Reece to ask them thatst part.


    They looked shocked at Reece''s choice of words, almost as if they couldn''t believe their ears. Then, for some reason, they both smiled and Uncle Wesley beganughing.


    "Reece, how could we possibly say no? You''re already mated. I mean I appreciate the thought and all, but it''s much toote for that." Grandfather started tough as well while Uncle Wesley spoke.


    "He''s right boy, I''m sure there''s nothing left to get our permission for. Seeing the two of you together leaves no room for the imagination. We all know what''s on both your minds." That was totally embarrassing to hear and made me blush crimson. I noticed Reece''s flushed cheeks and red ears that indicated he was just as embarrassed as I was. Why did this be so mortifying all of a sudden?


    After the two of them had a goodugh at our expense, we continued with what was most significant. I needed to talk to them about something really important to me, that was why I was here after all.


    "Alright, moving on please. There was something I wanted to ask the two of you."


    "Ok, I promise, we''re done." Uncle Wesley wiped a tear from his eyes while Grandfather nodded.


    "I wanted to ask you something important."


    "What?"


    "Well, I was hoping that you and Grandfather would both walk me down the aisle, together." I told him.


    "Together?" Uncle Wesley asked.


    "How?" Grandfather seemed confused.


    "One of you on either side of me. I would like the both of you to escort me. Uncle Wesley, you''ve been the only dad I''ve ever had, and the best one I could have asked for. And Grandfather, I know now that you did everything out of love for me and my mother. Plus, you never got to walk your daughter down the aisle either. I love you both, and I would love it if you both would stand by my side."


    I saw nearly identical looks of surprise and happiness on their faces. I could tell that they were both happy that I wanted them to walk with me. They loved me, maybe they had different ways of showing it when I was growing up but that didn''t diminish the love they both had for me.


    "I''d be honored." Uncle Wesley smiled proudly.


    "Are you sure that you want me to? I haven''t been the easiest person for you to get along with." Grandfather looked uncertain for a moment, despite his obvious happiness.


    "I''m sure, I love you both just like you both love me." I smiled at him trying to reassure him.


    It was a very heartfelt conversation and a day full of expressing my love for my family. Everything that had happened to metely had made me understand all the small things that I never noticed or understood before. I knew how much my family loved and cared about me now. I would never let that slip my mind again.


    With that visit done, I only had one more person I needed to tell right away. I didn''t know when Carter would be home, so I decided I would video call him the same way I did Emmalee. Reece decided that he wanted to be part of that call as well. So we were together when I called him.


    Carter answered the call right away. He looked like he was in a hotel based on the background. I never knew where Carter went on his missions, most of them had to be kept a secret, even from me. Maybe now that things had progressed for Reece and me, I might be given ess to that kind of information.


    "Hey Trinity, what''s up." Carter greeted me, he always seemed so cheerful when I talked to him.


    "How''ve you been Carter? Are you taking care of yourself?"


    "Hmph." He seemed to scoff at me. "I can always take care of myself, it''s you I''ve got to worry about."


    "Rude." I sarcastically snapped at him.


    "So what''s up? You never call me when I''m out like this."


    "Well, I wanted to tell you something." I smiled at him. "There''s going to be a wedding next month."


    "No shit. Really?" He seemed skeptical for a moment. "I''m happy for you cuz, I know that you must be super excited." He seemed to be happy for me, but I could see a hint of sadness in his eyes. He was still upset about missing out on his mate. I really hoped I could fix that for him some day.


    "I want you to be there. Will you be home?" I was trying to show him how much I care for him, but I knew he was suffering still.


    "Yeah, I will be there. Nothing could keep me away." I smiled at his words.


    "Hey, Carter, I got something else to ask you." Reece butted in.


    "Hey Alpha. what do you need?" Carter spoke in a more professional tone of voice when he addressed Reece, as if he were discussing business.


    "No reason to be so formal man, I wanted to ask you something personal." Reece was smiling. Carter looked confused. "I want you to be one of my groomsmen." Reece got right to the point.


    "Seriously?"Carterughed as he spoke. "If you''re asking me dude, you must not have many friends." Carter joked which made Reece growl slightly. "I''m messing with you man. Of course I will, it''s Trinity''s big day after all, I wouldn''t miss the opportunity to be part of it."


    "Good to hear." Reece smiled but still looked a little unhappy. I was just d that all of my family seemed happy for me, it really made it easier for me to be so happy.


    Reece pushed the lid of myputer shut and slid it away. He then wrapped his arms around me and kissed my neck. The days worth of growth on his face scratching at me mixed with his breath near my ear made me shiver in his arms.


    "Hmmm, I love it when you squirm against me like that." He purred into my ear which caused me to shiver again. "I think it''s about time we celebrate our engagement." His suggestive words lit a fire inside me.


    "Didn''t we already do that?" I asked him in a weak voice.


    "You can never celebrate this kind of thing too much." He trailed a line of kisses up my neck, across my jaw, and to my lips as he spoke.


    When his mouth settled onto mine it was like returning home after a long time away. It felt so right and so very intense. His tongue was exploring the inside of my mouth like undiscoverednd, like he hadn''t mapped the entire territory already. I felt my body getting hotter and my desire for him growing. There''s no denying where this was heading.


    That is, until there was a loud banging on the door leading to my room. I was so focused on Reece, I hadn''t even noticed Noah''s scenting down the hallway.


    "Go away." Reece growled at him, barely pulling his mouth away from mine before speaking.


    "Reece, we have a problem." Noah called through the door.


    "This had better be worth my time." Reece snarled as he got up and stomped toward the door. "I''ll be back soon, why don''t you take a nice rxing bath." He turned back toward me, smiling wickedly before he walked out the door and out of the room. That was disappointing.

 Chapter 130 - Reece-A Problem In Town (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 130 - Reece-A Problem In Town (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Noah was lucky that I didn''t bite his head off the minute I walked out of the room. I knew he hated thinking about me being with Trinity, but if this was just another way to separate us then I was going to be very angry. I know he was a good beta, I had known that he would be a good beta for years, but he was a fiercely protective man as well. I could just imagine the way he acted around Nikki.


    "What is it?" I snapped at him once I was out the door. I kept my voice low enough that I was certain that Trinity hadn''t heard my anger.


    "Let''s talk in your office, I think that will be better than outside the door." I could see the stress on his face as he spoke. This was more than his protectiveness, there was actually something wrong.


    I stalked silently through the halls until I had gotten to my office, Noah marching silently along behind me the entire time. Once we were inside and he had mmed the door shut behind us I turned on him.


    "What is so damned important Noah?" I demanded in a fierce tone. Noah red at me, he knew exactly why I was upset.


    "I know you are mad right now, but keep it in your pants a little longer."


    "And why should I? I have every right to be with my mate." I ground out through my clenched teeth.


    "There''s trouble in the city."


    "What kind of trouble?" I asked him. If it was worth pulling me back to the office then it had to be really big.


    "There''s been a couple of kids that have gone missing."


    "Human or pack?"


    "Both." His voice was solemn and angry at the same time.


    "You think they''re connected?" He nodded his head, I could tell whatever happened was serious.


    I settled in behind my desk so I could listen to the exnation. Noah sat across from me in the high-backed leather chair meant for guests. With a sigh, I told him to tell me what happened.


    "Alright, let me have it." Noah sighed as well. His normally calm face was filled with stress and worry.


    "Someone has been snatching kids up like crazy. I know that they''re all connected, there''s no way for them not to be."


    "What makes you think that."


    "All the kids have disappeared in broad daylight without a trace. Even the wolves in the police department are stumped. They''re calling in a special task force from the FBI to help them with this."


    "How are they so stumped? Can''t they follow the scent trails?"


    "There aren''t any." His words confused me for a moment, swirling around in my head as I felt the rage building inside of me. No scent? They can''t be tracked? That only left one line of thought for me.


    "Edmond." I growled the name of the man who had caused so many problems for us already.


    "I can''t guarantee it, but I believe so." Noah''s anger was barely contained. He hated the warlock as much as I did, so he would want to track him down and destroy him too.


    I let Noah tell me everything that he had figured out, all the details he knew so far. Apparently, a total of eight kids had been taken over the course of two weeks. Five of them vanished from school ygrounds the others taken from their homes in the middle of the day. Whoever was behind all of this had literally snuck into the houses to get them.


    The children were between the ages of eight and twelve, there was an even split between boys and girls. No siblings had been taken, not even cousins, there were no rtives among any of the missing kids. What was his goal here, why was he taking these kids all of a sudden?


    Noah had received a call from Andrew, a detective in town, letting him know that the FBI task force was going to be here Friday morning. That only gave us a day and a half to gather information before we were effectively blocked by the FBI.


    I was not about to let that happen. We would not be shut out. I needed to gather as much as I could now before we had to worry about federal agents mucking it all up.


    I told my Little Bunny that I had to leave on business and would be backter, then I left with Noah. I wanted to interview all of the parents of the missing kids, starting with those in the pack.


    There were three missing cubs among those taken. Three little boys had disappeared from the school yground in thest week, and it seems no one saw anything. One minute they were there, the next they had simply vanished without a trace. No scent trail, no evidence, not even a footprint. It was a mystery, and itpletely blew my mind.


    I knew Edmond and his damn coven of rogues was behind it all. There was no proof, but I knew he was plotting something new and he targeted my city and most of all my pack as payback. I would hunt them down, to the ends of the earth if I had to.


    We met with Andrew at the base of the mountain, and went with him to visit the three pack families whose little boys were missing. Marcus ck aged nine, Spencer Hall aged eleven, and Sammy Taylor aged ten.


    Marcus was a quiet little boy who loved reading and sports. Spencer was a fireball that never sat still. Sammy was a devoted brother who loved to help his family out. These were the things that I learned about who the boys were from their families.


    With my newfound appreciation for family and the future, hearing about these families being torn apart filled me with even more rage. Not only had these warlocks invaded my territory, they took children from my town and my pack. They were personally attacking me.

 Chapter 131 - Trinity-Dress Shopping (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 131 - Trinity-Dress Shopping (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Something major had apparently happened. Reece left that night and didn''te back until the morning. We had breakfast together in the morning but he had to leave again right away. He''s been busy ever since. Juniper told me to leave him to his work and focus on what was most important, the wedding.


    We all agreed that there was a lot to do, but the thing that would take the longest was the dress. So it was for that reason that we all decided to go to Gina''s Boutique to look at our options. Last time I was there it was like a dream, so full of life and the magic of beauty, I couldn''t wait to go back now that I needed a wedding dress. Gina was the best, and only, seamstress I knew.


    The atmosphere inside of Gina''s boutique was definitely not what I had expected. Instead of happy and full of life, everyone seemed subdued somehow. I could tell that everyone was trying to appear cheerful, but something was wrong.


    "Luna Trinity, what a lovely surprise. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit today?" Gina asked me with a soft smile. I could see sadness in her red rimmed eyes, she looked like she had been crying recently.


    "Hello Gina, I hope you''re doing good." I smiled while trying to wish her well. "I''m here because we have some dresses we need to order."


    "What kind of dresses?" She asked with a curious look.


    "A wedding dress." Juniper gleefully answered. "And bridesmaid, maid of honor, and mother''s dresses as well. We need them all."


    "Why Juniper, didn''t we already do your wedding dressst year?" Gina looked at her confused.


    "Not for me." Juniperughed while looking at me.


    "You mean?" Gina seemed truly happy for the first time since we hade into the shop.


    "Yup, the Alpha and Luna are getting married.


    "What?"


    "Oh my Goddess!"


    "Really?" These exmations and more rang through the shop as every employee squealed happily.


    "I am very happy for you Luna, and so honored you havee to me to make your wedding dress. I think this is exactly what we all need right now."


    "I''m happy as well, Gina, and I wouldn''t think of going anywhere else."


    While I was talking with Gina, L and Aunt Eve were browsing through the racks of dresses. There was a noticeably more energetic mood now that everyone knew of the uing wedding. Out of nowhere a cute girl around my age came bobbing into view. She had light brown hair and bright eyes that were such a light brown they looked tan, almost like atte they were so light. She had smooth, clear skin that had a natural tawny glow to it. She was very pretty and at first nce she seemed to be sweet and innocent. But just like Gina, her eyes too were rimmed with red like she had been crying a lot recently.


    "Hello Luna, my name is E, I''m Gina''s daughter." She said in a forced cheerful voice.


    "Hi, nice to meet you E." I smiled at her.


    "I''ve been working here with mom for a long time. I''ve been trying my hand at designing new dresses when I get the chance, I would love it if you allowed me to help design your dress."


    "I hadn''t thought about having a new dress designed just for the wedding." The thought had never even crossed my mind. "I figured with how little time we have that something off the rack would be fine."


    "How little time." She looked confused.


    "Everyone is wanting us to get married mid March, that''s only a month away."


    "I can do it in that timeframe. Please let me at least design it for you." She was begging, that mixed with the sadness I saw in her eyes was almost enough to sway me.


    "You can''t do that." E gasped.


    "She''s right Trinity, you''re the Luna, your dress needs to be one of a kind." Juniper backed her up.


    "I have to concur." L added her support.


    I looked at Aunt Eve for her opinion, she was already nodding her head. "They''re right Trinity. You''re the Luna, the second highest authority in the pack, and you''re marrying the Alpha of course, the highest authority."


    "It''s not like we''re royalty or anything." I pleaded. "We''re still just people, why does it have to be so extra?"


    "You may not be royalty, not really, but within the pack you''re treated that way. The Alpha and Luna are like a packs king and queen." L exined.


    "Come on Trinity, you deserve the best wedding ever, with everything you''ve been through. Come on, let her design your dress for you." Juniper pushed. I felt my resistance snap.


    "I guess you''re right. I just never thought about it that way." I smiled with embarrassment.


    E took me to a back room so she could get my measurements. That was a thoroughly embarrassing time. She had me strip down to my underwear so that I stood before her with no extrayers that would make the measurements off. She took her time taking some very invasive measurements in some very personal areas. I tried to stand there silently but I couldn''t, I needed to distract myself.


    "How long have you been making dresses?" I asked her to get my mind off of things.


    "I''ve been making dresses since I was a little girl. I loved watching my mom make them all the time. I took some design courses and got an associates degree just to make sure I could do my job properly."


    "That''s amazing E. It''s nice when you can follow your dreams like that.


    "I know, right." She smiled halfheartedly again. It was like the smile was reaching her lips and a little of her cheeks, but her eyes were so sad that no smile was going to make them look happy.


    "Is something wrong?" I asked her, curious to know why everyone seemed so upset.


    "You haven''t heard I take it." She answered.


    "Heard what?"


    "It makes sense you haven''t, the Alpha was just toldst night, and I''m guessing he didn''t have time to tell you yet."


    "Tell me what?" I was getting impatient now, this seemed major and like I should definitely know.


    "There have been several kids kidnapped recently. The local cops didn''t want to say they were all connected at first, but they are."


    "How many?" I could feel the shock spreading through me.


    "Eight." That blew my mind.


    "So many? They were all from the city?" I asked.


    "Five from the city, three from the pack." I gasped at her words. "The first to go missing from the pack was my little brother." I could see the tears forming in her eyes again.


    "Oh, E, I''m so sorry." I couldn''t believe that this was happening to her.


    "The Alpha said he will handle it personally, and that we should do our best until he brings Sammy home to us." I could tell she was obviously heartbroken.


    "E, why are you and your mom still working?" I knew that if my child had been taken I would be too upset to work.


    "My dad died a long time ago, in a fight with another pack. He never got to know Sammy but I know he would have loved him so much."


    "E." I tried soothing her as I rubbed her back gently. "I know that it seems bleak now, but Reece and I will definitely work hard to find Sammy." I told her firmly.


    "Plus, when I am at work, it tends to take my mind off of things. I don''t forget that he is gone, but I get so busy sometimes that I forget to be sad for a little bit before it alles crashing back down." I heard the sorrow and anger warring in her voice.


    "I will not let this go, E, women and children are my responsibility, and I promise you, I will do everything I can to find Sammy. I know that with the weddinging up you might think that we won''t take this seriously, but I promise, I will still do everything I can for you and your family." I gave her the sincerest promise I could for now. I would track down who took these children and make them pay.


    E was grateful for my promise to help, it gave her the first genuine smile I had seen from her yet. With the promise made she seemed like she might be able to get through her day at least. Once the measurements were taken she asked me my preferences for the dress, favorite colors, preferred styles, all the while sketching something on a pad of paper in her hands. She already seemed to be very motivated.


    "Would you like to see the design, or do you want it to be a surprise." She asked me, true eagerness showing on her face and in her voice.


    "I think a surprise might be a good idea. Just tell me the colors so I can pick out the other dresses."


    "Two different shades of blue, a sort of medium blue for the main dress and lighter, metallic looking, bluish silver color."


    "Sounds very interesting." I smiled at her. After that we went to pick out the dresses for everyone else with those colors in mind.

 Chapter 132 - Trinity-Questioning The Alpha (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 132 - Trinity-Questioning The Alpha (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I waited for Reece to get home that night so I could ask him about what E had said. He had leftst night and was gone until morning when he came back for breakfast, a shower and change of clothes. After leaving this time he was gone all day, it was now well past dinner time. Whatever it was that he was doing it was definitely important. Still, I wanted to talk to him and see him.


    I know I was being selfish by wanting to see him, he was busy and all, but couldn''t he at least call me to let me know what was going on. I was getting worried with everything that I had heard from E earlier. Was he already in too deep? Did he know where the kids were already? Was something wrong? Am I just being paranoid? I''m sure at least one of those questions could be answered with a yes, but still.


    I was sitting in our office waiting for him, doing assignments for my sses simply to have something to do. I was done with at least half of the scheduled assignments for the semester already, in a way online sses did have its benefits.


    I had been waiting for nearly three hours, doing assignment after assignment, when I smelled himing down the hallway. He was going to the office, had he already checked the bedroom? He must know that I was in here already.


    Something seemed off though. I could smell his scent, his rich robust scent that was mixed with the smell of the forest, but it seemed like he had an underlying scent today. It was the scent of exhaustion, it wasyered over him so thick that it obscured his normal scent.


    ''Would he be able to tell I was in here if he was that tired?'' I knew that our senses would be dulled if we didn''t rest enough. Exhaustion would cloud our minds just the same as it does a human''s. I listened as he seemed to be dragging his feet down the hallway.


    The door to the office opened and Reece stumbled into the room. He looked like he was a zombie, dead on his feet as he shuffled into the room. The sight of him looking so tired was a shock to me. He must be working hard and pushing himself too much.


    "Reece?" I called out to him in shock after seeing him looking like he was going to drop at any moment.


    "What are you doing in here Little Bunny?" He asked me surprised. I knew it, his sense of smell was running slow due to being too tired.


    "You can''t let yourself get so tired Reece." I scolded him. "What would have happened if you ran into an enemy when you were like this?"


    "I can still fight, I''m just not paying attention right now." He made excuses. "Besides, I didn''t sleep much thest few nights."


    "You didn''t sleepst night at all."


    "I know that, but I didn''t sleep much the two nights before that either." His suggestive tone was boasting about why he, and I, had both been kept awake a good part of the night recently. I may have been able to restst night to recover but he hadn''t.


    "Reece, you need to take better care of yourself. I know you''re looking for the missing kids and all, but what good are you going to be to them if you make yourself sick or too tired to fight for them?"


    "Who told you about that?" He seemed shocked that I knew what he had been doing.


    "Obviously not you." I snapped at him. "The women and children of the pack are my responsibility, why the hell didn''t you tell me what was going on?"


    "It''s not like I wasn''t going to tell you." He seemed like he was trying to backpedal when he hadn''t even said anything yet. "I was going to tell you tonight but I was out longer than nned."


    "What was wrong with this morning?" I demanded.


    "I didn''t want it to ruin your whole day. It''s not exactly a pleasant topic, I didn''t want to see you so upset. You''ve been so happytely."


    "Reece." I said his name as a sigh and a curse. "I love you, and I''m d you''re trying to keep me happy and all, but this is pack business. I don''t want you hiding anything from me. I am the Luna, if I can''t be trusted to know anything, what is the point?"


    "It''s not that I don''t trust you." The look in his eyes was one of fear and heartache, I think he thought I was going to pull away from him again and things would be like they were before.


    "If you trusted me then you wouldn''t hide the truth from me." I wanted him to understand that I needed to know everything that he knew when it came to the pack.


    "I will tell you everything, anything you want to know. I promise, Trinity. I don''t want to hide anything, I wasn''t like I was trying to hide it from you, I just wanted to wait until tonight so I didn''t upset you."


    "Then why did youe to the office instead of going to our room?" I saw the surprise spread across his face as he stared at me.


    "I honestly don''t know. I have been working on the case all day and night that I didn''t do any actual work, I think subconsciously I thought I had to do some work before bed. I just followed my feet here, I hadn''t intended to."


    "Fine. Then tell me now, tell me everything." Imanded him.


    "Yes, I will tell you, I''ll tell you all of it."


    We sat together on the sofa in his office. He held my hands in his as he pulled me to sit next to him, and kept his hands on mine as he looked at me. He stared at me for a moment before he decided to pull me into hisp instead.


    "Reece." I scolded him.


    "Having you near me gives me energy." He retaliated.


    "Fine, as long as you talk."


    "I will." He hugged me gently, pressing his lips to my neck briefly before pulling away, his arms still looped around me.


    "Last night, Noah came to tell me what had been happening in town. The first pack cub to go missing was Sammy Taylor, at first everyone thought he was just taken by one of the rogues that left the pack after everything that happenedst month. There was a rogue that had been particrly close to his family and we were all working under the assumption that he was involved."


    "So, you were hiding his disappearance from me?" I asked him.


    "It happened right after we got back and were training all the time. It''s not that I don''t trust you, it was because we were so busy and I just forgot to mention it."


    "Uh huh. Yeah, sure." I scoffed at him.


    "I swear Little Bunny, I wasn''t trying to hide it." He was pleading again.


    "Fine, I believe you, so keep talking."


    "Thest two pack children that were taken disappeared this week, I never knew about the children in town untilst night."


    "So eight children have been taken, what are your thoughts about all of it?"


    "You want my honest opinion?"


    "No Muscle Mutt, I want you to keep lying to me." I snapped again, I was getting fed up with him and even the dark look in his eyes didn''t make a difference.


    "How do you know so many dog characters?" He growled at me.


    "I do special research just for you." I growled right back.


    "You''re going to regret that one day." He threatened.


    "I highly doubt that, now keep talking or I''m leaving." His arms tightened around me with a look of loss already in his eyes.


    "In my honest opinion," he stared at me with a strangely reluctant look, "is that Edmond is involved." I didn''t even blink.


    "That doesn''t surprise me at all. My thoughts led me straight to him as soon as I was told about the kidnapped children."


    "Who told you anyway." He looked curious.


    "E."


    "Who?"


    "Gina''s daughter, and Sammy Taylor''s sister." Realization dawned on his face.


    "I didn''t think they would be working. I told them to do their best to hold themselves together, but I didn''t know Gina was back at work already."


    "Her son was taken almost two weeks ago, right? The shock will not not go away, but I imagine she knows there is just nothing that she can do about it right now. She is leaving it in your hands."


    "I''ve had a group searching for that rogue since the boy went missing, he still might not be one of the true victims."


    "No, he is, and if I had to make a guess, I''d say Edmond isn''t done yet. He might not take anymore from our area, but I''m sure he is going to take more children. Probably four more."


    "Why do you say that." He wondered as he looked at me with a hard glint in his eyes. "Did he tell you anything while you were there?"


    "No!" I yelled at him. "But I just have this feeling. It''s like I can guess what he''s nning to a certain degree."


    "Hmm." He hummed to let me know he heard and understood what I said, but didn''t say anything.


    "What?" I asked him.


    "Nothing, just trying to think."


    "About?"


    "Everything."


    "Are you going to share?"


    "When I can figure it out." He smiled at me. "Right now, I''m too tired to think it through."


    "Let''s go to bed." I said as I looked at the clock. "It''s after midnight after all." I squeezed him tightly.


    "Can I just hug you for a little bit first?"? I thought he was aiming to do something else at first, but he really just sat there holding me against him.


    I sat there, his arms wrapped loosely around me and his head resting on my shoulder with his face pressed against my hair. My arms were also around him holding him to me. After a few minutes, I noticed how steady and even his breathing was, and how still he was. I didn''t want to move to check, but I was pretty sure that he had fallen asleep sitting up and holding me.


    I quietly disentangled myself from him just enough to lower him onto the sofa. When I tried to get away toy him down better and let him sleep, he pulled me to him and wrapped his arms firmly around my waist, my head resting on his shoulder.


    "Reece?" I asked him, certain he had to be awake. But he didn''t answer. He was still sound asleep, holding me hostage in the office. That''s fine, I wouldy there with him until he woke up enough to go to the bed, he needed sleep after all. I rxed against him and felt my eyes grow heavy right away.


    We didn''t wake up until morning.

 Chapter 133 - Trinity-The FBI Comes Knocking (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 133 - Trinity-The FBI Comes Knocking (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The following morning, Reece told me that the FBI wasing to assist the local PD with the case. They were supposed to be here today, and he had apparently spent all day yesterday and the night before gathering information before they got here. We still had people on the inside of the police department, so we wouldn''t bepletely without help, but it just wouldn''t be as easy with the FBI running things.


    Reece had talked to all the families of the pack cubs that were taken. He had made copies of all the files. He talked to as many of the families in town that would let him. He introduced himself as a private investigator to gain ess to them. Apparently he actually had a PI license so he wasn''t actually lying. He said he got it a long time ago to give him an in when investigating personally. He said half of the pack warriors had one as well, that was news to me. Who would have guessed that.


    When I finish myw degree, perhaps I would get one as well, then I can investigate as awyer and a PI. I would have a lot more ess than the warriors did anyway.


    We had been discussing what options we had, and where we should investigate next, when Peter announced that there was a visitor for us.


    "Excuse me, Alpha, Luna, there is a visitor here to see you." He said in his dignified and aged voice.


    "Who are they and what do they want?" Reece asked him curtly, we were currently in the middle of a meeting with Noah, Vincent, Carter, and Cedar who had joined the pack warriors, with Grandfather and Michael representing the Elders. We were not in the mood to be interrupted.


    "Sir, it is a Ms. Otsana of the FBI." There was a collective gasp that ran through the room.


    "Why would the FBIe here?" Cedar asked.


    "Did they get suspicious because of our investigation?" Cedar wondered.


    Everyone in the room wore nearly identical looks of shock and worry.


    "Whatever the reason is, we need to see what she wants. We have nothing to hide." Reece dered.


    "Nothing?" I looked at him skeptically.


    "Aside from that, don''t be so literal." His barking voice made me giggle.


    "Sorry, I couldn''t help it. I mean, you made it sound like we were going to reveal ourselves."


    "Woman." He growled with augh in his voice.


    "Stop it you two, this isn''t the time." Grandfather reprimanded us.


    "Peter, please bring her up. We will see what it is she wants from us."


    "Yes, Sir." Peter left the room, closing the door behind him.


    We sat in silence, waiting for Peter to return with the FBI agent. We smelled them as they starteding down the hall. The agent, who was female based on the Ms title Peter had used, was wearing a copious amount of perfume. It was so strong that it was making it hard for me to even smell Peter''s scent. Damn that''s strong.


    There was a slight knock before the door swung forward revealing Peter and a rather interesting woman. She was beautiful and quite exotic looking. She had an oliveplexion with a golden undertone. Her eyes were a deep brown with an inner ring of gold that made her eyes pop. Her long wavy brown hair was pulled back tightly in a ponytail, but the wavy bounce behind her head was hard to hide when she moved. Her long narrow face, high cheekbones, thin straight nose, and cupid''s bow mouth all made her look like a model instead of a federal agent. I immediately felt inferior. She wasn''t much taller than me, perhaps five-foot seven, that made me feel a little better, but not much.


    "Good morning." She smiled broadly as she came into the room, but I noticed she was doing a sweep of the room and cataloguing everyone that was present and assessing her surroundings. "Thank you for taking the time to meet with me, I am Agent Rawlynne Otsana from the Denver field office. I''m here to investigate the recent kidnappings." She didn''t talk like I thought she would, not like you heard all the FBI agents talk in movies and on TV.


    "Good morning Agent Otsana, my name is Reece Gray, it''s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. May I ask what brings you to see us today?"


    "As I said, I am in town investigating the recent child abductions."


    "And your investigation immediately led you to my doorstep?" Reece looked at her skeptically and spoke with a slight hint of annoyance.


    "Well, I could say it was your private investigations that led me to you." She smiled at him.


    "So, trying to help the families of the missing children is a crime now?" Reece was definitely getting angry.


    "Only if it interferes with my investigation." She smiled at his anger, knowing full well that she was pissing him off. She was brave for sure, most would have buckled under the re he was levelling at her. "But, to say that would be dishonest of me." She smiled once more.


    "Then what brought you here?" Reece demanded from her.


    "I figured I should introduce myself to the local alpha."


    Her words threw me through a loop. If she knew about alphas, then it was safe to say she knew about werewolves in general. Why would she want to see us? How did she find out about us? What kind of problems is this going to cause?


    The hushed silence in the room at her deration was more deafening than anything I had ever heard. Everyone in this room, aside from her, was from the pack. Just knowing that a possible enemy with government connections knew about us was enough to make my blood run cold.


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about." Reece said after just a few moments of hesitation. She had clearly surprised him more than he was expecting.


    "No?" She asked. "I must be mistaken, you see I was under the impression that the Alpha of the Red Springs wolf pack was Reece Gray. Have you been reced already?" She raised an eyebrow and tilted her head to the side to show her confusion. "And I was just told about you this morning too. Wow, that was definitely fast." Sheughed quietly at her own joke.


    "Who exactly are you? And what do you want?" Reece barely kept himself from snarling the words at her, I could hear the restraint in his voice.


    "Me? I already told you, my name is Rawlynne Otsana of the FBI."


    "You know what I mean." Reece snapped causing her tough.


    "I take it there are no name experts in this room." She giggled, her voice musical and her eyes batting as she looked at him.


    "Nope, so that means you need to exin." Noah answered this time.


    "Let me break it down for you. Rawlynne, it''s a varied spelling of the English name of the same pronunciation, it means wolf counsel or wise wolf. And Otsana is an old European name that means she-wolf. Does that exin anything?"


    "So either you know about us because your name made you curious, or you''re hiding your true scent and your parents had a sense of humor just like mine." Cedar answered her.


    "Thetter." She looked at Cedar with a serious look. "What humor did your parents have?" She asked him with a curious look.


    "They named me Cedar Woods, and my twin sister is Juniper." That made Agent Otsanaugh.


    "I think our moms must have been friends, both being theedians that they are." Cedar actuallyughed at her words. The tension in the room finally eased as we heard himughing.


    "Alright, so you''re a wolf as well. That still doesn''t tell me why you''re here." Reece grumbled. "And how are you hiding your scent?"


    "Years of practice and getting used to strong perfume. That''s all you''re smelling from me right? Well, I can still smell you." She smiled at us. "And as for why I am here, I know that three of the missing boys are cubs from your pack, and I know you''re going to be investigating with or without my help, so why not skip the middle part where we act like we can''t help each other and are somehow enemies for no reason and we can get straight to helping each other out. Willingly or reluctantly, I''ll amodate the best I can. But just so you know, I think it''ll be easier if we can just help each other out now so we don''t need to get to that whole you scratch my back I scratch yours situation."


    "Seriously?" Reece looked dumbfounded, he hadn''t been expecting that answer from her. "So, you want us to work together?"


    "Yeah, and what makes it so much easier is that a lot of you are PI''s so I can say we''re just working together."


    "What''s the catch?" Reece just didn''t trust her, I could see it on his face.


    "Why do you think there''s a catch?" She asked him confused.


    "There always is."


    "Don''t be so pessimistic, Reece." I tried to calm him.


    "No, I know how this usually goes. It''s not the first time that someone has tried to manipte or use a pack to further themselves."


    "Look, I''m here to help us all out. If you want to be a dick and throw that into my face that''s on you."


    "What the hell did you just say to me?" Reece''s anger was at its boiling point now. "Don''t ever speak to me like that again." He snarled at her.


    "Sorry big boy, but I''m not part of your pack, you can''t order me around." Agent Otsana taunted him.


    "I can still make you shut that-."


    "ENOUGH!" I yelled at them both which caused the entire room to go silent around me. "I don''t want to hear another word from either of you right now, just shut up and listen."


    At hearing my words, Agent Otsana''s mouth snapped shut and her eyes popped in surprise.


    "We''re all wolves here and we''re all looking for the same group of psychopaths, either you set aside your petty bullshit or you get the hell out. I intend to find these kids as quick as I can and your damn squabbling is only going to make things worse." Everyone looked momentarily shocked by my outburst before they all started talking again.


    "Watch yournguage Trinity Faith." Grandfather scolded me.


    "Little Bunny, you''re right." Reece looked like a little kid who was caught stealing cookies before dinner, guilty and embarrassed.


    "How were you able to force me to follow your orders?" Agent Otsana asked me in awe.

 Chapter 134 - Reece-Cooperation? (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 134 - Reece-Cooperation? (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    To say that hearing what Agent Otsana had to say surprised me was an understatement. If I heard that right, my Little Bunny hadmanded obedience from a non pack member that was forced to obey. Was she a former pack member that never settled with another pack? Was she actually a Red Springs wolf? I sincerely doubted it.


    "Agent Otsana, are you saying you werepelled to follow my mate''s orders?"


    "Yeah, that is exactly what I''m saying." She was still staring at Trinity with a look of shock, fear, wonder, and distrust all mixed together. "And I want to know how she did it." She didn''t sound as if she was nning to pull her offer of cooperation from the table, but things were definitely taking a unique turn.


    "I don''t know how I did it." Little Bunny''s eyes were wide and full of doubt and fear. "I don''t know what''s going on here." She looked afraid, like she was actually a rabbit cornered by a pack of wolves.


    "Trinity, are you sure you didn''t do anything, nothing different than usual?" Samuel asked her with a calm voice.


    "Could this be because-." Noah trailed off, not finishing the question because of who all was present right now, those the question was meant for knew what he was trying to say. But there were still plenty of people present who didn''t know about Trinity being half witch and that it was her father we were hunting, specifically the fed that was in the room.


    "No, I don''t think it has to do with that." Michael was one of the few truly smiling at my mate right now. "If you ask me, I think this all has to do with her markings."


    "Markings?" Otsana inquired.


    "Her wolf form has special markings." I told her, there was no hiding it now.


    "Special how?" She wondered.


    "She''s been marked by the Goddess." Michael said in a breathy voice as he stared at his Luna with a look of awe. He sat there on the couch and watched her as if she were an idol and he was nothing but a shy fan, he used to be the one who worked with her the most now Samuel was needed to take on that role.


    "Marked by the Goddess?" Otsana seemed skeptical. "That hardly seems usible."


    "Believe what you want." I snarled in frustration. Little Bunny was looking ufortable with the attention she was currently getting from the entire room.


    "Fine, let''s say I believe you, what do the markings mean?" Otsana demanded.


    "I wish I knew." Little Bunny squeaked in a weak voice. I reach over, wanting to make her feel better. I wanted to pull her to me and hold her in my arms, hiding her from view and dousing her with my scent so the others would ignore her. I didn''t like the distressed look in her ice blue eyes, or the way that she was trembling slightly causing her the deep, rich brown hair hanging from her ponytail to sway slightly and the stray hairs to twitch around her neck and ears.


    "Let''s move on. There''s clearly no way we can figure this out right now." I tried pulling the conversation away from my Little Bunny and back to the matter at hand.


    "Fine, but we will need to discuss this at another time. I am a cop first and foremost and I am curious enough to pursue this." Otsana looked like she was excited rather than upset.


    Otsana was offered a seat so the conversation could be moved on to the important topics. I pulled Little Bunny to sit on myp, freeing up another seat so the Elders and Otsana would be able to sitfortably. The warriors and guards stood around the room watching on.


    Despite my opposition in the beginning, Otsana did have the right idea. If we got along and worked with each other from the beginning then it will be easier on all of us. I just wasn''t a very trusting person anymore, all things considered.


    "Alright, tell me what it is you have in mind?" I asked her once we were all settled.


    "By the way Agent Otsana, why was it that the FBI had to be summoned from Denver, isn''t there an office in the city?" My Little Bunny questioned.


    "Ahh, well that''s a bit of a long story, but let''s just say that the local office has been under construction with renovations for thest few months." She looked as if she were hiding something but I didn''t push it. We had other things to discuss as it was. "If it''s any constion, the office will be open soon."


    "Will you be working out of that office?" Little Bunny asked.


    "I don''t know, it''s a possibility." Otsana deflected.


    "Let''s get down to business." I interrupted them. "How do you envision all this working out between us?" I demanded. Otsana smiled as if she found me funny.


    "Well, my n, for now, was to have someone from your pack work closely with me. Someone with a PI license that knows the area well. Preferably someone who will be an asset when I am in the field. I''m going to go out on a limb here and guess that whoever it is we''re looking for isn''t human. And If I am right, then I would like to keep as many of the humans around us out of this situation if possible. I know we have allies in the police department, and you have me in the FBI. I would like to hope that I can count on you too."


    "Why do you think that the culprit isn''t human?" Carter seemed curious at her firm, confident words.


    "Theirpleteck of scent and the way the kids seemed to just vanish into thin air." Her answer seemed as if it was full of annoyance for Little Bunny''s cousin.


    "I know those details already, I just wanted to see if you had any other opinions or evidence."


    "Don''t test me right now, I''m not in the mood." Otsana scolded him. "I''m still trying to figure out just how these people left no scent trail. Itpletely baffles me." She seemed angered by herself even more. I watched as she rubbed her right hand over her forehead for a second before trailing it across the top of her head and down to her neck where she proceeded to rub her neck muscles as if in frustration or exhaustion, maybe both.


    "You clearly haven''t dealt with Warlocks then." Noah said softly and off to the side, but the room was so still and quiet at that moment that even his whispered words echoed loudly.


    "Huh?" Otsana snapped her head up to re at him. "What did you just say?" She yelled at him.


    "Nothing." Noah smiled sheepishly but managed to not reign that in immediately so he could hide all expressions.


    "What about Warlocks? Are they the ones who took the kids?" She looked shocked at this revtion. I wasn''t upset about Noah revealing what we knew, or thought, about the case. I would have to tell her eventually anyway, I guess now was the best time.


    "We can''t prove it but we''re running with that assumption." I confirmed Noah''s remark, and her questions.


    "Why would you suspect the Warlocks? The magic council has not dered any sort of war on the wolves or humans. As far as I know there has been no unresting from them." She looked skeptical and unwilling to believe what she had just heard.


    "This isn''t from the magic council. This is from a rogue coven that has been harassing our pack for twenty years now." Samuel''s voice rang across the room, anger and sadness both clear in his voice even though his face remained calm and expressionless.


    "Why would that coven focus so intensely on your pack?" Her voice was still filled with doubt.


    "Because of me." Little Bunny''s voice held no hint of sadness or doubt as she answered the question for Otsana. "Well, I guess it started with my mother really." She added.


    "Your mother?" Otsana tilted her head in confusion, her brows drawn together and a baffled look in her eyes.


    "Everything started with my mother, before I was even conceived." Little Bunny began her tale for the agent to hear. "My mother was only fifteen when she got pregnant with me." Agent Otsana''s eyes went wide when she heard those words but she remained quiet and listened on. "She was kidnapped and raped by the Warlock that leads that coven. Sacramentum de Mortis, The Covenant of Death, that''s the name of his coven. And ording to Edmond, their leader Gannon Cornelius Edmond, he has been trying to make hybrid children for centuries. Half vampire, half human, half fae, half shifter. He never mentioned the other shifter groups, so I don''t know if he ever managed to sessfully produce a hybrid with them, but as we werewolves far outnumber all the other shifters he might have just focused on us to create his shifter hybrid."


    "Why does he want these hybrids?" Otsana seemed astounded and disgusted with everything she had just heard.


    "He wants a sleeper cell so to speak." Little Bunny answered with a thoughtful expression.


    "What?" Otsana still seemed baffled.


    "He wants minions he can send back to their homes and wait to be activated by him to gather information, help bring about the downfall of their homes, and eventually help him to take over the world."


    "He''s a regr megalomaniac." I added to my Little Bunny''s words.


    "And this is the psychopath you think has the children? What has he done recently to make you think it''s him. Don''t get me wrong, if he really is like that then he deserves every ounce of suspicion thrown his way, but I don''t see why you automatically suspect him.


    "He kidnapped my matest month." I answered her in a t tone. "We managed to significantly reduce the number of members he has in his coven, but he managed to escape. I swear I will track that man down no matter what I have to do. He will pay for what he and his cronies did to her." The anger in my voice was nowhere near hidden causing Otsana to blink in confusion and possibly fear at the intensity of my tone.


    "Those dirty Warlocks tortured my cousin." Carter growled.


    "Carter, that sounded racist." Noah reprimanded his brother. "But he''s telling the truth, they kidnapped her and tortured her during the time it took us to find her."


    "Why would they torture her?" Otsana was still confused as to why they took my Little Bunny to begin with.


    "They were trying to awaken my magic." Little Bunny answered before I could stop her.


    "Magic?!" Otsana yelled in surprise.


    "Yes, I was born with magic that I didn''t know about. I was never supposed to get a wolf but I was supposed to have magic, at least ording to Edmond."


    "How would he even know?" I didn''t know if she was intentionally not grasping it yet or if she was being intentionally thick headed for the sake of the Luna of the pack.


    "Because Edmond is my father." Otsana''s jaw dropped and she stared, wide eyed, at my mate.


    "Y-y-your father?" She stammered as if she thought we were ying a game on her and she was still waiting for the punchline all the while just waiting nervously. Little Bunny just nodded her head. "So, you''re a hybrid?" She asked with awe in her voice as if she had never seen a hybrid before. In truth she probably hadn''t, hybrids weren''t verymon among shifters. I had met a couple in my time through work but only a couple.


    "Yes, I am a hybrid, and my father is an evil psychopath of a Warlock. The night he awakened my magic he also awakened my wolf. I shifted for the first time while I was still being held captive, and I also used magic I never knew about before that night."


    "Wait, could you being a hybrid have anything to do with you being marked by the Goddess?" She asked looking around the room. Samuel, Noah, and Carter knew about the hybrid status, as did Vincent because he was with us when we rescued Little Bunny and had seen her magic first hand. However, Cedar and Michael had not been told about it yet. The two of them were staring with shock and awe nearly identical to Otsana''s. The intensity in their eyes was making my mate ufortable.


    "I don''t know." Little Bunny spoke truthfully. No one knew exactly what was going on with her, but I would never abandon her, I''d help her any way I could, even if it killed me.

 Chapter 135 - Trinity-Training With The Guards (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 135 - Trinity-Training With The Guards (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I never expected our meeting to be interrupted by the FBI, or that the agent would be a wolf as well. We talked most of the morning about what the pack and the FBI were going to do. Reece decided he was going to send David to assist Agent Otsana in the investigation.


    David had been showing how capable he is for a while now. He was with the group that helped to rescue me. If it hadn''t been for him they might not have been able to contain as many of them as they had. David is apparently a very fast wolf, and he stopped a lot of the coven members before they could escape.


    He hadn''t managed to get them all, but David had been directly responsible for the greater majority of the sess of that day. I was proud of him for being given this opportunity. The people I had guarding me were truly amazing.


    With the investigation in full swing, and knowing that my father was behind it all, I was once again on a restriction. That sucked the most. I had just gotten off the restriction and now I was back to needing to be guarded around the clock.


    Vincent and the twins, Shane and Shawn, had be my primary guards. Vincent had already been the head of my security, and now with him being one of the gammas he was taking the job even more seriously, if that were possible. Like Reece, Vincent thought I shouldn''t really leave the house at all. They said it was simply too dangerous. I didn''t bother asking Noah or Carter their opinions, I already knew what they would say. Unless I was with Reece personally, or I had a full entourage I was not allowed to leave the grounds. It was all I could do to get them to allow me to train in the yard surrounding the house.


    Reece had agreed to my training on the condition that I could only go if I had all three of my guards (as David was absent for the time being) or if Reece was with me himself. Fine, if that was how he was going to y it, then I would train with all of them. It was no skin off my back to waste Reece''s money by having all my guards on duty at the same time, he was loaded anyway, and I needed to practice.


    So, it was with all Reece''s, and Vincent''s, rules in mind that I scheduled the training session for this morning. I had a busy afternoon with wedding nning, so I wanted to pack as much training into this time that I could before then.


    Reece and I had already learned a few of the new abilities I seemed to have. I couldmunicate with whoever I wanted just by thinking what I wanted to say to them. I wanted to try pushing the limits of that power but we haven''t done that yet. I was stronger and faster than any of them had expected me to be. I still couldn''t take on my guards and Reece was still out of my reach for the time being, but I was getting stronger and faster all the time.


    A few things I had done that we don''t know if it was a fluke or if it was something I can do all the time involved me being out in the snow. For instance I once became entirely made out of ice. Every part of my body was made out of ice and I didn''t seem to feel the chill of the snow anymore. My entire body seemed to glow with an eerie light when I was iced, and my eyes were illuminated to shine with an icy blue shimmer. Also, the multiple mate marks on my shoulder would shine with an iridescent sapphire blue glow.


    Another thing that had happened only once was when I howled in frustration, when I first began training with Reece aftering home, a sort of rippling, shimmering golden light burst from my mouth. I had ended up knocking a tree down in the process of that howl. These new powers of mine baffled me, and everyone around me.


    I hadn''t told Shane and Shawn about my extra powers yet. Vincent knew because he was there with me when I had killed the four remaining enemies in the cer that day. To be fair, they were all people who had either tortured me, or kidnapped me to take me to those torturers. Needless to say that I wasn''t too happy with them.


    I was nervous now. I didn''t know how I was going to tell the twins about the magic I had. And to make things even harder they hadn''t been part of the meeting with Agent Otsana. To be fair I know why, they hadn''t been raised in ranks yet. Honestly I don''t even know why Cedar was allowed, except that he was on duty at the house and insisted to be part of it because of our friendship. Reece allowed it as a thanks for Cedar being there to protect me and being the first to respond to the pack summons for my rescue.


    When I gathered with the guys outside, ready for the day''s training, I got quite the curious look from Shane and Shawn.


    "Hello Trinity, what might we have nned for this morning?" Shawn asked me in a polite voice. He was always the more proper and sweeter of the twins.


    "Yeah Trinity, whatcha got nned for us." Shane added in a much more casual voice. I was d I had gotten to know them enough to tell them apart on attitude and behavior alone. They may have looked identical, but they definitely weren''t the same person. They were quite unique and interesting people.


    "Since I am unable to leave the grounds, I thought you all could help me to train today." I smiled at them as I told them what I wanted. I saw as they both gave me the same perplexed look. Okay, they weren''tpletely different, they did still have simr behaviors at times.


    "Wait, did we miss something?" They looked at each other as Shawn asked his question curiously.


    "We definitely haven''t heard of anything that happened to keep you confined again." Shane added.


    "It''s mostly a precaution, but there have been some issuestely." Vincent told them on my behalf.


    "What issues?" Both Shane and Shawn asked at the same time.


    "Did we miss something?"


    "What happened?" They asked.


    "Do you know about the children who have gone missing?" I asked them.


    "Yeah, the whole pack is buzzing about it."


    "I heard that Gina''s little boy was the first taken?" Shawn looked upset, like he was close to Sammy.


    "Yes, well in total there have been eight children stolen between the pack and the city. And we believe that Edmond, the warlock that was targeting me before is behind the kidnappings." I kept my voice level as I spoke despite the fact that just saying Edmond''s name made me see red with anger and frustration.


    "Why would hee back?" Shane seemed perplexed, his gray eyes seemed to cloud over in thought.


    "What haven''t you told us." Shawn leveled a hard, gray eyed stare at Vincent.


    Upon seeing the intensity of their interest and concern for me, I was even more grateful for them than I was before. All of my guards, the current ones that is, were amazing. Two of my previous guards had been in on the plot against me, they had even helped to kidnap me. I killed one of them personally, the other was killed by someone else unfortunately.


    "He came back to either get at me or to get revenge because of me." I brought the conversation to the topic of my father and his band of merry lunatics and psychos. I ryed to them everything that had really happened while I was gone, and what I had learned. I told them about Edmond being my father, the group of warlocks who tortured me several times, and about my awakening to my wolf and my magic at the same time.


    "Seriously?" Shane asked in awe.


    "We have the most unique Luna ever." Shawn spoke with reverence filling his voice. They both then bowed to me, a simultaneous action they did without even looking at each other.


    "So, you''re not upset that I''m a half witch hybrid?" I was still waiting for them to drop the niceties and reject me.


    "Why would we be?" Shawn smiled at me.


    "Yeah, our Luna is badass." Shane wasughing.


    "I told you, no one is going to care. You''re the Luna, there is no changing that." Vincent smiled at me as well.


    After the exnations were given, we set to training for the morning. I pitted myself in a race with them to see if they could catch me. None of them could. Either they lost on purpose, I had gotten better at evasion, or Reece just had another way of knowing where I was going to be.


    I tested my speed and strength for a bit. I was quicker and lighter on my feet than all three of my guards. They were quite strong, but I was still strong for a female, and it felt like I was still getting stronger. I tried my special howl again, but I hadn''t learned to do it onmand yet. And I tried shifting in and out of my ice form.


    At first, I was only managing to change my wolf''s form when I was touching the snow directly just like the first time. But after I focused on how that form felt and the process my body went through to get there, then I was able to do it no problem.


    I had shifted back and forth onmand at least a dozen times when I felt someone watching me. I thought it was just Reece and I hadn''t noticed himing since his scent was all around me anyway, but then I caught just the faintest whiff of someone else''s scent. It was like darkness personified. It was hard to describe, like dust and dirt mixed with old damp leaves, all the things I think about if I have to go walking in the woods at night.

 Chapter 136 - Reece-An Emissary Arrives (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 136 - Reece-An Emissary Arrives (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I was just returning from the office for a meeting with an emissary from the vampires when I noticed that my Little Bunny was training in the yard. She was getting a lot better than even when we trainedst week. She was faster than all three of the guards. And I watched proudly as she changed into her ice form at will. She was truly amazing.


    I noticed the scent of the emissary long before I saw him. He was closer to the house than I was, having taken the long way home to stretch my legs, all four of them. I scanned the area around the house with my wolf eyes, trying to see where he might be.I thought that it was weird that they wanted to meet during the day, but if the vampire was particrly old, or some what older, he would be less vulnerable to the sun, I guess this wasn''t a newly made vamp then.


    That was fine with me, I would rather not have a fresh vamp that didn''t know how to control themselves, especially around my mate. I didn''t often deal with vampires, even though my family has been dealing with them going back a very long time. The emissarying today was actually from thepany run by the vampire that my great-grandfather knew. Apparently, that vampire knew my family back when they still lived in Europe beforeing over on the boats to America.


    I had never met that vampire, nor the oneing today, but I was not so immature or inexperienced that I didn''t know how to react around them. Still, it was a little unsettling that I was having a hard time pinpointing their location as they approached my house. I guess this is part of that whole shadow walking that I had heard of. He must be approaching the house in the shadow of the trees.


    I focused my eyes on the shadows, looking for the slightest hint of movement. There! That''s him, it''s gotta be. I noticed a slight flicker of movement in the shadows as if he would appear for just the barest fraction of a second before disappearing again, only to reappear in the shadow of another tree. So, that''s how they can move so easily in the daylight even if they were still sensitive to the sun. And it exined why his scent seemed to drift in and out, making it even harder to pinpoint him. That was actually a little unsettling.


    I realized that Trinity had noticed his scent too. She had most likely noticed mine as well, which didn''t disappear and reappear, and she probably didn''t think too much of the other scent at first. But I noticed that her ears pricked up and she looked to be on guard. She had noticed the strange scent but couldn''t see who it was.


    The vamp moved quickly, approaching my mate in the blink of an eye. I was d that he wasn''t close enough to see her training, I didn''t need other groups knowing about her ice wolf just yet. At least, I hoped he hadn''t seen it. I should get down there, now. I took off running toward the yard as quickly as I could.


    "Can I help you?" I heard Little Bunny''s voice. She was making it known that she was talking to the individual that she didn''t know. I don''t know if she knew that I was there and listening, or if she just didn''t know how to adjust the frequency of her telepathicmunication yet. Or perhaps it was harder for her to talk to someone without me hearing it unless she was making it an explicitly secret conversation.


    "Do not speak to me inside my head, wolf. That is not an ability you should have, not as a wolf or a woman." I heard the condescending tone in the man''s thickly ented voice. He had better watch his tongue around her. He was likely to catch hell from me and my little mate.


    "Excuse me?" I heard Trinity''s voice as if it were spoken aloud now. Did she shift back into her human form? No, I could still see her beautifully furry self standing in front of the man.


    Now that I looked at the man directly I wanted tough. He looked like the stereotypical vampire. I had met at least three vampires before this one and they looked like normal people, if a little more pale or a little too aristocratic. What the hell was wrong with this man?


    The vampire emissary standing in front of my mate was around five-feet-eight inches tall with ck hair, a pasty white face, and all ck clothing. He screamed emo goth punk, except he looked like he was in his thirties and not some teenager that was rebelling against daddy. Don''t get me wrong, I don''t hate the whole goth thing. But there''s always a clear difference in those that are truly goth and embrace the look and those that are doing it for the attention. The vamp looked like thetter of the two. I wanted tough if I wasn''t currently running to meet up with them.


    "Humph!" I heard the vamp scoff as I got closer to them, even just that sound seemed ented with what sounded like Dutch or something simr. "Why is a worthless woman like yourself even out here. Shouldn''t you be inside the house, cooking, or cleaning, or raising kids, you know something womanly. Why is a woman even learning to fight? Why can''t you be more like Selene, the goddess of vampires? She was a beauty that worshipped men, she never tried to emte them, so disgusting." Oh this man was already on my nerves, I could just imagine how my Little Bunny was going to react.


    "Look, mister, I have no idea who you are but you don''t have the right toe to my house and start insulting me." She snapped at him.


    "Luna, let me handle this." Vincent stepped in between my mate and the vampire, already having shifted back and wearing nothing but a pair of dark jeans. "Sir, you''re a vampire correct? Did youe for a meeting with the Alpha?" Vincent was very diplomatic, but I noticed the slight restrained note in his voice. He hadn''t taken kindly to his Luna being insulted by the neer.


    "Indeed I am, pup, where might I find him." The man''s condescending tone knew no bounds apparently. I saw Vincent tilt his head as if he was confused by the man''s attitude toward them.


    "He should be here any second now." Vincent answered, knowing full well that I was running all out to where they were. He had no doubt caught my scent several moments ago. I saw the twins, Shane and Shawn, walking out of the trees, also wearing their jeans and nothing else, having gone to shift back after Vincent had returned to handle the man''s attitude.


    "How unprofessional of him. An Alpha who doesn''t know how to greet his important visitors properly. How disgraceful. Ugh, I don''t know why we even deal with you lot." His sneering voice and whining tone was really grating at me.


    "Look, whoever you are, Reece will be here any moment now and he has been extremely busy, your attitude is not appreciated." I heard my mate defending me, the sound of it brought a swell of affection to my heart, but it was chased away by rage at the man''s next words, and actions.


    "Do not speak to me you filthy woman. Women should know their ce." He blinked out of the area he was in only to reappear in the shadowying directly in front of my Little Bunny. I watched in horror, rage flowing through me, as he struck out with his foot and kicked her on her left upper nk.


    My little bunny yelped in pain and was sent flying directly toward me. I shifted and caught her before she had gone more than ten feet. I saw red when looking at the man. I couldn''t me the guards, they had been standing protectively in front of her as they should have been but that made no difference when he blinked out of one spot and reappeared in another.


    "What the hell do you think you''re doing?" I roared at the man as soon as I had caught my tiny little mate in my arms.


    "Alpha?" I heard the three guards shout in surprise as they heard my roaring voice.


    "Shawn, please take her." I instructed the guard closest to me, reluctantly handing her over to him. I now stood in front of the vampire stark naked and righteously pissed off. "Youe to my home, seeking a meeting with me and you attack my mate. What the hell do you think you''re doing? Do you think I will let that slide?" I snarled at him.


    "Just try doing something about it." He taunted me, snarling right back at me.


    "Just watch me."

 Chapter 137 - Reece-Dealing With Trouble (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 137 - Reece-Dealing With Trouble (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    My wolf had snarled in my ear at the man''s taunting words. Neither of us would take his attitude lying down. He would pay for touching her.


    As soon as I prepared to fight the condescending vampire blinked into the shadows again,ing into view once more right in front of Shawn and Trinity." Shawn leapt back, trying to avoid the man as he protected his Luna. He managed to keep my Little Bunny from getting hurt but he took the blow across his upper left arm. Three long, thin lines opened up in his flesh spilling blood down to his elbow and wrist. The blood was starting to soak into the white fur of Trinity''s wolf.


    "Ugh, the smell of wolf blood is so repulsive." The vampire said in disgust.


    "You son of a bitch." I snarled at him, rage overflowing for his continued attack on my mate and her guards. "I will kill you for what you''ve done."


    "Ha, I''d love to see you try. You are insignificantpared to me you mongrel of a mutt."


    "Prepare to eat those words, bloodsucker." I could feel the rage intensifying within me. It was spreading, burning me from the inside out. Shane and Vincent had already rushed over to where Shawn and my Little Bunny were. Vincent took hold of my Little Bunny while Shane checked his brother.


    "Don''t worry, I''m fine." Shawn growled while eyeing the vampire with rage.


    "You two provide backup for the Alpha, I''m getting her out of here." Vincentmanded the other two.


    "I''m fine, let me help." What was she thinking? Telling them that she wanted to help with the fight was she stupid.


    "NO!" I roared as loud as I could without?taking my eyes off of the cliche of a vampire. "Get her out of her, NOW!" Imanded them.


    "Vincent, put me down right now." She countered mymand. For some reason he followed her order over mine.


    "Vincent, take her away." Imanded.


    "NO!" She yelled right back at me. "I am not leaving, do you hear me, ignore him Vincent." She ordered the man in front of her.


    "Alpha, I don''t know why but I need to follow hermands over yours."


    "Damn it, Vincent, do as I say." I growled fiercely putting all the weight of my authority into themand, still he ignored me.


    "I can''t." He looked shocked. I yelled, a meaningless roar of frustration. I wanted her out of here and somewhere safe dammit.


    "You should be paying attention to me." I heard the vampire taunt me just as he blinked out of sight and reappeared near Trinity again, Vincent quickly and deftly avoided the attack, protecting my mate.


    "If you touch her again I swear by the Goddess I will kill you." I heard the blood suckerugh derisively at my statement.


    "I''d like to see you try." It really annoyed me, his high and mighty voice speaking as if he was better than all of us. It was even annoying me that he spoke perfect English despite his thick ent, everything about him bothered me.


    "I hope you''re ready Count Goth." I insulted him as I shifted back into my wolf form


    I saw him once again blink out of sight. Knowing that he was about to go after my Little Bunny again, that he was going to try to attack my mate, that he was trying to hurt MY Trinity, I felt the heat of anger explode inside of me.


    Everything seemed to slow down, almost like time was standing still or close to it. I could see everything with perfect rity. The heat inside of my body was growing by the second. It was so hot that I felt like I was going to melt at any moment.


    Suddenly, there was a strange sensation running through me, as if my entire body had been numb and I could feel the tingling pinpricks of feelinging back to me as my body finally started circting blood again. The feeling kept growing and growing. It moved from the pinpricks to a stabbing and shooting pain filling my whole body. But still, I did not take my eyes off the vampire or my Little Bunny, not for a second.


    I could see he was making his way closer to her through the shadows. Moving just a few feet at a time in each quick blinking of his existence. Just as the pain and heat inside me reached the level of being unbearable, the pain stopped, and the heat subsided. But then, for some reason, the entire yard seemed to start glowing, as if there was a bright light shining from somewhere behind me.


    The light flickered, like it was a me. I could only guess that one of the guards had lit a fire to drive away the shadows, taking away the vampire''s ability to shadow walk. The idea was genius and would probably work. With no shadows near him, the bloodsucker would have no way to blink toward my mate or away from me.


    I felt a big toothy, wolfish grin spread across my face as I thought about how I was going to kill the man in front of me. He must have sensed my bloodlust, my rage, because he stood there for just a second like he was frozen in ce with fear filling his eyes. He took a small step away from me, backing toward the cover of the trees and more shadows. I wasn''t going to let him get away that easily.


    I leapt, quick as I could, and mmed into the goth poser. Hended onto the ground with so much force that his rancid breath hit me full in the face as it rushed out of him. I growled low and long into his face, letting him hear the frustration and anger he had caused to well up inside of me. I wanted him to know this was his fault, all his fault. He was going to die now and it was entirely his own fault.


    "Get off of me you abomination." His thickly ented voice wavered as he tried to sound confident and sure of himself. "Ger aus of mir." His perfectly crafted English was slipping, letting German mix with it. ''Get off of me'' the mixed words said. "Weggehen wolf! Weggehen." He screamed the words in German. ''Get off wolf! Get off'' I had no problem understanding what he was saying.


    Before I could respond the vampire started screaming and I could smell ashes. His screaming was loud and unceasing.


    ''I told you I would kill you.'' I snarled at him but it came out in the barking growl of a wolf. I said not another word before I opened my jaw and bit down right across his throat. His blood burst into my mouth, thick and disgusting. He tasted of dirt, ash, and mold. It was appalling.


    I stepped away from him, keeping my anger under a semnce of control, and noticed the vampire had caught fire at some point.


    ''When did that happen?'' I barked, asking the others.


    "Reece, do you not know what''s happened to you?" I heard my Little Bunny ask me.


    ''What are you talking about?'' I asked her as I turned around to look at the four of them. They were all looking at me with shocked, disbelieving looks. ''What?'' I asked again.


    "Alpha, you''re covered in mes." Shawn spoke in a slow, deliberate voice.


    "You''repletely engulfed." Shane added.


    I looked down at my wolf''s body to see it covered in mes. I must have caught fire when the vampire had. Why didn''t they say something? Why didn''t they attempt to put the mes out?


    I yelped, panic beginning to fill me. I was so filled with rage and then panic that I didn''t even feel the heat of the mes as they surged all over me. I looked around me, panic stricken, for a way to save myself. I noticed a pile of snow at the edge of the forest, a bank big enough that I could dive into head first and douse myself.


    I ran, full speed, toward the snow. I jumped in with all four feet, rolling myself in the snow to quell the mes. But no matter how much I tried to put the mes out, they continued to burn, melting the snow around me. I started to panic once more.


    "Reece!" I could hear a sweet voice calling to me, breaking through the panic I was feeling. "Reece!" It called again. I knew the voice but panic was winning out for the moment. "Reece!" It yelled my name, finally pulling my attention enough to make me look toward the source. I could see Trinity, my Little Bunny in her wolf form, standing there, looking at me.


    "Trinity!" I said her name with a note of desperation.


    "Reece, you''re not on fire, you are the fire." She told me calmly, an excited look on her face.


    "What?!" Her words made no sense to me.


    "It''s like me with my ice, you are made of fire." I stopped thrashing around in the snow, letting myself calm down just a little.


    "How?" I wanted to know this if nothing else. "I don''t have magic like you?" I told her.


    "But you have a mark she gave you." Vincent reminded me.


    "You think this is caused by my mark?" I calmed down just a little more.


    "I don''t know." My mate said, staring at me proudly. "But you are the fire to my ice. My protector and partner." She looked so beautiful as she smiled at me with pride filling her heart.

 Chapter 138 - Trinity-Reece On Fire (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 138 - Trinity-Reece On Fire (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The fight that had started out of nowhere with the mysterious vampire who hade for a meeting with Reece took mepletely by surprise. I didn''t expect someone sent here to have a discussion with the Alpha would behave so erratically, and psychotically. Honestly it all really pissed me off, and I wanted to rip his throat out, but Reece and the others would never let me get that close to him. Yet the most surprising part came right before the fight ended.


    I couldn''t believe my eyes at first, as I stood there looking at Reece covered in mes. I had heard the frustration and anger welling up inside of him, the white hot rage building until it was bound to explode. While we all watched on we saw Reece shift back into his wolf form just after the fight started and almost immediately his body began to steam, like smoke was rising from it but I couldn''t smell any smoke nearby.


    When his body was engulfed in mes I nearly yelped in surprise. I could feel the heating off of him from all the way across the yard. The light of his mes lit up the entire area almost like a chandelier had been strung recently, only there was no shadow beneath it. He was so tall in his wolf form, and the massive mesing off of him were raging so high and bright that there wasn''t even a shadow behind the vampire.


    I don''t really know how to exin it, but it was like the lighting off of Reece was literally spreading everywhere. The only ce the vampire was likely to find a shadow now was in the cover of the trees themselves, but he would never make it there before Reece caught him.


    Reece didn''t wait at all. Once the vampire''s nerves had been shaken and his escape route eliminated, Reece leapt at him, knocking him to the ground and pinning him in ce.


    "Get off of me you abomination." The vampire''s heavily ented voice shook as he looked into Reece''s lethal eyes. "Ger aus of mir." The man spoke in mixed German and English. "Weggehen wolf! Weggehen." Everything he yelled was in German that time. Having learned severalnguages growing up I knew everything he had said.


    ''Get off of me'' and ''Get off wolf Get off'', those are the words he had yelled at Reece before I watched my mate open his mouth wide and close his jaws around the man''s head. The blood sprayed almost immediately with the killing blow happening in an instant. But the blood looked strange somehow, it wasn''t red really. Well, maybe it could be called red if you''re being generous, but it was a red so dark that it looked almost ck. I didn''t envy Reece for having to taste that foul looking blood.


    Reece stepped back from the dead man and noticed that the vampire was on fire.


    "When did that happen?" He had asked in his wolf voice,pletely unaware that he was standing there madepletely of mes. The sight of him was amazing and made me feel a swelling of pride looking at how strong and powerful he was. I imagine it was how he felt seeing me turn into my ice wolf for the first time.


    He was already over five feet tall in his wolf form with strong, powerful legs and and arge head with soft, silky ck fur covering most of his body, the only relief to his pure ck sight was the gray underbelly he had. But now, with the mesing off of him he seemed so muchrger.


    I still saw some of the ck of his fur on his face where the mes were the smallest. But as the mes moved back they grewrger and zed off of his body. The tongues of fire that licked the air behind him were between four and eight feet long, depending on where they were. The highest, longest, mes were on his legs and back, the shorter mes fringed his head. Even his eyes had small tongues of mes licking the air around him.


    His eyes, which used to be a rich honey gold color, were now a vivid ruby red that seemed to shine and glow with pure power. He was gorgeous before, and even more so now. He looked almost god-like in that form, so powerful, so strong.


    When we told him that he was made of fire he flipped out a little, thinking he had caught fire. I don''t me him, when magic works around you and you don''t expect it it can be quite disconcerting. Still, it was funny watching him leap into the snow trying to put the mes out. All that had aplished was melting the snow around him.


    Finally he calmed down and stopped thrashing about in a panic. When he did, we told him what we had seen and how he looked in his wolf form. When he had fully calmed down from the fight the mes finally subsided, and he was left looking like just a regr wolf again. However, he didn''t look the same.


    When the mes left Reece''s body he was pure ck, well almost. His gray underbelly was gone though, and the only color on him wasing from his left shoulder. Like me, his mate mark was visible even though he was in his wolf form, it was shining a bright ruby red just like his eyes, they had stayed red even after the mes had gone. His wolf form was now even more sexy than I had already thought it was.


    I gasped at the sight of Reece standing there, pure ck with red reliefs at his eyes and shoulder.


    "Reece, your wolf has changed." I told him in a breathy sigh. His eyes went wide at my words.


    "Changed how?" He asked me, curiosity and confusion filling his voice.


    "Your gray is gone." Shane told him.


    "Yes Alpha, you''re pure ck now." Shawn added. "Except for your mate mark, that is now visible and bright red."


    "That''s right, and your eyes are the same color of red as your mate mark, Sir." Vincent told him.


    "So, I look a lot like Trinity, only ck and red?" He asked them.


    "Yes, Sir." I could feel all four of them looking at me.


    "How did this happen?" Reece asked me.


    "I don''t know." I told him.


    "But I''m guessing it''s thanks to you, Luna." Shawn told me.


    "Whatever the reason or cause, we will figure it outter. For now, you''re all dismissed. Well, not you Vincent. I need you to tell Noah that I want a meeting with him and you around four this afternoon." Reece ordered the men in the yard with us.


    I watched as the three of them went toward the house. The twins would be dressing and leaving, Vincent would be heading inside to tell Noah about the meeting. Once they were gone, Reece came striding over to me where I still stood watching him. He and I were the only two that had still been in our wolf forms.


    Reece sauntered toward me, full of the knowledge that he was powerful and strong, and in charge. The masculinity flowing off of him, even in wolf form, made me shiver as I watched him.


    "What exactly is going through your little head?" He asked me silently, the words entering my mind the way we had practiced.


    "I wasn''t thinking anything." I lied as I watched hisrge, powerful wolf walk toward me slowly.


    "You little liar." Heughed as he watched me. His deep, rumbling voice sent yet another shiver running through me.


    "N-n-n-no I''m n-n-not. I-I-I wasn''t thinking anything, r-r-really. I stuttered, looking into his beautiful Ruby red eyes.


    "Hmmm." He stared down at me as he came closer, so close that our noses were nearly touching. "Maybe I was just hoping that you were thinking the same thing I was." His purring voice rumbled through me causing me to shiver.


    "A-and w-what are you th-thinking?" I asked him even though I was certain I knew what it was already.


    "Don''t you know?" He nuzzled the side of my head, his soft silky fur rubbing against mine. He followed that up by tilting his head a little and licking me quickly, but sensually, next to my ear. I yelped in surprise. I knew what he wanted, but I had never been that intimate with Reece in my wolf form.


    "B-but I have a meeting soon." I told him.


    "When?" His voice purred again.


    "At one o''clock." I squeaked.


    "We have plenty of time, it''s not even noon yet." Heughed at my nervousness. I swallowed hard, a knot of nervousness growing in my throat.


    "Come now Little Bunny." I watched Reece as he led me toward the trees. "Let''s take a walk." It seemed that he was still keyed up and excited from the fight and the magic that had coursed through him this morning. My eyes were wide and nervous, but still I followed him. I wasn''t going to deny him, I loved him too much for that.

 Chapter 139 - Trinity-A Wolf Mating (Mature Rating)((VOLUME 2))

    <h4>Chapter 139 - Trinity-A Wolf Mating (Mature Rating)((VOLUME 2))</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece walked on, deeper into the trees and away from the house. There was a confident swagger to the way he walked. His tail swishing slightly in front of me. His scent was rich and intense, made stronger by my sensitive wolf nose.


    "Reece, where are we going?" I asked him apprehensively.


    "We''re going to have a little fun." He chuckled. "Do you want to y a game?" He asked me.


    "What kind of game." My voice shook when I asked him.


    "Let''s y a nice game of tag. I''ll chase you, and if I catch you I get to do anything I want."


    "Anything?" I asked him after swallowing the lump in my throat?


    "Mhmm, anything I want." He purred, turning around to look at me with lustful eyes.


    "A-and if I w-win?" My voice waspletely betraying me, I couldn''t hide my nerves at all. Heughed briefly, just for a second, before he answered.


    "Hmm, if you win, you get to make me do whatever you want me to." He walked closer to me again, touching his nose to mine this time. "Ready Little Bunny?" He rumbled almost sweetly. "Run!"


    At his shout telling me to run I bolted. I did my best to make sure that I could get away from him, hide from him. I could hear him running behind me. His feet thumping the forest floor. His excited, panting breath chasing me through the trees. He wasing after me with clear determination.


    Part of me knew why I wanted to run, why it was important to me. I had never done what he wanted of me. I was scared and nervous. Not to mention we were outside, out here where literally anyone coulde across us.


    Ok, so it wasn''t that likely that someone would stumble across us. We were on our own private property. Usually, people were only out here for gatherings or when we invited them. We hadn''t invited anyone today.


    Another part of me wanted to let him catch me. Wanted to let him do whatever he wanted with me. I could feel the excitement growing within me. The heat that was already filling me at my core turned at least some of my fear into excitement. Why should I be afraid? Why should I worry about this? Wasn''t it natural for us wolves?


    Still, I couldn''t decide what I wanted more. What I needed more. Did I want, need, him to let me get away and save my wolf form''s virginity? Or did I want, need, him to catch me and ravage me?


    I loved being with him. My body craved him almost constantly. I needed him, needed to be with him. Why should now be any different? I was conflicted.


    I imagined what it would be like. His silky, soft fur draped over me, his panting breath in my ear. More heat flooded my core at the very thought. That was my decision. I no longer thought about it at all. I could feel him catching up to me, and instead of running away I slowed down and came to a stop in the middle of a small clearing in the trees. The space was no bigger than eight feet in diameter with a medium sized fallen tree at the edge. I came to a stop right in front of that tree.


    Reece leapt out of the trees,nding right in front of me.


    "You gave up?" He questioned me with curiosity in his voice.


    "Not really, more like I chose what prize I wanted more." I purred seductively at him with my nose rubbing against his chin. I heard a slow, rumbling growl start low in his chest at my words.


    "Are you sure that you are okay with this prize?" He asked me with a lust filling his voice.


    "Hmm, yeah, I think that I am." My voice purred again as I turned around to brush my tail against his face.


    "If you keep teasing me like that I won''t be able to control myself. Be careful there Little Bunny."


    "And if I don''t want to be careful?" I twitched my tail under his nose again as I took a few steps toward the tree.


    Reece jumped at me with another low growl. I felt him collide with me gently, tackling me down against the tree. My front legs syed as I allowed myself to be lowered against the bark of the tree. I felt Reece''s hot breath against my left ear as he draped himself over me.


    "Last chance to back out, Little Bunny." He spoke softly directly into my ear. I could feel the warmth of his body pressing against me, the sensation excited me. In my excitement I rubbed my lower body against his stomach, our fur brushing against each other, tickling me.


    "Why would I try to run away or stop you? Don''t you want me?" I asked him seductively as I rubbed against him again.


    "Goddess knows that I do." He growled quietly into my ear. "I want you all the time Little Bunny."


    I felt my wolf''s consciousness stir. Her deep, innermost thoughts were bing mine. Usually I didn''t hear her when I was in my wolf form. Mostly, I only heard her emotions but not her actual thoughts, however today she was speaking to me, telling me what she wanted. My mate. I want my mate. Give me my mate. Her animalistic voice was speaking to me, too far gone to be rational, she was ready for what was about to happen. Her readiness was overflowing into me making me feel even more ready by the second.


    "I love you Trinity." Reece whispered into my ear while he shifted his body above me. I could feel him readying himself. His body grew hotter as I felt him settle himself at my opening.


    Reece wasn''t a small man by any ounts. Nothing I had seen on him could be described as small. But just feeling the tip of him at my tenderest of all ces I could tell that he was muchrger in this form. Everything about us werewolves was bigger in this form. Maybe not necessarily the height, but everything in proportion to our bodies wasrger, and I was about to see the true extent of that. ''Oh Goddess, am I going to be able to handle this?'' I asked myself.


    I didn''t have long to wait. Reece growled one word into my ear before thrusting forward.


    "Mine." His rumbling voice made my whole body quiver beneath him just as he threw himself forward, driving himself inside my body all the way to his hilt.


    "Ahhh." I cried out just as my wolf howled, the two soundsing together to form an eerie, erotic moan of pleasure.


    "Mine." Reece whispered again just before he started to move. He pulled back until just his tip was still inside me then threw himself forward once again. I let out another moan causing Reece to growl with satisfaction.


    Reece drove into my body, creating a steady rhythm. I could feel him rubbing against my most sensitive areas, his driving rhythm, the near frantic thrusts, were sending an immense pleasure throughout my entire body. I was already nearing the edge of oblivion, my breathing was ragged and my vision was unfocused, the only thing I was fully aware of was Reece and the pleasure he was giving me.


    I was moaning Reece''s name in frantic yelps and cries. The warmth from him filling me, rubbing against my inner walls, was almost enough to burn me. I almost felt like I was melting from the inside out.


    "Reece!" I called his name onest time as he threw himself hard against me. I seemed toe apart at the seams at the exact same time that he exploded inside of me. His hot seed filled me, adding to the heat I was already feeling spread through me.


    "Trinity." He called my name just before he copsed on top of me.


    I opened my eyes some timeter. I didn''t know when I had closed them or when I had semi lost consciousness, but I was opening my eyes to the bright morning light that filled the clearing. I could still feel Reece inside of me, so I must not have been out for long, if at all really.


    "Are you ok Little Bunny?" He asked me.


    "Mhmm." I hummed as I nodded my head. "I just don''t think I will ever be able to walk again." I joked with him.


    "Mind if I take that as apliment?" He chuckled.


    "Sure, I meant it as one anyway." I assured him.


    "I love you." He said as he kissed my shoulder. That was when I came to enough to realize that we were both in our human forms.


    "When did we shift back?" I asked him.


    "Somewhere after I had the most amazing experience of my life and you going limp beneath me. I wasn''t paying attention enough, I was too caught up in the pleasure."


    "Yeah, so was I. Strange though, I didn''t expect to shift back like that."


    "We shifted together, the wolf magic was working in tandem."


    "I think we tired them out just as much as ourselves." I joked with him causing him tough.


    "Come on sweetheart, I''ll carry you back. But just close enough to get you a nket from inside the house."


    "My prince charming." Iughed at him.


    "I''m no prince charming, but I will be your big bad wolf any time." He purred into my ear just before he stood up and scooped me into his arms.

 Chapter 140 - Trinity- Not Feeling Well (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 140 - Trinity- Not Feeling Well (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece carried me back to the edge of the trees and did exactly as he had said he would. He set me down, still in the cover of the trees and ran toward the house. We kept a store of clothes and nkets in the garage just for moments like these. Well not for just having had sex, but foring home after being in wolf form and needing clothes. I had shifted while in the garage so my clothes didn''t get destroyed but it did mean that I needed to have something to get me back to them without exposing myself. Reece was very against me being exposed like that.


    After I was back in the house, and dressed, I hurried through a quick lunch with my wedding nners, Juniper, L, Nikki, and Aunt Eve, before my meeting with the florists for the wedding. I was hungrier than I thought I would have been. I probably burned more energy than I thought having trained this morning, then there was ying chase with Reece. Just thinking about it I could feel my face flush and burn with heat.


    "What''s wrong Trinity?" Juniper asked me when she saw my burning red face.


    "Nothing, I think I''m just letting my thoughts run a little rampant." I tried to brush off the question.


    "Oh yeah, like what?" Nikki asked me with a smile on her face and pure enjoyment evident in her voice.


    "It''s just truly hitting me now, that I am going to be Reece''s wife." I hid my face in embarrassment.


    "You''re already his mate, why is this any different?" Nikki asked me.


    "I don''t know, it just seems more special, more real, than just being a mate."


    "I think I know what you mean." L smiled at me with a knowing look. "Regr pack members get married like it''s nothing, they have nothing else to introduce mates to the pack, but a Luna has the mate ritual in front of everyone. It''s not as special as a wedding. I was that way when I married Collin. I felt like even though I was his mate already in the eyes of the pack I was still missing that feeling of having my special moment that was all about me and not the pack."


    "Really?" Nikki asked L, a confused look on her face. "I never thought about it, but it''s true isn''t it. When Noah and I got married we hadn''t done the official mate mark, that happened on our wedding night. It was a personal, intimate moment just between the two of us. But when you became the Luna your marking wasn''t personal and intimate was it."


    "Definitely not. It was on full disy for everyone to see." I blushed again as I remembered the time Reece had marked me in front of everyone. The intense, almost erotic feeling of having him bite into my neck, the growing heat spreading through me. It was a wonderful night, but I didn''t feel quite as special as I would have liked."


    "You will have your day." Aunt Eve assured me.


    "I''m not so sure." I grimaced at them all.


    "Why?" They all seemed to ask at nearly the same time.


    "With everything going on right now, will it really be all about me? I have a feeling that we''re going to be focusing on the crisis more than ourselves."


    "Trinity." Aunt Eve''s heart seemed to be breaking when she called my name.


    After our quick lunch we met with the florist in the living room. We discussed the color and arrangement of all the flowers for the wedding.


    "Do you know what color your dress will be?" The florist asked me.


    "It''s going to be blue. And the bridesmaid and maid of honor dresses are silver with blue and green."


    "Those sound lovely my dear." The florist told me.


    It took us a few hours but we managed to decide on the arrangements for the bouquets, the centerpieces, and all the decorations that would be ced throughout the forest and yard on the day of the wedding. There would be bouquets with white ca lily and himyan blue poppies with silver dusty millers as the ent. The decorations throughout the trees and the reception area would include wisterias with white and blue, young white hydrangeas that were half green and half white, blue delphiniums, and more of the ca lilies and himyan blue poppies.


    We had chosen bouquets for myself and all the bridesmaids and maid of honor. L and Aunt Eve would have flower bracelets with spring beauties woven into them. We nned the setup of flowers most of the way, but they would be finalized more when things got closer. I was just happy to have them all decided on.


    It took a lot longer to decide everything than I had thought. I had wanted to join Reece for his meeting with Vincent and Noah at four, but I wasn''t done with everything in time. I didn''t finish with wedding nning until nearly five in the afternoon. Reece had wrapped up his meeting and left for another meeting before I got a chance to join him.


    It was probably for the best though, I was not feeling that great even though it was quickly approaching dinner time. I didn''t think that I would be up to eating tonight. I usually never felt sick. It was rare that any werewolves got sick. There were rare times we got food poisoning, cancer, and there were gic disorders that we could be afflicted with. But just getting sick was rare. I wonder if I got food poisoning somehow.


    I was rxing in the bedroom, reading a book, when Reece finally came home. I still hadn''t eaten dinner, I had decided that if I felt better I would eat when Reece got back. I was still feeling sick to my stomach and didn''t know if I would want to eat.


    I looked up as he came into the room looking tired and worn out. Whatever had happened in the two meetings he had this afternoon seemed to have been quite draining.


    "You look exhausted." I told him.


    "Yeah, I feel like I''ve been put through the ringer." He sighed as he walked slowly over to me. I sat there as he scooped me up and sat in my seat, setting me down on hisp. I set my book aside and wrapped my arms around his neck.


    "Well, you''re home now, so it''s fine if you rx." I hugged him gently, but as I pulled away I got a wave of nausea that was stronger than any of the others I had felt all day.


    "Ugh!" I groaned as my stomach flipped like an acrobat at the circus.


    "What''s the matter Little Bunny? Are you alright?" Reece was instantly worried when he heard my groaning.


    "I''ve just felt sicktely." I told him as I rested my head against his shoulder.


    "Sick?" He seemed perplexed. "But we don''t get sick. Was it something you ate?"


    "I doubt it. I had the same breakfast and lunch as your mom and she isn''t sick. You''re not sick so I know it wasn''t breakfast, and I doubt that anyone else from lunch is sick."


    "When did you start feeling like this?" He inquired.


    "At the end of my nning session with the florist." I answered him.


    "So this afternoon?" He seemed almost demanding as he asked me.


    "Yeah,te this afternoon." I lifted my head to look at him only to have my head spin and stomach somersault again. "Ugh!" I groaned again. "I keep feeling like my head and stomach joined the acrobat squad at the circus."


    "Come on, let''s get you to bed." He lifted me up and walked across the room toy me gently on the bed.


    Reece gracefully and gently lowered me to the pillows before climbing onto the bed beside me. He didn''ty down next to me yet. Instead, he took the slippers I was wearing off my feet and set them aside. He then unbuttoned the jeans I had been wearing and slowly pulled them off of me. Next, he pulled the thin nket back and pulled it up and over me, stopping at my waist where heid the nket across me.


    "What exactly are you feeling?" He asked me.


    "Well, since my meeting ended, I have basically been feeling sick to my stomach. That and bouts of dizziness are all I''ve been feeling. I know it''s nothing that I ate though because I didn''t have anything different than L all day. I even felt too sick to eat dinner." I felt pitiful as I told him all this. "Goddess, aren''t I just worthless?" I asked him.


    "No." He told me firmly. I looked at him curiously.


    "Huh? You think me being sick isn''t weak and worthless?"


    "Not at all, because you''re not sick." He smiled at me.


    "What do you mean I''m not sick?" I asked.


    Reece didn''t answer me right away. What he did instead was lean forward and press his face against my stomach. More urately he pressed his nose against my stomach and proceeded to take a long deep breath, inhaling my scent while pressed against me. When he lifted his head he had the biggest grin I had ever seen on his face before.


    "What?" I asked him, not sure I was ready for the answer. "What is it Reece?" He just continued to smile at me. "Do you know what''s wrong with me?" He smiled more broadly and nodded his head.


    "Come on Reece, say something. Seriously, what''s gotten into you."


    "Me? You shouldn''t be asking what''s gotten into me. What you should be asking is what''s gotten into you Little Bunny."


    "Alright, fine, be cryptic. I''m too sick and tired to figure it out right now."


    "But it''s so simple honey." He nearly cooed at me.


    "Fine, I''ll y along. What''s gotten into me Reece?"


    "I have." He smiled and I blushed bright red.


    "That''s hardly news." I snapped at him. "But that has nothing to do with this right now."


    "Oh, it does actually." He purred. "It exins everything."


    "What."


    "You see, Little Bunny, I''m what''s gotten into you, me and my pup." His revtion left me speechless for a moment.


    "I-I-I''m p-pregnant." I said the words on a breathy sigh, unable to muster much force behind them.


    "Yup." He wrapped his arms around me, hugging me tight. "I love you Trinity." He said the words with his lips pressed against my ear, but not even that was enough to make me shiver as I waspletely frozen in shock.


    "I''m pregnant." I said again, and felt the slightest stirrings of happiness at his words.

 Chapter 141 - Reece- Dietrich (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 141 - Reece- Dietrich (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "What''s got you grinning so much?" Noah growled as soon as I walked into my office. Yeah, I''m not going to answer that question, at least not honestly. I couldn''t very well tell him that I was grinning like a loon because I had just had some of the best sex of my life, and with his cousin no less.


    "Nothing really, just had a good morning." I told him.


    "You call us getting attacked by a crazy vampire and needing to fight him to the death as a good morning?" Vincent''s voice was full of incredulity.


    "No, I was referring to after."


    "After?" Vincent was confused. "What happened after?"


    "I don''t think I want to know the answer to that." Noah red at me.


    "That''s why I said nothing." I smiled at them both. "Now, let''s get down to business.


    "So, what was so important that you needed to call this meeting?" Noah growled, still angry. "Yeah, I get that the vamp attack was major, but I''m guessing that wasn''t all of it."


    "No, that''s not the entirety of the meeting. Yes, I wanted to discuss the attack, but not with you two."


    "Then who?" Vincent asked me.


    "The man who sent that pile of ashes to see me."


    "Who sent him?" Noah wondered.


    "Lord Dietrich Conrad, the Vampire Emperor." I heard their sharp intakes of breath upon hearing those words.


    "Lord Dietrich?" Noah gasped.


    "The Vampire Emperor?" Vincent seemed a little more shocked about that title than the other one.


    "What does he want with us?" Noah demanded.


    "I contacted him. My family has had dealings with him going back at least three hundred years apparently. He had known my family since long before my ancestors moved to this country."


    "Why in the world would you want to involve vampires in our pack business though? And why now?"


    "Why now?" I asked Noah with shock filling my voice. "I need his help, that''s why. The vampires have ways of tracking that we don''t And he, or someone he knows, might know Edmond. If they can help me track him down sooner, then I fully intend on using him and his connections to my family to their fullest extent." I was speaking with an intense tone, telling them the truth of the matter when all of a sudden there was a knock at the door. The twins, Shane and Shawn were back for some reason.


    "What do you want?" I yelled at them through the door.


    "Alpha, we have a request." I heard one of them yell back.


    "Just get your asses in here. I hate talking through doors." They opened the door at my words and I saw that they didn''t look nervous, on the contrary they looked determined and sure of themselves. They walked into the room and stood near the mantle of the firece like they usually did. One on each side like weird bookends.


    "Thank you, Alpha, for letting us enter." Shawn said.


    "What do you want?" I growled at them slightly, letting them know I wasn''t too happy about the interruption.


    "Sir, we know you called this meeting to discuss the attack today." Shawn spoke clearly and without fear, even after my warning growl. Brave man.


    "We want to be part of that discussion. We may not be the head of the Luna''s guard like Vincent is, but we were there too." Shane spoke in his brusque, informal way of talking.


    "That''s right Sir, we were there and we are also guards to the Luna, we want to be part of any discussion that might affect her security."


    "Is that so?" They nodded at exactly the same time at my words. "Fine, maybe you should be part of the discussion. You will have to be part of all this anyway, it will save us all a little time. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, from now on, unless it is sensitive information that I cannot share with you, you will be part of the main discussions. I should have David here as well next time, if he is not too busy with the investigation. But you''re right that all of her guards should be privy to these conversations."


    "Thank you, Sir."


    "Thanks." They each thanked me with gratitude in their voices and determination in their eyes.


    "Alright men, what we need to do first, is contact the Vampire Emperor and let him know what happened." I heard the gasps from the twins that had not been here for the previous part of the conversation. "Oh, did I forget to mention to you two, the vampire that showed up today was sent here as an emissary from the Vampire Emperor himself, Lord Dietrich Conrad."


    "Sir, why is the Vampire Emperor sending men to speak with you?" Shawn looked nervous for a moment.


    "My family has had dealings with him for over three hundred years. The connections go back to when my family still lived in Europe. I contacted him for help with finding Edmond." They both looked stunned at this revtion. "Now, if there are no more interruptions, I am going to video call our Lord Dietrich now, I don''t want this call dyed any longer."


    Therge t screen that hung opposite of my desk glowed around the edges of the ck box, waiting for the vampire to connect to the video call. I figured he was probably waiting for me to call him with an update with how the meeting had gone, but he probably wasn''t expecting it to be a video call.


    I have talked to Dietrich a handful of times over the years since I took over thepany, but I have never seen the man in person. I knew he was over five hundred years old and he had be the leader of the vampires over two hundred years ago. He has ruled them ever since.


    I know that without him my family''s empire would never have gotten as big as it is. Also, his business in Europe would not be quite as profitable if it wasn''t for my family. We owe each other a lot, that is why my family has worked with him for so long. My family has never held prejudices over the other species of super naturals, so it made sense for us to work together.


    The ck finally changed, shifting from solid ck to a well lit office space decorated in an eclectic collection modern and antique. I''m guessing those antiques weren''t bought as antiques but when they were still new.


    "So, Reece Gray, we finally meet face to face. Well sort of. You look very much like your grandfather, Rnd and his grandfather Sebastian. Perhaps that look skips a generation. Seeing you brings back many memories." He was smiling at me with a friendly, open look on his face. "I trust that everything is well with you." He opened his arms wide in a sweeping gesture to signal me to begin talking.


    "Lord Conrad-." I began but I was immediately interrupted.


    "Nonsense Reece, your family and I have been like family for so long, please drop the formalities." I was at a loss, I didn''t know if I should treat him like a friend right now or not given what had happened.


    "Alright, Dietrich." I paused and saw him nod at me while smiling broadly, oddly enough I didn''t see his fangs at the moment. "Things aren''t so great right now actually."


    "What could have happened?" He seemed genuinely concerned for me at that. Would thatst when I told him what happened?


    "Your emissary is dead." I decided to get straight to the point.


    "What!" Shock filled his voice. "Tell me what happened Reece, please." Dietrich''s piercing blue eyes, so light blue they nearly looked white, were filled with unease now. He was an interesting looking man. His light blue eyes, paleplexion, ck hair, and regal manner all made him look like some historical novel charactere to life. He was wearing an expensive suit, I could tell through the video it was high end. His face was full of concern yet not a wrinkle appeared anywhere on his perfectly angr face.


    "The vampire that you sent, I don''t even know his name as he never gave it to us."


    "His name was Octavius, he had been one of my most loyal subjects for a very long time now." His eyes seemed to drift, as if in memory.


    "I wish he would have had your disposition toward us that you do." I told him.


    "I am indeed perplexed, Reece, what happened today?"


    "He attacked my mate." The shock that enveloped his face at those words was beyond description. He was instantly furious yet apologetic at the same time.


    "I should never have sent him. I am truly sorry, more than I could ever express. Octavius had no problem with wolves, well little to no problem. But unfortunately, he still lived in an antiquated mindset. Had I known that you had finally found a mate I would have sent someone else. For all his faults though, Octavius might have been the best among my people to help you in your search. If only he had not acted improperly."


    "It wasn''t just improper. Aside from speaking to her in a way that he never should have, he physically attacked her and her guards. He kicked my mate across my yard, I caught her out of the air myself, Dietrich. And I assure you, it was not just anger that made me kill him. He continued his egotistical and misogynistic behavior and tried to further assault my fiance and her guards."


    "May I ask how you managed to defeat him? Octavius was a very skilled fighter and quite the user of shadow travel." Dietrich never once looked angry toward me, however, his clear, ent free voice was both apologetic and curious.


    "We eliminated all the shadows around him." My answer was short and not very fulfilling for him, but I needed to keep my new information a secret for now.


    "How, if I may ask?"


    "I''m sorry, for now I cannot answer that. Perhaps one day if we meet in person I may tell you, but at this point in time, I can''t."


    "Understood, understood, no worries Reece." He was smiling at me. "I will of course arrange another meeting for you."


    "As you might understand, I am a little apprehensive about having another unknown vampire entering my territory. Considering what happened today."


    "Of course, Reece, of course. That is why I aming personally." He grinned broadly as if that was the most obvious answer.


    "What?" Shane yelped, apparently unable to control himself.


    "Oh, I am sorry. I have been neglecting your associates in the back there. You have an impressive bunch of men with you. Are they all soldiers?" He seemed incredibly curious about them. I didn''t know what his angle was so I was only giving him the bare minimum of information.


    "Yes, that they are." No need to tell him that they were the Luna''s personal guards along with her cousin.


    "Splendid. It is so wonderful to meet you all. I am Dietrich Conrad, and I will be visiting you all very soon." The vampire''s smile was beginning to seem unsettling. Still, I don''t think he was trying to be anything but friendly, we''ve had the alliance for so long and all.


    "Good evening." Vincent nodded his head once.


    "Nice to meet you." Shane added. Noah and Shawn just nodded their heads with the words from the others.


    "Reece, I will be there in one week, I just need to tie a few things up here before I can leave. I''m sure you understand what it''s like to lead so many people." He seemed tired for the first time during the call. "And please do remember, that I am a daytime vampire. I may sleepter than the average person, but I am not up all night." Dietrichughed. "So, shall we meet for a dinner party on the first of the month?"


    "A dinner party?" Shawn seemed confused, and a little sickened.


    "Rest assured, young man, that we vampires are quite capable of eating the food humans do. I actually encourage it as it helps us to fit in." He smiled at Shawn as he spoke. I noticed a shocked look spread across Shawns face as Dietrich spoke to him.


    "Are you alright Shawn?" I whispered, hoping Dietrich wouldn''t hear me.


    "Yeah, I was just confused for a moment." Shawn recovered from whatever had happened to him.


    "Interesting." Dietrich smiled at him. "Now, I am sorry but I must go. We can continue this conversation when I am there in person. Until then gentlemen. Reece. Shawn." He seemed to be purring by the end of the conversation which felt a little odd.


    "Is it just me, or did he seem like he didn''t like me?" Shawn asked.


    "Yeah, he seemed to have taken some kind of interest in you." Shane joked with his brother.


    "Enough." I stopped them before they could get into one of their epic twin arguments. "We still have work to do. We need to get ready to host the Vampire Emperor, and I now need to go and tell David and Rawlynne that the emissary I invited to help us is dead."


    "Sucks to be you." Noah joked with me.


    "Haha, well guess who gets toe with me." I red at him in response.


    "Asshole." Noah growled.


    "Thanks." I smiled at him.

 Chapter 142 - Reece-Revelations (VOLUME 2)

    142 Chapter 17- Reece-Revtions (VOLUME 2)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Following the call with Dietrich, I decided to call David and check up on the investigation. He answered the call almost immediately.


    "Yes Alpha?" He said when he answered.


    "Hey David, how are things going with the investigation? Have you met with Otsana yet?"


    "I''ve got all the information that I can from the local police, I was just about to go see the FBI agents."


    "Alright, I nned on meeting with them and you anyway so I will swing by to pick you up at the station. Wait for me."


    "Yes, Sir."


    I quickly collected David from the station and the three of us made our way to the rental house I had set up for the FBI agents, I figured that would be easier on them than a hotel room. The house was close to the edge of town heading back toward thepound. Both Otsana and her partner Jackson McIan were staying there.


    We pulled up to the small ranch style house on the edge of town and started toward the door. I had told them that I wasing so they were expecting me. Agent McIan opened the door before we had even finished climbing the porch.


    "Mr. Gray, good evening." Agent McIan called out to me. "I hope you don''t find this rude, but can you exin to me why it''s so important you and your cronies are part of my investigation?" He was definitely suspicious of me, especially since I had not met him before.


    "May we discuss this inside, Agent McIan?" I smiled at him to show that I was not a threat, however he seemed to visibly darken at my words and was immediately on guard. His dark brown eyes and light blond hair should have made him look innocent, but they were paired with a gym buff''s body, a permanent natural tan, and a seriously disapproving look on his otherwise good looking face. He almost looked like he belonged in my pack instead of in the FBI, but the smelling off of him was all human.


    "I would like to refuse, but as Otsana is in charge of this investigation I can''t very well say no."


    "That, and I do own this house." I smiled a little more broadly.


    "Of course you do. Because why not, you seem to own everything else." He actuallyughed at that one.


    "Jack, enough with the tough guy routine, these are important members of our investigative team." Otsana yelled from inside.


    "I don''t see why we need a group of PIs, especially one that''s just a billionaire yboy ying games."


    "Is that how the world sees me?" I asked the two men with me.


    "Absolutely not, Sir."


    "Definitely." They answered, Noah was not holding any punches and David seemed nervous. Huh, I didn''t think I was seen as a yboy, I hadn''t been seen dating anyone.


    "I''m a billionaire yes, but I am so much more than that. Can''t we just talk for a little while Agent McIan, I''m sure you wille to trust me more."


    "Whatever." He said stepping aside and letting us in.


    "Forgive him, he''s just acting like a big brother to me." Otsana joked as we walked inside. "Even though he''s younger than-." She stopped mid sentence staring at David, her face full of shock and awe. David, likewise, had a shocked, dare I say dumbfounded, look on his face.


    "What''s the matter Rawlynne?" Agent McIan asked her with a hint of worry. "Do you recognize one of them as a criminal?"


    "None of us are criminals." Noah spat at the man.


    "I know what''s happening here." I told them all.


    "How can it be?" Otsana breathed in disbelief.


    "I can''t believe it." David sighed. "After all these years, I''ve finally found you."


    "You two know each other?" Agent McIan asked his partner, but still she didn''t answer him.


    "I''m ny-nine percent sure they''ve never met before." I assured the man.


    "Then how could they have been looking for each other?" He was thoroughly confused.


    "That is a little hard to exin at the moment." Noah seemed ufortable.


    While the three of us stood there in the living room of the small house, watching the two awestruck people in front of us a sort of drama was unfolding. I watched as David started walking towards Otsana, but with every step he took she backed up one.


    "Why are you backing away from me?" David sounded hurt.


    "This is the wrong time. I''m not ready." Otsana pleaded. "I''ve got career goals, ns for my future that I thought I would follow. This wasn''t part of it."


    "But we can''t fight fate." David seemed to coo at her in a calming voice.


    Otsana backed against the wall, unable to move back further she just stared at the man approaching her. She could have turned and fled in a different direction but she was mesmerized.


    "What is going on here?" Agent McIan asked me.


    "You''re watching destiny unfold before you." I answered him.


    "Destiny?" He scoffed but still he watched on.


    "What''s your name?" David asked the woman he was staring down like a wild animal that might run away or bite him if he wasn''t careful.


    "Her name is Rawlynne Otsana, David, didn''t you hear us talking earlier." I smiled at the man in front of me.


    "Rawlynne." He smiled as he said her name. "I''m sorry, I stopped hearing anything for a little bit earlier. My dreams have alle true after all."


    "Stop saying that." Otsana yelled at him as he inched closer still.


    "Rawlynne." He said her name again like it was the sweetest sound he had ever heard. "Don''t. Don''t say my name." Otsana shivered both times David had said her name.


    "But it''s so beautiful." He cooed again. "And you smell so wonderful. Like soft subtle flowers and sweet decadent fruits. The smell, and sight, of you is making my mouth water." David''s eyes visibly darkened with desire.


    "Stop, don''t say anymore." Otsana''s voice was weak.


    "That''s fine by me, there''s something else I''d rather do anyway." With that David took thest step to ce himself in front of Otsana. With no resistance from her he wrapped his right arm around her waist and pulled her to him. His other hand he settled on the back of her head. Before any of us could do or say anything, he had settled his mouth on hers.


    "Stop!" Agent McIan came to his senses and yelled at the couple kissing like lovers right before his eyes. "This is uneptable and frankly inappropriate. Rawlynne, you don''t even know this man, why are you letting him kiss you like that?" He yelled at her.


    "She can''t help it McIan, it''s destiny."


    "What''s that supposed to mean?" He looked even more perplexed.


    "It''s hard for me to exin, but for them just now, it was love at first sight."


    "Love at first sight doesn''t exist."


    Otsana had finally managed to push David away, but his protesting growl told me he wasn''t very happy about it.


    "Oh, it exists alright." Otsana was breathing heavily when she spoke to Agent McIan.


    "What''s going on here?" He asked her as David tried to pull her back to him.


    "David, control yourself." I snapped at him. "We have business to discuss." He turned to look at me with an angry, hurt expression before he bowed his head.


    "Yes, you''re right, Sir." He finally let his hands drop but he stayed standing next to his new mate.


    The five of us settled on the couches and chairs in the living room, David made sure he was sitting next to the woman he had had his hands all over. Agent McIan was still ring at him with an angry look. Perhaps he loved the woman too.


    "Will someone exin all of this to me?" He demanded, breaking the tense silence in the room. He was acting big and intimidating but it didn''t go well with the pale blue armchair that matched the very girly living room around us, filled with pastel colors and pretty furniture. I hated it.


    13:16


    "It''s hard to exin, as I said." Noah told him.


    "We need to tell him the truth, Noah. We would have to anyway, with the turn things have taken."


    "Alpha, no!" David seemed shocked by my words.


    "Alpha?" Agent McIan picked up on that right away. "Why did you call him alpha?"


    "Oh, well, I, you see, he''s-." David was blithering like a fool at his slip up.


    "Because I am his alpha." I told the man. "Agent McIan, you are about to enter a world that you have never known before. But it is a world that has always been there, just unseen by you."


    "What are you saying." He was quickly losing his patience, he was apparently no good with being so out of control.


    "Jack, let me exin a little."


    ''Wait, Otsana, let me start." I stopped her.


    "Alright." She nodded at me.


    "Jack, may I call you Jack?" I asked him presumptuously already using the name. He nodded and I continued. "Now, Jack, the reason I am here, that we''re all here and intruding on your investigation is that three of the missing boys are from my pack."


    "Pack?" Jack looked skeptical at the word but I ignored him and continued.


    "During my private investigation I believe I have narrowed down the suspect list to who is responsible. That is not saying he took the children personally but had his people do it for him."


    "And who is this person?" Jack asked me, again I ignored him.


    "The problem is, we do not know exactly where this man is hiding. I had called a contact of mine in Europe to send someone to help us all. Unfortunately that man was not up to the challenge of living in modern day society and has unfortunately met a very abrupt ending."


    "Ending?" He quirked his eyebrow at me.


    "Rest assured, he was at least a few hundred years old and had lived a full life."


    "You expect me to believe that Reece?" Jack asked me, opting to use my first name as I was using his.


    "You''ll believe it soon enough." I smiled at him. "You see, the man in question was a vampire." Jack interrupted me with a loud, barkingugh.


    "Yeah, sure, a vampire." He continuedughing. "Can we move past the fairy tales and get to the real story?" He asked me.


    "I''m afraid this is not a fairy tale, Jack. This is all real. The Emissary that came to me this morning was indeed a vampire, but he has since perished. I killed him myself."


    "Are you a vampire hunter now?" He chuckled.


    "No Jack," I smiled at him with my canine teeth slightly extended on both the top and bottom. "I''m a werewolf." Jack exploded intoughter at that.


    "Right, a werewolf. Beware the full moons buddy." He wiped tears from his eyes that were caused from the uncontrobleughter.


    "He''s telling the truth." Noah told him. Jack looked between me and Noah and saw the teeth and the changes in our pupils that marked a partial change.


    "What the hell?" He jumped to his feet and backed against the wall, much like Otsana had. "What are you people? Stay away from me." He had genuine fear in his eyes now.


    "I need you to understand that we are not monsters, Jack. People like me live and work in the world, all around you. We''re here, among the humans. We do not cause problems. If someone does, we tend to take care of that person immediately."


    "But you''re monsters." He seemed frightened.


    "Jack." Otsana said standing up. "They''re not monsters." She walked over to the man at the wall and put a hand on his shoulder. "After all, if they''re monsters then so am I." She told him, causing him to look at her instead of me.


    "Rawlynne, you...you...you''re one of them?" He stumbled on his words momentarily before he could talk.


    "Yes, Jack I am. And I am not a monster am I?" She asked him, her canines elongated and her eyes shining.


    "No." He shook his head. "No you''re not." He was calming a little, just a little. "But, when?" He asked her,


    "What do you mean when?" Sheughed at him.


    "When did you be a werewolf?"


    "I was born one." She told him with a smile. "Werewolf doesn''t mean what hollywood has told you. We don''t change during a full moon, but whenever we want. The moon is like a symbol of power to us. We are not monsters or freaks. We are just people, like you, only a little special." She was soothing him. "You weren''t bitten?" She shook her head to answer him. "So, I can''t be turned out of spite or on ident?"


    "No Jack, though I have heard that there are ways to be one if a human truly wants to, but I don''t know the specifics of that."


    "I need to sit down." He allowed her to guide him to the couch where he copsed, seemingly spent from all the revtions.


    We spent the rest of the night telling him and Otsana what had happened that morning and about the impending visit from a high profile vampire. We managed to convince Jack that my pack and I were not enemies. All seemed to be well.


    When I returned home, I was exhausted. I went to my room to find my mate reading a book. She was tired and seemed sick which surprised me. Sheined of an upset stomach and feeling dizzy, but apparently food poisoning was not a possibility. There were few illnesses that could affect us wolves, so at first I was confused.


    That is, until I lifted her to carry her to the bed. That was when I noticed that her scent was different. I still smelled the ozone and apple pie, but there was now an underlying scent of cinnamon and oranges.


    The new scent was faint, but noticeable. And I knew right away what it meant. I had to fight to keep myself under control. Iid her gently on the bed and took off her slippers and jeans. I pulled the nket up around her and then climbed up next to her. "What exactly are you feeling?" I asked her to confirm, I couldn''t afford to be wrong here.


    "Well, since my meeting ended, I have basically been feeling sick to my stomach. That and bouts of dizziness are all I''ve been feeling. I know it''s nothing that I ate though because I didn''t have anything different than L all day. I even felt too sick to eat dinner. Goddess, aren''t I just worthless?" She seemed upset.


    "No." I told her firmly but she looked at me curiously.


    "Huh? You think me being sick isn''t weak and worthless?" "Not at all, because you''re not sick." I smiled.


    "What do you mean I''m not sick?"


    I leaned forward and pressed my face against her stomach and proceeded to take a long deep breath, inhaling her intoxicating scent while she stared at me like I was crazy. When I lifted my head I had the biggest grin ever, I had been right.


    "What? What is it Reece?" She looked worried but I just smiled at her. "Do you know what''s wrong with me?" I smiled more broadly and nodded my head.


    "Come on Reece, say something. Seriously, what''s gotten into you?"


    "Me? You shouldn''t be asking what''s gotten into me. What you should be asking is what''s gotten into you Little Bunny."


    "Alright, fine, be cryptic. I''m too sick and tired to figure it out right now."


    "But it''s so simple honey." I said sweetly


    "Fine, I''ll y along. What''s gotten into me Reece?"


    "I have." I grinned as she blushed bright red.


    "That''s hardly news." She snapped. "But that has nothing to do with this right now."


    "Oh, it does actually." I purred. "It exins everything."


    "What."


    "You see, Little Bunny, I''m what''s gotten into you, me and my pup." I watched her eyes fill with shock at my words.


    "I-I-I''m p-pregnant." She stuttered with little force to her words.


    "Yup." I wrapped my arms around her, hugging her tight. "I love you Trinity." "I''m pregnant." She said again with the faintest hint of joy.


    I''m going to be a father. I thought to myself. It was the best possible way I could think to end my tiring day.


    So much is happening. What do you think of David mating?

 Chapter 143 - Trinity- Shopping With Juniper (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 143 - Trinity- Shopping With Juniper (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The next day I was feeling a little better. Perhaps it was knowing what the cause was that made me feel slightly better. And, to top it off, ever since Reece had made me aware of the tiny life growing inside of me I could feel a sort of warmth emanating from inside. A sort of light inside of me that I just knew was the baby.


    I couldn''t help it, I was excited. I had to share the news. I knew just who to tell first. I didn''t want to just tell her outright though, I wanted to make it a surprise when she finds out.


    "Hey." Juniper''s voice was full of fun and excitement like always when I called her.


    "Hey Juniper, what are you doing today? Any ns?"


    "None whatsoever. Why? What do you have in mind?"


    "I want to go pick out a birthday present for L. I was wondering if you''d go with me."


    "Of course, I''m always down for a shopping trip."


    "Great, let''s have a little lunch first then go shopping."


    We went to a small cafe for a quick lunch. I knew I wouldn''t be very hungry when it came time to eat, but I still wanted to try. We sat and ordered our food, I chose a simple vegetable soup and BLT while Juniper ordered a lot more food than me, also moreplex food.


    "Why aren''t you getting more?" She asked me, confused.


    "I''m just not all that hungry."


    "You''re sick?" She looked at me worriedly.


    "No, just wedding jitters." I smiled through the lie hoping she wouldn''t call me out on it.


    "I can understand that. I remember my wedding, I was so scared and nervous."


    "Nervous doesn''t even begin to describe it."


    "You''ll be alright. You have all of us here for you." She smiled. "Paul and Cedar are so excited for the wedding too, though they won''t ever admit it to you." She was smiling happily. I knew I made the right choice toe out with her today.


    We continued to chat, talking about wedding ns and gossiping about what had happened in the pack recently. All in all it was a good lunch with my best friend. That is until my stomach flipped and I felt queasy.


    "Are you feeling ok?" She asked me, clearly suspicious again.


    "Yeah, I''m alright." She didn''t push the matter, I just hoped she wouldn''t get madter when she found out that I lied to her.


    After lunch we went to a nt nursery. I wanted to get something special for L''s birthday. I knew that she would love anything to do with gardening, something to add to the srium and garden outside. I wanted to get her some beautiful and rare flowers. I chose some rare breeds of roses and an array of orchids that would form a rainbow. L and I both had a fondness for orchids. I also got her some new gardening tools and supplies. I was certain that she would love all of it.


    I had other ns for the day as well. I asked Juniper toe with me to the mall, I knew they would have the things that I wanted there. I wanted a way to break the news to everyone. I knew it was a bit cliche but still, I wanted to do it.


    The first stop we made at the mall was to a custom printing shop. I picked out three baby onesies, two white and one green. I had the staff print something onto all of them. DADDY''S LITTLE PUP on the green one. I LOVE MY GRANDPA on one of the white ones. Andstly, I LOVE MY GREAT-GRANDPA on thest one. None of these would have given my secret away just yet, as I could have been buying them because Nikki was pregnant.


    Next I took Juniper to a jewelry store. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted. I browsed through the section with engravings and novelty sayings. I chose two nes that said GRANDMA inside of a beautifully designed heart surrounded by gemstones and diamonds, one for L and one for Aunt Eve. Again, this wouldn''t seem overly suspicious as Nikki could be giving these to her mother and Aunt Eve.


    I found two that said AN AUNT''S LOVE IS FOREVER. One was a ne, the other was a bracelet. The words were engraved in a heart surrounded but pink and blue gems as well as diamonds. They were lovely and would be perfect. I was totally ying up the cliche of the gifts a little but I didn''t care.


    "Hey, Juniper, which one do you think I should get?" I asked her.


    "Hmm." She said as she came to look at the bracelet and ne I was holding. "Well, personally I prefer the bracelet, but you''re not the type that wears bracelets so I say you should go with the ne."


    "That''s true, I personally would prefer the ne." I smiled at her, she knew me so well already. "What about Nikki? Which do you think she would prefer?"


    "I don''t know Nikki all that well. But I''m sure she would want you to wear what you''re mostfortable wearing."


    "What do you think she would like to wear?" I asked her as I tried to press the issue a little more.


    "Why would it matter what she would want to wear?" Juniper asked as she started to think. She then saw that I had already ced the bracelet on the counter to buy. That''s when her face exploded with excitement.


    "No." She breathed, her voice weak but filled with restrained excitement. "Trinity are you?" She asked me with a big grin on her face. I just smiled at her. "The onesies, I should have known when you bought the green one, but I was deluding myself. The grandma nes aren''t for Nikki''s mom and Eve, they''re for L and Eve, and the aunt ne is for Nikki, not you." She was grinning happily.


    "And you." I told her. "I''m getting the bracelet for you silly."


    "Me?" She seemed at a loss as her eyes teared up. "Why would you get that for me?" She was actually crying now.


    "Because you''re my best friend, and the closest thing to a sister I have ever had besides Nikki." I put my love for her into those words.


    "Oh, Trinity." She hugged me tight, sniffling just a little. "Just you wait, I''m going to be the best aunt ever. This kid is going to be so happy. And when I finally have a kid, they will grow up to be the best of friends. Wait until I tell Paul. He''s gonna be an Uncle and I''m gonna be an Aunt. Oh wait, is Cedar gonna be called Uncle Cedar?" She tilted her head in confusion at the end.


    "Yeah, if he wants to be. He''s like a brother to me too. He''s always protecting me anyway."


    "He will love that." She smiled while jumping for joy, holding my hands in hers.


    Suddenly, though, her face fell and she seemed worried.


    "But wait, what about your dress?" She asked me, worried about the wedding dress.


    "I''m getting married in three weeks. I don''t think it will affect the fit that much, but we can ask them to allow for a little extra maybe." I tried to calm her. "Though, if I keep getting queasy like I have since yesterday, then I will probably weigh less than I do now. I don''t think I have anything to worry about."


    "I''m gonna have to make sure you stay healthy and eat properly for the two of you."


    "Ok, now you''re starting to sound like you''re my mom or something. Just be my bestie, ok."


    "Nope, I''m gonna watch you like a hawk, someone has to protect you outside of scary situations. I''m not your guard, but I am personally invested in this now." She just smiled at me and hugged me again. "I''m so happy and excited for you Trinity."


    "Thanks Juniper." I hugged her back.


    "Oh, onest thing." She red at me, angrily. "How many people already know? I''m not thest to find out am I?" She was not really mad but she was clearly hoping to know before anyone else.


    "Juniper, I''m literally buying gifts for everyone to tell them. Do you really think that I told them already?"


    "Good point. But still, answer my question."


    "As far as I know, Reece is the only other person who knows, unless he''s told someone else already."


    "So, beside the father I''m the first to know?" She seemed ted. Iughed at how she worded it, it was actually pretty funny.


    "Well, actually Reece truly was the first to know."


    "What''s that supposed to mean?" She looked at me with confusion.


    "He''s the one that enlightened me. He noticed before I did."


    "Well, that''s usually how it happens though, isn''t it? The father can detect the scent change in the mother."


    "Yeah, I know, but it had never even crossed my mind that it was a possibility until he told me."


    "Girl, with the way you look at each other, we''ve all just been waiting for this news." Sheughed at me.


    "We''re not that bad, are we." That seemed to make herugh harder.


    "Seriously Trin, have you not noticed how obvious you two are around each other since you got back?"


    "No." I shook my head. "Are we awful?"


    "No, it''s really sweet and makes all of us happy for our Luna and Alpha."


    "God, I might just die of embarrassment now, if everyone knows that much about my sex life that is."


    "No one knows details, well besides me and the tidbits you''ve shared." She grinned. "But we can tell how much in love the two of you are, and everyone can tell you''ve definitely mated for real now."


    "No, Juniper." I covered my face in embarrassment.


    After my mortifying talk with Juniper, I got small gifts for Paul, Cedar, Carter and Noah as well. I just hoped Noah didn''t get too angry with Reece, he''s been super protective for thest few months.

 Chapter 144 - Trinity- Dinner With Lila And Grandfather (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 144 - Trinity- Dinner With L And Grandfather (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    When I got home from shopping I found Reece waiting for me in our room. He seemed like he was worried about me.


    "Where have you been?" He yelled at me.


    "I went to lunch with Juniper." I told him, not sure why he was so mad.


    "And who went with you?" He demanded.


    "Well, no one." I hung my head as I understood why he was so mad. "I only went to lunch and the mall really. I wasn''t in any danger, and I wanted to have a private conversation with Juniper."


    "Trinity!" He roared. "It''s too dangerous for you to be out and about on your own." His voice thundered as he stalked toward me. "You need to be more careful. Especially now." He ced his hand on my stomach and rubbed small circles.


    "I know Reece, I just didn''t want anyone to over hear us, that''s all." I felt ashamed. I had deliberately lied to and evaded my guards before I left. I knew he would be mad if he found out.


    "What was so damn important that no one could hear?" He asked me.


    I opened the shopping bags I had and showed him the gift I had bought for him as well. The one that said DADDY''S LITTLE PUP.


    "I was buying announcement gifts, and telling Juniper about the baby. She is my best friend. And I wasn''t really alone, she was with me. We could have handled things ourselves." His eyes got a little less angry when he saw the onesie I gave him. He was so excited to be a father, he had told me so many times the night before while holding me in his arms.


    "Look, I know that you''re happy, and this is an exciting time, but please don''t go anywhere without me or one of your guards, please." He was begging me now.


    "I can''t live my whole life in a protective bubble Reece. Eventually, I am going to have to live more."


    "Not if I have anything to say about it." He joked, pulling me into his arms. "I just worry about you so much, Little Bunny. I don''t want anything to happen to you or our baby."


    "I know Reece, and I promise that I will take someone with me next time."


    "I''d prefer it if you didn''t go anywhere." He added in a half joking half serious voice.


    "I''m not going to be a hermit or a prisoner again." I told him firmly.


    "You have no idea how dangerous it is out there right now, especially for you. If Edmond were to get his hands on you, there''s no telling what he will do."


    "And I have proven that I am not a weak little girl Reece. I''m not going to argue it with you. I am not going to be stuck here forever, end of discussion." I put my resolve and conviction into those words, making them ring with power and finality.


    Reece''s mouth closed with a snap and a gasp. He hadn''t expected my anger I''m guessing.


    "One day, I need to find out why you can give orders to people you shouldn''t be able to." He growled but smiled at me. "I would love to learn whatever tricks you seem to have."


    "I''m not doing anything Reece." I told him as he buried his face in my neck. "Now back off, now is not the time." I pushed him away making him whine like a puppy. Iughed at that.


    I decided we needed to change the subject and get things moving away from me, guards, and orders.


    "So, I want to have a special dinner with L and Grandfather soon." I smiled at him as I thought of my ns.


    "Why?" He asked me, perplexed by my suggestion.


    "They''re the next two I want to tell." I smiled at him, thinking about the reactions we were likely to get from them.


    "Not your aunt and uncle?"


    "I told my aunt about the wedding first, I think L and Grandfather will be happy they were next."


    "Why not tonight?" He smiled, he was obviously eager to spread the news too. "I can let Abigail know right now and you can call your grandfather."


    "Good idea." I started to grab my phone. "Oh, you didn''t tell anyone did you?" I red at him.


    "The only person I saw today was Noah, and if I told him he''d probably try to kill me. No sweetheart, that job falls to you." He smiled as he held his hands up as if to ward off the thought.


    "Good, I didn''t want anyone else to know yet.


    Grandfather had agreed to dinner tonight and L had no other ns as well. I decided that a nice dinner in the garden would be lovely. The flowers weren''t blooming yet, but it was still a beautiful night with a lovely view. Reece liked the idea as well, or said he did, so I went with it.


    I helped Peter set up the table once it was outside. The napkins, settings, even the candles all had to be special. I selected a wine for Reece and the others, I couldn''t have any for multiple reasons, but L and Grandfather would just think of my age as the only factor. The gold ted tableware, crystal sses, and beautiful tes were all set and looked exquisite.


    Tonight, Abigail had chosen to make a crown roast of pork with mushroom gravy, mushroom stuffed steaks, balsamic roasted chicken, roasted red skin potatoes, baked cheddar macaroni, asparagus, sweet carrots, and broli. Along with a beautiful garden sd and delicious looking vegetable soup with garlic bread to apany it. For dessert there was a delicious looking chocte cake.


    When we all sat down to eat my eyes popped. I had started eating more than I used to when I shifted, but with the queasiness I had been feeling, I didn''t think I could eat that much at all. I would definitely be sending the leftover food from this dinner to feed some of the other pack members.


    "So, what was so important that you wanted to throw this dinner party?" Grandfather asked.


    "I am quite curious as well." L looked excited while Grandfather looked confused.


    "Let us eat first and enjoy the food before it gets cold." Reece encouraged them with a grin.


    "You''re hiding something." L looked at him suspiciously, but was still smiling.


    "Who, me?" Reece tried to feign innocence.


    "Alright, fine, have it your way. We will eat then talk."


    The meal was delicious. I had a little bit of everything that was put on my te, but I couldn''t even eat half of it before I started feeling sick to my stomach again.


    "Is everything alright, Trinity?" Grandfather asked me, sounding as formal as always.


    "Just a little pre wedding nerves, that''s all." I smiled at him as I gave him the same excuse as I had given Juniper. It seemed to work just as well now as it did then.


    "No reason to be nervous, it''s just a wedding after all." Grandfather made it seem not so important. "What matters is that the two of you are together and happy." Alright, that redeemed him a little. He was right, as long as I was with Reece everything would be just fine.


    "You''re right Grandfather. As long as we have each other, everything will always work out."


    When we had finished dinner we were sipping coffee while eating our dessert, I was having tea instead of coffee. The atmosphere was nice and calm, but I could tell at a nce that L was eager to learn what they had been brought here for.


    "Trinity, Reece, can you please tell us what is going on now?" She finally asked when her patience ran out.


    "Go on, Little Bunny, better not keep her waiting any longer." Reece smiled at me. I nodded and looked between Grandfather and L.


    "Well, first, I have a gift for you L." I informed her as I reached beneath the table to get the two bags I had put there earlier.


    "It''s too early for birthday presents." L protested.


    "I have one for you too, Grandfather."


    "It''s definitely too soon for my birthday, that is not until June." He seemed tough at that.


    "These are not for birthdays." Reece told them.


    "Though I did order you a birthday gift that will be here soon." I smiled at L.


    "Trinity, you shouldn''t have." She smiled back, obviously feeling loved.


    I handed the gifts to them. L''s ne and the onesie for the baby to wear for Grandfather. With Grandfather''s strict way of behaving and formal speech, I didn''t expect him to excitedly dig into the gift bag like he did. He almost seemed a little childish as I watched him.


    Grandfather had his gift unwrapped before L had the box for her ne opened.


    "Is this because of Nikki?" He asked me. "It''s wonderful. I am certain that Noah and Nikki''s baby will look wonderful in this."


    "That''s adorable." L cooed as she pulled open the top of her box. "You''re very lucky Samuel." She said enviously looking at the onesie.


    When L looked at the ne she smiled, not reading it at first.


    "This is lovely dear. Thank you." She looked at it more closely and her eyes popped open wide. "Wait! Does this say what I think it does?" She looked between Reece and me repeatedly. "Oh my Goddess, oh my Goddess, oh my Goddess." She was fanning her face in all her excitement, her cheeks flushing bright red and a huge smile on her face.


    "What is it L? Is something the matter?" Grandfather seemed confused.


    "Take a look at this Samuel." She told him as she reached across the table to show him the ne with the word GRANDMA written beautifully in gold.


    "Grandma?" He was confused for a moment. "Why would L need a ne that says Grandma when Nikki is having a baby?"


    "Samuel you dunce." She yelled at him. "Trinity and Reece are going to have a baby as well." L was on her feet now and literally running over to me. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and squeezed me tight. "Trinity, oh you''ve made me so happy." She was nearly jumping with joy like Juniper had. She left me and ran to Reece next. "Reece, you finally did something right." She hugged him too. Grandfather was still trying to catch up with everything.


    "Is she telling the truth?" Grandfather looked at me. "Are you expecting as well, Trinity?" I nodded at him.


    "Yes Grandfather, I am." He smiled and his eyes misted over.


    "My dear Trinity." He got to his feet as well and I rose to meet him halfway. Grandfather put his arms around me and hugged me just like L had. "I am so happy for you, my dear." When Grandfather left me he too went to Reece next, his hand outstretched.


    "Congrattions my boy." He shook Reece''s hand firmly.


    "Thank you, Samuel." They smiled at each other happily. Everyone was happy that there was going to be a baby.

 Chapter 145 - Reece-Telling Little Bunny’s Family (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 145 - Reece-Telling Little Bunny¡¯s Family (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    My Little Bunny seemed to be happy with the newest development. That was good, as long as she kept herself safe from now on it would continue to be great. And telling Mom and Samuel about the baby went really well. I know it was a bit too soon, but miscarriages aren''tmon among wolves so we didn''t really have much to worry about anyway. I was just happy to continue making my Little Bunny happy.


    There was one thing I was not looking forward to though. And that was telling the rest of her family, specifically my beta. I had a feeling Noah was going to be very mad at me. Nheless I still made ns to see them with her the next day. I still had five days until the vampire showed up, and it was still exactly three weeks until the wedding so I was not pressed for time.


    David, with his new mate Otsana and the newly assimted Jackson McIan were still investigating until we found where Edmond was hiding. I just hoped the kids were not being treated like Trinity had when she was with the Warlocks. They were all so young that they would not be able to handle even a fraction of what she did.


    We decided it would be best to invite everyone over to our ce for the big secret reveal. Carter was due in the morning to give a report anyway so he would already be here. The rest of her family came right after lunch having opted to join us after we had all eaten.


    Things were going good. Everyone was catching up with Carter as he had been leaving town a lot due to his missions as a scout. Her Aunt and Uncle were happy to see him again. I noticed that Carter still looked slightly depressed about something though. I would have to talk to Trinity about thatter.


    Everyone was happily talking about the wedding, and Nikki''s pregnancy. All the changes that wereing for their family. It was nice to see such a close, happy family spending time together like this. I had mom back now, but for so long I had no one to spend time with like this. Yes I had my Great Uncle and cousin still in this pack. But my aunt and uncle had been among those killed in the same ambush that my father had died in. The same for my cousin Riley''s father. A lot of my family had died that day. And we all found out how my Great Uncle had raised my cousin to be. I literally had no one left really. Finding Trinity was actually the best thing that ever happened to me.


    We spent a good amount of time discussing the ns for our wedding. Trinity and Nikki gushed about the flowers that they had chosen and the color themes. I didn''t really get it but it made me happy to see her smiling so much. The talk finally moved on to the topic of our honeymoon. Everyone clearly expected us to have one, and I had already been nning something special for my little mate, dreaming of something secluded and romantic.


    "I don''t think it''s a good idea right now." My Little bunny shattered my dreams in one go.


    "What? Why?" NIkki asked her in shock, asking exactly what I nned on asking.


    "I don''t think it''s a good idea to go until things are settled. I wouldn''t feel right going until the children are all home." Her voice was sincere.


    "Are you sure, Trinity? You deserve to have a special time all for you."


    "I''m sure Reece. We can always go somewhere when this is all over, Then I won''t feel so guilty getting away."


    "You truly are a worthy Luna." Eve said. "You put the pack ahead of yourself, that shows that you care about the pack."


    "I''m proud of you Trinity." Wesley said.


    "You have a good point." Carter told her.


    "Very good, Trinity. I''m happy to follow you and Reece in this pack." Noah said with his voice full of emotions.


    After a little while longer, the conversation lulled and Nikki brought up what I was dreading.


    "So, what was the whole reason you all called us over? Don''t get me wrong, I''m happy to have time with all of us together, but there was something else, wasn''t there?"


    "Yes, there was." Little Bunny turned to look at me with a smile. I took her hand and squeezed it gently. "We have something to give to you all.


    I helped Trinity as she gathered all the gifts for her family. She had gotten onesies for the grandfathers, nes for the grandmothers, a ne for the aunt, and keychains that proimed they were owned by proud uncles. They were asked not to open them until everyone had their gifts. Once all of them were handed out they all proceeded to open their gift bags.


    I heard the shrieks of delighte from Eve and Nikki when they saw the items.


    "Oh my Goddess, does this mean what I think it does?" Eve asked.


    "Trinity, are you serious? Really? They''re going to be so close to each other."


    "My little girl?" Wesley cried out. Carter and Noah just stared at them in disbelief for a moment.


    Noah recovered first and red at me, his eyes full of a protective anger.


    "You son of a bitch!" He snarled at me. "You told me that you hadn''t knocked her up."


    "And at the time, I hadn''t." I tried to exin to him.


    "Don''t give me that bullshit. You lied to me." Noah rose to his feet still ring at me.


    "Calm down Noah." Carter stood and grabbed Noah''s shoulder.


    "Let go of me Carter." Noah growled at him.


    "No, Noah, you can''t do this." Carter growled right back at him.


    "Carter! She''s our baby cousin. She''s just a young girl. She''s too young for all this."


    "Noah!" Carter yelled at him. "You''re being too overprotective of her. She''s not a little girl anymore, she grew up just the same as we did." Carter tried to help Noah see reason.


    "Noah, Carter is right." Nikki told him. "This is just your protective instincts kicking in because you''re going to be a dad yourself. You need to calm down and be happy for her."


    I turned to look at my Little Bunny and saw sadness filling her face.


    "What''s the matter sweetheart?" I asked her, reaching out to hold her in my arms but she just slid away.


    "Noah, are you that upset about it? You''re not happy for me at all?" Her voice trembled as she spoke, tears threatened in the sound of her voice and in the look of her eyes.


    "Trinity." Noah''s anger deted immediately and was reced with heartbreak. "Don''t cry Trinity. I''m sorry. I am happy for you if you''re happy. I just don''t want him to hurt you again." Noah rushed over and hugged her loosely. "I''m really sorry." He said again.


    "He won''t hurt me anymore Noah. That''s why I want you to be happy for me." Emotions were still filling her voices causing it to tremble even more.


    "I will be. I am happy for you Trinity. I am always happy for you when you''re happy. I''m sorry I got mad. I just remembered how things used to be."


    "What does he mean, how things used to be?" Wesley asked.


    "Yeah, I want to know too." Carter backed up the question. My Little Bunny really hadn''t told anyone else.


    "When we first began our rtionship, I wasn''t always the nicest person to be around."


    "You were a dick to her." Noah snapped at me.


    "You''re right, I was. And you punched me in the face for that, remember."


    "Should have hit you harder." He mumbled the same words that he had said before.


    "But I learned my lesson, and I know that she is the love of my life. I will never treat her poorly again."


    "You''d better not." Wesley said firmly.


    "Or you''ll be dealing with all three of us." Carter added.


    "I''m d you''re all here to back her up, but it won''t be necessary. I love her with all my heart and soul."


    "Well, I say we''ve all had enough excitement for today." Eve tried to stop the arguing.


    "Trinity, I am so happy for you. We will talk more about thister, but for now I think we should all head home." Eve gave my mate a hug and started to drag the men away with Nikki''s help.


    "I will see you allter, I love you." My Little Bunny called after them with a look filled with love and sadness at the same time. I hugged her to me and held her close, letting her know how much I love her.


    "I will always be here for you, Little Bunny. You know that don''t you?"


    "I know." She settled herself against me, letting me hold her more tightly.


    That night, after everything calmed down and we were getting ready for bed, I had to deliver some heavy news to my mate.


    "So, we have a visitoring soon."


    "What kind of visitor?" She questioned me.


    "The man who sent the vampire emissary to see me the other day." She didn''t look happy.


    "Is he a vampire as well?"


    "Yes, he is."


    "Reece!" She snapped at me. "Wasn''t thest visit dangerous enough?"


    "It won''t be like that this time. This man has been an ally of my family for centuries. He didn''t know I had a mate and sent his best tracker to visit me. But, as you saw, Octavius didn''t have the greatest of attitudes."


    "That''s an understatement." She yelled at me.


    "I know sweetheart. But Dietrich is different."


    "How do you know that he is different?"


    "Well, for starters he''s been working with my family, me included, for a long time. And second, he''s the Vampire Emperor."


    "Reece!" She yelled my name again.


    "Trinity, I promise things will not go the same way again."


    "You better make sure there are plenty of guards here."


    "I will, I promise. I will even call David back, though he won''t be too happy about that."


    "Why won''t he be happy?" She asked me.


    "Oh, well, he found his mate recently."


    "WHAT!" She nearly shrieked the word. "When the hell did that happen?"


    "Oh, um, the same day as the vampire attack."


    "And you weren''t going to tell me?"


    "Hey, to be fair, there was even bigger news for us when I got back that night." I smiled at her. "I just spaced it out when I found out I was going to be a dad. I honestly just remembered it again."


    "Who is his mate anyway?" She wondered.


    "Oh, it''s Agent Otsana."


    ''The FBI agent?" Sheughed at that. "Well, she''s definitely someone who can bring out the true warrior in him. She continued tough. "I''m happy for him, things are really looking up for the pack right now."

 Chapter 146 - Trinity- Preparing For The Vampire’s Arrival (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 146 - Trinity- Preparing For The Vampire¡¯s Arrival (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    With all the excitement that was whirling around us, it seemed like time was moving so fast. With the news Reece gave me after my family visited I was left with more to contemte and a lot more to do.


    First there was congratting David and Agent Otsana on their mating, but that could wait. The more pressing issue was preparing for the visit from the Vampire Emperor. I didn''t even know such a person existed, or that Reece has been working with him for thest seven years.


    What was a vampire Emperor like? What did he want to discuss? Could we actually handle this visit with him? All these questions kept swirling in my mind for the four days that we had to prepare for this.


    I will say this though, I was learning a lot about vampires while I prepared for the visit. First, vampires could walk in the sun, well mostly. Freshly made vampires found it a little harder than the older one. But even those who had difficulty didn''t burn up or burst into mes, though I should have known that already because the vampire that attacked us had done so in the morning and he didn''t seem too fazed by the sun.


    The freshly made vampires would only find the sun ufortable, and perhaps a little draining. They would end up with something like a very bad sunburn if they were in the sun for just a few minutes. But as they got older and controlled their thirst more they were able to be in the sun with no issues.


    The older vampires that did have a problem with the sun were not the type you wanted around. Basically, they were the type of vampires who had truly lost their soul, or humanity. In a word, they were evil. They didn''t care about preserving peace, or protecting the humans at all. To them, humans were nothing but cattle or sheep. They were basically rogue vampires.


    The rogue vampires were able to trick you and walk in the sun if they had a special item they had obtained from either a warlock or a fae. These were magic items that glowed bright, blood red and helped to protect them from the sun''s harsh rays. They usually paid arge sum of money or threatened to harm the person they got the magic stones from.


    Another revtion about the vampires was that they would often eat regr meals, meals like we eat. They did this because it would provide a semnce of nutrients and power to them, nothing like blood though, and it helped them to blend in with people when living their daily lives.


    And as far as feedings went, most vampires either had someone or several someones that they had a pact with that would offer them blood in exchange for a slightly extended life. Blood giving was apparently painless and actually felt quite pleasant, or so I was told. And so these people who knew the truth of the vampires would donate to them in a mutually beneficial contract. Most of them worked for the vampires in another way though, like secretaries or assistants.


    Outright feeding on unsuspecting and unwilling humans was against vampirew. Your only options were mutual agreement, animals, or blood bags. If they were found breaking thesews then they were subjected to immediate termination.


    Vampires were also rare. Compared to us wolves who numbered in the hundred thousands worldwide, vampires might have totalled a few thousand. But vampires had their own set of skills that made them worthy foes, or allies.


    I had learned all these vampire facts from Grandfather, who had worked with Reece''s father and knew of Dietrich through his previous working situation, as well as the other elders. Their information shoulde in handy, I hope.


    By Sunday, we had almost gotten everything prepared. The room the vampire would be staying in was on the third floor. Reece thought it would be best to offer the vampire a room in our home. He was still free to stay somewhere else if he wanted. Reece had a room ready for him in the city as well. Abigail was prepared for the dinner party that we were going to have the night he arrived. And everyone had been fully briefed on all the info we had about vampires.


    All of my guards, and the FBI Agent Rawlynne Otsana were going to be present for the meeting. Apparently, her partner Jackson had just recently been made aware of ourmunity and didn''t feel quite up to meeting the vampire just yet. I hoped he would adjust soon enough.


    On the morning of the visit I came across David and Agent Otsana. They weren''t doing much other than walking toward the stairs to Reece''s office but it seemed like they were leaning toward each other and had happy doe eyed looks on their faces. I was so happy for David, I know he had thought he would be single forever, but he finally found his mate.


    "David." I called out to him.


    "Luna?" He turned and smiled at me. "What can I do for you?"


    "I just wanted to tell you and Agent Otsana congrattions. Reece told me the wonderful news." I smiled at them both.


    "Thank you Luna." He seemed truly happy in that moment.


    "Thank you, Mrs. Gray." Agent Otsana also smiled.


    "Well, I''m not Mrs. Gray yet." Iughed. "The wedding is just over two weeks away. I would love it if you apanied David as his date."


    "Oh, I couldn''t impose."


    "It won''t be an imposition. Honestly, with all the ambassadors from other packs and groups, plus our pack and those in our fealty and treaty packs there is going to be well over a thousand people, one more won''t make that much of a difference. Please, join us."


    "Really? Wow, that''s a big wedding." She smiled at me. "But thank you, I would be honored to be there."


    "Thank you Agent Otsana, I can''t wait for everyone to celebrate with us."


    "Please, call me Rawlynne, or Lynne, one of the two."


    "Thanks Rawlynne, and please call me Trinity."


    The conversation with them brought a smile to my face. I was so happy to see positive things going on in our lives. Now, time for the dreaded visit from the Vampire Emperor. Why do I have a feeling that things weren''t going to be so easy tonight?


    Despite everything I just held my head up high, put on a grin, and forced myself to persevere. I didn''t have the greatest of hopes, but at least I knew how to push through tough times. We could do it. After all, there was nothing Reece and I couldn''t do as long as we were together.

 Chapter 147 - Trinity- Dietrich’s Arrival Brings An Unexpected Twist (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 147 - Trinity- Dietrich¡¯s Arrival Brings An Unexpected Twist (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    My nerves were frayed most of the day. Between fine tuning all the details of the dinner for tonight, stressing over said dinner, feeling nauseous out of both nerves and baby housing, and trying to make sure that everyone that was supposed to be there was indeed there.


    Finally, it was a quarter to six and the vampire would be here at any moment. Reece and I were waiting, impatiently, in the front hall, waiting to wee our visitor. We were notified that the gate had let his car through so we were just waiting for him, and his driver, to make their way up to the house. Reece had his arm around mefortingly as we stood and waited. At longst, we heard the sound of the caring up the driveway.


    Reece opened the door and the two of us stepped outside with Noah, Vincent and David. Shane, Shawn, and Rawlynne were waiting for us inside. A sleek ck Mercedes-Maybach GLS600 drove up to the front of the house. Now I only know the make and model because Reece was trying to talk me into getting one so I could be driven around town like some kind of royal. It wasn''t going to happen.


    The driver parked the car and gracefully got out. I watched as she walked elegantly around the vehicle to the back passenger door. I could tell instantly that the woman was human, but she smelled a little off. She had a strong scent of musk that didn''t seem to be a perfume.


    The driver made it to the back door. Seeing the elegant and expensive carplete with a driver sitting in front of Reece''s castle-like house was like another blow to my psyche, the amount of wealth I was seeing now still blew my mind.


    The driver elegantly and gracefully opened the car door for the vampire. Once it was opened all the way, Dietrich stepped out of the SUV. I had only ever seen the one vampire before and he looked nothing like Dietrich. Dietrich was pale with dark hair and bright, light blue eyes. His face was handsome and angr, not a single wrinkle to be seen. He also seemed to be just a hair over six feet tall, shorter than Ree but still quite tall, especiallypared to me.


    From my estimates, Dietrich had stopped aging when he was close to Reece''s age, maybe a year or two older. He looked young and very attractive. Even having a mate of my own I was affected by his looks. I didn''t know if that was a vampire trait or not, but if it was it sure was a powerful one.


    "Wee Dietrich." Reece called out in a friendly voice. I knew he trusted this vampire more than thest one, but I still had my misgivings.


    "Reece, so good to finally meet you. I have not been back to the States in close to thirty years. Your father had not yet sired you then. I am grateful for the chance toe and see you all personally, though I do regret the cause for it." He smiled brightly and with a sincere warmth, perhaps Reece was right about the vampire.


    "Wee to our home." I spoke quietly and slightly reserved with my nervousness, but Dietrich paid it no mind at all.


    "Ahh, the new Luna. I am so sorry I did not know that your Alpha had taken a mate. Had I known we could have avoided a lot of this trouble." His smile faltered a little as he spoke, perhaps remembering what Reece had told him. "But may I say that you are a very lovely woman. Reece is a very lucky man."


    "I am indeed." Reece agreed, him and Dietrich smiled at each other. "Allow me to introduce my mate, and fiance, Trinity Whitton. Trinity, this is Lord Dietrich Conrad, Vampire Emperor and a close friend of my family."


    "It''s a pleasure to meet you." I smiled and nodded my head at him.


    "The pleasure is all mine, my dear. Allow me to congratte you on your uing nuptials."


    "Please, Lord Dietrich, I would be delighted if you stayed for the wedding."


    "There is no need to be so formal, Trinity, just call me Dietrich, and I most definitely would love to share in your most special of days." He was smiling so broadly that I was feeling ted just looking at him.


    "Also," Dietrich continued talking, "allow me to congratte the two of you on the uing addition to your family."


    "Addition?" I heard Vincent say questioningly.


    "I am sorry, did I say something I shouldn''t have?" Dietrich seemed saddened for a moment.


    "No, it''s no problem Dietrich, we just haven''t gotten around to telling all of the guards, with how busy things have been. David, Vincent, Trinity is expecting." Reece smoothed the slip up over. I saw the happiness and excitement alight in their eyes.


    "Congrattions Luna." Vincent told me immediately. David was smiling at me fondly.


    "Shall we head inside then?" I asked, feeling a little more rxed with Dietrich''s current attitude. I just hoped it kept going this well.


    Dietrich and his driver, having joined us up on the grand front porch, walked with us as we went back into the house. The others were waiting for us just on the other side. I immediately heard the gasp that came from Shawn''s direction as soon as we were inside.


    "What''s wrong Shawn?" I heard Shane whisper quietly to his brother but Shawn just shook his head looking in the direction of Dietrich and his driver. He seemed to be paying the driver very close attention, trying to figure something out.


    "Come on Dietrich, we''ve got dinner waiting for all of us." Reece turned to inform our guest, I turned as well to watch the exchange, however, Dietrich wasn''t there anymore.


    I turned my head again and saw Dietrich standing next to Shawn, who was still looking in the direction of the female driver that Dietrich had with him, a perplexed look on his face. The woman was slightly older, with dark brown hair fading into gray and unremarkable brown eyes. She wasn''t ugly, but she was not exactly pretty, just average I would say.


    "So we finally meet." Dietrich almost seemed to coo from beside Shawn. I watched as Shawn seemed to jump as he spun in confusion.


    "E-excuse me?" Shawn sounded scared and nervous.


    "I have been looking forward to meeting you since I saw youst week."


    "W-why would you be looking forward to meeting m-me?" Shawn''s shaky voice asked him.


    "Because, in all my years, I have never met someone so intune with my wavelength as you are, Shawn. Do you know what that means?" Shawn shook his head in denial. "But, you must have noticed it by now, right?" Dietrich seemed to be having a very good time as we all stood and watched him and Shawn talking in our spacious entryway.


    The foyer, with its bright lights and dark, panelled walls and dark wooden floor, was like a setting for a scene from a drama unfolding before us. The happy vampire and nervous wolf staring each other down. Beads of sweat were forming on Shawn''s forehead. His posture was rigid and defensive. Dietrich, theplete opposite of Shawn, was calm with a steady grin.


    "What should I have noticed?" Shawn looked around nervously, his eyes passing over his brother, Reece, me, and finally settling on the woman across the room.


    "Trust your senses, Shawn." Dietrich told him. "Close your eyes and follow your truest of all senses."


    "No, I shouldn''t." Shawn tried to refuse with his eyes back on the vampire.


    "Trust me, and just do it." Dietrich insisted, his calmness faltering for just a moment.


    "Just listen to him for a moment Shawn." Reece instructed. I saw the look of fear and dread on Shawn''s face as he gulped once then followed his orders.


    Shawn closed his eyes and tilted his head just a little. I noticed that Shawn and Dietrich were almost the exact same height. Both of them had such unique looks that it was like staring at something straight out of a movie, like two high profile actors filming a scene in my house.


    Shawn, with his eyes closed and head tilted back, inhaled deeply. I saw the re of his nostrils and he picked up whatever it was he was supposed to be sensing. His head tilted to the side on instinct trying to follow the scent trail.


    I saw the smile that settled on his face as he took in the smell. I didn''t smell anything particrly special at the moment, but we all sensed things differently. Clearly, Shawn could smell something intriguing and pleasant to him.


    "What do you smell Shawn?" Reece asked him. Shawn answered with his eyes still closed.


    "It smells like musk, cognac, and leather."


    "And what is this scent telling you?" Reece questioned him further.


    "The scent, and my wolf, are telling me that I''ve found my mate."


    "And where is that mate?" Reece asked. On instinct I looked at the driver for a moment before looking back toward Shawn.


    Shawn opened his eyes, staring at Dietrich, a look of pure shock on his face.


    "How?" Dietrich smiled at him, a look of pure joy.


    "I imagine it''s the same way as any other mating. Or am I wrong?"


    "But this is impossible." Shawn was shaking his head. "How can this be?"


    "In all my five hundred and twenty-eight years I have never found a mate. I have of course had my fair share of lovers over the years, but never have I felt anything like what I felt when I first saw you on that video call. I knew when you were bespelled by my words that you were the one for me."


    "But I''m a guy." Shawn protested.


    "Shawn, I''ve lived so long that people ceased to be male or female to me, people are just people. We all love and live do we not. I have no preference one way or the other. Do you truly not feel the same way?"


    "I''m not gay!" Shawn nearly shouted.


    "But, you''ve never had a rtionship either. You never seemed like you ever cared for any of the girls you tried dating." Shane revealed some of Shawn''s history to us all.


    "Shut up!" Shawn yelled at his brother. "I was just saving the best of me for my mate. Why go half ass on a rtionship that is going to end when I meet my mate?"


    "Are you opposed to me as your mate?" Dietrich asked him. "Do you not wish to have who the Goddess chose for you?"


    "I, that''s not, it''s just that, I don''t-." Shawn seemed incapable of finishing a coherent thought. He took a deep breath and settled his nerves. "I just don''t know."


    "I understand that you''re confused." Dietrich leaned in close to Shawn and ced a hand on his cheek. "But we can work it out together. After all, fate has drawn us to each other." Shawn froze in ce, an uncertain look on his face, but he didn''t pull away.


    "I think this is wonderful news." I tried to break the tension and provide my support for him. "This is a time to celebrate. Two new matings with the people so close to me." I smiled at Shawn as he and Dietrich looked toward me and Reece.


    "Indeed, it is a joyous and wonderful day. You should be happy Shawn." Reece smiled at them as he offered his encouragement.


    "But...but...but-." Shawn spluttered.


    "Come on, let''s get to dinner. You can sit next to me." Dietrich wrapped an arm around Shawn''s shoulders and dragged him toward the dining room and the smell of food. I notice Shane grinning at his brother as they walked away.


    I stalked over to Shane and growled at him in a low voice.


    "Don''t you dare give him hell about this. He needs to ept it and understand it without you making it worse."


    "Yes Luna." His head snapped up and he looked like he was afraid of me.

 Chapter 148 - Reece-The Meeting (VOLUME 2)((*LONG CHAPTER*))

    <h4>Chapter 148 - Reece-The Meeting (VOLUME 2)((*LONG CHAPTER*))</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I never expected that Dietrich would mate with Shawn right after he got here. That was unexpected, and frankly quite surprising, but mates were beyond our choosing. There is someone out there for everyone, and the Goddess chose Dietrich to be Shawn''s mate. But how fortunate they would finally get a chance to meet, otherwise they would have been mateless forever. So I guess it was a good thing that I killed Octavius after all.


    The dinner started with no other incidents or surprises. Dietrich sat in the spot to my right facing Trinity. Shawn was sitting next to the vampire with a scared and confused look on his face. Agent Otsana joined us at the table as part of the meeting and sat across from Shawn. An extra setting had to be ced to amodate Shawn who was supposed to be guarding and not eating. Shane, Vincent, David, and Noah were all stationed at the four corners of the room, keeping watch.


    Abigail and Peter brought the meal in, extravagant and decadent foods that were both domestic and European. A vintage red wine was paired with the meal for us, well everyone except Little Bunny, she had cran-raspberry juice, it was both delicious and healthy ording to her.


    Before we actually started eating there was something that I wanted to say, to clear everything up for those who had not been outside.


    "There are a few people at this table that still do not know about the news from the Luna and I." I said in a loud, clear voice. "Dietrich was able to discern immediately that the Luna and I are expecting a child together. She has yet to visit with a pack doctor, but I would like to spread the news the rest of the way. Shane, Shawn, Agent Otsana, you were not outside when the others found out."


    "That is excellent news." Shane immediately dered.


    "I am happy for you and your Alpha." Agent Otsana congratted Trinity. The guards were looking truly happy, and even Shawn was looking a little less nervous as he spoke.


    "Congrattions, Luna, that is wonderful news for you and the entire pack."


    "Thank you everyone." My Little Bunny was a little shy at having them all stare at her, but there was no hiding that smile on her face.


    "Now, let us eat. We may talk business now or after, that is up to you Dietrich." I smiled at those assembled around me.


    "I wouldn''t mind a friendly chat while we eat. But we can hold off on the major issues until after the meal." Dietrich indicated his preference.


    "That sounds perfect. Please, enjoy your meal everyone."


    We ate our food, talking about the uing wedding. There were discussions of the baby. And, not surprisingly, Dietrich wanted to know more about Shawn, Shane was all too happy to provide those details from his corner.


    "Dietrich, how did you know that I am pregnant?" Little Bunny asked him shortly after we started eating.


    "I may not have the same senses as a wolf, and I have never smelled you before so I would not have been able to detect it from that alone. However, as a vampire, I have the ability to sense life. And when I looked at you I saw not just one life essence, but two."


    "Does that mean you would know if someone were having multiples." Agent Otsana asked in a joking tone of voice.


    "I admit, I do not know. It has not happened yet as far as I know. I am not often around pregnant women. If the few that I have encountered personally in thest five hundred years did indeed have multiples I have no way of knowing."


    "Hmm. Sounds like it would be interesting to find out, you know." Otsana added with a curious smile.


    "Are you nning on multiples?" David asked with a hint of shock and fear from across the room.


    "Goddess no!" Otsana eximed. "I''m stilling to terms with having mated with you, don''t go and bring kids into this too soon." David visibly rxed at those words at which point we all startedughing at the rtively new couple.


    "That''s one thing you won''t have to worry about." Dietrich joked with Shawn as he gave him a heated look. "We''ve got built-in birth control." Shawn blushed crimson at those words, his mouth hanging open in utter shock with Shane nearly copsed to the floorughing.


    "So, Shawn, your brother said that you have not had many rtionships and that they didn''tst long, does that mean that you''re innocent?" Those words from Dietrich darkened Shawn''s blush.


    "I-I-I-I-I-." Shawn spluttered uncontrobly, not able to answer.


    "Shawn are you?" Shane shouted.


    "Shut up!" Shawn yelled at his brother. "My personal life is none of your business."


    "I''m sorry." Dietrich gave him a soft expression. "I should not have asked that. It was too personal. Forgive me."


    "No, it wasn''t you." Shawn backpedaled. "I was yelling at my brother. He''s just an asshole."


    "So, you''re not angry with me?" Dietrich leaned into him again, a sly smile on his face.


    "Uh, well, I, it''s not, you''re my, we''re, no I''m not." Shawn finally got to his answer. "I''m not mad." He said again.


    "Good, I''m d. We can save the personal talk until we''re alone."


    "Alone!?" Shawn practically yelled in a squeaky voice.


    "Yes, I am so looking forward to getting to know you, all about you and the life you''ve lived.


    Once dinner was over, and Shawn''s face was back to a normal color, we moved from the dining room to the office to discuss business. Once again, Dietrich wrapped his arm around Shawn''s shoulders and pulled him along with him to the office as he followed the others. Once in the office, Dietrich sat on the love seat, sitting close to Shawn as he had pulled him right along with him. I could tell Shawn was apprehensive, but he didn''t seem quite as nervous as he was downstairs.


    Otsana sat in one of the armchairs opposite the Vampire and Shawn, I pulled Little Bunny onto myp in the other armchair. The rest of the guards stood around the room just like before. Despite thefortable seating arrangements, for everyone except Shawn that is, we were about to discuss very ufortable topics.


    "So, Reece, there is much we need to discuss. First, will you give me the full story, with full details, about what happened when my emissary arrived?" Dietrich didn''t look angry, he was sitting next to Shawn with a content smile on his face and a hand restingzily on Shawn''s arm. Again Shawn looked slightly uneasy but not as much as before, and still he didn''t pull away. Between Vincent, the twins, and Little Bunny, they were able to ry all of the information easily. But there was one little problem with the exnation.


    Dietrich shot to his feet at the words that Shane had just shared.


    "WHAT!" The anger and rage was clear in his voice. "Octavius was further gone than I thought then." Rage was still pouring off of him.


    "Is there something wrong?" I asked him. Shane had just told him about Octavius attacking and slicing open Shawns shoulder.


    "There very well could have been. One of the abilities that Octavius had, aside from being very skilled in tracking through special means, he could control those he gets the blood of. If he were to have licked your blood off of his fingers, you would have been like a puppet to him. To think he would not only attack but use that forbidden technique on our allies. It''s absurd. He used to be a loyal and dutiful soldier of mine. What could have happened to him?" By the time he was done talking, the anger was ebbing away from Dietrich''s face, being reced by sadness.


    "I wonder, Dietrich, but could he have been turning?" Little Bunny asked him, drawing his attention to her.


    "Turning?" Dietrich was shocked by her question. "Do you mean that he might have been losing his humanity? I never would have thought it, but listening to the way he was behaving, I honestly do not know."


    "Well, I only ask because of the things I noticed that day. First, he had a scent that was old and decayed, like dust and dirt, and the mildew smell of old damp leaves. All things that were dead and lifeless. Also, when he died, the blood that came from him was almost ck. It was such a dark red color that to say it was anything other than ck would nearly be a lie."


    "Meine Goettin." He slipped and spoke in German for a moment, My Goddess was what he said. "He was close to bing dark. He was losing all hope for his humanity, his soul was leaving his body and making him into the type of monster that you see in the movies."


    "What would cause something like that?" Shawn asked him, worry clear on his face.


    "Many things can be attributed to it. It would all depend on the type of person they were when still human, how they lived their lives as a vampire, whether they have someone around them to keep them grounded, andstly their view of humans. Honestly, Reece, I am so very sorry I did not see it sooner. And I truly must thank you for doing what must be done when a vampire changes like that. It is a job I would have had to do myself if you had not."


    The mood in the room had dropped dramatically. None of us, aside from my little mate, had suspected that the vampire was losing his humanity. It wasn''t something that I thought about all that often, alright, I never would have.


    "How were you able to figure that out?" Shane asked her. "I didn''t notice anything different with his scent. Nothing that indicated death and decay."


    "I believe it is because your Luna is quite the special one." Dietrich smiled at her.


    "Special how?" Trinity looked ufortable as she asked.


    "I think you already know a little about that, don''t you Trinity." Her eyes went wide at his words. "I believe you are not just a normal Luna, am I right? You are special, different, than the others."


    "How can you tell?" I demanded. I needed to keep my mate safe, I knew he wasn''t a threat, but others might be able to sense her specialness if he could.


    "Just as I can sense the life force of people, I can also sense the level of their life force."


    "What do you mean? How can you sense the level of someone''s life force? What does that even mean?" Shawn asked Dietrich. Shawn didn''t seem very nervous at all anymore as he was talking with the man next to him so easily.


    "Every person has a lifeforce. Even vampires have a life force, but reading a vampire is different than reading a human or a wolf. The same goes for all the supernatural beings. Fae, witches and warlocks, the other shifters and even the lessmon types like daemon, djinn, spirits, merfolk. It doesn''t matter what the type is, if they''re alive they have a life force, essence, inside of them and I can read that essence like it''s an aura. I don''t often pay attention to it unless I am meeting new people, but it is a handy skill to have sometimes. I just wish I would have seen Octavius in person before sending him your way, I would have known his essence was changed."


    "And what exactly is different about my essence?" Little Bunny asked him nervously.


    "Well, Trinity, I see the wolf essence in you, strong and powerful." He smiled at her and she nodded. "I can see the essence of a powerful witch, but one as of yet untrained." Shock flitted across her face now as she listened to him more. "And there is another essence, one that is stronger, more powerful than the other two, but it is still awakening. But when it is fully awakened, it will be quite powerful indeed. This third essence will be the one to rule your aura, it is who you were meant to be all along."


    "But what is it?" Little Bunny pleaded with him to know.


    "I wish I could tell you. But know this my dear, in all my five centuries and more of life I have never seen an essence quite like this one."


    "Is that a bad thing?" I asked him as it looked like Little Bunny couldn''t talk anymore.


    "Not at all. I sense that this essence is great and powerful, wise and fair, strong and determined, it is full of nothing but positives."


    "When, and how, will I find out what it is?" There was fear in my mate''s eyes that looked like it would be permanent.


    "I do not know the answer to that, I am sorry. But I am willing to help you figure this out if I can."


    "We would appreciate that, Dietrich, thank you." I offered him my sincere gratitude.


    It seemed that everyone in the room was at a momentary loss for words as everyone looked slowly around at each other. Trying to figure out the meaning behind Dietrich''s words would take us a long time, I was sure. But for now, it was time to move onto the most important subject. The whole reason why Dietrich was here.


    "Dietrich, we need your help, same as we needed the help when the emissary wasing here. We need to find the leader of a certain coven of Warlocks and Witches."


    "Yes, I know that you mentioned that before, but you didn''t tell me who it was you were looking for. Nor did you tell me the reason why." I could see the seriousness sharpen the look in Dietrich''s eyes.


    "We need to find the High Warlock of the Sacramentum de Mortis." Dietrich''s eyes went wide with shock.


    "Why on earth are you looking for Gannon? He is a terrible man with terrible ideals."


    "We''ve noticed." Little Bunny quipped sarcastically.


    "Trinity, you must stay away from that man, if he learns you have the blood of a witch, he will most definitely try to make you one of his."


    "He already tried." I stated tly. "He took her back in January and held her for a little over two days."


    "How did you ever find him then?"


    "He tracked me through our mate marks." Dietrich''s eyes red at the plural use of that word, I''m certain we will be talking about that at some point.


    "You are lucky to have escaped. Gannon is a ruthless, ruthless man. He is not even against experimenting on and torturing his own children."


    "Oh, I know that first hand, I experienced said torture."


    "Wait, Trinity, are you telling me that Gannon is-."


    "Yes, Gannon Cornelius Edmond is my father." Trinity interrupted Dietrich, causing him to gasp at her words. "Mind you, I didn''t know who he was until I woke up in the cer of his torture house. He and four other warlocks tortured me both with and without magic."


    "You''re very lucky to be alive. Having your wolf is most likely what saved you."


    "I didn''t even have a wolf until after he kidnapped me. I had never changed until then. It happened literally at the stroke of midnight."


    "That''s a powerful time." Dietrich smiled.


    "Yeah, well, to make it worse it was the stroke of midnight ringing in my birthday." Dietrich gasped, his jaw hanging open for just a moment before he snapped it shut and continued to speak.


    "Trinity, how old are you now?" Dietrich''s voice was filled with awe.


    "Ninteen, why?"


    "I knew it."


    "Knew what?" I demanded of him.


    "The number neen, while having so many important signifiers in numerology, is a number very prominent for the moon goddess. As you know there are several Gods and Goddesses that we supernaturals worship, a different one for each of us. Shifters, of all types, worship the Celtic Goddess Nehalennia. She was said to have a fondness for the number neen and would have that number around her in some way. Neen pieces of fruit in her basket, neen wolves following her. Whatever the reason, neen is indeed a number to be associated with your moon goddess. And that you would wait to have your shift until you were neen means that you are destined to be special. Goddess touched as they might say."


    Noah and I both looked at my Little Bunny, identical looks of worry on our faces. Dietrich was not the only person to say that Trinity was marked by the Goddess.


    "Rest assured, Reece, I will make sure I help you find Gannon, no matter what."


    "Good, then we will be able to rescue the children."


    "What children?"


    "Edmond orchestrated the kidnapping of eight children from the city, three of them cubs from the pack." Otsana told him, finally adding something to the conversation after watching onpletely enraptured by everything being said.


    "Only eight? You''re sure."


    "Only eight from here, we haven''t been informed of any others yet." I told him.


    "Though I have a feeling he wants, or needs, four more before he can do whatever it is he has nned." Little Bunny told the whole room.


    "I believe you are right, Trinity." Dietrich frowned, a line of worry and anger between his brow, it was the first wrinkle I had seen appear on his face. "We truly must work hard to find them. I will not leave until I help you bring those children home."

 Chapter 149 - Both- Emmalee And Bryce Arrive (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 149 - Both- Emmalee And Bryce Arrive (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Dietrich decided to settle in at the estate. He said it was so he could talk to us about the case easier, but I know it was so he could be closer to Shawn, who would be working in the house most days. He also nned to help me find someone who would help me to develop my magic. I had to admit, having Dietrich around would be pretty nice. And I think Shawn wille around to having his new mate, eventually.


    The day after Dietrich''s arrival, there was a surprise visit from myst wedding nning crew member, and her parents of course. It was just after lunch that our newest visitors had arrived. We weren''t expecting them, and somehow they managed to get all the way to our door without so much as a phone call from the guards. I had a feeling Noah had a hand in it, as he was conveniently absent today for an appointment with Nikki with the pack doctors.


    Noah was due backter this afternoon with Carter, the tailor wasing to measure everyone, except Riley, for their suits for the wedding. Uncle Wesley and Grandfather would be here as well. And Vincent would already be here on guard duty. Everything would work out well.


    But, then Emmalee showed up with Bryce and Bree. I was happy to see Emmalee. I knew she would be a valuable asset for nning the wedding, and I was genuinely grateful to have her around. When Reece and I went to the hall to answer the door, I had never expected the blonde bundle of energy to explode into the room.


    "Trinity!" Emmalee ran to me as soon as the door was open, before we even had a chance to wee the guests to our home. "I''m so happy for you." She threw her arms around me, excitement and true happiness showing on her face.


    "Emmalee, it''s great to see you." I hugged her back.


    "Emmalee, give the woman a chance to breathe." Bryce scolded her from the doorway. "I''m sorry Reece, my boy, I never can control that girl."


    "No worries Bryce, it''s fine. To what do we owe for the surprise visit today?" Reece asked with a smile.


    "I have some personal business to discuss with you. If I may borrow some of your time for a little while."


    "Yeah, no problem. Should we discuss things in my office then?"


    "No, I would prefer to talk outside if that is alright with you."


    "Ok." Reece seemed confused but agreed.


    "Emmalee, Bree, would the two of you like to join me in the living room. I can get some refreshments and we can catch up."


    "Yes, oh Goddess, I need to hear details about the proposal and the wedding." Emmalee linked her arm around mine and started off into the house. "Let''s have some champagne to celebrate."


    "Emmalee!"


    "No!" Bryce and Reece yelled out at the same time making Emmalee stop in ce.


    "Emmalee Jade Evans, you are not using Trinity as an excuse to drink, not afterst time." Emmalee hung her head.


    "Trinity and you are both underage anyway." Reece didn''t say anything else.


    "Come on you old fuddies. It''s not like we''re humans, a little celebration is nothing to fear."


    "No, Emmalee, I can''t drink." I informed her.


    "Don''t let those boring boys staunch your fun Trinity."


    "It''s not that Emmalee, I can''t." I smiled at her but she still didn''t get it, but it seemed someone else did.


    "Oh, congrattions Trinity." Bree cooed.


    "Reece, boy, you dog." Bryce smiled. "Congrats. Hopefully you have better luck than I did." Heughed and Reece grinned his goofy grin again.


    "What are you talking about?" Emmalee asked us all.


    "Are you kidding me?" Bryce looked at his daughter in exasperation.


    "Emmalee, Trinity is pregnant, so she can''t drink alcohol." Bree told her.


    I watched as Emmalee''s eyes got bigger and bigger, until eventually they looked like giant green orbs floating in the middle of her beautiful face.


    "EEeeeee!" She squealed, long and loud. "Trinity!" She yelled and she hugged me again. "Congrattions."


    "Thank you Emmalee. Now, let''s go so the boys can have their y time." I joked as I turned and winked at Reece. "See youter." I told him yfully. I heard a low growl answer me before I left the foyer entirely.


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I went outside with Bryce as soon as the women left the hall. I let the older man lead the way and followed as he went toward therge, burnt orange colored SUV. He seemed to be heading toward the cargo area. When he was almost there he pressed a button on his key fob that caused the gate to lift automatically.


    "So what is so important out here Bryce?" I asked him.


    "I have an early wedding gift for you." He smirked at the words.


    "You could have waited to give me any gift until the wedding, it''s not that long of a wait you know. And shouldn''t Trinity be here then?"


    "No, this gift you have to open yourself with no one else around." I tilted my head in confusion, looking at him with a new found curiosity.


    "Alright, I''m intrigued. What is it?"


    "You need to open it." He said pointing at a medium sized square box, maybe a little over a foot in length. The box was wrapped in ck paper with a gaudy red bow.


    I stepped closer to the SUV''s cargo bay and looked at the box with suspicion and anticipation at the same time. I reached my hands out slowly and grabbed the lid before looking back at Brye onest time. He had a bright, excited smile on his face. I didn''t think he was out to trick me or betray me, but I didn''t understand his look at all.


    With slow movements, I finally lifted the lid off of the gift. Once the lid was no longer sitting atop the box, all four sides fell down as if they were ps. The sides dropping revealed what was inside the box, but before I even saw what it was, the sharp scent of blood hit my nose with such intensity that it nearly made me sick.


    The bottom of the box was lined in stic with a cloth sitting in the middle so soaked in blood it was ck. And resting atop that cloth was a head. Not just any head though, it was Stanley, the leader of the ck Moon pack''s head.


    "Bryce?" I spoke in a questioning tone.


    "I promised you that I would tell you if I came across him before you, didn''t I?" Bryce was grinning proudly. "Well, I figured you were busy with the wedding, and the case that you''ve been tracking down, and now an uing baby too I guess. I thought I would work extra hard to track him down. We found him two days ago and I took the liberty of preparing this gift and arranging this visit. Your beta was helpful in helping me to surprise you, though he thought I just wanted to surprise Trinity with a visit from Emmalee." The old man was positively beaming as he spoke.


    "Sorry I took the joy of killing him, but he did cause a lot of trouble on mynds." Bryce was looking a little upset now, like he thought I was mad.? I was a little surprised when I first saw the man''s head sitting before me, but when I realized who he was all I could do was grin.


    "He finally got what he deserved." I told the older man.


    "That he did, asshole probably deserved worse though, really."


    "You''re not kidding. He was always trying to poach mynds." Iughed with him good naturedly.


    "Speaking ofnds, what should we do with his? Didn''t he have some sort of treaty with you?"


    "No, he wouldn''t sign with anyone, or rather no one was willing to sign with him."


    "Do you have someone in mind that would make a good alpha?"


    "I have a man or two in mind." I told him. "What about you?"


    "There might be a couple that would do a decent job, but I have been grooming my son to be my sessor and he would be the most qualified. I can''t send my son to run a different pack."


    "We can discuss this a little moreter, once we''re inside. I can hear a car approaching."


    "Yeah, I hear it too boy."


    "One more thing, Bryce, where are you staying for tonight? We can prepare rooms for you if you''d like."


    "That''d be great." He smiled at me before the car that carried Noah and Carter got back.


    When the men parked and got out, the four of us went back inside the house. Stanley''s head was closed back up inside the box, and when thedies were not around we would dispose of it. We were walking toward the living room, Bryce and me in the lead, Noah and Carter bringing up the rear, when I heard a shout from up ahead.


    "Oh Goddess! He''s here." Emmalee shouted.


    I saw her bolt to her feet and start running toward us as soon as we all entered the room. I thought she might have been running to her father, but she just ran past him, past all of us except Carter. She ran straight at him and literally tackled him to the floor.


    "You''re not getting away this time." She was pinning him to the ground byying across him.


    "EMMALEE!" Bryce and Bree both screamed.


    "Carter are you alright?" Trinity asked.


    "What the?" Noah gasped. I just stared in fascination. I think I finally figured out why Carter has been so downtely.


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was standing there in total shock. The minute Reece came into the room with Bryce and my cousins, Emmalee bolted to her feet and tackled Carter to the ground. I easily guessed why though. It was obvious that Carter was the mate she mentioned back in January. And Emmalee was the daughter of the Alpha and mate that Carter mentioned to me in December. They had never met face to face, only smelled each other''s scents.


    Carter was on a scouting mission and left the minute he smelled Emmalee in that pack, knowing she would seek him out and blow his cover. Emmalee, having smelled Carter, searched for him frantically, only to break down into tears when she couldn''t find him. They never thought that they would ever find each other again.


    "Emmalee, what are you doing?" Bryce demanded.


    "Emmalee?" Carter said in a soft voice filled with awe. He and Emmalee were staring at each other''s eyes intently.


    "It''s alright Bryce, I think we should just watch for now." Reece smiled knowingly and Bryce stared on in confusion.


    "Why did you run away from me?" Emmalee seemed to be on the verge of tears.


    "I had no choice. I couldn''t be found out."


    "What''s he talking about?" Bryce asked Reece.


    "When the Warlocks were after Trinity, I knew that other packs were part of it, so I sent scouts." I expected Bryce to be mad, but he just smiled.


    "Exactly what I would have done. Smart boy."


    "I don''t care that you could have been found out. I thought my mate didn''t want me. I thought you looked at me and ran away."


    "I never even got the chance to speak to you. But I saw you, and I wanted you." Carter turned his head to look away from her in embarrassment. "I have been wondering if I''d ever get the chance to make it right. I knew that if I went back to the pack and talked to everyone then they would know that I was a spy. I thought you would hate me too, for being a spy."


    "You were following orders, and we had nothing to hide. I don''t know why you were investigating us, but I know our packs are allies now." Emmalee was smiling, but Carter was still looking upset.


    "I just thought I blew it before I had a chance to meet you as myself."


    "Who are you? Why are you here? What''s your name?" Emmalee bombarded him with questions.


    "My name is Carter, and I am Trinity''s cousin."


    "So you mean Trinity and I are going to be rted now?" She eximed excitedly.


    "Does that mean you forgive me for running?" Carter asked her nervously.


    "Not yet, but eventually." She joked with him as she smiled radiantly.


    "Emmalee, get off the boy and let him breathe for crying out loud." Emmalee finally stood up and let him stand. When he was back on his feet she grabbed his hand and pulled him along with her. "Mom, Dad, this is the mate I was telling you about before."


    "So, Reece, it looks like our packs were already bound together before you came to me for help." Bryceughed. "It''s good to meet you Carter." He smiled and shook hands with the man his daughter had just tackled to the floor.


    "Thank you sir, it''s good to meet you as well." Carter nervously shook the older man''s hand as I watched on, smiling happily knowing that he could finally be happy.

 Chapter 150 - Trinity- Dresses (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 150 - Trinity- Dresses (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Emmalee decided she wanted to stay until the wedding so she stayed at the house while her parents went home. They woulde back the night before with their other children in tow. Emmalee wanted to be a part of the wedding nning as much as possible and that just wasn''t easy if she was still back at the ck Canyons. So, now we had two house guests and probably a lot more visits from Carter while she was here. Carter did seem truly happy when things between him and Emmalee were finally settled.


    After about a week of Emmalee being at the house we had everything nearly done with the nning. It turns out that a lot of women in the pack wanted to help with the wedding in at least a small way, so it was decided that anyone who wanted to cook could prepare a dish for the wedding to reduce the strain on any caterers. There was going to be a lot of food that they brought.


    Three days before the wedding, E came to the house to deliver the dresses. Emmalee, Juniper, and Nikki were extremely excited to see my wedding dress. Aunt Eve and L were there as well, but with a more level head and better contained excitement.


    It was just before sunset that E arrived, the tension and excitement for having to wait was very thick in the air. Reece wasn''t home at the moment, but we didn''t want him seeing the dress until the day of the wedding, so we had E escorted to my bedroom. The group of us were waiting in the sitting area when she walked in. I rose to my feet to greet her.


    "E, it''s so good to see you again." I smiled at her as I walked over and gave her a gentle hug. I had seen her quite a few times with all the fittings and I had nowe to view her as a friend.


    "Trinity." She squeezed me back with one hand, the dresses held in the other. "I finally got it to look the way I wanted, I hope you like it." She seemed nervous.


    "I''m sure it will look great, E. I saw some of the sketches after all."


    We took my dress to the bathroom to change, E hade with me to show me how all the fastenings and extras were supposed to go. She was used to helping her clients try on dresses so she wasn''t embarrassed but I sure was. I know a lot of women in the packck that kind of modesty but I don''t think I would ever lose it. I got embarrassed way too easily.


    E hung the dress up as soon as we were in the bathroom. She unzipped the ck protective bag that it was in, slowly revealing the beautiful dress. The first thing I noticed was the two different shades of blue, persian blue and maya blue, thetter was a lighter, paler blue and was the primary color. The darker blue was the ent color.


    There were metal and gemstone decorations covering the dress at various spots. E had used the three moon symbol when designing the dress, two crescent moons on either side of a full moon, the crescent moons were facing away from the full moon so that the crescents were opposite of each other. The three moon symbols were made out of metal that was persian blue as were other decorative ents.


    At each of the shoulders there was a three moon symbol and little leaves and vines made of metal. Chains connected the decorative metal to the bodice of the dress. And connected to the shoulders of the dress were sleeves made out of the same maya blue fabric as the dress. Dangling from the metal work of the shoulders were short, thin chains that ended in what looked like tear shaped sapphires. The color made me think of raindrops instead of tears.


    The top bodice of the dress had an intricate set of swirl designs made of the same metal as the shoulders. There was arge gemstone in the center of the designs that looked just like a full moon. On top of that full moon gemstone were two crescent moon shapes that were made of the same gemstones. A loop of cloth connected those crescent moons and would be what went around my neck to hold the dress up.


    The dress was done in almost a V-Waist design, but with less enting with fabric. The V of the waist was ented instead by a belt made out of the same three moon symbols in the persian blue color. There were thin chains hanging from the belt as well. Near the hips they were shorter, but the closer to the middle they went the longer they were. The longest chain would hang to about mid thigh. Each chain once again ended in a tear shaped sapphire.


    The dress was cut to go all the way down to the floor or ground when I was wearing my heels, and the skirt was just full enough that it would swish as I walked. I could see a few small braided strands of cloth leading down the back of the dress from the loop of fabric for my neck. They looked like they would connect at the waist which would onlye to my lower back.


    E took the dress out of the bag and behind it I saw what was going to serve as my veil. It was a cape made of a sheer grayish, almost silver looking fabric with arge, loose hood. There were no sleeves but rather gaps so that my arms would be able to go through the cape if needed. The cape was gathered in the back between where my shoulders would be. It was gathered by another of the three moon symbols this time made of a ck metal. The top of the fabric was bunched together so that it would reveal my back and the back of the dress but then flowed out as it went down. The bottom of the cape would trail behind me like a train to a dress since my dress didn''t have a long train.


    I was in awe by the amount of work and detail that she put into the dress.


    "E, it''s beautiful." I had never seen the final product or any of the dress when she was working on it. She would instead use other pieces of fabric to cut them to size for the real dress''s measurements. She truly wanted the final product to be a surprise to me.


    "You really like it?" She asked me.


    "I love it, E. You''re amazing." She was beaming at me happily, grinning with joy at my praising words.


    I slipped out of the clothes I was wearing and E helped me into the dress. I now knew why she was the oneing to help me. All the intricate work would take a skilled hand to get me in and out of it the first time.


    Once I was in the dress and the cape, E led me out of the bathroom for everyone else to see.


    "Oh Goddess that''s amazing." Nikki squealed.


    "Trinity, you look awesome." Juniper smiled.


    "Trinity, you''re the prettiest bride I have ever seen." L looked like she was on the verge of tears.


    "Oh, Trinity." Aunt Eve was actually crying, a hand over the lower half of her face to contain the sob she was obviously trying to hold back. "You look so beautiful. You''re mother would be so happy and proud if she could see you right now." The tears were streaming down her face as she spoke.


    "I know she would, Aunt Eve. I know she would be because you''re here in her ce and I know that as long as I can make you happy she would be happy too. Because you''re my mom too Aunt Eve."


    Aunt Eve sobbed slightly before she walked over to me and hugged me tightly.


    "I love you Trinity." She smiled at me. "You know, you look like a goddess in this dress. That''s how amazing this dress is on you." She smiled through the tears.


    Just as Aunt Eve pulled away from me I smelled Reeceing down the hallway. But I wasn''t the only one, everyone''s eyes snapped toward the door. In the blink of an eye Juniper was at the door and locked the handle before he coulde in.


    The door and handle jiggled slightly as he tried opening it toe in.


    "What gives? Why did you lock me out?"


    "There is important wedding stuff in here, go away." Juniper told him.


    "Go away? It''s my room." He whined.


    "It was Trinity''s first, and it''s only until we''re done."


    "This is unbelievable." He said in a fake exasperated tone of voice as he walked away.


    "Quick thinking and nice speed." Nikki congratted Juniper on her job well done.


    I changed out of my dress and then safely stored in the back of my closet while the others tried on their dresses. The dresses for L and Aunt Eve were long with a sash like belt across the waist. The bodices went all the way up to the cor bones then went around the neck in a halter style. The back of the dresses scooped low to the middle of the back.


    The main color of Aunt Eve''s dress waspiszuli with a lighter shade of blue, baby blue to be exact, for the sash belt and the trim at the very top of the dress. L''s dress was the same as Aunt Eve''s except for the color. L''s primary color was pine green with a fern green sash and ents.


    The bridesmaids and maid of honor dresses were very simr with just one difference. They were all empire waisted with thin strapsing off of the bodice. The maid of honor dress had a ck gemstone ''X'' pattern that wrapped around just below the bosom of the dress while the bridesmaid dresses were the same gemstones but only a wide band of them going around the dresses.


    All of these dresses were a lighter shade of gray except for at the very bottom, there was a pop of color where the shirt red out. The gray was like an outer shell that opened just below the ck gemstones. It opened up like it was a cape to reveal the two colors beneath. By the time the dress got to the floor the gray had receded to the sides and every time one of the women in the bridesmaid or maid of honor dresses walked the colorful clothes would be what swished and moved with them.


    The colors under the gray were thepiszuli and pine green. The contrasting blue and green went amazingly well together. The blue seemed to start first and the green wasing out in the middle of the blue. Almost like the gray gave way to blue that gave way to green. They were beautiful dresses and I loved them all so much.


    Now that I had my dress, and the wedding was only days away, it finally felt like it was all real. I was nervous but oh so excited too. After the dresses were put back into their bags E was ready to take her leave as were the others. It was about time to call it a night and let my moping fiance back into our room, but Juniper had one more thing to say first.


    "E, we''re having a bachelorette party for Trinity in a couple days wanna join us?"


    "Really?" E looked surprised as she stared at us all.


    "Yeah,e on and join the fun." Nikki encouraged her.


    "Alright, that would be great. I can''t wait."

 Chapter 151 - Trinity- An Appointment (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 151 - Trinity- An Appointment (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece moped a little that night when he came back in. He wasn''t happy that he was sent away and denied entry to our room. But some snuggle time was all he needed to feel better.


    Reece has been acting a little more hands-off-ish since finding out I was pregnant. Thesest two weeks he was telling me that I was to take it easy, rest, be careful, things like that. I think he thought he would be too rough if we did anything.


    The day after my dress had been delivered Reece surprised me at breakfast by telling me that he and I had an appointment we would be going to shortly. He didn''t tell me what type of appointment it was, he just insisted that we leave as soon as we were done eating.


    Once we were in the car and heading toward the city I tried asking him again.


    "Reece, where are we going?"


    "I told you already, you''ll find out when we get there." I puffed out my cheeks and red at him.


    "You''re being a brat about this right now. You know that don''t you."


    "I''m not a brat, in any way." He turned his head momentarily and gave me a heated look.


    "I could just call you a butthead, but that seemed more childish than brat, so that''s what you got."


    "Why are you trying to keep it all PG now? Wouldn''t you just call me a dog name or something else that''s worse?"


    "Huh, are the dog names growing on you Fido? You like them don''t you, you pervert?"


    "I''m not a damn pervert. I take it back, go back to PG." He growled at me in frustration.


    "We''ve got to learn to keep things PG soon enough. We can''t talk like sailors around the baby when it''s born."


    "Yeah, you got a point." He smirked as he signaled to turn onto another street, the half smile on the profile of his face was breathtakingly handsome. "It doesn''t feel real yet, but still I''m really happy. I just know that any pup of yours is going to be adorable."


    "You talk all tough most of the time, Reece, but you''re just a big softy aren''t you?" I smiled at him, and for some reason he was sulking, but with a blush tinging his ears.


    I recognized where we were going now. Reece had just turned onto the street with the hospital and several medical offices. He drove halfway down the street and pulled into a lot I had never been in. The name on the sign read Dr. Griffin White, MD & Associates.


    "Why are we going to see Griffin? Is there something wrong?"


    "We''re seeing him for you." He acted as if I should have known this already.


    "Why? I''m not sick, or injured. And I thought he worked at the hospital."


    "He goes between the hospital and the clinic, and we''re seeing him cause you''re pregnant. He''s going to be the one to take care of you."


    "Seriously? Well, at least I''ve met him before. But I''m not sure if that makes it better or worse." I smirked at him. "Are you sure you want me to have a male doctor?" I joked with him. His face turned to stone for a moment like he hadn''t really thought about it yet.


    "I have no choice, I''m not a doctor and I know he''s a good man." His voice was icy cold as he spoke. Looks like it''s going to be tough on you for a little while Griffin, sorry about that.


    I was surprised when we went inside. The clinic waiting area was veryfortable and weing, full of soft furniture, wall mounted TVs, a wide array of magazines, and a cute little y area for kids. What was most surprising though was that everyone there was human. I guess I should have figured that though. Not many wolves went to the doctors office enough to warrant having an office dedicated to wolves only.


    "Does Griffin see everyone from the pack?" I asked Reece as we sat waiting to be called.


    "Usually. He''s one of only four doctors in the entire pack, and he''s the best."


    "Why do we need to see him anyway?" I was curious.


    "Why? We still need to make sure that things are progressing properly. Just because we wolves don''t get sick often doesn''t mean that there is nothing that can go wrong. We''ll do regr visits just like everyone else."


    "I guess that makes sense." I agreed with him. "What do the other doctors do?"


    "Well, the ones that are still rtively young work here with him. They haven''t ventured out on their own yet. The older doctor works as a surgeon at the hospital and is well respected but doesn''t treat normal patients." I nodded in affirmation.


    It wasn''t much longer before the door to the back opened and a slightly olderdy in maroon colored scrubs called out.


    "Trinity Gray." I looked at Reece with a shocked, suspicious look.


    "Gray?" I whispered.


    "It will be that in a couple days, just get used to it." He smirked.


    "True." I smiled as I stood, Reece followed along and the two of us followed the nurse to the back.


    Everything was treated like a normal doctor''s office. I was taken to get my weight and height measured then taken to an exam room. I could tell that all the staff here were wolves but they treated patients that were human and did their jobs with ease and precision. After taking my vitals the nurse left, informing me that the doctor would be in soon.


    Griffin came in after just a few minutes, a smile on his pleasant face. I had only seen Griffin through squinted eyes and a massive headache before. I was told that he had treated me again after that day but I was out cold that time. Seeing his pleasant, easy going smile on his handsome, lightly lined face made me think of my Uncle. He had light brown hair and interesting looking light orange eyes. He was in his early fifties but still seemed to be very full of life.


    Just being around Griffin gave me a calm feeling. And his voice was soft and serene.


    "Hello Luna, it''s good to see you again."


    "Hello Griffin." I smiled at him.


    "Seems there''s some celebrating in order here, huh? Let''s get you all checked out and see how things are going."


    "It would be good to get things checked out before the rest of the pack finds out." Reece told him.


    "Are you nning an announcement?" I asked him.


    "I figure we can''t hide it for long, and rumors might spread, so we might as well announce it before people start talking."


    "Do we really have to announce it?" I asked him, embarrassment filling my voice. It felt like the white exam room walls were closing in on me with the tension and nerves.


    "You are the Luna, news like this will inevitably spread like wildfire." Griffin told me with an apologetic tone. "It is better for you to just get it over with now." He was backing up Reece''s words.


    "Fine." I conceded.


    Griffin began the exam. First, he felt my stomach with the tips of his fingers. He then took out a doppler machine and put some sort of blue gel on my belly that he spread around with the microphone looking part of the doppler. He moved it around for a minute and all I heard was this strange swishing noise. But finally, there was this low, rapid beating sound.


    "Is that?"


    "Yes, Luna, that is your baby''s heartbeat." I felt tears well up in my eyes, and as I looked at Reece, even though he was blurry, I could see the tears welling in his eyes as well.


    "I didn''t think that we could hear it this soon. It''s only been three weeks."


    "Well, you need to remember that wolf pregnancies progress more quickly than human pregnancies. It would still be a couple weeks until a human woman could hear the heartbeat, but that''s not the case here."


    "This is fantastic." Reece''s voice was filled with awe as he looked at the device in Griffin''s hand. I looked as well and saw the number that indicated the heart rate, it indicated a rate of about one hundred thirty-eight beats per minute.


    "That''s so fast." I eximed.


    "No worries, babies have faster heart rates than adults. Everything is fine, anything over a hundred beats per minute right now is a good sign. Your baby has a nice healthy heartbeat." His words brought a smile to my face. It was amazing to hear all this.


    "Would you like to see your baby? Though it won''t look much different than a bean right now." Griffinughed as he spoke.


    "Really? I can see the baby?" I was so excited to hear this.


    "Yes, follow me to the next room over."


    Griffin led the way out of the room. Reece helped me sit up and then helped me down from the exam table. He took my hand and guided me after Griffin. We went to the room right next door. The room was darker and had a slightly different exam table, it was more like a reclining chair or a bed like than an exam table.


    Griffin had mey back on the new bed before he applied more of the blue gel. He ced another doppler like wand shaped instrument to my belly and began moving it around. He looked at many different things while he moved it around. There were the asional clicking soundsing from his directions as he zoomed in, measured, and took pictures of what he was seeing.


    After several minutes he turned the screen toward me and Reece to show us our little baby.


    "Is that it? It''s so small." Reece seemed surprised.


    "It looks like a little jelly bean." I smiled andughed.


    "Our little jelly belly." Reece smiled again. "Thank you Trinity." He squeezed my hand affectionately.

 Chapter 152 - Trinity- A Change Of Roles (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 152 - Trinity- A Change Of Roles (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After we left the clinic I had a request for Reece that I wasn''t sure he would allow. I knew how things were right now and this request was not in line with that. I knew that I had to be with someone capable of protecting me at all times, a guard or Reece himself.?But still, I had to ask him.


    "Reece, could you do me a favor?" I gave him a sweet look as he turned toward me.


    "What is it Little Bunny?" He asked me. I used to hate that nickname, but over thest several months I had grown used to him calling me by it. Just like Reece had gotten used to and possibly even grown to like his little nicknames, I had grown to like him calling me Little Bunny. I knew that it was his way of being affectionate with me. I had learned long ago that he called me that name not to annoy me but as a term of endearment. I couldn''t always say the same for when I called him a dog name, that usually happened out of frustration but I did think it was cute (and very funny).


    "I want to go home, not our home, but to Aunt Eve and Uncle Wesley. I want to spend time with them before the wedding."


    "But I have a few meetings this afternoon. I would have to take you home first."


    "Could you just drop me off if I swear not to leave their house until you or someone elsees to get me?" He gave me a stern look, clearly not pleased.


    "You know that things aren''t safe right now." His voice was filled with exasperation.


    "I know Reece, but their house is in the upper part of thepound with lots of strong neighbors. And it''s not like I will be out of thepound. I will not be alone and unattended, I will be surrounded by the pack." He looked contemtive at my words.


    "You have valid points. Fine, I''ll allow it, as long as you promise me you won''t leave their house until Ie back." I smiled at his words.


    "Thank you, Reece." Joy filled my voice.


    I looked out the car window as he drove back toward thepound, my phone pressed to my ear as I listened to the ringing on the other end. Aunt Eve answered rtively quickly.


    "Hello Trinity, how are you sweet heart?" Aunt Eve always answered the phone like she hadn''t seen me in so long. She had been at the house justst night and still answered the phone like that.


    "I am fine, Aunt Eve. I was wondering if you were free today, I wanted to spend the day with you and Uncle Wesley."


    "I would love to spend the day with you, and thankfully he hasn''t left yet, I''ll let him know your ns now." I could hear her calling out to him telling him what I wanted. He sounded happy as he told her that he would call into work and let them know. I felt bad making him call off, but his boss was pack and he would not be upset if told that the Luna wanted to spend the day with him.


    "Alright, I will be there soon. Reece will be dropping me off and picking me upter. I had to promise not to leave the house without him." Iughed at his protectiveness, I found it sweet but still funny.


    "That''s fine, we can spend a nice day in."


    Fifteen minutester Reece pulled up in front of their house. He got out and walked around the car to open my door. Today he was driving the mustang to instead of one of the fancier or more in cars. I guess this one could be counted as middle ground. Either way, he smoothly and elegantly opened the door and offered me his hand to help me out, he was a real gentleman sometimes.


    "Thank you, Benji." I joked with him to break the seriousness of the moment.


    "Be good." He told me as he leaned down and gave me a quick, chaste kiss, Aunt Eve had already opened the door and was watching us.


    "What time should I expect you?"


    "Between four and five. We can grab dinner after."


    "Reece, if you''d like you can have dinner with us tonight." Aunt Eve called out.


    "That would be nice, Eve, thank you." He smiled at her before turning back to me. "I will be backter." He gave me another quick kiss. "I love you." he said before walking back around the car. I walked to the porch with Aunt Eve then watched him drive away.


    Once we were inside I gave them both hugs and smiled at the nostalgia of being back in the home I was raised in. I had spent a lot of time with Aunt Eve and Uncle Wesley since leaving, but I hadn''t really been back home.


    "So what brings you here today?" Uncle Wesley asked me in a happy tone. "I''m d you''re here, don''t get me wrong, I''m just curious."


    "I just wanted to spend some time home before I''m officially not Trinity Whitton anymore. Right now everyone in this room is a Whitton, but in two days I will be a Gray." I smiled at them.


    "No matter what thest name says, you will always be a Whitton, you just get to be both." Aunt Eve smiled at me as she wrapped her arm around my shoulder and led me into the spacious kitchen I had practically grown up in. She had already prepped lots of ingredients on the counter so we could bake the rest of the morning away. "Just like I became a Whitton when I married Wesley, I am also still a Smythe." She was smiling easily just like always.


    "Aunt Eve, have I told you that you''re the best mom I could have asked for?" I felt happy, emotional tears sting in the back of my eyes.


    "I think you might have told me that a time or two before. And just like I always say, I''m happy I could be there to step in for your mother. I really wish you could have known her but I''m sure she is proud of you as she watches over you from her eternal hunt." The eternal hunt was the wolf version of heaven, where the spirit of our human and the spirit of our wolf would merge and roam happily and freely for all eternity or until we were reincarnated.


    "I wish I could have known her too, but you and Uncle Wesley kept her memory alive just so I could learn about her."


    "You look like her too, you know that?" Uncle Wesley smiled. "Your hair, your face, even your short stature. She was shorter than the average female in the pack too." I had heard all this before but it was nice to hear.


    "Uncle Wesley," I smiled tearfully at him, "I know you miss her. And I know that even if my mother had never died, you would have been the best man in my life. You gave me all the love you had for your sister plus some. You were the best dad I could ever have wanted or asked for." He hugged me again, even though I had just hugged him a few minutes ago.


    "May I ask you guys something. This may sound strange, as I am not a child anymore and I am about to get married and start my own family."


    "What?"


    "What is it sweetheart." Uncle Wesley and Aunt Eve asked me curiously.


    "Can I drop the aunt and uncle names, and call you Mom and Dad? I know you''re not my biological parents, and I don''t want to act like my mother never existed, but you are the only parents I have ever known and I feel sad that I never called you by the titles you should have had this whole time." I saw the shocked looks on their faces and immediately thought they were unhappy with the idea. That is until they both smiled with wide, happy grins and Aunt Eve began to cry.


    "Oh, Trinity, I would be honored if you called me Mom." She hugged me tightly.


    "I can''t think of anything that would make me happier right now." Added Uncle Wesley, no, Dad.


    I spent the rest of the morning making different desserts and sweets with Mom, and helping prepare a special dinner for Reece tonight. The three of us talked and reminisced about the past all day. We also spected on the future and how we thought my baby and Nikki''s baby would be toward each other. I had been needing this time with my family, my parents.


    By the time the baking fest was done we had snowball cookies, peanut butter fudge cookies, blueberry scones, apple pie bombs, and salty sweet candy bark. We had way more than we needed and I nned on giving some to all my guards to help share the bounty. It had just been so long since I baked with Mom that I wanted to bake all our favorites. Goddess, Mom felt nice to think and say but was awkward still.

 Chapter 153 - Trinity- Bachelorette Party (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 153 - Trinity- Bachelorette Party (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    So, obviously I couldn''t have a normal bachelorette party. I couldn''t go to a bar as I was too young and couldn''t drink even if I was old enough. Not to mention the whole danger thing. I couldn''t have, nor did I want, a stripper. Honestly, I may?have?only ever seen Reece''s naked body, but could anyone ever trulypare to the splendor of his body.


    Now, I had to wonder what kind of party we would have if almost a third of us couldn''t drink alcohol and there was no raunchy penis themed stuff like you see in the movies. Well, ording to Juniper, we were going to go old school, and by that she meant middle school. We were going to have a totally junior high school girl sleepover style party. I thought it was funny at first, but the more I thought about it the more fun it all sounded.


    Juniper came over early carrying bags and bags full of junk food and beauty treatments. After dropping it all off in my room, she dragged me out and went on a hunt for Reece. He was working from home today and then taking the next week off. We weren''t leaving town, but we would spend time alone together.


    We went into the office that Reece and I shared and Reece smiled at me over the paperwork he was reading, Noah stood next to him with a nd expression on his face.


    "Hellodies, what''s going on?"


    "Just here to tell you the rules for tonight." Juniper smiled boldly at him. I watched the shock register in Reece''s eyes.


    "The rules?" He asked with a hint ofughter. "And what rules are those."


    "No boys allowed. Period. You have to stay the night at his house." Juniper pointed at Noah whose face remained still as stone. He already knew this wasing but had said nothing to his best friend about it. It was obvious that he didn''t want to be the one to break this news.


    "Seriously?" Reece asked awestruck.


    "Yup." Juniper nodded. "So when work is done you can say goodbye and goodnight and go to his ce. You cane back tomorrow to get ready for the wedding."


    "And should I be concerned about this party you''re having if I am being banished?" Reece looked suspicious about it all.


    "Not at all, it''s just a bachelorette tradition. I can''t follow the rest of the traditions for her so I am not skimping on this one. Don''t worry Noah knew ahead of time and Nikki prepared a room for you. You''ll be fine, just be a good boy and have a slumber party with your BFF."


    "Do you realize how ridiculous you sound right now?" Reece asked her.


    "I don''t care. I''m the party organizer and so I get to set the rules, right Trinity?" I wasughing silently to myself as I watched their exchange. Thete afternoon light was streaming through the window lighting Juniper up and making her appear more powerful than usual.


    "Yup, her party, her rules." I could barely say the words withoutughing. The instant I said the words I saw the sad puppy dog look wash over Reece''s eyes. He really hated being away from me, but it was just for one night a fact I feltpelled to remind him of. "It''s just for tonight Reece, you''ll be back tomorrow morning." He smiled at that reminder.


    "Fine, I guess I can survive a night at his house. I knew that Noah had nned a bachelor party for Reece to surprise, and embarrass him. The thought made me smile more as I left the room with Juniper.


    Reece came to the room some timeter to give me my farewell hug and kiss and get the overnight bag I had prepared for him. Just after he was gone everyone else started to arrive. Emmalee was already at the house, but she had been with Carter until he left with Noah and Reece. Even Dietrich found somewhere to go for the night. I could only specte on where, but I hoped I was right.


    The guest list for the night included Juniper (obviously), Emmalee, Nikki, Heather, E, and Rawlynne. With me there were seven of us all together. I really had never had a sleepover before, never having had any friends growing up, so I was actually really excited to experience this for the first time.


    We ate tons of junk food, including all the wonderful party friendly foods that Abigail prepared for us. After dinner we gave each other manicures and pedicures and did skin beautifying facials. All these beauty routines would be perfect for the wedding tomorrow after all.


    We all gossiped and shared juicy tidbits about our mates. E was the only unmated one among us, but she told us how she imagined her mate would be. There was always a movie ying in the background, even if none of us actually watched it. I think it was all some of the best fun I had ever had, with all my friends, new and old, by my side.


    But, it seemed as if Reece missed me more than I thought he would. We had banished him from the house but not his phone. During the course of the party he called me no less than five times. We all had a goodugh about it, but deep down it made me happy to know that my mate loved and cared about me so much. I wouldn''t change him for the world. And, truth be told, I was missing him too. I knew I would have a hard time sleeping without him by my side now. I had grown too ustomed to him being there with me. And I could tell that Juniper and Nikki were sad as well. Emmalee and Rawlynne had not spent so many nights in the arms of their mates yet so their longing and desire to see them, while strong, probably wasn''t as intense as ours.

 Chapter 154 - Trinity- Getting Ready (VOLUME 2)((LONG CHAPTER))

    <h4>Chapter 154 - Trinity- Getting Ready (VOLUME 2)((LONG CHAPTER))</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The bachelorette party (glorified sleepover) was a lot of fun, but we didn''t stay up toote. Nikki yelled at me repeatedlyst night to make sure I didn''t do anything to the excess. Not because of the baby, but because she was once again doing my makeup and hair and didn''t want me to be too tired or not be at my best. So, it was because of this that we went to bed just a little after midnight.


    The wedding was taking ce here at the estate in the early afternoon. I was awoken by Nikki and Juniper at around nine in the morning. They told me that I needed ample time to get ready for the day, seriously I had almost four hours still. People would probably start arriving at noon, but no one was allowed to see me until I walked down the aisle.


    Granted Mom and Dad, still awkward to think but I was loving it, coulde to my room when they finally got here, as could Grandfather and L. Noah and Carter were staying with Reece, partly to keep him away from me until the wedding. Aside from that select few and those helping me get ready I was not allowed to see anyone else.


    From what I had been told, and heard, Reece was throwing a bit of a fit over not being able to see me. He was permitted to talk to me on the phone, but Nikki and Juniper were running interference when he first came down the hall during breakfast. The two of them and L managed to send him on his way. I didn''t envy them, I knew how upset he was likely to be.


    The breakfast we ate was delivered to the room, where I could eat in peace without letting Reece see me. It was delicious as always and I enjoyed it as best as I could, but I was getting an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I just chalked it up to the morning sickness I had been feelingtely. Still, it left me with a feeling of dread.


    After breakfast I showered quickly before wrapping both my hair and my body in towels and going back out to my room. I applied the same unscented body oil that I had used during my mate marking. Juniper helped by getting my back for me.


    Once the oil was applied I put on my under garments for the day and pulled on a silk robe. Nikki sat me in a chair facing away from all the mirrors in the room, not letting me see what she was doing to my hair.


    I may not have been able to see what she was doing, but I could still feel it. I felt her pull the top of my hair back and start braiding. She kept pulling the hair loosely into the braid, not pulling it tight at all. She was slowly lengthening the braid until it was nearly to the tips of my long, dark hair. I heard the quick snap of rubber where she tied it off followed by the quick snap of metal.


    "This was given to me by my mother." L told me as she smiled at me. "It was something that I wore on my own wedding day." I wanted to take a look at whatever it was but I hadn''t been allowed to look in the mirror yet and I could once again feel Nikki''s hands in my hair. She was now pulling the twists of the braid to loosen it up a little bit more. When I was allowed to turn and look in the mirror I gasped.


    My hair looked beautiful, it was an elegant looking braid but still seemed slightly casual. There were loose strands of hair hanging near my face and a couple by my neck, but instead of looking messy they looked nned and added to the elegance of the entire look.


    The metal that I had heard click earlier was a metal hair sp that L had attached to the end of my hair where the braid had been tied off. It was clearly old but still shone with beauty. It''s silver was polished to perfection. But what was truly special was the shape. The delicate silver hair sp was shaped like a lotus flower, just like the flower on my engagement ring from Reece.


    "L, this is so beautiful. Are you sure you want me to have it? I feel like it is too much."


    "Of course I want you to have it. Who else besides you?" She leaned over the back of my chair and hugged me lightly. "My son is marrying you today, but you''re already the daughter I always wanted. Without you, Trinity, I would never have found my way out of the darkness. I can never thank you enough."


    "L." I smiled and felt tears stinging in the back of my eyes as I looked at L through the mirror.


    "No crying." Nikki snapped at me as she put a cool damp washcloth over my eyes. "I will never be able to do my job if your face is all puffed up." She red at me. "Well, I could, but you wouldn''t look right. So don''t make things harder on me." She wasughing now, her attack with the cloth had been so sudden and unexpected that I actually jumped and yelped in surprise. Everyoneughed a little, myself included.


    Once Nikki took the cloth away, she turned me around again and started on my makeup. She first dried my face gently, doing her best not to make my skin turn red. After that she applied a thinyer of lotion to my face that smelled of apples and vani. I red at her when I smelled it.


    "L bought the lotion special for today. You can have the rest when I am done. I''ve been told Reece will love it." I saw L nodding her head in agreement behind her. While I red at them both Nikki and Juniper quickly applied the lotion to my arms.


    "Gotta get it on you really good." Juniper joked.


    "I''m gonna pay you back for this." I grumbled causing them tough again.


    Once I had been thoroughly assaulted with the lotion that I knew Reece would notice right away, Nikki brought her massive makeup kit over to begin her work. I just closed my eyes and let her get to work. There wasn''t really much that I could do at this point anyway.


    I felt all the brushing, rubbing, smearing, all the different movements that Nikki needed to do while making me look like a bride, all the while I was thinking about Reece. My mate, my lover, my protector, everything that he was to me. I didn''t know exactly how he saw me, besides as his Little Bunny, but I knew that I wouldn''t change him for anything in the world. I love him, and I think I did from that first failed meeting in the forest, I just didn''t know what my heart, instincts, and brain were all screaming at me that day. But I know now.


    When Nikki was done and I could no longer feel the makeup being applied to my face I finally opened my eyes. I saw everyone in the room looking at me with a bright smile on their faces. I turned to look in the mirror and I saw the transformed me that I had not seen since my marking day.


    The coloring was different this time. My paleplexion wasn''t lightened or darkened at all, instead it was entuated to show how truly moon-like my face could be. My eyes looked striking, even to me. Nikki had used a silver eyeshadow that seemed to pop out next to my paleplexion. Also, the silver sparkled with every move I made, the light catching and glittering in the shimmering flecks hidden within the silver.


    In contrast to the silver was the dark, jet ck mascara that fully disyed how long my eyshes were. My eyshes curled perfectly away with just the right amount of curve in them. A light, very light, blush was applied to my cheek bones, just enough to make them pop. My lips this time, instead of the red that they were before, were barely colored. Well, to be honest they were colored, but with a soft nude shade with just a slight rosy, almost peach color.


    There weren''t a lot of changes to my face, Nikki remembered well I didn''t like a lot of makeup, but the changes I could see made me look like a different person in my eyes.


    "It looks wonderful Nikki, thank you." I tried to smile at her but I couldn''t.


    "What''s wrong?" L asked me after she saw the expression on my face.


    "I just, don''t look like me anymore, do I?" I asked them all.


    "You look just like you always do, but with a little makeup on." Rawlynne told me, having watched everything silently from the back this whole time, her smile was reassuring.


    "Really?"


    "Of course." E nodded. "Why do you think you look different?"


    "I just feel like people won''t recognize me with how I look. I don''t look this pretty." I grimaced.


    "Trinity, sweetheart, you''re very beautiful." L held onto my left hand as she looked at me.


    "I know for a fact that most women in the pack have been jealous of you for a long time, since before you mated with Reece. You may not have met them, but they were jealous of your natural beauty. You need to realize how hard it is for women to achieve what you do so easily." All their words were having a positive effect, I could feel whatever negative emotions had settled in my heart at that time ebbing away and I was finally able to smile happily.


    Just as I was getting my dress on, with E''s help again, there was a knock at the door. I could smell the scents that were waiting outside.


    "Trinity, sweetheart." I heard Mom call from the other side. I had just stepped into the dress and was having it pulled up along my body so L went toward the door. Just as E finished fastening the dress L opened the door and let Mom, Dad, and Grandfather into the room.


    "Oh my Goddess." Mom cried out happily. She was already wearing her dress for the wedding, the blue went well with her lighter shade of brown hair. Dad was standing there in his tuxedo as was Grandfather. He and Grandfather were told that they didn''t need to wear tuxedos but they had said they wanted to be part of everything. I think they just didn''t want to be the only ones in the family not wearing something special.


    "You look amazing." Grandfather reached out and hugged me gently.


    "You''re beautiful." Dad hugged me next. Looking at the two of them, a generation apart but so simr in appearance.


    Dad had the dark brown eyes and dark brown hair that was the signature of our family, only one of which I had inherited, Grandfather had the dark eyes, but his hair had long since given way to the gray of age. They both had strong, prominent jaws just like the one Noah and Carter had inherited. They had the same family nose and wrinkling around the eyes. I had often wondered why Grandfather hadugh lines around his eyes, but I now knew that he wasn''t as grumpy as I had thought he was. And though Dad was much younger, hisugh lines were just as prominent because he was a naturally jovial person. They looked so much alike that I could clearly see what Dad would look like in another twenty years or so.


    "We brought something for you." Mom said as she tried not to cry looking at me.


    "Your dress has something blue already, and L said she was giving you something old, so we decided to cover the something new and something borrowed." Dad smiled at me. "We will start with your something new."


    Dad handed me a box that was just a little too big to fit in my hands and allow me to open it. I took it from him and set it on the table, it was quite light. When I took the lid off, I saw the most beautiful tiara I had ever seen in my life. It was made of white gold and covered in diamonds. There were curving swirl lines that matched the top of my dress and the three moon symbol in the center on top. The entire tiara was around three inches tall and would rest across the top of my forehead. When I picked it up, I saw that there were diamonds that would dangle just slightly and rest across my forehead just below the base of the tiara. I could tell at a nce that it was expensive as well as beautiful.


    "How did you get one that goes so well with my dress? I didn''t even know the final design." I asked with awe in my voice.


    "I worked with them." E said sheepishly.


    "We went to see E right after we found out the good news and asked her to help us design it. We then put in a rush order to the jewelers." Mom smirked. "They weren''t happy about having to rush it, but it was for the Luna after all."


    "Thank you guys, I love it."


    "I have one more thing for you." Grandfather smiled with a hint of sadness in his eyes. "This belonged to your grandmother, it was supposed to go to your mother and she could have passed it down to you, but that didn''t happen."


    Grandfather brought out another box, this one a lot smaller and shaped like one you would get from a jewelry store for a ne. The ne inside was slightly longer than average and had tworge tear shaped diamonds on the end. The entire chain of the ne was covered in small diamonds. It wasn''t a flimsy chain that would get tangled and twisted. No, this was a ne that would not twist and turn around your neck, yet it was still flexible. The Diamonds on the chain didn''t interfere with the flexibility of the links.


    "Now, it''s just being lent to you, for now." Grandfather smiled.


    "What do you mean." I asked him.


    "I am lending it to you for the wedding. It will then be gifted to you after the wedding." He crinkled his eyes as he smiled at me. "See, something borrowed."


    "Thank you, Grandfather." Iughed as I threw my arms around his neck. "Thank all of you for everything you''ve done to help me out today."


    "I don''t think any of us would have missed this for anything." Emmalee told me with a huge smile. "I know that, personally, I am really d I met you and am part of this wedding. Through you I met the man I am going to marry. And I know that I will be so happy to have my future sister iw be part of my wedding."


    "You know I will Emmalee, I wouldn''t miss it." I hugged her too.


    "And, though the circumstances are far from perfect, without you I wouldn''t have my mate either." Rawlynne smiled at me. "And I am so d I met you so I could also meet the man I am going to be spending my life with, even though I was so not ready for this to happen." Sheughed at the end.


    "And you''re already my sister." Nikki hugged me. "So, I already know how amazing you are."


    "I don''t have a mate, and I don''t know you very well, but I know you''re an amazing person and an awesome Luna." E told me. I hugged her too. Everyone in this room was either family or a friend, both new and old, and I was so d to be spending this day with all of them.

 Chapter 155 - Reece- Wedding Day (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 155 - Reece- Wedding Day (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I had been sent away from my own home. Sent away from my mate. They were forbidding me from seeing what was mine. I was mad, but I knew the reasoning behind it all. I knew it was tradition, and that I shouldn''tin. But dammit, I wanted to see my Little Bunny.


    Noah had prepared a small bachelor party for me. Riley was there, which was a surprise. Among the rest of the guests were Carter, David, Shane, Shawn along with Dietrich, and, begrudgingly, Otsana''s partner Jackson McIan. All of my Little Bunny''s guards were there, except Vincent. When I asked why he was missing I was told that he was at home with the kids so that Heather could attend Trinity''s party. I envied him at that moment, I really wanted to be at home too.


    Aside from Noah, I never really became friendly with anyone from the pack. Noah and I had been friends since we were kids because his grandfather was my father''s beta and so it was natural for us to be around each other. That friendship continued all through school and into adulthood. But I never really had anyone else.


    The bachelor party was not like what you would expect. There was drinking, but not as much as expected. There was no stripper, thank the goddess, I only wanted to see my mate and no one else.


    Much of the night had actually been spent getting half drunken lectures from Carter, warning from Noah, and life advice from Dietrich. Though I didn''t think most of Dietrich''s advice would work for me. He never had a mate until recently, wasn''t a werewolf, and hadst been my age five hundred years ago. But, I appreciated it nheless.


    The one I had most inmon with at the party was Jackson. Neither of us wanted to be there at all. He was still assimting into the world of supernatural beings. He was scared and nervous being in a room full of werewolves and the high ranking Vampire Emperor. But after several hours, and copious amounts of alcohol, he finally loosened up a little.


    Jackson had apparently been Otsana''s partner when he was straight out of the academy. They had been there for each other ever since. And even though he was a year younger than Otsana he always took care of her. Jackson had a little sister growing up that died when he was in the academy, and Otsana was an only child whose parents died when she was in highschool. They were both missing something when they became partners and conveniently worked well with each other. And he was very protective of his pseudo little sister.


    It turns out he was notpletely out of the loop when he found out about us. While having the information confirmed had shocked him, and living with knowing about it on a daily basis was like something out of the twilight zone, he had in fact suspected something was off for a long time. It seemed that Otsana had a habit of choosing cases that were out of the ordinary.


    For thest year and a half the two of them had been like family, and Jackson noticed a lot of things that didn''t seem normal. But he said nothing. He decided that the less he said, and the less he acknowledged, the better it would be for him. Smart man. And trustworthy too.


    The night continued in this way. A lot of talk, a lot of joking, and me missing my mate. Carter was in the same boat too. He wanted to be with Emmalee who he had thought he''d lost forever. I tried doing what I could to feel like I was there for my Little Bunny. But every time I called her the guys gave me hell and the women in the background seemed tough hysterically. I just wanted to be with my mate, was that so bad.


    The next morning, I went straight home, while most of them were still sleeping. But I was thwarted again. Nikki and Juniper burst into the hall when I was marching to my room. They had the nerve to tell me I couldn''t go in. The party was over, I was going. But no, they refused to let me, and to make matters worse Mom came and dragged me out of the hallway by my left sleeve.


    "Leave her alone, Reece. You will see her in a few hours." She scolded me.


    "Why can''t I see her until the wedding." I pouted. I knew I was pouting but I couldn''t help it. I wanted to be in my room, with my mate, and kick all those interfering annoyances out.


    "Because you can''t. It''s bad luck for you to see her before the ceremony." Mom growled at me. She seriously growled at me. I still remembered when she smacked me with the book, the ghost of that feeling prickled at the back of my head causing me to run my right hand over that spot.


    "Fine." I slumped in defeat.


    "Good boy. Now, go get ready and greet your guests as they arrive. Your bride needs to get ready."


    "Can''t you greet them for me?" I asked her with hope in my voice.


    "No." She crushed that hope in one go. "I have to help Trinity get ready." She smiled as she walked back down the hall to my room.


    "That''s just cruel." I yelled after her.


    "Mmhmm." She answered me. "Now go." So mean.


    After I was unceremoniously sent away by my own mother I got ready for the day in my all ck Brioni tuxedo. Little Bunny''s wedding colors were apparently blue and green and the color ents for the tuxedos were split among the party to match. The silk shirts were ck like the tuxedos, but the waistcoats, ties, pocket squares were the ent colors. For me, it was blue, as were Noah and Carter''s. Samuel, Wesley, Vincent, and Riley were all wearing green ents.


    I never paid much attention to my hair. My hair was a little over two inches long on the top and tapered on the sides, it would typically justy about in a stylishly messy way. The only time I did much of anything, besidesbing it or running my hands through it, was when I had a business meeting. That was when I needed to look more professional and I would typicallyb it to look neat and put together.


    But, how should I do it today? I was partial to the stylishly messy look, but it was my wedding day afterall and I was certain that my Little Bunny, let alone her pack of attack she-wolves would not be happy if I didn''t put any effort in at all. I decided to add a little texture to my hair with some gel, running my hands through it to give it a little more of a controlled look than the typical casual look I had. I thought it looked pretty good, and was definitely different than usual.


    When I was finally outside and watching the hordes of people arrive, it finally hit me just how hard Little Bunny and her merry band of she-demons worked on this wedding. If only they hadn''t kept me away from my matest night, maybe I would be more forgiving of them right now.


    I watched slowly as hundreds of people came walking toward my estate. I was used to having a lot of people here for full moon gatherings, but that was still a week and a half away, and had actually been cancelled for this month. But there were far more people than usual. The entire pack was here, nearly eight hundred people all together. And add to that the people who were invited from the fealty packs and treaty packs.


    We had also sent word to, and invited emissaries from, all the other major supernatural groups. The head of the magic council was invited and would being with an entourage. We had invited the Queen of the Fae, but I knew she wouldn''te personally. She did however send an envoy with several members from her court. We had also sent invites to all the shifter groups in the area.


    Several groups were invited but unlikely to send someone as they were too small in numbers. The Djinn, Mermaids and their sister n the Sirens, Daemon, Elemental Spirit, these groups were so few in numbers that they didn''t live in groups like we wolves did. Instead they tended to just live with their immediate families and form mate bonds with others when they could. They were more mixed with human heritage than the other species were.


    I met the iing emissaries as they arrived. They were the ones that needed my attention the most.


    The Fae arrived with a group of six. Three men and three women. I caught the name of the two leading the party, Acacia Aspen, a pretty young girl with bright green eyes and long ashy blonde hair and Breon Kilcher, a man who looked to be my age with a rich mahoganyplexion and bright golden eyes.


    "We of the fae would like to congratte the great Mr. Gray on this fortuitous day." Breon spoke in a deep, clear voice.


    "I thank you, and may you give your queen my many thanks for sending her envoy to help my mate and I celebrate this auspicious day." The six Fae in front of me smiled with just a hint of mischief in their eyes. They didn''t call the Fae the tricksters for nothing.


    The next Emissary was from the cat shifters that lived in our vicinity. They typically worked with only one alpha among the many different types living in a given area. I had done work with their alpha, Landon, quite a lot as our territories ovepped. His emissary was a pretty woman in her mid twenties with rich chocte brown hair and a tanned, olive likeplexion and eyes that looked like the sun itself.


    "Reece, it is good to see you. Congrattions on your wedding, I cannot wait to meet your mate." Falena Areli, a Gamma to Landon hugged me lightly in a friendly gesture.


    "It is good to see you Lena." I hugged her back. "Make sure you tell Landon he needs toe himself next time." I smiled at her as she nodded her head and headed over to where the seats for the ceremony were set up.


    A trio of older men arrived next, they all had their long robe like jackets on. I myself had one of these jackets, every leader of a pack, n, or court had one. Mine was ck with gold designs in the shape of a wolf, a moon, and the pack crest on the back, sleeves, and hood. These men were wearing silver robes with ck rune-like designs on them. They were from the magic council.


    "Greetings, Master Gray." Their leader spoke in an old fashioned ent. I knew warlocks lived for a long time, much longer than the lives of us wolves and other shifters which was still longer than a human''s, so these men were likely very old.


    "We thank you for the opportunity toe see you and share this experience."


    "Thank you foring gentlemen." I greeted them.


    "Master Reece, would you permit us to have a private conference with you when the festivities havee to pass? We believe we have much to discuss with you." Their leader asked me in his own way of talking.


    "I think that would be beneficial for us all." I answered him. The Warlocks then moved along to the wedding.


    Thest emissary that came was not actually an emissary but was actually an alpha himself. Trevor Jacoby was the alpha of the bear shifters for the entire western United States. He was just as tall as I was but looked much more wild. He had a permanent light tan, fierce looking gold eyes, and slightly longer and disheveled medium brown hair. He was a big, burly man withrge muscles and a full, yet oddly well kept, beard. For such a wild looking man that beard was strangely neat and not scraggly at all.


    "Trevor, I''m d you could make it." I took his outstretched hand and leaned in as he did the same, we gave each other a one armed hug like old friends. Aside from Noah and Riley, Trevor was the closest thing I had to a friend.


    "Reece, you dog. I never thought you would find a mate and settle down before me." Heughed in his rough, gravelly voice.


    "Yeah, it happened pretty quick, but I couldn''t be happier, man."


    "Don''t rub salt in my wound, I might just have to steal your girl away."


    "I''d have to kill you, and I like you too much for that." We joked with each other andughed lightly.


    "For real though, I''m happy for you."


    Once Trevor went into the wedding, all the envoys had been greeted and the rest of the regr guests had finished arriving. Mom came to get me and told me that it was almost time. I needed to head to my designated ce and wait for the most beautiful woman in the world toeplete me.

 Chapter 156 - Both- Ceremony (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 156 - Both- Ceremony (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    There had been a wedding arch prepared that was covered in white and blue flowers. Some of the flowers hung from the arch on vine-like stems and swayed gently in the breeze. A white cloth had been unrolled for the wedding party to walk down as they walked to and from the altar. The seats that had been prepared were white with long vines of flowers connected along their backs.


    There were not enough seats for everyone at the ceremony, a good chunk of the attendees, mostly wolves, had to stand. This was not something theyined about as the ceremony would notst long and the reception would have ample seating for those staying for it. That too, was here at the estate.


    The altar was set up in the clearing where we performed our important pack gatherings. I couldn''t think of a more important gathering than this. The white cloth ended at a small set of stairs, leading onto the ceremonial stone which held the wedding arch. Where I waited with Riley and the groomsmen. Michael, the elder, was officiating the ceremony for us and stood there in a prim looking ck suit.


    Soon, live music began ying. A sweet mix of strings and woodwinds ying the wedding march. It was almost time for me to see my bride.


    First, little Renea in her pretty silver dress walked out of the trees dropping blue flower petals as she went. She was followed by her older brother, Conner, he was carrying the small blue satin pillow with two rings sitting on top.


    Once the children had taken their ces on top of the stone tform the bridesmaids started their way slowly down the aisle. Heather came first in her silver dress with blue and green ents. She was followed by Emmalee then Nikki, all their dresses matched and they took their ces on the tform. Juniper came next, her dress slightly different. When all the bridesmaids and the maid of honor finished their procession and took their ces, it was time for my bride to make her debut.


    I felt my heart speed up as I heard the change in the music that indicated the bride was on her way. I watched with unbridled anticipation as the two men escorted my mate out of the trees and into the clearing.


    Wesley was walking on Little Bunny''s right side, his left arm wrapped around her right. His right arm crossed in front of his body and covered her hand with his. Samuel mirrored his son, walking on his granddaughter''s left side, holding her arm with his and crossing his body to cover her hand as well.


    I could see a proud look in the red rimmed eyes of both men. They were emotional, both happy and sad, but even more full of pride.


    The true vision of beauty that was walking in between them drew my attention. The long sweeping silver cape-like veil was trailing behind her. Beneath that was a pale blue dress with brighter blue metal ents. The modest dress hugged her body perfectly, showing off her perfect figure while still maintaining an air of sophistication by not giving away anything more than what was needed.


    Her eyes sparkled with every move she made. Her beautiful, full, kissable lips were perfect with a slight peachy color. Strands of her perfect, dark brown hair hung down in her face and along her neck, fluttering against her skin as she walked.


    I felt the smile on my face when it formed. I felt it the second I saw her in all her beautiful glory walking slowly toward me. My heart was pounding, my palms were sweaty. I knew that I had never seen a woman half as beautiful as her in all my life. And knowing that she was mine brought pure joy to my life.


    The closer she got to the altar, the more radiant she became. The sun reflected on her makeup, shimmered off the dress, and gave her beautiful, pale face a happy glow. My hands itched to hold her in my arms after just one night away. I needed this woman in my life. I descended the steps to meet her and her escorts at the end of the white path covered in flower petals.


    "Who gives this woman away?" Michael asked out of formality.


    "We do." Samuel and Wesley said together.


    "I, Samuel Whitton, her grandfather."


    "And I, Wesley Whitton, uncle by birth but father in heart."


    My Little Bunny turned and hugged each man, kissing them lightly on the cheek in turn. They hugged her back and kissed her cheek as well. With sad eyes and happy smiles they watched as I took my mate''s hand and escorted her up the steps and to the altar.


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It was time for the wedding to start, L told us it was time to get ready to go. I walked with everyone down the hallway to the stairs, down the stairs and to the foyer, through the front door and into the wide open driveway. We followed the same path I took before for the marking ceremony. The winding narrow path through the trees to the clearing.


    Taking this path brought back memories of that night, both the good and the bad. But even with the memories of everything bad that had happened between us, I could never regret a moment of it. I loved Reece, and I always would.


    As we got closer to the clearing I heard the music begin. Renea went first, dropping her flower petals, followed by her brother Conner with the rings. The procession continued with the rest of the wedding party, until it was just me, Dad, and Grandfather left.


    "I''m proud of you." Grandfather said as he patted my left hand. "I hope you know that Trinity, I''ve always been proud of you. You''ve be such a beautiful and capable woman and I love you very much."


    "I love you too, Grandfather." I smiled, doing my best not to tear up and ruin my makeup.


    "You''re the perfect daughter, and the best Luna possible for this pack." Dad smiled at me. "And now, you''re going to be the best mother possible."


    "You two are going to make me cry." I sniffled as I dabbed gently under my eye, careful of the eyeliner and mascara.


    The music shifted, signalling it was time for us to proceed. I entered the clearing and saw the flowers I had picked out decorating the chairs and the arch of the altar. The blue petals on the white cloth path was strikingly beautiful and mesmerizing.


    I saw the nearly two thousand people in attendance all looking at me. I recognized some of the faces, members from our pack and the ones I had visited with Reece. I saw Dietrich sitting in the front with Mom, L, Rawlynne and Jackson. My bridal party was on top of the stone to the left side of the altar. The men, Noah, Carter, Vincent, and Riley were standing to the right. Iughed silently to myself as I thought that all but one pair of the parties were mates. Juniper would have to walk alongside Riley after the wedding. Katie, Riley''s wife, was sitting on the right side of the aisle in Reece''s friends and family section. She looked beautiful as she held their youngest baby, Alexia, in her arms. Their son Roan, was sitting in the chair next to her.


    I saw Reece, standing at the end of the white cloth path waiting for me, an alluring smile on his face. He looked sexy and drool worthy on a normal day, but now, with his hair styled and his tuxedo that added an air of elegance I had never seen from him before, he looked ten times more handsome. Looking at him, seeing him there eagerly waiting for me, made my heart flutter.


    I smiled when I saw him. I could not help it. Seeing him, knowing he was all mine for the rest of my life, that made me immensely happy.


    Michael, acting as the justice of the peace for the wedding, asked who was giving me away. The words I heard after that made me feel truly loved by my family.


    "Who gives this woman away?"


    "We do." Dad and Grandfather answered in unison before they each spoke separately.


    "I, Samuel Whitton, her grandfather."


    "And I, Wesley Whitton, uncle by birth but father in heart."


    Reece was beaming at us as he held his hand out waiting for me. I turned to Grandfather and hugged him lightly as I kissed his cheek. He hugged me back, kissing my cheek as well. Next I turned to Dad and hugged him in the same way, kissing his cheek as he kissed mine.


    Reece took my right hand in his right, wrapping his left arm around my waist as he escorted me up the steps to the altar. We stopped once we stood in front of Michael who had a happy, yet starstruck, look on his face.


    "Friends, family, loved ones, Shifters, Vampires, Warlocks, and Fae, we thank you for gathering here with us today to celebrate the marital union of our Almighty Alpha, Reece Gray, and our Heavenly Luna, Trinity Whitton. These two have been blessed by the Moon Goddess and granted eternal love. Our Alpha and Luna have written vows for each other, and I ask that they now recite them for each other. Reece, if you will." Michael''s voice carried powerfully and rang clear across the clearing.


    "Trinity, my dear sweet Trinity, there is so much that I could say. The beginnings of which are thank you for being here with me today and thank you for not giving up on our future. When I look at you, I think about the man that I want to be, the man you deserve, but I also think about the faults that lie in me. You deserve all the best the world can give and more, and I will strive every day to give that to you. I promise, from now and until the end of time, from this world and into the eternal hunt, I will never stop loving you. You are my mate, my lover, my best friend, my biggest supporter, my everything and you make me want to be stronger and better than I have ever been. I promise you, I will never do anything to hurt you, from this day forward you can always count on me to be there for you." Reece''s words rang with truth and love as he looked into my eyes the entire time he spoke. His words pulled on my heartstrings.


    "Reece, my love, you are my protector, my guardian, my savior, the light of my world, the center of my universe. Without you I would not be here today, and without you there would be no point to my life. I thought I knew what life was before I met you, but I was wrong. There is not a moment since I met you that I would change, the good or the bad. All those times, all those moments, they shaped us into what we are now. Through the trials and tribtions of (our) rtionship we have be stronger and more united. Reece, I love you, more than I can ever exin, more than I could ever understand. But what I do know, is that I don''t want a life that doesn''t have you in it. You make me stronger, wiser, and better than I could ever hope to be alone. I will love you today, tomorrow, for eternity. Reece, you are my one and only. And I know, Reece, that you will be the best, most loving father to our pups that there ever could be." I tried to put all my feelings into those words for the man that I loved.


    I was close to tears, happy ones, and while fighting to stop them from flowing I heard snifflinging those in attendance.


    "Now, if we may have the rings." Michael called out and Conner walked slowly forward, a broad smile on his face.


    "Thank you." Reece smiled as he patted Conner on the top of his head. Reece took the ring meant for me, and I took the ring meant for him.


    "Now, Reece, please repeat after me." Michael smiled and Reece nodded, taking a deep calming breath.


    They spoke, one after the other, Reece repeating everything Michael asked him to.


    "I, Reece, take you Trinity to be my wife, I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life. With this ring, I seal this promise." Reece slid the ring onto my left hand in front of the other ring there. The new ring was tinum with ck and white diamonds just like the other one. The white diamond on top was shaped like a crescent moon and sparkled in the light.


    "Now, Reece, will you have Trinity to be your wife? Will you love her,fort and keep her, forsaking all others and remain true to her, as long as you both shall live?"


    "I will." Reece was grinning happily as he answered.


    "Trinity, please repeat after me." It was my turn to repeat these words with Michael.


    "I, Trinity, take you Reece to be my husband, I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life. With this ring, I seal this promise." I slid Reece''s ring onto his hand. The tinum ring with ck and white diamonds was like mine but his ring was much thicker andrger. Instead of a special design like mine, the two different colored diamonds alternated around the ring.


    "Now,Trinity, will you have Reece to be your husband? Will you love him,fort and keep him, forsaking all others and remain true to him, as long as you both shall live?"


    "I will." I smiled happily as I gave my answer.


    "Then, with the power vested in me and before these witnesses today, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Reece, you may now kiss your bride."


    It was as if Reece had been waiting to hear those words. He tugged at my hand that still held his after I slid his ring onto his finger. That little tug pulled me into his arms. Immediately I felt his warmth envelop me, surrounding me in his familiar scent. With a hand at the small of my back and another at the side of my face he tilted my head back and leaned down for a kiss.


    His lips settled on mine and I could feel the heat restrained in them. This was a kiss in front of nearly two thousand people, my family included, so I could not give into desire, but I didn''t know if Reece could be restrained. His lips, so hot and so sweet, covered mine as he licked my lips gently. Then, like an off switch had been pressed he pulled away.


    I knew there was desire in my eyes, and I could clearly see it in Reece''s as well. But it was clear as day what message he was sending me. ''Just wait until tonight.'' He winked at me slightly as he turned me to face the crowd of people. Loud cheers was all that could be heard as everyone in attendance celebrated my wedding.

 Chapter 157 - Trinity- Reception (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 157 - Trinity- Reception (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece wrapped his arm around mine and led me down the steps off the altar. The moment we were down the steps and among the attendees we were being showered with rice. Juniper and Riley linked arms and followed us, they were then followed by the three sets of mated pairs behind them.


    The rice continued to rain down on us until we were safely in the cover of the trees. The wedding party followed us and they were then followed by the rows of attendees from the front to the back. We led the entire party back through the trees and over to where the reception was waiting for us.


    The caterers were finished setting up and on their way out just as we walked through the trees. All the caterers were human, so it would be best to have them gone before the party truly started. I watched as Juniper separated from us and went to talk to the group of men and women in white uniform shirts and ck pants before they left. The guests filing in behind us made their way to their seats, out of the two thousand guests, only about five hundred were staying for the reception. The others said their goodbyes and congrattions to me and Reece before making their way down the long winding driveway.


    Dealing with five hundred guests was a lot easier than two thousand, that was for sure. I would be expected to greet most, if not all, of them. Reece and I first made our way to the head table, where we sat directly in the center.


    The mated couples were sitting around us, even Paul and Katie joined us to sit with their mates. Mom, Dad, Grandfather, and L sat at our table as well, bringing our table''s total up to sixteen people. Ours was the only rectangr table, all the others were round and scattered around the side and back of the house.


    There were voices all around us as everyone talked excitedly. I heard some snippets of conversation amongst the chaos, most had to do with the ceremony itself. Their happy, excited talking brought another smile to my face as I watched them all settle in.


    Once they were all in their seats Riley stood up, it was time for the best man to give his speech.


    "Thank you all foring today and celebrating with me and the ones I hold dear. Reece is my cousin, but he has been like a brother to me my whole life. I love this man more than almost anyone, he only ranks below my own mate and cubs." Riley was smiling at the man about which he spoke, familial love clear and present on his face. "And recently, this brother of mine, the big oaf that he is, brought his mate to see me. I was blown away when I saw my brother with her. The changes that I had already seen in him that he hadn''t even noticed himself. He loved her, it was clear to me then and it is even more evident now. Trinity." He said my name while turning to look at me. "You are now my sister, my family, someone I will hold dear to my heart forever. I want to wee you, with arms opened wide, to my family, and ask that you be patient with this stubborn mule that''s posing as a wolf. I love the man like a brother but he can be so thick headed at times that it''s just painful to watch." Riley wasughing by the time he was done ranting. "To the happy couple." He held up his ss as he toasted us. "I love you guys." He grabbed Reece''s shoulder with a grin and shook it yfully.


    "TO THE HAPPY COUPLE!" Rang out all across the reception.


    After Riley gave his speech Noah stood up, his ss in hand.


    "I would like to add a few words. Trinity, you may have been born as my cousin, but you have been my sister for your whole life. I would do anything to protect you, even fight the alpha on your behalf." He smiled sheepishly, most likely remembering when he punched Reece in the face and broke his cheekbone. "I know that oftentimes I can be a little overprotective, especially most recently, I just wanted you to be happy. As I look at the two of you sitting here, I see just how happy you are, and I am happier than I can express that I get to be here with you. And Reece, you and I have been the best of friends since we were toddlers, and now you''ve be my brother. You already know I love you man, but you better treat my sister right, forever, because I''ll still protect her if I have to. Alright, that''s thest warning from me. I know you''re going to be happy together, you''d better be." Noahughed at the end, and several times throughout, his speech. "To your evesting happiness." He raised his ss to toast us, and everyone else raised their ss as well, echoing the words that he just said.


    "TO YOUR EVERLASTING HAPPINESS!"


    The food was served to us at the head table, once we had our food the rest of the guests were able to get theirs in a buffet style. It was all good, mostly delicious, but none of itpared to Abigail''s cooking or Mom''s home cooked meals. I sipped on juice while I ate, Reece next me along with most of the wedding party was drinking wine. Nikki, Heather, and Katie were the only other ones who were not also drinking alcohol. Heather and Katie were breastfeeding and didn''t like to drink alcohol while doing so.


    After we were done eating, the emissaries and envoys came up one by one to introduce themselves to me. I didn''t expect that this would be quite as an exciting time as it was.


    The first toe up was arge, wild looking man. He was not wearing traditional wedding attire. Instead he was wearing a ck t-shirt and dark blue jeans with a stylish ck leather jacket over it. The words grizzly screamed inside my head when I saw him, but I didn''t know how true that was until he introduced himself to me.


    "Hey ya, Trinity, I''m Trevor Jacoby, alpha of the bears for the entire western side of the country." That definitely exined the word grizzly I kept seeing inside my head. His rough gravelly voice was wild yet kind.


    "It''s a pleasure to meet you Trevor, thank you foring."


    "She sure is a beauty Reece." He grinned at me. "You sure you wanna stay with this bum? You coulde with me you know." His voice sounded like a mix of a soft pur and a low growl at the same time. I blushed at his words.


    "I''ll let you know." I joked back with him causing him tough long and loud.


    "Hahaha, she''s a keeper Reece. Keep your eyes on her or I might just steal her away from you."


    "Fuck you Winnie the Pooh, find your own girl." Reeceughed back.


    "Is this going to be a name game now? I will definitely y that with you Scrappy, unless you wanna fight for her. I can call you Spot afterwards and still take her." Trevorughed as he started walking away. "Congrats again you two. I''ll be seeing you."


    The next toe forward were the Warlocks from the magic council. They wore long silver cloak-like jackets with ck runes.


    "Master Reece, Lady Trinity, we congratte you on your union." Their leader spoke in an old fashioned tone. "I am Eldrige Hawthorn, my associates here are Henrich Asten and Lionel Fritz, thank you for your invitation. I look forward to our discussionter." They bowed and took their leave before I could even thank them foring.


    Next, a beautiful woman came up. She looked like she was in her mid-twenties and had a radiant smile on her face. Her rich brown hair, lovely tannedplexion, and bright yellow eyes gave her a very exotic look. She smiled at me as she was walking toward us from across the yard.


    Suddenly, she stopped and I heard an exhaled exmation near my table. Shane immediately stood up and was staring at the beautiful woman. A look of shock and pure bewilderment was on his face, but there was also an underlying look of happiness.


    The woman seemed to be wearing a look of shock and joy as well. Her bright yellow eyes were opened wide as she looked right at Shane while standing rooted to the spot.


    "Reece?" I whispered, asking him if he knew what was going on.


    "It looks like another of your guards has found a mate." He whispered back with a smug look on his face. "This is very good for the pack." He grinned at me before standing up to address the entire wedding.


    "Falena, it looks like this wedding has been very advantageous for you as well as me." He was smiling at the woman like he knew her. "I think this is cause for celebration, don''t you?" There were cheers and apuse ringing through the whole party after he spoke.


    "Come Lena, let me introduce you." He said, taking my hand and leading me around the table. Reece guided me along with him as he led the way over to Shane. Once Reece stood next to my bewildered guard he raised his hand and beckoned the woman over.


    Slowly, as if still in disbelief, the woman walked closer. With every step she took, the shock slowly disappeared from her face bringing back her radiant smile. By the time she stood right next to Reece and I, she was beaming at Shane. These two people, both with unique and exotic looks to them, were quite the pair to see. Shane with his gray and silver coloring and fairplexion, and this woman with her dark coloring and bright eyes.


    "Shane, let me introduce you to your mate. This is Falena Areli, a lynx shifter from the Rocky Mountains Pride. Lena, meet Shane Asher, one of my mate''s guards and an excellent fighter." The new mated pair was looking into each other''s eyes like nervous middle schoolers at their first coed dance.


    "Lena." Shane breathed her name with a sigh and smiled.


    "Shane." She smiled right back at him.


    "Let''s get you two seated together so that you can get to know each other. Lena,e by to see meter tonight or tomorrow." Reece motioned for someone with a wave of his hand and whispered to them. "Please put another ce setting at this table for our guest."


    Lena and Shane sat together, talking and leaning toward each other like they had known each other for a long time and just needed to catch up.


    "Let us continue." Reeceughed. "We have onest envoy to see." He beckoned thest group forward. There were six people, all beautiful and ethereal in appearance.


    The three men and three women moved slowly across the yard almost as if they were gliding instead of walking. They got to almost the same exact spot that Lena was at when Cedar stood up, a look almost identical to the one Shane had on his face.


    "Again?"


    "Another one?"


    "What''s going on?"


    "How is this happening?" I heard these whispers as the onlookers were just as shocked as Cedar looked.


    "It seems this is a very fortunate day. Cedar, it appears your mate is in among this envoy from the Fae. Will you all please join us up here." Reece invited the group forward. I could see Cedar looking at the group curiously, trying to figure out who in the group was his mate.


    The group moved forward, all but one was looking at Reece. A pretty young girl with bright green eyes and long ashy blonde hair was staring straight at Cedar. She had a confused look on her face.


    "This is impossible." An exotic looking man with golden eyes and a beautiful mahoganyplexion spoke with disbelief, disdain, and anger in his voice.


    "How is it impossible?" Reece smiled at the man. "This is a wonderful thing to have happen. An event so filled with love that it is spreading to those around us."


    "It is not right that one of us should mate with a shifter. We are not of the same type of people. This is not proper." His exoticly ented voice was trying to nullify everything that was happening.


    "Is the Fae Queen against a rtionship like this, Breon?" Reece asked him, slight anger in his voice.


    "She does not usually approve." The man named Breon answered.


    "I admit it has been quite some time since I have met with Gloriana, but whenst we spoke she was more open to a new world way of thinking." Dietrich stood up from the table that Cedar and Shane had both been sitting at. "I am certain that she would have no problem with the union. The Fae have mixed with humans, why not another powerful species?"


    "It has never been done." Breon told him. "You simply would not understand."


    "I understand more than you think." Dietrich smiled down at Shawn as he spoke, causing Shawn to blush under his gaze. "I have recently mated within this pack myself."


    "You, Dietrich, the leader of all vampires is allowing yourself to be sullied like this."


    "Breon! Stop this." The beautiful girl with the bright green eyes yelled. "I am certain that Queen Glory would have no problem with it at all." She was smiling at Cedar.


    "Acacia, you understand nothing."


    "I understand everything Breon. I am the one who feels what the spirits are telling me."


    "I trust in Casey." Another woman in the group chimed in. "We must follow not just our hearts, but also the whims of the spirits and gods. We are but pawns in this world for them to move at their leisure."


    "Thank you River." Acacia smiled at her, it seemed Casey was a nickname for her.


    "Is this truly what you wish to do? To lower yourself to this point?"


    "It seems to me Breon, that you are the only one with a bias here. Believe in the powers that lead us all. That is all we can do, is it not." I spoke up, unable to remain quiet any longer.


    The man Breon looked at me in disbelief. He simply was not understanding it yet.


    "How can you all not see what is happening here." He asked in desperation.


    "You have not been mated yet have you Breon?" I asked him. The man shook his head, the gleaming sunlight softening his face that had fallen in his slight embarrassment. "Then you would not understand the feeling you have when you are with your mate. The sense ofpletion, the feeling of being at home no matter where you are. You would not understand the longing you feel for that person even with the first meeting. You would not understand the sense of peace you feel when looking at them, seeing the love and adoration you feel reflected back in their eyes as well. I am sorry that you have never felt that, Breon, and I ask the Moon Goddess to help you with finding you mate soon."


    "That may happen sooner than you think." A strange, gravelly voice spoke out and rang through the entire reception.

 Chapter 158 - Trinity-Unexpected Visitors (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 158 - Trinity-Unexpected Visitors (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The slightly French ented voice brought the conversation to a screeching halt. We all seemingly turned in unison, toward the man who had spoken. There were a dozen people in long ck cloaks standing at the far edge of the yard, just under the cover of the trees near the driveway. Their scents were masked by the mass amount of guests as well as the trees. But there still seemed to be something off about their smell.


    "We seem to have new guests." Reece''s voice was calm and weing but I could also detect a certain amount of anger and leadership mixed in as well. "Who might we have the pleasure of meeting with today?"


    "Greetings to you, I am Gabriel Abadie, the Watcher from the Sentinelle, it is a pleasure to meet you, the Consort to the Goddess."


    "Can you exin a little more please? I have never heard of the Sentinelle, and I am most definitely not the consort to the Goddess."


    "Have you not married her this very day?" The man asked as he walked forward, the others followed after him.


    Seeing these unknown group of people walk forward all of my guards rose from their seats and speedily moved to stand around Reece and myself. Even Emmalee, Dietrich, Rawlynne, and Jackson joined the guards protecting us. The group stopped when they were a little more than halfway to us.


    "We mean you no harm. I am sincerely sorry for any concern our sudden arrival may have caused."


    "What exactly are you after?" Noah demanded as he stood beside Reece, taking his Beta role seriously.


    "As I have already stated, I am the Watcher, the highest authority within the Sentinelle."


    "What is the Sentinelle?" I asked the man.


    "In short, the job of the Sentinelle has been to wait, and search, for you." He looked at me with an intense look.


    "Me?" I looked around nervously. "Why?"


    "You stay away from my wife." Reece stepped in front of me protectively.


    "Again, we are not here to cause harm." Gabriel told him. "We are an organization who has been looking for the next incarnation of the Moon Goddess." These words sent a shock through the entire wedding. "You, Trinity Gray, are the new incarnation of the Goddess. This is her second reincarnation since she lived two thousand years ago."


    "I think you might be mistaken, I cannot be the Goddess." I denied.


    "What reasons do you have to believe we are wrong?" Another member of the group asked as he finally spoke up. "We Seekers search the world for the Goddess, we know that you are the one we have been looking for." This man''s voice was not quite as ented as Gabriel''s.


    "What reasons do you have for thinking she is?" Reece demanded.


    "Consort, there are many reasons. We know that she has been goddess blessed with a mark much more special than anyone who has ever been mate marked before. We know that she has powers beyond that of any normal wolf. She is a special being, brought about to make great changes and lead the wolves as the new Goddess and the Luna Queen." At these words the dozen men and women that had approached us knelt to the ground, kneeling before me as if I truly were a queen.


    A hush fell over everyone present. All I could see as I looked around those closest to me were wide eyed stares and mouths gaping open.


    "How do you know all of that?" Reece asked the group that called themselves Sentinelle."


    "Our organization has been around since the days of the original Goddess. We have been tasked with passing along the information the Goddess herself shared with her children. It is our job to awaken the power that is within the Goddess Incarnate." Garbriel sounded so sincere as he spoke.


    "Awaken it how?" Carter demanded.


    "Through training and enlightenment. We must pass on the knowledge we have kept ready and waiting for her, and help her forge on ahead. We are honored to be in your presence Goddess, and we within the Sentinelle are here to serve as your loyal subjects. We will be the first to join the ranks of your Goddess Guard."


    "Goddess Guard?" I was so confused, seriously what the hell is going on here?


    "Your personal army, my Goddess, my Queen, we are yours tomand."


    "This needs further discussion." Reece growled. "Gabriel was it?" The man lifted his head and nodded as he looked at my mate. "Please, kindly take your leave for now. We would like to finish with our festivities here. Could you pleasee back tomorrow?"


    "Yes, Consort, we will be back anytime you would like. I am sure that Queen Trinity knows exactly how to summon us." He smiled in my direction as he stood up. "Until tomorrow." He nodded his head and the twelve looming figures turned and took their leave.


    "Reece, you''re not seriously going to listen to this are you?" Noah questioned in an angry tone.


    "Drop it for now Noah, I want to enjoy my wedding day." Reece looked weary and tired after the day''s events.


    I wanted to bring things back to the main focus for the day, even though I couldn''t get the thought of those people out of my head.


    "Well it definitely has been an eventful day, huh." I chuckled lightly. "We''ve had a wedding, two matings, and an unexpected arrival. This wedding will definitely be hard to top." I stered on a fake smile that had been practiced for years, no one could see my true feelings, except perhaps Reece who was looking at me with concern filled eyes.


    Believe it or not, we did manage to get the wedding going again. Once the excitement of that little interruption settled back down we moved onto my first dance with Reece as a married couple. The dance floor, which had previously had a few couples taking advantage of it was cleared so that everyone in attendance could watch our dance.


    Reece took my hand and helped me to my feet. He unsped my cape and slid it off of shoulders. Now that I was free of the long train he pulled me along with him to the dance floor. Tugging me close to him, he wrapped his left arm around my waist while holding onto my right hand with his. I could see the love and heat filled desire in his eyes.


    The song started slow, but just at the beginning, ''Always Remember Us This Way'' by Lady Gaga began to y. Reece led me around the floor, holding me tight with a clear reluctance to let me go.


    Just as the song really got going he whispered into my ear.


    "Remember the first time we danced together?" I could practically hear the smile in his voice. I blushed at his words because I did remember, and it was also the night of another first.


    "I remember." I spoke with my face buried in his chest to hide my embarrassment.


    "I never told you this, but I was already head over heels in love with you by then." His deep, rumbling voice brought goosebumps to my arms as I shivered from the vibrations of his words moving through me.


    "I never told you, but I was madly in love with you then too."


    "I can never describe to you, or anyone, how happy I am that I got to be your first and nowst of everything. Your first dance, your first kiss, your first time, everything. When I met you, it was like I became a new man. The old me didn''t exist anymore, and this new me experienced so many firsts with you as well. I will never be able to thank the Goddess enough for bringing us together." I looked him in the eyes as he spoke.


    The words of the song had faded into the background. I could only vaguely tell that there was music still ying. I could only hear, only see, only feel Reece. Everything else in the world seemed to fade away entirely. The familiar tingle on my lips was back, the one I felt when I truly wanted to kiss this man. Reece noticed the desire in my eyes as well. He leaned down and pressed his lips to mine. Soft and gentle, yet so full of tender love. What I felt for him more than doubled with that kiss alone. It was quick and chaste, but the kiss had my heart racing like no other kiss I had ever had.


    I hadn''t truly noticed that the music had stopped, I only noticed the song was over when the apuse began to thunder around us. The sound of the hands pping brought me back to reality. Reece ran his hands along my arms until he reached my hands, which he bent and kissed the backs of before leading me off the dance floor.


    After our first dance it was time mother/son and father/daughter dances. I watched as Reece walked over to L who had a beautiful smile on her face. He hugged his mother and leaned forward to kiss her cheek. Taking her hands he led her to the dance floor.


    While I watched, Dad came up to me.


    "May I have this dance?" He asked, making me smile broadly.


    "I thought you''d never ask." I giggled at him. Dad led me to the dance floor as well and took my right hand to guide me through the steps.


    "If it wasn''t for you, Trinity, I never would have been able to walk a daughter down the aisle or have a dance with her." He had tears in his eyes as he spoke. "I still can''t believe you''re old enough for this sometimes. But you''re an amazing woman, I''d like to hope that I had something to do with that." His smile was dazzling right then.


    "You and Mom have everything to do with it." I leaned forward and put my cheek against his chest. I heard the slight snifflinging from above me and knew that he couldn''t contain the tears in his eyes any longer.


    "I love you Trinity." He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tight as we stepped and swayed around the floor.


    When the song was over, I had one more person I wanted to dance with. I took Grandfather''s hand and asked him to dance with me. I know this gave me one dance more than Reece, but I know this one was just as important to him as it was me. Grandfather had missed out on so much.


    The song ''I Loved Her First'' by Hearnd began ying. I didn''t know if the song had any special meaning to Grandfather, but I knew it was perfect to y here, because my grandfather had loved me before I was born. And aside from Dad, who then was just going to be an uncle, Grandfather was the first father figure who loved me. I knew now that he was strict only to keep me safe my whole life, and for that I would be eternally grateful. And as the song yed on, I saw the love in his eyes glistening with the tears he could no longer hold back.


    "I love you Grandfather." I smiled at him as I hugged him tight.

 Chapter 159 - Reece- Wedding Night (VOLUME 2)((MATURE))

    <h4>Chapter 159 - Reece- Wedding Night (VOLUME 2)((MATURE))</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I stood there holding my bride to my side as I watched thest of the guests leaving. Dietrich was attempting to chase after Shawn who still seemed a little shy about their rtionship. Cedar was clinging to Acacia and looking at her longingly. Shane was snuggling with his mate, Falena, under the cover of the trees. It had definitely been a very exciting day. Mostly because of the arrival of the Sentinelle that showed up unannounced. Just who the hell were they?


    I would need to figure that out before we could move forward.


    "Noah!" I called out to get my Beta''s attention.


    "Yeah?" He asked as he came toward me.


    "I want to have a meeting tomorrow, all the guards and the elders." His eyes popped open at the unexpected guest list.


    "About those people?" He asked already knowing the answer.


    "Yup." I nodded as I answered him. "Let''s n it for ten in the morning. And make sure Dietrich is there. We need as many people on this as we can get."


    "Sure, no problem." He nodded his head in agreement before going and telling the men of these ns.


    This was something that definitely deserved my full attention, but I was unlikely to give anything my full attention until after this night was over. Right now, my mind kept wandering to the beautiful woman standing next to me. It was my wedding night, and I was not going to hold back. Even just one night away left me wanting her fiercely.


    With the wedding guests gone, and our house guests staying elsewhere, we even got Mom to stay with someone else. We had the house to ourselves. I had also dismissed the staff for the day.


    It was just me and my new wife. That felt great to think and say, she was no longer just my mate but my wife. I nned on treating her like royalty, whether what those intruders said was true or not.


    After thest of the guards left, including Noah as he looked over his shoulder at me repeatedly. I scooped my bride up into my arms, which incited a small yelp from her.


    "What are you doing Reece?" She asked in a startled, breathless voice that tightened things low in my body.


    "Isn''t it tradition to carry the bride over the threshold?" I grinned at her seeing the light change in her beautiful blue eyes.


    "Is that all?" She shimmied in my arms, squirming against my body. I growled low in my throat.


    "I think you know what I want, Little Bunny. Are you ready for me?"


    "I don''t know, I should ask my husband first." She giggled.


    I felt the need driving me, pushing me to move faster. I walked swiftly toward the house, pushing the front door open with my shoulder. I didn''t pause at all as I ran up the stairs and to our room.


    I didn''t put her down at all either, I just climbed onto the bed with her in my arms. When I did finallyy her on the bed I settled myself on top of her, covering her mouth with my own. The pure bliss feeling her body stretched beneath me, pressing against me, was enough to send an explosion of fireworks inside my head and rouse my wolf all at the same time.


    Truth be told my wolf was almost always ready to go when my Little Bunny was near. The moan that my Little Bunny gave when I pulled away, breaking the kiss, was like music to my ears.


    "Reece." She said my name on that moan. "You seem so out of control today."


    "Little Bunny, I need you. Your scent, your body, you are driving me over the edge." I answered her back. The smell of apples and vani had been so much stronger on her today, intoxicatingly strong and it was fueling my desire for her.


    "Then don''t hold back, Reece, I want you, I need you." Her eyes were full of desire but still looked so innocent as shey under me.


    She reached her hands up and tugged at thepels of my jacket. I hadpletely forgotten the types of clothes we were wearing in my rush. I sat up, pulling her with me. The first thing I did was slide my jacket off, slowly as she watched, her eyes followed my every move. When the jacket was off and thrown to the side, I loosened my tie. I was giving her a show, one that I hoped she enjoyed. Judging by the look in her eyes, I''d say she did.


    Slowly, I removed the tie, waistcoat, and silk shirt until I sat there bare from the waist up. Her eyes had lustily followed my every move. I backed off the bed, pulling her with me until we were both standing.


    With my Little Bunny on her feet I slowly started to unfasten her dress. The tricky sps and confusingy of the dress held me up, but I managed to aplish it without tearing anything. I didn''t think she would like it very much if I ripped it off of her.


    My beautiful little wife now stood there in front of me wearing nothing but a pair of sexyce panties and no bra. My mouth watered at the very site.


    I gently pushed Little Bunny down to sit on the edge of the bed. My eyes locked onto her as I stepped away. She was following my every move intently. She watched me as I slowly lowered the zipper on the pants I was wearing and moved them down my hips. The show for her was not over yet.


    The small smile on her lips clearly showed her arousal. Her intense gaze was on me as I removed thestyer of cloth, that look sent heat through me. When there was nothing blocking her view, and I could feel the air on all of me, I leaned forward to kiss her once again. The feel of her lips, the heat and passion, it was always like the first time all over again.


    Tonight was going to be a first, too. Our first since having said I do. I loved the thought of that. Once my lips were on hers, our tongues tangling with each other, my tightly held control snapped with a howl from my wolf.


    I stripped off thecy piece cloth that still remained on my little mate and pushed her back against the pillows. Trailing kisses along her jaw I made my way to her neck and nipped at her ear. She shivered when my breath tickled at her neck making her body press again my most sensitive of all areas.


    No words were being spoken, but we didn''t need them. The moans, sighs of pleasure, looks of intense need and desire those were all that we needed.


    I made my way down the side of her neck, kissing and nipping at her flesh. After several bites in a row I would run my tongue along the slightly reddened skin.


    Down across her cor bone I kissed, nipped and licked my way to her breasts. The soft, supple mounds of flesh invited my attention. Latching onto one with my mouth I squeezed the other in the palm of my hand. I rolled the peak of her left breast, that dusky rose colored flesh, over my tongue and bit down lightly with my teeth. All the while, I pinched and pulled the other peak between my fingers.


    Her moans of pleasure were like barbs in my flesh pulling me closer to the limits and egging my desire on further.


    "Reece." She called my name and slightly lifted her hips to urge me on.


    Abandoning her beautifully perfect breasts I continued to move lower. Down across the belly button, the re of her hips, down to the thatch of curls and v shaped valley that was calling my name.


    I had been straddling her but I needed to change the position. With my knee I pushed her legs apart, allowing myself to settle in between her thighs. When I grabbed her hips and settled her more perfectly for me to devour I heard her excited exhtion and it just urged me on more.


    "Mmm, apple pie." I Whispered just beforepping at her core. She jerked quickly with a sharp intake of breath.


    "Ah, Reece." I didn''t know if she was asking for me to hurry or slow down but I didn''t care, I couldn''t slow down now even if I wanted to. I had to keep going.


    Ipped at her middle again causing her to squirm once more. She was much more sensitive than usual. I pushed her legs up higher and hooked her hands beneath her knees.


    "Hold on and don''t let go. Got that Little Bunny?"


    She nodded while gripping onto her legs, the sight of her holding herself open for me was so erotic and beautiful. I couldn''t help myself, leaning forward I blew onto that heated core of hers. She shivered and squirmed again.


    "Reece, please." She begged me. Far be it from me to make my wife beg me. With a grin, I went back to my meal.


    As she groaned with pleasure I explored and devoured all of her folds. Bit by bit I tasted andpped up every drop of her juices. All the while her breathing was slowly picking up speed and intensity. Her moans were near constant.


    I could tell that she was close to the edge now. I moved my right hand to her opening, finding her wet and ready. I slid one finger inside quickly followed by another. I set about creating a rhythm with my tongue and fingers.


    I sucked that little bundle of nerves at the top of her slit into my mouth and sucked hard before rolling it over my tongue. At the same time I shifted my right hand and twisted the fingers buried deep inside her. The reaction was nearly instantaneous.


    Her hip bucked, her head flew back against the pillow, and she released her hold on her legs. I felt her hands grab at the back of my head, fist fulls of my hair were in her hands. She was both pushing me away and pulling me closer while screaming through her release as wave after wave of pleasure coursed through her body.


    When the spasming stopped and her arms fell limp against the bed I was finally able to lift my head from her core, a pleased look on my face. Looking at her flushed and sweaty face was a sight to behold, but what was more intoxicatingly beautiful was the blush that was spreading down her chest over those perfect mounds.


    Slowly, ever so slowly, I moved myself to loom over her, fitting myself between her perfect thighs and cing myself at her opening.


    "Mine. My mate, my wife. All mine." I whispered in her ear just before I pushed myself forward. With a quick, hard thrust I buried myself deep inside of her tight little body. The cry of pleasure that she let loose now was nothingpared to that of just a few moments ago.


    "REECE!" She screamed my name as she clutched onto my shoulders and lifted her hips to meet my thrust.


    "Trinity." I sighed her name in return.


    Pulling back until there was just the tip remaining in her I readied myself for another thrusting invasion of her perfect body. Repeating this I set about a steady rhythm.


    Soft, warm, and weing, her body was perfect. With each thrust she raised her hips to meet me. Our bodies pped together, the sound of skin on skin, her moaning cries, and my heavy breathing were all that could be heard.


    Slowly, the steady movements of our bodies moving so in tune with each other, was pushing us both toward the edge. I felt the tightening in her body and the tingling at the base of my spine that told me we were both reaching our limits.


    I shifted, leaning over her more and draping my upper body fully over her, embracing her. The move pushed me deeper inside of her and she screamed in my ear as she fell over that ledge she was so precariously perched on. In the height of her climax, racked in spasms as it was, her soft, sweet, delicate core tightened around my shaft. The squeezing, milking sensation threw me over that ledge with her. With my forehead resting against hers I let go of my controlpletely with one final thrust, emptying myself inside of her.


    With all the spasms of pleasure done, both mine and hers, I wrapped my arms around her and rolled to the side,ying her on top of me. Slowly, trying to be gentle, I removed myself from her core. Her shuddering inhaled breath told me she was still very sensitive.


    Later, once we had rested a little I heard my Little Bunny''s stomach rumble.


    "Hungry?" I asked her even though it was obvious.


    "A little." She smiled at me as wey naked in bed.


    I pulled her from the bed, handed her a robe and pulled on a pair of lounge pants. We went to the kitchen in search of some dinner. While scavenging for food I got another strong whiff of that apples and vani scent.


    "Why do you smell so good today?" I asked her, my mouth almost watering.


    "How do I smell?" She asked me.


    "Like apples and vani, minus the scent of nutmeg but still like a yummy little pie." I purred into her ear making her blush.


    "It must be the lotion."


    "What lotion?"


    "Juniper and Nikki put it on me. It''s lightly scented to not affect us much, but it smells like apples-."


    "And vani?" I interrupted her. She nodded, unable to say more as she looked into my heated eyes. "I can have my pie whenever I want now." I joked as I leaned down and captured her mouth with mine. "I think it''s time for seconds on dessert." I felt her shiver as she grabbed onto me.


    That night, we discovered a new, much more interesting use for the kitchen table.

 Chapter 160 - Trinity- Strategy Meeting (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 160 - Trinity- Strategy Meeting (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The morning after my wedding, needless to say, I woke up feeling not so refreshed. I was tired, groggy, and pleasantly sore. All in all, it was a great wedding day, and night. All except for the unexpected visit.


    That visit was exactly why Reece and I were on our way to our home office to meet with all my guards and the elders. That made me a little nervous. What exactly were we going to do about these people?


    We got to the office after everyone else had already gathered. The office was much more crowded than usual with the sheer number of people in there. On top of Noah, my guards and the elders there was also Rawlynne, Jackson, and Dietrich in the room. Once Reece and I were in there it brought the total up to fifteen people. Every seat was being used and there were still people standing.


    Reece had settled himself behind the desk and pulled me onto hisp, freeing up my desk chair for someone else to sit in. Conveniently, or not so conveniently, he had offered the seat to my grandfather which made me nervous for sitting on Reece''sp, but there was nothing I could do about it right now. I mean, I was married to him for crying out loud, and pregnant already, they knew what was happening between us.


    The looks on everyone''s faces were serious and somber. We all had more questions than answers about the Sentinelle, well all except for Dietrich, he seemed rtively calm right now.


    "You all know why we''re here." Reece addressed the room. "I want to hear everyone''s thoughts about what happened yesterday before we summon those people back here."


    "You want us here for the meeting as well?" David asked him a little nervously.


    "I want as much protection here for my wife as possible." I looked into his eyes and saw the love he had for me and it melted my heart.


    "I agree. I do not want Trinity to face these people with too few guards around. We don''t know anything about them, that makes them a danger in my eyes." Noah added.


    "Dietrich." I called his name, drawing the attention of not only the vampire but the entire room. "Why do you look so calm about this? Do you know anything about the Sentinelle?" He didn''t look surprised by my question, on the contrary he seemed to be expecting it.


    "I have never met them myself, but I have heard of them."


    "Seriously?" Shawn looked at his mate in surprise.


    "When you have been around for as long as I have, you hear many things."


    "Just how old are you?" Shane asked him.


    "I turned five hundred and twenty eight this past November." His smile was serene and youthful looking but so full of age and wisdom at the same time. The matching looks of shock on Shane and Shawn''s faces were a bitical. I guess Shawn had not asked his true age yet as Dietrich still only looked about thirty at the very most.


    "His age is not what matters right now." Reece barked to the room. "What matters the most right now is that he is the most experienced person in this room, and he has information that we do not."


    "If I may interject for just a moment." Liam raised his hand up as he spoke almost like he was in a ssroom. "I do not know if this information is relevant, but I have heard rumors and stories about a sort of werewolf history council. They have for generations travelled the world collecting data on our people to store for record keeping."


    "Is this true?" Reece asked the rest of the elders.


    "It is." Oswald growled in his surly voice. "I just didn''t think this group would be associated with that band of weirdos from yesterday."


    "Lord Dietrich, would it be safe to assume that this group Liam speaks of is the same as the Sentinelle?" James asked.


    "I would think so. The information I have heard about them is that they keep a record of all the major events in the world, not just werewolf rted but all supernatural and human events. And they nned to share this information to the new Luna Queen."


    "How do they determine the Luna Queen?" Michael asked them.


    "I am not certain. I only know that the Luna queen was said to be reborn after a thousand years."


    "Would the title not pass down to her children?" Reece asked him.


    "I do not know the rules of such a thing. This would be better asked of the Sentinelle themselves."


    "Are you actually saying we should trust them?" Noah shouted at Dietrich''s words.


    "Noah." Grandfather spoke for the first time after having just listened this entire time. "Calm yourself. We have no choice but to hear them out."


    "Why?" Noah looked at him hurt and confused. "With everything that she has been through, how can we trust them? After what her father did."


    "We cannot deny the facts though. Think about it boy. They knew she had abilities that no other wolf does. They knew she would be able to contact them, not us, but her. Why do you think that is?" Grandfather looked serious and business-like as he spoke.


    "Her telepathy." Noah responded dejectedly.


    "Precisely, how would they know about that if not for the fact that they might be telling the truth."


    "What if someone told them and they''re lying to us?" Shawn asked offhandedly.


    "That is a possibility, but unlikely. The only people that know of her gifts are in this room. Unless one of you has told someone you were not supposed to then we can rule that out as a possibility." Everyone in the room looked around at each other nervously, wondering if someone had done exactly as Grandfather had said.


    "I know that every wolf in this room is loyal to the pack and our Luna, I do not believe any of you have shared that news with anyone."


    "What abilities does she have?" Rawlynne asked curiously. "It might help with figuring things out if I knew."


    "Further proof of what I just said. David didn''t even share the information with his mate."


    "I too would like to know about her abilities, and before you ask or say anything Shawn has said nothing to me as well." Dietrich smiled at me as he spoke.


    "I think it is wise if we tell you, it will likely help with the issue at hand, and possibly help us find the missing children." Reece looked at them. "As long as you know that this is a private matter that is not to be shared."


    "Understood." Rawlynne and Dietrich agreed right away.


    "Jackson?" Reece pressed the man for his response.


    "I agree as well, I am in this just as much as you are. Rawlynne is like family to me and if she is going to be a part of your pack now, then so am I." His deep meaningful words and insistent voice gave me a sense of peace.


    "Alright, then we shall share the info we have with you." Reece looked at me as if it was my turn to take the lead.


    I sat up straight and looked at the three neers that didn''t know what was happening. They looked curious yet serious as they returned my gaze.


    ''The first ability that I discovered aftering back home was telepathy, but there were others before that.'' I spoke in my mind to them and saw the shock and awe show on all their faces. Rawlynne and Jackson seemed nervous at hearing it but Dietrich looked excited.


    "Oooh, Trinity, you''re even more unique than I thought." He smiled at me and spoke in a very pleased and satisfied voice. The brightly lit room now seemed like it was transformed into a circus tent for me to perform, but I had to persevere and deal with it for now.


    "You know, I shouldn''t really be surprised that someone can be telepathic since there are werewolves and vampires, and from what I heard yesterday there are a lot more than just those groups." Jackson tried to sound calm.


    "Trinity, this is unlike anything I have ever heard of before. And you''re saying that you have other powers too?"


    "Yes, I do."


    "What kind? If I may ask." Dietrich inquired.


    I proceeded to detail the events of the night I first changed into my wolf and subsequently killed the remaining wolves and warlocks that were there to aid in my demise. I told them how I had been practicing these powers steadily over thest two months and about my ice wolf form.


    "So, you have a control over certain elements and you can be the ice itself?" Jackson actually looked excited now. "This is like something out of a movie or an anime, seriously how is this even possible?"


    "Honestly, I had thought it was because I was half witch." My voice held a note of regret and embarrassment.


    "There is nothing wrong with being half witch, Trinity, the greatest powers I have ever encountered have been hybrids. Mixing bloodline can make for powerful kin." Dietrich was obviously trying to cheer me up.


    "I''m not ashamed to be a half witch, not anymore. But it''s just that, how can I be a wolf goddess or queen, when I''m not a full wolf?"


    "Child, did you ever think that it is precisely because you''re not a full wolf that you are able to be what they say you are? Think about it, if you were going to make an all powerful being would you go for the status quo or break the mold?" Liam''s calming and rxed voice made me smile.


    "Break the mold." I smiled at him as I answered.


    "Precisely." James agreed. "There are too many wolves that are just like all the others, but how many are like you?" I blushed at the praise these elders were heaping onto me.


    "I agree, if I were to manifest a goddess, I would choose someone unlike everyone else. Otherwise, anyone who wanted to could just choose to be the goddess." Jackson was grinning, he was really getting into the discussion.


    "It''s possible that the magic she has exhibited in the past were goddess powers and not just witch powers, but with that aside, there is still the fact that she has a mate mark unlike any other. And, she had the ability to mark me back." Reece told the room full of people. Some of them knew of his mark, but not all of them.


    "You have a mate mark?" Shawn asked, surprised. "I didn''t know men could be marked.


    "Oh, men most definitely can be marked." Dietrich''s voice sounded seductive. His voice slipping into the ent he had made it even more sensual causing Shawn to blush bright red.


    "Yes, but my mark looks different, it''s not the pack crest."


    "What is it then?" Grandfather asked. "I knew you were marked, but I never looked at it myself."


    "It is in the form of a wolf protecting a woman, such as me protecting Trinity."


    "As if you are her guardian." Noah asked, causing Reece to nod his head in agreement.


    "What is this about her mark being different?" Rawlynne questioned.


    "My pack crest has changed. It has several wolves leaping toward the full moon instead of just one, and there is a woman descending from the moon itself." I exined.


    As if the Goddess herself ising down from the moon to her children?" Dietrich surmised from my words.


    "I had never thought about it that way." I admitted.


    "Is there anything else different?" Rawlynne added.


    "Yes, I don''t just have one mark, but several.


    "Several?" This seemed to shock most of the people in the room. I know that the elders had seen the marks on me when I was in my wolf form, so had all my guards, but they didn''t think they were there when I was out of that form.


    "Are they the same marks on you when you''re in wolf form?" Vincent inquired knowing all too well what my wolf looked like as he was there when I first shifted.


    "Yes."


    "Her marks even appear when she is in wolf form?" Dietrich asked. "Now that is definitely unique."


    "What''s more, her coloring is unique as well." Oswald growled with a smile. It was hard to tell if he was mad or not.


    "Unique how?" Jackson asked, his voice full of curiosity.


    ""Perhaps I should just show them." I said turning to look at Reece as his arms reflexively twitched around me.


    "Yeah, fine." He nodded as he released me and let me move away.


    After going into the bathroom and stripping off my clothes I shifted into my wolf form. I called for Reece telepathically to ask him to open the door. When I stepped out the bright sunlighting in from therge window reflected and glinted off of my pure white fur and sapphire blue markings.


    I heard gaspsing from the three people who had never seen my wolf form.


    "Trinity, you look beautiful." Rawlynne eximed.


    "That is so fucking cool." Jackson said excitedly.


    "Simply amazing." Dietrich added. "Looking at you like this, young Trinity, I am more inclined to believe what the Sentinelle said. You do indeed look like a Moon Goddess, and definitely regal enough to be a queen." I was thankful that I was in my wolf form and they couldn''t see me blushing.


    "I think we''ve seen enough. We have a lot we need to discuss with those people, but to be safe, let us only summon the leader here. If he agrees to that I will be more willing to trust him." Reece broke the tension in the air. I guess it was time to call the Sentinelle.

 Chapter 161 - Trinity-Meeting With The Sentinelle (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 161 - Trinity-Meeting With The Sentinelle (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Trinity, please summon the man Gabriel." Grandfather instructed. I nodded and began to focus. I had been practicing my telepathy quite a bit over thest two months and was getting quite good at it. As long as I had met the person before and was familiar with their voice and the way they looked then I would most likely be able to talk to them. As long as they were not too far away that is. I hadn''t pressed the distance issue too much, I knew I could span a distance of at least ten miles, but I never tried to go beyond that.


    I focused on the way the man appeared yesterday. The small bits of his face I had managed to see through his hood, the sound and timbre of his voice. I even focused on what he had been wearing, the ck cloak that gave him an eerie air.


    The more that I focused on him, the more that I rified his image in my mind, the easier it was for me to sense the connection. With my eyes closed, seeing with my mind''s eye, I could practically see a line forming, leading from my head to his.


    Following that mental link I spoke out to him and instantly knew that he had heard me.


    ''Gabriel?'' I called out.


    ''My Queen.'' He seemed happy to hear from me. ''I have been awaiting your message.''


    ''We have decided it is time to ask you toe discuss things with us.'' I tried to sound formal as I spoke to him.


    ''Yes, Your Highness, we will head over immediately.''


    ''We would like for just you toe.'' I informed him.


    ''I will not ask for you to exin, I can understand that in this modern time it is hard for you to trust those you do not know well.''


    ''I mean no disrespect to any of you, we simply think it would be wiser to have a smaller groupe to this initial meeting.''


    ''There is no need to worry, Your Highness, you are my Queen and I vow to follow you and yourmands.'' His words made me a little nervous, this was more than I had bargained for.


    ''If you don''t mind heading over immediately please.'' I requested.


    ''Of course, I will be there shortly. Thank you for agreeing to see me.''


    "He has been summoned." I told them as soon as I severed the connection to the man.


    "Did he agree toe alone?" Noah asked immediately.


    "Yes." I nodded my head as I answered. "He said he would follow any request I gave."


    "This guy really does think that you are his queen doesn''t he." I heard Reece''s voice, so filled with jealousy, as I stood there in my wolf form.


    Fifteen minutester, having shifted back and getting dressed, our meeting changed locations. We wanted to appear more rxed when Gabriel arrived. We had no sooner sat in the downstairs sitting room when the elders decided to excuse themselves. They said that this was not something that was any of their business and should be left up to us. They informed Reece that they would be awaiting his summons to share any information that he deemed they needed to know.


    "This is getting to be way beyond us, boy. No offense but we elders can''t handle anything like this." Oswald grumbled.


    "We''re merely an advice council, please understand." James looked embarrassed.


    "We fully understand, don''t we Reece." I smiled at them as I went to shake their hands one after the other.


    "Regardless of what they say, you are a queen in my eyes." Liam took my outstretched hand and kissed the back of it.


    No sooner had the elders left than Gabriel arrived. He didn''t seem to have driven to the house, instead he was walking toward the house from the trees at a quick but steady pace. When he was in the driveway facing the group of us at the door he stopped and knelt to the ground the same as he had yesterday. His right hand in a loose fist was ced in front of his chest over his heart.


    "My Goddess Queen." He spoke reverently. "And Sir Alpha King. Thank you for inviting me to your home. I am humbled to be in your presence."


    "Well, he seems to talk like someone who deals with a queen, or someone out of the middle ages." Shane said snarkily in a quiet voice. I could tell that Gabriel had heard him but chose to ignore his words, which was silenced with a re from Reece.


    "Please, Gabriel,e inside and let us discuss things further." Reece was speaking softly as if he was trying not to appear too out of control. I was d he was restraining himself because I knew that he had been quite upset yesterday.


    We settled into the sitting room. The room was at least twice asrge as the office and had more seating. It looked a bit old and antiquated but still so full of charm. The walls were panelled in dark wood that were polished to a shine. The floor was covered in a soft dark blue carpeting. The wood of the furniture went well with the walls and carpet and everything was either upholstered in dark blue or light grays. There was plenty of natural light from therge window wall that seemed to give the room a weing air. There was arge firece, a wet bar, and lots of seating. Aside from the few bar stools in the room, the only furniture were the sofas, love seats, and armchairs scattered around with side tables and coffee tables for ents.


    Gabriel sat in arge, high backed armchair across from the love seat Reece and I were sitting on. He didn''t seem nervous, scared, or uneasy in the least. In fact he was looking quite pleased as he smiled at me.


    "I think the first thing that we need is a few exnations. Who you are, who the Sentinelle is, and what exactly it is you want from my wife."


    "Of course, I would be more than happy to provide you with any information that you desire. I exist only to serve the new Queen." Gabriel''s slightly ented voice spoke politely as he nodded his head.


    "I will begin with my introduction. As I said yesterday my name is Gabriel Abadie, and I am the Watcher of the Sentinelle. Simply put the Watcher is the highest authority in our organization. I was born six hundred and ny years ago. I have been in position for nearly six hundred years." These words threw me through a loop because I knew he was a wolf but I had never heard of a wolf living that long. Not to mention that he only looked like he was in his early thirties.


    Today Gabriel was not wearing his cloak. Instead he wore a pair of ck dress pants and a white button up shirt tucked into the waistband. It was in, yet presentable at least. He had a fairplexion with deep auburn hair. His eyes, a bright hazel color, looked old and wise beyond the age he appeared to be. He wasn''t remarkably handsome, but he was still a good looking man with a well kept figure.


    "How is it you could be nearly seven hundred years old?" Dietrich questioned the man.


    "Ahh, Lord Dietrich, I am quite grateful to make your acquaintance as well. And to answer your question, we who devote our lives to the Sentinelle freeze in time until we are permitted to serve the next Goddess Incarnate, our Luna Queen." He seemed all too happy to exin.


    "How do people like you join the Sentinelle?" I asked him, not understanding how people applied for a job like that.


    "Young men who were nomads, men without homes, were brought to our abbey and given a chance to devote their life to our cause. If they chose to then their life was spent in the service of the future queen, if not, then they were not permitted to stay."


    "Did you often have people who refused?" David wondered aloud.


    "It was rare, but we did have a fair few who chose to walk a different path. It is not easy to know that your life will be like that of a monk waiting for a woman you will never be able to have as your own, but it is a spiritually enriching life." He was still smiling happily.


    "What do you mean by that?" I asked him.


    "We live life like we are monks. We do not seek mates. We do not live in packs. The headquarters for our organization is located in an abandoned abbey in a small vige in France. Truth be told, the vige is entirely popted by those associated with the Sentinelle. There are but a handful of women among our group, rtionships are strictly prohibited. And to be honest, once you have joined our ranks, one no longer has those desires and urges. It is part of the magic that keeps us young and strong while waiting for the Queen."


    "What exactly do you do though?" Reece asked him, a little frustrated.


    "We scour the earth, gathering information about all the living beings on the. Our Queen may need information at any time and we will be able to easily aid her in any situation no matter the country. Also, we have scouts that we send out to every country that travels around and gathers information. These scouts are specially trained to be able to sense the Goddess''s energy from a rtively close distance."


    "What do you consider rtively close?" Noah didn''t sound happy.


    "Anything within eight kilometers, but within five or less is preferential." Gabriel had yet to even let his smile falter, answering question after question happily.


    "So it is safe to assume that one of your scouts was here recently." Grandfather finally spoke up.


    "Yes, he was here just a couple weeks ago. We didn''t know that a wedding was being nned and we simply made our way to your city immediately. It took a little more than a day to narrow down our search, but when we did we headed to your location without hesitation."


    "How did you know that I have abilities and marks that are not normal?" I asked him, this was something that I was most desperate to learn.


    "It is how thest queen was. She was able to do many things and had marks unlike that of any other wolf."


    "How many queens have there been?" Rawlynne asked in a voice like she was in the interrogation room.


    "Queen Trinity will be the second. Thest, Queen Ylsa, was born one thousand two hundred and twelve years ago. She lived to be nearly two hundred years old, as did her consort, the King."


    "Did they have children?" I asked him. "If so, why weren''t her children kept in a royal line of session."


    "Unfortunately, they did not have children. No one knows why, but I suspect that thepatibility between thest queen and her mate was not as suitable for the Goddess lineage as it should have been, even though they were a mated pair."


    "Did she ever get pregnant?" I asked, now worrying about my own child growing within my womb.


    "To my knowledge, which is as vast as the crypts of the abbey, no. The former Queen and King never conceived at all. They did spread their magnanimity throughout the world of werewolves. They took in several orphaned children and raised them as their own." I looked at Reece with worry filled eyes.


    "What if the Queen were to conceive and have a child?" Reece asked the question that was shining in my eyes.


    "If the queen were to have a child that was sessfully raised, then the reincarnation cycle will be broken until her bloodline is no longer able to rule our people."


    "How do you know this?" I wanted to know more specifics.


    "Our guiding principles were handed down to us by the original Goddess herself. When she decided to no longer walk the world with her children but to mother them from afar, she left prophecies, guiding words, and directives. The original scrolls are still being protected in the abbey, though they have been copied to other mediums with the advancement of time."


    "So the moon goddess herself left instructions saying that Trinity would be a Goddess?" Jackson was in awe by this conversation.


    "In a manner of speaking, yes." Gabriel smiled at him.


    "Ok, let''s say we believe you, what exactly do you want from Trinity?" Reece was growing tired of the endless talking and was trying to cut to the heart of the discussion.


    "We would ask her to take up the crown that is rightfully hers and to lead her people."


    "And when you say people you mean-." Reece trailed off, unable to finish.


    "I mean all of us, every wolf alive now or soon to be."


    "Do we have the right to refuse?" Noah wondered.


    "Yes, and no. You will still be what you are no matter what. It will just make those of us in the Sentinelle obsolete at the current time. I guess if that were to happen we would continue on as we have until the next incarnation." This was the first time he looked less than cheerful as he spoke.


    "And if I were to ept, what does that really mean for me?"


    "Queen Trinity, you will be asked to visit us at the abbey. There we will share our knowledge with you and help you to train your abilities and unlock those that you might not know about."


    "What types of powers might those be?" I admit, I was intrigued and needed to ask.


    "It is said that all the abilities will not remain the same, but some are set in stone. Your telepathy for one. That is an ability that you have been granted to quicklymunicate your needs with your retainers and guards. Another, is you have the ability to awaken powers in others."


    "What kind of powers?" Reece looked stricken as he asked this.


    "That will depend on the person. It could be something as simple as making someone stronger or faster, or it could be something with a magical or god like ability that alters reality as we know it." I looked at Reece and knew exactly what he was thinking.


    "So, making my mate stronger, faster, and able to be a wolf made of fire would count as that type of ability?" The words trembled out of me in my nervousness.


    "Yes, my Queen." Gabriel smiled knowingly. "That would most definitely be considered an ability release." He was grinning now as he looked between me and Reece.


    "Wait, you did that?" Jackson''s eyes were shining.


    "To be fair, I don''t know how I did either."


    "This is wonderful news?" Gabriel was still grinning widely.


    "You have given us much to talk about." I looked at Reece nervously.


    "My wife and I will discuss things and sort our thoughts. Please wait until we summon you again."


    "But of course. Until we meet again." He knelt and bowed to us once more. "I thank you for your time my Queen, and you as well my King."


    When Gabriel rose David walked with him to show him out. I just sat there in shock at everything I had heard. I didn''t think I could deny it any longer. If what Gabriel was saying was actually true, then I was for certain the Luna Queen and Goddess Incarnate.


    "I think things have be quite clear." Dietrich was smiling as much as Gabriel had been.


    "I would have to agree." Shawn added.


    "I think the information we gathered was most enlightening." Grandfather was looking at me with a soft smile.


    "Even I must agree." Noah looked at me with soft, loving eyes.


    "It would exin something else as well." Rawlynne looked at me with kind eyes and a knowing smirk. "It exins why she was able to issue amand that I had to follow."


    "And why I waspelled to follow her orders over the Alpha''s." Vincent seemed like he finally understood something.


    "I guess it exins something for me as well." Reece grinned. "Luna or not, she shouldn''t be able to give me orders that I have to follow, unless she outranked me."


    "Haha, even as a King you won''t outrank your wife, she''s a Queen, and a Goddess." Shane chuckled earning a re from Reece before he too smiled.


    "I guess I really am lucky though, since I get to be second inmand of all the wolves in the world." Reece was smiling andughing lightly.


    "All hail the Goddess, Queen Trinity." Jackson smiled like he was living in a surreal dreamlike movie.


    "All hail Queen Trinity." The rest of the room echoed him in aughing tone causing me to blush scarlet.

 Chapter 162 - Another Meeting, This Time Unplanned (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 162 - Another Meeting, This Time Unnned (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It was not even ten minutes after Gabriel left when there was an unexpected knock on the door. We didn''t smell anyoneing so this was a little nerve wracking for us. My thoughts jumped to the supposed Sentinelle. Were they really out to get us after all?


    "Vincent, Noah you twoe with me, Trinity you stay here with the others." Reecemanded. I knew better than to argue with him right now.


    I listened as the three of them made their way out of the sitting room and into the foyer. The door slowly clicked open as if Reece was trying to get a feel for who was on the other side.


    "Dammit Eldrige." Reece''s voice echoed through the hall and into the sitting room.


    "Is there a problem to which we were not made aware?" I heard the old fashioned old man''s voice from the door. Sensing that the situation had been cleared of all danger I rose to my feet and walked toward the new arrivals.


    "You were there yesterday when those Sentinelle weirdos showed up." Reece snapped.


    "That was yesterday, not today." Henrichmented with a tilted head just as I entered the foyer myself.


    "Yes, but we have been dealing with them today as well." I smiled at the men. "What can we do for the magic council today?" I asked.


    "Trinity, you were supposed to wait in the other room for crying out loud." Reece yelled once again.


    "Stop yelling Reece, you''ll scare off our guests." I smiled at him as I took his hand.


    "Why didn''t you wait?" He demanded of me.


    "I sessfully ascertained that there was no threat and so I came into the hall. If there is a danger I will listen but if there is no danger I will not be held in a bubble." I ground out through teeth that were clenched in a fake smile.


    "So difficult." He whispered before turning back to our unexpected new arrivals. "Why are you here?" He barked.


    "You informed us that we would hold a meeting soon."


    "Yeah, I did, didn''t I?" Reece sighed. "Pleasee in." He held the door open for them and proceeded to guide the three men that had arrived into the sitting room we had just left.


    "Noah, Vincent please stay. Everyone else may leave. This has nothing to do with the Luna''s guard detail. Actually, Rawlynne and Jackson should stay as well. And probably Dietrich." Reece seemed to be thinking as he spoke.


    "If Rawlynne is staying then I want to stay." David spoke up.


    "I too would like to stay." Shawn chimed in as he stood next to Dietrich. I watched as Dietrich put his arm around Shawn, who didn''t pull away. It made me smile to see that they were finally getting closer, and the bright happy look in DIetrich''s eyes didn''t escape my notice either.


    "I might as well stay too, I don''t want to be the only guard left out." Shane added.


    "I will, however, take my leave." Grandfather smiled.


    "Great, only one person listened to me today." Reece grimaced. "Have I lost all authority as an alpha?" Heughed as he joked.


    "Not all, sweetheart." I smiled sweetly at him but he understood the joke.


    "Heh, it might as well be all, I can''t control you and you control them all." He ran his hand through his adorably messy hair and sighed. "Fine let''s all sit down and get to business talks."


    Once we all resettled in for another talk, Reece started us off.


    "So, Eldrige, you know what I wanted to talk to you about, but you said there was something you wanted to talk to us about as well."


    "Indeed I did." Eldrige nodded his head. "I would like to find out more about your young bride if I may. I would like to ascertain what type of magic she wields. Andstly, we of the council wish to offer our sincerest apologies to you all. The Sacramentum de Mortis has been a bane on our existence for quite some time. I am saddened to say that we were not able to control Gannon. Due to our inability he has been allowed to run rampant, there is no excuse for our shorings."


    "That''s an understatement." Noah''s snidement may have been spot on and quite funny, but I had to fight hard not tough right now.


    What exactly have you been doing about him?" Dietrich asked them with a rather unkind tone.


    "In truth, as he was banished from attending council meetings we had not kept a very close eye on him." Lionel hung his head as if in shame.


    "So basically, he had free reign to do whatever he wanted?" Shane seemed angry.


    "I would not go that far. We still havews he had to follow, if we received word that he would have broken them he would have been captured and punished." Eldrige seemed indignant, like he was not liking how this conversation was going.


    "An how do you view mass kidnappings and torture?" I snapped at him.


    "Pardon me?" Henrich looked pale at my words.


    "That''s what Edmond is up to. He kidnapped and tortured me and now he has kidnapped numerous children from our very city."


    "We had not been notified of such things." Eldrige denied.


    "Seems like you need to have a better system for watching people." Shawn growled. "If not for your unwatched rogue we would not have the current problem guing our city."


    "He''s right. It''s thanks to all of you ignoring the problem that we now have to track down a man who is capable of turning into a damn purple cloud." Reece growled.


    "If you just tried a little harder, none of those children would have been taken." Rawlynne red at the men.


    "We simply have no excuse for our actions."


    "Don''t you mean inactions?" Jackson chimed in, ring at the men.


    It was honestly getting a little painful to watch this browbeating that the Warlocks were getting. They clearly knew they had a situation that was well past FUBAR. This issue with Edmond was way past Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition. It was a hot mess that had been shattered, burned, the ashes put into water to try and form a pasty y and reform into something ugly and unrecognizable and so thoroughly different than what you wanted.


    "Ok, that''s enough. We have a lot of work to do from here on out." I interrupted the verbal beatings. "Eldrige, Henrich, Lionel, do any of you know how to track down Edmond?"


    "There are ways we can locate him, yes."


    "Then do it." Reece demanded.


    "We have been looking everywhere and have found nothing. There is no trace of him." Noah sounded dejected and angry at himself now.


    "Indeed we will. Is there anything else?" Eldrige looked like he was trying hard to make up for their mistakes.


    "What about the children?" Dietrich asked. "Can you find them?"


    "I believe we should be able to, if we have something of the children''s to help locate them with." Henrich smiled to show his willingness to help.


    "This is something we should be able to teach your Luna." Lionel added.


    "Questions and lessons about her magic will have to wait." Reece dered. "What matters now is finding the children. How long will it take to find them?"


    "It will take us maybe two days to gather the items and people we need for this type of thing. As long as you have the items from the children in two days time, pleasee to the Aerie Convento."


    "Fine, that seems like it will be doable." Reece still seemed angry but was relieved to be getting the help. "If you are only ying games, or pretending to help you will feel my wrath." Reece warned them, his eyes turning ruby red in his frustrated anger. I saw the fear sh on the three Warlock''s faces as they saw this disy."


    "We would never do such a thing. Especially not with the Goddess and her Consort." Lionel squeaked as the other two nodded.


    "You''ve been warned. We will see you in two days. If that meeting is fruitful then we may discuss what you''re wanting to talk about."


    "We thank you." Eldrige bowed his head and the three men left, this time Noah walked them out.


    "Well, that could have gone better, but this is still very good news." Shawn smiled.


    "Agreed, if they help as they say they will, then we will find the children soon." Rawlynne was looking slightly relieved.


    After the busy day I was feeling tired and definitely done with meetings. Reece, however, had one more to attend. He needed to talk with both Acacia and Falena who were both still in town. He wanted to extend them a weing hand into the pack and congratte them again. Me on the other hand, I suddenly felt fully drained of energy and needed a nap.

 Chapter 163 - Trinity- Talk With My Inner Wolf (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 163 - Trinity- Talk With My Inner Wolf (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After leaving the sitting room on the first floor I slowly made my way up the stairs. With each step I took it felt like my energy was slipping away. I staggered and swayed down the hallway, dragging my feet along behind me. I barely made it to my room and into the bed before I copsed. I didn''t know what was wrong with me, but this exhausted feeling was pulling on me strongly.


    "What''s happening to me?" I asked the empty room as my eyes fell shut and I drifted off into unconsciousness.


    I was suddenly standing in the clearing where we hold pack meetings, and where my wedding was held. It was bright, and clear of all the decorations. The midday sun was shining down on me as I squinted to see what was happening around me.


    I was confused. I knew I had just been in my bed, my eyes heavy and filled with exhaustion. But now, for some reason, I was standing outside. And to top it all of, I didn''t feel tired at all.


    I saw something shining with the sun glinting on it. Therge shape was moving toward me across the clearing to where I stood atop the stone tform. I gasped when I finally made out what the shape was.


    I watched, in awe and apprehension, as my wolf slowly and steadily walked to me. She leapt lightly andnded in front of me, her paws making no sound at all on either the grassy and rock strewn clearing or therge stone tform. Her movements werepletely silent like she was not real, not solid at all.


    "It is a pleasure to see you again." My wolf spoke to me, her mouth not moving at all.


    "I didn''t think I would ever talk to you like this again." I let my doubt show in my voice.


    "I wille to you in times of great need. When there are things that you need to understand. When time is of the essence, or when I am needed to guide you through something that you cannot traverse on your own." She sounded just as wise and serene as she did before.


    "And now is one of those times?" I asked her, causing her to nod her head in answer. "What do I need to know?" My voice held a note of desperation. "Does it have to do with the missing children? We''ve had people searching for them continuously. But there have been no traces of them or Edmond." I could feel the hurt that spread and ached throughout my body at my words of failure.


    "I believe it will help and aid you to find what you seek, yes. But to a more immediate end, it will help you to understand yourself."


    "What does that mean?" I demanded.


    "You need to trust the Sentinelle." The words she said hit me in the face, hard.


    "So everything they said, it''s-." I trailed off, unable to finish my thought.


    "Yes, young one, they speak the truth. You are the new goddess, and it is your destiny to lead your people."


    My mind reeled at her words. I felt myself spinning as I stood still on that raised rock. Had this been reality and not a dream I am certain I would have fallen over. Still, I felt the blood drain from my face with fear and nerves.


    "How is this possible?" I needed rification.


    "I chose you to be my next vessel. What the Goddess Incarnate looks like and the form the wolf takes depends on the woman chosen."


    "So, you are Nehalennia?" My eyes popped open wide revealing my surprise.


    "I am, this is not the form I had when I lived more than two thousand years ago, but it is instead the form you have given me."


    "How did I give you a form?"


    "Just by being yourself. Your wolf, the powers that will be unique to you, they all depend on you. This form shows your purity and strength as well what you are capable of."


    "What about my marks?" I asked her pointing to some of the mate marks that appeared on her left shoulder.


    "Those are some indicators of your special abilities. As you grow in power you may receive more marks as well."


    "How will I learn more powers?"


    "Start by training with the Sentinelle. They are not your enemies." She smiled. "They are indeed the children that have chosen to walk the path of servitude to the Luna Queen."


    "So they''re like ves?" I asked, appalled at the thought.


    "Far from it." Sheughed lightly. "These are men and women who chose to put their lives on hold until they could help you. When you reestablish the Goddess Guard their lives will continue. They will once again age, though slower to help match your lifespan. They will once again be able to find mates and live normal lives. This is not a punishment inflicted upon them, but rather a life they decided to live on their own."


    "Won''t any mate they were destined for be long since dead?" My heart broke for all those in the Sentinelle.


    "I choose their mates, do I not. And those around you are more likely to find their mate than others. One perk to being the goddess is spreading the happiness you yourself have."


    "So, that is why so many of my guards have mated recently?" This actually made me happy, I didn''t want to make those around me miserable. If I could spread my happiness then I would definitely do so.


    "Yes, and there will likely be several more." I smiled at her words.


    "What exactly am I supposed to do though?" I asked, still nervous about my future.


    "Listen to the Sentinelle, and your heart. Find the children, then travel to France. That is as direct as I can be with your instructions at this time. You are an extension of me, trust in your instincts. If you begin to walk the wrong path, I will once againe to help guide you."


    "I understand."


    "Just trust in yourself, for trusting yourself is the same as trusting me. The Goddess will alwaye to the right conclusion. It may not be the right choice to start, but you will understand everything in time."


    "Thank you, Nehalennia." I smiled at her.


    "That name is no longer mine. That was the name of the goddess that walked the earth. When I gave up my physical body so I may protect and watch over all my children I gave up all my earthly connections, name included."


    "So what shall we call you."


    "Moon Goddess has sufficed for a long time, and many call me Mother, names have no meaning to me as long as my children are happy and safe."


    "Onest question, if I may."


    "Please." She tilted her head telling me to continue.


    "Is it just wolves that I will be the Queen of? Dietrich said that all shifters worshipped you."


    "He speaks the truth, and you are correct, you will not just rule over the wolves but over all the shifters this world has to offer. Whether they be wolf, feline, bear, eagle, or any of the other smaller species, they are my children and now yours."


    "What if this bes too much for me to handle?"


    "Turn to those around you for help. No one ever said a Queen needed to save the world single handedly. You will always have help."


    She turned around and jumped off the stone. While she was walking slowly away from me she stopped and turned toward me again.


    "There will be many who do not trust and believe in you at first. You simply need to show them your strengths. And when you find those you trust and who believe in you, keep them close to you. Your Goddess Guard starts with the Sentinelle but you may grow itrger." With that being said she turned back and left the clearing. I was alone once more.


    I opened my eyes and felt fully rested, Even though a look at the clock told me it had not been much longer than half an hour since I copsed into bed. The exhaustion was the pull of the Goddess. I now understood that.


    I smiled to myself and sat up in the bed.


    "Thank you for your guiding support. I will do my best to live the life that you have chosen me for."


    I left the bed and went down to the kitchen. It seemed like having metaphysical meetings with the Moon Goddess left you very hungry. I had a brief curious and scary thought about if I had somehow left the room physically and went to talk to her. Or was my body stillying in bed and only my consciousness travelled to the clearing.


    Either way, everything I learned I would need to share with Reece and the others. I wonder what they would have to say about it. I hadn''t even told them about the first dream. Oh well, time will tell. I smiled to myself as I got something to eat.

 Chapter 164 - Trinity- Someone Has Been Attacked (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 164 - Trinity- Someone Has Been Attacked (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    While I was still sitting in the kitchen I decided to pull my phone out and text Reece, I wanted to tell him about my dream before we met with the Sentinelle again.


    T:Are you done with the meeting yet?:


    R:Heading home now, what''s up?:


    T:I just need to talk to you about something.:


    R:Did something happen?:


    T:Don''t panic. It''s nothing bad.:


    R:Then don''t scare me like that.:


    R:Are you feeling ok? Nothing wrong with the baby?:


    T:No Courage nothing is wrong.:


    R:Courage?:


    T:Yeah, Courage the Cowardly dog, lol. Don''t be a worry wart.:


    R:Even in texts ????:


    T:???????? Calm down Fido, you know I love you ?????????:


    R:Love you too Little Bunny ????? I''ll be home soon.:


    T:See you soon. I''ll be waiting in the office.:


    Just as I told him, I went to the office to wait. I was reading a chapter for my next ss while I waited for him. I hadn''t even been there for ten minutes when I heard three sets of footstepsing down the hall. It seemed like Noah and Vincent were with him.


    Seeing three tall, impressive figurese into a room was a sight to behold. Especially when one of those three figures was your super sexy, drool worthy, thick headed, worry wart of a husband. Just seeing him brought a smile to my face. I was sitting in the chair behind my desk and felt like a CEO about to deal with some corporate issue.


    "Now, why does this position seem right to me?" I asked them with a giggle.


    "What position is that?" Reece quirked an eyebrow as my question.


    "Me behind the desk while you threee and report to me?"


    "Already drunk with power are you, Queen Trinity?" Noah joked.


    "Ugh, that sounds so wrong." Iughed. "But unfortunately it''s exactly what I needed to talk to you about."


    "Really?" Reece asked as he came around the desk and lifted me out of my chair. Instead of sitting in his chair he took mine and put me on hisp again.


    "Seriously?" Noah asked him with a disgusted voice. "You have your own chair."


    "This is morefortable." Reece snapped back.


    "Just sit in your own chair for crying out loud." Noah seemed like he was still adjusting to seeing his baby cousin acting intimate with his best friend.


    "Fine." Reece responded to him by getting up and sitting in his chair, with me on hisp.


    "You''re an asshole, figuratively and literally." Noahughed. "Is this going to be the new thing?"


    "It helps me to think, and to calm down." Reece answered him.


    "Yeah, sure, it helps you to calm down. Just keep it PG until I''m gone. Please, I''m begging you to do that at least."


    "I''ll try." Reece smirked at him with a wink.


    "Sure you will." Noahughed as he rolled his eyes. "So Trinity, what''s up? What did you need to talk about?"


    "Well, I sort of received confirmation of what Gabriel was telling us."


    "About you being the Goddess Queen?" Reece looked suspicious. "How?"


    "Well, I had another metaphysical meeting with my inner wolf."


    "Metaphysical?" Vincent looked confused.


    "Another?" Reece asked.


    "Exin." Noah demanded.


    So, I did as Noah asked. I told them about the first dream just after my first shift and the second dream today.


    "These are dreams, Trinity. They''re not real." Noah seemed exasperated.


    "No, I don''t believe that." Reece looked at me with curious eyes.


    "I agree with Reece, these weren''t just dreams."


    "Don''t be so cynical Noah. You already know things were pretty much confirmed earlier today." I wanted him to understand me, and to trust in me. "I think what was said is the truth, and she told me that we needed to rescue the children then go to the Sentinelle. So, once they''re safe we will be going to France."


    "Oh joy." Noah scoffed. "I hate travelling." That he did. Noah was a stick in the mud, serious and tighced. Travelling didn''t suit him very well.


    "Well, the first thing we need to do is get a hold of the parents of the children and get some personal effects." Vincent brought the conversation back to where it needed to be.


    "Agreed. I will start calling them now." Reece shifted with me on hisp to grab his phone.


    "There are four of us here, you doof, split the work to make things go quicker." Iughed at him as I stared at the ck cellphone in his hand.


    "Fine, you all can help me." He took a file folder out of his desk and ced it on the top, flipping it open to the contact info page. "Move down the list and call the next one you see. Put a check next to the ones you''ve already called."


    The first number on the list was for Sammy''s family. Sammy was E''s little brother. I knew that she was hurting really bad without her brother here, but she had been doing her best to be strong.


    "I''ll call the first family." I snatched my phone and a pen at the same time.


    "Why?" Noah asked me, bewildered.


    "That''s E''s family. If there''s a chance we can find her brother then I want to tell her."


    "Fine, call the Taylors, I will call the next one." Reece put his check mark by the second name and started dialing.


    I slid off Reece''sp and walked across the room, pulling up E''s number in my contact list as I went. The phone only rang twice before she answered.


    "Hi Trinity, what''s up?"


    "Hey E, I hope this isn''t a bad time?" I asked her as I looked at the time. It was only about six,te afternoon, but it was already starting to get dark.


    "I''m just closing up the shop for the day. Mom didn''t seem up to working toote today. It''s been hard on hertely. On all of us really." I heard the sorrow in her voice, the sadness she tried so hard to hold in.


    "That''s why I''m calling really."


    "It is? You have news? Is he alright? Is he going to be ok? Please tell me he isn''t-." She was bombarding me with questions without even taking a breath.


    "Calm down E. Slow down and take a breath." I tried to settle her with just my voice.


    "You''re right." She said the words between long, slow breaths.


    "Feeling a little more calm?" I asked her.


    "A little, but I really miss him, Trinity. I wish it was me that was taken and not him." She was holding so much pain inside right now that it broke my heart to think about it.


    Just after E said those words I heard a voice growl from her side of the line.


    "Then I can make that happen." His voice felt sticky and disgusting over the phone call.


    "Who are you?" I heard her ask the man.


    "A message." Another gravelly voice answered her.


    "Leave me alone, I don''t have time for this." She sounded annoyed as she spoke to them.


    "We can''t get to your Luna, but we can get to you." A third disgusting voiceughed over the line.


    "E!" I called her name but she didn''t hear me.


    "Stop, let go of me."


    "What kind of message should we make out of her?" One of the voices said.


    "ELLA!" I screamed her name into the phone.


    "Sorry, she can''te to the phone anymore." The first disgusting voiceughed into the phone. "Want to give her a message?"


    "How about one for you instead." I snarled at him.


    "Ohhoho, really. Fine go ahead little Miss." He spoke so condescendingly.


    "Trinity? What''s wrong?" Reece came over to me after finishing his call. My outburst had alerted him that something was wrong.


    I didn''t say anything for a second. I grabbed a pen and scrawled a note to Reece on the calendar. ''Someone is attacking E. Just left the shop.'' The quick, two lined message told him everything he needed to know. I saw the understanding on his face. He grabbed his phone and keys and started toward the door, the phone already to his ear.


    "Stay here Trinity, we will take care of this." I knew that wasing so I nodded my head.


    The three of them left the room, leaving me alone.


    "I''m waiting, or are you too scared to answer?" That mocking voice spoke again.


    "Sorry, I had to calm myself down before I said something I truly shouldn''t." I tried to cate the annoying asshole.


    "Calm enough? How about you give me that message now."


    "Fine, if you''re so willing to hear it. If you touch so much as a hair on her head, if you hurt her in any way, I will kill you myself."


    "Such fierce words for a woman." The manughed. "What makes you think you can threaten me?"


    "Because I am her Luna, and it''s my job to protect her. And if I ever fail in my duties it pisses me off and makes me really wanna hurt someone." I was slipping into an improper way of talking. Grandfather would be displeased but I didn''t care, my friend was in trouble.


    "The Luna you say? Well, we were just looking for you. You know, your friend here is only in trouble because you refuse toe out and y with us."


    "Trust me, you don''t want me to y with you. It would be thest thing you ever did."


    "Don''t make meugh you stupid bitch. There''s nothing a weak piece of half breed trash like you could ever do to me." He spat the words in anger. "Let''s make the bitch sing so her Luna can hear the song we''re making with her." He spoke to someone on his side of the line.


    Just after he said these words I heard E scream out in pain or fear, I didn''t know which one.


    "ELLA!" I screamed again.


    "Didn''t you like her singing voice? It''s got potential." He growled sickeningly. "Again." He spoke to whoever was hurting E and she screamed again.


    "HELP ME! PLEASE! SOMEONE HELP ME!"


    "Leave her alone and bring your fight to me instead." I snarled at him.


    "Nah, this is getting fun." E screamed again. I could hear her sobbing quietly when the sounds settled.


    "Shit, someone''sing." One of the other men said in the background.


    "Leave her, the message has been received by the target loud and clear. Isn''t that right Luna?" He spoke so arrogantly.


    "I swear, I''m going to kill you." I ground out through my clenched teeth.


    "Freeze! Put your hands above your head." A strong, masculine voice shouted in the distance, you could tell he was running but he didn''t sound out of breath at all.


    "Bye for now Luna." The disgusting voice said just before a loud banging noise and static filled the line. Judging by the pounding footsteps could I hear I guessed that he had dropped the phone to run away.


    I heard E''s heavy, pained breathing still on the line and several sets of running footsteps.


    "Are you alright, Miss?" The new voice asked her. "You guys go after them." He said as he had clearly knelt down by her side. The other sets of steps continued running on.


    "ELLA!" I yelled into the phone again.


    "Hello, who is this?" The man picked up the phone and spoke to me after hearing my screaming voice.


    "Who are you?"


    "I am Detective Scott from the CSPD. Again, who are you?"


    "I''m E''s friend. Is she alright?"


    "It looks like she will be." I could hear sirens in the background that were getting louder as they approached E.


    "My husband called the police when I heard the men attacking her. He is also a friend of hers and on his way."


    "Really? And just who is your husband?" He seemed skeptical right now.


    "Reece Gray."


    "Reece Gray? The Reece Gray? As in the billionaire Reece Gray?" He seemed shocked at my deration.


    "Yes. E is a family friend and he is on his way to offer his help."


    "Just perfect." He didn''t sound happy. "Well, I guess you''ll know how things are with her soon enough."


    "Trinity." I heard E''s voice in the background.


    "Take care of her, please." I begged him.


    "Already nned on it." He hung up the phone then, cutting off my only connection to knowing what was happening with E.


    "E." I whispered as I looked at the phone in my hand. I needed to tell Reece everything I had heard. He needed to know what was happening and what those disgusting assholes had said and done, and that there were police on the scene already.

 Chapter 165 - Reece- To The Rescue (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 165 - Reece- To The Rescue (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "Mrs. Little, this is Reece Gray, the private investigator assisting the FBI in finding your son. We think we might have narrowed down where your son is being held, but we need to send in dogs to locate the building. For that purpose we are asking for a personal effect to track his scent."


    "Oh my God, is he dead? You need to find his body don''t you." Her hysterical voice answered as she immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion.


    "No Ma''am, I assure we are certain he is still alive. We just need to narrow down the building among those in the location we have in mind."


    "Really?" She asked me with relief in her voice.


    At the same time that Mrs. Little felt relieved I heard an outburst from my Little Bunny.


    "ELLA!" Her voice sounded worried and I saw anger and panic wash over her face.


    "Either I will be there or I''ll send someone over to pick an item up from youter today."


    "Thank you Mr. Gray, thank you so much. Please bring Jacob home to me."


    "I will Ma''am." I ended the call just as I heard another angry outburst from my wife.


    "How about one for you instead."


    "Trinity? What''s wrong?" I had walked to her side and I could feel the anger rolling off her in waves.


    Trinity didn''t answer me right away, instead she walked over to my desk and grabbed the same pen from earlier. She wrote a small note on my desk calendar. ''Someone is attacking E. Just left the shop.'' I knew instantly that she was on the phone with the attacker now and not E. I also knew she would try to keep them distracted for as long as possible. I grabbed my phone that I had sat on my desk and my keys. Seeing that something was up the others ended their calls and got ready to leave as well.


    "Stay here Trinity, we will take care of this." I told her just as I walked out of the room.


    I knew I couldn''t just shift and run there, even though that would likely be quicker. No, I had to drive as it was in the middle of a busy city street. The three of us got into the mustang and sped off immediately.


    Knowing that E was potentially in great danger I called Andrew. He was pack and a detective so he would handle this situation right away. The ringinging through the speakers didn''tst long before a voice answered.


    "Hey Gray, what can I do for you?" Andrew''s typically amiable voice sounded like it had a smile held in it. He was always a happy guy, well usually.


    "E Taylor is being attacked outside her shop right now."


    "What?" All happiness and jokes were now gone. It was time for Andrew the Detective to show his face. This version was full of determination, cunning, and a perpetually angry sounding voice. His serious mode was something to behold. "Give me all the details. Now" Sometimes I had to remind myself that Andrew was not a street cop and therefore bossed around his juniors so thatmand probably came natural to him.


    "I don''t have many details right now. Who ever is there was on the phone with my wife just now. She had called E just before the attack."


    "Do you know what they''re after?"


    "No, Trinity is still getting details from them right now." I was past the gate of thepound now and speeding toward town.


    "Does she know what she''s doing? Or is she going into this blind?" He seemed to doubt his Luna in that moment. That pissed me off.


    "Whether she''s experienced in hostage negotiations or not doesn''t matter. She will know to keep him on the phone for as long as possible. Trust in your Luna."


    "I didn''t mean to express doubt. I''m sure she knows what to do." He sounded scared. "I am on my way and I will be sending others as well."


    "Good, I''m on my way also."


    By the time I pulled onto the street of the dress shop I saw shing lights and argemotion about a half a block away from the storefront. E was most likely walking home. I knew she lived on her own somewhere close to the store and enjoyed walking to and from. I pulled the car to a stop right next to where thergest gathering of people was.


    As soon as the car was in park I was already jumping out. I saw E sitting on the ground with a man supporting her upper body. E looked as if her attackers had beaten her as well as cut her. I saw more than a fewrge bloody red lines sliced into her arms. There were also bruises all around her face and arms. There might have been more damage that I simply couldn''t see yet.


    "E?" I called out to her while I ran to her side.


    "Reece?" She seemed to be in pain and unable to stand.


    "What happened? What did they do to you?" I asked her but someone else answered instead.


    "Mr. Gray I assume?" He didn''t sound happy.


    I looked into the face of the man who had spoken. It was the man supporting her. He seemed tall, maybe a few inches shorter than me with a strong look about his face and body. His light blond hair and light brown eyes would have fit into the pack just fine if it wasn''t clear that he was human.


    "Yes, I am Reece Gray. And you are?"


    "Detective Devon Scott, CSPD."


    "Thank you for your help, Detective." I filled my voice with sincerity to show that I meant what I was saying. For some reason it appeared as if Detective Scott didn''t like me.


    "It wasn''t for you, Mister Gray." He dragged out the title into a sneer.


    "Did I offend you Detective Scott?" I asked him, starting to lose my patience as well.


    "You walk around this city like you own it. You even act like you can run the police department." He snapped at me angrily.


    "I don''t try to run the police department. I do however, try to help people. And in case you didn''t notice, Detective, I do own about sixty percent of this city."


    "See, that''s the attitude I am talking about."


    "Enough!" Vincent snapped from near my left shoulder. "E is the one who matters right now, so stop your damn pissing contest."


    After his outburst, I watched as Vincent knelt next to E, checking on her. He had been with my Little Bunny on most of her trips to the dress shop so he had gotten to know E as well.


    "Are you alright?" His voice was soothing as he reached toward her.


    "I will be." She told him.


    "An ambnce is on its way." Scott told him, the anger gone from his voice.


    "We can get her there sooner." Noah offered.


    "No, she needs an ambnce."


    "I will be alright, Detective Scott." E smiled at him. Just the sight of the look in her eyes told me all I needed to know.


    "No, E, you need to be taken care of." I wonder if he knew what he was feeling yet?


    "Fine, when the ambnce gets here I will ride with you E." I assured her, after all we couldn''t let the humans see her healing already.


    "Like hell you will." Scott yelled.


    "Will you two stop arguing?" Vincent snapped at us again. "Ask E what she wants and stop trying to decide people''s lives for them."


    "Thank you Vincent." E smiled at him but it looked like the gesture hurt her like it was painful to move her face.


    Detective Scott looked like he was five years old and just got scolded for stealing a cookie, the embarrassment and shame on his face was kind ofical.


    "What do you want to do E?" Scott asked her.


    "Since the two of you are arguing, perhaps it would be best if Vincent rode with me. I think he will be the most level headed." It was understandable for her to choose him, honestly. She didn''t know this human before her, and I was the alpha so she would be nervous. Vincent, on the other hand, was a kind and gentle person when he wasn''t needed to fight. I had seen him fight though and I knew he could be just as fierce and me.


    "Of course, I will be happy to ride along with you." Vincent told her. "How about I wrap those wounds up while we wait." He smiled amiably, making her feel at ease. I saw Scott give Vincent a very jealous look after that smile.


    "Rx, he''s very happily married with three children. And he''s definitely not the type to cheat on his wife." I patted Scott on the shoulder with a smirk.


    "What are you even talking about?" He asked me with shock written on his face.


    "Yup, just try to keep that attitude up for a little longer." Iughed as I stood up. "E, I will leave you to Vincent while Noah and I go and talk to the other officers. I want to know what happened here but I will let you rest first. Do you mind if Ie see you tomorrow?"


    "No Reece, that will be fine. Will Trinity be with you?" I could guess that a familiar face would help soothe her, also she was probably thinking about how worried Trinity was likely to be right now.


    "If you want her to be, then yes."


    "Mmhmm, thank you." I saw the gratitude in her eyes just before I walked away.


    When I left her side I went in search of Andrew. I knew he was eventually going to tell me what the hell had happened here. I found him with a small group of officers, some uniformed some not.


    "Andrew." I yelled for him. All those surrounding him were wolves from my pack or Riley''s.


    "Reece." He waved me over.


    "What the hell happened here?" I demanded.


    "Sir, it appears as if wolves under the protection of a Warlock attacked her." One of the uniformed officers answered.


    "A Warlock, huh?" I mused just as my phone started to ring.


    The disy screen showed Little Bunny''s name as the ringing continued. She would have info that we didn''t, so answering it would be helpful.


    "Hey Trinity."


    "Reece, is E ok?" Her voice held a slight note of panic. "I know the men ran away after the cops showed up. That Detective Scott sounded a little less than friendly." So, even she could tell that he was not happy with us. Did he know about us?


    "She will be alright." I assured her. "Tell me what you know about the attack."


    "Three men were there, well I heard three at least, it could have been more. I don''t know what they did to her but she was screaming and sobbing in pain." My Little Bunny took a steadying breath before continuing. "The man who seemed to be their lead said they were a message, that they were using E to send their message."


    "To who?"


    "Me." She sounded pissed about that.


    "So they''re after you and are using your friends?" I asked her, anger rising in my voice for a different reason than hers. These people were not just attacking my pack but they were targeting my mate. This had Edmond written all over it.


    "Do you think Edmond upped his game because we met with the magic council?"


    "That''s a possibility." I answered her honestly. "I will find out what I can and get back to youter."


    "Be careful Reece."


    "Now who''s the worry wart?" Iughed quietly. "I''ll be home soon."


    "Ok, I love you."


    "Love you too, Little Bunny." I smiled as I hung up the phone. "Well, you all heard that I assume. Three men, sending a message to my wife."


    "What I remember most, or am dwelling on the most, is that you called her Little Bunny. What''s that about?" Andrew grinned at me.


    "None of your damned business." I snapped at him. "Now focus."


    "Yes, Sir." He grinned again but didn''t say anything else.


    "It''s just a fucking nickname, drop it." I growled at him.


    "Alright." He was still smiling.


    "Dammit, Andrew, I''m going to knock that look off your face." Andrewughed this time.


    After theughter was settled, and Andrew was rubbing the side of his head, we got to work. I directed the wolves to search the surrounding area for any trace of their scent or clues leading to who they were. But I was already certain this was a warning message sent by Edmond to tell Trinity to stop looking for him. That Warlock was already going to die, but now I wanted to make his death slow and painful.

 Chapter 166 - Trinity- Angry, Nervous, And Waiting (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 166 - Trinity- Angry, Nervous, And Waiting (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    When my call with Reece ended I knew I would go crazy with nothing to do. Between the four of us, we had only managed to call half of the families of the missing kids. I figured I should call the rest while I waited. I didn''t even know if Reece would be home tonight with what had happened.


    It took me nearly an hour, but I called the rest of their families and obtained permission to get an item from them all so we could use it in the tracking spell. Hearing the parents go through the same cycle over and over. Nervous, afraid, apprehension filled relief, pleading, that was the order they all went through with their emotions when I called them. They all feared that we had found the likely location for their child''s dead body.


    I know I didn''t have concrete proof, but I felt that all the children were still alive and I did my best to convince the parents of the same thing. I just hoped I wasn''t wrong.


    While I was sitting there waiting for Reece toe back and tell me what had happened I got a call from Juniper.


    "Hey, I''m outside, can Ie up?" She seemed like she was upset.


    "What happened, Juniper?" I was afraid of what might have happened to her now.


    "Nothing, but Reece sent us here. He told us that we needed to be careful."


    "Us? Who else is with you?"


    "Emmalee, Heather, and Nikki." She had just listed off everyone that I had been spending time withtely. It was clear that Reece was worried about my friends and family with what was going on.


    "Yes, pleasee on up."


    "Can you let the attack dog know please, he has the house on high alert and won''t let us in."


    "Attack dog?" I was confused.


    "Shane. Him and Peter have the house on lock down and won''t let us in unless you or Reece give permission."


    "Not L?" I asked her with a hint of interest.


    "Nope, only the Queen or the King will do for them."


    "So, you believe it then?"


    "Trin, you couldn''t pay me not to. You''re special, I knew it when I met you."


    "So are you." I smiled at her. "Let me talk to Shane."


    "Here Under Dog, talk to your Queen." I heard Juniper say angrily.


    "Queen Trinity?" Shane''s voice came over the phone and the title made me want to roll my eyes.


    "Shane, why are you not letting them in?" I asked him with a hint of anger.


    "King Reece told me that the house was on lock down. It''s procedure."


    "Yes, but he also sent them here for their protection."


    "I know this, but I was not notified."


    "They notified you, did they not?" I asked him with annoyance clear in my voice. With everything going on tonight my negative emotions were getting out of hand.


    "But they didn''t have the authority. Queen Trinity, I was just doing my job."


    "First, please stop with the Queen stuff right now, I may be the Goddess Incarnate and new Luna Queen, but I don''t want everyone in my pack calling me Queen all the time."


    "But it''s your title." He seemed to be serious now, his usual yful attitude gone.


    "I know, but I have never been a royal before. But that''s besides the point, let my friends and family in. Never stop them froming in unless I tell you otherwise."


    "Yes, Your Majesty." I sighed at his annoying words.


    "See you in a few minutes." Juniper''s voice came back over the line before the call ended.


    I opened my bedroom door and stood in the hall waiting for them to arrive. I watched as they all rounded the corner together. L was with them as well.


    "Trinity." Juniper called out and ran to me. Her arms wrapped around my shoulders, hugging me tightly to her as her words rushed out of her and into my ear. "I don''t know what happened but I know it was serious." I heard the nerves rattling in her uneasy voice.


    They all deserved an exnation. Reece had called them all and told them toe to our ce for safety. In among the group was also Heather''s three small children.


    "Heather, would you like me to bring a bass into the room for Faith, and we can get Renea and Conner settled into one of the daycare rooms." I knew the kids shouldn''t hear what we were all about to talk about.


    "I don''t want them to be alone." She seemed nervous.


    "Then how about the room across the hall? We can leave the door open so we can hear them." I offered her.


    "I can look after them." L offered with a smile. "I know something major happened, but I can find outter. If you would like I can sit with them for the time being and you all can fill me inter."


    "I don''t want to burden you." Heather was visibly upset still.


    "It''s no burden, besides I need the chance to brush on being around little ones." L smiled at her as she tried to soothe her.


    "Thank you L." Heather handed the diaper bag and?baby to her. "Faith ate right before we left so she should be good for a little while. If she wakes up needing to eat juste get me."


    "Will do." L smiled at the baby in her arms, already in full grandma mode.


    Once the children were settled with L in the other room the rest of us settled into my room. The five of us were sitting in a tight circle, being close together offered afort of its own.


    "Trinity, what''s going on?" Nikki seemed scared and nervous, cing her hand over her slightly rounded belly forfort. Watching her make such an unconscious gesture reminded me that I had been doing the same thing. When I felt scared earlier I had ced my hand over my belly, feeling thatforting warmth inside of me.


    "E was attacked." They all gasped, shocked by my revtion.


    "What?"


    "No way."


    "Is she all right?"


    "By who?" They all let loose their questions at the same time.


    I told them. Everything I knew about everything that had happened this evening. I told them all of it. The anger and fear on their faces showed how much they had alle to see E as a friend as well, and how mad they were that these people were targeting my friends to get to me.


    "These assholes are going to pay." Juniper''s yelled words seemed to give the others the ability to speak.


    "I know that you didn''t have to include me in this group, but I thank you." Heather''s sweet, innocent voice was full of emotions.


    "Trinity." Nikki rubbed her belly. "We need to stay strong and protect each other." Her voice was trembling and her eyes glistened with tears.


    "Nikki, I will not let anything happen to you." I leaned forward to rub her armfortingly.


    "I''m going to kick someone''s ass because of this." Emmalee was just as fierce as Juniper in her emotional outbursts.


    "For now, all I can do is wait for Reece to get back. But I will not let any of this slide. The men who hurt E, who threaten my friends and my pack, they will pay dearly." I felt the tears begin as I sobbed. "I just wish I wasn''t still so weak, so worthless."


    "Sweetie, you''re not worthless." Juniper, sitting next me to, put her arm around me and squeezed me tightly.


    "You''re always such aforting presence, Juniper. Did you know that?"


    "Well, I couldn''t be nning to be a child therapist if I couldn''t be aforting presence for the children." She smiled at me. She may have been fierce at times, but she was still the most calming person in my life. She naturally made me feel like I was able to deal with whatever my troubles were whenever I was with her.


    "You''re a natural when ites to that kind of thing, it''s your gift." I smiled at her, letting myself sumb to her soothing aura.


    No sooner had I said those words than a blindingly bright, white light emanated from my hand where it rested on Juniper''s. There was no pain, nothing frightening at all. In all actuality, it was a soothing light. I heard the whisper of a voice as it spoke quietly yet clearly in the room.


    ''Gift granted.''


    I really had no idea what was going on, this was totally beyond me.


    "What was that?" Emmalee asked before anyone else could.


    "What does it mean ''gift granted''?" Juniper wondered.


    At their words I suddenly remembered what Gabriel had told me today. As the Goddess I had the ability to unlock and grant special powers or abilities to people. Was that what this was? Was Juniper granted an ability?


    "Do you feel different Juniper? Anything at all?"


    "No, nothing is different. At least I don''t think so." She answered me with confusion on her face.


    "I don''t like this. Why does all this have to happen to us like this?" Heather was scared. She was really better off being in a calm environment, it was my fault her life was so hectic all the time. And to top it all off she was still carrying around extra hormones from the pregnancy and was full of exhaustion from taking care of three young children.


    With Heather looking frightened the caretaker in Juniper took over. There was no hesitation in her moves as she went to her side and ced her hand on her shoulder.


    "Heather, it''s definitely tough, we all know that, but we all have mates out there who are fighting to protect all of us. We don''t doubt them do we?" Heather shook her head as she looked in Juniper''s eyes. "The world can be a scary ce, but it''s beautiful too isn''t it? We just need to look at what the positives are. You are safe. Your children are safe and happy and healthy, right? Vincent is safe, he''s alright, and he will be back soon. And he loves you and your children more than anything."


    Juniper was speaking in a soft,forting voice the entire time. And as I watched I saw a slight golden aura surround her and Heather. The aura was faint and barely noticeable, but it didn''t look like any of the others noticed it. But what they did notice was the calm, serene look on Heather''s face as she smiled sweetly at Juniper.


    "You''re right. As long as we''re all together and safe then it will all be just fine."


    "How did you do that?" Nikki asked her.


    "Juniper, you''re like a real therapist" Emmalee was in awe.


    "No, it''s more than that." I grinned.


    "What do you mean?" Juniper asked.


    "I don''t know if I was the only one who saw it because I was the one who was looking closest or because I am the Goddess Incarnate, but what she just did was beyond talking. She now has an ability, like I do."


    "You have abilities?" Emmalee asked.


    "Many of them, and one is that I can grant them to others. Juniper, I think you now have the ability to make everyonee to terms with their sorrow, fears, worries, whatever it is that is troubling them. You can bring true healing to them mentally and emotionally."


    "Wait, really?" Juniper looked taken aback.


    "Yes, and that wille in very handy when you graduate and go on to be a therapist or social worker, just like your dream."


    "I can? It will?" She still seemed shocked. "And--and you did this for me?" She was smiling happily now.


    "I don''t know how I did it, but I know that I somehow unlocked it for you. Use this ability to help others." I tilted my head and smiled at her affectionately. Juniper is like a sister to me and I would always be happy for her.


    "You know I will." She looked overjoyed at my words, like all her dreams wereing true.


    It was gettingte, and so much had happened that I was getting tired. So many meetings, so many tough phone calls, so many stressful situations, I was done with them all for the day.


    "I think it''s time to call it a night." I smiled at them all."


    "Should we head home?" Heather asked me.


    "No, you will all be staying here for the time being. If they''re targeting my friends to get to me, then you''re all in danger." I was already reaching for my phone. I could have used the phone in my room, but it was quicker to just use my cell. The person on the other end answered almost immediately.


    "Miss Trinity, how may I be of service." Peter''s calm and friendly voice came through the speaker.


    "Hello Peter, can you get someone to prepare some rooms for our guests. I''m sure Heather will be just fine in the room with the children across the hall. However, we will need a room for Nikki, Juniper, and Emmalee."


    "Yes, of course Miss, I will have them prepped right away." He was always so amiable and helpful.


    After the rooms were prepped and the girls all went to their rooms I was ready to copse into bed. Shutting off all the lights and walking to the bed was all I could do. I remembered I had gotten close to the bed but I didn''t remember anything after that. Thest of my energy drained from my body and suddenly everything just went ck.

 Chapter 167 - Reece- Reece Is Scared (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 167 - Reece- Reece Is Scared (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Once I had finished the business with the human officers. I set about my duties for the rest of the night. I called David and sent him to see Mrs. Little so he could get the personal effect we needed. Vincent apanied E but, unfortunately, so did Scott. I hoped he wasn''t as observant as he seemed to be.


    Noah and I followed the slight scent trails that were left behind, but like the street cop from earlier said it was hidden by the Warlocks. That exined why E didn''t notice someone following her. She was distracted with the phone call and they had almost no scent. These rogue warlocks were getting on myst nerve, and if I found out that the magic council was in on this then I would kill them personally.


    Now, thanks to this unfortunate turn of events my night was ruined. I was on a mock honeymoon for crying out loud. Yeah we weren''t going anywhere, but I still wanted to be with my wife more. This was getting ridiculous. All I had done today was deal with unexpected events and have meetings. That''s basically how my work days went. So much for my vacation.


    Oh well, soon this business with Edmond should be over and I can take a real honeymoon with my wife. Ahh, I loved that word. Wife, wife, wife, wife, I had a wife now. That thought brought great happiness to my heart.


    "Why are you so giddy?" Noah asked me as we were driving home for the night.


    "No reason." I lied.


    "Stop thinking of my cousin in that way while I''m sitting right next to you, you perv."


    "I''m not a perv. And who''s thinking what? Huh? I was just thinking how happy I am that I have not just a mate but a wife. Get your dirty mind out of the gutter McBarker."


    "I see you''ve picked up on Trinity''s bad habit." Noahughed.


    "I have to, otherwise she''s going to out do me every time." Iughed back.


    When we got to the house, Noah went off in the direction of the room Nikki was in. She had texted and told him which one it was. Thest message I got from Little Bunny was telling me that the females were all going to stay in the house until things were settled. I had already nned that so I expected her to think of it too. I was d we were on the same page.


    I had tried to call Little Bunny while I was on my way home, but she didn''t answer. She must have been so tired that she slipped into a deep sleep. I felt horrible, this was not the ideal way to spend the day after your wedding.


    Expecting to find my little wife sound asleep, I crept quietly down the hall. Also I knew that Heather was in the room across from mine with the kids, and Vincent was likely to be with her also. Opening the door quietly I slipped into the room and took my jacket off so I could get ready for bed.


    Just as I got to the other side of the room to hang up my jacket I saw something out of the corner of my eye. A heapying in the floor next to the bed. When I turned my head all the way I saw what it was immediately.


    "Trinity?" I called her name loudly as I ran to her side. She wasying on the floor, not moving. She was so still she almost looked dead.


    The lights were off so I couldn''t see her clearly. My heart was pounding in my throat and my ears. I heard every beat of my heart and it drowned out all the other sounds in the room.


    "Trinity, baby, what''s wrong? What happened?" I felt the pain and sorrow start to swallow me whole.


    "Reece? Is everything ok?" Vincent was outside the door, I heard his voice but didn''t register his words.


    "Get in here, and turn the light on." I ordered him.


    "Yes, Sir."


    Vincent came in the room at once, Heather hiding behind him. When they saw me kneeling on the floor holding Little Bunny in my arms they both gasped in shock.


    "Trinity?" They eximed at nearly the same time.


    "Sir, what happened?" Vincent asked me.


    "I don''t know, I found her on the floor like this. Call Griffin and get Noah, I want you two to search the area, tell me if anyone was outside the house tonight."


    "Understood." Vincent left right away, but Heather was still there.


    "Is she alright?" She looked worried, but perhaps she might have some information.


    "What all happened tonight Heather? I want to know everything."


    "You mean after we got here, right?" I nodded, encouraging her to continue.


    Heather looked nervous, but she started her exnation anyway.


    "After the children were settled into the room across the hall with L, the rest of us came here and talked. Trinity told us about E, I admit that had scared me a lot. Trinity said she felt weak and useless, but she isn''t. That would just be insane, she''s so strong."


    "What else happened?"


    "Well, Juniper made her feel better, then there was this bright white light and a strange voice that said ''gift granted''. The light scared me, and on top of everything else I was nearing a breakdown. But then Juniper soothed me with words and a warm feeling washed over me."


    "What was the light?"


    "Well." She looked nervous now as she looked away from me. "Trinity said it was Juniper being granted a new power or ability. That Juniper now has like a mental healing ability."


    "Granted an ability?" I knew that Gabriel said she could do it, and apparently she had done it for me. I was stronger and faster than I once was, and I can now turn into a fire wolf, but this? There was no light with my abilities, was there? Maybe they were granted in different ways.


    After dismissing Heather I stood with Little Bunny in my arms, being careful not to jostle her too much. I was hoping and praying that she was alright as Iid her on the bed. Just as I slid my arms out from under her my phone rang, it was Griffin.


    "Are you on your way?" I asked with no greeting or preamble.


    "Yes, I will be there soon, what happened?" I could hear the sound of the car revving in the back and knew he was already driving.


    "I don''t know, I came into the room and found her copsed on the floor."


    "Did anything happen to her today?"


    "Not that I know of. And I had the house under surveince so I do not think that anyone made it close enough to get at her."


    "I''ll check her out when I get there. Don''t worry Reece, she''s strong, she will pull through."


    "She''d better, I can''t lose her." I heard my voice crack at my words.


    "You won''t. Do you hear me, you won''t."


    I ended the call and started to wait for Griffin to get there. All I could do was go from pacing the room and sitting by her side. I knew it wouldn''t take Griffin no more than twenty minutes, max, to get here, but it was dragging by so slowly that it already felt like it had been hours.


    After what felt like five minutes I checked my watch but it hadn''t even been a full minute. Time was slowing down, it was freezing somehow. Those were the thoughts that came unburdened into my mind. Something was altering time to make my mate suffer.


    "Hang in there sweetheart. Griffin is on his way." I whispered as I knelt on the side of the bed next to her legs. I leaned forward and kissed her cheek softly. "Please, please wake up. I need you." I felt the tears prick at the back of my eyes. "I can''t live without you. You may have just be the Queen of our world, but to me, you''ve always been my Queen, my Goddess, and without you my life in nothing."


    In my sorrow I held her in my arms. I let her scent, her warmth, wash over me as I pulled her close. I couldn''t stop myself from touching her, I needed to make sure she was still there, still with me. I was worried about her, my wife, my mate, my everything, but I was also worried about the small, defenseless life growing inside of her. I now had to protect her and our child. I couldn''t fail that duty here and now. Didn''t my mark say that I was her protector, her guardian?


    "Come back to me and wake up baby, please."


    I kissed her soft lips quickly and gently, leaning over her still body and a tear ran from my eye andnded gently on her pale, soft, supple cheek. And, at that moment¡­.

 Chapter 168 - Reece- I Need Answers (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 168 - Reece- I Need Answers (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    At that moment the door burst open and Griffin came running it with Noah quickly following at his heels.


    "Any changes?" He asked me as he strode over at a hurried pace.


    "No, she hasn''t woken, moved, or even made a sound." Panic was written all over me, I knew that. I was supposed to be the one in charge here, but I was panicking like I didn''t know what to do.


    "Let me examine her."Griffin gently brushed me aside as he set to work.


    "Reece." Noah called out to me. "Come on, you need to get out of here and let Griffin work."


    "No." I snapped at him. "I need to be here for her."


    "You''re not in the right state of mind right now. You need to take a walk and calm down. Griffin will send word when he is done."


    "I can''t leave her. I promised her I never would."


    "You''re not leaving her. You''re giving the doctor the space to work. Come on." Noah grabbed my arm and pulled me reluctantly toward the door.


    "I will be back soon, Little Bunny, don''t worry baby." I called out to her as I was dragged out of the room.


    "Come on Reece, let''s do another perimeter check."


    I let Noah pull me along in my daze. I didn''t know what was wrong with my wife, if she or my baby were going to be ok. Until I knew I was going to worry like hell. I hadn''t even reached the bottom of the stairs before someone else came running up to me.


    "Reece?!" Mom called my name in a panic. "Reece what is happening?" She hadn''t been given any information yet and was scared. "I saw Griffine through, is someone hurt?"


    "I don''t know what''s wrong right now Mom, but I will tell you as soon as I do know." She could clearly see the pain in my eyes.


    "Is it Trinity? Is it the baby?" Her eyes instantly filled with tears and shook with emotion, the red rimming them probably matched my own.


    "I can''t answer that yet Mom, I''m sorry." At my words she covered her mouth and let the fear wash over her. She was just as worried about my mate as I was, of course she would be, we were a family after all.


    I went with Noah outside after that. I knew that no one had gotten to the house. Shane and David were on duty tonight and they would not allow anyone to get close. But seriously, I would need to get more guards to watch the house. I needed to double, no triple, Little Bunny''s guard detail.


    I stood there in my yard, looking out away from my house. My eyes were closed to boost my other senses. I could smell the traces of everyone that had been here recently. There were so many. The wedding was just yesterday after all, well I guess two days ago since it was after midnight now.


    I smelled all the familiar scents: Little Bunny, Noah, Mom, Vincent, David, Shane, Shawn, Dietrich, Emmalee, Riley. Those were people I dealt with often or had been around my whole life. Then there were the rest of the guests. I could smell the faint scent of the humans that had catered the wedding. I could smell the other supernaturals that had been here as well, except for the Warlocks, Trinity was still the only one who could smell them.


    Yet there among the various scents was a new one. One I hadn''t even considered: the Sentinelle. Trinity was told to trust them by the Goddess, and I trusted her. But, they were supposed to be experts on all this Goddess stuff. Could what happened to my Little Bunny be something to do with her Goddess abilities? There was no reason not to ask them.


    I pointed my nose in the direction of the trail that was strongest for that particr scent, specifically honing in on the scent for Gabriel I had gotten familiar with earlier. I started off in that direction, following the trail through the trees and down the slopingndscape.


    The trail led me into the forest outside thepound. There were ways to get to the forest without having to leave thepound but they were not easy to find and were usually guarded at all times. It was for that matter that I passed by one of the six guards that were patrolling the forest on the night shift.


    I continued on, walking further away from thepound and the city. This was stillnd that I owned. The trees went on for a while before giving way to the open, desertednd. The location of the Sentinelle camp was right before the trees gave way.


    I saw quite a fewrge structures that had been made of natural materials as well as military like tarps. There was a campfire, perfectly maintained, and everything was being kept clean and orderly. It was a better campsite than anything I had ever seen before.


    They had two men watching their borders and I was noticed long before I got to their campsite. I had noticed the scrambling of everyone present. There had been a dozen of them that showed up to my wedding, but it seemed that there were three dozen people here now.


    "Alpha King Reece." I heard Gabriel''s voice ring out as the entire group of them knelt to the ground as they had done before.


    "ALPHA KING REECE." The sound of the other three dozen people greeting me was not unlike that of my pack addressing me, it was just the title they used that I was not familiar with.


    "What may we humble members of the Sentinelle do for you this evening?" Gabriel seemed calm yet reverent, like he was used to dealing with people who awed him.


    "Gabriel,e with me." I spoke curtly. I trusted Gabriel, but not the others, not yet. I had spoken to Gabriel on a couple asions now anyway, and I didn''t want this information being spread yet.


    "Of course, your excellency." Gabriel rose to his feet and came toward me.


    "Your Highness, King Reece, what should the rest of us do?" A young sounding man asked as Gabriel walked away from the group.


    "Just go about your business as you were." I ordered him. The smile that spread across his face was relieved and ted at the same time.


    As Gabriel as I were walking away I heard that young man''s voice once more.


    "Did you see that? The king spoke to me." He sounded like a teen girl at a concert having a freak out. I wanted tough but couldn''t bring myself to.


    We had almost made it back to thepound, having walked the entire way in silence thus far, when Gabriel spoke. His words broke into my inner thoughts and worries about my Little Bunny.


    "King Reece, my liege, how may I be of assistance to you this evening?" His voice was calm and deferent, he was wholeheartedly acting like I was indeed his King."


    "Why did you switch from calling me consort to king?" I had realized the difference when he came to the house to discuss things.


    "The consort is what you were before the wedding. Technically I should not have called you that at all, so I corrected you to your true title."


    "Oh." I guess his reasoning was sound enough.


    "But surely, my liege, that was not why you sought me out in the middle of the night."


    "No, that was just something that I started wondering all of a sudden." I answered him honestly and I saw the bright smile that appeared on his face.


    "Then please, Sir, tell me the true meaning behind your visit." He was still smiling and that kind of pissed me off. If Little Bunny didn''t get better I would never smile again.


    "Something is wrong with Trinity." I told him in a t, dead sounding voice.


    "Sir?" His smile finally dropped as his face crumpled. "What happened, Sir? Please tell me."


    "I don''t know." I shook my head in desperation and despair, I needed to find out what happened, I needed answers.


    "What is it you do know, Sir? There is a chance that something in our records could hold the key." He was instantly ready and willing to help.


    "A friend of ours was attacked so I was gone and did not see anything. But she had spent the evening with some other members of the pack."


    "If you don''t mind, can you tell me what happened while they were there? I want to help my queen in any way that I can."


    I exined to him everything that Heather had told me after I had discovered Trinity on the floor. What was said, the emotions she was supposedly feeling, and the blinding light that led to Juniper being granted a power. I even told him that I knew it was the truth because Trinity had gotten confirmation.


    "Confirmation how?" He was taken aback by thatst part.


    "After our three back to back meetings early in the day, Trinity was tired and decided to nap. She said that while she slept she had a metaphysical meeting with her inner wolf. She said it was actually her talking to the original Goddess herself."


    "She is special indeed." He seemed to be in awe at my words, he was staring at the ground as we continued walking through thepound.


    "What do you mean?"


    "There is no record of thest queen having these types of meetings with the original Goddess, but that does not mean that it never happened."


    "Do you know what is wrong with my wife?" I asked him t out, no alluding, no evasions, no flowery bullshit.


    "I will know for certain when I see her, but it is possible that she is spiritually exhausted. She has not learned to control the output of her powers when she uses them and therefore may have overextended herself."


    "Could it really be that simple?" I was reluctant to believe it but still couldn''t keep myself from being hopeful.


    "It''s a possibility, but I will not know until I see her."


    "Then let''s not wait any longer." I told him, lengthening my stride and quickening my pace to move faster. I didn''t want to wait any longer than I had to.

 Chapter 169 - Reece- Gabriel Weighs In (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 169 - Reece- Gabriel Weighs In (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Gabriel matched my pace as I sped through the tree to the house. He didn''t slow down once, even when we ran through the door and up the stairs. He stayed close at my heels until I ran into the room and found Griffin looking frustrated.


    "Reece." Griffin called out to me.


    "How is she?" my voice was full of concern again.


    "Still no change. From everything that I have been able to affirm she is by all ounts healthy and shows no signs of trauma. I can''t detect any magic alteration or other cause of this issue."


    "Would you mind if I examined her?" Gabriel asked with a smile. The fact that Griffin immediately moved protectively in front of my mate, as if to ward off danger, made me proud to have such a loyal man at my service.


    "Who are you?" Griffin ground out.


    "I am the Watcher of the Sentinelle." Gabriel''s voice was still calm and collected.


    "The Sentinelle? Those weirdos that showed up yesterday?"


    "Indeed." Gabriel smiled at the description.


    "It''s alright Griffin, he is here to help and we can trust him."


    "Does that mean what they said yesterday is true?" Griffin looked shocked.


    "Yes, Griffin, it''s all true. Trinity is the Queen."


    "And that makes you the King, and the baby-."


    "Baby?" Gabriel interrupted him as soon as he heard the word.


    "Yes, the baby." Griffin smiled.


    "Trinity is indeed pregnant, Gabriel. We found outst month."


    "So she is not very far along, but she is indeed with child?" Gabriel asked to confirm.


    "Yes, I confirmed it medically myself." Griffin told him.


    "Is that your gift then?" Gabriel wondered. "You are a doctor, are you not? And your gift is to help people. Humans and non-humans alike?"


    "Yes, I guess that is what you can consider it. But I never really thought of it as a gift before."


    "You are a healer, that is a gift for sure."


    After the word gift was repeatedly mentioned, something strange happened. Simr to what Heather mentioned earlier, there was a blinding light. But it was not white, instead it was a light shade of red and it felt like a healing energy was washing over me. The light looked like it wasing from Griffin. It looked like he had swallowed a glowing red ruby and it was being filtered through his body.


    ''Gift granted.'' These words were spoken in a soft female voice just like Heather had described.


    Gabriel and I were both staring, quite dumbfounded, at Griffin as he looked shocked. How could a gift be granted if Trinity was unconscious at the time? Could she hear us? Was she still aware of everything that was going on?


    "Gabriel, am I wrong, or was Griffin just granted an ability like the ones you mentioned before?"


    "You are entirely correct, my liege, he has most definitely been blessed by our queen."


    "But what gift is it?" Griffin asked with a confused expression marring his handsome face.


    "What is your gift? Were we not just talking about that."


    "You mean me being a healer because I am a doctor?"


    "Indeed." Gabriel smiled at the man. "I''m sure you will learn your ability over time, but it seems that you will have an easier time healing your patients now."


    "Does that mean I can heal Trinity?"


    "I do not believe that she is injured at all. As you said there appeared to be nothing wrong with her."


    "Then what is it." Griffin ran his hands through his hair frustratedly causing the strands at the front to stick up a little.


    "I think that her powers are overwhelming her at the moment. She has not learned to properly control them. And after her meeting with the original Goddess in the afternoon she was more open and receptive to the powers that she has been ignoring and subconsciously pushing away." Gabriel was indeed speaking as if he were a man much older than all the rest of us.


    "Wait, how did she have a meeting with the goddess? I thought Trinity was the goddess."


    "Queen Trinity is the new Goddess Incarnate. In a manner of speaking she is an extension of the original Goddess herself but not actually that person. She is indeed still very much herself. But the Goddess chose her to be the vessel for her powers as they returned to the world for this cycle. And it seems that this incarnation is a much more suitable embodiment than that of thest one."


    "So, Trinity somehow spoke with the old Goddess?" Griffin still hadn''t grasped that concept.


    "Not in person, it was metaphysically." I told him, exining the truth of it.


    "Ahh, that makes much more sense. I couldn''t imagine a way that an incarnate and original can be in the same ce at the same time." Griffin was shaking his head as if he should have understood sooner.


    Even though he was a werewolf and a man with which magic personally moved through, he was a very rational person. If he couldn''t exin it then it didn''t happen. Magical wolf transformations be damned, to him that was a scientific reaction based on the gic make-up of our physiology. I was just d I had managed to stop him from turning into some crazy scientist, myself and my father both had. If not he would probably be dissecting us all one by one until he found out how that special transformation worked. Me, I firmly believed in magic, but I had met many Warlocks and seen it myself. Griffin spent his life studying and going to school to be a doctor.


    "Gabriel, there may be nothing physically wrong with Trinity, but exhaustion is something that people have gone to see a doctor or healer for before isn''t it? Should he try restoring her energy so she can wake up?"


    "I must admit that it is worth trying."


    "But I don''t know what to do." Griffin balked at the idea.


    "You simply must try. That is the only thing you can do."


    "You''ve gotta try, Griff, please." I pleaded with him, knowing that my eyes were full of emotion as I looked at him.


    "Hahhh." Griffin heaved a massive sigh. "I will try, I guess."


    I watched as Griffin went over to my wife''s side. My mate, my Little Bunny, wasying therepletely motionless.


    "Trust in your instincts and listen to your heart. Only when opening your heart, mind, and soul to the wisdom of the Goddess will you know your true path." Gabriel''s wise words just made Griffin nod as he stood next to the bed.


    He opened his hands above her and took a slow, deep breath. He didn''t say a word or move at all. And I had absolutely no way of knowing what he was thinking.


    As I watched him I noticed as a faint blue aura started to glow around him. Had I not been watching him so closely I would have missed it entirely. It was so pale that most eyes probably would never see it at all.


    With his hands opened over Trinity and his eyes closed, he didn''t see it when Trinity''s eyes slowly fluttered open.

 Chapter 170 - Trinity- A Surreal Experience (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 170 - Trinity- A Surreal Experience (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I felt my strength leave me and my whole body just crumpled to the floor. I couldn''t move a muscle. I couldn''t talk, I couldn''t turn my head. I couldn''t open my eyes. I was extremely tired, and exhausted to the point of passing out, but I still couldn''t fall asleep either.


    Iy there, unable to move, unable to call for help. I''m not certain how long I wasying there. In the darkness it felt like forever. I had a feeling this was like the lost state that L had been in. How she managed to survive this, to keep her sanity during something like this for seven years I would never know.


    After what felt like hours I heard the door click open.


    ''REECE!'' I screamed inside my head. ''Reece, help me.'' But of course no words could be heard.


    I could sense where he was, I could feel the changes in the room''s atmosphere as he moved. He was walking toward the closet to hang up his jacket, he should be able to see me soon.


    I heard him gasp, his sharp intake of breath told me he had finally seen me.


    "Trinity?" His voice was filled with worry, fear, and pain then I heard his pounding footsteps as he ran to me. I felt his hands as he grabbed me, gripping lightly so as not to hurt me at all. He turned me over so that I wasying against him. "Trinity, baby, what''s wrong? What happened?" He sounded close to tears as he hugged me tightly.


    Another voice entered my consciousness, a very familiar one.


    "Reece? Is everything ok?" Vincent was outside the door and his voice was full of concern. I had almost forgotten that Heather was in that room with the kids and it was only natural that Vincent woulde back here and to that room with his family.


    "Get in here, and turn the light on." Reece instructed him.


    "Yes, Sir."


    I heard the door click open and the sound of the light switch flipping, but I couldn''t sense the light at all. Usually if you''re justying in a room with your eyes closed you can still see the brightness of the light trying to push through your eyelids, lightening the edges slightly. But not this time, there was no change in what I was seeing. I was trapped in the darkness, and for some reason seeing this, or not seeing this, caused my stress level to rise.


    "Trinity?" Vincent and Heather eximed at nearly the same time.


    "Sir, what happened?" Vincent sounded scared and nervous. He was the captain of my guard and here I was probably looking dead.


    ''I''M ALIVE, GET SOMEONE TO HELP ME!'' I screamed at them inside my mind.


    "I don''t know, I found her on the floor like this. Call Griffin and get Noah, I want you two to search the area, tell me if anyone was outside the house tonight." Reece''s panicked voice was not helping my stressed feelings at all.


    "Understood." Vincent Answered.


    "Is she alright?" I heard Heather ask after a moment or two.


    ''You tell me, do I look alright.'' My snarky attitude that I usually worked so hard to hide from everyone, except Reece, wasing out in full force inside my mind.


    "What all happened tonight Heather? I want to know everything."


    "You mean after we got here, right?"


    ''No Heather, he wants to know everything that happened when I was alone without him or you.'' I sneered, then immediately regretted it. I knew they couldn''t hear me but Heather still didn''t deserve that. I was just angry about my situation.


    "After the children were settled into the room across the hall with L, the rest of us came here and talked. Trinity told us about E, I admit that had scared me a lot. Trinity said she felt weak and useless, but she isn''t. That would just be insane, she''s so strong."


    ''I am weak. I am useless. Just look at me. Look at what has happened to me. I''m pathetic. How can I be a goddess? How can I be a queen? I can''t lead or guide anyone.


    "What else happened?" Reece growled slightly when he asked.


    "Well, Juniper made her feel better, then there was this bright white light and a strange voice that said ''gift granted''. The light scared me, and on top of everything else I was nearing a breakdown. But then Juniper soothed me with words and a warm feeling washed over me."


    ''That''s right, she got an ability, and just doing that has nearly killed me.''


    "What was the light?" I seriously couldn''t believe he was focussing on that, was it important right now?


    "Well." Heather sounded scared as she spoke. "Trinity said it was Juniper being granted a new power or ability. That Juniper now has like a mental healing ability."


    "Granted an ability?"


    ''Yes my Deputy Dawg, your wife used her Goddess powers and is now as good as gone forever. Do you have to be Mr. Inquisitive like you''re Mr. Peabody or something, can''t you just try to save me like Krypto instead. Pick which doggie character is best for this situation."


    "Thank you Heather, you can go now."


    ''Seriously, have you figured it out now, Einstein. And yes you dunce, that''s a fictional mutt too.''


    After I heard the door close and knew that Heather was gone, I felt Reece stand with me in his arms. He stood up smoothly, if it hadn''t been for the shifting of his body I never would have known he had stood up. His movements were slow and smooth, like he was trying to be extremely gentle with me.


    Reece gentlyid me on the bed, and just as I felt his arms sliding out from under me I heard his phone ringing. He answered it in a hurry.


    "Are you on your way?"


    ''Wow! Not even a hello for him huh Rover.''


    "I don''t know, I came into the room and found her copsed on the floor."


    ''Oh, great, a one sided conversation where I''m missing the other half.''


    "Not that I know of. And I had the house under surveince so I do not think that anyone made it close enough to get at her."


    ''If you think someone attacked me then you''re wrong.'' I snapped.


    "She''d better, I can''t lose her." I heard his voice crack as he spoke.


    ''I don''t want to lose you either Reece, you adorable little mutt.''


    After he ended his call with Griffin he started pacing back and forth. To the bed and off into another direction, then back to sink onto the bed again and again. His sighs and exasperated sounds were getting on my nerves.


    "Hang in there sweetheart. Griffin is on his way." He whispered as he knelt on the side of the bed next to me. He leaned forward and kissed my cheek softly. "Please, please wake up. I need you. I can''t live without you. You may have just be the Queen of our world, but to me, you''ve always been my Queen, my Goddess, and without you my life in nothing."


    ''Come on Reece, you''re making it hard for me to be grumpy that I''m in this state. I never get to hear you be this honest with your feelings. I love you so much Reece, I want to be with you forever.''


    He leaned over and held me in his arms, hugging me close to his chest. It felt like he was rubbing his hands along my arms. When he pulled away from the hug he gently touched my hands and my face, it was like he was trying to remember exactly how I felt.


    "Come back to me and wake up baby, please."


    ''I want to, Reece. I really want to wake up right now.''


    I felt his lips press against mine ever so lightly, just a feather''s touch of a kiss. As soon as the kiss ended I heard the door bang open and two sets of hurried footsteps nearly running into the room.


    "Any changes?" I heard Griffin''s panicked, slightly breathless voice.


    "No, she hasn''t woken, moved, or even made a sound." Panic filled Reece''s voice.


    "Let me examine her." Griffin was right beside Reece now and I could tell he was leaning over me.


    ''Finally, if anyone can figure this out it will be Griffin.''


    "Reece." Noah called out. "Come on, you need to get out of here and let Griffin work."


    "No." Reece snapped at him. "I need to be here for her."


    "You''re not in the right state of mind right now. You need to take a walk and calm down. Griffin will send word when he is done."


    "I can''t leave her. I promised her I never would." I wanted to cry at how much pain I was causing my mate, my husband.


    "You''re not leaving her. You''re giving the doctor the space to work. Come on." Noah''s soothing voice seemed to have worked and I heard a slight calming in Reece''s breathing.


    "I will be back soon, Little Bunny, don''t worry baby." He called out to me as I heard their footsteps retreating and the door close.


    "Now, time to find out what is wrong with you. I''m going to do my best Trinity, don''t worry." Griffin''s voice was like a soothing ind in this whole messed up situation. As much as I love Reece, he was not handling this situation very well. I get he didn''t know what had happened and therefore was unable to handle it at all, but still it was not good for my sanity right now.


    I felt Griffin examine me. He opened my eyes, I felt the lids move at least, and I assumed that he shined a light into them but I still couldn''t see anything. It was entirely as if I was a conscious spirit trapped in a dead body or something.


    I felt him hold my wrist, most likely taking my pulse. He pressed a stethoscope to my chest and checked for a heart rate. But still I could only tell what he was doing after he started and it was very disconcerting.


    "I don''t know if you can hear me Trinity, but you are my Luna and the mate of a good friend of mine, I want to help you, I want to make you better, so please trust me." It was like he was asking permission to examine me.


    ''Do what you need to do, Griffin, I trust you.'' I told him even though I knew he couldn''t hear me at all.


    "I''m going to check the baby next, ok." He really was going to tell me what he was doing, like he wanted me to not be shocked.


    I felt him shift me a little on the bed, making it easier to examine me. Next, I felt my shirt slide up, he was exposing my stomach.?Then, without warning, there was a sudden rush of cold on my belly. Judging by the feel and sudden ''pfft'' noise that apanied it, I could guess he was putting that blue gel on me again.


    There was a slight pressure added to my abdomen and that same static sound as he moved the item pressing against me around. He was looking for the baby''s heartbeat. This was the first time that I realized that I couldn''t feel the baby''s warmth inside of me since I copsed.


    "Come on, where are you." He spoke softly but I heard him. I was getting nervous now.


    ''Please find it, please.'' I begged him.


    "There you are." His voice sounded relieved as the rapid beating sound came over the speaker.


    ''Thank you, oh Goddess thank you.'' I felt relief wash over me even though I couldn''t move or react.


    "So, the baby is alright, I don''t think there is anything to worry about there. I am going to examine you now."


    At these words he started to check all over my body. I was wearing a pair of shorts and a loose t-shirt so it was easy for him to do so. It was evident right away that there were no bruises on me, but it looked like he was looking for more than just bruises.


    He seemed to be checking closely. At times I could even feel his breath on my skin. Normally, in a situation like this I would feel ufortable, a man I barely knew intensely checking my body while I was for all intents and purposes unconscious. That would be creepy under most circumstances. But Griffin was a doctor, a damn good one too, and I knew he wouldn''t hurt me or Reece would kill him.


    "There are no apparent wounds or needle marks. So you weren''t attacked or drugged. Of course I will have to have your stomach contents and blood run for toxins, but they''re unlikely."


    He checked around in my hair as well, feeling my scalp and checking my hairline. There was a point when it seemed like he was smelling me. I knew it wasn''t anything sexual but that was the weirdest part of it all.


    "There is no scent of magic or drugs, no bumps, bruises, anything." He sounded frustrated. "Your pupils are not reactive, you are basically catatonic. This ispletely unexinable."


    ''Yeah, it''s a real mystery, call up Scooby and the gang, get McGruff the crime dog, do whatever you can, just get someone in here to help me.'' My annoyance was back again. Griffin wasn''t finding anything and I was getting scared.


    "I''m not going to give up, Trinity, I promise. But right now, I am stumped. I need to get you to the hospital, or at the very least my clinic so I can run more tests."


    Just after Griffin spoke those words I heard the door bang open and footsteps thunder in.


    "Reece." Griffin yelped.


    "How is she?" Reece sounded hopeful but like it was halfhearted.


    "Still no change. From everything that I have been able to affirm she is by all ounts healthy and shows no signs of trauma. I can''t detect any magic alteration or other cause of this issue."


    ''Yup, I''m healthy as can be, I just can''t see, move, talk, or do anything. Guess I''m just going to be a rag doll from now on.''


    "Would you mind if I examined her?" Gabriel''s voice startled me, was this state messing with my sense of smell too, I didn''t know he was in here until I heard his voice. Then again, I hadn''t noticed anything other than touch and sound, guess I was down to just two of the five senses.


    "Who are you?" Griffin ground out.


    "I am the Watcher of the Sentinelle." Gabriel''s voice was still calm and collected.


    "The Sentinelle? Those weirdos that showed up yesterday?"


    "Indeed." Gabriel seemed calm even with the insult.


    "It''s alright Griffin, he is here to help and we can trust him."


    "Does that mean what they said yesterday is true?" Griffin sounded shocked.


    "Yes, Griffin, it''s all true. Trinity is the Queen."


    "And that makes you the King, and the baby-."


    "Baby?" Gabriel interrupted him as soon as he heard the word.


    ''Yeah, sorry Gabe old boy, we forgot to mention that.''


    "Yes, the baby." Griffin sounded smug.


    "Trinity is indeed pregnant, Gabriel. We found outst month."


    ''You mean you knocked me upst month, even though I had just told you in January that I wasn''t ready for a baby. You''re lucky I love you and am happy about this baby you stupid over grown dog.''


    "So she is not very far along, but she is indeed with child?" Gabriel asked to confirm.


    "Yes, I confirmed it medically myself." Griffin told him.


    "Is that your gift then?" Gabriel wondered. "You are a doctor, are you not? And your gift is to help people. Humans and non-humans alike?"


    "Yes, I guess that is what you can consider it. But I never really thought of it as a gift before."


    "You are a healer, that is a gift for sure."


    I kept hearing them talk about gifts and it reminded me of granting Juniper hers. Yes, Griffin should have a gift. He is truly a healer, someone who brings peace back to others by healing their body. I wish I could give him that ability, something to make it easier for him.


    No sooner had I thought those words than I could feel a strange pulling sensation. It wasn''t pulling my body, it actually felt like it was pulling my mind and my heart. Thest of what I could hear and feel was being pulled from me.


    Once the pulling was gone I wasying there in the dark with nothing but utter silence surrounding me. I couldn''t feel anything or hear anything like I did earlier. Everything was gone now. I knew my heart was racing but I felt nothing.


    Outwardly they could see nothing of the immense fear that was gripping me. I couldn''t hyperventte, I couldn''t scream, I couldn''t even feel the rapid beating of my heart. Fear was slowly taking over my entire body with every passing second.


    Suddenly, I felt a warmth begin to spread over me. It started in my chest and moved slowly, outwardly, until it had spread to every part of my body. I could just barely sense the light that was in the room, but still there was no sound around me at all. I could however hear the pounding of my heart pulsing in my ears. I could also smell the three men who were standing in the room. I was back.


    Slowly, I tried opening my eyes, fluttering them against the bright lights in the room. I opened my mouth and took a deep breath, I could even taste the air.


    "Finally." I breathed quietly.

 Chapter 171 - Reece- Like An Answered Prayer (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 171 - Reece- Like An Answered Prayer (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    When I saw her eyes flutter open and heard that one worde from her mouth I felt like my world, that had been spinning out of control, had finally been set right. Finally, up was up, down was down, and my mate hade back to me.


    I had been standing nearby and watching the scene as it unfolded, but when she woke up I rushed forward. I threw my arms around her and pulled her close. The feeling of her arms snaking around me and squeezing me back was like heaven.


    "Thank the Goddess, you''re awake."


    "I''m sorry for worrying you, Fido." Her voice held a slight edge ofughter.


    "So you were not fazed at all." I smiled, hearing her joking words made it feel like everything was back to normal.


    "My Queen, it is good to see you awake." Gabriel interjected.


    "I''m sorry I couldn''t help you more." Griffin sounded like he was depressed by the events.


    "You did though, didn''t you?" My Little Bunny spoke to him as she pulled away from me. I was not ready to break my contact with her, so I moved around her and pulled her to sit against my side.


    "I did nothing but confirm that you were healthy." Griffin hung his head.


    "But you''re the one that actually woke me up."


    "How do you know that?" I asked her, confused that she would know this.


    "I couldn''t move, or talk, but I was able to hear and feel everything." She smirked at me. That made me remember how pathetic I probably sounded when I was waiting for Griffin to get here. Oh well, it just confirmed my love for her.


    I watched her, sitting there pressed to my side, her pale face shining like a moon among the dark wooden furniture and dark bedspread. She really did look like an extension of the Moon Goddess, she always had.


    "I love you." My whispered words brought a smile to her regal face.


    "I know."


    "So, if you heard everything, then does that mean that you know-." Griffin trailed off.


    "That you were given a goddess gift?" She finished for him. Griffin nodded, looking uncertain.


    "I guess I really should start talking to you differently, huh."


    "Oh Goddess, no!" She eximed whileughing. "Please, people that I know calling me Goddess and Queen will start creeping me out."


    "It is a title you will need to get used to, so the sooner the better Your Majesty." Gabriel gave a half bow at his words.


    "Just don''t try to rush me into, alright." She grimaced at the thought.


    "How did it happen, giving a gift while you were unconscious?" I asked her. "I know that you could hear everything but how did you grant the ability?"


    "I don''t know, I just simply agreed that Griffin is someone worthy of an ability and felt the power being pulled from me."


    "Then how was it you granted me an ability when we never experienced that light or those words?"


    "I don''t know, do you think I am an expert." She snapped snarkily at me with an irritated look in her eyes. "Maybe it''s because you were marked."


    "My King? You were marked?" Gabriel was beyond shocked at those words. The look on his face was one of utter bewilderment.


    "Yes, I have a mate mark that Trinity gave to me."


    "That is stupendous. Sincerely, it is beyond amazing. To have been marked by your Queen, one can only hope to be quite as blessed."


    "Does it mean something?" Little Bunny asked him.


    "It does indeed. It means that King Reece has been elevated to not just a mate and King. He will be able to exhibit and share in abilities simr to those you will be capable of. You have raised him to the status of something like a demi-god."


    The three of them were staring at me quite intently. I think I finally understood why my little mate kept getting embarrassed with all this Goddess and Queen stuff. I was not a regr wolf anymore? I guess I was somehow infused with her magic, her power, her aura when we simultaneously bit each other that night. But honestly, being stronger made things easier didn''t it. I could protect my family and my pack better.


    Now that I think about it, I don''t have a ''pack'' anymore. I have ''people''. Every breed of shifter in the world was under my rule. I was King, and I would need to have someone take over for me here from time to time. Still, this was my pack and it always would be. Looks like Noah will have his hands full from now on.


    "Looks like you get to be my Almighty Reece now." She winked at me. "Are you going to use those powers for good?" Her joking voice made me smile.


    "I might just use them to keep you in check." I purred at her.


    "You couldn''t control me too well before I outranked you, how are you going to do it now." Theughter that came from her was beautiful, musical, and full of evil mirth.


    "You evil Devil Bunny." I growled yfully.


    "Muwahahaha." She gave a fake evilugh.


    "Well, I''d say that it looks like you''re back to a hundred-percent now." Griffin seemed embarrassed, did we take our joking too far? Oh well.


    "Griffin?" That little devil bunny called out to him.


    "Yes Luna?" He responded deferentially.


    "I want you to remember something. I may have granted you that ability but I didn''t know I was doing it, and you''re the one who instantly figured out how to use it on your own. You were worried about me and were being very caring and gentle with me. You made certain both me and my baby were healthy. And in the end, I couldn''t wake up without you. You''re the one that used the new ability you have to wake me up. I will always be thankful for that." The smile that spread across his face at her words was filled with happiness and thanks.


    "Thank you."


    "Griffin, use the gift the Queen has given you. Abilities like yours can bring great healing and happiness to the world. Over time you will figure out all that you are capable of doing."


    "Thank you Gabriel." Griffin gave the man a smile and a nod. "I need to do some reflecting, so I will leave you for the night since it is veryte. Reece, Trinity, have a good night."


    "I shall apany you, Griffin. I believe it is time for me to take my leave as well."


    "Gabriel?" Little Bunny called after him before he could leave.


    "No worries my Queen, I know that you have epted who you are, but there is something else that is taking priority, am I correct?"


    "Yes." I answered for her. "It''s something that you might be able to help us with."


    "Then I wille back in the afternoon to discuss it with you."


    "Make it noon." Little Bunny told him.


    "As you wish."


    "Oh, Griffin, let everyone know that things are OK now, will you? Tell them we will have a meeting in the morning." I asked the man as he was walking toward the door.


    "Yes, Sir."


    With having said all that needed to be said between us the two men took their leave and left the room. Gabriel bowed before he left, Griffin nodded his head at us. This day had been nothing but a rollercoaster ride. Ups and downs, twists and turns, happiness, excitement, anger and fear. I experienced all of that in the course of just one day and I was feeling mentally and emotionally exhausted.


    "What do you say we get some sleep, Little Bunny." I smiled at my mate who was still sitting against me.


    "I sayy me down and call me sleeping beauty. I feel like I can sleep for a hundred years." She joked, the natural flow of her humor always made meugh.


    "Then let''s turn the lights out and get to bed."


    I scooped her up into my arms and walked to the light switch.


    "Why are you carrying me?" She asked me, confused by my actions.


    "After what happened today, I''m never letting go of you again." I responded quickly and smoothly.


    "Oh no. You just intensified my prison sentence, didn''t you."


    "So, being with me is like being in prison?" I faked a hurt expression and tone of voice.


    "I feel like I''m gonna be shackled to you like I''m in a chain gang or we are two escaping criminals in an action movie."


    "You can be so mean sometimes." I pouted.


    "Thank you." She batted her eyshes at me.


    When I made it to the bed I managed to unbutton my jeans and strip them off one handed, but no matter how talented I was, I wouldn''t be able to pull the t-shirt off with her in my arms. So I climbed into the bed and set her on myp while I pulled it over my head and threw it aside. Once I was in just my boxers I nestled her next to me and pulled the nket over us.


    "Hmm, look at you Mr. aggressive."


    "This isn''t me being aggressive, this is me being loving and caring." I smiled beforeying my lips against her forehead for a quick kiss. "Now, be quiet, hug me, and sleep."


    "Oh, yes Sir, Mr. King, Sir. I will be certain to do just that." Her words were mocking but she did as I asked. She wrapped her arms around my neck, nestled against my chest and closed her eyes. She was asleep in under a minute. She really was exhausted too. Iid a gentle kiss against her hair and whispered one word.


    "Mine."

 Chapter 172 - Trinity- My First Morning As A Goddess And A Queen (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 172 - Trinity- My First Morning As A Goddess And A Queen (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Thankfully I slept soundly. I fell asleep snuggled in Reece''s arms and woke up the same way. And I was d that I didn''t have any dreams at all. It waspletely calm and serenepared to the rest of that day.


    After my oh so eventful day, I expected to sleepte, so I was not surprised when I didn''t wake up until almost ten in the morning. Reece had still been there with me as well, snuggling me happily. After waking I was too hungry to shower first before breakfast, I needed food in me.


    The first thing that we nned to do after breakfast that morning was send David and Rawlynne to collect the personal effects of the missing children. We needed to get one for everyone of them just in case they were being kept in separate locations.


    The Warlocks had already left and returned to the Aerie Convento, which I had learned was the name of the magic council''s headquarters. Reece and I, along with a proper amount of guards, would be traveling there tomorrow so the search for the missing kids could finallymence.


    I admit that I have been busy the past month, but we didn''t abandon the kids at all. Half of the pack warriors have been traveling all around the country looking for any trace of Edmond and the missing kids. The problem is, if someone was actively covering their tracks it would be so much easier to hide from us. Most wolves could not smell the trails left behind by a Warlock.


    That was something I wish I could take care of. My warriors needed to level up, so to speak. I would have to figure that out at some point. I couldn''t leave them so ill prepared.


    I was now sitting in the kitchen, eating arge te of pancakes and bacon, and don''t forget my favorite poached eggs on the side. I had almost forgotten that Juniper had been here all night when she came walking into the room.


    "Hey, d to see you''re doing good today. After all thatmotionst night I was worried about you." She called out to me as she went to sit in the chair.


    "Hey Juniper, sorry to worry you." I was embarrassed that everyone knew what had happened by now. How weak it made me sound.


    "No, don''t sweat it. Gabriel and Giffin came and told us all that it was because you''re not used to your Goddess powers. It was my fault wasn''t it?" She looked sad, and her eyes were filled with guilt. "It''s because you granted me that ability that you ended up sick, right?" I saw tears in her eyes and I just had to stop her.


    "Absolutely not, Juniper, it is not your fault." I put as much sincerity into my words as I could. Those bright green eyes of her were usually filled with just joy and an intensity for life, so seeing her so upset was causing me physical pain. "Juniper, what happened to me was because I was not fully epting my Goddess powers before. In all fairness I didn''t know about them, but my body has not had a chance to adjust to them and therefore using thempletely drained me of all my energy."


    Are you sure that it is not my fault?" She still looked sad.


    "Yes, Juniper, I am sure. Plus, you deserved that ability. It was inside you already anyway. All I did was help to bring it out."


    "Really?" She smiled like those words made her really happy.


    "Yeah." I nodded at her. "And like Gabriel told Griffinst night, keep using it and learning more about it so that you can discover the true extent of your abilities."


    "I really don''t think there will be much use for it, honestly. Yeah, it can help calm people down when they''re upset, but what else is it good for?"


    "I have an idea for it, but I''ll tell you about itter. Do you feel likeing on a trip with us tomorrow?"


    "A trip?" She was confused since I hadn''t told her about the rescue mission we would be going on soon.


    "Yeah, it has a purpose, but I will tell you about itter."


    Throughout the whole conversation with Juniper, Reece had sat there eating his breakfast in silence, listening to us talk. I honestly didn''t think he could keep his mouth shut for this long so I was kind of shocked. As I looked at him during a momentary lull in the conversation his phone rang.


    "Hmm, what does Griffin want?" He mused as he stood up. "I''ll take the call in the other room so you two can keep talking." He kissed the top of my head as he walked by. "I''ll see youter Juniper." With that he walked out of the kitchen and toward the sitting room across the house from us.


    "So, uh, Trinity." Juniper was looking nervous as she spoke. "Now that Reece is gone, there is something that I want to talk to you about."


    "What?" She looked so embarrassed that I couldn''t help but have a smirk on my face and augh in my voice.


    "So, I woke up this morning with a strange mark on me." Her eyes were darting around, side to side, as if she was afraid someone would hear.


    "What kind of mark?" I was intrigued but didn''t know if this was a joking matter or not.


    "Well, it almost looks like a tattoo." She smirked now. "But I definitely didn''t go and get onest night."


    "What is it? Is it embarrassing?" Iughed trying to lighten the mood.


    "Not really embarrassing, no. But I didn''t have it before."


    "Come on, just spit it out, Juniper. What''s the big deal? You''ve seen my marks before."


    "Those are mate marks, they''re different."


    "Actually, they''re goddess marks, apparently. I got them when I was fully mate marked, but they''re symbols of my powers."


    "Huh, I didn''t know that." She tried changing the subject, I could tell what she was doing and I wasn''t going to let it slide.


    "Neither did I til yesterday, but we''re talking about you, not me." I fixed her with a firm look. "What kind of mark is it Juniper?"


    "Just, look for yourself." She snapped at me and pulled the cor of her t-shirt to the side.


    When she revealed her cor bone to me I saw a mark about half the size of my fist. It was a sapphire blue paw print with a silver crescent moon to the left of it, well left in my view but on her right side. The crescent moon was thin and went from the middle of top of the paw print to the bottom middle, half encircling it.


    "That''s, interesting." I only slightly paused as I was saying these words.


    "I''ve never seen it before, and it definitely wasn''t therest night."


    "Do you think that maybe, me granting you that power somehow, you know." I couldn''t fully form that thought to even ask the question. Did I leave that mark on her? I didn''t know if I would ever find out for certain.


    "Do you think it''s possible?" She asked me. "It''s the only thing I can think of."


    "I guess it''s possible. But what would it mean?" Gabriel said me marking Reece made him special, but this was different. Wasn''t it? I mate marked Reece, we shared power between us, this was just a tattoo after getting an ability.


    "It''s kind of strange to just wake up with it, but it''s pretty cool too. Don''t you think so?"


    "Yeah, it''s interesting." I smiled at her as I tried to wrap my head around the idea of putting a mystical tattoo on my best friend''s cor bone. It was surreal.


    "I''m gonna get going. I need to call Paul."


    "He cane stay here too you know."


    "I know that, now. But yesterday I didn''t know that I would be staying here, so I sent him to spend the night with Cedar. Anyway, I''ll talk to youter."


    With that, she left the room just as Reece came back in.


    "So, uh, Griffin told me something strange."


    "Really? Like what?"


    "He woke up with a tattoo."


    "A paw print and a crescent moon? On his cor bone?"


    "How did you know that?" He looked shocked.


    "Guess who else told me they have one."


    "So, it''s because of the powers you gave them?"


    "Seems like it." This was going to be interesting. I needed to talk to Gabriel about this right away. I just wonder what he had to say. Was this kind of thing normal? Could this be something he would have a record of? What exactly am I capable of now that I was the goddess? I guess I had to wait and find out, like they say ''time will tell''. I just hated waiting.


    When I went back upstairs to take my shower, Reece tagging along, The first thing I noticed when I took off my t-shirt was a mark that matched the ones on Juniper and Griffin. It was just below my cor bone. The crescent moon was a bright shining silver and the paw print was an iridescent sapphire blue. Only my mark was connected to the others by the chain of trinity symbols that linked all my other marks. The chain trailed down from my shoulder to the mark. I guess it really was meant to show that whoever got a power from me would be marked.

 Chapter 173 - Trinity- Preparing For The Aerie Convento (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 173 - Trinity- Preparing For The Aerie Convento (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    When noon began to creep closer and the meeting loomed over us Reece and I settled into the formal conference room on the third floor. The room was down the hall from our office and would be quiterge enough to amodate everyone that would be present.


    Today''s meeting would have a lot of participants just like thest few. On top of me and Reece there was Noah, Carter, Vincent, David, Shane, Shawn, Dietrich, Rawlynne, Jackson, and Gabriel. A dozen of us all together. And the formal conference room had seating for twenty.


    Reece and I were sitting inrge, imposing chairs seated next to each other at the head of the table, him on the left and me on the right. I really couldn''t helpparing them to thrones in this situation. We definitely looked like we were lording or ruling over our group.


    Slowly everyone trickled in until all the expected participants were present. Noah sat near Reece on his left hand side. Vincent sat next to my right side across from Noah. These were the best fitting positions for them as Noah was Reece''s Beta and Vincent was the captain of my guard and as close to my right hand man as I had at the time.


    The rest of the attendees spread out through the remaining seats. Shane sat across from Shawn who was sitting immediately to Dietrich''s left and a couple of spaces down from Vincent. Carter was sitting at the opposite end of Noah, watching the whole table with interest. David was across from him, watching with interest but sitting next to Rawlynne who was across from me and next to Jackson. Gabriel was sitting in the seats in between Noah and Shane on the left side of the table.


    I expected Reece to get the meeting started like usual, but there was something I wanted to ask Gabiel before we got started. So, I cleared my throat and started the meeting myself.


    "We all know what we are here for, and we all know what the end goal we''re hoping to achieve is. We need to discuss strategy for the trip to the Aerie Convento, or the rescue mission so to speak. We want to find the kids safe and sound. But, we are going to be going up against warlocks, which have a significant advantage over us. So it''s for that reason that I want to talk to you about this Gabriel."


    When I started talking everyone, including Reece, had turned to me in surprise. Reece probably felt like this was another part of his Alpha identity being taken away from him but I had to do what I had to do.


    "Yes, My Queen, I will help however I can."


    "I want to make everyone stronger. Give them an advantage. Do you think that will be possible?" I saw looks of shock on everyone''s faces as they stared at me.


    "It most definitely is, My Queen. You can simply grant them all an ability. But furthermore, once you ept the role of queen, which you have, then those that you recognize as being in your personal Goddess Guard will be enhanced."


    "Enhanced how?" Vincent asked him with a curious tone.


    "Speed, strength, and other things that the Queen might deem every member of her guard should have. The benefit for her here is that she can do things where the oues are endless and boundless. Whether it will work or not isn''t what the issue is, she simply needs to try first."


    "So you''re saying that she can do anything?" Carter seemed skeptical.


    "Maybe not anything." Gabriel shook his head. "But she will never know what she can do unless she tries. If that makes any sense to you all."


    "I understand what it means." Noah told him. "It means that no one is certain what she can do so she needs to do everything to figure it out." Noah, like Carter, didn''t seem too happy right now.


    "Yes, and no. She is the Goddess Incarnate, the only ones who know what potential she will have is the original Goddess and the new Goddess vessel. However, we from the Sentinelle have been collecting information about the Goddess for millennia, and we will be there to help here to terms with her powers and abilities."


    "That sounds just like a cop-out." Carter was getting angry now, his tension and volume both rising.


    "Enough." I snapped at them all. All of them instantly stopped talking and looked at me. "This is not the time for us to be fighting among ourselves." I levelled a re at not just them but the entire room.


    Under my intense gaze I saw most of the people in the room stir in their seats. It seemed like they were uneasy and squirming from the look in my eyes.


    "We have something important to do, so I want to get this settled first. Gabriel, how do I ept the Goddess Guard, how do I add to it''s ranks."


    "Listen to your heart. Talk to your soldiers, and express what it is you want." Gabriel''s voice was still calm and serene as always.


    "That''s all?" Shane sounded incredulous as he scoffed.


    "Is that not enough?" Gabriel looked confused. "Why must it be soplicated for it to work?"


    "I guess it doesn''t, but it just seems too simple." Shaneughed.


    "So, I just need to talk to them? About what?" I asked but before he could answer I held up my hand and added more. "I know, I know, listen to my heart."


    I stood up and looked at everyone in the room. I felt so many emotions welling up inside of me threatening to spill over. I decided to tell them all what I was thinking.


    "Reece." He looked into my eyes as I stared at him with love in my heart, eyes, and smile. "You are my first and only love. You have protected me even when I didn''t know you were there to do it. You shield me from as much as you can whether I want it or not. You are, and will always be the only man I want in my life. You are my other half. You are the fire to my ice. You are my king." I saw the love and gratitude spread across his face, but he didn''t say anything.


    Next I looked at Noah, my cousin by birth but oldest brother was the role he was always meant to have.


    "Noah, we were born to different mothers, you are my cousin but the role you were always meant for was that of my big brother. You''re very protective of me and you have been like the rock that supports me for most of my life." I smiled at his emotion filled face.


    The next guard in the line was Shane with his lightning quick wit and reflexes.


    "Shane, you''re quick with humor as well as your actions. Nothing and no one is beyond your limits, that''s both brave and reckless. But that electricity in your eyes is something worth preserving and using. You''re strong, never forget that."


    "Carter." I smiled at my closest confidant and coconspirator from my childhood. "You are my brother, there was never any doubt. We were as thick as thieves when we were kids. Whenever I did something you were always there with me. You helped me, guided me, and protected me. Without you I never would have been able to be a part of the world, to blend in with those around me."


    "David, you were one of the first guards that I trusted. You''re sweet, strong, and I know how revered you are for how fast your wolf is. You''re an amazing person, you helped to bring me out of my self imposed prison. The one I had around my mind when I first took the position of the Luna. You were always there and quick to cheer me up with a smile and augh." I was going in a circle around the room. Talking to all my guards and those closest to me.


    "Shawn, you are sweet and soft spoken. I would say sensitive but that''s not the right word for it. You are affected by the world around you, but I don''t think you realize the effect you have on the people and things around you. It''s like being around you can move people."


    "Vincent, you have no idea how thankful I am for you. You are not just my guard, you were the first friend that I made aftering to this house. You are so kind hearted yet stronger than so many others. There isn''t anything you wouldn''t do to help those you care about and I am honored to be one of them. You, with your boundless determination, deeppassion, and endless heart, you always seem to center us and get to the heart of the matter when we need it most."


    "Dietrich." I started with those I haven''t known for as long now. "I don''t know you as well as my guards, but you are an important person to me now. As a friend, an honorary pack member, and the mate of someone I hold dear. What I admire most about you is that you seem to know things before anyone else and with that it''s like you can read people''s minds and in turn manipte them into getting the oue that you want."


    "Rawlynne, Jackson, I am sorry that I do not know the two of you more. The time that you have been here with us, we''ve not spent as much of it together like I have with me as the others, but I do hold you dear. You know of us and are willing to help us. You ept us. And to top it all off, you''re an information source for us. I don''t mean that is a bad way, but with your connections there is a lot we might not have known about if not for the two of you. You''ve revealed things and enlightened us to a vast amount of hidden information. I sincerely hope that we can continue this friendship, with or without the inside help."


    "Gabriel, I do not know you much at all, but what I have been able to see from you is an immense loyalty. You have a way of bringing people together and gathering information. It''s like you can make almost anyone your ally."


    This was what I wanted to tell them all. These words with my emotions open for them to see. I wanted them all to be strong enough to survive the trip and the battle that would most likely follow. And no matter what other abilities they might get, I wanted them to be stronger and faster like Gabriel said. I would also like them to be able tomunicate among themselves and smell the warlocks, for now that was the most important thing for me to worry about.


    No sooner had I thought those words then a blinding light filled the room. I understood what it was this time and was not frightened by it. The pulling and tugging on my psyche was not painful, but it was still awkward. It was like I was a rubber band being pulled in a dozen differections at the same time.


    Just as I felt like the rubber band had reached its limits and would surely snap and break, the tugging stopped. The light faded, and it was followed by words that were different thanst time.


    "Wee to the Goddess Guard, use your new abilities to serve your Queen well."


    When the room was quiet, and everything had settled, eleven awed looks were staring back at me.


    "Were we granted special abilities?" Vincent, like always, got straight to the heart of the matter.


    "I don''t know. But I do know that you''ve all been made part of the Goddess Guard."


    "How would we know if we were granted an ability?" Shane asked me, excitement on his face.


    "Well, you would have a mark like this." I pulled aside the thin, long sleeved, ck cloth cover I was wearing over my tank top, it was like either a very thin and short robe or a jacket without buttons and zippers.


    When they saw the crescent moon and paw print they were in awe. I heard several gasps and a few excited exmations. Jackson was the loudest with his.


    "This whole wolf world is fucking cool as hell."


    "Jack!" Rawlynne was at a loss for words after he spoke.


    "What? She didn''t have that mark two days ago, did she? That means it appeared there by magic. And she is saying that the guards will have them too."


    "Still, watch yournguage."


    "It''s fine, Otsana." Reece finally broke his silence. "None of us have virgin ears. And he''s right, this is all fucking cool." Reece smiled at me. "And she didn''t even have that mark yesterday. It appeared sometime in thest several hours."


    "Do you have one?" Jackson asked him excitedly.


    "No." He shook his head. "I would have seen it this morning."


    "You did not have one this morning, my King, but that was a different time." Gabriel told him as he held the cor of his button up shirt to the side, revealing a mark just like the one I showed, only he had an addition to it.


    On top of the moon and paw print, Gabriel had a circle with two capital letter G''s


    in an elegant and beautiful handwriting. The circle was silver and the G''s were gold.


    "That looks different from hers." Shawn noted.


    "Of course, she is the Goddess Incarnate, she cannot be a member of the Goddess Guard. I think we have been marked as epted into the guard. And the mark that matches the Queen''s means that those who bear it will indeed have an added ability."


    "What kind of ability?" Dietrich said as he looked at his own chest which had the same two marks as Gabriel''s.


    "That is probably something we wille to understand over time. Or, perhaps the Queen will be able to see that as well." Gabriel looked extremely happy to have been marked.


    "I only have one of them." Reeceined. "I am not in the guard."


    "You are the King, you bear the protector symbol already. You will be ourmander as well as our king." Gabriel''s words brought a smile to Reece''s pouting face.


    "Who all has a mark?" I asked them.


    After everyone in the room checked they all raised their hands and said, almost in unison. "I do." I hadn''t expected this. Even Rawlynne and Jackson were marked with both marks. Meaning they have been made members of my guard and given abilities.


    "Can you tell what abilities they are?" Reece asked me, excited to learn more?about the powers he possessed.


    "I can try." I answered him.


    I looked around the room, trying to detect their abilities. Reece, it seemed, had shields, barriers that would protect him or those he wanted to protect. Noah, my rock I had called him, could manipte earth. He couldn''t move it too much, but he could reform it and crumble it, perhaps it would grow with him as he came to understand it all. Shane had an electricity maniption that varied between low and high voltages. Carter, the spy for our pack, could camouge almost like a chameleon. Jackson and Rawlynne would be able to find hidden information easier. David was now going to be nearly supersonic in his speed. Dietrich, as I said he could almost control people to his oue, was now able to perform that ability for real. Shawn, the man who affected those near him with his personality, could now truly affect things around his with telekinesis. Andstly, Vincent, he seemed to be able to see the world for what it truly was, enemies would never again be able to hide the truth of their hearts from him.


    When they all heard their powers they seemed to be awed, excited, and reverent. Just what did I do?


    With the stuff about the abilities over, we discussed what was likely to happen for the mission. And I told Reece I was bringing Juniper so that she could help the kids, mentally and emotionally, after they were rescued. He agreed, and said that we should bring Griffin as well. Having a healer on hand was a great idea also.


    When I told Juniper why she wasing, Paul and Cedar both insisted oning along as well. So, now our traveling party was up to sixteen. We would not fail to rescue the kids this time. I would see to it.

 Chapter 174 - Reece - Another Mating (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 174 - Reece - Another Mating (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    With all the changes that have been going on around me, changes in my wife''s status, in mine, in the whole order of the pack, I knew there were decisions I had to make. There were going to be more people around my pack than there was before. And after hearing what Gabriel had to say about the type of people who joined the Sentinelle it had me thinking about another project I wanted to undertake.


    But right now, I had to focus on the situation at hand. I would not let these rogue warlocks get away with what they had done. And now that my pack was stronger than it has ever been before we could expect things to go better.


    One thing I noticed when the meeting with what effectively became the Goddess Guard was over is that my sexy little mate smelled differently, again. This time, I knew what I could attribute it to though. I had most likely been given the ability to smell warlocks, like she had intended. And since my mate was half warlock it altered her scent to me.


    It didn''t alter her smell too much. In truth, it added a slight lemon scent to her already intoxicating smell. I didn''t know if that smell was distinctive of the warlocks or not, but I would find out soon I guess.


    All my mate''s female friends were still staying at the house, and with them all of their mates. E wasing to the house today so that she could be protected as well. She was going to be driven here by her mom. Gia was in quite the state with her son missing and her daughter attacked. From what I gathered she was barely holding it together.


    Little Bunny suggested having her meet with Juniper while she was here, the emotional calming would do her a wonder of good. So while we waited for E to arrive we were in that same sitting room as before. In the room with us were Cedar and Paul, we were just waiting on Juniper to arrive. Both of the men wanted to join us on the mission tomorrow and had even joined the ranks of the pack warriors. They both showed such initiative and skill among them that I wanted to do something for them. Honestly, it had nothing to do with them being friends with my mate. Ok, very little to do with it.


    I had a sudden inspiration and decided to run with it.


    "Paul, Cedar, I want to talk to you guys about something." I saw the looks of shock and panic wash over them. Honestly, am I that scary? I know I could be bute on guys, you''ve been around me for a while now.


    "What about?" This came from my Little Bunny, like she was going to protect them. She''s always been very protective of her friends and family.


    "Nothing bad." I smiled to soften the mood. "No need to be worried."


    "I''m not worried." Paul tried to sound convincing when it was clear on his face that he was nervous.


    "Look, you''re both great warriors. You''ve done a lot for the pack in such a short amount of time. And I am finally starting to fill out the ranks like I should have done a long time ago.?There are a lot of roles I should have assigned and delegated when I took over but I admit I didn''t trust anyone enough to do so." That seemed to shock them bothpletely.


    "What kind of roles?" Cedar was at least curious by my words. Paul was too I guess, it''s just he still hadn''t recovered enough to speak.


    "I''ve added a gamma, though I should have two. And there are other small things that need to be addressed. I''m thinking that the two of you should each take a role."


    "Did you have anything in mind?" Little Bunny asked me, seemingly more curious than those two warriors were.


    "I do. I want Paul to be the new trainer for the warriors. He has progressed in training faster than any warrior I have ever seen before. And as for Cedar, he is a go getter and extremely capable. I want him as my second gamma."


    Those two looked at me like I had grown a second head or like I was speaking gibberish. And my little mate was looking at me with joy filled eyes. At least I could tell that she was thankful for what I had done.


    "What do you say?" I smirk at them, letting them know that they were essentially staring at me with their mouths agape and eyes popped open. They reacted instantly. Their mouths closed and they both cleared their throats. It was clear that they were best friends even though Paul had married Cedar''s sister. I wondered briefly if there had ever been that protective big brother urge from Cedar like I was dealing with Noah. I guess it wasn''t exactly the same thing. I doubt Paul had ever said he hated Juniper, and then admitted it to the brother. No, Noah had his reason, but still I was better now wasn''t I?


    "Are you sure?" Cedar was in disbelief.


    "I will happily ept." Paul seemed more willing.


    "I am very sure. You both deserve this." I answered Cedar''s question. "In fact, how about you make them part of the Goddess Guard Trinity." I knew she would do it with or without my prompting, so I decided that we should get it over with now.


    "I was thinking the same thing." She smiled. "If they want to join that is." She looked at them expectantly with hope in her beautiful blue eyes.


    Both of the men smiled excitedly at her words. It was easy to see that they were more than happy to join?her.


    "Yes." They said in unison. These two often acted more like twins than the actual twins in their group did.


    "Then I will add you. Paul, I am so proud to hear that you have progressed so much since joining. Perhaps it''s easy for you to see where your strengths lie, and maybe even those of other people. And Cedar, you have advanced and sown the seeds of your usefulness among the pack. It seems you''ve truly grown your roots here." That now familiar glow was once again apanied by those words.


    "Wee to the Goddess Guard, use your new abilities to serve your Queen well."


    "What just happened?" Paul asked her.


    "You''re now part of the Goddess Guard and have been granted a special ability." She smiled looking at them. "True to my words, Paul you can see where someone''s strengths lie, effectively helping to train your people better. And you Cedar, like how you''ve rooted yourself you can control foliage, primarily the roots of the nts around you. Practice will make progress, and over time you will get very skilled in your abilities. Also, as part of the Goddess Guard, you have also been given enhanced strength and speed as well as the ability to track the scent of warlocks. Oh, and onest one, you canmunicate telepathically with any other member of the Goddess Guard as well as Reece and myself."


    "Really?" I was surprised by thatst part, that was something that I hadn''t learned from her yet.


    "It was just something that I thought would help us a lot. You can do it now too, just so you know."


    "Sweet, it will be cool to be able to talk like that." Paul was excited now.


    "Just so it doesn''te as a surprise, you both will now have a mark. There is one for the power and one for the guard. They are on your cor bone."


    "Really?" Paul quickly pulled his shirt aside and looked. "Dude it''s true. This is awesome." The grin on his face was clearly showing how excited he was.


    Without warning, Juniper came running toward the room.


    "Hey, Trin, Zeek at the gate said that E is on her way up to the house."


    "Thanks Juniper." Little Bunny thanked her immediately.


    "Hey, Ju, I got a mark from Trinity." Paul ran up to her immediately and with so much excitement that it looked like he was a toddler.


    "You too?" Paul''s face fell so much at those two little words that I nearlyughed.


    "You have one too?" Cedar asked her.


    "Yeah, the two of you weren''t herest night and I hadn''t told you yet, but Trinity granted me a special powerst night."


    "That''s awesome." Cedar looked excited.


    "You joined the Goddess Guard?" Paul was clearly not happy.


    "Goddess Guard? Hell no." Juniper seemed to put an end to that right away.


    "No Paul, she just got an ability, so she only has one of the two marks that you have." I assured him.


    "Thank the Goddess." Paul spoke with obvious relief.


    "Haha, I just thought of something." Cedar looked like he was about to explode. "When we say thank the Goddess, we''re really thanking Trinity."


    "Haha, that''s funny. The great Goddess Astro." Paul''s joke annoyed me but I saw my Little Bunny smile back yfully.


    "Wanna see what a goddess can do to you, Paul?" She spoke with a bit of mischief in her voice which made Paul go pale.


    "N-no, no I don''t."


    We were stillughing from Paul''s mini freak out when the car pulled into the driveway out front. We went to go meet them and officially wee E to the house. The only problem was that it wasn''t her mother that had driven her.


    Trinity and I stood on the porch and watched as two people got out of the ck mid sized sedan. The car just screamed that it belonged to a cop. E was getting out of the passenger side as Detective Devon Scott got out of the driver''s seat.


    "E?" Trinity called out in a pleasant voice but I noticed the hint of unease. "I thought your mom was going to bring you."


    "She wasn''t feeling up to it." E hung her head as if she was unhappy.


    "I was hoping we could have offered her some sce." Trinity was the one who looked sad now. "I will send her something to make her feel better." I understood her words, Juniper would be going to see Gia now and bringing her to stay at the house.


    "Detective Scott, it''s a pleasure to see you again, but to what do we owe this pleasure?" I tried my best to keep my voice level and I think I did a pretty good job. It helped that I was standing there with my mate pressed against my side to give me a little extra stability.


    Before he answered, I watched as Detective Scott walked around the vehicle and wrapped his arm around E to match the way I was holding my Little Bunny.


    "I think that I have a right to be here, do I not."


    "Huh." Little Bunny gasped. "E, does this mean what I think it means?" My adorable little wife didn''t see a problem with what was happening in front of us. Neither did I, as long as Scott didn''t cause problems. I guess we would find out.


    E smiled at her Luna and nodded her head. "Yes, it does." The happiness shining in her brown eyes and the rosy tint to her cheeks was a very good sign. I know a human can mate with a wolf, a true mate bond. At least, I did now that mom had knocked some sense into my head.


    "This is amazing E." Trinity ran away from my side and down the steps. She threw her arms around E, who was just a little taller than her. "I''m so happy for you."


    "Thank you." E smiled more broadly.


    "And I take it that you are the Detective Scott I spoke to on the phone yesterday?" She asked the man who stood dumbfounded before her. He just nodded.


    "E, how much have you told him?" I asked her, needing to know the extent of what we needed to exin.


    "Not much, I was nervous. But he knows we''re not¡­.. normal." Her hesitant words were notforting.


    "What do you know?" I asked the man, blunt and to the point. He quirked an eyebrow.


    "I know that as soon as I even heard E''s voice it was like I had found my destiny. I don''t know what is different about her from other people, she just told me that she was not like other girls and that she would like to leave the exnation up to you guys."


    I smirked at the man''s smugness. "E, it seems that you wanted me to blow your new mate''s mind." I joked. "Come on in and we will exin everything."


    Scott seemed to take it well¡­.. enough. He didn''t have a freak out. But just like Jackson he was apprehensive. But once he saw E turn into a wolf he believed us. He wasn''t as gung-ho about it as Jackson who now thought the whole supernatural world was amazing. But Scott did good. He didn''t reject his mate, and he actually started looking at my mate and I with respect.


    "Well, at least I don''t have to wonder about your motives now. I see you had your hand in everything to protect your people and that you weren''t some wanna be mobster."


    "You thought I was a mobster?" I asked him incredulously.


    "He did say wanna be." Trinityughed. "So he obviously thought you weren''t doing a good enough job. Really you own what sixty, maybe seventy percent of the city. You''re not a mobster unless it exceeds seventy-five percent." Scott found that funny. Me, not so much.

 Chapter 175 - Reece - Departing For The Aerie Convento (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 175 - Reece - Departing For The Aerie Convento (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    We now had our full attack party. After discussions werepleted it was decided that along with our group we would be taking half of the Sentinelle with us. Gabriel would be in charge of rying themands to them, and he assured us they were very well trained. We were also taking an additional twenty of my men along. There would be a little over four dozen people fighting and four people staying away from the fight to help afterwards. Juniper, Griffin, the human, and of course my Little Bunny would be left out of the fighting party.


    No matter what she says, I will absolutely stop my Little Bunny from fighting. I will keep her away no matter what it takes. Even if i have to stay away from the fight myself, which I hope she doesn''t make me do. But I will not let her be put into danger like that.


    The Aerie Convento wasn''t overly far away, but it wasn''t the easiest to get to. It was in a remote part of the Rocky Mountains near Crested Butte. It wasn''t so out of the way that it was impossible to get to, but it would still require us to go in a roundabout manner of getting there. That''s why the bulk of the fighting party was leaving in the herd of off-roading vehicles I had assembled for them, with a few extra seats avable for uster if need be.


    Most of our private group, however, would be travelling by helicopter so that we could get the information we needed sooner. It would take about four hours for them to drive up the mountains. The flight would take less than an hour.


    We left at most an hour after the others. With this time spacing we will be there for about two hours, give or take, before everyone else arrived. This would give us ample time to have the spell performed. With luck, we can just head straight out to get the kids when everyone else gets there.


    I couldn''t help but smirk to myself when we got onto therge helicopter, because thest time I had been aboard this type of craft had been when I took my Little Devil Bunny to that cabin in the mountains. That had been the night she had agreed to marry me. The after was pretty fun too.


    We all filed in, one by one. I don''t do things cheap or half assed. It was for those reasons that I had long ago purchased the Eurocopter EC 155. It was enough to seat, with extreme convenience for today, sixteen people, and had only cost me a measly ten million. It was well worth it. The one I took before was a Sikorsky S-92. That one was a little more luxurious and VIP oriented with a price tag of around twenty-two million.


    Since I met my Little Bunny, I had begun adding aviation equipment to my long list of personal vehicles. And with a personal pilot who could fly either helicopters or nes I didn''t need to worry at all. These were all needed things, no matter what my adorable little wife said. She really did have a problem with spending so much, I should spoil her more so she didn''t have to do it all alone.


    It was a smooth,fortable flight. Juniper and my Little Bunny spent the flight talking about the baby. I had just been sitting there, my eyes closed and resting on the back of my seat listening to my mate''s hypnotic voice. But I just had to watch them after a little bit.


    "So, which are you hoping for?" Juniper asked her.


    "Honestly, I don''t care. My main concern is that the baby is happy and healthy. If it''s a boy though I hope it looks like Reece." Those words brought joy to my heart.


    "I hope it''s a girl that looks as adorable as you." I whispered in her ear so quietly that no one else could hear me. I smiled at the slight blush that crept on her beautifully pale face.


    "Anyway." She cleared her throat to clear her mind and push past her blushing embarrassment. "When are you and Paul going to have one?" She asked Juniper. It was now time for her friend to blush.


    "I don''t know. Soon maybe. I wanted to wait until I was done with school, but I''m sure we all have a pretty good support system here, so if I decide not to wait it will be alright, don''t you think?"


    "Absolutely. What other reason am I making the pack daycare for?" My Little Bunny truly was so loving and caring towards everyone.


    "Right." Juniper was still blushing slightly. "Then, perhaps our kids could grow up together."


    "That would be amazing Juniper. You''re going to be my baby''s aunt after all." She was grinning widely as she said these words to her best friend.


    "So, you''re going to continue school right? Even after the baby is born?" Juniper asked curiously.


    "Definitely, but I might continue to do the online thing. With how busy things get from time to time it allows me to do everything without the same time constraints"


    "You don''t have sses at a set time?" Juniper was still not used to everything Trinity was doing for school.


    "There are a few with set times, but the sses are recorded and I can watch them after the fact. But, in all honesty, I work at my own pace on my own time. I work asynchronously."


    "That actually sounds a lot better. With all the changes, not just for you but all of us, it might be easier that way."


    "If you ever decide to switch it up, we could be study buddies and do our work together. It helps cut down on the feeling of being alone."


    "That''d be great, since you and the guys have changed your schedules so much I feel alone as it is."


    It now looked like I could count on Juniper being around to help protect my wife in the future. It was great that she was building such a good group around her. Just as I thought before, she was only so alone because she was so isted. She''s a very likable person and people just naturally want to flock to her. Well, good people anyway. The not so nice ones would end up being jealous of her beauty, intelligence, and natural ability. I would protect her from that type of thing from now on.


    Not long after that conversation, wended in the courtyard of the magic council headquarters. The build wasrge and sprawling. It apparently housed several of the more prominent members with lesser witches and warlocks tending to them like they were nobles. I guess in a way they were. Would they wee Trinity as a noble or a lesser being? I wondered exactly what their reaction would be.


    The Aerie Convento looked like an borate ski resort. It was in a traditional architecture style that went well with the mountains and trees surrounding it. The snow covered roof and piles of snow drifts were a definite sign that winter hadn''t fully left this high up in the mountains.


    As soon as I stepped off the helicopter my nose was assaulted with the strongest smell of lemons and other citrus fruits that I had to wrinkle my nose a little. That was a testament to the sheer number of warlocks that were present. And I guess that citrus was really a signature smell for warlocks. At least it was easily distinguished and we could smell them now.


    "Alpha Reece, is there something the matter?" Eldrige, the same man from before, asked me with concern written on his face as he saw me and almost everyone who got off the aircraft wrinkle our noses.


    "Just, not used to the smell." I told him as I made the effort to settle my face and adjust to the new scent.


    "The smell?" Eldrige looked confused.


    "Yes, I thought that, given what has happenedtely, that they needed to be able to smell warlocks like I can." My adorably tactful mate answered for me.


    "I was not aware that you were capable of smelling us, Miss Trinity, but now you say that all those present can as well? Interesting." A new voice, one I have never heard before, entered the conversation. I was noticing the slight differences between each person now. The citrus smells were mixed with others, same as we wolves they seemed to have a multiyer scent signature for each person. Given time I would be able to smell, and tell, them all apart from each other.


    We as a group turned our heads to look at the neer while every warlock present lowered their head in a show of deference and respect. Well, I guess it''s safe to assume he is someone of importance here.


    "Yes, I didn''t want my group to be at a disadvantage when we fought against Edmond." My little mate was in full queen mode now, taking the lead.


    "And you say you gave them this ability?" He asked her, a strange smile on his face, as if he didn''t quite believe it.


    "Among others, yes." She smiled at him, sensing hisck of confidence in her words.


    "And how, might I ask, did you do that? It is beyond any magic I know of to grant powers to a wolf like that."


    "If I may.'' Gabriel raised his hand and looked at the woman he called queen. She nodded at him, giving him the permission to speak that he was seeking. "Sir, I may not know who you are, but please understand this, the woman before you is none other than the newest Goddess Incarnate."


    "Hmph." The man scoffed. "You say that, but is there any proof?"


    "Am I not the proof myself. Surely you ambassadors who attended the wedding informed you that we members of the Sentinelle had arrived to greet our newest queen."


    "Eldrige?" The man shouted.


    "I am sincerely sorry, Lord Crawford. We had indeed nned on telling you, but as you were not present until this moment I was unable to pass along the word."


    "Hmm." The man named Crawford was looking intently at my mate now. "It seems I missed much in my absence. Is this the truth?"


    "It is indeed." Little Bunny smiled at him before turning her head with a smile. Then I heard her voice in my mind, soft and sweet but full of power. ''But don''t just take my word for it, Crawford, you can use this demonstration to help confirm and alleviate any doubt.''


    "What a wonderful ability." The man smiled. "That is indeed something that is said to be a power belonging to your legendary goddess. But it is also something that we more powerful warlocks are capable of."


    "Who would have taught me to do such a thing?" She snapped at him.


    "Did you not spend time with your father?" He asked her, still not epting.


    "He and his minions were too busy torturing me to teach me anything." She red at him.


    "Perhaps a show of abilities then?" I offered just so I could break the tension growing between them.


    "Such as?" He asked.


    "Just yesterday, my wife granted abilities to the guards present. If they were to show you what they can do, what will you say then?"


    "I would say that if anyone who is clearly just a wolf with no other blood in them could perform a feat not indicative of a wolf ability then I would ept what you are saying with no further denial."


    "Fine then, we will prove ourselves."


    I turned to look at them, the shock and anger on their faces was very clear.


    "You all have had your abilities for just over twenty four hours, most of you probably haven''t even tried to use them yet, but now is the time."


    "Oh, we practiced." Vincent smiled confidently. I never should have doubted these men. They, like me, had gone on to practice using their new gifts after the excitement of the morning passed.


    "Then let us show him so we can move on." I smirked at them and they all understood the look in my eyes. They knew I was essentially telling them to not hold back.


    First, without provocation or warning, Cedar turned to Noah and ensnared his legs in a prison of tree roots that sprang up magically from the snow. In retaliation, Noah threw his hands up and Cedar was suddenly fifteen feet off the ground on a high stone pir with a t tform on top. Theyughed at each other like they were teens having fun. While the two of themughed, a snowballnded on Noah''s head. It seemingly came from nowhere until Carter appeared next to his brother''s side,ughing along with them.


    Next, I saw Shane send small electrical currents across to Shawn. The currents were bright yellow and easy to see. Shawn, in retaliation both formed and sent snowballs flying at his brother without so much as moving a finger. As Shane''s electrical attacks got stronger Shawn''s snowballs got bigger. Until finally Shawn sent one roughly the size of a car at his brother, he knew that it wouldn''t be a big issue. Which it wasn''t, because the next thing I saw was arge sword made of yellow lightning slice through the air and annihting therge ball of snow.


    "Oh, boys, you''re brothers so shouldn''t you be nicer to each other?" Dietrich said in a yful tone. He was looking at the two men with a glint of mischief in his eyes. I noticed his eyes turn pure ck for a moment, like it was a cloud moving within them. In the next moment the twins walked toward each other and hugged each other. Then they started leaping about and telling us they were snow fairies and that they were going to put on a show for us. When Dietrich beganughing hysterically at their show the two men stopped dancing around.


    "That wasn''t nice Dietrich." Shawn looked a little upset but was still smiling at his mate.


    "I am sorry, my love. I could not help myself. I have often thought that a ballet with twins would be a wonderful show."


    This left only David and myself, as everyone else had less noticeable abilities. I didn''t see him move at all, but David had disappeared from Otsana''s side and the next thing I knew, someone was pelting the others with snowballs. I didn''t even want to chance it, I put a shield around Trinity and myself. And sure enough, I saw a snowball smash against nothing in the air about three feet in front of me.


    "Well, I must say, those are some magnificent abilities, and definitely not normal for a wolf to have. Aside from your mate, Mr. Gray, none of you should be able to do these things. And her only because she is half witch. But I guess that means she truly is the new Moon Goddess Incarnate."


    "She most definitely is." I looked pointedly at the man named Crawford as he smiled.


    "Please understand, I meant no offense. But as I have been trying to gather any information I could on Edmond I was a little more skeptical of someone who calls herself his daughter."


    "Crawford, never say those words to me or about me again." My mate was furious now. "I am not now, nor will I ever be that man''s daughter. My dad is Wesley Whitton, not Gannon Cornelius Edmond. I have the unfortunate circumstance of sharing DNA with him but he is not my father at all. And when I see him again, I will kill him, personally."


    "I must say, I am happy to hear those words." Crawford smiled happily. "I cannot trust someone associated with him, not after what he has done. Please,e inside and let us get out of this cold." Crawford gestured with a hand before turning back to the door.

 Chapter 176 - Trinity - The Aerie Convento (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 176 - Trinity - The Aerie Convento (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    My first impression of Crawford was not a good one, but I can admit that I wouldn''t trust anyone that I knew was associated with Edmond either. Though it seems like we did finally convince him that I truly am the new Luna Queen and Goddess Incarnate. I was just d we were finally able to get down to business.


    We were taken to arge meeting room. It resembled the sitting rooms back home onlyrger. There were countless chairs, love seats, and sofas all around the room. There was either a set of side tables or a coffee near every seat. It was a room meant for arge,fortable meeting.


    Once we were all seated, mates with mates and those without their other half sitting alone, we got straight to the point.


    "I gather that there is something that you need from us." Crawford said with no suspicion or animosity. "What do you need help with?"


    "Like you Crawford, we are looking for Edmond. We want help finding him as well as the children he has taken."


    "How many children?" He asked me concerned.


    "So far, we only know of eight, and they were all taken from our city. I don''t know for certain if there are any others."


    "Do you know what he could be nning to do with the children?" Reece was angry and worried anytime the children were mentioned.


    "Depending on the total number of children he takes and the time of the year, it could be a number of things."


    "What does the time of year have to do with it?" I didn''t like the direction he was taking this. I knew that Edmond didn''t have any pure intentions, but I had an extremely ominous feeling now.


    "Given the time of year it is, if he has gathered a dozen children, he might be nning on summoning Hektate, the Goddess of Witchcraft. She is especially known for magic, doorways, and hellhounds. If this is the path he has taken, then he is nning an all out war on the world." Crawford''s words turned my blood to ice and left me feeling like a weight was sitting on my chest.


    I heard the collective gasps from everyone in the room. It seemed that even Eldrige and his travelling group hadn''t known the full meaning behind Edmond''s actions.


    "What kind of time frame are we looking at if that is his end goal?" Dietrich asked in his dignified voice.


    "If that is his goal, then we have eight days."


    "The night of the full moon?" I asked him, causing him to nod his head in agreement.


    "Indeed, Queen Trinity, we will need to find the children before the night of the full moon."


    "Why this full moon?" I asked him. "They''ve been missing for thest two full moons, why this one?"


    "Do you know the names of the full moon in March?" He knew I did, all wolves learn them.


    "The Worm Moon, Crow Moon, Sugar Moon, and Windy Moon."


    "Those are all correct, but you are missing one." Crawford didn''t sound chastising or upset, it was like he knew I wouldn''t know thest name he had in mind.


    "What is the name she forgot?" Vincent asked curiously.


    "The Chaste Moon." It was a simple name and I didn''t understand the meaning around it.


    "What does that have to do with anything?" Shane asked brusquely.


    "The Chaste Moon is when those who practice magical arts are supposed to sow seeds of new thoughts, mentally as well as in their gardens, but it is also the moon that signifies innocence."


    "Innocence?" Shawn looked scared as he said that, like he expected the next line that would being out of the warlock''s mouth.


    "What better represents innocence than children? Children are inherently pure and innocent, as long as they are not yet teenagers. The younger the better in this case. And with the blood of children he will be able to entice the Goddess to return to the world. If he is strong enough and casts the right spell, then he can control Hektate and bend her to his whims."


    "He ns to bring destruction to everyone who opposes him?" My voice was steady but it felt like my world was trembling.


    "It seems so."


    I feared just what he might be nning to do. Did he truly want this to happen? Was this what he really had nned? I couldn''t chance it, we needed to hurry and find the children. But while I thought these things, and while I listened to Crawford speak, there was an explosion from outside the building.


    The explosion was big enough that it shook the building around us.


    "What the devil was that?" Crawford seemed shocked beyond words. I heard a maniacalughter respond to the question.


    "So d you''re all in one ce. I did not think that my ungrateful bitch of a daughter would be here with the worms from the magic council." Edmond''s voice rang through the entire building.


    "What do you want, Edmond? Have you decided to turn yourself in?" Crawford''s face was twisted in rage. I immediately thought that Crawford had double crossed us.


    "Vincent." I called out to him quietly.


    "Yes?" He ran to my side to see what it was I needed amid the chaos of the room.


    "Have you looked at these people with your ability? Are they against us?"


    "No, Luna, they appear to be fully on our side and against Edmond. There is no malice in their hearts toward us. He has spoken only the truth, despite his initial anger."


    "When did you scan him?" Reece asked.


    "Both in the yard and just after the explosion." He was as efficient as ever, that was for sure.


    "Good, then we don''t have to worry that this was a set up." Reece nodded to him. "Trinity, you stay out of the way while I handle this."


    "I can help too, Reece." I tried to argue with him.


    "NO!" He nearly shouted the words. "I will not risk you or our baby. Please, stay out of the fight." He was begging me and I couldn''t argue against protecting my baby as well.


    "Fine, I will stay out of the way."


    "Thank you." He kissed my head and called David, Rawlynne, Jackson, and Shane over to me. "Protect her, don''t let anything happen to her." His order was received by everyone, including Jackson, as they all nodded their heads in agreement. "Juniper, Griffin,e here and stay with them." He was meaning to protect everyone that hadn''t been trained to fight, but he also knew that if it came down to it, Griffin and Juniper would fight for me.


    I watched on in horror as half the building around me exploded. We had not been paying attention to what the warlocks were saying around us. But apparently, talks between Crawford and Edmond were not going well.


    "You will be the first to die as my days of ruling this pathetic worldes to fruition." Edmond sounded insane, more so than usual.


    "We will not let this slide." Crawford snapped at him. "This is not how we are to use our magic."


    "You know nothing." Edmond bellowed as the debris from the destroyed building began to swirl around the room amid the purple smoke that was beginning to fill it. "You may now face the first wave of my army." There wasughter in his voice as a horde of misshapen beasts flooded into the room.


    The monstrosities looked like a cross among different species of super naturals. There was one that was a bear and birdbined. I saw a merman and felinebination among several others that I simply couldn''t describe. They were somewhere in between their human and animal forms, more beast like in appearance but human enough to walk and throw punches. And the soundsing from them were the most pitiful, painful screeches I had ever heard. Immediately I was sickened and saddened at the same time. What did he do to these people?


    I watched as the fighting started. Monsters leaping toward the warlocks and wolves alike. The guards and warriors were responding with fierce determination and a desire to protect us all. There were nearly five dozen monsters in total, there were nine among our party that were not busy protecting me and the others. On top of them, there were at least three dozen warlocks swarming around the room. We were still outnumbered, but not by as much as we could have been. I wasn''t worried at all.


    That was, until I saw another dozen monsters break through the side of the house, and they were lumbering straight toward me. I saw a look of shock wash over Juniper''s face. It was matched by the look on Griffin''s face, he was a healer not a fighter. The guards around us readied themselves, knowing just what they needed to do. Any moment now, there would be a full out battle in our secluded little corner. I had tried to stay away from the fight, but the fight literally came to me. Reece might be mad, but I had no choice now.

 Chapter 177 - Reece - Battle At The Aerie Convento (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 177 - Reece - Battle At The Aerie Convento (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I had just told my little mate to wait with the guards I assigned her when the building exploded around us. The beasts I saw flooding into the room was nearly enough to turn my stomach. The sight of them was sickening, but I needed to protect my mate.


    The warlocks around us were casting spell after spell toward the beasts, but the magic didn''t seem to be doing as much damage as I thought it would. I had to wonder if Edmond had given them some kind of shield.


    No matter, I would still rip them apart. I was stronger and faster now than I was even after my Little Bunny had ced a mark on me. Once I had been given the position asmander of the Goddess Guard I could feel the power coursing through me. And that power wasn''t just in my wolf form either. I leapt, still in human form, toward a beast. It was the size of two people, twice as tall and twice as wide but with no intelligence what-so-ever. It seemed that Edmond was controlling them with that swirling purple fog he seemed to enjoy using.


    When I met the half wolf half deer beast mid leap Itched onto its arms. I felt the immense strength that it had, but it was nothingpared to mine. I pulled its arms down easily, forcing them to its sides. While I pushed those hideous limbs out of the way I heard the snapping of bones, but the creature just didn''t seem to notice.


    Even with two broken arms, the monster continued toe toward me, fighting me. When I looked into its eyes I saw an empty soulless expression. Whatever Edmond had done to these people to make them this way had killed everything about them. It seemed like he was taking not just children recently, but people from every shifter ss there was.


    These were my people. I was their king, but I couldn''t protect them from this psychotic warlock. I had not known of their existences, nor their suffering. But now here I was seeing the oue of their lives. I was fighting against my people and I could do nothing about it. Right then and there I vowed I would not let my people suffer like this ever again.


    "I''m sorry I couldn''t stop this from happening to you. All I can promise now is to end your suffering torment and do what I can to stop it from happening again." I said to the beast before me just as I finished yanking on its arms, separating them from its body. Still I heard nothing from the creature.


    The thing was stilling at me, its head lowered so that its horns were pointing toward my head. I knew I needed to finish it off, I couldn''t dwell too long with one monster with so much going on around us.


    I swung myself up behind the thing andtched onto its neck. I yanked him down to be on my level. I was not a short man by any standards, but this thing dwarfed me like I was a child.


    With the beast bent over backwards, allowing me to nt my feet on the floor for leverage, I pulled hard. The soundsing from the thing were beyond terrible. The snapping of bones and ligaments. The tearing of flesh, sinew, and cartge. These sounds reverberated in my ears as I pulled hard on the things head.


    The moment the monster''s body separated from its head I heard its gurgling screeches cease. Also, I was sprayed along one side of my body, head to foot, in the spray of blood and other fluids that arced from its falling body.


    I scanned my immediate area for my next target, and that''s when I felt my stomach drop to the soles of my feet and my heart stop beating altogether. There were a dozen monsters bearing down on the group I had left my mate in. These were not part of the original group that came in, but another set that had just broken through the side of the building.


    On top of the monsters, there was debris falling all around them. I had left them in a corner, hoping that they would be safer that way. Now, with the falling debris and the monsters approaching them they had nowhere to escape.


    "Noah!" I called out to him as I ran to protect my mate.


    Noah knew instantly what I needed, what I wanted, and started racing to help. He was almost as covered in blood and gore as I was from the creature he had just finished off, but unlike me he was in his wolf form.


    I leapt, quick as lightning, onto the back of another beast, this one seeming to have part of an eagle shifter as it reached toward me with hands covered inrge talons. I would not let these beasts hurt my mate or my baby.


    The monster''s neck snapped under my arms and stopped moving. It slumped to the floor, falling out of my grasp as I sought another target. I would need to kill them as quickly as I could to protect everyone.


    One after another Noah and I helped David, Otsana, and Shane destroy the monsters. We had cut their numbers in half and were steadily moving on to the others when I heard Juniper scream out.


    "Get back!" One of the creatures was close enough to grab her now. She and Trinity had moved to the side to avoid the corner a little as the battle was waging around them.


    "Back the fuck off." I heard my mate scream as she pulled Juniper toward her and narrowed her eyes. A second monstrosity had joined the first and they were bearing down on them. I watched as my mate sent a pir of me from her hand to the creature in the lead, causing it to fall to the ground and begin to burn instantly.


    The second monster was still closing in just as a third and fourth started looming from their side. The girls were still facing the corner where the first two beasts were lumbering at them and hadn''t noticed the addition of the creatures from the initial attack squad.


    "Trinity!" I yelled in panic. I was running toward her, my mind nearly nk from worry when I put a shield in front of her to block the attack from the monsters.


    "Luna!" David had noticed her situation as well and was at her side in an instant. He pulled the two of them aside just as all three monsters converged on the spot. The one in front bounced off my shield as the other two ran headlong into the wall. I had just leapt onto the back of one, Noah on the one beside me, when I heard the sound of the world falling around me.


    It wasn''t the world really, but it might as well have been. I turned to look in what seemed like slow motion as everything around me moved too quickly. Just as I turned my head and looked at my mate along with David and Juniper I saw what had made that sound.


    Even David with his supersonic speed didn''t have the chance to react quickly enough when he noticed what had happened. It seemed like we were all just doomed to watch it happen and not be able to stop it.


    A chunk of the ceiling, at least six feet in diameter, had been hanging down. Sagging from the weight and the missing support of the building around it. That chuck of sagging wood and ster and whatever else was right above them when they had moved out of the way. But when the creatures smashed into the wall, it was knocked loose. It didn''t have that far left to fall, and in the blink of an eye it had crashed down onto them.


    "NO!" I screamed as I finished the creature in my hands off as I started to run toward them. It had just started to move as David was pushing it off them when a gust of wind swirled with purple smoke. Inside that smoke were two more of those beasts.


    That smoke dropped both of thoserge, looming figures right onto the fallen chunk of the ceiling. They regained their bnce as David crashed back to the floor. The beasts ripped through the debris beneath them as if they were being guided by Edmond directly.


    I ran as fast as I could, forced to watch as I made my way to my mate''s side. The creature on the left had reached her first. It pulled her from the rubble and lifted her up.


    My Little Bunny was dangling in its grasp, blood smeared across her face.


    "Trinity!" I yelled her name again.


    I was not the only one converging on the scene. Gabriel, Dietrich, and Crawford were all running as fast as they could along with Noah and myself. Still, we weren''t quick enough to stop the second beast fromnd half a dozen blows to her in quick session.


    All of this had happened in less than a minute. My Little Bunny had been dazed from the ceilingnding on her head, then therge, heavy beasts mming down on top of them. She had not recovered herself enough to react. But I was trying hard to get to her.


    The five of us mmed into the beasts at the same time. Just after, I noticed everyone else running our way. They had all been busy with their own fight when this horror scene yed out in front of me.


    I reached for my wife, to snatch her out of the air, but she moved before I could get to her. Shawn had used his telekinesis to guide her safely to the floor. Griffin stopped at her side as soon as she wasying down. Shawn then used his powers to lift the debris off David and Juniper who had still been trapped under the beasts. They, like my mate, had lost consciousness when the enormous creatures with their immense weight crashed down onto them. Paul ran to his mate''s side as Otsana reached David. Together the two of them pulled the unconscious duo out of the way and over to Griffin.


    Dietrich went to assist Griffin as the rest of us finished off thest of the beasts. The ones that hadnded on the debris were thest two. All the others had been taken care of by our group and the warlocks alike.


    There were several injured parties among the group, but none so as Trinity, Juniper, and David. I watched as Paul and Otsana both caressed their mate''s faces. Fear, sorrow, and anger were written in every line of their face and the set of their eyes. I wanted to pull Trinity into my arms, to hug her and find a way to make things better, but I had to let Griffin work.


    "Step back please." He told the others who had crowded around. Otsana and Paul were pulled back by Jackson and Cedar respectively. I was forced to just watch on as Griffin''s healing light emanated around the three unconscious figures.


    It was a heartbreaking few minutes that felt like theysted for an eternity. But I watched, ever vignt, as the bloody gash on the side of my mate''s beautiful face closed and left nothing, not even a scar. The blood remained but not the injury.


    The same thing happened to the scratches and bruises. And the ce where a part of the ceiling had prated her abdomen, something I was too blind to see before. It seemed to push itself out as the wound closed with the magic Griffin was using.


    Within minutes, they were all healed and I saw their eyes fluttering. All three of them were waking up.


    "David." Otsana called his name as she ran to him and kissed his cheek.


    "Juniper." Paul did the same, pulling his wife into his arms.


    I was right there with them, pulling my Little Bunny into my arms and onto myp.


    "Baby, are you alright?" I asked her, worry still thick in my voice. I watched out of the corner of my eye as Dietrich leaned in close to whisper to Griffin. I didn''t care what they had to say to each other, I was just happy to have my family in my arms.


    "Reece." My Little Bunny called out from in my arms.


    "Shh. I''m right here sweetheart." I assured her.


    "Reece." She said my name, more urgently this time. "I don''t feel it." She was beginning to cry now.


    "Feel what, Little Bunny? What''s wrong?" I felt the tension and fear begin to wash over me again.


    "The baby. I don''t feel its warmth in me anymore." I looked up to see Griffin and Dietrich looking at me with sad and angry eyes.


    "I''m sorry, Reece, I couldn''t save it."


    "I am sorry, but its light is gone."


    "No." I shook my head trying to force what they were saying to be untrue. "No. Tell me you''re lying. Tell me it''s a cruel joke. Please." I pleaded with them.


    "I''m sorry." Griffin hung his head.


    "No." The tears were streaming down both my face and my Little Bunny''s. "No."

 Chapter 178 - Reece - The Battle’s Conclusion (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 178 - Reece - The Battle¡¯s Conclusion (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I sat there, with my world crumbling around me. Cradling my mate in my arms as the tears flowed freely down my cheeks. The room around us was somber and quiet. I didn''t know what to do for my wife at that moment.


    "I failed you." The words shook as my voice trembled.


    "No, it was my fault." She was crying as well, I could feel her shaking in my arms as we held each other. "You told me to not risk it, to stay out of the fight-."


    "You listened to me, the fight went to you, you didn''t chase it."


    While I did my best to get through this most personal of moments in a room full of people, there was another of those maniacalughs. Theughter was followed by a cold, mirthless voice.


    "Aww, did the poor bitch lose her whelp." Theughter that followed was sickeningly sinister. "Guess I aplished something already.


    "You son of a bitch." I snarled.


    "No, that would have been your useless child. But I saved you from that disappointment. You really should be thanking me, boy. "


    "I should be ripping your damn head from your body right now." I snapped at him, the growl in my voice growing more and more fierce.


    "Perhaps I should just send another wave of my new army after you." He chuckled as his purple smoke started to swirl around once more.


    "Not again." Eldrige''s voice came from somewhere across the room.


    Another swarm of those monsters could be seen swirling within that smoke. Wherever they were, it was clear that Edmond was bringing them to us. He wanted to continue his assault in hopes of overwhelming us.


    Just as it looked like the monsters might actually step out of that swirling purple cloud, a swarm of ck SUVs pulled into the driveway. The calvary had arrived, so to speak. I wasn''t worried about handling those monsters personally, but I needed to get my Little Bunny out of here and somewhere safe. She had been through enough for today already.


    "We shall finish thister." Edmond''s voice sounded angry and full of rage. He had apparently judged the situation to not be in his favor. "Just know, you stand no chance against me." His icy cold words disappeared along with that swirling cloud of purple smoke.


    Zeek, the man who got out of the vehicle first ran toward me where I knelt on the ground holding my wife in my arms.


    "Alpha, what happened?" He was looking around the destroyed building and the bloody bodies lying scattered across the whole room. He turned to look at Griffin, who was healing the warlocks. Zeek''s expression was one of shock, and disbelief.


    "We''ve just been through an attack. The man who we''re after sent these monstrosities after us." I was a little more sharp tongued with my response than I should have been. I knew that the others had arrived as soon as they could, but I still had to wonder if they had gotten here just a little sooner, would my baby still be alive? Would it still be growing strong in my mate''s womb? I thought that it would.


    "Is everyone alright?" A member of the Sentinelle came up next, looking apprehensively at the blood covered queen I was holding for him and all the others to see.


    "We''re all fine." My words held a hidden meaning. I hadn''t announced to the pack yet that Trinity was pregnant, so there was no need for me to tell them all that my unborn child had just died inside of its mother. Or that I wasn''t sure how my wife was going to take this tragedy.


    "With all due respect, Sir, what should we do now?" The Sentinelle spoke again. There was nothing at all wrong with his tone of voice, but I was angry, so very angry right now. I didn''t know that losing my baby was ever a possibility. And I had lost so many members of my family over the years, but this was the hardest thing that I had ever faced out of all the losses. To lose my child, my flesh and blood, a piece of me and my matebined, to have it taken from us before we even got to meet them, it was like a knife in my heart twisting constantly.


    "What do you mean? Why do you even ask me that right now?" My roaring voice scared the man and all those standing behind him.


    "Reece." My Little Bunny put her hand against my cheek. "Calm down, it''s not his fault." Her cool fingers calmed me instantly, and that was when I realized she was cool to the touch, was she in shock? Or was this from her anger that raged like mine?


    "Trinity, are you alright sweetheart?" I asked her quietly.


    "Me? You''re the one I told to calm down." She gave a fake half smile. She was forcing herself to hold emotions in right now.


    "You''re cool to the touch. Are you ok?" I asked her again.


    "I am? I didn''t notice. Actually I''m kind of numb right now." At her words I pulled her in closer, hugging her to me and sharing my warmth with her.


    "I think we should call it a day for now." Gabriel broke the tension that was building all around. "Clearly, My King, it has been quite the busy, and emotionally taxing day. We have another week we can spend on this case, right? So, let''s retire for the evening and get ourselves settled down first."


    "Where are we going to stay?" Juniper asked in a small, weak voice.


    "I will call and make a reservation somewhere." Noah had shifted back and covered himself after the arrival of the group. "Please, just give me some time."


    Ten minutester, Noah had returned, fully dressed, with information regarding our amodations. He had even booked rooms for the warlocks that had just had their home destroyed.


    "How did you find all these rooms?" Carter asked him when he came back with the information.


    "It''ste March, peak travel season is over."


    "Huh, I guess that works." Carter responded.


    "What are we going to do about this ce?" Vincent asked, concerned for those losing their home.


    "I actually have an idea for that." Cedar walked forward. "It would be a team effort." He was looking at Noah as he spoke.


    "What is it?" Noah asked him confused.


    "Everything a house or building like this is made of essentiallyes from the earth in a way. I have an ability to control nts and trees, and you rock. Between us we cover the primary elements of this ce. If we work together, we may be able to reform it."


    "Seriously?" Noah looked doubtful.


    "It''s just a hunch, and it might not work, but-."


    "It''s worth a shot." I finished for him. "I think you should try it at least."


    "Yes, Sir." They both answered in unison.


    The now veryrge group piled out of the building. With help from Shawn, all the corpses were removed from the inside. And finally, Noah and Cedar put their hand on the outside of the structure.


    "Remember, just tell the elements that you want to reform and remake what was here before."


    "Do you think it will listen?" Shane asked sarcastically.


    "Shut up you moron." Shawn dropped a floating snowball on his brother''s head.


    "Shane, my boy, have you ever heard of water memory? Well, perhaps it works the same with earth elements as well."


    "I never thought of it like that." He seemed embarrassed like he was the only one who got a question wrong on a big school test. I hadn''t thought of that either, I was just thinking that my team was very talented.


    I watched as the two of them closed their eyes and began to concentrate. They both started emanating an interesting aura. Cedar''s aura was a light earthy green while Noah''s was the color of sandstone. The two auras, first side by side, began to swirl with each other.


    The auras didn''t mix or blend together. Instead the colors moved among each other in a push and pull pattern, like they were working in tandem. And as I watched, awestruck, the building began to reform itself. The fallen debris was lifted by roots that grew from within the walls and floors themselves.


    The stone materials from the outer walls blew together in a giant cloud of dust to reshape the bricks that had crumbled into nothing. Everything that was made of wood and stone reshaped itself and looked brand new.


    "Huh, do you not recognize ss asing from stone?" My Little Bunny asked her cousin as she looked at the building, missing several windows but otherwise looking whole again.


    "They''re ss." Noah told her.


    "ss is made from sand, which is made from rock." Sheughed at him. "You''re skipping a major element here."


    "I''ll work on it." He red at her. "But still, we reformed the ce, that''s good enough for now."


    "Indeed it is, and we appreciate it very much." Crawford told him with a smile on his face.


    "Now, shall we go now?" Gabriel suggested as he looked at the still shell shocked mate in my arms.


    "Yes, let''s go."


    We all got into the SUVs, the warlocks in their personal vehicles. I had instructed Ken, the pilot, to fly somewhere out of the way when we had arrived, so thankfully the helicopter was not damaged, but the resort we were going to was close enough to not warrant taking such a drastic transport there.


    This was definitely not how I expected today to go. This oue was nowhere near my thoughts when we left this morning. And then, to top it all off, there was the tragic oue. Yeah, we won the fight, but Edmond got away and my child was taken from us before we even got to know them. I just wanted to get my mate somewhere quiet and private. Somewhere we could help each other through this hard time.

 Chapter 179 - Trinity - At A Loss (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 179 - Trinity - At A Loss (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Since the moment that I realized I could no longer feel that little flickering warmth inside me, that little light of life I associated with my little Jelly Belly, I felt like I was numb both inside and out. Something was missing. Something was broken. I had failed.


    I felt like I had been spiraling out of control, and if it hadn''t been for Reece''s constant touch I would have already lost it allpletely. The entire time we rode from the Aerie Convento I sat on hisp. I didn''t want to sit in my seat beside him.


    I needed to feel his arms wrapped around me. I needed him to ground me. I needed his warmth.


    When we got to the hotel resort we were going to stay at he ced his hand at the small of my back, guiding me as we walked. He never let his hand leave me. I don''t know if it was because he knew I needed him, or if he needed me just as much. But I didn''t care, I was happy for his touch.


    To say that the hotel was surprised to see us was a bit of an understatement. They watched as several people got out covered in gore. And then there was the sheer number of people.


    In total, there were nearly a hundred of us with the Warlocks included. And there were so many matching big, ck, expensive SUVs. The sight of all of us showing up at once was most definitely overwhelming.


    I honestly hadn''t thought about what we would look like. A veryrge group of mostly very tall, and mostly very handsome, men showing up like this. What exactly did they think was happening?


    But, nevertheless, I had a sudden inspiration. I asked Noah quickly first to find out what he had said to them.


    "Noah, did you tell them anything when you made the reservation?" I wanted to know what he told them when he had requested enough rooms for a hundred people.


    "Just that Alpha Corps was in need of arge scale reservation on very short notice."


    "Nothing else?" I whispered. "Didn''t they ask what we needed so many rooms for?"


    "They asked, but I simply chose not to answer." He was infuriating at times.


    "Seriously." I rolled my eyes at him. "Urgh." I growled impatient at him. "Let me handle this."


    "What are you going to do?" Reece asked me curiously.


    "Just watch." I winked at him with a grin.


    I saw the manager of the resorting our way. Noah, Reece, and I were in the lead after all. He looked a little nervous, but confidence was still shining through. I could tell he was really good at his job. Also, based on his scent, I could tell he was as human as theye.


    "Good afternoon." He smiled when he was close enough to us. "My name is Francis and I''d like to wee you to The Tiger Lily Resort." His smile didn''t falter but I saw his eyes widen when he noticed the blood that covered both me and Reece.


    Good afternoon Francis, I''m Mrs. Trinity Gray." I included my full name so that he would know to associate me with the group that Noah had called about. "I am sorry for this unnned interruption. We had intended to stay elsewhere, but unfortunately there was an incident with filming." I chuckled lightly with the lie.


    "Filming." He turned his head.


    "Yes, quite unfortunate really. But while filming the big fight scene, the house we were using was damaged and we won''t be able to stay there."


    "Oh, you''re filming a movie?" He asked, realization washing over his face.


    "Yes, but we''ve been keeping it under wraps, you see. So I would appreciate it if you were to not let this matter slip to anyone." I winked at him. "This is going to be a big hit and we can''t let secrets out. You know how it is." He looked confused but nodded like he understood all the same.


    "You can count on us." He was still nodding with a broad smile. "We deal with all sorts of celebrities and high profile corporations. And I know that there isn''t a business in Colorado that hasn''t heard of your husband."


    "Is that so." Reece''s deep voice purred next to me. "I didn''t know I was that famous." He was grinning at the man who obviously had no idea that the man he had just been talking about was standing in front of him. That reaction from Francis actually made me giggle for a brief second.


    "I guess your reputation is more famous than the actual you." I slid in close to him to feel his warmth as that brief expression of true emotion which had been quick and fleeting had left me feeling even emptier and more numb inparison.


    "Mr. Gray, I apologize. I knew of you, but I have never had the chance to meet you before. I am honored to be able to host you and your group. Please, do not hesitate to ask for anything." Francis seemed a little subservient after that, it really made me wonder how people in the business world view my husband.


    Francis summoned a gaggle of excited employees. It seemed that they were excited to be in the presence of Reece. How well known was he outside of our own city? The employees weredened with guest pamphlets and key cards. They had already assigned Reece and I to arge, luxurious suite, but they asked for us to assign any other ''important'' rooms.


    Reece assigned rooms of importance to people based on their status and importance to us. So the high ranking warlocks were assigned better rooms, as were my personal guards and friends. And of course those with mates present were given rooms to themselves, so Juniper and Paul were together, as were Rawlynne and David, and of course Dietrich and Shawn.


    I had expected Shawn to look nervous and scared or embarrassed at least. But no, he just acted like it was nothing. I was really d to see his rtionship progressing well. No one should have to deal with too much stress in their rtionship, trust me on that one.


    It didn''t even take ten minutes before we were all assigned rooms and we had all scattered to our respective ces. The representatives among the group woulde and get orders from Reece and myselfter, but for now we just needed to rx and get cleaned up.


    But there was something that I just hadn''t calcted. I hadn''t thought about the fact that I was only holding it all together because there were so many people around us. But as the group dwindled down and we made our solitary journey down the hall to our suite, I realized it wasn''t just Reece''s warmth I hade to rely on today. No, it was the warmth of everyone together.


    Everyone who had been present and knew about the baby. Those who lost almost as much as I did with the loss of my baby. Juniper, Noah, Carter, Vincent, David, Shawn, Shane, Dietrich, Paul, Cedar. All these people were part of my daily life. They knew that they would be part of my child''s daily life.


    They were excited and happy for the uing changes. Their excitement had been providing me with a sense of calmness since I found out about the baby. And they were just as devastated that this life had been snuffed out.


    The shared pain and sorrow they felt along with me was helping me to cope this whole time. I felt the loss of their shared feelings very distinctively. It was like I had a ckhole sucking away all my emotions.


    I knew that Reece was just as upset as I was. I could feel the tension, the anger, the sadness, the sorrow. He had been so excited for everything to do with the baby. I knew he wanted to be a dad, but I had destroyed that dream of his.


    The longer I was without that warmth, without the others, the more I began to shake. That numb feeling was spreading and it was like I would never be warm again.


    I didn''t even notice it when Reece gently put his hand on my shoulder and tried to get my attention. I paid no mind as he guided me to sit on a wooden chair near the sliding ss door. I hadn''t even registered what the room actually looked like. I was beginning to run on autopilot.


    I was at a loss. I usually knew at least a little of what I should be doing at all times. Most of the time I was quite capable. But now, I didn''t know what to do, what to say, what to feel. I was broken, because I failed in my most important job ever. How could I ever save anyone, protect anyone, if I couldn''t keep my baby safe?

 Chapter 180 - Both - How To Heal A Broken Heart (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 180 - Both - How To Heal A Broken Heart (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "Trinity?" I called her name for the fifth time and still there was no response. I was losing her, she was spiraling and I didn''t know what to do. I had memories shing through my mind. My mom, rapidly moving beyond my reach. My father gone. My family decimated. I couldn''t handle that again. I wouldn''t survive it this time, not without her.


    "Trinity?" I called to her again, my voice cracking and shaking. "Baby please look at me." I tried one more time to get her attention as I shook her.


    "Huh?" She finally responded, like she hadn''t even heard me before at all.?"What''s wrong Reece?" She asked me like nothing had happened at all. Like she had not just been sitting there staring off into nothingness for several minutes.


    "Trinity, baby, are you alright?" I asked her, trying to get her to open up to me.


    "Yeah, I''m fine." She tried to smile but it was clearly a grimace. She was not ok, but she was trying to be, for me.


    "Honey, please don''t do this."


    "Don''t do what?"


    "Don''t lie to me, please. Don''t pretend to be alright. Just talk to me." I wanted to be upset, to hurt like her, but I wouldn''t let myself because she needed me to be strong for her. I needed to be her rock, her support, her strength. Whatever she needed from me I would do it. I couldn''t lose her. I knew I would never survive it.


    She looked at me with shock filled eyes. Either she thought she was a better liar than that, or she really was blocking out what she was truly feeling.


    "Reece, I don''t know-."


    "It''s fine to be upset, Little Bunny." I held her in my arms. "It''s fine to be mad, and angry, and want to kill Edmond even more than you did before." I chafed my hands up and down over her arms, trying to warm her through the friction. "It''s fine to be sad, and hurt, and want to cry. Trust me, I am feeling all those, but just don''t leave me behind. Please."


    "Leave you behind? What do you mean?" She was confused, at least that was genuine.


    "Don''t go into the darkness. Don''t get lost like my mom did. Please, baby, just talk to me instead of holding it all in."


    "Reece?" She seemed to be thinking about what I said, about everything, based on the look on her face. "I don''t want to go into the dark. I never want that. But I just felt numb after everything today." I watched as a tear slowly fell down her cheek, trailing a path through the dried blood on the right side of her face.


    "I''m going to be here, to anchor you. I am going to be whatever you need me to be. I love you too much to live without you." I was on my knees in front of her, holding her hands tight in my own.


    "Reece, I''m sorry." She threw her arms around my neck and hugged me tightly. "I''m not going anywhere. Just stay with me and I will stay with you."


    "Always." I breathed into her ear as I wrapped my arms around her waist.


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece was being especially attentive and emotionally supportive. I didn''t think that he would be that open with me. I knew he was hurting too, but he was more worried about me than he was himself.


    "Reece, aren''t you upset as well?" I asked him as I pulled away, breaking the hug but keeping my hands on his shoulders.


    "I''m devastated, it''s the hardest thing I have ever had to hear. But if someone were to tell me you were gone, I would be destroyed. I can''t survive without you." He cupped my cheek as he spoke, rubbing his thumb over my cheekbone as he looked me in the eyes.


    "If it came to saving me or our baby, which would you choose?" I asked him, curious to hear his answer.


    "You can''t ask me that right now." He seemed scared of that question. "Our baby didn''t have a chance to survive without you."


    "True, but if it did?" He was really not excited to hear that question.


    "I don''t know." He ran his hand through his hair, or he tried to since half of it was stiff with dried blood and other things. We were both a mess. "Let''s not talk about this right now, ok. We need to get cleaned up."


    At those words he picked me up and carried me into the bathroom. This kind of luxury resort had lots of amenities, and a killer bathroom. Not as awesome as mine, but hey not everyone could have my ce. It had a waterfall shower big enough to fit four people so it would be just perfect for the two of us. And there was arge tub that we could soak in together, given that we were fine with being very close.


    Reece set me down in front of the sink and started the water in the shower. I would have loved to soak in the tub. I would feel better after a nice long soak. But as I was currently covered in blood and dust and Reece was covered in gore, that would not make for a pleasant bath. Maybe next time.


    While Reece busied himself with getting everything ready for the shower I looked at myself in the mirror. There was blood all over the right side of my head, dried in my hair and smeared down my cheek and neck. My light blue sweater that I had chosen to wear today was covered in dust and dirt that ranged from the white of ster to the ckish brown of true dirt. There were also smears, and stters of blood all over my arms. As for my top, in the middle of the belly area, there was a hole about two inches wide where something had pierced through me and had probably been partially responsible for me losing the baby. My ck jeans made it hard to see any of the filth, but I felt the stiffness of the dried blood running down both legs.


    I don''t know how badly I had been injured. I don''t know what all happened to me after David pulled us away. But I know that it was bad. I don''t remember exactly when I lost consciousness, fully or partially. I remember darkness, pain, yelling, and then nothing. And when I woke up, I was in Reece''s arms, the ce I most want to be.


    "Are youing?" Reece called out to me, breaking through my thoughts.


    "Uh, yeah, sorry I was just lost in thought."


    "Come on, get out of these things." He pulled me toward him and started to undo the button on my jeans. There was no seduction or heat to his moves or body, neither of us was interested in anything but getting clean right now.


    I let him help me undress. Shedding piece after piece and throwing them directly into the trash. He had already shed his clothes and threw them into the same bin. Filthy or not, covered in a bloody mess or not, I could and would always appreciate the view of this man naked. He was just too hot to ignore.


    "Come one, let''s get cleaned up." He pulled me along behind him, into the shower. The moment the hot water touched my skin I was able to feel just how cold my body had be. The water felt hot, nearly scorchingly so, but it also felt so nice.


    I needed that warmth. My body was craving it right now. The numbing cold that I hadn''t noticed at all hit me all at once, causing my body to tremble and shake in Reece''s arms as he stood behind me.


    "Are you ok?" He asked me as I shivered.


    "Just realizing now how cold I was." I told him.


    "Come on, get yourself cleaned up, it will help." He grabbed a white washcloth that was hanging nearby andthered it in soap. The scent that wasing off of it was that of my favorite body wash. The scent was so mild that it was even nearly unnoticeable to shifters like us. Meaning that it would not seem overbearing in any situation. Most of us hated scented soaps, perfumes, and colognes because they were too strong. But there was an entire team of shifters that owned a line of beauty products designed with us in mind. And of course, for humans with allergies that still longed for something scented that didn''t bother them.


    Reece took that soapy washcloth and began to rub it all across my shoulders and arms. It was like the time he washed me in the tub back at Bryce''s pack house. He was thorough and didn''t miss anything. This time, however, I insisted on washing my own hair so he took that time to wash his own body as I watched him.


    It was still alluring and made me somewhat happy to watch him move his own soap covered washcloth over his sexy, well toned, honied body. His moves were almost hypnotic to me.


    I was just standing there, gently rinsing the conditioner from my hair with my eyes glued to his body. As I watched his enticing movement I first felt a slight twinge of pain in my stomach. It was ufortable but nothing overly bad so I ignored it.


    I had just tilted my head back, to fully rinse the creamy conditioner from my hair when I was wracked with pain. It felt like cramps, only ten times worse. It was the worst thing I had felt, and I had not made it these neen years fully unscathed. I curled forward and bent down, nearly sitting on the floor as I wrapped my arms around my midsection.


    "Trinity?" Reece crouched down next to me, a look of pure horror and worry in his eyes. "What''s wrong Little Bunny? What''s happening sweetheart?" He didn''t know what was happening to me and was about to panic. I just shook my head, unable to talk. I didn''t know what it was either.


    I just crouched there, unable to move, unable to talk, wracked with pain. I squeezed my eyes shut in a pathetic attempt to ward off the pain, and ignore it all, but it didn''t work. It felt like ws were twisting through and gouging out my insides. Unable to bear the pain any longer I let out a squealing, yelp of pain.


    "Ahhh." I breathed after I yelped then hissed through my teeth as I inhaled.


    "Baby, what''s happening?" Reece asked me again.


    "I don''t know." I said as I looked at him, my eyes full of tears and pain.


    Reece had had his hands on my shoulders, helping to steady me as I crouched in my pain. And just as he moved to help me up I was wracked by another wave of pain that was by far worse than all the rest. But this spasm of pain was apanied by the sharp scent of blood.


    I felt the pain as the blood flowed and poured out of me. The shower now looked like the scene of a murder as the blood swirled around our feet, lingering momentarily before disappearing down the drain. It felt like a lot, but in reality it wasn''t as much as it seemed like.


    The thing that caught my eye the most was the thing that was not blood. It was a mass that looked like arge blood clot, something any woman who had been through puberty would recognize. But this was no mere blood clot. I finally understood what was happening. My body had just rid itself of the baby that was no longer living inside of me. I had officially miscarried.


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I didn''t know what to think as I crouched there beside my sweet Little Bunny. She was doubled over in pain, barely able to say three little words. She was holding her abdomen with her arms crossed in front of her. I had so many thoughts going through my head.?Was this something residual from the battle?


    Was this something that Edmond was doing to her?


    Was she going to be alright?


    What could I do to help her?


    What exactly is happening?


    I wanted answers to these questions, but I didn''t know how I was going to get them. Then, after she cried out in pain, the floor of the shower was covered in blood as it swirled down the drain. The sharp scent of her blood filled my nose causing anger to well up inside of me. What was I going to do?


    "Trinity?" I called out to her as she stared a clump of blood and other things as it sat on the floor of the shower. Thest of the blood was washing away, rinsing off of her pale, nearly translucent skin.


    I turned off the water and scooped her up into my arms again, holding her close to me as I left the shower and grabbed a towel. I wrapped her in the white cloth that was instantly dyed pink from the remnants?of the blood. I would be paying extra for that but I didn''t fucking care. I needed to see to my wife.


    I carried her to the room and sat her on the side of the bed. She adjusted so that she was sitting on top of the towel rather than the bedspread. I went to grab another towel so I could dry off and get dressed quickly. She seemed to figure out what I was doing and called out to me.


    "Reece, stop." Her voice held a note of sadness that I didn''t understand.


    "What do you mean stop? I''m going to get Griffin." I couldn''t fathom what was going on in her head.


    "There''s no need."


    "What the hell do you mean? There''s no need, what''s that supposed to mean? You''re bleeding."


    "It''s nothing."


    "I don''t call that amount of pain or the blood nothing." I tried my best to convince her of my point, but she didn''t seem swayed.


    "Really Reece, I''m alright. There is no reason to get Griffin."


    "You told me you didn''t know what was happening, but now you tell me you''re fine like you do know. What is going on Little Bunny? Tell me, sweetheart, please." I was pleading with her, I didn''t like being in the dark.


    "I didn''t know at first. But I do know now." Her words felt hollow, empty, like she was detaching herself from what just happened, trying to make it less impactful to her.


    "What is it?" I knelt in front of her, half dressed with worry clearly spelled out on my face. "What was that just now?"


    "Our baby." Those two words confused me.


    "What are you saying?"


    "I''m saying that was me miscarrying. That was not just blood in the shower."


    "So, that clump of blood, that was-." I trailed off as the truth of those words hit me. All she did was nod her head. I wrapped my arms around her, holding her close to me, sharing with her the tragedy of the situation.


    How was I going to heal my wife''s broken heart? How was I going to make this situation better? How was I going to help her not me herself or feel like she was to me?


    The only thing that came to mind was Juniper, and her new found healing ability. Griffin had healed her body, and Juniper could heal her mind. But that wouldn''t heal her heart. That job fell on my shoulders. And I would bend over backwards, walk through hell, and jump through hoops just to help my mate through this situation.

 Chapter 181 - Trinity - Time To Prepare For Another Attempt At Locating The Kids (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 181 - Trinity - Time To Prepare For Another Attempt At Locating The Kids (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I never once saw this as something that would happen. But I had to figure out a way to move on, for now at least. We hade here with a clear objective. We were looking for the missing kids, and the warlocks were supposed to be able to help us. Granted their HQ had just been destroyed, but that wasn''t our fault. And we had even fixed it.


    Honestly, you had to give us props. If it wasn''t for us, they might have all died, which they didn''t. And even if they had lived, they would not have had the building fixed so quickly. So hey, kudos to my team.


    All that excitement, and sorrow, was settling. And I was doing much better after spending a night being held in Reece''s arms. Honestly there is nothing like being wrapped securely in the arms of a man who loves you unconditionally. I used to think that I would never have that luxury, but now it was one of my favorite things about life.


    After a loud and boisterous breakfast with the whole group in the resort''srgest dining room, we met with Crawford and Eldrige to discuss what we needed to do. I had learned that Crawford was the High Warlock, the leader, of the magic council. And Eldrige acted sort of like his second inmand. There were a few people on simr levels with Eldrige, but he seemed to be the one that dealt with Crawford the most. Henrich and Lionel were Eldrige''s subordinates and acted as attendants in most situations. The hierarchy of the magical world or warlocks and witches was kind of feudal and outdated.


    Not to mention that they had a fabled leader as well, just like the wolves, but theirs was a man. The Warlock King, as he was to be called. The magic council firmly believed in a patriarchal society. I much prefer the more female friendly wolfmunity. Perhaps I was biased here, but you know, I am the Queen after all.


    At a quarter to eleven, the two warlockse into therge suite that I shared with Reece. I had gotten used to this room, after I had finally taken the time to look around and actually see itst night. You know, after my freak out in the shower from my miscarriage. Anyway, it was a good room, really beautiful actually.


    When you came into the room, it opened immediately into therge, spacious living room. The design was a mixture of rustic and state of the art. There were a lot of natural stained wood ents, like the beams running across the high ceiling and the trimmings on the windows and doors. But there were a lot of high end and expensive ents as well, such as the white with gray marble countertops at the wet bar and in the kitchen. The floor was carpeted in a super soft and plush, yet neatly short carpet in a neutral beige satin color. The walls, where they didn''t have the natural looking wood, were a bright, pristine white. The furniture was done darker to offset the brightness of the room, in shades of dark grays and cks. The curtains at the windows and the sliding ss door were a soft, silky, sheer white that did little to block the natural light, but offered the privacy one might want when alone in the room.


    There were three bedrooms in the suite, we could have housed a good chunk of the guards here with us, but Reece had wanted to be alone. Two of the bedrooms had two queen sized beds with enough matching furniture so that they could house four people at once. The only single room was the master bedroom that Reece and I shared. It spared no expense forfort or beauty, with a design simr to that of the living and dining areas. The skan King sized bed was soft and more than spacious enough for us. The cozy armchairs next to the firece were soft and perfect for curling into so you can think.


    We met with the warlocks in the living room, no time to waste here. The two men sat on opposite ends of therge sofa. Reece once again had me on hisp and locked in the circle of his arms, holding me close to him as he took up most of the space on the love seat.


    "Good morning Gentlemen." Reece greeted them after they sat. Noah and Vincent took their ces behind us in their rightful ces of honor and respect as our second inmands.


    "Alpha Reece, Queen Trinity." Crawford nodded at us, offering our titles to show his respect. I was d that he hade around after the initial meeting.


    "I will get right to the point." I said, putting power and authority into my voice, causing all five men in the room to look at me. "We need to find the children. That is all that matters right now. And Eldrige told us that he would be able to locate them if we had something personal that belongs to the children."


    "Yes, we should definitely be able to help track them down." Crawford was nodding his head to agree with what I was saying. "It is not an easy spell to do with multiple targets. It is something that works best with fewer people to find. And it will most likely be made more difficult with the added resistance of Edmond." I saw Eldrige frown at those words.


    "Do you think that you won''t be able to do it?" I asked of them both, but hoped for Eldrige''s response, if anything his attitude would answer more than anything else.


    "No, we will most definitely do it." Crawford answered immediately, Eldrige nodded half heartedly. Hmm, that was interesting. He was definitely nervous.


    So, we set about preparing for the spell. Eldrige and Crawford unrolled arge parchment-like sheet that was at least big enough for eight people to stand on without touching anyone else or invading anyone''s personal space.


    On the sheet was arge magic circle with swirling lines and rune like designs in each corner. It was borate and the markings looked strangely like dried blood with it''s dirty, rusty looking reddish color. I could tell the cloth was very old.


    "What exactly is this?" I asked them, worried about the implications it might have here.


    "It is a magic focusing circle. When performing arge, concentrated spell such as this one, using a circle like this will only aid you in your efforts." Eldrige answered, it was one of the very few things he had said sinceing into the room today.


    "And this works for everyone with magic?" I asked them curiously which elicited a nod from them both as they answered me silently. "If this circle is all that it takes, why not wear the mark to always be at your best?"


    "It is exceedingly difficult to make a circle such as this." Crawford answered solemnly. "This is thest circle in existence."


    "Huh." It didn''t make sense to me. Why would it be difficult? Yeah, the runes would be a little hard to replicate if you didn''t have a visual to look at, but if you have the original to go off of it wouldn''t be that hard. And honestly, if they wanted an advantage over Edmond, why not find a way to wear the mark and focus yourself when you were not standing on the stationary circle.


    I was losing myself in thought again, thinking hard about my questions while Crawford and Eldrige chanted something around the circle. I was only half listening to their words, but I gathered that they were repeating the same thing over and over again.


    "Grant us your power and wisdom to strengthen us, your humble children. Lend us aid to do as we must do. Show us the way, oh wise Thoth."


    So they were praying to the God Thoth, of magic and wisdom. That makes sense. He was probably a god that was the pr opposite of Hektate. As I stared at the magic circle, thinking about the power focusing runes, I repeated the words they had said in my head. ''Grant us your power and wisdom to strengthen us, your humble children. Lend us aid to do as we must do. Show us the way, oh wise Thoth.''


    Once the words had been recited carefully, though silently, I felt a sharp pain on my left shoulder with a quick sh of golden light.


    "What was that?" Reece looked at me confused as the light quickly faded.


    "I''m notpletely sure, but I think it was the application of a new mark."


    "A new mark?" Eldrige''s voice was a question in and of itself as he looked at me with wonder.


    "What kind of mark?" Reece asked me.


    "If I had to fathom a guess without looking, I would say that one." I pointed at the cloth the men had just finished chanting around. The dried rusty blood color was now glowing and was the color of fresh blood.


    "Really?" Reece''s voice was awed.


    "Here, look for me." I told him as I slid my jacket down to expose my shoulder.


    "Shit." He put his hand right where I had felt the stinging pain.


    "How is this possible." Crawford seemed baffled.


    "Your guess is as good as mine." I assured him. "But if I can use this to boost my powers, perhaps you all can as well, if you just try."


    "I don''t think it will be that easy." Eldrige was looking at me reverently, he seemed to be seeing me with rose colored sses, like I was a saint that could do no wrong in his eyes. "Crawford, Sir, I think we should ask Queen Trinity to assist us in this spell."


    "I wouldn''t know how to." I assured them.


    "It will be more of a sharing of power than anything. I am certain with your power assisting us, we will find the children in no time at all."


    "I concur." Crawford was quick to agree with the reverent man. I looked at Reece to see him smiling at me contentedly. I sighed and resigned myself.


    "If you think it will help, then I will not say no." I agreed. And so now, I was going to be assisting in magic like this for the first time.

 Chapter 182 - Trinity - Unexpected (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 182 - Trinity - Unexpected (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    No sooner had we decided I was to help, and we were just about to get started, did an urgent sounding knocke from the door to the suite. With a raised eyebrow and a curious expression, Noah made his way to the door, the rest of us standing in the room and watching.


    At the door was a group of warlocks and witches ranging in age from early twenties tote fifties, by appearances anyway. But I knew that they could be over two hundred and look thirty, so age wasn''t the relevant fact here. The thing about them that was the most interesting was the nearly identical looks of shock they were all wearing. Not a single one of them looked calm. Some were practically bouncing up and down from excitement and shock while others merely looked unsettled.


    "We are very busy, is there something you need?" Noah asked them in a clipped and curt manner. He was standing at the door with his back to me, so I couldn''t see his face, but I knew the potential that Noah had when it came to his frustrations.


    "We would like to speak with Crawford momentarily." Henrich, who was standing near the front of the group spoke up.


    "Henrich, it can wait." Eldrige red at the man.


    "Sir, this is something that you both should see." Henrich insisted.


    "Just let Henrich in, not the others." I told Noah.


    "You heard her. Him only, he will ry any info you all need." Noah was acting like a good security agent now. Had he always been like this? I thought he had, but then there were times when it came as such a surprise to me.


    Henrich walked into the room and Noah shut the door behind him, directly in the faces of the excitable people outside it. Henrich made his way to where we all stood in a hurried manner. He looked like someone had recently chased him and he couldn''t shed that feeling of adrenaline. I saw the look in his eyes and was instantly curious to what he had seen that would make him scared, nervous, shocked, excited, and happy all at one.


    "What is it?" Crawford demanded of him when he hade to a stop.


    "Sir, there has been something wonderful, no glorious, that has happened to us all." Henrich was sounding reverent about this mysterious urrence he was talking about, he sounded like Eldrige had just a few moments ago.


    "Well, out with it, just tell me what it is already." Crawford ordered him. With a nod, Henrich began to speak again.


    "Yes, Sir. Well, you see, we have all been blessed."


    "Blessed how?" Reece asked as I stood next to him, silently watching.


    "What kind of blessing?" Vincent added.


    "A blessing from the God Thoth. This is most definitely a cause to celebrate."


    "I do not understand." Crawford rubbed his temples in agitation. "Please exin everything." He sighed as he looked at the man who was praising the god.


    ording to Henrich''s retelling of the events. He had been waiting in the three room suite, like ours but less extravagant, for Eldrige to return. He had not expected the onught of visitors that had rushed to his room in their excitement. They had begun to talk among themselves after the first of them noticed the mark on their right shoulder. That man who had first noticed the mark on himself had ran excitedly to his roommate and showed him. The roommate had one as well.


    Those two went room to room, looking for others. As it turned out every single warlock present had the mark now on their right shoulder. It was just like what had happened with my mark. The only difference was that the appearance of their marks had not been apanied with the light or slight pain.


    Eldrige and Crawford looked at each other in mystified confusion. Every single witch and warlock they had brought with them was now marked with the power focusing runic symbols. After a quick mutual examination they saw that they too had the mark. It did indeed look just the designs on the parchment like sheet.


    I felt the stares from six sets of eyes on me. My nerves were just as high as ever, but I did my best to not let it get to me. I knew what they were thinking though, and it was mostly likely true. I had given them all the marks.


    "Queen Trinity, what exactly did you do?" Crawford asked me with a hint of worry in his voice.


    "I only recited the words you were chanting. I said them in my head as you two were activating the circle."


    "That was all?" Vincent asked me.


    "Well, yeah. But you all know that I said it would be a good idea to wear that circle to make things easier. It was right after that when I said the words. But like I said, I only said them in my head."


    "You blessed all my people that are here, that is more than just saying the words inside your head."


    I was feeling the weight of his words and skepticism as it bored down on me. The tension in the room was mounting as they all looked at me.


    I first noticed something was off while the warlocks had their eyes locked onto me. I saw a rolling cloud of pale blue fog. It was blowing in around us like we weren''t even there. I could smell a sweet yet spicy incense filling the fog.


    Reece and the guys noticed the fog at almost the same time that I did. Looking out the corner of their eyes first then turning to look at it directly. Thest to notice anything were the warlocks.


    The fog moved fast and had surrounded us in an instant, but I didn''t feel anything ominous about this cloud. Though I was still wary because of the purple fog I had dealt with so recently.


    Once everyone was aware of the presence, the fog stopped moving forward. Instead the fog rose higher and high, coalescing into one ce. And forming a vaguely man shaped form. As the form cleared I noticed some strange things about its appearance. The man had the head of a bird. He was bare chested but had a circr cor thing around his neck and cuffs on his upper arms. He was holding a staff and an ankh. The only clothing he was truly wearing was a knee length skirt.


    "Thoth." Crawford breathed as the man came into better focus. This was an embodiment of God Thoth.


    "Greetings my children."


    "Thoth." Eldrige said with a little more substance to his voice.


    "Is it really you?" Crawford asked. Reece, Noah, Vincent, and I were just watching on with awed looks on our faces.


    "Yes, dear son, it is I." He was smiling happily at all of us present.


    "What are you doing here?" Crawford asked him.


    "I havee to announce my sessor."


    "Sessor? You mean the Warlock King?" Eldrige was smiling.


    "Yes, and no." Thoth answered him. "I have never named a sessor in these past millenia. The reason being no one has been worthy enough."


    "But you believe someone is worthy now?" Crawford smiled.


    "I do." Thoth smiled as he looked at me.


    "Me?" I asked him, causing him to nod. "You are half witch, that makes you a child of mine as well. But you have not been raised to be like any of my people. You have, however, been raised to ept people no matter who they truly are. You are strong, mentally, emotionally, and physically. Not to mention you are extremely powerful. With you taking the helm, on top of your other roles, you can unite the magic world with the shifter world. With these two linesing together, you will help to unite the world."


    "She will be the Warlock Queen?" Vincent smiled as he looked at me.


    "That she is." He smiled at all of us in turn. "I leave it to all of you to spread the word. Queen Trinity, please lead your people with pride and wisdom."


    "Wait, what if I can''t do this?" I asked him, panicking.


    "Much like your shifter goddess, I will always be near to help guide you. After all, I am part of all my children."


    Thoth reached out his cloudy, barely there left hand, the one clutching the ankh. He brushed the stone piece in his hand across my forehead and whispered something so quietly I could not hear it, but there was a sh of light blue light and I felt another quick sh of pain in my shoulder, but this time the right one. I could clearly tell it was the formation of more marks.


    I just became queen of another whole group of people! Would the surrealness of my life ever stop. What the hell am I going to do now? This was way beyond my capabilities, wasn''t it?

 Chapter 183 - Trinity - Casting The Spell (VOLUME 2) LONG CHAPTER

    <h4>Chapter 183 - Trinity - Casting The Spell (VOLUME 2) LONG CHAPTER</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The blue fog quickly faded and we were all left stunned by what the apparition had told us. The warlocks were staring at me stunned into immobility.


    "Trinity?" Reece said my name, breaking the tension.


    "Luna?" Vincent was being formal because of the situation.


    "Trin?" Noah dropped all formalities. Three different men, three different ways of addressing me, all people I couldn''t imagine my life without. But I wasn''t sure how I was supposed to imagine my life anymore. What is my life now? Is it even my life to live?


    I just continued to stare at them, stricken with shock,pletely dumbfounded, at a loss, whichever way to word it, it applied to me in that moment. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, a numbing cold spreading again. Then, the three warlocks moved.


    First, Henrich broke out in a smile, it spread slowly across his face, brightening and lightening his features. Eldrige moved next, he bowed with his head tilted forward and put his right hand over his heart. Andst, Crawford knelt to the ground, his eyes never leaving mine as his gaze was locked onto me.


    "My Queen." The three of them said at the same time, as if it had been nned.


    The sight of yet more people acting like I was their reverent leader was a little more than I could handle at this moment. I just wanted to get a move on and finally find the children.


    "Please, stand up." I told them. "We have work to do." I didn''t want to exin to them that I just didn''t want to be treated this way. But it was bound to happen wherever I went outside of the pack, I might as well stopining about it.


    All three men nodded and stood side by side.


    "We are at yourmand, Queen Trinity." Crawford seemed much less oppositional than he had ever seemed to be before. Was it my new status or was he just used to me? Probably the first one.


    The magic circle was still active, the lines still glowing red as it hadn''t even been ten minutes since they had activated it. They said it was best that Henrich was here, having four of us here was beneficial for the spell in the long run.


    Each of us stood on one of the runic symbols at each corner of the sheet. I didn''t know the spell, but Crawford said he would be reciting the words, the rest of us were responsible for focusing on the names of the children and our objective.


    "Aided by Thoth''s guiding light, help us find those we seek. Show us where those that hide from us are waiting unseen. Reveal their location and help us to bring them home. Thoth, great God of Wisdom, please guide us."


    I listened to Crawfords words as I thought to myself. ''Help us to find the children. Sammy Taylor, ten years old. Marcus ck, nine years old, Spencer Hall, eleven years old. June Addams, eight years old. Tiffany Justice, eleven years old. Brandon LeMac, twelve years old. Jacob Little, nine years old. Liz Townes, twelve year old. Help me to bring them home Thoth, please. Show me where they are.'' I just kept repeating their names and my simple request with my eyes closed as Crawford chanted his words.


    I was hoping to get a mental picture of the location the kids were. Something pointing me in the right location. Or maybe a whispered name to the city they were in. But I didn''t expect what happened next.


    My body felt heavy, like I couldn''t stand up any longer, but I fought against the feeling, forcing myself to stand. I faltered a little, leaning forward in a slight slump like I was about to fall asleep on my feet, but I straightened my back and stood up.


    When I stood up straight was when I noticed the light breeze on my cheek. I snapped my eyes open and saw that I was standing in the middle of nowhere. Well, it wasn''t exactly nowhere, there was a small town, more of a vige really, off in the distance. I was surrounded by barron looking farnd. It was either beyond its prime or had yet to be readied for the next growing period. Dpidated old farm buildings were scattered and falling down around the area.


    Nothing was very close to anything else. Even back when this ce was new it never had to worry about an overpoption problem. But, it looked like this ce had never seen a boom in its economic growth cycle, it was nearly a ghost town.


    I did wonder briefly what I was doing here, but I figured it had something to do with the spell, so I didn''t worry too much about it. Instead I focused on what was around me, doing my best to remember everything that I saw. I noticed a faint light flickering in the distance, it looked to be just beyond the small vige. The light almost seemed like a beacon, calling me to it, like I was the rescue party and that was the S.O.S. signal.


    I did the only thing that felt right, I followed the light. I moved quickly but cautiously, keeping my eyes and ears on everything around me. When I reached the small vige I saw a sign telling me where I was: KANORADO POPULATION 154.


    Kanorado? I knew where that was. It was a joke of a city with the names of two states meshed together. Kansas and Colorado, hence Kanorado. It was on the same list as ces like Texarkana, though that one was more famous.


    "Are the kids really just over the state line? They had to be, right. That''s what I was here to find out anyway.


    I continued to walk forward, following the light. The vige of Kanorado was extremely small, it was maybe a quarter of a mile in length. The most lively thing I saw was a highway in the distance that looked like it exited here, but didn''t have much traffic getting off to see the sights.


    I just continued following that beacon. I had started a good distance from the town and was now beyond it, all the while I saw nothing but this little, old timey Main Street. But now, that light was finally growing bigger and brighter.


    I saw arge, but still very old, house begin to form. It looked like it hadn''t lived in for many years, but was still standing firm. The house was once white, but had long since yellowed and then grayed with age and time. It was a two story house, obviously beautiful when it was first built, with a lot of windows and a wrap around porch. It should have looked sweet, homely, something you would see in a movie.


    Well, you could say it belonged in a movie alright. A horror movie. This ce just radiated sinister. I could tell it had a lot of secrets hiding in its depths.


    The light was nowing from within that house, deep inside it, guiding me to where I needed to go. I climbed the porch, not leaving a footprint behind but hearing my footsteps and the creaks of the floorboards.


    There were no little puffs of smoke when I walked on all that dust, like they teach you to expect in books and movies. When I reached the door I extended my arm and touched the door, it was very much solid. This wasn''t like a dream, nothing like what Reece said he experienced.


    Pushing the door open I saw a living room filled with furniture that was covered in white sheets and several hundredyers of dust. I could smell that dust, it tickled my nose and made me want to sneeze. There were two halls leading off the room as well as three doors and arge staircase leading up on the right side of the room. The light was not shing anymore. It seemed I had to narrow the locations down on my own.


    I slowly started to explore the house. I checked the doors leading off the room first. The one to my immediate left was a coat closet, which is what I would expect given its position in the room. The door to the far right led to an office. There was a desk, also covered in a sheet, and what looked like a desk chair, also covered in a sheet. I noticed a really old filing cab in the corner and nothing else. The room was nearly empty.


    Thest door leading off the room had a flight of stairs leading down to a basement. I decided to wait on going down for the time being. This door had been in between the two hallways leading off of the living room.


    The hall to the left led to arge eat in kitchen. The cabs doors were hanging off, their hinges long since rusted. The table in the room had no sheet but was covered in dust, dirt and leaves as the window in the back door had been broken by a fallen branch that was still pushing through the frame.


    The kitchen held nothing of importance, the only interior door leading off this room was to a small walk-in pantry. It looked like no one had lived here in a long time, given how old and outdated the appliances looked.


    Backtracking to the living room, I investigated the other hallway. Down here there was a small bathroom and a bedroom. There was an empty bed frame and a busted chest of drawers in the room but nothing else. The bathroom, which was filthy, at least had nothing broken inside of it.


    I once again went back to the living room and made my way up the stairs. The second floor was one long hallway with six more doors. The one to the left was a linen closet, the one on the right was another small bedroom, this onepletely empty.


    The second door on the left was a small bedroom, nearly the same size as thest one but this one had three pieces of furniture. There was a dresser and mirror, a night stand, and an armoire, all were broken,plete with shattered ss on the floor. The door opposite it was another bathroom. It too was filthy but all the baseponents were there.


    Thest door on the left was another storage room filled with empty and broken shelves. The door opposite that was a master bedroom. I only knew this because it had two doors, not just one like the others. Both doors had been removed, one had led to the closet and one to the en suite bathroom for the parents to have for themselves. Yet, in terms of size it wasn''t much bigger than the rest of the rooms.


    Well, that was everything upstairs and on the main floor, guess I had to check the basement now. I had avoided that because I didn''t want to be without any light when I found the kids so I had hoped they were elsewhere.


    I started down the stairs slowly, step by step inching my way forward. There were more stairs than I expected, way more. Instead of around a dozen, I had already counted sixty and wasn''t done walking down. This was not a normal basement.


    When the descent leveled off and I was no longer on stairs but solid ground I had gone down more than a hundred steps. And, contrary to what I had thought, there was light down here. But I seemed to be in a long corridor with another six doors leading off it. And at the far end of the corridor there were two men standing guard. I thought they had seen me as they were staring right at me, but that was when I heard someoneing down the stairs behind me.


    Their steps were light, nearly quiet even though they seemed to be moving fast. I turned and saw a man who looked to be in histe twentiesing toward me. He had long ck hair that reached to his waist and eyes that matched. He looked like he was only a little taller than me, way shorter than the men I was used to dealing with. And his build was slight and thin, he didn''t look strong, but that didn''t mean he wasn''t powerful.


    I moved to the side, knowing it was toote to hide myself but trying to buy myself time. He had just reached the bottom of the stairs, his eyes on the end of the hall. He never even nced at me, he just continued to walk on.


    I followed after the man, more confident now that I knew I couldn''t be seen. Slowly, I crept along after him until he was about ten feet away from the men, and three feet in front of me.


    "Lord Phillip, we are honored by your return." The man on the left spoke as they both bowed their heads and knelt to the ground.


    "Is there word from his majesty?" The other man asked.


    "There is indeed. The wolf pack has arrived and provided aid to the council. The attack was not sessful." The man who seemed to be called Phillip answered. I could not see his face but I saw fear wash over the other men.


    "Is the king''s daughter with them?" The man on the right asked.


    "She is, in fact she seems to be leading them."


    "But, does the king n to eliminate his daughter now? I thought he still needed her."


    "He does, without her the binding will be impossible. But, we can now send warriors to her home and have them lie in wait." Phillip sneered and seemed to beughing.


    "Yes, Sir." Both of the still kneeling guards answered in unison.


    "We will ready the children to be moved tomorrow. And make sure the others fortify the puppetry as well, King Gannon ns to send a horde at the same time we move the children."


    "Yes, we will have them ready, Sir." The man on the left answered.


    "Good, I will be back by noon." Phillip spun on his heels and I stepped aside out of his way. I didn''t need to push the issue of if I was really here or not, I mean doors were solid to me, would I feel solid to these people?


    Phillip went up the stairs just as quickly and quietly as he came down. The two guards stood when he was gone. They looked at each other before walking down the corridor. I quickly moved with the, avoiding the two of them so they didn''t run into me, or walk through me. That would have been a little too horror movie for me to deal with. The man on the left opened the door closest to the stairs, in the room were about a dozen more people in what seemed like arge barracks. The man on the right opened the middle door on his side and in there I saw four women and the children. There were indeed more than just the eight. It seemed like there were two dozen altogether. All of them looked to be twelve or under.


    I had found them and now I woulde back for them. I''d save them and get them home to their families.


    "Hang in there kids." I said, more to myself than anything else, but the two men who had just opened the doors paused and looked at each other like they were asking if the other made the sound. Oops, time to get out of here.


    No sooner had I thought that than I felt a tugging in the back of my neck. It felt like someone had grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and started to drag me. I closed my eyes, afraid I was going to hit the ceiling as the tugging sensation started to lift me off the ground.


    The next thing I knew, I wasying in Reece''s arms as he crouched next to the magic circle.


    "Trinity." He breathed my name and hugged me when he saw me open my eyes. I saw the other men in the room standing around us, watching me closely.


    "What happened?" Noah asked me.


    "You were there, weren''t you?" Vincent asked me.


    "Yes, I was. I saw the children, where they are being kept."


    "How did you know that she had gone there?" Henrich asked Vincent, uncertain of how he had reached that conclusion.


    "It''s not the first time something like this has happened to someone in our pack. Plus, what else could exin it?" Vincent''s answer seemed simple but it was indeed knowledgeable.


    "What exactly happened here?" I asked, curious to know why I was actuallyying in Reece''s arms. "And how long was I gone?"


    "While Crawford was chanting you swayed forward and copsed. You were only out for like two or three minutes." Noah''s answering voice was full of concern for me.


    "I almost had a heart attack." Reece whispered quietly into my ear. "Why are you always scaring me like this?"


    "I don''t mean to." I consoled him with a returned whisper and a quick small hug.

 Chapter 184 - Trinity - New Marks And Setting Off (VOLUME 2) LONG CHAPTER

    <h4>Chapter 184 - Trinity - New Marks And Setting Off (VOLUME 2) LONG CHAPTER</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece decided to change the positions of us all in the room. He stood with me in his arms and moved us to the love seat from before. The three warlocks sat on the sofa facing us, Noah and Vincent were behind us defensively again, albeit unnecessarily.


    "Can you tell us what exactly happened?" Eldrige asked me with a steady and calm voice. I nodded and began my exnation, a y by y ount of what had happened from the moment I closed my eyes to focus until I closed my eyes and braced for impact with the ceiling in the basement.


    "They were seriously that far underground?" Vincent seemed shocked by that the most.


    "Yes, it felt like they were at least fifty or sixty feet underground."


    "And you said there were two dozen children?" Crawford seemed confused. "I don''t know why he would need so many children. That is more than what the summoning would require."


    "How many guards do you think they have there? What kind of fight are we looking at?" Noah wanted to get straight to the strategic nning.


    "I know they had at least a dozen and a half warlocks."


    "That seems like it will be no problem at all." Henrich sounded confident."


    "Don''t be so rash." Reece reprimanded him.


    "Why, we have nearly a hundred. Their measly eighteen will be next to nothingpared to that." Henrich was smiling with his overconfidence.


    "You''re missing something." Vincent informed him.


    "Precisely." Reece nodded.


    "What am I missing?"


    "Trinity, you want to tell him?" Reece smiled at me as I sat wrapped in his arms.


    "Sure." I nodded at him before turning to face the warlocks. "Phillip told the guards to fortify the puppetry for the horde."


    "What''s that got to do with us?" Henrich was really beginning to sound stupid now.


    "It means that the massive beasts that Edmond sent to attack us yesterday are likely being kept there." Reece was in Alpha mode, calm, cool, and collected. He always seemed so much wiser and stronger when he was in this role


    "More of those beasts?" Crawford paled.


    "How many more?" Eldrige asked.


    "I didn''t see them but I am guessing a lot."


    "We have to assume that it will be a lot more than we dealt with before. But we have an advantage now." Reece smiled at me as he spoke. "We now have a Warlock Queen who will enhance the abilities of all those that fight with her." I blushed, a slight smile on my face. I loved the feeling his confidence in me gave me. It made me feel strong, powerful, and of course loved.


    The Warlocks were dismissed and ordered to spread the news about what had happened. They needed to tell the others about Thoth''s message, my being the Queen, and of course that we had found the kids and would be heading out soon. It was a quarter to one when they left and we nned to leave noter than two-thirty this afternoon. We had a time limit, and it was less than twenty-four hours away.


    I was happy that Reece wasn''t going to try and keep me away. That I was going to get to help and fight to save the kids. I didn''t want to put my foot down and force him to let me go.


    We had little to prepare, but there were still some things needed. First was acquiring more vehicles. We would be having more kids to transport, and with all the warlocks going with us we needed to have ample room. So, Reece sent some of the group to get more.


    When we had originally set out we had a dozen SUVs, enough seating for maybe eighty-four people. That would have allowed room for the eight or twelve kids we were expecting to be rescued and no crowding among the passengers. But now we already had more than that number of people who would be traveling with the group, and add to that the fact that we had to amodate twice as many kids. We thought adding another eight SUVs would be a good idea.


    I just wish that Reece and the others knew how conspicuous we would all look driving around in a huge ass caravan of big ck SUVs. Did they want us to look like some military outfit that was on the move? Did they want to terrify and intimidate the public? Oh well, he would do what he wanted I guess. He probably thought it looked cool.


    "Reece?" I called his name shortly after the others had left the room.


    "Yeah Little Bunny, what is it?"


    "Phillip said he was sending an attack to lie in wait for us. We need to let the others know." I didn''t want them being left unguarded and be no better thanmbs awaiting the ughter.


    "I have already sent word to the guards back home. As well as calling up The surrounding packs."


    "Good. I don''t want anything happening to the people back home."


    "Too bad you couldn''t just talk to them like you do." He smiled at me jokingly.


    ''You mean like this?'' I asked him mentally as I slinked toward him seductively.


    "Yup, just like that. Only hopefully without the apanying visuals." He smirked at me as he reached out his right hand. In a quick gesture he wrapped his hand around my waist and pulled me toward him.


    I hadn''t intended for an intimate moment between us, just a little teasing. But I couldn''t deny the need in either of us when he buried his face in the hair at my neck. His tongue licked up and down, gently caressing my flesh and leaving behind a thin wet line.


    I gripped his shirt in my fists as I shivered from the feeling of his hot breath on my wet, sensitive flesh. Goosebumps were beginning to spread their way up my arms just from the feel of him being so close to me. He purred softly when my body had shivered, moving against him.


    Next, his teeth mped onto me, next to the ce where my marks started. His gentle but firm pressure caused a quiet moan to escape from between my lips.


    I so desperately wanted to continue, but I knew we didn''t have the time. We had to leave, and soon. But it was hard, oh so hard, to push him away from me.


    "Reece." I said as I ced my hands against his chest. "We can''t do this."


    "Of course we can." He chuckled against my neck. "We just need a few lessyers." He started to push the jacket I was wearing down my arms. "See, it''s that simple."


    "No, we''ve got to stop. We need to leave soon."


    "There''s time for both." He murmured.


    "Not if we wanted to savor our time and enjoy it." I teased him. "Come on, let''s get ready to go." I pushed him, gently but firmly, causing him to take a small step back.


    "Fine." He looked me in the eyes as he answered, the heat in their depths was almost enough to set me aze and throw the schedule out the window. Almost. I was still in control though and knew that wasn''t an option.


    I wanted to be ready to leave before the others. I wanted to show my leadership abilities by setting the example. So it was with that thought that I pushed the desire and need from my mind and started to change for the mission.


    But, just as I stripped off the jacketpletely, leaving me in nothing but the sleeveless racer back t-shirt I had on under it Reece''s eyes went wide with a gasp.


    "What is it?" I asked him curiously as I looked over my shoulder at him.


    "Your marks." His eyes looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets.


    "What about them?" I was confused, we already knew that I had a new one, did he forget that? "Reece, I know there''s a new one."


    "There''s more than one new one." He walked back toward me as I turned to face him. When I looked directly at him he paused, his eyes locked onto my chest.


    "Now''s not the time to look at my boobs Reece." I reminded him firmly.


    "While that would be a very pleasant sight, that''s not what I''m staring at." He smirked at me again.


    "Then what?" I followed his gaze and saw a little of what he was looking at.


    It was just a glimpse, that''s all I could see with the shirt on, but there were more of the trinity symbols in a chain moving from left to right. Three lines of them in fact, but they were silver instead of ck. It looked like they went all the way across my chest, at my corbone really. They went from one shoulder to the next.


    In a panicked hurry I pulled the shirt off over my head and threw it aside. I saw that I was indeed right in guessing that the chains went from one shoulder to the other. There was still that pawprint and crescent moon on my left cor bone, sapphire blue and silver like before. But now, there was the runic magic circle on my right cor bone, and this one was a dark ruby red color.


    Both were attached to the chains marking their way from one shoulder to the other. No longer did the chain just move down my shoulder to the mark on the cor bone. No, they looked like they were pendants dangling from a veryrge and borate ne.


    "Wasn''t that mark on my shoulder?" I asked Reece pointing to the symbol on the right.


    "It was, but now it''s not. It wasn''t there anymore when I looked just a moment ago, but there is a different new mark."


    "Really?" I asked him, interrupting him.


    "Yup." He nodded. "And there are a bunch of marks here now." He pointed to my right shoulder.


    My head was spinning, I didn''t know what to think. I had so many new marks. What did they all mean?


    "Describe them. All of them. Please." I looked at him with shock filling my eyes. He nodded and obliged.


    "Let''s start here." He said pointing to my left shoulder. "There are some changes."


    "What changes?"


    "For starters, all the marks on this shoulder are now blue. Next, the pack crest, that was already different from everyone else''s, is different again. Before you had a group of wolves leaping and the goddess descending. But now the goddess is suspended in the middle of the moon, the pure white of your skin is visible in rays around her like she is glowing. And now, instead of wolves leaping you have a group of people and animals. There seems to be several different types of animals, like wolves, felines, deer, bears, even birds and rabbits. And the people seem to be wearing cloaks, like warlocks. All of them are seen from the back but you can tell they are looking up at the goddess. Maybe it''s because you''re the queen to all the warlocks and all the shifters."


    "Hmm." I hummed my agreement, unable to think of anything else to say.


    "All of the original marks are here. The sped hands in the triangle, the wolf head with a tree growing out the top inside the oval, the eye inside the square, the different elements inside the plus sign looking shape. All of those are the same, but now there is a new one. It''s inside a hexagon and it has what looks like icicles hanging from the top and snow falling around an arrow."


    "An arrow?" I asked him, confused.


    "Yup, maybe you can form ice arrows now." I could hear the awe in his voice.


    "Alright, what else." I encouraged him to continue.


    "That is all on this shoulder. But on the right shoulder you have just as many marks. But these ones are all red. In the center is the same crest that is on the other shoulder. That is another reason why I think it changed to incorporate the warlocks. You have a coven now as well as a pack."


    "You''re probably right." I agreed with him. "What marks are surrounding this one?"


    "Well, there are six, and they are connected with silver trinity chains. All the chains are now silver, even the ones on the other shoulder." I nodded to show I had guessed that when I saw the chains on my chest. And it seemed that the marks were the same ruby red as the one on my cor bone.


    "This one," he put his finger on a mark just above the crest on my right shoulder, "this one is an ankh, like Thoth had. Then this one is a tornado." He continued to move his finger across my skin, leaving a warm trail in its wake. "This one here is apass rose, that might have something to do with why you were able to take your consciousness to find the children. And none of these three are inside of a shape like the others. But this one, it is an oval like on the other shoulder, only instead of a wolf head with a treeing out of it it''s a hand with a tree growing out of it. This is the same symbol from the other shoulder, the elements one. And there is another hexagon with an arrow in it, only it shows wind and leaves blowing around it, perhaps meaning wind arrows as well as ice arrows."


    "So my wolf powers have an affinity for ice and my witch side has wind?" I asked him with a smile so big it could be heard in my voice.


    "Seems like it."


    "Well, at least I know all of the marks now." Iughed as I went to move away.


    "That''s not all of them." He said as he put a hand on my shoulder.


    "You said there were only six surrounding the crest." I reminded him of his previous words.


    "Yes, but there are marks along here." He said as he ran a finger along my back and across my shoulder des.


    "What?" I hadn''t expected that.


    "Yup. Just like your chest there are three chains of trinity symbols going from one shoulder to the other."


    "That''s it?" I asked him as I was about tough, that wasn''t much.


    "Nope." His words shocked me.


    "Then what?"


    "There are nine symbols back here. In the middle is arge trinity symbol dangling from the chains. It is about the size of my fist and is by far yourrgest mark. It probably is meant to represent Wolf Queen, Warlock Queen, and Goddess. Trinity, means three after all."


    "Yeah." Again all I could really do was nod my agreement. "What else is there?"


    "There are four symbols on either side. On the left side there is another elements symbol, I think it means that it is counted among both and therefore extra powerful. Then next to that is another hexagon, but this one with a bow and the word archer. Then a rectangle with a strange looking capital F, it nts to the right a little and the lines lean down toward the bottom. And thest one on that side is a circle with an open padlock, there is a skeleton key inside the padlock as well. To the other side of the Trinity symbol there is another triangle with the hands sped, I think this means you can grant powers to anyone as it seems to be a unity or allies symbol. There is another oval, this one with two trees and their branches are intertwining and the roots are showing below them very long, I think this has to do with your telepathy. Then, there is another circle with two fancy letters, an R with a C ovepping it. Andstly, anotherpass rose, not inside any shape, and this one has an arrow for the east to west line."


    "Arrow and apass?" I had an idea about what that meant, but I would have to ask the god and goddess if I was right. "Could that mean precision, or target seeking?" I asked Reece.


    "Seems right to me." He nodded. "Onest thing."


    "What?" I asked him, worried about what else there could be.


    "All the marks on your back are a dark purple, like the sapphire blue on the left mixed with the ruby red on the right."


    "Great, so now I am an overly tattooed rainbow freak." I grimaced at my words.


    "You''re not tattooed, you''re blessed and marked with power. And this does nothing to diminish your beauty. Never forget that these marks mean you are stronger than anyone around. Except for me of course." He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around me from behind, his hands just happening to cup my breasts as he did so.


    "Oh stop, you perv." I snapped at him yfully.


    "You''re beautiful, Little Bunny, these marks only add to that, never forget that, got it."


    "Yeah, I got it." I nodded and smiled at him as I turned my head. I kissed him on the cheek quickly then stepped out of his arms. "Come on, let''s get ready.


    After learning just what had happened to my body when I changed statuses again, I needed to get dressed. I wanted my marks to be hidden at first, but then I thought about what they would mean to the others. So, I decided to dress in a light blue cami that would show off all the marks easily. I chose one of my favorite ck jackets to go over it, one of the ones made of cloth but with no buttons or zippers. I finished the outfit with a pair offortable ck jeans and hiking boots that would be good for the mission, both for walking in and kicking ass with.


    Thest thing I needed to do to get ready was contain my long brown hair. I pulled it back into a high ponytail then braided it so it would not get in the way. I thought I looked like I was ready to kick some major ass.


    Less than ten minutester I was with Reece standing in front of the resort. We had told the manager that we would be leaving for ate check out but would pay for the two days to amodate them for the inconvenience. As everyone was getting ready to leave they were carrying all our things to the car, slowly but steadily.


    We had essentially rented out about half of the resort, a few other guests were here but not many at all, and with ourrge group we were definitely intimidating to the others. The manager and other employees mostly just watched us from a distance as they seemed too afraid to spend much time directly in our presence. It was probably the sheer amount of money we''d spent on a whim.


    The rooms hadn''t been cheap, and we had rented seventy of them. Add to that the food we had ordered in the restaurant and had delivered to the rooms for all of us to eat since yesterday afternoon, we had probably spent around sixty thousand dors, if not more. And Reece just handed over his credit card without batting an eysh, that was a lot of money.


    After we had all loaded up and were seated in the SUVs, we were ready to ship out. Twenty SUVs total, that''s what we were all spread into. I had wondered what had happened to all the cars the warlocks had driven, but Noah told me that they had gone in teams to drop them off at the Aerie Convento and thene back. We were going with uniformity here apparently. Noah and Reece were both stuck on this Hollywood idea of group travel. I just wanted tough at them.

 Chapter 185 - Trinity - Infiltration (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 185 - Trinity - Infiltration (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It took almost seven hours to drive from just a little north west of Crested Butte where the resort was to the edge of Kanorado. We did, of course stop for provisions and a restroom break so we would be ready to fight when we got there. That was an interesting stop. Nearly a hundred people and twenty vehicles all moving together, it felt like everyone was staring at us, again.


    But even though we caught the eyes of many, we still made it to our destination unscathed and ready to go. It was now my turn to lead them all to the proper ce. I sat in the front and guided Reece as he drove, leading the caravan. I pointed to the house in the distance, showing them where we were going.


    We circled back and found a secluded ce to hide therge number of vehicles. It was best for us to do the final approach on foot. We formed groups of around ten, mixed with wolves and warlocks alike, then set off. We moved silently, wolves naturally making less sound than humans and the warlocks adding noise blocking spells.


    I knew we should expect them to be ready for the ambush, ready with a counter attack, but I didn''t know what to expect. And, that was when I felt a stinging pain on my left shoulder and had a sudden vision.


    I saw a group of about twenty monstrosities guarding the outside of the house. They didn''t move at all until they saw us, but they then descended on us with fury filled eyes as warlocks hidden around the house started shooting spells at us. We would manage to win, but not without a few casualties.


    "Reece, wait." I told him. "They''re ready with an ambush." I added.


    "What are you saying?" Noah asked me and Reece looked at me with curious eyes.


    "There''s a group waiting to attack us while we fight the monsters out front."


    "How do you know?" Noah was skeptical apparently.


    "I''m the goddess." I told him, that was all I needed to say.


    "You have the eye, do you not?" Gabriel asked me.


    "Yes I do." I smiled.


    "So, you have the gift of future sight. That will be useful when you learn to develop it."


    "What do you propose we do?" Vincent asked me, glossing over Gabriel''s words.


    "David, Cartere here." I called these two specifically for their abilities.


    "Yes?" David asked me.


    "What''s up?" Carter came to my side.


    "You two take who you think will be of most use and take care of the warlocks hiding around the house. It seemed to be about four total. They were acting like snipers as they hid in the shadows of the house."


    "Will do." Carter answered with a grin.


    "Understood." David nodded his head understanding what he had to do.


    The two of them took a few others with them, two warlocks and two wolves. While they were on their way to deal with the snipers, we positioned ourselves and waited to deal with the mutants that Edmond had created.


    I was waiting for their signal to let us know that they had aplished their objective. While I watched on I thought of something that Reece had told me earlier. There were arrow markings on both of shoulders and an archer mark on my back. Am I really capable of doing something like that?


    I decided to just trust my instincts and try. I closed my eyes and imagined an arrow made of ice. I pictured one that was small, only about a foot long and thin. But the tip looked leathally sharp. While I pictured the arrow in my mind I felt a slight stinging pain in my left shoulder and in my back where Reece had indicated the archer symbol.


    "Whoa!" I heard someone exim nearby. I opened my eyes to see everyone looking at me and the arrow that was floating next to my head.


    "All hail Queen Trinity." One of the warlocks spoke reverently, and as I watched he and all the other warlocks and every Sentinelle present knelt to the ground and bowed to me.


    "You''re amazing." Reece grinned at me. "But don''t forget that you had two types of arrows."


    "I know." I nodded as I closed my eyes again and imagined another arrow made entirely of wind. The same stinging pain arose again only on my right shoulder.


    When I opened my eyes, I saw a second arrow hovering next to the other one near my head. Everyone was still staring at me, just as they had before.


    "We should have no trouble this time." Shawn was smiling confidently while the others nodded.


    I could see from the other side of the yard that the first group had made contact and eliminated the snipers. The threat of their attacks was now gone so we readied our next move on the beasts outside the house.


    Once we were all in position I prepared several arrows. I wanted to test out the effectiveness of my newest weapon and the aim I would have with them. With over fifty arrows at the ready I focused on the location of all the monsters.


    With just a simple thought I was able to send an arrow flying. Itnded at exactly the right target I nned on. Right between the eyes of the closest beast. I wanted to test things a little more. I thought of the two enemies standing one in front of the other. I wanted to know if my arrows would change direction to hit targets, so I aimed for the one in back.


    I watched as the arrow soared away from me and toward the beast in the front. But, as it got closer to the target it swerved to the side, looped around and struck the back beast in the head, just like I nned.


    I was grinning at the discovery of this new fighting technique. I quickly summoned more arrows and had them fly all at once. They rained down on the monsters outside, annihting them all.


    We were now clear of obstacles. We could enter the house and save the kids. There would only be about half of us entering as there would not be enough room for us all, but if we needed reinforcements then I could call for them easily.


    Reece and I, all my guards, Dietrich, Gabriel, Crawford, Eldrige, and a handful of other trustworthy fighters entered the house slowly. We expected another ambush and attack to be waiting, but there wasn''t one.


    The inside of the house looked exactly like I had seen it in my vision. Everything was exactly where it was before.


    We made our way slowly to the basement stairs. Noah and Reece took the lead, with me being guarded in the middle. The reasoning was so that I would be protected, and they led because they said with Reece''s shields and Noah''s rock ability they could block an attack.


    Step by step we all descended the stairs. We moved quietly so we would not be heard. But no matter how silently we moved, we couldn''t avoid the guards at the end of the hall. I knew we could handle things, or at least I hoped we could.


    There was a gasp and a yell from the floor below. That was quickly followed by a snarl and a cry of pain. I couldn''t see the floor below, but I knew what the hallway would look like. I couldn''t stand not knowing. I needed to see the front of the fight. me it on my nosy nature and my need for control. I mean,e on I''m the queen I needed to know.


    I thought of the hallway, and where I wanted to be. I imagined myself there as I tried to make my way down the stairs. With a quick stinging pain I was engulfed in a whirlwind. It was like a miniature tornado sprung up at my feet. I didn''t spin inside of it, but I felt myself being pulled along on a wind current. I didn''t move forward in a straight line. No it was more like I was swallowed by the wind and reappeared in another whirlwind right where I wanted to be almost instantly.


    It was a disconcerting feeling, and quite frankly off putting, but it was also an exhrating experience as well. It was also apanied by a look of shock and anger from Reece and Noah. And the stunned looks of the warlocks in the hallway.


    "Trinity, why are you up here?" Reece growled.


    "I''m here to do my job." I told him as I looked toward the door to the room the children were in. "You fight them, I will get the kids."


    "Dammit." Reece snarled. "You should have stayed back there."


    "Yell about itter Chopper, we got work to do."


    "Even in a situation like this." Heughed as he lunged for the warlock that was running toward him.


    "Just do your job." Noah yelled at him.


    The battle ensued. Vincent, David, Rawlynn, Gabriel, Shane, Shawn, and Dietrich came with me. Everyone else went with Reece. Thest thing I saw before running into the room was a massive flood of those beasts spilling out of thest two doors in the hall.

 Chapter 186 - Trinity - Freeing The Children (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 186 - Trinity - Freeing The Children (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The inside of the room looked like it was arge barracks mixed with a prison. There were a dozen bunk beds in the center of the room, each had two children chained to them. There were no tables or chairs the children could get to, they were confined to their bunks and nothing else.


    There were six men and four women in the room with the children. Four of the men seemed to be standing guard. The other two men and all four women were wearing ck cors and cuffs and seemed to be quite afraid.


    The moment we entered the room, the six people wearing cuffs ran to the children to protect them, each of them hugging onto four children at a time.


    "Stay calm children." One man soothed his group.


    "Please, don''t harm the children." A woman begged as the children cried around her.


    "We''re not here to hurt them." I assured them all. "We''re here to save them." I saw hope flood the eyes of the six people protecting the children.


    "We will not let you." The other four men sneer at the same time.


    "You don''t belong here." One of them added. All four men both had their heads shaved and were wearing identical ck robes.


    "Get ready." I told my team as I readied my arrows. There was no need to worry about if they were going to be prepared, they were top notch.


    At my signal the arrows flew and David appeared instantly next to the children on the far right.


    "I''m here to take you home." He soothed the children as the others rushed the room. Rawlynne went to the children on the other end. They were working on freeing them of their bindings.


    "Queen Trinity, those wearing the cuffs are being forced to serve here."


    "He''s right Trinity, they have no connection to Edmond outside of those servitude cuffs."


    "Why are they being forced to serve them? Doesn''t he have his ownckeys?" Shane asked as he produced his lightning sword to cut down the rebounding attack from the warlocks. They were a little harder to deal with than the monsters outside. They had summoned shields to block my arrows, but they would not be able to stop us all on their own.


    "Perhaps none of those crazy bastards were capable of taking care of children so they needed to outsource." Dietrich offered his perspective.


    "I think you''re right Dietrich." I told him. "No matter the reason,they aren''t with him and are just as much victims as the children are, free them and take them with us." I immediately saw the light of hope enter their eyes.


    "Dietrich, I think your specialty wille in handy here." Shawn told his mate.


    "I think you''re right mein Schatz." Dietrich smiled as he responded. Did Shawn know that Dietrich had just called him his darling?


    I left the four guards to the others and went to help David and Rawlynne with freeing the children.


    The shackles on their legs were noting off easily, and we did not have the keys yet.


    "Are these done magically?" I asked the woman closest to me.


    "Yes." She nodded at me. "The chains and these." She pointed to the cor around her throat. "If we try to take them off they send an intense burning throughout our bodies." That small light of hope that had entered her eyes was already fading. "We can''t leave here Miss." The woman waspletely broken."


    I knew then and there that I needed to save them all. Every ve of Edmond''s would be saved.


    ''Don''t hurt the people with the cors and cuffs.'' I told everyone through my mental link. ''They are ves and here against their will.'' I wanted them to know in case there were more ves in the other rooms.


    I focused my attention on the shackles binding the children and did not immediately notice the arrival of several of those beasts. I was alerted to them being there by the screams from the children and terrified looks in the eyes of the caretakers.


    When I turned around I saw half a dozen monsters already in the room and moreing.


    "Everyone, cover me while I free the children." I ordered the room full of guards.


    "You got it."


    "Yes Luna.


    "With pleasure my Queen." These words and others echoed behind me. I did my best not to pay attention to the battle. I told the children and their caretakers to look at me and to not watch the monsters.


    When I touched the metal of the chains it sent an electric shock through my hand. It was so powerful that my hand immediately felt numb. The metal was obviously spelled. Too bad I didn''t really know magic yet.


    What I could do though, was try to use the same abilities I had when I first shifted. I had been practicing them before and was able to use them onmand before. I didn''t want to hurt them so I figured my wolf''s affinity woulde in handy the most right now.


    I put my hand on the chain again, ignoring the electric shock feel. I thought of ice, the blistering cold. I concentrated it on the chain only. I willed the ice to infuse itself with the metal, to weaken the metal and make it as fragile as ice.


    When I saw the metal change color and frost over, I knew that I had seeded. All I needed to do now was add pressure to the cuff around the child''s ankle. I tightened my fingers and twisted my wrist slightly.


    The moment I moved my hand I heard the sounds of the metal shattering between my fingers. I watched as the child was freed and the relief washed over her face.


    "You''ll be safe now. Just stay here and wait for me." The little girl nodded showing me she had understood.


    I went to every child, quickly breaking them free now that I knew how to do it. Once they were all able to leave, I focused on the cuffs on the caretakers. These were not made of metal, so they probably would not break in the same way, but I tried it anyway.


    In the end I was right. They didn''t be fragile enough to shatter. I decided to try another element. The feel of the cors and cuffs seemed like a sturdy cloth. I wondered if fire would burn them away.


    I concentrated on the mes. Just a small thin line of mes running up the cloth. Thankfully it worked. I repeated the action for all the cuffs and cors. All of them were free of their bindings.


    It seemed like it had taken me a long time to free them, but it had been just two minutes, if that. The powers wereing more naturally than they had ever done before. I guess ascending in my title had made things easier for me.


    When I turned around the battle was still raging. All those that hade with me were fighting the beasts to the best of their abilities. None of them were overwhelmed yet but the monsters just kepting.


    I summoned and unleashed a barrage of arrows on the creatures. The arrows flew around and swerved my friends as they found their way to the true enemies. Within seconds the monsters storming in were on their knees. They weren''t finished off but they were less of a threat to those fighting them.


    I watched as they were dealt with swiftly. Vincent delivered a finishing blow thest one as it tried to get back to its feet.


    Once our room was cleared of threats and enemies, I led the group out of the room, instructing them to protect the children and caretakers.


    When I was back in the hall, I saw the long corridor flooded with beasts and warriors fighting. Reece was in his wolf form, fighting against three bests at once. This section of the basement was overrun by the monstrosities. There were simply too many of them.


    "Take the kids back into the room and protect them." I ordered Rawlynne. "Gabriel and David you go too. Keep them safe."


    "Queen Trinity, we cannot leave you in here." Gabriel objected.


    "Just go and do as I said." I ordered him. "I will be fine."


    And in truth I would be. I would not let anymore people get hurt because of me. If I failed to protect them in the beginning, then I will save them in the end. This was my battle because these were my people.


    "Go." I made the word amand.


    As I focused on the monsters before me, I only had one thought. ''Protect my people.'' I steeled my resolve, and set my mind. I would do this. I could do this. I would not fail.


    I shifted into my wolf, not bothering to worry about the clothes that were about to be ripped in my rush. Then I once again summoned my arrows, and prepared to fight.

 Chapter 187 - Reece - Battle In The Basement (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 187 - Reece - Battle In The Basement (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I stood there, having just watched my mate unleash a barrage of flying arrows, decimating those monsters in no time at all. I was in awe of her power and ability. This was not how I thought my life was going to be likest year when I was told I had to find a mate. I never expected this much excitement in my life that''s for sure, but I would not trade the woman who was chosen to be mine, not for anything.


    But, no matter how powerful she was, no matter how strong and capable she was, she was still mine to protect. And I nned to do my duty by her. I had allowed her to be hurt earlier, but I would not fail again. Too many times since she became mine she was targeted, I needed to stop the threats froming at her ever again.


    I gave the orders for the formation. Noah and I were going first because we could block attacks. All the guards that my Little Bunny always had, the members of the new Goddess Guard, and about forty various warlocks, Sentinelle, and warriors from the pack followed. My Little Bunny was nestled in the middle of the group.


    I know I should have tried to stop her, but she would have forced her way into the group no matter what. So I figure it was better to just let her go. At least this way I could keep an eye on her.


    The rest of the group was to surround the house and stop anyone who tried to escape. I would not let anyone who willingly followed that evil bastard to get away with what they had done.


    We marched down the stairs, the most we could proceed down was by two at a time, any more per row and it would have been a little ufortable.


    As soon as we were at the bottom of the stairs we were attacked by the two warlocks at the end of the hall. It was just as she had predicted it would be. I put a shield up immediately and ran toward them in an instant.


    With a snarl I had leapt past my shield, leaving it intact so it would still help those behind it. I ran down the hall at breakneck speed, out pacing Noah considerably as I was most definitely faster than he was. When I reached the first warlock I grabbed him by the neck, cutting him off mid scream, and threw him to the ground.


    No sooner had the man hit the ground did my headstrong, danger ma of a mate appear in the middle of the hallway. She appeared in the middle of a miniature tornado that showed up out of nowhere. A rush of wind, a swirl of leaves that hadn''t been there before, then suddenly my Little Bunny was just standing there looking around like she was in shock. Well, I guess I know what the tornado symbol on her shoulder means now. Thanks Thoth, one more way that she can defy me and put herself into danger.


    "Trinity, why are you up here?" I growled.


    "I''m here to do my job. You fight them, I will get the kids." She seemed so sure of herself.


    "Dammit." I snarled at her. "You should have stayed back there."


    "Yell about itter Chopper, we got work to do."


    "Even in a situation like this." I couldn''t help butugh as she called me another dog character. Suddenly the man I had thrown to the floor was running toward me, having regained his footing. I quickly lunged at him and grabbed him by his throat again, cutting off his air supply.


    "Just do your job." Noah yelled.


    My Little Bunny, the ever loved queen that she was bing, took her group of guards and warriors into the room she had seen the kids in before. Just as she stepped inside that room the doors at the end of the hall burst open and a horde of monsters started to flood out of them


    At the same time that the horde flooded into the hall, the two doors we had already passed exploded and three dozen warlocks and witches came rushing out. This was twice as many as we were hoping for. But it made sense that she didn''t know the total, she had only seen inside two of the six doors.


    "Let no one escape." I yelled to those present. That was all it took for the battle to begin. Almost every wolf in our group shifted instantly and the warlocks said a small prayer to Thoth for increased strength which caused the marks on their cor bones to glow blood red like the mark on the parchment had. The fight was immediately intense.


    Having shifted into my wolf myself I started to take care of the horde of monsters before anything else. I knew that the warlocks would be a danger as well, but there were so many of those beasts that I had to stop them from getting into the room with the kids and my mate.


    The blood that came from these beasts was horrid. When I bit into their throats and ripped the flesh out with a quick jerk of my head the blood that rushed into my mouth made me want to gag. Whatever Edmond did to these shifters to cause this grotesque change also changed everything else about them.


    It saddened me to destroy these people, people that had probably been taken by surprise just because they were not as strong as others. These were my people, even before I was the Alpha King, these were shifters, part of my world, the hiddenmunity of supernaturals that walked unseen among the humans.


    I would never let my people suffer like this again. I would never abandon them to this fate. Every shifter, every warlock, every one out there, they would be safe under my rule.


    With this conviction on my mind I did what I had to do now. These were no longer people, I couldn''t save their minds or bodies, but I could release their souls.


    Beast after beast, monster and monster, I destroyed them, my heart aching with every kill. But there was no end in sight for the monsters. They had even made their way toward the door to the room my Little Bunny was in, I had to stop them, or at least slow them until she could get the kids out.


    I focused my attack on the creatures closest to the door. Doing all I could to slow the flow into the room. I had managed to stop many of them, but a few still made it past me.


    I was so busy with my fight that I hadn''t been paying attention to the others so I didn''t know what anyone around me was doing. My main goal was to stop these creatures and protect my wife. But I needed to protect my people too. So I made a conscious effort to pay attention to the room as a whole.


    It hadn''t even been ten minutes since the battle started. The wave of beasts was stilling, but it seemed like the warlocks that had stormed out were no match for us, especially the warlocks with the runic circle. At least that was an upside to the situation.


    I watched as Shane, still in human form, sliced through a monstrosity then turned to slice through a warlock that was about to cast a spell at an unsuspecting Crawford who was fighting another two warlocks at the same time. Shane was now a lot stronger in his human form than he was in his wolf form, but he would have to find a way to wield that lightning in his other body if he was going to be truly effective.


    Just then, I heard my mate''s voice as she ordered some of the others back into the room so they could protect the kids. She was nning to fight out here where the true danger was.


    ''Trinity, no!'' I tried to yell through the mental link so I could stop her but she ignored me as she shifted into her wolf right before my eyes.


    I watched as the clothes ripped and tore from her changing body. The scraps quickly fell into a pile at her four feet. Her wolf had changed along with her human body. I could see the silver chains along with the symbols in blue, red, and purple. When I looked around the room, I saw that the symbols on the Noah and Carter were also glowing. These marks that she had given us glowed with the same celestial power that radiated from her.


    As I watched, momentarily dazed by her beauty, I saw her use her arrows of both wind and ice, sending them flying around the room to hit all enemies possible. While the arrows swirled around four different marks lit up on her body, the two with the arrows along with the archer symbol and the precision mark, when she used an ability it would shine on her wolf''s body to indicate it.


    As I watched the symbol with the eye lit up and she came running toward me, tackling me to the ground. Just as we skidded to a halt a monstrosity barreled right into the spot I was just standing.


    ''I know I''m beautiful Reece, but pay attention.'' She reprimanded me.


    ''You mesmerized me.'' I admitted to her. ''Plus I''ve never seen you fight like this, so I was in awe.''


    ''Yeah well, snap out of Fido, I don''t want you getting hurt.''


    ''Yes, Little Bunny Queen.''


    ''I''ll show you a bunny one of these days.'' She snapped at me. And with her words the mark on her back with the lock lit up, and she instantly turned into a rabbit right before my eyes.


    ''What the fuck just happened?'' I screamed mentally.


    ''Shit, what the hell is this?'' She was just as surprised. ''Great, now I''m informed.'' She snapped.


    ''What?'' I asked her as I picked her up by the scruff of her neck and moved to the side of the hall, out of the way.


    ''Apparently I have a shifter unlock mark.''


    ''What''s that mean?''


    ''It means that I am not limited to one animal form anymore.'' She growled, which was funny to think of iting from a little bunny. That really made me want tough.


    ''So you can really be my Little Bunny now?'' I purred at her suggestively.


    ''Can you at least stop thinking about sex during a fight Dino.''


    ''Haha, fine, fine. Whatever you say Thumper.'' I joked right back with a rabbit name.


    ''Yeah, you think this is funny, check this out.'' She spoke defensively and just as she finished the words, she shifted from the little rabbit into the form of arge grizzly bear but white instead of brown, and the marks still visible. ''This form should be better for fighting right? Or-.'' She shifted again, this time into a white tiger, the stripes sapphire blue and the marks once again where they should have been.


    ''This form feels powerful.'' I could hear the excitement in her voice.


    ''Then let''s fight.'' I nodded my head to her. There was nothing she couldn''t do, and even though I was going to continue to be protective, I would still admit her strength at times like this.


    Together the two of us attacked the beasts. She still had her arrows present and would send them flying at the monsters as well as the enemy warlocks. The battle, that had seemed endless but winnable, was now easier with her there. Those arrows were very effective, as were the lethally long and sharp tiger ws.


    We heard the sounds of shock from everyone in the room when they saw her running around as a tiger instead of a wolf, but the sounds were of aweing from our allies and fear from our enemies.


    Thest of the warlocks were cowering in fear and the monsters finally stopped pouring out of the doors. None of the servant types had been present among the ones out here so we were able to take care of them as we wanted to, and thesest five would be no exception. But things never go ording to n, do they?


    Thest door, the one directly across from the one leading to the children, blew off its hinges from the powerful st aimed at it from the other side. In the ruins of the door stood three people, two men and one woman.


    ''The man in the middle is Phillip.'' My Little Bunny, or should I say tigress, told me mentally as she stopped to look at the neers. I could feel the magical auraing off of these three, they were indeed powerful, close to the level that Edmond was.


    "Guess it''s time for a boss fight." I heard Shane joke when he stopped to look at the three powerhouses standing there.

 Chapter 188 - Trinity - A Boss Fight? (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 188 - Trinity - A Boss Fight? (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Guess it''s time for a boss fight." Shaneughed as he turned toward the three warlocks that just burst into the room. "Let''s take care of them right away." His voice still heldughter, but he didn''t notice the buildup of magic that the woman was preparing to unleash at him.


    "Shane no!" I yelled at him, my voiceing out very clear and distinctly human as I shouted.


    "NO!" I heard the guttural wolf sounds of Shawn''s voice.


    The woman sted a shining ck ball of magic at Shane, just as he was about to attack her. However, instead of hitting the foolishly arrogant man, he was immediately knocked out of the way by Dietrich who had shadow walked as quickly as he could and pushed him out of the ball''s path. Unfortunately the ball hit Dietrich, smashing into him instead of Shane.


    "Dietrich!" With this sorrow and horror filled word from Shawn chaos erupted. The three warlocks that had just arrived swept into the room with evil looks on their faces. The battle that had seemed like it was almost over, was now reignited with stronger foes.


    "These ones are stronger, be careful everyone." My voice rang clean and clear for all of them to hear. "We can''t afford to lose this." I let them all know the stakes of this fight.


    Time for talking was over. The three neers began their attacks immediately,unching attack after attack in quick session. I had not seen an all out battle before. Even the one with Edmond had not been a true fight because he had underestimated the circumstances. But now, I was truly able to see what a high caliber warlock was capable of.


    The room seemed to split into three groups with no prompting. Each group attacked a different warlock as we spread throughout the room. The attacks that flew all around us were unlike anything I had seen before, but I couldn''t let that distract or scare me.


    I once again shifted to my wolf form, it was the one I knew the most. Then, I readied my arrows again. Also, to go with those I called on all the elements I had used back when I first shifted. I was going to use everything I could think of to win this fight.


    As I looked at the people around me I saw them all using their new powers to the best of their abilities. Except for Dietrich. Shawn had moved him to the back of the hall, out of the fight so he would not be hurt further.


    Once Shawn had made sure Dietrich was safe he focused his attack on the female that had harmed his mate. Several bits of debris was floating around him as he was using them as projectile weapons.


    The woman sent a volley of attacks toward Shawn, but with a wave of his hand he stopped them mid way through, freezing them in their tracks before flinging them back with the same, if not more, fireceness. He looked pretty amazing at that moment.


    Shane was fighting just as fiercely as his brother. He was slicing away at the other male warlock, the one I didn''t know. His lightning sword looked like nothing but electricity, but somehow it was able to cut away at things when he attacked with it.


    The warlock Shane was facing with the others kept having creatures sprout from him. They looked to be made of tree bark and were only four feet tall, but they were vicious and strong for things so small. The lightning sword, however, took care of them with ease.


    After making sure that the other two were being dealt with properly, I shifted my focus to Phillip. His long dark hair seemed to be flowing behind him despite theck of wind. And he too had some sort of minions that were being summoned from the shadows at his feet.


    The minions that were springing forth from Phillip seemed to be a lot more difficult to dispose of. Their bodies had no form and any attack sent their way just seemed to pass right through.


    With a look, Reece and I began to walk toward each other. A silent understanding passed between us that we were to fight together. We met in front of Phillip and turned to face him at the same time. Our shoulders brushing together.


    I felt the tension in his body, and he likely felt it in mine. His warm presence was stabilizing the numbing cold that was spreading through body since the fight started. Likewise I could feel his raging heat cooling with our close proximity.


    Just after we brushed against each other, I felt the gentle pulsating heat of me. I could tell that his wolf was engulfed in its mes, and without even needing to look down, I could sense the ice that had spread across my entire body.


    The look in Phillip''s eyes told me he hadn''t been expecting this turn of events, and with the stunned looks on almost all the faces present, they were just as surprised. That''s fine let them be scared, this was a power only Reece and I had, he was the fire to my ice, and we will work together to eliminate the enemies.


    I thought of the ice that I knew covered me, how it would engulf the man before me if I just sent it his way. Instinctively I howled, unleashing a massive st of cold air that rushed toward the warlock. He tried to avoid it but was unable to fully get out of the way.


    The st caught the warlock on his left side. Consequently, the man was frozen in ce with the ice slowly spreading across his body.


    "What the hell is this?" The man screamed. "What did you do to me?"


    "What? You don''t like fights where people might just be stronger than you?" Reece''s mocking tone did it''s job, infuriating the man as he struggled to get free.


    Instead of aiming attacks at us, the warlock sted at the ice holding him in ce. He was freed. He was able to move but it wasn''t that simple. Just as I was about to aim another st at him, the ice started spreading again, freezing him in ce once more.


    "No!" He ground out through his clenched teeth. "This can''t be." He was fighting against his ice bindings, struggling to get free.


    "Too cold for you?" Reece mocked him. "I can take care of that." And as I watched I saw my mate throw his head back and prepared for a howl of his own. When he released that howl a ball of fire sted from his throat andnded right in the middle of Phillip''s chest.


    Immediately the frightened warlock began to scream. Cries of pain and fear were echoing around the room. I could still see his face through the mes that were quickly engulfing him, his eyes were wide and filled with terror.


    I couldn''t listen to his shrieks a moment longer. The arrows I had readied were still floating around me, hovering in the air above my head. I sent a few his way, hitting major vital points, such as his heart, his throat, and between his eyes. The screams ceased instantly.


    The other two warlocks were nearly finished off, distracted as they were by their friend''s demise. I took advantage of their inattention.


    I sent thest of my arrows flying. Unleashing them all onto the remaining enemies was the quickest way to bring the battle to a close. And with the oddly satisfying THWUMP noises filling the air I smirked, their deaths were bringing me a sense of joy right now. Should I be worried about my sanity?


    After thest arrow hit it''s target, the sound echoing momentarily, the room was then silent. No one said anything for a moment. Shock and awe was on the faces of all the people in the room as they stared at me.


    No words were exchanged as far as I could hear, though that doesn''t mean that there hadn''t been silent, mental,munication between them. What I did see though was everyone, aside from those in my close circle, fall to their knees and bow to me.


    "All hail Queen Trinity." Every voice seemed to speak the words at the same time causing an eerie echo to spread throughout the hall.


    "All hail my Queen." Reece smirked at me as he came right up to my side and rubbed the side of his head against the top of mine. In an instant, his mes were extinguished and my ice disappeared.


    Reece looked just as he had before, with one exception. He still had his defender mark, on his left shoulder and there was the power mark on his chest with the paw and crescent moon. But now, he also had a mark on his right shoulder that looked like a howling wolf. Seems like his howling fireball was now something special for him. But why was it on his right shoulder instead of his left?

 Chapter 189 - Trinity - A Positive Outcome (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 189 - Trinity - A Positive Oue (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Is it over?" Shane asked apprehensively.


    "I think so." I told him.


    "Stay on guard." Reece ordered. "We must stay vignt in case someone else shows up."


    "Agreed." Noah added. The two of them had shifted back and were in human form, and consequently, were very naked.


    "Noah, that''s not a sight I want to see." I red at him in my wolf form. "Can someone please either get robes for us all, or go get clothes from the caravan for us."


    "As you wish my queen." I heard Gabriel''s voice answer my request.


    "Someone keep the kids in the room, we''re not in any state for them to see us. And Gabriel, ask for Griffin and Juniper toe back with you."


    "Yes, mdy." Gabriel nodded and left the basement.


    No sooner had we decided on what needed to be done then I saw Shawn running across the hall. The battle had only ended a minute prior, and the confusion of it all was finally settling. But the moment that Shawn had recovered from the shock he was running to the back of the hall, where Dietrich had beenying on the floor.


    I watched on as Shawn ran to Dietrich''s side as fast as he could.


    "Dietrich?" His voice was full of worry and fear and the look marring his face was so filled with emotion that it brought a tear to my eye instantly. "Dietrich?" He yelled again as he skidded to his knees.


    Just as Shawn came to a stop, Dietrich sat up, a hand on his head indicating the pain he was feeling. As Dietrich raised his head to look at the man calling his name he smiled gently.


    "Shawn." The tender tone of voice and the happy smile Dietrich had when looking at his mate was enviable. Anyone, no everyone, would be happy to be looked at so lovingly.


    "Liebling." Shawn eximed in German, calling Dietrich his darling.


    Once that word was spoken Shawn threw his arms around Dietrich''s neck and nted his lips on Dietrich''s mouth. The tender love that I could see from the two of them, the devotion that was in Shawn''s eyes, it was so innocent and pure. His actions shocked a few but it wasn''t a cause for concern. In truth it was just further proof that pure happiness awaits everyone when they find their mate.


    Having wrapped his arms around Shawn''s waist Dietrich returned the kiss his mate had nted on him. The kiss started as innocent, sweet, and romantic. But soon, it morphed into something heated and full of passion for each other.


    It wasn''t until Reece cleared his throat, the silence finally broken, that they separated and looked at the room around them. A look of triumph and happiness on Dietrich''s face and a look of embarrassment, as well as happiness, on Shawn''s.


    "I''m d you seem to be ok, Dietrich. How are you feeling?" I asked him as I was still worried about him.


    "Ja, ja, I will be fine, thanks to the lovely medicine." He grinned and looked at Shawn out of the corner of his eye. Shawn blushed crimson but the rest of us just grinned at their happiness.


    The chaos of before seemed like nothing but a memory now. Everything was finally settling down. Gabriel returned with the others, clothes and cloaks in hand. Most of the group left the basement, those of us that stayed dressed quickly. Reece and Juniper kept me hidden so I could dress in private.


    Once the group had thinned out and we were all presentable, I once again opened the door to the room the kids were in. I could see the fear written on all their faces. These children had been through a lot, more than anyone their age ever should have to endure. The horrible thing is that we would need to find out everything before they could begin their healing process.


    Griffin was already busy healing everyone that had received injuries. Most would heal over time, and the warlocks could cast healing spells, but that would be noparison to the healing from a Goddess given power. Those that had been injured were left healed and refreshed by the master medic, Dietrich included.


    I went in the other room with Juniper and a few of the others in tow. The children and the caretakers were huddled in the far corner of the room, most of them shivering in fear. The whimpers from the crying children made me feel as if there were spikes being driven into my heart.


    Slowly and cautiously I approached them all, a gentle and calming look on my face.


    "I''m not here to hurt you." I spoke softly. "We''re here to take you all home. You want to go back to your moms and dads right?" I saw a spark of life enter the eyes of most of the children, but others were just saddened even more.


    "I want to go home." A little girl said as she started to teared up.


    "I miss my mommy." The smallest of the boys cried out.


    "We''re going to take you all somewhere safe so that you can be reunited with your families." Juniper''s soothing voice had an instant calming effect on the entire group. "Can you alle with us now?" I saw many of them nodding, the calm spreading through them.


    "You can trust Trinity, she is a very good person." Rawlynne smiled at them as she gestured toward me. "She will make sure you''re all safe." She looked at them all, adults included, as she reassured them all of her words.


    We needed to get them somewhere safe, somewhere that they could calmly ry their stories and then begin the healing process. Kanorado was a little over three hours from home, and it waste, but we still chose to drive home, those that had been rescued slept the entire way, finally able to rx for the first time in a long time.


    It was just after six in the morning when we got back to the estate, but Abigail had been notified in advance so there was arge, delicious breakfast waiting for us.


    "This is the Alpha House." One of the boys said just as we entered the house.


    "Shhh. Be quiet Sammy." Another boy spoke in a whisper to the other boy.


    "It''s alright." I smiled at the two of them. "You don''t have to worry about being quiet. And yes, Sammy, this is the Alpha House. Are you E''s little brother? Sammy Taylor?" I let him know that I knew not only him but his family as well, letting him know that I was a friend.


    "You know E?" His face lit up as he asked the question, true happiness finally breaking through.


    "I do, she is a friend of mine. And after we eat breakfast she will being here with your mom to pick you up." The smile that spread across his face was one of pure joy.


    "Really?"


    "Will my family being too?"


    "Can I see my mom and dad too?"


    "I want to go home." All the children started chiming in with simr questions and statements. It was good to see them opening up even if it was just a little bit.


    We sat down and ate breakfast. The children seemed to be starved somewhat and ate more than they normally would have if it had not been for the ordeal that they had endured. The adults, all witches and warlocks, seemed more reserved and scared. But the food had the desired calming effect on them all.


    With help from Juniper, Abigail, and L we were able to get the kids cleaned up somewhat, which also made them feel somewhat better. They hadn''t realized that we had framed these moments, the eating and cleaning up, to get themfortable with the idea of talking.


    Slowly, we managed to get a picture of the true events that had happened during thest month. Thankfully, the children hadn''t been outright harmed in any way. Edmond had been adamant about that because their purity and innocence needed to be intact for the summoning. But that doesn''t mean that they hadn''t been frightened and emotionally and psychologically damaged during their time there.


    The warlocks had paraded those beasts in front of the children and the caretakers, telling them if they tried to run, or even fight back, those monsters would be sent after them. They had threatened them all with torture and beatings. The caretakers had actually been beaten and tortured during their time in captivity, proving that the men and women holding them there had no problem with hurting people. Fear, threats of pain, crying, and imprisonment, that was all that they had known this whole time.


    As I listened to the retelling of these events from each child, I felt my heart breaking into a million pieces. At the same time, I felt my intense burning hatred for Edmond growing infinitely stronger. I would not let that man get away with what he had done. The only good thing is that Edmond didn''t appear to have visited the house personally. He left that job to Phillip as an extension of his authority. Phillip, incidentally, was the one who had delighted in terrifying the children and torturing the caretakers.


    Rawlynne and Jackson were able to track down the police departments in charge of the other missing children, and within two hours, all the families were at our house. Well, almost all. It seemed that six of the children had been orphaned by Edmond and taken to his house of horror.


    This turn of events meant that we had six adults and six children left with nowhere to go. The witches and warlocks could have turned to the magic council for help, but given the feudal system it ran off they would not have great lives now that they had nothing. This was something that I needed to change among the world of magic.


    Just before the children were reunited with their families we had them meet one on one with Juniper. She soothed the aching they would carry in their hearts and minds because of this ordeal. They needed to have a chance at life without having to deal with this situation looming over them forever.


    With Juniper''s personal ability she was able to make them forget what had happened to them, recing it with a much easier to handle memory. It would be better for their families and the authorities to believe that they had all been brainwashed in a mass child abduction scheme than that they had been taken to be used as sacrifices and were just barely saved.


    With their minds and hearts healed, their families were brought in, finally. Each and every child ran happily to the arms of the family that had been waiting for them to return. E, Gina and her other two children Lonnie and Wendy cried with joy, love overflowing the moment they were able to hug Sammy again. This was truly the best oue we could have hoped for, the kids were finally home and safe.


    But now I had to find Edmond and make him pay.

 Chapter 190 - Reece - A New Endeavor (VOLUME 2) Short

    <h4>Chapter 190 - Reece - A New Endeavor (VOLUME 2) Short</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Seeing the families reunited brought a tear to my eye. I would never admit it, I had an image to maintain in front of everyone now. But I was beyond happy that the situation was mostly resolved.


    But there was still one problem. Those that no longer had a home to return to. This aligned with something I was already thinking very hard about.


    Gabriel had mentioned when he first came to see us that most of those in the Sentinelle had joined because they no longer had a home to return to. That might have been harder to take care of all those years ago, but now it was something that wasparatively easy to fix. Even more so for someone like me.


    I had resources at my disposal that most people didn''t have. Most of the time I didn''t know what to do with my personal wealth. I had spent so much of my time working and avoiding people that it was difficult for me to step away at times. Now I had a mate and whenever I was away from work and even while I was there, she was all that I thought about.


    But now, with everything that had happened recently, I felt like I had a higher purpose. I had something else that I needed to put my focus into. And I had a feeling that my adorable little wife would be all for it.


    With our newest visitors resting, and the previous visitors, those staying for their safety, in their respective rooms, we returned to our room to talk. Neither of us had slept since the battlest night, and it was just after lunch but we were exhausted. We nned to get some sleep after we took a quick shower.


    With the exhaustion, and recent heartaches, I kept everything pretty cool. I didn''t think she was ready for the steamy, hot and heavy moments just yet, not while we were so tired. So our shower really was a quick event meant just for cleaning up.


    As we climbed into bed, decently clothed, I brought up the subject I wanted to talk to her about.


    "What do you n to do about those who don''t have a home to return to?" I asked in a nonchnt manner.


    "What do you mean?"


    "The witches and warlocks we brought back. The kids that don''t have families. What should we do? Where should they go?"


    "You want to kick them out?" She asked me as if she thought I was a monster.


    "No!" I eximed vehemently. "No, I want to help them. With Otsana''s help we have gotten the kids to stay with us. But we need to figure out something more permanent."


    "Do you have something in mind?" I seemed to have peaked her interest at least.


    "I do." I smile at her.


    I went on to detail the n I had been mapping out. It wasn''t half hearted, but it wasn''t fully formed yet either. But I knew, with her help, we would be able to make it happen.


    My n? Well that was to take some of the unusednd I owned outside the city and build amunity where any supernatural without a home could feel safe. Somewhere they could all live together and support each other. With the ascensions my Little Bunny had made recently she was the Queen of much of that world, and I would not deny anyone a chance to live safely and happily. I also knew that my little mate would feel the same way.


    With Little Bunny''spassion and smarts, Juniper''s healing mind, and my desire to help (and a considerable fortune) We could get this issue taken care of swiftly. And with Vincent on our side we would be able to tell if anyoneing to stay in ourmunity was trustworthy. This was something I could put my full passion into.


    "You really thought about this, didn''t you?" She seemed so shocked.


    "Do you really think I am stupid or something?" I asked her jokingly. "You know I graduated highschool early and went on to finish my degrees early as well right?" I felt the need to remind her that I may have done some stupid things but I was infact not an idiot.


    "Really? I didn''t know you ever graduated Dudley."


    "Which dog is that?" I asked, just knowing that it was another fictional character, just one I wasn''t familiar with.


    "A very stupid cartoon one."


    "Meanie." I frownedically at her. "Why are you always so mean to me." Sheughed at that, more hysterically than I ever thought she would. Honestly it was a bit much.


    "It takes one to know one. Remember that Fido. If I am mean then what does that make you?"


    "But I stopped my wicked ways." I pretended to pout and I pulled her to me. "I''m a loyal lover and a caring mate now, aren''t I?"


    "That you are Trusty, that you are."


    "You really like calling me dog names, huh BunBun?"


    "Oh, don''t you dare call me any bunny names. You get to call me Little Bunny, but nothing else."


    "That''s hypocritical."


    "Yeah, but I don''t care. You''re my little puppy that needs to be trained."


    "And you''re my Little Bunny that I get to eat up."


    "You are such a pervy little puppy."


    She leaned forward and ced her lips on mine, silencing me, stopping me from talking back any more. The kiss was soft, gentle, and full of love. It was everything I could ever want, need, for her to show me how much she loved me.


    "I love you puppy dog."


    "I love you too, Little Bunny." I smiled at her with love filling my every fiber.


    I pulled her against my chest and snuggled her close. That was all I needed to do. Holding her close to me filled me with warmth. I felt the exhaustion wash over me, and when I turned to look at her I saw that she was already on the edge of sleep. I squeezed her just a little closer, just a little tighter, needing to feel her against me as I drifted off to sleep.

 Chapter 191 - Trinity - What To Do Next (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 191 - Trinity - What To Do Next (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    There had been so much to do, so much excitement, that thest few days had passed in a blur. But the good thing is that the children were safe. Even the ones who had lost their families were safe, but they had the most healing to do.


    With Reece''s n in mind we went to work right away. We had a lot of resources and allies at our fingertips so building a ce for everyone to feel safe wouldn''t be all that difficult. Honestly, I wanted to get it done as soon as possible but I knew that we had to do this right.


    We started by contacting zoning officials, architects, and contractors. The calls were ced but the business wouldn''t get done on the same day. But, knowing Reece, it wouldn''t take him very long really. So, I felt pretty confident that we would get down to business in no time at all. He wasn''t a very patient man in any aspect. That I could attest to personally, with several articles of ripped clothing as evidence.


    For now, until the newmunity is built, the disced warlocks and children would be staying in the estate. The children were veryfortable with the caretakers and as it stood now, each of them would be able to raise a child on their own.


    Aside from the five human children taken from our very city all the other children were supernaturals. They were shifters, fae, and other such beings. It seemed that Edmond had chosen not to use the children of witches or warlocks, perhaps he has a little bit ofpassion for his own people after all. That or he just didn''t want to alert the council to what he was doing so quickly.


    For now though, I needed to figure out what I was going to do next. The Goddess had told me that I needed to find the children then hone my skills. So I guess that meant that my path was actually pretty clear really. I needed to train, but with whom?


    I could go train with the warlocks because they were closer. Or I could go with the Sentinelle since they helped to train the Goddess Incarnate, and that was me.


    It would be better if I could just do both at the same time. Why couldn''t I just take care of two birds with one stone, honestly? Why must I spend so much time going from ce to ce?


    Regardless of where, and with whom, I train, we needed to talk it out. I know that I will not be going alone. If Reece had his way he would being with me, but who would be here to keep things running? Noah, as the Beta, would be the logical choice, but I would like him with me too.


    I know that it is selfish of me to want everyone I love and care about around me at all times. I am fully aware that I am selfish and stubborn quite often. And that sometimes this attitude gets me into trouble. But I can''t help it, I am the way that I am, and that''s not likely to change anytime soon. But given my new statuses, maybe I should change them.


    I sent word to Crawford, who was still at the estate, and Gabriel, he was still in the woods. I wanted to have a meeting with them both after lunch. I needed time to think before I actually got down to business and Reece would be done with his business calls by then as well. It was time to talk this all out.


    At three in the afternoon I was sitting in my chair in the office I shared with Reece. It made me feel like I was lording over someone every time I sat in this chair to talk about business. Perhaps that was natural, given the circumstances.


    "Good afternoon my queen." Both Gabriel and Crawford dropped to one knee when they stood before me at the desk, bowing their heads and lowering their eyes. It was actions like these that really made me feel weird with this whole queen thing.


    "Please rise, and have a seat." I asked them with the awkward feeling spreading through me.


    "Thank you." They said in unison again. They seemed to be on the same page a lot, even with their deferential behavior.


    David and Shane were guarding at the door. Shawn and Dietrich were on opposite sides of the room, looking at the situation as a whole. And Noah and Vincent were behind me and Reece as we sat in our respective seats.


    Reece had once again tried to pull me into hisp again, before everyone arrived. But I told him that it was not professional for me to sit on hisp during important meetings. Especially if I was supposed to act like the queen to all these people.


    I needed to establish my authority if I am ever going to be an effective leader. These were my people. The shifters, the warlocks, they were all mine, and if I appeared weak or submissive then they would be less likely to listen to me.


    Needless to say that Reece had pouted a little when I told him that. But he would have to get over it. I did out rank him now after all. Now, that was kind of an interesting thought. What all could I make him do for me, or to me? Yeah, he may have corrupted my mind a little, oh well.


    "I am honored to have been summoned by you this afternoon." Crawford sounded reverent and ted to have been summoned by me.


    "As am I." Gabriel added. "What can we do for you today?"


    "The children have been rescued, and even though we have a new venture we wish to move forward with, there is something that requires my attention."


    "And what might that be, my queen?" Gabriel gave his usual smile.


    "The Goddess told me that I needed to train. To learn how to control my abilities. I can''t do that alone."


    "Will you just be training the Luna Queen abilities?" Crawford seemed curious and a little sad as he spoke. The two of them were sitting opposite me, a calm look on Gabriel''s face as usual but a sad one currently on Crawford''s.


    "I n to train both."


    "I guess you''re here to decide on which one to train first?" Vincent asked me from his position behind me.


    "In a manner of speaking, yes."


    "What did you decide?" Reece asked me with a tense look on his face. Was he not wanting to go train with me in France?


    "Both." I answered their burning questions.


    "Both?" More than one of those present eximed with a shocked tone when they heard my deration.


    I looked around the room and saw them all staring at me. Vincent looked like he was proud of my choice. Noah was confused. Reece was smirking like he knew something like this wasing.


    "Forgive me, Queen Trinity, but how will you be training both? Don''t you need to pick which one to do first?" Crawford broke the ufortable silence that had settled around the room.


    "It will be simple, Crawford. I will be training with the Sentinelle and the council at the same time. I don''t have time to be selective and choose only one. I need to hone my skills from both sides of my heritage."


    "And how, exactly, are you going to train both at the same time?" Noah asked with a hint of incredulousness. Did he really think I couldn''t do it?


    "I will have someone from the council apany me to the Sentinelle''s Abbey in France. I will divide my time there learning from both the warlock history and magic uses as well as everything that the Sentinelle has to teach me."


    "Who shall you ask to apany you?" Gabriel saw no w in my n.


    "I will." Crawford insisted. "And Eldrige as well. Between the two of us we will make sure you learn all that we have to teach you."


    "Will it really be that easy?" Noah asked him. "Aren''t you the leader of the council?"


    "I am, but I can lead them from anywhere." Crawford grinned in response. "Plus, should it not be my responsibility to see to my queen." The smirk on his face sent a clear message to Noah, he would not be kept away.


    "Fine, if we have the who settled, then we need to work on the when." Reece interjected before they could argue with each other.


    "We need to leave soon. We don''t have a lot of time."


    "What? Why would you say that Trinity?" Shane asked me from near the door.


    "I don''t want to give Edmond time for another plot." The looks that they all had in response to those words told me all I needed to know. We all wanted to stop that bastard, and soon.


    "Then I suggest we leave next week. That will give us time to sort things out, say goodbyes, and be on our way." Reece''s face was filled with determination. He was ready and raring to go.


    "Which of us is going?" Shawn asked, curiosity and determination warring for dominance on his face.


    "Who would want to go?" I asked. "I am not going to force any of you to go. All of you have mates now. Most of you have just found them."


    "It is our duty to go." Vincent dered before any of them could say anything.


    "He''s right." Shawn added.


    "Our mates will understand." David grinned.


    "You won''t get rid of us that easily." Shane joked.


    "Why do I get the feeling that I will have to stay behind?" Noah grumbled.


    "Well, you are my Beta, it''s your job to run things while I am away." Reece sounded innocent but the smug look on his face told a different story. He was just d to be getting away.


    "Fuck you Fang." Noah joked with him. "You''re just going to treat this like it''s a vacation."


    "Don''t be sad Droopy, I have to follow my Queen, it''s my job as the King after all."


    "Stop fighting boys. Geez, can''t you stop arguing anymore. I''m gonna have to separate you aren''t I? Pluto you stay here while I take Goofy with me. Sound like a n?"


    "You''re calling me Goofy?


    "Why do I have to be the pet?" They both eximed at the same time. I couldn''t help it, Iughed.


    "Reece, of course you''re goofy, you always make meugh. And, well, Noah, you are his Beta, you can''t have a higher status."


    "I''ll give him the name of Goofy, I don''t want it." Reece yelled.


    "Oh stop it. It''s a done deal now." I was grinning still. "So it''s settled, we leave next week." That brought the discussion to an end. I was d we figured out our next move.

 Chapter 192 - Trinity - Family Visit (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 192 - Trinity - Family Visit (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Since we had gotten home it had been quite busy. Consequently, I had not had the time to talk to or see my family since. L was there to help us with the kids when we first got home, but since then, I hadn''t seen her much either.


    What did this mean for me? It meant that I hadn''t told any of them about the baby yet. They were all still excitedly awaiting the baby but I hadn''t had the chance to tell them the truth. I just knew they were going to be upset.


    Reece and I had asked everyone to please keep it quiet and let us tell our family. Noah and Carter already knew, but Mom and Dad, Grandfather, L, and Nikki did not. I had a feeling that the conversation about the baby was going to be a hard one.


    I had sent word to everyone to pleasee for dinner that night. My parents and the others woulde for a nice meal. L was already here but we would all eat together and discuss things.


    There were other things to talk about as well. We needed to discuss themunity construction and the running of the pack while we were gone. This was going to be a busy night.


    Dinner started and things went smoothly. We sat together in the dining room surrounded by loved ones and delicious food. There were plenty of smiles and relieved feelings with the kids home and safe.


    The cheerfulughing atmosphere was almost hypnotic. I really didn''t want it to end, but I had to be the bearer of bad news and darken that happy mood. I cleared my throat so we could begin the discussion that we needed to have.


    "Ok, everyone, there are a few things that Reece and I need to discuss with you all." I got them focused on me so we could move things along easier.


    "Important business?" Grandfather asked, his old days as a beta still fresh in his mind as he thought of the situation.


    "Yes." Reece answered for me.


    "Has something else happened?" Mom was worried, fear filling her eyes.


    "Nothing yet." I assured her, but letting her know it was still a possibility with Edmond still out there.


    "Then what?" Nikki was scared. She had seen some of the troubles first hand and was worried about everyone''s safety.


    "I need to train, to prepare for the future. And to be ready for when I finally track down Edmond."


    "Training is good though, isn''t it?" Carter asked, confused as to why this would be something major.


    "I won''t be training here." I told them all, looking at each of them individually so I can see the looks on their faces. Of course Reece and Noah already knew. Carter was confused. L, Nikki and Mom didn''t know what to think. Dad was worried. And Grandfather seemed as if he expected this.


    "You''re going with the Sentinelle, aren''t you?" Grandfather''s knowing look was definitely proof of his insight and intuition paying off.


    "Yes." I nodded as I gave the answer. Gasps came from most of my family. They hadn''t expected that I would be leaving again.


    "You can''t." Mom''s voice was full of tears.


    "Don''t leave us again." Nikki was afraid for me.


    "You need to stay close to home. You can''t leave." Carter tried to put his foot down. Dad just looked at me while a tear streaked down his cheek, his silent words were heard loud and clear. He didn''t want me to go but he knew it was the only way.


    "I will be taking my guards, and Reece ising as well. While I am there I will learn all that the Sentinelle and the magic council have to teach me."


    "Magic council?" Carter was confused. "But you''re going to the Sentinelle."


    "Crawford and Eldrige will being with me."


    "They will be training her simultaneously. We can''t afford to waste time, so she will be learning all she can as quickly as she can." Reece exined.


    "Just how powerful will you be?" Dad finally broke his silence as he looked at me, his face filled with a mix of worry and awe.


    "I don''t know. But while we were gone there was a new development with my status." I was embarrassed but I needed to tell them this part too. They all knew that I was half witch anyway.


    "What?" They all asked at nearly the same time.


    "It appears that I am not just the Luna Queen, leader of all shifters."


    "What else are you then?" Carter was the only one who knew, but he had kept his mouth shut so Mom was at a loss as she asked this question.


    "She is also the Queen of the Warlocks and Witches." Carter answered.


    "She ascended to that position before we rescued the children." Noah added.


    "How is that possible? How did it even happen?" Grandfather was at a loss for word.


    "The God Thoth showed himself to her personally." Noah told him. "He blessed her with his Ankh and now she has more marks than she did before."


    I sat there, wanting to squirm, as all of them looked at me curiously. Their expressions ranged from scared and awed to excited and awed. I knew they would be curious and would want all the details, so I decided to just tell them, and exin all the marks.


    "And these new marks have already been put to use?" Dad was shocked.


    "Yes. It seems that I am getting better at calling on my powers."


    "Then training shouldn''t take you very long." Carter was happy to hear that.


    "I''m hoping it won''t, but I also need to learn about our histories. I need to know where both the shifters and warlocks have been so that I can keep us moving forward and not repeat the mistakes of the past."


    "That is very wise of you. That is why you will be a wonderful leader." Grandfather smiled at me. "You are a wonderfully smart woman Trinity."


    "If I am, it is only thanks to those who were there for me as I grew up." That brought a smile to the faces of my family.


    We spent a few more minutes discussing what Noah would have to do while we were gone. Grandfather offered to help Noah with the work as he was an experienced Beta as well.


    I also wanted to get amittee together to work on themunity we were nning. L, Mom, and Nikki were very excited to hear about that adventure. They wanted to help people as well and this would give them that chance.


    The three of them eagerly started nning what types of buildings we should have. They wanted it to be a self-sufficientmunity with stores and daycares. Eventually we might even start a school system there.


    "There is one more thing for us to build." I told them.


    "What''s that." L asked me, curiosity on her face.


    "We need a department of child services of sorts. An orphanage if you will."


    "What?"


    "What are you talking about?"


    "Why do we need that?" Everyone was shocked, it seemed that, once again, only Reece could follow my train of thought.


    "You want to bring other orphaned and homeless supernatural children here, right?" He asked me. "I agree wholeheartedly. There are too many disced supernaturals in this world, and many of them don''t know anything about their heritage because they are raised in the system. There are always problems when these children have their first change in foster care."


    "Exactly." I smiled at my mate, he really was smart after all, and he definitely understood me.


    "That''s a great idea." L beamed.


    "You have always been so full ofpassion." Mom smiled at me.


    "Will we be able to help them?" Nikki was a little skeptical but she still wanted to help.


    "I''m sure we can manipte the system. With help from Rawlynne and Jackson we will find them. And Juniper can help to heal them."


    "Heal them?" Nikki smiled. "Does she have a special skill set or something?? That''s enviable."


    "She does." I left it at that, I didn''t need to go into too much detail.


    After that discussion we all moved to the living room to drink some wine and talk some more. The sheer amount of passion and ideas my family had for themunity was wonderful and it would take a long time to narrow it all down to what was most important.


    Mom looked over at me with shock on her face as I sipped a small ss of the red liquid.


    "Trinity, what on earth do you think you''re doing?" She snapped at me.


    "I know I am not twenty-one, but does that really matter?"


    "It''s not that, it''s the baby. Put that ss down this instant." L got just as irate as mom did as she tagged along with her yelling at me.


    "About that." I lowered my head, tears filling my eyes. I had needed to tell them about this subject but I was still nervous and scared. At least I didn''t have to be the one to bring it up.


    "It''s ok Mom." Reece tried to calm L down.


    "It most definitely is not ok."


    "She''s right. She should not be drinking right now." Nikki added.


    "Trinity, do you need to tell us something?" Dad asked me.


    I looked at them. All the ones that had not been present during that fight. Mom, Dad, Grandfather, Nikki, L, I watched them all for a moment as my eyes filled with tears. I had hoped that I would be able to do this without crying but it looked like I wasn''t able to. Eventually I just nodded in agreement to Dad''s question.


    "What happened?" Mom''s hand was in front of her face ready to hold back the emotions that were already welling within her.


    "I lost the baby." My words squeaked out of me on a sob, the tears beginning to stream down my face. I looked to Reece for support where he sat beside me. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder, hugging me close to his side, offering me his warmth andfort.


    "What happened?" Dad''s voice was thick.


    "Trinity, are you alright?" Grandfather was worried more about me at that moment.


    "Oh, Trinity, I am so sorry." L was on the verge of tears. Mom and Nikki seemed unable to talk as the tears streamed down their faces.


    "There was a fight, a battle, that we were not prepared for." Noah hung his head.


    "We didn''t do our jobs properly." Carter added.


    "I failed her." Reeceid his head on top of mine, his voice thick with emotion.


    "It wasn''t anyone''s fault. We were simply unprepared and the situation got out of hand." I tried to smooth the situation over.


    Between the four of us that had been there we were able to exin exactly what happened that afternoon. The sorrow was clear on all their faces. Our baby was lost to us and them.


    "What matters most is that you''re safe. There will be other chances at a family. But if we had lost you then the world would suffer." Grandfather''s words were soothing, and true. Reece and I would have another chance at having a family. But if I were gone then Reece would be alone forever.


    "Samuel is right. The most important thing is that we still have the two of you. We can make it through this as long we stick together." L was calming down, trying to be strong for us.


    That night, as my family left, each and every one of them hugged me tight as they were leaving. And I made sure to rub Nikki''s growing belly, feeling that warm light inside of her strongly pulsating with it''s lifeforce still intact. I will not let anything happen to this baby, mine would be the only one lost.

 Chapter 193 - Reece - Helping My Mate To Move On (VOLUME 2) ((MATURE))

    <h4>Chapter 193 - Reece - Helping My Mate To Move On (VOLUME 2) ((MATURE))</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I knew that today had been hard on my Little Bunny. She had to share something extremely painful with her family. The heartache was in to see on everyone''s faces, even mine. But now, I had to help her heal herself. It was up to me to help her move on.


    Once the door was shut behind the departing guests I swept my tiny little mate into my arms. She really was littlepared to me. It was totally like a big bad wolf preying on a little bunny. That thought always made me grin and my wolf pant with desire.


    "Reece, what are you doing?" She yelped when I swept her off her feet and cradled her against my chest.


    "Can''t I cuddle you?" I purred into her ear.


    "This isn''t cuddling." She scoffed.


    "Isn''t it? You''re cuddled against my chest aren''t you?"


    "You''re a dog." Sheughed.


    "Wanna see how much of one?" I joked with her, a smile spreading across my face.


    "I already know. But if you need to confirm it for yourself I won''t stop you." She wiggled in my arms and pressed her body against my chest. A growl rumbled deep within me. I loved the feel of her tight, exquisite body.


    It didn''t take me long to reach the bedroom. I pounded up the stairs at a quick pace. When I barreled into the room I barely took the time to kick the door shut behind us.


    She was startled momentarily when I threw her onto the bed but that startled look quickly turned into one of excitement as she grinned and giggled at me.


    "You are so impatient." She smirked at me.


    "Wanna see how impatient I am." I chuckled as I started to crawl slowly up the bed like I was stalking her.


    "Oh no, someone help me there''s a big bad wolf in my bed." Her normally bright cheery voice was now husky and alluring with desire.


    "Woof woof." I pretended to bark before I gave a very real wolf howl. I watched her shiver as she heard my call. "Little Bunny, Little Bunny, let me in."


    "If I say no will you eat me?" The way she had learned to tease me, to drive my wolf to the edge of sanity, she was the only one who could do this to me.


    "I was nning to eat you even if you said yes." I purred into her ear as I pounced on to her.


    "Oooh." She cried out excitedly as I pulled her to me.


    That cry of hers was all it took. Thest shred of my control broke. I captured her mouth with mine, swallowing her gasp as I thrust my tongue into her mouth. Kissing her was like a dream, it always was. Every kiss seemed like the first time.


    I wanted to be gentle and take my time with her. I knew she needed that. But my need and desire for her were so strong that I knew it would be hard for me to take it slow.


    While I hovered over her, deliberating how I was going to take her, luxuriating in the feel of her body trapped beneath mine, she turned the tides on me. Quickly and skillfully she squirmed out from beneath me and slid next to me on the bed.


    The look in her eyes was one of desire and mischief. I didn''t know what she was nning but I knew that it was something I would never deny her. So, it was with that resolve that I let her push me gently down to the bed.


    "Let me be in charge for once." Her voice was raspy with desire, thick with love and need.


    "And what can I expect if you''re in charge?" I asked her, curiosity filling my voice.


    "Are you doubting that I will make you happy?" She feigned a hurt expression.


    "Not in the least." I heard the rumble in my own voice, knowing that it was my intense need for her only getting stronger.


    "Then justy back and let me lead." She pushed on my shoulders to force me down to the pillows.


    The way my Little Bunny looked at me made my skin burn like it was set on fire. The need that was dancing between us was palpable. I loved it. She seemed to be undressing me with her eyes before she even reached out with her fingers to undo the buttons on my shirt.


    When she had undone enough buttons to reveal my chest she gave a sigh of satisfaction.


    "You really are scrumptious, aren''t you?" She murmured as she leaned forward to run her little pink tongue along the edge of my corbone, right where her mark was. The touch sent a jolt through me, almost like electricity. It felt wonderful.


    Slowly and steadily she continued to undo the buttons and fastenings on my clothes until I sat before her in nothing but a pair of ck boxers.


    "Hmm, almost good enough." Sheughed to herself as she said those words.


    "Is the sight of me not enough?" I asked, pretending to be hurt.


    "No, the sight is too tempting, that''s why I need to keep going." She smirked at me, knowing that the pout in my voice was fake.


    I continued toy there, letting her lead like she wanted to. She tugged slightly at the waist band of the only clothing I had left. I knew what she wanted, so I slowly lifted my hips and gave her the room to pull thatst barrier away.


    She knelt in front of me, her eyes seeming to eat me alive as she looked me over with a truly happy grin on her face. My skin prickled and a shiver ran through me from the powerful look in her gaze. She wanted me, and I wanted her.


    "Now that I have you all vulnerable in front of me, what should I do with you?" She seemed to be pondering her next move with a slight grin. "Hmm, maybe I''ll y the big bad wolf and eat you up instead." She grinned even wider as she moved closer to me.


    Once she was close enough she straddled me, cing a knee on either side of my hips. She put a hand against my chest to brace herself as she loomed over me. Her breath tickled my ear as she whispered into it.


    "I get to do whatever I want right?"


    "Whatever you want." I confirmed. "As long as I have you sweetheart I''m happy."


    "Good." I could hear the smirk in her voice as she epted that answer.


    Her tongue pressed against my neck, moving in a long slow line. The touch couldn''t have been more different from thest touch of that same part of her. This time it was so heated it was nearly enough to scorch me but all I felt was a rush of need and pleasure flooding a certain part of my body. I was instantly ready for her.


    She kissed, licked, and nipped her way down my neck, across my chin and over to my mouth. She sealed her lips over mine for a long, deep, passionate kiss. Our tongues tangled and entwined with each other on a mission to drive me crazy.


    When she pulled her lips free of mine I nearly whimpered from the loss of their touch. But she ced her lips against my throat and began to work her mouth lower, down my body, in a series of kisses, bites, and strokes of her tongue. She seemed to want to taste all that she could of me.


    Her body slowly slid down my legs as she moved her mouth down. Eventually she was nearlyying down on myp while her mouth had just reached my hip bones.


    "Ready for me to take over?" I asked her knowing that she had never gone any further than where she was now.


    "Nope, you just sit there, and let me have some fun." She gave me an evil smile before she added. "Don''t move unless I tell you to." I felt the ring ofmand in her voice. I knew I would bepelled to stay just as I was until she told me otherwise. This being outranked thing could be a bad thing eventually.


    I was leaning back, propped up by the pillows on the bed. This left me in a reclined position, nearly sitting up. Shepped once more at my hips before pulling away.


    She lowered herself, cing her knees in between mine and scooting herself lower on the bed. This new position gave me a very erotic view of her as she looked up at me, her eyes shadowed by her darkshes.


    "You seem quite vulnerable in this position." She smiled sweetly but looked so mischievous


    "Are you going to devour me whole, Mrs. Wolf?"


    "You''d like me to, wouldn''t you?" She countered my question with a question of her own.


    "Very much so." I gave her a sinfully seductive smile hoping to get what I truly wanted from her.


    With no other words being spoken she grabbed me by the shaft, gently. In a quick move she ran her tongue across the tip. Just that little movement made me shiver and a small moan escape from between my lips. Every touch from her was exquisite.


    She grinned at the sight of me trembling before her.


    "I could get used to seeing you like this." Sheughed before lowering her head once more. Again she ran her tongue across just the tip, teasingly slow this time. She followed that by moving her mouth closer, but only getting close enough to brush her lips against that overly sensitive flesh.


    Again and again she teased me with her mouth and tongue. Gently scraping with her teeth, just enough to make me shudder with desire. Lightlypping at my tip and shaft. Brushing her lips against my member. Blowing in a teasing gesture against my overheated flesh. I was almost ready to explode and she hadn''t even taken me into her mouth yet.


    "Please." I begged her without even thinking about what I was saying.


    "Hmm?" She acted like she didn''t hear me.


    "Please baby, please." I begged her again, unable to move due to hermand. I was ready to explode both mentally and physically.


    "What exactly do you want?" She teased me again with her tongue just after she asked.


    "Please, don''t make me wait anymore. Baby please."


    "You want me to rush my meal?" Sheughed. "And here I was savoring this moment." I looked at her with wavering eyes, not certain if my sanity could hold out any longer.


    "I need you now baby, please."


    "You were surprisingly easy to train, Little Puppy." Her words came out on a murmur.


    Sheughed again. One quick chuckle as she looked at me onest time. Then it was like heaven descended and came down to earth. That was the only way to describe the feeling of her mouth on me.


    That warmth of her mouth, the moisture that was enveloping me, it drove me insane. I seriously didn''t think I would ever be able to think rational thoughts ever again. Just feeling her lips close around my shaft and slide down blew everyst synopse I had.


    I was instantly aware that she was moving her hot, wet mouth up and down, gliding her lips along my member in a mind blowing rhythm. My eyes were closed, my head wasying back against the pillows, and small moans escaped from my throat several times. It was pure ecstasy.


    Her rhythm was steady. When she pulled back, leaving just my tip in her mouth she would swirl her tongue around that sensitive spot before taking me all the way into her mouth again.


    I would say that it was heavenly, the feeling of her taking me in her mouth like that. But, there was nothing pure, innocent, or holy about what she was doing. She was driving me insane like a subus or a demoness sent to earth just for my sake.


    Her steady, insanity inducing rhythm was working. I could feel myself rapidly approaching that cliff. My breathing was heavier and I was moaning even more. I felt the telltale signs, the tingling in the base of my spine, the tightening of my balls, I wouldn''t be able to hold on much longer.


    "Trinity." I called her name on an escaping moan. She found it funny andughed, her lips still wrapped around my shaft. That feeling, the vibrations from herughter, that was all I needed to push me over the edge. I exploded.

 Chapter 194 - Trinity - Reece Loses Control (VOLUME 2) ((MATURE))

    <h4>Chapter 194 - Trinity - Reece Loses Control (VOLUME 2) ((MATURE))</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I had been slowly driving Reece over the edge. Teasing him until he begged me to please him. I hadn''t expected it would go that well since I had never done anything like that before. But I was apparently good at it, and it worked since he was currently exploding from pleasure right into my mouth.


    This was a new sensation for me. I had never done this for, or with, anyone before. The feeling of taking him into my mouth, while new, felt right. I knew it was bringing him pleasure and that''s what mattered to me. And that salty explosion that spilled into my mouth, while not exactly my favorite thing in the world was not the worst thing either. I was happy to have made him happy.


    "Trinity." He called my name again. His voice was raspy with both pleasure and a continued need.


    "Did I make you happy?" I asked him, just a little self conscious. He looked at me with a dark gaze. His normally golden honey colored eyes were now nearly brown, they were so dark. I felt the heat radiating out of them as he leveled his desire filled eyes at me.


    "Little Bunny, you always make me happy." He smiled with true happiness and love. I turned my head, blushing from his words. "Can I have my turn now?" I knew he was far from ready to call it a night, and I was right there with him. I didn''t say anything but I nodded, releasing him from themand to stay put.


    The second themand was released he moved toward me. In the blink of an eye he had captured me in his arms and spun to flip me onto the pillows.


    "I am beyond happy that you would think to please me so thoroughly, but I wanted to make you happy tonight. That''s why I carried you up here to begin with." His words made me shiver. It was his turn to make me go just as crazy as I had driven him. This would be a very intense, insanity inducing, night for the both of us. We were both trying to give each other intense pleasure.


    I was still fully clothed but Reece was hovering over mepletely naked. He must have thought that this was not fair as he started to peel theyers off of me, one by one.


    Normally he would rip or shred the clothes in his rush to strip me. But tonight he was being tender and slow as he removed the clothes from my body.


    Once I was lying beneath him, devoid of even the smallest piece of fabric, I shivered. I don''t know if it was from a chill or just the look in his eyes. Whatever the cause I shivered and squirmed under his mouth watering body. The memories of how he tasted, and everywhere that I had ced my lips, made me blush crimson.


    "Hmm, what are you thinking about that is making you blush so fiercely?" Heughed as he lowered his head to my ear.


    "You." I answered him honestly.


    "Good answer." He approved of my response.


    He seemed to want to repeat my pattern. He started with kissing, licking, sucking, and biting my ear, neck, and cor bone. I could tell that I would have more than one mark left when the morning came. His love marks were going to be left everywhere.


    When he moved his mouth to mine he sealed my lips just like I had done to his. He kissed me long, deep, and passionately. He didn''t just seem to be kissing me, he was devouring me. I think he was intent on showing me what a true wolf looked like.


    By the time he pulled his lips from mine my head was spinning. I gasped for air, trying to fill my starved lungs, as he moved his mouth down my heated body. He moved both his mouth and his hands along my sensitive flesh.


    He paused at the swell of my breasts. One hand kneaded the flesh while he captured the other peak inside his mouth. I felt the flick of his tongue followed by a sharp bite. Just as I cried out in both pleasure and pain he sucked the tip of that rosy mound deep into his mouth, suckling for a few moments before switching to the other breast and repeating his actions there.


    When he was satisfied with the teasing to my breasts he continued his journey down my body. His hot wet tongue leaving a trail down my body along with the love bites he followed them up with.


    Soon he had reached the swell of my hips. He seemed to be repeating what I did, only doing it so much better. This was the proof that he was a lot more experienced than I was.


    He nestled himself in between my thighs. Settling himself down to devour me just like he said he was going to do earlier. And I didn''t have to wait long for him to begin.


    He didn''t tease me or wait for me to beg, he knew I wanted him. He grinned happily as he looked at me, an evil or mischievous look in his eyes. Is that how I had looked?


    I cried out as his tongue darted out. Hepped at my core in a slow yet mesmerising stroke. My body shook with need after just that one movement.


    "Ahh, Reece." I moaned his name at just that tiny bit of pleasure. I heard him purr in satisfaction at my response.


    "Want more." I didn''t know if it was a question or a statement but I answered anyway.


    "Oh Goddess yes, Reece, I want more." My voice sounded as if it was full of insanity and not just need.


    "Hmm." He hummed just before he blew on me core.


    After that he drove me insane. His tonguepped at my core over and over. His tongue rolled around that tight bundle of nerves at the top of my slit before sucking it into his mouth and forcing frantic cries from me. It was pure pleasure and ecstasy.


    He worked at a fevered pace, setting a hurried rhythm. I could tell his control was almost at its limits. But with each frantic stroke of his tongue I was flying closer and closer to the abyss.


    I was breathing heavily, calling his name repeatedly on my panting breaths. I was close toing apart at the seams and I loved every second of it. No one would ever make me feel as good as Reece does.


    He must have sensed that I was close to my climax. He knew just what to do to give me that final push. In a quick motion he drove two fingers deep inside of me, turning them at just the right moment. At the same time he sucked hard on that overly sensitive bundle of nerves at the top of my slit.


    Thebined moves he made was all it took. I came screaming his name as I reached down to grab fistfuls of his hair. I didn''t know if I was trying to keep his mouth against me or pull it away. All I knew was that I was shaking from the spasms wracking my body and his name was all I could say.


    "Ahh, Reece. Reece. Reece." I panted his name repeatedly while I rode the waves of pleasure to the end.


    While I was still spasming beneath him he shifted his body above mine. I was still unable to focus, unable to see him. But I could feel him as he settled himself between my thighs, his hard, hot tip pressing against my overly sensitive opening. I wanted to beg him to enter me but I was incapable of saying anything so I just looked up at him with need filled eyes. He understood mepletely.


    He drove into my body. One hard thrust speared me until he had reached his hilt. The pleasure we had both already received left us both ready and needing. Still, I cried out at his invasion of my body, from the sheer glory of it.


    He didn''t waste time. His control was long since gone, his desire was all he knew right now. He quickly settled on a fast, hard rhythm as he pounded my body over and over.


    We were both breathing heavily, moans and cries of pleasureing from the both of us. The edges of my vision started to darken and all I could see, all I could focus on was him where he held himself above me.


    I could tell we were both nearing the edge again. The precipice was close. It wouldn''t be long before we dragged each other over and came apart in each other''s arms.


    I wanted to have him closer to me. To feel all of him when I came this next time. So, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled myself closer to him. This caused him to change positions.


    Reece shifted so that he was sitting back, his legs bent beneath him. He settled me onto his thighs while I held tight to his neck and pressed myself against his chest and his arms wrapped around my waist. From this position I could easily look into his eyes and hold him close.


    Reece continued his steady thrusts in and out as I cried out in pleasure. Unable to control myself I pressed my lips to his, tangling my tongue with his while he thrust harder and harder.


    I couldn''t hold out any longer, I broke apart in his arms, screaming into the kiss he refused to let me break. He ced one hand on the back of my head, leaving the other on my waist, as he exploded inside of me. His orgasm, the emptying of his seed inside of me, only added more waves of pleasure to my own raging waves of pleasure.


    I don''t remember when it ended. Or how long itsted. The next thing that I knew I wasying on top of his chest as we both panted uncontrobly. My body, while thoroughly pleased, couldn''t move. I was not able to move myself off of him at all.


    "I love you." I heard his whispered words above my head and it brought a smile to my lips.


    "I love you too." I grinned.


    "Come now, let''s get some sleep." He suggested.


    "Oh, I''d love to. But I can''t move."


    "Want to use me as a pillow, huh?" Heughed.


    "I wouldn''t mind. But I meant that I literally can''t move. You''ve drained me Reece. Any more and you might have fucked me to death." Heughed at that, long and loud.


    "I''ll take that as apliment."


    "You should, I meant it as one. But I don''t know if I''ll ever be able to walk again."


    "Well, I''d happily carry you everywhere, baby. Just say the word and I will be your personal carriage."


    "Hmm, that might be embarrassing. But it''s also tempting." We bothughed at that.


    Reece slid me off of him, cradling me against his side. After a light kiss to my forehead he covered us both with the nket.


    "Sweet dreams Little Bunny."


    "Good night, Fido."


    We fell asleep holding each other close. It was the best night I had had in a little while. I wouldn''t trade it for anything.

 Chapter 195 - Trinity - Farewell Dinner (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 195 - Trinity - Farewell Dinner (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Training Reece seemed to have gone pretty well. He was even more eager and attentive to me than he usually was, especially in the bath the next morning. It was an enjoyable way to wake up but it left me a little tired for the rest of the day.


    With the trip now looming ahead of us, there was something I wanted to do for all my guards that wereing with us to France. I wanted to do something special for them with all their family and mates present. So I decided to hold a farewell dinner for them at the estate. It would be onest celebration with the ones they loved before we left.


    I didn''t know how long we would be gone so it was best to do something special like this, right? I would have all my guards, their families, and their new mates present for the dinner. Carter and Noah weren''t going with us, but my family was still going to be at the dinner because I was going and they should be there for me. It was going to be arge, and special, gathering.


    I nned the dinner for the night before we left. Abigail and I both worked together to make everyone''s favorite dishes. It was going to be a very enjoyable night with lots of delicious food. I wanted it to be a party, a happy time for everyone.


    The guests started to arrive slowly. Vincent was first with Heather and the kids. I had seen little Faith at the wedding but I had been so busy that I didn''t have a chance to hold her much. She was now about four months old and so adorable. But I had to admit that holding her in my arms made my heart ache just a little. I wondered if my baby would have been as cute as her.


    This was also the first time I was directly meeting Vincent''s parents. Just as I suspected they were very nice people. I wouldn''t have expected anything less given how kind and gentlemanly Vincent was. Vincent''s dad looked just like him with sandy blond hair, yellow green eyes, and a gentle smile. His mom was pretty with light brown hair and bright emerald green eyes. They were a happy and sweet looking couple.


    David arrived next with Rawlynne. She was staying in the city and taking over the newly renovated field office. She would be a wonderful help to our organization and she didn''t want to leave David behind. The good thing was, Jackson was also staying so we had two new pack members with us.


    Unfortunately, David''s family didn''t live directly in our pack. They had moved to help out at a fealty pack long ago and were unable to make it to the dinner tonight. Maybe that was one thing that David and Rawlynne had inmon, they both missed their families and would hence put their all into their partner. But Jackson was there for the two of them, having be the unofficial brother to them both now that David had mated with the person he considered a sister.


    When the twins showed up it was kind of interesting. I had never met their parents either, but I expected them to look like at least one of their parents. But I was wrong in that aspect. Their parents were not as unique looking as they were. Their dad had ck hair and dark brown eyes, the only simrities was with the structure of the nose and chin and their height was exactly the same. Their mom had beautiful tinum blond hair and light orange eyes. She was a beauty that stood tall and slim. The rest of the twins bone structure came from her. But it was a mystery to me why they had grey eyes and silver hair. Perhaps the ck and tinum blond mixed to make silver for them. Whatever the reason they were quite the unique looking family.


    Of course Dietrich was there with Shawn. And Falena was there with Shane. They were both standing proudly by their mates as their parents looked at us with concern.


    "It is an honor to meet you in person, Luna Queen. And it is always a pleasure to see you Alpha." Mr. Asher said as he stood between his sons.


    "It''s our pleasure." I smiled at him.


    "Allow me to apologize." He said, looking at each of his sons before looking back at me.


    "For what?" I was confused.


    "For my sons having such unconventional matings." He looked embarrassed as if he thought we didn''t approve of the matings.


    "There is no need to apologize." Reece waved a hand dismissively.


    "Is it not wrong for us to bring them here?" He looked confused.


    "Why would it be?" I simply didn''t understand him. I had intended for us all to get along but if Mr. Asher was this prejudiced, then I didn''t know if that was possible.


    "Has it not always been pack policy that all matings needed to be pure?"


    "You seem to be mistaken, Mr. Asher. We approve wholeheartedly of these matings." Reece looked at the man sternly.


    "Mr. Asher, are you not aware of the fact that I myself am not a full blooded wolf?" Both of the elder Ashers looked at me with shock written all over their faces.


    "L-Luna Queen? A-are you telling me you are half human?" Mrs. Asher seemed unable to speak.


    "No." I smiled at her. "I''m half witch." Most of the pack hadn''t been told about this revtion of mine, perhaps I would need to tell them all about it soon. The faces of the twins parents dropped in shock but they grinned almost immediately afterwards.


    "So our sons won''t be removed from the pack?" Mrs. Asher finally looked happy.


    "I don''t know why you ever thought they would be." Reece looked at them sternly. "Dietrich is a good friend of my family and I have known Falena for a long time, they''re both wonderful people."


    "Thank you." Mr. Asher looked truly relieved.


    After that brief tense moment the party was able to start. The dinner went great, and the mingling after was a lot of fun. Though there was one part that I found a little funny despite its tenseness.


    "Don''t you need to get back to Germany?" Mr. Asher asked Dietrich when he saw the vampire with his arm draped over Shawn''s shoulders. He could approve of the mixed rtionships, but I guess he was stilling to terms with the fact that the son everyone thought was straight had mated with a man.


    "Nein, I get to stay with my Geliebte."


    "But don''t you have your own empire to run? Shouldn''t you be as busy as our alpha?"


    "Ja. Ich mache, Yes. I do. But there is a beauty in being the boss as well as the Vampire Emperor. I get to run my corporation from wherever I wish, and I have those at mymand who can and will run things in my stead."


    "So you''re not going back? Ever?"


    "Haha, why should I? My Liebhaber is here. I know that he has an important role in this pack. That is why I am in the process of moving my headquarters here instead."


    "Are you serious?" Mr. Asher looked shocked


    "I am very serious about your son. He is after all my mate. I will never give up on him. That is why I am currently looking for somewhere suitable for our home to be. I wish to only give your son the best of everything." The entire time that I watched this exchange I saw that Shawn was looking at Dietrich with love filled eyes and a happy smile. But at hearing thatst part he blushed and looked away. I also noticed the happy looks spread across the faces of Shawn''s parents and the look of approval on Shane''s face. I was d that they all epted and approved of Shawn''s future.


    "There is one thing that I want to know." Shane interjected.


    "Ja Bruder?" Dietrich nodded at Shane.


    "Won''t you feel bad that Shawn will never have children of his own?"


    "We live in the modern age, do we not? There are options. One is adoption. There are so many orphaned children in this world that need a guiding light and a helping hand. Would that not be an honorable choice for your brother? And if he so wishes to have a child of his loins I am sure we can find a surrogate."


    "You''ve definitely thought about this haven''t you?" Shawn looked at his mate with shock.


    "Na sicher. Of course I have. I want you to be happy and I know how much family means to the wolves. I want you to be happy forever Schatz." At those words Shawn turned and hugged Dietrich in front of everyone. This and the kiss following the battle were things I never thought I would see given how opposed to the mating Shawn had been in the beginning.


    "Will you be getting married?" Shane asked them.


    "Shane!" Shawn yelled at him in embarrassment.


    "I hope so." Dietrich answered calmly.


    "Really?" Shawn was surprised.


    "Na sicher. Why wouldn''t we. Don''t you want to marry me?" Shawn blushed crimson.


    "Isn''t it too soon?" He asked.


    "I will never want anyone but you, Liebling. And I only wish to make it official." The happy, loving vibe was filling the room affecting everyone in a positive way.


    Near the end of the night, my family came to talk to me. They had serious looks on faces. We were in a semi private part of the banquet hall. Noah, Carter, Mom, Dad, and Grandfather were all there.


    "Trinity." Dad said my name in a solemn sigh. "Promise us you will be careful."


    "Of course I will. I am only going to train." I smiled at him, trying to cate them all.


    "But, you do have a knack for getting into trouble." Carter looked at me sternly.


    "When did I ever willingly get into trouble?" I asked him.


    "I never said it was willingly. But just be extra vignt so you don''t find yourself in over your head again." Carter looked heartbroken, likely remembering every time I had been in peril over thest half a year. It was definitely more than a few times.


    "That is why I am going to train. If I know how to use my powers to their fullest then I will be able to handle more situations." I smiled, trying to lessen the tense feeling surrounded us all.


    "I will miss you so much." Mom wrapped her arms around me tightly.


    "I''ll miss you too." I hugged her back.


    "Be safe." Dad wrapped his arms around me as well, adding to the tight hug.


    "Listen to those who know more than you." Noah said, adding his arms to those tangling around me.


    "Don''t do anything stupid." Carter was the next one to add his arms to the other ones squeezing me.


    "Pleasee back to me soon little one." Grandfather, who had been silently watching this whole time, was thest one to wrap his arms around me. I felt a little squished, receiving five hugs at once, but I also felt immensely loved.


    "I promise, I will be home as soon as I can manage it. I love you all so much." At my words the pressure around me intensified just a little.


    The evening soon wrapped up. Our guests slowly left in small groups. The only ones who didn''t leave were thoseing with us to France. We were leaving early in the morning and so they were staying at the house with us tonight. I was getting excited about this trip, all things considered. I knew I was leaving my family, friends, and pack for an extended period of time, but I was also going to learn magic of different types. How could I not be excited about that. If it hadn''t been for the exhausting efforts of my hot, hot husband, I don''t think I would have been able to sleep at all that night.

 Chapter 196 - Trinity - Travel Time (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 196 - Trinity - Travel Time (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Having had a hard time falling asleep and then the physical activities of the nightbined to leave me feeling exhausted the next morning. The only constion was that I would be able to sleep on the ne. Therge,fortable, private ne that my mate owned. I used to bepletely blown away by this being rich thing, and still was at times, but I had to admit that it had its benefits too.


    We got up extra early, but Abigail had been prepared for that. That meant that there was still a delicious, yet simple, breakfast on the table for me after my hurried shower. I could always count on Abigail''s cooking to revitalize me a little.


    Following the quick meal we left the house in a small fleet of those ck SUVs that Reece had purchased for ourst mission. There were several warriors from the pack acting as chauffeurs for us today. Their job was to drive us to the airport and then head home.


    The entire Sentinelle, the two warlocks, and the seven of us from the house all left at the same time. Adding the forty-five people and apanying luggage we needed a dozen vehicles.


    It was always a surreal experience driving in a long procession of vehicles like this. Even at the early hour we drew the eyes of everyone we passed. It was most likely due to the fact that each one of these SUVs cost more than sixty thousand. The residents of the city were all aware that there was only one person likely to be riding around in a million dor parade. I could guess that many of them were trying to get a good look at the famous Reece Gray and whatever other important people were with him.


    Once we arrived at the airport we were directed to the private airstrip that was just for VIPs. We had our security checks there, but since we weren''t flying on amercial flight the check was just a formality. I guess it waspletely true when they say that people with money are treated differently than those without it.


    We didn''t set foot inside the actual airport and was led directly from our long line of vehicles to the ne that Reece had waiting for us. It was the second ne that I knew about him owning. Thest one was too small to take this many people on a private flight so he had needed to get a bigger one.


    This private ne was big enough to hold around seventy-five people, pilots not included. We only had forty-five in our group so we would be quitefortable during the flight. Not to mention that the entire ne was set up like a giant first ss section with luxury seating, excellent temperature control, and even wifi that would work at the full height of our flight.


    There was also a full staff that would be taking care of us during the flight. These staffers had been borrowed from the airport, all supernaturals, and would be flying home at the international airport in La Rochelle, France once wended.


    The staff was professional, and best of all they were shifters. They had been made aware in advance that their King and Queen would be the ones flying out and so they were also extremely deferential. But I had to give them props, all things considered, because even with these circumstances they didn''t show their nerves once.


    They did however excitedly exim that they were happy to meet the Luna Queen and Alpha King and would always serve us proudly whenever we needed them. They would definitelye in handy on futurerge scale flights like this. And I had to admit, I was starting to like being pampered at times.


    We still had a while until lunch after we took off, so I decided to take a nap. Reece was trying to finish somest minute work on hisptop, but the minute he saw me sway to the side in my seat he set theputer aside and pulled me over toy my head in hisp. Training himst week had resulted in a wonderful change in him. He had, unknowingly, be somewhat deferential towards me. I wondered at times if I should point it out to him, but then I would talk myself out of it. It was just so much fun watching him act like this.


    After my nap there was a lunch unlike anything I would ever expect to be served on a ne. It looked like it hade directly out of our kitchen, not some pre made and reheated airport junk. Oh the perks of first ss living.


    Nothing overly exciting happened during the flight. The others all either read, fiddled with their phones or watched movies on theirputers or tablets. Well, except Shawn and Dietrich. I couldn''t hear their whispered conversation but they seemed to be enjoying themselves as they smiled lovingly at each other. I was so happy for them. When they first mated I didn''t think Shawn would evere around and I honestly felt a little sorry for Dietrich, but now I understood just how strong the pull of destiny was. And they really did look adorable together.


    Should I really be using the word adorable to describe two men? They were both tall. And they both looked pretty masculine. But together they looked no different than any other loving couple. And that was why I said they were adorable. They were no different than any of us after all and love was a beautiful sight.


    When wended in the airport there were another dozen vehicles waiting for us, this time they were rentals at least. We proceeded through the airport with such an authoritative air that we once again caught everyone''s eye, especially after they saw that we were getting into this massive parade of vehicles. The whispers that followed us were all wondering if we were celebrities with a huge entourage. I could understand it, Reece was as handsome as any movie star.


    From the airport we had a drive of? just under an hour and a half to the remote vige of Talmont-Sur-Gironde. Driving through France was never something I thought I would do, and add to that we were driving through the less popted country side it meant we had exquisite views.


    When we were approaching the vige Gabriel, who was riding in the same vehicle as us, leaned forward to exin a little about the vige to me. Apparently, the Sentinelle headquarters were in an old abbey, the Sainte Radegonde which was built in 1094. The original vige that had surrounded the abbey had been destroyed in 1652 by the Spanish. It was after that time that the Sentinelle had acquired the vige for themselves and turned it into what it was now.


    The vige and abbey werepletely inhabited by the Sentinelle. The goods needed by the citizens were shipped in, a process that had gotten easier as time went on. It was in this vige that those who collected the histories of the world would store the information and wait for the Goddess Incarnate to return to them.


    When I first saw the vige in the distance it took my breath away. It was on a small promontory so that it looked to be perched on a rocky outcrop. The vige seemed to fill every bit of space of the rocky coast line, and behind it I could see the sea. The old, ssic European style architecture just brought the whole view together and made it into something so beautiful and story like. I never imagined I would ever see something this serenely beautiful in my life.


    The procession of vehicles moved slowly through the vige. Every single resident seemed toe out and watch us pass. But what was more, they seemed to be following us to the abbey.


    When we parked, the drivers of the vehicles, more residents of the vige, opened our doors and bowed as they waited for Reece and I to exit our SUV. Every member of the Sentinelle was present, and all of them, those who had travelled with us included, bowed to us once we were in sight.


    "Luna Queen, wee to the Home of the Sentinelle." Gabriel''s voice was firm and loud enough for everyone to hear.


    "Wee Luna Queen." The other voices rang out in what sounded like a singsong tone.


    "Queen Trinity, we of the Sentinelle look forward to serving you. Please do not hesitate to ask for anything." A man I had never seen before spoke in a clear voice. Gabriel stood and looked at me with a smile.


    "My Queen, this is Ghirald. He is much like the steward of the abbey. He will see to all your needs while you are here." Gabriel introduced the man to me.


    "It''s a pleasure to meet you Ghirald." The man was slim and shortpared to the men I was used to. He was perhaps five-feet nine inches tall. He had closely cropped brown hair and kindly looking emerald green eyes.


    "The pleasure is indeed all mine, your grace. Please, do let me know if there is ever anything I can do to assist you." His smile was one of reverence as he looked up at me, still on his knees.

 Chapter 197 - Trinity - Inside The Abbey (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 197 - Trinity - Inside The Abbey (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Once the introduction was over, the entire group of kneeling Sentinelle members stood in unison. That was a slightly jarring sight, to see them all rise to their feet at the same time as if it was nned. I noticed that there were about one hundred and fifty members of the Sentinelle in total. Each of them were now, supposedly, at my disposal. I would have to get used to the idea of having so many people who looked at me like I was an answered prayer.


    "Queen Trinity, would you and your group like a tour of the abbey before we show you to your rooms?" Ghirald asked me in a kind, soft tone.


    "That would be lovely, thank you." I nodded as I answered him.


    The courtyard was cleared, people returning to where they belonged. Then Gabriel and Ghirald escorted our group around the abbey.


    "After the vige was destroyed before, the abbey was rebuilt as a castle instead of a church, but we continue to call it by its original name." Ghirald exined as he led us around the veryrge interior. There were hallways leading in many different directions, hidden corridors, secret passageways. Chambers of all different kinds that were useful for many different functions from weapons training to massive libraries, and what would be magic training rooms. There were two different dining halls and a massive kitchen.


    The Sentinelle didn''t employ any outside staff but the various members each had their own job on top of being trained as a warrior. This location was fully functional with no outside help.


    On the upper floors there were several wings full of bed chambers. That was the only way I could describe them. There was little other than stone in the construction of the abbey. The floors, walls, ceilings, everything was made out of stone. Only the furniture offered a relief to all that stone. Consequently, aside from stained ss every room looked much the same until you looked at the furniture inside the actual chamber.


    When the warlocks, warriors, Reece and I were all led to our respective rooms I noticed that mine and Reece''s was thest one in the procession. All the bedrooms we had been led to so far had looked identical with a king sized bed with a soft looking mattress and matching wooden dresser, armoire and trunk. There was also a sitting area and adjacent washroom for every bedroom.


    I had assumed that my room would look exactly the same as the others. But I couldn''t have been more wrong. Those other rooms couldn''t hold a candle to thest one.


    While the room I was to share with Reece was in the same wing as the others, all the way at the end, it couldn''t have looked more different. The other rooms were all uniform and nd but this room was definitely regal in appearance.


    There were countless silk drapes in the room to hide the stone walls. The windows were a beautiful stained ss unlike any of the others I had seen so far. And none of the other bedrooms had stained ss. The pictures depicted in the stained ss seemed to be showing pictures of the legend of the Goddess Incarnate in vivid colors.


    Aside from the wall and window dressings there was the floor. Unlike in the other rooms where everything was stone, the floor in this room was made of a beautiful white marble that made the room look so elegant. The furniture was done in a dark mahogany. The extrarge bed was surrounded by a canopy of midnight blue curtains that matched the ones on the walls. These curtains would definitely help to block out the light from the windows.


    When we looked in the adjacent bathroom I noticed that this too was different. More of that white marble was present on the floor. The sink, tub and other amenities in the room were made out of a contrasting ck marble so instead of the mostly white with ck swirls this one was ck with the faint white swirls. The contrasting colors made for an eye catching sight. The taps on those amenities were a bright shining silver.


    One thing I noticed was that there seemed to be no electronics in the abbey at all. There was electricity for lighting but that seemed to be it. Even with that slight drawback it was an amazing ce to be.


    I also noticed that there was going to be plenty for me to read while we were here. I found that thought to be very exciting. I couldn''t wait to see what those books had to offer me.


    While we were here in the abbey, I wouldn''t be the only one training. The guards and Reece as well were going to be training with the Sentinelle warriors. We would all being out of this experience stronger than we were before. That was something that made all the men very excited.


    We had left the airport back home around six in the morning and consequently didn''t reach the abbey until nearly midnight in our time back home but it was again six in the morning here. It had been a long and exhausting day already and all we wanted to do was eat and rest.


    The breakfast that was being served was for our benefit only it seemed. The food was amazing though, their cook was on par with Abigail. We all ate to our heart''s content and then were ready to call it a night, or rather day. Reece and I took a quick shower and crawled into our luxurious bed.


    I guess they had been keeping this chamber for when the Goddess Incarnate arrived. There was no other exnation for why it was so beautifully decorated and designed. It was a little awkward to be here, away from home and all, but I would do my best to make Reece, my warriors, my family, and my pack proud of me. I would not fail in this endeavor because I needed to prove that I was worthy of the adoration all these people were heaping onto me.

 Chapter 198 - Trinity - Training Begins (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 198 - Trinity - Training Begins (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I didn''t know exactly what to expect when my training began. I knew that I would be learning a lot from both sides, but I didn''t know how to begin. So I woke nervously the day after we arrived.


    We had spent the entire first day doing nothing but resting. And between the nine of us, the warlocks, guards, Reece and me, we talked about what all I needed to learn. We all agreed I needed to know the history of both of my heritages. There was a general consensus that the men would all practice morebat training to make sure they would leave here stronger as well. But no one really knew what the Sentinelle had in mind for me to learn how to control my Goddess abilities.


    Though there was one thing that they all agreed on, if they could not be with me personally then I was to be with Gabriel. We did not know any of the people here and had not had the chance to gauge their attitude or intentions.


    This was a strange ce filled with people we were not certain of. Needless to say Reece''s, hell everyone''s, stranger danger rm was ring. They were treating me like I was a two year old prone to running off or something. But, it was kind of sweet too, in a way. To have so many people worried about my well-being was actually heartwarming. And yes, I have a habit of not listening when I get mad, and I don''t like being ordered around too much. But I promised I would at least try my best to behave the way they wanted. I would try at least.


    The first day seemed to be just for me to train, but the guys were going to take the time to meet and get to know the members of the Sentinelle. They wanted to see if they could be trusted before they left me with any of them for an extended period of time. It was almost like I had a whole fleet filled with Reece, Noah, and Carter. Everyone was being so protective that it made me smile.


    My first training day was to be nothing more than learning histories from Gabriel, so everyone feltfortable leaving me for the day. The eight of them would be meeting with everyone as a group. The main reason was going to be because Vincent needed to be present when they met them.


    Vincent, as part of his ability, would be able to tell what the true intentions of someone''s heart was. If they were not an ally, if they harbored ill intent toward us, he would know. This made Vincent an invaluable and irreceable member of our team.


    After breakfast they left me in my room with Gabriel, Reece giving me a quick kiss before leaving. Then Gabriel and I settled in to begin our long study session. We would even be having lunch in my room while we were studying. Good thing I loved learning and was actually looking forward to this.


    We began by learning about the history of the original Luna Goddess, Nehalennia. Like all the Gods and Goddesses, she began her existence pre religion, pre dynasty, pre anything. There was not much in the way for the Gods and Goddesses before people began to worship them.


    Nehalennia spent the first few thousand years of her existence with the animals that she cared so much about. As dynasties around the world began to form and the people of the world gained more knowledge of the Goddess Nehalennia, the number of loyal followers she had steadily grew.


    With worshipers steadily growing, Nehalennia became stronger and stronger. Those who devoutly followed the Goddess were granted the form of the animals she so dearly loved. There were many animals she protected, but what she loved the most were wolves.


    To Nehalennia, wolves were the most fiercely loyal and trustworthy of the animals. The wolves were like the children she wanted but never had. All the animals she cared for were like her children.


    Those who gained the ability to shift from one form to another were stronger than humans. Not to mention that the shifters had better senses, like those of the animal they had the form of.


    When it was discovered that the children of these shifters were also born with the same abilities as their parents it meant that there had been the creation of these new species. Humans, those who didn''t believe in or worship Nehalennia, did not approve of or ept the new species of shifters.


    It was like this for all the children born from Thoth and Selene as well. These people that were different were shunned by humanity. No matter how peaceful that they were, humans just did not ept what they did not understand. They were scared and jealous of those who had something that they did not.


    Over several thousand years, Nehalennia watched her people as they grew and flourished, all the while saddened by the fact that her people were forced to hide who they were from the humans.


    Nehalennia made certain all shifters had a future that would continue. Every shifter had a destined mate somewhere in the world. They would find their evesting happiness eventually. There was never anything to fear as long as they stayed faithful to the Goddess.


    A little more than two thousand years ago, the Goddess grew weary of her life here on earth. That was when she decided to ascend to the heavens. Or as some say, the moon, which is why she is known as the Moon Goddess. But she has remained the mother and goddess to all shifters in the world.


    Now, for the legend of the Goddess Incarnate, that was something she told her followers before she left. The Sentinelle, named for their function of being sentinels on the lookout for the return of the goddess.


    The original members of the organization were there with the Goddess before she ascended. They were there to receive her tutge, her wisdoms for the future. Nehalennia told them that in one thousand years she would choose the most worthy woman among the shifters to be her reincarnation. She did not say with certainty that it would be a wolf shifter but since she loved her wolves above all others it was expected that she would choose a woman among them.


    They were told that the reincarnation would be the queen of all shifters. It would be her job to rule, to lead her people to a prosperous future. It would fall upon the queen to help those born differently to be epted by all.


    She informed her followers that there would be a new queen a thousand years after the death of the reincarnation. This process would continue until the most worthy and suitable new Goddess Incarnate came along. Someone worthy of keeping the title and passing it down among her bloodline.


    No one knew that the unworthy queen would not be able to have children. That was not something that Gabriel told me, but something I figured for myself. I didn''t know if I was correct in that line of thinking, but I felt it.


    Could that have been why I was destined to lose my baby. Would that happen every time I conceived? Was I the fabled true queen and losing the baby was truly an ident? I don''t think I would ever know.


    And perhaps I was wrong and the unworthy would still have children, but their children would inherit none of the Goddess Incarnate''s abilities or status. This was all just something that would remain in the air, unable to be answered, until the truth was revealed by the original goddess herself.


    I spent the entire day trying to absorb as much of these legends and histories that I could. It was fascinating to say the least. But I was also a little more scared and nervous with each new bit of information that I learned. I knew that I was who they said I was, the Goddess had told me herself, but how could I ever live up to their expectations?


    I continued to think about these things as Gabriel moved on to talk about the first Goddess Incarnate, Queen Ylsa. Ylsa had been a kind and courageous leader. Everyone loved the queen and any of the wolves would have done anything for her. But she, being a wolf shifter, focused all her efforts on the wolves and not the entire shifter world.


    Ylsa was an amazing queen and Goddess Incarnate, by all ounts. But where shecked waspassion for the world and not just the people she was born into. She needed to expand herself more.


    Was that why I was chosen this time? A wolf who was raised knowing that there was something different about her heritage. A wolf who was raised as an outsider and didn''t have the same prejudices that a lot of others wolves seemed to have. I guess time would tell.


    I was in a dazed stupor from all the information I was absorbing when I heard amotion outside my room. Someone was yelling and several people seemed to be stomping through the halls leading to the chamber.


    The surprised and shocked look on Gabriel''s face told me all that I needed to know. He didn''t know what was going on any more than I did. He stopped his lecture and I put down my pen at the same time.


    The two of us stood, waiting for the interruption to reach us.

 Chapter 199 - Reece- Traitors Among Them (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 199 - Reece- Traitors Among Them (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I knew that this trip was likely to be very hard for me. Not that it would be physically demanding, or that I would have a hard time doing things. No, I knew that I was not going to be at my wife''s side every step of the way.


    It''s not that I am overly clingy and just want to stay with her. No, it''s because I wouldn''t be there to protect her all the time. I was going to have to let go. I was going to be forced to step aside and let others be there for her.


    Was that what it meant for her to be the queen? Was she going to keep ascending higher and higher and eventually leave me behind? It would serve me right, in all honesty. I was head over heels, deeply in love with her. But I had been an asshole to her, I had nearly ruined everything before it ever started. It would be a fitting punishment from the powers that be to punish me by being left behind by her greatness.


    But I wasn''t going to be left behind like that. I wasn''t going to roll over and just take it. I was going to fight my hardest and I''d be damned if I let anything keep me from following right at her heels.


    The day after we arrived here, she was already set to begin her training. It was just learning the histories from Gabriel in our chamber. I think he was telling us men to go and investigate the ce while he watches over his queen for us.


    I''ll admit, when I first met Gabriel I didn''t really trust him. But as time went on he proved time and time again that he was an ally, and a true friend. He seems like he would honestlyy down his life for his queen. That was some sincere loyalty.


    After we ate breakfast that morning, we walked as a group back to the Royal Quarters, or that''s what the few people I had already met in the Sentinelle called our room. I left my Little Bunny and Gabriel there. And after a quick goodbye kiss the eight of us left together.


    Being around the warlocks was still weird for me. They were old, like really old. Crawford was the oldest of them at four hundred and sixty-six. But Eldrige was not much younger at four hundred fifty-nine. And apparently they had known each other their whole lives.


    They at least looked a little old. Graying and wizened looking, but when I was with Gabriel Ipletely forgot about the fact that he was six hundred and ny-two. And then there was Dietrich who was five hundred twenty-eight. And neither of them even looked older than early thirties.


    Hell even Vincent was older than me. If it wasn''t for David and the twins, I would be the youngest man in this group. I''m not used to being around so many people that look so young but are so old. But the warlocks weren''t just old like the others. No, they acted old too. They spoke so old fashionedpared to Dietrich.


    I just had to take the time to get used to it. But I still didn''t see me ever going for drinks with them easily. I would, don''t get me wrong. I am a nice guy after all. But it would still seem a little weird.


    Whatever, I just had to get used to all the changes in our lives. That''s what I forced my wife to do back then, isn''t it. I didn''t even give her the chance to ease into things. What an ass I truly was.


    We left the room, leaving my mate and Gabriel alone, that kind of gave me a jealous feeling. But I didn''t think that he was a bad guy at all, I knew things would be just fine. They''d better be.


    For now though, It was time to meet everyone here. I would be damned if I was going to let any of these people around my wife if I hadn''t vetted them thoroughly first. Every single person in this ce was going to be grilled by all of us. Let''s see them hide something from us.


    We began on the floor where we all slept. I wanted to make sure those closest to us were trustworthy before anything else. And as I was the Alpha King, none of them were able to deny us. They would never obey me as much as they would Trinity, but they would still act deferential and follow mymands unless they contradicted the queens.


    Dammit, this used to be a ce run by alphas. Oh well, I was married to the queen, I was truly second in charge. I''d take second best if it meant she was number one. She was my number one anyway.


    The abbey was quiterge. There was a very tall square-like entry wing in the front that led to an even taller square center. From that center square there was a wing to the left and right that were curved on the end. There were also smaller, equally curved sectionsing off the initial entry wing on either side sitting in front of therger side wings. These smaller wings were mirrored in the back as well, one on each side. And it ended with arge wing in the back that mirrored the entry wing. The entire abbey was symmetrical at least. It''s construction was very well done but very obviously ancient.


    The light colored stone walls on the outside were just as present on the inside. There wasn''t a single stone that looked to be crumbling and the building looked far from run down. It was amazing. Even more so because it had electricity and running water. I would have forbidden this trip if Gabriel hadn''t assured us that they were at least that far into the modern age.


    Those that were still in their rooms in the north wing of the sixth floor all seemed to check out. There were quite a few people who seemed promising in fact. There was a man who would be in charge of training us, his name was Lucas, and he instantly seemed to connect with Shane. Seemed like we could all make new friends here, not that we needed Shane with a new bestie to pull pranks on everyone.


    We also met a man named Nichs, call him Nick he insisted, who seemed to have a strong desire to be a guard. ording to Vincent, he checked out, and if he proved himself he would most definitely be allowed toe aboard. I wanted to expand the guard as it was.


    Next we met a man named Grant. He seemed like a strong man that would add a lot of strength to the pack if he wanted toe back with us. All of these people checked out so far. That wasforting.


    There were a few women who we came across as well. One named Lana looked young and was apparently the nurse or medic of the Sentinelle. She was responsible for helping everyone that came back to the abbey injured. She could learn a lot from Griffin if she were toe back to Colorado.


    Then there were two other women who seemed promising so far, Thoma and Izzy. These two seemed as close as sisters but couldn''t look more different. One was tall with dark hair and eyes and a strong looking build, the other was on the short side, but still taller than my Little Bunny and she was tinum blonde with bright hazel eyes.


    These two would be great female warriors for my mate. Some more women around to be friends with would help too. It was probably not right of me to be looking through the Sentinelle with hopes of filling out our ranks, but to be honest, wasn''t that what they were meant for?


    We met some more good people that seemed like they would be a good fit among us, Perkins, Malik, Hideki, Micah, Christophe, Victor, Celest, Thea, Sebastian, Yuri, all these members were beyond excited to get a chance at serving the King and Queen. If they proved themselves then they would be a great addition to our pack.


    This search and interrogation of the members was going great. Everyone seemed to be in this because they believed in the legend of the Goddess Incarnate and truly wanted to offer their lives to the Goddess. I truly had a good feeling about all this. That is until after lunch.


    After we ate our lunch we moved to interviewing people outside the abbey. Most of them were just as loyal but perhaps a little less enthusiastic in that loyalty. There was nothing wrong with being a little less hyper about it.


    There were promising people among this group too. Hal, John, Joe, Tim, Richard, Ruth, Mary, Seiji. This group of Sentinelle warriors was proving to be quite the boon. There were only two that gave Vincent pause when he met them.


    He seemed to have gotten tense when we met two men who were working together near the docks. They didn''t seem to be bad people in attitude and appearance. However, we all knew that this meant nothing, and apparently their words did not match up with the truth of their intentions.


    The men, named Charles and Ralph, were repairing the docks and had the most direct contract with people outside the vige, aside from the scouts that is. These men often spent a lot of time in neighboring viges and cities.


    I don''t know if that helped to contribute to their disloyalty or not, but these two men imed to be loyal to the Sentinelle and to the Queen. Though the truth of the matter was that they only wanted to stay in the Sentinelle until the Queen was found and they could move on with life in a different era.


    When Vincent spoke to these men he got a full picture of what was going on with them. He saw exactly what it was that they wanted in life. These men never wanted to be part of any Goddess Guard. They would never be willing to fight for what was right or protect the Queen.


    They didn''t seem to be actively working against her, yet. But given the opportunity they would most definitely betray us all. They cared for no one but themselves. They would turn on a dime, and jump sides at the drop of a hat.


    When their loyalties were called into question they, obviously, took offense to it. They imed that we were just trying to find people to remove from the group and add our own. They tried making ims that we had, most certainly, removed many others and this was just a witch hunt so to speak.


    "I''m afraid that you are mistaken." Ghirald, the steward, informed them. Ghirald had been escorting us around the abbey and vige for our investigations.


    "This is ridiculous." Charles, a tall surly looking man with a permanently angry look etched into his face spoke first.


    "What reason do you have to call us into question?" Ralph demanded. He was just as tall and surly looking. But where Charles had bright orange hair and eyes, Ralph looked swampy with muddy eyes and murky brown hair.


    "Your words don''t match your heart, your soul. The things you say are in direct contrast to what you truly believe." Vincent stepped forward and answered him in a stern tone. "We will not let you near our Luna if we cannot trust you, and you two are the only ones we''vee to so far that pose any sort of threat to her."


    "You''re insane." Charles ground out through his teeth.


    "No Charles, he is Goddess touched." Ghirald said the words reverently.


    "What''s that supposed to mean?" Charles looked confused and angry.


    "He has been granted an ability by the Goddess." I told him. "And his ability is to know someone''s true intentions."


    "Seems a little useless to me." Ralph scoffed. "That doesn''t sound like something that the Goddess would give someone."


    "I don''t believe you in the least." Charles added.


    "It doesn''t matter. You''re done here. You will no longer be part of the Sentinelle." David stepped forward and spoke angrily.


    "The group of you think you can boss us around?" Charles wasughing. "Not all of you are even wolves. You''ve got a bloodsucker and a pair of witchy boys." Charles'' manner of speaking was getting more and more crude as he went on.


    "We will not be put out by you." Ralph backed up his friend. "Only Gabriel can relieve us of our duty."


    "I am your King, and you will listen to me." I snarled at him.

 Chapter 200 - Trinity- Dealing With Disobedience (VOLUME 2) ((*LONG CHAPTER*))

    <h4>Chapter 200 - Trinity- Dealing With Disobedience (VOLUME 2) ((*LONG CHAPTER*))</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    A group of men that I had never met before came spilling into the room.


    "My Queen, please excuse this interruption." They all knelt as soon as they were inside the room.


    "What is it, Perkins? What has happened?" Gabriel asked in my stead, knowing these people more than I did.


    "The King has found unworthy men among our ranks. And I am afraid things are about to escte among them?" The man named Perkins responded.


    "Escte?" I made the one word a question. What could possibly be happening among them to cause this?


    "Yes, your grace. It seems that those found to be disloyal are not taking this revtion lightly. They have gotten quite upset."


    "Where are they?" I demanded before Gabriel could say anything else.


    "Please,e with us, my Queen." Another of the men requested of me. That was all the prompting I needed before I was marching out of the room, hot on their heels.


    I watched as they led us through the abbey and down to the courtyard. The sandy color of the stone, the bright shes of the stained ss, the sights were blurring into one giant streak of colors as I hurried out behind them.


    We didn''t stop once we got to the courtyard out front. We were marched to the right and down toward a path that led down along the cliff to the rocky shore. The path didn''t lead us all the way down as I expected but to the docks that were stilted to meet the slightly smoother edge of the promontory.


    There was arge number of people gathered, watching themotion. Reece and the others were standing just before the docks, Ghirald was in between them and two men I have never seen before. But just looking at them I could tell they were powerful men. They had their faces twisted in anger which gave them an unusual looking expression. It wasn''t just anger really, it was fear as well.


    Were they mad that they were caught and thought they were going to be punished unnecessarily? Or were they mad that they were found out and couldn''t aplish what they had nned? Was it bad that I was already thinking the worst of these people that I had never met?


    The group both on and off the docks seemed to be at a stalemate. But I could tell that Reece was at his wits end.


    "Gabriel, what kind of men are these two?" I asked him, knowing that he would not hide things from me.


    "They are very good men, or so I thought. There has never been any trouble before."


    "But what about their rtionships with other members of the Sentinelle?"


    "They usually keep to themselves within our organization. They do tend to have more contact with the outside world though."


    "That shouldn''t have caused problems though, should it?"


    "I don''t see how it could have." Gabriel looked distressed.


    I moved closer to themotion before me. Those on the grass as well as the dock parted before me.


    "I am your King, and you will listen to me." Reece snarled at him. I could tell things were about to cross a line that I wasn''t certain we were prepared for.


    "What is going on here?" I demanded in a loud,manding voice. The group around me knelt when they felt my anger and frustration. My entourage turned to look at me, all except for Reece and Vincent who were staring at the two suspects with anger. And those two, those who were being used of disloyalty, just looked at me with angry eyes. They definitely didn''t act like the rest of them. Weren''t they supposed to treat me like their queen?


    "There was no need for you toe all the way out here Trinity." Reece''s voice was tense and held a biting edge. I could tell by the rigid set of his shoulders and the stiff way he was holding his back that he had been holding back with these two already.


    "I know Reece, I was just curious to know what was going on." I put a calming tone in my voice. "Carry on." I knew how much it mattered to him to be the alpha male. He would bow down to me if I asked him to, but he needed to cement his control of these people as much as I did. If they didn''t learn to respect him now then they never would.


    "Queen Trinity?" Gabriel questioned next to me but I didn''t let him finish.


    "Hush Gabriel, this is needed." I looked at him with a firm, determined look in my eyes. Reece would handle this the way it needed to be handled. It was his job after all, not to mention that he was my husband, my mate, my alpha, the fire to my ice, he would be there with me every step of the way and I had no reason not to trust he could do this. And the nod that answered my trust in him was him telling me he understood everything I was feeling as well.


    "The people you were waiting for are here and it''s still between you and me." Reece goaded the two men before him.


    "It''s more than just us." The man with bright orange hair scoffed back at him.


    "Precisely." The brown hair man added. "Nearly the entire vige is here, along with our Watcher and the Queen." They smirked like they thought that this was the end of it all.


    "But the issue is between just us. You heard them, we are to continue." I was slowly walking to the side so that I could see Reece''s face more and I just barely caught the grin on his face.


    "You can''t do this." The first man, with the orange hair, spoke out with annoyance.


    "We''ve done nothing wrong." The other one added.


    "This can be settled easily." Gabriel called out. "Swear your undying loyalty to the Queen and King right here and now. Make an unbreakable oath to them to follow them until they release you from service."


    "How could you ask that of us?" The orange haired man seemed shocked.


    "How is it that you would even hesitate Charles? Isn''t that why we all joined the Sentinelle? Did you not already vow to devote your life to the Queen when she was sent by the Goddess? That is true for all of us, is it not true for you and Ralph?"


    "Gabriel, we will be loyal, but to swear this type of oath, that would put us at their mercy." The man named Ralph looked as if someone had just punched him in the gut when he heard Gabriel''s words. Charles didn''t look much better.


    "We are all at their mercy, that is the whole reason we exist. If it had not been for our devotion to the Goddess we would all have perished so long ago. I realize that the two of you are among the younger of our numbers, but you have been here long enough to know what it is we are meant to do."


    "I did not sign up to serve a brute like him." Charles pointed at Reece, his hand shaking. "Or a half breed mongrel like her. I will not pledge my loyalty to someone not fit to rule us."


    "The Goddess has decreed that she is the only one worthy to take her ce, This is not up to you." Ghirald looked stricken by those words, angered and upset to hear such disrespectful words.


    I saw the anger intensify on the faces of all my guards, not to mention that rage that red in Reece''s eyes. They were pissed, that was easy to see. These men would not take lightly to me being bad mouthed. Even Dietrich and the Warlocks looked angrier than I could ever imagine.


    "You''re going to regret saying those words." Reece snarled.


    "Really?" Charles looked cocky when he heard Reece''s words.


    "Do you think you can take both of us by yourself?" Ralph asked.


    "Most definitely." The smirk on Reece''s face was definitely full of confidence and his voice rang with a note of authority.


    "Do you truly intend to fight your king?" The man who hade to collect me and Gabriel was appalled.


    "He is not my king." Charles looked even angrier.


    "And when he fails to beat us then you all will see that he is not fit to be here and neither is she." Ralph added.


    I didn''t know what their problem was. Why they would dedicate their lives to this organization if they were not truly onboard with the entire modus operandi. But whatever the reason was, I didn''t like them. I didn''t know them, but they were the kind of people that reminded me of Caleb. They were not to be trusted. I had learned my lessons. I knew better than to ept this kind of thing anymore, and would sooner throw my life away than let people like this near me again. It would essentially be doing the same thing.


    I knew this was going to be a good show. That was why I just settled in and decided to watch. Reece would handle this marvelously, that I was certain of.


    "Vincent." I called out to get his attention as he had never taken his eyes off the two buffoons. When he finally looked at me I gestured him over, the others saw this and followed suit. I was now surrounded by all my guards and the Warlocks as well as several members of the Sentinelle. They knew a fight wasing and wanted to protect me.


    With a smirk I watched Reece''s actions. He didn''t waste time on saying anything else. He was definitely ready to fight them right now.


    Reece slunk into a crouch, his arms were curved at his sides with his fingers curled and ready. He was nning to fight them both with just his human form. I didn''t doubt his ability to do it for even a second.


    The two idiots thought they had the advantage of numbers, and when they saw Reece remain in his human form they stupidly thought that Reece was a weak wolf. They shifted and split up, circling around him toe at him from different angles. Ralph was a dirty looking dust color, and Charles'' wolf perfectly matched his bright orange hair, they were not the best looking wolves I had seen.


    The wolf that was Ralph leapt first, making a dive for Reece''s left leg. It was clear he was attempting to bite into his femoral artery. Reece blocked him easily, throwing him to the ground like he was nothing but a sack of flour. I heard the whine escape from his as he mmed on the docks.


    Charles attacked next, lunging for Reece''s throat. He never even got close. Reece grabbed his out of the air mid jump by closing his fingers around his throat. The growling from the orange wolf was cut off instantly. With a flick of his wrist and a light swing of his arm, Reece sent the wolf flying near the rocks that lined the pathway I had taken down here. Charlesnded in an inelegant heap.


    "Hahaha, had enough?" Reeceughed as he saw the two wolves getting to their feet and ring at him.


    ''Not even close.'' Charles growled in wolf speech.


    "Thene at me, I will teach you the price of disobedience." Reece was fully in his element now. He would teach them and everyone watching what happened when you crossed either of us.


    As I watched Reece I was stricken with how wolf-like he seemed to be even when in his human form. He had always been a very sexy and powerful man, and his wolf was gorgeous. But looking at him now it was like the two forms had merged. He was not quite a man and not quite a wolf. It was both beautiful and terrifying to see. But I loved looking at it.


    As I pictured him covered in fur, almost looking like a hollywood version of a werewolf, there was a sh of that now familiar light filling the area around us all. Reece seemed to be hazy, like an image in the distance on a hot day. But this wasn''t a hot day and that wasn''t heat rippling around him, it was magic.


    I stood there in shock with everyone else as Reece''s entire body seemed to ripple for a moment. He grabbed his head and bent near the ground for just a moment. The two imbeciles that he was fighting took advantage of the situation, running at him at the same time and aiming to attack him as he was hunched over.


    They still weren''t given the chance to touch him. No sooner had they started to run did Reece seem to growrger, I''d say twice as big but I know that wasn''t the case, it was more like fifty percent, or close to it. He was so much more powerful looking, and when he stood up he was easily eight feet tall and a lot more broad in the shoulders and chest. He was huge.


    He was also covered in fur. He was the very image of a werewolf from hollywood.


    "A lycan?" Gabriel breathed reverently beside me. "There has not been a true lycan in nearly two thousand years."


    "He truly is the king." I heard these spoken many times among the crowd along with affirmations from the others.


    When Reece had stood up he instantly defended himself, or was it a counter attack? He had grabbed the two wolves out of thin air again, effectively cutting off their growls and eliciting whimpers and whines from them instead.


    Reece swung the two stupid wolves in his massive, w tipped hands. I watched as they circled helpless in his grip momentarily before he mmed them to the ground. The two assholes who had dared to challenge my mate to a duel yelped in pain and didn''t move.


    The wolves he was fighting had effectively given up, or were KO''ed, but Reece was still filled with rage and anger. That was something I would associate with this lycan form from Hollywood, but I needed to bring him back to his senses.


    "Reece?" I called out to him, but he didn''t answer.


    When I tried to step forward I instantly had nine hands reach toward me. It seemed that all my guards, Gabriel, and the Warlocks were intent on keeping me in ce.


    "It will be fine, stand down gentlemen." I smiled at them all. "I can''t let him kill them. They''re stupid, but that''s not a crime that deserves death." They nodded that they had understood that I was not intending to join the fight, every hand receded almost instantly. Vincent''s was the only one that lingered as he looked at me with concern.


    "Be careful." He told me before he too took his hand away. I nodded at him before I stepped away and moved closer to my mate.


    Reece had knelt on the ground between the men he had been fighting, his hands firmly gripping their throats. They were no longer in their wolf forms, instead they were lying on the ground in their full glory. Orck thereof. Was it bad that no man I saw could evere close to Reece''s naked body? Granted I hadn''t seen many, but still.


    "Reece." I called out to him again just before I ced a calming hand on his back. His snarling instantly stopped as he turned to look at me. Reece waspletely different than I had ever seen him.


    It wasn''t just Reece''s build that had changed and gotten bigger. His hands, tipped as they were with lethal looking ws, were nowrge enough to cover half my arm in their grasp. His head,rger than normal, was now more wolf-like than human. There were pointed ears on top of his head, sticking out of his hair. He had a snout that stuck out of his face with a mouth full of long, sharp, wolf teeth. His eyes,rger than they usually were, were shining at me with their golden light.


    I noticed that he wasn''tpletely covered in fur. His face seemed to be at least ny percent covered, but there were ces that weren''t. The center of his thick, broad chest and the center of his back were the same honied tan I loved so much. There was even a bare patch on the back and palm of each hand, the tops of his shoulders, and down by his feet.


    Likewise there were ces where the fur was thicker and ces where it was thinner. His chest, where it had fur, was thinner. But his arms, legs, and head had thicker fur. It seemed that it started to taper near the ces that had no fur at all.


    Ok, I could still see him in there. in those eyes, and definitely in that god like build of his. He was still sexy and gorgeous. I couldn''t help it, just looking at this new form of his made me smile.


    "Reece, that''s enough." I tried to soothe him with my words and voice but he seemed to have a hard time listening. "Reece, get control of yourself." I urged him. "You don''t need to kill them.


    I watched as he looked down at his hands. He obviously didn''t remember when he had taken his hands off of them. When he looked back at me he was confused.


    "What happened to me?" He was not scared, he merely sounded curious.


    "You''ve be a lycan." I told him. "Gabriel will exin it all to uster." I smiled at him.


    "A lycan?" He looked confused. "I thought they were a myth. An actual man wolf?" I could see the smirk even on that wolfish face, it was adorable because his tongue lolled out of his mouth when he made the look.


    "You are a legend Reece." I told him with a grin. "The Alpha King, The Warlock King, and now a lycan. Is there anything you can''t do?" Iughed.


    "Win against you." Heughed as he put his arms around me, they easily swallowed me whole. This was an exciting form, but it also gave me pause. He was simply too big this way.


    I held his hand as he shifted back to himself. Oddly enough it was almost like the movies. His pants had mostly stretched with him. They were ripped, sure, but as long as he held onto them he wouldn''t be naked. Everything else shredded like it always did when we shifted in our clothes.


    Together we stood and faced the crowd that was gathered watching us.


    "My mate is indeed your Alpha King, as I am indeed your Luna Queen. To be so tantly disloyal and dishonest-."


    "Not to mention disrespectful." Reece interrupted me to add.


    "Yes, not to mention disrespectful." I smiled as I repeated his words. "To be so openly hostile toward us may just result in punishment. Did I want, or intend for this? No. But these two men were scanned with a Goddess given ability that told us that they were no allies of ours. The rest of you have been deemed to be honest and loyal so you have nothing to fear." I was hoping to make them respect us but not outright fear us.


    "We will not take action of this nature lightly. Those who are here with honest intentions have nothing to fear." After we had both spoken, everyone knelt before us. And I do mean everyone, my guards, Dietrich, and the Warlocks included. They knew how things were with us first hand and their show of respect meant more to me than the other one hundred and fiftybined.


    Looking at Reece I smiled, squeezing his hand firmly. This was already starting to be an interesting trip. I would have to ask Reece about the rest of his dayter.

 Chapter 201 - Trinity - Loyalty Is Essential For Leading (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 201 - Trinity - Loyalty Is Essential For Leading (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    This day, the first official day in France, was exciting. That was the simplest and easiest way to describe it. I never expected that there would be anything like those men in the Sentinelle. Everyone else was so devoted to their cause, so why did those other men join the Sentinelle if they never intended to take it seriously.


    But then, with everything that happened, I honestly think it was necessary. Reece needed to make sure everyone knew that we were not to be trifled with. Everything that happened, while tense and unexpected, did serve a purpose. And I know that it helped to cement Reece''s authority and dominance among these wolves. He was their Alpha as well as the alpha back home.


    Hell, Reece was essentially the Alpha for the whole world, and I was the Luna that was there at his side. That was going to take some getting used to. Knowing that I was the leader of every single shifter and warlock in the world, it was a bit much, wasn''t it? But I would work hard to live up to the expectations that everyone had for me.


    But there were a few things that we now had to discuss with everyone, specifically with Gabriel. I needed to know how this was going to impact us in the long run. What this was going to do to our goal here.


    So, it was with those thoughts in mind that I asked for a meeting after dinner. We had eaten in our rooms, everyone was a little on edge. And by everyone I mean everyone in the Sentinelle and all of us here for training.


    Gabriel came to my room where we were all waiting for him. He didn''te alone though. The man named Perkins who hade to fetch us this morning and Ghirald, the steward, were with him.


    "Excuse me, Queen Trinity, I hope you do not mind the additions. These men are some that I trust very much."


    "Vincent?" I asked him for his opinion on these men.


    "They are of no threat." He answered me immediately with a nod.


    "Your ability seems to be stronger than it was before." I smiled at him, happy that the gift he had been granted wasing in so handy for us all.


    "He got a level up? No fair, I want one too." I heard the joking tone in Shane''s mocking voice.


    "Maybe when you get some more XP, but right now you''re nothing but a useless NPC." Vincent joked right back at him.


    "Dude, when did you learn to talk like that?" Shane was shocked. "Don''t tell me, you had Conner teach you? Isn''t he like six?"


    "He''s seven now." Vincent snapped, his ears turning a bright pink as Shane sniggered at him.


    "This conversation is confusing to me." Perkins was looking between the two men who were joking with each other.


    "It''s also irrelevant." Reece''s voice quieted the room and brought the jokes to an end.


    "Ignore that part of the conversation." I smiled at the three men before me. "I of course trust you, and Vincent has given me no reason not to trust the others, so pleasee in and let us talk." I had been trying to act more regal around the Sentinelle, you know, to live up to expectations. But I had to admit that this way of talking was a little strange. It made me want tough at myself, if I wasn''t the one actually saying it all I probably would haveughed already.


    We all seated ourselves around the room. I sat beside Reece, holding his left hand in my right. Side by side we really did look like a true power couple, I just never thought that that power would have been as King and Queen.


    "My Queen, what is it you have summoned me for?" Gabriel asked as soon as we were seated.


    "Frankly, Gabriel, I want to know if today is going to have any longsting repercussions." I spoke matter-of-factly, just cutting to the chase was the best case here. Wasn''t it?


    "What kind of repercussions are you speaking of your grace?" Perkins was the one to ask this question as Gabriel seemed a little taken aback by my words.


    "Will the rest of the Sentinelle view us as enemies now? Will they be too afraid or angry to serve us in any capacity? What will be of our status here? Will we even be able to aplish our objectives?" I loaded him with question after question, my worries leaking out even though I did my best to remain calm.


    "My Queen, I think all will be just fine." Ghirald was the first to answer.


    "I agree." Perkins nodded his head in agreement, the light shining on his glossy ck hair. He was a very exotic looking man with smooth skin the color of creamy chocte. His eyes were a warm, rich honey color, very close to Reece''s.


    "They are indeed correct, Queen Trinity." Gabriel finally spoke just to agree with the others. "It was necessary for the King to put those behaving impudently into their ce. The King and you both need to be firm in situations like these. There is none that truly believes in our ways that will be disheartened or unsettled by your actions."


    "So you have no problem with the oue from today?" Reece asked him.


    "No, quite the opposite, King Reece. Today showed the others what I already knew to be true. You two are very much Goddess blessed. King Reece has been granted with the only lycan form in over two thousand years. And our Queen has had so many blessings, not just from the Goddess Nehalennia, but also from the God Thoth. Who could rightfully deny someone so proven worthy by the Gods?" Gabriel was as reverent as always when he spoke about me.


    "Gabriel, if I may?" Dietrich interrupted when the other man had finished speaking.


    "Yes, Lord Dietrich?" Gabriel was having a hard time letting everyone''s title go, apparently.


    "What will be of those two? How will they be punished?" Dietrich was more concerned with the more immediate aspects of the day''s events.


    "They will most definitely need to be punished. The method for that can be decided by our leaders." He gestured toward Reece and I. "Or as the acting Watcher and highest authority in the organization, I can decide the punishment myself."


    "What type of punishment would be normal for something like this?" Dietrich wondered.


    "We have never had something like this happen before, so I must admit that there is no precedent for the punishment. If there is something that our esteemed rulers would like to suggest, then we will most certainly ept that as the intended punishment." Gabriel seemed a little uncertain as he spoke, clearly thinking through everything he had ever learned before.


    "Is execution an option?" Reece smirked.


    "Yeah, I like that idea." Vincent chimed in.


    "Vincent?" I yelled his name,plete shock on my face at hisck of gentlemanly attitude.


    "Why are you only yelling at me?" Vincent seemed hurt that I had reprimanded only him for his response.


    "Him I expect that sort of childish response from. But you? You''re supposed to be better than that." I shot him a disappointed look causing his face to fall with guilt.


    "I''m sorry Trinity. It''s just I will not ept someone mistreating my Luna in such a way. They need to be punished."


    "And they will be. But their wrong doings do not warrant such a harsh punishment." My voice rang with a note of authority and finality.


    "I agree with Trinity, it is not that serious of an issue. They must be punished, and made an example out of, but death is not the option here." Dietrich added his support for me.


    "Why do we need to make an example out of them?" Shane asked, confusion written all over his young looking face.


    ""Because, dear brother, Trinity and Reece will not be able tomand respect if they do not use this opportunity to show everyone that they are willing to retaliate. The only way to rule is through loyalty. And sometimes, you need to show people what it means to be disloyal. Everyone else in this abbey and vige are loyal to the King and Queen, but what if they show weakness to their enemies? Will they still have their respect and loyalty then? No, they need to cement themselves as strong rulers now so that they never lose the loyalty of their followers in the future." Dietrich spoke as if he knew exactly what he was talking about.


    "Do you really think it wille to something like that?" Shawn asked him with a note of worry in his voice.


    "Ja meine Geliebte, I do. It is exactly what I had to do." There was a far away look on Dietrich''s face, like he was remembering something from a long time ago. Something that wasn''t exactly pleasant but gave a wistful feeling of fondness nheless.


    "You did?" Shawn looked worried for his mate.


    "Worry not, Liebling, there is nothing to worry about now."


    "Will banishment and stripping them of their status in the Sentinelle be efficient for this matter?" I asked Gabriel and Dietrich.


    "Stripping them of their ranks will make them normal citizens. They will not be given the same advantages that we of the Sentinelle are privy to."


    "Such as?" David asked, speaking up for the first time in this situation.


    "We were frozen in time while we waited for the new Queen to be named. Once she epted her role we would begin our lives again, however, at a much slower rate. We can again find mates and will age, but we will not age at the same rate that everyone else does. Those in the order will age as slowly as the Queen and King, allowing us to better serve her during her entire reign."


    "So, what, they will be forced to age at a normal rate?" Reece asked, not satisfied with that as a punishment.


    "That, or possibly even faster to make up for their unnaturally long lives."


    "So their lives will be shortened?" Reece smirked.


    "Possibly. I am not certain." Gabriel was answering all the questions while the other two men just stared on in awe.


    "Is there anything else that we can do to punish them. They don''t even deserve to call themselves wolves anymore." Reece ground out.


    It was with Reece''s words that I had a sudden inspiration. I knew something we could do that would be a punishment for these two, that would most likely be eptable to everyone present.


    "What if I were to seal away their wolves. They would never again be able to shift, hear their wolf''s thoughts or emotions. They would most likely lose the extra senses that we have as shifters. In a sense, it would be like I made them human."


    "That is quite the fate." Perkins looked shocked, but not against the idea.


    "It is the life that I thought I was going to live, until I finally shifted for the first time. I thought I would never be a shifter. If it can be granted by a Goddess, then it can be taken away by one as well. This will help serve as a reminder not to just the Sentinelle, but the world. If I can sever the link someone has with their animal form, then they will think twice about crossing us. Likewise, we can also spread the knowledge that I have unlocked new shifting forms. Whether I can do that for other people I don''t know, but I am guessing it will help people to remain loyal if they think they might be granted something extra."


    "That is actually a very good idea." Dietrich smirked and looked at me with a proud glint in his eyes.


    "And I like that they will no longer be wolves. They don''t deserve it." Vincent added.


    "And, they will probably have to listen to us still, won''t they." Reece grinned with a wicked light in his eyes.


    "I must concur with them, your grace, it seems to be the best punishment avable, and a fitting one as well." Ghirald smiled happily.


    "So, the punishment for their crimes will be the sealing of their wolf and banishment."


    "With the banishment wille a cklisting to all packs worldwide. They will be forced to live life without any aid from the shifters ever again."


    "That sounds much more appealing to me." Reece''s voice held a slight growling edge as he gleefully spoke thosest words.


    "Will you be able to pass judgement tomorrow, Queen Trinity? Or would you prefer to wait a little longer?" Perkins looked at me with expectant eyes, but I didn''t know which answer he was hoping for.


    "I think I will let them stew in the dungeons a little longer." I smirked. "No need to rush things." At that, everyone in the room smiled like they were quite pleased with my answer.

 Chapter 202 - Trinity - Training Wolf Magic 1 (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 202 - Trinity - Training Wolf Magic 1 (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    With the punishment decided, it was time to get back to work. I needed to remain focused. Today was Wednesday, and I nned to deliver the verdict on Charles and Ralph Saturday evening. This would give me time to think about the process, and figure out exactly how I was going to do it.


    I knew I could do it. That wasn''t the issue. I could feel it in my gut that I was capable of sealing away their wolves. However, I obviously had never done this before. Furthermore, I knew that Nehalennia would be on my side for this. She would not like this show of disobedience toward her sessor. That much I was absolutely certain of.


    The day after the fight, I was to begin training and learning about the marks that had appeared on my body. These marks apparently had different meanings. Each one would tell me about different abilities I had. Some I had been able to discern for myself, like the arrows, but the others were still aplete mystery to me.


    Thankfully, there was aplete record of shifter history, and there had been people over thest few millennia, aside from we Queens and Goddess Incarnates, that had received marks. Their runes, as they called them, were studied in great detail so as to ascertain the truth behind the abilities they granted.


    I met with Gabriel, it seemed like he was going to attend all of my lessons with me, and two other men. They were the experts on runes, aside from Gabriel who seemed to contain the entirety of the Sentinelle''s knowledge.


    The first man Hideki, a tall thin man with ck hair, handsome gray eyes, and a slight Japanese ent. He looked clean cut and very studious. And he was the only one I had seen in the entire Sentinelle that wore sses. He didn''t seem to have the greatest of personalities, but he wasn''t outright rude either, just brusque. I had dealt with that plenty of times with Reece.


    The other man, Sebastian, looked simr in a way. He had the same ck hair but it was paired with eyes that were so dark they nearly looked ck. He looked very capable and spoke very politely.


    Also, the two of them were wearing very nice looking suits. Sebastians was ck and Hideki''s was dark, navy blue. These two men looked like they would be thorough and efficient with teaching me all about the runes and markings I currently had and ones I could expectter.


    "It is a pleasure to be working with you, mydy." Sebastian swept forward into a deep bow but did not kneel. His left arm was folded behind his back while his right hand was ced over his heart.


    "It is a pleasure to work with the both of you." I gave a kind smile and a nod of my head.


    "Please,e with us and let us get to work." Hideki''s voice was calm and with a slight hint of kindness. It was in there, just not on the surface. Oh well, as long as he was polite, that''s all that mattered.


    We got to work, a very thick, very dusty book opened on the table. The writings in it were done in many differentnguages. Each line repeated itself over and over in Old English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, and so many more that I couldn''t keep track of it all.


    The writing of each line was also very small to allow for the multiple trantions. And after every couple pages there was an apanying picture of a runic mark.


    "These marks have been passed down since before the Goddess left the earth. Each mark that she has given has been recorded in some way. Now, we must not only teach you about these runes, but study any that might be new on your body." Hideki''s words gave me pause. Were they nning on looking everywhere on my body just to be certain that I didn''t have other marks.


    "W-well I-I have marks f-from Thoth too." I informed them stutteringly. They needed to know that I was marked by more than one celestial being.


    "Really?" Sebastian seemed intrigued.


    "Yes, when I was named the Queen of Thoth''s children as well I was given new marks."


    "May we see your marks?" Hideki spoke clinically, with no feelings at all. Did he not know that I would have to remove my shirt for them to see all the marks.


    "Let us teach her about the marks we know of first. When she has learned all of them then we will check her markings with the King present." Gabriel interjected for me. I silently thanked him with my eyes for his help. He nodded as if he understood and gave a small smile.


    "What is the issue?" Hideki seemed confused.


    "The King is quite possessive of his wife." Gabriel''s words still seemed to go over Hideki''s head, like he couldn''t understand my modesty at all.


    "Let it slide, my friend, we do not wish to anger our King." Sebastian smiled knowingly.


    "As you wish. Let us begin." Hideki finally conceded and moved to sit at the wooden table in the middle of the room.


    They were very knowledgeable about the runes. The exnations they gave were extremely easy to understand. Not to mention, there were both more and less runes than I expected.


    With all the different kinds of runes in the world, I at first thought there had to be a lot of them, considering the size of that tome they were reading from. But then I got to thinking about the fact that they only recorded runes that had been granted to shifters by Nehalennia.


    They had recorded and extensively researched fifty-six different Runes. Chances were at least a few of them matched the ones on my body. Also, from my quick skimming of the book, some of the designs were borate and clear in their meaning, while others were very simplistic and therefore cryptic about their power.


    Also, there weren''t just runes for positive things. It seemed that one could be cursed by the Goddess as well. There were runes for chaos and destruction, suffering, and mortality and pain. These definitely weren''t favors granted by the benevolent Goddess.


    Likewise there were runes for prosperity, strength, speed, uracy, sess, and so many more. There were some that seemed like they wouldn''t give you a necessary advantage in the short term but were great for the long term, like growth, reaching potential, and happiness. The people who had received those runes must have gained a lot of favor with Nehalennia.


    We spent hours pouring over the text. Learning, studying, researching. That was what my day consisted of. It was boring, that was for sure, but the information I gathered was actually pretty interesting.


    I didn''t mind studying and learning like this, but I was eager to finally get to physical the training. But, I guess we all must start with academic lessons first. This was truly where all things started.


    Just when I was starting to get a headache from all the reading and studying, Reece and Vincent came into the study room near the library that we were in. The room was really too nd, it only had two wooden tables with four chairs each, nothing else. I guess it was really only for studying.


    "Just about done?" Reece smiled at me, clearly pleased with himself after a hard day of training.


    "Hmm." I made a nomittal noise as my head was really starting to hurt from all the small writing I had been staring at.


    "King Reece, there is one thing that we would like your help with." Sebastian stood as soon as they hade into the room and he once again bowed just like he did before.


    "Help with what?" Reece looked confused at his words.


    "Ah, well-." He started before Gabriel cut him off.


    "Allow me to exin." He grinned, hoping to bridge the gap between the two groups of men as I just sat there and massaged my temples.


    "Ok." Reece encouraged him to go on.


    "We would like to examine the marks on the Queen."


    "Examine them?" Vincent was stunned by these words.


    "It is one mission of the Sentinelle to thoroughly record all Goddess given marks. But we would not like to offend the Queen or yourself. We want you here to assist, if that is possible."


    "Why do you need to know?" Reece was skeptical.


    "We cannot begin to fathom what types of power she possesses if we do not know what her marks look like." Hideki answered ndly. Reece quirked his eyebrow at him, but he knew that all the men here were trustworthy. He had met them all yesterday after all.


    "Gabriel, is this something that is necessary?" Vincent asked him for rity.


    "I''m afraid that it is, Sir." Gabriel nodded to us. "We need to know what runes she has so we know how best to train her."


    "And how am I supposed to help?" Reece still seemed to be perplexed.


    "Well, we didn''t feelfortable examining the marks without you in the room." Gabriel actually blushed a little as he spoke those words.


    "Oh." Reece grinned then looked over at me. "I see you''re treating my wife right, Gabriel. I''m d none of you thought to disrobe her while I was not here." I saw Hideki stiffen for a moment, most likely he was remembering his earlier words.


    "We wouldn''t dream of it, Sir." Sebastian said with a grin.


    "Plus, you need someone here that knows when she got each and every one of those marks." Reece smirked as he looked at me. "No one knows her body better than I do." I blushed crimson red at his remark. Goddess, did he have to put it like that?


    After the permission was given and Reece was with me, we moved on to examining the marks on my body. I removed my shirt, feeling heat rise in my face as I felt their eyes on me. I was not reallyfortable with this, but I just imagined it was like a doctor''s visit. It was no different from Griffin giving me that exam for the baby.


    My bluecy bra was still in ce, and I covered my front with my shirt as I moved to sit in the chair. Vincent stood behind me, keeping an eye on the other men in the room while Reece knelt before me.


    Gabriel, Sebastian, and Hideki all looked over my back with intense looks on their faces. I could feel them staring at me, but it wasn''t heated so that made things easier. They were definitely looking at me with clinical interest and not lust. That was bothforting and disheartening. Wasn''t I pretty enough?


    No, I shouldn''t be thinking that way. I wasn''t interested in them looking at me heatedly. It was just wounding my pride as a woman that they were so uninterested. For all I know they were hiding any interest because they knew that my husband would kill them if they showed any sort of sexual interest in me. Yeah, that was most likely it, and I definitely don''t need people around here getting murdered. I nearlyughed at that thought.


    "Which marks are from the initial Goddess marking?" Gabriel asked Reece with curiosity in his voice. "There are so many new marks here that I have never seen before."


    "Everything on the left shoulder is from the Moon Goddess, everything on the right shoulder is from Thoth. The ones across the back, I am uncertain of. And the cor bones go with their respective shoulders for who gave the marks." Reece told him what he wanted to know in an almost t voice, almost. I could hear the slight heat thatid low in his voice as he looked at me.


    "These marks are fascinating." Sebastian spoke with excitement. "There are some that seem somewhat simr to the ones we already know."


    "Yes, like here." I felt Hideki''s finger as it grazed my back and heard a very low, nearly silent rumblee from Reece''s throat. Hideki instantly pulled his hand away.


    "Yes, that is most definitely a memory recall rune." Gabriel answered him.


    "And this is the wisdom rune." Sebastian added.


    "I also see uracy, tracking, precog, andmunications." Hedeki added without touching my back this time.


    "Which runes are those?" Reece asked curiously.


    "This eye here is precognition. She will, with training, be able to detect danger to those immediately around her. This tree here, and all the others like it, have to do withmunications."


    "Is that why she can speak to us inside our head, and why her animal forms can speak like a human and not, well, an animal?"


    "Yes, that would most definitely be the reason." Hideki responded with a steady tone.


    "This bullseye is the uracy rune, most likely to work with these arrow runes." Sebastian was moving on.


    "I can make arrows of both ice and wind." I told him.


    "That will most definitelye in handy. I am certain that is why you have this archer symbol." I nodded in agreement to Sebastian''s words. "But you also have multiple elemental markings. On both shoulders and across the back. To me that speaks volumes about your connection to the elements."


    "I would guess that you will be able to make arrows out of any element, given practice." Gabriel sounded awed as he looked at the markings.


    "This mark here is a bit unique." Sebastian pointed to one and Reece immediately answered.


    "That mark has changed, it was just a slight modification of our pack crest, and it is right where a true mate mark would go. But since she was named the Queen of the Warlocks as well, it was changed to have multiple animals and people kneeling to what appears to be the Goddess."


    "What was it before?" Hideki questioned.


    "It was the Goddess descending to a pack of leaping wolves."


    "Hmm." Hideki seemed interested in the mark. "I see it is on both shoulders. It must truly be the mark of her ranking."


    "That was my assumption as well. And also that she now had warlocks to add to her personal pack." Reece told him of his thoughts.


    "She also seems to have this mark in multiple areas. The sped hands, what could they mean?"


    "I always associated it with my ability to share powers with the others."


    "That is a very valid thought." Gabriel sounded proud as he listened to my idea.


    "This one here, with the moon." Hideki stopped there as he pointed.


    "I feel a sense of the Goddess from it. I can almost feel Nehalennia." Gabriel seemed awed.


    "My thoughts exactly." Sebastian spoke reverently. "And this mark also feels celestial." He pointed to another one.


    "The Ankh?" Gabriel questioned.


    "Yes, it''s like I can feel another God''s power in it."


    "Thoth." Vincent provided for them. "It''s safe to assume these runes are to mark her as the Queen of the different people."


    "I believe you are right, Vincent. They are very definitely full of power. They must be how Thoth and Nehalennia will stay connected to her." Gabriel answered him.


    "What intrigues me is that there are trinity symbols connecting everything. That and the colors." Hideki intoned.


    "The trinity symbols, beside associating with her name, is most likely speaking to her multiple roles." Sebastian mused.


    "Roles?" Reece asked him


    "Luna Queen, Warlock Queen, Goddess Incarnate. Three roles for a trinity. But there is also the chance that there could be another roleing for her." Shock filled me at Sebastian''s words.


    "Another role?" There was genuine fear in my voice at that. I didn''t want, or need, another role. I had my hands full already.


    "That''s just a possibility. It could also mean the wolf, the witch, and the Goddess."


    "I hope you''re right Sebastian." I gave him a look that I know was filled with dread.


    I had a lot to think about for the rest of that night. I was so distracted that I barely paid attention to anything Reece said to me. I think he was a little upset about that, but oh well. I was having a mental crisis here.

 Chapter 203 - Trinity - A Warlock History Lesson (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 203 - Trinity - A Warlock History Lesson (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After the, ahem, excitement of the runes lesson it was time for me to have the first lesson on Warlock history. Crawford and Eldrige wanted to have the same type of lesson for me that Gabriel had held. We would be learning in the study room instead of my room this time, but aside from that it was the same.


    Well, that and Reece decided to attend the lesson with the guards following suit. None of us knew anything about the history of Warlocks and Witches. And since we would now be working with them regrly it was probably a good idea for all of them to learn it as well.


    Gabriel was joining us as well, intent to be present during all my lessons. Gabriel acted much like an assistant to me, like Noah did for Reece for so long. If I had to give people around me positions like Reece did, then I would assign Gabriel as a Gamma, Vincent was my Beta and there was no doubt in my mind about that. He had proven to me that he was fiercely loyal and would do anything to protect me and the pack.


    Did I really need to assign these roles to people though? I would need to have a serious talk with Reece and Gabriel about this. They would tell me what the best course of action here was. But I had a few people in mind to help me fill ranks if I needed to.


    But for now, it was time to learn. After breakfast the seven of us joined the Warlocks and Gabriel in the proper room for our study time. Crawford and Eldrige stood in front of us while the eight wolves, half wolf and vampire (we were a diverse group) sat with rapt attention.


    They began the same way Gabriel had, with a run down of the Gods behind the race. Unlike we shifters with a single starting entity, witches and warlocks were started by two beings. Thoth, the Egyptian God of light and magic, along with other things but these were his major areas. And Hektate, the Roman equivalent of the Greek Goddess. Hektate was the Goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night, ghosts, necromancy, and oddly is associated with the underworld.


    Apparently Hektate had started off with just magic and night as her domain. While night and day are opposites, the simrities in their power had drawn Hektate and Thoth together. The love they shared was what led to the birth of their children.


    Apparently the first warlocks and witches were born directly from the union of Hektate and Thoth. They spent nearly a millennia together, loving each other and ushering a whole new species into existence. All seemed to be going well.


    But, as time went on, Thoth noticed that Hektate was more interested in the darker practices of magic. She became ruthless, power hungry, and not afraid to hurt people to get what she wanted.


    Thoth, the benevolent God that he was could not condone her behavior. As he watched and noticed that Hektate''s powers had grown to epass more and more dark and sinister things he could no longer stay with his beloved.


    For the sake of his children and for the sake of the world, Thoth banished his lover. He didn''t just banish her from the mortal realm, he also banished her from the celestial realm as well. There was only one ce left for her to go.


    The reason, as it turned out, that Hektate was associated with the underworld was because she was trapped there until someone sinister enough came along to summon her back to our world and in return release her from her eternal prison. That sinister asshole was Edmond.


    After Hektate was banished Thoth was saddened to have lost the wife and lover he had had for so long. He remained on earth for about a hundred years longer, watching over his children, but he didn''t have the heart to stay beyond that.


    Like Nehalennia, Thoth left his children with the knowledge that one day someone will be born that he deemed to be worthy of inheriting some of his power. That person would be their leader, a royal to guide them into the future.


    Unfortunately, in Thoth''s depression before he departed this realm, he did not think to leave such precise teachings for his people. His children, and their children, and their children''s children, they were all left to feel lost and empty like the children from a broken home shattered by divorce.


    In a sense that is exactly what had happened. Thoth, angered by what his lover had done had essentially divorced her and took custody of his people from her. But saddened as he was he could not maintain the order among them.


    It seems that the Warlocks and Witches have been a bit lost thesest three thousand years. Left with no one to guide them they were essentially on their own like baby birds pushed from the nest too soon.


    There was a lot of chaos among them when they were first abandoned by their father. Many of Thoth''s children took their anger about the abandonment out on humans. Many thought they were better than humans and any other species there was.


    There were countless wars that started among the shadow world. That was the wording that Crawford used to epass everything supernatural. The Witches and Warlocks often fought with the wolves and other shifters. There were battles with the vampires and the Fae as well. It got to the point that there was a lot of bad blood among the children of Thoth and the other factions.


    It wasn''t until the witch trials that things were finally settled and they were able to move on. During the witch trial it wasn''t just the witches and Warlocks that feared the humans, the entire shadow world was terrified by it all.


    The shadow world was named because they, mostly, tried to hide who and what they really were. They had not unted their abilities. No the entire thing behind the various witch hunts was nothing more than human paranoia.


    Advancement in science and medicine, seeing someone do something you''ve never seen before, ignorance of many things, these things are what caused people to bebeled as witches. Many humans lost their lives to this mast hysteria and paranoia that spread through the world at that time. Seeing such horrific sights caused the various shadowmunities to tighten their securities and put stricter punishments to those who broke secrecyws.


    The Aerie Convento, the governing body for all the children of Thoth, was established around the same time as the witch trials. The reason was so that they could more effectively govern the different covens all over the world.


    Not to mention that with the superiorityplex with the various covens, the number of children born to the Witches and Warlocks had been dwindling for years. Many feared that tainting bloodlines would lead to weakened magic and eventual extinction.


    And, add to that the fact that when a coven was found to have broken secrecyws, the entire coven was destroyed. This had, apparently, not happened often, but it was still a massive blow to their poption.


    If you were topare the number of Nehalennia''s children to that of Thoth''s children there would be a staggeringlyrge difference. But I guess that the shifters were, usually, born with a strong sense of loyalty and family. The broken family of the warlocks and witches most likely led to how they felt about familial bonds and trusting people.


    There was a lot more to the history of the Warlocks than I had expected. And their tale was more tragic than I thought it would be. But, I was happy to learn it all nheless. This was as much a part of my heritage as the tale of Nehalennia was.


    Having heard these stories, the origins of both sides of my being, it made me even more determined to help my people. I wasn''t just a wolf, I was also a witch. And for some reason both Nehalennia and Thoth chose me to seed them, to lead in their stead. Was this something they nned or did it just happen coincidentally? I have a feeling that they aren''t done guiding me through this hectic world.


    They want me to bring peace to their people. Their people are my people. And if I can unite and bring peace to them both, the tworgest groups in the shadow world, then it will help to bring peace to even more people.


    Is that what I am meant for? Has that been my purpose this whole time? Am I the bearer of peace meant to unite the entire shadow world. And what, then, would be our goal? Where would we stop after that? Would we stop? Or were we to make peace between everyone, human and not human? That seems like a bit much. World peace? It sounds like a joke.

 Chapter 204 - Trinity - Training Wolf Magic 2 (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 204 - Trinity - Training Wolf Magic 2 (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The history of the Warlocks didn''t take too long to learn, surprisingly. So, after we all finished cramming that knowledge into our heads we readied ourselves for some physical lessons.


    Reece and the others went to train with Lucas, the resident warrior guide. I went with Gabriel as well as Sebastian and Hideki. We were going to focus my primary training on what my runes appeared to be. They had identified a few of them, and knowing what they are meant for they would attempt to give me guidance in how to handle those powers.


    This training was all purely theory for them, as none of them had ever been able to perform magic before. But they had researched everything they could over the years. I just wish they knew that practical lessons and researching were not the same thing.


    Gabriel had at least seen me perform some of my magic before, so he knew a little of how to guide me. The problem is, that aside from the small things I had learned to do during training before the wedding, I had only used my powers while in the middle of fights.


    Before everything went to hell I had learned to control my wolf''s ice form and could move in and out of it at will now. I had, on two asions, sessfully performed what I call a sonic howl. This was essentially a howl with the power to push back anything in front of me.


    During the night that I had shifted I had used powers of fire, ice, and lightning. But I was nowhere near being able to control those elements at will. Also, my speed and strength had increased and I was able to handle myself a little better but I still was no match for Reece or my guards when fighting in wolf form.


    "Show us what you can do with little or no time to prepare." Gabriel instructed me when we were outside, standing near the rocky edge of the cliff.


    "Alright." I nodded to him.


    I instantly shifted into my wolf form, something that Gabriel had seen, but not the other two. Based on their awed gasped and shocked faces they didn''t expect my appearance. Especially all the marks that were visible on me.


    I started by turning my wolf into ice. The shift for this form used to require me to touch the ice or snow but now I could do it whenever I wanted. I felt the ice spread across my body, my fur literally turning into ice not just freezing over.


    When I was covered in ice I never felt cold, no matter what the temperature was outside. Also, I never felt hot. It was basically like I was locked in at the perfect body temperature. When I knew that I was standing there glowing in front of them, my many marks glowing on my pure white icy body, I opened my eyes to look at them with a sense of pride.


    "This is one thing I learned." I didn''t use the mind link but I still spoke in my voice and not a wolf''s.


    "That is simply amazing." Hideki spoke with awe filling his voice and his face momentarily showing the most emotion I had seen from him thus far.


    "And that is a form you can take at will?" Sebastian asked me.


    "Yes, the first time was quite the shock, but I can do it any time I want to now."


    "Have you done anything with this form yet?" Gabriel asked me. "Or do you just transform?"


    "So far, it''s just the transformation. I don''t know how to do anything else with it."


    "That is somewhere for us to focus your attention and efforts. What else have you managed?" Hideki asked with genuine curiosity.


    "I have used my arrows." As I said these words I summoned both an ice arrow and a wind arrow.


    "How good are you at managing those?" Sebastian inquired of me, a smirk on his face as he saw all the new things.


    "Pick a target." I was a little smug when I said these words, but I knew that I had this task in the bag.


    "See that?" Hideki said, pointing to a sign some eighty feet away and behind me. The sign was written in French but it essentially was a notification for the docks with a picture of the abbey below the words. "Aim for the arched entryway, if you can hit it from here that is." I heard the clear ring of the challenge in his voice. He didn''t think I could do it.


    "And for my second shot?" I looked at him with determined eyes, signalling that I was more than happy to ept his challenge.


    "If you manage that, then aim for the little g flying above the abbey for your second shot."


    "Done." I nodded. I couldn''t smirk in this form but I could still tell him how confident I was about it all.


    I had seen the sign and locked my targets in my mind when he pointed to them initially. So, without even turning around Iunched the arrows. I concentrated on the spots I wanted to hit, the picture clear in my mind.


    I heard the clear thwack of the arrows hitting the wooden sign. The three men standing in front of me looked at the sign with awe. We all had the eyes of wolves and could see the sign clear as day, the distance didn''t pose an issue right now. So, we were all able to look at the sign and see that the arrows hit their intended targets at the same time.


    "Well?" I asked Hideki for his opinion of my arrows.


    "Wonderful. Now you need to work on getting more types of arrows." He didn''t look surprised at all. I guess he knew I would hit the targets all along, or at least hoped I would.


    "What else?" Sebastian wanted to move on, excitement was brimming in his eyes.


    "Well, when I first transformed, I killed four people using elemental magic. But I haven''t managed to use it since. And I have used a sonic howl a couple times but it''s not reliable."


    "Try." Sebastian demanded.


    "Which one?" I asked him, perplexed.


    "All of it." He looked at me pointedly.


    "Alright." I didn''t even sound confident to my own ears, I know they could hear it as well.


    I looked at the sign, figuring it would work well as a continued target. I concentrated on what type of element to use but nothing brought it out at all. I couldn''t do it. And when I attempted my howl I barely managed to produce any sonic waves, it was too weak and ineffectual.


    My head drooped and my shoulders slumped. I knew that I had these powers, but most of the time they were useless to me. I couldn''t make it happen.


    "The power resides in you, Queen Trinity, there is no reason to be so saddened." Hideki encouraged me.


    "What he says is correct. Is it not the entire purpose of your visit to learn how to do the things you cannot do yet?"


    "You''re right. That is exactly why I am here. So I can learn how to protect my people." I gave them a firm look of determination.


    "Then let us work on just that."


    We set to work immediately. It was a long, exhausting day, but I worked extremely hard to aplish something new. There was little progress in the beginning, but by the end of the day I had managed a slight improvement. I could form arrows of lightning and fire now. And on top of that, I was able to slightly produce the other elements, but nothingpared to how they were when I first shifted.


    That night I was tired beyond belief. I could feel the exhaustion spreading through my body, weighing me down like a brick. I guess this is how I was going to feel for a good majority of the trip.


    Using these new powers of mine was going to be like working muscles that were close to atrophy. Something that was not used to being worked out and stretched. And in the long run it was going to be like I was out of shape for a while. I might as well get used to it.


    When I copsed onto the bed, ready to skip dinner, it was Reece who took care of me. He drew me a bath and soaked with me in therge tub. He rubbed small circles over my shoulders, across my back, down my arms, and over every other part of my body he could reach. The massage felt like heaven as Iid there, melting in his arms.


    After he was done I was no better than putty. He had to scoop me out of the water and dry me off. Heid me in the bed after I was dry, pulling the sheets up around me. Afterwards he climbed in with me and pulled me close to his chest, running his hand up and down my back causing a light tickling sensation. However, I was too exhausted to make him stop and soon, I fell asleep listening to his heart beating steadily and his deep, sexy voice telling me all about the day he had with the other as they trained.


    Needless to say, I slept soundly and woke up feeling quite rested.

 Chapter 205 - Trinity - Witch Magic 1 (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 205 - Trinity - Witch Magic 1 (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was getting a little exhausted with all the nonstop excitement of this trip, but I had to keep going. I was going to have a full schedule for a while, training and getting to know the members of the Sentinelle. The morning after the lesson with Sebastian, Hideki, and Gabriel I had a lesson with Crawford and Eldrige.


    I knew next to nothing about magic. This was something that they were not able toprehend since I had used it already. I tried to exin to them that using it and knowing how to actually use it are two different things. They were gonna have to start from the very beginning with me, beginner level stuff.


    We started with how to draw my power to me. How to wrap it around myself and feel its presence. Magic wasn''t unlimited, we had a set amount we could use before we reached our limit and was exhausted for the day.


    Using all our magic in a day would not kill us like I had read in books before, but it would leave you feeling weak and tired for a few days until you recovered. And, it would likely make you pass out from exhaustion if you used everything in one go.


    Another thing was that most people were set in their magic level when they were born. It would increase until you reached adulthood and then cap out. But there were a few people over thest several millennia that had managed to increase their levels beyond what anyone had thought possible. Edmond being one of them.


    When I sessfully managed to wrap my magic around me it felt like a secondyer of skin. But this newyer was shining a light that shimmered in a light aquamarine color.


    "Can you see the light too?" I asked Crawford as I stared down at my arms and admired the lights as they shimmered in the sun.


    "No, my queen, I cannot. You can see it because it is your magic, but unless you were gathering arge amount to cast a spell we would not be able to see it." His words were smooth and proud as he looked at me with happiness. "But I am happy that you are making such progress." Even though he said this I knew that we were only training the basics right now, something a child would learn.


    No matter what level of magic it was, having my magic wrapped around me, protecting me, feltfortable. It made me feel safe and warm, like I was being hugged all over. It was very reassuring.


    "Most of our kind will keep themselves wrapped in magic at all times. It is a good way to protect yourself in the event of an emergency." Eldrige told me as he, too, beamed a proud smile my way. I could definitely get on board with that, thisforting feeling was definitely something I wanted to keep.


    From there we moved onto little things, small magics. They taught me to first levitate something, holding it in the air for different lengths of time. Then we increased the size and quantity of the objects that I levitated. I even managed to learn how to levitate myself, though that was much harder than floating an object.


    We practiced many things, one after another. The good thing about some of my runes was that it made learning and remembering things a lot easier. I would never forget something, apparently, and I would absorb information faster. That''s what the memory and wisdom runes helped with. So no matter how much they threw at me, eventually I would learn.


    All through the first day, however, we never touched ontobat magic. They wanted me to get used to learning how to control the flow and output of my magic before I worked on something that could prove dangerous for other people. If I put too much into a spell, it could be too strong and hurt those around me.


    What I focused on instead, was practicing life hacks with magic. I could do many things once I got a handle on the basics. But we were focusing on transfiguring something to suit my needs, magically changing my clothes, and summoning an item that I wanted. With these things learned and some creativity I would be able to do a lot more things over time.


    The ideas and possibilities were endless, really. I could use these new powers of mine all around the house. I would have a lot easier time when we went back home too. If I wanted something and Reece was on another power trip, forcing me to stay in my room, then I could just magic whatever I wanted, even if that was putting his dog cor onto him so everyone knew he was my Fido.


    After training I was exhausted, but I wanted to go around and meet everyone. It was still kind of early when I had reached my limits for the day, and consequently I still had a couple hours until dinner. The others were still training with Lucas, so Gabriel and Ghirald were apanying me around the abbey.


    I would eventually meet the others as well, but for now I was going to spend some time with those still in the main building. A lot of people were still out doing their daily work or training, but there were a few people that were inside that I could meet.


    First I met the sisters, or so they were called. Izzy and Thoma were as close as sisters and always worked together. They looked nothing alike but got along like they had been with each other their entire lives.


    Thoma was shorter, but still taller than me by a few inches, with tinum blonde hair and bright hazel eyes. She had a slight build that made her look almost childlike if it wasn''t for the height and ample curves she unted.


    Izzy was beautiful, just over six feet tall with dark, dark brown hair like mine only full of beautiful curls that she held up in an borate looking knot on the back of her head. Her eyes were a warm looking hazelnut brown. And the distinct mediterranean look made her look like a goddess to me.


    Thoma seemed to be sweet, but there was a definite warrior look in her eyes. She looked like the kind of woman who would finish off her enemy before you even realized what had happened. Izzy on the other hand looked shy but strong. It seemed that she was most likely one of those people that was just shy until you got to know them, then they would open up and be a great friend.


    I spent some time with the two of them and we got along really well. For women who were nearly a hundred years older than me, it was surprisingly easy to get along with them. They also act a lot more modernpared to the others, mostly because they worked together as scouts to search out information on, well, me.


    After I got to know the two of them, Gabriel took me to go meet Lana. She looked like she was about my age and she had joined around the same time that Izzy and Thoma did. She was the resident nurse of the Sentinelle and patched up anyone who came back too injured.


    Lana had a natural light tan that made her look like she spent a lot of time in the sun. Her hair was a long chestnut brown that reminded me of Mom''s. And her eyes were really pretty, they looked like a nearly clear green crystal that was made into a pair of inquisitive eyes.


    "It''s very nice to meet you Queen Trinity." She smiled and bowed to me when she was introduced.


    "It''s lovely to meet you as well, Lana."


    Lana and I talked for a long time. She told me all about the things she wanted to do with the advancements in medicine, how she wanted to learn how to help people more. Throughout the entire conversation I could feel her sincerity. I kept feeling a pull toward her, something calling my magic forth. I had a feeling she was supposed to be just like Griffin.


    I didn''t fight the magic, I just let it flow. I didn''t need to say anything, just let it move as it wished. And the moment I agreed with my magic''s desire there was that telltale light, that sure sign that someone had been granted a new ability.


    "Huh.?" Lana gasped, surprised by the light. "What on earth was that?" She asked in her sweet sounding voice.


    ''Gift granted.'' The voice of the goddess filled the room.


    "Gift? What gift? Who was granted a gift?" She seemed shocked and a little scared.


    "You were, Lana." I told her matter-of-factly.


    "Me?" She didn''t seem to believe me but I just nodded my head to reassure her. "What kind of gift?"


    "A new ability. Just like my guards and some people back home. You now have a magical healing ability. You will need to practice it so that you can learn how to use it."


    "Really?" She was finally getting excited with the news.


    "Yes."


    "Am I the only one with this ability?" Excitement was dripping from her voice as she happily asked me that question.


    "No." I shook my head. "Our pack doctor back home has the same ability." I thought she would be a little unhappy to know it wasn''t a unique gift, but that only made her more excited.


    "A doctor? A real doctor? And he has the same ability as me? Can I meet him?" She asked all these in a rush then seemed to realize she was being a little forward. She pped her hand over her mouth and blushed before continuing on in an embarrassed tone. "I''m sorry. Forgive me Queen Trinity. I didn''t mean to be rude." I justughed at her lightly.


    "No worries Lana, it''s fine. And you can most definitelye back with us to meet Griffin. He''s a wonderful man and an excellent doctor."


    "Really?" She beamed happily. "Thank you so much."


    We talked a little more and I moved on to meet a few other people. But I was getting tired and it was getting close to dinner time. It was time for me to call it a day and head back to my room.

 Chapter 206 - Trinity - Punishment (VOLUME 2 )

    <h4>Chapter 206 - Trinity - Punishment (VOLUME 2 )</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    With everything going on thest couple of days, I had almost forgotten what day it was, until Gabriel asked me a question while we were all eating dinner together in one of therge dining rooms.


    "Your Grace, what time would you like the punishments to begin tonight?"


    My mind nked for a few moments. Punishments? What punishments? Then it hit me like a smack in the face. Right, today is Saturday and I said I would take care of the punishments for Ralph and Charles tonight. How had I forgotten that?


    "Let''s begin at eight this evening." I told him as I looked at my watch. It was six-thirty now and we would have plenty of time to prepare after we ate. Right?"


    "That sounds fine. We will have them moved to the courtyard."


    "The courtyard?" I asked, shocked.


    "Yes, mydy, it will be done in the courtyard, so that all can see." He looked firm and determined with that statement.


    Deep down I knew he was right. It was best if everyone could see that I was able to perform the punishment that I had sentenced them to. If I couldn''t prove that I was capable of it then it was likely that some would not believe it was possible, or that I had done it at all.


    "That''s fine." I finally answered after several more moments of stunned silence. "I will pass judgement on them in front of everyone and carry out their sentence for all to see." I spoke much more confidently than I felt. This was not going to be a pleasant time for me or the two being punished.


    I finished my meal in silence. I knew it was a delicious meal because I had tasted the first half, but my taste buds seemed to have stopped working mid way through. So had my ability to maintain my body heat apparently since I was feeling cold and numb after that conversation.


    The time after dinner passed in a blurring blink of the eye. One minute I was sitting at the table and eating my tasteless meal and the next I was standing between Reece and Vincent while Gabriel Ghirald stood before the entire Sentinelle.


    The nearly one hundred and fifty people were all standing before us. Ralph and Charles were on their knees bound with magical cords that Crawford had summoned for us. Gabriel and Ghirald had their backs to me as they watched the crowd. And behind Vincent, Reece, and myself were the rest of those who hade with us, wolf and non wolf alike.


    "Thank you all for gathering on such short notice." Gabriel''s words rang with the authority that was granted to him by his position as their leader. "You all know of the crimes that weremitted here earlier this week. This is something that has never been seen in our midst before, but these traitors were among us all along. They simply went unseen by us."


    There was a small murmur that swept through the gathered wolves as they stared at us all. Their eyes would flit from Gabriel to me then to the two men bound and sitting on their knees and then back again. Some of them had fear in their eyes, but most were looking at me with reverence and the traitors with disgust.


    "These two men never had the intention of serving the new queen and Goddess Incarnate. They simply used our power to secure themselves a much longer life. They wanted nothing more but to stay in our ranks until they could be released from their positions here and live life in another time. They joined us for their own selfish reasons and that is uneptable. We are a noble and honorable organization that dedicates ourselves to the service of the Goddess." Gabriel''s words were ringing with truth, conviction, and anger. And I saw several people nodding along with him as he spoke.


    "Our new Queen, and the new Goddess Incarnate, has men with her who have all been granted an ability by the Goddess herself. Among those men there is one that can see the true intentions of someone''s heart. If they are not true to their word or honorable, he will know." Ghirald exined to the crowd. "I took her men around the entire vige as you know, and only these two were found to be untrustworthy. I am beyond proud of everyone else who was proven to be honorable."


    "These two did not just prove untrustworthy." Gabriel''s voice became deeper and angrier as he spoke. "They outright insulted our Queen and King. They out right refused to ept them as the Goddess chosen royals. They even dared to fight against our king, who is the only wolf to be granted a lycan form in over two thousand years. If any of you needed another confirmation as to the validity of their positions, that is yet another indicator, another proof if you will."


    There seemed to be no doubt in any of the eyes I could see. The crowd listened with rapt attention as the men before them spoke. But now it was my time to take the lead.


    Moving to stand between Gabriel and Ghirald, I raised my voice to address the crowd.


    "These men have shown that they are no ally of ours. Mine or yours. We are all in danger as long as they know what our ns are. I do not believe their crimes warrant death, but they cannot remain among us. They must be punished for their actions. For that matter, they will be stripped of their status by the Sentinelle, allowing them to age again. As no one knows what this will do to their bodies, they may have a shortened life span now." I saw genuine fear take the lead on the two faces that were looking up at me. Their anger dropped and fear took over. "Furthermore." I began again. "They have expressed no desire to follow the leader of their people. The Goddess chose me to be the queen not just of the wolves but of every shifter on this. If they choose not to follow my lead or mymand, then they have no need, no right, to call themselves wolves."


    Another ripple ran through the audience at my words. There was curiosity on all the faces looking at me from the crowd.


    "Since these men are not worthy of being wolves, I will be locking that part of them away along with all their memories of the abbey. They will no longer be able to find their way back here. They will live out the rest of their lives as humans."


    "No, you can''t do this!" Ralph yelled when he heard my deration.


    "No, she can''t. She doesn''t have that ability." Charles seemed petnt as he spoke.


    "I wish you would have shown at least a little remorse, Charles. But the fact that you didn''t means that I no longer feel sorry for what I must do." I gave him a look that I know was full of anger and frustration.


    I moved forward, cing a hand above each of their heads as they looked at me. Ralph had a face full of fear and anger but Charles only looked at me with disdain and smugness. I felt my magic swelling within me. The gathering felt like it did when I was training earlier in the day.


    I thought of what I wanted, what I needed, to happen. I thought of their wolf forms from when they had fought against Reece the other day. Then I imagined putting those wolves into a cage. I locked the cages and sealed them with magic. After the cages were locked I covered them in a cloak of magic so strong the voices from their wolves would never be able to prate its barriers.


    "No, no, no, no, no!" Ralph was screaming over and over again.


    "No, how could you? You can''t do this to me. Give me my wolf back you bitch." Charles screamed at me with venom dripping from his words.


    "Pay heed to how you address my wife." Reece snarled at him.


    "Fuck you and your wife!" Charles yelled back to Reece. "Give me my damn wolf back. I can''t hear him. Did you kill my wolf? You bitch, you murdered my wolf!" Charles began to thrash on the ground yelling while Ralph began to sob with his head bent toward the ground.


    "My wolf." Ralph moan. "My wolf."


    "You bitch. You will never rule. I will see to it that you never rule our people."


    There was a rush of movement as six men rushed past me all at once. Frustrated by Charles'' constant berating and foulnguage, Reece, Dietrich, and all the guards had moved in unison. Not paying attention to the actions of the others and focusing on their own task, they all sixnded a kick on him at the same time. Their feet allnded in various points from his head, abdomen, groin (that one was Vincent) and legs. Charles'' ranting and raving ended abruptly with a very painful sounding cry.


    "I told you to watch your mouth asshole." Reece snarled as he walked back to me and put his hand around my waist.


    "I''m not done yet Reece, I need to lock their memories." I told him, causing him to retract his hand from my waist and instead settle it on my shoulder.


    Shane and David violently pulled Charles back up so that he was sitting on his knees again. He was still ring at me with angry eyes, but this time they were filled with tears and rimmed in red. Was he crying because of his wolf or the pain of six kicks?


    Ignoring his look I ced my hand over his head again. Doing the same to Ralph''s as he still sat there sobbing. I thought of the abbey. I thought of the name of the vige, the closest airport, the roads we took to get here, the scenery I had seen. I thought of everything to do with the abbey that I could.


    Then, as I was certain I had gathered as much information as I knew of, I felt the link to others in their minds. I followed those links, pulling more memories to the bundle I was gathering in their heads. Once I was certain that I had them all, I imagined cing all these memories inside of an incinerator. These weren''t just going to be locked away, they were going to be destroyed. They will never again be able to recall these memories.


    I was momentarily saddened by that thought. But then I saw the anger on Charles'' face and that feeling instantly melted away. They would be a danger to us if I didn''t do this. It was for the best.


    With all of their memories burned from their minds, my job was done. I took my hands away and the moment I did, they lost consciousness. The two of them slumped to the ground, not moving but still clearly breathing. I had hoped that this would happen. I didn''t need them seeing the abbey after the memories were destroyed.


    "Don''t worry, they are merely sleeping." I told everyone looking on who had gasped when the men fell over. "I require some volunteers. I want these two men removed from the vige and taken somewhere safe. Leave them money and any of their belongings that does not mention the abbey. They will wake in twelve hours." I felt the ripple of magic that meant the sleep spell wouldst just that long. "They need to be far enough away that they will not even remember what country the abbey is in."


    "I will go, your grace." A buff looking man about six feet tall with a head full of thick brown curls and bright yellow orange eyes that looked like the sunset, stepped forward.


    "Thank you Nick." Reece nodded to him.


    "As will I." Another man stepped forward. This man was maybe an inch taller than Nick with ashy blond hair and grass green eyes, he was also equally buff and powerful looking.


    "Much appreciated Lucas." Oh, he was the man training everyone.


    "I''ll go." This man was the same height as Nick with ck hair and gray eyes. He wasn''t as burly and buff looking but he still looked strong. I couldn''t help but notice his eyes, they looked so familiar. Just like Shawn and Shane''s eyes. And the more I looked at him the more simrities I saw.


    "We are thankful for the help, Grant." Reece thanked this man as well.


    "I will go, Trinity." David spoke up. "We can use your private ne to get them out of the county. That will be the easiest way to do this."


    "Thank you David." I was happy that I could thank someone by name like Reece had. "Take Shane, Shawn, and Dietrich please. I don''t want any mishaps to ur."


    "Understood." With that the seven men converged on the two sleeping men.


    "I will gather their things." Ghirald moved forward.


    "And I will help." Perkins, the man I had seen before came forward. Perkins was a definite contrast to Ghirald. He was a little taller with graying hair and bright orange eyes.


    They all left the courtyard with the unconscious men. After they left the crowd dispersed. I was now alone in the courtyard with Reece and Gabriel.


    "You did wonderful." Reece leaned down and kissed the top of my head.


    "Indeed you did." Gabriel turned and smiled at me. "You have proven yourself once again. But I suggest that you rest now. You have had a busy day."


    "I think you''re right." I smiled weakly. "I feel so tired."


    "Come on Little Bunny." Reece scooped me up into his arms. "I will carry you to our room."


    "Hmm." I just agreed with a nod and a murmur.


    I wasn''t ready to fall right to sleep, but I was content to let him carry me off to the room. When we got to the room we took another bath together. The hot water was relieving some of the stress I was feeling from the day, and night.


    Reece''s firm, strong hands, powerful arms, and warm embrace helped to ground me so that I didn''t feel like I was the worst person ever. I needed thatfort, that reassurance.


    Slowly, and methodically, we got ready for bed. There wasn''t much talking, just him helping me to get ready. But once we were in bed we started to talk a little.


    "Are you alright?" He asked me, worry clearly present in his voice.


    "I''m alright, just a little numb really."


    "You did the right thing, you know that right Little Bunny?"


    "I know. But that doesn''t make me feel any better about it." I snuggled in closer to his chest and he kissed my head gently. "Plus, I''m so tired. Tired down to my core. It was a long day even before dinner."


    "Just rest, baby, I''m here for you" He pulled me in tighter and held me close.


    Right as I was on the verge of sleep, I felt that pull from the Goddess. I had felt it before, when I had spoken to Nehalennia in my dreams. It was happening again. But this time,it was stronger, more powerful. I didn''t even close my eyes, it was like I couldn''t move enough to even do that.

 Chapter 207 - Trinity - Celestial Meeting (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 207 - Trinity - Celestial Meeting (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The magic was pulling me but I could still make out the room that I wasying in. I could still feel Reeceying next to me. I could feel his hand gently stroking up and down my arm. I tried to call out to him, to let him know what was happening, but I couldn''t do anything. I was just free falling through space, yet somehow tethered to reality.


    I fell and fell for what felt like a long time. But oddly enough it looked like I was moving up not down. Was I falling up? If I could have turned my head to look away from my room with Reece then I would have. But no, I was locked in ce.


    The view was still there before me, but much smaller. I had stopped moving but it now felt like I was floating in the air, weightless and bobbing up and down slightly. This was worse than when I made myself levitate earlier.


    "We meet again." A male voice reverberated around me, seemingly toe from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. The voice was deep and familiar, and seemed to rattle my bones.


    "Thoth?" I asked with shock filling my voice.


    "We need to speak to you, young one." Nehalennia''s smooth voice joined Thoth''s.


    "What is going on?" I asked them.


    "You exhausted yourself." Thoth spoke immediately.


    "We''re happy that you are learning and taking things seriously, but you need to learn when you''re at your limits."


    "So this will be the extent of my power?" I asked with sadness filling my voice. I had done a lot, yes, but being Queen I had hoped for more.


    "Not in the least." Thoth''s voice held a soothing edge. "But you are just learning. And you have been going nonstop for thest few days. Your body is not ready for that yet. You need to work your way up, so to speak."


    "What will my capacity be?" I asked him.


    "As you are the Queen of my people, you will need to have the highest quantity of magic possible. You will have more power than any other witch or warlock. But your body is not yet used to using it. That is why you need to move slowly." Thoth was being kind in his words but was ultimately just telling me I was stupidly powerful but I was equally stupid for rushing into things. Great, this was going to be easy. Not!


    "You have been doing well, so worry not. You handled those traitors with perfection. I did not even need to send you my guidance. That means you are learning how to behave like a leader. Trust those close to you, the team you have is one of great talent and wisdom."


    "Thank you Nehalennia." I put as much sincerity into my voice as I could. It meant so much to me to know that I had earned her approval.


    "You are making great strides. And we thank you for learning your histories. Please, make sure you guide our peoples, lead them into a new life of unity." Thoth''s voice was wistful as if he were speaking of a dream he has had for a long time.


    "We trust you, young one. That is why we chose you."


    "Was it on purpose?" I asked them, feeling as if they were getting ready to leave.


    "Was what on purpose?" Thoth wondered.


    "Did you each decide to choose me coincidentally or was it nned?"


    "From the moment of your conception, there have been no coincidences." Nehalennia''s words cause a shiver to run up my spine.


    "There were things that we did not n for. That is for certain. But we knew the eventual oue." Thoth added.


    "Did you know my mother was going to kill herself? Did you know my father and his goons were going to kidnap and torture me?" I was getting angry now, my wordsing in a rush.


    "Those were not nned for, no. We knew you would be the sessor for the both of us. And that with the power you receive from us there will always be someone there to try and steal it from you."


    "Is there another traitor among us?" I needed to know this, we had to keep ourselves safe and protected.


    "He is not among you yet." Thoth answered.


    "For now he is nothing more than a shadow looming in your future." Nehalennia added.


    "It is possible that he may never cross your path."


    "But if he does, you will be ready for him." Her words brought the discussion to an end. I felt them slipping away from me.


    With their departure it was like the magic holding me in the air snapped. I felt myself freefalling all the way back to my bed. The scene rushed up to me so fast that I wanted to scream, but I held my tongue.


    My body didn''t move at all, but I felt my mind jolt with the abruptnding. Light was visible around the edges of my vision. The darkened curtains letting just the barest traces of light through.


    It was already morning. How long did I spend talking to them? Was the time mostly spent falling up and falling back down? This night was a blur. And I still felt so exhausted. Dammit, didn''t they tell me I was too tired already? Now they go and keep me up all night. When am I supposed to sleep?


    I felt Reece stirring next to me, having woken for the day. He kissed the top of my head and slid out of the bed. He probably thought I was still asleep and didn''t want to wake me up.


    I heard him head across the room and into the bathroom. He left the door open so I was able to hear the shower start and I could even smell his soap when he was washing. It was a special bottle with cinnamon and chocte that L had bought for him after they finally pried out what he smelled like to me. He also had one that smelled like the forest after a rainstorm, that one was my personal favorite.


    When I heard the shower stop I listened to what it was he was doing. I heard the slide of the towel against his body. If I was going to be stuck imobile as an inanimate object then I would have preferred to be his towel. Then I could have still touched him even if I couldn''t move.


    I just continued to listen on, imagining what he looked like during the different stages of his morning routine. I wasn''t scared this time like I was thest time. I had exhausted myself to the point of being a vegetable before. But I could be brought out of it, I just needed to wait.


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    It surprised me that my Little Bunny didn''t get up when I left the bed. But I guess that just showed how tired she was. She''s been working so hard thesest few days, and it''s taken a lot out of her.


    I started to get ready for the day. I had decided that it would just be best to wake her up after my shower. She needed the sleep.


    The shower was typical, though I wished she was there with me. Showers with my sexy wife are always a good time, even if it''s just a shower and nothing more.


    After the shower I followed the typical routine: dry off, apply deodorant, get dressed, brush teeth. Just the typical things. It only took me half an hour for the whole process, but that was a half an hour more that she got to sleep.


    I snuck back into the room and slid into the bed next to her. She was so warm and the touch of her was so inviting that I wanted to justy there with her, but it was almost time for breakfast. With a wistful sigh I pushed past that disappointment and shook her shoulder slightly.


    She wasying on her side, face nted down toward the bed and her hair was falling in her face. I gave into my temptation to stroke her face in the guise of pushing her hair out of the way.


    When the hair was pushed back I saw her eyes were open.


    "If you were already awake why didn''t you say anything?" I asked her with a smile on my face. But she didn''t respond. She didn''t move. She didn''t blink. "Trinity?" I called her name.


    She was breathing. I knew she was, I could feel the air moving on my hand where it rested on her face. But why wasn''t she moving.


    "Not again." I cried out when I realized what had happened. "Trinity, how did this happen?" I asked her.


    She had told me that when this happened before, she could hear everything, feel everything, smell it all too. She just couldn''t move. She was basically catatonic but fully awake and aware.


    "How are we going to fix this? There isn''t anyone here that knows how to fix this." I could feel the panic in my voice. I guess I could summon Griffin here, but that would mean she would be like this for another day.


    I could feel the emotions welling within me. I was powerless to help her when this happened. I didn''t know what to do. I wanted to fix her. I wanted to wake her up. But how could I?


    I leaned forward and pulled her into my arms. She was warm and soft and so wonderful to hold. But she didn''t move herself to fit against me, she didn''t wrap her arms around my neck or grab my shirt for bnce. She was there but not there.


    I held her close and kissed her lips softly, gently. I thought of the way she usually responded. I thought of the fire that burned in her soul and the love I always saw in her eyes. I needed that now.


    "God dammit, if I am the warlock king, the king to Thoth''s people, why don''t I have the power to wake you up?" I demanded of no one in particr. I just pressed my lips against her again and kept thinking to myself. ''Wake up. Wake up Trinity. Wake up Little Bunny.'' I said the words over and over in my head, but my frustration was growing.


    "Wake up dammit." I yelled to the room. My words were followed by an eerie red glowing mist. The mist swept from me to surround us both. "Wake up Trinity." I begged her. This time the mist swirled around her head for a second before spreading across her entire body.


    The next thing I knew, her eyes fluttered. She was awake.


    "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you." I buried my face in her hair and just continued to say the words over and over. She was awake.


    "Fido, you dolt. There is a healer here you know." She giggled at me. She clearly wasn''t as scared as I was.


    "She''s just a nurse, she couldn''t wake up you like Griffin did." I reminded her.


    "She''s not just a nurse anymore. I granted her the same power as Griffin."


    "When? I don''t remember this happening."


    "Yesterday." She smiled smugly.


    "Well no reason you were so exhausted. You trained, granted a blessing, and punished those pieces of shit all in the same day." I was ring at her.


    "Plus, I spoke to Nehalennia and Thothst night. They pulled me in for a meeting."


    "Of course they did. You need to rest, you''re not getting out of bed at all today." I would see to that personally.


    I called Vincent in and told him what had happened. They would train without me today, I was needed elsewhere. I had to take care of my Little Bunny after all.

 Chapter 208 - Reece - She’s Awake (VOLUME 2) ((MATURE))

    <h4>Chapter 208 - Reece - She¡¯s Awake (VOLUME 2) ((MATURE))</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    That was definitely not the way to start my day. I almost had a heart attack. Seeing my wife in a state like that again, it brought back the bad memories of the first time. The time I had found her copsed on the floor, unconscious with no exnation as to why. I don''t ever want to experience that again.


    I know what caused it though. This time and thest. I know that it''s not really serious. But that doesn''t stop me from worrying that she will never be able toe out of that state. Does she need to be woken every time or would she wake up after resting?


    I really don''t think she would. She said she didn''t rest, didn''t sleep, while she was in that state. If she''s not resting while locked in like that then she can''t wake up, can she?


    Oh well. I know what to do. Griffin, Lana, or me could all wake her up. Seeing her wake up in my arms, knowing it was because of me, that was a happy moment. This is just another reason why I have to stay close to her and never let her stray too far. Until her magic is stronger she will get exhausted too easily.


    After she woke up in my arms she was finally able to sleep. She was asleep within minutes actually. That was a true sign of how draining the night had actually been for her. When she finally woke up again it was dinner time.


    We ate together in our room. A simple meal just in case she wasn''t feeling well. I could tell she was still tired and had only woken up because her body needed food. It was hard seeing her so tired and knowing that it wasn''t going to get any better for a little while.


    After we ate she went right back to sleep. Not wanting to be anywhere else but by her side, I slid into bed next to her. I was far from tired and nowhere near ready to go to sleep, but it was nice to justy there and hold her in my arms. But I did check often that her eyes were closed and she was actually asleep. I just couldn''t shake that image of herying there wide eyed and looking scared.


    I don''t remember when I finally fell asleep,ying there contentedly, holding her in my arms I finally let the sleep drag me under. I woke up to the feeling of someone shifting and moving against my side.


    "Little Bunny?" I called out her name as I sat up in bed. She was awake. Thank the Goddess it didn''t happen again.


    "I was trying to get up so I could go take a shower." She smiled at me sweetly, instantly melting my heart and easing my worry. "But you were holding me so close that I couldn''t get away without waking you up." She leaned in and kissed me on the tip of my nose. "Sorry."


    "I would rather wake up with you than stay in bed." I grinned at her. "I''m so happy you''re awake again." I pulled her against me and hugged her close.


    She had been sitting up straight, her knees just inches from my leg when she kissed me making her taller than me at the moment. I didn''t mind, I was able to bury my face in her chest and inhale her scent where it originated from, her heart. I took a few deep breaths just to center myself, there were really no ulterior motives, I promise.


    Once I was content we finally broke apart and headed for the bathroom. I was able to have my morning shower with her this time, so I slowly helped her undress, revealing her body slowly.


    When we were properly stripped we got into the shower together, the water already pleasantly hot. I washed her hair for her while she ran a soapy washcloth over my chest, arms and back. We continued washing each other, enjoying the feel of each other''s body.


    As I knelt on the shower floor, washing her back, I couldn''t help but marvel at all the marks she had been granted by the Gods. She was special, and not just to me.


    Soon, my look turned heated. I couldn''t control it anymore. I started to trace the trails of water down her back and shoulders with my tongue. I dragged my teeth over her marks, causing her to shudder and gasp.


    "Reece." Her voice was breathy and breathless when she spoke my name.


    "Little Bunny?" I made it a question and I could clearly hear the desire dripping from just those two little words.


    "Reece." She said my name with a little more passion and heat than thest time. I took that as a confirmation.


    I dropped to my knees again, kissing everywhere I could put my mouth as I pushed her back against the shower wall. She gasped again as her back hit the cool marbled surface but it soon turned into a moan as I buried my face between her thighs.


    She instinctively moved her thighs apart for me, but that made her a little too short. So I lifted her legs and put them over my shoulders, supporting all of her weight but also controlling exactly how she was positioned for me.


    I had started slow. Long, slowps of my tongue across her sensitive core as I tasted her. Moving at a slow and steady pace I explored every fold,pping everyst drop of her juices away.


    She tasted like heaven to me. Sweet apple pie with a hint of lemons and an electric charge that lets you know it''s just a little bit dangerous as well as sweet. I had never tasted anything like her before I was mated and now I was addicted. I longed for her constantly.


    Her moans sounded sweet and sexy at the same time. With everyp of my tongue, every time I wrapped my tongue around that sensitive bundle of nerves at the top of her slit before drawing it into my mouth for a long, drawing suckle, she moaned endlessly.


    Her hands found my hair, grabbing fistfuls and holding tight. It didn''t hurt, if anything it made me want to go faster. And so I did.


    I increased my pace, licking faster, suckling harder. Her moans turned into screams of pleasure as she breathed heavily and cried my name repeatedly.


    She was pushing back against the wall with her shoulders, trying to get my mouth closer to her core. She was nearing her climax, everyp of my tongue pushing her closer and closer to that edge.


    "Reece." She screamed my name onest time as she fell over that precipice. Her whole body spasmed above me as she lost herself.


    Pulling my mouth away I put my hands on her hips to steady her as I stood up. She was already raised up off the shower floor, ready and waiting for me, so I hooked her legs over my hips and pressed forward.


    My body was more than ready for her. All I had to do was see her and I would be ready, but those moans, that screaming, it all increased my desire, my need, for her. I wanted to be gentle, to treat her carefully after yesterday but she looked at me with pleading eyes that were half lidded with desire and need.


    "Reece, I need you." Her words were heedy, her voice deepened because of her orgasm. My control snapped and I grinned at her.


    "Then take me, sweetheart." I said as I drove into her tight body.


    She threw her head back on a scream of pleasure as I settled her against my hips, my full length enveloped in her hot, sweet, soft flesh. Her body hugged me so perfectly that it drove me insane every time I felt it.


    I started to pull back, leaving just the tip inside before I pushed back in a hurry. Her body was hot, wet, and more than ready for me so I set about creating the perfect rhythm.


    I searched out her hands and pulled them above her head, pinning them in ce with one of my own. My other hand cupped her bottom and squeezed and kneaded the supple flesh as I drove in and out of her body.


    She was moaning and screaming with each thrust. Her breathing fast and heavy to match the rhythm. I could feel her body tightening around me, nearing climax again. Just as I felt her approach that peak I felt the tell tale signs in my own body, the tingling at the base of my spine, the tightening of my balls. I was driving us both there together.


    With a few more well timed thrusts I felt her whole body spasm around me especially at her core as it clenched and milked everyst drop from me as I threw my head back orgasming right along with her.


    I let her hands go and she wrapped them around my neck as she fell forward against my chest. We both just stood there, letting the water run down us as our heart rates slowed and our breathing evened out.


    "I love you." She whispered against my chest.


    "I love you too, Little Bunny." I smiled happily above her.

 Chapter 209 - Reece- Warrior Training (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 209 - Reece- Warrior Training (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    When I arrived for training after breakfast I was still grinning. I got to have dessert before breakfast today and it had left me very hungry and very happy. The others noticed the smile on my face, but they said nothing.


    They didn''t have that close rtionship I had with Noah. He was my best friend and we would always rag on each other like we were kids. It was just the way things were and I wouldn''t have it any other way. We''d be proper and professional when we had to, but when it came to off time or when we were around just friends and family it was all fair game.


    I also noticed I wasn''t the only one walking around with a big satisfied grin this morning. Dietrich was as well and Shawn blushed a lot every time he saw that grin. He knew that we all knew, but it was not a big deal to us. Sex was sex after all, as long as you were happy and it was between consentual adults who cared who it was between.


    In this moment I truly felt sorry for the others. The three of us had our partners with us, but Shane, David, and Vincent were all alone and missing their mates and family. I knew how that felt too and I wished I didn''t have to put them through this.


    I didn''t have time to worry about that too much. Soon Lucas came into the training room with Nick and Grant. They had all worked together to take the traitors out of the country and our guards went with them, apparently they all got to know each other and we would all be training together now.


    I had met and approved of Nick and Grant before. They seemed like strong and capable men. There was also something familiar about Grant. He just looked simr to the twins.


    "Hey Grant." I called out to him when he came into the room.


    "Yes, King Reece?" He asked me, I wanted to wince at the title. I still wasn''t used to that.


    "What is your family name?" I asked him.


    "Is that relevant?" He seemed confused.


    ''It is." I nodded to him. I had a feeling I knew what it would be.


    "It''s Asher, Sir."


    "I knew it." I grinned.


    "What, really?" Both Shane and Shawn said at the same time. They really could act like real twins from time to time. That made meugh.


    "Is that a problem?" Grant looked worried.


    "That''s our name." They spoke at the same time again, in a rare show of perfect unison.


    "You are Ashers?" Grant asked them. "From where is your family from?"


    The three of them talked for a few moments while the rest of us watched on with curiosity. They were rted. Grant was their great great great great uncle. Apparently, before joining the Sentinelle, Grant had had a massive falling out with his family and left home. He didn''t think things would ever be reconciled so when he was offered a position in the Sentinelle he took it without hesitation.


    "To think that my kin would end up in the service of the Goddess when that was the life I chose for myself all those years ago." Grant seemed happy to have reconnected with his bloodline. This couldn''t be a coincidence, could it?


    After the excitement of the reunion, we got down to work for the day. Those of us withbat abilities were trying our hardest to use them in new ways. But we could all feel new magic running through us on this day.


    As I was practicing I felt myself wanting to feel a sword in my hand. I could imagine it perfectly, the smooth grip that was perfectly shaped for my hand, the de extending far away from the handle flickering with light and heat as the mes moved gently. mes? Why was I imagining a sword made of fire?


    Just as I had thought those words I heard the gasps around me as I felt the firm grip in my hands and saw the light flickering through my closed eyes.


    When I opened my eyes I saw a sword with a ck onyx handle and a ruby red de engulfed in swirling mes. I had made this sword appear. Was this part of my fire abilities I had? My wolf could turn into mes and I could howl fireballs, and now I could summon a fire sword. This was awesome.


    "Holy shit, Reece, that''s awesome." Shane eximed as he saw my de. "It''s like mine, only fire." He smiled as he summoned his own sword.


    "So you''ve got a fire ability?" Lucas asked me. "Can you do anything else?"


    "My wolf turns into fire and I howl fireballs." I grinned, happy to have this power.


    "Anything else?" He asked.


    "I haven''t tried." I admitted.


    "Try now. You never know until you try, right?" He was grinning, this was starting to get interesting. I nodded and decided I would just try imagining more things like I did the sword.


    I imagined arrows, my Little Bunny could use them with her elements, maybe I could too. I closed my eyes and imagined how they would look. When I opened my eyes the red and orange arrow was hovering in front of my face.


    "Amazing." Dietrich''s voice was full of approval and happiness as he watched on. "Try hitting a target."


    "Hit that target on the wall, we''ll be ready with water." Nick told me.


    I nodded and did as he wanted. I looked at the target and aimed for the center. But, it seemed like shooting these arrows was not as easy as making them. When I finally got it to move it went way off course.


    The arrow was shooting straight toward Vincent with incredible speed.


    "Shit!" He threw his hands up the split second before it hit him but the arrow was knocked off course. No one saw anything, but the arrow had moved away andnded on the floor, only to be extinguished by Nick''s bucket of water a secondter.


    "What was that?" David asked.


    "I don''t know." Vincent looked shocked.


    "No, he got another level up." Shane joked with a fake petnt voice. "I want one too."


    "What exactly did you think about when you threw your hands up?" Grant asked him.


    "Just that I wanted to send that arrow away from me."


    "Let''s try it again." Grant told him.


    "I don''t want to be burned if I can''t do it again." I heard the desperation in his voice.


    "We will throw something else at you, it will be safer." Vincent nodded at Grant and went with him to practice.


    I decided to watch on for a little while as the others trained. Shawn and Dietrich worked together, David and Lucas were practicing hand to handbat, and Shane was practicing with Nick all while Vincent was practicing deflecting items that Grant threw at him. Thatst one was kind of funny to watch.


    Grant was throwing different sized rocks and chunks of wood at Vincent. He wasn''t having much luck summoning the power he had used before, but he was trying. I watched him close his eyes to think for a moment before nodding at Grant. Grant then threw the rock in his hand and Vincent did his best to fling it away. Unfortunately the rock just flew straight and hit him in the head.


    "Ouch." Vincent seemed mad. "Dammit, how did I do it before?"


    "You were in real danger." I told him. "You need to think about that. Imagine that the rocks are something else."


    "Like what?" He wondered aloud.


    "Like these." I grinned and summoned another arrow. At the same time I winked at Grant who understood what I wanted him to do. I concentrated on the arrow and started it moving forward and Grant threw another rock.


    Vincent saw the arrowing toward him and closed his eyes, flinging his hand like he did before. I dissolved the arrow and heard the rock that Grant threw smack against the far wall. Vincent had sessfully managed to block it.


    "You did it." I smirked at him.


    "You tricked me." He looked at me like he was upset for a minute.


    "Would you rather I had kept the arrow and risked you not blocking it?"


    "NO!" He yelled in response. "But how did you know that I would do it this time?"


    "You managed it the first time because you were in danger and, admit it, you were scared. I had to invoke that same feeling."


    "I was not scared." He snapped back at me. "I just didn''t want to be set on fire."


    "Fine, whatever the reason, you did it. And for what it''s worth, I know you''re a strong, capable, and very brave warrior."


    "I wasn''t scared." He insisted again.


    "I know."


    I left Vincent and Grant to continue practicing, Vincent was getting better at his blocking. And, we found outter, that wasn''t all he could do. His new ability was a sort of wave length maniption, so he had moved the air around the rocks and arrow to send them flying. He could also use that ability to attack an enemy too.


    When I saw David and Lucas training, they were practicing martial arts. David was way better than I had ever thought. He wasnding hit after hit, moving so fast his hands were a blur. His ability was speed so the blurring was not surprising but he seemed like a master with each move he made.


    "Where did you study martial arts, David?" I asked him, impressed by his skill.


    "I haven''t." He responded without even looking away, he just swept a foot out under Lucas knocking his feet out from under him.


    "What do you mean you haven''t? You''re clearly an expert." I was shocked by his answer.


    "My only training came from you, Sir. I never studied martial arts anywhere."


    "What is going on here?" I wondered.


    "I don''t know, but it''s like my body just knows how to move. It feels like I''m lighter and more limber and I just know what to do."


    "Hmm. It looks like you got an upgrade too." I smiled at him. "Keep practicing."


    When I made my way to where Shawn and Dietrich were, I noticed they too were doing something new. Shawn was controlling a practice dummy with his mind, making it move as if it were alive. While avoiding the moving dummy Dietrich was shooting what looked like silk threads toward Shawn, trying to ensnare him. The thread almost looked like spider silk, but I saw that when it finally wrapped around Shawn it acted like the thread for a marite. Puppet thread.


    Shawn was forced to do whatever Dietrich wanted him to do, physically anyway. It seemed Shawn was still in control mentally and was trying to break the control with the dummy he was controlling. But just before he managed to knock the strings away with the dummy''srge arm, Dietrich had forced Shawn to walk to him. When Shawn was close enough, Dietrich nted a kiss on his cheek andughed merrily.


    "I win, Liebling." Shawn looked upset, but on closer inspection I saw that it was all just a show, he was actually grinning.


    Shane was thest for me to observe. He had his lightning sword out and was practicing sword techniques with Nick. They were attacking another set of dummies, and despite having the superior weapon it was clear that Nick was the better swordsman. In frustration Shane pointed his hand at the dummy and yelled.


    "Why are you not falling apart." With his words a bolt of lightning flew from his hands andnded in the middle of the dummy''s chest. The dummy exploded, unable to take the st.


    The shock was written on my face as well as Nick''s and Shane''s. But Shane was the first to recover and his face exploded with a huge grin.


    "Yes!" He started jumping up and down. "Yes! I leveled up! I got a new skill. I got more XP!" He was acting a little childish as he and Nick were celebrating his new abilities.


    I had to wonder, were they getting new abilities because of Trinity, or because I wanted us all to get better? As I thought about it all I started thinking what else I could use my fire for. I had the wolf form, the fireballs, the sword, the arrows, but I knew I could do more.


    While sitting there, lost in thought, I started thinking how the trail left behind by my arrow looked like a whip. A whip made of fire. Now. that would be interesting. I was staring at the wall, not paying attention to what was going on around me when Vincent started yelling at me.


    "Reece, watch where that thing touches."


    "Huh?" I jolted back to my senses at his words.


    When I looked around me I noticed I was holding exactly what I had been imagining. A shining red whip covered in red and orange fire. The handle was once again made of onyx and felt perfectly carved for my hand. I guess it would be, since it was made for my hand by my mind. Under the fire was the same ruby red color of my sword.


    But I saw that Vincent''s panic was unfounded. The whip wasn''t burning the floor at all. The wood went unharmed as the whip curled around me.


    I wanted to practice with my new weapons just like the others were. I summoned my sword again and held it in my left hand, the whip in my right. When I could feel the two perfectly bnced weapons in ce I began attacking a few dummies as well.


    The fire on both didn''t affect the wooden dummies at all. Hmm, why is my fire harmless. Don''t get me wrong, I didn''t want to cause problems inside but shouldn''t my fire be able to burn things?


    I thought those words right as I flung my whip at one dummy and swung wide with my sword, striking a second dummy. Both dummies were instantly set aze, burning in front of me.


    "Shit." I yelled. "I didn''t want to burn the ce down."


    I ran forward, intent to pat the fire down until they coulde over with buckets of water. I started patting the front of the first dummy to stop the fire from spreading. But instead of the fire going out, it spread to me. I was nervous at fire, flinging my hand to put it out, but the mes weren''t hurting me at all.


    "I can''t be hurt by my own fire?" I wondered aloud as I went to the second dummy and touched the fire.


    I could hear footsteps running toward me as I pulled the second set of mes onto me. My skin and clothes were unaffected and I didn''t even feel warm. Guess I''m hotter than fire.


    The fire was moving up my arms as the steps halted and I heard everyone gasp.


    "Reece?" Vincent sounded worried.


    "I''m fine." I told him with a grin. "It''s not hurting me. It''s my own fire." I had let my weapons dissolve and so I just stood there watching as the fire spread all over my body.


    I could see more yellow and orange than anything as the mes licked their way across my body. ''Hmm, this looks like a phoenix.'' I mused to myself. And that was when there was a bright red light filling the room.


    I felt something then. It wasn''t pain, more like a warm tingling sensation that spread through my whole body. It was actually kind of pleasant.


    Then, I felt my body start to change. I was growing taller, and I felt like I was hovering off the ground. And, for some reason I was moving my arms up and down as I bobbed in the air. When I turned my head to look at myself I saw that I was a giant bird with red, orange, and yellow feathers.


    I had be a phoenix. I was a real fire bird. This was a form that had nothing to do with a werewolf, but it had everything to do with fire. It basically meant that I was essentially the fire itself. I couldn''t believe this.


    "Oh my Goddess." Lucas looked at me in awe.


    "Holy Shit." Shane''s mouth was hanging open.


    "Oh, mein Gott." Dietrich''s voice slipped into his natural ent. Everyone was looking at me with shocked and wonder filled eyes. And I was hovering about them, feeling powerful.

 Chapter 210 - Trinity - Training Wolf Magic 3 (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 210 - Trinity - Training Wolf Magic 3 (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After my eventful day, and night, training my witch side and visiting the Gods in my bed, followed by a much needed day of rest, I was back to training my Goddess given wolf abilities. I needed to get a hand on it and learn how to summon a specific ability at will.


    Over the course of several days I practiced my howl. The one that would push things back like I had sent a sonic wave st or at least a big gust of wind. At first, it was difficult to perform, I would howl and nothing would happen. But I never gave up.


    After nearly a week of consistent practice I could force the howl every time. I would feel the build up of magic, the tightening of my vocal cords, and I knew that I could do it whenever I wanted. But, sadly, it was not something I could do in my human form.


    For practice I would have different items stacked in various ces. I needed to control the size and force of the howl. That was more difficult than doing the howl onmand. I wanted to be able to hit a small target among other objects, to be able to knock over severalrge objects at a time, and to hit targets farther away.


    Obviously,rge objects right in front of me were easier to knock down or send flying as it took little to no concentration of the magic. But it was difficult to narrow that stream of power to a small, controlled st. I had managed it though, and now I could make a sonic st that was only about as big around as my little finger. And with some effort I could manipte the sts to move them around, swirling to the side or up and down. That allowed a lot more precision.


    After we perfected my howl, we moved onto trapping, and not the type a survivalist would do. I worked on creating cages with my ice magic and freezing people in ce. I also wanted to work on forming cages of lightning, fire, and wind. Different people would require different elements.


    I also started practicing with earth as an element. I didn''t know if Noah would be happy about sharing his element with me or not, but oh well. Earth was not hard for me to figure out as I loved nature anyway. I spent a good part of my childhood justying about the grass, trees, and dirt back home. I loved being close to the earth all my life.


    With earth magic I was able to shoot clumps of dirt, mud, and chunks of rocks at different targets. There was a lot of taget practice in my training. I sessfully formed an earth cage to go with the other elements. And as I got better and better I was able to form earth golems and make them move for me. I even infused those golems with some wind magic and made them move with surprising speed.


    Something else that I did that I found super cool, was cause the earth to swallow people. Okay, well, they weren''t truly swallowed. But the earth did open at their feet and they dropped into an oozing mud that went halfway up their body before bing super hard. They were trapped there until I released them.


    And as far as my cages went, I had decided on what was the best option. I formed a cage from the earth, it could be as big or as small as I needed. Then, I would wrap that cage in the other elements, even if they broke the stone bars, they would then have to break free of the other barriers.


    Oddly enough, with all my elemental magic, and my ease of using earth magic, I was having trouble with nts. That seemed to be unique to Cedar for now. Oh well, I couldn''tin too much, and I could always get the hang of itter.


    After we worked for a while on the trapping techniques, I moved on to my different animal forms. I had already guessed that I could turn into any animal in the shifter world, and it turned out I was right. And I had a lot of options to pick from.


    I had turned into a bear, bunny, and tiger before. All the animals I had be before stayed looking like my wolf form, white and shining with marks all over. But that wouldn''t be a good camouge would it.


    I practiced a lot of different animals every day. I became an antelope, a bear, a bunny, a cheetah, a house cat, a deer, a dog, an eagle, an elk, a fox, a jaguar, a lion, a monkey, a parrot, a tiger, and a zebra. It appeared that I wasn''t actually limited to just shifter animals, I could be any animal there was as long as I could picture it.


    At first all my animal forms looked just like my wolf form. I was constantly snow white with blue, red, and purple marks. But as the days crept by, and with a lot of intense concentration, I was able to make my animal forms look like just any other from the wild.


    I could be a regr white, ck, or brown bunny. My fox was the usual rusty and white colors. My bears could be a regr white pr bear, a brown bear, or a ck bear. The tigers, lions, cheetahs, jaguar, zebra, and parrots all had the proper colors and markings. My house cat and dog looked like anything you would see in someone''s house.


    And then there was my wolf form. I could now disguise that as well. I chose a very light silver that looked nearly white but had the darker colors streaking down my back. I felt weird, off somehow, to see my wolf looking so different. But if I was ever bored of the look, I could change it anytime.


    This massive amount of work took me more than a few weeks to aplish. But, I know that it was well worth it to see the looks of joy on everyone''s faces as I managed to do something new. I was getting stronger, and I was slowly building up my body''s tolerance for my abilities.


    I still had witch training here and there as well, I needed to split my time obviously. I had so much I needed to learn, and I didn''t want it to take too long before we went back home. Or before I went to hunt down Edmond.


    After all my magic training, I worked on physical training, orbat training really. I still practiced a lot with my arrows and my howl. I could never get enough target practice in, apparently.


    There was one thing I needed to learn that I had not had much practice in before. Almost none to be exact. I needed to practice fighting in my wolf form.


    Back home, after I had my first shift,I had trained with Reece for a few weeks before everything got busy. But the problem was, he had seemed afraid to actually teach me how to fight in wolf form.


    I don''t know if he wanted to keep me away from fights or he was afraid I would get hurt. But whatever the reason was, I needed to learn this stuff whether he liked it or not. This was my world now, and there was no changing that.


    Lucas was brought in to help me withbatbat training, effectively recing Sebastian and Hideki who had been with me this whole time so far. And with Lucas training me, it meant that Reece and the others would be training with me as well.


    I nearly fell over when I saw Reece''s face the day we were to begin training together. He was so shocked that he turned as white as a ghost.


    "Come on big boy, you''re not afraid I''m going to hurt you, are ya?" I taunted him as he looked at me with concern. The look of worry instantly left his face, only to be reced by one of arrogance and challenge, and of course lots of teasing fun.


    "Oh no, baby, I''m worried you won''t be able to keep up with me." His heated look was enough to get my juices flowing, but there were too many people around for that. Right now I had to focus on training,ter, muchter, I could follow that line of thinking.


    Once we were all prepared we began our training. The others had been fighting together and training with Lucas for a long time while I was still a newbie. Being so green, as Shane was so happy to call me, I started training directly with Lucas.


    Lucas was a great teacher, and he had had a long time to perfect his fighting style and many others. He was an expert in hand to handbat and different ways to fight with no hands at all. It was going to be an interesting time to say the least.


    After I shifted, away from everyone else, we got down to business. Lucas showed me different grapples, one that worked with biting and wrapping your front legs around your opponent. It was hard to get used to at first, all the fighting I had done before had included hands for grabbing someone with.


    I admit, biting my opponent made things easier, but it was still different, to say the least. And needless to say I was uneasy with the idea of biting anyone here, I didn''t like hurting people, especially good people. But Lucas just shook his head at me.


    "You''re our queen, it is our job to train you. If we get hurt we will heal, you know that." His voice held a slight edge to it, as if he were trying to anger me into training for real.


    "You need to give her a clear target to fight against." I heard Reece''s voice as he slowly made his way up to us.


    "What do you mean, Sir?" Lucas wondered when he heard Reece''s words.


    "Like an enemy she wouldn''t mind destroying. She needs to imagine she is fighting Edmond, or one of his cronies."


    "Like that will be possible. Reece, what the hell are you thinking? If you''re this far gone already, I should put you out of your misery Old Yeller."


    "You know I''m not past my prime yet, Little Bunny." He smirked at me after I called him on that bullshit. "You need to train to fight Edmond, so you need to fight us like we''re Edmond."


    "But I don''t want to hurt anyone." I felt my face nche at his deration. I needed to fight them so I could fight Edmond, that was so not going to happen.


    "Do you want to hurt Edmond?" He asked me. "Or do you n to let him get away?"


    "What the fuck do you think?" I could feel my anger rising, the growl growing in my chest as he used me of that level of treachery. "I would sooner kill him than let his ass get away with what he''s done. In fact, that''s exactly what I n to do to him."


    "Good, now use that anger and fight me."


    He didn''t shift into his wolf form, he stayed in his human shape, but I didn''t care. Edmond would be in that type of body too, so I needed to know how to use a wolf''s skill against a man shaped opponent. He''s only man shaped because that cowardly, child stealing, family destroying piece of shit, Edmond, was nothing like a man.


    I leapt at Reece, my teeth bared and ws aimed at his chest. He''s the one that asked for this, and he was going to be the one to deal with the consequencester.


    I hit him with full force, square in his chest. The momentum of my leap toppled him over and we fell to the ground in a rolling heap. One flipping over the other, we rolled a few times until he twisted his body and pinned me to the ground and blocked the light of the sun with his broad shoulders.


    He hovered over me, acting as the moon in a sr eclipse, breathing heavily and grinning darkly.


    "This is why I want you away from the fighting." His voice, his words, pissed me off. He wanted to lock me in a bubble for the rest of my life, I''ll be damned if I let him do that.


    "Fuck off, Toto, we''re not in Kansas anymore and you can''t tell me what to do anymore either. This is my time to shine."


    I brought my back legs up under him, nting them right about where his belly button was, then I kicked with all the force I could muster. Even in human form he outssed me with sheer size. I barely managed to move him to the side when I pushed him.


    "See what I mean, Little Bunny, you can''t take me on." He was looking at me with dark eyes, half desire and half anger. He wasn''t angry at me, but for me.


    "You''re stronger and faster than almost any man alive, possibly every man alive. You''ve been gifted with strength by the Goddess, not once but twice." I snarled at him. "If I beat you, or evene close to it, you need to admit how strong I am."


    "Fine, if you even get close to beating me in a fight, I will never say anything about you joining a fight again." His voice held a note of mischief. He thought he had this fight in the bag with his size, strength, and training. Yeah, well, I''ve got my own strengths too and he can''t match those.


    "You better not go back on your words, Fido, cause I hate liars." I red at him with defiance practically oozing out of my eyes.


    I knew I wasn''t going to beat Reece in a fair wolf fight. But I wasn''t just a wolf now was I? I had many tricks up my sleeve, and the point of me learning so much is so I could put it all to good use.


    I Quickly shifted into his favorite thing to think of me as. One minute he held himself propped above my wolf form, pressing my front legs to the ground. The next, I was twisting to the side and rolling out from under him while he looked confused at the empty space where my head was just a few moments ago.


    As soon as I had rolled and hopped out from under hisrge, looming presence, I shifted again. I spun on the spot as a rabbit for just a second and the next I was standing above him on my hind legs, looking down at him from a higher ce than I had thought I''d ever be while standing on my own two legs. This time I took the form of a bear. These front legs would berger and more powerful when holding a prey in ce.


    I didn''t waste any time though, I just lunged forward and wrapped my front legs around his upper body, pinning his arms to his chest. I was slightly stronger in this form, but not strong enough it seemed. No sooner had I pinned his arms to his sides did he start to force them back out. With his muscles flexing and his shirt ripping under the strain to the fabric, he pushed my massive, w tipped paws away from him and pushed me backwards.


    I stumbled for just a moment as he rose to his feet and started toward me. I didn''t waste a second of my time though, I knew he wasing. I shifted again, this time to the form of an eagle, soaring into the air. I flew higher and higher, ten feet, twenty, thirty, finally I was at least three hundred feet off the ground. Thanks to the excellent vision of eagles, I could still see everyone on the ground clear as day.


    I hovered for just a moment as I nned my next move. Once I had my mind made up I pointed my beak down and pressed my wings back, driving straight toward my husband''s face. I knew he would move at thest second, out of the way of the leathally sharp beak, while still trying to catch me out of the air.


    Once I was close enough for him to step to the side, just like I predicted he would, I shifted. He thought I was going to attack as an eagle, but he didn''t expect the three hundred pound tiger thatnded with deadly uracy right against his chest.


    Reece was knocked off his feet instantaneously, mming onto the ground with the wind being forcefully pushed from his lungs. I heard his head m against the ground and the crack of more than one of his ribs from the impact, but I knew he would heal and I had to prove myself here.


    With my face just inches from his I snarled at him, baring my wickedly sharp, three inch long, snowy white teeth. It would have taken me no time at all to rip his throat out if he were a real enemy. It would have been done in an instant while he was trying to catch his breath. I had won this round and he had to admit that.


    "Fine, I yield. You would have killed me just now if I was Edmond."


    "Not to mention, he wouldn''t have your advantages." I reminded him.


    "The strength and speed?" He wondered.


    "Knowing what I can do." I told him with a smile in my voice. "But I''m d you admitted defeat. Save some face in front of your friends sweetheart." I joked with him before licking the side of his face with a quick sh of myrge, pink tongue.


    That was the end of me holding back. I started fighting with them for real, and I quickly learned everything Lucas had to offer. I would add it to everything else to make a style that was all my own.

 Chapter 211 - Trinity - Witch Magic 2 (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 211 - Trinity - Witch Magic 2 (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The days that I didn''t have wolf training I had Witch training. It was difficult at first, but I eventually got the hang of it. It didn''t take long for me to get used to the flow of magic through my body but it was still exhausting.


    Moving magic took a lot of effort and drained a lot of energy. I was beyond tired everyday that I worked with Crawford and Eldrige but I had a lot I still needed to learn. There were a lot of things that they wanted, and needed, to teach me before we went back home.


    We started first with shielding magic. Shielding myself and others would be a great thing, especially if I were hanging in the back of a fight. It would evene in handy when I was in the front of the fight.


    So, I started with blocking things. First it was just how Reece told me they trained Vincent with his shockwave magic. Crawford, Eldrige, and Gabriel took turns throwing different things at me. I admit, I got hit a lot at first. But it only took me about twenty minutes to make a shield that would protect me from the small projectiles.


    After that little task was done, I needed to make a shield that would stop people from entering. I had to keep people away from me like a shield was meant for. This was using the magic more as a barrier than a shield.


    This part was harder, and I admit, it took me two days worth of practicing to make one strong enough to actually work like it was supposed to. I could keep all three of them out when I wanted to.


    I also practiced using these shields as prisons. If I could make a shield around someone I could stop them from moving altogether. After some practice I managed to make shield prisons of various sizes. I could make themrge enough for several people, or small enough for just one person.


    Crawford also gave me the task of forming a shield that let certain people in while keeping out the others. This type of shield was by far the hardest. I could set parameters, like keeping out enemies, keeping out men, or keeping out specific people. But this type of shield required a lot of concentration and a lot of magic. But the benefit was that those allowed in could just keep walking like nothing was there, and those being kept out would bounce off an invisible wall.


    Over a few lessons I worked on making shields that would keep out specific people, like keep Crawford out but let in Eldrige and Gabriel, or some variation of that. I was the most drained on these days, they were the worst since that first day. But I did it, and I was immensely proud of myself for it.


    After shields, apparently, the next logical step was bindings. I was going to be able to either block people with my shield or magically tie them up. And I won''t deny that my mind went somewhere it shouldn''t have when I heard the word bindings. Bad me, stop thinking like that during training.


    It felt weird at first to tie up my friends and instructors. But I started using the bindings as part of pranks to make the practice go easier. People didn''t find it as funny as I did when they suddenly found their feet magically bound together when they were trying to walk. Iughed a little more than I should have when they fell. But I was nice and never let anyone get hurt. I used my other magic to make ast minute softnding. I''m a kind hearted prankster, to everyone except Reece cause he''s fair game.


    The bindings were very simple magic to learn. That or I was just starting to learn it all faster. But I was able to move on from them fairly quickly.


    The next thing I wanted to work on was my whirl wind. I knew I had a mark for it under my warlock side and I had done it once before so I knew I could do it again. I just needed to practice, practice, practice.


    I tried remembering and imagining everything that I had thought of that night to make the whirlwind happen but that was to no avail. I had thought about the wind, about tornados, and moving. It took several days of meditating and trying. But after a while I finally got it, sort of. I managed to move five feet.


    It took me another week of practice to move anything more substantial, but by the time I was done I was moving all over the training grounds. I managed to move at least fifty yards by the time the week was over and the feel was exhrating. At not once did I ever get dizzy from spinning around inside a miniature tornado.


    I could also use my mind link like it was a cell phone. I had been using it with my guards and other pack members back home, but I could use it with the warlocks now as well. And now that I had it figured out, they could use it to contact me now too.


    The others would need to practice their part on their own, using it to speak to each other as well as to me, but I could apparently use my mind link to contact people from a long distance away. And if they concentrated really hard on their mind link to me, assuming I had opened one to them before, then they could contact me as well.


    If someone tried to call me, forck of a better word for it, I would end up hearing a small buzzing inside my head and just instinctively know who was on the other end. I tried it a lot with Reece and my guards while they were training, effectively bothering them while they were busy, but I found it fun. And we had them practice the link the other way, calling me as well.


    The real test I put it through was when I called home to mom. She didn''t expect the buzzing then the wordsing from inside her head out of nowhere, but she was happy to hear from me just the same. That was how I learned that I had no distance limits on my mind link. And, I had a gut feeling I could use that link to call in reinforcement that I hadn''t even met yet. I felt it as what I was effectively calling the alpha summons.


    This alpha summons meant that I would contact every alpha in the world. I would summon them to my aid. Or, I could narrow it down to a specific area. If I was fighting somewhere and needed back up, I would contact the alphas that could get there in time and they would bepelled toe help their queen. That woulde in handy too, huh.


    The most difficult magic that I was being taught was the magic circles. Just like the one on therge parchment back at the resort, the magic circles were difficult to create. I learned them and their meanings no problem, that wasn''t the issue. No, the issue was that if everything wasn''t done just perfectly, then they were ineffective.


    I was learning circles for binding. That is as in binding someone''s magic away permanently. There were circles for locating things, circles for imprisonment, and circles for death. Thatst one I would not be practicing, I would only be learning what it looked like. There were others, but these ones were the ones I thought woulde in handy the most.


    Andst, but not least, it was time for me to learn the way warlocks and witches fought inbat. I had seen it first hand, but I didn''t know the dynamics of it. And apparently, the fighting styles varied significantly based on the person and affinity.


    As my witch affinity was mostly tied to wind I would be better at that type than others, but I also had three different elemental runes on me and that meant I was good with all the elements.


    It was time for me to take everything I had learned and put it all together. And by everything I meant everything. I was going to be taking what I had learned from Sebastian and Hideki, from Crawford and Eldrige, from Lucas, Gabriel, Reece, Vincent, Shawn, Shane, David, Dietrich, Noah, Carter, Grandfather and his tutors, hell even what I learned from Jim back when I was training on my own. I needed to make a fighting style that wasn''t quite wolf and wasn''t quite warlock.


    I had learned a lot of hand to handbat. I had learned fencing when I was a little girl. I knew how to protect myself until my life got turned upside down, then I learned to adapt some more.


    Have I been on top of everything? No. Have I been perfect? No. But no one ever is, and I was learning, adapting, and bing something more every day. I was evolving.


    Now, as I evolved and ascended, I needed to fight like a queen and a goddess. I practiced with Lucas and Reece for several days, using not just my wolf side and not just my witch side, but also the side of me that used to think that I was nothing but a slightly special human. I put everything I had into my fighting and training. I had already proven my abilities to Reece and the others before, but that wasn''t enough. I needed to perfect this, I needed to unite everything that I was.

 Chapter 212 - Trinity - Ominous Warnings (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 212 - Trinity - Ominous Warnings (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    No matter what training I was doing or how busy I was, I actually rather enjoyed it all. But, I did miss my family back home. I wanted to see Mom and Dad, Carter and Noah, Nikki and her growing baby bump, Grandfather and L. I missed them all, and we only got intermittent cell service out here. It wasn''t reliable enough to talk all the time and I felt bad invading their private time with mind links.


    We did talk sometimes though. Which was good. They made certain we were being safe and that we were alright and then they updated us on the progress of the littlemunity we wanted to build. Things were apparentlying along nicely. Leave it to a constructionpany owned by Reece to be super efficient. I wouldn''t have it any other way.


    I wanted to work even harder whenever I heard from my family back home. I wanted them to be proud of me and of the progress I was making. I wanted to prove to them all that I could do this, that I was worthy of being the Queen. My stubborn streak had gotten buried a little with everything that had been going on thest few months, but it was back and ready to show the world that it meant business.


    When I had learned to fight at a, more than, adequate level we decided it was time for us to head home. We had a couple days to rest before we were scheduled to fly out so we were using that time to pack our things and spend some more time with the people of the Sentinelle that we had gotten close with over thest two and a half months.


    There would also be quite a few peopleing back with us when we left. Gabriel wasing with us and would be serving as my personal assistant. Ghirald wasing with us, he would be the new steward of our estate back home. Lucas wasing back to train the young ones that desired to be warriors. He would work with Paul to train a great new army for us. Nick, Grant, and Perkins wereing as well, they were all joining my Goddess guard along with Lucas, they were going to be wonderful additions to our ranks.


    There were some womening back with us too. Lana wasing back to work in Griffin''s clinic. She was so excited for this opportunity, and Giffin was happy to have a new assistant to train. The sisters, Izzy and Thoma wereing back as well, they too were joining the Goddess Guard and my personal guard detail.


    Other additions to the Goddess Guard that wereing back with us were Hideki, Sebastian, Celest, Micah, Seiji, Yuri, and Victor. The rest were joining the guard but staying behind in the abbey. They would be at our call when we needed them.


    And, after some negotiations, we were bringing in some vampires that we were guaranteed could be trusted and several warlocks. They would be moving into themunity that we were building for the shadow world. They would be there and avable whenever we needed them, further adding to the power that I had at my beck and call.


    I spent this time rxing and recovering from all my days of fighting and training. I used to feel worn out all the time, but not so much any more. What I felt now after three solid weeks of fighting every day was loose, limber, and toned. I felt strong.


    I had to admit though, that thesest few days were pretty calm and pleasant. I didn''t have to worry about a thing. I pushed it all out of my mind for the three days leading up to our departure. I needed a mental break.


    The night before we were to leave I went to bed early. I wanted to be well rested for the long trip. Iid in the bed, wrapped in Reece''s arms, and drifted off into an easy sleep. Too bad it didn''t stay an easy sleep.


    Soon, my dreams took a turn for the worse, changing from something calm to something very unnerving. I knew I was dreaming, that was the onlyforting thing about what I saw as the images shed past my eyes.


    I was standing on top of a hill in a clearing in the middle of nowhere. The clearing was surrounded by tall, tall trees and nothing else. But as I stood there looking around me different pictures of pain, sorrow, suffering, and death would sh by.


    I saw children as young as ten withered away to nothing. Adults that were misshapen in odd, grotesque ways. There seemed to be something wrong with almost every single person I saw, aside from the fact that they had obviously died in a very horrific way.


    What was worse was when the swirling images stopped passing by but began to settle. There were piles of bones, twisted bodies, and petrified corpses littering the clearing around the hill. The sight of them made my stomach do a few somersaults, I didn''t know if it was from fear or disgust. Probably a little bit of both.


    I spun in a slow circle, looking around the clearing at all those things, I didn''t want to think of them as people because that would only make it worse. My heart ached and my stomach lurched from making that small, slow circuit. But before I was done, I caught the flicker of movement out of the corner of my eye.


    Something had moved, but what was it. I paused and spun back around. There was nothing there, just the piles stirring on the ground.


    Stirring? They were stirring on the ground? They were moving? Why were they moving? What was going on here?


    I watched on in fascinated horror as one pile after the other began to shift and stand. Even the ones that didn''t have bodies anymore. They began to reform to what they were before.


    Soon, the clearing was full of people. They no longer looked dead, no longer piles of bones or twisted limbs. They looked like normal people, and they all appeared to be alive.


    As I looked around the group of people I saw they ranged in age from approximately ten to maybe? twenty-five at most. They were all still so young and yet they were all dead, and there were hundreds of them.


    I looked in their faces. I saw their eyes, theplexion and pallor of their skin. The slim build of their bodies. They all looked so simr to each other. And as I thought about it, they all looked like me.


    "Who are you? All of you, who are you?" I asked them, fear and other emotions swirling within me.


    One shape stepped forward. It was a young man close to my age with the same shade of blue eyes I have and a pale look to his face. But his hair was pale blonde and he was wearing clothes from an era that was long since past.


    "We are the children of Edmond." He spoke in a somber tone as another person stepped forward, a woman close to his age with a simr look but with an auburn color to her hair.


    "We are the one who did not survive his experimentations." Her voice was eerily calm as she talked about her own death.


    "We are the one who were born like you." A chorus rang through the crowd, every voice speaking at the same time. "We are the ones who were not strong enough."


    "Am I the only one who ever survived?" My heart and mind couldn''t handle that thought.


    "No, there have been others, but they were not as strong as you. They easily bent to his will and did his bidding." That eerie, echoing chorus of their voices sent shivers down my spine.


    "What became of them?" I didn''t know if I really wanted to know, but I had to ask anyway.


    "Most did not live long after their awakening. They were either killed by their own people or drowned in their magic." The man who had stepped forward answered my questions alone.


    "What made me so special?" I asked them. "What was different about me that allowed me to live but killed all of you?"


    "That we do not know." They all spoke again.


    It was finally hitting me. This group of people, the hundreds of people before me, they were all my brothers and sisters. Edmond had not been lying when he said that he had been up to these tricks of his for a long time. And I most definitely was not the first. But I would be thest if I had anything to say about it.


    "I won''t let him do this to anyone else. I won''t let another child be his unwitting pawn and helpless victim. This needs to end." I could feel the determination growing within me, right alongside my hatred for Edmond.


    "We want to help you." A little girl spoke up as she moved forward. She was the smallest of them that I had seen so far, and she looked the most like me. This little girl was wearing a little flowered dress with a beaded leather vest over it.


    "Help me how?" I wondered.


    "Our father is on the move." The crowd chorused. "He seeks to return to where his troubles started."


    "Where his troubles started? What troubles could he have?"


    "You!" Their voices, so calm and scarily in sync, caused all the blood to leave my face. I felt myself swoon in ce as my body began to feel cold all over.


    "Me? So if he''s going to where it all started does that mean he''s going to my home? He''s going after my people? My friends? My family? My city?"


    "You must hurry, sister." Their voices were insistent. "You must stop him. He must not be allowed to seed here. If he wins this battle then the world will be lost forever."


    "Believe in what you have learned. Believe in yourself as we believe in you. But now you must hurry." The man who started the whole thing ended it as well.


    When he finished speaking with his pleading voice the whole group turned and began to walk away. None of them took more than a few steps before they all faded and floated away on the wind, nothing more than wisps of smoke or mist in the night air.


    I woke with a start, sitting bolt up in bed and breathing hard. My hands reached out next to me in search of Reece and hisforting warmth.


    "What is it Little Bunny?" He asked as soon as he felt me frantically searching for him. He sat up and ced a warm, strong arm around my shoulders.


    "We need to go. We have to get home. Now!" I was sweating hard and my heart felt like it was about to jump out of my throat.


    "What''s wrong? What happened?"


    "Edmond is on his way to our home. He is going to go after and attack our people." I saw the look of shock on Reece''s face as he heard my words. Things were about to get ugly if we weren''t careful.

 Chapter 213 - Reece - A Rush To Get Home (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 213 - Reece - A Rush To Get Home (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I woke to the feeling of my Little Bunny frantically sitting up and searching for me in the bed like she thought I wouldn''t be right there with her. Like I had anywhere else to be. She was scared for some reason. Her heart was racing, I could feel it as I slipped my arm around her and pressed myself against her to let her feel that I was right here with her.


    "What is it Little Bunny?" I asked her, my voice soothing with no hint of the worry I felt.


    "We need to go. We have to get home. Now!" The breathlessness of her voice, the fear that was resonating in her tone, and below all that the anger that was slowly vibrating, all thesebined to set my hackles on edge.


    "What''s wrong? What happened?"


    "Edmond is on his way to our home. He is going to go after and attack our people." I felt my heart stop and my stomach drop at those words. Edmond? He was making his move now?


    We were out of the bed and getting dressed in the blink of an eye, it happened so fast that I didn''t even get to spare a nce at my wife as she changed. We weren''t scheduled to take off from the airport for another twelve hours, but we didn''t have that kind of time. We needed to leave now.


    Once we were dressed we started to alert the abbey. Pounding on door after door dragging sleepy individuals out of their beds. Once we had woken everyone that was down our hall we told them what the problem was, there wasn''t an unaffected face in the bunch.


    "He''s going to Colorado Springs?" Vincent looked like someone had just punched him in the gut, with a knife. "No, he can''t. We need to stop him." The worry that was in as day on his face showed how much he was afraid for his family at that moment.


    "That''s what we n to do." I assured him as I put a bracing hand on his shoulder. I could feel the tension coursing through him, surging stronger and stronger every second.


    "We need to get going now." Trinity spoke to them in a voice full ofmand and authority.


    "But we''re not scheduled to fly out for several hours." Shane pointed out.


    "And this is a situation where Reece can definitely throw his money around to fix. I don''t care if I have to buy both airports, I am taking off from here in less than two hours and we will bending back home with no issues." Her voice was rising in volume but lowering in tone at the same time. It was an unsettling sound.


    "Let''s not go spending that much money before we have to. I''m sure you''ll find that I can be quite persuasive. For now we need to wake up everyone else and get the hell out of here." I put an arm around her, pulling her close in an attempt to calm her frustration a little. Who would have ever thought that I would be the calm and rational one between us. Whatever she saw while she was sleeping had really scared her.


    We split into several groups after that, going from floor to floor and room to room waking up everyone in the abbey and then the vige. Gabriel was just as shocked as we were when he had heard the news and started preparing to leave at once.


    It wasn''t even half an hour after Little Bunny had woken from her nightmare prophecy dream and we were all ready to go. I had called home to let Noah know what was going on. Those who had already nned toe back with us were going to be flying back on my ne, while the others would be taking seats on another flight departingter in the day.


    I hoped that we would be there and ready for Edmond long before he showed his sorry ass to anyone in my city. But for now it was nothing more than a tense waiting game. We all piled into cars and SUVs to head to home.


    If I ever thought we had a long caravan before, it was nothingpared to this one. This train of vehicles stretched at least fifty long. And we all sped together through the dark, quiet, pre dawn streets and roads. Not one vehicle in our party adhered to the speed limit as we hurried on our way.


    Severalws were broken but we made it to the airport in less than an hour, effectively cutting the drive time in half. Together we marched into the airport. A horde of nearly two-hundred people really makes an impression on people when they all show up at once.


    The big execs at the airport weren''t very happy when I announced what it was I needed. They tried toin about me in French while stalling, but my adorable little wife and I put them in their ce when we countered them right back in French as well.


    Little Bunny had been right. With enough money changing hands we had the clearance to take off within minutes. And with another copious sum of money, I paid for a flight to be cancelled and redirected to Colorado. The rest of the Sentinelle would be flying back on that flight, all except for the non fighters who would be staying behind to care for the abbey.


    We were on the ne and preparing to take off within half an hour of showing up at the airport. Trinity got exactly what she wanted, less than two hours for the take off. It was three AM here and with the flight time and time change we would be arriving home around ten in the morning. That felt so weird to think about, it would be five in the evening here when wended in Colorado. I hate time changes.


    Once we were settled on the ne I turned to my Little Bunny and gave her a serious look. I needed to know what she had seen that had scared her so much. She was looking out the window, her forehead resting on the seat and she was clearly exhausted.


    "Trinity." I called her name softly but she jumped, startled by the sounding from so close to her.


    "Yes." She turned to look at me, her eyes were red like she had been crying but her face was dry. She was tired and upset and I didn''t yet know why.


    "What did you see?" She just shook her head and started to look away from me, but I put a hand on her chin forcing her to look back at me. "Sweetheart, tell me, please. Don''t you know a burden shared is a burden lessened? Tell me and let me help you." I pleaded with her.


    I saw my wife take a deep shuddering breath, her eyes closed and her brows creased. She released that breath on another shudder before taking another, more steady breath. Finally, she opened her eyes and looked at me.


    "I was given a message about Edmond. He''s going back to where all his troubles began."


    "Troubles? He has troubles?"


    "Me." The one word said it all. She was the wrench that was thrown into his ns, she was the one standing in his way. He wanted to stop her, and he knew how to do it.


    "We will stop him." I hugged her tight to my side. "The gods warned you for a reason."


    "It wasn''t the gods." Her voice was so even and t that I knew it wasn''t a joke, but I didn''t understand at first.


    "If it wasn''t the gods, then who?"


    "Edmond''s children." I was confused, and didn''t follow that for a moment. With an eyebrow quirked I asked her the only thing that came to my mind.


    "What children?"


    "All the ones he experimented with before. The others that were just like me."


    "And you''re sure it wasn''t a trick from him?" I was worried for a moment after hearing these words.


    "No, I know what I felt, and I know it was real. The gods probably helped to facilitate the meeting, but it was my dead brothers and sisters that gave me the message."


    "I''m sorry you had to see that." I chaffed my hand up and down her arm forfort more than warmth.


    "There were so many of them, Reece. He killed so many of his own children. Hundreds of them. It was horrible. He''s a monster."


    "We will stop him, honey. I promise he won''t do it again."


    "I can''t let him hurt another child Reece. Some of them were little children. I can''t bear to think about that." She had turned her face and sobbed thest of those words into my chest as I held her.


    "He won''t. He has you and me to contend with now, and he is going to regret it."


    We flew the rest of the way home holding each other close and sleeping when we could manage it. We would need our rest for theing fight.

 Chapter 214 - Trinity - I Gotta Protect My Home (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 214 - Trinity - I Gotta Protect My Home (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    From the time that I woke up from that warning I had constantly been alternating between a state of intense frustrated anger and pit of endless despair. I would never forgive myself if anything happened to the people of my city and my pack. I would never forgive myself if my family were to be hurt by that psychotic asshole that called himself my father. I needed to protect them, all of them.


    The moment wended in Colorado it was like a well rehearsed circus event. Noah and a bunch of pack warriors were there in the same SUVs we had left in. The difference this time was that we were arrivingter in the morning and there were a lot more people around to see the spectacle.


    It was like celebrities had arrived and were taking over the airport. That''s what it looked like with all the people scrambling to get a look at us all as we were being escorted through the crowd. Reece and I were buried in the middle of the crowd with the severalrge, very strong looking body guard types all surrounding us and very on edge.


    We moved through the airport as fast as we could, piling out to the curb that was crowded with the twentyrge SUVs waiting for us. Once we were all seated we pulled away immediately. We needed to get home and have a meeting with the others.


    This part of the trip was quick inparison to the rest of it. It was not a long drive from the airport to the estate and we made good time with the intimidating presence of our envoy. It might have also helped that Rawlynne and Jackson, and Andrew and Devon from the local PD, were leading us like some sort of presidential escort. Things were too pressing and too important to leave up to chance.


    The regr group, Reece, myself, Noah, Carter, Vincent, David, Shane, Shawn, Dietrich, and Gabriel, all met in the conference room where we waited approximately thirty seconds before the elders came into the room led by Grandfather. The group was definitely too big for our office.


    "What is going on?" Grandfather hadn''t even sat down before he started to ask questions.


    "Edmond ising." I didn''t just hear that gasp that ran through the room from those who hadn''t heard this news before, no I felt it too. I felt the gasp as the air shifted and passed over my skin in a small shuddering shockwave.


    "What do you mean Edmond ising?" Michael''s words came out on a breathless exhtion. He seemed like he couldn''t quite believe what he had heard.


    "Trinity, what happened?" Grandfather gave me an imploring look, begging me to say something.


    They were all confused, even Noah who had been briefed on everything by Reece already. I didn''t want to hide anything from them, they all needed to know what I had seen. I hadn''t even told my guards everything I had seen, only that Edmond was making his move.


    Slowly, as if pushing the words past an invisible barrier that had lodged itself into my throat, I told them about my vision. I described in detail the hundreds of children that Edmond had tortured to death because they weren''t strong enough to withstand his personal attention. I even told them how they all looked alike, and how I looked like them.


    Reece, who had been sitting in his chair next to mine at the head of the table, stood and stepped close to me only to kneel on the floor next to me. He ced his forehead against mine and rubbed soothing circles on my back. He didn''t say a word, he just knew that I needed his warmth andfort in that moment. He was there, being the fire that melted the ice slowly forming around my heart.


    There was silence in the room for a few minutes after I ryed my information. The seriousness and gravity of the situation just finally hitting the others for the first time while my guards had had several hours to process it already. There was not a single face in the bunch that wasn''t full of worry, fear, or anger. I was d that several of them were angry, anger meant they were ready to face the threat that wasing with the proper fierceness.


    Before the unrest from my revtion even had time to disperse, the door to the conference room burst open. The door rebound off the wall with a loud banging thud. Framed in the door were Riley, Bryce, and half a dozen other Alphas that I had met on my rounds with Reece, behind them were the Prime Betas from the fealty packs. Reinforcements had arrived.


    We continued the strategy meeting with earnest now. We needed to iron out every detail, and fast. The first thing that I insisted on was removing as many people from the city that we could. I wanted all the women, children, elderly, and non fighters taken somewhere safe. I would not risk the lives of innocents here, they weren''t safe around Edmond.


    I wanted scouts watching thend from every position, even though I knew that Edmond had ways around that. The truth was, he might not being alone and even though Edmond could move without being seen, could he move an army? It''s possible, but I still wanted to be safe. He had moved his creations, but they weren''t people anymore and I didn''t know how his purple mist worked


    The meetingsted several hours, but we had a n, albeit not too much of one. How do you n against a man who could appear literally out of nowhere? How do you n against someone that even the gods considered a threat? There''s not much you can do except have backup ns for when things went wrong. So that''s what we spent the bulk of our time on, multiple backup ns.


    There was one thing I knew for certain though. I would not let Edmond escape this time. I would not let him get away. He had to answer for everything that he had done. What he had done to me. What he had done to those children he had kidnapped. What he had done to his own children. He needed to atone, with his life.


    I was still too tense and uneasy when everyone set about putting our n into action. I watched as warriors and guards, and anyone who was a strong fighter, said goodbye to their loved ones. Wives, children, parents, siblings, they were being separated from people they loved and cherished and cared about. I just hoped they would all be united again soon.


    Those who were being relocated temporarily were taken to other packs far away. Bryce offered to house many of them, he had one of thergest territories after ours and he was one of our strongest allies. Plus, hisnds were far enough away that there should be no casualties. And another added benefit, our packs could form a stronger bond with the citizens getting to know each other.


    I only had a brief moment to see Nikki before she left but I saw that her belly was getting so big and it made me just a little jealous to be honest. She was due in a little over a month, at the end of July. Right now, it was teetering on the brink of summer and the kids had just been released from school. Perhaps I should be d that Edmond waited until the kids could relocate and not mess up their education. I''d be sure to thank him, right before I ripped his head off.


    I said my goodbyes to Mom, L and Grandfather. I hugged E goodbye in between her attempts to exin everything to her mate, Devon. Then I watched as they all drove away and caused my heart to sink. This was actually happening. This was actually real.


    Edmond wasing. He wasing to my home in search of a fight. He wanted to get rid of me but he would not get that chance, I wouldn''t let him. This was my home, and I gotta protect my home.


    I wasn''t going to go down without a fight. And I had learned to fight, quite literally, tooth and nail. He didn''t know what he was getting himself into bying here. He was the one who needed to be scared. He was the one who needed to be worried and frightened and unsure. He didn''t know what I could do. He hadn''t seen my abilities yet. This would be my time to prove to him that messing with the lives of others, and experimenting on children especially his children, was his fatal mistake. He was going to be brought to his knees by one of his creations, one of his experiments. I would destroy him and avenge my family in the process, my mother and my siblings.


    You had better watch out Edmond. I''m ready for you.

 Chapter 215 - Trinity - A Distraction Is Needed (VOLUME) ((Mature))

    <h4>Chapter 215 - Trinity - A Distraction Is Needed (VOLUME) ((Mature))</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    We spent so much of the day nning for every eventuality that I was mentally exhausted, the problem was I was so keyed up that my heart was racing a mile a minute. Dinner was a tense time with only me and Reece left in the house. The staff had been dismissed since none of them were fighters and should be sent somewhere safe. I never thought I would hate the quiet this much, but it wasn''t just quiet, it was eerie as well. Sinister somehow, as if the silence was channeling my dread, or Edmond himself.


    The excess energy had me feeling jittery and unable to sit still. By ten that night Reece had had enough of my frantic pacing and wringing of my hands.


    "You need to stop." He finally exploded as he looked at me, a half smile half frown on his face. It was aplicated look and I wasn''t sure how he had pulled it off, but he managed it somehow, and still managed to look sexy doing it.


    "What am I supposed to do Reece? All I''m doing is sitting around, waiting for the shoe to drop, so to speak."


    "Well, you can''t just wear a rut into the floor, I don''t have the time to get it reced right now." His joke was meant to make meugh, but all it earned him was a re. "Geez, tough crowd." Heughed at himself this time.


    I knew he meant well, and I know he was right. I had to calm down, one way or the other. The problem was that I had too much energy from all that adrenaline coursing through my body. My body was acting like I had popped some speed and downed a gallon of espresso just for shits and giggles. I was at a loss though.


    Reece walked slowly over to me, cing himself in my way as I paced the bedroom for the twentieth or thirtieth time. I don''t remember how many really, but it was a lot.


    "Come on, let''s sit down. I''m already exhausted just from watching you." His voice still held a note ofughter. He was trying to make me forget, make me loosen up. I hoped he could.


    "I''m not ready for bed Reece." I told him with a firm voice.


    "Who said anything about sleeping." He looked at me with a wicked glint in his eyes and I knew exactly what he meant. I have to admit, even with all the nerves for theing battle, I still felt the stirrings of desire for him. There was nothing that would ever make me not want him.


    "What did you have in mind?" I heard the tone of my voice, how it had deepened slightly to be more heady, lustful, and slightly erotic.


    "There are a few things that I could think of, but is there anything you can think of. I''d be more than willing to please you by doing anything you desire."


    "Anything?" I nearly cooed the word. "You might regret that." I smiled at him.


    "I don''t think I could ever regret being with you for a second, ever."


    "Even if I wanted to take charge of you?" I winked at him.


    "Then I''m all yours tomand, your highness." He spread his arms wide and bowed to me. "What is it you wish for me to do?"


    I could definitely get used to this. Watching him as he stood back up to tower over me. I had been looking forward to doing a few things since I had learned how to control my magic, I guess now seemed like as good a time as any to try them out. I smirked at him with all the thoughts running through my head. I could definitely work off some of that tension with him.


    "Get on the bed." I told him. "Sit back propped against the pillows." There was a spark of excitement in his eyes as he heard my instructions.


    "At once." He was behaving like someone who served me, that''s fine, he could serve me with his body all night long.


    I watched as he backed up against the bed, the back of his knees colliding softly before he sat down. He never took his eyes off me. Not even when he started to scoot further away, back into the shadow of the bed''s canopy. He just continued to stare at me as he moved and leaned back against the pile of pillows.


    "How is this?" He asked me with a smile lighting up his face.


    "Almost perfect." I grinned. "Just needs something else."


    "Really? What''s that?" He asked.


    I didn''t answer, I just summoned the magic to me, pulling it from the cloak of power I was permanently wrapped in now. Then, without warning, I pushed that magic toward him. Bright blue tendrils of my power wrapped around his wrists and pulled his arms out and to the side. The power tied him with his arms slightly raised above his head but his arms looked like wings that were spread out now.


    There had been just a tiny note of fear in his eyes when he had felt my magic snake around him. The slightest widening of his eyes as he felt himself being overpowered. But then, just the slightest hint of mischief entered his eyes alongside the rush of excitement.


    "Ooohh. What do you have in mind?" The way Reece''s voice had gone deep with his seductive tone sent shivers down my spine. I was the one in charge here, he couldn''t touch me at all, yet I still felt his words like the caress of his fingers along my body.


    "It''s time to have a little fun." I knew there was a wicked glint in my eyes when I said that, there was no avoiding it at all.


    "Oh please y with me." He wiggled his eyebrows at me as he said those words.


    I called my magic to me again. This time I concentrated it into invisible copies of my hands. He didn''t see them moving toward him but he felt them the moment they fell upon his legs. There were more than just a pair of hands, there was one pair that were removing his socks, another pair busying themselves with the button and zipper of his pants, and another pair was slowly unbuttoning his shirt.


    I watched as heid there,id out like a smorgasbord for me to devour. Hot, sexy muscles flexed under his beautiful honied skin. The well toned ripples of his abs as they tensed and untensed from the phantom tickles of my magic hands.


    "You seem to have a problem." He chuckled as hey almostpletely naked before my eyes. "You can''t get the shirt off me while I''m tied up." He grinned, like he thought I was going to let him go. I saw the desire and need in his eyes and knew he was almost at his limits.


    "You think so?" I asked with a note of curiosity. "Hmm. Let''s see." I made it sound as if I were musing about what to do, how to solve this dilemma of mine. "I guess there''s no other way."


    The look of triumph in his eyes was so strong I could feel it from where I stood, just a few feet from the edge of the bed. His gaze was so powerful in that moment that I felt it too, like it was nothing less than fingers ying gently at the hem of my shirt.


    "I was right, there is no other way." I added before using my magic to tear away the fabric from his body. The button-up shirt became nothing more than shreds of cloth that had been tossed to the floor. The hitch in his breathing and surprise in his eyes was more than enough reward for having destroyed his shirt.


    "I liked that shirt you know." He put on a false sense of anger, still smiling at me with his eyes.


    "I''ll buy you a new one, besides, you deserved a little payback." I joked with him in turn.


    "Well, now you have me spread before you, naked, what are you going to do now?"


    "I''m going to take this slow, I''ve got a lot of tension to ease and you''re my tool that''s going to help me."


    "Hmph." He pretended to be offended. "I feel so used." The slightly raised pitch in his voice almost made meugh, he was trying to sound effeminate when he spoke but he could never pull it off. "Am I nothing but a toy to you?"


    "You''re better than a toy, you y back." I smiled as I pulled my shirt over my head. I was only going to give him half of what he wanted, I would leave enough to have him wanting more, but he would not see the whole package. That was what I was thinking as I slid my jeans down my hips, leaving the silk waistband thaty beneath them in ce. His eyes darkened when he saw my almost naked body, just as I knew they would. Those eyes so full of desire and hunger, eyes I once misunderstood but could now read like a favorite book.


    I crawled onto the bed by his feet, only to find his legs a little too close together for my needs.


    "Hmm, this won''t do." I sounded sad as I looked at him.


    "What?" He barely had time to ask this before my magic was on him again. More blue tendrils came off me and wrapped around his ankles, pulling his legs apart and making a path for me. "Ahh." He actually cried out a little that time as the magic pulled him down the pillows just a little, causing him to lean back even further.


    "Much better." I purred as I looked at him. I could now crawl up the bed between his legs.


    "What are you going to do?" This time he was truly curious when he asked.


    "Explore." I answered with one word.


    I had explored Reece''s body before, that was true. But it was never uninterrupted like this. It was done in bits and pieces, caresses and kisses stolen in the height of our passion and desire. But now, I had him syed out before me and there was nothing he could do about it.


    "Explore, huh? What do you want to explore?"


    "Everything." I could hear the desire dripping from my words and so could he. His body shivered from the force of my hunger for him.


    I was so hungry for him, that I thought I should have a taste or two, or twenty or a hundred. There was no one who could stop me as I devoured him anyway. I was going to take my time and enjoy this.


    I looked at him in the eyes onest time. I saw excitement, desire, hunger, and curiosity all warring inside their golden depths. The heat of that emotional battle had turned the soft golden color to something molten and hot and full of fire. He was fire after all, my fire, my phoenix, my lycan, my mate.


    As I moved my eyes down his perfectly sculpted, beautifully toned, sexy body I saw just how much he wanted me in another ce. He was already standing at attention and ready for me to take him. Too bad I wasn''t nearly ready.


    Once I devoured himpletely with my eyes, mapping everyst inch of him, on the front anyway, I finally set my mouth against him. At first it was nothing more than a feather light touch just above his right ankle. But even that was enough to make him gasp and flinch from the feel of it.


    "Are you ticklish Reece? I never knew you were ticklish right here." He looked at me with a pleading look, a look that asked me to release him so he could take me. He was already ready to drive into me. I just chuckled and ran my tongue up his shin in a long sweeping motion.


    "Ahh." He cried out and shivered above me making meugh once again. "You''re going to torture me?" He made it a question.


    "Not torture." I shook my head in denial. "Worship, treasure, conquer. Any of those words would do, but not torture." I grinned at him.


    "It''s the same thing in this case." He grinned right back.


    "Justy back and enjoy yourself. I''m certainly going to."


    "You''re going to be the death of me." Heughed.


    "Yeah, but in a good way."


    I wanted to let all my worries, all my tension, and most of all, all my inhibitions go. I wanted to do something I had never done before but may, or may not, have fantasized about doing several times before. As I dipped my head down to loom over him again I let my wolf take control.


    I didn''t shift, not even a partial shift, it was more like I was letting my primal instincts and desires take over for me. Letting my beast take the lead would make me less nervous, less afraid, and more willing to do what it was I really wanted to do. When next I looked up and into Reece''s eyes, I knew he would see the primal energy oozing from me.


    I licked him again. A longpping motion that brought the taste of his skin into my mouth. I had heard Reece talk about how he could taste my scent on my body but I had never experienced that as I kissed or licked him before. I could now though.


    With every swipe of my tongue I tasted the differentyers of his scent as they flooded into my mouth. There was even a new, very subtleyer to that scent that I tasted now. With the first stroke of my tongue I tasted coffee, the strong robust vor that came with the high energy scent of my mate. The second stroke brought the cinnamon, spicy and strong just like him. The third was chocte, this was the part of him that could be so sweet and loving, the part that he hid from me for so long but I loved more than anything else. Then there was a vor on the next long swipe of my tongue that I hadn''t expected, a scent I hadn''t noticed until now. I tasted citrus, oranges to be exact. Reece had told me that once he could smell my witch side it had added the scent of lemons to theyered mixture that made up my unique smell, and now he had oranges that marked him as the warlock king. Not to mention the oranges followed the chocte making it taste like chocte covered oranges. His vors all mixed together was like a hot cinnamontte and chocte covered oranges and I thoroughly enjoyed the decadence of it all.


    Slowly, I licked, kissed, and nipped my way up his right leg until I got to his thigh. Thankfully, even though Reece was a wolf he didn''t have much body hair at all. That was all reserved for his wolf form. The smooth, intoxicating feel, and taste, of his body was uninterrupted.


    After finishing with the right leg I once again lowered myself to his left leg, mirroring my actions there. He squirmed and jerked above me, gasping when the tip of my tongue tickled somewhere on its path up his flesh.


    I was already drunk on the vor of him, on the feel of him. I was really enjoying watching him writhe from my actions and the attention I was paying to him. And the moans he would let loose as I teased him were like spurs begging me to keep going.


    Once I got to his thigh again I shifted my position until I was straddling his left leg. This allowed me to kiss, lick, and bite my way up his hip and skirt around the quivering erection that he was all but begging me to attend to it.


    I continued my motions as I moved up his left side. I dipped my tongue in and around the curves of his abs, the rippling and twitching of his muscles sent even more excitement coursing through me. I stayed to the side of his body, ignoring the middle altogether, just continuing up until I reached his shoulder.


    Once again I lowered myself until I was at his right hip and repeated all my movements on that side. He continued to moan and and gasp, making sure I knew he was enjoying every second of my slow torture.


    This time, when I reached his shoulder I followed the curve of his skin to his neck. I bit down gently, pulling the tender flesh into my mouth. He shuddered as I slowly dug my teeth into him. It wasn''t enough to draw blood, just enough to leave a bright pink mark. I soothed the reddened flesh with my tongue then ced a kiss over it before I continued up to his ear. I bit down gently on the lobe before licking slowly up the shell of his ear.


    Now it was time to focus more with lips that anything else. I kissed my way up his jaw bone, up his chin and to his mouth. I captured his lips with my own, taking his mouth and breath like I was an explorer on uncharted territory.


    His mouth always felt like home. Safe and secure and somewhere I could always return to. When I pressed my lips to his this time he opened his mouth, parting his lips and licking mine with his tongue as it slipped into my mouth to tangle with my own. I had him trapped under me, but his mouth was still free to move as he wished.


    He kissed me hungrily, fiercely, and with a fiery passion. There was so much heat in the kiss that I could actually feel it bearing down on me, like standing close to a roaring bonfire. He couldn''t grab my head and hold me in ce but I felt his desire to as he struggled against his bindings. The kiss was not nearly enough for him.


    Soon, I pulled my mouth away from his which also pulled a groaning whimper from him.


    "Trinity." His voice was pleading.


    "Shhh." I shushed him as I kissed his forehead. "Just wait a little longer." I made my voice as soothing as I could when I was so filled with desire for him.


    It was time for me to make my way down again. I started at his cor bone and licked my way down. I swirled my tongue quickly around each of his nipples before following the line of his abdomen down. When I reached the dip of his hips he cried out again.


    "Please." He begged me, need shining like a light in his eyes, like a fire.


    "What do you want me to do?" I asked him. "How do you want me to take you?"


    "Inside you. Please, baby, I need to feel you wrapped around me."


    "Shouldn''t I finish tasting you first?" I giggled.


    "Please, sweetheart, I''m begging you."


    "Well, if you''re begging, then how could I deny you." I summoned my magic for just a second, this time making thestyer of clothes I was wearing disappear from sight.


    I straddled his hips and teased his rock hard erection for just a moment, giggling when he groaned and begged again.


    "Please, baby. Please!" His pleading voice pleased me more than I thought it would. I gripped his shaft in my hand and guided it to my opening which was already wet and waiting for him.

 Chapter 216 - Reece - No Control (VOLUME 2) ((MATURE))

    <h4>Chapter 216 - Reece - No Control (VOLUME 2) ((MATURE))</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    For thest half an hour, at least, my sexy Little Bunny had been slowly torturing me. Licking, kissing, nipping, devouring my body like it was the only source of nourishment she needed. But my need, my desire, my hunger for her only grew with every second. By the time that she had made her way back down to the dip of my hip and hovered above my erection I felt harder than I had ever been in my entire life. So hard that my erection seemed to be made of nothing less than steel.


    I needed to feel her. Her sweet, dusky folds enveloping me, hugging me tight. The muscles of her sweet passage milking me of everyst drop until I was spent and could no longer move. I had reached a level of desire I never thought was possible.


    "Please baby. Please!" I had pleaded with her, my voice quivered as I begged once again for her to take me inside her tight opening. Then, like a merciful goddess, she guided me to her opening and I nearly wept with relief.


    She lowered herself, shifting her legs until everyst inch of my erection was buried deep within her core. We both cried out at the feel of it.


    "Ahhh." She seemed to gasp and shudder at the feel of me pressing into her.


    "Oh Goddess." I threw my head back and cried out in thanks. "Thank you baby." I could feel the smile on my face and was unable to stop it.


    Slowly, she began to raise up, lifting herself and pulling my cock out of her.


    "Ngh." I shuddered at the feeling of the slow, almost hypnotic move. Then next thing I knew she lowered herself again, her tight core wrapping around me once more. I couldn''t help it, I cried out again, this time wordlessly.


    "Ahh." I mimicked her cry from just a moment ago.


    This time, when she raised herself up I dug my hips into the mattress, assisting her in pulling me out of her, and when she went to slide back down I mmed my hips back up, driving myself into her hard and fast.


    "Ngh, ahh." She cried out twice from the feel of the invasion. "Reece." My name on her lips was always like a whip that pushed me forward and pulled my wolf to the brink.


    I had seen her eyes, the primal desire that was riding in them. I knew that her beast was in control and I wanted to let mine out too, but he would have nothing to do in this position.


    "I need to touch you, to feel you." I pleaded. "Please."


    "I want your hands all over me." She agreed, instantly dissolving the magic that was holding me in ce.


    Once I was free to move, I let my beast take over. I wrapped my arms around her waist and flipped us over. Spreading her beneath me like she had spread me beneath her. My hands moved over her touching anything and everything they could. I would never get enough of her, the feel of her flesh, the mind blowing intensity of her kisses, the tight, squeezing pressure of her core. She was my heaven.


    I didn''t stop touching her even as I pulled back, drawing out of her until just the tip of my erection was left inside her ming hot core. She ran her hands across my back and held on tight as I drove into her fast and hard.


    "Oh! Reece!" Her voice, her words, they were both the sweetest thing I had ever heard. And the nails she dug into my back, scratching her desire and pleasure into my flesh and leaving lines was like a trophy I had won at the end of a long marathon. It had been a marathon too, holding back and hanging in long enough until she released me.


    "Trinity." I whispered her name into her ear. I kept my back arched and my forehead pressed against hers as I pulled back again. Once again I mmed into her and elicited a moan.


    In and out, fast and hard. I set about creating a rhythm that was designed to please us both and drive us toward the edge of paradise. I drove in and out listening to the song of her moans and heavy, panting breaths as they sang right into my face.


    I refused to pull my face from hers. Every few thrusts I kissed or licked her lips. I would capture moans and swallow their intensity inside of me only to return it in a stronger, harder, or faster thrust. The chorus of this beautiful song she was weaving for me was my name that she panted over and over as she neared the precipice of glory.


    "Reece." She gasped over and over.


    "Trinity." I called her name in turn, turning the song into a duet as our bodies mmed into each other, dancing the most primal dance there was.


    I felt the core of her body tighten to a near painful sheath around me and knew she was about toe apart in my arms. I shifted and drove myself into her harder and deeper, throwing my head back as I cried out upon my own release. She answered my cry with a wordless one of her own. Coming together and falling together in a breathless heap was like the end of the song bringing our dance to a stop.


    But I wasn''t nearly done with her. I needed her like air right now. My beast was in charge and there was no stopping him or me. And the answering look of hunger in her eyes as she blinked up at me told me that she was not yet sated either.


    I pulled myself out of her and lifted her to her knees. I kissed her long and hard, devouring her mouth like the beast I truly was deep inside. When the kiss broke I turned her, close to but not quite rough with my movements.


    Once she had her back to me I pushed her over the pillows and pulled her hips toward me. I fitted myself against her core which was still twitching slightly from her climax. I didn''t pause for more than a second beforeI drove myself deep inside again.


    "Reece!" She shook beneath me as she took me again, her twitching core instantly starting to milk around me once more.


    I draped my body over hers, feeling her soft heated flesh pressed against my own. Our bodies, both slick with sweat, moved in perfect time with each other. Again and again I drove into her. Our flesh pping against each other making the music for our primal dance and panting lyrics. She came over and over again, screaming with each orgasm. But I still wasn''t done, even after my second orgasm.


    I changed our positions again. Moving to slide off the bed, I pulled her until her ass was just barely past the edge of the mattress. I lifted her legs, hooking her ankles over my shoulders then nting my hands on either side of her head. As I stared down at her,ying there like a dream I never thought woulde true for me, I smiled before fitting myself against her again.


    "Mine." I growled the word that I had said so many times when taking her. "All mine, forever and ever." With that I drove into her again and she screamed for me.


    "Yours, Reece. I''m all yours."


    "I love you." I growled the words, primal and driven by my wolf, almost all my words wereing out as growls.


    "Ahh, I-I l-l-love y-you t-t-too." Each word took her multiple tries as I pounded into her core, but still her words brought a genuine smile to my lips.


    As I drove into her, feeling deeper into her core than I usually did in other positions, I lost almost all ability to think. I just drove in and out of her, pounding away at her body. In that moment she was all the food, water, oxygen, everything that I needed, she was life. My life.


    For the third time I felt myself getting ready to leap over that glorious edge. The building of pressure in my body, the tingling and tensing within me. I was nearly there, and right on cue I felt her orgasm building again. She was so sensitive now that it was not hard to build her back up. But she wouldn''tst long and if I wanted us toe together again I would need to hurry.


    I pictured my future with her as I reached my limit. I pictured my seed taking root inside her and her belly swelling with my pup. I pictured the happy family we could have one day. That was thest thought, the only thought, I was able to muster as my primal need pushed us both into oblivion.


    She came on a scream, no words just a sound of pure bliss. I came on a roar of pleasure as I threw my head back and emptied thest of my seed inside her.


    I had never had a night so filled with primal need and passion in my life. This was a night to be remembered for sure. Those were my first thoughts as I came back to my senses.


    I could feel my strength waning as I held myself above her. Slowly, I unsheathed myself from her body causing her to shudder slightly from the feel of it. Once she was released and my body was free of her, I scooped her up into my arms.


    Slowly, I crawled onto the bed andid in the middle of the mattress, hugging her tight to my side. She waspletely spent, seeming unable to move. I have to admit, that gave me a sense of satisfaction in and of itself.


    "I love you, Trinity. More than life itself." She was too far gone, too close to sleep, to answer with anything more than a wordless groaning sound.

 Chapter 217 - Trinity - Enemies Spotted (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 217 - Trinity - Enemies Spotted (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was stillying in Reece''s arms, held firmly against his body, when I heard his phone start buzzing incessantly.


    "Mmm, Reece." I said, poking him and causing him to stir a little. We were both still exhausted fromst night, but it had been so amazing that I would neverin about being tired or sore as a result. "Reece, answer your phone." I pulled away from him causing him to wake up the rest of the way.


    "They can call back, I''m still sleeping." He grumbled.


    "It might be important." I poked him again. "Go on and answer it." I told him as the phone started to buzz through its second cycle of rings. That meant that whoever it was was calling again.


    "Fine." He growled as he reached over to pick up the phone.


    "Stopining, Fido." I joked with him as I moved to get out of bed. I could see the sun was up and that it had clearly been up for a while. A quick check of the clock told me it was almost noon. Wow, we had sleptte.


    "What is it?" He growled into the phone."


    "I really should have gone for Cujo instead of Fido this morning." I giggled. I was just getting out of bed, wincing a little from the sore muscles from the olympic level feat we had managedst night, when I heard the voice that answered Reece''s growl.


    "Alpha, there''s trouble approaching the borders." It was Zeke from the gate guards.


    "What kind of trouble?" Reece asked now fully alert and slipping out of bed. I was already changing my path from the shower to the dresser so I could get dressed. My shower could wait if it was an emergency. I wouldn''t be happy about it but I would deal.


    "Purple smoke and what smells like hundreds of those monsters we fought before."


    "How far away? How soon will it be here?"


    "At least fifty miles, maybe a little more, I would estimate that they''d hit the city limits in not more than an hour, it''s not moving super fast, but it''s not slow either."


    "We will be there soon." He spoke through clenched teeth.


    I had hoped that Edmond would wait until nightfall to begin this battle. It would be easier to hide us all from the prying eyes of humans in the dark. But if he was intent on doing this sooner rather thanter, we wouldply. Illusions and aversion spells from the warlocks and myself would help keep the humans safe.


    Reece grabbed a handful of clothes like I had done but he then dragged me into the bathroom.


    ''We have time for a quick shower."" He said as he turned the water on. That made me happy, I needed one, desperately.


    Once we had showered and dressed we headed to the ce where Zeke was waiting. Edmond''s beast seemed to being in at the edge of ournd and away from the city. We had summoned half the troops guarding the city to where we were, hoping to handle this soon. The other half would be guarding the rest of the border, we didn''t trust Edmond to only send one battalion of monsters.


    We were ready and prepared for battle long before they showed up. But we had not even been there for five minutes when we got another call. There was another battalion at the opposite end of the town. Soon, there were four more calls like the first two. Edmond was surrounding the city.


    "What are we going to do?" Shane asked as we strategized once more.


    "Take care of the threat." Reece said matter-of-factly. "Edmond didn''t seem to be among any of the groups closing in on the city, so this is most likely a diversionary tactic."


    "But what about the citizens of the city? We need to protect them." Shawn seemed worried as he looked over the horizon and saw the buildings stretching toward the sky.


    "I will work with Crawford and Eldrige to ce a shield over the city." I told him. The two warlocks nodded in agreement with me as we stepped forward.


    "We will be happy to protect the city with you." Crawford tried to smile, tried to show his confidence in our victory today, but he failed.


    I stood between the two elderly warlocks, eyes closed and hands linked to make a chain. I concentrated on the shield I wanted to ce over the city, over its poption. I would lock the city to anyone in cahoots with Edmond.


    I felt the power swirl around the three of us for just a moment as it built itself into a stronger force. Once the spell was properly weaved I felt the wind pick up as the magic flew toward the town. There was a slight pull in my chest as it flew so far and stretched so big, but once it was fully in ce it was like fitting a puzzle piece into ce, it just fit perfectly.


    "Well, that takes care of the city itself, but what about the other hordes?" David asked, his usually calm voice now full of nerves.


    "We spread out and divide the troops." I answered him. "We need to bnce the power. So you will each go to meet a horde as it approaches."


    "I don''t think it''s wise for us to split up." Vincent wasn''t happy with my suggestion.


    "This could be a trap to get you alone." Dietrich added.


    "It most likely is, but Edmond will be ill-prepared for it. He doesn''t know what I can do." I told them. "Those beasts are not the smartest, but they''re strong, and you''re all stronger than any other fighters in the pack. We need to use your abilities to fight them. Reece and I will stay here, but the rest of you will need to split up."


    "Understood." Vincent knew he couldn''t argue, having no other choice he conceded and agreed to the n.


    "Remember that we need to protect the humans and our territory both. All of you are stronger, faster, and more powerful than all the others. This might be an undesirable situation and seem bleak, but we will ovee this and rise up as the victors." Reece gave a speech that seemed guaranteed to spur them on to a spirited fight.


    Within minutes, the split of troops was decided upon. Shifters from wolf, bear, and feline packs were spread evenly as were the warlocks and vampires that had been summoned for this fight. It was the best we could do for now, but I was sure that it would be more than enough.


    Soon, I saw the hoard for myself as it crested a hill in the distance. There had to be at least two hundred monsters approaching.The sight of all those twisted, mutated bodies as they shambled closer with dead, lifeless, zombie like eyes and expressions, it was enough to send a chill down my spine and make me shiver.


    "Nearly time." I heard Reece dere to those around us. "Be ready and take no mercy. They used to be shifters but there is nothing of their old selves left. They''re nothing but mindless weapons for Edmond now."


    "Yes, Sir." A chorus echoed softly through those gathered around us.


    "And if you see anyone who is not a mutant, let us know. It will most likely be a warlock. We''re on the lookout for the coven leader but that doesn''t mean he won''t send in his cronies as well."


    "Understood." The group chorus again.


    Just hearing them speak as a group made me think about my dream and that premonition. The group speaking as a whole was so much like the voices in my dream. The voices of Edmond''s children. The voices of my long dead siblings. My heart ached as I thought about them.


    I pictured their faces, their features that were so simr to my own. I pictured their clothes, an array of fashion and styles from different eras through thest couple hundred years. I imagined what they might have been like had they not died, had our shared tormenter not murdered them and snuffed out their life''s candle too soon.


    These thoughts brought a tear to my eye. Just one solitary tear that rolled out of the corner of my eye and streaked an invisible path down my clean, pale cheek. I didn''t have the time, nor the energy, to spare on tears right now. I would mourn them all once I had murdered our father and allowed them to finally find peace.


    "I will avenge you, all of you." I whispered quietly to myself. "He will pay for what he''s done to us all." I felt the firm conviction in my heart as the truth of the words rang inside my head. I knew I would seed, I had no other choice. My surety spread through me, enveloping me in a warmth that was secure andforting.


    "Alright Edmond, I''m ready for you."

 Chapter 218 - Trinity - The Horde Arrives (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 218 - Trinity - The Horde Arrives (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I watched on, my apprehension growing by the second, as that purple swirling smoke moved ever closer. This was it. This was the start of the battle that would determine the future. Not only my future but Reese''s, my family''s, the pack''s, the entire world''s. This was the battle to end all battles for us. We needed to eliminate Edmond here and now.


    All around me, shifters of various types, vampires, and warlocks all assumed their fighting stances. Different though they may be and unique in and of themselves, they were all ready to fight for what was right. I was proud of every one of these warriors, no matter their species. For now we were all one pack, all one family, fighting to protect those we cared about.


    The first monster appeared seemingly from thin air, nothing there one second and the next a twelve foot tall monstrosity. The first beast I saw was a tangled mass of limbs and torsos. This creature was so different from thest ones we had fought that I almost didn''t think it was the same thing at all.


    What we had seen before was a mixture of two shifters somehow blended and molded together like some sort of horror viin in a ymation movie. They were grotesque and vomit inducing but manageable somehow.


    But these horrors, these beasts that slowly marched towards us, they looked like cutting room rejects from a monster movie. Sights so horrible that they couldn''t even be put into the final production.


    These beasts had no less than four shifters or people melded together. There were parts that looked more human than anything else, no partial or full shift, just human flesh and bones. Perhaps they were warlocks or some other shadow creature.


    In these tangled masses, I saw multiple heads in and around the areas that I guess would be considered the neck. Some had two torsos, and most had multiple extra sets of arms and legs. There were some very animalistic qualities as well, proof of shifters in the mix. Wolves, bears, felines, birds, deer, they were all blended into these mixes.


    There were so many horrors that it was hard to look anywhere without feeling pity and anger at the same time. Edmond had created a new army after experimenting on even more people. I would not let this slide. I would show him what it meant to hold the life of another person in his hands and have the ultimate power of destruction or life at your fingertips. There was nothing he could do to redeem himself or save himself, he will be dying this time. I will be ending his life.


    Once the initial shock and anger of seeing these creatures, these once men, had worn off it was time for us all, especially me, to get down to business. I pulled my magic out of me, wrapping twice as much of it around me as I had grown ustomed to. Once my magic was swirling around me, invisibly but still somehow physically, I summoned my arrows as my primary weapon. I saw Reece summon his whip and sword and ready himself for the battle before us.


    Those at the front of the lines, the first to meet the beasts, had already begun to fight. The warlocks were both shielding our troops as well as sending out attacks. I watched as one monstrosity took a shining yellow ball of light straight to the chest and was immediately pounced on by arge ck bear, a member of Trevor''s pack. The bear bit down with his powerful jowls and wed at the thing''s face and arms. But even with the team effort they didn''t seem to be doing very much damage at all.


    I couldn''t believe my eyes when I saw the monster''s injuries. There were bright red lines and gouges but no blood or anything. And to make matters worse, the beasts didn''t seem to be phased by the attacks at all. What had Edmond done to them this time? How had he changed them?


    While I watched a particrly nasty looking beast rise in front of a group of warriors I released a barrage of my arrows, two of each element just to be sure. Half of the arrows seemed to have no effect at all, only the wind and the fire even seemed to affect the thing.


    When the monster was struck by the fire arrow, it didn''t pierce its skin but it did set the beast on fire. The wind arrow, made of nothing more than fast moving air, was the only one that was able to pierce its flesh.


    I didn''t have the time to loose another set of my arrows just yet. The group in front of that beast, and therefore in front of me, began to scatter as the mes rose and swelled into a massive ze. The next thing that I knew the thing had fallen forward and looked like a giant bonfire lighting the field.


    I readied more arrows, prepared to take out more of the monstrosities as they waged their attack. I focused on the wind and fire arrows, summoning hundreds of them. I attacked at least a dozen creatures, but only two of them seemed to be affected this time. What was going on?


    That was when I looked more closely at the monsters lumbering around us. They were all simr in their blended, melded looking appearance, but there were also differences I hadn''t noticed at first. Some of them seemed to be made of dry, cracked, paper looking, albeit very sturdy, skin. That exined the burning of the first monster.


    Other beasts looked like they were covered with something more like flesh colored sludge. There were others, also seemingly made of different elemental backings. One even seemed more bark-like than fleshy. What had happened to them all.


    I guessed that the different flesh types would be susceptible to different elements. I tried a lightning arrow on the sludgy, fluid looking monster that was built like a tank. Those arrows did their job. That was good.


    I tried again with fire, attacking the wooden, paper, and mud looking beasts. The wood and paper ones burned, turning into giant bonfires, and the mud looking monster hardened into what looked like old y and began to crack and crumble apart. Good, I was figuring out how to handle them.


    I saw another type of beast, that was unlike the others. It was flickering and slightly orange, like it was made of fire, or more so like it had fire under its skin. Those beasts I attacked with water and ice. The attack was a sess. Thank the Goddess.


    Next, I wanted to try the water looking ones. They looked soft and pliable but were hard as stone. I knew right away how to fight that one. Shane and I had that advantage. Lightning would fry them from the inside out. Sure enough, once it was hit by an arrow of pure lightning, the thing began to thrash about and fell to the ground, lying dead at the feet of the other warriors.


    There was one more type I didn''t know how to deal with. This monster seemed to be blowing things over as it walked. Its wind affinity was so strong it was like a walking hurricane. How did I fight that one? How do you fight the wind itself?


    This would take some contemtion. All my arrows were knocked away from the beast instantly. And most warriors were blown away before they could get close. What was I to do?


    While I contemted I contacted everyone that was fighting. I focused on my mindlink with them all. I needed to tell them about the elemental issues.


    ''Everyone, focus on the element of the beasts. Some are dry and wood like, they can be burned. Also, use fire against the mud looking creatures. The water creatures can be handled by lightning, Shane you will have the upper hand there. Use water from the surrounding area to fight the flickering creatures, it will douse them and make them easier to kill. These ones are stronger than the ones we fought before.''


    ''Yes Luna.'' There was a resounding chorus of the call from my pack that was followed by a much louder one.


    ''Yes, my queen.'' That mental chorus was from all the warlocks, vampires, and other shifters. The vampire part of it confused me. Did they recognize me as their queen as well? But they were ruled by their emperor, Dietrich.


    ''Stay strong and fight hard. We will win this fight.'' I encouraged them all.


    ''For our queen.'' Through the mind link I noticed that every mind I was connected to seemed to have the same thought at the same time. Seriously, did these people spend hours nning amongst themselves how to respond to me or was this just fucking instinctual. Whatever it was, it was kind of creepy.


    "Ok, time to get serious." I curled my fingers and prepared to fight some more.

 Chapter 219 - Reece - War Rages Around Us (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 219 - Reece - War Rages Around Us (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I heard the message as my Little Bunny addressed the different groups of fighters stationed around the city. I heard the confidence as well as the apprehension in her voice. But I had also watched her methodically figure out how to handle all the beasts, except one.


    She had yet to stop the wind beasts that were throwing everyone and everything away from them with tremendous force. These particr monsters would be quite difficult to handle, that''s for sure.


    I was focusing on the creatures that were most susceptible to fire. I was still in my human form and I was whipping arrows around the battlefield while simultaneously flinging my whip and shing with my sword. I was hacking away at the things faster than I could think. There were now numerousrge burning bonfire like piles scattered around us. There were also a lot ofrge piles of y and dirt from the earth type beasts.


    The battle was in full swing and it wasn''t going to be an easy win. And from what I could hear in the mindlink between us all, the other locations weren''t faring so well either. In fact, as I watched a group of warriors shifter and non shifter alike, were flung back when a water beast swept arge misshapen arm toward them. The force of the blow was so hard that it threw the five warriors at least sixty feet before they crashed into a group of trees. Only four of them got up from the fall, the fifth one had been impaled on several of the branches.


    I was truly regretting my decision to let my wife join this fight. She had made me promise, made me swear to her that I would not keep her away if she could best me in a fight. What a stupid fucking deal that was. I would have preferred her to be home and safe instead of happily fighting her way to her death. What the hell was the matter with me?


    I swiped the legs of a bark beast out from underneath it and made a beeline for a wind monster. I was stronger than them all, and only David was faster than? me. I was going to use those abilities to fight that thing that she had not figured out a solution for yet.


    But just as I was approaching the thing, a giant stone wall rose up in front of me. It was taller than the wind creature it blocked me from. That wall was quickly followed by another, then another, it kept going until the thing was enclosed in an octagonal stone prison,plete with a roof.


    I looked around in confusion. I didn''t understand what I was seeing at first, but when I saw the intense look of concentration on Trinity''s face, I knew what was going on. She had thought of a way to fight the wind beasts.


    Fully encased in the stone prison, the monstrosity couldn''t blow back an opponent. But just as I thought things were looking up the beast started to beat at the walls of it''s stone prison. One of the walls buckled under the pressure of a massive fist.


    Again and again the beast tried to pound its way out, and it very nearly seeded. But there was no way that my Little Bunny would let that happen.


    "Don''t you fucking dare." I heard her voice ring out from behind me just as a fresh set of walls sprung up in front of the others, strengthening her hold on the beast.


    "That''s my girl." I let thement slip subconsciously as I watched her. I really had to admit that she was an excellent fighter, it just went against my protector instincts to let her fight like this. I wanted to take care of her and protect her so nothing and no one could ever hurt her again.


    As I watched, semi lost in my thoughts, I saw what she had nned to do next. Trinity steeled her nerves and summoned more of her magic, I could feel it prickle along my skin and the scent of lemons swirling around her got stronger and more intense.


    The next thing I saw was her fling her hands at the stone prison. In an instant, there were dozens ofrge spikes jutting through the walls. They had gone all the way through, prating the walls as well as the beast. Dark, ck, brackish like fluid was seeping from within the stone prison and all sounds of movement had ceased.


    She had done it, she had figured out how to destroy all types of these monsters. I was so proud of her at that moment. The feelings swelling within me brought a sense of pride and satisfaction.


    However, before I even had the chance to express my pride in her, a group of the beasts began to bear down on me. I was quickly surrounded. It was time to pay attention to my surroundings more than her. This wasn''t the first time I was nearly attacked while being distracted by her.


    Tearing my eyes away from her ethereal beauty, I whipped my right hand, the one holding my ming sword, around and shed through the monster closest to me. My left flicked out and the burning whip snared around another creature. Another flick of my wrist and the beast''s feet were pulled out from underneath it causing the thing to crash to the ground in a clumsy inelegant heap.


    I was still surrounded. The beasts just didn''t seem like they would ever stoping, there was no end to them. But we all had to fight and try our hardest.


    ''Noah, use earth magic to trap the wind beasts and pierce them through with stone spikes.''


    ''I was wondering how to kill them, thanks Reece.'' I used my mindlink to tell Noah what Trinity had discovered before I went back on the offensive.


    As the creatures surged around me, as the war raged around us, I kicked out with my foot to strike one of the creatures on the side of the head. I put all the force I could muster into the blow, and consequently the creature''s head was torn clean from its body. More of that disgusting dark colored fluid sprayed from the gaping hole in one of its necks. The spray caught me as I went tond on my feet behind the thing. This fight was proving to be tough as well as disgusting.


    Again and again I attacked the creatures. Repeatedly, I killed them. Five dead, then ten, now twenty, soon fifty, and still it looked like there was no end to the things that just kept pouring out of that strange purple fog.


    Seriously, how many of these beasts did he manage to make? How many people did he kill this time? This man was not a man, he was a fucking demon. And a coward. He made monsters to fight for him and ran away from a real fight. Just a fucking coward.


    We fought. All day it seemed like we were fighting. I couldn''t be sure of the time, or how long it had been since I was too busy fighting, but it finally seemed like the crowd of creatures was finally thinning around us. For once, it looked like no more wasing.


    Or so I had thought. I was both right and wrong in that thought. The twisted, melded monsters that we had been fighting finally seemed to be exhausted, but there was a new threat crawling over the horizon.


    I heard a collective gasp and several terrified screams as these new, even more terrifying monsters approached. I thought thest mutants that Edmond sent were the worst abomination I could ever imagine, but clearly I didn''t give Edmond enough credit for his sadistic nature.


    These new monsters that were crawling toward us looked like spiders. But they, too, were made from twisted bodies. The things had four heads that had somehow been modified to berger and were even equipped withrge, lethal looking pincers over their mouths.


    The bodies of these things looked like one giant, blended torso, and there were four arms and four legs sticking out of the things, all of which the things used to scuttle around like real spiders. I felt my skin crawl and a shudder run through my body as I looked at the newest monstrosities. Edmond was truly a despicable person.


    That shudder of mine seemed to be echoed physically and mentally throughout all the gathered soldiers.


    ''What is that?'' I heard an unfamiliar, yet panicked, voice ring through my head.


    ''Oh Goddess, what the hell are those things?'' Another voice joined the shouting.


    ''Are those people? He made those out of people too?'' A female warrior''s voice spoke this time, fear, apprehension, anger, all was evident in her voice as well as the others.


    ''Oh Goddess, it''s attacking.'' Another, even more frightened voice joined the mix before it was quickly silenced. That was when the screams became louder and the words were spoken out loud.


    "Oh my Goddess. He''s dead!" I knew that voice, it was Frank from the gate guards.

 Chapter 220 - Trinity - Another One Of His Experiments (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 220 - Trinity - Another One Of His Experiments (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I took one look at the horizon and wanted to vomit. I felt the churning, the hypersalivation, the muscle spasms. I felt the intense desire to purge myself of everything that was foreign, that wasn''t part of me. The desire was so strong that I had no choice but toply. Just as the collective gasp shuddered through the gathered fighters I leaned forward, held my stomach and heaved. But there was nothing toe up. There was nothing in my stomach because I hadn''t had the chance to eat today. All I managed was a thin watery gruel filled with stomach acid and fear.


    As I watched on I heard the voices start screaming inside my head. The intense emotions they were emitting gave me a splitting headache but I had to hold myself together.


    ''What is that?'' A man screamed inside my brain.


    ''Oh Goddess, what the hell are those things?'' Another voice joined the shouting.


    ''Are those people? He made those out of people too?'' A scared woman''s scream reverberated inside my skull.


    ''Oh Goddess, it''s attacking.'' A man shouted to us all before he was quickly silenced.


    "Oh my Goddess. He''s dead!" These words were not spoken in my head but out loud. The fear and sorrow in that voice was enough to grip my heart in an iron vice. I felt his pain, his tears. The man who was killed was obviously a friend of his.


    "Don''t let your fear take over." I yelled at them all, mentally and verbally at the same time. "Stay strong. He''s trying to break you. You''re better than this." I felt the conviction strengthen just a little in the hearts of all those I was linked to.


    The sounds of the battle raged around us. Warriors, warlocks, and vampires attacked the newest horde of beasts in teams. There were some saving graces though. There didn''t seem to be as many of these monsters. Also, they didn''t seem to have an elemental affinity like the first wave of enemies.


    The draw back to these things, was that they seemed to be ten times stronger than the average shifter. Even stronger than Reece. And their heads, with their nasty, lethal looking pincers, seemed to be able to extend from their bodies on some sort of retractable spinal cord.


    When I first saw one of these beasts stretch its head out to bite the arm off of a vampire in one lightning quick move my stomach roiled again. I very nearly had to lean forward and heave once again.


    These new monsters may be easier to kill, in a sense, but they were much more dangerous than thest ones. I just had to wonder, how did Edmond gather so many people to do this to? How did he manage to make so many creatures that fight for him like mindless zombies?


    I couldn''t think about it for long though. Those things were swarming us and they would quickly overwhelm us all if I wasn''t careful. I needed to help everyone. I needed to do my best to protect my people.


    Slowly, I made one quick circle as I stood in ce, looking out over the battlefields. I saw so many of our number being overwhelmed. There were so many people hurt. And for what?


    These people were fighting and hurting. They were being injured all because of me. They were my people fighting my battle. I had to put an end to this. I had to save everyone that? I could. I had to stop more people from dying.


    I closed my eyes and summoned as many arrows as I could. I felt my power seeping from within me. The familiar warmth that enveloped me when I pulled power to me was gone. I was pulling so much magic that it felt cold, for once.


    I felt the wind whip and buff against my face. It was like a storm was brewing and the clouds were rolling in. Even the sun was being blotted out, but that could have been from the sun beginning to set.


    I didn''t know how many arrows I had called to me, but I felt them floating in the air beside me. With a quick prayer to Thoth and Nehalennia, I opened my eyes. When I could see again, I gasped.


    Not only did I have thousands of arrows arrayed around me, but I was also floating in the air. I looked down to see two shocking things that made me gasp.


    First, I was floating inside one of my tornadoes. Only this wind vessel wasn''t taking me anywhere, it was cradling me inside of it. Also, this tornado was muchrger than any of the others I had ever summoned. And thest thing about the tornado was that it was not affecting anything about my surroundings.


    The next thing that I noticed was that my entire body was glowing a bright, sapphire blue, just like the markings on my wolf. There was also a thin, but sturdy,yer of ice covering my entire body.


    I could also feel the power radiating from my eyes. This was something I hadn''t even thought to train at the abbey but was d came to me when I needed it. Thest time I had seen something with eyes like this was when I had been attacked at Riley''s pack. I could feel my eyes zooming in and out, zeroing in on the different targets.


    I felt powerful, and more than capable in my current state. I knew that I was going to be able to handle this situation. There was no way I would let myself fail here. There were too many people counting on me for that.


    I felt my pupils expanding, my vision widening. I could see the entire clearing and everyone in it. With one quick thought I sent a volley of arrows in every direction at the same time. It was like I could see everything not just in front of me but also everything behind me. I didn''t have a single barrier in my vision right now.


    With this new all sight of mine I was able to see every arrow at the same time. And with a grin of satisfaction I saw my arrows strike home, hitting their targets with deadly uracy. The remaining molded beasts from before and these new spider creatures, none of them were exempt from my attack.


    With a little bit of concerted effort, I connected minds with the other warriors. Those warriors that were not fighting alongside me but at another equally deadly battlefield. I linked my mind with all of them, and in an instant I was able to see everything that they could see. I was no longer limited to my own field of vision.


    I quickly locked on to where all the remaining enemies were. With all the targets located I just needed to send my attacks. I still had arge amount of arrows floating around me but still I summoned more.


    I didn''t know if there were enough arrows yet to finish them all off at once. I needed more. More arrow, more power, more time.


    As I summoned more magic and more arrows I looked at the fight waging around us all. I saw the carnageying scattered on the ground. Those were not just enemies, those were allies too. How many people had I lost? How many more would be sacrificed.


    These thoughts seemed to swirl in my mind as I gathered my weapons. Just as I felt I most likely had enough I saw something that made my stomach drop.


    There, at one of the other battlegrounds, a new group of spider beasts were sneaking up on one of my guards as he battled against two of the twisted once men. There were three scuttling sneakily behind him while hended blow after blow to the things in front of him.


    Even though his attacks were doing their job and he was about to win, there was nothing he could have done. In an instant the three spider things leapt forward and attacked him.


    "Shawn!" I cried out in horror as I saw blood spray from a vicious swipe from one of the spider freaks.


    With a lot more force than I intended I loosed my arrows once more. I sent them flying in every direction as quick as I could. Only this time I sent them much farther than before. The arrows were allnding in their rightful ces, destroying their targets almost immediately.


    But I didn''t care about that. All I could think about was one of my closest friends lying on the ground and bleeding. All I wanted to do was get to him and help him.


    "Shawn." I cried out again as I turned in his direction. I settled on the ground, out of my tornado, and began to run after him. If I had been paying attention to anything else around me, I would have noticed that the ground was icing over with every step I took.

 Chapter 221 - Reece - After Her (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 221 - Reece - After Her (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Trinity had just done something I never thought was possible. Of all the things I imagined to happen in this fight, that was definitely not one of them. I don''t think I will ever cease to be surprised by her anymore.


    I watched as she floated ten feet off the ground and sent thousands of arrows out in several directions at the same time. Each arrownded with perfect uracy. The beasts around us all began to fall instantly. It''s amazing the kind of power you find yourself capable of in such dire moments.


    After the initial barrage of arrows I noticed that she was calling even more to her. She was gathering so much power in that moment that I didn''t know why. She had destroyed them all. Our field was clear.


    But there were other fields as well.


    Was that what she was doing? Was she targeting all the other creatures that were too far away for us to see?


    As I watched her, I knew my answer. There were a few things different about her appearance. Her skin covered in ice, the bright, sapphire blue glow all over her body. Those things were easy to notice and had not escaped my gaze. But, as I looked closer, I saw something else.


    My Little Bunny''s eyes were spinning the way they had done so long ago. It almost felt like a lifetime since I had seen her eyes making those motions that reminded me of a camera lens trying to focus.


    If it hadn''t been for the intense look of concentration on her face I would have been worried for her. Thest time I had seen her eyes do that, she had passed out in my arms immediately afterwards.


    "I hope you know what you''re doing Little Bunny." I whispered as I just stared at therge number of arrows she had summoned.


    Just as she looked like she was about to send the arrows out to attack I saw her head whip to the side.


    "Shawn!" She screamed in desperation. Did something happen to Shawn? How would she know?


    The thousands and thousands of arrows were sent flying and they all went much further than before. Almost as soon as she had sent the attack she spun and seemed to run out of the tornado she had been riding inside.


    Her feet touched the ground, silently, and she was off running before I could even blink. I didn''t even wait to think, I just started running after her. And I nearly slipped doing it.


    Everywhere Trinity stepped, the ground turned to ice. Large, thick circles of magical ice began to sprout behind her as she ran. Was it because she herself was covered in ice? I had a suspicion it was.


    Watching where I stepped a little more carefully than I had thought I needed to, I ran after her. She was a few hundred feet ahead of me, but that wasn''t insurmountable. I was faster than she was and had longer legs, I would catch up in no time at all.


    Or so I thought.


    As I watched, I saw that the purple smoke that had brought the enemies was back. This time, only five people stepped out of the swirling purple smoke. But as I looked past the haze in front of me, I noticed that it began to swirl again. This time near my mate.


    The problem here was that it didn''t release an enemy at all. Instead, the swirling smoke, or fog, or whatever Edmond called his magic gas, the purple cloud swirled in a circle around my single minded mate. One second she was there and the next she was gone. It had taken her away.


    "TRINITY!" I screamed at the empty clearing beyond the five warlocks standing before me. "Where is she?" I yelled at the one closest to me.


    "She''s gone to have a family reunion." The man''s sneering voice made my skin crawl with anger and nerves.


    "Where did he take her?" I demanded.


    "You won''t live long enough to find out."


    "Wanna bet?" I growled at him.


    I watched as the man who spoke grinned. His long purple hair, like an amethyst, was unnatural enough, but the pure ck eyes that dripped venom made things ten times worse. Hisplexion, which should have been a rich brown based on the undertones, looked sickly with it''s pasty, pallid pallor.


    The others around him were just as unnatural looking. Their hair was the same amethyst purple and their eyes were the same lifeless ck. The only differences were their skin tones, but they all still looked pale and pasty. In total there were four men and one woman in the group and they all felt powerful.


    I knew that I needed to fight them, and none of the others were close enough to help me. That''s fine. I wasn''t named the alpha king and warlock king for nothing. Nehalennia knew what she was doing when she chose me for Trinity''s mate. If I wasn''t up to the task then that would mean the Goddess had made a mistake. I trusted in my Goddess the same way I trusted in my wife.


    "Before I rip your head from your body, you will tell me what I want to know." I snarled at the man in the lead.


    "If you can manage to win, then that would mean she wouldn''t need to be saved. It would mean that our master isn''t strong enough to defeat a mongrel like her.


    "Don''t fucking talk about my mate like that you bastard." I snarled again.


    "You finally grew feelings for that little slut then. Isn''t that great." His condescending tone was about to make me see red. I needed to get myself under control so I could think my way through this fight.


    "Enough talk." I snapped at him. "I will kill you all, and you will tell me where my wife is before you die."


    "HAHAHA!" They all seemed tough at once and it sounded just like Edmondughing instead of them. He was definitely controlling them.


    I didn''t want them getting the chance to run away just yet. It would be no fun for me if they got scared and ran away before I got to do what I wanted with them. Killing them would be just the beginning of it all.


    With little effort and just a quick thought, I felt myself hovering in the air. I knew that I was flying in front of them, as a phoenix. The look of shock on their faces, the fear dripping from their eyes, that was definitely worth the shift. And thankfully, I would still have clothes afterwards since the warlock shift like this didn''t destroy my clothes. If only all shifts were the same.


    I used their temporary distraction to fly a little higher. Soaring in a quick circle I summoned my fire to me. I was a being tied to mes, both as the wolf and the warlock king.


    My n was to create a barrier around them all. Not to trap them so I could leave. No, it was to trap them into the fight. I didn''t want them turning tail to run away when they were about to lose.


    I concentrated on my fire very intently. I made sure it would only burn them. Not my warriors or any ally. It wouldn''t burn the ground, and it wouldn''t burn me. We would all be safe, but if they tried to leave the red, all consuming fire would destroy them in an instant.


    Inded just outside the fire. I wanted to walk through it, to show them I had control here. I shifted once more before I started forward.


    This time, when they saw me, I would be in my lycan form. Both of these new forms I had gained in France, and both marked me as special among the shifters but it also marked me as the Warlock Queen''s mate. They wouldn''t be able to win if they were all too scared to move, and that''s what I nned when I became the lycan just now.


    Slowly, with deliberate steps, I walked into the roaring, raging mes. The mes licked and tickled harmlessly against my flesh and fur. When I finally stepped out of the mes, my pants still untouched by the fire, I saw them all take a step back. Their eyes were opened wide and their mouths were hanging in disbelief.


    "This can''t be." I heard the woman cry. "He can''t be a phoenix and a lycan." She was shaking in fear.


    "Worry not, it''s all illusions. They have traitors on their side. Warlocks working with the enemies to fight against their own. They have granted him these illusions. The fire, his two forms, neither of them are real." The man who seemed to be their leader spoke again.


    "Vox, attack him." The man pushed one of the other men forward, causing him to stumble with fear.


    "Come at me." I spoke slowly, finding it difficult to speak with this new mouth of mine.


    "Y-you''re just illusioned." He yelled as he took a few more steps toward me. I watched as he raised his hand to begin casting an attack.


    Faster than their eyes could follow I leapt across the circle, pinning the man to the ground. First, I closed myrge jaws over his wrist, snapping his hand off with one quick bite. He screamed as his blood began to pour into my mouth.


    "Ahhh! No, no, no." He pulled his arm away from my mouth and held it against his chest. I didn''t give him more than a second to recoil and show his terror. He had just looked me in the eyes, locking his gaze with mine, when I leaned forward and ced a razor wed hand against his throat. The next second I ripped his throat out with my lycan hand.


    The woman among the group screamed long and loud. The fear was so intense in her eyes that it was clear she was not thinking at all. She turned tail and bolted toward the twenty foot tall wall of mes that encircled us.


    She clearly thought she could pass right on through but she had underestimated me. She ran with her arms outstretched like she was going to push a door open in front of her. As soon as she touched the wall of mes she began to burn. Her entire body was instantly set aze and she dropped to the ground, an endless scream emitting from her now molten throat.


    "They''re real." One of the men in the back gasped. "We were not prepared for this." It seemed like Edmond''s mind control had its limits when it came to them burning to death.


    "Don''t underestimate me." I growled at them.


    "We will not lose to you." The man in the lead spoke. "Get him." This time the other two were pushed forward.


    I didn''t hesitate this time either. I summoned my whip of mes and flung it out to meet the first man. It wrapped around his middle and with a yank, the man was pulled into two pieces. He didn''t even have the chance to scream. He just looked down at the whip wrapped around him and by the time he registered the weapon blood was pouring out of his mouth.


    The other man tried to run away, but he would not escape me. I flung the whip out toward him and it wrapped several times around his throat. Another flick of my wrist and his head was soaring across the clearing, spraying thest man standing before me with a ruby red stter of blood.


    "Scared yet?" I taunted him with a chuckle. "Now, tell me where my wife is and I''ll make your death quick. If you don''t I will torture you slowly until you talk.


    "You will get nothing out of me you monster."


    "That''s rich, calling me a monster. Have you seen what your master has done to those people?" I pointed in the direction of the battlefield that was strewn with monsters.


    "That was a necessary sacrifice." His voice shook as he trembled. "He needs to rid the world of scum like you so we can all be safe."


    "Sorry to burst your bubble, pal, but your leader wants us gone because we''re stopping him from taking over the word and killing anyone who opposes him. He longs for a world ruled with darkness and magic. He doesn''t care about anything but power."


    "That''s not true. That can''t be true." He seemed to be wavering.


    "It''s true and it''s why we''re going to stop him."


    I slowly stalked forward, closer to the man trembling before me. As I walked I shifted into full wolf form. This fight would be best won with my natural fighting style. And like Trinity, I had learned to finally talk to others in this form.


    "This is yourst chance to tell me where she is."


    As I stalked closer to him I noticed something that seemed to be off. The ground around me was catching fire. Just like my Little Bunny''s steps had turned to ice, mine were turning to molten mes, but they weren''t spreading. The mes stayed in ce awaiting amand from me.


    Another nce told me I was now glowing bright red, not quite the mes but the ruby glow shining all throughout me. If I moved just right the red was hidden and then it would reappear just momentster as my body twisted or shifted in some way. I could also feel the power surging through me, stronger than ever before.


    I leapt forward,nding on the man''s chest. Myrge forepaws were holding him in ce, and his clothing around my paws began to burn.


    "No, I don''t want to burn to death."


    "Tell me where she is." I demanded. "Tell me and I will kill you quickly."


    "He took her to the shadow ne."


    "What?"


    "She is here but not here. She is in thend of shadows beneath this one. She can only get back if she defeats him."


    I roared. The loud sound piercing through the sky and causing the man to shiver.


    "Please, please don''t let me burn."


    "I should." I growled at him. Then, after seeing the fear in his eyes I bent down and bit his head off, silencing his pathetic whimper.

 Chapter 222 - Trinity - Edmond (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 222 - Trinity - Edmond (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I didn''t know what had happened. I was running across the field, running to check on Shawn who had been hurt by those spider creatures. One minute my feet were pounding away on the blood and gore covered grass, and the next I was swept up in that fast moving purple smoke that brought the monsters to attack.


    I felt the smoke not just swirl around me, but into me. It filled my lungs and choked off my air. I couldn''t move, I couldn''t draw a breath.


    Before, I would have been afraid, scared that something like this was happening to me. But now, I was just pissed off. I knew who that purple smoke belonged to. I knew who was behind this. I knew and it made me angry enough to see red.


    Edmond had interfered when I was trying to help my friend. He had stopped me from helping someone who was in trouble and needed me. I would not let that slide. I would kill him and get back to help my family.


    When the smoke cleared around me and I could finally see, and breathe, again I was able to finally see where I was. I felt the shift in the air, the unmistakable sense of movement so I knew that I had gone somewhere else but I didn''t know exactly where this was.


    Everything around me was gray. It was like this was a scene from an old ck and white movie. The entire scene looked familiar but somehow different. I saw gray grass swaying in the breeze that tickled my cheeks. I saw a gray sky with lighter gray clouds floating above me.


    It all looked just like the clearing I had just been in, but it waspletely devoid of color. Aside from theck of color, there was no one else around. I was alone in this clearing. There were no people, no animals, no sounds or anything. It was just gray and silent.


    I nervously stared around me. This ce had an ominous feel to it and I didn''t like it at all. This whole thing felt wrong, like I wasn''t supposed to be here. I felt like, even though I couldn''t see anyone, there were several pairs of eyes on me. That feeling made my skin crawl.


    As I looked all around the gray, shadow looking world I felt like I could actually see eyes looking at me. The phantom glint shining off eyes that weren''t really there. I felt people, felt them looking at me, staring at me, but I couldn''t see them at all. What the hell was going on here? Were these people in this world or were they back home, in the real world?


    "Hello there, daughter of mine." I heard Edmond''s voice from behind me. I whipped around to face him, an angry glint in my eye and a firm set to my jaw. There he stood before me in his vivid, striking appearance, not affected by the gray world at all. And I had noticed that I was no longer glowing, but was back to my normal appearance.


    "You." I growled at him through my clenched teeth.


    "And here I thought you would be happy to have a nice family reunion with your dear old daddy."


    "Don''t ever fucking call yourself my dad, father, or daddy. I only have one dad and his name is Wesley."


    "I hate to break it to you little girl, but I am your father and there is no other one but me."


    "You''re a fucking sperm donor that kidnapped my mother and ruined her life. Then you tried to kill me as well. That makes you anything but my family you son of a bitch."


    "As if you know anything about your grandparents." He scoffed. That actually made me pause. His parents really were my grandparents. But how long ago did he kill them?


    "When did you kill your mother Edmond?" I asked him, unable to bite my tongue on that one.


    "See, you are my child. You know me so well already. Yes, we both murdered our mothers. Your existence took everything from your mother and drove her to suicide. And me, well, I took her life personally, hers and dear old dad''s. I needed their life force to strengthen my magic and to create my coven. Let''s see, they died a little over three hundred years ago now." He chuckled to himself.


    "You''re a fuckin monster."


    "You haven''t heard the worst of it." He chuckled to himself. "I was the leading force behind the Salem Witch Trials. I was the one who nted it all in the minds of the humans. I told them about the existence of my kind, I showed them my parents as they were practicing their magic. From there it all just took off like wildfire. It was quite fun really."


    "You let all those people kill your parents?" I felt the anger rise in me as the words came out on a gasp.


    "No, weren''t you listening. I killed them myself. I used the hatred of the humans to fuel the witch hunts. My parents were the first to be killed in the trials and I myself set them on fire. Of course I had cast a spell ahead of time and was prepared to take their power into me. The sorrow in the heart of my parents and the hatred from the humans, those delicious emotions blended together to make quite the astounding boost to my power."


    "I take back what I said before."


    "What''s that sweetheart." Hearing him say that word, calling me that name, it made me want to shudder.


    "You''re not a monster."


    "See, all yo-." He began before I cut him off.


    "You''re a fucking psychopathic murdering asshole."


    "You will talk to me with respect." He glowered at me.


    "Really? Or what?" I demanded of him.


    "You will live a shorter life." Heughed at me.


    "You''re already nning to kill me anyway."


    "Yes, but I wanted to have a nice chat first. Keep acting like that and I will just kill you now."


    "Oh no, heavens forbid it, I cannot have that happening now can I."


    "Don''t press your luck you little bitch. I''m trying to be generous. I thought you would like an exnation before you died. But you can just die now, being as ignorant as you are. If you''re content dying ignorant then so be it for me to stop you."


    "What makes you think I am ignorant of anything?" I yelled at him. "What makes you act all high and mighty, thinking you''re better than me? Why do you think I do not know anything about you or your people?"


    "Foolish little girl, where would you have learned about it all?" He looked at me with his eerily light colored eyes and smirked. "I destroyed the Aerie Convento the day you arrived, taking that unborn abomination with it."


    "Abomination? Abomination? That abomination was my baby, your grandchild. It would have had warlock blood coursing through it."


    "Yes, but it was too tainted with beastmen to be usable to me. I didn''t know about, or intend to kill it, but it was an added bonus."


    "You bastard. You heartless, demonic bastard." I was shaking from my anger and the gray of thendscape around me was slowly turning a hazy red color. I was ready to kill him.


    I just watched on as Edmondughed about his evil deeds. He got a kick out of the destruction and despair he brought people. It was truly like his life''s joy.


    "What the hell is the matter with you? What happened to you to turn you into this type of person?"


    "What happened you ask, hmm." He seemed to be deep in thought as he pondered my question. He even put his hand on his chin and looked like he was thinking hard. "Nothing happened really. This is just the way I was born. The Goddess Hektate made me in her image."


    "The Goddess Hektate was just as evil and sadistic."


    "Oh, no, she''s even more so. That''s why I recognize her as my only mother. I want to be just like her when I grow up." He put on a high pitched voice and spoke like a child, after a moment he began tough at his own joke.


    I looked at Edmond then. Truly looked at him for the first time ever. I looked into his eyes, searching for the heart I already knew he was born without. I searched his face, his eyes, for some sort of remorse. I found nothing but emptiness and maniacal glee. He was truly proud of himself for everything he had done. For all the lives he had taken.


    "How many of your children have you killed, Edmond? How many women did you destroy to get those children? Don''t you feel anything for the flesh and blood that you lost."


    "If they''re not strong enough to survive, then that''s on them. I feel nothing for the loss of them or their mothers. They were tools and vessels, and they were all broken. I have no need for broken things."


    "Did you ever think that you were the broken thing, you asshole? Did you ever think that they would have grown up powerful and strong if you didn''t torment or torture them all to death?" I felt the wind stir around me as I spoke, and those phantom eyes that were staring at me before became just a little clearer.


    "Nonsense. They were weak and needed to be plucked from the pool. You had potential, so much potential. But your body chose wolf over warlock so you''re no longer of use to me."


    "You''re the one no longer needed." I yelled at him. "And that''s why I am going to kill you."


    "Ha, you kill me. That''s the funniest thing I have heard in a long time."


    "Do you hear meughing asshole?" I snarled at him, my anger ring higher and higher. "You''re one piece of trash this world never needed, and it''s time to clean things up."


    "I told you to watch what you said about me, you useless little mongrel slut. I will make you wish you''d never met that mate of yours. That would have been the only way for you to have survived you know. But now you''re a tainted piece of mongrel scum."


    "You''re going to rue the day you decided to experiment on unborn children you crazy fuck." I knew that the arguing was too much. But I also knew that as soon as it stopped, the fighting would start. Andstly, I knew that only one of us would be walking away from this fight, while the other was left to die.


    I was ready. It was time to end all this.


    "Fuck you, Edmond." I spoke onest time before I curled myself into a fighting stance.

 Chapter 223 - Trinity - Showdown With My Father (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 223 - Trinity - Showdown With My Father (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    There was a subtle shift in the air as Edmond drew his magic to himself. I could see the power begin to swirl around him. More of that purple fog swirled around him as he radiated with intense power.


    The look in his eyes, along with the jaunty set to his chin it all said that he didn''t view me as a threat. He thought he could kill me easily. He thought this would be like a walk in the park as he taunted and tortured me. But he had another thinging.


    If there was one thing that I knew, it was that he didn''t know a single thing about me. He might be able to predict my actions to a certain degree, but he would never be able to know what I have put myself through. It was time to show him everything that I had at my disposal.


    I felt the rush of powering off him before the spell actually moved toward me. I shifted my weight and leapt into the air, using reflexes like a rabbit to escape his st. The swirling ck ball of magic he had aimed at me just soared off into the distance and dissipated after a while.


    "Such an animal." He snapped angrily as Inded behind him. "This proved how much you''ve been tainted."


    "If you only knew what I have be." I taunted him as I went on the offense this time.


    I didn''t want this taking forever, but I didn''t know how easily it would be to destroy a man who had been gaining power for centuries. This would no doubt be a hard fight for me.


    Sure enough, no sooner had I gone for the attack did he swing around with another st ready to throw at me. I had to jump out of the way to avoid his attack once again.


    "Come on, attack me. Didn''t you say you were going to kill me? What are you waiting for?" I heardughter in his voice as he beckoned me after him.


    "I''m getting they of thend." I offered him in lieu of a defense, all the while watching and learning his movements.


    "Thend is the same as you''re used to, you imbecile." He was shaking his head at me while he clearly thought I was being stupid.


    "So it is." And he was right. I was used to fighting, and all I had to do was watch him for clues and indicators. It was no different than learning to fight with all the men back at the Sentinelle. I had been trained to fight in different styles for a reason.


    I stopped hesitating, stopped holding myself back. It was time to fight him with everything I had. He thought I was nothing more than a mongrel mutt that would never be worthy of anything in my entire life. I''d show him what a mongrel like me was capable of.


    I shifted, taking on my wolf form, something that Edmond hadn''t seen since that night of my first shift. His eyes widened as he took in the sight of me but he didn''t make a sound, didn''t say a single word.


    I leapt toward him, My ws ready to dig into him, but he was prepared for that. He shot a length of rope out at me as he countered my attack. The rope wrapped around me several times, very tightly. Tight enough to cut off cirction.


    "I knew that was all you had." Heughed.


    "You couldn''t be more wrong." Iughed right back, drowning his voice with a chuckle of my own.


    While he looked at me dumbfounded I shifted again. My mate''s favorite form for me, the little brown rabbit, and while I did it I also summoned an illusion of more rabbits. In an instant at least a dozen little furry bunnies were hopping out of the ropes I was tied up with.


    "What the hell is this?" Edmond seemed genuinely confused. "Since when could a shifter change into multiple forms? Was your mother even more of a mongrel that I thought? Disgusting."


    "Don''t talk about my mother you asshole." I said as I spun in ce, rising above him in the form of a giant white elephant. In a bout of shock and surprise, to us both, I wrapped my trunk around him and threw him to the ground. Following that action I immediately stepped onto his chest, pressing down with great force.


    "What kind of monster are you?" He asked me with shock filling his eyes.


    "The kind you underestimated, that''s what."


    "What are you even talking about?" He actually seemed to be confused at that moment. Like it wasn''t clear that he had been wrong this whole time.


    "You don''t know anything about me or what I am." I shifted again as I spoke, this time taking on the form of a bear, my front right paw holding him in ce with long lethal ws poking into his chin.


    "What else could you be but a severely mixed breed mongrel? It''s clear your family wasn''t made of pure wolves."


    "That''s where you''re wrong, asshole." I snarled into his face as I summoned my own bindings for him.


    In the blink of an eye and with the sh of my magic, Edmond was lying beneath me, bound with cords of every element. He wouldn''t be able to move anytime soon, not unless he undid each individual binding. And before I would let that happen, I would just wrap more around him in an instant. He was going to shut up and listen to me. And so, I pulled myself off him and shifted into my human form, using my magic to form clothes that would cover me.


    "If you had just left me alone, just ignored my existence, I probably wouldn''t be what I am today. So in a way, I should thank you."


    "And what exactly are you?" His sneering voice never failed to grate at my nerves. I just wanted to stop him from talking altogether, but he had to know what he had done.


    "I am the Luna of my pack, the daughter of Wesley, Eve, and Lily. I am the mate of the Alpha, the leader of the Red Springs Wolf Pack. But above all that, more than anything else, I am the Luna Queen, the new incarnate of the Goddess Nehalennia, and I have been given the title of Warlock Queen, the chosen child of Thoth. I am so far above you and your paltry little antics that I do not need to justify anything to you, Edmond."


    "That''s impossible. There is no way that any of that is true." He spat the words into my face with a vehemence that was all too clear. "There is no way that a worthless little girl like you would be anything, let alone chosen by any of the celestials. You''re lying to me."


    "You only wish I was lying to you. Do these bindings not speak for themselves?" That was the first time I saw genuine fear in his eyes. He finally knew that I was telling the truth.


    "But how? How did you get to be granted with so much power? How did you get what it is that all we warlocks want? How?" He was hyperventting now, angrier than ever before.


    "Because of you, Edmond. If it hadn''t been for you ying at being a god, then there would never have been a need for me. So, as you see, I only exist because of you. You made me into what I am today. Aren''t you just so proud of me?" I held a note ofughter in my voice as I spoke, knowing that it would make him angrier the longer I spoke.


    "That''s impossible. You should have been just a wolf or a witch, it''s inconceivable that you would be so equally bnced in both. How did you manage to learn magic?" He was grasping at straws, trying to keep me talking more and more to buy him just a little more time.


    "You may have destroyed the Aerie Convento, but you did not destroy the magic council. They apanied me to train and teach me about my other side. I know all the histories of your people Edmond, because they are my people as well. I was granted the mark by Thoth himself." With those words I pointed to where the ankh mark was on my right shoulder.


    "Thoth was a stupid man and is an even more stupid god, he is too sentimental and naive, that is why he was unable to ept Hektate''s true nature." Edmond seemed to be rambling now, talking would buy him more time after all.


    "Thoth was a kind and generous man, and a father that cared for his children, but the loss of his wife nearly destroyed him. Hektate was the one who caused it all, she should have been punished further for her actions but Thoth loved her too much for that."


    "Shut up, you don''t know what you''re talking about. You''re an idiotic little child, you know nothing."


    "No, Edmond, you don''t know what you''re talking about, and I grow weary of your antics. It''s time for me to end this."

 Chapter 224 - Trinity - Destroyed (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 224 - Trinity - Destroyed (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "This will end when I say it does!" Edmond screamed at me. "And not a fucking minute sooner you ungrateful whelp. If it wasn''t for me and my experimentations, you wouldn''t fucking exist. Remember that. Remember that it''s all thanks to me that you even have a chance at life. And you need to remember that it''s me that can take all of that away from you. I gave you your life and I am more than capable, and definitely more than willing to take it from you." His ranting finally came to an end, along with the holier than thou tone he always used. He was now a rambling moron that lost his proper sounding dialect. Hmm, he did have other faults, that was good to know.


    "If you think you''re a match for someone chosen by a god and a goddess, then bring it on you psychopathic freak. I don''t think you have it in you to beat me. That''s the problem with you. You always let other people do the real fighting, the real dirty work, all while you sit there and threaten them like you''re someone special." I watched as Edmond''s face nched, he obviously couldn''t handle the truth.


    "Watch that fucking mouth of yours you little bitch. Shut it, before I shut it for you."


    "Oh no, I''m quaking in my boots. Someone help me please." I pretended to shake and shiver like I was afraid, deliberately overying the action forical effect. I was the only one to appreciate it at the moment.


    "I regret ever making you. You''re the most useless of all my creations. You''ve been nothing but a damn thorn in my side since day one. The mere sight of you even killed your mother. If she hadn''t been destroyed just by the idea of you then I could have used her as a way to control you. She would have been the remote control for me to use wherever I might have needed to. But no, no one wanted you when you were born, not even your good for nothing mother."


    "You know nothing about families, Edmond." I had to force the words past my clenched teeth as I bit down hard on my anger. I didn''t need to lose control, that''s what he wanted. If I lost control I would get stupid and make mistakes. If I made mistakes he might win. I had to bite my tongue and keep my sanity, no matter how hard that might seem right now.


    "Families are for the weak and simple. Families hold you down and stop you from reaching your potential. What need would I have for a family? What good would they do for me? I am too ambitious and powerful for a family." These words. The things he was saying. All of this was nothing more than the ramblings of a man who had long since lost touch with reality. He was so far gone that I knew nothing could ever reach him again. There was no point in talking to him anymore.


    It was then, listening to this psycho babble of his, that I noticed those eyes around us again. At first they were nothing more than just a feeling, something that made me know that I wasn''t alone here. Then, I began to feel like I was beginning to see the eyes, glinting in the light all around me, though still nearly impossible to detect.


    Now, as Edmond had rambled and preached his craziness for thest several minutes, it was like the eyes had taken form. And it wasn''t just the eyes, I could see faces and bodies forming as well.


    When I first caught sight of the face looking at us I was momentarily terrified. I thought that some demons hadtched onto Edmond and followed him into this world, this ce of gray emptiness. I thought that there might be some new enemying after me before I had even dealt with thest threat.


    Then, I looked closer at the faces, at the people surrounding us. There were hundreds of them. All young and innocent looking. And all of them looked so much like me. These were the children of Edmond. This was the family that he has said he didn''t need or care about. This was his biggest w. And they would aid me in his downfall.


    "Did you pay any attention to your children Edmond? Any at all?" I asked him. I wanted to buy time now, to allow my siblings time to fully form. And they seemed to be feeding on Edmond''s negativity. Come on then, Edmond, feed them, give them the sustenance you never would have spared them while they were still alive, while they still had their whole lives ahead of them. Feed their rage and hatred toward you. It would only help me in the long run anyway.


    "What need would I have of looking closely at them? They were mongrel half breeds."


    "If you hate half breeds so much, why did you make so many? Why did you put so much time and effort into their creation? The idea of it all simply baffles me." He had to know that his words made no sense at all.


    "It was simple really. Like I told you before, I needed spies, agents on the inside. I needed children born from the enemy ns that would have their trust and not be questioned. In a sense they would be sleeper agents."


    "Were there ever any of your children that survived your special attention? Were there any sleeper agents that you were actually able to imnt for future activation?" This was all starting to sound too much like a bad crime drama to me. Did he know this was the bat craziest shit I had ever heard? My guess would be that he didn''t, and that he thought this all made sense. Well, I guess to him it did.


    "There were a few that managed to be programmed for future activation. But they seemed to behave differently once they were sent home. So much so that they were noticed."


    "Does that mean they were destroyed?" I asked this out of genuine curiosity, and to know if I had to find and deprogram all his little sleeper cells.


    "Yes, unfortunately. As of this moment, you are the only living child of mine. The others have all been eliminated."


    "That must have been difficult for you." I tried to sound soothing, to give words like you would to any other grieving father. Apparently, my efforts were wasted.


    "Yes, it was quite the pain. I spent much of my long life preparing for their missions, only for my tools to be destroyed before I could enact even one step of my n. It truly was an annoyance."


    "You don''t feel anything about them being killed? About them having died for no reason beside their affiliation with you?"


    "What would there be for me to feel? Why do you keep asking me about this? Why do you keep going in circles with this?" He seemed annoyed now.


    It was like all he could feel. The only emotions he was capable of were anger, frustration, and annoyance. Oh, and rage. Let''s not forget that little beauty of a reaction. He was definitely capable of rage. Perhaps I had inherited some of my rage from him. Then again, wolves were known for it too. Sucks to be Edmond when I finally released my rage, all of it, and directed it at him.


    "You''re stalling." Edmond chuckled as he stated the obvious. "You know you can''t win and so you''re stalling. This is perfect." He was smiling like a lunatic, his eyes full of some form of psycho I didn''t even want toe close to analyzing. "Just give me a few more minutes and I will be out of these bindings of yours and I will finish this for you. You obviously seem too scared to even try." Hisughing voice seemed to grate against my skin like sandpaper being drawn across my nerves, I felt it most on the back of my neck as all the hair on my neck and arms began to stand at attention.


    "Such a delusional dumbass." I shook my head and pinch the bridge of my nose. "How did you manage to live this long being so stupid?" I didn''t mean to ask the question out loud, but in my frustration it just slipped out.


    "Me, stupid? You must be mistaken you bitch. I am not stupid in the slightest."


    "Oh, you must be, there is no other excuse for you being too blind that you think I am scared right now."


    "You''re stalling for time. What other reason could it be than fear?" He chuckled as he spoke, still so oblivious to his surroundings.


    "I was buying time for them." I answered.


    "For who?" He looked confused, like he didn''t understand a word I said. "None of your little friends can get here, you know. We''repletely alone, and that''s how you will die."


    "We''re not alone." I smirked at him. "I have family here with me."


    "What family? You refuse to recognize me as family, remember." He looked so cocky when he said that, like he thought there was no one else that could possibly be here. Did he simply not know the truth of where he brought me?


    "Look around you Edmond, and say hello to my family?" I did as I told him to, waving to the hundreds of siblings I had never been able to meet.


    I watched as Edmond''s face fell. The look in his eyes went from cocky and arrogant to one filled with nothing but fear.


    "No, this isn''t possible." His voice even cracked as he spoke.


    "It most definitely is, Edmond. Say hello to your children." I grinned as he finally understood. And, as I looked around, there seemed to be more than before. There seemed to be some among them who looked angrier than the others. Were they the ones that had been killed after being activated? I had the feeling they were.


    "How are they here? How is this even happening?" Edmond nearly screamed as he looked around the clearing at all his offspring.


    "We have always been with you, Father." The boy who had spoken to mest time spoke again. "We have all been with you and waiting for this opportunity."


    "Yes, Father, we''ve been waiting for you." One of the angry looking girls spoke, her voice turning into an angrier sounding sneer when she said the word father.


    "You have yed right into our hands, finally." Someone near the back and out of sight spoke up, but their voice was no less loud and could be heard easily.


    "Why have you attached yourselves to me, you heathens."


    "Heathens? Us? No, Father," another sneer, "you are the heathen. You are the one who takes pride in destruction."


    "You are the one who has plotted the destruction and downfall of not only your own flesh and blood but also the world." They all spoke in unison and I could swear I heard the voices of Thoth and Nehalennia mixed in among them. The God and Goddess must be aiding the children of Edmond.


    There was nothing for me to do for the time being. I just needed to listen and watch the show around me.


    "You were all my tools, my experiments. You wouldn''t have lived if it wasn''t for me." He tried iming that stupid logic again.


    "And none of our deaths would have urred if not for you either. You are nothing more than a blight on society, and it is time for you to be eliminated." They were continuing to speak in unison, their voices sounding eerie, but powerful.


    "You can''t! You won''t! I won''t let you!" Edmond was screaming now, frantic with fear. I guess he truly was capable of that emotion too.


    "It''s time to face the music Edmond. Time for you to atone for your sins." I told him as I finally joined my siblings in this conversation. "You have been judged by those who you sought to destroy, and you have been found guilty. There will be no second chances or escapes. It all ends here and now."


    "No! I won''t let you." He continued to try and change the minds of us all. But it was to no avail. His fate was sealed.


    "Prepare to die, Edmond." Those were thest words that I spoke before I called my magic to me. I reached out with a phantom hand, the same type I had used with Reece. I reached out until I felt his throat under my phantom limb.


    When I felt the steady, yet rapid, beat of his pulse I knew I was in position. I was ready to do what needed to be done. I hardened the magic of my invisible, phantom hand. Once the magic was stronger and harder, I swiped with it, one quick motion, right across his throat. The spray of blood was instantaneous as the cut nearly severed his head. Once more swipe, this one going in the opposite direction, and his head had been removed.


    Almost at the exact same time that I had made my first swipe, the children of Edmond had descended. They had already torn his limbs from his body before I had fully removed him of the burden of his head.


    I pulled the bloody, dripping head to me with the phantom hand as my long dead siblings wed and ripped Edmond to shreds. I just stood there, watching the bloody mess form before my eyes. There was no recognizing that pile of red goo as Edmond, nothing of the previous shape remained.


    When they were done, they all turned to look at me. The rage and anger leaving their bodies. Those emotions had instead been reced with a sense of contented happiness. They were finally at peace.


    "How did you find us here?" I asked them, curious to know how they had been able to follow us from the real world.


    "This is thend of shadows. We ghosts live among the shadows and rarely make it to thend of the living." They all spoke once again, like in death all children of Edmond were the same.


    "Did Edmond know that?"


    "No, he did not. But it was to our advantage that he did not know." There seemed to be a hint ofughter in that response.


    "So you followed him, waiting for your chance to kill him?"


    "We would not have been able to kill him without you, sister. It was your conversation with him that gave us form. The negative emotions fed us into being able to attack. Even among the shadows, ghosts are nothing more than a conscious shadow. We could no more hurt him that you could catch the wind." Iughed at that, because I had actually caught the wind, so to speak, but they didn''t need to know that.


    "So was it just our words, or my magic that you needed?" I asked them, for rity purposes.


    "Both. You are the only one of us to survive, and now there will be no more. Please, sister, use your gifts wisely." As they all spoke this time I noticed a slight glowing around their edges.


    "What''s happening now?" I asked them, scared as they all seemed to be disappearing.


    "We have nothing to tether us to the shadows now, it''s time for us to move on and find peace." They seemed to be smiling, all of them were. "Be strong, and be brave dear sister. You are thest of our kind and we will always watch over you from the great beyond." And with those words they all began to quickly fade away.


    "Thank you for your help. I will never forget you all, ever."


    "Thank you." They spoke again, but it seemed so far away now, like they had traveled a great distance while still looking at me. "Goodbye." With that final word they were gone. I was now alone in the field with a bloody mess in front of me and a head held in my hand.


    There was one thing I knew for sure though, Edmond was finally dead.

 Chapter 225 - Trinity - Going Home (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 225 - Trinity - Going Home (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I gripped the bloody, dripping head in my left hand. The face that was frozen on it was filled with awe and fear. Even in the end, he couldn''t ept what was happening to him. He never did ept that I was better than him.


    But, it wasn''t worth my time to think about it too much. What I needed to do now was get home. I had to get out of this shadownd filled with gray, gray and more gray. The only relief in the color I saw was the bloody mess that was Edmond. Looking at that gooey puddle that used to be a person made my stomach roil again. I had seen way too many disgusting sights today and my stomach just couldn''t handle it.


    "I need to get home." I said to myself out loud. Once those words were spoken, once the eerie quiet of the clearing was broken, it was like the illusion of this ce was destroyed. The air around me became blurry, like I was trying to look at something through a thick hazy fog.


    I didn''t move, didn''t take a step, but I once again felt like I was moving somewhere. Air rushed past my face and I could feel the dropping of my stomach that meant I was travelling at a high rate of speed. This feeling was disorienting and disconcerting, but also a little exciting. It reminded me of how I felt when I travelled on a vortex of wind.


    Once the wind began to die down and the sensation of moving was ebbing away I could finally see color returning around me. I had kept my eyes open this time. I had seen everything that had happened, which didn''t amount to much. The scene around me never changed but I felt like I was moving. All that happened was the color began to slowly return to the images that I saw. And once the color was back, the people and carnage was back as well.


    "Trinity!" I heard Reece''s voice as he shouted my name. It took me less than half a second to turn to face him but he had already reached me and wrapped his arms around me with a crushing force. I was enveloped in his warmth, his strength, his love. He was there to protect me once again. And his relief at seeing me was palpable. Goddess, but I had missed him in that short time that I was away from him.


    "Reece." I said his name in a sigh as I buried my face against his naked chest. That was when I realized he was standing there, holding me with absolutely no clothes on. "Reece!" I eximed as I looked around us. "Why are you naked?"


    "What? I shifted, that''s why." He looked confused to hear my outburst.


    "Geez Muttley, why didn''t you get dressed."


    "Because I don''t have clothes with me." He said it so matter-of-factly that I could literally hear the ''well duh'' in his tone. I just looked at him with a piercing gaze as I conjured clothes around him. They were simple, a pair of ck jeans and a dark green t-shirt.


    "There, now you''re not naked." I smiled with relief as I felt the jealousy start to ebb away.


    "What, no underwear?" He whispered into my ear as he leaned forward. I flushed crimson red as he asked me that.


    "I can''t believe I forgot that part." I smacked my empty hand against my forehead. "I remembered my own when I shifted back."


    "Don''t worry, I don''t mind goingmando for just a little while." He whispered and winked at me.


    "Oh stop it Copper, you''re nothing but a hound dog." I wanted tough.


    "If I''m Copper, does that make you the fox?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, he was so unaffected by anything that it was kind of refreshing right now.


    "Ahem." I heard someone clear their voice, breaking into our little reverie. "Sorry to interrupt, but-." Noah trailed off as he looked away sheepishly.


    "Noah." I said his name with a tone filled with relief.


    "I''m so d to see you''re safe Trinity." He wrapped one arm around me embarrassedly as I stepped toward him, Reece still had his hand resting on my left shoulder making the whole thing a little awkward.


    "Not to bring up unpleasantries." Reece spoke as he looked down at my hand. "But what the fuck is that?" His shock was clear on his face and in his voice as he spoke.


    "Oh, I almost forgot." I smiled as I held it up. "Say hello to Edmond."


    "Edmond?" Reece and Noah both exhaled his name like they had been punched in the gut, confusion was written all over their faces, and just a slight amount of fear. What, were they afraid of me?


    "Trinity, what happened?" Noah asked me with an awe filled voice.


    "I killed him, that''s all you need to know for now. We can discuss the restter when we''re back home."


    "Are you alright?" Reece asked me as he began to look me over. He ran his hands up and down my arms and felt all over my back. He was clearly worried that I was hiding some kind of injury from him.


    "I''m fine. He didn''t hurt me at all."


    "He didn''t?" Noah looked perplexed.


    "No, I didn''t give him the chance." I smiled at him. "By the way, Noah, why are you here? Weren''t you at a different battlefield?"


    "When the creatures disappeared we all decided to meet up here. I was the closest so I arrived first. The others will be here soon."


    "The creatures disappeared?" That was news to me.


    "Yes, just a few minutes before you came back all the monsters, dead and mostly dead, all of them just seemed to turn to ashes and blew away like dust on the wind. I hoped that meant that you had won, that you had killed Edmond, and I''m so d I was right."


    "He won''t bother us ever again." I smiled at Reece as I cupped his face in my hand. "He''s truly gone now." I was happy to reassure him of that, I would happily reassure any of them of that fact.


    "Dude, is that a head?" I heard Shane''s voice as the others started to arrive. "Is that Edmond''s head?" He added as he looked closer. "Can I kick a field goal with it?" Theughter in his voice was so free and fun that it was making me feel better. But I felt like I was forgetting something.


    I watched as the others started to arrive. David came after Shane, his face was smeared with dirt and his clothes were sttered with blood, but he seemed to be alright. Carter came next. Thank the Goddess he looked fine, he didn''t seem to be hurt at all. This was starting to look like a great ending. Everything had turned out just fine.


    Then I watched as Dietrich came back next, a lost expression on his face as he looked all around the clearing. He looked lonely. He was probably looking for Shawn.


    It was with that thought that it finally hit me. I finally remember what had been nagging at the back of my memory. What it was I had forgotten.


    "Shawn!" I yelled his name and took off running. With just a slight second thought I turned my head and threw Edmond''s head. "Here, David, catch."


    "What the hell. Eww, that''s fucking gross. Don''t throw severed heads at people. That''s justmon courtesy." I heard his stream ofints in the back of my mind but they weren''t important right now.


    "Trinity, where are you going?" Reece took off after me.


    "Shawn is hurt." I yelled back. "I saw it before I was taken to the shadownd. I have to go and make sure he is alright." I was panicked now. How could I have forgotten about that? How could I have forgotten Shawn. He was such a good friend, he was almost more like family to me than a friend. How could I have forgotten that he had been hurt so badly.


    "Did you say Shawn was hurt?" Dietrich''s head snapped up as he began to follow me. "Mein Liebhaber." Dietrich''s world seemed to have been destroyed in that moment.


    "We have to hurry." I urged them on.


    "How do you know? How do you know that he is hurt?" Dietrich seemed to be hoping for a way to prove that I was wrong.


    "I saw it. I saw that he was attacked by the spider freaks before I was taken by Edmond."


    "Oh Mein Gott, Oh my Goddess, please let him be ok." There was so much pain in Dietrich''s voice.


    "I will make certain of it, Dietrich. I refuse to lose anyone else. But we need to hurry." I didn''t know why the feeling of urgency was so strong, but it was there and it was egging me on. "We''ve got to get to him." My voice held an edge that I couldn''t quite describe. "We''reing Shawn, just hang in there."

 Chapter 226 - Trinity - Shawn (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 226 - Trinity - Shawn (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    As we were running, racing to check on Shawn, I sent a message via mind link. I needed to tell Griffin to hurry. He had been waiting near the edge of town. He was waiting to see if he would be needed. Well, he was needed. I''m sure more than just Shawn needed his help, but Shawn was all that filled my mind right now.


    ''Griffin!'' I nearly yelled into his head.


    ''Not so loud, Luna, please.'' It sounded like he was speaking with pain in his voice.


    ''We need you, now.'' I sent these words back at him with a slightly lower volume.


    ''Who has been hurt, and where?'' He was already in his work mode.


    ''Shawn has been hurt, he is near the river on the south side of the city.''


    ''Lana and I will be there soon.'' I was happy to hear that they were together and that they could help Shawn and everyone else.


    It felt like it was taking a long time, too long, to get to Shawn. I felt like I was running through sand and water, hell even jello. It was like I just couldn''t move fast enough, but none of the others were moving any faster than I was. We were all racing to the river, racing to where Shawn wasying, hurt, probably scared. How could I have let this happen?


    Finally, after what felt like hours I crested a small hill and could see the river in the distance. Somewhere over there was Shawn. We all started off once more, this time using our noses to search for Shawn''s exact location.


    It only took seconds to find him this time, but it still felt like an hour. My sense of time was majorly off. I couldn''t trust myself with judging time right now.


    I was the first to reach Shawn''s side, Dietrich hot on my heels. I dropped to my knees next to him and took in the sight of him. There was arge bloody sh that went up his abdomen from his right side all the way to his shoulder, and there was an equally bloody looking sh that ran down the left side of his face from his hairline to his jaw.


    "Shawn?" I called out his name at the same time that Dietrich spoke.


    "Mein Wolfsliebe." I heard the tears in Dietrich''s voice as he reached out to stroke Shawn''s face. "Bleib bitte bei mir. Bleib f¨¹r immer bei mir." The heartache in Dietrich''s voice as he begged Shawn to stay with him forever was enough to bring tears to my eyes.


    "Shawn,e on, wake up. Speak to us Shawn."


    Just as I spoke those words, begging Shawn to wake up and hoping to see his eyes flutter, I heard the approach of more people. Griffin and Lana were here.


    "Griffin, hurry." I called out to him.


    "I''ming. Lana, you check the others."


    "Reece, get the others to help you find anyone who may be hurt and need help. Also, count the dead and gather their bodies. They deserve a proper burial." I was trying to sound diplomatic and authoritative, but all I could focus on was Shawn.


    "Alright." Reece nodded at my words as he turned to leave and begin his task.


    Almost as soon as Reece left Griffin was at Shawn''s side, shooing both me and Dietrich away. He needed to work and we were in the way. With some reluctance, the two of us rose to our feet and stepped aside.


    "What kind of animal attacked him?" Griffin asked almost immediately after beginning his examination. "These wounds are deep.


    "It wasn''t an animal." I told him. "It was another human monster created by Edmond."


    "Will we never be rid of him?" Griffin''s voice sounded tired and sad as he spoke.


    "We are." That was all it took. The light that lit inside Griffin''s eyes was like a rising sun.


    "Are you sure? He''s really gone?"


    "I have his head as proof." That should have sounded dark and sinister, but it really didn''t. It was like a joyful chorus that needed to be sung to the world. Edmond was really truly dead.


    Dietrich could not seem to get into the conversation. Tears rimmed his eyes that had turned red in his extreme emotional state. I tried to put my arm around his shoulders, but he was too tall for me to do that. What I managed instead was an arm around his waist. I pulled Dietrich toward me, taking his weight onto me, letting his head rest against the top of mine.


    "He will be alright Dietrich, I know he will. He''s strong."


    "He''s stronger than I am." Dietrich''s voice held all the emotions he was trying so hard to hold back.


    After that, the two of us stood together, leaning on one another for support as we watched and waited for Griffin to give us some sort of news. We watched as Griffin tore away what remained of Shawn''s shirt so he could inspect the deep gash across his chest.


    Griffin then pushed aside Shawn''s hair, revealing more of the sh down the side of his face. With more of the two wounds finally revealed I was able to see that they were lined with a deep purplish bruising. Long thin red lines had begun to snake from the sides of the wounds and were making their way across his chest and arms. And on top of that some sort of thick, yellow pus was oozing from the sides of those two deep cuts.


    "What is that Griffin? It looks like he''s been poisoned."


    "That''s exactly it. Those creatures must have been venomous. He''s been infected and it''s spreading fast."


    "What does that mean? Can''t you stop it? Can''t you use your power to heal him?" Dietrich''s seemed desperate as he asked these questions.


    "I''m trying, but the venom is spreading faster than I can heal him. I''m worried it will reach his heart before I have the chance to rid his body of it all."


    "What can we do? What are our options?" I was scared now, more scared than I was when I faced down Edmond.


    "I don''t know." Griffin looked like he was at a loss. "I don''t know what to do."


    "Would having two of you help? Should we get Lana?" It might have been worth a shot.


    "I really don''t know. It might, but I don''t know if he would make it, he might notst that long."


    "Why did I have to send them away?" I would beat myself up my entire life if I couldn''t find a way to save Shawn.


    "I might have an idea." Dietrich''s voice was filled with apprehension. "But it is not something I had discussed with Shawn yet. I do not know if he would ept it, even to save his life."


    "Dietrich, whatever it is, I am sure that Shawn would choose to stay with you instead of dying. He loves you and he would want to be with you."


    "It''s not that simple, he might reject what it is when he wakes. And I admit, I do not know what all it will entail."


    "Will it save his life?" That was all I needed to know from him. "Will it stop him from dying?"


    "I believe it will, yes."


    "Then do it. If Shawn takes an issue with it, then have him talk to me. I will exin everything to him."


    "Alright." Dietrich was nodding as he made his decision. "I will do it."


    I watched as Dietrich knelt next to Shawn before pulling him into his arms. He wrapped his arms around him, cradling him close.


    "Ich liebe dich Liebling." Dietrich whispered before he kissed Shawn''s forehead.


    I felt like I was invading on a personal moment, but I was too worried for Shawn to look away. I just kept praying to the gods, all of them, that Shawn would live.


    I watched as one lonely tear streamed down Dietrich''s face. Whatever he was about to do was very emotionally hard for him, apparently. He kissed Shawn onest time, on the lips before he pulled Shawn closer to him.


    As I watched on, I saw Dietrich''s eyes shift. His usually almost white shade of light blue had turned red and had begun to glow with a faint light. Then, I saw his fangs descend past his top lip so they were visible even with his mouth shut.


    In the next second I watched as Dietrich lowered his mouth to Shawn''s neck. He sank his teeth into the soft flesh at the curve of shoulder and neck. He bit him right where a mate mark would appear.


    For nearly a minute Dietrich kept his lips pressed against Shawn''s flesh. I just watched on in awe, not really understanding what was going on. But before long he pulled his mouth away, with a sigh and a gasp for air.


    But Dietrich didn''t seem to be done just yet. The next thing that Dietrich did was bring his own wrist to his mouth. He bit down on the soft, tender flesh of his right wrist. The fangs broke into the skin bringing blood to the surface immediately.


    Dietrich slowly tilted Shawn''s head back and ced his wrist against his mouth. Slowly, but with a steady stream, the blood poured into Shawn''s mouth. I saw the muscles in his throat move as he swallowed reflexively.


    I had finally figured out what it was Dietrich was doing. He was turning Shawn. He was giving him a vampire''s healing ability. I just hoped it would work in time.


    As I watched on I felt a slight breeze begin to stir all around us. The breeze picked up, stronger and stronger, but I seemed to be the only one affected by it. There was a slight red glow in the corner of my eyes that was soon followed by the whisper of words within my head.


    "I do not choose you as my sessor, but I acknowledge your strength. That is why I will aid in this endeavor. I will help the wolf boy to be a hybrid." The voice spoke to me inside that wind.


    "Who are you?" I asked reflexively.


    "I am the Goddess Selene. The mother of vampires. I will aid your allies and help them. And I choose the vampire before you as my chosen one. He will be my Vampire King."


    "Thank you Selene. Thank you so much." I felt the tears begin to run down my face.


    "This road will not be easy for your friend, but he has a strong one there to aid him. I only ask that you never turn your back on my people."


    "I won''t, I want to unite the world, bring peace to all those that walk in the shadows."


    "I know that, child, that is why I am choosing to help you. Keep this alliance going strong, always remain true to your heart."


    "Thank you again Selene." With myst thanks I felt her presence beginning to slip away and the wind started to die down. No one else even seemed to have noticed what had happened. But I was now smiling. Shawn would live.

 Chapter 227 - Both -Dietrich’s News (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 227 - Both -Dietrich¡¯s News (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After Dietrich bit Shawn things began to happen quickly, it was like time was making up for all the slowing down it did earlier. Things seemed to be moving at hyperspeed now instead of a snail''s pace.


    I watched as Dietrich pulled his wrist away from Shawn''s mouth and Shawn immediately began to spasm. His body jerked with a sudden violent motion. But there was a bright side too, Shawn took a deep, shuddering gasp as he drew in a breath and his eyes fluttered.


    "Liebling." Shawn seemed to whisper as he looked into Dietrich''s eyes.


    "Wolfsliebe." Dietrich''s voice was relieved when he saw his mate wake up. "How do you feel?"


    "I think I''m fi-." That was as far as Shawn got before he was hit with a sudden spasm of pain and he jerked violently in Dietrich''s arms. "Ahhhh!" He screamed in pain, his head thrown back with the long, loud cry.


    "Shawn?" I ran forward, my voice cracking.


    "Shawn, my darling, what is wrong?" Dietrich looked scared.


    "It hurts, it all hurts." Shawn was shaking uncontrobly.


    "It''s the changing." I said looking into Dietrich''s conflicted eyes.


    "I did not know it would be this painful." Shawn seemed too far gone, wracked with too much pain to even hear what we were saying.


    "Selene told me it would be hard, but that he had you there to help him."


    "Selene?" He looked shocked. "You spoke with the Goddess Selene, the mother of vampires?"


    "Yes, while you were giving Shawn your blood she came to me and spoke to me. And she told me something else."


    "What? Will it help Shawn?"


    "Yes, Dietrich, I think it will. She told me you are her chosen one, you are the Vampire King."


    "I didn''t know we had such a thing." It looked like Dietrich wanted tough but couldn''t bring himself to do it while Shawn was hurt.


    "But this means you are Goddess blessed the same as I am, you will have new abilities now. And you can use them to help Shawn."


    "I hope you''re right."


    From there we all quickly moved back to the estate. Dietrich went quicker as he shadow walked with Shawn in his arms. Reece and I hurried back as quick as we could in more traditional methods. I must admit that?I wished we could have gone faster, but as long as we got home and found out that everything was actually ok I would be fine.


    When we got back to the estate we found that Dietrich was already in his room with Shawn resting on the bed. Shawn was still wracked with pain and would likely be like that for a while. I would go visit him when it was all over. For the time being, however, I had to exin a few things to more than a few people.


    The rest of the guards met us all in the usual conference room. They all wanted details on what happened during my time with Edmond. Reece seemed to want those details more than anyone else.


    "What happened?" Carter started the bombardment of questions as soon as Reece and I were in the room.


    "Are you alright?" Vincent, ever the caring one added.


    "How did you kill him?" Shane asked in trueid back fashion.


    "Is it all over?" David asked hesitantly.


    All those around me were worried about me. Reece and Noah knew that I was safe, Dietrich and Shawn weren''t here, but the others had nothing to stop them from asking their questions. I would answer them all and ease everyone''s worries.


    Slowly, methodically, and with as much uracy as I could manage I told them all what had happened when I was taken from this world to another one entirely. They all seemed to be curious about the other ne of existence I was taken to, but above that and all else, they were just happy that I managed to kill the man who had caused us all so many problems.


    They asked their questions. They wanted to know about the ghosts, the things Edmond told me. They were all quite angered when they learned that Edmond was the one who started the Witch trials. No one could quite understand how one man became so twisted. How did people like him even exist?


    Once my report was given it was time to receive one of my own. The list of those lost. I didn''t want to hear that report, but I needed to. The bad parts are part of the job too, after all. I needed to sit there and take this news responsibly, I was their leader and I would sure as hell act like it.


    When all the casualties were counted, there were less dead than I expected. Three dozen total. With all the carnage I had seen, with all the monsters that had attacked us all, with everything that had happened it was only thirty-six people lost. On the flip side of that coin was the sorrow that I felt at the loss of so many lives.


    Among that list of dead, there were only a few names I recognized, Zeek from the gate who was always ready with a smile for me even before I became the Luna, Kenny from Riley''s pack, one of his omegas but he was a good guy even though I only met him once. The names of the others all blended together in my head. Wolf, wolf, bear, lynx, lion, tiger, tiger, warlock, vampire, vampire, warlock, bear, the list continued on in that fashion with names and species like they were some sort of supply order.


    I was happy it wasn''t more but I was still aching inside because there were so many. There were many people who had been hurt, those who nearly lost their lives but were saved when Lana showed up with Reece and the others during their check.


    I had regretted sending Lana away earlier but now I was so happy that I did. Lana did amazing work saving the lives of so many people who were gravely injured. She helped to heal and save shifters, wolves, bears and others, she saved warlocks that were nearly lost in the chaos and distraction caused by the fight, she saved vampires who were unable to heal on their own due to too much blood loss. She did a great job, and I was so happy she hade back with us.


    This day started out horribly, and it didn''t gopletely our way, but I was d that no one I was close to lost their lives. We would all live to see another day, and we would never forget the sacrifice made by those who had died today.


    I wanted to do something special for them all. They deserved a special ce of recognition, somewhere they could continue to protect us all with their strong spirits. So, I began to n a group funeral that would end with their sacred burials in key points around the city. They would receive ces of honor like they deserved.


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Once we had concluded the meeting there was only one thing on my Little Bunny''s mind. She wanted to see Shawn. I should have felt jealous that she was so focused on another man, but I knew that she was just feeling guilty. She cared about all her guards and almost losing one in that fight had nearly broken her. It was like she didn''t grasp that he was there to protect her more than anyone or anything else. Well, aside from Dietrich.


    I have seen my mate in a life threatening situation on more asions than I care to think about so I knew exactly what Dietrich was feeling. He came close to losing his mate and had ended up doing whatever it took to save his life. I would have done the same thing.


    It was with these thoughts that I followed behind my wife as she walked to the bedside of another man, though my hand was still ced protectively and possessively on her hip. I didn''t want her out of my sight after what had happened today. I nearly died when she disappeared from the clearing in front of me, my heart literally felt like it had stopped.


    "Thank you foring to check on him." Dietrich smiled as he stood up from his chair next to the bed. He looked ready to stand guard for eternity if that was what it took.


    "I''m so sorry for what happened." Little Bunny''s voice trembled as she spoke, guiltcing through every word.


    "You have nothing to be sorry for, Trinity. We had so much to deal with. We all did." He was trying to soothe her guilty conscience, knowing that only Shawn waking up and epting what he has be would make her feel less guilty.


    "Will he be ok?" She was looking at Shawn as she asked this question.


    "I believe so. While I was waiting at his side I had a conversation with Selene. You must be powerful, Trinity." He grinned at her.


    "What do you mean?" She sounded and looked as confused as I felt.


    "That conversation felt like it drained every drop of my energy. If it weren''t for my love for Shawn I would already be asleep. Yet, you spoke with her and other gods several times. The power you must possess to be able to survive so many and such lengthy talks, it''s simply amazing and so enviable."


    "I don''t know about that." She blushed and turned her head to the side with embarrassment.


    "I do." He smiled at her, true awe in his eyes.


    Just then, Trinity swooned on her feet. It onlysted a second but she nearly fell to the floor in that moment.


    "Whoa." I cried out as I caught her and held her against my chest for bnce.


    "I''m sorry. I''m just really tired." And as she spoke her stomach growled loudly causing a blush to stain her cheeks a deep red color. "And hungry I guess." She wasughing now. "Now that I think about it, I haven''t eaten anything today."


    "You need to make sure you''re eating properly, it''s not good for the babies."


    "Excuse me?" I eximed.


    "What did you say?" Trinity seemed just as shocked as I was to hear his words. Dietrich looked embarrassed now, like he thought he had done something wrong.


    "I''m sorry, I assumed you knew. I didn''t say anything this morning because of the impending battle but I noticed the change in you immediately. Did you not already know?"


    "No, the day started with bang, so to speak. We were literally awoken by the call that the enemies wereing. I admit that I didn''t pay as much attention." It was my turn to take the embarrassed helm I guess.


    "Wait, Dietrich, did you say babies?" My Little Bunny was still stunned as she asked that.


    "Weren''t you paying attention. He said he''s noticed you''re pregnant again." I felt the grin spread across my face, it felt like my face was going to split in two already.


    "I heard and I know what he said. But he said babies, Reece, not baby."


    "Wait, you''re right, he did." In unison we both turned to look at Dietrich who was grinning at us.


    "I was asked recently if I could tell the difference between single and multiple pregnancies and I said I didn''t know." He just smiled for a second while we stared at him. "Well, I guess I can."


    "Twins?" I asked with a shocked look before I grinned again, wider than before. I ignored the pain that smile caused in my overly stretched cheeks.


    "Twins?" Trinity echoed my question.


    "Yes, twins. Congrattions." He pped us both on the shoulder at the same time, squeezing gently as he finished driving home the news he had just shared with us.


    Well, that was one hell of a way to find out that my wife was pregnant. But I would never regret sharing that moment with a close personal friend. I was going to be a father, and this time I would make sure nothing happened to them.

 Chapter 228 - Trinity - And So It Begins (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 228 - Trinity - And So It Begins (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    My head was still reeling. This information was hard to process. Dietrich just told me that I was pregnant, again. And that I was having twins. I didn''t know that I was pregnant until he told me. Last time it was Reece who had told me after I was sick for that whole day. But now it was Dietrich who informed me of this. Why hadn''t we noticed? We were really paying that little attention to ourselves today to not notice something like that?


    Now that Dietrich told me though, it made a lot of sense. I mean, I am not normally a squeamish person and the things I saw today made me want to vomit. Hell, I actually did vomit once.


    Well, I guess I was just getting started with that whole nausea thing. I wasn''t looking forward to that. But I was looking forward to being a mother and having my little family with Reece.This time, I would make sure that nothing bad happened to my babies.


    "Come on sweetheart, let''s leave them alone. Dietrich looks tired." I could feel Reece tugging on my arm as he started pulling me toward the door. The problem was, I didn''t seem able to respond. I was too busy thinking. "I''m ordering out for dinner, I''ll send some your way when it arrives." I heard the words Reece was saying but I didn''t process them.


    "Thank you bruder."


    I didn''t know how, but the next thing I knew I was sitting in my room and Reece was standing in front of me, pizza boxes in hand.


    "Come on, snap out of it already, you need to eat." His tone was filled withughter, and when I shook my head and looked at him I saw that he was smiling. "You''re tired, hungry, and spacing out way too much. I can only help with two of those things so that''s what I am going to do." He was grinning happily, like he was floating on cloud nine and it was saturated with happy juice.


    "When did you get those?" I asked him as I heard my stomach rumble greedily when the smell finally hit me.


    "I ordered them after we got to the room."


    "Wow, what was it, warp delivery." Iughed at him. "It''s only been a couple minutes right.


    "No, you''ve been sitting there like a zombie for almost an hour. Same delivery time as usual."


    "What?" I was shocked to hear his words. "You''re joking right?"


    "I''m afraid not. But I wish we could have gotten warp delivery, that shit would be awesome."


    "Stop joking around. You ordered those before we went to Dietrich''s room, right?"


    "No, I didn''t. I didn''t order them until after I carried you back here."


    "You carried me?" That was news to me.


    "Well, you weren''t cooperating very much with the whole walking thing, so I had no choice."


    "Well, what do you expect, Odie? I''ve kind of had my fucking mind blown today, in several ways really. But only one thing has rendered me speechless and nearly catatonic."


    "Is the idea of having babies with me that bad?" His mood dropped and a sheet of depression settled onto his face, the light in his eye diminished and his features were dark and brooding.


    "Where the hell did you get that idea, Fido? Seriously, what''s the matter with you? I''m overjoyed."


    "Really?"


    "Yes, really. I was so upset when we lost our jelly bean before. I still miss that little glow of life that was inside me and I''m reluctant to feel that same joy just yet but I can''t help myself. I am so happy and excited at the thought of us bing a family." I had grabbed his left hand in mine, the one not holding the boxes at the moment, and cradled it to my chest.


    "You have no idea how happy that makes me." His smile was back and the light was returning to his eyes. "I love you Little Bunny, more than life itself. And I will love any part of you I get to have in my life, these babies and any more we might have."


    "Slow your roll there, Benji. I don''t know what you''re thinking, but I need to see how this pregnancy thing goes before I even decide to let you touch me again."


    "So I better get all the touching that I can in before you have them." He grinned mischievously.


    "You''re a perv." Iughed at him.


    "But you love me anyway."


    "For reasons even I don''t know sometimes. But you''re sexy as hell, so it''s an even trade off."


    "Uhh!" Reece fake scoffed in a high pitched voice. "You only want me for my body, you monster."


    "Not just your body." Iughed as I jumped to my feet.


    "Really?" He smiled happily as I came closer, he even leaned down anticipating a kiss.


    "That''s right, I also want your pizza." I chuckled as I stole the boxes from his hand and twisted out of his way to head to the table.


    "You''re so mean." He pouted before turning to follow me.


    "But you love me anyway." I used his words from before as I set the boxes on the table.? "You know it." He kissed the top of my head.


    We ate our dinner in the room together, talking the whole time. We talked about the battle. We walked about Shawn''s condition and Dietrich''s revtion. And we talked about the future.


    We talked about how it was going to be when the babies were born and how happy we would all be together. We talked about how Nikki''s baby was due in just a month and our babies would be less than six months apart in age, they would grow up together and could y together.


    We talked about the things that could go wrong, and what we would do to prevent them. We talked about how happy our families were going to be then they heard the news. We talked about how we wanted to tell everyone.


    But, we decided that we didn''t want to tell anyone until after the group funeral. We wanted to have a big celebration after the funeral tomemorate us all being alive and well. And, conveniently, Reece''s birthday wasing up in just over two weeks on the fourth of July. That exined his little mister independent attitude he always had when I first met him.


    Our n now was to hold a massive party for his birthday and the independence day celebration all at once. And it was there that we would let everyone know about the babies. The pack had not been fully informedst time, but there were still a lot who had known because of word of mouth. We would lift their spirits following this difficult time with joyous news for the entire pack.


    Also, we had to gag the only other person who knew about the babies. But when Dietrich answered his phone and heard what we wanted, he had no problem agreeing to the secret.


    "It''s not my news to share, Mein Freunde. Do not worry, your secret is safe with me, even from Shawn. I will tell no one."


    "Tell no one what?" I heard Shawn''s voice in the background.


    "Liebling, you''re awake." Dietrich''s voice was full of happiness in that moment.


    "What happened, Dietrich?"


    "I will tell you. I will tell you all of it, but not the Luna''s news, that you must wait for." Dietrich giggled happily. "Excuse me, Trinity, I must go now."


    "I know Dietrich, take care of him. We wille see him in the morning."


    "Yes, yes." He agreed as he rushed to get off the phone. "Goodnight."


    "Goodnight." The words were barely out of my mouth before Dietrich ended the call. "Well, he was in a hurry." I joked as I put my phone down.


    After all that was settled and I set my phone aside, Reece stood up looming above me.


    "What?" I asked him curiously.


    "Now that you''ve been fed, it''s time for a bath." He didn''t wait for a response, he just scooped me into his arms and started walking toward the bathroom door.


    "I can walk on my own Reece, you don''t have to carry me." I squealed as I felt myself be weightless.


    "Well, I feel like doting on you, so deal with it." He said it as if that ended the conversation.


    "Reece." I smacked his shoulder as I said his name, just for emphasis. "I am not a china doll, I will not break. Put me down."


    "Nope. You''ll be lucky if I let you out of my sight until the babies are born. If I have to wrap you in bubble wrap and put you in a padded room for the next six months, then so be it. I will do whatever I have to do, whatever it takes to keep you and our babies safe."


    "God, you''re so over the top." I sighed with resignation as I slumped back into his arms.


    "Oh, so you want me on top of you." He said the words suggestively.


    "OH MY GODDESS!" I growled. "You''re such a horny slut dog. I swear." I was only pretending to be angry while Iughed at him.


    The bath was lovely. Reece cradled me to him until he was able to set me on the edge of the sink. He stepped away only for a minute to set the temperature of the water. Soon, all the faucets were going at one and a pleasant fruit scent wasing from the water, it held notes of apples, oranges, and lemons.


    After the water was ready he came back to, slowly, help me out of my clothes. I didn''t know if he was treating me like a child or trying to turn me on with his slow sensual movements. With his crazy ass way of thinking it was probably a bit of both.


    After we were both stripped of all our clothes, Reece gathered me in his arms again and carried me into the tub. He set me on hisp, like he had done before. Slowly, methodically, and with meticulous care Reece started to wash me.


    Slow strong hands massaged the soap over my back, across my shoulders, and down my arms. Then it was time to get more private. He washed across my chest, up and down my legs. He cupped my core in his hands as he gently cleaned me, but he didn''t go any further, bathing was all he had nned apparently.


    Next, he massaged my scalp gently with shampoo, his strong fingers working out even more tension from my body. Then he massaged my head again, this time with conditioner. He seemed intent on making me feel rxed.


    While I sat there, conditioner doing it''s magic with my hair, he grabbed my hands and started massaging them with slow circles. His fingers were working a magic on me I never knew he possessed. It was like heaven as I sat there on hisp.


    A girl could really get used to this.


    Once the hand massage was finished and he washed himself and rinsed us both he pulled the plug on the water and stood with me in his arms again. After grabbing a few extrarge towels he wrapped us up and carried me to the bed.


    I sat on the edge of the mattress, where he had set me down, as he began to towel the water from my hair and body. He wasn''t saying anything, he was just working with determination.


    After I was thoroughly dried Reece stepped over to my vanity. He came back with the bottle of lightly scented vani lotion that I had gotten as a gift. Reece rubbed the lotion onto my skin starting from my shoulder and down my back. Next, he moved slowly down my arms to my hands for another quick massage there. Then he rubbed it across my chest, cupping each breast for just a moment as he applied the lotion. When he reached my hips he gently pushed me down so he could wrap around and apply a thinyer of the creamy substance to my bottom.


    He continued his massaging application of the lotion down each of my legs. Once he got to my feet he gave me the most rxing foot massage I could ever imagine. His hands seemed to know exactly where to move so that I wouldn''t be tickled by his touch. The gentle movements of his hands and his skilled, masterful fingers were mind blowing.


    By the time he was done I felt like nothing more than a pile of goo that had melted onto the bed.


    "Mhmm." I moaned from the pleasure of it all. "That was amazing Reece. If I didn''t know any better, I''d say you knew exactly what you were doing."


    "Baby, I always know what I''m doing." He chuckled confidently. "But when ites to your body, no one knows it better than I do. So, of course I would be able to make you happy like this."


    "You can do that anytime you want, I won''t object." My words were sounding like moans as I talked.


    "Anytime you want me to, just ask."


    I felt spent, and unable to move, after that massage. I justid there on the bed until Reece leaned forward. He pressed his lips against the t of my stomach, his hands cupped along my hips as he held me.


    "Hello you two." He cooed at my belly. "I''m your daddy."


    "Reece, they can''t hear you yet." I giggled at him.


    "You don''t know that for sure." Heughed right back. "I''m going to talk to them every day so they know my voice by the time they''re born, and so they know how much I love them, and their mommy."


    "I love you, Reece." I couldn''t help it, I had to say it at that moment. Reece was being so sweet and caring that I just felt overwhelmed.


    "I love you more, Little Bunny." He crawled up into the bed and carried me to the pillows. We justid together, spooning, until we fell asleep. It was still one of the best nights I had ever had. And I woke the next morning with Reece''s hands wrapped protectively around my stomach. He was going to be unbearable, wasn''t he?

 Chapter 229 - Trinity - The Funeral (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 229 - Trinity - The Funeral (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Things were still moving very fast even after the battle ended. It was time for us to prepare for the funerals. I knew that everyone would want to have their own private funerals, and I both expected and respected that, but I also wanted to hold a massive funeral, something where we could all get together and console each other on the loss of the people we knew and cared for.


    The preparations for the funeral went quickly, we all seemed to be in agreement for it all. Everyone also agreed to my idea for the remains. They liked the thought of their loved ones protecting us all forever, after all they died protecting this city. They gave their lives for something they believed in, and giving them ces of honor and protection around the city would be the most respectful thing we could do, in my mind at least.


    Being that it was almost the end of June, the weather was nice and it would be perfect for therge outdoor funeral. The atmosphere was slightly subdued to what it was during the wedding, but everyone still showed up to our ce inrge groups. There were just as many people, if not more, that came to the funeral. There were a lot of people from the fealty and treaty packs that came that were not at the wedding.


    We wanted to focus on everyone''s lives, who they were as a person. There would be different speakers that woulde up and tell us about the people, celebrating who they were and what they were likely to miss the most about them.


    I know that funerals are hard for people, that they bring that final blow that the person is gone. But I am a firm believer that a funeral should be a celebration of life, the life that was lost. I don''t think anyone who dies wants anyone to cry over them. I think that the person who died would prefer that the people left behind were able to smile over the good memories instead of holding each other as they cried over the bad ones.


    I wanted this funeral to be the celebration of lives lost. I wanted everyone to get a chance to share good memories and bring smiles to our faces. We would all, inevitably, be sad regardless, but we could keep it from getting too bad with some hard work and luck.


    It had only been five days since the battle, and the heartache was still fresh for all those who had lost family, friends, and loved ones. Reece and I went around and greeted every leader and at least one representative for every person who had been lost. Being that there was a variety of species not everyone had family left to mourn them.


    As I made my rounds, consoling loved ones and friends, and introducing myself to the alphas and other leaders of packs and ns, I felt my heart aching and my body weighing me down. I could feel their pain, their sorrow, and their loss. But there was something else I could feel as well, and I had an inkling, a minute suspicion, that this new feeling was caused by me. What I felt was hope.


    I felt that everyone I met, every crying face I saw, had their spirits lifted when I shook their hands and spoke to them. Was this something that came from being so touched by the celestials? Was this the doing of Nehalennia and Thoth? I felt like it was, and that made me smile, it meant that I had another way to help my people.


    After the introductions were over, it was time for the pack and n leaders to give speeches, announcing the names of their lost members and for them to say something positive about them. But before they started, Reece was going to open things up.


    "Friends, family, allies, I would like to wee you all to my home. I''m d you have alle to celebrate the lives we lost so recently. The threat that we faced wasn''t just one for my family or my pack. The threat that Edmond posed was to the world and I am so d that we could alle together and work so well together. All of us, Vampires, Warlocks, Wolves, Bears, Lions, Tigers, Lynxes, Jaguars, Leopards, Eagles, Falcons, and Hawks, all of us came together and fought with honor. The fighters we lost will never be forgotten, they will live on in our hearts and memories forever. As you all know, my wife has been blessed by not one but two celestial beings. She is marked by the Great Mother of Shifters as well as by the Gracious Father of Magic. The thing that Nehalennia and Thoth are both hoping for is that together, we can unite the shadow world, unite all the species within its collective borders and bring peace to us all. When I look at all of you gathered here I believe that the future they desire is just that much closer at hand."


    When Reece''s speech was done there wasn''t a dry eye in sight. It was like everyone, including me, felt his sincerity filling his words. The words spoken, the heart behind them, it touched them all deeply. I felt the pride for my husband swell within me.


    After Reece left the clearing open for the others, the first up was Crawford. He was there to honor and represent the warlocks that we lost. These were people that were mine now as well. They were part of my collective pack.


    "Thank you, Reece." Crawford nodded to Reece and I before he began his speech. "I am the elder, the leader, of the Warlocks. For the longest time I was the highest authority among them, but now I happily give that title to my Queen, and friend, Trinity Gray. From the moment I met her I knew she was special, so did every member of the Aerie Convento. Not a single one of us thought twice when we were asked to go to war with them. That was a decision we all made with ease. We would fight for our queen no matter what the odds were. Maria Shepherd, Sylvester Carmichael, and Ferdinand Bennos, were the ones we lostst week. Maria was a woman with a kind soul and a determined heart. She was strong and willing to stand up for what was right. Sylvester was a fighter through and through. He protected people no matter the cost and he died doing what he loved the most, saving people. Ferdinand preferred books to fighting, but even so he was a strong man with good morals. He never doubted his ability to fight at all. These three lives lost, these three that fell during the Battle of Edmond will be immortalized as protectors of this city and the world and I cannot imagine a more fitting remembrance for them." Crawford was teary eyed but held a smile through his whole speech. When he stepped down and walked past me I pped him on his shoulder and squeezed it gently, offering just a littlefort.


    Dietrich was next. I watched as he kissed Shawn on the cheek before taking a steadying breath. Slowly and solemnly he walked toward the opening in the clearing where both Reece and Crawford had given their speeches. With onest calming breath, Dietrich began his speech.


    "Friends, allies, brothers and sisters. I am honored that I am the one to give this speech to you all today. I have been the leader of the vampires for a very long time and I have had a chance to meet nearly all of mypatriots. We all lost people we knew, people we care about during the Battle of Edmond. Just like Crawford, it didn''t even cross my mind to not fight alongside the Grays and the Red Springs pack. I had never met Edmond, but I have met men like him and they are never a good thing for this world. The ones that we lost to that fight were good people, but I know that they would not regret fighting to stop a man like Edmond. All we can do now is remember them with grace. The men and women I lost didn''t have family that could mourn them, they had been nearly immortal for so long that their families, were they still alive when they turned, have all long since passed on. Leon Marx, Anaheim Titan, Alec Mazor, Julius Silva, and Marion Nexus. They were good people and I am happy that there are so many people out there that will help to keep their memories alive and honor their sacrifice."


    Dietrich wasn''t crying like Crawford was, but he was still so filled with emotions that you could see them weighing him down like a lead weight. He walked slowly like he was carrying the world with him as he walked out of the clearing and allowed Trevor Jacoby, the bear alpha, to take his ce.


    "I have never really been good at this whole speech thing." Trevor Jacoby, the man I met at the wedding said as he ran his hand nervously through his hair. "I''ve known Reece since we were kids. He was almost like a brother to me at one time and that friendship has never gone away. When I met his wife at their wedding and learned that she was the Luna Queen, my Queen, I knew that it was right. Reece is a strong and worthy alpha, and I recognized him as my king immediately. I was proud to fight in this battle and so was every bear in the western states. I didn''t lose as many as some did, but I lost one very important to me among them. Every bear I lost that day was like a blow to me physically as well as emotionally. I lost three from my pack. Brain MacKenzie, I''m not going to say he was a great man, he had a lot of attitude for someone so low ranked, but he was a good guy and a great father. He will be missed so much by his three kids. Corey Bleu, he was a world ss ass, but he was one of my best friends. Andstly, Evan Jacoby, my little brother. He had just mated and fathered a cub of his own. I will make sure that my niece or nephew will always know what a great man my little brother was. They will know that even though I was the alpha, my brother was the better man among the two of us, and I am a big enough man to admit that. I''m too brash and ill mannered at times, but I am going to work hard to live up to his memories. I will make sure that my pack remembers all of them and all the others lostst week."


    As Trevor left the clearing Reece hugged his friend. Trevor, the man who seemed so big and brutish when I first met him, was now crying softly. This was not the celebration of life I was hoping for, but I still felt like things were going well. Next was a man I had just met, his name was Landon yton, and he was the Alpha of the felines. Like the bears there weren''t as many felines for them to have that many alphas. Landon, a tiger shifter, was the only feline alpha in the entire country. Every feline lost that day was a member of his collective pack. Landon was tall with emerald green eyes and blond hair, and he had the typical athletic build of a shifter.


    "I will give this speech because I have to, but know that I really don''t want to be here. I respect my people, and I pay tribute to my king and queen. I understand that and acknowledge them, but I am not this kind of person. Felines are not the type to roam inrge packs, we travel small. I lead them all, yes, but I don''t know them very well. I will admit that we lost a lot of fine people, a fair few when you think of how little of us there are. I will name those we lost by species and that will be it. Among the tigers were Nick Berry and Yvette Smith. The lions were Max Allman, Eli Peters, and Simon Tidwell. The lynxes were Tilly Smalls, John Alexander, and Jesse Tiberius. The jaguars were Diego Cortez and Matthew Jury. Andstly, the leopards were Domino Jacksly, Ronald Sticks, and Freddy Jayson. These men and women fought bravely as did everyone else. They will be missed and honored."


    That was all Landon had to say. He was unemotional when he spoke but he didn''t sound disrespectful at all. He just seemed straightforward and to the point. As he stalked out of the clearing a tall, exotic looking woman took his ce. Her hair was ck with differently colored strands streaked through it, the strands looked like feathers from a distance but I saw that they were indeed her hair. Her eyes were a beautiful amber color that seemed to glow with the light.


    "My name is Noir Steelwing, I am the Alpha to one of the smallest ns of shifters there is. We are the Avians, and we make up the birds of prey shifters. Our numbers have been dwindling for years, but that did not stop me from stepping up and helping when I was needed. My people are proud and believe in doing what is morally right. We banded together and fought to rid this world of evil. And while we may have lost a few of our ranks, we saved millions more with that fight. I will forever remember them all. Nathan and Natalie Freeman, the brother and sister falcons that always fought side by side. Gil Manchester and Jerry James, the eagles who bravely stepped up to fight for those who they''d never met. Andstly, Lincoln Thomas and Avery Townes, the hawks who were fearless enough to fly headlong into battle, no matter the cost. I will immortalize them in the memories of my people, I hope you will all do the same."


    With that, Noir was finished. She stepped out of the circle and joined her n at the back. Now, it was my turn to talk. I was nervous, and I could feel my stomach roiling again, but I swallowed the lump in my throat and suppressed the butterflies. I needed to be a leader now, I needed to be the Queen.


    I stepped forward, faced the people as I turned slowly to look at them all. And I began, even without a steadying breath.


    "I thank you all foring today. Thisst little while has been a trying time for us all, this pack more than any other, but we all suffered losses. I was going to have the Alpha of the other two wolf packse forward and introduce their dead, but as we lost the most among the wolves and given my status, I have been asked to take the lead here. But first, I want to start by thanking each and everyone of you for joining us. Not just today, butst week as well. The battle was hard, and it will live on as a blight in our memories for a long time, but we seeded. The cost doesn''t always justify the oue, but I am honored to call you all allies. I am honored and humbled to have had the chance to fight alongside everyone that day. Thank you, once again, for stepping up and doing what needed to be done. Between all the packs, ns, and covens, we lost thirty-six people that day. You have heard about thirty of them so far, so without further ado, let me tell you about the rest of them."


    I paused for a moment, taking that steadying breath I hadn''t needed earlier. Then, feeling stronger and more emboldened, I continued. "Stephen Rhodes, of the ck Canyons Pack, led by Bryce Evans. I didn''t know Stephen but he has been described as kind and caring and willing to help anyone he could. He often put others ahead of himself and was quick with a smile. Harvey ke and Kenny Phillips, from the Azure River Pack led by Riley Gray. Harvey was a man of few words that was better at expressing himself through actions. Kenny was shy but was always eager to please and very helpful. Frank Willoby, Zeek Wilkins, and Richard Hall, all from the Red Springs Pack led by Reece Gray. Frank and Zeek both worked as gate guards and protected our inner sanctum. Frank was aloof and often hard to get along with, but nheless, Zeek was his best friend. Zeek was just the opposite of Frank, outgoing and friendly, he was always ready with a smile for everyone. Richard was a school teacher, a man that loved children. He refused to let a mane into his city and hurt his children. He gave his life to protect not just the pack, but the city and the world. All these men, and all the others who were lost, they fought bravely and with so much honor. Their sacrifices will never be forgotten and their protections will never fade. We have prepared ces of honor for them around the city, ces the humans won''t know the meaning of but we of the shadow world will know, and we will always remember. I ask that you all join me celebrating the good memories and positive things they left behind so they will not spend their eternal hunt in sorrow. Let''s remember them for who they were, what they did, and the smiles we shared with them all."


    My speech was the only one that got a round of apuse, and everyone was once again crying like they did with Reece''s speech, but they were also smiling through it all. The speeches were now over and it was time to move on to the part where people mingled and remembered. I watched everyone as they milled about, crying still butughing and smiling through the tears. When we all left for the night, everyone had learned who each and every one of those lost thirty-six were, not just some pretty words given for a funeral but who they really truly were.


    I couldn''t have asked for a better night.

 Chapter 230 - Trinity - Preparing For A Celebration (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 230 - Trinity - Preparing For A Celebration (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    With the funeral over, there was one more thing I wanted to do for everyone. I wanted to have a celebration. In just two weeks it would be Independence Day, July 4th, a day that most people celebrate. But we had more reasons than others.


    One reason was our lives. We had defeated Edmond and we were all alive. We had won the battle and survived. That was reason enough to celebrate.


    But there was another reason too. July the fourth was Reece''s birthday. A pack can''t go without celebrating it''s alpha''s birthday. At least I wouldn''t let that happen. This was the first time I was spending Reece''s birthday with him and I wanted to make it special.


    I was also going to take the opportunity to tell everyone about the babies during that party so I needed to make sure it was extra special. Reece and I were both in agreement that we wanted to tell them all about the pregnancy this time, making it a pack thing like we should have donest time.


    I wanted to get everyone involved in the party preparations, everyone except for Reece that is. I couldn''t let him help n his own party, that would just be weird.


    This made him pout though. He wanted to be part of the nning process as well. He''s such a big baby sometimes, it was cute yet annoying. I love him so much.


    So, I caved and let him do one thing. When he whined incessantly about the nning I put him in charge of the fireworks. He was a little over eager about it if you asked me, but he was happy and that made me smile.


    With Reece properly preupied, and me having sent Dietrich to keep himpany (hey, I needed to make sure that Dietrich didn''t b to anyone), it was time for the rest of us to get down to business.


    "Hey, Astro." I was staring at a book of dessert designs when I heard Paul call out to me. "Are you being a space cadet again and leaving all of us to do the party nning for you?"


    "Haha." I pretended tough while genuinely smiling at him. "I was just lost in thought. I want this party to be special."


    "I know, I get it. It''s the ''hey we''re alive party'' mixed with your hubby''s birthday. It''s a special day for you, so get your head in the game, will ya."


    "Paul, did anyone ever tell you you''re an ass?" Juniper asked him while smacking him yfully on the arm.


    "Yeah, you, everyday since you married me. But I''m loveable so you all just put up with it." He smiled while putting his hands near his head in a gesture of innocence.


    "I think you mean annoying." Cedar joked right back at him.


    "Yeah, and conceited too." Shane joined in on the ribbing, it was starting to get fun and I was smiling happily.


    "I should probably stop spacing out though, huh." I agreed with Paul just to let him know I appreciated him pulling me out of my own head. "Come on everyone, we got a lot of work to do."


    Just as I was about to get back to work the door to the party nning room, which was just my bedroom, opened and Shawn walked in. I noticed that Shawn looked a little down.


    "What''s wrong Shawn?" I asked him as we all turned to look at him.


    "Nothing." His voice was a little down as well.


    "Dude, she knows somethings wrong, just tell her." Shane told his brother.


    "It''s nothing really. I was just going to help Reece and Dietrich, but I was sent away."


    "A, are you missing your boyfriend?" Shane cooed at him.


    "Shut up." Shawn growled back at his brother like he was an annoying insect.


    "I''m just joking with you, don''t be so sensitive." Shane wasughing hard.


    "It''s just, ever since he found out he is the Vampire King it''s felt like he was hiding something from me."


    "That''s right I forgot, Dietrich is a King now." Shane had an excited look on his face and a mischievous tone in his voice. "Does that make you the queen?" He cooed again.


    "Fuck you Shane, I''m going to kick your ass." Shawn stalked toward his brother with an intense look on his face.


    Both Vincent and I leapt to our feet and rushed forward. Vincent grabbed Shawn from behind while I ced my hands on his chest to help stop him and calm him. In the process, Shawn''s shirt was shifted and his left shoulder was now fully visible.


    "Uh, Shawn, did you get a tattoo?" I asked him, perplexed by what I was seeing.


    "Um, no, that''s not, I mean, it''s not, please ignore it." He was stammering and blushing a bright red when he heard me.


    "Dude, you did?" Shane moved forward to look at his brother. "Wait, no, that''s not a tattoo, that''s a mate mark."


    At Shane''s words I looked more closely at the thing on Shawn''s shoulder. It was blood red, which was why I didn''t initially think it was a mate mark, even given the location of the mark. What I was seeing was an endless knot formed from what looked like rose vines. The vines were only outlined in the red and were flesh toned on the inside. And through thettice work of the endless knot there were blood red roses that were so detailed and beautiful. It was Shawn''s mate mark, and it was right where Dietrich had bitten him to save his life.


    I knew what an endless knot meant, even though most of the people in the room with me probably didn''t. The knot was meant to represent endless happiness. It was a symbol that Shawn and Dietrich would live happily together, forever.


    "Shawn, I''m so happy for you." I squealed when it all finally hit me. "This is amazing."


    "Dude, he''s a guy and he was marked." Shane cut in.


    "Shane." I reprimanded him. "Don''t forget, I marked Reece. Do you have something to say about that?"


    "Uh, no ma''am." Shane sobered right up and stopped his jokes.


    "That''s what I thought." I red at him for a moment before I looked back at Shawn. "I''m happy for you Shawn. Your rtionship took another step and that is major."


    "Thank you, Trinity." Shawn smiled at me as I gave him an approving look.


    "Don''t ever be embarrassed by it."


    "I''m not really, it''s just that Shane gets to me sometimes."


    "I can understand that." I smiled again. "Come on, let''s get this party nned."


    "Alright."


    After that, we got to work on nning the party for real.


    The party was for the whole pack, and Riley''s family would be invited because they were Reece''s family. And now, the pack included the warlocks that were staying with us and those who would soon be moving into our newmunity. So there would be a lot of people at the party.


    Once again, the party was going to be at our house in the clearing like the funeral and wedding had been. I nned to have a lot of food appropriate for an outdoor party and Fourth of July celebration. Basically it was going to be a giant cookout with lots of grilled food. Most wolves wouldn''t say no to that, it meant a lot of different meats.


    There were also lots of different kinds of sds, which would be good for the warlocks and the wolves who weren''tplete carnivores. We were going to need a lot of food for the entire gathering.


    For the birthday cake I ordered a massive cake with many different vors. The design that I picked out for it was an image with a lone wolf standing on a mountain staring out at a bunch of fireworks. The wolf was also wearing a crown, crookedly, on top of his head. The lone wolf was because he was stubborn and independent, basically, he was Mr. Independence Day.


    I will admit, I also ordered a small personal cake that I was going to give him that night, when we were all alone. He was going to love it, I''m sure. I know I was going to.


    After all the nning was done, and they were about to head home, I called Juniper over to me.


    "Juniper, can I talk to you about something?" She looked perplexed for a minute but didn''t say anything, she just walked back to me as the others left the room. I watched as Shane, Shawn, David, Vincent, Paul, and Cedar all left.


    "I''ll see you at hometer." Paul called over his shoulder as he left the room.


    "Love you." Juniper smiled at him.


    "Love you more." He smiled back.


    Now that we were alone and seated near the firece, Juniper turned to me and leveled me a knowing look.


    "Alright, spill it."


    "What?" I asked her, surprised.


    "Girl, you think I don''t know that you''ve been hiding something from me. Now, it''s time to stop with all the secrets and tell me. I''ve been dying here, you know that." I justughed, Juniper knew me so well, she could always read me like a book.


    "Yes, I have been hiding something. Something that you need to swear to secrecy for. You can''t tell anyone about it yet."


    "Oh my Goddess, you''re pregnant again." Juniper whisper screamed. She was legit bouncing up and down on her seat and screaming in a whisper so that no one could hear her.


    "How the hell did you figure that out?"


    "What else could it be? Oh my goddess, I am so happy for you Trinity. This is so amazing. I am going to be the best aunty ever. I am so, so, so excited."


    "You''re going to be amazing, Jun." I smiled at her. We ended the night with her hugging me to death and smiling happily.

 Chapter 231 - Trinity - Birthday Party (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 231 - Trinity - Birthday Party (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    When the day of the party rolled around it was to the best weather we could have hoped for. It was a beautiful cloudless blue sky shining down on the forest and clearing. There were several massive tents ced around the yard. There was a tent for delicious BBQ favorites, a tent for the variety of desserts, one for drinks, and of course one for gifts. You can''t have a birthday party without gifts and the pack was not skimping. The table for the gifts was so full that it was overflowing onto the tarped ground. I had a special gift for Reece too, but I was going to give it to him tonight, when we were alone.


    When everyone was arriving they stopped by Reece and I to say hello and wish the main guest a happy birthday. Reece was acting all embarrassed by the attention but I could tell he loved it all.


    Riley came up to us then, a big grin on his face, his youngest fast asleep in his arms. At least I knew there would be no shoulder punches while they spoke this time.


    "Hey there Fang, happy birthday."


    "Fuck you, Fifi." Reece responded with a grumpy look, Katie and I just looked at each other and smiled. Boys will always be boys, no matter that mine was twenty-six now, he was still just a big toddler.


    "Were you really hurting for new things that badly that you had to have a party to replenish, or was it that you like the attention that much."


    "Bite me, Benji." That was Reece''s only retort.


    "I see you''re branching out, that''s good." Riley wasughing as he came closer to us. He was moving in to give Reece a quick one armed hug.


    After Reece, Riley leaned toward me for a hug as well.


    "Thank you for putting up with this fool for me." Riley joked.


    "I''ve got no choice, I love the fool." I joked back. Riley wasughing at my weak joke and backing away when all of a sudden he stopped and stared at me, a knowing look in his eyes. He looked between Reece and I a few times with a raised eyebrow.


    "Hmm." He hummed curiously for a moment. "Hey, Trinity, are you-?"


    "Shh." I cut his question off mid way through it. "How did you know?" I whispered to him.


    "I''ve got a way more sensitive nose than most wolves, like four times stronger. It''s a curse really." He smirked at me. "But you are?" I nodded to answer him.


    "But don''t say anything, we''re going to make an announcement, don''t ruin it."


    "Mums the words." He grinned.


    "What are you two whispering about?" Reece stepped closer and put his hand around my waist. "What''s going on?" He added.


    "No worries Reece, everything''s fine." I assured him.


    "Yeah, I was just offering to sell her some really embarrassing photos of you from your awkward phase."


    "I never had an awkward phase." Reece countered proudly.


    "Yeah, you sure it''s not just happening now?" Riley''s joke made Reece''s confidence falter.


    "Want an ass kicking Fifi?"


    "Just messing. Happy birthday buddy." Riley winked at me and walked away with his family in tow. Phew, That could have been a disaster.


    After the greetings were over everyone at the party mingled. There was music ying and a dance floor. There was a ce with fun things for kids to do, like squirt guns, water balloons, a bouncy castle, and a lot of toys that we had on hand from the daycare. We were still running the daycare, but with everything that had happened, Mom and L had taken over it for me. They were doing amazingly well with it too.


    We sang happy birthday for Reece, cliche yes but totally necessary. Reece, and everyone else loved the cake, the decorations had been done with such artistry that it was like a work of art. And it tasted divine, what little of it I had managed. It seemed that these babies were going to give me trouble right now. Most foods made me sick to my stomach just looking at them. But I still enjoyed what I could of it.


    There were too many gifts for Reece to open during the party, so it was something we were going to do throughout the next week, and I would make sure everyone was tanked properly because I know he would never do it alone.


    I was so happy with how things were going. This party wasing along very nicely. I couldn''t have asked for a better day. And now, as the sun was going down, it was time for our news. For some reason, Reece wanted to wait and tell them all right before the fireworks were set to start.


    We made our way to the head of the gathering, bringing everyone attention to us. Once we made it to the raised tform that had been prepared for us to stand on everyone was eyeing us curiously. They seemed expectant, like they knew something wasing but didn''t know what it was.


    I heard excited whispers and snippets of conversations as we made our way to the front of the party.


    "I wonder what''s going on?"


    "Could something bad have happened?"


    "No, they wouldn''t tell us bad news at a party, it has to be something good."


    "This is exciting, what could the Luna Queen and Alpha King have to tell us?"


    These little tidbits of conversations all brought a smile to my face as I prepared to give them our speeches. We had two speeches prepared really. We were going to lull them into a false direction and then blindside them with the major news, it was going to be kind of funny really.


    "Hello everyone, I want to thank you all foring to celebrate with us today, to celebrate my husband''s birthday and our continued happiness here in the Red Springs Pack." I was smiling.


    "There is more news we would like to share with you all as well. Something wonderful has happened recently." I heard gasps and jittery, gleefulughs spread through the crowd, especially from the women.


    "I would first like to ask our good friend Dietrich toe to the stage." I held my hand out toward him as I said this.


    Dietrich came quickly, walking as if the obstacle of people in his path wasn''t an issue, for a vampire that can move in the shadows, I guess it wasn''t. But his shadow walk seemed to have been improved, made more seamless and effortless. That must have been an enhancement for him from Selene.


    "Thank you." Dietrich nodded to them and us as he reached our tform.


    "Dietrich received some wonderful news just recently, something we thought would be best shared here tonight." Reece had his left arm around Dietrich''s shoulders, a show of their friendship.


    "On the night of the battle with Edmond''s monsters, his mate had been mortally wounded and infected with a poison. During his attempt to heal him, the Goddess, Selene, came to me and told me something amazing." I paused and smiled at Dietrich and then the crowd. "Dietrich, who is an amazing man and a powerful elder vampire, has been chosen as Selene''s spiritual sessor, she has named Dietrich as the Vampire King. I know this doesn''t change much as he was already their leader, but this means he now bears marks from the Goddess, the same as I do."


    "Dietrich, a very good friend of my family''s, has ascended and be someone even more powerful. He is an amazing person and a strong leader. I am proud to call him my ally, and my friend." When Reece finished the three of us smiled at each other and then the crowd. Everyone that was gathered broke out into massive apuse, congratting Dietrich. There was a lot of cheeringing from them as well. Everyone here seemed to love Dietrich too. I was d.


    Just as the cheering started to die down Reece and I looked at each other with twin grins of excitement. We now only had the other revtion to give them, and it was the best news of the night.


    "Now, there is something else we found out on that night as well." Reece raised his voice to be heard over themotion that could still be heard. Instantly everyone quieted down and looked back at us. I noticed Dietrich step away and head somewhere behind us.


    "It was not long after the battle, and after my conversation with the Goddess Selene, that Dietrich told us of something else that was going to change our lives forever." I smiled at them all.


    "Over thest several months there has been a lot of heart ache for our pack, and for our family personally. There were the children who had gone missing, there was the fight that had cost so many lives, that night and the many lives Edmond stole to make his monsters. There was also the night that our unborn baby was taken from us. It was the hardest night of our lives. We were devastated." Reece''s voice held a note, a hint, of that emotional toll it took on us. They got to glimpse the pain we had felt.


    "But there is hope, there is a new reason to be happy again." I was beaming, grinning madly at them all, and so was Reece. We probably looked insane as we grinned so big.


    "The night of the Battle of Edmond, Dietrich, our very good friend, told us of something that had escaped our notice that morning, but to be fair we were awakened by a phone call alerting us to the approaching horde."


    "Dietrich shared with us the most wonderful news we could have hoped for that night."


    Right as I said those words there was an explosion behind me. I wasn''t expecting that, so I turned to look at the sky where the massive fireworks were exploding in bright pink and blue sparks. There were two baby bottles, one pink and one blue. There were two cartoonish looking baby faces, one pink and one blue, and there were just severalrge explosions that looked like stars and hearts, all in pink and blue.


    "Dietrich told us we were expecting again. And this time it''s twins!" Reece yelled these words to the crowd so he could be heard over the sound of the fireworks. The cheers erupted immediately.


    If I had thought the cheering and apuse was loud for Dietrich, it was nothingpared to this. There was so much noise I thought the whole party was going to go deaf. And I could see our families and my guards all making their way up to the tform. They were excited and smiling happily.


    Mom and Dad got to me first, hugging me so tightly that I thought I was going to pop between them.


    "Oh, sweetheart, I am so happy for you." Mom was cooing and crying happily at the same time.


    "I know you''re going to be a great mother." Dad added as he squeezed me tighter.


    Noah and Carter came up next, Nikki and Emmalee right there with them.


    "OH MY GODDESS!" Emmalee squealed. "If you thought I went crazy for birthdays and weddings, wait until you see the baby shower I''m going to throw for you. I am going to personally make sure you''re kept in a bubble so my party can go off without a hitch.


    "Our babies will still be so close in age, they can all y together and be raised together." Nikki hugged me gently, her belly now massive as she was only a couple weeks away from delivering my little nephew.


    "I''m so happy for you." Noah hugged me, his tears falling onto my face.


    "You''re gonna do great." Carter added his arms around me, hugging me with Noah.


    "Is this what Dietrich has been hiding?" Shawn asked me as they all got closer to me.


    "Yes." I nodded to him. "He told us after he made you a hybrid."


    "Oh Goddess, I thought he didn''t love me anymore." Shawnughed. "I''m so happy for you Trinity." He hugged me as tightly as the others had.


    "It will be so much more fun with a couple babies around the house." Shane added.


    "If you need any advice, just ask me or Heather." Vincent added his kind words and hug as well.


    "I''m happy for you, but please don''t give Rawlynne any ideas, I''m not ready for that yet." David half joked as he gave me his hug.


    After David stepped aside L took his ce.


    "I can''t believe you two knew that long and didn''t tell me, I live in the same house as you dammit." She hugged me and pped Reece''s arm.


    "Ouch, why did you hit me?"


    "Because I''m happy you idiot." She hugged him after that and stepped aside to let Grandfathere forward.


    "I am happy for you, I knew you would rise again. You''re so strong, Trinity."


    "Because you raised me to be strong." I hugged him as he held me close to his chest.


    "I will have to do my best to protect you all this time around."


    "We will all be doing a better job, Grandfather, no need to worry."


    "I will always worry about you, I always have."


    The night continued like this for a while. People congratted us and told us how excited they were. It took a while before they all started to leave, still wearing smiles and looking excited. It was an amazing day, and I was d Reece had done the fireworks, they turned out amazing. Even the ones that went after the baby themed ones. He had really made me happy with them all.


    But now, it was time to head back to our room so I could give him his birthday present.

 Chapter 232 - Trinity - Private Party (VOLUME 2) ((MATURE))

    <h4>Chapter 232 - Trinity - Private Party (VOLUME 2) ((MATURE))</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    On the way back to our room, Reece got a phone call and had to stop by the office. It wasn''t anything life threatening, just work rted. So, while he was on the call I decided to head back alone and hop in the shower. Being cleaned up would be a plus and it gave me time to prepare my surprises for him.


    I hurried through my shower and dressed in the special ''outfit'' I had for tonight. It was something I thought Reece would appreciate a lot. Plus, I never nned to wear it again so I didn''t care if he ripped it.


    I was able to get his cake positioned on the table, though it was covered with a silver dome to hide the special design. I had his present sitting on the table, wrapped neatly in its small box and beautiful forest green paper. And I was sitting in a chair, wrapped in my bathrobe, waiting for him.


    I didn''t have to wait for long. I had only been ready with everything for maybe five minutes when I heard himing up the stairs. His steps were light and I didn''t detect any frustration from him so the call hadn''t taxed him too much, that was good.


    When he opened the door and saw me sitting there in my bathrobe and my still damp hair hanging loosely by my shoulders he grinned.


    "What''s this?" He asked me, his voice already going husky.


    "I thought maybe I would give you your birthday present privately." I made my voice sound like a pur.


    "I see the box, but are you one of my presents too?" He was definitely taking the bait, there was no doubt in my mind that he? would anyway.


    "Maybe, after you open your other gifts first." The heady, seductive note in my voice didn''t go unnoticed by him, I could see the slight tightening in his jeans at my words.


    "Then let''s hurry up and get to those presents." The smile on his face held both joy and anticipation. This was going to be an exciting night.


    Reece crossed the room in quick, long strides,ing up to me and cing a quick kiss to the top of my head before he sat in the chair right next to mine.


    "So, what do you have for me?" He asked, reaching for the dome over the cake.


    "Wait, open this first." I stopped him as I held out the small wrapped present before he could see the cake. It wouldn''tpletely ruin things, but I wanted him to see the gift first.


    Reece didn''t say a word, he just grabbed the gift from my outstretched hand and started to rip off the paper. I swear, he could act like such a toddler at times, especially when I gave him a gift.


    With the pretty green paper and the cute little bow torn off and flung away haphazardly, Reece now only had the small ck box that fit in the palm of hisrge hand. Slowly, he lifted the lid and pulled out the custom made piece I had designed for him.


    It was like a pocket watch, in the sense that it went in the pocket and had a chain, but it didn''t have a watch. This was a beautifully designed locket for him. It was about as big around as my fist, which was much smaller than his, and it was in the shape of a wolf''s paw. The piece was made from tinum and outlined in ck gold. The pads of the toes for the paw each held arge diamond that glittered in the light.


    There was a button on the top in the middle that you pressed to open the locket. It didn''t open in one fluid motion on a single hinge like most lockets. No, this locket opened in a french door style. A near invisible sp in the middle held the two doors shut until they swung outward to reveal the images inside.


    Each of the four toes could hold a small picture, just like a regr locket. But what was special about this locket, was that therge center of the wolf''s paw could also hold a picture.


    "This is beautiful, Little Bunny." He said as he looked up from the borate piece. "You designed this didn''t you?"


    "Yes, I did." I smiled at him as I nodded my head.


    "It''s beautiful. But why did you only put two pictures in it when it will hold five?" There were indeed only two pictures, one of Reece on the far left side and one of me on the far right. The middle two toes andrge area were empty.


    "Well, when the babies are born, I figure we could put their pictures in the other top two spots and fill the bottom with a family picture." I saw the joy and love in his eyes, and for a moment the slight misting of tears that filled them as well.


    "That''s amazing, sweetheart. I love it. And I am going to fill it just like you said and wear it every day." At those words he leaned over and hugged me tightly, his smiling face pressed against my hair.


    My scent must have been strong. Just after he started hugging me I could hear a growl of desireing from him.


    "Mmmm, you smell like such a delicious dessert. Can I eat you now?" He may have sounded like he was joking, but I knew he was serious. He would spend the night devouring me if I let him. I was inclined to do just that.


    "You need to see the rest of it all first. Which do you want now? What''s under my robe, or what''s under the dome?" I knew he would think there was nothing under the robe and choose that option first.


    "Under the robe." He nearly yelled in his excitement and rush to get the words out. I called it. I just grinned at him and stood up.


    Slowly, I took just a couple steps away from him, backing up but never taking my eyes off of him. In slow, teasing motions I slowly slipped the robe off my right shoulder, revealing just a little bit of skin at first.


    With a grin I turned around, showing him my back as I looked over my shoulder at him to gauge his response. Next, I lowered the robe from my left shoulder, revealing the emerald green sash I was wearing across my body like a beauty pageant winner. There was nothing else but the sash.


    Slowly, I lowered the robe all the way, showing him all of my back and the sash that circled it. When the robe had slipped free of my arms I let it fall to the ground.


    "That''s a beautiful sight, but can I see the rest now." He asked me in a deep, desire filled voice.


    "Oh, I guess so." I joked as I turned slowly to face him.


    The sash went across the front of my body, blocking a small portion of my breasts from his view, but as it ended at my waist and didn''t hide the lower view he was content in watching me.


    "Mmm, now that looks like a birthday present." His voice rumbled through the room. "What does that say?" He asked me as he noticed the words on the sash for the first time. "Oh, I like the sound of that." He rumbled even more. The sash that he had just read was printed with white lettering and said ''PROPERTY OF FIDO''. "If that''s true, can I do whatever I want with you?" His voice was a growl this time, not a threatening one, but one that sent jolts of excitement coursing through my body.


    "Well, I am yours after all." I grinned at him. "But now it''s time for thest present." I pointed to the dome.


    With no hesitation Reece whipped the dome off the cake and looked down at the borately designed confection. It was in the shape of a cartoon dog head. It was a big German Shepherd with a goofy grin. The dog''s tongue was sticking out the side of its mouth making it look even sillier. And there was a crown sitting crookedly over the dog''s left ear. But the really funny part was that the cor the dog was wearing at the very bottom of the cake said ''FIDO''.


    "Oh, you''re really ying at the dog jokes tonight, huh?"


    "Can you me me, you are a dog after all."


    "Oh, I can show you just how much of a dog I really am, baby, so you better get ready." His eyes darkened with desire as he stalked toward me, excitement exploded inside me and I pretended to be scared.


    "Ahh!" I squealed and ran away from him.


    "Oh, you''re not getting away from me. Remember, you''re mine."


    "Then that means you agree your name is Fido."


    "Only for you baby, only for you." He purred as he caught up to me, wrapping his arm around my waist.


    "Eek." I squealed again as I felt my feet leave the floor and my body was flung toward the bed. Hended on top of me just seconds after I bounced onto the mattress.


    "I''m going to enjoy this." He grinned at me. "But let''s set this aside for now." He gingerly took the sash off over my head. I thought he would rip it off like wrapping paper, I guess he wanted to have me wear it again. I could do that, it was fun for me too, after all.


    With the sash set aside Reece buried his face in my left shoulder, inhaling my scent deeply before swiping his tongue across my mate mark with one long, slow stroke.


    "Yum." He rumbled the word but then suddenly seemed to have an idea. "Wait here." He slid off the bed and stepped across the room. By the time I had sat up he was already walking back toward me, the cake in hand.


    "Reece, what are you doing? We can eat thatter, we were in the middle of something."


    "But I want to have my cake and eat it too." he joked. I was confused for a moment.


    "What?" I asked just as he used his right hand to swipe at the frosting on the cake, ruining the beautiful designs.


    "Reece." I was shocked.


    My surprise didn''tst too long, he just straddled me and swiped the frosting across my neck.


    "Hmm, should I taste here?" He asked as he dipped his fingers into the frosting again. "Or here?" He asked himself again as he wiped frosting on my left breast. "No, maybe here." This process continued until he had swiped a line of frosting across my cheek, neck, each breast, my belly, left thigh, and a small amount right above my dripping core. I was already ready for him, but he was going to take his time.


    "Time to eat." I saw a glint of excitement light up his eyes, but behind that was his hungry desire for me.


    With onest swipe of his finger he spread a small dab of frosting onto my lips and immediately followed that with his lips. It was like he was trying to not only kiss me and lick away the frosting but like he was trying to eat me whole and draw me into him, it was intense and sexy as hell.


    When he pulled away and broke the kiss I was panting for breath, my desire and need already reaching its peak. I wanted him, bad.


    He continued to tease me though. Slowly he licked at my flesh, devouring the frosting and me at the same time, leaving long hot, wet trails in his wake. He licked across my left breast first, then grazed it slowly with his teeth before drawing itpletely inside his mouth. The suction was intense but exquisite. With every draw of his mouth I felt a pulsing, throbbing ache between my thighs.


    After Reece had his fill of suckling my breats he moved lower. I felt his tongue stroke feather light across my stomach. Each slow stroke of his warm wet tongue sent shivers through me.


    "Nngh." I moaned softly at the erotic feeling and I shivered once again when his tongue dipped inside my belly button. "Ah, Reece." I called out his name as I buried my hands in his hair. He just chuckled against my flesh, sending a chill along the wet skin.


    He was devouring me as hepped up his frosting. I was his meal, his snack, the dessert he often referred to me as. And I was enjoying every second of it.


    When his head dipped lower and hepped at the frosting on my thigh I jerked. My whole body spasmed at the feeling of his hot mouth on my sensitive, ticklish leg. I moaned again, unable to stop myself.


    "Nngh, ahh." Shuddering and gasping as I moaned, causing his mouth to press closer. I nearly screamed in the next second when he sank his teeth into my thigh, a light bite that I knew would leave a purplish hickey behind for just a little while.


    When Reece moved just slightly up my body top at the frosting he had ced at my core, my mind went nk. I couldn''t think at all, I could only feel the pleasure of his mouth on me.

 Chapter 233 - Reece - Have My Cake And Eat It Too (VOLUME 2) ((MATURE))

    <h4>Chapter 233 - Reece - Have My Cake And Eat It Too (VOLUME 2) ((MATURE))</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    When I had walked into the room to see my wife sitting there at the table with her robe on, I had gotten my hopes up. I had hoped that something like this was nned and I was happy that I was right.


    And when I saw the sash she was wearing that read ''PROPERTY OF FIDO'' I nearly swallowed my tongue. I know my eyes must have darkened when I saw her slow, teasing reveal and the mouth watering sight that stood before me. My mate was the best there was. And the most sexy.


    That cake may have been a little much, but I still loved it. She was mine and I was hers, no matter the situation. And the best part of tonight was that I could be a dog all I wanted. I was going to prove to her just how much of one I really was.


    When I stepped away from her naked body to grab the cake, I thought she was going to hit me, but she saw that I was not abandoning her and all was well. I really just wanted to savor my dessert and this seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up.


    Slowly, I applied the frosting and then took my time devouring her. She didn''t seem to notice the bites I was leaving on her until I got to her thigh though, she really was super sensitive there. What would she say in the morning when she woke to the numerous purplish marks all over her delectable little body. Just thinking about them made my already hard dick twitch just a little more.


    When I finally settled my head between her legs,pping at her sweet tender folds, she screamed. Her head flew back and she screamed my name.


    "REECE!" She was so sensitive and needy tonight. I could get used to this if that is how the whole pregnancy was going to be.


    The sweet, vani vored frosting just helped to intensify her own natural vor of vani and apples. I couldn''t get enough of it. I had meant to go slow, to take my time and enjoy my birthday present, but as soon as I started to devour her core I lost my patience and control.


    With hard, fast licks andps with my tongue I ate the sweetened, creamy frosting from her body, but I didn''t stop. I continued to devour her. Licking between every fold, burying my tongue deep inside her wet opening and swallowing her juices. I couldn''t get enough.


    With everyp of my tongue her breath seemed to hitch up a little more until she almost seemed to be hyperventting. She was screaming incoherently, just sounds of pleasure as I ate away at her desire.


    When the screaming and panting became too much for her I could tell she was cascading over the edge. One more lick and she flew apart before me. I felt her hands dig big fistfuls of my hair, hanging on tight so she didn''t drift away with her ecstasy. I felt little pinpricks of pain from the hair being pulled but all it aplished was sending me into a frenzy, sparking my desire and need into a fever pitch.


    The waves of her orgasm hadn''t even left her body when I pushed the top of my jeans down and ced myself at her opening. I couldn''t wait. I drove into her with a savage, animalistic need.


    It was almost like I wasn''t in control anymore. My wolf had taken the lead, the reins tethering him in the back had snapped and he was taking his ce where he wanted to be the most.


    I didn''t fight my wolf, I let him lead. He set about creating a feverish rhythm, more frantic and hungry than I had ever pushed her to. But she seemed to be either ok with it or too far gone to notice.


    As I watched my wolf move, me watching mentally from the sidelines, I saw my mouth being directed to my Little Bunny''s neck. My tonguepped out and licked the spot where I marked her so long ago.


    After the quick lick my wolf sunk our teeth into her flesh, and not gently. He was remarking her. He had never been in the forefront, never in the lead, when I marked her and now he was taking his chance.


    "Nngh." She moaned when my teeth broke her flesh, the pain being mixed in with the pleasure she was feeling in that moment. I heard the rumbling growl of pleasure that came from my wolf as he heard that moan.


    With her tender flesh in my mouth, the slight taste of blood apanying it, I felt the build of power as it passed from me to her. I didn''t know what effect a remarking would have on her but I couldn''t stop it now, it was toote.


    The heat, pleasure, and power coursed from me into her. The feeling was unlike either of our previous markings, it was more intense, and more erotic. I felt like even though I was already driving into her with a feverish pounding my dick was going to explode from the need to have her.


    The speed and need of my thrusts increased. She was crying out with every brutal pound that met her sweet tender body, and my wolf growled with every thrust.


    I don''t know exactly when, or how, it happened, but soon I seemed to be looking down at her from higher up, and her flesh that was still inside my mouth seemed to fit differently from before. When I looked out of the corner of my eye at my hand, I saw it was w tipped and covered in fur. I had be my lycan form as I drove into her.


    My clothes had shredded around us and I was now fully naked, but that didn''t matter. I could feel her supple skin, ample breasts, tender areas, they were all pressed against my new body in a way it had never been touched before and I couldn''t get enough of it.


    I could feel myself reaching my limit, I was going to explode soon. But my wolf wasn''t going to have it. He threw our head back and howled, fighting to ravage her body that much more. He thrusted at least a dozen times more, my body struggling to release as he mentally fought me off.


    Eventually though, my body won out and both my wolf and I roared at the same time. I exploded inside her and she screamed with another wave of ecstasy cascading over her. Her tight little body was milking me with crushing force, I wasrger in this form and the hard, persistent squeezes from her body made that abundantly clear.


    With a sigh of satisfaction my wolf retreated. My body copsed next to her and I scooped her into my arms. I was reluctant to pull out of herforting warmth so I stayed there just a few moments longer, luxuriating in the feel of her.


    I was still in my lycan form when I separated us, but she didn''t seem to notice. She was already fast asleep in my arms, breathing heavily. I licked the mark I had just re-bitten, helping it to heal just a little quicker. With a smile I fell asleep holding her, my breath chuffing out above her as I was still not my normal self.


    It would be the next morning before we noticed the new mark on her trinity chain, this one that looked like a lycan inside a star. The weird part was, I had one now too. I wonder what those marks were for?

 Chapter 234 - EPILOGUE 1 (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 234 - EPILOGUE 1 (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Juniper


    ~~


    I don''t know if it was the party atmosphere or not, but after we got home from Reece''s birthday party I wanted Paul more than I had wanted anything in a long time. I spent the whole night enveloped in his arms, our passion spilling over each other. It was the most intense thing we had done in a long time.


    I woke to a pleasant ache in my body and the warmth of Paul still wrapped around me. His scent, like the winding off the ocean mixed with fresh coconut milk. It was always so refreshing being with him.


    Just after I woke I could tell that Paul had woken up too. I hadn''t moved, but he always knew when I was awake, I think he could feel me watching him.


    "You''re burning hole in me." He joked, augh chasing the sleep from his voice. "I know I''m irresistible, but do you have to scrutinize me so early in the morning?"


    "It''s not early, dummy, it''s almost noon."


    "Mmm, then should we have some lunch?" He joked as he tightened his arms around me."You smell so good."


    "You''re such an animal." Iughed as I yfully smacked his arm. "I must smell like sweat afterst night."


    "I''m not joking. You smell amazing. Your scent is so much stronger today." His eyes were open now, all traces of sleep seemed to have left his face.


    Paul was raised up on his arms and hovering over me. He kissed my neck and groaned in pleasure.


    "It''s so good." He kissed across my cor bone. "So delicious." He kissed across my bare chest. "Raspberries and strawberries, so strong." He kissed across my stomach and froze. "So strong." He said again, only this time with more intensity.


    For some reason Paul buried his nose in my belly button.


    "So much stronger than usual. So intense." He inhaled deeply. When Paul raised his head he was grinning at me. The look on his face was goofy and sweet yet kind of unsettling.


    "What is it?" I asked him, confused.


    "Your scent is stronger, more intense, and somehow different." He was grinning and looking like a crazy man.


    "I heard that already. What''s wrong with you though?"


    "I''m just happy." His face looked ready to crack open from the intensity of the smile he was wearing. "Because you''re pregnant."


    I felt my stomach drop to my feet then instantly float right up to my throat, triple in size and choking me. At the same time, my heart rate sped into high gear, speeding up to go a mile a minute at least.


    "What?" I asked him, dumbfounded. We had talked about kids, and we both wanted them. But I was neen and he was twenty. Yeah, werewolves always have kids early but I was still in school. He had dropped out after the most recent semester because of his job as a warrior and trainer. We had decided to take an if it happens it happens approach but not to actively try until I graduated. This was so sudden, so spur of the moment, and so exciting.


    Once my brain processed what he had said I broke out into a big smile.


    "I''m pregnant?" I asked him, my tion making me feel like I was on cloud nine.


    "Yup." He was still grinning so much that it looked painful, but I was probably wearing a smile just as big so I didn''t care.


    "Oh Paul, I''m so happy." I squealed, reaching out to hug his head to my chest.


    "You and me both honey, you and me both."


    After I got up I felt like I was floating. All through my shower I didn''t feel my feet touching the tile floor. All through getting ready for the day I felt like I was taking off into orbit. Everything seemed to make me float and grin. Nothing could ever bring down my mood, nothing.


    I needed to tell people, I needed to share the news. I had to tell Trinity, I had to tell my brother, and my mom and dad. But my best friend was going to be first. She was the closest thing to a sister I had and she was my best friend.


    It was just after noon that I called Trinity and asked if she wanted to have lunch. This was a regr enough urrence so it didn''t seem off, right? It was just a bestie calling up and saying ''hey let''s do lunch''. Nothing suspicious right?


    I could usually hide anything from just about anyone. I was the lie detector and could sniff the truth out from other people but I was the iron fortress, the vault that couldn''t be prated. But the moment that Trinity sat down at the booth in our favorite diner she just grinned at me. Reece slid in with her, I knew she would have either him or Vincent with her.


    "You seem happy. What''s the good news?"


    "Is it that obvious?" I just beamed at her, making no effort to hide my excitement.


    "Girl, even if I didn''t know where you were today I only had to follow the bat signal you''re projecting into the sky. You''re glowing so much it''s like a searchlight." She was grinning at me as she made her jokes.


    "Well, you''re right, I am happy." I grinned at her. "Exceedingly so." I justughed, I couldn''t contain my joy.


    "Well, let''s order our lunch and then you can tell me all about it." She was smiling but not rushing me. I just nodded and picked up my menu.


    A little whileter we were staring at our tes full of delicious looking food, Reece digging in first like a starved man. As I watched him and looked at how tired both he and Trinity looked I could guess that the two of them had just as exciting of a night as I had. Not only that but there was a massive hickey on Trinity''s neck that was only partially covered by the sleeveless turtleneck she was wearing. I grinned at them knowingly but they didn''t seem to notice.


    The food tasted amazing, and I felt so hungry after all the excitement. I took a big bite and moaned softly.


    "Mmm, this is so good." I sighed with relief as I started to fill my belly.


    "Yeah it is." Trinity grinned and looked at me with suspicious eyes. "So, what''s the good news?" She had a quizzical look on her face but I could see the underlying investigator look in her eyes. She was curious and would find out one way or the other, but she knew I was going to tell her so that didn''t matter.


    "Well, I woke up to some very happy, and exciting news today." I grinned at her, I just couldn''t keep the smiles off my face today. I felt like I had been smiling so much that it was likely to be my new permanent look. I didn''t care, I was too happy to care.


    "Really? And what news would that be?" She was smiling happily at me. She was not pressing for more details yet, she was letting me guide this conversation at my own speed. Honestly I am kind of proud of myself for not jumping with joy when I saw here screaming ''I''m pregnant, I''m pregnant''. This was actually a miraculous feat for me right now with how happy I was feeling.


    "Well, I didn''t discover this happy thing myself." I grinned being cryptic.


    "Oh really? Then who told you whatever this happy thing is?"


    "Paul did actually." I blushed as I remembered the scene this morning, how it had turned from an intimate moment to one of pure joy for us both, all thoughts of sex and intimacy flying straight out the window.


    "Really? What exactly did Paul say?" She had a knowing look on her face, like she could tell what I was getting at.


    "Oh, nothing too serious really." I joked. "Just that I''m pregnant."


    "Juniper!" She squealed my name. "I thought you might be alluding to that, but to know I was right, oh my Goddess, this is amazing." She was bouncing on her seat like she just couldn''t sit still. "Our babies will be so close in age, and Nikki''s baby will be just under half a year older than ours, they will all grow up together and it will be so much fun having ydates for them. I am so excited, this is amazing."


    "I know, I am so happy, and so excited. I feel like I am going to just float out of this booth and keep going until I reach the moon. I didn''t know it was possible to be this happy and excited."


    "It''s a wonderful feeling isn''t it. Once the initial shock wears off. It''s the best thing there is." She reached across the table and took my hand. "I''m so happy I am going to be pregnant at the same time as my best friend."


    "Me too, this is the best thing that could have happened. My baby, and your babies, they''re only going to be like two weeks apart. Can you imagine it? They will learn everything at the same time."


    "We can do all our shopping together, and have all our pregnancy moments together. This is awesome. I''m d I have someone to go through all of this with."


    "You and me both, Trin, you and me both."


    "You two look about ready to burst." Reece spoke for the first time since getting his food, having spent thest several minutes watching us and listening to us as he stuffed his face. "This is going to be fun to watch. What''s going to happen when you both be emotional train wrecks with all those baby hormones?" Heughed at his own joke.


    "We''ll be fine." I assured him.


    "Yeah, butt out Fido." Trinity smacked his arm. We finished our lunch, the three of us talking about all the fun things the future had in store for us.

 Chapter 235 - EPILOGUE 2 (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 235 - EPILOGUE 2 (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It had been a week since Reece''s party, and since Juniper told me she was pregnant. I had nothing but babies on the brain right now. What with my pregnancy, Juniper''s pregnancy, and Nikki ready to pop any day now. It was nothing but babies for me.


    I wanted to start shopping, to start buying things for the babies right away. But Reece forbade it. He said it was too soon. I know he was right, but dammit, I was excited, and there was so much going onst time that I didn''t get the chance to buy anything besides the announcement gifts. What else was I supposed to do?


    Well, I knew what I could do. I could go crazy buying a super special baby gift for Nikki. She was my sister inw of sorts and I was going to be the baby''s aunty.


    Nikki didn''t have any sisters, just four brothers, two older and two younger. Her two older brothers were married and had started families of their own, one of her younger brothers was recently mated but wasn''t married yet. The youngest brother was younger than me and still in highschool, so he still had a little while.


    Nikki got along with her sister inws and soon to be sister inw, but she seemed to gravitate more towards me, she always had. So, it was no surprise that she was including me in everything to do with the baby.


    As the days passed since the party and my baby fever was reaching its peak I was out shopping for baby stuff almost every day. My guards took turns going with me at first, but Vincent was the only baby expert among them so eventually they just left the job up to him. He gave me lots of advice on how to take care of my babies, though he had never had to deal with twins. And he told me what we really needed and what was just superfluous and we could get only if we really wanted to. I had a feeling I was going to buy everything, even if I didn''t need it.


    Day in and day out he took me to different stores in the city. From big box stores and chains that carried everything under the sun to small little baby boutiques. I just fell in love with everything and I couldn''t help myself, I bought too much stuff for my little nephew that was due anytime now. Oh well, who was going to reprimand me for buying so much? That''s right, no one. I was the Luna Queen, I could do what I wanted.


    I was in my room, sorting the massive amount of baby stuff I had bought for Nikki, and putting it all into a neat little arrangement for a gift, when my phone rang. It was Reece calling me in the middle of his work day.


    "Hey Bruiser, what''s up? I joked with him, another dog nameing to me easily as I spoke to him.


    "Hahhh." He sighed when he heard the dog name but continued immediately like I hadn''t said anything."


    "Hey Little Bunny, just wanted to let you know, Noah just rushed out of work in full on panic mode." I could hear a hint ofughter in his voice.


    "Why? What happened?" I asked him absentmindedly as I continued creating my wonderful masterpiece.


    "Oh, nothing too much really. Just Nikki going intobor."


    "Oh, d it''s nothing too seri-." I stopped mid sentence when I fully processed what he said. "Wait, what did you just say?" Heughed at me like he thought my dy and outburst were hrious.


    "I said Nikki is inbor."


    "Oh my Goddess!" I squealed. "My little nephew is almost here?" I felt my excitement reach new heights that I wasn''t even sure was possible before now. "Oh, I need to hurry and get this gift ready then I need to hurry to the clinic. They are going to the clinic right? Or are they going to the hospital? Or is Griffin going to their house? I don''t even know where to go Reece. Help me."


    "Calm down sweetheart." His voice still held a note of hisughter as he tried to calm me. "I''m on my way home to get you. We will go to the hospital together."


    "Really? Thank you so much Reece. Ahh, I''m so excited. I get to see my little nephew today. Yay!" I couldn''t contain my bubbly excitement as I squealed into the phone.


    "Just finish what you''re doing and get ready, I will be there soon." He hung up the phone, I could hear hisughter as he chuckled at me even as he ended the call. He must think that I''m going insane, but I couldn''t help it, I was happy.


    I finished arranging the giant gift for Nikki. It basically looked a lot like those diaper cakes I had seen pictures of online but it had so much more and it was way bigger and more borate. There were diapers in there too of course. But there were also bottles, wash clothes, onesies, cute adorable outfits, toys, stuffed animals, lotions, soaps, nkets. There was a lot more too. It was all arranged on a stack of boxes for other little odds and ends.


    They might have a bunch of the stuff already, but they would need more than one of these things. One set to leave at home with mom and dad for when they watched the baby, one set for my house for when I kidnapped my sweet little boy and brought him home to get lots of practice for my own baby and to give Nikki and Noah a night off to rx. A set to leave with Nikki''s parents so they were properly prepared to babysit. You could never have enough with all the people who could potentially watch the baby. I wasn''t going overboard at all, really. I swear I wasn''t.


    Reece arrived a few minutes after I was done putting together my massive gift. He hadn''t actually seen everything that I had gotten for them and his eyes just about popped out of his head when he saw the massive thing sitting in front of me.


    "What the hell did you do? Buy everything in the whole damned store?" He asked with a grimace on his face.


    "Oh shut up. I actually restrained myself a little bit."


    "Restrained? Restrained with what?" He sounded incredulous, like he couldn''t believe what I had just said.


    "I didn''t buy any of the really big stuff." I informed him.


    "Big stuff? Like what?"


    "Car seat, stroller, crib, dresser, you know, the big big stuff." I listed them off.


    "This thing looks massive, if I wasn''t as strong as I am I would need a damn forklift to carry it."


    "Don''t be so melodramatic Droopy."


    "I''m not kidding, this thing is massive."


    "Well it doesn''t matter, I don''t need you to carry it anyway." I huffed at him as I made my way toward the giant gift. But I didn''t even get halfway there before he ran in front of me and put his hands on my shoulders.


    "Oh no you don''t. You''re not lifting that massive monster of a gift."


    "Reece, I''m not a weakling, I can lift it."


    "I don''t doubt that, but it''s as big as you are, and you''re pregnant. You''re not fucking touching it."


    "It''s not that big." I said looking at it. It was at least a good eight inches shorter than me.


    "If that present was any bigger, it would walk there itself."


    "You''re being ridiculous." I huffed as I tried to walk around him, but he stopped me again.


    "I told you, you''re not lifting that thing. Just grab your purse and let''s go, I''ll carry that monster." I rolled my eyes at him but did as he said, grabbing my bag and walking out of the room ahead of him.


    On the way down I opened all the doors for him, and then opened the hatch of therge SUV we were taking to the hospital. It was the only vehicle the gift would fit into. Ok, maybe I did over do it, but I didn''t care, it was toote to take it all back now.


    When we got to the hospital I found that Mom and Dad were already there waiting, as were Nikki''s parents and youngest brother. I ran over to mom and hugged her.


    "What have you heard?" I asked her, grinning like a crazy auntie, which I guess I was.


    "Everything is fine. They just got her taken back and are getting her situated. She was waiting for you to show up cause she says you''re her real birthing coach in this because we all know Noah is going to be useless when it starts happening. He''s smart as hell and can keep his cool for everything except his family." Mom wasughing as she said this.


    "Oh, I know." Iughed with her.


    "Hello Alpha, Luna." Nikki''s dad came over, a nervous look on his face. He hadn''t been this nervous around me in the past when I met him, but to be honest I hadn''t seen him much since Nikki and Noah got married and I was still in high school then.


    "Hi Mr. and Mrs. Parker, how are you?" I smiled at them but I noticed that Mr. Parker flinched a little. It was like he was afraid of me for some reason.


    "I''m good Luna, thank you for asking." He tried to smile but it became a grimace.


    "Mr. Parker, I''m the same person I was when Nikki got married, you don''t have to be nervous." I gave him a reassuring nod and for some reason he looked over my shoulder at Reece. "Don''t worry about that giant puppy either." I joked and that got a real smile out of him.


    "You really do act just the same." He seemed to be a little more at ease. "I''m d that you and Nikki stayed close even with things changing like they did."


    "I won''t change the fundamentals of who I am just because my status changed. I am who I am and that''s never going to change. And with the babying today I hope our families can be a lot closer from now on." I smile at him.


    "That would be nice."


    We talked for a few minutes longer until Noah came out to get me.


    "Trin, Nikki is ready for you." He seemed so excited and nervous. It was like he didn''t know which emotion should take control and he was just spinning like a top from one to the other. It was totally cute and I would so make fun of him for itter. But for now the attention needed to be on Nikki, not Noah.


    Things seemed to be moving pretty fast once I got into the back room with Nikki. Apparently she had been in the early stages ofbor sincest night and didn''t even realize it, she only noticed something was up when the pain of the contractions got really bad.? Not five minutes after I got to the room her water broke and it was almost time for the big show.


    I had to admit, seeing Nikki sweating and looking like she was in intense pain gave me pause for my own delivery. But Nikki also looked like she was the happiest person in the world right now so it seemed to be a good trade off. She was such a sweet and caring person, I just knew she was going to be a wonderful mother.


    Griffin checked her again and said she was fully dted and one hundred percent effaced, it was time for her to push.


    I held her hand and coached her through the pushes and breathing like I had been practicing to do for thest couple weeks. I counted to ten for her with each push and rubbed small circles on her back to help her rx in between them. During all this Noah paced the room from the other side and looked like he was about to simultaneously wear a tread in the floor and float away from glee at the same time. He was such a nervous wreck and a happy expectant father all at the same time. He was adorable to watch.


    After about fifteen minutes of some really intense and painful looking pushes I heard Griffin''s excited voice.


    "It''s out." He said happily. "It''s a boy." We already knew that it was going to be a boy, but he confirmed it for us as he mped off the cord. "Are you going to cut the cord Noah?" He asked him.


    Noah mumbled some sort of gibberish as he walked hesitantly forward. He was nervous, but he managed to do his job properly. Once the cord was cut Lana wrapped the baby in a hospital nket and took him to be cleaned up and measured. Noah was hugging Nikki and wiping sweat off her forehead while the baby was being cleaned up, it was a heartwarming sight.


    About ten minutester, Lana brought the baby back over and handed him to Nikki. I saw the tears in Nikki''s eyes as she looked down at his tiny round and pink face.


    "Hi baby. Hi Elias, I''m your mommy." She cried, the tears streaming happily down her cheeks.


    "Hey little man." Noah cooed at him. This was such a beautiful sight and I was happy I was here to see it.


    Nikki handed the baby to Noah, who bounced him in his arms for a few minutes, staring at his adorable face. Then, Noah came over to me and handed him to me.


    "Here you go buddy, meet your Aunt Trinity. She''s going to be there for you a lot." Noah smiled as he slipped the baby into my arms. I nearly started to cry at his words.


    "Hi Elias, I''m your Auntie Trinity. I love you so much already." I smiled down at him, my vision blurring slightly for just a moment as a tear formed in each eye and then began to streak down my cheeks. He was so adorable, and he looked just like Noah with a head full of dark brown hair. I just wanted to hold him forever, but I knew I had to give him back to Nikki soon enough. With a little kiss to his forehead I handed him back, letting him take a small piece of my heart with him.

 Chapter 236 - EPILOGUE 3 (VOLUME 2)

    <h4>Chapter 236 - EPILOGUE 3 (VOLUME 2)</h4>


    ~~


    Bryce


    ~~


    "Alpha, we''ve finally found where he''s hiding." One of my deltas, Kyle, had just returned from a meeting with some allies of ours that was helping me to locate a traitorous shitbag.


    "Where is he Kyle?" I demanded.


    "He''s hiding in the mountains in Tennessee. It seems like he has some very distant rtives in that area that we didn''t know about at first."


    "Good, we''ll leave right away." I started toward my office door, ready to head home and prepare for this journey.


    "Yes, Sir." I knew that Kyle would notify the right members of my pack to let them know of our travel ns. Delivering messages was his job after all.


    I had been waiting for this moment. For almost two months now I had been looking for this fucking scumbag. This worthless piece of shit that considered himself an alpha but turned his back on his own kind and aided in the attack on another pack. Who the fuck did he think he was?


    I may be a world ss asshole that doesn''t like most people but even I wouldn''t try to deliberately destroy another pack just so I could get theirnd. That was idiocy. And to attack thergest pack in the damn country, seriously. That man must have had a death wish.


    And, to make matters worse, he brought that fight of his to my territory. He crossed my boundaries and put my people in danger. He had to pay. There was no way around it. He was going to pay, with his life.


    I decided it was best to drive to Tennessee to track Stanley down. I nned on bringing home some souvenirs and I didn''t need to get caught by TSA. It would be a little hard to exin why my luggage was dripping blood on the return flight. Nope, driving it was.


    It took a few days of driving through the mountains, but I eventually made it to the little hick town that Stanley was supposed to be hiding in. I caught his scent the moment I got within ten miles of the town. There was no mistaking the scent of a cowardly asshole.


    I hadn''t even been in town for an hour when I found where he was cowering, hiding while holed up in some backwoods cabin with no electricity. He probably thought that if he stayed in this ce long enough, Reece and I would forget about him. Like Reece would forget that he had aided Edmond in fighting against the Red Springs Pack, and like I would forget that he had crossed into and fouled up my territory with his vile stench.


    I stomped my way to the cabin''s front door. Stanley must have known I wasing. When I kicked the door in I saw him cowering in a corner, nearly shaking with fear.


    "Hey there fuckface." I smiled at him. "Been waiting for me long?" I saw him flinch at my words. He knew he was beat but there was no back door that he could have escaped from. There was only the front door and two front windows. Any attempt at escaping would have put him into my hands anyway. If he was a smarter man he would have realized that he was a werewolf and this was a wooden cabin, he could have broken down a wall to escape. But we were talking about a brain dead, spineless twit, he wouldn''t have been smart enough for that.


    "Leave me alone Bryce, I''ve got no beef with you." He was trying to sound tough as he shook in fear. "I-I don''t want to have to hurt you." He was really putting on a show for me.


    "You? Hurt me? Don''t make me fuckingugh Stanley. The day that you could beat me is the day I fucking dropped dead ten minutes before the fight started."


    "I''m younger than you."


    "What the fuck does that prove?" I growled at him.


    "I''m younger so I''m stronger." He seemed to be getting more confident. "I-I thought it was going to be Reece that found me, not an old has been like you."


    "If you think I am so easy to beat then you shouldn''t be cowering like a little girl in the fucking corner."


    "I''m not cowering." He yelled at me.


    "Yeah, right. And I am the queen of fucking Ennd. If you were shaking anymore you''d cause a tsunami in Japan."


    "Fuck you Bryce." He ground out through his clenched teeth. "This is why everyone hates you. You think you''re better than everyone else and you''re a fucking asshole to boot."


    "Awe, don''t be like that Stanley, you''ll hurt my feelings." I chuckled at him to let him know that I was unfazed.


    "Go to hell you old geezer."


    "Come over here and fight this old geezer, Stan my man, and we''ll see who''s the stronger of the two of us."


    "You''ve got your men with you, you''ll just have them take over for you."


    "The hell I will, I fight my own battles you fucking pussy. I''m not like you who turned tail and ran as soon as you saw Reece and I show up at your little fuck buddy''s house of horrors." I yelled at him, my anger ring. "Did Edmond show you a real good time Stanley? Did he make it all worth your time and effort? For your sake I hope he did, because you''re about to atone for that shit right now."


    "Like hell I am." He was finally growing his back bone, he even took a step away from the wall as he red at me.


    "Then prove it. Cause I am about to beat your fucking ass like there is no tomorrow.


    Stanley seemed to have had enough of my taunts. He thought he could attack me with a surprise attack. He curled his hands, making his lethal ws appear as he threw himself at me. But there was noparing his idiotic fighting style to my aged wisdom and experience. I simply sidestepped his attack and grabbed him by the throat at the same time.


    "You''re a fucking moron Stanley, you know that." I grinned at him as I added a great deal of pressure to his throat. He tried to say something but it was unintelligible. "What was that Stanley, I didn''t catch that? Did you say you want a stronger hug from my fingers?" I joked as I tightened my grip even further, bringing my ws out as well.


    My long, sharp ws instantly dug into his throat, breaking the skin and sending blood pouring down his body.


    "Oops, I seemed to have made a booboo." Iughed as I lifted him in my grip and proceeded to m him against the ground. "Here, let me help you."


    Once I had Stanley on the ground, me leaning over him, I ced one foot on his chest. I tightened my grip and felt my fingers and ws slide even deeper into his throat. Stanley made a choking noise as my ws dug into his jugr, blood was also beginning to trickle out the side of his mouth.


    I smiled at the sight before me. The man was being choked by my hand and his own blood at the same time. It was so satisfying to see. I was about to really enjoy what I was going to do.


    With my one foot on Stanley''s chest to hold him down and my ws dug deep to give me a firm hold I started to pull.


    I heard the popping, tearing, and screaming as I slowly pulled harder and harder on Stanley''s throat and head. I added my other hand, ws digging in just as far as the ones on the other hand.


    With both of my hands now in ce it was making my task that much easier. The sight that was ying out before me was not pleasant, for most people anyway, but it made me grin happily.


    The skin around the punctures, all the holes I made in Stanley''s neck with my ws, were slowly tearing open. I watched on with pure joy as his head slowly ripped free of his neck. The hot, violent spray of blood that apanied it didn''t even annoy me, it was satisfying because I was the one who had caused it, I was the one who had killed that little fucking piss ant.


    "Hmm, what should I do with your head?" I mused, asking the dead man as I stood up, his blood dripping off my face like it was nothing more than sweat caused by an intense workout. "I think I will give you to Reece as a wedding present. He should like that." Iughed then, it sounded normal to me but based on the looks from the men around me it must have been at least a little maniacal. Oh well, I wasn''t going to stop anytime soon. I was d that I had killed that fucking asshole. That was one less thing we all needed to worry about.

 Chapter 237 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 1

    <h4>Chapter 237 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 1</h4>


    ~~


    Carter


    ~~


    There had been so many changes recently, ever since my cousin had mated with the alpha. Her life had been turned upside down, and try as I might to stick by her side to protect her, I just wasn''t able to.


    I had immediately joined the pack warriors with hopes of being one of her personal guards so I knew that she was safe. But I was assigned elsewhere. I don''t know if that was done on purpose, out of spite, or if it was just the way things were.


    No, I was assigned to be a scout. A spy as it were. My job was to infiltrate other packs and find out if they were involved in the attacks on my cousin. So, I guess in a way I was helping her, just not directly.


    I had been at this job for nearly two months and I was already in the third enemy pack. The packs I was being sent to were not close. They were the packs on the very fringe of our territory.


    Our pack, the Red Springs Pack, was thergest in the entire country. But most people didn''t know that. Most other packs didn''t pay attention to what happened that far beyond their borders so they just didn''t care.


    But our pack has apparently been very prosperous over thest several generations and we have acquired more fealty packs and treaty packs than any other werewolf pack had ever done in our species'' history.


    I didn''t care for our current alpha though. He imed my cousin, my little sister of sorts, and he proceeded to force her to move into his house immediately. And that had happened on the day of the first attack.


    That first attack had been from a rogue, or so they say, but I didn''t trust him at all. Reece, the alpha, just seemed like an asshole to me. He was someone that I needed to protect my innocent little cousin from.


    I was just two years older than Trinity, and my parents raised her since she was three months old. There isn''t a part of my memory that doesn''t have her there like the little sister my parents never had. They didn''t need to since Trinity was my sister. I had always thought of her that way anyway. And now my little sister was in danger.


    This pack I was spying on now was about six hours or so away from home. The ck Canyons Pack, run by a mean son of a bitch named Bryce. Or at least everyone said he was mean. I had only met him once and all he did was grunt at me.


    My story was that I was a nomad, a drifter, that hadn''t felt at home in my family pack. I wasn''t a threat to them so as long as I didn''t do anything wrong or try to hurt anyone I was allowed to be here.


    I had always been good at blending into the people around me and I was even better at people pleasing. That was one reason I was so good at my job. No one suspected anything from me, most of the time they often just forgot that I was even there to begin with.


    Out of all the pack I had been to so far, this one had the most potential for being behind those unfounded attacks. Bryce, the alpha, hated every other pack in the country. That wasmon knowledge. Also, this was the secondrgest pack in our area and the fifthrgest pack in the country. If they were going to try and take over they were the one with the most chance at seeding.


    Another anomaly with this pack was that they were the only one to give me a job right away. I was put on perimeter patrol. Apparently, they had had some problems with people, other shadow worlders, sneaking around in the past and Bryce didn''t like to share hisnd.


    It was during one of these perimeter patrols, one really close to the alpha''s estate, that I smelled the most amazing scent in the world. It was like sweet flowers, a bunch of them. Daisies, jasmine, lilies, roses, and so many more I couldn''t ce. It smelled like a greenhouse.


    I just smiled with a dazed look on my face while I patrolled the area. I was moving closer and closer to the house, weaving in and out of the trees. The scent would get stronger the closer I was to the house, but it would fade the farther away I went.


    I would catch the slightest trace of the scent on my path, like whoever it belonged to had gone on a run in the area. I almost felt like a cartoon character, ready to be lifted off the ground only to start being dragged around by my nose as it followed the trail.


    I knew what this scent meant. This was my nose telling me that I had found my mate. This was going to be the best day of my life. I would find her, convince her to run away from her pack and join my pack. We would live together in eternal bliss, growing older as we watched our children grow up around us. It was the life every wolf wanted.


    I couldn''t take it anymore. I started following the trail for real. I needed to find this girl now. I needed to see her, to know who she was.


    The scent trail was leading me closer and closer to the alpha''s house. This alpha house looked so much like the one back home. It was shaped the same but made of slightly different materials and was different colors. Other than that, it was the exact same house.


    As I looked at the pack house,paring it to the one my cousin was now living in, I wondered if my new mate was a maid in the house. Was she here at work right now? Was today her day off and I was just following an old trail of hers? I needed to find her though. Perhaps she would like the idea of someone rescuing her from her life of being a maid to an assholish brute of an alpha.


    I was running different fantasies and scenarios through my head. Different visions of how I would sweep her off her feet, profess my undying love to her, and we''d ride off together into the sunset. All these thoughts had me utterly distracted so when I heard the most musical voice ever I froze in my tracks.


    "Katie, Jordan, you two are so mean." The words she was speaking didn''t seem too happy but her voice was full of glee. "I''m going to get the two of you for not helping me. It''s almost my birthday you know, can''t you help your sister out a little bit?"


    "But if we start helping you now, we will never be able to rest until you''ve worked us all to the bone." A man about my brother Noah''s age was responding to her.


    "Don''t worry, Ems, I will help you in a few minutes. Just let me put all this stuff away." That was from a younger girl, perhaps in thest year of middle school, if she was even that old.


    "Thank you Katie." The musical voice was cheering now.


    I saw her through the trees then. She seemed to be bouncing up and down, a happy smile dominating her beautiful, perfectly sculpted face. She had a light tan still and her hair was a beautiful shade of blonde. And I could see her pretty green eyes from here. She looked so angelic, and sexy.


    Her body seemed to be sculpted by the gods. Perfect hips, perfectly long legs, perfectly perky and ample breasts. She was maybe five feet nine inches tall, maybe a little more or less, it was hard to tell from a couple hundred yards away.


    All my dreams and fantasies were already morphing to something more, adding her beautiful visage to the details. I started to walk forward, intent on talking to her and introducing myself.


    I took step after step, slowly closing the distance between us. That was until I saw the alpha, Bryce, walk out of the house behind her.


    "Daddy!" She leapt with joy and jumped right into his arms. "I''m so happy you''re letting me n all of this."


    "Well, I know how much you love parties." Bryce smiled sweetly at his daughter as he hugged her to him.


    All of my fantasies and dreams for the future shattered in an instant.


    My new mate, my one and only mate in this life, was the daughter of an enemy alpha. This couldn''t be happening. How could this be real. Why did the moon goddess hate me?


    I turned around and stopped myself from walking toward her. I couldn''t let her see me, I couldn''t let her smell me. I had to get away.


    "What''s that?" I heard her voice in the distance and that was when I started running.


    I shifted and ran as far and for as long as I could. My life was over.

 Chapter 238 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 2

    <h4>Chapter 238 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 2</h4>


    ~~


    Emmalee


    ~~


    Today had started out like any other, really. It was early December and that meant that it was almost my neenth birthday. I had just started university in the fall and I was absolutely hating it. I had always hated school though. I prefer to be with friends and hang out, I''m a sociable person.


    Another good thing about December was getting the family together for a huge party. It was like celebrating all the birthdays that were so close together and Christmas all in one. There were three other birthdays in December besides mine and we all usually had a massive party in the middle of the month.


    This year my dad was letting me n it and I was trying to get my annoying older brother and little sister to help me. I knew that Katie would help if I just asked her to, but Jordan was a jerk and he would be a brat about it. Seriously, what were big brothers for if not helping their beautiful, angelic little sisters n parties.


    "Katie, Jordan, you two are so mean." I whined at them, hoping to convince Jordan with guilt since his refusal had me tacking the me onto my little sister as well. "I''m going to get the two of you for not helping me. It''s almost my birthday you know, can''t you help your sister out a little bit?"


    "But if we start helping you now, we will never be able to rest until you''ve worked us all to the bone." Jordan said this as if I was a ve driver. What era was he even living in inside that messed up head of his? I just rolled my eyes at him.


    "Don''t worry, Ems, I will help you in a few minutes. Just let me put all this stuff away." Katie, the angel that she was, agreed to help me right away.


    "Thank you Katie." I squealed in delight, jumping up and down with joy.


    I watched as Katie bounded into the house then red at my brother. He woulde around, eventually. I would see to that. I may not be a ve driver, but I could be an evil dictator if he pushed me too far. Maybe the era inside his head really was spot on. Hmph, who would have thought? Oh well.


    I was waiting for Katie absentmindedly when I got the faintest whiff of something strange and wonderful. But before I could think about it at all I heard the door open. Only it wasn''t Katie that hade out, it was my dad, the alpha.


    "Daddy!" I screamed happily as I jumped at him. "I''m so happy you''re letting me n all of this." I clung to him as he hugged me tightly. I could smell how happy he was, Daddy was always happy.


    "Well, I know how much you love parties." He was right. I loved parties of all kinds. Birthday parties, New Year''s parties, random backyard BBQs, Christmas parties, Weddings, anything. If a bunch of people got together to celebrate something, anything, I loved it. I loved being around people and making people happy with the big celebrations I put together. I didn''t care if the party had anything to do with me or not, I just liked to make people happy at their own parties. This big Christmas al a birthday bash wasn''t just for me. Yes, my birthday was part of it too, but my younger cousin Mina was turning five this year and I wanted to see her eyes light up the most. She was so adorable and when she was excited her eyes went so wide they looked like saucers. How could I resist the urge to make her day special.


    "What''s that?" I asked as something tickled my nose. While I had been lost in thought I thought I had heard a rustling in the trees beyond the house and there was that scent again. It smelled amazing, like butterscotch and sugar. It was sweet and it made me think of a party dessert. But most of all it had my wolf screaming in the back of my head.


    ''MATE! MATE! MATE! MATE! MATE!''


    My wolf was straining at her leash, trying to take control, trying to run off into the wood and find whoever that scent belonged to. I didn''t seem to have the strength or the willpower to stop my wolf as she howled inside my head.


    ''MATE! MATE! MATE! MATE! MATE!''


    I gave in and let her take the lead. My wolf had her nose to the air and was sniffing away madly.


    ''Where is he? Which way did he go? What happened to him? Didn''t he smell me too? Did he run away because he saw me?'' These were all the questions that my wolf was asking over and over inside my head. She was begging to know the answers to these questions and more and I didn''t know what to tell her, I had no answers for her at all.


    "Where is he?" I asked the trees and empty area around me. His scent was here, I can smell it, but it was like it disappeared almost immediately. How did that happen? Could he hide his scent? The only ones I knew who could do that were warlocks and witches and this scent didn''t seem like that, they didn''t really have a scent at all. So he couldn''t be a warlock, could he?


    I ran around the area five times, trying to follow his scent. I even went further toward the city but there was no trace of him. What happened? What could this all mean? I wasn''t crazy was I?


    After what felt like hours of searching in vain and not finding hide nor hair of the man I had scented I finally started to head home. I slowly dragged my feet, depression settling on me with each step I took.


    "Why doesn''t he want me?" I asked myself while tears streamed down my cheeks. "Am I not good enough for him?" I could hear my own voice cracking with emotion. "Who is he? I would like to know that at least, if he''s going to reject me." The tears started to flow harder now as the realization hit me. "I''m never going to have a mate. And I am never going to get married or have a family." My chest felt so heavy and my heart seemed to be so shattered that I couldn''t even feel it beating anymore. "Is there even a point to my life anymore?"


    These depressive thoughts kept eating away at me as I slowly made my way home. When I pulled the front door shut behind me and dragged my feet toward the stairs I heard Dad''s light footsteps take on a thunderous tone as he stalked out toward me.


    "Emmalee Rose Evans, where the hell have you been?" He thundered at me, but then he caught sight of my face. I must look awful. "Ems?" He called out to me as he swept me into his arms, picking me up off the floor and cradling me against his chest. "What happened baby girl? Did someone do something to you? I''ll kill him, whoever it is."


    "I smelled my mate today Daddy. That''s why I took off."


    "Well, that should be good news then, honey. Where is he? Who is he?" He seemed so happy at that moment, not understanding why I was so upset.


    "I don''t know who he is Daddy. I don''t know where he is or what happened at all."


    "What? I don''t understand." He huffed for just a quick second.


    Dad was confused and needed time to think, so he adjusted me in his arms and carried me into the sitting room. He walked right over to my favorite oversized arm chair that was sitting next to the firece. With a small grunt he sat down, setting me on hisp as he did so.


    I curled up into a ball, burying my face into his shoulder. Dad has always been able to make everything better. He''s always been able to fix anything no matter what it was. But I don''t think he could fix a broken heart.


    "Alright Ems, tell me what happened, all of it. Don''t leave a single thing out."


    "Daddy, I smelled him. His scent was intoxicating and perfect. I took off to find him, to see him, but when I found the trail in the woods it just disappeared."


    "Disappeared?" that confused him. "Like a warlock?"


    "But they don''t have any scent at all. He had a scent, and it was wonderful. Butterscotch and sugar, he smelled like a dessert for a party. It was perfect." I was smiling wistfully at the memory of how his scent made me feel.


    "Are you sure it was a mate scent?"


    "Yes, Dad, I''m sure. My wolf was screaming it in my head."


    "Then it was probably just an old trail. Something that lingered."


    "Do you think so?"


    "Yeah, it has to be. You''ll find him somewhere in the pack soon. You''re finally old enough to mate so you just haven''t noticed him before now, that''s all. Give it time, you''ll find him again."


    Dad''s words wereforting, and I hoped that he was right. But little did I know that I was never going to find him mixed in among my own pack. He was gone, and he wasn''ting back here anytime soon.

 Chapter 239 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 3

    <h4>Chapter 239 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 3</h4>


    ~~


    Carter


    ~~


    I ran for hours. I didn''t go back to my apartment that I had in Bryce''s territory. I just ran and ran. I needed to only run at night and hide during the day since I was in my wolf form, and that meant that I didn''t have any clothes.


    I didn''t mind the prolonged time in my wolf state. It gave me time to get my frustrations out. I just needed to destroy a few cave walls during the day, or knock down a few trees. It didn''t help all that much but it was still better than wallowing in my human mind all the time.


    My wolf had whined incessantly since I had run away from my mate. After this trip back home was over I was going to have to avoid being in my wolf form for a very long time.


    It took me two and a half days in all to get back home, being limited as I was with travel time. I went straight to my family''s house in thepound, I needed a shower and some sleep. And when I woke up in the morning, I would have to go straight to see the alpha.


    I''m certain that Reece wouldn''t be happy with me for leaving Bryce''s pack so soon, but there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn''t be found out and I was the one who sacrificed the most during this mission.


    I''m just d that my mate didn''t see or smell me. I couldn''t bear it if she had noticed me and was suffering like I am. To know that I was causing her this kind of pain and sorrow, that would tear me apart.


    I shifted back and climbed through my bedroom window, d that I had my own private bathroom. I didn''t want to see or talk to my parents right now. I didn''t need to hear any ''it''ll all work out'' babble. Right now all I wanted to do was take a hot shower, crawl into bed, and cry myself to sleep, which I hadn''t done since I was a little kid.


    The water was scalding hot. Too hot to stand really. I had hoped that it would numb me and burn away my ability to ever feel again. But it didn''t and soon I left standing in water that was slowly turning cold.


    I crawled out of the shower and barely dried off before I crawled, naked, into my bed. I couldn''t getfortable at all. I tossed, turned, and hugged my pillow for hours before I finally drifted into an uneasy sleep.


    I had very bad dreams when I did finally sleep.


    I dreamt that my mate found someone else. I dreamt that once I settled this stuff with Trinity and I was finally able to try and work things out I was toote. I dreamt that I had to watch from afar as the only woman there was for me grew old loving another man, raising his kids, and I just wasted away into nothingness.


    "Carter?" I woke to the sound of someone pounding on my door. "Carter!?" Mom was yelling at me from the otherside. "Carter answer me if you don''t want your mother seeing how much you''ve grown." I groaned as I shook my head, shaking the sleep from my eyes and my mouth. Mom knew I always slept naked, ever since she walked in on me when I was fifteen and was able tost assess my development, I didn''t want a repeat of that now.


    "What?" I yelled at the door.


    "Don''t you what me in that tone boy." She reprimanded my angry tone of voice.


    "I was sleeping, Ma."


    "I know that. And I also know you''re supposed to be on a mission right now, so why the heck are you home?"


    "I needed to get out of there. Don''t worry, I am nning on seeing Reece today and exining what happened."


    "You had better, if you bring any trouble to your cousin with all that''s happenedtely, so help me boy I will whoop you."


    "You realize I''m too big for that, don''t you mom?"


    "Shut it! You''re never too big for me to bend over my knee, boy, do you hear me." My mom really was scary sometimes.


    "I''m not going to cause trouble Mom, I swear."


    I groaned again as I rolled out of bed. I felt too tired to even move, but I had to force myself. I needed another shower. A cold one this time so that it could wake me up. I shuffled my feet until I got to the bathroom and took a shower with the water as cold as I could stand it.


    Once I was dressed and forced myself to eat something for breakfast, or was it lunch time now, it was time for me to head to the Alpha''s estate. I didn''t want to rush this meeting into happening sooner than it had to so I decided to walk, slowly, to the house. Walking, slowly, up that long, winding driveway through the woods.


    But, sooner than I wanted, or was ready for, I was at the front door. I could smell a lot of familiar scents. My brother Noah''s, he was Reece''s best friend and assistant, my cousin, should be sister, Trinity who was mated to Reece, and of course Reece, who just always seeded in annoying me and pissing me off since he had stolen half my family away from me.


    I was never a big fan of the Alpha, but seeing how terrified Trinity was when she was forced to live with him just made me want to beat his face in. Then, add in the fact that Trinity was attacked the day she moved in here, yeah, ok, Reece rescued her, big whoop. What happened when they went to Azure River? She was kidnapped and given a massive concussion.


    Oh, and it didn''t stop there either. She was attacked at her school, and attacked here, on these very grounds. I looked around me, looking for some sort of danger in the distance just to be safe. Was there another attacking for her?


    How could this Alpha of ours be any good if his mate has been attacked so many times? Alright I get it, there seems to be so many threatsing from so many different ces that we don''t even know where to look for them. That''s why I''ve been sent scouting after all.


    "What are you doing?" Noah''s voice cut through my thoughts. I nearly jumped when I heard him, nearly, meaning I didn''t quite get that far.


    "Thinking."


    "Don''t strain yourself there Einstein, and be careful. It looks like your head''s about to catch fire from the effort."


    "Fuck you, Noah, you asshat." I snapped at him. "I just have a lot on my mind."


    "Like what?"


    "None of your business."


    "Geez, you annoying little brat, I was just trying to help."


    "Who are you calling little?" I stepped forward, a little closer to where he stood on the steps near the door, a little closer so that I could prove my height and physical presence to him.


    "Maybe I was talking about your brain and not your muscles, genius." He justughed. "Are you here to see Trinity?"


    "I''m going to see her, but I need to see Reece first." Noah raised an eyebrow at that.


    "Why do you need to see him?"


    "Who''s the genius now?" Iughed at him. "I need to give him a report on mytest mission."


    "Speaking of." He eyed me suspiciously. "Aren''t you supposed to be there still?"


    "Supposed to, yeah. So what."


    "Why did youe back so early?"


    "Well, dumbass, maybe that''s what I''m here to tell him. Did you ever think of that?"


    "Just shut up and go. He''s in his office. You know where that is don''t you?"


    "Oh no, Noah, I can''t find my way. Will you hold my hand and show me how to get there?"


    "Fuck you." Noah stormed off and didn''t look back.


    "Asshole." I snapped at the empty space where he had been standing. My mood was not good, at all.


    Two minutester I was knocking on Reece''s office door. I could smell Trinity''s scent close to the area, she had been in his office a few times at least. He better not be mistreating her.


    "Come in." He ordered as soon as my fist hit the door. I opened the door and saw him leaning over the documents spread out on his desk. No matter what kind of Alpha he was, he was still a businessman too, and a good one.


    "Hello Alpha." I was speaking formally to him.


    "What is it Carter? I''m kind of busy today." He hadn''t even looked up yet, but then I saw his brows crease. "Aren''t you supposed to be at the canyons still?" He looked confused.


    "That''s why I am here."


    "Did something happen? Are they behind the attacks?" He had hope in his eyes, like he thought he had finally found a solution to the problem.


    "No, I don''t think they are." I was shaking my head. "They never acted like they wanted to do anything except keep others out of theirnd. If they were behind the attacks, then they would be nning more of them, not tightening their borders."


    "You''re right, that''s what I would do if I were behind them." He deted for a moment. "Then why did you leave so soon?"


    "I found my mate there." I slumped my shoulders and hung my head.


    "Are you thinking about fighting the bond?" He didn''t sound like he was telling me not to, he was just asking. I shook my head.


    "No, I want to be with her."


    "What does she want?"


    "I don''t know, I''ve never spoken to her."


    "What?" He sounded confused, and when I lifted my head to look at him, I saw that he looked just as confused as he sounded. "How could you have not met her?"


    "Well, I ran away when I saw her."


    "Was she that ugly?" Heughed cause we both knew it was a joke.


    "No." I was shaking my head and I felt tears gathering again. "It''s because of who she is."


    "And who is she?" He looked very curious now, all he needed was a man with a yellow hat standing next to him and you could call him George.


    "Bryce''s daughter."


    "Oh." That was all he said. He knew exactly what I was getting at.


    After a few minutes Reece got to his feet and walked over to me. This was the kindest and most understanding I had ever seen him look.


    "It''s hard right now, but if Bryce''s pack really isn''t behind the attacks, then there will be nothing stopping you from being with her. We can exin to them what happened, why you were there and why you left."


    "They''ll know I lied, they''ll know that I am a spy."


    "And they''ll know it''s what we do. They have Upsilons too, we''re far from the only pack that has that rank."


    "If Bryce ever finds out I lied to him, he would kill me before he would let me be with his daughter. It''s over Reece, I''m never going to have a mate."


    "I''ll figure something out for you."


    "I don''t want to hear it." I snapped at him. "I''m just going to work as a warrior for the rest of my life and help take care of my cousin. That''s all I have left." I was having a hard time keeping the emotions off my face and out of my voice.


    "Why don''t you go see Trinity. She''s wrapping Christmas presents right now, I know she would love to see you." Reece was actually trying to make both me and Trinity feel better.


    "Yeah, I think I will." I nodded a little as he walked me to the door.


    "Do you want to give her some good news while you''re there? She''s going to be happy to hear it and she will probably love hearing it from you."


    "What''s the news?"


    "Tell her I managed to get her exams figured out and they''re scheduled for Saturday."


    "Will that be safe?" I wondered.


    "I''ve taken plenty of precautions. I will make sure it''s safe." I nodded to him, deciding to trust him, there was nothing else I could do. Reece then proceeded to exin his n to me.


    I went up to the fourth floor and down to the room where my cousin was living. I was both happy and confused about the fact that Trinity and Reece had different rooms. Tossing the thought away I knocked on her door and called her name.


    "Trinity?" I heard her gasp and run across the room.


    "Carter! Oh Goddess, I missed you. Where have you been?" She squealed and threw her arms around me. I really did miss her.


    "Around. I had some errands to run. I missed you too Trin."


    "Jeez Carter, I leave to be Luna and you ignore your favorite cousin." Her joking voice made me smile.


    "Favorite?" I put my hand on my chin as if contemting.


    "I''m your only cousin."


    "So, you win by default, but isn''t that just as bad as a loss."


    "Absolutely not, a win is a win, it doesn''t matter how you got it unless you cheated. If you cheated, then it''s a loss and you suck." Iughed at her yful words.


    "How are you feeling? I heard you were in bad shape." I tried to assess her with my eyes, worry written on my face.


    "I''m fine, no worries."


    I followed her over to the table she was working on as she answered. There were a lot of presents there.


    "You got a lot of gifts here Trin. Why do you have baby and kid toys here?"


    "For Vincent''s kids of course."


    "Who all did you get gifts for?"


    "Well, there''s the family of course, then friends, guards, and staff. Not to mention Reece and his Mom. I also bought for Heather, Conner, Renea, and Faith, Vincent''s family because I know them and consider Vincent such a good friend."


    "Your guard is your friend?" This shocked me, she was probably the only Luna to make friends with her guards.


    "Is that so wrong? Why is it so weird that I am friends with him? He is a nice person. And his mate is a wonderful, caring woman. And they named their baby Faith, whether that was after me or not I don''t care, she''s special."


    "Just because her name is your middle name?" Iughed loudly.


    "Shut up Carter." She snapped, I heard the ring of authority in her voice, themand in it since she was embarrassed.


    "Damn, that Luna stuff is powerful." I growled, sounding serious.


    "Oops." She wasughing now out of embarrassment.


    "Don''t oops me. You can''t give me amand like that and thenugh at me."


    "That was actually hrious." We continued tough at each other for a minute while she quickly wrapped another present.


    "So, I have something to tell you."


    "What''s that?" She looked curious.


    "Well two things really. First, the Alpha has managed to get you approved to sit your exams, but only if you do them on Saturday." I grinned at her.


    "OH MY GODDESS! REALLY?" She screamed and jumped to her feet. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am so d I won''t have to fail all four sses." She was jumping up and down.


    "You''re going to be taking them all consecutively. It will be you and a test proctor in the room. There will be a dozen guards, minimum, stationed around the building. One guard at each entrance, and the others scattered to look like casual bystanders."


    "Wow, so serious." She said jokingly.


    "Don''t joke about this Trinity!" I snapped. "You were attackedst time you were there, and you''ve nearly died twice. This is noughing matter. And in each of those attacks you were the one they were after. The Alpha still doesn''t know how they n to use you against him, but he knows they want to either hurt, kidnap, or kill you. Don''t take your situation so lightly."


    "I know Carter, I''m just so happy right now that nothing is going to sound like I am taking it seriously." She really did look happy.


    "I''m just so d that I will get to start new sses next semester."


    "Yes, but not the way you think."


    "What?" She seemed to have popped out of her happy bubble.


    "You can take sses next semester, but you have to take them remotely for right now."


    "NO!" She screamed.


    "It''s not up to me Trinity, those are orders from the Alpha himself. He says he will get this situation cleared up as fast as he can, but to please work remotely for this one semester until he knows that everything is safe."


    "Why did I have to go and mate with him?" She roared. "My life has been turned upside-down and it will never go back. I want my life back Carter."


    "I''m sorry Trin."


    "So, was that the second thing you had to tell me?" She asked halfheartedly.


    "No, the second thing had nothing to do with you or your little problems." I looked at her ufortably.


    "What''s wrong Carter?"


    "I found my mate." I smiled, but I didn''t really feel it.


    "That''s wonderful news Carter." She smiled.


    "No, it''s not. She''s in the enemy pack I was sent to scout." I told her the truth right away. "I can''t go anywhere near her. I can''t tell her who I really am, where I''m really from, or anything. If I did, they would know that Reece sent me to spy on them all." I was still smiling but I felt like crying.


    "Carter." She cried as if my pain was hers, this was one reason why I loved her so much, she was so empathetic. "We will work something out. Maybe we can convince her to leave that pack and join us." She tried to sooth me.


    "I don''t think she will, she''s the Alpha''s daughter." She gasped at my words.


    "Carter." She sighed.


    I could tell she wanted to talk but I was spent, I had to leave.


    "Wait, Carter." She called out. "Take these." She handed me a bag full of gifts.


    "Don''t you want to deliver them yourself?"


    "I can''t go anywhere, not until the exams that is."


    "You really haven''t left the house in a month?" That shocked me to hear.


    "Nope, except for going up into the mountains and forest, and I can''t do that anymore."


    "We will find whoever is responsible for all of this Trin, we will get your life back to normal." I dered firmly.


    "That ship has sailed, Carter, it will never be normal again."


    "You''re probably right." I agreed.


    After that I left and hurried home. I felt the need to sulk again, to be alone with my broken heart.

 Chapter 240 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 4

    <h4>Chapter 240 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 4</h4>


    ~~


    Emmalee


    ~~


    I had hoped that my dad was right. That the man I had scented was in the pack somewhere. I had never smelled anything like him before. His scent was intoxicating, wonderful, amazing, and gone.


    I looked around the pack for days and couldn''t find him. I even stopped helping with the massive party as much. I just wanted to find the man who had gone missing. Why had he disappeared?


    I was getting depressed, moping so much that my family was worried about me. I was on break from my sses until the next semester started in January, so all I did was mope around the house.


    One day, my mom came to me to try and break me out of my funk.


    "Emmalee!" She snapped at me as I was mechanically going through my day. "You need to stop this."


    "What mom?" I asked her, confused about what I had done wrong just now.


    "This incessant moping around." She red at me.


    "I''m sorry mom." I felt the tears sting again. Ever since my mate disappeared that day I have felt like the tears were closer than ever before.


    "I don''t want to see you crying anymore, sweetheart." She reached for me, cing her slender hand on my shoulder. Mom looked so much like me, or was it that I looked like her. We had the same hair and the same eyes. We both had slender frames and soft features, but where I always seemed to look young no matter what I did, my mom looked elegant and sophisticated at all times. She was the perfect Luna.


    "Mom." I sobbed as I looked at her, she used her grip on my shoulder to pull me into her chest. She was just a couple inches taller than me and I fit against her perfectly. "Why did he run away from me?"


    "Honey, you don''t know that he ran away from you. Like your father told you, it could have been an old scent.


    "I don''t think it was, Momma. I think he was there. I heard him and his scent was so thick and strong."


    "We will find him honey." She rubbed soothing circles into my back. "We''ll find him, and you''ll both be happy and everything will be just fine.


    "How, Momma? How can we find him? I have been searching the pack. I have been looking for him and he''s not here."


    "You''ve hardly seen them all." Sheughed. "That''s why your father is going to hold a pack Christmas party this year. We will get all the men here together and you can scent them all at the same time."


    "It won''t work."


    "Don''t be so pessimistic." She scolded me. "Where did my bright, cheery daughter go?" She was leveling a steady, yet firm, look at me.


    "How can it work?" I asked her this time, deciding to take a different approach.


    "Because, you will walk around them and if you smell him you will catch him. Simple as that."


    "What am I supposed to do Mom, tackle him?" Iughed at the thought.


    "If that''s what it takes to stop him from getting away then why not?" She didn''tugh, she just looked at me with her serene, regal eyes. She was serious?


    "Sure Mom, if I ever meet him, I will tackle him to the ground." That actually made herugh. I don''t think she expected me to agree. Oh well. I''d prove her wrong.


    I was starting to get excited. I''ll admit it. I loved parties, and if there was a possibility that my mate would be at the party and I could finally find him, see what he looks like, know his name, then I would be so happy.


    I worked hard with my family to prepare for thest minute party. It was going to be spectacr even though I didn''t have much time to n it. This meant that we would have three parties this month, if we counted the uing New Year''s Eve party, but that was going to be on a smaller scale and just include people we were close to. There definitely wouldn''t be anyone for me to mate with among them.


    The party was to take ce at the house. And the invitation was mandatory. Daddy didn''t tell them why they had to be there, but he told them all that there was no skipping out on this event. I knew that every unmated pack male would be at the party. This was my chance to find him.


    I arrived early to help finish setting up and to greet the guests. Why wait for my mate? Why spend all night figuring out which one was him when I could simply find him at the door? I stood there and greeted everyone as they arrived. Males and females, young and old. Not a single person entered the party that I didn''t personally greet.


    And he wasn''t here. My mate wasn''t at the party. Where on earth could he be? Wasn''t he in the pack? Did he leave the pack because he couldn''t stand the idea of being with me?


    I could feel the tears beginning to return. My eyes were stinging and I knew they would be red. This was not good. I didn''t want to cry at the party.


    Without my parents seeing me I quickly made my escape. I ran from the room, hiding my wet eyes and blotchy cheeks as I went. I hoped no one saw what a mess I looked like.


    It was official, my mate was gone. Whoever he was he had left. He never wanted to be my mate. He took one look at me and thought I wasn''t good enough so he ran away from me. I felt my already broken heart shatter again. It felt like my heart would never be whole again.


    As Iid there, crying into my pillow, I heard the sound of my door opening.


    "Ems, sweety, what''s wrong?" My dad hade to check on me. He must have noticed my absences.


    "I don''t want to talk about it." My broken heart didn''t feel ready to tell him that it was over, truly over for me.


    "Didn''t you find him here tonight?" He asked me, knowing the only reason I would be crying.


    I sat up then, ring at him and not caring that I had tears and mascara running down my eyes.


    "No, Dad, I didn''t find him. He never came tonight."


    "But every male in the pack is here." He assured me.


    "Then he left the pack. He had to have left the pack because he didn''t want me."


    "Honey, no one has left the packtely." He looked confused as he stared at me. "None of our pack members have deserted us in years, so that''s not what happened."


    "Then what is it Daddy? What happened?"


    "Could you have imagined it? I know you think you smelled him but could it have been a trick of the wind and your nose ying tricks on you?"


    "I know what I smelled Daddy." I snapped at him. "I know he was there. He was by the house that day, near the trees, and then he just ran away."


    "But sweetheart, no one has left the-." He stopped short of finishing his words.


    "I know, you said no one left the pack, but someone had to have."


    "We''ll see baby. Maybe the wind just carried a really strong scent from somewhere else. You never know."


    "That sounds stupid Dad, you know that." I red at him as I hugged my pillow to my chest. "You have to know how ridiculous it sounds to say the wind carried his scent from another pack. That would be miles and miles away."


    "Who knows, it could have happened." He smirked at me. "Are youing back down to the party? We all got you presents." He was trying to coax me, but I didn''t feel up to it yet.


    "Maybeter, Daddy." I grimaced at him.


    "Ok, juste down when you''re ready." He kissed me on my head and left the room.


    I know what he is trying to say. That I imagined it. That it''s not real. That it''s all in my head. Then why did he pause when he was saying that no one has left the pack? Did someone leave and he''s just not telling me? Is my mate lost to me forever? Will I ever find him?


    I didn''t know the answer to any of these questions, but I knew I was never going to give up. Not yet anyway. I was still determined. Dad''s insistence that I had imagined the whole thing angered me so much that I could have just screamed. I would show him. I would show them all. I would scour the earth for my mate. And when I found him, and made him exin why he had left that day, I would drag him to my parents and prove to them that he was real. They probably thought I was insane, off my rocker, had a few screws loose, or whatever else it was they wanted to joke behind my back. I''d show them. I''d show all of them.

 Chapter 241 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 5

    <h4>Chapter 241 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 5</h4>


    ~~


    Carter


    ~~


    "Dude, you can''t be serious?" My best friend Bentley wasughing at me as I exined to him what my situation was. His big round face glinted in the light, making the creamy, light brown color if his skin stand out even more. His short brown hair was a mess from him running his hand through it as heughed. And his hazel eyes were filled with mirth as he took pure joy and happiness from my pain and sorrow. He could really be a jerk sometimes. A damn good friend, but also a major jerk and a pain in my ass.


    "I don''t see what''s so funny." I growled at him before I took another swig of my beer.


    "Carter, your mate is from an enemy pack. That would be fine normally. But you said that she''s the daughter of the Alpha. And not just any Alpha, Bryce. That man is an asshole and a psychopath. If he knew you mated with his daughter after spying on his pack he''d kill you." Bentley was stillughing so hard it looked like he was going to cry.


    "I know what I said, you jackass, but what I don''t get is what you find so funny."


    "I''m just wondering what I am going to wear to your funeral, man. That''s all." He was smirking as he said this.


    "You know what, I don''t even know why I hang out with you anymore." I snapped before finishing the rest of what was left in the can of beer I had been nursing slowly for thest ten minutes.


    "Because I tell you things with no sugar coating and I share my liquor with you."


    "I could just go to a bar." I informed him.


    "Then you''d have to drive home and get the third degree from your parents. Plus, your fake ID sucks and since you''re not twenty-one you can''t go to a bar." I bowed my head in shame. I had gotten that fake ID when I was fifteen, of course it sucked, but I was almost twenty-one now anyway so there was no need to worry for much longer.


    I sighed and hung my head as I thought about it all. I knew he was just yanking my chain. Giving me a hard time to help me to stop being so damn depressed about it all. I just hoped it would help.


    "What do you n to do about all of this?" Bentley asked me with a serious look on his face.


    "Is there really anything that I can do? I mean, like you said, he would kill me if he found out that I spied on him."


    "So leave this pack and join his. Then you can mate with his daughter with no issues."


    "It''s not that simple, Bent. I can''t leave this pack, not yet anyway."


    "Why not?" He seemed genuinely confused about this. "If she''s your mate it shouldn''t even been an issue, you would have done it without a second thought."


    "If I didn''t have reasons tying me to this pack, then you''d be right. But I need to stay here, at least for now."


    "Dude, are you fucking serious? Why the hell are you not running to her right now?"


    "Because I can''t leave Trinity. Not yet."


    "She''s just your cousin man." He scoffed at my answer. Bentley was a good guy, and my best friend, but he wasn''t as family oriented as I was and we hadn''t had much time to hang out since we turned eighteen.


    "You don''t know what you''re talking about." I snapped at him and I watched as his eyes went wide.


    "What the fuck?" He seemed shocked that I had gotten so angry. "What''s the matter man?"


    "Trinity isn''t just my cousin, you know that. She''s like my little sister. And now she''s been taken to the Alpha''s house and is being forced to mate with him. I can''t leave her like that in good conscience. This is my duty as her family, as her pseudo big brother. This isn''t just what I need to do, Bentley, it''s what I want to do."


    "Carter, not only does she have her new mate, the Alpha, she also has her guards, your brother, and the elders all watching over her. And there is the Beta too. She''s got plenty of people to help her."


    "Noah''s loyalty is questionable. He might choose Reece over Trinity. And I don''t trust that Beta at all, something is off about him. Then there''s the fact that they already had to rece two of her guards for some mysterious reasons."


    "Mysterious reasons?" Bentley seemed skeptical as he asked the question.


    "Yeah, they didn''t tell me why, but right after she was marked, two of the guards she had were reassigned and reced with the Asher twins."


    "The Ashers are good guys, I remember them. They were older than us by a few years but they were cool."


    "Shane was anyway. Shawn was always a prude." I joked, remembering the times we had all hung out around bonfires when we were younger. "But that''s not the point." I shook my head as I pulled myself back on track. "What I''m trying to say is that Trinity, my little sister, is in danger and I can''t leave her here alone."


    "She''s got the rest of your family."


    "But I was the only one that was there for her. I was the rock she relied on, I was the one that got her through it all, and I am not going to stop now. Not until she''s safe. Not until she''s ready."


    "That''s some loyalty you have there, Carter."


    "If you knew what she had sacrificed growing up, what she missed out on, just because of our Grandfather and her mother and the bastard that caused all this."


    "What bastard?" Bentley looked confused.


    "The asshole bastard that took my aunt away for a weekend and knocked her up. Whoever he was, he left a child behind and a scared teenage girl. If it wasn''t for him Trinity would have lived a normal life."


    "But that''s not on you Carter. You deserve your own happiness too, man." Bentley was my friend, someone who had been there with me through thick and thin when we were kids, but he didn''t know what my family was like. He didn''t know why I couldn''t leave my cousin to fend for herself.


    "Trinity deserves happiness too. She deserves it more than I do. And I am the only one who ever saw that while we were growing up. But someday, someday soon, everyone else will see that she deserves to be happy. That''s she''s special."


    "You are insane, man." Bentley wasughing at me.


    "No, people just don''t see things the way I do. You''ll see. You''ll all see."


    "But you need to remember Carter, that you are the one that just found your mate. That you turned tail and ran from that mate. You''re the one hurting here. Your mate might be hurting too."


    "She''s not." I told him firmly, my conviction with that was solid. "She didn''t notice me at all. I got away before she saw me or smelled me. It would just kill me inside if she thought I left her, that I didn''t want her."


    "Do you want her?" Bentley asked me with a serious expression.


    "Like life itself. I don''t just want her, I need her. But I have to wait. I need to wait until the time is right."


    Once that part of the conversation came to an end we decided to change the subject. It was New Year''s Eve after all and I just wanted to get shit faced and forget all of my problems for the current time.


    We talked about the good old days. The stupid antics that we had gotten up to when we were in our teens. We talked about the future, our prospects, dreams, and what our dream women looked like. We talked for hours, all while drinking.


    I remember the first fifth of vodka, but not the second. I remember the first and second fifth of Jack, but not the third or fourth. I didn''t even remember the tequ, but the six empty bottles that were strewn across the floor in the morning clearly indicated that we had gotten that out as well.


    The night had be nothing more than a big blur. I stopped remembering what I said, what I did, where I went. All I know is I woke up the next morning with the worst hangover of my life and a strong, intense desire that this year would be a lot better thanst year.


    But, so far, I couldn''t figure out how that would happen. Ever.


    This situation, this depression of mine, wouldst for a long time. But I was strong, and as long as I was certain it didn''t affect anyone but me I could handle it. I could hang in there. Hang in there until there was a solution in sight or I died of loneliness, whichever came first.

 Chapter 242 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 6

    <h4>Chapter 242 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 6</h4>


    ~~


    Emmalee


    ~~


    "Ok, stop. You''re being an even bigger weirdo than usual." Lacy, a fellow pack mate, friend, and now ssmate seemed frustrated as we sat at the little cafe near the University Center. I had been picking at my food and not actually eating any of it, which was so unlike me.


    "What?" I asked her as she stared daggers at me.


    "What? Oh she wants to know what." Sheughed as she got a sarcastic smile on her face. "Let''s give her What? for five hundred Alex." She braced her hands on the edge of the table and put her eyes on the same level as mine. " ''What'' has got you acting like someone went and killed your puppy, pony, or some other small fluffy animal you wanted?" I couldn''t help myself, I smiled at her as she made her joke.


    "You''re silly, you know that Lacy?" Iughed at her.


    "Yes, I know, I''m silly, funny, hrious, and anything else that means funny and is another reason why you get to dy answering my question."


    "It''s nothing Lacy, nothing serious anyway." I told her as her face fell.


    I hated not telling her the truth. But how was I supposed to tell her when I barely understood exactly what had happened? I knew what had happened, don''t get me wrong, I knew that my mate had abandoned me for some reason, but I didn''t know why. I couldn''t exin anything to Lacy yet if I didn''t know, could I?"


    "Emmalee, I know we''re not best friends, but we are friends aren''t we? Can''t you please tell me what''s going on with you? You''re hurting, I can see that in as day. Anyone can see that. So can''t you tell me what''s going on."


    "Lacy." I felt like the emotions were welling again. "You are one of my best friends. We grew up together, and we go to school together. I hope you know you''re one of my closest friends, Lacy. And you know I love you." I squeezed her and.


    "I love you too, Emmalee. You''re my friend, my Alpha''s daughter, my pack mate, my ssmate, you''re my best friend." Lacy hung her head, like she was embarrassed. "I want to help you."


    "I know you do, Lacy, but it''s not that kind of problem." I smiled through the awkward feeling I was getting. "It has to do with my mate."


    "I didn''t know you had found your mate." She was getting excited like my dad had done.


    "I scented him, but I haven''t found him yet." Iughed at the confused look that caused to appear on her sweet little face. Lacy''s rusty red curls seemed to bounce as she swiveled her head side to side in confusion. Her deep, forest green eyes popped open as she stared at me. She really was a cute girl with a unique look.


    "How can you scent your mate but not find him? Didn''t you follow his trail?"


    "Oh I did. I followed his trail for hours and hours. I searched our whole pack, but he wasn''t there. Either he fled our pack to get away from me, or he''s not from our pack." I could feel the dam breaking, the emotions were surging again. Why did I get like this every time I talked about my mate?


    "How long ago did you scent him?" She asked me, like this mattered for some reason.


    "Somewhere around a month ago maybe. It was when I was helping to n the family birthday party."


    "Is that why you were so emotional over the holiday." She seemed saddened now. I hadn''t told her what was going on before now and so she was upset that she hadn''t been there to help me.


    "Yeah, that''s why." I sighed heavily.


    "How do you know you checked everyone?" She was curious now.


    "My dad had that Christmas party."


    "Oh my Goddess." She interrupted me before I could add more. "Is that why everyone was forced to go to the party? It was a mate hunt for you. That''s so funny Emmalee, you were fishing for your mate at the party." She wasughing but she didn''t really seem to be making fun of me, just the party so I ignored it for now. I could have been wrong but I was a wreck anyway.


    "Yeah, but I didn''t cast my wide enough obviously." I went along with the joke for her.


    "Could it have been the stranger that used to be here?"


    These words sent a shock through me. I felt my brain rattle from the force of the wave of awe that just hit me.


    "What stranger?" I asked her. "I didn''t know about any strangers in the pack."


    "There was a man, a nomad I think, that was here for almost a month. He leftst month though. He just up and left and no one ever saw him again."


    "When? When exactly did he leave?" I felt the intensity start to ze inside me, this could be him. Maybe he left because he didn''t think my father would approve of me mating with a nomad. I would find him, even if I had to search the whole world. "Did he leave about when I went to help with the party?" I could feel the heat and intensity burning in my eyes.


    "I think so." She put a hand on her chin to think, she looked childish and cartoonish, and just really not helpful right now.


    "What was his name?" The fire was lit now and I would grill her until she was done.


    "I don''t know, I think it was Chris or Chad. I know it started with a C, that is all I know."


    "It has to be him, Lacy. It has to be. What else could exin it? My dad said I had met every man in the pack but I didn''t find him. And he hesitated when I talked to him, when he was saying no one had left the pack. But he lied, someone did leave. My mate left. And I think he left because he was scared Dad wouldn''t approve."


    "Do you really think that''s the reason?" Lacy seemed apprehensive as she asked me this question.


    "I think so." I smiled hopefully. "I hope so." I added less confidently.


    ~~


    Carter


    ~~


    I felt like I was in a daze. It had been happening to me a lottely. I remembered being at home, eating dinner with my mom and dad. I remembered going up stairs to watch a movie in my room to try and get my mind off of things. Then, things got foggy.


    And that''s all I remembered before I got here. I had been walking along the side of the road into town. I had already made it past the trees and was at the curve, the bend in the road that would slowly take me into the city and beyond.


    I came out of the fog and realized what was going on only when my phone rang. It was pitch ck outside and having no memory of getting here was disconcerting the only thing I knew that was on my mind was my mate at the ck Canyons. But I ignored that and answered the phone instead.


    "Hello?"


    "Where the hell are you right now?" It was Noah, he sounded frantic and angry.


    "I went for a walk." I told him as I looked down at myself. I must have had my phone in my pocket when I left, because I didn''t even have my shoes on. What was wrong with me.


    "Get to the estate now." Noah growled into my ear.


    "Fuck you." I snapped at him.


    "Trinity is gone!" He yelled the words at me so loud that I had to take the receiver away from my ear so my hearing wasn''t affected.


    "What?" I felt my heart stop and my stomach sink. "No, this is why she stayed here, to stop this all from happening."


    "She''s gone now and we''re on our way back. We will be there as soon as possible. Go meet up with Vincent and the others."


    "I''m going to kick Vincent''s ass, he''s her guard and he didn''t protect her." I growled, panting heavily as I ran.


    "We don''t know what happened yet. Just get to the house and help out however you can."


    "I''m already on my way."


    I ran as quick as I could, but I did make a stop at home for a pair of shoes first. They woulde in handy.


    I didn''t know what had been going on with me, but I would need to focus and push past that. I had a feeling my wolf had taken control and was trying to guide me back to my mate, back to the ce he knew our heart was waiting for us. He would have to wait though. I could never live with myself if I ignored my family like this. I needed to fix this and fast so that I could try to find my happiness.

 Chapter 243 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 7

    <h4>Chapter 243 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 7</h4>


    ~~


    Carter


    ~~


    I couldn''t believe that Trinity, my cousin, the girl that should be my sister, had been taken. And by the Beta no less. I never trusted him, but I never trust anyone so that was hardly a surprise to anyone else. I was livid that her guards hadn''t stopped her from leaving the house, that they weren''t there to protect her. But, then again, she had left with someone that they would have trusted. Apparently no one but me and the Alpha had reason not to trust the Beta. But, dammit, I was still pissed off.


    Then, in the course of trying to track down my lost little Trinity, we found out where she was most likely at. Or, at least some where she was near. And that was thest ce I wanted to go right now.


    Don''t get me wrong, I would love to go there and sweep my mate off her feet. I wanted nothing more than to go and be with her, but it wasn''t the right time yet. I needed to find my family first. I needed to settle this.


    But, I was also nervous. I had only met Bryce once during my time in the canyons, and there was no telling if he would recognize me or not. If he did, would he be angry that I was now travelling with the Alpha of another pack? Would he resent me?


    Then, if he did recognize me, when Ie back for my mate, would he chase me away? Would he fight me for the right to mate with the woman that the Goddess herself said is the only one for me? Would he stand in our way and stop us from being together?


    I was scared, I didn''t know what to do? I didn''t know who to be at the moment. Should I put on my nomad facade and pretend to be who I was before? Or should I tell the truth of who I am ande clean about my mating with Bryce''s daughter?


    The prospects, the options, none of them were appealing to me. And I was afraid to see her, to let her see me and know we''ve mated but to not have the time right now. Even if they were to ept me I had to find Trinity first. My family took priority here. GAH! What the hell am I going to do?


    All this emotional back and forth has had me twisted up into knots. What the hell am I supposed to do? My wolf was even taking over for me to walk us to the canyons in the middle of the night. This was out of control.


    I was sitting on the ne, flying toward the canyons, toward Bryce and his daughter, toward my possible doom, when Reece came over and pped me on my shoulder before he sat down next to me.


    "Is something wrong?" He asked as he gave me an appraising look.


    "No." I answered apprehensively. My eyes avoided his.


    "Are you worried about Trinity? Or about the fight?" He was focused on his mate, my cousin, our shared family that linked us. If it wasn''t for Trinity then I would never trust this man sitting before me, Alpha or not.


    "No, neither of those. I know we will find Trinity, and I will kill anyone who hurt her." I spoke calmly, evenly, as I made this deration. And it was true too, I would kill anyone who was responsible for hurting my family. Even Noah, though I''d never tell him that.


    "Then what?" He looked confused as he stared at my tense expression.


    "I''m just not looking forward to seeing certain people tonight." I whispered these honest words to him.


    "Ahh." He seemed to understand now. "You''re worried they will know you lied to them."


    "Basically." I hung my head in shame.


    "Well, basically you did, but we can smooth things over eventually. But you can always im to have left and settled in my pack after leaving their pack." He was trying to give me an option, an out, that would help me to make things work.


    "True." I thought for a moment. "That might stop some people from hating me." Iughed apprehensively.


    "Oh, Reece." Noah called out to him and I stopped listening after that. I needed time to prepare my mental defenses before I came face to face with my mate, and her crazy Alpha father.


    Before I was ready, before I was mentally prepared with titanium brain shields, it was time for us tond. And there was no hesitating before going to the pack house. Nope, Bryce had sent along a couple of hisckeys to pick us up at the small private airstip. Oh joy!


    We piled into the cars, I could even smell a small trace of my mate inside. She had ridden in this car before. She most likely sat on this seat at some point. Why did that make me smile and want to run away at the same time?


    I watched as the Alpha house loomed in front of us,ing nearer and nearer and bringing with it my impending doom.


    The front yard still held her scent, traces of it tickling my nose. The entry hall was nearly unbearable. It was obvious that she lived in this house with how strong and overwhelming the scent was. How did other men stand it? How did being around their mate''s smell not drive them wild and insane on a daily basis?


    The deeper into the house we went, the stronger her scent was. I was going to die with the over abundance of it. My wolf had longed to smell this scent again for so long and now he was howling with joy at the back of my mind. This was bliss and torture all at once.


    The good thing was, that Bryce didn''t seem to recognize me. It could have been that there was just too much going on, it could have been that he just really didn''t remember me because we only met once for like ten seconds. I was hoping for thetter because then I might be able to smooth this overter.


    We spent hours discussing the mission that would be taking ce. The house and surrounding area that Reece had seen in his vision from the mate mark. Bryce worked mostly with Reece, Noah, and Vincent. The rest of us were working with Bryce''s Beta, Gamma, and son.


    Jordan, Bryce''s son, had been there that day when I had seen my mate. I remembered his voice and his face. I desperately wanted to talk to him about his sister, but I couldn''t bring myself to do it. What would I say anyway?


    "Jordan isn''t it?" My grandfather cut in to speak to the man sitting in front of me. He was around Noah''s age, putting him maybe three or four years older than me.


    "Yes, Sir?" Jordan spoke politely and with the respect that a former Beta would deserve. He might even remember my Grandfather from back when Reece''s father was the Alpha.


    "How have things been? I have not seen you or your family in quite a few years? How''s your mother, Bree wasn''t that her name? Then there were your sisters, Emmalee and the little one, I don''t quite remember her name, she was just a baby when I wasst here."


    "Katie." Jordan was smiling at my grandfather now.


    "Yes, that''s it, Katie, she was quite the spunky little one. And your sister Emmalee was such a beauty."


    "She still is, especially if you listen to her." Jordanughed. "Everyone is wonderful, thank you for asking. My father always did appreciate the visits that you and the former Alpha of your pack used to make."


    "That''s good to know. I would like for our packs to be allies once again."


    "That would probably help us out too. After the death of your former Alpha, my father stopped trusting anyone. Things have not been the greatest with us trying to iste ourselves. I would like to see things move in a positive light."


    "That sounds like something a great future Alpha would say." My grandfather pped the other man on the shoulder, eliciting a smile from the younger man. This was not how I viewed my grandfather. He had made Trinity''s life hell. He had forbidden her from doing everything. I partially med him for this whole mess too. This was just such a surreal experience.


    But, my grandfather had opened the floor to discussion. I could talk about Jordan''s family without looking like I was prying too much.


    "Where is your family?" I asked him, trying to sound offhanded and not truly interested.


    "When your Alpha called and exined what had happened and what he wanted, my dad sent my mom and sisters to stay with family for a couple nights. He doesn''t want them here if something bad were to go down."


    "That was a good decision. Don''t need women getting in trouble or being put in danger."


    "Like your Luna." I wanted to growl at those words, I wanted to smack him for saying that.


    "Exactly like our Luna. But we will find her and I will kill the bastards that took her."


    "Why are you so gung ho about it?" he looked at me like I was some strange beast.


    "My Luna, Trinity, is my cousin." I spoke carefully, making sure I kept my tone even, I was getting too angry as I thought about what had happened to her.


    "Oh." He looked like he wanted to console me after he said that one word but he managed to hold himself back. "I promise, we will do all we can to help you." He gave a nod of his head and the determined look in his eyes told me he was a good man. I was d my mate had a sensible older brother like him.


    We had a n set and were ready to start the search first thing in the morning. It had been a long, long night. But then we found out the next morning that Reece had been given a mate mark by Trinity. This was a revtion to us all. If Trinity could give a mark then she must have a wolf, something no one even considered to be possible anymore.


    After an interesting conversation that morning, we went in search of the house, and found itter in the day.


    We managed to take the house by storm, blitzing the warlocks and wolves that were hiding out there. Reece, Noah, and Vincent were the ones who had gone in search of Trinity in the basement.


    Thankfully, they had found her, but they needed to battle their way in and out. Also, we learned that the Beta wasn''t the only pack member behind the abduction. The two reced guards and a female that didn''t approve of my cousin mating with the Alpha had assisted in the kidnapping. They all paid with their lives, as did the warlocks that tortured Trinity. The only one who made it out was their leader, who also happened to be Trinity''s father, a powerful warlock named Gannon Edmond. Hopefully, it was thest we would ever see of him.


    After the fight was over, we went back to Bryce''s pack house. Trinity had shifted into her wolf and was unconscious.


    I was nervous and scared that Bryce''s daughter would be back at any time now. But I managed to see Trinity the next morning and rush out of there, heading home, before she could see me and know that I had been part of an enemy pack spying on their family when I scented her. When I got the chance, I woulde back and finish this mating for real.


    Until then, I just had to calm my wailing wolf.

 Chapter 244 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 8

    <h4>Chapter 244 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 8</h4>


    ~~


    Emmalee


    ~~


    I didn''t know why, but Dad had told us to leave. Not all of us really, just mom, Katie, and me.


    Apparently there were some major things going on with another pack and they were on their way to ournd. I guess Dad thought it would get dangerous and wanted to keep us away until things were safer or until they were all gone.


    So, until we were allowed back, we were staying with my aunt and uncle a couple hours away. We were out of our territory and safe from anything that should be affecting them. Mom didn''t like this, I could tell, but she left anyway and took me and my sister with her.


    I didn''t care where I was, I was just d I could skip ss for a couple days and try to forget about my problems.


    Typically I am a very sociable person and I love being in a crowd, but right now, with how depressed I had been feeling, I wasn''t up to it, I hadn''t been for a while now actually.


    During the two days we were away I spent as much time as I could just exploring the woods near their house. I may be a total girly girl, but I am also a wolf and I love being in among the trees. I often hiked in them when I needed to think or to be alone.


    These trees looked simr to the ones back by our house, and after a while they stopped giving me sce. Instead they made me think about running blindly into the forest, trying in vain to track a scent that was already vanishing.


    I had woken from a nightmare of just that more times than I could count since I realized that my mate had run off. I would dream that I was walking into the woods, alone. I would be on a peaceful hike, something to bring me joy. Just after entering the trees, though, I would smell the man that had just been there moments before.


    His scent would intoxicate me, make me smile and fantasize all at the same time. I would follow my nose, trying to track it, and just as I got a good trail going his scent would disappear.


    Frustrated, I would start again. Finding a new path with a strong trail. But just as I was getting close the scent would dissipate again.


    That would happen over and over until I just ran around the forest screaming for him toe to me, begging him to not reject me. Most nights I woke up screaming or with tears streaming down my face.


    I wished I wasn''t so affected by all of this.


    I had been happy to visit my family at first, but the dreams were worse there for some reason. All I wanted to do was to go home, so when Dad called and said everything was settled and we coulde home I was the first one in the car.


    The first thing I noticed when I got home and exited the car in the middle of the driveway out front was that sweet, dessert scent again. At first I thought my dreams, my nightmares, had started toe to me when I was awake. I thought that I was just finally going crazy.


    When I smelled the scent inside the house. When I smelled it go all the way down the hallway to my dad''s office where it pooled thickly with a dizzying, glee inducing intensity, then I knew that he had been here.


    "Dad, where is he?" I ran to him, asking my question breathlessly.


    "Who?" He seemed confused.


    "My mate. I can smell his scent."


    "Sweetheart, he was not here. The only people who were here were the family and guards of the Alpha and Luna from another pack."


    "Then one of them was my mate."


    "I doubt that sweety. None of them have ever been here before."


    "But I smell him Daddy."


    "I think you''re just tired, baby girl. Why don''t you get some sleep." My dad kissed me on the top of my head then and sent me away like I was a child. Did he not understand anything? Why did he have to treat this so lightly? I would show him, I would prove to him that he was here.


    As I was walking back to my room I noticed traces of his scent again. It was scattered in different ces. How could it be in so many ces if he wasn''t here?


    One of the guest rooms had a particrly strong trace of his scent, but the room had already been cleaned and the traces were fading.


    Next, I was walking down the hall and I noticed another pooling of the scent. There were people in the room down here, but his scent was all over the ce down here. I needed to know what was going on.


    I went and talked to my mom this time, asking her who was still in our house. It seemed the other pack''s Alpha and Luna were here because thetter had been injured after she was kidnapped. The kidnappers had made it as far as our pack and were hiding out. They had been in our territory when she was rescued. And the Luna was a woman who was just about my age. I was envious of her having found her mate.


    I wanted to go introduce myself, possibly ask who had been in the room with her before.


    "Hi, Trinity, can Ie in?" I knocked on the door and waited.


    "Yes,e in." A female voice answered sweetly, but I heard a male growl unhappily.


    When I went inside I saw a very pretty young woman with dark, dark wavy brown hair and beautiful blue eyes. She was smaller than me by a few inches and really pretty. She looked sweet and very friendly, and I instantly wanted to be her friend.


    "Hi, I''m so happy to meet you." I smiled at her as sweetly as I could.


    "Um, hi." She seemed a little apprehensive.


    "Oh, I didn''t introduce myself." I giggled. "I''m Emmalee Evans. My father is Bryce, the Alpha of this pack." There was shock followed by relief as the emotions flitted across her face.


    "It''s nice to meet you Emmalee." She smiled at me. "Was there something I could do for you?"


    "Actually, I came to help you. I was told you needed some more clothes and things that were forgotten, but no one has had a chance to go yet. I would have stopped on my way home if I knew, but will my clothes work for you?" This hadn''t been a lie, Mom told me when I went to see her that Trinity was missing a few things that her mate had forgotten to pack for her.


    "Oh." She looked surprised by my offer. "Actually I think that would be great. Thank you." Relief was settling in now.


    "Not a problem, we girls need to help each other out when we can, right." She looked so happy right now, like she didn''t get out much. I was d I could help.


    "I''m just not used to this is all. But I would appreciate the help a lot." Nailed it.


    "Well,e on to my room then, you can pick out something to wear to dinner tonight. And I can get you a brush, it looks like someone might have forgotten to bring you one." Iughed as I offered the use of my things.


    "Is it that bad?" She asked self consciously.


    "It''s not too bad, we can fix it easily." I assured her.


    "Sounds good." She tried to get off her mate''sp, but he held her in ce. "Reece?" She asked him, looking confused. "Can I get up now."


    "Trinity." He looked at her with concern. "You can''t just go." Awe, he seemed so lonely.


    "And why not? I''m not going to leave the house Reece. I will be inside and safe the whole time." She patted his shoulder to reassure him.


    "I''ll keep an eye on her, I promise." I was smiling at him to show him I meant what I said.


    "Fine, I have to go talk to someone anyway, so I''ll walk you there." He grumbled. I was pretty sure he just wanted to know what room she was going to be in.


    "Whatever you say." She rolled her eyes at him with a smirk on her face.


    Her mate didn''t leave her side until he saw us safely into my room. He was caring, sweet, and doting. Not to mention hot. I wish I could find my mate and have all of that too.


    "Dinner isn''t going to be formal or anything, but if all he brought you was loungewear I can understand why you would want something else for tonight. With how much staff we have, even I don''t feelfortable wearing my loungewear around the house." Iughed as I spoke.


    "See, you get it, why can''t he. No woman wants to walk around a strange house with a bunch of people she doesn''t know while basically wearing pajamas." Sheughed right on back at me, a bright smile on her face.


    "Still, I envy you." I could hear that my voice had turned somber and the tears were building again.


    "You envy me? What for?" She sounded astonished.


    "You''ve found your mate. I want to find mine. I thought I had recently, but I guess I was wrong." The emotions were almost too much right now. I had to rein myself in and soon.


    "Yeah, well, it hasn''t been all perfect." There was an edge to her voice, some darker emotion from her memories.


    "You seem so happy though."


    "I am, now. But we weren''t so happy when we first got together." She seemed to be remembering something from the past.


    "I wouldn''t care, I just want to find my mate. I know that I will be happy." I tried to sound happy but even my heart broke at the sound of my voice and I could tell that my smile was crooked and uneven.


    We talked for a while longer, Trinity was finally ready for dinner, and her mate showed up to take her down to the dining room. I walked them leading them as their hostess. It was fun, and I was d to have the new people around to help me be happy.


    During dinner we learned that it was Trinity''s neenth birthday. We were only a little over a month apart in age. This was going to be exciting. I knew what I had to do. I hurried through my meal and stormed out of the room, taking my sister, my brother, and her brother, ok well he was her cousin but should be her brother from what I heard.


    These hostages I took with me helped me to get everything ready. I called other pack members and friends to getst minute things together. A cake from my favorite bakery. A friend to buy a gift on her way in. And lots of decorations from my stash of emergency decorations.


    And VOILA!


    We had a small party ready for her in no time, and she looked happier than anyone I had ever seen before. I was d that I had met her and I hoped we could be friends for a long time.

 Chapter 245 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 9

    <h4>Chapter 245 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 9</h4>


    ~~


    Carter


    ~~


    I was on a mission across the country when I got a call from home. It was a video chat and I wasn''t really expecting it.


    "Hey Trinity, what''s up." I smiled at her as happily as I could trying to drown my sorrow in false happiness.


    "How''ve you been Carter? Are you taking care of yourself?" I could have been honest and told her I was pining over my lost mate and I was working myself to death to deal with my heart ache. I had been looking for the missing warlock, her father who had gotten away. I seemed to be the only one overly worried about him right now.


    "Hmph. I can always take care of myself, it''s you I''ve got to worry about." Iughed and smiled yfully at her.


    "Rude." She snapped at me sarcastically.


    "So what''s up? You never call me when I''m out like this." I was worried that something else had happened, that something was wrong.


    "Well, I wanted to tell you something." She smiled at me, she looked really happy right now. "There''s going to be a wedding next month."


    "No shit. Really?" I was skeptical for a moment. "I''m happy for you cuz, I know that you must be super excited." I tried to sound happy for her, but I felt the sadness growing inside my heart and threaten to spill over


    "I want you to be there. Will you be home?" She smiled at me with a look full of love and hope.


    "Yeah, I will be there. Nothing could keep me away." I gave her my most sincere smile.


    "Hey, Carter, I got something else to ask you." Reece butted in.


    "Hey Alpha. what do you need?" I spoke formally, since I was out on business after all.


    "No reason to be so formal man, I wanted to ask you something personal." Reece was smiling which just confused me. "I want you to be one of my groomsmen." Reece got right to the point.


    "Seriously?" Iughed as he spoke. "If you''re asking me dude, you must not have many friends." I joked which made Reece growl slightly. "I''m messing with you man. Of course I will, it''s Trinity''s big day after all, I wouldn''t miss the opportunity to be part of it."


    "Good to hear." Reece smiled but still looked a little unhappy. I was just d that Trinity was happy and that they had thought to call me and ask me to be part of their special day. Maybe having something big like this to look forward to would stop me from being so lonely and depressed.


    ~~


    Emmalee


    ~~


    I was sitting at my desk doing work when my phone rang. The caller ID showed that it was Trinity. We had been talking for thest month and had gotten to be good friends. She was really nice and sweet and I would never say no to making a new friend. When I went to answer the call I saw that it was a video call so I propped my phone up and pressed the answer button.


    "Hey Trinity, what''s up? I just finished an assignment for ss, ugh this homework never ends." Iughed, I knew that Trinity loved school while I loathed it, we were opposites there but it was fun.


    "Hey Emmalee, how''ve you been." She chit chatted with a little smile on her face.


    "Good, it''s all good." I noticed that she seemed happy. Really happy.


    "Well, I wanted to ask you something." She jumped right into what she wanted to tell me.


    "What''s wrong?" I was worried that something might have happened since west talked.


    "Nothing''s wrong, I just wanted to ask you to be one of my bridesmaids." She blurted the words out in a hurried rush.


    "Oh, I''m d it''s noth-." I stopped, finally realizing what it was that I had just heard, it had taken a minute for her words to process through my mind. "Did you say bridesmaid?" I asked her, still skeptical of the functioning abilities of my ears. She nodded her head to answer my question. "EEEeeeeee!" I squealed so loud and long I thought the windows might break, I was breathless when it was all over.


    "Oh Goddess, Trinity, if you thought I loved birthdays, wait until you see me get excited over a wedding. I am so going to help you as much as I can." I was happier than I thought I would be. I knew I was missing my mate, and pining over him constantly, but I would not let that stop me from helping my friend to have the best wedding of her life.


    ~~


    Carter


    ~~


    Just after Trinity and Reece had called and asked me to be part of their wedding, some serious shit started to go down in town. It seemed that the Warlock that I was looking for, that piece of trash Gannon Edmond had kidnapped some kids, human and wolf. Now we all had to work to find them all.


    There had been talks about postponing and cancelling the wedding, but we all put our foot down, collectively. Trinity deserved to have her day with everything that had happened to her. I would not let her father ruin anything else in her life. And I guess Reece deserved to be happy too. I mean, he was marrying my cousin after all.


    Needless to say it had been a busy time, searching and nning, and time was passing fast. Before I knew it, the wedding was just around the corner and I was with Noah on my way to Trinity''s house. I needed to be fitted for my suit along with everyone else.


    When we got to the house we saw Reece standing in the yard with none other than Bryce. I didn''t see anyone else there with him, unless you counted the severed head of Stanley, the now deceased Alpha of the ck Moon pack.


    "Well, looks like he lost his head." I joked as I walked over to the two men standing near the SUV.


    "Good one boy."? Bryceughed and pped me on the shoulder. Now if only I could get him to ept me as his daughter''s mate as easily as I could make himugh.


    "Um, Reece, is there a reason why you two have, that uh, well, Stanley''s head?" Noah seemed a little nervous as he spoke. Not afraid, just apprehensive.


    "It''s a wedding gift." Bryceughed.


    "We made a promise that whoever found Stanley first would get to kill him. I have been a little busy, so Bryce took the lead. What do you think, should I have it mounted?" Reece''s joke seemed to go over my brother''s head.


    "Absolutely not." Noah shouted.


    "That''d be fucking awesome. He''d be a warning to assholes everywhere, fuck with you and you get mounted, and not in the good way." Iughed at my own sexual joke and was surprised when Bryceughed too. This guy was actually quite friendly, when you got past his rough attitude and gruff way of talking.


    "You''re a riot man." He was smiling at me as he talked.


    We were all stillughing when we went inside. My mind was so befuddled by theughing and smiling Bryce and the intense smell of the blood from outside that I never noticed the other scent in the house.


    I had been walking behind Reece and Bryce, my head down and their scents blocking most of the others in my distracted state of mind. All of a sudden I heard an excited, yet musical shout.


    "Oh Goddess! He''s here." The sweetest, most beautiful voice I had ever heard seemed to being from the other room. I knew that voice but I didn''t expect to hear it right now.


    I heard pounding footsteps as she came running toward us. In a dazed stupor I raised my head. That was when I saw a blonde head bobbing and darting right at me. I smiled as I saw her running toward me, the sight made my heart sing.


    Then, while I was lost in my daze, she pounced on me. Tackled might be the better word for it. Her upper body mmed into my chest and together we toppled over backward and shended on my chest.


    "You''re not getting away this time." Her words and voice were full of ted joy and rage filled anger.


    "EMMALEE!" Her parents both screamed at the same time.


    "Carter are you alright?" Trinity asked, sounding shocked.


    "What the?" Noah gasped.


    After a few shock filled moments, the tension passed and everyone started to function again.


    "Emmalee, what are you doing?" Bryce demanded.


    "Emmalee?" I just stared at her while my wolf howled with glee and yanked on the tether of control I was desperately trying to maintain.


    "It''s alright Bryce, I think we should just watch for now." Reece smiled knowingly and Bryce stared on in confusion.


    "Why did you run away from me?" Emmalee seemed to be on the verge of tears as she looked at me.


    "I had no choice. I couldn''t be found out." I put every ounce of regret I had into my voice.


    "What''s he talking about?" Bryce asked Reece.


    "When the Warlocks were after Trinity, I knew that other packs were part of it, so I sent scouts." I expected Bryce to be mad, but he just smiled. Reece had been right, Bryce did understand.


    "Exactly what I would have done. Smart boy."


    "I don''t care that you could have been found out. I thought my mate didn''t want me. I thought you looked at me and ran away." Her words broke my heart.


    "I never even got the chance to speak to you. But I saw you, and I wanted you." I turned my head to look away from her in my embarrassment. "I have been wondering if I''d ever get the chance to make it right. I knew that if I went back to the pack and talked to everyone then they would know that I was a spy. I thought you would hate me too, for being a spy."


    "You were following orders, and we had nothing to hide. I don''t know why you were investigating us, but I know our packs are allies now." Emmalee was smiling, but I just couldn''t let it go. I had hurt her, I thought for sure she hadn''t noticed me but she did. And knowing that, knowing that I hurt her, that made me feel like scum.


    "I just thought I blew it before I had a chance to meet you as myself."


    "Who are you? Why are you here? What''s your name?" Emmalee bombarded me with questions.


    "My name is Carter, and I am Trinity''s cousin."


    "So you mean Trinity and I are going to be rted now?" She squealed excitedly.


    "Does that mean you forgive me for running?" I asked nervously.


    "Not yet, but eventually." She joked yfully as she smiled.


    "Emmalee, get off the boy and let him breathe for crying out loud." She slowly rose, her soft,forting, sexy weight was removed from me and I stood, only for her to grab my hand immediately.


    "Mom, Dad, this is the mate I was telling you about before."


    "So, Reece, it looks like our packs were already bound together before you came to me for help." Bryceughed. "It''s good to meet you Carter." He smiled and shook my hand with an open, friendly smile, but I noticed a protective fatherly glint in his eyes.


    "Thank you sir, it''s good to meet you as well."


    ~~


    Emmalee


    ~~


    We were surprising Trinity and Reece today. It was so exciting and I couldn''t wait to help her n the wedding. I knew I was going to be staying here until the wedding since I was in the wedding party and I needed to help finalize the details. I had missed so many of the nning sessions and the important parts of what makes a wedding perfect, but I was going to be here for the rest of it.


    I was bouncing up and down on my heels when we knocked on the door and waited for them to answer.


    "Trinity!"I leapt toward her as soon as the door opened. "I''m so happy for you."


    "Emmalee, it''s great to see you." She said as we hugged each other.


    "Emmalee, give the woman a chance to breathe." Daddy scolded me from behind. "I''m sorry Reece, my boy, I never can control that girl."


    "No worries Bryce, it''s fine. To what do we owe for the surprise visit today?" Reece asked with a smile.


    "I have some personal business to discuss with you. If I may borrow some of your time for a little while."


    "Yeah, no problem. Should we discuss things in my office then?"


    "No, I would prefer to talk outside if that is alright with you."


    "Ok." Reece seemed confused but agreed.


    "Emmalee, Bree, would the two of you like to join me in the living room. I can get some refreshments and we can catch up." Trinity smiled and ushered us inside.


    "Yes, oh Goddess, I need to hear details about the proposal and the wedding." I linked my arm around hers as we walked. "Let''s have some champagne to celebrate."


    "Emmalee!" Trinity squealed.


    "No!" Dad and Reece yelled out at the same time causing me to freeze.


    "Emmalee Jade Evans, you are not using Trinity as an excuse to drink, not afterst time." I hung my head after Dad''s words.


    "Trinity and you are both underage anyway." Reece looked angry.


    "Come on you old fuddies. It''s not like we''re humans, a little celebration is nothing to fear." I pleaded with them.


    "No, Emmalee, I can''t drink." Trinity declined my suggestion.


    "Don''t let those boring boys staunch your fun Trinity."


    "It''s not that Emmalee, I can''t." Trinity smiled while I was confused.


    "Oh, congrattions Trinity." Mom cooed.


    "Reece, boy, you dog." Dad smiled. "Congrats. Hopefully you have better luck than I did." Heughed and Reece grinned a goofy grin.


    "What are you talking about?" I asked.


    "Are you kidding me?"Dad asked in exasperation.


    "Emmalee, Trinity is pregnant, so she can''t drink alcohol." Mom''s words hit me like a brick.


    The words swirled a moment then sank in. Then, I squealed.


    "EEeeeee! Trinity! Congrattions." I hugged her tight.


    "Thank you Emmalee. Now, let''s go so the boys can have their y time. See youter." Trinity waved them away and we went off into the sitting room.


    We talked about all the different wedding ns they had made already. The dresses that were designed and made, my measurements having been sent in for my dress already. We discussed flowers and food and arrangements. It was the most fun I''d had in a long time. Then something amazing happened.


    I was in the middle of saying something to Trinity when I smelled that scent again. My mate was here, and I would not let him get away this time. I leapt to my feet with a shout.


    "Oh Goddess! He''s here." With those words I was running. All I could think about was what mom had told me before. If I had to tackle him to stop him from getting away then I would.


    I ran as fast as I could and mmed right into him. I intended to knock him over and expected him to brace himself. I did not expect him to look at me and smile like he had seen an angel. Oh goddess, why had it taken me so long to find him?


    The moment I touched him, the moment I felt him against me, I knew that he was the one. His touch was like static electricity sending little charges through me everywhere that he touched my bare skin. I felt peaceful, happy, and content. But there was also the anger and sadness at him having run away. I had to know why he had run away from me.


    But we had lots of time now, I wasn''t letting him get away this time.

 Chapter 246 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 10

    <h4>Chapter 246 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 10</h4>


    ~~


    Carter


    ~~


    It turned out that Emmalee was nning on staying in town until the wedding. She wanted to be part of the process and to be there for her friend. I wouldn''t lie that this made me very happy as well.


    I couldn''t believe that everything had settled itself, that my mate was finally mine. And it was all thanks to my cousin Trinity and the Alpha, Reece. I couldn''t thank them enough.


    I guess things really do work out in the end.


    After Emmalee''s family left and she went to the room Trinity had shown her to, I decided to make my way upstairs. I had hung around the house after everyone else had left and I guess I was getting on people''s nerves.


    "Just go see her already." Reece had snapped at me,ughter clearly present in his voice. I wanted to, but I was nervous. "Get out of here and go see your mate, that''s an order." Heughed, but he actually made it amand. I had to follow his orders. Well, might as well follow the direction my feet were already taking me. I happily let my nose guide me to the stairs and up to the third floor where she was staying.


    I just stood outside the door reveling and basking in her beautiful scent while nervously trying to decide if I was brave enough to knock on the door. I guess I was standing there for too long and she noticed me, because before I knew it, the door in front of me flew open and was reced with her smiling face.


    "Are you just going to stand out there forever?" Sheughed at me. "You don''t have to hide from me anymore. Unless you really don''t want me as your mate." I saw the sadness sh across her eyes at those words.


    "No!" I hurried. "I want you as my mate. I always did." I didn''t want to see that sad look on her face ever again.


    "Then why are you acting like a ghost at my door?"


    "I was nervous." I looked down at the floor, hiding my eyes from her, in the process I saw that she was standing in front of me barefoot. Her cute little toes had a pretty purple polish on them that looked perfect on her. I couldn''t help myself, I smiled then. "I grew so ustomed to running from you, thinking you''d never ept me after I ran because of what I had done, who I was. I guess that feeling is a little harder to shake than I thought."


    "You don''t need to be afraid anymore Carter." Her sweet voice, her smiling face, they were working together to mend my broken, dismantled heart. Just being near her was making me feel whole again.


    "I never knew it was going to be that hard, that painful." I ran a hand through my hair sheepishly as I gave a small chuckle.


    "What?" She asked me with a look of confusion in her eyes.


    "Staying away from you. It was the hardest, most painful thing I had ever done. My wolf even took over when I fell asleep once. He was trying to walk us back to your pack territory."


    "Really?" Sheughed. "Well, at least he likes me."


    "I like you." I told her in a rush of words as I moved to stand closer to her. I took her hands in mine as I pleaded with my eyes. "I more than like you, Emmalee. I think I fell in love with you the first time I saw you, the first time I heard you speak, the first time I smelled you. Before I ran away that day, my heart was already yours, forever and ever. It nearly broke me to leave. I thought I would die of loneliness."


    "That''s how I felt. I thought my heart had shattered into a million pieces and would never be whole again. I thought you had seen me and thought I wasn''t good enough."


    "No, never. If anything I''m not worthy of you." I put my hands on her downcast face and brought her eyes to meet mine. "I didn''t know you had scented me that day. I thought I got away before you noticed me. I didn''t know I had hurt you as well. I thought I was the only one suffering and I could live with that. But to know I had hurt you, caused you so much pain, I am so sorry. I can''t go back and change it, but I can promise that I will never do anything to hurt you ever again." I was making a man''s promise, something I would never break. This was a promise to my partner, my soulmate.


    "Promise?" She asked me apprehensively, her eyes rimmed in unshed tears, tears that I had caused.


    "I promise." I assured her as I looked into her eyes.


    I felt the pull. The undeniable urge to gently ce my lips against hers and feel the warmth of her soul. I saw no resistance in her eyes or face, none in the way she was nearly leaning against me. So I went for it.


    I closed the distance between us, leaning my shoulder against the frame of the door we were still standing near. My right hand stayed on her face, cradling the softness of her supple cheek. My left hand slid down the side of her neck, across her shoulder, and down her back. It came to rest at the small of her back, pressing and holding her against me.


    My lips settled onto hers lightly, but even that was like paradise. The kiss started soft, gentle, and sweet. But there was an underlying need and urgency inside me that soon took control. With a humming growl of pleasure, my wolf took over.


    When my hand slid to the back of her head to better angle her for the kiss I heard her gasp, but it was a surprised and happy gasp, one that had her smiling against my mouth as I deepened the kiss.


    My hand on her back moved as well. It slid from its position just above her waist down to settle on her soft, glorious bottom. I kneaded the supple flesh through her jeans and felt her jolt of excitement as she clung to my shirt.


    When I licked my tongue across her lips, encouraging her to open her mouth to further the kiss, she responded in stride. With the path now clear my tongue dove right in. I moaned against her mouth with satisfaction as I twisted my tongue with hers.


    I don''t know how long we stood there, the kiss intensifying with each passing second, but I didn''t care. I just needed more. I was learning the feel of her mouth, the touch of her hands on my body, the warmth of bodies pressed together, the taste of home as my tongue mapped out the contours of her mouth.


    We were both breathing hard by the time the kiss had broken. The smile on her face made my wolf purr in satisfaction. I could finally be with my mate, and I would never leave her again.


    "Maybe you shoulde into the room, so we can talk." She smiled at me. For a moment I wanted to make a suggestive joke, but I wouldn''t. Not yet. We would just talk for now, and maybe have a few more of those mind blowing kisses. I could go for a few of them.


    "Yeah, I think we should definitely talk." I smiled at her as I followed her into the room, shutting the door behind me.


    The room was set up a lot like Trinity''s, only smaller. I kind of wanted toin, but I knew that would be stupid. Trinity had been given one of thergest rooms because she was the Luna anddy of the house, but still, didn''t my mate deserve the best too?


    The room was still veryrge, with the bed, dressers, sitting area, and all of the same amenities. It was just slightly less grand. The room was done in shades of purple and green with hints of blue, pink, and yellow all around. It actually made me think of a flower garden with all the colors sshed about. It fit Emmalee perfectly, she was my little bouquet of flowers after all.


    Emmalee took my hand as she led me into the room. She guided me over to thevender colored loveseat. It was just big enough for the two of us to sit together. She nted me in one corner and she sat in the other, facing me. I may have had a few less than pure thoughts at that moment, but I pushed them out of my mind. I was going to treat her right, with the respect she deserved. I''m sure it would be just as hard as staying away from her was, which felt like it nearly killed me.

 Chapter 247 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 11

    <h4>Chapter 247 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 11</h4>


    ~~


    Emmalee


    ~~


    When I had found Carter at my door I did not expect that he would give me my first kiss before he was even in the room. Or that it would be so mind numbingly, brain meltingly, heart stoppingly amazing. I had followed his lead and let him guide me through it and I thought I was going to die of happiness, embarrassment, and nervousness all at once. But nothing could ever ruin that moment. It was ours, mine and his, and it would always be just like that.


    "Maybe you shoulde into the room, so we can talk." I smiled at him encouragingly. I didn''t know if he was going to let his guards down ande in or if we still had to build up to that. After that kiss though, I had hoped things were better.


    "Yeah, I think we should definitely talk." He smiled right back at me as he followed me into the room.


    I saw him look around the room for a moment, taking in theyout of the area as he got himself steadied. After he took a deep breath I took him by the hand, it just felt natural and right. And the smile he gave me when I held his hand could have melted an iceberg, I know it melted my heart.


    I led him by the hand over to thevender loveseat in the sitting area. It was soft and would be perfect for the two of us to talk. I could have chosen the couch instead, but we were closer here and I liked how close he was to me.


    With my eyes locked onto his, my heart racing a mile a minute, and a smile firmly locked into ce it was time for us to talk.


    "Carter." I said his name, finally knowing it made me happy, being able to see the look in his eyes when I said was almost worth the three months of heartache, almost. "I want this to move forward between us, in a good way. In a positive way. I think we need to get to know each other, so we can be true mates one day." He was already nodding his head before I was done talking.


    "Yes, oh Goddess, yes. That''s what I want too. I never want us to be apart. I mean I know we can''t spend every moment together, but I don''t want us separated like we were before. I want us to be here for each other so I can spend forever making up for the stupid things that I did."


    "At least you admit they were stupid." Iughed at him. "That means you have potential."


    "I want to get to know you. I want to date you. When you''re ready we will get married and have a family. But we will do it all at your pace, Emmalee, I never want to rush you or pressure you at all."


    I couldn''t help it, Iughed at his sincerity.


    "Carter, we don''t have to try so hard. I know that you''re the mate for me. I can feel it in my heart, my wolf knows it, that''s all that matters right now. The Goddess chose you for me and I trust her. And I will learn to trust you too. But until then, we will get to know each other. And I like the sound of dating."


    "Have you dated anyone before?" He asked me, it was clear that he was nervous about my answer as he looked at me with expectant eyes.


    "No, I haven''t." I looked away, embarrassed. "I''ve never been with anyone before."


    "So, that was your-." He trailed off, unable to finish his question.


    "That was my first kiss." I blushed.


    "I''m sorry."


    "Don''t be." I cut him off before he could say anymore, before he could regret what he did or make me regret it. "I loved it, I was happy that you kissed me. I wanted you to, but I was too shy to ask you to."


    "But I shouldn''t have rushed it."


    "It made me really happy Carter, so please don''t be sorry." I was pleading with him and he finally nodded his agreement.


    As I was watching him, I had a sudden thought. He didn''t kiss me like it was his first time. He had kissed me like a man who had experience with that sort of thing before.


    "Umm, Carter, have you, dated much?" I was afraid to hear his answer, especially after I saw his eyes go wide.


    "W-we-well I-I have dated a c-couple times." He stuttered, nervously. "It was nothing serious, just casual. You know we don''t ever date anyone seriously because our mates coulde along at any time."


    "I know." I didn''t know why it made me sad to hear that he had dated people before me, but it made me feel upset and jealous and sad all at the same time.


    "I''m sorry. I never should have dated anyone. I should have saved all my firsts for you." He looked upset as he leaned forward, grabbing my hands in his and holding on tight.


    "You can just share in my firsts. Isn''t that what counts?"


    "Yes, that''s all that matters. Because nothing before you mattered at all, my life didn''t truly begin until I saw you that day. Hell, it didn''t truly begin until today. You helped to wake me up, to bring me to life."


    His words were making me want to cry. He was being so sweet right now. I could trust that he hadn''t been promiscuous, but I knew he had experience. That much was obvious.


    "Enough with the histories, that''s not a good road to go down yet." I giggled, worried for the future conversation we''d have about it. "Let''s learn more about each other."


    "Yeah." He looked relieved as he smiled at me.


    I know we would usually learn this stuff over time, but I thought it would be fun to y a little game with it all.


    "Want to y twenty questions?"


    "An ice breaker?" He looked apprehensive.


    "A way to learn a lot in a little bit of time."


    "Sounds like a n." He agreed more readily than I had thought he would. "You start."


    It was my turn, and I was going to use my questions to learn about him and my possible future.


    "Where did you go to college?"


    "I haven''t yet." He answered quickly. "Trinity''s life was too miserable for me to leave her behind. So I skipped and stayed with her." His answer was so sweet.


    "You love your family." I smiled contentedly at him. He nodded before he spoke again.


    "My turn." His smile was sweet and innocent. "What''s your favorite color?"


    "I love them all, but if I had to pick, I would say purple. It''s such a pretty, soothing color to me. What''s your favorite color?" I asked him, this was fun, getting to know each other like this.


    "Green." He smiled happily looking into my eyes. "That beautiful shade of green that is your eyes. I''ve never seen anything more beautiful." His words made me smile and I squirmed to hide the blush I knew was deepening on my cheeks and ears. "What did you want to do, career wise, when you started college?"


    "Honestly I didn''t know. I just love being around people and making them happy, but I don''t really like school." I put my head in my hands, ashamed.


    "There''s nothing wrong with that. You''re a people person. And you like to n parties right? I had heard that somewhere, why not go for event nning." My head shot up.


    "Why hadn''t I thought of that." I grinned at him. "I can actually get a degree in party nning and make even more people happy. I can have my own party nning business. Oh Carter, you''re amazing." I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him excitedly. Then I seemed to remember what I was doing and I pulled myself away from him in a hurry. "I''m sorry."


    "Don''t be." He was smiling. "It''s your turn."


    "Well, what are you going to do for your future?"


    "Well, right now I am a scout, for the pack. But I don''t know if I want to be that forever. I never thought about a career because I didn''t want to leave Trinity with no one to help her with my grandfather. But things are different now so I will have to seriously think about it."


    "We''re still young and we have time." He nodded at me happily.


    "Which pack would you want to live in?" His question was a serious one, one that we would need to put a lot of thought into, but I knew what I wanted.


    "I wouldn''t care, as long as I was with my mate." I looked up at him through theshes of my half lidded eyes. "I guess it would depend on careers. Our packs are allies so we could live in either one and be happy, right?"


    "That we could."


    "What kind of music do you like?" I was too embarrassed to ask any serious questions.


    "I like lots of different kinds of music. If it''s catchy, has good lyrics or a good beat I''d probably like it. I get made fun of sometimes for the vast variety of music I like."


    "Oh my Goddess, I am the same way. But different music fits different moods, it''s the only way to truly appreciate it all."


    "What kind of house would you want?" Another major question from him.


    "I grew up in the pack house and that''s great and all, but I don''t need anything like that. I wouldn''t care as long as I wasfortable and had just what we needed." My words made my heart ring with truth and I smiled to myself. "What''s your favorite ce to be?"


    "Now, or when I was younger?"


    "Now."


    "Wherever you are." I was so taken by his words that my jaw actually dropped. I wanted to bury my face in my hands and hide my crimson cheeks, but I also didn''t want to look away from his handsome, smiling face and those love filled eyes. "How many kids do you want to have?" I did bury my face at that one, choosing to instead answer the question through my fingers, causing the words toe out muffled.


    "I don''t know. I never thought about it before. But a couple I guess." I heard a soft chucklee from him as he heard my embarrassed answer.


    "You''re so adorable."


    We continued on in this way for quite a while. It didn''t progress beyond our game of twenty questions, but we got to know a lot about each other. Favorite foods, things we did when we were younger, good memories, bad memories, there wasn''t anything off limits and that was wonderful.


    Just as he was getting ready to leave I walked him to the door and he gave me another one of those kisses. I felt his lips press against mine softly at first but the intensity grew. I was holding onto him for support as my knees went weak, and by the time it was done my heart was pounding and my breaths wereing in pants. He had affected my head, my body, and my heart all with just a kiss. What was I getting myself into?

 Chapter 248 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 12

    <h4>Chapter 248 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 12</h4>


    ~~


    Emmalee


    ~~


    Two days after the big reveal about me and Carter, I was on my way to meet his parents. He had already met mine so it was only fair after all. I was excited, I wanted to meet his parents and see what my inws would be like, but I was also nervous too.


    Since this was a ''family'' dinner Trinity and Reece were there, as were Noah and his wife Nikki. I had met Noah when they were all back at my house in January, but I hadn''t known at the time that he was married. His mate, Nikki, was pregnant. She and Trinity were just over a month apart and I thought it was going to be so sweet to have the babies that close in age. They would y together all the time.


    Eve, Carter''s mom, was so amazing. She was so sweet and so nice, and very polite. I could see how they were all such wonderful people with someone as great as Eve around. And Wesley, his dad, was the nicest dad I had ever met. I thought my dad was great, but he can sound so mean sometimes. But Wesley was amazing. Carter''s whole family was amazing.


    While we sat down to an amazing dinner there was a lot of talk and a lot ofughing.


    "Emmalee, are you sure it''s this numbskull you want?" Noah asked me with a look of confusion that was clearly fake.


    "I''m sure. Carter is amazing."


    "You don''t even know him yet." Noah pointed out. "I promise you, there''s not much there."


    "Hush now." Eve snapped at him. "Don''t scare her away. I need another girl around this house. Soon, we might be able to outnumber all of you naughty men." Eve was giggling as she spoke. "I just know Nikki is going to give us a girl, and Trinity too. Then with Emmalee she will make us all the winners."


    "Too many girls will make all these walking piles of testosterone flip out. They''re all bound to be overly protective dads. You know that, Mom." Trinity had apparently just started calling her aunt and uncle mom and dad and it had made the whole family happy. She had not thought that she was allowed to for the longest time and now it was something that was out in the open. This whole family was full of so much love.


    "Don''t get me started on these cavemen. And Carter is the worst of them all."


    MOM!" Carter snapped his head up from his dinner te so fast that I thought he was going to break something.


    "Well it''s the truth. You were the one that gave me the most headaches. I swear." She fanned herself pretending to be distraught. "Oh the heartache you have caused me."


    "Stop being mean. You''re going to make her think I''m horrible."


    "But you are." Noah added.


    "If it wasn''t for your bad influence I wouldn''t have done half the things that I did." Trinity added. Nikki, Reece, and I were justughing as they were all ganging up on him.


    "Dad?" Carter was pleading with him.


    "Alright, give the boy a break." Wesleyughed. "Let her figure some of his faults out on her own." That''s when Iughed so hard I nearly choked on my dinner. Not because of what Wesley said, no it was because of the loud yelling whine that Carter gave.


    "WHY?!" I don''t know if it was yful or not but it was funny. The whole night was fun, and I thought his family was amazing.


    ~~


    Carter


    ~~


    When Emmalee walked me to the door I felt like I was walking on a floor made of clouds. Now I know what it was Trinity was feeling when she was falling in love with her mate. Being mated, falling in love, these feelings were the best things in the world.


    I was probably grinning like a fool the whole way home, but I didn''t care. I had ridden here with Noah and he was long gone, but I didn''t care. I just walked out the front door, down the driveway, and whistled happily as I walked home. Nothing could bring me down.


    I still had work to do, trying to locate the warlock and finding the kids, but Reece said we had plenty of people on the job and I had just gotten home so I could take some time off. I think he was just being a nice guy and letting me have time with my mate. Since he and Trinity had made nice he had been a pretty good guy. I tried not to think about the fact that it was most likely due to him sleeping with my little sister. But since my mind was currently focused on my mate, I kind of knew where he wasing from.


    The wedding was right around the corner and Emmalee was busy with that a lot, but she still made time to see me at night. And I managed to talk her into going on a date with me.


    There was an end of winter carnival being held at the fairgrounds. They had set up an ice skating rink that was aided by cooling fans. There were game booths, a few rides, and lots of really bad for you but really delicious carnie foods. I didn''t want our first date to be constrained, I wanted something fluid, something where we could move around and talk, and the carnival seemed perfect.


    I had walked to her room with a giddy hype in my step. I had dressed casually, dark jeans, a green t-shirt, ck hiking boots, and a leather jacket. I felt ready to go.


    When she opened the door my breath flew away just moments before my jaw hit the floor. She was wearing a lc colored, sleeveless dress with a ck leather belt across the middle. The belt matched perfectly with the knee high boots and leather jacket in her hand.


    "Oh look, our jackets match." She grinned. They were both leather and both ck, but hers was a tight little thing that really entuated her curves when she put on.


    After she grabbed her purse she grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the door.


    "Come on." She was smiling excitedly as she led me away from the door.


    "Yes Ma''am." I grinned as I let her pull me to the stairs.


    Once we got to the stairs I put my hand around her waist and held her to me. We walked like that, pressed against each other, until we were out the door and I had led her to the car. I opened the door of my white Jeep Wrangler and helped her into the tall vehicle.


    Once we were down in town and parked at the fairground I walked around and opened her door again, holding her hand and she slid down and out of the Jeep. The smile on her face told me she had been looking forward to this date as much as I had and neither of us could wait to get started.


    It wasn''t the location we were waiting for but the time together. I had never spent time truly alone with her. We had been at the estate, and she came and met my parents, but we had never truly been alone without family and friends nearby.


    There would be people around today too, but hopefully none we would know.


    First, we went skating. I thought it best to do that before it got too cold. She was wearing a dress and even though we don''t feel the cold like humans, I didn''t want her getting cold near the coolers and ice.


    Skating was fun. I hadn''t been since I was a kid and I wasn''t that good anymore but Emmalee was amazing. She skated circles around me and I enjoyed just watching her. The skirt of her dress blowing out behind her as she did loops and jumps.


    "Have you skated professionally?" I asked her with awe when she came to stop next to me.


    "No, but I did take lessons and I like to skate a few times a year at least."


    "That was amazing. You''re so beautiful and talented."


    "Stop." She blushed and looked away.


    After that I took her hand and we just skated in the oval a few times. It may not have been exciting but it was fun, and we were together.


    After skating, we went to y a few of the carnival games while snacking on food. That was a must. The food was greasy, artery clogging, and delicious. We loved it, especially because as wolves we didn''t have to worry about that as much as humans.


    When we were at the ball toss, I couldn''t help showing off the wolf skill, for her and the humans around, but mostly for her. I had to knock them all down ten times in a row to get the biggest prize. I could tell by the look on the man''s face that no one had ever done it while he was running the game. Time to be the first.


    First ball? Perfect shot. Second Ball? Another perfect shot. This continued on for all ten balls. I didn''t miss a shot and got all the bottles knocked over each time. I was kind of happy that I had won, cause I know that these carnival games are rigged to make people y more and spend more, but I won on my first try. Ha, that would show them.


    The biggest prize was a little spot on for us. It was a giant stuffed wolf, gray and white mostly with some ck thrown in here and there. The wolf stood almost as tall as she did, it was so big. But she loved it. She said she didn''t care what it was, she would have been happy because I had won it for her. I grinned when she said that.


    There was one ride I was really looking forward to. There was something that I wanted to aplish on this date. I didn''t care how cliche it was either.


    After we had ridden all the other small rides, it was time for the ferris wheel. We waited in line until it was our turn. The man opened the car and I helped her in. Once we were seated Emmalee was looking excitedly out the side of the car.


    I was waiting and biding my time. I waited while the ferris wheel made severalrge rotations. Then we started to slow down and I knew what would happen.


    We had been thest ones in, so that meant we would be in this position first. Just as the ferris wheel was almost to a stop, right at the top, I called her name.


    "Emmalee?" She looked at me with wonder and curiosity.


    The moment she looked at me I pressed my lips to hers. The kiss wasn''t exactly chaste, but we were surrounded by people so I couldn''t make the moment into something more. I still explored her mouth with my tongue and devoured the vor of hers that poured into my mouth. She was gripping my shirt and holding me to her as tightly as I held her when the ferris wheel started to move again.


    That was when I broke the kiss and grinned at her. Her eyes had darkened and she looked at me with desire. I just smiled at her and the knowledge that one day we woulde together. That, and I was smiling because of the kiss. They say if you kiss at the top of the ferris wheel your love willst forever.

 Chapter 249 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 13

    <h4>Chapter 249 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 13</h4>


    ~~


    Emmalee


    ~~


    The date Carter took me on was perfect. It was amazing and fun, and the kiss was enough to knock my socks off. But things were moving so fast now. The wedding was just a day away and we had the bachelorette party first. I knew that would be fun.


    I got to spend a lot of time with Trinity, my future sister-inw Nikki, a wonderful new friend named Juniper, and a few people I had never met before that night. It was fun and we all had a good time, even though the guest of honor and another guest were pregnant so there wasn''t a lot of craziness we still enjoyed ourselves. It was a great night that I would never forget.


    And the next day was the wedding. I worked with Nikki, Juniper, and Eve to make Trinity look amazing. The wedding was perfect. The ceremony was beautiful. Everything was going right, there were even some new mated pairs from the wedding. Then, the others showed up and dropped a bomb on us all.


    Trinity was the new Incarnation of the Moon Goddess and that meant she was the Luna Queen. I knew she was special the first time I met her.


    The problem was that it made things move just that much faster. The warlocks needed to meet with her, the Sentinelle had to talk to her, and the kids needed to be found. The thing is, they probably had to all roll in together somehow.


    I was waiting in my room while Carter had some sort of meeting with the others. I didn''t know how long it was going to take so I was just reading a book. I was still staying with Trinity and Reece so I was still treating this like a vacation. I was really enjoying my time here and I was loving being with Carter so much.


    As I was sitting on the couch, my nose buried in the story of romance and intrigue, I heard the door open. But, oddly, when I looked up no one was there. I got off the couch and walked toward the door.


    There was no one in the hallway, I didn''t see anyone, hear anyone, or smell anyone. I thought it was odd, but I ignored it. I just shut the door and moved back toward the couch and where I had left my book.


    When I was halfway to the couch, I noticed that my book was gone.


    "What the?" I asked the empty room. "I know I left it right there."


    That was when I felt a brush of air and the distinct sensation that someone was moving past me. The sensation was enough to make me shiver.


    "Who''s there?" I asked. I knew that there had to be someone in here with me. I couldn''t see them. I couldn''t smell them. I couldn''t hear them. But I knew they were there.


    Something brushed past me closer this time, close enough to make my hair move, and I thought I felt fingers run along the skin of my arm yfully. I couldn''t help it, I jumped.


    I felt goosebump start all over my body as the movement around me made me shiver. I wrapped my arms around myself forfort as I backed away from where I had been.


    "What''s going on in here?" I asked my empty bedroom. "Is there a ghost in here?"


    I heard a chuckle then, something soft and quiet. The sound wasn''t scary but the situation was.


    "Carter?" I called for him. I didn''t know if I thought he was here or if I was wanting him here, he was just the only thing that I could think of.


    As I was backing away toward the wall I ran into something. I ran into something where there was nothing for me to run into. And just as I felt the scream building up inside of me the empty, yet solid, space in front of me started to fill in with color. In the blink of an eye, Carter was standing in front of me.


    Carter leaned in quickly and kissed my cheek while I stared, gaping, at the formerly empty spot in the room.


    "Hey babe."


    ~~


    Carter


    ~~


    Today had not gone as I expected. Here, let me recap:


    I was in the meeting with Noah, Reece, Trinity, and all her guards. We''re getting ready to go to the Aerie Convento to speak with the warlocks. Everyone was a little tense because of the attack on E and then Trinity using her Luna Queen abilities to grant powers and sucking herself dry. She apparently could now give out these new powers to make people strong. She had been staring at us all with a smile on her face. I will never forget the words she told me then.


    "Carter." She smiled at me, one of familial love and happiness. "You are my brother, there was never any doubt. We were as thick as thieves when we were kids. Whenever I did something you were always there with me. You helped me, guided me, and protected me. Without you I never would have been able to be a part of the world, to blend in with those around me."


    The moment she had said those words I felt the power begin to tingle within me, to slowly build. But it wasn''t until she was done with all the blessings and there was a bright sh of light that I could really truly feel the power inside me.


    "Wee to the Goddess Guard, use your new abilities to serve your Queen well." A mysterious voice had apanied the light. Goddess Guard? I guess that meant we were now part of Trinity''s special army. I had always been in her special army, protecting her.


    When she went on to exin my powers I had to fight really hard not to grin. I could camouge myself. They thought that was just with being invisible, but I could feel what the power was allowing me to do. I could mask my footsteps if I wanted to, and I could mask my scent.


    I had always been good at hiding in in sight, I guess now I was just that much better at it. And yeah, it woulde in handy for a fight, but there were other things too, and I already had an idea.


    When I left the meeting I noticed that Shawn went off with Dietrich somewhere in the house. Noah, David, and Vincent all went outside. Gabriel stayed behind to talk to Reece, and the FBI agents left.


    I didn''t have any pressing ns, and I really wanted to see Emmalee, so that''s where I decided to go. With a nice little n in mind.


    Before I even got to the hallway that Emmalee''s room was on I started to mask my scent. I had been told that when I wanted to hide before it was like my scent was less strong and would fade away, I guess this power was always lying dormant inside of me.


    Once I had masked my scent I hid the sound of my steps and turned myself invisible. It was now like I wasn''t even there. I was a ghost in the house. And this was going to be fun.


    I crept down the hallway, slowly even though I was masking my movement. When I got to her door I stopped and listened to what was on the other side for a minute or two.


    I didn''t hear anything on the other side of her door, but I could tell she was in the room. Her intoxicating scent was already going to my head.


    Slowly, and silently, I turned the knob and opened the door. I pushed it just enough for me to squeeze into the room and hurriedly walk to the otherside.


    I almostughed at the look on her face when she stared at the door for a moment. She wasn''t thinking too much of the door though, because she just stood up and walked across the room.


    While she was quickly checking the hallway, I grabbed her book and hid it.


    It took her a moment, but as she was walking back to sit down she saw that the book was missing, which made her stop dead in her tracks.


    "What the? I know I left it right there." She seemed to be at a loss for a moment.


    While she was distracted I took the opportunity to walk past her, really close. While I walked I blew a small stream of air at her and I grinned when I saw her shiver.


    "Who''s there?" She asked, but I stayed quiet. This time I walked closer to her, gently tracing two fingers on her arm as I went. I saw her hair move and she jumped to get away from the sensation.


    "What''s going on in here?" She looked around nervously. "Is there a ghost in here?"


    I couldn''t help it, I chuckled then. But that''s when I learned that my voice would be muffled as well as it came out soft and sounded far away.


    "Carter?" She called my name, but it was like she was calling for me, for my help. Not like she was using me of being the one in the room. I smiled happily knowing she would want me in her time of need.


    She started to back away then, like she was scared. It was time to bring this to a close. I positioned myself behind her and let her bump gently into me. She turned around, a look of wonder in her eyes and just as she opened her mouth I reappeared before her.


    I leaned in quickly and kissed her cheek while she stared with wide open eyes.


    "Hey babe." I said yfully as I pulled away.


    She didn''t scream, yet, she didn''t yell, yet. No, that would have been expected. What I didn''t expect was the hand that came shooting out of left field, or out of sight of my left eye, as it mmed into the side of my head.


    "OW!" I screamed in pain at the same time she started yelling at me.


    "DAMMIT CARTER!" She was panting heavily and holding her chest with one hand as she continued to yell at me and beat me with the other hand. "What the hell were you thinking? You could have given me a heart attack. What the hell is the matter with you?"


    "Ow, stop it. I''m sorry. Ow, please stop hitting me. Ow." She kept hitting me over and over as she yelled at me.


    "How did you even do that? You scared me half to death."


    It took a long time to calm her down and exin what had happened. By the time it was done, I was covered in bruises. And she wouldn''t even let me kiss her for the rest of the day.

 Chapter 250 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 14

    <h4>Chapter 250 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 14</h4>


    ~~


    Emmalee


    ~~


    Things passed in a blur again. I had been so scared when Carter went off with the others to visit the Warlocks and rescue the kids. I had known he was granted a special power by Trinity, he had shown me in a not so nice way, but that didn''t mean anything. He could be invisible, not invincible. They didn''t mean the same thing but he didn''t seem to understand that.


    The entire time he had been gone I was a nervous wreck. It really made me miss being home. And I wanted to go back and visit my parents when I got the chance.


    It turned out that right after they rescued the children, Trinity and Reece were leaving for France with all their guards. Noah was staying to run the pack and Carter was staying behind, he didn''t say what for but I had a feeling it was for me.


    Things had been hard for Carter''s family and the packtely. They had to deal with the missing children, the ones kidnapped by Trinity''s father, then they had to heal and recover from Trinity''s miscarriage. I couldn''t believe she had lost the baby. That was something else that made me d that Carter was staying. People were dying and it was so hard for us all.


    We had decided that while Trinity and Reece were away we would go visit my family for a while. Daddy would put Carter to work, or so he said. He wanted to train him how to be a man worthy of his daughter or something like that.


    The others left at the beginning of April, and we left just two dayster. The slight dy was so we could have onest dinner with Eve and Wesley before we left, with just the two of us. Eve was so sweet and kind, I was going to miss her.


    But I was d to be back home. I had missed my mom and dad. I had missed my little sister, and I had missed my brother even though he was a bother. I had missed being here and seeing everyone and everything.


    I didn''t think I would miss it all so much after less than a month away, but I guess I loved being with them more than I had thought. Mom and I were going to spend some quality time together while I finally decided on a major for school. And Dad was going to train Carter. What for, I didn''t know. I just hoped we would get some time alone together once in a while.


    ~~


    Carter


    ~~


    When I was told that Bryce wanted to train me while we visited their pack I was nervous. He was a hardass when it came to being an Alpha and he was very protective of his daughters. Was he mad at me for having avoided my mate bond in the beginning. Judging by the hell he was going to put me through, I had a feeling he was.


    The first thing that Bryce wanted to train me with wasbat. I think he said that he wanted to make sure I was strong enough to protect his daughter. I think he just wanted a bunch of his pack mates to kick the shit out of me for taking off on his first daughter. I felt sorry for whoever mated with Katie, she was the youngest daughter after all, the true baby.


    I was in the yard with Bryce watching over us. Eight of the ck Canyons warriors were surrounding me. They came at me all at once. It was supposed to teach me how to mob fight I guess. Well, they didn''t know what I could do.


    As they rushed toward me I masked myself, scent, sound, and sight. They couldn''t detect me at all. I watched their stunned faces and I proceeded to fight them while invisible.


    The fight morphed from me fighting them in a mob attack to them trying to defend themselves against an unseen opponent. I knocked the first one down, sent the second one flying into the third. I was stronger and faster thanks to my Goddess Guard mark and I was able to move like none of them could. This had actually started to be fun.


    But I got cocky and wasn''t paying attention. And the next thing that I knew, someonended a well aimed kick in the middle of my back, sending me sprawling to the ground.


    "What the hell do you think you''re doing, boy?" Bryce was yelling at me while he loomed over me, I had be visible again the moment I fell.


    "How the hell did you do that?" I asked him, surprised that he knew where I was.


    "You think you''re invincible because we couldn''t see you? Look at the ground dumbass, you''re leaving imprints. I could tell where you were. But I should thank you for showing me where this bunch of pathetic wimps need to be trained more."


    "d I could be of some help." I groaned as I went to stand up. Damn, I think he might have cracked something with that kick. Old man is strong as hell.


    "Get up, boy. We''re not done here yet." Bryce ordered me to my feet and I followed hismand.


    I was on my feet and looking him in the eyes in just a few seconds, I moved quicker than I thought I would have after taking that blow.


    "You want to be with my little girl? You want to be a part of my family? Well then you need to earn it."


    "Yes, Sir." I answered him right away, my tone respectful.


    "You can''t have my daughter until the day you can beat me."


    "What?" I was dumbfounded. Bryce was telling me he wouldn''t give us his blessing until I could fight him and win. This wasn''t good.


    So, my days began to pass in a certain type of pattern. I would wake up and have breakfast with everyone, happy to see Emmalee. Then I would fight my way through his warriors until lunch time, which I was not given any but everyone else was. While they all ate I worked on masking my foot prints while I was invisible, at first it was hard but I was gradually managing to do it. After lunch, Bryce woulde out and spar with me. I was not allowed to use my camouge while we fought. He wanted me to be able to fight like a real man.


    Bryce was strong and had been in a lot of fights. He managed to knock me on my ass several times. He would throw me across the yard in an over hand throw. He would sweep my feet out from under me in a beautiful and precise sweep of his legs. He would win every time. That''s how it went for weeks.


    I was getting better of course. I was watching his movements and learning what he was doing. I would pay close attention to what he did everytime he fought me, even though I lost. I walked away with a lot of bruises at the end of each day. And only after my sparring was I allowed to have dinner with the family. And after dinner, Bryce would drag me to his office to teach me the politics of a wolf pack. What was expected of anyone and everyone inside the pack. And how to run it in general. I didn''t understand that part of my training but I''d take it. The more I knew the better.


    I wasn''t getting much time with Emmalee. We had separate rooms, of course. Bryce wouldn''t let us share even if we had slept together already. But, I had been respectful of her and I hadn''t pushed that envelope at all. But, I could tell she was ready, the looks in her eyes and the way she clung to me when I gave her her kisses goodnight.


    It was almost the middle of May when I felt I was ready to make my move. I had learned everything that Bryce was showing me. He had begun to repeat his moves now so he must have run through them all.


    When the sparring match started we faced each other, hands at the ready. I was feeling light on my feet and fully prepared with all the training I had been doing for thest month. When Bryce came at me, things didn''t go like they used to.


    I parried his hand away with my own, spinning around behind him. With a quick motion I managed to wrap my arm under his and in the same movement I rolled the top half of my body. I felt Bryce lift off the ground and onto me for just a moment, before I used the same move he had from before and sent him soaring across the yard tond in a heap.


    Bryce sat up and red at me, his light green eyes full of fire.


    "Again." He growled at me as he rose to his feet.


    We fought over and over again. I swept his feet out from under him and pinned him to the ground. I threw him in multiple different moves. I used every trick he had used on me and won every fight.


    After the tenth fight in a row Bryce was once again sitting on the ground staring at me. I thought he would be upset. I figured he''d re and growl at me again. But he surprised me when he looked up, grinning at me like he was proud.


    "Now that''s what I''m talking about." I was shocked.


    "What?"


    "You''ve definitely improved, boy." He said as he moved to stand up.


    I watched on nervously as he dusted the dirt off his ck pants and walked over to me.


    "You''ve earned my respect boy." He pped me on my shoulder, a grin on his face. "You''re strong and you''ve proven that. I will admit you''re worthy of my daughter." I was smiling as I heard his words.


    "Thank you, Sir."


    "Stop calling me Sir all the damn time. You''re going to marry my daughter one day, aren''t you?"


    "If that''s what you want, Alpha Bryce." I smiled at him.


    "Shut it you little shit. Just call me Dad already." Bryce wasughing at me while I stood there shell shocked.


    "Dad?" I asked apprehensively.


    "Well, you''ll be my son-inw, right? It''s only fitting, isn''t it, Son?"


    "Yeah, I guess it is, Dad." We grinned at each other.


    "You''re training is over for now. Enjoy your time to rx."


    The first thing I did when my training was over was rush right to Emmalee''s room. I wanted to see her. I wanted to tell her the good news. And I wanted to ask her something.


    I ran to her room and knocked on the door frantically. When she opened it she looked surprised to see me, to see how excited I was.


    "Carter? What-." She was in the middle of asking me something but I interrupted her by sweeping her into my arms and nting my lips on hers, cutting her off mid sentence. The feel of her lips on mine was likeing home after being away for a long time.


    "What''s going on?" Emmalee smiled at me when I pulled away from her.


    "I love you." I sighed into her ear as I held her close. I had never actually said those words to her before and I heard the gasp when she heard them now.


    "Carter?" She sounded happy. "I love you too." She sighed as she squeezed me back. "Did something happen?"


    "I finally beat your dad and earned his approval." I had pulled away and was grinning at her like a fool.


    "Really?" She seemed overjoyed.


    "He told me to call him Dad."


    "Oh my Goddess, Carter, that''s amazing."


    "Go out with me, please."


    "What?"


    "Go on a date with me. Just the two of us, please."


    "Of course. You know I would go anywhere with you. I love you Carter."


    "I love you, more than life itself."

 Chapter 251 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 15

    <h4>Chapter 251 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 15</h4>


    ~~


    Emmalee


    ~~


    Tonight was my date with Carter. He didn''t tell me where we were going or what I should wear but I didn''t care. As long as we were together that''s all that mattered to me.


    I chose to wear a light sundress, something cute yet flirty. It was a bright green and was in a halter style. I had just tied the dress''s straps behind my neck and put on a pair of ck sandals when I heard a knock at the door. I could tell by the scent that it was Carter.


    My hair was done. My makeup was perfect. My outfit was wonderful. All I needed was a light jacket and my purse. I grabbed an emerald green satin jacket to slip over my shoulders. It''s sleeves were only three quarter lengths that I pushed up to my elbows. Now I was ready to go.


    When I opened the door I saw Carter''s handsome, smiling face.


    "Hello beautiful." His words brought a blush to my face as he leaned down and kissed my cheek.


    "Hey." I was breathless now, with the excitement of the uing date, the kiss, and how handsome he looked. He was wearing a pair of ck jeans, a dark blue button up shirt that was fully open showing the light gray t-shirt underneath. He looked casual but so sexy and handsome.


    "Ready?" He asked me with a grin.


    "Yeah." I nodded my head, I had been looking forward to this all week.


    Carter helped me into the Jeep just like he hadst time before driving us into town. He took us for an early dinner at a nice restaurant that I had always dreamt of going to. It was called The Fiery Jewel and it was a popr ce for dates. But I had never dated anyone before Carter so I was excited for this chance to finally go.


    The food was amazing, the menu was high ss and full of expensive fine dining options. We ordered saffron risotto,ngoustine ravioli, turbot and morels, filet mignon with fondant potatoes and asparagus, and chocte millefeuille. The food was enough to make me feel like I had just been taken to another and spoiled beyond my wildest dreams.


    After the dinner was over the sun was just beginning to set so I thought we might be going home, or maybe for a walk. So I was really shocked when I saw Carter start to drive into the mountains. This wasn''t his pack and he didn''t know the area, but he seemed like he knew what he was doing.


    When he finally pulled the Jeep to a stop I saw that there was a whole ce set up. There arge dark gray tent set up in the middle of a clearing with the opening facing the mountain''s t surface.


    I saw that there was arge white screen standing in front of the rocky wall with a battery operated projector in front of it. There were candles waiting to be lit, an ice bucket with a bottle of wine, some simple yet nice snacks that we could eatter, and of course a bag of popcorn to have while watching a movie.


    "What''s all this?" I asked him, with my heart fluttering excitedly. It was beating very rapidly because I could see a king size air mattress inside the tent covered in soft looking pillows, sheets, and nkets.


    "A movie date." He grinned. "I thought it would be best if it were just the two of us."


    "Really?" I asked him to make sure even though I could tell that there was no one else around.


    "If that''s alright with you." He held my hand firmly in his, but his eyes were questioning and full of hope.


    "That sounds wonderful to me." I was happy, nervous, excited, and scared all at once. But this night was meant to be special. It was meant to be just the two of us and that made me smile.


    Carter walked me into the tent and I sat on the edge of the bed. I didn''t want to make the sheets dirty so I slid my sandals off.


    "What are you doing?" He asked me, confused.


    "I don''t want to get dirt in the sheets."


    "That makes sense." He said as he sat beside me and slid his hiking boots off and put them next to my sandals.


    "So, what movie are we going to watch?" I asked him. "Anything specific?"


    "I have a couple of options, I thought I would let you choose."


    "Awe, that''s sweet of you."


    I looked at the list of movies he had chosen for the night. They were all romanticedies and sweet chick flicks, and they were all the types of movies that I had told him I liked. He listened to me, that was so sweet of him.


    I picked one of my favorites and he put it on, streaming it from his phone wirelessly through the projector to the white screen. We snuggled together among the sheets and pillows and settled in to watch the movie.


    I had seen the movie a dozen times. I knew exactly what was going to happen. Which was good, because I couldn''t concentrate on the movie at all with my headying against Carter''s chest and his arm wrapped around me.


    We were pressed so close together, cuddling and snuggling each other, that I could hear each beat of his heart, every breath he took, every shift of his body beneath my head. This was a closeness and a level of intimacy that we had never had before. It was amazing, wonderful, and nerve wracking.


    The movie just yed on as I ignored the screenpletely. I was daydreaming the whole time, hoping, begging inside my head for Carter to pull me closer, to hold me tighter, for him to press his lips to mine and kiss me.


    I longed for one of those kisses that stopped all rational thought. The ones that made me want to beg him to not stop, to keep going. I had been waiting for a night like this where we could be alone, where we didn''t have to worry about anything or anyone else.


    I wanted him.


    I took my eyes off the screen, they hadn''t seen any of what happened in the movie at all anyway. When I turned my head and my eyes met his, I saw that he was staring down at me. There was a heat, a passion that I had never seen before filling his eyes and it sent shivers running through me.


    Our eyes were locked and there was no separating them. I had a feeling that neither of us had seen any of the movie. And that the rest of the movie was going to end up just as ignored as the beginning of it had been.


    "Carter?" I called his name and was shocked to hear that my voice was deeper and more raspy than usual. A darkness settled over his eyes when he heard that one word spoken in my voice.


    "Emmalee." He called my name right back and I could hear the desire, the need, that was swelling within him. It all but dripped from the sybles as he said my name. The sound of his voice made me shiver against him, bringing us closer together.


    I tilted my head up, hoping for a kiss. He did not disappoint me.


    His head lowered as mine raised and our lips met in the middle. I heard the groan of satisfaction as we felt each other''s lips, but I couldn''t tell you if it was my groan or his as we both seemed to sigh with happiness.


    The kiss started soft, gentle, and chaste but it soon morphed into something more, something hungry and needy.


    My arms slid up his chest so my hands could link behind his neck. His arms slid around my waist, pulling me against him.


    I gasped when I felt him pressed against me, hard and ready. He took advantage of my mouth opening on the gasp. His tongue slipped into my mouth to tangle with my own. I felt the added heat of his mouth inside my own.


    We were desperate for each other, frantically trying to pull each other closer. His hands were roaming all over my body making me tremble.


    I felt the moment his fingers slid to the hem of my dress, tickling my thigh and sending a shiver running through me. He pulled back then, breaking the kiss to look me in the eyes.


    "Emmalee? Do you want me to-." He trailed off, seeming uncertain how to finish asking what was on his mind. I loved him even more at that moment, for right then he would have stopped it all if I wasn''t ready.


    "Don''t stop Carter. Please don''t stop." I both told him it was ok to keep going and begged him not to stop at the same time. I wanted him, I needed him. I was ready for him, so why not tell him that now. "I need you Carter. Please keep going."

 Chapter 252 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 16 (MATURE)

    <h4>Chapter 252 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 16 (MATURE)</h4>


    ~~


    Carter


    ~~


    When I stopped to ask Emmalee if I should stop, if she was ready, I was prepared to pump the breaks and wait until the time was right. But when she told me not to stop, that she needed me, I thought my mind and heart were both going to explode with joy and need.


    There was nothing and no one around who would stop us tonight. This night was for us, this was to be our first, and I wanted it to be special for her.


    My hand trailed up her leg, lightly tickling her thigh as it moved higher and higher. Her body shivered against me again, pressing us closer together than we had ever been before. I had to keep reminding myself that this was her first time so I shouldn''t rush it. I wanted to treat her right and make this special for her.


    I slid my mouth along her jaw, trailing a thin wet line with my tongue until I got to the curve of her neck and left shoulder. I ced a gentle kiss there, eagerly anticipating the moment when I marked her there.


    When my hands had pushed the dress higher and I could now trail my fingers across her stomach I felt like I was going to need some serious levels of self control to make it through this night alive. The touch of her skin, the softness and the warmth, was better than anything I had ever felt before.


    I pulled my mouth from her body finally. I needed to take care of a few things first, and in the blink of an eye my jacket and shirt were stripped off and thrown to the corner. I had hurried through the removal of half my clothes, but I was not going to rush her. I pulled her up so that she was sitting on the bed. Slowly, and with great care, I slid her jacket down her arms, exposing her shoulders.


    Iid a quick, gentle kiss to the bare flesh that felt so warm after its time concealed by the fabric. The warmth nearly burned my lips with the need behind them.


    With my lips still against her shoulder I slid my hands up her back to reach for the ties on the dress. With a gentle tug I heard the fabric as it slid against itself and straps separated.


    With the small bow undone the fabric fell forward, down the front of her body. With the halter undone I now had an uninterrupted view of her naked chest. There was no bra in ce, just the beautifully tanned flesh of her wless body. I felt the need stiffen within me to a near painful level.


    After a brief pause to enjoy the view I grabbed the dress where it had bunched together around her waist. With ease and care I pulled it up and over her head. There was now only one small amount of fabric blocking the fullness of her naked body from my view. I growled low in the back of my throat, more of a pur than anything else. It was done out of pure satisfaction and joy.


    "Carter?" Her voice seemed hesitant, questioning.


    "You''re so beautiful, so gorgeous, so delicious." I knew I might scare her if I was too intense so I worked hard to keep my voice steady and calm. "Is this ok?" I asked her once more, giving her onest chance to tell me she wasn''t ready.


    "Yes Carter. I''m ready." Her smile was embarrassed and sweet and she urged me on. "I want you, I want this."


    With thest confirmation from her I was more determined and sure than ever before. I undid the leather belt around my waist and slid my jeans and boxers down my hips. Once they were off they too were flung somewhere out of sight and out of mind. I was now bare before her.


    I pressed my lips to hers briefly before moving my mouth lower. I kissed down her chin, down her neck, and down to her chest. I pushed gently, with just a slight amount of force I pushed her back andid her against the pillows.


    I was relishing the feeling of her body, the nakedness of her flesh pressed against the palms of my hands. I was trailing kisses over her body, gently and sensually. I was fighting my wolf who longed to take the lead, but I didn''t think that her body was ready for that.


    "Carter." She called my name as I scraped my teeth across her shoulder, her whole body jumping beneath me. "Please." She was begging me to continue. I could smell that her body was ready, and that she wanted me, but still I wouldn''t rush it.


    As I settled my mouth at the peak of one of her glorious breasts I simultaneously buried my hand deep between her thighs, right into the burning hot heat of her core. She was dripping and waiting for me, but still, I needed to make sure she wouldn''t get hurt.


    Slowly, I slid the tip of my middle finger past the opening of her dripping core and her body closed around it with tight, needy pressure. Just what I thought, had I taken her without preparing her first I could have hurt her and I vowed to never hurt her again.


    I withdrew my finger and raised myself up. Slowly, I slipped the ckcy panties she was wearing down her hips, down her long, long legs, and off her feet. They were tossed gently aside tond near her dress.


    Now that we were both bare before each other, it was time to prepare her body for mine. My hand slid back down her body and to her entrance. My fingers yed gently for just a moment in the curls they found there. My middle finger ringed her core for just a moment before sliding inside.


    This time, I pushed past the barriers, past the resistance and all the way inside her body until my palm was pressed against her mound. I pulled back and pushed forward again and again creating a slow gentle rhythm. Her already dripping core was slowly opening for me, readying her for me. After a few moments I inserted a second finger, increasing the amount of me her body was taking. All the while she was moaning and panting below me as I kissed my way across her neck and across her chest.


    When she began to tighten and squeeze my fingers with a much stronger force I knew she was about to climax. I didn''t want to push her to that edge just yet, the climax would cause her core to swell and make her tighter and it could hurt her to take me then.


    She moaned when I pulled my hand away from her, leaving her empty. But she smiled excited as I ced myself between her legs and positioned myself at her opening. I was ready, beyond ready, harder than I had ever been in my life, and I needed her in this moment as much as she needed me.


    I pressed forward, quickly but gently. Still, I heard her gasp and smelled that sharp scent of blood as I broke past thest of her barriers.


    "Are you ok?" I asked her before I continued.


    "MMhmm, yeah, keep going." She encouraged me with words and her body as she rocked her hips against mine. That got a gasp out of both of us.


    "I love you." I whispered the words into her ear before I kissed the side of her head.


    After that I set about creating a slow and steady rhythm, something her body could handle without hurting her. The feeling of her wrapped around me, enveloping me, was the best feeling there was. Nothing and no one was better than that.


    Her moans and panting breaths were like spurs in my hyde, urging me on. I was driving us both closer and closer to the edge of climax with every stroke in and out of her perfect little body. I felt the desire to mark her welling up inside of me as I was driving in and out of her.


    I quickened my rhythm to try and distract myself from the thought but it was no use. The need to mark her was too strong. My mouth found the curve of her neck.


    I licked that tender spot of flesh first, thenid a kiss against it quickly. Then, finally, I sunk my teeth deep into her skin. I could feel the power building, the heat passing from me into her. The mark was to tell the world that she had a mate, that she was mine and we belonged to each other.


    I envisioned our future together as I tasted her blood in my mouth and felt her body wrapped around me as intimately as she could be. The thought was like the rising moon, ushering in a bright new future filled with happiness and hope.


    With onest thrust I pushed us both over the edge at the same time. My mouth released her as I threw my head back and called her name.


    "Emmalee." She was panting and clinging to me as she threw her head back at the same time.


    "Carter" We came together and copsed onto the bed holding each other close.


    It was several minutes before either of us stirred, the feeling of holding each other close was too intense, too perfect. But soon I noticed she was drifting off to sleep.


    "No, Emmalee, we can''t sleep here." I tried to wake her up.


    "Why not?" She seemed dazed and confused.


    "Do you think I could keep you here all night and your dad not kill me?" I joked with her.


    "Good point." She giggled. "We should head back."


    I helped her out of the bed and helped her into her clothes. Once we were both dressed I took the food, which had gone untouched, and the wine, also untouched, and packed it in the Jeep. I closed the tent up and took the projector and screen to the car as well.


    "I''lle back for the rest tomorrow." I told her.


    We rode home in silence with her leaning across the center toy against my arm. I held her left hand in my right as I drove us home. This had been the best night ever. And I even got one more amazing kiss goodnight after I walked her to her door.


    I had a spring in my step as I walked back to my room for the night.

 Chapter 253 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 17

    <h4>Chapter 253 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 17</h4>


    ~~


    Emmalee


    ~~


    The morning after my movie date with Carter I woke up sore, but happy. It was not a bad kind of sore though. It felt like something achy, like I had spent a lot of time working out and had stretched some good muscle. As I moved and felt the pleasantly sore spots twinge I couldn''t help but smile.


    While I was showering, I noticed the ce where he had bitten mest night. The bruise around it was already fading, and I knew what the lines meant. He had marked me. I couldn''t help but grin when I saw it.


    But, I didn''t want my family to see it, not yet.


    I was d that Mom had taken Katie to visit family and they wouldn''t be home until this afternoon. And that Jordan wasn''t often home since he, too, had found his mate. It was just going to be me, the staff, and Daddy.


    Oh, that was even worse. I had to hide the mark as best as I could. After my shower I left my hair down, blow drying it so that it wouldy properly on my shoulders. Then I wore a sleeveless turtleneck sweater in a soft shade of pink. I did everything I could to make sure Daddy didn''t know what I didst night.


    I may be mated, but I was still his little girl and I didn''t want him to get mad at Carter. I would let Daddy think that we waited until we were married, that would be the best option for us all.


    When I went down to breakfast I saw that my dad was already sitting at the table, drinking his coffee and reading the newspaper.


    "Good morning Daddy." I said as I skipped into the room. I kissed him on the top of his head as I passed and then sat in my seat.


    "Morning." His voice was gruff and he was looking at me sternly. "Where''s Carter?" He didn''t sound happy.


    "I don''t know, I haven''t seen him since we got homest night. Why?" I turned my head and looked at him curiously.


    "Just wondering." He definitely sounded mad and his eyes were boring into me like x-rays or something.


    "Is something wrong Daddy?" I asked him, making my voice sound extra innocent.


    "Nope. Not a thing." He said as he folded his newspaper in half and left the room. I didn''t like how that was going.


    I had just sat there and watched on worriedly as my dad rose to his feet and left the room without another word. I just hoped he didn''t know what I had donest night. I would die of embarrassment if he did.


    ~~


    Carter


    ~~


    I had gotten the important thingsst night but I had toe back to get the tent, air mattress, and other odds and ends that I had left in the tent from the date. I had set my rm to go off extra early so I could aplish this before breakfast.


    There was a spring in my step as I walked happily up the path to the tent. I even seemed to be whistling as I worked. This was the best I had ever felt in my entire life.


    I worked efficiently but I still wasn''t done in time for breakfast. I think it was the fact that I kept smelling Emmalee''s scent and stopping to take long deep breaths, remembering the night before and grinning happily. That had dyed me quite a bit.


    Once I was certain that there were no traces of the campsite left behind I headed back to the Jeep and started off back toward the pack house. I drove calmly, leisurely, and with the memories still dancing in my mind.


    When I pulled up in front of the house I saw Bryce leaning against the porch, ring at the Jeep as I got out.


    "Carter?" He called out to me, his voice gruff and there was a deep line running between his brows.


    "Yeah?" I called out, wondering what he needed.


    "I need to talk to you." He stalked down the steps. For a moment I thought he knew about what had happenedst night, but I knew Emmalee would never tell him. She had understood when I told her why we had to head home.


    "Is something wrong?" I asked him, curious about his behavior.


    "It''s sensitive information,e with me." He tilted his head toward the trees, indicating that he wanted me to follow him out there.


    "Alright." I agreed as I followed behind him.


    We had walked for at least ten minutes before the silence got to me. Bryce, a stoic look on his face and a stern set to his eyes hadn''t made a move to talk at all.


    "What''s going on?" I asked him again.


    "How''re things, Carter? Enjoying yourself?"


    "I''ve got noints." I answered him, perplexed by the question.


    "Enjoying your time here in my pack?"


    "Of course. Things have been great." I didn''t understand what he was getting at.


    "Hmm." He seemed to hum, as if he was agreeing with me. Life truly was great in his pack, they didn''t have to worry about everything that my pack had to worry about.


    We walked a little further, Bryce in the lead. Finally, we came to arge stream that was running across the path where the two of us stood side by side. It wasn''t something that would hold us up, we could have jumped it given the determination, or we could have just walked through it as the water would onlye to our knees, maybe a little higher.


    We stared out at the stream for a moment before Bryce started to turn. I thought that he was going to say something, that he was going to start talking again.


    I did not expect that Bryce was going to swing around with his fistshing out at me. By the time I realized what he was doing his fist had mmed into the side of my face so hard that it sent me sprawling, right into the stream.


    I felt the water rush across my body and my face and into my nose. I rose to my knees quickly, coughing and spluttering.


    "What the hell Dad?" I asked him, pissed and confused.


    "Shut the hell up, you asshole." He screamed at me. "You couldn''t keep it in your fucking pants could you?"


    "What?"


    "Don''t what me, boy. I know what you did to my daughterst night."


    How could he know? Did Emmalee really tell him? I didn''t think that was likely.


    "You''re going to shut up and take responsibility. Do you fucking understand me?"


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about, Bryce." I yelled at him. "You clearly know what happened and I don''t know how, but I won''t lie to you. Yes, I slept with her. But she''s my mate, and I love her. I treated her with every ounce of respect."


    "Shut up you piss ant." Bryce was furious. "You couldn''t wait?"


    "Did you?" I asked him. "When you met Bree did you wait until you were married? The mating alone makes us as good as married in our culture."


    "No, the marking makes us married in our culture. Did you fucking mark her too asshole?" He wasn''t going to like my answer, so I just hung my head in shame, still kneeling in the water. "God dammit, you''re a real piece of fucking work."


    Bryce was pacing, running his hands through his auburn hair as his temper fumed. I took advantage of his distraction to rise from the water and step back on to the grass.


    "So not only did you take my daughter''s virginityst night but you fucking marked her and knocked her up all in one fucking go. You had to hit the damn triple sevens didn''t you."


    "What?" I looked at him, stunned by his words. What did he just say? I felt the need to ask that out loud. "What did you just say?"


    "Oh, so you didn''t know? You just banged her and left then?"


    "That''s not what happened and you know it." My temper was rising now. "I love her, I respect her, and I want to be with her in every way possible. I didn''t mistreat or abandon her at allst night. I took her back to her room and kissed her good night."


    "Where did you do it?"


    "I don''t feelfortable talking to you about my sex life with your daughter." I felt the blood draining from my face.


    "You better getfortable right now, if I have to be ok with the idea of you deflowering her and stealing her away then you need to be pretty damn ufortable yourself." His deep voice was growling at me menacingly.


    "I had a date nned for usst night. I took her to dinner, and then after the sunset, we watched a movie on a projector in the mountains."


    "You took her on the dirt in the mountains?" He looked even more pissed.


    "Hell no." I felt offended by his words. I had a tent set up and an air mattress so we could befortable while we watched the movie."


    "So you nned it from the beginning."


    "NO!" I threw my hands up defensively. "No, I did not. I only nned for the movie. I wanted us to befortable, maybe cuddle and make out. But one thing led to another and it happened."


    "It just happened. That doesn''t sound too romantic. How could you be so cruel to my little girl?"


    "It wasn''t nned, Bryce, I swear to that, but I promise you I treated her right. Ask her if you don''t believe me." I heard Bryce growl in anger and frustration. I had a feeling that he would not be asking Emmalee, no matter what happened.


    After several more minutes of pacing Bryce finally spoke again.


    "Let''s get back to the house. You need to change, we have an appointment."


    "An appointment?" I felt my heart stop. "You''re going to try and make her have an abortion? I won''t let you."


    "No, I''m not. I''m going to go take you two to the court house. You''re going to get married, today."


    "Today?" I felt my stomach drop. "What about our friends and family? What about Emmalee''s dreams for a big wedding?"


    "You can still have that. The big ceremony and celebration,ter anyway. Right now, you''re going to get married and make an honest woman out of her."


    I followed Bryce back to the house, my clothes still dripping and my heart pounding too fast. Emmalee was justing into the yard where her mother and younger sister Katie had just pulled up when we got home.


    "Hey sweety, what''s wrong?" Bree asked Bryce as we walked up.


    "Carter, why are you soaking wet and what happened to your eye?" Emmalee asked me.


    I just locked my eyes onto my mate and walked to her. I pulled her into my arms and hugged her close.


    "Stop, you''ll get me all wet." She pushed against me yfully as she giggled. I just ignored it and buried my nose in her neck where I had bitten her, inhaling deeply.


    "He was right." I smiled into the curve of her neck.


    "Who was right?"


    "Your dad."


    "About what? What did he say?"


    "Emmalee, marry me, please. Marry me right now."


    "What? Carter what''s going on?"


    I was in a state of bliss. I was getting everything that a man could ever want all at the same time.


    "I''ll answer that for him." Bryce said, as he pulled away from Bree. "He''s asking you to marry him so he can make an honest woman out of you."


    "What?" Emmalee was confused.


    "Seems your datest night was a lot of fun. A little too much fun." Emmalee blushed at Bryce''s words. "He''s going to marry you, today, because the three of you are going to be a family real soon.


    "A family?" The shock was clear on Emmalee''s face. "I''m, I''m, I''m-." She seemed to be stuck on repeat.


    "Ooohh." Bree squealed. "My baby is going to have a baby."


    "I''m going to be an aunt." Katie eximed.


    "I''m pregnant." Emmalee finally managed to say the words, a smile very evident on her face.

 Chapter 254 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 18

    <h4>Chapter 254 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CARTER AND EMMALEE CHAPTER 18</h4>


    ~~


    Emmalee


    ~~


    I had a quick ceremony in town with Carter, we would have a big celebration once everyone was home from France and things had settled down. I was loving the idea and feeling of being pregnant. I wanted to be a mother, to take care of my own family. I know it was a little rushed, but we couldn''t be happier.


    We had kept it all a secret from Carter''s family back at his pack, I didn''t want to make things hard on them while the training and fighting was still going on. It was just over two weeks after the wedding that we got a call from Noah, Trinity and Reece were on their way home because Edmond, the crazy evil warlock, was on his way to their city.


    The fight wasing, and it would be a bad one. All the non fighters like the elderly, women, children, and weaker males were sent to other packs for their own safety. We took several of them and I noticed that a lot of them seemed scared and worried about their family members.


    I spent most of the time that they were all there making them feel weed andfortable. I used my ability of making people smile to help the kids. I didn''t throw a party, but apparently I was able to use that ability in other ways. I may not have been granted a power by Trinity but I was still special.


    After the battle was over there were a lot of lives lost, but it could have been worse. Though what mattered was that the threat was gone. Edmond was gone. And none of our close friends and family had been lost. I had been holding my breath with my heart in my throat as I waited to hear how it all went down. Thank the Goddess Carter was alright.


    There was a collective funeral after the battle, but that didn''t seem like the right time to share the news of the baby and wedding that had happened while they were all gone. And then at Reece''s birthday they announced that Trinity was pregnant, she had gotten pregnant the day they came home from France, the night before the battle. Well, ruining her big moment by telling her then just didn''t seem right.


    When was I going to stop procrastinating and tell her?


    My sister-inw Nikki was inbor with her baby and Carter and I were on our way back to their pack to see them. This might finally be the right time.


    We didn''t make it in time for the delivery, but all of Carter''s family was there when we arrived. When Nikki''s parents and brother had left to go get some lunch and it was just the eight of us, plus that adorable little baby boy, my first nephew, I thought it was time to spill the beans. But how to do this?


    "Oh, Carter, do you think our baby is going to look like him?" I asked in an offhand sort of way. I hoped they would catch the phrasing.


    "I''m sure any baby of yours will look adorable." Trinity smiled at us.


    "Yes, when the timees it will be just as beautiful and unique as the two of you." Eve assured me.


    "But I''m talking about now." I smiled at them.


    "What?" Wesley was the first to react as everyone just stared on in confusion.


    "Emmalee, you''re-." Trinity started but stopped as I just nodded to answer her already.


    "Oh Goddess, they''re going to be so close." Nikki squealed.


    "Actually." I smiled awkwardly. "My baby will be older than Trinity''s."


    "What?" Noah asked with his eyebrows raised.


    "We got pregnant at the end of May." Carter answered him, a grin firmly in ce.


    Eve, standing so close to Carter already, just reached her hand out and pped him in the back of the head.


    "Ow! What was that for Ma?" He yelled at her.


    "Why didn''t you tell me, you jerk?"


    "I''m sorry Eve." I hung my head. "We didn''t want to burden Trinity and Reece while they trained, or Noah while he handled business in their absence."


    "Oh, sweety, it''s not a burden." Eve came to me. "I''m so happy." She was grinning at me.


    "Now you just need to get married." Trinity was grinning.


    "Well." I smiled sheepishly.


    "CARTER!" Eve yelled at him.


    "Bryce made me." He squirmed away from his mother.


    "He''s telling the truth. Dad made us get married the day we found out. But I want to have a big celebration soon. A proper wedding and a reception to let everyone know."


    "I''ll help you n it." Trinity hugged me.


    "Me too." Nikki chimed in.


    "This really is quite wonderful." Wesley smiled.


    "I just wish Grandfather had been here today to hear all this." Trinity smiled happily.


    "We''ll tell himter." Eve assured her.


    ~~


    Carter


    ~~


    Two weeks after Nikki had her baby we were all back at Bryce''s pack. And I do mean all. Mom, Dad, Grandfather, Noah, Nikki, Trinity, Reece, and of course Emmalee and myself. It was time for us to have our big party to celebrate our wedding. So why was Bryce calling me to his office all of a sudden?


    I walked, slowly, to the office. It almost reminded me of the day we found out Emmalee was pregnant. Was he going to punch me again? Was he going to shoot me this time? Would I ever make it out of this house, his office, alive? I didn''t know the answer to any of those.


    My heart rate sped up and my pace slowed with every step that brought me closer to the doom room. That''s what I was currently calling his office. Hey, look, I was even wearing a suit. They could just bury me out back and not have to worry about a funeral or a casket, or an investigation into the murder.


    Oh man, what did I do this time? I asked myself, running my hands through my hair as I rounded the corner to his office. I could already hear the funeral march. Bum bum ba-bum bum. The ssic Chopin song was ying in my head on an endless loop.


    When I finally got to the room, though, I noticed that Bryce wasn''t alone inside it. No, Reece was in there on the other side of that door. Maybe I wouldn''t die today. Then again, I had made it known before that I didn''t like Reece, maybe he was helping Bryce get rid of me.


    No, he wouldn''t do that, it would upset Trinity. So what the hell was going on here.


    "Took you long enough." Bryce griped the second that I opened the door.


    "Hey Carter, you don''t look so good." Reece noted,menting on my ragged, tired look. I could have told him that being dragged to Bryce''s office was not my favorite thing after the punch he had given me and the massive ck eye I had been sporting afterwards.


    "I''m alright, just a little nervous about today." I answered, partially honestly. Bryceughed.


    "Tell him the truth." Theughter made Bryce sound young and fun, making me think about the time I had made himugh when looking at Stanley''s head. "Tell him you''re afraid I''m going to try and knock your block off again and you''re too scared to fight me."


    "He won''t fight you?" Reece questioned. "Is he afraid to lose?"


    "No, we don''t know who would win. He''s bested me and I''ve bested him. But if we were to fight for real it wouldn''t be a good thing for Emmalee, she would be upset either way." I nodded to show that Bryce was right.


    "And what do you mean knock his block off ''again''?" Reece wondered.


    "When I found out he''d deflowered my little girl, marked her, and knocked her up all in the same night I punched him in the face."


    "To be fair, you punched me when you only knew about two of those three." I corrected him.


    "Yeah, and I would have hit you harder if I knew about thest one beforehand." Bryce snapped at me. "So count yourself lucky." Reeceughed at our exchange.


    "Don''t worry Carter, this isn''t a bad thing. We both need to talk to you."


    "What about?" I asked him, my curiosity peaked.


    "Sit." Bryce pointed to the chairs opposite him. I sat down in one, but Reece continued to lean against the wall behind him. "You remember my wedding present to Reece?"


    "Yeah, Stanley''s head. He got what he deserved."


    "That he did." Bryce grinned. I had to remember that he had ripped that head from Stanley''s body with his bare hands.


    "Well, that''s left a vacancy. And in the absence of their Alphately, Bryce has been maintaining their pack. But we need to find a new leader for them, and soon." Reece exined to me.


    "So you want me to find someone?" I asked them, confused. They looked at each other andughed.


    "No, Carter, we want you to be the Alpha." Reece answered me.


    "And you''re lucky we decided it before you knocked up my daughter." Bryce snapped at me.


    "Me?" I just gaped at them and asked that one word question after a stunned silence.


    "Yes. You''ve proven yourself to me, and Bryce said he''s been training you since we left for France. We think you''re ready now."


    "You''ve been nning this for a while?" I was still stunned. "Why not Noah?" I asked him, confused.


    "Noah is my Beta, and he''s not the type to want to be an Alpha. He''s happy and would have said no."


    "Why not Jordan."


    "My son will take over my pack, you fool." Bryce snapped. "Do you want the job or not?"


    "I do. I want it." I answered in a rush, making themugh.


    "Good." Reeceughed. "Now you just need a job."


    "I don''t even know where to start." Iughed.


    "If you''re willing to work hard I know what you can do." Reece grinned.


    "You know I always work hard." I smirked at him.


    "I''ll train you to work for me. In mypany."


    "Doing what?" I had to know, the look on his face told me he had something up his sleeve.


    "As a talent scout, since you so enjoy being a scout."


    I groaned at his words but I couldn''t help but smile as well. If I had never be a scout I would never have the mate and family I have now. I''d take it, and I would make the best life for my wife and child.


    And, so my new life as an Alpha began, in the recently renamed wolf pack. I had renamed my pack The Rising Moon Wolf Pack. It was a new start for the pack and a new start for my wife and me.


    ~~


    FOUR MONTHS LATER


    ~~


    CARTER


    ~~


    I was sitting in the hospital room, holding the baby in my arms as Emmalee slept soundly. The bright blue nket wrapped around my son''s pink little face. He was so adorable. He looked like me, though I would have been just as happy if he had looked like Emmalee. He was sleeping just as soundly and peacefully as his mother was while holding onto my finger gently.


    "I love you CJ." I whispered the words to him. The name, Emmalee''s choice, made me happy as well. My son was named after me, my little CJ, my little Carter Jr., my little bundle of joy.

 Chapter 255 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 1 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 255 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 1 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    I was sitting in the restaurant, across from the girl that my brother had set me up with. He had insisted that I try to date, to get out there and be with people. I just didn''t see the point in it.


    Why should I go out there and find a girl, get to know her, maybe even love her, just for it all toe crashing down when one or the other of us finds our mate? I couldn''t do that to a girl. I couldn''t stand to break someone''s heart like that.


    Honestly, if it wasn''t for my brother''s insistence I wouldn''t even be here right now. He had told me he thought she was my type, that he hoped she would be my mate. But if she couldn''t be my mate then she could be my distraction. My brother could be so crude and vulgar, sometimes. I found it hard to believe that we were twins with how differently we acted.


    "So what do you do?" The girl, Kelly, was pretty enough. She had long tinum blonde hair and pretty hazel eyes. She was skinny, and tall, and amply endowed on the chest. But nothing about her appearance did anything for me. Maybe I just wasn''t going to have a type until the Goddess chose the girl for me. Or maybe I would just never mate with anyone.


    "I''m a warrior." I answered her, she was a wolf and would know what that meant.


    "A warrior?" She seemed to like the sound of that. "You must be strong. And good at fighting." I could see her eyes darken and fill with heat.


    Things always started this way. The women were always interested in my career, interested in a man that was in a burly type of position. Every time they found out that I was a warrior they perked up a little.


    "I do quite a bit of training, yes." I knew where this was going. They would want to hear about the work that I do, the missions that I go on, and those things were confidential.


    "Where have you gone? Have you ever been in any interesting fights?" I knew it, it was just like all the other times. "Ooooh, do you work with the Alpha and Luna? I can''t believe their wedding ising up."


    "I can''t talk about all that. My work can be sensitive and it''s confidential."


    "Boo, that''s no fun at all." She pouted. "Well what can you talk about?"


    "Anything but work."


    "Well, what do you do for fun?" She didn''t look so happy now, like I had deted her somehow.


    "I read mostly. I never know when I will be called back into work. That''s the life of a warrior. You''re always on call."


    "Boring. Don''t you like to go out? Go to concerts? Have fun?"


    "Not really. I prefer to read, listen to or y music, or watch a movie quietly at home."


    "You don''t sound fun at all. Your brother is a lot more exciting than you are."


    "Sorry, but that is just the way that I am. I am not a very outgoing person. I prefer peace and quiet."


    "That''s so h. How can you be so uptight." That wasn''t the first time that I had heard that I was uptight. "Ugh." She was upset now, venting her frustrations as she put a bite of her food into her mouth.


    "When dinner is over I can drop you off at your ce." I offered.


    "No thanks. I will walk or get a ride."


    "Whatever you prefer." I had had this happen to me more times than I would like to admit.


    After the meal was finished I paid for the bill and we walked out of the restaurant. She stormed off to the opposite end of the parking lot. This, too, had happened to me several times. I was used to it.


    I was in my car, driving to my apartment alone where I would spend the rest of my night alone. I lived alone, spent all my spare time alone, and that was fine with me. I enjoyed the calm and quiet of my ownpany.


    I had just gotten home, shutting the door behind me, when my phone rang. I knew who it would be and didn''t even bother to check the caller ID.


    "Hello Shane." I sighed into the phone.


    "What the hell, Shawn?" He demanded of me as he yelled into my ear. "How could you strike out with her? She''s a guarantee, man. She likes everyone, dude."


    "That''s not what I want."


    "What the hell do you want, Shawn. What is it that you want from a girl?"


    "I don''t know, Shane. I just know I haven''t found it yet."


    "Bro, you need to meet more women or you''re never going to meet your mate."


    "I don''t care. Why do I have to focus so much on finding a girl right now?"


    "It''s what we do, Shawn. It''s the way wolves do things."


    "Maybe I''m just not meant to follow in that path. Nothing ever works out for me."


    "You''re so fucking pessimistic, you know that. You need to think positively."


    "Fine, I''m positive that I don''t fucking care about finding a mate right now."


    "You''re hopeless."


    "Thank you. Now, can I go to bed?"


    "Yeah, go pull one off in frustration before you fall asleep."


    "Ugh, you''re so disgusting."


    "And you''re a prude." Heughed at me as he ended the call.


    When I woke the next morning I was thinking about what my brother said. Was he right? Was I doomed to be a lonely prude for the rest of my life. Should I get out there more? Should I try to meet more women?


    It didn''t matter what it all meant or what I should do. Today was going to be busy. We have the leader of the vampiresing today and all of the Luna''s guards were supposed to be there to protect her.


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    Was f¨¹r eine ¨¹berraschung! Oh what a surprise it was when I had that video call with the Alpha Reece Gray. I had known the Gray family for generations. Ever since their ancestors had still lived in the old country as they would say. Back when the boy''s great great great grandfather Ir¨¦l Liath had run his pack in the Irish countryside.


    Over thest few hundred years my rtionship with that family had remained strong and flourished. Around the start of the twentieth century we each started a new business venture. I worked with them to bring theirpany to Europe and they in turn helped to lead mypany into the Americas. We had both profited quite a bit from our mutual cooperation.


    And as all that time passed I had watched as the head of their family changed from son to son. From Ir¨¦l Liath to Finian Liath to Can Gray (this was when they changed from the Irish word for gray to the English word) to Brennan Gray, to Collin Gray and now to Reece Gray.


    The family had had a strong run of Alphas in their blood, and I had remained loyal to them all. I just know that something special wille to this family soon enough.


    And here I was being asked toe and assist the new young head of the family. To help him with his mate, his half witch half wolf mate. They were also having trouble locating some missing children that were taken by a group of warlocks that were led by his mate''s evil warlock father.


    This was shaping up to be quite interesting indeed.


    But, s, this young new Alpha and his curious mate were not what had made my video call so interesting and surprising.


    No, the thing that had interested me, excited me, and surprised me that day was the man named Shawn who had been in the background of the video call.


    It had been such a long time since anyone seemed to call out to me. Not verbally of course, but spiritually. The man''s essence was reaching me even through the digital waves that were passing across the world from me to him and back again.


    His heart was already calling out to me, he just didn''t know it yet. I know wolves needed to have the scent to make them notice their partner, but I was not the same as them. I was older, stronger, and more powerful. And in all my five hundred and twenty-eight years I never once felt a pull as strong as the one I was having for him.


    His looks weren''t bad either, if I''m being honest. When you''re as old as I am then you''ve tried all types of people. Women, men, manly women, effeminate men, cross dressers, and of course people from every possible group of the shadow world. I would know good looking when I saw it, having seen the beauties of the world for thest five centuries. And Shawn was a beauty.


    His eyes were a gorgeous gray that looked like the clouds blowing off the ocean right before a winter storm, and his hair, so bright in the light of that room, that hair that almost looked silver. The body I could see through his clothes was toned and slim, so athletic looking. And best of all, he had such an innocent look to his eyes, surely he couldn''t be as pure as he looked.


    He wasn''t the only one in the room with that look. He seemed to have an identical twin brother there with him. But even though they looked the same, looking at the brother did nothing for me. That was another proof, another way for me to tell that this man, this Shawn, was meant to be mine.


    Ohh, but I was beginning to look forward to this trip. And so, it was with those thoughts running through my head. My driver, a human subjugate of mine, was guiding us up the driveway at a steady, though agonizingly slow pace. I wanted her to hurry. I wanted to see that man in person.


    ~*~*~*THE NEXT COUPLE CHAPTERS WILL HAVE BOTH SHAWN''S AND DIETRICH''S POV OF THE SAME SCENES SO THE CHAPTERS WILL BE QUITE LONG, HOWEVER I THINK IT IS VITAL TO SHOW WHAT BOTH WERE THINKING AT THE TIME*~*~*~

 Chapter 256 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 2 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 256 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 2 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    When my servant, Marticia, pulled the car up to the front of the house I noticed that the young Alpha was standing outside, waiting for me. Standing with him was, presumably, his mate and three pack warriors.


    With the trouble they had been having it was understandable that they would be wary and on guard when I arrived. Especially considering that the envoy I had sent to them recently had attacked them rather than helped them. I needed to make up for that blunder.


    I should have known better. I should have gone to them personally. This was not a simple matter that I should have pushed off onto someone else. But I thought I was doing what was best, Octavius was the best at tracking among those in my employ. He should have been able to do his job properly, that fool.


    But, if he hadn''t messed up then I wouldn''t have had the chance to see Shawn on that call and I wouldn''t being here to meet them all in person, so I guess things happen for a reason.


    What saddened me was that the man I was seeking was not with those standing outside. I hoped I wouldn''t have to wait long to find him, I wanted to see what his reaction to me was going to be.


    I couldn''t help but smile to myself as Marticia parked the car and walked around to open the door for me. Regardless of when I managed to meet that delicious looking man this was bound to be an interesting trip.


    I stepped out of the car slowly and elegantly. I wasn''t trying to look pretentious, but I was just born in a different time and continued to hold myself a different way than most.


    "Wee Dietrich." Reece called out in a friendly voice. There was already trust between the young Alpha and myself.


    "Reece, so good to finally meet you. I have not been back to the States in close to thirty years. Your father had not yet sired you then. I am grateful for the chance toe and see you all personally, though I do regret the cause for it." My introduction made sure to cite our histories as well as my regrets.


    "Wee to our home." The lovely woman standing beside Reece spoke softly. I noticed immediately that little extra spark of life glowing within her.


    "Ahh, the new Luna. I am so sorry I did not know that your Alpha had taken a mate. Had I known we could have avoided a lot of this trouble." I paused for a moment, my eyes darkening as I thought of the trouble so recently caused. "But may I say that you are a very lovely woman. Reece is a very lucky man."


    "I am indeed." Reece agreed as he grinned at me. I returned the grin easily. "Allow me to introduce my mate, and fiance, Trinity Whitton. Trinity, this is Lord Dietrich Conrad, Vampire Emperor and a close friend of my family."


    "It''s a pleasure to meet you." She smiled and nodded her head at me.


    "The pleasure is all mine, my dear. Allow me to congratte you on your uing nuptials."


    "Please, Lord Dietrich, I would be delighted if you stayed for the wedding."


    "There is no need to be so formal, Trinity, just call me Dietrich, and I most definitely would love to share in your most special of days." I was smiling, I knew I was, but I had no intention of leaving anytime soon. If the pull from Shawn meant what I thought it meant then I may never be going home again.


    After a few moments of smiling at each other I continued, adding to my congrattions.


    "Also, allow me to congratte the two of you on the uing addition to your family."


    "Addition?" I heard the man standing right behind the young Luna say questioningly.


    "I am sorry, did I say something I shouldn''t have?" I felt saddened for a moment, my heart sinking.


    "No, it''s no problem Dietrich, we just haven''t gotten around to telling all of the guards, with how busy things have been. David, Vincent, Trinity is expecting." Reece smoothed my slip up over. My eyes lit with happiness as the men seemed to take joy in the news they just heard, and I had learned the guards names as well.


    "Congrattions Luna." The man who had questioned my words immediately spoke and grinned at his Luna. The other man was just smiling at her fondly.


    "Shall we head inside then?" Trinity asked, looking a little more rxed than she did when we had started.


    Marticia and I joined the wolves on the beautifully adorned porch and followed them inside. The moment we stepped into the hall I heard a gasp. I immediately caught sight of Shawn, his gorgeous face and tender eyes. He had noticed my scent. That was all that I needed to know. He was mine and I was his.


    "What''s wrong Shawn?" His twin brother asked him as he stared intently at my driver and me. Oh, how cute, he doesn''t know which one of us he is smelling. I wonder if Shawn has ever been with a man before.


    "Come on Dietrich, we''ve got dinner waiting for all of us." Reece and Trinity turned as they were talking, expecting to speak to me, but I wasn''t standing there anymore.


    As I moved quickly and silently through the shadows in the room, I noticed that Shawn was still staring perplexed at the ce where I had been, at my driver. It wasn''t long before I was standing right next to the man. And oh the scent he had. He smelled like warm rich cream and decadent chocte, the best way to describe his scent was like that of a barkery. Fresh baked cakes, gooey chocte chip cookies, frosting, just sweet, so sweet, so mouth watering.


    "So we finally meet." Shawn jumped when he heard my cooing voice.


    "E-excuse me?" Shawn sounded scared and nervous.


    "I have been looking forward to meeting you since I saw youst week."


    "W-why would you be looking forward to meeting m-me?" Shawn''s shaky voice seemed to ask me.


    "Because, in all my years, I have never met someone so intune with my wavelength as you are, Shawn. Do you know what that means?" Shawn shook his head in denial. "But, you must have noticed it by now, right?" I was oblivious of all the eyes staring at us as I spoke to the man who made my heart sing so.


    I continued to grin at the young man, so handsome and innocent as he stared at me with wide eyes.


    "What should I have noticed?" Shawn looked around nervously, his eyes passing over his brother, Reece, Trinity, and finally settling on my subjugate across the room.


    "Trust your senses, Shawn." I purred to him. "Close your eyes and follow your truest of all senses."


    "No, I shouldn''t." Shawn tried to refuse with wide shocked eyes as he stared at me nervously.


    "Trust me, and just do it." I insisted as the nerves settled into me, what if I was wrong?


    "Just listen to him for a moment Shawn." Reece instructed. I saw the look of fear and dread on Shawn''s face as he gulped once then followed his orders.


    Shawn closed his eyes and tilted his head just a little. With his eyes closed and head tilted back, he inhaled deeply. I saw the re of his nostrils and he picked up exactly what he was supposed to be sensing. His head tilted to the side on instinct trying to follow the scent trail.


    I saw the smile that settled on his face as he took in my scent. Clearly, Shawn could smell me and I was intriguing and pleasant to him.


    "What do you smell Shawn?" Reece asked him. Shawn answered with his eyes still closed.


    "It smells like musk, cognac, and leather."


    "And what is this scent telling you?" Reece questioned him further.


    "The scent, and my wolf, are telling me that I''ve found my mate."


    "And where is that mate?" Reece asked.


    Shawn opened his eyes, staring right at me, a look of pure shock on his face.


    "How?" The smile I gave him then was full of pure joy.


    "I imagine it''s the same way as any other mating. Or am I wrong?"


    "But this is impossible." Shawn was shaking his head. "How can this be?"


    "In all my five hundred and twenty-eight years I have never found a mate. I have of course had my fair share of lovers over the years, but never have I felt anything like what I felt when I first saw you on that video call. I knew when you were bespelled by my words that you were the one for me."


    "But I''m a guy." Shawn protested.


    "Shawn, I''ve lived so long that people ceased to be male or female to me, people are just people. We all love and live do we not. I have no preference one way or the other. Do you truly not feel the same way?"


    "I''m not gay!" Shawn nearly shouted.


    "But, you''ve never had a rtionship either. You never seemed like you ever cared for any of the girls you tried dating." His brother revealed some of Shawn''s history to us all.


    "Shut up!" Shawn yelled at his brother. "I was just saving the best of me for my mate. Why go half ass on a rtionship that is going to end when I meet my mate?"


    "Are you opposed to me as your mate?" I was afraid to hear his answer but I remained steady as I looked at him. "Do you not wish to have who the Goddess chose for you?"


    "I, that''s not, it''s just that, I don''t-." Shawn seemed incapable of finishing a coherent thought. He took a deep breath and settled his nerves. "I just don''t know."


    "I understand that you''re confused." I leaned in close to Shawn and ced a hand on his cheek. "But we can work it out together. After all, fate has drawn us to each other." Shawn froze in ce, an uncertain look on his face, but he didn''t pull away.


    "I think this is wonderful news." Trinity''s voice broke the tension by providing her support for us. "This is a time to celebrate. Two new matings with the people so close to me."


    "Indeed, it is a joyous and wonderful day. You should be happy Shawn." Reece smiled at us as he offered his encouragement.


    "But...but...but-." Shawn spluttered.


    "Come on, let''s get to dinner. You can sit next to me." I wrapped an arm around Shawn''s shoulders and dragged him toward the dining room and the smell of food.


    I noticed that Trinity stalked over to Shawn''s twin brother and growled at him in a low voice.


    "Don''t you dare give him hell about this. He needs to ept it and understand it without you making it worse."


    "Yes Luna." His head snapped up and he looked like he was afraid of her.


    My heart had been pounding and fluttering with excitement with each second I had spent next to Shawn. When I touched him, the feel of his warm, glorious skin made my palm ze with heat, my heart melt, and need flood my body.


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    I had been standing in the hall with David and his new mate and my annoying brother as we waited for the others toe inside. We would also be able to rush outside if something were to happen and they were to need out assistance.


    I didn''t know what to expect when the vampire got here, but I didn''t expect to have my wolf scream the moment they all came inside.


    ''WHAT?'' I screamed at the howling beast as he said one word over and over.


    ''MATE, MATE, MATE, MATE, MATE!''


    What the hell was going on? I only saw the vampire and the human who had driven him. She was different from other humans, off somehow, but she couldn''t be my mate. She was quite a bit older than me for one thing, and she didn''t look like what I thought the Goddess would have chosen for me.


    While I stared at her, confused, I didn''t notice the vampire as he snuck up behind me.


    "So we finally meet." I jumped and spun to face him when he spoke right next to my head.


    "E-excuse me?" I couldn''t believe that my voice sounded so scared and nervous.


    "I have been looking forward to meeting you since I saw youst week."


    "W-why would you be looking forward to meeting m-me?" I asked him shakily.


    "Because, in all my years, I have never met someone so intune with my wavelength as you are, Shawn. Do you know what that means?" I just shook my head at him. "But, you must have noticed it by now, right?"


    This was crazy. I had no idea who this vampire was but he obviously had the wrong person.


    "What should I have noticed?" I asked him as I looked around for allies.


    "Trust your senses, Shawn. Close your eyes and follow your truest of all senses."


    "No, I shouldn''t." I was trying to refuse, I didn''t want to do this, I didn''t want to close my eyes in front of this unknown, yet intriguing vampire.


    "Trust me, and just do it." Dietrich insisted, his calmness faltering for just a moment.


    "Just listen to him for a moment Shawn." Reece instructed me. I wanted to plead with him, to beg him not to make me do this, but Iplied.


    Thest thing I saw was the vampire staring at me. His bright, almost white blue eyes full of joy and expectations. The ck hair neatly styled with not a strand out of ce. His strong, athletic physique was quite intimidating when you see him in person.


    ''NO!'' I yelled at myself. I had to stop thinking like that, he''s a guy for crying out loud.


    With my eyes closed and my head tilted back I inhaled deeply. The scent I had first noticed by the door was so much stronger now, so much closer. As the scent filled my head, filled my senses, I got a vision of the person it belonged to. Cognac, leather, age, and experience. Those were the words that came to my mind when I scented him. No, not him, them. I didn''t know it was the vampire. It couldn''t be him.


    I smiled involuntarily for a moment when I let that scent take over my mind.


    "What do you smell Shawn?" Reece asked me while my eyes were still closed.


    "It smells like musk, cognac, and leather."


    "And what is this scent telling you?" Reece questioned me more.


    "The scent, and my wolf, are telling me that I''ve found my mate."


    "And where is that mate?" Reece asked.


    I opened my eyes, staring right at the vampire, Dietrich, I just knew there was a look of pure shock on my face.


    "How?" Dietrich smiled at me when I asked him this.


    "I imagine it''s the same way as any other mating. Or am I wrong?"


    "But this is impossible. How can this be?" I shook my head trying to get the scent out of it and say no at the same time.


    "In all my five hundred and twenty-eight years I have never found a mate. I have of course had my fair share of lovers over the years, but never have I felt anything like what I felt when I first saw you on that video call. I knew when you were bespelled by my words that you were the one for me." Seriously? This man was telling me that I was his mate, he was my mate, and I was the first one who he had met in over five hundred years. How could I be destined for a man for one thing and an elder vampire for another?


    "But I''m a guy."


    "Shawn, I''ve lived so long that people ceased to be male or female to me, people are just people. We all love and live do we not. I have no preference one way or the other. Do you truly not feel the same way?" How many people had he been with? That thought, that question, made my heart sink and race at triple speed at the same time.


    "I''m not gay!" I shouted the words.


    "But, you''ve never had a rtionship either. You never seemed like you ever cared for any of the girls you tried dating." Shane spilled the beans on my personal life to them all.


    "Shut up!" I screamed at him. "I was just saving the best of me for my mate. Why go half ass on a rtionship that is going to end when I meet my mate?" Was it so wrong to save myself for the right person? How could this be happening to me?


    "Are you opposed to me as your mate?" Dietrich looked saddened by my outburst. "Do you not wish to have who the Goddess chose for you?"


    "I, that''s not, it''s just that, I don''t-." I stuttered as it seemed I was incapable of finishing a coherent thought. I took a deep breath to settle my nerves before continuing. "I just don''t know."


    "I understand that you''re confused." Dietrich leaned in close and ced a hand on my cheek. "But we can work it out together. After all, fate has drawn us to each other." I just stood there frozen when he touched me.


    How could this be? Everytime one of the girls that Shane had set me up with ever touched me all I wanted to do was recoil. So why then, was my heart racing uncontrobly right now? Why didn''t I want to pull away from him?


    "I think this is wonderful news. This is a time to celebrate. Two new matings with the people so close to me." Trinity was smiling at us, clearly happy.


    "Indeed, it is a joyous and wonderful day. You should be happy Shawn." Reece smiled at us.


    "But...but...but-." I spluttered as I tried to talk.


    "Come on, let''s get to dinner. You can sit next to me." Dietrich wrapped an arm around me and dragged me toward the dining room

 Chapter 257 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 3 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 257 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 3 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    I was loving Shawn''s reactions. The innocent look in his eyes was obviously not just for show.? I would have to find out just how much experience he had, how truly innocent he was. That would change the way I approached our rtionship. Oh, but I was so happy to have found my mate, I''ve waited several lifetimes for him after all. And to think that he was here in the pack that I have had ties with for so long. This was truly a wonderful blessing for me, for the both of us really.


    I had led the way to the dining room, able to guide myself on the smell of the food alone. I may be a vampire but we quite enjoy food. It can even act as a way to give us energy like it does to humans and other shadow worlders, but not to the extent that it does for them. I was quite looking forward to the meal. My first date, sort of, with Shawn.


    The dining room was elegant and refined, something that had clearly been decorated long ago. Chances were the antiques in this room were purchased when they were new or semi new. I saw that there were only four ce settings and I knew that they hadn''t included a ce for Shawn or any of the other guards.


    Taking the initiative I dragged Shawn with my arm still wrapped around his shoulders. I pulled him along to the side of the table with one ce setting, aside for the head of the table that was meant for Reece. I knew how the standard order went. Alpha at the head of the table, the honored guest to his right and his mate to his left. They would just have to make another ce setting for my new mate.


    Shawn''s face had been red from the moment I had wrapped my arm around him, and he hadn''t said a word. I hoped he wasn''t taking all this too hard. I would have to have a serious talk with himter.


    After the new setting had been ced and the food was brought out, Reece stood at the head of the table. Trinity was across from me and Rawlynne Otsana, an FBI agent and new mate to one of the other guards, was sitting next to her. I had learned the names to all the men as well. Shawn''s brother was named Shane, the man who had spoken when we were outside was Vincent and the silent one was David, Rawlynne''s mate. Then there was Trinity''s cousin and Reece''s Beta, Noah. They were all people close to the top of the pack and therefore I needed to remember their names for the future.


    After doing a sweep of the room with his eyes Reece began to speak.


    "There are a few people at this table that still do not know about the news from the Luna and I. Dietrich was able to discern immediately that the Luna and I are expecting a child together. She has yet to visit with a pack doctor, but I would like to spread the news the rest of the way. Shane, Shawn, Agent Otsana, you were not outside when the others found out." His words were filled with pride and the ring of an Alpha.


    "That is excellent news." Shane immediately dered.


    "I am happy for you and your Alpha." Rawlynne congratted Trinity. The guards were looking truly happy, and even Shawn was looking a little less nervous when he had heard his Alpha''s words.


    "Congrattions, Luna, that is wonderful news for you and the entire pack." Shawn was smiling at her as he spoke.


    "Thank you everyone." Trinity looked nervous as she blushed but there was no hiding the beaming smile on her face.


    "Now, let us eat. We may talk business now or after, that is up to you Dietrich." Reece smiled at me.


    "I wouldn''t mind a friendly chat while we eat. But we can hold off on the major issues until after the meal." I gave him my preference for the conversation during the meal.


    "That sounds perfect. Please, enjoy your meal everyone." Reese sat down then and started the meal by taking the first bite.


    While we started eating the talk initially gravitated toward Reece, Trinity, and their uing wedding. I was d I could use that as an excuse to stick around. Hopefully I could get Shawn warmed up to me by then. But, I also wanted to know about Shawn and I was nning to ask a lot of questions about him. His brother Shane, was all too happy to fill me in.


    "How old are you, Shawn?" My question didn''t seem to be too intrusive to me but the embarrassed look on Shawn''s face proved me wrong.


    "I...I...I''m-." He was stuttering so bad that his brother interrupted him.


    "We''re twenty-six." Shane answered the question.


    "Such a tender age. I remember those times for me. I was twenty-seven when I became an immortal." This seemed to shock them all, did I not look young still. "Did you go to college Shawn?" I asked him, a smile on my face. "I personally have gone many times." My smile became a grin.


    "N-n-n-no." He managed to finish the word but nothing else.


    "We joined the warriors straight out of high school." Shane was being very forting for me.


    I continued in this fashion for a few moments until there was a lull in the conversation. That was when Trinity took advantage to ask me something that had clearly been on her mind.


    "Dietrich, how did you know that I am pregnant?"


    "I may not have the same senses as a wolf, and I have never smelled you before so I would not have been able to detect it from that alone. However, as a vampire, I have the ability to sense life. And when I looked at you I saw not just one life essence, but two."


    "Does that mean you would know if someone were having multiples." Rawlynne asked in a joking tone of voice.


    "I admit, I do not know. It has not happened yet as far as I know. I am not often around pregnant women. If the few that I have encountered personally in thest five hundred years did indeed have multiples I have no way of knowing."


    "Hmm. Sounds like it would be interesting to find out, you know." Rawlynne added with a curious smile.


    "Are you nning on multiples?" David asked with a hint of shock and fear from across the room.


    "Goddess no!" Rawlynne eximed. "I''m stilling to terms with having mated with you, don''t go and bring kids into this too soon." David visibly rxed at those words at which point we all startedughing at the rtively new couple.


    "That''s one thing you won''t have to worry about." I joked with Shawn as I gave him a heated look. "We''ve got built-in birth control." Shawn blushed crimson at those words, his mouth hanging open in utter shock with Shane nearly copsed to the floorughing.


    "So, Shawn, your brother said that you have not had many rtionships and that they didn''tst long, does that mean that you''re innocent?" I hadn''t thought that it was possible for Shawn''s blush to deepen, but he defied the odds and darkened to a deep maroon color. I thought he might pass out from the shock of my words. I had to try really hard not tough at that reaction of his.


    "I-I-I-I-I-." Shawn spluttered uncontrobly, not able to answer.


    "Shawn are you?" Shane shouted.


    "Shut up!" Shawn yelled at his brother. "My personal life is none of your business."


    "I''m sorry." My face fell and my expression softened considerably. I hadn''t meant to cause him distress. "I should not have asked that. It was too personal. Forgive me."


    "No, it wasn''t you." Shawn backpedaled. "I was yelling at my brother. He''s just an asshole."


    "So, you''re not angry with me?" I leaned into him again, a sly smile on my face.


    "Uh, well, I, it''s not, you''re my, we''re, no I''m not." Shawn finally got to his answer. "I''m not mad." He confirmed with a firm set to his shoulders and an embarrassed set to his eyes.


    "Good, I''m d. We can save the personal talk until we''re alone."


    "Alone!?" Shawn practically yelled in a squeaky voice.


    "Yes, I am so looking forward to getting to know you, all about you and the life you''ve lived.


    After the color had faded from Shawn''s face we moved the meeting once again. This time we were heading from the dining room to Reece''s office. It was time to get down to business and actually talk about the reason why I hade here.


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    After Dietrich had leaned into me and put his hand on my cheek he had wrapped his arm around my shoulder, pressing me against his side. I couldn''t take a step without our bodies brushing against each other. I know that''s what he had in mind too. He was trying to limate me to him and his touch. The bad thing was, I didn''t want to recoil at his touch or his nearness and I knew I should have.


    I had never been affected this way by anyone. Not a single person that I had ever seen before had affected me in the way that this vampire was affecting me. What was the matter with me? What the hell was going on here?


    As Dietrich made his way up the hall his scent filled my head, further flustering me. Every woman I had ever gone on a date with had smelled of cheap flowery crap that just made my nose itch, but Dietrich''s scent, as strong as it was for me it was subdued, and made my wolf dance with joy. Why would my wolf be so happy with a mating that ends with us?


    When we got to the dining room and I noticed that there were only ces for Reece, Trinity, Rawlynne, and Dietrich, my heart soared, I thought I might be able to get free.


    Nope!


    Dietrich just pulled me along, sitting me in the empty space next to him and forcing them all to set another table setting for me. I wasn''t supposed to be sharing dinner with them. I was supposed to be guarding them. This just felt awkward.


    I was so embarrassed by the fact that I was sitting at a meal I wasn''t invited to. I was embarrassed by the hand Dietrich had let linger on me even after we sat down. For some reason I just didn''t feel inclined to make him stop touching me. And I was embarrassed by everyone watching me, especially my brother.


    Reece started the meal by standing up and addressing the whole room.


    "There are a few people at this table that still do not know about the news from the Luna and I. Dietrich was able to discern immediately that the Luna and I are expecting a child together. She has yet to visit with a pack doctor, but I would like to spread the news the rest of the way. Shane, Shawn, Agent Otsana, you were not outside when the others found out."


    "That is excellent news." Shane immediately dered.


    "I am happy for you and your Alpha." Rawlynne was beaming.


    "Congrattions, Luna, that is wonderful news for you and the entire pack." I smiled at Trinity, letting her know I was happy for her.


    "Thank you everyone." Our blushing Luna grinned at us and looked happier than anything I had ever seen from her before.


    "Now, let us eat. We may talk business now or after, that is up to you Dietrich." Reece announced.


    "I wouldn''t mind a friendly chat while we eat. But we can hold off on the major issues until after the meal." Dietrich indicated his preference.


    "That sounds perfect. Please, enjoy your meal everyone."


    We ate our food, talking about the uing wedding. There were discussions of the baby. And, not surprisingly, Dietrich wanted to know more about me, Shane was more than happy to answer when I was unable to.


    "How old are you, Shawn?" It wasn''t a hard question to answer, but the heated look in Dietrich''s eyes, a look that was clearly filled with desire, that was what was hard to get past.


    "I...I...I''m-." I just stuttered until Shane took pity on me.


    "We''re twenty-six." Shane answered the question.


    "Such a tender age. I remember those times for me. I was twenty-seven when I became an immortal." I would be twenty-seven in just over six months, physically we were almost the same age, but he had been a vampire for five hundred and one years, how was I supposed to cope with that? "Did you go to college Shawn? I personally have gone many times." Dietrich was grinning at me. If I needed another reason to feel inadequate next to a five hundred year old man this would definitely do it.


    "N-n-n-no."


    "We joined the warriors straight out of high school." Shane told him what path our lives had taken. It was true, I had let Shane convince me to go straight for a pack career instead of wasting time on college. It seemed right at the time but now I just felt like an uneducated fool next to Dietrich. Why would he want a mate like me? I was nothingpared to him.


    "Dietrich, how did you know that I am pregnant?" Trinity brought up something she had clearly been thinking about for thest several minutes.


    "I may not have the same senses as a wolf, and I have never smelled you before so I would not have been able to detect it from that alone. However, as a vampire, I have the ability to sense life. And when I looked at you I saw not just one life essence, but two."


    "Does that mean you would know if someone were having multiples." Rawlynne joked.


    "I admit, I do not know. It has not happened yet as far as I know. I am not often around pregnant women. If the few that I have encountered personally in thest five hundred years did indeed have multiples I have no way of knowing."


    "Hmm. Sounds like it would be interesting to find out, you know." Rawlynne looked contemtive.


    "Are you nning on multiples?" David asked with a hint of shock and fear from across the room.


    "Goddess no!" Rawlynne screamed at him. "I''m stilling to terms with having mated with you, don''t go and bring kids into this too soon." David visibly rxed at those words at which point we all startedughing at the rtively new couple.


    "That''s one thing you won''t have to worry about." Dietrich turned to me with smoldering eyes and a primal grin on his face. "We''ve got built-in birth control." I felt my face burn, I knew it was redder than anything in the room, and while I was sitting there panicking and feeling like my heart was going to explode from the shock of that statement my brother was in the corner of the roomughing hysterically and nearly copsing from the force of it all.


    "So, Shawn, your brother said that you have not had many rtionships and that they didn''tst long, does that mean that you''re innocent?" Those words from Dietrich darkened my blush so much that I actually thought I was going to pass out from all the blood rushing to my head..


    "I-I-I-I-I-." I couldn''t get my mouth to work so I just stuttered uncontrobly.


    "Shawn are you?" Shane shouted.


    "Shut up!" I yelled at my brother. "My personal life is none of your business."


    "I''m sorry." Dietrich''s face seemed to crumple and sadness reced the burning heat that had been in his eyes. "I should not have asked that. It was too personal. Forgive me."


    "No, it wasn''t you." I was backpedaling and I knew it, but I didn''t like that crushed and defeated look that had entered his eyes. He was too strong and powerful to have a look like that. "I was yelling at my brother. He''s just an asshole."


    "So, you''re not angry with me?" Dietrich leaned into me again, a sly smile on his face.


    "Uh, well, I, it''s not, you''re my, we''re, no I''m not. I''m not mad." It took me a long time to settle on an answer that didn''t make my heart flutter at the thought. What was happening to me?


    "Good, I''m d. We can save the personal talk until we''re alone."


    "Alone!?" I sounded like a mouse as I squeaked out my answer to him.


    "Yes, I am so looking forward to getting to know you, all about you and the life you''ve lived.


    When I had finally felt my face cool down and thought my blush was settling, Dietrich pulled me from the chair and wrapped his arm around me again. The blush returned with a vengeance.

 Chapter 258 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 4 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 258 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 4 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    There had been some pretty mind blowing revtions during the meeting that followed dinner, but it still didn''t hold a candle to the fact that I had found my mate. My very male vampire mate.


    The questions that I kept asking myself was how could I be mated to a man when I wasn''t gay? Or at least I didn''t think that I was. Could you go your whole life not knowing you were gay? Wasn''t there supposed to be something that told me that I was interested in men instead of women?


    The problem was that I was not really interested in either men or women, at all. Not until now that is.


    Just being next to Dietrich made strange thoughts run through my head. What was I supposed to do? I didn''t know how to act. And what was I going to do with the fact that I now had a vampire as a mate.


    There was just so much to think about. So much that I didn''t understand and wasn''t likely to figure out anytime soon.


    Once the meeting was over and we were leaving the room, I bolted. I couldn''t help it. I didn''t want to hear whatever it was that Shane was going to say to me. I didn''t want to have Dietrich put his arm around me again when I didn''t even understand what was going on with me yet. I just panicked and ran.


    I didn''t have anywhere in particr to run. I didn''t want to go back to my lonely apartment. I didn''t want to go home to my parents, how were they going to react to this? And I definitely didn''t want to run to Shane''s ce, that would be the worst of them all.


    So, what did that leave me? The forest and the mountains.


    I had always loved being up in the mountains. That probably came with being a wolf that was raised around them. But the higher I was in the rocky area the better I felt. And so, needing to think, I turned away from the house, away from the driveway, and ran as fast as I could.


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    I was walking with all the guards as they were leaving the house. It was gettingte and the meeting was over so they were heading home. The Alpha was there to protect his mate now so they weren''t needed as much.


    I had hoped to stop Shawn and ask him if we could spend some quality time together, if we could talk. But, the moment he was out the door, out of the house, he turned away from everyone and ran.


    "Shawn!" His brother Shane yelled after him. "Shawn where are you going?" I noticed that Shawn was running on two feet, not four, so he hadn''t shifted, that was good. I didn''t want him thinking that something was wrong with him, with this whole situation. I didn''t hesitate, I just took off after him, following him into the trees and mountains that sloped up and away from the Alpha''s estate.


    I didn''t call out to him. I just followed him in silence as he ran. I knew that sometimes running was a therapy in and of itself. That just pounding the ground with your feet, breathing heavily and drawing in that fresh air, getting your heart pumping and the endorphins flowing, all of that could help make someone feel better than just about anything sometimes.


    After nearly twenty minutes I noticed that Shawn was beginning to slow down. His breathing was heavy, the breaths sawing in and out of his lungs. I could hear his heart racing, even though I was still a few meters away from him.


    A few moments aftering to a stop, I noticed that Shawn was calming down. His heart settling and his breathing normalizing. He still didn''t turn to look at me but I know he knew that I was there. Shawn just continued to stare out over the cliff he was standing in front of, enjoying the view, as he sat down on arge, low boulder. It was almost like a bench, one big enough for a few people, more than big enough for the two of us.


    "Why did you follow me?" His voice was raw, emotions barely restrained even though he had calmed down somewhat. Just how upset had he been?


    "I was worried about you. I don''t want you being confused about what is happening between us, what this all means. I want you to know everything, if you''re willing." I was ready to bare my soul to him, I would do so happily if it meant we could be a proper couple eventually.


    "I don''t understand any of this."


    He hung his head in shame, the sight of him broke my heart and I longed to soothe him. I ached to wrap my arms around him and hold him close. I wanted to tell him that it would all be OK and that he didn''t need to worry. But I couldn''t force my opinions onto him. I couldn''t rush him into this.


    "If you''re willing, Shawn, I will help you to understand. I will tell you anything, exin everything, if you''d just give me the chance."


    "Why? Why do you want me?" He sounded broken hearted, the hurt, the pain and sadness in his voice, it shattered my heart.


    "Oh Sch?tzchen." I spoke the tender word in my native tongue, hoping to get away with the pet names for now.


    "What''s that mean?" He asked me immediately.


    "It''s just a nonsensical word, everynguage has them." I hoped he would let it slide for now. He just shrugged his shoulders and seemed to ignore it after that.


    "You didn''t answer my question though." He pointed this out as he continued to look out over the cliff.


    The scenery that he was looking at, that I could see from behind him, was that of a river running alongside the mountain and trees rising up toward the sky. This was argely undeveloped part of the area and it was a wonderful sight to behold. I had a feeling that he quite enjoyed this view and often came here to think.


    "Shawn, may I sit with you?" I asked him before continuing. "I want us to talk, to exin things to each other."


    "Go ahead." He didn''t act like he was repulsed by me, he didn''t act like he wanted to get away from me, he just sat there looking out over the trees and away from me.


    I walked slowly toward the rock he was sitting on, I didn''t want to scare him by hurrying over in excitement. I would need to progress this rtionship slowly. That''s fine, I could do that. I could definitely do that for true love.


    "Shawn, Liebling, what troubles you the most about our mating?" I thought that this was the most important thing for us to address.


    "I don''t understand it. Not really. I spent my life knowing that I was going to find a mate one day. That she and I would grow old together and have a family that we would hopefully raise into good people. But now, I find out that the idea, the n, that I had drilled into my head my whole life isn''t how my life is going to go." He seemed to be speaking both from right next to me and far away at the same time.


    "Are you disappointed? Do you wish that you had never found a mate now that you know what the Goddess has in store for your future?" I hoped he wouldn''t say no. I didn''t know if my heart could take the pain if he told me that he didn''t want me, even if it meant never having a mate at all.


    "I don''t know." He paused for a moment, lowering his eyes to the ground and studying the dirt he saw there for several seconds before he continued. Those seconds seemed tost for hours with the dread filling my heart. "I don''t think I''m disappointed, not really. I had sort of resigned myself to never finding a mate anyway. I thought that since I just wasn''t attracted to anyone, that I hadn''t found anyone that I even wanted to be intimate with, that it just meant that I was not destined for anyone."


    "So you really are innocent? You''re a virgin?" I didn''t have any trace ofughter in my voice, I just wanted to know. But still, his face med into a brilliant shade of crimson.


    "Yes. I''m a virgin. I never found a woman I was attracted to, and I''ve never been attracted to a man before. So there was no one that I even thought about losing my virginity to."


    "Are you attracted to me?" I held a little bit of hope in my voice. He had said before, not ever, to me that said that things had recently changed. And, judging by the even darker shade of red he turned, I felt that I had a reason to be hopeful.


    "I don''t know." He answered me quietly. "I feel something for you that I have never felt before, that is for sure, but I don''t know what it is really. I don''t fully hate the feeling, but it frightens me."


    "I will never do anything to frighten you or to pressure you, I hope you know that Shawn." I was being honest, sincere, and I hoped he knew that. "I don''t care if it takes me a hundred years to prove this bond to you, I will spend every minute of that time happily being there by your side until you''refortable with me."


    "That''s what I don''t get." He looked at me then. His eyes, those steely, storm gray eyes that looked like snow could blow from within their depths at any moment, were full of wonder and curiosity, and a little bit of apprehension. "You sit there and act like you love me, like you''ve had so long to build this dream about us, about a future together, and you''re just hoping that I say yes. How can you feel that way so soon?"


    "First, remember that I felt our connection sooner than you did. I have had a week to fantasize about a future with you. I saw you in that call and knew right then that I was already yours. Second, I am much older than you and I understand my own heart and feelings. I understand them to the point where I no longer second guess myself at all. I know when I amfortable with something and when I am not and there is no reason for me to question myself."


    "Goddess, but that''s another thing. You''re five hundred and two years older than me. How am I supposed to be OK with that? You''re literally more than twenty times as old as me."


    "Yes, I am technically that much older than you, but I froze in time when I was just about your age. Time has moved on, but I have not."


    "And what happens when I begin to age? What happens when I be an old man? What happens when I die?" This seemed to scare him as his eyes darkened with fear.


    "I can''t answer that right now, because I don''t know what will happen in that regard. There are options, things that can prolong your life and give us more time together, but now is not the time to talk about that."


    "And what about a family? That''s something that every wolf wants but we can''t have that."


    "There''s options for that too. Nothing is the end of the line. And we have plenty of time to figure it all out."


    "And then there''s the fact that you''re the leader of the vampires. You''re their Emperor for crying out loud. What would that make me? How would your people react to this situation? Won''t they reject me? Won''t we be considered freaks among them?"


    "I think you underestimate us vampires. For one, we don''t often settle down, there are a lot of vampires who never find their true mates. So when it doesn happen, no matter who it''s with, no one really questions it. At least not the majority of them."


    Shawn looked away from me then, a sigh escaping him as he attempted to exhale the negative feelings, or at least that''s what I thought he was doing.


    "How could I be gay without knowing it?" He sighed again as he said these words.


    "Do you have to put abel on it? Can''t it just be that you''re a man who was looking for love, no matter where that love might lie? When you look at things as having a concrete gender role then it can make you forget what matters most."


    "And what is that?" He looked at me again, his eyes showing me the question he had just asked, curiosity all but dripping from them.


    "Together we can be happy. Separate, we will always be searching out our other half. It doesn''t matter if the person you''re fated to be with is a man, a woman, or a purple blobby alien from Jupiter, as long as you''re happy and your partner is happy isn''t that all that matters?" I heard himugh at my words, it was the first time I had heard himugh. Thatugh mixed with the smile that spread across his face lifted my heart so much that I felt the need to mp my mouth shut so that it didn''t float right out of my mouth and keep going until it reached Jupiter itself.


    "I really hope that you don''t turn out to be a purple blobby alien from Jupiter, honestly that might turn out to be a little too much." That mirth filledughter that he spoke with continued to make my heart swell and cemented my grin in ce, I didn''t think that I would ever stop smiling after this night.


    "As far as I know I''m not. But I guess my alien side could just be in hibernation mode or something." Shawn chuckled then, hisughter bouncing off the rocky mountain side anding back to me in a musical chorus.


    "We''ll have to be on the lookout for it I guess." He was stillughing, that was a good sign.


    "Shawn." I said his name with a semi-serious tone of voice, causing him to look at me cautiously. "Can we work on this mating together? Will you give us a chance? I promise that I won''t force anything on you. I won''t rush anything." I saw the nervousness in his eyes, the apprehension and fear that had settled in him when he realized our mate bond.


    "I won''t not work on it." His double negative made me want tough but I stopped myself at just a smile. "I can''t promise you anything, not yet, but I won''t reject you out right. I know that the Goddess chooses our partners for us, and everyone I have ever seen that has been mated is happy and enjoying themselves. I would like to have that someday. I didn''t think that I would want that, but I do, I really do."


    I grinned at him, hoping to convey just how happy his words made me.


    We spent the rest of the night talking there on the mountain, getting to know each other. I kept my hands to myself, not wanting to frighten him or anything. When the sun started toe up we sat there in silence, watching as it slowly moved above the horizon.


    After we watched the sunrise I offered to walk him home, which he did not refuse. The walk was mostly quiet, with just a random question thrown out here and there. When we got to the sidewalk for his apartment building it was time for us to separate.


    "Sleep well, Liebing." I grinned at him as I pretended to brush a stray piece of grass from his cheek just so I could feel him one more time.


    "Good night." He said as he started to walk away.


    "Gute Nacht mein Schatz." I returned his words and added on my darling as I began to walk away.


    I smiled the entire way back to Reece''s Alpha Estate. I had found my mate. He hadn''t rejected me. And I had spent the entire night talking to him and getting to know him.

 Chapter 259 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 5 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 259 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 5 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    I had not expected to spend the entire night talking to Dietrich, but it was surprisingly easy to talk to him. Dietrich wasn''t a bad guy, which was a good thing. And he genuinely seemed to want to make this whole mate bond thing work. I just didn''t know what was expected from me.


    What was I supposed to do with Dietrich? Which role was I supposed to take on? I am not effeminate, not in the least. Yeah I may not be the extrovert partying type of man that most women think of when they think of a man in their twenties. But that didn''t mean that I wanted to be wooed, wined and dined, and doted on like I was the woman in the rtionship.


    UGH! What am I going to do? This was going to be hard.


    Then there was the mate bond itself. I hadn''t known how strong it would be. It was like an instant pull. That connection, that sense of beingplete just by being in the same ce as the person on the other end of that tugging line of fate, it had its own way of making you feel satisfied.


    The entire night that I had spent with Dietrich, all the talking we did, I never once felt bored. I never once felt like I couldn''t wait for it to be over just so I could go home and read a book alone. That''s how I felt with every date that I had had in the past.


    NOT THAT LAST NIGHT WAS A DATE! No, far from it. Last night was just us talking, just us getting to know each other and trying to figure out exactly what was going on between us. It most definitely was not a date.


    So, why then, was I wanting to do it again? Why did I feel like it was one of the best nights of my life even given the shock of what had happened to me? What was I thinking?


    It was my day off today, and since I didn''t get home until dawn I was taking advantage to get some extra sleep. That was, until I heard the pounding on my door that woke me up just before noon.


    I dragged myself from my bed and shuffled like a zombie from the bedroom into the hallway, down to the living room, and then into the entryway. I didn''t even care that I wasn''t wearing a shirt, or that I was still wearing the ck cargo pants from the day before.


    When I finally made it to the door, the knocking now incessant, I was slightly pissed off. I whipped the door open and growled at the person who was standing there.


    "What the hell do you want, Shane!"


    "Someone obviously woke up on the wrong side of the vampire this morning."


    "Fuck you!" I snapped at him as I stormed back into the apartment and copsed onto the couch. The te gray leather was soft and cool against my ming skin, I could literally feel the blush all over my body.


    "Seriously, you''re gonna pull that shit with me? You were gone all night. I stopped by several times to check on you after you stormed off and you never came home. I tried until three this morning and still you weren''t here. Don''t tell me you didn''t do anything." Shane was looking at me like he was pissed off. "Do you know how fucking worried I was about you, asshole?"


    "Thanks for you damn concern, you''re the world''s greatest fucking brother. But I didn''t do anything with Dietrichst night. I literally spent the entire night staring out at the forest and talking to him."


    "The entire night?" He questioned me.


    "The entire night." I confirmed for him.


    "Dude, you''re going to be a virgin for your entire life." Heughed and copsed onto the couch next to me. "I can''t believe you''re still a virgin anyway. But I guess it makes sense, you are a prude after all."


    "I''m not a fucking prude, I just didn''t see the point in being with anyone until I found my mate."


    "And now your mate is a vampire that is five hundred years older than you and has more experience than anyone on the, how''s that make you feel?"


    "Ngh." I grunted in frustration as I buried my face in my hands. "This isn''t supposed to be happening."


    "Well, there is one upside."


    "What''s that?" I looked at him between my fingers.


    "He can teach you more than any woman you would have met here ever could."


    "You''re a dick, you know that."


    "I aim to please everyone." He was grinning. "Oh, there''s one thing I gotta know." Heughed at whatever thought was running through his head. I had a feeling I wasn''t going to like what he was about to say. "He''s the leader of the vampires, the Emperor right? Does that make you the Empress."


    I didn''t even bother with words this time, I just let my actions speak for me. My hand moved quick as lightning, striking him hard on the side of the face. The loud thud and dull cracking sound was highly satisfying. I hoped I had broken half of his damn face, maybe then we would finally look different.


    "What the fuck? That hurt you damn prick."


    "What did you expect with ament like that, you moron." I screamed at him. "Stop making fun of me and my life. I''m stressed enough as it is."


    "I didn''t really mean it in the worst way possible. It''s actually an honest question, sort of. He''s the leader of the vampires, mates usually help to lead in that aspect, does that mean that a wolf now has authority over all but one vampire in the entire world?"


    "I don''t fucking know. And I doubt I will ever know."


    "Why?" He looked at me shocked.


    "Seriously, Shane, do you think this is for real? Could I have really mated with a vampire, and a male vampire at that? The whole point of a mate bond for us is to make us happy and allow us to have a family. So, why then, would the Moon Goddess make it impossible for me to have a family?"


    "It''s not impossible, not in this day and age. There are a lot of kids in the world who need a family, wolves included. And you could always find a wolf surrogate. I''m sure there would be a woman out there willing to carry your kids for you."


    "Yeah, but then they would be half hers, gically. And she might want to im them as hers. That''s not any better."


    "I don''t know what to tell you man."


    "I think this is just some kind of big mistake, a cosmic prank. And in a few days it will all be over and life will get back to normal." I sighed and hung my head.


    I honestly felt that way. I really did think that the universe made a mistake. I couldn''t be mated to Dietrich. So, why did the idea of it all ending, all of it going away, and him leaving, make me so depressed?


    Just the thought of Dietrich leaving and returning to Germany, just the idea of me being alone again, made me want to scream in agony. Is this what it was like to want to be with someone? For the first time in my life I wished I had had a rtionship in the past so I knew what to do in this situation.


    "I think you''re lying to yourself." Shane looked at me with knowing eyes.


    "Why do you think that?" I asked him, pretending not to understand.


    "Because the look in your eyes tells me somethingpletely different from your words."


    "And what, oh wise one, are my eyes telling you?" I wasn''t sure if I really wanted to know, but I would never let my brother know that.


    "It looks like you''re already starting to ept what you are to each other. It looks like just the idea of him leaving is killing you and that if he really did go you and your wolf would probably go insane, or follow him. It looks to me like you want to ept him."


    I just looked at him for a moment, the truth of his words hitting me like a ton of bricks. I couldn''t maintain eye contact with him for too long though. I had to turn my head and look anywhere but at him. First I looked over his shoulder at the soft blue-gray color of the wall and small pieces of art that hung there, then to the side at the massive bookcase, then at the ck, slightly reflective screen of the TV, at the dark gray of the rug over the dark wooden floor, around and around the room at the different odds and ends.


    "There''s nothing wrong with it." Shane continued, causing me to snap my head toward him and look at him with disbelief in my eyes.


    "What?"


    "Seriously? You''re going to question it. He''s your mate Shawn, no matter what. You''re fated to be together, there''s going to be that pull for the rest of your life. So why fight it? Why deny it? Why not let yourself be happy? You know that with him you will be the happiest that you could possibly be."


    "But we''re both guys, Shane." My voice sounded pleading when I told him that.


    "So what!" He snapped at me. "You think you''re the first gay man ever? Get over yourself Shawn. You''re a guy, he''s a guy, so what. Be together, be happy, get married and do lover shit."


    "You''re so crude." I scolded him through myughter.


    "Says the prude." Heughed right back at me. "But seriously, there''s nothing wrong with it."


    "What are Mom and Dad going to say though?" I groaned as I threw my head back and slung my arm over my eyes.


    "They won''t care. They would want you to be happy."


    "I don''t know about that." I looked at him out of the corner of my eye moving my arm just enough to crack them open.


    "They will. Trust me on that."


    "I hope you''re right."


    I still had my eyes covered when someone knocked on the door. I groaned again, not wanting to answer it. I could already tell who was there.


    "I''ll get it, you continue sulking." Shaneughed, not catching the scent as easily as I did since he wasn''t as attuned to it as I was.


    "Oh!" I heard Shane''s surprised voice from the entry when he opened the door.


    "Good day to you, Shane." Dietrich''s voice floated down the hall to me.

 Chapter 260 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 6 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 260 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 6 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    I had walked back to the Alpha''s estate with a grin on my face. I didn''t know which room was meant for me, but I knew that I was supposed to stay in that house. Thankfully, the staff was already hard at work when I got back and they happily showed me to my room.


    It was a nice enough room, veryfortably decorated. There was arge, plush, king sized bed, I admit the first thing that went through my mind was a vision of Shawnying on that bed. Oh how I wish I could see his body bare before me. But I needed to take this slow, he would not ept a position like that so easily.


    Oh, but that will be fun as well, earning his trust. This whole mating had me flying high and I couldn''t wait to move forward with this man.


    I copsed into the bed, not even bothering to go to my luggage that was sitting near the window, I was exhausted but pleasantly so. I needed a nap and a shower after that, then I could go back to find my new mate. My new boyfriend if you will.


    A few hours and several blissful dreamster I was up in thete morning and preparing to take a quick shower. I still had some less than pure thoughts flowing through my mind when I stepped into the steady stream of hot water.


    I let my imagination run rampant, feeling my desire and arousal take over. I needed to get this out of my system now before I went to see him next. It was a preemptive solution to a future problem.


    Several moments filled with happy thoughtster I was drying myself off and getting dressed. I dressedfortably, for me, in a crisp ck suit, ck leather shoes, and blue gray tie that reminded me of Shawn''s eyes. When I went down stairs I found the Luna looking over some magazines with a smile on her face. She really was radiant and glowing in her joy.


    "Good morning Dietrich, how are you today?" She smiled happily at me.


    "I am wonderful, thank you for asking Trinity. I see you are exceptionally happy as well, you must be excited for the wedding and the baby."


    "More than I ever thought was possible." She blushed as she answered. I noticed you got home veryte.?"How did things go?"


    "I spent the night talking with Shawn, things were going quite well and I truly enjoyed the night. I''m sorry I didn''t get home until this morning."


    "Think nothing of it, you''re more than old enough to do as you please and I am d that things went well. I am happy for you and Shawn."


    "Thank you for your approval and encouragement. It means a lot to have his Alpha and Luna''s blessings."


    "What are your ns for today?" She questioned me.


    "I want to go see my mate." I grinned at her and was pleased to see the approval and happiness in her eyes.


    Not long after that conversation I was walking into town. I had sent my subjugate home and had the car returned to the airport. I would need to get my own car if I nned to stay in town for any length of time, which I did.


    I followed the path I had taken this morning, and also my nose, as I made my way to Shawn''s apartment. I made my way to his door and smiled happily before I knocked.


    The scent that was walking closer to the door was not Shawn''s, and I was not yet ustomed to the owner''s scent to know who it was. But when the door opened


    "Oh!" Shawn''s twin brother was the one who had opened the door.


    "Good day to you, Shane." I smiled at my future brother inw.


    "Dietrich, what a surprise." Shane grinned at me. "Shawn''s inside,e on in."


    "Thank you." I felt my smile broaden even more.


    I followed Shane into the house and was led into the living room, the sight that met me made my throat close tight, my mouth begin to water, and my entire body go on high alert. I was d I had been preemptive before I left.


    Shawn was sitting there on the couch. He was not wearing a shirt, just the ck cargo pants he had been wearing the night before. His skin, so gloriously disyed for me, was just lightly tanned. His muscles were well defined with perfect pecs and drool worthy ripple of abs. The situation was giving me a scrumptious uninterrupted view of his wonderfully sculpted body.


    Oh, the glory of a warrior''s body. It was definitely obvious that he trained his body on a regr basis. I itched to run my hands and my tongue along that body of his, but I had to behave myself. I had to restrain myself, but that was going to be hard.


    "Good morning Shawn." I purred to him as I appreciated the view before me. I had noticed that Shawn had tensed a little when I walked into the room. No doubt he knew that I wasing in, he most likely knew that it was me when I knocked on the door.


    "D-Di-Dietrich what are you doing here?" Oh that pure innocence of his was just so adorable. I don''t think he knew how appealing it made him look. Why was it I envisioned myself as the wolf in our rtionship? I just wanted to eat him right up.


    "I thought we could spend some time together today, get to know more about each other." I knew I was smiling and I couldn''t help it."


    "I think I''m going to go." Shane was grinning as he left. "I''ll call youter." He waved to his brother just before he shut the door.


    Now that we were alone, it seemed that Shawn was very aware of the situation we were in.


    "Uh, give me a moment." He said in a rush as he ran from the room. I figured he was going to his room. That would be a good ce to see, but I wasn''t going to push it. I needed to make sure this rtionship worked, no matter what.


    I had decided to make myselffortable, sitting on the couch that I had seen Shawn on a few moments before.


    His ce was small but cozy, and I liked that. There was a rack with DVDs and a massive bookshelf that was crammed full. The couch and one arm chair along with a couple tables were the only major furniture in the room. The TV sat on a small stand with the remotes lined up neatly. I could see his quaint eat-in kitchen with everything seemingly in its ce. He was very neat and tidy.


    When I heard the door to his bedroom open I turned to look, a reveal like this couldn''t be missed of course.


    Shawn emerged from the room wearing a pair of ck dress cks and a light gray, long sleeved sweater. And his short hair was neatlybed into casual yet tidy little spikes as it stood mostly up on his head, this looked more like his hair''s natural position rather than a chosen style. But he lookedfortable and still very well put together. I wouldn''t have cared if he hade out looking like a bum though, he was all that mattered to me.


    "Feel better?" I asked him with a grin, causing him to blush as he came over to sit on the couch with me. I was d he hadn''t chosen to sit in the arm chair.


    "I had just woken up when Shane got here. Actually him pounding on the door was what woke me." I liked that he seemed to be gettingfortable talking to me.


    "I''m d he woke you then, that way it wasn''t me who had done it. This way your ire is aimed at him." Iughed, unable to help myself.


    "I wasn''t mad really, annoyed at first because I had gotten to sleep sote, but not mad. Besides, we had a good chat before you got here."


    "Did I ruin things?" I felt like my bubble was about to burst for a moment.


    "No, we were close to being done anyway."


    "Might I ask what happened between you two?"


    "What do you mean?" He seemed perplexed.


    "His broken and bruised cheek and your split knuckle." I indicated the hand that had a slight amount of blood on it.


    "Oh." He looked down at his hand like he hadn''t even noticed it yet. "He said something that had pissed me off, so I hit him."


    "What did he say to anger you?" I didn''t expect the blush that had just begun to fade woulde back stronger than before.


    "W-we-well, he called me-." He stopped and took a deep breath, then started again. "He asked me if I was going to be the empress because you''re the emperor." His face med even redder than it ever had before.


    I couldn''t help it, Iughed. It was quite funny really.


    "We will have to think of what your title will be, but he''s notpletely wrong. You are of a high status among the vampires."


    "But I''m not even a vampire." He eximed, shock and fear in his eyes.


    "That doesn''t matter, you will have authority over them." I grinned at him. "And me." I couldn''t help but add thatst part, wiggling my eyebrows seductively as I did so.


    "Oh Goddess." He buried his face, causing me tough again. I could already tell that this was going to be a good day.

 Chapter 261 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 7 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 261 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 7 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    Why did Dietrich have to agree with Shane? Ok, he didn''t say that I was the empress, like Shane did, but he did say that I was going to have authority over all of the vampires like Shane did. That''s a lot of responsibility. I didn''t know if I could handle that. GAH! What the hell?


    While I was lost in my thoughts, trying to stop my world from either imploding or exploding, Dietrich was watching me with a smile on his face.


    "Can we go somewhere today?" He asked me, his eyes full of apprehensive hope even though his smile didn''t falter.


    "Like where?" I was confused, where did he want to go?


    "I''ve not been to this city in a long time. I don''t know how it has changed. You can show me around, at what all is new."


    "It hasn''t changed too much, I don''t think. For thest several years things have looked pretty much the same as they do now, I think."


    "What about over thest thirty years?" Heughed softly, almost like a giggle. I had noticed thisst night, but hisughs were kind of cute sometimes. WHAT AM I THINKING? He''s a guy, I''m a guy, not cute, nothing is cute.


    "How am I supposed to know how different it is from thirty years ago, I wasn''t even alive that long ago." I yelled, almost scolding him.


    "That''s my point. You and I both don''t know what is different, but we can go and find out together."


    "This seems strange." Was he trying to take me out on a date?


    "What? It''s just two people exploring a city. You tell me about the city now, and I will tell you about the city as I have seen it change over thest century."


    "That is so strange to hear."


    "What is?" Dietrich looked confused now.


    "That you''ve seen this city change over that much time."


    "Can you ever learn to ept it?" He seemed hurt, sad, that I thought it was strange.


    "I didn''t say that I didn''t ept it, just that it''s strange. It''s going to be weird for me, to think about the fact that you were alive before the Europeans came to this country."


    "I could havee with them. I was prominent in Europe at the time and I was asked to join the first settlers."


    "That''s what I''m talking about, I''m going to have to actuallye to terms with stuff like that." Heughed at my mini freak out for a moment.


    "I won''t talk about my past if that will make you feel better." He seemed serious as he offered that. "Our lives together started when we met, anything before that doesn''t matter."


    "But that''s not good either. Neither of us would be who we are if it wasn''t for our pasts so I can''t ignore who you are." He smiled at that.


    "So, you''re interested in who I am?" He was smiling at me with a heated look in his eyes.


    "Well, I''m not uninterested in who you are." Heughed again.


    "You''re so cute." He was grinning at me yfully.


    "I''m not cute." I snapped at him. "I''m a man, I can''t be cute." I think I was being hypocritical here, didn''t I think he was cute at some point.


    "There''s nothing wrong with it. When I said cute, I truly just meant appealing. That what you said made me smile and brought me joy. The simplest way for me to express that was to say cute. I could have said adorable, cute, sweet, mouth watering, sexy, handsome, any of them could describe you in specific situations, but the cute just seemed the best fit. The words you said were cute, hence you were being cute." I felt my face flush with heat and knew I had to be cherry red at that moment. He had said a lot more than just cute applied to me, and why did it make me happy to hear them all?


    "I-I-I''m sorry." I tried to look away from him but his hot, heated gaze was holding mine.


    "For what, Liebling?" His breath, hot and sweet, hit my face as he inched closer to me.


    "I-I sh-shouldn''t have y-ye-yelled at you. I-I-I th-thought yourugh was cute t-too." He grinned as I worked hard to get the words past my stuttering tongue.


    "I''m happy you thought so." He was leaning in so close to me now, so close that our noses brushed against each other and I thought he was going to kiss me.


    I didn''t know why I wasn''t pulling away from him, why I was waiting for our lips to touch. Did I want him to kiss me? I didn''t really know, but I didn''t feel like stopping him from kissing me either.


    I could feel the heat from his mouth, even though his lips were still a couple inches away. My heart was pounding and I swear there was a swarm of butterflies in my stomach. I was nervous, yeah, but I was also kind of excited. The anticipation was killing me though.


    Then, he pulled away, our lips never having touched.


    I blinked in surprise, shock filling my heart and my mind as the butterflies became a swarm of bees, stinging me from the inside with doubts and worry.


    "I can''t rush you. I''m sorry for that just now, meine Geliebte."


    "What do you keep saying in German? You keep using those names." I initially wanted to ask him why he didn''t kiss me, but I couldn''t bring myself to say those words.


    "I''m sorry, Shawn. I was being sneaky with them." He hung his head, like he was feeling guilty. "I have been using pet names for you."


    "What was that one, mine gel, something?"


    "Meine Geliebte." He said the word again and I made sure to memorize the pronunciation. "It means my love." I blushed then, I couldn''t help it.


    "And the other ones, Lee whatever and the others?"


    "Liebling, Schatz, Sch?tzchen, they''re all simr, they mean things like darling, treasure, lover, baby, honey, sweetheart. They''re all different forms of the same thing and they''re all just terms of endearment."


    "The Meine part I''m guessing means my or mine right."


    "Ja, yes, meine means just that."


    "And the goota noch? I can''t remember the pronunciation, that was good night?"


    "Wunderbar. You are a natural, you will be speaking German in no time. Gute Nacht does mean good night."


    "This is a little awkward, but kind of fun too." I smiled. "I always wanted to learn new things and go to university, but that''s not what had happened for me."


    "You can do anything you want from now on, Liebe, I will be there to support you even if no one else is." I felt my heart swell then, for reasons I didn''t even know.


    Somehow, it was settled that we were going to explore the city together. Getting to know what buildings used to be long ago, and where there were nothing but fields and dirt was pretty interesting. To be able to see the world through the eyes of someone who had seen the world change, it was pretty cool. I hadn''t just walked around downtown in a long time, not since I was a teenager.


    After we looked around everywhere, I was getting pretty hungry. It was gettingte after all and I hadn''t eaten breakfast or lunch. I guess I had been able to ignore it since I was having a good time, but it was starting to gnaw at me, not to mention Dietrichughed when he heard my stomach rumble.


    "I guess we should get some dinner, I wouldn''t say no to a nice meal either." Dietrich''s chuckle seemed to send shivers running through me.


    "I''m sorry." I was embarrassed by the loud grumble that hade from me.


    "Don''t be, you need to eat, and we have been out all day. I should be sorry for not thinking about it sooner."


    We ended up settling on a nice Italian restaurant. Once we sat down and started looking at the menu, I couldn''t help but realize how much like a date this was starting to seem. But, for some reason, I didn''t hate that idea.


    When the dinner arrived, we took our time to eat the meal. I was enjoying the conversation, the food, thepany. If I was going to count this as our first date, I don''t think that I would mind.


    I found myself smiling a lot. At the thought of what all of this meant, what woulde of it, and the stories Dietrich was telling me about his past. Iughed when he told me about being a new vampire and the misfortune that seemed to constantly befall him. But his stories were making me want to know more and more about him. He had lived so muchpared to my miniscule life.


    When dinner was over we walked back to my ce. I had been in a rtively good mood and somehow invited him back upstairs. I don''t know what I was thinking, I most definitely was not ready for THAT to happen, but I also wasn''t ready to say goodbye.


    It was gettingte, but not extremely so. When back upstairs we put a movie on and sat on the couch. We didn''t sit right next to each other, but we didn''t sit as far from each other as we could either.


    The movie was good, obviously I liked it because it was part of my DVD collection. But even so, I didn''t concentrate on the movie at all. I was too hyper focused on the vampire sitting next to me. Close enough that I could reach out and touch if I wanted to.


    All during our walk through the city Dietrich had remained proper and polite. He never once put his arm around me, tried to hold my hand, or touch me in any way. I had been expecting it, waiting for it really, but he never did.


    I don''t know why I was so sad that he never tried to touch me. I was also still wondering why he had not kissed me either. All these things that I never thought would ever go through my head were now cluttering it up with mixed feelings.


    Without really thinking about it, I reached over and put my hand right next to his. I didn''t know if I wanted to take his hand, or if I wanted him to take mine. I was a man too after all, wasn''t I allowed to take the lead?


    I knew he was aware of my hand, but he didn''t try anything. I did, however, sense his eyes on me as I worked up the courage to take his hand in mine. It was nerve wracking to say the least, but I managed to do it. And once I felt the softness of his skin and the firmness of his hold on my hand as he held mine as well, that was when I smiled.


    It felt like my hand was on fire, but not in a bad way. I had never wanted to hold anyone''s hands before. Not since I was a kid and held the hands of my parents and my brother. But that had been over twenty years ago and was nothing like this.


    This! This feeling of holding Dietrich''s hand in my own, just that was enough to excite me. Oh, what was I going to do?


    When I worked up even more courage and finally looked at him, I saw that he was smiling at me with a calm, seductive look on his face.


    "Meine Geliebte." The look in Dietrich''s eyes spoke of wanting, desire, and love.


    "Uh, umm."


    I didn''t know what to say to him. We were bothpletely ignoring the movie as we looked into each other''s eyes. I had a feeling my mouth was probably hanging out while I sat there looking like some kind of fool. I don''t want to say what was going through my mind at the time, I couldn''t even understand it at all. But when Dietrich started to lean in closer my mind went nk.


    I leaned with him as he came closer, leaning my back against the arm of the couch. I wasn''t recoiling, I was just moving with him.


    The look in his eyes, the desire in them, it didn''t frighten me, actually it did just the opposite, either way though, it was making my heart pound and the butterflies in my stomach start to swarm again.


    "Sch?tzchen, may I?" I didn''t really know what he was asking for, but I felt myself nod my head in confusion to answer his mysterious question.


    After that question, after that nod, that was when I finally felt his lips press against mine. Soft, tender lips filled with an unmistakable heat. I gasped at the gentle, but firm pressure of the kiss and he took advantage of that. Dietrich slid his tongue into my opened mouth, sliding it along and entangling it with mine before he started to explore my mouth.


    My head was already spinning from the kiss. Feeling like I was going to lose my bnce if I didn''t hold onto something so I wrapped my arms around his waist as he braced his arms on the couch behind me. I felt him then, pressed up against my chest, my stomach, my legs, and ces in between.


    I felt my body starting to react from the kiss and the feel of his body on mine. Never in a million years did I think that my body would react to a man but it was now. I couldn''t help myself.


    But I wasn''t ready for this. This was too soon.


    Just before I pushed him away, though, Dietrich broke the kiss. Pulling his lips and his body from mine.


    After rising from the couch, Dietrich stepped away and sat on the chair, panting heavily. My breathing was just as ragged as his sounded. After a moment, he finally spoke.


    "I''m sorry, Liebling, I should not have done that." He seemed sad, his voice holding emotions I didn''t understand. When I turned to look at him I saw that he was looking repentant.


    "Sorry? For what?" I asked him.


    "You''re not ready, and I know that."


    "How did you-?" I couldn''t figure out how to form the rest of that question.


    "I know it''s all new to you, Geliebte, I know that and I almost pushed you too far. I am sorry."


    "Y-you''re right, I''m not ready. I was just about to stop you. But thank you."


    "For what?" It was his turn to sound confused.


    "For thinking of me, and knowing it was too soon."


    "I will always put you first, Shawn, always and forever." I blushed at his words, he sounded so sincere.


    "I will head back for now. I don''t think I should stay anyter." He grinned sheepishly and I noticed he was walking just a little awkwardly when he stood. I moved to follow him and noticed that I was walking the same way. It''s a little difficult to hide that walk, the one that clearly told how aroused we were.


    I met him at the door as he was about to leave. He turned for just a moment, looking me in the eyes.


    "Gute Nacht Sch?tzchen." He whispered as he pressed a feather light kiss to my lips. It onlysted a second and he was gone immediately after that. He seemed to have warped through a shadow to put distance between us.


    "Oh Goddess." I sighed as I leaned back against the wall after I shut and locked the door behind him. "This is gettingplicated."

 Chapter 262 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 8 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 262 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 8 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    Shawn was one of the personal guards to the Luna so he was busy almost every day. I was d that we had those first two days together and I still managed to get him to spend time with me when he was off duty though, which was good.


    I think Shawn is finally starting toe around now, though nothing much has happened since that kiss. There hadn''t even been another kiss, just the memories of that first one. I hadn''t pushed things since then, not wanting to scare him off.


    I would spend a good chunk of time at Shawn''s ce, or he woulde to see me in my room after he got off work. I was happy to spend as much time with him that I could, but I won''t deny that I was greedy and wanted more.


    It was for that reason that I had asked if Shawn would have a pic with me in the mountains, at the ce where we had that first long talk on the day we had met.


    I was going to count this pic as our third date, but I figured that Shawn would consider it to be the first, unless he counted our dinnerst week as a date as well. Also, we only had a few more days now until the wedding for Trinity and Reece, and I fully expected Shawn to be my date then too.


    I nned this date down to the finest detail. The weather was perfect and clear which meant we could watch the stars as long as we wanted. I didn''t have a kitchen to use personally, even though I could probably have used the one here if I asked, but I decided to order a meal that I thought would suit us well instead.


    The dinner was going to consist of a variety of side dishes and horderves from a decently upscale restaurant down in the city. It was a nice enough ce and their food would fit well with the choice of wine I had chosen for the night.


    I picked out a nice, plush nket and even some cushions for us to sit on. There was crystal stemware, gold ted utensils, and candles, it would cover everything that we would need.


    I had asked Shawn to meet me after his shift at the estate. He came to my room just before sunset and knocked softly on the door. The look he was wearing, one of slight embarrassment with just a hint of excitement, that look made me smile with satisfaction. He was looking forward to tonight almost as much as I was.


    "H-hey Dietrich." He stuttered slightly when I smiled at him.


    "Hallo Herzchen." I was grinning, eager for the night to start, how could I not be with my mate standing right in front of me. "Shall we be going?" I grabbed the oversized pic basket I had prepared for tonight. It might have looked cliche, but I didn''t care, Meine Liebe deserved everything, cliched or not.


    With the basket on one arm I linked the other arm around his, holding him close to me.


    "Herzchen, will you close the door for me? My hands seem to be full." I joked, knowing full well I could have released him to shut the door but I didn''t want to.


    "Uh, sure." He used his free hand to pull the door closed behind us before we set off down the hall.


    The walk from my room on the third floor to the ce in the mountains where we had been before didn''t take very long. Neither of us talked really, I just held Shawn close to me and rested my head against his as we were walking. It was a sweet, and romantic walk in and of itself.


    Together, the two of us spread out thefortable nket and sat on our cushions. I put mine right next to Shawn''s so we could be closer together, and I was happy when he didn''t pull or scoot away.


    The food was still warm and it was amazingly delicious, I wondered if it only tasted so much better because I was with Shawn. I figured it might have and I didn''t mind, things would always be better with him by my side.


    I only brought one bottle of wine, nothing that would get either of us drunk. I wanted us both to be pretty clear minded and to not let anything happen that Shawn was not prepared for. But the taste of the wine, the deliciousness of the food, and the candy for the eyes was more than enough to already have me feeling a little tipsy. I hoped this feeling would never fade.


    While we ate we talked about how our day had been, the different things that we had done. Shawn was a busy man of great importance to his pack, and I loved hearing all about what he had done.


    "You''re in the inner circles, you know what is going on as much as I do." He was smiling as he spoke. "I like that because it means that I am able to talk to you about what I do during the day."


    "Ich bin auch meine Liebe. I am too."


    "I like that you do that?" He smiled shyly after saying that, like he was embarrassed.


    "You like what?"


    "That you will trante your phrases when you know I won''t understand them."


    "Keine bange, Shawn, no worries at all. I know you don''t understand it all yet. But in time you will." I stroked the side of his face as I spoke, causing him to blush a furious shade of red. I wondered how long he was going to be so shy towards me.


    "I''m d I am learning. But how long is it all going tost?" He looked sad now for some reason, and the sight of the heartache in him brought physical pain to me.


    "Was meinen Sie? What do you mean?"


    "This? All this? Us? How long is all of it going tost?"


    "Herzchen, why do you doubt me still? All of this, us, everything, it is forever. I will never leave you. I will never again find someone for me. You are it Liebling. Why do you doubt me so?"


    "I don''t mean to doubt you. It''s just, this is all still so new to me, so confusing. I''ve never had someone want me like this before, so I guess-." He trailed off, unable to finish what he had been saying.


    "You don''t feel like you''re enough, is that it?" He just nodded his head to answer my question, self doubt and fear filling his eyes. "Bitte denk nicht so, please don''t think like that." I pulled his face toward me, cradling it in both of my hands so that he would look at me and only me. "Shawn, meine Liebe, you are more than worthy, you''re are more than enough. I am happy, beyond happy, that I have finally found you. Please, do not ever think that you are not enough for me, or that you''re not good enough. I will never want anyone other than you, man or woman. You are it for me, Liebling."


    I could see tears forming in Shawn''s eyes, I didn''t know if they were happy tears or sad tears, but they broke my heart nheless.


    "Liebe, please don''t cry."


    "I''m not crying." He snapped at me before looking instantly apologetic. "I''m sorry, I didn''t mean to yell, but I''m not crying." He was right I guess, the tears still hadn''t fallen. "But, when you say things like that, it''s hard for me to think straight." He had no idea what he had just done to my heart with those words.


    "I will happily make your heart race and your mind go nk for the rest of time." I looked lovingly into his eyes as I said these words. "I love you Herzchen, and I will love you always. Never forget that, please."


    Shock, surprise, a hint of fear, and a dash of arousal, that is what I saw in Shawn''s eyes at that moment. He had not expected my words, or my intensity.


    There was just one thing that I wanted to do right then. There was only one thing that I could imagine with perfect rity. The memory of our kiss, the feel of his lips, the warmth of his mouth under mine, it wasing back to me with such vivid details. I couldn''t help myself. I couldn''t stop myself from leaning in closer to him, closing the gap between us. I simply could not resist the allure, the pull of his lips.


    I stopped trying to resist, I stopped trying to fight the urge and just gave in. With my hands on his face, one on each cheek, I held his gaze as well as his face. Like a ma his lips were drawing me in, closer and closer with every second.


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    Was Dietrich really professing his undying love for me? Was he really telling me that he wouldn''t want any other person for as long as he lived? I knew what I was feeling with this mate bond, but I didn''t know how much of it he was going through. I mean, he wasn''t a wolf, could he feel what I felt? I was starting to hope, or believe, that he just might be able to.


    Not only was he telling me how much he cared for me, how much he was already in love with me, but he was gazing into my eyes with such an intense and heated look that I couldn''t help but hope for something a little more.


    I didn''t have to wait, or even ask for it. Dietrich was holding onto my face, cradling my cheeks in his hands. His hands, which I had once thought would be cold, nearly burned as they held me, the heat between us was so intense.


    Those eyes, the pale, pale blue of Dietrich''s enchanting eyes, they were nearly hypnotic as they seemed to hold me in ce, happily spellbound.


    I can''t believe that I was hoping for this, waiting for this. I wanted him to kiss me, to press his lips to mine and show me what he had been talking about.


    One minute I was looking into Dietrich''s eyes, watching him and waiting, and the next I felt his lips press against mine. My eyes closed on a sigh of relief, for a moment I hadn''t been certain that he was going to kiss me.


    But this kiss. Oh it was so much better than thest one. I hadn''t been opposed to the first kiss, but it had taken me by surprise. But this kiss, this one I was hoping for, this one I was wanting.


    Dietrich''s lips were even hotter than his hands as they pressed against mine. When I had sighed in relief, that slight opening of my mouth left the perfect opportunity for Dietrich to slide his tongue into my mouth.


    Last time I had let him explore my mouth himself, I had let him do everything to make up for my surprise and inexperience, but this time, this time I wanted to kiss him back.


    I once again wrapped my arms around his waist as he leaned over me. In a fluid, and gentle, motion Dietrich leaned with me andid me down on the soft, plush nket. He took his hands from my face and braced them on the nket, his right arm down near my side and his left arm up next to my head, he was using this position to hold himself up and off of me.


    My hands, resting against the small of his back, gripped and pulled with a small amount of firm pressure. This tug brought him closer to me, so that he was pressing his body against mine.


    When our bodies were pressed against each other we both groaned in satisfaction. I never once in all my life thought I would be this happy with anyone pressed against me, let alone a man, but there was no reason for me to doubt it now, I was too far gone for it.


    I let my hands explore up and down his back, holding him tight. My left hand moved even higher to y in his hair, his soft, soft hair. My right hand, moving around the lower part of his body, moved slightly lower than his back, to grip the hard, toned curve of his backside.


    "You''re getting more and more used to me now, Liebling." Dietrich whispered against my lips after breaking the kiss.


    "Maybe I''m just not telling myself that I shouldn''t believe it anymore." I grinned against his lips. "I was never not interested, you know, mate bond and all."


    We continued exploring each other for a while longer. His lips running along my jawline and down to my neck. I felt the graze of his teeth, and his fangs, as he kissed and sucked along my neck.


    "Hah." I gasped and jumped with a slight jolt of surprise at the feeling.


    "Are you ok, meine liebe?" He asked me. I knew what his words meant, and he had said them so many times already, he was calling me his love.


    "Yes, it just tickled and surprised me for a moment."


    "Tickled? Hmmm." He hummed against my neck with his mouth opened and his lips pressed firmly at the ce where my pulse thudded, it sent shivers throughout my entire body. "I might like that you are a little bit ticklish. I might like it a bit too much." He purred and hummed again sending another jolt through me.


    "Ahhh." I cried out involuntarily. "Dietrich." I called his name on a shuddering cry.


    "Hmm, now that is something I can get used to." Heughed softly. "I want to make you call my name, to have you screaming it all through the night." I stiffened then, surprised by his words. "But you are not ready for that, my love, and I know that."


    "I''m sorry, Dietrich." I spoke with a voice full of repentance and sorrow.


    "No, Liebling, I am sorry. I don''t want you to feel pressured, we will move on when you are ready and not a moment sooner."


    "Dietrich?" I sighed his name, happy and sad at the same time.


    "I love you, Shawn."


    "Dietrich-." I said his name again but then he cut me off.


    "Shh, don''t feel the need to say it yet, say it when you are ready, Herzchen, only when you are ready."

 Chapter 263 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 9 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 263 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 9 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    Last night was, to say the least, very intense. I was still blushing every time I thought about the intense moments that we had shared. I can''t believe that we had done all of that, and out there in the woods on the mountain no less. I am just d that no one else was around to see us.


    Nothing much happened after Dietrich told me to wait to tell him that, I didn''t think I was ready for that yet either so I was d for hisforting words.


    But, honestly, how did I feel about him? I didn''t not like being around him. Being around him didn''t not make my heart race. I didn''t not like him. So, what was it I was really feeling about him?


    I would have to think about itter because I didn''t really have the time. Tonight was Reece''s bachelor party at Noah''s house and tomorrow is the wedding. And I was the only mated man there that had his mate with him. Wait, doesn''t that make it two mated men with their mates? Oh well, the important thing here was that Noah, David, and specifically Reece, didn''t have their mates with them.


    This party was kind of subdued though, since the guest of honor kept trying to call his mate every five minutes. Still, there was a lot ofughing, though some of it was at my expense.


    Dietrich had gone to go get another drink for me when he saw that mine was almost empty, something I told him he didn''t need to do. Shane took that time, in Dietrich''s brief absence, toe sidled up next to me with a grin on his face.


    "Hey ugly, I see things are going well with you and the mate. Congrats."


    "You know, Shane, calling me ugly is just the same as calling yourself ugly." I just rolled my eyes at him.


    "Nah, we have the same structure, but I hold myself different, you''re not up to my league."


    "I don''t think I want to sink to your level, it''s probably dirty, or infectious."


    "Nah, I''m always wrapped." Heughed at his own crude joke. "But still, man, I am d to see that it''s all working out."


    "Thanks." I turned just my head to look at him, causing my cor to slide down just a little.


    "What the fuck is that?" Shane was grinning like a madman at me as he pointed to my neck. I knew what he had seen, but I thought that I had hidden it better than that.


    Shane''s face morphed into his typical make fun of Shawn face. He was my brother and I love him, and I know he loves me too, but he lived up to the typical annoying brother cliche. I didn''t know if it was because I was older by a few minutes or if it was because I got more oxygen during utero, whatever the cause, I knew what he was about to do.


    "Oh my fucking Goddess, Shawn, is that a hickey?"


    I pped my hand over my neck and red at him, my face already ming hot and cherry red. I may have known it wasing, but that doesn''t mean it didn''t still affect me.


    "Shut up, you asshole." I growled at him quietly, trying to keep the others out of my business.


    "Is there a problem?" Dietrich asked as he came back from the bar with two cups in hand.


    "Nope, no problem at all." Shane grinned at him. "I just saw that you were practicing marking my brother."


    "What one does in private with their significant other is not something to make fun of them for." I snapped at my brother furiously.


    "Were you jealous, Shane? Were you wanting a mark as well? I am certain your mate will being soon enough and he will be more than happy to mark you if you''d like."


    "Wha-, n-no, I-I didn''t, I don''t , it''s not, I''m not, that''s not what I was meaning at all." Shane stuttered almost as bad as I do when I get flustered.


    I couldn''t help it, Iughed at Shane, just as much as he usuallyughed at me.


    "Don''t like it when the shoe is on the other foot do you now?" I asked him, grinning at him.


    "Shut up." Shane was blushing tomato red and trying to hide his face.


    "Come now, Shawn, let us go sit somewhere, I think I need to talk to Reece and offer him some advice. It seems you and that Vincent fellow are some of the only gentlemen that are left here."


    "Don''t lump me in with them." David yelled from across the room.


    "Or me." Jackson, the human FBI agent added.


    "Yeah, we''re nothing like those crude jerks." David wasughing.


    "I will happily take note of that, I am just d that being a gentleman hasn''tpletely gone out of fashion.


    After that, Dietrich wrapped his arm around my waist as he pulled me with him.


    I couldn''t help but think, as we sat together across from Reece, that I was taking a very non assertive approach to this rtionship of ours. I was a man too dammit, and an assertive one at that. I wouldn''t let him treat me like a woman, I was not that kind of man. Gay or not, I was not the submissive littledy type. I was going to act tougher and more manly around him than I had thus far. I wonder what he will think of that?


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    That bachelor party was fun, all things considered. I know it was rushed and there wasn''t much we could do with the main guest not wanting to go far or even be away from his fiance, but still, everyone had a good time. And Shawn was even able to get a slight amount of revenge on his brother during the night, which was wonderful for him.


    But now, it was time for the wedding. I had ordered a suit to match mine especially for Shawn to wear. He was a bit shocked when I showed up at his door that morning holding it and my own suit in hand.


    "D-Dietrich? What are you doing here?" He asked me with curious eyes.


    "I wanted to see you, Liebling." I leaned in and kissed his cheek, which instantly made him blush. "Haha, I''m only joking. Well, half joking, because I always want to see you, Herzchen. But I have something for you."


    "For me?" He tilted his head in confusion at my words.


    "Ja, something for you my love." I held out the two suits that were draped over my arm.


    "What''s this?" He wondered with his glorious gray eyes squinted.


    "I bought you a new suit, Liebling, I hope you don''t mind."


    "Really?" He finally looked happy that I was standing in front of him.


    "Nat¨¹rlich. Naturally I would want to spoil my man, why not start now."


    "That''s actually really awesome, Dietrich." He was smiling broadly now, oh the appeal he had when he was smiling so unguarded, he didn''t know about it but I saw it. "I only have a cheap suit I got a long time ago. I really don''t think it''s appropriate for today."


    "Then I am d that I bought this for you, meine Geliebte."


    Shawn stood aside then and allowed me to enter the apartment. The ce was just as immactely clean as always. I slung the two garment bags over the back of the chair in his living room when I was inside. Then I turned to look at the delicious piece of dessert that stood before me.


    I ced my hands on his waist and leaned forward to give his neck a quick kiss. After the kiss I buried my nose in the curve from neck to shoulder and inhaled deeply.


    "Mmmm, such an intoxicatingly delicious scent." I smiled against him as I said these words.


    "Y-y-yo-you know, y-you n-never did t-tell me what I-I s-sm-smell like to you."


    "I find that so cute, the way you stutter when you are nervous. But there is no reason to be nervous, my love, if you want to know I will tell you." I pulled away and looked into his blushing face and nervous eyes.


    "Well, it''s just that I told you what you smell like to me, but I don''t know what I smell like to you."


    "Yes, I remember, you said I smell like musk, leather, and cognac. That must be an interesting scent." Shawn blushed but nodded. "And to me, you smell like a bakery, vani, chocte, whipped cream, frosting, like a cake. You are my own personal dessert."


    "Really? Isn''t that a little girly?"


    "Remember, you will smell like what appeals to me the most, and I smell like what appeals to you. It doesn''t matter what it is, this scent is perfect for me, and so it is perfect for you. It also helps to prove just how sweet you really are, Geliebte."


    The shade of red he reached when he blushed then was so dark that I didn''t think it was humanly possible. Well, I guess it was inhumanly possible, his wolf must be blushing right along with him.


    "Should w-we get ready now?" He managed it with only a slight stutter even with how embarrassed he was.


    "Hmm, I think that will be nice. Shall we get dressed together?" I murmured the words right into his ear and I felt him stiffen. I knew he would, I knew it would startle him and so Iughed because I found it adorable. "I''m just joking, Liebling, I will change out here while you change in the bedroom."


    "O-oh, OK." He looked scared, but still disappointed. Hmm, would I be able to see him, all of him, sometime soon?


    Shawn disappeared into the bedroom and I unzipped my own bag. The suits were matching, pure ck with storm gray shirts and ice blue ties. The ent colors were to match our eyes, both of them. As I myself got dressed I had to wonder what Shawn would think if he knew that he was putting on a Fioravanti suit that was valued at over twenty thousand dors. He would probably faint on the spot. Oh well, I just wouldn''t tell him.


    Several minutester, after I was done getting dressed, I heard Shawn''s door open. Once again I turned to watch him as he came out of the room as if it was a reveal that I simply couldn''t miss.


    Shawn looked stunning, his unique appearance went well with the expensive suit and the color ents I had picked out. The Italian leather shoes I had thought to include in the bag were a perfect match as well. He was simply perfect, and I had to resist the urge to move to his side and start removing the suityer byyer.


    "What do you think? How does it look?"


    "Perfekt, meine Liebe." I grinned at him and didn''t bother with a trantion, that word was close enough to almost match without needing it. Shawn was grinning happily at my response.


    It was nearly time for us to go now so we were preparing to walk out the door and head to the car that I had purchased for use in The States. But there was one thing that I had just thought of.


    "Shawn, meine Liebe, will your parents be at the wedding?" Shawn gasped and jumped in surprise when I asked that.


    "Y-yes they will." He looked worried.


    "Are you worried they will not ept me?" I was starting to worry.


    "I-it''s not that, I just don''t know how to tell them."


    "Then we will tell them together." I grinned at him, taking his hand and walking down the stairs to the parking lot.

 Chapter 264 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 10 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 264 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 10 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    The whole ride to the Alpha and Luna''s estate from my apartment I was having a mini internal freakout. How had I forgotten that Mom and Dad were going to be at the wedding? How had I forgotten that they were going to meet my mate today? I had told them I had found a mate, but I had refused to give any details, so how was I going to tell them that their son was mated to a vampire?


    Dietrich was driving us to the estate and I was looking out the window. At least I wasn''t as embarrassed being in the car. Dietrich had gotten a Porsche, still expensive yes, but I had talked him out of buying the much more expensive Italian sports car. I would have just about died if I was seen with something that expensive. People would use me of going after money or something like that. I was d that Dietrich understood that I was not used to expensive things like that.


    We arrived too soon, much too soon for my nerves to have settled at all. I unbuckled and stepped from the car, Dietrich had tried to open my door for me a few times but I had put an end to that, I was not ady. Once we were out of the car and walking toward the ce the ceremony was being held, I thought my heart was going to explode.


    Why would it explode? Well, Dietrich had insisted on walking to the wedding either arm in arm or with his arm around my waist. Apparently, he was a very possessive vampire. I had settled for the arm in arm, it was a little less intimate but just as embarrassing. I just couldn''t stop my heart from pounding from anxiety, fear, excitement, you pick which one of the causes because I certainly can''t.


    Dietrich wrapped his arm around mine, grasping my hand in the process. He used this grip on me to pull me further and further into the venue. In no time at all, he had spotted my brother and made a beeline for him.


    "Shane, bruder, wie gehts?" Dietrich''s smooth voice asked him with no hesitation.


    "Huh?" Shane was confused by the question."


    "He asked how are you." I tranted without even thinking then gasped at having tranted it so easily.


    "Ja, Shawn meine Liebe, you tranted that just right." Dietrich was more happy about that than I had thought he would be.


    "Oh. I''m fine." The grin Shane was giving us made me nervous, I hoped he wouldn''t do anything here at the wedding.


    "Das gut, that''s good. I was hoping to meet your family today. Are they here?"


    "Yeah, they are, but they''re towards the back. Want me to take you to them?" I didn''t miss the grin on my brother''s face.


    "Ja, ja, if you would be so kind."


    "With pleasure." Were those devil horns growing out the top of Shane''s head? What was he going to do?


    I had known that Shane had talked to my parents about my mating more than I had, having had a lot more free timetely than I had. But what exactly had he said? Oh Goddess, this suspenseful walk was going to kill me.


    I was at a wedding, but I swear I heard a funeral march as I walked slowly toward my parents, dragging my feet to prolong the inevitable.


    Much too quickly we were right at my parent''s sides.


    "Hello Mr and Mrs Asher, it is lovely to finally meet you." Dietrich seemed to know who they were without even needing to be introduced. This was strange since no one ever pegged Shane and I as their kids, us having such different coloring and all. But apparently we had inherited a rare recessive family trait that goes back to an uncle several generations ago. No one ever knew what had happened to him.


    "Hello."


    "Pleased to meet you." My father''s response was clipped while my mother''s was a little more pleasant.


    "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dietrich Conrad, and I am your son Shawn''s mate."


    The look that was in my dad''s eyes, the surprise and shock it held told me volumes. Dad definitely did not look too thrilled.


    "And just who are you, might I ask?" Dad''s voice was a little on the rude side.


    "I am Dietrich as I said before, and I am the Vampire Emperor." That seemed to send a jolt of fear through both of my parents.


    "Vampire?"


    "Emperor?" Mom and dad''s respective responses were understandable and highly predictable.


    "That is correct. I am the leader to the vampires all over the world."


    "But, our son is a werewolf, not Vampire." My dad was in a state of shock so it was my mother who was speaking now.


    "Yes, I know that quite well." Dietrich''s smile had yet to falter, even with all that my parents had said or implied so far.


    "This is just a fling for you, isn''t it?" My dad finally found his voice. "Did you manipte our son into this?"


    "No Dad, he has not." I was starting to get angry. Can''t people just let me adjust and deal with this on my own?


    "But Shawn, you''ve never been with a man before." My mom pointed.


    "And I''ve never been with a woman before either." I shot at her pointedly.


    "Mom, Dad, we should be happy for Shawn. He has found his mate."


    "Is it a true mating? Really?" My dad looked shocked but willing to listen.


    "Yes, Dad, it is. My wolf howls for him."


    "And for you, Dietrich?" Dad red at him. "Is this just a game to you?"


    "Durchaus nicht, absolutely not. I am in love with your son, and I will spend the rest of my life proving that to anyone who doubts me."


    Both of my parents recoiled from the intensity of that statement. And I have to admit that I did too. Dietrich had said he loved me on multiple asions. He uses pet names in German that mean darling, my love, lover, and sweetheart. He was exceedingly sweet to me, there were just so many things that he was piling on to prove himself to me. So why was I still hesitating?


    "You care for our son so much?" My dad questioned once more.


    "That much and more. He means the world to me, and I will never do anything to hurt him."


    "As long as he is not a fling or a joke to you, then you have our blessing." My mom''s words sent a shock running through me.


    "That is all that I could have hoped for." Dietrich smiled brightly, bright enough to rival the sun itself.


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    Having finally met my Shawn''s family, his parents, that made me very happy. I was a bit more traditional at times and I wanted their blessings. Having gotten those blessings with no shouting or angry words made things just that much better.


    Shawn and I were able to enjoy the wedding after that. And I admit, I couldn''t help but picture our future wedding. Knowing my shy little Cupcake, he would probably want something small and intimate. That seemed perfect for me too, just the essentials there with us, that is all we need.


    The ceremony, and the personally written vows that Trinity and Reece had written for each other, they nearly brought tears to everyone''s eyes. This was a day that was truly filled with love, I could feel it myself and I knew that Shawn could as well.


    During the time that the other envoys were introducing themselves to the Luna there were a couple more matings. Shane had found a feline shifter mate, and Cedar, Trinity''s friend, had found a Fae mate. It did break my heart a little to see that the leader of the fae envoy, Breon, was so opposed to the union of a Fae and a Wolf. Gloriana, their Queen, had been more progressive thest several decades. She would most likely wee this mating with open arms. I am d that I stood up to say something on their behalf.


    What really took the entire wedding by storm though, was the revtion that Trinity was the next incarnation of the Goddess Nehalennia. That actually didn''t surprise me much, with all that I had seen from the young Luna, it only made sense to me really.


    What was unsettling though, was the appearance of the Sentinelle themselves. I had only heard of them before, never had I expected to see them in person. This was bound to get more interesting. I was even more d that I hade here. Especially with a meeting between the Sentinelle and a meeting with the Warlocksing up, it was bound to reveal a lot of information, and I was determined to help this pack, these people. I have been tied to them since before any of them were born, so why abandon them now?

 Chapter 265 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 11 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 265 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 11 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    After the meeting with the Sentinelle and the Warlocks things started to move pretty quickly. It was suddenly settled that we were going to go to the Aerie Convento, the headquarters of the Warlocks to talk with their leader.


    There was a strategy meeting before we were to leave, and during that meeting the Luna stood and addressed us all. It seemed like she was just trying to encourage us and give us confidence while simultaneously telling us what we all meant to her.


    She had told me I affected those around me, that by just being around me was enough to move people. And as for Dietrich, she said it was like he knew what was going to happen before it did and that he could bend people to his will.


    Never, in a million years, did I imagine that these words would take the form of powers and magic. But after a bright sh of light we heard a voice tell us that we had been granted abilities.


    Trinity exined to us what all our abilities were, but it was up to us to figure them out.


    After the meeting I went with Dietrich to his room. We needed to wrap our heads around what had just happened and figure all of this out before we left for the Aerie Convento. I didn''t pay attention to or tell Dietrich to stop when he put his arm around my waist while we walked.


    I was still dazed and lost in thought when we entered his room. Unconsciously I followed him to his couch and even sat next to him, still not at all aware of what I was doing. It wasn''t until Dietrich stroked the side of my face and spoke directly to me that I was pulled out of my thoughts.


    "Was ist falsch? What is wrong, Liebling?" His voice was holding a note of worry as he cupped my cheek.


    "Nichts, Herzchen, Nichts." I answered him in the German that I had been practicing.


    "I don''t believe that it is nothing, my love. Please tell me what is bothering you so." His eyes, so pleading, were looking at me with concern.


    "I just don''t know what to think about this new power, and all that goes with it. We are marked now, part of the Luna Queen''s guard. What does that mean for us?"


    "Did you n not to be a guard?" He wondered, looking surprised.


    "No, I love being a guard and it is all that I want, but what if I am not good enough to be the guard of a Goddess Incarnate?"


    "Shawn, mein s¨¹?er, if you were not up to it my sweet, then you would not have been chosen, none of us would have been. You are worthy of your position, what youck is confidence in yourself." He looked at me lovingly, and with a kind and gentle warmth.


    "Dietrich, Liebling." I put my hand on his, the one that was cradling my cheek, and caressed it gently. "I love you."


    I instantly felt the embarrassment flood me when I said those words. I felt the urge to p my hands over my mouth while my eyes popped wide open in fear and embarrassment. But I also knew that it was stupid of me to worry about that. Dietrich had told me he loved me on more than one asion. And even now, his face was radiating a light that told me how happy he was.


    Dietrich''s eyes were bright, shining like a star in the dead of night. The smile on his face would have won him a ce on any magazine cover in the world. And the love and happiness radiating off him was enough to make my heart flutter. Sometimes I still couldn''t believe that he was mine.


    I let the embarrassment fade from me, taking the heat from my face as it dissipated. I was done being so shy around him. I realized now, I really did love him, there was no reason for me to hide it at all.


    "Meinst du das, Geliebte? Do you really mean it?"


    "Yes, Dietrich, I really do. I shouldn''t have made you wait so long for it." I was returning his smile wholeheartedly.


    "Oh Shawn, das macht mich so gl¨¹cklich, that makes me so happy."


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    I could tell that Shawn was in a daze since the meeting, that was why I had pulled him along to my room. I led him over to the couch as sat him down, and he still didn''t seem to know what was going on.


    I had to put my hand on his face, stroking then cupping his cheek, just to get him to respond to me.


    "Was ist falsch? What is wrong, Liebling?" I could hear the worry thickening my voice but there was no way for me to shed that worry, my mate seemed to be hurting.


    "Nichts, Herzchen, Nichts." He had been practicing, and hearing him answer me so smoothly in German made me happy, but that happiness was dampened by the fact that he was trying to tell me that nothing was wrong.


    "I don''t believe that it is nothing, my love. Please tell me what is bothering you so." I was pleading with him, begging him really, to talk with me to tell me what was wrong.


    "I just don''t know what to think about this new power, and all that goes with it. We are marked now, part of the Luna Queen''s guard. What does that mean for us?"


    "Did you n not to be a guard?" This shocked me, I thought that he wanted to continue along the path he had taken, he had seemed so happy about it.


    "No, I love being a guard and it is all that I want, but what if I am not good enough to be the guard of a Goddess Incarnate?"


    "Shawn, mein s¨¹?er, if you were not up to it my sweet, then you would not have been chosen, none of us would have been. You are worthy of your position, what youck is confidence in yourself." I put as much love and affection for him as I could into those words, I wanted him to know that no matter what happened, I was there for him.


    "Dietrich, Liebling." Shawn put his hand against mine, cradling it as I cradled his face. "I love you."


    I saw his face turn red with embarrassment at the same time that my heart melted into a puddle and proceeded to trickle throughout my entire body. I also felt like my heart was swelling, filling with air so much that I was going to take flight at any moment. There just weren''t enough metaphors and hyperbole to exin just how happy I was at hearing those three little words from the man that was sitting in front of me.


    "Meinst du das, Geliebte? Do you really mean it?" I had to know if he said it for my benefit or his.


    "Yes, Dietrich, I really do. I shouldn''t have made you wait so long for it." He was smiling at me now, showing me a level of sincerity and love that I had been longing to see.


    "Oh Shawn, das macht mich so gl¨¹cklich, that makes me so happy."


    On impulse, I leaned into him, happiness bringing us together. I pressed my lips to his for a gentle and chaste kiss. Shawn''s hands came up then and cupped my face, my right hand was still cupping his so I ced the other on his waist as we kissed each other, he was returning the kiss, my passion, everything.


    Shawn had been gradually getting more and more used to the kisses between us, and this time was proving to be just like the previous times. Shawn took advantage of my parted lips this time, slipping his tongue into my mouth and taking the lead.


    I had started the kiss, like always, but Shawn was taking control of it. He pushed me, a little roughly, against the arm of the couch. That''s fine, he was still inexperienced and learning it all. With his arms braced on the cushions of the couch to prop him up Shawn explored the inside of my mouth with his tongue. He was truly getting much better at this.


    After several minutes Shawn pulled back, breaking the kiss. There was heat, arousal, and fear in his eyes. He still wasn''t certain of these things, but he was getting there.


    "I''m sorry." He looked away from me.


    "Don''t be, there was nothing wrong with what you did. I quite enjoyed myself." I grinned at him causing his blush to deepen slightly. "That was amazing Shawn."


    "You''re not mad that I took control?" He asked me sheepishly.


    "Not at all, it was hot, and exciting." I grinned at him.


    "I was worried about how you would react, since you always seem to take the lead."


    "We can take turns in that respect." I grinned and winked at him. "Besides, I want you as you Shawn, no matter how that might be." He smiled at me with a surprised and excited look. "Though, I would like it if you initiated a kiss sometime soon." I grinned at him.


    "I-I, w-we-well, I will, that''s on my, I''ll try, soon." His flustered stuttering was adorable, so much so that I couldn''t help but lean in and kiss his cheek.


    "I will be eagerly waiting for that day." I grinned at him with happiness and arousal.

 Chapter 266 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 12 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 266 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 12 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    The next few days passed in a blur of battles and nerves. When we got to the Aerie Convento we were all forced to prove ourselves, and our powers, to the Warlocks. But what was unsettling the most, was that we could all finally smell the Warlocks. They all had a citrusy undertone to their scents. This was new, but at least helpful.


    Once we had managed to prove ourselves to the Warlocks and finally get invited inside, we were all almost immediately attacked by some sort of hideous creatures sent by Edmond, that crazy bastard. His monsters had fought hard, and there were a lot of them. We were nearly overwhelmed, but thankfully we managed to destroy them with no casualties. Well, I won''t say none, Trinity, our beautiful young Luna lost the baby she was carrying. That was going to be a blow not just to her and her family, not just to Reece and his family either, it was a loss that was going to be felt by the entire pack. This child, this lost little one, was meant to grow up and take over the pack, to lead us all, and now they were lost to us all.


    All the talk of babies and marriagetely, it had me thinking about all that I was giving up by being mated to Dietrich. I wouldn''t change it, that''s for sure. But I would never have a child that is mine, a child to carry on my part of the bloodline. I would never have a wedding, or a marriage for that matter. Dietrich and I would only ever be together until I passed on.


    And then there were the things that Dietrich would be giving up on as well. He had been with so many people, men and women, was he really willing to give it all up to be with me? He said he was. He said he was willing to do anything for me, but did that also mean he was willing to leave his empire, his castle, in Germany and move to Colorado just for me?


    I didn''t know why I was still doubting him, he had been trying to prove all of this to me so muchtely. Perhaps it was just the fragility of life that had been so prominently disyed for us all to see recently. Life was not permanent and any of us could die at any moment with these fights we were going to face.


    After the fight at the Aerie Convento we all went to a Resort Hotel to recoup and clean up. But for some reason, Dietrich and I were put into the same room. I know it was because everyone already assumed we were sleeping together. What would they say if they knew that Dietrich and I hadn''t done more than make out a few times. Intense as those kisses were it wasn''t anythingpared to sleeping with each other.


    When we walked into therge,fortable looking suite, I gulped in fear. I looked around the bright mix of modern and rustic and thought about how nice it would be if I didn''t have my heart thudding uncontrobly in my throat.


    "Sei nicht nerv?s, don''t be nervous, my love." Dietrich came over to me and draped his arms over my shoulders, having to stand on his toes to perform the action. "I won''t bite." He chuckled. "There are two bedrooms."


    "D-Dietrich." I turned in his arms to look at him. "I want to get used to you more. I might not be ready yet, but we can share a bed with nothing happening, right?" I didn''t know where the question came from, why I was asking it, or what I had hoped he would say.


    "Bestimmt, my love, definitely. We can most definitely share a bed and have nothing happen if that is what you want." I nodded my head at his words even before I spoke.


    "It is, that is what I want."


    "Then that is what we will do." He kissed my nose then and smiled. His actions and his words both made me smile.


    And that is how we ended up sleeping in the same bed for the first time. Though, I do wish I had known that Dietrich would only be sleeping in his boxers during that entire time. I had worn a t-shirt and lounge pants so that I was covered, even though usually I would forgo the shirt, or even have done what Dietrich did. But I wasn''t confident enough for that yet.


    I don''t even know why, my body was nice, if I do say so myself. It was well toned and lightly tanned, definitely the body of a man who did physicalbat training almost every day.


    But still, it was a stressful night, especially after you added in the fact that Dietrich was a cuddler and I felt his entire body pressed up against my back for the entire night. I probably didn''t get as much sleep that night as I should have, nervous as I was when I realized I could feel his bulge pressed right at my ass. I think it''s a bit difficult to sleep while you''re simultaneously trying to calm your nerves and not get an erection at the same time.


    Still, we managed to get some sleep and start on the road to the location of the missing kids and the next fight.


    All hell broke loose when we got into that basement, which seemed to have gone at least a hundred feet under the ground. There were people down there waiting for us, and even though we seemed to have the upper hand at first there were just so many of those beasts.


    Trinity managed to find the kids and secure them, leaving guard to protect them in the room while the rest went back to the main hall to assist the others. Trinity''s new Warlock Queen powers wereing in handy as she was taking out those beasts pretty easily. And she even seemed to be able to shift into other animals as well, giving her even more power.


    After a while, three new, very strong Warlocks arrived. They came out of seemingly nowhere and were ready for a fight.


    "Guess it''s time for a boss fight." Shaneughed as he turned toward the three warlocks that had just burst into the room. "Let''s take care of them right away." He was stillughing, ready to fight whoever he needed to, but he didn''t sense the danger he was in as it looked like the female Warlock in the group aimed her hand at him.


    "Shane no!" Trinity yelled at him, trying to stop his eager advance.


    "NO!" I screamed, fear and anguish washing over me as I just knew that my brother was going to be lost to me forever.


    The woman sted a shining ck ball of magic at Shane, just as he was about to attack her. However, instead of hitting my stupid, arrogant brother, he was knocked out of the way at thest second by Dietrich who had shadow walked as quickly as he could and pushed him out of the ball''s path. Unfortunately the ball hit Dietrich, smashing into him instead of Shane.


    "Dietrich!" I was screaming again, the second time in the matter of seconds. I felt my heart twist and ache with pain as I saw Dietrich''s body twist and spin awkwardly to the stone floor. My heart both stopped and started racing at triple speed. Oh Goddess, was he going to be ok? Is he still alive? What happened to him? Those questions were racing through my mind while I ran to his side and pulled him out of the way of the fight and to the back of the hall.


    Once I had made sure that my mate was safe I rejoined the fight, going after that woman who had hurt Dietrich and tried to hurt my brother.


    I had levitated several bits of debris from the room and was making them fly at top speed toward that Witch who had wanted to destroy my family by taking my brother or my mate from me. She was going to pay.


    The Witch was dodging and using magic to deflect my attacks while trying to send more magic balls flying at me. Well two could y at that game bitch. I used my telekinesis to stop the magic balls, about a dozen of them in total, and sent them all flying back at her at a higher rate of speed. She was not prepared for that and had been taken by surprise when her attacks had been rebounded back to her.


    The dozen or so magic orbs hit the woman all in the chest. Thebined intensity of that magic hitting her all at oncebined with the sharp piece of debris I was still sending her way, which weren''t being deflected now, thebination of it proved to be fatal for her. The magic all seemed to have gone straight for her heart. Unable to handle that much of a st, her chest exploded, the gore of which nearly made it all the way to me, but the bits of blood, flesh, and other unmentionables, all seemed to fall short by just mere inches.


    As soon as the Witch''s corpse fell to the floor I heard someone''s voice break into the hate filled fog that had been filling my brain.


    "Is it over?" Shane asked apprehensively.


    "I think so." Trinity told him.


    "Stay on guard." Reece ordered. "We must stay vignt in case someone else shows up."


    "Agreed." Noah added. Noah and Reece had just shifted back to their human forms.


    "Noah, that''s not a sight I want to see. Can someone please either get robes for us all, or go get clothes from the caravan for us." Trinity seemed embarrassed.


    "As you wish my queen." I heard Gabriel''s voice answer her request.


    "Someone keep the kids in the room, we''re not in any state for them to see us. And Gabriel, ask for Griffin and Juniper toe back with you." Trinity added.


    "Yes, mdy." Gabriel nodded and left the basement.


    I had only heard part of that conversation as I was lost in my fog of anger and hatred during most of it. But as soon as I was back to my senses I remembered why I was angry to begin with. I ran as fast as I could then, like there were mes chasing me at my heels. I was running as fast as I could to my mate''s side.


    "Dietrich?" I yelled as I was running. "Dietrich?" I yelled again as I skidded to a halt at his side. As soon as I came to a stop next to him I heard Dietrich moan in pain as he put a hand to his head and went to sit up gingerly, as if in great pain.


    "Shawn." Dietrich said my name softly, tenderly. His voice and eyes were both so full of love as he looked at me.


    "Liebling." I nearly cried as I said that one word.


    Completely devoid of rational thought or inhibitions at the moment I did the only thing I could think of doing. I threw my arms around Dietrich''s neck and pressed my lips to his. I had intended the kiss to be chaste, sweet, romantic, full of love and concern, but Dietrich had other ns. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me into him, deepening the kiss and turning it into something less innocent, far from chaste.


    I don''t know how far we would have gone if it wasn''t for Reece clearing his throat, breaking the silence and interrupting us.


    "I''m d you seem to be ok, Dietrich. How are you feeling?" Trinity asked Dietrich, a look of worry filling her eyes.


    "Ja, ja, I will be fine, thanks to the lovely medicine." He grinned and looked at me out of the corner of his eye. I just blushed crimson while everyone looked at us with joy filled eyes.

 Chapter 267 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 13 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 267 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 13 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    We were in the back of one of the SUVs on the way back to Colorado Springs and Trinity and Reece''s estate. There were quite a few more people with us than when we had left with but the drive was still smooth andfortable.


    I was sitting in the third row of seats alone with Shawn, Shane was in the second row alone and he was currently turned around in his seat to face us.


    "Why did you do it, Dietrich? Why did you push me out of the way?" Shane was looking at me with anger filled eyes. "If you could have seen the fear, the pain in my brother''s eyes when he saw that you were hurt. Why would you do that to him?


    "Shane, bruder, did you not hear your brother scream for you when he thought you were going to be hurt. Did you not notice the pain and anguish he felt. I could not let you be hurt any more than I could let Shawn be hurt. You are brothers, twins, you might bicker and fight but you love each other and are closer than most others."


    "That''s sweet and all, but what would have happened if you would have died? What would Shawn have done?" Shane was angry at me on Shawn''s behalf.


    "I would be willing to sacrifice myself for Shawn at any time, but I was not worried about myself. I am a vampire after all, and I am therefore made of stouter stuff."


    "Are you saying that you are stronger than Shane?" My mate asked me when he heard what I had to say.


    "Not stronger in that sense, but I am technically considered undead by most people. I do have a heart beating in my chest, but I did technically die momentarily when I became a vampire. My human self died that day, over five hundred years ago now. There is no human part of me left. But for you, wolves are more closely rted to humans than vampires are. There was no death involved in your creation, so your lifeforce is a little more fragile than that of my own." Based on his shocked eyes, Shawn had not been expecting my answer to that question.


    "But still, why would you risk it? Why would you chance that you could have died and left my brother all alone?" Shane was still filled with disbelief.


    "If I hadn''t, then not only would your brother have had to mourn your death, then your parents and your new mate would have as well. Your life is worth far more to other people than mine own. You have your pack, your friends and family, so many people who would miss you so much if you would have died, bruder." I simply did not know why he wasn''t understanding this.


    "Like we wouldn''t miss you too." Shane yelled at me, anger filling him. "You''re my brother''s mate, that makes you as good as my brother too, that makes you as good as my parent''s third son, you''ve be part of our pack, you are indispensable. Yet, you sit here and act like no one would miss you at all had you died."


    My heart sank and my face fell. What he was saying, these words, they were things I had been hoping for, praying for, over thest five centuries. Had I finally found a new family? Not just a new mate but a full on family? I wonder.


    "Look, I understand that you thought you could handle the st better than I could, and that you''ve lived so long or whatever so you probably have that ''you''ve got so much of your life ahead of you'' speech prepped and ready to give me, but that''s all just bullshit because if my brother would have lost you, if he would have had to live his life with no mate for the rest of time then I would have brought your ass back to life just so I could fucking kick it. We''re warriors, you got that? That means that Shawn and I went into this knowing that any day could literally be ourst. But you''re not a warrior, you don''t have to put your life on the line like we do. If you do that again I will ground your ass and make you stay at home and safe sound for Shawn toe home to and take care of."


    Shane was breathing hard after he had yelled at me, he seemed to have put a lot of feeling into that outburst of his.


    "I am truly sorry Shane, I never thought I would be missed by so many if I was not here. I know Shawn would mourn me, but I was not aware that there were others. You are right. But that is another reason why I had to take the st, we both needed to live so that no one was left hurting."


    "I think that was some genuine heartache I saw on my brother''s face. He was hurt, and so was Trinity. They were both worried about you."


    "I can''t apologize for actually doing what I did, but I will for not having thought it all the way through. I would do it again though, knowing that I was able to survive and not knowing if you would be able to say the same. I do not want my mate''s family to be so torn by the loss of one of their sons."


    "You''re not going to change your opinion on this are you?" Shane looked mad still.


    "Drop it Shane, you''re both alive and that is all that I could ask for. I didn''t lose my brother or my boyfriend. Isn''t that the best possible oue?"


    I snapped my head to the side to look at Shawn, just barely catching the shock filled eyes of Shane as he too gaped at his brother. Shawn had called me his boyfriend, not just his mate but his boyfriend. Was this true progress? I could only hope that it was.


    "Fine, I guess you''re right." Shane''s anger finally deted as he looked down at the back of the seat he was leaning against. "Just remember Dietrich, if you go and die on my brother, breaking his heart in any way, I will kill you, even if I have to resurrect your sorry ass first."


    With that Shane turned around and faced the front of the vehicle for the rest of the drive.


    When we got back to the estate and were trying to figure out where everyone was going to be staying for the time being, I knew what it was I wanted. I walked to Shawn''s side and put an arm around his shoulders.


    "Will you stay with me tonight, Liebling? I promise, it will be just as innocent as it was thest time. I just don''t want to go the entire night without you." Shawn looked at me with surprised eyes but he nodded his head almost immediately.


    After that we walked hand in hand back to my room. There was a brief, peck of a kiss when we got inside. I took my shower first while he waited in the room. He had insisted, saying that I was the one who had been injured during the fight. I didn''t want to argue so I just took the first shower, letting the hot water rx my tense body.


    After that Shawn took his shower, a tense time for me while I imagined his naked body so close yet so far away from me.


    Once again, I was wearing nothing more than my boxers as I went toy in the bed, and I was shocked to see that Shawn was wearing the same thing.


    "I didn''t bring my bag." He said sheepishly as he climbed into the bed. He didn''t know how happy and excited this was making me. I was going to have an even bigger fight for self control than I did thest time we slept like this.


    We spooned once again, this time Shawn was the big spoon as he wrapped himself around me, holding on for dear life like he wanted to make sure that I didn''t disappear in the middle of the night. I think he would have asked to sleep with me if I hadn''t asked him first. This night, as filled with pain as it was during the battle, it ended with nothing less than heart swelling joy and love. I love Shawn more than life itself, more than anything in the entire world, and I could clearly see the love for me that Shawn was finally showing.


    "I love you." Shawn''s voice whispered quietly into my ear as he drifted off to sleep.


    "I love you too, Liebe. G?ttin, ich liebe dich so sehr Shawn." I whispered back as I heard his rhythmic breathing begin. He was already asleep, exhausted on all levels, physically, mentally, and emotionally. I wanted to make his weariness go away, I wanted to protect him for all time. And I wanted to make him all mine, truly all mine.

 Chapter 268 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 14 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 268 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 14 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    That going away party, that gathering of families that the Alpha and Luna nned for us all, that night had so many more surprises for us than I had expected. I had thought that I was going to give up on marriage and all that.


    I never thought any of that was part of my future anymore, but then Dietrich went and told my parents that he was looking for a ce for us to live. He told them that he was willing to move all the way here so that I could continue to be around my family, my friends, and my pack. Dietrich truly was an amazing mate. He put me above anyone and anything and was always so caring and sweet.


    What was I going to do with him? When he went and confirmed what my brother had said about adopting or having a surrogate he just about made my heart melt. I didn''t really expect for him to say all that, I didn''t really think he would be that open about it all in front of everyone else.


    My heart swelled and my love for him grew so much that day. So much so that I almost felt like tears were going to start streaming down my cheeks.


    Following the farewell party things were set to move pretty fast. We left very early the next morning, I had slept in the same room as Dietrich again, but once again nothing at all happened. My nerves were slowly abating, and I was starting to get a little excited when I slept with him. I was kind of looking forward to what was going to happen when we did finally take that next step.


    The whirlwind of the morning finally settled when we were all seated on Reece''s newest private ne. He had needed to buy another one when there were so many of us that needed to travel.


    Dietrich and I were seated with each other, sitting with our heads together and talking.


    "So you have no preference on the style?" Dietrich''s deep voice spoke right into my ear as he leaned in toward me. There was a pad of paper on the foldout table in front of him.


    "I don''t really know, I''ve never really thought about it. But it''s your ce, you should design it yourself."


    "Nein, Herzchen, it is our ce. We need to make these decisions together." Dietrich seemed very insistent on this fact.


    "Mein Liebhaber, I have a ce. I have my apartment." I tried, once again, to make this point.


    "For now you do, my love. But will we not move in together at some point? Will we not be together eventually? I want to build a home where we can share our lives together. Zusammen."


    "Oh Dietrich, what am I going to do with you?" I smiled as I ced my head in my hands, shaking it from side to side. "How is it you are already thinking about this?"


    "How are you not, Geliebte? It is only natural, is it not? We will eventually share our lives together, where we live, how we live, those are things that I cannot stop thinking about. I want to make sure that your life is special for the rest of time. That is my right as well as my responsibility. So please Liebling, help me to settle on what we shall have in our home."


    "You''re incorrigible, you know that?" I grinned at him as I raised my head to see his smiling face.


    "Yes, but you love me still, do you not?" He leaned in even closer, suggestively.


    "For some reason that is beyond me I do, I really truly do love you." I leaned in the rest of the way and kissed him quickly on the lips. "Fine, let''s figure out this grand n of yours. But please do keep it under control a little, will you?"


    "I make no promises, my love. I am used to a castle after all, and this will be the new castle to show my love for you. Not to mention we will either have surrogated children or adopted children, so we need to make sure we?think of them too, Herzchen."


    "I swear, you''ll use any excuse to make things into the biggest productions." I flopped my head back against the headrest, closing my eyes to block his handsome face from view. He was radiating so much happiness that I couldn''t quite handle it.


    We spent the rest of the flight designing our home that we were going to move into someday. Who knew when that someday would be, or under what circumstances, but it was actually kind of nice to think about it. I didn''t think it would be that good of a thing to think about.


    Though, the problem ended up being that I couldn''t rein in Dietrich. He was adding extra unnecessary rooms to the house, if I didn''t stop him it would be as big or bigger than the Alpha and Luna''s Estate. I didn''t think I could wrap my head around just how much money Dietrich had. And no matter how much he told me to think it, I couldn''tprehend that his money was also my money. That just didn''t make sense to me. Though, regardless of that fact, he was my mate, these ns were for our future home together, and we were going to spend the rest of our lives, or at least my life, together. I was really starting to look forward to it all.


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    Why was mein Cupcake so against me spending my money for him? Why could he not let me spoil him so. I wanted to buy anything and everything. I wanted to show him not just tell him how much I love him. But he would not let me. He always tried to stop my spoiling of him.


    But I would not let him ruin the house of my dreams that I saw the two of us in. I would not let him ruin that vision of mine. He just was not used to the money yet. He was not used to being with someone so wealthy. And no matter how much I tried to convince him of the fact, he refused to believe that my money was already his.


    Shawn, mein Kuchen, my little Cupcake, he was going toe around eventually. I just needed to spoil him some more until he gotfortable with the idea. Maybe being away on this expedition of ours would help a little.


    Yes, this trip was for training too, but that does not mean that we were not allowed to have a little fun while we are there? I will show my Shawn just what he means to me. I would find a way for the two of us to be intimate in so many different ways while we were here.


    Oh, and how happy I was when we arrived and we were to share a room once again. My Geliebte, my lover, my Shawn, was getting more and morefortable with the idea of us being together. Maybe, someday soon, we could move to another stage of our rtionship.


    The first few days in France were busy, and a little irritating. There were those two disloyal wolves among the Sentinelle that Trinity needed to deal with. She had asked me for my advice when we were all brainstorming on what to do about them. She needed to make an example out of them if she was going to rule the shifters.


    I admit that I have had to punish my fair share of rule breakers in the past. The punishment must fit the crime, but you cannot allow people to walk all over you or you will lose the respect of those that which you wish to lead. A firm yet understanding hand is what is needed in this situation.


    All things considered, I really do think that our young Queen made the best decision possible. She chose what to do after asking advice and was able toe up with the perfect solution. She will be a wonderful leader for her people, given the time to grow and learn.


    But aside from the young Luna Queen, my focus was on training with my mate. But, oh was it hard. I saw his body moving and flexing in different ways day in and day out. He was sexy, and toned, there was no doubt about it, I was almost at my limit of self control. A man can only take so much after all. And I was beginning to think that the time was just about right.


    What will my Geliebte, my lover, have to say when I asked him if he was ready? Hmmm, the excitement, the emotions that were running high after the punishment, oh it was a feeling we could not ignore. I sensed that he felt the excitement just as much as I did.


    I wonder, just what am I going to do with all this pent up excitement? Did I have enough time to prepare a date for my mate? Well, let''s see what I can manage.

 Chapter 269 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 15 (BL) ((MATURE))

    <h4>Chapter 269 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 15 (BL) ((MATURE))</h4>


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    I realized quickly there wasn''t much I could do to make tonight special for my mate. We had already eaten dinner and we were in the middle of a remote abbey in France. Also, it wasn''t a very good idea for us to go outside of the vige right now. So, that left me with trying to figure something out while he was in the shower.


    I had decided to take my shower first, and that was after I had contacted the kitchen to request a few things. The delivery of which came not two minutes after Shawn disappeared into the bathroom.


    I had requested a bowl of fresh whipped cream, given that they wouldn''t have any store bought here, a bottle of wine, and some cheese. It seemed a little odd to have thatbo, but only two were meant to be eaten, the other was for ying.


    I quickly ced and lit the candles around the room, setting the atmosphere for the mood I was hoping to create. I pulled the covers of the bed back, giving better ess to itsfortable center.


    I wanted to make it clear to Shawn that I wanted us to take that next step, I felt like he was ready and it was time for us.


    When Shawn came back into the room, a towel still in his hand to dry his hair and a pair of dark gray lounge pants covering him from the waist down. This was actually only the second time I had seen him with his chest bare since that first time at his apartment. Thest time was after we rescued the kids and he slept with me in my room.


    "What''s this?" Shawn asked me with an eyebrow upturned and a look of surprise on his face.


    "I was a little keyed up following tonight''s punishment. That excitement had no outlet. So I thought I would create us a little date for tonight." I was grinning at him as I sat in the chair near the firece, which I had just finished preparing with a small, low burning fire. To be fair the look of surprise and the upturned eyebrow might have been caused by my appearance. I was sitting there in the chair with only a pair of boxers on. But that''s how I always slept so it shouldn''t have been that surprising.


    "A date?" He smirked at me. "What kind of date?" He didn''t look put off or upset about the whole thing.


    "One where we can appreciate each other." He had been doing so good sinceing into the room, but at that, Shawn''s face zed cherry red.


    "R-really?" He stuttered as he set aside the towel and walked closer to me, a little apprehensive but still willingly.


    "Are you OK with that, Liebling?" I could hear the hope in my voice as I stood to meet him where he stood.


    "Y-yeah, I think I am." We were toe to toe now, close enough to touch.


    "Are you sure, Geliebte?" I wanted to make sure that I was not forcing something on him.


    "Oh shut up." He said softly with a subtle smile as he put his hands on my arms, just below my elbows.


    Shawn used that hold on my arms to pull me toward him. And even though I could see how embarrassed he was, his face a bright shade of crimson red, he still looked happy, content, and aroused.


    One second my mate, the man I loved, was pulling me toward him with a smile on his face, the next moment I felt his lips on mine. Shawn had been initiating these a lot more recently since the day I had been injured, but they had never been like this.


    This kiss, it was just as heated and fierce as the time he had taken over the kiss I was giving him. It felt hungry and needy.


    With a groan of satisfaction I put my hands on his hips and held him even closer to me. I could feel his body pressing against mine, the heat of it nearly burning me while his tongue tangled with mine.


    After a minute Shawn broke the kiss, panting slightly as his eyes visibly darkened to a deeper shade of gray.


    "I love you, Herzchen." I whispered as I ced a slight kiss on his cheek.


    "G-good, because that k-kiss was j-ju-just the b-be-beginning." He stuttered so sweetly when he was nervous.


    "Oh you have no idea how happy that makes me." I purred as I stroked his cheek. "Shall we have some of the wine and get this date started?" I smiled suggestively.


    "Why? Let''s get right to the good stuff." He grinned right back at me as I jumped slightly in the shock of what he had said. "I know where this is going, Dietrich, and I am ready. I have not been able to find the right way to tell you yet, but I have been wanting to, ever since we got? here." He was blushing again, this time it was a tomato red.


    "Are you sure?" Onest time to be sure, I had to know that he truly wanted this.


    "Yes, Dietrich, I am sure."


    I slid my hand up his arm, along his soft yet toned flesh. I moved up the swell of his bicep to his shoulder and around to the back of his head. I moved slow, luxuriating in the feel of his supple skin.


    With my grip on the back of his head I pulled his mouth back to mine.


    "I love you." I whispered against his lips before I ran my tongue along his bottom lip. When he shuddered and gasped slightly I slipped my tongue into his mouth, kissing him fiercely and with a burning intensity that I had been holding back for so long.


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    I had been trying to find a way to hint to Dietrich, to tell him that I wasn''t scared or nervous anymore. I wanted to take the next step, but I didn''t know how to say it. Well, it turns out that I didn''t need to tell him. He was eager to take that leap. He had reached his limit just like I was quickly getting there.


    Was I surprised to see him sitting there suggestively in the chair next to the fire with candles lit around the room and wine on the table? Yeah, a little. But I was also excited. I had intentionallye out of the bathroom with no shirt on because I had been feeling that rush of excitement just like Dietrich had.


    It might seem a little rushed now that we were actually getting down to it, but I think it fits us perfectly. Our whole rtionship started in a rush so why stop rushing things now.


    I had initiated the first kiss, but now Dietrich was taking the lead. I didn''t know how I felt about that. This was all new to me, but I didn''t exactly know how to give or receive in this type of situation. And I had a feeling that Dietrich was a little pent up. So, I guess it was best to let him take the lead this time. I could always learn from his lead.


    With Dietrich''s hot, soft lips pressed to mine, his tongue exploring my mouth, and his hand on the back of my neck, I just let him take over and guide me. The first ce he guided me to was the bed. Slowly, Dietrich took steps forward, backing me up until my legs bumped into the softness of the mattress.


    Having no more room to move forward, Dietrich broke the kiss and looked at me with eyes that were more full of desire and arousal than I had ever seen him with before. He was definitely in need here.


    With a grin and a slight push on my chest, Dietrich forced me back onto the bed. I didn''t fight it at all, I just let myself fall backwards. Inded with my hands syed out on the mattress, holding me in an upright position as Dietrich climbed up on top of myp.


    "Come, Kuchen, let''s get you into a better position." His voice was low, his tone seductive, and erotic as it sent chills through me.


    "And what might that be?" I asked him with a mixture of excitement and nerves.


    "Rx my love, I just mean to get you onto the pillows." He grinned before adding onest tidbit. "For now." With that he winked at me.


    "Ok." I was actually starting to get really excited now. This may all be new to me but I was still a living breathing man and that meant that I still had needs and urges just like all of the others.


    I scooted myself to the center of the bed, resting myself on the pillows that were propped and waiting for me. Dietrich was looking down at me like I was a dessert that he wanted to savor. Why was I wanting to be savored right now?


    "You look so delicious, mein kleiner Kuchen."


    "What''s that mean?" I asked him, not remembering the words in the heat of this moment.


    "My little cake. You are my personal cake, my own private dessert." I remembered then what it was he said I smelled like to him.


    "Will I taste like cake to you?" I made my voice suggestive in that moment, trying to sound seductive and sexy. I think it worked because the look in my man''s eyes darkened visibly and he grinned happily.


    "We can find out." He licked his lips like he was anticipating the taste that was toe.


    "May I taste you then?" He asked permission, just like he had asked me if I was sure I was ready for this. He always made sure that I was at ease.


    "Yes, Dietrich, I want you to." I felt the flush of heat as the blood rose to my face, blushing again. Would it ever stop?


    Dietrich didn''t let my blush stop him, he just leaned forward and ced his mouth at my neck. With one long, slow, heated drag of his tongue he had licked from my cor bone up to my ear.


    "You taste as good as you look Kuchen." His voice was husky.


    "I''ll have to explore your taste sometime soon. But didn''t you taste my neck that night in the woods?"


    "Mmm, that I did, but that doesn''t mean that I won''t start here again. I need to taste it all."


    "And what does it taste like there?" I couldn''t stop myself from asking, the words wereing out of the nerves.


    "Like a freshly baked, undecorated cake, sweet and sullied."


    "No frosting?" Iughed softly at the stupid question I had asked.


    "No, no cream. But I do have some to add." He chuckled against my neck causing me to shiver from the ticklish sensation.


    "Really? Where?" He looked at me mischievously then as he leaned to the side and grabbed a bowl from the side table.


    "Right here, my love."


    He hadn''t been lying. He was indeed holding a bowl of fresh whipped cream.


    "And what are you going to do with that?" I asked, perhaps a little naively.


    "Oh, you''ll see."


    I watched as Dietrich dipped his fingers into the whipped cream and smeared a little onto my neck. Without even setting the bowl aside he dipped his head down and dragged his tongue along the same path as before. However, this time it was like it was three times as intense. All he had done was add some cream to my neck before licking it off so why did it feel so intense, so good? I shuddered, and I instantly felt myself harden. The moan that came from between my slightly parted lips was beyond my control.


    "Ah."


    "Good?" There was a smile on Dietrich''s face and augh in his voice.


    "How did that feel so intense." I could hear myself panting and trying to talk through the arousal.


    "Everything is better with some cream." He chuckled. "It''s part of the fun you get when you y."


    "So, you want to y with me then?" I sounded so adventurous to my own ears, what exactly was I saying?


    "Very much so." He nodded as he spoke. "May I y to my heart''s content?" He seemed so worried that I would deny him, like I would deny him anything anymore.


    "Then y." I couldn''t believe I just said that, what was wrong with me? I felt my blush deepen again, this time I was probably close to purple with the intensity.

 Chapter 270 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 16 (BL) ((MATURE))

    <h4>Chapter 270 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 16 (BL) ((MATURE))</h4>


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    I wasn''t wearing a shirt, in fact all I was wearing was a pair of boxers and some lounge pants. What did this mean? Dietrich had quite a lot of skin to which he could use as his canvas for the cream in his hands.


    The first thing that he did after I told him to y was to put a smear of cream across his lips and then mine. The resulting kiss was wet, sloppy, and delicious. It was one of the most intense kisses we had ever had. It was a flurry of lips, nips, bites, and sucking. And I''m not even sure who was doing all of them. By the time it was done my lips were swollen but burning with desire and need. The next thing that Dietrich had in mind was my chest. He traced a cream covered finger from my neck and down to the swell of my pecs. He dipped his finger again and put a dollop of cream on my right nipple, after tracing his finger across my chest he did the same thing to the left.


    With his hot mouth once again on my neck he licked, sucked, and bit his way down from my neck to the swell of my chest.


    "Ahh." I cried out, trying to contain it but having failed. "I-is there more that I should b-be do-doing." I was having trouble speaking with the things he was doing to me, and this was still pretty tame all things considered.


    "No, Kuchen, just let me have my fun. This time I want to take care of you." Immediately after answering me he set his mouth onto my right nipple and sucked hard.


    "Ahh! Dietrich!" I called out his name in an arousal filled voice causing him to chuckle while sucking on me.


    His skilled and experienced tongue wrapped around my nipple as he sucked on it. I didn''t even know that my nipples could be so sensitive, or that having someone suck on them could feel so amazing.


    Once Dietrich was confident that he had sucked away all the cream that was on my right nipple he trailed his tongue across my chest and performed the same motions there as he had done just a few moments before.


    With every draw of his mouth, with every flick of his tongue I felt a white hot heat spread through me before shooting straight to my groin. I was hot. I was hard. I was almost ready to explode. And all he had done was kiss and lick my chest. Oh Goddess, what am I going to do?


    I was moaning now, I couldn''t help it. The sensations were beyond me and we hadn''t even really started yet. Dietrich''s name wasing again and again on moans and gasps while he toyed with me.


    "You are exquisite, Shawn. So delectable, so sweet, just like a real cake." His words only made my arousal intensify.


    "Dietrich." I moaned again.


    "May I remove your clothes?" He asked me, always sweet, always thinking of me. But I was too far gone to think about it at all, I just wanted him to keep going.


    "Yes, Dietrich, yes." I panted and moaned my answer.


    I felt his hands slide into the top of the waistband to my pants and my boxers at the same time. Gently and with great care he started to slide my only barrier between us away, but I didn''t care. In fact, I lifted my hips and helped him as he slid them past my ass and burning hot erection.


    "Mmm, now that is a sight I have been waiting to see." His voice sounded so deep, growling, and hungry, it sent shivers through me once again.


    "Dietrich." I called his name again.


    "What do you want me to do, my love?"


    "I don''t know, I just want you to keep going." I couldn''t think, I just felt the need and desire building in me.


    "This is your first time, my love, so you will feel it all more intensely than any other time. I will make you feel good and I will guide you through it all. Just trust me."


    "I do. I do trust you." I squinted my eyes and looked at him through my blinding need.


    Once again I felt Dietrich''s tongue on me, but this time there was no cream. He licked his way from my sternum down to my belly button, which he swirled for a moment before continuing lower. He licked up and down both of my hip bones before returning to the spot just below my belly button.


    Slowly, as if he was trying to drive me insane, he licked lower. I felt the need, the intensity of the heat that was burning me, it just continued to grow and grow.


    I thought that Dietrich had abandoned that bowl of cream, but just before his mouth reached my erection I felt his hand grip it instead. I could tell from the feeling of his hand on me that it was covered in the white cream.


    I tilted my head up to look at him. I could see his hand moving up and down in slow, teasing strokes while his mouth just hovered nearby. What was I wanting here? Did I want him to continue using his hand or did I want him to take me in his mouth? Both were new to me. I had never been touched by anyone other than myself.


    I didn''t have time to think or choose which one. Dietrich raised himself up just a little and lowered just his head until his mouth enveloped just the tip of my hard, hard erection.


    That sensation was new, and amazing. The heat of his mouth was so much hotter than I had been expecting,bined our two heats seemed almost enough to start a fire.


    I felt Dietrich start to take more of me into his mouth then and I lost almost all rational thought. I had no idea this would feel this good. Slowly, ever so slowly, Dietrich took more and more of me into his mouth, sliding down further and further. When he had all of me, somehow, in his mouth he started to pull back just as slowly.


    He had his tongue pressed firmly against my erection as he pulled his mouth back up just like he had on the way down, but this time he added the gentle yet scary sensation of his teeth as he pulled back. His teeth grazed ever so gently on the slow, agonizing move.


    "Ahh! Ngh!" I moaned repeatedly as he slowly drove me insane.


    After the slow movements that Dietrich made down and up, just that one time, he sped up the pace, little by little. He moved down a little faster each time, and pulled back a little quicker than the times before. Slowly he was building a rhythm that I never contemted before.


    Each time that Dietrich pulled back he swirled his tongue around the tip of my erection that he still held in his mouth. That sensation was almost enough to make me scream in pleasure each time but I held myself back, too embarrassed to make those sounds.


    As the intensity grew, as the pleasure got more than I could control I found myself stuffing my fist in my mouth to stop the sounds that I was making. Dietrich was moving his head up and down expertly and I could feel all those telltale signs that I was going to cum. The tickling at the base of my spine, the tightening of my balls, the goosebumps that I always got down my back, I wouldn''tst much longer.


    I put a hand on Dietrich''s head, trying to push him away. But he wouldn''t budge. I didn''t know if I just didn''t have the strength left or if I was just not actually pushing him away because I wasn''t ready for it all to end.


    Regardless of the reason, I didn''t think that I should cum in his mouth, but he wasn''t stopping. I needed to tell him, I needed to stop him.


    "Ahh. Dietrich, I can''t hold it back any more." I moaned and gasped through the words. "Ahh! Ngh! Stop, stop I can''t stop myself. I can''t do that there, not in your-." I tried to finish telling him to stop but the dam of my control burst. I had reached my limit and I had exploded.


    I came then, exploding inside of his mouth, while screaming his name.


    "DIETRICH!"


    I felt like I had copsed, like I was spent after running all day. And all I had done wasid on my back and let Dietrich take the lead. Goddess, if just this was already this good, what was I still in for? I didn''t know what was likely to happen from here on out, but I know that I was excitedly looking forward to it. I don''t know why I had waited so long. Why had I denied the both of us this kind of happiness?

 Chapter 271 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 17 (BL) ((MATURE))

    <h4>Chapter 271 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 17 (BL) ((MATURE))</h4>


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    Dietrich rose up onto his elbows then, a grin on his face and joy in his eyes.


    "Geliebte, you have no idea how happy that made me just now?"


    "How could it have made you happy?" I was confused, I was the one who had been, well, pleasured. There was no other way to say it.


    "You came screaming my name. Just like I was hoping you would." I blushed again after hearing his words. And as I looked at him, I remembered what I had just done.


    "I''m so sorry Dietrich."


    "What for this time, my love?" Heughed at me softly.


    "I came in your mouth. I couldn''t stop myself so you could get away." Heughed at me again then, this time with more mirth than the first time.


    "Liebling, did you not notice that I chose not to move. I wanted you to do just that my love."


    "Really?" I was still nervous and apprehensive about it.


    "Yes, Liebling." He leaned forward and nted a gentle kiss to my cheek. "Now, if you''re ready, we can continue with our fun."


    I felt another jolt run through me then, it wasn''t from nerves but from excitement. I wanted him. I hadn''t had nearly enough yet. But that didn''t mean that I wasn''t still nervous, I was just choosing to ignore it.


    "Yes, Herzchen, I am ready." I kissed him then, a quick peck on the lips.


    "That is all I needed to hear."


    With that Dietrich rose above me once again. This time he was using his hands to touch me all over. I was already aroused. I was already hard again. I already wanted him more than anything I had ever wanted before.


    "Just remember not to be afraid, my love." Dietrich whispered into my ear before licking gently up the ear from the lobe to the shell.


    That was when Dietrich''s hands that had been exploring my body, the front of my body, started to roam to the back. His left hand strayed to my shoulder des and tickled yfully there for a little bit while his right hand came around and cupped my ass cheeks.


    I thought I wouldn''t like the feeling of someone ying with, touching and fondling that area. But if anything it was making me even more excited. I could feel myself growing harder and harder while he yed with me but I could also feel some sort of arousal taking ce in the back as well. It was like my body was telling me that I wanted him, needed him, to be inside me. But I wanted to take him some time too.


    "Dietrich, enough, I want you, please." I couldn''t believe I just begged for it like that. I was really changingpared to how I was just two months ago.


    "Whatever you want my love."


    Dietrich, who was already straddling my legs with one knee in between mine moved his other leg next to the first, causing me to spread my legs even more. That was when Dietrich used his hands to push my legs further apart and then gripped me behind the knees and pulled me down the pillows and a little closer to him.


    There was a quick jolt of panic for just a moment when I felt Dietrich''s erection pressed against my bottom until I remember what he said about not being afraid. Plus, I was trying to remember when exactly it was that he had removed the ck silky boxers he had been wearing.


    Slowly, and gently, Dietrich fitted himself against my opening that I once thought would never be used in this way. But now, just the feeling of him there, poised and ready, was making me even more aroused and excited.


    Heat flooded inside of me as some sort of reaction was already happening inside of me. I could already feel how wonderful this was going to be.


    "Rx my love." He whispered to me once before pushing forward. His forehead was pressed against mine when he made his entrance into my body.


    That first push in, slow as it was, still made me cry out.


    "Ahh! Ahh! Ngh!" The cries continued as he continued to push into my body.


    "You''re so tight, my love. You need to rx. I don''t want to hurt you." ''I don''t see how that''s possible.'' I thought to myself as I felt just how huge he was. I realized now I hadn''t looked at his even though he had clearly seen mine.


    Still, I took a deep breath and tried to rx the muscles and nerves in my body. I reminded myself this was my mate, this was the man that I loved. He would never do anything to hurt me and I wanted to be with him.


    Slowly I felt like the pain was ebbing and he didn''t feel like he was stretching me too far anymore.


    "Calmer now?" He asked me, tenderness in his voice.


    "Yes." I said as I slowly opened my eyes to look at him.


    "I love you, Shawn." Dietrich''s words were so sincere, so full of that emotion he was professing.


    "I love you too." I stroked his face softly as I smiled up at him.


    "You''re just too adorable for your own good sometimes." He was grinning but that was thest of words for the time being because that was also when he decided to thrust forward. He took advantage of my rxed state to push himself all the way inside of me.


    "Ahh!" I cried out once again.


    That was thest of the pain too. After that, after he was all the way in it was like the pain just decided to go away. Perhaps it was just our bodiesing together finally, it was like they were rejoicing.


    "You feel amazing, Liebling. You feel like home and heaven at the same time."


    "This feels much better than I thought it would." Iughed softly for just a second.


    "It will get much better soon, my love." He kissed me then, a slow kiss that intensified as he started to pull out of me.


    My body wept for him, wanting him toe back. He stopped with just his tip left inside before he thrust forward again, this time with a lot less resistance. He repeated this motion again and again, slowly out, and slowly in, until he could enter me with no resistance at all. All the while I was gasping, panting, and crying out in pleasure.


    From there Dietrich set about creating a steady rhythm that was making him pant and moan almost as much as I was. I was crying out his name so much that I lost count of how many times I''d said it already.


    "Ah, Dietrich! Ngh!"


    Dietrich had chosen an intimate position, one that allowed me to look in his eyes and to hug his upper body to me as he pounded in and out of me. I nted small kisses to his face, neck, and lips while he drove me toward insanity.


    The heat was building between us. I saw the heat flushing in his cheeks and knew that it was already staining so much of my body, not just my cheeks.


    "Shawn." He called out my name in response to me calling out his.


    "Dietrich?" I seemed to be asking him a question, but one that I didn''t even know I had for him.


    "I want us toe together my love." He whispered the words into my ear as he reached between our bodies and gripped my throbbing dick in his hot, hot hand.


    Dietrich was getting close to his limit, I could tell by the look in his eyes, but he was still worrying more about me as he stroked me both inside and out. I could feel the pleasure taking over me, ruling my brain. And, I could feel another orgasm building inside of me.


    I felt my breathing hitch up again and didn''t try to fight it this time. I willingly let myself ride the waves of pleasure he was bringing me.


    It didn''t take long for those waves toe crashing down on me, pulling me under. I felt myself explode in his hand at the same time that I felt him explode inside of me. I had never thought about that either, but it was hot, and feltforting in a way. It told me that we were indeed connected as one.


    "Shawn." He had said my name as he exploded.


    "DIETRICH!" I had yelled his name at the same time.


    Briefly spent and out of energy Dietrich copsed on to me before pulling himself free of my clutching body. The moment he left my body I felt like something was missing. I still wanted to swap positions and take him, but I would also enjoy him taking me as well.


    "Are you ok my love?" Dietrich whispered into my ear as he rolled to the side and snuggled in close to me.


    "I''m just fine." said with more embarrassment. Now that it was over I couldn''t fight off the blushes.


    "I think we should take another shower, to clean up."


    "Who should go first?" I asked him only to get augh in response.


    "Shawn, Geliebte, my love, there is no reason to take two showers anymore, we will just share from now on." He was grinning at me with a very mischievous look on his face. "Come now, Liebling, let us clean up."


    Dietrich pulled me from the bed then and into the bathroom. Thankfully the shower was just that and nothing more but I had been nervous the whole time. I had enjoyed myself, but I didn''t think I could handle more at this time.


    Once we were cleaned up we went straight to bed, naked.


    The following morning we learned that training was cancelled and we could do as we pleased. We spent the entire day in our bedroom. To be more exact we spent the entire day, and subsequent night, in bed. I had learned a lot of Dietrich''s tricks by the time that day was over and I would be making sure to use them on him in time.

 Chapter 272 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 18 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 272 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 18 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    Thest two nights were, without a doubt, the best two nights of my life. And considering that I have had a lot of nights in my life that is definitely saying something. My mate and I had finallye together, we had finally be one in the most intimate of ways.


    And oh, but my mate was so expressive. After he had gotten over (most of) his embarrassment he had started to quite enjoy it all. Then, when we found out that we had the day off from training the next day, I couldn''t think of a better way to spend it than by making up for lost time.


    We spent an entire day and two glorious nights in each other''s arms and there is nothing I would do to change it. It was perfect, special, and life changing. I wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of my life in his arms.


    The day that training resumed I could not get the smile off of my face. All day I was grinning happily, especially when I looked at my love. But for some reason he would blush every time that I looked at him. I wasn''t the only one grinning either. Reece was smiling happily, just as happily as I was. I could only guess that he had had as much fun recently as I had.


    Training moved pretty quickly from that point onward. We all managed to unlock an added power or ability. It was like an upgrade to what we already had. We trained hard to learn more and to be the best fighters we could all possibly be. And I got to enjoy the sight of Shawn training everyday.


    But soon, we hade to the point where we were supposed to go back home. Trinity had learned all that she could from the Sentinelle and we were all stronger, faster, and more efficient than we had been before.


    The bad thing was, before we could even leave to head back, Trinity had a vision. She was sent a message that warned her of Edmond''s imminent attack on the city. We needed to hurry and get back so that we could defend our territory.


    All of us refused to bow down to that sadistic Warlock. We would all do our best to stop his heinous acts against both the shadow world and the human world. The trip home may have been rushed, but we were all ready and raring to go.


    Less than a day, that''s all we had. Less than a day to prepare. The morning after we got home we were notified that more of those monstrous beasts were on their way. Somehow those monsters were cloaked from human sight and were traveling from every possible direction.


    Those of us that had gone to France, those of us that had entered the Goddess Guard first, we were Generals, sort of. That was my name for it. We headed up our own divisions of troops, and prepared them for the uing battle. We were the top of the top and only answered to Trinity and Reece. To me, that made us their Generals.


    The only thing that gave me pause during the whole fight was that I didn''t get to fight alongside Shawn. I knew it was for a specific reason, that we were needed elsewhere, but that didn''t stop me from worrying and feeling like something bad was going to happen.


    I wouldn''t stop worrying until I saw him again, safe and sound.


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    The battle when we got home was intense. I hadn''t known what to expect when we had arrived on the battlefields, but these beasts were even more fierce than thest ones we had faced. The first wave of them were elemental in some way. They needed to be attacked and destroyed in a certain way.


    The fight was proving difficult for many and I watched as far too many of myrades fell around me. I only hoped that they weren''t hurt too badly, and I wanted desperately to check on them but I was much too busy with the second wave of the beast.


    Second wave was probably not the right way to put it. These new monsters were not the same as the first wave so it couldn''t be counted as a second wave, it was more like a new assault altogether.


    The newest creatures, the things that we were fighting now, they looked like giant spiders. Sort of. It was like people molded into giant spiders that were lethal and very fast. Three heads, eight misshapen limbs, and weird looking extending and retracting necks. They were nightmares to say the least.


    I was dispatching a beast when I was ambushed by three of those spider things at once. I don''t know how I had managed to survive it as well as I did.


    One moment I was sending sharp branches, pieces of debris, and my daggers flying through the air toward the enemies, and then the next moment I felt a sharp pain sear across my abdomen. That first pain was immediately followed by another even more intense sh of fiery pain that ran down the side of my face. I sent all the projectiles I had left flying at that moment. I sent them to hit any and all of the monsters that were surrounding me.


    Thest thing I saw before I cked out was a barrage of arrows joining my attack. With thebined effort all the beasts around me dropped to the ground, dead.


    "That''s good." I barely managed to make the words audible, I was losing strength and fast. "Dietrich." I called out his name but it was barely a whisper. "I love you."


    That was thest of the strength I had. I was gone after that. Myst conscious thought had been that at least I had shown him how much I loved him. And that I wasn''t dying a virgin.


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    There had been a shower of arrows that had flown across the battlefield, taking the rest of the monsters we were fighting with them. There was a flurry of activity almost immediately following their disappearances. There were so many people lying on the ground injured and needing help. I did my best to help and assist them, knowing that it was what I needed to do. But all the while I was feeling nervous and scared. I couldn''t wait until I saw my mate, until I saw Shawn again.


    While I was busy with those who had been hurt I was summoned by Noah. Trinity had apparently been taken to another ce with Edmond and had killed him. She brought his head back as proof of his demise.


    That was wonderful news, there was nothing else for us to worry about. Edmond was finally gone and would no longer be able to harm anyone else in this ce or any other.


    So, why was it that I was still nervous when I got back? Scanning the area told me right away that my Shawn was not here. Where was he?


    I saw Shane, David, Noah, Vincent, Reece, Trinity, but no Shawn. I listened to the words being spoken around me, trying to hear if anyone said anything about my love. This had to be the reason I still felt like something was wrong.


    "Shawn!" Trinity yelled my mates name with a look of fear and horror on her face. She was holding the head in her hand still and tossed it without paying attention. "Here, David, catch."


    "What the hell. Eww, that''s fucking gross. Don''t throw severed heads at people. That''s justmon courtesy." I heard his stream ofints in the back of my mind but they weren''t important right now.


    "Trinity, where are you going?" Reece took off after her.


    "Shawn is hurt." She screamed back. "I saw it before I was taken to the shadownd. I have to go and make sure he is alright." The panic in her voice made my heart sink and my adrenaline kick into overdrive.


    "Did you say Shawn was hurt?" I immediately started to follow her. "Mein Liebhaber." I felt as if my world had juste crumbling down around me. What was going to happen to my love?


    "We have to hurry." She urged us all on.


    "How do you know? How do you know that he is hurt?" I was not doubting her but I was hoping that she was wrong. But I knew that she wasn''t, it was the only thing to exin why my love was not back yet.


    "I saw it. I saw that he was attacked by the spider freaks before I was taken by Edmond."


    "Oh Mein Gott, Oh my Goddess, please let him be ok."


    "I will make certain of it, Dietrich. I refuse to lose anyone else. But we need to hurry. We''ve got to get to him." There was an indescribable pain and a biting edge to her voice as she spoke. "We''reing Shawn, just hang in there."

 Chapter 273 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 19 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 273 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 19 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    We were running now, as fast as we possibly could. I would have liked to shadow walk, but I did not know where Shawn was.


    On the way to the location that my love was waiting for us, hurt, Trinity sent a mental message to Griffin, the healer, so that he coulde and help us save my Herzchen, my Liebling, my lover, mein Seelenverwandter.


    When we reached the clearing that Shawn was in my senses became overloaded. Shawn was here, and he had been all over the clearing. But also, his blood had been spilled as well. I was moving fast, looking for where he wasying. Trinity reached his side first but I was less than a second behind her. She had the added benefit of having seen where he had fallen.


    "Shawn?"


    "Mein Wolfsliebe." There were tears in my eyes as Trinity and I both yelled out for my love. With a hand on his pale, pale cheek I began to sob. "Bleib bitte bei mir. Bleib f¨¹r immer bei mir." I felt as if I had no heart left to break as I begged Shawn to stay with me and to not leave me ever.


    "Shawn,e on, wake up. Speak to us Shawn." Trinity was trying to wake him as well.


    My love was not moving, he was barely breathing. But finally, the healer had arrived and he would help us save my mate.


    "Griffin, hurry." Trinity called out to him.


    "I''ming. Lana, you check the others."


    "Reece, get the others to help you find anyone who may be hurt and need help. Also, count the dead and gather their bodies. They deserve a proper burial." Trinity sounded diplomatic and authoritative, but all I could focus on was Shawn.


    "Alright." Reece nodded at her words as he turned to leave and begin his task.


    Griffin shooed us away from my Shawn so he could get to work. It nearly broke me to leave his side, the tears were flowing and I could not stop them at all.


    "What kind of animal attacked him?" Griffin asked almost immediately after beginning his examination. "These wounds are deep.


    "It wasn''t an animal. It was another human monster created by Edmond." Trinity''s voice held anger and rage.


    "Will we never be rid of him?" Griffin''s voice sounded tired and sad as he spoke.


    "We are." That was all it took. The light that lit inside Griffin''s eyes was like a rising sun.


    "Are you sure? He''s really gone?"


    "I have his head as proof." There was joy now, recing the anger in Trinity''s voice.


    I found it difficult to join their talk. All I could do was watch as the healer examined my mate as heid motionless on the ground.


    "He will be alright Dietrich, I know he will. He''s strong." Trinity was trying to calm me down it seemed.


    "He''s stronger than I am." My voice cracked on the emotions I was fighting hard to hold back.


    Griffin began to move Shawn''s clothes aside to examine things more intently.


    "What is that Griffin? It looks like he''s been poisoned." Trinity''s voice seemed far away as she spoke.


    "That''s exactly it. Those creatures must have been venomous. He''s been infected and it''s spreading fast."


    "What does that mean? Can''t you stop it? Can''t you use your power to heal him?" I didn''t know what it was he was trying to tell me, to tell us.


    "I''m trying, but the venom is spreading faster than I can heal him. I''m worried it will reach his heart before I have the chance to rid his body of it all."


    "What can we do? What are our options?" I could hear the fear thickening Trinity''s voice.


    "I don''t know." Griffin looked like he was at a loss. "I don''t know what to do."


    "Would having two of you help? Should we get Lana?"


    "I really don''t know. It might, but I don''t know if he would make it, he might notst that long."


    "Why did I have to send them away?" She was beating herself up over the decisions she had made because it was impacting us here.


    "I might have an idea." I felt myself stiffen in fear as I said those words. "But it is not something I had discussed with Shawn yet. I do not know if he would ept it, even to save his life."


    "Dietrich, whatever it is, I am sure that Shawn would choose to stay with you instead of dying. He loves you and he would want to be with you."


    "It''s not that simple, he might reject what it is when he wakes. And I admit, I do not know what all it will entail."


    "Will it save his life? Will it stop him from dying?"


    "I believe it will, yes." I nodded slowly as I answered.


    "Then do it. If Shawn takes an issue with it, then have him talk to me. I will exin everything to him."


    "Alright. I will do it." I finally conceded to do what I knew might save my love even if he hated me for it.


    Slowly I walked back to his side and knelt next to him before pulling him into my arms. I wrapped my arms around him, cradling him close to me, hugging him tight.


    "Ich liebe dich Liebling." I whispered that I loved him before I gently kissed Shawn''s forehead.


    I felt the shift take over me then, changing my eye color and bringing out my fangs. And after onest deep breath for courage I lowered my head to Shawn''s neck.


    I bit him then, right at the ce where wolves mark their mates. I bit into his soft tender flesh and let his blood flow into my mouth. For nearly a minute I drew his blood into my me with long, slow draws. The blood was tainted, I could taste it, but it wouldn''t affect me and I needed to do this. I could not live without my Shawn, not for a day, not for an hour, not for a minute. I needed him.


    I nearly sighed when I finally released him, when I stopped pulling the blood from him. But it wasn''t over yet. I still had more to do.


    I didn''t care about moving anything out of the way first, I just brought my wrist to my mouth and bit down on the soft flesh over the artery there. When my blood started to flow I tilted Shawn''s head back and ced his lips against the cut I had made. Shawn''s mouth was partially opened and the blood flowed from my wrist and into his opened mouth.


    I nearly cried out in joy when I saw that Shawn had swallowed reflexively. It was going to work, it had to. I was going to save my lover, my mate, my Shawn.


    The moment I pulled my wrist away from Shawn''s mouth I willed the cut on my wrist to close instantly. Immediately after pulling the blood away from him Shawn started to spasm. The transformation had started.


    Shawn''s body shook violently but he also finally took a deep shuddering breath as his eyes fluttered open.


    "Liebling." Shawn seemed to whisper as he looked into my eyes.


    "Wolfsliebe." I felt relieved when I saw my mate wake up. "How do you feel?"


    "I think I''m fi-." That was as far as Shawn got before he was hit with a sudden spasm of pain and he jerked violently in my arms. "Ahhhh!" He screamed in pain, his head thrown back with the long, loud cry.


    "Shawn?" Trinity ran forward, her voice cracking.


    "Shawn, my darling, what is wrong?" Fear wracked through me as I tried to help him.


    "It hurts, it all hurts." Shawn was shaking uncontrobly.


    "It''s the changing." Trinity looked at me knowingly.


    "I did not know it would be this painful." Shawn seemed too far gone, wracked with too much pain to even hear what we were saying.


    "Selene told me it would be hard, but that he had you there to help him."


    "Selene?" I couldn''t believe what I had just heard her say to me. "You spoke with the Goddess Selene, the mother of vampires?"


    "Yes, while you were giving Shawn your blood she came to me and spoke to me. And she told me something else."


    "What? Will it help Shawn?"


    "Yes, Dietrich, I think it will. She told me you are her chosen one, you are the Vampire King."


    "I didn''t know we had such a thing." I wanted tough, I truly did, but I couldn''t bring that sort of joy out of me while my love was shaking in pain.


    "But this means you are Goddess blessed the same as I am, you will have new abilities now. And you can use them to help Shawn."


    "I hope you''re right."


    I scooped Shawn into my arms then, cradling him close as I shadow walked back to the estate. I needed to get him somewhere safe andfortable. I knew the others would be there to see uster.

 Chapter 274 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 20 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 274 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 20 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    Shawn hadn''t stopped shaking and spasming from the pain by the time I got him back to my room in the estate. I knew that this part was going to be the worst of it for him. I didn''t remember my days of the change hitting me in the beginning, but I have seen it in many others. The pain would ravage through his whole body, changing his entire gic make up until he was an entirely different being.


    At least, that is how it happens for humans bing vampires. I had never seen, nor made, a hybrid. I had never seen nor heard of a werewolf bing a half vampire. I had no idea how this was going to affect him, or if he would even survive the change itself.


    I was filled with hope and fear, optimism and pessimism, determination and guilt, all of it at the same time and it was making me feel like my heart was being pulled in a million different ces at the same time.


    While I sat in the chair next to Shawn''s side I felt a sort of pull. Something tugging at me, but only my consciousness, not my body. I tried to fight it, I tried to stay with Shawn, but it was no use. I couldn''t fight the power of whatever it was that was summoning me.


    I felt myself slip into a semi unconscious state. My mind felt like it was falling. Just falling and falling and falling.


    When I felt myself slowing down, when I was finally able to see what was around me and where I was I saw that I was in the clearing where Trinity and Reece had held their wedding. There was arge circr stone that seemed to be shining in the light of the moon. I didn''t even know it was dark outside yet.


    "Hello Dietrich." I heard a smooth, beautiful female voice. I jerked around upon hearing it and saw a woman standing before me. She was shorter than I was by several inches, probably around Trinity''s height. Her ck hair and silver eyes were striking against her paleplexion. She seemed to be dressed in what looked like a ck spider silk dress that barely covered the top of her body but went into a full skirt to trail behind her. She had ck makeup on her eyes and lips as well as ck nails. And her fangs were poking out from the top of her mouth.? She was like a vampire born of the night.


    "Who are you?" I asked her, even though I had a feeling I already knew.


    "Come now, Dietrich, you know who I am, don''t you?"


    "You''re Selene, the mother of vampires."


    "That''s right. See, I knew you were a smart man."


    "Why am I here? Why are you here?"


    "Did Trinity not pass along my message for you?"


    "She told me I was to be the-.


    "King." She finished for me. "That''s right. I chose you as my sessor. Trinity is not of our kind, but she is closely linked to you. You are an elder vampire and a powerful one at that. I am choosing you to link her kingdom with yours. You already lead our people, so this will not change much. What it does change is your abilities."


    "What kind of abilities?"


    "Your mate is the first hybrid I have allowed. He will usher in a new race that will link us all together. I will not stand in your way to make these decisions unless I feel they are detrimental to my children. I too wish for peace among the shadows. For millennia there have been too many conflicts, too many wars, it is time for peace."


    "What abilities will I have?" I had to know. Trinity had so many powers, what was I going to receive from my goddess?


    "First, only you have the power to make a hybrid. Secondly, you will have the ability to speak telepathically with all the vampires, just like your friend can do with her people. It is a useful skill after all. Third, your ability to control has been upgraded. You may control multiple targets at once now. As for the rest, that will remain to be seen."


    "Why not tell me now?" I pleaded with her.


    "For one, it will be fun to watch you learn and grow, and for another, you are not strong enough to stay here much longer. I fear it is your worry over your mate that is causing you to be weakened. Go, return to him, but never stop striving to be the best King you can be.


    I felt myself falling again. Up this time. I was falling through the air for a while until I somehow fell into myself,ing to my senses.


    A whileter I was waiting in a chair next to the bed when Trinity and Reece knocked on the door and came into the room.


    "Thank you foring to check on him." I smiled as I stood.


    "I''m so sorry for what happened." Trinity''s voice shook with guilt, clearly she med herself for Shawn being in such a bad state when we had found him.


    "You have nothing to be sorry for, Trinity. We had so much to deal with. We all did."


    "Will he be ok?" She was looking at Shawn as she asked this question.


    "I believe so. While I was waiting at his side I had a conversation with Selene. You must be powerful, Trinity." I grinned at her.


    "What do you mean?" She sounded and looked as confused as I thought she would.


    "That conversation felt like it drained every drop of my energy. If it weren''t for my love for Shawn I would already be asleep. Yet, you spoke with her and other gods several times. The power you must possess to be able to survive so many and such lengthy talks, it''s simply amazing and so enviable."


    "I don''t know about that." She blushed and turned her head to the side with embarrassment.


    "I do." I smiled at her with awe.


    Just then, Trinity swooned on her feet. It onlysted a second but she nearly fell to the floor in that moment.


    "Whoa." Reece cried out as he caught her and held her against his chest for bnce.


    "I''m sorry. I''m just really tired." And as she spoke her stomach growled loudly causing a blush to stain her cheeks a deep red color. "And hungry I guess." She wasughing now. "Now that I think about it, I haven''t eaten anything today."


    "You need to make sure you''re eating properly, it''s not good for the babies." I reprimanded her immediately


    "Excuse me?" Reece eximed.


    "What did you say?" Trinity seemed just as shocked as he was to hear my words. Uh oh, I think I messed up there. I looked away embarrassed that I had ruined something for them.


    "I''m sorry, I assumed you knew. I didn''t say anything this morning because of the impending battle but I noticed the change in you immediately. Did you not already know?"


    "No, the day started with bang, so to speak. We were literally awoken by the call that the enemies wereing. I admit that I didn''t pay as much attention." Reece looked embarrassed now, probably because as her mate he should have noticed first.


    "Wait, Dietrich, did you say babies?" Trinity finally caught what I had said.


    "Weren''t you paying attention. He said he noticed you''re pregnant again." Reece was grinning so wide it looked like his face was going to break in half.


    "I heard and I know what he said. But he said babies, Reece, not baby."


    "Wait, you''re right, he did." In unison they both turned to look at me as I grinned back at them.


    "I was asked recently if I could tell the difference between single and multiple pregnancies and I said I didn''t know. Well, I guess I can." I couldn''t stop smiling as I looked at how happy they were.


    "Twins?" Reece asked with a shocked look before he grinned again, wider than before.


    "Twins?" Trinity echoed his question.


    "Yes, twins. Congrattions." I pped them both on the shoulder at the same time, squeezing gently just to drive the news I had just shared with them home.


    Trinity stood there in a daze for a few minutes until Reece dragged her away. I was now alone again with my mate. I settled into the chair, prepared to wait for a while until he was conscious again. I didn''t care if I had to sit here for a week, I would not move. I would sleep in this chair when I had to and I would watch him sleep while I was awake. But no matter what, I refused to leave his side. He was my mate, my love, my Shawn, my everything and I would stay with him until the end of time.

 Chapter 275 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 21 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 275 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 21 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    About an hour or so after Trinity and Reece left my room to go to their own I got a call on my cell. It was from them.


    "Servus!" I answered with a friendly greeting.


    "Hey Dietrich, there was just something I wanted to ask you."


    "What is it Trinity?" I was curious, but not enough to take my eyes off of Shawn, not for more than a second that is.


    "Could you not tell anyone about the babies yet."


    "It''s not my news to share, Mein Freunde. Do not worry, your secret is safe with me, even from Shawn. I will tell no one."


    "Tell no one what?" I heard Shawn''s voice as his eyes fluttered open..


    "Liebling, you''re awake." I could tell that my voice was full of happiness at that moment.


    "What happened, Dietrich?"


    "I will tell you. I will tell you all of it, but not the Luna''s news, that you must wait for." I giggled as I spoke to him, giddy now that he was finally awake. "Excuse me, Trinity, I must go now."


    "I know Dietrich, take care of him. We wille see him in the morning."


    "Yes, yes. Goodnight." I rushed to get off the phone.


    "Goodnight." The words were barely out of her mouth before I ended the call, tossing my phone to the side on the table.


    "Shawn, my dear, Liebling, I am so happy that you are awake my love." I dropped to my knees next to the bed, grasping his hand in mine and holding it tight.


    "What happened, Dietrich? Thest thing I remember was being d that I had managed to kill those things. I thought I was going to die."


    "You nearly did, Herzchen, I thought I was going to die right along with you. I knew something was wrong, I felt it the entire time we were apart."


    "But what happened to me? I feel so tired, so hungry, so thirsty. What actually happened to me?" The difort on his face, in his eyes, told me of the struggle he was going to have.


    "That would be my fault my love. I had to do it. I couldn''t lose you. Please don''t hate me, Liebling." I was pleading with him now.


    "What did you do?" He looked curious at the moment but not mad at all.


    "You were poisoned, my love, you truly were dying. Even the healer Griffin could not save you. The poison was moving too fast in your system. I had to turn you, I had to make you more like me."


    "Like you? You mean like a vampire? How is that possible?" He looked so confused by my words that he just couldn''t help but ask this.


    "You are a hybrid my love. The Goddess Selene has told us so. You are the first of your kind, but you needn''t be the only one." I did my best to exin it to him.


    "You spoke to the Goddess?" This seemed to be beyond him at the moment, with everything that had happened to us all recently.


    "The Goddess spoke to both Trinity and myself. She has named a sessor to her line."


    "Don''t tell me, Trinity is the vampire queen now too." Heughed but it seemed to cause him pain so he stopped right away. Still, I couldn''t help but grin at his words.


    "No, Geliebte, she is not."


    "Really? Well that broke her streak." He chuckled again but it hurt him once more. "Who did she choose?"


    "Me."


    The way Shawn''s head snapped to the side to look at me, the surprise in his eyes and the way his mouth was hanging open, it all told me that he had not been expecting that bombshell.


    "Y-y-you''re t-th-the V-Vampire K-K-K-K-." He seemed incapable of finishing that statement. Or was it a question?


    "I''m the Vampire King. Aside from powers like Trinity''s it doesn''t change much."


    "And I had just finallye to terms with the fact that I was dating the Vampire Emperor, and now you''re a king."


    "No matter the title, I am first and foremost your mate. Never forget that Shawn."


    "I know, I know you are." He smiled at me, that sweet look of his filled my heart with so much love. "But, Dietrich?"


    "Yes?" His eyes were full of curiosity and fear now, something that was perplexing me in the moment.


    "What exactly changed about me? What does it mean to be a hybrid?"


    "That, we will have to figure out on our own I think. Selene didn''t give me a guidebook or anything."


    "Great." He flopped his head back on the pillow, looking exhausted. "Could you try to tell me why I am so tired, hungry, and thirsty all at the same time?"


    "I think it has to do with the change. I did not know that it was over because your heart never stopped. Not like when you be a true vampire. For me and all the others our hearts stopped beating for a few moments before our transformation finished. It started beating again, but with a different rhythm and pumping altered blood."


    "But that didn''t happen to me?" He looked worried.


    "No, it did not, my love. You are still very much alive, and your heart beats just the same as it did before I turned you." He looked visibly relieved to hear those words, so much so that it looked as if some enormous weight was lifted from him.


    "As for the hunger and the thirst, that may just be the initial craving for blood that your body will have. As you know, it is very possible for me to eat food, but I do still need blood from time to time."


    "Really?" He blinked in surprise. "But in the three months that I have known you I haven''t seen you drink blood once."


    "I drank before I came here, and I was pushing it a bit far. I would have been in dire need of blood if I went too much longer. I am only able to go for so long because I am as old as I am. Young vampires will need to feed more often."


    "I didn''t know you could go that long."


    "I shouldn''t have, it''s probably why I was getting to the point of being unable to control myself sexually. I am sorry again for rushing you that night."


    "Oh shut up Dietrich." Heughed again, grimacing through the pain. "I told you already, I am fine and I wanted it too."


    "And hearing that still brings me so much happiness." I grinned right back at him. "Come, my love, I will give you some of my blood to hold you over for now."


    "Ugh, that sounds so strange to hear." Heughed it off though so I knew he was notpletely repulsed by the idea, just weirded out by it.


    Shawn didn''t know how to force himself to shift into his vampire form yet so I aided him by biting into my wrist again, getting the blood to flow freely for him. He sniffed at my wrist for a moment and actually smiled.


    "You must have drank a lot in the past." Heughed. "You smell so much like cognac that I can smell it in your blood too." He was stillughing when he wrapped his right hand around my left, cradling it gently. His left hand grabbed my arm just above the elbow, gently but firmly.


    Now that he was in position he ran his tongue along the line of the blood, curiously, like he was testing it. He seemed to brighten almost instantly in joy and surprise.


    "It tastes good." He smiled at me. "And I can taste your scent."


    "Yes, you will taste exactly what it is that appeals to you most about my scent."


    "Does that make me the alcoholic then?" Heughed as hepped at it again. "I almost feel like I am drinking it straight from the bottle but without the burn or the intoxicated feeling."


    "You are so adorable, my love." I grinned at him as he wrapped his lips around my wrist, around the bite mark.


    Having had a higher status than most, and never turning anyone before Shawn, I had never had anyone drink my blood since my change. The initial biting back then was beyond my memory so I don''t know how it felt for me then, but it couldn''t be anything like this.


    Every draw of his mouth on my wrist was like a shot of arousal straight to my groin. It was better than any aphrodisiac I had ever heard of. It was perfect, and wonderful, and made me want to explore more of it with my mate when he was healed more.


    Shawn drank from me for a little more than a minute, just enough to get him what he needed. When he''d had his fill he released my wrist and dropped his head back to the pillow.


    "Haa haa." He was panting heavily like he had just had some intense physical activity. "That¡­.was¡­..amazing." He was grinning now, unable to hide what he was truly feeling. "And now the hunger and thirst are gone."


    "You did wonderful, my love. You stopped on your own without going too far."


    "Well yeah, I was full." He looked at me with confusion.


    "That''s kind of what I mean." Iughed at him. "Many newborn vampires don''t know when they''re full. They''re like newborn babies, unable to tell what it is they''re feeling. You stopped yourself and didn''t go into a blood frenzy. I think that has to do with you being a hybrid, or because of your sweet, gentle nature."


    "I would never want to hurt you Dietrich, so I am d that I didn''t go into a frenzy."


    "Don''t worry, my love, I am here for you. I will help you learn all about what you are." I leaned forward and kissed him gently on the lips, a trace of my blood had still been there for me to taste.


    Shawn yawned then, seemingly unable to stay awake much longer.


    "Come now, Kuchen, let us get some sleep." I crawled into the bed, still wearing my clothes, and cuddling in close to him. "We both need some sleep, we will learn more in the morning."


    "MMhmm." Shawn didn''t say anything, he just scooted a little closer to me and nuzzled my head with his as we settled in to sleep.


    I held him close to me all night, making sure that he would not disappear on me. I couldn''t help but realize how much it resembled that night when I had been hurt and Shawn felt the need to hold me. I liked that we both showed our care and concern in the same ways.

 Chapter 276 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 22 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 276 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 22 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    I had apparently already been asleep for a while but I had felt the need to go back to sleep for the rest of the night. I guess when you almost die your body needs its rest.


    I don''t know what time it was when I fell back to sleep with Dietrich, but I slept soundly all night, held tightly in my mate''s arms. Dietrich was already awake when I woke up sometime after noon but he hadn''t left the bed. He said he didn''t want to leave my side. Now isn''t that just an awesome mate?


    "How did you sleep?" He asked me after I had questioned why he was still holding me if he had been awake.


    "Peacefully." I smiled at him, knowing it was because of him that I was alive and able to be sleeping and talking and doing anything ever again.


    "Then I am d I kept holding you close. I would have hated to have ruined your sleep."


    "You spoil me, you know that?" I grinned at him.


    "I try to, but you keep trying to stop me." He chuckled.


    "I''m trying to ept it more. I think I might be able to move on from it soon, very soon."


    "That''s good to hear." He looked at me lovingly, as if I was making all his dreamse true.


    "But, before we get to more spoiling, can we take a shower? I feel really grody."


    "But of course my love." He pulled his arms from me, though he still seemed reluctant.


    Once we were no longer tangled together Dietrich stood and held a hand out toward me. I knew he wanted to help me to my feet, and I knew he would have some excuse for it, so I didn''t say anything, I just pushed the nket aside and took his hand. I would have been able to have gotten up by myself, but I was still in a slight amount of pain, not too much but a little, so his help was actually appreciated.


    I hadn''t had the chance to look at myself during the brief time I had been awake yesterday. Once I was standing I realized just how much of a mess I really was.


    "Why did you let mey in the bed when I was covered in so much filth?" I couldn''t believe that not only did he let me get the bed dirty, he then proceeded to snuggle me all night while I was still so filthy.


    "What did you want me to do,y you on the couch?" He seemed appalled at my words.


    "I don''t know, but now the bed and you are both a mess."


    "The sheets can be changed, Liebling, and I am showering with you, so all is well." He was definitely not bothered by this as much as I was.


    "Will I learn to be as carefree as you now that I am part vampire?"


    "Whether you do or not I will love you either way." Why did he have to say things like that when he knew what it did to me?


    I let Dietrich pull me into the bathroom then, lost in thought as I looked down at the torn and bloody clothes that I was still wearing. I hadn''t seen my injuries before I had lost consciousness and when I was awakest night I focused more on the fact that I was alive.


    Once I was in the brightly lit tiled room I stopped and was frozen in my tracks. I was looking into therge mirror that was just opposite of the door and was shocked by what I saw.


    The first big surprise was the sshes and smears of blood that were all over my shirt, arms, and face. The second big surprise was the long thin mark on the left side of my face. I felt the air rush from my lungs as if I had mmed into something and fallen backwards hard. I felt like I had been hit so hard that all the wind had been knocked out of me.


    "What happened to me?" I was surprised that I hadn''t stuttered with how shocked I felt at that moment.


    "It was one of your injuries. It doesn''t appear to have healedpletely. It is most likely due to the venom of those beasts."


    "How could I have not healed it? How could it have not gone away?" I could tell that I was panicking, that I was beyond worried about this mark on me.


    Don''t get me wrong, I am not a vain man. But I know how much that Dietrich cares about appearances. How could I be scarred when I was to be with him? He couldn''t possibly want a mate that was ruined like this.


    I had to know, I needed to see if the wound on my chest had scarred as well. I grabbed the edges of my shirt and ripped it open, pulling it apart so fiercely that the buttons flew everywhere.


    Yup, sure enough, there was a long thin sh that went from my left shoulder down at an angle to just above my navel. Both of the marks were thin and pink like fresh new scars. Over time they might fade to a less noticeable pale pink or white. But for now, they stood out very noticeably.


    "I can''t be scarred." I whispered the words with a tone of fear and worry.


    "What is wrong my love. You are alive, that is all that matters."


    "How will you stand being seen with me? Won''t you be embarrassed by me."


    "Albern, my silly love, how could I be embarrassed by you? How could I feel anything but love for you?"


    "Look at me Dietrich! Look at me and tell me that this wouldn''t be an embarrassment to you if we went out to dinner."


    "I will tell you that anytime you need to hear it, my love. I will never be embarrassed by you or the way you look. To me it doesn''t matter whether you have a scar or not, it doesn''t matter if you''re wearing the right clothes for the asion or not, nothing matters to me except you. As long as you are there with me, my love, that is all that I need."


    Dietrich, who had been standing near me, cupped my face in his hands and leaned in close to me.


    "This does not matter to me." He kissed the side of my face all along the newly formed scar. "This matters to me." He pressed his lips to mine gently, lovingly. "This does not matter to me." He released my face and bent forward, cing his lips on the scar on my chest, kissing along it until he would have had to almost kneel to keep going. "This matters to me." He said again as he raised his head and kissed me right above my heart. "I do not care what you look like at all, my love, as long as you are there for me and your heart is beating then that is all I need in life."


    "Dietrich, mein Liebe, how is it I got lucky enough to have you?"


    "I am the one who is lucky, my love, I have finally found you after half a millennium. I had been searching for so long in vain, because you were not yet ready for me." At those words he pressed a kiss gently to my cheek and trailed down to my neck. For some reason, when he kissed me there it felt extremely sensitive.


    "Ahh." I cried out, unable to stop myself.


    "Is something wrong?" He jerked back, looking afraid like he thought he had hurt me.


    "No, it just felt really, really intense when you kissed me there just now." Iughed sheepishly, hoping he didn''t think I was already addicted to sex or something.


    "That is understandable, it is where I marked you after all."


    "Marked me?" I gave him a look of shock.


    "When I turned you, I had to bite you, and in doing so I marked you, I noticed the mark when I woke this morning, still holding you in my arms."


    "I have a mark? Like a mate mark?" I was still in a state of disbelief as I continued to ask him.


    "Yes, and I have to say that I am liking the meaning behind its design."


    "What does it look like?" I wondered out loud as I hurried over to the sink and stood in front of the mirror.


    I saw the swirling marks on my neck and expected them to be ck like a mate mark usually was. But this mark was a bright blood red. It was swirling lines with attice of roses inside of it.


    "That symbol is called the Endless Knot and when ites to lovers it means eternal happiness." Dietrich was looking at me over my shoulder in the mirror. I could see and feel the joy and the love radiating off of him.


    "Eternal happiness sounds pretty damn good to me." I smiled right back at him as I felt my love for him grow even more. I turned to face him and pulled him close to me, sealing his lips with mine.


    After that we had a very eventful shower with lots of hands on time. I was just happy to be alive and with the man that I loved.

 Chapter 277 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 23 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 277 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 23 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    Once we had showered and gotten ourselves cleaned up Dietrich and I started to talk more in depth about what things were changing in our lives now that he was the Vampire King and I was a Hybrid, half wolf and half vampire.


    Dietrich had apparently been told by the Goddess herself that she was gifting him with new powers. He said he was the only one who could create Hybrid vampires. She said he could speak telepathically with the other vampires like Trinity was able to do, and that he could now control multiple targets at once with his puppetry skills.


    All of that was cool and all, but what was different about me? Aside from me needing blood to survive and basically being immortal. It had hit me after the shower that I no longer had a limited lifespan and I could actually spend eternity, or near it, with Dietrich. That really put a new meaning on the phrase I will love you forever. But I knew that I would love him, forever and even beyond that.


    Those were only two things I knew that had changed about me. It wasn''t bad or anything, but I had hoped there were more, you know. I became the first of my kind shouldn''t I be able to do more.


    "You can try some Vampire tricks." Dietrich had suggested yfully.


    "Like what?" I looked at him with confusion.


    "You know, like shadow walking. And having your fangse out at will, and we should see if your wolf can shadow walk too."


    "Ok." I was smiling now, excited. "Where should we practice?"


    "Let''s go to our spot up the mountain. It''s special to the two of us now, isn''t it?" I grinned when I heard this. The ce he was talking about used to be the ce I went to clear my head when I was having a bad day, because it always made me happy. And it was where Dietrich and I had started to make real advancements in our rtionship. I was so happy that he now considered it our spot.


    Twenty minutester we had reached the ce we wanted. It was just a simple little bluff that looked out over the river below but to me it was a ce my soul would always call for.


    "Now, don''t be upset if you don''t get it right away, and don''t push yourself, you''re still injured." Dietrich was just a mother hen sometimes, doting on me like I was a fragile little piece of ss.


    "Dietrich, babe, cool it." I grinned at him as I saw the shocked look on his face when he heard me call him babe. Uh oh, I think he liked that a bit too much.


    "Alright, I''ll cool it, so long as I get to step in if I think you''re pushing yourself too far."


    "Fine,that''s just fine." He was the one who had to teach me how to be a vampire as it was.


    "Ok, let us begin."


    Dietrich told me what to do, and how to perform the Shadow walking then. The problem was that there weren''t very many shadows for us to work with. We were quite limited really.


    "Well, in theory, you would think about where it is that you want to end up, looking ahead of you at all times, and getting a good picture of it in your head. When you are first starting out it will take you a long time. And don''t be discouraged if you end up somewhere slightly off course, as long as you are in the general location you''re doing good enough."


    "So, should I try for the tree line or the shadow of the mountains first?"


    "Try the trees, if you miss you will end up in between them. If you miss with the side of the mountain you could run into it, or off of it." Dietrichughed though it looked more like an automatic response rather than him actuallyughing at the idea of me shadow walking off the mountain.


    "Ok, here I go."


    I took a deep breath to steady myself and thought about where I wanted to end up. I was aiming for the closest shadow to me in the tree line. I was going to warp from the shadow that Dietrich was creating and go into the other shadow at the same time.


    Dietrich had exined to me while we were preparing, that you can''t use your own shadow to warp, or shadow walk, but you can use someone else''s. I found that odd but I guess it was just something I would have to ept as fact.


    And apparently it wasn''t so much as walking through shadows, it was more like stepping from darkness to darkness. Apparently a vampire''s body could be something akin to smoke in the dark and that was how we managed to move from shadow to shadow. And, we could take other people with us when we did it, whether they were vampires or not.


    Look at me saying we in my head like that, like I was some veteran vampire or something. Would Dietrich be happy if he knew about it? Probably.


    Ok, this was it. I was done preparing myself. It was time to move from shadow to shadow.


    I stepped forward and into Dietrich''s shadow, all the while looking at where I wanted to end up. I was aiming for a spot about four feet away from the tree directly in front of me.


    Oh Goddess, I was nervous. But I didn''t let that stop me, I wanted to move like Dietrich did.


    And when I stepped I moved in the blink of an eye. It felt like my body had been pulled rapidly by some string attached to my belly belly button. It was strange and exhrating at the same time.


    But the major thing for me to focus on was that I was exactly where I had aimed for. I was exactly four feet away from the tree on the precise spot of the ground I had focused on.


    "Dietrich, did you see that? This is exactly where I was aiming. This is right where I was trying tond. I can''t believe that I did it." I turned around and smiled at him, only for me to be looking into a face so full of love and adoration.


    "Yes my love, I saw it. You are a natural." Dietrich was radiant and handsome as he looked back at me. "I am so proud of you."


    "I''m going toe back to you know."


    "Alright, do just like you didst time."


    "Got it."


    I nodded my head and firmed my resolve as I went to move back to his side. I concentrated on the spot I wanted to end up and stepped. And right then, right as I was stepping forward, the clouds shifted and changed the size and shape of Dietrich''s shadow.


    I was aiming for the top of his shadow, near where his head was at the end of it. But now the top of his shadow was close to the edge of the mountain.


    I had already stepped and I already had that thought in my mind, so that''s where I ended up. I felt my left foote down right at the edge of the rocky surface, my right foot ended up on nothing.


    I didn''t scream. It never even urred to me that I should scream. I felt the ground slip away and then there was nothing.


    What the hell am I doing?


    That was the only thought that came to my mind as I started to fall. I didn''t know if the fall was going to hurt. I didn''t know if the fall was likely to kill me or not. It was pretty far down and I would be banged up pretty bad. But I was also a Hybrid now so I didn''t know how it would affect me at all.


    I hadn''t even fallen three inches though, by the time that I stopped. One second I could feel that weightlessness that you get, that stomach dropping sense of plunging to the earth, and then the next second I just felt as if I was being suspended weightless in the air, like I was flying.


    I turned my head then, to look at Dietrich, and saw that he had shot his puppet thread out toward me. The thread was wrapped around my waist, my legs, and my arms. I was cradled in it gently and hadn''t even felt the thread touch me at all.


    Dietrich used those threads to pull me back up and onto the ground, running to me in a rush as he did so. His arms were around me before the thread had even fully retracted. I hadn''t felt the thread at all but I definitely felt the crushing strength of his hug as he pulled me close.


    "Dachte ich h?tte dich verloren, Geliebte. I thought I lost you my love." I could feel Dietrich shaking, his body tense as he held me in his arms. "Bitte, erschreck mich nicht so. Please, please don''t ever scare me like that again Shawn."


    "I''m right here, babe, ich bin genau hier."


    We stayed like that for a few minutes, clinging onto each other and kneeling on the ground together until the shaking in Dietrich''s body finally subsided. When he finally pulled away he pressed a kiss to my left temple, a firm press of his lips as if further proving to himself that I was still there.


    "I''m OK, my love, I didn''t fall at all. And I probably would have survived even if I had fallen."


    "That''s not the point. I almost lost you recently, and now I almost lost you again. Please, stop scaring me so much. I may be immortal, but I am not impervious." I felt tears falling onto my cheek and looked up to see him crying with such a hurt look in his eyes.


    "I will never leave you, Dietrich, I love you too much to leave you."


    "I love you too, Kuchen, I love you so much."


    It felt like Dietrich was holding onto me forever by the time he had finally let me go. He may have pulled away but his touch was lingering even after he had helped me to my feet and stepped away.


    "What we need, my love, are more shadows, and more control over the light." Dietrich red up at the sun then. "I wish we could make things darker."


    Those words had barelye out of his mouth when we were plunged into darkness. I wasn''t afraid of not being able to see, as a wolf I have great night vision, but I guess as a Hybrid I have perfect night vision. I could still see everything, it was just more or less in ck and white at first until I grew used to it all.


    "Whoa." That was all I had to say. There was just too much that had happenedtely for me to be too surprised by any of it anymore.

 Chapter 278 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 24 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 278 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 24 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    I had only hoped to be able to control the light on a whim, I didn''t think that it was possible. And as I looked around I saw that our little area was the only ce with pure darkness. Beyond where we were I could see the light shining like normal.


    So, what was actually going on here?


    There we were, plunged into total darkness like there was an eclipse but it only affected maybe a quarter square mile radius, if that. And while we stood there, confused, a silver light was moving closer to us, weaving through the trees just beyond the clearing.


    I had a sense of deja vu while that light was moving toward me. Like I knew what it was but couldn''t ce it. It wasn''t until the slow moving light was right at the edge that I figured out what it was. No, who it was.


    The Goddess Selene, the mother of all vampires. She had just stepped out of the trees and started walking toward where Shawn and I were standing.


    "So nice of you to make the perfect setting for this meeting." Selene was grinning at me as she came to a stop about five feet from me. "I take it you are better rested than you were thest time we met."


    "Who-." Shawn began but I interrupted him.


    "Shawn, this is the Goddess Selene."


    "It is good to see you, King Shawn."


    "K-King?" Shawn stuttered when he heard that title for him.


    "Well, you are mated to King Dietrich, that makes you a royal as well, does it not. Surely you would not like to be called Queen Shawn." Selene''s voice heldughter.


    "No, no definitely not." Shawn''s face was red when he answered her. "But we are not married, how can I be the King?"


    "Mated is enough for me." She smiled at him. "And, you are the first Hybrid vampire, therefore you are the King of the Hybrids."


    "Oh." Shawn seemed to be in such a state of shock as Selene spoke to him.


    "Selene, mother, to what do we owe this wonderful surprise?" I couldn''t believe I was having another meeting with the Goddess so soon.


    "I felt you were strong this time, and more able to ept my visit. And I wanted to meet my first Hybrid son." She was beaming at Shawn like a proud mother weing a child home from a long time away. "Shawn, you are the first of your kind, but I see a future that is filled with more half breeds."


    "More?" I looked at her shocked. I was the only one who could make them.


    "Yes, but I think you are worrying about something unnecessary." She grinned at me like she could read my mind. "I will have you share some of your new powers with your partner."


    "What powers are those?" Now I was the one who was confused.


    "Your mate, Shawn the Hybrid King, can make the Hybrids as well, same as you. He will be able to speak telepathically to your people, the same as you are. He will share in every natural talent that a vampire has when they are freshly turned. Now, for you my son." She was looking at me, a proud smile on her face.


    Selene''s beaming face and content looking eyes were intense to behold, all things considered, but it was also calming. Looking directly into her face gave me so many different emotions and feelings at the same time that I felt confused.


    Dietrich, the gifts I am bestowing upon you are as follows. The ability to control the darkness, and to summon it. Much like you have done here. You will have a limited mind reading ability. I say limited because you will not get every thought that someone has, but you will know when someone around you has ill intentions toward you and yours. It also works a little like precognition I guess, you will know when something bad ising. And you now have the ability to use illusions. The scale of which can vary depending on what you need. You can make minor changes to what people are seeing like color or size, but you can also make them think they are somewhere else entirely. And as long as they do not realize they are in an illusion they will be able to interact with it as if it were real. This is a gift I have worked with Thoth to bring you, so please use it well."


    I couldn''t believe my ears as I heard what she was saying. But she wasn''t done. She just turned to look at Shawn and continued speaking.


    "Shawn, my newest young one, you will be the first of my children who can do more with shadow warping, I believe my children call it shadow walking. You will be able to move anything or anyone through the shadows at will, using your telekic powers. You will also find that moving through the shadows in wolf form might give you an added benefit for it. I believe your senses are going to be even more heightened now. And I learned from Nehalennia that you have an animation type of power thates with your telekinesis. For that purpose I have decided to bestow upon you a true animation ability. If you were to choose it, you could bring something to life for whatever time frame you chose to. It could be something as simple as making a child''s toy dance merrily for their enjoyment or it could be a hand crafted tool to use as a minion, I am sure you will practice this ability at some point in time."


    She was smiling at us again after she finished speaking to Shawn. Stepping forward she ced a hand on each of us, one on my right cheek, the other on Shawn''s left cheek.


    "My children, you are special, and I cannot wait to see how you both grow. There may be more gifts I give you in time, but for now this is what I leave you with."


    With those final words it seemed as if Selene just disappeared into a cloud of glowing silver smoke. The smoke just seemed to blow away on the wind leaving Shawn and I standing there, still cloaked in the darkness.


    "Well, that was unexpected." Shawn broke the silence first. "So, that was the Goddess."


    "Yes, and I didn''t expect she woulde back so soon."


    "Well, we seem to have a big future ahead of us." I heard something in his voice then, something that made my heart race a little more. Shawn will be there with me, for my entire future.


    "As long as you are part of my future, my love, then I will take it all on happily."


    "Shall we get back to work?" He was grinning now. "I want to see what she meant about my wolf moving through the shadows."


    "Yes, let us continue our work." I leaned forward and kissed his cheek then.


    Shawn disrobed then, no need to rip his clothes. I turned my back to give him privacy, but I couldn''t help but look over my shoulder at him anyway. He was my love and I had seen him naked before anyway.


    Once he was naked Shawn shifted into his wolf form. As soon as I saw him, covered in fur, I knew he was changed. His silver wolf was now tipped with an ice blue at the tip of every strand of the fur. It was a very intriguing look for him. And the other difference was the extra long set of teeth in the front. The longest teeth should have been his canine teeth, of course. But the teeth directly in front of those teeth were also elongated now as well. It was like he had a set of wolf fangs and a set of vampire fangs in this form. They were very subtle changes, but it was enough.


    We practiced for nearly two hours then. The both of us moving around in the darkness. Selene had been right, Shawn was able to move so fluidly through the dark in his wolf form. He was also able to move me at will. He pushed and pulled me away from him with his power.


    We might have been practicing, but we were having a lot of fun as well. I loved seeing my mate excelling and having so much fun. And watching him run around in his wolf form was so fulfilling, considering how close he was to death recently.


    After a while he came bounding toward me, running with his wolf tongue hanging out and looking so happy. Before he reached me he shifted and crashed into me as a man instead of an animal.


    This was the most forward that Shawn had ever been, but I was not about toin.


    Shawn literally tackled me to the ground, and I didn''t try to stop him from taking me down either. Before I realized what was happening Shawn had ced his lips against mine. He so rarely initiated kisses of this type, the kind where I felt the need, the intensity as he pressed his mouth against mine.


    My mind nearly went nk then, Shawn was exploring my mouth with his tongue. Lips,and teeth. He was giving me all of them as hetched onto me. I didn''t know what had gotten into him.


    "Dietrich." He whispered my name when he finally broke the kiss, though his lips were still touching mine.


    "Liebling?" I whispered back at him.


    "Marry me?" He didn''t seem like he was asking just on spur of the moment, his voice was intent even though he still seemed yful. "Marry me Dietrich, be mine forever."


    "Yes, Liebling. Yes, I will marry you." He pressed his lips against mine again, kissing me more deeply than he had just a moment ago.

 Chapter 279 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 25 (BL) ((MATURE))

    <h4>Chapter 279 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 25 (BL) ((MATURE))</h4>


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    I wasying on Dietrich, pinning him to the ground with my lips pressed against his. I didn''t know why, but I needed to ask him to marry me, right here and now. And he said yes, so both my wolf and I were over the moon.


    I was justying there, pressed against him contentedly, when he pulled his mouth from mine and sighed.


    "I did not expect you to propose so suddenly, Liebling, and while you were naked no less." There was a slight chuckle in his voice.


    That was when it actually hit me. I had run to him while a wolf. I had shifted and tackled him to the ground. I was pressed against him now. And all the while I wasn''t wearing anything at all.


    I felt my face turn red, varying shades depending on the thought that was running through my head. Cherry red for the initial moment when I tackled him while naked, scarlet for the kiss I gave him, crimson for asking him to marry me, maroon because I had been naked when I asked him. I felt like I was going through the entire list of pinks, reds, and purple.


    "As much as I am enjoying this fifty shades of red, is there something else you need, Liebling? You seem a little unfinished."


    What was it I wanted from him? I wanted him, as my mate, and my partner, as my man, and as mine. Was I unfinished? Yeah, I think I was.


    "I want you, Dietrich." I purred the words seductively as I spoke right into his ear. "Can I take you?"


    There was surprise and heat both warring in Dietrich''s eyes, he looked excited and aroused and joyful at the same time.


    "Yes, my love, I want you to take me." Dietrich kissed me then, a deep, longing kiss as hey beneath me.


    I was feeling more bold and more free than I could ever remember feeling before. I epted the kiss that Dietrich had nted on my lips but then I took control of it. I put one hand on the back of his head and braced myself on the ground with the other hand. I explored his mouth, tangled out tongues, and nipped at his lips.


    As I hovered over him, I moved my hands to slowly start unbuttoning his shirt. As I slowly revealed his pale, white chest I kissed down the side of jaw to his neck. I licked his neck slowly, where the mate mark would have been had he had one.


    I continued my journey down as I undid his shirt. I licked and kissed across his cor bone to his chest, over the swell of his sternum and his pecs. Ipped slowly and yfully across one nipple and felt him shudder. That was entertaining.


    I continued to y with his nipples for a moment. Licking, sucking, pinching, each yful little action was eliciting a moan or a squirm from him.


    "You''re better at this than I thought you would be." Dietrich''s voice held a note of desire and need as he spoke pantingly at me.


    "I''ve been learning from you." I purred as I ran my tongue from his left nipple down to his belly button. "I enjoyed everything that you have done to me, but now I want to make you feel as good as you''ve made me feel."


    "I''ve quite enjoyed making love to you, Geliebte, don''t doubt that."


    "Oh, I know you have." I grinned and looked up at him. "But now I want to experience what it is you feel, and I want to make you call my name."


    "You''ve gotten more bold." He matched my grin as he stared down at me. "I think I like this side of you."


    "I will only show it to you, Dietrich, only you."


    "I don''t want anyone else to see this side of you, Shawn. I want this to be my image of you, mine and mine alone."


    I set my lips back against his body, brushing my lips and tongue over his waist as I undid his belt. I was throwing out all my inhibitions, and all my fears. I wanted him, needed him, right now.


    Sooner than my brain couldprehend Dietrich was lying beneath me,pletely nude. The sight of him there, seemingly glowing in the darkness, it was turning me on more than I had ever been before.


    Was it because he had agreed to marry me? Was it because we could spend forever together? Was it because I was a newly made Hybrid? I didn''t know what was causing this feeling but I wasn''t going to stop it, it felt too good to be here with him like this right now.


    I was still gliding my tongue along his body. The taste of him was intoxicating me but I needed to have more.


    I was moving lower, lower than I had ever gone before, but I didn''t want to stop, I didn''t want this to end.


    There wasn''t a ce on Dietrich''s body that had any hair, aside from his head. I don''t know if that was a Dietrich thing or a vampire thing, but it made this part of my y time that much easier. I didn''t have to worry about running into any patches as I moved my mouth closer and closer to his groin.


    I didn''t even need a deep breath to steady myself, I was moving with no hesitation now as I grabbed his manhood and stroked it gently.


    With a quick flick of my tongue I licked the tip of him and felt him shudder once again.


    "Are you sure, Liebling?" Dietrich thought I was having second thoughts.


    "More than sure." I smiled and purred.


    That was all that was said before I took him into my mouth. The shuddered groan that Dietrich let loose then told me he was already enjoying himself.


    I pulled Dietrich all the way into my mouth until he touched the back of my throat and my lips wrapped around the base of him. He had already been hard and ready so there was no need to wait for him.


    "Liebling." He called out for me as I paused for just a second. I did my best to smile around him when I heard that one word.


    Pulling back, I slid my mouth over his most intimate of ces until just the tip of him was left in my mouth. I swirled my tongue around his tip a few times, teasing him as he had done to me before.


    "Ahh, ahh, ngh."


    After I heard dietrich''s cries and moans I pulled him back into my mouth, pushing him with my hand and sucking with my mouth at the same time. I repeated this pattern a few times until Dietrich cried out even louder as he squirmed beneath me.


    "AHH! Shawn." That''s what I was waiting for, my name.


    I gave Dietrich what he wanted then, a steady rhythm that was bound to drive him insane. Up and down, pulling him in and out of my mouth, the rhythm was steady and fast. Dietrich, nearing his climax, was bucking his hips a little beneath me, trying to get me to take him a little deeper, hold him in my mouth a little longer.


    I ced my hands on Dietrich''s hips, holding him in ce against the ground. I needed to shift my position now since I was no longer holding him in my hands and was taking him with just my mouth alone, but I would manage.


    Holding him still meant that I needed to move my upper body more, and I needed to push Dietrich''s legs further apart to get to where I needed to be.


    My upper body was moving up and down, my head bobbing repeatedly. I could feel the heat rising in him. He was getting harder and his breathing was more ragged. He was getting close to his limit.


    "Sh-Shawn!" Dietrich stuttered on my name, but I wanted to hear him say it again, so I tightened my mouth around him just a little, tightening the pressure of each stroke he felt.


    "NGH!" He was moaning louder, but not with my name on his lips. I needed to make him go insane if I was going to make him cum screaming my name.


    I tightened a little more around him, using my teeth to gently scrape his shaft as I was moving up with each stroke. The on and off feeling of my teeth had the desired effect. He bucked once more driving himself even deeper into my throat as he exploded in two ways.


    "SHAWN!" He screamed my name as he spilled his seed into my mouth and straight down my throat.


    Dietrich was panting when I took my mouth from him, his breath sawing in and out of him.


    "Liebling." He looked at me with a worried look. "I am sorry." Did he think I didn''t like doing that to him?


    "For what my love?" I asked him as I leaned forward, kissing him, letting him taste the bits of him that remained in my mouth. "You tasted like caramelized fruits, it''s the strongest part of your cognac to me."

 Chapter 280 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 26 (BL) ((MATURE))

    <h4>Chapter 280 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 26 (BL) ((MATURE))</h4>


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    I wasn''t nearly done with him yet. Dietrich was still panting after I pulled back from the kiss and the look in his eyes, the arousal in them, it just made my wolf want to push forward.


    "I can''t hold back any more, Dietrich." I could hear the growling out in my voice. "I need you."


    "Take me then, Shawn. I am yours to take whenever you need."


    With another growl I pressed my lips back against his as I shifted between his legs. I was rock hard and ready for his body to envelop me so I fitted myself against his opening and prepared to invade him.


    "Are you sure it''s ok?" I asked him. "This is my first time, I don''t want to hurt you."


    "There is nothing you could ever do to hurt me, my love." His words spurred me on and I let go of myst shred of hesitation. With one quick thrust I entered him.


    Oh Goddess, but that felt amazing. The feeling of him squeezing me all around me, the feeling of his hot, weing body.


    "Ahh!" He moaned happily.


    "Oh Goddess." I screamed the words that had gone through my head.


    I let instinct take over, more specifically I let my wolf take over. The panting growl of my beast that had been taking the back seat for so long was all I heard as I felt my body pulling back.


    When his body was no longer closed around my shaft, just my tip, I felt a numbing and lonely cold settle over me. My body needed him, needed to be joined again.


    I didn''t have to wait long though, my wolf drove my body forward at that moment, joining us together again. That hot heat of Dietrich''s was once again holding me tight. Goddess, but I couldn''t get enough of that feeling.


    Dietrich was panting again, and moaning, as my wolf set a steady rhythm in and out of his body. I was driving into him hard and fast with a desire that was nearly out of control.


    It didn''t seem to matter to Dietrich though, he seemed to be enjoying it as much as I was. He wrapped his legs around my waist and his arms around my shoulders. With him holding himself close to me I ced my hands on his hips and rocked back onto the balls of my feet. I pulled him up with me then, as I stood. I momentarily halted my thrusts so I could perform the quick action. But then I backed him up against the tree he had beenying in front of.


    Once Dietrich''s body was pinned between me and the tree, I resumed my heated, needy thrusts. This position was more intimate than how we were before, Dietrich was pressed against me at the shoulders, the chest, and around my waist. I could feel so much of him, inside and out, that it was driving me closer and closer to my edge.


    There was one more thing I wanted to do. There was one more way that I wanted to be joined with him. And I saw no reason not to do it now, in the heat of this moment.


    As I continued to move in and out of his body steadily I leaned my head forward, cing my mouth on his left shoulder. I was too far gone to be gentle anymore, I couldn''t stop myself.


    With a passionate swipe of my tongue I licked the sweat from his neck where his pulse thudded. Then, with no warning at all I sunk my teeth into his neck.


    I felt my teeth break through the barrier of his skin, but it felt like the teeth went through easier than I had expected them to. Were they sharper now that I was a Hybrid? And, it felt like there were more long canine teeth than I was used to.


    Oh well, now was not the time to worry about that. I wanted to mark him, I wanted to join us together forever in the most intimate of ways that a wolf could. I felt his blood flow into my mouth, blood that tasted like the world''s best cognac, like a liquor that I could drink forever and never tire of or get drunk from. Unless you counted love drunk.


    More than just the blood, I felt and tasted power, a zing heat. The heat and power was moving from inside my mouth and into Dietrich.


    Dietrich was moaning and panting from the build up of pleasure and power as I pounded in and out of his body. I could feel his body squeezing and spasming around me and it milked me with each stroke.


    I could feel the build up happening for me then. The tingling in my spine, the tightening of my balls, the hardening of my shaft that was already too hard to begin with. It was alling at that moment, ready to crash down on me.


    I wanted to make Dietrich feel everything that he had made me feel that first time, all the pleasure he had given me and the times since then. So, before I could spill over that edge and fall into oblivion, I reached between our bodies. I still had one hand ced firmly on his bottom but the othertched onto his manhood.


    With quick, steady strokes, I milked him with my hand as his body milked me. He was already closed to another climax, having already cum once and having the build up of power from the marking. It didn''t take long at all until we were both exploding.


    I released his neck, my teething free of his neck as I threw my head back on a howling roar.


    "Ggrrrooooo."


    "Shawn." Dietrich screamed my name again as we came together.


    We were still standing there, leaning against the tree, when our sense finally came back to us.


    "I love you." I whispered to him as my breathing settled.


    "And I love you." He was grinning when I looked up at him. "But I did not expect you to be so bold as to do this out here."


    I blushed then, looking around us. It was still dark because of Dietrich''s shadowing of the area, but we were still standing on the mountain near that familiar cliff.


    "I can''t believe I did this either." I smiled. "But I''m not sorry that I did."


    "Neither am I, and I am d that we came here. I would never change anything about this day mein Verlobter."


    "And what does that one mean." I grinned as I pulled my body from his, causing both of us to shudder from the feeling of it.


    "My fianc¨¦." I grinned again, wider than before, I couldn''t help it. I couldn''t believe I had asked him to marry me, but I was happy as well.


    "That''s one I am really happy to hear.


    We got dressed then, we needed to head back to the house and I desperately needed a second shower. But once we were in the room, I saw something that made me very happy. The ce where I had marked Dietrich was already changing colors. He was getting my mate mark now.


    The happiness we both felt from that had us ready for round two, in the shower.


    And the next day, when we would see the mark, it would be identical to my mark, except it was silver, the same exact design just a very different color. We were meant for eternal love. Now isn''t that romantic?

 Chapter 281 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 27 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 281 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 27 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    Shawn had taken the lead, he had taken me, and he had marked me. What more could I want out of life right now? Oh, I know, to marry him. I still couldn''t believe that he had asked me out of nowhere like that.


    Truth be told, I had been nning on asking him to marry me sometime very soon. But he had beat me to it. I even had the rings and everything. Now to just show him how much I have been wanting this.


    I snuck out of bed early, hating the fact that I was leaving him warmth, and went to get the rings I had hidden in my closet. I wanted to surprise him with them when he got up this morning.


    I had ordered the rings before we went to France, with hopes of using them sooner rather thanter. They were nearly twin tinum bands. I had done something simr with them that I did with the suits for Trinity and Reece''s wedding. The band on my ring was trimmed in a stormy gray, Shawn''s band was trimmed in a pale, light, icy blue. The stripes of color on either side of the tinum was thin and barely noticeable in most lights, but we would know they were there, after I showed them to Shawn that is.


    These rings would work as engagement rings and wedding bands and I couldn''t wait to slide the one for Shawn onto his finger.


    I had something else I wanted to do before my fianc¨¦ woke up. I grabbed my phone and tiptoed out of the room and into the bathroom. The number I had been calling picked up after just two rings.


    "Dietrich?" He sounded groggy and still half asleep but Shane was more than alert enough to worry about his brother. "Is Shawn OK? Did something happen?"


    "Ja ja, bruder, he is fine." I heard him heave a sigh on the other end of the line.


    "You had me worried when you called so early." I could actually hear the tension leaving Shane''s voice. He may pick on his brother a lot, but he loved him too. That''s just how their rtionship was. "What''s wrong? Did you need something?"


    "I would like to go see your parents sometime soon, with you there if that is possible."


    "Well, you already met our parents, twice, but if you want to do it again, then that''s fine. I can get something ready for tomorrow or the day after."


    "Thank you Shane."


    "No worries, I will text you when it''s all set."


    "I will be waiting."


    I wanted to officially announce our engagement to his family, and of course to his Alpha and Luna. I don''t have any family left, but I will announce our engagement to our people. Ha, it''s going to be a trip for them when they hear me through a mental link.


    When I snuck back into the bedroom Shawn was still sleeping. I crept to his side and knelt on the floor beside him. With a quick kiss to his cheek I roused him from his sleep. The sleepy look in his eyes was so sweet and endearing.


    "Hmm, Dietrich? What''s going on."


    "I wanted to be the first thing you saw this morning, my love." I kissed him again.


    "When we get married you will be the first thing I see every day."


    "Sometimes, the things you say are just the sweetest things in the whole world."


    "They might stay sweet, as long as you have a good reason for waking me up so early." He was so cute when he joked like that.


    "I have something for you my love."


    "What''s that?"


    He was blinking the sleep out of his eyes now, waking more fully. Without another word I took the ring from my pocket into my right hand and grabbed his left hand in mine. I pulled his hand toward me and slid the ring onto his ring finger all in the same smooth motion.


    "What''s this?" He said when I released his hand.


    "The ring I was going to use to propose to you with. But you beat me to the punch."


    "You were going to ask me to marry you?" He looked so surprised, too surprised, to hear those words.


    "I wanted nothing more than to marry you, Geliebte, and I am beyond ecstatic that you asked me. You may not have been as prepared as me, but you love me just as much as I love you, and that is what matters."


    "I was just happy that you said yes." He looked away from me sheepishly then, seemingly worried about what he was saying.


    "Did you really think I would say no?"


    "For a minute I did."


    "I love you too much for that, Liebling, I love you more than life itself."


    "I love hearing you say that."


    Our morning went wonderfully, with a little extra dessert that we must have had left over from the night before. And I had received word from Shane that we could meet with their parents in a few days, after the funeral.


    When we finally went to see them, to tell them that we were getting married, it went better than I could have expected. Shane was more supportive than Shawn had thought he would be, which was good. He didn''t even crack a joke that day. And they were all quite epting of Shawn having be a Hybrid. Given that it was either I could change him or I could let him die it was a pretty convincing sell.


    Honestly, what surprised them the most was that I was no longer the Vampire Emperor but now the King. I was really happy, all things considered, that day had gone very well. And we were set to get married the first weekend of August.


    We were nning a simple ceremony. Something small with just Shawn''s family, Trinity and Reece, and Gabriel from the Sentinelle acting as the justice of the peace. It was going to be small and intimate. And we were getting married in the mountains at our spot. I couldn''t wait for that day toe.


    Also, the house I was having built for the two of us to live in would be done sometime in the next month or so. We should be able to move in shortly after our honeymoon.


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    Things were alling up aces for us right now. Since the battle with the Warlock and I had almost died. Ever since that day I was a changed man, literally. I had asked Dietrich to marry me, I lost another form of my virginity, and we had set a date for our wedding.


    Now all we had to do was make the preparations.


    We were having a small, intimate wedding so there wasn''t much to n. But there was a small reception being held at the pack estate afterward.


    Dietrich was ordering new tuxedos for us, and I just about died when he told me that they cost over forty thousand dors each, which was apparently twice as much as the suit I had worn to Trinity and Reece''s wedding. If I had known that I was wearing something so expensive at the time I probably would have had a heart attack. But strangely, I was getting more and more OK with it. I mean, I had already done it once right.


    We were at a bakery now though, trying to find a dessert for the wedding reception. And for some reason, Shane was with us.


    Shane had been rtively better since I became a Hybrid, he didn''t joke about me as much, and he was truly happy for me when he found out Dietrich and I were getting married. But I just knew something was going to give soon.


    This bakery was owned by pack members, thankfully, and we were the only ones in the building at the time. Dietrich, Shane, Trinity and I were all in there together. I didn''t care what we got for the dessert, it wasn''t what mattered.


    Allison, one of the chefs was prepping a pie while we waited for Jenn to bring out an array for us to see. Allison was putting whipped cream onto the pie at that moment that Shane couldn''t hold back anymore.


    "Hey, Shawn, does that cream remind you of anything?" Shane''sughter was more than I could handle at the moment.


    "Shut up." I growled quietly at him. "Just don''t go there."


    "Come on. I see you''re both marked. I know what you''ve been up to." He was still giggling.


    "I swear, Shane, don''t do it. Don''t go there."


    "Come on. I know you''ve done it. Did you enjoy the cream he gave you?"


    I lost it then, my patience snapped and I just had to retaliate. I focused on the room and where the shadows were. Thankfully, there were a lot of them. I concentrated on the pie, the one that had started this whole joke for my brother. Then I focused on my stupid brother''s annoying face, that one that was no longer identical to mine.


    With just a little bit of effort I lifted the pie with my mind and sent it through the shadows. In less than a second the pie reappeared, in the shadow that wasying across Shane''s face.


    The piended cream side against his face, sttering him and the wall behind him with the fluffy white cream.


    "What the hell?" He yelled at me after wiping the cream away from his mouth. Trinity and Dietrich were bothughing hysterically next to us.


    "I told you not to go there." Iughed at him. "Did you enjoy your cream, Shane?"


    "You''re an asshole." Heughed as he licked the cream off his fingers. "A fucking asshole." He took a step toward me then. "Come here." Now he was running at me, and we weren''t that far apart to begin with.


    Shane ended up smearing the pie''s filling across my face, making us even. But I have to admit that it was fun throwing a pie into his face to begin with.


    And in case you''re wondering, we got an array of pies for the reception. All thanks to Shane.

 Chapter 282 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 28 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 282 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 28 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    August had arrived. The seventh to be exact. On this day, this saturday was the day that I was to marry my love.


    We did this as properly as we could. I slept at Trinity and Reece''s while Shawn slept at his home. We did not have bachelor parties, because neither of us wanted one, but we still didn''t see each other until it was time to head to the mountains.


    Reece was there for me, as my best man since he was the closest thing that I had to family here or anywhere really. Shane was going to be acting as Shawn''s best man. He had been there for his brother since the womb and neither Shane nor Shawn would have had it any other way.


    Reece had his Brioni Tuxedo he had worn to his own wedding so I didn''t need to buy one for him. However I still bought new ones for Shawn, Shane, their father Franklin Asher, Gabriel, and of course myself. I paid for brand new beautifully designed dresses for Trinity, Pauline Asher, and Falena.


    There were no decorations to be had, and there were no flowers or bouquets. The only things I could n for were the clothing, the time, the ce, and the food so I was going to go all out where I could. I was marrying the love of my life after all and I wanted to make this day as special for him as I could. But I also knew that he didn''t want this wedding to be a big affair.


    No matter how bold Shawn had been actingtely, he was still my shy little Cupcake and I would not force anything really big onto him. This day was for him, for the both of us to prove our love.


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    I was standing in my living room, holding up a suit that had cost my fianc¨¦ somewhere in the high forty thousands. And he didn''t just buy one of these suits, he had bought five. He had wanted to buy Reece a new one too but he had the suit from his own wedding which was a perfect match for ours as it was. The only thing Reece needed was the shirt and tie to match uspletely. If you added in essories and shoes, which Dietrich bought as well, he had spent over half a million on tuxedos alone.


    Oh Goddess, how was I ever going to get used to this?


    "You''re a rich trophy wife now, just deal with it." Shane joked with me. "Just let your husband pay for everything."


    "Just shut up, you asshole. Do I need to hit you with something again?" I joked back at him, I knew he was just ying around, but what he said was true in a way. I was not a trophy wife, I wasn''t talking about that part. No, I meant that part where he said I was rich and I needed to get used to it.


    I was now a very rich man because I was marrying a very rich man. I was used to being economic and now I could do whatever I wanted or needed to without worrying. That was both nerve wracking as well asforting.


    Anyway, I didn''t need to be thinking of this right now. What I needed to do right now was get ready for my wedding.


    This wedding was different than the one I had pictured when I was a kid. Everyone imagines their future at some point, imagines how their life would end up.


    I used to imagine some beautiful womaning down an aisle toward me. She would be wearing a big smile and a white gown. But it had never felt right to me. I used to think it was because I could never truly see her face. But now I know it was because I was waiting for a man, not a woman. And that we would be walking with each other, arm in arm, to the ce where we were to take out vows.


    Was it weird that I had butterflies right now? Was it weird that I was excited and eagerly anticipating this day? Or that I was happy that we were leaving on a honeymoon to a private beach in Belize?


    I was actually really looking forward to that. It was time alone with Dietrich, just the two of us for two weeks at the beach. I could just imagine the things we would get up to while we were there. Especially with my new found confidence in myself when I was with Dietrich.


    After Shane and I were dressed we got ready to go. Mom, Dad and Falena were meeting us at the estate and would be walking with us to the cliff. I was meeting Dietrich, Trinity, Reece, and Gabriel there as they would be waiting on us.


    I was nervous when I got to where my parents were waiting for us outside. Mom hugged me with tears in her eyes and she smiled happily.


    "I can''t believe that my baby is getting married today."


    "Mom, I''m the oldest." I whined yfully.


    "You''re both my babies, and since you''re the oldest you found your mate and are getting married first, so just take what you can get while I take what I can."


    "Alright Momma." I smiled as I kissed her cheek. "I love you."


    "I love you too, baby boy. I love you so much."


    After that we walked to the clearing at the cliff together. My parents walked in the lead hand in hand, Shane and Falena followed us and also walked hand in hand. I felt lonely, being the only one who was not there with their mate to walk while holding their hand.


    When we finally got to the ce the wedding was to be held I saw the best sight in the world. Dietrich was there, waiting anxiously with a massive smile on his face. The moment he saw me his eyes lit up like he had seen the best thing in the world. I had a feeling I lit up in the exact same way.


    Our wedding started the moment Dietrich and I joined hands. We walked to stand before the cliffs and stood facing Gabriel who had his back to the beautiful view. My family stood just to the side of me, Trinity and Reece stood on the other side of Dietrich, and Falena took pictures for us.


    My future sister inw might not be part of the photos, but I was so happy that she had offered to help us preserve these memories.


    Dietrich and I had opted for a nontraditional ceremony with vows we wrote ourselves. We both pledged our undying love and spoke of how we were happy to have such a long future together ahead of us.


    Following the ceremony Falena took some couples photos for us. Several of the pictures turned out to be wonderful and perfect. There was one in particr, a shot of the two of us staring into each other''s eyes next to the trees overlooking the river. I wanted to have that one printed out in particr.


    We had our dinner then, more of ate lunch really. The small gathering was intimate, sweet, and fun. Following the meal we changed and headed for the airport. It was now time for two weeks of nothing but me, Dietrich, and the beautiful beaches of Belize.


    I couldn''t imagine a more perfect wedding, or a more perfect person to have shared it with.


    The day we were to head home from our honeymoon, Dietrich received a phone call. Our house that he was having built for us was done. The only thing we needed to do now was have the furniture moved in and then we could move into it as well.


    "We will have our own home together soon my love." Dietrich''s voice was full of love as we settled in the luxury seating on Dietrich''s small private ne. I just couldn''t believe that between Reece and Dietrich they owned seven private aircrafts.


    "When do you think we can move in?" I asked him as we sat close to each other, snuggling a little.


    "Maybe a week." He sounded contemtive. "Perhaps we will have abination moving in party and birthday party for you." He grinned now as he turned to look at me. You know, sometimes I loved that we were almost the exact same height, the level of intimacy when we looked at each other was so amazing.


    "Really? Do you think it will really be ready that soon?"


    "I am sure I can manage it, as long as you are there to help me to pick at least some of it out, my love."


    "It''s more your department than mine, but I will not leave you to do it all alone." We smiled at each other then, naturally gravitating toward each other until our lips met for a slow, passionate kiss.


    We were still kissing when the ne took off from the ground. There was so much to look forward to with my mate, so much that we could do now that we were going to be together forever. And I was really, really looking forward to living with him and being there with him every single day.

 Chapter 283 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 29 (BL) ((MATURE))

    <h4>Chapter 283 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 29 (BL) ((MATURE))</h4>


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    Two glorious weeks of beautiful sandy beaches, bright sunlight, and a radiant Shawn had left me in the best mood of my life. We had spent more than half of that time away wrapped in each other''s arms, tangled in the sheets or covered in sand.


    But there was wonderful news on the way home from the trip. Our house was finished and it was time for us to move the furniture in. I had a lot of things that I had already purchased and had in storage waiting for this time.


    I spent that first week back from our trip staying at Shawn''s ce every night as we both picked out our new things and packed the things he wanted to take with us. He was giving up the apartment and giving most of his things away to friends, family, or charity.


    Shawn said that all he wanted was his keepsakes, photos, and clothes. I tried to convince him to take more but he said he wanted to fill our home with things that represented us together.


    We had flown back on Saturday, eight days before his and Shane''s birthday and it only took six days to move everything in. We nned to move in on Saturday, the day before my love turned twenty-seven. We were having a joint birthday party for Shawn and Shane and a housewarming party.


    All of our friends, new and old, were there with us. The guards from the pack and the Sentinelle, the warlocks, the other vampires and shifters that had settled in the area, into the houses that Reece''s constructionpany had just recently finished.


    The party wasrger than Shawn would normally have wanted, but I swear he was more than willing to let it happen this time. And everyone brought gifts for him and his brother (we had forbidden gifts for the house since we had covered it all ourselves).


    But, the real party that night was between the two of us after all of our guests had left.


    I led Shawn by the hand up to our new room. The interior of the house had mostly been done in shade of gray and blue since those colors had seemed to fit us so well, and our room was no exception. The hardwood floor was covered by arge, soft rug that had varying shades of the two colors. The furniture was all done in ck with ents of blue or gray. The extrarge king sized bed was draped in a stormy grayforter that had a pattern that consisted of streaks of blue lightning running across it.


    I pulled my mate, my Geliebte, my husband into the room with me and I backed up toward the bed.


    "I want to make our first night here special." I said as I sat him down on the edge of the soft mattress. I went around the room then, lighting the candles that I had ced there for us. Then I grabbed two sses of champagne for us to toast with before walking back to his side and sitting next to him.


    "Thank you." He smiled as he took the ss from me.


    "A toast, my love, to us. Together for all eternity." I smiled softly.


    "Forever and ever." He added as he too smiled.


    We each drank a few sips of the bubbling liquid from our sses before setting them aside. There was like a ma between us then, drawing us toward each other.


    Cupping his cheek, I leaned Shawn back and pressed my lips to his. The kiss was passionate, heated, and hungry. I needed him, even though I have had him so many times before I would never get enough of him.


    Shawn was returning the kiss with fervor, matching my hunger, my need, my desire. We both wanted each other in that moment and neither of us saw a reason to deny it at all.


    Shawn''s hands found the buttons to my shirt then, at nearly the same time that I had started to undo the buttons on his shirt. Working in tandem we had each other stripped in no time at all.


    With Shawnying sprawled on the bed beneath me I set my lips to his body, kissing every inch of him that I could. This night was a special one, and I wanted this to be sweet for my love. I went about my work gently, arousing the both of us at the same time.


    When we were both ready I leaned against the headboard of the bed, I then pulled Shawn up from the bed and sat him in myp. He worked with me to position himself as I slid into the only ce that has ever truly felt like home for my body.


    "Ahhh!"


    "Ngh!" We both moaned at the feel of the pleasure at the same time.


    "I love you." Shawn''s voice was already breathless when he spoke these words.


    "I love you too, Liebling." I whispered back to him as we both started to rock our hips in a rhythm that seemed to be perfectly in sync with each other.


    Our pace was slow, and unhurried. We were more focused on being joined, being connected with each other, than we were with anything else.


    The slow rhythm of our joining was like heaven. Shawn rocking above me, panting and moaning. My head pressed against Shawn''s chest listening to the steady rhythmic pounding of his heart as I panted and moaned right along with him.


    I felt the building of power within me. I didn''t quite understand it but it came with a vision of a future for us. A vision of Shawn and I after having been married for Goddess knows how long, a future after we had already adopted or contracted a surrogate. It was a future with the family we would one day have. And the joy on our faces, it was something I never thought was possible until I had met my Shawn.


    The tension in our bodys reached the fever points then and we came together, calling each other''s names.


    "AHHH! DIETRICH!"


    "NGH! HHMMM! SHAWN!"


    We copsed together against the bed then, panting and exhausted. We roused a few momentster for a quick shower just so we could go back to the bed together, wrapped in each other''s arms for sleep this time.


    It had been after midnight when we came together for this union, it had officially been my mate''s birthday.


    I had slept peacefully, not moving an inch as I held Shawn against me all through the night. But now, now that morning hade, something was tickling my nose and making me want to simultaneously smile and do a double take at the same time.


    What was that scent? What was it I was smelling right now? What was this strange feeling I was sensing?


    If I didn''t know any better, I would say that I was sensing more life forces here, in this room. But that was crazy, wasn''t it? It was just me and Shawn alone in our room.


    In a state of foggy confusion I opened my eyes and looked around the room. Looking for the source of the extra energy I was feeling. Was there an animal in the room? No, I didn''t smell one. Was there another person in the room? No, I didn''t see or smell someone else either. But I was clearly sensing more people here with that added sense of mine.


    And what was strange. I could smell strawberry cream, custard, and other confections that went above and beyond Shawn''s normal scent. Was this what it was like to be married?


    I was staring at Shawn, trying to figure it out, to figure out what it was that was different. After a moment it hit me.


    "OH MEIN GOTT!" I yelled, inadvertently waking Shawn, scaring him really.


    "What? What is it? What''s going on?" Shawn had jumped up, sitting up next me to where I was leaning against the pillow, staring at him. "What''s wrong Dietrich?" He rephrased his question after he had seen my face.


    "Shawn, my love, this is a miracle." I grinned at him.


    "What is?"


    "We''re going to have children."


    "Huh?" He tilted his head then, confusion in to see on his face. "Yeah, we will, eventually. After we adopt them."


    "No, my love. We do not need to adopt them."


    "Fine, we will use a surrogate."


    "No, you''re not understanding me, my love. We do not need a surrogate or to adopt." I know I was grinning like a fool then.


    "What are you trying to say?" He was getting nervous now since he had not fully understood what I was getting at.


    "You, my love, you will have our children."


    "What?" He looked like he was about tough then.


    "You, Liebling. You are pregnant. Pregnant with twins."


    "WHAT?!" He screamed the words then, jumping out of the bed. "That''s impossible. I am a man, Dietrich, I cannot be pregnant."


    "I do not know how it has happened, but I see it, Shawn. I see the babies inside of you, the two life forces that were not there before."


    "I don''t see anything like that."


    "You will learn to see them as you get older, Geliebte. But I see them. One boy and one girl. You, my love, are giving us children that are from the both of us."


    "This can''t be." He was backing away from me now. "Dietrich this is impossible."


    It took a while to get Shawn settled down enough to call in some help. The only people I could think to call were Trinity and Reece, as they could speak to Gabriel on our behalf. Gabriel was a wise man who had collected a lot of information over the centuries. He was even older than I am and he was here to be Trinity''s personal assistant. If anyone knew what was going on it was him.

 Chapter 284 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 30 (BL) ((MATURE))

    <h4>Chapter 284 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 30 (BL) ((MATURE))</h4>


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    Dietrich had just about given me a heart attack this morning when he screamed. But then it got even worse. He had said that I was pregnant, which was impossible. Wasn''t it?


    There was no possible way that I was pregnant. That was only something that women could do and I was most definitely not a woman.


    It wasn''t long after we had woken up that the others arrived. Trinity, Reece, and Gabriel came in just before noon. I was so d Shane wasn''t with them. I definitely didn''t need to deal with his jokes right now.


    I was sitting on the edge of the couch, curled in onto myself, trying to keep myself from hyperventting as the others sat on the couch opposite me.


    "So, Dietrich, what''s wrong? Did something happen?" Reece asked with curiosity in his voice. Trinity must have seen the look on my face because she spoke to me instead.


    "Shawn, what''s wrong? Are you alright?"


    "Well, Trinity, we seem to have woken up to a bit of a surprise on our hands." Dietrich was still smiling happily. He didn''t seem to think that there was anything wrong with what was happening.


    "And what is that?" She looked curious and happy as she looked at the happy look on Dietrich''s face."


    "We''re going to have a family." His smile got even bigger. I had seen Reece smiling like that when he had found out that Trinity was pregnant. It was definitely the look of a man who was happy to be starting a family with his mate.


    "I didn''t know you were already looking for a surrogate." Trinity eximed happily.


    "We weren''t." My voice was t, still filled with shock.


    "I don''t understand. What is it then?"


    "We will be having a family that is born from both Shawn and myself." Dietrich proimed with pride.


    ""Huh?" Reece and Trinity had matching looks of confusion, but Gabriel seemed to have a knowing look in his eyes.


    "Which one of you?" Gabriel asked that and nothing else.


    "Me." My voice was still t.


    Don''t get me wrong, I was happy to be having a family, but did I have to be the one to carry them? I was a man dammit.


    "What''s going on here?" Trinity turned to look at Gabriel as the man smiled at where Dietrich and I were sitting together.


    "Shawn is the one who will be carrying our children." Dietrich blurted it out. "I do not know how it is possible, but he is pregnant now, with twins."


    "HUH?!"


    "WHAT?!" Trinity and Reece both looked like they had just had their brains exploded, at least they looked how I felt.


    "I have only heard legends of this." Gabriel spoke as if he was not even phase. "You are far from the first same sex couple from shifter history. And legends tells of a magical form of pregnancy between these same sex couples. Be it from a male and male or a female and female rtionship. The point of the matter is that someone in the pair would then bear the responsibility of carrying a pregnancy to term for that couple so they may have a child that will carry on their bloodlines. You may rest assured that the legends state that it will only happen once, but it is almost always twins."


    "Yes, yes, Shawn is pregnant with twins. I see them, a boy and a girl."


    "That is how the legends have always exined it. But it has not happened in so long that I thought it was just a story. Perhaps it was waiting for the new Goddess Incarnate to return that power to the world.


    Great, I was going to suffer through being a pregnant man because my Luna was the reincarnated Goddess, thanks a lot Trinity. I love her and all, she''s the best Luna ever and a great person, but I would have liked to have had a choice in this matter.


    We discussed things for a bit more, wanting to work things out between us. I was not going to go through the pregnancy where anyone besides Dietrich could see me. So it was for that matter that we had decided that Dietrich and I would take an extended trip to Germany until I had the babies. We would call Griffin over to deliver them for us, about a week or so before I was due. Him, Trinity, Reece, and the two of us would be the only ones who knew what was happening.


    After our guests left I could feel a little bit of anger coursing through me. It wasn''t really anger I guess. It was more like a desire to prove myself.


    "Isn''t this wonderful my love. We will have children that are ours and ours alone." Dietrich was happier than I would have expected.


    "You''re just this happy because it''s not you that has to go through it." I grumbled.


    "I would have happily been the one to bear this responsibility, my love. I am just happy to be starting a family with you. Are you not happy to have children of our joint lineage?" He looked hurt now. Upset about my anger.


    "No, I am happy about that." I answered honestly.


    "Then what is wrong." Dietrich sat next to me, putting his arm around my shoulders as I sulked.


    "I am a man, Dietrich. I am not a fucking woman but a man. This shouldn''t be possible."


    "But it is possible, my love, and I am beyond happy about it."


    "Really. You wouldn''t be so if it were you."


    "What is really bothering you?" Dietrich looked hurt then.


    "I feel the need to prove myself." I once again answered honestly.


    "Prove yourself how."


    With that question from him my control snapped. I needed to prove that I was a man. That I was masculine, and strong, and not at all a woman. I needed to prove to him he had a husband and not a wife. I needed to take him then and there.


    I lunged at Dietrich, grabbing his shirt in both of my hands and pulling it violently away from him. The material shredding easily in my strong grip. I had already pressed my lips against his, kissing him fiercely and passionately as I pushed him against the back of the couch.


    I broke the kiss only long enough to pull my own shirt over my head. My lips were then on his once more as I removed first his pants then my own. It seemed like we were both naked in less than a minute and I was already hard and needy.


    I didn''t have the patience to be gentle and caring. This was a need that went beyond the desire for physical contact. I needed to take him, to dominate him, and prove that I was a man as much as he was.


    All of our love making up to this point had been gentle and passionate and most of all extremely intimate. But today I was rough and hungry for him. I flipped him over, cing him on his hands and knees as I fitted myself against his entrance.


    "Shawn." His voice shook with need and desire as he seemed to be begging me to enter him, to keep going.


    "Dietrich." I growled his name hungrily as I thrusted forward.


    I rammed into him hard and fast, hilt deep in a mere second causing Dietrich to cry out incoherently just from my brutal invasion. But he still seemed to be enjoying himself.


    I didn''t stop there though. I set about creating a hard, fast, brutal rhythm as I pounded into him over and over. Dietrich was panting and moaning louder and faster than I had ever heard him before.


    While I ravaged him, ravaged his body, I thought about the future we were about to have, the family we were creating. And I thought to myself that maybe, just maybe, if I had been the one to take himst night maybe he would be the one who was pregnant instead of me. Maybe he would be the one to feel that mind blowing sensation of realizing your whole life is going to be crazy for a while.


    And while I thought about that I had a vision of Dietrich''s stomach growing and rounding. Of him being pregnant with our babies and that thought made me smile. I now understood what it was that he had been feeling when he found out this morning.


    The heat was growing inside me and inside Dietrich. The way his body felt when he weed me inside of him was nearly burning now but I couldn''t stop it. I just started crying out his name repeatedly as I drove in and out of him.


    We both reached and leapt over that edge of glory together,ing apart at the same time. I roared with my pleasure as he seemed to scream out at the same time. I emptied myself inside of him before copsing against him.


    The whole thing had been so needy and hungry that it drained uspletely. We barely separated ourselves before we passed out together, right there on the couch.


    I once again woke to an exmation from Dietrich, this time it wasughter. I sat up, blinking the sleep from my eyes and looking around the room. It waste afternoon, we had slept for a good few hours.


    "What is it this time?" I heard a note ofughter in my voice.


    "Do you notice anything different about me?" Dietrich asked, beaming.


    "Should I?"


    "Smell me my love."


    His request sounded strange but Iplied.


    "Ok." I leaned forward and smelled him. I put my nose against his neck and inhaled deeply. I smelled his cognac, musk, and leather. I took another deep breath though, drawing his scent in again because there was something else. I could smell strawberries, vani, and something else I couldn''t quite ce.


    "Why do you smell different?" I asked him, pulling away in a hurry which only made Dietrich smile even more.


    "We''re pregnant together, Shawn."


    "What?"


    "We will go through this together now, my love."


    "Are you t-telling m-me th-that, that, that-. I was stuttering and stammering too much that Dietrich finished for me.


    "I am pregnant Shawn. See, you proved you are a man as well. I am pregnant just the same as you. One boy and one girl." Dietrich seemed to giggle.


    "F-f-f-four? F-f-f-four b-b-b-babies?" I was like a scratched CD, skipping at the same spot over and over again. "F-f-f-four b-b-b-babies?"


    "Yes, Shawn, we are having two sets of twins. We will have such a big family. Isn''t this wonderful?"


    "F-f-f-four b-b-b-babies?" I think my brain was broken.

 Chapter 285 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 31 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 285 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 31 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    Shawn and I spent about a month in our new home before we left for Germany. He wanted to leave before either of us started showing. He was still quite distressed about the idea of people seeing him while we were pregnant, but I didn''t think it was that big of a problem.


    I mean, who cares if people knew we had carried our own children. There was magic at work here, magic that was making our dreams of a familye true. And we had gotten pregnant the same day, just hours away from each other. This was splendid, really.


    We had gotten pregnant together on Shawn''s birthday at the end of August. Both pregnancies seemed to be following shifter rules, ording to Griffin who came to check on us from time to time. And with that fact in mind, it meant that we were due at the end of February. Possibly a little earlier since we were carrying twins and they usually went early as it was.


    We had moved into my castle in Germany, using my subjects to do our shopping and other important things so neither of us would have to be seen. I guess Shawn was right, to see two men, obviously tall, fit, and strong men, walking around pregnant would arouse some sort of suspicion about us. So, it was for that matter that we stayed secluded in my former home for the nearly five months that we had to wait.


    Things were going great though. Shawn was a little hormonal at times, but who wasn''t when they were pregnant?


    "Dietrich! I want some ice cream!" Shawn was yelling at me from the bedroom where he was looking over things on theputer. He had been taking remote online sses, learning more German, and shopping for baby items. That was how he had spent his days.


    My servants here had mostly epted him immediately. I had told them about my ascension into royalty and about my partner, who was the Hybrid King. There were only a few bad eggs that needed to be disciplined. Ever since then, things had been smooth sailing.


    "What kind of ice cream do you want, Geliebte?" I asked him as I set my book aside.


    "I want chocte ice cream with jpenos and blood." That was another thing, my mate had been craving blood ever since getting pregnant. We both needed it to survive, and we both needed more of it since we had gotten pregnant, but he seemed to want it more frequently than I did.


    "Donor blood?" I asked him even though I knew what his response was going to be.


    "No, your blood. It tastes so much sweeter than the donor blood."


    "Whatever you want, Liebling." I rose to my feet and walked to the kitchen. We were both quiterge now, needing to walk differently as the babies grew inside of us. But I would do anything for my love, and I could not stop spoiling him.


    I scooped the ice cream into arge bowl and topped it with the freshly chopped peppers he wanted. Thest thing I did was bite into my wrist gently and drizzle the blood onto the ice cream for him.


    I walked back up to the room, neither of us feltfortable shadow walking while pregnant, not knowing how it would affect the babies, so I just waddled as quickly as I could.


    When I got back to the room I found Shawn looking at yet another site for baby clothes and other things we would need. All of the stuff he was ordering was going straight to our house back home, we had the essentials here but we would be flying home within a week of the deliveries and would therefore need to have everything there instead.


    "Here you are my love." I handed my husband his bowl and kissed his head.


    "What do you think of this set?" He asked me as he took the dessert from me.


    The image on the screen showed a double set of baby clothes, one blue one purple. They were meant for fraternal twins of opposite genders and they had little paw prints all over them.


    "Aren''t they adorable?" He asked me with the sweetest looking smile on his face. He didn''t realize how much he was getting into this whole idea of parenthood. How, dare I say, motherly he was bing. But I couldn''t get enough of seeing him like this.


    It was valentines day now, and we were having a special dinner, just the two of us alone in our room sitting before a roaring firece. Griffin and Lana were down stairs in their room and our staff was elsewhere. I just wanted to spend a night where my mate and I could have some romantic time together.


    We hadn''t been intimate in a long time, not since our growing bellies had gotten past a certain size. Though in the beginning the raging hormones had made us want each other so much more than we had before the pregnancies. That had been some fun times.


    We still wanted each other now, the need and desire was still there for the both of us, but we wouldn''t be able to be together that way until there were no obstructions in the way. Still though, we wanted to do something together.


    Following dessert, I sat Shawn down on the couch and knelt before him.


    "What do you think you''re doing?" He asked me with skepticism in his voice. "You know we can''t do this right now."


    "I just want a lollipop." I joked with him. "Is that so bad?"


    "Dietrich." Heughed as he said my name while he shook his head. Then he took a deep, sharp breath and said my name again, but this time with pain. "Dietrich!"


    I felt the surprise and pain that hade over him then, not understanding what it meant.


    "What is wrong, my love?"


    "Something''s wrong. It hurts, it hurts so bad." His face was already going pale and beads of sweat were forming on his brow.


    "I will go call for Griffin." I said as I went to stand up. However, before I could get to my feet a sharp, whole body pain overtook me and I fell to the floor, gasping. "Ahh!"


    "W-what''s wrong?" He asked me through pained breaths.


    "Pain, so much pain."


    "What is happening?" Shawn looked scared as he asked me that.


    "D-do, do you think it''s time?" I wondered, not knowing what else it could be.


    I linked to my staff then, demanding they go to fetch Griffin and Lana immediately.


    Things happened quickly then. Griffin came in and said we were indeed having the babies tonight. The delivery room had been set up for a week now, ever since Griffin and Lana came to stay until the babies were born. We were being moved there immediately. However, neither of us were able to walk so we were instead carried there by members of the staff.


    Shawn in one bed, me in the other, weid there side by side as Griffin and Lana moved between us. There were various monitors being connected to us,ying across ourrge bellies. And someone was setting out a lot of metal instruments.


    We didn''t know how the men of the past, of the legends, had delivered their babies, but we were opting for cesarean sections. No way were we going to try and figure this out some other way.


    Griffin did his work quickly and efficiently, as did Lana. Between the two of them they delivered the babies and set them into their corresponding basss. We had indeed each had two babies, one boy and one girl. And with us being vampires, we healed very quickly. Not even ten minutes after the surgery we would have healed even if Griffin and Lana hadn''t used their magic on us.


    But, as it was, Griffin and Lana both did have powers and as soon as they had gotten the babies out they had us closed up and back to normal in seconds. There was no evidence on our bellies at all that we had been pregnant. No stretch marks, no scars, no loose skin. It was amazing really.


    The only evidence of the whole ordeal were the four squirming squealing babies.


    The babies were cleaned up and handed to us, one by one. Shawn had had fraternal twins, as did I. But then, why was it that we had two sets of identical twins?


    The thing about our babies was that both the boys looked just like Shawn and both the girls looked just like me. They looked like one set of identical girls and one set of identical boys, but we had birthed them separately. That was quite unique. Aside from that, the babies were perfect and beautiful, and ours.


    The two girls were born with full heads of ck hair and eyes that were so light they looked white. I''m sure the blue woulde into themter. The boys were born with Shawn''s silver hair, full heads of it. And their eyes were gray. They were as handsome as could be.


    We spent a few minutes then just looking over them. We did notice one slight difference in the babies. They seemed to be born with birthmarks. All the marks were in the same ce on all four of them, the right shoulder. All four of the marks were of a crescent moon as well. It''s just that with the two babies Shawn had birthed the moons faced out, toward the right side of the body. The two that I had birthed had the moon facing inward, toward the left side of the body. It made it easy to tell them apart at least.


    We chose the names for them as we sat together in the giant bed in our room. We had wanted to see the babies before we chose their names. We wanted to know what they looked like first. The girls were named Alyssa and Alexandria. The boys were named Levi and Luka.


    We spent the first week with the babies in Germany, getting used to our new lives as parents. But we had sent word that we wereing home with surprises very soon.

 Chapter 286 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 32 (BL)

    <h4>Chapter 286 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHAWN AND DIETRICH CHAPTER 32 (BL)</h4>


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    Our time in Germany was interesting to say the least. I admit that I was a little unstable and hormonal during it. I realize that. But I couldn''t help it. And then there was the fact that Dietrich was the best mate in the world even though he was going through the same things I was.


    Dietrich took such good care of me while we were pregnant, so much so that I couldn''tin about a single thing. And then, the day finally came. We had had a romantic dinner together on Valentine''s day, and Dietrich wanted some dessert. I was surprised by that but almost immediately after he tried to start I felt sharp pains. When Deitrich went to stand he had equal pains.


    We were inbor, together. We had Griffin and Lanae to us then. We were carried down to the delivery room that Griffin had set up when he got here the week before. Things went fast and we ended up with two sets of fraternal twins that also happened to be two sets of identical twins.


    Our children Alyssa, Alexandria, Levi, and Luka. Our babies looked like us, the girls like my husband and the boys like me. We spent some time getting to know our babies and getting to know how to be parents. But soon, it was time for us to head home.


    I was d we were flying on private nes. It would make taking care of the babies that much easier.


    The babies had been born on the fourteenth and we were back home on the twenty third. We went straight to our house, which was in the woods not far from Trinity and Reece''s estate near the housing development that Reece had made.


    When we got home, with the helping hands of Griffin and Lana apanying us, we found that there was a wee home party for us.


    Mom, Dad, Shane, Falena, Trinity and Reece with their children, David, Rawlynne, Jackson, Vincent and his family, and Gabriel. Everyone I was close with was there. The moment I walked in through the door my mom ran to my side, happy and angry at the same time.


    "SHAWN!" She called out to me. She had clearly wanted a hug but I was holding Luka in my arms at the time. "Shawn?" She said my name again, curiosity in her eyes and voice.


    "What''s this?" Dad asked as he joined Mom at my side.


    "Well, we have a surprise for you guys."


    "Are these children your?" Mom asked, she was looking at Luka in my arms and Levi in Lana''s arms.


    "Yes, yes they are."


    "And these two look like Dietrich." Dad smiled at Alexandria and Alyssa.


    "They''re our children."


    "Did you get surrogates?" Mom asked me as she cooed over the babies. "You got surrogates and made us grandparents."


    "No surrogates mom." I smiled at her. Since the babies were born I was no longer embarrassed, I was ready to tell my family the truth. I was ready to tell them what really happened.


    "I don''t understand." Dad frowned at me.


    "We carried them. Dietrich and I."


    "Wait? Are you telling me you left because you were pregnant?" Shane yelled from across the room. "Are you fucking serious?"


    "We both were." I didn''t feel upset or angry at all when he said this. "It was magic and it allowed us to have our own children."


    "So you had twin boys and Dietrich had twin girls?" Mom asked me, taking this all in stride with a happy smile.


    "No."


    "So you had the girls?" Dad asked then.


    "No." Dietrich answered that time.


    "I''m confused." Shane scratched his head.


    "We each had one of each." I told them.


    "But they''re two sets of identical twins." Dad pointed out.


    "And they were conceived with magic." I also pointed out. "So we had them split between us.


    "Oh my goodness. This is amazing news." Mom was jumping for joy then. "I am a grandmother to four babies at once. We have quadruplets Franklin. We have such a big family now."


    "I know what you mean, sweetheart. I am happy as well. We have seen what our son is capable of." They were beaming at us then, smiling with joy at their grandchildren.


    "Don''t forget that I am an uncle. And Falena is an Aunty. Oh, and Shawn will be an uncle before too much longer as well." Shane was adding happily.


    "Really?" I was surprised to hear what he had to say.


    "Yes, she''s due next month." Shane looked like a proud father, I knew that feeling well. I had felt that feeling while I was pregnant and every moment since when I looked at my children.


    "Our kids can be close, almost like siblings." Dietrich smiled at Shane. "I am happy for you Shane, you will know the joy of parenthood so soon."


    The partymenced then. Everyone present was giving advice and taking turns to meet our children. Mom and Dad were making ns to stay with us for a while, to help take care of the babies until we hired a full time nanny, if mom even allowed a nanny other than herself.


    We were all ready to settle into our new lives with our family. Mom and Dad were happy to have the babies there. Shane was a proud uncle and father to be. Falena looked like a radiant expectant mother. Trinity was already a wonderful mother. Reece was a protective and doting father. And Dietrich was being the best husband and father to our children that I could have asked for. What more was there to want out of life?


    We settled into our bed for the night, the nursery that Reece helped to set up for us was right next to our room so we would be close if the babies needed us. Mom and Dad were settled into the room on the other side of the nursery, fully intending to pull their weight when it came to helping with their newborn grandchildren.


    Life was perfect.


    ~~~~~


    Five Years And A Half Later


    ~~~~~


    Shawn


    ~~~~~


    It was a bright morning inte August, the sounds of kids fighting andughing could be heard no matter where I went in the house. I had just finished packing four lunches. I was preparing four backpacks. And even with all that I had to do, I never once felt like I wanted anything else. This was my life, our life, just me, Dietrich, and our beautiful children.


    "Alex, stop picking on your brother." Dietrich was yelling from down the hall as he helped to tie Ally''s shoes.


    "But Papa, he was being silly again." Alex whined in her adorable little voice.


    "Was not." Luka pouted.


    "Was too!" Levi added. "You were walking in the dark again. You know we can''t do that when we get to the school."


    "I know." Luka hung his head. "It''s just so much fun."


    I walked to Luka''s side and knelt next to him. He looked so much like me and his Uncle Shane that it made me remember back to when Shane and I were this age. Only, there were just the two of us and I have four this age. It was usually a chaotic time.


    "Luka, I know that you''re a good boy, and a smart boy too. I know you won''t do anything that you''re not supposed to."


    "I won''t Daddy. I promise."


    "We know, Luka." Dietrich smiled at him as he stood, Ally now ready for us to leave.


    Today was their first day of school. The first day of Kindergarten. What was I going to do? I think my heart was just about to break.


    We got the kids into the car, strapped them in securely and set off. We had other ways of getting them to school, but we chose a normal family way. Even though they were much, much more sturdy than other kids their age.


    When we arrived at the small school that Reece and Trinity had built just for the use of ourmunity we all got out of the car. The kids alternated naturally, boy, girl, boy, girl. It was like they didn''t even have to talk about it, they all went to where they were used to going.


    Dietrich and I went to follow our brood into the school but they stopped us immediately.


    "No Daddy, you two stay here." Ally said firmly.


    "That''s right, we''re big kids now." Levi added in his soft voice.


    "We want to go in alone." Alex, a born leader, spoke next.


    "We don''t want the other kids picking on us." Luka rounded our their refusal to have their dads walk them in.


    "Why would they pick on you?" Dietrich asked with his head tilted to the side.


    "Because if you walk us in we will look like babies." They all four spoke with perfect timing. They really were a perfect set of quads.


    "Alright, we get it." Dietrichughed. "Do we get hugs and kisses at least?"


    They thought about that for a second beforeing to an instantaneous and unanimous decision.


    "YUP!" They all ran to us, jumping into our arms. We hugged them, holding them tight and kissing them all over their faces.


    After that, they held hands and walked away in one long line. I felt the tears begin then as my heart shattered.


    "It will be just fine, Liebling. They will be hometer today." Dietrich pulled me to his side, hugging me gently.


    "I know, Geliebte. But I miss them already."


    "Makes you wish we could have more, huh?" He chuckled into my ear.


    "Shut your fucking mouth." I snapped at him as I pulled away to get back into the car.


    But he wasn''t wrong.

 Chapter 287 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 1

    <h4>Chapter 287 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 1</h4>


    ~~


    Rawlynne


    ~~


    "Raw, I need you on this ASAP." My boss, Director Harris, threw a file onto my desk before slouching into the chair across from me.


    "What''s this?" I asked as I grabbed the mani folder.


    "Serial kidnapping in Colorado Springs. They''ve had eight kids go missing in the course of two weeks." I could see him itching to grab the pack of cigarettes from his pocket, but he wasn''t allowed to smoke inside so he just had to push past it.


    "Eight?" I felt the shock settle on me when I heard what he had said.


    "Yeah, and there is crap for evidence. Half the kids even disappeared from their homes and nothing." There was tension in his voice and the set of his shoulders.


    "Any suspicion of the parent''s?" That''s always the first ce to look at a case like this, but the fact that there were so many of them made that a little less likely.


    "No, it all seems to be clear that it was done by someone else. The kids came from good homes, no abuse, nothing that sticks out at all. But the fact that we have nothing to go on is pissing me off." His voice was full of anger and barely controlled rage. Harris had a soft spot for kids and he knew I did as well. "You''re the best I have for a case like this Rawlynne. I need you on it right away."


    "No worries, Harris, I will head out immediately. Do you have some contact info for someone I need to make feel very ufortable now that we''re stepping in?"


    "It''s all in the file, so do your best to get this settled as soon as you can."


    "No worries, I will get it done, boss. I''ve never failed yet."


    With that Harris left and I could already see Jackson making his way toward my office. Jackson McIan was my partner, a year younger than me but fiercely loyal and protective of me. Jackson was the brother I never had growing up.


    "So, do we have somewhere to go?" Jackson was a sweet guy that was often misunderstood by others. His light blonde hair and warm chocte colored eyes were all innocent looking, but his bodybuilder''s physique and imposing six foot two stuature worked against him.


    "I was thinking of going alone." I told him as he flopped into the same chair that Harris had been in a few moments ago.


    "What? No way, Where you go I go." I knew that he was going to insist on that. He always insisted on going with me.


    However, there was a reason why I wanted him to stay home this time. I knew that the ce I was going was crawling with wolves. I had no pack and was considered a rogue. Ever since my parents died I decided not to be involved in the whole thing. But if this was exactly what I was expecting it to be then there was no staying out of the wolves'' territory this time.


    I suspected a strong supernatural force behind these kidnappings. They weren''t the first and they wouldn''t be thest. Harris knew about me, about what I really was, but he had known me for a long time. Jackson didn''t know, and he didn''t need to know. But what I was, what I am, that let me crack these types of cases wide open.


    "Come on Raw, we go together, you know that. I have to keep an eye out for my little sister."


    "Jack, I''m older than you." I reminded him for at least the thousandth time.


    "Semantics. I''m bigger so you''re my little sister." He was grinning at me. When Jackson and I met a few years back he had just lost his sister in an ident. He seemed totch onto me then, and not really knowing that I was missing that whole family essence Itched onto him as well. We made the perfect team, always in sync.


    "I''m going with you." He insisted, leaving no room for arguing.


    "Fine, but no one else, we will handle this alone, just the two of us."


    "Sure, no prob." He was grinning now, all seriousness washing away from him in an instant. "Soo." He dragged the word out a little before smiling at me again. "Where are we going?"


    I put my head in my hand, shaking theughter from me before I made fun of him. He would have insisted on going with me without knowing the destination, and he would never back out after finding out. He was always like this.


    "Colorado Springs."


    "Another kidnapping?"


    "Serial." I handed him the file. "Eight kids in two weeks. We need to stop the bastard."


    "Damn, what do you think they''re after? Trafficking? Sex ring? Or a child killer?"


    "I don''t know yet. I won''t know until I review everything they have and that we have."


    "How soon do we leave?"


    "Tomorrow. I want to get this over with soon."


    I looked at my watch. It was still early so we could get it all nned out now. Too bad that the local office in CS was out ofmission. They had a bombing suspect who had wanted to make an impression. Thankfully no one was killed, but there had been quite a few people hurt in the explosion. And unfortunately the office was not back up and running yet. It would have been easier to use their facilities while we were there.


    Calls were made to the proper people. And I couldn''t help but notice that one of the names and numbers in my file was not police rted. Though the person did have a private investigator''s license, this man was actually a CEO of a massivepany. The kind ofpany that is passed down through the generations and is very selective on who they hire.


    This was thepany that was owned by Reece Gray, Alpha of the Red Springs wolf pack, thergest pack in the country. This was going to be touchy, he probably would not take kindly to me investigating on his territory.


    Shortly before I was due to leave the office, I got a call on my cell phone. A call from someone in the? Colorado Springs Police Department.


    "Hello?" I answered as I shut my door, something that earned me a curious look from Jackson.


    "Is this Agent Otsana?" A rough man''s voice answered on the other end.


    "Yeah, who''s this?" I could hear my prickly nature already rising in my voice.


    "My name is Detective Masterson with the Colorado Springs Police Department."


    "You''re calling awfullyte, aren''t you Detective?"


    "Well, I assume I had a busy day, same as you usually do." He chuckled a little, at least he seemed to be an amiable guy.


    "What can I do for you, Detective Masterson?"


    "I hear you''re on your way here for a visit. When might we be expecting you?"


    "I already told your Captain this. I will be there tomorrow afternoon."


    "You know how it is, they nevermunicate very well." He wasughing again. "I will be working with you primarily when you get here. Just look for me and I will set you right up."


    "Oh, speaking of. I want to have a meeting with Mr. Gray." I was pretty sure I knew why this Detective Masterson had reached out to me, if he reacted how I expected now, then I know I was right.


    "With Reece?" Bingo. He didn''t just know that man in question, he was on a first name basis with him. That meant that Detective Masterson was one of them too. Heh, I wonder what they will say when I finally show my hand. I had my ways of hiding my true self even among my kind.


    "Yes, Mr. Gray''s name came up in my investigation and I would like to talk to him. I hear he even went to question the victim''s families."


    "Mr. Gray is a very good man that cares about his town. He''s no suspect here." He was definitely loyal to his Alpha.


    "Still, I''d like to meet him for myself. You know, just to be sure."


    "Yes ma''am. I will set up a meeting for tomorrow for you."


    "I would appreciate it." This was going to be interesting. "Have a good night, Detective Masterson." I hung up then, smirking to myself. The good detective there had called to snoop out info on me, most likely he had been informed of my visit but not the arrival so he called me to find out all just so he could pass along all the details to his Alpha.


    Oh, this was going to be interesting indeed. I just hoped that when they find out who, what, I really am that things don''t go too bad. I usually never reveal myself to the Alpha''s of territories that I investigate in, but then again most of them don''t run packs that are thergest in the country. This man, this Alpha, was not someone to trifle with. I had to tread carefully, that''s for sure, but I was still betting that it was going to be fun.

 Chapter 288 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 2

    <h4>Chapter 288 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 2</h4>


    ~~


    Rawlynne


    ~~


    This day had been busy so far, and it wasn''t likely to settle down anytime soon. I had woken up early to head to the office. There had been a few things I needed to finalize before I left with Jackson. We weren''t going far so we were driving, I didn''t want to worry about looking for a new vehicle there.


    After a few hours I went to get the Expedition out of the garage. I loaded my bags and some gear into the back then hopped in to get Jackson from his house.


    The trip from Denver to Colorado Springs would take a little more than an hour. The ride there was calm and filled with the usual type of banter that Jackson and I usually had. I hoped this case wouldn''t be too difficult, but with Jackson there with me it would be easier on me a little. He always helped to make me feel better. He was the only man I could trust, the perfect brother for me.


    When we got to the police station in Colorado Springs it was the same old same old. The detectives from the local beat and their captains weren''t happy about having their case taken from them and handed to the FBI.


    Stepping on their toes. Leeching their hard work and evidence. Stealing the spotlight and making them look like idiots. Craving glory. Attention seekers. Backstabbing dogs.


    Those were just a few of the insults I usually got when I took a case from the local boys and girls in blue. They never really liked working with us.


    There were always a few that didn''t mind. A few good eggs among the bunch that would help us instead of insult us.


    There were two such good eggs that I noticed right away. The first was the overly eager Detective Masterson, I had known that he would be willing to help me ever since he called me. The other was a Detective Scott, a quiet and tall man that seemed very capable.


    I was going to use these two and get all the information that I could from them.


    After the brief introductions I spoke with Detective Masterson to get directions to Reece Gray''s house. He wanted toe along and encouraged me to wait.


    "He has a representativeing to the station as we speak. His name is David and he is a pretty good private investigator."


    "No offense, Detective Masterson, but I don''t want to see his representative, I want to meet Mr. Gray myself. Unless he has something that he needs to hide from me." I grinned at the man before me, his bright green eyes went wide with shock and a desire to defend his Alpha.


    "Absolutely not. Mr. Gray is an amazing man."


    "Then he should have no problem meeting me, right?"


    "Yes ma''am." He conceded to my words and handed me the directions that would take me to the Alpha''s estate.


    To get to the estate I had to go through some sort of a gatedmunity which I thought was kind of pompous. Did these wolves really feel the need to separate themselves from everyone else? That was just so idiotic.


    When I started to drive up the driveway to the Alpha''s estate I knew I was in for something extremely over the top. I had seen Alpha estates before and I knew that they had all been made to look like mansions or mini castles. The one that was hidden in the woods was thergest estate I had ever seen.


    Seriously? Being an Alpha must be a very lucrative job. This level of security and insanity was just not normal.


    I walked to the front door of that castle in the woods, that was the only name for it, and rang the bell. The person who answered the door was an aging man that basically personified the word butler.


    "Good day to you Miss, how may I help you?" At least he was polite, and he was definitely a wolf. I could smell iting off of him.


    "I''m here to see Mr. Gray. My name is Agent Otsana from the FBI." I could tell by the look in his eyes I had not been expected.


    "Please wait in the sitting room, I will announce your visit."


    The elderly man took me to wait in a parlor while he went upstairs to speak to his Alpha. I had asked for a meeting with Mr. Gray and had gotten a representative instead. Clearly, Mr. Gray was trying hard to avoid meeting me so soon.


    After a little while the man came back and told me I was permitted to head up to Mr. Gray''s office. I was guided from the sitting room to the stairs and up to the third floor. I walked down the hallway almost to the end and was shown inside.


    The shock was clear on all their faces. None of them knew what to think of me. And I knew that the special perfume I had been wearing, which I helped to develop myself, was hiding the fact that I was a wolfpletely.


    "Good morning." I smiled sweetly at them as I scanned the room, cataloguing everyone that was present. "Thank you for taking the time to meet with me, I am Agent Rawlynne Otsana from the Denver field office. I''m here to investigate the recent kidnappings." I intentionally spoke friendly and soft, I didn''t want to put them on edge at all.


    "Good morning Agent Otsana, my name is Reece Gray, it''s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. May I ask what brings you to see us today?" Mr. Gray was a very good looking man with ck hair and golden eyes, and very tall.


    "As I said, I am in town investigating the recent child abductions."


    "And your investigation immediately led you to my doorstep?" The Alpha who was sitting in his throne like chair behind his desk looked at me with a stern expression.


    "Well, I could say it was your private investigations that led me to you." I smiled at him.


    "So, trying to help the families of the missing children is a crime now?" The Alpha was definitely getting angry now, interesting.


    "Only if it interferes with my investigation." I just smiled at his anger, knowing that it would piss him off even more. Toying with Alphas was fun, if you did it right. "But, to say that would be dishonest of me." I smiled again, showing that I didn''t really suspect him of anything.


    "Then what brought you here?" The Alpha demanded from me.


    "I figured I should introduce myself to the local alpha."


    Oh if I had been expecting shock then I wasn''t disappointed. They all looked like they had been pped with a stupid stick when I said that. They had just discovered that I knew what they were and who they were. But they still didn''t know that I was a wolf as well.


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about." Reece Gray said after just a few moments of hesitation. He was clearly more surprised than he had thought he would be during this meeting.


    "No?" I cooed. "I must be mistaken, you see I was under the impression that the Alpha of the Red Springs wolf pack was Reece Gray. Have you been reced already?" I raised an eyebrow and tilted my head to the side to show a fake sense of confusion. "And I was just told about you this morning too. Wow, that was definitely fast." Iughed quietly at my own joke since I had in fact not been told today but years ago when I had found out.


    "Who exactly are you? And what do you want?" This Alpha barely kept his anger in control then. He clearly didn''t like being surprised like this.


    "Me? I already told you, my name is Rawlynne Otsana of the FBI."


    "You know what I mean." He snapped at me causing me tough.


    "I take it there are no name experts in this room." I giggled, batting my eyes as I looked at him.


    "Nope, so that means you need to exin." A different man, one with dark brown hair, answered this time.


    "Let me break it down for you. Rawlynne, it''s a varied spelling of the English name of the same pronunciation, it means wolf counsel or wise wolf. And Otsana is an old European name that means she-wolf. Does that exin anything?"


    "So either you know about us because your name made you curious, or you''re hiding your true scent and your parents had a sense of humor just like mine." A young man with bright eyes and ashy blond hair answered .


    "Thetter." I looked at him with a serious look. "What humor did your parents have?" I was curious.


    "They named me Cedar Woods, and my twin sister is Juniper." That made me bellyugh.


    "I think our moms must have been friends, both being theedians that they are." Cedar actuallyughed at my words. The tension in the room finally eased a little after that.


    "Alright, so you''re a wolf as well. That still doesn''t tell me why you''re here." Reece Gray grumbled. "And how are you hiding your scent?"


    "Years of practice and getting used to strong perfume. That''s all you''re smelling from me right? Well, I can still smell you." She smiled at us. "And as for why I am here, I know that three of the missing boys are cubs from your pack, and I know you''re going to be investigating with or without my help, so why not skip the middle part where we act like we can''t help each other and are somehow enemies for no reason and we can get straight to helping each other out. Willingly or reluctantly, I''ll amodate the best I can. But just so you know, I think it''ll be easier if we can just help each other out now so we don''t need to get to that whole you scratch my back, I''ll scratch yours situation." I hadn''t intended to be so helpful at first, but I could tell this was a strong pack, there was no need to stay away from them. No point in it really.


    "Seriously?" The Alpha looked dumbfounded, he hadn''t been expecting that answer from me at all. "So, you want us to work together?"


    "Yeah, and what makes it so much easier is that a lot of you are PI''s so I can say we''re just working together."


    "What''s the catch?" He just didn''t trust me, I could see it on his face.


    "Why do you think there''s a catch?"


    "There always is."


    "Don''t be so pessimistic, Reece." A woman sitting with him tried to calm him down.


    "No, I know how this usually goes. It''s not the first time that someone has tried to manipte or use a pack to further themselves."


    "Look, I''m here to help us all out. If you want to be a dick and throw that into my face that''s on you."


    "What the hell did you just say to me? Don''t ever speak to me like that again." He snarled at her.


    "Sorry big boy, but I''m not part of your pack, you can''t order me around." I taunted him.


    "I can still make you shut that-."


    "ENOUGH!" That same woman yelled at us. "I don''t want to hear another word from either of you right now, just shut up and listen."


    When I heard her words my mouth snapped shut and my eyes popped in surprise.


    "We''re all wolves here and we''re all looking for the same group of psychopaths, either you set aside your petty bullshit or you get the hell out. I intend to find these kids as quick as I can and your damn squabbling is only going to make things worse." Everyone looked momentarily shocked by her outburst.


    "Watch yournguage Trinity Faith." An elderly man scolded her.


    "Little Bunny, you''re right." Reece looked like a little kid who was caught stealing cookies before dinner, guilty and embarrassed.


    "How were you able to force me to follow your orders?" That hadn''t happened to me since I was a teenager and frankly, it scared the shit out of me.

 Chapter 289 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 3

    <h4>Chapter 289 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 3</h4>


    ~~


    David


    ~~


    Reece had told me that there was an FBI agenting to help with the investigation and that they wanted to meet with him. He wanted me to go and vet this person, see what they were like and if we could trust them. So, that was why I had been on my way to the police station right now.


    "Dammit, why does it seem like I am being punished?" I asked the empty car as I drove. "I have a feeling I didn''t do enough during the battle and now I am in trouble." I hung my head and sighed as these things made me feel a little more than slightly depressed.


    When I arrived at the station I found out that there had been two FBI agents there. The first left to go visit with Reece in person.


    ''FUCK!'' I screamed inside my head. ''Reece is going to be mad that I couldn''t stop her from going to the estate.''


    The second FBI agent had gone to get them checked into their hotel rooms and I had just missed him as well.


    ''DAMMIT!'' I couldn''t win with this damn situation.


    Well, I failed on my mission two for two so far. I was also supposed to get as much info from the local police as I could. There was no way I was going to fail with that part. I spent all day gathering the info they had. I needed to figure all of this out and organize it. The problem was, there was just not enough information to warrant anything.


    I spent all day that day and the next gathering information by interviewing every street cop and detective that had even sneezed in the direction of this case. I was thorough and meticulous when it came to information like this. I needed to keep things clear and make sure that anything and everything was ounted for.


    Reece had told me that I was going to be working directly with the FBI after I had gathered all the information that I could so I was doing the best that I could so that they wouldn''t think that I was ipetent.


    Today Reece had called me so that we could meet up with the FBI agents together. I had been busy over the weekend and was not able to connect with them, they had gone to interview the victim families while I handled my part so we were separately busy. Now, though, it was time for the big meeting.


    I just hoped that they were not too angry over Reece sending us to work with them. I know that at least one was a wolf, based on what Reece had told me, but I don''t think that they both were. This was going to be tricky. How were we going to work together if we had to hide things from one of them every step of the way?


    They were staying in a house that Reece owned now instead of the hotel. He wanted to be hospitable to them, to show them that we were friends. As soon as we parked the car and started to walk toward the house a man opened the door and stormed out.


    This man was clearly human, but he had the attitude of a wolf for sure. I knew that this man was Agent Jackson McIan, the second inmand for the FBI agents that were helping us. It seemed that not just his attitude would have fit in with the wolves, he was tall, and very strong looking. If he had been a wolf he could have been a warrior.


    "Mr. Gray, good evening." Agent McIan called out to us as we approached. "I hope you don''t find this rude, but can you exin to me why it''s so important you and your cronies are part of my investigation?" He was definitely suspicious of all of us, especially since none of us had ever met him before.


    "May we discuss this inside, Agent McIan?" Reece smiled at him to show that we were not a threat. The man seemed to visibly darken at his words though and was immediately on guard.


    "I would like to refuse, but as Otsana is in charge of this investigation I can''t very well say no."


    "That, and I do own this house." Reece joked with him.


    "Of course you do. Because why not, you seem to own everything else." He actuallyughed at that one.


    "Jack, enough with the tough guy routine, these are important members of our investigative team." A lovely female voice called out from inside the house.


    "I don''t see why we need a group of PIs, especially one that''s just a billionaire yboy ying games."


    "Is that how the world sees me?" Reece looked between me and Noah as he asked this.


    "Absolutely not, Sir." I answered immediately.


    "Definitely." Noah was joking around like usual.


    "I''m a billionaire, yes. But I am so much more than that. Can''t we just talk for a little while Agent McIan, I''m sure you wille to trust me more."


    "Whatever." McIan said, stepping aside and letting us in.


    We started into the house again and as I did I heard that musical voice again, but I also smelled the most perfect scent in the world. It was my mate. She was here and my wolf was already howling.


    "Forgive him, he''s just acting like a big brother to me. Even though he''s younger than-." The woman stopped mid sentence as she started to stare at me. Her face was full of shock and awe. I know that I, likewise, had a shocked and dumbfounded look on my face.


    "What''s the matter Rawlynne?" Agent McIan asked her with a hint of worry. "Do you recognize one of them as a criminal?"


    "None of us are criminals." Noah spat at the man.


    "I know what''s happening here." Reeceughed.


    "How can it be?" She breathed in disbelief.


    "I can''t believe it." I sighed. "After all these years, I''ve finally found you."


    "You two know each other?" Agent McIan asked his partner, but still she didn''t answer him.


    "I''m ny-nine percent sure they''ve never met before." Reece assured the man.


    "Then how could they have been looking for each other?" He was thoroughly confused.


    "That is a little hard to exin at the moment." Noah seemed ufortable.


    I started to walk toward the woman. Such a beauty she was.? But why was she backing away from me with every step that I took toward her? She was my mate. I was her mate. She should be just as happy as I am. So, why was she backing away from me?


    "Why are you backing away from me?" I asked her with pain in my voice.


    "This is the wrong time. I''m not ready." She pleaded. "I''ve got career goals, ns for my future that I thought I would follow. This wasn''t part of it."


    "But we can''t fight fate." I cooed at her in a calming voice.


    She had backed up against the wall, unable to move back any further so she just stared at me approaching her. She could have turned and fled in a different direction but she was mesmerized.


    "What is going on here?" Agent McIan asked.


    "You''re watching destiny unfold before you." Reece answered him.


    "Destiny?" He scoffed before falling silent.


    "What''s your name?" I asked her.


    "No." She shook her head.


    "Her name is Rawlynne Otsana, David, didn''t you hear us talking earlier?" I heard Reece''s voice.


    "Rawlynne." I smiled as I said her name. "I''m sorry, I stopped hearing anything for a little bit earlier. My dreams have alle true after all."


    "Stop saying that." Otsana yelled as I inched closer still.


    "Rawlynne." That name of hers was so sweet, I just had to say it again.


    "Don''t. Don''t say my name." She shivered both times she had heard me say her name.


    "But it''s so beautiful. And you smell so wonderful. Like soft subtle flowers and sweet decadent fruits. The smell, and sight, of you is making my mouth water." I felt desire well up in me, and I knew my eyes were darkening.


    "Stop, don''t say anymore." Her voice was weak.


    "That''s fine by me, there''s something else I''d rather do anyway."


    At that I leaned forward, and wrapped my right arm around her waist and pulled her toward me. cing my lips on hers I felt like I had just died and gone to heaven. My left hand was on the back of her head, angling her for a deeper kiss and holding her to me in an intimate position. We were kissing like it wasn''t the first time but the hundredth time. This was like we were lovers, like we had been together for so long.


    "Stop!" Agent McIan came to his senses and yelled at us. "This is uneptable and frankly inappropriate. Rawlynne, you don''t even know this man, why are you letting him kiss you like that?" He yelled at her.


    "She can''t help it, McIan, it''s destiny."


    "What''s that supposed to mean?" He looked even more perplexed.


    "It''s hard for me to exin, but for them just now, it was love at first sight."


    "Love at first sight doesn''t exist."


    Rawlynne pushed me away then, causing me and my wolf to both growl. I wasn''t happy, right now, I wanted more. I was being more assertive right now than I had ever been in my life and I know it was all due to my new mate.


    "Oh, it exists alright." Rawlynne was breathing heavily when she spoke to Agent McIan.


    "What''s going on here?" He asked her as I tried to pull her in for a hug.


    "David, control yourself." Reece snapped at me. "We have business to discuss." I turned away from my new mate and bowed my head in depression.


    "Yes, you''re right, Sir." I finally let my hands drop but I stayed standing next to my new mate.


    The five of us settled on the couches and chairs in the living room, I made certain to sit as close to my mate as I could. Agent McIan was still ring at me the entire time. Perhaps he was in love with Rawlynne too.


    "Will someone exin all of this to me?" He demanded, breaking the tense silence in the room. He was acting big and intimidating but it didn''t go well with the pale blue armchair that matched the very girly living room around us, filled with pastel colors and pretty furniture.


    "It''s hard to exin, as I said." Noah told him.


    "We need to tell him the truth, Noah. We would have to anyway, with the turn things have taken." Reece advised.


    "Alpha, no!" I yelled at him.


    "Alpha?" Agent McIan picked up on that right away. "Why did you call him alpha?"


    "Oh, well, I, you see, he''s-." I was a fool to slip up like that.


    "Because I am his alpha." Reece told him. "Agent McIan, you are about to enter a world that you have never known before. But it is a world that has always been there, just unseen by you."


    "What are you saying?" He was quickly losing his patience, he was apparently no good with being so out of control.


    "Jack, let me exin a little." Rawlynne spoke to him soothingly.


    "Wait, Otsana, let me start." Reece interrupted.


    "Alright." She nodded.


    "Jack, may I call you Jack?"Reece was speaking soothingly, trying to gain the man''s confidence. McIan nodded his head to show it was ok. "Now, Jack, the reason I am here, that we''re all here and intruding on your investigation is that three of the missing boys are from my pack."


    "Pack?" Jack looked skeptical at the word but Reece just continued.


    "During my private investigation I believe I have narrowed down the suspect list to who is responsible. That is not saying he took the children personally but had his people do it for him."


    "And who is this person?" Jack wondered but Reece ignored him.


    "The problem is, we do not know exactly where this man is hiding. I had called a contact of mine in Europe to send someone to help us all. Unfortunately that man was not up to the challenge of living in modern day society and has unfortunately met a very abrupt ending."


    "Ending?" McIan quirked his eyebrow.


    "Rest assured, he was at least a few hundred years old and had lived a full life."


    "You expect me to believe that Reece?" Jack asked.


    "You''ll believe it soon enough. You see, the man in question was a vampire." Jack interrupted then with a loud, barkingugh.


    "Yeah, sure, a vampire." He continuedughing. "Can we move past the fairy tales and get to the real story?" He asked.


    "I''m afraid this is not a fairy tale, Jack. This is all real. The Emissary that came to me this morning was indeed a vampire, but he has since perished. I killed him myself." Reece was admitting to so much right now, this was dangerous.


    "Are you a vampire hunter now?" McIan chuckled.


    "No Jack," Reece smiled at him with his canine teeth slightly extended on both the top and bottom. "I''m a werewolf." Jack exploded intoughter at that.


    "Right, a werewolf. Beware the full moon buddy." He wiped tears from his eyes that were caused from the uncontrobleughter.


    "He''s telling the truth." Noah told him. Jack looked between the two of them and saw the teeth and the changes in their pupils that marked a partial change.


    "What the hell?" He jumped to his feet and backed against the wall, much like Otsana had. "What are you people? Stay away from me." He had genuine fear in his eyes now.


    "I need you to understand that we are not monsters, Jack. People like me live and work in the world, all around you. We''re here, among the humans. We do not cause problems. If someone does, we tend to take care of that person immediately."


    "But you''re monsters." He seemed frightened.


    "Jack." Rawlynne said standing up. "They''re not monsters." She walked over to the man at the wall and put a hand on his shoulder. "After all, if they''re monsters then so am I." She told him, causing him to look at her instead of my Alpha.


    "Rawlynne, you...you...you''re one of them?" He stumbled on his words momentarily before he could talk.


    "Yes, Jack I am. And I am not a monster am I?" She asked him, her canines elongated and her eyes shining.


    "No." He shook his head. "No you''re not." He was calming a little, just a little. "But, when?" He asked her,


    "What do you mean when?" Sheughed at him.


    "When did you be a werewolf?"


    "I was born one." She told him with a smile. "Werewolf doesn''t mean what Hollywood has told you. We don''t change during a full moon, but whenever we want. The moon is like a symbol of power to us. We are not monsters or freaks. We are just people, like you, only a little special." She was soothing him.


    "You weren''t bitten?" She shook her head to answer him. "So, I can''t be turned out of spite or by ident?"


    "No Jack, though I have heard that there are ways to be one if a human truly wants to, but I don''t know the specifics of that."


    "I need to sit down." He allowed her to guide him to the couch where he copsed, seemingly spent from all the revtions.

 Chapter 290 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 4

    <h4>Chapter 290 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 4</h4>


    ~~


    Rawlynne


    ~~


    My heart was still pounding. I had just had a man walk into the house I was staying in. A man I had never seen before but had an instant connection with. He was my mate. How was this happening?


    He was a very good looking man though. He was about six feet three inches tall with jet ck hair and eyes so light green that they looked like jewels. His face was full of perfect lines, an angr jaw, perfect cheekbones. He was a handsome man, that was for sure. And the body that he was hiding beneath those clothes of his, I could tell that he worked out a lot. He was a warrior in the pack, most likely a guard since he was so capable. He was a drool worthy sight and I felt myself react instantly.


    It was too soon for me to have a mate. It was too soon for me to put my career on the back burner because fate told me this man and I were meant for each other.


    But I couldn''t deny that I was instantly drawn to him. I felt the wolf inside of me begging to be let free. Begging me to run to him and hold him tight. My wolf was apparently a horny bitch.


    The man came in and we both looked at each other like our worlds had just beenpleted. I was stunned, awestruck, as he started to walk closer and closer to me. I wasn''t paying as much attention to what was going on around me, my attention was almost fully on that man.


    I was backing away from him as he walked closer and closer to me. Already this man was talking about fate and destiny. When he was right in front of me he asked me my name.


    "What''s your name?"


    "No." I shook my head.


    "Her name is Rawlynne Otsana, David, didn''t you hear us talking earlier?" Reece told him in my stead.


    "Rawlynne." The man named David smiled at me. "I''m sorry, I stopped hearing anything for a little bit earlier. My dreams have alle true after all."


    "Stop saying that." I yelled at him as he came closer.


    "Rawlynne."


    "Don''t. Don''t say my name."


    "But it''s so beautiful. And you smell so wonderful. Like soft subtle flowers and sweet decadent fruits. The smell, and sight, of you is making my mouth water." David''s eyes visibly darkened with desire.


    "Stop, don''t say anymore." I squeaked.


    "That''s fine by me, there''s something else I''d rather do anyway."


    That was when he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me to him, kissing me with a fierce passion. Goddess, but I did love a man who could take charge like this. I was so used to being the one in control that I really like the idea of a man who knew what he wanted and took it. But NO this was not the right time.


    Not to mention that at that moment Jackson started to flip out. This whole situation was really taking its toll on him. He seemed to be having a really hard time. And it was for that specific reason that Reece decided it was only right to tell him. If Jackson was like a brother to me then he needed to know, or so Reece thought.


    That''s how the man closest to me found out what I really am.


    We spent at least an hour maybe more with Reece exining our world and then all of us discussing what we knew about the case. He had shared that he thought, no knew, that a warlock named Gannon Edmond was the mastermind behind these abductions.


    Apparently, Trinity, Reece''s mate that I met the other day, was Edmond''s daughter and he was some psychopath. He was the man who had kidnapped Trinity and tried to force witch magic out of her. This was all bing a lot moreplicated than we thought.


    And to top it all off, Reece would be helping us around his own work and nning for his wedding next month. Yay, so fun. Why did so much stuff have to happen all at once?


    When Reece and Noah left David decided he was going to stay behind. He wanted to talk to me a little longer, without his Alpha there to interfere. But it didn''t seem like Jackson was all that willing to let us talk.


    "You can go now too, wolf boy." Jackson sneered at him. This surprised me since he had started to adjust by the end of the whole thing and was epting of the others.


    "Jack!" I snapped at him. "That was uncalled for. What is the matter with you?"


    "I don''t like him." Jack snapped back. "He thinks he cane in here and just steal my little sister away." Jack looked like a sullen child at that moment, a lost little boy who was about to be left behind.


    "Jack." I smiled at him soothingly. "I''m not going anywhere. David and I are fated to be together. I hope that one day you could feel this way." I smiled at him to show that despite what I said I was still happy about meeting David. I wouldn''t tell him that really, because I was still mad about fate''s bad timing. Still, I could feel that pull, that attraction that was drawing me toward him.


    "This is all too sudden, don''t you think?" Jackson was still sulking.


    "Not for a werewolf. This is how we are."


    "Is it?" He looked perplexed by my words. It was like he didn''t know what to do with himself with all of this going on.


    "I am happy that I have met Rawlynne. And I know you two are close." David had walked closer to Jackson with a smile on his face. "I hope you and I can be friends, Jack, that we can get along and make things work out between all of us."


    "That''s a tall order, pal. Start by leaving anding back next year."


    "JACK!" I yelled at him.


    "I''m just joking." And to prove his point Jackson wasughing like a child, the way he usually did. "I will give you a shot, but if you hurt her I will kill you."


    At those words David grabbed both of my hands and looked into my eyes with a sense of longing and love.


    "I could never hurt her. I know that I will love her fiercely, when the dayes. I already feel myself falling for her now."


    "Ugh!" Jackson faked a gag. "I''m going for a walk. You two love birds get whatever this is out of your system before I get back."


    He didn''t say another word, Jack just turned, grabbed a coat, and left to disappear into the night. It was alreadyte so I hope he didn''t stay out there long.


    "Rawlynne." David tugged on my hand, directing my attention to him. "What do you say we get to know each other." He was grinning devilishly at me. He looked like the type that was typically soft spoken and shy but wasfortable being in charge when they knew what they wanted.


    "What did you have in mind?" I grinned at him, letting myself sumb to the feelings that had been struggling to get out since I had first seen him.


    "I think there are many ways to get to know more about each other." He grinned as he pulled me into his arms again. "How do you want to spend our alone time?"


    His arms were around me and lifting me off the floor almost instantly. He was supporting my weight with his arms as he kissed me right there in the living room. I felt his lips settle on mine, soft and strong and like something that had been missing from me for so long.


    I moaned and gasped unconsciously at the feel of the kiss, allowing him to once again slide his tongue into my mouth. He kissed like a man who knew what he was doing, which was good, he would be as experienced as I was then. No need to beat around the bush.


    I reveled in the kiss a little longer, enjoying the feeling of him exploring my mouth like it was the missing link, the lost piece of his soul, or just something he had been searching for for a long time. I buried my hands in his hair, grabbing tworge fistfuls of the silky strands. I could feel his t stomach and the muscles that rippled there. And more importantly I could feel the arousal he was holding for me as it grew, not so slowly, inside of his pants.


    "I think we should take this back there." I pointed toward the hall as he held me against him.


    "Hmm. I couldn''t have chosen a better ce." He kissed me again as he purred in satisfaction, already walking down the hallway.

 Chapter 291 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 5 (MATURE)

    <h4>Chapter 291 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 5 (MATURE)</h4>


    ~~


    Rawlynne


    ~~


    David was carrying me toward my room, his lip pressed against my neck. I wasn''t directing him where to go so he was most likely just following his nose in the direction of my scent.


    Soon, David had reached our destination, my back pressing up against the door. He hadn''t taken his mouth from me yet and the sensations were only growing.


    I knew this was all moving fast, but we were mated, and we were adults. Who cares. I''ve done the same with a man I met in a bar. At least this time it''s the man that the Moon Goddess says is the right one for me.


    With just a little effort David shifted me in his arms so that he was holding me one handed, the other hand reached blindly for the knob of the door. When the door flung open I had to wonder for a second if it broke the wall behind it with the force of the hit. I didn''t care though, all I wanted was the man that was currently trying to ravage me.


    It hadn''t been all that long since Jackson had left, just a matter of minutes and David was already dropping me onto my bed. It was only a full size, this being a rental and all. Everything in the house was very feminine, filled with flowery crap that didn''t suit my tastes at all, but they were functional enough.


    When David had leaned forward and dropped my bottom onto the bed it had been the only time that his mouth had left my body since the living room. His mouth had been hot and hungry, and powerful. I loved the feel of it already.


    I thought for a second how I had seemed to be against him at first because I didn''t want to give up my career, but I was so ready for something mind blowing like this to happen if it was going to be as good as it seemed. I would deal with the rest of itter.


    After I bounced on the edge of the bed I started to scoot back and smiled happily when I saw David begin to crawl up after me, already reaching for the buttons on his ck short sleeved button up shirt. He wasn''t wasting any time. I liked that.


    "You seem eager." I could hear how thick and heady my voice sounded.


    "I''ve been waiting to meet you for years. Of course I am. What man isn''t happy to have his mate?" His words weren''t necessarily seductive, but the tone of his voice definitely was. I was loving this side of him, I would have to see how he was when we were not about to fall on top of each other in the bed.


    "I''m looking forward to seeing what you''ve got in store for me." I grinned excitedly with my eyes glued to the movements his hands were making.


    I watched as David finished undoing the buttons on his shirt and slid it slowly down his shoulder, his eyes locked onto mine. He was watching and waiting to see what my reaction was. During his slow reveal I saw that his chest and arms were well defined. I had noticed his physique when I first saw him, and the muscles of his arms that were visible past the sleeves. But none of that was enough to prepare me for the moment I saw it all at once.


    David was very obviously a warrior. His chest, his abs, his arms, his shoulders, oh Goddess, there was not an ounce of fat anywhere to be seen. He was nothing but lucious rippling muscles and glorious abs with a slender waist. I was looking forward to seeing even more.


    "Do you approve yet?" He grinned mischievously.


    "So far so good, let''s see the rest." I returned the grin full force and egged him on. I wanted to see the rest of the reveal, I wanted him to hurry up and finish already.


    I watched then as he grabbed his belt and started to unbuckle it, slowly sliding the leather out of the buckle. Slowly, he popped the button on the blue jeans and slid the zipper down slowly. I could already see his erection straining to get free of his dark gray boxers.


    I heard thuds as he kicked his shoes off and let them fall to the floor. Next he stood on the bed itself and slowly slid the jeans down, but he left the boxers in ce. I was ready to drool and my wolf was panting inside my head as I watched him. He definitely knew what he was doing. I was enjoying this, enjoying it a lot.


    After a few moments he was once again kneeling on the bed before me, wearing only that pair of dark gray boxer briefs. The fabric clung to his erection and disyed his glory quite beautifully.


    "Is that all?" Iughed softly as I saw the heat darken his eyes even more.


    "Not by a long shot, baby." His voice purred softly as he spoke.


    This time I watched as he slowly hooked his thumbs into the top of the waist band. With slow, teasing movement David slid the fabric down. He was hard and ready so it didn''t take long for the tip of his massive erection to be revealed.


    Mmmm. I do love seeing a wolf reveal himself to me like this. There is just something about a fellow wolf that has an extra level of glory. And David followed suit in that aspect. He was huge and delicious looking.


    "Oh Goddess." I whispered, feeling an achy need within me when I saw him in his full glory. My body flooded with heat and moistened at just the thought of having him.


    "I''ll take that as apliment." He tossed the now unneeded boxers aside.


    "You should. You look glorious." It pays to tell a man the truth from time to time.


    "Do I get to unwrap you like a present now?" His voice became deeper and I could hear an echo of his wolf in the undertones.


    "Like a present?" I asked him, smiling at the word he had used.


    "Yes, because you are the gift that destiny has given me." Oh boy he was a bit of a smooth talker when in the bedroom. I liked that.


    "Maybe I should make you work for it." I toyed with him.


    "Don''t worry baby, I will be taking good care of you once I''ve unwrapped my gift."


    With another purring sound he leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine, knocking me back against the bed swiftly but gently. His hands didn''t remain still as his lips and tongue devoured my mouth. He reached down for the buttons on my white work blouse. He moved quickly as he undid them.


    Once he was sliding the fabric back and down my shoulders he needed to pull back and break the kiss. He smiled broadly when he saw my nearly naked chest.


    "Beautiful." He whispered as he dipped his head. With a quick stroke of his tongue he licked a line of heat across my chest. I couldn''t help it. I moaned then.


    "Ngh."


    His nimble fingers slid behind me then to unsp my bra. He slid the straps down my arms and pulled the fabric away to reveal the mounds of my breasts. With no warning at all he moved his mouth to my right breast, licking it quickly before sucking the peak into his mouth.


    With tongue and teeth he toyed with me and drove me insane. I could feel jolts of arousal coursing through me with every one of his touches. His right hand came up then to tease my neglected nipple, pinching, squeezing, and pulling in a rhythm that I was certain had been taught to him by the devil himself.


    "Ahh." I cried out at just the feel of him.


    When he had had his fill of my chest he pulled back and reached for the button on my ck dress cks. He slowly moved them and my panties together down my hips, across the curve of my back side, and down my long legs. Once he threw those garments aside the two of us were now sitting there naked to the world, well our personal worlds at least.


    "MMmm, time for some fun. I wonder, do you taste as good as you look?" He dipped his head then and licked across my belly button. "You taste good there, I wonder where else." He was chuckling now as he moved lower and lower.


    His tongue skirted across the curve of hips and lower still to head toward my core. He settled down onto the mattress,ying on his side as he buried his head between my thighs. I felt his breath, cool against my heated core, and with just that I was ready to lose my mind.

 Chapter 292 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 6 (MATURE)

    <h4>Chapter 292 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 6 (MATURE)</h4>


    ~~


    David


    ~~


    I could not believe the glorious luck of this day. I had met my mate. I had found my destiny. And now, I wasying naked in a bed with that mate, about to have the best night of my life, ever. I was ready to bow down and thank the Goddess just for this night.


    I had justid on my side and buried my face between Rawlynne''s delectable core. The first flow of her juice that hit my tongue tasted like a sweet, sweet dessert. She was filled with so much delicious cream.


    Ipped at her core, not wanting to waste a single drop that she had to offer me. Her moans and cries were making me more stiff than I had ever been in my life. I wanted her, I needed her. I needed her to feel every bit of my desire for her but I also needed to feel her.


    My wolf hade to the forefront the moment we had scented her and he had not backed down just yet. So, with his urging and the confidence I had coursing through me with his presence and the glory of this day I set about doing something I never even contemted once in my life.


    I shifted a little more, aligning my body with Rawlynne''s. With my hands on her thighs and a quick turn of my body I flipped us, moving together in that movement. One minute I wasying next to her, the next I wasying under her with my face still between her beautiful thighs.


    I brought one hand up along her back, stroking the silky smooth skin for just a second. After a moment I pushed, hard, on the back of her shoulders. The move had her falling and brought her face to rest near my imposing erection.


    "Mmm, you know, you could just ask." She giggled as she took a hold of me at the base of my shaft.


    "I thought I just did." Iughed right back as I drew my tongue along her slit once more.


    "Ahh." She cried out again from the feel of it.


    "Point taken."


    She licked me on just the tip then, swirling her tongue around for just a moment. After that she took me into her mouth. Oh Goddess, that felt like heaven. I needed this. I needed the mutual feeling of this right now.


    I continued top at her core, driving her into oblivion as she set about moving her mouth up and down in an insanity inducing rhythm. I was loving this, and the moans she was giving even with her mouth wrapped around me told me she was enjoying it too.


    She would get all the way down to the end of my shaft, my entire erection filling her mouth and throat and while she had all of me in that tender warmth I would wrap my tongue around that bundle of nerves at the top of her slit and draw it into my mouth for a long suck. Thebined suckling was enough to drive both of us wild.


    Her hips were moving above me as she tried to position me where she wanted me. Likewise my hips were thrusting up to meet her mouth with each new down stroke. We were driving each other insane with just this and I wouldn''t have changed a thing.


    She was panting and moaning as she climbed that peak. I was panting and groaning as I felt my orgasm approaching. I brought one hand to her core then, abandoning the ce it was at on her lusciously curved backside.


    With my hand now between her thighs I drove two fingers deep inside her and felt that she was squeezing tight and about to explode.


    She wasn''t the only one. I was about two seconds away from that ledge as well. I twisted the fingers that were buried in her core and felt her pull back with a scream. In that instant she had grabbed my shaft and stroked it in two quick pumps, that was thest that I needed, I exploded then as well.


    I threw my head back against the mattress and roared in ecstasy.


    I was being driven by instinct though, so I wasn''t done. I needed to sink my teeth into her soft, tender and supple flesh. I turned my head then, facing her left leg that was right next to my head. With no more thought than ''Bite'' running through my head I sunk my teeth into the soft meaty flesh. I hadn''t even realized that my teeth had shifted and elongated.


    No sooner had I bitten her though, did she sink her teeth into my left thigh. She broke the flesh and drew blood the same as I had.


    We were both still running high on the waves of our pleasure. The bites didn''t hurt either of us and we were both so overheated and aroused that we didn''t notice the added push and pull of magic or the burning heat that was passing between us. I sucked and pulled at her leg with my mouth, turning the bite into arge purple hickey as well. I felt her do the same to me.


    "AHHHHH!" She threw her head back again after a few minutes.


    "MMmmmaahhhhhh!" I matched her move with one of my own and a moaning groan.


    I didn''t stop there though. In one quick motion I pushed her forward and slid out from under her. With no warning I braced myself at her core and drove myself into her hot, hot depths. She screamed.


    "NGH! AHHHHH!"


    The feeling of her body wrapping around me, like a glove that had been missing its hand, it was glorious, heavenly, perfect, and all that I ever wanted. I was too much beast right then, my wolf in control still.


    I drew back until just the tip of my still hard shaft was in her. With another grunt I thrust forward once more, eliciting another scream of pleasure from her. From then I set about creating a fast and brutal rhythm. I pounded in and out of her hot, hot core. I could feel the muscles of her passageway milking me with every stroke.


    I draped myself over her, cing my hands on hers where she braced herself on the lc colored pillows. This new position was more intimate and caused me to reach even deeping into her inner depths.


    Her moans were near constant now, and they were like spurs in my back telling me to continue. My breath was sawing in and out of my lungs but I didn''t mind. With every thrust my body told me I was getting closer to oblivion and that I would have the pleasure ofing with my mate again as I felt her body start to spasm around me again.


    Just a few more thrusts. One. Two. Three. Four. Heaven.


    She came apart at the seams below me, seeming to be boneless as she fell limp to the bed screaming for me.


    "Ahh! David! Ngh!" My wolf roared at the sound of her screaming for me and he exploded once again.


    I copsed then, scooping her up into my arms and snuggling into the pillows. After slipping my member from her warm weing embrace I had just enough presence of mind to cover us with the sheet that we had dislodged from its original position. We both fell asleep like that, spooning and satisfied.


    My wolf was also receding, happy and content to step out of the light now that he had had his fun. I think I was going to really like being mated.

 Chapter 293 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 7

    <h4>Chapter 293 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 7</h4>


    ~~


    Rawlynne


    ~~


    I''m not going to say I didn''t know where I was when I woke up. And I am not going to say I didn''t know why I was being held in someone''s arms when I woke up. I clearly remembered that David had pounced on me the minute that Jackson had leftst night. He had then proceeded to carry me in his arms to my room and ravish me. OK, I need a better phrase for that. David had taken charge and then he proceeded to fuck me stupid. It was great.


    I was justing to whileying in his arms, the sun peeking through the curtains waking me like it usually did. I felt satisfied and sore in all the right ways. That had been an amazing night. David had taken the lead just how I liked.


    I was just about to stretch and yawn, my usual way of waking, when I heard my door fly open.


    "Are you fucking kidding me?!" I heard Jackson scream, breaking the silence and serenity of the moment.


    "Dude, shut the fucking door!" David growled at him. "Have you never heard of privacy?"


    "Don''t fucking go there with me wolf boy. That''s my fucking sister you got you paws all over."


    "Sister?" David sounded confused as he looked at me with a tilted head.


    "Pseudo sister." I told David as he looked really worried there for a moment. "He is a good friend, an excellent work partner, and an honorary adopted brother."


    "You''re my little sister and that''s that. And I don''t likeing home to find out that some dirtbag has vited you."


    "Jackson." I growled his name.


    "Man, you''re fixin'' to get hurt here." David spoke with a little southern drawl for a moment, almost as if he wasn''t always a resident of Colorado. It sounded so cute.


    "I would like to see you try." Jackson scoffed at him.


    "Then you better get-."


    "ENOUGH!" I yelled at the two of them, cutting David off mid sentence. "Stop fucking arguing. For crying out fucking loud you two are acting like toddlers." I red at them both, breathing heavily in my anger. "Jackson, like it or not I am a big girl and I will fuck anyone I want."


    "Like hell you will!" Both Jackson and David yell at me at the same time.


    "And David, just try to understand that Jackson is protective of me. We are often the only family that the other has around. We may not be a real family but we act like it. So just try toe to terms with the fact that Ie with an idiot human brother who will try to stand in our way."


    "As long as you stick by me, Babe, I will be able to handle anything at all."


    "We will see. I am still wanting to continue in my career."


    "And I would never stop you." He grinned at me and hugged me tight.


    "Blech. I think I''m going to be sick." Jackson feigned some gagging noises as he pretended to hunch over.


    "Deal with it, Jack. This is my life now whether you like it or not." Iughed at him and his overly dramatic ways.


    "Oh, where did I go wrong when raising you?" He added some extra drama for my benefit.


    "When did you be my dad as well as my brother? That''s just way too freaky of a family dynamic you''re spouting now. Take it down a notch."


    "Oh shut it." Jackughed at me again. "I''m allowed to be upset. I walk in on you with a man you don''t even know."


    "Like this is the first time I have slept with a man I didn''t know? How many women have you slept with and didn''t even remember their names? Huh? I don''t want to hear it Jack. And David is going to be around from now on."


    "Oh, I am so d to hear you say that." David purred next to my ear as he squeezed his arms around me.


    "Can you not try to seduce her while I''m standing in the doorway?"


    "Then shut the door and leave, I have more important things to do."


    "Shut up! Both of you! Geez! I can see the two of you are going to be giving me a lot of headaches." I heaved a sigh as I rolled my eyes. "Jackson go away."


    "You''re not about to, to-."


    "I''m going to get up and get dressed. You two are annoying the fucking hell out of me."


    "Fine. We need to get to work anyway." He red at David once more before leaving and, thankfully, shutting the door.


    "Good, he''s gone." David purred as he wrapped his arms around me, attempting to pull me closer to him.


    "Stop it." I snapped at him. "I was serious, I''m getting up and taking a shower."


    "Hmph." He pouted then, taking on the look of a lost puppy. "Not even for a nibble."


    "No." Iughed as I pushed his hand away as it crept toward me. "Not for a nibble, lick, taste, nothing."


    "Fine." He seemed to whine a little, but I could tell it was fake. "Can I shower with you at least. It''s economical, saves water and all that."


    "David." I red at him.


    "Just a shower. I promise." He held up his hands as if he had been told to freeze, it was quite funny.


    "Fine, just the shower." I couldn''t help it, he was gorgeous after all.


    I tossed the nket aside and stood, heading for the bathroom door. That was one good thing about this house. It may be small and all that, but both bedrooms had their own private bathroom. I may love Jackson like a brother, and that''s why like any other sister I didn''t want to share a bathroom with him.


    I hadn''t taken more than two steps before David called out to me.


    "What the hell is that?" When I turned back to him I saw that he was pointing at my leg. When I looked down I saw that there was a ck tattoo like image wrapped around my thigh, and right there on my inner thigh was a set of teeth marks that David had clearly left on me.


    "You marked me?" I asked him, curious. "On my thigh?"


    "I was just moving on instinct. I didn''t know I was going to mark you. But you bit me too. I remember that." He was grinning. "But hey, look at it this way, you won''t have to hide it for work." He was so happy it was making him look like a fool.


    I was just standing there, looking at the image on my body. It was like the branches of a wisteria tree, the flowers dangling down my leg. It wasrger than any other mark I had seen yet, but it was so beautiful.


    "I did say you smelled like flowers to me." He was grinning again as he went to stand up himself. That was when I noticed that he had a mark on his leg as well.


    "How the hell did I mark you?" I asked him, curiosity and awe were about to make my head explode.


    "What? Really? Sweet, the Alpha was marked by the Luna but everyone just thought that that had to do with her being the Luna and all that, plus she''s not exactly a full wolf. Half witch and all that.


    "Really? She marked him?"


    "Yeah, I don''t know the specifics, but I guess it can happen to any couple, not just them."


    "Do you think it was because we bit each other at the same time?" I asked him as I stared at his mark now. It looked like three ropes of ivy loosely twisting together as they circled his upper thigh. The marks were in the same ce, but since mine had the flowers dangling down my leg mine looked bigger.


    "I am just d that I can say that you''re mine." He walked over and kissed me then, a sweet little peck on the lips, it was the tamest thing we had done yet.


    "And I am d it won''t be visible at work." I heaved a sigh, frustration or relief I''m not sure, and headed for the bathroom. David was hot on my heels.


    I did my best to make it just an innocent shower so that we could hurry.


    I failed! There was a lot of hands on time. There was a lot of intimate touching. There was a lot of moaning and cries of pleasure. There was definitely some ecstasy that came before breakfast.


    What could I say? David was a beast, he was a stallion, a mad man. Actually he was just a really take charge kind of wolf and I really, really liked that about him.


    I could see a lot more times like this one and definitely more like the night before. I would be more than happy to spend my nights with my new mate. I was actually starting to really appreciate this whole mate bond thing. But I still wasn''t giving up my career for it. I had worked too hard for it after all.

 Chapter 294 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 8

    <h4>Chapter 294 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 8</h4>


    ~~


    David


    ~~


    I knew we had to get to work. I knew it was all very important work we were doing too. But I couldn''t help being excited and wanting to spend as much time with my new mate as I possibly could. So with that in mind I was constantly thanking Reece inside my head because he had assigned me to work with Rawlynne personally. Thank you again my wonderful Alpha.


    The first thing we had to do was formte a n of action that would work well for our investigation. We needed to know where to go and who to see. Those were the first steps. So for today, the day after my glorious and erotic mating with Rawlynne, we were brainstorming at their loaner house.


    I was sitting sprawled out on the couch with Rawlynne next to me. Jackson sat across from us and would re at me almost constantly. Probably because I had my arm wrapped around Rawlynne''s shoulders while we were talking.


    "Do you have to do that?" He hadined when I first put my arm around her. "We''re trying to work."


    "I''m working as well, you know. I have been assigned to help you with all of your investigations. Alpha''s orders." I had just smiled at him as I tightened my grip on my girl''s shoulders.


    "Not my Alpha." Jackson had snapped back at me.


    "If you two kids don''t stop fighting I will lock you in a cell together and do this assignment on my own." Rawlynne hadn''t even looked up from her work when she yelled at us.


    I could tell that Rawlynne was a dominant type of person. She was a she wolf who liked to be in charge. She was the type of person who wanted to control situations and oues to the best of her ability. It was probably what had led her to being a nomad, some would consider her a rogue. And it was probably also to me for why she had joined the FBI to begin with. She was a strong independent type of woman.


    That''s fine with me. In most situations I was the take orders type. I was ranked a Delta in my pack only because of my strength, and I had no desire to move to a different rank. I was content and happy where I was. And I didn''t mind letting Rawlynne boss me around at work.


    I didn''t mind because I knew what it was she truly wanted. She was a strong type where all could see, but she wanted a man to take control in the bedroom. She didn''t want to be dominated, that much I could tell. However, she wanted a man, specifically me, to take the lead when deciding how the intimacy went.


    I had heard of her type before. I had heard about women who most would consider a bitch or a control freak. Usually both. They would think that she needed to be the one to boss them all around. Yet, there was one thing that most of them didn''t know about women like her.


    Women like Rawlynne were in charge all the time. They called all the shots and got everyone to do their bidding. But when it came to the bedroom, that was when they wanted someone to take control from them. Rawlynne was that type and she had shown me thatst night. My beast was in his element when we were with her. I could definitely do what she needed me to.


    "We need to go see some of the other Alphas in the area." Rawlynne was looking at a list that Reece had given her the other day.


    "The other Alpha wolves?" Jackson looked at her with curious eyes. He didn''t like me much yet, but he was really starting to like this whole supernatural world thing. He was already excited about the meetings.


    "Wolves, yes, but also the bears and the felines that are close. Colorado doesn''t have any merfolk as far as I know. And we should try contacting the head of the Warlocks."


    "Warlocks I already knew about, but there are feline and bear shifters too? He looked surprised. "And merfolk?"


    "Yes." Rawlynne still hadn''t looked up yet. "There are the bird shifters too, we should visit with all the different packs and ns in the area."


    "Why is this so easy for you to talk about?" Jackson was looking at us with wide eyes.


    "What?" Rawlynne and I asked at almost the exact same time.


    "Don''t do that." Jackson frowned at us. "It was creepy." He pretended to shudder at the thought of us talking in unison. "But how can you all talk about magic and merfolk, and shifters?"


    "To be fair, we grew up knowing about all of this stuff. It''s new to you, yeah, but for the two of us it''s just life." I summed it up for him as best as I could, but he still looked like he was having a hard time wrapping his head around things.


    After talking for a while we had decided that it was best for us all to go see Landon yton the feline Alpha, Trevor Jacoby the bear Alpha, and Noir Steelwing the avian Alpha. We needed to know if any of their children had been taken and to warn them to keep an eye out for Edmond.


    Once the nning work was done for the day I asked Rawlynne to go to dinner with me. Thankfully she epted with noint, and she even told that pest Jackson to stay home. I was getting happier and happier.


    We went to Kaleidoscope, it was the restaurant that I had heard Reece had taken Trinity to on their first date. If it is good enough for an Alpha and Luna it would be good enough for us too, right?


    Apparently, Rawlynne loved the unique design of the ss ceiling and she couldn''t stop looking up to stare at it while we waited for our food. This first date was going pretty well so far, all things considered.


    "Can we get to know each other?" I asked her only once the food had been brought to the table and the waiter in his fancy suit had already left.


    "What do you want to know?" She looked at me skeptically.


    "Everything." I could hear the soft, awed sound in my voice.


    "That''s not asking for much is it?" Sheughed. "But I guess we will have to get to know each other sooner orter."


    "We can learn over time, but I want to know what I can for now, enough to get us by."


    "Well, I was an only child and my parents died in a ne crash when I was in my first year of high school. I refused to stay in the pack after that, so I left. I didn''t like the pack lifestyle to begin with. That decision shocked so many people. So many of my former pack mates thought I was being stupid to want to leave but I didn''t care."


    "I think it was a good idea for you."


    "You do?" She sounded like she didn''t believe me.


    "Yes, for a few reasons. One being it led us to being able to meet. For another, you''re a leader and in a pack that''s hard to find, but you found that in the FBI, right?"


    "In my time as a punk on the street then as a street cop and now as an FBI agent, yes."


    "That''s awesome. I''ve never known a woman as strong and amazing as you." I sounded like I was in awe, which I was.


    "Don''t let your Alpha or Luna hear that." She wasughing in such a musical way that it lifted my heart and made me feel like dancing. "Your Luna is pretty amazing too I hear."


    "But I only have eyes for you, Rawlynne."


    "You''re smooth in the bedroom, but you seem a little nervous right now." She noted with seriousness. Those words and tone of voice made me blush crimson.


    "I-I-I-I''m not nervous." I blushed even more then because when I stuttered like that it definitely made me sound nervous.


    "Riiiight." Sheughed while drawing the word out. "Don''t worry. Let''s just stick with the status quo for now. I will lead you around like a lost little puppy all day and when ites to the bedroom, just do what you didst night."


    "Sounds good to me." I smirked at her.


    "You know, David, you look so innocent and sweet." She was looking at me intently now, her eyes darker than usual. Oh how I loved those eyes, the deep dark brown of their depths that were offset by that ring of gold. The eyes went well with the rest of her too, the long wavy brown hair and the oliveplexion with his golden hue. She was so beautiful and exotic.


    "Was I all that innocentst night?" I purred the words at her.


    "No, I guess not. But, I need to ask, how old are you?"


    "Twenty-three."


    "TWENTY-THREE!" She shouted the words and drew the attention of those sitting around us. "Oh my Goddess." She sounded like she was hyperventting now.


    "Is something wrong?" I asked her, curious about her reaction.


    "I''m just not used to being with someone younger than me, that''s all." She was still looking down and therefore away from me.


    "Am I all that much younger than you?" I wondered, with my head tilted to the side. "What are you? Twenty-four? Twenty-five? You don''t even look twenty-one yet honestly."


    "ttery will get you nowhere." Sheughed. "And no, you''re wrong on both, actually I am thirty years old."


    "Nice." Iughed. "I like an experienced older woman."


    "Have you been with many?" She red at me, like my experience would be a bad thing.


    "Not before you, but I love it now."


    "Nice answer." Weughed together.


    We ate slowly, talking about ourselves and learning as much as we could. She learned that I too was an only child, and that my family was one that was sent to help other packs a lot, even though we were from the Red Springs. My parents were still currently helping out in another pack. And I had spent a lot of my childhood bouncing between my rtives in Arkansas and Tennessee. We were both loners in a sense and would be perfect for each other.


    Was it wrong that I was already falling for her with my heart and not just with my, well you know?

 Chapter 295 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 9

    <h4>Chapter 295 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 9</h4>


    ~~


    Rawlynne


    ~~


    Everything was going well, all things considered. I was actually liking being mated to David. He was a smart and capable guy that got the job done. I just couldn''t get over the fact that I was older than him by seven years. Oh, and that was nearly to the day, since we found out that we were both born at the end of June. Was it bad that I was actually looking forward to turning thirty-one and spending my birthday with David whose birthday was the day before mine. (That''s right, he was one day shy of seven years younger than me.)


    We had a lot of work to aplish and it needed to be done as soon as possible. I wanted to visit with all the other supernatural beings in the area and see if they knew anything about Edmond. The first stop on our list was Landon yton as he lived nearby in Manitou.


    Landon was another young Alpha that had taken over his pack at a young age. Damn all these young people making me feel like I abandoned my responsibility when my parents died. They all had so much power and authority and they were all younger than me.


    I met with Landon as soon as we arrived at his house, a smaller and less extravagant version of a wolf pack Alpha house. At least it wasn''t garish. Landon himself was tall, of course, and muscr, no shit he''s a shifter. What set him apart were the bright blue eyes that went well with the dusty blonde of his hair.


    "Come in." Landon seemed like a nice guy as soon as I met him. A lot less cocky than Reece that''s for sure. But of course, I knew now that Reece really was a good guy.


    "Thanks Mr. yton." I nodded to him and followed him into the hall.


    "Landon is fine." He corrected me. "Hey David." He greeted my mate as he walked in behind me.


    "Hey there Landon."


    "Helping the FBI out now are you." The two of them were talking like old friends.


    "That and travelling with my new mate." I noticed the proud look in David''s eyes then. At least he didn''t have a chip on his shoulder about the age gap.


    "Really?" Landon looked between the two of us with a shocked expression. "Congrats man, that''s wonderful news. Promise to invite me to the wedding, I''ll at least send an envoy."


    "You''re a dick." Davidughed off the man''s words.


    "I try, you know. Nowe on, let''s sit down.


    Landon led us to a sitting room and officebo. He sat on the sofa instead of behind his desk so the rest of us followed suit and sat on thefortable seating as well, David and I together and Jackson in a chair nearby.


    "Landon, this is Rawlynne Otsana, FBI agent and my mate. And this is Jacson McIan, Rawlynne''s partner and honorary brother."


    "He''s human.'' Landon noted.


    "Yes, but he knows about us." I told him, not needing to exin that he only recently found out.


    "Cool, wee to the world of the weird." Landon grinned at him. "So, what was it you needed to talk about?"


    "We''re looking for information about a warlock named Gannon Cornelius Edmond."


    "That''s a mouthful of a name." Landon joked. "But I think it''s familiar. Let me check something."


    I watched as he walked to a bookcase behind him and proceeded to pick up a thick volume from among the shelves. He took the book back to his seat and flipped through it silently for a few minutes.


    "Ah, yes, here it is." He looked up. "He''s a nasty son of a bitch, isn''t he?"


    "That he is." David nodded. "He kidnapped my Luna recently."


    "Dude, seriously?" Oh my Goddess, they were talking like kids right now.


    "Yes, apparently he''s her father."


    "Cool, a half witch Luna. Is she any good at the job?"


    "Yeah." David nodded and seemed to remember how good his Luna really was.


    "Nice. Well anyway, I have some records of him trying to meddle with my people a long time ago. We go mostly by pack now, but it''s a pride really, and back then it was run by my great grandfather. He seemed to want to find out the true differences between the shifters or something. He was even targeting the wolves and the bears."


    "Sounds like a true psychopath." I heard Jackson say as he shuddered with disgust. "Do you know where he is now?"


    "No, thest record I have of him was some ce in northern California. There is a mention of a rumor about a pack called the Hidden Paw, but I''ve never heard of them before."


    "Neither have I." I told him with a confused look. "Do you mind letting me see that book?"


    "Sure thing, you can borrow it for now. I''m assuming you will be at the wedding for Reece if you''re with David, I will have someone pick it up then."


    "Still not leaving yournds?" Davidughed at the man.


    "You know how it is, we have less people than you so I am always running things myself. Plus I have apany to run since my dad up and left it all to me."


    "I''m just giving you a hard time." Theyughed with each other for a few more minutes before we took our leave. We had two more people to meet with today.


    From Manitou we went to Lake George to see Trevor Jacoby, the bear Alpha and another man younger than me. If I had thought that Reece or any of the other wolves were tall, that was nothing next to Trevor Jacoby. He was close to seven feet tall, he had to be with how he towered over all of us. When we were led to his office I heard Jackson gulp at Trevor''s appearance.


    Aside from tall, the man looked like he couldpete in the world''s strongest manpetition. He was buff but not in the gross way, in the hot as hell way. He had dark golden eyes and a medium shade of brown hair that was a little longer than what would fit my taste. He also had a well kept beard that was trimmed and looked stylish. He was definitely a bear.


    "What can I do for you?" He growled, but it just seemed to be his natural tone with his deep, deep voice.


    "Hello Trevor." David greeted the man again. Did he know everyone for crying out loud?


    "Hey there Davey, what''s up?"


    "Davey?" I looked at my mate with my eyebrows raised.


    "Horrible nickname from when I was younger." He heaved a sigh. "Please ignore it."


    "Who is the prettydy?" Trevor asked.


    "My new mate and FBI agent extraordinaire, Rawlynne Otsana and her honorary brother over here is Jackson McIan."


    "Mated? Damn your pack is on fire with new matings."


    "I am definitely lucky." David smiled.


    "Well, sit, sit." Trevor pointed to the chairs sitting in front of his desk. "Tell me why you''re here."


    "Ever heard of Gannon Cornelius Edmond?" Jackson was getting more and more used to this world and was apparently no longer intimidated by Trevor''s size as he was the first to speak up.


    "I don''t think so, let me call one of the elders." This pack, like the feline, was a lot smaller and more intimate that the wolves, so they tended to hold onto information easier or so it seemed.


    After a few minutes of being on the phone Trevor also went and retrieved something from a shelf.


    "It says here he was in our area about a hundred years ago, maybe longer. He was bad news and we stopped associating with him."


    "Why is it you have all this information and the Red Springs pack doesn''t? And the feline Alpha had information too."


    "We''re better record keepers probably. You know how wolves are, they all want to raise their ranks so they hold their knowledge like bargaining chips. I love Reece like a brother, but most of the wolf packs are full of maniptive dicks."


    "I won''t argue with you there." I sighed.


    "Left your pack did you?"


    "Yeah, sixteen years ago."


    "That must have been a hard life, but you seem to have turned out OK."


    After some more talk we left Trevor''s estate, which was still bigger than Landon''s but smaller than Reece''s by a lot. I also took his book of information to use for my investigation. These Alphas were definitely helpful at least.


    I was reading the book I got from Trevor on the slightly longer drive up to Alma where we were going to meet with Noir Steelwing, the female Alpha of the bird shifters, happy she was a woman, still pissed because she was also younger than me.


    "You know, this book from the bears says theyst heard that Edmond had gone to the Hidden Paw as well. Howe none of us have ever heard of them?"


    "I don''t know, but I think this will merit a meeting with them as well." David was curious, I could tell by his eyes.


    "Yeah, me too." Jackson didn''t look happy about whatever this meant.


    It was not a very productive trip to the bird shifters. Noir Steelwing, their leader, was not in, or so we were told. And they said they interact with other packs and ns only when they have to. Her representative had never heard of Edmond either. So I guess this was basically a wasted trip.


    We went back to Colorado Springs and nned to go for another meeting soon, but we were due to meet with the vampire representative.


    Oh that was an experience, meeting such a high powered vampire. But we made it through and then it was time for us to fly to California, on Reece''s private ne no less.


    The Hidden Paw pack was referenced in the books as being in Northern California and near Crescent City. When we arrived in the city we basically just needed to follow our noses. There was a strong wolf smell epassing the whole ce. And all of it seemed to concentrate outside the city and toward the woods. We drove slowly, looking for anything that might seem to be a hidden sign. And we found that in a well worn side road that looked more like an unmarked driveway. There were a lot of wolves in that area. And based on the GPS this was the edge of a little town called Gem Creek.


    We followed the road that twisted and turned all through the trees. It was hard to find anything in this ce really. Though we dide across an actual town part. If you wanted to call it that.


    There was a little convenience store that functioned as a grocery store. There was a hardware store. And that was all. There was nothing else besides an outgoing mailbox. This ce was tiny, but close enough to the city to get what you needed there I guess.


    We went into the convenience store and tried to get some information. There was a very old woman behind the counter and a slightly less old, but still very old, man sweeping the floors. They both looked up when they saw me. I had opted to skip the scent blocking perfume today so that they would know what I was.


    "I''m looking for the Alpha." I gave no preamble, I just got right to what I wanted.


    "Yeah, well, our Alpha don''t take kindly to strangers." The old woman growled at me. Lady was like a hundred and twenty and she growled at me.


    "Well, I have business with him." I said as I flipped open my badge for them to see. "If you don''t want me to bring a whole group of FBI agents, that are not human, into your little town here then you better tell me where to find him." I saw the fear tighten their facial expressions for just a moment before the old man answered me.


    "His house is up the road about three miles, then you turn off when you see the two trees growing out of one stump."


    "OK, so a split trunk, got it." I nodded to him after he answered. "Thank you for the help."


    "Yeah, yeah." He grumbled as we turned to leave. "Damn kids these days." Well, at least he thought I was young.


    We followed the instructions that we were given and finally came to arge C shaped house in the woods. This was definitely an Alpha house.


    When we knocked an angry looking butler answered the door.


    "Yes." He snapped at me. I thought it was best to show him the same thing I did the others.


    "I''m Agent Otsana of the FBI, I need to speak to your Alpha." He took a look at the badge and grumbled.


    "Follow me." He whipped the door open and started walking before we were even ready to walk through the door. He led us to a sitting room like the one that Landon had met us in. It was borate but simple as well. "Wait here."


    After a few minutes a man came in that made my nose wrinkle with disgust. He stunk. He smelled like a swamp, stagnant water and mildew covered leaves, and just nasty that was all I could say about it. The man himself looked decent enough. He was around forty years old and he was very powerful in appearance. His orange hair and hazel eyes were bad. But still, there was something about him that just made you want to run away from him. Not in fear, but to save your stomach.


    "What can I do for you?" He spoke in a sweet voice that was obviously fake.


    "We''re investigating a warlock named Gannon Cornelius Edmond. Have you heard of him?"


    "No, I can''t say that I have." He was smiling like a frog, wide enough to show all his teeth.


    "We have records that say he came here in the past."


    "Perhaps, but he has not been here in my lifetime."


    "Do you think anyone in town will know who he is?" Jackson cut in and the man instantly soured. His nose wrinkled and he red at Jackson like he was something foul.


    "No, human, no one will."


    "Such a weing presence you are." Jackson whispered under his breath.


    "Are we done here?" The Alpha asked me with a clear desire to end this.


    "Not quite. You haven''t even told me your name yet." I red at him, showing him how upset I was with him.


    "My name is Jesiah." He bowed his head. "Jesiah Schmidt."


    "Well, Jesiah, I am Agent Otsana of the FBI, and I will be looking into your pack."


    "We have nothing to hide. There aren''t many of us here after all."


    At those words there was a loudmotion that came from the hallway. A young boy, probably in his early teens, was screaming but it seemed as if he was being dragged away before I could make it out there to check what was going on.


    "What the hell was that?" I asked as David, Jackson, and I panted with rage in the hallway.


    "Just a disciplinary action being carried out, no need to worry."


    I could see that David was ready to kill him, but we didn''t have enough information yet. I needed to look into this ce, and soon.


    "Let''s go." I told David and Jackson as I grabbed their sleeves, pulling them along with me.


    Once we were back in the rented SUV, Jackson turned on me.


    "Why the hell did we just leave?" He looked upset.


    "We will be back. I need to find out more about them before we try to take them down. But something about this ce seems off."


    "You can say that again." David spoke up. "Almost everyone here smells horrible."


    We went home then, having met a dead end. It was just before the wedding for David''s Alpha and we were no closer to finding the kids at all. I was beginning to hate all of this.

 Chapter 296 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 10

    <h4>Chapter 296 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 10</h4>


    ~~


    David


    ~~


    Yesterday was the wedding for Trinity and Reece. Things were a little more exciting than I thought they would be, but then again, given the past event I don''t know why I thought it would be anything less than exciting. Still it was amazing.


    Yesterday was the first time that I had seen Rawlynne in a dress. When she had agreed to be my date for the wedding I had been so happy and excited that it hadpletely slipped my mind that she would be wearing a dress to the event.


    When I saw Rawlynne that morning with her soft pink dress on I almost had a heart attack. The color seemed so feminine and looked wonderful on her. It was definitely not something I ever thought I would get to see, though I wouldn''t trade that moment for anything. She was radiant and perfect. The only downside was Jackson walking along next to her.


    Jackson was getting more used to me, but he still didn''t seem to like me very much. I didn''t know why, shouldn''t he be happy that the woman he considered to be his sister had finally found the man to spend her life with?


    Still, I had been making a conscious effort to get along with him better. I didn''t want us fighting and bickering in front of Rawlynne anymore.


    The surprise guests to the wedding seemed to make a big ssh. All of us in attendance were bbergasted at their revtion, though I honestly was not too surprised. If you told me Trinity was the Goddess Incarnate I would believe you because she was simply that amazing of a Luna.


    Now, however, we were just wrapping up a meeting with Trinity, Reece, all the guards, Trinity''s cousins, Gabriel, and Rawlynne and Jackson. When Trinity addressed us all we were shocked to find out that we were being blessed and given new powers.


    Everyone there, aside from Trinity, walked out of that room with new tattoo like marks on their chest near their cor bone. One meant we had received an ability, the other was to signify us being part of the Goddess Guard. We were meant to be her protectors and fight in her stead.


    Rawlynne and even Jackson the human were granted abilities too. The two of them both received the same power, the ability to find hidden information. We weren''tpletely sure what that meant, but I had a feeling it would help them in interrogations and investigations.


    As for me? I got the ability to move really, really fast. I was already one of the fastest wolves in the pack and now I was able to move so fast I disappeared. It would take me some time to practice it, but I knew that I would be able to learn what I was capable of.


    Following this meeting we prepared to go to the headquarters of the warlocks. We were looking for the missing kids and information on the asshole who had invaded ournds. But the fight that happened to break out almost immediately after caused more problems than we had hoped for. Trinity lost her baby and the Aerie Convento was nearly destroyed, however Cedar and Noah were able to fix it up again somewhat. We still couldn''t stay there for the night though.


    The night in the hotel had basically been like a resting time for us while we waited for further instruction. I quite enjoyed spending it in the arms of my mate. She really was an excellent lover and I would never tire of being with her.


    ~~


    Rawlynne


    ~~


    I was creeping down a dark stairway behind Reece and his men when the fighting broke out. We were supposed to be here to rescue the missing children. This was why I was here. This was the culmination of my investigation. The only drawback was, I wasn''t the one responsible for this rescue. My mate''s Alpha and Luna were.


    I had felt a strong wind blow past me and the next thing I knew there was shouting in the hallway. Trinity had flown, blown, forward just so she didn''t have to miss what was happening.


    Everything happened fast after that. Trinity took me and David along with some others into the room she had seen the children in. There were several adults in the room that had cuffs and cors and were just as much prisoners as the two dozen children were. I would not only be rescuing the children I was sent here for, but several others as well.


    It was a chaotic scene filled with tense moments. Monsters broke into the room and I stayed back to protect the children, they were my main target here. I needed to get them home and keep them safe. David stayed with me to aplish that goal. Once the monsters in the room were vanquished the others went to the hall to keep fighting, but David and I stayed to keep the children calm.


    "You don''t need to worry. We''re here to help you. I am Rawlynne Otsana of the FBI, I am here to take you back to your families." I smiled at them warmly,forting them as best as I could.


    "There is nothing to be scared about anymore. We will stay with you until we get you out of here." I saw David kneeling with the kids and calming them as well. The kids seemed to really take to him, I didn''t know he was good with kids. This was actually really cute, seeing him with the kids all staring at him like that.


    I wonder what David would be like as a dad.


    ''SHUT UP RAWLYNNE!'' I screamed inside my head. ''I SO DO NOT NEED TO BE THINKING ABOUT THIS YET!'' I needed to focus on my career, then David and I could start a family. But dammit, he made it look good with that kind, warm smile on his face.


    We spent the next hour or so keeping the kids and the prisoners calm. By the time that Trinity came back in, the fight was over. Things moved quickly after that and we were able to get the kids back to Trinity and Reece''s estate.


    There were twenty-four kids that we rescued and brought back. Eight of those kids went back to their families here in Colorado Springs, another ten of the children went to their families in the surrounding areas of Colorado, Wyoming, and Kansas. The other six children had been orphaned.


    I spoke with my section chief, Director Harris, and told him what was going on. Harris was a djinn that had given up half of his magic to leave his family curse behind. He was powerful enough yet nothingpared to what he used to be, but that made him more than appreciative of me and my uniqueness. It also helped to let him know what it was I was asking for.


    I was asking him for anonymity and discretion. I wanted to make it so that the children that had no homes went with the warlock and witches that had no ce to go.


    Reece was building a newmunity, a home for all of supernatural kind. He wanted this new world to flourish under the rule of the new Goddess Incarnate. We would all see prosperity during this time, I was certain of that. Trinity was a wonderful person, a good friend, and a great leader.


    I just hate that shortly aftering back from recusing the kids and that battle, David and I had to say goodbye. He was going with Trinity to France to train as her guard knight. That was kind of hot to think about. I was dating a knight, how sexy is that.


    I was standing in the doorway, watching as David pulled away from me. I could feel tears stinging the back of my eyes and my heart breaking slowly. I didn''t know how long he was going to be gone for.


    "He will be back soon." Jackson spoke softly as he slipped an arm around my shoulders. "He is going to get stronger and more powerful. When hees back you will be proud of him."


    "I''m already proud of him." I heard my voice crack as the tears started. I couldn''t see the car anymore.


    "You miss him already don''t you?" Jackson sounded sad on my behalf.


    "Yes, I do." I answered honestly.


    "You love him, don''t you?"


    "Yes, I do. I really do."


    Jackson pulled me into a hug then, squeezing me tight. I could feel how much his heart was breaking just by seeing me this upset. He really was like the family I needed at times like this.


    "Work hard while he is gone and you will hardly miss the time at all." I know he was trying to help, but Jackson just didn''t get it. He just didn''t understand what I was feeling.


    "I don''t want to leave here, Jack. I want to stay in Colorado Springs."


    "You''re leaving the bureau?" He sounded shocked by my revtion.


    "No, I want to see if Harris will let me run the local office when it is finished. I want to stay here, but I also want to keep working."


    "Then I wille with you. I am part of Trinity''s guard now too." He was grinning at me. I knew he would say that.

 Chapter 297 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 11

    <h4>Chapter 297 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 11</h4>


    ~~


    David


    ~~


    I missed my mate. There was no doubt about that. I missed her fiercely. We were training practically everyday with almost no breaks in the routine. Rarely did I get a day off. And with the time change and remoteness of the area it was hard for us to stay in contact.


    Rawlynne told me that she was trying to stay in Colorado Springs so that we wouldn''t have to move or have a long distance rtionship. That made me happy because I knew from this trip that I never wanted to be away from her for a long period of time ever again. This was killing me.


    Rawlynne was all I could think about, but I needed to focus on my training too. I was granted a supersonic speed which was great and all, but everyone else seemed to have abat ability. What was I good for?


    When we were almost a couple weeks into the training some strange things happened to us all. Reece had already turned into a Lycan during a fight between two traitors, and that alone was amazing but then he went and turned into a phoenix as well. A fucking fire bird. Seriously? How the hell did he get all the cool stuff?


    Seeing that I worked harder and harder with my fighting. It seemed I was getting better and better at all types of martial arts. It was almost like I was a master of them all and I was just remembering some long dormant skills. I was able to win every sparring match I had started, with everyone except Reece. The only time I stood a chance against Reece was when I used super speed, but that allowed him to use his special abilities as well. And speed or not, I was no match for everything he had.


    The good thing was that I could use those martial arts skills even when moving as fast as I could. This was something that I took as a blessing from the Goddess, she had made me good inbat like I wanted.


    ~~


    Rawlynne


    ~~


    "You want to transfer?" Harris asked me with disbelief when I went back to Denver. It was just a few days after David left and therefore just a little while after the kids were rescued. "Why the hell do you want to transfer to the field office?"


    I could understand why he was surprised. If I truly wanted to rise through ranks and go up the bureaudder then staying in the home office would be the best way. Moving to Colorado Springs and working small fry cases was counter productive to everything I ever wanted.


    "Have you gotten to that burn out point? Are you done with wanting to grow here?"


    "Director Harris, she doesn''t want to quit. She just wants to switch locations." Jackson stepped in for me before I could even offer a response.


    "And you want to transfer too, right?" Harris looked at Jackson like he already had it figured out. "Whoever this guy is, he better be worth it." Harris scoffed.


    "I found my mate." I spoke softly, not wanting to let the information get out of this particr office.


    "Are you serious?" The man looked like he had been pped in the back of the head, with a hammer. That''s how shocked he was at my revtion. "An honest to God mate?" I could see the grin forming on Harris''s face. "Well no wonder. But couldn''t this guy just move here with you?"


    "I can''t ask him to do that, he is high in the pack order."


    "Are you OK with rejoining a pack?" Harris knew my stance on packs since I had left my own so many years before.


    "I''d join that pack for him. Hell, I''d join it without him."


    "Is this pack that special?"


    "They are." Harris looked like he wanted more, like my answer was not yet good enough. "The reincarnation of the Moon Goddess is their new Luna. She is a half wolf half witch and she is going to change the world."


    "The reincarnation of the Goddess?" Harris was old, very old, yet immortal. He would know what this meant. "So the new Luna Queen has been found? Man, that''s quite something. That makes her the leader to all of the shifters right?"


    "And of all the warlocks." Jackson added for him.


    "How is that possible? The wolves and the magic users have a different deity."


    "Yeah, the warlocks are the children of Thoth, right?" Jackson was smiling as Harris nodded his answer.


    "Yeah, they are."


    "Well, she''s half witch remember." Jackson was just grinning like a loon.


    "So, she was blessed by Thoth as well?" Now Harris truly looked awed.


    "She was named the Queen of the warlocks and witches as well."


    "Not just them." Harris shook his head. "We Djinn, the genie, all the magic users. Except for the Fae of course."


    "Huh, so she is your new Queen too." Jacksonughed.


    "And this new mate of yours is what to this pack?"


    "He is her guard." I answered him quickly, no reason to hide it from him at all.


    "Damn. What the hell happened while you were all out there?"


    "So much. So very much."


    "Well, let''s talk about it over dinner, since I am going out on a limb here to guarantee you that position you want so badly."


    Harris went with Jackson and I to dinner that night. He had already gotten me the job of running the field office I wanted. There were more supernaturals in the FBI than most people realized and we all tended to help each other out. The most ufortable part of the night was when Harris insisted I invite him to my wedding which just about made both me and Jackson choke. Jackson was epting David more but he still didn''t want to think about us getting married. And I hadn''t even thought about the fact that I needed to actually get married at some point.


    Would David even want to get married?


    After I went back to Colorado Springs I got Reece''s construction team to finish the work on the office. The old team was taking too long, and frankly, wolves just worked so much more efficiently. While they finished the work on that office though, I decided to take another trip to see the Alpha of the Hidden Paw in California.


    I had done some research on Jesiah and the people born in that pack. It was hard doing as they didn''t venture out for anything more than work or shopping, but I managed to learn that a lot less people made it to adulthood over thest few generations than there should have been. There was something dark and sinister going on there.


    Jackson and Inded at the airport and rented an SUV simr to thest one. We drove straight to the Alpha''s residence and knocked on the door. The first thing I noticed was ack of that horrible scent.


    Don''t get me wrong, I had smelled it on the way here, driving through the small town, but it wasn''t here on this house anymore. That was weird. It wasn''t easy to hide scents at that massive of a level and the people in this house had stunk to high heaven. What was going on?


    A younger man, probably around David''s age, answered the door. He was tall, like Reece, but he had caramel colored hair and green eyes. He was good looking and seemed fierce. And he smelled nothing like that man who answered the door thest time.


    "Can I help you?" He asked politely. "I don''t remember everyone in the pack right now, I spent too much time away, so sorry that I don''t remember you." He grinned amiably. "And is that a human with you?" He grinned at Jackson.


    "Yes, he is human." I was so confused that was all I could say for a moment. "Uh, um, I''m here to see the Alpha."


    "That''s me." He grinned back at me. "Come on in." He opened the door and held it for us until we were inside. "Did you want to meet in my office or in the sitting room down here?"


    "The sitting room is fine." I could tell that I had a dumbfounded look on my face, but something was really weird here.


    The man then led us to the same sitting room as before but the furniture was different. The coloring was brighter and the furniture looked newer.


    "I''m sorry I haven''t introduced myself yet." He turned and grinned as he gestured for us to take our seats. "My name is Artemis Cooper, but everyone calls me Artem. Who might you two be?" He was nice, but he was also perceptive. I know he was keeping an eye on us, making sure that we were not here for something with bad intentions.


    "My name is Agent Rawlynne Otsana of the FBI, this here is my partner Jackson McIan."


    "FBI huh, what does the FBI want with our pack?"


    "What happened to the other Alpha? Jesiah, wasn''t that his name?"


    "There has been a change in management." He grinned at me.


    "I don''t get it." Jackson seemed angry as he spoke to Artemis.


    "What is there not to get. Jesiah used to be the Alpha, now I am. End of story."


    "Why did you take over the pack?" I asked him, getting to the heart of the matter.


    "I didn''t like how things were being run. He allowed some very unfair practices."


    "Unfair?" Jackson still looked like all of this was going over his head.


    "Did you take the pack by force?" I asked before Artemis could answer Jackson''s question.


    "Yes." I saw a hard glint in the man''s eyes then.


    "So you killed him?"


    "WHAT?" Jackson looked first at me then at Artemis with worry in his eyes.


    "Should I truly answer that question. I don''t want to be arrested." Artemisughed light heartedly like it was a joke.


    "What was Jesiah doing here?"


    Artemis then told me the tale of the Hidden Paw. He said that their pack took ranks too seriously and they would persecute the weak wolves. Many of the boys that they mistreated would often die and that Jesiah and thest few Alphas just allowed it to happen. This pack sounded like a real nightmare, but it exined why I felt creeped out before.


    I told Artemis if he ever needed anything to call me and we would help him. I gave him my card and told him that I had experience with warlocks, wolves, and many other species. He seemed to understand and walked us to the door with a smile.


    Jackson had had a shocked expression on his face since he heard me ask Artemis if he had killed the previous Alpha. He just hadn''t recovered from it yet.


    "Why aren''t we arresting him?" Jackson blurted as we drove away. "He all but admitted to murder."


    "For one, there will be no evidence, and for two, he did the right thing."


    "I know that, the stuff he said made my stomach flip, but that''s not up to us Rawlynne."


    "It wasn''t the FBI me that approved, it was the wolf me. That is how things work in the wolf world, Jackson, in all shifter kinds. If you can''t handle that then we need to erase the memories you have."


    "Fuck that." He yelled at me as I drove. "I will not let you touch my memories. I just didn''t get it. That is why I asked after all. I think I kept my cool in there pretty well, all things considered. Cut me some ck will you."


    "You did do well, I just need to know you won''t step in when ites to shifterw."


    "Never." Jackson didn''t hesitate. That was good. I wanted him here with me every step of the way, now that he knew I didn''t want to be without my brother.

 Chapter 298 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 12

    <h4>Chapter 298 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 12</h4>


    ~~


    Rawlynne


    ~~


    I had received word that David wasing back, that we could finally be together again. He was supposed to be hometer this evening, but for some very hard to believe reasons they ended up flying home much earlier than nned. Jackson and I were there along with the local police to provide them with an escort back to the estate. They needed to get to work as soon as possible.


    The meeting was attended by a lot of different Alphas and I was not permitted to enter this time. That upset me a little but I knew that I needed to just keep my head up. It seemed that Edmond, the Warlock who had kidnapped the kids, was on his way here. The pack, and every surrounding pack, was preparing to defend the area.


    I was a nervous wreck all that night and the following day. I hadn''t received any updates and not knowing what was going on was driving me insane. I paced in my office all day waiting for them to tell me what was going on.


    When I finally did hear something I was told that someone had been injured and was being taken back to the estate. I felt my heart sink and stop beating altogether. I hoped it wasn''t David. I didn''t want anyone hurt really but especially not David.


    I left Jackson to watch the office along with the new, fully supernatural, staff that we had there now. I jumped into the truck that was waiting for me outside the office and raced for the house in the trees.


    I couldn''t help butpare it to the first time I was here, when I thought it was all pretentious and too much. Now though, I loved being here because I loved David and what being with him really meant.


    I wanted to see him, I needed to see him. I needed to know that he was OK.


    When I parked the car I was already unbuckled and jumping out before I had turned the thing off. I needed to go back and get my keys. I ran into the house and straight into the room where everyone was waiting. There on the far side was David standing by the window. I was so relieved, so happy to see him that I ran to him and hugged him tightly to me.


    "I was so worried about you." I sighed the words against his ear.


    "I''m here sweetheart. I love you."


    "I love you too. I love you so much." It was actually the first time I had told him this face to face. "I missed you so much."


    "I missed you too, honey." His arms were wrapped around me firmly, holding me as tightly as I was holding him.


    ~~


    David


    ~~


    I had been home from France for just over a week. The funerals were over and it was almost time for the Alpha''s birthday party. But tonight? Tonight was my birthday and tomorrow was Rawlynne''s.


    I wanted to do something special for my mate, something that would help us to have a wonderful date night and joint birthday.


    I invited her to my ce, somewhere we wouldn''t have to worry about Jackson getting in the way. My house was small, but it was fine for now. Just a little two bedroom ranch style that I was renting. It was decorated simply with nothing really borate.


    I was making dinner for us tonight. It was going to be a nice meal for the two of us to eat together by candlelight. I had gotten us a cake for our birthdays, something for us to share. My entire n was to have dinner and dessert, watch a movie and cuddle, maybe continue the party into her birthday and then in the morning I would make her a special breakfast.


    When I had asked Rawlynne on this date she had seemed skeptical at first, worried about my cooking skills. I assured her, though, that I was quite skilled in the kitchen.


    It was almost seven now and I was just making the tes. I could also hear Rawlynne pull up out front. I had made chicken pata, scalloped potatoes, baked asparagus, and homemade dinner rolls. I set the tes on the table and went to open the door.


    There she was, the most beautiful woman in the world. She was standing on my front porch and she looked so gorgeous and sexy that I wanted to skip straight to dessert, but I needed to wait and be patient.


    I kissed her hand at the door and held it as she walked inside. I took her coat and hung it up. I led her to the dining room where I had candles all around the room as well as on the table. There were no other lights on aside from the one in the kitchen.


    Once Rawlynne was seated I opened a bottle of wine and poured us each a ss.


    "To you, to my love, to us forever." I toasted her before clinking out sses together.


    "Someone is being all smooth tonight." She grinned at me happily as she sipped her wine.


    We enjoyed our dinner together. Rawlynne actually agreed that I was a good cook and that made me smile. Following dinner I went to get the cake from the kitchen. When I brought it back, with the candles lit, I began to sing to her. She was smiling at me happily as I sat the frosted delight in front of her.


    The cake was perfect in my opinion. There was a small sheet cake on the bottom with two small hearts on top. One of the hearts said HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAWLYNNE and the other said HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID.


    "You know, today is your birthday, not mine." She wasughing and smiling when she said the words but I could tell that she was happy.


    "I say that from now on we will just celebrate both days as one giant birthday celebration. I''d much rather be celebrating you than me anyway."


    "David, have I told you how sweet and perfect you are?" She was giving me a soft look, something that told me how much she truly did love me.


    "No, but I already knew."


    "Oh, conceited are we?" Weughed together then.


    "Come on, make a wish and blow out the candles."


    "I already have everything I want." She kissed my cheek then pulled me with her. "Let''s blow them out together."


    "Hmm, OK." I looked at her with knowing eyes before we blew the candles out together, cheek to cheek.


    I served the cake then, giving her the heart with her name on it. I was smiling excitedly as I waited for her to cut into it. This was going to be exciting, especially since she thought she had everything already.


    The surprise was hidden in the middle of the cake, which I have seen her cut into when eating cake before. She wasn''t like most people, she cut the cake in half before eating it. And she didn''t disappoint me today either.


    I watched as Rawlynne cut the cake right in half. The ring caught on the end of the fork immediately, clinking against the metal as she pulled the fork back.


    "What the?" She was surprised by the appearance of something unexpected. "What''s this?" She asked me as she looked up.


    I was already down on one knee from when we blew the candles out so I just reached forward and pulled the ring off the end of the fork, cleaning it with the wet cloth I had ready.


    "I guess it''s nothing really, since there was nothing else you could ever want." I was grinning like a loon and I knew it. I could feel my cheeks spreading wider and wider as I thought about what I was doing. "I was just going to ask the most beautiful woman in the world if she would be my wife. I was going to tell her that my life would never beplete without her in it and that I never wanted to be away from her again. I was going to ask her if she would be the woman that I started a family with and would be by my side through the good times and the bad. But, you know, you don''t need that do you?"


    "David?" She squealed excitedly. "Yes. Yes David, yes." She threw her arms around my neck in a hug that was so fierce and rushed that she fell out of the chair on top of me and we toppled to the floor together. "Oh my Goddess, David, yes, I want to marry you. I didn''t think you wanted to marry me. Not yet anyway. I thought you would say you were too young to get married.


    "As long as I am with you, Rawlynne, I am happy. I don''t need anything else. You are my happiness. I love you, more than life."


    "I love you too, I love you so much." She pressed her lips to mine then, kissing me deeply and passionately.

 Chapter 299 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 13 (MATURE)

    <h4>Chapter 299 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 13 (MATURE)</h4>


    ~~


    Rawlynne


    ~~


    David had just asked me to marry him and now I wasying on top of him and kissing him passionately in the dining room of his house. I felt David pull my arms from around his neck but he didn''t break the kiss. He was pulling my left hand to him with our lips still locked. The next thing I knew he was sliding the ring into ce on my ring finger.


    I was engaged to my mate. I was marrying the love of my life.


    David took control of the kiss then. He grabbed me by the thighs and lifted me into his arms as he stood. I was running my hands through his hair by that time, doing anything I could to touch him.


    David seemed frantic as well, he wanted me and I wanted him. Was it the high of having gotten engaged? Was it just trying to prove to each other that this moment was real? I didn''t know and I didn''t care.


    "David." I panted his name after breaking the kiss, but I kept my lips against his as I spoke. "I want you, I need you. Right now."


    "I know baby, I just need to get you to the bedroom."


    "Now!" I said the word again, to drive my point home.


    "Whatever you want, baby, whatever you want."


    I heard things falling to the floor then but I was too far gone to care what they were. The next thing I knew I was sitting on the edge of the table that we had just had dinner at. I hadn''t noticed what he was doing until then but now that I looked around I saw the table had been cleared off, and the candles had even been extinguished. Huh, he was good.


    In the next moment David was ripping his shirt off over his head and then grabbing the hem of mine to pull it off as well. After we were both topless David put his lips back against mine, but his hands stayed busy. I felt him reach behind me to unhook my bra, the small, thin material had been taken off of my arms and discarded without breaking our kiss.


    I heard the clink of a belt and could tell that David was removing his own pants at the moment, but my tongue was too busy dancing with his for me to break the kiss and look. Next his hands were at my waist, I felt the button pop and the zipper slide down, he was in just as much of a rush as I was.


    He broke the kiss then so that he could push me back against the table. I was thankful for the soft cloth that kept my back from getting cold when Iid back. Once I wasying down David tugged hard at the waistband of my pants and panties. He had me stripped bare in a matter of seconds, and he too was naked. I liked the sight of that, him hard and ready for me.


    David bent his head forward then, his mouthtching forcefully onto my right breast while his hand pinched and pulled at the nipple of my left breast. I heard the moan escape from between my parted lips as I grabbed the back of David''s head.


    His tongue flicked over my nipple and his teeth grazed it with just a little bit of force. While his mouth and hand were already driving me crazy as he yed with my chest I felt his other hand slide down my body until it cupped my core and rubbed my slit with mind? blowing precision.


    His fingers spread me open and found their way to the most sensitive of my ces. Those magical, mind blowing fingers were driving me wild beneath him, I scratched my fingers along his shoulders as I moaned and screamed already feeling the pleasure of him driving me toward my climax.


    "D-David!" I panted his name and watched as he raised his head from my chest with a grin on his face.


    "I think I need to please you a little more before I give you what you''re begging for." His words and his tone did not match, he sounded so soothing and happy but his words were torture right now.


    With no other warning than that David dropped to his knees and I could instantly feel his breath against my hot, hot core. His breath felt so cold inparison to the burning intensity I was feeling inside my body, but the moment his tongue hit my sensitive opening it felt like his tongue was the thing that was on fire.


    With his hands on my thighs, spreading my legs wide before him, David devoured me. Hepped and sucked at my slit as I screamed and did the only thing I could do, I held fistfuls of his hair just to have something to grab onto.


    His tongue yed me like a fiddle, it was mind blowing and in no time at all I came apart screaming his name while hepped the fresh wash of juices from me dripping core. Once I was panting and spasming uncontrobly David got back to his feet, he fitted himself against my opening and thrust forward with a savage intensity. It was just a little painful and one hundred percent glorious. I loved every second of it and was happy to see that he was not wasting time to create a mind blowing rhythm.


    In and out, pound, pound, pound. I heard the p of flesh, I felt his shaft piercing me over and over. It was wonderful and perfect and I never wanted it to end. Sadly, though, I could already feel that I was scaling that mountain once again.


    It wouldn''t be long before I tumbled over the edge into oblivion but I wanted this night to keep going. After a few dozen more thrusts I felt myself cascade again, I was climaxing and David was right there with me as he threw his head back on a roar.


    David didn''t pull himself from me as he lifted me off the table, he kept himself firmly inside of me, firmly being the operative word there. He was definitely a young stallion, he could go all night long.


    "I want to make love to you in every room of my house." His whisper was rough and coarse and felt like a set of fingers running along my skin. "And I see no reason not to do that right now."


    He carried me to the kitchen, then leaned me back against the stainless steel fridge. He wrapped my legs around his waist and pushed my hands against the fridge above my head. He was already set to start again. He pulled out of me and thrust back in and I could truly feel the mind blowing intimacy that this position was offering us.


    This time his rhythm was harder and hotter. He was moving quickly and I could already feel my next orgasming on. He pounded in and out of me with brutal force but it was just what I needed and didn''t know. Soon, I was spasming again as he roared his climax and exploded inside of me.


    David carried me again. This time we ended up in the living room. He pulled himself from me only long enough to push me against the back of the couch, facing away from him. My hands were gripping the soft, ck leather for a mere second when he entered me again. I screamed at the feel of it, my body over sensitive and needy at the same time.


    He set another quick and fast rhythm, something that would drive us both crazy in no time at all. I had to lock my knees this time though, because the mind blowing feeling of him ramming in and out of my body was leaving me feeling dizzy and weak. If it wasn''t for the locked knees and his hands on my hips I would have fallen straight to the floor.


    I don''t even remember the climax that time, I just remember David pulling himself from my tender opening and lifting me into his arms. He carried me like a princess, or a new bride, all the way down the hall to his bedroom. Heid me gently on the bed and climbed up after me. He set his lips to mine then for a tender and gentle kiss.


    He took me in his arms again as he scooted and leaned back against the headboard of the bed, the pillows pushed aside. He lifted me and gently entered me again, my core was feeling way too sensitive but I still hadn''t had enough.


    Once I was loweredpletely onto his shaft he started to rock his hips back and forth while holding me on hisp. This time he was being gentle and tender. He used his grip on my backside to lift me up gently with each rocking motion of his hips. The entire time that we were connected we kept our lips locked together and our tongues dancing with each other.


    This was the gentlest, most tender love making I had ever experienced and it made my heart swell with more love for the man who was holding me tight.


    I had my arms wrapped around him, and my fingers were digging gently into his shoulders and back. I couldn''t stop trying to hold him tighter and closer to me.


    Soon after a while I felt myself ascending that mountain again. I was approaching the edge of oblivion and I knew he was feeling something simr since I had felt him harden even more inside of my oversensitive core.


    The orgasm was building brutally strong, stronger than any of the others so far tonight. His racking got a little more intense as we were both nearing the end. He was lifting me a little faster and bringing me down a little harder. Thebination of everything was making my mind go nk, and my vision was turning dark. All I could focus on was him and the pleasure he was giving me.


    A few more rocking thrusts, a few more lifts and me being mmed back down onto his rock hard shaft and I was ready to melt. I came apart at the seams and was d that I had him to hold onto so I didn''t disappear into the oblivion.


    I felt my fingers dig deep into his back at the same time that his fingers dug into my thighs and bottom. I knew he was going to leave some bruises that wouldn''tst long, but I was also leaving bloody w marks on his back. We both needed to hold onto something as these most recent orgasms overtook us.


    I copsed against David''s shoulder when the spasming finally stopped wracking through my body. I could hardly move and felt like I wouldn''t be able to for a while.


    "No more." I panted softly. "No more, I can''t take anymore." I was already drifting off to sleep.


    "That''s fine, baby, we can finish in the morning." I heard theughter in his voice. "We need to finish christening the whole house after all.


    I thought then about how many more rooms he had. We had already been in the dining room, kitchen, living room, and master bedroom. There was still the master bathroom, the spare bedroom and bathroom, and theundry room. That would make the morning just as much of a marathon as tonight had been. I wanted to scream in both fear and joy at the thought. As I fell asleep against his shoulder.


    We woke up and did exactly as David had said, every room of the house, including the entryway against the door, the floor of the hallway, and a redo in the living room and a few redos in the master bedroom.


    I had taken my birthday off to be with David because it was a weekday, but I ended up taking the next day off as well. I had ended up needing that time to learn how to walk again.

 Chapter 300 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 14

    <h4>Chapter 300 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 14</h4>


    ~~


    David


    ~~


    I had absolutely loved my birthday this year, and I think Rawlynne quite enjoyed her as well. We had spent at least eighty percent of that time naked and in each other''s arms. There was not a room or a surface in my house that I hadn''t taken her on, or in.


    She had ended up taking another day off from work but she refused to let me touch her that day. She said she needed to recover and I needed to work so she lefttete the night of her birthday. I was so sad to see her go but I had those memories tost me.


    She was right though, I had work to do. I was still Trinity''s guard and we were all helping her to n and get ready for the Alpha''s birthday party. I spent the next three days working and not even being able to see Rawlynne at all.


    I saw her next at the party for Reece''s birthday, the group of people already growing when she showed up with Jackson.


    "Hey, wolf boy." Jackson yelled at me. We had been on friendly termstely so I didn''t know why he was mad at me right now.


    "What''s up Jackson?" I asked him with a smile.


    "Go easy on my sister from now on, she''s been feeling worn out since your birthday celebration."


    "JACKSON!" Rawlynne yelled at him with a bright red face.


    "Well it''s true." I couldn''t help but swell with pride then. Come on, what man wouldn''t be happy to have thatsting type of effect on a woman.


    The birthday party went great. And I was not prepared for the revtion that Trinity and Reece were having twins. That was exciting news for them, but with me and Rawlynne getting married now I didn''t want to ruin things by getting her pregnant. I knew she had a lot of ns for her career and a baby wasn''t part of those ns yet.


    Just after the fireworks were over Rawlynne was feeling tired from a long few days at work so I offered to take her back to my ce, after I promised that I wouldn''t try to do anything but sleep. She agreed only after that promise.


    We took a quick shower together and climbed into bed. I held her in my arms while we slept peacefully through the night. I had wonderful dreams of our future. It was difficult for me to imagine ourselves looking older so I just pictured us as we were now.


    There was a sweet little baby in the dream and for some reason I was able to smell in this dream. There was a lingering scent of maple syrup around Rawlynne but the baby, who was just a few days old, smelled exactly like fluffy pancakes covered in maple syrup. Was that what a future child of ours would smell like.


    I smiled all through the night as that dream yed over and over in my head.


    When I was getting ready to wake up, just on the verge of consciousness I could still smell that maple scent. It was like fresh from the tree maple syrup and it was making my mouth water for some pancakes.


    Wait, why was I still smelling that maple scent? Shouldn''t it have gone away with the dream? What was with this lingering smell?


    Only it wasn''t just lingering, it was there and it was bing overwhelming. My eyes popped open then and I stared at Rawlynne. She was still asleep in my arms but I needed to check something.


    I hovered over her and pressed my nose to her stomach, inhaling deeply. That smell was there again and way stronger now.


    "Uh oh." I was worried that Rawlynne would be upset with this development.


    "Mmm, David? What are you doing?" She stretched and turned to look at me with surprise. "There is no time to do anything right now, we need to get to work."


    "Rawlynne, I''m so sorry."


    "Don''t be sorry, just keep it in your pants for next time." She giggled.


    "No, it''s not that. It''s¡­.It''s that¡­. Oh Goddess I''m so sorry Rawlynne, I ruined your ns." I felt so irresponsible and I just knew she was going to be angry.


    "What''s wrong? What is it you think you ruined?" She was sitting up now and pulling away from me, the t-shirt she had borrowed from me all disheveled and sexy first thing in the morning.


    "You said you weren''t ready yet, but I didn''t listen. I shouldn''t have taken you so many times on our birthdays, I should have worn something to prevent this."


    "Prevent what? What are you talking about? David, you''re starting to make me worry here."


    "I''m sorry, sweetheart, I''m so sorry that I got you pregnant too soon."


    "What?" Her face dropped and she looked like I had just smacked her on the back of the head. "What did you just say?"


    "You''re pregnant. I am so sorry, I didn''t mean to do this to you. And this is the first time we''ve been alone and settled down since you left the other night so I wasn''t able to tell sooner. I am so sorry honey. Please don''t hate me."


    "Why would I hate you?" She looked at me withughter in her eyes. "It''s not like you did anything wrong, now did you?"


    "But, you said you weren''t ready for kids yet. Your career, you said that-."


    "And all those ns were before I met you. I have new ns now, and even more new ones I guess. I''m not mad David, actually I''m quite happy, or I will be once I can process this without you trying to make it sound so bad."


    "You''re happy?" I asked her with disbelief in my voice. "You''re not mad? You want the baby?"


    "It''s our baby, of course I want it. I love kids anyway, I just wasn''t ready for one until I found the right person."


    "I love you." I wrapped my arms around her waist and buried my nose in her belly.


    "What are you doing?" Sheughed at me again.


    "Smelling you and the baby. They smell like maple syrup and it''s bringing out the fruity parts of your scent. It''s actually making me want to have pancakes for breakfast. Well, pancakes or you."


    "Slow down there tiger, we still have work to do. Pancakes we can do, dessert will have to wait."


    "Dammit, I knew you''d say that." Iughed now too. "Hey, I got a perfect name we can use."


    "Already thinking of names, are we?" She rolled her eyes as I looked at her.


    "But it''s perfect, it means maple tree, since the baby smells like maple syrup it''s perfect."


    "What is it?" She actually looked like she wanted to know.


    "Kaede, it''s Japanese."


    "I like it, but we will see. Is it for a boy or a girl?"


    "Either, which makes it perfect for either one."

 Chapter 301 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 15

    <h4>Chapter 301 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- DAVID AND RAWLYNNE CHAPTER 15</h4>


    ~~


    Rawlynne


    ~~


    I had been engaged for six days by the time that I found out I was pregnant. That was short lived. And I refused to have the baby without being married first so we nned our wedding really fast. It was the beginning of July already and I didn''t want to be showing too much. Plus we didn''t have too many people to invite. It was just the rest of the guards at the estate and their mates, plus Jackson, Trinity and Reece.


    Jackson was happy when I had told him I was getting married. But when I told him I was pregnant he was not so happy.


    "It''s too fucking soon!" He yelled when I went home from work the day after the party for Reece.


    "It is what it is, Jackson, you just need to ept it."


    "But you haven''t known him that long. You''re not even married yet."


    "I''ve known him long enough. I know that just under five months seems quick to you Jackson, but that''s actually a long time for this to take for wolf culture. And we didn''t n it this early, it just happened."


    "Ok, so what, you got pregnant on your birthday? How do you already know about it?"


    "Another wolf thing. David can smell the baby."


    Jackson was having a hard time processing all of this right now. He was used to all the wolf stuff, but this was actually quite a shock for him.


    "OK, OK, fine I get it. So I will be an uncle by the end of March next year?"


    "More like the end of December this year."


    "Wait, how is that even possible? Pregnancies take nine months."


    "Not a wolf pregnancy. A pregnancy for us onlysts six months."


    "You''ve got to be kidding me?" The wide eyed look of shock told me he was definitely not expecting that revtion at all. "Is there anything that you guys do that is normal?" He was at leastughing when he said that.


    "Well, you''ll have to stick around and tell me what differs from the human aspect and the wolf aspect."


    "Deal." Heughed then, finally smiling about all of this.


    David had Jackson be his best man for our wedding. David didn''t have any family but Jackson was going to be his brother now. All the people that we had grown close to in the pack were there with us and the ceremony was held in the same clearing that Trinity and Reece held theirs. Apparently everyone they considered close could have their parties there.


    Following the wedding things were calm for a while. However, the closer I got to delivering the baby, a girl, the more I knew that I needed to get Jackson some help in here for while I was gone. We had a full staff, but I was the one who basically ran everything next to Jackson. I couldn''t leave all of that on him.


    So, I had asked Harris to find someone who could be my third inmand. Someone who wouldn''t mind working with and taking orders from a human. He was sending me a newer agent but someone who had shown great promise. Her name was Melita and she was a bear shifter. She was actually a member of Trevor Jacoby''s pack.


    She was due to arrive today, since I was taking off after tomorrow. The baby was due by the end of the month and tomorrow was Christmas Eve, you could say I was pushing this a littlete.


    "Where the hell is Jackson?" I growled into my office. "Melita was supposed to be here already. He was supposed to be keeping an eye out for her but I haven''t seen him in a while. Thest of the office staff just left and it looked like I was the only left in here.


    "Ok, that''s it, I am going to find him. He probably fell asleep in his office again." Jackson had been working long hours, preparing to take over my position while I was on leave.


    I stormed out of my office, as best as I could with a massive belly, and headed to his office that was across the open office space. His door was shut and the blinds were closed. Yep, he was probably taking a nap and missed the call from the new agent saying she was runningte or something.


    I pulled his door open, already calling for him.


    "Jackson?" I expected to see him lounging in his chair with his feet on his desk like I had thest couple times. So, imagine my surprise when I saw him and a pretty young woman wrapped around each other, Jackson pressing the woman against the wall next to his desk.


    Jackson''s shirt was partially unbuttoned and pushed down his shoulders and the woman''s blouse was all the way undone, her pale pink bra visible and her skirt hiked up around her thighs as her right leg was wrapped around Jackson''s waist.


    "Well, I see I''ve interrupted things here." Iughed. "Do you mind exining to me what is going on around here, little brother?" I could hear theughter that I was desperately trying to hold back.


    The woman put her leg down and frantically started to rebutton her shirt. Jackson cleared his throat and started to straighten his own clothes.


    "Ah, um, Rawlynne, this is, um, this is Melita Johnson, the new transfer."


    "I did not know that you gave such a personal introduction to all the new transfers." I joked with him. "It''s nice to meet you Melita, and I am sorry for the awkward intro here but I am your boss."


    "I-I''m so sorry Miss Otsana." She stuttered momentarily as she looked sheepishly at me.


    If you''re going to call me anything other than Deputy Director then I prefer you call me either Rawlynne or Mrs. Martin since I am recently married."


    "Oh, I am sorry Deputy Director, I didn''t know. I just knew you from your reputation."


    "No need to worry, Melita. May I assume this was more than a mutual attraction that you felt for each other."


    "Um, w-well." Melita looked at Jackson like she didn''t know what to say about what was happening.


    "He knows about us, Melita, feel free to talk freely."


    "Oh, that helps a lot." She looked relieved. "I didn''t know that humans could be affected by a mate bond like this. I walked in and my bear just started screaming that he was my mate, and the next thing I knew we were, well, you know." Iughed at her exnation. She was maybe twenty-six years old, I couldn''t remember what the file said about her.


    "Allow me to be the first to offer you my congrattions. Jackson, can I trust you to keep your tongue out of her mouth long enough to exin things to her? I do want to get home to my husband."


    "Just shut up and go home already." He growled at me, he''d been spending too much time around us wolves it seemed. I would call himter and talk about it, but it looked like my little brother had found himself a new bear mate.


    I enjoyed my first Christmas with my mate. We got gifts for each other as well as gifts for the baby that we opened for each other. We made dinner together, or I wanted to but every time I got in there David was sending me to go sit back down and rest. He had been very doting when it came to the baby.


    The day after Christmas we washed, dried, and put away all the baby''s new things. We werepletely prepared, or as prepared as we could have been at the moment.


    I was not prepared for my water to break in bed while sleeping next to David just the next night. It was just after midnight actually for it was the 28th now.


    David rushed from the bed and got towels and new clothes for the two of us. He cleaned me up and helped get me dressed. He carried my bag to the car and then insisted on carrying me to the car as well.


    I was inbor for several more hours, even though my water had already broken and our sweet little baby didn''t make her debut until after five in the morning. We called Jackson, who came with his new mate Melita. We called Trinity and Reece who had just recently had their own babies earlier this month and told them the news.


    Even though we told them they didn''t have toe, Trinity insisted oning to see me in the hospital. Reece looked annoyed with her but was still happy for us. Everyone of them gushed over our little Kaede. I couldn''t have been happier.

 Chapter 302 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHANE AND FALENA CHAPTER 1

    <h4>Chapter 302 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHANE AND FALENA CHAPTER 1</h4>


    ~~


    Falena


    ~~


    I was currently standing in my Alpha''s office. Landon yton, the leader of the felines for this area. The problem with us felines is that we''re usually solitary creatures that like to stick with just our own family and not a lot of others. If there are too many of us around we tend to fight and argue. I was an exception to the rule really. I didn''t mind having the others near me.


    Maybe it was me being different that hadnded me the Gamma position. I don''t know how I felt about that though. I had been Landon''s Gamma since he took over the position of Alpha when his dad died. Everyone used to think that Landon and I would end up together but that was so never going to happen. I saw the man as my brother and gagged at the thought of being with him that way.


    Maybe it was because I saw him as a brother that I tended to get annoyed by his aloof attitude. If anyone I ever met personified the image of a house cat, it was Landon. He always seemed sozy.


    He wasn''t really that bad though, because he really did work harder than everyone else I knew. But his attitude, such a house cat.


    "Hey, Lena, do you remember Reece?"


    "Yeah, I remember him." I said as I put my hand on my chin, remembering back to thest time I saw Reece. "He''s a wolf, and he''s an Alpha now too, right?"


    "Yeah, he and I were good friends as kids since we were the same age and went to school together. Not overly close but we hung out from time to time."


    "What about him?" I asked Landon, hoping he would cut to the chase.


    "Well, he''s getting married next week."


    "Landon!" I snapped at him, knowing exactly where this was going.


    "Lena?" He gave me thatzy smile he thought helped him to win every argument. Dammit, I hate that it worked.


    "Why can''t you go to this damn wedding yourself. He''s your friend not mine."


    "You know I am too busy for that. I have to run this damnpany and this fucking pack. It''s not like I am rolling in spare time."


    "That''s because you refuse to let anyone else do anything for you. You insists on being the one to do everything. If you shared the damn-."


    "I''m not arguing with you." He snapped at me. "And I''m not asking. Go to the damn wedding as my envoy and present a peaceful attitude."


    That was how it all went down. That was how I ended uping to Reece Gray''s estate to attend his wedding. I had to wear a dress to this thing and that wasn''t really me either. I would rather be wearing fur. My fur. While I ran free through the mountains.


    I first went up to Reece before finding my ce for the ceremony. This was how Alpha weddings went. First I would greet the groom and then after the ceremony I would meet and introduce myself to the new Luna. I was used to this since it wasn''t the first time Landon sent me to one of these things.


    "Reece, it is good to see you. Congrattions on your wedding, I cannot wait to meet your mate." I hugged him lightly with a smile.


    "It is good to see you Lena." He hugged me back. "Make sure you tell Landon he needs toe himself next time." Oh if you only knew Reece, if you only knew. I wish I could get that good for nothing out of that damn house.


    The ceremony was beautiful, and the bride looked amazing. It honestly made me wish I could find someone to call my own. I wanted to have the whole mate thing too, dammit, I was twenty-four now after all. What, was I not good enough for anyone to call their own?


    I was just enjoying the reception, there were so many people around that it was actually kind of annoying me. That cat part of me was still intact, I hated being in reallyrge crowds. I was enjoying the food though, so it was well worth the time spent suffering here.


    I watched as first Trevor Jacoby, the bear Alpha, introduced himself. Then came the warlocks. I was next after them. Slowly, I made my way to Reece''s table to meet his new bride, Trinity. She was pretty, but so much younger than me. Howe she had a mate already and I didn''t.


    I was into the opening near their table now, just beyond the swell of the people. And that''s when the scent finally hit me. There was the unmistakable mewling inside my head that told me that I had just found my mate. The lynx inside of me was purring uncontrobly and screaming one word over and over.


    "Mate. Mate. Mate."


    I can''t believe it, he was here. Who was he? Who was this man that my lynx was smelling? He smelled like cocoa and raspberries, it was intoxicating. That''s when I saw him stand up, a gasping from his slightly parted lips. His gray eyes were locked onto mine, his silver hair shining in the sun, and that body, so perfect, so tones, so yummy looking.


    ~~


    Shane


    ~~


    I had thought that this day was just going to be boring with nothing much to do. Except watch the damn wedding. Don''t get me wrong, I love Trinity and Reece like they were part of my own family, but weddings were boring. And I was still here under a partially official capacity so I couldn''t even look for a new date.


    This was going to be hell for me.


    Still I put a smile on my face and did my job properly. I did quite enjoy the way things were going after a bit. The ceremony was nice, all things considered, and the food was amazing. I would have expected nothing less from Reece though, he would always want the best.


    Following the food, there was a part of the ceremony where the other packs and ns came to introduce themselves to Trinity. The first toe up was Trevor Jacoby, the mountain of a man that was the bear Alpha. I had met the man a few times in my life and I knew he was a good friend of Reece''s.


    Good friend or not though, I might not have taken his flirting with Trinity like that if I was Reece. But it did look like he was joking so I don''t know. I was stillughing at reece saying ''fuck you Winnie the Pooh'' when the next envoy came up.


    There were three warlocks that came and introduced themselves after Trevor. I always hated how Warlocks had no scent for us so they threw me off. I wonder if a warlock mated with a wolf or other shifter, would they have a scent then? That would be interesting to find out.


    I was absentmindedly lost in thought, thinking about my little brain teaser when the next envoy was supposed to be walking up. I didn''t even pay attention to who was supposed to be next and so I was thrown through a loop when I noticed my wolf howling inside my head.


    ''Mate. Mate. Mate. Mate. Mate. Mate.'' He was panting and kept repeating the same word over and over again.


    I snapped my head in her direction and gasped at the beauty I saw before me. She had long, wavy, dark brown hair. Her eyes looked like they were the color of the sun itself. And her body, so beautiful and so sexy with that narrow waist, firm arms, and that tanned, sun kissed looked. She was perfect.


    I couldn''t help it then. I stood up and looked at her with my mouth hanging open. She was perfect. And oh that scent. She smelled like a sweet bubbling brook in the mountains that was surrounded by wild berries. Sweet, tart, and frest all at the same time.


    "Reece?" I barely registered Trinity''s voice as I stared at the woman who had just captured my heart.


    "It looks like another of your guards has found a mate. This is very good for the pack." Reece''s words barely registered as well, all I wanted was to stare at this woman forever.


    "Falena, it looks like this wedding has been very advantageous for you as well as me. I think this is cause for celebration, don''t you?" There were cheers and apuse ringing through the whole party after Reece spoke again. "Come Lena, let me introduce you." That was when I saw Reece and Trinity start walking over to where the woman was still standing, motionless.


    Slowly, as if still in disbelief, the woman walked closer at the same time that I walked closer to my Alpha and Luna. With every step she took, the shock slowly disappeared from her face bringing back her radiant smile. By the time she stood right next to Reece and Trinity, she was beaming at me and I couldn''t have been happier.


    "Shane, let me introduce you to your mate. This is Falena Areli, a lynx shifter from the Rocky Mountains Pride. Lena, meet Shane Asher, one of my mate''s guards and an excellent fighter." I had heard him say her name twice before this but it hadn''t registered until right now. All I could do now though was stare into her eyes now that we were standing there face to face.


    "Lena." I breathed her name with a sigh and a smile.


    "Shane." She smiled right back at me.


    "Let''s get you two seated together so that you can get to know each other. Lena,e by to see meter tonight or tomorrow." Reece motioned for someone with a wave of his hand and whispered to them. "Please put another ce setting at this table for our guest."


    I stopped paying attention after that, but I was vaguely aware that there was another mating right after mine. I didn''t care though, all I could see was the beauty sitting with me. Falena and I spent the rest of the night talking and getting to know each other. She was twenty-four with a birthday next month in April, I was going to be twenty-seven in August. We both loved nature, had simr tastes in music, and we both had important positions in our packs. I couldn''t get enough of her and wanted to see her more. She even lived close by so I could see her quite easily.


    We made ns to go on our first date in three nights, it was going to be perfect. I could show her how much of a gentleman I really was and there was nothing keeping us from jumping into this mating with no reservations. We were shifters, and we were mates, that''s the majority of the info that we would need to make all of this work out.

 Chapter 303 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHANE AND FALENA CHAPTER 2

    <h4>Chapter 303 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHANE AND FALENA CHAPTER 2</h4>


    ~~


    Falena


    ~~


    Well, that was a more exciting wedding than I had expected it to be. Yeah sure, there was the ceremony, there was the reception, there was me finding a mate and then another person finding a mate, and finally the Sentinelle showing up to announce that the Red Springs pack had the newest incarnation of the Moon Goddess. Nothing big right?


    Fuck that! It was massive as all fucking hell. I can''t believe I found my mate at that wedding. And to think that I didn''t even want to go. I would have kicked my own ass if I hadn''t gone and met him. Not to mention Shane was hot as well. I loved the look of his body too, I couldn''t wait to lick all over him with my tongue.


    What? I am an animal you know. I''m allowed to act like it every now and then.


    Right now I was on my way back to the pack house. I needed to tell Landon what had happened. I just knew he was going to have a field day with this knowledge.


    When I knocked on the door to his office he grumbled his answer to me.


    "Just get your ass in here Lena, why do you bother to knock?"


    "Maybe because I don''t know what you''re doing and don''t want my retina scarred." Iughed as I opened the door and walked in.


    "Hardy har har. That was so funny I think I forgot tough." He rolled his eyes as he set his pen down and red at me. That was quite the feat, to roll his eyes and re at me. I don''t know how he managed it, but that''s what he did. Multi-talented prick.


    "Boy, you seem to be in such a great mood." There was an excessive amount of sarcasm dripping from those words.


    "Oh, you could tell?" His sarcasm matched my own. "I just love it when the man who is supposed to help me run this fuckingpany ups and leaves town without telling me. That''s the best thing in the world you know."


    "So, Greg went on that vacation he was talking about even though I told him not to?"


    "Yeah, that asshat." I watched as Landon ran his hand through his hair and sighed with exhaustion. "This is why I don''t ask for help, no one is reliable."


    "Hey, I resent that." Iughed at him as I flopped in the chair across from him, just as exhausted from yesterday.


    "Yeah, you''re the only person I seem to be able to rely on." Heughed as he looked at me. "I''m thinking of making you my Beta you know, since I still don''t have one."


    "Seriously?" I could tell I was giving him the most shocked face I could manage.


    "Yeah, what do you think?"


    "I think that I am honored, seriously. Are you sure you want me?"


    "I couldn''t imagine anyone else."


    "Then thank you."


    We were both smiling at each other now, happy with the oue that the conversation had taken. I honestly couldn''t believe that he had asked me to be his Beta, that was huge. Almost as big as the news I had for him.


    "So, what did you need when you came in here, since I usurped the conversation and sidetracked you?"


    "Well, I had some news for you." I was getting nervous now and I didn''t really know why.


    "What kind of news?" He tilted his head and looked at me with wonder filled eyes, sometimes he was so childlike.


    "Well, I met someone recently."


    "Meaning?" He hadn''t gotten my reference. UGH!


    "I met a guy." I tried again.


    "So what? I''m not your dad, you can date whoever you want."


    "You don''t get it." I shook my head as I looked at the floor and put my hand on my forehead. "I met my mate." I guess direct was the only thing men understood.


    "Oh?" He sounded shocked and surprised to hear those words. "Well, that''s great news." He was smiling now. "Where?"


    "At the wedding yesterday." I didn''t know what he would say about my mate being a wolf.


    "So I''m guessing he isn''t a feline."


    "Nope."?shook my head and waited for the hammer to fall.


    "Is he a wolf in Reece''s pack?"


    "Yup."


    "Anyone I know?"


    "His name is Shane Asher." I didn''t know if he knew Shane or not, but this was going to be an interesting time for me if he did.


    "I''ve heard of him but never met him. He''s a warrior, right?" I nodded my head in agreement. "Well, congrats. Make sure you bring him by to meet me sometime."


    "Seriously? That''s it?" I was confused. "You don''t have anything else to say?"


    "Did you want me to forbid you from seeing him?" He was looking at me with curious eyes again.


    "No, I just didn''t think that would be it."


    "I will save the grilling for when I meet him." I saw a devilish smirk and an invisible set of devil horns on his head since I just knew he was nning something.


    "Oh Goddess." I groaned into my hands.


    Following that revtion told Landon what had happened with Reece''s mate, Trinity. He found that much more interesting and had actually scolded me for not leading with that. Sorry, but my love life is more in the forefront of my mind right now.


    ~~


    Shane


    ~~


    Lena and I had made ns to go on a date three days after the wedding, that would make it Saturday night. But then the day after the wedding I was notified that I would not be in town for that night. Lena at first thought I was lying, trying to get out of the date. It took me a while to convince her that I was telling the truth about where I was going.


    It broke my heart having to break the date too. I wanted to go on it so bad. I wanted to get to know my mate more and have a good time, and maybe get a little more.


    I promised her that we would reschedule once we got back from the mission and she epted. And boy was there going to be a lot to tell her now. I had been blessed by the Goddess to get an extra special power. I had fought giantbo monsters that were big, nasty, and fucking ugly. Unfortunately Trinity lost her baby but we did manage to save twenty four kids and six captive Warlocks. I know that is not a perfect bnce there but at least no one else had to die.


    We were gone for two nights and were exhausted after the trip so I slept like a log when I got home. After that, though, I was ready to have my date with Lena. I called her up and made ns for that same night.


    I asked her where it was that she wanted to go, if there was anything special she wanted to do. She had grown up close enough to us that she came into Colorado Springs all the time so there were no real new ces for me to take her, she knew them all already.


    We settled for dinner and a movie. You can''t beat the ssics sometimes right?


    I took her to a French restaurant that we both had been to and had seemed to like. I ordered a bottle of wine and hors d''oeuvres before we had ced our order for the main course. This ce was the type that did full five course meals that we could sit and enjoy for a long time.


    During the dinner we enjoyed some more conversation. I found out that Lena was the middle child with one older brother and one younger brother. She had always been protected by her brothers who taught her to fight for herself and to never take shit from anyone. Her family seemed really close and I liked that. Shawn and I were the only two in our family and I couldn''t imagine life without my twin brother there with me. That must sound pathetic given that I was in my mid twenties but it was the truth.


    Following dinner we went to see a movie, one that I let Lena pick for us. It was an action movie, not a romantic chick flick or ro. She was truly my soulmate wasn''t she?


    The movie was awesome. We started with junior high basics, holding hands while watching the movie. But that all soon proved to be too tough and I was d we had sat at the back of the theater. By the middle of the movie we were making out like real lovers and just as the movie ended I was ready to do something that I had never done before. Damn movie ending too soon, that could have been really fun. Oh well.


    The night had seemed to be going perfectly so I decided to ask her toe back to my ce, and I was beyond ted when she had said yes.

 Chapter 304 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHANE AND FALENA CHAPTER 3 (MATURE)

    <h4>Chapter 304 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHANE AND FALENA CHAPTER 3 (MATURE)</h4>


    ~~


    Falena


    ~~


    I honestly couldn''t believe how well things had been going and how much we got along with each other. I mean, I knew the Goddess was there to pick our perfect mates for each other, but man did she ever choose the perfect man. Shane was the best, he was funny, he was sexy, and we agreed on almost everything.


    And then there was the fact that he was so doting. Everything that I wanted he just did without being asked. When we were driving on the way to dinner if I made a slightment about the car being too stuffy he worked on getting the level for the windows so I got fresh air but also so that it didn''t mess up my hair. I just wonder how dedicated he was going to be to me?


    Then after dinner and the movie he asked me to go with him back to his ce. Apparently, he had an apartment not too far from where we were right now. I have to admit, I had been waiting for this moment and if he didn''t ask me to go with him then I was going to ask for it myself.


    I was d that his ce wasn''t far either, I was getting desperate for him. This mating shit was extremely intense, that''s for sure.


    Shane pulled his car up in front of his ce which was in a fairly nice apartmentplex. His ce was on the second floor and everyone had private entrances that you entered from outside. I followed him up to his door and waited for him to unlock it. He stepped back and smiled at me.


    "Ladies first, or would you like me to carry you?" He was giving me a truly seductive look when he spoke just now.


    "Ooooh, is that actually an option?" I giggled and smiled at him.


    "Of course it is." He swept me off of my feet then and scooped me up into his arms. "Come with me, my queen." There was definitely heat in those words as well as his eyes. That was a sexy and seductive feeling I was getting from him.


    He paused for just a minute after we were through the door. He shifted me until I was in just one of his arms as he pulled the door shut and locked it. After he was done with that he kicked his shoes off and carried me straight to the bedroom in the back of the apartment.


    As soon as we were in the bedroom Shane seemed to drop me on the bed with a need and hunger that was taking over him entirely. That''s fine, I was ready to let my lynx take me over too. I wanted him, I needed him, and I knew just what I wanted to do.


    "Mind if I take a look around first?" I asked him slyly. "Why don''t you prepare something good for me to see while you wait."


    "What, you''re not a fan of the show?" Heughed.


    "I like a good show, don''t get me wrong, but I wanted to look around a bit, see where I am. You know how it is."


    "Be my guest. I will wait for you and still give you a show."


    "Ooh, so amodating." I grinned at him.


    I made a show of looking around the whole apartment, but what I really wanted was in his closet the whole time. I grabbed two ties, nothing that looked overly expensive. I wanted to use them for something specific.


    When I was done I sat back on the bed and let Shane give me his show. I have to say, he did great. The way he slowly unbuttoned his shirt and lowered it down his shoulders in beat with the music he had turned on. Then there was the fact that his hips were swaying and twisting to the beat.


    When his chest was bare he continued to his belt and the button of his jeans. He slowly pushed the jeans open, revealing his hips and the top of his boxer briefs. The jeans then began to slowly move down his legs as he danced out of them. Soon he was able to kick them to the side so theynded out of sight. He was good at this.


    "Let me remove thest bit." I smiled at him with an innocent look in my eyes.


    "Ooh, I like the sound of that." He sat on the bed then and scooted until he was in the middle.


    "Scoot back some more, until you''re leaning against the headboard." There was a wonderfully convenient wrought iron headboard with a pattern of branches and twigs and I wanted to make use of it tonight.


    I was happy to see that Shane obliged with noint at all. Such a good boy.


    I climbed up after Shane and straddled his legs. In the movie theater we had our first kiss, but I was ready to take the lead and make it more. Even more than the heated moments we had shared while ignoring the moviepletely.


    I ced my lips to his, gently at first but heated almost instantly. It was a great distraction while I made a loop with one of the ties and slipped it around his wrist. He gasped and turned his head away from me, breaking the kiss, when he felt the tie tighten around his wrist and tie him to the bed.


    I took advantage of that momentary confusion to tie his other hand back and to the headboard. Once he looked at both his hands that had been secured, though he could get out if he wanted to, he looked at me with heated eyes.


    "nning on ying with me or torturing me?" He asked with a smile.


    "Is there much of a difference?" I giggled as I kissed his lips lightly. "I want to y."


    "Such a frisky kitty." He was grinning happily as he purred those words.


    I set to work then. I had tasted his lips, now I wanted to taste his body. I started with his ears, I had to know if they were ticklish. I had a feeling they were. I licked the lobe of his left ear and nipped at it quickly. Following that I blew gently onto the slightly moistened flesh. I grinned as he shuddered from the ticklish feel of it.


    From there I traced my tongue down the outside of his jaw and to his corbone. I licked across his chest to the swell of his pectoral muscles and across his left nipple. I even bit down for good measure which made him cry out in surprise.


    With a chuckle I continued on. He was tasting so good, that vor was mind blowing. I needed more of it.


    I licked down his abs and to his hips where I met the waistband of his boxer briefs.


    "Looks like you''re going to have to change your method of y if you want to continue." I justughed again and continued on my merry way.


    I took his waistband in between my teeth where I proceeded to pull it down. I used my hands to help with the back and to urge his hips off the bed which he happilyplied.


    "I stand corrected." He wasughing now too.


    I pulled the boxers all the way off of him in that fashion until they slipped past his ankles and came away from him. Releasing my jaw had them falling to the floor where I didn''t need to worry about them anymore.


    "Ready for your show now?" I asked him as I heard the music shift to another song, something that was seductive and easy to move to.


    "Yes please." He was staring at my body excitedly then as he watched me start to pull the shirt over my head.


    I stripped for him slowly until I was fully naked before him. His eyes were wide with excitement, surprise, and desire.


    "Can I y now too?" He asked me so sweetly, but I wasn''t ready to let him go just yet.


    "Nope. I want to y some more." I gave him a mischievous smile as I crawled back onto the bed and set my tongue to his right leg.


    I had licked down, now I was going to lick up. I slowly tasted him as I made my way up his leg past the swell of his calf muscle, past his knee, and to his thigh. I heard his breath catch when I got closer to his sensitive area and he could finally feel my breath on his rock hard erection.


    "Finally, time to get to the good part." I purred as I settled myself between his legs and took his shaft into my hand. He was big, very big, and so hard. I licked him again, from the base of his shaft to the tip.


    When my tongue reached the tip of his erection I swirled my tongue in a circle just to drive him insane. The moan of pleasure and the increase to his panting told me I had aplished just that.


    While he was in mid moan I took him in my mouth, that caused his moan to be something louder and more frantic. I pulled him all the way into my mouth until he reached the back of my throat and my lips were touching the base of his shaft.


    I pulled back then, slowly, until just the tip of him was still in my mouth. I swirled my tongue again and then took him into my mouth once more. I set about creating a rhythm that was sure to make him go insane as I repeated those motions. I would go up and down a few times then swirl my tongue at his tip, he seemed to really enjoy that.


    After a while he was bucking his hips and trying to go deeper into my throat. I could tell he was going toe soon. He was getting harder inside my mouth and his moaning was nearly constant. After a few more bobs up and down he exploded into my mouth.


    He seemed to be panting from the experience of what just happened but he was still able to talk.


    "T-th-that w-was a-amazing L-Lena." There was a huge grin on his face as I lifted my head, wiping my mouth.


    "I''m not done having my way just yet."


    I grinned as I settled myself onto hisp. I put one hand between our bodies as I guided his still stiff shaft to my dripping entrance. There was a look of joy and surprise once again filling his eyes as I slid myself down, slowly enveloping him with my body.


    Oh my Goddess, the feel of him inside of me. He filled and stretched me to my limits, to the edge of pain, and still I wanted more. It was wonderful and amazing.


    I put my hands on his chest since he was sitting up in front of me. I used that firm and strong tform to help me as I began to move. I rocked my hips as I slid up and down on his shaft, riding him and controlling every bit of this situation.


    The rhythm that I was creating was fast and frantic, it felt so good that I just needed more and more. My moans mixed with his as I moved above him, panting. I could feel myself approaching my climax, if I kept this up it wouldn''t be long before I came, but it didn''t seem like Shane was getting as close to that point as I was.


    Just as I felt the waves of my orgasm hit me I leaned forward and untied his hands. His arms came around me at the very second that I let my head copse onto his shoulder, the waves of my pleasure pulling me down and sapping away all my strength.


    "Goddess, that was amazing, Lena. But I am nowhere near done yet. I hope you don''t mind." I could hear the chuckle in his voice then as I felt the excitement build inside of me. No, wait, that was his erection still throbbing away inside of me. My bad.


    It hadn''t even been three seconds since Shane said he wasn''t done and he already had me pinned to my back on the bed with my head near the footboard. He had slid his arms up under my legs so that he could hook my ankles over his shoulders. This new position let him slide just a little deeper into my already pulsing center.


    He started immediately, pounding in and out of my body. I felt him reaching further inside of me than anyone ever had before. My body was screaming and weeping for him to give me more. In and out, in and out, over and over he drove into me at a hard and fast rhythm that had me screaming and moaning and panting for more.


    He leaned forward then, bringing his mouth to mine. The movepletely bent me in two, good thing I was flexible.


    His lips locked with mine for a few brief moments, the intensity of the kiss mixed with the mind blowing pleasure almost made my eyes roll into the back of my head. But soon he broke the kiss and moved his mouth along my jaw and down my neck until he could lick at my shoulder and neck.


    "Oh Goddess, Shane, bite me. Please bite me." My voice came out on a scream as I begged for what I wanted. I wanted, needed to feel that power I knew would course through my body. I had never been bitten like that before but I wanted it, right now.


    Shane didn''t object. In fact, he honored my screamed and panting request. His teeth seemed to have been partially shifted when I felt them break through the surface of my flesh. He bit down deep and hard but I didn''t feel any pain from it.


    All the bite did was add to my pleasure. It made the glory of his pounding thrusts feel at least three times more intense. Goddess, I couldn''t get enough of it.


    And that''s when the power started to build. That''s when the heat started to rise inside of me and I felt like I was drowning in the passion. The heat helped to guide me back toward my point of oblivion. I was close to my climax again, and this time I could tell that Shane was getting there too.


    Shane''s pounding thrusts got even more frantic and needy. His breathing was more ragged and he was holding me so close and so tight with his arms wrapped around my back that there wasn''t room for us to separate even if we wanted to.


    After a few more thrusts we both came at the same time. I screamed Shane''s name and he threw his head back on a roaring howl. My body was clenching tight around him, milking him for everything he had but neither of us were capable of moving anymore.


    Shane copsed onto me and pulled himself from my sheath. Both of us were still breathing heavily as he wrapped his arms around me and moved us to the pillows, that was about all he could muster at the moment as we both just fell onto the soft pillows and then fell right into sleep.


    The next morning when we woke up, I decided to take a shower at his ce and borrow a clean t-shirt before heading into work. I would be able to go home and change at some point during the day but I needed to get a move on.


    When we went into the bathroom though, I noticed something on my neck and shoulder. The ce where he had bitten me was already turning into a mate mark. That thought made me smile. And the design for this particr mark was a wolf and a lynx looking into each other''s eyes with devotion and they were surrounded by swirling clouds and lightning, just like the power that Shane had been granted.

 Chapter 305 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHANE AND FALENA CHAPTER 4

    <h4>Chapter 305 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHANE AND FALENA CHAPTER 4</h4>


    ~~


    Falena


    ~~


    Following my date with Shane things for him got really busy. He was being taken to France to train with his Luna, the new Queen of shifters, and of course his Alpha, the new King. It was quite awkward to think that I was mated to a man that was so important. I mean, he was one of the Queen''s personal guards. That was some major shit.


    Could I really handle a life like this though? Him being taken away on a whim like this? It hurt that he wasn''t going to be here with me. It was hard having to say goodbye to him for an unknown amount of time.


    I didn''t want to be without Shane. I wanted to have him with me. We hadn''t spent much time together, not enough for me to feel this way. Still, I knew that I was already head over heels in love with him. He was the mate that fate chose for me. We got along perfectly. And he was a fucking god when it came to sex. I couldn''t ever imagine being with someone else.


    While he was gone, I was preparing things for the future, for the possible day that I might eventually move in with him and maybe marry him. I was sorting through my things and deciding what I wanted to keep and what to get rid of.


    On top of sorting all my stuff I was also looking for a ce in Colorado Springs. I know I was just outside the city and it wasn''t that hard to drive over to see him. But what would we do when we moved in together? We both had apartments, not a house. Neither of us would want to start a family in a ce like that would we?


    Then there was the fact that the Alpha King was having amunity built for new residents that were shifters. It was on thend he owned next to his current packpound and there were already several houses nearingpletion.


    I asked to tour one of them and saw that they were being done so nicely. They were like luxury homes even though they were just the size of a normal family home. I fell in love with the house immediately and signed the papers the same day. I wanted a home for me and Shane if that was what it came down to. I hoped I wasn''t wrong with my feelings and that he wanted the same thing that I wanted.


    The house took until the beginning of May to fully finish with the interior design. The housing offered by Reece''s pack was quite affordable and worked with you to furnish them. It was actually a really pleasant experience.


    I had been living in the house for a little over a month by the time I got word that Shane wasing back, but there was to be an immediate fight following his return. Even my pack was joining the fight, every able bodied fighter. The non fighters were sent to another wolf''s pack for their safety.


    That battle was crazy. There were a number of monsters that showed up out of the blue and they were extremely hard to take down. I was fighting alongside my mate, doing my best to protect myself and him.


    This battle was the first time that I had seen Shane use his Goddess given powers. He was wielding a sword made out of lightning as well as causing bolts of lightning to sh down and strike the enemies. He was amazing and I found the sight of him fighting to be so sexy.


    Following the battle, though, we learned that Shane''s brother had been badly injured.


    ~~


    Shane


    ~~


    We had rushed home for a fight that we were not fully prepared for. We had sent a rush call to all the Alphas that were around our area and put in a request for them to fight alongside us. We had bear, feline, bird, and wolf shifters on our side. We had the vampires that Dietrich had called in for help. And of course there were the warlocks that Crawford had summoned. We would have had more but we simply didn''t have the time to summon them all. Edmond was already on his way.


    The battle was hard, that was for certain. The monsters that looked almost the same as thest ones had been strengthened by magic. They were much harder to destroy than thest two times we had fought them.


    Then, there was the new type of monster that Edmond had created. Those strange looking spider beasts were formed from the twisted and molded bodies of people. What kind of person could do that to people? What kind of sick fucking freak could possibly do that?


    I fought alongside Falena during the battle. It was the first time I had seen her since the day that I left, and I had ran to her side and kissed her right there in the field before the battle started. I had missed her so much and I never wanted to be apart from her again. This was the woman I wanted to marry, that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. The woman that fate said was mine.


    Once the monsters were finally destroyed, but what looked like Trinity''s arrows, we Goddess Guards were all summoned to the field that Trinity and Reece had been fighting at. I learned that Trinity had single handedly killed Edmond. Well, mostly single handedly, the ghosts of her dead siblings had helped her to destroy the man. She had even returned with his head and I will admit, that I shamelessly asked if I could kick it.


    Not long after that though, I learned that Shawn had been hurt. I hadn''t immediately run to his side like Dietrich did. No, I wasn''t able to. I felt like I couldn''t move. I felt like there was a part of me that was dying when I heard that Shawn might be dying.


    How could I have not known? How did I not know he was hurt? We''re twins for crying out loud, wasn''t there supposed to be some telepathy thing that told me when my brother was in mortal danger? What kind of brother was I for not knowing that he was hurt?


    I was on my knees in the field, the ce I had learned what had happened to my brother, when Falena came to my side and put her arms around me.


    "He will make it through this, Shane. I know he will."


    I had of course introduced my mate to my entire family before I left for France. She loved how close my family was, and how even though I rag on my brother he knows that I love him. It was the way things had always been between us and neither of us were ever willing to change it. My family loved her and she loved them. She didn''t even have a problem with Shawn and Dietrich, which made me happy.


    Right now though, I was sitting here about to cry with worry over my brother. I was regretting all the times I had made fun of him. And I was telling myself that I should have been nicer to him this entire time.


    "Come on, Shane, let''s get home and wait for news on Shawn." Lena was pulling me to my feet.


    "No, I have to go to the estate. I need to wait for the news there. I need to see him. I have to make sure he will be OK." I could hear the desperation in my voice as I spoke these words.


    "Alright,e on, let''s go to the estate with the others."


    It seemed that a lot of people were going to the estate so I rode in the same car as David. David''s mate, Rawlynne, hadn''t been part of the battle and he was anxious to get back soon as well so he wanted to rush back as quickly as I did.


    When we got to the estate we were all made to wait in the main sitting room on the first floor. I felt like I was falling apart, like something pivotal to my existence was missing and I would soon cease to exist.


    I didn''t think something like this would ever happen. Nor did I think that it would affect me this bad if it did happen. Lena tried to get me to sit with her but all I could was pace the room until I heard that I could finally go see my brother.


    I admit that I didn''t wait for anyone toe with me. When I was told I could go into Dietrich''s room to see Shawn I ran toward the stairs and was already gone before I could think of anyone or anything else.


    I ran into the room and to my brother''s side. The first thing that I noticed was that there was a massive scar along the side of his face. I felt the tears I had been fighting back this entire time begin to spill over and stream down my cheeks.


    "Shawn." I called his name as I fell into the chair next to the bed.


    I took his hand in mine and started to talk to him then. The emotions were making my voice thick and hard to understand.


    "I''m so sorry Shawn. I''m sorry that I didn''t know you were hurt. I''m sorry that I wasn''t there to help you, to protect you, to save you. I''m so sorry." I let my head drop as the emotions overwhelmed me. "I''m such a horrible brother."


    "You''re a wonderful brother." I heard Dietrich''s voice from right behind me as he put a hand on my shoulder. "Your brother knows you love him, and he loves you too."


    "I wasn''t there for him." I cried even harder.


    "Neither was I bruder, it''s not either of our faults. This is just how life happens sometimes."


    "Will he be OK? Is he going to live?" I lifted my head and tried to look at Dietrich through my blurry, tear filled eyes.


    "Yes, he will live. But he will be different."


    "Different?" I asked him, wondering what he meant. "Are you talking about the scar? Is that permanent?"


    "Yes, I believe it is, because of the beast''s poison. But I am referring to something else."


    "How else will he be different?"


    Dietrich then told me that Shawn was going to be a hybrid, he was now part vampire as well as wolf. This made him different from me again.


    "I''m losing him." I cried out. "He is going to move on without me."


    "He will not leave you, bruder. Shawn and I are staying right here so he can be with his family."


    "But we''re not the same anymore. We''re not twins anymore."


    "You are, you''re just twins that have grown into different people. Do not worry, Bruder."


    I stayed by Shawn''s side for a while, but it was clear he would be asleep for a while longer. That was why I decided to leave and head home.

 Chapter 306 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHANE AND FALENA CHAPTER 5

    <h4>Chapter 306 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHANE AND FALENA CHAPTER 5</h4>


    ~~


    Shane


    ~~


    When I left Shawn''s side, leaving Dietrich''s room, I met Lena in the hallway. She had been waiting for me.


    "I wanted to give you your privacy. I didn''t want to intrude." That both made me happy and broke my heart.


    "You''re my mate, you could never intrude." I pulled her into my arms and hugged her tight. "I am sorry for losing myposure."


    "I understand. I would be just as worried if it were one of my brothers. I can''t imagine how you''re feeling. You have a bond like no other. You''re twins, you shared a womb, you were born together, you were each other''s first and best friends. I would be more concerned if you weren''t this upset."


    "Thank you Lena." I squeezed her tighter, letting her know that I was grateful for her.


    "Come on, Shane, let''s go home." She had said that earlier too. Did she want me to go back to her ce or did she want toe back to mine?


    "OK." I agreed nheless.


    I let Lena drive to wherever it was she wanted to go. I was sitting in the passenger seat with a hand over my eyes so I wasn''t really paying attention. We seemed to get to our destination sooner than we should have. This was too close for my apartment and definitely too close for her ce.


    When I sat up and looked out the windshield at where we were I saw that we were in the driveway of a nice looking house in Reece''s new housing development.


    "Why are we here?" I asked her with a proper amount of shock in my voice.


    "Come with me." She smiled and got out of the car.


    I shrugged and followed her. I figured she just wanted me to meet someone or see something so I followed her inside.


    The first thing I saw was a really nice entryway with stuff that looked and smelled like it belonged to Lena. The further I went into the house the more I smelled Lena''s scent.


    There was nice furniture and the ce was beautifully decorated with colors that fit the both of us.


    "What is this Lena?" I asked her with shock written on my face.


    "I wanted to be in Colorado Springs. So, I decided to get a ce here."


    "You could have moved in with me." I told her, still confused.


    "I know, and I thought about that, but then I thought we needed a ce that was ours." She smiled at me sweetly. "I''m sorry I did this without talking to you, but I wanted to surprise you too."


    "So, this is ''our'' ce?" I asked her to make sure I was understanding things properly.


    "If you want it to be." She was looking nervous now.


    "Of course I do. This is amazing Lena. I am so happy that we could have a ce together like this."


    "I''m d you''re happy."


    I hugged her again, a smile spreading across my face that I didn''t think woulde back anytime soon. This was amazing. Dietrich said Shawn would be OK and Lena wanted us to move in together. I was the happiest man alive right now.


    ~~


    Falena


    ~~


    The day after I had shown Shane our new house, which he loved, I took him to go meet Landon. Landon had insisted I bring him since he didn''t have a chance to meet him during the battle. Actually I was really surprised that Landon had gone to the fight. He hardly ever left the pack house or the office.


    Today, however, Landon was back home but not working. He was recovering his energy from the fight we had all participated in. So, just before lunch I drove the two of us to meet Landon, my Alpha.


    Shane looked nervous as we got out of the car and I led him to the door. He probably thought that Landon was going to have a problem with me being with a wolf, which was ridiculous. There were fewer felines than wolves so we never questioned a mate bond. The Goddess provided our mates for us and we epted them with noints. Or at least most of us did.


    I swear I think Shane was sweating when I led him into Landon''s office. I think this was like the equivalent of meeting my parents, which Shane had already done. My mom and dad loved him by the way and both of my brothers had approved of him as well.


    "Landon, I''ming in." I said as I opened the door without knocking.


    "Hey Lena, how''re things?" Landon was sittingfortably on the couch in his office for once. He didn''t have a pen or a stack of files sitting in front of him.


    "I brought someone to meet you." I smiled at him.


    "Oh, the infamous mate." Landon got to his feet and walked over.


    Landon was a good guy, and a great friend, but he was also like a protective older brother to me. He took my safety pretty seriously when we were kids and that never went away.


    "So, wolf, I hear you mated with my Beta. You know she''s like a kid sister to me right?"


    "No, no I did not know that." Shane sounded scared, he didn''t want Landon to disapprove of him. I knew he wasn''t afraid of a fight, Shane would be more than capable of handling that, I think it was the rtionship aspect that scared him so much.


    "You''re going to treat her right, aren''t you?" Landon red at Shane and there had been a menacing growl in his voice.


    "Of course I will." Shane stopped sounding nervous and started sounding offended when Landon asked him that. "I love her and I will never do anything to hurt her."


    "That''s what I wanted to hear." Landonughed then and held his hand out toward Shane who took it with a confused look on his face. "I was just giving you a hard time. I''m d to finally meet you, Shane. Wee to the family.


    Following that awkward exchange we had lunch with Landon. After that I took Shane for a walk around theke that was outside the pack house, we walked hand in hand. It has always been a ce for me to findfort and sce and I wanted to share that with Shane.


    We were on the far side of theke, near the trees, when Shane stopped and looked at the water. It was like he was trying to figure something out but was having trouble with it.


    "Is something the matter?" I asked him. My arm had been pulled slightly as he stopped and I kept walking.


    "Lena." He pulled me toward him, a smile on his face. "I love you." He had told Landon he loved me, which shocked me because we had barely said the words to each other, it was still a shock every time I heard it. But right now it was like he was being extra affectionate.


    "I love you too, Shane." I was still a little nervous when I said those words, I hadn''t expected this to ever happen for me.


    Shane hugged me to him then kissed my lips gently. His arms around me felt like the most natural thing in the world. When he broke the kiss I watched in shock as he smoothly lowered himself to one knee as he held my hand.


    "Falena, I love you. I love you more than I ever thought it was possible to love someone. There isn''t a thing on this I wouldn''t do for you. I want to spend all the rest of my days with you by my side. I want to fall asleep next to you and wake up to your beautiful face every day. I want to start a family with you and I want to grow old with you. Will you marry me?"


    While he was speaking Shane had smoothly pulled out a box from his pocket. Inside the little ck box as a ring. The ring was beautiful with arge oval shaped diamond in the middle and smaller flecks of diamonds on the white gold band.


    "Are you sure?" I asked him, still nervous that I might be hallucinating all of this.


    "I want nothing more than to marry you."


    "Then my answer is yes. I want to marry you Shane. Yes. Oh Goddess yes." I felt like jumping for joy, which is probably why I jumped straight into Shane''s arms when he stood up with a big grin on my face.


    I couldn''t believe this. I was marrying Shane. I was marrying the man that I had fallen in love with and had mated with. This was wonderful.


    We set to nning the wedding and decided to get married on September first, it was my grandfather''s birthday and he had recently passed away, so it would be a wonderful way to include him on my big day. Plus, I was going to make Landon be there, no matter what.

 Chapter 307 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHANE AND FALENA CHAPTER 6 (MATURE)

    <h4>Chapter 307 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- SHANE AND FALENA CHAPTER 6 (MATURE)</h4>


    ~~


    Shane


    ~~


    I know that I was currently the happiest man in the world. I was getting married today and nothing could ruin this for me or my mate. I had had a birthday party just this past weekend with my brother to celebrate, I was now twenty-seven years old. My mate and I were doing great and I would never take any of this for granted.


    I was happy, though, that my wedding wasn''tter in the month. For some reason my selfish brother was leaving for Germany for half a year. He didn''t tell me why, but I guessed it had to do with Dietrich and the vampires. Still, he was here today and was able to act as my best man.


    Though, I was a little concerned for my brother. He had been feeling sick to his stomach for thest couple of days. Was his married life already getting to him? Was Detrich being too hard on him? I really didn''t want to think about my brother''s sex life, but I also didn''t want my brother feeling worn out and sick afterwards.


    Still, it was my day and I would worry about Shawn another day. Maybe some time away from the pack would do him some good. And I would make sure that I went to check on him before the day was over.


    The wedding started around noon. It was a medium sized wedding with all our family and friends there to celebrate with us. We held the wedding in the same clearing where everyone else was having theirs recently.


    Lena came walking out of the trees wearing a beautiful white gown that dragged across the golden carpeted path. Landon hade to the wedding, because Lena had made him act as the justice of the peace for us so he was officiating our wedding.


    The ceremony was perfect, the reception that followed was filled with wonderful food and dancing. It was kind of funny to see Reece carrying Trinity so that she couldn''t dance by herself. He really was doting on her. I wanted to be that kind of husband to Lena, doting and caring. Shawn often told me I was whipped but I didn''t care. My life was dedicated to my love, aside from my duties as a guard.


    I was happier than I could have expressed with how this wedding had gone.


    We went on a small week long honeymoon to Guadjara. There was a remote cabin in the forests there that was owned by the pack and it would be nice to have the opportunity to run around in our fur coats for a little bit.


    We flew out the night of the wedding and were in the cabin by the next morning. I carried Lena over the threshold of the cabin and into the small living room. I was happy to see that the cabin had been fully prepared before our arrival. It was cleaned and the kitchen was fully stocked.


    Since we had spent our wedding night travelling, I guess I could count this morning''s arrival as my wedding night. It was for that matter that I didn''t set Lena down until we were in the cabin''s one bedroom.


    We had both worn loose andfortable clothes for travelling. It didn''t take me long to have us both stripped out of them and for me to be hovering over my new wife.


    "I love you." I whispered the words into her ear before kissing her cheek.


    I wanted to make love to her long and slow. I was in no rush to leave this bed at all. So I kissed slowly down to her chest and made my way to her breast. I took my time to lick, suck, and nibble all over her breasts. I left a trail of hickies as I went lower and lower toward her beautiful, dripping core.


    When I had settled myself between her thighs I first kissed lightly at the top of her slit. Then I blew cold air onto her over heated core, drawing a shudder from her. When I finallypped at her with one long stroke of my tongue I heard Lena moan above me.


    I took my time devouring her. Ipped at her center taking in all the wonderful juices that she had there for me. Her moans, her screams, and the hands she had fisted in my hair told me that she was enjoying herself as much as I was.


    Soon, her moans got higher and louder. She was on the edge of her climax, but I wasn''t going to force it, she could cascade over the edge when she was ready. I kept the rhythm I was already at and soon enough she came screaming my name and flooding my mouth.


    Following my meal I kissed and licked my way back up her body. I slowly made my way back to her neck and the ce where I had marked her. I licked that mark once, getting a moan from her. Once I was in position I fitted myself against her entrance.


    Right before I entered her I bit down on that sensitive mark I had left on her neck. She screamed and wrapped her arms and legs around me right as I thrusted forward. I sunk my shaft all the way to the hilt while she still clung to me.


    "SHANE!" She screamed my name again and made me purr in satisfaction.


    Following that first intrusion onto her body I pulled back slowly. When just the tip of my erection was left in her tight clenching core I thrust forward again causing her to scream again, this time incoherently.


    I created a steady rhythm that was casual but mind blowing. We both started ascending the pleasure mountain at a leisurely pace. It was something that I could have kept up all day, and thought I probably would.


    In and out, in and out, the gentle thrusting was eventually driving me to the point of oblivion. Right when I felt that I could take no more I slipped a hand down between our bodies, pinching gently but firmly on that bundle of nerves at the top of her slit. That pinch and once final thrust was enough to take us both over.


    She screamed my name again while her core squeezed me so hard it was almost excruciating. While her orgasmic waves milked me for everything I had I threw my head back and roared my pleasure, just like I had the first night we had been together.


    I wasn''t nearly satisfied enough. That was the first time I had had sex with my ''wife'', before then she was just my girlfriend. I needed to make up for lost time.


    Neither of us slept at all that day or night. Not until the wee hours of the next morning when we both finally passed out from exhaustion. It was the best day of my life, aside from the previous one where I had actually married this super sexy, wonderfully mind blowing woman.


    ~~


    Falena


    ~~


    The morning after Shane and I first got to Mexico we woke to a pleasant surprise. Shane had just about screamed with joy when he woke up.


    "FALENA!" He shouted, waking me out of a sound sleep.


    When I had opened my eyes I saw that he was looking at me with the biggest grin I had ever seen.


    "What the hell?" I yelled at him as I tried to settle my racing heart from his uncalled for wakeup call.


    "Lena." He said my name again, his grin getting wider and wider.


    "What is it?" I was getting nervous again.


    "How do you feel?" He asked me as he leaned forward, cing his face against my stomach.


    "Tired and cranky, thanks to you." I was giving him the full force of my grumpy attitude.


    "Are you sure you''re not feeling anything else?" He asked me then proceeded to inhale deeply right around my belly button.


    "What are you talking about? What''s gotten into you?"


    "Just pure joy, that''s all. Pure joy at the thought of me being a daddy."


    I felt my heart stop right then and there. What did he just say? He was going to be a what now?


    "What did you just say?"


    "I said I was happy and filled with joy because I was going to be a daddy."


    "And why do you think that?" Though I thought I already knew, since he inhaled deeply at my stomach again.


    "I can smell the baby in you."


    The rest of our honeymoon wasn''t nearly as eventful as the beginning of it. Thank the Goddess for that. And when we got back we continued our lives the way we had nned, only now we were preparing for a new addition.


    Just about a week or so before I was due, at the end of February, Shawn and Dietrich came back from their time away. They came with four babies that looked just like them. At first we all thought that they had had two sets of twins born to surrogates. But then we found out that the babies were born from them via c-section on Valentine''s day. That was something that nearly blew my mind.


    I was happy for them though. It was a joyous asion to have such a wonderful family. And the four of those babies were my nieces and nephews and would y with my little boy all the time.


    Just shy of two weeks after Shawn and Dietrich brought their babies home I was being taken to the hospital to have my son. Shane was a wreck and kept alternating between happy and nervous the entire time. The moment I started to push, he passed out in the delivery room.


    Our son was bornte in the afternoon, nine pounds and seven ounces, twenty-two inches long. He was a big boy. Our little Kaiden. I loved him from the minute I knew about him, but seeing him was just something else entirely.

 Chapter 308 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CEDAR AND ACACIA CHAPTER 1

    <h4>Chapter 308 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CEDAR AND ACACIA CHAPTER 1</h4>


    ~~


    Acacia


    ~~


    I was currently preparing to leave the Faepound, my first time ever being let out. We used to live in a magical mound that was hidden away from the humans, but as time went on we migrated to living inside houses instead of in underground castles. I barely remember living in the ground, but I much prefer living in the light of the sun every day.


    I am a Dryad so I love being out where the sun could hit my face. When I was in my woond form I liked to sun my leaves and branches as I sat by theke in the back of thepound.


    This was the first time that I have ever been given permission to leave home, even though I was nearly ny years old. The reason I never left was because our Queen didn''t often give her permission to leave.


    Some would run away of course, and when they came back they would be punished for having left without the Queen''s approval. I had seen what her punishments could be like so I never wanted to experience them for myself.


    There was an upside though. The Queen had been willing to ept more and more of modern society into our daily lives and she was even more epting of the other races of nonhumans.


    She used to have a vampire friend named Dietrich who was helping to introduce her to the world around us. He had told her that she was too stuck in her ways and that she needed to embrace life, not flee from it. Since she had met him I had noticed her wrath became less destructive. Still, she didn''t like being disobeyed.


    I think Dietrich was a good influence on our Queen, and I am sure he was a consort of hers, a lover that she treasured dearly. But s, Dietrich could not be tied down for too long, he had his own people to govern.


    Enough about the past though. I was finally getting to leave thepound. I was selected to be one of Queen Gloriana''s envoys at a wedding for a wolf Alpha. She didn''t often send envoys to things like this, but this Alpha was from a pack that for some reason held a high amount of significance to our Queen.


    Their previous members had helped us in more than one way and this particr pack was also thergest and most powerful wolf pack in the country. And I had heard rumors that the new Alpha''s mate was a half witch and that meant she could do magic like I could. I wonder if we would be allowed to be friends.


    Now that I was granted permission to leave I coulde and go as I please. This trip out for the wedding was opening new doors for me that I had feared I would never have. I was beyond excited.


    When we got to the wedding, Breon wanted us to stay away from all of the shifters, at least as much as possible. Breon was the leader of our envoy. Essentially he was the boss during this trip.


    But, can you imagine the surprise I got when I felt something inside of me begin to be drawn by something that felt like a ma. There was a pull inside of me trying to draw to me a man that I saw standing and staring at me. The man was tall, and handsome with ashy blond hair and bright green eyes that made me think of leaves in the summer sun. His eyes and hair almost seemed to match me.


    However, not everyone was supportive of what I was feeling in this instant. I couldn''t believe my ears when Breon objected so vehemently.


    ~~


    Cedar


    ~~


    So many things have been happening around metely. Too many things. It startedst year when my sister met her mate and started to move on with her life. I was just happy that her mate and I got along nicely so that I didn''t feel like I was being pushed aside and forgotten.


    When we first met Trinity I had hoped that at some point we would end up mating. She was beautiful, funny, strong, and sweet. I couldn''t help but fall for her. The problem was, she never saw me that way so I was just pining for her in silence.


    When she met her mate I actually cried. I had wanted to be with her so badly. Then I found out that her mate was an asshole to her, someone that didn''t appreciate the wonderful person she was.


    I did everything I could to help Trinity, even after she mated. I knew I never had a chance with her, but I still loved her. I wanted to be there for her even if it would never mean the same for her that it did for me.


    Now, here I was at her wedding. And to make matters worse, for me, her mate had only been acting like an asshole. He loved her more than I do, or so it looks like. And now I was crying on the inside because I will never have the chance to be there for her again.


    I had somehow made it through the ceremony and was now trying to put on a happy face through the reception. When Trinity''s guard Shane stood up the moment a beautiful woman came to introduce herself I nearly lost myposure. How could he have the happiness that I was longing for?


    I was looking down at the table when the next group came forward. I smelled something then. Something that was like tree bark and beautiful magnolia flowers.


    My head shot up and looked for the source of the scent. There were three men and three women standing before me, but only one of them seemed to be glowing like the sun itself was radiating from her. Hey hair was close to the same shade of ashy blonde that I had, and her eyes were a simr shade of green. She was so pretty and looked so sweet, and herplexion was just a little darker than an olive tone. She was perfect.


    "Again?"


    "Another one?"


    "What''s going on?"


    "How is this happening?" I could hear these whispers as the wedding guests stared at me while I stood there standing like an idiot.


    "It seems this is a very fortunate day. Cedar, it appears your mate is among this envoy from the Fae. Will you all please join us up here." Reece invited the other group and me to join him where he was.


    I moved as if hypnotized, unable to take my eyes off of her. Then, something happened that angered me.


    "This is impossible." An exotic looking man with golden eyes and a beautiful mahoganyplexion spoke with disbelief, disdain, and anger in his voice.


    "How is it impossible?" Reece smiled at the man. "This is a wonderful thing to have happened. An event so filled with love that it is spreading to those around us."


    "It is not right that one of us should mate with a shifter. We are not of the same type of people. This is not proper." His exoticly ented voice was trying to nullify everything that was happening for me.


    "Is the Fae Queen against a rtionship like this, Breon?" Reece asked him, slight anger in his voice.


    "She does not usually approve." The man named Breon answered.


    "I admit it has been quite some time since I have met with Gloriana, but whenst we spoke she was more open to a new world way of thinking." Dietrich stood up from the table that I have been sitting at. "I am certain that she would have no problem with the union. The Fae have mixed with humans, why not another powerful species?"


    "It has never been done." Breon told him. "You simply would not understand."


    "I understand more than you think." Dietrich smiled down at Shawn as he spoke, causing Shawn to blush under his gaze. "I have recently mated within this pack myself."


    "You, Dietrich, the leader of all vampires is allowing yourself to be sullied like this."


    "Breon! Stop this." The beautiful girl that I couldn''t take my eyes off of yelled. "I am certain that Queen Glory would have no problem with it at all." She turned and smiled at me then.


    "Acacia, you understand nothing." That was her name? Acacia? So pretty.


    "I understand everything Breon. I am the one who feels what the spirits are telling me."


    "I trust in Casey." Another woman in the group chimed in. "We must follow not just our hearts, but also the whims of the spirits and gods. We are but pawns in this world for them to move at their leisure."


    "Thank you River." Acacia smiled at her, it seemed Casey was a nickname for her.


    "Is this truly what you wish to do? To lower yourself to this point?"


    "It seems to me Breon, that you are the only one with a bias here. Believe in the powers that lead us all. That is all we can do, is it not." Trinity spoke up, unable to remain quiet any longer.


    The man Breon looked at my Luna and first love in disbelief. He simply was not understanding it yet.


    "How can you all not see what is happening here?" He asked in desperation.


    "You have not been mated yet have you Breon?" Breon shook his head. "Then you would not understand the feeling you have when you are with your mate. The sense ofpletion, the feeling of being at home no matter where you are. You would not understand the longing you feel for that person even with the first meeting. You would not understand the sense of peace you feel when looking at them, seeing the love and adoration you feel reflected back in their eyes as well. I am sorry that you have never felt that, Breon, and I ask the Moon Goddess to help you with finding you mate soon."


    "That may happen sooner than you think." A strange, gravelly voice spoke out and rang through the entire reception.


    Following that the neers told us Trinity was the new Luna Queen and Goddess Incarnate. I always knew she was special. But I had a mate now, and she was all I had eyes for.

 Chapter 309 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CEDAR AND ACACIA CHAPTER 2

    <h4>Chapter 309 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CEDAR AND ACACIA CHAPTER 2</h4>


    ~~


    Acacia


    ~~


    Breon was still having a fit at the end of the wedding. He kept telling me that there was no way that Queen Gloriana would allow me to mate with a wolf. But there were things he didn''t know. There were things that Breon wasn''t privy to simply because he was not a woman.


    Like, he didn''t know that my cousin Aaron had been with a wolf. He was a pixie, unlike me who is a Dryad, but we are both nature Fae and we both mated with a wolf. Well, Aaron less mated and more toyed with one but that''s different. Being a pixie made Aaron a natural trickster.


    Mine wasn''t a trick though. I could feel the nature spirits all around me telling me that Cedar was my mate. And just his name fit me so well. Cedar was a type of tree and my names, Acacia and Aspen were both trees as well. We were literally made for each other.


    I wished that Breon would just be happy for me. I wished he would just let me live my life the way that I wanted.


    The first step was for me to get to know Cedar, and the second step was for me to introduce him to my Queen. I was excited for her to meet him. And I really wanted to tell her that Cedar''s Luna, who just got married at the wedding that I had attended, was a Queen as well. She was the Luna Queen, the Goddess Incarnate. This new development would be amazing and special.


    I told Breon I was staying in town following the wedding, that was something that had angered him but he had no choice but to ept it. I saw him and the others off at the door of our hotel room and waited until I could see the man that was my new mate. He had promised me that he wasing to see me the day after the wedding.


    I didn''t have to wait long. It was maybe twenty minutes after everyone else left that I heard the knock on the door. I was so excited to see him that I actually jumped off the bed and ran toward the door.


    When I pulled the door open I saw him standing there, his handsome face, his gorgeous eyes, and a sweet, sweet smile. I felt myself smile as well and the warmth from the mating began to spread through me.


    "Hi." I said in a breezy voice.


    "Hey." Cedar smiled at me in return. "I was hoping that you would like to go out on a date."


    "Of course." I grabbed my jacket and purse that were sitting by the door and was out before he had said anything else.


    Cedar took my hand naturally and held it all the way out of the building. He led me to a blue car that was parked out front and opened the door for me. So far he was being the perfect gentleman. He drove us out to a remote spot near the river. There was a clearing where the water cut through.


    I had just had time to think that it was the perfect ce to have a pic when I saw Cedar pulling a nket and a basket out of the trunk of his car. He had the same thought I had apparently. I like that we thought alike.


    Cedar and I worked together to spread the nket out on the banks of the river. He told me to sit while he pulled out the food. He had brought a few different types of sandwiches, some crackers and cheese, bowls filled with fruit, and bottles of juices and water.


    "I didn''t know what you would like so I brought you a few different options."


    "That''s so sweet of you, thank you."


    Soon, we had started eating and with that came talking and getting to know each other. I wanted to know everything I could about Cedar, what he liked, where he liked to go, if he had ever had any rtionships. We sat and talked for hours on the banks of the river, learning about each other.


    I learned that he had one sister, a twin, who he was very close to his whole life. He was protective of her and his friends and family. He was studying to be a cop and wanted to work as a warrior in the pack. He was a loving and caring person.


    I found out that we had simr tastes in music and movies. Not to mention that Cedar liked to read, which was one of my favorite things to do. We both also liked to dance, and I made Cedar promise to take me dancing sometime.


    Sometimes, there is just nothing better than learning about someone new.


    "Cedar, you wille with me, won''t you?" He was looking at me while I spoke.


    "To where?" He didn''t seem to get what I was asking.


    "To meet my Queen."


    "If that is what you want, then of course." His smile was so sweet and so sincere, but I detected a hint of something hotter and darker in there as well.


    "I want her to meet you and to approve of you. I know she won''t object though. This is a true mating, I can feel it." I know I was grinning, and I hoped he didn''t find it off putting.


    "I''m d you''re so happy, Casey." I loved that he was using the nickname that those close to me used. It made this moment feel that much more special. I couldn''t get enough of this, enough of him.


    "Casey? He asked me after a little while.


    "Yeah?" I looked at him, curiosity in my eyes.


    "Are you going to stay here in Colorado Springs?" He looked worried about this, like he thought I was going to leave.


    "I was nning on it. I won''t want to force you to leave your family. I want to stay near you."


    "Won''t you feel sad though? Leaving your family and all."


    "I''ve been with my family longer than you have been with yours." He looked at me in shock then.


    "Really?" I thought we looked about the same age." He was certainly confused now.


    "In terms of physical appearance, we are about the same age. But we Fae age much slower than humans and wolves."


    "So, how much older than me are you?" He looked at me curiously. "No, I''m sorry, don''t answer that, it''s not polite." Iughed at him then.


    "It''s true most women don''t like being asked their age, but I don''t mind. I am eighty-nine years old."


    "SERIOUSLY?!" He shouted in his shock. I would not have guessed you that old, I seriously thought you were neen. Personally, I just turned twenty." He was holding the side of his head andughing then.


    "Is this a problem, that I am so much older?"


    "Goddess no." His voice was filled with force when he said those words. "I don''t care if you''re twenty, ny, or five hundred. Age is a number but a bond is eternal." He looked so sincere when he told me that, it almost made me cry.


    "Really?"


    "Yeah, really. Though I think it might be a little sad that I will get old and you will stay young forever. But when I am old and gray I can just look like some super rich dude with a hot young wife." We bothughed at that and the conversation just continued in an easy manner.


    ~~


    Cedar


    ~~


    I couldn''t believe my luck. I had found that mate that was perfect for me. Maybe I had just been drawn to Trinity so much because she would someday lead me to finding my mate? That would be an interesting way to look at all the heartache I had silently suffered for thest several months.


    Still, I forgot all about that the instant that I met Casey. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She was sweet and kind, and just all around perfect.


    I loved the smile on her face when I asked her toe on this pic with me. I had felt the tion that just being close to her and touching her was causing for me. I felt myself being drawn to her every second that I was near her, like she had some sort of Cedar ma and was pulling me along with her.


    I was hopeless and I knew it. Still, I wouldn''t object. I was happy to be hopeless. I had been longing for my mate for so long now that I was beginning to lose my hope.


    The longer we talked, the more I listened to her sweet, sweet voice the more I longed for her. I couldn''t help myself. I was being pulled in, I could feel the strength of that force and there was no reason for me to fight it.


    We were sitting side by side on the banks of the river and I was watching her talk while she looked out over the water. I saw her lips moving, forming the words. I saw the pucker of her lips as she bit into a grape, the juices dripping down her chin. Then the slow and sexy way that her finger moved as it caught the juices before then got too far and the pink sh of her tongue as it slowly licked the droplets from her finger.


    I could see it all, as if she were moving in slow motion. It was so perfect, so sweet, so erotic. I felt a heat, a passion began to burn inside of me that was so intense that I thought I would truly catch fire.


    My lips itched to press against her. My tongue longed top away the juices that had spilled down her chin and that would spill elsewhere as well. My dick hardened at the thought of seeing, touching, and entering her body.


    I couldn''t take it anymore.

 Chapter 310 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CEDAR AND ACACIA CHAPTER 3 (MATURE)

    <h4>Chapter 310 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CEDAR AND ACACIA CHAPTER 3 (MATURE)</h4>


    ~~


    Cedar


    ~~


    I was slowly being drawn toward Casey, towards her mouth, her lips. I felt the tugging pull inside me and I didn''t fight it. She turned toward me as I approached her, my closeness alerting her to what was happening.


    "Cedar-?" She started to speak, perhaps to ask me what I was doing, but I didn''t give her the chance. I cut off her words by pressing my lips against hers. Just the feeling of her lips was enough to drive me insane and I was absolutely nowhere near done.


    She gasped at the suddenness of the kiss and I used that opportunity to slide my tongue into her mouth. She moaned slightly as I leaned even more over her, sliding my hand up her back and to the nape of her neck. In that one movement I was already sliding myself over to her, against her, and over top of her.


    Before I knew it Casey wasying on her back, my left hand bracing my weight and holding me off of her, my right hand was still touching her but it had now moved to rest on her cheek.


    I didn''t know what had taken over me, why I was being so forward, why my body was so hungry and needy, but I wasn''t about to stop this orin. If Casey was right there with me then I had no intention of stopping at all.


    I had been exploring her mouth for thest several minutes, our tongues entangled and our breathing speeding up to match our heart rates. When I finally broke the kiss it wasn''t so that I could pull away. No I just kissed down her jaw until I could lick, suck, and kiss at her neck.


    I bit down gently and sucked at the skin on her neck. I knew that was going to leave a mark but I didn''t care, she was mine and a hickey would show that off to everyone. In the process of leaving the mark I had caused Casey to moan again, the sound of that moan caused my erection to get evenrger, tightening the fit of my jeans even more.


    My hands started to move on their own, with no conscious thought from me. Actually, my entire body was moving on its own. I was suddenly straddling Casey''s legs as I leaned over her, still kissing her neck. My hands were swiftly moving down the front of her shirt, exposing her chest to the chilled twilight air and my roaming fingers.


    As I had begun to spread her shirt open I moved my mouth down her chest, licking and biting a small path down to thecy front of her bra. When I reached the thinyer of fabric I pulled away to ask her one thing.


    "Casey, do you want me to stop?"


    "No, Cedar, don''t stop." Her voice was breathy and seductive and acted like a whip to spur me on. I gave into my desires then.


    I pulled her into a half sitting position, holding her in my arms while I slid the shirt from her shoulders and undid the sp of her bra. The straps of the bra were then pulled down her arms as Iid her back down against the soft nket.


    My mouthtched onto her right breast while my right hand went to y with the other. My left hand was lonely and wanted to y too, so I decided to continue to y down the side of her body until my hand reached her waist band.


    With what seemed to be skill and precision learned from many years of experience I managed to unfasten the button holding the soft denim around her waist closed. It was just a lucky shot as I wasn''t as experienced as I was telling myself that I was. I wanted to do what I could to make her feel good. To make her happy. To be the lover that she wanted and deserved.


    With the waistband opened I managed to slide my hand inside, down the front of the jeans and into the soft silky panties that she was wearing. I heard a moaning gasp when she felt my fingers slide against her dripping wet core.


    "Cedar." She moaned my name as I worked her over. My mouth sucking and biting at one breast while my fingers pinched and pulled at the other and then there were my fingers that were currently making a scissoring motion as they explored her depths. She cried my name out like that over and over again.


    I couldn''t take it anymore. I pulled away from her. That was a motion that earned me a pouting whimper from her.


    "Shh. Don''t worry baby, I''m not done yet."


    "Hurry." Her urgency was making my wolf grin, I could feel his excitement as he panted and pawed inside my head.


    I quickly pulled my t-shirt over my head and stripped away my jeans and boxers. When Casey saw the erection that I freed I saw both fear and excitement spread across her face and cloud her eyes. Now that is a look that any man would be happy to see on the face of his mate.


    With my clothes now removed I worked swiftly, yet gently, to remove Casey''s clothes. The sight of her lying there, naked beneath me, had me drooling and panting with need and desire.


    I leaned over her and pressed my lips to her again while spreading her legs wide with my thighs. I slid my hand to her core and pressed my finger against her opening. While my tongue danced with hers I pressed my hand forward. Casey shuddered and moaned from the feeling of my invasion which caused a fresh wave of her juices to flow into the palm of my hand.


    I felt the need to taste her then, to enjoy the bountiful meal she was so graciously providing for me. With some reluctance I pulled my lips away from her and moved as fast as I could to her core.


    The first thing I did wasp the juices from my hand, then I set my tongue against her slit. I licked in a few long, slow motions that drew screaming cries from her. I enjoyed the taste as well as the music that I was getting from her.


    I was getting a little impatient but I also didn''t want to stop until I pleased herpletely. I licked, sucked and gently bit onto the bundle of nerves at the top of her slit, I did all that while pumping in and out of her with my fingers. First one, then two, and now three. I was working her over pretty hard and she was just panting and moaning, gasping for air as she felt her pleasure and moved closer and closer to her climax.


    She was clenching around my fingers tighter now, the thrusting invasion of my hand was being slowed due to her inner walls swelling and flexing while the waves of her orgasm crashed. With onest swipe of my tongue she came apart at the seams as well as into my mouth. I had pulled my fingers out of her at thest second so I couldp at the sudden rush of her fluids that poured from her heated body.


    While she gasped for air to once again settle her body I slid to her opening. My erection now in dire need of release. I didn''t give her time to settle her body before I was already ramming into her.


    I thrusted hard and fast into her, driving into her all the way to the hilt. I could feel her innermost barrier and delighted in the fact that we were a perfect fit for each other. She was my shaft''s ideal sheath and I would never let anyone else touch her in the way that I was.


    I thought about nothing but need and desire as I set my rhythm. It was fast and steady, driving her and I both toward the edge. I was breathing heavily above her, she was panting and moaning beneath me.


    As I continued to thrust into her she wrapped her legs around my waist, a move that had me driving even deeper into her. Then she wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me down toward her.


    While I continued to pound in and out of her glorious body she nted her lips against mine and kissed me fiercely. We kept that position while I thrusted in and out.


    Again and again I rammed into her tight body. I could feel her tightening again, just as my spine began to tingle and my balls tightened. She was going toe again, and this time I woulde with her.


    A few dozen more thrusts and I was there. My climax hit just a second after hers. She screamed my name and her inner walls squeezed me hard.


    "CEDAR!" When her body clenched tightly around me it was all that I needed to send me over the edge and cause me to growl her name.


    "Casey!" We let the waves of oblivion wash over us as we both copsed on the nket.


    It took several minutes for our breathing to regte and for either of us to move again. I slid from her, a move that elicited another moan from her.


    "Cedar." She smiled and sighed my name.


    "Acacia." I smiled and used her full first name in lieu of the nickname I had been using.


    We rested there for a few more minutes before we cleaned ourselves up and got dressed. I drove her back to the hotel, where she asked me toe up for a drink. I stayed so long that we ended up ordering room service for dinner and I stayed for seconds from this afternoon, it was the perfect dessert for any meal.

 Chapter 311 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CEDAR AND ACACIA CHAPTER 4

    <h4>Chapter 311 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CEDAR AND ACACIA CHAPTER 4</h4>


    ~~


    Cedar


    ~~


    Things got a little busy after my date with Casey. I went to the pack estate with Paul in preparation for a trip to visit the Warlocks. I may not feel like I was in love with Trinity anymore, not since I met Acacia, but she was still a good friend of mine. I would still love her in a way, I always would, and because I would always love her like family I would do what I could to help her. Not to mention she was my Luna Queen after all.


    What surprised me the most about that visit to the estate was joining the Goddess Guard. Not only that but I was named as Reece''s second Gamma and Paul and I were both granted abilities by Trinity. Paul could see where someone''s true strength lies so he could train them better and I could control foliage like trees and nts. That was pretty awesome if I do say so myself.


    After the new powers were granted to me and Paul we ended up leaving to head to the Aerie Convento, riding on Reece''s private helicopter and making it there before everyone else. When we got there we had to prove ourselves in more ways than one.


    First came proving ourselves head Warlock then we were almost immediatelyunched into a battle against some strange beasts that the evil sadistic bastard we were searching for had created.


    And during that battle I had learned that Trinity was pregnant. Well, she had been. During the fight she had been injured and the baby was lost.


    I used my new powers along with Trinity''s cousin to help rebuild the headquarters for the Warlocks but we had to stay elsewhere that night. We all went to a resort and stayed for the night. During that time, Trinity ascended again. She was now not just the Queen of Shifters but also the Queen of the Warlock and Witches.


    The next I was part of Trinity''s group that rescued the kids that had been kidnapped. We had aplished our mission and done what we wanted to do, casualties notwithstanding. Things could have ended better, yes, but they also could have been a lot worse.


    There was a lot going on in the pack following that trip, but I wasn''t part of it. I was a Gamma now but I was not one of Trinity''s personal guards. Maybe I would be eventually but I was not yet.


    That''s fine though, the personal guards to Trinity were leaving for France and no one really knew how long they were going to be gone. Noah, Trinity''s cousin, was staying behind to run the pack. And since Vincent, Trinity''s guard and the first Gamma, was going with them I was responsible for helping Noah run the pack in Trinity and Reece''s stead.


    The pack was not an unruly one, so it didn''t require too much work to make it all happen. And since Noah was a very confident overachiever I was not given too much work to do. Because of that, I was given permission to apany my new mate to her home and meet her family, and her Queen.


    To say that I was nervous to be meeting the Queen of the Fae was an understatement. I mean, who wouldn''t be nervous about meeting a two thousand year old queen that looks like she is maybe thirty or forty years old. ording to Casey she is an eternal beauty who has ruled for over a millennium. What the hell was I supposed to say to the woman?


    I was nervous as fucking hell! But I wouldn''t let that stop me. I wanted to be with my mate. I needed to be with her. I would never abandon her. I would never reject her. I would make her the most important woman to me in the entire world. So, I guess I was about to meet the Queen.


    Can someone promise me this wouldn''t be like the Queen that Alice had met? I don''t want to hear anyone say off with his head.


    ~~


    Acacia


    ~~


    A lot had happened since I had met Cedar. He was a wonderful guy, and an excellent lover. He was strong and had a sense of justice that was hard to rival.


    Not to mention, he was part of his Queen''s Goddess Guard and had been granted an ability. When I told my Queen that my new mate could do nt magic she didn''t believe me at first. She said she would expect a demonstration when I brought him to meet her. But seriously, how perfect was that?


    I am a Dryad, all of my magic revolves around trees and nts. Now to have met a mate, a wolf mate at that, who could use simr magic. We must have been made for each other. This was wonderful.


    We were on our way now, heading toward the privatepound that was the home of all the Fae that didn''t live in the human world. I could tell the Cedar was nervous, but he really didn''t have a reason to be. Queen Gloriana was going to love him.


    When Cedar pulled his car to a stop outside the gate Valoc was the one on guard duty. That was a tiny bit awkward for me since Valoc had been my first boyfriend, but we had remained friends after it.


    "Good morning Acacia. I see you have returned. Is this the new soulmate that we have all heard about?" Valoc didn''t sound any different than usual which was good.


    "Indeed it is." I smiled at Cedar, showing my growing love for him. "I''vee to introduce him to my family and to Queen Gloriana."


    "Well, don''t let me hold you up. Have fun you two." Valoc grinned and opened the gate for us.


    "Is it me, or were his words a little ominous?" Cedar questioned as he started to drive forward.


    "You''re just being nervous. Rx." I soothed him as best as I could. "Everyone will love you."


    "But, don''t most Fae think like Breon? Don''t they think that having a non Fae mate is a bad thing?" There was worry clearly dripping from those words.


    "Some do. I admit that. But there are a lot that don''t care. There are two factions among us Fae. Those that cling desperately to the past and the old ways, and those that are embracing a more epting and varied future. We can''t hope to remain strong as a whole if we do not evolve with the times, can we?"


    "Having a different species for a mate is a little different than evolving with the times." He wasughing when he said that, like he thought I had been funny.


    "Not to me. We used to be a closed off society that only bred within our own people. But that will severely limit us, don''t you think? There will never be any new blood and everything will eventually get sullied. We need to bring in fresh faces and fresh gics so that we can continue to grow and expand."


    "Not to sound rude, but you know about gics?" He looked confused.


    "Several of us have been to college. I have been educated. And the books of the outside world have been brought in here for us to read. I may not have any hands- on experience but I have read medical texts for thest fifty years. It''s fascinating to see how much things have advanced over that time."


    "That is both really cool and very strange." He wasughing again. "You''ve been researching science since before I was born." Heughed even louder then. "I have myself a cougar."


    "No, I''m a Dryad not a feline." How could he ever mix me up with a cat shifter?


    "That''s not what I meant." I don''t know how he managed to continue driving with how much he wasughing.


    Cedar then exined what a ''cougar'' was and I also started tough. Well, he wasn''t wrong I guess. I couldn''t help myself, Iughed as well.


    We finished the drive through ourpound and went straight to the Queen''s castle. Yes she actually lives in a castle at the center of thepound. The castle was the same one that had been in the earth mounds long ago. She had brought it with us when we purchased and enchanted thisnd.


    The castle wasrge and looked just like the ones out of fairy tales. They really had based those tales off of us. The tall towers and spires. The lovely robins eggs blue. The stained ss that filled the windows. It was all so wonderful and perfect. And I was happy to call that ce my home. I had grown up in that castle and I would never tire of seeing it. In there I would find my family: mom, dad, my seventeen brothers and sisters, most of my cousins, not to mention my favorite rtive of all, my aunt the Queen.

 Chapter 312 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CEDAR AND ACACIA CHAPTER 5

    <h4>Chapter 312 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CEDAR AND ACACIA CHAPTER 5</h4>


    ~~


    Cedar


    ~~


    Well, at least there were roads and a garage at the castle. There were even a lot of other cars so I know that we didn''t stick out too much. Though, my vehicle was considerably cheappared to all the others in that garage. And to think, I had not skimped out when I bought the Mercedes. Damn.


    By the time that I had parked the vehicle and was ready to get out and begin my walk toward the castle itself I had mostly calmed down. I had worked up the courage for what was toe. Or at least I think I did.


    I walked around the car and opened Casey''s door. She took my outstretched hand so that I could help her out of her seat and to her feet. She didn''t let go of my hand before walking off toward the door that led us to my doom, I mean the castle.


    She held my hand, slightly pulling me along behind her. I could tell she was excited for this meeting and didn''t really think that there would be any issues. I hoped she was right.


    She led me through that side door which entered into a long hallway. She pulled me along that hallway to and into what looked like the main entry way for the entire castle. I tried to keep up with where she was leading me to but it all passed by in a blur. Before I knew it we were in a huge sitting room.


    "Mom!" Casey eximed once we were in the room. I saw arge group of people and a lot of them looked like Casey.


    "Acacia, sweetheart." The woman who must have been Casey''s mom rose to her feet and the two of them ran to hug each other. "Look at you. The first time you leave home you find your soulmate."


    "Lucky." A girl who was identical to Casey but had a different smell spoke up. She was smiling but I could sense jealousying off of her.


    "I''m sorry Willow." Casey ran to her and hugged her tight.


    "She''s not the only one who is jealous." A man that had the same hair and eyes, even the shape of the eyes, spoke then.


    "Birch, you know I won''t forget you guys." Casey hugged him next.


    "You better not." Another identical man spoke.


    "Hickory." I could hear the love and affection in Casey''s voice when she said the man''s name and hugged him as well. "And I won''t forget you either, Hawthorn." Another man had walked up for a hug.


    After she hugged the third man Casey turned to look at me.


    "Cedar, this is my family. Willow, Birch, Hickory, Hawthorn, and I are quintuplets." I think my mind had just exploded. I knew that Casey had arge family, but she hadn''t told me howrge.


    "Quintuplets?" I asked with shock reverberating through me.


    "Yup. Most Dryads have multiples when they get pregnant. My mother had two sets of quintuplets, two sets of triplets and two sets of twins." That many every time? Why did she keep having kids? I think I would have lost my mind.


    "That''s exciting." I said as evenly as I could.


    "Let me introduce you. This is my mother Lotus, my father Ash, and the rest of my siblings here are Por, Sequoia, Redwood, Spruce, Elm, Magnolia, Fig, Bark, Maple, Walnut, Cottonwood, Oak, and Fir." I can''t remember all of this shit. I would definitely need help keeping them all organized in my head, even though they had all nodded or waved at me when their name had been called out.


    "It''s nice to meet you all." I grinned at them and tried my best to stay calm. I walked over to Casey''s dad, the man named Ash, and held out my hand. "Mr. Aspen, Sir, it''s a pleasure and an honor to meet you." I was doing my best to be polite and to present the best possible version of myself that there was.


    Despite my best efforts though, Casey''s father just red at me with eyes filled with loathing and other dark things.


    "So, you''re the man that is stealing my little girl away from me?" He was acting like I was some predator that was taking away his baby. She''s eighty-nine years old for crying outloud and she was not an innocent little flower. I''m sure her family has to know that she wasn''t going to be a ny year old virgin.


    "I''m not stealing her away Sir, but I do love her and I have mated with her. I intend to be with her forever."


    "That sounds a lot like taking her away to me. You n to make her live out there in that world with you?" His re intensified even more. I wanted to gulp, I wanted to fold under the pressure of him, but I couldn''t I was a Gamma now for crying out loud. I was a member of the Goddess Guard. I would not be intimidated.


    "Sir, I-." I was cut off then by Casey''s mom, Lotus.


    "Oh stop it, Ash. Can''t you tell you''re scaring the poor boy away. You''ve had your fun, it''s time for us all to get along."


    "Aww,e on Lotus, you ruined it." Mr. Aspen wasughing and rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, but I noticed that his eyes were no longer filled with anger and hatred. What the hell was that. "I had to give you a hard time boy. You''ve never met any of us and it was an opportunity that I just couldn''t pass up."


    "R-really?" I wasn''t sure how to react right now.


    "Come on, loosen up. It was just a joke." With that, Mr. Aspen threw his arm around my shoulder and pulled me into a tight hug. "We''ve got another member of the family now, after all, it''s a time to celebrate."


    "Don''t worry Cedar, my dad is very nice, he just looks mean." Casey''s sweet smile helped to settle my nerves a little.


    After that we enjoyed a quick chat with some drinks and snacks. I had been told not to eat anything that a Fae gave you, but I also couldn''t refuse. I knew that Casey wouldn''t let anything bad happen to me.


    ~~


    Acacia


    ~~


    The meeting with my family was going really well. I knew that my dad was going to pull that mean schtick because he had done the same when my older sisters got married. He always pretends to be a hard ass when one of us leave the house.


    After we had a light snack it was time for me and Cedar to head to the throne room. I had to follow schedules whenever I visited my aunt since she was not just family she was the one in charge of us all. I couldn''t even refer to her as family when we were around other people.


    When we were with the other members of the court she was Queen Gloriana, when we were in her private quarters she was Aunt Glory. I love my aunt dearly. She is a wonderful person and I just know that Cedar and her will get along really well.


    We walked hand in hand again as I led him down the hall to the throne room. When we went inside I saw that the full court had been assembled. There were six nobles on either side of the long aisle in their lesser throne like seats.


    At the far end of the room on a raised dais sat thergest of all the thrones. In that throne was Queen Gloriana. She was sitting there in a flowing white gown that covered everything except her hands and everything from the shoulders up.


    Queen Gloriana was gracing us with her beauty right now. He long, flowing, ck hair that reached down to her bottom, the wonderfully luminescent shade of her sky blue eyes, the pale, nearly perfectly white shade of her skin. She was beautiful and wonderful.


    When we got to the end of the carpet that led to her throne we both lowered ourselves to one knee, kneeling in respect for her.


    "Please rise, children." I didn''t know how Cedar would like being called a child right now, but in truth he was a childpared to Queen Gloriana.


    I pulled Cedar back to his feet as I fluidly stood, I had been practicing these motions for a long time.


    "Good afternoon to you, Queen Gloriana. I am pleased to introduce to you my soulmate, Cedar."


    "Is that a joke?" a voice came from my left. It was Jasper, a Gnome that lived up to the nasty human rumors about them. He was an asshole, in and simple.


    "Is what a joke, Sir Jasper?" I hated that I had to use that title for him, he didn''t deserve that kind of respect.


    "His name of course. Is that meant to be a joke toward us. His name is not really Cedar. You''re just using that to make it seem like he is meant to be with you more."


    "No, that really is my name. I am Cedar Woods, and my sister is Juniper. We were named after trees."


    "Really?" The Queen was quite intrigued. "Everyone is dismissed, I will not have this antagonism in my court right now. Acacia, child, will you and your new soulmate follow me?"


    She rose to her feet then and walked to the left side of the hall. It led to a hallway that would go directly to her private room. Cedar seemed nervous now but I still pulled him along beside me. When we got into the room where my aunt could toss aside her royal attitude she turned to look at me with the loving eyes of a family member.


    "Casey, my dear sweet niece, I am so happy for you." She held her hands out to me, ready for a hug.


    "Huh?" It seemed that Cedar wasn''t expecting this development. I don''t me him. I hadn''t talked too much about my family, for fear that he would be scared off too soon.


    "Cedar, it is a pleasure to meet you. You will take good care of my niece for me, won''t you?"


    There were some tense moments, but for the most part the meeting with my aunt went well. And she showed an interest in meeting with Cedar''s Alpha and Luna, King Reece and Queen Trinity. She like the idea of us uniting our people and forming a strong bond between the Fae and the shifters.


    We are going to be staying in thepound for a few days, I think Cedar will adjust to all of this by the time we leave. I hope so anyway.

 Chapter 313 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CEDAR AND ACACIA CHAPTER 6

    <h4>Chapter 313 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CEDAR AND ACACIA CHAPTER 6</h4>


    ~~


    Cedar


    ~~


    Adjusting to the fact that Casey was the Queen''s niece was the biggest struggle I had toe to terms with while I was here in the Faepound. I had dealt semi easily with the fact that she was one of eighteen siblings. I hade to understand her dad''s unique sense of humor. I had learned that her mom was the most caring person there ever was.


    Everything was easy for me to understand, everything except that she was technically royalty. How did I not know that beforeing here? I wish she would have told me sooner. Then again I might have flipped out if I knew sooner.


    I didn''t mind though. I had quite enjoyed my time with her family. I had also learned that Casey was one of the youngest in the family. And that each set of the siblings was approximately twenty years apart. The oldest were a set of triplets that were one hundred and fifty-one years old, then the next set the twins aged one hundred and thirty. The first set of quints was next and they were one hundred and eleven. Then Casey''s set of quints was eighty-nine, andst was the other triplets that were sixty-eight. Casey''s mom and dad were a lot older, three hundred and twenty-seven and four hundred and thirty-two respectively. Apparently age gaps were verymon around here.


    One day while we were still staying with her family in the castle Casey went shopping with her sisters and her mom asked to speak with me. I would have been nervous if it wasn''t for the fact that Lotus was very sweet and kind.


    Lotus, who looked so much Casey, or should I say that Casey looked like her, had asked me toe into the library. I thought it was just going to be the two of us but Ash was waiting for us in the room, a book in his hand while he sat leisurely in an armchair.


    "Good of you to join us." Ash smiled as he set his book aside and stood to walk closer to me.


    "Cedar, won''t you have a seat?" Lotus pointed to a high backed chair next to the firece.


    "Sure." I was confused as to what was going to happen but I knew better than to be worried.


    As soon as I sat down a bookcase on the far side of the library opened and revealed a hidden door. Through the door walked the most ethereal person I had ever seen, Queen Gloriana. I was hurriedly starting to get to my feet when she waved her hand and spoke.


    "No need to rise, young man. I am not here as the Queen today. Instead, I am here as a loving family member." She was smiling beautifully at me.


    "Your Grace?" I was confused and didn''t know how to respond.


    "You are mated to my favorite niece. Please don''t tell the other eighty-three of them that Acacia is my favorite though." She wasughing and it was a sound that was like lots of tiny musical bells.


    "She is my favorite person as well." I was doing my best to speak properly since I was in front of someone who could kill me on a whim.


    "She''s very special and very dear to me. Would you mind telling me what your intentions are?" There was a serious look in the Queen''s eyes now.


    "My intentions?" I was confused for a moment. Did they doubt me or something? "I intend to marry her. To be with her forever and take care of her. I want to start a family with her and treat her right for as long as I live." Ash, Lotus, and Queen Gloriana were all three looking at me with big smiles on their faces.


    "That is what I wanted to hear." The Queen spoke first.


    "I approve." Ash spoke next.


    "Yay, a wedding." Lotus was thest to show me her approval.


    "I want you to have these." Queen Gloriana held out a box to me.


    "What are these?" I asked as I opened the lid. There were three rings sitting inside.


    The thinnest of the rings looked a bit like an engagement ring. It was made of light green gold and was not too borate. The thin band was only adorned at the top of the ring where it had four very tiny leaves that held a big diamond that was surrounded by a ring of emerald.


    The second ring looked like it went with the first one. It was green but had a wider band. The entire ring looked to be made of tiny leaves that formed a circle. The band was also adorned with tiny emerald and diamond flecks. At the top of the ring there was a flower shaped diamond that was held by more leaves. The first ring and this ring looked like they would fit together with tiny little groves that had been made in them.


    The third ring looked like the male equivalent of the second ring. It was thicker than the female ring andcked the flower shaped diamond. The stones along the band were also a little different. There were no diamonds but there were still emeralds along with sapphires, rubies, and a few more I didn''t know the names of just yet.


    "Consider this a gift from me. The rings have belonged to my family for a long time. They have been cleaned and slightly updated recently but they will bring you great luck and prosperity in the future. The groom''s ring in this set was specially updated for you Cedar." Queen Gloriana was looking at me with tender eyes as she spoke.


    "For me?" I didn''t know what she meant by those words.


    "The stones that adorn the band of your ring are special. They are not the ordinary type you would find in a jewelry shop. They will help to extend your life. If you wish to marry a Fae, a mortal such as yourself will need the aid of stones such as these to assist you."


    "Really." I could just imagine the look I was giving her. I had feared that I would eventually grow old and leave Acacia behind. "Thank you so much."


    "There are some things you need to understand about this ring. It will only work for one person. If someone else were to put the ring on before you then they will be the one granted the longer life. The longer the ring is worn the longer your life will be but you do not need to wear it constantly. I understand that you are a warrior and there will undoubtedly be times that you need to remove the ring to do your job properly. Simply keeping the ring near you will have the same effects. Also, if the ring is ever destroyed, the magic that goes with it will be destroyed. So make sure that you are very careful with it."


    "Yes, of course. I will guard it with my life, just like I will always guard Acacia."


    "You are so very full of love, aren''t you?" The Queen was smiling at me now. "Come here boy." She beckoned me toward her.


    I rose to my feet and took the few steps that I needed to have me standing right in front of the most powerful Fae there was. With no warning at all, Queen Gloriana leaned forward and wrapped her arms around me. I was momentarily frozen in ce as I just stared at Lotus and Ash.


    The two of them, while silent, were waving at me and egging me on. It was clear from their gestures that they wanted me to hug the Queen back. So, slowly and hesitantly, I wrapped my arms around the Queen in return.


    Queen Gloriana was tall and beautiful. Her body felt tiny and vulnerable. But I knew that she was stronger than she looked and felt. With my arms around her, the Queen tightened her grip around me.


    "Wee to my family, young Cedar. I hope you make me just as proud as Acacia has."


    "I will do my best, Queen Gloriana."


    "Hush with that nonsense." I was worried for a moment but then she continued speaking. "When in private like this, you may call me Aunt Glory. That''s what my favorite niece calls me."


    "Thank you, Aunt Glory." I felt nervous saying those words but no one said anything in response to them. "Thank you for the gifts and for your approval."


    "If you really want to thank me, then you will have your wedding here." She pulled back and looked at me. "Ask my niece for her hand while you''re here and if she says yes we will have the wedding here."


    "Can I invite my family as well?" I didn''t want to get married without them.


    "Yes, of course. I would love to meet the rest of your family."


    "Thank you."

 Chapter 314 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CEDAR AND ACACIA CHAPTER 7

    <h4>Chapter 314 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CEDAR AND ACACIA CHAPTER 7</h4>


    ~~


    Acacia


    ~~


    I had gone out for a girls day out with my sisters. The invitation came so suddenly in the morning that I feared that something was wrong but we ended up just going to the mall, which I had never been to, and bought lots of new things.


    Most of my sisters that were married and mated lived off thepound and knew what I would need the most if I was going to stay in Colorado City with Cedar. I was so happy that my family was so supportive and epting of my mate.


    When I got home I was surprised to see that Cedar was looking nervous and giddy. The sight of him made me smile though, because despite the range of emotions he was showing, there was clear happiness shining in his eyes.


    "Hey." I ran up to him so that I could kiss his cheek, my bags all but forgotten in my hurry. While I was running at him Cedar had grabbed my waist and brought me closer to him, hugging me tight and spinning us in a few circles.


    "Will you take a walk with me?" He asked once he had stopped spinning, though he was still holding me.


    "To where?" I was curious about what he was thinking at the moment.


    "Your parents told me about the garden. It sounded beautiful so I wanted to see it for myself."


    "Which garden?" Iughed at him. "There are five gardens here, silly."


    "The inner garden."


    "Oh, that one is my favorite." I squealed as he sat me down. "I used to love having pics in there when I was little."


    "Then let''s have a pic today."


    "Really?" I looked into his sincere and honest eyes and let the happiness wash over me. "Oh Cedar, that sounds wonderful."


    We gathered food from the kitchens and a soft nket from the maids. When we were ready I guided Cedar to the inner garden.


    It was called the inner garden because it was located in the heart of the castle. Inside the castle. It was enchanted to grow even without the sunlight hitting it, though there was an enchanted ceiling that changed to look like a sunny day or a starry night sky. It was so beautiful.


    ~~


    Cedar


    ~~


    The moment I walked into the inner garden with Casey I instantly knew why it was her favorite. It was inside but looked like we were outside. The walls were just barely visible behind climbing nkets of ivy. There was a bubbling brook that started at one corner and twisted its way across therge expansive space until it ended at the opposite corner. It even had a current even though the water seemed to just end abruptly.


    There were several types of flowers that I recognized but many more times that number that I hadn''t seen before. There was so much lively color filling the space that it was hard not to smile just looking around. There were small white stone benches, just big enough for two people to sit together. These benches were apparently scattered all over the garden and they were covered in that same ivy that was climbing the walls.


    There wererge trees of several breeds, big and small bushes and shrubs that both had flowers and did not have any. The flowers ranged from tiny little things to some that were bigger than I was. And it smelled so wonderful. The ce was perfect.


    Casey went to a spot that was right in the center of the garden, right next to the brook. That was where she set down the nket and started to unpack the food. The setting and visuals were different but the feel of this had just reminded me of my first date with Casey. The memories of which made me smile as I thought about what had happened that day.


    "Come on, sit down." Casey beckoned me to her by patting the nket next to her. Who was I to deny my love what she wanted? I moved to sit next to her immediately.


    The food was delicious, just what I hade to expect from the castle kitchens. And of course thepany was unbeatable. At first Casey was telling me about the stuff she had bought with her sisters while she was shopping.


    "It was fun. I got lots of new clothes, each of my sisters and sister iws got me something. We ordered lots of new things that I will be bringing with me to wherever it is that I will be staying in the city."


    "Won''t you be moving in with me?" I was concerned by her words just now.


    "Well, I didn''t want to assume." She looked so shy right then. "I would like to, but I didn''t know if you were ready for that just yet."


    "Casey." I was giving her a pleading look. "I want to be with you, always and forever."


    "Cedar?" She looked so happy to hear those words.


    I rose up onto my knees then and took her left hand into my own. I was gazing into her eyes and pouring as much love and affection into the look that I possibly could. Now felt like the perfect time to do what I wanted to do.


    "Casey." I cupped her cheek with my right hand and rubbed it tenderly. "I love you. I know I haven''t told you that much yet but I hope you know it. I can''t picture a single day of my life without you. I want to fall asleep with you in my arms every night and wake up to your wonderful smile everyday for the rest of my life. I never want to be away from you if I can help it. I want us to start a family and watch as our children grow." I took my hand from her cheek and stealthily reached into my back pocket for the ring I had brought with me. "I want to share all my moments with you, the good and the bad, the happy and the sad." As I spoke I slowly slipped the ring onto her finger, drawing her attention away from my face and to her hand. "Acacia Aspen, will you marry me?"


    I saw a happy smile spread across Casey''s face when she saw the ring. There were tears swimming in her eyes but not yet streaming down her cheeks.


    "Cedar, are you sure?" She didn''t trust my proposal just yet. Why would she doubt me?


    "I am beyond sure."


    "Then my answer is yes. I want to marry you Cedar. Nothing would make me happier." I smiled then and kissed her. It was chaste and innocent and just what was needed in the moment.


    The wedding was set to happen in two days time. When I called Juniper and my parents to have theme to the wedding they couldn''t have been happier. Though, they were nervous to be going to the Faepound and the castle. Not to mention they were nervous about attending a wedding that the Fae Queen was going to be attending but they also said that their Alpha and Luna were now a King and Queen so they needed to get used to royalty.


    True to their word, Casey''s family was able to get the wedding ready in such a short time. The dress that Casey wore was a family heirloom that had been passed down for a long time. It was made of silk gossamer and was a light green. It made Casey look like a real fairy princess as she walked down the aisle toward me. Her hair had been done beautifully in an updo and her thin silky veil made the princess image that much more prominent.


    I couldn''t believe that I was finally married to my mate. It hadn''t been long since we had met but I knew that there was nothing more that I would have wanted.


    For our honeymoon we traveled the world. We would head to the most beautiful gardens in the world. The New York Botanical Garden in Bronx, New York. Pukekura Park in New Plymouth, New Zend. Mauritius National Botanical Garden in Pamplemousses, Mauritius. Aswan Botanical Garden in Aswan, Egypt. Powerscourt Estate in Enniskerry, Irnd. Humble Administrator''s Garden and The Master-of-Nets in Suzhou, China. Mirabell Pce and Gardens in Salzburg, Austria. Kenroku-en Garden in Kanazawa, Japan. Ry¨­an-ji Garden in Kyoto, Japan. Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London. And a few others. We would take our time to visit each location over the course of a month.


    It had taken us a little over a week to get the whole trip nned but when I had told Casey what my idea was she had been ecstatic. She loved the idea of seeing so many different famous gardens from all over the world. I was just happy that I had managed to make my beautiful wife happy with my idea.

 Chapter 315 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CEDAR AND ACACIA CHAPTER 8 (MATURE)

    <h4>Chapter 315 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- CEDAR AND ACACIA CHAPTER 8 (MATURE)</h4>


    ~~


    Cedar


    ~~


    On thest night of our trip, when we were in Kyoto, Japan, there was not much else for us to do after visiting the garden so we just went back to our hotel. We were staying in a hot springs resort with a private bath. I was quite enjoying our time in Japan so far. The food was great, the sites were spectacr, and then there was seeing Casey in a traditional kimono that we rented from the front desk at our resort.


    We had been enjoying a dinner that had been brought to our room by the exceptionally friendly staff. The night was going great and I couldn''t wait to get into the hot springs. I knew that they were going to be wonderful and rxing. Not to mention, that I would get to see Casey naked in the water. We had been sleeping together regrly of course, but she seemed apprehensive about bathing together.


    When the food was cleared away by the staff and azy sort of atmosphere settled over the room I smiled at Casey, my wife.


    "Would you like to soak in the water?" I asked her. I knew she had been looking forward to this but was also apprehensive.


    "Together?"


    "Of course." I smiled at her. "It will be more fun that way."


    "OK." She smiled and finally agreed.


    The kimono took a little time to remove, but I enjoyed the slow reveal of her exquisite body. With slow, hesitating movements,yer byyer, Casey showed me the body that I loved so much.


    After a few more minutes, when we were both stripped and rinsed off we stepped into the hot water. It felt so wonderful to soak in the tub and rx after the whirlwind of our vacation.


    Casey had sat across from me so that she could look at me while we soaked. Now that wouldn''t do, would it? I moved closer to her and sat right by her side.


    "Cedar?" She sounded nervous. I know she knew what was on my mind.


    "What?" I asked her in as innocent of a tone as I could muster.


    "Don''t what me, what do you think you are doing?"


    "I am getting closer to my wife. What does it look like?"


    I slid an arm around her back and pulled slightly. With that movement I lifted Casey from the ledge-like seat she was bnced on and took her ce. After I was in ce I settled her on myp so that she was facing me.


    "You are such a perv." She giggled at me once she was seated on top of me.


    "Is it pervy to want to touch and look at the most beautiful woman I''ve ever seen? Especially if that woman is my wife and mate?"


    "No, that''s not the pervy part. What you have nned next is." She giggled and leaned forward to gently kiss my lips.


    "And what do I have nned?" I gave her an impish look.


    "Oh, you know." She grinned as she put her hands on my shoulders and rose above me. "It''s exactly what I knew would happen if we came in here together" She was positioning herself so that my erection was pressing against her opening.


    "You knew it would happen, huh?" I asked her as she slowly settled herself down, sliding down my shaft until she reached the hilt.


    The feeling of her tight body wrapped around me was pure bliss. The way her core hugged and quivered around my erection was its own kind of amazing that I didn''t think anything could ever match.


    "Goddess, I love you." I growled the words out as I gripped her hips with a biting force. If she were human she would have bruises for a few days, but they will fade away long before the morning.


    I used the grip on her hips to lift her off of me and m her back down.


    "NGH!" She moaned loudly with just the first thrust. I set about creating a mind blowing rhythm after that. I needed to feel her more and more and I could tell she needed this too. The two of us were already panting hard and moaning with pleasure as I lifted her up and pulled her down against my thrusting hips.


    My instincts were taking over for me. My wolf wasing out and he was telling me that I needed to bite my mate. I hadn''t marked her yet and he was not happy about that. On instinct I leaned forward and sunk my elongated teeth into the soft and tender sh of her neck and shoulder.


    I felt the power, the heat that rushed from my body into Casey''s. The feeling of it made our union so much more special. And I didn''t let go of her flesh until the both of us hade screaming each other''s name a long whileter.


    I had carried the limp Casey out of the water and into our futons that wereying on the floor. It was a wonderful night. And what made the night that much better was that I woke to the tickling of a new scent in my nose. A scent that was more sweet than the floral scent I was used to from Casey.


    I knew what that scent meant. Casey was pregnant. She was going to have a baby. We were starting our family already.


    "Casey?" I breathed her name softly yet excitedly.


    "What''s the matter Cedar?" She stretched while I held her in my arms.


    "We''re having a baby." I grinned at her.


    "Wait, really?" She was smiling at me happily.


    "Yup." I kissed her softly on the tip of her nose.


    ~~~~~~


    ALMOST SIX MONTHS LATER


    ~~~~~~


    Cedar


    ~~~~~~


    Casey''s family had been happy to find out that we were expecting. My mom and dad were happy to be having their first set of grandchildren. Juniperughed at me and told me I hadn''t wasted any time huh. But Juniper couldn''t say anything for long. She was soon expecting a set of twins herself. She was due less than a month after Casey was. With so many new babiesing you can imagine that everyone was excitedly offering to help us all out.


    I would take that help too. I didn''t know much about raising a baby. Not to mention just one baby was bad enough, but we were having three at once. And even though I hadn''t really told my sister this, I was happy that her babies and my babies would be so close in age. I had quite enjoyed my life as a twin and liked growing up with someone there for me at all times. Now my kids didn''t just have their siblings to turn to, they also had their cousins. I hoped to be the best father and the best uncle that I could be.


    We had gotten married in the middle of April. We had left for our honeymoon right before the start of May. Just before June we found out we were pregnant. Now, it was November eighteenth and Casey had been on bed rest for thest month and a half.


    Why was she on bed rest? Because we were having triplets and if she didn''t rest then she risked having the babies too soon. As it was we were still almost two weeks away from the due date. The babies didn''t care about that though because Casey''s water had just broken.


    I was a frantic mess while for some reason she was as calm as could be. I was running the bags out to the car while she just sat there and told me what to do. While I was moving frantically I couldn''t help but think about when we had moved in here, not to mention when we had built our house. We had picked a secluded spot in Reece''s newmunity. There were still a lot of trees in the lot but we didn''t care. We used ourbined magic that dealt with trees to reshape those trees into a beautiful house. All we needed was to add windows, carpeting, and furniture.


    We had built our beautiful spacious ten bedroom home ourselves. Because we didn''t have to worry about construction costs it was easy for us to manage. We also weren''t certain if we would ever end up with more kids so we wanted to have lots of space.


    Now though, we were about to wee the first additions to our family. Two boys and a girl that were to be named Beech, Cypress, and Ashle.


    Casey went into the delivery room and had all three babies naturally, with no pain killers. That is something that I could be proud of her for and made me know that she was the strongest person I had ever met.


    When the babies were born I couldn''t help but fall in love immediately. My children were beautiful like their mother and I felt my heart swelling with love and protectiveness for them. We were going to be one big happy family from now on.

 Chapter 316 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- ELLA AND DEVON CHAPTER 1

    <h4>Chapter 316 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- ELLA AND DEVON CHAPTER 1</h4>


    ~~


    E


    ~~


    Thesest two weeks have been the hardest days of my life. My baby brother Sammy had been kidnapped and no one knew where he was. Several people thought he had been taken by a rogue that had skipped town after finding out that pack life wasn''t for him. But that rogue had been found and there was no evidence that he had taken my brother.


    Mom and I couldn''t afford to stop working. We had to keep our heads up and keep the shop running so that we wouldn''t end up losing our only source of ie. It was hard though, there was no doubting that. I couldn''t believe what had been happening to the pack.


    After Sammy went missing there were seven other children that had been kidnapped. Two of the other children were from the pack and the other five were humans from the city. Who was responsible for taking these kids? And what did they want with them? Were they OK? Were they still alive? These were the thoughts that gued me all day every day. I couldn''t even sleep because of what had been happening.


    I was doing my best to put on a smile though, and I was picking up a lot of Mom''s ck around the shop. I know this was harder on her than it was on me. Quite a few times I had to send Mom home for the day because she was so upset about Sammy. I needed to stay strong though.


    Today, though, we had a big surprise. The Alpha and Luna were officially getting married. That was a major pack thing and we couldn''t ignore it. Not to mention I was actually able to forget about things? little while I was working. The busier I was or the harder I was working on a dress the easier things were for me.


    The Luna needed her wedding dress, which I happily offered to design for her. She would also need bridesmaids dresses, a maid of honor dress, and the mother''s dresses. This was going to be a busy month but until Sammy came back I would happily wee the distraction.


    I worked diligently for weeks to get all the dresses done and ready. I saw the Luna several times since she needed toe in for the fittings and adjustments. I was making things a little looser than they needed to be since Trinity, as she had told me to call her, was pregnant.


    They had apparently not told too many people yet but I thought it was wonderful. A new pup born to the Alpha family was also a major deal in the pack. I was happy for them, truly I was, but I still couldn''t forget about my brother. He had been missing for almost a month and a half now and all I wanted to do was cry when I wasn''t working.


    More often than not I was happy that I lived on my own. I had bought a small cest year so that I could feel more independent and because I felt that I spent enough time with my mom at work so as a grown woman I needed my own personal space. However, there were more than a few days that I ended up staying at my mom''s house and sleeping on the couch in the living room. I hoped that I would be there and Sammy would juste home to us.


    He never did though.


    Tomorrow was the wedding and tonight I was being invited to the bachelorette party for the Luna. It was fun, and I was d I went, but it couldn''t make me forget about my brother. I missed him more and more every single day. I missed him more than I thought it was physically possible to miss someone.


    ~~


    Devon


    ~~


    I honestly couldn''t fathom what had been happening in this city. Just recently in the course of two weeks eight children had been kidnapped. They had just disappeared without a trace. There was no evidence left behind at all.


    Some of them disappeared from the yground at school, but no one saw anything or noticed anyone that shouldn''t have been in the area. Most of them disappeared from their homes but there was again nothing to lead us toward the culprit. There was no evidence of forced entry, no fingerprints, not even a fucking shoe prints.


    Just who the hell had taken these kids?


    When the first kid disappeared we had thoroughly investigated the parents while also looking for other clues. That was just standard practice. It doesn''t matter who the parents are, you look into them as well because unfortunately a lot of times the parents or other family members are involved.


    But then, more and more kids started to disappear and we knew that we were dealing with someone outside of the families. These kids didn''t know each other. They didn''t go to the same schools. Most of them lived in different parts of the city. Hell, three of them even lived up in that gatedmunity that everyone talked about.


    So, who was taking these kids and why? We all thought about it all the time. And more than a few of us discussed it several times.


    There was talk about it being a trafficking ring. Bastards like that had started popping up all over the country and as a detective I wanted nothing more than to make them disappear.


    "Hey Scott, got a second?" That was me, Detective Devon Scott. I had just made it to detective this year and now this shit happened. I am twenty-eight years old and have been a cop since I turned twenty-one. It was all I ever wanted to do.


    "Yeah." I called out to my captain as I rose to my feet.


    I walked quickly to his office and shut the door behind me, chances are this was not going to be an overly quiet conversation. As soon as I was in his office and the door was shut he had already started yelling. I knew it so I wasn''t shocked by it at all.


    "What the hell are you up to?" his voice boomed and echoed off the ss around us.


    "Well, I am here to talk to you, I am guessing that is what you called me over for." I yed dumb for a minute.


    "Cut the shit, Scott. You know what I mean. I told you that you''re not to do any more private patrols. I can''t sanction them when you''re off duty."


    "Then I will work overtime. I am canvassing the city in search of eight missing children. I don''t think that any one in IEB will tell you to make me stop. If we don''t find these kids then we will be the ones to take the heat for it."


    "We''re not in this alone anymore. The FBI is sending over two agents to help us investigate all of this." He wasn''t yelling anymore but I could tell he wasn''t happy.


    "Took them long enough." I grumbled the words, knowing he wouldn''t be happy with me at that moment.


    "You want the feds toe in here and steal our case?" He was ring at me now.


    "I don''t fucking care who handles the case as long as the kids are found safe and sound."


    "You''re such a fucking boyscout, you know that." He wasughing at me. "That''s why I am going to assign you to help them, you and Andrew." I never really liked Detective Andrew Masterson, but I needed to work with him now. Great, this was going to be fun.


    Even when the FBI showed up things didn''t seem to be going very well at all. Not to mention that the rich billionaire yboy that lived in that gatedmunity I mentioned before had sent over some of his staff to help us as well. Apparently they all had private investigator licenses and they had been weed with open arms by the FBI.


    I didn''t mind the FBI stepping in and helping us. I wouldn''t have minded the help from the PI''s either, that is if they hadn''t been wannabe mafia members following around that yboy like he was someone special. Just because he had a shit ton of money and owned more than half of the city he thought he could do whatever he liked.


    Fuck him! I hoped I never had to meet him personally. If I ever did, I would probably punch him in his stupid yboy face. And then I would of course be fired, or at the very least I would be put on administrative leave. I couldn''t afford that, I needed to find those kids. I refused to be taken off the case altogether. So, that''s why I hoped I never came face to face with his stupid, smug, smarmy ass.


    Oh, how I wish I would have known how wrong I was about so many things.

 Chapter 317 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- ELLA AND DEVON CHAPTER 2

    <h4>Chapter 317 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- ELLA AND DEVON CHAPTER 2</h4>


    ~~


    E


    ~~


    Yesterday was the wedding for the Alpha and the Luna. It was a good day. The ceremony was beautiful and I loved seeing the dresses that I made as everyone moved down the aisle. They all looked lovely but I just couldn''t get into the whole celebration. I opted to skip the reception and so did mom.


    We learned the next day though, that some strange people came to the wedding iming to be from the fabled Sentinelle. They told everyone at the wedding that our Luna, Trinity, was the new Goddess Incarnate.


    I believed it though, she was amazing and it just made sense to me and everyone else. Trinity was a great Luna to us, and now she was going to be the Luna to all of the shifters in the world.


    I was just shutting the door to the shop at a little after six. It was early but I was not feeling up to workingter. As I pulled my key from the lock my phone rang. The caller ID said that it was Trinity, the Luna. I wonder what she wanted.


    "Hi Trinity, what''s up?" I tried to put as much energy into my voice as I could.


    "Hey E, I hope this isn''t a bad time?" Trinity sounded like she was excited. I wished I could be that excited.


    "I''m just closing up the shop for the day. Mom didn''t seem up to working toote today. It''s been hard on hertely. On all of us really." I heard the sorrow in my voice, the sadness was so hard to hold in.


    "That''s why I''m calling really."


    "It is? You have news? Is he alright? Is he going to be ok? Please tell me he isn''t-." I couldn''t stop the questions froming out.


    "Calm down E. Slow down and take a breath."


    "You''re right." I sighed and resigned myself to listening to what she had to say.


    "Feeling a little more calm?" Trinity asked me.


    "A little, but I really miss him, Trinity. I wish it was me that was taken and not him." I did my best not to cry.


    Just then I heard a voice growl from within the nearby shadows..


    "Then I can make that happen." A man''s voice spoke then, it felt sticky and disgusting when I heard it.


    "Who are you?" I asked the man.


    "A message." Another gravelly voice answered me.


    "Leave me alone, I don''t have time for this." I sneered at him, annoyed.


    "We can''t get to your Luna, but we can get to you." A third disgusting voiceughed at me. That''s when I felt fear for the first time.


    "E!" I heard Trinity call for me just as one of the men moved forward and grabbed my left arm so hard that it hurt.


    "Stop, let go of me." I screamed at him.


    "What kind of message should we make out of her?" One of the men said.


    "ELLA!" I heard Trinity scream from the phone that was no longer by my ear.


    "Sorry, she can''te to the phone anymore." The first manughed into my phone that he was holding now. "Want to give her a message?" Trinity must have said something then because the manughed and spoke again. "Ohhoho, really. Fine go ahead little Miss." He spoke so condescendingly.


    There was a moment of silence from the three men like they were just waiting for something.


    "I''m waiting, or are you too scared to answer?" That mocking voice spoke again, then he must have gotten a response from Trinity again. "Calm enough? How about you give me that message now." Another pause, this was starting to scare me even more. "Such fierce words for a woman." The manughed. "What makes you think you can threaten me?" Another message from Trinity. "The Luna you say? Well, we were just looking for you. You know, your friend here is only in trouble because you refuse toe out and y with us."


    What was he saying? They were after me because Trinity was guarded too much. What did they want with her? Why go after me?


    "Don''t make meugh you stupid bitch. There''s nothing a weak piece of half breed trash like you could ever do to me." The man spat the words in anger after he heard what Trinity had to say. "Let''s make the bitch sing so her Luna can hear the song we''re making with her." The man that held the phone spoke to the others.


    With a sneering look the other two men loomed over me. The man on my left grabbed my hair and yanked hard just as the man on my right struck out with his fist hitting me hard in the stomach. I couldn''t help it, I screamed.


    "Didn''t you like her singing voice? It''s got potential." The man growled sickeningly. "Again." With that the man hit me again while the other man grabbed me by the jaw so forcefully that I knew it was going to bruise. They hit me repeatedly around my head, chest, and stomach. I felt a searing pain as one of them shed my arm with their ws. They were clearly wolves, but I couldn''t smell their scent.


    "HELP ME! PLEASE! SOMEONE HELP ME!"


    "Nah, this is getting fun." I screamed again and was sobbing as the man spoke to Trinity on the phone.


    Over the sound of my sobbing I could hear someone''s feet pounding against the ground. There was someone elseing here, was he going to hurt me too.


    "Shit, someone''sing." One of the other men said.


    "Leave her, the message has been received by the target loud and clear. Isn''t that right Luna?" The man with my phone growled.


    "Freeze! Put your hands above your head." A strong, masculine voice shouted in the distance, you could tell he was running but he didn''t sound out of breath at all.


    "Bye for now Luna." The man with my phone growled as he dropped my phone and the three of them ran off.


    The man who had been running sounded like a cop. I could hear that he was almost to my side now but I had copsed on the ground when the men had let me go.


    "Are you alright, Miss?" The man''s voice was filled with tender concern and worry. But what I noticed the most, even though I couldn''t see him, was his scent. He smelled amazing and made my wolf howl, I couldn''t think of that though, I was in too much pain right now. "You guys go after them." He said as he had knelt by my side. The other sets of steps continued running on.


    "ELLA!" I heard Trinity''s voice yelling from my phone where it wasying on the ground.


    "Hello, who is this?" The man picked up the phone and spoke after hearing the screaming voice.


    ~~


    Devon


    ~~


    I had been on patrol again, though I was not alone this time. I had a group of uniforms with me. I hadn''t found any of the kids over thest month of doing these patrols but I had stopped a lot of other crimes? in the process.


    I was walking the streets near a row of clothing stores. It was a rtively nice area but this was still the city and there were still bad people everywhere. All of a sudden I heard a woman screaming in the distance.


    "HELP ME! PLEASE! SOMEONE HELP ME!" She sounded scared and like she was in a severe amount of pain.


    "Come on, let''s go." I signaled to the uniformed officers that were there with me. They started following me but I was still well ahead of them.


    Whoever was there must have heard the pounding of my footsteps.


    "Shit, someone''sing." A man said.


    "Leave her, the message has been received by the target loud and clear. Isn''t that right Luna?" Another man growled.


    "Freeze! Put your hands above your head." I screamed at them, warning them to stay put.


    "Bye for now Luna." One of the men seemed to be talking to someone. Just after he spoke I heard something fall and hit the ground.


    When I got close enough to the scene I saw a womanying on the ground. She was covered in bruises and blood from the beating she had clearly received.


    "Are you alright, Miss?" I called out to her and could tell that she heard me. "You guys go after them." I yelled at the others to follow the woman''s attackers.


    "ELLA!" There was someone screaming from the phone that had been dropped onto the ground.


    "Hello, who is this?" I asked the screaming woman after I picked up the phone.


    "Who are you?" She seemed shocked to hear my voice.


    "I am Detective Scott from the CSPD. Again, who are you?"


    "I''m E''s friend. Is she alright?" The woman was scared and sounded worried.


    "It looks like she will be." I could hear the sirens of the approaching ambnce and other officers, someone must have radioed in for backup.


    "My husband called the police when I heard the men attacking her. He is also a friend of hers and on his way." The woman sounded marginally calmer now.


    "Really? And just who is your husband?" I didn''t like the sound of what she was saying.


    "Reece Gray." Shit!


    "Reece Gray? The Reece Gray? As in the billionaire Reece Gray?" That was just my luck.


    "Yes. E is a family friend and he is on his way to offer his help."


    "Just perfect. Well, I guess you''ll know how things are with her soon enough."


    "Trinity." The woman, apparently E, was yelling at the woman on the phone.


    "Take care of her, please." The woman begged me.


    "Already nned on it." I hung the phone up then and decided to focus on the woman on the ground.


    When I turned to look at the woman I felt like something inside of me just clicked into ce. It felt like I was seeing the most beautiful woman in the world, even with her being beaten and bruised. She had sweet lighttte brown eyes that gave her an innocent look and soft looking light brown hair. She was a little on the shorter side and had a great figure. I felt like I had just looked at someone I''ve known for my whole life but hadn''t seen in a long time.


    "E." I whispered her name and pulled her into my arms. That too felt like it was something that I had done many times before even though I knew that this woman was not someone I had ever met before.


    Why was my body telling me that I was already in love with this woman? It wasn''t just my body either, it was also my heart. I just felt like I was instantly in love with her. Did love at first sight really exist?


    Just then I heard a man shout for the woman I was holding in my arms.


    "E?"


    "Reece?" E yelled back at him.


    "What happened? What did they do to you?" He sounded so worried when he asked her that question and for some reason it made me jealous.


    "Mr. Gray I assume?" I snarled at the man.


    "Yes, I am Reece Gray. And you are?"


    "Detective Devon Scott, CSPD." I red at him, the wannabe mafia boss.


    "Thank you for your help, Detective." He tried to act all saintly or whatever.


    "It wasn''t for you, Mister Gray." I couldn''t help the sneer that was in my voice.


    "Did I offend you Detective Scott?" He seemed to be losing his patience now.


    "You walk around this city like you own it. You even act like you can run the police department." I snapped at him as I looked at Detective Masterson, who seemed to be in Gray''s pocket.


    "I don''t try to run the police department. I do, however, try to help people. And in case you didn''t notice, Detective, I do own about sixty percent of this city." Was he rubbing that in my face.


    "See, that''s the attitude I am talking about."


    "Enough! E is the one who matters right now, so stop your damn pissing contest." A man standing at Gray''s side snapped at the two of us. He was right though, E needed help right now.


    After his outburst, I watched as the man knelt next to E, checking on her.


    "Are you alright?" His voice was soothing as he reached toward her.


    "I will be." E told him.


    "An ambnce is on its way." I told them, the anger gone from my voice.


    "We can get her there sooner." Another man offered.


    "No, she needs an ambnce."


    "I will be alright, Detective Scott." E smiled at me and I swear I saw my instant love for her already being reciprocated.


    "No, E, you need to be taken care of." I pleaded with her.


    "Fine, when the ambnce gets here I will ride with you E." Gray offered and my jealousy red so high that I wanted to growl.


    "Like hell you will." I yelled at him.


    "Will you two stop arguing?" That man snapped at us again. "Ask E what she wants and stop trying to decide people''s lives for them."


    "Thank you Vincent." E smiled at him but it looked like the gesture hurt her, it was like it was painful to move her face.


    I felt embarrassed, we were arguing like children while she wasying there on the ground in pain.


    "What do you want to do, E?" I asked her.


    "Since the two of you are arguing, perhaps it would be best if Vincent rode with me. I think he will be the most level headed." It was understandable for her to choose him, honestly. She didn''t know me at all.


    "Of course, I will be happy to ride along with you." Vincent told her. "How about I wrap those wounds up while we wait." He smiled amiably, making her feel at ease. I looked at the man named Vincent, trying to figure out his angle here.


    "Rx, he''s very happily married with three children. And he''s definitely not the type to cheat on his wife." Gray patted me on the shoulder with a smirk.


    "What are you even talking about?" I asked him, shocked by his words.


    "Yup, just try to keep that attitude up for a little longer." Grayughed at me then as he stood up. "E, I will leave you to Vincent while Noah and I go and talk to the other officers. I want to know what happened here but I will let you rest first. Do you mind if Ie see you tomorrow?"


    "No Reece, that will be fine. Will Trinity be with you?" I could guess that a familiar face would help soothe her when she was feeling tense but that didn''t mean that I had to like it. But why the hell was I so jealous right now?


    "If you want her to be, then yes."


    "Mmhmm, thank you." I saw the gratitude in her eyes then as Gray started to walk away.


    The ambnce came soon and they loaded E into the back. She looked like she didn''t want to go, perhaps she had an aversion to hospitals. I asked the driver what hospital they were taking her to so that I could go and see her tonight. I was technically off duty already anyway.

 Chapter 318 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- ELLA AND DEVON CHAPTER 3

    <h4>Chapter 318 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- ELLA AND DEVON CHAPTER 3</h4>


    ~~


    Devon


    ~~


    I hurried back to the station to give my report of tonight''s events to Captain Franklin. He was concerned for the woman that I had rescued and encouraged me to go visit her as well. He could and would be a hardass most of the time but he was still a good guy.


    I hurried over to the hospital that the driver told me that E was being taken to. I didn''t know what room or even what floor she was going to be on when I got there so I shed my badge to get the information that I needed. Apparently she was still in the emergency department and she was being seen by a doctor before she was to be discharged.


    That angered me. Why the hell were they going to discharge her already? What the hell was going on? She was clearly hurt when I saw her, couldn''t those assholes see that? What the hell were they going to do if she got worse through the night.


    Despite still being in the emergency department, E was in a private room with a door. I saw that the curtain was pulled around the bed when I made it to her room but the door was not shut all the way.


    Stupid people aren''t even giving her the proper amount of privacy. They could have shut the door all the way. Was that so fucking hard?


    I pushed the door the rest of the way open as I knocked on the ss panel in its frame.


    "Can Ie in?" I didn''t really announce myself well there now did I?


    "Who''s there?" A man''s voice answered me and I instantly felt a wave of jealousy so intense it was like some kind of beast had welled up inside of me.


    "Detective Scott of the CSPD." I used a very authoritative tone when I spoke then.


    "It''s ok." I heard E''s voice but it sounded like she was talking to the man behind the curtain with her. "Let him in Griffin." So that was the doctor''s name.


    "E?" He sounded shocked as he whispered back to her. I didn''t care what the man had to say about it all anymore. E said to let me in so I grabbed the curtain and flung it open, probably a little harder than I had needed to.


    "Hello E." I smiled at her when I finished walking into the room.


    "Oh, I get it now." The man named Griffin smirked as he looked between me and E.


    "Get what?" I wondered, curious to what it was he was trying to say.


    "Nothing." He shook his head gently then held his hand out to me. "Hello Detective Scott, my name is Dr Griffin White, it''s a pleasure to meet you." I shook his hand out of professional courtesy only. I wanted to know why he was so friendly with E.


    "How do you know E?" I got straight to the questioning.


    "Griffin is the family doctor as well as a family friend. When he heard I was here he rushed over to help right away." I looked a little closer at the doctor in the room. He was closer to forty years old, good looking but still too old for E.


    "Alright." I nodded to ept the answer. "I hear she will be discharged soon, do you want to exin why? She was injured too badly." I red at him then looked at E again.


    This was the first time that I had looked closely at her sinceing into the room. Most of my attention had been on the rival that was before. No, the doctor. He was not my rival because E wasn''t my woman in any way. What the hell was the matter with me?


    Though, what I saw now that I was looking at E with my full attention was that she didn''t look nearly as injured as she had less than an hour before. The bruises on her face already looked like they were fading and the cuts on her arm, that the doctor had clearly been cleaning, were already starting to close.


    And now that I saw those cuts I could tell they looked like w marks. Like she had been attacked by an animal and not a group of men.


    "What the hell is going on here?" I was so shocked to see her and the nearly healed injuries that it seemed like I was a bit wobbly on my feet.


    "Detective Scott, I can exin." E looked worried when she saw my reaction.


    "Have a seat." The doctor put a hand on my shoulder and tried to guide me to the chair that was sitting next to E''s bed. I let him, since I felt like I was spinning out of control.


    Once I was seated E looked at me with steady eyes and gave me a wry smile.


    "First, I want to say I thank you. I don''t think I said that earlier but I was in a bit of shock with everything that had happened."


    "You don''t need to thank me, it''s my job to help people." I smiled at her and I couldn''t help but add a little more to that answer of mine. "But I would save you anytime, anywhere." Why did I say that? I must sound like a creep.


    "Thank you." I saw that she blushed but looked happy to hear what I had said. "I am d you''re the one who saved me." She was looking at me with such sweet and tender eyes. And if I was not mistaken there was a look of longing in her eyes.


    "E, I am going to step out to give you some privacy." I heard the doctor''s words but I paid him no mind. He wasn''t important right now anyway. E, however, nodded at his words before he walked away.


    "I am actually d you came here. I am d you saw what you did when you got here because it makes it that much easier to exin things to you."


    "I don''t understand what is going on here. How did you heal so fast?" She looked at me ufortably, like she was uncertain of what to say.


    "Well, let''s just say that I am not like other girls. I don''t know if I should exin it all to you, it''s not just my secret to tell."


    "Whose secret is it then?" I needed to know this, I needed to figure all of this out soon.


    "There are a lot of people involved. But I do promise you will get answers, and soon."


    "I can handle whatever it is. I mean, it''s not like you''re going to tell me you''re not human." Iughed, half embarrassed by the word, my hand was even rubbing the back of my head as I squinted with theughter, however, then I noticed the look on her face and that wasn''t all thatforting. "Wait, are you not human?" I was truly worried then.


    "I''m close enough to count." She sounded nervous.


    "What is that supposed to mean?" I think I am starting to flip out here.


    "Ok, let''s put it this way, I am human but with a little extra."


    "What do you mean by extra? You were born on this weren''t you?" Was I seriously having a discussion with the beautiful woman about aliens?


    "Goddess, yes. As far as I know aliens have never actually visited this."


    "But you''re not saying they don''t exist?" Yup, I was talking to her about aliens now. Smooth Devon, smooth.


    "Well, to think that our is the only one in existence with life on it is just conceited and stupid. There are too many gxies with too manys for me to believe that aliens don''t exist."


    "Well, that''s actually a sound argument." I was nodding my head while I thought about what she said. "But, you''re not an alien?" I still needed to make sure.


    "No." Sheughed as she said the word and it was such a cuteugh.


    "That''s good. I think I can handle whatever it is. I don''t know why but I am being drawn to you like there is something inside of me telling me that I need to be with you for the rest of my life." pped myself in the forehead then and groaned. "Damn it, I probably sound like a fucking creep right now."


    "Actually you don''t. And I am feeling the same thing. What we''re feeling is the pull of fate, which is something everyone of my type of people longs for and is always overjoyed when they finally find it."


    "What are you saying?" She had just made me feel like it was normal to be feeling what I was currently feeling.


    "It''s destiny. The goddess that my people worship determines the perfect person for us to spend our lives with and that person will find us at some point in our lives, no matter what."


    "So, you''re telling me that you''re-?" I couldn''t finish the question just yet, I was too nervous to say the words.


    "I feel like I fell in love with you at first sight. Well, actually it was when I first smelled you, or when I heard your voice. Take your pick." She was grinning now. "But, if you''ll have me, I could be your mate for the rest of my life."


    I couldn''t believe my ears. It was like a confession of love and a marriage proposal from her all at the same time. This was insane. I know it was insane. But I still loved it.


    "I think I would be willing to entertain that idea." I blush and smirked at her, trying to be smooth but feeling like I failed miserably.


    "I''d like that." She seemed happy nheless. "Oh, by the way, Detective Scott, what is your name?"


    "Oh." Iughed, I hadn''t properly introduced myself to her had I? "My name is Devon, Devon Scott." I grinned at her.


    "Nice to meet you Devon, I am E Taylor." We just grinned at each other for a while. I was truly loving that smile of hers already.


    After that we talked and got to know each other while we waited for the discharge papers. That was when I found out that E''s brother had been the first child kidnapped and that the men who attacked her had probably been working for them, if they hadn''t been the culprits themselves. That pissed me off, my E was targeted and so was her brother. But then again, if she hadn''t been targeted we would never have met and I wouldn''t get to spend time with her. Fate can be cruel as well as rewarding. Fate was definitely a mysteriously cruel bitch.


    I drove E home when she was discharged, I just didn''t want to leave her alone yet.

 Chapter 319 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- ELLA AND DEVON CHAPTER 4 (MATURE)

    <h4>Chapter 319 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- ELLA AND DEVON CHAPTER 4 (MATURE)</h4>


    ~~


    E


    ~~


    I may not have exined things too well to Devon when he asked what I was, but I thought I would leave that for Trinity and Reece when I saw them next. And apparently, Devon was going to stick by me regardless. He must feel the bond as strongly as I did. That made me happy. I had found my mate.


    I couldn''t get over the way he looked either. He was tall, almost as tall as the Alpha, maybe six feet three inches tall. His light blonde hair looked so soft and his light brown eyes were mesmerizing. Not to mention the drool worthy way that his muscles were showing through his dress shirt and suit jacket. He was sexy and powerful looking.


    This whole situation was bittersweet though since I was still missing my baby brother. I wanted him home so that I didn''t feel like crap for being happy right now. I mean, how could I be so happy while my brother was out here, possibly hurting and suffering? Didn''t that make me a bad person?


    Devon drove me home and went inside to make sure that no one hade back to my house after the attack. He wanted to make sure that I was safe no matter what.


    "I am going to run surveince on you, E. I don''t want you getting hurt."


    "Thank you, Devon." I smiled at the protective look of devotion that was on his face.


    As shitty as I felt for being happy in this moment I really couldn''t help it. Most of the happiness wasing from my wolf and high of the mate bond. I know that I couldn''t control it even if I wanted to.


    I sat in the living room while Devon searched the entire house for any intruders. Thankfully he didn''t find anything. I was happy to be home too, but I didn''t know if I was ready to be home alone. I could still vividly remember the way those men looked at me, and the pain I felt when they were hurting me.


    "Devon?" I called his name when he was back in the living room with me.


    "Yeah?" He gave me a curious smile.


    "Will you stay with me for a while?" I felt childish for even asking. "It''s just that I feel a little too scared to be alone." That made me feel even more childish. Dammit.


    "I would have sat in my car all night watching the ce if you hadn''t asked me." He grinned at me. "I told you I was going to keep an eye on you. And it just so happens that tomorrow is my day off." I smiled at that. This was a nice development.


    "Thank you." I took his hand then as he sat on the couch next to me, our knees touching despite the ample space the piece of furniture offered us.


    "Think nothing of it, E."


    I couldn''t help it, when he said those words I just leaned forward and pressed my lips against him. That seemed to be all the invitation that he needed. Devon slid his hand up my arm and to the nape of my neck as he kissed me back. His tongue slid into my mouth as I opened my it for him.


    Once the angle was better it was like a damn broke inside of Devon. He was exploring the inside of my mouth like he was Marco Polo exploring newnds. And I wasn''t just letting him kiss me. I kissed him back with just as much fervor. I explored his mouth with my tongue and showed him that I was not a shy lover.


    However, just as the kiss was getting really good, when Devon put his hand on my shirt to feel more of my body, I felt how stiff my shirt was. I had almost forgotten that I was covered in dried blood.


    "Oh my Goddess. I can''t believe I did that while I was still so filthy." I had pulled back away from him and I could see a heated, hungry look in Devon''s eyes as he panted and tried to hold himself back. "Do you mind waiting here while I take a shower?" I thought about offering to let him take one with me, but that was a bit much for the night we met, right?


    "Yeah, no problem. Do you mind if I get a drink?" He asked as he pointed with his thumb over his shoulder and toward the kitchen.


    "No, make yourself at home." I was happy that he was feeling so at ease here already, and that we had such great chemistry.


    I hurried into my room then and shut the door tightly behind me. I needed to rush through this shower but also make sure I didn''t miss anything. I grabbed some cute and sexy pajamas, silky cami and shortsbo, and ran into the attached bathroom.


    I threw the clothes that I had been wearing straight into the trash and then jumped into the spray of hot water. I cleaned away all the blood and dirt and washed my hair thoroughly. After that I made sure that my legs were properly shaved and that I was perfectly presentable if anything were to happen.


    I dried and dressed in a rush. Toweled the water from my hair and pulled it back into a loose ponytail so that it was out of the way. When I was ready and figured there was nothing else for me to do right now I ran back out to my room and just barely calmed myself down before exiting back into the living room.


    It seemed that Devon was still in the kitchen and there was a lovely smelling from inside that room.


    "Sorry but I got a little hungry so I used some of the food you had avable." Devon came to the door and smiled at me only to stop and apparently gulp, did he like my pajamas that much?


    "It''s fine, I was hungry anyway." I smiled at him in return.


    I sat at the table while Devon brought over two tes. I don''t know why I was acting like I was in his space and not my own, but it felt nice to have him bring me the te like that, like he was taking care of me even more.


    The te had four little tacos on it. But these weren''t normal tacos, they looked like they had wonton wraps that had been fried crispy for the shells. I had forgotten I bought thosest week, I wanted to make homemade soup when I had Chinese food next. Inside the crispy shells was what looked like colew and chopped chicken and it was topped with a sweet, slightly garlicky sauce.


    "This smells wonderful, what is it?"


    "Wonton tacos." He looked proud of himself. They''re easy if you have the stuff. I can''t believe you had all the ingredients in your fridge. Talk about getting lucky, right?"


    "Mhmm."


    We ate the food while we talked. By the way, the food tasted amazing. To think I had the stuff to make all this. And I hadn''t been in the other room that long so they were really easy to make.


    Once we were done eating I asked Devon if he wanted to watch a movie with me. He agreed but then he noticed that I didn''t have a TV in the living room.


    "Um, how?" He asked, confused.


    "I move the TV around sometimes. It''s currently in the bedroom."


    "Oh." I didn''t miss the heated look or the smirk on his face.


    Scott followed me into the room and we turned on a romanticedy that definitely wouldn''t give me any more negative thoughts to think about. I was already dressed for bed but Devon was still wearing his suit and I didn''t think that would befortable for him to wear while lounging on the bed.


    "Do you want to, maybe, get a little morefortable?" I wasn''t exactly nervous, but I felt slightly awkward as I said those words.


    "My, Miss E, are you trying to see me naked?" He grinned at me and stepped closer to me.


    "Would you be upset if I said yes?" I looked away sheepishly.


    "On the contrary, I would be overjoyed." I looked up just in time for him to kiss my lips instead of my nose.


    After that Devon stripped down to his undershirt and boxer briefs. I could see the outline of his manhood through the thin material and I couldn''t help but imagine what he would look like fully nake and fully erect. I''m such a dirty minded pervert.


    We climbed into the bed then,ying on top of all the covers. We made a show of watching the movie at first, but my attention was elsewhere, and I think Devon''s was too. In fact, when I turned my head so I could look at his face I saw that he was staring at me.


    "E?" He asked me, uncertain of if he should proceed with his thoughts.


    "Devon." I didn''t make it a question, no his name was a statement, something telling him toe over here and make it so I couldn''t think about the men who attacked me earlier. I had fully healed already and I just wanted to make that connection with my mate. Call me a slut if you want, but I needed this right now.


    Devon understood what I had been trying to tell him. He rolled a little, taking me with him. I was now pressed to the bed with him halfying on top of me and his lips pressed to mine. I could feel his body, the definition of his muscles and the long hard smoothness of his erection that he was already sporting.


    With a quick swift movement Devon pulled his shirt over his head. I had been right in imagining how delicious he would look when he was naked. I knew that Devon was a man who took care of his body.


    Devon was already touching me all over. His hands were exploring my chest as he pushed aside my silky cami like pajama top. He had his other hand down between my thighs, teasing me through my silky shorts and panties.


    I don''t remember exactly how or when but we were both suddenly naked. All I really remember were mind blowing kisses and Devon''s hands touching my body. I was ready, dripping wet and in need of his body. Devon was ready, he had been since we had started.


    I knew that Devon was trying to treat me right and give me the proper amount of forey, but I just wanted to feel him, on me and in me. I needed theforting weight of his body as he pressed against me and the stretching and mind blowing feel of him invading my body.


    "Devon!" I called his name and dragged his face away from my breasts so that he could look at me. "Devon, I need you, now. Please." I begged him. I had never begged for sex before but I was doing it now. I couldn''t help it though, I needed this.


    "Are you sure, E?" He seemed like he was not wanting to skimp on pleasuring me.


    "Yes, please Devon, I need you. I need you now."


    He didn''t need any more prompting than that. He moved himself up so that he was over me more and his thighs were pressing my legs open even more than they already were. I felt Devon fit himself against my opening then. Goddess, but he was a big man, in more ways than one. I had been in awe when I saw him naked and I was d that I was about to experience this for myself.


    Devon thrust forward then, his shaft piercing through me until he hit his hilt against my body with an audible pping sound. He was ready to create a rhythm that worked for the both of us. He pulled himself back repeatedly and drove into me hard and fast every time.


    This was the urgency, the desire for each other that I needed. He was making it so that I was unable to think about anything but him. He was driving me closer and closer to my climax with pure sex without the need for forey to make it easier. This meant that he was the perfect lover for me. A man who could make me orgasm with little to no forey was a man who knew what he was doing. I loved it and I couldn''t wait to see what he was capable of when I wasn''t in so much of a hurry.


    For right now, though, the two of us were panting and closing in on that moment of ecstasy that would send us into oblivion. I wrapped my legs around Devon''s waist and helped to aid him in getting a deeper thrust that would bring us both that much more pleasure. Soon enough, I was falling apart beneath him. I could feel the waves of my orgasm take over my body and squeeze Devon tight. That was all he needed too, I felt him explode inside of me with a loud growling sound of satisfaction.


    Devon copsed on top of me for a moment, unable to move after what we had just done. That''s fine, I enjoyed the weight and feel of his body. After a few moments though he came to his senses and pulled himself from my body.


    "I''m sorry E." He sounded repentant.


    "For what?" Iughed. "That was amazing."


    "I should have worn a condom, or pulled out. I just got caught up in the moment."


    "I don''t mind." I kissed his cheek. "That''s part of being mated, isn''t it?" I grinned at him. "None of my kind ever really practice safe sex after being mated."


    "That''s going to take some getting used to." Heughed as kissed my forehead. "But I won''t regret what I did if you''re OK with it." He rolled to the side then and wrapped his arms around me. We drifted off to sleep then, with me snuggled against his chest. I have to admit, it was a wonderful way to spend my night.


    And I didn''t dream about the attack at all that night.

 Chapter 320 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- ELLA AND DEVON CHAPTER 5

    <h4>Chapter 320 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- ELLA AND DEVON CHAPTER 5</h4>


    ~~


    E


    ~~


    I honestly can''t believe that I did that. I woke up this morning in Devon''s arms. I was well rested, fully healed, andpletely satisfied. To think that I could find something like this during this dark time.


    Devon was strong, sexy, and very skilled in many ways. He smelled so wonderful. His scent was like apricots and ginger. It was sweet and tart with just a hint of spice, perhaps some cardamom. I think that Devon''s scent perfectly matched his personality. He was sweet, but I saw him acting sour toward Alpha Reece, and not to mention he was bad in all the right ways (that''s what I will consider his spicy side).


    I had hoped to spend all day alone with Devon. I wanted us to get to know everything there was about each other. I knew that he was my mate, my fate, my destiny, I just hope he thought the same way.


    We spent the morning with each other. We made french toast together and ate it while curled up on the couch and talking. Following that we showered together and had a round two of the activities from the night before.


    Just when we were getting ready to head to Devon''s ce, so he could get some more clothes, I got a call from Trinity. That seemed to upset Devon a little but he didn''t show it too much.


    It turns out that a lot had happened the night before and they wanted all of the women that are associated with the Luna toe to the pack house for their safety. I didn''t mind going, but Devon was being a little jealous and protective. He didn''t know it, but he was already acting like a wolf. I thought that was totally sweet.


    Trinity and Alpha Reece wanted me to bring my mom to the house as well. The problem was, she was beside herself with guilt over what happened the night before. She was not in good shape and it was hard for her to leave the house at all right now.


    So, since she didn''t feel up to driving me to the pack house, Devon offered. He said that he wanted the exnation that I had promised woulde from those that were in charge, and he already gathered that I was referring to Trinity and Alpha Reece.


    A little whileter, after stopping by Devon''s for some fresh clothes, we headed to the estate so that we could get me to where I was needed, or wanted however you wanted to look at it.


    I saw that Trinity and Alpha Reece were waiting for us when we got out of the car. I didn''t wait for Devon to open my door for me, something that I was certain made him a little upset as he was a gentleman and wanted to do that for me. He had done it at his ce at least, and when he drove me homest night as well.


    I saw that Trinity was looking at me curiously, pure excitement in her eyes.


    "E?" Trinity called out in a voice that was uneasy but happy at the same time. "I thought your mom was going to bring you."


    "She wasn''t feeling up to it." I hung my head, remembering how upset my mom had sounded when I spoke to her this morning.


    "I was hoping we could have offered her some sce." Trinity was looking sad now, that wasn''t my intention when I told her that. "I will send her something to make her feel better." I didn''t know what she meant by that, but I was happy that she was thinking about my mom''s well being as well.


    "Detective Scott, it''s a pleasure to see you again, but to what do we owe this pleasure?" Alpha Reece spoke next, a hint of authority in his voice but the rest of it was weing and knowing. He must have realized what was happeningst night.


    Before anyone said anything else Devon walked over to me and wrapped his arm around my waist. This move made him match the way the Alpha was standing, holding Trinity.


    "I think that I have a right to be here, do I not?"


    "Huh." I heard Trinity gasp. "E, does this mean what I think it means?"


    "Yes, it does." All I could do was smile. I was happy, even though I knew that it was not the right time for me to be happy I was still ecstatic.


    "This is amazing E." Trinity ran up to me then and wrapped her arms around my neck. It was a move that shocked everyone: me, Devon, and Alpha Reece. "I''m so happy for you."


    "Thank you." I smiled more broadly at the tion that Trinity was feeling for me.


    "And I take it that you are the Detective Scott I spoke to on the phone yesterday?" She asked the man who stood dumbfounded next to the two of us. Devon just nodded.


    "E, how much have you told him?" Alpha Reece asked her, needing to know the extent of what we needed to exin.


    "Not much, I was nervous. But he knows we''re not¡­.. normal." I was hesitant when I answered him.


    "What do you know?" Alpha Reece asked my mate who just raised an eyebrow curiously.


    "I know that as soon as I even heard E''s voice it was like I had found my destiny. I don''t know what is different about her from other people, she just told me that she was not like other girls and that she would like to leave the exnation up to you guys."


    I could see a smirk spread across my Alpha''s face when he heard what Devon had to say.


    "E, it seems that you wanted me to blow your new mate''s mind." He joked. "Come on in and we will exin everything."


    We were weed into the Alpha''s estate then, and led into a sitting room. There were pitchers of water to drink sitting on the table in between a grouping of small sofas and chairs. Devon and I sat on one together while the Alpha and Luna sat across from us. It was time for the truth to finally be revealed to my mate.


    "Devon, you are going to learn a lot of things that you probably won''t believe at first. But I want you to know that I am not lying to you at all." Alpha Reece looked at Devon with a serious look as he spoke.


    "I will try to be open minded." I could tell that Devon meant that too.


    "Good. You will need to keep an open mind if you are to make it through all of this." I saw another smirk on the Alpha''s face then before he started to exin it all. "As you said outside, we are not normal. If you ask us if we''re human, that''s a hard question to answer. We are human most of the time, but other times we''re not."


    "What, are you fish the rest of the time?" Devonughed.


    "No, wolves." That was a bombshell that I don''t think Devon expected to hear from the Alpha.


    "Excuse me?" There was a look of shock on Devon''s face as he asked for rity.


    "When we''re not human we''re wolves. In all sense we''re werewolves. But not the Hollywood version."


    "What are you saying, werewolves? That''s impossible. Full moon, allergic to silver, bite someone and they be like you werewolves."


    "I just said it wasn''t like the Hollywood version of werewolves. We are children of the Moon Goddess. We shift at will not at themand of the full moon. Silver doesn''t affect us. And aside from having an animal counterpart we''re pretty much the same as other people."


    "Sure you are."


    "Well, there are some differences. We''re stronger and faster than humans. We can smell and hear better than them as well."


    "Well, that makes sense, if you''re half dog."


    "Devon, be nice." I scolded him.


    "E, you can''t seriously believe all of this? Don''t tell me that you drank their kool-aid and became a member of this yboy''s cult."


    "Um, this yboy is married." Reece sounded offended. "And I have never been a yboy to begin with."


    "I don''t care what you are or aren''t. What I do know is that you''re not a werewolf. They don''t exist."


    I knew that Devon needed proof, he needed to see this to believe it all. That was when I stood and walked to a more open part of the room. I didn''t need to get Devon''s attention since his eyes had been on me since the moment I had stood up.


    "Devon, I am sorry to do this right in front of you, but I think that you need to see this to believe it."


    I didn''t strip, that would have been embarrassing to do in front of my Alpha and Luna. What I did do, was will my wolf toe out right there in that room. I had been doing it for years now so it was second nature to me.


    One moment I was standing there as the human E, and the next I was changing into the muchrger wolf version of myself. My brown fur, pointed ears,rge paws, all of it. I was my wolf self and the feeling was wonderful, like always.


    "E-E-E?" Devon seemed to be a little scared but he didn''t act like I expected him to. Once he took in the sight of what was standing in front of him he seemed to calm down quite a bit. "So this is real then. This is really real?"


    "It''s real." Alpha Reece answered for me since I didn''t think that Devon would understand my words right now.


    Devon rose to his feet and walked over to me. When he was standing right in front of me I nuzzled my head against his palm, encouraging him to touch me. I saw a happy and content look in his eyes when he saw that my eyes were the same color as they were before the shift. He rubbed my wolf head and felt the softness of the fur.


    "Can I be a wolf too?" He turned to look at Reece then.


    "There are legends that say we can turn humans, but I don''t know how to do it. But if I ever find out, I will let you know."


    There was sadness in Devon''s eyes then but he didn''t say anything, he just turned back to look at me. After that he epted all the exnations that Alpha Reece had to offer him. Once we had told, and showed, Devon everything it was time for us to go up to the room I was going to be staying in so that I could shift back.

 Chapter 321 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- ELLA AND DEVON CHAPTER 6

    <h4>Chapter 321 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- ELLA AND DEVON CHAPTER 6</h4>


    ~~


    Devon


    ~~


    I think I was having a mental breakdown. Or that is what I wanted myself to believe at first. But I think I was finally starting to ept it. I was really getting used to the fact that E really was a werewolf.


    OK, I still didn''t consider it a werewolf personally. That was like a lycanthrope that was half man half wolf. It walked on two feet and had the head of a wolf but it''s body was more human in shape but it was huge and covered in fur with long ws and ripped clothes.


    E wasn''t like that at all though. She didn''t be a lycanthrope, she just shifted into a really big wolf. It was a normal wolf, it was just really, really big.


    OK, so the things I needed to get used to include the following; the fact that magic was real, the fact that people could ''shift'' into animals as E called it, the shifting was not limited to just wolves but also included bears, big cats, deer, elk, birds, and apparently even mermaids and the like were considered shifters.


    There were a few things I didn''t like but I would get used to. Reece Gray was a prominent part of this world of magic. Apparently he was the recently named King of the shifters, making him not just E''s Alpha but also her King. I also needed toe to terms with a whole new meaning for the phrase alpha male.


    Though, after meeting and talking to Reece Gray twice I started to believe that I was wrong about him. He was not the yboy that was a mafia wannabe like I had suspected him of being. He was actually a pretty good guy that genuinely cared about his people. Which was probably why he had his hand in so many ventures. Not to mention, he had inherited a lot of the stuff that he had from his father.


    Dammit, I didn''t want to like that guy at all.


    E was supposed to be staying at Gray''s giant castle looking estate while he and his wife were out of town. There were guards that were stationed around the property but I was still nervous and worried about her. I wanted to be there to protect her. I wanted to be the only man she relied on.


    I was also trying toe to terms with all of that stuff too. She and the others referred to it as a mate bond. It was supposedly the Goddess telling you who you are supposed to be with for the rest of your life. To me that just meant she was my soulmate. She was the one woman I would ever want for the rest of my life. And I could already feel myself falling in love with her. I would do anything to protect E.


    Very early in the morning two dayster there was a lot ofmotion at the estate. I had stayed both nights with E at the estate and I had spent the entire previous day with her as well, on surveince detail since the three men who had gone after E had not been captured yet.


    There was a massive group of people, about a hundred or so, that all arrived at just about the same time. There was a huge caravan of big ck SUVs that everyone was filing out of. I could see E looking at the group apprehensively, trying to figure out what had happened. I think she was hopeful about her brother because there were about two dozen children that were walking around the group looking confused.


    I think that E saw who she was looking for because I saw her eyes light up with excitement. How she could see anything in that mess of people from the distance we were at I would never know. I guess that''s just something for me to put under the werewolf list.


    "E?" A man with dark hair and brown eyes came up to us then.


    "Noah! Is Sammy in there? Did I see him with everyone else?"


    "Yes, E, he''s here and he''s safe. They''ve been through a lot and we need to get them some food. Do me a favor and go get your mom plus the other pack parents that are missing their kids. Detective Scott, I am d you''re here as well, can you get the human families from the city? We want everyone here as soon as we can so that all the kids can be reunited."


    "Wait, Noah, let me see my brother, please?" E was begging him and I was tempted to step in on her behalf, but as a cop I knew why they wanted to wait.


    "E, babe, I think they want all the families here at the same time. That way the children won''t have to wait for their families to arrive and get discouraged."


    "Oh." I saw her face fall then as she contemted that thought. "Alright then, let''s go Devon. I want to see my brother but I will have to wait until the others are here."


    She didn''t protest after that, she just went with me to notify the families as well as my captain about what had happened. It took us about an hour to get everyone where they needed to be but we managed it. When we took everyone into the estate they didn''t ask why their kids were in this castle hidden in the trees, all they wanted to know was if their kids were alright.


    Right as the group of families were about to walk into thergest dining room, more like a dining hall than anything else, there was a woman walking out. The womans was name Juniper, I had met her during my time here at the estate with E. She smiled at everyone and began to speak in a soothing voice.


    "Hello everyone." There was a soft smile on her lips. "My name is Juniper and I want to wee you to Gray Manor. Reece Gray, the master of the house, has worked tirelessly with the police and the FBI to help find your children. When there was word that your children might have been found he wasted not a second and mobilized arge scale envoy to bring them home to you all." She was giving them an exnation of why their children were in this house and they were all buying it. Well, I guess it was true though.


    "Are they OK?"


    "Were they hurt at all?"


    "When can I see my baby?" These and more were shouted by the parents of the children who had been lost for so long.


    "They''re all fine. They were not hurt but they were not treated the best either. They were slightly malnourished, scared, and confused. Most of them seem to be suffering from trauma induced amnesia so do not be shocked when they can''t tell you where they were. I know this will be hard for all of you to understand but the best thing possible is that your family will be together again." It was then that I noticed the sparkling light that was shining off of Juniper. I was looking at her out of the corner of my eye when I saw it for the first time but it seemed to disappear when I looked directly at her. Also, it disappeared when she was done talking.


    Was she putting a spell on the parents? Was she helping them to not question what happened today too much? I mean, it''s not like the police and FBI could tell them all that their kids had been kidnapped by a crazy warlock bent on ruling the world. Or that the primary rescuers were not even human. I guess if Juniper was capable of doing that it was for the best. But holy shit, I was watching real magic happen right in front of me.


    Once Juniper was done weaving her spell for the humans the door to the dining hall was opened. Inside were the eight kids that had gone missing from my city. I was happy to see all these families reunited, but none of them made me happier than watching E and her mom when they saw Sammy.


    "Sammy!" The two of them shouted at the same time.


    "MOMMY! ELLA!" Sammy yelled out. He was ten years old and probably growing out of the stage where he would say mommy, but he was so happy to see his family that he looked like an excited little child.


    I watched as E ran as fast as she could and scooped her brother up into her arms. She nted a kiss right on his cheek and squeezed him tight. Soon Gina, E''s mother, made it to where her children were. Gina grabbed Sammy from E''s arms and held him close to her chest. I could see tears of joy and relief spilling down both of their faces.


    This was one of the most heartwarming and beautiful scenes I had ever seen. Not just with E, Gina, and Sammy but with all the other families that were happily crying and hugging their children. These children had been missed, they had been loved, they had been cared for and worried about. And every single parent here was mourning the loss they had suffered.


    I didn''t care that I wasn''t part of the team that found the kids. I didn''t care if I got the glory or not. What I care about was this moment right here where all the heartache was ending and the healing could begin.

 Chapter 322 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- ELLA AND DEVON CHAPTER 7 (MATURE)

    <h4>Chapter 322 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- ELLA AND DEVON CHAPTER 7 (MATURE)</h4>


    ~~


    E


    ~~


    After my brother came home the Alpha and Trinity left for France. The Beta, Noah, and some other members of their higher ups were responsible for managing things in their absence. I didn''t care though. I had my brother home. My mom was back to normal. And not to mention, I had found my mate. Life was literally perfect for me right now.


    Devon had met my mom the day Sammy came home. She and Sammy had both epted Devon with open arms and were happy for me for finding my mate even during this dark time. I was d that no one had thought I was a horrible person for finding something good while my brother was away.


    Things went back to normal, for the most part. Mom was back at work with her usual re and smile. Work was fun again. Sammy was back in school and got right back to being his old self with no lingering effect from the kidnapping. And I was living with Devon.


    That was the only thing that had changed. I had moved out of my small apartment and moved into Devon''s neat and spacious three bedroom ranch style home. He said he had bought it as a preparation for the future but he didn''t really know why. Now, he was happy that he hadn''t gotten something just for a bachelor. This home was going to be where we lived when we got married, where we started our family, it was going to be the start of our lives together.


    Devon proposed to me two weeks after Sammy came home. It was a little bit of a shock but I couldn''t have been happier. Just thinking about it made me smile.


    It was the beginning of April and I was having a walk around the mountains with Devon. We were holding hands and just enjoying each other''spany. I didn''t think anything else would likely happen.


    Suddenly, we came upon a cabin that was in the woods. It was one that I had seen many times before but never paid much attention to. Apparently, Devon had gone and purchased the cabin himself.


    When Devon walked up right to the door and took out the key I had eximed.


    "What are you doing?"


    "This is our cabin now." He grinned at me. "I know how much you like walking through the woods, and I have always been curious about this ce myself."


    "Really?" I asked him with a smile spreading across my face.


    "Really." He held his hand out for me. "I''m sure you can guess who used to own it." I didn''t miss the way he rolled his eyes when he said that. That clearly told me that Reece had been the previous owner. "I guess that Alpha of yours really is a good guy." He smiled then. I''m d that he was able to approve of Reece now.


    Once we were inside the cabin I saw that it waspletely clean and furnished with all the essentials. There was the main room which was abination living room and kitchen. Aside from the front door there was only one door leading off that space.


    That other door led to a room with arge bed, one dresser, two night stands withmps. There were two other doors in this room, one for a closet and one for the bathroom. That bathroom was way more than I was expecting. It had a very modern and luxurious design with arge tub and a separate shower. It was wonderful.


    After Devon showed me the entire cabin he took me back to the living room and sat me on the couch.


    "Sit here, and I will make us some dinner." He was smiling at? me.


    "If I had known we wereing here for the night I would have prepared." I grinned at him.


    "Don''t worry, I prepared for you." He said as he indicated the bag sitting in the corner of the room. "Now, just wait for me to get everything ready."


    Devon really was a sweet man. He was always doing things for me and liked to dote on me. There were so many times he told me to just wait for him to make the meal or to let him get things ready.


    He truly did act like a wolf, he just didn''t know that. If only there was a way to turn him into one.


    About a half an hourter Devon was calling me into the kitchen to eat dinner. He set downrge tes that were covered with food. He must havee here earlier in the day to prepare all of this, there was no way he could have done it all in just half an hour.


    He had made garlic mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus, steaks, and corn on the cob. There were dinner rolls with sweet cinnamon and honey vored butter. There was a bottle of wine with two sses waiting for us on the table.


    Devon pulled my chair back for me and made sure I was situated before he went to sit down. We ate our meal while talking about random topics. It was more of us getting to know each other. It was the perfect meal, mostly because I was with the perfect person.


    Following the meal we sat on the couch and snuggled with each other in front of the firece while we drank our wine. Devon had then sat me between his thighs while he massaged my shoulders. It felt amazing and put mepletely at ease.


    "E." He said my name so softly at first that I almost didn''t notice it. "E." He said it again, with just a little more volume.


    "Yeah?" I turned my head a little so I could just barely see his face.


    "I love you." I didn''t remember him ever saying that to me before.


    "I love you too." I was so excited now that I turnedpletely around and sat on hisp, straddling him and looking into his eyes.


    There was a look in his eyes I didn''t understand at the moment. It was dark and heated but he also looked hesitant and nervous.


    "E." He said my name again as he slid me off hisp, setting me on the cushion next to his.


    Once I was seated on the couch, Devon slid off the couch and knelt in front of me. He took my hands in his and did his best to not break eye contact with me. I don''t know why but I was getting antsy and excited.


    "E, I have never known anyone as beautiful, sweet, kind, sexy, and perfect as you." I blushed at his words. He was obviouslyying it on a little thick. "I can''t imagine a single moment of my life without you in it. I can''t even remember who I was without you and it''s only been a short amount of time." I think I was tearing up. Was he going to do what I thought he was going to do? "E Taylor, will you do me the honor of bing my wife?" Yes, he did exactly what I thought he was going to do.


    I was so shocked that I nearly forgot to answer him. I was grinning so happily and after a few moments I found my voice and gave him my answer.


    "Yes! Yes Devon I will marry you." That was when I looked down and noticed that he had slid a beautiful diamond ring onto my finger. It''s band was braided white gold with a princess cut diamond at the perfect angle to make it pop. I loved it and I loved the man who had put it on me.


    I leaned forward and pulled Devon into a deep, satisfying kiss. It was like with the tension of the moment over we were both hungry again. Only we were hungry for each other, not food.


    I was blindly trying to undo the buttons on Devon''s shirt while he was lifting my shirt. We broke the passionate kiss only long enough to strip away the barriers that were blocking us from seeing each other.


    Devon pushed me back onto the couch when I was naked before him. His hands were already exploring every inch of my body. His lips were sliding from my mouth down to my chin, down my neck, down my chest with just the slightest of pauses to tease my breasts.


    He didn''t stop his slow trek down my body until his mouth reached my core.


    Devon was kneeling on the floor and I was pushed back into the corner of the couch. This put me at nearly the perfect angle for him to devour me.


    I felt Devon''s tongue lick slowly up that most sensitive of ces. His tongue swirled around and yed with that bundle of nerves that was put there just to drive women crazy. He didn''t hesitate to start a pattern with his tongue that had me moaning and gasping almost immediately.


    Hepped at my core over and over. His skilled and masterful tongue was making me lose my mind as I turned to putty beneath him. I could only hear my own breath sawing in and out of my lungs as I moaned and screamed his name.


    I don''t know how long he was slowly driving me crazy but I eventually came on a loud scream with his name on my lips. There was a growl of satisfaction that came from my mate when he heard his name at my moment of pure bliss.


    I was just about to think about how much more like a wolf that made him sound but I didn''t get the chance. Devon chose that moment to fit himself to my entrance and enter me fast and hard.


    I felt him slide all the way to his hilt with a satisfied pur, I just screamed in pleasure again.


    I don''t know why I was feeling everything so much more intensely this time but I wasn''t going toin. This night was truly the best of my life.


    Devon pounded in and out of me. Over and over I heard our flesh smacking against each other as Devon rode that wave of need to its fullest. He was grunting and moaning while I just continued to moan and scream. It was a beautiful song we were creating in a way.


    Soon I was not able to think anymore at all. I felt the intense pleasure building again, the spasming waves in my body''s core. I felt myself squeeze Devon so tight that it made it hard for him to even move, but with another thrust or two he came as well, growling like a wolf, my name on his lips just like his had been on mine.


    We panted, still connected, until our hearts settled their rapid rate. Once Devon was able to move again he pulled himself from my body and scooped me up into his arms. Once he had carried me to the bed he proceeded to take me for round two which was followed by rounds three and four as well. I don''t really remember how many rounds we went, I just know it ended when I lost consciousness.

 Chapter 323 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- ELLA AND DEVON CHAPTER 8

    <h4>Chapter 323 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- ELLA AND DEVON CHAPTER 8</h4>


    ~~


    E


    ~~


    About two weeks or so after Devon proposed to me I found out I was pregnant. Since he wasn''t a wolf he was unable to detect the change in me. I was so happy, but Devon thought that I would be upset about it. We were getting married anyway so why would I be upset.


    Since we were engaged and going to have a baby we needed to have me meet Devon''s mom. I was happy that things were going great between us, but we also needed to tell his mom that I wasn''t human.


    At first Devon questioned why we needed to tell her but when I pointed out that our baby would be born full term after only six months and that eventually our child would most likely turn into a wolf she needed to know.


    Devon''s dad wasn''t around since he had run away with a mistress when Devon was a little boy. I learned that Devon had been raised by a single mom with a heart of gold. His mom, April, was a wonderful woman who had weed me with open arms when I went to meet her at lunch one day. She had weed me almost as readily as my mom weed Devon.


    Devon''s mom lived in a cute little house with a white picket fence in the quietest subdivision in all of Colorado Springs. It looked like the perfect little home and I could tell immediately how much April loved Devon.


    After his mom had hugged him and kissed his cheek Devon turned to look at me with his hand held out toward me.


    "Momma, this is E, my fiance." I saw the smile that spread on April''s beautiful face. Her warm brown eyes and light brown hair that made her look so much like her son were not the only simrities, because that smile seemed to be a family trait. I wonder if my baby would have that sweet smile as well.


    "It''s so great to meet you E." She pulled me into her arms and hugged me tightly. "You have no idea how happy I am to hear that my son is finally settling down."


    There was a little small talk by the door but we eventually went into the dining room where April had prepared a lovely lunch with some sauteed chicken with zhini and summer squash with a delicious butter sauce. It was allid over a bed of white rice and it was so good. I ate every bite that was on my te.


    "I see the appetite has started already." April giggled as she looked at me. "So, when is my grandchild due?"


    "Huh?" Devon and I were both shocked to hear the words that she had said.


    "I''m not as oblivious as I look." Sheughed again. "I could see that pregnancy glow on E the moment I saw her." I was nervous for a second because I knew she was going to ask a lot of questions.


    "W-well, we''re due at the beginning of October."


    "Hmm, isn''t that a tad bit early?" She raised an eyebrow at me.


    "N-no." I tried to y it off.


    "But you just met my sonst month." She didn''t look upset or anything, just curious.


    "W-well-." I was trying toe up with an answer.


    "If you''re going to imply that the baby isn''t mine then you''re wrong." Devon was defending my honor to his mother, I liked that but I didn''t want them to fight.


    "I wasn''t implying anything of the sort." She smiled broadly. "I''m just going to take a guess here, but is E one of the not quite normal people that live around here?"


    My heart stopped beating. I couldn''t believe what I heard. Did she know about wolves and the other supernaturals?


    "Mom? Why would you ask that?" Devon looked scared. "What do you know?"


    "So I''m right?" She grinned. "I don''t know what all types of people live around here, but I have seen the man that runs the deli look a little too blue from time to time, and I am not referring to him being sad. I don''t think most people notice, or maybe they just ignored it. But I asked him about it one day, curious."


    "That''s dangerous Mom, why would you do that?"


    "Oh Marin is the nicest man you could ever meet. Obviously he didn''t tell me what he really was, but he did tell me that there were a lot of people around here that were not quite normal. He said to just ignore it unless someone was telling me what they were."


    "Oh my Goddess." I eximed, mping a hand over my mouth.


    "Oooh, I like that, so you worship a goddess then?" April looked very excited.


    From there, I told my future mother inw everything. She loved hearing what I was, and what her grandchild was likely to be. It was a strange day for sure, but it had also been a wonderful day as well.


    I went with Devon the next month to get an ultrasound of the baby, or should I say of our identical twin girls.


    It was going to be fun though tough and hectic as well, but I didn''t care. I was starting a family with the man I loved.


    We were married a month after we were engaged which was also a month before the Alpha and Trinity came back to fight that evil Warlock that had kidnapped my brother. Once Trinity killed him everyone in the area was able to rest easy.


    It became known at the beginning of July that Reece had been granted a new ability from the Moon Goddess. I hadn''t heard much about it because I was busy making dresses for some of the guards'' uing weddings, their mates were going to look amazing.


    ~~


    Devon


    ~~


    At the beginning of July, just after Reece Gray''s birthday, there was talk among the pack that he had gained a new ability. I don''t know when I started thinking of him as my Alpha or referred to that group of people as my pack, maybe it was when I married E or maybe it was sooner than that, but it was what it was now.


    I waited a few days to see what all the rumors had to say about this new power of his before I went to see him. I went to see him on the ninth to ask him what it was I wanted. He was in his office, alone, when I knocked on the door and he told me toe in.


    "What can I do for you Devon?" He really was a nicer guy than I had originally thought, so I hoped he would help me out here.


    "I heard a rumor that you and the Luna were given new marks recently. The rumors say that the Goddess told you what those marks were for."


    "It would seem that the rumor mill has been working overtime." He grinned. "Do you know what that new ability of mine is?"


    "People are saying you can now turn people into werewolves." I gave him a pleading look.


    "That''s what we were told. But I am going to warn you, I definitely haven''t done it yet so I don''t know how it will go."


    "I don''t care. I want to be a wolf like my wife. Please." I was begging him. This was not like me but I was so passionate about it. "You promised me that you would change me if you ever found out how."


    Reece wasughing now. Why the hell was heughing?


    "You''re right, I did promise that, didn''t I?" He gave me a knowing look. "I guess I can''t go back on my word then can I?"


    "No, you can''t." I was being a little forceful but I didn''t care, I wanted this, I needed it. E would outlive me if I didn''t do something. I wanted to be with her forever. And I needed to be strong enough for her.


    "Alright,e with me to the basement."


    "Basement?" I was confused but I followed him anyway.


    When we were in the basement I saw that there were two rows of cells, where prisoners would be kept.


    "I am going to ignore these and pretend you don''t hold people against their will down here."


    "Myst guests in here were trying to kill children and my mate. They were cold blooded killers."


    "Then I don''t have an issue with that." When did my morals start to change to fit wolfw? Oh well.


    "Alright Devon, take your clothes off and enter that cell there."


    "Excuse me?" I was so shocked by Reece''s words that I thought I had misheard him.


    "We don''t know if you will shift immediately after the change is over. You will rip your clothes, which hurts the first time you shift. Plus, if your new wolf is a little frightened then we don''t want him running amok and hurting people."


    His words made sense, and I wanted to be a wolf, so I just did as he told me to. Once I was naked and in the prison cell Reece came in after me.


    "Now, I have to get a little closer to you than either of us would likely befortable with. I don''t want to look into your face when I do this so I will stand behind you while you sit down." This was sounding so crazy right now. If I didn''t know that the man was madly in love with his wife I would question his motives right now. Still, I sat on the cot in the cell while Reece walked behind me.


    "When this works, you can mark E with a mate mark, here, on the left side of her neck. I, however, am going to bite you on the right side. It will be like a vampire biting someone but with a wolf mouth instead."


    I was trying to take in everything that he was saying but I noticed that he was also taking his clothes off.


    "What the fuck are you doing?" I screamed at him in a panic.


    "Calm down dumbass. I am shifting into one of my other forms to bite you."


    "One?" I know my eyebrows had shot up at his words.


    "Yes, it now seems like I have a lycan form. I can look just like a Hollywood werewolf." Heughed then and I remembered when he told me about the wolves for the first time. This was so weird.


    I didn''t usually look at naked men, and I was definitely not looking at that. But I watched as Reece, the Alpha King of shifter changed, not into a big four legged wolf but into a massive lycanthrope. It was actually cool though still scary as hell. What weirded me out the most was when he spoke.


    "Turn around." It sounded like he was having trouble enunciating the words since he had said them slowly.


    I did as he told me to and tried to ignore the fact that a naked man behind me turned into a real werewolf and was about to bite me. I closed my eyes and waited for the process to start.


    Without warning Reecetched onto my neck. It wasn''t hard but it still hurt and I instantly felt a massive amount of cold enter my body. Was this the power of the magic that was needed to change me?


    I don''t know, and probably never would, since the flow of that cold knocked me unconscious in less than two minutes.


    When I woke up two dayster I was standing on four legs and covered in fur. It had worked, I was a wolf. However, E was a little peeved that I didn''t tell her I was leaving for a few days. I had to apologize profusely but she forgave me, especially considering what I had done for us.


    About two months after I was changed into a werewolf, that was no different from E, our babies were born. Sophia and Isabe were born just after one in the afternoon on September neenth. We were a happy little family and I couldn''t be more proud.

 Chapter 324 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- BONUS STORY 1 GRIFFIN & LANA CHAPTER 1

    <h4>Chapter 324 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- BONUS STORY 1 GRIFFIN & LANA CHAPTER 1</h4>


    ~~


    Griffin


    ~~


    I couldn''t believe my ears when I was told what was happening. The Alpha and Luna, Reece and Trinity, were on their way back from France. They were rushing to get home so they could strategize. There was going to be a battle. A possible conclusion to this war we have been waging over thest year.


    The evil Warlock known as Edmond was advancing on the city and there would be casualties. I knew that there would be a lot of people injured. I knew that my services would be needed. But that didn''t mean that I wasn''t worried.


    I didn''t want to see any senseless loss of life. I didn''t want to see those hideous monsters that had attacked us when we went to the Warlock headquarters. I didn''t want any of this.


    I wouldn''t run away though. I wouldn''t shirk my responsibilities. I am a man and a wolf. I would follow through with my duties with honor, dignity, and pride. That''s what it means to be a man and a wolf.


    I wasn''t wanted on the front lines. I wasn''t going to be there to see the battle. No, I was to be kept close to the edge of the city. I was meant to be on call for when the battle was over. I had to wait until I was needed.


    There was someone else that was supposed to wait with me. Someone I hadn''t met yet. She hade back with Trinity and Reece from France and had been granted an ability that was like my own. We were both healers, we wanted to help people. We were the same.


    I was sitting in a coffee shop at the edge of town, waiting for the other healer to arrive. I didn''t know what she looked like or even what her name was, but I would smell a wolf when they came in and I could just wait for her toe to me.


    I had been waiting for about twenty minutes when I scented something that made my mouth water and my whole body want to react. A beautiful woman had just walked into the coffee shop. She had a lightly tannedplexion that looked natural, not like she had been in the sun to aplish it. Her hair was chestnut brown and so long and wavy that I wanted to run my fingers through it. Her eyes, which I could see perfectly from where I was sitting, were such a bright crystal green that they looked partially transparent. She was stunning. The perfect figure, the most beautiful face, she was pure perfection and I was instantly in love.


    I saw her looking around like she was trying to find someone specific. Was she trying to find me? She was a wolf after all. Was she the healer I was waiting for? I sincerely hoped so, because that scent of jasmine and tea told me that she was my mate.


    I stood up, just staring at her and saw that she was looking at me with an equally shocked and happy expression that matched the one I knew was currently on my face. I watched with barely suppressed joy as she walked over to me with a smile on her face.


    "A-are you Griffin?" She sounded nervous for a moment. Scared even, that she might have the wrong person.


    "Yes, that''s me." I sighed as I answered her, happy to have here to me.


    "My name is Lana." She looked relieved. "Queen Trinity sent me here to meet you."


    "It''s wonderful to meet you Lana." I was smiling happier than I had expected I would when meeting this woman.


    I had given up on ever finding a mate. I was forty-four years old and had dedicated my entire life to helping others. I never thought I would ever meet the woman of my dreams and fate when such a trying time was upon us. I didn''t know if I should trust what was happening or if I should think that I was dreaming. Just for good measure I pinched myself, hard.


    "Ouch!" I yelped when I felt the pain hit me.


    "Why did you do that?" Lana asked me as she sat at the table I had been sitting at.


    "I wanted to make sure I wasn''t dreaming. I wanted to make sure I was fully awake because you''re like a dreame true."


    "Are all the men here such charmers, or is that just you?" She looked nervous again, like she was worried about my reaction to her words.


    "I don''t know about the others, but I for one am happily falling for you already Lana." Sheughed then and the sound was so sweet.


    I hoped now that the battle wouldn''t happen. All I wanted was to sit here and talk to Lana all day.


    We talked all day. I learned that Lana had joined the Sentinelle when she was twenty-six years old but she still looked like she was no older than twenty. I felt like a pervert just thinking about her in a sexual way. I know that I didn''t quite look forty yet but I know how old I was.


    Still, I may look close to twenty years older than Lana but she was older than me. She was twenty-six when she joined the Sentinelle but that was in the year neen hundred and two. One hundred and neen years ago. That meant that Lana was now one hundred and forty-five years old. She was more than a hundred years older than me and still looked so much younger than me.


    Did that make me a cradle robber or a grave robber? Or was Lana a cougar? I really didn''t know how tobel this age difference between us. Still, I was happy to have finally found her.


    I also learned that Lana had joined the Sentinelle mostly because she hadn''t found a mate yet and no one was interested in marrying someone with magic eyes. That was what the people of her vige called the color of her extremely beautiful eyes.


    Lana had learned of the Sentinelle and their loyalty to the future queen. She figured that if anyone would ever ept her differences it would be the future queen. She had served the Sentinelle with that hope in mind for so long. And apparently, she was not disappointed.


    When Lana met Trinity she had been epted immediately. Trinity didn''t see anything different about Lana and the two of them got along well from the beginning. So well, in fact, that Trinity had gifted Lana with a healing ability just like mine.


    I was happy to hear what Lana wanted to do, and what she was capable of doing. I would see to it that she was trained properly and proper documents were procured to allow her to be the lead nurse in my clinic. Lana looked like a quick study and I would love to work with her every day.


    Lana said she no longer had any family since they would have perished long ago. Their descendants were not her family, ording to her. She gave up that life and everything that was part of it.


    I told Lana that my family came from a different pack. That I was brought here as a little boy to be raised by my extended family that had already fled the former pack. My sister had followed me shortly after. We had lived together until we came of age but I changed myst name and went to medical school. I wanted to live my life the way that I wanted.


    My sister, Vivian, kept the family name of Westbrook. I know she had a baby that I never got to meet before she left town since I was in medical school at the time. I tried looking for her several times over the years but I never found anything.


    The rest of my family back home basically meant nothing to me. Here in Colorado I had my uncle and his wife who raised me. They were my family but they passed away a few years ago. So, in a sense, both Lana and I were alone in this world, and that is why it was so much better that we finally found each other.


    We talked endlessly. Buying more coffee, ordering sweets and even getting lunch. It was all so wonderful that it made me forget that we were going to have work to do. But life wouldn''t forget since we were eventually called in by Trinity. We needed to hurry.


    We made it to the battlefield as quickly as we could and we instantly saw the carnage and the senseless loss of life. I was called immediately to the side of a man named Shawn. I had met him before, he was one of the personal bodyguards for Trinity, the Luna.


    Shawn was dying. He was poisoned. And there wasn''t much I could do. I poured every ounce of skill and magic that I possessed into trying to heal the man but the toxins were moving through his bloodstream too fast.


    I was forced to step aside as Shawn''s mate, a vampire, turned him into something that none of us had ever seen before. Shawn was going to be half vampire and half werewolf.


    While I did what I could to help Shawn, Lana had gone with Reece to help the others. Once it was certain that Shawn was going to live and I wasn''t needed for him I too went to help the others. I healed the injured and helped to count the dead. It was not an easy day.


    In the end there had been three dozen lost to the battle. I guess it could have been worse but it still pained me to see. A man who protected and valued life as much as I did would never be OK with the amount of violence that was in the world.


    I wanted to spend more time with Lana when the day was over but I was too exhausted mentally and physically. I told her goodbye and promised to see her soon when she came for training at the clinic.

 Chapter 325 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- BONUS STORY 1 GRIFFIN & LANA CHAPTER 2 (MATURE)

    <h4>Chapter 325 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- BONUS STORY 1 GRIFFIN & LANA CHAPTER 2 (MATURE)</h4>


    ~~


    Griffin


    ~~


    Something that I noticed about my abilities right away was that I didn''t need to actively use my magic to help my patients. Just being near me was enough for them to start getting better.


    I mainly treated humans in my clinic since wolves don''t get sick that much. One of the only things that can truly affect a wolf is cancer and it''s still very rare. The thing about the cancer though was that it was worse in a wolf than in a human. A wolf''s fast metabolism and elerated healing made the cancer cells grow at an astronomical rate.


    Cancer in a nutshell is when your cells have be corrupted. The corrupted cells think they''re healthy and are attacking the body to get rid of what they think are the bad cells. Now imagine someone who creates new cells ten times faster than a human being. That person will almost always die when they get cancer.


    Now, since Trinity gave me my powers I was able to cure these patients with and without magic. Just theming to see me meant that their cells were returning to normal. I noticed it in my human patients as well. This made things that much better for every patient I would ever have again. And I also noticed the same thing happening with Lana. It was going to be a great time of healing for all of our patients.


    We were working hard in the clinic together since the day after the battle. Getting back to a semnce of normality was what was best for us, or at least me. I didn''t know how normal Lana thought it all was since she had lived in a seaside abbey in France for over a hundred years. Still, she seemed to be adjusting well.


    It had been nearly two weeks since the battle and Lana had been working with me every day since. I could feel my bond with her, my attraction to her growing every second of every minute of every day since.


    The problem was, I didn''t know what to say to her. I had gone so long thinking I would be alone forever that I didn''t know how to be with someone. Lana, likewise, didn''t say anything. Did she not feel what I felt? Did she not want to be my mate? I had thought things were going so well that first day too.


    There was a tension so thick between us that it was impossible the others in the office didn''t notice.


    I was currently sitting at my desk and watching Lana work through the opened door. Julie, one of my nurses, came in to ask me something but I didn''t hear her at all.


    "Dr. Griff?" She called me over and over beforeing to grab my shoulder and pull me out of my daze. "DR GRIFF!" she practically yelled at me.


    "Huh? Oh, hi Julie, what can I do for you?" She just red at me.


    "I was going to ask you if you wanted me to lock up since all the patients are gone and it''s just the three of us here." She was ring but there wasughter in her voice. "Now I want to ask you to take care of this before Ie back into work tomorrow."


    "Take care of what?" I was confused.


    "This thing that has been going on between you and the new girl."


    "I don''t-." I was going to deny it all but Julie interrupted me.


    "Don''t give me that horse shit, Griffin. I know what is going on here even if you''re too stupid to realize it."


    "I realize it, it''s just-." I stopped again.


    "What? You''re not brave enough to talk to her about it?"


    "That''s not it." I was getting frustrated now. "It''s just, I don''t know how she feels."


    "That''s cause you''re too busy drooling to actually look at her. She''s pining over you just as much if not more. Stop wasting the girl''s time."


    With that Julie left my office and then left the building. I heard her lock the front door behind her as she left. It was now just me and Lana, all alone. I could still see Lana where she was working on charts out in the hall. She stood after she too heard the lock click shut.


    "What''s going on?" She asked me with a worried expression. "Howe Julie locked the door?"


    "She, uh, wanted to give us time to work on things."


    "Huh? But I''m almost done with my charts, there isn''t much left for us to work on."


    "That''s not what I was talking about." I looked down nervously.


    I heard Lana walk up to me then, her footsteps soft and gentle just like she was.


    "Griffin, is something wrong?" She seemed worried.


    "Lana, what do you think of me?" I had looked up just in time to see the shocked expression on her face.


    "Oh?" She blushed at me then, a cute smile on her lips. "Well, I don''t know how to exin it. It''s like back on the day that we first met. I felt connected and drawn to you. I thought you felt the same but now I am not so certain."


    "I do!" I jumped to my feet and eximed the words excitedly. "I do feel the same. I just didn''t know how to say it. Goddess, Lana, I am already head over heels in love with you. You''re all I can think about. I love your beautiful voice and your pretty face. I love how smart and sweet and kind you are. I love your sexy body and I can''t stop fantasizing-." I cut myself off then by mping a hand over my mouth. Why was I about to say that? What the hell was the matter with me.


    I saw a smirk on her face. She knew what I was going to say. She knew what was going through my mind. And it was like some sort of switch had been flipped. My sweet Lana was gone and a sexy, sensual, and provocative Lana had taken her ce. I instantly felt the fit of my cks tighten when I saw the change in her.


    "Fantasizing huh?" She asked me as she walked toward me slowly. "And what exactly have you been imagining when you fantasize about me? Have you imagined doing anything to me at work? At home? Somece else?" Oh she was good, she already had me aroused to the point of pain and she hadn''t stripped or touched me.


    "E-everywhere." I struggled to get the words past my tongue since it itched to lick somewhere on her.


    "Is that so?" She had reached the spot where I was now.


    With a gentle push Lana forced me back into my chair. It wasn''t so much as her forcing me so much as I just didn''t fight her.


    "I should tell you then, that I have been fantasizing about you as well." Her voice was husky and thick with desire. "There have been many things I have imagined you doing to me and me doing to you since we started working together. Especially things that could happen right here in this room.


    "R-really?" I was still in a state of shocked disbelief.


    "Yes, really."


    With no warning, Lana seemed to pounce on me. She was sitting on myp and pressing her lips to mine with a heated passion that was so thick and strong that I didn''t know if I would survive the burn. Even still, I would happily perish in the mes if they brought with them a fraction of the pleasure just this kiss held within its depths.


    Our hands tangled slightly as we both fought to remove each other''s clothes. Lana had lost patience and just ripped my shirt open, buttons flew everywhere. I followed her lead and ripped the shirt from her body as well. Before I knew it every piece of clothing we were wearing had been ripped and thrown aside in our hurry to get to each other.


    With me still sitting on my chair Lana wrapped her arms around my neck and lifted herself off of me. She positioned her dripping core over me and slowly slid down my shaft. The feeling of her enveloping me was pure heaven. It was the best thing ever.


    Or so I thought. But the moment she started to lift herself again and fall back down to myp I knew that the pleasure was just getting started.


    I dug my fingers into her hips and lifted her this time. With just my tip left inside of her I mmed her back down while also thrusting my hips up to meet her. Lana screamed in passion and pleasure then, a sound that was music to my ears.


    I kept a rhythm going like that for as long as I could, but it just wasn''t enough. As mind blowingly amazing as it was, I needed more. I needed to feel her pressed beneath me. I needed to feel her legs wrapped around my waist. I needed to m into her body with a ferocious passion.


    I stood with Lana held against me. I swept a hand across my desk quickly, clearing it of any and all obstacles. With the surface now clear Iid Lana on it and she immediately wrapped her legs tightly around me.


    With my hands braced against the desk beside her head I began to m into her body over and over. Her screaming moans of pleasure only intensified with the new position. This new position also offered me the ability to slide deeper into her heated depths. It was perfect and I wouldn''t trade this for anything, not even my life.


    I could feel the two of us slowly reaching our peak. I was on the edge of climax when I felt Lana''s inner walls begin to tighten around me, milking me with every stroke.


    I forced a few more thrusts into her glorious body and heard her scream my name just as I exploded inside of her.


    Panting, I just barely held myself off of her while I finished emptying myself. After a few moments I pulled my shaft from her throbbing core and lifted her to hold against me while I sat back into my chair.


    It was an amazing night that I was not ready to see the end of. That was why we each put on a set of scrubs and went back to my ce, after cleaning my office of course.


    We went again after dinner, this time in my bed that soon became Lana''s bed as well.


    Lana moved in with me immediately. We already loved each other. We were mated. What more was there to wait for.


    A weekter I proposed to her before we went on a work trip together to California. There was a lot of excitement that happened there but I was still looking forward to getting home and getting married.


    We were very busy with everyone else''s pregnancies, being the only ones that could check up on them, so we kind of put our own stuff on hold a little bit. But we got married in October and were pregnant right away. Our twins were due at the beginning of April but they ended uping early. Vivian in honor of my sister and Dominic which was the name of Lana''s only childhood friend. They were born on March the fifteenth and we couldn''t have been more proud.

 Chapter 326 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- BONUS STORY 2 JACKSON & MELITA CHAPTER 1 (MATURE)

    <h4>Chapter 326 - SIDE STORIES BOOK 1- BONUS STORY 2 JACKSON & MELITA CHAPTER 1 (MATURE)</h4>


    ~~


    Jackson


    ~~


    I couldn''t believe the way this past year had gone. Coming to Colorado Springs for a job only for me to find out that my bestfriend, pseudo sister, and partner Rawlynne, was a werewolf. I hadn''t liked the guy she met and mated with. And learning that people in her world were supposed to find a soul mate didn''t sit well with me.


    Maybe I was just being a little over protective. Still, I loved Rawlynne and I would treat the guy with respect because I know he loved her too.


    What I wasn''t happy with was Rawlynne getting pregnant and marrying the asshole so soon. How could she throw her life away like that? How could she jeopardize her career like that? I guess I would just never know.


    Then there was the fact that Rawlynne was only going to be pregnant for six months. How the hell could a baby grow to full term that quickly? That''s just fucking insane.


    Now it was just before Christmas, the day before Rawlynne officially started her maternity leave and just days away from when I was going to be an uncle. Where the hell had all the time gone?


    Still, I was at least a little happy. I was going to have an adorable little niece very soon. I just knew that any baby of Rawlynne''s would be the cutest baby ever. And of course it would be the only baby that I got to be around. I know that I am not going to find anyone any time soon and I was never going to have kids because of it.


    Or that''s what I thought anyway.


    I was sitting at my desk even though it was gettingte. We had already sent everyone home for the night and it was just me and Raw. She was finishing up work in her office and I was waiting for the newbie to show up.


    I couldn''t fault her for beingte though. She was driving here in the middle of December. There was snow everywhere and that didn''t help at all with her getting here.


    I was filling out a report when I heard a knock on my office door. I looked up just in time to see a woman walking in.


    She had light blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Herplexion was creamy and smooth and made me think that it would taste amazing. Her body was drool worthy, perfect perky breasts, a narrow waist, obviously strong arms and powerful legs.


    I knew she was a shifter because that was what Raw had asked for. We needed someone capable of handling things from a supernatural side as well as someone who would take orders from me. I was actually supposed to be in charge while Raw was gone.


    There was a pleased and seductive look on her face that was already making me feel the hardening of my manhood.


    "Hi there." She grinned at me. "My name is Melita, and I do hope that you''re Jackson." That voice of hers was like silk and went to my head like a strong liquor.


    "That I am." I grinned right back at her, hearing a very wolf-like sounding from my mouth as well. "And I am very happy to meet you."


    Was this instant pull that I was feeling toward her the mate bond that Rawlynne had tried to exin to me? I knew that humans could mate with a shifter like any others with a? mate bond. I hoped that''s what this was. I hoped that I was going to mate with her and be with her and live a life like Rawlynne.


    Then there was the fact that I could probably get Reece to change me into a wolf now. Life might possibly be the best ever.


    I was out of my chair to met her as she came toward me. That was all there was about it. We were pawing at each other frantically as I pushed her up against the wall next to my desk. Before I knew it I had unbuttoned her shirt and I felt that she was already pushing mine down my shoulders.


    Melita''s leg was up on my hip and we were about to get down to business when the door to my office opened again. I knew that Rawlynne had just walked in.


    "Jackson?" She sounded like she was annoyed and was? waiting for something.


    I instantly pulled away from Melita and started putting my clothes back where they should have been.


    "Well, I see I''ve interrupted things here." Rawlynneughed. "Do you mind exining to me what is going on around here, little brother?"


    Melita looked scared and nervous, we should not have done what we were just doing.


    "Ah, um, Rawlynne, this is, um, this is Melita Johnson, the new transfer." I stuttered and tried to tell her what was going on.


    "I did not know that you gave such a personal introduction to all the new transfers." She joked with me in a very sisterly way. "It''s nice to meet you Melita, and I am sorry for the awkward intro here but I am your boss."


    "I-I''m so sorry Miss Otsana." Melita stuttered momentarily as well as she looked sheepishly at Rawlynne.


    "If you''re going to call me anything other than Deputy Director then I prefer you call me either Rawlynne or Mrs. Martin since I am recently married." Rawlynne was smiling at the woman next to me.


    "Oh, I am sorry Deputy Director, I didn''t know. I just knew you from your reputation."


    "No need to worry, Melita. May I assume this was more than a mutual attraction that you felt for each other."


    "Um, w-well." Melita looked at me like she didn''t know what to say about what was happening.


    "He knows about us, Melita, feel free to talk freely." Rawlynne''s voice was soothing and encouraging.


    "Oh, that helps a lot." She looked relieved. "I didn''t know that humans could be affected by a mate bond like this. I walked in and my bear just started screaming that he was my mate, and the next thing I knew we were, well, you know." Rawlynneughed at her exnation.


    "Allow me to be the first to offer you my congrattions. Jackson, can I trust you to keep your tongue out of her mouth long enough to exin things to her? I do want to get home to my husband."


    "Just shut up and go home already." I growled at her after that, she didn''t need to say that at all.


    Rawlynne left after that and I needed to figure out what to do from here.


    "Should we take this somewhere else?" I smiled at Melita with a heated look.


    "How far is your ce?"


    "I love the way you think." I took her hand and led her to my car. I didn''t want to dy this at all.


    We were out of the office, in the car, and to my house in no time at all. I dragged her from the car and pulled her into the house. I couldn''t wait much longer. I needed to have her right then and there.


    I ripped her clothes off of her and pushed her down on the couch. My clothes were gone just as quick and I was pouncing on her. She didn''t seem to mind since she growled happily and while holding me against her.


    I was kissing the side of her neck leaving a trail of hickies down to her breasts. I was losing control and acting like an animal. Before I knew it I was already fitting myself against her opening. I knew that I had already prepared her and gotten her ready but my memory of it wasn''t there.


    I rammed into her body then, listening to the scream of pleasure she let loose when she felt my invasion. This was amazing. I set about making a fast and hard rhythm that had us both panting, moaning, or screaming.


    Before long we were both on the edge of bliss. I felt here apart and dig her nails into my back. That added pain intensified the pleasure and I growled with satisfaction as I came inside of her.


    This was the perfect night. We had gone back to the bedroom after that and shared the bed in more than one way. Melita never stayed anywhere else, she just moved straight into my house, which became our house. This was what I truly wanted to have for the rest of time.


    We found out about two weekster that Melita was already pregnant. Good thing Rawlynne would be back long before Melita needed to take off of work. We were married on January the twenty second and our baby girl was born on June the seventeenth. Oh, and I was turned into a wolf by Reece a week after my wedding. I was now going to live a life just as special as my wife''s.


    ~*~*~*~*~* THIS IS THE END OF THE SIDE STORIES!!!!! I HOPE YOUR READY FOR THE NEXT VOLUME OF TRINITY AND REECE!!!!! *~*~*~*~*~

 Chapter 327 - Trinity - Honeymoon Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 327 - Trinity - Honeymoon Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    **HELLO MY WONDERFUL AND AMAZING READERS!! IT''S OFFICALLY TIME FOR VOLUME 3!! I WILL DO MY BEST TO GET A MASS RELEASE READY FOR YOU SOON SO PLEASE BEAR WITH ME FOR A FEW DAYS AND UNTIL THEN ENJOY GETTING BACK TO THE MAIN STORY WITH TRINITY AND REECE!!**


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After Reece''s birthday, things had gotten busy. There was a trip that we had to take to another pack in the northern part of California. That was where I learned that Griffin, the doctor, had a niece that he knew about but thought he would never see.


    Our time in California was interesting, to be sure. We had a lot of work to do and there were a lot of people that were waiting for us, for our help. Also, I still have regrets about some of the things that had happened and some of the things that didn''t happen while we were there.


    Oh, another surprise had been lying in wait for us when we got there. Leelin, one of the witches we had rescued from that house of horrors in Kanorado had found her mate as well. Their doctor, Jayr, had seemed so happy to have his mate. Plus he didn''t have a problem with the fact that she wasing with an adopted daughter named Hannah. Hannah was one of the orphaned shifter children we had rescued when we rescued Leelin. Hannah was a mermaid and had attached herself to Leelin because they both had unusually colored hair and eyes. I was d that they were going to be one big happy family now.


    Another major development was that Reece managed to turn a human friend of ours, E''s mate, into a werewolf. It was a unique process but it had definitely worked. Devon Scott, the detective and newly formed werewolf was able to shift into a giant blond wolf with soft brown eyes. I was so happy for him.


    There were also a slew of engagements and some weddings that had happened recently. All of the newly mated pairs were either married or soon to be married. Actually, yesterday was the wedding for another of my guards. It had been so sweet of Shawn and Dietrich to ask me and Reece to be a part of their wedding. Of course I wasn''t going to say no.


    But there was one thing that was annoying me somewhat. Shawn and Dietrich were on their way to their honeymoon now but I still hadn''t gotten a honeymoon yet.


    Don''t get me wrong, I left town, and I even went to France after my wedding, but that wasn''t my honeymoon.


    I know I was being a little petty here, but I wanted a honeymoon too. Was that so wrong of me? I thought it would be best for us to go on one now anyway, since in just over four months we would have twins and those kinds of thoughts would be far from our minds.


    The honeymoon was the very reason that I was on my way to the office right now. I was going to go talk to Reece about my demands. I mean, about my desire. Hey, chances are he would want to go on a trip with me anyway. Ever since things between me and Reece had gotten better he had been willing to be with me at the drop of a hat. If I promised him sex if he took me on this trip then he would have it all nned out before I even went to bed tonight.


    I didn''t knock on the door to the office. It was my office as well as his so there was no reason for me to ask permission to enter. When I went into the room I saw that Reece was pouring over a stack of papers on his desk. The light from the setting sun was causing a bright orange backlight that was making Reece look like some sort of Gode down to earth to grace us with his beautiful presence.


    Not for the first time I was struck by Reece''s looks. Ever since the first time I had seen him with his jet ck hair, his golden eyes, and his tall, muscr, sexy, drool worthy body I knew that I would never be able to deny him forever. I wanted him then and I only wanted him more now.


    Instead of walking over to my desk that sat next to Reece''s I walked over to Reece and waited for an opening. I knew that he would pause and turn to look at me any moment, as soon as he reached a good stopping point. I saw that he had slid the document he was working on to the side, now was my chance.


    I quickly moved forward before he could even look at me. I positioned myself on hisp and circled my arms around his neck. I was intimately close to him and I felt his body stiffen in more than one way. He was happy and excited to see me.


    "What''s going on?" He asked me with a smirk on his face. It was clear he didn''t really care what my answer was, all he cared about was that I was sitting on him and he was quite enjoying himself. Honestly he was so simple sometimes, and so easy. I just loved him so much.


    "Well." I batted my eyes at him with a sweet smile on my lips. "It''s just that, I really want something that I never got to have." I put on a fake little pout that I knew would get him every time. I was being corrupted by him and the life he had been giving me. I was so bad right now but all I wanted to do wasugh.


    "Oh really?" He grinned at me. "And what was it that I forgot to give my Little Bunny." I had been hearing him call me that nickname for such a long time now that I couldn''t object to it anymore. To be honest, it felt so weird when he called me Trinity that I just preferred to have him call me Little Bunny. Yup, he had corrupted me in every way possible.


    "I never got a honeymoon." I pouted again. "All the others are getting their honeymoons but I am not able to have one."


    Bingo! I had him. I could see the look in his eyes as he realized that I was right. He and I had nned on holding off on the honeymoon because we needed to find the missing children. But they had been found long ago and we still hadn''t gone.


    "Oh my Goddess!" I watched as the worried realization hit him. He was definitely nning something already. "I''m so sorry, baby. You''re right. I never did take you on the honeymoon that I promised you. Things got busy and we pushed it off, but that is no excuse. I should have taken you so much sooner." I loved when he got serious like this.


    "We really couldn''t have gone sooner." I smiled at him. "I mean, we had the battle, the funerals, then your birthday and pack celebration. Then after that we went to help other people. We''ve really been too busy for any of this." I was smiling letting him know I didn''t hold the dy against him but that I wanted to go on the trip now.


    "Don''t worry, Little Bunny." He kissed my cheek and squeezed me tight. "I will n something amazing. Just you wait. Go start packing and we will leave tomorrow."


    "Tomorrow?" I asked him with a look of shock on my face. I didn''t think he would be ready to leave that soon.


    "Are you sure we can leave tomorrow."


    "Don''t worry baby, I have just the ce in mind. I am going to give you the honeymoon that I nned for you from the beginning. It''s the perfect ce with the perfect setting."


    Reece was looking so proud of himself right now. He was so cute when he had that wicked and sly look on his face. I could tell what it was he was nning for this trip.


    Oh, not the ce of course. No, I could just tell what it was that he wanted from this trip. There was only one thing that could exin that heated look in his eyes. He was imagining all sorts of sordid things.


    "Well, Fido, could you tell me where we''re going at least? If you want me to pack then I need to know what to pack."


    "Pack lots of swimsuits and lingerie." There was definitely mischief in his eyes just then.


    "So, I take it we''re going somewhere warm." Iughed at him. "Should I pack your bag for you too then?"


    "That''s up to you. I can put some stuff into a suitcaseter if you want."


    "Nah, I will help you out." I smiled at him. "You are giving me the trip I wanted after all." I snuggled close to him again. "I will pack your bag and mine, but I also need to know how long we''re going to be gone for."


    "Hmm, I''d say a minimum of two weeks." There was a purr in his voice now. Was he just imagining sex everywhere right now? I hope this ce doesn''t have a lot of people there, if he''s nning something public. I felt my cheeks burn then and knew he would figure out my dirty thoughts in no time at all. Damn pale skin, I couldn''t hide my embarrassment at all.

 Chapter 328 - Trinity - Honeymoon Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 328 - Trinity - Honeymoon Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    So I didn''t know where I was going with my adorably annoying husband, but I knew it was just going to be a trip with just the two of us. I think that is what I wanted the most. I am hardly ever alone unless I am in our room. I have staff, guards, family, and friends around me at all times. So much so that it can be a bit overwhelming at times.


    I honestly think that Reece and the others were treating me like I was extremely fragile. I couldn''t really me them though, considering what had happenedst time. I am pretty sure that Reece would do anything to keep me out of harm''s way this time.


    He was sweet, doting, and caring that was for sure. But that could also turn into overprotective, annoying, and a worrywart. It was going to be hard to have it bnced properly for us.


    Still, not having overly protective guards or overly protective friends and family watching me like a hawk for two weeks was going to be nice. I was truly looking forward to all of this, I really was.


    I went back to the room that I shared with Reece, the one that he just up and decided to move into right after we got back from the ck Canyons. I didn''t mind that he did that though, I like sleeping with him. In more ways than one.


    I pulled tworge suitcases from the closet and set them on the bed. Once they were open and ready I started to gather clothes from my side of the room first. I gathered the essentials first of course: bras, panties, socks, bathing suits and bikinis, and I couldn''t forget the lingerie I had bought to surprise Reece. I had wanted to use it before I got too big from the babies growing so fast. Now was my chance.


    I did the same to Reece''s suitcase next. I packed his boxers, socks, and undershirts along with his swim trunks. His was a lot easier to pack since I didn''t have to make sure I got things that matched. Men have it a lot easier than we women do, sometimes it''s so unfair.


    I started on clothes next. Reece''s was easy. I got him a variety of t-shirts, shorts, a few button up shirts both casual and dressy. I made sure to include some things that would look good for us to go to a nice ce for dinner but most of it wasfortable and suitable for a beach. I hoped there was a beach and that I wasn''t getting ahead of myself. This was actually quite fun.


    I wanted to get my bag packed properly as well. I know Reece had told me to bring the lingerie and swimsuits, which I did, but I also needed other clothes too. I packed lots of shorts and shirts. There were also several dresses both casual sun dresses and two nicer ones that would be appropriate for going out. I made sure that all my outfits for the trip looked nice and would make me look as sexy as possible.


    One thing that would take more time to figure out for me was shoes. Reece was easy on that aspect as well. I just grabbed a couple pairs of tennis shoes, some dressy shoes, sandals for the beach, if there was one. I really hope that there is a beach.


    For me, I needed to pack casual shoes, dress shoes, sandals, and tennis shoes. I needed to make sure that the shoes I packed went with the clothes I packed so that I wasn''t left with nothing to match the look.


    You know, I never used to put this much effort into getting ready. I used to just throw something together and not even care what I was wearing. And I knew exactly when all that changed.


    I had started to dress differently when I got with Reece. I had subconsciously started putting more effort into what I wore even before our rtionship had actually gotten to the point where we were actually a couple. After we were officially together like that I started to put in even more effort. Why did I do that?


    I don''t know why I changed the way that I was but I think I might go back to the old me, at least during the pregnancy. I was not going to make myself look like some beauty when I was busy growing as big as a whale. I was going to befortable, and hidden from the world so no one saw how huge I was going to be.


    Once I had all the clothes and shoes packed I started on the toiletries. We would need all of our stuff for showering, brushing teeth, doing hair and make-up (OK thatst part was for me only).


    All in all I would say that the packing process didn''t take that long at all. Maybe an hour or so. I was just zipping the suitcases closed and grabbing the handle when the door to the room burst open.


    Reece came running into the room like he was in a hurry. I could tell he had run all the way here as he was partially out of breath. There was a look of pure horror on his face. I could tell that he was afraid of something but I didn''t know what it was. This was starting to make me worry.


    "What the matter Reece? Did something happen?" I put a hand over my stomach protectively like there was a visible threat in the room that I needed to protect my babies from. I was instantly alert and I even reached out with my magic to try and sense what it was that had made him run all the way here.


    "Good, I made it here in time." He looked relieved about something that just didn''t ur to me.


    "What happened Reece? Why did you run here all of a sudden?" I was still being serious but the look of relief on Reece''s face made it clear that he was no longer worried about anything.


    "I needed to get here before you lifted those things." He indicated the bed and the suitcases sitting on top of it.


    "Huh?" I was confused for a second as I thought about it. "You ran all the way here to stop me from doing what now?"


    "When I realized that you packing the suitcases meant that you were then going to lift said suitcases I needed to stop you. I''m d I made it here in time." There was a smile on his face now, like there was nothing at all odd about what he had said and done.


    "You seriously ran here to stop me from picking up a suitcase?" I finally let the reality of this situation hit me. "Are you a fucking idiot?" I yelled at him. "Do you seriously think I can''t lift a suitcase right now?"


    "You shouldn''t though. You''re pregnant. Pregnant women aren''t supposed to lift heavy objects."


    "Yeah, human women aren''t. If you haven''t noticed Dogbert, I am not human so I am not limited and bound by the same rules." I just rolled my eyes at him like I thought he was being obnoxious, which I did.


    "You are too limited by them. Who said that shifter women aren''t supposed to lift heavy things?" He looked so sincere and worried that for a moment I nearly believed him, almost.


    "Reece, I will be fine." I tried to brush him off.


    "No, you won''t. I need to protect you from yourself. I need to make sure that you don''t do something that you''re not supposed to do." He wasn''t getting angry with me but it was clear that he thought I was being unreasonable.


    "Fine, you move them then. I just finished packing everything for us to leave tomorrow."


    "Good, I will move them down to the car right now. Then we can have dinner and go to bed. We have an early day tomorrow. Maybe you should call everyone and let them know that we''re leaving." He chuckled like he never thought about that until just now. In all honesty I hadn''t either so what does that say about me?


    I called my parents, Noah, Juniper, and Vincent by the time that Reece came back. He had to have made another stop somewhere besides just the car and back. Still, I managed to tell everyone important that we were leaving. I sent text messages to the others, letting them know that the Alpha and the Luna were going to be gone for a while as well.


    I got the replies I expected from everyone. The guards and my friends all wished me luck. Noah grumbled about having to take on more work while Elias was only a month old. He was a doting daddy that liked to spend extra time with his wife and son. Mom was happy for me and told me to have fun. And of course Juniper was almost as excited as I was. She told me I bettere back with some juicy stories for her to hear. Not that I would actually be telling them to her.

 Chapter 329 - Reece - Honeymoon Part 3 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 329 - Reece - Honeymoon Part 3 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I set the rm early. I woke my Little Bunny at four in the morning and got us up and ready to go. I knew that she wasn''t fully prepared for this trip but that was fine. This was going to be an amazing trip with just the two of us, and I do mean just the two of us.


    I had notified Abigail the night before that we were getting up early to leave so a light breakfast was ready for us when we got downstairs. I had also told mom that we were leaving so she had gotten up early as well to see us off.


    I had everything set and ready. Noah was in charge again. Not that he was happy about it but he was used to it by now. The good thing this time was that Gabriel would be there to help him this time. Mom and Samuel were going to take over themunity development which wasing along nicely. Several of my Little Bunny''s guards even moved into the area with their new mates.


    Everything would be fine without us for the next two weeks.


    After we ate I ushered Little Bunny out the door and into the car that was waiting for us. Gabriel, the ever capable assistant that he was for my mate, was acting as the chauffeur for this morning.


    Little Bunny was definitely surprised to see how much I had managed to aplish in such a short amount of time. All I could think was just wait, baby, just wait. She hasn''t seen anything yet.


    We made it to the airport just after five in the morning. There weren''t many people there and none of them were heading to a private terminal like we were. Nothing makes the TSA move faster than the rich and famous. Sometimes, my status in this world was a really good thing.


    Still, I took care of checking us in and handling the information for the flight manifest without my mate seeing any of it. I didn''t want to ruin the surprise after all. I wanted to see her face when we got to our final destination.


    We were on the ne and waiting to take off before six in the morning. By a quarter after we had taken off and were heading to the first stop on our journey.


    "Feel free to sleep if you want, sweetheart, I know I woke you up early." Little Bunny was definitely looking a little sleepy already. I knew that she was already feeling tired from time to time because of the babies. That''s why I was d she suggested we go on our honeymoon now. We wouldn''t have time once the babies were here.


    "I think I just might." She smiled at me and snuggled into my side while she rested her head on my shoulder. I thought again, for probably the millionth time, that I am the luckiest man in the world.


    I rested my head against hers, feeling the softness of her hair along with the slight dampness since I didn''t let her dry her hair properly before we rushed out of the house. The gentle rhythm of her breathing and the calming effect her scent had on me, made me feel drowsy as well. Soon we were both sleeping as we flew out of the country.


    Wended in Cabo San Lucas and headed toward the customs desks. Just like with the TSA, nothing helps the process more than being very wealthy. The more famous you are or the more money you have the more people want to go out of their way for you.


    It didn''t take us long before we were through the checkpoint and onto the next leg of the journey.


    "I''ve never been to Cabo." Little Bunny was smiling happily as she looked around the airport at the pictures of different resorts and scenery that could be seen.


    "Neither have I, we will have toe here sometime to check it out." She must have been surprised by my words because she stopped walking and just stared at me.


    "What are you talking about? We''re in Cabo right now."


    "Not to stay." I grinned at her. "We just needed to stop here to catch another flight."


    "Really?" She was still surprised but she looked at me with a grin. I could tell she was still excited and eager to find out where we were going. Where''s our next flight at? She was looking all around. "What ne do we need to catch?"


    "You will see." I gave her an answer that was not a lie but was ambiguous.


    We left the terminal we were in and caught the airport taxi that would take us to the location of our other flight. Since there was no terminal for our flight it was hard to get to it from inside the airport.


    After several minutes the taxi stopped outside arge building that had a helicopter waiting for us. It was a smallish helicopter with enough room for our luggage, us, and the pilot.


    "So we''re taking this to the next location?" My adorably sweet Little Bunny asked me with a smile. "Does that mean we''re almost to our destination?"


    "Yes, it does." I pulled her close to me as I walked her toward the next aircraft for our journey.


    The helicopter took off almost immediately after we boarded it and our luggage was stowed. The view of the beaches and the beautiful turquoise water as we flew above it was a spectacr sight. I watched as my beautiful wife stared in amazement at the beautiful scenery all around us.


    Little Bunny gasped a little when we flew over the water, out toward the open ocean. We were flying over the Pacific Ocean right now and it was nothing but pure beauty.


    The flight didn''tst long though. I soon saw the ind that we were heading to. I had seen it''s picture more times than I could count, but this was the first time I was seeing it in person.


    "You see that?" I pointed at the ind and pulled my mate up onto myp so she could see better. "That''s where we''re going."


    "That tiny ind?" She was smiling happily. It looks like it only has one or two buildings on it. We''re going to have so much privacy."


    "It''s our own personal ind. It''spletely private and it will be just the two of us there. No one else."


    "Really." She looked even happier than I had imagined. "How did you pull this off so soon?"


    "I bought it for you for our wedding. I was nning on surprising you when we went on our honeymoon."


    "Reece?!" She yelled my name with shock oozing out of her. "You bought an ind?"


    "It was worth it, to see that happy look you had." I kissed the tip of her nose. "Do you want to know what I renamed it?"


    "Yes." She was still smiling, despite her shock.


    "It''s called I de Luna."


    "The ind of the moon?"


    "The ind of the Luna would work just as well, since you are my Luna."


    "I love you Reece." She wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me then. It was quick and over way too soon for my liking, but we had two whole weeks of just the two of us. I would get lots of kisses and lots of yummy dessert over that time.


    The helicopternded on the pad that was on the back of the house. We exited the craft and had the pilot bring our luggage out for us. The man who had flown us here assured me he would return in two weeks, in thete morning.


    Finally, we made it. It was around noon, local time which was the same time back home. At least we didn''t have to worry about time changes.


    I pulled Trinity toward me then and scooped her into my arms. As I carried her into therge white house she squealed.


    "What are you doing?" She asked me.


    "Doing what every man wants to do on his honeymoon. I am carrying my wife over the threshold."


    "That is so clich¨¦." She was smiling. She may say it was clich¨¦, but she still loved it.


    "Maybe, but I am still doing it."


    I had seen plenty of photos of the house, not to mention the blueprints. I knew exactly what the ce looked like. It was a spacious house that some would call a mansion. It was around three thousand eight hundred square feet and it had six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, living rooms, a small and a formal dining room, a chef quality kitchen, a theater room, and lots more. I started upstairs and ended the tour in the kitchen where I showed my mate that I had indeed thought of everything. The fridge, freezer, and pantry were all perfectly stocked.


    When I took her back outside I showed her the boat house that had the private yacht I requested for this time. I still needed to buy one for future visits. There was also a speed boat that we could use for recreation along with jet skis, though I probably wouldn''t be letting her on those during this trip. Maybe when the kids are older we cane back and she can be slightly more reckless. Just a little. But for now, she was too delicate to let that happen.

 Chapter 330 - Trinity - Honeymoon Part 4 (VOLUME 3) ((MATURE))

    <h4>Chapter 330 - Trinity - Honeymoon Part 4 (VOLUME 3) ((MATURE))</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I did not expect that Reece was going to buy an ind. OK, he bought it a long time ago but it was for the purpose of our honeymoon so it still fit for this situation. Though, I guess I should have guessed it, he is a frivolous spender when ites to me.


    Still, I was beyond happy to be alone with him. And I do mean alone. There was no one else on this ind. Though, apparently we were close enough to the maind that we could go to town for something or order fresh supplies.


    I just knew that this was going to be the best vacation of my life. Two whole weeks of nothing but me, my mate, and these beautiful beaches and stunning views. Now I was just wondering what we could get up to while we were here.


    Hmm. Now that was an interesting idea. Should I start with a bikini or lingerie? Oh, the decisions I needed to make.


    While I sent Reece to the kitchen to get me a drink I hurried up the stairs to our room. He had already taken our luggage up there so I was pretending to unpack. If I changed quick enough I could surprise him by the time he gets up here.


    I had put all my lingerie on the bottom of my bag, something I was regretting now. Since I didn''t have much time I decided to go with something that was simple. I pulled a dark hunter greency bodysuit out of the bag and stripped as fast as I could. Our trip had been a rtively quick one and it was done in luxury so I didn''t feel the typical travel grunge I would normally have.


    Thanks to that I didn''t feel the need to do too much freshening up. I ran a brush through my hair. I checked my makeup. And I made sure that everything was clean and smelled pleasant. After that I slipped into the lingerie. It was an easy on easy off kind of thing that tied like a halter top behind my neck.


    With the artfully ced cutouts and the sheer and nearly see through fabric it didn''t leave much to the imagination. Not that Reece needed to use his imagination, he knew my body better than anyone I thought possibly could.


    I made it back into the room and was lounging on the bed just in time for him toe through the door with a tray in hand. He had apparently prepared a light lunch and gotten us both drinks, but the moment he saw me it looked like all thoughts of lunch left his mind.


    "Well, this is a lovely surprise."


    I wasying on the extrarge king side bed while on my side with my right arm propped up under my head. The room, like the house, was done in mostly whites so I, with my colorful outfit stood out strikingly in contrast. Reece walked to the table that was near the window and set his tray down.


    When Reece turned to look at me I saw that he was already reaching for the buttons on his shirt. He was not going to turn down the gift that I was giving to him. I couldn''t help but grin as he started to strip as he walked toward me. I loved it when he gave me a show like this.


    First his ck shirt was sent to the side of the room after he had undid every single button. His white undershirt that he pulled slowly over his head went flying next. His shoes were kicked off in a fluid motion that still managed to look sexy despite everything. Next, I watched as he slowly undid his belt and slowly pulled it from the loops on his dark jeans.


    The jeans were removed slowly. He undid the button and moved them down his hips with a slow teasing motion. I was biting my lip in anticipation long before they had cleared the bulge in his boxers. Once they were gone he was standing there with nothing but those ck boxers blocking him from view.


    "Are you enjoying the show, baby?" Reece voice was deeper and more erotic than usual and it rubbed against my skin like his hands or his tongue. I shivered and nodded my head before I could even answer him verbally.


    "Very much so, please, don''t stop." I was eyeing the huge bulge that was still growing. He was a veryrge wolf, in many ways, and he was definitely hard to handle at times. That didn''t mean I was going to turn him away though, I wanted him as much as he clearly wanted me.


    Soon he slid thest piece of clothing away. His bulge was revealed and the erection he was hiding stood firm at attention. I felt a rush of adrenaline course through me as desire flooded my core.


    I knew we had plenty of time and there was no need to rush, but I was in a hurry right now and I couldn''t exin why.


    "Come over here, Reece." I beckoned him with a curling motion of my finger as well as with my words.


    "Don''t you want to savor this moment?" Heughed quickly.


    "This whole trip was nned at the spur of a moment and so was this encounter. I think it should start just as quickly as our honeymoon did. I feel like I haven''t had a chance to be with you in a very long time. Come here Reece and make love to me." I was being so forward but I didn''t care. Reece loved it anyway.


    "Yes my Queen." I saw the smirk and the dark glint in his eyes. He was not going to disappoint me even if I was forgoing all the forey.


    Reece closed the distance between him and the bed in two quick strides. When he was close enough he climbed on the bed and loomed over me with an alluring grin.


    "I love you." He whispered the word as he leaned forward. Just before his lips touched mine I whispered back.


    "I love you too."


    The kiss was deep and passionate and long overdue. It felt like we had been so busytely that I hadn''t had the chance to be intimate with him in months when I knew that it hadn''t been that long at all.


    Still, I needed this. I needed him. I just couldn''t wait.


    I felt Reece''s tongue as it explored my mouth. It was like he was remapping a familiar territory. I never got tired of kissing this man. He was like a God when it came to anything rted to sex. Not once has he ever disappointed me in the bedroom.


    With his mouth busy devouring me I felt Reece''s hand slide up my chest and skim across my breasts. It moved higher still until it curved around my neck and he was able to undo the silk ribbon that held the lingerie closed.


    With his gift partially unwrapped Reece moved his lips away from mine, eliciting a slight moan and whine from me. He was looking down at me like I was a meal to be devoured. His eyes were hungry and full of need.


    Slowly, I felt Reece slide thece down my body until he could slide the bodysuit off of me entirely.


    "I like this one." He grinned. "We will have to have you wear it again sometime." That was all he said before he tossed the lingerie to the side and dipped his head toward my breasts.


    I thought Reece was going to drag this out even though I had asked him not to. I thought he was going to take him time since he had started to taste me. However, that was when he stuck his hand between my thighs and felt that I was just as ready as he was.


    With a growl of satisfaction I felt him shift above me. Before I knew it I felt Reece pressing his massive erection against my sensitive opening.


    "Reece." I called him once more. My voice sounded weak and full of longing. Even I could tell that I was begging him to take me.


    "Trinity." He growled my name and thrust forward.


    I screamed, long and loud. It felt like a long awaited dream had finallye true. I had needed this. I had needed him so badly.


    Before my scream had even stopped echoing in the room Reece pulled back until he was barely in me still. After that he thrust forward just as hard and fast as the first time. I screamed again and dug my nails into his back.


    "Mine." Reece sounded so possessive but I loved when he was like this.


    Once he was done iming me again Reece started to pound into my body on a steady but fast rhythm. My moans, screams, and cries of pleasure mixed with his grunts and growls of satisfaction.


    I lost track of how long we had been joined together. One orgasm led to another and another but the sky was already darkening by the time Reece threw his head back on a growl as he orgasmed once more. I couldn''t even remember how many times I had climaxed, let alone how many he had had.


    This day, and now night, had been for a union of primal passion and desire. We had needed to reim each other in the most intimate of ways.


    The downside though, was that I was just as tired as the first time Reece and I had been together, thest time we had gone so long I couldn''t even remember it all. I didn''t regret it though. My body felt pleasantly limp and numb. The only thing that I was aware of was Reece as he still loomed over me.

 Chapter 331 - Trinity - Honeymoon Part 5 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 331 - Trinity - Honeymoon Part 5 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Following the marathon we had just had I was in no shape to walk, let alone move. I was actually surprised that Reece could still move. Yet he could as he picked me up and carried me to the bathroom. He apparently wanted to take a bath, since he was drawing the hot water into the tub.


    Reece was always sweet like this. He took care of me in so many ways that I don''t know what I would do without him. Once the tub was filled and the water was ready Reece climbed into the tub with me still in his arms.


    Just like always Reece settled into the tub with me on hisp. It was a rxing andforting time. He washed me while I justid back against him and rxed.


    Once we were both cleaned we just stayed there, lounging in the hot water. There was nothing else we needed to do and no one to interrupt us. It was pure bliss.


    The days that followed were nothing short of perfection. We woke up when we wanted to, not needing to go anywhere or to see anyone. We made breakfast together, usually Reece only allowed me to wear an apron while we cooked. Other than that we were both naked the whole time.


    I did wear clothes throughout the day though. I wore my sundresses outside while we were walking the beach. The whole ind was only about ten acres in total size so it wasn''t that hard for us to explore the whole ce.


    There wasn''t much to it besides the beauty. There was a clumping of trees on either side of the house and a beach that went all the way around the ind. The living area consisted of arge white house with a beautiful deck around back. There was a jacuzzi built into the deck that we had been using frequently. A storage building that held all the equipment that the grounds keeper used when he maintained the ind. And a boat house near the water where we kept everything we needed for water sports and luxury boating. Reece had even rented a private yacht just in case I wanted to go for a day trip.


    It was all just amazing.


    Swimming in the ocean was something else entirely. The clear water and the colorful fish that were all around. It was just amazing.


    Tonight we were having a pic on the beach so we could watch the sunset. I wanted a quiet night where we were outside and could talk. There was a lot that we needed to talk about at some point, so why not right now?


    We made a light dinner that consisted of a chicken sd, meat and vegetable kabobs, and breadsticks. We took a couple of bottles of chilled wine for Reece, some juice for me, a thin nket, and the food. I was wearing a bikini to stay cool and because we might want to swim after the meal. Reece, likewise, was wearing a pair of swim trunks.


    While we sat and slowly ate the food, watching the ocean as well as each other, we talked. I know it was bad talking about the future and serious things during our honeymoon, but right now we could do it without weighing in the opinions of others. These would be our discussions and no one else''s. Sometimes having so many people around us all the time made for more burdens than anything else.


    "So, Reece." I broached a topic hesitantly. "When should we go and visit the Fae Queen personally? You know she''s invited us, and after helping the Hidden Pawst month I think she might be a little more interested in us."


    "Yeah, I think you''re right about that." Reece agreed as he took a bite of meat from his skewer. "I think we should do it before you get too far along with the babies. I don''t want you traveling when you''re close to the end. You know that twins can be tricky."


    Reece was right about that. And after losing our first baby we were both going to be more careful this time. I was already almost two months pregnant and that was equivalent to three and a half months for a human pregnancy. I was already starting to show a little too.


    "Next month then?" I asked the question while I nibbled on the end of a breadstick.


    "Sounds good. I don''t want you leaving the house much once you hit four months." I rolled my eyes at his words. That was going a little overboard.


    "Worry not, Barksley, I won''t break that easily. As long as I stick close to home everything will be fine." Reece gave me a weak re at that. Was it because of the dog name I called him or me disagreeing with his decree? Hmm, probably a little bit of both.


    "You know how dangerous it can be. I don''t want you leaving the estate. You and the babies will be at risk."


    "Don''t worry too much, Danger Dog. I will take my entourage with me so that I am protected. You don''t have to act like I am made of ss or something. I will be just fine and so will our babies."


    "Speaking of the babies, where are we going to put them when they''re born? I kind of want them in the room across the hall from ours."


    "Hmm. I think that would be fine when they''re sleeping through the night. Until then though we can put them in our room so that we can get to them easier. Or that might not be good, since you need to work. I can sleep in the nursery with them most nights."


    "Like hell you will, I want all three of you close to me. They will be sleeping in our room like you said. When they sleep through the night we can move them across the hall." Reece was cute when he was protective. I loved seeing this side of him.


    "That sounds good to me. And when they''re a few years old we can move them to rooms down the hall so that they can grow and be their own individual selves. I can''t wait to see what they look like and who they be." I could feel the happy smile on my face. It was a smile I knew would be there a lot from now on.


    "Yeah. And thanks to Dietrich we know that one is a boy and one is a girl. That means we can start nning names and picking out things like toys and-."


    "Slow down, Fido. We still have plenty of time. There is no need to rush anything." I had interrupted him since he seemed to be going a mile a minute.


    "I know, I know. It''s just that I am excited. I wanted nothing more than to settle down and have a family with you. That dream of mine ising true."


    Goddess, just to hear Reece saying this now was so different from the Reece I first met. Back then I never thought that days like this one would be possible. Back when I first met Reece things were much more difficult and I thought I would hate him forever. I am so d that we got past all that because this life with him was the best thing I could ever hope for.


    "Can we talk about names at least? Please?" He looked so cute when he begged me like that. And he wondered why I still called him dog names. It was because he looked like an adorable little puppy when he acted like this.


    "Yeah, we can talk about them. I guess it''s not right to call them jelly bean and gummy bear huh." Iughed as I thought about the nicknames we called the babies at the ultrasoundst month.


    "Good, because I have been thinking about this a lot. I have been researching and looking up baby names trying to find the best ones possible and I think I have the perfect ones."


    "Alright, Benji, hit me with your best shot." I just hoped I didn''t have tough at him choices.


    "OK." I saw him grin excitedly as he got to his knees and faced me full on. "For the girl I am thinking of Rika. The name means things like peaceful ruler, honorable ruler, eternal queen. Those names would be so fitting for a daughter that inherits your title of Luna Queen someday, don''t you think."


    I was honestly floored by his idea. He had put so much thought into the name that I couldn''t believe it. The name was beautiful and so fitting. I loved it already. But I didn''t want to agree just yet, not until I heard his other choice.


    "Ok. What were you thinking for the boy?" I asked without giving him my thoughts just yet.


    "For our boy I was thinking of Reagan. It means little king. I know the position of leader of the shifters will probably go to our daughter, but Reagan will take my position as the leader of the pack. He won''t be a king technically but he will be an Alpha and a prince."


    Reece had put so much thought into the names and they were perfect. How did I get so lucky? What did I do to deserve him?


    "Reece." I smiled at him as I threw myself into his arms. "Those names are perfect. I love them. I think you single handedly chose our babies'' names. I love you so much. Thank you for putting so much thought and effort into them."


    "So you like them?" He still seemed a little weary. The adorable little fool.


    "Yes, I love them. They''re perfect."

 Chapter 332 - Honeymoon Part 6 (VOLUME 3) ((MATURE))

    <h4>Chapter 332 - Honeymoon Part 6 (VOLUME 3) ((MATURE))</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    My Little Bunny and I had been talking peacefully about the future. About our babies and their names. It was a calm and pleasant conversation. That is until she leapt into my arms and nted her lips against mine.


    She was only wearing a bikini and so much of her bare skin pressed against my chest, which also happened to be bare. This was my honeymoon. This was my chance to have my wife as much as I wanted and as often as I wanted with no one there to interrupt me. I was going to take advantage of that.


    I had caught her when sheunched herself at me. I had wrapped my arms around her and held her against my chest with firm and steady pressure. I had turned her innocent kiss into something that was heated and filled with desire.


    I felt the moment that Trinity melted against me. There was that moment when she realized that I was not just kissing her from happiness but with hungrier and more intimate thoughts in mind.


    When I heard her moan and purr her approval and pleasure nearly simultaneously I knew that she was willing to do what I was hoping for. She was not going to stop me anytime soon.


    The next thing that I knew I was pressing my beautiful and sexy wife onto her back half on and half off the nket. With skilled movements I snaked my hands behind her and pulled the thin strings that were holding the skimpy fabric over her ample breasts. There was no need to pull anything off her arms or over her head when all I needed to do was untie the two sets of strings.


    The next ce that I needed to focus on were her hips where two more sets of strings were holding the bottoms in ce. When I pulled on them the bottoms fell away, it was like they hadn''t even been there to begin with.


    There was just one measly piece of clothing that I was wearing so it took me no time at all to remove them. We were both now naked for the slowly darkening sky to see.


    I wanted to take my time right now. I wanted to savor her and make her scream my name to the world. And there was no one who could stop me from doing just that.


    I slowly kissed my way down my sexy Little Bunny''s neck until I reached her cor bone and the start of her Goddess Marks. I knew they were sensitive for her, like there were extra nerve endings at every spot the divine beings had blessed her.


    "Ngh! Ahh!" She moaned as I repeatedlypped my tongue on the sensitive lines.


    After I had my fill of her moaning from such little stimtion I moved on. I let my tongue crest the peak of her right breast. Once it had reached the very tip I wrapped it around her nipple and closed my mouth around her breast while my right hand pinched and pulled on her left nipple. She cried out from the slight pleasure pain.


    When Trinity was panting and twitching from just that I moved my tongue lower. I could smell her juices that were flowing. The scent was intoxicating and mind blowing. I needed top them away and taste them all. And that''s just what I was nning to do.


    I moved a little faster now, spurred on by her delicious scent. I licked my way down her slightly rounded belly, across the re of her hips, and straight to her dripping core.


    I settled myself in the sand and hooked her legs over my shoulders. With a little repositioning I had created a truly sexy image for me. My mate wasying with her head and shoulders pressed against the soft sand while her body lifted toward me, toward my face, while I was currently kneeling like I was praying. In a way I was praying, I was praying that I would hold out long enough to blow my Little Bunny''s mind.


    With my mate spread right there for me I kissed her dripping slit once before licking slowly from her opening to the top where that bundle of nerves were. I pulled that bundle into my mouth and sucked hard causing her to scream loudly. Her cries echoing off the water and making me want to hear more of it.


    I licked her again, and again and again. I was moving hard and fast as I devoured all the juices that I could. I watched as my Little Bunny tried to grab a hold of something as I drove her up that mountain of pleasure. There were no hand holds though, there was nothing to stop her from falling over that precipice and she fell over it screaming my name to the ever darkening night.


    I drank away the juice that flooded into my mouth while Trinity panted and moaned. She was begging me for more and begging me to stop all at the same time. I was nowhere near ready to stop though. I was just getting started.


    I sat back on the sand and lifted my mate toward me. In one fluid motion I had her off the sand and sliding down my shaft. The rapid change of sensations made her scream loud as she felt me prate her.


    "R-Reece." She moaned my name in a breathless cry.


    "Trinity." I growled her name into her ear as I held her close.


    With my legs positioned so I created the perfect cradle for her as she mmed down against me I set about creating the perfect rhythm. It was fast, hard, and amazing. Trinity''s beautiful voice sang me songs filled with moans and cries of pleasure. It was the best music there ever was.


    Soon, I felt her body tightening around me. She was already climbing that peak of pleasure again and the feeling of her body milking me was enough to drive me insane. I would never get enough of her.


    With a few dozen more thrusts I felt my matee apart in my arms as I roared my pleasure to the sky. I exploded inside of her and felt like there was nothing better than this moment right now.


    I felt the water hitting my foot then and realized that the tide wasing in closer and closer. If I shifted just a little bit and turned over we would beying in the warm water. So, that''s just what I did.


    I twisted and shifted until I had my sexy little wifeying in the water as itpped up around our legs. I knew that soon enough it would be reaching our waist and then our shoulders. This was going to be fun. Let''s see what got here first, the tide or another orgasm for my Little Bunny.


    I was still inside of her, and still hard, so all I had to do was pull back and thrust into her again. She screamed again as her overly sensitive body felt the pleasure of it all.


    Being inside of her felt so amazing that I could go all night and day until I dropped from exhaustion. I would never tire of feeling this connection with her from the inside out.


    I set about creating a slow and steady rhythm this time. Something that would still pleasure her but not drive her too fast. However, she had already climaxed twice and her body was so sensitive that it didn''t take long to make here again.


    That climax tightened around me again and broke my control. My slow and steady rhythm shattered and was reced with something hard and fast. I needed toe again. I needed to climax and this time I would call it a night.


    Pound, pound, p, p. Our bodies were meeting with a chorus of music that apanied Trinity''s singing.


    "Ngh!" I moaned this time as she climaxed again and again. It was almost constant now, that milking and squeezing motion of her core as wave after wave of pleasure coursed through her. It was getting so hard to thrust into her now with how much she was squeezing me but it felt too good to stop.


    I moaned my pleasure to the night while she screamed. It was a moonlit duet until I roared again. I exploded once more and this time I copsed onto the sand beside her, my whole body spent from the pleasure of our union.


    It took me several minutes to gather the strength to carry her to the house. Once we were inside I rinsed us off in the shower and took us naked to the bedroom.


    I took her three more times that night until we were both too exhausted to move. We both slept so soundly that we didn''t get up until noon the next day. It was nothing less than pure perfection.

 Chapter 333 - Trinity - Honeymoon Part 7 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 333 - Trinity - Honeymoon Part 7 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The honeymoon had been amazing. Reece and I got to spend so much time together, just the two of us. I was reluctant to see it end but we needed to get back. When you''re the ones in charge then you can''t truly leave for too long.


    With Reece being the Alpha and running our pack and the two of us technically being the Alpha King and Luna Queen responsible for the welfare of all the world''s shifters we were always busy. We had been having a lot of visitors over the past month or so. Ever since we got back from California and the people from the battle in June spread the news of the new Luna Witch Queen.


    We had been visited by several members of the bird ns, various different magic users, and every type of mammal shifter there was. They all wanted to get to know us, specifically me. I wasn''t used to it and I was feeling overwhelmed at times. That''s part of the reason I asked Reece for this trip. I needed to get away from it all for a little bit.


    And, just like I had already known, he didn''t disappoint me. Reece was the best thing that ever happened to me and I couldn''t imagine my life without him in it.


    The morning we were due to head home Reece had gotten up early and made breakfast without me. He brought it to me in bed on a tray that had not only the food but a vase with a bright blue flower from the ind. It was amazing.


    "What''s this?" I asked him as he sat the te across myp once I was sitting up. I had to hold the sheet against my chest because I was once again naked underneath them.


    "I''ve never served you breakfast in bed before. And this is myst chance since Abigail will be making our food again once we get home." There was nothing but love in his eye and a sweet, sincere smile on his lips.


    "You''re the best. Have I ever told you that?"


    "Maybe once or twice." He leaned forward and kissed me softly before turning toward the door to the hallway.


    "Where are you going?" I asked him, confused.


    "To get my te, we''re eating together."


    What did I do to deserve all of this? I had to have been blessed somehow by someone. Reece truly was the ultimate prize of a man.


    He came back a few minutester with another tray piled high with food. He had gone all out and made all of our favorites. Possibly because he needed to use the rest of the food in the fridge. Still, it was a feast. There was sausage, bacon, and ham for the meats, French Toast with powdered sugar and syrup in a little jar, poached eggs, yogurt with fruit and gran. It was so amazing.


    Following the wonderful breakfast that Reece brought me we cleaned up the kitchen together. Took an intimate shower together. Packed the rest of our things. Then it was time to go. I could already hear the helicoptering toward the ind so Reece carried our bags down ahead of me while I went at my own pace.


    I had noticed that my belly grew somewhat over thest two weeks. It was just a little bit but I noticed it. I knew that I was going to grow a lot more but I was not looking forward to it.


    I was walking leisurely down the stairs when I felt something in my stomach. It was sudden and quick but it was there.


    I stopped, uncertain of what it was for a moment. I had been feeling like I had butterflies moving in my stomach for like a month recently. I just figured it was nerves with everything that had been happeningtely. These weren''t butterflies though. This was something more.


    I was still on the stairs, one foot on a lower step than the other and my left hand on the railing. My right hand was on my stomach trying to feel it again. That''s the way that Reece found me when he came back into the house to see what was taking me so long.


    "Little Bunny? Is everything OK? Are you alright?" He sounded scared and worried, most likely because I had a nervous or scared look on my face.


    "Reece!" I was excited but I was also wondering if I was wrong.


    "Trinity? Sweetheart? What''s wrong?"


    "I felt them, Reece."


    "Felt what? What are you talking about, baby?"


    "I felt our babies." I was grinning now, I had felt my cheeks raise as the smile spread across my face. "I felt them move."


    "Y-you did?" Reece wasn''t expecting me to say that, he wasn''t expecting such happy and positive news.


    Quick as he could Reece dropped to his knees on a step in front of me. I felt him put one hand at my lower back and the other on my already rounding belly. There was a big smile on his face and his eyes were dripping with excitement and other happy emotions. I even saw tears brimming in his eyes.


    I had been trying to feel the babies move again but they hadn''t. However, the moment Reece put his hand on my belly I felt them move again. Two quick little movements like they were reaching out for their daddy.


    I cried. I literally cried when I felt them and saw the happiness that radiated from Reece''s face at that moment. He was crying tears of joy as well while heughed happily.


    "I felt them. They moved. I felt them, Little Bunny."


    At that moment Reece leaned forward and kissed my belly twice. Once for each baby.


    "Hello babies. It''s me, your Daddy. I love you. I can''t wait to meet you. My little Reagan and Rika."


    I thought that I had already loved as much as I possibly could, but I realized at that moment that I was wrong. As long as he continued to be this sweet and perfect I would love him more and more and more as time went on.


    "You two be good to your Mommy and grow healthy and strong. We will be waiting for you." When Reece said the word mommy it made me realize withplete shock, I was really going to be a mommy. This was my second pregnancy and these were going to be my first babies. I knew all of that but it finally hit me that I was going to be a mommy. When Reagan and Rika learned to talk they were going to call me Momma and Mommy. They were going to call Reece Dada and Daddy. Mom and Dad were going to be Grandma and Grandpa. L was going to be Grandma as well and Grandfather was going to be Great Grandpa. This was all going to be real. Everything was going to change but in such a good way.


    It took several minutes for us to get over that moment. We were crying like babies and the first thing that Reece did when he finally stood up was kiss me. It was sweet, loving, and messy since we both had tears running down our cheeks.


    Reece had wrapped his arms around me and picked me up for the kiss. He stepped back off the stairs and onto the floor where he spun me in a few slow circles. I loved every second of it.


    Finally, we made it outside and to the helicopter. The pilot was a little weary when he saw that we were both still crying. Hesitantly, he asked the question that seemed to be bothering him.


    "Sir, are you and thedy alright?"


    "We''re more than alright, Francis. Everything is actually perfect. My wife and I felt our babies moving in her belly for the first time today. It was wonderful." It seemed like Reece was happy and proud. He would probably be telling everyone about this new development for weeks.


    "That is wonderful news, Sir. Congrattions to you and thedy. I wish much good luck to your family."


    "Thank you, Francis." I smiled at him as he opened the door to the helicopter and waited for us to enter.


    We made it back to the airport in no time at all. Reece and I cuddled the whole time, the beautiful view not enough topete with the happiness we were feeling. Our ne was ready for us and we boarded immediately after clearing security.


    We snuggled up with each other for the flight home and slept once again. When wended Gabriel was once again our driver as he had been waiting for us to arrive at the airport.


    "Wee home, Queen Trinity." He spoke as politely and properly as ever.


    "Thank you, Gabriel. I hope all was well while we were away."


    "Yes mydy, everything went smoothly. How was your trip?"


    "We felt the babies move this morning." Reece eximed excitedly just like he had back on the ind. I knew he would tell everyone that he could so I just let him be. Besides, Gabriel looked almost as excited to hear that news as Reece had been. I was so happy to have such wonderful people in my life.

 Chapter 334 - Trinity - Ultrasound (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 334 - Trinity - Ultrasound (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I felt like it was hard to settle back into our daily lives. The routine of it all was so much less fun that our trip had been. Still, I had the memories. And I still got to wake up in Reece''s arms every morning. I would never want to be without that.


    Now that we had felt the babies move, Reece wanted to schedule an ultrasound with Griffin right away. He wanted to see how big they had gotten and how much they had developed. He also wanted to see if Dietrich had been right about the babies.


    We had an appointment scheduled for a few days from now. Howeverst night had been thebination of Shane and Shawn''s birthday party and Shawn and Dietrich''s housewarming party and for some reason Shawn and Dietrich called us all frantic, scared, and excited (for Dietrich anyway) first thing in the morning.


    They seemed to have an issue that they didn''t mentionpletely over the phone. I mean I assumed they hadn''t spoken correctly because it sounded like they said Shawn was pregnant which shouldn''t be possible.


    As we were leaving I asked Gabriel about the situation. I wanted to see if he and his vast stores of knowledge knew anything about male wolves getting pregnant. It turned out he did know something about it.


    Long story short, powerful male wolves that mated with another male, whether they were wolf or not, could still have offspring. One or the other of the males would conceive the children, since it always happened in pairs. And apparently the males would only have one pregnancy, it would never happen again.


    After a long discussion of what to do Shawn decided he didn''t want anyone to know about the pregnancy. The two of them would be going to Germany for the duration of his pregnancy so that he could be hidden and they would tell people they used a surrogate to have children.


    Later that night we received another call. Dietrich was pregnant now too. I don''t even want to know what happened when we left them earlier in the day. Nevertheless, I was happy for them. They were going to have children that were gically theirs in every way possible. This was amazing.


    Three days after the excitement with Shawn and Dietrich was my ultrasound appointment at Griffin''s clinic. It was hard not to remember the first time that I hade to this office. I was here for a happy asion and I knew that but it was also sad to think that my first time being pregnant led to me losing the baby at the hands of my sick and sadistic father.


    As I thought about it I shed a few tears. Reece noticed and pulled me close to him while we sat and waited in the chairs.


    "What''s wrong? Does something hurt?" He whispered the words in my ear so only I could hear him.


    "No." I wiped my face and tried to smile.


    "Baby, what''s wrong?" He pulled me from my seat and sat me on hisp. While I leaned against Reece he used one hand to rub circles on my back and cupped the other around my growing belly.


    "I''m just emotional and hormonal I guess."


    "Come on, Little Bunny, I know something had to have brought this on. Please, tell me what''s wrong."


    "I just thought about the first time that we were here. Right before our wedding with the first baby. I thought about how if I hadn''t lost that baby he or she would have been here in my arms right now. If I hadn''t miscarried we would already be parents."


    "Honey?" He looked sad when he heard what had brought on my tears. "We''re already parents. The babies might not be here but we''re parents. That won''t change. And our first little jelly belly is with the Goddess waiting for us."


    "I know that. I know it''s not my fault or yours. I know that our baby is safe with the Goddess, but that doesn''t make it any easier to think about it. All I can imagine is a cute little baby with your ck hair and golden eyes. A little boy that was supposed to be strong and protect people. I wanted to know him, Reece. I wanted to see what that baby would have be."


    "I know, sweetheart. I know." Reece hugged me then. His arms were around me holding me gently while I cried softly onto his shoulder.


    We were still in that position when the nurse called us back. When she saw that I was crying she looked worried and was about to say something when I cut her off.


    "I''m OK, really. I just got hormonal all of a sudden." She smiled at me and chuckled slightly.


    "Honey, it happens to all of us. Making a baby is a crazy and hectic time."


    "Yeah, it really is." I grinned as best as I could.


    The nurse led us to the back of the clinic then. I was weighed and my vitals were taken. I even had to give a urine sample. A few minutester we were in the exam room waiting for Griffin.


    I knew that I didn''t need to be nervous. I knew that the babies were fine. I had felt the move consistently over thest several days. Still, I was nervous and uneasy.


    The moment that Griffin walked into the room he knew what it was that I was feeling.


    "Trinity, there is no reason to be worried." Those were the first words he said when he opened the door and looked at me. I wonder if the nurse told him that I was emotional when she called me back.


    I couldn''t help myself, I cried again. Reece wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close to his side.


    "Hey Griff. I''m sorry about this. She is just remembering the first time we were here. If all that hadn''t happened then that baby would be here by now."


    "Yeah, I figured it was something like that. I noticed the date recently as well. You can''t beat yourself up though Trinity. Things will get better, plus Reece, myself, and everyone in the pack is bound and determined to make sure that nothing happens this time around. We will all protect these babies. You will be holding them in just over three months." I did my best to smile at him. I was almost half of the way through my pregnancy now, I hadn''t even realized it.


    "Thank you, Griffin." He held out a tissue for me and I took it to wipe my eyes with.


    Once my tears finally stopped Griffin started the examination. He had me lean back on the exam table and he measured my belly. Apparently that helped to determine if the babies were growing at the proper rate.


    After that he listened to the babies'' heart rates on the handheld doppler machine he had. The beats were fast like I expected but they weren''t the same. One was a little faster than the other.


    "Is that normal?" I asked him, worried again.


    "Yes, it''s perfectly fine, don''t worry Trinity."


    "Ok." I sighed with relief.


    Following that exam we were taken to a room with the ultrasound machine. I was put into the reclining chair. My shirt was raised and the cold jelly was put onto my belly. When the wand for the machine was put against me I felt one of the babies push back against it. Apparently they didn''t like it that much.


    I watched on the monitor as Griffin measured different parts of the babies. He measured their heads, their hearts, different parts that I couldn''t identify on the dark screen. He measures the length of their arms and their legs. He was thorough in his job.


    What I loved the most about the whole thing was that I was able to see my babies the entire time. There they were. They didn''t look like little jelly beans and gummy bears anymore. They looked like babies now. They were really growing into my babies that I would hold very soon.


    "They''re in very good positions right now." Griffin was smiling. Would you like me to tell you what you''re having?"


    "Dietrich told us that we were having one of each. Was he right?" Reece was happily staring at the screen as he listened to Griffin.


    "Yes. You are having one boy and one girl. Congrattions."


    "Did you hear that, baby? One of each. Dietrich was right." Reece was grinning at me now as he kissed the back of my hand repeatedly.


    "I''m so happy Reece. Look at them, they''re beautiful."


    Of course they are, they''re your babies. Any baby of yours will be the cutest babies in the world." I shed a tear then, my husband really was the sweetest ever.


    Following the ultrasound we went on a lunch date. I wasn''t hungry and excited now that the emotions from earlier in the day had passed.

 Chapter 335 - Reece - Preparing For The Babies Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 335 - Reece - Preparing For The Babies Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    It was all bing more and more real to me. Just like my Little Bunny had said before, it was starting to feel more and more exciting, more surreal, and more nerve wracking. There was so much stuff that we had to do still and not as much time as I was thinking there was.


    Griffin said yesterday that it was just over three months but he also told me once that the babies would probably be about two weeks early since they were twins. They try not to let the babiese that early if they can because it''s not safe for them sometimes but there is nothing they can do when there are multiples.


    If that was true then I barely had three months left before they came. I needed to get their room set up. I needed to buy the furniture and the clothes and the toys and the diapers and¡­. and¡­. and¡­. What else did I need?


    I needed expert help here. I wanted to do all this myself, and I was determined that the nursery was going to be my project, but I didn''t know what to buy. I had never had a kid and I hadn''t spent much time around them either. What did they need?


    There were only two people I could think of to ask advice from. Vincent, who had three kids of his own, and of course my mother. As clich¨¦ and childish as it might sound I needed my mom for help here.


    I didn''t want Trinity to hear the discussion by ident. I wanted to surprise her with my n and idea. So I took my mom out to lunch at the diner that my Little Bunny and her friends loved to go to. I knew she wasn''t going to be there since she was at home and therefore it was safe.


    We were seated and ordered out food but that was all that we managed before my mom leveled a knowing look my way and began to talk.


    "OK Reece, spill it. What are you nning?"


    "Huh?" I was shocked, she figured it out already. "Can''t I ask my mother out to lunch from time to time?" I tried to y innocent but she wasn''t buying it.


    "Boy, you haven''t been able to y innocent with me since you were four. You can''t lie to me, you never could."


    "Hahh." I sighed and looked at her over my cup of coffee. "So, it''s that obvious huh?" I grinned sheepishly.


    "I knew you were nning something but I don''t know what it is. So, I repeat, spill it."


    "I want to do the nursery. I want to be the one that paints it, does the floors. The one that puts the furniture together. I want to do it all. But I don''t even know where to start." I thumped my head against the table and sighed again. "Hahhh! I''m a failure as a father."


    "You''re not a failure, Reece. You''re a first time father. That means you need to learn. No one is born knowing what to do, why do you think that you would already know?"


    "I don''t know. I''m supposed to be an all powerful King and ruler of the shifter world alongside my wife. Shouldn''t I at least know how to take care of my own family."


    "You''ll get there, baby, you will. I promise. Your father and I were so nervous when you were first born. I would have sworn that I was doing everything wrong. Then I got used to it all and it just clicked for me. I wasn''t nervous anymore and I felt like I was on top of it all. I don''t think I did too bad, despite everything." There was a look in her eyes that I couldn''t fathom, she looked both proud and disappointed. What the hell?


    "What''s that supposed to mean?" I asked her with a nervous feeling in my gut.


    "It means you''re good now but you were once an idiot. I didn''t raise you to be that way so I can only assume it came from your father''s side of the family." I sighed again. Would I ever be let out from under that cloud? It wasn''t as bad as it once was though. It was only brought up in extreme cases. "I''m just ying with you honey. You''re a great man and I know that. You will be a wonderful father."


    "Thanks, Mom." I smiled at her, the nerves still there but they were a little easier to bear right this minute.


    "So, Reece, tell me what your n for the nursery is. Let''s start with colors." I grinned at her since she didn''t know for a fact yet that the babies were indeed a boy and a girl. She also didn''t know the names that we had decided on. I hoped she would like them.


    "Well, I was thinking of doing most of the room in soft shades of yellow and green."


    "Oh, going for a neutral color? Are you not going to find out the genders before they''re born?"


    "No, we know, but I figure that we can use the same nursery in the future if we ever have another baby."


    "That''s a smart decision. We can move the babies to other rooms when they get older."


    "Exactly." I was so d that she was on the same page as me right now. That made things so much easier.


    "So, aside from the yellow and green, what were you nning?"


    "I want to paint trees on one wall, something that looks like a forest. Then I want to use glow in the dark paint for the ceiling and paint a starry night sky. There will be other symbols in the room as well that glow in the dark. The moon, paw prints, and other things associated with wolves, warlocks, and the pack."


    "I see you''ve put some thought into all of this." She was smiling but I sensed that there was still something wrong. "Have you talked to Trinity about any of this?"


    "No, I haven''t." I admitted and that made her look at me with concern.


    "You should know this already but pregnant women don''t often like surprises. You might want to talk to her about this first."


    "Alright, I will talk it over with her." I hung my head, now my ns would have to be changed since it won''t be a surprise anymore.


    "Good. Now, we need to make a list of all the stuff you need to buy. It will be a long list since you need to buy two of everything." She was starting to tick that list off on her fingers. "Two cribs, two swings, to dressers, two-." She stopped for a second. "You know if they''re boys or girls? Which are they?" It was like she had just let that part of the conversation hit her.


    "One of each, mom, one of each."


    "Really?" She was smiling happily. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Oh Goddess, this is perfect. Do you have names yet?"


    "Yes, Reagan and Rika."


    "OOOOOHHH! So adorable!" She was squealing happily. "I love them already. I can''t wait. I am going to be a Grandma." She was actually bouncing in her seat. I guess this was all going to be a good time as long as we had help like my mom.


    I went to talk to my Little Bunny when I got home. She was finishing up an assignment for her online courses.


    "Hey Sweetie." I called out to her when I went into our room.


    "Hey babe." She smiled at me, using one of the rare terms of endearment that she had reserved for me.


    "I wanted to talk to you about the nursery."


    "What about it?" She was confused.


    "Well, I told my mom today that I want to be the one to set it up. I want to paint it and put everything together."


    "That''s so sweet of you." She was smiling.


    "Yeah, but she said I needed to tell you what I had nned because pregnant women don''t like surprises."


    "Ahh, well most probably don''t, but you''ve been so great that I can''t say no to you."


    "Really?" I was skeptical. "You don''t mind if I do what I want?"


    "I''m sure it will turn out amazing, Reece. Just make what you''re nning a reality and I am sure I will love it."


    "You''re the best, Trinity. I love you."


    "I love you too."


    I was happy. Really happy. I had full right to make the nursery that was in my imagination. I was going to make the best ce for my babies that there ever could be. I would make it superfortable for Trinity for when she needed to be in there with them, or me since I wasn''t going to make her do it all. It was going to be the best nursery there ever was.

 Chapter 336 - Trinity - A Weekend Trip To Visit The Fae (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 336 - Trinity - A Weekend Trip To Visit The Fae (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece had made a point of saying that we shouldn''t wait too long before going to visit the Fae Queen. Queen Gloriana had told Acacia and Cedar that she wanted to meet me since I was a fellow queen and the Luna to her niece''s husband. I hoped that it would be a peaceful visit.


    When I told Reece that I wanted to go ahead with the visit halfway through September he was a little less than happy. He agreed to it still, but he wished that I had given him a little more notice.


    I called Acacia over and asked her to take me to visit Queen Gloriana. She was ted and excited. She had actually just gotten back not that long ago from visiting them when she had taken our friend Star to meet her Fae side of the family. Apparently, Queen Gloriana had mentioned me at that visit, asking when she was going to get to meet me.


    "This is going to be amazing. I will call Queen Gloriana right away. I will have her set up a whole banquet for you." Acacia was about to waddle out of the room excitedly.


    "Wait, I don''t need a baquet." I called out to her to stop her from making this into something bigger than it should have been.


    "Trinity, you know you''re a good friend, and I love you and all, but you need to learn how and when you need to act like a queen." Acacia looked as if she were scolding me.


    Acacia was right that we were friends now. We had gotten close over thest few months since she had mated with and married Cedar. I had been a little sad when I learned that they got married while I was gone in France, but then I learned that Queen Gloriana insisted on it. So I had no reason to object or be angry anymore. Not to mention that she was currently pregnant with Cedar''s triplets.


    There really were a lot of babies on their way here. Counting my twins, Juniper''s twins, Shawn''s and Dietrich''s sets of twins, E''s twins, Acacia''s triplets, Carter''s baby, David''s baby, and Shane''s baby there were currently sixteen babies on the way. Add to that the fact that Noah and Nikki just had recently had their baby that made a lot of little ones that were going to be so close in age. I couldn''t wait to have all the babies y together when they were older.


    Moving on from that though, I had to think about what it was she was saying. I was a queen, that was true. The thing was, I didn''t know how to act like a queen. I wasn''t raised with the idea of being royalty. I didn''t know what to do.


    "Casey, I don''t know what to do. How am I supposed to act like a queen?" She looked at me like she was a little confused. She had grown up around royalty so to her it was all normal, but for me it was all new.


    "Hmm, I think the best thing for you to think of is being a strict Luna. That might be the closest. You shouldn''t be so friendly with everyone. New people and non friends should be kept at arm''s length. There is nothing wrong with being friendly when you can be, but just try to be a little more regal at times."


    "That''s easier said than done." I cradled my head in my hands and sighed.


    "Just watch Queen Gloriana and be about twenty-five percent as regal as she is."


    "Only twenty-five percent, huh?" Iughed at her suggestion.


    "Well, she has been a queen for two thousand years. It''s hard to reach the level that she is at in such a short timeframe."


    "Yeah, especially considering that I have been a queen for about six months." I groaned as I leaned back in my chair. "You know, I never asked for any of this. I never wanted to be the Luna, and I didn''t want to be a queen two times over. But, now I have no choice but to live with it. Sometimes, things go way differently than you nned, and it''s not always bad. I wouldn''t change my life for anything."


    "That''s good. That is a very good approach to take. Now you just need to keep working on everything and you will be the best queen ever. Next to Queen Gloriana that is." Iughed at her response. Queen Gloriana was her aunt after all, I would never be better than her in Casey''s eyes.


    Casey set everything up and we were now scheduled to leave on Thursday. We would be gone for the weekend, returning most likely on Sunday night. It was going to be a bit of a whirlwind trip.


    Casey and Cedar were bothing with us to the Faepound, Casey was the guide and Cedar as a guard. The other guardsing with us were Vincent, Shane, David, Izzy, and Thoma. Gabriel wasing as well as my assistant.


    Per the guidance that Casey had given me I had decided that for the most part we should all dress the part. By that I meant that Reece would dress sharply in his best suits and I would look beautiful and regal in the dresses that Reece had been buying me just because.


    Gabriel always looked the part of an assistant with his crisp suits and a butler like attitude. The guards were going to look like they were some movie idea of a CIA detail to the president mixed with bouncers from a nightclub. They were all wearing ck, and ck, and ck. ck shirts, ck pants, ck shoes, even ck sunsses. It was literally too much and it almost made meugh just seeing them. Still, they had to act the part of my security detail.


    I also thought it was a little funny that I was this all powerful Queen with magic and that at my disposal but I couldn''t even leave my house to go shopping without half the pack behind me as babysitters. It was kind of annoying.


    When we actually left the estate to make the two hour drive to the Faepound we were in a limo. Most of the guards were spread out between two of the ck SUVs that Reece had bought before. Vincent, Cedar, Acacia, and Gabriel were riding with me and Reece.


    There was one SUV in front of the limo and one behind it. It was like a small motorcade with no police escorts. Though, we could have had one of those too, if we wanted. Rawlynne, Jackson, Devon, Andrew, we had our fair share of cops that would do that for us if we ever wanted or needed it.


    Hell, toplete the motorcade look there were even small gs with little trinity symbols on them adorning the limo. It was actually too much but I couldn''t say anything about it because I knew that I needed to act like I was an important person.


    While I rode in the car, nervously, I held Reece''s hand. The babies could obviously feel my nerves since they were being a little more active than usual. I felt them flopping around and pushing against my belly harder than I ever had before.


    "Ngh." I grunted a little when the babies seemed to be doing a conga line or something.


    "Is something wrong, Trinity?" Gabriel was the first to react to the sound I had made.


    "No, it''s just the babies are active right now."


    "Oh, I know how you feel, my trio never likes to sit still. It''s like when one is asleep the other two are awake and ying. I bet that''s how they''re going to be after they''re born too."


    "Hahah." Iughed at her, she probably had it worse than I did. She was even a little over two weeks further along than I was. "Yeah, it''s like they are never in agreement, huh?" I was stillughing.


    For the rest of the trip to the Faepound Casey and I talked about all the troubles we were having with our babies. We also shared the joys we were having and the happiness we knew we would be experiencing when the babies were here.


    In the background I could see Reece and Cedar talking about the worries they both had. Oddly enough it was like they both worried more for their mate than anything. They were both excited to be dads. I was also d to see that they were getting along. There was a time when Cedar hated Reece. It lessened over time, but it was definitely bad when I first met Reece. I''m d it was all good now.


    During this whole time I saw that Vincent was watching us all with a smile on his face. He was the only one among us that already had kids. I guess he was remembering back before his first had been born and the joy and nerves he and Heather had been experiencing.

 Chapter 337 - Trinity - Arriving At The Fae Castle (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 337 - Trinity - Arriving At The Fae Castle (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    When we arrived at the Faepound I saw that there was arge entourage waiting for us. We had only pulled up to the gate but they were already treating this like an official royal event. I think it was good that I took Casey''s advice and started treating this like something important.


    There was at least one man that I recognized at the gate. It was Breon, the leader of the envoy that hade to my wedding. He had, apparently, lessened his anger about Casey and Cedar''s mating since then but it wasn''tpletely gone.


    Nevertheless, he was at least acting diplomatic and proper at the current moment. Vincent was sitting next to the window that Breon approached so he lowered it slightly and allowed Breon to look in and see me.


    "Good day to you, Queen Trinity. It is lovely to see you again. We have been looking forward to your visit. If you and your retainers would kindly follow us to the garage we will get you inside and settled in."


    "Thank you, Breon. That would be much appreciated." I did my best to sound proper when I responded to him. I must have seeded because he gave me a smile and an approving nod.


    Breon went to the passenger seat of arge ck golf cart. Or at least that''s what it looked like. There was another man in the driver''s seat and a group of others standing around. The man in the golf cart began to drive at a slow and steady pace. This pace allowed those that were on foot to walk at a fast yetfortable pace as they moved with us.


    This entire process was a little strange to me so I had to ask Casey what was up.


    "Acacia, are those armed guards? Do they think that I am a threat?"


    "They are guards, yes, but they''re for your protection. Queen Gloriana is treating you with the respect that you deserve. She does not wish for you toe to any harm while you are here. If there were to be a danger to you while you are here the responsibility and burden for that would fall onto her shoulders."


    "Do you or the queen expect that there is a danger to Trinity while we are here?" Vincent had switched into his serious mode when he saw the armed guards that had surrounded our small caravan of vehicles.


    "Not at all. This is something that Queen Gloriana has always done for high ranking allies. She is showing you that she both epts and respects your position. This is actually a very high honor."


    "Really?" I was still at a loss and trying to figure out my response. Before I coulde to a reasonable reaction, though, we had made it to the garage that was attached to the castle.


    To break the confusion in my mind I made a joke to myself. It was just something stupid about when they might have added a garage for cars like this and what they might have kept here before hand. Horses, donkeys, giant butterflies, you know, stupid shit that would make me cringe if one of the Fae had actually heard what it was I was thinking.


    Most of the armed guards remained outside of the garage. They had positioned themselves so that they werepletely blocking the door from view until it was closed. Only two of the guards hade into the actual building and they were now standing behind Breon as he got out of the golf cart.


    I watched as my four guards that were in the SUVs started to exit the vehicles. I was supposed to wait until they came and opened the doors of the Limo and Cedar and Vincent had exited.


    As the queen in this situation I was to wait in the vehicle and be thest one to leave. That was a little annoying, but I understood it. Reece usually opened my door for me, as did Vincent, so I was usually thest one out when I went somewhere anyway.


    I watched through the windows as the nned movements were executed perfectly. David and Thoma got out of their SUV at the exact same time that Izzy and Shane got out of theirs. Shane and Izzy walked to the driver''s side of the Limo and opened the door while David and Thoma were on the passenger side doing the same.


    Cedar exited through the driver''s side and then helped Casey to her feet as she exited the limo. Vincent left the passenger side at the same time as Cedar. Behind Vincent, Gabriel was the next to leave through the passenger side of the limo.


    Reece followed after Gabriel and I watched as he straightened his suit briefly. As soon as he once again looked perfectly dreamy and mouth wateringly delicious Reece turned to hold his hand out for me. I was d it was him helping me out of the limo since I needed someone to help pull me to my feet. Reece used his grip on my hand and pulled while seamlessly sliding an arm around my waist and pulling me toward him.


    "Just rx and take it one step at a time." His voice was quiet and calm as he spoke to me softly. The words did their job, they calmed me down and helped me to put on a perfectly beautiful and regal smile.


    I saw that Breon and the armed guards were kneeling in front of me as were two other Fae that looked like servants of some sort. Their left legs were bent with the foot on the floor and their right knees were pressed against the floor. They also had their right arm bent so that their open hand was across their hearts. Their left arm was resting on their left thigh, hand in a fist.


    The entire kneeling scene was too much, but I couldn''t say anything about it so I just looked at them calmly.


    "Wee to thend of the Fae, Queen Trinity. We are honored by your visit." Breon spoke first only to be followed by the others as they spoke in perfect unison.


    "Wee Queen Trinity, we are honored to see you."


    "Thank you Breon, thank you everyone. I appreciate your warm wee." I nodded my head once in their direction as a way of showing that I epted their words and their wee. "Please rise."


    They did as I asked and rose smoothly and fluidly in one quick motion. I could see that these men before us were used to dealing with people that they considered important. I also felt good knowing that I counted among them.


    "Queen Trinity." A man I didn''t know spoke from behind Breon. "My name is Herrod, please allow me and my men to assist you during your visit." He bowed his head just a little with a smile on his face. He was a shorter man, maybe five foot seven. He was the only man present that didn''t make me feel too short. He had hair that was almost like a pastel rainbow, but it was just yellow, green, and blue. His eyes were a soft shade of orange and he looked more childlike than the others, however he seemed to be in charge of them.


    "Thank you Herrod."


    "It is my pleasure, Queen Trinity. Allow me to introduce those who will be assisting you. This here is Cilian, an archer with many talents. Here we have Fabian, an officer who doubles as a steward. Dirk, a soldier that is especially skilled in hand to handbat. And I am the captain of the Queen''s guards. Please let us know if there is anything that you need." Cilian was very tall and had hair that was yellow, orange and red like the setting sun that was long and pulled back into a knot at the back of his head and his eyes were a bright yellow. Fabian looked the most burly of them all, he was shorter than Cilian but still tall with big muscles and hair that looked like different fallen leaves in the middle of autumn, the colors perfectly matched his brown eyes. Dirk was just over six feet tall with short silver hair and ck eyes.


    "We appreciate that." Reece nodded to him. "As you might have guessed, we brought our own guards as well, to protect my wife."


    "Yes, King Reece, that is very understandable. We would expect nothing else."


    "Herrod, can you take me to see Queen Gloriana now?"


    "Most definitely. Please follow us.


    Herrod turned to face the men that were behind him. With a gesture he had them moving into a formation that had one of them on each side of our group. Breon stood in the front with Herrod and the two of them together led the way through the halls and into the Fae castle.

 Chapter 338 - Trinity - The Meeting Of Two Queens VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 338 - Trinity - The Meeting Of Two Queens VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It was a long walk from the garage to the throne room where we were to meet the Queen of the Fae. There were a lot of corridors that we had to twist and turn down. asionally we would pass others in the hall. I couldn''t tell if they were residents or workers in the castle. Still, every one of them looked at us with awe when we passed.


    Did their stunned expressions mean that I was dressed beautifully or did it mean that I had totally failed and I looked like a freak? I guess I wouldn''t know until I spoke to the Queen.


    I had thought that I looked good. My hair had been braided in an elegant style and was draped over my left shoulder. My makeup was perfect and light so as not to look too overpowering. And the dress I was wearing was full length and draped the floor. It was a light powder blue with an empire waist. There was a ck gold chain that went all the way around the waist and entuated my already rounding belly. The dress was strapless so there was a matchingce shawl that wrapped around my shoulders and gave me the appearance of being a little more elegant than I usually did. Paired with the dress was a pair of ck, crystal embellished Jimmy Choo sandals with four inch heels.


    Finally we reached the throne room. There were four guards standing outside the doors and as we approached two of the guards opened the door to match our walking speed while the other two guards lowered their heads in a sign of respect and deference.


    Inside the throne room there were dozens of people. There were at least twelve small throne-like chairs that lined the long aisle, six on each side. I had learned from Casey ahead of time that these were the nobles of court and they would most likely be in attendance for this meeting. Standing on either side of the aisle way, with no thrones in sight for them, were about three dozen more people that looked high ranking but a little lower than that of the nobles.


    At the end of the long carpeted aisle was a massive throne where the Queen of the Fae was sitting and waiting for us. She was seated on the throne and smiling at us as we made our way toward her.


    Queen Gloriana had long, flowing, ck hair that looked like it reached down to her bottom. Her eyes were a wonderfully luminescent shade of her sky blue. And her skin was a pale, nearly perfect shade of white. She was beautiful and definitely looked a lot more regal than I ever thought I would be capable of.


    Next to the Queen''s throne was a smaller, yet still borate, throne with a smiling man sitting next to her. ording to what Casey had told me, that throne would be upied with the Queen''s current arm candy.


    Queen Gloriana apparently had never found her mate but she had a lot of men she had fancied over thest couple millennia. I guess that was actually understandable. It''s just that I could never imagine a life like that. But, then again, I was mated so I only knew this life.


    Standing around the Queen''s throne were six women. What I would think of asdies in waiting. Apparently, Casey used to be one of them until she mated with Cedar. Being ady in waiting was one way to be part of court when you would otherwise be excluded.


    There were likewise men gathered around the consort''s throne as well, but there were only four of them and they didn''t look as pleased as the women did.


    Aside from the men and women that were essentially personal attendants for the Queen and her consort there were also guards standing watch at the front, back, and both sides. They looked highly efficient and good at their jobs.


    When we were close enough I saw that Breon and the guards were bowing, but I had been advised by Casey ahead of time to not bow fully. My guards did, as did Casey and everyone aside from Reece and myself. We were royals and we were not supposed to bow.


    Instead of the full bow that the others were doing, Reece and I lowered our heads with a smile.


    "Queen Trinity, thank you for taking the time to visit my court." Queen Gloriana spoke in a voice that was girlish and sounded young, it was soft but still carried through the whole room.


    "Thank you for the invitation, Queen Gloriana. I am honored to be granted this wonderful opportunity." I had been working hard to sound more regal and worthy of the title of queen. I needed to do as Casey said and start modeling myself after the Queen that was in front of me.


    "I am the one who is honored. You, Queen Trinity, are blessed by two different Celestial beings. That is an amazing and marvelous feat. Did you know that we Fae are descended from the Gods as well. We are more closely rted to them than even the shifter children. Some of us even used to be worshipped as goddesses and gods." She winked at the end of that. She was clearly telling me that she was once worshipped as a goddess. That was a little intimidating. "And now my people and your people are intertwined. I think this is a wonderful twist of fate. To me it feels as if the celestials that still hold ces in the heavens are trying to unite the world for one goal or another."


    "Yes, I do agree. I think it is marvelous and that we will be able to do much as allies." With that statement I told her that I was hoping to work together in the future and that I had nothing against the union of Cedar and Acacia.


    "Come, Queen Trinity, let us not take any longer. There is a banquet in your honor." I watched as Queen Gloriana rose to her feet then and beckoned me to follow her. "Let us walk together so that we may have a lovely conversation along the way."


    I made my way to her side and Reece stood in his ce behind me on the right. Queen Gloriana''s consort and current arm candy had risen and positioned himself opposite of Reece at his Queen''s left shoulder. With our consorts in ce our guards moved to stand around us as we made our way toward the banquet hall. Queen Gloriana wrapped her right arm around my left, holding onto me as we walked.


    "It is wonderful to meet you, Trinity my dear. I have so been looking forward to it. My dearest niece, Acacia, has told me much about you and your endeavors. It sounds like you''ve been through a lot. How are you holding up?" Queen Gloriana''s voice was soft and sweet, it made it easy to listen to her.


    "I am doing just fine, Queen Gloriana. Thank you so much for asking."


    "We''re both royals and I am hoping we may be friends my dear. Please, call me Gloriana, or even Glory. I know I am much older than you but that shouldn''t make a difference. We queens are timeless." There was just the slightest hint ofughter in her voice now. Just barely enough for me to tell that she was amused.


    "Yes, Gloriana, I hope that we may be friends as well. I think that would be a wonderful idea."


    "Excellent, excellent. I am sure we will have much to talk about during the banquet." Gloriana was patting my hand that she was holding with her left hand, our arms still linked together.


    As we approached the banquet hall I could smell the food that was being prepared for us. The scents were beyond delicious and intoxicating. I was nervous about eating any of the foods that were being prepared though. I had heard that humans shouldn''t eat foods prepared by the Fae, they could have ''interesting'' effects on them.


    I guess I wouldn''t be the one to get the effects though, since Gabriel was going to be acting as a proper guard attendant. At least that''s what he called himself. He was going to be taste testing all the food that I was supposed to eat. ording to Casey, it wasmon for visiting royal and diplomats to have an attendant or guard test their food if they did not yet trust the queen. I just hoped it wouldn''t offend Queen Gloriana. I would hate to do something that would cause us a political disaster and possibly start a war between the Fae and all of my shifters and warlocks. That would be unpleasant to say thest.


    ''Please, Nehalennia, let this meeting and banquet go smoothly. I really don''t want to cause any trouble.''

 Chapter 339 - Reece - Banquet (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 339 - Reece - Banquet (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    As soon as the Fae Queen asked us to join her for the banquet she had wrapped her arm around my Little Bunny and started out of the room. The movement that followed was quick and efficient. Her consort went to stand by her left shoulder and I went to stand by my mate''s right shoulder. The guards in the room, ours included, went to stand around the two queens. The guardsbined to form a protective circle. It was almost as if it had beenmunicated ahead of time, which it hadn''t.


    I listened in on the conversation between Queen Gloriana and Trinity as we walked. It seemed so odd to me to hear the way they were talking. I had never heard my Little Bunny talking so dignified and regal before today. It was different, but not in a bad way. It was actually kind of sexy. I wonder if she would let me use a fantasy role y with her Queen persona? Well, I guess we would have to wait and seeter.


    Finally our whole procession of guards, consorts, and queens made it to the banquet hall. There were once again guards standing at the door that opened them for us as we approached.


    There were so many people in front of us that I knew Little Bunny couldn''t see the room right away, even with the added height of those sexy shoes she was wearing. I was tall enough though, and I could see the whole room with ease.


    There were dozens of very long tables that had several people at them already. The entire group, hundreds of people in total, stood as soon as the doors had been opened and they were kneeling before their queen was in sight.


    Queen Gloriana didn''t hesitate at the door. She just kept walking up toward the table that was sitting on the raised dais at the far end of the room. There were two veryrge and veryvish throne-like seats in the middle of the table. On either side of those thrones were two smaller yet stillvish thrones, one on each side of the middle two. Those four thrones were the only seats that were at that table.


    While we walked I noticed Acacia stray from our group and go take her seat with her family among the other people that were gathered. She bowed along with them when she reached her seat.


    The Fae Queen pulled my mate along with her until they got to the dais. Four guards moved forward and pulled therge chairs away from the table. When it was ready for her to sit, Queen Gloriana pulled Trinity right along to therge thrones in the middle. The Fae Queen sat herself in the one on the left, from my view, and indicated that Trinity should sit in the identical throne to her right.


    "You sit here beside me, Trinity. And your consort can sit on your other side." Queen Gloriana smiled at me to indicate that I was allowed to go ahead and take my seat.


    I was going to move behind my Little Bunny to push her chair in for her but the guard that was behind her did that before I could. With a little bit of disappointment that I made sure not to show, I went to my seat. Before I could even think of pulling it in, another guard behind us pushed the chair in for me. That was a little awkward for me.


    I was starting to think that my Little Bunny wouldn''t be the only one that needed to learn how to act like a royal. I needed to be more like a king. I may only be the king because I was married to Trinity but that didn''t matter to me at all. I was a king and I was going to behave like one, at least when I had to.


    Once we were all seated the people kneeling rose from their positions and took their seats. That was when Queen Gloriana addressed the group atrge.


    "Wee my wonderful people. We have a special visitor today. She is the reason for this banquet this evening." The entire room was silent while she spoke, this was the type ofmand that I used to have as the Alpha. But that was before I had been outranked. "Our guest this evening is Queen Trinity Gray. She is the queen of all the shifters in the world as well as all the magic users. Both of these groups arerge and include many different people. The magic users don''t just include the witches and the warlocks, she is also the queen to the djinn and the genies. The shifter world is evenrger and more vast than that of the magical world. I imagine that Queen Trinity is going to be a very important ally for us in the future so I encourage you all to be very weing."


    That all sounded a little bit ominous to me. Was she implying that her people may have been aggressive, hostile, or somehow actively working against us without her warning? That would make me a very angry alpha indeed. And what exactly was she needing us as allies for? I didn''t intend for us to rush to her aid all the time simply because she needs our help. My people were not going to be her personal army.


    Still, we were in her territory for now so we needed to be careful. After that little speech it didn''t seem like anyone was going to talk anymore. Instead, servants started to carry inrge tters covered with food.


    I was expecting more human looking servants but it seemed that these ones were what was known as lesser Fae. I had studied up on Fae culture beforeing to this meeting, as had Trinity. We needed to make sure we didn''t offend someone identally. These servants that were carrying the trays were known as brownies or broonies, they were said to cook and clean for their masters as long as they are being provided for and not mistreated. Apparently brownies were capable of being very mischievous and pulling pranks.


    The brownies were small, about the size of a five year old child. All the brownies had a brownish color to them but that appeared to be caused by the thick hair that covered their bodies. The colors varied from a dark tan to the darkest of browns. Their eyes were varying shades of green, brown, hazel, and even pink. No blues though I noticed. They all wore very clean clothes for servants, not what I would have expected to seeing from the kitchen of a real life fairy castle. I think the thing that stood out most, though, was the fact that they didn''t have noses. They had nostrils but no actual nose. At most, a few of them might have had a small bump under the skin where their nose should have been.


    The brownies moved quickly throughout the hall, delivering tters to the table where we were first then distributing them all to the others. They moved very fast and didn''t seem to be struggling at all with the weight of the heavy looking trays.


    Once the food was distributed it was time to eat, but Trinity and I weren''t just going to start eating the food right away.


    "Please, Trinity, do enjoy your meal." Queen Gloriana invited my Little Bunny to eat her meal. With no need to prompt him, Gabriel walked over to Trinity''s side while Vincent walked to mine. The two of them then pulled a ck silk bag that was filled with an array of utensils. This package had been prepared by Gabriel for just this instance.


    The two of them worked inplete synchronization while they used different utensils to taste test all of the food. No one said a thing while the job was being done. Once they had eaten a bite of everything and sipped the drinks that were offered, wine for me and juice for my pregnant wife, we would wait for a few minutes to see if they were affected by them at all.


    "I see you are still wary of us here." Queen Gloriana still wore her smile as she spoke. "That is understandable. You do not yet know me. And I apud you for being prepared to do just his."


    Once the test time was over and there was nothing wrong with either man it was time to eat. I was just d that the two of them had used napkins to clean the goblets we were drinking out of, I was quite thirsty and the wine smelled amazing.


    The food was wonderful, and I was happy to see that there hadn''t been any sabotage aimed at us. I know that both Trinity and I were very nervous about this trip, it wasn''t likely to be as easy as we were hoping it would be.

 Chapter 340 - Trinity - Trouble Arises (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 340 - Trinity - Trouble Arises (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The taste testing of the food went a lot more smoothly than I had ever thought it would. Vincent and Gabriel acted like they had been doing it for years. Perhaps they practiced it and rehearsed it over thest few days. I was proud of them for what they had managed.


    Following the taste testing, and the next several uneventful minutes, it was time for us to eat. The fact that neither Gabriel nor Vincent got sick after waiting for several minutes meant that the food was safe for Reece and I to eat.


    The true implication of the food being safe meant that the Queen of the Fae was not actively working against us. Though I hadn''t missed the warning in her words. She had implied that there might have been those in her kingdom, possibly even those right here at this meal, that didn''t want her associating with me and my people.


    Who were my enemies here? Who were the people that didn''t want me here? What were they likely to do to me because I was here? The possibilities were endless in my mind. I just didn''t know what any of them were truly capable of.


    The meal was delicious. Once I stopped worrying so much I actually allowed myself to enjoy it. There were a lot of dishes that I had not tried before. There was something that looked like miniature mincemeat pies but were actually more like a shepherd''s pie. What I had taken for the pastry on the outside was actually a golden brown coating of potatoes and it was stuffed with the beef and vegetable mix. That was the most normal of the dishes that I had seen.


    There were also plenty of dishes that were also a lot more fancy than those pies. There was a leafy sd that was made with brightly colored vegetables that I had never seen before. The soup we were served was thick and blue. There were very few meats that I could tell you for certain what they were but they all tasted good. Everything was good to be honest. It just all looked different than anything I was used to seeing.


    While we were eating Queen Gloriana asked me a few different questions. I wanted to ask questions as well instead of just answer, but I didn''t really know what I should ask. I was nervous and I wasn''t certain what I was allowed to ask and what I wasn''t. I mean, what can you ask an eternally young immortal Faerie Queen?


    "I hear that the warlock that was causing a big issue over thest few years has finally been defeated. Was that your doing, Trinity?" I didn''t know if she was friends with my father or not, but I was going to air on the side of no. If she was a conspirator to Edmond then I don''t think that Acacia would have been able to stay with us.


    "Yes. I killed him a couple of months ago, following a training trip to France."


    "That is marvelous. I am d that he has been eliminated. He was causing so many problems for the supernaturalmunities. If we didn''t end his shenanigans soon then he would havepletely exposed us to the humans."


    I was a little upset that Queen Gloriana referred to the death of so many innocent people as nothing more than shenanigans. Though, I guess when you''ve lived as long as she has you start to get a little desensitized to the issues going on around you. She had lived for over two thousand years. That meant she saw quite a few wars between the humans. The massive loss of lives during them all. I guess inparison the crisis with Edmond was minor when put next to things like the world wars and all those other tragedies the world has faced.


    "Is it true that Gannon was your father?" I didn''t detect any judgement in her voice, but to be fair she had hidden all of her emotions since I had met her.


    "Yes. The warlock known as Gannon Cornelius Edmond was my father."


    "I am sorry that it came down to you having to destroy your own father." She didn''t show any emotion yet again but still I felt the sincerity of her words.


    "It''s fine. I didn''t consider myself rted to him. He was nothing more than a sperm donor, a DNA source to make me. He was a monster and I would never consider him my family. My dad, the only man worthy of that title, was a million times better than Edmond."


    "That''s wonderful, Trinity dear. I am d that you have a family that you love. Family is very important."


    "Do you spend much time with your family?" I had to know what it was like for a Queen to have a family.


    "Not as much as I would like. I myself have not yet had children but I still love my family dearly."


    "You don''t have children?" That surprised me. How could you be more than two thousand years old and not have a child.


    "I would like to have a child of my own, but I have yet to find the right consort for me. I have been fully tested by doctors that are not human. They have done all they need to do and assure me that the issue lies not within my own body. So, my only conclusion is that I have not found the proper father for my children yet. I hope to feel that connection as strongly as my niece, Acacia has. She and her mate have been very lucky as ofte."


    I saw the wistful longing in Queen Gloriana''s eyes. She was a person who cared deeply for those that were close to her and longed for that bond between a woman and the baby in her womb. Subconsciously I put my hand on my belly and felt the firm roundness that was my babies growing inside of me. I wished that I could do something for Queen Gloriana, something to help her find her mate.


    The banquet was justing to an end. The conversation was going great. Everything was perfect. I should have known that it wasn''t going tost.


    There was amotion on the far side of the door. It started as just raised voices. There were two people arguing and the whole hall had turned their attention to the two that were causing a scene.


    "No Grier, don''t do this. I''m begging you." A woman''s high shrill and high pitched voice rang through the hall.


    "Let me go Frida. I need to do this. I need to make my point." An anger filled male voice responded to her pleading.


    "No Grier. I don''t want to lose you. Please." The woman was sobbing as she begged the man.


    "Shut up, woman. I will not sit idly by."


    There was a loud sound, skin on skin, like the man in the argument had pped the woman very hard. It was at that point that the man, Grier, broke free. The woman, Frida, was sobbing on the floor. It looked as if Frida had been clutching at Grier, trying to hold him back and stop him from doing whatever it was he was about to do.


    Frida looked like a small woman. She appeared to be at least four inches shorter than me, at least. Her hands were tiny and even though her face looked like that of a grown woman I couldn''t help but think that she was a child. Her light green hair and vivid purple eyes gave her an even closer likeness to a child.


    Grier was about my height, thin and angry looking. He had bright yellow hair that was unruly and looked to be all over the ce. His eyes were a bright red that looked like someone had painted them onto his face. And they were looking at me with such anger that I could physically feel.


    "No, Grier, please." Frida called after the man again as he marched his way toward the dais.


    "I refuse to ept this person into ourpound. She will only bring destruction to us. The queen had been steadily losing her touch. She is no longer fit to rule us. I propose a revolution. I say that we need a new leader. Kill the Queen, kill the intruder, and let us take back control of our people."


    I felt my heart stop. Those words were filled with so much hate, so much anger and animosity. And worst of all, if anyone took his words to heart and started to attack things could get ugly.


    Would I be seen as a viin if I protected myself? Would I be able to save us all? I surely hope so because I refuse to lose anyone. I would not let me, my babies, my husband, or my friendse to any harm.

 Chapter 341 - Trinity - How A Queen Deals With A Traitor (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 341 - Trinity - How A Queen Deals With A Traitor (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    My anger was boiling. My heart was pounding. Those angry words were reverberating inside of my ears. Not to mention I could sense the rageing off of Reece and all of the guards that were standing around us.


    I could even sense a small amount of angering from the Queen of the Fae as she stared down as her disloyal subject. The level of emotions she was emitting was astronomicalpared to what I was getting from her earlier. This was apletely different queen that was sitting next to me. Her entire aura, her very essence feltpletely different. This was bad.


    I wanted to turn to look at Queen Gloriana. I desperately wanted to see the look on her face. I wanted to see if her eyes were glowing. Perhaps there was a small personal windstorm that was kicking up her hair and blowing it back so that she looked like she was a badass while she gathered her power.


    I didn''t look though. To turn my head and look at her would have diminished my regal appearance. I was working hard not to show how much that man''s words had bothered me. I didn''t want him or the others to know how angered I was by what he had said. Hell I was beyond angry, I was righteously fucking pissed off.


    Just as the tension in the room reached a fever pitch, just as the silence grew too intense to bear, Queen Gloriana finally spoke.


    "Grier, you seem to have some very big issues with me. Is there something that has brought this on?" She was speaking calmly, a lot more calmly than I would have been capable of if I was in her position.


    "What brought this on?" Grier scoffed at her. "Yes there was something that brought this on. You are ruining our people. First you let your nephew impregnate a wolf almost twenty years ago. Then you let your niece mate with a wolf. Now you invite the Queen of the wolves here to be our allies and act like we''re all the best of friends. Can you not see that they''re trying to take over the world? Can you not tell that they are nothing but trouble. They want to take our power from us. They want to take your position as the Queen of the Fae and rule over us as well. I will not stand for this."


    Grier was both well informed and dreadfully undereducated about what was going on. How could he think that I wanted something like that? What could possibly make him think that I wanted to rule over the fae? That was simply ridiculous.


    "Grier, dear sweet Grier, I am sorry to tell you this but you are so far from the truth that there is no finding your way back." Queen Gloriana didn''t sound condescending. Her words weren''t the nicest but they weren''t the worst. And yet I could still feel the derision that she was throwing toward him. That was a skill I needed to master.


    "Do not mock me, Queen Gloriana. For it is we the people of this Kingdom that hold your fate in our hands." The threat was clear in his words. He was telling her to shut up or die. I sincerely wished that the man would smarten up and shut his mouth already. I didn''t want to get blood on my dress.


    I did finally look at Queen Gloriana at that point. There was just too much going on for me not to follow the shouting between them like I was at a tennis match. The ball was now in Gloriana''s court and it was up to her to figure out what she was going to do next.


    The moment I saw Queen Gloriana''s face though, I wished I hadn''t. There was an icy chilling off of her that I had been oblivious to until I finally looked at her face. The anger that was rolling off of her was actually sucking the oxygen from the air around her. I felt it intensely now, since I was sitting so close to her.


    I noticed that the Queen''s consort who was sitting on her other side was leaning as far from her as he possibly could. I wished I knew his name then, since it looked like he was about to die from fright. Sorry unnamed consort, I hope you can hold out a little while longer.


    "Grier, you know you have gone too far. I had hoped you would prove somehow that this was beyond your control. I had hoped that something or someone would have forced this upon you. You used to be such a wonderful boy."


    "Stop talking to me like I am a child, you old hag." Grier was screaming now. "I am almost two hundred years old, I am not a child anymore."


    "The way you are behaving reeks of childishness." I snapped at the man. "Throwing a temper tantrum like you are. Behaving like your friends are your enemies just because someone new came into the picture. That is the very definition of childish behavior if you want my opinion on the matter."


    "No one asked you, wolf bitch." Grier''s voice was filled with a palpable rage that was so strong I could literally feel it pressing against my skin. It didn''t hurt. It didn''t even annoy me. In all honesty it felt like nothing more than a gentle massage along my skin.


    "Watch your mouth if you don''t want it taken from you." Reece stood then, his anger much stronger than that of the insolent man who was throwing his tantrum. "If you speak to my mate like that again you will lose more than your ability to talk."


    "Are you threatening me?" Grier looked like he was justified now. "You see what I mean. They are nothing but violent animals. They are here to kill us all."


    "The only one who is behaving violently is you, Grier. My mate is the Alpha King, it is his job to protect me. You are being disrespectful and vtile. There is nothing eptable about the way you are conducting yourself at the moment." I was doing my best to keep myposure but it was so damn hard.


    "I will show you vtile, you half breed mongrel."


    Grier took one step, moving just that little bit closer toward the dais. That was all it took for me to ready my magic and prepare to restrain him. It had been unnecessary though. Before I could do anything at all the Queen''s magic exploded next to me.


    With a rush of wind so powerful that it nearly ripped the shawl from my shoulder Queen Gloriana''s magic rushed toward Grier. One second he was on his feet and stepping closer to us and the next second he was suspended in the air.


    There were five bands of light holding the man in ce. They weren''t friendly looking bands either. The light was a green so dark that it looked like there was ck swirling in its shining depths.


    The bands were wrapped around Grier at every normal ce you would think of. One wrapped around each wrist, one wrapped around each ankle, and one wrapped tightly around his neck.


    Queen Gloriana was on her feet now. The magic she was exuding was raising her off of the dais and was moving closer to the man that was suspended in the air. And her hair was indeed blowing around her like I imagined it would have been earlier. Only, it was blowing a lot harder than I expected.


    "I tried to warn you off calmly, Grier. I tried to let you save face and receive a lesser punishment than what you are going to receive right now. I really didn''t want to do this in front of our guests but you have left me no choice. You have repeatedly threatened not only me but our guests as well. They are here at my invitation. They are not usurpers, they are not intruders or invaders. They are honored guests." Queen Gloriana sighed then like the next part of her speech was going to be very difficult. "I truly wish you would have listened to your wife. You should never havee out here. You should have given this all up before you even got started. Now I have no choice but to punish you as a traitor to the crown."


    "This will only strengthen my point. You are going to steel the resolve of those that agree with me. You are just making me a martyr."


    "I sincerely hope that no one is as stupid as you are Grier. And I hope that you serve as a lesson to those that wish to follow in your footsteps."


    "No, I will not be a lesson, I will be a hero. I will be known as the man who started the revolution. I will be-." That was thest of what Grier had to say.


    Well, to be fair he probably had more to say, but he didn''t have the time to say it before it was toote.


    Queen Gloriana ced one hand on the man''s chest where he floated in front of her. In an instant his entire body seemed to explode withrge thick vines. They poured out of every part of his body that they could. Vines came from his eyes, his nose, and his mouth. There were vinesing from where his eyes had been, the eye balls themselves skewered on the tips of them. There were even vinesing from his rectum. Not to mention he seemed to being apart at the seams with the vast amount of vines that were filling his insides. It was all very graphic and very disgusting.


    I would have been sttered with the blood that flew from the man when he died if it hadn''t been for the shields that I threw up at thest second. The blood and other fluids just collided with the invisible wall in front of those of us that were still at the table.


    I wanted to show that I was stillposed and not at all bothered by the scene, even though it scared the shit out of me. Still, I needed to act like this was nothing so that the Fae would not lose respect for me. So, to show that I was unaffected, I just picked up my goblet from the table, took a sip, and turned toward Reece.


    "That was very exciting, don''t you think so?" The shock that flitted across Reece''s face told me that he hadn''t expected me to seem so calm.


    I guess that means I seeded.

 Chapter 342 - Trinity - Private Meeting (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 342 - Trinity - Private Meeting (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The excitement, if that''s what you want to call it, died down pretty quickly following the demise of Grier. It''s funny how fast an execution can stall a party. Now we were all left wondering what to do next.


    Queen Gloriana, surprisingly, didn''t have a drop of blood on her after what she had just done. I thought for sure she would have been soiled somewhere, but I was wrong.


    I watched as she stood there, looking a hell of a lot more dangerous and powerful than I had thought possible. She looked around the room and spoke to the gathered crowd in a loud, firm voice that was sure to send shivers down many of their spines when they heard the sinister undertones in it.


    "I hope that this will act as a lesson to all of you. I will not tolerate baseless usations or idiotic disys of revolution. If any of you ever decide to truly try and overthrow me you have bettere up with something better than this pathetic scheme. And whoever put poor Grier up to this had better change their ns, and quickly. I will not take this lying down."


    There was a thrumming of power in her voice as she spoke. I had noticed something simr when Reece and I had spoken to people with our full timbre of authority. It was definitely something else when you heard that, and I could only imagine what it felt like to have to obey amand like that.


    "Now, all of you may leave. Get out of here. Leave my sight at once." It was easy to tell that Gloriana was in a bad mood. She wasn''t speaking politely like she was earlier. She was letting the dark side of the Fae Queen out to y right now. That was both exciting and scary. I was d at that moment that I was not part of her kingdom.


    Having no way to refuse her Queen, Acacia was forced to leave the hall with everyone else. Though I did notice her looking over her shoulder as she mouthed an apology to me.


    ''I am so sorry, Trinity.''


    Great, now I was being left alone with the Fae Queen. I wonder what will be happening to us now. Was she going to go back to the nice Queen that we had met earlier, or was she going to stay this rage filled goddess that I could see before me right now?


    Once the room was cleared of everyone except for those of us that had been on the dais Queen Gloriana turned to look at me.


    "I am sorry for the interruption to our lovely dinner, Trinity." She was talking like the nice Queen Gloriana now but I could still see the angry glint in her eyes. "Please, won''t youe with me to my private study? I wish to talk to you some more." I saw that she had her hand extended toward me, beckoning me toward her.


    "I believe that will be a most wonderful idea, Gloriana. Thank you for the invitation."


    At those words Gabriel came forward and pulled my chair back for me. At the same time Vincent pulled the chair back for Reece while another attendant guard pulled back the consort''s chair. Once we were all on our feet I let Reece escort me down to where Gloriana was waiting for me.


    "Please my dear, follow us." I watched as Goriana wrapped her arm around her consort''s arms and let him begin to guide her. "Curtis, my darling, will you do me the honor of escorting us to my private study?" Well, I guess I finally learned the nameless consort''s name. That made him the named consort now though and that just didn''t have the same ring to it. Oh well, I would have to get my internalughs elsewhere.


    Hey, I needed something to keep the humor going or I would lose my mind in this ce. I wasn''t used to acting so serious all the time, I usually only kept up the serious stuff when on official pack business. This day was already so draining and exhausting. I just couldn''t wait for it to be over.


    Curtis led us out a side door on the opposite side of the banquet than the door the others left through. He then guided us down a very long and empty hallway. There were no servants in sight and no other residents either yet there were several doors that were shut along the way.


    Eventually Curtis had reached a door just before the end of the hallway. This door, and almost every door we passed along the way was very borately decorated. There was a pattern of vines and flowers engraved into the heavy looking oak door. The wood was old and aged and looked beautiful with not a drop of a wood stain or gloss coating anywhere to be seen, it was just polished until it could shine. There were however, several gemstones and what looked like real flower petals emzoned into the carved design.


    An attendant guard stepped forward and opened the door just as we had reached it. I watched as Curtis let go of Gloriana''s hand and stepped aside and she entered the room.


    "Come, Trinity,e speak with me while my men get your husband and guards situated."


    I could sense the apprehension that wasing off of Reece when he heard those words, but I wasn''t afraid. I could tell that despite all the worry and tension, Queen Gloriana was not going to do me any harm. If that was her intention, then why did she put an end to what that man was saying. She would not have killed one of her own people for me if she meant to harm me herself. At least that was my reasoning anyway.


    "That would be wonderful, Gloriana, thank you. Reece, you and the others settle in. I will have someonee for you when we are done here."


    Oooohh! I could tell that my Fido didn''t like that very much at all. He didn''t want me leaving his side. He had actually told me that before we left. Oops. There wasn''t much I could do about it right now. Did you really want to piss off a Queen who just made vines shoot out of someone''s ass? I don''t think so.


    ''Go Reece. I will be fine.'' I sent the message telepathically through my mental connection to him. I also offered simr words offort to the others. After a moment''s worth of hesitation they all took their leave.


    With the others gone, Gloriana pulled me into the room behind her. I saw that there was arge, ornate desk that was made from more aged oak, this time the wood wasn''t just polished, it was trimmed with gold. That beautiful desk was sitting near arge firece that seemed to be burning magically, since there was no wood and the colors of the mes kept changing from pink to blue to green, then purple and back to pink.


    Aside from the desk the room contained arge lc colored chaise lounge and a fewfortable looking armchairs that were in the shape of and colored like butterflies. There were a few different tables, several disy cases, and shelves built into the walls that were filled to the brim with books that seemed to shine in the light. Most of those books were probably trimmed in gold as well. I desperately wanted to look at some of them.


    "Please, sit Trinity." Gloriana indicated one of the butterfly chairs, it was made with shades of blue and ck and it looked like a Crowned Hairstreak butterfly. The chair that Gloriana sat in had a slightly greenish hue to the primary color and it was shaped like a Queen Alexandra''s Birdwing butterfly.


    Once we were both seated Gloriana shook her whole body as if she were a dog or something. It was like Gloriana was shaking away her anxiety or something. Only when she spoke next I saw she was actually shaking away her Queen persona.


    "Hahh, this has been quite the exhausting day already, hasn''t it." She was smiling at me as if she and I were the best of friends just having a friendly chat.


    "That it has." I smiled at her, epting her invite to speak like friends.


    "Seriously, Trinity, I wish I could be more like you. I imagine you don''t have to deal with the same level of politics that I do. I envy you for that."


    "While that is true, I also know that I need to act like a proper Queen as well."


    "Oh phooey, what is a proper Queen anyway. It''s your kingdom and your people, you get to set the rules. I would change mine if I could but my people have had the same rules for eons." I watched as she rolled her eyes. "Now then, let us get on to some proper girl talk."


    I was surprised to see and hear Gloriana giggle then. Herugh was musical and it lit up her whole face. I would tell that deep down she just wanted to be herself more. I was really truly d I didn''t have this lifestyle all the time. It was hard enough already. Though I also knew that eventually it would probably get to that point, once the entire shifter world knows about the Luna Queen. They will all raise their children and then their children''s children to respect me and my children.


    The real kicker though was that I didn''t even know how long I was going to live for. I mean, Gabriel said my life would be longer than average. What did that even mean?


    Now that things were calmer, though, Gloriana and I got right down to talking about the fun side of being a girl.


    "Oh please, tell me you do not actually call him Fido." Queen Gloriana wasughing so hard at the moment. "That is too perfect. And he really calls you his little bunny? Where did that evene from?" Sheughed repeatedly as I told her harmless story after harmless story.


    There hadn''t been quite as many funny stories from Gloriana but she did tell me about her life. I guess being a Queen made it so you didn''t get to have as much fun.


    Curtis, the current consort, was Gloriana''s fifteenth consort. She had never married any of them but she would spend at least a hundred years with them before she swapped them out for a new one. Apparently the selection process was very rigorous and she could spend years looking for the next one.


    She indeed did not have any children. She also expressed sadness about that. I could imagine her depression. To go that long with so many different men and not find the one meant to be yours. That had to be hard. And the fact that you are the queen so you basically know every single person in your kingdom so it''s not like she was missing a mate opportunity, unless her mate was not a Fae. That was a possibility too, I guess.


    There was a lot we talked about over the course of approximately two hours or so. It was fun, and really nice, getting to know the Fae queen. It was nice to see that even if I do be a true regal queen I could still be myself when there weren''t any unfamiliar people around. As long as I was around those close to me I could be the real me.


    When our chat was finally over I connected to Reece mentally.


    ''Little Bunny? Are you alright? What''s taking so long?''


    ''I am fine, Reece, we just chatted for a while. I am ready toe to our room for the night though.''


    ''I wille get you right away.'' I pictured him jumping out of a chair toe rushing toward me.


    ''Someone is one their way to get you, he should be there soon.''


    When Reece saw me, safe and unharmed, she seemed to let just a little bit of his emotions slip. I could tell that he was relieved for sure.


    "Let us go, Reece. I am tired and wish to retire for the rest of the evening."


    "I will send someone to your room with a light evening snack, Trinity. You need to keep up with your food intake, for those babies you''ve got in there."


    "Thank you Gloriana.

 Chapter 343 - Reece - Touring The Compound (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 343 - Reece - Touring The Compound (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    When my Little bunny disappeared with Queen Gloriana for hours on end I thought I was going to die. I didn''t know what was about to happen to her. After that crazy mess the baquet turned into I thought that she was going to die or something. It was horrible.


    She didn''t find anything wrong with it though. Does she not know how precious she is to me? Does she not realize that she is carrying precious cargo with her? What the hell am I going to do with that woman?


    She came back though. Thank the Goddess. And nothing bad happened at all. Apparently she just spent the night getting to know the queen. She was basically saying that Queen Gloriana was happy to have another Queen that she could be friends with. That was awkward, but OK.


    The next day, our first full day in the Faepound, we were going to be given a full tour. Queen Gloriana, understandably, didn''t have the whole day free to devote to us. So we would eat breakfast with her, explore and get to know people, and finish the day by having a private dinner with her.


    The guards would, once again, eat their meals in their rooms or in a separate room in shifts. I felt bad making them wait like this but they had done it before when on guard duty. And if we started making things more like a real royal kingdom then we would have to make this a part of their daily life.


    Another thing we would need to make certain of was training proper guards for the estate and the city. During our time walking through thepound on our tour I noticed several guards in disguise. They were positioned in ces that were supposed to be inconspicuous but they were noticeable to me.


    They were supposed to just sit there and observe, I could tell that was their main job, and since we got to decide where to go on a whim I knew they weren''t following us. No, they were just a covert set of guards.


    Maybe I could implement that strategy with Colorado Springs. It will be a little harder of course, but not impossible. I already had guards patrolling in and around ourpound but that wasn''t enough. I needed to stop threats before they got to my front door.


    There was also a lot more happening inside the Faepound than what I had expected. I knew that they would be self sufficient, that was obvious because they didn''t often go out into the human worlds. However, they had a lot of services and buildings that I hadn''t expected to see.


    Despite the clear Scottish and Celtic styles all around thepound, there was a lot of Greek history showing in the way this ce was built as well. There was a wide open za that was halfway through the entire area that looked to be a meeting ce for the residents of their little ''city'' they had here. There was a covered walkway that the Greek used to call a Stoa. The columns here didn''t have that white marble feel to them, instead they were either made of borately carved wood or some ancient looking stone.


    Aside from the Greek touches they had an array of buildings that weren''t just the other residences, which there were a lot of. They had a theater that was in the style of one from Victorian Ennd. There were bath houses like those found in Japan. They had farms, shops, tailors, all sorts of craft buildings.


    The entire ce looked like a hodgepodge of different periods in time from different ces all over the world. I guess when your average citizen is almost a millennia old then you have a lot of world history under your belt.


    Oddly enough though, there was nothing really wrong about it all. Everything just seemed to fit properly with the surroundings. The whole ce was ancient and ssic mixed with modern and sophisticated.


    The whole ce had running water, indoor plumbing, and electricity. Though there had been an exnation about the electricity being more magic than anything else so I wasn''t sure what to exin it as.


    There were also more people than I had expected. There were maybe two or three hundred people in total at the banquet, but looking around thepound I saw that there were a lot more people than that. Perhaps those that weren''t at the banquet were too low ranked.


    Then there were the people who didn''t look human like. We werewolves are not human but we still look like them, most of the time. However, there were several different types of Fae and not all of them looked human all the time.


    Apparently, the stronger their magic the longer they could look human outside of thepound. Eventually though, they would lose their touch with the earth and all of them would revert back to their nature form.


    The Fae were born looking like humans, same as we shifters were. And they too had another form. They didn''t call it an animal or beast like we did though. No, the Fae seemed to call it their nature form. This was what they looked like in the legends.


    In their nature forms they would change a lot. A gnome would shrink down and look just like a real garden gnome, minus the funny clothes. Pixies were indeed tiny little creatures that had faerie dust sprinkle from their wings when they flew. Dryads were colored like trees and often had leaves and roots on their bodies. It was all quite interesting and made me think about Cedar and Acacia''s future babies.


    Things went well during the tour. We had met a lot of new people that treated Trinity well. I, for some reason, was treated as nothing more than an essory on Trinity''s arm. I might as well have been a piece of furniture she was lugging around.


    I guess that is what happens when your world was run by an unmarried Queen that didn''t have a proper King. I would definitely be happy to get home and back to our way of life.


    Trinity was learning a lot though. And I noticed that she was acting so much more like a real Queen with each new person that she met. Pretty soon it would be hard to tell that she hadn''t been born a royal.


    Well, to be honest, I guess she was born a royal, it''s just that no one knew about it. The difference in her attitude over thisst day was astounding though. I couldn''t wait to see her acting like a proper Queen to her people.


    Not everything was sunshine and smiles though. There were a few people that gave me pause even before Vincent put a hand on my arm to get my attention. Every time that had happened I would lean in and he would tell me what it was he had sensed about the person we had just met.


    Some of his warnings included things like:


    "This man is extremely weary of the wolves. It is quite possible his fear could be violence."


    "This woman is jealous of Queen Trinity''s apparent closeness with the Fae Queen and she gives off a vindictive nature."


    "This man seems off. I cannot pinpoint it but he does not seem at all friendly toward us in his heart."


    Thatst one he had said was about a man who was enthusiastically shaking my hand. It was true that the Fae could be tricksters. Most however, couldn''t lie. Or so the legends said. But they were also noted to have a really good ability to stretch and manipte the truth so that you always believed in them, no matter what.


    I hoped that wasn''t true.


    Still, it was nice to be heading home the next day. Queen Gloriana had invited us toe visit again as she hugged my Little Bunny gently. She sent along a gift for Trinity, a book that she had apparently prepared herself. In the book Trinity, the new queen, would find ways to act and behave more regally. That was actually really nice and useful.


    I was once again in the back of the limo with my Queen as we headed home. I was exhausted and sighed the moment we were out of their territory.


    "Hahhh." I pulled my tie loose and flopped my head back against the seat. "That was fucking exhausting."


    "It was busy, but I don''t think it was too bad." My pretty little mate just didn''t get the difference in what we had gone through this weekend.


    "Little Bunny, no offense, but your point of view is skewed on this." I got a grimace from her when she heard my words.


    "Meaning?" She wasn''t happy. I saw that Vinent and Cedar wereughing slightly when they heard how differently we saw the trip. Acacia was just smiling.


    "You were all they cared about. To them I was nothing but a decoration that was to look good and not talk."


    "Wasn''t that my intended role when we mated?" She raised an eyebrow at me. "So you''re no good with a simple role reversal? Hypocrite." She was giggling now.


    "This was different from that of a Luna. You still had a job to do. In Fae culture I would be nothing but the sex toy for the Queen."


    "Hmm, that sounds like a really good definition." That made Cedarugh hard.


    "Face it, Reece, this is how the Fae culture is. If Acacia was the Queen then I would be nothing but the Queen''s personal sex machine. At least it''s a good job to have. Enjoy it."


    "Are you lusting after my wife?" I growled at Cedar even though I knew it wasn''t true. I had to break the tension somehow. After I saw the fear on Cedar''s face Iughed, showing them that I was joking.


    Still, that had been an exhausting trip.

 Chapter 344 - Trinity - Shopping Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 344 - Trinity - Shopping Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    A few days after we got home from our visit to the Fae I wanted to start preparing in any way that I could. I knew that I wasn''t the only woman needing to prepare for multiple babies, let alone the few expecting multiples. Me, Juniper, Acacia, Emmalee, E, and Rawlynne were all due between November, December, and January. Andbined the six of us would be having eleven babies. That was a lot to prepare for.


    I needed to get everyone a gift. I needed to buy stuff for my babies. And now that I am looking at the calendar I see that it is almost the anniversary of the first day that Reece and I met. Well, there is the day we scented each other for the first time and then the day we met which are two days apart from each other. It was still an anniversary though, and I wanted to celebrate it.


    I was a little more than half of the way through my pregnancy and I was getting big. Acacia was bigger and a little more than two weeks further along. Juniper was about two weeks behind me and catching up to me in size. E was our other one having multiples, twins that were due near the end of November.


    I really wanted to go out shopping. I wanted to buy stuff for my babies and not just others. I remembered when I was still in the beginning of my pregnancy and bought all that baby stuff for Elias. He was such a cute baby by the way. I love him so much and I love it when Nikki brings him over for me to see.


    It was going to be different though. I was going to have my own baby. Two of them in fact. And I wouldn''t just visit with them. No, with my babies I was going to take care of them all day every day. I couldn''t wait for them to get here.


    I called Juniper to ask her something very important. I knew that she was doing sses remotely now, same as I was. It would be easier for us with all the important things we had to do all of the time. Not to mention when the babies were here.


    "Hey Trin, what''s up?" Juniper answered right away. She was probably as bored of the lesson as I was.


    "Hey Ju, do you want to go shopping with me?" I could hear the excitement in my own voice as I spoke.


    "What for?"


    "Oh, I don''t know. I need an anniversary gift for Reece, I need to get a new pair of shoes. I want to buy a bunch of baby stuff."


    "Baby stuff?" That had her excited. "You read my mind girl. I have been meaning to go shopping soon too. I haven''t bought a single thing for the babies just yet.


    "Well, then let''s go." Iughed at her. "I will be there to pick you up soon."


    "Don''t keep me waiting."


    I got ready to go and made my way downstairs. I was running out of clothes that would fit me properly. This was going to be a problem. Maybe I should buy some maternity clothes as well. I guess I was going to be doing a lot more shopping today than I thought.


    Reece was in the office so I made my way to see him before leaving. Noah was in the room but other than that we were alone.


    "Reece." I called out in a happy and sweet voice when I went into the room.


    "Hey Little Bunny." Reece smiled at me the same way as he always did.


    I watched him as he watched me. It was weird but true. He was watching me walk toward him and I was watching him as I walked toward him. I didn''t miss the happy look or the heat in his eyes that he had just from watching me.


    "Good morning, Trinity." Noah seemed a little perturbed by my interruption.


    "Good morning Noah." I finally stopped watching Reece and turned back to look at my cousin turned brother.


    "Did you need something?" Noah really didn''t like it when I interrupted them because Reece got all lovey dovey and that apparently made Noah think about hitting his best friend and Alpha. I knew that Noah still thought of me as a little girl. I don''t know why but he did.


    "Well." I was acting a little sheepish since I needed to get something from Reece that he had hidden from me. "I want my keys to the Jeep." I watched as Reece raised a suspicious eyebrow. Judging by the hole that was now in my back, Noah was ring at me with a simr look.


    "Why?" Reece didn''t have an angry voice but I could tell that he was not happy to hear what I wanted.


    "I want to go shopping with Juniper." I gave my best innocent smile I could muster. "I want to buy some stuff for the baby and some more maternity clothes. Everything I have is too small now."


    "Can''t you wait until I am off of work?" He always looked like a little puppy when he was sad about something, I loved that about him.


    "No, I can''t wait. I am making this into a girls day out with my best friend. It won''t be long before we have little babies and we can''t go out all the time for a while."


    ""Fine, then take a few of the guards with you."


    "Reece?" I was ring at him now. "I am basically an all powerful wolf queen and witch queen. Do you really think that I need a guard with me at all times?"


    "I don''t care if you were in fact the strongest being that ever lived. You''re a queen and my wife, you will not leave unguarded."


    "You''re really stubborn, you know that?" I smiled at him. I knew he wasn''t going to let me go alone anyway. I just wanted to try it anyway.


    "It takes one to know one." Heughed and leaned in to where I was standing next to him so he could kiss me on the cheek. "Go, enjoy your day, buy anything that you want. I will see you tonight at dinner. And tell Juniper that I said hi." When Reece pulled away he had handed me a ck card and the keys to my Jeep.


    "You know, I could just leave without telling the others. You gave me the keys, who would know until it was toote." That led to a dark sh in the eyes of my husband.


    "And you know that the moment you did that I would tear this city apart looking for you."


    "I know." I giggled at him. "I''m going to go get Vincent. Love you." I was already walking away so I just waved at him.


    "Love you Devil Bunny."


    When I went down to the second floor I found that Vincent, Gabriel, and David were discussing things about an event I was as of yet unaware of. They heard meing and quieted their voices right away. By the time that I made it to the room they were in, they were all standing and waiting for me.


    Well, I guess they could have been standing the whole time. I had no way of truly knowing.


    "Good morning Trinity." Vincent always looked so sweet and innocent that it was instantly obvious when he was hiding something. Like he was doing right now. Oh well, I would get it out of himter I guess.


    "Hey Vincent. I want to go shopping with Juniper, and you know how the warden is. He says I can''t go without you."


    "Did he just say me or a few guards?" Vincent knew Reece very well.


    "Hahh. You know what that worrywart said, but we will be fine with just you."


    "Not going to happen, Luna Queen." Vincent knew I hated it when he used a title when he spoke with me. "The three of us can go with you. We''ve finished our work here anyway." He started to walk toward the door and spoke again. "Come on, let''s not keep Juniper waiting. We all know how impatient she can get."


    With a hand at the small of my back Vincent guided me out of the room. My little girl''s trip now had more men than women. Even if we counted the babies since me and Juniper we both having one boy and one girl.


    "So much for some girl talk." I sighed as I let him guide me out of the room.


    "You can have your girl talk, Luna Queen, we will keep our distance and watch you from afar."


    "Thank you, Gabriel. I know it''s not your fault, but this is still something that I am trying to get used to."


    "You should be used to it by now, Trinity. It has been nearly a year."


    "That it has." I smiled at David and his smiling response. At least I was getting the three nicest guards avable to me. The only ones that might be nicer were currently in Germany.

 Chapter 345 - Trinity - Shopping Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 345 - Trinity - Shopping Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I did manage to talk my three guards into letting me drive. They didn''t want to give in but they finally gave up. I didn''t even have to make it amand.


    I mean, I have a license, why not use it. I needed to stay sharp and I didn''t often get a chance to drive. Even before I mated with Reece. It was like my family never wanted to let me drive. Oh well, I was driving now and that was all that mattered.


    I went to pick up Juniper and she sat in the front seat with me. That left the three guards squished together in the back seat. I felt bad about that but not enough to stop driving.


    Apparently I am a maniac behind the wheel though, since Juniped told me she feared for all nine of our lives when I was making my way toward the mall. That was unnecessary. I am a good driver. I have never been in an ident and I have never gotten a ticket, ever.


    When we got to the mall the first thing I wanted to do was get a snack. I was hungry but I wanted to save most of my appetite for the lunch we would be having after the shopping trip so I just stopped by a food stall on the way in. Juniper and I both got arge pretzel and cheese that we ate while we were walking.


    The first store we went to was a maternity store. It was definitely somewhere that me and Juniper both needed to be. We had been so busy since we got pregnant that neither of us really had the time to buy new clothes for our pregnancies.


    It was weird that we were shopping for this when we were only neen and twenty years old. I didn''t care though, I was happy. The salesdies behind the counter, not so much. They were looking at the two of us like we were some sort of criminal just because we were young and pregnant.


    "Excuse me, do you have this in a smaller size?" I asked one of them as I held up a beautiful blue dress that was cut so that it would amodate a growing baby belly. The olderdy, perhaps in her forties, just scoffed at me when she heard me.


    "Maybe she wouldn''t need to buy maternity clothes while she was in high school if she wasn''t a little tramp." She spoke to the woman next to her.


    "I know, then she could continue buying clothes in the kids section." Theyughed together, thinking that we hadn''t heard them.


    "Excuse me?" I kept my voice as level as I could, but there was definitely anger in it. "You have the-."


    "We will handle this." Vincent ced a hand on my shoulder and looked at the women behind the counter.


    "Step back, Trinity. Vincent and I have this. Gabriel will guard you for the time being." David smiled at me before shifting his face into one of anger for the older women who had been so rude.


    I watched the looks on the women''s faces. They were clearly lusting after the very good looking men that had stepped toward them. Though, they could see that the men were with me and that gave them pause.


    "Ladies, do we have a problem here?" Vincent spoke in his soft voice. This was to lull the women into a false sense of security.


    "I wouldn''t say that we have a problem, no. There''s nothing at all going on." The one who had spoken first answered while she straightened her graying blond hair.


    "No, there is absolutely no problem here." The other woman, with light brown hair in a tight bun at the back of her head, spoke next.


    "Well, that''s not what we observed." David was walking toward the women now, his voice also soft while he spoke. "You see, I heard you speaking ill of the youngdy over there."


    "Could you me me? To be pregnant and still in high school, it''s despicable." Thatdy was digging her grave right now.


    "And what, if you would, makes you think that she is in high school?" Vincent took a few steps closer now.


    "Look at her, she barely looks fifteen."


    "Lady, if you think that Trinity is only fifteen then you''re blind. She''s almost twenty for crying out loud." Juniper snapped at the woman behind the counter.


    "That''s enough, Juniper, we will handle this." Vincent calmed my friend who was defending me.


    "That means she is still a teenager. Shameful. Does she even know who the father is?" The brte quipped this time.


    Oh, I saw red. Their words were making me so mad right now that all I wanted to do was smack someone, hard.


    "That was beyond uncalled for." David was pissed now. He was a hard one to make angry, but she had done it. "You need to watch that mouth of yours."


    "You all need to watch yourself or we will just kick you out of here." The graying blonde was sounding so much more like a petty bitch.


    "Hmm, let me see what your boss has to say about this." Vincent pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed a number.


    It only took a moment. Vincent called Noah and asked him one specific question.


    "Noah, Mr. Gray happens to own Red Waters enterprises, correct. That would be thepany that manages many subsidiaries such as clothing stores within the city limits." There was a slight pause while Vincent was waiting for Noah''s response. I saw the fear on the faces of the women behind the counter.


    Huh, that was news to me. Reece owned this store and many others. That was interesting. And it also made me the boss of these hags as well.


    "That''s exactly what I thought, thank you for the confirmation." Vincent put the phone away. "So what if you know who owns this store. What does Reece Gray have to do with any of you?"


    "I am Trinity Gray. Reece Gray is my husband." I red at the women who had disrespected me.


    All the color drained from their faces and I could see the older of the two sway a little as she took in the news.


    "Y-you''re Mrs. Gray?"


    "Yes, I am." I red at her.


    "I am so sorry. We didn''t know who you were." The brte apologies with tears in her eyes.


    "So, you''re saying you would have never been so disrespectful if you knew that I was a rich and powerful woman?" I just shook my head. "Completely disgraceful. I don''t think that my husband would take too kindly to the way that you''ve behaved." I saw a few other women walk into the store then and wanted to bring this scene to a close. "I suggest you straighten up, there are others around. I will be telling my husband about this."


    "We''re so sorry." The graying woman spoke again. "So very sorry."


    "Save your apologies, I am not interested in them. Just get me the items that I wanted and we will be good here. And make sure you take care of the other women as well.


    Juniper and I got all the items that we wanted, in the proper sizes. I paid for it all with the ck elite credit card that Reece had given me earlier. Juniper tried to stop me but I put my foot down, I wanted to pay for them.


    After the maternity clothes I wanted to stop and get something super important. Well, it was important to me at least.


    I knew that there wasn''t much I could buy at a regr store that Reece would want or need, but I knew a few things that would go over well for the anniversary of our first meeting. I wanted to stop in at two or three different ces before we went shopping for the baby stuff. I knew a novelty shop would have something that I could use for this asion. Leave it to them to be prepared for my unique situation. I found a couple different picture frames that I was going to do some arts and crafts with.


    The first had arge nose on it and said I loved you from the moment I first smelled you. I was going to take the novelty nose off and attach the decorative wolf head I had found in the same shop. The second one said I couldn''t help but fall for you. That frame showed a man literally falling down on top of a woman. I guess that one didn''t need to be altered. If only it would have had the woman on a tree like I had been when he fell on top of me.


    There was also a novelty dog plush that said Fido, I had to get it.


    After the novelty store I went to the custom printing shop so they could make a shirt for me to give to Reece. I chose a dark hunter green, a color that looks good on him. They were printing the words and pictures in white so that they could be seen easier.


    The words that were printed on it formed a list with three paw prints as the bullet points. It said HUSBAND, DADDY, PROTECTOR. Inside the paw prints were written three names: Trinity, Reagan, and Rika.


    I know it was corny, but it was definitely something he didn''t already have.

 Chapter 346 - Trinity - Shopping Part 3 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 346 - Trinity - Shopping Part 3 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Now that we had the maternity clothes and the cheesy anniversary gifts for Reece it was time for us to head to the baby store. David was going to be taking our bags to the car so that we could shop without lugging them around.


    The first baby store we went to was a small baby boutique. They sold handmade clothes and toys. They also dealt with many things that were custom ordered so if there was something we liked but not the color or pattern we could order something that would suit our needs. We could also order things embroidered and they would do it for us.


    Both Juniper and I knew we were having one of each, not to mention we had bothe up with names already. I was naming my babies Reagan and Rika, and she was naming hers Rowan and na. When we each found something neutral that we liked we went to the counter to get ''babies'' names embroidered on them. It was not going to be ready today, we would have toe back to pick them up in a few weeks.


    Aside from the customized jumpers that I was ordering for the babies I bought plenty of other adorable outfits. There were so many cute options that I had to fight not to buy them all. I did, however, end up buying at least ten for each baby at just this store.


    I was smart about the purchases though. I bought them in varying sizes so that I had some for when they grew bigger. That was a little better I think.


    The next store we went to was a little more big name brand. It was amon ce for people to shop for their baby items so it was quite a bit bigger and had more to choose from.


    While we browsed David and Gabriel held our bags for us while Vincent watched over us.


    At this store Juniper and I picked out carseats, strollers, highchairs, rocking chairs, everything we could think of.


    "Ms. Trinity, might I interject here for just a moment?" Vincent was speaking politely but firmly as he got my intention.


    "Yes? What is it Vincent?" I raised an eyebrow at the way he had spoken. I guess he was acting like a real bodyguard since there was no denying why he was following me around the way he was.


    "Ahem." He cleared his throat and leaned in so that no one but me and Juniper would hear him. "Please don''t forget that the pack will most likely be throwing a baby shower for you. Yes you are capable of buying everything for yourself and they all know that, however these are the first children of the Alpha and Luna. Not to mention you''re not just the Alpha and Luna, you''re the Alpha King and Luna Queen. I imagine that the pack will be making a very big deal about this."


    "Really? But that is not necessary at all." I was shocked to hear his words.


    "I know that it is not needed but you should expect it."


    "Huh, well if you think the pack will want to do that for us, should I make a registry?" I couldn''t believe that the pack would want to do this for us even though we could buy everything for ourselves.


    "That will be wise. Let''s let them know what it is you want and then you can return or donate whatever it is you don''t keep."


    "You''re always so good with this stuff Vincent." I smiled at him. "What would I do without you?" He blushed at that. He was too easy sometimes.


    "OK, so Trinity is just picking stuff out for other people to buy her. But I can still shop til I drop." Juniper sounded so excited right then. We were both having so much fun.


    "And I can buy it all for you." I smiled at her. "Luna''s orders." I winked at her so she wouldn''t fight me on it.


    We continued to pick everything out that we liked. Juniper''s stuff was going into the cart for us to buy while mine was going onto a registry for others to buy for me. This felt wrong to me. I could buy it all for myself.


    Still, there was so much that I loved and I couldn''t wait to start stocking up the baby room. I wanted to have everything that I both did and did not need. I wanted to be prepared for everything. I wanted to be super prepared even though I knew that I would likely be going overboard.


    Juniper was nearly set with everything that she got today. The Jeep was practically stuffed full. It was good I wasn''t buying my stuff today, there would be no room.


    After we were done shopping I was famished. I was more than hungry for the lunch we had been waiting for. And the babies were telling me to feed them too while they kicked up a storm.


    We went to our favorite ce. I loved Franny''s kitchen and all the wonderful food that we got there. Not to mention Franny and her family were the best.


    When we got to the restaurant and went to find a seat we must have caught Franny''s eye. She called out and came running over to us.


    "Oh, do my eyes deceive me?" Franny was all smiles when she hugged us. "Two of my favorite customers are pregnant, at the same time." She wasughing sweetly as she looked at our bellies. "Did you girls n this because you''re such good friends?" She was giving us a skeptical look already.


    "No Franny, it wasn''t nned. Though we couldn''t be happier since our babies will grow up together."


    "Oh, I cannot wait to see these two new little ones with you someday soon." She was rubbing our bellies excitedly as she spoke.


    "Four." Juniper and I said at the same time.


    "Come again?" Franny looked up with a confused look.


    "Four babies. We''re each having twins." I exined with a hint ofughter in my voice."


    "EEEEEeeeeeeee." Franny squealed long and loud. "I just adore twins. I am so happy for you two. I am going to give you both an extra big dessert today. On the house."


    "You don''t need to do that, Franny." I tried to stop her.


    "Hush now, youngin''. I want to do this." There was no fighting with her on this.


    Juniper and I sat in a corner booth alone while the three guards with us sat at a table that was almost right next to ours. We might as well have been sitting together.


    When Franny came over with our cups of juice she asked me something that caught me off guard.


    "Why don''t your bodyguards just sit with you? It would be easier for them, right?"


    "How did you know?" I asked her, confused.


    "Now Trinity, you don''t think that old Franny is that old yet do you? I see you in here with a variety of guards. For most of the time you''ve beening here you''ve had people with you. First it was just Juniper here and her man and twin brother. The four of you were always together. Then you added that tall one over there. After that there was always one or more men with you that seemed to be watching the room more than he ate."


    "That is true." I hung my head, hating that we had been so obvious.


    "There is nothing wrong with it. I am honored that you woulde here to my humble little diner when you could probably go anywhere in the world, literally. I am just saying, wouldn''t they be morefortable sitting with you?"


    "Well, they''re trying to give us a bit of privacy for a girl''s day out." I smiled sheepishly while sheughed.


    "Ah, I see. That makes sense. That is good of them then. Every woman needs to have her alone time with her friends. I will give them something extra for being such great guys." She winked at me and walked away.


    When franny brought out our lunch all the tes were heaping with good. Franny''s food was the best and it was so nice of her to do this for us. I could also tell that the guys were happy with their meal today. It was quite the portion but being wolves they ate it no problem.


    True to her word, Franny brought out special desserts. Giant chocte fudge brownies with caramel and walnuts topped with ice cream, whipped cream, nuts, and a cherry. The brownies were still warm and melting the ice cream. That was fine, the brownies just absorbed the sugary goodness.


    Lunch was amazing, dessert was amazing, and like always Franny was amazing. Since she had always been so nice and gone above and beyond I decided to do something a little extra special for her.


    Since I was going to save a fortune on all this baby stuff I needed to spend the money somehow. When I paid for lunch I left a tip that was so big it went beyond obscene. We were already out of the building when Franny looked at the receipt and saw the total.


    "Oh my lord, have mercy, is this real?" I guess I surprised her a bit. I just hope it doesn''t shock her into a heart attack. "Honey,e look at this. Look, look, look, look." She sounded just fine, that was good. And I felt like I had done my good deeds for the day.

 Chapter 347 - Trinity - Anniversary (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 347 - Trinity - Anniversary (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Following the shopping trip I only had a little over a week before the anniversary of the first day that I met Reece.


    We actually had twoing up here. The day we smelled each other in the woods which also happened to be the day that he fell on top of me at the harvest moon gathering. Then there was the day that we actually met when I was attacked by a rogue on the way home from Juniper''s apartment.


    Reece had actually saved my life that day. That was when he and I officially met for the first time. It also happened to be the day I moved into his house, tried to run away, got thrown over his shoulder and carried back to my room. Oh, and not to mention that was the first day that he called me a little bunny. He hadn''t used it as a nickname that day, but it wouldn''t be long.


    Hmm. Thinking about it, should I get a Fido gift for him? That anniversary was only a few dayster than the other two. I could just give him that dog plush as the Fido day present. It would work.


    I was working away on his presents, getting them ready. There wasn''t a lot that I needed to change about them really, but I was making them a little more personalized.


    On the frame with the nose, I obviously took thatrge schnoz off and reced it with the wolf head. The wolf head had been painted to look a little different. I had painted it pure ck, except for the eyes. The eyes I painted a bright red. It would look like his wolf form now. His current wolf form that is.


    The other frame was almost perfect. It was like they expected me toe looking for something like that. It was kind of eerie how easy it was to find a frame that fit that aspect of our mating.


    Still, I was having fun. I liked making all these things for Reece. I knew he found them all cute as well. I couldn''t wait to see his face when he saw them. Should I n a dinner as well? Hmm, probably.


    Maybe a trip to the same ce that we had our first date at. That would be special. Kaleidoscope had been a wonderful date. I called them up and asked them to prepare a table and something special for that night. I knew they would do it when we arrived but advance warning would probably help.


    "Thank you for calling Kaleidoscope, this is Lawrence."


    "Wow, Lawrence, I didn''t expect you to answer your own phone." I giggled.


    "I often do." Heughed back. "Who''s this, how can I help you?" Lawrence was a great guy, and he was a member of the pack.


    "This is Trinity Gray, I-."


    "Trinity Gray?" He interrupted me with shock in his voice.


    "Yes Lawrence. I want to n a date for Reece. And since we had our first date at your restaurant I want us to go back there again."


    "Oh my Goddess." It sounded like Lawrence was hyperventting or something. "The Luna Queen wants toe to my ce. I am talking to the Luna Queen." I could hear air moving toward the receiver then, I had an image that Lawrence was fanning his face to calm himself down. I almostughed again but I didn''t, I needed to hold myposure.


    "It''s alright Lawrence. Calm down." I tried to settle him. "I am only calling to give advance warning. I am learning that a lot of people go above and beyond when Reece is involved. I just don''t want to leave you all scrambling."


    "Don''t discount yourself in there, Luna Queen. You''re more special in our eyes. You are the Goddess blessed Queen of us all. I am in awe right now." This was going to take a while wasn''t it.


    After a little bit of freaking out and a lot of thank you''s I managed to set up the dinner part of our date. Lawrence was going to see to it personally that we had a special night. I didn''t even want to know what that meant but I was going to let him do what he wanted. That was easier anyway.


    Now all I had to do was invite my mate out for the date. Since the first of the two dates was on a Sunday I opted for that one to be the dinner date. That way it didn''t interfere with Reece''s work at all.


    When I asked him to have dinner with me that night it led to an interesting conversation about why I didn''t want to go now. He agreed though, no hesitation on that. He just wanted to go to dinner tonight too.


    We did indeed have dinner out that night but I was still eagerly waiting for that night. When it finally came I wore my new dress that I got from the maternity store. Hmm, I had forgotten to mention that to him. Maybe I would tell him at dinner tonight.


    I wanted to wear beautiful heels with the dress but I felt so off bnce with the twins taking up so much space in my body already. Instead of the tall thin heels I wore more modest tform sandals. I was just d that it wasn''t further into fall. It was still dry and rtively warm.


    Reece looked amazing as well. He was wearing a handsome Armani suit that was all ck. His shirt was ck and the tie he wore was emerald green. Holding that tie down was a diamond encrusted white gold tie clip. His cufflinks matched the tie clip as well.


    My dress was a soft powder blue and it had an empire waist with a decorative silver fastening just below my bust. Below the bust line the dress was just so that itid perfectly no matter the size my growing baby belly would be. It was simple but elegant and beautiful.


    When I was ready Reece looked at me with hungry and heat filled eyes. He took my hand, crossed his body to wrap our hands together, and put his arm around my waist. It was his favorite way to walk with me when we were being formal.


    We were going for a formal and fancy look so Reece chose the Mercedes for the night. He drove at a steady pace, not going above the speed limit at all. This was so different than how he used to be and the reason was the babies.


    When we got to the restaurant we parked at the curb, a spot waiting for us right by the door. Reece walked around and opened the door of the car for me. When we walked inside the staff was waiting for us.


    "Wee, Mr. and Mrs. Gray." The assembled staff spoke in unison. I had managed to convince Lawrence he couldn''t have them say anything about kings or queens, or Lunas and Alphas. Humans just wouldn''t understand.


    We were led to our table immediately. It was secluded from the others and had the best view of the restaurant''s lovely decor.


    Right after we sat down Lawrence came over to see us. He had with him a menu that listed the wines that were avable.


    "Would you like to choose a vintage for the evening?" He asked Reece elegantly.


    "Not this time, Lawrence. My wife can''t partake so I am refraining tonight as well."


    "Oh, please forgive me, Sir. Itpletely slipped my mind. Yes, yes. I need to offer my congrattions on the uing additions to your family and the pack is so excited for you as well. Again, I am so sorry for my mistake." Lawrence sounded flustered as he tried to talk his way out of what he perceived as a grave error.


    "It''s fine, Lawrence. Normally Reece would still be drinking a ss or two, but he is driving and I cannot have any so we would just like some water for now."


    "Yes, Luna, yes." He bowed his head repeatedly as he walked away.


    We didn''t even have to ce an order. Lawrence had it all ready in advance. I did tell him what to make when I called ahead so that did help a lot. Not to mention, it only took ten minutes or so to get the food.


    "Here you are. A full course for the lovely couple." Lawrence and a group of waiters brought out several tes and set them around our table. I had ordered the full course because it had enough food for not only me but also for Reece. It was also amazing.


    The rich, decadent food in front of me was making me want to drool. I couldn''t do that though. This was a lovely and romantic date.


    It was delicious though. We concentrated on eating for a while before Reece even decided to deviate from the simple conversation we had been having.


    "This is a lovely anniversary, isn''t it?" He grinned at me.


    "You remembered?" I asked him with a smile.


    "Did you really think I would forget? I pretended though, so I could see what you came up with. This is amazing, Little Bunny, I couldn''t be happier."


    "I''m d you''re happy. And you had me fooled for sure. When you asked why I wanted to have the date I thought you didn''t know what the date meant." Reece looked so sexy when he gave me that confident look. It was one that said he would never let me down. I believed it too.


    "So, can I give you my gift?" He asked me as he reached into his jacket pocket. Be pulled a small box out of it and handed it over.


    "I have one for you too." I smiled at him as I pulled the small gift bag out and handed it to him.


    "Shall we open them together?" He was excited as he looked at the box. He wanted to give it to me so bad.


    "You open yours first, then I will open mine." I told him as I slid the bag toward him.


    "Fine." He set the box on the table and took the bag.


    Reece was like a kid when he opened presents. He always got excited and went to town on them. He pulled the paper out and tossed it aside. That wasn''t nice but a waiter caught it out of the air without even losing a beat while carrying a tray.


    When Reece saw the gifts I heard himugh.


    "This is perfect, and so you." He was grinning. "I can''t believe you found these."


    "To be fair, I had to modify the one with the wolf head. It had a nose on it. But it was fun changing it up so I didn''t mind."


    "They fit us perfectly. Especially since I really did fall for you when I fell on you. I wanted to eat you up right then and there." I heard the heat in those words.


    "You dirty dog." I shook my head.


    "You love it." I did, but I wasn''t going to confirm it for him. "Here, open yours." He prodded the box and pushed it toward me.


    "Alright."


    I took the box and opened it. Inside there were charms that would go on my bracelet he got me for Christmas. There were four altogether. They were all paws with a letter emzoned over them. The paws also had gemstones on them. There was a ''T'' with blue topaz stones, an R with a golden colored citrine, an R with a dark blue sapphire, and an R with a bright pink tourmaline.


    "You know, I am the only one without an R for my first initial."


    "That''s because you''re special."


    "I love these, Reece. They''re perfect."


    We finished our dinner and decided to head straight home. This night had been perfect. Better than I expected.

 Chapter 348 - Reece - Anniversary Part 2 (VOLUME 3) ((MATURE))

    <h4>Chapter 348 - Reece - Anniversary Part 2 (VOLUME 3) ((MATURE))</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Did my little bunny seriously think that I forgot about our anniversary? Did she think that I wouldn''t remember the date of the first day that I smelled her in the woods? And the day that I followed my nose like a cartoon wolf and literally fell on top of her.


    She has no idea how much I remember that day. I had destroyed half the house on my way to my office. I had shifted and jumped out my office window after listening to what the others had to say.


    I remember it vividly. I often dream of the day and night that I met my mate. More often than not the dreams are nightmares and I am losing her because of my idiotic behavior. I won''t give up though. I will never leave her. She is my forever.


    So, yeah, long story short I remembered that today, October the third, was the anniversary of the day we unofficially met. And two days from now was the anniversary of the day we first met.


    That day I remembered quite often as well. I remember the way she looked at me. The lust that mixed with the fear in her eyes. I wanted her from day one but I told myself that I didn''t. I wanted her like I had never wanted anyone or anything else in my entire life.


    The day she finally became mine was like a dreame true. Of course I was going to remember and celebrate the day that started all of this. I was a romantic at heart you know.


    I knew she was going to do something as well but I hadn''t expected this. She looked beautiful. That dress made her look sexy, amazing, and perfect. And she had prepared an entire night out. She called ahead, reserved seating and parking. We got top notch service. And at the same restaurant as our first date. It was perfect.


    The gifts were, as always, perfectly suited to us. I can''t believe she managed to find the frames that were a perfect fit for our situation. And the Fido plush. I would keep them. You know I would. I was going to proudly disy them all in my office. Not the one at home, the one in the city.


    My Little Bunny really had outdone herself. But now it was my turn. Following dinner I drove her home, neither of us talking much along the way. When I went to get her out of the car I pulled her to me and lifted her into my arms.


    "Ah!" She yelped in surprise. "Reece, what are you doing?"


    "I am carrying my wife into the house." Myughter rumbled through me and reverberated through her.


    "I can walk, you know." She pouted a little.


    "Oh I know, I just want to."


    I carried her all the way to the fourth floor. And to our room. We had been living in the same room now for about nine months. And I had a hard time remembering a time that I didn''t live in this room. My life only started to matter when Trinity came into the picture.


    I wouldn''t be able to hold myself back much tonight. I had been trying to be good so I didn''t make her ufortable right now. I wouldn''t be able to do that this time, I wouldn''t be able to resist her.


    When I sat her gently on the edge of the bed I saw the heat and arousal filling her eyes. She wanted me as much as I wanted her.


    "Trinity?" I used her name, which I so rarely did. The change in my typical attitude made her look at me. She could tell that I was being serious right now.


    "Reece." She pulled on thepels of my suit jacket. "I want you."


    Thank the goddess. I was hoping she would give me the go ahead. I may say that I can''t stop but I would never do anything to cause her pain or upset her. Not ever again.


    "Trinity." I sighed her name as I knelt on the bed above her. Our lips met slowly and gently for a kiss that was designed to kill us both with desire before it was over. It started slow but had grown passionate and needy long before I pulled away.


    My hands were exploring her while I kissed her hungry lips. The dress''s zipper in the back was easy to slide down at this angle so I took full advantage of that. Once the dress was loosened and lowered down her front I saw, or rather felt, that my Little Bunny wasn''t wearing a bra. She hadn''t wanted to ruin the look of the dress and her breasts were perfectly perky. She hadn''t needed one.


    Stripping my wife of her clothes didn''t take long because she wasn''t wearing much. No bra, no tights or pantyhose, just panties, the dress, and a simple pair of shoes. Did she n this part out for me too?


    I quite enjoyed the view of herying there on the bed waiting for me while I got out of my much moreplicated clothing. That was fine, she seemed to be enjoying the show of watching me strip in front of her. She often liked to watch me get naked.


    When we were both finally naked I climbed up onto the bed with her, lifting her and sliding her up until her head rested on the pillows. My mouth was being drawn in, I couldn''t help, I ced my tongue and teeth over the ce I marked herst year.


    I felt her shudder from the feeling of my mouth being on that sensitive spot.


    "Ngh." She moaned slightly and the sound was like spurs in my back telling me to hurry.


    I didn''t want to hurry though. I wanted to take my time and savor her, it wouldn''t be long before she was too far along for me to do this, that was when I would want her but couldn''t have her. I needed to have as much of her now as I could.


    I started with licking every part of her body that I could. I traced the lines of her jaw, cor bones, hips, everywhere. I left no spot undiscovered. Once I knew that she was more than ready for me I settled on the bed between her thighs. With her knees lifted and legs spread I had her right where I wanted her.


    I dipped my head and licked slowly up her slit. The taste of her juices had changed slightly since she had gotten pregnant, but I didn''t mind. The vor was intense and good.


    Her moans were already filling the room. I could hear how much more pleasure she was feeling with everything now. She was climaxing a lot sooner than usual. Was this from the pregnancy as well?


    It didn''t take long for her toe, screaming my name. Ipped away her juices that flowed into my mouth and rose to see my beautiful wife looking dazed and confused.


    "Reece." She called out to me as she reached with her hands. She still wanted me, that was good.


    I rose onto my knees and positioned myself at her opening. She was dripping wet and ready. I didn''t want to hurt her at all so I slid in slowly, the passage primed with her desire.


    When I slid all the way in and felt the further point inside of her she moaned again.


    "Ngh! Reece!" I love it when she moans my name. It gives me a deeper sense of satisfaction.


    Trinity seemed to be screaming and moaning non stop when I started to pound in and out of her body. The mming of our bodies was the music that apanied her and I was leading us together in this dance of intimacy.


    I could feel her climbing that peak again. She was going to climax at any moment but I wasn''t ready yet.


    The feeling of her body squeezing mine as I continued to prate her was mind blowing. The way her muscles milked and clenched around me. It was helping to drive me toward my own peak of passion.


    I mmed into her hard, again and again and again. I felt my balls tighten and my spine tingle. I was almost at my limit, but I could feel that she was ascending again. I needed to hold out a little longer. I needed to take her over the edge with me.


    Just a few more thrusts. I kept telling myself just a few more.


    The moment I felt her body clench around me again I knew she hade a third time. I could let myself fall over that peak with her.


    We copsed together in each other''s arms. Holding the other close while we panted heavily. We were both tired and I didn''t want to let her go, so we drifted off to sleep together for a peaceful night.

 Chapter 349 - Reece - Preparing For The Babies Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 349 - Reece - Preparing For The Babies Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    The morning after my anniversary date with my little bunny I woke with her in my arms. It was how I wanted to wake up everyday for the rest of my life. This time, though, there was something different about it.


    Today, it wasn''t the sun that woke me. It wasn''t the rm going off that woke me either. No, there was something else entirely that roused me from my slumber.


    I saw the clock on Trinity''s side of the table and saw that it was just after six in the morning, the time that I needed to get up but I forgot to get the rm. Someone was there to wake me up though.


    It felt like someone had been kicking me. Well, two someones really. I could feel the twins inside my mate''s womb as they kicked and stomped around their cramped little home. It was them though, kicking me over and over again.


    I heard my Little Bunny groan a little as she felt the tiny terrors trampling her from within. I had to stop myself fromughing and settle with a grin. While I stifled theugh I felt the babies kick me again.


    "Ahh." They were kicking hard enough that Trinity actually cried out in pain from it.


    I shimmied quietly down the bed until my head was next to the growing baby bump that held my children.


    "Shh, you two better settle down. You don''t want to hurt your mommy, do you?" I could feel the smile on my face as I talked to them. My hand was still pressed against Little Bunny''s belly so I could still feel the twins moving around a lot.


    I couldn''t help it, I wanted to press my ear against the belly. I wanted to try and hear them moving around. I had heard that we wolves could hear a lot more because of our sensitive ears. Why not give it a shot now.


    I could hear just Trinity''s heart beat at first. It was a sound I was used to and had spent months growing ustomed to. But as the sounds of her heart became background noise I could hear other little sounds. There were two really fast fluttering noises. It was the super fast heart beat of two little babies. I could hear them.


    Then I heard something else. There was the sound of the babies moving. I could hear them shifting. It sounded like they bumped into each other and the result was a small war of pushing and adjusting to be the dominant one. That seemed about right. Trinity and I fought like that, now it seemed our kids would.


    "Hey there Reagan, Hi Rika." I was rubbing small circles onto Trinity''s belly while I talked to my twins. "It''s daddy. Can you hear me?" I knew they probably couldn''t but I was going to keep doing it anyway. "Daddy loves you. I am going to make sure that everything is perfect for when you get here too so you two stay in there and get nice and big and strong. Mommy and I will be waiting for you." There were two quick little bumps on the belly then, they had kicked, both of them.


    That was the best feeling in the world. To feel the life from your children as they were moving inside of your wife. What kind of man wouldn''t want to have that in his life?


    "Now be careful with Mommy, she''s still sleeping."


    "Not anymore, she isn''t."


    I jumped at the sound of Trinity''s voiceing from above me. I hadn''t noticed her waking up since I was too focused on the babies.


    "What are you doing?" She asked me but she was smiling happily just the same as me.


    "Talking to the babies." I answered her honestly as I climbed back up the bed so that I could give her a good morning kiss.


    "You''re such a sweetheart." She beamed at me and returned the small kiss that I gave her.


    "I know."


    We went into the bathroom for a shower then. It was time for us to start our day already. This routine hadn''t changed at all and that made it easier on us. So much in our lives was different that it was hard to imagine that we were the same people fromst year. Still, I would never regret a day at my mate''s side.


    I was working from home today. Or I was supposed to be. Trinity was finishing an assignment for her online courses while Noah and Gabriel did the administrative work they were both charged with. The only problem was that I couldn''t concentrate. I couldn''t get my head in the game at all. All I could think about were the babies.


    I started thinking that it was already October the fourth. We had gotten pregnant on June the eighteenth. That meant that I had only two months at most to get the nursery ready. That was barely enough time with how busy I was.


    Not to mention, knowing my Little Devil Bunny, she would insist on putting everything away and reorganizing it twenty times before the babies got here. I needed to get busy right away.


    "I will be backter." I stood abruptly and headed toward the door.


    "Where are you going?" Noah scolded me as I fled the room. "You still have work to do."


    "Do it for me, I have something important to do. I will be backter, like I said."


    "Reece?" Noah called after me.


    "Have fun." Trinity yelled, not even looking up from herputer.


    OK, I needed to get this project going. I was going to make this nursery into the most special nursery ever. I needed to get all the stuff that it would take to transform the room. This was my project and I wouldn''t let anyone else take it away from me.


    My first stop was to the home improvement store so that I could get the right shade of paint. Then again, I would need primer too so that the old colors wouldn''t bleed through. I got several gallons of each paint so that I knew I would have enough for therge room. I got plenty ofrge cloth tarps I could put down so that the floor wouldn''t be ruined.


    I knew that I wanted to paint what looked like a forest so I needed cks, browns, and varying shades of dark green to go along with the neutral pale yellow and green. I grabbed a variety of brushes and rollers and painter''s tape. Everything that I could think that I might need.


    Painting was just part one of this room makeover. It was going to take a lot, but at least I could get a jump start now. After this part of the job was done I needed to work on the furniture and rugs, and I couldn''t forget window coverings or light fixtures.


    I was already having fun and I hadn''t even started yet.


    With myrge amount of supplies purchased I raced home so that I could get started. I had David and Vincent help me with carrying it all upstairs. That and having them help me move the furniture was all that I was going to allow them to help with. Everything else was all me.


    After changing into some clothes I didn''t mind getting paint on, I got to work. The room seemed brighter with the curtains removed but the color was still dark so it wasn''t as bright as it could be.


    The tarps were the first thing that I set up. I got them all over the room and brought thedder in. OK that was truly thest thing I got help with since David brought it while I changed.


    Priming the room was easy. I just had to put ayer of bright white paint onto the walls to hide the darker color behind it. Though it did require a second coat to fully hide it all.


    The shopping and the priming took all of the first day. By the time all of the walls and ceiling were white I called it a night. I went across the hall to my room to shower and change. Trinity was in there waiting for me while reading.


    "You''ve been busy." She said as she raised her head.


    "Yup." I walked right up to her and kissed her messily on the cheek.


    "Eww. You''re all sweaty." Her response was expected and it made meugh.


    "I will be just as sweaty tomorrow. I am painting again."


    "So, you left work to start on the nursery?" She was smiling so I know she wasn''t happy.


    "Are you going to yell at me like Noah would?" I was momentarily scared of her doing just that.


    "Nope, I''m happy. I can''t wait to see what you can do." After a brief pause she spoke again. "Now go shower, you stink." She was so sweet, wasn''t she? Little Devil Bunny.

 Chapter 350 - Reece - Preparing For The Babies Part 3 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 350 - Reece - Preparing For The Babies Part 3 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    My Little Bunny may have thought that I stunk but I knew that I had made a lot of progress with the nursery. I wasn''t nearly done though. I needed to get the rest of the painting done then I could start on the customization.


    The next day after breakfast I went straight to work on the nursery. I wanted to work on this nonstop until I was finished. Noah wasn''t happy but I forced him to ept it. He would just have to take care of business until I was done.


    The yellow and blue in the room was going to be simple. I painted three of the walls with the soft pastel yellow color. I made certain to take my time and pay extra attention to the detail that was around the room.


    It took me all day since it wasn''t a very small room. I also made certain that I was careful enough not to get any of the paint on the pristine white ceiling. When I was finally done with the yellow I called it a day. I would be back the next day to work on the trim and borders.


    My adorably sexy little wife thought I was being funny. Sheughed and giggled at me when she saw meing back from the nursery.


    "Can I see the masterpiece yet, Michangelo?"


    "Of course not. An artist does not show his work before it is finished." I yed along with her joke with me.


    "I bet it will be lovely. It''s going to have to be with how you''ve been." That was the cute, musical littleugh that I loved so much. "I think you might just switch professions and move onto designing nurseries professionally."


    "The only nurseries I am interested in are for my own children. Everyone else can hire someone to design and decorate theirs. After this I am retired."


    "And if we have another baby?" She arched an eyebrow inquisitively.


    "Then I wille out of retirement to update this nursery for the next baby. However, I nned this design so that it would work for all of our future children." I was broadly boasting my genius is the design of the room behind me. "No peeking though. I will show you when it''s all done." I warned her off with a wiggle of my finger when she tried to sneak a look around my arm.


    "Spoil sport." She pouted for a second. "Welle on then. Go clean up and we can head down to dinner. Your mom is waiting for us."


    Mom had indeed been waiting for us. We ate dinner together and chatted about baby rted things. Mom was asking Trinity if she had looked at anything for the babies yet and if there was anything she just absolutely wanted or had to have. It was an excellent conversation and I knew that once these times were over I was going to miss them. I didn''t want to mourn a missed opportunity by not being a part of the whole process.


    On day three of doing the nursery I started first thing in the morning again. Right after breakfast I headed to the room across the hall from the one I shared with my mate and mother of my children.


    I was going to be focusing on the pastel green today. The green was going to cover the trim, crown moulding, the interior side of the door, and window frames. I would also have the outlet covers and switch tes painted to match the color. It wasing along nicely. I just knew that my Little Bunny was going to love it.


    That night and the next morning followed the same pattern as before. Trinity pretended to try and get a sneak peek outside the room. Then I showered and went to dinner with my wife and mother.


    The only difference that night was that Eve and Wesley, my Little Bunny''s parents, hade to have dinner with us. It was a little more lively this evening as we talked about who would be the primary babysitter, Eve or Mom. Eventually they agreed that since there were two babies there needed to be two grandmothers.


    However, Mom did make a valid point in her favor. Eve had one grand baby already and had another one on the way. Mom, however, would only have grandchildren that came from Trinity and me.


    On day four I started painting the forest mural that would be adorning thest of the walls. I started with the trees that would be in the back, those would be darker and less detailed. I was fashioning the trees after the type we had around our home so they were mainly tall thin trees with most of the vegetation up high or tall thin fir trees.


    It was slow going on the mural. I knew that it was going to take me a long time. The background of the mural was what was going to take the longest. I was focusing on getting the line of the trees just right. When I was done with the darker colored background trees and the outline for the sky it was already the end of the day.


    I continued this process all through the next day and the weekend. Day after day I worked tirelessly on the mural. Once Monday came around again, on the eighth day of working on the nursery and the fifth day of working on the mural, I was just about done. The trees were done. The mountains in the background were perfect. The blue sky and the clouds were painted on. There was even the perfect blending of colors where the sun was supposed to be.


    What I needed to do now was start on the glow in the dark paintings. On the wall with the mural I was going to paint a full moon that would only be visible in the dark. There would also be stars and an outline for the trees. On the ceiling I was going to paint different constetions and groupings of stars. I was using an astrology book to make sure that I got it just right. This part took me another two days. I needed to use a very small brush for all of the fine little detail.


    I worked all day every day for a week and a half. Ten days of solid work on the room and I could finally say that the painting was done. After that I started with the clean up. Clearing away all my tools and the drop cloths.


    With everything out of the way I cleaned the room. I am not as good at cleaning as the maid in the house were so I did allow them to help. I wanted the whole room sterilized as best as they could.


    Now it was time for the furniture. I wanted to take this responsibility on as well. I went back to the home improvement store and bought various types of wood. I was going to try and make a pair of cradles for the babies.


    I was a skilled man, I could handle this.


    Apparently I couldn''t. After three days of trying to cut, shape, sand, and assemble the pieces I was ready to give up. It was a lot harder to make these cradles than it was for me to paint the room.


    On day four of working on the cradles my Little Bunny came to see me in the workshop that was off of the garage. She had arrived just in time to watch me explode at the piece in front of me.


    "Son of a bitch." I threw the hammer on the floor and kicked a piece of scrap wood that was lying on the floor. "Ugh!"


    "Not going so well?" She giggled and asked me when I was done with my tantrum.


    "I think I need to admit that this is beyond me. I don''t think that I can build these." I hung my head in shame from my failure.


    "No one said you had to be a carpenter. We can buy the furniture and you can assemble it. That part will be much easier. Come on Fido, you''re a wolf not a woodworker."


    "Yeah, I think you''re right Little Bunny. This is beyond me, but I can put together anything that we get."


    "Yup, nowe on. We can donate the leftover wood. By the way, I am proud of you for trying."


    "Yeah? How proud of me are you?" I asked her while grabbing her bottom.


    "Keep it in your pants, Cujo, we''ve gotpanying over. Go get a shower and get ready."


    "Damn, and I was so hopeful too."


    "If you''re good I will reward you when they have all gone home."


    "Now that''s what I am talking about." I growled out a lowugh and headed to my room. I could be patient and wait. My Little Bunny was worth the wait.

 Chapter 351 - Trinity - Surprise (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 351 - Trinity - Surprise (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece had been working on the nursery every day for about two weeks. He had beening to eat with me for every meal but aside from that he hadn''t done anything. Noah had been grumbling because he was having to step up and handle things while Reece was otherwise upied.


    On the tenth day of his little decorating spree he was at the point where he was trying to make homemade cradles for the babies. I appreciated the effort but I thought he was going a little too far. He wasn''t a carpenter or anything like that. He was an Alpha, a businessman, and a King. Not to mention my mate. He needed to face the facts that he had to give up on this.


    Just before noon I was in the library reading when I was surprised by Juniper showing up unannounced. She popped her head into the room and grinned.


    "Hey you." She opened the door the rest of the way. "I was looking for you."


    "Hey, what are you doing here?" I asked her with a grin to match hers.


    "Well, I figured that we will not be able to hang out that much once the babies are here so I wanted to have a couple''s night. You, me, Paul, and Reece. We can have lunch, hang out, have dinner, and y some board games. Whatever it is we decide to do. What do you say?"


    "I say that sounds like fun." I was already getting up so that I could leave the room with her.


    It was mid October now, I was now four months pregnant but for a wolf like me that meant that the babies were as developed as someone who was six months along. My belly was definitely hugepared to how it used to be and I was finding it hard to get up sometimes. Juniper was in the same boat as me but she always seemed to chipper that it was hard to imagine that she was having any problems whatsoever.


    As soon as we were out of the library Juniper sent me to go get Reece. I knew right where he was so I didn''t need to actually find him. The issue with Reece was that he needed to shower and get cleaned up. I wouldn''t say no to changing either, I hadn''t exactly put any effort into my wardrobe this morning.


    I let Juniper know that I was heading up the stairs to change while Reece took a quick shower. I was moving slow when we got to the room but Reece was moving fast. He was in the shower and cleaning himself up by the time that I got to my closet.


    I didn''t n on dressing too fancy but I was going to treat this like it was a casual date with my husband. It would be fun to look nice. It would be one of thest times that I actually put that effort in.


    I was changed into a cute little sundress, something that I got from the maternity store. It was simple, nothing borate, but it wasfortable. I liked the color as well, it was just the same shade of rich golden honey that Reece''s eyes were. I loved it because it made me think of him.


    I was brushing my hair and doing some light makeup while Reece got dressed. By the time that I was ready he had already been waiting for me for a few minutes. I couldn''t help it that I was moving slow, it was difficult to carry around so much extra belly.


    Reece offered to carry me down the stairs when we left the room. He didn''t want us keeping our guests any longer.


    "Come on, Little Bunny, let me carry you. It would be so much quicker."


    "If I am moving too slow for you Reece, you can feel free to go on ahead of me. I am not some China doll that you need to save from the raging bull in the shop. Let me move at my own pace." He looked hurt when I had finished scolding him.


    "If it''s already this difficult for you to move, I can only imagine how things will be when you''re full term." The nervous look in his eyes didn''t give me much confidence right now.


    "When I am that big I will just roll everywhere, it will be even quicker than you carrying me." Weughed together as I made my way slowly down the stairs.


    By the time that we reached the dining room I was getting tired. I might just be taking the elevator from now on. This was getting to be tiresome.


    The door to the dining room was opened and I could smell the food. I guessed that Abigail had gotten right to work when Juniper got here. I was ready for lunch right now, my stomach was growling and the babies were turning ravenous.


    As soon as I went to walk into the room there was a loud shout as several dozen people called out:


    "Surprise!"


    I think I almost had a heart attack. It definitely scared the babies too since they started kicking a lot more. I don''t know why I didn''t pick up on all the people in the house. I think my nose was too focused on all the food that was here.


    There were two dozenrge tables in this dining room. It was thergest one in the entire house. And out of those two dozen tables two of them werepletely covered with food. That made for a lot of food.


    There was a huge banner running across the back of the room. In brightly colored letters it read: CONGRATULATIONS TRINITY, JUNIPER, EMMALEE, RAWLYNNE, ELLA, AND ACACIA.


    There were mountains of gifts stacked all over the room and what looked like almost every adult female pack member. This must have been that babyshower that Vincent had mentioned. Now that I think about it, I never did ask him what he was hiding from me.


    I yed right into their hands when I wanted to go shopping. That was convenient for them then, huh. And I was d that I was having a joint babyshower with everyone that was close to me. Juniper was like a sister to me and Cedar was like my brother so that made Acacia like my sister inw. Carter was my cousin but he was more like a brother and that made Emmalee my sister inw as well. Rawlynne had been a good friend ever since she got here and E was just amazing. They all deserved this babyshower more than I did. I could buy everything I needed several times over and not make Reece angry about my spending, I didn''t want to take money and gifts from others.


    However, one of the things that I talked to Gloriana about was the fact that as a member of a royal family, you will undoubtedly get unsolicited gifts from people. These gifts could mean different things and would warrant different responses. At least right now, I know that these people just wanted to celebrate the birth of the Alpha and Luna''s babies.


    I was still stunned silent when Reece reached over and touched my arm.


    "Are you alright, Trinity? You look a little pale."


    "I just got the shit scared out of me Reece, of course I''m pale." Iughed at him. "I was too focused on the food that I didn''t smell anyone in here. Some Luna Queen I am." I was trying to turn my flub into a joke but I was still very embarrassed.


    Following that I was led to the front of the room. I needed to greet everyone that was here as part of my duties as Luna Queen but thankfully I managed to get them toe up in groups. That would make the whole process that much quicker.


    After the greetings were done we ate the food. It was delicious and made my heart sing. Ahh, yummy food always makes me happy.


    Following lunch there were some babyshower games. One of which included how many sheets of toilet paper would it take to wrap around the expectant mother''s belly. Poor Acacia, her belly was so big. I don''t know how she managed it.


    Following the games there were the gifts. Given how many there were I thought I would be opening themter. Nope, I had to open them now. I enlisted the help of the others when they ran out of their own gifts. Combined there were probably a thousand gifts if not more. And most of them were for me.


    The baby shower was great, and everyone had a wonderful time, myself included. It''s just that I was so tired by the time it was all over. When the guests left and it was just me, Reece, my family, and the other expectant mommies I decided to share the wealth.


    Acacia, Emmalee, Elle, Rawlynne, and Juniper were all going to take what they wanted from the mountain of baby supplies. There was more here than I could use for a dozen babies. But sharing it was a good option. When I was fully prepared and they didn''t need anything more I would donate whatever is leftover to the women''s shelter.


    I was happy though. Everyone here took the time to show me just how much they love and care about me. My family, my friends, my pack, they were all wonderful people.


    I was walking up the stairs with Reece, really wishing that I had taken the elevator like I joked about earlier and just contemting having him carry me when everything went dark. I even felt like all the muscles in my body went ck and I couldn''t stand.

 Chapter 352 - Reece - Complications Part 1(Volume 3)

    <h4>Chapter 352 - Reece - Complications Part 1(Volume 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Following the surprise baby shower for Trinity and the others I was walking up the stairs while following my wife. She was talking animatedly but I could still tell that she was really tired. She was dragging her feet a little as she went up each step.


    Just seeing her this tired had me worried. I had noticed over thest few days that she was more and more tired each night. It probably didn''t help much that I had not been around a lot over thest several days. I had been busy getting the nursery ready.


    As I was walking and listening to my Little Bunny tell me how happy she had been with the babyshower I noticed that she just suddenly stopped talking. She had cut off mid sentence and didn''t seem like she was going to talk again.


    "Trinity-?" I was about to ask her what was wrong when I noticed how pale she was.


    It all happened so fast. She swayed for just a moment after she had gone silent. As soon as she swayed I caught her in my arms. Her whole body went limp and her eyes closed.


    It just looked like my Little Bunny had fallen asleep in my arms. She looked so peaceful and calm.


    I knew the truth though. I knew that she was not asleep. I knew that something was wrong.


    The moment that I caught her I started calling out to her. My voice was louder than I had nned for it to be but I couldn''t help it. I could feel my heart pounding in my throat as I called out to her repeatedly.


    "Trinity? Trinity what''s wrong? Talk to me, Little Bunny. Come on, open your eyes. Trinity please." I felt the tears begin to sting the back of my eyes while I called out to her.


    I must have screamed louder than I thought because I could already hear the sound of footsteps running toward me. In a matter of seconds Mom, Noah, and Vincent were racing up the stairs.


    "What happened?" Mom called out to me, panic in her eyes.


    "Trinity?" Noah looked like he was about to fall over from shock.


    "Reece, what happened?" Vincent sounded just as worried when he saw the sight of Trinityying limp in my arms.


    "I don''t know, she just stopped all of a sudden and copsed. Call Griffin, now."


    Vincent had his phone out and was dialing the number as soon as themand was given. Mom had finished climbing the stairs and was looking at Trinity as if she was trying to assess her for damage. Noah was still leaning against the railing just staring at the woman he considered a sister.


    Griffin had apparently answered right away, that was good. The moment Vincent told him Trinity copsed he apparently wanted to be put on speaker.


    "OK, Reece can hear you now." Vincent told him.


    I was still crouched on the floor holding my limp wife in my arms when I heard Griffin''s voiceing from the phone.


    "Reece, exin exactly what happened to me. Do not leave out a single detail." There was an urgency in Griffin''s voice that scared me.


    "I don''t know what happened. We were walking up to our room following the babyshower and she just stopped all of a sudden. She had been talking one second and the next nothing. After that she swayed and instantly copsed into my arms." I looked down at her while I spoke, afraid that something was going to happen if I looked away from her.


    "How has she been for the past few days? Has she seemed normal?" Griffin didn''t sound like he knew what was wrong.


    "For the most part, yes. I noticed that she was a little more tired but I thought that was just normal for women who are pregnant." I hadn''t known many pregnant women but everyone told me that pregnant women got tired easily from having to carry all that extra weight from the baby.


    "Yes, reduced energy can bemon. Did anything happen at the baby shower? Anything that I should be aware of?" Griffin wasn''t happy with my assessment I guess.


    "No, it went great. She seemed just like her normal self. She ate the same foods I did, nothing out of the ordinary. She had really seemed like she was enjoying the surprise."


    "Surprise?" That seemed to catch Griffin off guard.


    "Yeah, the babyshower was a surprise for her. She was so caught up in so many other things, and apparently so hungry that she didn''t notice the scents of the guests over the food." I didn''t know if this would help him at all but he said not to leave anything out so I wasn''t.


    "You mean she was actually surprised? As in shocked? Hmm." Griffing sounded as if he was thinking about something important. "OK, I am noting to the house, I am going to meet you at the hospital."


    I heard the sound of screeching tires as it seemed like Griffin was turning around while driving fast.


    "The hospital? Is it that serious?" Mom sounded shocked.


    "I won''t know until I see her, but I don''t want to take any chances. Get here as soon as you can. Call an ambnce if you have to." I didn''t like the way all of this was sounding, but I agreed with Griffin, I wasn''t going to take any chances.


    "I will drive her. By the time the ambnce gets here I could be almost there." I spoke firmly as I lifted my Little Bunny into my arms. "I will be out of here in less than sixty seconds, that I can promise. I will see you soon."


    "Drive safe but move fast." Griffin warned me before disconnecting the call.


    There was a text that came in just after he hung up. Vincent, who was following behind me, read it out loud.


    "He says to call when you''re almost there, he will have a team ready and waiting."


    "He needs to have that team ready before I get there, not when I am almost there." I growled out as I hurried to the garage.


    "Agreed." Vincent said as he responded to the message.


    When I got to the garage I noticed that Noah was also following along with us. He had made it to the door ahead of me and pushed it open. I guess he was not going to let me leave without him. That was fine, he coulde with me. Actually, he could drive for me. Him or Vincent since I wanted to hold my Little Bunny in my arms while we hurried there.


    Noah ran to one of therge ck SUVs we used when traveling as a group. Once he was there he opened the back door for me to slide in with Trinity in my arms. This would work for us since this SUV had arge backseat that made it easier for me to hold onto my mate.


    Vincent was already sliding into the driver''s seat so Noah immediately went to the passenger seat. Once he was seated, but before he had even closed his door, Vincent was moving toward the driveway.


    "Do you think this has something to do with the babies?" Noah turned around in his seat to face me and started to bombard me with question after question. "Is this something that happened to her when she was fighting Edmond? Could this have happened when you went to California? Or maybe it had happened when you went to visit the Fae. Did anything happen there? What about on your honeymoon? Did anything bad happen then?"


    "Noah!" I snapped at him as Vincent took the curves of the driveway way too sharply. He was good at handling the vehicle though and was in no danger of going off the road. "I do not know what is going on." I could hear the sorrow in my own voice. "I am just as worried and clueless as you are right now."


    Together the two of us looked down at the limp woman in my arms. She seemed so small and frail. I felt like if I touched her she would fall apart. She seemed like a snowke falling too soon and melting on impact or like spun sugar and life was a sky full of rain waiting to melt her away.


    I know she wasn''t really that delicate but looking at her right now it was hard to believe that at all. She had been through so much and ovee a lot but all of this here just made it seem like she was going to break apart with a strong wind.


    While I thought to myself I noticed that she was looking really pale. She was still breathing but her lips were turning to a very light shade of blue nheless. Not to mention it looked like she was turning gray, like she was taking on a shade of pale that was way beyond what I have ever seen before.


    "Hurry up, Vincent." I tried not to panic but I had to urge him on.

 Chapter 353 - Reece - Complications Part 2 (Volume 3)

    <h4>Chapter 353 - Reece - Complications Part 2 (Volume 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Vincent was about to pull into the hospital parking lot. He was going to head straight to the emergency doors so I could jump out with my Little Bunny in my arms. I needed to get her to Griffin right away. Noah had even called him to make sure he was waiting for us.


    The first thing I saw when we pulled up was Griffin standing next to a gurney. I had thought that he was alone but then I noticed that there was a group of people behind him. There were probably five of them, at least. Well, half a dozen might be enough to help my wife. If not, they can just get more.


    Vincent hadn''t even fully stopped the car when Griffin was already yanking the door to the backseat open. I could see the worry in his eyes even if he was trying to hold a poker face.


    "Has there been any changes?" He asked me as he reached in to grab Trinity''s wrist. He must have been checking her pulse.


    "She hasn''t moved or made a sound, but her lips are turning blue and she looks gray and ashen. She''s breathing though, I can tell that she is."


    "She''s breathing but she''s not getting enough oxygen. This can be caused by a few different things. Hopefully we can get her enough oxygen without needing to intubate her." I didn''t like the sound of that.


    I was already sliding out of the vehicle with Trinity while he spoke. The moment that I was free of the SUV the other doctors and nurses seemed to swarm me. They had taken Trinity from my arms and were getting her on the gurney before I even had a chance to recognize any of their supernatural scents. None of them were human, but I hadn''t been able to tell what they were yet.


    Griffin was the man that was in charge. That had been clear to see but the others seemed to be good at their jobs as they started to work in tandem.


    "Get her inside and up to the maternity ward. I want her in room three oh seven." Griffin was giving out orders while they hurried inside.


    I knew where they were going now. If I lost them along the way, which I hoped I wouldn''t, I would be able to find them again easily.


    I was already walking inside the hospital, following the flurry of excitement that was happening with my mate. Noah was next to me and Vincent, who had sped off to park the SUV once I was out, was running to catch up to us.


    By the time that we made it to the elevators, right on the heels of the gurney that my Little Bunny was on, the doors slid shut. I couldn''t see my wife anymore. I couldn''t see what they were doing. I needed to see what was going on.


    "Let''s not wait for the next elevator." Noah suggested.


    "Yeah, we can move faster than the elevator anyway."


    The three of us rushed to the door to the stairs. There was no one else in the stairwell with us so we were able to run all out. We didn''t have to hold back to keep anyone from noticing that we weren''t quite human.


    While I was running I was taking the stairs in leaps. I was moving up them by at least half a flight at a time. I was thankful though that we were only going up to the third floor. We made it up there in no time at all. In fact, by the time that we rushed out of the stairwell I saw that the elevator doors were just sliding open so that Griffin and the others could wheel my Little Bunny out of the car.


    The entourage of medical staff was wheeling my wife down the hallway toward a door that was standing open. There was another nurse waiting near the door and I could already tell that she was a wolf as well.


    The group made it inside before I did and I watched as they slid the top sheet from that gurney onto the bed that was waiting in the room for them. The nurse from the hallway came in to move it out of the way and looked at me with worried eyes.


    "Don''t worry, Alpha King. We will do everything we can." I recognized her. She was someone from Riley''s pack, I didn''t know her name but I knew where she was from at least.


    "Thank you." I nodded at her as I walked into the room.


    The group of doctors had already hooked up a lot of machines to my Little Bunny. She had an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose, a blood pressure cuff on her arm, an IV in her arm that was giving her clear liquids, and heart monitors all over her chest.


    I saw that they had cut away all of her clothes and left her in just her bra and panties. I wanted to be upset about that but I couldn''t be. I knew they had to do it, this was just part of their job after all.


    While I watched I saw them wrap a few different stic bands around her waist. There were big white circles on the bands that were pressing into Trinity''s belly pretty hard. After they were in ce someone flipped a switch and I could hear the sound of heartbeats.


    "Is that my babies'' heartbeats? Are they OK? Is Trinity OK?" I was too worried to keep quiet. I saw the doctors look at me then and it was clear they wanted to tell me to leave. Let them try. I will buy this hospital and fire their asses. I wasn''t going anywhere.


    Apparently they could tell that I wasn''t going to go anywhere too. They looked annoyed at first but they didn''t say anything and all my questions were answered by Griffin.


    "Yes, that is the sound of their heartbeats. They are doing fine. So whatever is wrong it is only affecting Trinity right now." He didn''t sound very happy and that didn''t make me very confident either.


    "What is going on?" I asked him. "What is happening to her, Griffin?"


    "I don''t know yet. I have never seen this happen to a shifter during pregnancy before. This is strange."


    "Could it be because she is half witch?" Noah asked from his ce near the door.


    "It''s possible. I mean, witches and warlocks are supposed to be nearly as impervious to disease as we wolves are, but that doesn''t make any of us immortal. As you all know there are still a number of diseases that can affect our kind. And the weaker the person or the wolf inside of them then the more at risk they are." He was doing his best to exin with an even voice but he was just as worried as I was.


    "She''s the Luna Queen for crying out loud. How could you say that her wolf is at all weak?" Vincent hadn''t liked anyone saying his Luna was not powerful, even if they were a doctor.


    "I am not actually saying that her wolf is weak. I am saying that those of us that are usually susceptible to getting sick are weak. I don''t know for sure what is going on right now but I will figure it out as soon as I can."


    Griffin had sounded upset and defensive when Vincent had yelled at him just as Vincent had sounded offended when someone had insulted his Luna. If we didn''t keep this situation calm then everything was going to devolve into chaos.


    "Enough." I silenced them with a firm word. "I don''t care who said what, just take care of my wife."


    I saw that the two men looked apologetic after they realized that they had been on the verge of squabbling. We were here for something very specific and they weren''t being very helpful right now.


    As Griffin turned back to help my Little Bunny I felt a weight settle in my stomach. It was like I was suddenly too grief stricken to stand. I was too worried about my wife and my babies. Trinity, Reagan, Rika, they were my family and they were all in trouble right now.


    I just felt like everything I had, everything there was in my life, was slipping away. If I lost my Little Bunny then I would be lost. She was my rock, my guiding light, my reason for being.


    "Please, Goddess, let her be OK. Please, don''t take her or my babies away from me."


    I felt both Noah and Vincent stiffen next to me. They probably hadn''t thought of that as a possibility yet. Be it from not wanting to or just not thinking it was that bad, but the moment they heard those words I felt the worry inside the both of them double.

 Chapter 354 - Reece - Complications Part 3 (Volume 3)

    <h4>Chapter 354 - Reece - Complications Part 3 (Volume 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    As I sat there in the chair in the corner of the room I watched on as the doctors tried to figure out what was wrong with my wife. I was watching the monitors as Trinity was hooked up to all of them. They had the babies and her both being monitored so they could check everything. There were wires going just about everywhere.


    The monitors for the babies were fine. One of them had a heart rate of one hundred and forty beats per minute and the other had one hundred and thirty-five beats per minute. They were doing just fine.


    Trinity''s monitors were sounding rm after rm. Her heart rate was way too fast. I could see the lines spiking by myself so I didn''t even need to see that the numbers said it was beating at one hundred and forty-five beats per minute. That was not normal for her.


    Her blood pressure was way too high as well. Instead of the usual one hundred and ten over eighty it was now one hundred and ny over one hundred and twenty. What was going on with her? What was causing all of this?


    Despite not being a medical professional I knew that this was wrong. I knew that there was something majorly wrong with my Little Bunny.


    Another thing I could see that was wrong on the monitor was the oxygen levels. They were way too low. We may be stronger, faster, and a lot harder to kill than humans but we still needed a beating heart and oxygen to live.


    A grim looking nurse came over toward us then, I knew exactly what she was going to say to me. She wasn''t the same one who had spoken to me earlier and I didn''t know who she was.


    "We''re going to need you gentlemen to wait outside." She tried to usher us all toward the door.


    "They will wait outside but I will wait right here." She didn''t look happy at my rebuttal.


    "I am sorry, Mr. Gray, but hospital policy states-."


    "You can shove your fucking hospital policy up your fucking ass. That''s my wife and I am the Alpha King. I would like to fucking see you make me leave this goddamn room." She stiffened in fear at my words. She knew who I was and what I was capable of, that was clear to see by the fear in her eyes.


    "Very well then, you may stay, but the rest of you need to leave immediately." She did her job by forcing Noah and Vincent from the room but I stayed put in my seat in the corner. No one was going to get me to leave my wife''s side. That was never going to happen, ever.


    I heard snippets of the conversation between the doctors. I heard them talking about Trinity''s heart rate, blood pressure, something about ipatibility, and then there was something about her needing oxygen. They had put a mask on her to help her breath more easily but I didn''t know what else they were doing just yet.


    There was a lot of panic and hushed talking going on. I knew they were limited to very few people in the hospital since Trinity and the babies weren''t human. I didn''t know how different we were on the inside but it might be enough for a doctor to figure out if they were doing tests.


    After what felt like forever but was in reality probably only thirty minutes or so, Griffin came over to me. I watched as he lowered the mask he had around his face and walked slowly toward me. There was such a grim look on his face that it immediately made my heart stop and my stomach drop. I felt like I was already dying by the time that he knelt in front of me. I could tell that I was looking at him with fear filled eyes.


    "Reece." He sighed my name and I could tell that it was bad news.


    "Is Trinity dead? Is she gone? Are my babies gone?" I felt the tears already stinging the backs of my eyes. The panic was setting in.


    "No!" He said the word so quickly it was like he was trying to diffuse the timebomb I was bing. "No, she''s fine." I felt a rush of relief start to wash over me. "Trinity is alive and fine and so are the babies."


    "What happened Griffin? What was all of this?" The panic had lessened but it wasn''t gone.


    "I am not sure what caused it yet but she seems to have developed gestational hypertension. It is not that umon for most women but it is almost unheard of for a shifter." I knew this was bad, it was beyond bad.


    "What does this mean? What exactly happened to her?" I felt like the world was still spinning around me and I couldn''t stop myself from spiraling.


    "Basically it means that her blood pressure got too high. It was so high that her heart had to work extra hard to keep up and that made her body get less oxygen. Thankfully she and the babies were fine when you got here. There is nosting damage. They will all make it through this just fine." I wanted to be relieved and believe that it was all over but it couldn''t be that easy, I just knew it couldn''t.


    "What do we do from here? What happens next?" That was the major thing right? What did we need to do to make sure that she and the babies continued to be OK through all of this.


    "Well, I will give her something that will help with her blood pressure. It will only be during the pregnancy so it will onlyst a little while. I don''t know how much she is going to need just yet so I will being to see her at the house a lot to check her blood pressure."


    "Alright. So she needs to take that medicine and you will see her a lot, what else? That can''t be it." I was not ready to believe that the worst was past. I was too afraid to hope for something positive.


    "She needs to try not to get too excited, she needs to stay off her feet. I want her on bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy. I want someone there to help her around the clock so that she isn''t doing too much by herself. I mean it. She needs to stay off her feet and keep her blood pressure down." That was a lot to ask for. I knew how my headstrong Little Bunny was likely to respond to that. Then again, if it was for the babies she just might do it.


    "Alright. I will make sure she is off her feet. What about her appointments in your office?" I needed to get all of these details ironed out as soon as I could.


    "I will take care of those when Ie to see her at your ce. I will not make here back to my office unless there is something that I am concerned about."


    "That''s good." I finally sighed in relief, I might finally be able to see a light at the end of the tunnel. "What about when she goes intobor? Do I bring her here or your office?" I could just imagine that day, I was going to panic beyond belief.


    "Here, I will need the extra equipment to monitor her. I want to make sure they are all safe and sound."


    "They are though, aren''t they? They''re safe. Nothing is wrong right?" I had to ask even though he already told me this.


    "Yes, Reece." He put a hand on my shoulder then, steadying my nerves. "They''re fine. I promise."


    As Griffin stood up I finally felt the relief fully wash over me. It was like he had taken thest of my doubts with him as he left the room. That was also when I noticed that all the other doctors and nurses had left us as well. It was just me and the sleeping Trinity in the room.


    I stood from the chair and hurried to her side. I needed to touch her, to make sure that she was still there and not an illusion. I needed to feel her heart beating under my hand even though I could hear it from across the room.


    When I was at her side I sat on the side of her bed and took her hand. As soon as I lifted it high enough I was kissing the back of her knuckles. I needed to show her that I was here and that I loved her. I needed to prove myself to her.


    "I''m here for you baby. I always will be." She was still unconscious. I didn''t know when she was going to wake up, but I saw that her color was returning to normal and her monitors were a little more normal. It was all such a relief.


    Next I pressed both of my hands to my Little Bunny''s growing belly. I wanted to feel the babies that were in there. I needed to know they were safe as well. When I felt one of them stretch and press against the bounds of their tiny womb room, which caused their sibling to kick in retaliation, I knew that they were indeed safe.


    "Thank you, Goddess. Thank you for saving my family."

 Chapter 355 - Reece - Trinity Wakes Up (Volume 3)

    <h4>Chapter 355 - Reece - Trinity Wakes Up (Volume 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    About ten minutes after Griffin left the room Noah and Vincent came back in. They looked relieved so I could guess that he had told them that Trinity was out of the woods now. That was good, I wouldn''t have to be the one to tell them. As it was I was going to have to tell my mom. Unless I could delegate that task to someone else.


    "Did Griffin say how long she would be asleep for?" Noah asked me as soon as he stopped next to the bed. I watched as he tucked the stray hairs behind Trinity''s ear. If he weren''t her brother of sorts I would be furious, but he was so I didn''t say anything about it.


    "No, he didn''t. I hope it won''t be long but I also hope it is until the morning, she needs her rest." I was looking at her peaceful face as I spoke.


    "Yeah, she does. She has been busy and this pregnancy is taking a lot out of her." Vincent was the one who responded which surprised me.


    "It is? How do you know?" I think that my question was unexpected for him.


    "I am the head of her security. I see her everyday. I have noticed that she has been looking more tired but I didn''t think it was going to lead to this." He hung his head in shame. "I have failed her."


    "No you haven''t." I assured him. "None of us saw thising. I should have noticed but I didn''t, what does that say about me?" Yeah, we had all missed the warning signs.


    "I think she didn''t say anything about how bad she was truly feeling. She likes to keep things like that to herself." Noah knew a lot about her as well. Sometimes I forget just how much these two men knew about my wife. It might help me to talk to them about her more.


    "Noah, can I trust you to tell your parents and brother what happened?" I didn''t even want to think about the panic fit that Eve was going to have when she heard about this.


    "Yeah, I will call her right now." He started to turn and head toward the hallway.


    "Vincent, will you call my mother? She knows that Trinity is here already and she is probably going crazy with worry. Will you tell her what Griffin said?" There, I can delegate that to him.


    "Sure thing, Reece." He turned and left the room as well.


    Noah and Vincent had bothe back to report the results of their calls. My mother had been relieved and promised to visit first thing in the morning since visiting hours were over for the night. Eve wanted to forgo the visiting hours ande up tonight but Noah said he told her to wait. He assured her that I was with Trinity and that she would be fine until the morning. That was good. We would be fine until the morning, just the two of us.


    I refused to even leave Trinity''s side though. Everytime that someone came in to take a reading from her heart monitor or her blood pressure throughout the night I refused to move. They had to work around me. I know they thought that I was being terribly inconvenient but I didn''t care. I was not going to leave her at all.


    The little bit of sleep that I did get was done with me sitting in a chair next to my Little Bunny''s bed and resting my head on her legs. It was extremely ufortable but I would sleep like that for a year before I left her in this room without me. I was never going to leave her.


    It was right before eight in the morning when I stood to stretch. I knew that Trinity hadn''t woken up at all through the night and I didn''t expect it anytime soon. I felt a crick in my neck and back that I stretched out with a groan then spoke with a tired sounding voice.


    "Good morning, beautiful."


    "Hey handsome." I hadn''t expected her response so it literally made me jump.


    When I turned my head to look at her I saw that she was just opening her eyes. There was a small smile on her face as she looked at me like she thought I was an idiot or something. I probably looked like one with the way my mouth was gaped open.


    "Are you trying to catch flies or something with your mouth hanging open like that? Maybe I should nickname you Frogger instead of Fido." The smile on her face got a little wider.


    "Trinity." I breathed her name and sank into the chair that I had slept in.


    "Morning." She shifted a little like she was trying to sit up but gave up when all the wires got in the way. "I take it that I caused a big stirst night. I''m sorry."


    "Don''t apologize." I took her hand and insisted that she stop. "You didn''t do anything wrong. No one caused this, it just happened."


    "What did happen?" She looked confused. "I don''t remember anything after we were walking up the stairs. Did we even make it up the stairs?"


    "Mostly. You copsed when we were almost at the top. You seemed to sway and fell into my arms. When we called Griffin he told us to bring you here. Your blood pressure was high, your heart was beating too fast, and your body wasn''t getting enough oxygen." I watched as the shock of what I was saying hit her.


    "Oh my Goddess, the babies. Are the babies OK? Is anything wrong with them? Please Reece, tell me that they''re alright?" She looked like she was about to have a panic attack and I could see that her blood pressure was going up again.


    "Shhh. Shhh. Shhh. They''re fine." I tried to sooth her as quickly as I could. "Shhh. Shhh. Calm down now. Shhh. Shhh." I was rubbing the side of her face gently trying to make sure that she didn''t over excite herself. "You need to calm down. You can''t get too excited."


    "Why? What''s wrong with me?" She still looked scared and afraid but at least it looked like the panic attack was over.


    "Griffin said he didn''t know what caused it but you have gestational hypertension. You need to keep calm and not let your blood pressure get too high. He also said you need to be on bed rest until the babies are born." I could see the shock on her face still. She was still scared, still nervous about all of this.


    "Bed rest? That''s all?" She didn''t sound as upset as I originally thought. Then again, I did say that she probably wouldn''t have a problem if it was for the babies. Looks like I was right.


    "That and some medicine to keep your blood pressure down. Griffin will being to visit you at the house a lot so he can check you out. And we need someone to monitor you around the clock."


    "Great, someone to wash me and take me to the bathroom." That didn''t make her look too happy.


    "Those can be my jobs if you like." I offered her.


    "You think I want my husband to have to do that for me?" She looked indignant.


    "It''s not like I will have to wipe you, just carry you. I already carry you every chance I get anyway. Besides, we can just have a bath together every night. It will be fine. I can work from home and Mom or Eve can spend the day with you. I would say Juniper but she will be just as pregnant so I don''t want to put that on her either." She seemed to be contemting my ideas at least.


    "I guess I have no choice. It''ll have to be this way until the babies are here but then I can move around and do anything that I want again. Right?" She looked more like she was pleading with me than asking me a question.


    "I believe so, yes. We can double check with Griffin when hees back to check on youter." I smiled at her to show that it wasn''t as bad as it could be.


    "Alright, this is how it has to be I guess."


    I watched then as Trinity put her hands to her belly. I knew that she was desperate to feel them moving so that she knew for a fact that they were safe. It was the same thing that I had donest night after going to my Little Bunny''s side. She was so worried about them that she was not going to focus on anything except for them until she felt them move.


    I was hoping that she wouldn''t have to wait for long. I saw the worry start to build in her eyes and a grimace form on her lips. She wasn''t feeling them. They weren''t moving for her. She was losing hope.


    All of a sudden her eyes lit up and she smiled. I could see how relieved and happy she looked. I knew that she had felt Reagan and Rika move. Thank you babies for not making her wait any longer. I hoped that this meant that they were going to be good kids when they grew up. However, knowing our luck, they would probably be little terrors. And Trinity would me it all on me for being just a brat when we first met. Only I don''t think she will use the word brat.

 Chapter 356 - Trinity - Visitors (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 356 - Trinity - Visitors (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    What Reece had told me when I woke up in the hospital was quite the shock. I didn''t think that I was going to have a problem like this while I was pregnant. I never thought that there would ever be something to put me or my babies in danger.


    Griffin said he had never heard of something like this happening to a shifter before. I had to wonder if it was because I was only half shifter and there was something ipatible inside of me. Or was I just not meant to have children at all.


    All of it truly scared me. I didn''t want to think about what it meant or what would happen. I just knew that I needed to listen to what Griffin told me to do.


    "So, I just need to stay in bed and not get overly excited for the next couple of months, right?" I was double checking my duties until the babies were born.


    "That''s right." Reece''s voice was smooth and easy like he hadpletely calmed down.


    "I can do that no problem. It will be easy." I smiled at him showing him it was not an issue.


    "Why couldn''t you have been this easy going about it when I was trying to keep you inside for your safety." Heughed now as he remembered our past when things were not quite so happy between us.


    "Hmm, probably because you never exined anything to me. You just acted all caveman and pointed at my room with a grunt. I don''t speak pighead so it was really difficult for me. I am so d you became bilingual. It''s made things so much easier, Dino."


    "So now I am a caveman as well as a caveman''s dinosaur dog. Anything else to add?" He raised a brow at me as he contemted what wasing next."


    "Yeah, just one more thing." I saw the dread in his eyes as he waited. "I love you." He hadn''t been expecting that.


    "I love you too." He grinned and happily responded to me before leaning down and kissing me on the lips gently.


    "Hey, get a room, you two."


    There was an interruption from the door. I recognized my mom''s voice right away as she pretended to be stern.


    "Oh, wait, you''re in a room." Sheughed, trying to break the tension that she must have been feeling. I could only imagine how upset she must have beenst night when Noah called her. Reece told me that he had asked for the information to be passed along to both my mom and his.


    "Hi Mom." I smiled at her as she came into the room. Dad was behind her looking as worried as he possibly could. Behind him were Grandfather, Noah, Nikki, Elias, Carter, and Emmalee. It was my entire family. The only person that was missing was L. Then everyone that was part of my family would be here.


    "Hey sweetie, how are you feeling?" Mom looked so nervous as she walked next to my bed and sat in one of the small chairs. Dad followed her but stood behind her.


    "Are you doing alright?" I noticed that Dad''s voice cracked a little as he asked me that question. I know he was probably up all night with worry.


    "Yeah, I''m fine. The babies are alright as well. I just need to be careful from now on." There was visible relief on Dad''s face when he saw me.


    "I''m so d." He almost seemed to sink down even though he was still standing.


    "I was so worried." Nikki came closer, Elias in her arms. "When Noah told me what happened after the partyst night I could barely sleep. I just stayed up between Elias''s feedings."


    "I''m sorry to worry you all." I hung my head in shame, I had caused them all so many problems.


    "Stop that." Emmalee scolded me. "Why are you apologizing? Did you do this on purpose? Did you ask for this? No, you didn''t. No one did. This happened and that''s that. We understand. Yes, we were worried but I am sure no one was as scared as you and Reece." Emmalee, who was due just about any time now was looking at me with her hands on her hips. I could see her baby belly swaying from the force of her anger.


    "She''s right." Carter agreed with her. "We love you Trin, but you''re the one who was probably the most scared. You and Reece. You don''t need to apologize to us. When we found out what was going on you were already out of the woods and we knew you were going to be just fine. Yeah, we were worried because this happened to you, but that was all."


    "We''re here for you, Trinity, we always will be." Dad was smiling now.


    "Anything that you need." Mom added.


    "I love you guys." I could feel myself tearing up at how much they cared for me.


    "There is nothing for you to worry about, Trinity. We''re all fine, it''s you that needs to rest and be taken care of." Grandfather spoke for the first time as he stepped closer to me and put a hand on my foot that was covered by a nket.


    There was a time that I thought I would never have this. The love and affection from my grandfather. Someone to call mom or dad. Brothers and sisters that love me. I had loved them and knew they loved me but there was a time that I truly felt like I just didn''t belong with them. I now know how silly that had been of me. My family loves me, they always have.


    They all stayed and talked for a while. Mom and Grandfather offered to help out around our house. We had themunity that was almost done building. The daycare that I had wanted to run at the beginning of the year that I had to put on hold when things got busy. Now everything to do for the baby. There was just so much that I didn''t want to regret or leave unfinished. I would need all their help to make sure that I stayed on top of it all.


    After they left it was time for L to visit. I think she wanted to visit alone. She had been so worried yesterday when I copsed. Reece had told me that she hade running in a panic when he yelled out for me to wake up. I just know that she had been pacing at the house until Vincent had called her.


    "Oh, Trinity, sweetheart." She ran toward me and threw her arms around my neck in a rush. "I was so worried about you. When you wouldn''t wake up or move. I thought something horrible was going to happen. I couldn''t calm down at all. I thought I was going to have a heart attack until Vincent called me. When he said you were finally stable and sleeping I felt like a million pounds had been lifted off of my soul." She was crushing me in a tight hug as she said exactly what I had thought she had been feeling.


    "I''m sorry for worrying you. I know I scared you, but I''m fine now. The babies are fine. We''re all good. And we will be home tomorrow." I was rubbing her back as I soothed her and returned the hug.


    "It''s too soon and not soon enough. I want you there with me but I don''t want you rushing home. Take all the time you need to heal. Don''t push yourself at all. It''s not good for your health." She was such a worrier but that made me happy since her worry was for me.


    "I will be fine, I promise. I just need to stay in bed. Doctor''s orders."


    "Yeah, Mom, Griffin has her on bed rest until the babiese. She is not allowed to be up and walking around at all." Reeceughed a little as he said that like he thought my being confined was funny somehow. Well, he would see how funny it waster when I called him to do everything for me.


    "Really? No walking around at all? You will need someone there to help you. I will be there day and night. Whatever you need, honey."


    "I know, thank you." I knew she would offer. She was so sweet that way. I wouldn''t make it through these next few days without her.


    After L left, Reece and I had lunch. Thankfully Griffin had permitted us to get something delivered so we didn''t have to eat the hospital food. I don''t think Reece could have survived that at all.


    We spent the rest of the day and the night that followed talking. We talked about what to do about me being confined and unable to perform pack duties. I would be missing the monthly meetings and I wouldn''t be there for anyone who came to visit me.


    Reece told me not to worry about it at all. I was the Queen and I should be less essible to the general public anyway. This was a good chance for us to start discussing how we were going to organize the political and royal ranks within our people.


    The next morning we had breakfast delivered as well. Reece had spent the night with me again. He had even requested that Vincent bring him a bag full of clothes so that he could change, and L made sure there was stuff in there for me to put on when I went home.


    Normally I would have had Gabriel bring them since he was my personal assistant but he was managing all the things that Reece and I had beenmitted to prior to this issue happening. He was quite efficient and was handling it all well, so I didn''t mind that I hadn''t seen him yet.


    After breakfast Griffin came to see me. He hadn''t been able to stop by the day before but one of the other supernatural doctors had. An eagle shifter by the name of Aleczavier Tallon hade to see me yesterday.


    Griffin looked happy with how things were going right now. He was pleased that I was doing well since that night and that the meds they were giving me were working.


    "You''re going to take these pills until the babies are here. I don''t know how many of them you''re going to need since you''ve been on IV meds while here. I will being to see you every day for the first week until we get the number just right." He handed me a bottle with small white pills inside of it. "Now, you''re due about a week before Christmas but you''re having twins so I would guess that you will go about two weeks early at least."


    "Will that be safe? Having them early?" I was worried since two weeks early was a long time in a pregnancy that was only six months long.


    "They will be fine. At most a little smaller than other babies their age for a little while but they will grow just fine. Not to mention that''s the minimum. With this hypertension issue of yours, I might induce you earlier if I think that there might be aplication that affects either you or the babies. I will be monitoring you closely."


    "Earlier?" Reece and I both gasped when we heard what Griffin said.


    "Just do your best to stay in bed and keep those babies inside. That''s the best option you have right now." Griffin was sounding way more stern than I had ever heard him before. This was starting to scare me again. "Don''t worry, Trinity." He smiled at me. "I will make sure all three of you make it through this safely. I promise." That made me feel a little better I guess."

 Chapter 357 - Trinity - The Bed Rest Already Begins (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 357 - Trinity - The Bed Rest Already Begins (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After receiving Griffin''s warnings and another thorough examination I was allowed to leave the hospital. Griffin wouldn''t even let me stand up to dress myself though, he had instructed Reece to help me if I needed it but I was to sit on the bed until the wheelchair came.


    "But I need to use the bathroom." I called after him.


    "Then have him carry you. If you don''t like that then have a nurse get you a bedpan." He was at the door as he said these words firmly.


    "I will not use a bedpan." I said the words with disgust as Reece bent to scoop me up into his arms.


    "Then I guess I''ll get to carry you." He sounded pleased with himself and happy about this whole situation.


    "You''re enjoying this, aren''t you?" I red at him as he pushed the door to my room''s private bathroom open.


    "Very much." He grinned. "I get to hold you in my arms even more. What''s not to enjoy about this?" His smug face made me want to smack him.


    "Stupid overgrown dog." I was joking of course, I knew that I needed to let him carry me because it was doctor''s orders but I hadn''t expected it to start while I was still in the hospital. Ugh, not even onest hurrah of freedom to roam about my room. This sucks.


    "I already know you love me, you don''t have to flirt so much, sheesh." He wasughing as he sat me down on the seat. "Want me to stay?"


    "No!" I snapped at him. "I don''t have anything to pull down anyway, I am naked under this damn gown." That was true, ording to Reece they had cut away all of my clothes and they had even given me a catheter that kept me from having to go to the bathroom yesterday. It had been removed this morning. This was the first time that I would have been able to get up and out of the bed and I wasn''t even able to do that.


    "Fine. I wille back for you when you''re done." He stepped out into the other room and shut the door.


    This was going to be annoying. UGH! Well, I just had to go about my business for now. When that business was done and I had cleaned myself up I stood so that I could wash my hands. The toilet, however, was one of those automatically flushing ones so it alerted Reece to the fact that I was done. He immediately opened the door and bellowed at me.


    "TRINITY GRAY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" I hadn''t expected him to shout like that so it actually startled me and I jumped in surprise.


    "What the hell?" I yelled back at him, my wet soapy hands pressed against my chest. "You almost gave me a heart attack."


    "Why are you up? You were supposed to call for me." Reece didn''t look happy with me at all.


    "I was only washing my hands Reece? Was I supposed to call you to wipe me and clean my hands up too?" I was being sarcastic, I really didn''t think that was appropriate at all.


    "You''re not supposed to be on your feet at all. You need to call me to help you up and to carry you to the sink. Next time, follow the rules." He looked livid. This wasn''t that much though. I didn''t see how it was that bad for me to just wash my hands.


    "Reece, seriously I took one step to the sink that was all."


    "That doesn''t matter." He stepped forward and picked me up. He stood there, hunched forward a little so that he held me low enough to finish washing the soap off of my hands. "When Griffin said you needed to stay off your feet he meant it. Don''t get up again. If you do, I will get a bedpan for you to use at home."


    "Do it and die Fido." I snapped at him. "I will not use a bedpan. I do not piss the bed in any way shape or form. Got it?" I felt the anger boiling inside of me.


    "Then don''t get up again." He grinned down at me. "Got it?"


    "You''re enjoying being in charge again. I can see it, you have this whole powerplex going on right now." I guess he had not liked taking orders from me, huh.


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about." He tried to deny it.


    "Really? I can just give you an order." I wiggled my eyebrows at him to show that I could have some fun here.


    "I would fight it. I would be denying you for a good cause. You need to stay off your feet so that you and our babies are safe and healthy. I am sure you can understand that if you just think about it. You were a good girl about it yesterday. What happened?" He looked slightly annoyed now.


    "I''m not going against it. I just didn''t think it would start while I was still at the hospital and getting the IV meds to keep my blood pressure under control. I thought my freedom wouldst until then." I crossed my arms now that my hands were cleaned and dry. Reece was walking us back into the room now so that he could help me get dressed.


    "Well, get used to it, this will be the way life is for you until the babies are here. When they''re out and you''re back to normal you can run a fucking marathon while breastfeeding if you want. I don''t give a shit as long as there are no nip slips. But until then you''re on bed arrest."


    "You mean bed rest." I tried to correct him since he had said it wrong.


    "No, it would have been bed rest but you already vited parole and are not being remanded back to your cell. Just be d you won''t be in solitary confinement. You will still have visitors and the food will be great. You just can''t get that pretty little ass of yours out of bed."


    "Ugh." I rolled my eyes. "Sometimes you annoy me, McGruff. I hope you enjoy your time as the warden. As soon as I can I will get my revenge." He noticed my grin.


    "Does that mean you''re going to tie me up and hold me prisoner again? Ohh, I will look forward to that."


    "Dammit, even my punishments are exciting for you." Iughed. It had been a joke, partially, but he had figured it out immediately.


    After our little argument Reece helped me to get dressed while I was sitting on the edge of the bed. He actually helped me to do almost all of it. He slipped my panties over my feet and pulled them up to my thighs. I couldn''t stand to pull them up so Iid back and pulled them up the best I could. I couldn''t even see them past the massive belly that was in my way. Huh, I remember being so thin that I looked abnormal next to all the other she-wolves in the pack. Now this belly of mine was huge.


    Anyway, after the panties were up and in ce he took advantage of how I was sitting to slide the loose fitting yoga style pants onto my legs. I hated the feeling of having someone put clothes on me. It was nowhere near as exciting as when someone, (Reece), took them off of me.


    After my bottom was dressed I tried to sit up but the belly didn''t want to cooperate. Reece actually had to pull my hand to help pull me into a sitting position. This was getting to be ridiculous. Once I was sitting up though I snatched my bra out of Reece''s hands, he was going to try and put it on me as well. I could still put that on myself. It would be quite easy I am sure.


    OK, it was a little hard to get my body to maneuver around the belly to put it on while sitting as still as I could on the bed. That and I swear that my belly grew a lot in thest two days that I was in the hospital. Still, I managed to get the bra on and grabbed my loose fitting shirt. I slipped it on over my head and that was it.


    When I tried to grab for my socks Reece pulled them away from me.


    "Uh uh, you can''t even see your feet. Do you think that I will even let you try to put these on right now?"


    "What, are you going to put them on me all the time from now on?" I just rolled my eyes and held my hands out for them but he ignored me.


    I watched as Reece unfolded the socks and prepared one of them to slip on over my foot. He bunched the sock up in his hands and pushed it onto my toes and then up past my heel. I felt the way his fingers teased a little at the back of my leg when he pulled them away when he was done.


    OK, maybe I wouldn''t mind him getting my socks on me all that much. That was kind of nice. I tried to hide the grin on my face while he did the other foot. When he was done with that he slid on a pair of ck canvas sneakers and I was finished getting dressed to go.


    Not long after that the wheelchair had arrived and it was time for us to go. It annoyed me that I needed to be lifted into the chair but at least it was Reece who did it and not this random guy who had brought us the wheelchair.


    When it came time to leave the room the man tried to push my chair but Reece pulled a few crisp hundred dor bills from his wallet and told the man to take a break. Reece wasn''t going to let anyone push my chair but him. He truly was possessive, but I liked it in all honesty.

 Chapter 358 - Trinity - Bed Arrest Part 1(VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 358 - Trinity - Bed Arrest Part 1(VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Of course Reece lifted me and put me into the car. He also gently leaned over me to buckle me up because apparently I must have forgotten how to do that while I was in the hospital. You know how we women forget so many things if we don''t do them every single day.


    After I was securely fastened in the back seat of the car Reece moved over to the other side and slid in next to me so that Noah could drive us home. I caught sight of Noah''s eyes in the mirror as he watched the whole process and I could tell that he was trying really hard not tough at Reece right now. Don''t worry Noah, I wanted tough at him too.


    "You know, Fido, I can do little things for myself. Like buckling up, feeding myself, breathing. I am not dead or in aa. I am alive and well. I just need to keep myself from getting excited and not let my heart rate get too high." At that Noah didugh as he pulled the SUV away from the curb and started to drive us home.


    "I know that." Reece red at the back of Noah''s head, clearly embarrassed and not appreciating theughter at the moment. "But you are my wife and you are carrying my babies. I am three times as worried as a normal man. Can you me me for being a little overprotective right now?" There was a fire in his eyes that clearly showed that he wasn''t going to let anything slide during this time. He really was the most overprotective little puppy dog that I had ever seen.


    "No, I can''t me you at all." I said as I leaned over and cupped his cheek in my hand. "I love you for how protective you are of me. I might not like it when you''re doing it at the time but I am d that you''re there to do it for me. I wouldn''t be here without you, Reece. You know that, I know that, I think the whole shifter world knows that. And to me there is no one more special to me than you." After my sweet words I leaned in and kissed his lips softly.


    "Blech!" Noah pretended to gag. "Can you not kiss my sister while I am in the car?" Noah was ring at Reece in the rearview mirror.


    "Get your fucking eyes checked, Noah. She kissed me." Reeceughed at him.


    "Nope. Not my baby sister. She would never do such a thing. Would you, Trinity?" Noah was speaking in a voice that was high and sweet, almost like he was talking about a child. I knew at once he was ying around but it was funny and would be nice to mess with my husband a little.


    "Absolutely not. I would never do something like that. Especially not with my brother right here. Why in the world would I kiss his best friend right in front of him. That would just be wrong." My innocent act was over the top and sounded totally fake. So it was exactly what I was going for. I nailed it.


    "You two are just horrible to me sometimes." Reece pouted with his arms crossed over his chest.


    "Don''t worry, my love." I kissed his cheek. "I love you no matter what happens." I winked at him as I pulled away.


    "You little Devil Bunny." He followed me as I pulled away and kissed me gently on my lips.


    "See, you are the one kissing my sister." Noah scolded him.


    "Oh just shut up and drive." Reece snapped at him. Noah and I bothughed at our little joke as we pulled into thepound and toward the estate.


    When we pulled up to the house I saw that there was a whole weing party waiting for me. Juniper, Paul, Cedar, Acacia, Emmalee, Carter, Nikki, Elias, Mom, Dad, Grandfather, L, they were all standing outside the house, most likely having been notified that we were on our way by the gate guards.


    "Are we having another party?" I asked Reece, slightly exasperated. "Didn''t we just have a party?"


    "This isn''t a party exactly. It''s just your closest friends and family weing you home from the hospital." Reece was smiling at me.


    "It''s a wee home party." I red at him. "I didn''t want a party like this Reece."


    "They set it up on their own. I wasn''t in on this, I swear." He held up his hands defensively.


    "Mom wanted to see you so bad and when she told everyone you wereing home today they wanted to see you too. It''s not a party really. It''s just a casual lunch. I promise we''re not going to go overboard." Noah was trying to both exin it and justify it at the same time.


    "This is our family we are talking about Noah, this is Mom we are talking about. It will definitely be going overboard no matter what." I could feel the anxiety growing in me now. I just wanted to be home and at peace right now.


    "Don''t worry, I will keep her in check. And Dad will be there to calm her down as well."


    I had no choice but to let it all happen. They were already here anyway. When Noah parked I unbuckled myself while Reece walked around to the other side to get me out. He was carrying me princess style as he walked toward therge group of visitors. They were all smiling happily at me and weing me home.


    "I am so d to see you sweetie." L grinned at me.


    "Wee home baby girl." Mom was almost in tears.


    "I hope you''re doing well." Dad smiled at me.


    "Don''t scare me like that, Astro." Paul scolded me.


    "You need to protect you and those babies so our kids can grow up together." Juniper grinned.


    The rest were simr things, all smiles and people weing me home. It was nice and I was d to see everyone but I was embarrassed about what had happened and I didn''t want to see everyone so soon.


    After Reece carried me inside he took me straight to the dining room for a nice casual lunch. Abigail had done an amazing job on the meal. She had really outdone herself. I was happy to be home and eating her cooking again. No one cooked like Abigail did. While we were eating Abigail came out and weed me home personally as well.


    "Oh, Trinity, I missed you so much. I was so worried about you. I am d you''re home. If there is anything you want to eat, anything at all just let me know. I will make it all for you. I am going to be staying here with you all for the next couple of months just in case there is something that you want in the middle of the night. I remember my night time cravings were so bad. I was always cooking while I was pregnant." Sheughed at the end as if she were remembering things fondly.


    "Thank you Abigail, but that''s not necessary, really. I won''t need anything at night. I could always wait until you get here in the morning." I tried to let her know that she can go home and that she didn''t need to wait on me so much but I don''t think it worked.


    "Nonsense child. You''re a first time mother. You don''t know how bad those cravings can be. Just leave it to me. Old Abigail will take care of everything." She was already walking out of the room so I couldn''t say anything to convince her to not stay and I really didn''t want to invoke my Luna Queen mode and force her to go home, that would hurt her feelings. Ngh, what was I going to do?


    After the meal was over everyone headed home and it was time for me to head up to my room. Reece had the next couple of days off of work before he had to get back to his busy days so he was going to be keeping mepany. I didn''t have to be confined to our room technically, as long as someone carried me I could go anywhere in the house. I could go to the music room, the library, the garden, and the dining room downstairs. It really didn''t matter where I was as long as I stayed off of my feet. Or more like, as long as I didn''t let Reece catch me on my feet.


    I wasn''t going to do anything bad, honestly. But, if someone helped me to the bathroom and it wasn''t Reece then I was going to walk myself to the damn sink and wash my hands. Hell I would probably be walking myself to the bathroom, that little bit of walking wouldn''t hurt anything. These overprotective men were just being worrywarts. That was all.

 Chapter 359 - Trinity- Bed Arrest Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 359 - Trinity- Bed Arrest Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Still, once Reece got me to our room heid me gently in the center of the bed and sat on the edge next to me.


    "So, how are you feeling? I know that took you by surprise. I don''t want you getting too worked up and having another episode." I know that he was just worried about me. I also know that he med the surprise baby shower for what happened because I was so focused on the smell of the food that I didn''t realize what was going on. It''s not my fault that his babies made my stomach the priority at the time, I was just hungry.


    "I am fine." I smiled at him. "Honestly, I really am fine. My heart isn''t pounding. I don''t feel dizzy. My pulse feels normal. I am good, really good."


    "That''s a relief." He looked like he visibly deted. It was like he let out a breath that I couldn''t even tell he was holding at the time. He really was just worried about me.


    "I am going to be fine, Reece. We all are. Reagan and Rika are going to be just fine as well, you will see. In just a couple of months we will be able to meet them and see them for the first time. We will be able to hold them in our arms and rock them back and forth."


    "Yeah, it will be amazing. But you need to stay safe until then. I can''t have you getting sick again or Griffin will take the babies early. If they''re too early then they might not be strong enough."


    I felt fear settle over me as I listened to Reece''s words. Everything that he was saying was true. If I didn''t keep these babies inside of me for as long as I could then they could be sick and weak and it would be all my fault. I would not let that happen. I just wouldn''t.


    It felt like I had been having the same conviction go through my head since I woke up at the hospital. That was probably true, but that''s because it was all that I could think about right now. I was literally a baby incubator with a ticking time bomb inside of it. If I wasn''t careful I would set that bomb off and all three of us could be in danger.


    "What are you thinking about?" Reece asked me as he watched me thinking.


    "About the babies." I answered immediately.


    "Well, that''s ambiguous. What about them?" He chuckled softly as I rolled my eyes at him.


    "About the best ways that I can protect them. I know we''ve talked about it a lot but it''s just something that I need to keep in the front of my mind. It''s a major life change for me. I will be changing the way that I do everything for the time being. In all honesty, I am going to be living life like I am some sort of invalid that is incapable of taking care of herself. I will be living life like I am severely crippled." I felt like there was a little bit of pain and sorrow in my voice right now. I didn''t want there to be but it''s the truth.


    All I wanted to do right now was get things ready for my babies. I wanted to prep their room and sort their clothes. I wanted to make sure everything was put in just the right ce and spend hours fussing over all the little details.


    Now, it felt like I was going to miss out on it all. I wasn''t going to get to finalize their room and I wasn''t going to get to put their clothes where I wanted them. And I wasn''t going to make sure that every little thing was perfect. It was actually quite depressing as I thought about it all.


    I think that Reece could tell how depressed I was by all of this. I was trying my hardest to stay positive for him and the others but I was actually scared shitless. It all made me nervous and really worried. I wanted to know what to do. I wanted to know how I was supposed to fix this and make it all go back to the way that it was before. And I was also wondering why this happened to me and my babies in the first ce.


    As I sat there fighting back the tears that were threatening to spill over at any moment Reece slid closer to me and held me in his arms. He didn''t say anything at all, he just let his warmth seep into me. Just him being there really was enough to calm me down and he knew it.


    When I was finally calmer I heard him speak, finally breaking the silence.


    "I am with you every step of the way, Little Bunny. I won''t leave you alone for a second if that is what you want. I will take a sabbatical from the office and stay here with you until the babies are three months old. I will stop working altogether. I can have someone else run thepany for me. If I am needed right here at your side then that is where I will be. I want you to know that, honey. You, Reagan and Rika, all of you are what is most important to me. Nothing else matters at all. As long as I have you then I have the whole world." There was such sincerity in Reece''s voice that I knew he meant every word of that. I could feel the love radiating off of him as his words reverberated through his chest and vibrated right into my ear.


    Just hearing what he had to say made my heart sing. It made me feel so loved. I knew that Reece loved me but I guess sometimes I just forgot how much he really loved me.


    "Reece, you have no idea how much that melts my heart or how happy it makes me to hear. I am beyond happy and ttered that you would give up everything to be with me, but you don''t need to do that. Not yet anyway. I know that as things with our roles as King and Queen progress we might need to reevaluate all of thister, but for now it is enough just knowing that you''re willing to throw away everything that you''ve worked so hard for just to be with me. I won''t let you do that though. I know how much you enjoy your work on most days."


    I felt the rumbling as Reece''sughter thrummed through him. He must have found my words funny.


    "I do enjoy my work, but I love you. And just remember, if I did stop working the money is still mine. I am sure we can survive for quite a long time with the fortune that I already have. Plus, I would still own thepany and therefore I would still be making more money. We would never be poor. I wouldn''t be throwing anything away, baby. I would be staying right where I am needed the most."


    His offer was so tempting. I almost told him that I did want him to stay with me, that I wanted us to be together like this all the time. Then I remembered that we really do need our time away from each other, even if it''s just little bits here and there. It would stop us from feeling smothered by the constant attention.


    "It''s tempting, Fido, it truly is. However, for right now I think we should leave things as they are for right now."


    "If you''re sure, Little Bunny. If that''s what you really want I will not argue at all.


    Reece and I moved from the bed to the couch and watched a movie after that. Dinner was delivered to our room and we ate it while watching the third movie of the night. By the time that the fifth movie was wrapping up I was ready to pass out from exhaustion even though I hadn''t done anything all day. While I drifted off to sleep I felt Reece carrying me back to the bed.


    After heid me back onto the bed I felt him slowly start to take some of the clothing off of me. My shoes had been taken off a long time ago but I felt my socks sliding off now. After that I felt my pants sliding down my legs. I would have weed an intimate touch most nights but right now I was too tired. He wasn''t making it intimate though, he was just making me morefortable. After the pants had been removed I felt him snake his hands up my shirt and remove my bra. It felt so freeing, so wonderful to not have that evil man-made contraption trying to kill me right now.


    After my bra was removed Reece must have removed his own clothes because a momentter I felt him climb into the bed after me and he was just wearing his boxer briefs like usual. I felt him wrap his arms around me gently and pull me closer to him so that I fit snugly under his chin. It was my favorite way toy, perfectly enveloped in his body. I never felt safer than I did when he draped his body around me like this. It was so peaceful and soothing that it made me slip into a deeper sleep immediately.

 Chapter 360 - Trinity - Bed Arrest Part 3 (MATURE) (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 360 - Trinity - Bed Arrest Part 3 (MATURE) (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    My first full day at home started out slow. I had to have Reece carry me to the bathroom so that I could pee like I needed to do every night. Honestly I was surprised I didn''t wake up in the middle of the night needing to pee like I have beentely. These babies often used my dder like it was a punching bag while I was sleeping.


    Just like at the hospital yesterday, and all through the day yesterday, Reece carried me to the bathroom and set me on the toilet. That part was so annoyingly embarrassing. I mean, I was capable of going from a standing position to a sitting position. But nope, he wouldn''t allow it at all.


    After I finished and was ready to wash up he would then pick me up and hold me while I washed my hands. At least he didn''t insist on washing them for me or something annoying like that.


    After that I had desperately wanted to take a shower. I just wanted to let the water wash over me and rx my muscles. Well, do you think he was going to let me shower? Nope. He set me on the edge of the sink and went to draw the bath.


    While the water was filling the tub he went and got a stack of towels that he set next to therge pool of water. After that he added a lightly scented oil to the water that I could instantly tell was meant for rxation. He was trying to keep me calm I see. After he grabbed my body wash and shampoo the tub was ready and it was time for me to bathe.


    Reece walked over just as I was taking off the loose fitting t-shirt I was wearing. He looked slightly annoyed, like he wanted to be the one to remove the shirt instead of me. Well, he got to be the one to pull the panties down and off of me so at least he shouldn''t be too upset.


    Before Reece picked me up though he stripped off his boxers and tossed them into the hamper with my clothes.


    "What are you doing?" I asked him even though I already knew.


    "Taking a bath with you. Isn''t that obvious?" Heughed as he picked me up.


    "I gathered that much, but why are you taking a bath with me? I can bathe myself, you know."


    "Aren''t I allowed to take a rxing bath with the love of my life?" He was phrasing it like that on purpose. He was going to make me feel guilty if I said no. Oooh that sneaky dog.


    "If that was really what you were after then I wouldn''t have a problem, but I have a feeling this is just you making sure I don''t die in the tub." He flinched at my choice of words and looked at the water with me held in his arms.


    "While it would be horrible for that to happen and I most definitely do not want to see you hurt in any way, this is truly just me wanting to take a bath with you this morning." Hmm, I wonder.


    "So, does that mean that I will bathe alone tomorrow? And the day after that?" I raised an eyebrow at him and red at him. He still wouldn''t look at me.


    "I will want to bathe with you then too. I want to bathe with you all the time. There is no definite date as to when it will end."


    "You''re being ridiculous." Iughed at him while I shook my head. "Utterly ridiculous. You know that? You''re pretending to want to just be in the tub with me but it''s just you wanting to keep an eye on me." I still couldn''t stopughing. He was being ridiculous.


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about." He still feigned innocence as he walked into the hot water and settled us down.


    "Sure you don''t." I nodded at him.


    After soaking for a while I felt Reece begin to wash me. It reminded me of the first time we were in the tub together. That had been back in the canyons after I was rescued. He had washed me then too, just like he was doing now.


    His touch was gentle and smooth. He wasn''t trying to be intimate but I couldn''t help but feel it that way. I just loved the way that he touched me and how it felt. I could feel the heat flooding into my core as my desire for him just grew.


    I turned on hisp slowly so that I was facing him. I took the washcloth from him and pretended to start washing him. However, the moment that I leaned forward I pressed my lips against his and slipped my tongue into his mouth.


    He answered my kiss immediately. His lips reached hungrily for me and his hands came up to stroke my back and I pressed my breasts against his chest. I loved the feel of his firm and toned muscles and broad shoulders. I ran my hands up his arms, over his shoulders and down his back so that I could scrape my fingers against his smooth and soft flesh.


    I heard him moan softly and felt his body respond instantly. He was already turned on. His growing erection invaded the space between our bodies and pressed against me firmly. It was exactly what I was wanting, what I needed. I rocked my body just a little so that I could grind against him and feel him just that much more. It was already amazing and we hadn''t even done anything yet.


    "Wait." He pulled away from me, breaking the kiss. "We shouldn''t do this. It''s not good for you right now."


    "I don''t remember Griffin telling us we couldn''t do this." I tried to recapture his mouth then but he pulled away from me.


    "No, it will get your heart rate up. It''s not allowed." I could hear how hard he was fighting for control right now. I could probably break that control of his really easily if I tried just a little.


    "Come on Reece." I pleaded with him in a soft voice as I leaned against him more. That movement slid him just a little close toward my opening and made it that much easier for me to grind against him. "Please, Reece. I need you. We will ask Griffinter but don''t deny me now. Please." I continued to beg him in a soft, seductive tone as I pressed against him. "Please."


    I heard him growl once right as there was almost an audible snapping sound to signify his control being torn to shreds. With Reece''s control now out the window I was able to recapture his mouth and continue that mind blowing kiss.


    As soon as my lips were locked on his, Reece shifted me a little, just enough so that he could slide into my opening and pull me down his long hard shaft.


    "Ahh!" I threw my head back and cried out with pleasure. "Ahh, Reece." I called his name, urging him on.


    He didn''t thrust though. He didn''t do much of anything just yet, he just seemed to sit there and revel in the feel of our union. I had to admit, it felt more than amazing right now.


    Finally, Reece started to move. Actually he had taken hold of my hips and started gently rocking me back and forth. He was making the same movement, soft gentle rocking motions. It was slow, it was gentle, and it was unlike any of the other times that we had ever been together before.


    Still, it felt amazing. I could feel him throbbing with every sway of my hips and every rock of his. It was mind boggling how something so gentle and slow could have me already feeling my orgasm building, but it was there nheless.


    Reece was fighting hard not to be rough or cause my body too much stress. Goddess, I love him and how considerate he was. I needed a little more though, just a little more connection. I leaned forward, throwing my head onto his shoulder and cing my lips against his mate mark.


    Once my mouth was in position I sucked hard on the mark that I had left on him. He growled as if he were still fighting for his control and my mouth was making it worse for him. That hadn''t been my intention, I just wanted to taste him in an intimate way.


    The rocking got just a little faster, nothing more. It was fine, it was all that I needed. I felt my orgasm reach its limit and spill over. As soon as my body started to spasm and I clenched around Reece''s already throbbing shaft he had reached his limit as well. He exploded inside of me with a thundering growl. It sounded like he was releasing all the energy he was fighting not to ram into my body.


    "I''m sorry." Reece panted as he rested his head on my shoulder.


    "For what?" I was confused.


    "I didn''t want to hurt you but I didn''t want to deny you. I know that wasn''t very pleasurable for you." He looked as if he was wounded, like he hadn''t just made mee already.


    "Reece you idiot." I pped his wet chest andughed at him.


    "What?" He looked confused.


    "It was still perfectly wonderful for me. If anyone should be sorry it''s me. You had to hold back so much that you were fighting yourself the whole time." I wanted to feel sad about it but I was too happy.


    "It felt amazing for me as well. I didn''t need to m into you to feel the power of our connection. Yeah, I fought my wolf for control but he''s a beast. I wasn''t going to let him be in charge right now. I wasn''t fighting myself for control, just the beat that would have been too rough with you. I love you, Trinity, and any time I am with you is amazing. This just proved it to me. Goddess, but it was truly beautiful and perfect."


    "Oh Reece." I pped him again as I teared up. "Stupid pregnancy hormones." Iughed as I wiped a tear away. He didn''t know what he did to me.

 Chapter 361 - Trinity - Bed Arrest Part 4 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 361 - Trinity - Bed Arrest Part 4 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Once we were finished with our bath Reece made sure that I was set to rest and rx in the bedroom. I didn''t want to sit in the bed all day if Reece was with me. I would be able to move about the room, just not on my own. Reece would carry me anywhere in the house that I wanted him to. Hell he would probably carry me anywhere in the whole damn country. It would mean that he got to carry more which he apparently loved to do.


    What I didn''t like, or really what I didn''t want, was Reece hovering over me nonstop while I sat on the sofa in our bedroom and was trying to read a book for one of the sses I was supposed to be doing online.


    Every single time that I so much as shifted my weight or adjusted myself Reece would run over to me and start fussing.


    "Are you alright? Do you need something? Is something wrong? Are the babies OK? Are you OK?" He fluttered around me looking for whatever it was that had caused me to move that tiny little bit.


    "I''m fine Reece." I sighed in exasperation when this happened for the third time this morning. "I just adjusted myself a little, that is all."


    "I just want to make sure."


    I know he was just trying to show me how much he cared and how much I was truly loved. And I felt it, I really did. But when he went from being seemingly absorbed by whatever he had been doing to fussing over me in less than half a second it kind of gave a girl whish.


    I was spared having to have this whole conversation with Reece again, going over the same things that I had already said earlier in the morning, when Griffin was escorted to the room by Gabriel.


    "Excuse me, Trinity, you have a visitor." He knocked on the door and I weed the intrusion happily.


    "Come in Gabriel."


    When the door opened Gabriel walked in with Griffin right behind him.


    "Good morning Trinity." Griffin smiled at me. "You''re looking well this morning. I can see that your first night at home went well."


    "It was a little overwhelming to be honest, but I managed. I took the medication that you gave me and I am doing fine right now. I''m just doing some studying at the moment."


    "That''s good. I just want to check your vitals and make sure that all is truly going ording to n."


    "By all means, go right ahead."


    I indicated the spot on the sofa next to me and encouraged Griffin to have a seat. Once Griffin was sitting next to me he pulled out the all too familiar blood pressure cuff and a stethoscope. There was also a battery powered pulse oximeter that he slid onto my finger that gathered its data while he manually checked my blood pressure.


    "All seems fine for right now. Your blood pressure is a little higher than I would like to see,paring it to previous visits you''ve had at my office. However, it is well within the normal range." I watched as he made a note in his chart and checked my histories. "Your heart is pumping enough oxygen throughout your body as well so we don''t need to worry about that." He noted as he pulled the device off my finger.


    "Question Griffin," I grinned as I looked at Reece who was hovering just behind the couch, "would it make my blood pressure higher if someone fussed over me too much?"


    "Only if it truly aggravated you that the person was there and fussing about. Is that the case?" Griffin raised an eyebrow at me as if daring me to say that I was aggravated that Reece was being so attentive to me.


    "I wouldn''t say aggravated really, no. Annoyed sometimes when he rushes over if I do something as simple as shift my weight for a fraction of a second." Griffinughed at the defeated tone in my voice.


    "Yeah, I can see why that might be bothering you. And to be honest that could potentially raise your pressure as well. You''re not going to break if he leaves you alone to study, but I don''t think we can convince him of that."


    "You do realize I am standing right here and can hear the two of you talking, right?" Neither of us paid any attention to Reece, effectively acting as if he wasn''t in the room. I really did enjoy it when I got to y these little games. It was fun and Reece pouted so adorably when it was all over with.


    "From what I can tell things should go just fine from here on out. Just stay off your feet and don''t attempt anything strenuous."


    I noticed the tone to his voice and I was pretty much able to guess what it was he was trying to say. I wasn''t going to say anything though. I didn''t want Griffin yelling at me the day after I got home from the hospital.


    "Strenuous?" Reece asked him with a clear question in his inquisitive tone. "What do you mean by strenuous?"


    "I am sure you can figure that out Reece. Anything that gets the heart rate going faster, possibly making one or more persons sweaty. Physical activity that does not necessarily involve walking." He was emphasizing this for Reece because he probably thought Reece was the one who had needed the warning and not me.


    To be fair, I pretty much already knew that Griffin wouldn''t have approved of what we did this morning. That was why I hadn''t mentioned it at all. But, dammit, I wanted to be with my husband. Was that so bad?


    "Oh, so you''re saying we shouldn''t be having sex at all until after the babies are born." Reece was ying it off like he was just finally understanding what was being said. "I hear you loud and clear." I watched as the evil grin spread across Reece''s face. "I figured that all along but Trinity apparently didn''t get that when we left the hospital. She insisted on a little bit of light physical activity this morning."


    "Light physical activity?" Griffin looked intrigued. "Does such a thing truly exist?"


    "It does. And I swear it was gently done. I don''t know how it affected her heart rate, I was a little preupied, but I think the water helped to facilitate a calmer environment." Reece looked as if he were truly contemting something at that moment.


    "I truly do not need to hear the details Reece. That is not something I need to be privy to." Griffin red at Reece firmly then turned to level the same re at me. "I do, however, rmend that you refrain from doing anything else of the sort until after the babies are born. And might I suggest a little while after they are born. You will be hyper fertile after the delivery and you do not want them to be too close together now, do you?"


    "Absolutely not." Reece and I both answered in a hurried and panicked rush.


    "Good, I will take my leave now. Trinity, no more ''exercises'' please." I blushed at thatst warning of his before he walked out of the room.


    I was thoroughly mortified, especially considering that Gabriel had been in the room for that entire conversation. He was, after all, my personal assistant. He was expected to wait with me while I did most things during the day.


    I had a sudden thought as I remembered Gabriel and hispetent ways. He could ''monitor'' me while Reece took care of other things. That way I would be able to study in peace and I didn''t need to worry about Reece rushing over if I moved my arm from one ce to another or shifted a tiny bit to fart or whatever. Dammit, I didn''t care what it was that I needed to do, I just didn''t want to have Reece fussing over me with every little thing.


    Not to mention, I think both Reece and I were feeling quite a bit of embarrassment after what had just happened with Griffin. I truly think it would be best if we just spent a few minutes apart from each other. Partially because, scolding from Griffin or not, Reece was my super sexy and hot as hell husband that I wanted more than anything else in the world right now.


    Honestly, how damn horny did these pregnancy hormones have to make me? All I had to do was think about Reece and I wanted him. Seeing him just made it that much worse. I needed to get him out of the room for the time being so I could calm my raging hormones. I didn''t need to be known as an uncontrobly sex fiend by the only doctor that I ever saw regrly. That would just be embarrassing.

 Chapter 362 - Trinity - Bed Arrest Part 5 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 362 - Trinity - Bed Arrest Part 5 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Hey, Reece, I have an idea." It was time to implement this n so that we could try to instill some peace and calm around here.


    "Yeah? And what might that be, Little Bunny?" He sank down onto the sofa next to me and slung his arm around my shoulders.


    He just didn''t know that I couldn''t have him this close to me right now. I needed to have a break from him because I was already finding it difficult to concentrate. Not just with him incessantly fretting about. I needed to have a break from the hot, steamy, sexy thoughts that kept running through my head.


    I would bepletely honest if I said that every time I saw Reece right now I had to wade through at least fifteen different sexual fantasies just to form a proper, non sex rted sentence. I am guessing that that is not exactly normal. UGH! What the hell was the matter with me and these raging hormones and this over active sex drive.


    "Well, if memory serves, I went into the hospital the day of the baby shower, right?" I brought up that memory but I didn''t want to cause him pain. Unfortunately, the memory of that day must have caused him just that as his eyes clouded over with worry and fear as he must have remembered exactly what happened.


    "Yes, but I don''t see what your point is."


    "Well, I had pulled you out of that little workshop you set up for yourself. I know that the custom building of baby furniture was not going well. How about you start putting everything in the room together or go to purchase something that is already assembled."


    "No! Absolutely not. I am not going to leave you alone."


    I had a feeling he would balk at the very idea. He didn''t want to leave me alone at all. Reece was just an overprotective worry wart with a jealous streak that ran at least a hundred miles wide. This was going to take some convincing.


    "I won''t be alone, Reece." I smiled at him as sweetly as I possibly could as I worked to show him that there was nothing to worry about. "Gabriel can keep watch over me while I study, Reece. That will give you the time to work on the nursery."


    "No, Trinity." He was shaking his head back and forth furiously. "I can''t do that. I can''t let you out of my sight. I need to be here for you. I took the time off of work to be with you. I had spent so much of my time working on the nursery leading up to the baby shower that I didn''t see the signs of what was happening to you. I can''t do that again."


    It was clearly heartache and pain that he was feeling from what had happened. I could understand that, I truly could. But we couldn''t let this rule our lives right now. We needed to be stronger than it and take control of it all back.


    "Reece." I cupped his cheek in my hand, luxuriating for a moment in the feel of his skin in the palm of my hand. "I promise I will be fine. Don''t let this episode run our lives. We need to be stronger than it is. We need to move on and finish the things that we started. I am going to finish these sses no matter what. And you Reece, you need to finish the room for our babies. Didn''t you promise me that you were going to do it all? I want to see what the final product will look like. I want to see where my babies will be sleeping."


    I could see the pride swelling behind Reece''s eyes as he listened to my words. I was stroking his ego here a bit. I knew that he wanted to do this. He wanted to be the one to say that the nursery was entirely his doing. He wanted to be able to proudly im that achievement for himself.


    Right now I could see a war going on in Reece''s eyes. He was silently fighting himself. I could just imagine what he was telling himself. Probably things like ''no don''t go, don''t leave her side'' and then he would counter that with ''but we have to finish the room for our children, it is our duty, our responsibility''. I don''t know why I imagined Reece talking to himself in a third person pluralized state but I did. It was kind of funny. Maybe it was his wolf he was arguing with, in that case it would be two versions of the same man so he could be using the pronouns we and our. This whole train of thought running through my head almost made meugh hysterically, but I managed to stop myself.


    I could see Reece was about to say something, my mind instantly thought that it was going to be a refusal. I wanted to step in and stop it before he could deny me my suggestion though, I thought it would be best for us. We needed to see a semnce of normal return in some little ways.


    "If I may."


    Gabriel butted in right before Reece and I started talking at each other. It effectively stopped any small disagreement we were about to have so that we could both turn to look at the smiling and elegant looking man that was on the other side of the table. I noticed that there was a hint ofughter in Gabriel''s eyes, did he truly know why I wanted Reece to leave? Knowing him with his extra senses it was highly possible that he did.


    "Yes, Gabriel?" Reece looked at him with a hint of skepticism.


    "I will remain by Queen Trinity''s side as her ever vignt assistant. I will make sure that nothing ill befalls her. This will allow you to do what you need to do. Also, since you will only be right across the hall for the majority of the time, you cane back in a hurry if anything were to happen. I encourage you to check back in frequently as well, to quell the unease that will undoubtedly grow within you."


    "Do you think it is absolutely necessary that I go, Gabriel?" Reece asked the question in his formal Alpha King tone, it was a voice that scared most people but Gabriel wasn''t one of them.


    "Yes, Sir. I truly do believe it is in the best interest of you both to do this. I think that if you were to aplish something apart from each other right now you will find that there are fewer things that the two of you need to worry about."


    "You think we''re both worrying too much?" Reece didn''t seem happy with that assessment.


    "It''s not that you are worrying too much, Alpha King." Gabriel made sure to show proper respect. "I believe the issue here truly lies with the fact that you are allowing the worry to dominate you at the moment. You are stronger than that, Reece, I truly believe that."


    Gabriel was truly insightful at the moment. I think he knew more than he was letting on at the moment. But what I was focusing on more was the fact that Reece seemed to be wavering. He looked like he wanted to say that he didn''t want to go, didn''t need to go, but there was a part of him that was dying to finish up the nursery for Reagan and Rika.


    "Hahh." Reece sighed softly as he hung his head for a moment. "I know you''re right. You both are. I don''t really want to go but it is important to get it all finished. I don''t want to be left with an unfinished nursery when the babies arrive." Reece was smiling when he finally lifted his head. "You are far too convincing, Gabriel. You would be very useful in negotiations."


    "Thank you for the wonderfulpliment." Gabriel smiled at him. "I will make sure I keep you informed of Queen Trinity''s actions for the rest of the day. Please, go about the business that you need to aplish."


    "Yeah, yeah. I know. She wants me out of here because I fret over her too much." Reeceughed then and leaned over toward me, his arm still around my shoulder and his othering around to rest on the arm of the sofa. "You just don''t know how much I love you." He pressed his lips to mine for a heated moment.


    When Reece pulled away he sauntered out of the room looking pleased with himself. Clearly he was happy to be working on the nursery and to have gotten his kiss goodbye.


    "GAH!" I yelled my frustrations to the ceiling.


    "Is there a problem?" Gabriel looked surprised by my outburst.


    "Yeah, he goes and kisses me like that when my self control is already at its limits." I responded honestly without thinking and immediately blushed at having basically implied that I wanted to throw Reece down and ravish him.


    "Ah, yes, I think I have worked out that particr issue for myself. Please forgive me for having stepped in earlier." Gabriel looked slightly embarrassed himself, as if he didn''t want his Queen to know that he knew she was a horny slut when it came to her husband. Well, I am pregnant with Reece''s twins, I think it was obvious that I wanted my husband in that way.

 Chapter 363 - Trinity - Bed Arrest Part 6 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 363 - Trinity - Bed Arrest Part 6 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    While I was sitting there thinking about what was going on and the fact that the very intuitive Gabriel was gaining this intimate insight into my personal life I was struck by an idea. Gabriel was very knowledgeable. There were things that he knew that no other person on the might know or remember. I could ask him something that had been bothering me since I woke up in the hospital the other night.


    There had been a few things nagging at the back of my mind. Some ideas and thoughts that I didn''t want to contemte more than I had to. And Griffin''s words to Reece about my condition had not made things easier for me to deal with or understand. So, why not take the opportunity that I was given to ask this very well informed man all of my nagging and burning questions while we were alone.


    I figured it was best to ask Gabriel when no one else was around. If Reece was here when I brought up my fears and suspicions then he would most likely be ten times worse with his fretting worry.


    "Gabriel?" I called out to him, my head tilted back and to the side so that I was both looking up at him and showing him that I was curious about something.


    "Yes, my Queen?" He ced a fist over the left side of his chest and bowed slightly, a show of deference and respect that the Sentinelle was known to give only for the Luna Queen and Alpha King.


    "I have some things I would like to discuss with you, now that we are not burdened by prying ears." I made it clear that this was a private discussion that I did not want to be shared with anyone else.


    "I will promise to keep any and all secrets for you my Queen, unless it is detrimental to your health. That I must immediately share with the King." Gabriel bowed further forward at that. I could tell that he was apologizing for not being able to hide everything that might be discussed in this room. In truth, I could always demand that he keep every word I say a secret but I didn''t mind if he discussed my health with Reece, that was something that was necessary.


    "That is fine, Gabriel. I will notmand you to do otherwise. I know that would just cause you undue distress." I nodded at him and he finally straightened up, understanding that I was not going to force him to do something that he would not befortable with.


    "Thank you, mydy."


    The way that Gabriel spoke to me often made me think of some period drama that was set in the sixteen hundreds, or sooner. It was funny but I kind of liked it, but only when it came from Gabriel. I had a feeling that was because speech patterns with this sort of inflection came naturally to him. He was almost seven hundred years old after all. I wondered for a moment if he would ever be capable of finding himself a mate. Would anyone want to marry the oldest living werewolf? That would make for an interesting story to tell their children one day.


    While I pushed those thoughts away I moved on to what it was that I really wanted to talk about. The true reason for opening this discussion between us.


    "Please Gabriel, have a seat so that we may talk. I do not want to look up so high just so that I can look you in the eye."


    "Yes, mydy." He smiled softly before he sat smoothly in the soft armchair that was sitting across from me. "Now, Queen Trinity, what is it that you wish to discuss with me?" He knew that I was going to ask him something very important.


    "I wanted to know, Gabriel, if you knew about any instances in the past where a pregnancy might not have been fullypatible with a shifter. Specifically with a werewolf."


    "That is a very loaded question, my Queen." He looked a little like he didn''t want to answer that questionpletely.


    "Loaded in what way, Gabriel?" I needed to hear what he knew. I needed to know if there was something wrong with the babies because they weren''t meant to be.


    "Queen Trinity, mydy, you need to understand that a lot of the stories that we know of are of course from history. That makes them from different periods in time. There were times when war ravaged thend and it wasn''t just human women who had to fear the loss of their children. Shifters, magic users, even the Fae needed to be on guard for when a child was conceived. There were times of great unrest that caused many of the unborn children from the supernatural world to not survive."


    Just listening to Gabriel''s words sent shivers through my spine. I knew that war had run rampant through our world for a long time. It was still ravaging thends in many countries. There has never truly been a time of peace in any moment of human history.


    These wars have dragged shifters into their ranks. Of course there are men and women who join the armed forces because they want to, but during times of drafts we have not been left out of them, not in any country. I know for a fact that my great grandfather, Gordon, was drafted and deployed before my grandmother had even met him. He never came home to meet her either. Just his dog tags.


    "Alright. I understand that. But you know that isn''t what I was asking about. I want to know if there has ever been a time when the baby was notpatible with the mother because of conflicting gics. Has there ever been a time that a mother could not carry her baby to term because the mother was not a wolf and the baby was?"


    "I am confused, Queen Trinity, you are indeed a wolf. Why are you concerned about this now?"


    "I am a wolf, yes, but I am also a witch Gabriel. And I don''t know what part of my gics that my eggs and my womb are using. I know that a warlock can get a wolf pregnant and a child can result, but what would happen if a wolf was to get a hybrid pregnant? Would the same oue be expected? Or are we looking at something a little moreplex."


    "That I do not know, my Queen." I could tell that I was confusing him slightly so I shifted to another one of my worries.


    "Alright, let''s try this one. Do you think that my condition might be the result of the fact that one of my babies is a wolf and the other might possibly be a witch? Could the babies themselves be ipatible within my womb and are causing the issues?"


    "I..I..I truly do not know." Gabriel seemed at a loss. "I can do some more research, my Queen. I will check to see if there is anything that I might have overlooked in my studies."


    "I would appreciate that, Gabriel." It looked like he had recovered quickly, not at all letting this issue get the best of him.


    "The pleasure is all mine, mydy." He bowed his head as he spoke. "Would you mind terribly if I were to do some investigation on your lineage as well? I would like to know if there is anything that we might have missed along the way."


    "I think that might actually be beneficial. There is much I do not know about my ancestry because of ack of knowledge. I would like those holes and gaps to be filled in so that I am not left wondering forever."


    "Thank you, Queen Trinity. I will treat this matter with the utmost respect and dignity. And when I have found something to bring to you I will make sure that Ie to see you at once."


    Gabriel looked proud at the moment. He loved learning, I knew that about him if nothing else, but he also loved puzzling out an answer. I had just given Gabriel an assignment that would bring him an immense amount of joy.


    I really couldn''t wait to find out what it was that Gabriel found for me. What was he going to find when he investigated the origins of Edmond? What would he find hidden in that forest full of nuts? It would be an interesting discovery, I am sure. Not to mention that I truly would like to learn who my grandparents had been. I would like to know what Edmond''s parents had been like,what kind of people they were to create a son like him. It was going to be like a giant ''who dun it'' game for Gabriel to solve. The mystery of Edmond''s origins. I think it could make a decent movie, a horror movie that is.

 Chapter 364 - Trinity - Bed Arrest Part 7 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 364 - Trinity - Bed Arrest Part 7 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I resumed my studying after my talk with Gabriel. After a little while I heard Reece and a couple other voices in the hallway as they seemed to be carrying items into the nursery. By that time it had been almost two hours since Reece had left and it seemed to me that he was working hard.


    I heard some banging, lots of shouting, plenty ofughter, a shout and a growled curse over the course of about two or three hours. It sounded like several people were watching Reece get frustrated over that time frame.


    Reece came back to the room several times after that first two hour gap. He wouldn''t tell me what it was that was going on in the room, even though it sounded interesting. He came and had lunch with me and we talked about how my studying was going. He never volunteered anything about what he was doing.


    Once dinner rolled around Reece came back and took a shower before we ate together at the table. He carried me gingerly in his arms and sat me in my seat. It was kind of nice to have him carrying me like that, I had to admit that. I loved feeling his arms wrapped around me.


    Reece tried, and failed, to keep my attention on him during the entire meal. I heard the sound of the maids going into the nursery. There was the vacuum running and a few other small noises that were much softer than the ones I had heard when Reece was in there.


    "Did you make a mess in there?" I asked him in a slightly usatory tone.


    "No, not really. But now that things are finished I need the room to be cleaned. I would have done it myself, but I didn''t want to miss dinner with you." He smiled at me.


    "Plus, that''s what you pay them for, right? Go on, finish the thought you were thinking." Iughed at him.


    "Well, it''s true. If I do their jobs then I am paying them for nothing." Heughed right back at me.


    "Does this mean that the nursery is almost ready?" I asked him with a smile on my face. I was excited because when it was done I wanted him to show me the progress he had made. I had given him permission to do the room without even needing to hear what he wanted to do to it. I was dying to know but it was his masterpiece and he could show me when he was ready.


    "Do you want to see it after dinner?" I could tell that he had been nning on asking me anyway. There was a bright and shining light in his eyes, the excitement was nearly bubbling over.


    "Yes, of course I do. I can''t wait to see what it looks like." I could feel the grin on my face.


    I think I ate my dinner a little too fast after that. I wolfed down my food so quickly that Reece actuallyughed at me. He didn''t say anything though, he just hurried through his own te and cleared the table away.


    When he ced a call to the kitchen to have the remnants of dinner cleared away he asked if they had finished across the hall. We hadn''t heard them in several minutes so we thought they were done but it was best to be sure.


    Once we got the confirmation that they had indeed finished up, Reece lifted me into his arms and carried me across the hall. I felt the excitement growing within me. My heart was pounding and the adrenaline was flowing.


    "Calm down a little or I won''t take you in there." Reece threatened as he heard the erratic state of my thumping heart.


    "Alright, I will try." I turned and kissed his cheek. "But this is exciting."


    "I know it is, Little Bunny, I know it is."


    After I took a few deep calming breaths Reece opened the doors in front of me. The room had beenpletely transformed. I couldn''t believe what I was seeing. I couldn''t believe that Reece had done this.


    There was a mural on the only wall that was uninterrupted by windows and doors. It was to the right of the door when we went in. The mural was of the forest and it looked just like a scene we could see somewhere here in Colorado. It was magnificently done. The rest of the room had been painted primarily in a soft yellow. There was a soft pastel green color on the trim, moulding, and the door and window frames. The ceiling was still a bright white that was perfect, not a speck of any yellow or green paint on it.


    The furniture had been set up. I could tell that Reece had gone and got new things today. He wanted something that fit his vision. The items from our baby shower were to be donated to different people in need among the pack.


    The cribs, both of them, were a rich mahogany and were beautifully designed. The dressers and the changing tables matched the cribs perfectly. There were also two beautiful and elegant looking sleigh rocking chairs with matching ottomans.


    There were crib sheets on the mattresses in the cribs. nkets had been draped over the sides of the cribs. Giant stuffed animals decorated the corners of the room. Video baby monitors were already in ce at the top of the cribs. Elegant mobiles were in ce, dangling their charms for babies to see.


    Everything was done and it was all perfect. The sight of it brought tears to my eyes. I just looked around the room and felt the happiness and joy wash over me.


    "Reece, it''s perfect." I sobbed, unable to hold the tears in any more.


    "Don''t cry, Little Bunny." He nearly panicked.


    "They''re happy tears, Reece. All happy tears."


    Reece went on from there to show me all the clothes I had bought for the baby and all the ones that L and Mom had chosen for us among the baby shower gifts. All of them had been washed, delicately folded, and ced inside the dressers. Inside the closets, one each on either side of the cribs, were the outfits that were not fit to be folded. They had been hung on tiny little hangers and put away. There were boxes upon boxes of diapers and wipes that were in there just waiting for us.


    "There is one more thing." Reece told me as he turned off the light. It was already dark outside the house so as soon as the light went off the inside of the room was darkened as well. Or at least it should have darkened. Instead of goingpletely ck inside the room there were glowing lines on the wall and designs on the ceiling.


    The mural that Reece had painted was outlined in glow in the dark paint. The trees looked to be shining in light of the moon which was painted there behind them. The moon was only visible when the room waspletely dark. And on the ceiling, also only visible in the dark, was aplete map of the constetions painted perfectly. They looked wonderful.


    All the beauty brought tears to my eyes again. Reece had truly outdone himself on this. It was just amazing.


    Reece sat me down in one of the rocking chairs and knelt before me. I looked him in the eyes as he held my hands firmly in his.


    "Trinity, you were right. We needed to ovee the fear that this episode has caused us. We need to show it that we are stronger than it is. We needed to prove that to ourselves more than anything. I am sorry that I didn''t trust you on it. I am sorry that I was worrying too much."


    "Does that mean-." I started but he cut me off before I was anywhere near done.


    "That does not mean that I am done worrying about you." He looked at me sternly. "I love you too much to ever stop. Even if this was apletely normal pregnancy with no issues I would worry about you. I will worry about you and our babies for the rest of my life because that is my job. However, I will try to not be so overbearing. I will go back to work tomorrow and let our moms watch over you with Gabriel''s or Vincent''s assistance. I trust them with you as I rightfully should."


    "Thank you Reece. I am d that we are getting back to a semnce of normal, even if things are still going to be different."


    "We need to work on this together. It is the only way for us to make it through this time."


    I was d that things had gotten better for us. And I was grateful for Gabriel''s help in pushing us along this path. He was definitely someone that I was d was here at my side, assisting us.

 Chapter 365 - Trinity - Bed Arrest Part 8 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 365 - Trinity - Bed Arrest Part 8 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After that Reece agreed that he didn''t have to be such a hovering worrywart so he had decided to go back to work the next day. He was still a worrywart though so he was working from home. He wouldn''t leave me for very long periods of time, and he would make sure to have every meal with me. How did I get to be so damn lucky. I had the best husband in the world.


    Yeah, sometimes his special brand of love and care got to be a little over the top and annoying, but I still loved every minute of it. Like right now, I had been on bed rest for thest four weeks, and I had been really good about staying off my feet like I was supposed to. My feet didn''t hurt or anything, but for some reason my legs did. So what was my amazing and wonderful husband doing about it? He was massaging my legs and feet while I justid on the bed and groaned so obscenely that it probably sounded like we were filming a porno in our bedroom.


    "Oh Goddess!" I groaned and cried out repeatedly. "NGH! Yes, right there. AH! AH! That''s the spot. Mmm!"


    "Trinity?!" Reece justughed and rolled his eyes at my over the top reaction to his magic fingers.


    "Oh Goddess, Reece, you have no idea how amazing that feels!"


    "I think I can imagine it with the way you''re behaving, but s I fear I will never know." Heughed again.


    "I swear, when you''re pregnant I will massage your feet." That made Reeceugh so hard that he let go of my feet and copsed onto the bed, his hands braced on either side of me.


    "I hope like fucking hell that never happens. Do you understand me? That had better be fucking impossible, you little witch."


    "I don''t make the rules of the universe. I mean, I don''t n on getting you pregnant so I don''t truly n on ever rubbing your feet like that, but if it were to somehow happen, then you know, I would be a supportive wife and be there for you however I could." I barely made it through my little speech with how much I wasughing at him. I''m sure he just didn''t want to wind up like Shawn and Dietrich, but I didn''t think that was ever going to happen to him.


    "Now you have me super scared." He was ring at me yfully. "What are you going to do about that?"


    "I can snuggle you until you fall asleep. Or sing you a song. I need to get into the habit of taking care of a babies anyway." He pouted at my joke.


    "So, I''m a baby now, am I?" He loomed over me, massive as he was he still seemed like a yful kid or a teenager sometimes.


    "It all depends on your mood. Today you''re very yful, tomorrow you might be grumpy like an old man. Who can ever tell how old you''ll be on any given day?" I just shrugged my shoulders as I tried to shimmy my body out from under him. I gave that up quickly and let my frustration be known. "Haahhh." My sigh was longer and louder than I had intended it to be.


    "What''s wrong Little Bunny?" Reece asked me as he moved to sit on the edge of the bed.


    "I can''t even scoot across the bed anymore. Don''t get me wrong, I am excited to be pregnant, and I can''t wait to be a mother, but it is getting to be so ufortable." As I was telling him this I tried and failed to move into a sitting position. Reeceughed at that and took me by the left hand while also grasping my right elbow. Using his double grip on me he pulled me up slowly until I was able to sitfortably next to him on the edge of the bed.


    "It won''t be much longer." Reece was trying to sooth me as he rubbed my back softly. He was right of course, it was already halfway through November. There were only about thirty-one days left until my actual due date, and Griffin said I would probably not make it to my due date at all.


    I was just contemting all of that when I felt the babies shift and stretch in my overly stretched stomach. It was amazing that the two of them were even able to fit in there. I felt like if they got any bigger at all my stomach would start to tear away from my body.


    Iughed just for a second at that thought, at how growing them in a detachable stomach would be so much easier. I couldn''t keepughing though, the moment that it started a terrible pain ripped through me, and I screamed out, grabbing my stomach as if my thoughts had actuallye true.


    Reece, who was still sitting beside me rubbing my back when the pain hit me, just seemed to panic. He hadn''t been prepared to watch my whole body tense up or for me to curl forward as I screamed.


    "Trinity? What''s wrong? Are you alright? Is it the babies?" I couldn''t see him for a moment as I just squeezed my eyes shut to try and block the pain from my mind.


    Just then I heard two sets of frantic footstepsing down the hall. I knew who it was that wasing, the time of day was all I needed to figure it out. And sure enough, just secondster there was a frantic knock on the door from Vincent as he and Griffin both yelled out to us.


    "Trinity? Reece? Is everything OK, can wee in?"


    "Trinity? What''s going on? Tell me what''s happening?"


    I heard Reece sigh in relief as he moved to open the door. He must have locked it when he came in for lunch. He didn''t do that often so it surprised me. I had just managed to open my eyes as Reece yanked the door open.


    Griffin didn''t wait for permission or an invitation, the opened door was all he needed. He ran right to the side of the bed and knelt in front of me.


    "What happened? Tell me everything that happened before this started." Griffin had obviously only beening over for my blood pressure check, but that had beenpletely abandoned as he started toy me back on the bed.


    "Ah, ah." The change in position hurt a little, but I did my best.


    "Reece was m..massaging my feet and legs." I was breathing through the pain and squeezing my eyes shut. "After that we were talking while sitting on the bed. The babies stretched, and then this pain just hit me out of nowhere." I could feel tears forming in the corners of my eyes as I spoke to him.


    I forced my eyes open so I could look at the men that were in the room. Reece was hovering right behind Griffin and looked like he was about to pass out from his nerves and fear. Vincent was still by the door, he looked scared as well, but not quite as scared as Reece did. Griffin was doing his best to examine me.


    Griffin was checking my pulse, my blood pressure (which he was there to do anyway), he was feeling the babies inside my belly. I couldn''t keep up with everything that he was doing. I watched as his face rxed a little even as my pain continued. Even Vincent didn''t look as worried as I originally thought that he was. Why were they so calm? I wanted to ask them, but Vincent spoke first.


    "Trinity, the pain you''re feeling, does it go away when you move?"


    "I don''t know." I nearly snapped the words at him, but caught myself. "It had just started when you guys got here. I hadn''t moved at all before Griffin had mey down."


    "I was about to ask the same thing that Vincent did." Griffin spoke softly. "Can you roll onto your left side for me."


    With Griffin''s encouragement and assistance, I moved onto my side. The pain was still pretty intense so it was hard for me to move at that moment, but we managed to get me there. Reece came over and helped to put a pillow under my head.


    "It might be wise to put one between her knees as well." Griffin instructed. "It will alleviate some of the pressure on her hips."


    For a few moments the three of them just stared at me while I wasying on my side. I was starting to feel a little nervous and ufortable with them watching me. It was weird having people just looking at me like that.


    That was when it hit me. I was only feeling nervous. After a minute or so on my side, the pain in my abdomen had started to go away. It was almost like a miracle.


    "It worked." I was so shocked I spoke without thinking. "The pain is almostpletely gone."


    "Oh thank the Goddess." Reece copsed onto his knees next to me.


    "That''s good." Griffin was smiling now, and Vincent looked as if he were relieved.


    "What was that?" Reece didn''t stand up, he just grabbed my hand and looked up at Griffin.


    "Braxton hicks contractions."


    "Contractions?" Reece looked worried. "Likebor?"


    "No, think of this like the body going through practicebor. It is likely that you will experience more of these episodes Trinity. Try toy on your side or move around to different positions to alleviate the pain. Practice contractions will only affect the stomach and not the back. If they ever go all the way around or won''t go away at all, or they get worse over time then you need to call me immediately. That will be a sign of truebor." I felt my heart speed up a little. It was a little scary but also exciting. It was bing more and more real now, wasn''t it?


    "How much longer do you think we might have?" Reece asked the words that I was just about to ask myself. "Do you think the babies will be here soon?"


    "I would say that it could be anytime now." Griffin looked as if he were contemting what might be happening in my immediate future. "If you were to call me tomorrow and tell me that Trinity was inbor, I wouldn''t be surprised; however it is probably going to be more like a week or two."


    "I don''t want to have them tomorrow." I could feel the nerves settling over me. "I will settle for a week or two from now." That made Vincentugh, but he didn''t say anything.


    "Whenever they doe, I will make sure that Lana and I are ready for you." He was smiling at me.


    "Thank you Griffin."


    After that Griffin left. I had a lot I needed to process and think about now. Even Reece was having a hard time moving past what Griffin told us so he took the rest of the afternoon off and stayed with me. We didn''t talk about it though, we just snuggled each other on the couch and watched a movie while thinking quietly to ourselves. I don''t think either of us actually watched the movie. We just looked at it while seeing nothing but the thoughts inside our heads.


    I can''t believe I had just beenining about how long this was taking and how ufortable I was. Yeah, I wanted to see the babies and all, but I was also nervous aboutbor and delivery. I mean, I knew women were built to have babies, we have been doing it since the dawn of time. That didn''t make it any less scary though. Knowing that I was built for it didn''t mean that I wasn''t nervous and uncertain about how I was going to do it.

 Chapter 366 - Trinity - Bed Arrest Part 9 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 366 - Trinity - Bed Arrest Part 9 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The day after my little scare with the practicebor Juniper came to see me. She was nearly as far along as I was, but she didn''t have any blood pressure issues and therefore she wasn''t on bedrest. I was actually really jealous of her right now, but I was doing my best to not let it bother me that much. We all had our own struggles in life and right now this was mine.


    "Hey Trin." She came into my room after knocking. She didn''t wait for me to tell her toe in, but I had been expecting her, and it was how we usually did things anyway.


    "Hey Ju." We used the yful nicknames that had somehow be funny to us when we got pregnant.


    "So, how are Raegan and Rika doing today?" She asked me as she sat a bag on my bedside table and leaned in for a very awkward hug. It was only awkward because it was hard for her to lean over me because my belly got in the way of her belly.


    "Good, I think." I grimaced. "We had a scarest night." Iughed it off a little, but I watched as she tensed up for a moment.


    "What kind of scare?" She had paused in the process of pulling over a chair from the table.


    "Nothing major, just some practicebor pains. Or that''s what Griffin called them. I thought I was going to die with how much it hurt." I was remembering the pain and fear of the night before and shuddered at the thought of it all.


    "Now you''re scaring me." Sheughed. "I don''t want to be in pain."


    "I don''t think either of us have a choice in that matter." Myugh came out strained and tense. "It will all be worth it in the end though, right? When we get to hold our beautiful babies in our arms."


    "Yeah." She was smiling happily. "It will be nice. And our babies will be able to grow up together, that will make it even better in my opinion."


    I had been thinking the same thing. Juniper was my best friend. For a while she was my only friend really. I know that no matter what happens to me, Juniper will be there to help me through it. She is the first person after Reece thates to mind when I want to share my secrets with or tell my exciting news to. And I was d that I was going to have her with me on the journey of motherhood.


    Together Juniper and I would be figuring out the ins and outs of how to raise not one, but two babies at the same time. It was a special thing to share with your best friend.


    As that thought made its way through my head there was another knock at my door, and another person walked in unannounced. She too was expected and had done this same thing many times.


    Nikki had juste in with Elias in her arms. I loved seeing my nephew. He was so cute. This had be a regr thing for us. Juniper and Nikki woulde to have lunch with me, and we would do a video call with Emmalee while she ate lunch as well. She was literally due any second now so it was like we were on baby watch for her as well as me.


    It felt like so many of the people around me were about to have their babies. I mean, Acacia was due within the next couple weeks. It seemed like Emmalee was due forever ago, I could have my babies at any time, Juniper and Rawlynne were due toward the end of December. E was due in January if my memory was correct, Falena was due in March. And even though no one knew about it, Shawn and Dietrich were due around the end of February or beginning of March. All of us were due within the next three months or so.


    We had just started the lunch, the food that Juniper had brought was passed out by Nikki while I did my best to hold onto my nephew who was now four months old and could move around a lot more than when he was first born.


    I thought it was adorable though, the way that Elias would reach for things and try to explore everything. He was so curious and inquisitive for such a young baby. I remember joking with Noahst week about it. I had told him that I was happy to see that Elias seemed to be a normal baby and that he didn''t seem to be born as a stick in the mud like his daddy. Reece found it funny andughed; however Noah hadn''t seemed very amused.


    Just as Nikki finished passing out the food, Juniper had finished setting up theputer, and Emmalee was on the screen waving happily.


    "Hey!" She looked so full of energy, and her smile was infectious.


    "Hey Emmalee." I beamed at her as I handed the baby back to Nikki. "How are you feeling?"


    I couldn''t believe she was further along than me and was that energetic, but I think that was just how Nikki was though. She was just a happy and chipper person.


    "I am great. I just love being pregnant and feeling the baby move inside of me."


    "That''s because you only have one." Juniper joked with her.


    We started to eat our lunch and talk about all sorts of things. Pregnancy woes,bor fears, baby raising woes. We were all there to just support and help each other.


    At one point we were all fourughing very hard at something Nikki said. Apparently, Noah could be very squeamish when it came to Elias, and the result had us cackling. However, Emmalee''sughter had turned into a hiss before she sucked in a breath.


    "Oooh." I could tell that she had reached down to grab her belly.


    "Are you OK?" Nikki asked her.


    "It''s probably nothing. I think I justughed too hard." She grinned though whatever pain she was feeling, but I could tell that it was worse than she was letting on.


    She grimaced for a moment. Another hiss of pain passed through her clenched teeth as she tried to ignore it. She couldn''t ignore it though, because her eyes popped open and we could all see how surprised she was.


    "Oh."


    "What?" All three of us asked her at nearly the same time.


    "My water just broke." I watched as a small smile spread across her face even as the pain seemed to intensify.


    "Really?" I was shocked. "Oh my Goddess, Emmalee, go get Carter." I was so excited. I wished I could be there for her. I wanted to go to the hospital to see the baby like I did for Nikki, but I couldn''t.


    "Get me for what?" Carter came walking out of the other room after having heard me shout at theputer.


    "Oh, Carter babe, my water just broke." Emmalee seemed as calm as could be, Carter however was instantly flipping out.


    The chaos on the other side of the line was funny to see. The three of us wereughing like crazy until Juniper got a call and stepped aside to answer it. Still, I enjoyed the show until Carter disconnected theputer so he could take Emmalee to the hospital. I was so excited to see pictures of my new nephew, I couldn''t wait to meet him.


    As I looked around me I realized I was alone now. Nikki was calling Mom to tell her about Emmalee being inbor, she would most likely take the ne out there so she can see the baby tonight. And Juniper was still on the phone as well, a big smile on her face.


    "I am going to go tell Noah what happened, I know I can call him and all but he''s just right down stairs." I could tell that Nikki just wanted to see Noah and celebrate the babying with him in person.


    "OK, I will see youter." I kissed Elias on the cheek as Nikki leaned in and gave me a hug.


    Right after Nikkie left the room, Juniper, who had seemed to have ended her call but was frozen in a state of happy shock, finally sank back into her chair. I say she was in happy shock because she wasn''t saying anything, and she was clearly shocked by the phone call but she was practically grinning from ear to ear.


    "What''s with you?" I asked her with augh in my voice.


    "She''s inbor." She sounded like she couldn''t believe it.


    "I know, we just watched it on theputer. Were you sad that you missed it because of the call?"


    "No, that''s not what I meant. I''m not talking about Emmalee." Juniper was smiling wider now.


    "Huh?" I was confused.


    "Acacia." She looked up and beamed the happiest smile in the world at me. "Acacia is inbor. Cedar just called me. She''s having the triplets today."


    "What are you waiting for? Go!" I was about tough at her. She was in so much shock that it was like she didn''t know what to do.


    Once the shock had worn off, Juniper left. She hurried to the hospital to be with her brother and meet her new nephews and niece. Later in the day, I was texted pictures of my nephew Carter Junior as he slept soundly in Carter''s arms. And in the early evening Juniper sent me pictures of her two nephews and niece, Beech, Cyprus, and Ashle.


    I nearly cried when I saw the babies. All four of them were so cute. And I couldn''t believe that both Juniper and I had our families expanded on the same day. It was such a joyous and happy day.

 Chapter 367 - Trinity - Bed Arrest Part 10 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 367 - Trinity - Bed Arrest Part 10 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Mom spent a lot of time out at the Canyons for the next week. That was understandable, she was very excited about her new grandson. During the time that she was there, I had a lot of video calls with her, Emmalee, and Carter. I loved seeing how cute the baby was. He looked so much like Carter; Emmalee had made the right choice when she made him a junior.


    Juniper didn''te over as much over the next several days either. She spent a lot of time with her nephews and niece and helped Acacia limate to her new life as a mom. It was made easier for Acacia as well because of the fact that she had Cedar''s mom who had raised twins and her own mother who had raised nothing but multiples. She had a lot of people there to help her, and Juniper was learning as much as she could from this time as well. She would need it.


    This, however, left me feeling somewhat lonely. All I wanted was to see the people that I was used to being around on a regr basis. None of the people that I typically saw were here for me now. I did see Falena from time to time, but she had her own job to do, as did Rawlynne, even though she was about to take time off of work for having her own little baby.


    Nikki came by once in a while, but she was busier than I thought she would be. I guess the craziness of the current situation was affecting her as well.


    I think Vincent could tell how lonely I was getting though. When he came for guard duty, he brought Heather and Faith with him. He must have dropped Renea and Conner off at school before he came to work.


    "Trinity." Heather was happy to see me, and I was overjoyed to see her and the baby. It felt like it had been so long, and I hadpletely missed Faith''s first birthday party. I didn''t forget to get her a gift, ordered online of course.


    "Oh my Goddess, Heather, she has gotten so big." I couldn''t believe that she had just turned a year old just nine days ago.


    "I know. Can you believe that tomorrow is the first of December? It''s going to be so busy. What with the kids going on break from school and everything." She was beaming happily and looked like she was glowing. I couldn''t help but be happy for her, and a little jealous that she wasn''t stuck in bed. "Plus, I have wonderful news." She looked like she was glowing as she looked at me, excitement spilling over.


    She didn''t say anything to me, she just took Faith''s coat off of her and showed me the onesie she was wearing. It was pink and said ''I''M GOING TO BE A BIG SISTER'' and there were flowers embroidered around the words.


    "Oh, Heather, that is amazing. You''re such a wonderful mother, I am so happy to hear that."


    "Thanks Trinity, I am happy that I can share this with you. Outside of our family you''re the first person that we''ve told, even my parents don''t know yet." She was grinning happily, and I couldn''t help but feel how much of an honor this was. I have known Heather for a little over a year now and while she wasn''t the closest of friends, I was happy that she was in my life.


    I spent the morning and most of the afternoon hanging out with Heather and Faith. Heather did finally confirm that she had been undecided on the little girl''s name until Vincent had be my guard. She found out that my middle name was Faith, and she fell in love with it. That made me smile for most of the day.


    Just after breakfast I started feeling some of the practicebor contractions. They were a little worse than that first day, but I was able to ignore them for the most part. There were the asional pains that were just a little too much for me to handle, and I cried out a few times.


    "Are you OK, Trinity?" Heather sounded worried when I made these sounds of distress.


    "Yes, it''s just the Braxton Hicks contractions. Griffin said it was my body''s way of preparing for when the babiese."


    "Yeah, it is. They canst for a long time. I''ve never had twins, but mine weren''t this painful." She was still scared and worried about me.


    "When I first felt them, I thought my whole stomach was going to rip right off of me. It was so painful. I guess the more active the babies are the more it hurts." I grimaced at the thought since the twins had been very active through most of the pregnancy.


    "I guess. That makes sense in a way." She was still looking at me with eyes that said she wasn''t sure what she should do.


    Heather stayed through lunch, and we managed to y a few board games. Apparently, Heather''s parents were picking the kids up today so she didn''t need to worry. When the pain got to be too much for me, I asked if Vincent could help me to the sofa so we could just watch a movie while Faith took a nap.


    It was all I could do to sit there and not cry out in pain from the practicebor pains. A little while before dinner, Vincent carried me back to bed and left for the day so he could take Heather home. Reece was still in the house, as was Noah and Gabriel. They would all be around if I needed them.


    I was too tired to want to do anything much at all. I tried to read a book on my tablet that was next to my bed, but I couldn''t concentrate on it at all. When Reece came back to the room with dinner, he brought it to me in bed. Vincent had told him that I was having a hard day so he didn''t want to move me around much at all.


    The food was good, and I wanted to eat, but I couldn''t force myself to eat it at all. I just felt like I was overly full already. Maybe the babies were positioned wrong, and they were blocking something. I didn''t know what it was, I just knew that I was tired from all the pain that I had been in throughout the day, and I knew thatying down would help.


    "Reece, I am going to bed early. I am just so tired already." He could clearly see the exhaustion in my eyes so he didn''t say anything about the fact that I was going to sleep before eight thirty.


    "Alright, Little Bunny, I will just sit right here next to you and do some paperwork. I want to finish it all before the babiese." He smiled at me and actually tucked me in before kissing the top of my head. I was asleep instantly.


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I knew that it had been a hard day for Trinity. Vincent and Heather had said that she was experiencing falsebor, or Braxton Hicks contractions, all day. That must have been truly exhausting for her, and it was no surprise at all that she went to bed early.


    Not even being eight thirty at night, it was too early for me to go to sleep, but I was hesitant to leave her side. I wanted to give her all the physical and emotional support that I could. So, instead of going back to my office to work, I decided to do it while sitting in the bed next to her.


    She had fallen asleep almost instantly, but she wasn''t sleeping very soundly. The pains were still there, and I could imagine that she was not getting much rest from it at all. I looked over at her frequently and saw a crease in her brow that told me she was in pain. I wanted to make that pain go away, but there was nothing I could do.


    At perhaps a quarter after nine, just about an hour after she had fallen asleep, there was something strange that had happened. I felt a wetness that seemed to be spreading across the mattress. I didn''t even think anything stupid about it, I knew what it was instantly. And so did Trinity as her eyes flew open the moment she felt it.


    "Reece!" She sounded scared and definitely like she was still in pain.


    "Trinity?" I responded to her instantly, clearing away the documents that I had on the bed. They weren''t damaged but I wouldn''t have cared if they were.


    "I think my water just broke."


    "I think you''re right." I tried not to panic. I tried to stay as calm as it appeared that Trinity was. I was trying really hard to be the level headed husband here.

 Chapter 368 - Reece - Labor Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 368 - Reece - Labor Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Level headed just wasn''t something that I could manage right now. I was a mess, literally. I wasn''t able to keep my cool, and I definitely wasn''t able to stay calm in the face of this major situation. What was I supposed to do now? What was going to happen next?


    "Reece, I think you should call Griffin." Trinity, usually the more level headed of us, knew exactly what I should do. I smiled as I listened to her words, and she started to sit up.


    "Right, I''ll do that now." I nodded and started to reach for my phone, but noticed that Trinity was unable to get into a sitting position, before I grabbed my phone I helped her. She needed me first, and I would always make sure that she was taken care of before anything and anyone else.


    Once Trinity was situated, I grabbed my phone and called Griffin. I might have been a tad frantic by the time that he answered the phone.


    "Hello Reece, what can I-." I didn''t let him finish his sentence before I interrupted him.


    "Trinity''s water broke." I could hear the panic that was starting to fill my voice.


    "Are you sure? I mean, it is hard to mistake that but, there have been times that it has happened." I know he wasn''t just implying that my wife just pissed herself.


    "Yes, we''re sure." I growled the words at him.


    "I figured, I just had to ask. OK, do you want to drive her to the hospital or do you want me to send an ambnce?" I could hear movement on the other end of the line; it sounded like he was saying something to Lana. In my panic, I had nearly forgotten that he and Lana were married now and expecting their own set of twins. They were just thetest in the pregnancy craze to sweep the pack. Lana had been one of the Sentinelle members that hade back with us from France, and the two of them mated when they first saw each other.


    "I will drive her. It will be fine. Should we leave right away?" I was worried because of the problems that Trinity had already been experiencing.


    "Yes, don''t dy at all. I will be at the hospital waiting for you when you get there."


    After a few more quick instructions from Griffin, I knew everything that I had to do. We already had the bags packed and ready to go. It was best to have them long in advance, with everything that had happened already. We didn''t know when we would be going to the hospital for my Little Bunny to be having my little babies. We needed to be prepared long in advance.


    "Sweetheart." I went to her and knelt at the side of the bed. "I am going to run these down to the car, I will be right back, alright." I could see a light sheen of sweat on my wife''s brow; she had been in pain all day, and it looked like it hadn''t lessened at all.


    "OK, I will just sit here and wait for you." She tried to smile at me, at the joke she had made, but it had ended up as a grimace when another wave of pain hit her.


    "I will be back as soon as I can." I kissed her on the forehead then before getting to my feet and hurrying from the room.


    I knew that my mother would still be awake. It wasn''t thatte after all, and she wasn''t the type to go to sleep early. I also knew that she would want to know what was going on, and she could stay with Trinity while I ran down to the car.


    I dropped the bags near the top of the stairs and sprinted the rest of the way down the hall to my mother''s room. She was in there, light on, but the room silent. She had heard meing though so she answered the door just seconds after I pounded on it.


    "What is it, Reece? You look like you''ve seen a ghost or something." Sheughed at me and my frantic attitude.


    "Trinity is inbor. Please sit with her while I take her things to the car." That was all it took, mom was so excited that she was already running from the room, pushing me as she went.


    "Go, go, go, go." She was still so strong that she nearly pushed me over in her rush. "Get going and carry those bags. I will sit with her. We have to get to the hospital so I can meet my grand babies." I knew that my mother would be excited when I told her what was happening.


    I grabbed the bags I had dropped and ran down the stairs while Mom went straight to my room. This was nerve wracking but exciting as well. Soon, I was going to see my children. Soon, my Little Bunny and I were going to be parents. This was the happiest day of my life.


    There were more people that I needed to tell though. There were more family members that needed to be there. So, with a little maneuvering I managed to shift the bags in my hands and pull my phone from my pocket. The first person on my list to call was Eve, Trinity''s aunt turned mom. I knew that she would be there with her husband, Wesley, the uncle turned dad. They had raised my Little Bunny into the wonderful woman that she was now.


    "Reece? Is something wrong?" Eve sounded scared when she answered the phone, most likely because of thest time she had gotten a callte at night from someone that was close to us.


    "No, nothing is wrong Eve. Quite the opposite. Trinity is inbor. I am taking the bags to the car, and then we will be going to the hospital. I thought you might like to be there when the babies are born."


    "EEEEEE!" I heard the squeal of excitemente from her side of the line, and I had to hold the phone away from my ear. After that I heard Wesley on the other end of the line yell out to her.


    "What in the Goddess''s name is going on with you woman?" He was only pretending to sound harsh and angry because I knew for a fact that Wesley was a big pushover when it came to Eve.


    "Trinity is going to have the babies!" Eve squealed the words at him, the excitement in her voice spilling over to him when he finally responded the way she wanted him to.


    "Really?" There was joy in his tone as well. "Welle on, let''s get going."


    "We will meet you there Reece." Eve spoke happily and excitedly before she hung up the phone. They really were nice people.


    The next person on my list to call was Noah. He was my best friend and Trinity''s cousin turned brother. He cared about her a lot, and it had asionally caused strife between the two of us. He had even punched me in the face and broken my cheekbone on behalf of Trinity, and I am d he did. I was an idiot at the time, and he helped to wake me the fuck up. He is a good guy, a hell of a friend, and the best brother my wife could ask for.


    "Reece? Is something wrong? Is Trinity OK?" He was so much like his mom when she answered the phone that it almost made meugh.


    "No, nothing''s wrong. We''re about to head to the hospital." I held theughter inpletely.


    "You just said nothing is wrong. Why are you going to the hospital?" There was anger and fear in his voice.


    "Trinity is inbor. The twins areing." I heard the joy in my voice, telling everyone was building up my excitement.


    "Oh Goddess, is it really that time? I''ll be there soon. Nikki might not be, she has to stay home with Elias unless her parents will watch him."


    "We will understand. See you soon."


    I called Riley next, he was like a brother to me. If Noah wasn''t like a brother to Trinity, I would have called Riley second, I hoped he wouldn''t be upset if he found out.


    "Reece, you do know that when it gets to be closer to ten we have kids that are asleep, right. You shouldn''t be calling me thiste." Riley always pretended to be upset when I called him, but there was always a hint of augh in his voice so he gave it away too easily.


    "Well, I just wanted to let you know that Trinity is inbor, but if you would prefer not to know-."


    "Wait, really? I''m already on my way." I could hear him moving around, and it was clear he was telling the truth. That was good, I wanted him there with me as well.


    "Thanks man."


    "Don''t mention it, you were there for the birth of my first kid, would have been for the second too if it hadn''t been for the extenuating circumstances. I wouldn''t miss this for the world, man."


    Almost done with the calls now, and they were going quick. I had just stowed the bags in the back of the car and started it so that it was getting warm. I didn''t want my wife to be chilled when I carried her down here now did I?


    "Hey Reece, what can I do for you?" Carter answered casually when I called him.


    "Hey Carter, I just wanted to call and let you know that Trinity is inbor." I was moving a lot more quickly now that I was not burdened by the bags or focusing on not falling t on my face in my haste. I was running up the stairs three and four at a time now.


    "No shit, that''s awesome. Emmalee is in no shape toe see her, but I wille first thing in the morning if that is alright. I don''t want to leave Emmalee or the baby at night."


    "That''s fine Carter, I just wanted to let you know. You are her brother after all."


    "Thanks Reece, I truly appreciate that."


    "We will see you in the morning. At least then Trinity should be done having the babies and be rested somewhat. It will be better for you then. I will send you pictures tonight. That way Emmalee can see them."


    "That will be great. I just know that Emmalee is going to try and rush to the hospital with me even though she shouldn''t." I heard himugh.


    I was almost to the room now so I told him I would call him backter and hung up the call. It was time to take care of my wife and take her to the hospital. Before long, I would be meeting my children for the first time.

 Chapter 369 - Trinity - Labor Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 369 - Trinity - Labor Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I couldn''t believe that my water had broken while I was trying to sleep in bed. That was just going to ruin it for me. I could never sleep on that bed again. Or those sheets. However, I was excited that I was finally going to have my babies. Excited and nervous. I wanted them here, in my arms and out of my belly, but I was afraid of the process it was going to take to get them out of me.


    Reece had just ran out of the room to take my things to the car, and I wanted to get changed. My clothes were soaked from the fluids that hade out of me. I knew that it wasn''t necessarily the case, but it had felt like I peed myself. I knew it wasn''t, but it just made me feel gross and icky now. I just wanted to get cleaned up right now, especially before Reece came back.


    I knew that Reece was going to insist on carrying me to the car. He would have insisted whether I had been on bed resttely or not. I was inbor for crying out loud, he was bound to flip out. But with my clothes being wet, I didn''t want him touching me. I wanted to be cleaned and dried before he lifted me up.


    I knew that it was probably stupid to think about it like that, but I couldn''t help it. I just wanted to make it a little less gross for him to touch me. It would make me feel a little better anyway.


    As soon as Reece was out of the room, I got to my feet. It was one of the first times that I had actually stood up in almost a month and a half. I had gotten up a couple times, without Reece knowing. It had only been to wash myself up in the bathroom. I wasn''t going to make Vincent and Gabriel go to the extremes that Reece went to, but my legs still felt like jelly right now. I wondered for a moment if I was getting weak from being sozytely or if it was from being inbor.


    I ignored it though. I needed to do what I could for right now. The more that I walked the easier it got to walk as well. My legs just needed to get some blood pumping and flowing through them, and they felt a lot better. Though I had barely made it to the bathroom door when the bedroom door burst open again.


    I knew that it was too soon for Reece to be back, but it still scared me. I turned and looked at the door and was shocked to find L rushing into the room.


    "Trinity, what are you doing sweetheart?" She sounded worried as she came rushing over to me.


    "My water broke while I wasying in the bed. I feel gross and disgusting now, so I just wanted to clean myself up a little." I hung my head as if it was wrong of me.


    "Oh, honey, that''s understandable. But you should have waited for me. Come on, let''s get you all cleaned so we can go to the hospital." She wrapped an arm around my shoulders and supported almost all of my weight as she helped me into the bathroom.


    "No, L, I can''t ask you to help me with this. It''s disgusting."


    "Nonsense." Sheughed at me. "I''ve changed Reece''s diapers, and I n on changing your babies'' diapers; this is nothing. This is just handing you some wet washcloths and some clean clothes. This isn''t disgusting at all. Besides, you''re having babies, it''s a part of life." She sounded like she was more than happy to prove to me that everything was just fine, and that I needed to let her do this. I guess I had no choice, but to let my mother-inw help me to clean up and get changed. It would be helpful, but embarrassing.


    When we got into the bathroom, L took me over to the low stool that Reece had brought in for me since I had been put on bedrest. It was just the right height that I could put my feet on the floor and wash myself up. If only I could reach my feet, or even see them. While I did my best to get the clothes off of me, before sitting down I might add, L went to get a bowl of hot water and some washcloths. She was back before I was out of my clothes. It was just so hard to maneuver right now, and some of them were stuck to me because they were so wet.


    Unfortunately, I couldn''t finish undressing myself. L had to help me. She helped to peel away the yoga pants that were apparentlyfortable in every situation except removing while wet. She even had to help me pull down thefortable soft cotton panties that I wore forfort rather than seducing Reece. It was really quite embarrassing.


    After I was stripped I started to clean myself up as best as I could. I wouldn''t let her do any of that for me. I put my foot down about it.


    "It''s no big deal, sweetheart. I want to help." She pleaded, trying to be more helpful for me.


    "No, L, I couldn''t have you do that for me."


    "Then what would you have me do?" She wondered as she looked down at me while I sat there awkwardly on the stool, naked and cleaning myself as best as I could.


    "Could you get me some clean clothes? Nothingplicated of course, I will just have to take them off again."


    "Yes sweetheart. I will be right back." She smiled and left the room then.


    I wanted to clean myself as thoroughly as I could while she was gone. I couldn''t get away with a full shower before leaving tonight, but I could stand and make cleaning myself a little easier. If I didn''t have to try and see around this giant belly to reach things, it would be so much easier to get clean.


    I stood and cleaned myself up as fast as I could. I had even grabbed a towel and wrapped myself before L came back into the room. Though, the towel gaped open where my giant baby belly poked out. It was kind of disheartening to see just how big I had gotten over thesest few months.


    "Trinity, what are you doing now?" L asked with augh when she came back into the bathroom and saw me standing at the sink.


    "I wanted to brush my teeth and pull my hair back." I answered her quickly. "I just want this to be as easy as possible when I get there." I had already run the brush through my hair and was pulling it back into a loose ponytail. Next all I needed was to brush my teeth.


    Reece came back into the room as I was rinsing my mouth. When he didn''t see me in the bedroom, he yelled for me and started to run frantically. Lughed and yelled for him toe into the bathroom.


    However, Reece definitely wasn''t happy when he saw me standing in front of the mirror though.


    "What the hell?" He demanded in a firm tone. "I went to take the bags down to the car, and all the rules went out the window?"


    "Honey, all the rules went out the window the moment my water broke." I soothed him as I patted my hand against his chest.


    "You''re not supposed to be on your feet." He whined at me.


    "I know Reece, but I felt gross and disgusting. I didn''t want you to carry me while I was covered in all that stuff. Now all I need to do is get dressed, and we can go." I smiled at him. "Will you help me?"


    I knew that he would help me, he would have insisted if I hadn''t asked for his help. With a smile he lifted me into his arms and carried me back to the room. He didn''t take me to the bed since it was wet but he sat me on the sofa and pulled my towel away. L handed him the clothes that she had grabbed: afortable pair of panties and a simple, loose cotton dress. It was easy to get me into both of the articles of clothing. After that Reece slipped on a pair of fuzzy boots that were only meant for wearing around the house and not outside. I guess it was fine, I wasn''t really going to be walking right now anyway.


    "Alright, now let''s go." Reece lifted me into his arms and out the door we went.


    We were in the car and ready to go before I knew what was happening. I was sitting in the back with L while Reece drove us to the hospital. I could feel my nerves growing steadily, along with the intensity and pain of the contractions. Those also felt like they wereing more regrly as well. I wondered just how much longer all of this was going to take.

 Chapter 370 - Reece - Labor Part 3 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 370 - Reece - Labor Part 3 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I couldn''t believe that Trinity had broken the bed rest rule. Well, I guess if she was ever going to break it, today was the day. We were getting ready to go to the hospital after all. And I could understand that she would want to get cleaned up. I would have done the same thing if I was in her position. I barely had the wetness touch me but I couldn''t think of anything else but taking care of my wife. She was way more level headed than I was most of the time. Still, maybe I should send someone to get some clean clothes for me soon.


    We made it to the hospital with no incident. I didn''t have to rush so much this time since it wasn''t an emergency like it was when Trinity had her hypertensive crisis before. She was inbor right now, but she was alert, and everything seemed to be just fine for the time being. I wasn''t going to panic unless something else happened. Well, I hoped I wouldn''t panic.


    When we got to the hospital I pulled up right out front. I walked around the side of the car and lifted Trinity into my arms and carried her inside while mom carried the two bags that we had, one for Trinity and one for the babies. The valet took the keys and parked the car. That was a very useful thing that a lot of hospitals had, and I made certain to take advantage of that right now.


    I knew we didn''t have to go through the emergency department. We needed to go through registration; that was what Griffin had told me. It would be quicker that way. I was going to follow all of his instructions to make sure that I got this all done properly. I went to the desks that were just beyond the wee station and carried Trinity to the first one that was open. There was no one waiting to check in at the moment so I just sat down.


    "Sir, you need to put your name on that clipboard over there and wait to be called." The woman behind the desk scolded me. I raised my eyebrows at the empty lobby and then red at her.


    "There is no one out there, and as you can see, my hands are a bit full at the moment." My voice held a biting edge. "Mom, will you please write Trinity''s name on the board over there and hand it to this woman for me?"


    "Of course sweetheart." I could hear that my mom was trying not tough at my childish attitude. I didn''t consider this childish, I considered it taking charge.


    "Oh, fine." The woman held out her hand for the clipboard and waited so that she could check us in. "What is your name Sir, and what is the patient''s name."


    "The patient is my wife, Trinity, and my name is Reece Gray." I saw the moment that the recognition shed across her face. Yes, my name was definitely a famous one. The problem was, most people didn''t imagine someone that was only in his mid twenties. That made it awkward when they met me for the first time.


    "R..R..Reece Gray?" She stuttered over my name for a moment. "THE Reece Gray, the m..m..m..millionaire?"


    "No, Madam." I grinned at her. "Reece Gray, the billionaire." The blush that spread across her cheeks then made it clear that she had vastly underestimated me.


    "I..I''m so sorry, Mr Gray. I didn''t mean to be so rude. W..w..what brings you and your wife here this evening?"


    "Isn''t it obvious? My wife is inbor?" As I looked at Trinity''s face, I could see the pain clearly written on her face as another contraction gripped her. "I would like to get her upstairs and into afortable position sooner rather thanter if you do not mind."


    "Y..y..yes, Sir. I''m so sorry. Just let me get you checked in. I need your ID and insurance information. Once I have that I will check you in as quickly as I can."


    Once I handed her over the proper paperwork, she did just as she had said. She worked fast and had us ready to head upstairs to thebor and delivery floor in no time at all. She had even called someone to push Trinity in a wheelchair, but I refused.


    "If you don''t mind, I would prefer to carry her. I am a tad bit possessive." I warned off the man who had been looking at Trinity and ogling her beauty even though she was clearly in the arms of her husband. He scampered away as fast as he could and all, but yelped in fear as he ran.


    "You shouldn''t scare the hospital employees." My Little Bunny scolded me, but she wasughing as well so I knew that she had found it just as funny as I did when the man ran away.


    "Mr. Gray, aren''t your arms getting sore? You''ve been holding your heavily pregnant wife since before you got to my desk. She must be getting hard to carry by now." The woman at the registration desk didn''t seem to want to let us go just yet either.


    "Madam, I could carry my wife from now until the end of time and my arms would never tire. She is my Queen, there is nothing I wouldn''t do for her."


    I nearlyughed at the shocked look on the woman''s face. She thought I was just being romantic, which I was, but there was more to it than that. Trinity truly was my Queen, twice over in fact. I would never let her go if I didn''t have to. I would carry her and our children in my arms at the same time.


    I walked away, nearly chuckling from the way that the people were watching us. They were obviously impressed by my physical strength, but they were also impressed by the intensity of my love for my wife. Any man could be capable of a love like this if he just gave himself to his lover fully. That was all it took. To stop denying the way you feel and to love that person with every fiber of your being. That''s what it took for me anyway.


    I got onto the elevator with Mom and Trinity and heard the awed whispers that followed us.


    "Honestly Reece, you need to tone it down a little." Trinity scolded me again as she hissed through pain.


    "I think it was sweet. He is showing everyone that he is unavable because he is so in love with you." Mom was supporting me over Trinity for once, that made me happy.


    "See, Mom gets it. I am just trying to stop all the people out there from thinking that they have a chance with me. I didn''t exactly hide our rtionship, but we didn''t announce it to the world. I am a big name in the world of business, and I am a celebrity because of my wealth. Women all over fantasize about me, whether they are supernatural or not." I heard a growle from my Little Bunny''s throat then when she realized that so many people desired me. "See, now you know how I feel when men stare at you and make their lust so tantly obvious. I don''t like it any more than you do."


    "Fair enough. But let''s not threaten hospital staff. I don''t want to ruin Griffin''s job." Trinityughed then as we got off the elevator at the proper floor.


    "If that were to happen I would just buy the hospital and make him the director so that he didn''t have to worry." Sheughed for a moment, but then she seemed to catch the look on my face.


    "You''re serious?" She was shocked but the pain took her again so I didn''t bother to continue the conversation. We had made it to the floor we had needed anyway, and Griffin was standing there waiting for us.


    "It''s about damn time." He growled at us. "L, the rest of the family is waiting down the hall, you can join them. Reece, you need to change into scrubs while we get Trinity settled in." Griffin started to give orders as he guided me down the hallway. He seemed to be under the impression that I was going to be leaving Trinity''s side. That was not going to happen.


    "I am not leaving her." I red at the room full of people I barely knew. Yes, they were the same doctors that helped outst time, but that didn''t matter to me.


    "You can change in the bathroom of her room. You just need to change your clothes. Make it quick, Reece, and you won''t miss a single thing." Griffin was grinning at me as if he thought that I was being difficult. "Don''t worry, I won''t leave her alone while you get dressed."

 Chapter 371 - Reece - Labor Part 4 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 371 - Reece - Labor Part 4 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I wasn''t happy about leaving my Little Bunny''s side but I figured that a minute away was better than being sent away for the entire delivery. It was getting closer to the time that the babies were going to be here, and I knew it. It was already a little after ten thirty, and her water had broken just over an hour ago.


    I didn''t know how long these things took, but I knew that I was going to be by her side the entire time. I wasn''t about to let her go through a single second of it alone if I could. Well, aside for the sixty or so seconds that I was changing from my clothes into the scrubs. They were horribly ufortable but I would put up with anything so that I could be at my wife''s side. She needed me.


    I changed in record time. If there was an olympic sport for it I would have qualified for it easily because I was out of my clothes and changed into the scrubs in less than fifteen seconds. I know this because I counted and checked the clock on the wall above my Little Bunny''s bed. I was determined to see everything from start to finish. I didn''t want to miss any of it.


    "You don''t need to rush, Reece." Griffinughed at me as I sped out of the bathroom and toward the bed. "We''re still getting her hooked up to all the monitors. It''s going to take a little while longer still. There is no rush."


    "There is a rush for me. I don''t want to be away from her at all. She needs me Griffin, this is important." I watched as the doctor just rolled his eyes at me and turned back to look at my wife.


    "Fine, whatever Reece. Just stand next to Trinity and hold her hand. That is all that you can do for now."


    Griffin looked a little exasperated at the moment. I didn''t care one bit; if holding my wife''s hand was all that I could do at the moment then that''s what I would do.


    "Oh, just calm down Fido. This next part is my job, not yours." My Little Bunnyughed at me when I took her hand in mine. Together we were watching as the nurses hooked the monitors to her so that we could hear the babies'' heart beats. The soft and steady rhythm was calming and exciting at the same time.


    While I was holding her hand she must have been gripped by another contraction. I felt her squeeze my hand, and I watched as her face contorted in pain.


    "That looks like a big one." One of the other women in the room was saying as she looked at a monitor that Trinity was hooked up to. "If they keep up like that then it won''t be long until these babies are in your arms." There was a smile on the woman''s lips and a slightugh in her voice. "Just hold in there for a little while longer, Trinity."


    Once all the machines were hooked up almost all of the hospital staff left the room. The only one that stayed behind was Griffin. He was standing at the foot of the bed and smiling at me and Trinity with a corny grin.


    "Well, this is it. I can''t believe you made it this far, all things considered. It has been an exciting journey though, hasn''t it?" I know that he had been just as nervous as we had for thest several weeks.


    "It has, definitely. Thank you so much for helping me out with everything Griffin." My Little Bunny was always so polite. "I am so sorry that I missed your wedding. I would have loved to have been there."


    "We know, Trinity. Don''t worry about it one bit. Lana and I know that without you, we wouldn''t have met each other. We''re forever grateful to you, and we hope to one day have our children y and interact with yours, if that is alright."


    "Oh my Goddess, Griffin, yes. Of course that would be fine. When you and Lana have children we will be there for you as well." She was beaming at him with an excited look that made me think she had almost forgotten that she was inbor at the moment.


    "That''s good. We hope you wille to see them in April." I watched as Griffin smirked, slyly dropping his news.


    "Congrats Griff." I held out a hand to shake his right away but Trinity seemed to be a little dazed so she was confused for a moment. It wasn''t until Griffin smiled sheepishly that she finally got it.


    "Oh Goddess, Griffin, congrattions. I am so happy for you."


    He stayed and talked for a while about what was going on with him and his new wife before he went to take care of business elsewhere for a moment. He wasn''t here for any other patients tonight so he was dedicated to uspletely. That was a relief, honestly. If something were to go wrong, he would be here to make sure that it was taken care of immediately.


    Now that we were at the hospital, and Trinity was settled in, we were able to sit and talk with each other until it was time for the next stage of this adventure. While we chit chatted about random things, including who the babies might look like, our family came in to see us. They wanted to visit before they were banned from the room due to excitement.


    "Trinity!" Eve practically squealed when she reached the door. We were in the same room we had been inst time when we were in the hospital, but at least this time it was a happy asion.


    "Mom." My Little Bunny''s smile lit up the room when everyone she loved came through the door. Well, everyone aside from me since I was already there.


    "Our little girl." Wesley looked like he was ready to cry. "All three of you. You know that. All three of you turned us into grandparents this year. This is quite a handful, you know that." His words sounded like he wasn''t happy, but the look on his face couldn''t have been more different. He was clearly happy.? "I can''t wait to see them though. And you''re the only one giving us a granddaughter. The other two only gave us boys."


    "Don''t me me." Noah smiled at him. "I was the first to start a family, as it should have been. It''s not my fault they were so jealous they rushed after me." He crossed his arms yfully.


    "I''m just d that I am getting some grandbabies too." Mom smiled. "I''m jealous of all of you, getting so many."


    "It will get easier, L, trust me. They will have more and you will be so busy that you won''t be able to focus." Samuel wasforting my mother as he was preparing to wee even more of his great grandchildren.


    For the next half an hour or so we all sat in the room talking while the contractions seemed toe stronger and more frequently. I had noticed the screen that the nurse looked at earlier, and I was able to see when she was having one, even if she didn''t show the distress on her face. It looked to me like they wereing more often than not. Thesest two contractions had barely been a minute apart, if that.


    "Are you alright, Little Bunny? That one looked really bad?" I felt the worry for her creasing my brow as I watched the monitor.


    "It''s just going to get worse for her, Reece, you know that. This is just the beginning." Eve seemed like she was trying to hold back herughter as she looked at my nervous face.


    "I know, it just looks like she is in a lot of pain. I hate knowing she is hurting." I felt the shame of that, since I was the cause of her being in pain.


    "It''s alright, Reece." My cute, adorable Little Bunny patted my hand. "I can handle it. And just remember, when it''s all over we will be parents."


    That smile of hers made it all worth it I guess. If she could push through this then I could as well. I would be strong for her because she was being strong for our children.


    "Yeah, you''re right." I kissed her head then, a simple and sweet gesture that earned us an ''aww'' from those watching us.


    Just then a nurse walked into the room with a smile on her face.


    "Alright, folks, I need to ask you all to leave, it''s time for me to check how close we are to seeing those babies. It might be time for us to give the soon to be momma her epidural."


    With some sad groans and reluctant smiles everyone left the room. When it was just the three of us the nurse came over and did something that I found horrifying. She reached up under the nket that was draped over my Little Bunny''s legs and stuck her hand between her legs. Since she was only wearing a hospital gown and no panties this meant she had stuck her hand into a very private and very naked area.


    "What are you doing?" I asked her with shock on my face and in my voice.


    "It''s fine, I am just checking how dted she is. That will tell us how close she is to delivering." She was trying not tough or make fun of me. "She''s been in activebor for a little over an hour now, right? So we probably have a long time to go. These things take forever for first time-." She stopped mid sentence and her face seemed to freeze. "This is strange." She looked up at Trinity with a serious look then. "Didn''t you go intobor around nine?"


    "That''s when my water broke, yeah."


    "Yeah, I was there, that was when it happened."


    "When did your contractions start?"


    "I don''t know. I guess right after that. I was having braxton hicks all day though. They were exhausting. That''s why I went to bed early." I could still see the traces of exhaustion on her face as she spoke.


    "I don''t think those were braxton hicks. Now I wish we would have checked you as soon as you got here. We never should have given you that extra half an hour. Though, it was needed to get things prepped."


    "Is something wrong?" I asked her. "Is there a problem now? Are the babies in danger because we waited?"


    "No Mr. Gray, they''reing. She''s fully dted, and I need to get the doctor in here. It''s almost time for her to push."

 Chapter 372 - Reece - Labor Part 5 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 372 - Reece - Labor Part 5 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "Are you serious?" My Little Bunny sounded so shocked right then. "It''s too soon to push."


    "No, honey, you''ve been inbor all day. You just didn''t know it." The nurse grinned at her.


    "But, my water didn''t break until just a little while ago." Trinity looked nervous now. "Wouldn''t I have known that I was inbor?"


    "You just thought it was more practicebor. Some women can''t differentiate between the two." The nurse stood and repositioned the nkets before walking away. "I''m going to get the doctor, you prepare yourselves to be parents."


    That almost felt like she was telling us to take cover. I for one was excited by this development. I couldn''t wait to see the babies. Trinity on the other hand, well, she looked scared.


    I took my wife''s hand then and sat on the edge of the bed beside her. After kissing her knuckles gently, I held her hand against my cheek and spoke softly.


    "It''s time, Little Bunny." My heart was racing with the love and joy I was feeling.


    "I know, Fido, I know." I could see the fear in her eyes. "And I have to do it without an epidural." Sheughed. "Well, I guess it''s best for a wolf and witch queen to go all natural anyway, huh?" She chuckled apprehensively. "But, I''m still scared. I''m nervous it''s going to hurt and that I won''t know what to do." She looked at me then, voicing these concerns of hers to me for the first time. I had seen apprehension in her eyes and on her face over thest few months so I knew she was nervous, but she had never actually said it.


    "I will be right here with you." I assured her as I cupped her cheek in my hand. "I will help you as much as I can."


    "Can you deliver them for me? Push them out of your body?" Sheughed. "That would be funny to see."


    "Honey, if I could, I would. I never want to cause you pain, ever. I would take it all for you no matter what. But, since I can''t make the pain go away, you can be damn sure that I will make this up to you."


    "You better have something really good nned then." She red at me. "Just the fear of this moment is enough to make me want to run away screaming."


    "I will make every second of it worthwhile. I promise you that." I leaned in and kissed her cheek then.


    At that moment Griffin and a group of other medical personnel barged into the room and broke up our intimate moment. It wasn''t a sexual moment, it was just a quiet moment between the two of us.


    "I hear it''s time to do this. Trinity. Why didn''t you tell me that you were inbor all day?" Griffin looked surprised.


    "I didn''t know." She grimaced at his words. "I just thought it was the same as before."


    "Well, it''s fine, now you don''t need to wait until the morning to see the babies. If we''re lucky you''ll see them both before midnight." I looked at the clock then, it was eleven twenty, not long left in this day.


    "That would be nice, then I could enjoy a night''s rest without contractions." My Little Bunny smiled.


    "Are you ready to be a daddy, Reece?" Griffin asked as he pulled the sheets and nkets off of my wife''s legs and a nurse raised some weird looking contraptions on the side of the bed.


    "More than ready." I grinned and answered as I watched what they were doing.


    The things that had been raised on the side of the bed had been meant for Trinity''s feet to sit in. I watched as they scooted her down in the bed and put her feet in them so that she was basically fully exposed to the room. I mean, I guess it was necessary, but it was strange to see.


    Griffin walked over to Trinity then and looked between her legs. He didn''t stick his hand down there like the nurse did but, as soon as he saw whatever there was to see, he looked at the monitors and spoke to Trinity directly.


    "How soon have the contractions beening?"


    "I don''t even know. Pretty close together I guess."


    "Thest ones I noticed seemed to be at most a minute apart from each other." I added for her.


    "That''s what I thought. How did you not feel the pressure of the babies bearing down on you?" He actuallyughed as he looked at her.


    "Well, my family was here for thest half an hour or so. I didn''t want to make them leave, and I didn''t want to show them that I was in pain so I was hiding it."


    "Trinity?" I was shocked by what she was saying. "You should have told me. I didn''t want you to be in pain."


    "I know Reece. It wasn''t that bad though, honestly. I thought realbor would hurt a lot more than the stuff I felt before so I ignored it all because it wasn''t as bad as I expected. It still hurts though, that''s not what I was trying to say. I guess, I just didn''t want to say how much it was already hurting and then I got used to it. I don''t know. It''s hard for me to exin it all."


    "Hahh!" I sighed in exasperation as I pressed my forehead to hers. "What am I going to do with you?" I nearlyughed then.


    I couldn''t believe she was hiding her pain all day because it wasn''t as bad as she thought so she didn''t think it was realbor. And then when we got here she didn''t want to kick her family out because of her pain, that''s just insane. Ugh!


    "I guess you could just give up on ever understanding me." She giggled. "I mean, what other choice do you have? We''re stuck together, right?"


    "Yeah, stuck together happily forever after." I grinned and kissed her. "But next time tell me when you''re hurting, alright."


    "Sure, I will tell you so you can just sit there and worry for no reason."


    I was exasperated, but she was right; there was nothing I could do to make her pain go away right now. The only relief in sight for her was delivering the babies. She kissed my cheek then started to talk with a smile on her face.


    "I love you Fido, you know tha-, AH! HHSSSHHHHH!" Little Bunny halted mid-sentence before stopping and hissing in pain.


    "Trinity?"


    "It''s alright Reece, it''s a contraction." Griffin put a hand on my shoulder to calm me as he looked at the monitors in front of us. He looked between my wife''s legs again and grinned. "I see a head, I do believe you will have a baby any minute now. Your body really wants to get this over with, Trinity."


    I felt like I was a chicken running around with my head cut off. I didn''t know what to do, but obviously everyone else in the room did. They got Trinity into position and started guiding her into the steps and positions needed to deliver the first baby.


    I made the mistake of walking to the foot of the bed and looking at where the baby wasing out. That was a really, really big mistake. I saw a mass of skin and hair pushing its way out of my wife''s tiny little body, and it was covered in blood and other fluids. I felt fear and revulsion begin to course through me.


    At that moment all I wanted to do was run away. I couldn''t help it. I actually almost did it too. I had turned and bolted toward the door and barely stopped myself before I reached it. I couldn''t leave though, Trinity needed me.


    I walked back to her side, my back was steady and my resolve was firm. That was until I heard what was going on.


    "That''s good, Trinity. Keep going. Push." The nurse was coaching her while Griffin was positioned between my wife''s knees. That was weird to see, I was just supposed to be OK with him looking at my wife''s privates like that? I mean, I guess I was supposed to be, but still.


    "That''s good Trinity, that''s really good. Give me another good push on the next contraction alright." Griffin was coaching her as well, and I felt my heart pounding. I wanted to be there for my wife too.


    I walked to my Little Bunny''s side and took her hand. I wanted to provide her with my strength as much as possible.


    "You''re doing great, sweetheart." I kissed her knuckles as she looked up at me with a smile. "I''m so proud of you."


    "Herees another contraction." The nurse said as she watched the monitors. "Come on now, big push Trinity."


    I tried. I really did. I didn''t want to admit to being squeamish, which normally I am not, but I couldn''t handle the sounds of her being in pain, and I stupidly looked at my baby''s head pushing its way out of her once more.


    "GGRRRAAHHH!" She groaned and screamed as she pushed.


    "That''s it,e on." The nurse was pushing up on her leg as she encouraged her, and Griffin was helping to guide the baby out of her.


    The sounds, that was what was getting to me. The screams of her pain, the squelching noises as the baby moved out of her, the conflicting tones of voices from Trinity and the nurse. It was all too much. I almost bolted again. I actually had my hand on the door this time before I stopped myself. I couldn''t leave. I knew I couldn''t leave her.


    I rushed back to her side as soon as I could. I grabbed my wife''s hand once more and smiled at her with what I knew probably looked more like a grimace. I knew she was going tough at me about this soon enough. This was going to be a famous family story, I just knew it.


    "One more big push, Trinity. One more and the baby should be out." Griffin was grinning, and the nurse was preparing her for one more push.


    "Come on Trinity, let''s give it all you got. You can help her too, Dad, grab her leg and bring it up for her so she can bear down easier. Don''t be sozy over there."


    I red at her. I was notzy. I was a good dad and a good husband. She will see. I was going to help her, I wasn''t going to run away at all. This time, when the contraction came, and the nurse told her to push, I stayed by my wife''s side and didn''t run away at all. Even though I really, really wanted to.


    "That''s it Trinity. Keep going. Bear down. Come on. That''s it." The nurse was saying the same words over and over again, but I don''t think Trinity was even hearing it. I watched her face, red from the effort of pushing while also pale from the pain and covered in sweat. She was going through so much. Why had I been so stupid? Why had I tried to run away while she was going through so much?


    While I was thinking about all of this, about all that my wife was doing, it all seemed to end. Well, this first part of it did anyway. Trinity flopped back on the bed with a relieved sigh and Griffin started talking really fast in a really happy voice.


    "That was perfect, Trinity. Just amazing. Baby number one is here, and it''s a boy."

 Chapter 373 - Reece - Labor Part 6 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 373 - Reece - Labor Part 6 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "That was perfect, Trinity. Just amazing. Baby number one is here, and it''s a boy." The words were reying over and over inside of my head. I know what he said was true because that was why we were here, but it just made things ten times more real to me. I was a father, and Griffin was holding my son in his arms.


    "How is he?" Trinity was panting, still trying to catch her breath from the effort she had exerted to birth our first child. "Is he alright?" I could understand why she was nervous. We hadn''t heard him cry yet.


    Weren''t babies supposed to cry when they were first born? Wasn''t that the way it went? Babies came into the world crying. That was what we had all been led to believe. So why wasn''t our baby crying yet?


    I held Trinity close to me then, nerves coursing through both of us. I didn''t say anything. I didn''t have to. Trinity had said the only thing that I would have been capable of saying at that moment.


    "He''s fine." Griffin smiled at us. "He just needs to be cleaned up, that''s all." We watched as he handed the baby off to a nurse and then went back to work on Trinity.


    "What are you doing now?" I asked him, surprised as she was massaging my wife''s abdomen.


    "I am checking on baby number two''s position and making sure that she is alright. We just need to wait until she is ready to make her grand entrance now."


    "Oh." I admit I was only half listening to him as I had also been paying attention to the nurse across the room from us. She had taken our baby and was doing whatever needed to be done.


    "Reece." Trinity clutched at the sleeve of the scrubs I was wearing. "Go check on him, please." The tone of her voice and the look in her eyes told me that she was worried about our baby.


    "OK, I will be right back." I squeezed her hand and kissed her temple before leaving her.


    I walked slowly across the room, each step feeling like it was taking me forever toplete. I was about to see my baby, my son, for the first time. I had seen something small and pink in Griffin''s arms but I hadn''t seen my baby clear enough. Now though, I was about to see what he really looked like.


    Laying there on a white cloth with his arms and legs iling was my baby. His little face was scrunched up, and his eyes were closed. It looked like he wanted to scream, but there was a tube in his mouth. That scared me, I immediately thought there was something wrong with him. But I heard a suction noise then and saw a lot of fluid moving out of my son''s mouth. The nurse was clearing his airway.


    As soon as enough of the fluids were removed, I heard a strangled crye from my son''s tiny little mouth. He was angry. Apparently, he didn''t like that tube at all. Now that he was crying, and obviously breathing on his own, I saw that he was turning a more normal color. I hadn''t even realized that he was pale and bluish at first, I just saw him and the tube.


    Now that I was looking closer at him and what he looked like I saw that he was still covered in fluids. There was blood and other amniotic or pregnancy rted fluids all over him. Now that he was crying though, the nurse had taken the cloth and was vigorously wiping him off. I just stood there and watched the whole process.


    The nurse cleaned him up most of the way, then proceeded to weigh him. My son seemed to weigh just shy of two thousand five hundred grams, or about five and a half pounds. It was smaller than I was expecting given the typical size of babies born in the pack, but he was a twin so that seemed good to me I guess.


    She measured him next, holding one of his legs in ce so that she could see how long he was. That was another surprise. Given how little he weighed I didn''t think he was going to be very tall, but he was twenty-two inches tall already. Such a big boy, he was already taking after his daddy. I couldn''t help but think that as I smiled at him.


    "NGH!" I heard Trinity cry out in pain, and I felt conflicted. I wanted to be at her side, but I wanted to stay there, looking at my son some more.


    "Go be with your wife for right now, I will give him his first bath after everything is done, and when the next baby is here you can hold him." The nurse smiled at me after noticing my hesitation. I nodded at her, happy to have someone help me make the decision for me.


    When I rushed back to my Little Bunny''s side, I saw that she was in pain once more. Her brow was creased in pain and she looked even more exhausted than she did before.


    "I''m here for you, baby. I''m here for you." I kissed her cheek when I crouched by her.


    "H..how is he, Reece? Is Reagan alright?" She was still worried about our son.


    "He''s fine. He''s perfect. And he''s beautiful." I couldn''t help but smile at her as I spoke.


    "Really?" She smiled through the pain she was feeling then. "I want to see him. I want to hold him soon."


    "You will, honey. You will." I held her hand and squeezed it tight. "Let''s bring Rika into the world and then we can hold both of them, alright."


    The second time went just the same as the first, only I wasn''t stupid enough to look at the baby as it came out. I didn''t need my resolve to buckle at all. I needed to be there for my family, they needed me.


    I held Trinity''s leg and helped her through the pushes like the nurse was doing. She would bear down and push for ten seconds at a time and each push left her exhausted. She didn''t give up though, she just kept pushing as hard as she could. Before long Griffin eximed loudly that the second baby was out.


    "It''s a girl. She''s here. You''ve got twins." Rika didn''t scare us like her brother did, she cried right from the beginning. Her high baby cries sounded just like music to my ears, and I turned to kiss Trinity''s hair while tears streamed down my cheeks.


    "I''m so proud of you Trinity." I cried as I kissed her over and over again. "I''m so proud of you, and I love you so much."


    "Reece." She called my name as she cried as well. "I love you too, Reece." We held each other for a moment, happy as we could be to finally have our children with us.


    I waited to the side while Rika was cleaned up and measured. Trinity was still being attended to by Griffin and the nurses as they massaged her uterus and delivered the centas. At the moment I didn''t have anything to do but watch the happenings around me. While I waited though, I found out that Rika weighed about five pounds, or two thousand three hundred grams. She was smaller than her brother, in height too as she was only eighteen inches tall. She was going to be small like her mother.


    I couldn''t wait to hold the two of them in my arms and look at them closely in their faces. I wanted to see who they looked like more. I didn''t care who they took after, I was just d they were finally here.


    It seemed to take a long time before everyone was done doing what they needed to do, and we were able to hold the babies. When it was time though, I was told to sit in the armchair that was next to Trinity''s bed. She had been cleaned up and moved over to a clean bed now. Both of us were waiting quite impatiently for the nurses, both of them, to walk over with the babies in their arms.


    "I am going to give you the baby boy first, alright Momma. He''s hungry and needs to be fed, his sissy can wait a few minutes so if it''s OK with you, Daddy can hold her first." I looked over at Trinity to see if she was alright with what was being suggested, I was fine with whatever she wanted. She was the one who had done all the work here.


    "Yes, that''s fine. But, uhm, I..I don''t know how to nurse him." She looked scared as she held her arms apprehensively toward our son.


    "Don''t fret one bit, sweetheart, that''s why we''re here. We will walk you through it while Daddy over here holds your little girl. By the time you switch off with the babies you will be a pro at it."


    The nurses, who were both different shifters, smiled at my Little Bunny supportively. I was d that they were here to help. I watched as Trinity nodded and smiled at them as well, she was happy for the assistance just the same as I was.


    The nurse who was holding the tiny little Rika came over to me. She passed the baby to me and showed me the proper way to hold her. I had held babies but not just minutes after they were born. This was nerve wracking.


    Rika felt so small and fragile in my arms. I was nervous and too scared to move at all. Still, it all felt right as well. It seemed like the little baby was right where she needed to be.


    I could hear the others talking around me, telling Trinity what to do and how to nurse the babies, but I couldn''t actually understand a word of it. I was too enraptured by the beauty of my little girl''s face.? While I watched her sleep in my arms, I used just one finger to trace the curve of her soft cheek. Her face was so tiny that my hand seemed sorge inparison. I just wanted to protect her and take care of her forever. I knew what every father had ever felt for their daughter now. Just looking at her melted my heart.


    I could tell that Rika actually took after me more in looks. Her full head of ck hair was proof of that. I couldn''t see her eyes so I didn''t know whose she had, and they probably wouldn''t be the true color yet anyway. But I could see my nose shape just slightly. I know it was too early to truly tell, but it looked like she favored me more.


    Some timeter, Trinity and I switched off with the babies. I handed her Rika so she could feed our little girl and she handed me Reagan. The nurses were still there to help her with feeding the baby while I watched our son''s sleeping face.


    I rocked Reagan slowly while gently patting his back. Just like with Rika, I traced the curve of his tiny cheek. He may be bigger than his sister, but he was still tiny. And I wanted to protect him as well. He may be my son who would most likely grow to be a strong warrior, but for now he was my tiny little baby that needed his daddy.


    And looking at his dark brown hair I could see that Reagan most likely took after Trinity. That was cute. They each had one of our hair colors. I just wonder whose eyes they had. And I couldn''t wait to see what their little personalities were going to be like.


    For now though, I was just happy to be holding them and to have them here with us.


    "Isn''t he just the best dad, he''s looking at them so sweetly." I barely heard the nurses'' words as they spoke from behind me.


    "I know, and I bet he is going to insist on celebrating both of their birthdays. Since one was both before midnight and one after."


    "I know, they''re even in different months."


    I let their giggles flow over me, not even paying attention to them as I connected with my son.

 Chapter 374 - Reece - My Vow (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 374 - Reece - My Vow (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Trinity and I had those first few moments after the babies were born all to ourselves. She had fed them, and all she wanted to do was hold them now. I could see the love and joy in her eyes as she looked at our children. I couldn''t have been more proud of her at that moment. She was the most amazing thing that had happened to me, and I would never forget that. Ever!


    The problem was, it was now approaching one in the morning, and my Little Bunny was exhausted. She had been exhausted before all of this started a few hours ago. She had gone to bed early to get some sleep because she was so tired, and then the excitement started. She needed to rest now.


    As I got to my feet, setting Reagan into his little bed that the nurses had brought in for us, I saw her eyes droop just a little. She was fighting the sleep, but she would lose soon.


    "Here, Little Bunny, let me take Rika." I saw a shocked look of heartache and loss sh in her eyes when she heard me. "You need to sleep, sweetheart. I will take the baby and let you rest. They will be here when you wake up. We all three will be." I smiled at her.


    "I know, Reece. I know I need to sleep, but I don''t want to let them go. I want to hold them forever." There was a long note in her voice that told me she was afraid of them not being there when she woke up. I know she was still carrying scars from the first pregnancy. This was going to be hard for her, but I would be there to help her with it as much as I could.


    I gently leaned in and kissed the top of her head, a soothing and loving gesture. Following the kiss I pressed my cheek against her hair and took sce from the solidness of her, knowing that he was here with me. That was what she needed to do now as well.


    "You feel me right now, don''t you. I am here, and I am not going anywhere. You can feel Rika right now, the weight of her in your arms and the solidness of her body as you hug her close. You felt the same with Reagan. We''re all here with you, Trinity. We''re here, and we''re not leaving."


    Slowly, as if the tension was melting from her body, I felt my Little Bunny rx just a little.


    "I know, Reece." Her voice was soft and shook just a little. "But even though I see them, even though I can hold them, it still doesn''t feel real to me yet. It''s almost like a dream right now and I am just waiting for the nightmare part of it to set in again. I''m scared, and I''m nervous. I''m afraid to close my eyes and look away from them for even a second. I don''t want to miss something or to have them disappear on me." I could tell that she was close to crying, and that she needed me more than I thought.


    I slid onto the bed next to her, my hip pressed against her so she had that little bit of extra touch to sooth her. My arms came to rest on her back, near her shoulders. With my head still leaning against hers, I was able to look down and see the baby that was sleeping in her arms. We were so close, the three of us were all touching in some way.


    "I know you''re scared, honey. I know you are. I am scared too. I have been since the day you got pregnant. I wasn''t able to save youst time, and that has eaten away at me every minute of every day since. We lost our first chance at being parents, but having Reagan and Rika isn''t like a redo or a second chance for us. They''re not recements for what we lost."


    I watched as Trinity lifted her eyes to look at me instead of our daughter; we were now looking into each other''s eyes instead at the child we had made together.


    "I know that from this day forward, until the day that I pass from this world, I will never forget the first baby that we lost. He or she would have been here, they would have been a few months old by now. They were stolen from us, and we have to wear that scar for the rest of our lives. What that scar will mean for us though, is that we will never once take our children for granted. We will know the fragility of their lives, and we will protect them fiercely. What this scar means for me is that I will do my absolute best to keep any and all dangers away from all of you. I would give my life to protect you all in a heartbeat, but I would rather be there to watch over you all in person."


    I gave her my best smile, letting her know that I was trying to be supportive, and even with the things that I was saying, this was hard for me too. I wasn''t done though, I needed to keep going.


    "What this scar means for you, Trinity, is that you will be a great mother. You will love our children with all of your heart. I know that you will put them first in everything. They wille before you, before me, before our friends and family that are waiting to meet them. These children, and any other children we have in the future, will never want for love from either of us."


    I smiled as I saw the way she was looking at me. I know that look meant she was agreeing with me. She was going to love them too much at times, but that was impossible.


    "I know that I am going to have to remind you over the years to take care of yourself and to do things for yourself. That''s OK though. We will both be dedicated to our children and to each other. We will be a strong, loving, and happy family."


    I rubbed her back a little and pulled her just a little closer. I wanted her to know that I meant every word that wasing out of my mouth, that I wasn''t just cating her, and for that she needed to feel the emotions flowing from me and into her. She needed to know how strongly I felt about this.


    "Whenever you are scared, whenever you are worried about something, Trinity, I want you toe to me. I want you to tell me what you are feeling and share that burden, no matter what it is. I will do the same for you. I will protect you and our children from harm, but that is physically. I need you there for the emotional shield as well. I can''t do that part without you. You and I are both pirs in this life of ours. It may seem shaky and scary right now, but hold on tight to me babe, and I will make sure that the foundations are strong."


    Trinityughed then, like she was finding everything too funny to hold it in anymore.


    "Fido, I love you." She giggled.


    "Yeah, I know. And I love you too." I grinned at her.


    "You know, you didn''t have to go and make that whole speech, I knew most of that stuff already." There were tears in her eyes, but she was smiling nheless.


    "Yeah, I know you knew it, but you seemed to be wavering. So, I thought I should reaffirm it all for you." I kissed the tip of her nose. "You and I became family when we mated, but we shared vows with each other eight months and fourteen days ago." I grinned at the fact that it had been such a rounded number. "Today, we became not just a couple that was mated and married. No, today we brought our children into this world and became a real family. I am a father, and you, Trinity Gray, are a mother. We have three children total, two here with us and one watching over us from the eternal hunt. That child, whoever he or she would have been, is a part of us as well as Reagan and Rika. That baby is waiting for us, but they''re not alone. Your mother and my father are there as well, and together the three of them are watching over us all."


    "Reece." She sobbed a little. "How did I get lucky enough to have you?"


    "That''s something else, Little Bunny, I''m the lucky one. I was such a bad mate in the beginning that I nearly lost all of this. I am the one who should be thanking my lucky stars and the Goddess every day, grateful that I have you and these babies with me now."


    I kissed her lips then, soft and gentle as she nearly started to cry again.


    "That''s enough now." I slid my arm under Rika softly, I managed not to wake her as I slid her toward my chest. "You need to sleep, my love. I will watch over you and our babies. You need to get some rest so that you can take care of them with me."


    "I love you Reece." She smiled, butid back against the pillow that was behind her.


    "And I love you, too. I love you to the moon and back, to the stars and beyond, forever and ever." I grinned at her as I said the slightly childish words. I couldn''t help but say them; they were true after all.


    "I love you to the moon and back, to the stars and beyond, forever and ever." She grinned and mimicked me.


    With that she closed her eyes. She was so exhausted that she fell asleep almost instantly.


    "See that, Rika?" I whispered as I looked down at the sleeping baby. "Mommy was so tired that she fell right to sleep. We need to let her rest for now. How about we go and meet some of your family? Do you think you and your brother would want to do that?" I couldn''t stop smiling. I was feeling so much love for my family.

 Chapter 375 - Reece - Family Is Waiting (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 375 - Reece - Family Is Waiting (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Slowly, so I didn''t wake the baby or my wife, I slid off the bed and to my feet. I wanted to let Trinity get some rest so that she wasn''t exhausted in the morning. This day, since it was after midnight, was our first day as new parents. It was going to be fun and exciting and interesting, I just couldn''t wait for it all to begin.


    I also couldn''t wait to go and show our families our babies. They were still waiting down the hall for someone to deliver some news. How about instead of news I bring babies. That would make them happy, wouldn''t it?


    I walked over to the little crib-like bed that Reagan wasying in. With a little bit of adjusting, and some help from the nearby nurse, I managed to get both babies into my arms and positioned them so that they were sleeping soundly.


    I didn''t want to wait any longer. I knew that everyone was likely tired and eager as they waited for me toe and tell them what was happening. I walked softly from the room, not wanting to jostle my children as I moved down the hallway.


    I saw that the group of family members that were waiting for us were all still awake. They were slouching and sitting asfortably as they could in the cramped space. That is, until Mom saw me walking toward them with the special deliveries in my arms. That was when she started jumping out of her chair and screaming for joy. I could hear her from down the hall.


    "Oh my Goddess, oh my Goddess!" She was bouncing up and down, and everyone was turning to look in the direction she was looking. "They''re here! The babies are here!"


    When I got to the door of the waiting room, it was already being pulled open, and Mom was covering her mouth with her hands to muffle her screams of joy as she continued to bounce around. When I was in the room, she took her hands from her mouth and started to cry, her hands pping beside her like she was a crazy bird.


    "Reece! Oh my Goddess, Reece! They are so beautiful! Oh my Goddess! My grandbabies! My first ever grandbabies!" Mom was almost sobbing as she stared at the babies with a smile on her face.


    "They really are beautiful." Eve was crying as well, hugging Wesley''s side as she smiled at the babies.


    With a smile, I looked at them all, all their happy and proud faces. It was time to introduce the babies.


    "I would like you all to meet my children. This is Reagan." I turned a little so that the baby that was resting in my left arm was closer to them all. "He was born at eleven forty six and weighed five and a half pounds. He was also twenty-two inches long." I smiled at my son as I said these words. Then I turned just a little so that my daughter was closer to them. "And this is Rika, she was just shy of five pounds and was eighteen inches long. She was born at twelve o-six."


    "Wait? What?!" Mom and Eve spoke at the same time. They had caught what I had said.


    "They have different birthdays?" Riley asked, having noticed as well.


    "That they do." Iughed. "They already fight so much that they couldn''t even agree on a birthday."


    "That is too precious." Mom smiled.


    "Now we just get to celebrate twice every year. We will make sure they each get a special day." Eve was grinning as well. They were definitely grandmothers, and they thought so much alike already.


    "Can I hold one of them?" Mom asked me, there was nervousness in her voice like she thought I would say no. "I know Eve and Wesley are their grandparents as well, but they''re my first grandbabies." Mom was crying again as she looked at the babies.


    "I think it would be best if you held them first." Eve nodded at her. "We already have two other grandbabies, so we know how you''re feeling." There were tears in her eyes as she said this.


    "Thank you." Mom squeezed her hand for a second then came closer to me.


    With gentle and slow movements, she lifted Rika from my arms and pulled her close to her chest. I could tell that she was overjoyed at the moment, we all were.


    "Hey there, Rika. I''m your L L." Mom had apparently been nning out this moment for a while, she even had her grandmother name all set and ready to go. "You''re so beautiful. Such a sweet little girl."


    I watched as mom stroked Rika''s tiny cheek gently for just a moment. After a second, my view was blocked by someone that was almost as tall as me. Riley was standing in front of me, a huge grin on his face.


    "I''m proud of you, Reece. You did good."


    Riley pulled me into an awkward hug then, doing his best to avoid the baby. He was still pping me on the back though, and I felt the love of a brothering off of him. When he pulled away, he slipped Reagan from my arm and held him securely.


    "I have to say, there was a point when I thought this day would nevere. I''m d you can experience this moment, Reece. Family is a blessing, and I know you will be a good dad."


    Now that both of my arms were free, it was time for the others to congratte me as well. Samuel, my Little Bunny''s grandfather, came up to me first. He gripped my hand firmly and shook it for just a second before pulling me into a tight hug that, quite frankly, surprised me.


    "I''m proud of you as well, boy. And I couldn''t be happier that my granddaughter has you in her life. Thank you for being there to protect her and to give her this wonderful family." I was almost at a loss for words at the sudden closeness from the man, but I managed to recover a little.


    "Thank you, Samuel, I am d that you are here with us, and that we all share a love for Trinity and these babies." I smiled at him, not knowing what else to do.


    When Samuel walked to the side after the hug, Noah came up to me next. He was grinning at me, and he looked like he had been crying. He had been my best friend for years, and he was my wife''s brother of sorts. There wasn''t someone that we could get that was closer to the both of us.


    "Reece." He pulled me into a hug, his arms tight around me. "I still can''t believe it sometimes. My best friend married my sister. I have loved and cared for Trinity for her entire life, and you and I grew up together. It''s hard to find two people that mean more to me besides my wife, children, and parents. It may irk me sometimes to see my baby sister with you, but I couldn''t have chosen a better man for her."


    "Thank you, Noah. You''re like a brother to me as well, so marrying Trinity just made that real for me."


    After Noah left me, Eve and Wesley came to me. They were thest of Trinity''s family that was here, aside from Carter, who was too far away and with his newborn son and recovering wife. I saw the happy tears that were still filling Eve''s eyes and the proud look on Wesley''s face.


    "Thank you, Reece." Eve hugged me, her arms wrapping around my waist and her face pressed to my chest.


    "You''re the perfect son-inw." Wesley added as he hugged me as well, adding to the pressure of his wife''s arms. I snaked my arms around them as best as I could and hugged them back.


    "Thank you." I grinned. "And thank you for raising the best wife in the world. Without her, I wouldn''t have the lovely family that I have now."


    When the hugs were all given, it was time for the babies to be passed around a little more. Eve held Rika next while Mom held Reagan. After she passed off her grandson for someone else, she came up to me and hugged me as well. She didn''t say anything, she just cried happy tears as she squeezed me tightly. That was all she needed to do though, that said it all for her.


    I was d that everyone got to meet the babies. And tomorrow they coulde and congratte the mother, after she had gotten plenty of rest that is. This had definitely been the best day, well days, of my life!


    After the visit was over, I took the babies back to the room and put them in their little beds. I knew that they would need to eat soon, and that my Little Bunny would be waking up. After their next meal, when she went back to sleep, I would get a nap in. I wasn''t going anywhere though. This was my life now, they were my life now.


    And, like I promised, I helped Trinity while she nursed the babies when we got back to the room. After they were fed, burped, changed, and put back to bed for the next couple of hours, I propped myself up next to my wife and closed my eyes, alert for even the slightest of sounds. I was going to help as well as protect. That was my vow, my promise to them all.

 Chapter 376 - Trinity - First Morning As A Mommy (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 376 - Trinity - First Morning As A Mommy (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece had made me go to sleeptest night. He was right that I had been exhausted, but I didn''t want to take my eyes off of our children. All I wanted was to be there for them and hold them. They were so little and so precious that I knew they needed me.


    I listened to him though. I went to sleep. It was broken sleep though, since I had to wake up to feed them every two hours or so. Reece was there to help me. He brought the babies to me, and when I was done feeding one of them he would gently hold the baby against his chest and pat them until they both burped and fell to sleep.


    The nurses had been there to help us as well, but they spent a lot of their time observing us rather than doing anything for me. I saw that they were smiling happily as they did what little they could. I think they were quite proud of Reece. I couldn''t me them though, I was proud of him as well.


    It had only been a little over eight hours since the babies hade into this world and Reece was already proving himself to be a wonderful daddy. I was so happy right now, even with how tired I still was. I couldn''t imagine a better life at the moment. I had two beautiful babies, I had the perfect husband, and I had friends and family that loved me dearly. What more could I want?


    Right now, at almost nine in the morning, I was starting to feed the babies again. They didn''t eat much yet, but I knew that they needed to eat often. And with there being two of them it meant that it would take a while each time. It was fine, honestly, I was just d that I didn''t have triplets like Acacia. And soon, I might even get used to feeding them both at the same time to cut the time down.


    I was enjoying my first morning as a mommy though. It was so much better than I had thought it would be. Even the pain wasn''t as bad as I thought it would be. I know that it probably had to do with the fact that I was a shifter and healed faster than a human, but still it was nearly gone now.


    If someone asked me what I had felt the night before, how it felt to push the babies from my body, then I would tell them about the pain. But, even that seemed like it was hard to remember. I know that it had hurt, and that I had been terrified, but with the joy of having the babies here with me finally it''s like those memories were already fading. I wonder if that was how it was for everyone.


    "So, Trinity, are you ready to get up and move around? Take a shower or something?" Griffin came into the room and those were his first words. "The sooner we get you moving around, the sooner we can get you all home and adjusting to life as a new family."


    "I wouldn''t say no to a shower." I grinned at him. "But, who would take care of the babies while I am in there."


    "What do you think a daddy is for?" Reece looked at me like I had just insulted him, putting on a false air of indignation. "You don''t think I can do it." I watched him pretend to slump over as if hurt or something. "Ugh! You wound me with your words."


    "And you''re overly dramatic." Iughed at him. "I just didn''t think that it was appropriate to leave a puppy to watch a baby." Iughed at him, a little too hard it would seem since the effort caused a slight twinge to roll through me.


    "Just get up and get cleaned, I will take care of my babies." Reece ignored me and walked over to the two little wheeled basss that the babies were in. They were sitting side by side as they slept soundly. I enjoyed seeing them, but Reece and Griffin were right to offer me a shower, I definitely wanted one.


    "Fine." I rolled my eyes as I shook my head. "I will go, but when I get back I want food." I grinned at him. "I don''t know what I want more, breakfast or a shower. So, I want both."


    "That was going to be my next suggestion. And I know Reece has something against hospital food, I don''t truly me him of course but still." Griffin shook his head as he tried hard not tough. "I ordered some breakfast for you, it should be here by the time that you''re out of the shower and back in your room. You can all have something to eat before your stream of visitors show up."


    "You know something, Griffin." I looked at him with a smile. "You''re amazing!"


    "Yeah, I know." Heughed. "Nowe on, let''s get you up."


    Griffin started taking the wires and tubes off of me. I supposedly didn''t need them anymore. The IV, heart monitors, blood pressure cuff, all of it came off. It felt nice to be free of all the medical equipment. I had been hooked up to sincest night, and I had gotten used to them all being there, but I was d they were gone now.


    After I was cleared of unnecessary wires, I was led to a bathroom where I could shower. The room was unlike what I was used to, but of course that was true for just about anywhere I went. The toilet was on the far side of the room and the shower was closer to the door. The shower itself was pretty big since it was an entire corner of the room, but it was like that so physically handicapped people could have assistance when showering. There was a curtain that closed around therge area, but that was it.


    It may have been different from home, but I didn''t care. It had hot water and soap and that was all that I needed at the moment. I let the water get as hot as I could tolerate and let it melt the tension from my muscles while washing away the remaining traces of the night before.


    The nurses had cleaned me up, and I felt good enough to restst night, but there was nothingpared to being fully clean and dressed in your own clothes. That was another luxury thating into this room allowed me. I was putting on my own clothes and not a hospital gown.


    Once I was clean I kept it simple, I didn''t need somethingplicated to wear while here. I just put on a loose fitting nightgown and a pair of fuzzy socks. When I had been packing them I figured people wouldugh at me, but I didn''t care. I was here to push babies out of my hoohoo; if they said anything then they could just kiss my ass. I was going to befortable right now.


    When I made it back to my room, cleaned, dried, and dressed, I could smell the food that had been ordered.Griffin had, apparently, gone all out when ordering food for us. I silently thanked him since he wasn''t here right now and vowed to invite him and Lana over for a nice dinner at the house sometime soon.


    I enjoyed sitting there with Reece and our babies while we ate our food. It was such a normal thing to do that it made me feel like we were really a family now. It was like I was sitting not with just my mate or my husband anymore. Somehow he was more than that now. Reece was different now and so was I.


    I didn''t mind us being different though. I epted it with open arms. This was what I had wanted. This was the next logical step for us to take, even if it was considered a bit too soon for us to be moving on to this stage.


    After we ate our breakfast, it seemed like it was time for me to feed our babies again. Reece sat on the bed with me while I fed Reagan and then Rika. We talked about things that we thought were important at the time. We smiled and weughed, enjoying our first morning with our little ones.


    Soon, though, the babies were back to sleep, and we would soon be visited by our family and friends. Some people, like our direct family members, had seen the babiesst night, but they hadn''t been able to see me after they were born. Now, they were all nning toe see me throughout the day. I know it was going to be busy but it was going to be full of love as well.

 Chapter 377 - Trinity - Family Visits 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 377 - Trinity - Family Visits 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I expected this. The visitors who came to see me were not just one person, but people. It was my mom and dad. It had been a long time now, or it felt like it had, since I had been calling them by those names. Before that they had been my aunt and uncle, but that didn''t mean that anything changed. Not really. They still loved and cared for me the same as they used to, they treated me the same. And I loved them just as much.


    They had literally only been given the titles they had deserved and should have had all along. They were the only parents I knew, and the only ones that I would ever need. And that''s why when I saw Mom''s excited face as she ran into the room, I knew that I was in for a big dose of motherly love.


    "Trinity, my baby." She hugged me tightly in her arms. "I saw themst night, sweetheart, They are perfect. I am so proud of you. I already love them so much."


    "Thank you, Mom." I smiled as I returned her hug. "I love you."


    "We love you too, Trinity." Dad looked at me with a big grin on his face and put a hand on my shoulder. "Now we''ve gotten a baby from each of our kids. Two from you, which is good because now we have a girl." He was grinning. You guys made us the happiest parents and grandparents ever."


    We talked for a while about how having the babies was going to change our lives, and what we might do now that they were here. Of course they offered to watch the babies whenever Reece and I needed them to. They were very generous, but understood that for a while, we just wanted to be a family.


    I also got to just sit there and watch as my parents held the babies. The looks on their faces as they looked into the two tiny faces. Dad in particr was cute to see. What was it about a baby that could make a strong man turn into mush?


    "Hey there, Rika." He was holding his only granddaughter while smiling. "I''m your Papa. Yeah, I''m Papa. I love you so much. I am going to spoil you too. And you have a big brother and two older cousins that I know are going to protect you right along with your daddy and me. We will keep all the bad guys away from you, and all the boys too. You''re going to be so loved and protected. Yes you are." His baby talking was really funny. And he had just casually told my daughter that she was never dating anyone. I think Reece definitely agreed with that. Especially considering that he was nodding along behind them as he watched my dad talking to Rika. Oh, these men, they were so extreme.


    After Mom and Dad visited, Nikki came to see me with Elias in her arms. Of course, Noah was there as well since he was my brother. Nikki was excited to see the babies, smiling and squealing as she tried to get at them as soon as she was in the room.


    "Oh Goddess, Trinity, they''re so perfect." She handed her baby off to Noah and started picking up Reagan immediately. "Oh, baby boy. You''re so cute. I can see already that you take after your mommy. You have the Whitton brown hair."


    She smiled happily then, as she sat on the edge of my bed. I was sitting up and watching her so I saw the huging long in advance and was ready.


    "I am so happy for you, Trinity." She squeezed me as tightly as she could with the baby in her arms. "You are going to be such a good mom."


    Nikki was starting to rant and rave about all the good things I had to look forward to with me being a mommy. I was smiling and looking forward to them excitedly. However, I couldn''t help but notice that Noah was looking at me with a sad expression.


    "Noah? Is there a problem?" Reece looked at him with a worried expression that matched my own.


    "It''s not a problem really." He sighed when he was called out for being upset.


    "What is it then?" Reece asked him, this time with a little morepassion in his voice. Noah was his best friend so I was pretty sure that he was worried about him right now.


    "I just¡­ I mean, it''s¡­ Trinity is all.." He stuttered and stalled several times when he was trying to talk. It almost made meugh when I saw what he was doing, but then he looked at me, and I saw the tears in his eyes. "Trinity was the baby of the family, but now she is all grown up. She has a family of her own. And she married my best friend. It all happened right before my eyes, but it feels like it was a blur. She''s not the sweet little girl that I wanted to protect all the time. That little girl is gone now, and I miss her. But, as I look at her I see the woman that she became. And then there is the fact that I can see so much of her mother in her. I can see traces of my aunt as I look into her face. She would be proud of her too, just like I am."


    "Noah?" I felt tearsing as I looked at him. "I love you too." I smiled and held a hand out to him. He didn''t just take my hand though; he hugged me tightly and sobbed a little.


    "Why did you have to go and grow up so fast?"


    "Remember that, Noah. I am sure you will be saying the same thing about Elias soon." I cried as he held me.


    "I know. I know it happens, too much, too fast. I had to watch as the little girl that chased after me for years grew up into a capable and beautiful youngdy. It was hard."


    "Geez, Noah, you''re only six years older than me." Iughed a little and that made himugh as well. With a smile he pulled away from me and looked into my eyes. There were tears streaming down his face, but he didn''t seem to care. He just smiled and wiped at the ones that were on my cheeks.


    "You shouldn''t be crying right now; this is a happy time for you." He chuckled a little because he knew that he had been the one to cause the tears.


    "It''s a happy time for you too. You''re their uncle now Noah, and you get to be there for them like you were for me."


    "Yeah." Heughed and cried at the same time. "You''re right. And this time, Elias gets to be the older one. He will watch over them as well."


    We spent a little while longer talking and letting Noah and Nikki watch the babies. When it was time for them to leave, Reece and I decided we should have lunch. I had already fed our little ones twice since we started to get visitors, and it was making me feel hungry. Apparently, the more that I nursed them, the hungrier I would be.


    Griffin didn''t disappoint with lunch either. He had anticipated exactly what time I would get hungry. I guess he had been doing this enough times that he knew what to expect. He really was good at his job.


    And the food was amazing as well. Everything that he ordered was something that was simple but delicious. I just wanted to eat it all, but he had ordered more than enough. I was never going to be able to eat all of my food, even with the extra calories that I was burning. Reece, however, had ended up solving that problem. He ate his food, and when I said I was done, he took care of the leftovers.


    It wasn''t anything special, but I think that it was just one of the little things that helped us to work well with each other. I loved him, all of him, and everything that he did for me, and everything that he gave me. My life was perfect, and it was all thanks to Reece.


    After lunch, I felt renewed and rejuvenated. It was like I had the energy to take on everything that I needed to tackle for the rest of the day. Go ahead and bring on the visitors. I felt like I would be able to see about a million of them right now. Even Juniper, who I was told had just gotten to the hospital. She would be so excited and wouldn''t let me half ass this visit at all. I wouldn''t do that though, I would greet her with a smile and tell her how amazing it all was. These two days had been nothing but perfection, and I wanted her to know it was all worth it.

 Chapter 378 - Trinity - Family Visits Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 378 - Trinity - Family Visits Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Juniper came running, well waddling, into the room as fast as she could. She was so excited that she couldn''t have stopped herself even if she wanted to. She was like a ballistic missile that was on a collision course with cuteness.


    "Where are they?" She asked as soon as she had entered the room, Paul was running to try and catch up to her even though he wasn''t hindered by being massively pregnant with twins.


    "They''re over here." I giggled as I pulled one of the two wheeled basss closer to me, and Reece pushed the other to my side.


    "Oooh, they are so cute!" She was cooing at them the moment they saw them. "They make me want to hold mine so bad." I saw tears in her eyes as she watched them sleep. "I want to hold them so badly but I don''t want to wake them either." Iughed at her intensity.


    "I know." Iughed at her. "I am the same way. All I ever want is to hold them when I see them. It''s such a strong desire that I can''t help it." I smiled as I looked at the babies, agreeing with her. "It will be like that with your babies too so at least you know what to expect."


    "Yeah, we will know." Paul grinned at me. "You did great though, Astro. They look perfect."


    After a few moments, Reece and I gently picked up our children and handed one of them to our friends, Rika to Paul and Reagan to Juniper. They both smiled joyfully and snuggled the bundles of joy. They had seen little babies recently because of Cedar and Acacia, so they knew what to expect, but that didn''t make it any easier. And the closer it got to the birth of their babies, the more it would hurt them to put the babies down and leave.


    While we all sat there, Juniper and I talked about future y dates, when all of our babies were old enough of course. We would make sure that they would grow up with each other and have a friend nearby at all times. They would always have someone there they can turn to, be it their twin or their friend. We would remain close friends and hope the same for our kids. Yeah, we were getting ahead of ourselves, but I didn''t care. It was nice nning it all out. I was happy to have all of this happening for us at the same time. It was nice to have someone to share it with.


    After Juniper and Paul left, Cedar and Acacia came. They didn''t bring the babies, which was understandable since they were only thirteen days old, and they were triplets. They were even smaller than our babies. I didn''t even expect them toe and visit us just yet. I thought they would wait a week or two ande to the house. It was a lovely surprise though, and I wouldn''t trade it for the world.


    "Trinity!" Acacia screamed as she came into the room.


    "Casey." I called out to her.


    "I can''t believe it! You had them on different days. That is so awesome!" She was grinning and bouncing on her feet as she hugged me.


    "I know, they will not have to share the day. That is good and bad. Still, it''s definitely unique."


    "Congrats, Trinity." Cedar leaned in and hugged me next.


    They stayed for a few minutes and talked, but Cedar didn''t want to stay long, and neither did Casey. They wanted to get home to their children, and I fully understood and supported that. Having babies that I could now hold and see, I understood what it was they were feeling. But I had enjoyed talking about the life of having multiple babies at home at once. It was going to be hard, but I was going to manage; I just knew I was.


    The next group to visit was L and Grandfather. They came at the same time since otherwise they would havee alone. When L came in, she looked like she was floating and fluttering with excitement, but when Grandfather came in he looked nervous and scared.


    L rushed to my side and hugged me tightly. She was squeezing me so tight that I was d that I was not a human. If I had I been I probably would have been hurt pretty badly. Still, I know she only did it because she loved me so much and was so happy.


    "Trinity." She started to rock me side to side. "They were so beautifulst night when I saw them, but they are even more gorgeous today. They are perfect and I love them so much. Thank you, Trinity. Thank you, thank you, thank you." I felt her tears streaming into my hair as she spoke.


    "I didn''t really do anything, L."


    "Yes, you did." She grinned as she pulled away. "You held them inside of you so they could grow. That was more than enough. Without you, they wouldn''t be here."


    I watched then as L descended on the babies, fawning over their cuteness. Grandfather came to me after her and hugged me tightly. He was already crying, and he hadn''t even spoken a word to me yet. He was so emotional since I had been kidnapped by my father.


    "Trinity, I am so happy for you. And also so proud of you. I remember the day that you were born. I held you in my arms that night just the same as I held your babies. It was an amazing experience for me. To hold my daughter, then my granddaughter, and then my great grandson and great granddaughter. It''s an aplishment I never thought I would get given the circumstances that have gued our family." He was sobbing even harder now as he remembered the past.


    "I know, Grandfather, I know." I kissed his cheek to calm him down. "But we''re all here right now, and that is what matters. I love you and my babies, and I know you love me and the babies as well. And soon the babies will love you as well."


    "Yes, I love you all." He wiped his tears then, trying his best to calm down.


    "Here, Samuel." L came up to him with Reagan in her arms. "Hold one of them."


    "Yes, I think I will." He took the baby and cradled him. "Hello little man." He cooed at his great grandson with a smile, and he stroked his cheek. "It''s me, your M¨®ra¨ª1."


    "M¨®ra¨ª? I asked him with an eyebrow raised. "As in the Irish word for grandpa? Why do they get to call you a fun name, and we were all stuck with Grandfather?" Iughed at him.


    "Well, I learned to loosen up in my old age." Heughed. "Lessons learned with time."


    "Yeah, sure." Iughed at him. "Sounds like an excuse to me." I joked with him.


    "It is what it is." He smiled back at the baby as he spoke to me.


    After they were there for a while, I thought I was done with visits. I was getting tired too so I thought we would just see everyone at hometer. Nope, I was wrong. Carter came in and visited with Emmalee. She insisted oning to see me. And she did bring CJ with her since it was just the one baby. She didn''t want to leave him, and they weren''t going to stay long.


    When they left here, they were going to be heading to my ce, and we would see them when we got home early tomorrow afternoon. That made me really happy since I hadn''t had much of a chance to get to know my nephew yet.


    During their visit, Carter and Emmalee got to know their niece and nephew while Reece and I got to know CJ. It was a little interesting right now, to be holding a baby that wasn''t mine. Especially a baby that was so small and young that wasn''t mine.


    I loved him though. He was so cute and adorable. Though, given that he was two weeks old as well as two weeks further into the pregnancy, and a single pregnancy, he was a lot bigger than my babies. He was going to be a handsome man though, I could already tell. He was taking after his daddy, but with some cute little features from his mommy.


    Just before Carter and Emmalee left to go back to my ce, I managed to talk Carter into staying for a few days, that way we would see all of them for a little longer. I wanted us to have a little bit more time together. This was going to be a happy time when I first got home.


    And, for some reason, I had a feeling that my family was going to throw some sort of wee home party for me again. Oh well, that was just how they were, and I knew it. I was just going to have to deal with it, whether I liked it or not.


    We ate a really good dinner after the visitors were all gone for the night. I was getting so tired that I was having a hard time staying awake. I was seeing now that the more I fed my babies the more tired I would be. This was going to be a really tricky few weeks until I was used to it. I was looking forward to it though; I was already loving being a mommy. I knew that I could do it.

 Chapter 379 - Trinity - Heading Home As A Family (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 379 - Trinity - Heading Home As A Family (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After another night of having Reece help me feed our babies in two hour intervals, I was a little sleepy but I was still pretty confident that I could manage at home as a mother. Griffin had told us that we could go home just after breakfast, which he had delivered for us again.


    I had heard one of the other patients in the room next to mineining about the fact that we were getting our food specially delivered, and they weren''t. The nurse in the room at the time was trying to exin in a whispered voice that she understood how it seemed unfair; then the nurse went on to exin just who I was and who my husband was. That had been enough. That other patient had been star struck and was calling her family and telling everyone she knew about the fact that THE Reece Gray and his wife were in the room next to hers in the Labor and Delivery department.


    Sometimes I would forget how famous and newsworthy we could be. It didn''t make sense to me honestly. I mean, Reece is really only famous because of his money. His family started hispany four generations ago, and he was still running it now, and like his predecessors he was continuing to improve upon the previous business models. If it hadn''t been for his family''s money, and the sess of thepany under Reece''s control, then he wouldn''t be in the spotlight.


    I know he didn''t like the spotlight at all though; he would rather be a regr person. That wasn''t possible though, considering that he was an Alpha and a celebrity. I could guess now he would want to be in the limelight even less with our children here. He would want to protect them from all of that, and so would I.


    After we finished eating, I got dressed in fresh clothes for the day. This time I was going home and not just sitting around the hospital room so I was going to be putting on some real clothes. It was December, and most people would be wearing warmer clothes right now. I didn''t get cold anymore, not since I had gotten the ability to use ice magic. OK, that''s not true; I do get cold, but it takes a lot to make me cold. Still, to keep up human appearances, we all dressed like humans.


    So, to look like a freshly human mom, you know a human woman who had just given birth less than forty-eight hours ago, I wore warm clothes. Those warm clothes consisted of a pair offortable and soft knit pants that were a dark gray, paired with a loose fitting top so that nothing would press down on me too much. I wasn''t in pain anymore, but I knew that a human woman would be. I also slid on a pair of loose boots, these ones meant for actually walking outside. And of course I topped it all off with a designer coat that Reece had ordered me from Italy; it was cream colored and super soft. Reece slid a soft chocte color hat over my head and down over my ears before I was allowed to say that I was finished. I just giggled at him and rolled my eyes.


    He had insisted on getting Reagan and Rika while I got dressed, and since he is their daddy, I had no problem with it at all. When I was done getting dressed, I saw that he had aplished his task. The babies had been changed and were wearing their new outfits. They were simple since they were so little but they were adorable nheless.


    He had started them with their onesies, a soft yellow for Rika and a pastel green for Reagan. They had a hat, plus little booties and gloves over that matched the onesies they were wearing. Rika had a cute little frilly, lc-colored jacket-like top that went over her onesie and buttoned just at the top. To cover her legs was a pair of tiny little pants that matched the top. Reagan was wearing a jacket as well; his buttoned all the way, though Reece had left it partially undone, and there were no frills on his. It was in but still adorable with its light gray color next to the soft green. The pants that Reagan wore were a solid ck, and the finished look made my new little boy seem like a young gentleman already. I could tell he was going to be handsome when he grew up.


    I was amazed that Reece had gotten them ready so well; I was so proud of him. However, that was when I noticed that the nurses were watching on with big grins, he had obviously had their help and not a one of them was going to say a word. That was fine, he was new to this and still learning just the same as I was. We would learn together.


    We got them secured into their car seats after that. We needed to have them inspected by the nurses as well, to make sure that we knew how to put them in their seats properly before we left. Once we were cleared to leave,and we had my discharge papers, we were on our way.


    I had to be taken down in a wheelchair apparently; ording to Griffin it was hospital policy. I didn''t mind though, it allowed me to hold both of the car seats on myp while Reece pushed the chair. It was a little hard to bnce them at first, but we managed to figure it out.


    L was waiting out front for us, having taken our car home the night the babies were born. She had also brought along fresh clothes for Reece to change into when she visited me, since we had nned for me, but not him.


    I watched as L nearly bounced off the ground in excitement as we got closer to her. Her grin was so bright that I thought it might rival the sun and be reported on the news as some sort of astronomical anomaly. She really was a happy and proud grandmother.


    "Oh,e on, hurry up Reece, we need to get them in the car. Now!" She was impatient.


    "They''ll be fine, Mom." Reece chuckled softly as he whispered to her. "They''re witch and wolf, they''re not going to freeze to death after thirty seconds outside. Geez." I couldn''t help it, I giggled at his words.


    Reece and L each took a car seat off of myp and went to open one of the doors in therge SUV. They ced the seats in the bases that had already been securely installed in the back seat. I climbed in after them and sat between my two little bundles of joy. I wanted to be able to see their sweet faces all the way home. After loading our bags in the back, Reece got in behind the wheel, and L got into the passenger seat. It was time for us to go home.


    Reece usually liked to drive fast. He would weave in and out of traffic expertly and make maneuvers that would even scare an experienced stunt driver. He had his wolf senses to help him with this type of driving so it was usually fine. I never had a problem with it before. I had gone on those drives with him and enjoyed the speed and the danger of it all. I would never admit it to Reece, but I did like it when he let me drive the Ferrari. There was just something really exciting about it.


    That wasn''t how he was driving right now though. He was barely doing the speed limit, and he was being so cautious that several people were going around him. He would make sure that he had such arge and clear opening for his turn, waiting for the perfect timing, and several people were ring their horns at him before he actually turned the SUV onto the needed road.


    Reece was changingnes slowly and cautiously. He was watching everything with intense scrutiny, and if there wasn''t fifty feet or more between cars, he didn''t merge. I thought it was funny. In all honesty, it was really adorable. Reece, my Reece used to be a little speed demon, though he was not so little anywhere at all, but now it was like he was afraid of speed.


    I know what caused it. I know what made Reece go from "Fast and the Furious" to "Driving Miss Daisy" - Reagan and Rika of course. He was driving safe and slow to protect them. He was already such a good father. Though he was doubling our drive time back home. Oh well, that was just more time I got to stare at the tiny little faces on either side of me.

 Chapter 380 - Trinity - Welcome Home (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 380 - Trinity - Wee Home (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I had been expecting this. I really had. So when Reese pulled into the garage, the door opened to a spill people - Emmalee, Nikki, Katie, Heather, Falena, Rawlynne, Lana, E, and of course Mom. I was toldter that Juniper was made to stay home because she was getting so close to her due date, and Acacia was having a hard day with the triplets.


    The women that had been there though had flooded out into the garage so that they could wee Reagan and Rika home. I know they said this was a party for us all, but I wasn''t fooled. This too was a problem with having so many people around you and being in important positions. I didn''t hate it, but it made it so that even going home with your newborn children could be a social event.


    Reece carried the bags inside while Mom and L helped me to unhook the car seats from their bases. There were ten women aside from myself in the garage and half of them were experienced mothers. They showed me what it was that I needed to do and helped us all get inside.


    After we were inside, we walked to the main living room that we used as a familyroom. It had been decorated with balloons and banners that said ''WELCOME HOME TRINITY'', ''WELCOME HOME RIKA'', and ''WELCOME HOME REAGAN''. There were snacks and easy to eat foods ced around and drinks such as juice and water sitting at the ready.


    Someone had thought ahead and brought in a pair of basss for us toy the babies in while they were sleeping. Reece and I worked together to get Reagan and Rika out of their seats and into our arms.


    The change in environment seemed to already be too much for them, and they both started to cry at almost the same time. It was also getting close to their mid-morning meal. Reece and I worked hard to calm them down, soothing them and patting their backs. The bad thing was that along with the women in the garage there were all their mates and more for the men: Dad, Grandfather, Noah, Carter, Vincent, Shane, David, Griffin, Riley, Jackson, Devon, and Trevor. All those people, or at least most of them, had been parents before and wanted to give their input on how to sooth our children. I was just d that we managed to get them calmed down quickly so that they didn''t have to keep trying to ''help''.


    "I think they want their next meal early." I smiled at Reece. "I am going to take them upstairs to feed them. You stay down here with everyone."


    "Are you sure you don''t want my help? I cane with you, you know." He looked worried, and a little afraid of being left out.


    "I am fine Reece. We won''t be long; I wille down as soon as we''re done."


    "Do you want me toe with you?" Katie offered. "I haven''t gotten to see them yet, and you might need another pair of hands until you''re used to juggling them." She was smiling sweetly and she, thankfully, hadn''t been one of those that had been trying to be helpful a moment before.


    "Thank you, Katie, that would be nice."


    Together the two of us went to the nursery that Reece had prepared for us. Her eyes went wide when she saw it.


    "Oh wow! I bet this cost a pretty penny to have designed and remodeled."


    "Actually, Reece designed and remodeled the whole room. He did it all by himself. He was even going to make custom furniture from scratch, but I put my foot down for that one. He''s not a carpenter, and it wasn''t going well." I giggled as I sat in one of the gliding rocker chairs he had gotten for us. Katie sat in the one next to me with Rika in her arms.


    "Really? Oh my Goddess, that is some amazing talent that he has. This is phenomenal."


    "I know, I was so proud of him for this."


    I was already pulling down the shoulder of the loose top so that I could feed Reagan. This may be a different ce and in a different situation with no nurses here to help me, but I was used to it by now. I was able to get the babiestched quickly most of the time, and they eagerly ate their food that only I could provide for them. That alone made me feel so needed.


    After a few minutes Reagan had eaten his fill, which was still less than I ever thought it would be. I ced him on my chest and burped him gently. When he was sleeping soundly, Katie stood to switch babies with me. She handed me Rika whom I tucked into the crook of my arm opposite of Reagan; then she took Reagan and sat back down to rock gently in the chair. I repeated the process for my daughter that I did for my son. After a few minutes, I burped her, and they were done eating.


    I wanted to change their diapers as well, I knew they needed that, and it would be best to do it while I had someone here to help. Katie just held one baby while I changed the other. I could tell there was something she wanted to say, but she seemed nervous, like she didn''t know how to start it.


    "Just spit it out, Katie." I giggled at her as I picked Reagan up from the changing table. "You''re dying to tell me something, so what is it?"


    "I noticed you were a little, well, let''s say annoyed when the others were offering their advice. Try not to let it get to you. The same happened to me, and it happens to all new moms. All the baby experts within a hundred miles wille out of the woodwork to teach you how to be a good parent. It doesn''t mean they think you can''t do it; it just means they don''t want you to be overwhelmed. My advice is to let them talk, let their words go in one ear and out the other. Filter it maybe if you want. Catch things that sound important. Other than that, don''t let any of it make you feel like less of a mother. I can already tell, Trinity, you''re an amazing mother."


    Her words made my heart melt, and I wanted to cry, but I couldn''t. I needed to get back downstairs to the party, and I didn''t want to have puffy eyes.


    "Thank you, Katie. I needed to hear that!" I hugged her from the side awkwardly since we were both holding a baby in our arms. After that, we went back to the party that was being held for me and the babies.


    When I went into the room, I saw Reece standing near the firece with Trevor and Riley. One was a cousin that was also like his brother, and the other was a best friend that he loved like a brother. When I saw that they were here, I knew he was going to be spending time with them since they were not around all that often.


    Katie and I went right over to them; since two of the three men were our husbands, it seemed like the normal thing to do.


    "Trinity." Reece seemed happy to have me back down at the party. He leaned down to kiss my cheek and then the top of Reagan''s head. "Hey baby." He was talking to our son, and I thought that baby voice of his was just so adorable. Reece was already a great dad.


    "Hey there, Trinity." Riley came over and hugged me then, but only after Reece took Reagan from my arms.


    "Hey Riley, it''s nice to see you." I hugged back and watched as Katie went to stand next to him. "These babies are so cute. I am very surprised that Reece had anything to do with making them." There was a hint ofughter in his voice.


    "Shut up you f-."


    "Reece!" I scolded him before he could finish the word he was about to say. "Do not use thatnguage while holding our children." His ears turned pink, and he looked embarrassed.


    "I''m sorry sweetheart."


    "Haha, now that''s priceless!" Trevor was shaking withughter. "The big bad Alpha was knocked down by his Luna. Are you gonna go lick your wounds now, Otis?"


    "Screw you, Winnie the Pooh." Reece red at him with his ming cheeks. I could do something to make this better for Reece now too.


    "Oh hush now, Trevor. No fighting in front of my babies. They''re sleeping. Do not wake them up, do you hear me?" Trevor snapped to attention and looked at me nervously.


    "Y..yes Trinity." Now Trevor was blushing, and Riley wasughing at the both of them.


    "See, this is what you two oafs get for being so immature for so long. You need to learn, Alphas or not, women are in charge of us all."


    "That''s right." Katie agreed with her husband just before he leaned over and took Rika from her arms. Riley looked so natural with a baby in his arms that it was kind of sad. I wondered how long it would take for me and Reece to look that natural.


    After that little scene I made my way around the room. I talked to everyone, and of course I had at least one of my babies with me at all times since that was the true objective for them all being here.


    After two hours though, when the babies were getting hungry again, I wanted to call the party to a close. I appreciated them, but Reece and I needed to settle in with Reagan and Rika as a family. It was time for us to adjust to our new lives. Not to mention, I had to take the babies back upstairs.


    Everyone said their goodbyes and left with noints. Some of them, those that were not exactly local, were actually staying in the house, but they went to apletely different part of the house and gave us our privacy on the fourth floor. The good thing about a house this big was that you could have other people here and never see or hear them. It was still peaceful, most of the time.

 Chapter 381 - Both - Nap Time For Mommy (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 381 - Both - Nap Time For Mommy (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Thest few days have been busy. No, that was an understatement. They were hectic and crazy, but filled with love and joy as well.


    I was overjoyed that my Little Bunny had given birth to our babies. I was a daddy, I had to protect and love these tiny little lives for the rest of my life. I was ready to tackle it right away, but Trinity looked like she was exhausted. She had barely gotten any sleep over thest two days.


    When we came home there was that party for her and the babies. I knew about it, but I didn''t n it. Sometimes there is just nothing you can do about mothers; they''re going to be excited for babies no matter what. I am d we were able to make them all leave quickly though.


    For the rest of our first day at home Trinity and I spent most of it in our room and the nursery. She fed the babies and we put them to bed. It was slowly bing apparent that they preferred mommy to daddy, since I couldn''t give them food.


    This was especially so with Reagan, he didn''t like it when I was the one who tried toy him down after his diaper change. He cried and screamed so loud that I thought I had hurt him. The second that my Little Bunny picked him up though he calmed down and went right to sleep.


    I thought it was too soon for them to have favorites and preferences like this. I guess it''s because they were inside of her for so long, listening to her heart beating and the sound of her breathing, she would be what brought them peace.


    We didn''t do much for the first night. My Little Bunny was so tired that she either watched a movie, read a book, or watched the babies in between their feedings. I could see how tired she was though and I thought she should nap.


    "Please baby, take a nap; you need to sleep."


    "I''m fine, Reece." She would grin at me and refuse to go to sleep.


    When the night came and she had to wake up every two hours to feed them it only made her look more tired. By morning Trinity looked dead on her feet. After she gave the babies their midmorning meal and they were tucked away into their basss, I turned to her and red.


    "Go to sleep, now." I ordered her.


    "No, Reece, I have too much to do." She was still refusing to go, even with the bags under her eyes and the dark circles. I could see how exhausted she was but she wasn''t sleeping.


    "No, now Trinity. You need to sleep or you won''t even have the strength to hold Reagan and Rika, let alone feed them." I scooped her into my arms and carried her back to our room. "I can take care of Reagan and Rika. They''re sleeping anyway, they won''t do much right now. They won''t wake up unless they want to be changed or fed."


    Iid her down in the bed and covered her with a thin nket, tucking her in gently.


    "Get some sleep, please." Finally it looked like she might relent since she smiled at me.


    "Alright, Reece. I will take a nap and thene feed them when it''s time. But I am setting a timer so that I wake up to feed them."


    "Fine, sure, whatever." I kissed her forehead. "Now sleep."


    I watched as sheid back and fell right to sleep. She was exhausted and needed this nap. I''m d I made herydown. I crept quietly out of the room, grabbing the baby monitors on my way. They were video monitors so I could watch the babies from anywhere in the house right there on the screens. I could hook it to my phone too but then I could only have one video up at a time. This way I was able to look back and forth without needing to switch a screen.


    I went to the kitchen for a bottle of water and ran into Trevor. He was having ate breakfast and smiled when he saw me.


    "I can''t believe this change in you, man." He shook his head a little.


    "You didn''t think that I could be a good mate or dad?" I was confused by what he said.


    "No, I knew it was in there, buried deep. But it was buried so deep that I didn''t think you would ever find the right girl. I''m happy for you, man." He abandoned his sandwich and came to give me a one armed bro-hug. That''s what he called it anyway.


    "Thanks? man." I smiled. "I couldn''t be happier."


    I talked with Trevor for a minute but I needed to get back upstairs soon. I know the babies were sleeping but I wanted to get their clothes ready for when they woke up. I nned to have them changed and fully presentable for their mommy by the time she woke up.


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    My rm went off right when I had it set for. I did feel a lot better than I did before Iid down. I guess Reece was right to make me take a nap. If I get too tired then I am no good to anyone: not myself, not Reece, not our babies.


    I guess Reece was just telling me that I needed to take care of myself as well as Reagan and Rika. With that thought in mind I went into the bathroom and took care of a couple other necessities before I went across the hall to the nursery where Reece was waiting with Reagan and Rika.


    There was an extra bounce in my step now as I walked, the extra energy the nap had given me was making me feel giddy. I still couldn''t wait to see my babies though. They were going to be the light of my days from now on.


    I heard something that made me pause right before I got to the door for the nursery.


    "Ahh! Come on, don''t do that." Reece was sounding so panicked for some reason and one of the babies was crying. Fearing what might be happening I grabbed the handle to the door and rushed inside.


    The first thing that I saw was Reece standing next to the changing table. Reagan wasying on the table being changed and he was crying loudly. Reagan''s legs were pulled into him and his arms were pulled against his chest. He was not happy about something.


    While I was rushing over, getting closer to see what the problem was I saw an arc of yellow go straight from Reagan to Reece''s face. My husband didn''t manage to avoid it in time and he got sprayed for a second before he ducked and put a cloth over Reagan''s little shooter.


    I couldn''t help it, I had tough. It was hrious, Reece had just gotten a face full of baby pee.


    "I''m d you think it''s funny." Reece grumbled. "Reagan really doesn''t want to let me change him right now."


    I went to my mate''s side stillughing and assisted him in changing our son.


    "Go get cleaned up." I told him as I put the diaper on the baby. "I need to feed him anyway."


    "Yeah, I need a shower." He grumbled as he left the room.


    Ten minutester Reece was back, freshly showered with clean clothes. I still had Rika in my arms as she suckled gently for her food.


    "Sooo, what happened?" I tried not tough at him again and nearly failed.


    "I wanted to get them changed, diapers and clothes, before you got back from your nap. I''m just not that good at dressing them or changing their diapers yet. If you or the nurses are there it seems like I am better at it, but the minute I was alone I just couldn''t do it."


    I watched as he hung his head in defeat. He may not be overly happy but he wasn''t letting it get to him, he went and picked Reagan up and held him as he sat in the rocking chair next to me.


    "How are you so good at this and I''m not? We''re both new parents, shouldn''t we be on equal footing here?"


    "You would think that, yeah. But the thing is that I have been around other babies before. I am still learning and most of it is still new, but I have had some practice."


    "This isn''t fair." He cradled Reagan and started to rock back and forth. Reagan however, didn''t seem content. He wiggled his face against Reece''s chest and made a few distressed noises. With a little maneuvering and back patting Reece was able to get the boy to calm down and drift back to sleep. "This is another thing." Reece spoke in a soft voice. "They like you more than me." This time he really did sound like he was sad.


    "That''s not true." I was patting Rika on her back now that she was done eating. "They''re just used to the sounds of me. This world and everyone and everything in it is new to them. That''s all it is, Reece. Give them time. Now that we''re home we''ll be doing everything ourselves with no nurses around. This will give us all time to adjust. You will see, they love you just as much as they love me."


    At that Reagan started trying to find a ce totch on Reece. He had already eaten so I think he just wanted to soothe himself. I got to my feet and found a pacifier that was rmended by Griffin. Reagantched onto it immediately and calmed down.


    "See, they do like you more. They can suckle and soothe themselves with mommy."


    "Yeah, but there''s no safer ce in this world than their daddy''s arms." I cupped his cheek in my hand and looked at him. The four of us were here together. Rika in my arms and Reagan in his.

 Chapter 382 - Trinity - Getting Used To Parenthood (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 382 - Trinity - Getting Used To Parenthood (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I had thought that this whole mommy thing was going to be easy. I thought that I would be able to handle everything that came my way after our babies were born. I was wrong.


    Reece had been partially right. Reagan and Rika definitely preferred me to him, and I was guessing it was because I was the one to breastfeed them. I was the one they got their food andfort from so they started to associate that with me more than Reece. Especially Reagan. He had a thing about women. He liked it when women held him, but cried when most men held him. He could tolerate Dad and Grandfather, or should I say Papa and M¨®ra¨ª, but if Noah, Carter, Riley, Vincent, Shane, or David tried to hold him, he would scream.


    We have been home for two weeks now. Two weeks of very little sleep and babies that cried when I put them down or handed them to someone else. The babies didn''t seem to mind Mom or L, oops I mean Nona and L. Rika was a lot more easygoing than Reagan was, but she still had the people she preferred over the others. She wasn''t as picky I guess, but still sort of difficult.


    Both of the babies had already grown a lot as well. They were eating more and more every day, and it seemed like sometimes I did nothing but feed the babies. Between feeding them both, burping them, then changing them, by the time I was done with the whole process it felt like it was next to no time at all until they needed to be fed again.


    I was also starting to get worried about Juniper. I hadn''t heard anything about her in a few days, and I knew she was going to be going intobor anytime now. So on top of the new life as a mom, I was stressing over my best friend which wasn''t helping me at all.


    Mom came over often to help me with Reagan and Rika, but she also went to visit Carter and Emmalee from time to time since CJ was born just before my babies. She also spent time with Elias, and then she also needed time that was just to her and Dad. She was definitely busy.


    I was definitely feeling exhausted now though. And I was listening to what Reece said and taking naps while the babies slept. I felt like I was living in an alternate reality where the life I knew and the life I had were not the same at all. I ate my meals at irregr times. and I slept in broken patterns.


    Honestly, I was d that I did have someone here to help me. If I didn''t have someone to help with burping and changing one baby while I started to feed the other then my time with them would take a lot longer. I could just imagine how much of a handful they would be when they got a couple months older.


    Mom came into the room when I had just sat down with Reagan, I always fed him first because he was the most impatient of the two of them. I know that I was looking a little weary and Mom could tell.


    "What''s the matter, sweetheart?" She asked me as she sat next to me, no baby in her arms. "What''s wrong?"


    "Nothing." I smiled for her and then looked down at the baby in my arms.


    "I don''t want to hear that. I know you and I know something is wrong, and it looks like it''s more than just you being tired."


    "I am tired, Mom." I grimaced at her. "I''m very tired."


    "I know you are, baby. I know you are. All new moms get tired, especially when they have multiples. But what else is wrong?"


    "I just thought it would be easier. I didn''t think it would be this hard to be a mother." I felt that I was about to lose control of the emotions that I had been holding back for thest few days.


    "Having kids isn''t easy, honey. They''re a lot of work. They take a lot out of you every day. But you know what? They''re worth it. When you look into their little faces, when they hold your finger, when they fall asleep because it''s you. Or when they''re older and their eyes light up to see you, when they smile, when theyugh. When they learn to crawl, when they learn to walk and then when they run to you for a hug, it''s all worth it."


    I felt the tearsing now, they were flowing slowly down my cheeks as I listened to her talking.


    "Mom?" I cried out her name and she hugged me and Reagan tightly. "I..I..I just feel like I''m not good enough. If Reece hadn''t made me then I wouldn''t have taken naps while Reagan and Rika were sleeping. But even though he says I should take them, and I know I should, I still feel guilty for abandoning my responsibilities. I just don''t know what I should do half of the time. I don''t know why but I just feel sad."


    "That''s normal, honey. It''s fine. A lot of women go through that. It''s alright. We can work through this. We''re all here for you."


    With Mom''s prompting, I told her everything I was feeling, and then we worked on a n of action that would help me to work out how to do all of this. I know that I needed to ept help and not try to do it all on my own, but that was hard for me too. I was used to being the one to get stuff done. I didn''t want to make someone else take care of my babies for me. That wouldn''t be right.


    Reece came to see me on his lunch break. He was still on leave from work technically, but they needed him for something important so he was going in for a few days this week to sort it all out. I told him some of the changes I was going to make, which included me pumping some of my milk so that he would be able to bottle feed the babies and help out more. He liked that idea and was excited to feed them himself.


    I also got a call around six that night. It was from Paul and his voice was frantic.


    "Juniper is inbor. We''re heading for the hospital now. Don''te tonight. I know it will be hard on you. You cane and see her and the babies tomorrow, or when we''re home." He was out of breath when he was done talking, like it was physically exhausting to just tell me what he had to say.


    "Keep me posted, please. Text me updates and pictures of the babies. I can''t wait to meet them."


    I was excited. My best friend''s babies were almost here. And only fifteen days after mine too. That made eight babies in four weeks, the pack sure was growing pretty fast now, wasn''t it?


    I spent the rest of the night frantically waiting for updates and feeding the babies. I was so nervous that Reece made me leave the room and get dinner with him while the babies slept. He said I needed a distraction. This was actually the first time I had even gone downstairs in two weeks. I hadn''t left the fourth floor since the party the day we got home. That was pretty silly of me, but I didn''t think that there was anywhere else that I needed to be.


    Abigail was excited to see me and hugged me tightly. She was happy that we were a family, and she was loving cooking for us again now that I was home. She said that everytime we left she was lonely. I didn''t like to make her lonely, maybe I shoulde and see her more often.


    That was when it hit me. Most of the staff hadn''t actually met the babies yet. I was a very baddy of the house. I had been neglectful. And when I pointed this out they allughed at me. Every single one of them from the maids to the cooks, even Peterughed at me. They thought it was funnier that I was upset than the fact that they should have been introduced already.


    I don''t know why, but just that little trip down the stairs made me feel better. I think I was going stir crazy from being in just those few rooms. Yeah they were big but they also only had so much to offer me. I needed to see more, go to more ces, and see more people. I think theck of people was what was getting to me. I had the bed rest followed by isting myself after the babies. I needed to be with people.

 Chapter 383 - Trinity - Gabriel’s Findings (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 383 - Trinity - Gabriel¡¯s Findings (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I got the pictures from Paul, their babies had been born. Rowan and na were here and doing great. Rowan was just under six pounds and was neen inches long, na was five and a half pounds and eighteen inches long.


    I went the day after they were born to see them. I left Reece at home with the babies and went with Cedar to see Juniper at the hospital. I couldn''t stay long since I needed to get home for the babies. I was going to start pumping today so that I could store milk for feedingster in the day. It would also allow Reece to feed the babies and bond with them too.


    While I was at the hospital though, I hugged and congratted Juniper and Paul. They had made two beautiful babies, and I knew they were going to be a happy family. We also made ns to get together for Christmas or New Years, whenever it is that Juniper was feeling up to it.


    That made me think about the fact that we were going to have our first Christmas with the babies soon. It was just eight days away, and I hadn''t gotten anything for them. I needed to leave earlier now and stop at the store. I know they were too young for gifts so I just wanted to get a special Christmas ornament for them. Something tomemorate their first Christmas with us.


    I found some that were perfect. Baby''s first ornaments in the shape of snowkes that were made of crystal and stained pink and blue. There was also one that said our first Christmans and had a ce for a photo. I bought that one too. I wanted to get a family picture taken soon and put it in there.


    When I got home, I decided to hide the presents from Reece; he could be the one to open them for the twins on Christmas. I think that would make him happy, to open the first present that our babies would ever receive. They were easy to wrap as well, all I needed to do was put them into a few gift bags and then put them under the tree with everything else.


    I was making more of an effort not to hole myself up in just the one part of the house. I was trying to live in the house with Reagan, Rika, and Reece and not live in our rooms. So, when I was done with the gifts, I went upstairs to get the babies with Reece. We went to the living room where we usually sat as a family, and that was where I nursed the babies. This was our family home, and we were wolves. We were supposed to have no shame, or that was what Reece had told me when suggesting that I breastfeed in the other parts of the house.


    I was worried about the staff at first, but then I thought about how most of them are like family anyway, so I got over that really quick. Even Vincent, who was guarding me today, didn''t seem to be embarrassed by the fact that I was nursing out in the open. Then again, he had his fourth kid on the way and probably saw it as normal by now.


    I was just getting started with Reagan when Gabriel came in, asking if he could speak to me.


    "Queen Trinity, I have important information for you." He knelt in front of me and put a hand against his chest. This was a formal meeting that he wanted. And to think, Reagan justtched on.


    "You can rise and speak, Gabriel." I instructed him.


    "Thank you, mydy." He stood and finally saw what it was that I was actually doing. "Oh, would you like me toe back?"


    "It''s fine Gabriel, just tell me the information that you have." I smiled and looked at him while the baby in my arms continued his meal.


    "W..w..w..well, I..I..I uhm, are you sure you don''t want me toe back, mydy?" Gabriel wasn''t looking at me. This was the reaction that I thought most of the house was going to have to me feeding my babies in the open.


    "Is there a problem, Gabriel? Does the Queen feeding the Prince make you ufortable?" Vincent eyed the man and spoke in a matter of fact tone.


    "No, no it''s not a problem. It''s...it''s just life. Natural." I could tell when I first met Gabriel he was not used to a lot of things in the world, but they still breastfed babies back when he was a young man, he should remember that. Was he getting used to this new life and somehow was bing embarrassed because he wanted a mate himself? I would have to look into that moreter.


    "If there is no problem, then deliver the information that you have for the Luna Queen. She is waiting for you." Vincent sounded stern, like he was ordering the man to do his job, which I guess he was.


    "Alright." Gabriel took a deep breath to settle himself before he continued. "As I told you that I would, I have been researching your family history. You wanted to know why there might have been issues during the pregnancy. I am sorry that it took this long to report my findings; there were a few people in your family tree that I was unable to find proper information on. I have looked as far as I could but the trails stop dead. I am truly sorry, my Queen." He hung his head like he was ashamed of himself.


    "That''s fine, Gabriel, just tell me what you know for now."


    "As you wish."


    I watched as Gabriel pulled out a leather bound journal. He flipped it open to a certain page and started to read. I searched for your father''s family as much as I could. He was indeed born Gannon Cornelius Edmond in the year fifteen hundred and seventy-one. His parents, Mathilda and Bayard were a witch and a warlock. Their official records were difficult to find as they immigrated from Europe, which was actually where your father was born. They were killed during the Salem witch trials; Bayard was probably the only man executed during that time, and they were perhaps the only true witch and warlock that were put to death during the trials."


    He flipped a page and started to read again. He seemed to have taken thorough notes on this subject.


    "Mathilda Edmond was originally Mathilda Harrow; she was born from Agnes Harrow, formerly Greene, and Boris Harrow. Boris was a warlock, but Agnes was human. Boris, however, was born from two human parents, Chandler and Genevieve. That was as far back as I could go on his side. Agnes''s parents were Lennox and Isabel Greene."


    Another turn of the page, another deep breath as he prepared himself to read again. I had shifted Reagan to my shoulder so that I could burp him and then hand him off to be changed, so I could nurse Rika.


    "Bayard Edmond was born to Caius and Joan Edmond. Joan was originally Joan Lester, and she was a witch. Caius, however, was human. His parents were Rory and Ellen Lester, that too was as far back as I could find for now. Joan Lester was born Joan Young, her parents Turner and Alice were both human."


    "So, I have great grandparents that just mysteriously became a witch and a warlock for no reason? How does that happen?"


    "I am still investigating. I do not n to give up until we can answer that question, mydy."


    "Ok, thank you, Gabriel. I appreciate you looking into this for me. I know that it must not have been easy to locate all of these old records and to trace these bloodlines back hundreds of years. You have done an amazing job."


    I handed Reagan off to Vincent so that he could take him to Reece upstairs. Reece would change him and then put him down for a nap. Vincent also handed me Rika so that I could nurse her now. Just as Vincent was leaving the room, Gabriel started to speak again.


    "I have more information, Luna." I had been busy getting Rika situated so I wasn''t paying much attention. I didn''t notice the serious tone in his voice, and I didn''t see the look he was giving me.


    "Yes, go right ahead." I told him.


    "This information is perhaps even more important than what I have already told you, mydy." I noticed the seriousness this time so I looked up and saw that he was giving me an intense look.


    "What other information could it be? What else did you look into?"


    "I researched both sides of your family, mydy. And in doing so I found something that you truly need to know."

 Chapter 384 - Trinity - Gabriel’s Findings Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 384 - Trinity - Gabriel¡¯s Findings Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Both sides of my family?" I was confused. When Gabriel and I had been talking about this before, I don''t remember him saying that he was going to investigate and research my mother''s side of the family. I thought he was just going to research Edmond and his side of the family. "Why did you check both sides? My mother''s family are nothing, but wolves. There is nothing to discover there."


    "That is where you''re wrong, Queen Trinity. There is something that I discovered on your mother''s side of the family that you should know. In truth, the investigation into that information is what has been taking me so long. I will not give up until I have all the information that you seek. The trail is there, it is just buried."


    "What trail?"


    I felt like the world was about to explode around me. What was he telling me? If my mother''s family was not just wolves, then what were they? Was my family even my family? What am I?


    I felt like I was losing connection for a moment. I was about to spiral and lose all sense of what was real for a moment. But I couldn''t let that happen. I had a family of my own now, a baby in my arms. It was Rika''s warmth and the gentle weight of her in my arms that brought me back to my senses.


    "Shhh." I shushed the baby that was beginning to fuss in my arms. Once she was readjusted, shetched on again and continued her meal.


    I stared at Rika''s sweet face for a few minutes, taking in the cuteness of her little features before I looked back to Gabriel.


    "Alright, tell me what is different about my mother''s family." I nodded at him to let him know that I was ready.


    "Mydy, during the course of my investigation, I found no anomalies on your grandfather''s side of the family. As far back as I have researched they are all purebred werewolves. However, your family began to change a couple generations ago. I followed your mother''s family as I said, and from her I followed her parents. And so on. As I said, going from the line of her father there were no changes, but from her mother there started to be some things that I couldn''t ignore. Your mother''s father, Gordon, died before your mother could meet him. He had married his wife and had a baby on the way when he was deployed and sent to war. He never returned from that deployment."


    I knew all of this. I had learned this much from family stories from Uncle Wesley. He had told me that his grandfather was a man of mystery to everyone, but that he was viewed as a hero.


    "What about him, Gabriel? What do you think was so different about him?"


    "He seemed to have been born long before he met his mate. And a true mating it seems to have been. But the information that I found for Gordon Underhill shows that he was born sometime in the mid eighteen hundreds, though those records are inconclusive."


    "Wait a minute. How is that possible? Wouldn''t my great grandmother have been born around the early neen thirties? How is it that my great grandfather was born almost eighty years before her?"


    "That is what I am trying to tell you. Gordon''s mother, Jazmin, passed on just after the turn of the century. She apparently kept many journals, but I am having a hard time getting my hands on them. The thing is, she apparently met a man when the wolves were called on to assist another race in a war. It was thest time that the wolves had helped them until recent times. The connection between the two races seemed to have died out after that war."


    "What war are you talking about? The only one I know of at that time was the Civil War."


    "The Civil War happened after this one, and this war was not visible to human eyes. It took ce in thest remaining city of the Faerie ne."


    "The Faerie ne?" I was getting more and more confused with every word that he spoke, but I needed to keep listening. I also needed to cover my breast and pat my baby''s back so that I could ease the pressure in her belly.


    "The Faerie ne, mydy, is where all the creatures that are Fae used to live. It was their hidden world away from humans. Thends are still there, however, they are no longer upied by the fae. When the wars started, it tarnished thends and left them scarred and uninhabitable for more Fae creatures."


    "What lives there now, Gabriel?" I wasn''t sure if I wanted to know.


    "Well, the creatures are still considered Fae, but they are the darker versions of them. Goblins, babadook, orcs, banshees, kelpies, Duhan, Fachan, the Dearg Due, the Caorthannach, all the dark parts of the Faerie ne still exist there."


    "I have heard some of those creature names before, but I don''t know all of them."


    "They are not pleasant, and many of them are quite terrifying, mydy. I do not rmend you going anywhere near them." There was genuine fear in his eyes now as he spoke.


    I was trying to imagine what those creatures might even look like, what they might be, when I was interrupted.


    "I will take her now, Trinity." Vincent was reaching for Rika so he could take her upstairs. I hadn''t even realized he hade back into the room yet.


    "Th..thank you Vincent." I handed my baby off to him and made sure? that my clothing waspletely back into ce.


    Once Vincent was gone again, and it was just me and Gabriel, I looked at him and asked him something, something that I needed to know.


    "Gabriel, are you trying to tell me that my great great grandfather was a Fae? Are you telling me that I am not a hybrid, two species in one, but I am in fact a tribrid?!"


    "Yes, my Queen, that is exactly what I am telling you."


    I think my heart stopped right then and there. How could I be part Fae as well? Howe no one knew about this before I sent Gabriel to research it? Where was my great great grandfather now? Who was my great great grandfather anyway? And why couldn''t I find out about this before I went to visit the Fae? Could I have met him there and not known it?


    This was a lot to take in right now. I needed to process it. And I needed to exin it all to my family. They had to know about this as well. They needed to know who and what we really were. This didn''t just affect me; it affected Noah and Carter and their children. This was something that could haverger ramifications for all of us. We needed to figure it all out and quickly before something bad were to happen.


    After Gabriel excused himself and left, Reece came down to talk to me. He slid onto the couch next to me and put an arm around my shoulders.


    "Vincent told me that you have something you need to tell me. What''s wrong, Little Bunny?" I loved it when he called me that. It was the pet name he had for me, and despite everything that we have been through, and all the changes to our lives, that name was still there for me.


    "I found out something pretty bizarre today, Fido." I grinned at him, giving him the first name I ever called him.


    "You can tell me, baby, I am here to listen to you."


    "Well, for starters, we need to call my whole family here for a meeting sometime really soon. This news affects them as well."


    "OK, done. We will do it. But what is it, baby? What is this news?"


    "Well, I am not a half witch and half wolf like we thought." I grimaced at him.


    "OK, then what are you? It''s not like it matters to me. You could tell me you were an alien, and that I''ve never seen your true form that has six arms and whatever else is different. I would still love you for who you are. I didn''t just fall for you because of the sexy little vixen that you are; I also fell in love with you because of the way you think, the way you keep me on my toes, and the way we bicker back and forth. I fell in love with yourpassion, your generous heart, your bright wit and your brilliant mind. I love you Trinity, not what species you''re made out of. You''re my mate, my wife, and the mother of my children. I don''t care what you tell me that you are."


    "I love you, you know that?" I smiled at him after his little speech.


    "Yeah, I do." He kissed me gently. "Now what is the problem? What are you?"


    "I am a tribrid, at least I hope that is all. I am part witch, part wolf, and part Fae."


    "Well, that''s new, and cool. I wish we knew sooner, we could have told Queen Gloriana when we went to visit her." I loved that about him; he really didn''t care that I was not who and what he thought I was.


    "Yeah, I guess we will just need to go back sometime soon. I think she will like that, don''t you?"


    "Yeah, and she will love the babies."

 Chapter 385 - Trinity - Telling The Family (VOLUME3)

    <h4>Chapter 385 - Trinity - Telling The Family (VOLUME3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Well, it took a few days, but we managed to get everyone together for dinner. Carter and Emmalee came with CJ, even Bryce and Bree came so that we could have a Christmas celebration before they all left. That would make it a little easier to handle; knowing we had something fun to look forward to after it was over.


    When everyone started to show up, Reece and I greeted them, each of us holding one of our babies in our arms. It was almost like they had all nned to be here at exactly the same time and were arriving all at once, even those that lived locally.


    Mom and Dad cooed over the babies as they came in like they always did. Nikki, carrying Elias in her arms, did the same. Elias was five months old now, so he was getting curious about everything that he could see in a house. Thankfully Reece had gone overboard and baby proofed the house before Reagan and Rika had even been born. We wouldn''t have to worry about him being hurt.


    When Emmalee came in, carrying CJ in her arms, I couldn''t help but coo over him. He was so cute and made me think so much of Carter. Carter shook hands with Reece and hugged me when he came in.


    Bryce and Bree came inst. The former had a firm handshake ready for Reece, and a hug for me. Not to mention happy grandpa eyes for the babies. They weren''t his grandbabies, but he had gotten that bug, and now he just thought all babies were the most adorable thing in the world. I could tell.


    "Oh my goodness!" Bree squealed when she saw my babies. "They are too precious. Oh, I wish Emmalee would have had twins, they''re too precious."


    "Bite your tongue, Mom." Emmalee snapped at her jokingly. "I love CJ and all, but I don''t want two of him."


    "You''re such a spoilsport for a grandma. Can''t I have a little daydream at least?"


    We allughed at what had happened and went into the other room. I wanted to get the talk over with, I didn''t want to dy it at all. I wanted all of them to know what was going on at the moment. I had made sure that Gabriel was here and at the ready to talk to them all about this as well. It would be a lot easier if he could exin things that he had found as well. However, he would soon be leaving to investigate some more. He wanted to find as many details as possible on both sides of my family. There were two mysteries here that just didn''t seem to add up. This waspletely out of my hands now.


    Once everyone was seated in the living room with the veryrge Christmas tree in one corner and a fire roaring in the hearth, it almost looked like a postcard scene or something. It was peaceful and beautiful. All these families together with the little babies. It was perfect.


    "So, Trin, what did you need to talk to us all about?" Carter broke the silence and grinned at me. "I am going to take a guess that it is pretty important. You wouldn''t summon us all for nothing."


    "Yes, Carter, it is pretty important." I grinned at him and his joyful attitude as I sat on the loveseat, Reece taking his ce next to me at the same time. "You see, I found out something about our family recently. Something that none of us ever knew, I don''t even know if Grandmother knew about it."


    "What does she have to do with this?" Grandfather looked surprised to hear that his long deceased wife was brought into this conversation.


    "Actually, she has a lot to do with it, but not as much as her father." I looked my grandfather in the eyes and held his gaze as steadily as I could.


    "What is going on, Trinity?" Dad seemed curious. "What does my grandfather have to do with this whole conversation? He died so long ago, Mom never even met him." He seemed just as confused as Grandfather did, as they all did really.


    I took a deep breath and looked at all the members of my family that this news was going to affect: Carter, Emmalee, and Cj, Noah, Nikki, and Elias, Dad, and of course Grandfather. However, this was potentially going to affect Bryce and Bree because their grandchild was affected. And then there was L. She was affected because of me and the children that I have with Reece. We were all affected without even realizing it.


    "OK, here it goes. I found out recently that I am not just a half wolf and a half witch like we thought that I was." I looked at them and waited to see if the bulb flicked on for any of them.


    "What else are you?" Carter asked me.


    "What does this have to do with us?" Noah looked confused.


    "They''re not full wolves?" Bryce asked with a shocked face.


    "Of course they are. My wife was a wolf as am I." Grandfather sounded like he had been insulted and needed to correct someone''s wrong opinion.


    "Actually, Grandfather, Bryce is correct here."


    "What?" I heard that shouted by more than one person. Four to be exact: Grandfather, Dad, Noah, and Carter.


    "How is this possible?" Mom was the only one to ask calmly.


    "I am a bit intrigued too." Bree smiled at me. "Though I have no problem regardless.


    With ten sets of curious eyes on me, I took a deep breath. I needed to tell them all that I knew. I needed to do my best to exin it all to them.


    "Well, I had Gabriel do some investigating for me. I asked him to see why I had gotten sick while pregnant. I wanted to know if there was something about me that was hurting my children. So, he looked into my family history, both sides of it."


    "Go on. What did he find?" Carter was impatient.


    "I am getting there." Iughed at him. "It seems that he found an anomaly on both sides of my heritage. He found that on Edmond''s side of the family tree the humans just somehow became warlocks and witches with no exnation as to how that happened. That was the first mystery. Now the second mystery was on Grandmother''s side of the family. Everything checked out for Grandfather''s family. But when Gabriel was looking further for the other one, he found something that didn''t add up."


    "What? What did he find?" Dad was on the edge of his seat now. It was kind of funny to see him act like a child.


    "I think it will be best for him to exin it all to you." I gestured for him toe forward then.


    The man in question came forward and stood before the group. He looked at them all in turn, taking them in and nodding his greeting. Finally, he was ready to exin it to them. He told them all exactly what he had told me the day before. How Fae blood was mixed in with our wolf blood, though he didn''t know where it came from yet. Then he assured them all that he was going to keep looking into it all until he found the answers that we all needed.


    After the exnations were given, he gave his farewells and left the room in a hurry. I could see that everyone was still in a state of shock. They didn''t think that this was a possibility.


    "So, this makes you a tribrid?" Dad asked as he looked at me.


    "Yes, but this also makes all of you hybrids. You, Noah, Carter, Elias, and CJ. I am not the only one that has the Fae blood. It means that Grandmother and great grandfather were also hybrids. I am a tribrid because of my father. You all only have Fae and wolf."


    "You''re right." Dad breathed the words as if he were awed.


    "Holy shit." Carter seemed to explode.


    "CARTER!" Me, Emmalee, Nikki, L, Bree, and Mom all yelled at him at the same time.


    "Sorry." He blushed crimson red as he was scolded so many times yet only once.


    "I never knew that she wasn''t a full wolf." Grandfather was shaking his head. "I wouldn''t have minded but I didn''t know and I know she didn''t know either."


    Grandfather didn''t seem upset, just surprised. That was good, I wasn''t sure how he would feel about all of this.


    "What does this mean for us?" Noah asked me as he thought about the future. "What does it mean for our kids?"


    "Should it matter? You''ve always been what you are." Nikki smiled at him. "Why should anything change now?"


    "You''re right, I know you are. But there is also the fact that nothing has been normal over thest year. And now Trinity has gone and visited the Fae, that could change things for us. And, now that we know, don''t we have to tell the Queen as well?" Noah was thinking through this in a diplomatic way, which was what a good Beta did.


    "I guess you are right, the Queen would have to know." Reece agreed with him. "However, they are in the middle of a month long Yule celebration that won''t be over until the middle of next month. We will need to tell her after it is over. I, for one, would rather tell her when Gabriel finds out who the Fae rtive was. It is best not to walk in there blind."


    "Agreed, that would not be wise." Bryce nodded.


    The discussion about the heritage went on for a little while longer before we had our dinner and opened presents. It was a nice evening, all things considered. I was just happy that no one got upset about the news. Even Bryce and Bree didn''t seem upset with it. What was done was done, and there was nothing that could be changed. We just needed to ept it.

 Chapter 386 - Trinity - First Christmas (VOLUME3)

    <h4>Chapter 386 - Trinity - First Christmas (VOLUME3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I woke up on Christmas morning bright and early to the sound of Reagan crying. He seemed to want his breakfast early today, and his cries woke his sister, of course. She didn''t want to sleep with her brother crying in the bass next to hers.


    They were in our room right now, only sleeping in their cribs for naps. That made things easier for us right now when it came to night feedings. The only problem is, we needed to go downstairs to heat the bottles before we fed the babies. I think it was time that we invested in a fridge and a bottle warmer for the bedroom. That would make things easier on us. Why hadn''t we done that yet?


    For now though, I was sitting in the corner of the couch holding both babies at the same time. This was easy right now since they were still so small. I didn''t want to have one of them crying for food while the other was being fed. After they had their breakfast, I could go downstairs and get mine.


    I would also try to see if I could pump some more milk out for them, to store forter. That would make night time feedings easier, when I could heat them in the room. I guess it was understandable that I didn''t think about it sooner. I have only been pumping for about a week now.


    Reece ran across the hall while I was feeding the twins. He got them their outfits so that we could get them ready for the day after they ate. He was back before the babies were done.


    "I''ll take a quick shower." He kissed my head and ran into the bathroom.


    When Reece said quick shower, he meant it. I know he cleaned himself thoroughly, but it was like he was trying to get to Nascar pit crew levels of speed for his showers. He came out of the bathroom, cleaned, dried, and dressed, not even five minutes after he left the bedroom.


    "Are they done?" He asked just as Rika started to fuss and pull away from my breast.


    "She is. But Reagan is a little hungry."


    Reece took Rika from me then and started to burp her. Once he had gotten a couple bubbles out he went to go get her ready. He had gotten a lot better at it and was able to move fast and efficiently.


    "Alright, that''s the littledy all done." He smiled and kissed her head as he set her back into the bass while I burped Reagan. I had pulled the top of my cami down to feed the babies so right now he was pressed to just my skin and that contact, that closeness, was what motherhood was about. Reagan was a part of me, and I was a part of him.


    "Alright, since you''re almost naked anyway, you go take a shower, and we will wait for you so we can go get breakfast." He took Reagan from my arms and moved to walk away.


    "Hey." I said, grabbing his arm and sliding to my feet.


    "What?" He turned back to look at me, and I pressed a quick kiss to his lips.


    "Merry Christmas." I grinned at his stunned face and went into the bathroom.


    I tried to hurry through my shower but I just couldn''t. It was so rxing that I needed it tost. When I finally did get out though, I dried off, pulled my hair back, and realized I forgot my clothes.


    I went out to the room, grabbed my outfit I had picked out for today and put it on. Reece was wearing a pair of dark jeans, a green undershirt and a ck button up that was undone halfway. I was wearing a gold skirt with a green undershirt and a red button up shirt that was undone half way. It wasn''t a total matching, but the green undershirt was as close as I could get Reece to wanting to dress up for Christmas ever since the photos we tookst week. He didn''t want to wear anything that festive ever again.


    The babies were dressed in red and green as well. Rika in a cute little green dress with red and white stripes separating the green, in the green stripes were little trees, snowmen, reindeer, presents, and santas. Reagan basically matched, only his outfit was pants and a little button up shirt. They were wearing little red booties, red mittens, and tiny little elf hats. They were just so adorable. I couldn''t help it, I needed to dress them up for Christmas, even if it was Reece who actually dressed them for me.


    We went down to breakfast and found L waiting for us. She was excited for her first Christmas as a L. We ate together and then went to the living room for the presents. There were more under there than I remember there beingst night.


    "Reece? Where did the extra presentse from?" I looked at him, the additions were quiterge.


    "What? Santa must havee for the babies." He grinned at me looking overly excited andpletely guilty.


    "I hope you didn''t go overboard." I red at him.


    "What? Do you seriously think I would go overboard?" His fake wounded routine was so predictable that I justughed in response.


    L did the same this year that she didst year, she gave us her presents first, smiling the whole time. She had gotten me some new clothes, a massage oil that was good for stiff joints (from sitting in the same position while breastfeeding), and some more little odds and ends.


    Reece got a song book full of baby music so that he could learn some lubies, a new cologne, and some other small things. She then gave us an envelope with a card that said she had booked us a trip for our anniversary.


    "I know you won''t want to go for long, so it''s just one night. I will watch the kids, I even told Samuel that he was going toe and help me watch them. I think he''s looking forward to that, he wants more time with them."


    "Mom, we couldn''t possibly go."


    "What about feeding them?" I was nervous just thinking about it.


    "Pump! Get the milk ready. We will feed them. It''s just one night, not even twenty-four hours. And you need to celebrate your first anniversary. Plus they will be three and a half months old by then, it''s not like they will die with one night away from you. They will be fine."


    "I mean, we could." Reece looked at me expectantly.


    "I will make sure I pump as much as I can for that time, in case they need more."


    "That''s fine, do what you need to do. They will be fine though, I promise."


    "Alright." I relented and agreedpletely.


    "Yay! I know you''re going to have fun."


    L also got some new clothes for the babies as well, only they wererger and meant for the summer.


    "I just couldn''t pass them up when I saw them. They were so adorable."


    After that we gave her the presents we prepared for her, which included arge framed portrait that was taken of Reagan and Rika justst week. They were so cute and cuddled with each other. There was also a copy of the family photo we took along with all the other gifts we gave her. I was happy to see the smiles that she had at that time.


    Reece and I exchanged ours next, just likest year. Only this time there were no gag gifts that said Fido or Little Bunny. We got thoughtful and meaningful gifts for each other. Reece was just as sweet and caring now as he always was.


    I handed Reece the three bags that I had prepared for our children.


    "You open them since they can''t." I told him with a smile. When he pulled out the snowke ornaments, L cried out.


    "Those are beautiful. Oh my Goddess, I love them. And look, they even have their names inscribed on them. That''s wonderful."


    Next Reece pulled out the ''Our First Christmas'' ornament. I had taken it out of the bag and put the family portrait in it. It looked perfect now.


    "They''re wonderful." He smiled at me. They will be used every year from now on." He walked over and hung them right on the tree.


    Now all that was left were the two veryrge gifts that he seemed to have gotten for the babies.


    "Let''s see what Santa brought." Heughed and ran over to them. "Want me to open them?" He asked excitedly. It was like he was a kid, and they were for him.


    "Go ahead, you seem excited enough for them."


    Reece ripped the paper off the two presents with a flourish. Now sitting in front of me were those giant ride on vehicles for toddlers. The one for one for Rika was a princess carriage and the one for Reagan was a giant truck.


    "Reece!" I yelled at him. "Are you kidding me?"


    "What?" He looked confused.


    "They''re way too young for those." I continued to scold him.


    "Yeah, now. But they will get older and bigger. They can use them eventually."


    "Yeah, in like three years, which is when you should have bought them. Not now. It''s too soon. Seriously, Fido, I can''t believe you sometimes." L was cackling on the chair while I scolded her son. I couldn''t help it, herughter was infectious, and it was making meugh.


    "But they can use them when they get older." Reece whined. "They are perfect and adorable." He was defending his purchases.


    "Sure they are. Now find somewhere to store them or donate them and buy new ones in two years. Besides, what if Rika doesn''t like princess stuff. That would just be tragic for her Daddy to give her something she doesn''t like."


    That made the color drain from his face. He hadn''t thought about that at all.


    "Call up Vincent and tell him we have presents for Conner and Renea."

 Chapter 387 - Reece - Valentines Day (VOLUME3)

    <h4>Chapter 387 - Reece - Valentines Day (VOLUME3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Things had been going good for the most part. I had been helping Trinity feed the babies and so had Mom, Eve too when she was over. The problem was that the babies just didn''t want anyone to feed them other than my Little Bunny. They were so picky and demanding sometimes.


    I was d now though that they were going a little longer between feedings. They were a couple months old now and they could go up to three hours without needing to eat during the day and sometimes even four hours at night. That made things a little easier on us, specifically Trinity.


    Now, though, it was valentine''s day, and I wanted to do something special for my wife. This was only our second valentine''s day together, and on thest one, I had asked her to marry me. That had been a wonderful day.


    I can''t repeat that day, but I could repeat how it ended. We could have a romantic dinner and some time alone. We even had some milk in the fridge that mom could use to feed Reagan and Rika so that we could get most of the night to ourselves.


    Trinity was all for the nice dinner, as long as it was at home. She didn''t feel up to going out. So, I had a special dinner prepared for us, and we were going to eat it in the srium. This would be nice because we would be in the house, but we would be looking at the outside world.


    I had asked Abigail to prepare all of Trinity''s favorites along with a beautiful heart shaped cake. I prepared a gift for my mate as well, the one and only valentine I would ever have. I just knew that it was going to be a perfect night.


    I walked down to the srium with my date, barely able to keep my eyes off of her. She was wearing a beautiful pink dress that only came down to her knees. It was a strappy little A-line dress with an empire waist right below her breasts. It made that particr part of her look really, really, really good. I couldn''t keep my eyes off her breasts for anything, except for maybe her legs that seemed to be super long and sexy with the ck heels that she was wearing. She was gorgeous.


    "You''re so beautiful." I told her for like the twelfth time since we left the bedroom.


    "Shut up, Reece. You''re making me ufortable. It''s like I''m super ugly, and you just want to convince either me or yourself otherwise."


    "That couldn''t be further from the truth." I was so shocked by what she said.


    "Fine, but stop mentioning it, OK?"


    "Alright." That made me sad. All I wanted to do right now was tell her how sexy and beautiful she was.


    When we got to dinner, she smiled sweetly.


    "It''s been a while since we had a date in here." She was feeling nostalgic now. "I love it in here too. It''s so pretty to see the world around us, especially at night."


    "I know, this is the perfect ce to have a date." I was grinning at her, focused more on her ethereal beauty that the moonlight made even better than on the scenery. "Come on, let''s sit down."


    I guided her to her chair, and pulled it out for her to sit down. I could see the smile on her face, the excitement in her eyes to be on a date for the first time in months. This was actually the first true ''alone'' time that we have had since Reagan and Rika were born. We haven''t been ''together'' as a couple since Trinity came home from the hospital that first time. That was back in October, four months ago. I think it was high time that we had some time ''together''.


    "You look excited." I told her as I sat across from her.


    "I am, this is the first time we''ve done this in a long time. I miss being alone with you sometimes. I love our babies more than life itself, but I love you too."


    "I love you too, Little Bunny. I love you more than anything or anyone, aside from our children. The three of you are pretty much equal there at the top of my list."


    "You''re just a loving person, Reece. I am d that I get to see that side of you."


    I remembered back to when we first started out and how idiotic I had been. And then, I remembered our first valentine''s day, and how I was just so happy that she said that she would marry me. I hadn''t been sure that she would. In truth, I was worried that she would tell me no because of the way I had treated her.


    Once I stopped being an idiot, I started showing her that I have loved her since the very first time that I smelled her scent in the woods. That day I was already head over heels in love with her, and I didn''t even know it. My heart was already hers, and all I wanted was to protect her.


    "What are you thinking about?" She tilted her head at a cute little angle and looked at me.


    "You, me, our past together, and how I am the luckiest man in the world that you gave me another chance." I grinned while I answered her honestly.


    "Yeah, I was a saint not to leave you. It was honestly more than you deserved at the time." Her voice held a note ofughter, and I could tell that she was joking.


    "Yeah, it was. I really don''t know how I managed to get lucky enough to have you in my life."


    At that the food was brought in. Abigail was grinning madly as she sat it down for us.


    "Enjoy." She winked at me like she knew what my n was and was offering me a silent congrats already.


    "This looks amazing." Trinity was eyeing her food excitedly, as Abigail went back into the main part of the house.


    We ate our food and talked about random things. More often than not we ended up talking about the babies.


    "Rika has been smiling a lot more than Reagan, but they both seem to be doing it now. It''s so cute, I love their smiles." She looked so alive when she talked about them. I couldn''t believe that she was the mother of my children, and all before she celebrated her twentieth birthdayst month.


    "I know, Reagan seems to be a little bit grumpier than Rika."


    "Yeah, he takes after his daddy more." My Little Bunny wasughing at that.


    "Rude." Iughed right back. We continued on that way until we were done eating.


    When the night wasing to a close, not that we could do too much in just the house, We walked to the bedroom. I was hoping to have some fun this evening; I felt it was time.


    When we got back to the room I sat on the end of the bed and pulled my mate onto myp. I kissed her neck and held my hands against the front of her body. My fingers were already starting to y with her.


    For a brief moment, she leaned her head back against my shoulder and moaned at the feeling of what I was doing to her. Then it was like she remembered something and jumped away from me.


    "Wait." The word came out on a breathless cry as she spun and held her hands up.


    "What''s wrong, Little Bunny?" I could already feel the need for her aching inside of me.


    "We can''t Reece. We can''t do this right now." She looked scared and nervous.


    "Yes we can, baby." I took her hand and pulled her closer toward me. "We can. Just don''t worry."


    "No." She pulled away again. "We can''t, Reece. I love you, I truly do, but we can''t do this. I love Reagan and Rika, but I am not ready to repeat that just yet."


    I was confused for a moment. She didn''t want me because she didn''t want to get pregnant again so soon? Was that what she was telling me?


    "But, Trinity, please..-" I trailed off not knowing what else to say.


    "It''s too soon, Reece." She looked truly sad as well, like she was missing out as much as I was. "I''ll let you shower now, I will take one in the morning."


    And just like that, it was put to a rest. I didn''t know when I would be allowed to touch her again. This wasn''t how I wanted my night to end, but I did as she said and went to take a shower. I needed to do something to calm down my overheated and needy body. I needed to take care of something else as well, and that was best done while not in the same room as she was.


    When I finished cleaning myself up and finally went back out to the bedroom, I saw my Little Bunny sound asleep in the bed, and Reagan and Rika sleeping soundly in their basss. It really had been settled for the night and for a long time to follow.

 Chapter 388 - Trinity - Anniversary (VOLUME3)

    <h4>Chapter 388 - Trinity - Anniversary (VOLUME3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I don''t know how, but apparently time was passing so quickly that it was almost my anniversary with Reece now. I was talking about it at a ydate with all the other babies that had been born recently. Even Shawn and Dietrich were there even though their babies were just shy of a month old.


    The two of them hade home about a week after valentine''s day, which conveniently was the day that their babies, all four of them, were born. The both of them had gone intobor on the same day. Only those of us in the know knew about that though; the pack just thought that they had used a couple of surrogates in Germany, and that''s why they were gone. They had two boys and two girls: Alexandria, Alyssa, Levi, and Luka. They were all so adorable. The girls were identical twins and so were the boys; however, they each carried one boy and one girl. I just love the way that magic works.


    Also, you would never know that either of them were pregnant. The same went for all of us. Acacia had triplets and not a stretch mark or ounce of extra fat, all of us. The only ones who weren''t here were Falena who had her baby two weeks ago, and Lana who was about ready to pop any time now. The only other baby that wasn''t here yet was Jackson''s, but his wife, a bear shifter named Melita, wasn''t due until June.


    A lot has happened over thest year. Counting Noah''s baby, there were twenty-two babies either here or on the way, since Melita and Heather were both due around June. That will make them all born less than a year apart from each other. I had a feeling that the Goddess had a n for us all, and that was why there were so many children on the way. It was funny, with the babies that were already here, and the ones still toe, there was an even split of how many boys and girls there were too. That was pretty funny if you asked me.


    "So, Trinity, what are you doing for your anniversary?" Dietrich asked me as he held both of their sons in his arms at the same time.


    "I don''t even know. I hadn''t thought about it at all." I could feel the dread settling in on me.


    "You will figure something out. I''m sure that Reece already has a n for you, anyway." Juniper was being supportive for me as she gently rocked both of her babies in the bouncers in front of her.


    "Yeah, you know Reece is going to have something figured out." Acacia added while she fed Ashle.


    "Should I rely on that, though? I mean, what if he doesn''t do anything?"


    I was worrying about it a lot since it was the first anniversary. Plus, would I be able to really do anything? I mean, we have the babies that I have to be here for.


    "Wait a minute, L gave us a card at Christmas that said something about a night away. It was for our anniversary."


    "There you go."


    "That''s all set then."


    "Lovely of her to think ahead."


    "That''s good news." Acacia, Juniper, Dietrich, and Shawn all answered sessively.


    At that, there was a knock at the door to the yroom we were using for the babies. I could already tell that it was Shane.


    "Come in." I told him.


    "Hello Trinity." He smiled at me. He had been in a good mood ever since his son was born. "Shawn, I see you''re still taking time off of work. Are you ever going to get back to your responsibilities?"


    Shawn looked down at the two little girls in his arms and the two boys in his mate''s arms then looked at his brother.


    "I thought I was taking care of my responsibilities. Besides, I may have my children here with me, but I am still able to defend the Luna. I would need to fend off an attacker to keep her or my children safe, anyway."


    "Yeah, yeah." Shaneughed, he had been joking and we all knew it. "The kids are just as cute as ever. And it''s funny, they look nothing like their surrogates whatsoever. All I see are you and Dietrich in them. That''s wonderful." Shane grinned andughed. "I''m d that our kids are so close in age. Kaiden will have lots of kids his own age to y with just from you and Dietrich."


    "What did you need, Shane?" I asked him with a slightly stern look, I didn''t want this to turn into a twin fight.


    "Yes, sorry Trinity, Reece would like to talk to you soon. If you would like to head upstairs we can go see him now."


    "Yeah, I can. I guess we''ll call this ydate over for today. Maybe Falena will be here next time." I smiled at Shane, and he nodded.


    "Definitely. She just wanted to wait until Kaiden was a little older.


    I held both babies in my arms as I followed Shane from the room. They were not that easy to carry together since they wanted to move and do everything opposite of each other. They definitely were like those twins that were in sync with each other.


    I followed Shane all the way to the office that I technically shared with Reece, even though I hadn''t been in there in a long time. When we reached the door Shane just opened it and went right inside.


    When I went into the room, I saw Reece sitting behind his desk doing some paperwork with a serious expression. The moment he looked up at me he smiled happily and stood up.


    "Hey, honey." He came to me and kissed my cheek while taking Reagan from my arms. Reagan was bigger and therefore the heavier of the two.


    "You wanted to talk to me?" I raised my brow at him.


    "Yeah,e on, let''s go upstairs to the nursery. I''m going to guess that they need to eat soon." He was right, it was getting to be that time now.


    Now I was following Reece up to the nursery where I was going to feed one baby while he used the bottle to feed the other. Once we were seated Reece got started on the conversation.


    "Do you have ns for next week yet?" So this was about our anniversary.


    "Not yet. I let it sneak up on me." I felt embarrassed. I was usually the one on top of this.


    "Well, we have that trip that Mom gave us. I think we should go, like she said you can pump and leave them with enough milk. And if worsees to worst they can use form to supplement."


    "But they''ve never had form." The idea seemed to be too much for me right now.


    "I know, but I meant it as ast resort. I think they will have enough. You''re pumping enough to keep a few days ahead right now. We can afford to have a night away."


    "I..I know. I was just thinking about that earlier. I think we should go too." I smiled at him, and there was nothing but pure bliss in his eyes at my words. He was beyond happy to hear what I was saying. And I had to admit, it would be nice to be alone with Reece, just the two of us. But should I really be excited about this? I will be leaving the babies behind for the night; was that a good thing?


    After the babies were fed and changed I pumped some more milk to start the extra storage supply for L to have on hand. I also made sure that I thought about all the good that woulde out of a night away with Reece. Now that the babies were almost four months old they were able to do more things and could spend more time away from us. They were almost sitting up now, and they were enjoying their tummy time. And it wasn''t like they were going to do something that I would miss. They weren''t at the age for crawling, walking, or talking.


    No, I had to stop debating this with myself. I needed to have this night away. I wasn''t doing anything else for my anniversary because we were always too busy with having a family. I needed to show Reece some attention and not just the babies. I needed to put the same effort into this that I did for our honeymoon. I needed to be a good wife and a good mother.


    With my resolve settled, I let myself start to get excited about the night out. I started nning what I would wear, and what we would do. The ce that we were going said that it came with massages and other amenities that L paid extra for. I couldn''t wait until we left now. I was starting to get excited.

 Chapter 389 - Trinity - Anniversary Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 389 - Trinity - Anniversary Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I woke up early on our anniversary, I wanted to take care of everything for the babies before they could wake Reece up. They were sleeping in the nursery now since they were almost four months old so I turned off both of the baby monitors and crept out of the room.


    I was just settling into the chair with Reagan when Reece came walking into the room. He had already showered and was ready for the day. Apparently, he had known that I was getting up and just took the opportunity to do what he needed to do.


    "Did you think that I was going to let you handle this on your own?" He smirked at me. "Were you trying to take away some of my precious daddy time?"


    "No, I just wanted to let you sleep in on our anniversary, that''s all." I tried not to look too embarrassed as I looked into his eyes.


    "Just because I have the day off doesn''t mean that I don''t want to help take care of my kids. I look forward to these mornings with them. It''s a good bonding experience."


    "I know it is, but today we can''t use any of the milk I have stored away. It''s all for L to use while we''re gone tonight and tomorrow morning."


    "Honey, you have like a week''s worth of milk stored; I really don''t think that it would be that bad if I used one of them for right now." Heughed at me as he went to pick up Rika as she started to fuss in her crib.


    Rika was slowly bing quite the daddy''s girl. She loved me and was just fine with me, but she calmed down the moment that Reece even looked at her or talked to her. She just loved everything about her daddy. Reagan was the opposite. While he would tolerate his daddy and grandparents, he was the calmest and easiest to handle when he was with me. He was mommy''s little boy for sure.


    I loved how their little personalities wereing out as well. Rika was so calm and content most of the time; she was always smiling and giggling. Reagan was usually a grumpy little boy, that is unless he was with mommy, and then he was all smiles. He had also given Reece more than that one shower right after we came home. It was like Reagan was making it his mission to pee on Reece anytime that he changed him. He never did that for me though.


    Reece sat down in the rocking chair next to me. He must have consented to what I was saying about not using the milk because he was just rocking Rika in his arms and making cute little faces at her.


    For the rest of the morning routine, I fed the babies, and Reece burped and changed them. While he was taking care of Rika, I left the room for my shower and to get dressed. I also packed a bag for Reece and I for tonight so we could leave when it was time.


    We went down to breakfast, and for some reason Abigail seemed a lot busier than usual. I saw and smelled Vincent so I knew he was at the estate on guard duty, but I didn''t see him after that quick glimpse. Noah and Peter were also absent. I didn''t know what it was that they were doing right then. It seemed a little odd, but I didn''t say anything. I didn''t care much right now anyway.


    I took the babies to the living room for some tummy time after breakfast. By the way, they sat in the kitchen with us, strapped into high chairs with toys on the trays so they could work on their hand eye coordination. They were getting so big so fast.


    I could tell there was a lot ofmotion going on outside of the house while the babies were ying. I knew that something was happening, and I was pretty sure it was a surprise party for our anniversary. Given the fact that Reece wasn''t in the house, I could assume that I was the only one who didn''t know about it until today.


    They couldn''t me me for being easy to fool right now. I have had my hands full and my mind upied for months now. First, I was on bed rest, and then I was instantly taking care of twins at home. It was a big adjustment, and I can only contribute my current unawareness to mommy brain. I had read that that was a real thing, and I was going with that.


    Not to mention, through all of this I had been trying to work on my sswork. I was stupid and decided to take two sses this semester. Yeah, I was an idiot. The babies were born right before the semester ended and I did manage to pass it so I thought that I could handle it when sses started again in January. Now I have been wishing that I had taken the semester off.


    Still, why were they putting together a party? We didn''t need one. We had a party, the day we got married. Wasn''t that enough? Geez, I swear Reece would use any excuse to throw a party for me these days. Wasn''t he against them in the beginning? I could have sworn he was.


    I let them go about their business though; they could do what they wanted, and then I would just act surprised for them when they came to collect me. At least I could see that I wasn''tpletely clueless likest time. I had been too focused on the smell of the food when I was pregnant to notice that party, I can me that on preggo brain.


    I am not just rationalizing and making excuses for myself here. This is the honest to Goddess truth of the matter, I swear. And there was nothing anyone could say or do to make me say otherwise.


    Reece came back in just in time for me to feed the babies again. This time after I was done feeding them I pumped some more milk forter while Reece cared for them. Once I was done, Reece stood up and smiled at me happily.


    "Come outside with me for a moment."


    "Oh, I don''t know Reece. We can''t leave Reagan and Rika in here all alone." He didn''t pick up on the slight sarcasm in my voice. This was going to be too funny.


    "We will take them with us;e on."


    "Really? Isn''t it cold outside? I don''t want them to catch a cold." My fake concerned voice seemed to go right over his head, and I had to fight not tough at him right then and there.


    "We will get them some nkets. Juste on, let''s go outside." I smirked at him then, waiting to see if he would catch on. He didn''t. How was it that I was so cluelesstely? And if I was clueless about what was happening around me, was Reece worse than I was? Or had I just chosen to ignore the world around me and hyper focused on Reagan and Rika? Whatever the truth of it all was, it was kind of funny to see what extent Reece was going to just to get me outside. Should I push it a little more or give in and go? It was tempting to make him wait, it really was.


    Still, I knew that there were a lot of people waiting for me outside, and it wasn''t right to make them wait just because it was fun to tease my husband.


    "Alright, fine, get them some nkets." I made him run upstairs for the ones that I specified for them, and he did so withoutining. After that we wrapped the babies up and went outside.


    Reece took me out through the garage. This would take us to the side of the house where they probably had the party set up, where we had held our wedding reception. I could smell the food, all different kinds of it, and the people. I wasn''t so focused on the food this time that it overpowered the smell of the people out there. I could hear them too, even though they weren''t talking. I could hear their heart beats and the sound of them breathing. It was like a constant humming noise in the background. The moment they all came into sight there was a loud yell from many voices at the same time.


    "HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!"


    It seemed that everyone that I considered a friend from this pack, and every other pack within a five or six hour drive was here. Bryce, Bree, and their two kids that hadn''t married into my family. Emmalee and Carter, Riley and Katie. My only out of town friends that weren''t here were Star and Artem, apparently they had their hands full with their little one who was just under two months old. That''s fine, we will see them soon; I''m sure of it.

 Chapter 390 - Trinity - Anniversary Part 3 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 390 - Trinity - Anniversary Part 3 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I went around the party and spoke to everyone, hugging several of them. I was happy to see them all, and I was d that they were all here. Apparently all of my guards, including Shawn, were in on this little surprise of mine. They really were a great group of guys. Even the sisters were in on hiding it, but I didn''t see them that much unless I left the house, which I hadn''t done muchtely. Thoma and Izzy were still great to have around though, and they were sincerely happy to be celebrating this asion with us all.


    We all mingled and ate food while talking. Reece had even told the staff to join the party. The maids, Abigail, Peter, they were all here. They were people that I spent time with every day. I loved them all and was d that they were happy for us.


    At one point when I was talking with Heather, who was getting quite big with the twins that she was carrying, I heard Reece, Riley, and Trevor talking. By the way, Heather had found out about them being twins a month into the pregnancy, I heard Vincent telling her once that they were done after this pregnancy, but I don''t know how sessful he''d be on that one.


    The conversation between Reece and the others had caught my attention though. Honestly, it was always funny listening to the three of them together. I couldugh like crazy without even needing to butt in. It was like my own personal TV show. All I had to do was watch on.


    "Soo, Scrappy, I honestly can''t believe that you made it a whole year without that wife of yours realizing the truth. When is she going to leave you and be with me? I''m a much better man, and I have morend than you do." I saw Trevor look at me and wink; I knew he was just giving Reece a hard time.


    "Haha, you know that joke isn''t any funnier this time around, Pooh Bear." The three of themughed and Landon, the tiger Alpha of the feline pack, came walking up to join them because of the raucousughter.


    "What the hell is so funny over here? Are we seeing who won the voting pool yet? I think I had it set at thirteen months so I''m not out of the running yet."


    "Oh, fuck off, Tigger." Reece blushed as his other friend who he was close to joined in on making fun of him.


    "Oh,e on Reece, you know we love you. If we didn''t, we wouldn''t rag on you so much. But seriously dude, you did fuck up majorly. Your biggest mistake was telling us about it. I mean, honestly, if you didn''t want us to give you a hard time about it you should have kept your mouth shut."


    "Yeah, he''s right. I mean, I knew before them and you know I wanted to kick your fucking ass about it all." Riley was shaking his head. Apparently he found out the way Reece used to be back when we visited him the first time.


    I could tell this was going to be something big, but I didn''t want them bringing Reece down too much more; it was our anniversary after all. I walked over silently and sidled right next to Reece, my arms empty at the moment with no baby upying the space.


    "He may have been a pig-headed fool to start, but that was just because he was lying to himself and me. Of course, he admitted the truth of it all soon enough, and we didn''t have to worry anymore. He loved me from day one, and I know that''s all that truly matters."


    "Yeah, I was only pretending to be an asshole back then." Reece jumped onto what I was saying.


    "Oh, you were an asshole through and through. That wasn''t up for debate. I am just saying that I forgave you, and I know the truth now." I smiled at him as I snuggled close to his side.


    "Yeah? And what truth is that?"


    "That you''re a big idiot, and I love you." I leaned up, standing on my toes, as I pulled his stunned face down toward me so that I could kiss his cheek. He was both happy and sad about what I said.


    "OK, OK, I admit it, I was stupid, but I got my head out of my ass and wised up. At least I have a mate." He looked at Landon and Trevor then with a re. "Tigger and Pooh here don''t even have a mate they could prove themselves with."


    "Low blow dude." Trevor shook his head.


    "Yeah, it''s not our fault we don''t have mates. That''s harsh." Landon looked sad.


    "I..I..I, y..y..you know, it wasn''t, I didn''t, I..I..I-." Reece stuttered and spluttered for a moment until the two of them startedughing.


    "Oh, don''t worry so much you big fool, we''ll find them soon enough. I mean, we''re here with the goddess incarnate after all; love follows her around like a fucking puppy. See what I did there, she''s a wolf, follows her like a puppy." Landon joked around while Trevor justughed hysterically.


    "You two are assholes." Reece pouted and I walked away, trying really, really hard not tough.


    The party continued on for a while, I even had to go and feed the twins while it continued on. I wasn''t the only one who had to go and feed their babies either. Emmalee, Acacia, Rawlynne, Juniper, Falena, Shawn, Dietrich, E, and Nikki all had to leave at simr times. And so a couple of them were in the house while I was feeding my babies. None of us saw a problem with us feeding our babies all in the same room, Shawn and Dietrich didn''t have a problem with a bunch of women whipping their breasts out in front of them either, though that probably had more to do with the fact that they weren''t interested in that part of someone''s anatomy, at least not that gender''s. That thought almost made meugh.


    All in all, I quite enjoyed my anniversary party, and I was happy that they had nned it for me. It was great to see everyone, and I had actually had a lot of fun.


    The party didn''t run too long though, since Reece and I were leaving in the afternoon for our night away. L ran everyone off when the party came to a close so that she could force Reece and I out of the house. Even though she was here at the house with them every day, she was eager to have them all to herself. She simply loved having grandbabies.


    When it was time for us to go though, I was starting to have second thoughts. I just couldn''t bring myself to put the babies down and leave. I was hugging them over and over again, kissing their tiny faces and telling them how much I loved them.


    How could I do this? How could I leave them? They were going to hate me for this, I just knew it. How could I do that to my babies? It was breaking my heart just thinking about it all.


    "Reece, we can''t do this." I said as I put Reagan down and turned to look at him. "They''re going to know that we''re gone, and they''re going to think that we abandoned them. We can''t do this."


    "I knew you were going to say that." He smiled at me.


    "So you agree with me? We''re staying home?" I grinned happily.


    "Nope, that''s why the bag you packed was put in the car hours ago, and I am going to do this." He picked me up and threw me over his shoulder as he walked out of the room.


    "Reece? No! My babies! Reece! Reagan? Rika? REAGAN? RIKA?!"


    I continued to cry out for the babies the entire way down to the garage and until Reece plopped me into the seat of the car that was waiting for us, already running and the door open. Vincent was standing nearby smiling at me.


    "They will be fine, Trinity. Go have fun." That was when Reece shut the door and ran as fast as he could around the car. Vincent was standing closer now, like he was going to hold the door shut if I tried to open it.


    "You''re kidnapping me?" I red at Reece as he got into the car. "You just guessed that this was going to happen and had everyone in on a kidnapping plot? What the actual fuck?


    "Well, I was right, wasn''t I?" He chuckled as he looked at me. "Besides, you''ll thank meter."


    "Are you hoping for Stockholm syndrome or something?" I crossed my arms and puffed out my cheeks in anger.


    "Nope, Juniper told me all about the Trinity syndrome." He winked at me and made me remember when I talked to Juniper about Reece''s pieces. That was embarrassing, and I felt my face flush bright red. "Want me to stop and buy you some candy for the road." He guffawed with hisughter that time because he thought he was just that hrious. I cannot, for the life of me, believe that this is how my night out for my anniversary was starting. And I cannot believe that Juniper told Reece about the pieces joke. That was mortifying. I was going to have some words for her when I got back. That traitor.

 Chapter 391 - Reece - Date Night (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 391 - Reece - Date Night (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I literally had to kidnap my wife for a date night. That was funny. I wonder what the guys would say about that one. Probably something stupid and mean and not at all funny like:


    "Nice one Cujo, is she so scared to be alone with you that you need to bash her over the head first?"


    Yeah, they were never finding out about this, ever. I would forbid everyone from talking about it. I would not let them know. I swear to everything in the damned fucking universe that I would murder whoever tells them about me needing to kidnap my own wife to get alone time with her. DAMMIT!


    She didn''t actually try to stop me though. She didn''t say STOP. Not once. She didn''t order me to stop or to put her down. So, deep down, I guess that means that she wanted me to take her away. She wanted someone to take the decision out of her hands and make her go.


    Yeah, she felt bad leaving Reagan and Rika for the night. I felt bad too, dammit. But we need some time alone. We need some mommy and daddy only time. We need some time where we''re not mommy and daddy; we need time where we are Reece and Trinity. Hell, I''d even take Fido and Little Bunny time. Whatever you call it as long as it''s just the two of us.


    I drove into town with Trinity pouting next to me. Though I could see her looking out the window excitedly. She wasn''t as upset as she was pretending to be. And the longer we were gone from the house, with each passing minute, she was rxing a little more.


    Mom had booked us a ce up in the mountains that had a hot spring room, in-room massages, and lots of privacy. The privacy was what we needed. Even if my Little Bunny wouldn''t let me touch her yet, we could soak in the hot springs and rx. That would be nice enough, in a way.


    With me driving, and no babies in the car, we made great time. We got to the hotel in just over an hour and were ready to check in just before three in the afternoon. Normally that would have been before the check in actually started, but I had called ahead and paid them four times the cost of the room to not rent it the night before. I wanted it perfectly cleaned and ready to go when we got there. I did not want to wait for my room to be ready and have them rush through cleaning it. It also helped that they saw the name on the room and were afraid to tell me no. You know, I was beginning to think that a lot of people in the business world were afraid of me.


    When we got into the room, I could tell they had just left it. The scent of someone else was too strong for it to have been more than five minutes max. The person had brought in a bottle of chilled champagne and a tray of chocte covered strawberries. That was a start, but we would be needing more for tonight, much more.


    Trinity and I walked around the room to take a look at everything that it had to offer. There was a private terrace on the back with borately decorated wooden walls blocking the sides from view. The only open side showed us a view of the mountains. Most of the snow had melted in the lower mountain areas already, but there was still snow higher up, and it made for a splendid scene out the back of the room. The hot spring looked amazing, and I couldn''t wait for us to soak in there.


    The inside of the room was borately decorated as well with intricately carved wooden pirs and a traditional mountain feel to it. It didn''t make me feel like I was roughing it in the hills either; no, it had a very modern side to it with the amenities. The fixtures throughout, including the bathroom, were state of the art and luxurious. And the bed was huge, as well as soft. It was an skan king-sized bed and now I knew what I was going to change mine out for. That thing was amazing.


    "What do you think, babe?" I asked Trinity as she looked around the room with me.


    "It''s fine." She was still pretending to be grumpy right now. "It will do for now, at least."


    "Uh huh." I tried not tough at her fake petnce.


    The first thing that we did was crack open the champagne. No use in letting it get warm. Trinity couldn''t have much because of the babies needing to nurse, but half a ss should be fine. Still, she only sipped at it once or twice, and then never touched it again.


    She also didn''t want to touch the chocte. She had heard that it could make the babies break out in hives. It had happened to a few different women in the pack before so she hadn''t touched chocte since they were born. I couldn''t imagine what she was going through. I had found that out after Valentine''s day when she wasn''t eating the choctes that I bought for her.


    I was beginning to think that there might not be anything about his trip that Trinity could fully enjoy. I was now beginning to think that we probably shouldn''t havee out here. If she wasn''t able to rx and couldn''t enjoy it, then it was just going to be torture for her.


    We weren''t hungry yet so we decided to go for a walk through the foothills behind the hotel. After the walk, we had some dinner; it was good, very high quality and all that, but even I had to admit that I preferred Abigail''s cooking.


    Trinity needed to stay up on her schedule for the babies, even if they weren''t here. If she didn''t, she said she would have a backup or overflow or something. So while I had a ss of champagne, my Little Bunny pumped some milk that we immediately stuck into an ice filled cooler that we brought with us. We got the ice here, of course, so that it wasn''t melted yet. This would allow us to take the milk home to use for the babiester.


    We had a massage after dinner, something that was guaranteed to make us both feel rxed and like our bodies were made of jelly. I was d that we were in the same room for the massages, and that my Little Bunny''s Masseuse was a woman. I wouldn''t let a man touch her like that. Mine was a woman too, but I barely even noticed, I don''t even remember what she looked like. She was good at her job though, my whole body felt amazing when she left.


    Finally, after that was done, it was time for us to soak in the hot springs. This and the massage were the only things that my wife could enjoy on our anniversary date. I had been starting to feel like I had ruined this whole night for her and that was breaking me. I wanted her to have a really good time.


    I stepped out onto the terrace and rinsed myself at the shower that was there for us. When I was done, I stepped closer to the water and dipped my toes in. The water was hot and perfect for rxing a stressed body.


    I had just sat down and felt the water rise up to my chest when I saw Trinity. The heat of the water had nothing on what her body could do to me. Just looking at her standing there naked was enough to raise my temperature so much that the once hot water felt like ice against my skin. I couldn''t take my eyes off of her as she slowly rinsed herself in the water from the shower.


    I was suddenly jealous of the mountain that was looking at her. I should be the only thing that could see this sight. This was mine and mine alone.


    When my mate turned to see me looking at her, she flushed with embarrassment; the pink going all the way down to her chest to tinge her breasts. That looked amazing, I wanted to taste that blush, the heated flesh of her body. But I couldn''t, I needed to keep my hands to myself. I had to be a good boy for right now.


    DAMMIT! THIS WAS GOING TO BE HARD!


    Trinity stepped into the water then and sat across from me. I watched as she sank to her shoulders, just her head and the hair piled into a bun on top of it were sticking out. She looked as if she were enjoying herself finally. And I nearlyughed when she floated up to the top of the water, breasts first. Well, they did say that those floated for women so, I guess it was true.


    "Well, that is embarrassing." She was grinning as she looked at me over the floating mounds in the water.


    "It shouldn''t be, it''s only natural; it''s not like you did something to make them float." I chuckled.


    "I can''t even sit on the bench and rx. I floated off of it." She looked grumpy.


    "Thene here, and I will hold you down. You can sit on myp." She gave me a dark look, but moved over to me regardless. Well, at least she wasn''t avoiding mepletely. This wasn''t as bad as it could be. I could hold her, even if I couldn''t do anything else.

 Chapter 392 - Reece - Date Night PART 2 (MATURE) ((VOLUME 3))

    <h4>Chapter 392 - Reece - Date Night PART 2 (MATURE) ((VOLUME 3))</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    OH GODDESS! I needed to control myself. Just having her here on myp was enough to make me want to ravish her. I mean, to be honest, if she had said e and get me stud" I would probably throw her on the bed and take her. I swear to the Goddess, I needed her so bad.


    AHHH! This was a total test of my will power. I know it. This was a test of strength and determination, and will power, and GOD DAMMIT THE GODDESS WAS JUST TORTURING!


    My Little Bunny had just leaned back and slid her bottom across myp as she adjusted at what angle she was sitting at. I felt her wiggle a little, settling herself lower and getting more and morefortable.


    The next form of torture started when she started to run her hands through the water. At first she was just moving them side to side in random areas, but she settled her hands to rest right next to my thighs and was essentially rubbing my legs. I could barely control myself.


    I felt my jaw clench and my spine stiffen. I was doing my best to just hold her there on myp so that she could enjoy the hot water for herself. To me, the water still felt like ice against my overheated flesh. I wonder if she noticed a change in the temperature when she came over to me. She probably thought she was about to be boiled alive.


    OH, THIS LITTLE MINX! Was she doing this on purpose? I mean, she had to be, right? Why else would she start to actually rock herself from side to side? I swear she was even scooting back so that she was getting closer to the erection that I was hoping she didn''t find out I was sporting at the moment. I was just going to hold her in ce.


    Nope, she found out about it since she just slid right against it. She didn''t say anything about it. She just pressed against me with the curve of her bottom and her lower back. OH DAMMIT! I needed to control myself. But that was so much harder when she started to rock side to side again grinding against me.


    "T..T..T..Trinity!?" I couldn''t manage anything besides a low growl as I tried to control my body.


    "Yes, Reece?" She sounded innocent and like she wasn''t doing anything at all.


    "W..what are you d..d..doing? Don''t y..y..you know that I can barely control myself?"


    "Why control it? I thought you wanted me."


    "Y..you told me no." I forced the words out of my clenched teeth.


    "That wasst month. I think you deserve to have a little reward for the level of control you''ve had. Especially tonight. I can''t believe you''ve stayed so calm." She giggled as she pressed herself against me again.


    "Oh I..I..I..I have been f..f..far from c..c..calm." I was having a hard time talking due to all the control I was exerting. "I..I..I''m fighting myself r..r..right n..now."


    "Why? You should just give in, Reece. Give in to your desires, give in to me."


    "D..d..do you know what y..y..you''re saying?" I could barely get the words out, I was at my limit.


    "I''m telling you to take me Reece. I know exactly what I am saying." There was a purr in her voice that I could not ignore. I also wasn''t about to ignore the words that she had just said.


    My control snapped, and I scooped her up into my arms. I grabbed a towel and dried her off as I stalked into the bedroom. I was going to drip dry because I was about to take my damn time with my wife. I needed this too badly not to take it slow and enjoy every second of it. I needed to make sure that if she blocked me again, I had plenty to hold me over.


    When we were in the room, I literally threw her on the bed and climbed up after her. The second that I was over her I pressed my lips to hers for a deep, hungry, passionate kiss. My tongue practically sighed and sang with joy at the feel of sliding home into her mouth.


    I had to relearn the territory. I felt like it had been too long since I had kissed her like this. I needed to see if anything had changed. I explored her mouth and tangled my tongue with her. The kiss was long and deep, and when I finally broke it, we were both panting.


    The look in my mate''s eyes was one of passion and need. She wanted this as much as I did. Dammit, I didn''t know if I could take as much time as I truly wanted. If she kept looking at me like that I was going to move too fast.


    I needed to get my fill just in case I ended up not being able tost long enough. I started to lick and nip my way down her chest, each small bite elicited a moan of pleasure from my mate''s lips. She was enjoying everything just as much as I was.


    Goddess, I wanted it all, I needed it all. My mind went on autopilot then, going to all the ces that I knew my sexy little temptress liked to be teased. That was, until I pulled her breast to my mouth and sucked hard. Something sprayed into the back of my throat at that moment. It was thick, creamy, and sweet.


    "Oh, shit!" I pulled back and Trinity giggled.


    "Yeah, I would steer clear of that if I were you." She giggled again as she saw the shock on my face.


    "Well, to be fair, I now know why the babies love it so much; it''s sweet. If it wasn''t for them, I would have a little more." I chuckled, but went back to work. I wasn''t going to let theughter stop my momentum. I skirted past the breasts this time and made my way down her body.


    When I was low enough, I didn''t even hesitate. I just buried my face at her core and drew my tongue across her swollen, heated flesh. That sweet juice spread across my tongue, and I thought I died and went to heaven for a moment.


    I needed this. I needed to taste this. Her sweet, juicy perfection. Ipped at it repeatedly. I licked and devoured it all away. I sucked on that tight knot of nerves that made her scream out her pleasure. She was in need of this so much that it didn''t take long for her body to start squirming and spasming with the edge of her pleasure about to break over there. A few more licks, a few more swipes of the tongue was all it took to make her whole body shudder as she screamed. That was the most glorious sound I had heard in a while. It was perfect.


    But I wasn''t done yet. I had given her pleasure, at least a little, so now it was my turn. I needed this. It went beyond want and need and became a necessity that was required to keep me alive.


    I fitted myself against her opening, at the dripping core of her oversensitive body. The moment she felt me press against her, she shivered with desire and need.


    "R..Reece." She panted out my name as she looked at me with half-lidded eyes.


    "Trinity." I whispered her name before leaning forward to kiss her gently. Just as my lips touched hers, I pressed forward.


    She threw her head back then. The pleasure of my intrusion made her eyes roll back and her back to arch. Oh Goddess, that was such an erotic pose, I wasn''t going to control myself if she did that again.


    I pulled back until just the tip was left inside her and watched her shudder with every inch I took from her. The moment that she was almost empty, she whimpered as if begging for it toe back to her. Iplied and gave her exactly what she wanted. I thrusted forward then with everything that I had, and she screamed.


    The scream was what broke my control. That scream of pleasure caused me to go full animal, and let my beast take over. My wolf pounded into her body over and over again, harder and harder with each thrust.


    Trinity was bucking under me, throwing herself into each thrust, meeting me halfway and intensifying the pleasure that she and I were both feeling. Her screaming moans and cries of pleasure, and the nails that she dug into my back, made me want to go harder and faster. I don''t think I had ever pushed her this hard before, but I was running on pure instinct and desire.


    I mmed into her over and over again even when I felt her body start to tighten around me. I needed this too much to stop. Even when she sumbed to her pleasure and squeezed me so tight it hurt while bringing on my own orgasm, I still didn''t stop mming into her body. I kept going, I needed to keep going.


    I pounded again and again until I felt the pleasure reaching its peak in both of us again. This time when it took her I just rode its waves, and let it take me. I came again, growling her name into her ear while she panted uncontrobly.


    "Trinity."


    We copsed and fell asleep instantly. I was even still inside of her. I didn''t fully leave her body until I woke up a whileter and adjusted. I just slid out of her the rest of the way, wrapped my arms around her and held her close. I know that it had been a few hours already, and I couldn''t smell anything different about her scent. That was good, I know she was worried about doing this because of the babies, and as of yet there weren''t anymore on the way. That was good. Time for me to sleep now.

 Chapter 393 - Trinity - Gabriel’s Return (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 393 - Trinity - Gabriel¡¯s Return (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The babies were exactly five months old now, it was the first of May, and I couldn''t believe how time was flying. They were crawling now too. That had been a show to see them doing that a couple weeks back. Now they were getting into everything, and we needed to make sure that they were watched constantly. They were also starting to scheme together. When Reagan would grab something that he wasn''t supposed to, Rika would make some sort of sound that was aimed at gaining attention. That way, Reagan could get what he wanted. Such a silly little duo they were. I just loved them so much.


    Reece was also happy too, since they were able to go a little longer at night before waking up, and I was no longer denying him his private time. I was, however, making him glove it up. I was not going to have another baby so close to the twins being born. That would be crazy and hectic.


    y dates were getting more frequent too. Juniper, Acacia, Nikki, Rawlynne, and the others would alle over. The others had babies that were younger by a couple months, but they still came for the visit. Shawn and Dietrich would take turns or Shawn''s mom would bring them. They seemed to have a wonderful support system for their two sets of twins. More power to them, I think anything more than two at a time would kill me. And I sincerely hoped that next time, I would only have one.


    The babies were also eating baby food now. Abigail insisted on making it all homemade as well. She pureed and blended up excellent foods for them. Different fruit and vegetablebos that they seemed to love. Sometimes I think that Abigail might have some sort of magic when ites to cooking delicious foods.


    I hadn''t expected that Gabriel woulde for a visit today, so it had surprised me a lot when he showed up and asked for a meeting with me.


    "Gabriel? Come on in. I have been waiting for you toe back. This has been quite the long trip." He had literally been gone since December when he had been here to tell me about my unique heritage.


    "Yes, mydy, I am sorry that I have been away for so long. I have been following any and every lead that I could for you. I have found as much as I could and havee back to give you my findings." He bowed so low that he was literally almost pressing his head to the floor while kneeling in front of me. "Please, Queen Trinity, forgive my absence."


    I sighed when he said those words. Try as hard as I might, I couldn''tpletely rid him of that deferential attitude. And I had tried to get him to just call me Trinity on several asions, and he would for a little bit, but then he just reverted back to the way he used to so I stopped trying now. Clearly, this was who he was meant to be.


    "It''s fine, Gabriel. Please have a seat and tell me what it is that you have found out." Reagan and Rika were currently in the y yard we had set up for them, and they were ignoring us for the toys that were their current favorites.


    "Yes, mydy." He rose to his feet and moved to sit across from me. He pulled out his notebook that was in the inside pocket of his jacket. He flipped to the back to where it looked like he had written a full report.


    Gabriel took a deep breath and settled himself before he started to exin things to me.


    "OK, to start, I followed your father''s family tree a little more. I researched each person as best as I could. And it turns out that someone was ying a part in your father''s creation."


    "What do you mean, his creation?" I was confused.


    "It seems that someone high up in the magicalmunity was manipting things. I don''t know if the magic user had a future sight or not, but they manipted your family tree. It is also why most of the families in your lineage only had one child per generation. The families were being manipted until a candidate on each side could be found for them. Someone was trying to breed warlocks."


    "But how did they manage it? How did they manage to get them to just appear in the family tree?" I still didn''t understand his serious words.


    "They didn''t just appear. The women were tricked. I have found journals, hidden away for centuries, that state that they felt like their husbands were changing at night. They felt like the man that they had married was not the man who came to them at night. These journals spoke of fear and unease."


    "So who, or what visited them?" I was afraid to hear the answers.


    "My best guess would be warlocks in disguise. I just don''t know why they would go to this extent."


    For a moment we sat in silence, trying to process this bombshell that he had just given me. Someone or something had tried to create my father. I wonder if that had been their end goal or if he was a by product. Had they been trying to create his mother or his father, but then they met and ruined it? Or had they put something into the DNA that was waiting for a man like my father to be born?


    I didn''t know, and right now I didn''t care. He was dead, he was nevering back, and I didn''t care about him at all. I wasn''t going to let his memory rule me. I wasn''t going to give a dead man, a man that I personally killed, have any power over me. I don''t know what giving his memory power like that would do for his soul in hell. I didn''t need it to affect me like that at all.


    "OK, Gabriel, So you''re telling me that someone in my family tree, from that sick son of bitch''s side, was actually the end goal? Though we are probably not sure if it was Edmond, his parents, or even myself that was the product they wanted."


    "Yes, Queen Trinity, that is exactly what I am saying. I don''t know if they ever had an end goal. They could have just been a pair of warlocks that wanted to y God so they involved themselves with a couple of humans. Maybe they wanted to see what gics would be dominant, or maybe they wanted to know if the human parts could be weeded out after a few generations. Or maybe they were following someone''s orders and just doing as they were told. I don''t know, and I don''t think we will ever know unless we find the warlocks responsible."


    This was heartbreaking and mind blowing. Someone had manipted innocent people and caused all of this. And those innocent people were my ancestors. Why? How? For what purpose.


    "So we''ve hit another brick wall with that information."


    "Unfortunately. I am sorry, but I have searched as much as I possibly could. It was not easy to track down the information that I have found." He looked sincerely sorry, like he felt as if he had failed me.


    "It''s fine, Gabriel, it is what it is. We cannot change it at all." I sighed as I thought about the extent of the maniption that has gone on in my family. I just hoped that what he had to tell me about my grandmother''s side of the family was better. I couldn''t handle another tale of treachery and maniption. "Please, continue with the rest of your report." I encouraged him.


    "It was even harder to find information on the other side of your family. Though I did find out that the year I had thought your great grandfather was born had been very wrong. He had been living in hiding for a while. He was indeed a half wolf, but he didn''t have a pack for a long time. He was an immortal. He was born at least five hundred years ago, possibly longer. That would make him born near one of the even bigger fae wars. There had been several, but most didn''t happen in the actualnds of Fae."


    "So, my great grandfather had lied to my great grandmother?" I was already getting angry.


    "You don''t know that. He might have told her what he was and how old he really was. But then he went off and died in the war. She might have hid his true identity and age from the pack for fear that they wouldn''t understand who and what he was."


    "That''s possible." I sighed. "Did you find out who his Fae parent was?" I needed to know.


    "No, I didn''t, but I found some journals from his mother, who also lived an unnaturally long life, probably because of some power given to her by the Fae."


    "What did you learn from her journals?" I was literally on the edge of my seat, waiting to hear what he had to say.


    "I think it might be best for you to see those for yourself, mydy. There is some information in them that I think you might need. If you need to, call for me when you are done, and I will exin anything and everything that I can right away."


    He held his notebook out after that, indicating I should take it and read it.

 Chapter 394 - Trinity - Debating (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 394 - Trinity - Debating (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I had taken the journals from Gabriel. I had taken them but I hadn''t started to read them yet. I didn''t know if I could. I didn''t know how to make myself do it.


    I went about what I was supposed to do for the rest of the day. I took care of Reagan and Rika, I ate my meals, I had a visit with Mom and Dad, but I was at a loss for how to move forward. I almost felt like I was just on autopilot and I was just doing what I always did.


    "Trinity, honey, what''s wrong." Dad sat down next to me and brought me out of my stupor.


    "Nothing Dad, I''m fine." I tried to smile at him.


    "Don''t try to bullshit me here." He gave me a stern tone and a sharp re. "You''ve been stuck inside your head all day. I know that something is on your mind, something is going on and you haven''t told us about it yet."


    "I''m sorry." I hung my head in shame. That was when he reached for Rika, who was sitting on myp, I didn''t try to stop him from taking her either. I knew that my head was elsewhere and he was trying to help.


    "You don''t have to be sorry, sweetheart, just tell us what''s bothering you." Mom smiled as she set Reagan down in the y yard, Dad was doing the same with Rika.


    "Right now, we need to focus on you, the twins can y and be happy on their own for a moment." Dad''s voice was full of concern and love.


    "It''s not that major, really. I was just trying to figure something out."


    No matter how much I tried telling them that it wouldn''t help. They were worried, and if they were worried then they were going to do whatever they needed to so that I would start to talk about it.


    "Come on, just tell us." Dad sat down next to me and took my left hand. Mom copied him and took my right hand when she sat down. They really had been there for me my entire life, I would always love them for that.


    "Alright, I''ll tell you what is bothering me. It''s nothing bad though. I just had a lot to think about that''s all."


    "Well, a burden shared is a burden lessened." Mom''s smile was always so warm that it made my heart melt. She could be fierce and mean too, usually toward those hurting her family, but she was also the nicest person I knew.


    I started to exin to them what had happened today, everything that I had learned. I started with the stuff that Gabriel told me about my father''s family. That alone was enough to blow my mind. The warlocks had been manipting my family tree. And that means that I don''t know who my true ancestors are. And I probably would never know.


    I saw the looks of horror and anger on my parents'' faces. They were appalled that something like this had happened. Dad''s mouth formed a thin, tight line while mom paled and her brows knitted. I could feel the tension and anger that wasing off of them.


    They were upset, pissed off really, and it didn''t even have anything to do with them. They were angry on my behalf and the innocent members of my family. When I had finally exined it all to them they looked at me with sad and angry eyes.


    "That is a lot to deal with." Dad hugged me tight.


    "Anyone would feel lost after that." Mom added her arms to the hug and they squeezed me from both sides.


    "I know, but that wasn''t everything. There was more that I found out and it was hard for me to figure out how I felt about it. I don''t really know how to process it." Even I could hear the sorrow in my voice so I knew they had to be curious and concerned.


    "What else could there be? What more did they do to those innocent women?" Dad was sounding even angrier, like he wanted to track down the men who had tampered with my family.


    "It doesn''t have to do with them. The truth is, the rest of what I learned is from Grandmother''s side of the family."


    "Oh."


    Dad seemed to understand then. He knew that I was talking about our Fae family member. I wonder just how life would have gone for us all had my great grandfather not died. And what would have happened if Grandmother hadn''t died? Would she have lived a long life like her father? Or would she have lived a wolf''s life? The fact that we would never know was the hardest part.


    I have seen photographs of my grandmother from before she died. She still looked young, younger than you would have thought. Dad looked young as well. He didn''t look like the other wolves that were almost fifty, he looked to be in his mid thirties at most. Maybe we wouldn''t like a life that was that long but maybe all of us had some sort of extended life.


    My grandmother had died after a really bad car ident. It wasn''t the ident that killed her technically, it was a mysterious illness that she came down with not long after. No one knew what was wrong with her and no one could figure out what had caused her to pass away. It had been hushed up after that and I only learned of the true story recently. I don''t think they wanted wolves thinking that something like that could happen to them at any moment.


    Now though, I was starting to think that maybe the illness had to do with her being half Fae. That would make some sort of sense actually. I just don''t know what it was that might have affected her.


    After that I exined to Mom and Dad about the journals. I told him Gordon, Dad''s grandfather and my great grandfather, was actually a lot older than we initially thought he was. I also told him that Gordon''s mother had somehow had a life that was extended because she had lived until the turn of the twentieth century instead of passing when she normally should have had hundreds of years before.


    "I can''t believe that something like that is part of our family history." Dad''s voice sounded like it was filled with awe. "I know it''s a lot to take in, Trinity, considering what we all thought about ourselves, but it is interesting. You must admit that."


    "It is, that''s for sure." I shrugged my shoulders and agreed with him.


    "This is funny though, if you ask me." Mom was giggling.


    "How so?" I raised an eyebrow at her curiously as I tried to find the humor in it all.


    "Well, what does Trinity mean or truly stand for?" She smirked like that should be enough.


    "It''s a religious symbol." My shrug or my response, possibly both, made her shake her head.


    "No, Trinity." Sheughed as she said my name. "The definition of a trinity is the state of being three, or a set of three. Trinity means three. You are three. You''re a set of three in many ways. You''re a wife, mother, and daughter. You''re a pack Luna, the shifter Queen, and the witch Queen. And you''re also a wolf, a witch, and a Fae. That there is a trinity Trinity. Three sets of three. Now I may be stretching it a bit to fill out the ranks, but you can''t tell me that this doesn''t mean something."


    I sat there and let her words sink in. She was right. I was three different things in one, more than once. Did my mom know about this? Did she know that I was a trinity so she named me Trinity? Or was this just a coincidence? I wished he knew, I wished I could find out the truth.


    "I think Eve''s right." Dad smiled. "Whatever is going to happen, it''s clear that you have something special ahead of you. This Fae thing might affect me and the boys, but I think you''re the one that will be the most affected by it all. Now that we know what we really are, we can talk to the Fae Queen and work all of this out. Maybe we will have to go there for a visit. I wouldn''t say no to finding out about that part of us, but I would be happiest to just be there to support you."


    "You know, Dad, you would have more Fae blood than I do." Iughed at him.


    "Somehow, I don''t think that is true. Usually that would be the case with gics, but I don''t think that is the case with you, Trinity. You''re special. You have had the Gods involved since you were born. They''ve been looking out for you, and now they''re just revealing more of their hand to you."


    "I wish it wasn''t such a slow reveal." Iughed at him. Things were truly getting interesting now. There was a lot that we all needed to find out still, a lot that was still confusing, but it was also very interesting.


    I think that I had finally made up my mind. Tonight, after we put the babies to bed, I was going to read the journals from my great great grandmother. I was going to learn what it was that happened to her and why Gabriel thought that I needed to see them.

 Chapter 395 - Trinity - Journals Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 395 - Trinity - Journals Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "What are you doing?" Reece asked me as I sat on the sofa in the room. I had just pulled out the leather bound journal that Gabriel had given me.


    "These belonged to my great great grandmother. These are the journals that Gabriel was able to track down. I was going to read them, to find out what it is that Gabriel thinks I should know."


    "That''s pretty major. Do you want me to sit with you while you read them?"


    He wasn''t offering to do anything, but sit with me. He wanted to be there to offer me moral support, just in case I needed it. He truly was the most amazing husband ever.


    "Thank you, Reece." I smiled at him, and heughed.


    "I really thought I was going to get a ''don''t tter yourself Fido'' or something like that."


    "Am I really that mean?"


    "No, I just wanted to break the tension. Come on, you can sit on myp." With that he picked me up and set me down on hisp while holding me against him. "Now you''re allfy and secure. You can read."


    "You just wanted to hold me." I giggled at him.


    "That''s besides the point."


    I didn''t worry too much about how I was sitting, I just grabbed the first of the journals that Gabriel had given me. It was marked with the year it was started, and I nearly felt my eyes pop out of my head when I saw that it said 1513, Ellyria Underhill. The journals were all made of leather and parchment. Now I know how theysted all these years.


    April 2, 1513


    We got word today that the Fae wars are now requiring our help. We wolves have been called in to help eliminate the threats against them. This treaty that we have with the fair folk has not been an easy one so far. To date, they have done nothing to assist us, but they call on us when they need someone strong or savage to fight for them. I am beginning to wonder if any of the Fae are strong enough to even lift a sword. It''s no wonder that they can''t win these wars on their own.


    As it is, I am being sent to assist in the fight. I am so d that I am not like the human women that I have met in the viges. They are not allowed to do anything at all. They cannot fight, they cannot ride horses, they can''t even swim in the creek. What sorry lives they must lead. I have been given freedoms that most women could never dream of. Having been born as one of the stronger females in the pack and made into a warrior straight out of adolescence. I would never give up my life of freedom to be tied down like the others. I will always be a fighter that lives for myself.


    April 5, 1513


    Today is my twenty-first birthday; what a day to finally make it to the battlefield. I think it is exciting, and I am looking forward to what this might mean for me. It has to be something special, what else could have made this happen at such an important time in my life?


    I will meet the Commander of my regimen tomorrow. He is Fae, of course, so I do not have much faith in him. If he was apetent Commander, then we wolves would not be here, and their wars would not be spilling out into my country. I will not let these wars continue the way that they have. I will see to it that they stop invading Irnd or any other part of this realm.


    April 6, 1513


    I cannot believe what has happened. I went to meet the Commander as I was instructed. There are over a hundred wolves from different packs in this camp. My group went early this morning and ever since, I have been looking for a way to hide myself. I will not run away, that is not in me. However, my wolf screamed at me the moment the Commander was in my sight.


    It got worse too. When I introduced myself to him, he seemed so attentive. The way that it seemed to have happened confused the others. Here is how the conversation went, for the most part.


    "Wee to my regimen. I am your Commander for the time being. I will be here to guide you and direct you. My people, that you see scattered around this camp, have been fighting this threat for a long time. We appreciate your help with this issue. You may call me Commander Rhinum."


    "Good day to you, Sir. I am Ellyria Underhill. I am the one in charge of this group."


    "Ahh, Ellyria, that is a beautiful name for a beautiful warrior such as yourself."


    This was when I felt a little ufortable. I wanted to pull him toward me and kiss him, but I couldn''t do that. He is a Fae Prince, and I am a lowly wolf warrior.


    "It is surprising that you, a woman, is leading this group."


    "Do you think me incapable?"


    "Not at all, my dear, my entire kingdom is run by a woman. I do not think a woman is any less capable than a man. Where Ie from, they''re actually known to be more efficient and strong."


    "Good, I do not want to have to prove myself to you."


    "I wouldn''t mind if you did."


    He winked, he smiled, he flirted, and I all but melted there in front of him. I cannot believe that my wolf told me he was my mate. How in the world am I supposed to make that work?


    April 7, 1513


    I had tried my best to avoid themander, but he had been searching for me. It turns out that he felt the mate bond as strongly as I did. He actually kissed me by way of a greeting. I pped him, even though I had enjoyed it. It was my first kiss, and he had stolen it forcefully. I may be a warrior, but I am still a woman; he should not have done that to me.

 Chapter 396 - Trinity - Journals Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 396 - Trinity - Journals Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    April 10, 1513


    I have tried to avoid the Commander, but it is no use. He seems to be able to follow me anywhere. I cannot seem to get him out of my head either. His eyes are like the ocean, when I would stare out at it to contemte my life. There was the dark, nearly ck of the angry sea on the outside, then there was a ring of the sapphire blue that was the calm waters with the sun shining down. The innermost color of his eyes was a blue so bright that it was just a shade or two away from white. Then it went straight into the ck of his pupil. The way that his eyes looked nearly made me dizzy when I stared into them. And oh his hair was just as unique. The blues that made up that color were all different shades of the ocean''s waters.


    He appeared to be quite capable and tenacious, with a towering presence and quite an excess of vigor..I couldn''t take my eyes off of him as we moved about the battlegrounds. He was fast,petent, and smart as well. I was learning that it wasn''t that the Fae couldn''t handle the threat against them, it was that there was a seemingly never ending horde of beasts that they needed to fight through almost constantly. I had been wrong, misinformed, and quite judgemental.


    I had been wrong about Rhinum from the start. He was an exceptional man, and I couldn''t help but think that I was already slowly falling in love with him.


    April 20, 1513


    We have been constantly embroiled in battle over thest week. The situation has been difficult. The horde had not stoppeding after us. We have just finally managed to get a lull in the attacks, and we are resting as much as we can. There are several warriors sleeping in shifts at the moment, so that we will not be ambushed in the night.


    I have been invited to have dinner with Rhinum before the night is over. This will be one of the first times that we have been truly alone since he kissed me that first instance. He has, of course, kissed me quite a few times since then. He had taken to kissing me before each fight, but he protects my honor by not doing it in front of the others. I am about to tell him to hell with honor, I want love.


    April 21, 1513


    I don''t know if I should be overjoyed or upset about what happenedst night. When I went to have dinner with Rhinum, I ended up staying with him all night. I am no longer what my father would call an innocent woman. I lost that to himst night, and I am actually feeling very good about it. I know most women would be, or should be, upset about it. I am not upset though, I don''t think I can be upset about it.


    Also, Rhinum told me that he loves me. I know it is too soon, but I feel it too. He gave me a ring and asked me toe back to Faerie with him when the war is over. He wants me to marry him, and he doesn''t care what his family or my family has to say about it. I told him that I would, I want to marry him as well.


    April 29, 1513


    The hordes have disappeared now. We are advancing on the enemy. We hope to reach the stronghold tomorrow. There is a chance this might all be over in the next day or two. Then I can do what I thought I never would. I can go with Rhinum to his home, I can marry him, and I can be with him forever.


    May 1, 1513


    I am lost. There is nothing for me now. I was in trouble during the battle yesterday. We had reached the inner halls of the stronghold and a monster of a creature tore from the group and came after me. Rhinum saw what was happening, and he dashed to my side. He slew the beast, but not before being injured.


    Rhinum died in my arms. I held him as he took hisst breath. After that, I don''t remember much. I went into a frenzy and killed every enemy that was left. I killed them all. I ended the war, but at what cost. My mate was gone, and I had nothing left to live for.


    May 5, 1513


    They wanted me to go to Faerie for a celebration. They wanted to tell me that they appreciated my contribution. They wanted to thank me for avenging the Commander. I refused. I didn''t want to go because they wouldn''t know nor would they understand that I had been in love with the Commander. They wouldn''t understand that Rhinum was my mate.


    May 10, 1513


    I left my warriors at the entrance to Faerie. I left them and began to walk. I don''t know where I am going to go. I don''t know what I am going to do. But I found out today that I am with child. That one night, that one time with Rhinum resulted in a child that will be an extension of us. I had wanted to give up. I had wanted to follow after my mate to the other side, but I can''t do that now. I need to stay here to raise his child. I will do all that I can for my baby. I will never again think about leaving this world too soon.


    I came to the end of that passage and I had to pause. The loss, the suffering that Ellyria must have felt. I can''t even imagine how she felt when her mate died in her arms, and for a moment I just sat there crying as I thought about it. I didn''t even want to try and think about the possibility that one day Reece might die, and I would be left alone. Goddess knows that we do not live the safest of lives.

 Chapter 397 - Trinity - Journals Part 3 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 397 - Trinity - Journals Part 3 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The journal continued and I wanted to know more, so I saw no reason not to. I turned the page and read on.


    July 22, 1513


    I am just over halfway through my pregnancy now. I have settled into a vige that is not far from where the battle took ce. To me it feels like I am somewhat closer to my love here. There is a wolf pack, but I have not been granted entrance yet. They are still weary of me.


    August 29, 1513


    I was run out of town by the locals. They do not take kindly to the fact that I was pregnant and unmarried. They did not believe the tale that I was married and widowed. It may not bepletely true, but Rhinum wanted to marry me, and he gave me a ring.


    October 31, 1513


    I was due a little over a week ago but I willed my body not to go intobor. I wasn''t somewhere safe just yet. Today though, I found an abandoned cottage on the cliffs. I admit that I am stealing this home, but I cannot help it. I need to have this baby somewhere.


    October 31, 1513


    I am writing again today. The baby came quickly, and he is sleeping. His name is Fynn, and he is my light of hope. He looks just like Rhinum, except for the hair. He has my red color instead of the colorful blues of his father.


    November 15, 1513


    I cannot keep my baby in this house. The winter is not yet upon us, but it is too brutal for him. I fear that I will need to flee the country so that no one finds out who my baby really is. I n to take a ship to Ennd and raise him there.


    January 3, 1514


    It wasn''t easy, but we got here. It is cold, but I will do what I can to protect my son.


    Following that quick entry I can see where several pages had been either cut or torn away. The next entry was in the following year.


    April 30, 1515


    It has been two years now since Rhinum died to save me and the baby he didn''t even know about. I wish he was here with me now. I had to change my name so that no one could find me. I fear it is the first of many name changes. I am now calling myself Ravina. Thankfully, Underhill is amon enough name. I will not need to change that at all.


    The entries came fewer and fewer now. They were spaced out and it was like she only wrote from time to time because she was either too busy or had nothing to report.


    October 31, 1518


    Fynn is five today. He is strong, smart, and honorable just like his father. He wanted to know so much about his dad, but I just don''t have enough to tell him.


    April 30, 1523


    Ten years now. Fynn will be reaching the age where he can shift into a wolf, if he has one, very soon. I cannot believe it has been this long already. And I have never loved another man since. My heart still yearns for my mate that I barely got to know. And even though it''s been ten years, I have not aged a day. I still look twenty-one; however, everyone else continues to get older around us. I think we will need to move again soon.


    September 19, 1526


    Fynn shifted today. He has a wolf that is strong and powerful. It is red, like his hair, but I can see so much more to the color. Is that just my imagination, or is his father still there with him in spirit?


    January 22, 1532


    We stayed too long in this vige. I should have left long ago. Fynn is almost eighteen now, and I still look the same. People have noticed that I am not aging. I think they will use me of being a witch soon.


    April 30, 1540


    Twenty-seven years. That is how long it has been. My son is a grown man, and I have just now told him what he really is. He seems to have his father''s longevity, his extended life. And somehow I inherited it as well. I continue not to age, and Fynn stopped aging long ago.


    April 30, 1550


    I have changed names again. I am going with Patience now. I have to have patience with the people of the world, or I will lose my temper with them. Fynn changed his name as well. He now goes by Beacon. I also notice now, that I am only writing on the anniversary of my lost love''s death. Not every anniversary, but some of them.


    April 30 1560


    Ten more years and another move ising for us. It seems ten years is the max we can stay somewhere. And I have had to resort to referring to my son as my brother or cousin. Otherwise people get suspicious of us right away.


    I skimmed the rest of the entries. It seemed they moved around Europe and Asia and then eventually came to the ''New World'' sometime at the beginning of the eighteenth century. They didn''t have an easy life. Ellyria went through several names before having the one that Gabriel had first found: Ellyria, Ravina, Patience, Joselyn, Josephina, and finally Jazmin. She reused some of the names apparently, but not for long. Gordon, my great grandfather, had been born Fynn then went through his list of names: Beacon, Eleazar, Kiran, Raiden, Toivo, Truman, and then finally Gordon.


    My family, on both sides, had suffered so much tragedy. By the time that I was done, I couldn''t help it, but I was sobbing for them all. And to know that Gordon had met his mate, found his love and gotten married only to be shipped off to war and die before he could meet his daughter. He suffered the same fate that his father had. It broke me.


    "Shhh." Reece shushed me over and over. I couldn''t stop crying for a long time. I do actually believe that I fell asleep in his arms before the tears stopped, and neither of us said a word the whole time, it was just Reece''s shushing noises.

 Chapter 398 - Trinity - Contacting The Fae Queen (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 398 - Trinity - Contacting The Fae Queen (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The day after I read the letters, I felt rested and rejuvenated. I also realized that Reece had been the one to get up in the middle of the night to feed the babies with the stored milk. However, since I hadn''t gotten up at all through the night, I had more milk than I needed for the morning so I asked Reece if he could feed Regan and Rika again and let me pump out the excess to store forter.


    He agreed with noint, and it was getting easier now that the babies were older. They could hold the bottles on their own, and Reece just needed to keep an eye on them. The whole time that I was pumping for the morning I thought about what I needed to do.


    In truth, I needed to call the Fae Queen and let her know what had happened. She might even be able to help us figure out who my Fae ancestors are. If they were still alive that is. I already knew that my great great grandfather had died, but aside from that I didn''t know who was family and who wasn''t. This was going to be difficult.


    After Reece left and went to work for the day, I asked L to watch the babies while I worked on contacting the Fae Queen. I didn''t know how to do it since I didn''t know if she had a phone.


    "Hey Trinity, how is it going?" Acacia answered the phone almost immediately. Her babies were almost six months old now and she sounded like she was tired.


    "Hey, Casey. You sound tired."


    "Oh, that I am, the boys are so exhausting, they are into everything. I look away for one second, and they''ve crawled two rooms away already. It''s crazy how fast they are." I wasughing at it as she spoke, but I knew the feeling. Mine were the same way.


    "Yeah, I can imagine. Two is hard, I can''t even imagine three."


    "I love it though. I love being a mommy."


    "Me too. Hey, listen, I need to talk to Queen Gloriana."


    "Aunt Glory? Why? Is something wrong?"


    "Not wrong, not really anyway. But I need to talk to her about something really important."


    "OK, I will tell you how to do it. She might be busy since she was joining the nobles on the hunt, and that canst for a long time. If she doesn''t answer, just leave a message, she will get back to you when she can."


    After that Casey told me how to send a message to the Queen. She said since I had magic already I should be able to do it no problem. Apparently, I needed to stand before a mirror and ce my hand on its surface. After that I just needed to concentrate on who I was contacting, pour magic into the mirror, and speak a few precise words.


    I went to my room and pulled a chair over in front of the full length mirror in the corner. I ced a hand on the surface, pulled the magic to the surface, thought of the Queen the way she was when we visited her, and then spoke the words that Casey told me to say.


    "Mirror to mirror, person to person, connect us now, a message I must send."


    I literally thought that I would get some sort of ringing sound that came next. It didn''t, that would be too convenient.? However, the entire mirror did fog over, and I couldn''t see my reflection in the mirror anymore at all.


    The fog swirled around in different patterns and I was having fun trying to see what the shapes were before they disappeared. I guess I was easily amused at the moment.


    "Oh look, a pretty flower. And that one there is a moose. Now some trees." I called them all out like an idiot. Cats, dogs, fish, people, food, even words. This was some pretty talented fog if you ask me.


    When the mirror lit up, and someone was standing on the other side, it was not the Queen as I had expected.


    "What do you want?" Curtis, Queen Gloriana''s consort was the one who answered the mirror, the call? I don''t know how to put it.


    "Hello Curtis." I smiled at him and nodded my head. "I need to speak with Queen Gloriana."


    "She''s busy. What? Do you think she has the time to talk to just anyone?" His tone was much more aggressive than I had thought it would be. OK, what the hell crawled up his butt and died?


    "Perhaps you do not remember me, Curtis. I am Queen Trinity, the Queen of the Shifter wolves and the magic folk."


    Apparently he had forgotten who I was, and the paling in his face and eyes was enough to tell me that he hadn''t expected what he had just heard. I could also see a couple bright spots blooming on his cheeks like he was very embarrassed by the fact that I had needed to remind him of whom he was talking to.


    "Now, Curtis, I have something important to talk to the Queen about. Could you please ask her if she is avable or let me know when a better time to call her would be?"


    "I do apologize, Queen Trinity, but she just left on a trip that will take her a very long time. I can take a message and have her get back to you." He smirked like it was not something that he was sorry about at all.


    "CURTIS!?" I heard a sharp voice behind him, and I saw that he flinched. He really wasn''t having a good day. If he kept getting scared like that, I have a feeling he would have a heart attack. Still, this was a good, though interesting, development. I recognized that voice and I knew exactly who it was that hade in and yelled at the consort.

 Chapter 399 - Trinity - Discussion Among Queens (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 399 - Trinity - Discussion Among Queens (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "What are you doing in my room, Curtis? You know you are not allowed in my private quarters, especially when I am not here."


    "I am sorry, Glory, my love." Curtis put on a smile and looked at the woman who was scolding him. "I just heard that you had a call so I was going to take a message for you."


    "The mirror will record its own messages to give to meter. You may leave now, and do not forget your ce again, or you may just find yourself reced." The tone in Queen Gloriana''s voice and the darkness I saw in her eyes told me that Gabriel was right when he said she epassed all the magic of the Fae. She had darkness in her as well. And that made me wonder, was my Fae ancestor a dark Fae or a light Fae.


    "Yes, my love. I am very sorry to have overstepped." And just like that Curtis fled from the room as if someone or something was chasing him.


    "Trinity, my dear, what can I do for you?" Queen Gloriana looked at me with a sweet smile, all traces of the darkness gone from her eyes now, though she did wave her hand behind her, and the door to the room mmed shut very hard.


    "I thought you had gone out of town, Queen Gloriana. That is what Curtis said."


    "Yes, I am supposed to be leaving. However, I realized I forgot something so I came back to my room to get it." I could tell that she was not in the greatest of moods right now. Something was not going well for her. That was strange, considering how everything was mostly peaceful when we visited less than a year ago. "Oh, by the way. I got the birth announcement for your lovely children. They are so adorable, I just want to pinch their little cheeks. I am fortunate enough that Casey will bring the babies by to see me frequently. That is all that I can ask for. And Astraia, my niece, she sends me periodic updates and photos of her baby. He is almost four months old now."


    "Yes, I had heard that Star had her baby about a month and a half after me. It was quite amazing, to be honest, and I was happy to see that she and Artem have gotten married and adopted the children. They seem very happy now. I was thinking of seeing her again sometime soon." I was feeling nostalgia for the time that we visited them, and our children were so close in age, I really would like to see them again, even if just for the children.


    "Yes, I miss her as well." The Queen looked sad now, I knew how lonely she was without a mate after all this time. Anyway, we are getting off topic Trinity. Please, tell me what it is you need."


    "Ah, yes. I hate to keep you though. Aren''t you supposed to leave?" I didn''t want to upset her by taking her time.


    "Trinity, I am the queen, they need to wait for me. If they don''t, they will be punished." There was a slightugh in her voice when she said that, and it was a little on the dark side. She must be even angrier than I thought.


    "Alright. Well, the reason that I wanted to talk to you is that I had my personal assistant searching for information on my family for months. Over thest eight months he had discovered a lot of things that I never knew about." I kept the initial exnation vague to gauge how she was going to respond.


    "Interesting. And what exactly did he find?" She sat down gracefully in a chair that was positioned in front of the mirror.


    "Well, to be honest, he found out that my mother''s family was not just wolves. There was something else. And I was hoping that you might help me with that." I noticed that her eyes popped open in surprise, and the smile she gave me was very intrigued.


    "Ooh, do tell Trinity. I am curious to know what is going on now."


    "Well, to be honest, there is a Fae in my family tree. My assistant couldn''t find anything about him though. He was unable to find out anything about him or his family based on the information that he has." She gasped at my news and covered her mouth.


    "Fascinating. I really would like to hear more. I think you need toe for another visit. This time, as a Fae and not as a visiting ambassador. I think we need to delve deeper into this whole situation." The Queen was looking very happy right now. It was like this news had stopped her entire bad mood. That was good. I didn''t want to see her upset anymore.


    "When would be the best time to visit?" I wondered as I thought about things. "I don''t know your schedule."


    "Hmm." She put one of her dainty hands on her chin as she thought about it. "Well, this hunt can sometimesst for several weeks. The longest one in history was nearly three months. Then there is the awards ceremony that we must have. I do not think that would be a pleasant time to visit if you''re not already used to how things would be. The earliest then would be in the fall, but we Fae still celebrate a more traditional Samhain and that too can be ufortable for outsiders."


    She hummed as she thought about it. It was like she didn''t know what to say or do.


    "This really is hard." She leaned forward and put her elbows on her knees and thought some more. She looked so young and innocent when she did that, it was really hard for me to rectify the fact that she was thousands of years old when she looked so young and childish like that. "Oh, I know. It may be a long time away right now but how about the Yule celebration. That would be a wonderful time toe for a visit. That is the happiest time of the year for us, and I will see to it that you are all treated well. Everyone in your family is wee toe as well. I am sure that you are not the only one with this Fae blood. And I would so love to see the children for Yule."


    She was grinning now, happily trying to entice me toe visit at that time.


    "When does it start?" I wasn''t against going, especially if we could bring the whole family with us. That would make things a lot easier in the long run. We could leave Gabriel to run logistics here at the pack and have the Sentinelle protect thends and people.


    "It begins the second Sunday in December andsts for just over two and a half weeks. Twenty days in total. This year it will go until the new year as well so you will be here for both celebrations. And there is an amazing ball where everyone dresses up, it''s so wonderful."


    Yup, she looked all of twelve years old at the moment as she excitedly told me what was going to happen. I was happy just listening to her talk about it.


    "If we can bring the whole family then I am all for it. I think that will work perfectly. We will n to be there for the Yule celebration. Reagan and Rika will be just over a year old as well so they will be able to have some fun while we are there as well."


    "This is wonderful. I am going to see if I can get Astraia and Artem to join us as well. I can''t wait to see all the babies." She pped as she spoke, like her joy was too much to contain.


    We worked out a little more of the logistics before she said that she needed to go. At least now I knew that I had ns to figure this all out.

 Chapter 400 - Reece - Mother’s Day (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 400 - Reece - Mother¡¯s Day (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I don''t really think that my Little Bunny was paying much attention to the date. She had been so focused on the stuff that had to do with her ancestors that I think she forgot what the date was.


    I was getting up early and taking the babies down stairs so that I could make a special breakfast for my mate. I wanted to be part of it at least. I wanted to help Abigail with everything. I even had Peter helping out. He was keeping an eye on the babies while I prepared for everything.


    I didn''t want to ask Mom to help because the special breakfast was for her too. Today was mother''s day. It was my wife''s first Mother''s Day ever, and it was my mom''s first since bing a grandmother. This was a special day for the two of them. I even had Reagan and Rika dressed in cute little outfits.


    By the time that Trinity and Mom came down to breakfast, the food was ready, and Trinity was confused.


    "Why didn''t you wake me up?"


    "What? I thought you deserved to sleep in, especially on your first ever Mother''s Day." She gasped in surprise when she heard what I said.


    "I..i..it''s not Mother''s Day. Is it?" She tilted her head in confusion.


    "It is." Mom smiled at her. "Did you really not notice?"


    "Oh my Goddess." My Little Bunny buried her face in her hands. "Ipletely spaced it all out. I didn''t get anyone anything. L I am so sorry. And Mom too, I didn''t get her anything. And Abigail, you''re a mom and grandmother, and I didn''t get you anything either. I missed Mother''s Day for everyonest year because we were in France, and this year I was so stupid that I spaced it out. I am horrible."


    "You''re not horrible." Mom put her hands on Trinity''s shoulders and spoke to her with a soft tone while she smiled. "Trinity honey, this is your first Mother''s Day, you get the gifts not give them. Don''t worry about it at all. I am sure that Eve will say the same thing."


    "Mom''s right. This is your day, baby. Don''t fret over anything. I have a whole day nned for you and our moms. So don''t worry about a thing." I leaned in and kissed her cheek. "Come on, I helped Abigail make breakfast today. I think it''s best if we enjoy it while it''s still warm."


    We sat down and enjoyed the food then. I had helped with preparing bacon, sausage, pancakes, poached eggs, and lots of fruit to top it all off. They both enjoyed the food, and not to mention the freshly squeezed orange juice that we prepared for them.


    Following breakfast, Eve and Wesley came over. They told Trinity the same thing Mom and I did; she didn''t need to worry about the gifts at all. They brought stuff for her. There was a picture frame for putting a family photo in. There were choctes, flowers, a teddy bear that said mom, a lot of things. I knew she would get all the cliched traditional stuff from them so I wanted to do something special.


    We hadn''t had a professionally-done family portrait since Christmas. We had gotten monthly pictures of the twins, but not family photos. I wanted to include more of the family than Trinity would usually expect. That''s why shortly after Eve and Wesley, Samuel arrived and then so did the photographer.


    We got pictures with just the four of us. Pictures of just Trinity and the babies and then just me and the babies. Of course just the babies themselves too. Next just Mom and the babies, Eve and Wesley with them, and of course Samuel with them. Then we got a collective Grandparent photo with all of them. Andstly we got a photo with all eight of us. I think it made the whole thing that much more special for my Little Bunny because I included our parents in the pictures.


    After all the pictures were done, we took the babies into town with us and went out to eat. It was the first time that we had taken them to dinner with us. We hadn''t really had the chance to go out all that often, but I thought it was a good idea to go now.


    We went to a nicer restaurant, but I was confident that the babies would behave themselves. And when they tried to tell me that they didn''t have a children''s menu for them I told them that was fine; if they got hungry my wife would feed them. That also earned us a little bit of scorn, but then they happened to find out who we were and that put an end to the whole situation. We were seated immediately, and the manager came over to apologize for the inconsiderate host at the door.


    The meal was wonderful, and Reagan and Rika had eaten just before we left so we didn''t have to worry about feeding them while we were there. It was all just fine. I also think that Trinity enjoyed going out like this for the first time in a long time.


    And true to what I thought, the babies really were calm the whole meal. All we had to do was give them each a toy, and they were content. Though I don''t know if it was just my imagination or not, but I swear I saw Rika''s toy float through the air for just a moment. I think I am going to need to talk to my Little Bunny about this soon. If Rika is already using magic, this could be disastrous in the future.


    On another hand, my children really, truly were special. I just wonder what else they were going to do to surprise us. Whatever it is, I am sure it is going to be something really amazing, just like the two of them.

 Chapter 401 - Reece - Father’s Day (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 401 - Reece - Father¡¯s Day (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Trinity nned something almost as special for me on Father''s Day as I did for her on Mother''s Day. Only she had the food brought to me in bed. There were no other fathers in the house aside from Peter, and he didn''t like to celebrate for himself anymore.


    Mom had suggested that we go out for a little bit without the babies to celebrate. We were going to catch a movie, go to lunch, maybe do some shopping. It felt nice just thinking about going out.


    While I was eating my breakfast in bed, Trinity was sitting on the couch watching Reagan and Rika y. I think Reagan kept looking at me eating and reaching while making a hungry face.


    "No Reagan, you can''t have Daddy''s food." Trinity pulled him back from where he had crawled to.


    When my Little Bunny turned and grabbed some clothes from a nearby drawer, the strangest thing happened. A piece of my bacon from my te rose into the air and flew straight to Reagan''s outstretched hand.


    Reagan promptly stuck the food into his mouth and started to gnaw at it with his four little baby teeth.


    "Reagan?" I gasped in shock causing Trinity to turn around and stare at me in shock.


    "Reece, he''s too young for bacon." She scolded me and ran to the boy where she started to pry the food from his tiny little hand.


    "I didn''t give it to him, he took it."


    "Right, what did he do, fly up there to take it?" Sheughed at me.


    "No, he flew it to him. His magic is getting stronger."


    "What?" She stopped what she was doing and stared at me.


    Reagan took advantage of her distraction and shoved the bacon back into his greedy little mouth.


    "H..h..he really made it f..f...f...fly to him?"


    "Yes." I nodded my head and looked at our boy. "He''s definitely powerful, just like his mommy." I was smiling, grinning happily that my son was so strong.


    "Yeah, but he can hurt himself with magic. I think we need to call Crawford and ask him what we should do about this." Crawford was the leader of the Aerie Convento, and the highest authority in the warlock and witchmunity next to Trinity. If anyone knew what to do about this he would.


    After I ate, I showered first, then I watched the twins so that my Little Bunny could shower. I was having my daily dose of daddy bonding time with them, and they were crawling around their room and ying.


    Reagan and Rika were currently about five feet apart when they stopped and looked at each other. They sat on their bottoms and started to babble and make sounds. They hadn''t actually talked before so I wasn''t expecting much from this little exchange of theirs. It was like they were talking to each other and having a real conversation.


    I was just smiling and watching them when I heard it.


    "M..m..mmm..mm...mama." Rika''s babbling turned into her first word, and I just about lost it. I didn''t make a sound though, I didn''t want to stop them from ''talking'' to each other. I did, however, grab my phone and start recording it.


    "M..mm..ma...m..m..mama." Reagan babbled simrly, but just a little different. That was just the beginning of it all.


    "M..mm..mama."


    "Ma..mammm..mama."


    "Mama, mama." Rika was getting more confident in her word and saying it easier now.


    "Mma..ma..mama, mama." Reagan babbled a little more, but said the name twice as well. Next they started saying it at the same time.


    "Mama, mama, mama."


    "Mama, mama, mama."


    My heart was literally melting. I couldn''t believe they did this for the first time when Trinity wasn''t in the room.


    "Why did you guys do this without mommy here?" Iughed as I watched them. "Also, it''s Father''s Day, you need to say dada. Come on, say dada." I was trying to entice them to say my name instead as I sat there on the floor next to them.


    They looked at me and giggled almost at the exact same time which was so cute. Almost as if on some sort ofmand, they came at me at the same time. They crawled and then pulled themselves into a standing position using my legs. They were attacking me with their cuteness.


    "Come on, say dada."


    "D..d..d..d." Rika started it, and Reagan followed.


    "Dd..d..d.dd."


    "That''s it, say dada." I was still filming them.


    "D..d..d..mama."


    "D..d..d..mama." At exactly the same time they twin synced and psyched me out.


    "That was mean." I set my phone aside and tickled them as I picked them up. Their giggles were full of love, cuteness, and baby evilness.


    "What''s going on in here?" My Little Bunny came back all cleaned and refreshed while I had Reagan and Rika piled on my chest and tickling them.


    "Trinity, you need to see this." I called her over as I sat up. She took Reagan and sat next to me while I sat Rika on my knees.


    The moment that she saw the video she started to cry.


    "I missed it. I missed their first word."


    "I recorded it for you, you didn''t miss it."


    Having sense that Mommy was sad Rika leaned over, and Reagan reached up.


    "Mama?"


    "M..Mama?" They didn''t like that Mommy was sad.


    "My babies." She hugged them both to her and sobbed. "You''re getting so big."


    It was hard to get her to leave the babies after that, but they said mama several more times, and she seemed to be happy with that. Finally, we went on another date. We did everything that was nned, but the shopping was mostly for the babies instead of us. They truly were all we thought about. That was fine, it just proved that we were loving parents.

 Chapter 402 - Trinity - Situation At The Mall (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 402 - Trinity - Situation At The Mall (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I took the babies shopping with me when I went for a birthday present for Reece. They were almost seven months old now, just a couple days away now. I couldn''t believe it, where was time going?


    Juniper was with me for the trip and so were Thoma and Izzy. They had been going with me more frequently when I left the house. And since I was going to the mall, I thought they would like that. They needed to find their own ce in the world as well.


    They had both found mates, which was amazing, one had been among my pack and the other was in Landon''s feline pack; Izzy had mated with a bobcat. They were getting better with their adjustment to the modern world, but it was still hard sometimes.


    I didn''t know what to get Reece today though. I was here to shop for him and didn''t know what to get him. I was thinking I could get him a new suit so that he could mix up what he wore every now and then, but I didn''t know if he would like that.


    He always wore ck suits, and they looked great on him. But I thought he might want to try something a little different for once. I was in the store browsing the color choices when I came across two that I thought were perfect.


    The two suits were still dark colors so I think he might actually wear them. One was a navy blue and the other was a dark forest green. You could tell they weren''t ck, but they were both still very dark, and I thought Reece might actually wear them for once.


    I picked out shirts that would go with them as well, something other than white or gray. I also got him a couple of monogrammed pocket squares and ties. I was making the whole ensemble tie together.


    While I was there, I even looked at new watches, but nothing could beat the one that I had made for him for our first Christmas together. He still wore that watch too, which was amazing. I loved that he did that.


    I had taken to wearing the jewelry he had gotten me. That meant that I stopped wearing my mother''s ne which I had all my life, but I still had it tucked safely into my jewelry box.


    After shopping, Juniper and I took the babies to the y area that was in the center of the mall. It was designed for babies a year old or less. There was another one next to it meant for toddlers and another on the other side meant for older kids. It was really nice to have ces like this for them.


    "Rowan seems to be the calmer of my two. na on the other hand, she is a handful." Weughed together as we watched the four babies crawl around the soft surfaces and explore the sensory toys.


    "Reagan is my handful. He is a mommy''s boy, and he cries when most people hold him. I love it, butpared to Rika, he is the handful. Plus, there are the little incidents that the two of them put us through. If it wasn''t for Crawfording to give us a binding bracelet for each of the twins, then we''d still have a hard time trying to hide it from other people."


    I was exining to her about the tool that Crawford made for us to help with the babies. I was happy since I didn''t know what to do about it.


    "Will the bracelets hurt them?" Juniper sounded worried as she thought about it.


    "No, it just makes them unable to use the gifts they have. They''re still there."


    I watched as Reagan, standing on his two little legs, bounced up and down like he wanted to jump, but couldn''t figure out how. He was wearing his little bracelet around his ankle and so was Rika. They would move to their wrists when they were older, but for now this was what we had to do.


    It made me think briefly of the Hidden Paw pack, but this wasn''t hurting them at all. This was keeping them safe. And thinking about that pack made me remember that Star and Artem had agreed to go to the Yule celebration this year. We would be there for their babies first Christmas.


    While the two of us talked some more, I kept feeling like something was off. Something was wrong, but I didn''t see anything at all. Whenever I was at the mall, I always felt like someone was watching me. It was most likely because someone was usually watching, people watchers are everywhere. Still, today was different.


    While I thought about this, I saw a shadow swoop in and grab a hold of something. Only it wasn''t a something, it was a someone. Someone had just run up and grabbed Reagan.


    A man was running away from the y area as fast as his human legs could carry him. Thoma was standing closest and started to chase him like a good guard, she wasn''t close enough to stop it, but she was going to try and take care of it.


    "Izzy, Juniper, please watch Rika." I picked her up and handed her to my best friend before I took off and chased after the man with my child.


    I was naturally faster than Thoma, being the Shifter Queen, and I was also able to call on my magic to make me run faster. I was gaining on the man who was running toward the door to the mall. I could hear Reagan crying in the asshole''s arms, he wanted me, he wanted his mommy.


    "Mommy''sing, Reagan." I whispered even though I knew he couldn''t hear the words. "Mommy''sing, baby boy."


    I caught up to the man and screamed at him, that made him hesitate for just a second as he looked back at me.


    "Give me back my baby!"


    "What the fuck." There was fear in the man''s eyes, but I was already to him, Thoma hot on my heels.


    I grabbed the man''s shirt and pulled him toward me as I reached for my son. I had the baby in my arms and was already aiming a kick right into his most sensitive area all in the blink of an eye.


    The asshole screamed in pain and fell to the ground.


    "And never use thatnguage around babies, you jerk." I red at him as Thoma held him down. He was still in a state of shock and awe that he had been caught, and so soon.


    "What did you want with the baby?" Thomas asked as she moved him about roughly.


    "Fuck you!" He yelled at her so I kicked him again.


    "Don''t talk like that in front of babies." He screamed again. "Now what did you want with my baby?" I red at him and put every ounce of authority into my voice that I could. He responded to me better than he did to Thoma, even though he was human and not affected by my power.


    "I wanted money. I was going to hold him for ransom." He sobbed, afraid I was going to kick him again.


    "Were you working alone?" He shook with fear every time I looked at him.


    "No, I had a partner. He scoped you out and left just as I did. He''s over there." He pointed at the man who tried to bolt away. Thoma was on him in a second and had him secured the same as the first scumbag.


    The cops showed up then, led by Devon Scott, E''s husband, and one of the newest wolves of the pack. He had been changed into a wolf by Reece because of the new ability he had gained.


    "Ah, Devon, I am d you''re here. These two men tried to kidnap my baby." I started to exin what happened.


    "I am d you got him back, but I am sure Reece is going to be scared that you took matters into your own hands. I will take care of these two. I can imagine that Reece is going to see to it they''re punished severely."


    "What can he do? It doesn''t matter if he wants something done or not, he''s just a man." The second man that Thoma was holding down was yelling at me so I walked over to him, a smirk on my face.


    "Have you ever heard of Reece Gray, the billionaire?" I eyed him carefully. "Well, you just tried to kidnap his son."


    That sent the people in the mall into a frenzy. They hadn''t known who I was before, but they did now. I had called Reagan my son and Reece''s son. The fear was in the man''s eyes like I wanted, but there were now pictures being snapped repeatedly of me and Reagan.


    The next day there were photos everywhere, and the headlines didn''t make me feel any better about the previous day.


    The reclusive Mrs. Gray catches kidnapper as he snatches son.


    They mentioned that there were twins, and even got Rika''s name as well. Now the whole world knows the names of my children. That pissed me off.

 Chapter 403 - Trinity - Walking (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 403 - Trinity - Walking (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    We had to fend off the paparazzi for a while, but it finally died down. The kidnappers had been sent away, and the babies were safe. I was enjoying the down time and was just generally happy that everything was peaceful for us right now.


    And Devon had been right. Reece was pissed off when he found out what had happened. He wanted to go down to the station and beat the shit out of the person as soon as I told him what happened. I had to forbid him from doing so because we didn''t need word of that getting out at all. I had to remind him that Reagan and I were both OK at least a hundred times before he settled down enough to think straight.


    It was August the thirty-first right now, which made it technically one day after Reagan turned nine months old and the day before Rika turned nine months old. It was funny how months made them further apart in age. I could always tell Reagan he lost his month older status because February doesn''t have a thirtieth.


    The babies were getting so big now, bigger than I thought they would be at this age. If youpared them to how little they were when they were born, they were giants. They were off the charts for heightspared to Griffin, and they were developing amazingly well.


    They enjoyed exploring and having fun together too. I knew it wouldn''tst forever so I wanted to enjoy the cooperation while I could. Eventually, they would fight and argue like most siblings did.


    I was finishing up a paper for school, having gone back after taking the spring and summer semesters off. My ss load was still just two sses though. I needed to have the chance to watch my babies. The good news, though, is I had done so many sses in the beginning, loading them up when I was on lock down, that I was still on track to graduate in the next year or so at max.


    We were in the living room when Reece came home from work. He always came right to us and said hello before he did anything else. Usually we opened the gate, and let the babies crawl to him; that always made Reece smile happily and his eyes to mist over.


    I went about the same routine as I always did. I opened the gate to the y yard, and then walked over to kiss my husband and wee him home. We turned to look at Reagan and Rika, and they were both holding onto the sides of the y yard and looking at us curiously.


    "Come on." Reece bent down and beckoned them to him. I knelt next to him and did the same.


    "Come on you two,e give Daddy his hugs.


    That was when the most amazing thing in the world happened. Reagan and Rika held each other''s hands and started to take steps toward us. They had been walking while holding onto things for weeks, but this was the first time that they walked without assistance.


    And they were walking together too. That was just so cute. Neither of us thought to take our phones out to record it; all we could do was stare at them in awe as they took eight steps in total. They were right in front of us, but they lost their bnce and fell back onto their bottoms.


    "You walked!" I cried out.


    "They''re walking!" Reece added.


    At our outburst, L came running from down the hall where she was painting a picture.


    "They''re walking? Already? And I missed it." She was so happy yet so sad as she watched Reece and I hold the babies against our chests and hug each other. It was a hug with all four of us. It was a family hug. and I couldn''t have been happier.


    We watched them like hawks over the next few days. It didn''t take long for us to see them walking again. This time they were walking toward each other until they met in the middle and hugged each other. Between Reece and I, we filmed the whole thing. He had Rika on his video and I had Reagan. We filmed them until they hugged and then fell to their bottoms.


    "Ree Ree." Reagan said his sister''s name to the best of his ability.


    "Rea." Rika did the same.


    I wished that this love for each other wouldst. This was the sweetest, most perfect thing that I had ever seen. They really were the best of friends, even though they had y dates once or twice a week with all the other babies. Even Jackson''s little girl Melody, and Heather''s twins, a boy named Tyler and a girl named Charlotte, were finally here and able toe to the weekly meetings. This was going to be an interesting couple years, twenty two babies in the course of a year and that was just for those close to me. What was going to happen with them all? It would be interesting to see.


    Over the next few months, the babies went from barely walking to running. Their words cleared up, and they were able to say more things. L was Lolo, mom was Nono, dad was easy for them since he was just Papa. Grandfather was recently shortened to Momo.


    They even had names for their aunts and uncles. Some were funnier than others, but it was still cute: No No and Nin, Car Car and Emm Emm, and Ry Ry and Kay Kay.


    We were now getting close to their first birthday, and all I could think about was that time had run away, and I couldn''t believe that it had been a year already. I even found myself crying that they were almost a year old already. It didn''t seem possible at all.


    I caught Reece staring into their cribs one night about a week before their birthday. He was crying silently, and he would go back and forth between them as he rubbed their heads gently. Even he was sad that time was moving so quickly.


    He was such a good dad, so sweet and gentle with them at all times. We really were a lucky family.

 Chapter 404 - Trinity - First Birthdays Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 404 - Trinity - First Birthdays Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece and I had been nning these days for thest couple weeks. As sad as it was that the twins were already one, it was exciting as well. We were having their party with everyone over the weekend after their actual birthdays. That way we could celebrate with them before anyone else. Mom, Dad, Grandfather, and L were the only onesing to celebrate on the days of their actual birthdays. Well, I guess you can say that Noah was too, since he would be at the house, but he had to cover Reece''s work while we celebrated with the kids. He would be able to drop by though so it was like he was there to celebrate with us.


    Reece and I woke up early so that we could decorate the house for Reagan''s first birthday. The twins had different birthdays so we were going to celebrate them individually instead of making them share everything. When they have their big party it will be shared, but Mommy and Daddy would treat them as individuals.


    One of Reagan''s favorite things right now were dinosaurs. He called them dine dine and tried to collect every dinosaur that he saw. We had gotten a lot of party supplies that had dinosaurs on them. Tiny little party hats, banners, balloons, cut outs, everything we could get to decorate the house. And we had bought a lot of it too.


    When we were done there wasn''t a ce in the main part of the house that wasn''t covered in dinosaurs. Abigail made a special breakfast and a special birthday cake. Well, two cakes really. There was a small little dinosaur shaped smash cake that was all for him. And all the cakes were baby friendly.


    When it was time to go and get the babies out of their beds I felt the excitement bubbling inside of me. I was sad that this first year was gone already, I truly was, but there was nothing stopping me from being excited for my little boy.


    Reece and I had the dinosaur party hats on so when we went into the room where Reagan and Rika were bouncing in their beds, Reagan saw them immediately.


    "Mama dine dine, Dada dine dine." Reagan was giggling and pping his hands at the sight of us.


    "Mama, Dada." Rika was giggling as well since we were dressed in a way that we usually weren''t. "Mama hat." Rika pointed at my head with a smile.


    "Dine dine hat." I loved the way they talked with us, it was so cute.


    "Reagan, do you know what today is?" Reece picked him up and tossed him into the air. "Today is your birthday. It''s not the time that you were born yet, but today you turn one year old."


    "Mommy''s big boy." I kissed his cheek before I went to get Rika out of the bed.


    The morning routine followed of getting them dressed and ready for the day and then we went down to breakfast. The twins were getting more and more solid foods added to their diet and starting tomorrow they were going to get whole milk mixed into the breast milk they drank. I was pumping exclusively now too so that they could feed themselves with their sippy cups. So that was one less thing that I did every day with them. That too was a little sad, but they also tended to bite so I had to stop nursing.


    Following breakfast, we had a little dance party with Reagan and Rika in the living room while we waited for everyone else to get to the house. They wereing over around lunchtime so that we could eat together and party together. The way the twins moved when they danced was so cute as well. They shook their little bottoms and moved their arms wildly. It was super adorable.


    When Mom, Dad, and Grandfather got to the house, they were immediately rushed by the twins. Rika was a Daddy''s girl, but she loved her Momo. There were gifts today, but just one for each of them as the rest wereing at the party. We were giving him a gift today too.


    The first thing that we did when they all got to the house was have the lunch that Abigail had made for us. She had gone all out and made things that she knew that Reagan liked. He was happy to be shoving the little bits of food in his mouth while also sipping from his cup. He was getting to be such an independent little boy.


    The cake, the presents, and the love of the grandparents all went over smoothly. The party was a total sess. And then we did the exact same thing the next day with Rika, only her decoration theme was butterflies. They were currently her favorite thing in the entire world. She also had a smash cake made just for her and a lunch full of her favorite foods, mostly fruit for her. The two days in a row was hard since it was the first time, and we weren''t used to it at all yet, but I wouldn''t have changed a thing about it at all. Except for maybe having a little more time with my babies being little babies instead of growing so fast into giants that were already so much taller and bigger than when they were born. That brought a tear to my eye, one that was both happy and sad.


    Now that these two personal parties were over we had a day off before the big pack bash. They may only be turning one, but they were the children of the Alpha and Luna as well as the children of the King and Queen. This was major for the pack, and it was going to be as big, if not bigger, than our wedding. The good thing is this one was a lot more fun. And even though it was being held inside, we still had a lot of fun thingsing.

 Chapter 405 - Trinity - First Birthdays Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 405 - Trinity - First Birthdays Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    That one day of peace that I thought I was going to get between Rika''s birthday and the birthday party on Saturday didn''t end up happening at all. No, I was too busy for any moment of it to be considered peaceful or restful.


    I spent the day getting the entire first two floors of the house ready. I had staff helping, yeah, but I wanted to do some of it too since they were my babies, and I should be part of the whole process.


    Reece was on the first floor getting various bounce houses delivered that would be good for kids of all different ages. There was an older kid room with obstacle courses andrge y areas and then there was a room meant for the babies and toddlers. Those for the little babies had nothing but soft sides for the babies to bounce on and giggle andy. Even those younger than Reagan and Rika should be able to have fun in these specially-designed baby bouncers.


    Abigail had a lot of work to do as well. She had enlisted the help of several others, mostly people in her family, to bake lots of little cakes and tiny pies. After all the little ones, she set to work on two big cakes that were meant for the babies to blow out the candles on, with my and Reece''s help of course. Therge cakes were what the bulk of the party attendees would eat for the dessert.


    After all of the sweets were done, Abigail started to prepare all the food for the party. It would save her a lot of time the next day if she did it all today, and I know that Abigail wanted to finish early tomorrow so that she could be part of the celebrations.


    That day was so busy that L ended up watching Regan and Rika almost all day. We saw them at meals, and when it was time to get them ready for bed, but that was it. I was just d that we didn''t need to rush so much in the morning to finish it all now. I would be able to have a little bit of rxing time before the party.


    Oh, how fucking wrong I was. After showering and dressing, I was running nonstop all morning. The party was supposed to start at noon, an eptable time I would have thought, but it was met withints by at least half of the invited guests; it was either toote in the day or too early in the day. Well, I guess we can''t please everyone.


    We had a band of helpers that were here with us early, most of which were grandparents or guards and their wives, husbands, or future husbands. Now that I think about it, the only one of my Goddess guards that hasn''t met a mate yet was Gabriel. I wonder if he will find one soon?


    Now wasn''t the time to be thinking about him though. I needed to pull this party off. I guess this wasn''t the life of a normal queen, but I just don''t know how to be a queen yet.


    Oh and nice, look, guests are showing up early. It wasn''t even eleven thirty, and we already had nearly a hundred guests here. I know that they were eager to see the babies and the Shifter Queen, but that didn''t help when I had a million things to do.


    "Queen Trinity." Gabriel beckoned me to the side for a private talk. "Now that people have begun to arrive, might I suggest that you stop attempting to assist with the party and take on the role of hostess and noble."


    "Gabriel, thank you." I smiled at him while the relief was setting in. "I need to start being proper now, don''t I?" I giggled at him.


    "I would assume so." He smiled at me. "Perhaps you can use some of that handy magic of yours next time you need to do all of this. I think you will find it all a little easier." His wink almost made meugh.


    "Yeah, but I have been trying not to use that around the babies since they have been trying to mimic me." I shuddered at the thought of what they would someday be capable of.


    "They are so much like their mother. Now while they aren''t looking, be your own fairy godmother so you can go greet the guests."


    "Thank you."


    I did as he suggested and used magic to fix my clothes, hair, and even makeup. I had been practicing with it, but I didn''t like to rely on it too much, not yet anyway. Maybe as time went on, I wouldn''t mind doing it all with magic.


    Now that I looked presentable, it was time to get this party for my little ones started, and the first thing that I needed to do was find their father. He was not getting out of this at all. He was my husband, my mate, my partner in this whole queen and king thing. He needed to be right here by my side helping me. Not to mention, that I just really did not want to face a thousand pack members that I barely knew all on my own.


    When I found Reece, he seemed to be in hiding, trying to y with Reagan and Rika more than anything else.


    "Reece." I called out to him, and I saw him stiffen. His guilty expression clearly said ''oh no, she found me''.


    "Yes, dear?" He smiled at me and didn''t mention anything else.


    "Pleasee with me. We have quite a bit of work to do." I grinned at him. He was definitely not happy about needing to do his job now.


    "B..but I was ying with Reagan."


    "Reagan will be just fine with his Uncle Trevor. Isn''t that right." I looked at the man in question.


    "That''s right, my Queen." Trevor grinned and yed along with me. "I will take good care of the young Prince so that the King may get back to his duties." It looked like He was trying hard not tough.


    "Traitor." Reece whispered at him.


    "Reece."

 Chapter 406 - Reece - First Birthdays Part 3 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 406 - Reece - First Birthdays Part 3 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I had been ying with Reagan and Rika all morning. My Little Bunny on the other hand had been running all over the house making sure that everything for the day was ready. Family had been invited toe early so that they didn''t have to wade through the massive horde of shifters and warlocks when the party started.


    The problem was, that a lot of guests had started to show up early, and by that I am referring to the guests that hadn''t been invited toe early. There were a lot of overly eager and excited guests that just wanted to be here early to see who and what they could.


    I was just doing my best to avoid them, and everyone really. I just wanted to be with my children and my friends and family. Was that so bad?


    Apparently it was. Trinity came and found me while I was hiding away. I could tell that she was a little upset with me. I was the Alpha of this pack even if she did outrank me as the Queen of all the shifters. I was the one that knew almost everyone in the pack, at least a little. Then again, my wife being who she was, meant that we had more than just wolf shifters here, and all the warlocks and witches that were here fell under her territory as well.


    I think, in all honesty, she just wanted me at her side for moral support. That''s what the consort to the Queen was supposed to be, right? Not that I was just a consort, I was her husband and that made me the king. But our world of shadow dwellers was a matriarchy, so king or not, I was nothingpared to her.


    I allowed myself to be led from the room while theughter of my friends followed behind. It was time to y the part of a proper host like I would have done if this was just a normal pack and I was still the highest authority in thesends.


    Trinity and I went to greet all the guests that were already here, though they shouldn''t have even been in the house yet. The thing that got me though, were these were the guests that got starstruck around my adorable little mate.


    That still made meugh sometimes, not in a bad way though. These people were starstruck and literally afraid of my wife, their queen. They saw her as someone they could barely approach and all my Little Bunny ever really wanted was to be friendly and cooperative with just about everyone that she met. They really didn''t know what her true nature was like.


    Several of the guests were disappointed that we didn''t bring Reagan and Rika with us. They wanted to meet the Prince and Princess.


    "I was so looking forward to seeing them in person." Several of them said dejectedly.


    "Oh, there will still be time for thatter. We''re just making rounds to greet the guests so far. The twins are ying at the moment and we will be bringing them along with us soon." My wife was so smart and capable. She handled those situations with ease and grace befitting someone who called themselves the leader of these people. There was a reply that we usually got to her response, it wasn''t word for word from everyone but they were close enough I guess.


    "Oh, that is wonderful. I can''t wait to meet them, and my children are just in awe of finally meeting a real life Prince and Princess." I thought that they should be just as excited to meet a Queen and King, but hey that''s just me.


    Over the course of an hour all the guests, or most of them at least, had arrived. Now that they were all here the party could "officially" start, and it also meant that I was finally done greeting people.


    The formal ballroom was the central point for the party and that''s where they all were at the current moment. I was just really d that the room was way bigger than it absolutely needed to be. I would have hated trying to cram all of these people into a room that was too small.


    After the introductions had finished Trinity and I went to get Reagan and Rika. After that we headed to the stage that was in the ballroom. Trinity was about to give a speech.


    "Hello guests, friends, family, I want to thank you all foring to celebrate with us today. We are overjoyed to be celebrating the first birthdays of our twins. These two little ones are the heart and soul of our little family and I am beyond thankful that they have amunity that cares about them as much as we do. Most of you have never had the chance to be properly introduced to the twins before, so without further ado, Reece and I would like to present to you Reagan Kincaid Gray and Rika Sarai Gray."


    After my Little Bunny announced the babies and their full names to the crowd there was a wave of nearly deafening cheers. Both Reagan and Rika covered their ears and scrunched their little faces against the noise. Their unique eyes squinted as they made nearly identical movements. Reagan, who had Trinity''s dark brown hair, had primarily honey colored eyes that matched mine but there was a very thin line of the bright blue of his mommy''s eye color ringing the honey on the outside and the inside. It was almost like someone set a honey colored circle inside of a blue circle that was just a little bigger than it was. Rika''s eyes were the same color only opposite. She had my ck hair of course, but her eyes were primarily Trinity''s blue and they were ringed in the honey color of my eyes both on the inside and outside. I thought it was interesting how their eyes were the same colors only opposite of each other. I thought it made them that much more special.

 Chapter 407 - Trinity - First Birthdays Part 4 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 407 - Trinity - First Birthdays Part 4 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The room had screamed with delight over the full introduction of the babies. Most people that were family didn''t usually get to see this much of my children, and if it weren''t for the fact that I was expected to be a ''royal'' they wouldn''t even be seeing them like this now.


    Still, I was d that there were so many people that seemed to love and care for my children. None of the people here seemed to have any negative thoughts or feelings toward my family, at least ording to Vincent and Gabriel.


    The good thing about this introduction being over though, was that the guests could all move on to other parts of the party. They could go to the bouncy rooms or the game rooms. They could go to the buffet in the other room and eat the wonderful food that Abigail had prepared for today. They could do as they pleased until it was time for the babies to blow out the candles on their cakes. And when it was time for that I could just simply summon them all here mentally.


    You know, sometimes I tried to live like everyone so much that I forgot I even had the ability to do some of the things that I could. It was weird, you know, living your whole life one way and then finding out you''re something else, it doesn''t mean that I am going to be instantly changing the person that I am.


    With the room slowly emptying and the guests scattering I was feeling a little calmer. There was also the fact that I had sealed parts of the house to people, ces that the party guests didn''t need to be. I didn''t need any of these people who viewed me as a celebrity to go into our private things. So, not only were the rooms marked as no entry permitted, they were literally sealed with magic. Yes, I was still using ''some'' of my magic when I needed to.


    I wanted to see my babies having some fun right now. That was what mattered most to me right now, more than the guests or anything else. This was their party and they needed to enjoy it no matter what. I would never get the chance to repeat this day, I would never get another chance to make these memories with my family now. I wanted to see it now with my own two eyes and take pictures so that I could reminisce about it allter.


    Reece and I took them into the room with the baby friendly bounce houses. I hadn''t gotten to see them y with them yet and I really wanted to. When the babies were put into the y area I saw that CJ, Elias, na, Rowan, Alexandria, Alyssa, Levi, Luka, Kaiden, Kaede, Sophia, Isabe, Beech, Cypress, and Ashle were all in there with them. A few of the babies that were ying were just learning to walk but they were doing well enough to enjoy the bouncy, air filled toy.


    Dominic and Vivian, Griffin and Lana''s Twins, and Tyler and Charlotte, Vincent and Heather''s twins, were the only babies born over thest year that weren''t ying in the bounce house with Reagan and Rika at the moment. The four of them were just a little too young since they couldn''t walk and were just learning to stand. I understood that Lana and Heather were afraid that their little hands might get smashed if they were in there with the others.


    I still found it so weird that between myself and everyone that I knew, there had been so many babies born over thest year. It was such a shock, really. And that didn''t ount for the other babies being born to the pack and the warlocks and witches that had moved here to be close to us. I guess what everyone was saying was true, being the Goddess Incarnate was like a love and fertility magnate to those around me.


    As I thought about it all I watched the babies ying. There were so many of them and they had all spent so much time around each other that they were already friends. I could see CJ and Elias acting like the big brothers of the group. They weren''t even that much older than everyone, less than six months for Elias and CJ was younger than a few of them, but still they were Carter and Noah''s boys and I just knew that they were going to grow up to be strong and protective just like their daddies. I knew that Elias and CJ would stick with Reagan and Rika as they got older, just like Noah and Carter were sticking with me even though we all had our own lives and families now. There was just this unbreakable bond that held us together.


    Reagan seemed to be bouncing all over the ce, literally. He would go from one friend to the other and giggle with them yfully for a minute or two. He was such a social butterfly, when it came to kids. Rika was ying as well, but she was slightly more reserved with her time and energy. She started off ying with just a couple friends but she was better at drawing the others to her. Before long half of the kids were surrounding her and it looked like she was having a little meeting as they all babbled in their baby talk. Looking at it, seeing it right there in front of me, I couldn''t help but smile. I knew that Rika was special, but this was proving to me just how special she was.


    "She looks like a natural born leader." Landonmented from just behind me causing me to turn and look at him.


    "Yeah, she looks like she will do just fine when she is all grown up." Trevor added. Usually these two are hard to pry from Reece''s side when they''re here, why was it that they wereing to talk to me now?

 Chapter 408 - Trinity - First Birthdays Part 5 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 408 - Trinity - First Birthdays Part 5 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "You really think so?" I smiled at the two of them, thankful that they thought that my babies were so special.


    "Yeah, both of them are leaders; you can see that, but in different ways." Landon was smiling as he looked at the babies.


    "What do you mean?" I was confused for a second. I know what I saw in them, but I didn''t know what exactly it was that he saw in my children.


    "I think what Landon is saying is that Reagan and Rika are both meant to lead when they''re older, which is fine because there are two different leadership roles for them." Trevor was exining it for me. "Reagan is a lot like Reece in his personality. He is outgoing and gets along with most people easily. He seems like he would be a good pack leader. Rika on the other hand looks a little more diplomatic; she draws others to her, much like you. If you ask me, that makes both of you fit to be Queen. When you step down, Rika will be there to lead in your stead."


    I thought about what he said for a moment, my eyes moving between Reagan and Rika as I did so. I had known that their personalities were different, and I never once treated them like they were one thing instead of two, but the fact that others outside of me and Reece could already see these important truths about my children was amazing. I also hoped that I didn''t put too much pressure on them as they got older. Reece and I had both been sort of forced into our roles. Neither of us really had a choice for what we ended up bing. I didn''t want to do that to my children. If they didn''t want to bear the responsibility of the world being on their shoulders, then I wouldn''t do that to them. They deserved to live their own lives.


    "You know, Trinity, I think you''ve changed things in this world. For the better of course." Landon''s words pulled my attention back to him and Trevor. "I won''t pretend that our world was in the worst state possible, but we also know that it was far from perfect. As a whole, we of the shadows have a long way to go before we can achieve anything even remotely resembling peace. But I think with you in the leadership position, we''ve already started moving in the right direction."


    "I don''t really know about that, but I will try my best." I grimaced, trying not to let my insecurities show too much.


    "No, he''s right, Trinity. You are the leader that we all needed. Even if we didn''t know it before we had you, we can all see how our lives are slowly changing for the better. And I know that I personally will be here by your side to watch over you and protect you and your children." Trevor''s words rang with sincerity and conviction as he basically made this vow to me.


    "As will I." Landon smiled as he started what constituted a vow for him as well. "You, Reece, and all your children, the twins and any others that you may have, all of you are special. We can see it, we know that it is true. And the two of us will never abandon you. You can count on us, no matter what."


    I felt a ripple in the air, and the magic began to build. I knew that they had just made a binding contract with me, whether the two of them knew that or not.


    A moment after the magic began to buzz in the air, there was a quick sh of white light, and words were spoken in that phantom like voice that I had heard before.


    "Wee to the Goddess Guard, use your new abilities to serve your Queen well."


    When the voice and the light faded away, both Trevor and Landon looked at me with surprise while Reece and Vincent walked over to stand on either side of me.


    "Well, that was unexpected." Reeceughed.


    "What just happened?" Trevor was confused and Landon looked like he was too shocked to speak yet.


    "The Goddess has recognized the two of you as members of the Goddess Guard." Vincent answered for him.


    "And what is the Goddess Guard?" Landon had apparently found his voice as he asked.


    "It is a group of specially gifted warriors that are expected to protect Trinity with no questions asked."


    "Well, we would have already protected her. But this is cool too." Trevorughed.


    "Trinity, did they get powers as well?" When Reece asked that, it made both Trevor and Landon perk up.


    "Powers?" They asked me at the same time.


    "Yes, most of the people that get the pretty little light of hers end up with a special ability. I for one have several." Reece puffed himself up to sound more important.


    "Yeah, well, you''re the King; of course you''d have more, you pompous ass!" Trevorughed at him.


    "Yeah, stop trying to diminish this for us." Landon chuckled at him.


    "Shut up!" Reece snapped at them. "Did they get powers or not? I hope they didn''t."


    I looked at them with the eyes that I looked at all the guards back when I had identally blessed them. I searched them for their new abilities to find out what it was that they were able to do now.


    "Yes, they did get abilities. Oddly enough, they have the exact same abilities. I guess the two of you are more alike than I thought."


    "What ability do they have?" Vincent asked me while I was busyughing.


    "They''re armored. The fur in their animal forms will be hardened like steel; it will be a shield and a weapon. It also looks as if they can get bigger and faster in their animal forms, they will be like giant versions of their animals. Maybe the Goddess got confused because they were so close, she just gave them both the same things."


    "That''s odd, but pretty interesting." Reece looked as curious about this as I felt.


    "How do we use these powers?" Landon smirked.


    "We''ll help you figure it out. We''ve all had practice essing the Goddess-given talents we have." Vincent''s smile was helpful, but also a little mischievous. I remember when he first got his abilities, and no one knew how to use them.

 Chapter 409 - Trinity - First Birthdays Part 6 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 409 - Trinity - First Birthdays Part 6 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After that little power granting incident, the party got back on track to being all about the twins. There was a party game that Riley wanted to have all the babies y. He said that they yed it at Roan and Alexia''s parties when they turned one, and that every baby should be able to participate even if they don''t win.


    All of us set to work and started blowing up some balloons for the game. I admit, I gotzy and used magic to finish my pile. They all looked at me slightly annoyed after that so I finished all the balloons with magic.


    All the balloons were lined up on the opposite side of the room and all the parents lined up with their babies. Shane, David, and Jackson helped Cedar and Shawn with their extra kids since they had more kids than parents.


    The babies had to go on a race to see who could get a balloon first. The older kids, the ones who could walk, were to bring a balloon back to their mom, dad, or adult whounched them into the balloon hunt.


    Music was yed and babies were set free, all twenty-two of the babies from our little group and about two dozen others including Riley''s daughter, Alexia. It was chaotic, but it was so cute.


    I don''t think there was a person in the entire ballroom who wasn''tughing at the scene of almost four dozen babies and toddlers racing for balloons. The thing is, not a single one of them wanted to bring the balloons back.


    That was what made it so funny. Four dozen babies just started crawling and running through the hundreds of balloons we had set out for them. That part of the ballroom had be their own personal ball pit, and they were in baby and toddler heaven.


    "Oh well, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn''t." Rileyughed. "At least it was cute, and they had fun."


    "Definitely." I agreed with him. "This will be something I remember for a long time.


    Following the unsessful balloon race, we called everyone together for the cake. Everyone sang to the twins as their own little cakes were set in front of them just like on their actual birthdays. After the singing was over, Reece and I helped them to blow out the single candle that was on each cake. They still weren''t used to it yet, and therge number of people were making them a little nervous.


    Several people came forward to help cut therger cakes that were made with multiple different vors so everyone had something that they would eat. And for those that didn''t like cake, whoever those monstrous fiends might have been, there were pies. There was obviously way more food than was needed, and we asked people to take some home with them when they left so none of it went to waste.


    Some people wanted the babies to open their gifts during the party, but there were way too many for that to happen. Opening the gifts was going to require an entire team of people, and we were going to have everyone write down who gave it and what it was. With nearly three thousand presents in the other room between Reagan and Rika, there was no way that something wasn''t repeated. What we nned on doing, though, was donating almost all of the gifts to families in need. It was close to Christmas, and I am sure that a lot of families would love to have these gifts that our babies didn''t need.


    Finally at just after five, the party was over. It had been a long day, and I could tell that Reagan and Rika were both very tired. All I wanted to do was rest after everyone had gone home, and for the first time sinceing to live at this estate in the forest I was really, really d that we had a staff to clean up for us. I just did not have the energy nor the desire to clean after that birthday party.


    We had dinner in our room with L and the twins so that the rest of the house could be cleaned up. There wasn''t a lot of talking since we were all sleepy by now. We bathed the babies and then took turns showering. I didn''t really want to leave the twins in their room tonight; it had been so long since they had slept in our room, and I missed that closeness with them.


    Instead of them sleeping in their cribs, Reece and I put them to bed with us. Weid on either side of them and held hands above their heads as they drifted off to sleep. This was honestly the sweetest and most peaceful way that I could think to end the night, watching my babies sleeping.


    Reece and I stayed like that all night. We didn''t move at all. We either looked into each other''s eyes silently over top of our sleeping children, or we watched them sleep. I think we both were sort of broken hearted because so much time had already passed since Reagan and Rika hade into our lives.


    When I drifted off to sleep that night, I had dreams of different things that we had experienced over thest year. All the memories that I had umted and stored of the days with the babies that weren''t actually babies anymore. They had officially passed on from that stage and moved on to being toddlers. Pretty soon they would be big kids, and before I knew it they would be running off to live their own lives.


    I wasn''t ready for this. I wasn''t prepared to lose that time when they were babies. No one ever told me that it was so sad when you watch your children growing up. No one ever told me that every day brought smiles of joy as well as tears of sadness. I really wasn''t ready for all of this.

 Chapter 410 - Trinity - Preparing To Meet The Queen, Again (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 410 - Trinity - Preparing To Meet The Queen, Again (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    With the birthdays for Reagan and Rika done and over with, it was time for us all to prepare for a trip to the Faepound. Since I was visiting as a Fae and not as an ambassador this time, I didn''t need Acacia to apany me. Not to mention, Cedar wanted them to spend Christmas with his parents this year since they had gone to the Yule celebrationst year.


    It wasn''t just me and Reece going though. All of us were going. Me, Reece, Reagan, Rika, L, Mom, Dad, Grandfather, Noah, Nikki, Elias, Carter, Emmalee, and CJ. All of us were going. Noah wasn''t going to be able to perform his Beta duties like he usually did when the Alpha was gone, so Vincent, who had been captain of my guard since I became the Luna and was recently promoted to being my Beta, would be handling the pack for us while we were gone. To assist Vincent, Gabriel was going to be there.


    I was still a Queen though, and no matter how peaceful, or mostly peaceful, things had been thest time that we were there, Reece was still insisting that I take guards with me. Alongside my family, Izzy, Thoma, Shane, Shawn, Dietrich, and David were the familiar faces going with us; oh and let''s not forget Alexandria, Alyssa, Levi, and Luka were going too. We had recently expanded my guards somewhat as well, feeling the need to have as many capable hands near us as possible as the children got older. We had brought in another dozen Sentinelle warriors, both male and female guards. We had also added a dozen warlock guards as well; all of them came highly rmended by Crawford and Eldrige.


    Among those new guards, six of them wereing with us. That would provide me with a dozen total guards and that in my opinion amounted to my husband being an overly paranoid moron who just couldn''t stop thinking the world was out to get me.


    I let Fido do as he pleased though; I didn''t want to deal with the hassle of making him stop. Instead I packed our bags and made sure we had way more stuff than we needed. OK, I am overly paranoid as well, but mine was at the expense of space in the car and not wasting someone''s time.


    Mom was worried about what to bring so I decided that it was best to go over to their house and help her pack. I think that the real truth of it was that she was just nervous about meeting the Fae Queen. She didn''t know what this might mean for all of us, and she wasn''t Fae. Of those going, not counting the guards, there were fourteen of us; of those fourteen people, six of them had no rtion to the Fae aside from marriage. Five of those six people had never dealt much with the Fae and were nervous about their first big excursion into the Fae world. The others were excited to see what we would find there.


    "Trinity! Help me please!" The moment I walked into the house Mom ran up to me and started shaking me by the shoulders. "I don''t know what to do, and your dad is absolutely no help at all."


    "Calm down, Mom. It''s not like you''re flying to the moon. You''re just going to the Faepound for Christmas so we can try to find out who our Fae rtive is."


    "I know that, but we will be meeting a Queen. I''ve never met a Queen before!"


    "Ha?" I Couldn''t believe what she just said. I just crossed my arms and stared up at her as I tapped my foot in annoyance.


    "Oh, you know what I mean. You''re different. You''re my daughter, and I raised you since you were a little baby. You''ve been my princess your whole life. Don''t go acting all high and mighty now." Iughed at her and shook my head.


    "Queen Gloriana is a really nice person, so you don''t have anything to worry about. Let''s just make sure that you pack something nice because there will be a ball and probably a banquet or two. We will be there for three weeks and that will include Christmas and New Year''s Eve, so we need to make sure we''ve got everything covered for that whole time."


    "That''s just it, I don''t know what I need for all of that."


    I watched as she put both of her hands on her face and threw her head back in frustration. She was so out of her element right now. To be fair, this wasn''t exactly my element either, but I was better at it now since I had gotten some experience.


    I worked with Mom for at least an hour figuring out what all she and Dad had that would work for the trip. We managed to get them each tworge suitcases filled with the clothes that they were going to need for the time that we were gone. And just as I was leaving, Nikki called me to ask for help as well.


    I went and offered as much help as I could to my sister inw so that she and Noah wouldn''t have to worry. She was even more of a wreck than Mom since she had to pack for Elias as well. I told her not to worry too much about the babies since they would be with Acacia''s family for a good chunk of the time if we had something important that required all of us to be there. I trusted Acacia''s family and knew that they could handle all the children at once since they had nothing but multiples.


    When I got home Emmalee video called me and asked for the same assistance as Mom and Nikki. The benefit of this call was that I didn''t need to be there, and I could spend some time with the babies. Emmalee loved clothes and had a lot to choose from so hers had been so much easier than Nikki''s had been.? Really since she had gotten so many new clothes for Carter so all his suits were new and nice. Noah had nice suits too, but not all of them were exactly the newest they could have been.


    Luckily, L and Grandfather didn''t seem to require the same assistance. That was a relief, that meant that I was done and free to enjoy na and Rowan''s birthday party tomorrow before we left on Saturday. We needed to get to the Faepound before the Yule celebration started after all.


    The party for Juniper and Paul''s twins was a lot smaller than the one that I had to throw, but they had one thing going for them that I didn''t; they weren''t shadow world royalty that needed to follow certain protocols whether they liked it or not.


    Reece had to finish up some work before we left so I took Reagan and Rika to the party with Izzy, Thoma, Shawn, and Pierre who was one of the new Sentinelle warriors. Everything went smoothly, and the twins loved ying with their friends. I was really d that we got to have this onest little thing before we left for almost a month.

 Chapter 411 - Trinity - Arriving At The Fae Castle, Again (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 411 - Trinity - Arriving At The Fae Castle, Again (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Everyone had gathered at the Estate before it was time to leave for the Fae Compound. This would allow us to arrange the seating and store the luggage properly for everyone. Which was good because we ended up needing to take eight SUVs after we ounted for everyone''s luggage. This was surprising since the SUVs could fit up to eight people each, and we should have only needed four of them at the most if it wasn''t for the luggage.


    The guards were not all in the same vehicle as me, Reece and the twins, but there were still a couple with us; Shawn and Shane to be exact. I hadn''t gotten much time with either of them over thest year, all things considered. I sometimes missed the days when we all just basically hung out at the house and were able to have fun even if it was still them technically guarding me.


    Now though, all of our babies were the ones that would be doing the hanging out while we adults were all devoting our time to our families.


    "You look like you''re lost in thought about something?" Shawn smiled at me as he got my attention. "Is everything alright?"


    "Yeah, I was just reminiscing about all the times that we used to hang out and goof off before we moved on with our lives. It hasn''t been all that long really, but in a way it feels like it''s been years."


    "Yeah, I know what you mean. I had thought about that when mine and Dietrich''s babies were born. They changed our lives and turned everything upside down, but not in a bad way. I wouldn''t change any of it. I love them and they''re perfectly mine and Dietrich''s." I could tell that Shawn was happy and quite enjoyed being a dad.


    "You wouldn''t change any of it?" Shane turned in his seat to look at Shawn with a grin. "None of it? Not even the fact that you ended up getting pregnant up you-?"


    "Shut up." Shawn red at his brother who just startedughing, I even saw Reece''s shoulders shake as he drove the SUV toward our destination.


    "I was just asking, you know, for rity. I thought that you had hated that part of it all. That''s all." Shane was still grinning, he would always give his brother a hard time, but I knew how much he loved Shawn. I never told Shawn this, but the entire time that he was gone, Shane was a mess.


    "Oh, hush now, Shane." I grinned at him. "I think you''re the one who would have changed it. You cried so much while Shawn was away just because you couldn''t see your brother. I think that''s why you want him to admit he would change something, because you wish you could."


    "B..b..but, n..n..no..nn..no, I..I, I didn''t, I mean, th..that''s not, it wasn''t-." He looked so shocked that I wanted tough, but I didn''t because he didn''t seem like he could handle it. "Urgh!" Shane growled frustratedly and was about to turn around when Shawn called out to him.


    "Don''t worry Shane, I missed you a lot too. We had never been apart like that before and it was hard on me as well. But we survived, and we''re not separated anymore." The resulting smile on Shane''s face was worth what I had said, even if it was kind of mean of me.


    "I''m sorry I said that, Shane, but you really shouldn''t pick on your brother like that. You need to be honest with your feelings and talk to him. I am betting that in the ten months since he has been home you never once told him how much you missed him while he was gone."


    "I know, I need to be better about it all. And you''re right, I didn''t tell him. I was too embarrassed." He turned back to look at Shawn, and I swear his eyes had misted over a little bit. "I love you Shawn, you know that. Even when I make fun of you, I do it because I love you."


    "I know."


    Finally, the brothers might have finally gotten to where they talk openly and honestly, after what, twenty eight years, that''s quite the aplishment.


    When we arrived at the Faepound, we found that there was once again an entourage waiting for our arrival. Breon and several others were there. once again with an all ck golf cart to guide our envoy of SUVs into thepound.


    We were taken to the garage again where we exited the vehicles. The luggage was already being unloaded by a team of servants that moved silently and efficiently. We had made things easier on them andbeled all of the luggage so that they could separate it all into the proper rooms.


    "Queen Trinity, it is lovely to see you again. We are overjoyed that you coulde and visit us once again." Breon ced a hand over his chest and bowed forward as he spoke.


    "Thank you, Breon, it is good to be back. Allow me to introduce you to my family." I turned just a little so that I could see everyone, but would still be able to see Breon. "Of course you remember my husband and King, Reece. These here are our twins, Reagan and Rika. Then we have my grandfather, Samuel, my Mom and Dad, Eve and Wesley, my brother Noah and his wife and son, Nikki and Elias, and my brother Carter and his wife and son, Emmalee and CJ. The other babies belong to a couple of my guards, their names are Alexandria, Alyssa, Levi, and Luka. With us this time are my guards Shane, Shawn, Dietrich, David, Izzy, Thoma, Pierre, Hugo, Mateo, Brianna, Waverly, and Juliet." I had been naming the guards as they were still getting out of the SUVs so imagine the shock I felt when I heard Breon gasp upon seeing Juliet.


    Juliet, likewise, had a shocked expression on her face when she got out of the vehicle. She was staring at the man who had spoken to me with that familiar dazed look. It was easy to tell that the two of them had just discovered that they were mates. Now, isn''t that a lovely way to start off this trip of ours.


    "Well, Breon, allow me to introduce you to someone I think you need to know a lot more than just having me call out her name." I beckoned Juliet over with a wave of my hand, and she walked over timidly. She was around the same height as well with very bright blonde hair and orange eyes. "Breon, this is Juliet Rickard, a witch from the Aerie Convento. Juliet, this is Breon, he is an envoy of the Fae Queen."


    "It''s good to meet you." Juliet, who looked sweet and had a sweet sounding name, but anything but sweet when she spoke.


    "Likewise." Breon smiled at her. Well, I guess he didn''t care about theck of manners when fate was involved. I wonder just how well this was going to work out for them; after all it was Breon who tried to stand in Acacia''s way because of mixed breeding. Will he care about that now that it was his life and not hers?

 Chapter 412 - Trinity - Temporary Residence (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 412 - Trinity - Temporary Residence (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After I was able to get Breon and Juliet to put aside their budding romance, we were taken to the ce we were going to be staying for the next three weeks or so. It was one of those family dwellings that were inside the castle with multiple rooms so it could amodate as many people as we needed.


    To be honest, I think the ce was actually formed with magic when we got to the door. It was perfectly set up for us, it was even baby proofed. There were rooms on the main floor for the guards that held a lower status than those that had been with me since the beginning. There were two nursery type rooms that were perfectly set up to hold the six little ones. There was literally the right amount of every type of room that we needed. It was amazing. Even the style of furnishings fit my tastes nicely.


    I could tell that everyone was quite impressed with the level of thought and consideration that went into where they put us all. I just had to wonder how they knew who all would be with me, and how many of each room we needed. In truth, the only exnation was that it had been done by magic after we got here.


    The servants brought all of our luggage into the house, that was the only thing to call this. This was a house within a castle. The rooms had apparently been preassigned and they knew where everyone was before we did.


    Reece and I, of course, had thergest and nicest suite that was right next to the nursery for Reagan and Rika; those were the only rooms on the top floor. Our family and friends were positioned near us on the other upper floors. The newer guards that were not quite friends had been given rooms on the first floor.


    "Would you like us to put your belongings away, Queen Trinity?" One of the servants who had helped to carry everything in spoke with a squeaky voice. Now that I looked at her closely I could see that she looked like she was halfway through a form shift. Fae, at least most of them, had a human form and a nature form. There were some lesser Fae that I knew were unable to maintain a pure human form; she must have been one of them.


    I didn''t want her to think that I looked down on her or that I thought she was less than any of the others so I gave her a smile and let her do the job that she had offered to do.


    "That would be wonderful, thank you. If you all could handle that for everyone we would appreciate it very much." I have given my sincerest thanks to her and let her go about her duties. I had learned through my studies that some Fae take so much pride in their work that they are offended when you deny them the chance to do it. When in doubt, just let them do the work that they have already offered to do.


    The group of Fae moved quickly and efficiently, putting everything away with a speed and precision that I didn''t think was possible. I was very impressed with how they had managed it all. However, that same Fae girl from before came and asked me something when she was done.


    "Excuse me, Queen Trinity, but in the process of setting up your home here, I noticed that you did not bring a staff with you."


    "I have brought my guards and my family, that is all the staff that we needed." I smiled at her, and her eyes popped open so wide that I saw she had no whites to them at all; they were actually lc-colored and her irises looked like lots of little petals fitted together.


    "No, Miss, I cannot allow that at all. You are a royal visiting the Queen. You need to be tended to, mydy. Please, allow me to care for your home whilst you are here. I will be discreet, and I will do my duties well. But you simply must have someone to cook and clean for you."


    I could see that sincerity and light in her eyes. I knew that she just wanted to help us and do her job. She had most likely been raised and lived her whole life working as a servant to people. It was probably the only thing in life that she knew how to do.


    I looked over at Reece who looked nearly as conflicted as I did. We did not know her, and we had left both the men capable of telling us whether or not we could trust her back home. However, we could simply not have important discussions near her, and we could have a guard taste test all the meals that she provided. I would also ask Queen Gloriana about herter.


    ''I think we should give her a chance.'' I spoke to Reece inside his head for the first time in months. I saw the shock in his eyes, but otherwise he held hisposure.


    ''I agree. We will watch her, and all meals will be taste tested, not just the ones she makes, but all of our meals. We will show her it''s not just that we don''t trust her; we''re leary about everyone.'' Reece really was overprotective and a worrywart, but I kind of loved that about him too.


    ''Alright.'' I nodded at him again and looked at the Fae girl.


    "OK, we''ve agreed to let you take care of the house for the time that we are here. What is your name?"


    "Oh thank you, Queen Trinity, thank you so much." She beamed at me with a radiant smile. "My name is Roisin [1] Meadows, and I promise that I will do my absolute best for you."


    I could literally feel her happiness when she smiled at me. It was like her emotions were being projected for us all to feel. If that was something that we would be privy to, then we would know if she was up to no good.


    [1] Roisin - a name of Irish origin that means little rose. It is pronounced ROW - SHEEN

 Chapter 413 - Trinity - The Whole Family Meets The Queen (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 413 - Trinity - The Whole Family Meets The Queen (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After the housing issue was settled, it was time for us to go and greet our hostess. It has been well over a year now since Ist saw Queen Gloriana. I know that she was going to be unchanged and look exactly the same as she did before. Me though, I am pretty sure that I look different.


    I noticed how nervous most of my family looked as we walked to the meeting space, all guards and children included. Even those that had been excited for this meeting were starting to look nervous. I think Reece and I were the only ones that weren''t nervous. Well, us and Shane and David since they were herest time. The only other person who didn''t look nervous was Dietrich, but he seemed to have known the Queen a long time ago.


    I wonder if he was excited to see the Queen again after so many years? Well, I guess we will find out soon enough. For right now though, as I walked down the hall holding Reagan in my arms, it was funny watching the panic on all the other faces. Even Breon was looking nervous right now. I guess he still didn''t believe that his Queen approved of mixed matings.


    We were led to the Queen''s private quarters. Thest time that I was in here it had been just the two of us so it wasfortable and spacious, but it didn''t seem like it was big enough to hold nearly thirty people. Needless to say I was a little nervous at first.


    I didn''t need to be nervous at all though, the room, though the same in appearance and almost the exact same in furnishings, there was definitely more than there was thest time, was now almost three times bigger than it had been before. Huh, I guess the castle was not a ce set in stone, even though it was made of stone.


    The ce was just as magical as the people that upied it. The rooms and houses looked to be able to change themselves to whatever was needed at the time. That was good to know, and it would be nice to learn how to do something like that myself.


    The moment that the Queen saw us when we walked into the room, she smiled broadly. I could tell that she was dying to run across the room and be the giddy little girl that she had been before. However, there were my guards and her servants present so she was not able to do that just yet.


    "Thank you for bringing them here, Breon, you and the others may leave now." She was in a hurry.


    "Wait just a moment, if you will Queen Gloriana." I smiled at her and saw that she was clearly not happy about being dyed. "There is some news that I would like to share."


    "News? Really? And what might that be?" She looked like a girl in high school that was eager to hear thetest gossip.


    "Breon here, has mated with one of my guards. Juliet here is a witch that hade along to aid in our protection detail, but she found a lot more than any of us had expected."


    "Oh my, isn''t that wonderful news." She beamed at Juliet, and I could tell that she was happy that her people were continuing to find their mates. "Juliet, dear, what do you think about having found your mate today?"


    "I..I uh, I''m overjoyed, Queen Gloriana, mydy." Juliet looked nervous and thrown off by having been addressed directly; she was now struggling to be as polite as she could be. "I never thought that this kinda stuff would happen to me." She slipped a little on the politeness, but Queen Gloriana just smiled.


    "And you, Breon, how do you feel? I know that you have not been the most open to this in the past." I could read between the lines she was throwing him. She was essentially asking him if he had gotten his head out of his ass and could now understand that fate was fate, and love was love; it didn''t matter what form it took as long as the parties involved were consenting adults.


    "Yes, my Queen, I know that I have not been the most agreeable person in the past. However, I have since recognized and corrected the error in my ways. And I am truly happy that I have done so as I now have a mate of my own. I can now find true happiness in this life."


    I saw the sorrow flit across Queen Gloriana''s face for just a second when she heard his words. I know she was happy for him, but Gloriana was still waiting for her happily ever after.


    "I wish you and Juliet all the happiness in the world, Breon. Thank you, you are dismissed now." He and the other servant that apanied us into the private quarters left.


    "Queen Gloriana, I have with me a dozen guards, I know that we do not require so many in here with us, might I permit just a few to stay with us?" She saw Dietrich standing there, counted as those who were supposedly my guards at the moment.


    "Yes, Queen Trinity, you may." She could tell that I was asking to keep those that I trusted with us.


    "Shawn, Dietrich, Shane, and David will stay, the rest of you may retire to your rooms until wee back to the residence. Juliet, if Queen Gloriana permits it, you may spend your time with Breon."


    "Yes, Juliet you may do just that." With a smile, Juliet left the room with the others, leaving just my friends and family behind.


    When the door was closed behind them the atmosphere instantly changed to one that was a lot less tense.


    "Oh Trinity, I am so d to see you." Queen Gloriana sprinted to my side, and I thought she was about to give me a hug but she just pinched Reagan''s cheeks and smiled at him. "And this adorable and handsome little man must be Reagan. And this one over here," she turned and gently pinched Rika''s cheek as well, "she must be Rika. Oh, they are just so perfect."


    She was beaming brightly as she looked around the room. She obviously went right to Dietrich next, her arms opened wide as if to hug him, but she instead pinched the cheeks of the two little girls in his arms. They looked just like him, ck hair, paleplexion, and blue eyes.


    "Dietrich, this is such a surprise! When did you have these adorable little girls? And why did you not inform me?"


    "It is lovely to see you again after so long, Glory my dear. And these beautiful little girls are but two of my four children. My mate and I had them together on the day known as Valentine''s day."


    "Oh, what a sweet gift that was. Who is your mate? I have not been introduced to her yet."


    "This is my mate." Dietrich indicated Shawn with a tilt of his head and a slight gesture of his hand. "His name is Shawn."


    "Oh, how wonderful. These two little boys look just like your mate, the same unique hair and eye colors. Such special young men you all are. And your mate is a wolf too, that is fantastic. Did the two of you use someone to have the babies for you? What is it the humans call them, a uhm, a surrogate?" She looked up at Dietrich with curious eyes.


    "No, Glory my dear, Shawn and I carried them ourselves and delivered them by cesarean section."


    "Oh my stars, that is unique. I cannot wait to hear all about it."


    At that moment Queen Gloriana turned to look at my family, a smile on her face.


    "I am so happy to meet all of you as well. My name is Gloriana,and I am delighted that you''re here."

 Chapter 414 - The Whole Family Meets The Queen Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 414 - The Whole Family Meets The Queen Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Gloriana, allow me to introduce you to the rest of my family, and the guards that I brought along with me." I smiled at her and was happy to be dropping the formal attitude somewhat. "You already know Dietrich, who started as a friend and has joined us as an ally and confidant, not to mention he is mated to my guard and friend Shawn. Then there is his twin, Shane."


    "Oooh, I do love twins." She winked at him.


    "He is mated to a feline." I giggled at the childish pout on her face.


    "Oh pooey."


    "Then David." She looked hopeful for a moment. "Also mated." She deted.


    "Didn''t you bring me anyone that was unmated?" Sheughed. "I have a consort seat to fill."


    That shocked me,st I knew she had a consort. Did she break it off with him because of that day I called her. I let it slide for now, I would ask her when we were alone.


    "I believe a couple of my other guards are unmated." I thought for a moment. "I don''t know them as well."


    "Throw me a line here, Trinity, a Queen needs a little help."


    "Oh my, Glory, since when did you be so thirsty?" Dietrichughed at her and a few others chuckled as well, all the while the joke clearly went over the heads of the others.


    "I thought she was talking about mates, why are you talking about thirsty, Dietrich? Do you need blood or something? Do the Fae drink blood?" Grandfather looked quite confused for a moment and that just made most of usugh even more. "What?"


    "Don''t worry about it right now, Dad, I will exin it to youter." I have a hard time believing that my Dad knew what thatment meant.


    "I am sorry, let us move on now. I will stop. Please introduce the rest of your family." Gloriana smiled and nodded to me.


    I did as she asked and introduced us all. I started with my brothers and their families and went up the family tree, so next came my parents and Reece''s mom, and thenst was my Grandfather. Everyone was feeling a lot less nervous now that they could see that the Queen was a lot nicer than they had expected her to be.


    "I really am happy to see you all, and I am d you will be spending Yule with us. I absolutely adore children. And unfortunately, Star and Artem were not able to make it this year. I do so wish they would have. I wanted to meet my great, great, great, great nephew. That is a long generational gap though, isn''t it. However, did you hear? Star''s mother was foundst year. I don''t know how much you talk to her. I am so happy for her, her family has been healed."


    I think that Gloriana realized that most of the people were still afraid at the moment. She just didn''t match up to what you expected when first meeting her.


    "Come now, no need to be afraid. Let''s all sit and chat before we have some lunch. We will break the ice a little more, and then we can start working on this mystery that is your family tree."


    I could see that she was intrigued by the whole thing. It wasn''t often that you got to see this kind of thing happen. A mystery involving your entire set of people and a powerful ally. I am sure that Gloriana was eager to delve into it.


    Once we were all seatedfortably and ready to talk, Gloriana jumped to her feet again as if she had been burned by the fire burning in her hearth.


    "Oh no, this ce is not baby proofed." Her hands were on her cheeks, and she looked mortified. "I will fix this right now."


    With a wave of her hand, arge gate appeared in front of the fire and simr gates appeared in front of the ss bookshelf doors. Everything that was dangerous or that would harm or scare a baby was blocked off.


    "There, all better. You can let them explore a little now. I actually have some baby toys they can use. I see my nieces and nephews from time to time so I know how to keep them safe and entertain them." She was grinning as she waved a hand again and made some toys float from inside a cab.


    "Hehe, toy toy." Rika squealed delightedly in her adorable voice.


    "Toy flo me, toy flo me."


    "No Reagan, you can''t make the toy float to you." I told him calmly as he reached with both hands.


    "Yes Mama, toy flo me." Reagan sounded a little more forceful this time.


    "No Rea, toy flo me." Rika argued with her brother, and that was when a tiny little blue light surrounded both of them. Two of the toys that Gloriana had held with her magic floated over to my children.


    They both settled back down and started to y with their newly acquired toys.


    "Well, I would say that they have quite a bit of magic." Gloriana smiled as she ced the rest of the toys on the floor. Once we all had ced our children in a circle on the floor, the conversation resumed.


    "Yes, I know they do. The thing is, we had given them a binding bracelet so they wouldn''t hurt themselves." I was confused and worried since I didn''t want them to get hurt.


    "Ahh, I can imagine that it was a warlock made magic item? Those don''t work inside thepound. Thesends are technically not part of the human world. Those that don''t know to expect us here will pass right through us. This is the true essence of thend of Faerie. We may have given up the realm to the shadows that wanted it, but we took the magic with us. Things such as magic tools from non-Fae origin will have no effect here. I do apologize." She truly did look like she was sorry about it. "If you would like, I can give you a binding charm that will safely keep their magic at bay until they are old enough to use it. That is what we do to the young ones here."


    "I would appreciate that." I was still looking at Reagan and Rika and trying to figure out how to raise babies that showed magic at such a young age.


    "Absolutely. I will have them prepared for you right away. With that she took a pen and paper from her side table and wrote a message that disappeared in a swirl of wind. That was quite interesting to see. "Now, where were we?" She smiled at us all, ready to talk about everything.


    Before we got to the real reason we were all here, we spoke amongst ourselves and got to know the Queen a little better. They all found out how obsessed she was about babies and about her having tried for millennia, but not having a baby.


    "There was a time when I thought Dietrich would break my curse, but s ten years and no children. And here he is with a mate and four children. Clearly the problem is me." We all saw the wave of anger and jealousy that washed over Shawn when he heard those words, but he managed to keep it in. That was good, I didn''t want him to get hurt.


    By the time that the conversation progressed everyone had spoken to and gotten to know Gloriana except for Grandfather. He was still nervous and weary, and I think he just really wanted to find out what was really going on in our family tree. He was an impatient man at the best of times, and right now he was worried about his entire family. Poor Grandfather, I wished I could do more for him.


    After theughter from funny anecdotes and stories about the babies died down, I thought he was going to demand that we move the discussion along immediately, but he was still just watching silently. He was always doing his best for us all, and I think it was time for me to do something for him. We shouldn''t keep him waiting anymore. In truth, I know that all of us were more than just a little curious. It was time to find out the truth, it was time to find our family.

 Chapter 415 - Trinity - Lineage Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 415 - Trinity - Lineage Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Alright, Gloriana, I think it is best that we try to figure some of this out before it gets toote. There are some things that a lot of us are very eager to know the answers to."


    "Yes, of course Trinity, I understandpletely. I will do all that I can to help you and your family. You are a friend, as well as an ally." She smiled at me and then popped her head up like she forgot something. "Oh, and let''s not forget, kindreds now as well. Since if you are Fae, that makes you my people, and I love to help my people."


    "We appreciate that very much." Dad smiled and spoke softly. He was no longer as afraid as he had been when we first arrived, which was good.


    While Gloriana pulled something out from her desk with a wave of her hand, I pulled the journals from my great great grandmother from the bag that I had slung over my shoulder and hanging by my side. The item that Gloriana had retrieved was a small silver mirror. The ss looked old and fogged over at the edges. There were also runes that were written up and down the sides of the mirror, markings that made absolutely no sense to me at all.


    "What is this?" Emmalee, curious as she was, couldn''t stop herself from asking. Gloriana didn''t mind though, she just smiled and started to answer her.


    "This, Emmalee, is a truth seeker. It only works on items, magic or non magic. What it will do is tell me if the item you have truly is what it is being represented as. If there is something that is being falsified, this mirror will tell us. It will also, sometimes, present us with the identity of the person who fabricated the item if it is a fake."


    "Ooh, that sounds interesting. And very useful." Nikki smiled at the Queen. She had been one of the most nervous before we got here, and now she was asfortable as she could be.


    "Very useful, Nikki dear." Gloriana nodded her head at her. "Now, Trinity, could you please pass along the items that you have? I believe you mentioned before that there were journals or something of the like."


    "Yes, here they are. They were supposedly written by the Fae ancestor''s mate. She was my great great grandmother and seemed to have lived an unnaturally long life, as did her son. But the long lives seemed to have ended there."


    "Hmm, I wonder if there was something that might have aided her lifespan if that is true. Sometimes, just bearing a half Fae child will elongate a life, not eternally, but it could add a couple decades easily. However, a few hundred years would be unheard of."


    Gloriana looked as if she were thinking about something as she prepared the mirror. I was attuned to magic, so I was probably the only one who felt it when the Queen started to gather her magic in her hands to use on the mirror.


    After a moment, the mirror that had only been partially faded before was nowpletely fogged over. When it could no longer reflect anything at all, Gloriana took the books from my hand and ced them on top of the ss.


    She didn''t say any silly words, she didn''t do anything unnecessary, all she did was sit and watch while the magic she had worked took effect.


    I leaned forward watching with her, as the fog began to swirl all around the edges of the mirror. The fog was pure white when it started to swirl, but it started to change color almost immediately.


    The white darkened to a yellow, and then it slowly started to be a pale green. By the time that the fog had finished changing colors, it was a bright shining green. Gloriana looked at the color and smiled broadly.


    "These items are indeed what they have been presented to you as. That is a relief. I would have hated to tell you that they were fakes."


    "That is a relief, since I have based arge portion of what I know on what I read in these journals."


    We all just continued to watch on as Gloriana picked up a journal and started reading one at random. She had chosen one of thest journals that Ellyria had written. It was one that spoke of her longing for her lost love and how it was consuming her still after nearly four hundred years.


    With a sad sigh, Gloriana sat that journal down after having skimmed it and picked up another one. It was from somewhere in the middle of the stack, and it spoke of the times that Fynn and Ellyria had to move around. Once again she sighed with sorrow and set the book aside. Finally, she grabbed the first journal and flipped to a random page. I saw her eyes go wide, but I didn''t know what had caused it.


    "Gloriana, is everything alright?" She looked scared, nervous, angry, and happy all at the same time. I didn''t know how it was possible, but I had felt that way in the past before so I knew it could be done.


    "Trinity, do you know what this journal has just told me?!" There was now nothing but pure excitement dancing in her eyes. "I need to send a message right away."


    As soon as she said those words there was a knock on the door. Well, that was fast, whoever it was.


    Gloriana called out to ask who hade to disturb us so I was guessing they had nothing to do with the newest message she was sending.


    This interruption turned out to be a servant bearing a delivery.


    "Forgive me, my Queen." He bowed his head immediately. "I was instructed by the master to bring these to you." He handed her two tiny gold chains.


    "Canter, what wonderful timing. Will you tell him that I need his assistance in person, immediately. Do not dy and do not allow him to tell you no. I need him here now!" Gloriana''s voice was excited as she instructed him. "Go, now."

 Chapter 416 - Trinity - Lineage Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 416 - Trinity - Lineage Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Gloriana, what is going on? What did you find?" Dietrich asked as soon as the door shut behind Canter. "Is there something wrong?"


    "No, it''s not that it''s wrong. I''ve only seen one page of this journal, the one from the start of the rtionship that this woman had with her Fae lover, but if I am right in my assumption, then I know who you descended from." There was a bright shining light in her eyes as she spoke. The excitement, the anticipation, the wonder. It was a lot to deal with, I just hoped that we could all handle it.


    We sat in silence for several minutes, waiting on the man that Gloriana had just summoned. It felt like the silence was going to drag on forever, and I wouldn''t have been able to handle that. I needed to say something.


    "Gloriana, what are those chains?" I asked just as a way to stop the tension from growing even more.


    "Oh, yes, in my excitement I nearly forgot. These are the binding charms I had prepared for Reagan and Rika. They will contain their magic more efficiently than that of the warlock items that you had. You can put them around their ankles or wrists, they will size themselves to fit the children snugly but not harm them in any way."


    "This is very helpful, thank you." I smiled and took them from her hand.


    Together, Reece and I put the charms onto Reagan and Rika. Just like Gloriana said, as soon as we slipped them onto their wrists, the charms shrunk down to fit like a tight band, but it in no way squeezed the children. I was happy that they were doing as she had said they would.


    At that moment, there was a loud and very authoritative knocking at the door. Whoever was out there was someone important. Maybe not as important as the Queen of the Fae, but still pretty high up.


    Gloriana waved her hand, and the door opened to reveal arge man. The man looked at the most thirty years old, but I also knew that appearances were deceiving. He would most likely be hundreds, if not thousands of years old. He looked strong, tall, handsome, and angry. His hair was different shades of blue in a gradient that went from almost ck dark blue at the top to a light almost white blue at the bottom. His eyes were blue as well, they went from bright sky blue to cornflower blue and then sapphire blue.


    "What business did you need me for, Gloriana. I thought you could handle yourpany on your own."


    "Oh hush now, brother. I have some news for you." This man was Gloriana''s brother? I would never have pegged them as siblings, except for the fairplexion they were quite different looking.


    "Glory, if you''re going to recognize our familial bond in front of strangers, please warn me ahead of time." He red at her, but there was a yful smile at the corner of his mouth. "What do you want from me, sister? I was actually quite busy before you interrupted me, not once, but twice."


    "Val, I think I have found something that you need to see. Come, sit with me." She beckoned him forward and made him sit on the sofa next to her.


    "This had better not be something stupid again. I swear if this ends up like that magic light invention the humans have, I will drench you for a month."


    He sighed as she forced him into the seat, but he took the journals that she was handing him nheless.


    "Read, Val, read." The man did as he was instructed to. He, unlike Gloriana, started with page one of the journal. He read the dates, he read the entries, and by the time he got to page two, he was too invested to stop. He read page after page. For what felt like a long time, we all just watched his face as he read nonstop.


    This neer, the man that Gloriana called Val, was looking more and more sad and surprised at the same time. I could see his eyes misting and tears gathering in his eyes. He was trying hard not to cry, but it looked like he might lose that battle.


    "Glory, how? How did you get these? Have you authenticated them? Are they truly real?"


    "Yes, Val, they are real." I could see that Gloriana''s smile was bittersweet. She was happy for him, but for some reason she was truly sad.


    "I..I never knew how he died." The man fought hard not to sob. "I never knew the truth of what happened. The one who avenged him, she never came to the banquet. And now I know why."


    Wait a minute? This man had something to do with my great great grandfather? What rtionship did they have? And what would that make him to me? This was about to delve into the ufortable and awkward. I just hoped he didn''t get upset when I started to speak to him.


    "Excuse me." I had stood up and walked forward so that I was right there in front of him.


    "Who are you?" The man didn''t look happy to be interrupted.


    "Val, this is Queen Trinity: she is the Queen of all the shifters, as well as the witches and warlocks. She is the one who brought me these journals." I could sense a slight mischievousnessing from her at the moment. Was she trying to y some sort of game?


    "Thank you, Queen Trinity. Thank you for bringing me these journals. This will set my mind at ease more than you will ever know. For centuries, I have gone without knowing what it was that really happened. Please tell me how you came across these journals. I need to know." I saw a mix of desperation and gratitude in his eyes. Whoever my great great grandfather was, he meant a lot to this man.

 Chapter 417 - Trinity - Lineage Part 3 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 417 - Trinity - Lineage Part 3 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "These journals were given to me by my personal assistant. I had him doing some research for me." I didn''t know if I should go all out and tell him all of it right up front. I didn''t know if I could trust this man yet or not.


    "Why was he researching Rhinum? Why would he need to know about him when he died over five hundred years ago?"


    "Well, I had him researching my family." Here it goes, I am about to tell him the truth of it all. "Those journals belonged to my great great grandmother. So, ording to this, Rhinum was my great great grandfather."


    "The child of hers lived? She truly was able to make it without help? What happened to the child? Fynn? Where is he now? Where is my grandson?"


    That answered my question. This man, he was Rhinum''s father, and he was my great great great grandfather. Well, those gics of his are strong, since he was truly very old, but looked only a little older than my husband.


    "Fynn died, about seventy years ago I would say. Or at least, he is presumed dead. He never returned home from the war that he was sent to fight." There were tears streaming down his cheeks now.


    "So my only son, and my only grandson died while at war. How could I have let all of this happen to my family?" He sobbed for a moment, his shoulders shaking while Gloriana held him in her small arms.


    "I know it is hard, Val, but there is a silver lining. Think about what she has said. These journals belonged to her great great grandmother. That great great grandmother only had one child."


    His head lifted at her words, stunned awe filling his face. It was like he was just making the connection from her words, my words, and the journals. I could understand that he was upset, that he was having a hard time processing anything other than the true way that his son died.


    "My grandson had an heir?" He looked at me with hope. "His family continued?"


    I watched as he looked around at all of us in the room. There were a lot of people, and I knew he didn''t know which of us here might be his family and which might not be.


    "You?! You''re his family?! And, and this little one here." He looked down at Reagan who was still in my arms.


    "Yes, Fynn married and fathered a child before he left. His daughter wasn''t born until after he was gone, and she never met him, but the family continued. His daughter, my grandmother, married Samuel Whitton, my grandfather over there. They had two children, my biological mother, Lily who died twenty years ago, and Wesley. In my generation, aside from me, there is Noah and Carter." I indicated everyone as I spoke their name by pointing at them. "Over there is my adoptive mother, who is technically my Aunt Eve, but she and Wesley raised me so they are my mom and dad. Noah married Nikki, and that is their son Elias. Carter married Emmalee, and that is their son Carter Junior, or CJ. Over there is my husband Reece, and our twins are Reagan and Rika."


    With each name that I added to his growing family tree, the man before me smiled. It was like someone was giving him the greatest gift he had ever been given.


    "So many of you." He grinned as he looked around at us all. "I cannot believe that there are so many of you. I thought that I had no family aside from my sister and the children of my brother''s line. B..b..but I have a family!" Heughed and sobbed at the same time while tears streamed.


    "So, if you''re our family, that would make you our, what, great great great grandfather?" Carter wondered. "That''s a lot of generations to keep track of." Heughed and broke the tension in the room.


    "Yes, that is exactly what it makes me. And add another great to that for these babies." I watched as he took onerge finger and gently stroked Reagan''s cheek. "He is quite cute."


    "I am sorry to interrupt." Noah stood and walked to my side. "I know that Queen Gloriana referred to you as Val, but I do not think that is your real name. Is it?"


    "Ahh, you are quite right." He smacked a hand to his head. "That is the nickname she has had for me our whole lives. My name is Valerian. Valerian Undine. Well, thest name is more of a species. It is what I am. I am a Sidhe from the water lines. The first of them to be exact. But, because of that fact, the surname was adapted to me. Sorrel, our brother, was given the surname Greenman. And Gloriana, as she was already the Queen, was given the name Belphoebe."


    That was a lot of information that I didn''t expect right then. It wasn''t bad though, to be honest I was d that I was learning more about all of this.


    "So, Valerian Undine, I guess we''re family." I smirked at him. "I hope you''re not disappointed to have a bunch of wolves for your family, with a spattering of warlocks and witches just for kicks."


    Valerianughed then. It was a realugh that was filled with joy and happiness.


    "I think, somehow, I might be able to survive." At that moment, and without warning, Valerian reached out and wrapped his arms around me. He was holding me tight, hugging me to his chest as heughed and cried at the same time. "I have a family. I never thought this day would ever happen for me. I cannot believe that I have so many family members that I never knew about. This is the happiest day I have had in centuries. Thank you, Trinity, thank you for bringing me this surprise!"

 Chapter 418 - Trinity - Getting To Know Valerian (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 418 - Trinity - Getting To Know Valerian (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    When Valerian released me his eyes were red and swollen from all the tears he had shed. I smiled andughed because that was what he was doing.


    "I think you''re still going to want to see." I giggled. "I think we should fix those." I pulled my magic to me and reduced the swelling in his eyes for him. I knew that it was going to take away the stinging ache of the tears as well.


    "You''re skilled in magic?" He asked me with surprise. "Does that mean that those two charms I made were for your children?"


    "I didn''t know you made them, but yes. Reagan and Rika had a warlock crafted equivalent, but we learned that those wouldn''t work here. They are already using their powers, but I am worried they will hurt themselves."


    "These little ones must be special." He grinned as he looked at Reagan with an inquisitive stare. "D..d..do you mind if I hold him? I haven''t held a child of my bloodline in so long."


    I knew that I could trust him with my baby. I also knew that he must be overjoyed and excited to have received the news that he had gotten today. I wasn''t going to dangle family in front of his face and then tell him no. That would have been cruel to him.


    "He gets a little temperamental at times when strangers hold him, but you''re more than wee to try. If he gives you trouble, there are three more babies to hold."


    Valerian grinned and reached out for Reagan who, surprisingly, went right to him. Reagan was looking at him with wide curious eyes. Tentatively, as if nervous, Reagan reached his hand out and grabbed a fistful of Valerian''s hair. He didn''t pull it, he was just feeling it.


    "Mama, him hair blue." Reagan sounded as if that was the most exciting thing they had ever seen. "Mama, him hair blue. Hair blue, Mama." He turned to giggle at me as he repeated himself. "Haha, hair blue."


    "Yeah, Reagan, he has blue hair. Isn''t that cool?" Reagan just giggled and looked back at him.


    "Hello there, Reagan. I am your Athair m¨®r [1]." The entire name soundedplicated, andpletely foreign to to Reagan.


    "Ah her, ah her." Reagan was doing what he could to repeat the words, but he could only phically get out parts of it.


    "Close enough." Valerian grinned. "I will be Ah her until you get a little older. You lot will be the first ever to call me that name."


    "Mama, Ah her?" I heard Rika call out jealously from Reece''sp. "Mama, me want Ah her."


    Reece stood up and walked over to where Valerian stood before me.


    "Care to try two of them." He joked with the man. "She''s getting a little jealous of her brother."


    "I would love to." Valerian grinned and shifted Reagan so that he could take Rika in his left arm.


    She did the same thing that Reagan had done. She reached out and gently grabbed his blue hair and giggled.


    "Mama, him do blue hair." Rika was just as excited as Reagan had been.


    "They are so adorable." He squeezed them to his chest, hugging them tightly.


    "Dada, me go Ah her?" CJ tugged on Carter''s sleeve as he whined.


    "Mama, me too." Elias turned and begged Nikki to go to see his Athair m¨®r too.


    "What do you say, Val? Do you want to sit on the floor so you can y with them all at once?" Glorianaughed at him.


    "Yup, I sure do."


    As he said that he walked over to an empty spot on the floor and plopped on it. Come here my garph¨¢ist¨ª [2],e see your Ah her." CJ and Elias ran toward Valerian with grins and giggles, and he caught them in hisrge arms as well.


    For a while, we all just sat there and talked while the children used their new Ah her as a jungle gym. Valerian seemed to love it. I guess the older Fae really are family oriented, especially if they have been without a family for a long time.


    When the children got tired and fell asleep on Valerian for a short nap, he just stayed there and let them be while he joined in on the conversation. During our talks we learned that Valerian never mated but he did have a child, a spark of jealousy was in Gloriana''s eyes as she looked at her brother since she had never even had that much. We also learned that Valerian and his wife did notst, and she left, abandoning her son in the process. She now, supposedly, lives in the Faerie ne with the dark Fae. She was a Silkie, a sea Fae, that had been why they were paired together to begin with. Valerian raised his son to be a proud warrior who fought for his people. But when his son, whose full name was Antirrhinum, had died in the wars, it had nearly destroyed Valerian. He became closed off and was considered mean or cruel by a lot of people. In truth, Valerian just didn''t want to be hurt again.


    You would never have known that Valerian was ever closed off because he was so open and animated when he spoke right now. He was telling us stories from his youth, and from when Antirrhinum was a child. I had a hard time processing that these childhoods happened hundreds and thousands of years ago. I mean, if you listen to Valerian, he, Gloriana, and Sorrel had been born directly from the Goddess Danu before she started turning the other Fae, or fairy creatures, into her children. The only ones that she birthed though, were the three siblings that were at the top.


    It was truly fun getting to know about all of them. It was gettingte though, and we were all ready for bed. The meal that we hade here for had been forgotten, and we were all too tired to even eat now. Though, we had made ns to have breakfast with Valerian in the morning. He was really excited to see us all some more.


    "I am so d you are here for the Yule celebration, that just means that we get to see a lot of each other during this time."


    "And, there is another benefit." Gloriana smiled at us. "You can all call me Aunt Glory now."


    "Oh, can you all call me Athair m¨®r? It''s the words we use for grandfather. I know there is no ''great'' in there, but I am still that to you. Well, most of you. Samuel, you were married to my granddaughter, but I never met her, and I am sure calling someone who looks younger than you grandfather would feel awkward, the same goes for you L, you can just call me Valerian. But the rest of you are my grandchildren, my garph¨¢ist¨ª and I would love it if you could call me Athair m¨®r."


    "I think we can do that." Dad was the one who answered, and even he looked older than Valerian. However he was, in truth, his great great grandson.


    "Thank you, Wesley. Thank you all so much."


    I thought about something then. Dad, though he looked older than Reece and Noah, didn''t look like he was almost fifty, and Mom didn''t look her age either. Even by wolf standards they looked younger. I had to wonder if that was because of the Fae influence in our lives.


    I would have to ask about thatter.


    [1] Athair m¨®r is an Irish form of Grandfather that trantes to Great Father.


    It is pronounced AH - her MORE.


    [2] garph¨¢ist¨ª is Irish for grandchildren.


    It is pronounced gar - fosh - te

 Chapter 419 - Trinity - What Actually Is The Yule Celebration (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 419 - Trinity - What Actually Is The Yule Celebration (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    When we woke the next morning we got ready for breakfast with Valerian. I wanted to catch Roisin ahead of time so she didn''t start making breakfast, and thankfully, I caught her just as she was about to go into the kitchen.


    "Roisin." She stopped and looked at me with those pretty flowered eyes of hers.


    "Yes, mydy?" She bowed a little when she saw me. "What can I do for yeh, miss?" She slipped into an ent then that I couldn''t quite ce.


    "Not all of us need breakfast. Many of us won''t be eating here this morning. We''ll be back for lunch I do believe, but we''re having breakfast with Valerian."


    "Huh?" She gasped at those words. "The Queen''s brother? Queen Trinity, are you sure that you want to do that? He can be quite harsh at times."


    "I think we will be fine. He was quite pleasantst night, afterall, we are his garph¨¢ist¨ª." I saw Roisin''s eyes go wide with shock.


    "Truly? I didn''t think that he had any family. Not since his son passed on." She was smiling happily, obviously she thought the continuation of his line was a good thing.


    "Yes, he had a son before he passed away; however, no one knew of it. Valerian, or rather Athair m¨®r, asked us toe and have breakfast with him this morning. While we''re here, we want to get to know more about our Fae side. I think it will help us in the future."


    "Aye, mydy, I believe that will be for the best as well. I am truly happy for you. You found your family, and it was the Prince no less."


    Her words made me pause for a moment. I was descended from a Fae Prince. I was royalty no matter how you looked at me. What the hell? Why was fate ying such a major hand in my development? And what did this mean moving forward?


    I thought about that the entire way to Athair m¨®r''s family domain. It was a house just like the one that we were staying in, but it''s rooms were muchrger since it had a lot fewer rooms. The parlor that we entered was much bigger than I expected for a man that was living alone.


    I could tell he had prepared for our arrival though. He had taken Gloriana''s, or rather Aunt Glory''s, example of baby proofing and prepared a space that would be perfect for putting the little ones for while we talked. He even had four Fae versions of a highchair brought in. The chairs in question looked like they were fashioned from flowers and vines and were actually really cute.


    "Wee my nn [1], thank you all foring today." Athair m¨®r had his servants prepare a breakfast feast for us. Everyone sat down around arge blue marble table that looked like it was an ocean wave trapped in ss. It was beautiful and mesmerizing.


    "Athair m¨®r, I was wondering, could you tell us what the Yule celebration actually is? I have heard of them before, but I don''t know if they are the same here."


    "Ahh, yes, we celebrate things differently than the old Paegan holidays. Here, in thends of magic, we don''t just celebrate winter, we celebrate magic." He looked like his face lit up; it was like he might be looking forward to the celebration for the first time in a long time.


    "So, what do we do? How do we celebrate it?" Noah, ever the diplomat, asked this before I could.


    "The opening ceremony is tonight. There will be a banquet that every Fae is invited to. It will be a glorious outdoor banquet under the light of the stars. From there we celebrate the main types of magic before we get to sub types. The three of them are Light, Nature, and Water, the three things that life needs to survive. Light magic epasses everything from sunlight to fire, to even the absence of light. No matter how different they may seem, darkness is a form of light magic; it is just the inverse of it. Nature magic can be anything that has to do with thend: nts, rocks, trees, all of it. Water magic is a little loose in its definition as well. Water can be rain, oceans, streams, ice, and even the wind oddly enough. The Fae are a little confused when ites to these things, huh?" He chuckled and then continued. "Unless you are in the desert where there is very little water, the air around you has water in it. So, for that matter the air and wind type magics fall under water magic."


    "Huh, I never thought about it that way." Carter was grinning as he listened to the exnation.


    "Wait a minute. Trinity, do you think that your affinity for wind and ice magic is due to your fae lineage?" Grandfather caught the connection before any of us had.


    "It is possible, I would think it would mean something anyway."


    "Your magic specialties lie in my domain?" The grin on Athair m¨®r''s face was kind of adorable.


    "Yes, they have long been my strongest styles of magic, even though I can use every element. My wolf even bes an ice wolf." I tried not to blush under his excited gaze.


    "I would love to see that sometime. I have not seen a werewolf in animal form for quite some time. I would love to see all of your wolf forms. I think it would be wise for me to see them since we are family." He was looking a little sheepish, like he thought that perhaps he was asking for too much.


    "I think that would be good too, Athair m¨®r." Dad agreed, clearly trying to make the man feel less awkward. "That way you will recognize us if the need were to arise, and we were fighting or something in our other form."


    "Yes, exactly." He grinned, d to have the excuse provided for him.


    We talked for a while longer while the children yed. Athair m¨®r yed with the children some more, but he also helped us to understand more about the Yule schedule. There would be four days devoted to each element, and during that time each household was to prepare a gift for the Gods and Goddesses that the Fae either worshipped or descended from. After each set of the four days, there was a day devoted to the Royal Fae of that elementplete with a banquet, and then there was a ball the next day.


    During the four day celebrations, there were festivities and gift exchanges with loved ones. The entire thing was a giant party to be had for nearly a month. It sounded nice, interesting, and exhausting.


    [1] nn is an Irish word for family, meaning more to do with children. My nn would then be my children.

 Chapter 420 - Trinity - The Opening Ceremony Banquet (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 420 - Trinity - The Opening Ceremony Banquet (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The day seemed to pass in a blur. We were getting ready for the banquet before we knew it. And we were bringing all four of the children along with us; that was going to be interesting. Athair m¨®r insisted though. We were to be seated at his table, representing his family, and he was going to announce during the banquet who we all were.


    A lot of the people here knew that I was a Queen in my own right. A lot of them even spoke to me thest time that I was here. This time, however, they were learning that I was one of them as well.


    I just had to wonder though, would any of them believe it? I mean, we have proof. There are plenty of journal entries that tie our families together. Plus, they could do a blood test if they wanted to prove a familial bond. Though I would love to see the reaction on thatb tech''s face when they analyzed our samples. That would be funny enough that you could sell tickets to it, if it wouldn''t destroy the veil of mystery we had over the humans.


    Well, here''s to hoping that the naysayers fromst time will cool their jets with this new revtion. I wasn''t going to hold my breath for it to happen though. I enjoy living too much to suffocate myself to death.


    The banquet had been set up outside in therge open town square. There was a raised dais that was big enough for threerge tables. Aunt Glory was seated in the middle with no one at the table with her. Usually her consort would sit with her so I guess it was true, Curtis had been relieved of his role.


    The table to the left of Aunt Glory''s was empty. There was one ce setting but no food was waiting there for anyone. On the right side of Aunt Glory''s table was Athair m¨®r''s table. He was waiting for us with an eager look in his eyes. He beckoned us over and even stood when we arrived. His servants, however, were the ones to pull the chairs out for us.


    "I am d you are here. I am so happy to have a family sit with me again for this time of the year. I have missed this for thest several hundred years."


    "I am sorry that you were alone for so long, Athair m¨®r. But we''re here now, and even when we''re not in the Faepound, we will still be your family. You will be wee to visit any of us at any time. I am sure that the others will agree." Nikki''s calm and sweet voice was soothing him as she spoke.


    "Ah her! Mommy, me sit with Ah her?" Elias was bouncing in Nikki''s arms, trying to get free.


    ""If he is OK with that, Elias, then I don''t see a problem with it." Nikki smiled at Athair m¨®r as she spoke.


    "I would love that. Come on, Elias, Ah her will hold you now."


    "Yay! Ah her! Ah her!"


    While we all smiled happily at Elias and Athair m¨®r, we heard the sound of three different bells ringing. When I looked up, I saw that the three bells were all very different in the way that they looked. The center one was bright yellow, like a shining and shimmering light in bell form. The one to it''s right was green and looked like ivy, but sounded like metal. Thest one was blue and looked, and even seemed to be moving, like water, but it too sounded like metal. The bells all had different tones, but they yed a harmonious tune as they moved in their pattern for the tolling.


    Long before the bells had gone silent, everyone that had gathered at the tables,rge ones and small ones, had gonepletely silent and still. They were all waiting for the banquet to start. And quite a few of them were staring at me and my family as we sat with none other than Valerian Undine.


    "Wee people of Fae, to the start of the Yule time celebrations. There will be the same schedule as usual, but I have been told that some groups have decided to go above and beyond what they usually would for this year''s celebration. There is no news that needs to be shared by me at this time; however, I would like to turn the floor over to my brother."


    Athair m¨®r stood then, taking Elias with him as he walked to the center of the stage.


    "Good evening, people of Faerie. I have an announcement that I would like to make. I have found out some wonderful news just recently. News that I was not aware of for a long time. My son, Antirrhinum, had met his mate in his battalion the month before his death. As it turns out, he actually died saving the woman he loved. That woman, the one he mated with, was the female wolf warrior who ended that war for us. It turns out her efforts had not just been vengeance for her lost Commander, but also for her lost love. Antirrhinum had even asked for her hand in marriage, and they were expecting a child." He turned to look at the group of us for a moment before he continued. "The grandson that I never met went on to father a child, and that line continued. The people you see before you now are my family. They are what had be of my son''s sacrifice."


    There was a hushed murmur that went through the crowd as they whispered amongst themselves. Then, one person near the front, stood to address Athair m¨®r.


    "Isn''t that woman there the Shifter Queen that was herest year? How can she be your descendant?" The person didn''t sound convinced at all. I stood then, handing Rika to Mom as I passed by her on my way to Athair m¨®r''s side.


    "I am the Shifter Queen, yes. I also happen to be the Witch Queen. And now, I am apparently a Fae Princess. That is a lot for one person, but not impossible. In truth, I am a trinity. That being my name, and what I am. I am a tribrid. Three different species at once. Wolf, Witch, and Fae all happen to be in my lineage. That is nothing for you to scoff at me for. To be honest, I count myself very lucky to be who I am today."


    I let the person know that nothing they said was going to upset me. I was, after all, more powerful than most people. I needed to act like it at times.


    "Fine, you''re part Fae. But I want to know why the Queen''s consort is missing? What happened to Curtis?" A woman''s voice rang from the back. "Queen Gloriana, mydy, you said you had no news to report, then exin that to us; if it isn''t news, what it is?"


    Queen Gloriana looked slightly angered, but she smiled and answered the woman''s question in a cold voice.


    "Curtis is currently being punished for overstepping his bounds. I would advise you, D, to not overstep yours."


    Yeah, that was a threat if I ever heard one. The fear that ran through the woman was visible all the way up on the dais. Oh, just what was going to happen now?

 Chapter 421 - Trinity - Meeting With Glory- Day One Of The Light Magic Celebration (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 421 - Trinity - Meeting With Glory- Day One Of The Light Magic Celebration (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Thankfully, there was nothing else that seemed to go wrong for the rest of the banquet. There was a live band that consisted of Fae-styled instruments. There were discussions and the squeals of excitement about the uing festivals. During all of that, we ate the delicious food that had been prepared. And then, thankfully, the night ended without incident.


    Athair m¨®r walked with us back to the residence we were staying in for the time being. Roisin greeted us outside with a smile.


    "Wee back home, mydy. I hope you enjoyed the banquet." I had forgotten to ask Aunt Glory about her, I would have to do thatter.


    "Yes, Roisin, we all quite enjoyed it, thank you."


    "It is my pleasure, mydy." She opened the door for us to enter the home, and Athair m¨®r waved goodbye to us before we walked it. "Mydy, I have already prepared the beds for the evening. The cribs have been warmed to help the children sleep, and water is warming in the kitchen to prepare a bottle if need be."


    "Thank you, but I don''t think that will be necessary, they''re already asleep. We will prep one in the night if need be."


    Since the babies were all asleep we just put them to bed and then went to sleep ourselves. There was no need for us to stay up and dy our rest. We had a busy schedule ahead of us in theing weeks, plus we were somewhere other than home so we would be a little less thanfortable no matter what the surroundings were.


    Over the next several days and weeks, I would be having meetings with Aunt Glory and taking part in the festivities. The order of the magic celebrations that wereing were done in the order that the corresponding Fae was born. Apparently, Gloriana, Sorrel, and Valerian were triplets, but Gloriana was born first, and Valerian was bornst. So that made the order of the festivals go light, nature, and then water. That told me which type of magic I was going to see first.


    First thing the next morning, we all sat down to eat a breakfast that Roisin made, and Waverly tested for poison just like he did at the banquetst night. So far, no one had tried to poison anything, and that wasforting. The food that Roisin made was delicious, and I had noints about the way that she was handling things so far.


    The first event in the light celebration for the Yule time events was a disy of shadow puppetry for the kids to see during the day, and some disys at night for the older Fae. There were also concerts, special food stalls, and random performances that would apparently break out when people were feeling inspired.


    Mom, L, Nikki, Emmalee, and Lotus, Acacia''s mom, were taking the kids to see the puppets while Reece and the other guys learned the different ways that the Fae used light to fight. During that time, I was going to have a conversation with just Aunt Glory.


    After seeing that the kids were all settled in, I was escorted to Aunt Glory''s private study once again. She was waiting for me in a chair next to the firece with a cup of cocoa in her hands.


    "Would you like some, Trinity? It is an ancient Fae recipe."


    "Really? I didn''t think hot cocoa had been around that long." I tilted my head to the side as I sat across from her.


    "It wasn''t, but it''s fun to tease the younger folk about it. Some of them are so gullible that they believe it every time. This is actually just my favorite brand that I send someone into town to get me a few times a year. It''s my private stock."


    "Sounds good. I think I will have some."


    With a wave of her hand, the shining silver pitcher rose into the air, and a cup followed it. The steaming hot cocoa poured itself and flew over to me. I had to be careful when I took the cup; I didn''t want to burn myself if it spilled identally.


    "Before I forget, Aunt Glory, what do you think of Roisin? She is managing the house that we are staying in right now."


    "Ah, so you''ve noticed that she is quite taken with the Shifter Queen? She is a good person, she was in awe of you without ever meeting you. I think she would do anything for you. And you don''t have to worry, she is as honest as theye. She cannot hide her emotions, it is the only drawback to being her." Well that was good. I guess I didn''t have to worry about her at all.


    "So, Aunt Glory, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?" I had been curious since she invited me toe see her.


    "This conversation is going to go back to one we started having when you were herest year. I heard from Reece that you still do not have your kingdom set up."


    "Well, that is true, yes. It''s just, I don''t really know what to do about it. And will they even ept it? I mean, I am literallying in and changing the way things have been done for thest couple millenia. This isn''t the easiest thing for someone to aplish. I have a feeling that a lot of people are going to push back with it. I don''t want to alienate my people."


    "You need to go about this carefully, Trinity. You have not one, but two kingdoms. That is two sets of people to rule. You need to think about whether or not you want to rule them as one entity or two."


    I thought about her words, what it would mean for me to do this as one group and two groups. Either way it was going to be hard. And I just didn''t know how to go about fixing it.


    "Aunt Glory?" I looked at her with eyes that were filled with nerves and worry.


    "Yes, Trinity?"


    "Will you help me figure all of this out?"


    "Trinity, dear, why do you think you''re here."

 Chapter 422 - Trinity - Building A Kingdom - Day One Of The Light Magic Celebration (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 422 - Trinity - Building A Kingdom - Day One Of The Light Magic Celebration (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The smile that Aunt Glory was giving me said that she was both proud that I asked for help, and that I should have known better before I even asked. The two feelings I got from it werepletely contradictory with each other. Still, I was happy that she was going to help me out.


    "We will work on it today and as many times as we have to before you leave. We can even get Val in to help us." She knew that Athair m¨®r would really want to help if he could. "He is a good strategist. Just so you know."


    "I think it would be good to have him help us then. I want to make sure that I don''t mess this up at all."


    After that, Aunt Glory summoned Athair m¨®r so that he could help. She made sure to tell him that I was there so he rushed to get to the study. I giggled a little at his enthusiasm. I was really d that he was so happy right now, but I worried what he would be like when we went home.


    "I am here garin¨ªon [1]. I am here to help you with whatever you need." Athair m¨®r was out of breath when he came through the door; it looked as if he had run here when he got Aunt Glory''s summons.


    "Thank you. I was hoping that you could help me n out how to structure my kingdoms. I have yet to do anything with them, and I know that I really need to do something about that before I lose out on my chance to make a difference."


    "Ah, my dear sweet garin¨ªon is such a sweet person. You think about your people and try to make sure that nothing bad can happen to them. You are such a good Queen already."


    OK, now I know he was looking at me with rose colored sses or something. I don''t think there was anything that I could do to make him see me in a negative light. That was funny, but could get to where it was annoyingter.


    "OK, Trinity, what we need to do is first figure out an approximation of how many people are in your two kingdoms, and then which method would be best for you to implement. Obviously, you do not want topletely copy the Fae way of running a kingdom because we have been doing this for millenia. You will be starting a whole new kingdom that is a Matriarchy. There is a lot that needs to go into nning this out, but we will manage it."


    Athair m¨®r really did know what he was talking about. We had to start with estimating the number of shifters in the world, as well as the number of witches, warlocks, gypsies, witch doctors, djinn, genies, and any other type of magic user that I now ruled over. The number was not small, and I was certain that I was low balling that number way too much.


    After that we talked about the different ways to get my people involved. I knew that Fae had a noble system, and I wanted to do something like that as well. The problem was that I would end up with a hell of a lot of nobles. The current n was to make all Alphas nobles. That would be Alphas of every species. I needed to include magical nobles as well though, so in that respect I would make those that ran their own covens nobles as well as those that were high ranking within the Aerie Convento.


    The nobility would be ranked on two factors. The amount of help or aid they provide and the size of their packs. The same would go for the magic users. There were fewer of them so the ranking system would be different.


    The goal was to unite the two worlds that I ruled into one. It would be best if we could get them to form a counsel of trusted advisors that would represent the ideas of their specific race. They would not have authority over anyone except their own pack or coven, but they will be asked for input and will need to visit the estate on a quarterly basis.


    For the little bit of time that we had spent on this so far, we had figured out a lot of the base structure. I would run it by Reece at ater date and see if there was anything that he wanted me to change about it, but for the time being it wasing together nicely. Once we got back home, we would slowly start contacting the new nobles and giving them a run down of the new rules system.


    The main thing that they needed to understand, ording to Athair m¨®r and Aunt Glory, was that I was the highest authority for them aside from the Gods and Goddesses. That meant that defying me could prove dangerous. However, it was not like I was just going to rule them by fear; I needed to get them all to trust me as well.


    This was going to be a long process. I just knew it. And right as I was about toment the struggles that I was in for Athair m¨®r cheerfully dered something that I didn''t expect.


    "I''ve decided, I aming back with you. I will help you set this up so you will not be alone. Plus, I will see where my family lives." He was so sure of that idea that I literally couldn''t say anything to oppose his offer.


    Well, I guess my great great great grandfather was going back to Colorado Springs with me. That could be fun. But, why did I get the feeling that something was bound to go wrong? Has he even been to the modern world or has he been locked away here in the Fae Compound for most of thest few centuries?


    [1] Garin¨ªon is an Irish word that means granddaughter.


    It is pronounced gar - in - EE - in

 Chapter 423 - Trinity - Light Show Day Four Of The Light Magic Celebration (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 423 - Trinity - Light Show Day Four Of The Light Magic Celebration (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The nning sessions continued every day during the light festivals. I took part in the fun as much as I could, but I was also trying to fit in official duties as well. I was just d that all of my family was here so that I didn''t miss them too much while I was gone.


    Tonight was thest night of the Light Magic Celebration, which meant that tomorrow was what was known as Gloriana Day for which there would be a banquet and then the day after that there would be a formal ball. There were gifts that were to be given to Gloriana on her day as well as a dr¨¢ma that was to be performed by various light magic Fae about the life of Queen Gloriana.


    I was truly looking forward to it, but before that, I was looking forward to the light show that was Aunt Glory''s contribution to the festivities. Aunt Glory was capable of using all types of magic, but she excelled in light magic, she was much like me in that respect. The both of us had an affinity for all elements of magic like that.


    "Hey, you''re actually here." Reece joked with me as I went to leave with them to see the light show that I was looking forward to.


    "What do you mean?" I didn''t get what he was saying.


    "Oh, you know, Queen Trinity has just been busily nning her new realm; it''s like you haven''t been here with us at all." Carter answered me for him.


    "I''m so sorry. I didn''t mean to leave you all alone for so long. I''ve missed everything too. I''m so sorry."


    "He''s just yanking your chain, Trinity. No one is upset that you have been busy. You have responsibilities to see to. We have all been able to literally stop work for this time, but you are not someone who can do that easily. Actually, being here is more work for you than being home." Noah was the voice of reason that I needed right now.


    "I''m sorry, Little Bunny. I didn''t mean for my joke to cause an issue. I have missed you, that is all."


    "Mama."


    "Mama."


    Right as Reece said that he missed me my babies called out to me showing me that they have missed me as well.


    "Reagan, Rika,e here my babies. Mommy loves you." I scooped them into my arms and held them close to me. "I am sorry that I have been so busy. I am going to spend the next few days with you guys. I promise."


    After my tearful apology we all left to go outside to the amphitheater for the light show. It was dark early, thankfully. That was a benefit for the Yule celebration being right around and during the winter solstice.


    Being the new ''unofficial'' guests of honor for the Yule celebration we had been given a special viewing deck that was outfitted withfortable seating for all of us. Reece and I were sitting on a veryfortable loveseat with Reagan and Rika on ourps when the show started.


    The sky started to light up with explosions almost like fireworks but it wasn''t sparks that appeared. The lights we saw were rainbows, the aurora borealis, and differently shaped animals and nts that flew through the sky.


    Mama, Mama, Mama." Rika was pulling on my arm pointing at the lights.


    "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.'' Reagan was doing the same to Reece."


    "Dada, Dada."


    "Daddy, Mommy, look." CJ and then Elias followed suit and yelled at the lights. They were followed by the others as well.


    "Dada, Papa, Dada, Papa."


    "Papa, Dada."


    "Daddy, Papa."


    "Papa, Papa, Daddy, Daddy." All four of Shawn and Dietrich''s babies liked the lights as well, and they were calling out for their dads.


    Their excitement soon turned toughter as the images danced around and several of them came really close to the deck we were sitting on.


    "Haha, Mama see." Rika pointed at a butterfly light that fluttered past her. "Mama buttfwy."


    "That''s right Rika, it''s a pretty butterfly. Watch the butterfly go." Her giggles were so sweet and worth every second of this light show. All four of the little ones were having a really good time. I know that it was melting all of our hearts.


    After a little while there were words that began to form in the lights. It was light Aunt Glory was sending a message to someone.


    ''WELCOME''


    The words wereing one at a time, but they were moving quick enough that you didn''t feel like it was taking too long to read the whole message.


    ''TO'' ''THE'' ''FAMILY''


    Was this a message for us? It certainly seemed like it, and the next words confirmed it.


    ''SAMUEL'' ''LILA'' WESLEY'' ''EVE'' ''NOAH'' ''NIKKI'' ''ELIAS'' ''CARTER'' EMMALEE'' ''CJ'' ''REECE'' ''TRINITY'' REAGAN'' RIKA''


    Well, there were all of our names, but was that all? Nope, heree more words.


    ''WE'' ''ARE'' ''HAPPY'' ''YOU'' ''ARE'' ''HERE'' ''WITH'' ''US'' ''LOVE'' ''GLORIANA'' ''AND'' ''VALERIAN''


    After the words there was a group picture of all of us. All fourteen of us were in the shining image in the sky.


    "You know, she loves showing off her light skills." Dietrich leaned forward and whispered in my ear.


    "What?" I jumped and turned toward him.


    "When I was here before, she did light shows all the time. She is really good at it though, isn''t she?"


    "Yeah, she is." I smiled at the nostalgic look in his eyes.


    "As I told Shawn, I do not regret my time with her, but I do not wish to repeat it. The Fae nobility have a lot of crazy ideals."


    Those words of his left me with an awkward feeling. I didn''t know what it was that he was calling crazy, but I was betting that at some point in my future I would find out. I just hoped it wouldn''t be detrimental to me or my family. I wouldn''t want to cause strife between me and the Fae, especially since I was one now.

 Chapter 424 - Reece - The Light Magic Ball (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 424 - Reece - The Light Magic Ball (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    It had felt like I had barely spent any time with my wife since we had gotten here. She had been very busy with her great great great great aunt and great great great grandfather, that was a lot of greatness in one family. See what I did there, I made a joke about her family. Yeah, Noah didn''t think it was funny either.


    Still, we had been doing our best to be part of the festivities, and we had met quite a few very nice people in the process. We had further gotten to know Breon through Juliet. We had learned that Roisin wasn''t much appreciated by most of the Fae, but the Queen loved her.


    We had met and had a good time with Acacia''s family and Star''s family, some of them even became friends as well. We had met some of the royal guards and learned some new ways of fighting from them. It had been a very fruitful trip for us, except for Trinity who was working constantly.


    Tonight though, there was the ball. I was going on a date with my wife. Mom and Samuel were going to skip the ball and hang out with Acacia''s and Star''s families. They were all going to take care of the babies, all eight of them. I wasn''t worried that they could manage it, there were enough of them plus Lotus and Ash knew how to take care of multiples. No, I was just d that some of us were finally going to get to spend some time with their mate. I mean, I don''t want to sound clingy or anything, but I missed her.


    I dressed away from her so that I didn''t ruin the surprise of what she was wearing. I wore the new dark green suit that she had gotten me for Christmas and paired it with mostly ck ents. The resulting look was actually quite stylish. My hair was in ce, the suit was perfect and I was good to go when I smelled my mateing down that stairs.


    When I turned, I was entranced by what I saw. Trinity was walking toward me with a very sexy formal dress. It was a dark forest green that almost perfectly matched my suit, but it was made of what looked like silk chiffon and the sheerness of the fabric lightened it up a bit. The top of the dress, or bodice, was pleated and went over only her left shoulder. As the fabric got to the shoulder though it started to thin out and twist, almost like it was braided. I couldn''t see the back of the dress yet, but I just knew from what I saw that it was going to be interesting.


    The skirt of the dress was floor length, going all the way down despite the ck heels that my sexy little mate was wearing. The A-line skirt also had a slit up each side so I could see shes of those gorgeous legs every time that Trinity took a step.


    When she got right in front of me she spun in a slow circle, and I finally saw the back of the dress. Those twisted and braided looking pieces went over the shoulder and formed the back of the dress. They connected at different ces where they partially wrapped back around to the bodice. The dress showed so much of her marks that were usually hidden from people, the humans at least because they would not understand them.


    "So what do you think?" She smiled at me when she looked up at me.


    "I think that if we stay here much longer we will just be going to the bedroom." I smirked at her.


    "Perv." She rolled her eyes at me, and we bothughed. She knew what I was and loved it, I didn''t care if she called me out on it.


    "You look lovely. Eve cooed when she saw the dress.


    "I love it." Emmalee squealed.


    "Yup, Trinity is the new fashion queen."


    "Oh hush." She blushed at their words, and I could see the red stain all the way down to the top of her right breast that was just barely hidden by the dress. It really was a sexy gown, and I couldn''t wait to get it off of her.


    We all left and went to the ball after that. The guards were all going as well, though Shawn and Dietrich were pretending to be guests at the ball and would be able to see more than just the bodyguards that stood out too much.


    Valerian and Gloriana were at the ball as well, as we knew they would be. Aside from them though, there were a lot less people than I expected there to be. This event was much smaller than the others that we had been to so far.


    There were maybe a hundred people here and that was pushing it. I had a feeling that a lot of people used the ball as an excuse to schmooze with the Queen and so it was only attended by the high ranked Fae. I wonder what rank Trinity and her family would have. Trinity would probably rank high, but I don''t know about the others.


    I didn''t let that bother me at all. I was here to dance with my wife, and that was just what I was going to do.


    I led her out onto the dance floor, and we both put our formal dance lessons to good use. I spun her around the floor, a move that made her long, slit skirt to twirl out around her. I could tell that several men in the room had their eyes on her. That pissed me off, but it also made me feel good. She was mine, and they couldn''t touch her.


    Or so I thought.


    As soon as the song ended, a man tapped my mate''s shoulder and began to speak.


    "Queen Trinity, might I have the next dance." I saw a line of men behind him that were going to ask if he was turned down. I was about to shut him up with a firm now when my Little Bunny pulled me toward her.


    "I do not want to start a feud right now. I will dance with a few and you can dance with a few of those women eyeballing you. After that we will tell them we are done dancing with the other guests and choose to be with each other."

 Chapter 425 - Reece - The Light Magic Ball Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 425 - Reece - The Light Magic Ball Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I did not just hear what I thought I did. She did not just tell me that I should dance with other women so that she could dance with other men. Did she not know that something like that would make me murderously angry? I was more likely to kill every man here than to let them touch her. What the hell was she thinking?


    "It will be fine Reece. I will dance with four or five of them while you do the same with the women. It''s diplomatic, and what we should be doing." She whispered into my ear again.


    "Except we''re supposed to be on vacation and not working." I growled back to her in a whisper.


    "I don''t think that a royal could ever truly be on vacation. I am sorry Reece, please bear with it for just a little bit."


    She leaned up and kissed my cheek quickly before turning back to the man who had asked her to dance.


    "I would love to, thank you."


    As I watched, another man just danced away with my mate. He spun and twirled away with her like he was trying to reenact some stupid scene from a movie; only to him that was how they really danced here. This was bullshit.


    "Hello there, King Reece. Might I have this dance since you are free." A woman asked me, and I said yes without even looking at her. I nced at her from time to time, that was about it. Other than what was necessary to make sure I followed the steps I didn''t even look at the woman I was dancing with. I saw that she had bubblegum pink hair and her dress was the color of cotton candy, that was it. I didn''t notice anything else aside from that.


    When that dance was over, I watched as that asshat who danced with my wife took her hand and kissed the back of it like he was a suitor vying for her hand. I was going to kill him. But she was immediately being courted by another dipshit, and I had to watch to make sure he didn''t try anything with her.


    The next woman that danced with me had hair so bright orange that I thought it was made from a construction worker''s vest or something. That was all that I saw of her. I didn''t notice the color of her dress; hell I wouldn''t have even noticed if she was fucking naked! I was too pissed off about the men trying to steal my mate from me.


    This happened again, and again, and again until she had danced five songs with five different desperate assholes. Finally, it was the time when I could tell the bimbo squad that was following me around that I was done with them.


    "I apologizedies, but I am going to have a seat with my wife." There were no groans that came from them; there was just a low sigh.


    "Yeah, we know. We were just happy that we could get a few dances in. You are a devoted husband, we know that. However, you are a catch so we just wanted to be able to brag that we danced with you." That had been the bubblegum girl. I think I danced with her twice. "Have fun with your mate." She called out and giggled as she and the others hurried away.


    I caught Trinity around the waist and pulled her against me. I was desperate to show them all that she was mine, and no one else was going to touch her again. I might even need to remind her of thatter too.


    "Reece." She squealed in surprise and delight. "What are you doing?"


    "I''m showing them that you''re mine."


    "They already know that." Sheughed.


    "Really? Does that fuck face that kissed your hand know that? Just let me keep holding you, because if I let you go, I will end up going to kill him. And like you said, we don''t want a feud. You can, however, wash his residue off of your hand. Let me find a strong drink at the bar, and I will disinfect it for you."


    I started to drag her with me to the bar, and I heard herughing as I did so.


    "Reece, stop this."


    "Excuse me Sir, I need a ss of your strongest alcohol please."


    "Right away."


    "Reece?" She was stillughing at me as the man behind the bar handed me the drink.


    "Thank you, can I get a ss of just ice and a napkin as well."


    "Certainly."


    Once I had everything I spilled just a little of the liquor over the back of her hand and let it drip away. After that I took the ice and rubbed it over the area that I had cleaned; it was heated from my touch and her body heat so it melted and started to wash away the disinfecting liquid right away. After I dried it with the napkin, I pulled her hand to my lips and kissed the ce where the asshat''s germs had nearly infected her.


    "There, all better. I can''t have someone else''s kiss on you now, can I?"


    "You can be an idiot at times." She shook her head andughed, but she leaned forward at the same time and cupped my cheek as she ced a gentle kiss on my lips. "I love you."


    "Careful there, Little Bunny, I might just lose control if you keep flirting with me." After I winked and smirked suggestively, she pped me on the shoulder with augh. I guess she didn''t find it as funny as I did.


    Following that incident, we talked with Glory and Valerian for a bit, danced, talked among our friends and family, who all thought the scene with me cleaning her hand, and the way that I acted like a lost dog when she danced with other men, were just the funniest things ever.


    I was in a hurry to end the night though. I wasn''t lying to myself or her when I said that I was going to lose control. I think we will just leave Reagan and Rika with the others for tonight. It was time for Mommy and Daddy to have another night of peace.

 Chapter 426 - Reece - A Nice Night Of Peace Part 1 (MATURE) ((VOLUME 3))

    <h4>Chapter 426 - Reece - A Nice Night Of Peace Part 1 (MATURE) ((VOLUME 3))</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    When Trinity wanted to head straight to get the babies from where they were, I had to pull her away and remind her that they were likely sleeping. They would be fine until morning, and we can get them then.


    I, for one, had something else that I wanted to do tonight. And so far, I was pretty sure that Trinity hadn''t figured it out yet. I wonder how easy it is to get her out of that dress? If it''s too difficult I could rip it and I didn''t want that to happen, I really liked the way that it looked on her and would like to see her wear it again.


    When we made it to the room I watched as Trinity started to take out her earrings and head toward our private bathroom. However, as soon as her earrings were out and set aside, I pulled her toward me.


    "Hah? Ree-?" I didn''t give her a chance to even finish my name. I swallowed the rest of it down with her gasp of shock when I pressed my lips against hers.


    "Goddess, I have wanted you all night." I growled the words against her lips when I broke the kiss.


    "Reece? What are you doing?" Her voice was breathy and soft, but I could hear the desire in it as well. That thrum of arousal that flowed through her.


    "Can''t you tell, Little Bunny? I want you. I have been holding myself back for too long, and tonight has pushed me too far. I need you." I kissed her neck softly with feather light touches of my lips. "Not to mention, I need to prove to you that no other man should ever touch you the way you let those men handle you." This time I bit down firmly, yet gently, on her mate mark.


    "Ah! Ahh!" She cried out, and her knees almost buckled under her. That happened the most when she was truly aroused and full of need.


    "I can see that you want me too, Trinity, so don''t fight me on this." I lifted her off the floor and held her to me as I carried her over and sat her on top of the table. I needed to have her closer to me, but I also needed to get us out of our clothes.


    "Reece, should we be doing this?" She was panting with need and desire already.


    "I don''t see a reason not to. We''re alone on this floor, and it''s not like we''ll get into trouble." I chuckled with my mouth pressed to her and the resulting rumble made her shiver and moan.


    "Goddess Reece, don''t do that." She was clinging to my jacket as she spoke, clearly unable to control herself either.


    "Really? I think you want me to do it even more." I shifted my mouth so that it was a little lower and did it again, vibrating my mouth against her neck and chest.


    "Ah!" She cried out with desire.


    "Do you want me to stop now?" I lifted my mouth from her and purred the words into her ear.


    "N..no." She was shaking her head from side to side as she tried to talk. "Don''t stop."


    "Good, ''cause I didn''t n to."


    I fumbled over her chest and back, looking for a way to get her out of the dress. I literally had to pull myself away from her and look for the sp that held the dress to her shoulder. When I finally found it and unbuttoned the dress it literally just fell down her chest to pool at her waist. The sight made me growl with satisfaction. She wasn''t wearing a bra and the uninterrupted view was breathtaking.


    I wanted to ce my mouth against her body. I wanted to lick everything that I could and taste the desire as it built up inside of her. So that was exactly what I was going to do, after I stripped myself first.


    It was probably and speed record or something, that was how fast I moved to get out of my suit and everything else that I was wearing. And when I wrapped my arms around my wife and lifted her off the table the dress that was no longer being held up slid from her body and fell to the floor. It was fine right there for now. I wasn''t going to stop and pick it up, at least I didn''t rip it.


    I threw her on the bed, literally. Shended in the middle, and I was already climbing up after her before she stopped bouncing. I quite enjoyed the way her breasts bounced up and down as she moved; my eyes were following the motion with rapt attention.


    I did stop to take the time to pull off her ck panties and the strappy heels that she was wearing. I figured she wouldin if I didn''t. After that though, I just set my mouth against her body and started to taste what I could.


    I started with her legs. I wanted to make my way up her body today. I never usually did that, so why not?


    I teased and licked her legs, tickling and arousing her at the same time. When I finally made it to her core I wanted to skip past it and finish tasting her body first, but I couldn''t drag myself away. That sweet, dessert-like scent of hers was driving me insane. I needed to devour that sweet, yummy goodness right now.


    She probably expected me to take longer as well, so when Ipped my tongue up her core, slowly, she screamed in surprise and delight. That was enough to tell me to keep going. I was happy that she wanted this as much as I did.


    I licked again. A long slow line up her core. After that I hooked her knees and lifted them so that I could spread her open for me. Once her dusky folds were revealed, I proceeded top up every single drop of her arousal and devour her center until she was screaming for me.


    "Ah! R..R..Reece!" My body tightened when she screamed my name like that, with my dick hardening and anticipating her warm embrace.


    I didn''t want to aid this orgasm with anything; I wanted to make here screaming my name as she flooded my mouth with her arousal, and I wanted to do it with just my tongue. I''ve done it before, but not often. I usually assisted the end of the climax with my fingers.


    She must have been more aroused than I thought. I had thought that this would take longer than usual, but she was panting and moaning at the precipice much sooner than I expected. She needed me as much as I needed her.


    Several more hard, long strokes of my tongueter, and she did just what I wanted. She screamed and her entire body tensed. I thrusted my tongue inside of her and swallowed down the cream that was flowing from her.


    "Reece!" She screamed my name again as the waves of her orgasm continued into a second, immediate orgasm.

 Chapter 427 - Reece - A Nice Night Of Peace Part 2 (MATURE) ((VOLUME 3))

    <h4>Chapter 427 - Reece - A Nice Night Of Peace Part 2 (MATURE) ((VOLUME 3))</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "R..R..R..Reece." She was panting and her eyes were clouded over. "D..d..d..don''t s..s..s..stop. P..p..p..please don''t stop, I..I..I need you, I want you."


    "Did you really think that I was going to stop right now, Trinity? Goddess, I couldn''t stop now even if I wanted to. I need you too badly for that." I felt the control slipping away from me. My wolf wanted out, he wanted to take her. He wanted to mate with her for the first time in forever.


    "I wanted you right now, Reece." The husky, needy note in her voice lessened my control and hardened me even more.


    "I want you too, baby, I really do. But so does my wolf. He wants out. He wants to take you."


    "Let him. I don''t mind. We can both shift." She grinned, a little bit of the lighting back to her eyes as the fog faded.


    "There will be no more forey if we shift." I had to make sure she knew that.


    "I thought the forey was over now anyway." She grinned and chuckled at me.


    "Don''t say I didn''t warn you." Iughed as well.


    My beast was not going to be gentle, and he was not going to take his time. I knew that. I could hear him screaming inside my head for me to release him. He was an uncontroble savage beast right now.


    I waited for my sexy little mate to shift first. Her beautiful white, ck, and blue wolf grinned at me as she turned around and wagged her tail in my face. She was taunting me. She knew that my wolf wanted her badly; she was asking for him to be more brutal than he could have ever been.


    "Don''t worry about holding back, Reece. Just let go." She had just given my wolf reason to not listen to me. Dammit, he was going to hurt her if he wasn''t careful. "Come on." She wagged enticingly again. My control snapped, and I no longer controlled my body.


    I was in my wolf form and prowling toward her before I knew it. I could tell that all my thoughts were now that of an animal instead of a man. They were more simple and single minded.


    When Trinity saw that the wolf was ready for her she lowered the front of her body until she was sticking her tail right up my nose. I didn''t expect what my wolf did when he got to her. Instead of mounting her immediately, his tonguepped slowly over her swollen clit. He was actually repeating what I had done.


    "NGHOOO!" Trinity moaned, and it turned into a howl with the pleasure she was feeling.


    My wolfpped at her again and again. He was devouring her the way that he had seen me do it before, and I could tell that it was working for her. She was panting and whining, now in a more animalistic manner than before, but still filled with arousal.


    After a few moments, her whole body shook as she came panting once again. My beast had just made here for a third time before we had even entered her.


    My wolf wasn''t about to wait to enter her though. I could hear his thoughts. He, thankfully, wasn''t making them known to her, but I was privy to them.


    ''Need her. Must fuck her. Need. Need. Need. My mate. My mate. My mate.''


    This stream of thoughts were pouring through the wolf''s mind as he moved to mount the female wolf before him. I couldn''t control his actions, I couldn''t make him be gentle, and I knew he wasn''t going to be.


    Sure enough the moment he was in position, he slid into her fast and hard causing her to howl.


    "Awooooo!" Before the sound of her howl had even stopped, he ced his upper body in position and bit down on the back of her neck to keep her in ce. Now that he was holding her in ce he started to pull out of her and ram back into her body.


    Trinity''s wolf was whining and crying out, but it was with pleasure. Nothing sounded like it was pain at least. My beast was still growling obscene thoughts in his head as he drove into her over and over again.


    I felt my wolf''s ws digging into the bed. I felt his teeth break through and taste the blood of my mate as it washed over the wolf''s tongue. He had hurt her, but still, she didn''t try to stop him. They were both too far gone. It had been a long time since we had had a mating like this. I think they both needed it as much as our human selves did.


    It wasn''t long until both of the wolves were on the brink of climax. And when it hit, the waves of pleasure pulled my wolf into the undertow, taking him and dragging him to the back of my mind once again.


    I fell to the bed panting as I pulled from Trinity''s body and shifted back to human form. She shifted at the same time, and we wereying there, me on top of her, skin pressed to skin. The mark on her neck was already healing from where my wolf had bitten her.


    "Reece?" She called out to me as I licked the droplet of blood from her neck.


    "I am sorry he was so rough with you, baby." I kissed the mark where it was still just a little red.


    "Reece, I don''t want it to be done yet. Please. I need more of you." My body was still hard before she spoke, and after hearing those words, it had hardened even more. I didn''t want the night to be over, but I would have thought that she had had enough.


    "Are you sure?" I asked her just to be sure.


    "Yes Reece, please. I need more of you. I want you."

 Chapter 428 - Reece - A Nice Night Of Peace Part 3 (MATURE) ((VOLUME 3))

    <h4>Chapter 428 - Reece - A Nice Night Of Peace Part 3 (MATURE) ((VOLUME 3))</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Who was I to deny my wife what she was begging me for? If she wanted more, then I would give it to her. That''s what a good husband should do, right?


    I sat up on my knees then, propping myself above her as I flipped her over. Once she was looking at me, I pressed my lips to hers and kissed her with everything I had. I tangled my tongue with hers and kissed until I heard her moan.


    I had wanted the distraction for her as I fitted myself against her entrance. Without breaking the kiss, I slid inside of her. She was wet, but swollen from the multiple orgasms, so she was tight.


    "Ngh!" She moaned as she pulled her mouth from mine and pressed her head into the pillow beneath her.


    I slid to the hilt slowly, not wanting to hurt her. The tight sheath of her body on my dick was enough to make me want to scream with pleasure and delight. I needed this. I needed her, and not as my wolf. I needed her as me.


    I pulled back slowly, revelling in the feel of her body moving around me. As soon as just my tip was left inside her, I mmed forward. I wasn''t able to be any gentler than my wolf had been, apparently.


    I pulled out and drove into her repeatedly. I mmed our bodies together over and over again. I drove into her so hard that I knew it must have been hurting her, but she seemed to me in nothing but pleasure with her head back and neck exposed. Goddess, I needed to taste her right there right now.


    I dove forward andpped at the ce where her pulse thudded in her throat. It was hot and filled with her scent.


    Just when I was about to lock my teeth around the thudding, I felt her ws rake down my back. Just her fingers must have shifted and scratched at me. The pain turned into pleasure as I continued driving into her.


    We were both being so primal with each other. It was like one of the first times that we had ever had sex with each other, beastial and full of animalistic tendencies.


    Everytime I thrusted forward to m my body into hers, Trinity would shift her hips to meet me halfway, intensifying the pleasure that we were both feeling. I could hear the p, p, p of our bodies making a primal song with each other.


    Before long I was on the verge of my climax, but not until I felt hers take her. When she squeezed me, when her waves of orgasm took her, it pulled me down with it.


    "Ngh! Reece!" She called my name as she tumbled into the oblivion.


    "Trinity!" I growled hers in response.


    This time when we copsed, we were spent. I could only move enough to slide out of her body. Trinity on the other hand didn''t seem capable of moving at all. She was lying limply in my arms and panting as she drifted off to sleep.


    "I love you, Reece." She sighed as she justid there with me.


    "I love you too, Little Bunny."


    I did my best to slide the nket over the both of us before I drifted off to sleep. It was hard. I could barely get my arms to respond to themands of my brain. I did it though, finally. After several minutes, I was able to pull the nket out from under us and pull it over us.


    I was ready to just close my eyes and drift off to sleep, but fate didn''t have that in the cards for me, not yet anyway.


    "Reece, do you see how pretty it is?" Trinity must have been dreaming as she whispered to me. I was about tough, but she started to talk again. "I''m so tired, but I am being called for a meeting. I wish you coulde with me. It''s so pretty, and I could use you there at my side."


    "Trinity?" I was instantly worried about her. There had been times when she had appearedatose after having one of her meetings that she was going to. I wish I could go with her too. "Trinity, stay with me baby." I pleaded with her.


    "I can''t, I am being pulled away. Come with me Reece. Pleasee with me. I want you to see how pretty it is. I want you to see what I see. Tell me if it is as gorgeous in your eyes as it is in mine."


    In a way, she wasn''t making sense. I couldn''t go with her, could I? She was on her way to visit with the Gods and Goddesses. What were they going to say to her? What did they want from her right now? Why would they pull her to them after what we had just done?


    I had a moment to wonder if the sex we just had might have been the trigger for this meeting. If that was the case, then I don''t think this was a meeting with one of the Gods or Goddesses that she has been with before.


    "Come back to me baby. Don''t go. Stay with me." I was begging her, nearly frantic now.


    "I told you I can''t. Come with me Reece? Pleasee see it." Her voice kept getting further and further away.


    "How, baby? How do I go with you?"


    "Kiss me. Just a soft little kiss. Please kiss me."


    There wasn''t much that I could do at the moment, but I could kiss her. I could give her that request, at least.


    My lips covered hers, and I felt the heat inside her stir for a second. Then, it was like I felt myself being lifted from the bed and hurled through the sky. It felt like I was falling, but I was moving up. What in the actual fucking hell was this?

 Chapter 429 - Reece - Visiting The Gods (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 429 - Reece - Visiting The Gods (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I had been falling. I knew that I had been falling. So why then was I opening my eyes like I was just waking up from a very unrestful sleep? And where the hell was I?


    I had somehow ended up on a rocky cliff that overlooked the sea. But this rocky cliff was right next to a field of wildflowers, and the sun was shining down beautifully on the entire scene. It was making me think of the Fae, that was for sure. The whole nature, water, and light magic stuff.


    As I looked around, I saw that Trinity hadnded in the flowers as if she had been embraced by them as they cushioned her fall. Considering that I could feel the rocky surface poking into me as I got up, I knew that nothing had cushioned my fall.


    Maybe the scenery didn''t help me because it didn''t expect me. Or maybe it was mad at me for hijacking the ride it was giving my wife. Oh well, I didn''t care if it liked it or not. It shouldn''t go around and kidnap my wife like that."


    "Reece?" My Little Bunny stood up then, and I saw that she was indeed naked. So was I. Well, that made sense, we were both rather naked when we left our bodies. I wished we had something to get covered up with though. I didn''t want anyone or anything to see my wife''s body as it was right now.


    As soon as the thought went through my head there were two long cloaks that appeared before us. I could tell which was which based on the size of them when they magically appeared in front of us. We put the robes on, wanting to cover ourselves so that if someone were toe into view we wouldn''t be exposed. My robe was obviously a lot bigger than Trinity''s, but other than that they were identical, pure white robes.


    "Trinity, baby, where are we?" I asked her once we were both covered.


    "I don''t know. I have never seen this ce before. Usually, I see the meeting stone back home. It has strong ties to Nehalennia."


    "Huh, I never knew that. So where do you think we are now?" We both turned around, trying to find out where we were.


    As I looked closer, I saw that there were green rolling hills in the distance. The sea looked unforgiving, but still beautiful in a way. And the sunshine wasforting as it gently caressed my skin.


    "I can feel magic here." I heard my Little Bunny whisper as she moved in her small circle. "Do you think this is a ce inside the Faepound?"


    "Not in thepound, no."


    Thatst part was spoken by a mysterious voice that caused both me and Trinity to spin toward the meadow filled with flowers. There were three people standing there, two of them were shrouded in cloaks while the other, a beautiful woman, looked at us with a kind expression.


    The woman looked nothing like how I would expect a Goddess to look, but I knew right away that''s what she was. She had an unearthly air about her, and her beauty had more to do with the elements than anything else. Her hair was long, flowing, and green; it looked like it was made of vines, leaves, and flowers all at the same time. Her dress covered her from her shoulders down in a long flowing design with a train that trailed the ground behind her. Her arms were bare as was a small dip of flesh just below her neck. Her skin looked like it was made of sunshine, she was radiant and beautiful. And her eyes were three rings of color: blue, green, then gold.


    "Hello children, I am delighted to meet you." Her voice was breezy and sounded like the music in the wind.


    "H..h..hello." I stuttered nervously, not sure what to do in this situation.


    "You''re Danu, aren''t you? The Fae Mother Goddess." Little Bunny was smiling as she looked at the woman.


    "I am indeed, child. I am surprised you figured it out so quickly. You have been paying attention to your lore." Danu smiled and nodded at her. "I am sorry to pull you here so suddenly, and to leave you in such a state when you arrived. The magic in the room with you was my opening, and I admit that I did not want to pass up the opportunity."


    So there had been magic in the room with us when we mated. I guess that exins why our wolves went haywire. Most of these things that have to do with the Faepound were still confusing to me.


    "I have been to see other Gods and Goddesses, this is not that new to me." My mate smiled at the Goddess who stood before her.


    "It''s new to me." Iughed ufortably.


    "I do apologize about that. Initially I was not summoning you, but I am d that you are here as well R¨ª [1] Reece. You and R¨ªon [2] Trinity are connected, the both of you move through your path in life together. It is best to bring you here as well so you can be privy to secrets.


    "What kind of secrets?" I had to wonder, why would the Mother Goddess of the Fae bring us here? What was going on that constituted this sort of drastic measure?


    "I fear that my children may be in danger at some point in the very near future. I do not wish for them to be harmed, and I ask that you help them please. From a mother to a mother, please do not let my childrene to any harm."


    [1] R¨ª is an Irish word for King. It is pronounced with a long E- rEE


    [2] R¨ªon is an Irish word for Queen. It is pronounced with a long E- rEE - in

 Chapter 430 - Reece - The Pleas Of A Goddess (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 430 - Reece - The Pleas Of A Goddess (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "What could I do that you wouldn''t be able to?" I could hear the disbelief and shock in my Little Bunny''s voice as she asked the Goddess that question. "Wouldn''t you, a Goddess, be more capable than me?"


    "While that might be true in most circumstances, we celestials are technically not allowed to interfere too directly with the lives of our children. We can bless someone and give them the ability to do something. We can give them wisdom and guidance. We can help them in many ways. However, we cannot act directly for or against a non-celestial being."


    I could see the sorrow in the Goddess''s eyes as she thought about theck of true power that she possessed. If she couldn''t step in and help someone then, what kind of power would she feel like she wielded? I know that if the only thing I could do to save my children was to tell them what to do, I would feel helpless. It would not be possible to just stand by and watch something happen to them. I couldn''t do it.


    "Alright, I will do what I can. If I can help, then I will." My wife just agreed to it without even talking to me about it first. I stiffened next to her, shock flowing through me. What was she thinking?


    "Trinity? You don''t even know what you need to do." I could hear the terror filling my voice. "What if she asks for you to give you li.. to give your li..?-" I hesitated and stuttered a little at the end, and then still I wasn''t able to finish the question.


    "I said, if I could help I would, Reece. Giving my life for theirs wouldn''t be helping, that would only leave Aunt Glory and Athair m¨®r grief stricken. They will not want that, and so I will not do it."


    She had a point, they wouldn''t ask her to do that for them. In truth, Valerian would most likely give his life for her instead. That did help to alleviate my concern, just a little bit. When I looked back at Danu, I noticed that she was nodding as if my Little Bunny had been right.


    "I will not ask for you to give your life, R¨ªon Trinity. You are a child of mine as well. Every person descended from the original three is a child of mine. Thanks to the Dryads in the family line, that has be a lot more than I ever expected. I have lost enough children over the years, and I do not want to see more perish because of someone''s feelings of jealousy or inadequacy."


    "Jealousy? Inadequacy?" I was shocked by those words. "Who is it that poses a threat because of just that?"


    "Don''t ever let yourself becent in what you have, R¨ª Reece. When you have something that someone else covets, they wille to want it even more. Their hatred for you and longing for their desire will both grow in equal measure. Given enough time, that hatred can be a power for them to wield." Danu, while young in appearance, spoke like a wise old woman who had lived through many hardships.


    "Alright, but who is the threat that we must defend Gloriana and Valerian against?"


    "That, I do not know. I have just seen the fighting to them soon." She seemed like she was filled with regret, probably because she couldn''t give us much information at the moment.


    "How soon is soon?" Trinity''s question cut to the next major point.


    "I cannot give an exact time, but I believe it will be within the next year, two at most. The angry emotions have long since turned to hatred, and I feel that evil is growing. This is a type of evil we have not felt since the Fae of the darknds have been sealed away in the oldnds of home. This evil though, it has never resided in the dark. This hatredes from one that used to be a creature of the light."


    So we have an unknown enemy who has turned evil that will attack at an unknown time. That doesn''t sound difficult at all.


    "I know this is a lot to ask. I will not send you into this alone. I have gifts for you, for the both of you."


    Danu walked forward and it was like I was frozen in ce. Neither Trinity nor I moved at all. When Danu put her hands against our cheeks, my right and Trinity''s left, there was a bright sh of light. It was more like three shes; one gold, one green, and one blue.


    When the light faded Danu smiled and looked down at my robes. I followed her eyes and felt my eyes pop open, and then I turned to look at my Little Bunny. Both of our robes had changed colors.


    My robes were now glowing a soft golden color, solid and vibrant. Trinity''s robes, however, had turned to the same color of blue as Danu''s dress, and there were swirls of gold and green through them. The swirls formed different patterns and shapes, but they seemed to be moving and shifting as if they were fluid and not solid.


    Before I could reach out and touch my Little Bunny''s mesmerizing robes, Danu spoke again.


    "R¨ª Reece, you have already been touched by the light. That was evident by the golden color of your eyes as well as the affinity for fire that you possessed. I have given you my blessing of the light as well. I will send guidance when I can to help you learn how to discover your abilities."


    I felt pride swell inside of me. Trinity had been blessed before, but I hadn''t. This was kind of cool.


    "R¨ªon Trinity, you have been blessed by all of the elements, but none so much as water. Your lineage speaks volumes there. My son, and his son, and all the way down through the generations, the blood has run true. You are truly an Undine. I grant you every element, but again, the water takes to you the most. I will guide you as well, one way or the other, on helping you to learn what you are now capable of."

 Chapter 431 - Trinity - The Goddess’s Second Gift (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 431 - Trinity - The Goddess¡¯s Second Gift (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I couldn''t believe what had just happened. This was further proof for me that I was a Trinity. I was three species: wolf, witch, and fae. And now I was blessed by three different celestials: Nehalennia, Thoth, and Danu. I wondered for a moment what other true trinities there were in my life.


    I couldn''t think about it for long though. I was pulled back to reality, or whatever you wanted to call this ne of existence, when the Goddess spoke again.


    "Now, R¨ªon Trinity, I have another gift for you. This gift is not something that you can truly take with you, however, it will still be very beneficial for you." With a wave of her hand. Danu summoned the two men that were behind her. They wore cloaks that covered their faces, and I could not tell who, or what, they were. I just believed they were men because of the size and shape of them.


    The moment they were next to the Goddess they lowered their hoods. The man on the right was tall, pale, and looked very familiar. His hair was a gradient of blues, but they went from light to dark unlike someone else I knew. His eyes were three shades of blue; a dark blue that was almost ck, then sapphire, and on the inside was a bright blue that almost looked white. It was unique seeing that the eyes went from ck to light to ck again.


    The other man was the same height, the same build, the sameplexion, even the same eyes. His hair was all that was different about him. The hair, instead of blues or multiple shades, was red. Just one shade of red. It was a warm looking medium auburn that didn''t appear to be Fae like at all.


    I felt like I knew them already. I may not have met them, but I knew who they were at least. Antirrhinum and Fynn. They were my ancestors.


    "Fynn? Rhinum?" I heard the awe in my voice as I just stared at them. "B..but aren''t you d..d..d-?"


    "Yes." Rhinum nodded and answered before I could finish the word. "We both perished long ago. We were brought here by Danu. She thought that we might be able to offer some assistance and guidance, orfort at the very least."


    "Aye, we never got to meet the families that we left behind, and we know that left burdens on you all. For that, we are sorry."


    Seeing them made me wish that there was someone else that I could see. I truly wanted to see my mother more than these two. She was part Fae too, right? Shouldn''t Danu be able to bring her here? I didn''t ask though. That wouldn''t be right.


    "Trinity, I wanted to tell my wife what I was. I wanted to exin it all. But I didn''t want to do it right before I left. I thought that she might see that as me abandoning her rather than going to war. I wanted to exin it all when I got back. I didn''t expect to die."


    "How did you die though? What battle were you in?" I felt like I needed to know this.


    "Everyone believed that I went off to fight in the world war. That was not true. I was summoned by a vampire n to assist them in a territory war. I had long since registered myself with a band of warriors that traveled the world and helped those in need. I may have found my destiny, but that didn''t mean that I could forget about my responsibilities. Can you and the others ever forgive me?"


    I felt the sorrow in him when he asked me that. He was truly worrying that we hated him this whole time.


    "We did. We never med you. I don''t know about my grandmother or great grandmother, but they passed on a long time ago."


    "I am d that you do not me me. I have made peace with my wife and daughter long ago." That wasforting to know. They were all together, wherever they are.


    "Trinity?" The other man called out to me as he came closer. He ced both of his hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eyes. "You are quite the powerful woman. I am beyond happy that I have a descendant such as yourself. Never let anyone ever tell you that you are less for not being pure. You, the way that you are, is what will usher in the new wave of peace for the world. There is no one else that can do it except for you."


    I felt like he was giving me a mission. It was like he was telling me that I had a destiny to fulfill, and I didn''t even know about it.


    "One more thing, Trinity." He looked at me fiercely, his eyes full of seriousness. "That pendant that you are wearing. Let me see it for a moment."


    "What? This one?" I pulled the ne out from behind the cloak. It was the ne that my mother had left for me. I had been wearing it regrly again ever since the babies were born. I felt like it gave me strength.


    "Yes, this one." He smiled at it like it was a long lost love.


    I didn''t really understand it. The pendant was just a silver caged tree. It was round with the tree''s leaves and branches filling the space.


    "This is not what you thought it was. The magic has grown within it since it was taken off the woman that I gave it to. But the power is still there, growing stronger and stronger all the time."


    "What do you mean?" I was confused, but I gathered that there was more to this story than I thought that there was.


    "Show this to my father, Trinity. Show it to him and have him exin it to you. And tell him that I never once med him for sending me to war. Tell him he was the best father I could have asked for, and that I want him to move on."


    With that Rhinum hugged me tightly. He held me close as if he was holding someone he missed.


    "And give this hug to my father for me." When he pulled back there were tears in Rhinum''s eyes.


    "I will."

 Chapter 432 - Trinity - One More Gift From The Goddess (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 432 - Trinity - One More Gift From The Goddess (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I watched as the men started to walk away. Rhinum turned to look back at me several times as if he was the most upset about leaving us. I could feel the sorrow and pain that was coursing through him.


    I felt a tear stream down my cheek before they disappeared from sight. It was as if they had just faded away to nothing, which was what they were now. They had been gone for so long that there was nothing left but memories.


    "R¨ªon Trinity, I think there is one more thing that you want from me, isn''t there?" It was like the Goddess could read the truth in either my mind or my heart.


    "You have given me much already, Danu, I cannot possibly ask for more." My voice cracked, my heart ached, and the pain filled me at the very thought of what it was that I wanted.


    "You will never know if you do not ask me, child. You may be R¨ªon Trinity now, but there was a time in your life that you were just a normal person, and there was something you wanted more than anything else. And seeing these two that have moved on already has made you want that again, has it not?"


    "It had, Danu. But I do not know if it is possible."


    "It is, child, it is."


    Danu smiled and stepped to the side. There was another cloaked figure behind her. This figure was smaller than thest two and very clearly a female. I felt the breath catch in my throat. I didn''t know if she brought me who I wanted to see or not, but the possibility was enough to send my heart into a frenzy.


    The cloaked woman walked forward slowly. It was like she was more nervous than I was. When she was right in front of me, standing at least a couple inches taller than me, she lowered her hood.


    I saw her dark, rich brown hair, the soft, warm, light brown of her eyes, and the beautiful heart shaped face that I had seen in pictures several times before. It was my mother.


    "Trinity?" Her smile was calm but her voice shook. "My baby, Trinity, is all grown up now." The tears were flowing from her eyes as she looked at me.


    "You''re my m..m..m..m..mother?" I felt like I couldn''t get the word out. It had stuck in my throat and refused to move.


    "Yes, Trinity, I am your mother. I know that you see Wesley and Eve as your mom and dad now, and I am happy about that. I couldn''t be there for you so my brother stepped up and took my ce. I couldn''t be happier about that. And I am sorry for what happened all those years ago." My heart was shattering. I was seeing the one person I had no memories of. I was seeing the woman who left me, but loved me. I didn''t know what to feel.


    "Why? Why did you leave?"


    "I didn''t have much of a choice. Edmond had intended for me to forget everything, and for a while I did. When I remembered though, the spell that he put on me started to eat away at me from the inside out. It was killing me."


    "So, you didn''t kill y..y..y..yours..s..s..self?" I sobbed thest word, unable to stop myself.


    "No, Trinity, I didn''t kill myself. The spell made it look like it since it was untraceable by wolves, but I didn''t leave you on purpose. I wanted to be there for you. I wanted to protect you. I wanted to make sure that Edmond didn''t get to you, but I wasn''t able to. I am sorry, Trinity. I am sorry that I wasn''t strong enough to fight the spell. I..I am s..s..so sorry that I..I was so w..w..weak." She was sobbing now, just the same as me.


    At that moment, I threw my arms around her, hugging her close to me. I could feel her shaking from the sobs that were wracking through her.


    "I am s..s..sorry, baby." She wrapped her arms around me and hugged me back.


    "It''s OK, Mom. I forgive you. You''re not weak. You did everything you could. I''m sorry that I med you. I am so sorry. I love you."


    "Oh Trinity, I love you too. I love you too. I love you so much, I always have. Even when I was scared about Edmonding back for me, and even though you were half his, I knew that you were special, and I loved you from the beginning. I love you so much."


    We hugged and cried like that for several minutes, until it felt like I had no tears left to cry. When Mom pulled away she looked me in the eyes and cupped my face in her hands.


    "You''re so beautiful." With that she kissed my head softly. "Will you pass along a couple messages for me?" She looked nervous, like she thought I would say no.


    "Yes." I nodded immediately, there was no reason to say no.


    "Tell Wesley that he was the best brother I could have asked for. And tell Dad that I loved him so much, and that I am sorry I never told him who took me even when my memories did finallye back. Tell him I am sorry that I caused so many problems, and I don''t me him for anything."


    "I will, Mom. I will tell them."


    She smiled at me and walked away, looking over her shoulder like Rhinum had. After a few moments she disappeared as well. One second she was there, the next she was gone. The ache in my heart was still there, but it was different now. I had finally spoken to my mother for the first time ever. This was something that I used to want all the time as a child, and now that I was a grown woman with a family of my own, I finally got it.


    "This is where I leave you as well, R¨ªon Trinity, you and R¨ª Reece will return now. Please heed all the warnings you have been given and just know that I appreciate your assistance. Thank you, both of you."


    Danu walked away and faded like the others had. Before I even had a chance to look at Reece standing next to me I was surrounded by darkness, and I could feel the bed that I wasying in beneath me.


    When I opened my eyes, I saw Reeceying next to me, staring at me with a look of confusion.


    "If she could get us from point A to point B like that, why the fuck did we have to fall through the fucking heavens on the way there. I mean, she made mend on the rocks for crying out loud." I justughed at him. His reaction was so funny that it broke the tension and the sorrow that had been there at the very end of the meeting with Danu.

 Chapter 433 - Reece - A Meeting After The Meeting (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 433 - Reece - A Meeting After The Meeting (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I was still reeling. I had never been to visit the Gods and Goddesses with Trinity before. It was amazing that this was all happening right now. But then there was the fact that there was now an unknown enemy that we were going to battle at an unknown time.


    It was morning when we got back from the visit, and I felt like I hadn''t slept at all. And from the look on my Little Bunny''s face, she felt the same way. Still, we had to get up and get ready for the day. So, with slow movements we got out of bed and shuffled to the bathroom. I was in front of Trinity so I got in there first.


    And what was the first thing that I saw when I was in front of the mirror? A brand new mark was waiting there for me on my chest just below my corbone and above my heart. The mark was about the size of a silver dor and was yellow and orange. It looked like a sun shining with the orange of the horizon behind it. But I know that it hadn''t been there yesterday.


    "Trinity?" I spun around and looked at her, searching for a mark.


    She didn''t have just one mark, she had three. Thergest one in the center was about two inches in diameter and was right where mine was, though they were connected to the trinity chain that went around her upper body. The other two marks were about the size of a quarter, half the size of the other one.


    Therger of her marks was a bright blue and looked like an ocean wave. One of the other two matched mine, it looked like the sun. The third mark was green, like grass, and had a vine pattern in it.


    I knew what the marks meant. They were proof of the gift from Danu.


    "I see we have new marks." My Little Bunny looked at my chest and touched the mark gently. "Are these Gods and Goddesses ever going to stop marking my body up?" Sheughed like she didn''t really hate what had happened, but she definitely wasn''t overly happy about it.


    "I think they look amazing on you." I smiled at her. "They make you look so cool, and sexy." My wink and words only earned me a p on the arm. "Ouch. It''s true though."


    "It may be, but you''re still a fucking perv, and I am too tired for this. I need a cold shower to wake me up and a gallon of coffee."


    "Welle on then, Little Bunny, let''s go."


    I got the water going, and we showered as quickly as we could. Once we were dressed, we went down to breakfast and got ourselves some very strong coffee. That was one thing that I couldmend the Fae for; they knew how to make a damn good cup of coffee.


    We got Reagan and Rika back from Acacia''s parents, along with the other babies as well. Lotus and Ash seemed a little reluctant to see them go, they had fallen in love with all the babies, especially Shawn and Dietrich''s four little ones. They said that they were the most unique set of quads that they had ever seen; whatever they meant by that.


    The festivities for the nature element were supposed to start today, but I wanted to talk to a few people about what had happenedst night. Those people being Noah, Carter, David, Shane, Shawn, and Dietrich. They were the ones that we could trust the most. So Mom, Eve, Wesley, Samuel, Nikki, and Emmalee were going to take the children to see some of the spectacles the festivals had to offer.


    When we had the afternoon free and could finally talk we dismissed Roisin from the house and discussed it all.


    "Thank you all for joining us today. There is something that we need to tell you all about." I started the meeting while my Little Bunny sat next to me on the couch.


    "What happened?" Shawn could tell right away that something was off.


    "Well,st night Trinity was pulled into the realm of the celestials again." That earned gasps from everyone that was present.


    "What did they want from you, Trinity?" Dietrich asked immediately.


    "They took me with her." I added, and that was met with even more shock.


    "How the hell?!" Carter was the first to shout out.


    "Are you fucking kidding me?" Shane followed quickly.


    "Where did you go?" Noah, and then David, were a little more practical than the first two.


    "What happened?"


    "Are you both OK?" Shawn was worried.


    "What was their message?" Dietrich got down to business.


    They all were looking at the two of us as if we were some creatures that were on disy. This was new, this was different, and they were curious.


    "I think it''s time that we exin it all to you." My Little Bunny sighed and told them everything that had happened. I even showed them my mark and exined my wife''s marks to them so that she didn''t have to show them since they were gracing the top of her breasts. By the time the story was over the group of them were stunned into silence.


    "Well, what do you all think?" Little Bunny asked them, prompting them to finally speak.


    "Is this all that you have learned so far?" Noah asked. "Do we know anything else about the threat that ising?"


    "Unfortunately, no. But in the future we will need to work together with many of the Fae to save them." My wife was starting to act and sound more like a Queen as time went on. This was like sitting in on a meeting with advisors to the royals. I guess that''s what it really was; only I wasn''t just sitting in, I was one of those royals.


    "So all that we''ve learned is that someone or something ising, and we don''t know when or where." Shane cut through the thick of it all andid it out inly.


    "Essentially, yes. I want us all on the same page though. We need to work together." I nodded at him. "This is going to test us in the future, but we need to prove that we can do this and ovee it."


    "You''re both starting to act more diplomatic." Dietrich smiled at me. "It''s nice to see the Queen and King moving in the right direction."


    I was d to see how things were going. It would make things go more smoothly with all of us on the same page.


    "Noah, Carter?" My Little Bunny called out to her brothers just as the group was about to disperse. "I want us to sit down with Mom, Dad, and Grandfatherter? because there is something else that I need to tell you."


    During her exnation, Trinity had specifically left out the meeting with her mother. She told them about the meeting with Fynn and Rhinum, but not the other one. That one she wanted to do in private. I don''t me her though; it was personal and not meant for everyone''s ears.

 Chapter 434 - Trinity - A Family Meeting (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 434 - Trinity - A Family Meeting (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I needed to tell my family about what had happened. I needed them to know everything that I had found out, not just from Fynn and Rhinum, but also from my mother. So I had nned a time that night after we put all the babies to bed for us to meet.


    To keep things just between the family, I asked that Reece, Emmalee, and Nikki note. It wasn''t anything against them, I just thought that Noah and Carter could tell them allter. I wanted it to just be our family for right now, those that had all been with this since the beginning.


    Once Grandfather came in and sat down, it was time to start the meeting. We were in the office that was on the first floor. There were a few sofas and a firece in the room that we had gathered around. I was standing near the firece as I started addressing them all.


    "I want to tell you all something. Something that I think is very important."


    "What is it, sweetheart?" Mom asked me with a soft expression.


    "Well, I was summoned to the celestial realmst night, and this time Reece went too. I didn''t meet with Nehalennia or Thoth though. This time I met with the Fae Goddess, Danu. She blessed me with powers as the others have and then she brought some people for me to talk to."


    Noah and Carter weren''t paying much attention since they had heard this part before, so they were just biding their time for the new information.


    "First I saw our ancestors, Antirrhinum and Fynn. They both passed away a long time ago, but they were there to speak with me. Rhinum wants me to talk to Athair m¨®r and tell him that he didn''t me him and that he was the best father he could have asked for; soon I will be seeing him to talk about the meeting as well. However, there was someone else that Danu brought for me to talk to."


    "Wait, what? You didn''t tell us that there was someone else." Noah was shocked and nervous about what I was going to say.


    "Who else was there? Why didn''t you tell us this earlier?" Carter looked hurt, like he thought I was holding out on him.


    "Well, I didn''t tell you two about the other visitor earlier because I wanted us to be together as a family when I told you who else was there."


    "Trinity?" Dad looked at me with a knowing look, his eyes filled with sorrow. "Who was the other person you met with?"


    It was like he already knew. And, judging by the look on Mom''s face, she had guessed it as well. Grandfather looked like he might know, but didn''t want to hear it. The three of them looked like their hearts were already broken from the news that I hadn''t shared yet.


    "Thest person that Danu brought to talk to me was my mother."


    The gasps were only from Noah and Carter who hadn''t suspected that yet.


    "Oh my." Mom put a hand over her mouth and looked like she was about to cry. Dad and Grandfather just looked at me with tears in their eyes.


    "Trinity, what did your mother say? Tell me, please." Grandfather looked like he didn''t want to know, not really, but it was also like he needed to know.


    I took a deep breath and calmed my nerves. I know that this was going to be hard on all of them, especially Grandfather.


    "Mom told me something that we all need to know. Grandfather, she didn''t kill herself. She didn''t leave us on purpose."


    "What?" Grandfather stood from his chair angrily.


    "But how? How did she die if she didn''t.. if she didn''t k..k..kill-?" Dad was unable to get the words out, his tears had started, so had Grandfather''s.


    "Trinity, what happened to her." Noah begged me.


    "Sweetheart, what did she say?" Mom cried, and Carter was the only one who didn''t say anything.


    "Edmond had intended to make her forget everything, and she did for a time. However, after a while she started to remember. The memories of that time started toe back, but she didn''t tell you. She didn''t want to hurt you, Grandfather. She didn''t want the sorrow to get to you all. Grandfather, she said she was sorry. She was sorry she never told you even after she remembered, and she didn''t want you to think she med you for anything. Dad, she said you were the best brother she could have asked for."


    They were all crying now. Dad and Grandfather were sobbing the hardest. Mom was crying silently while rubbing circles onto Dad''s back. Noah''s face was in his hands while he cried to himself softly. And Carter just stared at me with tears rolling down his cheeks.


    After a few minutes, Grandfather spoke up and asked me something else.


    "If she didn''t kill herself, then how did she die? How did my baby girl die? What took her from us?"


    "The spell on her memories. When it faded and she started to remember, the spell killed her. She said she could feel it eating away at her quickly. She didn''t have much time when she realized what was happening to her so there was no point in telling you. It would have made you hurt that much more."


    "So he killed her? That son of a bitch warlock killed my baby sister?"


    "He took her from me. He took her from me twice. That warlock stole my baby and destroyed her innocence, and then he killed her."


    Grandfather cried uncontrobly. I couldn''t bear it anymore, I needed tofort him. I walked over to him and put my arms around him. I held him for several minutes while he sobbed, crying over his lost little girl.


    When I took my arms away from Grandfather, Dad hugged him next. He put his arms around his father, and the two of them cried together. They had finally learned the truth of what had happened, why their family had been destroyed all those years ago. I watched them, wiping the tears from my eyes as I did.


    Noah and Carter didn''t hug Dad or Grandfather, they came over and hugged me. Both of them put their arms around me at the same time. They held me tightly and cried with me.


    "I know that must have been hard on you, Trinity." Noah sobbed into my ear. He had been the one who knew my mother the most out of the three of us. He loved her, and he missed her the most.


    "I know you''ve wanted to meet her your whole life Trin, I''m d you finally did. I''m sorry that you had to hear that though." Carter''s words were soft and soothing.


    "I..i..it''s b..b..better knowing than n..n..not. Now w..w..we know th..th..that she d..d..didn''t l..leave us o..o..on p..p..purpose. N..now w..we know th..that sh..sh..she l..l..loved us a..all and w..w..wanted t..to b..be with u..us." I blubbered when I spoke, having trouble getting the words out.


    We all stayed like that for a while, just crying and holding each other until we finally left the office with red swollen eyes.

 Chapter 435 - Trinity - Meeting With Athair Mór (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 435 - Trinity - Meeting With Athair M¨®r (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    That meeting with my family had been very emotional. I knew it would be though. After the meeting we all basically went to bed, our eyes too tired to do anything else. That night when I slept, all I wanted was for Reece to hold me close. I needed to feel hisforting warmth as I fell asleep. His arms anchoring me in ce was all that would make me feel better.


    The next day I decided to spend time with my family. I didn''t want to miss things with them right now, I wanted to be part of it all. We went to the festivals, which this time included magical gardens that were growing all over the courtyards.


    Most of the Fae that didn''t live in the castle didn''t have ess to the crops that were grown in the castle. They needed to grow them on their own and those without nature magic tended to have a harder time with that.


    The point of the nature days of the festival was to spread that bounty with everyone while celebrating the natural parts of the Fae magic. Noah, with his affinity for earth magic, was actually close to the nature side of magic. He even engaged in a building contest with someone else who was making things out of rocks. All the Fae were quite impressed by him since he was a wolf with little Fae blood. I had to wonder if Danu was going to bless the rest of my family with Fae magic, or if they already had it, and we just needed to learn how to use it.


    On the third day of the Nature festival, I went to see Athair m¨®r. I wanted to tell him about the meeting that I had and to tell him what his son said. I didn''t want to take too long before I went to see him, but I had needed a day with the family. Not to mention that Reagan and Rika had loved the gardens and groves of trees so much.


    I arrived at Athair m¨®r''s ce for lunch. It was going to be just the two of us, I thought that would be best. When I went inside, he ran over to me and hugged me tight. He was so happy to have a family now that he couldn''t get enough of all of us. I just hoped this didn''t break his heart too much.


    "Trinity, my garin¨ªon, I am so happy to see you."


    "I am happy to see you too, Athair m¨®r." I smiled at him as he led me to the dining room.


    "Come,e, let''s have a wonderful meal with each other. We can talk and share what''s new." He was acting like it had been more than just two days since we werest together.


    "Thank you, Athair m¨®r. There is something that I wish to tell you as well, so this will be a great opportunity."


    "Yes, yes, the perfect time. Come now, let''s sit." He pulled my chair out for me and then sat across from me excitedly.


    We ate for a little bit, telling each other how we were enjoying the festivities. The food was great as always, and Athair m¨®r was greatpany. I was happy, though I knew that I would soon be bringing the mood down.


    "Athair m¨®r, I need to tell you about something that happened to me the other night."


    "Is something wrong? Did someone do something?"


    "No, Athair m¨®r, no one did anything. It was something magical and special that happened."


    I proceeded to tell him about how I made it to the celestial ne for a meeting with Danu. I told him about my blessing and Reece''s as well. I told him everything that Danu said about the uing threat. I was setting the stage for when I started to tell him about the other meeting.


    "That is very distressing indeed. But why do I feel like that is not all? What more do you have to tell me, Trinity?"


    "You''re right, Athair m¨®r, there is more. The two men that were behind Danu came forward after the blessings, and when they lowered their hoods I knew who they were immediately." He looked curious, but it was clear that he wasn''t going to say anything else until after I continued. "The men who were there were Antirrhinum and Fynn."


    I watched his eyes go wide and the shock wash over him. He had known something wasing, but he hadn''t been expecting that.


    "Antirrhinum? My son? You spoke to my boy?" Athair m¨®r seemed to be at a loss for words. "What did my boy say?"


    I smiled at him, knowing that this was going to make him happy and sad at the same time. I had known that this was something that was going to be difficult for us both.


    "He told me to tell you that you were the best father that he could have asked for. He didn''t me you for sending him to war."


    "I always knew that he was too forgiving of me." Athair m¨®r spoke silently as the tears washed down his cheeks. "I loved him so much, even if his mother and I were not meant to be; I loved that my son hade out of that union."


    "He wanted me to give you something too." I smiled at him, rising to my feet.


    "What?" He looked at me with hope filled eyes.


    "This."


    I wrapped my arms around him then, holding him tight. He was startled at first, but then wrapped his arms around me in return.


    "I should have known that my son would do this. He was a very loving man deep down, even if he hid it from most people. He was such a warm and affectionate child."


    "He seemed like a wonderful man to me, Athair m¨®r. I think you did a wonderful job raising him."


    "I didn''t do much, that was just how he naturally was. He was just born that way."


    When I finally pulled back, I remembered the other thing that Rhinum wanted me to tell him, well to show him really.


    "Oh, one more thing, Athair m¨®r. He asked me to show you this."


    I pulled the pendant over my head and handed it to him. He covered his face and the tears renewed. He began to sob into his left hand as he held the ne and pendant in his right.


    "This! Trinity, do you know what this is?"


    "No, I''m sorry, but I don''t."


    "This was my son''s ring. I can feel the power in it. This is the symbol of his status. I had it made for him when he was born. It was to show everyone that he was my son no matter where he went and who he saw."


    "I never knew. My mother left it for me when she died. I guess it had been passed down to her through the generations. I am going to guess this is what he gave to Ellyria when he asked her to marry him. If the journals are to be believed, she never took it off. She wore it until the day she died."


    "And it has been with you ever since." Athair m¨®r smiled at me. "I am d that it has stayed in the family. I was heartbroken when it didn''te back with his body. It destroyed me to think that someone had stolen it. Now, I know the truth."


    We talked a little more, some more stories about Rhinum''s past and some stories about my family. I also talked to Athair m¨®r about the issue with the unknown Fae. He seemed to think it best that we investigate without telling Aunt Glory. If she were to find out, she might start to suspect too many people. In this situation, since we didn''t yet know where the threat wasing from, it was best to gather more information first. I think he was right. It wasn''t necessary to burden her with this just yet. Though, if the situations were reversed, I would want to know.


    That was a hard situation. I know I would want to know, but also there was no information for me to give her so it would only make her worry constantly. How was I going to manage this?

 Chapter 436 - Trinity - Christmas Morning (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 436 - Trinity - Christmas Morning (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    We were now halfway through the water festival, and it was also Christmas morning. We had left the bulk of the gifts at home, but we brought some with us. We had brought a gift for Aunt Glory, and even though I didn''t know who it was going to be for, we had a gift for Athair m¨®r. I had nned to give the gift to whatever family we found if they epted us.


    I was just d that we had gotten a family that didn''t just ept us, but they were overjoyed to have us. Athair m¨®r had been wonderful through all of this. And he was looking forward to celebrating a real Christmas morning and not just the Yule Celebration.


    When Christmas Eve came, he hade to spend the night in our family home. We offered to move to his for the night, but he said this would have been better over all. He made a string of popcorn for the tree and yed games with the kids. It was all quite adorable to see.


    This was also going to be the first Christmas that we were celebrating with the guards, and Dietrich. They had been my guards before this, but they hadn''t spent the holiday with us before. Over thesest few weeks though, we had gotten a lot closer, and they had be like family to me now as well. I was happy to have all of them here with me.


    When the morning of Christmas came, we all went down and had breakfast. Roisin had made a special meal knowing that this day was special to all of us even if she didn''t see why. She seemed happy though, to see us all having a good time.


    After we ate we all went into the living room where we had put up the tree. There were presents scattered all around, and half of the children were excited to see them. The only ones who weren''t were Shawn and Dietrich''s four since they hadn''t had a birthday yet, and therefore hadn''t opened gifts yet.


    At first Athair m¨®r was just standing in the back and watching, but I went to him and pulled him over to the rest of us. He helped all the children open the presents, even Alyssa, Alexandria, Levi, and Luka. He didn''t discriminate against the kids; he was alreadypletely taken by all of them.


    Toys, cute little gifts, and colorful paper littered the floor. The adults opened their gifts as well, having gotten some from me and Reece, as well as L, Grandfather, and Mom and Dad. Nikki and Emmalee had also made sure to bring gifts for the rest of the family and not just the kids.


    "Merry Christmas." I smiled and handed Athair m¨®r a box. His eyes lit up, and he didn''t know how to respond.


    "No, I couldn''t. This is a time for your family." He tried to give it back, but I refused to take it.


    "You are our family, aren''t you?" I grinned at him.


    "Yes, Valerian, my granddaughter is right. You are our family, even to me. You''re just as much one of us as anyone else." Grandfather smiled at the man who was tearing up.


    "She''s not the only one." Reece came up with a gift he had prepared from things he had bought around the festivals.


    "Yeah, we got you one too." Mom walked over with hers.


    Soon, L, Nikki, and Emmalee walked over with the presents they had prepared for him as well. We all watched as he opened the various gifts. The pile had grown up so he started with thest one that he had received. There were a lot of wonderful things, and he seemed to love them all. However when he got to mine he paused and tears rolled down his cheeks.


    "Trinity, I don''t know what to say."


    "I thought this would be something that you would like to have." I smiled at him in return.


    Slowly, he moved the items around. There were different framed pictures of the entire family. Ones with just the kids, ones with parents and children, and one that I had even managed to get of all of us together. Along with that I had included an album of the first year of the lives of the children, even Elias and CJ. I wanted to make sure that the family that we saw here would be able to see us even if we weren''t here.


    "I will never be without reminders of all of you. I can''t thank you enough."


    He got to his feet and hugged me then, joy in his face and eyes. I was d I could do something that he loved so much.


    I had made a gift for Aunt Glory before I knew she was family. I had included some things from around the town that I knew that she would like. It wasn''t much, but when I brought it to herter in the day, she had seemed to love it.


    We all, including Aunt Glory, sat to have dinner with each other that night. It was special, with amazing food, greatpany, and lots of memories to take home with us. Aunt Glory and Athair m¨®r seemed to enjoy their first actual Christmas, and I think that they would love to have something like this again. Maybe we shoulde to another Yule celebration in the future.


    When we put Reagan and Rika to bed that night, they were clutching onto new stuffed toys they had gotten, with smiles on their little faces, and they fell asleep instantly. I was truly happy that we were here right now. I may be missing home and would like to go back soon, but there were times, like right now, that I loved where I was and was content with not being home. I guess that''s just what it meant to befortable somewhere. That uneasy feeling from when we first got here faded, and this ce truly felt like home to us now.. I don''t think we would have any problems withing back for future visits, fight or no fight.

 Chapter 437 - Trinity - Water Show (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 437 - Trinity - Water Show (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    On thest night of the water festivities there was a water show. This, like Aunt Glory''s light show, was Athair m¨®r''s contribution. The two of them always put on a show, but apparently Sorrel''s children and grandchildren performed his show for the end of the Nature days.


    The two special shows prior had been amazing. Mazus and Lotus had been in charge of the Nature show this year, and they had made flowers sprout up everywhere withrge blooms flying all over the ce. The blooms would even pick people up and take them for a ride. It was a hit with all the children in attendance, including ours.


    This time though, I was going to see what Athair m¨®r had nned for the show. It was, once again, in therge amphitheater that we had been in for the other shows. Once the show was due to start, I watched Athair m¨®r throw his hands into the air, and the entire inner part of the amphitheater became water. It was like looking at an ocean that had been teleported. It seemed to go on forever even though I knew it didn''t.


    Athair m¨®r was now hovering on a stationary wave as he looked at everyone who was gathered.


    "Wee people of Fae." His voice was bright and cheery as he spoke. "I have a special show nned for all of you today. As you all know, there have been many new additions to my family, but with that came the knowledge of what happened to my son and the son he fathered."


    There was a murmur that started to spread throughout the crowd that was gathered.


    "The truth is, that my son whom I long thought was upset that I sent him to war, was never upset about it at all. I have learned that during thatst war he was in, he met and found his mate. She was a wolf."


    As Athair m¨®r spoke, different figures started to appear in the water beside him. They were images of Rhinum and a beautiful woman. The story was forming on the water as if it were a stage.


    "He asked that woman to marry him, and theypleted their mating; this all happened just days before he was murdered by the enemy. However, I learned that he died to protect the woman he loved. A noble death if there ever was one. He died in the arms of his lover."


    The story was moving along as Athair m¨®r spoke, and I was captivated by the level of detail he was putting into the water characters. I know that he was using his imagination for the way that it all yed out, but he did have the sequence of events from Ellyria''s journals.


    "Overtaken by grief and rage after her lover was lost to her, my son''s mate, Ellyria, took revenge for him. Ellyria was the hero that we all know for ending the Faend wars."


    The water puppets were showing a fierce battle where Ellyria used her sword to take down the multiple foes while in a berserker-like state. That had actually been how I had imagined it as well.


    "We thought that Ellyria skipped out on the banquet for her bravery because she didn''t like the Fae; however, I have learned that it was because she was crushed under the weight of her heartache and loss."


    The images now showed a sad woman walking away from the battlefields all alone.


    "It wasn''t long after the death of my son that she found out about the baby. She had him in secret since most ces viewed her as a pariah for being with child and still unwed. After my grandson, Fynn, was born she fled to Ennd where she raised him under multiple different names. She and the boy continued to live on for hundreds of years."


    The water showed all of this with such detail that I couldn''t? stop the tears that spread across my cheeks. He continued with the story through the end of Ellyria, and then when Fynn mated with his wife. He told them of how the ring continued to pass along the family until it made its way to me even though his grandson had died just the same way his son had, while fighting in a war.


    "I want us all to remember the bravery of my son and grandson. And to remember that without them, I wouldn''t have the family here with me that I do now."


    There were cheers and apuse all throughout the crowd and I saw Athair m¨®r grin broadly. I could tell that whatever was happening, he wasn''t done.


    "Now, let me get on with my show."


    With those words, Athair m¨®r dove into the wave he was standing on and the water puppets were now gone. I could see him, just barely, as he moved through the water. When he leapt out of the water as if he had jumped off of something, he was chased by a giant dragon made of water.


    A momentter hended on the dragon''s back and started to ride it around the theater. The next thing I saw was him leaping back into the water while the dragon continued to fly through the air. The next minute he was back out of the water on the back of another dragon.


    When the first dragon reared back like it was going to roar or st or something, I found out what the dragon could do. There was a beautiful arc of water that went from one side of the theater to the other and rained tiny droplets of water down on everyone. The two dragons started to send that arcs one after the other, soon a rainbow had formed in the reflection of the light from below.


    "Trinity! Reece! Noah! Nikki! Carter! Emmalee! Wesley! Eve! Samuel! L! Come up here." Athair m¨®r yelled as he got closer to us all. Excitedly we all stood up with the babies in our arms.


    The dragon seemed to grow a lot of extra arms so that it could pick us up, the only ones that seemed scared were Grandfather and Noah, they both screamed for a moment before the dragon sat us on its back and flew through the air. This was the best, and the moment that we were on the dragon''s back the water gripped our feet. We were as secure as we could be.


    The fear set in for several of the others when we dove straight toward the water, but we broke the surface with a giant bubble of air surrounding us. When we came above the water, we were standing on the water like Athair m¨®r had been.


    "I show you all once again, my family."


    This time the apuse that followed Athair m¨®r''s words was a lot louder and filled with excitement. I couldn''t believe what had just happened to us all.


    "That was wonderful." Emmalee eximed loudly.


    "Truly, I loved it, Athair m¨®r." Nikki shouted.


    "Very exciting." Carter grinned.


    "A little scary." Noah was panting but he was also smiling.


    "I think you did amazing." I grinned at him.


    "I am d that you all loved it.." Athair m¨®r looked happier than I had ever seen him and that was saying something since he was happy most of the time.

 Chapter 438 - Trinity - Closing Banquet (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 438 - Trinity - Closing Banquet (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    We had made it through. It was over. The entirety of the festivities hade to an end, and it was now the end of the Yule celebration. It wasn''t what I had expected, but it had been a lot of fun nheless. I wasn''t at all upset that we hade for this visit.


    I had a few more meetings with Aunt Glory before it was all done, and like Athair m¨®r had suggested I kept the warning from Danu out of our conversations. I did, however, tell her about the blessing that Reece and I had received.


    "Truly?" She asked the moment that I had mentioned them. "Mother summoned you and your mate?"


    "Yes, though I have a feeling that there was some magic in the air during that time that might have caused it." I blushed and was d that it was just the two of us at the moment.


    "Oh ho, do tell." She winked at me with a mischievous grin.


    "Aunt Glory." I yelled in disbelief.


    "Ohe now, Trinity, we were friends before we knew we were family. We can still have our girl talk, right?" I sighed as I listened to her. She was right, and we had already had some girl talk before.


    "Oh, alright. I guess you are right. We''re two queens here right now, not family."


    "That''s it, Trinity my girl, tell me all about it." The grin on her face was so big I thought it must have been painful. Still, I just told her.


    "Well, it happened after the light ball." I went on to exin it all to her. The way that Reece and I wanted each other so frantically that night. The way that we mated in our human and wolf forms and that afterwards we were both taken to the celestial ne for a blessing from Danu.


    "I have never been summoned by Mother, not once. Then again, I did have hundreds of years with her before she and all the other Gods and Goddesses moved away from this world."


    "She did say that she can''t meddle in the lives of her children. It''s not allowed. Perhaps that was the reason." I was paraphrasing here, but I wanted to make Aunt Glory feel better, even if it was just a little.


    "Perhaps, it would exin why she has not been there for us. She dide down to collect Sorrel''s body when he died."


    "Glory?" I left off the aunt part so that she might answer me more freely. "How did Sorrel die?"


    "He was in a battle and was injured gravely. He normally would have been able to survive, but a piece of the de he was injured with was lodged within his body, and we didn''t know. The metal poisoned him slowly, and he died from the sickness."


    That had to have been painful. And it made me think of my grandmother. She had been in an ident and then even after healing died of an illness no one could figure out. I wonder if she was poisoned by the metal as well. It was possible, I guess, but I didn''t know for sure.


    Following the conversation with Aunt Glory, she was a lot happier than I thought. She epted that Reece and I were blessed and wasn''t upset about it. And in fact, she was looking forward to seeing what we could do, especially Reece since he was given light magic.


    The next day was the closing banquet for the Yule celebration. We were expected to be there for that dinner, and then the following day was the New Year''s Ball. Such a busy few days.


    When we went to the banquet, we still took guards with us; however, those that weren''t on official guard duty went as guests. That meant that Shawn and Dietrich were guests and sat at the table with the rest of us. This banquet was out in the courtyard just like the opening banquet and all the banquets that had been in the middle of the festivities.


    Everything had been running so smoothly while we were here that I wanted to rx on the security a little bit, but Reece refused. He said you never know what would happen at any given time.


    We even still had someone taste testing my food for poison. Tonight it was Pierre, a wolf from the Sentinelle. When the tes and cups were delivered to my table, he tasted them all. The food seemed to be just fine so I was allowed to eat.


    We were talking with Athair m¨®r and Aunt Glory excitedly as the night went on. My cup had be emptied, and a hooded server walked up to me and filled it without being asked. I guess that''s what they''re supposed to do after all.


    Before I could take a drink though, Pierre snatched the cup from my hand and dipped a spoon into it for a test before I could have any of it. He swallowed it down and was just about to hand it to me when he tensed up.


    Pierre''s entire body became rigid and soon started to shake. Reece grabbed the cup and set it aside before it could ssh across my face, and he quicklyid Pierre onto the floor of the dias we were sitting on top of. The server that had filled my cup had disappeared, but David, Shane, Waverly, Izzy, Thoma, Hugo, Mateo, and Brianna had taken off after them.


    Shawn and Dietrich stood around me protectively, taking on their roles as my guards. Reece was trying to get Pierre to vomit the poisoned drink up, and I was still in shock. Had he not tested that it could have been me. I am such an idiot sometimes.


    I let the guilt go though, I had work to do. I knelt at Pierre''s side and ced my hands over him. I had been practicing healing magic, and I wasn''t going to let that go to waste now. My hands started to glow over him, and I watched as his body slowly rxed. It was working, I hoped. It looked like it was at least.


    After a moment, Athair m¨®r dropped to Pierre''s other side. He put his hands over him as well, and the both of us had blue glowing hands over the man. Thebined effort of our healing was finally doing the trick. The poisoned drink spilled out of his mouth, and he finally took a deep breath.


    There was coloring back to Pierre''s face and he was panting heavily.


    "Th..th..that, mydy, i..is w..w..why I needed to test it all." He was looking at me firmly. "Please do not be sox next time." His words wereing normally by the time that he was done lecturing me.


    "Yes, Pierre, I am sorry. Thank you for being so diligent." I was on the verge of tears. This whole taste testing thing was not something that I thought I had needed in the first ce, and here it was that something had actually happened.


    "We got him." Shane''s voice wasing up the steps moments before we saw him. "This creep here was the one that poured the drink."


    "Let me go you fucking wolf!" He snapped at Shane as he forced the man to his knees before us.


    I stood and walked to stand in front of him, Reece at my side. When I was in position, Shane pulled the hood of the man''s cloak down to reveal his face.


    "You''re one of the asshats who tried to dance with my wife at the light ball." Reece growled at him.


    "I tried to dance with her at all of them." He snapped at Reece in return. "She refused every time."


    I hadn''t danced with anyone, but Reece at the other two balls, I knew that he didn''t like it.


    "Why? Why did you deny me?" He was ring at me.


    "She is married and mated, you fuck nut; she is my mate and my wife."


    "That means nothing. She could still have a Fae consort. She could have a whole slew of lovers if she wanted."


    "Like hell she would." Reece''s voice was a feral growl.


    "Agreed, I don''t want more lovers. I have all that I need and want." I sneered at the man, appalled at his words.


    "That''s stupid. The Queen always has consorts; she will keep them even when she gets a king. It''s the way that things are done. Are you not a Queen?" He looked at me like he was the one that was appalled.


    "Not that kind of one." I red at him. "And still, whether I took one or not, you wouldn''t be it. You tried to poison me. All you are worthy of is death."


    I felt the regal attitude flowing within me. Reece looked at me like he wasn''t sure that he heard me right, but I just gave him a calm expression.


    "Reece, do you want the honors, or should I take this one myself."


    "Trinity?" He was still worried as he looked at me.


    "Fine, I will do it."


    I stepped up to the man and ced a hand on his forehead. I felt the power of Danu course through me. It was the water magic that she had given me. I thought of the water that Athair m¨®r had used and summoned it to me. Only the thing is, I didn''t summon it to my side, no, I summoned it inside the man. It filled his lungs and throat and mouth. He was incapable of taking a breath because he was filled with so much water. It only took a second or two before his eyes rolled into the back of his head. He slumped to the floor then, dead.


    My guards and family were looking at me with wide, shock-filled eyes. Aunt Glory and Athair m¨®r were looking at me with pride.. I guess at that moment, I was more of a royal, or at least a Fae Royal than I was a wolf royal.

 Chapter 439 - [Bonus ]Reece - What Just Happened (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 439 - [Bonus ]Reece - What Just Happened (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    After the fiasco with the poisoning, and my Little Bunny turning all executioner on us, we went back to the house we were staying in. I needed to talk to my wife about what had just happened, and I wanted to do it alone.


    As soon as we got back ,I asked if Mom and Eve could put Reagan and Rika to bed so that I could take Trinity to our room. They agreed immediately as they watched my Little Bunny apprehensively. I hoped this wouldn''t lead them to being afraid of her. She had actually done what she should have done. The thing is none of us had ever expected that from her.


    When we were alone in our room on the top floor I called out to her.


    "Little Bunny?"


    "Yes, Fido?" She turned and looked at me seductively as she started to slink toward me.


    "What happened back there?" I wanted to cut straight to the thick of it.


    "I''m sorry. I should have given the drink to Pierre to try before I went to take a drink. I know that the idea of me being the one poisoned must have frightened you. I will take it all more seriously from now on. I am so sorry."


    She seriously thought this was about that? Granted she wasn''t wrong, I was terrified when the poison was discovered because just seconds before she was about to take a drink from that cup. Still, that wasn''t why I was talking to her now.


    "That''s not it, Trinity. I''m talking about what came after that."


    "Oh, the healing? I have been working on that more, especially since the babies came. I wanted to make sure that no matter what happens to them I can heal it for them right away. I guess I still need to work on it though. I ended up needing Athair m¨®r''s help to save Pierre. My healing is nowhere near where it should be."


    Oh my Goddess. I had to wonder if she was doing this on purpose. Seriously, did she know that she was being oblivious or was she really like this right now? If this was real then I was going to be even more worried about her because she wasn''t stupid. She made mistakes like everyone but she wasn''t stupid at all.


    "Trinity, you have to know what it is that I am talking about here. Don''t you? Please tell me that you know that I am talking about the man that you killed." I sounded like I was begging and pleading, even to my own ears. I could tell that I was bing frantic.


    "Yes, Reece, I know that is what you''re referring to. I just didn''t want to talk about it right now." She narrowed her eyes and looked at me angrily. "And I didn''t kill him, I executed him. Isn''t that what someone who tries to assassinate a Queen and Goddess Incarnate deserves? I mean, forgive me if I am wrong, but isn''t that what you would have suggested?"


    She was right. I would have suggested it, but I wouldn''t have done it in front of everyone. At least, I don''t think that I would have. Then again, doing what she did sent a message to all the Fae that were in attendance. She told them that she wasn''t to be fucked with.


    "Yes, I would have. It''s just-."


    "Just what, Reece? Just what? Are you saying that because I am a woman and a Queen that I can''t do the dirty work? Remember we have seen Aunt Glory execute someone right in front of an entire banquet before. I am hardly the first."


    I remembered what she was talking about, it happenedst year during our first visit, and it had freaked us out back then.


    "No, I am not saying that. I guess, I am just surprised that you took that initiative. I never expected something like that toe from you. You''re my sweet Little Bunny." I felt like I was grasping at straws right now.


    "Reece." She walked up to me and put her hands on my chest, feeling the muscles underneath my shirt. "I am still your sweet Little Bunny, but I am also a Queen. And when we finish setting up the kingdom back home I will need to rule my people. If a shifter or magic user were to try what that Fae did tonight then I will have to punish that person. Even if it is in front of a group of people. They will be a warning to the others."


    I thought about her words. She was right. She was one hundred percent right. So why did I have a problem with any of this? The truth was, I didn''t have a problem with it. I just didn''t like seeing her have to do something like that. It meant that I failed her.


    "I''m sorry, Trinity." I hung my head in the shame that I felt.


    "You don''t need to be. I need to show my power to those that need to see it. I guess you needed to see it too, Reece. You needed to know what It was that I was capable of. Now that you know, now that everyone knows, we can move on from here."


    While my Little Bunny went to get ready for bed, I went to tell the others what she had said. They understood what she had meant, especially Dietrich. They all knew that she needed to prove herself to the Fae, to the shifters, and to the magic folk. She was a Queen now, and those weren''t just words. She needed to run a kingdom with so many people in it that we had a hard time counting them all. We needed to know that all of those people would recognize her and bow to her if the time ever came for that. We all knew it, but it had still shocked us to see that she had done it with no warning or preamble. It had just taken us by surprise, that is all.


    I guess this was just further proof she was bing the Queen she was meant to be.

 Chapter 440 - Trinity - The New Year’s Ball And Leaving The Compound (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 440 - Trinity - The New Year¡¯s Ball And Leaving The Compound (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The day after the incident, my family was acting mostly normal, though I could tell that they were a little nervous around me. I guess that''s what happens when you be a powerful Queen. It made me sad, but it was also unavoidable.


    Chances are that as time moves on they would see me do a lot worse than what happened yesterday. At least I killed the man without making it bloody or disgusting. I think that, overall, I did really well.


    Now though, we had the New Year''s ball to attend and then it was time to go home. After the attempted poisoning, Reece wanted to skip the ball altogether, but I told him that we needed to go. If only to show them all that they hadn''t scared me away.


    If that man had not been working alone, I needed his aplices to know that I was not too afraid to show myself in their midst. This would alsoe in handy when we needed toe back to take care of that threat that Danu told us about. They would always be slightly afraid of me, and that might be a good thing.


    This time, Athair m¨®r was at the ball. He hadn''t been at the other three balls so I found this a little surprising. Aunt Glory had been at all of them so that wasn''t a shock. The shock from her, however, was that she had asked that I be escorted to her side as soon as I got there and I was to not stray too far from her or her guards. I guess it didn''t matter that my entire group was there to protect me as well. I had more back up than usual right now.


    Reece and I danced to a few songs, and for the first time at a ball here, I didn''t have men trying to dance with me. That doesn''t mean that they weren''t looking at me. Some were looking at me with lust in their eyes, others with fear. But I was still the center of their attention.


    I didn''t care. I was there to dance with my husband and celebrate the new year with my family that was with us. This was myst night here at the Faepound and I didn''t want to waste it at all.


    The refreshments that were served were, of course, tested by Pierre. He was fully healed and ready to get back to his duties. He took them seriously and was proud to have saved his Queen''s life. He said that he would wear that memory like it was a badge of honor. Honestly, I wanted to give him a badge of honor.


    I was d that nothing at all happened and we were all able to enjoy the ball. At the end of the night, when the clock struck midnight, there was a light and water disy that looked just like real fireworks. Athair m¨®r and Aunt Glory had done an amazing job, and I was happy to have been included in the night.


    The next day Roisin was scrambling as she searched the house for anything that we might have forgotten. She was so efficient and skilled that she had managed the house with all of us single handedly. She was amazing.


    Juliet, my guard, was actually staying behind here in thepound. She was going to live with Breon now that they were mated. She felt awful for leaving, me but I told her it was the way that things needed to be.


    While I was doing my best to convince her that I didn''t mind there was a knock on the door to the house. Roisin answered it swiftly and then bowed to her knees.


    "My Queen."


    "Rise, Roisin." Aunt Glory told her. "You don''t need to bow to me right now."


    "Queen Gloriana?" She was confused.


    "I have something I want to say to my niece before she leaves, and it involves you. Please,e with me."


    "Y..y..y..yes my Queen."


    Aunt Glory and Roisin walked over to where I was with Juliet.


    "Trinity, my dear." Aunt Glory hugged me close. "I am sad to see you leave, but I see that we are gaining a new resident in your ce. How about we even things out a little." I didn''t quite understand the smile that was on her face for a moment.


    "I don''t follow, Aunt Glory."


    "Roisin, you enjoyed taking care of my niece, did you not? Would you like to continue to do so?"


    "What? Oh, I uhm, y...yes my Queen. I would love to."


    "Trinity, my dear, would you like to take Roisin back to your home? I understand that you are trying to create a kingdom and you will need every capable hand you can find."


    "You know something, Aunt Glory, I would love to. I think Roisin would make a lovely addition to our household."


    "W..wait? I..I can really go?" Roisin looked like she had just won the lottery. "I promise you, mydy, I will not let you down. I will take care of anything that you might need of me. I will do my best." She was speaking so passionately that there was no room for doubt.


    "I know you will, Roisin. And I thank you for that."


    It only took a little while for Roisin to get her things together, she didn''t have as much as I thought she might have. We will take care of thatter. We will make sure that she has everything that she might need.


    Once we were all packed and ready to go, we all piled into the SUVs and started our journey home. I was a little sad to be going, but I was leaving with lots of memories. Not to mention, Roisin and Athair m¨®r wereing with us. Roisin wasing permanently while Athair m¨®r wasing to help me set up my new kingdom and to get to know his family even more.


    Well, this sounds like things were still going to be exciting, at least for a little while.. I couldn''t wait to see what the future had in store for us.

 Chapter 441 - Trinity - Finally Back Home (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 441 - Trinity - Finally Back Home (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The moment we were back in the city, I could feel the happiness and glory of being back home. I had missed this ce so much. Coming back was like a piece of me sliding back into ce, a piece that I didn''t even notice was missing until it was back.


    When we were driving up the long sloping driveway back toward the house, I was starting to get all giddy. I couldn''t wait to be inside my own home again. There really was no ce like home.


    "Oh, this is lovely." Athair m¨®r smiled. "But, Trinity, my garin¨ªon, you are the Queen to not one but two peoples. You need a castle that is suitable for holdingrge scale meetings with your people."


    "Is there really anything that I could do about that, Athair m¨®r. What could fix this?"


    "We can use Fae magic to expand the house that you have now. We can turn it into your very own castle." I saw the look on his face, it was like he could already envision it.


    "That''s possible?" That would make things a lot better in the long run, and it would be made to our specifications and it would still be our own home.


    "Yes, it most certainly is."


    We talked a little more about it as we were walking toward the house. Everyone knew we wereing back today so I was sort of expecting them all to be waiting for us. And I was not disappointed. The group of us were led into the house with Waverly and Pierre in the lead. They were checking for anyone or anything that might be out of the ordinary.


    The moment we entered the foyer we noticed that Juniper, Paul, Cedar, and Acacia were there along with their children. Gabriel, Vincent and his family were also there to wee us all home.


    Gabriel was in the lead already preparing to bow when we were through the door.


    "Wee home, my Queen, we''ve been wait-." He stopped mid sentence and mid bow. He was now looking at the group of us like there was something he was searching for.


    "Gabriel? Is something the matter?" I asked him with shock filling my voice.


    "I smell the most delectable flowers."


    There was joy in his eyes, and I thought that something wonderful might be happening. As I thought about this, I turned to look for someone specific. Just as I thought, Roisin was standing stock still like she was frozen in shock.


    "Roisin." I called out to her. "Come here please."


    Slowly, and with trepidation, Roisin walked toward my side. She was looking straight ahead like she was worried about what she might see there. I took Roisin''s hand and led her to the front of the group.


    "Roisin, this is Gabriel. Gabriel, I would like you to meet Roisin. She is a Fae who hase back with us. I think she might be someone that you will enjoy getting to know."


    "Roisin?" Gabriel was grinning at the woman next to me.


    "G..G..Gabriel."


    They were staring at each other with love in their eyes. Everyone in the room was looking at them with surprise in their eyes and smiles on their faces.


    "That was unexpected. I think we should leave them to get to know each other. Gabriel,e see meter and give me your report." I grinned at him.


    "Yes, my Queen." He answered without even taking his eyes off of Roisin.


    As we walked further into the room, Juniper ran toward me. Before I knew it her arms were around me, and she was grinning.


    "Oh my Goddess, Trinity, I missed you so much. You were gone so long, and the moment youe back, there is another mated pair. You truly are the Goddess Incarnate. Everyone just loves being around you."


    "I missed you too, Juniper." I hugged her back and felt the happiness of being home wash over me.


    What followed was a wee home party and lunch that had been prepared by Abigail. The children all seemed to be happy to be back as well. They were all running around happily and ying. I could tell that they had missed being in their own space.


    The little party ran for a few hours as we all talked and told them about what had happened while we were gone. Everyone was also very excited to meet Roisin and Athair m¨®r, and Vincent and Gabriel were shocked to find out that Juliet had left us. They were happy to know that she was mated though.


    "See what I mean, Trin. Being around you, people just naturally find their mates. It''s because you draw people to you, and they have a higher chance of meeting someone new. I am also d that all the shadow groups are mixing together. The witch and Fae, the Fae and Wolf, and the wolf and witch. It''s all so amazing!"


    "I know what you mean, Juniper. My wife is truly the most amazing woman that there is in the entire world." Reece was boasting my greatness, and I was smiling happily and embarrassedly.


    "Stop blushing, Trinity, they''re right." Vincent was smiling at me. "You truly are the best Queen that we could have hoped for."


    "Thank you, Vincent. I am d that you think that way." I grinned at them.


    The party ended a little whileter, and along with Reece, Noah, and Athair m¨®r, I went to the office to get a full report from Vincent and Gabriel about the time that we were gone. It was a little difficult to get Gabriel to leave Roisin''s side, but I managed it after a little bit of prodding.


    Gabriel was just going to have to wait for the meeting to be over, and then he could have the entire night with his mate to talk and get to know each other.. Abigail and the other female staff weed Roisin and showed her to her room while we went to our meeting.

 Chapter 442 - Trinity - The Report (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 442 - Trinity - The Report (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Once we were all seated in my and Reece''s office, the meeting was able to start. We had been gone for almost a month, and I was certain that a lot had happened during that time. We needed to have a full report given by the two men who had been left in charge while we were away.


    Vincent looked prepared and ready for the debriefing, Gabriel however, looked like he would rather be somewhere else entirely. I knew where of course, and that made me smile. But the fact that Gabriel, who was usually my super efficient personal assistant, was now nothing more than a dewy eyed, love struck man was surprising. I was d he found his mate, but he needed to focus on work right now.


    "First, even though it has been said several times already, allow me to say wee back. I know that we have all been eagerly awaiting your return. It is not as easy running the pack as I would have thought, however, we didn''t have any major issues while you were gone." Vincent''s voice was smooth and easy going.


    "Y..yes. Everything did go smoothly while you were gone, my Queen." Gabriel was sliding into his old tone after just a little bit of hesitation. "There were several members of the pack that hade to see you for small issues and squabbles, but that is nothing outside of the ordinary." He was right, there were a lot of small issues that were handled regrly. They were usually taken care of by Noah or Vincent before they even got to either Reece or myself. I had actually forgotten just how many of them there were.


    "There were a handful of meeting requests from the warlocks, and a few vampire ambassadors came to seek counsel with Dietrich while he was away as well. There have apparently been a few disputes of territory between different vampire covens on the east coast. Those that came for a meeting have been noted and have been awaiting a message from Dietrich."


    "I will pass along the message to him when we are finished here." I nodded at Gabriel as he was continuing to tell me what had happened while we were away.


    "There have been more developments with themunity that you have constructed. It has finally received its city incorporation, and the name has been finalized. The government form is set as a standard mayoral; the candidates were all put up for a vote, and a candidate has been chosen. They have also chosen a city council. Likewise, your petition to have our previously existing gatedmunity rezoned as part of the new city has been approved."


    "That is all wonderful, Vincent. What is the name that the residents have chosen for the new city?" I was smiling happily because this was something that we had been working toward for over two years now.


    "Several names were put forth by the residents and then put to a vote. The results were unanimous, and so the new city has been named Trinity Falls."


    Why did I just know that something like this was going to happen? I just ced my head in my right hand and shook it gently while groaning. These people, the residents that is, were mostly shifters and magic folk. I was their queen so they decided to name the town after me. Still, it was embarrassing and would no doubt feel strange to me whenever someone said the name out loud.


    "And I bet I can guess who the new mayor is." I could just hear the smirk that Reece had to be wearing, based on the way he said those words.


    "I am certain you can." There was a simr smirk in the tone of Vincent''s voice as he responded. "The vote was once again unanimous. The mayor of Trinity Falls is indeed Trinity Gray."


    "Well, I guess I will be delegating that work to my deputy mayor, whenever I select one." I groaned again.


    "That will be more than fine, as long as you choose a worthy deputy. Furthermore, the poption has now surpassed three thousand residents, and thepletion of several stores has been finalized as well. The city is nearly one hundred percent self-sufficient without needing to rely on neighboring cities. We have secured many contracts with severalrge corporations as well, and they will begin to make shipments to the warehouses and stores in the city."


    "Thank you, Vincent. And you as well, Gabriel. You have both done well in our absence."


    "Thank you, my Queen." Gabriel nodded his appreciation.


    "It was a great learning experience, that is for sure. However, I do not wish to take the helm more than absolutely necessary. I do quite enjoy my role as head of security." I could see a smile in Vincent''s eyes. He was telling the truth, but he would step up anytime that we needed him. I was d that I could count on him like that.


    After they reported a few other minor details, I called the meeting to a close. I knew that by now Dietrich was already back home with Shawn and the kids, so I called him to tell him about the issues that were reported.


    "Disputes you say?" Dietrich didn''t exactly sound happy. "Did Vincent or Gabriel happen to say how major they were?"


    "Not during the meeting, no. However they made note of everyone that came to visit you and a report of what the supposed incident was." I exined to him.


    "At least I can be happy that your men are quite efficient in what they do. I will need to investigate all of this thoroughly. That will not exactly make Shawn happy, since I need to leave to speak to them in person. As you know, Trinity, a royal must do what is best for their people."


    "Yes, I do understand. And I think that you and I will need to talk about how best to move our people forward in the terms of future events. I have ideas for a council, and I want someone from every species or race on it. I want someone that will represent their people''s needs and wants to the royals as well as the nobles that I n to have."


    "It seems to me like you have been thinking a lot about this, Trinity. I cannot wait to see what you have in store for us." I could tell that he was pleased with my words.


    "Can I count on you, Dietrich, to be a part of that council?"


    "Most definitely, I would be honored."


    We spoke a little about who would be good for other seats on the council. I would take into consideration all of his suggestions as well as those of the others that I have already picked out to help me. Now that I was home, it was time to start building up my empire.


    From this day forward, I needed to think about the overall best interests of millions of people. I needed to be the symbol of peace and equality among all of my people. I needed to lead and rule.. Ugh, I needed to sleep since this was already starting to exhaust me.

 Chapter 443 - Reece - Forming A Castle (Volume 3)

    <h4>Chapter 443 - Reece - Forming A Castle (Volume 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    The day after we got home a discussion started over breakfast. The day before, Valerian, my Little Bunny''s great great great grandfather, or Athair m¨®r, had mentioned making the house into a castle with Fae magic. I knew that it was possible, I just didn''t know how.


    The discussion that started was actually about how big, how many of each room was needed, and what style we wanted to fashion it after. The estate was already over thirty thousand square feet, or about two thousand eight hundred square meters. I thought it wasrge enough as it was, but Valerian didn''t quite agree.


    In a way, I could agree with him. What if we were to hold a meeting and we needed to house the nobles or the council that we were going to form? If that were to ever happen, we would need to have a ce for all of them to be. We had a lot of space as it was, but not nearly enough for hundreds of people to stay if the need ever arose.


    Right now, the discussion was on what forms of castles we all admired and what would be best for us up here. Now that we weren''t part of Colorado Springs anymore, we didn''t need to get permission from them to change things. That made things a lot easier for us in this aspect. It would also be a lot harder to exin to the city how things had been built so rapidly.


    "Personally, I have always liked the castles and chateaus in France the most." Little Bunny was thinking about this seriously, I could see a crease in her brow.


    "Hmm, are you sure you wouldn''t rather go with something more Celtic in appearance? Or perhaps even a true Fae castle?" Valerian was talking fast with excitement.


    "No, I think the French look would be best in this area. They are not over the top so it won''t be too much of a shock when otherse to see it for the first time. I don''t want to scare my people. And, to be honest, most of them aren''t Fae. Even though I am, I cannot craft this only after my heritage. I need to think of my people as well." Little Bunny was thinking in arger aspect, something that I had noticed she started taking more seriously while we were at the Faepound.


    "s, you are correct, Trinity my dear. I was not thinking clearly when I made my suggestion." Valerian hung his head and admitted his fault. "Now, shall we start drafting a floor n?"


    His excitement returned almost immediately and the discussion continued. I think Valerian just wanted to prove that he was capable of being there for his family in any way that he possibly could. I was happy to see the thought and effort going into all this nning; however, I just thought it was all happening a little fast.


    Fast or not though, it needed to be done. We couldn''t start nning the court system within our little world without a ce for it all to take ce. It took us approximately three hours, if that, to map out the floor n of the new castle.


    The new residence was going to take up a lot more space than the current one so magic was being used to clear out and level thend that it was going to epass. I stood and watched as Valerian and my Little Bunny used their magic to aplish this.


    There was going to be arge decorative frontwn, but nothingpared to the castles in Europe. The driveway would circle up in front of the main doors, and there were to berge roll up doors that looked like stone, and probably were, but still moved like regr garage doors. They were also building a massive underground garage that the future visiting nobles and the like could park in. The main garages, one on each side on the entrance, was meant for the royal families and future grand nobles.


    The castle itself was going to be more than ten timesrger than the estate was and it was going to take on a whole new shape once it was done. The actual castle was going to be forty thousand square meters or around four hundred and thirty thousand square feet, give or take a little.


    The castle was going to haverge towers at each of the four main corners with two slightly smaller towers along each main wall such as major entrances at the front and back and the middle of the side walls. There were also going to be threerge towers in the middle. To be totally fair, it was kind of onerge central tower with two towers that were nearly as biging out of the sides of that main one.


    Those central towers stood at ten stories high. The corner towers were eight stories, and the towers along the middle of the outer walls were six stories high. The rest of the castle went to four stories.


    The central towers in the middle of the castle were above the throne room, grand dining hall, and grand ballroom (which was now a lot bigger than the one we had already had!. Above those rooms, which had ceilings that were three stories high, were the offices. A dozen offices in all, in the middle were mine and Trinity''s then the five on the other sides would be assigned as time went on. Some were going to Noah, Vincent, Gabriel, and Paul as they all had important jobs to do.


    Above the offices in those towers were residential areas. To be more precise the very central tower was for Trinity and I to live in with our children and the towers to either side were the residents for the high nobles when they visited us. The Noble towers were basically glorified bedrooms that wererger than most apartments while my Little Bunny and I had a six story mansion above the throne room. The entire top floor of which was going to be our bedroom.


    Throughout the main floors there were the other lesser dining halls, kitchens (two small ones as well as a massive one for when there were grand meetings and celebrations). There were also meeting rooms for visiting dignitaries, a theater room, indoor pool, and lesser ballrooms. There were also those magical residential areas like the one we stayed in while at the Faepound. These residential areas took no part of the square footage of the actual castle and would shape themselves to the needs of those who moved into them. These would be reserved for guards that had families and other staff that needed to live in the castle.


    The fourth floor of the main part of the castle will contain the guest rooms for the visiting members of our nobility and other ambassadors, or anyone else who needed to stay in the castle. The back towers were primarily going to be used for the storage of different types. The front west tower was going to be the daycare that my Little Bunny had wanted to start before life got in our way. This was going to be even better now though, since there was an area that she can literally make to her specifications. There were eight floors in all for the tower, and it could be divided up by different age groups. Not to mention Trinity wanted to have different sses, lessons, and clubs for the kids in that daycare. The areas of study and interest would vary from improving education to cooking, sports, scouting, learning to fight, music, art, and more. She was still a Luna, and she still wanted to take care of all the kids.


    Oh, and needless to say, there would be multiple points throughout the castle where there were elevators, especially in the towers. There was just way too much to expect everyone to have to walk to the central staircases. I could imagine whate of the staff would have to say if they had to walk what felt like a fucking mile just to go up the stairs. Yeah, they would hate us for sure.


    I was just trying to imagine this whole caste and what it would look like when it was all done.. It was starting to seem a little unbelievable to me.

 Chapter 444 - Trinity - Building The Castle (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 444 - Trinity - Building The Castle (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After we spent what felt like several hours, but was really only like three hours, mapping out the floor n of our new castle; it was time for us to start building it.


    The first thing that we needed to do was clear and level thend. This was something that Athair m¨®r was going to need to coach me in since I had never done it before. The first thing that he did when we went outside was put his hand to the ground and close his eyes.


    I didn''t know what it was that he was doing, but it seemed like he was thinking really hard.


    "I should have noticed this when we first got here, I don''t know why I ignored it." His words were soft and he was smiling happily. "This will make things a lot easier. Plus, it will keep the magic in your new castle strong."


    "What is it, Athair m¨®r?" I knelt next to him and looked at where he was pressing his hand into the dirt.


    "Can you feel this? The humming in the earth. It''s like the ground itself is thrumming or vibrating."


    I pressed my hand next to his and closed my eyes like he had. I could just barely sense it at first. It was like an imperceptible difference in the way that everything else around me felt. Then, I felt it more clearly. With my eyes closed, I could start to see the thrumming as if they were lines stretching out before me in my mind''s eye.


    "What is this, Athair m¨®r? What am I feeling?" I kept my voice soft and my eyes closed as I spoke.


    "What does it feel like, my dear?" I could hear the mischievous air in his voice. "What do you think it is that you are feeling?"


    "It feels like magic. A lot of it. But I don''t know what else it is."


    "It is magic. It looks like this area of the mountain is a central crossing for ley lines. Do you know what those are, my dear?" The excitement was there, thick and easy to hear as he spoke.


    "No, I am sorry, but I don''t."


    "Ley lines, my dear Trinity, are the source of magic for the world. The ce that the Faepound lies is the epicenter of all the ley lines on this continent. It is currently the strongest and most prominent central point for any continent. Thends that we have created for ourselves will always follow the power of the lines. That is why we have said that thend of Fae only exists to those that can get in there. A human, for example, would pass right through us in the matter of a couple of steps and none of us would be affected by it at all. We wouldn''t even notice it. If a stronger and more prominent central point were to develop, that is where the Faepound would move to. We wouldn''t need to do anything ourselves. Thepound moves all on its own."


    "That is actually quite scary. To possibly just wake up one day and find out you''ve been uprooted and moved with no prior notice." My words must have been funny because Athair m¨®r started tough.


    "No worries, Trinity, we have different Fae monitoring the lines, we would know before it actually happened."


    "Oh." I felt relieved at his exnation. "Well, that is good."


    "Yes. And what this all means for you right now is that these ley lines will power your castle. And, since so many of you are part Fae, there is a possibility that the Fae side will get stronger the more the others live here. It could be why your magic is as strong as it is already. You have family that visit often but don''t live here permanently so they aren''t as exposed to it as you are. However, that alone might awaken, or might have already awoken, their Fae magic without them knowing it."


    I tried to wrap my head around what all of this meant. Basically, we have all been living around magic our whole lives without ever realizing it. Reece, the man who has always lived in this estate, has lived around it longer than anyone. Well, except for L. She has lived in this ce since before Reece was born. What has that done to them? Is that why Reece has an affinity for magic?


    After the discussion about the ley lines, it was time for us to start the process of building the castle that we had nned out. Together, with Athair m¨®r''s guidance, we cleared thend of trees and leveled the side of the mountain so that the castle would have a ce to stand.


    Once that was done, we both pressed our hands to the ground and focused on the castle we wanted to build. Of course, everyone was out of the castle right now, we didn''t need someone getting hurt because they were moving around rooms that were being reformed. Soon though, I was able to see the changes as they happened right before my eyes.


    A tall barrier fence sprung up around what was going to be considered the innernds of the castle. There was also a gate that was forming around the rest of ournds that backed up toward Trinity Falls. It wouldn''t be something that the humans noticed, but if the city residents were looking our way, they might notice it.


    Aside from the gates there was the castle itself that was forming. Therge facade, the towers, and the courtyard that was behind and alongside the central towers. I couldn''t see the courtyard, but I knew it would be there. The castle was going to be everything that we needed and for my entire kingdom.


    Oh, and some of those trees we removed magically reappeared in the courtyard so that it wasn''t so bare. And more of them were relocated to the front garden that was between the inner fence or gate area and the actual castle.


    Building this ce literally only took about ten minutes. Ten minutes worth of magical effort, at the max, and we had a castle that was way more than ten times the size of the estate that we had before. That seemed impossible, but I was looking at it, so it must be real.


    Sometimes despite all the training I have had, and all that I have witnessed in the world so far, I forgot just how amazing and wonderful magic could be. I seemed to forget at times the actual size and scale of massive magical efforts and abilities. I mean, I had actually watched Cedar and Noah rebuild a massive structure with their abilities and yet, I thought this seemed unbelievable. I truly needed to stop forgetting what all of us were capable of doing.


    Magic was now, and forever more, a part of my life and the lives of those around me. That would never change no matter who it was that I was talking to or visiting with.. Perhaps even one day we could reveal true magic to the humans, have them ept us, and live our lives in the open instead of the shadows.

 Chapter 445 - Trinity - Exploring The New Castle (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 445 - Trinity - Exploring The New Castle (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    From the point we had stood to the front door of the castle was at least half a mile if not longer. What the hell were we thinking, making something so fucking grand. I was starting to feel nervous about what everyone was going to say about this ce when they saw it. Still, it was time for the current staff as well as the actual residents of the castle to reacquaint ourselves with the ce that we called home.


    The main entrance of the castle went into a grand foyer. It was big enough to fit at least two hundred peoplefortably, if not more. We explored the entire downstairs of the castle and showed the staff where to go. So far, everything had turned out just as we had wanted. And best of all, I didn''t have to ship in new appliances. The ones from my imagination seemed to have been installed already. That was truly very convenient.


    The maids were a little overwhelmed at first at the sheer size of the new residence but they didn''t let it show all that much. I also reassured them that I would be hiring more staff to help around the castle.


    "That is a relief, mydy." Roisin spoke with audible relief in her voice. "But if I may, mydy, I would prefer to be in charge of the royal residence tower."


    Roisin had single-handedly managed the entire residence that we stayed in at the Faepound. I knew that she was more than capable of handling a job of that magnitude. And this time, she wouldn''t need to handle the cooking, that job would be left to Abigail.


    "I think that would be just fine, Roisin. And Abigail, you will still be in charge of meals for our family personally. You will technically be the castle''s head chef, which means you will be in charge of directing the kitchen staff and wait staff. Is that alright with you?" I smiled at the women as I spoke to them one after the other.


    "That would be perfect, my Queen. I wouldn''t have it any other way." Abigail smiled at me as she answered me.


    "Julie, I am naming you head of housekeeping, and it will be up to you to guide and manage all the maids, current and future. Peter, you will be the personal butler for the royal residence; however, you will also be the head butler. I want you to manage all of the butlers in the castle so they do their jobs properly. I am counting on the three of you; you will be the central pirs for making sure that the castle runs smoothly."


    "Yes, my Queen." The three of them, Peter, Julie, and Abigail, answered in unison.


    After that was settled,we continued to explore the newy of thend, so to speak. When we got to the royal tower, it was only Athair m¨®r, Abigail, Peter, Roisin, L, Reece, the twins, and myself that entered.


    "Now, one benefit is that the only people who can enter this tower are those with your permission. Each floor can also be designated with different levels of admittance so the privacy can be higher in other ces." Athair m¨®r exined as we entered the tower.


    "So I will not have to worry about a certain someone interrupting us ever again?" I could see a grin on Reece''s face as he thought about this. He had been interrupted on more than one asion by Noah. I know he didn''t appreciate that very much and would now like the fact that only those we allow would be permitted in our room.


    In the royal tower, the first floor was a grouping of adjustable personal residences that the personal staff of the tower would live in, that was actually the fifth floor of that tower, considering the first three floors worth were taken up by just the height of the throne room and the fourth floor were the offices for me and Reece.


    The sixth and seventh floors were the kitchen, dining, living room, and other mon'' areas of the tower. The eighth floor was all those adjustable personal residences for L and any other family that were to move to the castle with us. The ninth floor was going to be for the kids, current and future. And the top floor was all mine and Reece''s. The nursery was directly connected to our room by a staircase that only went between the two. That had nothing to do with the main staircase that spiraled up the center of the tower. There was, of course, also an elevator that went up this tower as well.


    The design scheme of the tower was much like that of the old house. The patterns and color schemes, even the furniture. That made things a lot easier to adjust to for us.


    There was a lot of space to this tower; it alone was about as big as the old estate was. This whole castle life was going to take some getting used to. I wasn''t worried about it though, I found the whole concept quite exciting, and I couldn''t wait for it all to starting together.


    Reece and I went to the top floor by ourselves to check out the room for us. L and Athair m¨®r watched Reagan and Rika while we went up alone. The moment that Reece and I went into the room, or onto that entire floor that was our massive bedroom, I heard him whistle.


    "Holy shit, this is massive." He wasughing.


    All of our stuff had been brought up here already, and there was a lot more furniture that there was to begin with; all of that furniture had been crafted with magic and imagination. Athair m¨®r had told us that he had personally added some of the furnishings to our new room, one of which was the bed.


    The new bed was literally massive. It had a giant intricately carved headboard that incorporated wolf motifs, magical elements, and Fae designs all in a beautifulyout; moons, paws, wolves, elements, vines, and more that was what was among the carvings.The footboard matched it but it wasn''t as massive.


    The bed itself was thergest thing that I had ever seen. It looked like it was at least twelve feet wide and no less than eight feet from headboard to footboard.


    "I can''t wait to try that one out." I heard Reece purr next to me. "Sounds like it will be fun, huh?" I just rolled my eyes at his words as I looked around our new space. There was a smaller version of the library in the room as well as different dressing stations for me and Reece, on opposite sides of the room of course. There were massive closets, way bigger than the ones we had before. And the bathroom, which was already huge, was now massive. The tub, if it is even possible, was bigger than thest one. There were also a lot of super awesome, rxing looking jets on that tub so it was also like a super massive hot tub.


    I couldn''t believe this new room of ours, let alone this whole new castle.. It was surreal.

 Chapter 446 - Trinity - Rise Of The Kingdom Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 446 - Trinity - Rise Of The Kingdom Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Well now that the castle was built, I guess it was time to build the kingdom itself. That and staff this massive fucking ce. I guess I didn''t realize how much ''bigger'' this ce was going to be after it was redone. And then there is the fact that, you know, we built it almost instantly and had like zero time to prep for it. In all honesty, we had done it all a little bit recklessly.


    There were some ns that I had in mind before I got all of this rolling, aside from the council, so what I truly needed to do was bring a few people here to talk before Dietrich left for his meeting with the covens that were having trouble. This is something that would work well for me as well, since I wanted people who would be able to handle peace among the supernatural poption. We could try to use this crisis as a starting point.


    Aside from Dietrich, I knew that I wanted to have Riley, Landon, and Trevor on the council for the shifters, and I was bringing Crawford in for the warlocks. However, I wanted to have two representatives from each species. I wanted to have a male and female perspective of everything to make it a ''checks and bnces'' system. I wanted to make sure that everyone''s opinions were viewed fairly and nothing overly misogynistic happened. This was a matriarchy after all, so women mattered a lot.


    I wanted to get ideas from all of them on who should join the council with them. I called all of them toe and meet with me. I actually decided to do this the magical way as well; I just called them all mentally. I did get some grumblings, but not much, especially when they found out that it was important business.


    Some of the conversations started like this one here.


    ''Trevor?'' I spoke to him silently and waited for his response.


    ''Dammit! By the Goddess Trinity, that scared the shit out of me. This is the first time you''ve called me like this.''


    ''Yes, that is true. However, you knew it was a possibility.'' Iughed in my head as I spoke to him, and I just knew he heard theughter as well.


    ''Yeah well, knowing it can happen, and it actually happening are twopletely different things.'' I could hear augh from him now as well. ''What is it you actually need, oh great and powerful witch of Oz?''


    ''That''s a good one.'' I wasughing as I tried to think the words to him. ''I need to have a meeting, a really important one, and you''re invited, oh great and brave lion.''


    ''OK, Dorothy, don''t you dare confuse me with Landon, I am not a lion, I''m a bear.'' These references were getting pretty funny.


    ''Yes, but when we meet the lion she does say lions and tigers and bears, oh my.'' I did my best to remember, and I think I got that one right.


    ''Hey, don''t mess up the ssics. That scaredy cat scarecrow said lions and tigers and bears. Old D only said oh my.'' I could tell that he was actually a fan of the movie.


    ''Oh my, I must have forgotten. Forgive me Mr. Bear.'' I joked with him and waited for theughter to leave his head. It was weird how I could hear it all.


    ''Alright, alright, what kind of important meeting is this?''


    ''I am building my kingdom and the council. The time hase.''


    I could feel the seriousness that washed over him through the mental connection. After that, he promised to be there the next day. That was good, since everyone that I invited said they could be there the next day.


    When they all did arrive, Reece and I were waiting for them outside. It was polite to greet your guests, right? OK, the truth was that we just wanted to see their reactions to the new house.


    "What in the fucking hell?" Riley eximed as he got out of the car that he, Landon, and Trevor came in together. "What the hell happened here?"


    "Where the hell is the estate? And when the fuck did you get a castle?" Landon looked just as shocked.


    "Holy shit! Reece, I gotta change your dog name. This ce is too fancy for the old one, I gotta call you, Fru Fru or Puffington."


    "Fuck you, Trevor." Reece snapped at him. "Or I will call you Paddington because the little lost bear came all the way here from his backwoods home."


    "Don''t make fun of my woods, dude. They''re awesome." Trevor smiled and joked back as another car wasing up the driveway, and behind that was one more.


    "Well, this certainly is new." Dietrichughed as he got out of his sleek car. "I dare say, this is bigger than my castle back in Germany."


    "Holy, what the hell?" Shawn looked nervous. "Did I miss something?"


    "No worries sweetheart. I am sure that Valerian helped them to build this ce." Dietrich assured his mate.


    "That he did." Reece smiled at him. "It happened way too fast."


    Thest car was Crawford, here to bring in the counsel of the magic users. It was just about time to get this meeting underway. He didn''t say anything about the house, or castle, but his eyes showed that he was just as surprised as the others had been.


    The group of them just followed us inside without any other words. We headed for my office, as it was thergest, even whenpared to Reece''s. That was where we were going to discuss all that had happened here at the castle, and what it was that we still needed to do.


    Even though none of them said anything directly to us, I heard a few whispered words behind us.


    "This ce is massive."


    "Dude! You need a car to drive in this ce."


    "Do you think they''ve even seen every room yet? I bet they will have dozens that they will never see no matter how long they live here."


    We had seen them all, they just didn''t know. I wanted tough, but I didn''t.. We had just gotten to the elevator for the royal tower, in which were mine and Reece''s offices and a few meeting rooms.

 Chapter 447 - Trinity - Rise Of The Kingdom Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 447 - Trinity - Rise Of The Kingdom Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Once we were all seated in my office, the meeting could officially begin. I couldn''t help but notice that Athair m¨®r had put a throne, or the equivalence of one, at my desk. I know that most of the castle was actually made in my image, with the things that I was imagining. However, Athair m¨®r admitted that since there was not enough furniture to start with he helped us out with supplying some of the missing items with his magic and imagination. I appreciated it, but should my office chair really be a fucking throne?


    "Well, I guess I should be the one to get this started." I smiled at them. Athair m¨®r, conveniently, had met us at the elevator and was joining the meeting with us so that he could provide Fae input. And at that moment, he raised his hand to interject.


    "If you want to be technical, my dear, Reece would start it as you have the highest status, or that is how the Fae do it. This is, however, your kingdom, and if the Queen wishes to start these meetings, then she will. Gloriana, who isn''t supposed to do it, does start them quite often." I saw theughter in his eyes as he thought about it. "You know what, garin¨ªon, you do what you want to do. This is your ce." He grinned and put down his hand.


    "Thank you, Athair m¨®r." I did appreciate him trying to educate me on court-type politics. "Now, the reason that I have called all of you here is that I am ready to build the kingdom that we will all be living in. What that truly means is that I need to set up the councils, positions, andws that everyone will need to abide by."


    "Is there going to be that much that changes?" Crawford raised his hand just like Athair m¨®r had before he spoke.


    "Not all that much. In truth, most of the ns and species will not see very many changes, but there might be a few things that I need to go over with some of them." I kept my voice neutral as I tried to think about all of the things that were in my mind.


    "It is entirely up to the Queen to make whatever changes she wants." Gabriel spoke up as he stood behind me like a retainer instead of an assistant. I think he liked this whole castle thing so it could make him seem more official in his duties.


    "You arepletely right." Crawford nodded at him. "I didn''t mean to imply otherwise."


    Everyone looked at Gabriel with wide eyes, but they didn''t say anything. All of the men here knew how seriously Gabriel took his job, most of the time. There was that incident the other day where he was a little too interested in Roisin to pay attention fully, but I forgave him. Finding your mate when you''re about to turn six hundred and ny-four was definitely something special. And that mate was also no spring chicken as well since she was a Fae.


    "Trinity, if I may, what is this council that you mentioned to us? And what rankings are you nning to implement?" Riley brought us back to topic. "I think that is where we need to start."


    "Of course." I smiled at him and then started to exin it all to them.


    The council itself would consist of about twenty-four individuals. They would be my council that helps me to make decisions. No offense to anyone in the world, at all, but I really don''t think that I should truly have full control and absolute power over what basically amounted to almost three billion people in all, if not more. This wasn''t something that I was able to just y around with. There were people''s lives and futures to deal with.


    The council was going to have two representatives from all of the major species. If something was a subcategory then they would be represented by therger faction, such as witch doctors represented by witches and warlocks and Sirens represented by the Merfolk. I also wanted to include the Vampires and Fae so that we had a fair representation of the entire supernatural world.


    Aside from Gabriel, Reece, and myself everyone here was a member of this new council, and for that matter, they were now part of the ranking of Grand Nobles within my new kingdom. The Grand Noble rank would only be filled with the council members. They would hold special rankings because they would help make decisions.


    The next rank after Grand Nobles were the High Nobles. Those would be the wolves that had more than seven hundred and fifty members in their pack or a feline pack with four hundred or more and so on for the other groups of people that had less members altogether. From there we went down to the Central Nobles, which would make up the majority of the ranks, and below them were the Anciry Nobles who consisted of very small pack leaders, fealty pack leaders, and others of the sort.


    The nobles would be expected toe to meetings at selected times of the year. For? now, we''re starting with quarterly meetings, but we could talk about itter. Perhaps only therger packs or higher ranked nobles would need to attend, and they could first visit the lower ranks beforeing to the meetings.


    We woulde up with the differentws and rules and cement them once I had the full council assembled. And to do that I needed to get ideas about who to choose. I asked them all if they had any ideas of who we could add and what to do.


    "Well, if you need a female wolf to fill in, then I vote for Rawlynne." Shawn was the first to speak. "I may not be on the council, but that is my choice."


    "Thank you Shawn, and we''re not in a meeting of just council members now so your opinion is more than fine. By the way, you and the kids are also Grand Nobles now too. It''s something that counts for family members." I winked at him, and he blushed.


    From there we all started to discuss it. Leelin, Doc''s new mate out in California with Star and Artem would being in for the witch side of it all. Dietrich gave an idea for the vampire side. Trevor and Landon each suggested someone for their sides, and Athair m¨®r suggested a Fae.


    Once that was done, I asked them all if they knew anyone who would want toe and work in the castle. We desperately needed to fill this ce with a staff quickly. They all seemed to know some people who would be willing and interviews were due to start in a few days.


    Now, I needed to call in the leaders of all the other ns and Alphas to all the other shifters. We needed to get this ball rolling, and fast. I wasn''t about to just sit idly by and let things happen. Not anymore. I was going to be a true Queen to my people.. It had been nearly two years since I found out what I was, and I wasn''t going to waste any more time.

 Chapter 448 - Trinity - Rise Of The Kingdom Part 3 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 448 - Trinity - Rise Of The Kingdom Part 3 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece didn''t seem to agree with me that one major part of the process to building the kingdom was staffing the castle. Don''t get me wrong, he knew that it needed to be done, but that didn''t mean that he thought it was more important than calling in the next group of future nobles.


    He thought I should leave the interviewing process to those that were running the house, and then we could meet with their choices to give them our seal of approval before they started their work. I guess I could see the merit in that. It would be Abigail, Julie, and Peter who would be dealing with them so I guess it could be them that interviewed them. That would help to assure that there was a smooth andfortable working rtionship for everyone.


    Since I was letting the others handle that, I was focusing on the meetings with the other supernatural types. I thought I would get the magic users out of the way first since there were less of them. Also, I was contacting the people that were suggested to me by the others and having theme for a meeting as well.


    Not all of the council members could be here right away so I was going to be meeting with them on an individual basis. As for filling the council with the people I knew nothing about, I would need to spend time with and talk to them all while I tried to make my decision. I figured I would give a sort of trial period to the members that we knew nothing about, to all of them really. I expected this to be amittee that would strive for universal peace among our collective people. I did not want constant fighting, though I did expect them to stand up for their opinions. It was really hard to exin, I guess.


    I started with calling in the leader of every n and coven for the witches and warlocks, genies, djinn, witch doctors, and gypsies. There were a lot of them in the country with us, but the majority of them were actually back in Europe or in South America. I helped to arrange travel ns for them all in advance, or rather Gabriel did, so things were made easy for them. All they needed to do was pack and leave.


    I was a bit forceful with them and didn''t give them much leeway to take their time. They knew who I was because the legend of the new Queen had spread so I didn''t need to make them believe what I had to say. The problem I had though was that several of them wanted more time before they left their homes. Some of them wanted as much as a week.. I gave them twenty-four hours until their nes took off. I needed to assert my authority over these people, I knew that I had a tendency to be too soft at times, and I was trying to be better.


    Upon hearing how I had handled them, Athair m¨®r had only encouraging words for me.


    "You did wonderfully. You needed to show them that next to you they hold no status as of yet. They need to ept and understand your orders as facts and not to think of them as suggestions." It was really nice to have him on my side.


    The night after I had spoken to the initial council members, the leaders of the magic users started to arrive. Those at the Aerie Convento were the first to show, and Crawford had never left. And since I wasn''t inviting everyone from their covens and ns, just the leaders, I didn''t need to prepare as much for them.


    Abigail had decided to use these gatherings as sort of a hands on job interview for her candidates. Since we needed to be hospitable to our guests while they were here, they would just do the job like they normally would. From there she would pick the best people for the job. Julie and Peter soon took on the same idea and were making it more of a selection process. I could imagine it all felt like a really weird reality TV show. But hey, whatever worked for them.


    The guests that had arrived were greeted by the staff and led to their rooms. They were all told that I would greet them all once they had all arrived and assembled in the throne room. Since this was the first time that they were meeting me and I needed to show my position and power to them, I was holding that meeting in the throne room. I would do the same for everyone else when it was their turn as well.


    Not everyone arrived at a decent hour that first night, so their introduction was scheduled for the first thing after breakfast. I had received reports that they had all looked nervous when they arrived, and that they didn''t know what to think or even do. All of them, understandably, stayed in their rooms without even trying to leave. I was d though since I didn''t need them snooping around my castle.


    They were all waiting for me when I was being dressed. Yes, I do mean dressed. Gina and E had taken it upon themselves to make me several ''Queen'' gowns that they wanted to have at the ready for when I needed them. They had been told at some point that I was going to be building a kingdom and that I would need to ''hold court'' before my people. I had too many suspicions on who could have told them that, so I didn''t know who exactly to me, but I thought it was annoying. Not to mention the fact that they had made these dresses so that one woman couldn''t put them on by herself. Damn them.


    The current dress, or gown as they called it, was really pretty, that wasn''t the issue. It had a tightlyced bodice that just happened to tie in the back so I couldn''t reach it. The bodice was in a dark, midnight blue, and it was a bit low cut so that the tops of my breasts seemed to show. The sleeves were a little different, at the top they were just the normal off the shoulders that a lot of gowns and dresses have, but there was a long, sheer blue sleeve that went to the tips of my fingers that was made with a soft silk material. The skirt of the dress wasn''t as full as it could be, thank the Goddess, I didn''t want it to be a full ball gown, and this would be a lot easier to sit in. The skirt was also mostly white with small silver designs that were in the shape of crescent moons, paw prints, and trinity knots. Over the white skirt was a dark blueyer of sheer silk that added some more color to it. It was really nice, to be honest, and I liked how it looked, but I wouldn''t have bought it for myself.


    Then, no sooner had they finished putting me into the dress, when I was about to leave the room, Reece came to see me.


    "You look stunning." he smiled at me. "I am d I had these made, and that they were ready in time, or at least some of them were."


    "Just how many of these did you order?" I red at him, half yfully half not.


    "Enough to get you by for now. Not too many really." he was smiling at me, but I also noticed that he had his hands behind his back like he was hiding something from me.


    "Reece, what do you have there?" I lifted an eyebrow and fixed my eyes on him.


    "Just something that you need before you start meeting the masses.." He grinned,? brought the item forward so I could see it, and my eyes just about popped out of my head.

 Chapter 449 - Trinity - Rise Of The Kingdom Part 4 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 449 - Trinity - Rise Of The Kingdom Part 4 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Oh my Goddess! Reece, what the hell did you do?!" I yelled at him when I saw the item he had brought out for me.


    "What, baby?" I thought you needed one." He was smiling innocently at me.


    "You thought I needed a fucking crown? Seriously? A fucking crown?!" I was bbergasted.


    "Trinity, you are a Queen, you know. And think about it, every time that Gloriana was with her subjects outside of her private quarters, she was wearing her crown. You needed it."


    "You didn''t buy this after we got back. How long have you been nning this?" There was no way it had been made after we got back from the Faepound.


    "Well, to be honest, Valerian and I had it done. We went to see a jeweler while you were in a meeting with Gloriana, and now just seems like the perfect time to give it to you."


    "Oh my Goddess, Reece." I just put my head in my hands and shook it from side to side.


    "Come on, let me put it on you. After we had it made, Valerian enchanted it with Fae magic. It won''t fall off your head at all, no matter what you do. It will always stay on until you take it off." Why was I seeing an inappropriate look in his eyes right now? I could just imagine what was going through his head, and oddly enough, and as kinky as the thought was, I liked it.


    "Come on and stop being a spoilsport about this." He walked toward me and held me in ce with those gorgeous eyes of his.


    "Let me guess, you got one for yourself too, didn''t you."


    "Nope, I didn''t. However, when it was delivered Valerian had one for me too, so he must have done it himself after I was done cing your order." He looked like he was telling the truth, but part of me just wanted to give him a hard time.


    "Uh huh, sure." I rolled my eyes as I said it, then I looked more closely at the crown in his hands.


    The crown was simple in its design, but it was anything but simple with the way that it had been made. The crown was actually a tiara that was pointed a little at the top and curved down until the top and bottom met. The centerpiece of the crown was made of threerge blue sapphires that I could tell at a nce were really, really expensive. They were in the same shape that was on my wedding dress, the two crescent moons facing away from the full moon or just a circle. Above and below the sapphires was a filigree of those trinity knots like the one on the forehead of my wolf. They were linked together and so intricately designed that they all looked like a vine instead. That filigree went along the entire top and bottom edges of the crown. And that filigree was also entirely adorned with diamonds. I couldn''t even begin to fathom how much the crown must have cost.


    "Reece, it''s beautiful and all, but don''t you think this is too much?"


    "Not at all, you should have seen what Valerian wanted to do. This is much more reasonable." I could see the look in his eyes and knowing what I did of my Athair m¨®r I could definitely see what he meant.


    "Alright, put it on me." I leaned forward and let him set the tiara-like crown on my head. "By the way, how much did this thing cost you?"


    "Do you really want me to answer that?" He made me both want to know and not want to know at the same time.


    "Just tell me." I sighed as I lifted my head.


    "This was about eighteen million, give or take a little."


    "REECE?!" I nearly screamed his name causing him to rub the back of his head sheepishly.


    "It was worth every penny, I swear."


    "Oh my Goddess, I don''t even know what to do with you." I shook my head and just left the room.


    When I was out of the room and down the stairs to the main part of the royal tower, I came across everyone who had been waiting for us. Athair m¨®r, Gina and E. Apparently, they all knew about the crown as well.


    "That looks splendid." Athair m¨®r was the first toment.


    "I agree, it''s wonderful." Gina smiled.


    "Damn, Trinity, that is perfect. Oopsies, I mean that is a remarkable crown, Queen Trinity, and it goes perfectly with the royal dress you are wearing. If I do say so myself."


    I just rolled my eyes at them all as I smiled. They were a great bunch of people.


    "You''re all incorrigible. You know that? I can''t believe you have all been working on this without telling me." Despite what I was saying, I was smiling at the three of them.


    "You are a Queen, Trinity, you need to act like one sometimes." E was the one to say this to me, and I could only thank her in my head as I nodded. She was right, and so were the others. I couldn''t be the same old Trinity all the time. Not anymore. I was a Queen, and I needed to act like it.


    I needed to act like it right now, honestly. That was why I was wearing all of this stuff. I needed to go down to the throne room and greet the magic users. I had summoned them, and while I (the Queen) could make them wait, I really didn''t feel that I should. I needed to do a lot more than just say hi. This was going to take me a long time. I was just d that I had several people that were able to help me out and support me: Reece, Athair m¨®r, Gabriel, Noah. All of them would be there with me and help me through this whole process.


    Did I mention yet that I was way too nervous about all of this?

 Chapter 450 - Trinity - Rise Of The Kingdom Part 5 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 450 - Trinity - Rise Of The Kingdom Part 5 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Warlocks, Witches, Djinn, Genie, Witch Doctors, and Gypsies, I want to wee you all to Castle Gray, home to the Queen of all shifters and magic users and Princess to the Fae. You have been invited here to be a part of history in the making. You should all be proud to be the first in this new order to meet with the Queen."


    As I listened to Gabriel address everyone on the other side of the door, I couldn''t help but wonder when the castle was named. I mean, it made sense to name it after us, but it was being called Castle Gray when it was primarily white. That was kind of funny if you asked me. Still, at least I didn''t have to think of a name for it.


    When I turned to Reece standing next to me, I saw that he looked just as surprised as I did so he probably didn''t know about the name either. Well, it didn''t matter anymore now, did it?


    "Now, I want to introduce you all to the Queen that you may or may not have met before along with her King. I introduce to you all, Queen Trinity Gray and her King, Reece Gray."


    There was nothing but stunned silence on the other side of the room as Reece took me by the hand and led me into the room. It was time for me to greet my people, even though it was wrong to think like that.


    Reece was guiding me as if he were my escort instead of my king. Then again, I was the one in charge, and he was meant to be my second inmand. I really shouldn''t try to stop what was going on, I needed to go with the flow and adapt to how things were.


    Reece didn''t say anything at all as he led me to my throne. This too had been something that Athair m¨®r had designed for me. It wasrge, ornate, and seemed to be crafted out of mostly white gold. It shone when the light hit it and sparkled with the jewels that were all over it. I see now that most of the Fae don''t need to buy their stuff, they just make it out of magic, even when that item would cost millions and millions of dors. The throne was huge, butfortable. The cushions were soft and luxurious, like they were made of magic, which I guess they were. The deep royal blue of the cushion fabric contrasted so much with the shining of the throne, but it was perfect nheless.


    Once I was seated, Reece went to his throne which was next to mine. His throne matched mine, but was a little smaller, the materials and colors were the same though. After we were both seated, it was time for the meeting to begin.


    "Ladies and gentlemen, meet your Queen and King." Gabriel bowed after he had spoken and so did everyone else that was in the room. Gabriel stood after a moment, but everyone else was too afraid to move after they had bowed to me. Well, I did intimidate them to get them here.


    "You may rise." I spoke in a loud, clear voice.


    Everyone present did as they were told. They looked in my direction, but seemed too scared to make eye contact with me just yet.


    "I know that many of you are probably worried about why I summoned you here for this meeting. As you all know by now, I have been named the new Queen to the children of magic by the God Thoth. All of our magic in the worldes from the gifts given to us by the Gods.? For us, that is Thoth, and therefore his word isw to us..You have all witnessed the power that he has given me over you all. It is next to impossible to disobey a directmand made by me."


    I watched as several of them nched. A lot of the people gathered here did in fact try to disobey me, they wanted to postpone the meeting until ater date. That didn''t work for me at all.


    "Now, I think you all want to know why I called you here. I have been tasked with building a kingdom that will not be just for the children of magic, but also the shifters as well."


    "Why must the kingdoms be one in the same?" A voice called out from the back of the room but it was hard to pinpoint them with all the echoing.


    "Do not speak while the Queen is speaking." Gabriel reprimanded the man, and the room as a whole, after I was interrupted. "If you have a question, hold it until the Queen gives you permission to speak."


    Damn, Gabriel was making me sound like I was bitch that would be mad at them about everything. I guess they should see me that way since it would make things easier on me in the long run. I needed to have their respect, and if that meant that they needed to fear me a little, then that was what I would do.


    "Yes, please do not interrupt me while I am speaking. That is incredibly rude." There was a gasp in the hall as someone seemed to realize that they had made a major faux pas. "Now, I will answer that one question, and then I will continue." I cleared my throat and started to exin. "The children of magic are my people as my father was a Warlock. That means that I am a Witch, however, I am not only a Witch. I am also a shifter as I was born into the wolf pack that epasses this area. And I am also the great great great granddaughter of the Fae Queen''s brother. What this means is that I am two different queens and a princess to another kingdom entirely. I am not a pure blood in any way, I am not a hybrid, but I am a tribrid. I was given the title of Shifter Queen by the Goddess Nehalennia. I was given the title of Witch Queen by the God Thoth. And recently, though I am not the Queen of the Fae, I was blessed by the Fae mother, Goddess Danu who,? by the way, would be my great great great great grandmother since she was my Athair m¨®r''s mother. I have been blessed three times by three different celestial beings. I have been charged with leading two of thergest groups of supernaturals on the. As to why the kingdoms need to be the same, if I am running both of the groups, I am making them into one. It would be unnecessarily hard to create and rule two different kingdoms."


    They were all stunned and quiet, and so were Reece and Gabriel. They were all just looking at me with their eyes opened wide and their mouths gaped open. Well, this was off to a great start.. Did I seriously just blow the mind of every single person in this room? Ohe on, this was not something that I wanted to deal with.

 Chapter 451 - Trinity - Rise Of The Kingdom Part 6 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 451 - Trinity - Rise Of The Kingdom Part 6 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I just had to ignore the fact that they were acting like they couldn''t handle simple words. I was going to move on and keep talking. If they couldn''t keep up, that was on them. If they messed up afterwards, it was on them to deal with the consequences that might follow.


    "From this day forward, all of your lives will be different in some way. For one, you are all now a noble within the court. The status of noble is going to be given to those who run a n, coven, or pack. The ranking you receive will depend on different factors, and it will determine the types of jobs you have within the inner machinations of the system. All of you will need to follow the royalw, and the provisions that we set down."


    That caused a stir to run through the room. They really didn''t seem up to following my newws. I could tell that there were several of them that wanted to say something to me about it all.


    "I sense that many of you are not happy, is there something wrong?" Another stir, but still the unease from before. "If there is a question about the previous statements, you may ask them now."


    As I watched, I saw five hands move until they were held up in the air. Some were more confident than the others, and their hands were all the way up, the others were more timid and barely raised them, which was better than the ones that wanted to raise their hands, but were too scared to.


    "You." I pointed to the one closest to the front, timidly holding their hand in the air. "What is your name, species, and question?" The woman who I called on was very pretty with a deeply tannedplexion and brilliant crystal green eyes. She looked quite exotic and mysterious with a mix of ck and bright colors in her clothes. The clothes themselves were also unique. A long flowing skirt, a scarf, and a shirt that showed most of her midriff, and all of it seemed to be made of exotic silks and other luxurious materials.


    "M..my name is Daciana, and I am a Gypsy. Queen Trinity, what sort ofws will we be forced to follow?" Ahh, that exined some of what I had been wondering about her. And judging by the ent that Daciana had I would ce her from somewhere in Europe near Bulgaria or Romania.


    "Daciana, I am afraid that I cannot answer that just yet. We are still ironing out details, however, there will be a council that will be tasked with helping with the creation ofws. That council will need to be filled with one male and one female from each group. I will be taking rmendations as well as applications from those who think they are up to the job, or those you think might be up to the challenge."


    Another stir went through the room and three of the hands in the air lowered almost instantly. Was their question answered or were they too scared to speak now. There was still one hand though, someone who was still willing to speak, and this person''s hand was up all the way.


    The man whose hand was still up could only be a Djinn or a Genie. OK, that was wrong of me to assume, bute on, he was wearing blue and green silk arabian clothes with ck cloth under it all that looked like he just walked out of the kids movie. The clothes wereyered and beautiful.


    "You have a question as well?" I asked the man who was standing with his hand held high in the air.


    "Yes, Queen Trinity." His ent was there, but it didn''t make it so I couldn''t understand him at all. It did, however, make him sound mysterious and exciting. "My name is Rahim Zayn, I am a Djinn, and I want to know more about the council that you are talking about." His words were direct, and he didn''t falter at all.


    "Of course, Rahim. I want the council to help with not only the selection of thews, but to also help us to govern the world of the supernaturals. Those of us that have lived in the shadows for so long cannot leave this all up to one person. We need to have representatives to discuss what is important to them all."


    "So, we will have a say in this so that our people don''t suffer." He sounded like he wanted to do nothing more than to protect the others.


    ''Gabriel.'' I called out to him in my head. ''What kind of person is Rahim? Can we trust him?''


    I asked this because if he was someone that we didn''t need to worry about, he would make a fine addition to the council.


    ''I believe we can trust him, mdy. We can always give him a trial period on the council.'' He answered back immediately.


    ''That is true.'' As I looked at Rahim, I thought about the council and how happy I was to possibly have someone else to help fill it up.


    "One more down." I whispered to myself.


    We continued to talk more about what they all wanted to know before the meeting was concluded. There was onest thing that I needed to tell them though.


    "I will be holding meetings with you all individually soon. This will happen this afternoon in my office. I will assign you all your noble rankings and take any applications or suggestions for the council positions."


    I rose first, and they all bowed once again. Reece took my hand and started to lead me from the room. I heard Gabriel speaking to the gathered magic users as we walked.


    "I will divide you all into smaller groups, and I will take you all to see the Queen in groups. You may explore the first floor of the castle or return to your rooms. Since the rooms are numbered I will take you all based on that. Rooms four hundred and one through four hundred and ten will be first. I will take you all in groups of ten until all two hundred of you have had your chance to meet with the Queen."


    I couldn''t be more thankful for Gabriel, he truly was the most efficient person that I could have asked for. He brought the people to me and helped me to gauge if they were trustworthy or not. Several of them were ready to volunteer for the job, but I think they just wanted to be important. There were others like Rahim that seemed to be the right person for the job even without them asking for it.


    In fact, when I suggested to Rahim that he be on the council, he was hesitant at first. It seems that he was going to suggest someone else, but I told him that I wanted someone with his passion and his sense of loyalty to his people. In the end, he agreed.


    I had gotten all the people I needed after that. The witches and warlocks were already ounted for so I didn''t need to find someone among them, and the witch doctors were being represented by another group. I took two Gypsies, two Djinn, and two Genies to finish them all.


    Daciana and a man named Razvan were the Gypsies, Rahim and Gaeti were the Djinn, Nadeen and Lahan were the names of the Genies that were joining us. After a full day of meetings and interviews, I was finally done.


    I had worked hard to get them all done so that I could dismiss all but the council members. The ranks were given, and they knew what to expect for the current future. And now, it was time for me to go up to the tower and spend time with my family.


    This Queen stuff was bing a full time job.

 Chapter 452 - Trinity - Rise Of The Kingdom Part 7 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 452 - Trinity - Rise Of The Kingdom Part 7 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It had been rtively quick to get all the magic users here for the meeting. There were far less of them than there was of anyone else. Now though, I needed to bring in all the shifters. However, there was no way in hell that I was going to fit all of them into the castle at once. It was big but there were a lot of shifters in the world.


    Just the wolf shifters of the world made up for like a third of the world''s poption. Yeah, I was only bringing in the Alphas and Prime Betas, but still, I needed to meet with them all. For that matter, I thought I would get the wolves done first since they would take the longest. I was going to bring in all the Prime Betas and small pack Alphas first. They would receive their information and ranks as the Anciry Nobles. Following them I would call in the future Central Noble wolves and then finally the High Noble wolves.


    These meetings would happen slowly over the course of about a week. I would most likely have them all here for one night, two at max. That would give me time to talk to them, exin things to them, and then assign them their rank and duties.


    When I called them all, mentally of course, they were shocked to say the least. I did it as a one way conversation where they could only listen to me and not respond at all. Once again, Noah and Gabriel prepared transportation for them all to get to us and they were given no more than twenty-four hours to get here.


    I have to admit, feeling the shock that they felt when I spoke to them and imagining the stunned looks on their faces was actually pretty funny. I have seen first hand what a person''s face looks like when they hear me talk to them inside their head for the first time. And imagining a few hundred of those faces happening all over the world at the same time was hrious.


    I was happy, all in all, with how the meetings with the wolves went. It had actually taken me a week and a half because there were so many of them all scattered all over the world. Not to mention, I was really d I spoke multiplenguages. It helped me a lot when I was trying to contact them all.


    In the end though, all the ranks had been assigned and the future duties had been briefly discussed. The things about the nobles, especially when it came to the wolves, was that they all couldn''te to the meetings that I had nned to do quarterly. So, instead I would send the High Nobles to go and see the others, or have them visit the High Nobles. During those visits the High Nobles would gather information about what had been going on for thest few months and then report it all to me when they came for the meeting. This would also happen with the other species as well. I simply couldn''t house them all in my castle at once. I would need to grow it from forty thousand square meters to four hundred thousand square meters just to do that, and even then it might be too small. And that would actually make it thergest building in the world, even bigger than the Boeing factory. That one is only three hundred and ny-eight thousand square meters.


    Though, if I added that much square footage and it was all Noble guest rooms I would be able to put approximately four thousand three hundred more rooms, give or take a little. Perhaps I could build one of those customizable spaces out behind the castle. It would look small on the outside but it would be thergest building in the world on the inside. That could work, possibly. It would only need to be used during the big visits. Hmm, it was something to think about. Then again, if I did that then my castle chefs would have to cook for all of them as well and I don''t really think that would be fair to them.


    Nope, I am sticking with the High Nobles onlying here. That would be way more than enough to burden the staff with considering that there were still going to be a good chunk of them as well.


    After the wolves had their turn I called in the Felines, who already had both their council members chosen, and then the Bears who also already had their members chosen. I was making this as simple for me as possible in the beginning. I didn''t want to tell any of these people that they could be on the council since their seats had been chosen in advance.


    Oh, and there are so few Feline and Bear packs that I was able to call all of their Alphas to the castle at once. They weren''t oppositional to me at all since Landon and Trevor hadid the groundwork for me before they were called in. It was easier with them because they knew what to expect.


    I called in the Avians, or bird shifters after the bears. I have dealt with them before and so it made things a little easier as well. Well, I have dealt with one pack of them anyway. There were less bird shifters than either of the groups that I had called already. And I hadn''t chosen any of them to fill in the council at all.


    I had worked with Noir before, she was the Alpha of the birds that were closest to us. She and her people had fought with us in the Battle of Edmond, or so everyone hade to call it. She was a capable person but she liked to keep to herself. She was the only person that I could think of to put on the council so far. And considering that there were only neen bird ns or packs worldwide she was probably one of the best options as well. Though, I would need to speak to them all first.


    That group was also very quick to go through. And sure enough, Noir was the first bird shifter to join the council. The other bird to join us was an eagle shifter by the name of Arno Darvell.


    Now that those shifter groups were done, it was time to call in all the others. And these were the groups that I have never even met someone from. This was going to be very interesting if you ask me.


    Still, this was my responsibility and I would see it through. I wasn''t about to shirk my duties or turn my back on it because I had never dealt with a sea shifter or reptilian shifter before. Nope, that was still my domain, they were still my people. And, for better or worse, I was going to have to lead them just as much as the others.


    The kicker here though, was that none of them knew about me yet. Most of the mammal shifters tended to stick to their own and the same went with the non mammal shifters.. We didn''t have muchmunication with them all that often if ever.

 Chapter 453 - Trinity - Rise Of The Kingdom Part 8 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 453 - Trinity - Rise Of The Kingdom Part 8 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    These reptilian shifter groups were even smaller than the bird shifters. In all, the reptiles included snakes, komodo dragons, alligators, and crocodiles. And, is it wrong of me to say that they all looked a little scary when I met them?


    Each and every reptilian shifter seemed to have something sinister about their looks. Gabriel and Vincent both said that they were trustworthy people; it was just the way that they looked. I had a feeling that a lot of people judged them unfairly the way that I had at first.


    The more that I got to know the reptiles though, the more that I was able to see that they were mostly good people. Like every group there were a few undesirables, but for the most part they were open and receptive to meeting me and hearing what I had to say. I guess it also helped that I was clearly someone who had authority over them when they had to listen no matter what.


    "Wee, shifters, I introduce to you your Queen and King." Gabriel had given his speech the same as he had every time that we weed a new group. Everyone in the room looked at me reverently and with awe filled eyes. When they saw Gabriel bow to me as I sat on my throne they also sat down.


    "Wee." I called out to them. "As you have all heard by now, I am the Queen of the Shifters as well as the Queen of the Children of Magic. I have called you all here to discuss how the way we live might be changing slightly. I do not wish to drastically change your lives. To be honest, I want nothing less than peace for us all. I want all species of the supernatural world to get along with each other and work together. That is the first step to a world where we no longer have to fear being found out."


    There was a murmur that went through the crowd, and I hate to say this but it sounded like the soft hissing of a bunch of snakes all at the same time. After they deliberated among themselves for a few moments they turned to look at me as a whole once more.


    "We have no reason not to trust you or believe you." A man with piercing blue eyes and a white lightning bolt shaped scar on his cheek was the one to speak up. "We can all feel the power of our Alphaing from you and we ept you. What is it you want from us?"


    This man seemed to be someone that would work wonderfully on the council. I would need to suggest that he join us.


    "What is your name?" I asked him in a polite voice.


    "My name is Nathair Adder, I am a boa shifter."


    "Thank you." I nodded at him in thanks for him following my request. "Now, Nathair, I am organizing a council that will need two of you to help fill the ranks. One man and one woman will be selected to help make sure that your people are given the proper consideration. The rest of you will be made into nobles that will be called upon to give feedback and reports on how your people are faring. I want a world where no n or species is left out. You are all my people just as much as the others are."


    The conversation continued for a little while before I conducted the individual interviews. There were a dozen of these n leaders and there were so few of them that they mostly all went into the Central Noble rank so that they would have a chance to speak if need be. Four of them became High Nobles, and two of them would be Grand Nobles. Nathair agreed to join the council as did a komodo dragon woman by the name of?Kayda Wyvern.


    Now that I was through with meeting the Reptile Shifters there was only one group left to meet with. They only had six ns in total. This group was both smaller than all the others butrger than some of them. They only had the four groups in all but they also had more people in their ns than most of the other small groups.


    Thest group of people were the Sea shifters which was to say Mermen, Mermaids, Sirens, Selkies, and Sea Serpents. The Mermen and Mermaids made up the bulk of these people and they totaled close to half a million if not more. The others were smaller but still had some numbers to them.


    When I called these groups to us, some of them didn''te alone. The Merfolk specifically, had brought with them a few of their dignitaries to help aid us. They apparently had their ns subdivided so that they were easier to manage. That means that they brought the men and women who were responsible for the smaller factions of their people. There were also three different Merfolk ns altogether.


    The leaders of these subfactions were to be Central Nobles while the leader of the groups as a whole and the individual n leaders would all be the High Nobles. I would also choose among them the two council members.


    One of the Merfolk ns had brought with them a couple that ran a sub group. Their names were Analise and Reef Rivers. The two of them were a political dream team that would make a great addition to the team. They would both join the council, however they would only get one vote between them when the time came to cast them. Thest member to join us was Ronwin Brine, a Selkie that could turn into a seal.


    Now that this final group had been met with and chosen from the council wasplete. I would soon be meeting with the twenty-four, no twenty-five because of the Rivers.. Now it was time for us all to get things moving toward the right path for the future.

 Chapter 454 - Trinity - The First Council Meeting Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 454 - Trinity - The First Council Meeting Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I think that I was starting to get more and more used to this whole Queen thing. I no longer found myself feeling nervous before these meetings. In fact, today was the first meeting with the entire council that I had assembled. I had to wait for Dietrich to finish his trip to the covens on the coast before we could begin, so it was now closing in on the end of the month. In fact, it was just a few days until my birthday.


    Heh, isn''t that funny? I am a wife, a mother, a queen twice over, and blessed by three celestial beings, but I wasn''t even twenty-one yet. I will be soon, though. That makes me wonder, how do all these people like being bossed around by someone like me? That''s got to irk some of them, doesn''t it?


    Well, whatever, it is what it is. Right now I was being put into one of those dresses that Reece ordered for me, again with the assistance of someone else. He had said he hadn''t ordered very many of them, but the truth is, he had actually ordered them to make two dozen of these things in various styles and designs. There were some ball gowns at the ready for when I might need them, but the rest were all just regal queen-like dresses. And with E and Gina helping me into them constantly, I felt like I was someone from back in the Victorian days. If I kept wearing clothes like this, I was going to need a personal retainer to dress me every day.


    Ugh, I just shuddered at the thought of that. I would do anything to stop that from happening. I could ept these dresses when I was in a meeting where I needed to be official, but I wanted times when I was able to rx and be myself.


    Reece had it easy for situations like this though. All he had to do was put on one of his suits and coordinate his color ents to match me. That was one thing he made certain to do even without needing the very loud and boisterous warnings from E and Gina. Reece was there to rule beside me, but also be my arm candy since I was the one in charge. If anything were to cause me to not be able to do my duties, they would fall on Reece, but otherwise, I was the big bad wolf around here. Hmm, maybe I should make Reece wear red more often, like a hood or something.


    Now that I was dressed and my crown was in ce, it was time for the meeting to get underway. I was holding this meeting in one of the small conference rooms that was near my office in the tower.


    That room had arge horseshoe shaped table that looked like an antique. It was polished to a shine with a gleaming golden design of different wolf and magic symbols iid into it. There were thirty-six seats around the table, which was more than we needed, but we anticipated future guest speakers or couples like Shawn and Dietrich and Analise and Reef Rivers. They each took up extra space at the table.


    At the open part of the horseshoe there was arge ornate table where I would sit. This table definitely looked like it belonged in the house of royalty; the sheer amount of gold and jewels used to adorn it made it seem a tad toovish.


    Each of the council members had arge high backed chair with a dark wooden frame and rich mahogany colored leather. They looked veryfortable and luxurious. There were even two of them at my table for Noah and Vincent to sit at. Reece and I, however, had more of those throne-looking chairs that were in our offices. They were nothingpared to the real thrones that were downstairs, but they were still clearly more ornate andvish.


    By the time that we had entered the room, everyone else had already arrived and were standing next to their chairs. The moment that they saw Reece and I, they all bowed at once. It was like they had rehearsed this in our absence so they could get it just right. I was semi-used to all the bowing now, but it was still a little weird to see it happen all of a sudden.


    "You may rise." I instructed them as I took my seat, Reece sliding into his chair next to me. Everyone rose at once and took their seats in a fluid movement that seemed like a well-oiled machine.


    I was now looking at the full council for the first time. There were a couple here that had never met me, but had been briefed by their counterpart. They didn''t look surprised at all so that was good.


    I started to look around the table at all the people that were gathered here with us. First was Riley Gray, Reece''s cousin who shared his dark hair and honiedplexion, but had light gray green eyes. Next to him was Rawlynne Otsana, FBI agent extraordinaire, she was still as beautiful as ever with her long brown hair and gold and brown eyes.


    Trevor Jacoby on her other side was there for the bears, his tanned skin, golden eyes and light brown hair were all lovely despite his disheveled and rugged looks. He had invited Tina Berkley, she was out of the Canadian Bear pack, and she was the Alpha''s Beta. She had hair that was so light blonde that it nearly looked white, and she had bright blue eyes, that along with the paleplexion of her skin made her look like she was ethereal in her beauty.


    Landon yton, our friendly feline neighbor was sitting on her other side and looked intimidating with his piercing emerald green eyes, but his boyish blond hair and crooked grin that he couldn''t keep off his face kept ruining it for him. Landon had invited Natalie Madison from the Pacific Northwest feline pack. She was known as their Felicitas which was the equivalent of a Luna, Natalie had pure ck hair and shining golden eyes.


    The Bird shifters were next and they started with Arno Darvell, the eagle shifter who had brown hair with feathersing out of it and bright yellow eyes. Noir Steelwing, the Alpha that I had met once before, was on his other side. She had ck hair with lots of different brightly-colored feathers growing throughout and intense amber colored eyes. I had learned long ago that the adult bird shifters actually grew the feathers along with their hair. It started to happen after their first shifts.


    The reptiles sat on the other side of the birds, continuing the line. Nathair Adder was there with his piercing blue eyes, white lightning bolt birthmark (I had learned it wasn''t a scar), and his dark green hair that he kept buzzed so short it looked ck. Next to him was the komodo dragon shifter named Kayda Wyvern, she had dark hair that looked like it was brown with green highlights, and her eyes were a deep red.


    Thest of the shifters were next. First was Ronwin Brine, the Selkie. He had a warm brownplexion with hair and eyes to match, he was also the shortest male shifter I had ever seen? since he was a couple inches shorter than me. Analise Rivers was slender and beautiful like any mermaid should be. She had long flowing auburn hair that looked like she was in the water even when she wasn''t, and there were pure, true red highlights in her hair. Her eyes were a pearly green color that were mesmerizing. Her husband, Reef Rivers, had shorter hair that was dark brown with pearly white highlights. His eyes were also green, but they were a seagreen.


    Following the shiters were the magic users. Crawford was first with his graying hair, brown eyes, and wizened looks. Next to him was Leelin Ackerman (her name changed since she had been married and had a baby with Doc). She had that lovely dark purple hair and those unique orange eyes. She had also seemed to have gotten more confident since she mated with Doc.


    After them were the Djinn. Rahim Zayn with his ck hair and shining blue eyes that looked like he was radiating magic. His counterpart, Gaeti Adelle, couldn''t have looked more different from him. She had light brown hair and eyes that both seemed to radiate light.


    The Gypsy man, Razvan Ellund was next to Gaeti. He had pure white hair and purple eyes. When I met him, I asked if he looked like that when he met humans, and he politely exined that he hid his true appearance only when he needed to. Next to him was Daciana Joviak with her ck hair and bright green eyes.


    The genies were both wearing clothes that had to have either inspired or been inspired by the Disney movie. They were brightly-colored, revealing, and looked like they were made of silk. Lahan Naseer had light brown hair and golden eyes while Nadeen Tavay had golden hair and pink eyes.


    Finally, we were reaching the council members that weren''t part of my people. The first ones up were Dietrich and Shawn. Their familiar faces were a blessing at this moment. Dietrich''s ck hair and blue eyes that were so light they were almost white and Shawn''s mix of gray and silver. I loved the two of them so much. The new vampire was Tatia Rekjavik, and she had tinum blonde hair with pure ck eyes.


    Athair m¨®r was next, but I would need to call him Valerian Undine during these meetings. He was one of the most unique people here with his various shades of blue in his eyes and hair. The woman he brought in to join the council was Anastasia Lightly. She had pink hair and green eyes that seemed to have different petal-like flecks of blue and purple inside them.


    That was all of them, the council in its entirety.. All twenty-six people that would meet whenever the need arose, and who were now my Grand Nobles that would live in the two towers on either side of my residential tower.

 Chapter 455 - Trinity - The First Council Meeting Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 455 - Trinity - The First Council Meeting Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "I want to wee all of you to Castle Gray. Some of you have been here before, and some of you have not." I smiled at them before continuing. "However, I know that you all know the reason and purpose behind your visit today. All of you have been chosen to be the members of my council. I want to use your wisdom and advice to help our people. I don''t just mean my people either, I intend to do what I can to improve rtionships between all the supernaturalmunities and factions. I only want what is best for all of our people."


    There was still silence that met me after I spoke. It seemed that most of them had nothing to say at the moment. With a slight turn of my head, I turned to look at Dietrich to help break the ice and make them all feel morefortable. He seemed to know what it was that I wanted since he smiled, nodded ever so slightly, and stood up.


    "Thank you for that wee, Queen Trinity. I, for one, know how you have already acted toward your people, and how you truly intend to lead everyone into a much brighter future. For those of you that do not know me, I am Dietrich Conrad. Up until about a year and a half ago, I was the Vampire Emperor. After having met Queen Trinity, I have since been blessed by the Goddess of Vampires. While my authority was already there, this ascension in power came with the title of king. So now, I am King Dietrich Conrad of the Vampires."


    Dietrich paused for a moment and let the little bit of information sink in for the gathered members. They were in the presence of two kings at the moment. Three, if you really wanted to get technical, since Shawn was being called King Shawn by the other vampires. Much to Shane''s dismay they never called him the Empress or the Queen.


    "Queen Trinity is the only person I bow to, as you might have all seen. I may be a King, but she is a Queen twice over, plus I respect her more than I could ever tell you. She is a phenomenal leader who has done so much not just for her people here in Trinity Falls and Colorado Springs, but all around the country. Trinity has rescued people, offered assistance when she could, and organized different programs to help other people. She is a wonderful leader and a truly remarkable person." I felt like tearing up at Dietrich''s words, but I needed to force them back. I couldn''t cry in front of these people.


    "Dietrich is right." Athair m¨®r stood then, prompting Dietrich to take his seat. "I am Prince Valerian Undine of the Fae. I haven''t known Trinity as long as the Vampire King has, but I know that she is an amazing person. Her magic is wless and could be near limitless if the training she has been doing continues. She is a wonderful mother to her children, she cares deeply for her family, and she will not tolerate the fools who have attempted to harm her or her loved ones. I have personally seen Queen Trinity execute a would be assassin. The method was wless and perfectlyposed. I have never seen anything like it."


    Suddenly I wasn''t so happy that Athair m¨®r was speaking on my behalf. Part of me wanted tough and part of me wanted to scream at him to stop.


    "That isn''t all there is though." Trevor stood up, stopping Athair m¨®r from making any more of his speech.


    "That''s right." Landon followed him as he rose to his feet as well. "Trinity isn''t just a woman blessed by the Gods and Goddesses. No, she herself is the Goddess Incarnate. She is the current living embodiment of Nehalennia. While she herself is not the Goddess, she has gifts and abilities unlike anything that have ever been seen before."


    "Not to mention, she has the ability to share her gifts with the world. She has blessed many people with a new-found power they never had before." Trevor''s eyes were shining with brightness.


    "Power?" Nathair looked confused. "What kind of powers might those be?"


    "All different kinds, Nathair." I told him with a smile. "The abilities I have granted includebat abilities and pure magical abilities. There are people who can summon elemental weapons or use telekinesis, some others can heal with just their words or their presence, while others can tell me if someone near us is a friend or a foe."


    Thosest words of mine caused those who didn''t know me or my entourage to gasp and stop moving.


    "So, we have all been deemed trustworthy then." Analise smiled. "At least that would mean that none of us are out to harm you."


    "I am hoping that we find that none of you are out to harm each other either." I chuckled a little, hoping to convey that I was feeling light hearted and happy with the fact that the tension in the room was easing.


    "I do not think there is much to worry about." Rahim gave a soft smile. "My magic has often told me if there is someone unfriendly nearby. I feel nothing of the sort at the moment. Many of us had been stressed and worried when we arrived, but there were no enemies here. This is a safe space."


    "I am d to hear that, Rahim." Reece finally spoke up for the first time. I guess he wanted to be more than my arm candy after all. "There is much that we wish to aplish during this meeting. I am hoping we can get that done so that we aren''t called back in for multiple sessions."


    "Let us all hope that it can move that quickly." Reefughed. "That will be a first for us. The peace missions we used to be sent on would oftenst for months.. They were a little difficult to handle at times."

 Chapter 456 - Trinity - The First Council Meeting Part 3 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 456 - Trinity - The First Council Meeting Part 3 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Now that everyone seemed morefortable, we moved on to actually discussing what I expected of my people and how I wanted everyone to work together.


    I started by giving them a rundown of the newws and expectations that were listed in the documents that were handed to them by Gabriel. They all followed along in the blue leather bound folders that they were given while I exined line after line.


    * Each member of a pack, n or coven shall be respectful toward each other no matter their rank. No one can be persecuted or ridiculed just because they are a lower rank.


    I exined to them this was because of the Hidden Moon pack in California. I exined to them briefly how all the Omega boys had been beaten and abused, many of them dying as a result, just because they were supposedly Omegas. Everyone in attendance agreed that was something that should be against thew in our new kingdom, and that the punishment for those crimes should be harsh.


    "Hurting a child like that is wrong." Daciana said, as she spoke for the entire group.


    * Every High Noble in a given territory will help to govern the packs, ns, or covens that? inhabit thends that are near or ovep that territory. They will pass along information from the capitol, which is Trinity Falls, Colorado. The word of the Queen or King will be ryed to them, and they will be expected to follow those decrees. If a High Noble is ever found to be passing along false information to better suit their own needs, then they too will face harsh punishment.


    This was also something they could all agree on. After having seen for themselves the size of the castle and the vastness of our people, they knew that every Noble could not be called upon at the same time. Therefore, I needed to rely on those who would be called for the quarterly meetings. I could pass along the messages telepathically; however, I needed to delegate those types of things to my people. I needed to let them handle the work they have on their own.


    * There is to be the formation of a Royal Army. The soldiers of which are to keep peace throughout the entire Kingdom. They will be trained at the castle and stationed at different locations. They will not be at themand of the nobles in that territory, but the King and the Commander of the Guards. Aside from those two, they would also answer to me if the need ever arose.


    Everyone agreed with this as well. They didn''t think that it was right that anyone aside from the royals or themander would direct the army. If a dispute were to arise between two groups, the guards or army would mediate it. They would guard thends that they were sent to protect from outside threats, but they were to not take sides between two groups of supernaturals. Also, anyone from the supernatural world, even Fae and vampires, could enlist in the Royal Army.


    These were the major things that I wanted them all to know and agree with. The Other things were small, and I thought they would go over easily.


    - No executions without royal permission.


    - No attempting to usurp another pack''s territory.


    - No revealing things to the humans.


    - All crimes should be reported to the capitol.


    There werews that we would be able to think of and addter. For now though, this was a good ce to start. And I was d that all the members of the council seemed to be in agreement and approved of these items.


    "Is there anything else that we need to discuss at this time?" I asked them as the meeting seemed to being to a close.


    "Who is it that will bemanding and leading the Army?" Trevor asked. "Who will be responsible for training them and maintaining the order of their ranks?"


    "And where will the army stay when they are here? Will they be in the castle or a separate barracks?" Landon added to the initial question.


    "Hmm." I thought about this for a moment. "I would not be opposed to having Paul take on the role of the Commander, as well as the lead trainer. He has been training our new recruits for almost two years now, and we have had the best new guards and enforcers under his tutge. He is good at strategizing even though he doesn''t seem like it to most people. However, I think he will need some assistance with that as well."


    I could see the look in the eyes of the two men that had brought this up. They were both strong and capable men who led their own packs; though their packs shared territory with ournds so they were close enough to us as well.


    "What do you two say about being generals in the Royal Army?"


    "Could we call them the knights?" Trevor grinned at me, gave me a wink, and I saw the excitement in his eyes.


    "Ooh, that sounds awesome. Yes, the knights of the Royal Guard, and we will be the Generals."


    "Then let it be so." I nodded at them and they high fived in victory.


    "With this session of the Peace Councilpleted, we thank you for your assistance and time." Gabriel nodded at them all. "My Queen."


    Gabriel pulled my chair back for me and then pulled Reece''s back for him. After Reece took my hand, he led me from the room and guided me to the elevator so that we could go up to our home and spend time with our children. I was doing so much worktely that I found myself missing the days when we were together a lot more. I missed my hugs and kisses from my little babies. But I did like the bright smiles they gave me when I came back home after these long days.. There is nothing like the joy on a baby''s face."

 Chapter 457 - Trevor - The First Council Meeting Part 4 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 457 - Trevor - The First Council Meeting Part 4 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trevor


    ~~


    Landon and I were still riding high after Trinity had named us generals of the knights. That was fucking cool, and I don''t care what anyone else says about it.


    Right now though, we were watching as Reece led Trinity out of the room. Before he left though, he had turned and nodded in my direction. He and I had talked about this before the meeting, and he wanted me to talk to the others about it as well. This was my chance to step up before the council with the approval of the King himself.


    Dammit, that felt fucking weird as hell to think about; fucking Reece Gray, that kid that annoyed me until we became friends and eventually as close as brothers, he was now a fucking King. That was so fucking trippy.


    I tried not to think about it though. I had other things to worry about right now. I needed to bring something important up to the rest of the council.


    "May I have your attention please?" I called out to the room just seconds after the door had closed.


    "What''s up?" Riley looked at me confused. Landon didn''t even know what was going on. This was happening because I wanted to do something, and Reece wholeheartedly approved of it.


    "Recently Reece, or should I say King Reece, and I were talking and we came up with an idea that we want to implement. There have been some things that happened since Trinity was named the Queen. I don''t know about the rest of you, but I want to protect her."


    "What do you have in mind?" Shawn asked me. He was the only one of her people that was still in the room with us since Noah and Vincent had left with the others as well.


    "Do you remember the poisoning attempt at the Fae castle?" I asked, ncing at Valerian as I said that. He was family to Trinity, and from what I heard already, very devoted to his family.


    "Yes, I remember it." Shawn nodded.


    "As do I." Dietrich looked at me with serious eyes.


    "It was not pleasant." Valerian shuddered. "I almost lost my great great great granddaughter that day."


    "It was truly unexpected to see that." Anastasia added.


    "That is something we never want to see again. But it goes beyond that. There was a time that someone targeted the twins at the mall. They didn''t know who they were, but what if someone who does know goes after them? There is much need for another form of guard."


    There was silence in the room as the other twenty-five people in there all looked at me with intense gazes.


    "Right now, there are already personal guards that the Queen has. Most of them are very capable, but there are a few that Reece would like to have trained better. I am guessing that they will be put through whatever training the new Royal Knights will go through. We are not talking about eliminating those guards at all. We just simply want to supplement it."


    "Supplement it how?" The Djinn, Rahim, asked with an interested voice.


    "Well, we want to form a council guard or Queen guard. It will consist of members of the council that are more than capable of stepping in to assist the other guards, but can also move about more freely and gain intel. This will be a recon and defend squad. We will be focusing on making sure that enemies are identified before they get too close, and we will also make sure? no one even gets the chance to get too close."


    OK, my exnation may not have been the greatest, but I think they were getting the gist of it all.


    "So you are looking for volunteers among us?" Nathair asked with an excited smile.


    "Precisely." I nodded and grinned at him.


    "You can count me in." Nathair stood immediately.


    "And me." Rahim was the next to rise.


    "I''m in." Landon jumped to his feet.


    "Reece and Trinity are family to me so of course I will protect them." Riley stood next.


    "I too want to help the Queen." Daciana rose next.


    "I will help the Queen." Arno stood alongside the others.


    "You can count on me as well. I will assist the Queen and King. I will protect them and their family." Ronwin''s voice was deep and filled with resolve.


    "We would like to help, but we have missions toplete for our n." Reef lowered his head.


    "We are sorry." Analise lowered her head as well.


    "Do not be sorry. This is not a mandatory thing. We are looking for volunteers."


    "Shawn and I are already considered part of her guard. Him because that was where he started, me because I choose to be. Though we will certainly aid you in your endeavors as well." Dietrich smiled at me.


    "I will always be there to help Trinity." Valerian stood with a determined look.


    "I will lend my assistance as well. Having two allies on this council for the Fae will definitely help you."


    "Dietrich? Do you truly consider this Queen Trinity to be that worthy of our help?" Tatia asked him with an uninterested look.


    "I do, Tatia. She is more special than you know. I know that great things wille from her."


    "Hmm. If you say that she is worth my time, then I too will lend her my assistance." Tatia''s Russian ent was giving that ''I don''t care'' attitude of hers a more biting edge.


    "You will need to take this seriously, Tatia." Dietrich seemed to be warning her.


    "Oh my, King Dietrich, are you saying I am incapable of taking something serious? I am offended."


    "I was just making sure you were prepared." Dietrichughed. "It is good to have you on board."


    Before long, we had a little more than two thirds of the group on board with us. We were going to be working together to protect Trinity at all times. I never wanted to see Reece end up like his mom had. Losing the one you love can destroy you; that would be hard on anyone, but I knew that deep down, Reece was a lot more sensitive than most people knew.. I will protect him by protecting Trinity, and vice versa.

 Chapter 458 - Reece - The Queen’s Birthday Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 458 - Reece - The Queen¡¯s Birthday Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Now that we had sessfully finished our first ever Peace Council meeting, we could focus on other things. I am not going to say that our work was done, but the business of it all would lessen. The main reason that things were so busy for this past month was because we had needed to appoint noble titles, select council members, and hold meeting after meeting.


    There was a lot that had to be done, and we had worked nonstop throughout the entire month since the day that the castle had been constructed. It had taken us over three weeks to do it all with near constant work every single one of those days. It was worth it though. To have it all done and out of the way, that was the best possible thing that we could do.


    There were other minor things that we needed to take care of. Building and staffing the barracks. Calling in recruits from all over the world that would train here. Staffing the daycare center and getting that up and running. Finalizing the school and other infrastructure in the city that we had built. There was a lot, but we would get to all of it now that the first portion of business was done and over with.


    Now though, we had to focus on other things. Tomorrow was my Little Bunny''s twenty-first birthday. She didn''t want a party, but that wasn''t really an option when you''re a Queen. Your people want to celebrate you, and that is just a simple fact of our new life.


    One plus side of all of this was that her birthday was on a Saturday so we could host it and not have to worry about it. The actual ''party'' was a banquet dinner and ball. The High Nobles were invited as were several of the Central and Anciry Nobles. Not everyone wasing, of course, since we couldn''t house them all. The Grand Nobles were already here for the meeting so they didn''t need to travel to make it. The others were on their way and would be arriving throughout the day.


    Tonight though, the day before the whole party, I wanted to celebrate with my wife, just the two of us. We were taking the day off from working at all. There were to be no interruptions for us until tomorrow afternoon.


    During the entire morning and afternoon today we were going to spend time with Reagan and Rika. They were the most important things in our lives, aside from each other, and I just knew that Trinity wanted to be with them. Not to mention, she didn''t know about my ns for tonight.


    Our family and all those close to us were going to be here with us for part of the day to celebrate Little Bunny''s birthday: Mom, Eve, Wesley, Noah, Nikki, Elias, Carter, Emmalee, CJ, Samuel, Valerian, Juniper, Paul, Rowan, na, Shawn, Dietrich, Alexandria, Alyssa, Levi, and Luka, Shane, Falena, Kaiden, David, Rawlynne, Kaede, Vincent, Heather, Conner, Renea, Faith, Tyler, Charlotte, Gabriel, Roisin, Bryce, Bree, Riley, Katie, Roan, and Alexia, Landon, and Trevor.


    It was quite the guest list, a lot of people that we had collected over the years. A few of those people will be ''working'' technically, but they will also be part of the party as well. They all loved and wanted to celebrate with us because of everything that we had been through together.


    I had bought Trinity a new dress for today, not one of the Queen dresses as she called them, just a regr dress. It was a casual style with a v-neck and slightly longer sleeves since it was winter. The dress itself shifted colors from solid ck at the top to having different stars and fading down until it was white on the bottom. It was pretty, at least I thought so. And Trinity was wearing it so it must be at least a little pretty.


    When Trinity came down to the party in her new dress, Rika ran to her first. As soon as Reagan saw her, he also ran to her.


    "Mama pree, Mama pree dress." Rika was telling her mommy that she was pretty in her dress, and I saw my Little Bunny''s face light up.


    "Thank you, sweetheart." She kissed Rika''s cheek.


    "Mama." Reagan screamed when he got to her side. "Mama hug."


    "Of course, Reagan. Mommy will always have hugs for you."


    I watched then as my beautiful wife picked up both of our babies in her arms. They loved it when they were held together because they would hold hands when they were like that, still hugging the person back, but holding hands with each other nheless. They were such loving babies.


    When everyone had arrived, and the party officially started up in the Royal Tower, it was just like how things used to be. We talked and joked about normal things that people do. We had fun watching all the kids ying together, even the youngest among them were seven months old and were active and curious about everything.


    There was good food, excellent conversation, and music ying. Today had been the first time that I had seen my Little Bunny this rxed since before we went to the Faepound. Not that she had been stressed or upset, nothing like that. It was just that my Little Bunny had been so busy being the Queen and hadn''t been spending any time just being herself. I knew first hand how hard that could be, but it was on a smaller scale. Not that I was a Queen, nope nothing like that. For me it was being the Alpha and needing to stay in character during certain times. Still, at least we had times like these.


    The partysted untilte in the afternoon. No one truly wanted to leave, most of all Trinity. However, I had other ns for her, and it was time to get going.


    "Bye my babies. Mommy loves you.." My Little Bunny hugged and kissed Reagan and Rika before we left together.

 Chapter 459 - Reece - The Queen’s Birthday Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 459 - Reece - The Queen¡¯s Birthday Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I took Trinity by the hand and led her down to the main floor. We didn''t leave through the front door of the castle, instead we went into the garage that was dedicated to our personal vehicles and those of our friends and family.


    Trinity was looking around at all of the cars that I owned and passed by. We weren''t taking any of those though. We passed the Mustang, the Ferrari, the SUVs, the BMW, all of them. I took her to the Jeep that I had bought for her for our first Christmas together.


    "The Jeep?" She looked at me with confusion in her eyes.


    "It will serve the purposes well." I smiled at her. "It''s been modified."


    "OK, whatever that means." She rolled her eyes with a smile on her lips. "I take it you''re driving, since I don''t know where we''re going."


    "Yup." I opened the passenger side door for her to get in. "Mydy." I held a hand out for her so that I could help her up.


    "What a gentleman." The way she batted her eyes and moved told me that she definitely thought this was a joke. Nope, it was all real. She was mydy of course. More so than she was anyone else''s.


    After we were strapped into the Jeep, we started off. The thing was when we were past the inner gate of the castle I turned toward the trees and the mountain. I was heading further back into our property.


    "What the hell?" My very surprised wife asked me as she bounced around in her seat. "Reece? Where are we going?"


    "You will see." I winked at her as I followed the trail that had been set for us.


    It was a little bumpy, that was for sure, but it wasn''t anything that we couldn''t handle. When I hade out here with Valerian to prepare this, we had made sure that the Jeep could make it through this terrain. That had of course been while my Little Bunny was busy having other meetings. I had prepared all of this ahead of time.


    "Reece, what are you doing? There is nothing out here. There''s never been anything out here." She was still doubting me as I drove along the slightly sloped ground. We were climbing higher and higher as we made our way to the ce that I was going to surprise her with.


    The Jeep was capable of making the trek, I knew that, but I also didn''t want to push the limits too much by driving too fast. This could get dangerous if I wasn''t careful.


    Not that it mattered all that much. Trinity had magic and could probably just drive us up to where we were going. I could have just shifted and ran up the mountain with her on my back. There were so many options that we had but this was what I chose because it was the least amount of effort needed on my Little Bunny''s part. I wanted to do this for her. Not to mention it was fun.


    That exhrating feeling you get when the vehicle tips just a little, that adrenaline rushing through your body, it was all quite amazing. And despite the wondering look that was in my Little Bunny''s eyes, she was showing how excited she was. This drive was a little bit like a personal roller coaster ride for us.


    Finally, after more than twenty minutes of driving, we could see the ce in the distance. It was arge cabin that we could retreat to. I hade out here with Valerianst week and built it with him and his magic.


    The cabin was for me, Trinity, Reagan, Rika, and any future kids. It was our private retreat if things ever got too much for us, and we needed a break. There were seven bedrooms, four bathrooms, and lots of personal space. The master suite was fully loaded with every luxury amenity I could think to add for us. I wanted it to be our own private utopia.


    "Oh my Goddess. Reece? What is all this?" She wasn''t able to believe what it was that she was seeing right now.


    "This is your birthday present. This is a ce we can be alone, just the two of us. Or we cane here with the kids when we want to get away. It''s still on the property but it''s remote, very remote, and it''s away from everyone in the castle."


    "Reece?" She looked like she was about to cry. "I love it. It''s so amazing. Thank you."


    "You haven''t even seen the inside of it yet." Iughed with her.


    "I don''t even have to, I already know it''s going to be amazing."


    She leaned over then and kissed my cheek.


    "Thank you." The smile on her face was all worth it. She was the one I was trying to please here, and seeing that face she was making just made me fall in love with her all over again.


    When we finally pulled up outside of the cabin, I walked around and opened the car door for my wife. I pulled her to me and held her in my arms until we were inside.


    "You know, I could have walked." She grinned at me.


    "I know, but I like holding you against me. Is that so bad?"


    "No, I guess not."


    I showed her around the ce that we were going to be staying, especially the bedroom and bathroom that were meant just for us. I loved the fact that she was smiling broadly the entire time.


    I had already sent luggage over here for us so there was nothing else to bring in or do at all. We just needed to enjoy ourselves, alone, all night. I had some very good ns for us. The first of which was trying out the tub, then the bed, and we could work out wherever else I decided to take her after that.


    So after the tour was over, I carried her right into the bathroom and started to fill the tub.

 Chapter 460 - Reece - The Queen’s Birthday Part 3 (MATURE) ((VOLUME 3))

    <h4>Chapter 460 - Reece - The Queen¡¯s Birthday Part 3 (MATURE) ((VOLUME 3))</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    While the tub filled with water, I turned to my wife.


    "Hmm, I see you had a certain n in ce before you brought me here. Is this one of those kidnapped by a mountain man scenarios? Am I supposed to be your love ve while we''re here? Do you want me to scream for help so that it can arouse you more?" My Little Bunny was full of jokes at the moment.


    "Oh, you will be screaming, baby, but it won''t be for help." I purred the words at her while I unbuttoned the back of her dress.


    "Ooh, do you promise?" She seemed to shudder in excitement as she asked me that. "I really would like for you to make me scream. I wonder how long you can make me scream."


    "All night long, and into the morning if you want, Little Bunny. I will give you as much as you want."


    After that I pulled her toward me and pressed my lips to hers. I had been dying to kiss her like this all day. Hell, I had been dying to do this all month. We had been so busy since we got back that we hadn''t been intimate at all. We were working all day and exhausted by the time night came so we hadn''te together since we were at the Faepound.


    Just feeling her, touching her like this, that was the ultimate high for me. I had needed her, needed this. I swear I even groaned in pleasure just from the kiss itself.


    I don''t remember the whole process of stripping her out of her clothes and getting me out of mine, but before I knew it we were in the tub, naked, and I was settling my sexy wife on top of myp.


    "Oh Goddess, Reece, I''ve needed you so bad." Those words, spoken in that tone of voice while she pressed her body against me, it was enough to drive me wild.


    "If you keep talking like that I will lose control too soon, and I won''t be able to please you as much." I could already feel myself growing harder and throbbing with need for her.


    "Are you saying that you can''t please me all on your own?" Her voice was seductive and full of challenge.


    "I could, but this is supposed to be your birthday present from me. Aren''t I supposed to be giving you everything?"


    "As long as I have you, Reece, I will have everything."


    Oh man, the way she was when she was turned on like this; it was so fucking hot.


    "Trinity." I growled her name, both begging her to stop and to keep going. I needed her so bad, but I wanted to make her happy first.


    ""Reece." Her mouth was right by my ear when she said my name, and I could feel the way that her lips moved as she called for me. "What do you want, Reece?"


    "I..I..I want whatever you want." I could barely get the words out as I was struggling for control. I was fighting myself to stop me from pulling her up and mming her down onto my cock so fast that she didn''t even know what happened to her.


    "That''s good, because what I want, Reece..." she paused for a moment and shifted herself until she was sitting up on her knees and holding herself up with her arms around my neck, "...Is you." Once she finished what she was saying, she pushed herself down onto me.


    Her body enveloped me like she was the sheath to my sword. It was a perfect fit that always squeezed me just tight enough to drive me wild.


    She wasn''t able to get herself down all the way without my help, but I wasn''t going to leave her stranded. If this was what she wanted, then I wasn''t going to disappoint her.


    "Ahh!" She cried out when I pulled her down and pushed myself to her innermost depths.


    "Oh Goddess, Trinity, thank you. Thank you." I just repeated my words over and over, thanking her for giving me what I needed, what I wanted.


    "Just shut up and fuck me already, Reece. I need you, now." She was just as breathless as I was as she started to rock her hips above me.


    "Yes, my love." I grinned and gripped her hips.


    I lifted her up and pulled her down with a biting force that still mmed me into her even with the resistance from the water.


    "NGH!" She moaned in pleasure already, but it wasn''t enough.


    I was trying my best to set the rhythm for us. Lifting her, mming her down, and hearing her cries of pleasure. It was going well enough, but it wasn''t what I wanted. The water gave too much resistance for me to work the way that I wanted to, and then there was the fact that it was sloshing all over the ce. We were unable to get what it was that we wanted from each other.


    "R..R..R..Reece." She panted my name as she fought to speak.


    "Hah...hah...hah...T..T..Trinity." I panted still, mostly from the effort of moving her so hard through the water.


    "I..I...I need m..m..more. I..i..i..it''s not e..e...e..enough."


    "I..I know." I could hear the frustration in her voice when she begged me for more. "I..I know."


    I had to do something. I had to fix this. But I didn''t want to leave her, not for a second.


    So, why should I leave her. I wrapped my hands around her ass and held her against me, holding her still. She still tried to move and rock her hips, but I wouldn''t let her. Instead I was standing and lifting us from the water.


    I didn''t bother with a towel at all.. We could take care of thingster, if we wanted to.

 Chapter 461 - Reece - The Queen’s Birthday Part 4 (MATURE) ((VOLUME 3))

    <h4>Chapter 461 - Reece - The Queen¡¯s Birthday Part 4 (MATURE) ((VOLUME 3))</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Once I was in the bedroom I made a beeline for the bed. With my sexy little wife still pressed against me and begging me to please her, I climbed up onto the mattress and into the middle of the massive bed.


    "Reece?" There was desire, need, impatience, and greed all filling Trinity''s voice at that moment. Man, I needed to hear her scream for me. It had been so long since she screamed under me.


    "Trinity." I said her name as I dropped her onto the pillow. "Scream for me baby. Scream your pleasure into the night." I realized I was being crude and stupid at the moment, but I didn''t care, and apparently neither did she.


    "Oh Goddess, Reece, I need you."


    "I''m here, baby." I grabbed her hips as I pulled back. "I''m here." With that, I mmed myself into her, and she moaned in pleasure.


    The moan was nice, but I wanted her to scream. I wanted her to lose herselfpletely and just start screaming wordless sounds. I was going to need to put my all into this.


    This time when I pulled back, I pulled all the way. That got me a whimper and a whine from my wife, but I shushed her quickly and pulled her toward me.


    "It''s OK, baby, just trust me." She was beyond speaking at the moment so she just nodded at me.


    After I kissed her nose quickly, I turned her around. However I didn''t push her down on the bed; no, we''ve done that. This time I wanted something new, something different. Instead I pushed her against the headboard, wrapping her fingers around the top of it so that she was holding herself up.


    "Reece?" She looked over her shoulder and called for me.


    "Goddess, Trinity, do you even know how gorgeous you are? Or how delicious you look?"


    I needed to taste her, but I also needed to be in her. It was so hard for me to just make up my mind for a moment, but when I caught sight of her glistening, needy eyes, I knew what I needed to do


    I growled and moved myself up behind her. I satisfied my desire for taste quickly as I licked a long slow line from the small of her back up to the nape of her neck. Once I was raised fully again I positioned myself at her opening and slid in immediately. It was like going home after being gone for a long time. We both rejoiced in the feeling of me sliding inside of? her.


    "AH! Reece!" She called out my name again, but it still wasn''t enough for me.


    I started to pull out and m into her harder and faster than I have in a long time. I needed to do this in an almost primal, animalistic way. And what would be more animalistic than sinking my teeth into her flesh.


    After elongating my teeth just a little, I did as I wanted and bit down on her right at her mate mark. That was the first time she truly screamed for me tonight.


    "AHHH!" That pleasure-filled sound was so exciting. I needed more.


    Without releasing my teeth from her, I started to increase the rhythm as much as I could. In and out, in and out. I mmed into her over and over again. My dick tightened and throbbed with every scream that she gave me. And still, I didn''t take my teeth out of her mate mark.


    I could taste her vor growing stronger and stronger. Her arousal, her blood, the taste of her skin, it was all pouring into my mouth and adding to the frenzy that hade over me.


    I needed to feel more of her, to please her more and in return please myself. The only way that I could think to do that was to get closer to her. I wrapped my hands around hers where they were on the headboard. I pressed my chest against her back, and all of that helped me to slide just a little deeper with each thrust that I mmed into her.


    Oh Goddess, this was amazing. I could even feel the magic moving between us like it did when we marked each other. Damn was that a good feeling! The power was moving from my mouth into her shoulder and then through her hands back into me. There was even an exchange of that power where my chest met her back. The heat passing through us was making it all that much more intense.


    "AHHHH! AHHHH! AHHHH! NGH! R..R..R..R..REECE!" She screamed and moaned until she finally got my name out. I couldn''t say her name with my teeth still in her mark, but I growled and flicked my tongue against the mark causing her to moan again.


    Soon, just as the power had reached a point where it was likely to burst, I was nearing my limit. I could feel my balls tighten and the tingling in my spine that told me I was just about there. Trinity''s body was spasming and tightening around me. We were going toe together. We were going to crest that peak at the same time. That was the way that I liked to do it the most.


    There was a sh of light that exploded at the exact same moment that I did. And just as the waves of orgasm washed over Trinity, I felt what could only be described as a sprinkling of rain against my face.


    I couldn''t think about it too much though. I was too exhausted. I copsed onto the bed and pulled my Little Bunny with me. Panting, I wrapped my arms around her and held her close. Once I had us positioned on the pillows properly and snuggled together I looked at the clock on the table. It was well past midnight and fast approaching morning. When the hell did it get sote. How the hell had we been here for almost nine hours already?


    Oh well, I couldn''t think about that now. I just licked the spot where I had bitten her, which was already healed, and followed my mate off to sleep.. I was exhausted now.

 Chapter 462 - Trinity - The Queen’s Birthday Part 5 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 462 - Trinity - The Queen¡¯s Birthday Part 5 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I don''t even remember falling asleepst night. Thest thing that I remembered was the intense passion that I was sharing with Reece. One moment he was inside me, and I was screaming with intense pleasure.


    Thest thing that I remembered was a bright light and a misting of rain hitting my face. However, I think that was probably part of a dream that I had. Why else would there be rain while we were inside? I know that it was an intense moment, but there is no way that there could have been rain inside the cabin.


    Yup, it was just a dream. It had to be. A dream that I was fighting to bring back as Iid there in bed with Reece''s arms wrapped tightly around me. I remembered very well the feelings that I hadst night when we both finished, and those memories were leading me to feel waves of pleasure from the shbacks.. Damn he was good. So good.


    The shbacks got to be too much for me to contain. I needed to get up. I needed to wake up and touch my husband. He was what I needed right now.


    When I opened my eyes and stretched to loosen my stiff muscles, I happened to see the clock on the table.


    "Holy shit!" I sat up right in the bed and couldn''t believe what I was seeing.


    "What? What is it? What''s happening?" Reece was on his feet and ready to defend me in an instant. He was, however, naked as could be.


    "It''s nothing Reece." I tried not to giggle as I saw him ready to defend me from anything while everything that he had swung free. That was actually pretty nice to see.


    "If it''s nothing, then why did you yell?" He looked at me with worried eyes.


    "It''s noon already. I was just surprised because I don''t even know how we managed to sleep until noon."


    "Shit. Yeah, I didn''t expect it to be noon." He sat next to me on the bed. "But, in a way, that makes sense. It was like three in the morning by the time that we went to sleep." I could literally see the adrenaline leaving his body as the excitement seemed to be passing. "I guess we better start getting ready to head back. We''ve got that ball tonight. I think if you''rete getting back then E and Gina will be worried about you." He turned to smile at me, and I subconsciously ran my eyes over his entire body.


    Or I was going to move them over his whole body; however, something stopped me in my tracks and made me do a double take.


    "Uhm, Reece, what is that?" I was pointing at his chest and the mark that was there.


    "Are you referring to the gorgeous ripple of my muscles?" He said the words seductively as he moved closer, and I could see the mark more clearly.


    "No, that." I poked the mark in question now that he was closer.


    "That''s just the mark that I got from Danu." He shook his head as if I was being silly. "You were there, remember." That was when he looked down and saw what I saw. "What the hell?"


    The mark that used to be the size of a silver dor was now about as big as my clenched fist. It was quite a bit bigger, and it looked different. Instead of just being yellow and orange like the setting sun at the horizon, there was now a symbol in the middle of it.


    The symbol in the middle of the now erged circle was actually a fist as well. In truth, it was the back of a hand that was clenched, and there was a Trinity knot on the back of that hand.


    "When the hell did that change?" He asked me as I was looking at the mark.


    "I don''t know, it wasn''t like thatst night. At least, not when we started." I blushed a little as I remembered the night before; the thought had brought with it a twist of pleasure in the pit of my stomach.


    "Then what happened to make this-?" He stopped mid sentence and looked up at me. "What a minute. Do you remember a bright light and rain?" He was looking at me with serious eyes. "I thought it was just a dream but-." He trailed off without finishing what he was saying.


    "It was a dream. Wasn''t it? I..I mean, I saw the light too, and the rain was hitting my face, but that wasn''t real."


    "It had to have been. If we both saw and felt it, then it was real."


    We eyed each other for a moment before looking at the mark again.


    "The Trinity knot means power of three. Since you''re not three species, that we know of anyway, is it taken literally?"


    "What do you mean?" He tilted his head and looked at me with confusion.


    "Power of three or power times three. That mark is about three times bigger than before, right? And the fist to me means power, and the symbol means times three. I am reading that mark to mean power times three. As in your power, probably your light magic power, is now three times stronger than it was before."


    "Are you serious? But how would this have happened? There was nothing that could have caused th-." He paused again and this time he smacked himself in the head as he remembered something. "Nope, I know what caused it."


    "You bit me again." I grinned at him. "You bit me and shared my magic. So I guess we''re a little closer in the whole power lever thing now." Iughed.


    "Dammit, can''t we just have normal hot passionate sex anymore. How many times is it going to change something about us?" He wasughing as well.


    "Well, I guess we will either have to deal with the magic affecting us or stop having sex." I grinned at him, expecting the answer that I was about to get.


    "Fuck that. I can''t go without sex!" He was looking horrified. "I will take the magic. Just don''t take away my sex."


    I wasughing as I turned away from him and walked toward the bathroom. I knew he was going to say something like that, but it was still funny as hell.


    "What?" He ran after me as I tried not to let theughter get the best of me.


    "Nothing. It''s nothing at all. Come on Scruffy, let''s go take a shower." I needed to call him a dog name because he was definitely acting like a horny dog right now. Goddess, I love him.


    We hurried to get ready, then made our way back to the castle. The way back down the mountain took less time than getting up it; isn''t that how it always goes?


    Oh, and Reece was right. Gina and E were not happy with me runningte. They had be the official royal seamstresses and the unofficial Queen attendants, that was a fancy way of saying they got me ready for the ball by closing the overlyplicated clothes and they would also do my hair and makeup. Sometimes though, Nikki wanted to do the hair and make up so they would take turns, but today it was all Gina and E.

 Chapter 463 - Trinity - The Queen’s Birthday Part 6 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 463 - Trinity - The Queen¡¯s Birthday Part 6 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It took a long time to get me ready for the ball and banquet dinner that we were having tonight. And E and Gina were invited as well so they were also getting themselves ready in the process.


    "You''re making things more difficult, my Queen." E grinned at me in the mirror where I could see her working on my hair.


    "I''m sorry E, I really didn''t mean to sleep so long. And, well, we weren''t in the right mind to turn on the rm."


    "Oh, don''t worry, I get it. I''ve been there. Trust me I have had the same situation with Devon.." She blushed as she thought about it for a moment. "But now we have to rush to get you ready." She looked a little frazzled.


    "Don''t rush, do what you need to. I am the Queen. That''s what others keep telling me anyway." Iughed for a second. "Isn''t it just the way things are if they have to wait on the Queen? It is my birthday after all." I smiled at her and saw the look of realization wash over her.


    "That it is, and that you are. Why didn''t I think of that as well?" She wasughing. "We can take all the time that we need and they will just need to wait."


    "I could also do the hair and makeup with magic you know."


    "Don''t you dare." She looked so hurt when I said that. "This is my job, and I like doing this. Plus, no offense Queen Trinity, but your magical makeup doesn''t look as cute."


    "Obviously. I am not as good at doing it as you all are. The way the makeup looks after the magic is done is equal to my skill level. Even if I have an image to go off of, it will only be as good as I am with my makeup."


    The two of usughed about it for a moment while E''s fingers separated another part of my hair to be curled.


    "I guess it says a lot about your skill for your hair too." She added as she twisted the hair around the curling iron. "You''re not bad, and you''vee a long way, but when ites to special asions it''s always best to let someone else do this for you. We know how to coordinate hair, makeup, and dresses together."


    We talked a little more while she finished my hair. After that she switched ces with her mom, who worked on my makeup. Gina''s hair and makeup were already done so she was able to focus on me entirely.


    E had loosely pulled my hair back into a small and ornate diamond-encrusted hair clip. After the hair had been pulled back, she added loose curls to my hair so that it would sway beautifully when I walked. Now Gina was adding ayer of makeup that was beautifully and artfully done. The makeup was done so well and went with the dress that was hanging up perfectly. I would have thought for sure that Gina was a professional makeup artist when I saw what she had done.


    "Oh no."? E had seemed upset right as we were about to get me dressed.


    "What? Did we miss something?" Gina looked at me? trying to figure it out.


    "Yeah, we didn''t have time to get her nails done." E was looking sad since now my outfit wasn''t going to be perfect.


    "What would look best?" I asked her with a curious thought in my head. "Blue for the dress or natural looking?"


    "Blue would have been best. The same royal blue as the top of the dress."


    "Hmm." I thought about E''s words for a moment. The one thing that I had been good at doing was painting my nails. A solid color was so simple to do that I had no problem with that. And being a little bit good at art, I could do some designs as well.


    "Let me see." I spoke out loud while I thought about it. As I looked at my nails, I saw them begin to change. They got a little longer and were shaped just the way that I would have liked them. And then, after the shape was just right, the color started to change. The natural, unpainted nails started to look as if they had been airbrushed. There was a dark royal blue with an ovey of little light blue vines with tiny leaves on them. The vines matched the ones on the ball gown that I was about to put on.


    "Those look perfect." E gasped. "Yay, you could help with it." She cheered for me. That almost sounded insulting, but I know that she didn''t mean it that way.


    They put me into the dress then, tying it in the back andcing it up tight so that I had perfect posture and was just barely able to breath. The top of the dress was right there at the top of my breasts as well, showing just a little bit of the cleavage. That was fine though, I wasn''t relying on the bodice or the off the shoulder sleeves to hold the dress up; that was why it had been tied so tightly after all.


    The dress was royal blue at the top and faded just a little as it went down. At the bottom of the dress, there were hand embroidered trees that looked like they were covered in snow. They were entirely white. And there was lighter blue, white, and gold leaves on the vines that went from the bodice down to the full skirt.


    It looked amazing, it really did. E and Gina had out done themselves with it.


    Now that I was in the dress, I needed to finish the look with a pair of ck strappy heels that weren''t even going to be seen since the dress would just barely be off the floor when I walked.


    Reece was let in after that, he liked to be in charge of putting on my essories; mostly because it allowed him to touch me. He had brought several pieces in with him that he was intending to have me wear, including my crown.


    I was given a pair of diamond and sapphire twisted hoop earrings for the bottom hole in my ears, they were done in an ombre pattern so that the color went from light to dark like the wisteria flowers we had at our wedding. There was another pair of hoops for the second hole in my lobes, they were sapphire and vani gold as well, only they were in a traditional hoop shape with the gems alternating around them. There was a ne that matched the earrings dangling from my neck with the pendant just above my breasts. All the pieces went well together and with my crown.


    "Reece, where did thesee from?" I asked him with awe.


    "They''re for your birthday. Aren''t they beautiful?" He grinned at me.


    "Yes, they are." He kissed my cheek and then took my hand.


    "Though they''re nowhere near as beautiful as you are." He made me blush when he said stuff like that.


    "Oh stop it, Reece." He grinned at that like it was the natural response to my embarrassment.


    "Come with me, my Queen. It is time to greet our guests." He led me from the room then, and I felt my heart racing for the first time today. This was the first ball that I was hosting for my people. Ugh, why was it so nerve wracking?

 Chapter 464 - Trinity - The Queen’s Birthday Part 7 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 464 - Trinity - The Queen¡¯s Birthday Part 7 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Tonight was the banquet and ball for my birthday. We were, of course, hosting this ''party'' in the grand ballroom. I mean, where else were we supposed to host a ball than the ballroom? And the fact that we were going to have so many people in attendance meant that we needed to use thergest room possible.


    As Reece led me down to the main floor of the castle, I felt the nerves intensifying within me with each step. We were walking in silence as we went through the halls. Gabriel, Vincent, Noah, Shane, Shawn, and David all took their ces around us when we were out of the Royal tower; they had moved in silently and were doing their jobs the way that they should be. I truly did love each of them. They were all family to me; of course Noah was, but the others were now as well.


    When we made it to the door of the ballroom Gabriel entered first. This door wasn''t the main entrance that the others entered though; it was the entrance that led straight to the raised tform that I would be having my dinner on with those that were part of my family.. There were two tforms at an angle next to the one that I would be on that would hold the Grand Nobles. The rest of the guests and nobles would be sitting throughout the ballroom on either side of the dance floor.


    While we waited, I heard Gabriel''s voice ring out through the entire ballroom.


    "Wee guests. We are delighted that you are here with us to celebrate Queen Trinity''s birthday. We appreciate all of youing to join us in this celebration. And now, without further ado, may I present to you, our Queen."


    At those words, Vincent and Noah opened the door, and Shane and Shawn led us into the room. Once we were inside, they spread out to the side to nk me, and the others came up behind us so that the five of them were in a semi-circle and ready to guard us.


    Reece still held onto my hand as he led me to my chair. Gabriel pulled the seat out for me then did the same for Reece. Reece was sitting on my right side, and to my left was Rika. Likewise, on the other side of Reece was Regan. The two little ones were sitting in what could only be described at miniature thrones. These thrones were in fact high chairs that would help the babies to sit properly for the meal. They were also ornately carved and covered in jewels. They were simr in fashion to the throne-like chairs that Reece and I were currently sitting in.


    Only after I sat, did those in the hall actually take their seats. They had all bowed to me when I entered and stayed that way until I had swept the crowd with a look.


    "You may rise." I had told them before they took their seats.


    The sound of them all moving at once was something that I was not used to yet. The moving of so many feet, and the scraping of so many chairs at the same time, it was a little unnerving to be honest.


    Once they were all seated, I addressed them as well, which was expected of me as the Queen.


    "Good evening." I smiled at some of the faces that I recognized among the crowd. None of my family was out there because they were sitting with me at the table. I turned my head to look at them as they watched me. "Thank you all for taking the time out of your busy lives to join us here this evening." Even though I would have preferred something a little smaller; I added that part in my head just so that I could let out some of my frustrations. "This is a special day for me, and I am happy to see that so many of my people see it as such as well. Now, I will not take up too much more of your time; let us begin the festivities for the night with the banquet."


    The food was brought out next. It was first delivered to me and then Reece, Reagan and Rika. From there, the food was taken to my family that was sitting around us. I was the one who needed to start the banquet and so I needed to eat first. Thankfully, this food had been prepared by Abigail personally so I didn''t need to worry about poison. And Roisin was attending my table herself so there was nothing to worry about there either. With that in mind, I took the first sip of the soup that was the starting course.


    About halfway through, the meal Gabriel came to me with a strange message.


    "Queen Trinity, E needs to speak with you. There is a bit of a situation."


    "What sort of situation?" I was worried that something might have happened and scanned the crowd for where Devon and Gina were currently sitting. E, of course, wasn''t with them. They didn''t look like something was wrong, just like there was something off.


    "It seems that you are getting a call." Gabriel looked like that wasn''t just all it was.


    "What kind of call?" I raised an eyebrow as I looked at him.


    "I will let E exin that to you." He grinned like he thought it was funny.


    Gabriel gestured E forward, and I could see a panicked look on her face.


    "What is it, E?" I asked her, worried about her.


    "W..well, I was sitting at the table over there. I brought with me things to take care of your hair and makeup just in case, and w..w..well, uhm, y..your mirror started ringing."


    I saw that she was holding the small, silver hand mirror that came with the new castle, courtesy of Athair m¨®r. The mirror was in fact vibrating slightly, and there was the soft sound of chiming bellsing from the mirror.


    "Thank you, E. That will most likely be a call from Queen Gloriana." I smiled at her.


    "Really? A call on the mirror?" She looked surprised at the thought, and of course relieved that she wasn''t losing her mind.


    "I will take this now; you may return your seat."


    After she nodded her head and ran off back to her seat, I threw up a sound blocking shield over myself, Reece, the twins, and Gabriel since he was right behind me.


    "Hello Aunt Glory." I smiled into the mirror. "I am so sorry that it took me such a long time to answer your call. We are in the middle of a banquet at the moment."


    "Oh I know. I wanted to be there. I had ns to leave this morning to be there in time; however, something came up." I could see exhaustion in her eyes and some not so pleasant emotions as well.


    "I hope you''re alright." I was worried about her, and the message that Danu had given me. Could this be it? Or the start of it?


    "Just some people causing trouble. It''s nothing for you to worry about. I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday, Trinity. You''re my niece, but you''re my friend first and foremost."


    "Thank you, Glory." I smiled at her, happy to have had this chance to talk to her.


    "I have to go now. I am still busy, but I wanted to call before it got toote. I love you all,and please tell everyone hi for me."


    "I will."


    The image in the mirror changed in an instant, I was looking at myself instead of Aunt Glory.


    "Hmm, that doesn''t sound like a good thing." Reece was thinking along the same lines that I was.


    "I will have Roisin ask her family what is going on in the courts. And I am sure that Valerian could get some information for us as well." Gabriel was always so efficient. He was already formting ns that would help us get more information and help if it was needed at this time. We needed to stay vignt when it came to Gloriana and the Faepound. I couldn''t let my guard slip at all. And this was definitely going to require me to speak with Athair m¨®rter.

 Chapter 465 - Reece - The Queen’s Birthday Part 8 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 465 - Reece - The Queen¡¯s Birthday Part 8 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I know that the call from Gloriana had put my Little Bunny on edge. She was worried about what was about to happen, and if this was the foreseen battle already preparing to start. I was right there with her, worrying about it. But until we knew for sure, there was nothing we could do.


    "Let us not focus on that too much." I took her hand, still wrapped in the silence of her shields. "Until we know for sure there is no reason to panic. This could just be something that happened in the court and not the enemy that we''re waiting for.


    "Yes, I know." She looked at me while I held her hand and smiled at me.. "I will do my best."


    "Mama?" Rika, who seemed to be sensitive to emotions, called out to her. "Mama sad?"


    "No Rika, Mommy is not sad." Little Bunny turned then and kissed our little girl on the head. "Mommy is just thinking, that''s all."


    "Mama smile." Rika grinned when she saw Trinity''s face now.


    "Yup. See, Mommy isn''t sad. How can I be? You and Reagan are both here with me."


    "Mama." Reagan leaned forward to see her now after she mentioned him.


    "Mommy loves you both so much."


    It was a sweet and tender family moment, and I was d it was just for us, or mostly us. Gabriel was there, but he was family now too.


    After that, my Little Bunny dropped the shield, and Gabriel went back to his ce behind us. We were able to get the banquet and ball back on track. The meal concluded not long after that.


    I took Trinity''s hand and helped her to her feet then while there was arge, covered cart wheeled to the front of the stage. We each picked up one of the twins and walked to where the cart was.


    "Queen Trinity," Abigail began in a loud, happy voice, "may I present to you your birthday cake that we worked so hard on." With that Abigail lifted the cover from the cart with the help of Bethany and Vi, two new members of the kitchen staff.


    The cake was beautiful, and huge. It was twenty-oneyers tall, I counted them. The icing was done in different blues, silver, and white. There were symbols that represented Trinity all over it, from the Trinity Knot to the three Goddess symbol, and even vines for the Fae. The entire thing was beautiful and borately designed.


    "It''s wonderful." My Little Bunny smiled. "Don''t you think so, Rika." Trinity asked the toddler in her arms.


    "Cake! Mama me wan cake."


    "Ooh! Cake! Dada, me get cake?" Reagan was also wanting the cake first.


    "Let Mommy blow out her candles first, then your L and Nona will take you upstairs to eat cake." I calmed the boy in my arms. "Want to see Daddy light the candles?" I asked him and his eyes lit up while he nodded furiously.


    I had gotten so used to my fire magic over the years that I could light the twenty-one small candles and therge decorative candles at the top all at the same time. I snapped my fingers and immediately all the candles were glowing brightly, everyone in the room had their eyes on us and pped when they saw that little disy. Most of them never saw me use my magic either.


    What followed that was a very long process of singing to my Little Bunny. The only ones that I cared about were Reagan and Rika as they tried to sing the words with everyone else. Their attempt was so cute.


    Trinity and I handed the babies off to our moms and Roisin and Abigail gathered cake for them to take upstairs. They had offered to leave the party early so that the twins weren''t down here all night. They needed to get their rest since they were so young. In fact, Shawn''s mom and dad weren''t even here because they were watching their five young grandchildren as well.


    Trinity and I didn''t want the cake right away, so we were opening the ball part of the evening. I took her hand and went to the part of the dancefloor that had been magically blocked off from the others. Only those with permission were allowed to enter that space. That was to protect the Queen, of course.


    I danced with her first, and I would also dance with herst. This time, I didn''t need to worry about who else danced with her, and it also let me go and have some private conversations while she continued to dance with some of the others.


    I twirled her around the dance floor expertly. In that moment, it was just the two of us. There was no one and nothing else. It was just me dancing with my wife at her birthday party. I was also quite aware of how the dress she was wearing showed off so many parts of her body.


    Her breasts looked amazing even though I could only see the top of them. The marks on her chest, shoulers, neck, and back were in full disy and glowed in the light. And the way that her neck kept shing at me reminded me of the night before, and the way that I had bitten her again. My mouth watered and I desperately wanted to sink my teeth into her again. She tasted so delicious that I couldn''t help it.


    After I was done with my dance, Wesley came up to dance next. He was her Dad for all intents and purposes, and he wanted to dance with his daughter. After I handed my wife over to him, I left the dancefloor and went in search of Valerian. I needed to tell him about what had happened with Gloriana. I knew that he would want to check on his sister soon. He was a man who was fiercely devoted to his family after all. There was no way in hell that he was going to let this incident slide without finding out what happened.

 Chapter 466 - Trinity - The Queen’s Birthday Part 9 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 466 - Trinity - The Queen¡¯s Birthday Part 9 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "May I have this dance, your majesty?" Dad asked me when the music for my dance with Reece ended.


    "I would be honored to dance with you, good sir." I yed along with him.


    "Then I will take my leave." Reece kissed the back of my hand before sliding it into Dad''s hand. "I will be back for our next dance soon, my love."


    "See you soon."


    I already knew that I was going to be dancing with quite a few preselected guests while Reece made his rounds.. It was a good way to keep me protected and upied so none of the other random people at the party tried to dance with me.


    "You look beautiful tonight." Dad smiled at me. "And I just can''t believe that you''re already twenty-one." Dad was looking at me with slightly misty and nostalgia filled eyes. "I have to wonder where all the time has gone."


    "It passed right before your eyes, just like it''s going to be with the twins." I gave him the same look as I thought about how quickly this past thirteen months had passed with my own little ones around.


    "It really is sad, isn''t it? To see your baby growing up right before your eyes."


    Dad was dancing perfectly, spinning me around the dance floor, but he was also looking like he was about to cry. He was sad, and I knew why.


    "I know Dad, I know." I hugged him close to me and rested my head on his chest while we danced. I had to work hard not to cry right now. If I did, E and Gina would yell at me about my makeup. "I love you." I whispered the words, but he heard me as well.


    "I love you too." He squeezed me back as he said it. After that we didn''t say anything; we just danced together silently until the song was over.


    The next to dance with me was Grandfather. He always looked at me with a serious look, but this time when he took my hand it reminded me of my wedding day. It was the same sort of emotional look. He, just like Dad, was on the verge of tears.


    "It took several years longer, but I am having those moments that every father looks forward to." He smiled at me despite the sorrow in his eyes.


    "What are you talking about, Grandfather?" I was confused by his words.


    "Watching you grow up, I''ve gotten to see all the things that I missed with your mother. Watching you get married, having a family, seeing your twenty-first birthday and everything else toe. I never got them with Lily. I am not saying you''re her recement since you''repletely different people. No, that''s not it at all. What you are, Trinity, is my second chance at life."


    "Grandfather?" I nearly cried from his words as well. "Why would you need a second chance at life?"


    "Because that day that your mother was taken from me, I died. Not physically, but emotionally. It took me a long time toe back to life, and it was mostly thanks to you. You were my new lease on life. That''s why I poured my everything into you. And now, I also have your little ones to watch over. I will make sure that I do my best by you and them."


    "I know you will."


    I hugged him just like I did with Dad, and he held me close while I rested my head on his chest. This was two very emotional dances in a row. What were they trying to do to me? The next one, I was handed off to was Athair m¨°r.


    "Queen Trinity, may I have the pleasure of being your next dance partner."


    "Why, Prince Valerian, I would be honored." I grinned at him and took his hand.


    "Have I told youtely that you''re doing a wonderful job as Queen?"


    "I don''t feel like I am." I sighed at his words which only made him chuckle.


    "You are." He spun me around in a way that was different from the others, most likely a way that was from the Fae. "The fact that you can''t see it is just fine. In all honesty, that will keep you humbled and stop you from bing maniacal with power."


    "Well, we certainly don''t want that now, do we?" I giggled.


    "You''re a lot like Glory was when she was first starting out. She was nervous and afraid that she was going to mess up all the time. Sorrel and I were here to help her though. And now, I am here to help you. I am more happy than you will ever know that I get to be here with you for all of this. I get to watch the birth of a kingdom from the Queen''s side for the second time. How many people do you think could make that im?" I could see that he was proud of me and that he truly was happy.


    "I would say that not many people could say that. I''m d that you''re here with me for this, Athair m¨°r."


    "Me too."


    Finally a dance that wasn''t so emotional. After that, I danced with Noah and Carter, and thankfully neither of them wanted to try to make me cry. Though they both said they couldn''t believe how much time had passed. They felt it in the same way that I did though, watching their kids grow up and get older before their eyes.


    After Carter, I danced with Vincent. He came to me with a smile and held his hand out to me.


    "Would you dance with me, your grace."


    "Vincent, I will always save a dance for you." I smiled back at him.


    "That is good to know." He pulled me toward him and started to dance me around the floor. "You know something, Trinity? When I became your guard that day, I never thought that any of this stuff would happen. I didn''t know that I was taking my future Queen to school that day. As time passed, I didn''t expect that one of my closest friends was going to be this powerful woman who probably doesn''t need me anymore, but she''s too much of a nice person to take care of the small fries herself."


    "Vincent?" I felt like he was saying that he wasn''t needed and that he was going to leave me. "I will always need you. You''re the captain of my guard and my Beta."


    "That is something else. What Luna in this world has a Beta? You''re the only one. That right there says that you weren''t the person that any of us were expecting. But that is a good thing. I honestly think that if it weren''t for you, none of us would be here right now."


    "Vincent, why do I get the feeling that you''re leaving me?" I felt like crying again.


    "I''m not, I''m just feeling extra nostalgic today. I think we all are."


    "It has had that sort of effect on us, hasn''t it?" I smiled at him. "As long as you''re not telling me that you''re leaving me, I''m fine. I''ve had you here with me since the day that I met Reece. You''re just as important to me as anyone else here. You''re my family now, Vincent."


    "I''m happy to hear that, Trinity." I hugged him then, I had to. He was like a brother to me now, after thest couple years. I couldn''t imagine life without him at my side.

 Chapter 467 - Trinity - The Queens Birthday Part 10 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 467 - Trinity - The Queens Birthday Part 10 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I continued the dances after the one with Vincent. Shane came next, and true to his style he made jokes the whole time. Shawn was sweet as always. David was a perfect gentleman, and I was remembering how he was there with me from the beginning as well. I remembered how he had been there to y one of the dwarves during that Halloween party. When we talked about that weughed with each other and joked about how scared Reece looked when I said that he was judging the costume contest. It was all very sweet and amazing.


    Following David, I danced with Dietrich. He was his typical self, sweet and confident.


    "You are the Queen that I knew you would be.. I am truly grateful for that incident that brought me here. I know that it wasn''t pleasant at the time, but I am d that Octavious botched his mission and forced me toe here."


    "Yeah, I am d as well." I looked over at Shawn as I spoke. "And I know that other people are happy as well."


    "Who would have thought?" Rileyughed when he took my hand to dance with me next.


    "What''s that?" I asked as I smiled. He was spinning me in circles as we danced.


    "That you would have been the new Queen. When we first met, I knew you were special, but to be the Luna Queen? That surprised us all."


    "No one was more surprised than I was, that I can say with confidence." Weughed together.


    "Still, I am d that we all got to meet you and be part of this. And thank you for sticking with Reece through it all. He needed you more than you know."


    "I know. I needed him too."


    After Riley came Landon. He was a cross between Riley and Trevor most of the time. His jokes were bnced with him being serious.


    "My Queen." He bowed to me before taking my hand.


    "Thank you for this dance." We weren''t as close as the others that I had danced with, but we still talked andughed about different things that had happened. Most of them were funny things that had happened with us and Reece.


    Following Landon, I danced with Trevor. I knew it wasing, and I could already feel myself starting tough when he took my hand.


    "Does seeing me make you that happy, my Queen." He spun me in a circle and then pulled me close to him.


    "You know that you always make meugh, Trevor." I giggled at his words.


    "Yes, and I am just waiting for you to realize that I am so much better than Reece. You''ve got to leave the pup and get with the bear." He purred the words then immediatelyughed. It had been a running joke with us all since our wedding day, the first time that I had even met Trevor.


    "Yes, I know. You tried to steal me away from Reece on my wedding day, but it was toote. We were already married." I yed along with him. "You needed to be a little quicker on the uptake."


    "Damn. Runningte again. That''s what I get for living in the mountains. I''m thest to know about everything." He chuckled. "In all seriousness though, I am d that Reece has you. And we couldn''t be happier with who our Queen is."


    "Thank you, Tevor." I smiled at him with a soft expression. "I know that you will find your mate soon. Just hang in there a little longer."


    "Thanks Trinity. I hope I do find her soon."


    When that song ended, it was time for Reece toe back and dance with me. This was how it was set in advance. After this dance, I would im to be tired and leave the ball, but the guests were free to stay longer under the watchful eyes of my guards and staff.


    "You look like you have been enjoying yourself." Reece pulled me closer than any of the others had, showing his intimate im to me.


    "I have been. Though several people made me want to cry." I answered him with a nod and a smile.


    "They were making my wife cry? How dare they?" He smirked knowing that I didn''t mean it in a bad way.


    "They were being so sentimental with me that I just couldn''t stop tearing up. Thankfully, I didn''t actually cry. If I did, I think the royal fashion police would have arrested me on the spot."


    "Yeah, E and Gina can be strict when ites to appearances. Nikki and Emmalee too. And all of them are here. You would have had the whole force after you. Oh yeah, I''d say it''s a good thing that you didn''t actually cry." Heughed as he thought about how that scene would have looked. "So, are you ready to call it a night yet?"


    "Hmm, I am ready to leave the ball." I gave him a heated look. "I don''t know if I am ready to call it a night though. It''s still rtively early after all."


    "Oh yeah, and what do you want to do?" He grinned at me. "I can think of a few things that I have been dying to do and your birthday sounds like the perfect time for them." He winked at me, and I saw an inferno begin to ze in his eyes.


    Ever since he had gotten blessed with fire magic, the heat in his eyes would actually flicker and move like real mes. The more heated and excited he was, the bigger the mes in his eyes were. He was easier to read now in all honesty.


    "Ooh, I can''t wait to find out what those ideas of yours really are." I pressed myself against him just a little more, and I felt that he was already starting to react.


    "You might want to stop that for now, unless you want to give all your subjects and family a show on your birthday." Heughed. I knew he wouldn''t do something like that; he was too possessive over me.


    "As exciting as you might think that could be, Fido, I am not into that sort of PDA. That is actually beyond PDA, it falls into the category of pornography." I know he was ying, and I couldn''t stop myself from joking back.


    "It''s not pornography unless it''s filmed. It would just be exhibitionalism." Heughed. "I don''t ever intend to let someone film you like that. They will never have that image of you. That is just for me."


    "Then I guess we will have to wait until we get upstairs." I pretended to be upset about it all. "No exhibitionalism or pornography for us."


    "Agreed. I am the only one who can see the sexy faces you make, and no one is allowed to hear the sounds that you make just for me." I shivered from the feel of his words washing over me. That and the heat in his body had made a wave of arousal course through me.


    "I''ve wanted round two since I woke up, Reece, stop trying to turn me on already. I''m already there." Iughed at him.


    "Good." He said just as the song ended. "Then we need to end this party right now." He leaned in to kiss my cheek before stepping away.


    Taking my hand and walking a little faster than usual, Reece led me up to the dais that we had sat on when we ate. Once I was standing at the front and looking out at everyone who was still dancing, I started to talk.


    "I want to once again thank you all foring tonight." I called out to them while magically making my voice louder. "I have quite enjoyed my birthday this year, and I want to let you all know how much I appreciate that you havee to celebrate it with me." There was a round of apuse for some reason that I didn''t quite understand. "All of you are wee to stay and continue to party for a little while longer. I, on the other hand, will be calling it a night."


    With that, Reece started to lead me out of the ballroom through the back door as everyone present bowed to us. I was d that this was over. I really hadn''t wanted a big party like this.

 Chapter 468 - Trinity - Birthday Night Part 1 (MATURE) ((VOLUME 3))

    <h4>Chapter 468 - Trinity - Birthday Night Part 1 (MATURE) ((VOLUME 3))</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I swear Reece was a little frantic as he led me from the ballroom to the elevator at the base of our tower. It waste, and I knew that the twins were already in bed. There was no need for us to stop by their room to say goodnight. The rest of the night was just for us. That was why Reece took me straight up to our room.


    "Trinity." Reece whispered my name as soon as we were off of the elevator. His nose was buried in the curve of my neck.


    "Reece?" I breathed his name as I felt the fire that was already burning low inside of me burst and turn into an inferno. I felt the heat, the desire, the passion for him start to take over me..


    "We''re alone again. Finally." His words purred into my ear. "I have been dying to get you alone all day." Iughed, I couldn''t help it.


    "Even afterst night? You truly are insatiable." I giggled at him as I spoke.


    "Like you didn''t have ns for this morning if it hadn''t been toote."


    "That is true." I turned in his arms and wrapped my arms around his neck. "I''ve been dreaming about what we could do together all day. It is my birthday after all, aren''t I allowed to do as I please." I smirked at him before pressing a small kiss against his lips.


    "It''s only your birthday for another ten minutes, so we need to get the show on the road, or we will miss our opportunity." I rolled my eyes at his words, they were too funny.


    "I am the Queen, I can just decree that it was still my birthday."


    "Hmm, that sounds good to me." I saw him smirk. Clearly he liked the idea more than he was saying.


    I wanted to do a little more this time than I have been. Reece was usually the one to take control, and it had been a while since I was the one in charge of the situation. And not to mention that Reece tended to like it when I took charge as well.


    "Come here." I grabbed a hold of his tie and pulled him toward the bed.


    "Oooh, this seems like it will be an interesting night." He was already excited, and it was only just getting started.


    "I''m hoping for it to be interesting." I smiled at him as I reached the edge of the mattress.


    "What do you have in mind for me this evening, my love?"


    "I want to be in charge." I could hear the sultry, husky tones in my voice.


    "Then what should I do for you, my Queen?"


    "For starters, strip for me."


    I loved to watch him strip. The way that his body moved when he took those clothes off for me. I was going to enjoy this, but it wasn''t quite the right mood yet.


    I didn''t usually do this, but I didn''t want to get up so I decided to turn on the music with my magic. I flipped the song to one of the cheesy ones that they tended to use for a striptease in a movie. Hey, it was going to set the mood so that''s why they used them in the first ce.


    "Mood music, nice." Reece grinned as the song started to y.


    I was then treated to a wonderful show by my husband. I watched as he slowly loosened and slid off his tie. By the time that he slid it from around his neck and threw it aside I was ready to have him, but I was going to sit and enjoy the rest of his show.


    Slowly, as if he was trying to drive me nuts, Reece slid the jacket to his suit off of his shoulders, twirled it once, then tossed it onto the chair that was sitting nearby. Then, one by one, he undid the buttons of his shirt. Inch by inch, he revealed his chest and rippled and sculpted abdomen, before pulling the dark blue shirt out of his trousers and tossing it to join the jacket.


    I loved how he was moving and dancing to the music that was ying. He really was putting on a show for me. Perhaps that was why, when he was pushing down the trousers he was wearing, he came up to me and started to give me ap dance. That was a first since he had never done it before.


    While he was grinding himself against me, I pulled him down for a mind blowing kiss that had me dizzy long before it ended. Reece was the one who actually broke the kiss and pulled away from me, leaving me feeling cold and empty with the loss of his touch.


    He wasn''t done with his show though, so I was content with letting him leave me. I got to watch as he slowly removed thest few articles of his clothing until he was standing there naked before me, fully erect.


    "Now, my love, it is time to strip you down." I shivered from the purr in his voice.


    "Oooh, do I need to do that, or can I get you to take my clothes off of me. You seem to be so good at removing them." I batted my eyes at him and felt a jolt of excitement when he pulled me off the bed.


    "I will happily do that for you." He settled me on top of hisp and started to reach for the ties in the back of the dress. "Just sit still and enjoy the ride."


    Reece had intentionally positioned himself so that the skirt of my dress was pushed up and his impressive firmness was under the fabric with me. As he held me against him to undo the dress I felt him press that hard, eager firmness against me. I couldn''t help it, I moaned just from that alone.


    It didn''t take long for Reece to get my dress off of me. I was now sitting there on top of him with nothing but my panties and heels, oh and my crown as well.


    "Hmm. I am debating on if I should leave the shoes or not." He was actually putting thought into that. "No, I''ll take them off, but the crown stays."


    "Huh?" I was surprised by his words.


    "I want to please my Queen, and for her to be my Queen, she needs to wear the crown. Not to mention this will give us a chance to test the magic to see if it really stays on your head or not."


    "You''re such a perv." Iughed at him.


    "And you wouldn''t have me any other way." He grinned at me.


    "Nope, I wouldn''t, because I guess I am just as much of a perv as you are." Iughed at him.


    "That''s fine with me, as long as no one but me gets to see that side of you. That is only meant for me." His eyes were filled with a possessive heat.


    "Don''t worry Fido, I''m all yours. I don''t want anyone but you. I never have, and I never will."

 Chapter 469 - Trinity - Birthday Night Part 2 (MATURE) ((VOLUME 3))

    <h4>Chapter 469 - Trinity - Birthday Night Part 2 (MATURE) ((VOLUME 3))</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    A momentter, I was sitting on the bed. I was naked except for my crown that was still on my head. Reece had even taken out that ornate hair clip that E had put in for me. The only thing that he left was truly my crown.


    Reece was looming over me, even though I was the one taking charge. I could tell that he was waiting for me to tell him what to do next..


    "Give me my next order, my Queen. Tell me what to do. Give me your orders." I shivered at the feel of his words rubbing against my naked body.


    "Lay back, Reece. It''s my turn to take charge, remember?"


    "You said that you wanted to be in charge, that means you tell me what to do." He countered my words. "Tell me how to please you, my love."


    "Reece." I rolled my eyes at him. I had wanted to be the one to dominate him. I guess I needed to word it better next time. "Fine, my sexy wolf man, pleasure me. Make mee screaming your name."


    "Any specific ways?" He grinned at me.


    "However you want to please me. But it better good, or your Queen will get angry."


    "Oh it will be, don''t worry about that one bit." I giggled and squirmed in excitement as I watched him start to get ready.


    Reece started by licking my mate mark, the ce where he had bitten me once against night.


    "Ahh." I moaned at the feeling.


    "Heheh." I heard himugh in a slightly evil manner before he continued.


    Reece teased me from my neck down. He licked, nipped, sucked, and bit everywhere that his mouth touched. The moment that he reached the peak of one breast, he pulled the nipple into his mouth and started to roll it around on his tongue before he sucked hard and made me cry out in shock and arousal.


    "NGH!"


    He didn''t stop there. He moved to my other breast and repeated the move before reaching the re of my hips and then dipping down lower.


    "Reece." I begged him to keep going when he stopped for a moment.


    "I can''t deny my Queen now, can I?" I heard his words, soft and low, just a second before his tongue made a slow, erotic path up my slit.


    "NGH!" I moaned immediately.


    I was already squirming for him. I needed him to keep going, but I also wanted him to just hurry up and fuck me already. Dammit, he''s turned me into an insatiable beast for him. He was so good that I could never get enough of him.


    He drove me wild then. Lapping up my slit, delving into my folds, and devouring all the juices that I had for him. I was moaning, but I was doing my best to not scream yet. I wanted him to keep going.


    When I climbed that peak, when I reached my point of pleasure where I couldn''t keep going, I came apart at the seams beneath him. I moaned again but I didn''t scream just yet.


    "Oh, I failed to get that scream that I wanted. I need to keep trying." I was still panting from the waves of pleasure that had just hit me so I wasn''t able to stop him as he picked me up from the bed.


    I once again found myself sitting on Reece''sp. He had himself pressed against my oversensitive core as he rocked his hips against me, teasing me.


    "NGH!" I moaned again. "Reece?"


    "I''m just trying to please you." He chuckled. "Please, my Queen, let me do my job."


    "Reece?" I called out to him again. "Please."


    "If you''re going to ask for it so sweetly, then how am I going to say no?"


    That was when Reece grabbed my hips and lifted me just enough to fit himself at my entrance. In one quick, hard movement he pulled me down onto his shaft while thrusting up to meet me. He speared into me so fast, so deep, so hard, that I nearly screamed for him, but I was able to hold it in. I wanted all the pleasure I could get before I screamed. That was his reward for all of this.


    "Time for a ride, my love." His words were a low growl, filled with desire and barely controlled power.


    "Yes, oh Goddess yes. Reece, I need you now."


    "As you wish."


    He used his grip on my hips to lift me up and m me down repeatedly. Every time that he pulled me down though, he mmed his hips up to meet me in the middle. He mmed our bodies together over and over again.


    "Ngh! Ngh! Ngh!" I moaned each time that he rammed his hard, hot shaft into me.


    "Trinity." He growled my name into my ear.


    The rhythm got harder and faster as time went on. I didn''t know how he was able to keep it up, but he was. He fucked me until I came again, and still I didn''t scream.


    "You didn''t finish?" I asked him as I copsed onto him.


    "Not yet." He growled at me. "I want to please you more my love."


    Reece rose up onto his knees and pushed me down onto the bed. My shoulders were digging into the mattress but my hips were still pressed against Reece, and he was still hard inside of me.


    "Reece?" I was worried about how he was nning to do this.


    "Just feel the pleasure, Trinity."


    With that, he started to pull back then mmed into me again, hard and fast. He kept up the rhythm going harder and faster every chance that he got. My moans and cries were getting louder and louder, and I knew that I was on the verge of screaming for him. When I climbed that peak again and came for the third time, I actually did scream.


    "REECE!" But he wasn''t done yet.


    Reece moved to the floor and pulled out of mepletely. He turned me around and pushed me down until the top of my body was leaning against the mattress, with that he rammed into me again.


    "Trinity." He growled my name as he started another hard and fast rhythm.


    "Reece?" I called out his name. "NGH! AHH!"


    "I can''t get enough of you." He growled those words as well as he proceeded to fuck me so much that I forgot who I was.


    My legs were turning to jelly. I couldn''t move my upper body. I was just a limp body there for Reece to please and be pleased. He didn''t often get into this frantic state. It usually only happened after we had been apart for too long, but he shouldn''t be this way right now. He had just had mest night. Oh Goddess, he was going to fuck me to death. At least it was a pleasant way to go.


    This time, when I came screaming his name, Reece came too. He exploded inside of me and roared his pleasure to the ceiling.


    I couldn''t move at all. This wasn''t the first time that Reece had made love to me to the point of me not moving. It was always so intense and exciting with him. But damn it was good too.


    I let him pull me up into his arms before he crawled into the bed andid onto the pillows. I stayed snuggled in his arms all night, using the heat of his body to keep me warm.

 Chapter 470 - Trinity - Informing Athair Mòr (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 470 - Trinity - Informing Athair M¨°r (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The first thing that I wanted to do the day after my birthday ball was talk to Athair m¨°r. I needed to tell him about the conversation I had with Aunt Glory the night before. I needed to know if he heard anything about what had been happening, or if he thought this might be the start of that incident that we had been warned about.


    Following breakfast, I asked him toe up to the tower and talk with me. He now had his own ce within the castle and was not just a guest. He coulde and go here anytime that he pleased since this was his second home. The towers on either side of mine were for the Grand Nobels, of which he was one. That means that he had his own home inside the tower. I think that idea made him happy, especially since all of my family aside from Carter had moved into the castle, though he and Emmalee did have a ce for when they came here for visits. The good thing about everyone living in the castle meant that they could all see each other whenever they wanted, Athair m¨°r included.


    When Athair m¨°r joined me in the tower I was with Reagan and Rika in the nursery. They were ying and having a little bit of educational fun. They quite enjoyed learning while ying and especially loved it when we read to them. It also made me excited to get the daycare going because on top of just watching the kids, the staff will be helping them learn various things as well. I guess Grandfather''s overly instructive life rubbed off on me, because now I feel that children need to have a fun, yet stimting, environment.


    "Good morning, Trinity my dear." Athair m¨°r smiled when he came into the nursery and gave me a quick hug. "I am delighted to see you again, I do quite enjoy spending time with my family." He was indeed always smiling when he was with any of us.


    "We love having you around as well, Athair m¨°r." I hugged him back when he wrapped his arms around me.


    After the greeting, he went to sit in the chair across from me. From that vantage point, we could see both of the twins and watch them as they yed.


    "Athair m¨°r, there was something that I wanted to talk to you about." I broached the subject almost immediately after he sat across from me.


    "I suspected as much. You had seemed rather tense when you asked for me to meet with you today. What is it that is bothering you, Garin¨ªon?"


    "Well," I paused and looked into his unique eyes for a moment before I continued, "I spoke with Aunt Gloryst night."


    "Ahh, that is what this is about." He nodded like he already knew.


    "Did you speak with her as well?" I wondered.


    "Not yet. I was nning to do that today. However, Reece spoke with mest night before we had the chance to dance." That was news to me. But I guess my husband truly is efficient as well.


    "That actually makes sense. He was supposed to be doing ''work'' while I danced with everyonest night. It makes sense that he would put that as the top priority for his work to be done. What do you think it means? What could have happened that was enough to keep the fae Queen from leaving thepound?"


    "In truth, Garin¨ªon, it could have been almost anything. As you know, no group of people is ever truly at peace. It may seem that way on the surface, but there is always something stirring underneath. Take the most recent conflict with the vampires for instance. You have not heard of a vampire war for centuries, well I haven''t." He chuckled because I was not old enough to have heard something for centuries. "Yet, there is enough strife and unrest that a battle nearly broke out over something as simple as territory. You see, it doesn''t matter how calm and peaceful a group of people may seem; there are always going to be small strifes that cause problems. And those small strifes could grow into something monstrous if they are not kept under control."


    "You think this might be something minor?" I asked him, still wary of the conversation that I had with Gloryst night.


    "I believe so. There are often small incidents that happen that most people don''t know about." He grinned, but I noticed that it didn''t quite reach his eyes.


    "Athair m¨°r, please do not lie to me." I gave him a stern look. "I can see that you are attempting to, and that is not very nice at all."


    "Garin¨ªon, I do not mean to be distrustful, that I promise. I simply am trying to be hopeful that the incident is a minor one." He hung his head as if in shame from being found out.


    "I understand that, but please do not try to lessen the magnitude of all of this. You know that I was asked by Danu herself to help protect you and Aunt Glory. She cannot step in on your behalf so she has asked me to do that. Don''t hide things from me if it means that I will be going into something unprepared."


    I saw the look of shock fill his eyes. He knew about the request from Danu of course, but I don''t know if he thought I was taking it as seriously as I am. I would follow through with my promise to Danu and I would see to it that none of my family is harmed. As long as they deserved to be saved that was. I would not protect them if they weremitting some sort of heinous acts against their people.


    "I am sorry, Garin¨ªon. I was being foolish for not telling you everything right away." This time I could tell that he was regretting what he had been doing. "I will tell you everything now. Please, forgive me."


    "I forgive you, Athair m¨°r. I only ask that you be as honest with me as I am with you."


    "Yes, of course."


    We smiled at each other for a moment before we were interrupted by the twinsing over for some attention. We yed with them for a few moments before they grew bored and wanted to go off of their own once again.


    "I will tell you the truth now, Garin¨ªon, if that is alright with you."


    "Yes, I would like that."


    "Just before summer there was an incident with Curtis, the Queen''s consort, however, I imagine that you already know that since you were a central part of that incident."


    "Are you referring to him being in the Queen''s private chambers when I called to speak to her?"


    "Yes, that and his rudeness to you. That was before Glory and I knew that you were rted to us. Curtis was punished for two different crimes that night."


    "Crimes?" I was shocked to hear that word.


    "Yes. The first of which was entering the Queen''s private chambers without permission. That alone was enough to get him stripped of his consort title and punished for a long time. However, the second crime was improper handling of a royal. Glory knew that you most likely wouldn''t retaliate because of Curtis''s stupidity, however, there is still the fact that he could have done that to someone else and caused a war between our people."


    "I honestly hadn''t thought about it that much. I know that he was rude to me, however, he simply didn''t remember who I was."


    "That is no excuse." Athair m¨°r''s words sent ice running through my veins. "The problem is: what if you did take it personally and dered war against the Fae? We have magic on our side, yes, but so do you. And your people outnumber us one hundred to one. There is nothing we could do if you intended to do battle with us. We could fight you, but chances are we would lose in the end. A lot of our numbers and yours having been decimated in the process. It would be true devastation to all of our people, and you would then be free to rule our people as well as yours. You would have every group of supernatural under your thumb then since you also have influence over the Vampire King. You, Trinity, are someone that should be feared by her enemies, not mistaken for someone or something else by a careless consort."


    I truly had never thought about the true magnitude of what had happened that day back in May. I didn''t take it to heart too much. Yes it annoyed me, and I was a little upset with the way he treated me, but he turned around quickly. Now that I think about it though, it was a major political error on Curtis''s part. And then there is the fact that he was snooping in Glory''s private chambers. What in the world was he doing there? Could he and his cohorts be behind this whole incident? I guess it''s possible, but I don''t know just yet.


    "Do you see it now?" Athair m¨°r looked at me with his eyes filled with things that I just didn''t understand just yet. I guess I needed to learn more about being a Queen before I understood all of this interpersonal court stuff.


    "I think I do." I nodded at him. "So how exactly was Curtis punished?" I wanted to know what a Queen did to someone that almost started a war and spied on her.


    "There are different magical punishments that we use depending on the crime. They will not just be imprisoned, they will usually receive some ''other'' form of punishment."


    "Other forms of punishment?" I asked him. "Are you referring to torture?" I was appalled at the idea.


    "You have to remember, Trinity, that we are immortal. Simply imprisoning someone isn''t enough. That doesn''t significantly bother them. They can deal with that and be no different when it is done. A Fae can even put themselves into a status sleep and spend that time in their natural form. They will simply go to sleep and wake up when their imprisonment is over. We need to make sure that they receive the full effects of being punished. The only way to do that is different types of punishment or death."


    I had seen Glory kill someone for speaking of starting war. And I had even killed someone who had tried to poison me. Yeah, I knew full well that death was a punishment for crimes. However, I didn''t think that they tortured people.


    "Perhaps I will ask about the different types of torture you useter, but for now I do not think that I want to know."


    "That is understandable." He nodded as if he understood what I was talking about.


    "I will not push this subject any more for the time being, however, I do want you to talk to Aunt Glory and find out what happened. I need to be kept informed."


    "Yes, Queen Trinity." He was speaking as if I was giving him an official order for the council. "I will be in touch with Glory today, and I will report the findings as soon as I have something."


    "I don''t want you to think that I am giving you orders. You may be Valerian of the council, but you are also my Athair m¨°r. I want this to be something that we work on together. I don''t want to see something bad happen to you or Aunt Glory."


    I saw a smile spread across his face and a look of love enter his eyes.


    "I know, Garin¨ªon, I know. We are family, and I should have been thinking along those lines from the beginning. Just consider it the failings of an old man''s mind." Iughed at that.


    "You don''t look old at all, you know that."


    "Looks can always be deceiving." He grinned at me.


    That was the end of our conversation. He left after that, and I stayed with the babies.

 Chapter 471 - Reece - The Rise Of The Knights (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 471 - Reece - The Rise Of The Knights (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    There was still a lot that we needed to do. Now that Trinity''s birthday was over, as well as the initial council meeting, there were other things that we needed to get to. We needed to staff the daycare, select the deputy mayor, and fill out the ranks of the new army, or as the others have decided to call it, the Goddess Knights.


    For now, my Little Bunny was taking care of staffing the daycare, and Wesley was going to be the deputy mayor. She had already spoken to Valerian and asked him to look into the incident that happened at the castle. And true to his word, Gabriel had asked his mate and our maid, Roisin, to look into the incident as well. It is very possible that they will get two very different versions of the story since they will be asking people of vastly different statuses.? Knowing what is happening from multiple vantage points could be beneficial for us as well..


    Right now, I was on my way to the barracks that Trinity and Valerian had built together.. They had done this not long after they had spoken about the incident at the Faepound. I had requested it to be done so that we could get the training underway. If we were going to be fighting a war against an unknown enemy soon, I wanted to have an army that had been through some thorough training when we left.


    This new barracks that they had built was going to be the home to the soldiers until they graduated from their training regimen. There were going to be a lot of people here soon since we sent out word to all those in the supernatural world that they could join our army. The condition before they joined was that they had to swear fealty to Trinity and myself and swear a binding oath that they recognized us as their Queen and King, as well as their Alpha and Luna. The contract was going to be so binding that they would bepelled to follow our orders even if they were a Vampire or a Fae.


    They could not be a spy and enter our army as well since they will be vetted by Gabriel and Vincent. We were only taking those that truly intended to do right by us. There was no way that we could afford to be rxed in this aspect; not with a war upon us.


    I had called Paul to the castle. He had been asked to stay away for the time being so that things could be finalized. He hadn''t been banned from the castle, since he was still invited to visit for parties and spending time as a friend. However, his job had been put on hold. At least he knew that there was a castle, and I didn''t have to hear the shock again.


    The castle had literally given everyone a massive shock when they saw it. Thankfully though, they were all used to it by now. Well, most of them. There were still some pack members that were going to being up here for future events that hadn''t seen it at all. That was when we were going to hear their shocked expressions that I found both funny and annoying.


    "Hey, Reece." Paul was walking up toward the front of the castle and saw me waiting for him.


    "Hey, Paul." I waved at him.


    "What did you need me for today? Is training resuming?" I saw the excitement on his face as he was eager to get back to work.


    "Soon. I have something to show you and then something to exin to you."


    "OK, that sounds like there is a lot of evasiveness in those words. I hope that everything is alright."


    "Everything is fine. In fact, I think that you will be quite happy with what is going on right now." I grinned at him to show that there was nothing to worry about. "Come with me."


    I led him to the dune buggy type of vehicle that I had gotten to drive around the now very vast inner part of the castle grounds. From there I drove him around the side of the mountain, a trek of about two miles or so. When he saw the building for the barracks his eyes went wide.


    OK, to be fair it didn''t look like a normal barracks. It wasn''t like what you see on TV for an army location. It actually looked like a miniaturized castle, but less beautiful than the one that I lived in.


    "What is this?" He asked with augh. "You guys need more castles now?"


    "This is a barracks for the new army. Or as your two new captains have requested it to be called, the Goddess Knights."


    "Goddess Knights?" He was looking confused. "And I have captains? So they outrank me?" He looked saddened by those words.


    "Nope, you''re themander of the Knights, and they are your first captains." I grinned at him. "Congrats on the promotion."


    "Dude? Seriously?" Paul''s eyes went wide. "So Astro actually named me Commander of the new army?" He was staring at the building with shock and awe. I knew that he could seem dense, but it was all an act. He was actually a really smart man who was really really good at strategic nning. "I promise, Reece, I won''t let you guys down."


    "You better not." I gave him a stern look just to show him that this was something to take seriously.


    I proceeded to show him the inside of the building. How it was divided up between two dormitory buildings and the dining hall in the middle. They would eat breakfast here since they would likely be getting up so early, chefs would be provided for them of course. He could then decide if they wanted all the soldiers to eat in the barracks or the castle for the other meals, since he was themander, that decision was up to him.


    I exined to him how there would be recruits from almost every species of supernatural that there was, including the Fae and the Vampires. He was shocked by that and surprised that he was going to be training so many people.


    I showed him the training grounds that we had prepared, but I told him if there were changes he needed, we could take care of that as well. There were all types of courses that would help to train his recruits, including water to train the sea shifters. I wanted all types of people on our teams to defend us and attack for us if needed. This was a whole new world for us, and we needed to adapt to it.


    By the time that I was done, it almost looked like Paul''s mind was blown, but he switched instantly into his work mode. I could see the sharp glint in his eyes and the smirk that told me he was eager to get to work.


    "When will my first group of fresh meat arrive?" He asked me, and I could tell that he was already nning out what he was going to make them do. "I am going to whip them all into shape and turn them into Knights worthy of my friends." His nod told me that he was one hundred percent serious right now.


    "That''s what I wanted to hear." I grinned back. "They arrive in five days. Take the time to prepare yourself. Also, you, Juniper, and the twins are invited to move into the residential part of the castle. You are not just friends, Paul, you''re family."

 Chapter 472 - Trinity - What Athair Mòr Found Out Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 472 - Trinity - What Athair M¨°r Found Out Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The daycare was finally staffed. That had taken me almost longer than deciding who should be on my council. I mean, I couldn''t trust just anyone with all of those children. They had to prove to us that they were trustworthy and good with kids. Though the good thing is we had gotten it done within just about two and a half weeks. OK, it wasn''t anywhere near as long as it took to fill in the council, but it felt like it.


    During the time that we were working on staffing the daycare, Athair m¨°r had gone back home to the Faepound. He wanted to see Gloriana in person and find out what had happened the day of the ball. Aunt Glory hadn''t told me what happened during the call at all.


    Roisin had gone home with him as well.. She was going to find out what her family knew about the incident. She was going back under the guise of needing to get some more of her things so that she could live morefortably in the castle. She was just as smart and efficient as Gabriel was when it came to doing her job. They truly were a perfect pair.


    I was hoping they had gotten some good information for me. I know that sounded selfish of me, but I still wanted it to be true. And the good thing is, they''re due back at almost any moment.


    I was expecting them so right now, Reagan and Rika were in the daycare, and Reece and I were in my office waiting for them to arrive. We were trying to be more ''regal'' than usual so at the current moment we were having afternoon tea in the office, waiting for them. I personally liked tea, Reece, however, not so much.


    "Blegh." He said as he tasted the tea. "This one is just as bad as all the others." Heined.


    "You just need to find the right blend." I smiled at him as I set my cup down.


    "I will find a different one for you to try next time, my King." Gabriel bowed and took the cup away.


    "Don''t worry about it Reece. We don''t need to have tea." Iughed at him.


    "But that''s what they always do in books and movies. It''s the royal thing to do."


    "You''re an idiot, you know that, right?" Iughed at him as I shook my head.


    "It''s what they do." He said again.


    "That''s them, not us." I pointed it out to him. "We can just set our own royal traditions. Why do we need to follow someone else''s example?"


    He looked shocked when he heard that; it was like he hadn''t thought about it at all.


    "You''re absolutely right." He grinned. "We will be trailzers. Instead of tea, we''ll drink something else. Bring out the vodka." Heughed.


    "Let''s spare ourselves the future AA meetings and just drink juice or something else that we might like. Perhaps juice, coffee, soda, something that won''t make us look like a bunch of drunkards."


    "You''re no fun." He pretended to pout. "But fine, let''s have whatever we like to drink."


    Just then the bell to the office door rang. Yes, my office had a doorbell. Gabriel walked to the door to check who was there through the one way window. Yes, Athair m¨°r had thought of everything when he built my office.


    "My Queen, it is Valerian and Roisin." He had a smile on his face as he spoke, most likely because his mate was outside the door.


    "Let them in." I nodded at him.


    When the door opened, I saw Roisin, my personal maid and Gabriel''s mate, as well as my Athair m¨°r, Valerian. They were both smiling, but I could tell that there was something that had happened while they were gone. Despite the smiles they were both wearing, their eyes were holding the truth of it all with tense unease.


    "Garin¨ªon, I''ve missed you." Athair m¨°r smiled as he came into the room and walked up to me for a quick hug.


    "We have missed you as well, Athair m¨°r. I hope your trip was a good one."


    "Indeed it was." He answered in a warm voice and sat down in the chair across from me.


    "Roisin, please have a seat so that we might talk about your trip as well." She knew that I was basically saying, ''OK, let''s cut to the chase, I want to know what the two of you found out already''."


    "Yes, mydy." She nodded and sat in the chair that was next to Athair m¨°r''s.


    "Don''t worry." I heard Gabriel whisper to her before he walked to stand behind me.


    "Roisin, won''t you please start us off. How was your family? How were things back home?"


    "My family is doing great, Queen Trinity." She nodded at me. "They were not affected at all by the recent events, but they were very gossipy about it." She giggled as she worked her way into the story.


    "Oh, really? I wonder just what it was." I put a finger on my chin as if I were thinking about it very intently.


    "Oh dear, it was something quite major. It seems that someone tried to break Curtis out of the prison cells. The Queen was quite furious since he had notpleted his punishments yet."


    "That does sound like something quite major." I felt myself frown on the inside. I wonder what their goal was in trying to free the former consort to the queen. They have to know that being with him would only draw the ire of the Queen herself.


    "Was the culprit caught?" I had to know that part.


    "Unfortunately, my family has not found that out yet. It is being kept a secret from the rest of the court at the moment. I would assume they were, since Curtis is still locked up in his cell."


    "Is that so? Hmm." I thought about this for a moment. If the person was caught then they most definitely were not part of the future issue, that is, unless they get free ande back with a vengeance. I think this is going to take some more information gathering before I can decide. "Thank you, Roisin. That will be all for now. Gabriel, will you see her to her quarters? I am sure that she is very exhausted from her travels. You may return when you finish up there."


    "Yes, my Queen." Gabriel nodded at me and then took Roisin''s hand. "Please,e with me." He smiled at her, and the two of them left the room.


    I knew that Gabriel had missed his mate while she was away so I was giving him some time alone with her while the rest of us talked in private. I would share important information with himter.


    Now it was just me, Athair m¨°r, and Reece. It was time to get down to business and find out what it was that the Queen had to say about this whole situation. I just knew that there was more to the story, and I was determined to find out what it was.

 Chapter 473 - Trinity - What Athair Mòr Found Out Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 473 - Trinity - What Athair M¨°r Found Out Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Just after the door closed behind Gabriel and Roisin, the conversation started.


    "So Valerian, what happened?" Reece spoke in his Alpha voice. I really did like it when he acted all authoritative like that.


    "Just as Roisin said, there was an attempt to free a prisoner from his cell. The culprit was a little more skilled at it than we would have liked. The reason being, they had intimate knowledge of the catbs."


    "Catbs?" I tilted my head at the word. I had never heard anyone refer to a prison and catbs in the same sentence before. However, if you think about it, that would make sense.. Throwing them in a dungeon that was in a maze of tunnels so they would not make it out very easily. That would be pretty cool if you asked me.


    "Yes, catbs. There are many secrets hidden in the catbs of the Fae castle. One of them being the prison. We used to call it the dungeon, but we modernized it because of where we are." He grinned at me.


    "And who has that sort of knowledge of the catbs?" Reece asked him. "Who could have possibly gotten to the prison if they didn''t know about the catbs ahead of time?"


    "That was the true issue now, wasn''t it?" Athair m¨°r smirked, but it wasn''t with any sort of happiness or pleasure. "You see, only the royal guard, the Queen, and myself are supposed to have that sort of knowledge of the catbs. However, there have been people throughout the years who have been told about them, even though they have never been shown the tunnels themselves."


    "So could it have been someone who knew of their existence who has been slowly mapping their paths?" Reece truly seemed interested in this part of the conversation so I was just letting him handle it at the moment. When I was needed, I would step in and say what was needed of me. For now though, I could just enjoy watching my mate be his true Alpha self.


    "No, they would not have been able to map them ahead of time. They would need to have been let into the tunnels by someone with permission to do so. The moment that the culprit entered the tunnels, Glory knew. She could sense the intrusion upon her protection spells."


    "That is convenient." Reece looked at me then and smiled. I think he was wanting me to learn how to do that sort of magic for us.


    "Yes, it was convenient. It meant that we were able to catch up to the intruder just as they were trying to escape with Curtis. Thankfully, Curtis was not able to move too swiftly since he had been in the cell for thest several months." I could see a slight evil grin on Valerian''s face as he thought about it. "I have to admit, that things would have gone more smoothly if I would have been home for that attempt. I would have been able to flood the tunnels with water and bring them to me in an instant. Thankfully, Glory was able to catch them swiftly as well. She ensnared them with her vines that she sent out as feelers in the ground. They knew right where to go after that."


    I had to remind myself to never get on the bad side of Aunt Glory or Athair m¨°r. They''re both so powerful. It made me wonder though, how were they going to be in danger if they were this strong? Could it be that someone close to them was going to betray them?


    That actually seemed likely since the culprit this time knew intimate details of an area that they were not supposed to have. Could it be that there was a mole among the royal guards?


    Thinking things like that made me realize how extremely happy, and lucky,? I was to be able to know if someone on my staff was a traitor ahead of time. Having Vincent and Gabriel around was truly a blessing in many ways.


    "So, who was the culprit?" I asked him with a somber look in my eyes. I was afraid that he was going to say it was a soldier.


    "Her name was Frida." That surprised me. I didn''t really expect it to be a woman.


    "Wait a minute, I know that name."


    I had to think about it for a minute. Where had I heard of a Fae woman named Frida? That was a little difficult, but it didn''t take too long. I have only been to thepound twice so far; obviously it had to have been during one of those visits.


    Hmm, it wasn''t during the most recent one, I know that. So when during the first visit did I hear that name?


    Soon a scene came before my eyes. I saw a man struggling to get free from the woman hanging onto him. I remember the words clearly as well.


    "No Grier, don''t do this. I''m begging you." A woman''s shrill and high pitched voice rang through the hall.


    "Let me go, Frida. I need to do this. I need to make my point." An anger-filled male voice responded to her pleading.


    "No Grier. I don''t want to lose you. Please." The woman was sobbing as she begged the man.


    "Shut up, woman. I will not sit idly by."


    That''s right. Frida was the woman who was trying to stop that angry man who used me of trying to ruin their way of life and said he wasn''t going to ept the Queen bringing us into thepound. That night was the first time that I had seen Aunt Glory''s magic, only I didn''t know she was my aunt at the time. Hmm, I don''t remember where Athair m¨°r was during that dinner. Perhaps he was hiding in his room or something.


    "I find that surprising, in all honesty." I looked up to see Athair m¨°r looking at me intently. It was like he was waiting for my response. "Frida seemed like she wanted to stop her husband frommitting a crime when I was first at thepound. What has happened in thest year and a half that would have changed her views on it all?"


    "That''s the thing, her views haven''t changed. But someone, who is a lot stronger than she is, spelled her. She waspelled to do their bidding and as of yet we don''t know who that person is."


    That was rming. There was an unknown culprit, a mastermind, behind this attack on the Fae castle. And whoever that person is, they had the power to force someone to be their puppet.


    "Athair m¨°r, was anyone-?"


    "Everyone that was inside the castle at the time has been ounted for. Anyone who might have had the chance to get at Frida had to have been outside the castle itself. And the problem there is: that we simply cannot question every member of the court quickly enough."


    "Athair m¨°r, as much as I love having you here, I truly think that Aunt Glory needs you back home more. We will visit, and you will be here for your council meetings but, for now, I think you need to be there to help protect Aunt Glory and the castle."


    "I think you are right, Garin¨ªon. Though I will be missing you all dearly." There was sadness in his eyes when he spoke. I knew this was the right thing, but it was also hard to send him away.

 Chapter 474 - Reece - Training Begins (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 474 - Reece - Training Begins (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    The new recruits had started arriving for the Knight''s training that Paul was going to put them through. As of right now, Cedar had been reassigned to help him, and when they were not on active watch duty for the Queen, Shawn, Shane, and David were to help him as well. Dietrich said that he would also offer his assistance to them. And when Gabriel had met with the recruits to gauge their loyalty, he found that their knowledge of history was a littlecking. Or to quote him:


    "Their inability to name even one important event is simply appalling. The education that they received must have been abysmal."


    After that Gabriel contacted Crawford, and the two of them decided to set up a twice a week history ss that all the recruits were to take. They were also required to take an etiquette ss so that they did not make a fool of themselves in front of the Queen.


    All in all, our initial group of recruits had just shy of a thousand soon to be knights; nine hundred and eighty-two to be exact.. There were men and women from every group of supernaturals that there was, but of course there were mostly wolves since they were the most plentiful resource.


    Trinity and I stopped by on day two of the training to see how things were going. To be honest, it didn''t look like it was going very well at all.


    "Trante that for me." Paul was pointing at a man that was standing next to a very confused-looking Feline from Europe, however, the man that he pointed to looked just as confused as the other man did.


    "Paul, is there a problem?" I called out to him.


    "I''d say that there is." He growled in frustration. "This whole thing is good in theory, but it sucks in person. Most of these people speak differentnguages than me, and I can''t tell them what to do."


    I looked over at therge crowd of people, all dressed simrly in the uniforms that we provide for the training. The uniforms that they were wearing were a lot like the US military fatigues. Only instead of being the green camouge they were shades of blue. The solid color t-shirts that they were wearing with them were all navy blue. They were all to wear these everyday unless they were off the castle grounds. They were to identify them as recruits. The guards and instructors even had a dress code now as well. The guards usually wore ck of some sort, but when they were instructing they wore dark blue pants in the same cargo style as the recruits but they were solid color instead of camouge. The shirts were the same color except for the golden symbols that they had on the left breast area. The two letters in the symbol were the GG of the Goddess Guards since they were all part of that elite group.


    "Hmm, that does pose a problem." My Little Bunny responded while I was looking at the new soldiers. "I think that I could solve it. It just requires me trying to actively give a blessing."


    "What do you have nned?" I asked her as she smiled at Paul.


    "You will see." She winked at me.


    She didn''t say anything else. All my Little Bunny did was tilt her head back and close her eyes. I could tell that she was concentrating hard, but she was hiding it with a smile. She wasn''t saying the typical words that she did when she gave a Goddess blessing, but I could see the light building inside of her.


    This was something that I had never seen before. Then again, I had never actively watched her while she gave a blessing before. It usually took us by surprise. This time though, she was calling on the collective powers of the deities that had blessed her and was asking them for assistance.


    After several more minutes that light had grown so bright that it was nearly blinding. The next instant it exploded out of her and seemed to be searching for targets. I just hoped that none of the targets were in public right now.


    I happened to be a target, as well as Paul, Cedar, Gabriel, and Vincent who were nearby. I saw that it was heading toward the rest of the guards nearby as well.


    "What was that blessing for?" I asked her.


    "That was for everyone who is an official member of the Goddess Guard and the Grand Nobles." She smiled at me. "They will now be able to understand and speak everynguage on the. I also included you and I in the blessing, and I asked that only those receiving the blessing be able to see the light. I didn''t need others seeing it and wondering what it was."


    She had thought of the exact same thing that I had. If a human in public saw that, they would flip out.


    "So, what just happened?" Paul called across the yard to us.


    "Try speaking to them." She instructed him. "I added something else for the instructors." She grinned.


    "What does that mean?" He looked so confused right now.


    "It means that they can all understand you, no matter whatnguage you are speaking. To them it will sound like theirnguage. And you will understand them as well."


    "Seriously?" Paul looked excited before turning back to the recruits. "Can you all understand me now?"


    "Oui."


    "Da."


    "Ja."


    "Hai."


    "Sh¨¬ de."


    "S¨ª."


    "S¨¬."


    Several voices rang out in several voices, but all the words sounded the same to me.


    "Yes."


    "Holy shit, Trinity you did it." Paul looked excited.


    From there we were able to watch as the new recruits were told what drills to do and where to do. It was definitely going to make things easier on Paul and the others now. And this new blessing would help us as well since even though we spoke multiplenguages, there were still some that we didn''t know. This would be a great benefit for those in our higher circle.

 Chapter 475 - Trinity - First Quarterly Meeting (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 475 - Trinity - First Quarterly Meeting (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    This new way of life for us had been in effect for a little while now. It was now the middle of April and time for the first ever quarterly meeting with the High Nobles and the Grand Nobles. There were going to be a lot of people here, but definitely nowhere near as many as there could have been.


    The nobles were arriving slowly over a few days. Star and Artem were the first to arrive, and we spent some time hanging out with them. When they came for their Nobility assignment, we had actually had dinner with them, got to meet their two babies and see all thirteen of their adopted boys who had gotten so much bigger and stronger since the talismans they had been wearing were removed..


    Thest time that they had been here, Reagan and Rika had enjoyed ying with their little boy, and I was d that they got the chance to y with him again. And their youngest son was now four months old and curious about everything. Sometimes I still couldn''t believe it. They had fifteen sons between the two they had together and the thirteen they adopted. I even remembered when Reece had Noah call and gently threaten the judge in their adoption case to force him to approve the adoptions. That hadn''t actually been nice to the judge, but it was nice for Star and Artem.


    I quite enjoyed the quick reunion we had with our friends and family from back in California. They were family because Star was actually my cousin thanks to my heritage linking me to Athair m¨°r. His brother Sorrel was the starting point for Star''s Fae bloodline. So yeah, we were family.


    After the visit with them was over, it was time to get to work. Once all the nobles had arrived, I had them assemble in the throne room the next day. Reece and I took our ces before them while they all sat in the chairs on either side of the main aisle.


    "Wee, all of you. Thank you for returning to Castle Gray." Gabriel greeted them for us. "You are all here for the first of the quarterly meetings that you are required to attend. Since this is a new process for us all, I am certain that it will take you all some time to get into the flow of things. However, over time we do believe that things will go a little more smoothly for us all."


    Silence greeted him when he finished his wee. Everyone had bowed to me already, and so they were sitting patiently waiting for the meeting to begin.


    "Again, thank you for making this trip here. This will soon be a regr and normal thing for you so it will not be as chaotic as it was this time. Now, I want to open the floor to all of you. If there were any major conflicts among the territories that you oversee, I want to know about them now."


    There were a few people that raised their hands to tell me of the disputes that happened among the different packs, ns, and covens. It seemed that the most notable disputes were between two of the merfolk ns and several of the wolf pack and feline packs. That was not what I was expecting. It seems that this time around there were no issues with the magic users. Or at least none that they told me about.


    I could get used to just minor issues like this. I didn''t want to see my people fighting amongst themselves too often. I knew that total peace wasn''t possible, just like Athair m¨°r had said before. However, a degree of calmness among the people was something that would be nice.


    I worked my way through the disputes that existed among the groups. We tried to find solutions that were suitable for the parties, and the High Nobles were supposed to go back and delegate the issue for the others. They would tell them of my input, and if that was something they could agree on, they could move on peacefully. If they refused, they would be summoned to the castle for me to handle the issue personally.


    This meeting was taking a little longer than I expected with how detailed everyone was being. However, I was d that they were thoroughly detailed. It would be for the best in the long run. The more details I had the more efficiently I could make my decisions.


    After the main meeting was over, we retired to our quarters for the night. The different groups would meet in their own meeting halls tomorrow to discuss any issues that they wanted to bring up to me. If there was nothing, they could go back to their rooms until the next group meeting. The Grand Nobles had watched over the group meeting and would watch again at the next one as well. We were going to meet while the others had their small meeting to see if there were any problems they wanted to address. There would be another meeting between them and myself if they thought it was necessary after the second group meeting. If not, then everyone would be dismissed and free to go home.


    Thankfully, everything had actually been rtively good over thest few months. I do believe that they were all just trying to get used to the new way of life, and most groups were still scared shitless with having been summoned for the meetings back in January. Still, that peace made it so that the quarterly meetings ended after the third day, and we were able to adjourn until the next meeting.


    Still, despite all of this going so smoothly, I couldn''t stop myself from worrying about the warning from Danu and the impending threat to Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r. It would be so much easier if we knew when the impending battle wasing. But no, we were left rtively clueless about the entire situation.

 Chapter 476 - Trinity - Worry Grows As Time Moves On (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 476 - Trinity - Worry Grows As Time Moves On (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Several months have now passed since I was summoned by Danu. We had celebrated Reece''s birthday at the beginning ofst month and then the second quarterly meeting just a week or so after. It''s kind of a shocker right now, really. Reece is twenty-eight, and I am twenty-one. Where did all the time go?


    Before I know it the twins will be two years old. We have just over three months until their birthdays will be here again. I had a feeling that Reece was already nning what to get the two of them. He was always so excitable when it came to Reagan and Rika.


    Some things that had happenedtely, the positive and good things, were that the daycare was fully operational and running smoothly. The schools that we opened in the new city were fully functional as well with lots of students enrolled, all supernaturals, and the teachers were all supernaturals as well.. Oh, and one more good thing that we had? was a bus system for the school, with some buses dedicated to the daycare. If there were kids whose parents were at work when school let out, they would be taken to the daycare by the buses. Oh, and did I mention that the daycare was entirely free for them to use? We used the funds that the pack paid in ''taxes'' to the alpha since we didn''t need that money for ourselves.


    The school was running above state standards and was ssified as a public school, but did not allow the ''school of choice'' option that a lot of others did. That meant that, as bad as it sounds, we wouldn''t get humans in the school. I was hoping to change this in the future, but we needed to have the next generation of our people educated about their histories and not just what the humans taught.


    In this school, we taught the histories of the Fae wars, the Vampire wars, the Shifter wars, and the true story behind the Witch Trials. These were things that the kids would never learn from the public school system anywhere else. And these were things that those who were going to help lead my people in the future needed to know.


    We also had teachers from these specific species that worked together to teach those history sses. And believe it or not, we were working on building our own university. This would be a way for those that live all around the world to attend a college that was for shifters only.


    It was a type of segregation, which was bad, but it was needed at the moment. We needed our children to learn specific subjects, and if a human were to attend and take a ss on the intricate histories of the Fae or Shifter Origins or something like that, it would be a little hard to exin to them what it was truly all about. Maybe one day in the future we can reveal ourselves to the humans and remove all the barriers. However, now wasn''t the time for that.


    Right now, instead of thinking about how to live harmoniously with the humans, I was worried about Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r. I didn''t know what was going to happen, or when it was going to happen, but I knew that something wasing.


    We hadn''t been back to the Faepound since the Yule celebration. We were going back for Yule again this year though. I know that it was a little unfair to the people here since we had gonest year to the Yule celebration, but I just had a feeling that we needed to go this time. Call it the Goddess Incarnate Intuition or whatever you wanted to name it, but I just felt like I needed to be there during the Yule festivities this year.


    The rest of the family wasn''t going this time. This year it was going to be me, Reece, Reagan, Rika, L, and of course my guards, as well as some of the? knights and some council members.? I was definitely going to take Gabriel and Roisin with us too.


    The ns were already being put into motion for this all to happen. The council members that were going to be there with us were Trevor, Landon, Nathair, Kayda, Rahim, and Daciana. Dietrich was staying behind this time even though Shawn was going with us. And of course, there were two council members that were already at the Faepound, Athair m¨°r and Anastasia Lightly.


    Still, part of me didn''t think that it was enough. If the fight broke out while we were there I didn''t know if we would have enough people there to back us up. I didn''t bring these worries up to Reece though; I didn''t want him to think that I was being paranoid or something like that.


    It was a really stressful time just waiting for it all to fall into ce. I didn''t even have sses to distract me anymore either. I had graduated and had even taken the MBE or the Multistate Bar Examination. I was officially awyer now as well as a Queen, a Goddess Incarnate, and a Mayor. Oh, and when I told Reece I had specialized in businessw so that I could be of use to him, he was actually surprised. Dare I say that he nearly cried because I had done something that specifically tied my chosen career with his business empire. I was even given an official position in thepany, not that it required me to go to work everyday; but I was officially listed as the legal counsel for Alpha Corp. Oh well, what was one more title to my ever growing list?


    I guess that I should get to some of the negatives over thest four months. There was a fire in the row of businesses that Gina and E''s shop was in so they needed to move. That had actually turned into a partial positive because they moved it over to Trinity Falls and were doing even better. They even had a studio in the castle where they would work on dresses and other Queenly outfits for me to wear.


    There were minor disputes with some packs that turned into major issues, and I had to summon eight different packs before me. Six of them were able to resolve their issues; however, in thest case, one of the two Alphas had refused to ept anything but full surrender from his rival. He reminded me too much of Stanley, and I know how that ended up.


    If this man was to be left on his own, he could wind up causing just as much of a problem. I didn''t want to immediately remove him if he wasn''t going to keep up the fight, but I didn''t want to leave him as is either. So, I gave him a warning that was stern, and as I was toldter, quite terrifying. I also told him that he would be monitored by one of the knights without him knowing it, and if he continued to cause problems then he would be removed from his position and possibly receive other punishments. I will admit that his eyes were filled with terror when I told him all of that.


    I had done my job though. I had been the Queen and handled everything that was brought to my attention over thest several months. I had been busy working almost every single day, as had Reece. He may be the King of this whole empire we were growing, but he also had to run his corporation. So a lot of the time, I was doing this job on my own and the twins were spending a lot of time making friends in the daycare or with their grandparents.


    Life had to move on regardless of the impending threat, jobs, school, or anything else. And it just so happens that, for me, life was a very big and often a very chaotic and jumbled mess. I didn''t know what it was that I was supposed to be doing half of the time and so therefore I was just winging it and doing what I thought was best for my people as a whole. I guess that was truly all I could do. Worry, wait, rule, and repeat. That was what my life was now.

 Chapter 477 - Reece - Second Birthday (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 477 - Reece - Second Birthday (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I truly couldn''t believe that it had been two years now. When we woke up this morning and prepared the little party at home for Reagan, I couldn''t believe that they were already two years old.


    OK, OK, Reagan wasn''t born until just before midnight so he wasn''t two at the start of the day, but we didn''t care. We were going to celebrate this day for him, and tomorrow would be Rika''s. And the day after that was going to be their group party for all our friends and family. That is just the way it was going to be..


    Last year, Reagan really had been into dinosaurs. This year he is really into racecars. He is always pretending to drive as he zooms around the house. And just like Reagan, Rika''s interest had changed as well. Last year all she wanted was butterflies, and this year she was obsessed with dragons. I don''t even know where the interest in them came from, but she loves dragons like nothing else. I wonder what they will like next year?


    When Trinity and I woke up, we worked with everyone else to put racecar and racetrack themed decorations all over the main parts of the Royal Tower. When Reagan got up he squealed in delight.


    "Racecar, Daddy I can be a racecar." He jumped out of my arms and ran around the pretend track that we had set up for him.


    "He does love those cars." Valerian, who had juste back for the birthdays,mented when he saw Reagan run around excitedly.


    "That he does." My Little Bunny smiled as she answered him.


    "Are you looking forward to the party on Saturday, Valerian? That idea of yours is awesome, and I think that Rika is going to love it." I asked him, thinking about the ns that he had for the twins.


    "Oh yeah, it''s going to be fun. I haven''t celebrated a child''s birthday like this for a long time, and not exactly like this really since they weren''t modern." He was grinning, just happy to be included.


    We had cake, all of Reagan''s favorite foods, and he opened a couple of gifts that we had for him. One of his presents had been one of those power cars that you can get kids. Only it was obviously custom made and tricked out with magic by Valerian and Trinity. They had made it so that if he hit something with it, there would be a magic bubble that surrounds it instantly so he, and the item, would most likely not be hurt.


    The next day we did the same thing for Rika. There was cake, all her favorite foods, and gifts. She got a rideable toy dragon. And Trinity and Valerian even made it so that it would hover off the ground. That was the best she was going to get. If I saw her flying through the air, I would probably have a heart attack.


    At the main party that was on the 2nd, which thankfully was a Saturday, we had invited just our friends and family to join us. The whole pack wasn''t invited this time per the Queen''s request. Still, there were a lot of people that came.


    With everyone and their kids, we had nearly thirty children and almost sixty adults, and that was literally just the friends and family. We can never have small parties, can we?


    For the party, we had arger race track with several little cars for the kids to ride around. There was a section of the party that had little magic dragons that Valerian was controlling. He had made them so that the kids would fly throughout the ballroom, going as high as twenty feet max even though the ceiling was much higher than that. The kids were also strapped in so they wouldn''t fall. I know that most of the kids were shifters and could heal, but that didn''t mean that I wanted them to get hurt.


    Another good thing about this party just being friends and family was that no one felt ufortable. This time we were all close andfortable with each other. And there wasn''t a mountain of gifts that needed to be donated.


    Seriously, there were still so many gifts that needed to be donated by the time that we got the kingdom up and running that a lot of them went straight to the daycare. I had appreciated everyone''s generosityst time, but there was just too much.


    This year, there were a lot less gifts, and the kids could keep them if they wanted to or get rid of them if they didn''t. That was entirely up to them.


    As I thought about all of that, I heard an excited little giggling noise that caused me to turn and look at Rika.


    "Daddy I flying." She smiled at me sweetly. "I flying."


    "Yeah baby girl, you''re flying." I felt my heart begin to swell at the happiness in her eyes.


    "Ah her made me fly. Watch Daddy."


    "Hey, what about Mommy?" Trinity giggled.


    Over thest year, there had been a slight shift in the favoritism that the kids showed us. Rika, who didn''t have a preference before, was not very much a daddy''s little girl type. And Reagan, who used to hate it when anyone, but Trinity or I held him and still preferred his mommy to his daddy, had be the calm, cool, and collected type so he didn''t care if it was Mommy, Daddy, Ah her, M¨®ra¨ª, L, Nona, Papa; he didn''t really care at all.


    It was wonderful watching them change and be their own little person. I loved seeing all the little changes that they went through, but it was bittersweet as well. I felt my heart ache every time that I saw how much they had grown. Or if I thought about it too much. As exciting as it was, it was also so sad to see.


    And soon, we would be heading to the Faepound where we would celebrate Reagan and Rika''s third Christmas and hope that they would be safe from all the political drama that might be going on there.

 Chapter 478 - Trinity - Returning To The Compound, Again (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 478 - Trinity - Returning To The Compound, Again (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    This was our third time making the trip to the Faepound. I was nowhere near as nervous as I was the first time. And even though I didn''t know it, I had been nervous the second time as well. This time though, I was cool as could be.


    Or at least that was what I was telling myself. I know that I was nervous this time too. The only thing is, I wasn''t nervous about the same things as before. This time, I was worried about what someone might attempt to do while we were here.


    Was this going to be it? Was this going to be the time that we had been waiting on for almost a year? Was that unknown enemy going to make their move? Were we going to find out what all has happened over thest year?


    I had asked Athair m¨°r about the events of thest year, but he told me it would be best to wait and talk about it with Aunt Glory.. That, honestly, didn''t make things any easier on me. If I had to express the way it made me feel, I would say nervous at the very least, frightened at the very worst.


    The whole process of entering thepound was the same as the times we hade here before. We were met at the gate by Breon, however, he seemed to be in a much better mood than I had ever seen him before.


    "Good day to you, Queen Trinity. I hope you are well. And you as well, King Reece." Breon grinned as he weed us through the gate. This time, knowing what was going to happen, I had my window down and shield up so that we could speak to the man before us.


    "Good day to you as well, Breon. How is Juliet doing?" Thest time we were here, he had mated with my guard, and she had stayed behind.


    "She is doing very well. We were married over the summer. I could not be happier." Breon, who had slightly bowed his head out of respect for us, had now raised his head, and I was able to see the shining happiness in his bright golden eyes.


    "I am happy to hear that."


    Following our little exchange, Breon rode in that same ck cart as he guided our vehicles into the garage with a group of soldiers surrounding the SUVs.


    "Is it just me, or are there more soldiers than usual?" Reece asked of no one in particr.


    "That is most likely because of me." Athair m¨°r spoke sheepishly. "As much as I dislike this show, everytime that Ie back to thepound, they act like it is a major event." I saw a pink twinge in his cheeks, and I couldn''t tell if it was from embarrassment or because he was lying to me.


    "That must be very taxing." I smiled at him, hoping that it was just the embarrassment that made him blush.


    "It can be. That is why I do not leave thepound often."


    "That must be boring." Reeceughed, distracting me from the situation. I think he could tell that my worry was making me feel suspicious and distrustful.


    I hated the way that this was all making me feel. It wasn''t fair to those around me. I needed to try and keep my emotions under better control than this.


    Once we were inside, and the SUVs were unpacked, we had the same process as before. We made our way to the same residence that we had been in before, we settled ourselves in before we were to go and have a nice family dinner with Aunt Glory. Athair m¨°r had gone to his residence to get ready as well and would be meeting us there.


    The residence was slightly different this time. There were rooms for me, Reece, Regan, and Rika on the top floor, just like before. There was a room for L up there as well. Gabriel and Roisin had their room just below mine, fitting for what basically amounted to my personal retainers. On the same floor as Gabriel and Roisin were the council members. The floor below was for guards. The knights were staying in another residential home that was attached to this one but could also be entered from the hallway.


    This time, there were fewer floors since there weren''t as many people with us. That kind of saddened me though since I wish my family was here with me. Then again, didn''t I want them here if something bad happened? That was why I had been nervous about bringing the twins with us. What if they got hurt because of it?


    Roisin got straight to work preparing the home for us. Gabriel and she were already efficiently doing their jobs. My top guards, the ones that amounted to being family, were the ones that were going to escort me to the room with the Queen.


    Before we left, we had discussed a few things at length beforeing here this time. Even Athair m¨°r contributed to this conversation when he heard what we had been trying to decide. I was to use a taste tester at all times. After what had happenedst year, and on the day of my ball, even Aunt Glory was using a tester for every meal. Athair m¨°r told me that he had used a taste tester again aftering back to thepound following his visit with us.


    "It is the safest thing to do for now. I want all the food for everyone tested, not just yours Trinity." Reece had told me when he made his argument for it. "I don''t want someone trying to hurt Reagan or Rika."


    "I know, I agree." I nodded at him. "If the food is made in our quarters by Roisin, that is fine, but I will not trust anything else. Especially if Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r are even suspicious of their food from their normal staff."


    "Times are changing here." Athair m¨°r sighed. "You will see how it ister."


    As I remembered his words, it made a pit open in my stomach. It was like nerves and fear were breeding and multiplying at a rapid rate inside me. I knew it was just the unease that I was feeling ying tricks on me, but still it wasn''t pleasant. I was eager to get this done and over as soon as I possibly could.


    "I think that we''re all settled now." Roisin came and smiled at me after getting everything upstairs ready for us. It was now time to change and to head out for our meal with Aunt Glory. We would, of course, be talking before we actually ate. I just hoped that we would be able to settle some of my fears when we talked.


    Maybe, just maybe, Athair m¨°r was not telling me what all was going on because they were preparing a special, happy sort of surprise for us. Yeah, and maybe I was a giant lizard monster that was med for destroying Antis or whatever. I knew the truth even if I didn''t want to ept it. Things here had been steadily going to shit since my very first visit here. I had to wonder, was all of this my fault after all? Did I cause this?


    Was Grier right that night that he died?

 Chapter 479 - Trinity - Surprise Before The Dinner Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 479 - Trinity - Surprise Before The Dinner Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Vincent, Gabriel, Shawn, Shane, David, Waverly and Pierre were all to escort me to Aunt Glory''s personal study. Vincent, Gabriel, and David were to wait inside with me while Shawn, Shane, Waverly and Pierre were to guard the room from the outside.


    Pierre had been the guard that tested for poison at the closing ceremonyst time and was ultimately poisoned. He said that he wanted to protect me again and had actually volunteered to be my official taste tester this time as well. He and Waverly, who had also been a testerst time, were both going with us tonight for that purpose alone. They would test anything that me, Reece, Reagan, and Rika were going to eat.


    Just thinking about that job for them terrified me. I know we had saved Pierrest time, but what if we aren''t that lucky this time around? What if I actually were to lose someone while we are here?


    Aside from my guards, the council was joining us for the discussion, but they were going to be dismissed before the meal. They were there just to share in the information.. Aunt Glory had approved of this ahead of time, but I still felt bad that we were usurping the meeting.


    Trevor, Landon, Nathair, Kayda, Rahim, and Daciana were alling with someone that was basically the equivalent of their Gamma. They would test any drinks that were offered to them. This taste testing was going to be a united front from all of us.


    Now that we were ready to leave with the order of events decided, there was a knock at the door. That was most likely going to be Athai m¨°r. He was going to walk with us to the meeting since he was part of it as well.


    "Wee, Prince Valerian." Gabriel weed him into the residence.


    "Thank you, Gabriel. I hope you''re all-?" He stopped in the middle of his sentence like someone had pped him or he had been overly shocked by something.


    "Athair m¨°r?" I asked as I stepped closer to the door to find out what had happened.


    "I..I..I don''t believe it." He was grinning like this was the best night of his life. "T..Trinity, Garin¨ªon, how is this possible?"


    "What happened, Athair m¨°r? Is something wrong?"


    "Oh, Goddess no." He grinned at me. "Trinity, this is the most amazing night ever. How did I not catch this sooner? How did I not notice this before we left your castle? Were they inside the vehicle the whole time?"


    "What? What are you saying Athair m¨°r?"


    I started to look around the room and figure out what was going on. That was when I noticed that Daciana, the Gypsy was looking at Athair m¨°r in a way that I never noticed during the previous meetings.


    This makes no sense to me. If this was what it looked like, they would have known it much sooner, wouldn''t they? Or, could it be possible that they had to be here, in thends of Fae to feel this bond for the first time.


    "Daciana, are you feeling what I think you''re feeling?"


    "I..I..I think so." She was grinning broadly.


    "Athair m¨°r, you''ve met Daciana before, multiple times. How is it that you didn''t mate until now?" I was so confused. "Do you think you needed the magic of this ce to make it happen?"


    "That is possible. There are many things that none of us know about the mate bond, and how it affects those from different groups of people." Even though he still wore a dazed look on his face, he was speaking as if he knew exactly what he was doing and saying. I was d that he didn''t seem to be at aplete loss.


    "Well, I guess this is truly a night for celebration. Daciana Joviak, you may already know him, but this is Valerian Undine, your mate. Congrattions to the both of you." I looked between the two of them as they walked slowly toward each other. Athair m¨°r took Daciana''s small, slender hand and kissed the back of her knuckles while looking in her eyes.


    "Daciana, I am sorry it took until now to feel the bond, however, I am delighted."


    "As am I, Valerian. I must say, I thought you were a very good looking man the first time that I saw you. I just never thought that this was how things would end up."


    "And you, Daciana, are an exceptionally beautiful woman. I truly do think that fate can be an interesting thing, and I am delighted to be sharing this moment with you."


    They spoke for a few moments longer, but they both knew that we had a job to get to. With another kiss to her hand, Athair m¨°r let his eyes smolder as he made a promise to her.


    "Let us return to our work now, Daciana. After that, we will make the best of this Yule celebration. We do have a very long future ahead of us after all."


    "Yes, that we do."


    I had to wonder, how would Aunt Glory feel about the fact that Athair m¨°r had met his mate? She had been waiting for a mate for a very long time. And while Athair m¨°r had never mated before today, he had been married and had a son. He had more in his life than Aunt Glory had ever had.


    While part of me was overjoyed by this new mating for my family, for my great great great grandfather, I was still worried about another part of my family. I didn''t want to hurt Aunt Glory''s feelings, but I also didn''t want to tell the new couple to pretend like nothing had happened at all.


    While these thoughts were ying over and over inside of my head, we prepared to leave. All of my guards, and the council were circling Reece, Reagan, Rika, and myself. Even Athair m¨°r was acting more as a protector than a royal at this moment. I wonder if they had nned this ahead of time. Did the council know that they were acting more like they were servants of mine than my trusted advisors?

 Chapter 480 - Trinity - Surprise Before The Dinner Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 480 - Trinity - Surprise Before The Dinner Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "So, Trinity, what kind of person is the Fae Queen?" Landon asked me. "I mean, is she a mean Queen or aid back one like you?"


    "Well, I guess that would all depend on the person. She''s nice to me, definitely someone that I can be myself with. However, I did see her kill someone the first time that I met her. So, yeah, that''s not an easy question to answer." I answered him honestly, and in a cheerful voice; however, it made a lot of people around me pale with fear.


    "Haha. She sounds like quite the woman." Trevor joked after he heard what I had to say. "I am d that she isn''t someone weak and insecure.. That just wouldn''t make for a good Queen in my opinion."


    "She''s definitely a good Queen." Valerian jumped in to defend his sister''s honor "I can assure, Mr. Jacoby, you and Mr. yton will have nothing to worry about. My sister will not disappoint."


    "I didn''t really think that she would." Landon grimaced at the fact that he was basically reprimanded by a three thousand year old man.


    It was a pretty long walk from our room to Aunt Glory''s private office, but I had been walking through my castle back home for almost a year now, so I was pretty used to it. As I was thinking about the castle, I thought about all the people that now lived there with us.


    All of my guards, aside from Shawn who lived in his massive house with Dietrich, now had a residence in the castle. They still maintained their other homes as well. Dietrich did actually have a ce in the High Noble tower, but they didn''t stay there often since they lived very close to the castle after all.


    My whole family aside from Carter also lived in the castle. They were either in the tower with me or had their own private residence with the others. Landon had moved into his High Noble suite as well. He went back to his pack house every now and then but he spent most of his time at the castletely anyway. Trevor had moved in as well. His pack epasses half of the entire country. He said it didn''t matter where he lived within that territory as long as his people had ess to him. Well, they did, just usually by appointment only.


    Juniper and her family, and Cedar and his family; it seemed that everyone close to me was living in the castle. Good thing it was so big. And not to mention, good thing we all got along so well.


    I had distracted myself with those thoughts until we were right outside of Aunt Glory''s office. There was a guard out there waiting for us, and his eyes went wide with shock then he saw the group of us approaching. There were more than twenty people who had just arrived before him, a good number of them royalty.


    "I..I..I will l..l..let the Qu..Quee..Queen know that you''re here." He bowed his head a little.


    "Not such a good sign." Trevorughed. "Why is he so skittish?"


    "Perhaps he could picture you in your bear form Winnie the Poohing it all up."


    "Oh shut up Tigger, at least I don''t-."


    "Hush." I silenced them and they both stopped immediately. Damn, I really loved that sometimes. It was fun watching them obey me with that sort ofpulsion.


    "The Queen is ready for you now." The guard was back, this time he was perfectlyposed.


    "Thank you, Dande." I nodded at him, remembering his name now that I saw his face clearly. I had met him at thest Yule celebration. His family was half pixie and half sprite, and he had a twin sister named Lion. Get it? Dande and Lion, Dandelion. I almostughedst time, even with it being as cheesy as it was.


    The double doors to the office were opened, and we were led into the room. It wasrger than usual, being able to amodate whatever was needed just like the residences.


    "Trinity." I walked in ahead of everyone with Reece, Reagan, Rika, Vincent, and Gabriel.


    "Aunt Glory, it is so nice to see you." Reece and I had instinctively set the twins down right before we walked into the room and held their hands as they walked beside us.


    "Oh, and look how big they''ve gotten." She was starting to gush over the twins as everyone else walked in behind us. "I have been waiting until I had the chance to see these two beautiful ba-."


    Glory stopped short, her words cutting off like she didn''t know what to say or do at the moment. She slowly stood up and was looking at the group of guards and council members behind me.


    I watched as a massive smile spread across her face. I didn''t know what was happening, and I was actually scared by what happened next.


    "EEEeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" That scream was nearly ear piercing, and it soon shifted into something a lot lessposed than what it already was.


    "Gloriana, what is going on?" Athair m¨°r ran to his sister''s side. He was clearly scared about what was happening.


    As Aunt Glory continued to scream, and my guards started to circle us all as if to defend us from an unknown threat. I looked around the room to see if there was an exnation for what was happening.


    I saw that one specific person was grinning in a way that he never usually did. It still held the wild look that he always had, but there was something more to it. And he was also not panicking which meant that he knew what was going on.


    Slowly, as if he were trying to saunter to gather her attention, he walked to stand in front of her.


    "I think that I am very happy that I came here today." Trevor took Aunt Glory''s hand and kissed the back of it as Athair m¨°r looked as if someone had just pped him across the face.


    "What the hell do you think you''re doing?" He asked Trevor, but the words went unanswered as Aunt Glory squealed happily as she jumped and threw her arms around his neck.


    "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you."


    Aunt Glory was now dangling with her feet kicking out behind her while Trevor wrapped hisrge arms around her waist.


    "I could get used to this." He chuckled as the Queen of the Fae pressed herself against him.


    "I guess this makes two, tonight. I think it''s fitting, considering that you two are all that''s left of the triplets." I grinned as I looked at the confused man and excited woman.


    "What are you talking about?" Athair m¨°r further showed how confused he was.


    "They mated, Valerian." Landon pped a hand to his shoulder, causing all the pieces to click into ce for Athair m¨°r.


    "Mated? My sister finally mated?" He was grinning. "We both found our mates."


    "What?!"


    Glory was shocked by her brother''s words and pulled her face out of the curve of Trevor''s neck.


    "What did you say?" She asked her brother as Trevor lowered her to her feet.


    "I mated as well." Athair m¨°r grinned at her. "Just now, just before we came to see you." He waved a hand, and Daciana walked to his side.


    "Valerian!" Glory hugged him next, and Daciana as well. "Finally, Valerian, it finally happened. Oh my goodness, I can''t believe that this finally happened to us after so long."


    "I know, Glory, I know." He smiled while he hugged his sister tightly.


    I was happy for them. They had been waiting for so long, never knowing when or if they would even meet their mates. I know there were just a lot of extenuating circumstances that hadn''t been met yet.


    It took a little while longer to get things settled, and everyone to take their seats, but we managed to do it. Also, Dande was sent to Aunt Glory''s private kitchen since there would be two more joining us for dinner tonight.


    I guess that was to be expected. No one wanted to find their mate and then immediately leave. Well, aside from me. That was exactly what I had done. And whenever I mention that new mates should have time together Reece just growls at me and reminds me about that. I''ve been nicetely, and I haven''t reminded him that he didn''t want me at that time either, so we were even.

 Chapter 481 - Trinity - What Has Happened While We Weren’t Here Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 481 - Trinity - What Has Happened While We Weren¡¯t Here Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After the excitement died down, it was time for the meeting to get started. We all sat around the room infortable seating. Athair m¨°r with Daciana next to him on a loveseat. Aunt Glory was sitting in an oversized armchair, on Trevor''sp. The rest of the council were in different chairs, Reece and I were on a loveseat like Athair m¨°r. The attendants, which were the Gammas and such that had been brought, were standing behind the council members that were here for the meeting.


    Gabriel was standing behind me as well. He was ready to offer advice, but he was also going to memorize all that was being said so that we could take the information back home with uster. The guards that were in the room were standing in prime positions to protect me if needed, but we didn''t expect anything to happen while we were here. And Reagan and Rika were in a magical y area that Aunt Glory had set up for them in advance.


    "As I had been saying before, I can''t believe how big they are now." She was grinning. They''re so much taller and talk so much better now.


    "That they are." I looked at them lovingly. "I can''t believe that they''re already two. It''s been a whole year again."


    "And they remembered me." Aunt Glory was grinning. She had referred to the fact that after the yelling and excitement of the matings passed, they went to her and greeted her easily.


    "Hi Aunty Glory." Rika beamed at her and spoke in her cheerful little voice.


    "Aunty Glory, Ah her talks about you."


    "He does?" She looked at her brother with loving eyes. "Do you two want to y? I have it all set up and ready for you."


    "Aunty Glory used magic?" Rika asked her, her words so much more understandable than they had beenst year, or even six months ago.


    "Me see the magic, Aunty Glory? Please?" Reagan piped up as well.


    "We will see the magicter." She smiled at them.


    "Yay!" The twins cheered happily as they pped for her.


    That was all it had taken to make her happy. She had learned that her brother was keeping her alive in their memories, and the fact that they knew her on sight made her the happiest, well second happiest. The happiest that she had ever been was when she met Trevor. And Trevor also looked like he was the happiest that I had ever seen him.


    It was weird seeing them together. Trevor, the always joking wild man with a heart of gold, and my bubbly Aunt Glory. I never saw that matching, you know, since they are very, very, very far apart in age.


    I was the one that brought the meeting away from the talk of family and new mate bonds. As much as those things made me happy, I needed to know what was going on with everyone here at the Faepound.


    "Aunt Glory," I said as I looked away from the twins and into her shining eyes, "please, tell me what has been going on."


    "That''s what we''re here for, isn''t it?" She smiled at me and then looked over her shoulder to Trevor who was grinning at her.


    "I know that was the main reason that I came here for." His words were softer than I had ever heard him talk before. "But we got a little bit distracted."


    "Rightfully so, I would say." She smirked at him and leaned back against his chest. "But I guess we do need to get down to business, don''t we?"


    Aunt Glory moved from Trevor''sp and stood in front of the firece. She was looking at us all with her serious face. It was clear that she was putting herself into Queen mode. I saw that there was a little bit of a heated light that entered Trevor''s eyes when I looked over at him at that moment.


    "Alright, I gather that you all know about the attempted prison break back in January." She wasn''t asking us, she was stating it as a fact. And it was true, we did all know. Athair m¨°r had shared the information with us and most likely told her that he told us. That was a convoluted sentence that just passed through my head; however, it worked, and it was all true. I nodded at her to let her know that we did, indeed, know about that incident.


    "Well, the thing is, that was the first time that we had discovered that someone was being controlled."


    "Are you sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they were being controlled and forced to do the things that they did?" Reece asked the question just a moment before I did.


    "I am sure. I searched the woman and her memories myself. I felt the traces of magic inside her mind, and I could feel the malice and evil that touched her just by being in the same room as her. Frida was never like that before. She loved the way that things were and tried to stop her husband frommitting crimes right in front of the whole court."


    "I remember that." I nodded at Aunt Glory in response. "Is it possible that Grier had been manipted as well? Is it possible that this all goes back to before my first ever visit to the Fae?"


    "I never would have pegged Grier for that type of person. He was an idiot, that was widely known, and he had his strong opinions, but he wasn''t the type of person to rock the boat. So, it is possible that he was one of the victims. However, the controller, that is to say the Fae behind all of this, still hasn''t been identified."


    "I imagine that has been the case." I grimaced and shook my head. I had not even been hopeful about it. "What else has happened?" I gave her a look that I hoped encouraged her to continue.


    "There has been a lot of talk of staging a coup, a revolution, or something of that sort. Discord has been running rampant through the kingdom. There have been small incidents that have never happened before this year. Or, should I say, that hasn''t happened in over five hundred years. There have been acts of hate on the lesser Fae. Those with less magic or the inability to look fully human. It started with random attacks that left someone injured, but they would recover. The problem is, I can''t figure out who is behind it all." Glory was shaking her head. "I hate to doubt my people, but everyone seems to have an alibi for the attacks."


    "Aunt Glory." I called her name so that she would look at me. "You said it started like that. What did it progress into?"


    "Good ear, Trinity." She sighed as she looked up at me. "Thest half a dozen attacks have left the lesser Fae in question permanently injured or dead. They''re getting worse and worse."


    "Where do these attacks happen?" Reece asked her for more details.


    "Usually out in the open. The lesser Fae will be going to the market or the river and the next thing we know they will beying in a puddle of blood." I could see the anger in Glory''s eyes now. She was in full Queen mode so I needed to slip from thinking of her as family and think of her as a fellow Queen."


    "Is there anyone you suspect that might have done this?" Trevor asked her as he rose to his feet. I could tell that he wanted to go andfort her at the moment.


    "Everyone and no one. I have a feeling that whoever it is truly, is in my kingdom, but when I have them interviewed there is no one that stands out to the guards. And when I interview someone I get the same result."


    "So you''ve interviewed them yourself?" This was from Landon, he finally spoke up.


    "She only interviewed them after all the guards did, and then I did. Glory was thest resort that we had to try and find out who they were."


    I could hear how upset they were about what had been happening. But I had to ask once more, I had to know.


    "Has anything else happened?"

 Chapter 482 - Trinity - What Has Happened While We Weren’t Here Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 482 - Trinity - What Has Happened While We Weren¡¯t Here Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I could hear how upset they were about what had been happening. But I had to ask once more, I had to know.


    "Has anything else happened?" Glory looked at me with eyes that clearly said that she wished that I hadn''t asked that question. It was like she was trying to both hide it, but not at the same time.


    "Alright, I will tell you the rest."


    Glory took a deep breath and looked around the room again. I think she was trying to gauge whether or not to trust all of the people here before she continued. I had been expecting that things were bad, but I hadn''t been expecting that they were getting this bad. Just what else could be happening that it was worse and harder to tell me than Fae being murdered?


    After exhaling on a heavy sigh, Glory looked at me and spoke as if there wasn''t anyone else there, like everyone had left, and it was just the two of us.


    "They''ve been trying to break into the castle. That part we expected after the attempted prison break. However, the truly bad part of it all, is that there seems to be a leakage of dark Fae magicing into thepound."


    "Dark magic?" I looked at her with confusion.


    "Yes. The magics that we locked away with those that were banished centuries ago. The ability to create and control horrible disgusting monsters. The ability to control and manipte minds. The ability to bring people back from the dead. There are more, but they''re not things that we should be discussing right now."


    I was already staring at her bbergasted. What had actually been going on here? Had they had people rising from the dead at random? Were they like themselves from before or were they zombies? Were they mindless creatures at the control of the others? I just didn''t understand what it was that had happened in the year that we were away.


    "Glory?" Reece called out to get her attention. "Who had these powers to begin with?"


    "There were so many different Fae that had them. Some people who had these powers gave them up willingly, deciding not to fight with the dark Fae of old. They sided with us and put those old magics to rest."


    "And do they have them again, those old powers of theirs?" Gabriel was the one who asked this.


    "Yes, they do. And they are just as terrified as I am." She looked at him with worried eyes.


    We discussed this issue a little more. We found out just how many Fae had been given their dark magic back. Seventy-three and counting thest time that they knew. And we talked about why this was bad for them all. Those with the powers back could fall victim to the mind controlling and do something for the mastermind without wanting to.


    There were just way too many unknown variables within it all that we just didn''t know what to do about all of this.


    "We will need to monitor the situation from here on out." I told Glory with an authoritative tone in my voice.


    "I will be staying here with her, so I can keep an eye on it." Trevor''s voice was firm and filled with resolve.


    "Good, you will know what to look for." I nodded at him. "Now, Aunt Glory, I think there is something that I need to tell you."


    "Trinity?" She was looking at me again, her eyes holding fear in them.


    "I never told you about something that happened thest time that we were here." I saw the look on her face, it was almost as if she felt betrayed. "Reece and I had been summoned by Danu."


    "Mother?"


    Glory lookedpletely shocked to hear that I had seen the mother Goddess Danu. I often forgot that Danu was not just another Goddess to Athair m¨°r and Glory. She was their mother. She birthed the two of them and their deceased brother Sorrel. They were her children, not an ascension into the Fae realm like the others.


    "Why did Mother call on you and not me?" She was hurt, visibly heartbroken about that.


    "The celestial beings are forbidden from interfering too much in the lives of their children. She called me to see her to give me a warning about you and Athair m¨°r."


    "A warning? What type of warning?"


    I watched as Trevor wrapped his arms around her shoulders and held her close to him while she stared at me. I don''t think Glory even realized it because she was focusing on me too much.


    "She told me that an unknown enemy wasing for you. She didn''t know who it was, but they were full of evil and malice. I didn''t tell you because I didn''t want you to be too suspicious of your people, but it looks like it is toote for that. You don''t know who to trust now. And so, for that matter, it is time for me to tell you what Danu told me."


    "Mother is trying to protect me?" She was still at a loss to be hearing about her mother.


    "Yes." I smiled and nodded to her.


    "You were right not to tell me." She looked me in the eyes again, this time they were clear and determined. "Had you told me before, I would have suspected everyone of doing something wrong. I would never have been able toe to this point on my own. Thank you, Trinity." She nodded at me and smiled happily. "You are bing a wise Queen, and so quickly as well."


    "I had excellent teachers." I nodded back at her with a smile that matched hers.


    "What do you say that we move onto the meal?" She looked like she didn''t want to talk about any more unpleasantness.


    "That sounds good to me."


    We cleared the room of the ''attendants'' and sent them back to the room. The food was brought in and Pierre and Waverly came in to test it all before anyone in our ''royal'' family was permitted to eat any of it.


    "Mommy, he ate my food." Reagan pointed at him with an usatory finger.


    "He isn''t eating it, honey. He''s checking to make sure that it''s extra yummy for you." I reassured him.


    "Mine too?" Rika looked at me with wonder. "Is mine extra yummy too?" She turned her look to Waverly as he tested her food. He waited a moment so that any effects of poison would be known. When nothing happened he smiled at her.


    "Mmm, that is yummy. I think it is just perfect for a little Princess."


    "Really?" She grinned at him.


    "Really, really." He set the te in front of her now. "Why don''t you taste it and see."


    "OK!" She called out excited and grabbed her little, child sized fork that had been provided for her. "Mmm, that is good." She grinned at him. "Thank you."


    "You''re very wee, Princess."


    Now that we were all eating our food, we moved the topics of conversation to that of the family. We talked about the different things that had happened with us, and how the kids were doing. We told Aunt Glory all about the new castle, and the changes we had made to our ''kingdom'' now that things were set up. It was quite a lovely family dinner, just like we had nned. It was just sad that it had taken so much heartbreak to get to this point.


    And having Daciana and Trevor at dinner made things that much better. I could tell that Aunt Glory was beyond happy that she had finally found a mate.


    "Wait a minute." Reece called out when he realized something. "Does this mean that you are now my great great great uncle inw?" Reece asked Trevor whileughing.


    "Yeah, so know your ce and respect your elders." He joked right back with him.


    "Oh, Goddess." I buried my head in my hands andughed. Aunt Glory was smiling happily, not hiding herughter at all. "I hope you know what you''re in for, Aunt Glory." I smiled at her.


    "Oh, I think I do." She gave Trevor a heated look. "I think that a Queen like me needed a man that was a bit on the wild side. All my previous consorts have been sticks in the mud."


    "You won''t need them anymore, baby." Trevor wiggled his eyebrows at her. "You will find that this wild bear of a man is more than enough for you."


    That and more cringe worthy lines were said throughout the night. Still, it was nice, despite how it all began. And I was truly happy for Athair m¨°r and Aunt Glory. They got what they wanted.

 Chapter 483 - Trinity - The Festival Begins (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 483 - Trinity - The Festival Begins (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The day after our family dinner was the open ceremony banquet for the Yule festival. We all got dressed and ready and were nning to attend with all of my guards and knights there with us. The Council was invited as well, and they were to be seated at Athair m¨°r''s table like I didst year.


    This year, I was here as family, as well as an official guest, so we were sitting at the Queen''s table. We also had the twins with us, and all four of us were wearing the crowns that Athair m¨°r and Reece had made for us.


    OK, I will admit that Reagan and Rika looked so freaking cute with their crowns on. They were just so adorable and perfect that I couldn''t believe it at all. They were also so cute in their specially made clothes for the Yule festival.


    Rika was wearing a pretty purple dress that shimmered when she moved.. And the shoes she wore were a pretty pair of silver ballet ts that seemed to shine and sparkled with every step, regardless of the light.


    Reagan was looking like a proper little man in his pristine little ck suit. He had a deep, forest green dress shirt and a navy blue tie. His tiny little toddler shoes were just like Reece''s, ck Italian leather that was perfectly matched to the outfit.


    Reece matched Reagan, almost perfectly. His outfit and Reagan''s had been perfectly nned. And when I saw Reece carrying Reagan, and that adorable little face of my son that I could tell was the spitting image of his father, I couldn''t help but nearly cry at the sight of it.


    My dress was simr to Rika''s. Mine was long and flowy where hers was a baby doll dress meant for someone a lot shorter than me. Aside from the shape and structure differences the dresses were the same. Oh, and the shoes were different too, mine were a pair of shimmering silver stiletto heels that seemed to shine when I walked as well. Mine also had beautiful straps that wound up my legs. They made it hard to walk but I loved them.


    I will never forget what Reagan told me though, while we were walking toward the banquet hall.


    "Mommy, my clothes ugly." He left out a word but otherwise it was quite the well thought out sentence.


    "No they are not, baby." I soothed him. "You look very handsome."


    "Rika has pretty clothes. She sparkles. Mine boring."


    "Ahh, I get it." I smiled at him. "I know you want a more colorful outfit. Mommy will ask for one for you next time. You will sparkle with sissy, OK." He grinned at me and looked very happy.


    "OK!"


    That had been so adorable. I will never forget a single word of that exchange. But now, it was time for us to start our meal.


    I noticed that Trevor was sitting in the Consort''s chair this time. And a look over at Athair m¨°r showed me that Daciana was sitting at his side. Everyone was so happy right now.


    "Wee, one and all." Aunt Glory was addressing everyone in the open courtyard for the banquet just likest year. I know she was hoping this Yule celebration would turn things aroundpared to how they werest year. If I was basing it off of the muted silence of everyone that was looking at her then I wouldn''t hold my breath about that.


    "This year has not been easy on us." She continued to address the crowd. "We have seen many hardships and lows, as well as frightening things. Let us try to forget about that while having fun this month. However, I want you all to stay on your guard." She was telling them to have fun but to stay safe. It was definitely a warning they should take to heart.


    "My Queen, if we''re to stay on guard, then I want to know. Who is that man in your Consort chair?" Jasper, one of the nobles, asked with a seriously disapproving look. "And furthermore, who is that woman that is very cozy with the Prince?"


    "Both of those are very good questions." Aunt Glory nodded at Jasper. "The woman sitting by my brother is his mate. He was just recently mated to this lovely Gypsy woman. We should all be happy for them and proud to have her as a member of the royal family."


    "And does that mean that the shifter is your mate?" Jasper asked. He didn''t look angry, just slightly disapproving.


    "That he is." Aunt Glory beamed at them all. "This is Trevor Jacoby, an Alpha bear and my new mate. I met him for the first timest night, and I was overjoyed when I realized that I had found my mate."


    "We cannot have a non-Fae king." A voice rang out from the distance. "That is just not right."


    "I assure you, if Danu had a problem with it, then she would not have given him to me as a mate. This is the way that the Gods and Goddesses have intended it to go."


    "How can we have a non-Fae king?" another voice rang out.


    "Does this mean that all future Fae will only be half Fae?" Someone else asked.


    I could tell that this was getting to Aunt Glory. She wasn''t saddened by it; quite the opposite, she was getting angry. I wanted to stop arger scene from happening, I needed this to stop escting, quickly.


    "I don''t see a problem with it." I stood up and spoke before Aunt Glory got mad. "I myself am a tribrid. I am a Wolf, a Witch, and a Fae all in one. And I personally have been blessed by the Goddess Nehalennia, the God Thoth, and the Goddess Danu."


    With that there was a lot of chatter. No one seemed to be believing me.


    "No."


    "Impossible."


    "Mother Danu would never do that."


    "Lies."


    I wasn''t going to let them get to me though. No matter what they said.


    "You can see it for yourselves." I told them as I pointed out the three marks that were in full view on my chest. "These marks here were the ones given to me by Danu. I was invited to see her in the celestial ne. I spoke to her and saw her. She was beautiful and wise, and she didn''t at all think that having a mixed heritage was bad."


    "Did mother Danu truly feel that way?"


    "She was that epting?"


    "I guess she would have to be, since mating with a wolf or other shifter has resulted in my children."


    "Mother won''t abandon us?"


    "I am still skeptical."


    "This is not what I expected."


    There was a mixture of a lot of different words and voices that were thrown at me. I barely caught them all, but I heard some of it, and they were both positive and negative. However, no one was actively trying to protest to the Queen anymore.


    That left them all in a state of shock. And, thankfully, we were able to get the banquet back on track. I am also happy to say that there were no other incidents that happened that night. Thank the Goddess that nothing happened there at all.

 Chapter 484 - Trinity - Could All Of This Really Be Going This Good? (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 484 - Trinity - Could All Of This Really Be Going This Good? (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Thankfully, the banquet went well. It set a nice precedent for the rest of the festival. Or at least I had hoped that it would. I guess time would tell.


    The first few days of the festival, the light celebrations, seemed to be going really well. The festivities were all held during the day since the night time shows from the year before had been cancelled.. This was to keep more Fae safe as they enjoyed the celebrations.


    I did notice that there was a distinctck of excitement from the attendeespared tost year. There was still quite a lot of joy and glee to be seen, but I also noticed that everyone seemed to be wary of everyone around them.


    I literally think that the only ones that weren''t being suspected of something were Aunt Glory, Athair m¨°r, and me and my group. Since we ''outsiders'' weren''t here when the trouble started, we were not being suspected. Not to mention that I had gained the awestruck reverence of most of the Fae because of my blessing from Danu.


    Apparently, I was the first ever living soul to receive a direct blessing from Danu herself. She had ''sent'' a blessing that appeared on people like the Goddess marks that I give people, but no one aside from Aunt Glory, Athair m¨°r, and my deceased Uncle Sorrel had ever even met with Danu in person until Reece and I were summoned before her.


    Oh, and do not even get me started on how things were for Reece right now. They all knew that he was my King and, therefore, the person to go to so that they could get to me.? He had been getting bombarded with new requests to join what had be known as our military academy.


    The knights that hade with us were very efficiently trained by Paul and Cedar that they were already starting to rival the guards and knights that the Fae had. And these were soldiers that had been in service to the crown for centuries.


    The night before the banquet and ball that was to be held for the light celebration, Aunt Glory was giving another show like she had donest year. I could see the lights moving all around the amphitheater in a beautiful disy.


    "Look Mama, look." Reagan shook my arm where we sat in the private view booth. "Look at the lights."


    "Mommy, look. Aunty Glory! Look." Rika joined in with Reagan''s excitement.


    "Yes, that is indeed Aunty Glory." I smiled and took their hands in mine.


    "Are the lights pretty?" Reece grinned at them as he knelt next to us.


    "So pretty." Reagan nodded.


    "I want to make lights." Rika squealed. "Mommy, will you teach me?"


    "Maybe when you''re older." I nodded at her.


    "Me too, me too, me too." Reagan beamed and lit up like one of Aunt Glory''s lights.


    "Yes, you too bubby." I smiled at him and called him the affectionate nickname that I used for him once in a while.


    Reagan and Rika thought that the lights were beautiful, which they were, but what I noticed the most was that the lights seemed to be conveying a message. The lights and the images that they were showing us were speaking of unity, love, eptance, taking care of your ownmunity and, most of all, peace.


    I could tell that Aunt Glory was putting a lot of emotion into those lights and the show that she was giving to us all. If I looked closely enough, I swear I could see her crying as she created the imagery for her people.


    I knew this message wasn''t for us. Unlikest year, where she happily disyed her family for them all to see, this year Aunt Glory was begging whoever it was that was hurting her people to stop. She was begging them to talk to her personally and tell her what it was that they wanted out of all of this.


    When the show came to a close, the entire crowd started to slowly leave the amphitheater, one by one. As I watched their faces, I saw that not a single one of them was dry. Everyone of the Fae in attendance had been crying. They had gotten the message that Aunt Glory was trying to give them all.


    "I will do my best to protect them too." I whispered to myself, vowing to protect each and everyone of these people.


    Just as that thought finished passing through my mind, there was a blood curdling scream that rent the silence of the night. Instantly fear washed over the crowd as everyone was looking worried and seemed to be wondering if they should run toward the sound of the screaming that had seemed to take a breath and begin again as screaming and broken sobs.


    "Waverly, go with Pierre and take the twins back to the residence. I want you to take half of the knights with you." I handed him Rika, who I had been holding the hand of, and Reece followed suit as he handed Pierre Reagan.


    "What are you going to do, mydy?" Waverly looked worried as he cradled my daughter against him.


    "What I was asked to do by the Goddess."


    With that I took off running in the direction of the screams and sobbing that I could hear. Reece, who hadn''t said a word to object or oppose me, was just following right behind me. Gabriel, Vincent, and all of the others were following after me and trying their hardest to get in front of me like guards were meant to. The only one who had actually managed it was David, but he was the fastest among them.


    After a few minutes, we made it to the location of the woman who had screamed. I saw that she had fallen to the ground, crying as she looked across the walkway that she had taken to get home. When my eyes followed hers I felt myself nearly vomit.

 Chapter 485 - Trinity - A Warning (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 485 - Trinity - A Warning (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The Fae who screamed had done so when she came across an extremely gory sight. Directly in front of the woman was a pristine, white wall made of beautiful carved bricks. I had seen the wall and knew just what the carving on it meant. It was a carving that represented the light, and all the magic that it epassed.


    However, the wall was no longer pristine and white. It was dirtied and covered in stains.. Red stains. Bloody red stains. And stuck right in the middle of the wall was the body of a Fae woman.


    I almost mistook it for a child at first since the body on the wall was that small. She was no taller than five feet, if that. And her slight frame, tiny hands, and narrow face made me think that she was so much younger than she truly was.


    However, I instantly recognized her light green hair, paleplexion, and the vivid purple color of her eyes. It was Frida, the woman who had tried to stop her husband Grier over two years ago, and the woman who had been controlled and sent to rescue Curtis from the dungeons.


    She had been killed, but that wasn''t all that they had done to her. Frida had her throat slit, and the blood was pouring down the front of her soft, pale pink dress. There was a silver sword stuck through her chest and pinned her to the wall. There was arge gash across her belly, so deep that aside from blood, entrails had started to slide from within her body.


    And to top it all off, they had cut her eyelids off. That was why I had been able to see the vivid color of her irises and knew exactly who she was. Who would do this to her? Who could have done this and not gotten sick.


    Above Frida''s body, written in her own blood, was a message. I had just finished reading the message when Aunt Glory made it to the scene, surrounded by her knights.


    "Oh, Frida?" She looked saddened, but she didn''t let it show on her face too much.


    The message that had been left was a clear warning for Aunt Glory.


    ''YOUR DAYS OF REIGNING OVER ME WILL SOON COME TO AN END! PREPARE YOURSELF MY QUEEN FOR YOU ARE ABOUT TO FALL FROM GLORY!''


    The woman on the ground was still sobbing when Aunt Glory made her way over to her.


    "Shh. Shh. Hush now, Hibiscus. Shh. Shh." She was trying to sooth her as she brought the woman to her feet.


    "Sh..sh..sh..she''s dead." The woman, evidently Hibiscus, was still sobbing, but she was a little more in control than she used to be. "Sh..sh..sh..she''s b..b..b..been ri..ri..ripped o..o..o..open." I could tell that the Fae woman was having a hard time with all of this while Aunt Glory took her over to one of the guard knights.


    "I know." Aunt Glory was still soothing her. "I will take care of this, just please do your best to calm yourself."


    I was watching them walk and thinking about the way that this whole scene must have yed out. The blood wasn''t even dried yet, hell, it hadn''t even stopped flowing from the poor woman''s body yet. Which meant that the murder had to have happened at the most seconds before Hibiscus stumbled onto the scene.


    If it was that close of an encounter, then she must have seen something, right? She might have seen the killer, and so maybe she could lead us in the right direction.


    "Hibiscus?" I called out to her. "Did you see anything else? Anyone else?" I wanted to ask her these questions before she left the scene. I needed her memories that were fresh in her mind.


    "N..n..no." She was shaking her head. "I didn''t see anyone else."


    I don''t know why, but when she looked at me I felt like she was lying. There was something that was off about her. I turned to look at Gabriel and then Vincent before I spoke to the two of them telepathically at the same time.


    ''Is she telling the truth right now?''


    ''I sense nothing from her.'' Gabriel''s words came first, and I started to feel relieved.


    ''I feel nothing as well.'' Vincent added. ''And as in nothing, I mean that I can not read her at all.'' Those words froze me in ce.


    ''I''m sorry, what was that?'' I asked him to repeat himself, but it was Gabriel who responded.


    ''It is like there is nothing to read. It is like she is a shell.''


    ''Is it possible that she is being controlled by someone?''


    ''I do not have the information to answer that question just yet.'' I felt an emotion from Gabriel then that was the equivalent of him hanging his head in shame.


    ''I think we need to investigate further.'' I told them.


    ''Agreed.'' Vincent said firmly.


    ''Exactly what I was thinking.'' Gabriel added before I ended the connection.


    "Queen Gloriana." I called out to her in a more official capacity than I usually did.


    "Yes, Queen Trinity." She looked at me with sorrow filled eyes that still held an edge of authority.


    "I believe we should take Hibiscus back to the castle. There are a few more questions that I think we should ask her."


    "Can it not wait?" She was looking at me incredulously now, as if she couldn''t believe what it was that I had just said to her.


    "No, Queen Gloriana, I do not think that it can."


    "Very well then." She nodded at me. "Do you feel up to some questions, Hibiscus?"


    "I..I..I don''t know anything." She sobbed and looked between me and Aunt Glory. "I..I..I didn''t s..s..s..see anything. N..n..n..nothing a..a..at a..all." She was trembling and fearful as she spoke.


    "Please, it will only take a few moments. You never know what you might remember." I tried to encourage her and push her along toward the castle.


    "O..O..OK." Finally, she consented.

 Chapter 486 - Trinity - Interrogation Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 486 - Trinity - Interrogation Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I didn''t know why, but Hibiscus didn''t look all that happy about being taken over to the castle so that we could ''talk'' about the incident. Not that I would say that someone being murdered and used as a message was just an incident. This was not just some stupid little prank gone wrong or some petty theft, it wasn''t a domestic violence case or assault that a lot of people try to pass off as if it was nothing. No, this was someone''s life that had been taken from them.


    As I watched on, I saw that Aunt Glory still had her arm around the woman as the two of them started to head back toward the castle. Hibiscus was still sobbing and Aunt Glory was rubbing her back in slow soothing circles.. I could tell that the two of them were very close. They have most likely been friends for longer than I could fathom, however, this was not the time to be showing this sort of closeness and affection with other people. Aunt Glory needed to show that she was a strong and confident leader, she needed to stay strong and firm right now.


    Aside from the soothing noises that wereing from Aunt Glory, the space around me was utterly silent. I needed to do something though, I needed to break this petrified tension.


    "Everyone should head home immediately." I instructed them all, raising my voice so that I would be heard by everyone that was surrounding us. "Go back to your homes and stay there until the morning. I hope that we will have some answers for you by then, but do not take this lightly. You should all exercise caution for the time being. Look out for one another and protect each other."


    Those that were the closest to me were looking at me like I was their lifeline in this chaotic situation. I thought to myself that this was something that Aunt Glory should be doing for them right now. She was their Queen, she was their leader, it should be her that was giving them strength and reassurance like this.


    Following my words, the crowd started to disperse. They were looking between me and Aunt Glory as they went. I could tell by the t and dead look in their eyes that they were confused, worried, scared, and uncertain. There was just so much that was going on around them at the moment. It was clear they were all overwhelmed, and many of them seemed as if they weren''t capable of coping with it. They were the ones that were the most in need of soothing right now.


    I did my best to ignore the current situation as I followed after Aunt Glory. Once the crowd had thinned, I walked a little faster so that I could catch up to the two women walking away from me. I wanted to take my ce near Aunt Glory and Hibiscus.


    "It''s OK, Bissy. You''re safe, I promise." Aunt Glory seemed like she was still talking to Hibiscus, but the name was throwing me off.


    ''Bissy?'' I thought to myself as I listened in on their conversation.


    "Who would do something like that, Glory? Who could be so evil?" Hibiscus sobbed and put her face in her hands, letting Aunt Glory guide her.


    "Only a truly evil monster would do something like that, Bissy. Someone so full of hate that they can''t see the love of the world around them."


    OK, well Aunt Glory just confirmed that Bissy was indeed Hibiscus. I guess it''s a fitting enough nickname, but it just threw me since I just hadn''t been expecting it. Even as I thought about the whole name discrepancy, I was trying to wrap my head around what had happened tonight.


    I had just vowed to protect these Fae, and one of them was murdered. And it wasn''t just that they were killed, they had been used as a warning against Aunt Glory. Did she not care that someone had basically just dered war against her? Did she not care that one of her people was brutally in and strung up like some sort of disgusting disy?


    I was starting to worry about my aunt and the priorities that she had at the moment. And I was starting to wonder why this woman was so unreadable, but seemed to be innocent by all ounts.


    There was just too much that was unknown about this situation and it was starting to make me a little nervous. I could tell you right now that I was regretting bringing Regan and Rika here. They would most likely be staying in the residence until we leave, and I would be leaving most of the knights behind to guard them.


    I was also already nning the different protection spells that I could put onto the door to our residence. I had to ward it from anyone that might mean to do us harm. I would not risk my children at all. I would not let them be put in danger because there was a psychopath on the loose.


    These thoughts and more were passing through my mind the entire time that we were walking through the castle. As I started to pull myself out of my mind, with the guidance of Reece''s hand in mine, I began to notice where it was that we were going in the castle.


    "Queen Gloriana, do you truly think that this is the best ce for this meeting?" I asked with a curious voice. I can''t believe that she was taking the person that needed to be questioned about this crime to her private study.


    "Why yes, Queen Trinity, I do think that this is the best location."


    I could tell by the look in Aunt Glory''s eyes that she was a little annoyed with me right now. Well, she knew that I was here to help solve this issue that had been happening around them. She really shouldn''t be all that surprised.


    I turned to look at Athair m¨°r who was walking beside Aunt Glory. He was looking between the two of us, confused and torn. I could tell that he was a little uncertain about who he should side with. Seeing this, I slowed just a little and beckoned him over to me. He slowed as well and started to walk beside me, opposite of Reece.


    "Trinity, what is going on?" He asked me in a hushed whisper that I knew Aunt Glory couldn''t hear. Still, I didn''t want to be overheard so I threw up a sound blocking shield and spoke to him in a normal voice.


    "Do you know that woman, Athair m¨°r?"


    "Yes, that is Hibiscus. She was Glory''s best friend when we were young."


    For a Fae to say ''when we were young'' it meant that it happened a long, long time ago. I had an image in my mind of Valerian, Sorrel, and Glory as children ying with their new magical friends.


    "So, it is safe to say that Aunt Glory is very worried about her." I was looking at Hibiscus as she walked in front of me.


    "Yes, she is most likely heartbroken to know that it was Hibiscus that discovered the body."


    "Is Hibiscus a good person? Is she someone that we have to worry about?"


    The pure shock that was in his eyes told me that he and Glory never once suspected her. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Should I be the only one that is suspicious of her, or should I follow their lead and coddle the woman?


    No, I wasn''t going to let her go without at least getting to the bottom of this first. She didn''t seem right to me. I don''t know what it was, but I just didn''t trust that she was there that close to when the murder took ce and didn''t see a thing.


    Now all I had to do was make it so that Aunt Glory understood what it was that I was thinking and feeling about this. I needed her to understand that in a situation like this you need to set aside your personal feelings and rtionships.


    That might be hard for her to do, but it was what was best for her people, and it was something she needed to do.

 Chapter 487 - Trinity - Interrogation Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 487 - Trinity - Interrogation Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    We entered Aunt Glory''s private study then. I hadn''t said anything after I had asked if Athair m¨°r or Aunt Glory had ever suspected Hibiscus. I didn''t want either of the two of them to be angered by my questions just yet.


    I just knew that once I actually started to interrogate the woman, Aunt Glory was going to be angry with me. I needed to pull her aside and talk to her first and tell her what it was that was on my mind.


    When we were in the room, Aunt Glory forbade all knights and guards froming in. I thought to myself at that moment that there was something wrong with that deration. There was something going on that I simply didn''t understand yet.


    Reece and I still followed them all into the room, that part didn''t change, but the guards and knights that were following us were forbidden from entering.. I saw a fearful look in Vincent''s eyes as I looked back at him. He wasn''t happy about this either.


    "Sit here, Bissy." Aunt Glory guided the woman to a chair near the firece. Almost as soon as she was seated though, Aunt Glory had conjured up a cup of tea. That was a new one, I have never tried to create food and drink from magic like that. And I don''t think that I will either. I will stick with what I am used to, for now.


    "Drink this, it will make you feel better." Aunt Glory handed over the cup. "It will all be OK, Bissy, I promise it will."


    "I can''t believe that I had to see something like that. What did Frida ever do to the killer?" She was shaking, she was sobbing, she was doing everything right, but there was just something in her eyes that made me think that it was all fake.


    "I don''t know, Bissy, but I will find out who did this. I will find them, and I will make them pay."


    Aunt Glory''s words weren''t empty. I could feel the power in those words that proved to me, and all of us in the room, that she was telling the truth. She fully intended to punish the person whomitted these crimes against her people.


    "Queen Gloriana, may I speak with you for a moment." I beckoned her over to where I was standing, on the opposite side of the room.


    "Of course, Trinity dear." It appears that now that we were back in her private quarters she was speaking familiarly again.


    Aunt Glory rose to her feet and started to walk to my side, however, I saw that her eyes were tense, and she was far from the calm and collected person she was pretending to be. I could see the control and sanity in her eyes wavering like they were just thin veils hiding the true chaos that she was feeling.


    "Trinity, my dear, what is it that I can do for you?" She gave me a small smile that definitely wasn''t real. I could tell what it was that she was truly asking me- ''What do you want? Can''t you see that I need to take care of my friend here?''


    Yeah, she was definitely pissed off at me. This was likely to turn into a major incident between us. I knew that this was what I needed to do, it was the proper course of action, but could I get her to understand that as well? That was the big question now, wasn''t it?


    "Aunt Glory," I paused and tried to give her a friendly smile, letting her know that I was indeed worthy of her respect, and that I was just being polite for her sake, "I think that we need to be a little more careful. We do not know what happened earlier this evening. So until we get some more details, we need to be a little more cautious and reserved."


    "Are you telling me that you suspect Hibiscus?" I saw incredulous anger start to fill her face before she had it hidden again.


    "I think it is too soon to rule it out." I confirmed for her.


    "Trinity, I will have you know that Hibiscus is the first friend I ever made. Back when she ascended from being nothing more than just the magical essence of the flowers themselves. I know that she is not capable of something like this."


    "Have you ever interviewed her before?" I leveled a firm look her way. "Have you ever talked to her about what has been going on around here? Or did you exclude her because she is a close and personal friend of yours?"


    I see that she was instantly defensive about that question.


    "Of course, I didn''t question her. She is not that type of person. She is a sweet, kind, and honest woman that-."


    "And by your own admission, you could tell that everyone that you did interview was telling you the truth and hadmitted no crimes, or that you could tell anyway. So, wouldn''t it stand to reason that the people you didn''t interview because of their closeness or assumed innocence are the likely culprits?"


    I could tell that she was understanding and even agreeing with me, however, she didn''t seem all that happy about it. I just stood there though, watching her as she did her best to process the words that I had spoken.


    She didn''t want to suspect her friends, and I could understand and rte to that. This wasn''t a time that afforded us this type of leeway though. No one was beyond suspicion when there were people being murdered.


    "You are right, Trinity." Aunt Glory hung her head in shame, looking at the floor. "I have been a fool, and it took you to open my eyes. You are a wise leader and a good friend. I will stand aside and let you do what needs to be done. Please, help me find the person behind these heinous crimes."

 Chapter 488 - Trinity – Interrogation Part 3 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 488 - Trinity ¨C Interrogation Part 3 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    This is good, now that I had permission from Aunt Glory to question Hibiscus I could finally get down to business. This was something that we needed to take care of as quickly as possible. We couldn''t let a single moment pass us by while we had the opportunity to see it through right away.


    After we concluded our talk, Aunt Glory and I walked back over to where Hibiscus was sitting in front of the firece. I saw that the woman still had her face buried in her hands like she was terrified and confused. It was like she was trying to block her eyes from seeing everything around her, maybe it was, so she didn''t identally see another dead body. That or she was hiding something in her eyes.


    "Glory, what should I do now?" She asked as Aunt Glory sat in the chair next to her.


    "Well, what you need to do now is talk to us.. Trinity, Reece, and I are going to ask you some questions. I want you to tell us everything that you remember."


    "I will be asking a few as well." Athair m¨°r added with a smile.


    "Very well then." Aunt Glory smiled at him before looking back at the trembling woman.


    "Why do you want to ask me questions?" Hibiscus was looking afraid. "I didn''t do anything wrong. I just found Frida, that was all."


    "That''s all fine, Hibiscus. However, we need to gather as much information as we can right now. It''s vitally important to cover all of our bases. I am sure that you could agree with that."


    "Alright, I understand." I heard sadness in her voice as it shook.


    That was when Hibiscus looked at me for the first time. I had been with her since we all arrived at the scene of the crime, but I had never felt her eyes on me since the start of it all. What the hell was this feeling? What is going on right now? Was this her magic? Was this the type of power that she could wield? If it was, then I was even more suspicious of her than I originally was.


    "Hibiscus, before we begin, do you mind if I ask what element your magic is? What is it that you specialize in?"


    "Oh?" There was shock, fear, and oddly enough embarrassment that flitted across her face when I asked that.


    "Hibiscus actually has very little magic." Athair m¨°r was the one to say this. "She has a little bit of magic that pertains to flowers and the everyday magic that we all have but aside from that, she has nothing. No hand of power and no special abilities."


    "Huh?" That was odd. I didn''t expect that at all. The way she felt when I was looking at her just now was more like I was looking into the eyes of a dark and powerful being.


    "It''s quite embarrassing really." Hibiscus hung her head in shame. "I..I..I really don''t like most people to know that about me. Most of my friends and neighbors just think that I am mysterious because of it, but in truth I am just weak." Hibiscus''s voice may be shaking right now, but her eyes seem totally unaffected by everything that she is saying.


    Weak my ass. I know what it is that was, but this woman is hiding something. There was no other way to exin what I was feeling when I looked at her. And she may be a good actress, but there was something in her eyes that just seemed off. I would find what she was hiding though, I would find it and put an end to her little game.


    There was something about the look in Hibiscus''s eyes, which were pink in the center ringed in bright yellow. The eyes looking at me seemed to be clouded and it was adding a thinyer of ck to the brightness of her irises. As I looked into those eyes I thought that I should take in herplete appearance. I needed to try and gauge just what she was like, aside from the way that she looked, and the way that she was behaving. Putting it all together could help me solve this case.


    Her clothes were expensive looking and pristine. They were of an aristocratic style that was not in fashion for humans anymore, but were perfectly eptable for the Fae, that was just like yesterday to them when these clothes were first introduced.


    Hibiscus''s hair was long and flowing. It seemed to me that it was white hair that had colorful hibiscus flowers painted onto it like a canvas. There were purple and pink flowers, yellow and pink, almost pure red with the ck center, and outline in back for a white flower with a red center. There were more too, blue and red, orange and yellow, red and pink, it was like there were hundreds of small flowers painted onto her hair.


    There truly was nothing about this woman''s appearance that screamed cold blooded killer, but there was still just something about her that gave me pause. What in the world was it?


    I tried to think about it as I started to ask her a few questions.


    "Hibiscus, how long before the others did you leave the show?" That was the thing that I needed to know the most. Did she leave long before them, or did she leave at the same time?


    "I left when it ended. The disy was beautiful as always." She smiled at me. That was odd, most of the others had been crying when they saw it.


    "Didn''t it make youugh? The cute little ways that Queen Gloriana was creating those animals."


    I saw the three other people in the room look at me like I was crazy. That had definitely not been the way that the show had proceeded. It hadn''t been cute or funny at all. It had been heartfelt and emotional. And there definitely weren''t any animals in the show at all.


    "Oh yes, I really loved seeing all those animals. Glory is truly amazing whenever she uses her magic. I wish I could be just like her."

 Chapter 489 - Trinity – Interrogation Part 4 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 489 - Trinity ¨C Interrogation Part 4 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    That right there, that response was exactly what I was expecting. She hadn''t seen the show at all. She had not left the amphitheater at the same time or just before the others because she hadn''t been there at all. She was merely pretending that she had.


    The surprised and shocked looks on everyone''s faces told me that there were shocked to hear those wordse out of Hibiscus''s mouth. Reece was looking at me with a look of curiosity, it was like he was trying to figure out how I knew to ask that question at all. The others were looking at Hibiscus with horror filled eyes. It was like they couldn''t believe what she had just told them.


    "H...H..H..Hibiscus?" Aunt Glory''s voice was trembling now, but it wasn''t from fear. No, Aunt Glory''s voice was trembling from shock. "Hibiscus, what are you saying?"


    "What? I only agreed with your niece about the show. You do marvelous work, Glory." Hibiscus beamed a radiant smile at the woman who was supposed to be her best friend.


    "B..but Trinity was lying to you. There were no animals in my show."


    "Oh, well shame on her, lying is very bad." She looked at me reproachfully as if I had been the one in the wrong. "You''re not a nice person if you lie to people you just met."


    "Really? And what does that say about you then, huh?" I asked her with my arms crossed over my chest. "Since you''ve been lying to us from the beginning.


    "I''ve not been lying." She batted her eyes and gave me an innocent look.


    "Really? So, you were at the show tonight?" Athair m¨°r asked her with a frown on his face.


    "Of course I was. Where else would I have been? Everyone was at the show." She was putting on an air of confusion. "When the show started, I saw that Glory was standing on top of a floating star made of pure light. There were giant people created with her magic and I saw that the show was filled with lots of love and emotion. And then.. and then.. then.. I..I..-" I saw that Hibiscus was giving Aunt Glory a confused look. "I don''t remember what happened next. Why can''t I remember?"


    "Oh Bissy?" Aunt Glory took her hand and held it tightly as she tried to sooth her friend. "I think you might have been controlled by someone."


    "Controlled? What are you talking about, Glory? I don''t remember anything like that ever happening to me." Hibiscus was shaking her head gently from side to side. "Wouldn''t I know it if I had been controlled?"


    "No, the others didn''t know it." Aunt Glory was speaking to her in a soothing way. "The others had all beenpletely unaware that it had happened to them until after it was all over. I am sure that you couldn''t have known."


    "R..r..really?" Hibiscus started to tremble even more. "I was being controlled by someone? B..but why? What did they make me do?"


    "From the looks of it, they made you kill Frida." Reece dropped that bomb on Hibiscus, and I watched as she crumpled in on herself. I had to wonder though, was it real? I hadn''t met Hibiscus before. I didn''t know how she usually acted or what she usually looked like. For that matter, it was hard for me to know for certain what exactly was happening with her. Not to mention, I had never interviewed any of the others that had been controlled, so I didn''t exactly have anything to base my suspicions on.


    I was going to hold onto my reservations about Hibiscus though. Until I got to the bottom of this she was still on my radar. She might be able to slide past the others, but she wasn''t going to slide past me.


    "OK, Hibiscus, you say that you remember the beginning of the light show, and what you said adds up. Can you tell me what the next thing that you remember is? Was there anyone around you that was acting funny? Did you see anyone or anything that you didn''t recognize? Anything at all that was out of the ordinary that you might be able to remember?"


    I was still pressing her like she was a suspect, and I could tell that it was making Aunt Glory angry. She wanted me to let Hibiscus be so that she could cope and recover. That would alle in time, though. I still had questions to ask her and I didn''t mind ying the bad cop if I had to. Someone had to do it.


    "Trinity, I don''t-."


    "No, there was no one out of the ordinary. I didn''t sense or see anything." Hibiscus was shaking her head as she answered me. She had interrupted Aunt Glory who seemed like she was about to tell me to stop with the interrogation.


    "Nothing? Absolutely nothing at all?" I asked her with a raised brow. I didn''t believe that there was absolutely nothing that she had seen or heard. "Think really hard for me." I asked her with a firm tone in my voice. Aunt Glory''s frown that she was giving me deepened, but she didn''t say anything as she looked from where I was standing to Hibiscus''s chair.


    "No, I really don''t think-." She was about to deny it again but then she stopped. "Wait, there was something. There was a man dressed all in ck. I thought that was weird, given that it was the light festival after all. He was standing near the back of the row I was in at the amphitheater. I didn''t see his face that well, but I know that I hadn''t ever seen him before."


    "Can you describe the man? What his clothes looked like and what his hair, eyes, and face looked like?"


    "I can try." She nodded.


    "Can I get a pen and some paper?" I asked Aunt Glory before Hibiscus started the description. They were given to me immediately, magically of course, so I then motioned to Hibiscus to continue.


    "OK, well, I saw that his hair was a shiny, silver color that was shimmering every time one of Glory''s lights glinted off of it. His eyes were in a shadow, but they looked to be silver as well. He was pale, so pale that his ck clothes made his skin look pure white."


    "That''s good so far." I encouraged her to continue as I wrote the coloring down on the paper. "Can you tell me if he had a narrow face or wide face?" I asked this question and when I got the answer that I needed I moved on, drawing what she told me. Piece by piece I added the features to the face that I was drawing. It wasn''t as good as Juniper''s would have been if she drew it, but I have to say that I think it turned out to be just what we needed.


    When I showed the picture to Hibiscus she gasped.


    "That''s him." And I could tell from the look on their faces that Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r knew who that man was. So, that should make it easy to find and identify him.

 Chapter 490 - Trinity – Where To Go From Here (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 490 - Trinity ¨C Where To Go From Here (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was a little lost in thought while Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r said good night to Hibiscus and summoned a few of Aunt Glory''s guards to take her home. They didn''t want to chance that someone mighte after her again while she was on her way back home.


    I wasn''t as worried about Hibiscus, for some reason, something was telling me she wasn''t in any danger. I could feel Reece''s eyes on me as I thought about what it was that we needed to do next. I knew there was something that he wanted to say to me, but I could also tell that he didn''t want to say it here.


    When I turned to look at him, I saw that there was a serious look in his eyes, but that seriousness was also mixed with a good amount of confusion. There was a lot that we needed to talk about, but I wanted to wait until it was just me and him. I didn''t think that it was a good idea for Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r to hear what it was that I had to say right now.


    "Go straight home, Bissy, do not stop anywhere else. The guards will see you to your door. And over the next few days I will make sure that there is someone outside your house at all times. You won''t be alone at all, I promise. There won''t be anything for you to be afraid of while they are there."


    "Thank you so much, Glory. You truly are the best friend that I could ask for." Hibiscus gave a forced smile, fighting past the grief she was feeling.


    "I will being to see you soon, Bissy, count on that, alright?"


    "Glory and I will be in touch soon." Athair m¨°r added.


    "Thank you, Valerian, you''ve always been like a brother to me." She gave him a grin then, a look that didn''t seem to be holding the grief from just a moment ago.


    I watched as the guards surrounded Hibiscus and led her out of the room, their eyes vigntly watching their surroundings. I wish I believed in Hibiscus like the others seem to. That would be better. I really didn''t want to have to tell my aunt that I suspected her best friend of more than she was letting on.


    When Aunt Glory turned to look at me, I knew that she was going to ask me if I still thought that Hibiscus was the one behind all of this.


    "Trinity, what should we do now?" She sat across from me and looked me in the eyes.


    "Well, if I had to guess what the next course of action is, I would say that we need to ount for everyone''s whereabouts during the show. And while doing that, we need to identify this man here." I held the drawing up and showed them the man that Hibiscus had described.


    "I know who that man is already." Athair m¨°r answered as soon as he saw the drawing. "And I never would have suspected him of doing anything like this."


    "Is he someone else that hasn''t been interviewed?" I asked him, already knowing the answer.


    "Yes, he is indeed." Athair m¨°r nodded his head as he answered and I had to repress the urge to sigh. "However, it is because he does not live anywhere near the city." He added when he saw the frustration in my eyes.


    "So, he lives outside of the Faepound?" I was confused for a moment as I thought about this. "If he isn''t-." I started to say something but Athair m¨°r interrupted me almost immediately.


    "I said he doesn''t live in the city. I did not say that he didn''t live inside thends of Fae. We may call it apound but it is a magical realm all unto itself. It is farrger than just this city." I had never actually explored the Faends so I didn''t really know about any of these things he was saying just yet.


    "Well then, I guess we should have some people gathering the whereabouts of the city residents while we talk to this man and the other people outside of the city. No one is off of our radar with this investigation. That is something that the both of you need to agree to. Unless they have a rock solid alibi, they are on the suspect list."


    I gave Aunt Glory the firmest look out of the two of them but Athair m¨°r was not immune to that look. He got the same stare and firm set to my jaw. They needed to understand that this was not something that we could y around with. This was important, not to just me, but to the entirend of the Fae.


    "Alright, I understand." Aunt Glory hung her head in shame as she felt the weight of the mistakes that she had made. "I am sorry that I never thought to suspect those close to me. And then, there are those that are so far away from the city that I never would have suspected them at all had it not been for you, Trinity." Aunt Glory looked like she was trying to concede to me that I was the better Queen or something. I didn''t want to win some contest about who was better. I just wanted to do what it was that Danu had asked me to do. I wanted to keep my family safe.


    Having these two on the same page as me and not standing in my way would be so much easier. They obviously needed someone else to help them see what was going on around them.


    "OK, since we are done here, I will head back to my room. Aunt Glory, I am sure that you are eager to see Trevor, so I think it is best for us to say good night now. We will continue the investigation tomorrow."


    "That sounds good. I am going to cancel the rest of the festivities. It is simply not safe for my people right now. I need to protect them, all of them." Aunt Glory nodded at me firmly then and rose to her feet. "I am counting on you, Trinity. I need your help, as a Fae, to find the person who had beenmitting these crimes."


    "Even if I wasn''t a Fae, Aunt Glory, I am still your family and I would help you."

 Chapter 491 - Reece – Trinity’s Suspicions (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 491 - Reece ¨C Trinity¡¯s Suspicions (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    This night had not gone at all like we had expected it to. I mean, of course no one expected that there was going to be a brutal murder happen right at the end of the light show. That was not what I was talking about. No, I was referring to the fact that when we got the supposed witness back to the castle to talk, we found out that she was the one who killed the woman.


    OK, so she was bespelled and killed the woman without knowing about it. She didn''t remember doing it and had no control over herself. Still, back in the rest of the world, that is still a punishable offense. You will most likely not get off scot-free. Most of the time you will be charged with something. So, why was it that Gloriana was perfectly fine with letting this woman go? I just didn''t understand how the Fae did things.


    And do not even get me started on how Trinity was feeling about it all. I could tell that she was not at all happy about the current turn of events. She seemed to be thinking about something the entire way back to our residence. In fact, she was so lost in thought that I literally had to help guide her to the door as she thought about whatever it was that was on her mind.


    As soon as we were through the door the sounds of Reagan and Rika calling out to me and my Little Bunny, pulled her out of her stupor.


    "Mama!" Reagan called out first. "Daddy!"


    "Mommy! Daddy!" Rika was running after her brother as the two of them raced toward us.


    "We were just about to put them to bed." I saw Mom racing after them as they came toward us. "But they wanted to check and see if you were back yet." I could see worry in her eyes. She hade back to the residence with them when Trinity and I ran toward the screaming ce. "I''m really d that you made it back in time."


    "So am I." My Little Bunny smiled as she lowered herself for a group hug. "I would have hated to miss my goodnight hugs." I watched as she squeezed them tight, taking in some of their warmth and love. "I love you both so much."


    "Love you too, Mommy!" Rika grinned back.


    "Me love Mama, too." Reagan boasted.


    "Hey, what about Daddy?" I grinned at them and knelt next to my Little Bunny so that I could get my hugs as well. They both grinned, giggled, and switched over to me.


    "Love Daddy too." Rika buried her face in my chest as she said the words.


    "Yeah, love you Daddy." Reagan piped up next to my ear.


    "I love you too." I felt the love that I had for them causing my heart to swell. Who knew that having a family would be this great? Even in the face of bad times, their love could melt you down to nothing but a puddle with just a hug.


    "Come on now, you two." I heard Mom call out to them. "I am sure that Mommy and Daddy have work to do. L and I will put you to bed."


    "K!"


    "OK!" Reagan and Rika called out to her, and just like that, my hug was over. That was sad, I liked my hug. She was right though, we needed to talk and I knew it.


    My Little Bunny and I went up to our room under the disguise of taking off the stuffy, formal looking clothes that we had been wearing. After the night that we''d had, I could have used a shower as well but I would settle with just changing.


    As luck would have it though, my Little Bunny also wanted to shower.


    "Come on, Fido, let''s talk while we shower." She beckoned me to the other room as she walked. I knew that nothing was going to happen, not after tonight, but we could help each other to calm down with just our presence at least.


    We stripped the clothes away and started the shower. As soon as the spray of the water was steaming, and I could tell that it was ready to rx our tense muscles, we stepped inside. Trinity started to talk immediately when we were in there.


    "Reece, do you think Hibiscus is innocent?"


    "Well, that is a little hard to answer. I mean, she did kill Frida, however, since she was being controlled and didn''t consciously kill her, she doesn''t remember killing her. So, she did kill her but? it''s not quite that ck and white. I know that some would say she is innocent, but others would say that it doesn''t matter." I did my best to exin the situation the way that I saw it while I washed her back.


    "Yeah, if her story is to be believed." I felt her shrug and curiosity instantly gripped me.


    "You think she''s lying?" I raised my eyebrow even though she couldn''t see it.


    "I don''t know. I think that the story fit together a little too well." What she said both made sense but didn''t. What was it she was getting at here?


    "I don''t know what you mean."


    "I''m saying that I don''t entirely trust Hibiscus." She turned her head to look over her shoulder at me. "I know that Aunt Glory trusts her and Athair m¨°r has known her just as long as she does, the trust runs deep between them. I won''t let that cloud my vision though, I don''t have the trust that they do."


    What she was saying finally made sense. But even though I could understand the words that she was saying, that didn''t mean that I could understand the feelings behind them.


    "Are you sure that you''re not just being overly cautious and just suspicious of every single person?"


    "Isn''t that what I need to do, though? I need to suspect everyone until they''ve been eliminated. That is the only way to be thorough and find out who is behind all of this."


    "Yeah, I guess you are right about that." I agreed with her as I turned her around so that I could wash her hair, but that was just an excuse, in truth, I just wanted to see her face and look into her eyes.


    "What are you thinking about?" She asked me. Her eyes were closed and her head was tilted back, and even with all that, she could tell that I was giving her a look that was full of curiosity.


    "Are you psychic now or something?" I asked her with augh, more of a way to stall things than anything else.


    "Only when ites to you." She smirked, her eyes still closed and a look of happy contentment on her face. She always did like it when I washed her hair for her. I mean, who wouldn''t like it? It''s a free head massage. "So, what are you thinking about?" She asked me again.


    "I am just trying to process everything that has happened tonight, everything you''ve said, and everything that I have thought and felt tonight. But I think you are right though, suspect everyone until they''re proven innocent." I saw her smile like she was happy with what I had said. "Though, didn''t we confirm that Hibiscus was innocent already?"


    For whatever reason, my question made her sigh in exasperation. She didn''t say anything though, she just tilted her head so that it was under the water so that she could rinse the soap out of it.


    It seemed that that was the end of the discussion. We didn''t say another word about what happened tonight. We just finished cleaning up and got ready for bed. I truly wanted to know what it was that she was thinking, but I wasn''t going to ask just yet.

 Chapter 492 - Trinity – Cancelling The Festivities (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 492 - Trinity ¨C Cancelling The Festivities (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The first thing that I did the next morning was get up and get dressed as quickly as I could. I wasn''t going to be wearing a dress today. I was going to be busy tracking down a killer, so I needed to be able to move freely. Today I was wearing a pair of blue jeans, a dark gray t-shirt, and a pair of hiking boots that were dark green and ck.


    Before anyone could even ask, I had to tell them that no, we did not pack these clothes and bring them with us. I had conjured the clothes with my own magic. These were brought straight out of my mind and put directly onto me, I didn''t even have to actually ''get dressed''.


    I skipped breakfast, opting to eatter. I had work to do right now, and I could talk to Aunt Glory while she was eating her breakfast. My guards and knights, as well as my husband, were all a little shocked to see me striding right out the door without them..


    "Dammit Trinity, wait up." Reece called out as he shoved the rest of his food into his mouth and kissed Reagan and Rika goodbye.


    "Trinity?" Vincent was running out the door before Reece had even gotten to it.


    "My Queen." Gabriel was chasing after me as well. "Please wait." Landon and Trevor also rose from their chairs and followed me but they did so without saying anything at all.


    All three of them were out the door and chasing after me in a very undignified manor.


    "The five of you did not need to chase me." I stopped and looked at them with a little bit of anger in my eyes. Sometimes, I would just like to be able to do something alone.


    "Trinity, you''re the Queen. You need us there to protect you." Trevor''s words annoyed me. I knew that it was just the anger and stress from the night before that was truly annoying me, but I was taking it out on his words.


    "No, Trevor, I do not need any of you to protect me. I am more than capable of protecting myself." I made my point by levitating them off the floor a few inches before I turned around and stalked away.


    After that, I let them down gently, of course, since I didn''t want to hurt them. But that little show of mine still didn''t make them leave me alone. They were still following me; I just sighed and resigned myself to this fate.


    "Trinity, no one said you couldn''t protect yourself." Landon spoke from behind me, but I didn''t stop to look at him. "It''s just that you shouldn''t have to."


    "I know that, Landon, I really do. But that does not mean that I have to like it at all times. Sometimes, I think it would be nice to go somewhere without an entourage."


    "You know that''s not truly an option." This time it was Vincent who spoke, and I know he was just trying to remind me of it, but it pissed me off.


    "I know." I snapped at him, my anger flowing freely. I nned to channel that anger of mine into finding the asshole who was behind all this shit going on here.


    As I continued to stalk down the hall to Aunt Glory''s room, I did my best to ignore the fact that the five of them were staring holes into my back. This was a little odd as well though, usually they were surrounding me, protecting me. I hadn''t led a group of people like this in years. It was nice, actually. I don''t want to say that it made me feel even more powerful, having these five big strong men at my back as if I was protecting them instead of them protecting me, but it did give me a sense of satisfaction.


    When I made it to where Aunt Glory was, I told the guard to let her know that I needed to see her and that there was no time to waste. He seemed a little scared of me when he saw the look on my face, that made me wonder how pissed off I looked. Still, he ran into the room and informed Aunt Glory of what I had said. He was back in less than a minute.


    "Th..the Queen will see you now." His voice only trembled a little as he spoke.


    I didn''t chance saying anything else to him. I didn''t want to make him wet himself or anything. I just strode past him and the men at my back followed me immediately.


    "Trinity? What is wrong so early in the morning?" I saw Aunt Glory sitting at her table, eating her breakfast. It was a more normal looking meal than I had been expecting: pancakes, poached eggs, and what looked like bacon and sausage.


    "We need to get to work, Aunt Glory. There is no time to waste."


    "That is true." She nodded her head and looked behind me at the men that hade with me. "Good morning, Trevor." She lit up when she saw him, he was her mate after all.


    "Good morning, my love." His words were soft and his voice was deep. It was clear that he was trying to sound seductive.


    "Ah-hem." I cleared my throat and got her attention.


    "Yes, yes. We need to work. Can I finish eating at least?" Sheughed when she asked me that. "I will summon Valerian here as well. We can work this out together. I am sure that-." I ended up interrupting her, I couldn''t help it


    "I already have a n. All we need to do now is set it into motion. First off, you need to notify the people that the festivities are cancelled. I rmend summoning everyone in the city to the amphitheater, or the courtyard, and speak to them directly. After that, I want you to enlist the full force of your guards and have them protect the city. They will need to do patrols in shifts. There should be no public part of the city that is not in some way under surveince."


    "My, my, you have been thinking this through, haven''t you? What else do you have in mind?" She sipped her tea as she listened to me.


    "We need to start the interrogations again. Every single person in the city whose whereabouts forst night is questionable. They will be the starting point in the city. Other than that, we need to investigate everyone outside of the city as well. There is no one spared from this investigation. It does not matter who they are or how close you are or used to be with them. This is not the time to let your past friendships cloud your judgement."


    "Yes, Trinity, I agree." It was nice to see that she had taken my words to heartst night.


    Athair m¨°r was indeed summoned, but he was to meet us at the amphitheater where the announcement was being made. The guards and knights were all present to provide protection to the people as they were told about what was happening.


    They were all instructed to stay indoors as much as possible until we had this situation settled.


    "I promise you all, that I will find out who is behind all of this and I will make them pay." I announced to them. "That is my vow to all of you." That seemed to give them all a little bit of hope. They had the protection of the two Queens.

 Chapter 493 - Trinity – Exploring The Lands Of Fae (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 493 - Trinity ¨C Exploring The Lands Of Fae (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I wanted to be part of the interrogations this time, both inside and outside of the city. I needed to know what everyone knew without the filter of someone else''s exnation. No matter how thorough the person rying the information was to me, there would always be something that was lost in trantion. There would be a subtle way that they moved that could tell me whether they were lying to me. Maybe, they were incapable of maintaining eye contact. There was always going to be something that was missed when someone ryed information. And this was too important for me to lose that information.


    So, I joined the guards as they conducted the interviews. I was pretty sure that they thought that I was just going to be observing while they talked to everyone. I had really surprised them all when I started asking questions myself. Again, there were things that I wanted to know that these people didn''t seem capable of finding out for me..


    The interviews went well though. I got to find out a lot about the Fae and the city, but I didn''t learn anything about the case. That was enough to piss me off. Why was it that no one knew what was going on.


    All in all though, there were only six Fae from inside the city who were not present at the light show, and more than half of them were people who were busy inside the chambers for the Queen, Athair m¨°r, and myself.


    After we eliminated those four people, that only left Hibiscus and a woman named Babby. And Babby was a brownie that usually worked in the castle. She was off that day and had decided to sleep most of the day and night. She hadn''t even known what was happening until she was called to the meeting in the morning. So, in my opinion, the only suspect that was inside the city limits was Hibiscus. She was the only person that made sense in my mind.


    Still, I needed to explore the rest of Fae and talk to all of those people. I couldn''t pin this on Hibiscus until I knew for sure. Plus, there was that man that she said she saw. Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r both knew who he was, yet I hadn''t heard anything about him yet.


    "You will find out about him when you meet him." Athair m¨°r said every time that I asked him. "I do not wish to cloud your judgement about him." At least he was taking that part seriously. All I knew about this mysterious person was his name, Alloy. I guess that made sense with his metallic appearance.


    Well, there was one other thing that I knew, this was what I had learned from Aunt Glory. Alloy lived on the very edge of Faerie with his friend, Sterling. Apparently, they were two of the only Fae in existence that had magic that was specifically geared toward metal. Sterling was apparently only good with silver, but Alloy was skilled with all metals and could mix them to make whatever it was that he needed.


    There was also the fact that the sword pinning Frida to the wall when she was killed had been a specially made sword that only Alloy and Sterling knew how to create. The fact that the killer used that meant that she, or he, knew Alloy and Sterling.


    I knew that I needed to meet these men, the supposed makers of that sword. They needed to tell me whether or not they had given it away to someone else or if they were involved in the murder.


    Another thing that I had been able to figure out for myself, if Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r knew Hibiscus since they were little, and Athair m¨°r apparently knew Alloy since he was little, then it stands to reason that she would know Alloy as well.


    So, why is it that she was pretending to not know who he was? If she truly was brainwashed, she should still remember him, shouldn''t she? Or did it mess with her head that much?


    I was just running in circles with all these questions in my head. I needed to get out there and talk to more people. I needed to explore the rest of Fae, find out who was where, and find this killer.


    When I did start exploring the area I found out something interesting. Apparently, the gate that we came through to get into the Fae city was not the front of the area. It was the middle. Yes, that sounds odd, but let me exin how thend of Fae works here.


    The Fae city was in the middle of the realm. There was a magical gate that would take you to the city from the human world, but that was if you had the intent, and permission, to enter the realm. That''s why the humans couldn''te in here.


    If you were leaving thepound, then you left the same way down the same roads. However, if you weren''t leaving thends of Fae, you would see what was beyond that magical gate. And what was there was a beautiful setting with rolling green hills, mountains, forests,kes, and rivers, it was an entirely different ce and it looked a lot like the ce that Danu had taken us, except that it wasn''t on the cliff at the coast. I was sure that, if I searched, I would find that ce here.


    The entire realm of Fae, all thend that it epasses, was quiterge. There was only one city, where the Queen lived, but there were several small towns and viges that were set up for the others. And then there were the people that didn''t live in a vige at all, they just had houses on the outskirts of the realm.


    Reece and I were travelling the realm and talking to everyone individually. Many of them hade to the city for the light show and parts of the festival so they knew what was going on, but they didn''t know the full scope of it. There were many people who broke down, crying with fear over what was going on.


    Sometimes, I truly ended up hating the fact that I was interviewing everyone, but it had to be done. And those times that I hated what needed to be done, I apologized to them for disturbing them. Still, I was not getting any closer to solving this crime.

 Chapter 494 - Trinity – Exploring The Lands Of Fae Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 494 - Trinity ¨C Exploring The Lands Of Fae Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Don''t beat yourself up." Reece had encouraged me when he saw that I was getting frustrated. "We will get to the bottom of this soon, I just know it."


    The problem was that our investigation was already moving into the third week. Christmas, the New Year, all of it had already passed. We had spent most of our time sinceing here for the Yule celebrations searching for a killer..


    I was sure this was what Danu had asked me to help with. I was certain that she had asked me to help with this problem right here. It was possible that the person that was behind it all was going to try and kill Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r. I would never let that happen though. I was going to make sure that we protected them, saved them, and let them continue to live their lives in peace.


    Today was the day that we were going to be meeting with Alloy and Sterling. We had left them forst because we were slowly making our way toward their ce across the realm. This ce really was big. And since we had left the city to investigate, we hadn''t been back. I was just d that those magic mirror calls could let me see my babies. They weren''t happy that Mommy and Daddy weren''t there with them, but they were spending a lot of time with their grandparents, not to mention, Acacia and Aaron''s families as well. They were learning so much about their Fae side from them.


    I missed them, but I knew they were being taken care of, and I was going to make sure that the future was safe for them. I didn''t want them growing up in a world that was hiding an unknown enemy, they needed to be safe.


    Oh, and there was one other thing that was making this trip a little less than desirable. We were riding horses. Yes, there was a carriage behind carrying all of our stuff but Reece, myself, and all the guards were riding horses. The carriage was ''technically'' meant for me, however, I had refused to ride in it.


    I couldn''t help but think about how bold I was bing. Not that it was new, really. This was the way that I used to be before my life started to change so much. I think I was just finally not caring what everyone around me thought. I was the Queen, I was able to make my own rules.


    I think it was looking at Aunt Glory what made me want to not follow all of the norms. I wanted to forge my own path on a few things. Instead of a damsel Queen, I was going to be a warrior Queen. It was time for me to show them all what I could do.


    When we pulled the horses up in front of the house that Alloy and Sterling were living in, I got an uneasy feeling. I could tell that something had happened here, and it wasn''t something pleasant.


    "Does anyone else get an uneasy feeling about this ce?" Vincent asked as he stopped next to me. "I get the feeling that ce has some truly bad juju inside of it.


    "Did you seriously just say juju?" Reece asked him with augh.


    "I was going to say the same thing." Trevor guffawed.


    "Leave me alone. I end up talking like I have a kid around me a lot, if you two weren''t so childish I would remember that I wasn''t at home with young impressionable minds to preserve." Vincent snapped back at him which caused me and Landon tough.


    "I agree with Vincent." Rahim sounded serious as he spoke.


    "Yes, something bad has happened here." Nathair added.


    "I can smell blood." Kayda added.


    "I think we all can." I added as I slid from the back of the horse. "This just tells me that we were meant to find something here. I say we stop waiting and find out just what that thing might be."


    We slowly made our way toward the house and with every step I could tell that it was getting colder. It was like all the warmth was being sucked out of the air. Usually, I could stand naked in the middle of a snow storm and not feel the cold but this was a different type of cold. This was something that felt like it was sucking the life right out of my soul. Just what the hell had happened here?


    The house didn''t look like it should be the hotspot, or should I say cold spot, for evil. It was, though, that was easy to see. Whatever had gone on inside this ce, had been evil. I could feel it like it was still going on. I hoped that I would find the people inside, and get to the bottom of this, but what kind of person could live in that soul sucking coldness and survive?


    As I looked at the house itself, a cute, not so little cottage with a true fantasy appearance, I thought that it looked beautiful. The entire thing seemed to be made out of different metals which gave it different colors and shades in certain spots. It was actually adorable in a way. It if wasn''t for that vortex of cold ridding the world of warmth I would actually like this ce.


    "This ce makes me think that it''s going to be Goldilocks''s revenge on the bear or something.'''' Trevor tried tough it off, but I could tell he was worried.


    "Yeah, and she teamed up with Little Red to kill the big bad wolf too." Reece added.


    "I am so d that there isn''t a popr story about a cat and a girl that could go evil like that, but still, it''s making me nervous too." Landon added.


    "I am d I am not a Genie." Rahim forced augh to lighten his spirits too. "I might be stuck with that house being my new bottle."


    "I wish I had a wittyeback." Kayda added. "But I can''t think of anything."


    "Don''t worry." I smiled at her. "We''re the women in the stories." That made the menugh but it still didn''t lessen the tension.

 Chapter 495 - Trinity – The House Of Alloy (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 495 - Trinity ¨C The House Of Alloy (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The moment that Trevor opened the door, we were able to see why this house smelled like blood. Not to mention, why this ce felt so evil. There was blood all over the house. The blood had long since dried, which meant that it was starting to soak into the essence of the house itself and was tainting it.


    I didn''t know what happened here yet, but I could tell that it was brutal. Someone had definitely tried to, or actually did, kill someone in this house. The furniture was overturned, there were giant sh marks in the walls, dishes were smashed all over the floor. There seemed to be no part of the house, or the main part that I could see, that was spared from the carnage that had taken ce within these walls.


    "What in the world happened here?" Kayda asked as she came into the house behind me. "Was there another murder?"


    "I don''t know. What I can tell you though, is that it doesn''t look like Alloy or Sterling are here." I answered her in as calm of a tone as I could. I needed to find these men and talk to them. I needed to get the bottom of all of this. "Search the house. Do not skip a single room, cupboard, closet, basement, anything. We are to search for them everywhere."


    "I saw two buildings out back when we were on our way up. Should we search there at the same time or wait until we''re done in here?" Landon asked me with a serious tone in his voice.


    "There are eight of us, I say we split into two groups and search in the house and outside at the same time." I turned my head to look at him as I said this. "Nathair, Kayda, Trevor, and Reece please search the other buildings. The rest of us will search the house."


    "Yes, my Queen." The voices of everyone but Reece responded.


    "Are you sure it''s wise to split us up?" He asked me as he eyed the room.


    "Reece, look at this ce. This blood is drying. It''s been here for over a day at least. Whatever happened here, whoever was here, they''re most likely not a threat to us anymore."


    "I know what you''re saying, I do, but I am still notfortable with this." He was just worried about me. I knew that, I really did, but I needed him to understand that I couldn''t have him coddling me all the time.


    "Reece, you''re a warrior King, you can lead, fight, and rule. Don''t you think that I am capable of that as well? I am a Queen, yes, I am a woman, yes, but that doesn''t make me a fucking China doll. I can protect myself. Not to mention that Vincent, Rahim, and Landon will be here with me as well. And there are four knights back at the carriage. Tell them to keep an eye and ear out for things as well."


    "Hahhh." He sighed and lowered his head for a moment. When he did look at me, I could tell that he had resolved to listen to what I had said. "Alright. I know that you are strong and can protect yourself, but it''s just my job as your mate to protect you. It''s instinct and it''s hard to turn that instinct off." I saw a forced smile on his face as he thought about that.


    "I know Reece, I understand that. But, for right now, I just need you to do as I ask, please."


    "I will." He kissed my forehead after that and took the people that I ordered with him outside. "Come on, the Queen gave her orders, we need to get a move on. Nathair, please instruct the knights to be on guard."


    "Yes, my King." He nodded and ran off to follow orders.


    The rest of us started to search the house then. I wasn''t going to leave here without some sort of clue. I was going to find out what happened here, as well as what was happening in the city.


    I started to move things around the cabin with my magic. I was setting things like the broken chairs, shredded couch pillows, and splintered tables in a corner that I had already personally checked myself.


    Now that the rest of the area was cleared out a little, it was time for us to look for things around this room and the other rooms. I didn''t want to move too fast through the search, so I had everyone double and triple checking every ce that someone might be able to hide. I had them searching for openings to hidden rooms or anything that might just look like it was out of the ordinary.


    We weren''t finding anything though, no matter how thoroughly we were searching. We had moved into the rest of the house as well, searching the bedrooms and the bathroom. There was something that I had noticed. It looked like Alloy and Sterling shared a bedroom since there was only one that seemed ''lived in''. There was nothing wrong with that, all I wanted to know right now was where did they go and were they both safe?


    "Queen Trinity!" Nathair came running into the house calling for me. "Queen Trinity, King Reece has found something that requires your attention. I am here to escort you to him."


    "Don''t beat around the bush, Nathair, what is it?" Landon asked him, which was good because I was about to say the same thing.


    "There is a magical door in the barn. Queen Trinity, King Reece would like to see if you are capable of opening it." He sounded frantic, like there was something else going on. I guess I would find out what that was soon enough.


    "Take me to this door, Nathair. I wish to see it for myself."


    Finally, there seemed to be some sort of progress for us. This could be the break in the case that we''ve been waiting for.

 Chapter 496 - Trinity – The Magic Door (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 496 - Trinity ¨C The Magic Door (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I followed Nathair out of the house, the other three that had searched inside with me were following behind at my back. They were just as curious as I was about what this mysterious magic door meant and where it might lead.


    The two buildings that were outside were: arge barn and a small storage shed. I figured that Nathair would be taking us to the barn to investigate this magic door, however, he led us straight toward the storage shed instead. That was interesting, but I guess it made sense. The barn was the first ce that I suspected, it was probably the ce that most other people would have suspected as well.


    The shed was like any other shed you would expect to see. It was designed like a miniature barn, it was maybe ten feet by twelve feet. There was a set of double doors that had half of an ''X'' on each one so that when they were closed they could form thepleted pattern. They also swung out toward us rather than sliding like most barns..


    The difference about this shedpared to most others was that it was, just like the house, madepletely of different metals. It appeared that Alloy and Sterling have made the house, the shed, and the barn with their magic.


    The shed wasn''t exactly big enough for all eight of us to be insidefortably so Nathair, Kayda and Rahim waited outside while those that were more part of my inner circle stayed inside the shed with me and Reece. Still, withrge men such as Reece, Trevor, Landon, and Vincent, the inside of the shed was quite cramped.


    There was blood on the floor in this shed, so it was clear that whoever had been in the house had been in here. It seemed that either someone escaped into this ce, or the fight spilled over into the shed, whichever it was this ce was an important clue for us.


    "So, Reece, where is this door?" I asked him as soon as I entered the shed.


    "Right here." He said as he pulled aside a false panel on the wall.


    "Well, I am quite impressed with your level of scrutiny. Thank you for not overlooking anything." I smiled at them all and thought about how many people would have overlooked something like this.


    "We didn''t want to disappoint our Queen." Landon smirked at me. "There is no telling what punishments we might receive if we were to fail her."


    "Yes, I heard she can be quite vengeful. Using animal names for you is just the start of it, it gets much worse from there."


    "Oh, hush you two." Iughed and shook my head at them. "You''re making me sound truly diabolical and evil."


    "Aren''t you, though?" They asked me together as theyughed. I swear sometimes the two of them sounded more like twins than friends.


    "This isn''t the time for this, you know that, right?" I leveled a serious stare at them and watched as the nearly tripped over themselves to straighten up.


    "Yes Ma''am."


    "Sorry Ma''am." I rolled my eyes again and turned away from them.


    I walked to the door and let my magic reach out towards it. I needed to get a feel for it, so that I could determine the best way to open it, and find out what was beyond it.


    "Have you tried to open the door yet?" I asked them as I ced my hand against the surface and listened.


    "We wanted to try." I heard Reece''s words and it took me a minute to understand what it was that he was saying, the thrum of the magic that I was feeling was so much stronger than I expected.


    "What do you mean that you wanted to try?" I turned to look at him, letting my hand drop from the door.


    "We can''t even touch the door." He looked at me with shock with just a little bit of fear and awe mixed in.


    "What do you mean? How could you not touch the door? It''s right here." I was confused by his words. I wasn''t having any trouble touching the door so they obviously hadn''t even tried to open it yet.


    "What I mean is..." he started, while looking me in the eyes with not a hint ofughter or joking in his voice, "...that, whenever we tried to touch the door, it threw us away from it."


    Now that I looked at Reece, and Trevor, I saw that the two of them were covered in dust, and there were marks on the floor that showed where someone or something had been moved across it. Honestly, I just thought that they had been searching thoroughly. I never once thought that they had been thrown away by a magical door.


    "This makes no sense to me." I turned back to look at the door. It was shimmering and glowing, gold and silver, that seemed to be lit by some kind of magical light within the door itself. The door was thrumming with immense magical power that felt like it was calm and pleasant. If this door seemed so calm and pleasant, why would it throw the others away from it? Oh, and there was no knob or handle on the door to try and open it with.


    "This is just a thought, Trinity, but perhaps the door will allow you to touch it because you are part Fae, unlike any of the rest of us. You are the only one part Fae among us." Vincent''s words seemed to stab me in the gut. He was right, I was the only part Fae among this group. If that was the reason that I was able to touch the door then, I should have been able to think of that reason myself. Why was it that I tended to forget that the others weren''t quite like me?


    "Trinity? Do you think that might be the reason?" Reece looked at me with wide eyes. "I mean, it makes sense to me."


    "Yeah, now that Vincent mentions it, that seems like the only logical thing." Trevor added as both he, and Reece, looked at me with curious eyes.


    "I think it is a good thing that we have a Fae with us then." Landon grinned.


    "Are you going to try and open the door?" Reece asked me.


    "I am." My voice was steady and my resolve was firm. I would do what I needed to do because I was a strong, warrior queen. This was what I could do that they couldn''t. This was my time to prove that I was more than capable.


    I turned my back to them so that I could concentrate on my task. When I ced my hand on the door, I poured just a little bit of my magic into it. I was doing my best to make sure that it would open for me and not push me back.


    I felt the magic in the door reach out and touch the power that I was pouring into it. I felt that it was skittish and afraid at first, but the moment that it sensed that I meant it no harm, it started to feel as if it were warming up to me. The magic within the door felt like that of a scared little animal that was nervous around people.


    After that magic seemed to wee me and ept me, I felt as if it were smiling with relief and gratitude. What exactly was going on here? Since when did magic have a mind and emotions of its own?


    With that eptance and gratitude the door was giving me I felt the seal on it break. With my hand still pressed against it the door began to open or, should I say, disappear. It was there one second and gone the next. And, on instinct, I walked forward into the shining white light that it revealed.


    As that light surrounded me, I felt aforting warmth spread through my entire body. It was like I was being taken to some sort of paradise. Though, I was certain that no paradise would smell like blood this much. Whatever had happened in the house and the shed had moved to this ce too. Before that bright light faded, I started to wonder just what was waiting for me on this side of the door.


    The next chapter will repeat a little of this chapter but hopefully not too much. It will be Reece and the others searching the buildings outside and finding the door along with their reactions when Trinity opens that door.

 Chapter 497 - Reece – Searching The Barn And The Shed (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 497 - Reece ¨C Searching The Barn And The Shed (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I was a little frustrated when Trinity told me, and the others, to search the outer buildings. I would have preferred to stay with her. I didn''t like leaving her when we were in unfamiliar situations like this. We didn''t know if there was a killer on the loose somewhere in this vicinity or not. So why, then, was she sending me away?


    Actually, I already knew why. The others were nowhere near as strong as we were. Trinity was the most powerful person that I had ever met in my entire life and, through her, I was an extension of that power. She wanted to send someone that had been blessed by the Gods and Goddess with the other party, and that only left me. So that was why she wanted to split us up. Still, I didn''t like it.


    When we got outside, I immediately saw that Nathair had followed my orders and was instructing the nearby knights to watch the house since Queen Trinity was still in there with half as many guards. I was d that he was so willingly following orders.


    When we got around to the back of the property, I could see the barn and the shed that we were going to search. They were both made of metal like the house was, the primary source of metal seemed to be silver and gold.


    In the barn, which we searched first, there were four horses that looked to be a little hungry, but otherwise fine. Their stalls had clearly not been cleaned out in a day or two which made for a stronger stench and a bigger mess.


    Since they were hungry, the horses were a little less than cooperative. So, to achieve our mission of thoroughly searching the barn we had to feed the horses while searching. Oh well, it wasn''t that bad I guess, and it helped the animals.


    In the end, no matter how thoroughly we searched the barn, there was nothing that we could find. There was nothing that was out of the ordinary or amiss at all. I was beginning to think thating all the way out here had been a waste of our time.


    When we went into the shed, we found out just how cramped it was with the four of us in there. Still, we did our best to search every nook and cranny possible. However, I wasn''t very hopeful, and I was swiftly losing faith in this whole thing.


    "I think I have found something." Kayda''s voice sounded so loud in the silence of the room that it might as well have been an explosion.


    "What is it?" I asked as I hurried over to her. The other two were already following after me.


    "There is a panel here that doesn''t seem to fully match the others."


    When I was next to her, I saw what it was that she meant. There was part of the paneling that didn''t have the exact same pattern as the rest. The difference was subtle but it was there. When I touched the panel, I felt that it was able to slide to the side.


    When the panel moved, it revealed what looked like a door. There were hinges and a frame, all made of gold and silver, and it was shining brightly, but it had no handle at all.


    "How the hell are we supposed to open that thing?" Trevor asked as he walked closer to the door and tried to touch it.


    The moment Trevor''s fingers tried to touch the door he was knocked to his ass and slid across the floor until he hit the wall.


    "What the hell?" He looked confused as he stared at the door.


    "What happened?" I asked as I went to touch the door. I too was thrown to my ass and slid away from the door. I ended up against the wall about four feet to the side of Trevor.


    "What is up with that door?" Trevor asked me with shock.


    "It''s enchanted." I shook my head. "I think we need Trinity. Nathair, please go and get Queen Trinity for me." I instructed him and he disappeared after a quick nod. "This is something that we should leave up to someone with magic like her."


    A few minutester, Nathair returned with Trinity and the others. They had supposedly finished searching the house and was happy to have been called out here to see what we had found.


    I had re-covered the door while Trinity was on her way here to stop the temptation of the others, and myself. We didn''t need to test it again to see if we were able to touch it. It would just end the same way as the previous two times.


    "Have you tried to open the door yet?" Trinity asked me with a serious look in her eyes and her hand pressed against the door.


    "We wanted to try." I answered her honestly as I watched on in awe. She was not thrown back when she tried to touch the door. I knew we had needed her.


    "What do you mean that you wanted to try?" She was confused.


    "We can''t even touch the door."


    "What do you mean? How could you not touch the door? It''s right here." She just didn''t seem to get it yet.


    "What I mean is that, whenever we tried to touch the door, it threw us away from it."


    After she looked at the door for a few minutes, she broke her silence.


    "This makes no sense to me."


    "This is just a thought, Trinity, but perhaps the door will allow you to touch it because you are part Fae, unlike any of the rest of us. You are the only one part Fae among us." Vincent''s words seemed to surprise her more than I thought they would.


    "Trinity? Do you think that might be the reason?" I felt my eyes go wide as I asked her that. "I mean, it makes sense to me."


    "Yeah, now that Vincent mentions it, that seems like the only logical thing." Trevor added.


    "I think it is a good thing that we have a Fae with us then." Landon grinned.


    "Are you going to try and open the door?" I asked her.


    "I am."


    No sooner had she said those words did the door start to glow even more. It was clear she was putting magic into it. The rest of us were just standing there, staring at her as she did her work. And soon enough, the door just disappeared entirely.


    The moment that the door was gone, it was like my Little Bunny just stepped right on through to the other side without even looking back.


    "Trinity!" I screamed her name as I went to follow her. However, even with the door gone, the magic threw be back. The others were right there with me, trying to rush forward.


    "Trinity?"


    "Trinity?"


    "Queen Trinity?"


    "Queen Trinity?"


    Trinity?"


    "My Queen?"


    All six of the others, the three inside with me and the three outside who had been watching at the door, all rushed forward and tried to follow their queen. They were all thrown back and at a loss.


    "Trinity!" I called after her, trying again and again to make it through the door. It was no use, though. She was on the other side and we couldn''t make it to where she was. "TRINITY!" I screamed her name, hoping that she could hear me.

 Chapter 498 - Trinity – The Other Side Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 498 - Trinity ¨C The Other Side Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I could still smell the blood, thick and pungent. Someone had been hurt really badly, that was the only exnation for that amount of blood. My question though, were they still alive? With how much blood was in the house and how much was here, was it even possible for them to still be alive?


    The light around me finally faded. I could see the ce that the door had taken me. I was in the middle of a bright clearing. It rounded and had tall grass and trees, closing it offpletely. I had a feeling that I wouldn''t be able to go beyond those trees even if I wanted to.


    The inside of the clearing was beautiful, I could tell that much at a nce. The grass was cut perfectly with not a de out of ce. There were bushes with beautiful flowers.. A weeping willow stood tall in the middle of therge space to provide a little bit of shade. That was something else that I noticed, none of the trees near the edge cast a shadow into the clearing. It was like the light didn''t exist anywhere but straight above.


    I swept my eyes over the clearing until I spotted the trail of blood. There it was, heading to the very center. And crouched under the tree was a man on his knees next to what looked like a dead body. Well, I guess I just found Alloy and Sterling.


    The man on his knees had to be Alloy. His skin was pale, practically paper white. His hair and eyes were indeed a pure silver that would catch the light and reflect it back to you. He was a good looking man, but rtively small inparison to all the other men that I had ever met.


    The man on the ground must have been Sterling. In contrast to Alloy, this man''s skin was literally silver, though it looked slightly pale and sickly right now. His hair and eyes were both pure ck, he didn''t even have whites to his eyes, it was all ck.


    "W..w..w..who are you? And h..h..h..how did y..y..you get in here?" Alloy asked me as he took a defensive stance in front of Sterling. "You shouldn''t have been able toe through that door, it''s warded."


    "What are the rules foring through that door, then? Who is allowed toe in here? And I am guessing this is a magical room and not a real clearing." That was the only thing that exined how this room made me feel, it was beautiful, but I still felt like I was inside somewhere.


    "That door is warded against anyone who means to do us harm or are our enemies. Only a Fae that is a friend should be able to make it through that door." Alloy spoke angrily as he looked at me.


    "M..may..maybe she is a fri..fri..friend." Sterling, who wasying on the ground slowly bleeding, struggled to speak.


    "She''s not, she can''t be. You heard what she told us."


    "I haven''t told you anything yet." I pointed it out to him.


    "Not you." He snapped back at me.


    "Then what are you talking about?" I pressed him for more details.


    "She told us that the whole castle thinks we are the ones who have been killing the other Fae. She told us that they want us dead. She tried to kill us. She wouldn''t even listen to us." I could see the desperation in Alloy''s eyes as he looked at me.


    "Who is she?" I was curious now, but I was still confused.


    "Hibiscus. She said that they know that I am guilty, and that Sterling helped me."


    "When did you speak to Hibiscus?" That was a shock to me. How was she able to get out here if she was still under surveince at her house?


    "Yesterday. She came here first thing in the morning and surprised us. She had our sword that was used to kill someone. It was a silver sword that only Sterling and I are capable of wielding, or we should be the only ones capable of holding it given that silver is toxic to most Fae."


    Now this was starting to answer a few questions as well as create new ones. The reason that Alloy and Sterling were being implicated was because they should be the only ones capable of holding the sword without being injured. I am guessing gloves would help but not eliminate the issue altogether. So then, why was Hibiscus able to hold it? None of this was adding up to fit the scenario that had been presented to us.


    At that moment, I heard Sterling cough. It wasn''t just one cough it was a long, wet, hacking fit of coughing that left him crying out in pain and had Alloy hovering over him frantically.


    "Hang in there, Sterling. Please, don''t die on me." There was a pleading note of love and longing in his voice as he begged the manying on the ground to be OK.


    "I don''t think I can, Alloy. I think that I aming to an end."


    "Can I help?" I spoke up, breaking into their intimate moment. "I can heal you?"


    "NO!" Alloy yelled at me. "You''re just going to finish killing him."


    "If I wanted to finish killing him, I would just sit back and let him die painfully. I don''t want him to die. I don''t want anyone to die." I gave him my most sincere look and hoped he would believe me.


    "Alloy, maybe we should trust her. What could it hurt?"


    "She could kill you, Sterling. She could take you away from me." There were tears flowing from Alloy''s eyes and down his pale cheeks. I saw that the tears were silver in color, like pure liquid silver or titanium or something.


    "I will die without her help." Sterling took Alloy''s hand and held it close.


    "I will find a way. I will protect you. Just please don''t leave me."

 Chapter 499 - Trinity – The Other Side Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 499 - Trinity ¨C The Other Side Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I just watched the heartbreaking scene before me with tears forming in my eyes while the two men nearly wept for each other. I knew that I needed to do something, I couldn''t just sit and watch as Sterling died if I was able to stop it. Slowly, with one cautious step after another, I walked toward the two men, where they were huddling together under the tree.


    Neither of them seemed to notice me until long after I was right next to them. I ced a hand on Alloy''s shoulder and spoke to him in a soft, soothing voice.


    "I promise I will help him. You have my word." I could see that he still didn''t trust me.


    "Please, help me.." Sterling begged despite the hesitation from his partner.


    "NO! We don''t even know who you are." Alloy was still looking at me angrily.


    "Would it help you trust me more if you know who I was first?" I looked at him with curious eyes. However, while he looked at me with those wary eyes of his I had reached out and taken Sterling''s hand. The hand that I held gripped me firmly and I could feel the pulse of his heart, weak and erratic. He truly was dying.


    With my eyes still on Alloy, watching him to make sure that he wasn''t doing anything that he shouldn''t, I poured all of my magic into Sterling. I thought of what it was that I wanted that magic of mine to do. I wanted to use my abilities to heal the wounds that were threatening this man''s life.


    As I looked at him in my peripheral vision, I had to wonder how it was that he had managed to get these wounds? He had a massive sh across his chest. It was long and deep, but there was something off about it as well. I don''t want to say that it looked like it was infected, but that was what it seemed like. Only, instead of a red inmmation that was spreading to the edges of the wound and into the veins, it was ck.


    The sick and infectious looking ck flesh started just before the edges of the wound and was moving out into the veins that spread through his body. That wasn''t the only wound that he had either. I could see one on his left arm, there were two on his right arm, and several more on his legs. There were so many injuries that I couldn''t maintain eye contact with Alloy and count them in my peripheral vision at the same time.


    I did everything that I could, pouring as much magic into him that I could. I started to beg and plead with Danu, Thoth, and Nehalennia for help. Finally, after what felt like a long time, my magic started to intensify. A bright shining light spread from me and into Sterling. Though it didn''t stop there, the light moved to cover Alloy as well.


    "What is this? What''s going on?" Alloy started to panic when my magic overtook him.


    "I feel so warm. It''s so pleasant." He was smiling, though I could barely make it out in the brightness of the light around us.


    "What are you doing to us?" Alloy screamed.


    "Calm down, Alloy. Please, don''t cause a scene. Just embrace it."


    I saw that wounds on Sterling were closing. The smaller ones were closing quickly, but thatrge one across his chest was taking a long time. I had a feeling he needed a little bit more magic to help him. Magic that I didn''t have.


    "Alloy, take his hand. He needs your magic to help him as well. He needs magic simr to his own as well as the love you share."


    "What?" Alloy looked at me like I was a weird creature.


    "Don''t worry about how I know, help him." I gave him a stern look.


    "Alloy?" Sterling held his hand out to the other man as he called his name. Finally, Alloy took his hand and I saw a silver light start to form at the point where they held hands.


    "I am not going anywhere." Alloy looked at his lover with tender eyes and a soft smile.


    Soon, that silver light started to spread around the three of us, Alloy''s magic blending with my own and finishing the healing process. I thought of onest thing before the healing was over, something that would help me to decide if they were telling me the truth or not. Though I was pretty sure that they were.


    "Please, Nehalennia, Thoth, and Danu, if these men are innocent, mark them. Show the world that they did notmit the crimes that they are being med for. Help me to protect them if they are not the culprits."


    As soon as I said those words the light seemed to explode. I watched as the shining gold and silver light became shimmering dust that was falling to the ground around us. I thought that it looked pretty, but Alloy was looking around us with shock and fear. But Sterling, however, was smiling happily as he sat up. He was fully healed and no longer on the brink of death.


    "Sterling." Alloy called his name when he saw him.


    "Alloy." I watched as the two men embraced each other, happy that the threat of death was gone for the moment.


    "I am d that you''re safe." I lowered my head slightly in relief as I spoke.


    "Who are you?" Alloy asked me, a little less wary of me than he was before.


    "Yes, I wish to know the name of my savior." Sterling gazed at me with reverence.


    "My name is Trinity."


    That got a bigger response from the two of them than I had expected. They must have known who I was. If they didn''t, then why would the both of them look at me with shock filled eyes. I had a feeling that the rest of this conversation was going to be interesting.

 Chapter 500 - Trinity - Who I Am (Volume 3)

    <h4>Chapter 500 - Trinity - Who I Am (Volume 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "You are Trinity?"


    "As in, the Trinity?" The two men before me were speaking as if I was some kind of legend.


    "I didn''t know that I was so famous among the Fae. That is, unless there is another person that I don''t know about who lives here within the Fae realm and they''re also named Trinity."


    "No, to my knowledge there is only one Fae named Trinity.." Sterling, who was now able to sit up and support his own body since he was healed, answered me with a serious expression.


    "The only Trinity that has evere to thend of the Fae is the Queen''s niece, Valerian''s descendant. Is that who you are?" Alloy asked me with wonder in his voice.


    "Well, I see that my reputation has preceded me." Iughed a little at his words. "I am indeed that Trinity."


    "So, you are a Queen?"


    "Queen of the shifters and the magic users?" These men, when one of them wasn''t dying, seemed to be in perfect unison with each other.


    "That I am."


    "And you have been personally blessed by two of the celestials?" Sterling was acting like someone meeting a celebrity that they admired.


    "Three actually." I smiled at him and pulled the cor of my shirt down just a little bit. "Last Yule celebration, I was blessed by Danu."


    When the men in front of me saw the mark, and heard the name of their goddess, it was like they had been struck in the face. The shock that was written on their faces and the trembling in their eyes only got worse.


    "Danu?"


    "The mother Goddess?"


    "How can that be?"


    "Why would she bless someone aside from Queen Gloriana?" That little exchange started with Sterling, and the two of them alternated until they had said what they needed to.


    "Well, I was summoned by Danu and asked to protect Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r, that is the simplest way to exin it." I never let the smile slip from my face as I spoke to them. I wanted to let them know that I was not an enemy.


    "Protect Gloriana?" Sterling sounded shocked. "Is she in danger as well? Is what happening in the city going to get her hurt?" I saw pain in his eyes as he thought about that.


    "No, she cannot be in danger. She is powerful, what could possibly get to her?" Alloy sounded like he didn''t quite believe his own words.


    "That is what I am trying to find out."


    I know that the firm look I gave them when I answered made them think that I suspected them. I could tell they thought they were in trouble because of the reactions they had to those words and that firm look of mine.


    "N..no. We didn''t do it." Alloy stammered.


    "We''re innocent." Sterling added.


    "You cannot think that we would ever hurt Gloriana or Valerian. They are our friends."


    "I know they are." I nodded at them, trying to let them know that I understood.


    "Then why? Why are you here for us?" Alloy was getting angry again, just like he had been earlier. I could tell that anger was his response when he was afraid of something.


    "I am not here for you." I tried to assure him.


    "Yeah, right. You came here to either kill us or arrest us." He was backing away from me, then, trying to drag Sterling who was quite a bit taller than him. He was trying to get the two of them away from me.


    "I assure you that I am not here for that." I stood and looked at the two of them, they had fear in their eyes. They knew that I was powerful, nearly as powerful as the Fae Queen herself. They knew that they would most likely die if it came to a true fight between us.


    "I don''t believe you. You''re on the same side as Hibiscus."


    "Calm down, Alloy." Sterling tried to sooth the man. "We do not know that she is here for that reason."


    "How can she not be. She came from the city after all."


    "I assure you that I am in no way on the same side as Hibiscus. However, I seem to be the only person investigating this crime who doesn''t believe that Hibiscus was just an innocent bystander. I believe there is more that she is not telling us."


    "Y..you truly are not siding with her?" Alloy paused in his struggle to pull therger man away.


    "No, I am not siding with her. Actually, I want to use the two of you to help me prove that she is guilty. I know that she has a bigger part in all of this than she is letting on.


    "If that is the case, then Alloy and I are with you. I wish to let everyone know what it was that she did to me. She nearly killed me, while wielding my own sword against me no less."


    "She will pay, won''t she?" Alloy didn''t quite believe me yet.


    "She most definitely will." I nodded at him and smirked as I thought about proving that she was behind all of this.


    "Then we wille with you."


    Now, instead of trying to pull Sterling away, Alloy was helping him to his feet so that he could stand. I saw that Sterling was around maybe five feet ten inches tall, somewhere in that range, while Alloy was maybe five foot seven inches tall. The difference wasn''t as big as I initially thought it was. However, Sterling was a little more masculine with more muscle definition, which made him seem a lot bigger than the thin and slight Alloy.


    "We wille with you if it means that we can tell everyone that Hibiscus lied and tried to kill us." Sterling wrapped his arm around Alloy''s shoulders and held the smaller man against his side.


    "That is good. I believe that we should get back as soon as we can. Something tells me that there is danger awaiting Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r in the city. I need to hurry and finish this mission as soon as possible."


    "Then, let us go."


    Together, the three of us walked toward the edge of the clearing and back toward the shed that I hade in through.

 Chapter 501 - Reece - Trinity Returns (Volume 3)

    <h4>Chapter 501 - Reece - Trinity Returns (Volume 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "Where the hell is she?!" I yelled at the shining rectangle that was the door. It had closed behind my Little Bunny after she left us here. How could she just leave like that? How could she do this to me? "Trinity!" I yelled at the door. "Trinity!"


    I had tried to follow her several times after she disappeared, only to be thrown back several times until the door shut. I was frantic, scared and lost without her here with me. Right now, I was on my knees in front of the door, hoping and praying that she was going toe back to me sometime soon.


    "Trinity." I pounded the floor with my fist as I said her name. "Trinity. Trinity.. Trinity."


    "Reece!" I heard Vincent''s voice call out to me, but I ignored him.


    "Trinity."


    "REECE!" He yelled at me again but this time he grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back.


    "What?!" I shouted at him.


    "Pull yourself together, Reece."


    "How can I? She''s gone. She disappeared."


    "You''re a King! You''re too smart and strong to let yourself be like this!" He was yelling at me still, telling me that I needed to stop my blubbering. That made me angry.


    "Really, Vincent? Really? You''re the captain of her guard and you let her disappear like that." I threw the words at him, trying to hurt him, even though I knew it was childish behavior.


    "Yeah? You want to go there? You''re the great Warrior King that she praised so much. You''re her mate and her number one defender. How could you let her disappear like that?" I could clearly see that he was a wreck as well, doing his best to hold it all together.


    "Oh, no you-."


    "Shut up! Both of you." Trevor yelled at us, cutting me off and breaking up our bickering.


    "Who the hell do you think you are?" I asked him with an angry expression.


    "I''m the future King of the Fae. That''s who the fuck I think I am. And since this is thend of the Fae, that means that I outrank you. So shut up, Odie." I felt the fight start to slip away from me and a hint ofughter tried to creep up in me. He just fucking called me a dog. Damn him.


    "Haha, that''s funny. They were fighting like two stupid dogs. It even fits the show, big dog and little dog." Landon, who felt like he needed to join in on the fun.


    "Shut up, Garfield." I snapped at him, making Landon the opposite of what Trevor called me. "You and Yogi here need to stop with this bullshit." It was a lost cause now though. I wasughing even though I really shouldn''t be.


    "No, Dino, you need to stop with the bullshit." Trevor snapped at me, a smile on his face as well. "Yeah, I get that you''re worried, but Trinity is the most powerful person that any of us know. If she can''t handle herself over there, then we would all be doomed. I for one, have faith in my Queen."


    His words hit me hard. I knew he was right. As hard as it was, I needed to admit that my wife, my tiny little fragile looking wife, was stronger than me. The only person who could go through that door was her because of the power that she wields. I had to ept that and just wait for her.


    But it was hard waiting, dammit. I wanted her toe back right now. I needed to see her and know that she was OK. I didn''t like having to wait like this.


    "Have you calmed down now?" Vincent asked me when I was quiet for a little bit.


    "Yeah, I think I am." I looked him in the eyes and thought about what it was that I had said to him. "I''m sorry, Vincent. I know that it wasn''t your fault that she disappeared."


    "I am sorry as well. I guess we are both just a little bit stressed from this situation." He grimaced as he thought about the way that we were fighting.


    "More than a little stressed." I chuckled but the sound died out too quickly. "We just need to wait here for her. I am sure that she will be back soon. And when I get her alone, I''m going to-."


    "None of us need to know about your kinky pleasures. So, please spare us the details." Trevorughed at me as he spoke.


    "I don''t know, I think I might want some details. Being unmated is lonely."


    "Well tough, I won''t be giving any of you intimate details that have to do with my sex life." I snapped at them.


    "Enough, all of you, please." Rahim cut across the bickering. "I believe that the door is opening again." He was pointing at the door that was indeed changing.


    "Is sheing back?" Vincent asked.


    "I hope so."


    We all stepped back away from the door to allow Trinity toe out easily. I watched with bated breath as the door seemed to swing open with nothing more than light creating the substance. When the door was finally opened, I could see shadows on the other side. There were three shadows.


    Either Trinity was on her way back with more people, or this wasn''t my wife and mateing back to me. I hoped it was the former because if it wasn''t my Little Bunny then that would mean that something bad had happened to her.


    I waited with bated breath for the people on the other side of the door toe through to this side. Slowly, the three figures, two small and one taller, made their way through the door.


    The first thing that I saw was my Trinity, she was safe and sound, and didn''t look like she was hurt at all. I started to move toward her, but I wasn''t quick enough, someone else beat me to her side.


    "Oh, thank the Goddess! Trinity, I am so d you''re safe."


    Vincent had his arms wrapped around my wife as he hugged her in relief.


    "Ahem." I cleared my throat behind him, kindly asking him without words if I could hug my mate now.


    "Sorry." He stepped away and gave me ess to her.


    "Trinity." I said my Little Bunny''s name as I wrapped my arms around her for a hug and lifted her off her feet. "I was so fucking worried about you. Please don''t ever do that again."


    "I was fine, Reece. And I might have solved the case."


    Her words threw me for a loop. She might have solved the case? Did that mean that she had found the men that we were looking for?


    I sat her down and looked at the men that were behind her. One of them was covered in so much blood that if it was his he would be dead. I didn''t see a wound though, so that was confusing for me.


    "Who are these two?" I asked her, feeling the need to protect her but she wouldn''t let me push her behind me.


    "Well, these are Alloy and Sterling, and they have an interesting story about what has happened recently."


    Trinity began to tell us everything that happened while she was on the other side of the door. I knew that she never trusted Hibiscus and I didn''t want her to be taken in by a story just because of that. I decided to have Vincent listen to them speak their side of it all so that he could judge them for me.


    "They are not lying to us." He clearly looked relieved. He had been unable to get a read on Hibiscus, so I know that he was d to not have that problem this time.


    "That means she was lying to us." I couldn''t believe it. I had been taken in because Queen Gloriana fully believed in Hibiscus''s innocence.


    "There is a lot that we need to figure out back in the city, Reece. I say we leave immediately."

 Chapter 502 - Trinity – Proving Their Innocence Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 502 - Trinity ¨C Proving Their Innocence Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Wait!" Reece called out as soon as I started to walk toward the door.


    "What? Why wait? I know that we need to get back to the city as soon as possible. Something terrible is going to happen if we don''t hurry." I gave him an exasperated look as I questioned his questioning of me.


    "How are we going to prove their innocence? I mean, I know that we all trust and believe in Vincent''s assessment of them, but will Gloriana and Valerian believe it? They both seem to believe that Hibiscus is innocent no matter what you say to the contrary."


    "Well, it just so happens that I nned for something just like that." I grinned at him.


    "How exactly did you n for something like that, Trinity?" Vincent looked at me with confused eyes..


    "When she healed me." Sterling was the one to answer the question on my behalf.


    "That is right. When she healed him she called on me for my magic. It was then that she prayed to the celestials for their assistance. She asked that we be marked if we were innocent."


    "OK, well that would be convenient, but what markings did she give you? I don''t see any right now."


    "You don''t see them because they''re on their cor bones under their shirts. The marks are where the goddess blessings usually show up on the people that I bless."


    "Well, that is convenient. But what do the marks look like? How are they different? How will they prove that they are innocent?" Reece was still not convinced that things were going to go smoothly when we got back.


    "Alloy, Sterling, would the two of you mind showing us the marks that you have been given?" I saw the shock and fear on their faces.


    "D..d..d..do we have to?" Alloy looked at me nervously.


    "It''s alright, Alloy." Sterling took his hand and squeezed it tightly. "All we need to do is show our new marks, nothing more will happen other than that. I promise, we will be fine." Alloy looked as if he had been through something that made him afraid to show his body to others.


    "A..a..are you sure that nothing more will happen?" Alloy asked with fear in his voice now.


    "I promise you." I answered him instead of Sterling. "I will not allow anything to happen to you. Not here and now, and not back in the city. I will make sure that everyone knows the truth." I saw the fear begin to ebb as tears filled his eyes slightly.


    "Thank you, Queen Trinity. Truly, thank you for caring so much about what happens to us." Sterling was the first to respond to my words.


    "Y..y..yes, th..th..thank you. I..I..I don''t kn..kn..know what we w..we..would do without you here Queen Trinity."


    "I may not be the Queen of the Fae, but I am still part Fae, and that makes you my people as well. I will protect my people when they need me."


    Everyone that was inside the shed was looking at me with reverent eyes. It was like they thought that I had said something very beautiful and wise. That just made me feel awkward at the moment.


    "A..a..a..alright, w..w..w..well, lets s..s..s..see these m..m..m..marks so that we can get a move on." I was the one who sounded like they were embarrassed now.


    "Yes, I think that it is time for us to get this over with." Reece agreed.


    "Right." Sterling nodded.


    "OK." Alloy reluctantly consented.


    I watched the two men as they slowly unbuttoned their shirts just a little. I thought to myself that Sterling could have just pulled the gaping hole in his shirt up and showed us that way. Then again, that would have left just Alloy being the only one unbuttoning his shirt and he would have felt awkward and embarrassed because of it. I guess this was Sterling''s way of showing solidarity.


    It seemed like it was taking a long time for them to reveal that part of their chests, but I know that, in reality, it wasn''t really that long. No matter how long it did or didn''t actually take, eventually I did see the marks start to appear.


    The marks were a vibrant mix of three different colors. There was a bright and shining green and blue background that looked like andscape with a pure white songbird that seemed to be flying over the untouchednd in the back. It was an image that, to me, spoke of pure innocence.


    "Well, I don''t know about you, but that to me says that Danu recognized them as being as innocent as babies." Reeceughed at his own words. "You gentlemen have my respect. I am sorry to make you do this, but I thank you for obliging."


    "That is fine King Reece, we understand what this all must have looked like to an outsider that was not there when we were attacked." Sterling was the one to answer, as always.


    "Alright, well, I think it''s time to head back to the city. We need to prove their innocence, prove Hibiscus''s guilt, and save Aunt Glory. I have a feeling that something is going to happen very soon." I just had a really bad feeling coursing through me. There wasn''t really an exnation behind it, I just had an inkling that Hibiscus did all of this for a reason and that she was going to make her move soon enough.


    "Well, we still need to find out if she was truly being controlled by someone or not." Nathair was the one to respond from beyond the shed door. "I know that most likely she has not been, but you know that Queen Gloriana will be inclined to believe that she has been." He had a point. I didn''t want to think that Aunt Glory would still stand in my way, even with all this evidence presented to her, but that didn''t mean that it wouldn''t happen.


    "Yeah, well, I n on proving that she isn''t." With that, we left the shed.

 Chapter 503 - Trinity – Getting Back To The City (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 503 - Trinity ¨C Getting Back To The City (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    We needed to get back to the city now. There was no way that we could take the horses to get back and have it take us days to make it back to the castle. I didn''t think that we had nearly that much time to spare.


    "Let''s mount up." Trevor said as he walked toward the horses.


    "No." I stopped him as I thought about something. "That''s not quick enough."


    "What other option do we have?" Trevor looked confused.


    "I want to ask the same question as you, Trevor, but I won''t. I have a feeling that Queen Trinity is going to show us something very important and special right about now." Landon looked at me with eager eyes.


    "I think you just might be right." Reece looked at me with excited and love filled eyes. "I think my beautiful, strong, powerful, and talented wife is going to be showing us something truly amazing very soon."


    "Stop ttering me, Reece. It won''t get you anything special right now." I rolled my eyes at his words.


    "Wh..wh.. I..I..I wasn''t-.. th..that''s not.. I d..d..didn''t-.. Hahh!" He spluttered through a mess of words before giving up and sighing in frustration. "You''re so mean sometimes." He pretended to pout as he sidled up to my side. "You''re going to have to make that up to meter." He looked at me with heated eyes. "That will be all that I ept." He winked then and kissed the top of my head.


    "Are you finished yet?" I asked him.


    "HAHAHA! That''s what she said!" Trevor turned my words into a crude joke but I realized that I walked into that one with the words that I said, consequently, Iughed along with him and that only made himugh harder.


    "Honestly, Trevor, I don''t know how Queen Gloriana is going to put up with you." I shook my head at him.


    "She already loves me, there is no putting up with me." He grinned. "Besides, I''m loveable like a special kind of teddy bear."


    "Oh, Goddess!" I pped a hand to my forehead. "I didn''t need to hear that! That gave me visuals. Get out! Get out! Get out!" I had tilted my head all the way to the left and was lightly hitting the right side just above my ear. It was like I was trying to knock the visuals out of my head physically.


    "This all makes no sense to me." Alloy looked at us with wary eyes. That made Trevor and Iugh even more.


    "I am sorry, Alloy. We were just trying to break the tension. Now is not the time, though. Let us get ready to go."


    I walked to the side of the shed and turned to look back at Alloy and Sterling.


    "I need to ask you two a question." I was smiling at them now, forming my n in my head.


    "What is it?" They walked over to my side and away from the others. I think that made Alloy a little morefortable in the long run.


    "I want to make a magic door. I want one that will take us back to the city. To the castle."


    "WHAT?!" The two of them shouted the words like there was a problem with what I had just said.


    "I am going to make a door to take us back to the city. I know that the door you made was permanent. but I want to make a temporary door. Can you guide me through it?"


    "No offense, Queen Trinity, but the spell for these doors is not an easy one to cast. I don''t think that you can master it that quickly. The two of us had to pour magic into our door for days before it was functional." Sterling sounded like he couldn''t believe that I would suggest such a thing.


    "Yes, I can understand that. However, like I said, your door is permanent, and I will be making a temporary one. That alone should make it require less magic."


    "I truly do not think this is wise." Alloy agreed with his lover. "This is not a simple process toplete."


    "Alright, I will just ask the Goddesses and Gods for guidance." I shrugged my shoulders at them and turned to face the side of the shed. That wall in front of me was where I was going to make my magic door.


    "Queen Trinity, please don''t-."


    "Silence." Reece stopped Alloy in the middle of his protest.


    After that, all was silent around me. I could hear the birds chirping in the distance. There were crickets, the sound of frogs, the soft whistle of the wind. Everything that reminded me of nature. Then there were the smells. The flowers, the dirt, the blood that was still on Sterling and Alloy. Everything was intensifying, even the feel of the gentle breeze on my face was more noticeable than it was before.


    I could feel myself tapping into the feeling of the Goddess Danu, the mother Goddess of the Fae. She was Athair m¨°r''s mother. She was my great, great, great, great grandmother. I was part of her so there should be no magic that was beyond me.


    "Lend me assistance, Seanmh¨¢thair. [1] Lend me your assistance and help me to save the ones that we both wish to protect. I kept my eyes closed, but I envisioned my words flying up to the sky on the wind to dance among the clouds as if they were a brightly colored moving rainbow. I refused to open my eyes and check to see if that was truly the case or not. but it was what I saw in my head.


    I felt the magic in me start to move and take form. I saw the words for the spell forming in my mind''s eye and I knew then and there that all I needed to do was say those words and I would have the door that I wanted.


    "Mother Danu, Goddess of nature and Fae, lend me your strength and wisdom to guide me to where I need to be. Show me the ce that I need to be. Open the path before me and allow, not just myself, but those that travel with me to step from here to there. With the swiftness of the wind, we will travel great distances. Help me, Mother Danu, help me to step from here to there."


    The power surged from within me, and I felt a heat spread from my palm to the metal of the door. There was a pulsing of light from the spot just in front of me, but I did not open my eyes. I kept my eyes closed until the pulsing was gone and the heat had dissipated. Only then did I look at the wall I had intended to make a door on.


    "Holy shit!" Trevor yelled in surprise just as I opened my eyes.


    "She did it?" Alloy sounded just as surprised as Trevor had.


    "I am sorry, Queen Trinity, I stand fully corrected. I should have helped you from the beginning." He bowed his head in shame and reverence. He was in awe of what I had done.


    "I never had a doubt, I knew my wife could do it." Reece smirked at me.


    "There is only one problem." Alloy stopped us all. "Doors like this will not give you ess into the castle. They won''t work because of the wardings."


    [1] Seanmh¨¢thair- An Irish word meaning grandmother.


    It is pronounced as? shan ¨C a ¨C WAW ¨C her.

 Chapter 504 - Trinity – Returning To The City (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 504 - Trinity ¨C Returning To The City (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "I think I will take my chances, Alloy. There is no other option. And besides, it doesn''t need to get us into the castle, just close to it." I smirked at him, seeing that there was a way around what he was saying.


    "I guess that would work well enough. I just do not know how close it could get you. We might not even end up in the city at all."


    "As long as we are a hell of a lot closer to the city than we are now, I will count that as a sess." Reece turned and snapped at him with a slight amount of anger in his voice. "Damn, Alloy, you''re such a pessimist."


    I saw Alloy''s shocked look on his face and the poorly suppressedughter on Sterling''s face. I knew that it was true, and I was pretty sure that Alloy did too, but that didn''t mean that he was going to admit it outright like that. I stopped his protest the moment that he started, though.


    "I am no-."


    "Enough. Come on, we need to get back."


    "Yes, let us just try the door, it will get us closer than we are now. Alloy, please stop finding new things toin about right now. Please, my love."


    "Sterling!" Alloy gasped when he heard the man''s words.


    "Oh, drop it, they already knew before they met us. They are not negatively judging us."


    "That is besides the point." Alloy crossed his arms in petnce.


    "Hush and let''s go." Trevor snapped at them. "I, for one, want to get back before my mate is put into more danger."


    "Like your mate matters right now, we''re trying to save Queen Gloriana and Valerian." Alloy rolled his eyes at him.


    "Queen Gloriana is my mate, asshole. Now let''s go."


    While shock filled the two Fae''s faces, I opened the door to the city and started the process of taking us back to the castle.


    "Here goes nothing."


    The moment that I stepped through the door and toward the city that I was seeking, I was enveloped in a warm sensation. That had to be the magic itself. It was part of the Goddess, and she was such a calming presence that it was helping me to calm down and think things through as I walked onward.


    When I had been going through the door into Alloy and Sterling''s magical clearing, the walk had not seemed nearly as long as this one. Right now, I felt like I had been walking for several minutes and I hadn''t reached the other side. Maybe my door hadn''t been made properly after all.


    Just as I started to doubt myself though, I saw another door on the other side. It was the exit. Thank the Goddess, there was the city. At least I hoped that it was the city.


    "Trinity?" I heard Reece call out to me as I got closer to the door.


    "Just keep walking, Reece. I can see the exit. Just keep going straight ahead."


    I guided him with my voice, not daring to turn around and take my eyes off of the door. I was nearly there. I was almost to the other side. I could save my Aunt Glory soon.


    "Hang in there, Aunt Glory, I aming to save you and Athair m¨°r." I whispered the words to myself. It was more to make myself feel better than anything else, that was why I had said it so softly that I was sure that no one else had heard it.


    "We''re alling to same them, together." I heard Reece''s voice respond to my nearly silent words. He was right behind me now, closer than I thought he would have been.


    Just as I felt Reece nearly brush against my back, I made it to the other side of the door and the bright warm light of the door was reced with thete afternoon light of the city.


    One by one, everyone started toe through onto this side of the door, only there was not actually a door there. Everyone was literally just appearing out of thin air. One moment they were there and the next they weren''t. Even the carriage and horses all came through the door and appeared out of the air. One moment there was nothing there and the next the animals and the carriage were walking along the cobbled sidewalk.


    "We''re in the city!" Alloy was surprised to see the scenery around us.


    "Not only are we in the city, but we are also right outside the castle." Sterling added. "Queen Trinity, I believe you are indeed a lot more powerful than we had given you credit for. Thank you for showing us just how wrong we were." I could see true sincerity in his eyes as he spoke.


    "We can worry about thatter, right now, it''s time to go find Gloriana." Trevor was a little frantic as he spoke. "Something doesn''t feel right."


    "Trevor, have you already marked Gloriana?" I asked him, curiosity in my eyes. That was a little fast, but then again, others have moved faster.


    "Of course I have, she is my mate after all. I wasn''t going to not mark her when I knew that it was important for me to mark her so I could protect her."


    "Trevor is right. Marking Queen Gloriana would inevitably protect her. He can sense whenever she is in danger, and I am guessing that he is sensing something now. Am I right?"


    "Yes. Something seems off. It''s like she is in danger but doesn''t know it. I am guessing that something is about to happen, and soon."


    "Then we need to hurry." I turned toward the knights that had the animal harnesses in their hands. "The three of you secure the horses then gather the others. We are heading to Queen Gloriana''s private quarters. Meet us there when you are done."


    "Yes, my Queen." The knights saluted and answered me in unison before heading off with the animals.


    "Everyone else, let''s go."

 Chapter 505 - Trinity – Finding Aunt Glory (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 505 - Trinity ¨C Finding Aunt Glory (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The rest of us started toward the castle at a brisk pace. The doors to therge, fantasy looking fa?ade would usually be guarded by Aunt Glory''s soldiers and knights, but there was no one to be seen standing near the doors right now.


    "Where are the guards?" Reece asked, echoing my thoughts. "Aren''t there supposed to be two to four guards at the castle doors at all times? Where are they?"


    "That was just what I was wondering." I told him as I flung a hand toward the doors to open them for us. "Something isn''t right here. And I don''t like the way this makes me feel."


    "Neither do I." Sterling added.


    "We should have stayed home." Alloy sounded scared.


    "If you would have stayed home, you might have died there. Is that what you would have preferred?" Landon snapped at him. "We will have this settled and you can go home when it''s all over. Stop your belly aching."


    "I wasn''t belly aching." Alloy whined but shut up after that. That was good, I needed to focus.


    The moment we were inside the castle, we found out where all the soldiers were. They weren''t guarding the outside of the castle, they were guarding the inside. The ones that were awake, that is.


    "What is going on here?" I demanded of the guards that were right in front of the door.


    "Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders."


    Those words sounded like a mantra the way they were repeating them. And the dazed and stupefied look in their eyes told me that they didn''t know what was going on.


    "Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders."


    The soldiers were looking at us but not looking at us at the same time. It was like they couldn''t actually see but the magic that was controlling them could see. They didn''t need to use their eyes to find us.


    "Stand down, all of you. I do not want to have to hurt you." The two dozen soldiers that were advancing on us didn''t seem to be paying any attention to what I was saying at all. They just kept chanting their mantra.


    "Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders."


    "Stop." Reece yelled at them.


    "Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders." They still weren''t listening to us at all.


    "We''re going to have to fight them, aren''t we?" Landon asked with sadness in his voice. "They aren''t doing this because they want to, but we still have to fight them."


    "Incapacitate them, don''t kill them, don''t hurt them. I want you all to keep in mind that they are not our enemies. They are innocent in all of this. I do not want them irrevocably hurt and punished because of someone else''s wrong doings."


    "Yes, Queen Trinity." Everyone answered me in unison.


    "Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders."


    The chanting continued as the fighting broke out. They had us outnumbered but that wouldn''t be an issue. Almost everyone with us was able to fight with special abilities. In an instant, Trevor, Landon, and Vincent shifted into their animal forms. Reece decided to take on his Lycan form. Nathair became the giant snake that he had inside of him, a twenty foot long blue Mysian coral snake; he was frightening to look at. Kayda became a fifteen foot long, powerful looking Komodo dragon that was a beautiful glittering green color. Rahim didn''t transform, but he did let his magic re around him just the same as I did.


    "Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders." The knights hadn''t even stopped their chanting when they saw the transformations in front of them. They were waiting for us toe for them.


    "Try not to kill anyone." I reminded them just as Ished out for the soldier in the lead.


    I had flung a whip made of light at the Fae that was closest to me. The whip wrapped around him, and I tugged him toward me, pulling him off of his feet. As soon as the soldier had unbnced and fallen, I let the whip dissipate and closed him inside of a magic cage. I had practiced these cages years ago, and I never truly thought that they woulde in handy at any time, but I was wrong now, wasn''t I?


    I did my best to pay attention to the others that were fighting around me, but I was also busy fighting as well, so I didn''t have that luxury. Right now, I had three soldiers that wereing at me from different angles, so I decided to let a three stooges type moment happen. I jumped into the air and let the wind hold me suspended in the air. The moment that I was out of the way, the three soldiers ran headfirst into each other and copsed onto the floor. I sent out my whip again and split it into three. I wrapped it around their feet and lifted the three stooge guards from the floor and promptly dropped them into the magic cage along with the other soldier.


    When I looked around me, I saw that Nathair was holding two different soldiers wrapped up in his tail. Kayda had one guard clenched gently in her mouth and another under her feet. Rahim had taken my lead and was using whips to hold the soldiers.


    "All of you, put your captives into this cage." I called out to them. They would be able to push them in through the bars but they wouldn''t be able to escape in the same fashion.


    Reece, who had one soldier in each hand, started to follow themand without me needing to tell him. Vincent also took the soldier he was fighting and dragged him over toward the cage. It was slowly growing with each man added to the confines of the cage.


    Landon and Trevor were having a little bit of trouble not hurting the soldiers that were going after them. They had a natural defense that also worked as an attack. Every time one of the soldiers reached for them their hands would be speared on the ends of the fur that was covering Landon or Trevor''s body. And they were both so muchrger than when they initially transformed.


    Trevor, who was already almost ten feet tall when he was in his bear form, was now nearly twenty-five feet tall. Landon, whose head was six feet off the ground when on all fours, was now at least fifteen feet off the ground, from head to tail he was at least twenty five feet long as well.


    Knowing that I wanted the soldier alive and in the cage, Landon opened hisrge mouth and caught two of the soldiers in his mouth simultaneously. He didn''t bite down, he just kept them still as he walked them over to the cage. Trevor did something simr, only he hooked his three foot long ws through their armor and carried them like shopping bags in his hands.


    The fight was almost over, there were only three more that needed to be captured but they showed no sign of backing down.


    "Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders. Guard the castle. Stop the intruders."


    Their chants continued as Reece, Landon, and Trevor grabbed them easily. There was no fight at all, they just picked them up and put them into the growing magical cage.


    "That was easy." I heard Reece''s guttural and animalistic words.


    "They were being controlled by someone, so they would only fight at the capacity of their controller. That is my guess anyway." I shrugged and looked at the people around me who had transformed. "All of you, shift back. I will provide you with new clothes."


    They listened and did as I said immediately. Well, I could say that I finally saw what a lot more men looked like naked. And none of them were a disappointment. Even Kayda was beautiful when she shifted back. Why was it I felt inadequatepared to her right now? Probably just the residual idea that I am still carrying around extra bits from the babies.


    Anyway, I pushed the thoughts out of my mind and waved a hand through the air. The next thing that we all knew, the naked individuals were clothed again.


    "I think we''re going to have to figure out some magical clothes that won''t be destroyed when we shift." I smirked at them all. That way no one is ever naked when they shift back."


    "If anyone can do that, it would be you." Reece smiled at me as he came back to me. "I don''t want to see that look in your eyes when you see naked men again."


    "Jealous?" Iughed at him.


    "Always.." He growled at me.

 Chapter 506 - Trinity – Glory’s Private Office (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 506 - Trinity ¨C Glory¡¯s Private Office (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Not sooner than I had magically dressed the naked members of my party did the door to the castle open again, the knights that I sent to put the animals away came rushing inside.


    "Queen Trinity? What are you still doing here? I thought you would be much farther in." Nigel, the knight in the lead, asked me with shock in his voice.


    "We had a bit of an obstacle. No worries, we took care of it all." I pointed to the guards that were falling all over themselves in the cage that I made, trying their best to get out and attack us even now.


    "I am sorry that we were not here to assist you, my Queen." He bowed his head in shame as if this was the worst situation he could have imagined.


    "It''s fine, Nigel, we were all doing what it is that we needed to do. There is no need to apologize. Now, let us be off."


    Together, our group started through the halls of the castle. I had, once again, tried to take the lead, but Reece put his foot down this time. We were in an active battle situation. There was, in his words, ''absolutely no fucking way in hell'' that I was going to be in the front leading the party. And he simply wouldn''t listen to me when I tried to protest.


    Not wanting to turn anything into a demand and force the issue, I let the others take the lead over me. Trevor and Landon took the first position with me and Reece right behind them, which I did insist upon. I needed to be able to see some of what was happening in front of me so that I could make any important decisions regarding our attack.


    The halls seemed to be quiet. Too quiet. It was eerie to walk through these halls and not see someone that was working or another resident that was just moving about. There were way too many people that lived in the castle for this to happen. What the hell had they done to everyone? I swear, if Hibiscus hurt them, she will be sorry.


    Since there was nothing, and no one, in the way to stop me, I made it to Aunt Glory''s private office quicker than I normally would have. Once again, the sight of the unguarded door made fear rise within me. Seeing that the normal guards that would be stationed out here were gone was making me fear the worst already.


    "Aunt Glory, I aming in." I shouted at the door.


    "Gloriana, my love, I aming in as well." Trevor yelled as he threw himself against the door. The door was, as expected, locked.


    "You are not permitted entry." I heard Aunt Glory''s voiceing from the other side. "Please leave. I do not wish to see any of you at the moment." There was something strange about her voice, something that was off.


    "Aunt Glory, I know that isn''t you talking. I aming in there."


    "Trinity, go away. I do not want to see you." That tone, the way that she spoke, it wasn''t like her at all.


    "Hibiscus, I know what you have done." I called through the door, speaking to the mastermind behind all of this instead of my aunt. I knew that she was in there and I knew that she was the one behind all of this.


    "Bissy isn''t even here, Trinity. Why must you always think the worst of her?" I heard the angry note in Aunt Glory''s voice then, it was like she was pissed that I was using her friend of treason.


    "Stand back away from the door, Aunt Glory, I don''t want you getting hurt.


    "No! I told you to go away!"


    I didn''t listen to her. I knew that we needed to get inside right away. I pushed past Trevor and Landon and threw off Reece''s hand when he tried to stop me. There was no danger on this side of the door, they didn''t have to worry. This was something that I could do with no threat to me.


    When I was past the others and standing before Aunt Glory''s ornately carved doors, I ced my hands on them. I knew that Aunt Glory would have the doors guarded and protected so I needed to overpower them as much as I could. I started to pour all of the magic that I had into the doors. I poured in everything that there was for me to give. I gave light magic, water magic, nature magic. After I gave my all to the Fae magic, I started on my witch magic and even the wolf magic. I was going to push so much into the door that there was no possible way that it would be able to withstand the sheer force of it all.


    Sure enough, after I put everything that I had into the door, I heard it start to groan. The wood couldn''t hold anymore magic. It had reached its limits and there was nothing left for me to do but to push it aside.


    I used my magic to make the door fly off of its hinges, but I also kept it from flying across the room. I didn''t want to hurt Aunt Glory when it shot across the room. I followed the door into the room, taking the lead despite Reece''s attempted protests.


    "Aunt Glory?" I called out to her when I saw her standing next to the firece. "Where is she?"


    "Where is who?" She called out to me. "There is no one here aside from myself and you intruders." She was ring at me. "I cannot believe the betrayal, Trinity. How could you do this to me? I thought we were family. I thought there was love between us. How could you betray me and do this to my people?" There was pure anger in Aunt Glory''s eyes at the moment.. This wasn''t what I expected when I came to save her.

 Chapter 507 - Trinity – Breaking The Spell (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 507 - Trinity ¨C Breaking The Spell (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Aunt Glory, what are you talking about? What betrayal? All I have done is try to protect you and the other Fae. I have done nothing to betray you."


    "I only wish that were true, Trinity. I have been shown the truth. I have seen the proof. How could you do this? How could you kill my people? How could you kill my friends?"


    "Who have I killed, Aunt Glory? Who am I supposed to have done these things to? I have no idea what it is that you''re talking about."


    I was standing there with my hands on my hips as I watched her begin to cry. She was clearly not herself. I could see it in her eyes. There was the same look in them that was in the eyes of the guards. Only it looks like Hibiscus had put more effort into bespelling Aunt Glory than into the men guarding the door.


    "You killed my friends, Alloy and Sterling. You took their lives to silence them. You are the one that was behind this whole thing. You have been the one attacking my people and leaving them too afraid to leave their homes. You were the one who killed them all."


    "How would I have done that, Aunt Glory? I wasn''t even here when it was starting. How could I have been the one to do that?"


    "It had to be you. That is the only exnation. There has never been a Fae that could control the minds of others. There has never been anyone who has been able to bespell people like you do."


    "I urge you to think about this, Aunt Glory. None of what you are saying makes any sense. Alloy and Sterling aren''t even dead. If that part isn''t true, then, don''t you think that the rest of it isn''t true?" She didn''t even hesitate when I said those words to her.


    "I know they''re dead, I was shown the proof. I don''t have the heart to kill you, Trinity. I don''t want to do that. But if you don''t turn yourself in then, I will send all that I have after you." Her eyes were now showing me a look of pure hatred.


    "Gloriana, my love, this isn''t right." Trevor stepped forward. "You have to know that none of what you were told is true." I could see the pain and fear in his eyes. It was clear that his heart was hurting because of the spell that Aunt Glory was under.


    "No!" She screamed at Trevor. "I trusted you. I believed you when you said you were my mate, but it was all a lie. None of it was true. You lied to me and vited me and my trust. I fell in love with you only to learn that it was all a part of your n. Leave! Go! I never want to see you again."


    The tears in Aunt Glory''s eyes were starting to spill over and stream down her cheeks. She lookedpletely heartbroken and the sight of it all was enough to bring a tear to my eye.


    "Aunt Glory?"


    "Gloriana?" Trevor and I spoke at the same time.


    This needed to end. There had to be a way that I could stop this from continuing. We needed to break this spell that Aunt Glory was under, and we needed her to realize that she had been lied to. But how?


    I was thinking about this, about what it was that we needed to do when I saw that Aunt Glory was lifting her hand as she stared at Trevor with those hurt filled eyes.


    "Go away!" She was still screaming at him, saying the same words over and over again. "Go away! Go away! Go away! Go away! Go away!"


    "Gloriana?" Trevor was crying as he reached out for his mate that was literally breaking his heart with her words. "Please, Gloriana, remember what it is that we have shared. Please don''t do this."


    "You''re the one that lied to me." She said as she finally swung that raised hand toward him.


    I barely had the time to react. I barely managed to get the shield into ce before the dangerous looking ball of light mmed into it, right in front of Trevor''s face.


    "Gloriana?" The shock in his face was enough to tell me that he never thought, not once, that she would attack him. Bespelled or not, they were still mates. No one should be able to break that bond. It was still there. It was fate.


    Wait a minute. Fate? Fae? The Fae are the fairies of all the old stories. Could there be a connection here that is way too childish and clich¨¦ for my own good? I didn''t know for sure, but for some reason it felt like it had to be true.


    "Trevor?" I called out to him, but he ignored me. He just continued to look at his mate with incredulous eyes. "Trevor!" I called out to him again. "Trevor."


    Finally, after the third time that I called Trevor''s name, he looked at me. His eyes were rimmed in red, and it looked like he was about to crumble to pieces.


    "Trinity?" I could tell that he was trying to ask me why this was happening to him.


    "Trevor, I have an idea. I think I know how to break the spell that she is under."


    "Can it be broken?" He asked me, his words squeaking a little with the emotions that were filling him.


    "It can. I am sure of it."


    "Then how? How do I get my Gloriana back?" He was pleading with me now and I saw how much his words were affecting those around us. "Tell me how to save her."


    "We''re in Fae, Trevor. Follow the way of the fairies." I smiled at him, but he didn''t seem to understand what I said. "True love''s kiss. You need to show her and everyone around you, that you truly love her. It should work."


    "Are you sure about this, Trinity?" Reece asked me with worry in his voice.


    "Not one hundred percent, but I am at least ny-five percent sure." I nodded at him.


    "That''s good enough for me." I saw Trevor straighten up. He was wiping the tears from his face and gave a look that said he was going into battle.


    When I looked back at Aunt Glory, it was like she was frozen, waiting for us to continue this little y that Hibiscus had set up for us.


    "Aunt Glory, Trevor wants toe and apologize to you. He will bow down to you and grovel for your forgiveness." I was lying, of course, but I thought I would y to the scenario that Hibiscus had created.


    "I don''t want to forgive him." She spat the words at me. "He is scum."


    "Then tell him that when hees to see you." I encouraged her. "Wait until he has said his peace and then tell him. Will you allow that?" I asked her with as calm of a voice as I could manage.


    "I will allow it." She turned her head up and to the side like she was scoffing at us but still agreed.


    "That is good." I nodded at Trevor to encourage him onward.


    As Trevor walked toward her, I kept my shield for him in ce. I didn''t need to have it hanging over my head if I dropped it too soon and she killed my friend and her lover. Thankfully, she didn''t even look at him while he walked to her. I had no doubt in my mind that she knew where he was at all times though, she only needed to sense him with magic.


    The moment that Trevor was right in front of Aunt Glory, I dropped the shield.


    "Gloriana?" He said her name, causing her to turn and look at him with a look of disdain. He didn''t even let her finish turning though, he put one hand around her waist and the other on the back of her head and pulled her against him so quick that he cut off her protest before she could even voice it.


    "Sto-! Mmph." The sound of him muffling her words as he pressed his lips to hers was thest thing that we heard before the kiss truly got underway.


    At first, I could see Aunt Glory fighting against Trevor. She was struggling to push him away from her and break the kiss. However, after a few moments she stopped pushing him and started to pull him closer.


    As the kiss went on and on there was a light that could be seen building up between them. A bright, white light that looked pure and clean. By the time that Trevor had lowered his hand low enough so that he could cup his mate''s slender bottom and lift her up against his chest the light was blindingly bright.


    With that new closeness between Trevor and Aunt Glory, with her arms thrown around his neck as he held her in his arms, the light seemed to explode. The brilliance of that light left me reeling for a moment, unable to see as my eyes readjusted. But the kiss seemed to be over after the explosion.


    "Gloriana, my love." Trevor smiled at her and I could see small little tears of joy streaming down his cheeks.


    "Trevor?" Aunt Glory called her mate''s name as she looked him in the eyes. "What is going on?"


    Well, it appears that the spell is indeed broken, however Aunt Glory doesn''t seem to remember what had happened at all.. Oh boy, this is going to be good.

 Chapter 508 - Trinity – What’s Really Happening (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 508 - Trinity ¨C What¡¯s Really Happening (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Aunt Glory, when was thest time that you have seen Hibiscus?" I got straight to the important question before I told her what was going on.


    "Why? What does she have to do with anything?" She was looking at me with a confused expression as Trevor set her back on the floor.


    "Gloriana, my love, you were under a spell just now. You thought that we were traitors. You attacked me." Trevor looked her in the eyes as he spoke, telling her the hard truth before anything else was said.


    "What? No, that''s not possible. Please tell me that this is some sort of joke. Please Trevor. This is not funny at all."


    "It is not meant to be funny, Aunt Glory. He is telling you the truth. You weren''t the only one bespelled either. Your guards were as well. There were two dozen men in the front of the castle that tried to attack us when we came in through the doors."


    "How? How did this happen? How is this even possible?" Aunt Glory looked at me with a disbelieving look. "Even if Hibiscus had something to do with this, I haven''t seen her since she went to her ce for her protection. She has not left her house. The guards have told me so."


    "Oh, she left her house. Of that I am certain." I was pissed off right now. I was tired of Aunt Glory defending this psychopath.


    "How do you know? What makes you so certain?"


    "Because she tried to kill us." I heard Sterling''s voice as he and Alloy made their way to the front of the group. They had stayed back out of fear when I broke into the room, but it was safe now, so they wereing up.


    "Sterling?" She gasped when she saw therge blood sh across the front of his shirt. "What has happened to you? And you, Alloy. You both look as if you have been hurt so badly."


    "We had been." Alloy confirmed. "My wounds were not poisoned though. Only Sterling''s were. He nearly died. He would have, if it wasn''t for Queen Trinity."


    "That''s my niece, saving the day again." She gave me a sweet look as she responded to Alloy''s words.


    "Now is not the time for praise. We need to get to the bottom of this whole situation, and fast." I could feel my heart racing as a thought urred to me. "Where is Athair m¨°r?" Fear was settling over me again as I realized that we still didn''t know if he was safe.


    "I..I..I don''t know." Aunt Glory looked as if she couldn''t think properly. "Trinity, I think I am starting to feel that worry that you''ve been experiencing for days now." She grimaced. "I am starting to get a bad feeling and it is settling on thoughts about my best friend. I am still hoping that you are wrong, but I don''t know if that is going to end up being the case."


    "I think that we should send someone to check on Athair m¨°r. We need to send someone to his quarters. I don''t think that I will rest easy until I know that he is safe."


    "I agree." Reece nodded at my words. "We need to make sure that he is not in any danger."


    "Yes, please, send someone to make sure that my brother is safe. I won''t feel better until then."


    "I will go along with some knights." Landon nodded and ran from the room. He didn''t even wait for confirmation.


    I was d that someone was taking care of that for me. It would give me a slight amount of peace to know that someone was on their way to check on him. But I would still feel uneasy until Landon returned. For the time being, it was time for an exnation.


    "Well, since you are more open to hearing things now, Aunt Glory, let me tell you all that has happenedtely."


    I took a deep breath then and started to exin to her all that had happened. I told her about the horror movie scene that we walked into when we got to Sterling and Alloy''s ce. I told her about the magic door and the clearing. I told her about how I had healed Sterling and saved him from dying while using Alloy''s magic and asking that the Goddess mark them if they were innocent.


    Aunt Glory had been quite excited upon hearing about the marks of innocence. She thought that was an amazing thing that she just had to see. Sterling was the only one who showed his mark this time, since I told her they both had matching marks.


    "Worry not, Alloy, I alone will be enough this time." Sterling had told him.


    "How cute is it that the two of you have matching marks now?" Aunt Glory smiled at them. "I always knew you two were the best couple ever and I never understood why you chose to live so far away." She frowned at them after the mark had been shown.


    "You know why, Gloriana." Sterling hung his head. "People do not approve of us."


    "Are you referring to the fact that you''re gay?" Reece asked him with shock. "I have a hard time believing that. Our friends were here recently, and no one had a problem with their rtionship."


    "I wish that was the only thing that we had to ovee." Sterlingughed at him. "No, King Reece, it is the fact that we are metal Fae. In the eyes of the other Fae, the Fae that have more natural elements to their magic, we are abominations. We are not epted by the general poption. They think that we are unnatural and evil. We have put up with it for millennia. It is not something that we care to deal with anymore. That is why we moved to the farthest reaches of thend of Fae."


    "And it is probably why Hibiscus chose us to frame." Alloy crossed his arms. "We are already considered evil by everyone else so, if shemitted a series of crimes, we would be the most likely culprits whenpared to her."


    There is still one thing that I don''t understand." Aunt Glory shook her as she thought about this. "How did Hibiscus do this if she doesn''t have any notable magic?"


    That truly was the million dor question wasn''t it? How did she do all of this if she couldn''t perform any magic at all?


    As I contemted that thought I heard the sound of hurried footstepsing close to the private room. I could smell Landoning up fast, but the scent that was chasing him made me breath a sigh of relief.


    "Gloriana?" Athair m¨°r cried her name when he ran into the room. "I am so d that you are safe." Athair m¨°r ran to his sister''s side and hugged her, even with her mate standing so close that the two of them brushed against each other with Aunt Glory in between them.


    "Brother?" Aunt Glory hugged him back with a relieved sigh.


    "What has happened? How did thise to be?"


    "I will exin that, old friend." Alloy smiled at him and moved closer to him. The shock that was on Athair m¨°r''s face when he saw the blood covering his friend was clear. He, like Aunt Glory, thought that something horrible must have happened, though when he heard the tale it was obvious that he had never expected the true extent of it all.


    "So, it truly was Hibiscus after all?" He looked at me with an apologetic look. "I am sorry, Trinity, I should have listened to you. You were right all along."


    "Let us noty me on each other. What we really need to worry about now is, how we''re going to get Hibiscus toe to us willingly? I have a feeling that if we tried to take her by force, something truly horrible is likely to happen." I brushed aside his words and redirected the conversation to where it needed to be.


    "I agree. We need a n." Reece looked worried as he spoke. "Does anyone have any ideas?"


    "I think I might know just how we can get her toe to us and to prove that she is the guilty party all at the same time. But you will all have to trust me. This is going to be one hell of a show that we''re going to give her.." I saw the confusion on almost every face in the room when they saw the smirk on my face and the mischief in my eyes.

 Chapter 509 - Trinity - Trial (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 509 - Trinity - Trial (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was currently standing in the middle of the courtyard in front of the castle. My hands were in chains. There were three dead bodies lying in front of me covered with white cloths. There was a pile of injured guardsying all heaped together next to the tform that I was currently chained to. The magic cage filled with the guards that we had incapacitated was shimmering next to me to further showcase my crimes against the Fae.


    Beside me, Reece, Vincent, Trevor, Landon, and all the rest of the members of the council were kneeling as if they too were being punished. There was a slew of guards behind them, holding them all in ce.


    There was already a sea of people that had arrived following the announcement that the crimes against the Fae had been solved. Despite the fact that there were so many people in the open space, there was still moreing with each passing minute.


    In the distance I saw a group of guards that were approaching us as the protective guard for Hibiscus. She was giving us all a look of utter confusion as she walked to the very front of the group.


    "Thank you all for responding so quickly to my summons." Athair m¨°r''s voice boomed out across the group of gathered spectators. "I have summoned you all here for a very grave issue. It has recently been discovered that there was a plot against Queen Gloriana''s life alongside the threats that have been guing the city. There have been three more lives lost this day. Three more senseless murders that needn''t have urred."


    Athair m¨°r paused for a moment to let his words sink in as the people looked on and the whispers started to spread among the crowd as they saw all of us ''outsiders'' being treated as criminals.


    "The first murders that were brought to my attention today were those of my childhood friends." At those words, a guard pulled the white sheet-like cloths from the bodies of Sterling and Alloy, both of them covered in blood and deep, ck tinged wounds. "These men were dear friends to both me and Queen Gloriana. I was heartbroken when I learned of their deaths." I could hear the way Athair m¨°r choked up when he spoke, tears filling his eyes as he thought about how he would never again be able to see the men that he grew up with. "I will miss these two friends so much." It sounded like he was crying for real now, but I couldn''t see his face, so I didn''t know for sure.


    "Who killed them? How did they die?" I heard Hibiscus''s voice call out, not a shred of worry or fear in the way that she spoke.


    "I will get to that, Bissy." Athair m¨°r tilted his head at her and sniffled. "There is another murder I need to inform you all about." I listened on as Athair m¨°r cleared his throat and continued. "Please remove thest cloth."


    At Athair m¨°r''s orders a guard walked over to thest dead body. When the sheet was pulled back there was a gasp that ran through the crowd.


    "HUH!"


    "NO!"


    "MY QUEEN!"


    "WHAT HAS HAPPENED?!"


    So many frightened responses spread throughout the gathered people.


    "Valerian, what on earth has happened?" Hibiscus asked, once again her voice was calm and not at all concerned.


    "My sister, Queen Gloriana, has been murdered." His words shook again as he spoke.


    I could see Aunt Glory''s body. She wasying there, blood still seeping from the wounds that covered her body. There was a sh that ran down her cheek, stab wounds and punctures all over her chest and arms. It looked like someone had pelted her with sharp, pointy objects that all pierced her body before they were removed. Worst of all though, was therge gaping hole that was in her chest where her heart used to be. It was clear that it had been removed viciously.


    "NOOOO!" I screamed when I saw her body. "AUNT GLORY!"


    "Silence." Athair m¨°r snapped at me when I screamed. There was clear anger in his voice.


    "I didn''t do this. Please, believe me." I pleaded with him, tears beginning to stream down my cheeks. "Please, Athair m¨°r, you have to know that I didn''t do this." I felt every eye in the ce on me. Well, every eye aside from one. Hibiscus was looking at Aunt Glory with a smirk on her face.


    "This truly is unfortunate." She shook her head. "I tried to tell the Queen recently that these outsiders were not safe for us. These people should not have been allowed toe here. They were going to be the death of us all. I told her that and now look at what has happened."


    "She was murdered by her own niece, as well as the man that called himself her mate."


    "That is a lie." I called out to them all, but Trevor remained silent. "This is not what it looks like. I was only defending myself. Had I not done so Aunt Glory would have killed me."


    "And why would she have done that?" Hibiscus asked as she climbed the tform and stood in front of me. "You murdered her friends and her people. She had every right to kill you." She almost sounded like she wasughing when she spoke to me. "And of all of you that stand used, you are the only one denying the charges against you. They have obviously already admitted your guilt."


    At that moment, Hibiscus turned to face the gathered Fae. She looked at them all as she moved in a slow semi circle.


    "Friends, family, fellow Fae, I urge you to listen to me. The Queen had been tricked by these criminals. But as time went on, she told me that she was no longer able to trust her supposed niece. When I spoke to her just this morning, she told me that if anything were to happen to her, she wanted me to take her ce. I guess she knew that this false Fae, this Queen Trinity, was going to attempt to harm her. I am just bbergasted that the Queen was bested by someone like her."


    Her words were seemingly trying to boost their support of her.


    "No, I never meant to harm her. I never hurt anyone. I swear." I cried to them all.


    "Silence, you dog." I saw Reece tense when he heard those words, but he didn''t say anything, he was staying silent and wouldn''t say anything for the time being. "I say we sentence these criminals to death, right here and now. I say we end this nightmare guing our people and attempt to move on to a brighter future with me as your queen."


    "As queen?" I heard some people echo that, not sure what to think of those words.


    "Hibiscus?" Athair m¨°r gasped her name when he heard what she had to say. "You n to take the role in the absence of my sister?" It was like he was not even going to protest her deration.


    "It is what Queen Gloriana wanted." She ced a hand over her heart and faked her sadness as she spoke. "I just want to honor herst wishes." She turned away from the crowd and looked at me with glee filled eyes.


    The moment that Hibiscus started to lean in toward me with that evil look in her eyes and the wicked set to her lips, I just knew that she was about to incriminate herself. Thankfully I was ready for this moment.


    "I am so d that I bespelled Gloriana this morning. All of this worked out so much better than I could have hoped for."


    The moment that her words stopped echoing throughout the clearing, the evil look in her eyes had changed to shock and fear. She had just heard her words repeated back to her as if it was on a speaker, loud enough for everyone gathered to hear her.


    "What did she just say?"


    "Bespelled the Queen?"


    "Is Queen Trinity the culprit or is it Hibiscus?"


    "She lied to us!"


    So many people were now starting to figure out what had truly happened. They had heard the admission of guilt from Hibiscus herself.


    "You just couldn''t resist the urge to brag, could you?" I grinned at her as I stood up, shaking the chains off of my wrists. Likewise, Reece and the others stood up as well as the guards stepped away from them.


    "How could you do this to me, Bissy?" Aunt Glory asked as she stood, all signs of her injuries and blood now gone. Even Sterling and Alloy were standing, still in their blood stained clothes butpletely healed and without injuries.


    Once again there were several confused gasps and questionsing from the crowd. But there was one thing that everyone watching on had inmon, they were all relieved to see Aunt Glory alive and well.


    "This isn''t possible. You''re dead." Hibiscus looked at the three no longer dead bodies that were standing before her.


    "No, we''re not." Aunt Glory frowned at her before turning to look at the crowd. "I am sorry, my friends, I did not want to deceive you, but it was the only way to get the true culprit toe to us willingly and admit her crimes to us all. I know that we have all been living in fear of the attacks and murders that have taken ce, but you may all rest assured that the mystery has been solved."


    "NO!" Hibiscus screamed in rage as she jumped toward Aunt Glory, a lethal looking sword materializing in her hand and pointed right at Aunt Glory''s throat.

 Chapter 510 - Trinity – Capturing The Culprit (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 510 - Trinity ¨C Capturing The Culprit (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I acted entirely on instinct. I did not even let a single second pass before I was already moving to save Aunt Glory. I wasn''t the only one who was already on the move either. Trevor had sprung into action to protect his mate the moment that Hibiscus screamed and so did many of my guards as well as Aunt Glory''s guards.


    None of them were faster than I was, though. I moved to save Aunt Glory without even moving from my spot.


    Ished out with a whip: long, blue, shining and made of pure water magic. It shed across the tform we were standing on and wrapped around Hibiscus''s waist in just a fraction of a second.


    Once the whip was around the crazy, psychotic bitch I pulled back as hard as I could. Hibiscus''s forward trajectory was halted and reversed it was? almostically, as I watched the way her whole body jerked when she flew backwards.


    I mmed the ''would be Queen killer'' against the ground a few times, creating a pleasant sounding thud each time. After that, I wrapped my whip around Hibiscus''s entire body, trapping her in a cocoon of my magic. Now that she wasn''t able to move, I suspended her in the air, leaving her body to dangle above the ground, while she continued to scream wordlessly in anger.


    "NO! NO! THIS IS NOT RIGHT! NO! LET ME GO! I SWEAR I WILL KILL HER! SHE DESERVES TO DIE! I SHOULD BE THE QUEEN! ME! NOT HER! SHE IS A HORRIBLE PERSON! SHE HAS RUINED MY LIFE! SHE HAS TAKEN IT ALL FROM ME! I WILL KILL HER! I WILL KILL HER! KILL HER! KILL HER! KILL HER! KILL HER!" She was nearly frothing at the mouth by the time that she was done with her explosive disy. There was no doubting that this woman was unbnced, unhinged, andpletely insane. She was so far beyond reality that she couldn''t see what was truly happening right in front of her. I wondered for a moment what caused it, but I was too busy trying to protect those around me instead.


    At the same time that I had pulled Hibiscus back, Trevor had gotten to his mate''s side. Right now, he was pressing her against his chest as he held her in his arms.


    "No, the only one around here that deserves to die is you, Hibiscus." Trevor was yelling at the crazy woman that had just tried to overthrow the Queen in front of all these people.


    "What do you even know about it, shifter? You are not one of us, so you have no say in any of our affairs." Hibiscus snapped at Trevor in response to his words.


    "I am her mate. I have every right to defend her and to sentence you to death." He growled at her.


    "Her mate." Hibiscus''s eyes turned ck, pure ck. There was no trace of the pink and yellow that her eyes usually held and there were no whites of her eyes left, everything about the turned pure ck. "You have no mate, bear. You have no mate and the woman in your arms is trying to kill you. Kill her. Kill her to protect yourself. Get rid of the traitor that you hold against yourself."


    As Hibiscus spoke, I saw a yellow mist or powder of some sorting out of her mouth. That stuffing out of her mouth was almost like the pollen of a flower, onlyrger. Or that''s what it looked like anyway.


    That pollen, for that''s what I was going to call it for now, was flying right at Trevor as if it was being blown right into his face on a strong wind. There was no way that I would have been able to stop the pollen once I knew what was happening.


    It hit Trevor in the face immediately and I saw him drop Aunt Glory from his arms and drop to his knees while he put the heels of hands against his eyes.


    "Shit!" I knew that this wasn''t going to be good. I now had to subdue my friend before the spell could be broken. At least now we knew how Hibiscus was controlling people.


    Knowing how she had done it wasn''t the important part of this right now, though. What really mattered was that now Trevor was blinking the confusion from his eyes, and I saw that they were just as dazed and confused as the guards had been earlier. He was under that bitch''s control right now, and that meant that she could make him do anything that she wanted right now.


    "Killer!" Trevor''s voice was just as dazed sounding as his eyes looked. "Murderer. You''re trying to kill me." He was speaking slowly, almost like someone had slowed him down magically so they could watch a superfast scene in slow motion. "I will kill you for this."


    "Trevor, no. I love you. I''m your mate."


    "I have no mate." He was still moving slow, much slower than any of the others had been earlier.


    I had a feeling that the strength of the love he had for his mate was stopping the spell from taking full effect. That was the only thing that I could think of.


    "Aunt Glory! Kiss him. Break the spell like he broke it for you. His love for you is slowing down the spell, kiss him and wake him up."


    "Trinity?" She looked at me like that was not what she was expecting. Not to mention, she was the Queen, and shouldn''t be seen acting so shameful in front of her people.


    "Kiss him, Aunt Glory. It''s the only way to break the spell."


    "OK."


    Aunt Glory looked back at Trevor with love filled eyes. The pain and sadness that she had felt just moments ago, when he said he didn''t have a mate, hadpletely vanished when she looked into his eyes.


    "I love you, Trevor." She smiled at him and threw herself at him as he started to slowly get to his feet.


    Aunt Glory was much smaller than Trevor, so her weight didn''t seem to bother him at all as he stood. He rose to his full height with her dangling from his neck and she pressed her lips to his.


    I watched as Trevor moved a hand away from Aunt Glory and shifted it into a lethal looking bear paw that was tipped with five inch long ws.


    "No!" I screamed as I watched his hand start to move toward Aunt Glory''s back.


    There was no need for me to worry though. By the time that Trevor''s hand had reached Aunt Glory''s body it had be the veryrge hand of a man once again. Trevor was now cradling the back of his mate''s head as he kissed her back.


    "NO!" Hibiscus screamed, not having believed me that the kiss would work. "This is impossible." She was thrashing around in her bindings, trying to get free.


    "You''ve met your match, Hibiscus." I yelled at her, a smile on my lips as I thought about how she had lost this battle. "It''s over now."


    "That is what you think. It''s not over until I say it is." Hibiscus''s voice was that of a mad woman whenever she opened her mouth to speak. However, right now I could tell that she was about to cast another spell and I couldn''t let that happen.


    "Give it up, Hibiscus."


    "Never." She spat the words as she looked around. "YOU!" She was eyeing someone among my group of soldiers, knights, and friends. "You will kill the interloper. You will destroy Queen Trinity. Stop her. Kill her. Kill her." She spoke fast and this time the yellow spores were flying before she was done with her little speech.


    Once the words were spoken, I just watched on with slight surprise as I waited to see who she had chosen to be the new target of the spell. Hibiscus was bound to choose someone that she thought would be able to destroy me with their physical prowess or speed. I knew that she wanted me dead as soon as possible. I just wondered who it was that she was going to try and kill me with.. I wasn''t worried about it all, I would just need to trap them in a cage or something.

 Chapter 511 - Trinity – The Execution (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 511 - Trinity ¨C The Execution (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    At that moment, I saw the spores flying into Reece''s face. They flew into his eyes and up his nose. It was my own mate that she was trying to send after me. Did she know that he was my mate? She had to have known.


    "Kill her, wolf-boy. Kill her and end this whole mess."


    Reece didn''t fall to his knees like Trevor did, but he did put his hands against his eyes. I saw that he was wiping at them. It looked like he was trying to get something annoying out of his eye, perhaps he had an eysh in his eye or something.


    As the entire crowd watched on to see what Reece was going to do, I was just standing there calmly. I knew that I didn''t have anything to worry about right now. I would just break the spell if I had to.


    All of a sudden, Reece started tough. It started out soft and low, confusing everyone that was watching on. However, after about a minute theughter became so powerful that Reece was holding his side as if there was a stitch in it and he was having trouble standing up.


    "What? What is this? Kill her already!" Hibiscus demanded as she yelled at my husband.


    "Sorry, psycho whore, I won''t be doing your bidding. Not now, not ever." Reece countered hermand with aughing denial.


    "What? How is this even possible? How are you immune to my spell?"


    "I don''t think I was fully immune. It took a second, well, more like a microsecond, to put your thoughts from my head. But like Trinity told Queen Gloriana, the love that Trevor had was stopping the spell from taking full effect. Well, let''s just say that I love Trinity more than Trevor loves Queen Gloriana. I am not saying he will never love her as much as I love Trinity, but I have been with my wife and mate for years now. I would never, and I do mean NEVER, hurt her. It doesn''t matter if you bespell me or not. My heart knows the truth and it always will."


    "Awe, I love you too Reece. You''re so sweet, even in situations like this." I grinned at him.


    "I know. And you know what, I wouldn''t say no to one of those true love''s kisses just to make sure that the spell is fully out of my system." He wiggled his eyebrows at me when he said that I couldn''t help butugh.


    "Maybe when this is all done and over with." That caused a heated look to sh across his eyes. He was never going to change, no matter what. Deep down he will always be my horndog of a mate, Fido.


    "I can wait." That almost made meugh, I wanted to counter with something like ''I doubt that'', but I didn''t have the time to waste right now.


    "ENOUGH!" Hibiscus screamed so that the attention was back on her. "If he won''t kill you for me, then I will just bespell everyone until you are dea-."


    "Hush!" Hibiscus''s voice was cut off just before I heard Alloy''s angry voice followed by the sound a metal scraping against something solid.


    When I looked away from Alloy''s angry face, I saw that there was a barrier over Hibiscus''s mouth that looked to be made of several different types of metal. Alloy had silenced her and any other attempts that she would make at bespelling the others.


    Even though her mouth was covered, I could still hear Hibiscus attempting to scream. However, the sound was muffled and nowhere near as deafening as she was trying to make it. Her face was red with the effort she was giving to that muffled scream, but I could barely hear it.


    "That will keep her quiet. And she should be thanking me." Alloy looked at her with angry eyes. "I didn''t include silver in that muzzle of hers, so it won''t burn her."


    "That was very nice of you." Sterling put a loving arm around Alloy and pulled him close.


    "You see, Hibiscus, even people you tried to kill are giving you the consideration that you are most definitely not deserving of. However, they are good people, and you are not, so they will do that nicety for you."


    There were tears in Hibiscus''s eyes when she looked at me then, it was clear that she never thought that she would lose.


    "Aunt Glory, Athair m¨°r, I think the two of you have some work to do." I turned to look at them and saw that neither of them were going to object to my words. They looked like they knew exactly what needed to be done. "As members of the royal family, you need to execute Hibiscus."


    "Yes, Trinity, you are right." Athair m¨°r looked somber but his voice was even.


    "This is something that we need to take care of right here, and right now. Where everyone can see that the danger is gone." Aunt Glory nodded and took a step toward me.


    "However, there is someone that you''re forgetting about." Athair m¨°r gave the slightest of grins as he got closer to me.


    "And who might that be?" I asked him with confusion filling my voice.


    "You, Trinity." Aunt Glory added. "You are as much part of the royal family as we are. Mother Danu has officially recognized you and blessed you. You are my niece and Valerian''s great great great granddaughter. You are powerful enough to be right there with us."


    "Thank you, Aunt Glory." I blushed at her words.


    "Do not thank us, Trinity, it is the truth. Now, join us and the three of us will end this now.


    After the three of us surrounded Hibiscus we could hear that she was trying to speak, screaming muffled words at us.


    "Alloy, let her speak for a moment." Aunt Glory spoke softly and sweetly which, given the current situation, was a little off putting. I wouldn''t say anything though, I was preparing to kill the woman that was still trapped in my magic as well.


    "Yes, Queen Gloriana." Alloy nodded and removed the metal from her mouth.


    "Now, Hibiscus, you may speak your peace. Tell me for what reason it was that you did this? Why did you hurt and murder your fellow Fae? Why did you try to murder me and frame my niece?"


    "You want to know why?!" Hibiscus screamed at her. "It''s because you stole the only future that I wanted."


    What future was that?" Aunt Glory asked her with indifference in his voice.


    "I love Curtis. I always have. Ever since the first time that I met him, I have been in love with him. But he wouldn''t give me the time of day. He wanted to wait for his chance to be the Queen''s consort before he would settle down with anyone. He said that I had to wait until his chance was up before he would even look at me again. I loved him and then when you were done with him you locked him away."


    "I locked him away because he hadmitted many crimes while under my authority. He entered into my private quarters and took advantages that he was not privileged to. That was why he was imprisoned. He would have been set free soon enough. He would have been free to be with you since you were the only one that probably would have looked at him in that way since he had disgraced himself."


    "No, you would never have let us be together. You were always angry that I had love in my heart for someone and you were nothing but an unhappy shrew." Hibiscus was intentionally being rude because she knew that her future was limited and there was nothing for her to lose.


    "I am sorry you thought that way, Bissy. I loved you like a sister, and it pains me to be doing this."


    "Wait, before we kill her, I want to know something." I stopped Aunt Glory from raising her hand as delivering a blow to the woman.


    "What the fuck do you want, mongrel?" Hibiscus snapped the words at me.


    "Watch your mouth, you cunt." Reece growled at her.


    "Fuck off, dog boy."


    "You-."


    "Enough!" I yelled at the two of them so they would stop their arguing. "I will take care of her, Reece, stand down." He finally stepped back and tried to calm down. "Now, Hibiscus, tell me how you got the magic that you have now. You and the others told me that you barely had any magic to speak of."


    "I have always had the power of words. I just never told anyone. If I did, it would have been stripped away from me years ago when we locked away our darkness. As for the other power, I made a deal with the devil to get it." She cackled like the joke was the best thing in the world.


    "I am serious, Hibiscus. Answer the question."


    "You got my answer. I will say no more." She red at me. "ept it and kill me or keep me alive to ask more, that is your choice."


    I looked to my side and saw Athair m¨°r and then Aunt Glory, both of them nodded at me telling me that it was time to end this.


    "Fine." I looked back at the condemned woman. "Hibiscus, you have been found guilty of your crimes against the Fae. For that you are sentenced to death."


    "I would do it again. I would do it all again if I had the chance."


    It was clear that Hibiscus had lost all touch with reality. She repeated those words and cackled like a movie version of a witch or viin as the three of us approached her. I knew that Aunt Glory would most likely use her light magic for the execution. Athair m¨°r would be using his water magic for his part of it. That left me to round out the three with nature magic.


    I released the whip from Hibiscus''s body and then it was all over in the blink of an eye without so much as a drop of bloodnding on any of us. It was quite the gruesome sight to behold though, to be honest. Aunt Glory had sent a spear of pure light piercing through Hibiscus from the ground up. Athair m¨°r had turned all of the blood in her body to ice and made it stab out of her in sharp, pointed icicles. And I, well, I made vines sprout from the ground, wrap around Hibiscus''s arms and legs and pulled them from her body.


    The only thing holding Hibiscus up in the air for the others to see was that spear of light that Aunt Glory had pushed through her. As I looked at the body a little more, I had to think that it was just a particrly disgusting looking scarecrow or something.. I had to admit, a disy like this would keep just about anyone away.

 Chapter 512 - Trinity – Everyone Needs To Heal (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 512 - Trinity ¨C Everyone Needs To Heal (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "The culprit has been punished for her crimes. Once again, our city is safe, and it is all thanks to my niece, Trinity." Aunt Glory was speaking to the citizens of the city that had just watched the three of us kill Hibiscus.


    When I looked at the faces that were watching us, I could tell that they were used to seeing things like this, since most of them have lived for more than several of my lifespans. That didn''t make it easier on them though. Most of the people that I saw had looks in their eyes that said they were still scared and nervous.


    "Thank you, Aunt Glory, however, this is not something that I want to take the praise for. This is not a time to seek fame or recognition from others. What needs to happen now, is that the people of Faerie need to heal. This has been an especially trying time for all of you, and I know that you all need to process andprehend what has happened. All of you have been living in fear for months. You have been afraid to even leave your homes. That alone is going to take time for you all to ease up. I want you all to be happy, healthy and most of all: safe. So, instead of offering me your praise, or congrattions; offer your neighbors, friends and family extra love. You never know who has been more affected by these events than others. Sometimes, just offering a friendly ear free of judgement is all they will need to heal."


    There was nothing but silence that met my words. It was like everyone was still stunned. They didn''t even know what to say. I was starting to feel ufortable and awkward as I just stared at the people. Finally, someone came to my aid.


    "I agree with Trinity." Athair m¨°r smiled as he came to stand next to me. "We all need to heal. As a whole, our people need toe together and offer sce and kindness to each other. This is not the time to be individualizing everything. Right now, we need to support and love each other. I, for one, will be here to help all of you. As your prince, that is my duty."


    "And I, as your queen, will be right there with him. I want my people to move past this and live happily." Aunt Glory added to Athair m¨°r''s words and, finally, the people seemed to respond with smiles and appreciative nods. That was the only thing that I could hope for now.


    After our attempt at encouraging words, the crowd was dismissed. They left with contemtive looks and heavy hearts. This wasn''t just an execution. This was an attempt topletely overthrow their way of life. This was someone who had hurt and killed many people with their plot. It was going to take them all a long time to be themselves again, and even then, they might not be the same people that they were.


    I tried my best to think about what I needed to do as I left the tform with Reece. We had been gone for a long time, and everyone back in the residence didn''t know what had happened. I wanted to get back and see the twins and hold them in my arms, and only doing that would help me to calm down and move on.


    Reece held my hand as we walked back to our temporary home. We had been living here a lot longer than I had nned. My parents and all our family and friends had missed Christmas with Reagan and Rika. That made me sad. I wish this would have been solved a lot sooner.


    It was quiet when we got back to the residence. I could tell that they had all been staying inside and weren''t going to see the rest of the city, but I didn''t think that they would be this cautious about everything.


    "Mom! We''re home!" Reece called out when we were inside. That was enough. Everyone that was upstairs heard his words and there were two very excited sets of feet already on the stairs. Clearly, Reagan and Rika were very fast and were outrunning them all.


    "MOMMY! DADDY!"


    "MAMA! DADDY!"


    My babies were calling out to us, and the moment that they were at the bottom of the stairs I felt the tears begin to fall. I had missed these two so much. Not being able to hug them and hold them against me everyday was the most painful thing that I had ever felt. I didn''t know how I was going to deal with that.


    "MOMMY! DADDY!"


    "MAMA! DADDY!"


    They called out for us in unison again. Their excited little voices squealed at the same time, I loved it.


    "Reagan! Rika! My babies. I missed you so much." I called out as they ran toward me and Reece.


    Rika leapt into my arms as I knelt to the floor and Reagan jumped into Reece''s. The two tiny missiles almost managed to unbnce us as they jumped into our arms for hugs.


    "Mommy, me missed you." Rika''s sweet little voice was right next to my ear as she rested her head on my shoulder.


    "Me too! Me missed you too Mama, and Daddy too." Reagan added.


    "Mommy, you leaving again?" Rika pulled her head away and looked at me with sad eyes.


    "No, baby girl. Mommy and Daddy aren''t leaving you again. Actually, we''re going to get ready to go home."


    "YAY! Go home and see Nona and Papa and M¨®ra¨ª too." Reagan grinned as he said this.


    "And Uncle Nono and Aunt Nikki too." Rika added.


    "Yes, we will see them all." I couldn''t contain the tears as I smiled along with them.


    "Ooh, Mommy, we see Uncle Trick too? I want to y with Luka and Levi."


    "No, see Uncle Trick and see Lexa and Lyssa." Rika countered Reagan''s words and a little argument was about to start.


    "You can see Uncle Dietrich and see all the kids." Reece stopped them before they could start to bicker much more.


    "YAY!" They said together, both of them hugging Reece as they stopped fighting. This was just what I needed to heal. This was the perfect medicine, the perfect way for me to rx and calm down.


    Now that all of this was over, now that thend of the Fae was safe again, I could finally go home and rx. This was going to be a much needed time of peace for us. I just want to go home, live my life with my kids, and my husband, and not have to worry about anything for a very long time.


    Thankfully, we have earned this rest. We had protected Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r, we saved the people of Faerie, and we had eliminated the threat. All was good, all was back to normal.


    The day after the execution, we started to pack our bags and get ready for our return trip home. That alone was making me smile and making me feel lighter, and happier, than I had in a year.. It was time to move past all of this.

 Chapter 513 - Reece – Banquet (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 513 - Reece ¨C Banquet (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Trinity had done it. She had saved everyone. She had managed to find and capture the culprit. And if we would have all just listened to her from the beginning, then all of this would probably have been over a lot sooner. I felt like an idiot for not believing her and trusting Queen Gloriana''s years worth of friendship with that psycho bitch.


    I guess it didn''t matter that much anymore now. It was all done and over with and thends of Fae were safe. No one else died, though there were some that nearly died. And now that Trinity had solved the issue, it was time to go back home. Or so I thought.


    The day after the execution of Hibiscus, we had been preparing for our return. We still needed to say our goodbyes so we probably wouldn''t have even left until tomorrow at the earliest, but that was put on hold when someone came to knock on our door a little bit before lunch time.


    Normally, Roisin would have been cooking at the time, but she was helping us to pack up our things instead. When Gabriel opened the door there were about six different Fae standing at the door. Only two of whom we knew.


    "Lotus? Briallu? What are you doing here? I am sorry, I don''t know who the rest of you are." Gabriel was a little taken aback as he looked at the people through the door. Trinity and I were already on our way over.


    "Lotus, Briallu, to what do we owe this surprise?" Trinity asked when she was next to the door.


    "Trinity, we are here to invite you to a banquet." Lotus was smiling happily as she looked at my wife.


    "A banquet? What for?" Trinity didn''t see the reason why these people were asking for her to attend a banquet, but I already knew the reason.


    "I believe that they want to thank you, Trinity. Despite what you said yesterday, the people of Faerie are going to thank you for the help you provided." I answered her before either of the others could.


    "Indeed. That is exactly it, King Reece." One of the people from the back that I didn''t know responded to my words. "We are grateful for the assistance and dedication that you have lent to our city. Without you, Queen Trinity, the nightmare might never have ended."


    "I didn''t do anything that was special. Anyone would have done the same thing." My beautiful wife and mate was still trying to say that she had done nothing special. She was likely to think that for a while. Now that the threat was gone, she wasn''t walking about like a permanent badass all the time. That was a little sad, but I understood the reason why as well. Trinity didn''t want to be seen as a bitch by most people. Even though she totally could be one.


    Please, no one ever tell her that I said that.


    "Don''t worry about it, Trinity. Let us just attend and let them do as they want to. Clearly, you will never see things the way they do." I encouraged her to participate and received a smile for my efforts.


    "Fine. If you insist, then I wille." She was back to her ''regal'' queenly attitude now and I could tell that she didn''t want to cause a scene. "When is the banquet then?"


    "It''s now." Lotus said as she reached through the door and grabbed Trinity''s hand.


    "Yes, yes,e now. We didn''t want you getting away from us." Briallu grabbed her other hand. "Reece, be a dear and tell everyone else that they are wee toe as well. The more the merrier. All the knights,?guards, council members and family; just every single person you have with you. Come now. All of you. We want to celebrate everything that has to do with the marvelous Queen Trinity."


    "This is too much." Trinity tried to protest Briallu''s words, but the Fae woman just smiled at her and spoke in a soft voice.


    "Nonsense, Trinity, mind your elders now."


    "Reece?" She called out to me for help.


    "Come on everyone, you heard thedies. It''s time for a banquet and we all must attend." I roused everyone and grabbed Reagan and Rika before following after my wife.


    "Traitor." She snapped at me when she saw me.


    "Love you too." Iughed in response. I wasn''t stupid, I wasn''t about to challenge women. They were way too sneaky and fierce. I was learning that more and more as time went on.


    I followed the three women ahead of me, my wife and the two that were practically carrying my wife, until we made it to the same outdoor location for the banquets that were held for the Yule celebrations. Almost every seat was already filled, just those that were among our group were the only ones absent. Aside from us, every single resident of the city was there, as well as those that had been stuck here since the city had gone into a partial lock down during the investigation. And everyone was looking at us as we walked up.


    "There she is, Queen Trinity." Lotus''s husband, Ash, was speaking to the crowd loudly. "This here,dies and gentlemen, is my niece Trinity. She is one of the most amazing women I have ever met in my entire life."


    The praise was being poured onto Trinity and I could tell that she was embarrassed by it, but it wasn''t about to stop anytime soon. Ash continued talking about how proud he was of Trinity and then the next speaker, Valerian, did the same thing. Gloriana had a turn of telling Trinity that she was happy to have met her and to be able to call her family.


    "Trinity, my dear sweet Trinity, thank you for saving me. Thank you for saving my people. Thank you for everything. I will never be able to thank you enough."


    "I am d that you are thankful, Aunt Glory, but you didn''t need to do this." There was an embarrassed smile on Trinity''s face.


    "I didn''t, Trinity. This was all put together by the people of the city. They wanted to thank you and all of your people that helped us out. Your mate, your guards, your knights, everyone. All of you have done so much for us and you didn''t even have to."


    "I wouldn''t have had it any other way." I smiled and answered for my mate.


    The praise was all true, and I was proud of my Little Bunny for all that she had done. She deserved everything that they were saying to her and more.


    After we sat down and was eating the food that had been prepared for all of us, there were a couple of visitors that came up to see us.


    "Queen Trinity."


    "Trinity." Sterling and Alloy were smiling and looking to be in better spirits than when we had seen them the day before. Honestly, yesterdaysted so long that it felt like we knew them for a lot longer than just a day.


    "You two are looking well." Trinity smiled and rose to hug them. She was apparently harboring some sort of protector''s instinct for them now since she had saved their lives.


    "We are doing much better, honestly." Alloy grinned, no trace of his attitude from yesterday in his voice or face.


    "Glory has convinced us to move back to the city. I think it is time for us to be around more people. I think it was you that made it possible for us." Sterling added as he held Alloy''s hand.


    "How is that even possible?" Trinity asked, still confused.


    "You showed everyone that we are innocent. Not just of the recent crimes but in general. Most people feared us because of the magic we have, but now that we can tell them the Mother Goddess blessed us with marks of innocence, they no longer fear us. It''s all thanks to you." The two of them hugged her again, happiness and eagerness warring on their faces.


    "I am happy for you two." I smiled and stood to shake their hands. "The next time wee back to the city, we hope to spend some time with you as well."


    "Thank you, King Reece. We can''t thank you enough either."


    After a little more talking, and a lot more eating, it was time for the banquet to end.. Now we were free to say our goodbyes to Gloriana and Valerian so that we could take our children back home.

 Chapter 514 - Trinity - Back Home (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 514 - Trinity - Back Home (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The moment that we drove through the gates back at our castle, back at our home, I felt an immense wave of relief wash over me. There was no more threat. There was no more danger. All we needed to do was live our lives and be happy together. That was the most perfect part of it all. We got to just be us.


    We have been so busytely. Things had been so hectic, that I was looking forward to a few days of just resting and rxing at home with my family. And the moment we pulled up to the castle doors I saw that family waiting for us. Mom, Dad, Grandfather, Noah, Nikki, Elias, even Carter, Emmalee, and CJ were all there to greet us. But so were our friends: Juniper, Paul and their twins, Dietrich was there to see his husband with their four babies, Rawlynne and her daughter was there for David, Falena and her son for Shane, Heather and the five kids for Vincent, everyone was here to see the ones that they loved.


    "Oh my Goddess. I am so happy you''re home." Mom squealed and ran to me when I got out of the car with Rika. Come here and give me a hug." She didn''t hug me though, she took Rika and when Reece got out of the car with Reagan, Dad took him in a simr fashion.


    "We missed you so much." Dad said as he squeezed his grandson.


    "I can see that." Iughed at them as they continued their hugging.


    The moment that the others were getting out of the vehicles there was a squeal of delight from so many of the others.


    "Daddy!" That one word was repeated several times. Shawn''s four babies were in the lead as all the kids started running toward the men who had been away from them for so long.


    I knew that I had kept them away from their families for a long time. That was horrible of me. I was such a bad friend. But it was not like I had much of a choice in the matter. The case had to be solved.


    Still, seeing all these children cling to their fathers as they hugged them tight, their mates standing close by as well, waiting for their turn for hugs, it melted my heart.


    "I am sorry. All of you." I wanted to cry as I watched them.


    "What for?" Dietrich looked at me as he tried toprehend what it was that I was apologizing for.


    "I kept all my men away from their families for so long. That was a terrible thing to do. I am so sorry."


    "Trinity? We had work to do." Vincent just looked at me like that was obvious.


    "I know but look how sad the children are. They missed all of you so much."


    As I said that I watched as Shawn''s four babies clung to him and refused to let go. When he finally managed to stand, it was with Levi clinging to his back, Luka hanging from his neck with his arms wrapped around him tightly, and Alexandria and Alyssa in his arms. He could manage the weight of them all just fine, it was the space to carry them all as they held fast to him that he was struggling with.


    "This was the life that we all signed up for. We knew this was the way that things were going to be, and we were all prepared for that." Shane was the one that spoke up this time.


    "Yeah, we''re not upset about this at all, Trinity. This was how we knew it would be." Falena agreed with her mate about it as well.


    "You guys are the best guards and friends that I could ever have."


    I was barely able to hold the tears back then, and when one of them slipped out and rolled down my cheek, Reagan reached out with his little hand and wiped it away for me.


    "No cry, Mama. We love you." That little gesture, that sweet little voice saying those words, they meant so much more to me that Reagan could have ever known.


    "I love you too, baby boy." I couldn''t help but smile as I took him in my arms and hugged him.


    "Yeah, Trinity, we all love you." Juniper, feeling left out, came over and hugged me tightly.


    "Yup, we love Astro so much." Paul added his arms to me, and I broke down and became a blubbering mess. I couldn''t help it. I was being shown so much that it was melting my heart. I hadn''t realized how much I had missed everyone that I loved until this very moment. I had needed their words, I had needed their hugs, I had needed their love.


    With the reunion over with, we went inside and settled back into our daily life. All of our guards and knights went to their homes with their families or back to the barracks. Landon went to the Noble tower to start packing up some of Trevor''s things since our friend, the bear, stayed behind at the Faepound. I hoped that Landon would find his mate soon, he seemed so lonely.


    A few days after we got home, over the weekend, we called our friends and family back over so that they could join us for the Christmas gifts that we hadn''t been able to open or give to them to open. It was time for our Christmas do over.


    All the kids in our life got something, and so did the adults. We had so much love to give, and the resources as well, that we wanted to make sure that no one went without on this day. It turned into a wonderful experience where they all stayed for lunch and dinner, not wanting to let it end.


    The adults talked and shared information about what had happened over the time that we were gone. The kids all yed and had fun until they fell asleep amongst their gifts. That was a scene that we made certain to get a picture of. So many little sleeping faces together was such a sweet photo.


    Looking at all of them, I had to wonder: how could I ever want anything other than this peace and joy in my life?

 Chapter 515 - Reece – Romantic Birthday Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 515 - Reece ¨C Romantic Birthday Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    It had been a little over two weeks since we got home, and it was already approaching my Little Bunny''s birthday. We had celebrated ourte Christmas with everyone, but now I wanted to celebrate her birthday.


    We hadn''t been home to n for a big party, or rather a ball, likest year, but that was fine. My Little Bunny didn''t really want a big fussy party like that anyway. And we had been gone for so long that she didn''t really want to go anywhere either.


    No, we were staying in and I knew exactly what to do.


    My Little Bunny''s birthday was on a Monday this year, so I was going to be surprising her by having something special the Saturday before it. I had it all mapped out in my head, and there was nothing special that we needed to do except ask Mom or Eve to put the kids to bed, which of course they agreed to immediately.


    I had asked Abigail to make a special dinner and have it delivered to our room. I lit candles and put them all over to set the mood in our room. There were rose petals on the bed, on the floor, and in the bath that I had drawn for us. That bath even had a magic Fae rock that I had gotten from Sterling back in the Fae city. He had told me that it would help to keep the water hot while it waited for us.


    Now that the room and the ambiance were all set and perfectly ready for us, I went to find my adorable little wife in her office at the base of the tower.


    "Reece?" She looked shocked when I pulled the documents out of her hands. "What are you doing?"


    "It''s the weekend, you need to take a break." I set aside the reports from Trinity Falls that she was pouring over "Come with me, Little Bunny."


    "Reece, you know that I am busy. I have a lot of work to catch up on." She protested and tried to pull her hand away.


    "Come on, Little Bunny, let''s go and have dinner together." I smiled as I picked her up and held in my arms in a princess carry. She was my princess, even if she was a queen. Hell, she was even more than that. She was my everything. My mate, my wife, my princess, my queen, my goddess, whatever she needed to be, that was what she was.


    "Alright, fine Reece. Dinner and that''s it. Then I need to get back to work."


    "Whatever you say." I smirked, knowing that I wouldn''t be letting her get back to work at all.


    I carried my Little Bunny to the elevator and pressed the button for our floor, bypassing everyone and everything else.


    "Why are we going to our room? The dining room isn''t up there." Sheughed and shook her head.


    "Don''t worry about it. You will see when we get there."


    "Reece, you''re such a-." She didn''t have a chance to tell me what I was, though, because the elevator doors opened up to our floor and she saw the soft flickering light from the candles and the petals all over the ce. "Reece?" She was shocked once again. "What is this?"


    "We''re having dinner, what does it look like?" I chuckled as I carried her over to the table which had our dinner waiting for us.


    "It looks like a romantic movie has thrown up in here." She was nervous and embarrassed, blushing as she tried to crack a joke about it.


    "Movie scenario or not, I still wanted to n this for you. Now sit down and enjoy your dinner with me."


    "Alright." She finally gave me a soft, sweet, and loving smile as I sat in the chair across from her.


    The meal that Abigail had made for us was one of my Little Bunny''s favorites. It was one that we had from time to time, and she always loved to have. It was actually one that Abigail had learned after my Little Bunny started to live here. It was the honey garlic pork chops that Eve made for Little Bunny as she was growing up.


    I had Abigail make this the way that my Little Bunny loved it, with her favorite sides as well. There were crispy pierogies and sweet carrots as well. It was good, and I was happy to see the smile on her face as she ate the meal.


    We had talked about the kids and the future as we ate, and when I saw the tension leave her shoulders as she rxed more and more made me sigh in relief. I knew that she had needed this night more than she would admit it to herself.


    "Thank you, Reece. You''re such a wonderful husband."


    "I know." I think I was blushing with pride right now as she praised me.


    "No, seriously, I don''t know what I would do without you half of the time. Thank you, honestly. And I know you did this because of my birthday. You''ve never once forgotten it at all."


    "How could I forget it, you''re the best thing that ever happened to me."


    "Stop it." She was blushing.


    "Come on, there is more to this evening." I took her hand and started to feel the excitement bubbling up within me. I knew what wasing next even though she didn''t.


    I was going to show her so much love, so much sweet and tender passion that she didn''t know what to do with herself when it was all done and over with. I was going to show her that no matter what happened, I was going to be here with her and loving her for the rest of time. She was my everything and I intended to give her all of me at every opportunity.. I would never let her think that she wasn''t the number one in my heart ever again.

 Chapter 516 - Reece – Romantic Birthday Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 516 - Reece ¨C Romantic Birthday Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I pulled my Little Bunny to her feet and then into my arms again. I wanted to keep carrying her in my arms, I wanted to keep her close to me. For this one night, just right now, I wanted to go back to how things used to be, when it was just us and nothing and no one else.


    I carried her across therge room and into the bathroom. The entire path I walked to get to this room as well as the floor inside were covered with rose petals. The petals in the tub were floating and they helped to give a subtle scent to the room. The sight was pretty and, in my opinion, very romantic.


    "Reece." She shook her head and looked at me with disbelief. "They only do this in movies. That water is going to be so cold." She was giggling and rolling her eyes at me.


    "Oh, no it''s not, honey. That water is going to be the perfect temperature, trust me. I got a magic rock from Sterling, and it will stay at the right temperature all the time, no matter what."


    "Seriously?" That seemed to surprise her. "Were you nning this back then, when we were still in thepound?"


    "Is that so bad? I have always wanted to do a date like this for us, so I mentioned it to some people to see what they thought about it."


    "Oh, Reece, you adorable little Fido, you." She snuggled against me and hugged me tight then. "I love you."


    "I love you too, Little Bunny. But you know that there is nothing little about me." I joked with her as I nuzzled my cheek against her hair.


    "There is one thing that is small. Something that is very, very, very small." She was holding her fingers up and they were just barely separated.


    "Really? And what is that?" I raised an eyebrow and looked her in the eyes as I asked that.


    "Your patience." She cackled inughter when she said that, but she wasn''t wrong.


    "Yeah, you''re right. So I guess it won''t be a problem if I hurry you into that water then, huh?" My voice was a bit of a purr when I said that, and I noticed that it caused my Little Bunny to shiver in my arms. That was a lovely feeling.


    "How about I help us along a little bit too. But only if you rinse us off in the shower first. I''ve been so busy that I feel icky and sweaty. I don''t want dirty water, do you?"


    "One pre rinseing right up." I joked with her as she waved a hand.


    I instantly felt our skin press together. The barriers were gone and we were able to feel everything now. Damn, this was good. No need to even bother with undressing her unless I was doing it seductively. She was able to speed that process up for us. And I really was impatient to have her.


    The entire time that we were gone we hadn''te together like this. There was no time once the case started. Besides, I was a little apprehensive about having sex at the Faepound. Thest time we had sex there we were summoned by the Goddess Danu. I didn''t need her to get another free peep show on us. We were not a porno flick for her or any of the other Gods and Goddesses.


    No, I waited until we were back home in our own castle and our own private oasis. This was the best time for us toe together. This was the best ce for us to be when we shared our love for each other.


    I did as Trinity asked and walked over to the shower, with her still in my arms. I turned the water on so that it was hot enough and rinsed us thoroughly. To aplish this, I needed to move how I was holding her, separating our bodies for just a moment.


    When I brought my Little Bunny back against me, she turned in my arms and wrapped her legs around my waist. With her arms snaking around my neck, she pressed her lips against mine for a deep, passionate kiss. Damn, that was already making me react.


    "I''m trying to show you tender love and affection, Little Bunny. Stop or I will be forced to abandon that thought and take you here and now." I growled the words at her when she broke the kiss and rested her head against mine.


    "Oh well, I guess I can wait a little longer." She pulled away a little, but kept her arms and legs wrapped around me. "Come to the bath then."


    I turned the water off and walked quickly out to the tub that was set in the middle of the floor. Stepping down into it I lowered myself until I was sittingfortably with my Little Bunny on myp.


    "This is much better.'' I sighed as the heat started to rx my muscles a little bit. All except for one, that was staying rock hard.


    I did my best to hold onto my sense of control while I grabbed the soap and started to wash my sexy little mate while she sat on myp. I washed her hair and every part of her body with gentle care.


    She wasn''t letting it be a one sided thing though, she was washing me as well. She was washing me just as thoroughly as I washed her. Her hand was moving up and down my rock hard shaft and making me long for her body to wrap around me. I groaned at the feel of it, I was unable to stop myself.


    My control was reaching its limits, I wasn''t going to be able to hold on for much longer. I needed her, and I knew that she needed me as well. I just didn''t want to take her in the tub, not tonight. I wanted it to be sweet and special for her birthday.. For that, I needed to change locations once we rinsed off.

 Chapter 517 - Reece – Romantic Birthday Part 3 (MATURE) (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 517 - Reece ¨C Romantic Birthday Part 3 (MATURE) (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    With the soap fully rinsed from our bodies, I took my Little Bunny in my arms once again and left the tub. I needed to dry us off just a little bit so that we didn''t leave water everywhere, but I wasn''t overly concerned about it either. I just wanted the majority of it taken care of. After that, none of it really mattered.


    I carried Trinity to the counter near the sink and set her down so I could grab a few towels. I wrapped one around my waist and then started to pat her down. She made it easier by moving just how I needed her to. It was like she was the obedient one and I was the Alpha again. Not that I hated the way things were now, it just reminded me of the past.


    With us mostly dried off I moved to pick her up again, but she moved before I could. She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled herself up and against me. She wrapped her body around me again and pressed her lips to my neck.


    "I think that it''s time to head to bed, Reece. I really, really, really need to get in there right about now." She was smirking, I could feel the curve of her lips against my flesh.


    "Oh, then I better hurry up." I chuckled. "I don''t want you to miss your bedtime."


    With augh we pressed our lips together and left the bathroom blind. I couldn''t see where I was going, but I wasn''t going to miss my mark. I was following my nose and guiding us up to the bed. And when I felt my feet getting closer to thatrge, luxurious bed I lifted my knee and started to crawl up to the pillows.


    Iid my Little Bunny gently onto the mattress,ying her head on the pillows and spreading her body beneath me.


    "So gorgeous." The words rumbled from my throat as I looked at her. "So fucking gorgeous."


    "You''re not so bad yourself, Fido." She smiled at me with a wicked glint. "If I had to say anything about it, I would say that you''re the sexiest man that there''s ever been." She meant those words, I knew she did.


    "Then I guess we''re a match, because you''re so fucking sexy, you damn near stop my heart when I look at you. And you''re so fucking scrumptious that I can''t help but want to eat you up."


    "Oh no, has Little Red Riding Hood the Bunny been caught by the Big Bad Wolf again?" She was giggling and squirming underneath me now.


    "That''s right, and you know that the big bad wolf wanted to eat his Little Red Riding Hood, so that is just what I n to do."


    With no more warning than that, I pressed my lips to her corbone and bit down gently. The little nip earned me a small yelp in surprise that hardened my already taut and tight dick. I wasn''t done though, I needed to taste more, to devour her more.


    I licked and nipped my way down her entire body. When I had reached her breasts Ipped at them for several minutes. I pulled the peaks into my mouth and sucked on them just hard enough to make her moan. As I devoured her, I knew that I was leaving marks, hickeys and all that over her body, but I couldn''t stop myself. They were part of my prize.


    When I moved down my Little Bunny''s belly and to the re of her hips, I could smell the intensity of her scent pooling and getting stronger. Her desire for me was at its peak and I knew it. That was a good thing, because I was about to truly devour her before I took her and slipped inside of her again.


    Finally, I moved down and over the mound that was hiding that delectable, mouthwatering, perfect little core. Her scent was so strong that I nearly made my eyes roll into the back of my head.


    "So good."


    I pushed Trinity''s legs apart with my shoulders and hands and opened her wide for me. When I set my tongue to her core, she squealed in pleasure filled with delight.


    "AHH! Reece!" She was already calling my name.


    "Justy back and enjoy, Little Bunny. I need my dessert. And you know how much I love your apple pie."


    There was no more talking after that. It was just me exploring her core with my tongue and causing her to scream and moan frantically.


    Ipped at her core and devoured her juices. I spread her folds with my fingers and left no location uncharted. I could give someone a map of her core if I was so inclined, but that was an area that was all my own and no one else''s.


    Her delicious cream was flowing nonstop. That flow of thick, sweet, cream rolling across my tongue as I pushed her up that peak of pleasure was like heaven to me. There was nothing better in the world, aside from being inside of her.


    I could tell she was almost there, she was about toe apart at the seams and I was going to push her over that edge. With a quick thrust I slid two fingers inside of her and twisted my wrist. The scraping of my fingers against her inner walls caused her toe screaming wordlessly.


    Her body spasmed and she squealed and screamed on and on. With that fresh wave of pleasure there was a fresh flood of her thick cream. Ipped at it, teasing her overly sensitive clit in the process. That only made her spasm more as I tried to get everyst drop of the thick, juicy goodness that I wanted so much.


    "NGH! AHHH! R..R..R..REECE! S..S..S..STOP! AHH!" She was pushing at my head, begging me to give sce.


    "I need more of you, baby, I need more."

 Chapter 518 - Reece – Romantic Birthday Part 4 (MATURE) (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 518 - Reece ¨C Romantic Birthday Part 4 (MATURE) (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "NGH! AHHH! R..R..R..REECE! S..S..S..STOP! AHH!" She was pushing at my head, begging me to give sce.


    "I need more of you, baby, I need more."


    "Th..th..then take more Reece. Take more by taking me. I want you. I need you."


    She didn''t need to beg me twice. I was already pulling my face away from her overheated and delicious core and positioning myself between her legs.


    "I love you, Trinity. I love you so much."


    "I love you too, Reece. I love you and I want you to make love to me." She was looking at me with misty, unfocused eyes.


    "I don''t know if I can be gentle enough for that, baby. I need you so bad."


    "Reece?" Her eyes pleaded with me as she said my name.


    "Damn." I knew that I would do whatever it was that she wanted me to. She didn''tmand it. No, I would just never do anything to disappoint her. She was my one true love and the only woman that I ever wanted to please. "Alright baby, I will be gentle. I will make love to you and prove to you how much you mean to me."


    I positioned myself again, lowering my body just a little so that my angle of entry would be softer and easier on her and I would be less likely to just ram into her right away.


    With a quick prayer that my control would hold out, I pressed forward gently and moaned when she closed around me with each inch that I pushed inside of her.


    "Reece." She moaned my name when I reached my hilt and came to rest fully inside of her.


    "Trinity." I said her name as well, feeling the pleasure already beginning to push me on to the rough and wild sex that my wolf craved.


    I ignored those urges, I ignored what my beast wanted. All that mattered to me was giving my mate what she wanted.


    I set about creating a slow and steady rhythm. I slid in and out of my Little Bunny with smooth easy strokes that were slowly rubbing her inner walls and I could already hear her preparing to scale that cliff again. She was already reaching her limit again but I was far from it.


    She came and moaned loudly and wordlessly. But I was still sliding in and out of her. The waves of pleasure didn''t really leave her.. I kept her pretty much permanently on the edge of climax as I shifted our position so that she was straddling my thighs and I was able to rock our bodies in rhythm with each other.


    My Little Bunny had her arms wrapped around my neck and pressed long, passionate kisses against my lips as I made love to her softly and gently. When she came again, moaning my name this time, I just pressed my lips to hers and swallowed the sounds down while I changed our position once more, taking her in another position.


    This time Iid her down on her side on the bed and slid into her from behind. Her tight core still wrapped around me and she turned slightly to be able to kiss me but in this position I was hugging her to me and holding her close to my body. Our bodies were pressed together more than they had ever been before and felt the intense heat from her back pressed against my chest.


    I slid in and out of her again, soft, slow and gentle. Her moaning was just the same as it was before, loud and pleading, but this time, I was feeling myself climbing that peak of pleasure with her. I was finally nearing my limit.


    I was thrusting in and out over and over again in a calm passion that was still burning me from the inside out. And the closer that I got to that point, the closer I got to where I? was about to explode, the more pleasure I was feeling.


    I felt like I had been missing out on something for so long. I had never realized what a calm and passionate love making could truly be like, and what better person to experience it than with my Little Bunny.


    "Reece!" She came, calling my name as the pleasure got to be too much.


    "Trinity" I called her name as well, feeling the passion and energy drain from me as I emptied myself into her.


    "Ahh!" She continued to moan, to feel the pleasure of our night together.


    After several minutes, when our breathing had regted, I slid out of her body and pulled the covers over us. Now that I was thoroughly spent, all I wanted to do was hold my Little Bunny in my arms while I slept. This was truly the best way I could think to end this night.


    I woke the next morning to something tickling my nose. It wasn''t something physical, it was a strange new scent.


    I knew that no one was in the room aside from Trinity and myself, so I didn''t understand that scent at first.


    "Hmm, why do I smell caramel apples as well as apple pie?" I pulled myself out of sleep and looked around the room.


    There was no one in here, just like I thought. It was just my Little Bunny in my arms and that strange scent that seemed to being from¡­


    It wasing from my Little Bunny. I knew exactly what that meant. I knew what this strange new smell was now. And I was happier than I could ever express.


    "T..T..Trinity?" I sat up, shocked and excited.


    "What is it?" She sat up like something was wrong. I seemed to remember a scene like this happeningst year, only reversed. She woke me up when she saw the marks on her chest.


    "Trinity, your scent changed." I grinned at her.


    "Huh?" She was confused with a sleep-fogged brain.


    "You''re pregnant."

 Chapter 519 - Trinity – Surprising The Family (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 519 - Trinity ¨C Surprising The Family (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "T..T..Trinity?" Reece sat up in bed with a gasp of surprise and a look on his face that said that he was clearly happy about something.


    "What is it?" I was scared at first since I had just woken up, I thought something bad might have happened and I was afraid that someone might be in here with us.


    "Trinity, your scent changed." He was smiling so wide that I wanted tough at the goofy look on his face, but I couldn''t. What the hell did he mean by that?


    "Huh?" Was my head still too asleep for this? Why was it that I was so confused by his words?


    "You''re pregnant."


    I think my heart stopped for a minute and the words he said froze like icicles in my brain.


    "W..wh..wh..what did you just say?" I was grinning despite my surprise. This was not what I thought he was going to tell me when he sat up like that for no apparent reason.


    "You''re pregnant!"


    At that, Reece leaned down and pulled me to him. We were both still naked and I could feel the excited thumping of his heart against my chest as he held me against his.


    "We''re going to have another baby. We''re adding to our family. Isn''t that amazing?"


    "R..R..Reece, did you forget thest time that I was pregnant? Did you forget what happened with the twins?" I think that I was the only one scared here.


    "No, I didn''t forget, but we know about that now, so we can monitor it a lot sooner. I just know that things will go better this time though. It has to."


    There was no getting through how excited he was. He was a happy and proud daddy so he would be overjoyed whenever he knew that we were having another baby. In truth, I was happy as well. I didn''t want anything bad to happen likest time, but I was still happy and excited about having another baby. That is, if it was only one."


    I wanted to tell the family, but I wanted to wait a day to do it. I wanted to tell them all, all our friends and family that were here with us, during my birthday dinner.


    We weren''t having a party this year, but we were having a dinner where everyone close to us wasing to celebrate with me. That might as well have been a party though, with how many people that was now.


    I was greeting everyone that was arriving as they came in. Mostly, because I was waiting for a specific person. And the moment that he came inside I called out to him.


    "Oh, Shawn and Dietrich, thank you for being here. Might I have a word with you for a moment, Dietrich." I gave him a firm look as he turned in my direction. I saw that he instantly knew what was going on, the light in his eyes and the grin on his face told me that for a fact.


    "Of course, Trinity."


    We stepped into another room, away from everyone else so that they couldn''t hear what we said.


    "I would say that a congrattion is in order." Dietrich smiled and hugged me gently. "I am guessing this is recent news."


    "I found out yesterday morning. We are going to announce it over dinner. I just didn''t want anyone else to find out before then."


    "I won''t say a word." He mimed locking his mouth shut and throwing away the key.


    "Thank you." I knew that I could count on him. "Also, I was wondering if.." I broke off then, not knowing how I wanted to phrase this question. "I was hoping you could tell me how many-."


    "How many babies there are this time?" He grinned at me. "Just one little baby girl."


    "I..I..I..I didn''t expect you to tell me it was a girl. I am still surprised that you can tell it like that." I felt the joy within me swell at his words.


    "I am sorry if I ruined the surprise."


    "No, not at all. I am happy, and best of all, Reece doesn''t know so I can just make him wait until the baby is here."


    "Ooh, devious. I like it." He winked at me and put an arm around my shoulder. "Now,e my dear Trinity, we need to get back to your birthday party."


    "It''s just a dinner." I corrected him as he walked me out of the room.


    "Semantics." He chuckled as we rejoined the growing crowd.


    We all sat down to eat shortly after that. There was lots of fun talk and love shared between us all. I loved when I got this entire group of people together. It was nice seeing how different types of people, from so many different backgrounds, could alle together and create one big family.


    "Can I get everyone''s attention please?" I asked as I stood at the head of the table, Reece rising along with me.


    "Is something wrong?" Juniper looked at me with suspicious eyes that asked me if I was up to something right now.


    "Nothing at all. I would say that everything is right with the world." I grinned at her and everyone else that was here. All my friends, my guards and my family. I could even feel the curious gazes of Reagan and Rika on me. Everyone was looking at me with expectant looks on their faces.


    "Really? Do tell." Juniper grinned, I think she already guessed what was going on since I had opted not to drink any alcohol today.


    "Well, we wanted to let you all know that our family is expanding."


    "We found out yesterday that we are having another baby." Reece added to my statement as he wrapped his hands around my waist.


    The excitement exploded around us. Everyone was so excited for us. Especially the twins.


    "Mommy, we have new baby?" Rika asked me.


    "Mama, me want baby too." Reagan added.


    "Yes, you''re going to be a big brother and a big sister now. Are you going to take care of them with us?"


    "Yes!"


    "Uh huh."


    I think the most excitement came from Mom, Dad, and L.. The three of them wouldn''t stop smiling and hugging us when they found out.

 Chapter 520 - Trinity – New Baby (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 520 - Trinity ¨C New Baby (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The excitement didn''t die down for a while. I guess that everyone was excited about the new baby. And I stuck to my guns and didn''t tell Reece that the new baby was a girl. I bought some things for her without him knowing what they were, but I was keeping them all hidden away until she was here.


    We had talked about names as well. He told me the names that he wanted if it were a boy and if it were a girl. I have to say, Reece is actually really good at picking out names for our children.


    The name that he picked this time was Talia Serene Gray for a girl. If she were a boy then the name he had in mind was Tarren Archer Gray. I liked both of them, and I thought that Reece would be happy to have his choice used once again.


    I also thought that Reece was going to go bananas at having another girl. He was so doting to Reagan and Rika, and I just knew, when it came time for his little princesses to grow up, he was going to go insane from the heartache. He was such a goofball sometimes.


    This pregnancy was going smoothly. Griffin was monitoring me on a weekly basis again, but there were no signs of gestational hypertension this time around, and that was a huge relief. Still, even with everything appearing to be fine, Griffin kept checking on me weekly.


    I didn''t have to go on bedrest this time though. And I spent a lot of time with Reagan and Rika as they prepared to be the older siblings. I was worried that the two of them would feel like they were being forgotten when Talia was born. I wanted to make sure they knew how much mommy and daddy loved them, and that our love for them wouldn''t change.


    Over the course of the six month pregnancy, we were getting Reagan and Rika moved into their own rooms. The nursery was going to be used for the new baby so it was being rearranged and the excess furniture was being put into storage.


    Rika''s room was across the hall and to the left of the nursery, while Reagan''s was across the hall and to the right. They both had been moved to twin size beds with soft safety rails to keep them from falling to the floor. They had their toys, dressers, and everything that they could want or need in the room.


    The color scheme of the nursery wasn''t being changed, and neither was anything about how it was decorated. Well, there was one thing, the names Reagan and Rika were taken down and would be reced with the new baby''s name when she got here. That is, once Daddy found out what the name was going to be for sure.


    It was summer when the baby was due, and I didn''t want to be stuck at home all the time. I needed to have my guards and or friends with me at all times. If you listened to Reece then I needed a whole army. However, I could take a few guards and go out for the day whenever I wanted to.


    On July the thirteenth, I went on a yday with Juniper, Reagan, Rika, na, and Rowan. The six of us, and my four guards, were enjoying a day at the ssh pad that we had installed in Trinity Falls. There were a lot more kids there than just ours and they were all having fun ying together. Even Dietrich was there with his brood who kept running up to Shawn and hugging him with their wet clothes. It was fun.


    I had just been thinking to myself that I like only having one baby in my belly at a time because it made it so much easier to move around and I didn''t feel quite as ufortable. I had been about to say that, but that was when I felt a sharp pain sear across my belly. It wasn''t a Braxton Hicks contraction, this one was real, and it hurt.


    Seconds after I felt that pain, before I could even straighten up and while Vincent was still stepping toward me from just a few feet away, I felt the fluid pour down my legs. My water had just broke.


    "Trinity, are you OK?" Vincent grabbed my elbow and helped me to stand up a little more, but the pain only got worse like that.


    "That depends?" I grimaced at him and saw worry filling his eyes. He remembered myst pregnancy very well and I know he was worried about that happening again.


    "What''s wrong, Trinity?" I saw him about to pick me up, but I held my hand out to stop him. He couldn''t tell because I was only in a two piece swimsuit, but I was too gross to carry right now.


    "Well, nothing is truly wrong, I''m just in a lot of pain right now."


    "Then something is wron-." He stopped and looked at me again. "Oh!" He understood it then.


    "My water just broke, Vincent." I told him what had actually happened now.


    "We should go." He reached for a towel and wrapped it around me. "I will take you to the hospital now. SHANE!" He called out to get his attention. "Call Reece, tell him to meet us at the hospital."


    "Why? What''s wron-.. Never mind." He understood as well.


    "I will get the kids." Shawn was already moving.


    "I''ll get the SUV." David was running toward the parking lot.


    "Ooh, how exciting." Dietrich grinned as he collected his children. "Do you want me to babysit, Trinity?" He asked me with a gleeful smile.


    "I want them to see the baby at the hospital."


    "Then I will watch them there. Come little ones, we need to get dressed."


    Things moved quickly after that, and before I knew it, I was hooked up to machines in a hospital room and Reece was running through the door in a panic.


    "I''m here. I''m here. Don''t have the baby without me." He looked like he had run all the way from his meeting at the office to the hospital here. Knowing him, he probably did.


    "Calm down, Worry Mutt, I''m not going to have the baby without you. Well, if you would have taken too much longer, I might have, but you made it here so we''re all good."


    "I got here as soon as I could." He smiled, came to my side, and kissed me gently. "I just about panicked when I got the news. I literally stopped a man who was in the middle of his presentation and told him he can finish upter. I was out the door and in the stairwell before they even knew what happened."


    "He''s not lying." Noah''s slightly annoyed voice followed his words. "I was left there to exin it all to them. Good thing I was able to get them to understand."


    "I''m the boss, they better understand."


    After a little more quarreling, Griffin came in to check me and it was time to push my little baby into the world. This was only the second time that I was inbor but it was like I knew exactly what to do, I guess I remembered it all really well.


    "It''s a girl." Griffin called out to us just as I heard the musical cry of my new little girl.


    "Another little girl. Our little Talia Serene." I could hear the love in my husband''s voice as he watched the baby get cleaned up. After the nurse finished with her, she handed our little girl to Reece who just stared at her in awe.


    When we brought Reagan and Rika in to see her, they giggled in excitement and joy. They wanted to hold her and took turns sitting in a chair and holding her with Reece''s help. Mom and Dad were excited as well, holding her right after Reagan and Rika. L and Grandfather followed by my brothers and sister inws came next. After them came my friends. All of them wanted to meet little Talia.


    Well, I guess my not so little kingdom of shifters and magic users now had another princess. I bet you Reece is already nning the tiara that he is going to have made for her.. I may not like the excess when ites to me, but the kids really did look adorable in their little crowns.

 Chapter 521 - Trinity – Living In Peace (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 521 - Trinity ¨C Living In Peace (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I honestly had to say that everything was going just about perfectly since the issue with the Fae had been taken care of. We had a new baby girl that was getting big by the time that Reagan and Rika turned three years old. Reece was the most loving and doting dad there was in the entire world. And my people seemed to be mostly at peace. I think that it was all going ording to n.


    What was making me truly sad was just the passage of time. Talia was almost five months old already and Reagan and Rika were showing just how smart they were while they started a sort of at home preschool with Mom and L.


    Reagan and Rika could already recognize every single letter of the alphabet and they were working on their pen control, or rather, crayon control as they colored and drew different pictures every day. They knew all their colors and loved to sing songs that were perfect for preschool aged children.


    Honestly, I didn''t even think they would need a preschool ss if they kept this up with their grandmothers. It was cute though, both Mom and L were so devoted. They were also teaching Elias. And I know that Mom took trips to visit CJ and work with him and Bree. All of these kids had overly devoted grandmothers that worked hard for them. I think they all missed their callings as preschool teachers to be honest.


    When Talia''s first Christmas came around, she was four months old and could actually y with small toys on her tummy. Because of that, Reece went a little overboard with gifts for her. She was basically given the makings of a baby mouse maze. Reece nned to have her learn to crawl at an early age and hoped she would crawl and scoot around in a controlled environment. He just didn''t want her to get hurt, but I just couldn''t believe him sometimes. He was so over the top.


    Juniper had finished her degree in child psychology just a month before she found out she was pregnant with a little boy. He had been born three days after her twins turned three. E was pregnant with another baby as well. She was due to have her little boy in March of the following year. It looked like we were all expanding our families some more. Even Carter and Noah, both announced to the family on Christmas that their wives were expecting again. Both Nikki and Emmalee were due the same day and the thought of them having their babies at the same time made me smile, but also hoped that they weren''t the same so that the new little cousins would feel ripped off for sharing a birthday.


    Yeah, all in all life was amazing. And I was happy that we were all getting to spend Christmas at home this year. It was the first time since the year that Reagan and Rika were born. Two years in a row we had gone to the Yule celebration, only for it to be cancelled the second time. Still, as fun and amazing as the Faepound was during the holidays, I was d that we had been home for it this year.


    Things with Alpha Corp, thepany that was now legally co-owned by me and Reece, were also doing amazingly well. We were branching out and expanding the number ofpanies that we owned and operated. There were now more than twice as many people working for us in one way or another, most of which as security detail that were spread out all over the world. It seemed that hiring someone from Alpha Corp had be the next big thing, and celebrities, politicians, and dignitaries couldn''t get enough of us.


    They also wanted to use the highly efficient and expertly trained construction crews, analysts, and everyone else that was employed by Alpha Corp or one of its subsidiaries. I had never believed that an explosion in our poprity was ever possible. It made me wonder how they would all feel if we reveal ourselves to the world. Would they still want to work with us so much? I hoped so, but that wasn''t something that was in the cards right now.


    Another new year came and there was still nothing but calm and peace in the world of shifters and magic users, and apparently in the world of the Fae. We continued to have our quarterly meetings where the high Nobles and Grand Nobles came to tell us what had been happening in their provinces.


    Crimes were reported and major issues were settled. I am proud to say that there were less issues than the first year that I had implemented this policy, and I was hoping to have things keep continuing on this trend. There may never be world peace, but I can get a calmer and more serene world than what there had been before.


    I could hope and dream for a world like that at least. I knew that it would take a long time and a lot of effort from everyone involved, but I hoped that one day it could be possible.


    Reece told me that it was a pipedream and that it would never happen and, to be honest, I knew that he was right and I was being too na?ve due to my age and overall experience in the world.


    However, I think that part of me wanted that eventual oue because of my experience with the world. I had more death than I care to admit. I had faced the horrors of what someone was capable of doing to their own children. I had seen that jealousy for your fellow people could sour into murderous rage. I had seen how envy, lust, power, and so much more had corrupted the souls of my people and others. I didn''t want that sort of thing continuing to happen. I wanted to help everyone, protect everyone.


    Though, I knew that was impossible.. Still, I could hope.

 Chapter 522 - Trinity – Wedding Plans (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 522 - Trinity ¨C Wedding ns (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I celebrated my twenty-third birthday. Reece and I celebrated our fifth Valentine''s Day together and then our fourth wedding anniversary, time was passing, and things were going great.


    Just after the year had started, I had gotten a message from Aunt Glory letting me know that her and Trevor were finally getting married. She had wanted to wait at least a year before they tied the knot.


    Aunt Glory didn''t want to wait on the wedding because she didn''t trust Trevor, but more because it wasmon for ''most'' Fae to be engaged for years before they ever got married. They were basically immortal and didn''t have to worry about aging too much if they didn''t get married soon enough.


    Hey, speaking of not aging, I had noticed that everyone around me started to either age really slowly or not at all. Ever since I became the Luna Queen it was like everyone had frozen in time. I wondered if that was only during the time that I was alive, the time that I was ruling, or if it was permanent. I guess time would tell.


    Anyway, as far as the wedding ns for Aunt Glory and Trevor went, they had chosen to get married in April, after my wedding anniversary and that business at the beginning of the year. They thought that would be perfect and I couldn''t have agreed more. They were set to get married on Friday, April the eleventh. We were all preparing to head there and finish helping them finalize wedding ns and n the parties.


    "Trinity! Reece!" Aunt Glory ran to greet us the moment we stepped into her private study. I saw that Trevor was there, still looking the same as ever in his ck suit pants, untucked and half buttoned dress shirt, and wild appearance. He was a sight for sore eyes and hugged me as fiercely as Aunt Glory had.


    "I''ve missed you both." I told them the moment that I was set back on my feet. That was also when I spotted Athair m¨°r and Daciana. I went to Athair m¨°r and hugged him as well, holding the now almost nine month old Talia in my arms. "I''ve missed you, Athair m¨°r." Even though he came to all the meetings he had been asked to attend, it never felt like enough time.


    "I have missed you too, Trinity."


    "It is so nice to see you again, Queen Trinity" Daciana was still nervous around me and called me that every time that she spoke to me.


    "Daciana, you''re about to be my step great great great grandmother, I think we can drop the formalities." That caused everyone in the room tough, aside from the children that is.


    "I..I..I guess you''re right."


    "Did I tell you?" Athair m¨°r looked at me excitedly.


    "Tell me what?" I was confused for a moment but let him continue.


    "Daci and I are getting married in a joint ceremony with Glory and Trevor."


    "Oh my Goddess, really?" I felt the damn burst inside of me and released all of my excitement.


    "Uh oh, how does Winnie the Pooh feel about that?" Reece joked as he looked at his friend of many years.


    "Shut up, Scamp." Trevor snapped at him with a tinge of pink in his cheeks.


    "Actually, it was his suggestion, and I thought it would be amazing as well. There will be separate parts for both of us. It is not like we will be going up at the same time." Aunt Glory was exining it to us.


    "That''s right. I suggested it to give my future brother-inw a special part of the day as well. He has been waiting for this day for a long time as well."


    "Won''t it diminish the joy you all feel for that day?" I was slightly worried about it, but I knew that they probably thought about that as well.


    "We''ve talked about it and I think that it will just make the memories that much sweeter. When we talk about it in the future, we can reminisce about how much we all enjoyed that day for our own reasons." Aunt Glory truly seemed to be happy about all of this.


    "As long as you''re happy then, so am I." I smiled at them and thought about how wonderful this uing wedding was going to be.


    Following that discussion, it was my job to work with Aunt Glory and Daciana to get some parties nned. I was basically trying to make the bulk of it all a surprise to them so that neither of them knew what was really going to be there. This was going to be their bachelorette parties after all and they needed to be slightly surprised about it all.


    Given that we were in the Faepound and there were a lot of different things that were here that I could never find in the human world, I decided to enlist the help of some of my other family members here to make this perfect.


    The entire night ended up being a party in a magical clearing. There were going to be lights made from magic, bubbles that were basically pure liquor, music that literally came from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. There was good food, lots of fun, and plenty ofughs.


    I did learn a lot about Aunt Glory''s younger days during that night. Daciana''s as well. They had both lived such long and interesting lives that I couldn''t get enough of their stories. Maybe one day I can convince them all to write an autobiography or something. Maybe.


    Before I knew it, we had been at the Faepound for a couple of days and it was the day of the wedding. We were all busy getting ready for the big show, or should I say that we were busy being prepared for the day since none of us, not me, Aunt Glory, or Daciana, were allowed to do our own hair, makeup, nails, any of it. We were being forced to let ''experts'' handle it all.


    At least I wasn''t the only one that was being distrusted. I wasn''t the only one that people thought was incapable of doing these things for themselves. OK, I guess that they didn''t think that way, we were all just royalty, or soon to be. That meant that we needed to be pampered before things actually began.


    Oh well, I put up with it for now.. It was the day that Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r were both marrying their mates, and they both deserved it too.

 Chapter 523 - Wedding For Aunt Glory And Athair Mòr Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 523 - Wedding For Aunt Glory And Athair M¨°r Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Today was the day of the wedding for Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r. I was in the wedding party for both of them. Aunt Glory made me her maid of honor, feeling that there was no one more deserving than me. That was ttering, but also a little scary. For Athair m¨°r I was going to be standing in ce of a best man. I guess without many family members that they were close to, the duty fell onto me.


    I did think that this was going to cause some strife between me and Sorrel''s descendants, however, they seemed to be just fine with it. I don''t think they wanted to stand in front of the entire Faemunity as such an important figure. Not to mention, they said that after I saved all of the Faest year, I deserved the honor of both of them.


    Dammit, this was a lot of responsibility. I was nervous and didn''t know what I was going to do.Though I loved Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r, and I wouldn''t let them down. I would be there for them, right at their sides to help make sure that their special days were perfect. I would never abandon them or make them worry at all. And this was the best way that I could think about doing that.


    Everyone was ready and raring to go the day that the wedding was due to start. Aunt Glory had a dress that was made of pure light, flowers, water, and other ents. It was long and flowing and a beautiful shining gold color. The train of the dress stretched out behind her about five or six feet, but it never twisted, tangled, or got in her way when she was moving.


    The bodice of the dress was strapless and sleeveless. It showed how ample that her chest was, a fact that was typically hidden by her more modest looking clothes and small stature.


    Along the bodice there was a shimmering line of pure gold that I knew was not sewn on, but rather it had been applied magically by her long time friend Alloy. There were also diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds adorning the dress to help create an intricate pattern in the shape of flowering vines and flowers. The flowers were actually real flowers created with magic at the end of the golden vines. The gems were adorning the leaves of those vines. And to top it off, there was actual flowing water that moved along the dress to make it look like the vines were creating attice-like bridge across the water. It was interesting and so beautiful.


    I had never thought about a dress that was pure magic before. I have gotten dressed magically before, but I had never actually thought about making the clothes be nothing but magic.


    The dress that Daciana was wearing was just as beautiful. It had a base dress that I knew Athair m¨°r had created for her. It was pure blue and made of water. But since Daciana had magic of her own, she added the final touches so that it was a mixture of their two powers.


    Daciana was a Gypsy that had lived all over Europe, but had originated in the eastern part of the continent, because of that she had a lot of different cultural influences. She had added some traditional looking ents that weremon among Gypsies and added plenty of ir that was all her own.


    The end result of Daciana''s dress was a beautiful blue dress with colorful blue, green, and purple ents of different lengths to the skirt, a corseted top over the off the shoulder bodice, wider sleeves that belled out around her arms, and long flowing scarf like material that was connected to the back of the dress and would spin out behind her when she danced.


    Overall, her dress waspletely mesmerizing, and I loved it. Both her and Aunt Glory had such unique and beautiful wedding dresses.


    Trevor was wearing a suit that was ck and looked to be made from normal cloth. However, he also had a metal that had been used to outline his clothing, this time it was tinum and stood out in eye-popping rity against the ck. The buttons on the jacket of his suit were also tinum and his shirt was a pure white. The tie and other ents that he wore matched the golden color of Aunt Glory''s dress.


    Athair m¨°r had a suit that was a dark indigo blue and looked like it was made of Ocean water. It was cloth, to the touch at least, but it was so perfectly colored that it looked like real water.


    I had to admit, Athair m¨°r looked like a true God of the Sea when I saw him, and I had to wonder if other people thought the same as me. He was so regal, as well as handsome, in that suit for his wedding.


    I was wearing a dress that was made with the joint efforts of Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r. It was abination of light and water magic so it was the shining golden light as well as different shades of blue from the ocean.


    My dress was much simpler than Aunt Glory or Daciana''s but I wasn''t upset about that. I liked that it was a simpler looking design. It had a tight, corseted top that was strapless and a long A line skirt that trailed the ground and swished when I moved. It was pretty but so much simpler than the others.


    The wedding was being held in the same ce that all therge banquets for the Yule celebration had been held. The wedding was perfect, as always, and the ce had been decorated beautifully. There were flowers of every possible color, benches that were brought out and draped in magical cloth. And it even seemed to be raining flower petals over the entire ce.. It was perfect, beautiful, and amazing.

 Chapter 524 - Trinity – Wedding For Aunt Glory And Athair Mòr Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 524 - Trinity ¨C Wedding For Aunt Glory And Athair M¨°r Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Come now, Athair m¨°r, it''s almost time for your ceremony to start." I called out to him as we all prepared to leave the temporary room that had been set up for the grooms. Trevor was standing at the back of the ceremony and watching on with wistful eyes as Athair m¨°r and I made our way to the front of the gathered crowd.


    The way the ceremonies were going to be held today was that Athair m¨°r and Daciana wouldplete their ceremony and then Athair m¨°r would walk Aunt Glory down the aisle for her ceremony with Trevor. The weddings were going to be consecutive, not concurrent.


    Athair m¨°r and I were standing at the altar that had been built just for today. It was made of different metals and covered in flowers. It was part of Aunt Glory''s n to make the city and citizens of Fae more open and epting of their only metal magic users.


    As we waited under the flowing flowers of the altar, Athair m¨°r and I watched Reagan and Rika walk down the aisle, one was throwing flowers and the other was carrying rings on a blue satin pillow. Following them was a woman that I had seen when Daciana had firste to my castle. Finally, we saw Daciana and a man I didn''t know walk down the aisle.


    The beautiful dress that the bride was wearing was shimmering in the bright light of the sun, but that was nothingpared to the bright, radiant smile that was on Athair m¨°r''s face. His eyes had lit up and I could see tears forming in his eyes. He was happy beyond belief that he was finally marrying his mate.


    When Daciana and the man came to a stop at the front of the altar, one of Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r''s nephew named Ash spoke in a clear voice.


    "Wee friends, people of Fae, and new families. We have all met here today to join in the union of Valerian Undine and Daciana Joviak. This wedding has been a long timeing for my dear Uncle Valerian. First, let me ask who gives this bride away to be married on this fine day?"


    "I do, Silvanis Joviak, her father. I am proud and ted that my daughter has finally found a mate to walk the path of life with."


    Silvanis then turned toward his daughter and lifted her blue veil over her head. Now that her face was free of barrier he leaned in and kissed her cheek.


    "I love you, Daciana."


    "I love you too, Daddy." This was such a sweet and tender moment for them, and I was on the verge of tears at the moment.


    After Daciana joined Athair m¨°r on the altar, the weddingmenced. It was time for them to vow to each other and actually be married.


    "For a Fae, marriage means something different than it does for a human." Ash started the ceremony with a smile. "Humans can say that they will love someone for all of eternity and truly think that they mean it, but their lives are fleeting and they are not often given the chance to love for that long. We Fae, and other celestial blessed beings, have the chance that humans do not. Often, when we say that we will love someone for all time, it truly wille to pass. I am happy that these two have finally found each other, so that they may have that life of eternal bliss with the one person that willplete their soul."


    He took a breath, smiled at the bride and groom, and continued with his words.


    "If there is anyone among us that believes that these two should not be wed, please speak now or forevermore hold your peace." Ash paused to give any objectors a chance to speak. Seeing that no one opposed the union he continued the ceremony. "Valerian, will you repeat after me and make these sacred vows to your wife to be."


    "I will."


    After that the vows were started and I watched Athair m¨°r''s face as he stared into his bride''s eyes.


    "I, Valerian Undine, will love you, Daciana, for the rest of my days, no matter how infinite they might be. I will support you in every way that might be possible, from magical to emotional. I will protect you, fight for you, defend you, and be the one constant that you can count on for the rest of your life. I choose you to be my wife since no one else will ever hold a candle to you in my eyes, or my heart."


    Aww, that was so sweet. I could feel the waterworks starting, why was this happening to me right now?


    "Alright, Daciana, it is your turn to make your vows to Valerian." Ash gave her a soft smile before continuing.


    "I, Daciana Joviak, will love you, Valerian, for the rest of my days, no matter how infinite they might be. I will support you in every way that might be possible, from magical to emotional. I will protect you, fight for you, defend you, and be the one constant that you can count on for the rest of your life. I choose you to be my husband since no one else will ever hold a candle to you in my eyes, or my heart."


    The vows were the same for each of them and they both recited them with so much love that I know the whole crowd watching on could feel it.


    "I have one more thing that I would like to add." Athair m¨°r lifted his bride''s hand and kissed the back of it gently. "I have prepared my own speech, or vows, for my bride that I hope to share with you now."


    "Yes, my love, I would love to hear what you have for me." Daciana was more than happy to hear what it was that he had to say.


    "Daciana, my love, I don''t think that you will ever know just how happy I am to have met you. I know that I am a man frozen in time that does not age, but before the day that I met you, I felt like my heart had been frozen as well. The thickyer of cold had been chipped away bit by bit after I found my family, but that deadly cocoon of a frozen chrysalis did not fully go away until that day when we saw each other here in thends of my home. It didn''t melt away slowly either. No, that ice shattered and broke away in an explosion of love and happiness. From that day on my heart has begun to beat with a passion once more and it is all thanks to your beautiful smile, kind eyes, and sweet, gentle nature. I want you, and everyone here, to know that I will make you the happiest woman in the world from today until the end of time."


    "Oh, Valerian." There were tears streaming silently down her cheeks and I finally was able to see what the effects of magical Fae makeup had. The tears were leaving no marks in the makeup at all. No streaks, no mascara marks, nothing. Daciana still looked just like she had just with some tears added. I was thankful for that since I was crying as well, and I didn''t want to be a mess for Aunt Glory''s ceremony next.


    I present to the people of Fae, Valerian and Daciana, husband and wife.

 Chapter 525 - Trinity – Wedding For Aunt Glory And Athair Mòr Part 3 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 525 - Trinity ¨C Wedding For Aunt Glory And Athair M¨°r Part 3 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Following the ceremony for Athair m¨°r and Daciana, the two of them walked back down the aisle arm in arm. The entire crowd: all the Fae, the gathered bears, wolves, other shifters that were here for Trevor, and all the Gypsies that hade her for Daciana, were on their feet and apuding. The sound of that apuse was deafening, but also made me smile because it was for my family. It was for my Athair m¨°r and his new bride.


    It hit me then that Daciana was truly now a part of my family. She was bound to us for eternity, and I couldn''t have been happier about it. It made me think about how one of Reece''s best friends was joining the family as well. They were going to be inws but that didn''t mean anything. They were like brothers as it was already. This just gave them one more bond that united them.


    Now that the ceremony was over, it was time to prepare for the next one. Daciana was taken to a special location where she could watch the next ceremony when itmenced. There had been a special throne prepared just for her to wait in while Aunt Glory and Trevor shared their vows of eternal love. Valerian was going to be escorting Aunt Glory down the aisle before he joined his bride as a guest instead of the groom.


    All of our positions needed to be reset and changed. Reece was now smiling happily as he stood next to his friend, and pseudo-brother, Trevor as the best man. Reagan and Rika were once again the first ones to walk down the aisle. They were tossing out the flower petals and carrying rings on a golden pillow. I followed after them nervously as I felt the eyes of tens of thousands of people on me. I did my best to ignore it though, as I proceeded to where I was supposed to stand.


    Once Reece, Reagan, Rika, and I were all in our proper ces the music that was being yed shifted so that we knew it was time. We all turned to watch as the door of the bridal room opened at the end of the long aisle. Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r emerged with bright, shining smiles on their faces. Their magical air to their appearances was making them look like they stepped right out of a fairy tale. They were a prince and a princess, or a Queen and a King, in appearance, but in truth, they were more like an updated and happier version of Hansel and Gretel. These two siblings had found their happiness and were sharing that with the world.


    Aunt Glory was looking even more beautiful than I had ever seen her before. Now that she was out here in the light, I could see that her dress looked as if it hade to life with all of the sparkles that were dancing all along its surface. Her long, beautiful ck hair had been pulled into a half up and half down style with a decorative flower ornament that looked like it was made from a real crystalized flower. The hair that was hanging down her back was curled loosely and bounced as she walked. Her brilliant sky blue eyes stood out radiantly like they were truly shining with all of her magic behind them. And then, there was the way that her makeup had been done so perfectly that it made look like she should be adorning magazine covers as the world''s most beautiful woman.


    On top of all those enhancements from her clothes, makeup, and magic, I knew that Aunt Glory looked a million times more beautiful than she usually did simply because of how happy she was. The moment that her eyes fell onto Trevor, that beauty of hers intensified so much that it was unbelievable. Aunt Glory had never been married before, never been mated before, this was a day that had literally taken millennia in the making for her.


    With her taking her ce before Ash amid the shining gazes of her people, Aunt Glory was finally ready to take the next step. She was finally ready to marry the man that was meant for her.


    "Thank you all for your attention once again." I could see happy tears in Ash''s eyes as he started to speak. "We are here now to join in the union of Trevor Jacoby and Queen Gloriana Belphoebe. Our Queen has been searching for many years for a mate toplete her. I know you all join me in the joy that I feel knowing that she is as happy as she is now that she has found him."


    Ash paused for a moment to look at everyone again just like he hadst time, then he began to speak once more. "As I said before, for a Fae, marriage means something different than it does for a human. Humans cannot love someone for all of eternity like they wish to do. As much as they truly think that they mean it, their lives are just too fragile that they cannot possibly love for that long. As I mentioned before, we Fae and other celestially blessed beings are able to do what the humans are not. Often, when we say that we will love someone for all time it truly wille to pass. I know that these two will love each other for more than several human lifetimes. I know that my Queen and future King will share love like that of legends and old tales.


    He took another breath, smiled at Aunt Glory and Trevor, then continued with the next part of the ceremony.


    "If there is anyone among us that believes that these two should not be wed, please speak now or forevermore hold your peace."


    This was all progressing beautifully and, just like it had when Athair m¨°r and Daciana had their ceremony so shortly before this, it was perfect and nothing was at all out of the ordinary.


    Or so I thought.

 Chapter 526 - Trinity – An Objection (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 526 - Trinity ¨C An Objection (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "I have an objection for you." A voice was heard rising above all other sounds. It was a woman''s voice, and it sounded like it belonged to someone drunk on power: maniacal and slightly unhinged. Aside from the craziness in the voice, it was beautiful and seductive. The contrasting feelings I was getting from hearing that voice was almost making me dizzy.


    "What?"


    "Who is that?"


    "What is going on?"


    "What''s happening?"


    "Where is that voiceing from?"


    So many shouted cries of worry and fear rose from the gathered crowd. I could understand their fear though. That voice didn''t sound like it came from nearby, it sounded like she was moving through the air itself and speaking right into my ears. That had to frighten most of the people that were in attendance.


    "Who is there?" Aunt Glory''s voice was firm and steady, but I could tell that she was more than a little pissed off based on the look that was in her eyes and the set of her jaw.


    "What? Have I beenpletely forgotten already?" The female voice chuckled and I literally felt the air vibrate around me from the sound of thatughter.


    "Huh? Oh, please no." I heard a gasp from Athair m¨°r that was followed by those words.


    "Ah, I see that someone does recognize the sound of my voice. He is the one that should recognize it as well, since he was the one that I was forced to marry all those centuries ago."


    "Snum?" Aunt Glory''s voice was a gasp now as she said that name.


    As soon as Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r recognized who it was that was talking, there was a sound like the crack of thunder and a sh of lightning filling the sky. Everyone who was attending the wedding were instantly on their feet and looking in the direction of that bolt of lightning.


    "HAHAHA!" There was the sound of a maniacalugh that caused many people in attendance to shiver with fear at just the sound. I had a feeling that almost all of the Fae in attendance knew exactly who this person was and what her being here meant. "It''s good to see that I have regained enough power to frighten you all." Snum''s words filled the air around the wedding just as there was another fork of lighting spreading across the sky.


    It was like night was already falling on the city, even though it was way too early for that to happen right now. The sky was darkening steadily and there were shadows spreading quickly among us.


    As I watched the bright and beautiful day disappear, I saw what looked like a woman appear in the sky. To be exact, it was just her upper body, and it was massive. She took up the entire northern part of the skyline that we could see from the central za.


    The face that I could see was beautiful, pale, and slightly purple. Not like she was sick or anything, but like her skin was naturally a light shade of purple. Her hair was long, wavy, and green. Her hair actually looked like it wasrge wavy nt leaves. Her eyes, the veryrge and malice filled eyes that were staring at us, were a dark plum colored purple. She was beautiful, that wasn''t even in question here, but it was clear that she was evil and meant to do us all harm.


    "Snum, what are you doing here? How are you even here? What is the meaning of all of this?" Athair m¨°r rose to his feet and red at the woman. "Snum ck, you are not wee here. Cease this childish disy and leave here at once."


    Her name made me start to think. Snum? Snum ck? Like Snum Nigrum, the scientific name for deadly nightshade? Athair m¨°r was married to this woman who was either named after or the reason for the name of a deadly, poisonous nt. So,? Rhinum''s mother that hated her husband and left him as soon as she was able to was actually a deadly nightshade? Well, isn''t that just wonderful?


    "You think you can tell me what to do, Valerian? I am not your wife anymore, and we share no kin anymore. There is nothing between us and that is exactly how I had wanted it to be from the start. Now, I will destroy you and your sister while your people watch on." The voice that wasing from the woman was more than evil, it was insanely deranged.


    "No kin? That''s what you think, woman. There is more to the lineage we shared than you ever knew. However, you don''t deserve to know their love or kindness."


    "Ha, you lie. Don''t you know how happy I was when that brat of ours died. I no longer needed to dread the day that the disgusting union between us had living breathing proof."


    OK, her words made me go into a rage of my own. She had just told Athair m¨°r that she was happy that their son had been killed. She told a man who had grieved for centuries over the death of his only child that she was happy that he had suffered and lost the only person he had at the time. Who the hell did that bitch think that she was?


    "Snum!" I yelled out at her, drawing her attention to me rather than Athair m¨°r.


    "And what do you want? You don''t know me and therefore you have no ce in this conversation. Silence now, before I kill you."


    "I will not be silent and let you talk to my Athair m¨°r like that. He does not deserve your cruel and insensitive words."


    "Athair m¨°r? You know that is what you call a grandfather, right? That man is not your grandfather you ignorant brat."


    "You''re partially right, Snum. He is actually my great great great grandfather.. And I guess that makes you, as repulsive as the idea might be to the both of us, my great great great grandmother."

 Chapter 527 - Trinity – A Declaration Of War (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 527 - Trinity ¨C A Deration Of War (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Ha! You are not my kin at all, mongrel. I sense more wolf in you than anything. This little game of yours will not save you at all. I will kill Gloriana and take my ce on the throne. This shall be my kingdom to rule." Snum bellowed the words for the whole crowd to see.


    "Really? And just what would you do if you were to take over the Fae throne?" I was trying to keep her talking, trying to figure out a n, or to give time for Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r to think of a n. I needed to do something at least and keeping her talking seemed good enough to me right now.


    "I will take the throne, annihte my enemies, free the dark Fae, and rule the world."


    Well, that was easy. I got her entire evil n right up front. I guess it was true that evil viins were so maniacally stupid that they always seemed to reveal their whole scheme so easily.


    "So, you seek world domination? Well that simply won''t do. Do you know how many innocent people there are in the world? Do you know how many people you would be destroying just to seek the end to a maniacal n that would ultimately leave you just as miserable as you were before?"


    "What? What are you saying?"


    I seemed to have confused her. Thatrge projection of her face was tilted to the side and ring at me for some reason. She was so honestly and truly confused by what I had said to her that it was nearlyical.


    "What I am saying, Snum, is that you won''t be happy even if you take the throne. It would be a pointless and wasted loss of life. So, I simply won''t allow it to happen." I gave her a firm look that I usually reserved for misbehaving children. In other words, I was telling her that she wasn''t really worth my time.


    "SILENCE!" She bellowed the word so loud that I felt like it almost burst my eardrums. Everyone in attendance, aside from me, Aunt Glory, Athair m¨°r, and Reece covered their ears. Was it because we were royalty and trying to give off amanding air that we managed to keep ourselves from reacting like the others did?


    "I will not be silenced, Snum. You crashed a wedding that had nothing to do with you only to threaten my Aunt Glory. I will not stand aside and let that slide."


    "Stop calling these people your kin. That is simply not true." She seemed truly angered by this fact. I guess she really didn''t want to know that there was more proof of her time spent married to Athair m¨°r.


    "I will not stop it. I am thest descendant of Antirrhinum and his mate. My ancestor was conceived before Antirrhinum was killed in the war. I will not be silenced because it is true."


    I intentionally let her think that I was the only one rted to her. I did not need her focusing on anyone else in my family. And while I said those words, I ced silencing barriers around everyone that might say something to the contrary. I wanted to protect Reece and my children. This woman was not to, under any circumstances, know that I had children. I just knew that she would target them next.


    "If you are thest descendant of my bloodline, then all I need to do is kill you." She grinned and I saw a hand enter therge vision that was standing hundreds of feet tall in the sky. "I will strike you down here and now and put an end to this."


    I knew she wouldsh out. She was a maniacal, sociopathic, homicidal bitch. I gathered all of that just from the way she had talked. Oh, and the way that she told me her whole evil plot.


    "Prepare to die, bitch."


    The good thing about what I had done was that those silencing barriers I put around my mate, children and guards kept them from running toward me as well. I didn''t need them getting in the way right now. I was going to handle this.


    Just as I managed to put a barrier over the entire za, and every guest in attendance, there was a bright red streak of light about the side of a small stream of water flying from the floating hand and straight at me.


    It didn''t reach me though. It just bounced off the barrier and rebound toward Snum. She was obviously not physically there because it flew right through her face and dissipated into nothing.


    "What?" She was shocked again, unable to believe what had just happened.


    "I will not let you harm me or the Fae. Give up now, Snum." My voice was strong and firm when I spoke to her.


    "I will never give up." She screamed at me. "I will have your head for this. I will have all of your heads. Mark my words, death ising for you all. Blood will rain down upon the walls of your castle and it will turn ck with the hatred that we, who were sealed away, have for all of you. I will bring war upon thend of the Fae and my army will be those that you cast away. You have been warned."


    With that, Snum''s image disappeared from the sky, and the blue sky and shining sun returned.


    "Trinity?" Reece said my name as I let the barrier around him drop. He was worried about me and just a little bit pissed off. "Don''t ever do something like that again."


    With Reece''s arms around me, I looked out at the terrified faces of the Fae that were looking at me. Most of them were in awe of the fact that I had fought back against Snum, the others were just too scared to move or talk.. This wasn''t good.

 Chapter 528 - Trinity – Strategy Meeting (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 528 - Trinity ¨C Strategy Meeting (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The wedding was over after that. The attendees were too frightened to do anything other than head home and hide away. This was just over a year after the fear and worry that had gued them when Hibiscus was wreaking havoc on the city. This was all happening too soon for them.


    The citizens were sent home and ordered to stay inside. Honestly, with the threat of war having been issued, I don''t think they would want toe out of their homes. They would probably want to leave the city and take their chances among the humans. They all probably felt safer doing that.


    What I felt the most heartbroken about, was that Aunt Glory''s wedding had been cancelled. She and Trevor were not able to finish their ceremony with everything that had happened today. And poor Daciana, she will forever have to remember the day of her wedding as the day that a war had broken out among the Fae of the light and the ones that had been sealed away for centuries. That would most likely make her never want to celebrate this day.


    She was handling it well, for now. Her and Athair m¨°r walked hand in hand behind Aunt Glory and Trevor as we all made our way to the study for a strategy meeting. Reece was holding for my arm as we marched onward, and I was just d that I had some of my family here to take the children back to the residence.


    I was actually thinking about the children a lot. In all honesty, I was probably going to send my parents home with all three of them and have them protect the children there. The ley lines would keep the protection magic going strong in the castle and protect them. I would most likely send quite a few people there if I thought that things were going to get too dangerous here for them. Those that were incapable of fighting needed to be protected.


    When we made it to the office, we all sat in our usual ces. Aunt Glory and Trevor were seated together on an armchair next to the firece. Athair m¨°r and Daciana were sitting on a loveseat opposite them. And Reece and I were sitting on a couch that was to the side of them and caused us to form three sides of a rectangle.


    "What the hell was that about?" Trevor blurted the words out the moment we were all alone and seated in the room.


    "That was a shit show, that''s what that was." Reece answered him.


    "I wouldn''t call it a shit show." I scolded him. "Honestly, it could have gone a little better, but it definitely could have gone a lot worse as well."


    "Yes, I am truly thankful that Trinity was there with us today. If it had not been for her, then we might not have been able to survive this day." Athair m¨°r was giving me a look that was filled with both gratitude as well as shame.


    "Athair m¨°r, is she that strong of an enemy?" I needed to know this. I needed to know what we were up against.


    "It is hard to say." He was intentionally not answering my question.


    "Athair m¨°r." I just stared at him, not letting him get away with this. "Tell me about Snum. Tell me what we need to fear about her."


    "Trinity." He clearly didn''t want me to know what was going on, or rather what had happened."


    "Stop beating around the bush." I snapped at him angrily. "You both know that Danu asked me to help when you were both threatened by the evil that wasing. We all assumed that she had been talking about Hibiscus, but I think that she was talking about Snum. It''s just that Hibiscus was clouding the vision. Or perhaps Hibiscus led to Snum''s return. We don''t yet know enough to make that call."


    "Do you truly think that what Hibiscus did could have led to Snum escaping from the darknds?" Aunt Glory seemed truly shocked to even think that idea had been possible. "I should never have been so rxed with her. I should never have let it get this far."


    "Live and learn, Aunt Glory. You know now that when something like this happens you can''t trust people that you thought you''ve known for years. Simply not suspecting them because you love them can give them the perfect time to put that knife right into your back."


    I was sounding so cynical but that was what was needed at the moment. I needed to get this point across so that we could move on. I needed to learn the story of Snum and Valerian. I needed Athair m¨°r to tell me what had happened between the two of them. I needed to know why it was that she hated him and the rest of the Fae so much.


    This was the true danger that we had been waiting for. This was the true battle that Danu had warned us against. We had growncent and soft thinking that the threat was gone. But it was still here. It was still growing stronger and waiting for us. And now that evil was ready to strike.


    "Athair m¨°r, Aunt Glory, the two of you need to throw out everything that you thought you knew about your kingdom. I hope that one day you can go back to normal. However, for right now, there is nothing but fear and hatred that I can sense around you. The love, happiness, and eptance of this afternoon is gone. I am sorry, but that is the reality of it all."


    "Yes."


    "You are right." Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r nodded in agreement as they heard my words.


    "Good, I am d you understand. Now, Athair m¨°r, please tell me what happened. Tell me why there is so much hatred in Snum''s heart.. Tell me what I need to know so that we can figure out how to win this war before it even starts."

 Chapter 529 - Trinity – The History Of Valerian And Solanum Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 529 - Trinity ¨C The History Of Valerian And Snum Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "You want to know what happened between me and my ex-wife?" He looked from me to Daciana with worried eyes.


    "It is fine, my love. I know that whatever happened was in the past. I know that what you had with her was not a true mating. I will not hold any of it against you." Daciana ran a hand along Athair m¨°r''s arm as she consoled him and encouraged him to speak. "Trinity is right, we all need to know what happened all those years ago. If we''re going toe out on top in this situation, we need to be well informed."


    "I know, my love. I know that I need to tell you all. It''s just that, I have locked away those memories for a reason. It was not a pleasant time for me."


    I could see pain and heartache in Athair m¨°r''s face as he spoke. There had to have been a lot that happened to him for that look to be there. And if I was not mistaken, there was also fear in his eyes.


    Was he afraid that we would judge him over what had happened, or were the memories that horrible? I guess only time would tell. Hearing the tale would be the only way for me to find out and know for sure.


    "Athair m¨°r, for starters, can you tell me why Snum said she was forced to marry you?" I thought that was the most important thing at the moment. "What brought about a forced wedding that she did not want?"


    "That had been back before mother had left our world. At that time, there were many different types of Fae species, but most of them did not have much strength or power. There was a new species that was trying to be prominent among us. With me being the youngest prince and therefore someone that everyone thought would be easily manipted, I was the target of political moves."


    I could understand what it was that he was saying. If I had be the Luna Queen before I was married, I know that a lot of men all over the world would have been fighting to be my king.


    "One of the most prominent Fae at the time were the Kelpies. They were more powerful than most of the others when we were just starting out as a people. They were not as strong as the first three, which were me, Sorrel and Glory, but they wereing along in strength."


    Athair m¨°r took a deep breath and continued his story with a weary look on his face. He was painting his picture of the past but hadn''t yet got to the important parts.


    "There were several Kelpie families, many of whom people thought that I would choose a spouse from, because Kelpies are from the sea the same as I am. However, there was only one family brave enough to approach us about it. This was the year that mother had decided to leave us in this world without her. She was making preparations to join the others in the celestial ne and watch us from afar. This man, Strom, approached mother when she was too preupied to pay much attention and propositioned her with an offer. The offer was for his daughter Snum to marry me."


    "And Danu epted?" Reece asked when Athair m¨°r paused for a breath.


    "That she did. She was happy and excited for the chance to see her son be wed before she left this world. She rushed the wedding between us and within a week we were married. I hadn''t even gotten the chance to meet my bride before the wedding day."


    "That had to have been horrible." I was so taken aback by what he had just said. "How could Danu expect you to be married to a woman you didn''t even know?"


    As I asked that, I turned to look at Reece and his guilty expression. He had actually done the same thing along that line with me. I had actually been moved to his house without even knowing about it in advance. At least Snum knew it wasing. That could have been worse though. She had time to let the anger fester during that time.


    Things may have worked out for me and Reece, but it seems that it didn''t work out for Snum and Athair m¨°r.


    "I didn''t know her and she didn''t know me. It was what had started to open us up in the beginning. We joked about how our parents had forced us into these bonds that we didn''t want. Still, even though Snum put on a smile and performed her duties as a wife properly, she was never happy. And she never gave up on the old ways of the Kelpies either."


    "Old ways of the Kelpies?" Reece sounded confused. "Are you referring to the legends of how they would murder humans?"


    "That is exactly what I am saying." Athair m¨°r looked like he was still angry about the past. These were expressions and emotions that I never thought that I would see on his face. Likewise, these were topics that I never thought I would be discussing, not just with him, but with all of the people present here.


    All I could think about right now was the legend of the Kelpies and how that blended with the psychopathic woman I had seen earlier. I couldn''t see how Danu would have been so inattentive and, dare I say, stupid enough to allow a marriage like this in the first ce.


    Then again, if Danu hadn''t allowed this marriage I wouldn''t be sitting here today. Isn''t that always how it was when you learned something bad? You wish that it had never happened, but if it didn''t, then your life wouldn''t be what it was today.


    I wasn''t about to dwell on that, though. I needed to hear the rest of the story.. I needed to know exactly what it was that had happened all those years ago.

 Chapter 530 - Trinity – The History Of Valerian And Solanum Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 530 - Trinity ¨C The History Of Valerian And Snum Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Valerian, my love, when did you discover that she was killing humans?" Daciana took Athair m¨°r''s hand and looked him in the eyes as she asked this question.


    "Let me continue in the sequence from when we got married." Athair m¨°r cupped his new wife''s cheek and looked into her eyes for a few more moments. I think he was trying to gather strength from her with just that look.


    "Alright dear. Just continue at your own pace. We are here with you." Daciana assured him to calm him down a little bit.


    "Thank you."


    After Athair m¨°r gave his new wife a quick kiss he turned to look at me again. I think he found it easier to tell me these things directly than to talk to his mate about them. He didn''t want to be viewed negatively by her.


    "Snum and I didn''t rush things in our rtionship. I didn''t want to pressure her or force her into something that she wasn''tfortable with at the time. She was my wife, but she was a stranger to me. There were many people who ridiculed me at the time for that way of thinking, but I could hardly be intimate with someone that I did not know. So, we spent the first year of our marriage getting to know each other. There was a time when I thought that I might have loved her. Even to this day there are some fond memories that I had from those times."


    "There is nothing wrong with that, Athair m¨°r. You were married, even if it was arranged, you spent a lot of time together and that led to the development of emotions."


    "I don''t know if Snum developed feelings for me, but I did for her. In the end, I had truly thought she loved me but that had all been a lie."


    There was heartache dripping from the words that he was saying. He truly had been hurt at the time. But he wasn''t done with his story, so he took another breath and continued.


    "About a year into our marriage, we started to actually act more like a couple when we were in front of everyone else and in our home. We had gotten close enough that we finally consummated our marriage. She got pregnant that first time. That wasn''t just the first time, that was the only time. Every time that I went to her after that she would refuse me. Snum had been more than just upset to find out that she had gotten pregnant the night of our first time. She was furious and insisted that she didn''t want the child. However, she was forbidden by me, Glory, and her family from doing anything to harm the baby. I am just thankful that Antirrhinum managed to survive her."


    The love and joy in his eyes now told me that he had been a proud father, even if his wife was against having the baby.


    "Rhinum was a special little boy. He was so strong and wise from the very beginning. However, he barely saw his mother since she was almost never home. I had to use the assistance of a wet nurse to breastfeed him so that he would survive his infancy. I actually think that is part of the reason that Rhinum turned out as amazing as he did. He was not sullied by his mother."


    "Where was Snum during this time?" I asked him to rify that so he would not get lost in the memories of his son.


    "I followed her once, when Rhinum was a month old. She went out to the human world and shifted her form."


    "She was a shifter?" Reece asked without thinking.


    "Shut up, Fido. Think before you speak. Kelpies are a Fae creature that can turn into a water horse." Everyone in the room, aside from Reece and I,ughed when I scolded him.


    "She is right." Athair m¨°r answered my idiot mate. "Kelpies were originally magical water horses that became Fae when mother brought together those that she included as her people. However, what most people didn''t know at the time, was that Kelpies fed on humans. And when I followed Snum I found that she was luring humans to their doom to feed on them in the water after they had been drowned."


    "That is horrible." Daciana put her hands to her mouth to hide the horror and the gasp.


    "That is why I put an end to it. She is not wrong when she says that she was cast aside. I hauled her back to the castle and told Glory about the crimes that Snum wasmitting. That had been when we started to round up those that weremitting different atrocities and locking them away. At first they were in the dungeon of the castle, but this was when we were in the oldnds of Fae and there were too many of them for us to round up easily."


    "So, what happened?" I prompted, being drawn in by his tale.


    "The first of several great wars had started. With each war we suppressed them and fought them back and there would be peace for a short time, but it wouldn''tst. Over the following centuries we fought constantly with those that were dubbed the ''dark Fae''. They were no longer weed among the light, and they were shunned away from the city. But they refused to stay away."


    "How did you manage to lock them away?" Reece asked this time. He was just as enraptured as I was.


    "The battles continued, and what the dark Fae wanted was ournds. They wanted a ce to call their home. So, we fought the war once again, pushed back against theirmander, and when we won we fled our homends and sealed it off with them inside."


    That sounded like an extreme solution, effective but extreme.


    "That was the battle, or rather war, that Rhinum died in?" I asked him even though I already knew.


    "Yes. And at that time, he was fighting against people that should have loved him and been part of his family.. They never epted that, though."

 Chapter 531 - Trinity – The History Of Valerian And Solanum Part 3 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 531 - Trinity ¨C The History Of Valerian And Snum Part 3 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "What do you mean that they never epted that? Who never epted what?" Trevor spoke up for the first time since the meeting started.


    "Snum''s family." Aunt Glory turned to answer her mate''s question. "After Snum left, she took over her family and turned them all against her son."


    "How did that all happen though. I mean, I am trying to follow along here, and I get that she somehow escaped when you were rounding up all the dark Fae, but how did she manage to take over her family?" Trevor wanted further exnations about the past that only Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r could give us.


    "Well, for starters, when I locked Snum away in the dungeon for all of her crimes, I divorced her. I could hardly be a prince to my people while married to a criminal. However, the divorce had caused tensions to arise, and her family became angry. They didn''t me me though, they med her. At the time there were a lot of families that rebelled and wanted to stick to their murderous ways, but her family wasn''t one of them. They just wanted to stay off my radar because of the issues that their kin had caused for the royal family." Athair m¨°r exined so that Trevor could understand it all a little bit more.


    "So, basically, they abandoned her?" Trevor almost sounded like he was sympathetic for a moment.


    "Precisely." Aunt Glory nodded her head as she spoke. "At the time, we were all very? busy trying to stop the battle from truly turning into an all out war. It was during those tense times that Snum''s family had sided with us instead of the others of their species. Even though they stayed out of the actual fight they still spoke in support of the peace that the royal family wanted. Though, there were those in her family that didn''t approve of the way her father was running things. They believed that the things that Snum was doing were right. There was basically a civil war that was taking ce inside their family as well as one among the people of Fae."


    "How did they end up being led by Snum?" I asked, but I thought I could already guess what had happened.


    "When Snum escaped, she went straight to her family. That was to be expected, she had always loved her family. However, the first thing that she did was murder her father and take over the family. All those that didn''t want to live under that type of life anymore fled the family home and joined the city. The others took up arms against the Queen." Athair m¨°r''s voice was somber and sad as he exined what had happened to his former father inw.


    I had basically already suspected that the psycho bitch had killed her father to gain control of her family. If she was killing innocent people and hated bing a mother that badly, then that was a? step she would likely take on her journey to the top.


    "Alright, so she escaped and killed her father then, what, led the army of evil and dark Fae against the city?" Trevor was still a little unsure of the exact sequence of events. I was a little curious about them myself too.


    "That didn''t happen immediately. That was what had eventually happened down the line. She had to convince them all that her son was just as much of an enemy to them as I was. And remember, she went to prison when Rhinum was only a year old. She spent a hundred years in her cell before she was freed and took over her family. Even the ones who sided with her had a hard time thinking of Rhinum as an enemy. They had watched him grow up. They had known him only as their kin and son of the prince. That was likely the hardest part of the entire mission that she had to aplish." Aunt Glory continued to exin.


    "Did it dy things all that much?" Reece asked her.


    "It did, yes. There had been a battle that broke out when she escaped but, after that, things moved slowly. I admit that back then we were a lot more rxed on rules and regtions than we are now." Athair m¨°r sounded like he wasn''t the happiest about that.


    "I''d say that, even though you''ve likelye a long way, you''re still a little tooxed at times." I didn''t mince words or hold anything back on that one. They needed to know what I thought about that.


    "You''re probably right." Aunt Glory agreed. "But we will work on thatter. For now, we need to focus on the current situation."


    "Agreed." Athair m¨°r nodded.


    "OK, so as far as I can gather, Valerian''s ex was a crazy murderous psychopath that killed humans and was punished. That led to the arrest and capture of many more evil and dark Fae and several battles. She broke out of prison, killed her father because: what''s one more murder, then turned the entire family against her son. And to top things off she basically admitted to doing a happy dance when her only son was killed. Is that about all of it?" Trevor asked for rification.


    "Yeah, pretty much." That was the most nonchnt answer that I had ever heard Athair m¨°r give to someone before.


    "Well, isn''t that just great?" Trevor grinned. "I feel so much better about all of this now." Trevor''s sarcasm was probably due to him being angered by what had happened in the past.


    "Knowing the history may not be a pleasant feeling, Trevor, but it is important. Now that we know what happened in the past, we can try to save the future." I gave him a firm look that basically told him to stop being a baby about this.. "Now that Athair m¨°r and Aunt Glory have filled us in on the whole situation, I think it is time for us to figure out what we''re going to do about this deration of war."

 Chapter 532 - Trinity – Call To Arms (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 532 - Trinity ¨C Call To Arms (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "What do you suggest that we do here?" The question was from Reece, and he was directing it at me. I guess that I had done more than enough to prove myselftely, so much so that I was the one they were all turning to in this crisis.


    "Well, I don''t know how many enemies there are that we are going to face, but I am going to assume that the dark Fae have a vast number in their rankings since the Fae used to need the assistance of the wolves just to fight them. With that in mind, I think that we need to summon as many people here as we can. We will need to have as many warriors avable as possible."


    "So, we''re calling in the wolves?" Aunt Glory asked me, having been used to doing that in the past. "Will they even answer a summons from me anymore?"


    "They don''t need to answer the summons from you, Aunt Glory. They will be answering my summons and they cannot refuse that one. And I am not calling in just the wolves, I am calling in everyone."


    "Everyone?" Athair m¨°r was shocked by my deration.


    "Yes, everyone. I will be calling in the wolves, the felines, the bears, the birds, the reptiles, and the sea folk. All of the shifters, but that is not all either. I will also be calling in the magic users. There will be witches and warlocks, Gypsies, Djinn, Genies, all of them. I will also ask that Dietrich assist us, though he is able to refuse me. I will request his help with this issue, and I think he will be willing to give it."


    "Yeah, I think that he will as well. If we do not stop Snum, she will take over the world. No one would be safe, and the humans would be annihted." Reece was nodding along in agreement with my derations. "This is a time when everyone must band together to fight amon enemy. If we do not rid the world of her, then Snum will rid the world of us."


    With the numbers for our army filling out quickly, there was one less thing for us to worry about. I sent a broadcast message to every n, pack, and coven leader worldwide. I did not care if they were in a meeting, if they were sleeping, if they were fucking their mate, this was a matter of life or death and we needed to have them here.


    The broadcast message told them that every able bodied fighter that they had was needed to fight a war that would save the world. They were told what they needed to know right now and they would find out the rest when they got here. They were given instructions on where to go and how to get here and they were told to be here as soon as possible.


    After I summoned my people, I called Dietrich. I needed his help, his vampires would be very useful in this war against the dark Fae.


    "Trinity? What is going on? What''s wrong?" He sounded worried when he answered the phone. I could hear the kids in the background,ughing and giggling.


    "I need your help, Dietrich.:


    "With what? What is going on?" He had known that I wouldn''t have called him from the Faepound unless there was a major issue.


    "A dark Fae has escaped the seal and has dered war on us. She will be freeing the rest of the dark castaways and attempting to take over the world."


    "Holy shit!" He yelled loudly and I heard the children stop ying in the background.


    "Ooh, Papa said a bad word."


    "I''m going to tell Daddy on you." They were giggling and thought it was funny but I could tell that Dietrich was ignoring them at the moment. "How much time do we have, Trinity? How soon are we needed?"


    "As soon as they can get here, Dietrich. When we''re done with this call, I will be sending all non fighting Fae out of the city and to my castle. I am also sending my children home where they will be safe. Those who cannot fight will be protected with the spells I have put on mynds and castle. I want you to make sure that everyone gets there safely and thene to help us."


    "I will. You can count on me, Trinity. My warriors will start to arrive before I do but I will be there."


    "Thank you, Dietrich."


    We narrowed down the details of how the warriors were going to be amodated. We hashed out some more ns. But for the most part, the meeting was over.


    The first thing that I did when I got back to the residence was hug my children. The second was hugging my parents and other family members that were there with us. And the third thing I did was ry to them the strategy that we had.


    From here, it was going to get lonely for us. My children were all going home where they could be protected by my mom and L. Grandfather wanted to stay and help us fight as well, but I told him that he was needed to protect all of his grandchildren since they would have not only Talia, Reagan and Rika, but also CJ and Elias as well. They were also going to be caring for all the children of everyone else that was close to us. Juniper and Paul''s children, Vincent''s, David''s ,Shane''s, Shawn and Dietrich''s, Jackson''s, Riley''s, I do mean everyone''s children. And I just hoped that we would all make it out of this war alive.


    I spent as much time with my children as I could that afternoon. They were going to be leaving tonight and heading back long before the danger got to them. In all honesty, they should have left immediately, but I needed some time to hold them and feel their warmth. I needed to memorize once again just how they felt in my arms so that I could make it through the harsh battles toe.


    I was going to miss them.

 Chapter 533 - Trinity – The Council Convenes (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 533 - Trinity ¨C The Council Convenes (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Everyone started to show up immediately. Every shifter in the world that could fight, every magic user, every vampire, everyone who was able to help us fight back against the possible hordes of dark Fae. Among those that were showing up were my council members. They were the first to arrive and I immediately called them all in to discuss things with me and Aunt Glory.


    I was sitting at the head of the table in therge meeting room. All of my council members were scattered around the rectangr table and looking at me and Aunt Glory who was sitting right next to me. Reece was on my right, at the very end of that side of the table. Trevor was on Aunt Glory''s left at the end of that side of the table. Directly across from me and Aunt Glory were Athair m¨°r and Daciana. They were sitting side by side and most likely holding hands under the table.


    With the group assembled and the addition of Aunt Glory there were twenty-nine of us in the room. I should have brought Gabriel inside, then it would have been an even number. Iughed about that inside my head for just a brief moment before I took a breath and started the meeting.


    "Thank you all for getting here so quickly. This threat that we are facing needs our full attention right now, and I n to make sure that wee out on top in this battle."


    "Who are we up against?" Analise Rivers gave me a firm look as she spoke in a calm voice.


    "We will be fighting against the dark Fae that have been sealed away for centuries. They are being led by a kelpie named Snum ck."


    That caused more than a few of the people sitting around the table to tense and a couple of them tough. Rahim, the Djinn, was among those thatughed.


    "So, we are fighting against the woman who was most likely the inspiration for naming the poisonous nt. That is a little ironic. Is she as deadly as the berries and flowers that grow wild around its various habitats?"


    "She can be." Athair m¨°r was the one to answer. "As mentioned before, she is a kelpie, so she has her water horse form. If you touch her while in that form you will essentially be glued to her, and she can drag you into the water to drown. That was what she used to do to her human victims."


    "Oh, isn''t that pleasant?" Nathair, the snake, looked as though he was sickened by the thought. "Even we predators that turn into animalsrge enough to eat humans, do not consume them. That is wrong."


    "Agreed." The blonde vampire, Tatia, spoke after Nathair. "I forbid my people from taking a human life. They are only allowed to feed on willing victims. It is why we did not make so many new vampires when we were starting out. It would have resulted in the loss of too many human lives. There are, however, many among us that do not follow those same rules, and I believe that there are some that still kill humans. Those ones are hunted down by others of our kind so that they cannot cause problems for the rest of us."


    "I appreciate that view into the way things are run." Reece nodded at her. "We do not desire the loss of innocent life at all. That is why we are here. We need to stop this woman and make sure the dark and evil beings from thends of Fae are not released onto an unsuspecting popce."


    I knew that everyone woulde together and want to fight this evil. They wouldn''t be on the council if they didn''t. Everyone here was someone that wanted what was best for their people, and an enemy like this was against us all.


    "Let us continue." I brought them all back to attention with just those three words. "The first thing that we need to do is decide who will be leading a regimen in this war. Who will be themanders, or generals so to speak?"


    "I am already one of your generals, so I will be stepping up here as well." Landon was on his feet first and spoke immediately.


    "As am I." Trevor was next.


    "You know that I will bemanding my own group of troops." Reece followed him.


    "I refuse to sit this out since it is part of my past that is rearing its ugly head." Athair m¨°r stood as well.


    "I will join you in this endeavor." Dietrich was the next to stand and offer his assistance tomand troops.


    "Allow me to help as well." Nathair stood.


    "I will do my duty as well." Rahim rose next.


    "I am willing to offer my assistance." Crawford firmed his voice and rose with the others. More stood after him.


    "I am willing to aid both of my Queens." Anastasia stood and bowed her head.


    "I will take to the skies to fight against the enemy." Noir''s sharp eyes pierced me and Aunt Glory.


    "Thank you, all of you. I am sure we have enough now." I saw that there were others that were ready to stand and offer their assistance asmander. "The ten of you will be the ones that lead each group of soldiers. The remaining seventeen of you will offer assistance to them and help in whatever way you can. As Grand Nobles, it is your duty to lead the others."


    "Yes, my Queen." The words were echoed by almost the entire gathering. The only ones who didn''t say it were Anastasia, Aunt Glory, Athair m¨°r and Dietrich to whom I was not their Queen.


    "What will you be doing?" Aunt Glory asked me as she thought about the uing battle.


    "I will be leading my own regimen. I will not sit back and let this happen without doing something about it personally."


    "No, Trinity, you can''t-."


    "No offense, Reece my love, but shut the fuck up." I red at my mate not as his wife but as his Queen. "I may be a Queen and you may think that me being a woman means that I can''t fight, but I think I have proven myself time and time again. I will not be made to sit on the sidelines and watch this fight when I am stronger than you and can make a major impact on the oue."


    "But what if you get hurt? What will we all do if our Queen gets hurt or dies?" I could see the fear and panic in his eyes as he asked me that question.


    "Reece, my dear sweet husband, if I am so easily killed in this battle, it will mean that I was not meant to be Queen in the first ce. I promise you that I will do my best to stay uninjured and alive."


    "I will never forgive you if you die in this battle." He frowned at me. "So you better not get hurt." Reece hid the rest of his emotions as best as he could so that he was able to give me his warning.


    "I have no intention of letting myself be hurt so that is not a problem at all.


    "Well, I will not sit back and do nothing either. These are my people and mynds. I will lead an army into the war as any true warrior Queen would."


    "Gloriana?" Athair m¨°r was almost as shocked as Reece had been, but oddly enough Trevor did not object.


    "I will not try to stop you, my glorious Glory, but I do ask that you do not take too many risks and make sure youe back to me."


    "I will, Trevor my dear. And you make sure youe back to me. We still have to get married."


    With that, the meeting was called to an end. We were going to be assembling the troops and addressing them once they were all here, or mostly here. From there, they would be divided up among the twelve regimens that they were to be in. Once they were set, the battle wouldmence as soon as possible. I didn''t want to give Snum the time to attack us first.. I would not let us be at a disadvantage here.

 Chapter 534 - Trinity - Addressing The Troops (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 534 - Trinity - Addressing The Troops (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It took the troops less than forty-eight hours to make it here. Less than two full days from the time that I summoned them all to when they were all here and ready to be addressed. They were all gathered in the amphitheater, waiting for me and Aunt Glory.


    In total, there were about seven hundred and fifty thousand warriors that showed up. That was not arge numberpared to the grand total of supernatural beings in the world, but it was significant enough for what we needed. I hoped so at least.


    I had also relented and let the leaders of the packs, ns, and covens keep some fighters behind just in case Snum managed to get some of her dark Fae out of thepound and into thend of the humans. We needed them there to protect everyone. They were on guard and lookout duty.


    Still, between my people, the vampires and the Fae there were nearly a million people and that meant something to me. This was a group of people that were here to fight for us and to protect the world. How could I not be proud of them?


    Aunt Glory and I climbed to the top of a tform that had been prepared for us and looked out at the gathered crowd. I saw many people that were in among the gathered crowd that I recognized. There, close to the front, was Artem and his pack from California. Him and Star were family to me now, but when I went to visit them all those years ago, we hadn''t known that at the time. And there was Eldrige, the warlock that I have worked with so much over the years.


    There were others as well. Riley was there with a stern look on his face. Over there was Bryce and his son. Some of the people I had only ever met in passing or once, but I still recognized familiar faces. These were my people, and it was my duty to protect them.


    When the gathered crowd saw me and Aunt Glory, they all went silent. They hadn''t been all that loud to begin with, in truth for a crowd thisrge they were actually quite calm and quiet.


    "Thank you all foring." I opened the speech as I looked out at them all.


    "We gather that you have all been told a little about the reason that you are here." Aunt Glory continued after me.


    "Yeah, we''ve been summoned to help clean up a Fae mess." A man near the middle of the gathered crowd yelled in response to Aunt Glory''s words.


    "Silence." I yelled at him, assuming he was one of my men and not one of Dietrich''s. The fact that he didn''t say anything else meant that I had been right. "You were not summoned here to clean up a Fae mess. You were summoned here to stop a raging lunatic from taking over the world. And her deration of war was issued to me and not Queen Gloriana. I would like for you all to understand that this is an issue that we all have to face and not just the Fae."


    "I..I''m sorry, Queen Trinity." The man sounded as if he had been shamed before he spoke.


    "You should be sorry. You all need to understand that if we fail here, this army of dark Fae will ravish the earth. This is not just a problem for those in the Fae realm, this is a problem for all of us. We need to work together and take care of this threat."


    Aunt Glory and I started to exin to them all what it was that we needed to do, where we were going, and what they were likely to face.


    "The battle will take ce here, inside the realm of the Fae. You will all be split into regimens, equally dividing among them. There is only one regimen that will not have some of each type of shifter and magic user and that will be Prince Valerian''s squad of soldiers. Everyone that can fight in the water or shift into a creature of the water will be joining him." I was exining this specific part of the divisions to them.


    "Why will he be the one tomand the water fighters?" Someone asked, they didn''t sound angry, just curious.


    "Prince Valerian is an Undine. He was born from the sea and that is where his magic is the strongest. He will be the one tomand them because when he is in the water, he bes the water." I answered him despite the fact that he interrupted me.


    "Cool, we will be swimming inside a prince." When the man heard my answer, he cracked a joke that made several of the othersugh in response. It was kind of funny, I even saw Athair m¨°r grinning at hisment.


    "Now, as for the other squads," I did my best to move the conversation on and direct the others, "you will be divided between eleven other squads. One will be led by Queen Gloriana, one by myself, and the other nine will be by members of my council."


    There were whispers at that. Did they not expect the two queens to be part of this battle? Did they think that we were going to send them off to war and not join them? That was probably exactly what they had thought.


    The direction for them went on for a little while longer. As I told them what to do, there were twelve groups forming among the crowd. The first to form had been Athair m¨°r''s. He needed to gather his squadron of water fighters before the other groups were made to be as even as possible.


    If there were any among the crowd that were particrly good at fighting with a specific group of people, they were kept together to not weaken the fighters that we had. We needed to let them have every advantage possible. This meant that I saw my guards all join the ranks of my squad so that they could be there with me. Even Shawn, who most likely wanted to be by his husband''s side during the battle, went to my squad because he was used to fighting in a group with Shane, David, and Vincent. They would not divide themselves and weaken the powerhouse that they created when together.


    Once the twelve squads were prepared, it was almost time to set out. They were all given armor and weapons to fight with. Every bit of that equipment had been made by Alloy and Sterling. The two of them weren''t fighters but they refused to leave the city. They still wanted to be useful to us. They had pushed themselves past the point of exhaustion and to the brink of illness to make sure that there was enough equipment to go around.


    After they were all outfitted with equipment, it was time to address them once more.


    "We will all be teleporting to where we are going. This battle is inside the Fae realm, but it is not particrly close to where we are now. I wish you all luck and pray that you all return safely." Those were my final words to the troops before they set out.


    It was time for the war to begin.. It was time for us all to go to battle and hope that we had enough troops, enough preparations, and enough strength and wisdom to win this.

 Chapter 535 - Trinity – To The Battlefield (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 535 - Trinity ¨C To The Battlefield (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I led the march to the portal. With each of themanders following behind me and the troops behind them. It was time for us to leave. We were about to go to the battlefield and begin this war.


    The portal had been prepared in advance. It was located in the courtyard where we had held the wedding and all the banquets. It was open and able to hold a lot of people, so it made for a more efficient ce for us all to travel from.


    "Listen up." I got their attention with a magically amplified voice. It was less amplified really and more enchanted so that all in attendance would hear it like I was standing in front of them. "This portal can take up to one thousand people at a time. It isrge but we will not be arriving there all at once. The first Squad going through will be Trevor''s followed by Valerian''s. Reece''s squad third followed by mine. From there it will be Dietrich''s, Landon''s, Nathair''s, Rahim''s, Noir''s, Anastasia''s, Crawford''s, and finally Queen Gloriana''s. Does everyone understand?"


    "Yes, my Queen." The words echoed loudly from all over therge clearing.


    "Good. Trevor, you may start to take your squad through."


    Inrge groups that left by the several hundred, and sometimes closer to the max of one thousand. It took a long time, but we all managed to get the troops through. They were all moving as fast as they could to make this as quick of a process as they could. I knew that these men and women that were fighting with us didn''t want to be here any longer than they had to. No one wanted to be at war.


    When it was my turn to move through the portal with my squad, I took the lead. I was apanied by my guards who refused to leave my side and all the others that had made it into my toon of fighters.


    I saw Reece waiting for me on the other side and went to him immediately. I could tell that he was still not happy about me going on this mission, but he had to get over that and just deal with it. I was going to be the type of Queen that led my people into battle instead of sitting on the sidelines.


    "I see that she hasn''t broken them through just yet." I pointed out as I looked around the clearing.


    "No, but I sense that it won''t be long. There is a crack in the barrier that is most likely how she made it through to this side." Athair m¨°r answered as soon as my question was out there. "And I can see where her magic has touched this area. It seems that her powers have grown while she was trapped in the dark Realm."


    "The dark Realm is what used to be the Fae''s home, correct? Is it possible that the majority of the magic of the Fae was left behind there when you left?"


    "s, my dear Trinity, I do believe that is exactly what happened. There were a lot of powers that we gave up and discarded as no longer needed when we left there. Those that were imprisoned there most likely fed on that magic over thesest five centuries. I had no idea what to expect when they break through that barrier ande spilling out toward us." Athair m¨°r sounded so grim and not very much like he was looking forward to the battle.


    "That''s soforting." Trevor joked from beside him. "Thank you so much for that." His sarcasm was his defense mechanism right now. None of us wanted to go to war but it was what needed to be done.


    The steady stream of warriorsing through the portal was showing no signs of stopping yet, so we needed to move so that we weren''t in the way. When I walked further out into the clearing that we had arrived at, I saw that the space was vaguely familiar. It looked a lot like the ce that Danu had brought me and Reece that night for the magical meeting.


    There in the distance was the rocky cliffs and below was the stormy sea. There was an open field that seemed to be growing in size with each group of warriors that came through the portal. It was like this space would be as big as we needed it to. That was kind of convenient with how many men and women were with us. We would not be fighting while on top of each other.


    The other thing that I noticed when I searched the clearing near the cliff was that it seemed to be infected with an evil energy. This was not at all what the clearing felt like when I visited it during my celestial meeting.


    "Something is wrong here." I said as I looked around me.


    The grass was green and the sky was blue, but it was like there was a filter over it, something that dimmed them and darkened them somehow. It''s not like it looked ugly or wrong really. It was more like that filter made it seem not right.


    "So you noticed." Anastasia came to stand next to me. "This feeling, this haze covering the clearing is the dark magic that has begun to seep through that crack."


    The moment that Anastasia said those words, she pointed to arge ck boulder that had a slight crack in it. There seemed to be a small amount of thick ck fog pouring from within that boulder.


    As I watched, that boulder shook and the hairline crack in it split open to be much wider than before. That thick fog billowed out thickly and almost seemed to choke me with its intensity.


    Following the stone''s cracking and the smoke, arge number of hideous beasts started to pour out of the boulder.. The battle was about to begin.

 Chapter 536 - Trinity – The War Begins (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 536 - Trinity ¨C The War Begins (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The moment the boulder broke there were hundreds and thousands of beasts and Fae that started to pour out of it as if they were somehow pushed but that thick, dark, roiling fog. I was keeping my eyes open and looking for the woman responsible for all of this fighting, but it was hard to see beyond all the other enemies that were now in the way.


    I could see many different kinds of ugly and hideously dark beasts flying and rampaging into the clearing from somewhere on the other side of that crack. There were disgustingly ugly winged beasts that looked like they were made of nothing but sludge and bones. Roaring into the now fog-darkened sky were giant dinosaur looking beasts that had some sort of thick armored skin that looked like they were somehow mixed with other animals such as elephants, crocodiles, whales, rhinos, and more. There were huge, monstrous serpents that were so vast in size that they looked like they were big enough to swallow any of us whole, two or three at a time even. There were even more as well, but their forms kept changing. Those shapeshifters had to be the boggarts.


    They were notorious for changing shapes to scare their enemies. There were creatures that weren''t ugly as well. Some of them were so beautiful that it was easy to see why they were able to lure their victims to their doom. The number of enemies that were pouring out of that boulder was way more than I had been expecting.


    The fighting started immediately. No one really waited for a direct order to attack and fight. The only thing that they were doing was going in waves like they have been told to do. We were having them fight in two different waves so that we would be able to recuperate and heal the tired and injured warriors while another wave was battling away.


    Athair m¨°r''s troops had immediately taken to the water and that was a good thing too. I saw that there were several dark Fae that went straight for the sea and were intending to take us by surprise with their water magic. However, they were shocked to find thousands of water shifters and Fae waiting for them.


    My troops were part of the reserve at the moment, but I could tell that they were itching to get out there. I myself was not actively fighting yet, but I wasn''t sitting idly by either. I was looking for my true target, the true reason that I wanted to be here and part of this war. I was looking for Snum so that I might eliminate her and rid this world of her evil once and for all. And I was going to avenge my great great grandfather while I was at it.


    The fighting was brutal. I saw that there were casualties on both sides, and I needed to do something. We had called with the warriors healers that were meant to help out troops in moments like this. I knew that Griffin, Lana, Doc, and several other healers were here and could make sure that there were little to no deaths among our people. I wanted as few people to die here as possible.


    "Griffin, you and the others get to work. Bring back the injured."


    "Yes, Queen Trinity." He was a friend but here in this setting he was treating me formally so that the others would remember to do so as well.


    I watched then as a few dozen healers spread out across the battlefield. They were doing their best to not get caught up in the fighting itself. Despite those efforts though, some of the Fae beasts that were sent as their first wave of attacks went straight for the healers like they knew why they were out there. It was like they were targeting them so that they would be unable to bring back fallen warriors.


    The first wave seemed like it was passing in the blink of an eye, but I could see that the sky was changing colors and it was already starting to shift to nighttime. After a while there seemed to be a pause, or at least a slowing down of the creatures that wereing through the crack in the boulder.


    "Fighters, change positions. Wave one it is time for you to rest and heal. We will need you again soon." Aunt Glory seemed to be watching on as well and knew just what needed to be done.


    I watched on as the first warriors fell back and went to rest while the second wave entered the battlefield at the ready. Me and my troops were in the fighting wave this time. I just stood there, facing the boulder and waiting for the horror show that I knew was about toe pouring out of it.


    This time, there were more Fae than just monsters that wereing from within the boulder. I had a feeling that the monsters were being summoned and controlled by the other Fae and, like us, they were attacking in waves. That meant that their first wave was most likely resting so they could regain some of their stamina and prepare to send another wave of those things at us.


    That was fine though, we would do what we could to eliminate this wave of Fae. I wasn''t going to sit idly by while I searched out my true target. I was going to fight here along with the others.


    "Vincent, David, Shane, Shawn, all of you are here with me and that gives me sce. Thank you for always sticking with me and being there for me."


    "Of course, Trinity." Vincent smiled at me and gave a firm nod.


    "We would never think about fighting with anyone else." David added.


    "Yeah, no one is better than our Queen, we''ve got your back Trinity. We love you." Shane smirked in the face of this battle we were in.


    "We would never abandon you." Shawn added.


    "I am d you said that Shawn, because if any of you die in this battle I will kill you." I smiled back at them and theyughed a little.


    "You have my word, Trinity, that I will try my best not to be injured in this battle." Vincent nodded and they all agreed.


    "And you better not get hurt either, Trinity. Or Reece will kill us even if we are dead." Shaneughed, breaking the tension we were all feeling at the moment.


    "Yeah, so let''s all do our best." I nodded at them.. It was time for us to fight.

 Chapter 537 - Reece – The Battle Wages On (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 537 - Reece ¨C The Battle Wages On (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I had fought in the first wave of this war. I had spent thest few hours fighting what felt like an endless stream of monsters that was swarming out into this clearing that we were in. The beasts had been massive and fierce, but I had managed it.


    Now, though, it was time for me to stand back and watch as my wife, my Little Bunny, went out there to fight with her group of soldiers. This was not what I had wanted to happen, but there was nothing else for me to do. I mean, I could run out there and fight alongside her, but she would just order me back and tell me to wait until I had regained some energy and rested up for the next wave, if there was one.


    None of us had known exactly what to expect when we got here, and many of us had hoped that the sheer size of our army was enough to stop the enemy all together; I was among those that had hoped for that.


    That had just been a dream, though. When we got here there was such arge number of creatures that showed up, that the first group of our troops had nearly been overwhelmed. I, for one, didn''t think that the dark Fae were going to have so many monsters at their disposal. That was just ridiculous to see.


    And now, as I watched, my Little Bunny looked like she was giving a speech to her personal guards that were in her toon. I hadn''t even needed to tell them that they needed to be in that one with her, they all decided to follow her on their own ord. They were good men, good soldiers, who all loved and cared for their Queen. They would protect her just the same as I would.


    I was nervous and tense the moment that the speech ended. At that moment, my Little Bunny dashed forward and started to attack the monsters that were slowly starting to force their way across the field.


    There was a massive python, it was approximately fifty feet long at the very least. That massive snake looked as if it were trying to sneak up on my Little Bunny and take her from behind. I felt my heart begin to pound and was about to yell out to her, but that wasn''t necessary.


    Little Bunny dispatched therge, winged monster that she had been dealing with as the snake got closer to her. I saw that she had already sensed the beast approaching her from behind and watched as she spun in ce and started to run straight at the thing.


    She was air walking. This is what we called it when she was literally able to walk on the air like it was solid. She didn''t do that all that often, so many of our people, let alone the thousands here with us, had never seen her do this.


    "Oh my Goddess! She is walking through the air."


    "She''s floating."


    "She can fly through the sky?"


    There were several awed voices around me that were shocked by what they had seen. That made me feel a sense of pride as I watched my mate fight, but it was short lived when I saw what she was doing.


    Trinity had one of the swords from Sterling and Alloy in her hand when she started to air walk up and around the snake. The beast had sensed her and was following her movements through the air as she moved around it.


    When my Little Bunny got closer to that thing, I watched on in horror as it reared back and prepared to strike out at her.


    "Trinity!" I yelled when I saw the danger that she was in.


    The snake missed her though, and she was unharmed. Now it was time for Trinity to execute her attack on the creature. She was still running, swiftly, up and around the giant snake until she was directly above its head, about forty feet higher than where its head currently was. If the thing rose to its fullest height, it still wouldn''t be able to reach her. It would be close, but not quite there.


    I was momentarily relieved that she was out of the thing''s reach, that was until I saw what had nned next. Trinity leapt from her air tform and dove straight down at the beast below her. She was diving with her head going directly toward the back of the snake, the only thing that was between her and the monster was the arm holding the sword that was aimed at the back of its head.


    She must have told Vincent what her n had been, because he came in at just the right time to distract the monster and draw its attention away from my Little Bunny. With the beast following Vincent with narrowed, slit pupiled eyes, Trinity dove at the hard outer shell of the monster''s head.


    The point of the sword pierced the back of the serpent''s head and a flood of thick ck fluid erupted from it like a geyser. The beast screeched and thrashed around, causing the ck blood-like substance to spray everywhere.


    I couldn''t see my Little Bunny at the moment. I didn''t know where she had disappeared to. While I searched frantically for her, I felt my heart racing once again. Where the hell was she? What had happened to her?


    All I could see right now was the ck blood soaked field and the other warriors dashing all around. I saw Vincent jumping out of the way of the python as its head crashed to the ground. I saw Shane and Shawn fighting in unison as they took on a massive mastodon dinosaur-like monster.. David was dashing around the clearing so fast that my eyes could barely keep up with him. All of my Little Bunny''s guards were there but, where was my Little Bunny? Where was my mate?

 Chapter 538 - Reece – Panic During The Battle (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 538 - Reece ¨C Panic During The Battle (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    My heart was in my throat. I didn''t know where my Little Bunny had disappeared to. What happened to her?


    "Trinity?" I yelled out to her after a little while of not seeing her. "Trinity, where are you?"


    Just after I yelled her name, I heard some more awed voices. I was looking around for whatever it was that had caused their surprise. My head was scanning the entire horizon as I waited for her to reappear.


    I saw her then. My Little Bunny was literally running through the sky as if it were the ground. She had been flung in the direction of the cliff and had obviously caught herself in the air like it was nothing. My mate was the coolest ever. She had gotten so much better with her magic that I don''t even know all of the stuff that she can do anymore.


    "Thank you, oh Goddess, thank you." I was so relieved when I saw her that I let myself sigh in relief.


    As relieved as I was though, I knew that the battle wasn''t over yet, and neither was my Little Bunny. Even as I watched her running back to where Vincent, David, Shane and Shawn were waiting for her, I saw her set her sights on another target.


    There was a huge beast that looked like a much uglier version of a goblin or troll, or something not so nice like that. The only problem was that this thing was about thirty feet tall. I couldn''t believe it. Was my mate really going to take that thing on?


    Apparently, she was, but not alone this time. I watched her signal for Shane and David. The two of them immediately started to run toward the beast to get its attention. As soon as it set its sights on them, they split up and moved in two different directions.


    While the giant thing was distracted, my Little Bunny started to fly straight up into the sky behind it. And I do mean fly. She shoved the sword back into the scabbard that was attached to her hip and shifted just her arms.


    I watched as the sleeves of her armored shirt shredded away like it was nothing and her arms started rippling. Right before my eyes her arms grew longer, and feathers reced the skin that I could see.


    With her new wings, she shot straight into the air and searched for a point tond. Shended on the thing''s back right above it''s shoulder des and pulled out her sword all at the same time. She didn''t waste a single second before driving that sharp, magical sword into the base of the thing''s neck.


    With its spinal cord now severed, it wasn''t able to stand. Once again, there was thick, ck blood spraying everywhere and covering my Little Bunny in the viscous, rancid fluid.


    She was doing well, but that didn''t mean that I was going to stop worrying at all. I would never stop worrying about her until the day that I died. Especially considering the fact that she liked to put herself into danger like this. I know that she can fight, that was obvious to us all, but I didn''t want to let her fight because I wanted her to be safe and protected. It was just the Alpha male instincts in me.


    With a pounding heart and raging anxiety, I continued to watch on as my Little Bunny was fighting more and more beasts. There were actual Fae that were mixed in between the beasts as well, and I could see two of theming at my mate like they were going to try and ambush her together.


    This was a part that I was so very proud of the men that I had chosen to protect her all those years ago. Vincent and David went after one of the two Fae while Shane and Shawn went after another.


    Without even needing to rely on their special abilities they were able to take care of these two. David leapt toward his target first while Vincent prepared to strike. In a matter of seconds, David pinned their enemy down and Vincent swiftly rushed in and cut the dark Fae''s head from their shoulders.


    Shane and Shawn were moving in perfect unison. Instead of having one of them hold their target still, the two of them rush in at the same time, perfectly coordinated, and grabbed a hold of their target at the same time.


    With pure physical strength they tore the Fae apart. It was bloody, gruesome, and amazing. Way to go guys. That''s the way to protect your Queen.


    Even as I congratted them inside my head, I could hear someone walking up beside me.


    "It''s nice to see them working so well together, isn''t it?" Dietrich was most likely keeping an eye on his mate the same that I was.


    "Yeah, they really are a well oiled machine when they''re fighting together." I agreed with him as I watched on.


    "That they are." I didn''t look at him at all, but I could still tell that he was smiling. "And I am happy that the enemies are easy to spot. Who would have guessed that the dark Fae would be so clich¨¦dly dressed in all ck? And they''re so palepared to the other Fae. You think they were the vampires." He chuckled as he spoke.


    "Don''t the Fae have their own version of a vampire?" I could have sworn I had heard of a legend like that before.


    "They do. They are known as the Darg Due (1) and they are not quite as pleasant as I am."


    "How not as pleasant are they, Dietrich? Do they not charm sweet little wolves like Shawn?" I tried tough at the joke I was making, but I couldn''t bring myself to do it.


    "They are not charming at all. Their name literally means red blood sucker. They are vicious and evil Fae that will not stop until their prey is dead every time. They are also extremely beautiful and charm their victims before showing their true forms. They most definitely would never love anything that wasn''t like them, if they''re even capable of loving someone."


    "They sound positively charming to me, Dietrich." My words dripped with sarcasm as I shuddered a little. "And I imagine it''s only a matter of time before we see them in this battle as well."


    "I imagine so."


    As I thought about those words and the conversation with Dietrich, I watched the fight continue on. There was nothing else for me to do. It wasn''t my turn to fight and I was supposed to be resting until it was my time to fight again.


    Oh well, what my Little Bunny didn''t know, wouldn''t hurt her. I was resting in a way. I was just doing so in a way that allowed me to watch over her from afar.


    After what felt like days of standing there and watching the fight rage on, I could tell that they were about to call the second wave of our fighters back for a rest. This meant that I was about to head into the fray again.


    I watched my Little Bunny for a little while longer. She had fought several monsters and Fae, and was covered in that nasty blood. As she made her way back to the camp in a hurry, I saw a whirlwind form around her. It was made of water and wind really. It swirled for a moment but the moment that it disappeared I saw what she had been doing. She was now clean, and dry as well. She had taken a walking shower as she left the battlefield.


    My mate was the best ever. Seriously, was there anything that she couldn''t do?


    [1] Dearg Due - pronounced DAH ¨C ruhg? DU - ah? alternate pronunciation


    DAH ¨C ruh - guh? DU - ah

 Chapter 539 - Trinity – Watching Reece Battle (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 539 - Trinity ¨C Watching Reece Battle (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was heading back from the clearing, away from the battle, all while the other wave was making their way onto the battlefield. On my way back I saw that Reece was watching me closely.


    "Hey there, Big Bad Wolf, you know you''ve got to get out there and do your thing so we can catch the granny, right?" I grinned at him as I spoke.


    I wasn''t exactly in a good mood or happy about anything. It was just the adrenaline from the fight, the rush of it all. That adrenaline was making my body go through a natural high which inevitably led to me being more giddy than I usually would be in a situation like this.


    "As long as this Big Bad Wolf doesn''t need to eat that granny, then I''m all for it." Reece yed along with me before pulling me into his arms.


    Reece may have joked back with me, but I could feel the tension in his body. I could already guess what wasing next.


    "I was so worried about you, Little Bunny. Watching you fight made my heart stop about a thousand times." He wasn''t lying either. I could literally feel his heart pounding right now. He had most likely been dying over here and had probably wanted toe to protect me so many times.


    "Then you shouldn''t have watched the battle. You were supposed to be resting up for your fight." I only half heartedly scolded him. I knew he wouldn''t rest while I was in danger.


    "Did you really think that I would not watch it?" He almost sounded wounded for a moment, like I had hurt his man pride.


    "No. I knew you would. Just like I am going to watch you fight again. Now, get out there and show me what a sexy warrior King you are." I stretched up onto my tip toes and kissed him quickly while he wrapped his arms around my waist for a small hug.


    "I love you." He whispered the words right into my ear before he let me go.


    "I love you too."


    With both the wee back and farewell taken care of, I continued to the safety of the resting zone. Thankfully, we had been able to keep the Fae and the monsters away from the safe zone so there was always somewhere for the wounded warriors to recover.


    I knew that I needed to rest, rx a little and recover my strength and energy while the next wave of the battlemenced. I knew that I needed to do that, but I wasn''t going to.


    I was already cleaned up so, now, I just needed to find somewhere to watch the battle from. There was a small hill that was beside the medical tents. That would give me a slightly higher vantage point without having to use magic to get there.


    While I was standing there, watching the battlefield and looking for Reece, Vincent came up behind me.


    "I know that you are going to watch him fight, Trinity, but please at least sit down and rest while doing so." That was when he set a chair behind me and tried to urge me into it. I didn''t fight him at all, I let him guide me into the seat.


    "Here, Trinity, have something to eat." Shawn was handing me a bowl and a slice of bread.


    This meal had been specifically chosen for the battle. It was a stew, filled with various vegetables, some beef, and lots of herbs, of course. The herbs that had been chosen for this meal helped to rapidly replenish strength and stamina. It was the perfect meal to have while waiting to battle again.


    "Thank you." I took the bowl and smiled at Shawn, but since I didn''t take my eyes off of the field below, I didn''t know if he had seen it or not.


    "We will sit with you, Trinity." David said as he sat two chairs down to the right of me.


    "Yeah, this is the perfect ce to watch the battle from." Shane sat down two more chairs on my left.


    "Thank you, guys." This time I did look at them and smile.


    The five of us sat there and watched the battlefield. I knew that Shawn was watching Dietrich with his worried filled eyes. He had quickly sought him out like I did with Reece. I could understand exactly what it was that Shawn was feeling right now.


    As I watched the war rage on, I saw Reece using his sword that was made of fire instead of the one that Sterling and Alloy had given him. I also saw that he was using that glowing red whip of fire that was one of his special abilities. He flicked that whip around so skillfully that it was clear that he had never let his trainingpletely slip away from his life. He may be busy but anyone who looked at Reece could tell that he trained on a regr basis.


    There were also these tiny little red streaks that kept zooming by his head and it wasn''t until I focused my eyes and zoomed in on the battlefield that I realized that it was arrows made of fire. He was literally wielding three weapons at once. He was more skilled as a fighter than almost anyone out there and he was showing them exactly why he was worthy to be their King.


    Reece was simply amazing to watch. Even with the carnage that was all around him he himself was a work of art as he masterfully moved that sword, flung that whip, and controlled those arrows. No one who saw him would ever doubt his abilities. And I for one was in awe of him as I watched on.


    Every time that Reece sliced away at or cut down an enemy I felt a sense of pride swelling inside of me. And whenever there was an enemy closing in on him I felt my anxiety re.. It was nerve wracking and I knew now what he had been feeling.

 Chapter 540 - Trinity - Enemy Spotted (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 540 - Trinity - Enemy Spotted (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The battle was still going on. This was the third time that I was heading into the thick of it all and still the monsters didn''t show any sign of slowing down at all. When was this going to end? When were we going to find the mastermind behind this and end this war?


    I knew that my troops were getting tired. They were resting, micro napping and eating restorative food to make things easier on them, but that didn''t stop them from getting tired. They were exhausted mentally and physically. They needed this to end, and soon. I wish I could make it all go away. I wish I could just snap my fingers and make everything better. If that were possible though, I would have done it already. Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r would have done it too. We would all have been making things easier on us with the use of our magic.


    We needed to end this battle, this war. We needed to bring a semnce of peace back to the Fae once and for all. We needed to rid this world, the Fae and the human worlds, of Snum and the others that were causing all of this fighting.


    It might have been easier to do just that if there wasn''t this constant stream of monsters. We might have been able to get into the dark Fae realm to search for Snum and all the other Fae that were behind this. The problem though, was that there seemed to be a never ending stream of the things that were spilling out of the crack in the barrier. If we couldn''t get a break from those beasts then we wouldn''t be able to make our way into the dark realm at all.


    While I fought, I constantly kept my eyes open and scanned the entire field while I searched for Snum. Every time that I even thought that I got a glimpse of her I followed up on that lead by chasing after that Fae.


    Every sh of green hair or that odd light purpleplexion of hers made my heart race as I ran toward the person in question. Each time though, it wasn''t her. And every time that it wasn''t Snum my frustration surged.


    "I''ll find her. I''ll find her. I''ll find her. I''ll find her. I''ll find her. I''ll find her." I just kept chanting those words while I fought and searched.


    I saw another sh of green. There was a woman right by the broken boulder that had hair that looked just like Snum''s. This was taking me closer to the enemy territory than any of the other times had before. I would literally be behind enemy lines while searching this one out.


    I had to do it, though. I had to go and see if it was her. It was the only way to start putting an end to all of this. I wasn''t all that hopeful though. The chances of it actually being her was slim to-.


    "Wait a minute!" I gasped in shock as I ran toward the woman that I saw.


    This woman was using her magic to send out beast after beast. She had that same green hair and pale purpleplexion that Snum had. And when the women looked up to see me running toward her, I saw the same plum colored eyes that Snum has.


    "It''s her."


    I didn''t wait for my guards. I didn''t care about my army. In that moment all I cared about was catching up to Snum who was retreating back inside the dark Fae realm. I wasn''t going to let her get away.


    I put on a burst of speed and ran past every monster, Fae, and soldier between me and that opening in the barrier.


    "Trinity! Wait!" I heard Vincent yelling after me.


    "Hold up, Trinity!" David was trying to follow me as well.


    ''Stay here and fight.'' I told them mentally. If I was thinking properly I would have sent a message to Reece too, but I wasn''t, so I didn''t.


    "STOP HER!" I heard Snum''s shrill voice boom out and echo to those that we were fighting. At that moment all the monsters and Fae around me started to turn their attention toward me instead of the others.


    "Trinity!" Vincent called out again as he leapt forward to block an attack that I didn''t seeing. I was a little too singrly focused to see everyone else. "Be a little more observant, please." He scolded me.


    "I will, Vincent." I nodded at him, but I had started to run again. "Now I am going to go kill my great great great grandmother." Iughed as I ran off once more.


    I know that they all wanted to follow me, but they were needed here. I was going to take care of this problem because it was personal for me. This was my family and I would deal with it myself.


    I ran past outstretched hands, hurled weapons, and snapping beasts. I managed to get past all of them and to the barrier. Snum was nowhere to be seen, which I expected. I was going to need to follow her inside the dark realm and search for her there.


    I didn''t even think twice about it. Once I was next to that barrier I leapt inside and felt myself dropping for what felt like a long time.


    It was pure darkness as I fell. There was no light to tell me where I was or what my surroundings looked like. I knew it was travelling through a sort of cave though. I could smell the water on the stone walls as I moved past them.


    Something that was odd about my fall though, was that I was moving slow. I wasn''t falling so fast that I thought I would hurt when I hit the ground, it was more like a controlled descent that would let mend easily on my feet when I got there. It was also like time was slowing down because I didn''t actually feel like I was falling a long distance, more that I was just moving slow.


    Soon, I was able to see the light at the end of the tunnel so to speak. There was light starting near my feet and moving up toward my face. The fall was almost over.. At least I think it was.

 Chapter 541 - Trinity – Down The Rabbit Hole (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 541 - Trinity ¨C Down The Rabbit Hole (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Is it bad that I literally felt like Alice as I fell through the passageway to the dark Fae realm? And I was literally going into a strange and unknownnd. As long as I didn''t need to eat some messed up mushrooms and desserts, or drink the tea, then I would be fine. I most definitely wouldn''t be eating anything down here.


    Not to mention that the bitch I was after was loonier than the hatter and that fucking catbined. And there was also the fact that this was bound to be a horrornd instead of a wondend.


    I needed to stop thinking these stupid thoughts, though. I was heading into the belly of the beast to face the truest of monsters in this battle. I needed to focus, still, it was too easy to make the jokes as a way to break the tension that I was feeling, so I understood why I was doing it.


    I tried to stop joking and focus on that light that was steadily getting brighter at my feet. It wasn''t an actual bright light. It wasn''t white or yellow or pure light of any kind.


    In all actuality, the light that I could see was a sickly greenish and purple mix. It was like? a special effects light that was being filtered through some hazy fog or something. It was definitely not normal, that''s for sure.


    Finally, Inded lightly on my feet at the bottom of therge, stony tunnel. I felt like I had been set down gently on my feet by someone who had been carrying me the whole time. It hadn''t been a dangerous fall at all, and yet, that fact alone kind of creeped me out.


    I took a moment to look around me, where it was that I hadnded. The tunnel had literally been hollowed out of the stone in this underground cavern. It was made of dark gray stone that was covered in dirt and growing vines. In front of me there was a hazy fog that just stood there. It wasn''t swirling, it wasn''t moving, it was just there.


    The fog was a light green in color, and I could tell that it wasn''t normal in any way. To me, this was a barrier meant to keep out people, or other things, that weren''t supposed to be in here. It didn''t seem like it was here to keep things in, it was specifically meant to keep things out. Most likely things like non Fae and non magical beings. I should, hopefully, have no trouble passing through it.


    "Well, let''s see if I can make it past this stupid thing." I said to myself as I tried to move past thatst barrier to the dark Fae realm. I stepped forward quickly, not wanting to draw out the motion any more than I needed to.


    Moving forward felt like I was passing through a thick, sticky cloud. Not that I have ever moved through a cloud, but I didn''t know what else to call it. It was soft to the touch, but it was hard to move through and felt like it was clinging to me. I just wanted to make the sensation of the fog go away.


    Finally, I passed through it. The moment that I was past the strange fog, all feeling and sensation from that thick, sticky substance just disappeared with it. It was still there behind me but it wasn''t clinging to me anymore.


    When I first saw the hazy fog, I hadn''t been able to tell how big of an area it took up to begin with, but it filled at least ten feet worth of the tunnel''s length. And it felt like it had taken me forever just to walk that ten feet through it. Whatever magic it was that had made that haze epted me through it, but it felt like it had done so begrudgingly.


    Now that I was past it, I was able to see what was around me. I was finally able to see the dark Fae realm and it wasn''t pleasant.


    I had a feeling that when thends of Fae split, all that was left behind was the hideous, ugly ces that no one wanted. Not even the dark Fae would want to be here. This ce was truly hell.


    There wererge, ck, jagged, volcanic looking rocks that shot up out of seemingly nowhere. There were trees, but they looked scorched and burned, like there was no life in them, yet they still bore fruit. The fruits that were on the trees that I could see were red, gray, or ck. They looked like blood, ash, and rotten things. The leaves on those trees looked like they were already shriveled even as they bore new buds for its fruit. The tree and everything on it looked like it was born dead and decayed.


    Thends here actually mirrored the clearing where the battle was taking ce. It was the same ce only backwards and more evil looking. Even the ocean that I could see past thoserge rocks looked disgusting and evil. It was blood red and seemed to reflect the ck sky that was above it.


    And now that I mention it, there was actually a sky in here. I hadn''t expected that at all. The sky was almost pitch ck, and there was what looked like a ck sun floating behind gray and red clouds. It looked to me like there was no life to be given by that sun or the sky, but there were still birds flying in the distance. Hideous, skeletal looking birds but they were birds nheless.


    And there was nothing about the way this ce looked that could hold a candle to the way that it smelled. Rotten. That was the only word for me to use to describe what this ce smelled like. The fruits that were growing on the trees smelled putrid and disgusting. The spray of the waves from the water crashing into the bottom of the cliffs, which is usually a pleasant enough smell back in the worlds filled with light, smelled like rotten fish and iron.


    It was almost like the water itself was pure blood, like the sea had been filled with the enemies of the dark Fae. It still smelled salty, but it wasn''t the salt of the ocean air that I was used to. This was just not right at all.


    I couldn''t see any houses where I was at, but there was what appeared to be a city in the distance. I didn''t know if Snum had gone in that direction or not, but I would find her, eventually.


    "SOLANUM!" I yelled out for her. "WHERE DID YOUR COWARDLY ASS RUN OFF TO!?" I said the words in as loud of a voice as I could muster. I wanted to make sure that she heard me no matter where she was. "COME ON GRANNY! DON''T YOU WANT TO SAY HI TO YOUR DEAR SWEET GRANDDAUGHTER?"


    I knew thatst part would draw her out of hiding.. She truly did hate anything that connected her with me in a familial sense.

 Chapter 542 - Trinity – Face To Face With A Monster (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 542 - Trinity ¨C Face To Face With A Monster (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "GGGRRRRUUUUUUUUAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" There was a loud, screeching yell that could be heard in the direction that was opposite of the city. The scream came from within the forest that was to my left. That was where Snum was.


    "Oh look, I get to y the part of Little Red Riding Hood as I search for my Granny in the woods. Good thing that I am also the Big Bad Wolf that will be killing Granny this time. "Come out,e out wherever you are, Granny. It''s not time for hide and seek right now."


    Was she hiding from me because she was afraid of me or because she didn''t think that I was worth her time? I guess I wouldn''t know until I asked her that question myself.


    I walked through the thick trees as I tried to find some semnce of a path. I couldn''t hear any sounds aside from my footsteps as I walked into the darkened forest. No birds, no animals, no insects, not even wind rustling through the leaves. It would have beenpletely silent if it hadn''t been for the sounds created by me walking into this dead looking ce.


    I had never smelled Snum before and that was making things more difficult for me as well. I would have tried to follow her scent if it hadn''t been for the fact that I didn''t know what her scent was.


    I did catch a few traces of things that didn''t seem to be part of the trees. Those smells that didn''t quite belong were what I was following. They were the trail that I was following for right now.


    "Oh, Granny! Where are you?" I called out to her again, trying to get Snum to give herself away again. "Come on Granny, you don''t want to keep your poor little granddaughter lost and alone in the woods, do you? That wouldn''t be very nice of you."


    The words were working. Almost as soon as they were out of my mouth I heard the sound of someone screaming and screeching in frustration and anger.


    "GGGRRRRUUUUUUUUAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"


    "I know you can hear me, Granny. Why are you hiding from me?" I goaded her some more, intentionally trying to piss her off so that she would make a mistake in her frustration.


    "I AM NOT YOUR GRANNY YOU PUTRID MONGREL!" I heard her yell as she started to storm through the tree toward me. "I AM NOT YOUR GRANNY, YOUR GRANDMOTHER, YOUR SEANMH?ATHAIR [1], I AM NOTHING TO YOU!"


    "Don''t be like that, Granny." I basically cooed the words at her as she came to stand across a clearing from me in the forest. She was breathing heavily and very visibly angry about what I had been saying. Her dark plum eyes were narrowed and there was a flush to her purplish cheeks that looked a little funny to see. "You know as well as I do that, however reluctantly it might be, we are rted."


    "I know nothing of the sort." She snarled at me. "I had one son who died without having a wife or children. You cannot, and are not, rted to me. Stop trying to tie me to that man. I have been free of him for many years and I loathe the idea of being associated with him in any way." She spat on the ground as if the words and the idea had caused a bad taste in her mouth.


    Despite being crude and disgusting, there was something else off about her having spat on the ground. The moment her saliva touched the root of a tree nearby there was a strange hissing sound, like the roots were dying even more than they already were. It was like the saliva from her mouth had literally started to kill the tree on contact.


    "Noticed that, did you?" She grinned at me. "At least you''re notpletely stupid."


    "What the hell was that?" I couldn''t stop myself from asking her for rification on what was happening.


    "The time that I have been locked away in these darkenednds has strengthened me more than Valerian and his family could ever have thought possible. I have been here for a century, and during that time, I have found every piece of wild magic and made it mine."


    "That''s unfortunate." I shuddered at the thought of her having some sort of acid spit, or more likely some kind of powerful venom. But there was something wrong with what she had said. "You''ve been here for five centuries, not one." I pointed out the error in her math.


    "For you it was five centuries, for us here it was only one. Time moves differently between the two realms. Even now, for every minute you spend here arguing with me, five minutes pass back there in the world you know."


    That was news to me. I wasn''t sure how I felt about that since I hadn''t been told about it in advance. It didn''t matter though. It''s not like I was going to be spending that much time here.


    "Thank you for the information, Granny, it''s so helpful."


    I instantly saw her face darken and her anger re once again. She did not like me calling her that name. I already knew that, though, that was why I kept doing it. I wasn''t going to show her an ounce of respect or courtesy. This psychotic bitch didn''t deserve that from me.


    "Don''t call me that!" Her voice was low and filled with malice.


    "Why? I am your kin, Snum. Do you need me to break it down for you?" I smirked at her in a truly irritating way. "You see, before you and the other asshole dark Fae could manage to murder Rhinum, he had met his mate. He had even given her his ring when he asked her to marry him. Then, when he saw that her life was in danger, he protected her at the cost of his life. What neither of them knew at the time, though, was that she was pregnant. Later, she was alone and needed to raise her baby all on her own. And she had suddenly found herself immortal, like her son. That child of hers went on to have a daughter but he never met her since he had died in another battle. Now, a few more generations after that, I am here as your descendant. So, once again, hello Granny."


    "I will kill you!" She spat the words at me. "I will kill you, Valerian, and Gloriana. I will kill all of those pathetic Fae that live without the darker halves of themselves. I will take over the throne and rule in Gloriana''s stead. I will take over the Fae realms and then the human world. We will once again go back to the times where humans are our food rather than our oppressors. I will bring the Fae back to their former glory."


    Well, wasn''t that a megalomaniacal n that she had there. And there was, of course, absolutely no fucking way in hell that I was going to let that happen.. I was going to put an end to her and her crazy ass ns right here and now.

 Chapter 543 - Trinity – The Monster’s Ramblings (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 543 - Trinity ¨C The Monster¡¯s Ramblings (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "You know that I can''t let you do that, don''t you Snum?" I leveled a firm re at the evil bitch that was standing in front of me. "I refuse to let you hurt anyone else. I will stop you. I will put an end to this chaos."


    That must have been funny to the psychopath because, the moment I said that, she flung her head back and started tough so hard that spit flew from her mouth. That spitnded in various ces around her, and the ground immediately hissed like it was screaming in pain. Everywhere that had been hit with that dangerous fluid seemed to literally be wasting away, like it was being eaten by some invisible animal or something.


    However, that was nothingpared to what I saw when Snum lifted her head back up to look at me. I noticed that the spittle that flew from her mouth had alsonded on her face. There were now bright red patches where her venomous saliva had fallen on her flesh and was being eaten, or corroded, or something, that was causing her flesh to melt and her bones and blood to show. It was almost like her saliva was pure acid.


    Even as Snum''s body was healing the wounds in her face with the natural Fae ability, I saw that the wounds were spreading. It was an odd and eerie sight to see, watching an injury spreading and healing at the same time right before your eyes. It made my skin crawl and I had to fight off the urge to shudder.


    After a few moments of watching that grotesque imagery, the acidity of the saliva must have worn off. That was when the wounds in her face stopped trying to spread and the red holes were slowly closing up in her pale purple skin.


    All of this had happened in a matter of seconds and fractions of a second. Still though, it was enough to creep me the fuck out. This was not normal. This waspletely insane and crazy.


    "You truly think that you can stop me?" Snum gave me the most annoying look that I could ever imagine. It was like she was telling me to just go ahead and try to stop her from doing whatever it was that she wanted to do. She clearly didn''t think that I had what it took to stop her. "I am nearly all powerful. I have siphoned all excess magic that this ce has to offer. I have been using that magic to reach out to those that were susceptible to me in the light. I have been working behind the scenes for longer than you can even fathom, you mongrel."


    "Reach out to who? Susceptible how?" This was not something that I was expecting to find out. Who was it that she was talking about? What had she done?


    "I believe you know of one such individual. She told me that you were on to her right from the start." Snum chuckled as she seemed to think about it. "She was so proud of what she was doing but you didn''t fall for it at all. She was just a pawn, though. She had her uses and purposes, after they were fulfilled, I didn''t care what happened to her."


    "You''re referring to Hibiscus? Did you make her do all of those things? Did you corrupt her?"


    "Oh, honey, how can you easily believe that there is nothing about those in the light that could harbor darkness." When I looked into her dark plum eyes I knew that she hadn''t been the one to make Hibiscus think and do what she did, she most likely just gave her the encouragement that she needed to do it. And she wasn''t the only one either.


    "No, you didn''t force Hibiscus to do it, but you were most likely the one to make it easier for them to follow through on their dark thoughts. You were like the strength that they needed to move forward, the wind beneath their wings, so to speak."


    "How inspirational you make me sound." Snum giggled like a little girl. "Hibiscus had her uses. She caused problems for the Fae, and killed some of them too. And best of all, she was the one that weakened the barrier that let me eventually escape. All in all, she became my most valuable pawn."


    I didn''t like the way that she took pride in what I was saying. She was the source that led to all of this.


    "So, how long have you been trying to do this? I know that you were behind Grier challenging Queen Gloriana, and Hibiscus who plotted against her. Were you also the one that had influenced Curtis? Who else have you been causing issues with?"


    "If you knew the amount of people that I have been trying to influence over the years it would blow your mind. Yes, mongrel mutt, Grier and Curtis were my drones as well. Only they were stopped before they could get anywhere with their ns."


    "You truly are a psychopath." I balked at the idea of her controlling things from the shadows like this. How in the world was she able to do that?


    "You''re so sweet, but those words won''t make me let you live, mongrel. I am still going to rip you to shreds. And then I will take your filthy, disgusting head back for Gloriana and Valerian to see. You may have them fooled, but I am no sucker. I know you''re not our kin. Antirrhinum had no children, and I thank hell that he didn''t."


    She was still certain that we weren''t rted. There was nothing that I could say that would ever convince her otherwise. My only option here was to destroy her before she managed to get out of here and hurt anyone. I wouldn''t let her actions go unpunished. I refused to let her hurt my family and get away with it. And I am going to avenge Rhinum''s death. I was going to do it all.


    Snum was still ring at me after her firm deration.. She didn''t know what it was that I was thinking, or I didn''t think that she did, but I knew what she was thinking.

 Chapter 544 - Trinity – The Fight Begins (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 544 - Trinity ¨C The Fight Begins (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "I am going to stop you, Granny. I am going to make sure that you never leave here again."


    "STOP! CALLING! ME! GRANNY!" She bellowed each word out as if it were its own sentence, its own deration. There was so much anger in her voice at the time that the force of it, literally, shook the ckened trees around us. I had to wonder if it was just her voice that was shaking the trees or if it was her magic.


    "I won''t stop calling you what you are. Do you want me to stop because you don''t want people to know how ancient and decrepit that you truly are?" She narrowed her eyes at me, her anger getting stronger and stronger.


    There was a reason I was doing this. I wanted her to be so angry at me that she wasn''t fighting in top form. I knew that she was powerful, as was I, but we didn''t need to have a fight to the death to know who the top contender was here.


    "You will die for your insolence. I will see to that you little bitch." Snum was ready for this to be over. That''s fine, so was I.


    "If you think you can kill me, Granny, then just try it."


    That was all the prompting that Snum needed. Her face contorted to match the rage in her eyes and that was when she flung herself at me. I was faster than she had expected though, because I leapt out of her way before she could eveny one finger on me.


    I rolled to the side,nded back on my feet, and spun to face the evil Fae all in one swift and fluid movement. Snum looked angry, pissed, and vicious. She didn''t look humanish at all, all I could see was an animalistic nature rolling off of her. I think she was starting to channel her true Kelpie form.


    This was going to be it. This was the moment that we were going to fight for real. And I was going to use everything that I had in me to win this battle. I was going to prove to that psychopath that she wasn''t as good as she thought she was.


    As I watched Snum, I saw that she was pulling a sword out of the air. She had literally reached her hand up into the empty air and gripped something that I could not see. However, the moment that she started to lower her hand back to her side, there was a gleaming silver and ck sword in her hand.


    "Let''s see how you fair against this." She was smirking like she thought she was better than me and I was supposed to be afraid of her weapon.


    I decided to take inspiration from my husband at that moment. I remembered Reece''s sword that he fought with on the battlefield. It was made of pure fire and virtually indestructible. That was something that I needed right now. I needed a weapon like that.


    Fire was Reece''s thing though, not mine. I needed something that was more my style. I could, and have, used fire magic even though it wasn''t my primary element. No, my primary element had more to do with water and ice. I was descended from an Undine after all.


    That was it. Ice. I could use my magic to conjure myself a sword made of pure ice. Fire and ice were mine and Reece''s elements. We were pr opposites but perfect mates. That was why his wolf took on fire and mine became the ice. That was why I needed an ice sword.


    I only had to think about it for a moment before I could clearly visualize the sword in my hand. It was heavy, but not too heavy. It was perfectly bnced and made of pure ice.


    As I thought about it the sword actually appeared out of nowhere in my hand. It was literally growing from a single ice shard that had appeared in my palm. The hilt and de came first, shining and glinting like it was made of a bluish tinted ss but it wasn''t anything as fragile as ss. It was also extremely sharp and lethal looking.


    After the hilt and de had been finalized in my hand,rge shards of ice started to grow around it. Large, jagged, and uneven shards of ice started to form all over the sword and epass the entire de. The shards had tiny icicles hanging from them and they looked like they would be fragile and easily broken, but I knew that they were going to be just as strong as the rest of the sword.


    Around the hilt of the sword the ice formed a semi circr cover that would protect my hand as I fought against my foe. That protective part of the hilt that covered the grip from the tang to the pommel made me think of a basket hilted sword [1] that I have seen when looking at antique swords in the past.


    The sword that was now in my hands didn''t look perfect since it had the ice covering it at uneven and imperfect sections, but it was still the most beautiful work of sword crafting I had ever seen. All the imperfections in it made it that much more special. I loved it.


    "What is that?" Snum looked angry when she saw what I was holding.


    "I can hardly fight you without a weapon of my own now, can I, Granny?" I smirked at her and nearlyughed at the anger that my words caused in her.


    "Well, that paltry little icicle will be nothing whenpared to my sword made of steel and darkness."


    "We will see about that, Granny."


    [1] The basket-hilted sword is a sword type of the early modern era characterized by a basket-shaped guard that protects the hand. The basket hilt is a development of the quillons added to swords'' cross guards in the Late Middle Ages.. In modern times, this variety of sword is also sometimes referred to as the broadsword.

 Chapter 545 - Trinity – The Showdown Begins (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 545 - Trinity ¨C The Showdown Begins (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Snum wanted to prove herself right away. She ran at me with her sword raised and ready to attack, actually, she was ready to kill. I needed to be on my guard and ready to do just the same as her. I needed to be prepared to kill her in an instant.


    I lifted my sword with plenty of time to spare. Using my sword to block her attack, I parried the blow and countered the move with one of my own. Snum had been prepared for that though and my move was blocked as well.


    Now, with Snum standing a few feet away from me and panting with anger, I knew that the true battle was about to start. This was going to be what decided the oue of the war that was happening back in the clearing. This was it.


    Right before my eyes, I saw Snum changing. It was subtle, but I could see it happening, nheless. Her hair had grown a few inches, but it also looked wet. It was as if she just stepped out of ake or pool, there was water just dripping from it. It was also moving as if it were in water, like there was a slight current moving through it.


    Snum''splexion changed as well. Instead of that pale purple she started to turn pure ck. She was literally the color of pure onyx by the time that herplexion had finished shifting colors. And it didn''t take long either, it was in the span of a few seconds.


    Thest thing that changed about Snum''s appearance was her eyes. They stayed their deep, plum colored purple, but there were no longer any whites to her eyes. All the white around her irises disappeared and her eyes seemed to get bigger. Also, they were glowing with a trail of misting off of them. She looked even more sinister than usual.


    "Oh, Granny, did you decide to power up because you were worried that you couldn''t handle me in your original state?" I may be making a joke about it, but she truly did seem like more of a monster than a person right now.


    "I cooould taaaake youuuu onnn wifff nnooo proooblemmm." He words came out slurred and stretched out a little bit, like she was having trouble speaking with and using the mouth that she had now. Maybe her monster side wasn''t used to talking. "Ssstooopp tryyying toooo deeyyy thissss furtherrr."


    Hearing the way that she was talking now didn''t make it seem funny at all, it made my skin crawl. Just what was she now? Was this the true human form of the Kelpie?


    "I don''t n to dy it anymore, Granny. I n on ending this here and now." Following through and putting actions to words, I lunged toward the other woman with my sword at the ready. She hadn''t been prepared for that at all, however, she still moved quickly enough to save herself. My attack only caused a slight cut to open up along her left arm.


    The blood that dripped from Snum''s injury was pure ck. It was also thicker than regr blood and seemed to ooze out of her like it was some kind of thick and disgusting looking syrup.


    What was worse though, was when that blood fell to the ground it started to cause the ground to scream in pain again. Just like her saliva had with the tree. She truly was evil through and through, every part of her was deadly to the world around her.


    I worried for a moment about what her rotten blood would do to my beautiful new sword. With panic filling my eyes I looked at it hurriedly. I could see small traces of that thick, ck, viscous fluid on the end of my de, but it was freezing over. It was like the ice was stronger than the blood and it was not affecting it at all. Thank the Goddess.


    "Youuu beeetterrr waaatch oooout." Snum smirked andughed when she noticed me checking the de of my sword. "Iiiiif annny offf mmmy booodilyyy fluuuidsss getttt onnn youuuu, theyyyy wiiiill eeeeat youuuu alllllive." She seemed to think that was funny.


    "Well, then I guess I need to make sure that they don''t touch me at all."


    My resolve was firm and unbreakable. I wasn''t going to let her shake me or break my confidence at all. I was going to win this battle, she would see. Still, I wanted a small amount of protection against her deadly bodily fluids.


    As ast attempt at protecting myself, I decided to send a thin, yet extremely strong,yer of ice out all over my body. It was going to be flexible for my sake but strong enough to block her fluids from damaging me if she were to fling them at me in an attempt to sway the battle in her favor.


    The armor didn''t take long to put into ce, and it was virtually impossible to notice it if you didn''t know that it was already there. With that in ce now, I was ready to get back to the fight. This was far from over right now.


    "I thooought I ssssaid tooo stoop taaaakingggg sssoooo llllongggg.'''' She was getting so frustrated with me right now that I just wanted to goad her some more.


    "Oh, but Granny, don''t you like ying these games with me?"


    "I! AAAMMM! NNNOOOTTT! YYYYOURRR! GGGRANNNNNYYY!" She had trouble getting the words to form as she screamed at me. That was kind of fun to see.


    "Yeah, yeah, believe what you will, Granny." I chuckled and lunged at the same time.


    "Youuu wiiiill paaayyy foooor yourrrr insooolennce."


    Snum dodged my attack and started to chant a spell that I did not recognize in anguage that I had never heard before. Thankfully, due to the trantor spell that I had used on the instructors at the castle, I could understand every word that she was saying.


    "Water, my home, bring it to me. Water, my source of life,e to me. Water, offer me your aid, be my shield and my weapon. Water, powerful as you are, give me your strength. Water, give the child of your lineage your assistance."


    She was calling on the water? But why? What was she trying to do here?


    As soon as I asked myself those questions, the entire forest around us was flooded with water. It came in as a massive wave that pushed trees from the ground and sent everything in its path flying. Everything except for Snum and myself.


    After the wave passed, the ground beneath us was covered in a thinyer of crystal clear water. I was just d that it wasn''t that nasty red water from the ocean beyond the cliffs. I didn''t want that water touching me at all.


    "Heheheh, youuuu wiiiill ssssee whyyyy youuuu arrre ssssooo usselessss no." Snum grinned evilly as she took a step forward and disappeared altogether.. She was there one moment and then the next she seemed to just fall straight into the water at her feet. What in the hell?

 Chapter 546 - Trinity – Water Walking (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 546 - Trinity ¨C Water Walking (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I looked around me for a moment after Snum had disappeared, but I didn''t have to wait long for her to show herself again. Before I knew it, Snum had reappeared right behind me, her sword ready to strike.


    Thank the Goddess that I felt the disturbance in the thinyer of water and was able to jump out of the way in time. That was not something that I was expecting. The person I was trying to fight had called the water to this clearing in the forest and was using it to sneak attack me.


    "HAHAHA!" The psycho bitch wasughing at me and the shock that I knew was written across my face. "Arrre youuu sssurprisssed?"


    "Not really. You are a water Fae." In truth, I really wasn''t all that surprised by it. I had been taken off guard, but it only made sense that a water Fae would be able to do what she had just done.


    "Innnteressstinggg." She didn''t look like she thought it was interesting at all. She looked more like she was pissed off that I wasn''t shitting myself in fear at her awesome new power. "Wwwellll let''sssss connntinuuuue, shalllll weee?"


    Snum took another step forward and disappeared into the water. I tried to figure out what she was doing and where she was going but, the moment she was in the water, she disappearedpletely.


    She disappeared, but not all evidence of her did. I could see small little ripples moving on top of the water. They were tiny and nearly imperceptible, but I managed to spot them. I could tell where she was moving.


    I was trying to concentrate, trying to focus on where she was moving to so that I would be able to fight her off when she reappeared. There was a problem, though. I kept hearing a slight whispering, as if it wereing from behind me. Then it sounded like it was next to me, then in front of me. and back to being behind me. The whisper was moving, and I could barely hear it at all.


    I could make out what it was telling me, just barely, but I understood it.


    "Do what she does." The words were small, almost childish, yet there was an underlying tone that sounded like it was ancient. "Walk in me like she does." I didn''t want to answer it though, because that would distract myself from the battle that was taking ce. "You''re my kin too, young one. You can walk in me like she does. Come now, step, step, step."


    The voice, which was sounding so calm and friendly, wanted me to do what Snum was doing. Was that even possible?


    "Come on, cousin, walk in me. Walk in the water." Now, each time that the voice spoke I felt a tugging sensation on my right hand. It was like it was tugging on me and urging me to follow it. In truth, it reminded me of Reagan and Rika when they wanted to show me theirtest discoveries or art projects. It was the encouraging excitement of a child eager to share something new and exciting. "Come on. Water walk with me, cousin."


    Just as the voice spoke again, Snum popped up out of the water and appeared before me. There was pure rage on her face, and it was clear that she was intent on killing me. I quickly stepped to the side and attempted to evade the attack.


    At the same time that I stepped to the side, I felt the tugging on my hand again. That childlike voice was speaking into my ear again as it called to me excitedly.


    "That''s it, cousin, walk with me."


    The moment that my foot touched the water when I stepped, I felt like I was falling forward and down at the same time. My foot hadn''t touched the solid ground like I thought that it was going to. Instead, I was sliding down into the water and felt weightless.


    I felt like I was swimming, even though I was just standing there, under the water. I was swimming but I was still able to breath. I could see everything about me like I was looking through a window. This must have been what Snum saw when she slipped into the water.


    "What is this?" I asked but I didn''t really expect that I would get an answer from someone.


    "This is water walking. No one walks with me anymore. None of the Fae anymore. The water children of the moon swim with me though. They are the ones that love me the most. But you are my cousin too. You can walk with me. I can feel your magic. Walk with me, cousin."


    "How? How do I walk with you?" I was confused by this whole scenario. It was just crazy to think that this was happening.


    "Just step. All you need to do is walk and you will move. If you want to leave the water just jump. If you want to go back into the water, just think about it when you walk again. You will get the hang of it soon, cousin."


    That childlike voice was sounding so excited. I guess even the water gets lonely when it has no one to y with. I decided to follow its instructions and just try to move through the water that was around me. I could see Snum still standing up there, looking around for me. She hadn''t realized that I had gone into the water like she did. That was good, that meant that I had an advantage here.


    I circled around her,ing up behind the raging lunatic. She didn''t know that I wasing for her and that was a good thing.


    "Wheeerre arrre youuuu, biiitch?" I could hear Snum perfectly. Nothing was distorted at all. That made me really d that I didn''t respond directly to the voice when it spoke in my ear.


    Now that I was behind her, in the perfect position, I jumped just as the voice had told me to. I jumped and went flying toward the surface of the water and beyond. The next thing that I knew I was jumping toward Snum''s back with my ice sword at the ready.


    She seemed to sense me, but it was almost toote for her. I shed down with my sword again just as she jumped up and away. This time my sword shed across her thigh and down to her knee. She howled in pain but didn''t let it stop her.


    "Youuuu biiitch! Hooooww diiidd youuu ddooo thaaat?" She was pissed at me, that was evident, however she was also shocked.


    "I told you, Granny, we''re rted. That means that I can do what you can do." I matched her angered look with one of my own. I was going to use whatever tricks I already knew and the new ones that I was learning right now. I was going to kill her and end this war.


    "Fuuuck youuu!" She screamed, spit flying from her mouth as she lunged at me again. All the games are over now.. It was time to get serious with this fight.

 Chapter 547 - Trinity – Deadly Duel (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 547 - Trinity ¨C Deadly Duel (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was prepared for this fight. I was in my fighting stance and watching as Snum started to lunge at me, her sword at the ready. I could see the lethally sharp de and the deadly pointed tiping right at my throat. I wasn''t going to be stupid enough to just stand there. I was going to fight and do whatever it took for me to win this.


    ''Wait! Not yet.'' I heard a strange yet familiar man''s voice talking to me in my head as Snum charged toward me. ''Wait until she is almost at you before you dodge. Spin out to the side when she is about to strike. Then you can strike at her and turn your dodge into a counterattack.''


    Who was it that was speaking to me inside my head? I knew the voice. I had heard it before, but it was hard to ce it right now. I had a feeling it wasn''t someone I knew all that well. Whoever he was, he was right. His advice about moving at thest minute was spot on.


    I followed the instructions that had been given to me. When Snum was almost at me, I spun to my right and swung out with the sword in my hand. I shed not once, but twice in that attack, and both of themnded exactly where I had intended. The de of my ice sword opened tworge gashes across the bitch''s back.


    ''YES!'' I congratted myself inside my head.


    ''Well done.'' The man spoke again. ''Keep going, it''s not over yet.''


    ''I know that.'' I told him silently. ''Who are you?'' I needed to know that. I was starting to suspect someone specific, someone I had spoken to only once before. But it couldn''t possibly be him, could it?


    ''I think you know who I am, Trinity. Hasn''t it urred to you yet?'' There was a soft note ofughter in his voice when he said that.


    ''But how? How are you inside my head? Aren''t you dead?''


    I was having this conversation while I was watching Snum recover her bnce from my attack. She had not been prepared for my counterattack. My strikes had caused her to lose her bnce and fall to her knees. A smart n of action would have been to attack her while she was down but that would have also been cowardly of me.


    ''Yes, Trinity, I am dead. Does that make a difference? I was dead when I met you.'' It didn''t sound like a joke, probably because it wasn''t one. He was beingpletely serious right now.


    ''OK, yes, you were dead when I first met you, but that doesn''t make this any less weird. I mean, I don''t even know what to call you. I already call Valerian Athair m¨°r, but that would be you as well, wouldn''t it?'' I am so confused right now. Why were there so many people ''talking'' to me during this fight?


    ''Calling me by my name is more than eptable. We never knew each other in life, so a closer connection is not expected of you.''


    ''But Rhinum, you are still my family.'' I pointed out to him, finally calling him by his name.


    ''And that is why I am here to watch over you. Now, watch out, she''sing back for her next strike. I will help you with this fight. I will help you destroy this woman once and for all.''


    I couldn''t believe what it was that he was saying to me. He wanted to help me to kill his own mother. Who would want to do that? Granted, she was responsible for his death, and two different wars. So, I guess it wasn''t that surprising.


    ''It doesn''t matter that she is my mother.'' He said to me, having caught onto my line of thought. ''She is an evil woman and evil needs to be banished. Now prepare yourself, Trinity, she''s attacking again.''


    Snum was indeed attacking again. She was running at me while swinging her sword around wildly. The sword was moving inrge, seemingly uncontrolled arcs. She looked like she was in just as much danger of killing herself than she was of killing me. In fact, I could see a line of ck on her face that was slowly oozing after the sword had identally nicked her cheek.


    ''She''s a psychopath.'' I barely had the time to think before Rhinum was giving me more instructions.


    ''To your left. Spin now. Slice up.'' Following what he said I was able to deal another blow to Snum''s back. It was all going so well. ''Keep on your toes, she''s not down yet.''


    Just as Rhinum said those words, Snum started to sh out at me again. This time, when I went to dodge out of her way, she hit me with the de of her dark sword. It didn''t cut me, though, but it did cut away the armor at the spot where the de had hit. That was a close one.


    ''Be careful. She is bing more and more unhinged as this battle continues.'' Rhinum warned me, but I could already tell. Snum looked delirious and deranged at the same time.


    When Snum struck at me this time, I parried her blow with my sword again, attempting to knock her back. She wasn''t arge woman, she was taller than me, but not by much. And, she didn''t look overly strongpared to me. However, in her furious state, she was bing a lot stronger than I was at the time.


    With her emotionally fueled rage, Snum was pushing me back with each blow shended on my sword. I felt myself losing ground and knew that if I didn''t do something soon, she might get the better of me.


    ''Dive!'' I heard Rhinum shout into my ear.


    ''What?''


    ''Dive Trinity! Into the water. Now!'' Rhinum sounded worried, like he thought I wouldn''t survive if I didn''t do as he said. Fine, I would follow what he said, this time at least.

 Chapter 548 - Trinity – Channeling A Vision Of The Past (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 548 - Trinity ¨C Channeling A Vision Of The Past (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I stepped to the side, leaned forward, and literally dove into the water like it was a swimming pool. I didn''t hit my head though. I was just below the surface of the water and looking around me in stupefied curiosity.


    Thest time that I stepped into the water, it was like I was standing there like I was on the ground. However, now I felt like I was literally swimming inside this vast water filled world. I didn''t float to the top of the water like I might have in a real pool, but I was partially suspended in the water, and I felt like all I needed to do was swim toward my target to attack her.


    Just as I started to race toward the crazy bitch that I needed to kill, she dove into the water where I was. Snum came shooting into the water so fast that she was literallying right toward me.


    ''Prepare to move. We''re going to exit the water.'' Rhinum told me what was going to happen, but before I could even think about following through with his words my body moved of its own ord.


    Actually, I think it was Rhinum that was moving me. He was not just guiding my actions now. Rhinum was actually moving my body for me. I didn''t know how he was doing that, but he was managing it just fine.


    After Rhinum took over my body, I felt myself rocketing toward the surface of the water. I hurled out of the puddle at a breakneck speed andnded on my feet. I was already spinning around and the sword in my hand was swinging in a massive arc. Right as Snum leapt out of the water as well, she hurtled past me and I heard her scream in pain. She had taken the blow on her right leg this time.


    ''Sorry, my warrior''s instincts kicked in.'' Rhinum sounded so apologetic for having moved my body for me.


    ''It''s fine, Rhinum. Thank you.'' He had just been protecting me at the time, he was helping to make sure that I didn''t get hurt. He was doing amazingly well with it too.


    ''Let''s take her on together, Trinity. Let''s kill my mother.''


    ''Sounds good to me, Rhinum.''


    The moment that the two of us agreed to work together, the pendant around my neck started to glow. Well, I guess it wasn''t a pendant really. It was the ring that Rhinum had given to Ellyria. It was the ne that I had gotten from my mother. I guess it still held some of Rhinum''s true power inside of it.


    For some reason, with the ring glowing, I felt like Rhinum was literally part of me. I almost felt like I could reach further than I could before, and I even felt taller than I had before. I was literally channeling my great great grandfather.


    ''Fight with me, Trinity. Fight with me Garin¨ªon.'' Aww, I just felt my heart melt. Rhinum just called me his granddaughter.


    ''Lend me your aid, Athair m¨°r.'' I called him the same name that I used for his father, because they were both my ancestors and both of them meant so much to me.


    We stopped talking after that. It was time for us to fight together. Rhinum offered mebat assistance while I finally broke out my magic. Rhinum was shing away at Snum, and every time that she even got close enough to us, I pushed away her sword or arm or whatever else that needed to be moved. I had been pushing her away with gusts of wind that only affected her.


    I saw multiple cuts opening up on Snum but nothing was a major wound. She wasn''t going to be stopped unless we couldnd a bigger and better blow to her somehow. Still, Rhinum didn''t look like he was going to give up at all. He was still charging forward.


    "GGRRAAGGGGHHHH!" Snum growled and screeched at the same time, her fury seeming to be at its limit. She was not liking that she was losing right now. "DDDDIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!" She screamed that one word as loud as she could before she tried to lunge at us again.


    This time, when Snum lunged, I made the grounde up around her feet. It was like she was now wearing stone boots since the ground hade up to her knees.


    "Gaaahhhh!" She screamed again, angrily.


    "You will reap what you sowed." Rhinum told her, using my voice of course. And with that deration, he shed down and across Snum''s chest from her left shoulder to her right hip. The gash was deep, wide, and disgusting to look at.


    "Hoooww.?" She tried to speak with that feral voice of hers.


    "Just take a look. A close one." Rhinum grinned this time, again using my body to aplish the task.


    Snum''s eyes focused and I saw some of the whites returning to them. Some of the feral anger was subsiding as well. She was bing a little more human-like than she had been moments ago.


    "How? How can this be?" Snum was giving me and Rhinum a look of wide eyed shock. "This is impossible. Antirrhinum, how are you here? You''re dead."


    It was hard to describe the look on the woman''s face. She was angry, that was obvious for sure. However, there was a trace of something else as well. Something that was sad and broken.


    "I am here because of this, Mother." At that moment, Rhinum reached down to grab the glowing ring that was my ne. "I am here because my kin needed me."


    "She can''t be your kin, Antirrhinum. She just can''t be." There was a single tear that rolled down her cheek as she spoke, and I didn''t really know why.


    "She is, Mother. She is my kin and yours too."


    "NOOO!" Snum screamed again, ready to attack at the reminder that I was her family as well. She truly did not want any more family that tied her to Athair m¨°r.


    "You never did get it, Mother." Rhinum sighed at her anger and unwillingness to even listen.


    "I will not ept her, no matter what."


    There was a loud crunching sound and I saw the earth at Snum''s feet start to crumble and break away. She was getting herself free. That wasn''t good.


    "You will pay. You will both pay with the price of one body."


    Snum was panting and moving slowly as she stalked toward me. Much slower than I had ever seen her move so far. And, if I wasn''t mistaken, she was still getting slower with each step.


    "What is happening?" She panicked and looked down at her body. I did the same, which allowed both, me and Rhinum, to see the cause for her slowness.


    I could see dozens of cuts all over her body. None of them had even begun to heal with her Fae magic. Instead, those cuts were starting to freeze over. As I watched, therge gash that went across her chest was turning white like it had frost all over it. The frost was still spreading though, covering her chest slowly, bit by bit.


    "This is impossible. This can''t be happening to me." With fear and panic recing the anger and rage that Snum had been feeling up until this point, she started to run away. The problem with Snum running away was that the frost had already almostpletely taken over her legs. She was mostly covered by the whitened frost by now, and I knew that this was almost over.


    "Goodbye, Granny." I called out for myself.


    "Goodbye mother." Rhinum spoke in my voice again.


    While she was attempting to run away, Snum finished turning into the frosty and icy statue version of herself. She was off bnce which caused her to fall against one of the trees that were nearby.


    I walked to Snum''s side, what was left of it. When she fell down, she had broken apart and nearly shattered. There were a fewrger chunks of her, the biggest being her head. As disgusting as it was going to be, I needed to take that head back with me. I need to prove to everyone that Snum was dead. And hopefully, without her pumping more monsters onto the field, the others were able to end the battle they were fighting out there.


    At least, I hope they have already ended it.

 Chapter 549 - Reece – Where Is My Little Bunny? (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 549 - Reece ¨C Where Is My Little Bunny? (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ***THIS GOES BACK TO WHEN TRINITY DISAPPEARED INTO THE DARK FAE REALM***


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I had been sitting in a chair and watching over the battle. I was only seated because Dietrich and Trevor insisted on it. They were apparently worried that I was spending too much time watching over Trinity during her times on the battlefield. Could they me me, though? She was my wife, my mate, and my Queen. I needed to protect her.


    I did my best to make sure that she never left my sight. I followed her with my eyes, like I was watching a very messed up tennis match and she was the ball. And this time, while she was on the field, she was bouncing all over the ce.


    I knew what she was doing. I knew why she was all over the ce. She was trying to find the bitch that had started all of this. Every single time that she even glimpsed someone that even remotely looked like Snum, my Little Bunny was running to see if they were who she was after.


    And when they turned out to not be the one that she was there to kill I saw the frustration and anger rise in my Little Bunny''s eyes. She still killed them of course, they were the enemy, and this was a war so that was to be expected. But the problem was that my Little Bunny was upset about not seeing the person she was looking for.


    I was only able to stay somewhat calm during all of this because my Little Bunny had her guards there with her. They were travelling with her while she looked for the psychopath that we needed to find to end this whole mess. They may not have been able to stick right by her side since they were fighting off enemies along the way, but they weren''t letting her out of their sight so that was something that I could be happy about.


    Well, that is until my Little Bunny saw something that made her start running right into the belly of the beast. She glimpsed someone near the crack in the boulder that must have looked just like Snum. I could see the person but not their physical appearance so I couldn''t tell if it was her or not.


    The person that she had seen and was chasing after was sending more of those monsters out onto the battlefield. Even if it wasn''t Snum, killing that bitch would be beneficial for us. We didn''t need someone sending more of those things out to hinder us.


    I watched for a moment as my Little Bunny hesitated when running after that person. Had she seen something that surprised her? Was that really Snum? Could that psychotic hag finally have shown her face? I honestly thought that might have been the case.


    The guards were giving chase now as well. Following their charge and Queen as she ran into the fray. I nearly had a heart attack when Trinity was almost hit by an enemy attack. She was focusing too much on her target that was running back into the dark Fae realm and didn''t notice the attacking at her. Thank the Goddess that Vincent was right there to protect her.


    Vincent might have stopped the attack but there was something else that was starting to worry me. My Little Bunny was heading straight for the opening and her guards weren''t following her.


    "Trinity?!" I called out her name, scared of what was happening.


    ''Reece?'' I heard Vincent''s voice in my head, he was sending me a message telepathically.


    ''WHY DIDN''T YOU FOLLOW HER?!'' I screamed back at him through that connection just as my wife disappeared into that crack.


    I was already up and out of my chair, running after my Little Bunny before Vincent responded to my question.


    ''She ordered us to stay behind and continue fighting.''


    ''I don''t care! You should have gone after her.'' I felt like my heart had both stopped and was beating so fast that it was going to fly right out of my chest at the same time. Why would she do this? Why would she go off to fight alone? DAMMIT! I''m going to kill her for this.


    ''Reece, you know that we couldn''t follow her after she made it an order. I wanted to go. I didn''t want to stay here.''


    "GRRRRRAAAAHHHH!!!!" I roared in frustration as I ran to where the guards were. My mind was singrly focused on following my stubborn and obviously suicidal mate in through that barrier. "I''M GOING TO PUNISH HER FOR THIS! I SWEAR TO THE GODDESS THAT I WILL!" I roared and didn''t care who heard me say it.


    The moment that I got to where my Little Bunny disappeared inside that boulder I leapt in after her. I didn''t care about the battle anymore, I just needed to catch up to and find my mate. And then I would turn her over my fucking knee and beat her ass for disappearing on me like this. AGAIN! Because this was definitely not the first time that she disappeared on me in the middle of a battle. That reckless little idiot!


    I was falling, but it was slow. Too slow. This was fucking pissing me off. I needed to move faster. I had to find my mate and make sure that she was OK, that she wasn''t hurt.


    After what felt like forever, I made it to the bottom and stopped falling. I didn''tnd like I had been falling either, it was like the magic had set me down gently. Stupid magic. It moved too slowly.


    In front of me, at the bottom of that tunnel I fell through, there was a foggy barrier. It looked odd but I didn''t care. If my Little Bunny wasn''t right here, then she was on the other side of this barrier. That meant that I needed to get onto that side as well.


    I ran forward, hoping to pass through whatever this barrier was as quickly as possible. I ran face first into that hazy fog and promptly bounced off and flew backward into the tunnel.


    The moment that I flew back into the tunnel I was sucked back up and out through the barrier. This time, the magic didn''t make me move slowly. It rocketed me out so fast that I flew out of the broken boulder andnded on my ass amid the fighting.


    "WHAT IN THE FUCKING HELL!" I roared in anger and rage at the magic that had just rejected me out of there.


    "Reece? What happened?" Vincent asked me, running up to my side and helping me to my feet.


    "I..I..I can''t go after her." I felt the rage turn to sadness inside of me. What was I going to do?


    "What do you mean you can''t go after her?" Shane was there now.


    "The barrier threw me out. It rejected me. I can''t follow her in there."


    "OH, SHIT!" Shane seemed to understand the gravity of the situation then.


    "What are we going to do?" Shawn asked, standing next to his brother.


    "I don''t like this.." David added.

 Chapter 550 - Reece – Battling On (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 550 - Reece ¨C Battling On (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "The only thing we can do now is continue to fight." Dietrich''s voice came from behind Shawn. He must have followed me out here when I charged onto the field and after my mate.


    "He''s right." Landon added. "We can''t go after her, but we can finish the battle out here. Let''s put our all into it."


    "I agree, we need to show all these dark Fae assholes that we mean business. Let''s annihte them and send their asses to hell. That way when Trinityes out of there, she will be happy to find that the battle is over." Trevor sounded confident and that was good. I needed to make sure that I stayed confident as well. I could channel my anger, rage, and frustration into strength and use it to kill these monsters and Fae.


    "I''m getting back to the battle." I turned away from the boulder and toward the monsters and Fae that were still fighting on the field.


    "It''s not your turn." Vincent reminded me.


    "I don''t fucking care. I am taking Trinity''s turn on the field since she isn''t here. And as your King I order you to fight with me. Is that understood?" I could tell that I was taking a little bit of my frustration out on him and that wasn''t right, but I didn''t care.


    "Yes Sir." Vincent looked a little pissed off to be spoken to like that, but he followed my orders and started to march into the battle with me. This was how it was going to be until my Little Bunny got back out of there.


    All of us, my Little Bunny''s guards, Landon, Trevor, Dietrich, and myself, went back to fighting the enemies. If I couldn''t kill the main baddie here, then I was going to kill as many of herckies as I possibly could.


    There were monsters and Fae everywhere, so I didn''t have to look very hard to find someone to kill. I brought out my weapons and started to attack everyone that was within range. My arrows were flying in every direction, hitting as many targets as they could. I would fling my whip out and wrap it around a Fae to bring them closer to me. Once that Fae was close enough, I would cut their head off then slice through their body to make sure that they were fully dead.


    This pattern worked for all the Fae that I encountered but not all of the monsters. When I came across a monster that was toorge for my whip to wrap around, I took inspiration from my Little Bunny''s battle that I watched earlier.


    I didn''t make my phoenix wings appear, but I put more strength into my legs so that I could jump high enough to reach the back of the monster''s head. From there I would continue to fight, hacking away at the thing until it was nothing but charred pieces of bone and monster flesh. It was the only thing currently keeping me sane.


    About four hours or so after my Little Bunny disappeared into the dark Fae realm, I could tell that we were getting closer to winning this battle. I had just leapt off the back of a dying elephant monster and was about to go after a crocodile looking one, but I was distracted by someone''s shouts.


    "Watch out, Queen Gloriana!" Vincent was charging after the Fae Queen, putting on a burst of speed at thest second. Gloriana was just turning to see what the problem was and saw that there was a massive viper looking snake monstering up behind her, its jaws opened wide and ready to attack her. Probably to swallow her whole.


    Thankfully, this beast was smaller than some of the ones that were there earlier, it was only about fifteen to twenty feet long and wouldn''t have been able to fit a whole person in their mouth as easily. That didn''t mean that it was harmless, though. The thing was definitely going to be able to cause a lot of problems.


    Vincent got to Gloriana in time and knocked her out of the way. He readied his sword and was preparing to attack it but the beast struck before he could do anything to defend himself.


    The snake caught him around his chest and stomach. I watched on in horror as its massive fangs pierced him and blood started to flow down his body.


    "GAHH!" He cried out in pain just a little when the thing bit him.


    "VINCENT!" I roared his name. I knew that he was fighting at his best, I knew that he was just doing his duty as a guard, and I knew that he very well might die because of this battle.


    I couldn''t let Vincent die. I just couldn''t. He was the head of my Little Bunny''s guards. He was a father. He was a good man. And he was my friend. I couldn''t let this happen. I needed to get over there. I needed to find someone to save him.


    "DAVID!" I called after him. "Find the best healer there is. Get them here now. Carry them so that we don''t have to wait. Go! NOW!"


    "I''m already on my way!" He said as he took off running. He disappeared immediately, moving so fast that my eyes couldn''t keep up with him. He was, literally, the fastest person here. He would get that healer here as soon as he could.


    While he got the healer, I needed to kill that beast.


    I dropped my whip and charged toward the snake. I gripped my ming sword in both hands and leapt at the thing''s head. While it still held my friend and pack mate in its mouth, I shed down with the sword, cutting the thing''s head from its body. The head and Vincent both fell to the ground.


    "Hang in there, Vincent." I said as I started to slowly pull him from the thing''s mouth. "Hang in there, please.. Don''t die on me."

 Chapter 551 - Reece – The End Of The War (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 551 - Reece ¨C The End Of The War (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I did my best to not hurt Vincent even more as I pulled therge snake''s fangs from his body. The long, thin fangs had pierced him through the center of his chest and right above his belly button. Blood was pouring out of him from both wounds, front and back.


    The fangs had pierced right through his body,ing out his back and dripping venom onto the ground that was so strong it burned the grass. I knew that couldn''t be good, the wounds or the poison. Both of them could potentially kill the man and I couldn''t let that happen.


    It took me a few minutes, but I managed to pull the fangs from Vincent''s body. The entire time, he justid there and groaned in pain. He didn''t scream. He didn''t say anything. He barely even looked at me while I tried not to cause him to feel even more pain than before.


    "I''m sorry, Vincent. Just hang in there, buddy. I''m taking these out and David is getting someone to help you. It will be alright."


    There was pain in Vincent''s eyes when I looked into his face. With tears wavering in his eyes, I saw that he was trying to speak.


    "P..pl..pl..please t..t..tell H..H..Hea..Heather and th..th..the k..k..kids th..th..that I..I..I l..love th..th..them." With every attempt he made to form a word I saw the pain intensify in his eyes. "A..a..and t..t..tell T..T..Tr..Trin..Trin..Trinity th..that I..I..I''m s..s..sorry. I..I..I''m s..so..sorry th..th..that I..I..I f..f..failed h..h..her." A tear rolled down his cheek as he spoke.


    "You can tell them that yourself, Vincent. I am not going to let you die. I forbid you from dying. Do you hear me, Vincent? You are not allowed to die. Heather needs you. Your kids need you. Trinity needs you. I need you. You can''t die, Vincent, you can''t!"


    Dammit. I was getting emotional. I didn''t want this man to die. I didn''t want to see a close personal friend pass away and leave his wife and kids in despair. I didn''t want to see my Little Bunny''s first ally, after bing my mate, leave her. They have been working together for years now and I know that she will me herself if he were to die. He was too important to us all to die.


    As I was looking into the man''s pain stricken face, I saw something blurreding toward me. There was no sound apanying that blur, but I knew what it was already. It had only been about five minutes at most, most likely less, but I knew that it was Daviding back with someone to help Vincent.


    "I went as quickly as I could." David said, not even out of breath when he stopped next to us. He had literally just sat down a very disoriented Griffin whom he had apparently carried the entire way here. "Griffin is the best healer I could think of." I didn''t me him for thinking that. Griffin had been blessed by Trinity and had abilities that not many people were capable of.


    "Th..that was a little, uhm, unique." Griffin was trying to regain his bearings as quickly as possible. He shook his head a couple of times to physically shake off the dizziness that he must have been feeling from the run. "What happened here?" He asked when he saw Vincent sitting next to me, bleeding like crazy.


    "He was bitten." I told him before pointing at the python''s head. "By that."


    "And I am guessing that thing is venomous." He said, already on his knees on the other side of Vincent and ripping open the man''s shirt.


    "Yeah, the venom was dripping onto the ground. I saw it leaving scorch marks where it touched."


    "That''s not good at all." Griffin didn''t need to state that obvious fact for me to know that it was bad. Venom wasn''t supposed to burn the ground like that. That was just some sort of overkill that these fucking dark Fae had cooked up. Dammit.


    "G..Gr..Gr..Grif..Griff..Griffin, a..a..am I..I..I g..g..go..going t..t..to d..d..die?" Vincent was already preparing for that to happen. He just wanted Griffin to tell him.


    "I hope not, Vincent." I saw light moving from Griffin''s finger as he assessed and healed Vincent at the same time. "I don''t want you to die."


    I wanted to keep watching the scene. I wanted to watch Griffin heal Vincent and save the day, but I couldn''t. I couldn''t bring myself to watch them for fear that the worst case scenario woulde true.


    As I turned away from them, I looked at the battle around me. Or should I say, thest stragglers of the fight that was happening around me. There were maybe a dozen dark Fae still clinging to the fight. The majority had either been killed or captured.


    Most of the people that we were close to, the onlookers that is, were people we knew. Gloriana, Trevor, Landon, Dietrich, Shawn, Shane, David, and several other members of the council. They were all watching on to see if Vincent was going to make it. There was pain and sorrow in every face that I saw around us.


    The battle was over. The war was most likely ending. But the victory was hollow without Trinity and Vincent. Where was my wife? And, would Vincent live? Those were things that I needed to know.


    I was d that the war was over. I was d that the fighting was ending. But how many lives had we lost? Over thesest couple of days, throughout every wave of this battle, how many people had we all lost in this fight?


    Too many. If even one person, Fae, shifter, vampire, magic user, and of the people we called in for this war, if even one of them died then it was too many. This was a war that needn''t have happened. This was a war that was started because someone was stupid and petty and over all just in evil.


    We needed to do something about this world. We needed to stop more people from dying senselessly like this.


    "How many children have lost a parent? How many parents have lost a child? How many people have lost a lover? How much will all this carnage affect our world?" I hadn''t meant to say those words out loud. I hadn''t meant for anyone to hear the sorrow filled words as they escaped, unhindered, from my lips.


    "I don''t know, Reece." Trevor came to my side, Gloriana with him.


    "I am sorry, Reece. I should have been more careful. I should have been paying closer attention. I should have made it so that Vincent didn''t have to save me. This is all my fault."


    "It''s not your fault, Gloriana." I assured her. She was not used to fighting, she was not ustomed to battles like this. Even so, she had done an amazing job over thest few days. "Vincent did his job and protected you. He knew that Trinity would have been upset if you were hurt. He was just protecting Trinity by protecting you."


    "But, if he dies, won''t Trinity be-."


    "Yes, she will be devastated." I nodded, not even needing her to finish her question."


    I could only think of? two things at the moment, ''Hurry back, Little Bunny'' and ''Please don''t die, Vincent''. Those were the only thoughts in my head at the moment. That was all I could process at the moment while I watched Griffin pour a bright healing light into Vincent. The problem was, Griffin didn''t look too hopeful.


    "Come back, Little Bunny." I whispered the words. "Please,e back."

 Chapter 552 - Trinity – Returning To The Surface (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 552 - Trinity ¨C Returning To The Surface (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I didn''t want to carry that frozen head in my hands all the way back to the battle. At least, I didn''t want to carry it in my hands. I didn''t want to touch any part of that crazy bitch that had caused all of this. So, instead of touching her at all, stabbed my sword through the bottom of her neck.


    The tip of my de slid in effortlessly past the ice, skin, bone, and everything else that was in between it and the brain. I knew for a fact that the de had slid in far enough so that it was nted firmly in the soft, vital organ.


    Now that her head was skewered enough for me to carry it, I put my sword over my shoulder and walked back toward the barrier that separated me from the outside world. I had an image of someone with a hobo stick walking through the dark countryside as I made my way out of this ce.


    I remembered which way I hade, so it didn''t take me long to get to the fog barrier. I just needed to pass by all the unpleasant looking scenery along the way. I tried not to think of that sea of bloody water as I passed by, hoping that the battle up above hadn''t turned into something that resembled that hideous body of water.


    When I did finally make it to that hazy, foggy divider between me and the exit, I took a deep breath. I needed to brace myself as I pushed into the thick, clingy, nasty substance. I knew that it would be gone soon. And I knew that it wouldn''t cling to me when I was through it, but that didn''t make it any easier for me to push my way through it. It felt disgusting and unnatural.


    Finally, after a few moments, I was able to pass through that ten foot stretch of the tunnel. I was finally looking up at the exit and ready to leave. There was only one problem. I didn''t know how to get out of here.


    As soon as I thought that while looking up at the light above me, I felt myself being lifted. It was once again that gentle and slow movement that didn''t make me feel the least bit nervous or scared. It was like the magic was fully weing of my presence and was assisting me. There was nothing at all hurried or terrifying about the way I was flying up and up and up.


    After what felt like several minutes, I could see the end of that long tunnel. I was almost out of here. I was almost back to where everyone one else was. I wonder if Reece was going to be mad that I ran off like that?


    I felt myself fly effortless out of that crack in the barrier andnd gently on my feet. I was now out in the bright afternoon light and the sudden change had me squinting in an attempt to see what was around me. When I had gone in through the barrier it was in the morning. I don''t know how long I was in the dark Fae realm, but it was five times longer out here than it was in there. Yeah, Reece was going to be angry for sure.


    As my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw that the battle seemed to be over for the most part. Most of the people that were near me, near the boulder, were all just standing around and staring at something.


    ''What are they looking at?'' I asked myself silently as I started to walk forward. ''What the hell is going on here?''


    As the people around me saw that I was back from the dark realm, they were pointing and whispering. I hadn''t felt this ufortable since I attended pack meetings as an ostracized teenager who was the ridicule of the entire pack. Huh, to think that I went from being worth nothing to the pack to being the most sought-after shifter in the world. That was kind of funny if you think about it.


    "The Queen is back."


    "Look at that sword."


    "What happened to her?"


    "Where did she go?"


    The whispers were following me and making me feel even more ufortable with each passing second. This just didn''t seem right. It didn''t seem normal. What was really going on here?


    As I passed by the edge of a group of Fae that were huddled together, I saw several people that I recognized. Reece was there and so were Dietrich, Shawn, Shane, David, and Griffin.


    "Where is Vincent?" I asked myself softly as I looked at the group of them.


    I saw that Griffin was worried about something, so was Reece based on the set of his shoulders. There was a man lying on the ground between them. He was covered in blood and groaning in pain.


    That was when it hit me.


    ''I recognize that voice.'' I told myself as I walked closer to them. ''I know that voice.'' I said again when he groaned once more. ''Oh please Goddess, don''t let this be what I think it is.'' I begged as I took off running toward the group of people.


    I could see more friends, more allies. Trevor and Aunt Glory, Athair m¨°r and Daciana, Rahim, Nathair, Leelin, Crawford, Anastasia, Analise, Reef, Arno, Kayda, Riley, Rawlynne, and all of the rest of my council members were there along with all of my guards. But I couldn''t see Vincent anywhere.


    Reece seemed to sense me when I was close enough. He looked up to see me running at him, sword in hand.


    "Reece?" I yelled out to him as he leapt to his feet to catch me.


    "Trinity!" I could hear the emotions that were thickening his voice. "Oh Goddess, Trinity, I am so d that you''re back." He was relieved but still worried.


    "What happened, Reece? What happened to Vincent?" I pushed myself away from him, away from the hug and dropped to my knees next to the man that wasying on the ground. "Vincent?"


    I took my guard''s, my friend''s, hand in my own and squeezed it tight.


    "I..I..I''m s..s..so..so..sorry, T..T..Tr..Trin..Trinity." Vincent was having trouble speaking and I could tell he was in pain.


    I was instantly saddened by the sight before me. Vincent''splexion had been sapped of all color. His eyes were losing their light. Even his lips were turning blue as I watched. He was dying. I could see it. Vincent was dying right before me.


    "Vincent?" I sobbed as I pulled his hand closer to my face. "Vincent, don''t leave me." I begged him.


    I couldn''t lose Vincent. I just couldn''t. He was my friend. He was the first person that I had truly bonded with when my life had changed. He had been there with me every single step of the way since I found out that Reece was my mate.


    "I can''t lose you, Vincent. Heather can''t lose you either. You need to fight it. You need to get better. You need to be there for your kids. They all need you. Please, Vincent, don''t give up."


    "T..T..Tri..Trinity, I..I..I''ve a..a..al..always l..loved y..you l..l..like a..a s..si..sis..sister. I..I h..hope y..yo..you kn..know th..that." He weakly gripped my hand back, as I held it against my cheek.


    "I love you too, Vincent. You''re my family, I have always thought that. That''s why I need you. Please, don''t give up.. Don''t leave me."

 Chapter 553 - Trinity – Don’t Go Vincent (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 553 - Trinity ¨C Don¡¯t Go Vincent (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "T..t..take c..c..care of H..H..Hea..Heather a..and th..th..the k..k..kids f..for m..m..me p..pl..ple..please." He was giving up. He was just going to let himself die.


    "You haven''tpleted your job yet, Vincent. You''re not done yet. You''re supposed to guard me for as long as I am Queen. You''re in my Goddess Guard, you can''t just quit now." I watched him try to smirk and I decided to push it just a little further. "I told you if any of you got hurt in this battle that I would kill you. You don''t want me to have to do that now do you." Heughed a little at my joke and immediately started to cough, blood flying from his lips andnding on his cheeks.


    "Vincent?" Reece called out to him, kneeling next to me. "Don''t talk anymore. We''re going to fix this. Just hang in there a little longer man."


    "R..R..Re..Reece, y..yo..yo..you w..w..we..were a..a g..go..good fr..fri..friend a..and a..an a..a..am..amaz..amazing A..Al..Alph..Alpha. I..I kn..kn..know th..that y..yo..you wi..wi..will p..pro..protect T..Tri..Trin-."


    "Stop it, Vincent." I sobbed as I tried to silence his goodbyes. "Hush, Vincent. You can''t leave. You can''t go. I won''t let you."


    I threw myself forward, hugging him to me as I sobbed louder and louder.


    "Please, don''t die. Don''t take him from me. I don''t want to lose someone so close to me. I can''t. I just can''t. Please, Nehalennia. Please, Thoth. Please, Danu. Please, please help me. Save him for me. Please."


    As I begged the God and Goddesses for help, I felt the tugging that usually told me that I was going to the celestial realm.


    ''No, don''t make me leave his side. Don''t make me leave my friend.'' I begged them once more. The tugging stopped and there was not a bright light filling the battlefield. Actually, there were three bright lights.


    There was the golden light of Danu to my left, the red light of Thoth to my right, and in the middle of those two was the bright blue light of Nehalennia. The three celestials had joined me in this world.


    "Trinity." I heard the now familiar voice of the Moon Goddess speak to me just moments before I saw her appear before me. I thought that everyone around me would be screaming in shock or joy but I noticed at that moment that everyone in the clearing seemed to have frozen. I was the only one that was moving aside from the God and Goddesses.


    "Nehalennia?" I sobbed as I looked at her. Danu and Thoth appeared beside her a secondter. "Thoth? Danu? Please, please don''t let him die."


    "Trinity, there have been many gifts over time that we have given you and your people. Do you truly expect more from us?" Thoth asked me with a look that was nearly devoid of emotion at the moment.


    "I know you have done much for me already. I know you have. But I have done much for all of you as well. I never asked to be Queen. I never asked to rule the shifters or the magic users. I just wanted a normal life."


    "Yes, Trinity, we know." Nehalennia looked at me with sadness in her eyes. "For that we owe you so much."


    "You have helped me more than once, child. And you are a descendant of my personal bloodline. That makes you not only chosen by the other celestials, but part celestials as well." Danu was smiling at me with a soft look. "I do not feel that I have rewarded you nearly enough with all that you have done."


    "We have, over time, slowed down the aging that you and all shifters have been experiencing." Thoth spoke next, the emotions no longer hidden from his face. "I am sure you have noticed that those who have reached adulthood are experiencing those effects. Some may have even experienced reverse aging."


    "I could tell things were a little different, yes. But I did not know why." I didn''t know what all of this had to do with the current situation, but I still had to listen to what they were saying.


    "There is still one more gift that we can offer you, Trinity. One more thing aside from blessings that will allow your friend to live." Nehalennia was crouching now, almost kneeling before me so that she could look me directly in the eyes.


    "What? What can be done? Please, I don''t want to lose my family." There was hope and heartache both filling my voice.


    "We can give our children all an equal share of immortality." She added as she looked at me.


    "The Magic users." Thoth knelt next to her now, looking at me with his hand extended toward me.


    "The Fae." Danu knelt on her other side, her hand extended andying on top of Thoth''s.


    "And the shifters." Nehallenia put her hand on top of Danu''s.


    "How? What will this mean?" I asked them, confused and uncertain.


    "They will all be immortal. They will all live lives like the Fae have experienced. They will cease to age normally when they reach adulthood, and they will stop aging altogether when they hit a certain point. Their lives will be eternal, just like that of the vampires and the Fae." Thoth was the one to start the exnation.


    "This may be a burden on some of your people, and they may not want it, but it is not something that can be taken away without them ending their lives." Danu added.


    "You need to make this decision here and now, Trinity. Make this decision for your people and we will save your friend." Nehalennia spoke forcefully for the first time since she had arrived here.


    "What else will happen?" I knew that they hadn''t spoken theplete truth to me. There was more to it. There had to be.


    "We three will cease to exist."


    "WHAT?" I couldn''t believe what Nehalennia had just said to me. "How? Why? That can''t be."


    "We will not be truly gone. We will reside inside of you, Trinity. You will take our ce. You are part of all three of us. You are a child born from all three of us. You are the one being that can, and has, united all of our people." She tried to sooth me, but I was still reeling. I didn''t understand any of this.


    "Will you ept our offer, Trinity? Will you take on the role as the new Goddess?" Thoth asked me, his voice firm.


    "Will you lead and protect our people?" Danu''s voice was firm now as well.


    "You will no longer be the human extension of me, Trinity. You will now be a true Goddess. You will have the power to do what we can do. You will just need to learn to navigate that path on your own."


    "I..I..I''ll do it." I hesitated just a little bit. However, in the end I knew that I would do it anyway. I knew that I would take their offer and protect Vincent, even if it meant changing my entire life again.


    "Then take our hands. ce one of your palms against my palm, and the other on the back of Thoth''s hand.. Grasp our hands at the same time and take our power."

 Chapter 554 - Trinity – Changing (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 554 - Trinity ¨C Changing (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Hesitantly, I did as I was told to do. I took my hands off of Vincent for the first time since I had taken his hand in my own. I released him and reached toward the hands of the three celestial beings that were extended toward me.


    The moment that I took their hands and held them between the both of mine I felt an immense surge of power. The lights that had previously radiated from each of the three Gods were back, and they were growing more intense than they had been before.


    The clearing was instantly filled with a bright, intense light that I knew would be blinding to anyone looking directly at it. I was thankful at that moment that time was currently frozen. I didn''t want this to harm anyone that was around me.


    As that light zed on, I saw that the three beings before me started to fade. Their eyes looked serene and calm as they smiled at me. They weren''t worried about the fact that they were disappearing. They weren''t concerned by the fact that they would never again see another day.


    They were willingly giving their lives, their essence to me. They were making me stronger. They were making me more powerful. They were making those that I loved and cared about stronger. They were giving new life to those that were possibly at the end of theirs. And they were doing all of this because I had asked them for help.


    Why? Why would they do this for me? Why would they give up their lives for a selfish request of mine? I needed to know.


    "Wait! Before you leave, please tell me why? Why did you do this? Why give me your power? Why end your lives?"


    "We are not ending our lives, Trinity. We will live on as the power inside of you." Danu spoke first.


    "We have seen many millennia. And these years away from our loved ones have been hard on us." Thoth nearly sounded like he was crying when he spoke next.


    "With this decision, we will be with you every step of the way. If you ever need to call upon the knowledge that we possess, it will be inside of you, Trinity. Our memories, our wisdom, none of them will be gone from this life. We are simply passing them onto you." Nehalennia was giving me a bittersweet smile. "We have all been looking for a worthy candidate to pass our essence onto. We have all been longing for a new way to interact with this realm. The three of us have found that person in you."


    "Does that mean there are others? Other celestial beings that want to return to this world?" Their words confused me for a moment. I wasn''t sure what it was that was starting to run through my mind, perhaps it wasn''t even my thoughts but theirs.


    "Yes, Trinity. There are many more. Maybe you can find the worthy candidates for them. Maybe you can help them to return to this world. Maybe you can help them be reborn like we are." Nehalennia smiled at me and leaned forward.


    I felt her lips press against my forehead. She was barely there, nothing more than a shadow image inside the light that was her power. The others leaned forward as well. They each leaned in and kissed me on the cheek in the same manner that Nehalennia had.


    I felt them there, the phantom touch of their lips pressing firm but ever so softly against my face. The feeling of that, the sensation of being loved and trusted by thempletely, it made me cry. Only three tears. That was all that my body shed. One for each of them.


    With the first tear, Danu disappeared. She had been the one that I had most recently met and who was the first to call me family. With the second tear, Thoth disappeared. He had been kind to me from day one and weed me as his Queen instantly. And finally, with the third tear, Nehalennia disappeared. She was the first to help me, the first to guide me, and the first to ept me. For years now, she had been close to my heart. She had been the one that I had felt the closest to.


    "Don''t leave me." I cried as their lights began to fade.


    "We will never leave you." The three of them said together as their voices danced on the wind.


    I felt my body lowering back to the ground. I hadn''t even known that I was floating in the air, high above the ground. One moment I was suspended as if I was a marite puppet waiting for someone to move my strings, and the next moment I was once again on my knees next to Vincent.


    Vincent had not been healed yet. The celestials did not help him.


    Just as I was about to panic, I realized something. I am the celestial being now. I was the one who was meant to heal him. It was up to me to do this from now on.


    "Live, Vincent. You will not die today." I put my hand on his chest and instantly felt time start to move again.


    I was in a different position than I had been when time froze. My abrupt change from one ce to another made most of the people who had been watching the scene gasp. Even Reece, who was kneeling on the ground right next to me, fell back as he jumped in surprise.


    "TRINITY!?" He gasped. "What the hell just happened!?"


    I ignored him, though. I just pressed my hand more firmly against Vincent as I healed his wounds. There was a bright, shining light that started to illuminate the clearing that we were in. This light wasn''t like anything that I was used to. For one it was a light purple color, like lc. But that wasn''t the only thing different about it. The light itself seemed to have golden flecks in it, almost like some sort of sparkling dust that was magically floating inside of the light.


    "Trinity?" Reece breathed my name in surprise as he saw the light. He knew that it was different as well. "What is going on?"


    "I am healing my brother." I turned my head slightly so that I could look at Reece as I spoke, which only made him gasp more. He apparently saw something in my face that shocked him. I could find out what that waster. For now, I was busy saving a life.


    As soon as I thought that I heard a loud, sharp intake of breath. It was like Vincent was taking his first breath of his new life. He arched his back a little and lifted up from my legs, almost like there was magic involved, which there was.


    The color was back to his face. His wounds were gone. He was alive and you couldn''t even tell that anything had happened to him at all.


    "Vincent?" I smiled and started to cry. He was really and truly alive.. "I am so happy, Vincent!" I threw my arms around him and hugged him tightly.

 Chapter 555 - Reece – A Change In My Little Bunny (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 555 - Reece ¨C A Change In My Little Bunny (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I was standing there in awe, watching my wife hug another man. This was a man that she had cried over, begged not to die and not to leave her. I should be jealous, except that I had done the same thing. Vincent was too good of a friend to lose. So, just this once, I wasn''t going to be mad that she was hugging him like that.


    Not to mention, there was the fact that Trinity had just saved Vincent''s life. That wasn''t a new thing at all. She had done that many times before. No, what was different about it this time, was the light that came from her when she did it.


    Somehow, for some reason, my Little Bunny was different. Something about her had changed in thest few minutes, but I didn''t know what it was. She looked the same. She had the same dark, mahogany brown hair, the same triple colored eyes that never failed to put a smile on my face. The same soft, clear, paleplexion that made her look gorgeously ethereal. All of it was the same.


    I mean, there shouldn''t have been anything different, right. What was it that I should be looking for as I tried to figure it all out? Her hands were the same, even though they were holding onto Vincent''s shoulders at the moment.


    There was nothing at all that seemed to be different. I mean, I could even see her marks and they looked¡­. They looked¡­. They looked different. Wait, WHAT?! What the hell happened to her marks?! Even when I looked at her neck just now her mate mark was different. Why? What caused her marks to change again?


    "T..T..Trinity? What happened to you?" My stammering and unprompted question seemed to surprise everyone that was standing around us and immediately made them look at me like I was a weirdo. I mean, they didn''t know why I was worrying about her, so they didn''t understand what was going on.


    "Nothing Reece. I am fine. When I followed after Snum, I didn''t end up being hurt. I am good."


    "That isn''t what I am referring to." I shook my head and brushed aside her words. "I am referring to what happened to you after you came back. You''re different, aren''t you? Something changed in you. What was it? Did you visit the gods again? Is that why you suddenly changed positions?"


    I saw that she was smiling. It was like she hadn''t thought that I would notice, and she was happy to see that she was wrong.


    "Yes, Reece, I did." That was all she said. Seriously? She wasn''t going to give us anything else?


    "What happened, Trinity? Why are your marks different?"


    Once I said that, everyone around us started to take a closer look at her. They were able to see that the marks that came forward over her shoulder and down to her corbone were now gone.


    "He''s right." Vincent, who was sitting the closest to Trinity and should have known right away that something was off, finally realized that something was different about her. "T..T..Trinity, please tell me you didn''t give up your power, your status, just to save me."


    The fear and worry that filled Vincent''s eyes then was unlike anything that I had ever seen before. It was clear to see that he was devastated just by the idea of her giving up so much for him. I have to admit, I was worried about that as well.


    "No, Vincent, I didn''t." She smiled but there was something off about the way that she was talking.


    "Trinity, garin¨ªon, why are the marks gone? If you still have your power and? your abilities, then why are they gone now?" Valerian had been standing next to my Little Bunny and looking at her, but he had now dropped to his knees and was looking at her full on in the face.


    "I have changed, yes, but I am no less powerful than I was before."


    "Does that mean you are more powerful than before?" Trevor asked, he had also caught the subtle little way that she said that.


    "I believe I am, but that is something that we should save for when we get back." She smiled at us all as she slowly looked around the clearing. "It appears to me that this war is over. I think it is time that we head back to the city and rest properly. After we all get a good rest, we can talk about what happened today." She was trying to put it off for the time being.


    "No." I spoke firmly and stood, pulling her to her feet with me. "We will talk about it tonight. As much as I want to get you to myself, I think this is something that we all need to talk about now, before any of the details get muddled or forgotten."


    "Reece, I think that we are all tired. It would be best if everyone rested, and then we can get together tomorrow."


    "Trinity!" I nearly growled the words at her.


    "He is right, Trinity." Valerian agreed with me as he rose fluidly into a standing position. "We should talk about this tonight. We will head back and convene in the usual ce."


    "Yes, I agree." Gloriana added her voice to the mix.


    "I admit, I am curious as well." Dietrich came to stand beside Trinity and looked into her eyes. "I wish to know why your essence has changed."


    "Please, Trinity, tell us what happened tonight. Do not make me wait in agony."


    "Alright, fine. We will talk about it tonight if you all insist. However, I would like to head back to the city and get everyone here the rest and the help that they need."


    After that deration, I saw my Little Bunny pick up a frozen sword that I had not seen before. It was smallpared to my sword butrge inparison to Trinity herself. And it was clear to see that the thing had been made entirely out of ice. It was beautiful and powerful.


    "Trinity, where did thate from?" I asked her as I pointed at the lethal looking de.


    "All questions will be answered at the castle. She smiled at me and took my hand. "Come on, let''s go."


    "Even this one? Come on, it''s not that major of a question, is it?" Iughed at the thought.


    "Even this one. I am tired and want to get back to the castle. Come on Fido, it''s not that long of a wait." With that she leaned her body against mine and it was clear that she had been through a lot. I wanted to know what that stuff had been, and I wanted to know how she was. I didn''t want to put her through too much more today, but this was something that all of us needed to know. Something major had happened and no one but my Little Bunny knew what it was.


    With nothing but learning what the truth was, we all got the troops ready to head back to the castle. There had been temporary buildings set up to house them for the rest of the day and through the night. Once they were all healed and rested up, they could head back to their homes or wait until the banquet was over.. I just knew that there was going to be another one of those.

 Chapter 556 - Reece – What Happened To My Little Bunny Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 556 - Reece ¨C What Happened To My Little Bunny Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    It took a long time to get everyone organized and back to the castle. My Little Bunny was worried about everyone and wanted a full death count by the morning. That was going to be something else that broke her apart. She hated the senseless death of people like this. This was definitely not going to be a pleasant time for any of us.


    When it was finally time for our group to head back, after all the instructions and orders had been given, I could see the exhaustion starting to hit my Little Bunny hard. She was going to be dead asleep long before the night fully hit. Was it a bad idea to talk about everything tonight? I didn''t want to push her, but I knew that we all needed to talk about it sooner rather thanter.


    "You can lean on me." I told Little Bunny as we walked through the portal back to the central za. It wasn''t that far from there to the castle, but then we had to walk all the way to the Queen''s private office. I wanted her to save some of her energy and use me if she could.


    "Thank you, Reece." She smiled softly and leaned her head against my side. I wrapped my arm around her waist and stealthily helped to carry her along. To everyone else, it would look like she was just walking along. But what they wouldn''t be able to tell was that I was actually carrying more than ny percent of her weight. It was the least that I could do for my Little Bunny.


    I supported her all the way across the courtyard, all the way to the castle doors, and through every hallway that we came to until we were in Gloriana''s private study. When we got inside, I pulled her along with me to the usual loveseat that we sat in and then I pulled her into myp.


    I wanted to feel her in my arms, to know that she was here and safe. I hadn''t forgotten the fear that I had felt when I watched her disappear through the barrier and then the anger at not being able to follow her. There were still so many raw emotions in me that I needed to calm down and the only thing that would do that was holding her close so that I could feel her warmth and smell her familiar scent.


    I was just d that she wasn''t trying to fight it either. She was here to calm me, but she probably needed me to calm her down a little bit as well. The only evidence to that though, was her exhaustion and the slight chill that was on her skin. She had been through a lot. She had earned the right to be a little vulnerable with me.


    "OK, I think it''s best to get straight to it and start talking about what happened. Trinity, will you please tell us what happened?" Gloriana opened the conversation.


    "Before that, I have one other question that I want to have answered. Trinity, I think you told me that you would exin that." I said pointing to the sword that was still in her hand. Her left arm was dangling at her side so the sword, and the head that was stabbed through on the tip, were still there for us all to see.


    "Well, I conjured this sword when I was fighting Snum. I will start with that part of the story so that I can exin to you all what had happened while I was gone." Her voice was still strong and full of authority despite the exhaustion I saw in her eyes.


    "You''re referring to your time in the dark Fae realm." Gloriana asked which caused my Little Bunny to nod her head with a slight smile.


    "Yes. I had constantly been scanning the battlefield for any glimpse of Snum. I knew that if we took her out, the battle would end. I didn''t know how I knew it, I just did. And I think I was right. When I finally found her, she was conjuring more of those beasts to attack everyone."


    "Well, that exins why there were a lot less of them after Trinity disappeared. There were still some being sent out, but nowhere near as many." Trevor nodded as he spoke as if he were answering a question and not just making a statement.


    "Yes, that would be why." Trinity didn''t look at him when she spoke, she didn''t look at anyone. Instead, she was staring at the fire that was roaring behind the grate. "Now, when I got there, I saw that it looked a lot like the field I had left, only different colors, and definitely full of death and decay."


    "That is the lifeless part of the Fae realms, it was all that we left them when we decided to leave." Valerian didn''t seem bothered by what he heard or said.


    "Yeah, I gathered as much. Anyway, I knew that Snum was in there. She was hiding somewhere so I goaded her and forced her to give away her position."


    "How in the world did you do that?!" Gloriana wondered with a smile.


    "I screamed at her, repeatedly calling her Granny. She really hated that." That made everyoneugh. "Anyway, I found her, and she admitted to being able to influence people for years. She is actually the one that encouraged Hibiscus to follow through with her ns. I don''t want to say that she made her do it, but she might have given her the final push that she needed to actually do it all." I saw that Gloriana didn''t like hearing that, but there was nothing that we could do about it now. Hibiscus was already dead. "She also corrupted Grier and Curtis. She was trying her best to get someone to open the barrier. The closest that she got to it was a crack that Hibiscus put in it. And I am assuming that the information that Hibiscus had, like theyout of the dungeon, came from Snum. She used to be a prisoner there, as well as a resident of the castle."


    This was all starting to piss me off. This bitch had done so much, not just recently but in the past. She had really deserved to die.


    "A lot happened while I was in the dark realm. I learned to water walk." Trinity smiled and looked at Valerian who was smiling at the words. "The water taught me how." That made no sense to me at all but I let it slide for now. I wanted her to continue. "I used this ice sword that I made after Snum pulled a dark and steel de out of the air. I needed something that was more powerful than the sword I had gotten from Alloy and Sterling, not to mention, I don''t even remember where I had dropped it. As I fought Snum with this sword though, It was freezing her. Eventually, she frozepletely, but she was trying to run away at the time and so she fell forward, shattering herself. I brought her head back for proof that she was dead."


    "Proof is always a good thing." Valerian said as he took the head off the end of the sword and walked over to the firece. "Now that we have all seen that the enemy is dead, there is onest thing that I want to do." With that, he threw the head into the fire, and I heard it immediately hiss.. It was probably just the difference between the cold magic ice and the mes, but it was unnerving and made my skin crawl.

 Chapter 557 - Reece – What Happened To My Little Bunny Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 557 - Reece ¨C What Happened To My Little Bunny Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    We all sat there, listening to that awful hissing sound and just watched as the head began to burn. Or should I say, as the ice started to melt, and the head disappeared with it. It was like the head itself had be ice and was melting into nothingness as the ice disappeared.


    "Trinity, remind me to steer clear of that sword of yours." Trevor said as he looked at the fire, there was no hint ofughter or joking in his voice. He was beingpletely serious, and I could see why. If that sword could literally turn you into ice when you were cut with it, then you didn''t need to deliver a fatal blow to someone. Just a scratch would do the job over time.


    "I am still not sure how this sword works just yet." She said as she looked at the de. "But I think that it''s time that I put it away."


    "Great. And how do you n to do that?" Vincent looked at her with curious eyes.


    "I am not sure." She grinned as if that was funny. I guess in a way it was, none of us knew anything about this situation and this just seemed like theical icing on the cake.


    For a moment we all just watched my Little Bunny as she stared at her sword. It was like she was trying to make it shrink just by looking at it. I mean, I did something simr with my sword, I just thought that it was time to put it away and then it disappeared. It didn''t take too much effort, and it definitely didn''t shrink¡­ What the hell!


    As I watched my Little Bunny sitting on myp, her sword started to be smaller. All the extra bits of ice that were covering the de shrunk away. After a few moments, we were looking at a normal sword that was made of pure ice. It didn''t look all that different from the swords that Alloy and Sterling had provided for us, except for, you know, it was made of pure ice and had a blueish tint to it.


    "Does anyone have a scabbard?" Little Bunny asked without taking her eyes off the de.


    "We don''t tend to just leave them sitting around." Valerian sounded a little shocked at the moment. He wasn''t the only one.


    "No worries."


    Now, as we watched, there was a sparkling of light that was shining next to my Little Bunny''s left hip. It wasn''t much and it didn''tst long but it was there.


    When it was gone, though, there was a brand new, white leather scabbard on her side. The bindings that were on this particr scabbard were gold and it looked as if it had been sewn together with golden thread as well. The thing was beautiful, that was for sure.


    "That is beautiful, and just what I would expect from someone getting used to using Fae magic." Gloriana smiled at her. "Well done Trinity, well done. There is not a single w to your magic. I think you will even surpass me and Valerian with your natural ability." There was nothing but joy in Gloriana''s words, but I saw that despite that fact, my Little Bunny didn''t seem too thrilled.


    "Thank, Aunt Glory, it was a necessity." At that my Little Bunny shifted a little, pressing her body to mine more as she leaned into an angle that was better suited for sheathing the ice sword. The de slid in easily and seemed like it was a perfect fit.


    There was another thing that surprised me as well. The sword seemed to cloak itself so that its handle looked just like any other sword. A moment ago, the sword had a handle made of ice, now it looked like steel and leather just like any other de.


    "So, you n to keep it with you then?" Vincent asked her after the de had been put away.


    "I think that it wille in handy at times. And unlike Reece''s me sword, mine is solid so it cannot be sent away so easily. I could probably hide it magically and pull it out when I need it, but that is what Snum did and I don''t like the idea of doing that. I am also sure that Reece could store his sword like mine if he wanted to."


    She was talking like we were in more medieval times, like wearing a sword on your hip wasmon in our daily lives. OK, I admit it, the soldiers at the castle did, but not when they left the grounds because they couldn''t hide it.


    "Now that I think about it, concealing a sword like that would be good for others." She said as if she had been reading my mind.


    "Trinity, what else happened to you. Not in the dark realm, but on the battlefield. You seem different to me. Not just your marks but you yourself. You''re different." I wrapped my arms around her, holding her close to me and fearing that I was going to lose her if I ever let go.


    "Well, you all heard me ask Nehalennia, Thoth, and Danu for help saving Vincent."


    "Yes, we all heard that." Dietrich smiled as he leaned in close to Shawn, holding him in a simr fashion to how I was holding my Little Bunny, only Shawn was next to Dietrich and not on hisp.


    "Well, I didn''t think that they would actually help me. I wanted them to, but it was a stretch. I knew that, at the time, my magic wouldn''t have been enough to save him. He was already dying, and I didn''t want him to be lost to me. He is like family to me. He is actually like a symbol to me, a symbol that represents the time that I first became the Luna. He was there for me, my first ally in the strange new world that I had been thrust into. That is why I don''t want to do this whole Luna Queen thing without him. I need him just like I need all my guards. You''re all important to me, special in ways that you will never be able to know."


    I watched as she looked around the room at the men that had been protecting her for years now. All of her core guards were here. The new ones weren''t present but the original four, the main ones, were all here. While she openly showed them how much she needed them, Valerian, Daciana, Gloriana, Trevor, Dietrich and I were all forced to just watch the exchange.


    "I would do anything to protect you all. Not just my guards but every single person in this room. You are all family to me in one way or another, and I love you all. I would do anything for you. I would take on any enemy or challenge that was presented to me. I would make sure that I was strong enough to do anything that was expected of me. That is why I chose to ept the offer that was presented to me by Nehalennia, Thoth, and Danu.. I chose to be a true Goddess."

 Chapter 558 - Reece – What Happened To My Little Bunny Part 3 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 558 - Reece ¨C What Happened To My Little Bunny Part 3 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST SAY?" I couldn''t contain that outburst when I heard what my mate had just said. "What do you mean you epted their offer to be a true Goddess?"


    "Trinity, what is going? You can''t be a Goddess." Gloriana looked just as worried and scared as I felt.


    "Trinity, is this the difference that I sense in your essence?" Dietrich asked her. The whole room had basically exploded as everyone started to ask her what was going on.


    "Trinity, tell me you didn''t do something that will eventually hurt you. Not for my sake, please." Vincent looked like he was the most devastated by this news.


    "Aren''t you just the Goddess Incarnate? How can you be a true Goddess, Trinity? I don''t understand." Shawn, like Dietrich, could most likely sense the difference in Trinity''s essence but hadn''t known what it meant like Dietrich did.


    "No, Trinity, you didn''t. Why would you do something like that?" David looked as concerned as Vincent did.


    "Hell fucking yes, I think that my Luna and Queen ascending once more is awesome. Why are you all so fucking worried about this? This is Trinity we are talking about. She is the most badass bitch that I have ever met. If anyone was going to be a Goddess, then it''s got to be her. Congrattions Trinity, and I do expect you to tell us all what it is that actually went down." Shane was the only one that was in full support of this situation right now.


    "Thank you, Shane. And yes, if you would all settle down a little bit, I will most definitely tell you what happened to cause this. And I will tell you what I think it all means."


    "There''s more to it than you just being a Goddess now?" I asked her, my heart sinking and practically flying out of my throat at the same time. GAH! What did my Little Bunny do now?


    "Yes, there is more to it."


    There was a somber look in her eyes, something that told me that she hadn''t been too happy to ept the offer, but also that she knew it needed to be done. Once we were all silent, and ready to listen, my Little Bunny took a deep breath and started to exin to us what it was that had happened.


    "I had asked for help. I didn''t want Vincent to die. But when I felt them tugging at me, pulling me away from him, I refused to go. That was when the three celestials came to me. Nehalennia, Thoth, and Danu appeared in the clearing and time froze."


    She took a deep breath as she assessed the looks on our faces. I think that she was trying to make sure that none of us were going to interrupt her when she started to speak again.


    "When they came to me, I asked them to save Vincent. They told me that they had done so much for me already and asked if I truly wanted to have them do more. Even though I knew it was selfish of me, I told them yes. That was when they told me what it was that they could do. What it would mean if they gave me their help again."


    "What was it, Trinity? What did they do?" I had to ask. I knew she would probably tell us without prompting but I needed to speak the words nheless.


    "They told me that they could make the supernaturals more equal when it came to lifespans. They told me that the shifters of all types, the Fae, and the magic users would seemingly be immortal. So now, barring any life threatening injuries, our kind will not die. None of us. The Fae and the Vampires were already immortal, but the others weren''t. The magic users had longer lives, but they eventually aged and died. The shifters didn''t have that advantage. Now we''re all equal when ites to lifespans."


    "We''re immortal now?" Shane looked at her with wide eyes. "We won''t age?" He lookedpletely bbergasted but also somewhat happy.


    "That''s right."


    "There has to be more to it than that, though." I was looking down at her after she answered Shane''s question.


    "That is all that changed with everyone. The only other changes took ce within me." She avoided my eyes, and the eyes of everyone else for that matter.


    "What changes? Come on, tell me. If you don''t just tell me then I will call for Nehalennia, Thoth and Danu toe here and exin it to us." I meant it to be a joke, but she didn''t see it as that. Something had really happened while she was gone.


    "They can''t." She looked like she was on the verge of tears when she said that. "They can nevere here or call me to see them ever again."


    "Trinity, what happened to the Gods?" Valerian sounded as if he didn''t truly want to know.


    "What happened to mother?" Gloriana was even more emotional when she spoke.


    Fear was written all over Gloriana''s face, and likewise all over my Little Bunny''s face. She was scared to tell us what happened to them, but she was going to push through regardless. She was going to tell us what happened because we all needed to know.


    "They are gone but not gone."


    "That is cryptic." Trevor looked a little upset by her response. "What does that mean?"


    "They are no longer the beings that they were. Instead, they gave me their essence, their lives, to make me a Goddess. It was of their own insistence though. I didn''t ask for it. In fact, I tried to say no."


    Did she think that we were going to judge her for it? Did she think that we were going to be mad, angry, upset, afraid? I don''t know what was going through her head, but I was feeling more shock and in awe than anything else.


    "M..m..mother is gone?" Gloriana was the only one truly upset about this.


    "Yes and no." My Little Bunny answered her. "She isn''t a Goddess anymore, but she lives within me. They also said that I would have ess to them at times as well. So, she is inside of me, waiting to help us all here in this world. She was so upset about being so limited in her ability to help us. I don''t think any of them were happy living in the celestial realm. They missed this world and wanted toe back to it."


    "So, you''re a Goddess now, living among mortals?" I tilted my head and wondered what this would mean for her in the future.


    "There may be more ascended peopleter. I was told that there are other Gods wishing to return to this world. I was actually charged with helping them to do that." She looked embarrassed, like she didn''t want to be the one responsible for doing that.


    "I think you would be the best person to pick people for doing that." Vincent smiled at her. "You are our Goddess, Trinity, you always have been."


    The conversation seemed to being to a close. That was good too, considering how tired my Little Bunny was looking. After a little more exining and asking questions that had no answers to them right now, I decided it was time for us to head back to our residence. No one objected to that idea either.


    We gathered ourselves and left. This time, I didn''t even hide the fact that I was carrying my Little Bunny.. I just scooped her up into my arms as I stood and carried her all the way back to the house that we had inside the castle.

 Chapter 559 - Reece – Holding Onto My Little Bunny Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 559 - Reece ¨C Holding Onto My Little Bunny Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I carried my Little Bunny in my arms all the way through themunal space of the residence. I could feel the eyes of everyone else on us as I silently left them all behind and went up the stairs with her in my arms. They were all fine and no one was likely to die tonight so they didn''t need to worry.


    I wasn''t? afraid that Trinity was going to die or anything like that. But I was worried that she was going to disappear on me. That somehow, she was going to leave me and I would never be able to find her again. I don''t know why I was feeling this, it was just something that was there, sitting like a rock in my stomach and causing a painful ache in my heart with every beat. I can''t live without her. I just can''t let her go.


    Once I was at the top of the stairs, I went straight into our room and to the bathroom. I knew that she would want a shower, something to rx her. Not to mention, she was shaking just a little bit. It was almost like her body was slightly in shock from everything that had happened. And that slight trembling apanied a slight chill to her skin. A hot bath would be enough to help calm her a little bit, at least I could hope that it would.


    I held her against me as long as I could, but I needed to sit her down so that I could start to fill the tub. That was when I finally put her on the marble countertop and went to turn the water on. Once it was the right temperature, I let it fill up while I returned to my mate who had been watching me.


    "Why did you decide on a bath, Reece?" She looked like she hadn''t understood why I did it.


    "I could tell that you needed one. You need to rx and you''re cold. I want to take care of you." I gave her a soft smile, trying not to show her how worried that I was about her leaving me.


    "You were right, I really could use one right now. Are you going to take it with me?" She asked as she reached for my shirt. I could tell that she didn''t want to be alone, but the mood was not at all romantic or intimate. This was just us showing our love for each other.


    "Yes, I will be with you. I don''t want to leave your side at all. So, if you don''t mind, I want to bathe with you."


    "Reece?" She looked at me confused. I think she was worried about the intensity of my words and the sadness in my voice. I really didn''t want to worry her at all, but I was having so much trouble keeping everything to myself.


    "Come on, Little Bunny, let''s get these clothes off of you. The bath is almost done filling up, so you need to get in soon." I didn''t say anything else for the moment. I didn''t want to worry her anymore. I needed to control my emotions better. I needed to do better for her.


    Silently, I started to pull her clothes off of her. I started with her jeans for some reason. I guess to avoid looking at the marks that I knew were going to be different. Once they were off, along with her shoes, I started to lift her shirt up and over her head. I wanted to get her into the tub right away, even though we still have a little bit before it was done; tubs thisrge took a really long time to finish filling up.


    The moment that I lifted my Little Bunny''s shirt I noticed something else that was different about her. All of the marks that she had on her corbone, chest, and shoulders were gone. All of them. All the marks from the Goddesses and the God were no longer there. The mate mark that I had given her, the one that had changed several times already, had changed once again.


    That mate mark was now just an borate and elegant looking letter ''R'' that looked like someone skilled at calligraphy had given her a tattoo on her neck. It was ck and in a circle like most mate marks were. I could only hope that the ''R'' meant Reece, which would also mean that I was able to stay with her.


    All of the other marks I hade to know and love all over her body, all the ones that I was so used to were no longer there. I immediately missed them, wishing to see them again. I guess you don''t need blessings from Gods and Goddesses when you yourself are in fact a Goddess. That made sense to me at least.


    There was something else, though. I noticed in the mirror that there was a mark that never used to be there. A new one right there on her back. It was done in a very dark shade of gray and in the shape of a trinity symbol. It even had a circle around it, like the one that we often used for official royal business. It also looked like another tattoo that had been beautifully done on her skin. There was nothing else, just those two marks.


    She went from having so many marks, several different ones, to having only this one mark. It wasn''t small though. It was quite bigpared to all the others. It was there between her shoulder des and took up the entire space. If it had actually been a real tattoo, it would have taken a long time to finish itpared to the other smaller marks.


    "Your marks." I said as I ran a hand over her back.


    "They''re gone now, aren''t they?" She sounded sad, as if to not have them made her feel empty or something.


    "The ones that you did have are gone, yes. But you do have another mark. The mate mark, here, changed." I told her as I rested my hand against her neck. "And you have another mark here." I said as I ced both of my hands on the mark that was there on her back.


    "A new mark?" She didn''t sound all that concerned or worried about there being a new mark. "What does it look like?" When she lifted her head and our eyes met, I saw that she had tears threatening to spill down her cheeks.


    "It''s a trinity symbol. It''s dark gray and has a circle around its outer loops."


    "Just the one, and it''s not even colorful. What about the mate mark?" Her voice was t as she lowered her head until she could rest it against my chest.


    "ck circle with an borate letter ''R'' in it."


    "Well, I guess I am no longer an overly tattooed rainbow freak." She tried tough but it ended uping out in a sob.


    "Trinity?" I didn''t know what to do at the moment.. I didn''t even know why she was crying. What was I supposed to do right now?

 Chapter 560 - Reece – Holding Onto My Little Bunny Part 2 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 560 - Reece ¨C Holding Onto My Little Bunny Part 2 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "They''re gone, Reece. They''re all gone." She was still crying, pressing her face against my chest.


    "You''re still you, even without the marks." I didn''t know what else to say.


    "That''s not the point." She shook her head and finally lifted her head again. "The marks being gone mean that Nehalennia, Thoth, and Danu are really gone."


    "But you already knew that they were gone." I was confused.


    "I know. I know that I knew it because I was there when their power became mine, but that didn''t mean that I didn''t hold out hope that there would still be some sort of evidence of them still with me. I hoped that their marks would still be there, on my body, to prove that they were always with me."


    I think I am starting to get it now. She was afraid that they would never be there for her again.


    "They are part of you now, Little Bunny, they will always be there to help you when you need it because they are you."


    "I know, Reece, I know." She was still crying. There was just no stopping it right now.


    Not knowing what else to do, I took off the rest of her clothes as well as my own. Once we were both naked, I held her against my body and carried her over to the tub. It was ready for us now, so I stepped into it and shut the water off.


    I sat in the water and cradled my Little Bunny against me again. I didn''t want to let her go. I didn''t want to stop touching her. I needed this closeness with her. I needed to know that she was with me always and forever.


    Neither of us moved for a while, and neither of us talked for even longer. Without breaking the silence in the room, I had eventually started to clean her up a little bit, but I was more worried with just keeping herfortable than anything else.


    After a long time had passed, I decided that I needed to be the one to speak first. I could tell that my Little Bunny just wasn''t going to be the first one to say anything, not this time anyway.


    "Trinity?"


    "Yes, Reece?" Her voice was so quiet that I barely heard it, at least she answered, though.


    "Are you alright?" Above all else, even above wanting to make sure that we were going to be always together, that''s what I needed to know first.


    "I don''t know." That wasn''t veryforting.


    "Will you talk to me? Please? Just tell me what is bothering you." I didn''t want her to know that I was worrying so much, I just wanted her to think that I cared about her and that was all.


    "I don''t think I really know who I am anymore, Reece. I don''t know what to do now." That was sad to hear. I didn''t like hearing how heartbroken she was.


    "You''re Trinity Gray. You''re my wife. You''re my mate. You''re the Queen of the shifters and the magic users. That is who you are."


    "Except, now I am the Goddess of the Fae, the shifters, and the magic users. So, what does that really make me?"


    "You will still be the same person, Trinity. Nothing will change that."


    "Won''t you get sick and tired of all the things that have been happening to me? Won''t you want to leave me because you can''t take all the changes that have been happening?"


    "Trinity?" I spun her around on myp so fast that her head lolled around oddly. I didn''t care though, I needed to see her face, to see her eyes, so I could try to figure out what was going on in that head of hers. "What the hell makes you think that I will EVER leave you?"


    "I am such an anomaly. I have caused nothing but stress and heartache for you." She was crying. Openly crying with tearsing down her cheeks and her lip tremble, all of it.


    "I won''t leave you, Trinity. I have been sitting here trying to figure out a way to keep you from leaving me. Ever since we were in the clearing, I felt like you were going to disappear on me. I didn''t want to let you go because I thought that I would never find you again."


    "Reece?" I could see that she hadn''t expected my response to her words.


    "Trinity, you need to know that I will follow you wherever you go. If you be a flying purple alien, a Goddess, a normal person, an intergctic superhero, whatever and wherever, I will be there with you. The kids and I can''t live without you. I won''t let you leave me so easily. I will fight to stay right here with you where I belong. I don''t ever want to spend a day knowing that you and I aren''t together in this life. I need you, Trinity. Please, don''t leave me."


    "Reece?" She was still crying but with a smile on her face now, and I was happy to see that her lip had stopped trembling.


    "I love you, Little Bunny, I love you so much."


    "I love you too, Fido." She threw her arms around my neck and hugged me tightly. I was warring with myself about whether I wanted this hug or to press my lips to hers. Being this close to her was a good thing as well, and I didn''t want to ruin the moment that we were having.


    "Come on, let''s go to sleep. I can tell that you''re tired."


    I stood then, still holding her against my body, she even clung to me to make it easier for me to partially dry us off before we got into the bed. I didn''t let her leave me at all, even after weid down. I kept her in my arms and pressed my lips to her forehead.


    I held her like that all night. I didn''t so much as move a muscle all through the night. And when she fell asleep, long before me, I justid there and watched her while I listened to the soft, steady rhythm of her breathing. This was what I needed. This closeness, this proof that she was here with me. I needed to reaffirm that she was with me forever and ever, and I needed to relearn what her body felt like in my arms.


    I was d that she wasn''t going to leave me. I was d that I didn''t have to chase her across the world to make her know that I wasn''t going to let her leave me. However, I couldn''t believe that after all this time and everything that we''ve been through, she actually thought that I was going to leave her just because she became a Goddess. She was still my wife, still my mate, and that was never, ever going to change.


    When I did finally drift off to sleep, all I dreamt about was my Little Bunny. All the things that we have been through so far, the good and the bad. The fighting and hating each other in the beginning, the time Edmond kidnapped her and she got her wolf, our wedding, the time we saved the missing kids and then the time in France, when she killed Edmond and brought us back his head, she did like bring us back heads, huh. Then there was everything that happened after that, everything that got the Fae involved in our lives and changed our destinies forever. I didn''t leave her through any of that, I wouldn''t leave her now.. Not now, not ever.

 Chapter 561 - Trinity - Changes To The Marks (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 561 - Trinity - Changes To The Marks (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I woke up the morning after the battle wrapped in Reece''s arms. I could tell that he had held me all night and refused to let me go. I didn''t know how he kept his arms from hurting when he did this, but he managed it somehow. And I have to admit, I loved when he held me, it made me feel so safe and secure. And right now, I needed that.


    What I needed most of all right now was to know that I was still me. I needed to know that despite ascending to my new role as a Goddess I was still me, and that no one was going to be afraid of me or leave me.


    That was obviously something that both Reece and I were afraid of. He thought that with my newly received powers I wouldn''t need him or that I wouldn''t have a ce for him in my life anymore. That was just ridiculous. I couldn''t leave him now, not ever. I needed him, I needed everyone that had been with me on my way to where I am now. I needed Reece, I needed Talia, Reagan and Rika, I needed them all. Vincent, Shane, Shawn, David, Dietrich, Mom, Dad, Grandfather, L, Noah, Nikki, Carter, Emmalee, Juniper, Paul, Cedar, all of them and still even more.


    I may have just woken up, but I was already feeling anxious and nervous. I didn''t know what I should do. From now on, I wasn''t just Queen Trinity anymore. From here on out, I was supposed to be Goddess Trinity. Not that everyone knew about that just yet.


    The first thing that I was going to need to do was talk about all of this with my guards, my family, the goddess guards, the people in the castle, everyone that would be directly affected by me and what this new ''title'' of mine might affect.


    There was a lot to think about, a lot to deal with, and a lot of talks that I had to prepare for. That sounded oh so fun. Oh, no, that is not sarcasm dripping from every single thought in my head right now, I am really, truly looking forward to that headache, I mean wonderful time.


    I decided it was actually time to wake up now. I had been sitting in Reece''s arms, feigning sleep for long enough. He was still asleep though, so I had no reason for me to really want to get up.


    The moment that I stretched and started to move so that I could get up, Reece called out to me and squeezed me closer to him.


    "Don''t leave me." His words came out on a mumble. He was still worried about that? Was this going tost a long time? I hope not, because I have got to pee.


    "Reece, I am just getting up for the day." I put my hand on his arm and patted it soothingly.


    "Please, don''t leave me." He grumbled again, holding me a little bit tighter.


    "If you squeeze me any tighter then I am going to piss all over you. I need to get up, Reece." That at least made him loosen his arms from around me and stretch his muscles a little, which by the way he did without taking his arms from around me.


    "I don''t want to be alone." He blinked and looked at me like he was saying a casual hello.


    "And I don''t want to piss my bed. I think you can be alone for the time it takes me to go to the bathroom."


    I pushed him away and this time he let me go. I was up and rushing to the bathroom within seconds. He was also getting up and following me. Ugh, stupid Fido.


    "I need to go as well, when you''re done." He smirked at me while standing there naked. We had gone straight to bed after our bath so neither of us had gotten dressedst night. It did make it easier for me to use the bathroom, I didn''t have to pull anything down first.


    "Is this going to be a regr urrence?" I asked him as I tried to hide myself. I didn''t need him watching me go to the bathroom.


    "I don''t know what you''re even talking about." I sighed and just rolled my eyes. I had scared the hell out of him yesterday, I guess I needed to give him time.


    After I used the facilities, I went to wash my hands. Reece did indeed go after I did and went to wash his hands as well. I was d that we had a double sink, because I was taking the opportunity to brush my teeth while he used the other sink.


    I was thinking about the marks that were missing from my body. The ne of trinity symbols that connected them all over my shoulders, neck, and back. They were all gone now. All I had was the mate mark that Reece had given me, though it was different now. And apparently arge mark on my back that was just a trinity knot.


    I had grown used to all of my marks and I actually missed them. I had onceined about them, but that was when they were so new to me. Now, though, not seeing them there, it felt like something was wrong with me.


    "Hey, I didn''t notice thatst night." Reece was looking at my back while he dried his hands.


    "Didn''t notice what?" I asked him after I spat the toothpaste into the sink. He answered me while I started to rinse my mouth out.


    "These little lines." He was tracing the mark on my back with his finger as he spoke. "There are thin little lines of color on them."


    "Really?" I was curious as to what it meant, but I didn''t know at the moment.


    "Yeah, this one in the middle is the same sapphire blue as your wolf has. The one on the top outer side is the same color purple as the magic you used yesterday. And this other outer line is like the golden colored flecks that were in your magic. I guess it''sbining all the colors that make up you."


    "Where did the purple and golde from, though? The blue has always been part of me, but the others haven''t." I was still confused right now, it was way too early to think.


    "I am guessing it''s from the others. Thoth had red light, and Nehalennia had blue, those make purple. And Danu was gold, I remember that. So, they just became a part of you, that''s all.


    "Huh. That makes sense." I smiled a little. They really were still part of me. I was thinking about that as I turned to look at Reece. I saw that he still had all the same marks that he did before. None of them disappeared. I was about to sigh and look a little sad before I saw that there was one mark that did change.


    He had the paw and crescent moon mark that so many others had. It meant that he was goddess blessed. Well, the coloring of it changed a little bit. Before it was a sapphire blue paw print and a silver moon. Well, the paw stayed the same, but the moon was now a light purple color and both marks were outlines in gold. They looked pretty but it was interesting to see that they were different.


    As I looked closely, checking for other differences, I saw that his mate mark had also changed. It was now an elegantly written letter ''T'' in a circle. They were simple and easy to tell that we matched. To a normal person, it would look like we just got each other''s initials tattooed on us.. We knew the real meaning behind it though and that was all that mattered.

 Chapter 562 - Trinity- What Happens Now (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 562 - Trinity- What Happens Now (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After Reece and I got ready for the day, it was time for us to head down for breakfast. I was hungry and needed to eat, but I also didn''t want to wait to discuss what was important right now.


    "Dietrich, Shawn, Shane, David, Vincent, can all of you please join me for breakfast in my room?" I asked them before turning to Roisin. "Can you please bring everything upstairs for us."


    "Of course, mydy. I will be there soon." She bowed her head slightly and started to prepare the food to go upstairs.


    The five men that I asked to join me had curious eyes but none of them looked like they were going to say no. Not that they would ever do that anyway. They all knew that I wouldn''t ask this of them unless there was a reason.


    All of us started up the stairs to mine and Reece''s room. Our room was by far thergest in the residence and was more than big enough for what it was that we needed, but I got to thinking about something else. ''There isn''t a table big enough for us to eat in there.''


    Well, I guess I would need to take care of that. I was a goddess now, not to mention I was already proficient at magic before I became a goddess. I could take care of this issue with no problem at all.


    All I did was imagine what it was that I wanted to be in the room before we got there. I was picturing a table where the seven of us could sitfortably and easily. I wanted it to be good for breakfast as well as our discussions.


    The moment that Reece got to the room, he opened the door for me. I stepped into the room before him and saw that the table that I had envisioned was actually there. It was a beautifully designed table with a ck wrought iron frame and topped with a blue tinted ss. It was beautiful and worthy of being in a Queen''s room, but it was also simple.


    There were chairs that matched the table as well. Their frames were wrought iron as well, but they were covered in soft, luxurious fabric cushions. I knew without even sitting in them that they were going to be veryfortable.


    "Queen Trinity." Vincent, who walked into the room behind me, hurried over to the chair that was at the head of the table and pulled it out for me.


    "Thank you, Vincent. But please be your usual self, at least right now. I don''t want to put on a persona right now."


    "If that is what you want, Trinity, then I have no problem with it either." He smiled at me as I sat down, and he pushed the chair in for me. After that, Reece sat to my left where there was another seat ready for him. The others sat on either side of the table. Vincent was the closest to me on the right as the head of the guards.


    "Trinity, to what do we owe the pleasure of a private breakfast with you this morning?" Dietrich was smiling at me from his ce next to Shawn.


    "I think you all know what it is that I want to talk about." I looked at each one of them in turn as I spoke.


    "Yeah, I think we do." David was nodding. "You''re not just Queen Trinity anymore. Now you are a Goddess, and that will most likely change a few things."


    "Not to mention, we are all immortal now, or extremely long lived." Shane added. "I know that some of us were already, technically, immortal." He looked over at his twin brother and brother inw. "But now the rest of us can enjoy that benefit as well."


    "Yes, it is a benefit for all of the mixed race couples that had vastly different life spans prior to the immortality sharing. However, I don''t know if everyone in our collective groups of people will want that immortality so they mighte to resent me for that."


    That made them all stop to think about that. They might all be happy and excited about the immortality thing, but not everyone wants to live forever. Some people get tired of life after centuries of living. I had talked about this with Dietrich once a long time ago. After he had turned Shawn into a hybrid. We had talked about his long life and what it was like to be immortal. He admitted that there were times that he wished that he had never be a vampire and that he had a human lifespan. But he also said there was much that one could do when you didn''t have the time constraints of a mortal life.


    "Are you worried that your people are going to revolt against you for having given them eternal life?" Dietrich was the one who asked this since he was the one among us who knew the most about the long lives of immortals.


    "I think that is part of it." I said as there was a knock on the door. It seemed that Roisin was here with the food.


    We put our discussion on hold while she served us our meal. I trusted Roisin, and she was a valued member of my family and inner circle, but I was just talking to the guards for right now. I still hadn''t brought Gabriel in here to talk to him. I thought I would do that after the original group had their chance to speak about all of this. These men sitting before me have been there with me since the beginning. Even Dietrich felt like he had been there all along, even though I met him not long before my wedding. He was still a vital and important yer in all of this.


    As soon as Roisin was done and I thanked her, she left the room and the conversation continued from where it left off.


    "I really don''t think that your people will revolt over that, Trinity." Vincent was giving me a soft look. They will know that you truly didn''t have a choice in the matter. From what you said yesterday, the Gods may have offered you the role, but I don''t really think you could have refused them. That means that you didn''t have any other options. And you did this to protect all of your people, not just me." It was like he was trying to say that I never should have done something so major just for him. Did he not know how important he was to me, to all of us?


    "No, I most likely didn''t have a choice. However, maybe there was a benefit to epting it rather than having it forced onto me. I can''t say just yet because I need to learn about it all myself as well and that will take time."


    "I think that we should just keep things the way they are right now and see what needs to change as ites up. We need to adopt a ''one day at a time'' mindset for right now." Reece was looking at me with worried eyes, I know he was still wondering if I was going to stay with him. I actually think he might expect me to go live in the celestial realm.


    "Reece." I took his hand and spoke softly. "I became a Goddess because the Gods were tired of living in the celestial realm. They are not going to expect me to live there. The other gods want toe here. They want to return to earth." Finally, his eyes rxed a little, that had truly been what was bothering him.


    "I think Reece is right." Vincent''s voice was firm and steady. "I believe that everything should stay the same for right now. We''ve already got our kingdom established. Queen Gloriana can remain in charge of the Fae, and you rule your people. We can modify things over time, but for now this is what works for us."


    "Yeah, I think you''re right."


    We discussed a few more things about everyday culture for when we got back home. I thought that would be the end of the conversation, but that was when Shane spoke up.


    "Oh, yeah, Trinity, did you change our marks?" His words caught me off guard and I didn''t know what to say to that.


    "Huh?"


    "Our marks. You know, the Goddess Guard marks. They''re different. The coloring is all different."


    As Shane spoke, he pulled down the cor of his shirt to show me that the mark for the Guards was indeed different. It was still shaped the same, but now it was all gray. I am guessing that it was the same color as the mark on my back. But just like Reece said there was in mine, there were thin little colored lines of blue, purple, and gold.


    "I think they changed when she ascended. The coloring matches her mark." That was all that Reece said to exin it to them. After that, the conversation, and breakfast, came to an end.


    I hoped that everything went as smoothly as they were thinking that it would. I didn''t know what was truly going to be different about me until I made it back home, and at that point, it would be toote to strategize like this. I was nervous, scared, and excited.. I guess I truly was the kind of person that took on too much and lived an exciting life even if I didn''t mean to.

 Chapter 563 - Reece – Gathering The Council (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 563 - Reece ¨C Gathering The Council (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    After my Little Bunny had summoned all of the guards to join us for breakfast in our room, we went to see Gloriana and Valerian in the usual study. There was a lot more that all of us needed to talk about, but we didn''t want to keep having the same talk over and over again. To save us some time and possibly some headaches, we decided to call for all of the council members to join us.


    Thest time that we brought some of the council with us, they had all stayed in our residence. This time, however, the entire council was here so they were sort of spread out all over the ce. This made things a little easier on them and us. I didn''t really want them all staying at our ce, even if we could have made it biggesr at will.


    The truth of it was, I just didn''t want to have to deal with them, talk to them on a regr basis. I liked the members of the council, I really did, but I didn''t know them all that well. They were fine to have a meeting with, but I didn''t want to live with them. Who knows what kind of weird habits they might have. There is no telling what they might be like when they were in the ''off'' mode and no longer ''working'' for us. Sorry but that was not an appealing thought to me. They can go and be who they wanted to be when I wasn''t around somece else. And I was going to be myself with my wife and mate while we had our ce mostly to ourselves.


    Yeah, yeah, I know I am rambling. I just got out of a war, so I think I am allowed to have a few rambling moments. All I can think about right now is my wife and kids. My family was the most precious thing in the world for me and that is why I didn''t shy away from these battles at all. I needed to protect them, to keep the world safe for them.


    I was thinking about this while we prepared for and headed to the meeting. I knew that this was going to be a long, boring meeting. That was going to be a little torturous for me, but as long as my Little Bunny was there with me that would be fine. I could handle anything with her next to me. That was what I always told myself, though. Usually it worked, sometimes though, not even her presence was enough to make these meetings bearable.


    Once we left the residence and we were walking down the hall to the meeting, I saw Landon. I hadn''t actually seen him since he was fighting in the battle yesterday. I had been so preupied with my mate that I hadn''t even thought about checking on everyone else.


    "Landon." I said as I sped up just a little to walk next to him, this left my Little Bunny walking behind me, but I don''t think she cared all that much.


    "Hey, Reece." He smiled at me.


    "I am d to see that you''re unhurt." This wasn''t exactly an apology word for word, but I know that he understood that I was saying something along the lines of ''hey, sorry for not checking to see if you were even alive yesterday''. Yeah, I had been a bit hyper focused and wasn''t able to stop myself. Sorry buddy.


    "Nah, it''s fine. I was busy anyway." That piqued my interest.


    "Busy? With what?"


    I was just looking at him with a dumbfounded expression. He was looking back at me but unlike me, he looked happy. Really happy.


    "What is up with you?" His dopey grin was kind of unnerving, and I didn''t know why.


    "I am just really happy, that''s all." He almost looked like he was about to start skipping down the hallway.


    "Dude, stop, you''re creeping me out." I wanted tough at him, but I just couldn''t bring myself to do it.


    Behind me there was a soft and sweetugh that interrupted us. I recognized it immediately, but I didn''t know why my Little Bunny wasughing right now. Maybe sheughed at Landon in my ce.


    "What is so funny, Trinity?" I asked her without taking my eyes off of Landon''s creepily happy face.


    "I am surprised you can''t tell what has made him so happy, Reece." She was still giggling. "Congrattions, Landon. I am very happy for you."


    For some reason, when my Little Bunny said that Landon''s smile got even wider before heughed embarrassedly.


    "Thanks, Trinity. I am truly happy about it."


    "Happy about what?" I was still missing something here and I didn''t even realize it.


    "Fido, you dolt, he found his mate. I am guessing he met her much like Rhinum found his mate in the battle from before. Am I right?" She said thatst part directly to Landon who was nodding happily.


    "Yeah, when I was out on the battlefield, I smelled her. She had scented me too and we searched each other out and worked together to fight every enemy that came our way. It was intense and amazing to say the least. But I loved it. During that entire time I didn''t leave her side once I found her. We fought together and rested together."


    "Really?" Now that I finally knew what was going on, I was able to be happy for my friend.


    "Yeah, really."


    "Congrats man. What''s her name?"


    "Her name is Ava, she is an eagle shifter from Noir''s n."


    "Haha, that''s funny." I couldn''t stop theughter froming from me.


    "Well, at least they won''t be fighting like cats and dogs." My Little Bunny knew why I hadughed.


    "Yeah, he''ll just eat her." At that Landon blushed bright red and turned away from me.


    "Dumbass." He started to walk a little faster to hide his embarrassment. I could still tell that he was smiling, though, so he wasn''t that upset about it. That was good.


    I was happy for him. He was one of my best friends and I knew that he had been lonely for a long time. I was d that he was able to find someone to be with, someone to help ease the pain of loneliness that he has been feeling.


    We all continued onward toward the study that the meeting was going to be in. my Little Bunny and Gloriana were going to be sitting at the head of the meeting like they had donest time we got some of the council together here.


    I was sitting next to my wife and mate while Trevor was next to Gloriana. The rest of the council members all sat around therge table that had been put into the magically expanded room. It was a little unnerving to see all of them here in one ce following the battle that had just urred. Part of me wanted to wait a day or two, or twenty, before we had to start hashing everything out. Oh well, this was the life of those that were in charge of others.. We were always busy.

 Chapter 564 - Trinity – Meeting With The Council (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 564 - Trinity ¨C Meeting With The Council (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    We were all gathered. All of the council, me, Reece, Aunt Glory, all of us. This was going to be a big meeting and there was going to be some revtions given to the others soon. I didn''t know why, but every single time that I sat before the council like this, I was nervous.


    I really shouldn''t be nervous at all. I mean, they worked for me. They were a council that I founded with the help of those around me. I was the one that gave them the power that they had. Still, I always felt like a little kid in school that was about to give a report to all of their teachers at once.


    I truly felt like there was going to be several of them criticizing me because you could never truly please them all at once. It had never happened, of course. They had all been truly agreeable with me in the past. There had never been any major arguments or fights that broke out among my council. Truly, it has always been going way better than I had ever hoped that it would.


    As good as it all was though, I was still nervous. Every damn time. Maybe that nervousness was something that helped it to go smoothly. I don''t know, but I know that it was a tradition for me at least.


    I looked over at Reece who was sitting next to me before I opened the meeting. I, being the leader of the council, was always expected to start the conversation and get it all underway.


    "Wee, all of you. Thank you foring after you all fought so hard for us yesterday. I am d that none of you were hurt and that we were able to prevail in this incident."


    They were all looking at me. Come on people, you''re going to make me have weird fears about me being in my underwear in school or something. UGH! Stop staring at me so hard.


    "Queen Trinity, we heard that you were able to end the war by ying Snum, is that correct?" Anastasia was the first to speak up among the group. Most likely because she was a Fae and wanted to make sure that the threat to her people was gone.


    "Yes, Snum is dead." I nodded at her as I spoke. "While we are on the subject of yesterday, what happened to all the dark Fae that were not killed in the battle?"


    "They have been ced in the dungeons for the time being. They are under constant surveince to protect the people of Fae until we decide what to do with them." Athair m¨°r was the one to answer this question. I guess he and Aunt Glory had done some more work after I left the meeting yesterday.


    "We need to discuss what to do with them and where to go from here." I held my hand out toward Gabriel who was here with us now. He knew what it was that I wanted and handed me the leather bound notebook that I used to take notes during these meetings. All of the council members had one simr to it and we would all use them during these times.


    "Trinity, I think there are also some very important facts that you need to share with everyone else here." Athair m¨°r gave me an encouraging nod.


    "Yes, you are right."


    Everyone looked at me with curious eyes. Not all of them knew about what happened yesterday, so this was going to be a very informative part of the meeting for them. I just hoped that none of them got angry or upset about what they were going to learn throughout this talk.


    After that, it was time for me to tell them all the tale of the previous day. I started where I did with the others, how I had been searching all over for any sight of Snum. This time, I decided to be a little more thorough. Most of the people here didn''t know anything about the dark Fae realm so I exined to them all what it was like.


    With great detail, I told them all about the way that I was lowered by magic to the bottom of the tunnel. I exined to them the way that the foggy barrier clung to my body. Reece took the opportunity to tell me that he tried to follow me into the dark Fae realm, but that fog threw him back and he was forcibly ejected from the tunnel. That was news to me.


    I did my best to try and tell them how nightmarish it looked inside that ce. How it was nothing but death and decay. That it all looked like it was grown straight into death with pre rotten fruits and withered flowers. It was not a pleasant ce at all.


    After telling them all about the way the world there looked, I told them about my interactions with Snum. I told them about the things that were said, and the precise actions taken during the fight. They were all quite interested in the water walking that I had done, as well as the fact that the water spoke to me.


    They were also interested in the sword that I had conjured, so I was happy that I had brought it with me. I even reapplied the ice shards to it so that it was back to its full form that it was in yesterday.


    Once I concluded the story about Snum, I told them all about Vincent''s injuries and my calling upon Nehalennia, Thoth, and Danu. I told them of the offer that was made to me and my eptance. Everyone who had not already been informed about this gasped in surprise. They had never expected that I would once again ascend, or that I would ept the power of three celestial beings into my body.


    The shifters among them were also very surprised to learn that they were all now immortal. That caused a big stir and a lot of voices talking at once. No one quite knew what to expect from our immortality, so I didn''t me them. This was going to be a new learning experience for us all.


    Finally, when I had said everything that I needed to, it was time for me to look up at them all once again. More than two dozen pairs of eyes were on me, all of them curious and determined.


    ''I wonder what they''re all thinking.'' I thought to myself. It was at that moment that all of the council members, everyst one of them, rose to their feet in one smooth, extremely well coordinated move before bowing to me. The only people in the room that weren''t bowing to me were Reece, Aunt Glory, and Athair m¨°r. I noticed that even Gabriel, who had been listening to this information for the first time, had joined those that were bowing to me.


    "All hail the Goddess Queen." Rahim was the first to speak, however once those words were out of his mouth everyone else echoed them, all the voices speaking in unison.


    "ALL HAIL THE GODDESS QUEEN."

 Chapter 565 - Trinity – Decisions (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 565 - Trinity ¨C Decisions (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    This was ufortable. I had just managed to get everyone to stop bowing and to go back to their seats, but it was still very strange to me that they reacted like that to my announcement. And the fact that they did it all at once.


    I had to wonder if they had all spoken through a mental connection and decided to do it as a group. That would make sense, but it would also be a little weird. Oh well, I don''t know if I truly want to know about it right now. Some mysteries are best left unsolved.


    Now that the meeting could get back on track, I wanted to talk to them all about what to do with the prisoners. We couldn''t ignore the fact that we had a lot of dark Fae here in the castle right now. And honestly, I didn''t know if I fully trusted Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r to deal with them properly.


    Well, I guess I would never know who was capable of doing something unless I tried. We needed to solve this together, but Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r would need to deal with these types of situations on their own soon. This was a chance to see what it was that they had in mind for the solution.


    "Athair m¨°r, what do you think we should do with the dark Fae that survived the battle?" It was a serious question, and I could tell that it immediately darkened the mood in the room by several degrees.


    "Well, to be honest Trinity, I think that the best option would be to execute them all. That would be the safest thing for us to do. It would give everyone the peace of mind to know that the threat was gone permanently."


    "OK, that is your opinion. Aunt Glory, what do you think we should do about this situation?" I wanted to see if they agreed or not on this.


    "I disagree with my brother. I am not against an execution when it is necessary but there are simply too many of them to justify it. We are talking about nearly a thousand Fae, there is no justification for killing that many people."


    "Glory, are you forgetting that there were over nine thousand dark Fae killed in the battle, and then there were the nearly two thousand Fae, shifters, magic users, and vampires. And nearly eight times that many were injured." Athair m¨°r turned to his sister to try and justify his position.


    "That is my point, Val, there has been enough death, enough heartache. Let us all move forward and heal now."


    I could see where they were bothing from with this. It wasn''t hard to understand what they were both feeling right now, but I also had my choice to add here.


    "Well, I am of the opinion that we lock them all back into the dark Realm. I understand where you areing from, Athair m¨°r, I truly do. However, I do not wish for my first act as a Goddess to be mass murder." I could see that he was not happy, but he wasn''t going to argue with me. "I am not saying that they do not need to be punished. They will all be made aware of the fate that awaits any of them that try to start another war. I also n to strip them of their magic before sending them over there again."


    There were several gasps at that deration. I don''t think that they expected me to say such a thing.


    "Trinity, if you''re going to take their magic, do we need to resort to them being banished?" Kayda asked me with a shocked tone in her voice.


    "Just because they no longer have magic doesn''t mean that they are no longer a threat. They couldmit other crimes against people. They can, and most likely will, still harbor ill feelings toward the Fae that live in the light."


    "Yes, I do see what you mean." Kayda nodded in understanding. I was d that they were seeing my point so easily.


    "Does anyone else have a suggestion or idea of how to deal with the dark Fae?" I asked for more opinions from the others.


    "I think that you and Queen Gloriana have the right idea about it." Anastasia spoke softly. "They need to be punished, but murder should not be the punishment."


    Everyone else started to give their agreement to it all as well. It was decided then that we would address the prisoners, strip them of their magic, and send them back to the dark Realm. Aunt Glory, Athair m¨°r, and I would be sealing the barrier together this time. Adding my magic to the mix will make it much stronger against sabotage.


    It was decided that the prisoners would be dealt with tomorrow morning. None of us wanted to have them here longer than we had to, but there were still a lot of things that we needed to get done today. That meant that we needed to postpone that particr task.


    Now that the council knew about my new status and the punishment was settled, there was nothing that they needed to discuss with us. I dismissed everyone that wasn''t part of my inner circle and let them go about their day. A lot of them had to make funeral and travel arrangements back to their homes.


    With just Aunt Glory, Trevor, Athair m¨°r, Daciana, Landon, Riley, Dietrich, and Shawn left among the group, and of course Reece and I as well, it was time to discuss another matter.


    "Trinity, what was so important that you needed to talk to just us?" Conveniently, Trevor was the one to start this part of the conversation. That was good, since he was part of the reason that we were all still here.


    "There is something that we need to reschedule. And I think I know what we need to do with all of this so that it kills two birds with one stone." I know that my answer was a little cryptic, that was obvious based on the looks that everyone was giving me.


    "Reschedule what?" Athair m¨°r asked me.


    "What are you even talking about?" Reece asked me, just as confused as everyone else.


    "We need to reschedule Aunt Glory''s wedding to Trevor, we need to hold a banquet for the end of the war, and we need to honor those that were lost. We can put at least two of those things together into one event."


    "Oh!" Aunt Glory and Trevor both said at the same time.


    We spent the next hour or so talking about when to hold the events. We weren''t going to put as much emphasis on the wedding asst time, but I wanted to make sure that Aunt Glory had her moment. She deserved that after all this time. She needed to be made to feel special.


    It was decided that all three events would be one. That sounds morbid, but there were several people that wanted to attend the wedding but would not be able to stay here for too much longer now that the war was over. So, we were going to have the wedding, banquet, and honoring ceremony in a week. Most of the people that were here were going to be going home before that time and then the citizens of the city would return just in time.


    The ns were set, and we all called it a day. I went back to the residence with Reece to enjoy the rest of my day. I told everyone that was there about the new change in my title. Roisin, Noah, Carter, all of them that hadn''t found out the day before. The next thing that I was going to need to do was to tell my family about it.


    Hmm, I wonder what they will say. And not to mention the kids. What will they all think about this when they get older? What will our lives be like when the kids are older? I guess we will all just find out as time goes on. That is the only thing that we can do.


    I was going to put the future out of my mind. I was going to try and focus on the wedding and then getting back home to my family.. I needed to not think about the future and what was going to happen years from now.

 Chapter 566 - Trinity – Dungeons Part 1 (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 566 - Trinity ¨C Dungeons Part 1 (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The following morning, I was once again feeling nervous. I knew that I needed to finalize the punishment for the dark Fae, but that didn''t mean that I was going to enjoy it and have a grand ole time. This was work, business, and nothing else.


    I know that I was sitting there, looking somber throughout breakfast. I didn''t talk to anyone, and I barely even made eye contact with those around me. I was trying to get myself into the right mindset to strip people of magic and banish them to a wastnd for the rest of their lives.


    Yeah, this was going to be easy.


    Once we were done eating, it was time for us to head to the dungeon. Athair m¨°r and Aunt Glory wereing along with me, Reece, Gabriel, Vincent, Shawn, Dietrich, Shane, and David. I was not given permission to go without my guards and assistant, of course, me as a Goddess Queen could not handle myself without the big strong men with me.


    I sighed at my internal sarcastic remark. I knew they meant well and that they were just worried about me, but sometimes that worrying really got on my nerves. They''re all really lucky that I loved them. My mate and my brothers, that was what the guards had be for me. They were my family now, and that is what they would be for the rest of their very long lives.


    The dungeon was in the catbs that were beneath the castle. They were a series of tunnels that twisted and turned in so many different directions that it would definitely be easy to get lost.


    If I didn''t have Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r to guide me in the right direction, I would never have made it to the heart of the maze where the dungeons were. I did have them though, so after about an hour of walking we emerged into therge opening that led into hallways filled with cells. I didn''t think that there would be that many cells in here, but I guess since there were nearly a thousand prisoners in here, there would have to be a lot of them.


    "Let us out of here." One of the voices yelled out as soon as we came into view. "You have no right to keep me in here." The man was colored like the night. His skin was pure ck, and his eyes were all a very dark gray, there weren''t even any whites to his eyes. The only relief to the ck and that dark, dark gray was when he opened his mouth and we saw the light gray of his teeth and tongue. There literally was no other color to him aside from ck and gray.


    "You are a prisoner of war; we are well within reason to imprison you here." I snapped at him after he whined at me.


    "And who are you?" He growled at me.


    "This is the Goddess Queen, Trinity Gray." Aunt Glory introduced me to them.


    "Goddess Queen, ha, that isn''t even a thing." The manughed at her words like he thought she was intentionally lying to him.


    "There wasn''t, until yesterday." Athair m¨°r''s voice was full of anger. "However, the Fae mother, Danu, the God of magic, Thoth, and the Moon Goddess, Nehalennia, all gave their power to Trinity. She is now the Goddess for nearly the entire supernatural world. You will listen to what she says and furthermore you will do as she instructs you to do."


    I could sense disbelief among the dark Fae. None of them believed what they were being told. They didn''t care that it was the Fae Queen or the Prince of the Fae telling them these things, they would never believe the enemy.


    "Lies!"


    "You''re trying to manipte us."


    "Go to hell!"


    There were so many people yelling all at once but those were the snippets that I managed to hear out of them all. They needed to see proof, they needed to know that I was who we were saying that I was.


    Hmm, now how was I going to prove to someone that I was a Goddess? What made Goddesses and Gods different from other people? I had to think about this, but I had to think as quickly as I could.


    Well, I thought of one thing, and it was simple. Show them my true form. I wanted to tap into the power that I had been given and show them at least a little bit of that power. I needed them to see it with their own eyes. I needed them to see me in my true ''Goddess'' form.


    I let the magic flow through me. I didn''t think about what to do from there. The magic within me would know what it needed to do. All I needed to do was ept it and allow it to take me over.


    A heat rose up inside of me. It started at my toes and moved up my entire body in a quick moving flutter, it didn''t hurt, it felt pleasant and soothing. That heat was almost immediately followed by a wave of cold. It was a calm, soothing sort of cold that made me feel like I was sitting in the air conditioning on a hot summer day.


    After those sensations went through me it was like I could feel everything. I could literally feel the air all around me. I could feel the shifting of pressure even when someone breathed.


    Aside from feeling everything, I could tell that I was glowing. It was like my skin was literally shining. That was at least a little bit of a differencepared to how I was before. Not as much of a change as I thought I would get, but it was enough for now. Hopefully they would see that I wasn''t just a normal person now.. Then again, I didn''t know what they were likely to believe and what they weren''t.

 Chapter 567 - Reece – Trinity The Goddess (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 567 - Reece ¨C Trinity The Goddess (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    As I watched, my Little Bunny was changing. She started to glow with a bright, shimmering, blue light. The light was only shimmering because it had flecks of gold dust inside of it that was reflecting the light around us.


    That wasn''t all that changed about my Little Bunny, though. Not by a long shot. She became so much more beautiful. She was radiant and Goddess-like. That was all that I could describe it as. She literally looked like she was a goddess that hade down to walk with us mere mortals.


    And to top it all off, she had thin, nearly see-through wings on her back that had sprouted from her back. It looked like these wings had been formed of those thin purple, blue, and gold colored lines that so lightly traced the mark on her back. The wings were more like the ones you would expect to see on a dragon than on a Goddess. Then again, I didn''t think that Goddesses had wings, so that was new to me as well.


    The thin lines formed the outline as well as what looked like pulsing, magical veins that fed the wings with their true magical oddity. Inside the outlines of the wings was another sort of shimmering light.


    The wings shimmered with the light of a rainbow. I could see red, blue, green, yellow, and many more colors filling them. The rainbow wasn''t like the ones you see in the sky, meaning it wasn''t an arch. No, this rainbow of color was like many different splotches of color that filled therge space of each wing. Each color even appeared multiple times making it look like it was a beautiful tie-dye pattern. They were honestly stunning to look at, even forgetting the fact that they were literally magical wings that came out of nowhere.


    Physically, that was all that changed about my Little Bunny. There wasn''t much else that you could just look at her and see that was different, but it felt like there was so much more. There was just something that told me that she was channeling a lot of power, a lot of strength.


    Even the air around my Little Bunny seemed different. That might have been what it was that was telling me that there was something else different about her. It was like the closer to Trinity that you were, the harder it was to breathe.


    Was that thickness in the air just the pressure of her power? Or was it some sort of Goddess quality that we had never experienced before?


    Trinity and I both had spent time around the celestials and neither of us have ever spoken about not being able to breath, not even when their attention was focused right on us. I had to wonder if this was because my Little Bunny had been given the power of three celestials at once. Did that mean that she was stronger than any of the other Gods and Goddesses in existence?


    "What the hell is this!?" The man who had been yelling at my Little Bunny earlier, the exact same one who had told her to go to hell and had pissed me off with his rudeness, was the one to speak first following my Little Bunny''s show of power.


    "What are you?"


    "What did you do?"


    "This can''t be real."


    "I can''t believe what I am seeing."


    "No, this isn''t real, it can''t be."


    So many denials of what it was that they could see for themselves. This was a major shock for all the dark Fae that had thus far not believed that Trinity was telling them the truth about herself.


    "You all refused to listen." Gloriana spoke next. "This is the Goddess, Trinity. She has the power of three different celestial beings inside of her. She has ascended once again and has taken charge of almost the entire world that lies hidden from the humans."


    "This woman you see before you is my great great great granddaughter. She has the blood of the mother Goddess, Danu, running in her veins. She is a child of Thoth with his blood running inside of her. And she is also a child of Nehalennia, with yet another celestial bloodline running thick in her veins. She is a tribrid. A being unlike anything that any of us have ever known before." Valerian spoke proudly as he looked at my Little Bunny.


    "All of you, no matter who you are, need to show respect for this woman." I said as I stepped next to her, taking her hand while ignoring the fact that the air was thicker. I was still able to breathe so that was fine with me. "This woman here is my wife, my mate, my lover, my Queen, and she is the most powerful person you will ever see. If you do not show her the respect that she deserves, then I am certain that you will all face the consequences."


    "I fully support this woman in everything that she does. As her devout servant I hope to follow the Goddess Queen no matter where she goes. She was chosen and deemed worthy by not one but three powerful beings. To me, that says that she is my rightful leader. That is also something that you need to ept as well." Gabriel seemed a little overzealous there, but what he was saying was true.


    "I will not follow a mongrel wolf that doesn''t know her ce." The man, that one that kept annoying me, spoke again. "I will not listen to a single word that she has to say. She does not deserve my loyalty or that of any of the rest of us. We are Fae. We are the true Fae that decided not to give up our magic. We are the master race. We are the ones that wille back into power, just you wait and see. We will rise to power again and take over like we were always meant to do."


    "You sound like a megalomaniacal idiot." I nearly jumped when my Little Bunny spoke. Her voice didn''t sound the same as it usually did. It was still her voice and I recognized that much. But there was a ringing of power that was thrumming within it. And oddly, at the same time, it was like bells were ringing with every word that she said. There was definitely something in it that wasn''t there before she started to show her power.


    And when I looked at the dark Fae that were in the cells before us, I could tell that every single one of them had noticed that there was something different about her voice as well. All of them visibly shook and with fear when they felt the words hit them.


    What exactly was happening to my Little Bunny? What was going on right now? And is it at all weird that I found this show of power from her to be a super sexy turn on? I couldn''t wait until we went home and showed our love for each other again.. I wasn''t going to hold back at all, I was going to show her everything that I had and more.

 Chapter 568 - Trinity – Declaration (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 568 - Trinity ¨C Deration (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "I will not follow a mongrel wolf that doesn''t know her ce." The same man who had spoken out against me earlier spoke up after the others were singing my praises. "I will not listen to a single word that she has to say. She does not deserve my loyalty or that of any of the rest of us. We are Fae. We are the true Fae that decided not to give up our magic. We are the master race. We are the ones that wille back into power, just you wait and see. We will rise to power again and take over like we were always meant to do." Well now, he wasn''t pulling any punches now, was he? He reminded me of my father, and Snum, and every other idiot that thought they would be able to rule the world like that.


    "You sound like a megalomaniacal idiot." My words were nowhere near regal. However, I saw that every single dark Fae in front of me had recoiled in fear when I spoke. Had there been that much fierceness in my voice when I had spoken? I didn''t think that there had been.


    "Th..th..that''s not going to i..i..impress me a..a..at a..a..a..a..all." The man spoke again.


    "S..s..stop it Digitaria, just stop it." A woman in a cell close to the man that kept yelling at me spoke in a weak voice. "J..just st..st..stop it. C..can''t you see that they are telling the truth? I..I m..mean j..just l..look at h..h..her. She''s n..not just a n..n..normal werewolf." The woman was trembling as she spoke, but I did learn something. Apparently, that asshole''s name was Digitaria. That would mean that I could address him directly.


    "I..I will not stop it, Babylonica. C..can''t you s..see that this is all just a t..t..trick." Apparently Digitaria wasn''t fully convinced that it was a trick but he wasn''t ready to give it up yet either. Stupid man.


    "Enough!"


    I snapped at Digitaria, putting a little more of my power into my voice when I spoke. I had expected that it would make the man be quiet, possibly make him stop rejecting everything that we were saying. However, I did not expect that it would make him fall back andnd on his ass like he had been physically pushed.


    "Wh..what was that?" He was nearly crying as he looked at me now. I guess that my power was a little stronger than I thought that it was.


    "That was me starting to get annoyed with you, Digitaria. Do not make me lose my temper altogether. You will not like your fate shall I lose all my patience with you right now."


    "Y..y..yes, Goddess, I..I..I''m sorry." He was shaking so bad that I thought I could even hear his bones rattling.


    Now that I had him under control, it was time to address them all and exin to them what it was that was going to happen to them. I didn''t like doing this. I didn''t like being the one that had to look like the power hungry bitch, but I had no choice. I needed to be firm with them right now.


    "All of you will be banished back to the dark Realm." I told them first. They all hung their heads. I could see the sorrow that was now filling their eyes. That ce really wasn''t that suited to maintain life. "Not only will you be banished, but you will all be stripped of your magic. We can not risk this all happening again. You are being imprisoned in the dark Realm as your punishment. And furthermore, all magic will be stripped from thends of the dark Realm as well. Thend will run on the power of the Goddess and nothing more."


    By saying that, I told them that I was not fully abandoning them. Most of these people, they had probably only followed the orders that they had been given. They had probably followed their family''s wishes and desires and because of that, they had forever beenbeled evil and no good. They had evene to behave and think that way as well.


    I would have liked to reform these people, to change them and make them proper citizens of the supernatural world. But right now was not the time to do that. Maybe, in the future, that was something that we could explore. Perhaps, one day, we could all live harmoniously together. Maybe,


    "You will lock us away without even a way for us to survive? That ce will be the death of us without our magic to protect us." Digitaria was the one to speak, of course. He seemed like their unofficial leader. Or maybe it was official. Maybe they knew we woulde and they all, or most of them, had asked him to speak on their behalf.


    "I will see to it that you have what you need to survive. Your imprisonment is not meant to be a death sentence." I assured him with a small nod of my head. "I hope that you will all use your time there to reform yourselves. See where it is that you went wrong in life and change what needs to be changed. It is not wrong to be independent and think for yourselves, however, it is wrong to murder people for it."


    I made sure to be ambiguous with that statement, just telling them basically to not murder people, even for food. I hoped they were able to get that part of my message.


    "So easy for you to say." Digitaria whispered in a slightly depressed voice as I looked at him. I hoped that this was truly the worst thing that I ever had to do. I didn''t want to keep punishing people like this, not to this extent anyway.


    "I do sincerely hope that one day, we can all live together in peace." I put all of my emotions into my voice as I said those words.. I don''t think that they agreed with them though, since most of them scoffed at me and didn''t say a single word.

 Chapter 569 - Trinity – Stripping Of Powers

    <h4>Chapter 569 - Trinity ¨C Stripping Of Powers</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Queen Trinity, will you not give us another chance?" A voice from near the back of the room spoke up. "Many of us had no other choice but to fight. It was either death or fight. That is all that many of us have ever known." The man who spoke was hidden in the shadows so I could not see him properly. If I had to guess his age based on appearance, I would say he looked sixteen. That didn''t mean anything though, since he was Fae. However, it was possible that he was born in the dark realm after thends had been closed. What kind of life would that be for someone like him?


    "This is not the end for any of you." I tried to assure him as best as I could. "I will being back to see how you have all changed after a term of your sentence is over."


    "Why? What purpose would that serve?" Digitaria asked with scorn and anger filling his voice.


    "Why not, Digitaria? Is it not smart to try and reform the people who have done wrong? I am punishing you, yes, but there maye a time when you can live among the others again." Why didn''t he believe me? Why did he think that I was just going to leave them in there forever?


    "You''re going to abandon us all, just like they did!" He pointed at Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r, answering my questions without me even needing to ask them.


    I turned to look at the two people that he had indicated, the two people who had been in charge here for so long. I knew that they were the ones that had locked them away. I knew that they were the ones that had essentially abandoned them there to die. However, I knew that they had done it as a means to keep the peace among the rest of the Fae.


    "What if I promise you, Digitaria, that I will not abandon you? What if I make a vow toe back and check on you all to see if you have truly repented for your crimes? Will that make things easier for you?"


    "Like I can trust you?" He threw my sincere promise away and red at me, he simply would not ept that I didn''t intend to leave him and the others trapped out in the dark realm forever.


    I wasn''t going to get anywhere with this. It was hopeless and I knew it. Right now, all I could do was finish the task that I hade down here toplete. It was time to move on from this pointlessness.


    I held my hands up before them and started to speak in a firm, loud voice.


    "Powers that give and powers that take, I call thee to me."


    "What is this? What are you doing?" I ignored the voices that started to scream around me.


    "Take the magic, the power that was given to the ungrateful shall be taken away."


    "NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" The word wasn''t repeated that many times by the same person but it was said so many times in quick session that it basically sounded like the same person was saying it repeatedly.


    "NO! Queen Trinity, don''t do this." They were sobbing and pleading with me not to take their magic.


    "The magic shall be returned to thends until the time that they are worthy of it once more."


    There had been a light radiating from my hands as I spoke. The closer that the spell came to an end the brighter that it got. And when I said the final words, it seemed to shoot out of my hands and pierce through each and every dark Fae that was present.


    The light didn''t hurt any of them. The beams of golden magic just passed right through them like they weren''t even there. However, I knew that the magic had been effective. With each person the magic passed through, I felt the power that was taken from them.


    "No! My magic."


    "My power is gone."


    "What have you done to me?"


    "I''ll die without my magic."


    "Please, give it back."


    They were pleading with me, begging for me to somehow give them their magic back and let them continue as they were. However, the magic was already shooting up into the air near the ceiling before it spun around, turned toward the floor of the dungeon and dove straight into the ground.


    The magic was not seen again after that. It disappeared into the ground and was gone. That was what I had said would happen. It would return to thends until they were worthy of it again. The magic would help to run the ley lines for the time being.


    "It''s gone." This time it was Digitaria that spoke. "It really is gone. You took it from me." He looked up at me with pleading eyes. "Please, give it back to me. Please."


    I walked closer to the cell that Digitaria was in. Close enough that I could look at him and see what it was that I wanted to, but far enough away so that he couldn''t reach me, still, the others followed me to protect me.


    "I will give it back, Digitaria. I promise that if you can reform yourself, prove that you have changed your ways, then I will give you back your magic. All those that have truly reformed will have their magic reformed. I don''t wish for the world to be divided."


    "D..d..do you promise?" I could see tears in his eyes, and I knew right then that my voice would be thick with emotions if I answered him, so all I could manage was a smile and a nod. "Then, I await your return. Please, don''t forget about us, Queen Trinity."


    "I won''t, Digitaria.. I promise you that I won''t."

 Chapter 570 - Trinity – Banishment (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 570 - Trinity ¨C Banishment (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Now that all of the dark Fae had been stripped of their magic, it was time to follow through with the next part of the n. I admit that I was not exactly looking forward to this part, but it was something that I needed to do. I was a Queen and a Goddess, I needed to be able to rule my people. I needed to be able to follow through with the punishments that I levied onto others.


    Knowing that I needed to do it though, didn''t make it any easier for me. I knew that I needed to do a lot of things, but that didn''t make them fun or pleasant at all. Banning these people to a ce that was so full of death and decay was going to destroy me. I literally felt like I was going to die a little inside for each and every one of them.


    I didn''t say much after the powers were taken and the promise was made. And thankfully none of the dark Fae said a word inint. They had taken my promise to heart and were following all orders given to them by the others. I don''t know if it was because they were in the presence of a Goddess or not, if they even truly epted me as a Goddess, but for some reason they were listening to what I and the others had to say.


    I knew that it would take too long to take all of these people through the castle and over to the portal that was in the courtyard. Not to mention, the citizens of the city would fear that they were under attack again. No, taking them that way was not an option.


    So, to make things easier, for me at least, I opened another portal. This portal was much like the one that I had made from Sterling and Alloy''s house to the city. Only that time, I had been let out before entering the castle itself. I had been told that no one was able to open a portal like that in the city. Well, I guess that rule doesn''t apply to Goddesses.


    The portal, which looked just like thest one that I had made, stood bright and clear on the side of the dungeon wall.


    "We will all travel through here." I instructed them as I stepped first into the portal. No one would trust it unless I tested it for them. I hadn''t even waited for them to agree or confirm anything.


    There was another reason I had gone through the portal like I did. There was something that I wanted to aplish, and I didn''t have time to wait. I didn''t want the others to see what I was going to do.


    While everyone else scrambled, Reece included, I went straight to the entrance to the dark realm. I was probably the only one aside from the dark Fae who knew what it was like over there. I was probably the only one who truly understood how it was they lived. To be fair, I don''t me them for risking their lives with a war. They wanted to live in the light and not the dark.


    Well, did the dark realm have to be the dark realm? Could it not just be an imprisonment realm? Could I not bring some life to thatnd? I could try at least.


    I put my hands against the barrier and instantly I could see what thends on the other side were like. I saw every terrifying thing that had been there when I crossed over. And I changed it all.


    I took away the death. I took away the pre rotten fruit. I took the blood out of the water. I didn''t make thend a paradise, not by a long shot, but if the people doomed to spend their imprisonment in here could have a slightly better ce than before, perhaps they will see that I was truly not here to destroy them.


    "Trinity, why do you keep running off like that?" Reece asked as soon as he came through the portal that I had created.


    "What am I, Reece, a toddler? I can assure you that I am not a helpless little child." I smirked at him as he came running up to me. The moment that he was close enough, he slid his hand around my waist and pulled me against him.


    "You''re worse than a little child. Reagan and Rika listen better than you. Hell, even Talia listens better than you do." Iughed at him. Talia wasn''t even a year old, she most definitely didn''t listen better than he did.


    "You''re such a worrywart, Fido. Did I ever tell you that?" There was a glint in his eyes that told me that he was hyper focused on me, and I didn''t know why. Oh well, I had a job to do. "I needed to change something beyond the barrier. That was why I went ahead of you all. I knew that you all would just follow after me."


    "Please, just don''t run off like that." He kissed the top of my head while the others started to pour through the portal.


    All of the dark Fae had their hands bound with a ring of golden light. I knew what it was for and why it was necessary. However, not a single one of them even looked like they were trying to get away.


    With the prisoners now lined up before the portal, I faced them all and spoke in a loud, clear voice.


    "You will all be returning to the dark realm now. This is not a permanent imprisonment. There will be times that Ie to check on all of you. Please, do what you can to see the error of your ways and earn your right to have your magic reinstated."


    With that final statement from me, the line of the dark Fae started to move through the barrier and into the (no longer so) dark realm. It took some time for them all to move through the area since there were so many of them. I made eye contact with each one of them as they passed by me, making sure that they knew that I was not shying away from them.


    When thest dark Fae moved past me and into the other realm, I moved to the barrier. With both hands on the crack that had been formed, I poured my magic into the boulder. I sealed the crack and strengthened the wards that kept thends separated.


    "I hope they can be changed." I whispered to myself and saw a golden light fly from me and into the barrier before it was permanently sealed.


    Just like that, it was all over. There was nothing else for us to do here. We all headed back through the same portal that I had made to get here, only this time, it took us to Aunt Glory''s private study. That was also something that shocked the others. They hadn''t expected that I could create a portal that took me to where I wanted to go and not just a fixed location. How useful would a portal be if it only worked to go to one ce and not where I needed to go?


    There hadn''t been much that we needed to discuss at the time. Mostly, I thanked them all for their help and just wanted to end it there.. However, they had something else in mind.

 Chapter 571 - Reece – My Little Bunny Is Different Now (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 571 - Reece ¨C My Little Bunny Is Different Now (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    The moment that we all made it back to Gloriana''s private office, I knew that Trinity hadn''t even noticed what had happened. She hadn''t figured out that she looked different, sounded different, none of it. She thought that everything was the same and that she had only won over the others because she had been persuasive.


    Don''t get me wrong, she really had been persuasive and convincing. But that wasn''t all it was, though. Part of her charm, or rather her power to convince, had actually been the pressure she was exerting on the others. All of the dark Fae had been feeling the force of that atmospheric difference that I had felt. Only, I had a feeling that they were feeling it more strongly because she had been directing it at them.


    She didn''t seem to understand that there was anything different about her at all. I doubt that she even knew what she looked like right now. Granted, there had been no mirrors for her to look at during this whole time, so seeing the wings on her back would be a little hard.


    Speaking of those wings, when I had walked up to her and put my arm around her waist next to the barrier between the light Fae realm and the dark Fae realm, I had expected the wings to feel solid against my body. However, they had actually been no more substantial than light. They passed right through my body as they twitched and fluttered about her back, yet they also tickled me with every little movement. I was still wondering if they would be permanent or if they would go away at some point. That was something that I think all of us were thinking about right now.


    "Trinity, how did you do that?" Shane was pointing at her and looking as surprised as we had all been feeling.


    "How did I do what, Shane?" She asked him with confusion in her eyes. "Do you mean taking their magic from them?"


    "No, not that. I am talking about your, well, Goddess form. That is the only thing that I can call it. How did you do that?" He was saying what we had all been wanting to say but hadn''t known when to say it.


    "I don''t know what you mean, Shane. All I did was call my power to me and start glowing. I didn''t do anything else." She shrugged her shoulders and smirked like she was slightly ufortable.


    "I think that Shane is wondering how you made yourself look more beautiful, more angelic or maybe godly is the right word." Shawn tried to help his brother.


    "Yeah, and the change in your voice." David added nodding.


    "And let us not forget her wings." Vincent was grinning at her.


    "WINGS?!" She visibly jumped when she heard that word. I knew that she hadn''t even realized it yet.


    "You didn''t know?" Valerian asked her. "We all assumed that you had chosen what form to take and that you knew what you looked like."


    "That''s right. I think we all just guessed that there was nothing going on that you weren''t inplete control of." Gloriana added.


    "Trinity, my love, go look in that mirror over there." I told her as I pointed to the mirror that was across the room from us. "Go see the changes while they are still inside of you."


    "R..R..Reece? I didn''t know that anything was different. I just thought that I was glowing."


    "I know. Come on."


    I put my arm around her shoulders, once again feeling those wings tickling my flesh. It felt like they were moving a lot faster than they had been before. That was probably because she was nervous right now. That made sense to me at least.


    With slow, halting steps, I took my Little Bunny over to the mirror so that she could see what she looked like. I think she was afraid of what she might see, most likely she was afraid of looking like a different person. That seemed like something that my adorable Little Bunny would be afraid of.


    "Huh?!" She gasped in shock when she stepped in front of the reflective ss and took in her appearance. I saw her eyes moving in the mirror. She was looking at her own eyes, her face, her wings, her entire body.


    The moment that her eyes met mine in the reflection, I made sure to show her support and love. The smile I gave her said that no matter what she looked like, I would love her forever. And forever was what I meant since we were not likely to die anytime soon.


    "Reece? What is happening to me?" Her voice trembled as she tried to reach behind her and feel the wings on her back. She couldn''t grab them, she couldn''t touch them at all really, because her hand passed right through them. However, I know she could feel that frantic fluttering as she moved her fingers around inside of them.


    "You''ve ascended Trinity. You already knew that though, didn''t you? You have ascended to being a Goddess now and this is the form you take when showing that Goddess form to others." I tried to be supportive and understanding so that she wasn''t frightened anymore.


    "How do I make it go away?" She wasn''t looking at me anymore, so I was guessing that she was asking herself. Still, I gave her an answer so that I might be of some assistance to her.


    "Just try doing the same thing that you did to bring it on. Whatever you thought, whatever you were doing, do it again only in reverse. I am guessing that you thought about showing the dark Fae that you were a Goddess, so think about hiding that fact now."


    "I..I guess that would work." She chuckled to herself as if she thought it was funny that she hadn''t figured that part out for herself. In her defense though, she was a little overwhelmed and shocked.


    I watched as she closed her eyes and started to think. It was clear that she was thinking very hard, concentrating on the task that she was trying to aplish. She was doing her best to make sure that she hid the goddess part of her from the rest of the world right now.


    As she concentrated and focused, I saw the light that seemed to being from inside of her fade. She was beginning to look a little more normal. The wings were disappearing, and the glowing, luminescent color was gonepletely. However, I could see that her face and skin still looked different.


    No amount of concentrating and focusing seemed to be making all of that ethereal beauty disappear. My Little Bunny has always been beautiful. She was the most beautiful woman in the world in my eyes and the eyes of many others. But now, there was something more to her now. If I had to estimate here, I would say that she was three to four times more beautiful than she had already been.


    The shape of her eyes, the curve of her lips, the formation of her cheek bones, they were all perfect. Not a single w was to be found anywhere on her face, neck, arms, or any other part of her skin that was exposed. She was still unearthly in her beauty, and I don''t think that was ever going to change.


    "It didn''t work!" She seemed upset as she opened her eyes and looked in the mirror again.


    "You''re beautiful, Trinity, just like you always have been." I assured her as I wrapped my arms around her from behind. "You are perfect, inside and out. Don''t ever forget how much I love you." I kissed her cheek then, offering her my support and love.


    Thankfully, the meeting between us all ended shortly after that. I was pretty sure that my Little Bunny needed to rest after everything that had happened today. She needed to take it easy and think about what had changed for her, not just her looks, but everything. And I was going to be right there with her, helping her along the way. I was never going to abandon her.


    I kept my arm around her shoulders the entire time. All the way from Gloriana''s private study up to our room in our private residence. I didn''t let her go. I think I needed to beforted by her as much as she needed to beforted by me.. We were here for each other.

 Chapter 572 - Reece – My Love Will Never Change (MATURE)(VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 572 - Reece ¨C My Love Will Never Change (MATURE)(VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I didn''t say a word as we walked and neither did she. We went straight to our room and to our bed. I pulled her up onto the mattress with me and held her in my arms. She wasn''t shaking, no trembling or obvious signs of fear or distress. She was just uncertain about things and about herself.


    "Little Bunny." I called out to her as I watched her face. She looked at me calmly, not jumping at my sudden interruption or anything. She seemed to be doing OK, that was good.


    "Yeah, Reece?" She gave me a soft smile.


    "Are you OK?" I hoped that she was.


    "I think so." She shrugged a little. "I just didn''t think that something like that coulde out of me. I mean, I know that I am a goddess now, but I didn''t think that I would ever look like that. And now look at me, I am forever changed.


    "Not in a bad way though. And to me, you were always the most beautiful woman in the world. Now the rest of the world can see what I already saw in you." That made herugh with a genuine smile on her lips.


    "You''ve always been such a smooth talker." She rolled her eyes and looked up at me. "But I love that about you. And you know, you''re the most handsome man in the world, Reece, and that is not just my opinion either." She chuckled again, most likely remembering all of my adoring fans.


    "The only person whose opinion I care about is yours. I don''t care if the rest of the world thinks that I am hot or butt ass fucking ugly, as long as you love me, that is all that matters." Sheughed again, hard enough to make her whole body shake.


    "I don''t know, could I be with someone that ugly?" She tilted her head and pretended to think about that for a moment.


    "Hey!" My fake sadness and hurt made her giggle.


    "OK, OK, as long as it''s you I wouldn''t care what my lover looked like. Probably because I love you so much." She grinned at me and leaned in for a kiss.


    "You know, Little Bunny, my love will never change. It doesn''t matter what you look like, what title you hold, how much time passes, nothing about that matters. All that matters is that we are together now and forever." I put every ounce of feeling for her that I had into those words, hoping that she understood them to be true.


    "I know Reece, I know. And I will always love you, no matter what."


    It was like there was a ma in her lips. I couldn''t resist leaning in and kissing her, slipping my tongue into her mouth and tasting that deliciousness that was her. I had needed this kiss more than I had thought that I did. I had needed it inside of my soul.


    Neither of us said anything. We let our hands and our bodies speak for us. Slowly, we removed each other''s clothes. Nothing was rushed, nothing was hurried, it was all a slow and steady pace of getting to the prize that waited underneath the wrappings that were our clothes.


    When the two of us were naked, I gentlyid my Little Bunny back against the pillows and continued to kiss her softly and passionately. I kissed my way down her neck until I got to her chest.


    All the while, my hand had slipped between her legs and my fingers were sliding past her folds. She was already wet and ready for me, and I hadn''t even done much of anything to prepare her body for me. I didn''t want to rush this night, but I didn''t want to wait to connect with her either.


    I positioned myself between my Little Bunny''s legs. I was at her entrance and ready to slide inside of her in no time at all.


    "Trinity?" I made her name a question as I asked her if she was ready for me.


    "I need you, Reece." She whispered back at me with longing in her eyes and a breathless tone in her voice.


    "I love you." I whispered as I slid inside of her tight, hot body.


    "A..a..ahh!" She moaned at the feeling of me invading her body. "I..I..I love you too, Reece."


    I slid in quickly, going all the way to the hilt and just holding that position for a moment or two, savoring the way that she clenched around me and felt like the truest of all homes for my body. God she was perfection.


    Instead of pulling back and thrusting inside of her again, I rolled my body to the side and took her with me. We were both on our sides now, holding each other in our arms and looking into each other''s eyes.


    Now that we were in this intimate position, I started to rock my body. I didn''t pull out and thrust but rocked my hips back and forth gently and slowly. This wasn''t something that I wanted to be fierce and needy.


    Yeah, I needed her. I needed her so bad that I would have happily pounded in and out of her with a fierce, driving force. But that wasn''t what I wanted right now. I wanted sweet, loving intimacy. I wanted to look her in the eyes and see the pleasure that I was giving her to build within their beautiful depths. I wanted to watch as she slowly reached her climax and clung to me as it softly cascaded around her.


    So that was exactly what I did. With her arms wrapped around my neck, we rocked our bodies together and held each other close. The soft, slow milking of my cock was just as good as the hard and fast that I could have had, maybe even better. The soft, pleasure filled moans that I hearding from my mate''s parted lips were also just as good and the screams that I usually heard when I took her frantically.


    I slid in and out of her slowly with each small rocking motion of my hips. Every time that I rocked away from her, she would slowly pull back as well. We were in perfect sync, perfect rhythm with each other. When I moved forward slowly and slid inside of her she would move as well at the same speed and bring me even further inside of her tender little body.


    I could already feel her climax building inside of her body. The subtle clench of her passage as it tightened around my shaft, the quivering in her body as she neared that point of no return.


    A moment or twoter, she slowly cascaded over that edge and took me with her. She came moaning my name softly as I pressed my lips against hers and swallowed that moan.


    "R..Reece-."


    I slid from her body gently, but I didn''t let her go. I needed to hold her in my arms, I needed to keep her there like that throughout the entire night.. That was why we both fell asleep on our sides with our arms wrapped around each other.

 Chapter 573 - Trinity – Wedding Do Over

    <h4>Chapter 573 - Trinity ¨C Wedding Do Over</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Now that the war was over and the prisoners had been dealt with, it was time to move onto other things. Happier things. Namely, the wedding do over for Aunt Glory and Trevor.


    I knew how much Aunt Glory had been looking forward to her wedding and how disappointed she had been when that whole incident had caused it to be interrupted. Now, though, it was time for us to try it once again.


    I had even asked Daciana if she wanted to redo her wedding as well, since her day had been ruined by the appearance of Snum as well.


    "No, Trinity, I do not need to redo my wedding. I am married to my love already. I am just thankful that themotion didn''t interrupt both ceremonies. Now, as much as we were willing to share the date of our nuptials with Queen Gloriana and Trevor, I am happy that Valerian and I have the date to ourselves." I could tell she was just trying to stop us all from fussing over her again. She had been extremely nervous the first time around. Not to mention that redoing her wedding would mean calling all of her guests back to the city once again. I was quite certain that some of them were traumatized about the entire event.


    "If you''re sure, Daci, then we will leave it at that." I smiled at her, calling her by the nickname that I had given her to make her feel closer to both me and Reece.


    "Thank you, Trinity. I am happy that you would think of me, but please focus on Queen Gloriana for now. She needs this more than I do right now."


    So, I did as she had told me. I started to focus all of my attention, that wasn''t on Reece, on Aunt Glory. I was getting Aunt Glory as ready as possible for her big day. The banquet was prepared, the dress was redone and Trevor was looking as cleaned up as a wild man such as himself could possibly look. It was all going ording to n.


    When it came to the day of Aunt Glory''s wedding part two, we were all very nervous and excited. I think I was the most nervous of all. Most likely because I was thinking to myself that I would destroy anyone who tried to ruin this day for my Aunt Glory. I wouldn''t put up with her having waited so long to marry her mate only to have the wedding postponed time and time again. That was likely to make her think that she was never meant to be married. Aunt Glory deserved just as much happiness as everyone else.


    With our makeup looking perfect and Aunt Glory''s dress as beautiful and stunning as before, the two of us were waiting in the bridal room. I could see the tension and fear in Aunt Glory''s eyes and knew that she was expecting the worst of today.


    "Glory." I smiled at her, dropping the familial rtion between us and talking to her as a friend, just woman to woman. "You don''t need to worry. I promise that this will all go smoothly."


    "I will worry, just the same. I won''t be able to help it. I am scared and worried that someone else will show up or something wille up to stop the wedding. I am thousands of years old, Trinity, and I have yet to be married."


    "I know that, Glory, I do. But that just means that your love was worth waiting for. What you and Trevor have will be so much more special than everyone else''s. The two of you have so much love to give to each other, so much passion for each other. You''re going to make everyone else jealous because of it." I saw her blush but she was also smiling when she heard my words.


    "You truly think so?" I could hear the slight girlish giggle in her voice as she spoke. Sometimes, when she was showing how much she loved Trevor or how much she cared for her family, she looked just like a teenager, so young, so happy, so carefree.


    "Yeah, I really do."


    After I got her calmed down, Athair m¨°r came in with a smile. He was wearing his water themed suit that he had gotten married in. It suited him perfectly.


    "My Glory, you are so beautiful." They were two parts of a whole. Two of the three that had been born many, many centuries ago. "I am happy for you, sister. So much happier than you will ever know." He took his sister''s hand and kissed the back of it softly. "Let us go now, so that you might be married to the man thatpletes your soul." Sometimes, Athair m¨°r spoke like a cheesy poet, but he wasn''t wrong.


    I left the room first, going down the aisle as the maid of honor. I could see Reece and Trevor waiting for me at the altar. Reece was, once again, Trevor''s Best man. Once I was in position, the music changed again, it was time for Aunt Glory toe out, escorted by her brother.


    She walked slowly down the aisle. There was no flower girl this time since Reagan and Rika had been sent home, so instead, there were flower petals raining down from above. The soft, delicate little petals were in several soft pastel colors. There was pale pink, a soft yellow, green, blue, white, so many of them swirled around Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r as they walked toward the altar.


    "Wee, friends and family, to the wedding of our Queen, Gloriana. We are gathered here again to join Trevor Jacoby and Gloriana Belpheobe as husband and wife. They have had a long and arduous journey just to get to this point. I hope you are all as happy as I am to see them here today, to celebrate with them their union." Ash was once again officiating the ceremony just as he had before. "Who gives this bride to be married today?"


    "I do." Athair m¨°r smiled. "Her brother, born from the same womb on the same day, bound with her by flesh and blood but also love and family."


    With that, Athair m¨°r turned to hug Aunt Glory with a smile before helping her onto the raised tform. Aunt Glory took thest few steps on her own so that she was standing next to her mate. She took his hand that he had held out waiting for her. The smile that was on his face matched the one that was on Aunt Glory''s.


    "I ask now, if there are any objections to this union?" Ash asked with an uneasy voice, and I noticed Aunt Glory tense up immediately. I believe that she and everyone in attendance were thinking the same thing. ''Please, let no one object this time.''


    After a moment or two, with no one rising to speak or object to the union, I saw Ash, Aunt Glory, and Trevor all visibly rx. I even turned to see where Athair m¨°r had taken his seat in the front row and watched as the relief washed over him. Thank the Goddess that no one tried to ruin this day.


    I watched on with a smile as Aunt Glory and Trevor followed the directions that were given to them by Ash. There was nothing but pure bliss in their eyes as they recited the usual vows. However, Trevor seemed to have a surprise in order for us all.


    "If I may, I would like to add something. A special promise for my mate."


    "Trevor? I thought we weren''t writing our own vows, after what happenedst time?" Aunt Glory looked shocked.


    "I don''t know if you will call this a vow. Not really. I just have something that I want to say to you, my love. That is all."


    "Trevor."


    After Aunt Glory gave him a sweet, loving smile, Trevor started to speak again.


    "Gloriana, my love, you came into my life at a point when I needed you the most. At the time, I was just so happy to have a mate that I didn''t know how much you needed me as well. I know that we need to be there for each other. That is something that I didn''t know at first, and I admit that I was stupid. This whole ordeal, everything that has led up to this moment, it has shown me what I didn''t understand. I just want to tell you, Gloriana, that I will never again underestimate something when ites to our love. I will give it my all, one hundred percent of who I am, because that is how much of my heart that you hold. I had given it all to you and I couldn''t be happier."


    Tears streamed down Aunt Glory''s face at his words, and I saw that Ash understood this promise, this vow of Trevor''s was over. He could finish his job.


    "I would like to take this moment to say one more thing: I now pronounce you husband and wife. Trevor, you may kiss your bride."


    Apuse rang out all over as Trevor pulled Aunt Glory toward him. He pressed his lips firmly against hers and kissed her passionately and deeply. I guess Trevor was always going to be Trevor, no matter the situation.


    I was happy for the two of them. They were finally married. Aunt Glory finally had the wedding that she had been longing for all these years.. And I am so not crying right now, there is absolutely no reason for me to be so emotional right now.

 Chapter 574 - Trinity – Going Home (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 574 - Trinity ¨C Going Home (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    We had been here way too long. With everything that had happened, this trip to thend of Faested much longer than we expected it to. And, of course, I was missing my babies. I wanted to hold my little ones in my arms. I needed to feel them, hold them, smell adorable little scents. Without any of that I would never be able to fully calm down. I would never be able to truly know that they were OK.


    The day after the do over wedding, Reece and I were ready to go home. All of our stuff had been packed, the guards were ready, everything was ready for us to head out. All we needed to do was say our goodbyes and head home.


    It was an emotional time for us all, it really was. But I think that we would all be fine. Athair m¨°r has Daciana to keep himpany now, and I am sure they are going to start a family as well. Not to mention, Aunt Glory had Trevor, and I know he was actively trying to start their family already. I don''t think that it will be long before I get toe and meet some new adorable little babies.


    After hugs, tears and some more hugs, we were all in our cars and driving back toward our own castle. From one castle to another, from one group of family to another. That was basically what it was, just a change in scenery and those around us.


    The moment that we pulled up in front of the castle the doors burst open, and dozens of people came running out. They had all been waiting for us.


    "Mommy! Daddy!" Rika was screaming for me and Reece as she ran in front of the herd of people.


    "Momma! Daddy!" Reagan was right on her heels.


    "Papa! Daddy!" Those two words were shouted by four voices as Alexandria, Alyssa, Levi, and Luka were running down the steps and running toward Shawn and Dietrich. All the other children were doing something simr for their respective parents.


    It was warming my heart to hear and see this scene y out before me. It was hard to watch it though, since Reece and I were busy scooping the twins up into our arms and squishing them between us in a big hug.


    "VINCENT!" This one wasn''t a child that had spoken this time. "VINCENT!" Heather was running down the steps with their five children chasing after her. "OH, VINCENT!" She leapt right into her mate''s arms and held onto as tightly as she could.


    "Heather, sweetheart, what is wrong?" He looked so scared as he held her and watched the childrening at them.


    "I felt you die. I felt your presence leave me. It didn''tst long but I felt like you were gone forever. Vincent? What happened to you?"


    "Heather, sweetheart, I am fine now. I really am. I will tell you what happenedter, honey. I promise."


    Everyone present had frozen and was watching them with curious eyes. I could understand him not wanting to tell her what happened with so many eyes, and ears, present. I caught his eyes and heard him speak to me in my mind.


    ''Can I tell her the whole truth? I don''t want to hide it from her, but I also know that it''s something that pertains to you more than anyone else.''


    ''You can tell her.'' I smiled and nodded at him silently as I spoke only in our minds. ''I trust you and I trust her. I will be telling the family soon and then from there we will all decide on what to do and who to tell.''


    ''Thank you, Trinity. I just don''t want her to worry more than she already has. I didn''t know that she had been suffering like this.''


    ''You''re irreceable, Vincent. I know that, and so does she. Take care of her, take care of your children. Go home and spend some time together as a family. That is my n for the next few days.''


    ''Thank you.'' He smiled again, this time with tears in his eyes. Everyone around us knew that we had been having a private conversation, but they weren''t saying anything about it. We were free to go about our business, which was good. We were done, mind you, but still we could have talked for hours, and no one would have said anything.


    While I was thinking that, I heard a baby cry. I instantly knew who it was. OK, maybe Vincent and I couldn''t have talked for hours without interruption. Talia clearly wanted to see her mommy.


    "Trinity, I think you need to pay some attention to the little princess here." Mom was smiling with tears in her eyes, obviously wanting to hug me as well.


    I handed Reagan to Reece and walked over to my mom and my baby. I wrapped my arms around the two of them, pressing my cheek against Talia''s as I did so. I held them against me and nearly cried as I felt the warmth of my family. While I held them, dad came over and wrapped his arms around us, adding to the warmth and the love that I was feeling.


    Talia protested after a few moments, though. She wanted her mommy time not just a hug. After feeling her push against me I took her in my arms and cradled her against my chest. That was when Reece came over with Reagan and Rika so that our little family unit was nowplete. The five of us were hugging each other and sharing our love for each other.


    I had needed this. I needed to be here with these people. I had needed my babies above all else. There was nothing like the love that I had for these little ones and for Reece. They were my whole world.. Even though I was a Queen and a Goddess, I still care for my family the most. Was that bad of me?

 Chapter 575 - Epilogue 1 - Wesley – Oh My Goddess (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 575 - Epilogue 1 - Wesley ¨C Oh My Goddess (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Wesley


    ~~


    I watched as Trinity left the room. My mind was still reeling. What the hell had I just heard? I mean, did she really just tell us that she was now a Goddess? Did she truly just tell me that she had epted Nehalennia, Thoth, and Danu into herself.


    What the hell had happened while they were at that battle? What happened to cause this? What happened to my daughter?


    "I just can''t believe it, Eve." I know that my jaw was hanging open and that I probably looked like a fool as I tried to process the words that I had heard.


    "Well, you need to. There isn''t much that we can do about changing it." She was right, but that didn''t make the words any easier for me to ept and understand.


    "It''s just that, you know, when I took Trinity in to raise her as my own, to raise my sister''s baby as mine so that she had a family that loved her, I never thought any of this would happen. I never thought she would turn out to be my Luna. I never once thought that she would be the Luan Queen. And I sure as hell never once thought that she would ascend to the point of being a Goddess. I mean, did you ever see thising? All those years ago, did you ever think that we would be raising someone so important?"


    "To me, Trinity has always been important. Whether she was the Luna, a Queen, a Goddess or even a college drop out that decided to be an old catdy or something. She would have been important no matter what. I think this is just our little girl living up to the potential that she showed us she had all those years ago. This is just Trinity being who she was always meant to be."


    I couldn''t help but smile at her words. She was right. Trinity was just being the person that she has always been. She hadn''t changed. Not once has she changed the way that she thought, felt or treated the people around her. She is a good person, she always has been. This was a new title. A new title in a long list of them that she has received over the years.


    And to think, it''s been just a little less than five years since she became the Luna. So much has happened in that time. So many things that have made me think that I was going to have a heart attack because my daughter was in a life or death situation. This was just another tally added to that list as well.


    "GAHH!" I cried out frustratedly as I thought about it all in circles. This was all still so crazy, no matter how I looked at it. This was the most crazy thing that had ever happened.


    "What now, Wesley?" Eve looked at me withughter in her eyes. It was like she thought my freakout was funny. I''m d she was feeling entertained.


    "She''s my little girl, Eve. How could all of this have happened to my little girl? I was supposed to be protecting her from all this crazy stuff and then her life just gets crazier and crazier." I grabbed my head and threw it back in frustration just as the door opened and some of Trinity''s guards started toe into the room. They hadn''t been present for ''the talk'' since they had already known. "Oh my Goddess, Eve, when is this stuff going to seem normal?"


    "Hey, don''t you mean: oh my Trinity?" David, one of the guards, started tough before he continued. "You know, since she is the Goddess now." He clearly didn''t think this was as crazy as I did.


    "HAHA!" Shane, who was standing next to him, started tough at his joke immediately. "Yeah, that''s funny, mostly because it''s true. We should all start saying Oh my Trinity. That will be funny. It would all be like this. OH MY TRINITY! OH MY TRINITY! OH MY TRINITY!" He wasughing again once he had finished pretending to panic. It was like he was pretending that someone in a panicked state would be calling out for my daughter. "Ooh ooh, or this one." He grinned then continued in a husky, sensual voice. "Oh my Trinity! Oh my Trinity! Oh my Trinity! Oh my Trinity!" With each additional time that he said the words, he was acting like he was getting closer and closer to a climax. "Get it? Since she is the goddess." He was nodding like it was all so perfect. "Oh my Trinity! Oh my Trinity! Oh my Trinity! Oh my Trinity!"


    Amid Shane''s fake moaning, someone else came into the room behind him. However, it was clear that Shane wasn''t paying enough attention and didn''t realize who was right behind him.


    A veryrge handnded on the back of Shane''s head with tremendous force. Shane very nearly fell to the floor, if he hadn''t caught himself on the wall, he would have ended up sprawled on his ass as he looked up into the very angry eyes of his Alpha. As it was, he turned around with his hand on the back of his head and a repentant look on his face.


    "What the fuck are you doing? Why are you saying that? Don''t you ever talk about my wife like that." Reece was very pissed right now, and I didn''t me him at all. I had been getting angry at Shane''s joke as well.


    "N..n..no, Reece, it''s not what you think. It wasn''t like that. I was showing how people could rece Oh my Goddess with Oh my Trinity. Y..you know, since she is the Goddess now. I..I wasn''t trying to do anything else."


    Shane was literally staring into the face of a very angry man who had heard someone else moaning his wife''s name. That was bound to make him murderous.


    "I never, ever, want to hear you say ''Oh my Trinity''. Not ever again. Do you understand me, Shane?" Reece''s voice was nothing more than a rumbling growl as he spoke.


    "Y..yes, Sir!" Shane stood up straight and tried to rpose himself. Poor guy. Oh well, that''s what he gets for talking about my daughter like that.. Dumbass.

 Chapter 576 - Epilogue 2 - Shawn – Sooo… The Queen’s Consort? (MATURE)(VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 576 - Epilogue 2 - Shawn ¨C Sooo¡­ The Queen¡¯s Consort? (MATURE)(VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    We had just got done with the meeting where we all met Queen Gloriana and her brother Valerian. I would like to say that finding out that Trinity was a direct descendant from Queen Gloriana''s bloodline was the most shocking and surprising thing that I heard tonight.


    However, I can''t say that at all. I was trying not to think about it, though. I was trying to push it out of my mind while I got the boys ready for bed. Dietrich, my mate and husband, was getting the girls dressed and ready for bed at the same time.


    "I have their bottles ready as well." Dietrich said as Iid Levy in the bed. I took the two bottles that he was holding out to me and handed them to the boys who were on the verge of sleep.


    "Thanks." I didn''t want to sound angry, pissed off or rude at all, but I just couldn''t help it.


    I waited in the room for the babies to fall asleep. At which point, I took their bottles from them and went down to the kitchen with them without saying a word.


    "Shawn?" Dietrich called out to me when we were both in the hallway. "Shawn?" I could hear how worried and nervous he was. He didn''t know why I was so angry. I''m sure he could figure it out if he just tried.


    Thankfully, Dietrich didn''t follow after me. I needed a few minutes without him. I needed a few minutes to think. Dammit, why did I have to hear that? Those words weren''t doing me any good right now.


    About an hour after we had put the kids to bed and I had postponed seeing my husband for as long as I could, I went up to our room. The entire walk back to my room I was feeling a mix of emotions. I wanted to see my mate. I wanted to apologize for acting like an asshole. I wanted to hug and kiss my husband. I wanted all of that, but I also wanted to yell at him. I wanted to demand answers and an exnation. I wanted to ignore him and stew in my sadness and anger. I was hurt and shocked, not to mention embarrassed by the fact that I hadn''t known about all of this sooner.


    I opened my door with trepidation, not knowing exactly what my husband was going to do when he saw me. Was he going to be angry that I had acted like a selfish child? Was he going to tell me to get over it because it had all happened long before I was even born? What exactly was he going to say?


    "Shawn? Mein Schatz, where have you been sweetheart?" Dietrich came over to me and pulled me into his arms like I had been gone for days instead of an hour.


    "I was just thinking, Dietrich. I am fine." I shook his arms off of me and walked toward the bathroom.


    "Shawn? Tell me what is wrong, my love. Why are you upset with me?" He was following after me and not leaving me be.


    "Can''t you figure it out?" I snapped at him as I turned on the water for a shower.


    "Shawn, my love, I told you I had been with the Fae Queen, didn''t I?" He sounded truly confused now.


    "Nope, I don''t recall you ever mentioning that. You said you knew her, but not that you were ever with her." I turned and red at him as I spoke, showing him just how mad I was about it.


    "I am sorry, my love. I thought that I had told you. It didn''t mean much to me at the time. I never loved her. It''s just that we were both attracted to each other at the time."


    "And are you attracted to her now?" I couldn''t believe what I was saying, I knew he loved me and only me.


    "No, absolutely not. I only have eyes for you, my love. Please, you have to believe me, Shawn. I didn''t mean to hide it from you. I just thought it was best not to talk about my past since it was, well, extensive." He hung his head in shame. It was like he thought that I was judging him for all his past lovers, and I didn''t want to do that at all.


    "I believe you." I sighed. I honestly did believe him. And in truth, I had never really asked how many people he had been with. I don''t think that my heart could handle that conversation.


    "I love you, Shawn. I love you so much."


    At that, Dietrich pulled me into his arms and pressed his lips against mine. The kiss started off sweet and light but quickly turned passionate and full of heated need. He was grasping for my clothes and unbuttoning my shirt and pants in no time at all. I was reaching for his as well. Together, we stripped each other of clothes in a matter of seconds.


    With our lips still pressed against each other''s, we stumbled our way into the shower. The water had warmed up and felt pleasant against my skin, but with Dietrich with me, the passion rising, my body temperature was quickly bing hotter than the hot water.


    With a flurry of movements, Dietrich and I washed each other. It was almost rushed with our need for each other pressing us to move faster and faster. And the moment that we were both washed and rinsed we let our passion spill over and the need sated itself with the union of our bodies.


    Dietrich put his hands on my shoulders and turned me away from him so that I was facing the wall of the shower. I put my hands up to brace myself just as Dietrich gripped my hips and pressed himself, hard and ready, against my opening.


    "Ngh!" I moaned involuntarily at the feel of just that.


    "I love you." Dietrich said as he kissed the back of my neck. A momentter he slid inside of me and pressed himself as far as he would go.


    "Ah!" I cried out in pleasure as he rammed into me. Damn, but that felt amazing.


    "Uhhahh!" Dietrich moaned as well, crying out with his pleasure just like I did.


    With slow, agonizing moves, Dietrich pulled back until just his tip was inside of me. Once he was barely there, barely inside of me, he rammed forward again, as hard and as fast as he could.


    "NGH!" I cried out again, moaning even louder this time.


    There were no more slow movements after that. Dietrich set a hard and fast rhythm that had the two of us racing toward climax. It still wasn''t enough to sate my need, though. I needed a little more. That was why I reached down and took my hard, erect shaft into my hands and started to pump my hand up and down.


    "AH!" Yes, that was what I needed. I could barely stand the amount of pleasure now. I needed to rest my head against the wall with the onught of the ecstasy that I was feeling.


    "Ngh! Shawn." Dietrich moaned as he neared his climax, pounding in and out of me over and over again.


    "Ahh. Ahh. Ngh. Ahh." I was moaning and crying out nonstop now. I couldn''t even say his name, I was feeling too much pleasure.


    A few more thrusts and a few more pumps of my handster and I was ready to explode. I threw my head back and moaned long and loud. Dietrich slid his hand up to cup the front of my neck as he sank his teeth into my neck, biting me on my mate mark and causing my moan to turn into a scream of pleasure as he emptied himself into me.


    When I copsed against the wall, I knew that I had not only forgiven him, but spent thest of my energy. I needed to dry off and fall into bed next. So, that''s what I did. Only, Dietrich wasn''t done. He took me again, as Iid there in the bed ready and willing for him.


    It was a great night, all in all. There is nothing like a small fight to make sex that much better. I guess I could deal with him having a list of lovers.. If it meant that he was able to drive me wild when he fucked me like this I was willing to ept that he had a past.

 Chapter 577 - Epilogue 3- Vincent – What It Was Like To Die (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 577 - Epilogue 3- Vincent ¨C What It Was Like To Die (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Vincent


    ~~


    Heather didn''t let go of me all the way back to our residence in the castle. She held onto me in one way or another, even while I carried Charlotte and Tyler in my arms. She wasn''t the only one that seemed to be excited that I was home. Conner and Renea were staying super close to me, and Faith was clinging to my pants leg like she didn''t want to fall too far behind us all and get lost.


    All in all, it was a little hard for me to move, but I didn''t mind. I knew that they loved me, and they had missed me. I had missed them all too. They were my family, my whole world.


    "Daddy? Are you leaving again?" Faith asked me with tears swimming in her eyes the moment that we were back inside our home and I had set the twins down.


    "I don''t think so, honey. There is no reason for Trinity to leave any time soon, so I don''t have to leave for a while. And I am sure that Trinity wouldn''t mind if I spent some time here with you all at home."


    "You''re going to take time off of work?" Conner was shocked to hear that. He knew that I took my job as a guard very seriously and that I hardly ever took time off.


    "Yes, I think that I will take a few days for family time. I have missed you all so much." Even though Conner was ten years old, almost eleven really, I put my hands under his arms and held him against my chest. He had been surprised at first but when he realized what I was doing he wrapped his arms around me and hugged me back.


    "Me next, Daddy, me next." Renea was just waiting for her turn.


    "No, me. I want Daddy to hold me next."


    "I will give each of you a hug, don''t worry." I was smiling as I put Conner back on his feet and picked up Renea. She wrapped her arms and legs around me, holding me as tight as she could. She was about to turn eight and was getting so big that it broke my heart.


    "OK, your turn." I said after setting down Renea and picking up Faith. She did the same as her sister had. She held onto me so tight that I was actually impressed by the strength that she had inside of her.


    "I love you, Daddy." Faith whispered while I held her in my arms.


    "I love you too, sweetheart."


    We all went about our day like it was any other normal day. I felt that was the best thing for the kids. We had dinner together. We watched a movie. I gave the twins their bath. And I read to them all in the living room until they fell asleep. All five of them were sleeping on me like it was a giant puppy pile.


    After detangling myself from all of them, I carried them up the stairs and to their beds, one by one. This was something that I think that I needed too. I needed some normalcy and calmness in my life.


    The moment that Heather and I were alone in our room, the questions started.


    "Vincent, please tell me what happened. I know you kept it to yourself until the kids were in bed but please tell me what it was that I felt that day."


    "I will tell you. I will tell you everything, Heather, so please don''t worry."


    I took my wife by the hand and pulled her to the bed so that we could sit together. I could see the fear, the worry, the heartache, all the negative emotions that I had caused her to feel over the years. I know that she feared for me with my job, but she knew that I could never give it up.


    "Heather, you have no idea how happy I am to see you. I missed you, my love. I had needed to hold you in my arms." As I said those words, I pulled her against my chest and held her, tighter and more intimately than any of the other hugs that I had given earlier today.


    "Vincent, I know that your job is important, and I will never tell you to quit. But I never want to feel something like that ever again." She was crying now. I felt the tears streaming down her cheeks andnd on my shirt.


    "Don''t worry about that, honey. We''re all immortal now." I said thement in a way that I hoped sounded off hand so that she wouldn''t focus on it, but I wasn''t that lucky. She immediately jumped onto the topic.


    "Immortal? What do you mean, immortal?" She pulled away and looked at me with intent eyes,


    "W..well, to save my life, someone made a deal that made us all a lot harder to kill. All of the shifters, the Fae, and the magic users are now immortal. We can only die from an injury that is bad enough or possibly certain poisons or diseases but that was rare enough before this. There is no death from old age now."


    "Vincent? What happened out there?" She was pleading with me to tell her and to be honest with her. I couldn''t lie to her, and I couldn''t hide it from her. She would be heartbroken if I did.


    "You know there was a war. You know that I fought in battles against the dark Fae. That part everyone knows about. Well, I stayed with Trinity and fought alongside her, and yes before you ask, she did fight on the battlefield."


    "She truly is an admirable queen, isn''t she?" Heather has always adored Trinity, ever since the first time that she met her. Hell, all the way back to when I first told her about the new Luna, almost five years ago now.


    "She really is." I smiled and nodded in response to her. "Well, the thing is, while on the battlefield, Trinity was looking for the dark Fae, Snum. She was the one that was behind the entire war. When Trinity found her, she alone was able to follow her. Reece, the other guards, and I were not able to go into the dark realm, so we were left to fight on the battlefield without her."


    "So how were you hurt?" She wasn''t going to be deterred, even for a second.


    "Queen Gloriana was in danger. I rushed in to save her, which I managed to do. However, I was bitten by a massive snake. It was venomous andrge enough to kill me with only it''s teeth. In fact, I did actually die for a moment."


    "Vincent?" She gasped and put her hand over her mouth. I could tell that she was still afraid, even though I was sitting right here in front of her.


    "It''s fine, Heather. Once Trinity came back out of the dark realm, having killed Snum by herself, she rushed to my side and prayed to the celestials for help. Apparently, they came to see her and told her that they would help her, but they wanted to return to the human world. They couldn''t do that the way that they had been, so they gave their powers to Trinity."


    "They.. gave.. their.. powers.. to.. Trinity?" It took a while for her to ask that question since she stopped after each word.


    "Yes, they did. That means that Trinity is now the Moon Goddess, the Goddess of the Fae, and the Goddess of the magic users, all at once."


    There was nothing but pure shock on my wife''s face. I could tell that she didn''t quite grasp it just yet.


    "S..s¡­she''s th..th..th..the G..G..G..Goddess?"


    "Yeah, Heather. Trinity is now the Goddess, not just an incarnate that channels her, but the Goddess herself."


    "Oh my Goddess." She gasped and said the habitual phrase that we all said when we were needed to exim something in fear, surprise, or any other emotion really. "Oops!" She pped her hands over her mouth. "Uh.. uhm, sh..should I be saying that? D..do we need to stop saying that, since, you know, the Goddess is living among us?" I couldn''t help butugh softly at her worry.


    "I think that we''re fine, don''t worry."


    "Good."


    She sighed in relief and hung her head for a moment. However, it was like she remembered something almost immediately and fixed me with a firm stare.


    "U..uhm, Vincent, w..what was it like, t..t..to die?" of everything that people had asked me since the night that I had been bitten, no one had asked me that question.


    "Well, it was all dark. There was no light, no doors, nothing. I was just floating there in an empty ckness. I felt like I was at peace, at least partly. I wasn''t in pain anymore, and I knew that everything would be alright if I stayed there, but I couldn''t calm down. I kept thinking to myself that I needed to get back. I kept telling myself that I needed to leave that ce and get back to where I had been before. I needed to get back to the battle. I needed to get back to Trinity and Reece, to you and the kids."


    "Do you think that is how it will be when we all die?" I could tell that she was afraid now, my experience hadn''t been a pleasant one.


    "No, I think that was unique to me. I think that the celestials stuck me in that ce until Trinity could heal me and bring me back. I don''t think that what I felt was anything like what other people will feel. I am sure that things are better when you aren''t being kept close by the Gods."


    "Yeah, maybe."


    She didn''t look too convinced. I was d that was something that neither of us had to worry about.. Not for a really, really, really, long time.

 Chapter 578 - Epilogue 4- Landon – My Mate (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 578 - Epilogue 4- Landon ¨C My Mate (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Landon


    ~~


    I was resigned to not finding my mate. Everyone else that I knew, all of my friends and family, had already found their mate. Hell, even Trevor, who had been another lonely and mateless man just like me, had found his mate. I was the only person among our inner circle that didn''t have a mate. And it pissed me off.


    Didn''t I deserve a mate? Didn''t I deserve love? Wasn''t I allowed to be happy and get married? I knew that I did, but I still wasn''t finding her. Even recently, when Trevor had his wedding with Gloriana, though it was interrupted, I had been sobbing on the inside while I watched on, not even a date at my side.


    Now, I was risking my life and could possibly die in this war without even having a mate to worry about me or to go home to if I didn''t die. I don''t know if I fought more fiercely because I didn''t have to hold back out of respect for my mate or out of anger for not having a mate. Either way, I was tearing my way across the battlefield as I killed beast after beast.


    "Ahhh!" I heard a slightly higher pitched screame from a woman that was nearby. At the same moment a smell rose above the stench of the battle and hit my nose. That smell had me running toward that sound instantly.


    While I ran, I was scanning for the woman who had screamed in distress. It didn''t take me long to find her either. She had been attacked by a giant alligator-like creature that was about to take a chunk off of her leg, or you know, all of her. She could have fit in its mouth easily.


    I leapt in just as the thing was about to chomp down on her. I couldn''t have that happening now, could I? With the sword that I had been given at the start of the battle, I swung down hard and sliced the beast''s head from its neck.


    The head rolled and the body fell back. I didn''t care though. I was too busy looking at the woman that I had just saved. She looked like she was about my age, around twenty-eight or so. She had brown hair that flowed down her back in cascading waves. There also seemed to be feathers that had been woven into her hair. That was beautiful. I had never seen hair like hers before.


    Her eyes were a unique amber color that almost seemed to be glowing. I was certain that they were just reflecting the light but that didn''t matter, they were perfect eyes. Perfect just like her beautiful, thin, narrow face. She was petite too, smaller than most shifter women that I came across. She might barely be five feet three inches tall. That was fine though. The way she was holding that sword I knew she was a skilled warrior.


    "Thanks." She grinned at me and shed me a set of bright white teeth. That was all I needed to snap my self control. For the record, I never pretended to have proper self control before so that was fine.


    I took the five or six steps that it took to bring me face to face with her and without a word I pulled her into my arms. My lips were on hers before I said so much as a word to her. She tasted amazing. Just like the scent that I had picked up when I was running. That scent, and taste, of hers was filled with ckberries and raspberries. She was like a crisp and sweet treat that was all mine.


    "I finally found you." The moment that I pulled my lips from hers I pressed my cheeks against her hair and sighed in relief. "I finally found you." I said it again.


    "Well, I would ask you what, or even why, but I know the answer to both of those already." I could hear theughter and joy in her voice. She sounded as happy as I felt.


    "What is your name?" I asked her with no other preamble. "What is my mate''s name?"


    "Come on, big boy, let go of me so I can see your face." She pressed against me. "I won''t tell you my name unless I can see what you look like properly. I didn''t have time to register what your face looked like before you started to make out with me."


    I did as she wanted me to. I pulled away and looked into her beautiful, mesmerizing eyes.


    "My name is Landon yton, I am a tiger shifter, and I am the Alpha of the Feline pack that is based out of Colorado."


    "Well Alpha Landon, my name is Ava. Ava Peters that is, and I am an eagle shifter and a member of the Avian pack that is located in Colorado. Isn''t that a lovely coincidence?" She was beaming at me as if she was beyond happy that she had found her mate that lived so close to her.


    "I can''t believe I finally met you. I can''t wait to tell Trevor and Reece. Oh and Trinity too."


    "Trevor? Reece? Trinity? Are you referring to the future Fae King, the Alpha King, and the Luna Queen?" She looked nervous now.


    "Yes, they''re my friends. I am a member of their personal council."


    I swear that made her jaw drop. She was just so excited to find her mate, that was all it was. I was just as excited as she was.


    This was amazing. It truly was. I had finally found my mate and she was a gorgeous and sexy little eagle. Oh, and don''t think that whole thing about cats eating birds escaped me. I was already looking forward to when I gave into my beast and devoured my little birdie. That was bound to be the best meal of my life. And I would be able to have it as often as I wanted.


    Having a mate was awesome!

 Chapter 579 - Epilogue 5- Trevor – I Can’t Believe That I Am Mated Now! (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 579 - Epilogue 5- Trevor ¨C I Can¡¯t Believe That I Am Mated Now! (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trevor


    ~~


    I was having a bit of a break with the other guys. All of them except for Landon were mated and I just found outst night that I was mated. I didn''t have that much time to even see my mate since she was busy and all, being the Fae Queen. Damn, I can''t believe that I am finally mated after all of this time. And to a queen no less.


    "Hahh." I sighed again. I was a little annoyed because I wasn''t with my new mate but also worried about what I was even going to do as her mate.


    "What the hell is wrong with you?" Landon red at me. He was obviously feeling salty about not having a mate yet.


    "I am just trying to wrap my head around all of this." I put my face in my hand and pinched my temples as I tried to alleviate the stress that I was feeling.


    "What is there to wrap your head around?" Reece didn''t seem to understand what was going through my head.


    "Yeah, I don''t get it." Shane shrugged as he looked at me intently. "You''ve got a mate now, it''s not like it''s going to change who you are. You''re still going to be you. I mean, nothing really changed with me when I found my mate."


    "Yeah, well, no offense Shane, but you can''t rte to what I am going to go through." I sighed again, just thinking about it all.


    "What is it? What do you think is going to be so different?" David asked me as I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the anxiety I was feeling. "Aren''t you happy to have a mate?"


    "I am happy. I am really fucking happy. That isn''t the issue."


    "You better be happy." Landon snapped at me. I could tell that he was being about ny percent yful and about ten percent truly angry that he hadn''t met his woman yet.


    "I know what the problem is." Vincent looked at me with eyes that seemed to be filled with so much knowledge as he took a drink of his coffee.


    "Really? Then enlighten us, oh wise one, because I am still fucking clueless." Shaneughed.


    "I know what it is, too." Reece just crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. Yeah, I had no doubt that he knew. He was the only person in this room that could rte to me. Hell, he was one of the few people in the entire world who can actually rte to what I was feeling right now.


    "What is it?!" Shane pretended to shake Reece then, acting as if he were desperate.


    "He''s worried about bing the king." Vincent answered in Reece''s ce, and he waspletely right.


    "Really?" Shane, David, and Shawn all just asked that in a high, curious voice as their heads tilted in a way that made them look like the three stooges or something. Too much alike.


    "Yeah, really. I mean, think about it for a minute, OK? I am mated to Queen Gloriana of the Fae. That means that, essentially, when we get married, I will be the king. The fucking king. That''s a lot of pressure." I almost felt like hyperventting. Was the room spinning or was that just me? "I feel for you, Reece, I really do. You mated with a girl that became a Queen time and time again. You''re like a triple king now or something. Actually, I think that I lost count of how many titles you have now." I chuckled as Reece grinned back at me.


    "Hey, some people are born to lead while others cry over the responsibility." He was making fun of me now.


    "I am not crying." I snapped at him.


    "Yeah, yeah, I know. You''re just panicking."


    "Hey, wait a minute!"


    We all looked over to see Shane grinning like a crazy man. He was looking at me with his eyes open and a look of pure, mischievous, evil joy. What the hell was going through that man''s mind? I both did and did not want to know.


    "What? What''s going on?" Shawn looked at his twin brother, who was not quite identical to him anymore.


    "So, Trevor, how does it feel to be the King of the Fairies?" Shane ignored his brother and grinned at me. I wanted to smack him in his stupid face and nearly got to my feet to do just that. However, everyone in the room, except for Shawn for some reason, started tough at what Shane had said.


    "Yeah, I never thought about that." Reece was chuckling like he found the whole situation hrious.


    "I never thought I would see the day. Someone dethroned my brother. Sorry Shawn, you have to be content being the vampire queen, there is another king of the fairies."


    "Fuck you, Shane." Shawn and I both snapped at his brother as we red at the man.


    "Wait, wait, do you think that you will end up with fairy wings and all that too? Will you get a pretty little Fae name? What type of fairy do you want to be, Trevor? Come on, we all want to know."


    "I''m going to beat your little fucking ass." I leapt to my feet and started toward Shane''s grinning, annoying face. I swear I was going to kill him. Him and his little annoying, joking ass.


    "I''m sorry. It was just a joke." Shane was up and running across the room, away from me, as I stalked after him.


    "I don''t care. I don''t take too kindly to your jokes. I am not a fucking fairy."


    "I know. I know. You''re a big strong, bear man. I''m sorry. I''m sorry. I''m really sorry." I was literally chasing the man around the room and apparently it looked funny to everyone else that was in there because they were allughing at us like we were putting on aedy show. I''m really fuckin d that they were entertained. It''s not like it was at my expense or anything. No, I don''t mind themughing at me one bit.. I was just so fucking happy about it all. Dammit, who would have though that me getting a mate would end up so fuckingplicated?

 Chapter 580 - Epilogue 6- Roisin – A Day In The Life Of A Goddess (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 580 - Epilogue 6- Roisin ¨C A Day In The Life Of A Goddess (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Roisin


    ~~


    When Queen Trinity told me about her ascension into being the Goddess, I was not at all surprised. I had chosen to serve Queen Trinity because I had known all along that she was going to be something special. I may not have known that she was going to be a Goddess, but I knew that I needed to stick with her.


    When I first joined her, I was ecstatic that I was given the responsibility of taking care of the royal quarters within the castle. That was the highest honor for a servant such as myself. The only thing that would have made things even better, would have been to have be her personal attendant and taken care of Queen Trinity personally.


    However, it didn''t appear that Queen Trinity was the type of woman who wanted someone to attend to her like that. She was such a saint. She was the most kind and benevolent person I had ever met. And she was so beautiful too. I was happy to be serving her.


    Today, I was to be serving tea for the Goddess Queen when she invited her friends over to talk to them about her new position. It wasn''t something that I usually did, so I was happy to be spending time with the Queen like this.


    Not to mention that I was ecstatic that I could call her my Queen. She may not be the queen of the Fae like Queen Gloriana was, but Queen Trinity was the Goddess Queen. She was the Goddess to the shifters, the magic users, as well as the Fae. She was my goddess so therefore she was my queen by extension. I loved the logistics of all of that. It made me feel closer and more devoted to Queen Trinity.


    "Trinity!?" Juniper, the Goddess Queen''s best friend ran into the room when she saw her friend waiting for her. Her husband and brother were behind her with their children. I knew that Juniper''s sister inw was in the hallway, I just couldn''t see them. Between Juniper''s children and her brother''s children, they had five children, twins and triplets respectively. They were a lovely family that was very close with each other.


    "Hey, Jun." Queen Trinity hugged her friend back, embracing her as if it had been so long since they had simply seen each other.


    "Hey, Astro." Juniper''s husband came up and added his arms to the hug. "I''m d to see you''re back. We all missed you."


    They all sat down together, the children all going off to y while their parents talked and spent time with each other. I did my best to serve them tea and keep them well taken care of. I also kept an eye on the children, who were all very close in age to each other, all on the verge of turning four years old.


    The tea party went great, in my opinion at least. They talked about the times in the Fae Kingdom and the battle. Needless to say, they were quite shocked to learn about Queen Trinity''s ascension. They got over it quickly, though, and the conversation was able to move on.


    After Queen Trinity visited with her friends, she had a few meetings with visiting Alphas who hade to settle some issues they were having. For some reason, I was asked to stand in with this meeting as well. I got to stand behind my Queen just like Gabriel, my mate, was doing. We were both there to take care of Queen Trinity and any needs that might arise for her.


    Gabriel provided political support while I was there to help attend to her and the guests. This was a first for me, but I quite enjoyed this part of my job. Queen Trinity was truly giving me such wonderful consideration.


    The meeting with the Alphas went great in my opinion. Their dispute had been over encroachment of territories. They were Alphas from different packs and different species so the territories seemed to cross over into simr or shared spaces. Queen Trinity listened to what they each had to say, consulted with Gabriel, and worked out a solution that would be beneficial for them both. It had taken a long time toe to an agreement of course, and there had been a lot of yelling and squabbling from the visiting Alphas, but my Queen kept her cool and was able to get them to see eye to eye. I was so proud of her.


    Come dinner time, I was once again invited to stay in the room with the Queen. I was attending to Queen Trinity as well as King Reece, their three children, Reagan, Rika, and Talia. In attendance were also Wesley, Eve, Samuel, and L, members of the Queen Trinity and King Reece''s families.


    During dinner, my duties were to serve the food, keep the drinks topped off, and make sure that everything went smoothly. I honestly felt like a proper attendant doing all of this. This was amazing for me and all day I had been smiling with joy. What better job was there for someone like me than that of caring for the Goddess Queen?


    When the night was finally winding down and I apanied the Goddess Queen back to her room, at her request, I expected that I was going to be cleaning something or doing something that she asked me to do. I didn''t expect her to sit at her desk and then look at me with serious eyes.


    "So, Roisin, how was your day?" Queen Trinity asked me the moment we were alone in her room.


    "It was lovely. I was so happy to be taking care of you personally, my Queen."


    "I am happy to hear that." She grinned at me, something that made my heart soar with joy. "The reason I asked so much of you today, Roisin, was that I am thinking of having you be my personal attendant. And in turn, training personal attendants for the children. They have other people to help them, but I have a feeling that there will be times when my family will be too busy to help me with their care. They are not normal children and I expect them toe with their own unique set of challenges. Does this sound eptable to you?"


    "Most definitely. I would love to be your personal attendant. I will take the very best care of you. And I will even train the new maid that will be taking over for me. I am more than happy to be there for you, my Queen. Thank you for this opportunity." I think I might be a little too excited.


    "No, Roisin, thank you."


    This had been the best day of my life. I couldn''t believe what it was that Queen Trinity was doing for me. I was going to be caring for Queen Trinity every single day. I was going to be training people to care for the prince and princesses. I was going to be so busy and that made me so happy. I couldn''t think of a single thing that was better than what I just heard. Not one.


    Well, maybe just one thing. And that was that I was soon going to be having my own baby. My baby was going to grow up alongside the princesses and prince. My baby was going to be able to see what wonderful people this family was up close and personal.. This was the best thing ever.

 Chapter 581 - Epilogue 7- Lila – Something There (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 581 - Epilogue 7- L ¨C Something There (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    L


    ~~


    I swear I felt like I was living some kind of fairytale right now. There had been so much happening that just didn''t make sense to me. How was all of this even possible?


    First, I found out from Trinity, my daughter inw, that I was now immortal. I wasn''t particrly upset about being immortal, but when I heard that news it made me think about my mate, my husband that died. Living this long life would be great, if I had him to share it with. But I didn''t. I didn''t have anyone to share my life with. I was basically going to be an immortal widow.


    I thought about Collin a lot after I learned about my immortality. I couldn''t get him out of my mind really. However, there was someone else that had been taking up residence in my mind a lottely. Someone that I saw almost on a daily basis. And for some reason, I felt like there might be something there that wasn''t there before.


    I mean, I have known this man for so long. And I had mated with Collin all those years ago. Granted, my husband died in a battle just about twelve years ago. That shouldn''t make a difference, though. I was only supposed to be mated once, just one time and that was supposed to be it.


    I was feeling the pull though. I was feeling the pull towards a man that I have known for so long. Toward a man that I have been able to trust and ept with taking charge since the days that my husband was the Alpha. A man that was so much older than me that I never used to give it any thought at all, but now, why shouldn''t I?


    Age no longer seemed relevant to me. Now that I knew that I was going to live forever, did the fact that he was a little more than twenty years older than me really make a difference?


    Oh, and there was that really interesting thing that seemed to be happening to himtely. He was looking younger and younger with each passing day. Hell, with each passing hour. He no longer looked like he might be in his sixties or seventies. No, he now looked like he was in his early forties. He looked no older than his son, that was for sure. Even his son looked younger too. He was looking somewhere in his mid thirties now.


    Oh, even I was looking younger too, by the way. I was now looking to be closer to my mid thirties once again. I felt amazing and looked so young that I wondered if I was really awake or if I was just dreaming.


    Anyway, enough about the way we looked. I only cared about the way that we felt. Specifically about the way that he felt. We spent a lot of time together, working on different things for Trinity. It''s not like we were never around each other. And I had been watching him to see what it was that he was thinking and feeling.


    Oh Goddess, I was getting so frustrated. I just wanted to read his mind right now. I almost felt like Belle in Beauty and the Beast. I was stuck trying to see how this beast of a man thought and felt about me.


    The lyrics to that iconic song, the one that Belle and the Beast both sing, was ying in my mind whenever he was near.


    ''There''s something sweet and almost kind


    But he was mean and he was coarse and unrefined


    And now he''s dear and so I''m sure


    I wonder why I didn''t see it there before.''


    Oh, Dammit! This was so scary. I wasn''t a young woman anymore, despite my current appearance. I should just ask him how he feels about me. Why am I acting so scared? What am I, a middle school girl chasing after a crush?


    I took a deep breath. I steeled my nerves. I got ready in any way that I possibly could. I even had more of those lyrics ying inside my head.


    ''New and a bit rming


    Who''d have ever thought that this could be


    True, that he''s no Prince Charming


    But there''s something in him that I simply didn''t see''


    OK,e on L, you can do this. You''ve got this. You can ask a man out. You have known him for a long time. You know that he is a good guy. He is so smart, so sweet and so kind, everything. On top of all of that, he was strong, capable, and confident.


    I exhaled. I shook the nerves from my hands and nked my mind. It was time for me to stop this. It was time for me to just do what I needed to do.


    "Uh..uhm, S..S..Samuel?" I stuttered out his name like a moron. Oh Goddess, I was hopeless.


    "L, you''re looking so beautiful today." He smiled at me, that twinkle in his eyes that he always had when I was near. Or maybe he just always looked that way.


    I thought for a moment. Samuel had lost his wife and daughter so long ago that he was probably ready for something now. Did he like me? Was he in love with me?


    "Come on in, L, I just made some tea." Samuel opened the door to allow me to enter the room that he was in.


    "W..w..well, Samuel, the thing is, I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to ask you something." Dammit, I was almost trembling right now. Was I that afraid that he would turn me down?


    The answer to that is yes, I was.


    "S..Samuel, I wanted to ask you, i..if.. I..I mean, h..how d..do y..you f..f..fe..feel-."


    "Can I stop you there, L?" He grinned and leaned in towards me. "Can I answer that without you even finishing that question.?"


    "H..Huh?" He already knew what he was going to say? "Uh, uhm, y..yeah."


    The next thing that I knew, I felt a hand slide onto my cheek and cup it. Before I could register it too much, I felt someone press their lips against me.


    Was I going crazy? Did Samuel just kiss me? Was he still kissing me? This was not how I expected him to answer my question.


    "Do you know now? Can you see how I feel about you now?"


    "Uh..uh..uh..-."


    "I love you, L. I love you and I feel like you were sent to me to fill the hole in my heart."


    "Samuel?" I felt like crying. "That is how I feel as well." He pressed his lips to mine again, softly and gently. He was such an amazing man.


    From that day forward, Samuel and I were mated. What this really meant to people our age, was that we were basically dating with hopes of possibly getting married. I will admit, I was very happy that I was able to be with this man. He was the sweetest, especially when he was taking care of me in our new shared living space. He was also a lot more romantic than I would have ever thought that he would be.. I was so happy.

 Chapter 582 - Epilogue 8- Trinity – First Day (VOLUME 3)

    <h4>Chapter 582 - Epilogue 8- Trinity ¨C First Day (VOLUME 3)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I wanted to cry right now. How could time have passed so quickly? How was this even possible? What was I supposed to do about this? How could I make time move slower?


    All those questions, and more, raced through my head as I silently cried in front of Rika''s closet. I was looking at all the things in there and wondering where my little baby had gone.


    That sweet and innocent little girl that I used to hold in my arms was gone. That little girl who loved butterflies and dragons, that sweet little devil girl that liked to y tricks on her brother and charm her way out of it with a smile and a hug, where was she now?


    All I could see now, all that was left, was a big girl that was growing up so fast. She and Reagan both were growing up so fast. I couldn''t take it. This was all happening so fast. I wasn''t ready.


    "Trinity? Little Bunny, what''s wrong?" Reece asked me as he came into the room, the twins in tow.


    "Daddy, why do you call Mommy Little Bunny?" Rika asked him with her ever growing curiosity filling her voice.


    "I call her that as a nickname or a term of endearment. It''s because I love her." Reece was holding Rika''s hand and turned to look her in the eyes when she spoke. He always treated the kids with respect and gave them a great example to follow.


    Still, as serious as he was being, I couldn''t help butugh.


    "Don''t let Daddy fool you. He didn''t start calling me a bunny out of love." I was giggling when I turned to face my family.


    "Really?" Rika sounded shocked.


    "Why did he start?" Reagan asked me, his curiosity peaked as well.


    "Well, you see, there was a time when Mommy was really scared about something, and Daddy said that I looked like a scared little bunny. And from that day on, he has called me his Little Bunny."


    "Daddy, that was mean, you shouldn''t have made fun of Mommy when she was scared." Rika scolded him.


    "Yeah, that doesn''t sound like something you should do to someone you love." Reagan scolded him next.


    "I wasn''t making fun of her. She looked so adorable when I saw her that night that I simply couldn''t help myself. And I continued calling her that because she is still cute."


    "No Daddy, Mommy isn''t cute." Rika was still scolding him.


    "That''s right. Mommy is beautiful. She is so much better than cute. That is for little girls like Rika and Talia. They''re cute. Mommy is beautiful." Reagan was being my knight in shining armor right now. I didn''t need it, of course, but he was defending my honor with Reece, and it was so adorable.


    "Yes, I know. She is the most beautiful woman in the world, but she is still my Little Bunny. That will never change."


    "Do you have a name for me, Daddy?" Rika batted her eyes at him.


    "I sure do, baby girl. You''re my precious little princess. And Reagan is my little man."


    "You think of everyone as little, don''t you?" Reagan crossed his arms and pouted.


    "To me, you are. But you will be big and strong like me one day. Don''t worry, son." Reece ruffled his hair.


    Reagan was satisfied with that answer. He wanted to be a big strong fighter like his daddy was. I didn''t want him to fight, but his future was his to decide, not mine.


    From there, the four of us finished picking out the special outfits for the next day. We needed to get them ready so that the morning would go more smoothly. I could have had someone else take care of this, but this was a special asion, and their personal attendants hadn''t yet been chosen or trained.


    I had a very unrestful night''s sleep. I kept having nightmares about my babies leaving me. They were growing up and going out on their own and I was never going to see them again. Reece was almost annoyed with how I kept tossing and turning all night. That was, until he pulled me into his arms and kept me pressed against his chest. That was when I finally fell into a deep and peaceful sleep.


    Anxiety was running high the next morning. All through breakfast I felt like I was going to snap and start sobbing like a little baby. Today was the day. Today I was going to be sending my kids out on their own. Today I was going to drop them off and just leave them.


    HOW COULD I DO SUCH A THING! I AM A HORRIBLE PERSON?!


    The children were dressed and ready to go. They looked adorable in their crisp little uniforms. Rika in a cute little pleated ck skirt with gray tights. She was wearing a white button up shirt, with a dark green tie, a dark blue sweater vest, and a medium gray zer. The uniform was so cute on her. It was even topped off with adorable little dress shoes.


    Reagan was dressed simrly. He was wearing ck pants, a white shirt, green tie, blue sweater vest, and gray zer. His look was finalized with a pair of little ck loafers that I thought were the cutest thing ever.


    After the children were dressed, Reece helped Reagan with his hair, and I did Rika''s. I brushed her long, beautiful, wavy ck hair and luxuriated in the silky feel of it. After I made sure there were no knots in her hair, I parted it down the middle and then pulled it up into high twin-tails. One on either side of her adorable little head. Her hair, with it''s natural waves like mine, looked perfect in this hairstyle. I knew that she wouldn''t like it for too long but I was going to do it for as long as she let me.


    Now that the twins were dressed, we got Talia in her car seat so that we could all head out. It was a short drive, but we were making it as a family so that I was able to distract myself. Unfortunately, the drive was over sooner than I thought it would be.


    When we pulled up to where we were going, I got out and helped Reagan and Rika from the car while Reece got Talia and held her in his left arm. He then took Reagan''s left hand while I stood in between the twins and held their hands as well.


    I was about to cry again. Dammit. Why was I so emotional about this?


    Together, the five of us went into the building and down the noisy hallways. There were so many other people around that I immediately worried about my children. I had to deal with it though, there was nothing that I could do.


    Finally, we got to the room where we were going. There was a young and beautiful woman standing outside, greeting people as they went inside.


    "Hello, nice to meet you, I am Mrs. Buhler. It''s wonderful to meet you. What are your names?" She was addressing the twins, not us.


    "My name is Reagan, and I am the older twin."


    "My name is Rika, and my brother is a butthead."


    "Well, it''s nice to meet you, Reagan and Rika." She was giggling at Rika''s words, but she wasn''t done yet. "However, we don''t use the word butthead here, OK."


    "OK." Rika just shrugged.


    "Hi, it''s nice to meet you." The woman held her hand out to me, so I let go of Rika''s hand so I could shake it.


    "Hello, it''s nice to meet you, Mrs. Buhler. My name is Trinity, Trinity Gray."


    "It''s a pleasure, Mrs. Buhler. My name is Reece Gray."


    I swear that the woman looked shell shocked right now. She was still holding my hand and just staring at us with wide eyes.


    "Th..th..th..the Qu..Qu..Qu..-." She stuttered and couldn''t finish.


    "Yes, Mrs. Buhler. I am Queen Trinity, and this is King Reece. Please don''t let that affect you. The twins are kids like anyone else."


    "O..O..OK!" She was still in a state of shock.


    "U..u..uhm, w..w..wee to the ssroom. Reagan, Rika, I hope you like it here."


    "We will." The two of them said together then walked into the room.


    "Reece? Why am I doing this again?" I asked him with tears in my eyes again.


    "Because it''s time for them to start preschool, Little Bunny. Everything will be OK. We will pick them up in the afternoon."


    "I''m sad."


    "I know. Come on." He took my hand and led me out of the building and to the car. I didn''t want to leave my babies. I didn''t want them to be without me right now. I had spent so much time away over the years because of work and now they were going to be spending so much more time away from me. This was so sad.


    I knew that it needed to be done. I knew that this was the right thing. I knew that time was moving on and I couldn''t stop it. But knowing all of that didn''t make it any easier for me to ept it. I was sad, dammit. I was a mother, and I just gave my children away to a stranger. Yeah, I know, they''re an employee at a school that I own and all that, but that doesn''t mean anything when I have to be the one to drop my kids off and just leave them. How do people do this? How did my parents do this? It feels like I am going to die from the sadness and heartache.. This school day can''t end quickly enough.

 Chapter 584 - 1- Trinity – Family Comes To Visit (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 584 - 1- Trinity ¨C Family Comes To Visit (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I felt like I was busier than ever. I didn''t know where my time went or how I managed to always have something to do. Wasn''t there ever a point when my work could be done, and I could just take a break?


    I have to say, being a Goddess and a Queen wasn''t the easiest thing in the world. It wasn''t really the Goddess part, that didn''t really change much. No, it was the Queen business that kept me busy. Every day I had to review things that had to do with the new ''kingdom'' that I was running, and it was seemingly endless.


    Honestly, I feel like I had rushed the creation of my kingdom. I was a little overzealous at first after having spent so much time with Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r in the Fae kingdom. I wanted to prove that I was worthy of the title of queen and that I actually had the right to be leading my people.


    In the beginning, I am sure that I fucked up a lot of things. I was also certain that not everyone was as happy with me being the queen and imposing newws, they might have seemed supportive and happy about it, but I think that was just because they were, literally, unable to oppose me.


    I feel like I had ended up ruining a lot of lives in the beginning of my reign of power. And ever since then, I have been working to correct the errors that I have made. Not to get too specific about some of these things, but I was unfair to some of the Alphas that came to me about disputes. I didn''t listen to them at the time and blindly, and naively, told them to get along with each other.


    With all of the things that I have been through, I should know more than almost anyone that you can''t just give that order and make ite true. That was a stupid ideal of mine and I needed to open my eyes and see the world for what it truly was.


    Thankfully, I did see the errors before it got to be toote. I have since worked more on how my world would be run. I let the people give me an opinion of how they thought things should be, and I corrected all the things that I messed up. I also worked more on what it was that I had missed out on.


    Over thest few years, I have nearly finalized the structure with which my kingdom is governed. I had worked out the checks and bnces system that is put in ce for the purpose of keeping things fair. I have redesignated my council as a parliament type of system that would meet to discuss the functionality of the kingdom.


    I was so d that we didn''t need to create a single universal money system for my kingdom. Since my ''people'' were spread out all over the world, we couldn''t use a single type of money. Especially since we were still hiding our existence from the humans. No, we just needed to use our own ''local'' currency, whatever one that might be.


    I wasn''t fully done yet, there was a lot of fine tuning to do, but I was happy to say that my Kingdom was at least functional and semi sufficient. Most people would argue that it was more than semi sufficient, but I was being slightly pessimistic right now. Better that than seeing it through rose colored sses all the time.


    "Hahh!" I sighed as I set aside my pen, having just signed thest document that was in front of me.


    "Have you finished now, my Queen?" Roisin, my personal attendant, asked me the moment that I seemed to be taking a slight break.


    "Yes, I am finally done with all of this." I was stretching my arms out and I could feel all the tension and stress that I had been under.


    "That is wonderful, mydy. There is an afternoon meeting for you. Perhaps you will want to go and clean up before you meet with them." There was a smile on Roisin''s face as her eyes twinkled at me.


    "I take it this is a very important meeting." I sighed again. I desperately needed some time off.


    "Yes, my Queen. I believe this will be the most important meeting you have had in a long time." I didn''t miss the slight smirk on her face, nor the way that she was looking at me intently. There was something about this person that I was meeting with that I hadn''t been told yet. Oh well, I could ask after I was changed. From what I had been told, the next meeting started at two this afternoon. It was currently a quarter to one. Dammit, I haven''t even had lunch yet. I guess I needed to hurry so I could eat before the meeting.


    I went with Roisin upstairs to get changed for this important meeting. I wanted to put on something that would be quick and easy so that I could get something to eat, but Roisin insisted that I needed to dress a certain way.


    However, the outfit that she gave me wasn''t what I would expect to be wearing to a meeting. No, instead of a business suit or something queenly, Roisin gave me something that was a little fun and geared toward family time.


    "Are you sure, Roisin?" I tilted my head in confusion at her choice.


    "Yes, Ma''am, I am sure that this would be better for the meeting that you are having. Now, let''s get you ready."


    Roisin worked to make sure that my hair was styled, something I could have done myself with magic, but instead, Roisin did it with her magic. After that, I fixed my makeup myself, with magic of course. Then finally, I got dressed and ready for the meeting.


    Before I headed back to my office, I went to get something to eat. Thankfully, my office was at the base of the royal tower, so I didn''t need to travel far. I would enjoy a quick lunch and then be on my way.


    Or at least that is what I thought. I was in the middle of my meal when the door to the family dining room opened to permit a small group of people.


    "What''s this? None of you greet your guests anymore."


    I was shocked beyond belief, I hadn''t known that they wereing. What were they doing here?


    "What are you doing here? I was so curious that I thought the question deserved repeating, out loud.


    "Trevor?" Reece was shocked as he rose to his feet. His friend was standing there before us with a big grin on his face. "What are you doing here?"


    "We told everyone to keep it a secret. We wanted toe and visit you for a little bit. You know, catch up, hang out, spend some time together."


    "I cannot believe this. I am so happy.. Why didn''t you tell us you wereing?" I leapt to my feet and started to run straight toward Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r.

 Chapter 585 - 2- Reece – Surprise Visit (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 585 - 2- Reece ¨C Surprise Visit (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I watched as my Little Bunny leapt out of her chair and raced toward her family that had just arrived. Trevor was with them of course, and so was Valerian''s wife Daciana. These were people that we were so busy that we couldn''t visit them for over a year now.


    Thest time that we saw either of them in person was when Gloriana gave birth to their son, Torben, almost a year and a half ago. Trevor was holding Torben who looked just like him. Daciana and Valerian were holding their children as well. They had twin girls who they named Lily and Rose that were almost two years old. The twin girls looked just like Valerian, blue coloring for the hair and eyes.


    It was great to see them all, but it was a shock as well. None of us had expected them to just show up like this.


    "Athair m¨°r, Aunt Glory, what are you doing here?" My Little Bunny asked them as she hugged them and took the baby from Valerian''s arms. "Come here Lily. You''re such a cutie.


    "Trin Trin!" Lily squealed, prompting Rose to do the same.


    "Trin Trin! Hold me, Trin Trin!" Despite the fact that we hadn''t seen them in a while, we still had regr conversations via the mirror in our room. Our three children and these three children were well acquainted despite our busy schedules.


    "I''ll hold you too, Rosie. Come here." Trinity took the little girl in her arms and hugged them both.


    "Eh! Eh! Tin! Me!" Torben was reaching for Trinity as well. Being younger, I think he was having trouble saying Trin like the other two were doing.


    "Oh, little buddy, I will hold you too." Trinity, in a feat of amazingness that only a mom could do, took Torben in her arms as well. She was holding all three of the toddlers now, something that would be difficult for most people.


    "Mom, you''re quite strong, aren''t you?" Rika remarked as she watched her mother holding the babies.


    "I think this is perfectly easy, this has nothing to do with strength, sweetheart."


    "Whatever you say." Rika smiled as she stood next to me.


    "What are all of you doing here?" Reagan, being a little more interested in what was going on, got to his feet and walked over to our guests.


    "Well, tomorrow is the first of July, right." Trevor ruffled Reagan''s hair as he leaned forward and smiled at him. I hadn''t noticed until just now how tall Reagan was getting. I see him every day, but when he was put next to someone like Trevor who was even taller than I am, that was when I could truly see how tall he was now. Trevor, who was over six and half feet tall, still towered over Reagan, but not as much as I would have thought given the fact that Reagan was only seven and a half. He was going to be a tall one, just like me.


    "What does the beginning of July have to do with anything?" Rika asked as she finally walked up to Trevor as well.


    "Well, the fourth is your father''s birthday. And then, not long after that, is Talia''s birthday, right? We wanted toe for a visit because it''s been so long."


    "You came for my birthday?" Talia''s eyes lit up as she heard the words they had to say. She was a quiet one by nature, so she didn''t speak up all that often. She knew Trevor though, so she was a little more at ease than usual. I was happy to see that.


    "I wouldn''t miss it for the world, pumpkin." Trevor scooped her up into his arms as she ran over to him. Her giggle told me that she was not afraid at all.


    "Thank you, Uncle Trevor. I''m happy you''ll be here." Talia, soft voice and articte as always, thanked the man who was now hugging her.


    All of a sudden, Trinity seemed to remember something. Her eyes popped open, and she gasped.


    "I have to go." She was saying as she handed the children back to their parents. Gloriana took Torben while Valerian took Lily and Rose.


    "What''s wrong, Trinity? Where do you have to go?" I couldn''t believe that she was about to leave now of all times.


    "I have a meeting. I barely had time for lunch. I''m sorry everyone, but I have to go." She was already rushing to say her goodbyes.


    "You don''t have to leave." Valerian smiled at her.


    "That''s right." Daciana giggled.


    "We knew you would be busy." Gloriana chimed in.


    "Yeah, that''s why we made an appointment. We''re the ones you''re supposed to meet next." Trevor rounded them out.


    "Really?" The light that shone from my Little Bunny''s eyes then made my heart feel warm. She was so happy to be seeing these people, to be having this visit. I was d that she didn''t need to cut it short.


    "Yes, really, now sit down and do your job. We have a meeting to attend to." Trevor joked with her and pulled her into his arms. "Give me a hug now, Goddess Queen. I haven''t seen any of you in person in a long time. Come on, you too Alpha King."


    "Can we get a hug too?" Rika asked him, a smile on her face. She usually tried to act more ''cool'' than that.


    "Come on, all of you. I want hugs."


    Trevor had apparently turned into that really loving, hug giving uncle that most families seemed to have. Well, at least the families that I knew had one. I was d to see that bing a father had mellowed him out somewhat. Not that he wasn''t mellow or a good guy before, because he was awesome. Still, he had changed a lot since finding his mate and bing a father. That made me happy to see.


    All of us sat around the sitting room after we finished our lunch, which was now kind of cold. We talked about what had changed over thest year and a half since we had seen each other, even though we had those regr calls and stayed in touch. The kids were all ying together, Talia was happy not being the youngest anymore and was really enjoying spending time with the other kids. Reagan and Rika were a little too old to ''y'' the same games with the little kids, but they were there, nheless. They helped the other kids and didn''t make them feel like they had to do what the older kids wanted to. They were being good cousins and making the younger ones feel loved. It was a nice sight to see.


    The talks continued until we got to the part about this visit. There was no need to worry about where they would all be staying, since Valerian, Trevor, and Daciana all had ces in the noble towers, so they had their own homes to go to. We did offer them a ce in the royal tower though, but they refused.


    "We will be fine. It''s not that far of a walk. There is no need to trouble yourself." Daciana, always on the shy side, just like Talia, smiled at us while she exined why they didn''t need to stay at our ce.


    "If you insist." Trinity smiled at her. "I am just d that we''re going to spend some time together. I wish I had more free time, though. I am always so busy now."


    "You have plenty of time, Queen Trinity." Roisin stepped up with Gabriel.


    "She is right. We have been setting things up so that you can take the entire month off. There is no need to worry." Gabriel smiled softly.


    "That is right, we knew you needed a break. And when we found out that Queen Gloriana, King Trevor, Prince Valerian, and Princess Daciana were nning toe for a visit, we wanted to help you."


    "Thank you. Thank you so much, Roisin and you as well Gabriel. This means so much to me."


    "It is our pleasure, Queen Trinity." Roisin blushed at the praise she had just received.


    "You know that I would do anything for you, my Queen. I am always here to serve you." Gabriel bowed his head and smiled happily.


    "Thank you." I thanked them this time. I wanted them to know just how much I appreciated that they were doing this for us.


    "Oh, Trinity, there is onest surprise I have for you." Gloriana was smiling at my Little Bunny in a way that told me she was exceedingly happy.


    "Oh, and what might that be?" My Little Bunny practically vibrated in her seat as her happiness and curiosity were thrumming inside of her.


    "We''re adding to our family." The words were almost a whisper, but we all heard them.


    "What? Oh my Goddess, that is so exciting." My Little Bunny leapt to her feet and pulled Gloriana into another hug. "I can''t wait to meet my new little cousin."


    "She isn''t the only one." Valerian smiled. "Daci and I are expecting again as well. We wanted to wait to tell you until we saw you, though. Daci is due a month before Glory is."


    "What? Why did you hide it from me?" My Little Bunny moved over to Valerian and Daciana now, hugging them tightly.


    "We wanted to have this reaction in person." Daciana grinned. "We can''t hug through a mirror."


    This was already a good start to their visit in my opinion. I was starting to get excited about theing month now.. Well, more excited that is.

 Chapter 586 - 3- Trinity – Visit Part 1 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 586 - 3- Trinity ¨C Visit Part 1 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    My days of rest and rxation, and family visitation, started the very next day. I would forever be grateful to Roisin and Gabriel for thinking of me like this. They were so thoughtful and kind.


    Prior to this, I didn''t know if I would even have the time to celebrate Reece''s birthday with him, or even Talia''s. What kind of wife and mother was I going to be if I didn''t even celebrate my family''s birthdays?


    I didn''t want to let my schedule rule my life. I didn''t want to be one of those absentee parents. That wouldn''t be what''s best for my family. So, what I needed to do was figure out a way to lighten my workload. Maybe Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r would have some suggestions for me while they are here.


    Over the course of the next few days, all we did was hang out and talk with our family. Since none of them were just friends now, they were all rted to us in one way or another. The kids all spent time together ying in either the yroom on the kid''s floor of the royal tower, or at the daycare where they could spend time with a lot of other kids as well. More often than not, though, they were in Talia''s room or the yroom.


    It was nice being able to catch up with everyone and see them in person. I didn''t realize how much I was missing them and missing spending time with my family. I needed to figure things out a little but take them a little more calmly.


    On the third day they were here, when Reece took Reagan, Athair m¨°r and Trevor out for a boy''s day (missing Torben only because he was too young). I had a private lunch with Aunt Glory and Daci (with Torben there to be our little snuggle buddy). While they did that, all of the girls were having a tea party in Rika''s room.


    "You''re looking so great, Aunt Glory. Both of you are. Daci, you''re even more beautiful than I remember you being. How is this even possible?" Iughed a little as I thought about how great they looked. They seemed so calm and rxed.


    "And you''re looking so tired, Trinity. Why are you so exhausted?" Aunt Glory was giving me a look filled with concern and pity.


    "I have been so busytely, Aunt Glory. It''s been hard for me to rx." I shrugged and answered her honestly while I held Torben against my chest.


    "What is keeping you so busy? Why is it that you have such a hard time right now?" Daci was looking so concerned for me, I didn''t like that I was worrying them.


    "I made a lot of errors when I first started my kingdom. I have been working hard for thest few years to get them all settled and corrected. I don''t want to ruin any more lives."


    Even I could hear the sadness and heartache in my voice. I know that I was causing issues for everyone, but I couldn''t help it. I know that the kids missed me and that I needed to spend more time with Reece, but I needed to make sure that the lives of over half the world were being protected and that they were taken care of. I have a lot of people that I need to think about, more than any other country in the world.


    And I don''t even want to get started on the fact that I had to deal with the fact that I have a ''kingdom'' and not a ''country''. My people are spread out all over the world. They are different races, nationalities, and species. If you wanted to look at it and think about it in depth, you would see that I have thergest and most diverse group of people in the world. And because of that, I needed to be able to navigate through all of their individual cultures and customs.


    I learned only after getting started with all of this, that just because we''re all supernaturals, that doesn''t mean that we all think and do things in the same way. We''re diverse and different. We''re so different to be exact, that it gives me a headache when trying to run things.


    I did my best to exin some of that to Aunt Glory and Daci without sounding like I wasining. I didn''t want them to think that I expected them to help me in any way. Some advice would always be weed, but I wasn''t going to expect them to do anything for me. This was my problem, a mess that I got myself into, and I was going to get myself out of it. One way or another.


    They did have some advice for me though. And I was more than happy to listen.


    "You can delegate work. That is why you have so many advisors and nobles. I am sure that some of them can do the work that you need to have done."


    "But won''t I then just be making them too busy? Won''t I be burdening them?"


    "Spread the work out. And you are the Queen, Trinity, you need to learn that you are the one that shouldn''t be inconvenienced." Daci was the one telling me this, not Aunt Glory. To hear this from someone else, from someone who wasn''t a queen, that started to make me feel a little better.


    "She is right, Trinity. You need to understand that now, after your kingdom has been established and is functional, they need to cater to you more. How are you ever going to rule your people if you let them rule you?"


    I did understand that. I really did. I just didn''t want to cause more problems for my people than I already had. I didn''t want to make them suffer. I didn''t want to end up like those kings from history whose people revolted against their tyrannical authority.


    "I can see in your eyes that you''re not fully understanding me." Aunt Glory gave me a stern look. "What I am saying is," while Aunt Glory was talking another voice started to whisper at me. I could barely hear it but it was there. ''Your¡­ple¡­ing¡­die¡­'' What was that? I tried to understand the words that voice was saying and to listen to Aunt Glory as well. "That you need to be firm with your people. You don''t need to be a tyrant, but your people need to answer to and cater to you." I was so lost in that conversation right now. I didn''t even know what Aunt Glory was saying anymore.


    "I''m sorry, I didn''t catch that." I felt a little dizzy from trying to follow both voices at the same time.


    "I said that you need to," ''run¡­Trinity¡­go¡­people¡­die¡­fault¡­'' "stop trying to do everything on your own. You need to let other people," ''they¡­die¡­all¡­fault¡­all your¡­can''t save¡­die¡­your fault.'' "Trinity, are you even listening to me?"


    "I am. I mean I was, yeah. It''s just, I heard another voice. Did you hear someone else talking just now?"


    I asked Aunt Glory as I started to look around the room. I didn''t see anyone aside from Aunt Glory, Daci, Roisin, Torben, and Aunt Glory and Daci''s personal attendants. There was no one else here. Could one of their attendants have said that? What was going on?


    "No, Trinity, I didn''t hear anything. Did you, Daci?"


    "No, I''m sorry Trinity, I didn''t hear anything but Glory''s voice. Are you feeling alright?"


    "I don''t know. I think I am just going to call it a day. I am sorry, Aunt Glory. I think I need to rest a little bit." I stood and handed her Torben who was happy to be back in his mother''s arms.


    I left the room without Roisin, without Gabriel, without a guard. I just went straight up to my room andid on my bed.


    "I must be losing my mind.." I shook my head as I thought about what was going on.

 Chapter 587 - 4- Trinity – Visit Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 587 - 4- Trinity ¨C Visit Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I have to figure out what is going on. I have to figure out what I am going to do about this. Am I actually losing my mind? That can''t be right. But what was that voice that was whispering to me. Was someone trying to warn me about something?


    That voice kept saying the word die. It was saying people were going to die. And it was saying that it was my fault. But why?


    Was I messing up again? Was I making the wrong decision again? Was I going to do something horribly wrong and cause a lot of people to die? But, I wasn''t nning any big decisions anytime soon. I was just taking a little bit of time off to spend with my family. Was that what was going to cause the problems? Is this what was going to lead to people dying?


    Dammit! I can''t be thinking about this. Tomorrow is Reece''s birthday. I am supposed to be having a good time with him. I am supposed to have family time together with everyone. I need to get myself into a better mindset than this.


    I was stillying in bed when Reece came into the room. I didn''t think that I had fallen asleep, but I guess I must have since it was dark out now.


    "Little Bunny?" Reece sounded like he didn''t want to wake me up if I was sleeping in the darkened room. I hadn''t turned on a light either.


    "I''m up." I said as I sat up in the bed.


    "What happened? What''s wrong?" He sat next to me on the bed and put his arm around me. "Gloriana and Daciana both said that you were acting as if you weren''t feeling well. Is something wrong?" He was holding me against his side, trying to give me his support and figure out what was wrong with me at the same time.


    "I just felt like I heard something, that is all." I didn''t want to go into it with him right now. I didn''t want him to think that I was crazy. It was bad enough that I thought that I was crazy. "I''m sure I was just tired. I have been working so much and now with all the excitement of having Aunt Glory and all of the otherse to visit with us. I think that I just got overwhelmed or something."


    "Are you sure, babe? I don''t want you to ignore something that might be wrong. Take it easy for a few days, please."


    "I will, after tomorrow. I don''t want to miss out on your birthday party."


    "Alright, fine. But please don''t overdo it at all." That was when he leaned forward and kissed my forehead.


    The next day was Reece''s birthday. The whole family, mine and his, and all of our friends came to spend the day with us. Reagan, Rika, and Talia had all made something special for Reece. Reagan, who had really gotten into sculpting since we added that ss to the daycare, had made Reece a prettyrge piece made with all natural items. He had walked all around the castle, in the woods and on the mountain. He found branches, rocks, leaves, and several other things. The resulting piece was in the shape of a beautiful wolf.


    Rika, who was less into the actual art pieces, but loved music more than almost anything else, wrote her daddy a song. She has been ying music since she was three, when we started both of the twins with learning new things. Rika took to it like a fish to water. She progressed so quickly that she didn''t even need her instructor''s help to write the short song she was ying on the violin.


    Talia, sweet, shy, soft spoken Talia, had painted her daddy a picture. She hadn''t been painting long so I know she felt inferior to her brother and sister because of it, but it was still very pretty. She painted a very realistic looking image of Reece and herself as they sat together on the swing in the garden. I loved it, and so did Reece.


    Others gave him gifts as well and we all had lunch together after that. There was a beautiful cake that Abigail made for us, the kids all helped Reece to blow out the candles. It was all perfect and delicious, and I should have been perfectly happy with everything.


    The problem was that I kept hearing that voice again. That whisper that was so hard to hear, so soft that even my enhanced senses were having a hard time picking it up. The voice spoke to me almost all day long and I had to do my best to ignore its depressing words.


    ''Everyone¡­your fault¡­dead¡­attack¡­your fault¡­they¡­ing to¡­die¡­stop it¡­go¡­run away¡­get out¡­die¡­your fault¡­''


    The effort of ignoring those words, of trying to keep a smile on my face while pretending that I didn''t hear a voice telling me that the people I knew, the people I loved, the people that I was responsible for were going to die.


    This was getting harder and harder with each passing hour. And by the time that the day was over, I had a massive headache. All I wanted to do was to soak in the tub and then go to bed.


    I couldn''t do that, though. I wanted to spend time with my family, with my children. I needed to do that so that the children didn''t think that I didn''t love them. I needed them to know that I love them more than anything else in the world.


    That was why I stayed up. That was why I read to them, drank hot cocoa with them, and tucked them into bed. I would never make my children feel unwanted or unloved. I would never let them think that their mommy was too busy for them. Just the thought broke my heart.


    Only after they were all put to bed and read to, did I finally go for my bath. That soak had been needed all day long. I stayed in there, letting the hot water rx my body, for over an hour. I was in there for so long that Reece came to check on me to make sure that I hadn''t fallen asleep in the tub or something.


    "Thest thing that I need is for you to drown in that tub because it''s so big. Maybe I should have it made smaller." He started to contemte to himself.


    "Do it and die, Fido." I red at him. "Not to mention, I could just change it back whenever I wanted to. So don''t even bother. Leave my tub alone." I pretended to snap at him angrily while I dried off.


    "Alright, fine. I will leave the tub alone. But you have to promise to go on a date with me for my birthday this weekend." He was trying to coerce me.


    "Your birthday is today." I reminded him.


    "Yes, I know that. I am thirty-four now, ugh how time has flown." He shivered as if that was a major issue or not. He should stop with that right now. I mean, I was twenty-seven already. I was already feeling old even though I was immortal.


    "Fine, Reece, I will go out with you this weekend." I smiled at him as I walked over and kissed his cheek. "But for now, I am going to bed."


    "Naked?" He asked hopefully.


    "Nope."


    "Damn it."


    I didn''t feel up to what he wanted right now. I needed to rest.. That voice was driving me nuts.

 Chapter 588 - 5- Trinity – My Date With Reece (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 588 - 5- Trinity ¨C My Date With Reece (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I haven''t been on a date with Reece since I don''t even know how long. It''s been forever, or so it feels like. I mean, we have been extremely busy, and we have three children. Not to mention that I have a kingdom to run, and Reece has a corporation to run. We were both so busy.


    I was excited though, and I think the others could tell. When they asked me what was making me so happy, I couldn''t hide it from them. And I tell you, it was going to take a lot of self control to keep myself in check until Saturday rolled in. GAH!


    When the day did finallye though, Reece wouldn''t tell me where we were going. He just told me to dress however I wanted, and he will take the rest from there. Did that mean that he would decide the location of the date based on what I was wearing? Well, that was different.


    I decided that I didn''t want to dress up too much. I would much rather be a little bit on thefortable side. So, thinking along those lines, I decided to wear a pair of jean shorts and a sky blue tank top with a loose fitting, short sleeved, white button up shirt over top of it. The white shirt was not buttoned though, it was just to give me a little bit more modesty, and to make Reece want to see more of course.


    I french-braided my hair, did my makeup, and even set my nails to match the blue of my tank top. For all of that I had used my magic to do it, something that was easier and easier each time that I did it. I just needed to think about what I wanted to do and it ''magically'' did it for me. Isn''t being a Witwolfae nice? See what I did there? Ibined my three species into one name. I know, it was a stupid pun, but that doesn''t matter, I thought that it was funny and that is all that matters.


    With me now ready for the date, I let Reece ''pick me up'' for the night. He came to the door like he did all those years ago when we were first mated and kind of hated each other. Ahh, this brings back such memories for me.


    I remember our first few dates so fondly. The first one being when he took me out to dinner following my exams. That had also been thest that I was able to go out for a while because of the attack on ournds.


    That first night had been when he kissed me for the second time. He had been super forward and showed me that he desired my body. However, at the time, I didn''t know if he liked me for me yet. I knew that he was a horny man, though, he had made that part abundantly clear.


    It wasn''t until closer to Christmas and New Year''s that he actually made me realize that maybe he didn''t hate me and maybe he actually kind of liked me. I loved him by then, though. I couldn''t help myself. I fell in love with that annoying asshole and decided that I didn''t want to get away from him anymore. And when he rescued me from my father and told me that he loved me I thought that the world had flipped upside down, in a good way.


    I couldn''t believe that I was reminiscing about all of this right now. It had been so long, and I had nearly forgotten about it all. In a way, though, I was d that I never forgot any of the history that Reece and I shared. Even the bad parts were fond memories that helped us to shape who we are now.


    "Are you ready, my love?" Reece asked me when I opened the door that he had just knocked on.


    "Yeah, my darling, I do think that I am. Now, where might we be going this evening?" I looked up at him as he took my hand.


    "You will see." He was still not telling me. I kind of remember that our dates were like this in the beginning as well. He would n something borate only for me to find out what it was after the fact.


    Reece led me out of our room, down and out of the tower, and to the garage where there was a dune buggy waiting for us. He loved these dune buggies and used them to traverse the castle grounds and the surrounding mountains and forest areas.


    Reece then drove me to a new, pearly white building that I know wasn''t there before. It wasn''t all that big, and it was dome shaped with a ss ceiling.


    "What is this?" I asked him with my head tilted in confusion.


    "We''re going to have dinner and then watch the stars." He grinned at me and took my hand as he pulled me from my seat in the dune buggy.


    "Really?" I grinned at him. "That is so sweet and romantic. And best of all, it''ll just be us."


    "Yup. I wanted some alone time with my Little Bunny." His smile was one of pure love, damn he was such a good husband.


    "Thank you, Reece. Thank you so much."


    I think I really needed this. I needed some peace and quiet along with some alone time with my husband. And best of all, I haven''t even heard that annoying whispering voice at all today. Maybe it was because I was looking forward to my date, or maybe because I had gotten so much rest that I didn''t feel quite so stressed out or anything like that.


    I decided to just snuggle against Reece''s side while he took me inside the new building. My heart was thumping with excitement and joy as I felt his firm, reassuring presence. It was going to be an amazing night. I just knew it.


    I couldn''t help but remember the way that things used to be. The way that Reece and I had been when we first got together and all the changes that had happened between us over the year. I went from wanting to runaway and practically hating him to loving (almost) everything about him. What better love could I have ever asked for? What better life could I have asked for?


    I can answer that. None. There was no better life, there was no better love. What I had with Reece was the best life I could have ever imagined.. And that was why I was looking forward to this date so much.

 Chapter 589 - 6- Trinity – My Date With Reece Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 589 - 6- Trinity ¨C My Date With Reece Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The inside of the building was like a standardarium, for the most part. The only difference that I saw was that there was norge telescope for watching the night sky. That was fine, I guess, we could still see the stars, just not as close.


    Reece led me straight to the middle of the room where there was a small, round table waiting for us. There were only two chairs at the table, and it only had two ce settings. Candles were already lit and there was a bucket with chilled wine sitting nearby.


    There was a rolling cart next to the table. There were several dishes that were tailored to Reece and me. All of our favorites wereid out with just enough for us to have a little bit of everything without wasting any of the food.


    Reece led me to my chair and pulled it out for me to sit down. He then started to pour me a ss of wine before he filled a te with food for me.


    "Isn''t this a date for your birthday? Shouldn''t I be serving you." I raised a brow at him and asked that question as he sat the te down in front of me and started to fill his own te.


    "Well, I asked you out, so no. Not to mention, you''re my wife and my Queen, and my Goddess, I want to do all that I can for you."


    "What did I ever do to deserve you?" I asked him as my heart melted from his loving words.


    "You put up with me and all my stupid asshole-like behavior for all these years. I think that makes you worthy of anything." His adorable, boyish grin made my heart pound with desire for him. Even after all these years together I loved him and wanted him probably more than I even wanted and loved him in every year prior to this.


    After Reece got our tes ready, he sat down opposite me, and we started to eat our meal. We talked about seemingly unimportant things and joked about stupid things. Weughed and talked so much that the food had long since gone cold. We didn''t care though. It was an amazing meal even if it was cold.


    "So, do you think that Aunt Glory will have another boy, or will Trevor be cursed with a daughter this time?" I asked Reece with augh in my voice.


    "I hope he gets a daughter. They''re great, don''t get me wrong, but they pull on the heartstrings. I can''t believe how much of a softy that I have be ever since Rika and Talia have been born." He was looking at me with a soft and sweet smile and a twinkle in his eyes. "Trevor has already calmed down since he got himself a mate and became a father, but can you imagine how much calmer he would be if he has a daughter?" This time Reeceughed when he spoke.


    We moved on a little after that discussion, choosing a different topic to discuss.


    "Have you chosen anything special that you want to do for Talia''s birthday?" I asked Reece, knowing that he was always trying to make all the kids feel extra special on their birthday. He was such an amazing dad and the kids loved that about him.


    "Oh, I have a few ideas. I am not going to tell you though. It''s a surprise." He grinned at me as he obviously thought about the stuff that he was going to do.


    "That is so not fair. You big butthead." I giggled at him and his total aloof expression.


    "Hey, I need to have a few secrets, Little Bunny, a man has to have some mystery about him."


    "There is absolutely no mystery about you, Reece. That is to be sure. I know you and that is why I love you."


    "You love me because of my sexy dance moves." He joked with me and started to move around like an idiot in his chair. I was really d that I knew he was doing it on purpose and that he really wasn''t that much of a weirdo.


    "Please no! Stop! My eyes! I think I''m going to go blind!" I pretended to cover my eyes and looked away from him like it was all too much for me to handle. I wasn''t able to stopughing while doing it though. "AH HA HA HA HA!"


    "Oh hush you. You know you love it. I am the best dancer in the whole world."


    "Yes, how did I ever forget that? You are an the number one, award winning master of the goofball dancers."


    "And don''t you ever forget it." He pointed a finger at me and put on a pretend serious expression.


    We continued in that way for a long time. So many different silly conversations. So many goofy jokes. It was perfect and I wouldn''t have had it any other way.


    After we were done eating, Reece cleared away the table, cart, and any other trace of our meal. Once he was done with that, he carried over some very thick nkets and pillows. It was way too warm to cover up with those nkets, but he wasn''t nning on us covering up. He wanted us toy on them as we looked up at the stars that were now shining brightly about us.


    I snuggled in against Reece''s side and used his shoulder as a pillow instead of the soft, fluffy pillow he had brought me. There was no pillow in this world that would be better than his shoulder. That was the one that made me feel the safest and most secure.


    "Little Bunny, are you doing alright?" He asked me while weid there and watched the sky. I had thought that the sky would just be how it was outside. No, leave it to Aunt Glory or Athair m¨°r, who were the ones who no doubt built this ce for Reece, they had made it possible to view the sky without needing a telescope. We only needed to think about moving the focus of the images above us and the view would change. It was amazing and I loved it.


    "Yeah, I''m fine Reece." That was true, since I hadn''t heard that voice recently so I wasn''t lying.


    "That''s good. I''ve been worried about you, sweetheart. I don''t want anything to happen to you." I heard the concern that was thickening his voice and it tugged at my heart strings. He must have been so worried about metely. I mean, hearing that your wife had been hearing a mysterious voice that wasn''t really there, that had to make him think that I was losing thest marble from my bag of sanity. He probably thought about having memitted, or at least making Griffine to check up on me.


    I hated that I was causing him this pain and worry. I only wanted him to be happy. I never wanted him or the kids to feel this conflicted and worried when it came to me. I wanted to be the one that was strong for them and made sure that they were always cared for. That was my job as a wife, mother, queen, and goddess. I needed to make sure that everything, and everyone, was taken care of and provided for. That was my job, my responsibility.


    "Reece, listen to me, I am fine. I am sorry that I made you feel otherwise, but I am good. There is nothing to worry about." I leaned up on my elbow and looked into his eyes as I spoke. I also slid my hand up to cup his cheek so that I could feel his warmth against the palm of my hand. "I might get a little stressed, scared, or worried from time to time, but I promise you that I am fine. If things ever get to the point where they aren''t, then I will tell you. I don''t want you to worry, alright? Just let it go."


    "If you''re sure, Little Bunny, then I will forget about it. Just make sure that you don''t push yourself too far. And I want you to remember that I love you, Reagan, Rika, and Talia love you. Mom loves you, Samuel, Wesley, Eve, Carter, Emmalee, Noah, Nikki, everyone loves you and we all want to make sure that you''re happy and healthy. You''ve been working so muchtely that we''ve all been worried about you."


    "I''m sorry." I leaned in and kissed his lips softly. "I promise I will do better. I don''t want to make you or anyone else worry about me at all. I want to make you all proud of me instead. I want to be the one to take care of everyone else. I was to be a true leader."


    I could see the happiness returning to Reece''s eyes, that and a little bit of heat.. That tiny little kiss was all it took to flip his switch.

 Chapter 590 - 7- Trinity – My Date With Reece Part 3 (VOLUME 4) (MATURE)

    <h4>Chapter 590 - 7- Trinity ¨C My Date With Reece Part 3 (VOLUME 4) (MATURE)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece wasn''t willing to wait at all. Instead of watching the stars, I could tell that he was wanting to focus more on me. That was fine with me. I was willing to ignore the stars to focus on my husband. Having been so busytely, I hadn''t been able to be with him that much. I have missed him. Not to mention, I did turn him down on his birthday.


    Reece slid his hand up my arm, across my shoulder, and to the back of my head. With his grip on my head, he pulled me forward until he could press his lips to mine. He was so gentle with the whole process. So different than how things were years ago when we first got together. I loved this gentle side of him, but part of me wanted something more, something rougher and more filled with need and passion.


    Needing more, wanting more, I slid my hands around his head and grabbed fistfuls of his hair as I pressed harder with my lips. I was turning the kiss into something deeper and hotter.


    Reece growled in pleasure when he felt my hunger for him. Before I even knew what was happening, I felt him wrap his arm around my waist and flip us both over. I was just suddenlyying on my back with barely any memory of how I had gotten there.


    "Trinity?" His voice was low, deep, and so sexy.


    "Reece, I want you. I need you. It''s been too long."


    "I need you too, Little Bunny. I need you so bad."


    That was all. From there it was nothing but Reece and I trying to rip each other''s clothes from our bodies. I unbuttoned Reece''s dark gray shirt and slid my hands over his perfectly sculpted and muscr chest. The smooth, firm nes of his body felt so right when pressed against the palms of my hands.


    As I rubbed his chest, he was pulling my tank top over my head and expertly unhooking my bra without even looking. After my chest was exposed, Reece set his mouth against my left nipple, instantly pulling it into his mouth and making me cry out in pleasure.


    "Ah..AHH!"


    His hands were still working though. He was sliding my shorts and panties down my hips and then my thighs all while curling his tongue around my nipple and biting down gently. I didn''t want to be the only one without clothes on, so I pushed Reece away and started to pull his clothes from him. He let me finish taking the shirt off of him, but after that Reece pulled away from me just long enough for him to strip away his jeans and boxers.


    OH GODDESS! He was fucking sexy as hell when he was naked. There was no other way to describe him except for perfection. His body, his proportions, everything about him was perfect in every way.


    "Hmm, that looks good." I grinned at him as he started to crawl back toward me.


    "And it''s all for you, Little Bunny. I am all yours." There was a very unwolflike purr to his voice when he spoke just then. The low, rumbling words rubbed all over my body and made me feel like his hands were running all over my arms and legs.


    That was a type of magic that was all for Reece. He was such an amazing lover that I didn''t even need to have him physically touch me to respond to him. But when he did touch me, when he leaned back over me and slid his hand in between my thighs, it felt like heaven.


    Reece''s fingers immediately slid into my already slick and wet folds. Just as he used his middle finger to ring my opening he pressed his lips against mine and slid his fingers deep inside of me.


    "MMMPHM!" I moaned but he swallowed it down with the kiss and didn''t relent.


    He was moving his fingers in and out of me fast, but it didn''t hurt at all. Actually, I loved every second of it. I felt my long neglected body weeping for him. I was so ready for him that I felt my juices flooding into the palm of his hand.


    I think that was all it took for him to lose control. I was ready, my body was ready, and he was more than ready.


    "Trinity." He growled my name the moment he broke the kiss. With his forehead pressed against mine, he positioned himself between my thighs and pressed against my opening.


    "Reece." I breathed his name just seconds before he slid inside of me. "NGH!" I moaned again as he slid home.


    Reece was leaning over me as he set about creating a hard and fast rhythm, but it wasn''t enough. I needed to touch him, to hold him. So, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled myself up off of the nkets to press myself against his body.


    Reece understood what it was that I wanted. I pulled me closer to him and sat back on his heels. With my legs now wrapped around Reece''s waist, he started to lift me up and m me down onto his shaft with everyone of his thrusts. He gave me the hard, pounding that I was longing for and the close, intimate contact that I was needing. It was literally the best of both worlds.


    "NGH! AHH! AH! MMM!" I cried out again and again as he slid in and out of me. It was perfect, amazing, and everything that I had been needing.


    When I was getting close to the peak, reaching my limit of pleasure, I knew that Reece was following close behind me as he climbed the mountain as well. We were both about to reach our climax.


    A few thrustster, a few more well timed and perfect thrustster, I came screaming his name. He grunted and turned his head just enough so that he could bite down on my shoulder, on my mate mark. That bite, that pressure on the overly sensitive flesh of the mark, made my body start to convulse twice as hard, he had just intensified my orgasm when he sank his teeth into my body.


    It was perfect. This night, this mating, everything with Reece was perfect and amazing.


    "Reece." I sighed his name as he pulled his sharpened teeth from my shoulder.


    "Trinity." His voice rumbled back to me. After that, we copsed onto the pillows and nkets as we panted and held onto each other. It had been everything that I had wanted it to be, and I wasn''t ready for this night to end yet. Thankfully, neither was Reece, he started to slide in and out of me, slowly and softly this time. He took me gently until we both came again, and then we justid there in each other''s arms until we fell asleep. I knew that we needed to get home, I really did, but I just didn''t want to go right now.. It was calm and peaceful in Reece''s arms and I was afraid to leave hisforting warmth.

 Chapter 591 - 8- Reece – Visit Part 3 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 591 - 8- Reece ¨C Visit Part 3 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I spent the night with my Little Bunny at the observatory that I had had made forst night. That date had been long overdue and very much needed. I think that my adorably sweet little mate will feel a little better now that we''ve taken care of some of the stress and tension. I have been so worried about hertely. I just wanted her to be happy, healthy, and safe.


    All this work that she''s been doing wasn''t very good for her. That was why I wanted to get her out and away for a night. And I just used my birthday as an excuse for it. I just wanted my Little Bunny to be able to calm down a little.


    Things seemed to have worked out the way that I wanted them to. Little Bunny seemed to be smiling more and looked a little less stressed than she used to. That alone made me smile when I saw her.


    A few days after our date, well closer to a week really, it was Talia''s birthday. She was turning four now and I was so excited for her. OK, maybe it was because I loved parties and I got to go overboard for my kids without having to worry about space or weather restrictions.


    Talia loved all things to do with princesses, so that was the theme that we went with. I don''t know if that was funny or not since she was indeed a real life princess. Maybe it was just ironic or something. I don''t know, but I still thought it was cute.


    So, what better thing could the princess loving real princess have for her birthday than a real life king there to escort her. I decided to wear my crown and dress a little more ''regal'' than I usually did. I went to my little girl''s door and offered to escort her down to breakfast for her big day. When she opened the door I saw that she was dressed perfectly, thanks to the help of her attendant who put her in the princess dress and did her hair for her.


    "No, Daddy, that''s OK." She was shaking her little head at me. "I am a princess, I am supposed to have a prince to escort me."


    "Oh, so is Reagan taking you to breakfast?" I smiled at her, a little hurt but not letting it show.


    "No, I am having Levi and Luka take me." She giggled and at almost that exact moment, I heard the sound of two sets of small feeting toward me.


    "Hello, Uncle Reece." Luka said with a smile. "How are you today?"


    "Hi, Uncle Reece. We''re here to be the princes for Talia today." Levi beamed at me with a wide smile that made me have nightmares about the future. These boys were already stealing my little girl away from me.


    "T..Talia, are you sure you don''t want Daddy to take you?" I couldn''t let my princess be taken from me already.


    "No, I am fine Daddy. Like I said, I need a prince. But Uncle Dietrich and Uncle Shawn should be here with Lexi and Lyssa, you can go spend some time with them."


    At that, Talia left her room and took Levi''s left hand and Luka''s right. I think I just felt my heart shatter into a thousand little pieces.


    "Talia?" I called after her softly as she walked away.


    "I''ll see you at breakfast, Daddy." She looked over her shoulder and smiled at me.


    "Sweety?"


    Well, I wasn''t needed as a king anymore, so I went back to my room and got dressed into my normal clothes. Not to mention, I put away my crown. I wasn''t needed. That hurt so much more than I thought it would. I wasn''t my little girl''s first choice.


    I tried not to let it bother me as I went down for the rest of the party. I kept a smile on my face during breakfast. Shawn, Dietrich, and the girls were indeed there and joined us. And slowly throughout the day everyone else started to show up until there were over a hundred ''close'' friends and family at the party, that''s counting adults and kids though.


    There was a tea party as part of the birthday celebration, even the boys were participating. I mean, how could we all not participate, it was requested by a princess after all.


    There were a lot of different parts to the party, but it was all super girly and princess themed. The mini cakes were eaten after the little activities. There was a big cake as well, since Talia needed to blow out her candles.


    Presents were opened after that. Talia had a lot from those that were gathered. She went straight to the things that Trinity and I had gotten her. There was arge princess castle yset that was going to go into her room. Lots of new princess dolls and toys came after that. There was even that princess carriage-ride on toy, an updated version since it had been so long. Rika never wanted one but Talia does.


    After our gifts, which Talia absolutely loved, which made me so proud, she went to Shawn and Dietrich''s gifts. There were even small gifts from the kids that they picked out for her. I was still feeling really good until she opened the one that Levi and Luka got for her. There was an adorable little ne, obviously made of gold and emzoned with diamonds. The ne had the word ''princess'' written on it in a fancy script.


    "See, Talia. It says princess." Levi told her as he pointed to the letters.


    "Since you''re a princess and all, it suits you."


    "Thank you so much." She hugged the two of them. "It''s my favorite present so far.


    That''s it, I was sinking. I was losing my fight for survival. I was no longer Talia''s favorite. She was being taken away from me. Time was a cruel enemy. Come on, though, she''s only four. Can''t I have a little more time before a boyes along and steals her heart from me? Can''t she be daddy''s little girl for a little while longer?


    Aside from the devastating gift giving, I think that it was all going pretty well. Or so I thought.


    I happened to look over at my wife, quite a bit, throughout the day. When the party first started and we were greeting everyone, she was smiling and happy. But as the day went on, I saw that she was looking tired, stressed, and slightly afraid. What was going on with her?


    I wanted to know what was happening. I wanted to know why she was so scared and stressed outtely. Even when she was with family. Even when she was at a birthday party. Why was this happening to her? What could I do to fix it? How could I make it all better?


    I was at a loss. I didn''t know how to fix this. I didn''t know how to make things better for my mate.. I didn''t know how I could be a proper Alpha, mate, or husband. What kind of man was I if I couldn''t help my own wife?

 Chapter 592 - 9- Trinity – Visit Part 4 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 592 - 9- Trinity ¨C Visit Part 4 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    For a few days I didn''t hear that voice. I didn''t feel like I was making a massive mistake every moment of the day. I didn''t feel like I was a screw up. For a few days, I had peace.


    However, at Talia''s birthday party, I started to hear that whisper when everyone was close by. I usually only heard it when I was near arge group of people, maybe because I was afraid that they were going to see me as a fraud and a failure.


    Still, while I was trying to enjoy my little girl''s special day, I didn''t want to hear that voice or feel that way at all.


    ''They will¡­see them dead¡­your fault¡­can''t stop it¡­it''sing¡­run away¡­kill them¡­will be destroyed¡­your fault¡­they will die¡­destruction¡­'' The voice was barely there, just a whisper that was all jumbled. I wasn''t able to hear all the words that it had to say to me, it was like so many of them were missing and just trying to decipher it was enough to give me a headache.


    The days following the party I did my best to try and maintain myposure as I spent time with my friends and family. I tried my best to enjoy myself and be happy. Only, I wasn''t happy. I was feeling miserable. I was not able to concentrate or to focus on anything at all. I felt miserable and I couldn''t really exin to anyone why I felt that way.


    I didn''t want them to know. None of them. Not even Reece.


    I know that I promised I would tell Reece the next time that something was bothering me or when something wasn''t right, but I couldn''t tell him about this. I couldn''t tell him that I thought that I was going crazy. I didn''t want him to know what it was that I was feeling and thinking. I didn''t want to make him think that I wasn''t good enough or somehow damaged.


    No, I had to hide this. I needed to hide it from him, no matter how many times he asked me what was wrong. I needed to hide it from L and Grandfather, I didn''t need to ruin their uing wedding. I needed to hide it from Mom and Dad, who asked me every single time that they saw me what was wrong. No, I couldn''t tell them.


    And I needed to avoid Juniper for the time being. She might be able to sense that I was going crazy. With her mental health focused gift and all that. I knew that it would all go away soon. I had a feeling that once I got back to work and stopped ignoring my responsibility, it would go away. Then I would be at peace again.


    The month was almost over already. It was almost time for Aunt Glory, Athair m¨°r, Trevor, Daci, Torben, Lily, and Rose to go home along with their slew of guards and attendants. Maybe I was just more stressed by their sudden visit than I thought. I thought it was all making me happy, but I hadn''t been prepared for it and therefore it ended up stressing me out somewhat.


    I wasn''t going to tell them to leave though. I loved them and wanted them here with me. I wanted to visit with them. Not to mention that I needed to ask them about how I should delegate the work to make things easier on me. I didn''t want to burden people or anything like that. And I didn''t want to give someone a job that should only be handled by me. Because of that, I didn''t know what to do about it all.


    Maybe, I will invite Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r to lunch. Just the two of them and me. That would give us time to talk privately. I didn''t want anyone else to know what I was thinking about doing either. I didn''t want them to think that I was a failure as a queen.


    About two days or so before they were all due to leave, I sat down to lunch with Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r. They were both wearing the smiles of people that were happy with their lives. I knew why they were so happy. Their reasons were the same ones that brought me joy. The love of their family, the love of their mates, the bliss that was the everyday mundane. It may not sound exciting enough to make them this happy, but it truly was.


    "I am so happy to see the joy that you both have." I grinned at them. "I know you both wanted this for so long, and seeing you finally get it, makes me happy."


    "We''re only this happy because of you, Trinity. Without you we never would have found our happiness." Athair m¨°r reached across the small table and took my hand so that he could grip it tightly.


    "He''s right, Trinity." Aunt Glory took my other hand from across the table. "Val and I were only able to find our mates and have families because of you. I can''t thank you enough. I am finally a mother, after millennia, I finally got to experience that joy."


    "I''m happy for you, Aunt Glory. I am happy that you have your family, and that by extension I get to have more babies in my life." I grinned at her as I thought about how cute Torben was.


    "Don''t you ever n on having more?" Athair m¨°r asked me as if it was just a casual thing.


    "I don''t know. Probably, at some point. But I don''t know when I should. Not to mention, we''re immortal now, and I could have a kid a hundred years from now, a thousand years from now, but, should I? Should I really do that when my kids will be so much older?"


    That, for some reason, made Athair m¨°rugh. I just raised an eyebrow at him though and he finally got to a point where he could answer me.


    "Well, think about it, Trinity. I have two year old twins, and another baby on the way. But my son, the man that is your great great grandfather, was born centuries ago. I don''t think that it really matters. You know, since Lily and Rose are actually you great great great great aunts." He wasughing again and this time, I joined him. What he was saying was so true that I couldn''t help it. If I looked at a family tree, even though I was a lot older than his twins, and even my twins were older than them, they were a lot higher on the family trees since their branch was right below Athair m¨°r''s instead of several generations away.


    With immortality now being something that we all had, family trees were going to start looking really odd. And family reunions were going to get a lot more crowded soon. That thought was a little funny, if you think about it. I could imagine someone trying to introduce their family to other people.


    ''Here we have my parents.''


    ''But they look the same age as you.''


    ''Yup, and over there are my grandparents. They look about ten years older than me but they''re actually five hundred and eighty-nine. Over there are my great grandparents and so on and so on.''


    Yeah, a human''s mind would explode at a conversation like that.. It was funny to think about though.

 Chapter 593 - 10- Trinity – Visit Part 5 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 593 - 10- Trinity ¨C Visit Part 5 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I wanted to move past this talk of ancestry though. It was fun to think about, and I didn''t know how to answer whether we were going to have more kids or not, but that wasn''t the reason we were here anyway. So I just wanted to move on.


    "W..well, Athair m¨°r, Aunt Glory, I wanted to ask you something. Something away from the other so that I don''t sound like I am doing something wrong." Oh, yeah, like that didn''t make me sound like an ipetent fool right then and there. What the hell was the matter with me? I didn''t know what to do right now. Ugh!


    "What is going on, Garin¨ªon? [1] What can we help you with?" Athair m¨°r looked as honest, loving, and helpful as he always did.


    "You can tell us and ask us anything, Trinity. You know that." Aunt Glory added as she looked at me.


    At that moment, Roisin and Abigail brought the food in for us so I waited to say anything. Once our tes were in front of us, I asked that the room be cleared.


    "Everyone, except for Gloriana and Valerian, please leave. I would like a closed meeting." That raised a few eyebrows at me, but I didn''t care. I knew that I never asked for closed meetings, but I didn''t want my people to know what it was that I was truly feeling. I wanted this kept a secret for the time being.


    Once the room was emptied, Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r looked at me with serious and critical eyes.


    "What is going on, Garin¨ªon? This isn''t like you."


    "I know, Athair m¨°r. It''s not like anything that I thought I would be doing. But I never thought that I would ask this as well." I sighed and looked at them, feeling my heart pounding. "I need you to help me. I feel like I am not doing something right. I feel as if my kingdom is going to suffer if I don''t fix this." I looked at them with serious eyes and I could feel my heart pounding a mile a minute.


    "Is that all?" Aunt Glory''s voice held a note of relief. "Trinity, you had me so worried." She was almostughing now. Was it that obvious?


    " Garin¨ªon, there is no need to worry. Glory and I have both felt like that several times over thest couple dozen centuries and more. It''s normal."


    "It is?" I tilted my head in confusion at Athair m¨°r''s words.


    "Yes, it is. I mean, you''re still learning everything for one, so that is to be expected. But, you hold the fate of so many people in your hands that it''s understandable that you would get nervous about it from time to time." He smiled and reached up to squeeze me on the shoulder forfort and support. "Don''t let this get to you."


    "But wouldn''t it be bad if I showed how weak and ipetent that I am to everyone else?" I could still feel the pain and the worry surging within me.


    "You''re not weak or ipetent, Trinity." Aunt Glory snapped at me a little. Her voice was firm and stern. "You''re learning, that is all. I would like to see anyone that would call you weak or ipetent to do your job. Let''s see just how fast they would end up running for the hills. You''re a good Queen, Trinity, you really are. You just need to ept that."


    "I hope so." I shrugged to myself, not bothering to hide how little confidence I had in that statement.


    I tried to brush it off, though. Instead of saying anything more, I took a bite of my food. It was a specialized Fae dish that I asked to have made in honor of my two guests today. I knew that it was Aunt Glory''s favorite and that Athair m¨°r liked it as well. I was doing my best to cater to them and make sure that they had a good time during this lunch, even if I was too messed up to even taste the food right now. I''m sorry, Roisin, you and Abigail worked so hard on this meal, and I can''t even appreciate it properly. I truly am the worst.


    Athair m¨°r and Aunt Glory didn''t let it slide though. They kept pushing me until I agreed to their suggestion. They were doing this for me and my future, so I didn''t really mind.


    We came to the conclusion that I was going to ''assign'' different tasks to different people, even if I had to hire them to make sure that it all got done properly. I was to have an entire entourage of staff that could handle different aspects of my kingdom.


    Obviously, my entourage had to be people that I could trust, so that meant that I needed Gabriel and Vincent to help me with that part. Here I was giving them more work to do. I hated making people do more than they had to do when they were already so busy. It made me feel like a bad friend. Even though I was the person in charge and I needed to do it, it still made me feel horrible.


    I listened to all of their suggestions, and I was certain that they were right about them all. I just needed to not try and do it all by myself. I seem to remember a time when I did let other people do things in the business aspect of the kingdom, but then I saw how many mistakes I had made and everything that I needed to fix.


    Now that they were all fixed, now that everything was better, would I really be able to hand off some of the responsibility again? Would it really be OK? I guess I could try. That was the only thing that I could do. I needed to do something to save myself. Though, I was sure that the process would be slow and I wasn''t going to be handing the jobs over immediately. I still had time.


    [1] Garin¨ªon is an Irish word that means granddaughter.


    It is pronounced gar - in - EE ¨C on

 Chapter 594 - 11- Trinity – Visit Coming To An End (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 594 - 11- Trinity ¨C Visit Coming To An End (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I couldn''t believe that it had been a month already. I couldn''t believe that everyone was getting ready to leave today. It was a sad day and I didn''t want them to go, but at the same time, I think it was time.


    For one thing, them leaving would let me get back to work. I could start looking for the people that I might hire to help me with my work. I could get everything done early and spend time with my family and make sure that the voice never came back to bother me.


    ''¡­they die¡­you¡­run¡­mass destruction¡­your fault¡­murderer¡­run away¡­murderer¡­killer¡­your fault¡­destroyer¡­all dead¡­''


    That voice still hadn''t left me alone. I had heard it all month. I had heard it since I took off work for this visit and I was sure that when the visit was over and I went back to work tomorrow, then I would feel so much better. The stress would immediately dissipate and I would feel instantly better. I was sure of it.


    "I love you. Make sure that you keep up with those weekly calls." Daci was hugging me tightly. I think she could sense something was wrong with me, she had been a lot more clingy with me than she used to be in the past. I know she was just worried as a family member should be, but I didn''t want her to see that part of me, that weak side.


    "I will, don''t worry. We all love the weekly calls." I assured her with a hug.


    I watched on as the kids ran up to say their goodbyes. Reagan and Rika were older and more outgoing, so they were going to everyone on their own. Even though Talia knew everyone here, and even though she just spent an entire month with them, she was too shy to be going up to them on her own.


    Talia only went up to say her goodbyes to Aunt Glory with Reece holding her hand and giving her the courage. I saw a bright, happy smile on Reece''s face and knew that it wasn''t because of Talia being nervous or scared. No, he was just happy that she still needed him. When Levi and Luka were here, he seemed to have lost some of his daddy''s confidence.


    I don''t think that Reece knew that a little girl will always need her daddy, no matter how old she gets or how capable she is. Sometimes we just need our daddy, or the man that we saw as our daddy. I still needed my dad, who was also my uncle. Reece was never going to be leftpletely out of the loop when it came to the girls. Talia and Rika were going to need him for a long time still.


    For a little while, I was just hanging back and watching everyone. I watched Reece take Talia to say goodbye to the babies. She seemed to like having Torben, Lily and Rose around. Maybe Reece and I should have another baby sometime soon. I didn''t want to be done but I also didn''t know where to stop with the number of kids we had. I mean, we''re wolves, we''re immortal, and we''re royalty. All of those factors basically say that we''re supposed to have a lot of kids. Well, the royalty part is depending on which culture and point in time you''re looking at. Still, most royals that I remember reading about had a whole mess of kids.


    "What are you doing, hiding over here?" A gruff voice rose behind me while a set of thick, strong arms closed around me from behind. I had been so lost in thought that I hadn''t even noticed that Trevor hade up behind me.


    "EEEEP!" I squealed loudly when he picked me up and held me like an older brother scaring his little sister. Actually, this exact same thing happened to me when I was a kid. Carter had lifted me up from behind and scared the shit out of me.


    "HAHAHAH!" Trevor wasughing hard while everyone was watching us.


    "I was lost in thought, you grizzly. I wasn''t paying attention." I snapped at him.


    "Oh, yeah, sure, me it on that." He still didn''t put me down. "You need to be telling us all goodbye, you know? You''ve got to stop standing over here like an antisocial butterfly."


    "Don''t suggest animals to her, Trevor. She will take you seriously and be them." Reeceughed at his words.


    "A butterfly is an insect, Daddy, not an animal." Talia corrected him.


    "HAHAHAH! That''s priceless." Trevorughed again and sat me on my feet. "Come here Princess." Trevor held his arms out and got Talia who smiled shyly then walked over to him. She actually let him pick her up and hold her though, so that was good.


    I stopped standing all alone after that. I said my goodbyes to Aunt Glory, Trevor (though he was stillughing) Athair m¨°r, Daci, Torben, Lilly, Rose, and even some of their attendants that we had gotten to know recently.


    I hate to say this, but I was d then it was all over. I needed to rest and sit in a dark room by myself or something. There had to be some way to make that voice stop whispering into my ear.


    I couldn''t do that, though. After everyone left, we all had dinner together as a family and my kids wanted me to read to them again. I had done it at bedtime almost everyday since I went on ''vacation'' and I wasn''t going to skip it now. It was just one more thing to add to what I was going to be doing every day.


    By the time that I managed to get to my room, I was so exhausted that I just copsed onto my bed and curled up on my side. I couldn''t get up again even if I wanted to.


    Reece curled up with me, holding me in his arms and making me feel somewhat better.. That was thest thing that I remember from that night.

 Chapter 595 - 12- Trinity – More Work To Do (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 595 - 12- Trinity ¨C More Work To Do (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It was now the beginning of August, it was time for me to get back to work, and I had so much to do. I had to find which people to hire as my ''kingdom assistants'' and of course that meant that I needed to give my head of security and beta, Vincent, and personal assistant, Gabriel, more work to do.


    I didn''t have to call either of them to the castle for the meeting. For one, they both had their residences inside the castle. And for two, they both worked closely with me every day. They were one of the few people that got to see how crazy busy I was almost every second of every day. Maybe they will be happy to hear that I want help from other people.


    "Vincent, can youe here for a moment?" I called him over from his position near the back of the room. "You too, Gabriel." Thetter of them was standing behind me and had been waiting for instructions.


    When the two of them were close enough to me, I motioned for them to take a sit.


    "Sit down, please. Both of you."


    "I am an assistant, my Queen, I cannot sit in your office."


    "With all due respect, Trinity, I cannot be a proper bodyguard if I am sitting in a chair." They both refused my offer and that annoyed me a little bit.


    "Sit." That came out forceful and as amand. So, of course, they both sat immediately. I really shouldn''t, but I still found it funny when people werepelled to do as I said from thosemands. That was so evil of me. I needed to make sure I didn''t abuse that for fun, that would just be cruel.


    "Yes, Ma''am." They both said the words as they sank into their chairs in front of me.


    "What can we do for you, Trinity?" Vincent asked with a hint of nervousness in his voice.


    "I am going to be giving the two of you some more work. I don''t want to over burden you or anything, but I need a job that only you two can do." As soon as I started to tell them this though, I felt a tugging on my consciousness. This one wasn''t how I was used to being summoned, but I could tell that there was a celestial that wanted to speak with me. Though, who could it be? "Hahh!" I sighed.


    "Is something wrong, my Queen?" Gabriel asked me with a worried tone.


    "Not wrong, really, but apparently, someone wants to talk to me. I will be back."


    I felt myself slip out of my body and even watched my head slump forward. Vincent got to me in time to catch my head before it mmed onto the desk. He deserved a raise for that show of speed and concern.


    I wasn''t exactly happy right now. Whoever was wanting to see me was most likely going to give me more work to do. This wasn''t going to be fun or pleasant. Hmm, I wonder. Can I turn them down now that I am a Goddess myself? I would think that I could, but we will see.


    I had the familiar falling up feeling that turned into a falling toward the ground. As I approached the ground, I saw that there was a man and a woman waiting there for me. The woman seemed to be wearing a long white dress and her long, light brown hair curled loosely down her back. The man had shorter hair, but it was much curlier than the woman''s was. His hair was ck, and he appeared to be wearing a toga.


    When Inded, I saw that the man and woman that had summoned me were wearing little leafy crowns. They were actuallyurels, and I knew that. Still, it was a shock to see them when I firstnded. That made me think that these two were either Greek or Roman celestials.


    "Thank you foring to see us, Trinity." The man spoke in a slightly higher pitched voice. "My name is Sancus. This, here, is my friend, Veritas." Ahh, so they were both Roman. Well, at least they should know each other.


    "Hello. Why was I brought here?" I asked them with just a slight amount of annoyance in my voice.


    "We know that you have taken three of our kind into you. You have ascended into being a Goddess because Nehalennia, Thoth, and Danu wanted to leave the celestial realm. The realm is paradise, that simply is not the issue. But we grow bored of that paradise. We want to return as well."


    "And how is it that I can help? I don''t want to have things crowded inside my soul." I didn''t want to be some supernatural version of Sybil or anything like that.


    "That is not what we were thinking. We have been watching those around you. We have been looking for people that are worthy of our type of gifts." Veritas spoke in a soft and sweet voice.


    If I remembered Sancus was the God of oaths and Veritas was the Goddess of truth. They were oddly specific types of celestials and not many people were worthy of those titles.


    "Did you find anyone that was worthy of them?" I was curious. I wanted to know what they thought of the people that were around me.


    "That we have." They both spoke at the same time as they nodded their heads at me.


    "I personally believe that the man named Vincent would be the most qualified recipient of my mark. I wish to raise him to the rank of God so that I may be reborn as a human." Sancus was exining to me in a high, even voice. "From what I have seen, there is no man more loyal to you than Vincent. He is an honorable being and I think that he would do well with my blessing."


    "I will not force it upon him. He will have to choose to ept you of his own ord." I made sure that he knew I would not be outright agreeing to this. "And who have you chosen, Veritas?" I asked her even though I was pretty sure that I already knew.


    "The man Gabriel is the most honest man that I have ever seen. I believe that he would be the best one to ept my blessing." I wasn''t surprised at all. They had both chosen the men in my presence and called me here to see if I would grant their requests.


    "You two need to ask them yourselves. I will not decide for you."


    "B..but we cannot go to the mortal realm." Veritas looked frightened.


    "We are lesser gods. We cannot make that trip on our own. I am sorry, but we cannot ask them." Sancus and Veritas both hung their heads in shame. They were already giving up.


    "If you can''t go alone, then I will take you." I held my hands out to them, my left to Sancus and my right to Veritas.. They both looked too nervous to take them, but I wasn''t about to give up.

 Chapter 596 - 13- Trinity – Escorting The Gods (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 596 - 13- Trinity ¨C Escorting The Gods (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After a few moments of hesitation, I felt the two of them slide their hands into mine. Their skin was warm to the touch, almost like they were standing next to a heater or a fire before giving me their hands. I tried not to pay attention to that though, I needed to focus.


    I was definitely a Goddess. I was actually two Goddesses and a God. I had the blessing from three different celestials inside of me. I wasn''t a lesser god or goddess like these two. That meant that I should be able to do this. I just needed to focus and concentrate.


    I focused on the spot directly in front of me and envisioned a door opening up before me. It took a lot of concentration, mostly to get past that heated feeling of their hands as I held onto them.


    Finally, I saw the door begin to appear. The door was big enough for all three of us to walk through at once. It wasrge, white, and glowing. With the flick of a mental switch, I managed to make the door open all by itself.


    Now that the door was open, I could see onto the other side. I wasying there against my desk while Vincent and Gabriel stood frozen in time. I wasn''tpletely sure if the time over there would freeze when I waspletely gone or not. By the looks of it though, the time there had frozen from the moment that Vincent had caught my head.


    With the hands of the two celestials in my mine, I stepped forward toward the door. I was walking directly toward my body. I needed to be there in my true form to make it so that the men would be able to see and hear me.


    The problem was, how were Veritas and Sancus going to be seen and heard by Gabriel and Vincent? They wouldn''t be physical in that world, there would be nothing to hold onto. Hmm.


    I only had one idea for when I got onto the other side, but it wasn''t that good of one.


    "When we are there, do not let go of my hands until I tell you. Even when I step back into my body, do not let go. If you lose contact with me, I am very certain that you will juste right back here. You need me as an anchor." I told them the only thing that came to mind and I saw them nodding their heads like they agreed wholeheartedly.


    "Yes, Trinity, we understand." Veritas answered immediately.


    "We will not let go." Sancus just continued to nod his head.


    You know, aside from the fact that they were both taller than me, I almost felt like I was holding the hands of Reagan and Rika. They were like the twins standing on either side of me and I was walking with them as if I were their mother. It almost made me smile as I thought about it.


    We walked slowly through the door, and I was happy to see that the two of them were still with me. Time, however, was still stopped just like I thought it would be. I needed to be back in my body for it to move again. This was what happened when you visited the celestial realm, it was weird, but I guess I needed to get used to it.


    Now that I think about it, I don''t remember the time freezing when I visited the celestial realm before. Maybe that was because at that time I was just a mortal. I wasn''t a human, so I can''t say that. But I wasn''t immortal at the time. Every time that I had been summoned by Nehalennia, Thoth, and Danu, I might have had a slightly longer lifespan than a human but I was stillpletely mortal.


    Now though, I was a Goddess myself. I think that when you''re a Goddess and going to the realm of the Gods and Goddess, the rules are a little different. It would be interesting for me to find out just what it was that was different about me now that I was a Goddess.


    I will admit that over the three years since I became a Goddess, I haven''t actually done much to ''explore'' my Goddess nature. However, to be fair, I didn''t know what to do. I was thrust into this position with no warning. I couldn''t be med for not knowing the ins and outs of it all.


    Anyway, moving to the present, not the past, I needed to get this taken care of. I needed to first figure out how to get into my body without letting go of the two childlike gods that were clinging to me.


    I decided to just go for it and try to walk through the desk that I was sitting at, I mean what is the worst that could happen?


    Thankfully, nothing bad happened. I walked through it with no problem at all. I started to step inside my body when I looked back at the other two.


    "Remember, don''t let go at all. And the moment that I am in my body and solid again, step out of the desk. You don''t want to get stuck in there at all. I don''t even want to know what kind of service I need to call to get a God unstuck from my desk."


    I had to stifle augh because of my sarcasm. I had a weird train of thought there for a moment. First it went ''who you gonna call?'' and then it morphed into one of those old TVmercials and I heard an elderly voice saying ''help, I''ve fallen and I can''t get up'' and then that one led me to envisioning a turtle stuck on their back and of course that led me to the Ninja Turtles. At that point, I had to force myself to stop thinking altogether, because clearly, I couldn''t be trusted at the moment.


    I tilted around and settled my ''spirit'', I guess that is what I should call it. Anyway, I settled my spirit into my body and I literally felt a sort of ''click'' that told me I was in ce. Was I imagining that part? Did I make that part of the experiencee into being because I was waiting for something that told me that I was in ce? I don''t know, but I know that I was just happy to be back where I belonged.


    I looked next to me before anything else and I instantly saw Sancus and Veritas in their ces on either side of me. That was good. And when I looked over my shoulder, I saw that the door was closing.


    In the back of my mind, I knew that the moment that the door shut behind me, the time in this room would restart. At that point I would be able to speak to Gabriel and Vincent. And likewise, they would be able to see and hear Sancus and Veritas. It was only then that the two celestials could ask the questions that they wanted to.. It was only then that they would find out if these men would ept them.

 Chapter 597 - 14- Trinity – Will You Ascend? (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 597 - 14- Trinity ¨C Will You Ascend? (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I heard the door slowly close behind me. The low clicking sound was almost deafening in the silence of the room. The moment that it did click though, the time in the room caught up to me and everything in the room started toe alive, or go back to normal, or whatever you want to call it. What I found odd about it though, was that there was a weird ''whirrmp'' type of noise when the time started, it almost sounded like a record yer stopping.


    "Holy shit!" Vincent leapt away from me the moment that time had restarted.


    "My word!" Gabriel gasped and put his hand to his mouth.


    I could understand their reactions, especially Vincent''s. When time froze, he was holding my head to stop me from getting hurt, yet when time restarted, I was sitting up and looking at him. That means, in his mind, that happened instantaneously. It has no doubt frightened him.


    There was also the fact that there were two people standing next to me that hadn''t been there before.


    "T..T..Trinity, w..who are these people?" Vincent was reaching toward his hip where I knew he kept a gun and a magical sword that I had made for him.


    "Don''t worry, Vincent. These are not enemies." I did my best to soothe him. "Both of you, please sit back down." I motioned with my eyes since both of my hands were upied.


    "Trinity? My Queen? What has happened? Did you, perchance, visit the celestial realm?" Gabriel, still in shock, sat on the edge of his seat. Vincent, who clearly didn''t want to be seated, for my safety of course, stayed hovering over the cushion of his seat.


    "Yes, Gabriel, I did. These here are Veritas, the Goddess of truth, and Sancus, the God of oaths."


    "Hello, Vincent." Sancus nodded at him with a shy smile.


    "It is a pleasure to meet you, Gabriel." Veritas did the same to the other man.


    "Queen Trinity, why did you bring two celestials back with you?" Gabriel was obviously very confused at the moment. I know that he was wondering what was going on and I wanted to answer that for him, I really did.


    "Well, it just so happens that these two have something to ask the two of you." I grinned at him, happy for once that this was something that didn''t have to do solely with me.


    "U..us?" Vincent looked between Veritas and Sancus with confusion. "What on earth would they want to ask us? We''re not important. They should be speaking to you, Trinity. Not us." He was shaking his head no, as if that was going to be his answer to whatever it is that they were going to say.


    "Just hear them out, Vincent. I think you will be pleasantly surprised when you find out what they have to say.


    "O..OK." Vincent agreed and finally sat all the way into his chair, no longer hovering over it and ready to attack at any second.


    "Sancus, would you like to begin?" I asked the man standing next to me. He seemed like the more outgoing of the two.


    "Yes, I think that will be good." He smiled at me then looked at Vincent. "I am, as Trinity has pointed out already, the God of oaths. My blessing, or power so to speak, has always been to see true bonds and oaths when they are given. You, Vincent, are the most loyal man that has given an oath to Trinity. You are a kind and worthy man and I would like to give you my blessing."


    "And you, Gabriel, are the most honest being that I have ever seen. I, being the Goddess of truth, can always detect the truth. I know when someone is lying, and I can help to uncover deceit. Gabriel, I would like to give you my blessing." Veritas was smiling sweetly at the man that she had chosen to take over her power.


    "I..I don''t know what you mean." Vincent stuttered just a little. "What do you mean that you want to give me your blessing?" He looked between the two celestials and then at me. His eyes were filled with wonder mixed with worry. He wasn''t fully trusting this just yet.


    I had a feeling that I was going to need to exin things to them. If that was all that Sancus and Veritas were going to say, then the two men in front of me would need more of an exnation.


    "Vincent, do you remember what happened when I ascended? When I became a Goddess?" I brought up the memories from a few years ago, memories of the day that he almost died in my arms.


    "I remember what you told me about it. But of the actual process, no one was there to see it." Well, he was right about that one. But he knew what I was talking about and that was all that mattered to me right now. I just needed him to understand what I was getting at when I continued my exnation.


    "Well, that day I took the blessings of Nehalennia, Thoth, and Danu into my body. I took their power and became a Goddess."


    "Yes, I understand that." Vincent nodded his head as if saying he was following me so far. Gabriel was looking at me intently, having also heard this story.


    "Well, the blessing of the two Goddesses and God that I took into my body is what ascended me. It is what made me what I am now."


    "OK." He was understanding me but not putting the two things together.


    "Sancus wants to give you his blessing, Vincent." I emphasized the words for him and waited for him to fully understand them.


    The moment that his eyes went wide I knew that he had figured it out. Some of the color drained from his face and he gripped the arms of the chair that he was sitting in.


    "T..T¡­T..Trinity, a..are you telling me t..th..that he w..w..wants to m..m..make me i..into a G..G¡­G..G..God?" ding ding ding. He got it in one go. And let''s see what kind of prize we have for him. Oh, I know, he can ascend if he wants to. I wanted tough at my whole game show reference.


    "Yes, Vincent. You would be the new God of oaths. And I am guessing that you will have an increase to that ability that you have. And as for you, Gabriel, Veritas wants to help you ascend so that you are the new God of Truth." I smiled at them, hoping to calm them down just a little bit as I exined what was going on. "What do you two think? Will you be gods? Will you ascend?"


    I could see the emotions flitting across Vincent''s face as he thought about the words that I had said.. I had told them all before that this was possible. Now I just needed to know, would he go through with it? Would he be a God? Would he join me?

 Chapter 598 - 15- Trinity – Ascending And New Jobs (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 598 - 15- Trinity ¨C Ascending And New Jobs (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "I..I..I guess." Vincent stuttered out the words and I knew that he was wavering for a moment.


    "You don''t have to do this if you don''t want to, Vincent. No one will force you to do this. It can be a major responsibility." I spoke soothingly, telling him in not so many words to choose carefully.


    "I th..th..think, I..I..I more worried about wh..what will happen to th..them if w..we t..take their blessing." Now that he seemed to be getting what he wanted to say out, I noticed that he was bing less nervous. Even though he stuttered through that, I was pretty sure that he was past all of that now.


    "When Veritas and I ascend, we will move into the hall of souls. When the timees for a new life to be born, and it is our turn, Veritas and I will be reborn into the mortal realm. We will not be lost forever, if that is what you are fearing. This here, is another sign of your worthiness in my opinion." Sanus smiled at him as he answered the question.


    "So, you won''t, like, die or anything?" Vincent asked him, just to make sure.


    "No, I will not die."


    I watched as relief visibly spread across Vincent''s face. I know that he had been worried about that. He had probably been worried about that having happened to Nehalennia, Thoth, and Danu as well. He was just a caring person. He always has been.


    "If it is safe for you, then I will agree to it. I do not mind joining Trinity in the ranks of celestials. This will only help me to serve her better."


    Vincent grinned then bowed his head to me like he was intent on telling me that he was forever at my side. He truly was one of the most remarkable men that I had ever met.


    "And you, Gabriel? Will you ept Veritas''s blessing?" I asked him, turning my attention to him now.


    "I believe so. I have heard your exnation to Vincent and so I do not require the same. I would have held my reservations if I were to be snuffing out a life by doing this, but if I am only going to be taking the title and status so that they may reincarnate, then I do not mind ascending. I too, wish to join my Queen among the ranks of the celestials."


    Gabriel, loyal as always, immediately agreed to ept the blessing from the Goddess into himself. I was a little nervous, but also excited. These two men, these two friends, no family members of mine, were going to ascend and be Gods just like I had be a Goddess. I wasn''t going to be the only one.


    Uh oh. I just had a thought. What will Reece say? He will wonder why he wasn''t the first one to get a God after me. Oh, well, he will have to deal with it. These two were chosen, it''s not like I made this happen. I just helped them.


    "Alright gentlemen, since you ept these beings into you, all you must do to take their blessing is to hug them. Hold them against you and absorb their light into you." I was speaking like I was some sort of an expert. Dammit. People are going to think that I was some pompous know it all.


    "OK."


    "Understood." Thankfully, Vincent and Gabriel didn''t think along those lines. They just nodded and the two of them started to move toward the being that they were going to be epting power from.


    I watched as Vincent reached toward Sancus, he was nervous and uncertain just a little, but I had a feeling that was because he was about to hug a strange man that he just met today. That wasn''t easy for some people unless they were very social and very open. Vincent was sweet but often a little reserved.


    Gabriel on the other hand, was a pure soul that didn''t truly harbor negative thoughts about people unless they warranted them. Gabriel was going to Veritas with a smile on his face and I saw that he was not going to have an issue epting the blessing.


    "Sancus, Veritas, only when they are holding onto you can you let go of my hands. If you do so before their arms are holding you in ce, you will be instantly taken back to the celestial realm and you will need to find another way back here."


    "Yes, Trinity." Sancus sounded scared, just like Vincent had.


    "Understood." Veritas sounded pure and trusting, exactly like Gabriel.


    The two men that were employed by me, reached forward and wrapped their arms around the God and Goddess. Vincent held Sancus close, and only then did the God let go of my hand. Likewise, Veritas was enveloped in Gabriel''s arms and let go of my hand at that moment to hug him back.


    There was a bright, shining, white light that started to fill the room. The light was brighter than the ones that I was used to seeing and I needed to shield my eyes. The problem was, with my eyes covered I couldn''t see what was happening around me. I got a few glimpses of shadows but that was it.


    After about thirty seconds, the light disappeared as suddenly as it came on. I blinked a few times and cleared my vision. When I was able to see again, I saw that Sancus and Veritas were gone, only Gabriel and Vincent stood on either side of me.


    "Is that it?" Vincent asked me, confused.


    I tried to find something that might be different about Vincent as I listened to him. I was guessing that he would have a mark like I do, but what and where were the questions that I needed to answer.


    I was about to give up on the idea and just say that it was hidden, but then I saw the smallest little sh of color on his upper arm. When I focused on it and actually looked at it, I saw he had aurel wreath wrapped around his left arm, around his bicep.


    When I turned to look at Gabriel, I saw that he had the same mark, but it was on his right bicep. That was interesting.


    "Well, you are both Gods now, how do you feel?" I asked them with a smirk on my face.


    "The same." Vincent looked worried. "Did it work?"


    I didn''t answer him, I just pointed at the mark. When he saw it he grinned and looked at me with confident eyes.


    "I am sure we will find out how to be Godster. What did you need us to do, Trinity?" Good he was ready to get back to the original reason that I was calling them to talk.


    "I need to delegate some work, but I need to find people we can trust to work for me. I guess now that you are gods, it will be a heck of a lot easier to do that." I almostughed at my own words.


    "We can take care of that, Queen Trinity. Just leave it to us." Gabriel smiled at me. "We will find you people worthy of any job."


    With that, I handed them each a file that I had prepared. It listed the jobs that I wanted to ''hire'' people for and what they would be doing. They were to help me find people capable of filling these positions that I could also trust with intimate knowledge of the kingdom.. These two men were going to help me find the help to help me. Now isn''t that convoluted?

 Chapter 599 - 16- Trinity – Is It Going To Work? (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 599 - 16- Trinity ¨C Is It Going To Work? (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Over the course of the next three weeks, I was able to work with Vincent and Gabriel to find myself half a dozen qualified and trustworthy individuals that we could delegate work to. My n with it all was for me to give each of them work that went into a specified field. I needed someone to help with the financial side of things, not to mention the information gathering, thew, the education, interspecies rtionships, andstly monitoring of the human informationwork. We needed to make sure that everywhere was covered and the information was gathered and organized properly.


    The six people that I was bringing on for these jobs included some people that I have already gotten close to. There was Landon''s mate Ava, as well as Nadeen and Kayda who were both council members. There was a new face among the group as well. There was a man by the name of Jason who was a bird shifter, though I don''t know which breed. And adding to the familiar faces, but much closer to my inner circle, were Rawlynne and Jackson (Rawlynne was, of course, also a council member). They were being brought on for thew and human informationwork sectors of my n. They were also some of the people that I had blessed all those years ago and I already knew that I could trust them.


    Apparently, both Rawlynne and Jackson were willing to give up their position in the FBI toe work directly for me. I think with the way things have changed over the years and how their families have grown, they don''t want to be away from their homes as much. That was fine with me, I was happy to take them on full time and pay them apetitive wage. Though I was also told that mypetitive wage was way higher than they expected and that I needed to stop letting Reece''s billions influence me. I didn''t think that it was that much, but OK.


    I was doing my best to let go of the reins and let other people help me with my work. That was hard though, so very hard. Even now, while the new ''trainees'' were learning their new responsibilities and all that, I was sitting here in my office basically bouncing my head off of my desk with nothing to do.


    I had prepared the files and folders filled with information that they needed to know about their jobs. I had gotten the lists of their duties and expectations ready. I had made sure that everything was going exactly how I wanted it to. The only problem now was that I couldn''t be the one to tell them what to do for me.


    No, Reece, Vincent, and Gabriel had taken that job away from me and told me to just wait here.


    ''They''re going to die.'' That voice was back again. It had gone away for a couple days just like it had before, but now, whenever I was feeling like I wasn''t doing enough work, the voice came back. That''s why I was both happy and worried about getting these people to start their jobs. If they did their jobs and I didn''t have to worry maybe the voice would go awaypletely. Then again, maybe letting them work for me would backfire and I would end up feeling so miserable that I was left as nothing more than a blubbering fool when my sanitypletely abandons me.


    ''All of your people are going to die, and all of it will be your fault.'' Over thest few weeks, since Aunt Glory and the others had left, the voice had stopped being nothing but a faint whisper. Now, even though it was still just a whisper, it was loud enough and clear enough for me to understand everything that it said.


    ''You''re ruining it all. They will die in a fiery mass destruction, and it will all be your fault. You should run away. You should leave them be and flee before they me you. You''re a murderer. You''re a killer. You''re going to destroy them all.''


    I tried all the time to pretend that the voice wasn''t there at all. I tried to pretend that I didn''t hear it or that I was above its influence. The truth of the matter though, was that I was literally going insane because of it.


    I felt like my hair was thinning and I was sleeping less and less. I wasn''t eating as much, and I know that I was losing weight. Reece had asked me several times now if I was sick or if I needed to see Griffin and Lana.


    No, I didn''t want to see them. I didn''t want to burden them. I didn''t want to make them check me out when there was nothing physically wrong with me. My only problem was psychological. I was going crazy, that was all.


    That was another reason that I wantedpetent people to work for me. What would happen if I lost it allpletely? I would have to leave Reece in charge, but he would need help. He would need a group of people that were capable of running things in my stead. But was this going to work? Would they be able to manage the whole kingdom if I couldn''t stop myself from going crazypletely?


    Dammit! I certainly hoped that they were. I didn''t want to worry about something else. I didn''t want to second guess another of my decisions or to hear a new voice start assaulting my ears.


    Speaking of that voice, it was back once again.


    ''Run away, Trinity, run away and save yourself. If you stay, all of your people will die. All of them. Over half the world''s poption will die from a mass attack that is caused by you. You will kill them. You will destroy them. Can you live with that?''


    "No, mystery voice, I can''t." I sighed to the empty room around me. "No, I can''t live with that. That is why I am hoping you are nothing more than my fear that I am messing up and not an actual threat to my people. I need to do what I can to help them all. I need to do what I can to make sure that no one ever suffers because I am not the queen that they deserve."


    I was letting some of my fears out for the first time. These are fears that I have been harboring since the first day that I found out that I was going to be the ''queen'' of all the shifters. These fears date back all the way to when I was nothing more than a Goddess Incarnate.


    Oh, look at how time had flown by. I can''t believe that in just a little over eight years since that time I am now someone who ispletely unrecognizable. If the Trinity that actually married Reece was standing here, she wouldn''t even know who I was. And if I could see myself from back then, I would warn her to think twice before making any of her decisions. It''s best to be sure so that you didn''t inadvertently cause a massive political issue.


    "Hahh." I sighed as I pressed my head against my desk. I truly do hope that none of this ever gets out. I didn''t need people to know that I was actually crazy.


    No, my personal issues could never see the light of day. I needed to hide this from them all.. I needed to put on a happy face and make them all think that I was doing just fine.

 Chapter 600 - 17- Reece – A Break From All The Work (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 600 - 17- Reece ¨C A Break From All The Work (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    My Little Bunny had been back to the crazy and hectic days again. She was always trying to do too much. Over thest few years, she was always trying to take everything onto her shoulders and do everything by herself. I really don''t know why she insisted on doing it all herself instead of asking me or Vincent, or even Gabriel for help.


    Things have been getting so much worse for hertely too. For some reason, ever since Gloriana and Valerian, along with the others, came to visit she has been so much worse. It''s like something is troubling her, but I can''t really tell what it is yet.


    And to top it all off, she is so exhausted. Something that has really been bothering metely. All I could smell on her was that exhaustion. She reeked of it. And I didn''t want to sound rude or cruel by pointing it out to her.


    She didn''t just smell tired either. It was easy to just look at her and see that she was tired. There were dark circles under her eyes, bags even. There were lines where there never used to be. Her expression just looked drawn and worn out.


    Dammit! Why couldn''t I make things better for my Little Bunny? She is my whole world. Her and my children. I would do anything for her, but I didn''t know what to do for her right now. All I wanted to do was make everything better for her. How could I do that, though?


    The only thing that I could think of, was to drag her away from work and make her participate with the family more. She loves the kids, and they love her. I know how much happiness they bring her and how much she loves spending time with them too. I mean, she was still forcing into her schedule for the nightly bedtime stories to them, on top of all the other work she was doing. That told me that if it was something to do with the kids, then I just might be able to drag her away.


    That was why I had scheduled this whole family day for us. I wanted to take the kids to the mall to shop for something special. School was starting soon. Reagan and Rika were going into second grade and Talia was about to start preschool. It was a big time of year for our family.


    "Come on, Mommy. It''s time for us to leave." Talia ran into Little Bunny''s office with so much enthusiasm it was almost like I set off a firework in there.


    "Go? Go where?" My Little Bunny was so exhausted and tired, but I could still see that she had a smile on her face for her little girl.


    "We''re going out, Mommy." Rika grinned and followed after her sister.


    "Yeah,e on Momma. Let''s get going." Reagan was thest one that I needed to send. I was still standing at the door leading into the room and watching them all with a smile on my face. If all three of them came to her for a day out, then there was no way that she would turn them down.


    "I..I admit I didn''t know that we were leaving at all. Where are we going?" I watched as she stuttered a little and floundered about, trying to figure out what was going on.


    "We''re going for a family day. Come on, Mommy." Talia took her hand and gave her one of those shy and innocent smiles. It was bound to work.


    At that moment, my Little Bunny lifted her head and looked at me with confusion on her face.


    "Come on, Trinity. I know you''re busy with your queenly duties, but the kids and I want to spend time with you. So, take a break ande out with us." OK, I might be trying to rely on my winning smile and perfect charm as well. I would use all the tools that I had in my arsenal just to drag my wife away from work.


    OK, that might sound a little wrong here, but she just worked too much. All day, every single day. I needed to try and put an end to it at some time. I needed to help keep her healthy and sane, or whatever it was that she is supposed to be. Maybe working all the time is sane to some people, but I knew that it was destroying my wife.


    "Alright." She sighed before looking back at me and shaking her head, knowing that I had won this round made me feel immensely happy. "Let me at least get changed and get ready for the day. I don''t even know where we''re going."


    The kids took my Little Bunny''s hands then and helped to speed her along her way. They pulled her to her feet and then out of the room. As a family we all went upstairs to help mommy pick out her clothes for the day. I wanted this to be as casual as it possibly could, but that wasn''t possible with all of us.


    As I watched my family happily pick through clothes, I thought about how much work went into us going out as a family. OK, Trinity and I could go out no problem without it bing something too major.


    Yeah, we were considered celebrities and all that, even among the humans. Even so, the two of us could manage it no problem. The kids though, I didn''t want anything to happen to them. So, we usually brought the ''entourage'' with us. There were at least four bodyguards whenever we went out as a family. And when pressed about it by people, I would tell them it was all for my family and their protection.


    All I wanted was a little bit of family fun out and about with everyone. It was simple, in theory. But the actual execution of this day involved a lot of people working in tandem for us. I hope that didn''t make my Little Bunny start to think too much about her work and then that, in turn, makes her regreting with us.


    Dammit, I just can''t stop my mind from thinking about these unpleasant things.


    It wasn''t going to make me change my mind about today, though. I needed to get my Little Bunny out of this damn castle and into thend of the living. I needed to have her see that there are actually people out there that exist and that life outside of her office hadn''t disappearedpletely.


    Ok, I might be exaggerating just a little bit, but could anyone me me? I have been seeing this pattern form for a long time and it was starting to scare me. I just wanted to have my family together again.


    I just wish that something, anything, would happen to force her to stay away from work and be with the rest of us. I just wish that there was something I could do to keep her out of the office for a little while.


    Please, Trinity, Little Bunny, help me find something to help you.. Help me to help you.

 Chapter 601 - 18- Reece – A Break From All The Work Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 601 - 18- Reece ¨C A Break From All The Work Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    Chapter 18- Reece ¨C A Break From All The Work Part 2 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Finally, everyone was all dressed and ready to go. This day out could finally be started. Yeah, I know, I am a little excited. I don''t think that anyone could me me. This was not a regr thing that we did, so I was looking forward to this as much as the kids were.


    With Vincent, Shawn, Shane, and David, we left the castle in what could only be described as a caravan. My Little Bunny, the kids and I, were all in the limo, being driven by Gabriel. The guards were in the SUVs that were driving in front of and behind us. Two in each of them.


    I had put my foot down when the attendants all wanted toe with us, that would have made us stand out more. It may bemon knowledge for most of the supernaturalmunity, but the humans didn''t know how we lived. So, right now, I wanted us to appear as normal as possible. Right now, we were going to look like nothing more than a super wealthy family that was spending the day out together.


    I wanted us to blend in as much as possible with everyone else. We shouldn''t look much different that the stupid reality TV family that I always hear about. What were their names again? The Darkashians or the Carsmashians? I don''t remember, all I know is that they have a TV show and that everyone seems to be going gaga over them. I mean, they''ve had that stupid show now for over twenty years because people keep watching it.


    Anyway, this was about to be nothing more than when they take their kids out to keep up the ratings. Only, I am not trying to boost ratings or sales, just my wife''s mood.


    I hadn''t thought to call ahead though, and I am not sure if anyone else did either. So, needless to say, when we pulled up out front, it was a bit of a mad house. The people didn''t seem to care who we were. They saw a limo and the bodyguards and were instantly excited.


    The guys did a great job, though. Vincent was a pro at his job now and with his skilled team at his back the four of them were able to get everyone into line. I have to say, he had managed to be the best Beta and head of security that I could have asked to be there for my Little Bunny.


    After we were all inside the building, the family daymenced. We took the children to the different stores to buy something that was special for each of them. We did the same thing for Reagan and Rika thest few years, but this was the first year that Talia was part of it as well.


    Rika, my ever evolving little monster, wanted something that was full of darkness, angst, and mythological creatures. It was funny in my mind for a couple of reasons. One being the fact that Rika was already a mythological creature since she is a werewolf mixed with Fae and witch blood. The other reason was that I couldn''t believe how much angst Rika had for such a young child.


    Oh, by the way, the item that she picked was a hand crafted, tinum, ruby, and sapphire dragon pendant that hung on the end of a tinum chain. It was a beautiful and intricately detailed piece, and I could see why she wanted it. However, I could also see how much emotion, positive and negative, the person crafting it had felt.


    Reagan was just as predictable for his special something. He wanted something that had to do with race cars. He loved to go fast and move as fast as he could when he yed. I have a feeling he will try to be a racecar driver when he is older.


    Talia didn''t have such grand visions when it came to her special gift. She picked something small, super cheap, and definitely not what she normally would have wanted.


    "Talia, baby, you can pick anything that you want. Anything at all that is in the whole mall. Any store. What will it be?"


    "I told you, Daddy, this is fine." She shook her head and refused to budge.


    "Talia, why don''t you want something more?" Little Bunny asked her with curious eyes.


    "My special prize is having my mommy with me. That is all that I wanted."


    I saw that. I saw exactly what those words did to my Little Bunny, because they did the same thing to me. Those words, spoken by my sweet little four year old, had just melted everyst piece of my heart. What on earth am I going to do?


    "Tally?" Little Bunny looked like she was on the verge of tears when she pulled her daughter close to her. "Mommy is sorry that she''s been so busy. Lately, I have been trying really hard to get to the point that I can just take time off. I want to be with you more."


    My Little Bunny hugged her daughter and held her against her chest. I could see them clinging to each other like there was some sort of healing going on between them. That''s it, Talia, use that special brand of love to heal Mommy. Help me, baby girl, help me to get Mommy to stop working so much.


    "Mommy, will you being with us tomorrow?" Talia pulled away and looked at Little Bunny''s eyes.


    "Going with you to where, baby?" She looked confused like she didn''t know what her daughter was talking about.


    "To school, Mommy. It''s my first day."


    "Oh, sweetheart, of course Mommy is going to go with you. I wouldn''t miss it for the world."


    Good, the promise was made. I would definitely be able to pull her away now. She couldn''t risk breaking her daughter''s heart now after all of this.


    After that, Talia picked something else as her prize for the day. She got a giant unicorn plushie that she said was going to be her new pillow. It really was cute, and definitely bigger than she was.


    We all sat down to lunch. Did more shopping. Talked a lot. All in all, it was a pretty good day. I would say that it was perfect, except that almost every time that I looked over at my Little Bunny, she was rubbing her temples like she had a headache. Or there were times when I saw her rubbing behind her ears, but it looked suspiciously like she was trying to intentionally plug her ears and make it so that she couldn''t hear something.


    Whatever she was doing, it was clear to see that she was annoyed by something.


    Was this more of what had been happening with her? Was this the reason that my Little Bunny was so exhausted? Did she have chronic headaches? Was that all this was about? I hoped so, not that I want my wife to be in pain, but we could have Griffin and Lana take care of the medical stuff if that was what is needed.. Now that everything seemed to be clearing up, I could start to feel a little bit of relief spreading through me.

 Chapter 602 - 19- Trinity – I Tried To Enjoy My Break (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 602 - 19- Trinity ¨C I Tried To Enjoy My Break (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was truly trying to enjoy the day out with the kids and Reece. I really wanted to have a good time and stop thinking about everything that had been bothering me and keeping me busy.


    Reece had gone through all this trouble to give me a day off and to make it special for me and the kids. And here I was almost ruining it. And little Talia, I can''t believe what she said. I can''t believe what I have done to her, making her feel so neglected and ignored. I need to make sure that I was not ignoring my family just because of the pressure that I was under.


    And, I couldn''t let them know that I felt like I was slowly losing my mind. I couldn''t tell any of them about the voice that was still guing me. Even now, even while I was out with my family the voice never went away. It was still there, always talking, always whispering words that made me want to shudder, to scream, to throw something, to do almost anything. But I wouldn''t do anything at all. I would just ignore it. I would pretend like it wasn''t there and that I didn''t hear it.


    ''Everyone is going to die, Trinity. They will all die, and it will all be your fault. Thousands, no millions of deaths and it will all be your fault. You are going to be responsible for the end of your people. You will be responsible for destroying them all. You will murder them with your own hands. You will have their blood on your hands. Run now, Trinity. Run, run away now, before you kill them all. Leave! Go now! Don''t let them die because of you.''


    This had been on an endless loop in my head for weeks now, and nothing I did would make it stop. Nothing made the voice go away. I just had to deal with it.


    At first, I thought that it might have been a message from one of the other celestials. Back when it was just starting toe through with more and more words. But nothing that I did, no spiritual reaching that I did, took me to the being that was giving me this message. None of the celestials were trying to speak to me. That was evident with the fact that none of them had responded to my summons.


    After that, I thought that maybe it was some other kind of spirit. I thought that maybe someone from the future was trying to reach out to me.


    I spent days on end researching that subject with Gabriel. He had asked why, and I know that I should have told him the truth, but I didn''t. I told him that I was asked to look something up by another being. I was lying to him and pretending that this wasn''t happening to me personally. I know that he didn''t fully believe me, since he could tell when I was lying to him, but he didn''t press me for details.


    "Sometimes, a royal just needs to keep secrets." That had been what he told me when I asked for his help.


    None of our research yielded any results, though. Nothing in the history of supernaturals, as far as we knew it, had yielded any information on phantom voices warning of future catastrophes.


    OK, well since that had been a bust, I decided to try and talk to the voice directly. That hadn''t been any better either.


    ''Who are you? What do you want?'' I asked the voice as it started it''s ranting one afternoon after Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r left.


    ''Everyone is going to die, Trinity. They will all die, and it will all be your fault. Thousands, no millions of deaths and it will all be your fault. You are going to be responsible for the end of your people. You will be responsible for destroying them all. You will murder them with your own hands. You will have their blood on your hands. Run now, Trinity. Run, run away now, before you kill them all. Leave! Go now! Don''t let them die because of you.''


    "What am I going to do? How do I hurt my people? What is going to happen?'' I was asking it inside of my head, just like it was speaking to me in my head.


    ''Everyone is going to die, Trinity. They will all die, and it will all be your fault. Thousands, no millions of deaths and it will all be your fault. You are going to be responsible for the end of your people. You will be responsible for destroying them all. You will murder them with your own hands. You will have their blood on your hands. Run now, Trinity. Run, run away now, before you kill them all. Leave! Go now! Don''t let them die because of you.'' It just repeated the words again without answering my questions.


    ''What will I do? Tell me, please. Tell me so that I don''t harm my people. Please!'' I begged the voice, but it just started to repeat itself.


    ''Everyone is going to die, Trinity. They will all die, and it will all be your fault. Thousands, no millions of deaths and it will all be your fault. You are going to be resp-."


    "WHO ARE YOU!? WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO!? PLEASE ANSWER ME! TELL ME WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!" This time, instead of speaking to the voice in my head, I interrupted it and screamed the words to the empty room around me.


    ''Everyone is going to die, Trinity. They will all die, and it will all be your fault. Thousands, no millions of deaths and it will all be your fault. You are going to be responsible for the end of your people. You will be responsible for destroying them all. You will murder them with your own hands. You will have their blood on your hands. Run now, Trinity. Run, run away now, before you kill them all. Leave! Go now! Don''t let them die because of you.''


    It was no use. There was no figuring out what it wanted. There was no talking to the voice. Yeah, I could understand what it was saying, but I wasn''t going to hurt my people. I wasn''t going to start a war. I wasn''t going to do anything but protect them all. I was going to prove that voice wrong.


    After we got home from that family day, I spent all of my time with the kids. I yed games with them. I read them stories. We went swimming in the pond that was in the garden. We did everything together and that made me happy, but it would have been better without that voice in my head.


    When it was time for bed, I tucked Talia into her bed and hugged her tightly. I smiled at her and told her that the next day was going to be just fine. I knew that she was nervous about her first day at school, she wasn''t the only one either. I felt my heart stutter at the thought of my baby needing to start preschool already.. This was the saddest I had been in a long time.

 Chapter 603 - 20- Trinity – Heart Breaking (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 603 - 20- Trinity ¨C Heart Breaking (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    GAH! This was bringing back shbacks. I was remembering three years ago so vividly. I was remembering the day that I had taken Reagan and Rika to their first day of school. It felt like just yesterday, but I knew that it had been a lot longer than that.


    Now, I was standing here in Talia''s room, helping her get dressed into a uniform that was identical to the one that Rika had worn on her first day. It was bittersweet for me. She looked so cute in that uniform, but it broke my heart just to know that she was already old enough to be going to school.


    When we got down to breakfast, Abigail, who was looking a lot younger now than the day that I first came to Reece''s ce all those years ago, set a te down in front of Talia.


    "Here you are, dear. A special breakfast for a special girl''s special day."


    "It must be really special then." Talia giggled. "You said ''special'' three times."


    "That I did, and that''s because you are three times the special all by yourself." That made my little girl smile widely. Talia absolutely adored Abigail and every meal that she had made for us.


    We ate together as a family, enjoying the special breakfast that we were all given. Reagan and Rika were already dressed and ready to go, not needing our help anymore since they were big kids. They also had their attendants to help as well. I could have left Talia to her attendant to get her ready for school today, but it was the first day and Mommy wanted to be the one to do it for her.


    Not to mention, I think that it had made Talia happy to have mommy help her this morning. That alone made it all more than worth it. And it wasn''t like I was incapable of helping her. I was just fine.


    Now that the meal was over, we were all getting ready to leave, just like we did on Reagan and Rika''s first day of school three years ago. Reece and I wouldn''t miss this for the world.


    When we pulled up in front of the school, Reagan and Rika tried to jump out and head straight to their ssroom. When did they be so independent all of a sudden?


    "Hey, wait a minute. Aren''t we going to walk in as a family?" I asked them.


    "Aren''t you two going to help your sister to her ss?" Reece added.


    "But Mom, we know where our ss is already." Rika whined a little.


    "Yeah, and we don''t want to be seen at the baby ss." Reagan added.


    "It''s OK." Talia hung her head, and I could hear that she was hiding her sadness. "You don''t need to walk with me. I know that I am not cool like you are."


    "Talia?" Rika balked at the words that her little sister had just said.


    "You are cool, Talia." Reagan leaned forward and patted her on the head. "I''m sorry I made you think you weren''t."


    "It''s OK, Reagan. I know you don''t want to go. I will be fine."


    "No, Talia, it''s ok." Reagan took her hand then, smiling at her.


    "Yeah, we''re sorry Tally. We love you and you''re our sister." Rika grabbed her hand next.


    With Reagan and Rika smiling at their sister who was walking in between them, we started to walk into the school together. I could feel the love for my children growing within me as I watched them.


    "Reece, I think all three of our kids are just wonderful." I grinned at the kids as I spoke, not bothering to take my eyes off of them.


    "Yeah, they are great kids, aren''t they?"


    We walked to the same ssroom that we had gone to back when Reagan and Rika had started school. And standing there at the entrance was the same teacher as before.


    "Well hello there, Miss Rika and Mr. Reagan. What brings you here on this fine day?"


    "Hello Mrs. Buhler." Rika smiled at her old teacher. "This is my sister Talia. She is starting school today."


    "She''s shy, though, so be extra nice to her OK, Mrs. Buhler." Reagan added as he looked at his little sister.


    "Of course. I have been expecting you, Miss Talia. I am so happy to meet you. I am your teacher, Mrs. Buhler." She held her hand out toward my little girl who shied away from it at first.


    Talia looked back over her shoulder and gave me a pair of tear-filled eyes. I knelt down in front of her and gave her my calmest smile that I could manage.


    "It''s ok, Tally. Mrs. Buhleris really nice. She was Reagan and Rika''s teacher as well. She will make sure that you have a good time in preschool. And you will make lots of friends."


    "A..are you sure, Mommy?" She looked scared even though before we left for the school she had been filled with excitement.


    "Of course Mommy is sure, and so am I." Reece knelt next to me. "And when you''re done with school today, Mommy and I will be waiting for you. We will pick you up and take you to get ice cream so that you can tell us all about your first day of school." I could see a faint smile on Talia''s lips when she heard Reece''s words.


    "O..OK Daddy, I..I will go." Talia agreed before she hugged Reece then me. "I..I will s..see youter." She waved but I saw that the tears were still in her eyes. She was trying her best to be strong for us.


    Why? Why did I have to do this? Why was I sending my kids away like this? I was the worst mommy ever.


    "Bye Mom, bye Dad." Reagan and Rika said at the same time while they ran away from us and toward their ssroom. They didn''t need us anymore and that hurt me too. And Talia did need me, but I just pushed her off onto a stranger. This hurt so much.


    "Come on, Little Bunny. Let''s go home."


    "Reece, why does this hurt so much?" I was almost crying when I asked him that question.


    "It hurtst time too, don''t you remember? You will get over it, and Talia will be fine. Come on."


    Reece took my hand then and dragged me back toward the car. I just wanted to cry right now. I was so heartbroken. I want my babies back in my arms right now.


    "Come on, Little Bunny, it''s going to be OK."


    "I..I..I..I k..kn..kn..know." I was nothing more than a blubbering mess as he drove away from the school. I didn''t know what was wrong with me, but I knew that I was massively overreacting.


    "Come on, sweetheart, it''s going to be OK." He probably thought that I was losing it. To be honest, I was. However, that had nothing to do with this. For some reason, I was just feeling way too emotional. I hadn''t felt like this in a long time. Not since I was pregnant with Talia.


    I knew I wasn''t pregnant though, I hadn''t been intimate with Reece since that night when everyone was here for a visit. That was a month ago already. Over a month really. So that definitely wasn''t the issue.


    Then again¡­

 Chapter 604 - 21- Both – Business Trip (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 604 - 21- Both ¨C Business Trip (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    About a week after the kids started school, I needed to get ready to leave on a business trip. I was worried about going though, since my Little Bunny looked even more exhausted than she had before. I couldn''t even smell her scent anymore, all that I could smell when I was near her was the stench of exhaustion.


    I had suggested to her that she should see Griffin for her headaches, but she had refused. She had said that they weren''t bad enough to bother Griffin with them. I didn''t really believe that since I had seen her rubbing her temples several times over thest few days.


    I knew she was suffering, but she wouldn''t let me help her. She wouldn''t talk to me about it. She was just bottling it all up inside and ignoring it instead of talking to me about it.


    Dammit! Why wouldn''t she talk to me? Why wouldn''t she tell me what was going on with her? Did she not trust me anymore? Did I do something to make her lose faith in me? What had happened between us?


    I didn''t have too much time to mull over this, though. I needed to get ready to go. I needed to prepare and that meant informing her staff of a few things before I left.


    I talked to Vincent, who I knew would be with my Little Bunny while I was away for the next two days. I told him to keep an eye on her, to make sure she ate, slept, and did what she needed to do.


    Lately, I was sure that she was working at night so that she could spend the afternoons and evenings after school with the kids. Ever since the first day of school it was like she was three times busier than she had been before.


    Hadn''t she hired like half a dozen new staff members so that she didn''t have to work like this? Why was she still putting so much work on herself? Ugh! This was so frustrating.


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece was getting ready to leave for a couple of days. He was going on a business trip to meet with all the top executives at the subpanies that he owned. It was something to do with a mass merger or something, I didn''t really know for sure since I had been so busy myself.


    I felt horrible that I didn''t even know what was going on with my own husband and thepany that he owned. That made me feel like a terrible wife and it only made me want to work harder and do better. I just knew that if I put my work on hold and spent more time with the family during the evening, and then went back to work after they were in bed, then I would be able to know what was going on and I could be a better wife, a better mother, and a better queen. I needed to do better all around. I needed to do everything that I possibly could.


    The kids were taking the bus to school now that it wasn''t the first day. Reece and I saw them off to the bus together, then it was time for him to leave. He wouldn''t be here when the kids got home today so I needed to be extra attentive and help the kids tonight. I needed to be twice the Mommy for family time tonight. I could do it. I had to do it.


    "Are you sure that you''re going to be OK?" Reece asked me as he cupped my cheeks in hisrge hands and looked into my eyes.


    "Why wouldn''t I be OK?" I smiled at him and made my eyes as calm as I could, even as the voice repeated its words in my head again, over and over.


    ''If he leaves you will lose it all. They will die. They will all die. They will all die. They will all die. They will all die. They will all die. They will all die. They will all die.'' The words were bing meaningless to me but they were still annoying.


    "I don''t know, Little Bunny, I just worry about you. I know you''ve been taking on a lot of worktely and I know that you''re so tired. I think you need to talk to Griffin, or Lana, or even Juniper. Please, baby, please talk to someone." He was begging me like he knew the truth of what had been in my headtely. Wait? Did he know? Had he figured it out already. What was I going to do about this?


    "I''m fine, Reece. I promise you that I am fine. If things don''t get better soon, then I will talk to Griffin, OK."


    "Promise?" He looked so heartbroken and so worried, that I knew right then and there that he knew that I was going crazy.


    "Yes, I promise. I don''t want to worry you anymore, alright? When youe back, we will talk about it then. But, please, don''t worry about me during your trip. You need to focus on your work."


    "No, I need to focus on you. You''re more important than work. I am only going on this trip because you insisted on it. I could have sent someone else in my stead." His voice was filled with anger, but I don''t think it was directed solely at me.


    "You are the big boss, the head honcho, the top dog, you need to be the one to go Reece. It''s important."


    "Yeah, yeah, I know." He was sulking now. It was funny sometimes, to watch his mood flip flop like this.


    "Don''t worry, I will be here waiting for you when you get back. And who knows, I might just be more rested by then as well. I am going to try and give more work to the others soon."


    "You''d better."


    He kissed me then. A deep kiss that showed me how much he loved me. I can''t believe that I ever doubted that part of him. He was my mate, my husband, my everything. I needed to trust in him.


    After that, I watched him leave. He walked out the front door, down the steps of the castle and got into the SUV limo that was waiting for him. I thought about that for a minute, about how that little part of our routine hadn''t changed. Whenever we leave, we always leave through the front door and almost always leave in a big ck SUV of one type or another.


    Seeing this was nostalgic and made me smile. I thought about how little had changed, and that alone made me feel like I could deal with even more than I usually did. Knowing that despite everything, we were still the same people deep down.


    Those thoughts made me know that the voice wasn''t real and that it couldn''t hurt me. I was the same person that I always was, and I wasn''t going to cause people to die. I wasn''t that type of person. I never could do something like that.


    OK, I might be stretching a bit here, but I needed something to give me strength.

 Chapter 605 - 22- Trinity – The Voice (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 605 - 22- Trinity ¨C The Voice (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The day that Reece left was, by far, the worst one yet. I tried my best to concentrate on work, but I just couldn''t do it. The kids were at school and Reece was off on the ne somewhere, flying to a meeting with some corporate bigwigs.


    I never usually interacted much with them when I was working, but I always knew that someone was there for me. This time though, none of them were there.


    Yeah, OK, L, Mom, Dad, Grandfather, Nikki, all of them were here with me, even Juniper was here at the castle. But that didn''t mean that they were near me. And for some reason, their presence in the castle didn''t calm the voice as much as my mate or children did.


    With everyone gone, with me being truly alone for the first time since the voice started, it just grew worse and worse until it got to epic proportions.


    ''Everyone is going to die, Trinity. They will all die, and it will all be your fault. Thousands, no millions of deaths and it will all be your fault. You are going to be responsible for the end of your people. You will be responsible for destroying them all. You will murder them with your own hands. You will have their blood on your hands. Run now, Trinity. Run, run away now, before you kill them all. Leave! Go now! Don''t let them die because of you.''


    At first, it was the same old words that it had repeated time and time again. I could ignore those because they were familiar, like background music. But when they started to change, when they started to be something different, I just couldn''t ignore it anymore.


    ''Trinity, you need to listen to me.'' This voice sounded different than thest one, this voice was new. Dammit! This meant that I really was crazy. I wasn''t just hearing a voice, I was hearing multiple voices.


    "Great, I am certifiably insane." I said the words out loud, even though I didn''t mean to. "Wee to Crazy Town, Trinity, poption: you."


    "I''m sorry, Queen Trinity, did you say something?" Roisin asked me at the same time that the voice spoke again.


    ''You''re not crazy, Trinity. I am here to help you.'' The new voice said.


    "What the hell?" I jumped and yelped. I actually think that I scared Roisin for a moment.


    "Are you alright, my Queen?" Roisin''s voice was on edge when she spoke to me this time.


    ''Go somewhere private, or make her leave. Just do something quickly. We need to talk.''


    "U..uh, uhm, I..I''m sorry Roisin. I think I started to nod off there for a minute." I rubbed my head andughed. "Can you get me some coffee, please?" I asked her with as calm of a smile as I could muster. I even gave her an embarrassed littleugh and forced a blush onto my cheeks. Actually, the blush was real since she had heard me talking to myself.


    "Yes, of course my Queen. I will go right now." She bowed a little and started toward the door of the office.


    "Vincent, can you wait outside for a moment. If I do happen to nod off again, I don''t want to embarrass myself by letting you see that." I tried to get him to leave as well, but he seemed a little more firm in his stance at the door.


    "If you are that tired, Trinity, then please just go and take a nap." I could tell that he was worried about me.


    "I''m sure that I will be fine." I gave him that same embarrassedugh, but he wasn''t swayed.


    "Please, Trinity, just let Roisin help you to bed. You need to sleep."


    Well, if he was going to insist on it, then I guess it was a way for me to be alone. This might just be the opportunity that I needed to talk with no one else around me.


    "Alright, I think you might be right. I will go to bed for a little bit." Visible relief seemed to wash over his face when I agreed with him.


    I let Vincent guide me up the royal tower and to my room. He was being exceptionally careful with me, like he thought I was going to break, or snap, at any moment. That was a little annoying, but I know he was just concerned.


    I decided to just let the two of them fuss over me. I was helped to bed and even given a ss of calming tea to help me sleep more soundly. What were they trying to do, make me sleep until morning?


    The moment that they were gone, literally the moment that the door shut behind them, the voice started inside of my head again. First, it was the original background track, same old voice from before.


    ''Everyone is going to die, Trinity. They will all die, and it will all be your fault. Thousands, no millions of deaths and it will all be your fault. You are going to be responsible for the end of your people. You will be responsible for destroying them all. You will murder them with your own hands. You will have their blood on your hands. Run now, Trinity. Run, run away now, before you kill them all. Leave! Go now! Don''t let them die because of you.''


    Following that voice, I could hear that new one, that one that actually answered me.


    ''Good, you''re alone. You need to hurry, Trinity. You have to stop her.''


    "Stop who?" I asked her out loud, not knowing if she could hear me inside of my head.


    ''Hekate.''


    "The Goddess of magic and darkness that used to be married to Thoth?" I felt the shock wash over me. That was unexpected.


    ''The very one. She is trying to escape from the underworld. She has nearly seeded. If she gets out, she will kill everyone. She will destroy the world for having imprisoned her for so long.'' The voice was frantic as it answered me.


    "How? How is she getting stronger? What happened to make this a possibility?" I just couldn''tprehend this at all.


    ''There were so many things that happened. The battle with Edmond that happened in the spiritual ne, and when you absorbed Thoth. Both of those weakened her restraints until they were nearly gone. Now, as time moves on, she is nearing her escape. You can''t let her get out, Trinity. You have to protect the world. You have to protect your people.''


    I felt goosebumps spread across my arms and the back of my neck. If Hekate got out, she would massacre millions of people, and the reason behind it would all be my fault. That voice wasn''t lying. It was my fault. I was going to be a murderer.


    "How can I stop her? How can I make this right again?" Dammit, there were tears in my eyes as the reality of the situation hit me.


    ''Follow me, Trinity. You need to follow me. I will guide you.''


    I heard the voice, but it sounded like it was getting further and further away from me. It was moving toward the door to my room, the door that led to the stairs and the elevator.


    I didn''t hesitate. I got to my feet and followed the voice. I wasn''t going to let this happen to my people. I wasn''t going to let Hekate get away with this.


    As I thought that, a sickening thought hit me. Hekate, the wife of Thoth and mother to Witches and Warlocks, was actually another blood rtive of mine. Seriously? Was there an ancestor of mine that wasn''t totally batshit crazy? This was starting to make me wonder what would happen to me over time. Was I going to be this megalomaniacal evil Queen that was bent on taking over the world?


    Please, anyone who might be listening and that could help a goddess in the midst of an existential crisis, tell me if I can keep that from happening.


    The voice was still talking but I could tell that it was moving, fast.


    ''Follow me, Trinity. Come on now, follow me.''


    I followed it out of the Royal tower and into the main castle. It seemed like it was leading me toward the throne room, but something changed my course along the way. I saw something out of the corner of my eye.


    There, just barely visible and moving quickly, were three little imp-like creatures. They were hard to see and all I could tell for certain was that they had jet ck hair and were all identical to each other.


    Those little imp-like creatures were running away from me and toward a door. Only this door wasn''t one that I ever remember being here before.. It was also just standing there in the middle of the hallway not supported by anything.

 Chapter 606 - 23- Trinity – The Door (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 606 - 23- Trinity ¨C The Door (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    OK, I know what everyone is going to say to me. It''spletely stupid and ludicrous of me to willingly follow those imps toward that door. And it was even more stupid of me to have the intention of opening it and looking through it.


    Hey, what can I say? I am not one to shy away from danger. I have, multiple times, walked right into the heart of the danger without even thinking. That may, or may not, have gotten me in trouble with Reece on more than one asion. But, well, he isn''t here right now so I don''t need to worry about that now. He will never know that I even opened it, let alone looked inside of that door.


    ''No, over here. Don''t follow them, follow me. Come on, Trinity. Don''t get sidetracked. Focus on me.''


    I was ignoring that voice, just like I had ignored the other voice for so long. I was able to just shut off the ability to hear it a little. It was there still, like a constant buzzing in the back of my head. It actually reminded me of listening to a radio with a semi blown speaker. One of the speakers was buzzing constantly and you couldn''t get it to stop unless you reced the speakers.


    ''Don''t ignore me!'' The voice yelled, screaming at me with fury and anger filling her voice. This time, that voice actually sounded a lot like the original voice that I heard, that one that had been driving me nuts for so long.


    "I am going to check this out first." I answered as if in a daze of some sort. It was like there was something drawing me in, pulling me toward that door and the three little imps that were moving around it.


    I still couldn''t see the imp''s faces all that clearly, but I could see that they were smiling at me and waving me closer. Yeah, that was totally a bad sign. I mean there were tiny little devil-like creatures beckoning me toward them. What could possibly go wrong?


    Then again, that voice that I had let lead me down here started to sound just like that annoying and sadistic voice that kept tormenting me before. Could it be that it really was the same voice? Maybe the owner of the voice just got strong enough to finally reach out to me.


    Honestly, if anyone were to ask me, neither of these situations was exactly safe. And I can only me temporary insanity on all of this as I walked closer and closer toward the door and, in turn, closer to the little imps that were telling me toe with them.


    They didn''t actually say those words, but that is what they made me feel when I saw them. It was like I could feel the words that they couldn''t speak.


    "Come with us, Trinity. This is the way to go. That way is a trap. That way will lead you to certain death. Don''t follow the voice, follow us."


    Yeah, I know that is not what was being said at all. It was probably more like this:


    "Come with us, Trinity. We want to eat your soul. We''re hungry and a Goddess''s soul sounds really delicious right about now. Come on, we will lead you to the ce that you want to be. We will take you to see the Goddess of Darkness, we devoured her soul too, you know."


    That was a little more realistic if you asked me. Still, I wasn''t worried as I followed those three little guys toward the door. I wasn''t scared at all when I turned the handle and started to look beyond the door to what was waiting for me on the other side.


    And I was very disappointed when I found out that there was nothing on the other side of the door aside from the hallway of the castle that I was currently standing in. Well, that''s a rip off. I mean,e on. You find a magical doorway standing inside of your house, you would think that it would take you somewhere else. Somewhere that wasn''t here.


    The three little imps immediately went through the door though. They crossed the threshold happily and began to dance on the other side. They were cute, that little trio dancing together. They made me think of kids that had found a song that they liked. It was a lot like Talia, really, when she danced to her favorite songs and threw all those dance lessons out of the window. It was totally carefree and childlike.


    I don''t know why I did it, but I stepped through the door. I wanted to get closer to those little imps, I wanted to see their faces. I wanted to see if they really were imps or if they were indeed children. I mean, if they were children, then what they were doing made a lot of sense. Imps also often have small, child-sized faces, sometimes even having the true features of a child so that they could fool their prey.


    For some reason though, I just couldn''t sense any dangering from these three child sized creatures. To me, all I could sense was fun, love, and a desire to help. That was not the definition of an imp if you asked me.


    The moment that I was on the other side of that door, I felt like all the color drained from my surroundings. For some reason, my vision just seemed to cloud over and everything around me seemed to be in ck and white.


    "This is odd." I was speaking to myself as I started to turn around and look at the hallway.


    The moment I turned in a half circle, when I was looking at the door again, I saw the color beyond it, as well as somethingying on the other side.


    "What is that?" I asked myself just a moment before I realized what it was. "That''s me!" I was literally looking at my body lying on the floor. "What the hell?"


    The moment I took a step toward the door though, it mmed shut and disappeared altogether.


    "Where did the door go? What is going on? This is crazy!" My heart rate was rising. Fear was spreading throughout me. So many feelings and emotions were coursing throughout my body.


    Oh, and to top it all off, those three little imps were gone.


    "Dammit! I didn''t think that I would get stuck over here. I need to make sure that I can get out of here. I needed to find some way to escape from this ce before Reece gets home. If he finds out that I went through some stupid magical door and got stuck like this, then he would be pissed at me, again.


    Yeah, I know, I am the queen, not him. But that didn''t mean that I wanted to listen to him grumble about this for the next few months. That would just annoy the hell out of me.


    Nope, my best option was to look for another door that would take me home.. Then I could get back to my room and pretend that I had been asleep this whole time.

 Chapter 607 - 24- Split (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 607 - 24- Split (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    Vincent ¨C Finding The Queen


    ~~


    Vincent


    ~~


    I wasing back from my lunch break, expecting to wake up Trinity, when Roisin came running down the stairs that led to the top floor of the castle. The stairs that led to Trinity and Reece''s bedroom.


    "Vincent!" She called out to me with nothing but panic in her voice.


    "What is it, Roisin?" Her fear and panic were so strong that I instantly started to feel on edge as the emotions started to take over my own body.


    "She''s not in her room."


    "What do you mean? She has to be in there. Could she just be in the bathroom?" I didn''t like what this was doing to my heart rate right now.


    "No. When she didn''t answer at all, I decided to check the bathroom as well. She isn''t there. She isn''t in her room, any of the closets, or the bathroom. She is gone." Tears were streaming down Roisin''s face as she said those words to me. I tried not to panic. She might have just gone back to the office. That was all it was. She woke up early and went to her office.


    "Calm down, Roisin. I will check her office, you check the rest of the royal tower, alright?" The woman nodded in response to my words and started to race around the tower while I turned around and headed back toward the office that was at the bottom of this tower. The room that was right above the throne room.


    "Well, that was a bust." I growled to the empty office when I opened the door. She wasn''t in there either. "I should call Roisin and ask her if she has found anything.


    I pulled the phone from my pocket, pressed her number and had it to my ear all in the span of a second. Roisin had already answered the call.


    "Did you find her? Is she there?" That told me that she hadn''t located Trinity somewhere in the tower.


    "No, I didn''t. I am going to start searching the castle for her. I''m going to call the others in as well, that way we can check multiple areas at once."


    "O..O..OK." I could tell that Roisin was scared and just didn''t know what to do.


    "Wait for her toe back, Roisin. And prepare for the children toe home. They will be here in a couple of hours, but that time will pass before we know it.


    "Y..yes, Sir." She was very agreeable and hung up almost immediately.


    OK, I needed to do this right. I needed to be thorough. That was why I sent in a mental call to the rest of the team, the top elite ones as well as those that were still being trained. I was just descending the stairs to the tower as I gave them their orders. They were to start their searches at several different locations and rotate around the castle until someone found the Queen.


    "Those are your orders. Do what you need to do to find Queen Trinity-." I came to an abrupt halt. Right there in front of me, lying on the floor, was Trinity. "Never mind, I just found her." I told them, calling off the search.


    "Is Queen Trinity alright?" Someone asked, it was a voice that I didn''t recognize at all, but that wasn''t news to me at all. There were a lot of new recruits that I hadn''t met yet.


    "She seems to be." I didn''t want to give too much information to them over the link. I didn''t want anything to leak.


    From what I could see, Trinity had just been walking through the hallway when she fell asleep. She was exhausted so I didn''t think that much of it at the moment. I just went to her side and picked her up in my arms. She felt both heavier and lighter to me somehow. What was that all about? It''s probably because she had lost weight so she was lighter but she was heavier because she was limp and a limp body was harder to carry.


    It didn''t matter to me. I was able to carry her with no problems at all, so I just lifted her and held her close while I carried her back to her room.


    "Seriously, Trinity, why did you have to go and exhaust yourself like this?" I almost wanted tough at her, if she wasn''t so obviously sufferingtely.


    Griffin ¨C Called In To Consult


    ~~


    Griffin


    ~~


    I got a call at about eight in the evening. Vincent was worried about Trinity because she wasn''t waking up. It was not a surprise to me that Trinity was exhausted. Reece hade to me not that long ago and talked about it. He had said that he was getting increasingly worried about her and the scent of exhaustion that wasing off of her.


    "I''m on my way." I told him, even though I was certain that it was just a simple case of overexertion, and that she was just sleeping off all the long nights that Reece had been bemoaning. I got ready to go though and didn''tin. Trinity was not just my Queen and my Luna, she was my friend and I would do almost anything to help her. I mean, without her I would have no happiness at all.


    By the time that I had gotten dressed and made my way over to the royal tower, where Trinity was presumably just sleeping, it was almost nine. It had taken me a while to get my youngest, Rei, to let go of me. She was such a daddy''s girl and at just three she could be very clingy.


    Vincent was ring at me when I made my way up the stairs and to Trinity''s door.


    "You''rete." He snapped at me the moment that I came into his view.


    "I''m sorry, it was a family rted issue. As a father I am sure that you could understand that." I tried my best to make sure that he knew I didn''t intentionally take longer than I needed.


    "Yes, I know. I''m just worried. Come on, hurry up. Utilize every skill that you have. I want to know what happened to Trinity as soon as possible."


    "She''s probably just sleeping soundly, Vincent. I wouldn''t worry too much if I were you." I brushed it off and followed him into the room.


    "She''s not just sleeping. Something is wrong with her, I know it. And you are the first person aside from Roisin and myself that knows about this." He was being way more serious than I thought he should be.


    I walked into the room and made my way to Trinity''s side. I saw that she wasying therepletely still and breathing evenly. That was a good sign already. Her breathing wasn''t indicating that something was wrong.


    The moment that I made my way to Trinity''s side though, I could tell that something was up. Her body temperature was a little lower than usual, and just like Reece had said, she reeked of exhaustion.


    "She just looks tired, Vincent." I rolled my eyes at the worrywart. I was probably going to get an earful from Trinity when she woke up mid exam.


    "Just examine her, I will take the me. I have the authority given to me by Reece so don''t question me. I am also her Beta and it is my job to lead in her stead."


    "Yeah, yeah." I just rolled my eyes at him and examined Trinity.


    Her heart sounded normal, there was nothing to be heard in her lungs, her pulse was steady and even just like her breathing. Everything was pointing toward her just being asleep. Aside from the fact that she was faintly cold even though she was covered up with what looked like three nkets.


    "Since when does Trinity get cold?" I didn''t really mean to get an answer to that question, I was just talking to myself.


    "She doesn''t." Vincent answered me anyway. "That is just one more suspicious thing about this."


    "Oh yeah, what else is there?"


    Vincent went on to describe that he had tried to wake Trinity several times. He had called for her, shaken her shoulder, lightly tapped her face, he even poked her foot with a needle to see if she would respond, and all of it was to no avail.


    "Wait, seriously? Even the needle?" He nodded in response. "Well, I was going to take a blood sample, but I didn''t want to hurt her."


    "Do it!" He snapped at me. "Do it and tell me what is wrong with her."


    "Fine." I sighed and took out the tourniquet, needle, vial, and sterile alcohol pad.


    True to Vincent''s word, Trinity didn''t even flinch when I poked the needle into her arm. That was odd if I was being honest. What the hell was the matter with her.


    "I will run this and see whates up." I told him as I took a couple extra vials of blood, just to be safe.


    "Be quick about it."


    I repacked the bag and started toward the clinic instead of my residence. I needed to make sure that I ran this blood tonight. Vincent would not wait until the morning. And honestly, I didn''t know if I could either. This really was weird. Based on what I had been told, Trinity had been asleep since this morning and she hadn''t so much as moved since Vincent found her justying in the hallway of the castle.


    "What the hell is going on here?" I asked myself as I shut the door to myb.

 Chapter 608 - 25- Split (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 608 - 25- Split (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    Griffin - Running Tests


    ~~


    Griffin


    ~~


    I wanted to be as thorough as I could with this testing. I knew that, both Vincent and Reece, would tell me to make sure that I didn''t miss anything at all. Reece may not be here, but Vincent was, and he could be just as bad when it came to worrying about Trinity.


    I could understand it though. I mean, she was the Goddess Queen, the Luna Queen, and his friend. Vincent has been Trinity''s head of security since the very beginning, and it is literally his job to worry about her. This was nothing new to me, or anyone else for that matter.


    Not to mention that I was starting to get worried. I mean, drawing blood from Trinity and her not even flinching, that was not something that I was expecting. And Vincent, having told me he had tried waking Trinity up by pressing a needle against her foot and she didn''t respond, that wasn''t normal at all.


    I had ended up taking three vials of blood to start with, there were a few different tests that I could run with each one and if I couldn''t find something wrong before exhausting all that I had. I needed to approach this differently.


    I started by running a full panel as well as a pregnancy test. I didn''t really expect anything but a negative from thetter of those two since both Trinity and Reece got overly excited whenever they were expecting kids so there was no way that they hadn''t told someone yet. Well, unless they just found out or something. Still, I needed to run the test just to be certain. I had to follow all the steps that I would with a human patient.


    I started a new page in Trinity''s chart while I waited for the results of the bloodwork toe back, and I started to think of somethings that might have happened to her. She didn''t appear to be sick or anything like that, but I guess appearances can be deceiving.


    Trinity has had the most unusual medical history out of any other shifter that I have ever treated. One thing can definitely be said about treating her, it was never boring. Though, I am not quite sure if that was a good thing or not.


    When the beep told me that the blood tests were done, I switched over to theputer where the results would be disyed. I pulled them up and started to look at everything as I went down the list.


    "Hmm, red cells are within normal range for a shifter, so are the white cells. telets are normal as well. Everything on the panel looks normal, so I guess I will need to run more thorough tests." I sighed as I scrolled down and looked at the results from the other test that I ran. "What in the hell?"


    I most definitely did not suspect this when I ran that test. I needed to call Vincent right away and get some equipment over to the royal tower as soon as I could.


    Vincent ¨C What We Know So Far


    ~~


    Vincent


    ~~


    "I''m on my way back to run some more tests on Trinity." Griffin was already in his truck and on his way here from his office. I could tell because I heard the sound of the wind on his end of the line.


    "What did you find out?" I demanded of him the moment that he said those words. I didn''t care that it was after midnight or that almost everyone else in the castle was sleeping. I raised my voice and basically growled as I told him to answer me.


    "Let us talk in person, I think that will be a lot better. I don''t know how many people you have let know about Trinity so far, but I will be bringing some equipment with me. I assume that you would prefer for me to hide what it truly is right now."


    "Yeah, I do not want to rm the staff." Griffin had been right about that. I hadn''t told anyone else about Trinity yet, not even Reece. I wanted to see if Griffin could find out what was wrong with her first. If he could do that then I wouldn''t feel so bad when it came time for me to call Reece.


    Dammit! This was not going very well. Reece was going to kill me. I let this happen to Trinity on my watch. WHY!_ Why did all of this bad stuff happen to my Trinity? Why was it that I was not able to protect her from this stuff?


    As I wallowed in that despair, I had one quick thought. At least I only needed to get Griffin''s equipment past the night guards. There were no maids or butlers that were awake right now, so it was less likely that anyone would see Griffin bringing in his equipment.


    I will admit, I was outside, pacing back and forth, when Griffin arrived. I wasn''t going to wait for him upstairs. I needed to make sure that he hurried and got this shit upstairs as soon as possible.


    "Park in the garage!" I ordered him as I pointed toward the door that I had open and waiting for him. Thankfully he did as I told him to without me needing to tell him more than once.


    I ran into the garage after him, shut the door, and then ran down the nted drive until I got to the bottom. Griffin had parked as close to the elevator as he could without taking much time at all. Good, that was the perfect ce.


    I grabbed the pushcart that I had brought with me and ran to the back of his truck. He pressed the button to open the back door and was at my side before it had finished raising. That was good, he was taking this as seriously as I was now. The bad thing about that though, was that he thought that there was a reason to take this seriously and that meant that something was wrong with Trinity.


    We didn''t speak, we just loaded the boxes that he had put all the equipment into on the cart and started for the royal tower. This was fine with me, I just wanted to know what was wrong and to know if Reece was going to kill me. I also wanted to know what was wrong with Trinity and how I could help her.


    Dammit! This was breaking my heart and my soul. Why did this have to keep happening to her? Trinity was such a nice person.


    In no time at all, we were exiting the elevator directly into Trinity''s room. She was stillying there, motionless and unchanged, on her bed.


    "Over here. Let''s set it all up right next to her bed." Griffin was starting to steer the cart into position.


    I helped him unload the boxes that we had stacked up on the cart but after that he was on his own. I didn''t know how to work that shit so all I could do was get him a power strip and an extension cord so that he could plug it all up where he needed it.


    I did recognize a lot of the stuff that he had brought with him. There was a cardiac monitor, an IV pole and pump, an ultrasound, and a couple other things that I didn''t know the name or function of just yet.


    I watched as he started to pull the nkets away from Trinity and cut away her shirt.


    "HEY!" I yelled at him.


    "What?" He jumped and took a step away from her.


    "Why the hell did you cut her shirt open? We could have removed it normally."


    "Well, I''m a doctor, that is normal for me to do." He acted like there was nothing wrong with what he had done.


    "Well, you''re not at the hospital, and those were the Goddess Queen''s clothes you just destroyed. Next time, we will remove them without cutting them up." I just red at him and went to remove the scraps of the shirt away from Trinity.


    "Fine." He shrugged and just started to hook up the cardiac monitor to Trinity.


    After that, he grabbed the ultrasound machine and pulled it closer to the bed.


    "Why do you need an ultrasound? Do you think that she got injured somehow?"


    "So, even you don''t know?" He looked at me in surprise.


    "What are you talking about?" I was even more confused now.


    "Trinity is pregnant." He said it so matter-of-factly that I was too shocked to even deny it for a moment. It was only when he started to put the blue gel on her belly that I found my voice.


    "No, that''s impossible. She can''t be. We would know. Reece would know. All of us that are with her every single day would know." He had to be wrong.


    "Well, I don''t know what to tell you, but the blood work tells a different tale. It tells me that she is indeed pregnant, and not just recently either."


    Griffin stopped looking at me or even speaking to me. He just flipped the ultrasound screen toward him and pressed the wand to Trinity''s belly. I did not expect him to find something. I did not expect to see anything on that screen. And I definitely did not expect to hear the heartbeats that wereing from the ultrasound.


    Yes, I said heartbeats. It sounded like there was more than one. I couldn''t help myself. Being that I had been through this situation with Heather four times now, once with twins, I was drawn to the monitor to see what was going on.


    "Just as I suspected." I looked at him and then a little closer to Trinity. I hadn''t noticed at all, but her belly was already starting to change. Actually, it had changed a lot. How had none of us noticed that she was pregnant? How did Reece not know it?


    I think that lies in the fact that Trinity has been so tired that she only smelled like exhaustion, and she''s been so tired that she''s just been losing weight like crazy. Her clothes were getting looser on her so the belly was hidden. This is insane.


    "Wh..what do you see?" I asked Griffin as I walked right up behind him. "H..h..how far along is she?"


    "My initial guess right now is about seven to eight weeks since conception."


    "Damn. That actually lines up with Reece''s date night after his birthday." I shook my head. So, sh..she''s about a third of the way done?" I knew from plenty of experience that the average shifter pregnancy was about twenty-six to twenty-seven weeks long. None of them were really set in stone, but that was the average length.


    "I don''t think she will get anywhere close to her due date, which I am going to tentatively put somewhere between January the fifth and January the twelfth."


    "Why won''t she make it to the due date?" Uh oh, did I need to start worrying already? What was going to happen to Trinity? What was going to happen to the baby?


    "She''s carrying multiples, so she will undoubtedly deliver early. I think it''s about time you called Reece. I have some more work to do, but it''s time that hees home and finds out what is going on."


    I knew this moment wasing. I knew that I had to call him. But I wasn''t looking forward to it. I wanted to put it off for just another moment or two. I needed to ask Griffin just one more question. He had been a little too evasive a moment ago.


    "Griffin? How many babies is Trinity carrying at the moment?"


    "Three."


    Holy shit! Reece is going to blow a fucking gasket when he hears that.. He is going to rush home and will insist on being as overly protective as he was thest two times.

 Chapter 609 - 26- Reece – A Wake Up Call From Vincent (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 609 - 26- Reece ¨C A Wake Up Call From Vincent (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    It was almost two in the morning. I was sound asleep in the penthouse suite of a luxury hotel in New Your City. I had wrapped up ate night meeting with that group of old stiffs that wanted to basically rob me blind. They took one look at my young appearance and instantly forgot that I was in my thirties and have been running thispany for over fifteen years now.


    Honestly, when the phone rang, I thought it was one of them calling back to tell me why I needed to up their budget or to give them this grant or whatever else it was that they wanted from me.


    I didn''t even look at the phone when I picked it up, pressed the answer button, and growled into the ear of whatever asshole woke me up at this time of night.


    "What the fuck do you want?" I spoke a lot louder than I had nned on, but I didn''t care. Whoever that person was, they were now on my shit list.


    "Reece, it''s Vincent." That voice, and hearing that name, both clearing that fog of sleep from my brain.


    "Vincent? What''s wrong? What happened? Are the kids OK? How is Trinity?"


    If Vincent was calling me right now, then it must mean that something bad has happened. I was already hopping out of the bed and grabbing for my clothes that I had sitting nearby.


    "The kids are fine." That was the only question that he answered. He remained silent after that and it made my heart stoppletely. Something was wrong with my Little Bunny. Something had happened to my wife. Something that was bad enough for Vincent to be calling me and telling me about it.


    As I shoved my legs into my pants, the phone sitting next to me on speaker, I asked him the only thing that I was capable of saying at the moment.


    "What happened to my Little Bunny? What happened to my Little Bunny?" I asked him the question twice, I had intended to ask if she was OK with the second time I said it, but those were literally the only words that my mouth was capable of saying at that moment.


    "I don''t know. No one knows what happened to her at the moment. She won''t wake up."


    "What do you mean she won''t wake up?" I froze in ce as I went to pull on the clean shirt that I had just grabbed out of my suitcase.


    "I found herying in the hallway near the throne room. She was supposed to be napping at the time because she almost fell asleep at her desk. But when I went to wake her after lunch she wasn''t in her room. That was when I looked for her and she was justying there like she was asleep."


    "So, she''s just sleeping off all of that exhaustion that she has been suffering from?" I started to feel just a little bit of relief at that. She needed to sleep. This was probably good for her.


    "I wish that was all that it was. She hasn''t woken up since I found her. She''s had blood drawn, a needle poked into her foot, and a slew of other things done to help wake her up, all to no avail."


    With every word that Vincent said, I felt myself freezing over. How was she not awake after all of that? I mean, the needles alone should have woken her up.


    "Is there anything else you need to tell me Vincent? Anything else that I need to know before I leave?"


    "Yeah, just one more." I was hoping that he would say no. I was hoping that this was the extent of what was going on.


    "What is it, Vincent? What else is wrong?"


    "Trinity is pregnant, with triplets."


    "How is that possible?" I couldn''t understand how that was possible. How could she be pregnant. We haven''t been intimate since just after my birthday, right when she was starting to get exhausted. Right about when.. when.. when she started to smell of nothing but that exhaustion.


    Is it possible that she''s been pregnant this whole time? Did her exhaustion mask it from me? Did the pregnancy make the way she''s been feeling all that much worse? What was going on with her? How could I have missed all of this?


    "I''m leaving here as soon as I can, Vincent. I will be back by morning."


    "Yes, Sir." I could just imagine Vincent nodding his head a little as he responded to me.


    I ended the call then and finished getting dressed. I hadn''t unpacked much so I just needed to throw everything into the suitcase and leave the bedroom. I was already calling out across the room as I hurried to carry my luggage toward the door.


    "NOAH! GET UP AND GET DRESSED! WE''RE LEAVING!"


    I heard him startle awake and jump to his feet. He was out the door in less than a second and I was just d that he slept in more clothes than I did.


    "What happened?" He looked like I had taken himpletely by surprise.


    "Something is wrong with Trinity. We need to hurry." I saw the fear and worry hit his face when he processed the words.


    "What? What do you mean? What happened?"


    "Get dressed, I will fill you in on the way to the airport."


    Noah got dressed and we were at the airport before two thirty in the morning. I had time to reminisce about the first time that I went out of town and needed to rush home to get to my Little Bunny. That first time I didn''t have a private ne and needed to charter one. And I was not able tond in Colorado Springs, I needed to drive over an hour to get back home.


    This time though, I just needed to fly home in my private jet and drive the short distance from the airport to the castle. This time it was going to be a lot quicker and easier. And I didn''t need to wait for clearance to take off, I was able to take off as soon as I requested it. That was part of the perk of being the richest man in the country.


    It took just over six hours to get me back to Colorado Springs. The departure time was quick, and I had called ahead to have a car waiting for me. Still, as quick as it all was, it felt like it was all taking way too long to get home.


    I stepped out of the car and ran through the door of my castle before we came to aplete stop. It took me less than two minutes to run through the castle, to the tower, and up to my room where my wife wasying in the bed.


    "I''m here. Tell me what is going on." The words were out of my mouth before I was fully through the door.


    "What happened to my sister?" Noah asked as he ran through the door behind me.


    "I''ve run every test that I can without bigger equipment." Griffin was in the room with Vincent. It was just the two of them, Roisin, and my Little Bunny.


    "And? What have you learned?" I was already kneeling at my wife''s side and taking her hand into my own.


    My Little Bunny''s hand was warm and soft to the touch. It wasn''t like she was sick at all. To me it looked like she was just sleeping.


    "There doesn''t seem to be anything wrong with her. I have found absolutely nothing wrong with her so far." Griffin looked like he was at his wits end as he answered me.


    "I don''t know what to say or how to exin this to either of you, but Griffin is right. There seems to be nothing wrong with Trinity right now, but she simply will not wake up." Vincent looked like he hadn''t gotten a wink of sleepst night. He seemed like he was going to try and stay by my wife''s side until she woke up. What he didn''t understand, though, was that that was my job. I was going to be sitting with her until she woke up.


    "Who all knows?" I asked Vincent, certain that he was the one that would be able to answer that right now.


    "Just us. No one else knows what is going on. I told them all that Trinity was just resting because of the strain she has been under." That was good. So far no one else knew what was going on.


    "And the kids? What do they think is wrong with their mom?"


    "The same. They think that their mom is just sleeping." Vincent had done good while I was away. He had handled everything perfectly.


    "Good. Thank you, Vincent. And you as well, Griffin."


    "Here, Reece, I printed these for you." Griffin handed me a series of ultrasound photos before he headed toward the door. "Get some rest. I need some rest as well, we all do. I wille backter and check on Trinity."


    With that Griffin left the room and so did Vincent and Noah. It was now just me and my Little Bunny in the room. I was alone with her and the babies that were growing in her belly. The babies that I could see in those pictures. They definitely were a lot bigger than I thought they would be by now.. These three little babies that would be here before I knew it.

 Chapter 610 - 27- Split (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 610 - 27- Split (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    Reece ¨C Why Little Bunny?


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I was just sitting there next to my Little Bunny while I held her hand in mine. I couldn''t believe what was happening. Should I have insisted that she see Griffin? Should I have called up Juniper to see if she could have helped my wife? What could I have done to prevent this from happening? What was I supposed to do now? And how long was she going to be like this?


    I couldn''t answer those questions and that was what hurt the most.


    "Why didn''t you talk to me, Trinity? Why didn''t you tell me about all of this? Why didn''t you tell me that you were pregnant? Howe you kept all of this a secret from me?" I felt the tears building in the back of my eyes, but I forced them away. I wasn''t going to cry, not yet. I wouldn''t show that weakness when there were other peopleing in soon.


    "I''ll be here, waiting for you, Trinity, so wake up soon. We have a lot to talk about. And I don''t think you actually want Griffin to run all those tests on you. He will have you in so many medical machines that it isn''t even funny. And I know that you don''t want anyone else to find out what is going on with you. So,e on, don''t do this, don''t stay asleep. It''s time to wake up. You''ve been asleep for a long time already. If you''re still tired you can take another napter, but I think it''s time to wake up now. Please, Trinity, wake up. Please, baby."


    The tears that I had been trying so hard to fight off finally started to roll down my cheeks. I couldn''t fight them anymore. I just wanted my Little Bunny to wake up. I just wanted to see her eyes open up and to know that she was OK.


    "I love you, baby. I love you so much, Trinity. Please don''t leave me here like this. I need you. I can''t live without you. You know that, don''t you?"


    I kicked off my shoes and climbed into the bed with my Little Bunny. I snuggled up to her side and pulled her against me. Maybe she just needed to be close to me. Maybe she couldn''t wake up because we hadn''t been close for so long.


    OK, that probably wasn''t it, but I could hope, right? I would do anything that I could to wake her up, and this was just the first part of it. Not to mention, itforted me to hold her like this.


    Trinity ¨C Exploring The World Of Gray


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    OK, was this supposed to be some y on ourst name or something? I was in my castle that was named after us, Castle Gray, and everything in it was gray. Even I was gray. It seriously looked like I was inside of some TV show that had aired back in the fifties and sixties. There was no color at all.


    What the hell was going on here? What was that door? Where am I? And where the hell did those damn little imps go? They were the reason that I hade to this door in the first ce.


    Then again, the way that voice spoke after I stopped following it made it clear that I shouldn''t have been following it either. So, basically, I guess I did something really stupid and followed two evil things out of my room.


    OK, I didn''t follow the imps out of my room, but I did abandon the voice because of those adorable little imps.


    NO, they are not cute. They were little devils. I don''t care how much they looked like children at the end of it all, they were imps. They were definitely not identical boys that were just running around and showing me the way to this trap.


    And I don''t even want to think about the fact that those little children, I mean imps, looked like Reece. That was impossible. They couldn''t have looked like Reece at all. That would mean that I suspect Reece of doing something to me, right? I mean, why else would I imagine those little childlike figures with features that reminded me of my husband?


    No, I needed to put those thoughts out of my head. They weren''t good for me at all. I needed to forget all about that for right now so I could start to find my way out of here. If I didn''t find a door out of here, then I was going to be stuck in this ce for way too long.


    I stopped thinking about the voice and the imps. I stopped thinking anything that didn''t have to do with getting out of here and getting back home. Though, I will admit one thing. While here, I haven''t felt as tired as I was before. I don''t feel quite as exhausted anymore.


    Our castle was huge, so it was going to take me forever to search it and find out where to go next. Oh well, I would do what I needed to do. I was going to get out of here and go home before Reece got home.


    Well, it was my n to find the exit anyway. But there was something that was already starting to hold me up. And that was the fact that it was extremely difficult to move in this ce. It started to feel like I was moving through water. No, that isn''t right. That''s too easy. This felt worse than that fog when I was in the dark realm of the Fae. This felt like the entire hallway was filled with syrup or something simr to that.


    It was funny if you think about it. This ce hadn''t been this hard to move around in until after the door was closed. No actually, that isn''t right, it wasn''t like this until after I decided to do something about being stuck here. Was this ce trying to keep me here? Is that what was going on? Is that what was happening right now?


    The more that I pressed on the more frustrated that I became.


    "UGH! DAMMIT!" After what felt like hours, I roared the words to the empty hallway around me when I decided to just stop moving and sit on the floor. Why does this have to be so hard?


    "UGH!" I grunted in frustration again. "Wait a minute." I snapped at myself. "Why the hell am I doing this? I could just open a door back home. Sometimes, I''m so stupid."


    I stood and raised my arms until they were right in front of me. That took a long time too, since it was so hard to move in this ce. When I was in the right position and standing where I needed to be, I started to pull my magic to me and think about the door home that I wanted to make.


    Well, I thought I was pulling my magic toward me. Though, no matter when I was thinking, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn''t pull the magic to me. I felt like all of my magic was gone or something.


    "HOW!?" I yelled the words but there was no one around to hear me. "What is going on? Not only am I in ck and white, but I don''t have any of my magic? How is that even possible?"


    I could feel my heart pounding and the fear coursing throughout my entire body. I hadn''t been this scared in a long time. I also hadn''t been this powerless in years.


    "Wait? I..i..if I don''t have my magic, does that mean that I don''t have my wolf either?" I asked myself, my voice was the only thing aside from my footsteps that I had heard in hours. "Well, there''s nothing left to do but try and shift." And of course, that didn''t work. So now I knew that I was stuck here with no magic and no wolf. It was just me. And I still needed to find that door that would get me out of here. And to top it all off, it felt like it took me ten minutes to walk three feet. UGH! This was like literal hell right now.


    ''You are getting closer, Trinity. You are getting closer to stopping her. You just need to keep going. You need to keep moving.''


    "OH GREAT!" I threw my hands into the air in frustration. "That followed me too." Stupid fucking voice. It was still with me and as annoying as ever. I was just d that I was getting so good at blocking it out.. If I wasn''t, then this was going to be a torturous walk.

 Chapter 611 - 28- Trinity – Searching (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 611 - 28- Trinity ¨C Searching (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I did my best to get back to the door to the royal tower. I knew that I should have just searched the floor that I was already on, but I thought that I might find something in my room, something that the voice probably didn''t want me to see. That was why it told me to keep going, not to go back to where I had been.


    Then again, I could be putting too much thought into that. That was the problem with this right now. I didn''t know what to believe, what to think, or what to do. There were no definite answers that wereing to me. There were just feelings and instincts.


    In truth, when you strip away the things that make up who we are, all that is left are our instincts. The feelings that we got that told us if something was safe or not. That''s what I needed to rely on right now. I may not be able to shift right now, but that didn''t mean that I was incapable of connecting to my primal self and the base instincts that all of us are born with.


    Finally, after what felt like more than an entire day, or was it two, I made it up to my bedroom. I thought I had heard whispered words around me from time to time. No, it wasn''t that voice talking to me.


    These voices, the ones I heard in my tower, were those of Vincent, Roisin, and several other people. I even heard the children''s voices from time to time. Little Talia''s sweet little voice that was always soft and kind. The slightly older voices of Reagan and Rika as they started to act more like big kids instead of mommy''s little babies.


    At one point, when I was close to my room, I thought I even heard Reece''s and Noah''s voices. Those voices, specifically my husband''s, actually put me at ease. I needed to be closer to him right now. I missed him and I was starting to lose hope.


    Finally, I made it into my room, even though it was only a few feet away from the door that I had been near, it still felt like it was taking me a really long time.


    My room looked the same as I remember it. There were no changes at all to the ce, except for the fact that it was all in various shades of gray. It was still hard for me to process all of that gray. It was weird to see my home, see myself in mirrors and for it all to just be gray. Well, I guess when I do finally get gray hair, I won''t look so bad, well, then again, my face wasn''t its usualplexion either so maybe I would look bad.


    "UGH!" I sighed the words as I got closer to my bed. "I just need to rest and rx." I was about to drop onto the mattress when I heard Reece''s voice again.


    "I''ll be here, waiting for you Trinity, so wake up soon. We have a lot to talk about. And I don''t think you actually want Griffin to run all those tests on you. He will have you in so many medical machines that it isn''t even funny. And I know that you don''t want anyone else to find out what is going on with you. So,e on, don''t do this, don''t stay asleep. It''s time to wake up. You''ve been asleep for a long time already. If you''re still tired you can take another napter, but I think it''s time to wake up now. Please, Trinity, wake up. Please, baby."


    I could tell that he was crying. There was definitely something wrong. Was this really happening? Was this what he was feeling right now? Has someone called him home early? Or had it been that long already?


    "I love you, baby. I love you so much, Trinity. Please don''t leave me here like this. I need you. I can''t live without you. You know that, don''t you?" I focused on the bed a little more and I was actually able to see him there, in full color, lying on the bed and curled up like he was wrapped around something.


    "Reece." I called out to him and fought to get to the bed. I felt like, with the fervent desire to reach him coursing through my body, I was actually moving faster than I had been. That or I was just getting used to this ce and how it felt to move here.


    By the time that I got to the bed, I could tell that Reece was sound asleep as he curled himself around something that I couldn''t see. I didn''t want to think about it being my body or anything like that. That thought was just scary and morbid.


    Iid my head down on his side and wrapped myself around him as best as I could. I was tired now and I needed to get some sleep. I don''t really know how long it took me to get this far in this alternate version of my home, but it had taken all that I had just to reach this point.


    I was just going toy here and sleep with my husband, my Fido. Man, I don''t call him that nearly enough. And just thinking about it made me remember the first time that I called him Fido. The first time had been when we were eating breakfast together for the first time. He kept pissing me off and finally, I just snapped at him. It was pretty funny, if I do say so myself.


    I tried to focus on Reece, his face and his words, when I slept. I thought of good times and bad ones. I thought about the different things that have shaped our rtionship and helped us to be who we are today.


    "Dammit." I said the words to myself as I snuggled against him. No matter what I was feeling, I should have talked to him about it. I''m such a horrible person. I''m a horrible mate and wife. Dammit! I should never have done this to him. "I''m sorry, Reece. I am sorry that I am not there with you and the kids. I am sorry that I thought I was good enough to handle this all alone. I''m so sorry."


    I wanted to sob, I wanted to cry and let all of these emotions out of me, but I couldn''t. Actually, it was more like I wouldn''t. I wouldn''t let this get the best of me. I was going to fight this and get through this. I was going to prove that I was strong enough, even without magic. I would do whatever it took, right after I snuggled and slept like a baby with my mate.


    Hey, I was still an emotional person sometimes, I needed him to sooth me.. I was allowed this tiny bit of weakness, right? I was allowed to be vulnerable where my husband and mate were involved, wasn''t I? Well, no matter what someone else says, I thought that I was.

 Chapter 612 - 29- Reece – Telling The Others (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 612 - 29- Reece ¨C Telling The Others (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    When I woke up, I thought that I felt my Little Bunny''s presence, not just her body but her. When I had fallen asleep, holding her against my chest, it literally felt like I had just been holding her shell, it didn''t feel like she was there with me at all. However, when I woke up, I thought she might finally be awake. I thought for sure that she was there with me, but I was wrong.


    When I opened my eyes and finally looked at her, it was clear to see that she was still asleep. She wasn''t back with me at all, and that broke me.


    "Where are you, Little Bunny?" I don''t know why I asked that question. I was looking right at her. She was just asleep. That was all. She was making up for all that time that she wasn''t sleeping and was exhausting herself. She would wake up soon.


    I started to slip out of the bed and leave her there, but there was one more thing that I wanted to do. There was something that I would have done dozens of times by now had I known sooner.


    I knelt next to the bed, pulled the nket back from my little bunny, lifted the bottom of her shirt, and pressed my lips against her belly. I saw that it was already slightly rounded. She was already starting to show and it had gonepletely unnoticed.


    Why hadn''t I been able to tell that she was pregnant? Why had I not smelled my children growing inside of her. I mean, she is carrying triplets, for crying out loud, I should have been able to figure this out a long time ago.


    "I''m sorry that Daddy didn''t notice you sooner." I whispered the words at her belly and the babies that were inside of her. "But I promise you this, babies, Daddy will never let that happen again. You are my babies, and I will protect you. I will watch over you and your mommy forever." I kissed my Little Bunny''s belly again and hugged her tenderly before I rose to my feet and went to take a shower.


    I had only taken a nap for a few hours. It was still early in the afternoon right now and the kids weren''t even home from school yet. I needed to figure a few things out though. I needed to make sure that we handled this situation as best as I could since I was the one that was going to be in charge while my Little Bunny was asleep.


    Following my shower, I wanted to eat something, though I didn''t want to leave my wife either. So, for that matter, I sent a message to Abigail to please make some lunch and have Roisin bring it up to me. Sometimes, I really enjoyed this mind link ability that was given to us by my Little Bunny. She had changed so many things for us, given us so many new powers.


    About a half an hourter, Roisin came into the room carrying a tray of food. She didn''t say anything, she just went straight to the table that was near the window and set the food down. Had I not stopped her, she would have left without saying anything other than the quietly uttered ''Here you are, Sir''.


    "Roisin?" I called her name as she started to walk toward the door.


    "Yes, Sir?" She looked at me with fear and worry in her eyes. Did she really think that I was going to me her for all of this? Judging by the look in her eyes, I could tell that she truly did think that.


    "Thank you for always being there for Trinity. I hope you can help me with everything around here until she finally decides to wake up."


    "Sir?" She looked shocked. "B..but I.. but I failed her, Sir." She lowered her head in shame.


    "No, you didn''t. You didn''t fail her anymore than I did. Trinity was hiding the truth from all of us. She wasn''t telling us what was going on with her, and because of that, we''ve been left with no answers to the multitude of questions that we have. Please, don''t me yourself, Roisin." I did my best to soothe her, even as the words made me want to balk and me myself. Apparently, Roisin could see that in my eyes though, since she smiled and spoke firmly at me.


    "I will stop ming myself if you can stop ming yourself, Sir. Perhaps we should work on that together. I will remind you when I see you losing hope, and you can do the same for me."


    "That sounds like a good n to me, Roisin." I nodded my agreement at that. "We will help each other until Trinity finally wakes up."


    After that, I decided to eat my lunch. I hadn''t eaten at all since Vincent had called me in the middle of the night, so I was ravenously hungry. Still, I had a lot of stuff that I needed to do. I needed to talk with the other guards so that they knew what was going on. I needed to figure out what to tell the children. And I needed to figure out what to tell the people that filled our kingdom. What would they think when they knew that their queen was sick?


    I started by asking that all of the guards, Vincent, Shane, Shawn, Dietrich, and David, as well as Gabriele to meet me in my room. Most of them normally didn''te up to the room since it was off limits to almost everyone. Vincent had been up here as had Shawn, but everyone else usually waited downstairs for my Little Bunny to be ready.


    Almost at the same time that I had finished my lunch, they all came into the room. I had summoned Roisin again so that she could clear away the dishes and she left just as the men were filing into the room. I saw her look at Gabriel and almost immediately look away from him. She had probably kept Trinity''s condition from him so she was embarrassed to look at him right now.


    "What''s going on, King Reece?" Gabriel asked me with fear evident in his voice.


    "I was going to ask the same thing. What is going on here?" Shane, who was normally always joking around, was acting serious for once.


    "What happened to Trinity?" David was the next to speak. Oddly enough, Shawn and Dietrich didn''t say anything, the two of them just looked at me then at Trinity and back again. Vincent, who knew what was going on, also remained silent.


    "As you all either know or suspected, there is something wrong with Trinity. Vincent found her yesterday, unconscious."


    "Yeah, we know that. We thought that she might just be sleeping off that exhaustion that she had been feeling." David''s posture was straight and his body was calm, but his face showed just how worried he was.


    "What exhaustion?" Shawn looked confused. He and Dietrich had been away for thest several weeks on a diplomatic mission. Since Dietrich was their king and both of them were vampires (or half of one, in Shawn''s case) they had been the best candidate to speak with some of the ns in Europe, South America and Asia that had been causing issuestely. It wasn''t something that was handled by me and Trinity, but we did offer our support for Dietrich if he needed it.


    "She''s had a rough time of thingstely. She had been running herself so ragged that even her pregnancy went unnoticed. The only thing all of us were able to smell on her was the stench of exhaustion." I looked at my wife as I spoke, feeling the heartache settle a little deeper.


    "Pregnancy?" Dietrich asked with his head tilted to the side. "I cannot see that she is pregnant at all. Honestly, I can''t even see Trinity''s spark of life at all."


    "That''s exactly what I was thinking, my love. I cannot sense Trinity at all, and I most definitely cannot sense a baby." Shawn''s words only made Dietrich''s that much harder for me to process.


    "Well, I know that Trinity is pregnant, Griffin just did an ultrasound early this morning. She is pregnant with triplets and they are doing just fine for now. Medically, Griffin says there is nothing wrong with Trinity, she just appears to be asleep. However, we can''t seem to get her to wake up."


    At that, Dietrich and Gabriel walked closer to my Little Bunny. They were the two older among us and might know something that I didn''t. I didn''t stop them when they walked over to her bedside, reached out to touch her, or even when they examined her face. I knew that they were both just trying to help her.


    "I don''t sense her essence, which is perplexing, but she appears to be fine, and the life is still inside of her." Dietrich was speaking as if he were talking more to himself than to me.


    "I can hear her heart beating, and even that of the babies inside of her. How far along is she?" Gabriel asked me without turning around.


    "Nearly a third of the way through." Vincent was the one to answer for me.


    "How did none of us notice this?" Gabriel shook his head. "All seems to be right with her, except, I don''t sense her soul inside of her."


    ''That is precisely it." Dietrich looked at Gabriel then, his eyes opened wide. "That was the wording I was having troubleing up with. It''s like Trinity is gone from this body. Perhaps that is why Shawn and I couldn''t sense her, or the babies. They are not here, their souls are gone. But where are they?"


    "I think that is the big question on all of our minds." I told him.. "I think that is what we all would like to figure out right about now."

 Chapter 613 - 30- Trinity – Listening In (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 613 - 30- Trinity ¨C Listening In (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    When I woke up from my nap, I didn''t see Reece anymore. I didn''t feel his presence around me anymore either. I didn''t know where he had gone, but I was starting to miss him already. However, after a moment or two, I heard a voice speaking from somewhere in the room.


    "Yeah, we know that. We thought that she might just be sleeping off that exhaustion that she had been feeling." It was David. My sweet, innocent David that had been with me ever since the beginning of my time with Reece. Yeah, I had heard stories from Rawlynne about David and how he wasn''t as innocent as I thought him to be, but I refused to let those stories mix with the image I had of him in my mind. He was still the same sweet, innocent David who had joined the others in the group costume to make that Halloween party for the kids extra special. Ever since that time, we''ve held a Halloween party here at the house. Well, now it''s a castle, but it was at the estate then the castle. Over the years, I never forgot what it was that I had done for the children in the beginning. And I never would. I wanted to make sure that I gave all the people in my pack, as well as my kingdom, as good of a life as possible.


    Still, I shouldn''t be going off on tangents. I needed to know why David was in my room. And who was he talking to? Well, I didn''t have to wait long for that question to be answered.


    "What exhaustion?" Shawn seemed to be here as well. OK, so were all of my guards here?


    "She''s had a rough time of thingstely. She had been running herself so ragged that even her pregnancy went unnoticed. The only thing all of us were able to smell on her was the stench of exhaustion." I could hear how scared Reece was when he spoke to the others about what was going on. I wanted to get to him, to be at his side and to let him know that I was here with him, so he didn''t need to be so worried.


    That was when all of the sound started to fade from the room. The moment that I started to move, to force myself through the thickness of the air that was around me. I guess it took so much effort and concentration that I couldn''t see the men that were around me and I couldn''t hear anything that they were saying.


    I thought that was strange, but there was nothing that I could do about it. I just needed to move. I just needed to get to Reece''s side. That was all that mattered to me right now. I just needed to move in the direction that I had heard his voiceing from earlier. I just needed to move toward the window and the table that was sitting near it. That was where I had heard my Fido''s voiceing from.


    UGH! It felt like I was moving so slowly again. Like every foot that I moved forward took me several minutes to traverse. This ce that I was in could only be described as hell.


    ''Close, Trinity, this isn''t exactly hell but a lot of humans call it that. This is the underworld.'' There was that voice again, that one that had tried to draw me toward it until I saw the imps.


    "Why am I in the underworld?" I almost paused in my never ending walk just to cross the room. I didn''t though. I just kept myself moving as best as I could.


    ''You are here because you need to find Hekate. You need to find her and stop her from escaping the underworld. She is stirring and her power is growing.'' The voice seemed different than it had before. It was no longer just repeating things like it used to, but now it was also giving me information that I needed. Not to mention, it didn''t sound quite so melodramatic as it did before.


    "And who are you?" I asked the voice, wondering who the mysterious woman that had been speaking to me all along was.


    ''Have you not heard of the fates? It is our job to warn you of dangers and to guide you along the way.''


    "That doesn''t sound like the legends of the fates that I know about." Something just didn''t seem right about what the voice was telling me. The fates didn''t interfere directly with the lives of those that they watched over. So why would they choose to warn me about this issue? Something just didn''t seem to add up.


    ''Follow our advice, child, and we will help you.''


    "I think I will find my own path." After that, I continued to just move forward and ignore the voice again.


    Once I decided to move beyond the voice, and the lies that it was telling me, I heard something else. I heard Reece''s voice once again, along with some younger and sweeter voices.


    "Daddy, why isn''t Mommy awake?" Talia sounded sad.


    "What happened, Daddy?" Rika''s voice was steady, but I could hear that it was all an act.


    "Daddy, what can I do to help?" Reagan, my little man, was always there to try and help me.


    "Mommy is sick right now and I don''t know when she will wake up. She is resting though, and that is what matters. For now, I need all of you to be strong and to keep being positive. That is what mommy needs for right now."


    Reece sounded like he was having a hard time remaining strong as he faced our children alone. It was breaking my heart seeing him like that. I didn''t want to hear his voice as it was filled with so much sorrow and heartache.


    "I want my mommy." Talia began to cry just a little. "I don''t want mommy to be sick. I want her here with me.


    "I''m right here." I called out to all of them. "Mommy is right here, baby girl." I started to try and move closer to them again. I needed to hug them, to hold them in my arms. I needed to let them know that I was on my way back and that I was never going to leave them again. "Mommy is here, baby. Mommy hasn''t left you, Tally. Please, baby girl, please don''t cry."


    The more that I called out to them, the fainter their voices became until eventually, they were gone, and I was left alone in this ce once again.


    "NO! Don''t leave me." I called after their voices when I couldn''t hear them anymore. "Please! Don''t leave me here by myself. Reece! Reagan! Rika! Talia! Please,e back! Don''t leave me." It was no use. None of them could hear me. None of them could see me. They didn''t know that I was so close to them because I wasn''t actually there with them. "I might as well be a ghost." I sighed the words as I fell slowly to my knees. "No, not even that. A ghost walks in the same world as them. I am not there with them anymore. Maybe I am in the underworld.. Maybe I am dead, and maybe I can never get back home ever again."

 Chapter 614 - 31- Trinity – Another Door Part 1 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 614 - 31- Trinity ¨C Another Door Part 1 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    For a moment, I thought about just sitting there and wallowing in self pity. If I was never going to get out of here. If I was never going to get home and see my family, then what was the point of getting up? What was the point of working so hard for something that I would never get to see ever again? That''s right, there was no point.


    However, I didn''t have it in me to be a quitter. Never, in all my years, had I just given up on something when it was too difficult. When I wanted to go to school, I made that happen even if my grandfather was against it. When I wanted to keep learning how to fight, I made that happen by sneaking away to a gym and learning in secret. I never let things being too difficult stop me from doing what I needed to do, and this time wasn''t going to be any different.


    After my few moments of weakness were done, I decided that I was not going to sit here and cry anymore. I was going to wipe away the tears, pick myself up off of the ground, and push my way through this barrier that has been trying to stop me ever since I got here.


    The moment that I thought about that, the moment that I let the fear and worry go, I was able to move so much easier. It may not have been as easy as I would have moved in the real world, but it wasn''t as slow going as it had been before.


    I was on my feet and forcing myself to move toward the door of my room. I couldn''t use magic right now, so I needed to rely on my own body and my own prowess. This world was not going to get the best of me. I was going to keep pushing, harder and harder, until I was able to get to where I was going.


    Finally, I made it to my door and the stairs beyond it. I was moving faster, or what I felt was faster than I had been moving. I almost felt like I was running down the stairs toward the other doors that were on the next floor.


    I started to search then. I searched the rooms of all three of my children, Reagan, Rika, and Talia. I moved on to the empty rooms that were still on that floor. Another nine rooms in all. Seriously, I never understood why Athair m¨°r had insisted on there being a dozen rooms for children. Did he really think that I was going to have that many children in all?


    None of the rooms on this floor had a way out for me. There was nothing that would help me to escape this prison that I was in. I continued to search every room that I came to. I was not going to give up and I would search everywhere to find the way out.


    Down the tower I went. Into every room, every space that was big enough for me to fit, I went there. I searched and searched as much as I could. But there was nothing. Nowhere in the entire tower had a way out of here.


    That''s fine. I wasn''t going to give up. Not now, not ever.


    I went to the other two towers. The ones meant for my nobles. I didn''t like the idea of searching these ces, but I had no choice. I needed to find my way out of here. I searched every floor in both towers. Every residence on those floors were searched when the doors opened with the slightest touch. I saw how each ce was decorated to the style of those that inhabited the ces. Trevor''s ce was much more masculine and wild looking, but there was some softness thrown in there from when Aunt Glory had visited. There was even an adorable little nursery for Torben. But there was no door.


    None of the noble residences had a door to get me out of here. There was no door, nor a special portal, nothing. They were just regr ces for people to live, except that they were in ck and white.


    I searched the offices after that. That was the next ce that I thought I might be able to find a way out of here. I had heard the voice in my office. And I also spent a lot of time in my office, so it only made sense for me to find an exit in my office.


    Well, I was wrong. I didn''t find an exit in there either. I did, however, find a pitiful sight there. I found all the work that I had been intending to give to everyone else. All the files and paperwork that I was supposed to pass along to the team that I hired. It was all in my office with my writing all over them. Meanwhile, the offices of the people that I had hired to help me were nearly empty. They didn''t have much to do. I hadn''t been able to bring myself to trust people because of that stupid voice. That voice that I knew was just trying to trick me. It had tricked me too. It tricked me into not trusting my own people.


    There was one other thing that I found in those offices as well. I found that a lot of my team had written messages back and forth to each other. In them were written things about me.


    -She''s doing too much by herself. She needs to rest.


    -I''m worried about the Queen. Is she going to be OK?


    -Does she not trust us? Did we disappoint her?


    -I think she is getting sick. Have you seen how tired she lookstely? I hope nothing is wrong with her.


    I really had disappointed my people. I had turned their hard work and dedication to me into something for them to despair over. I really was a horrible queen.


    "I will do better. I promise you all. I will get better. I will be back. And I will share the work with you. I won''t listen to that voice. Not now, not ever again."


    ''You might not want to make that deration. You need me to show you the way. You need me more than I need you, Trinity.''


    The voice came back almost the second that those words were out of my mouth. And I could tell that the voice was not happy with my deration. Whoever the woman on the other end of this connection was, she was not happy with me right now.


    ''If you want to see theplete and utter destruction of everything that you love and cherish, then by all means, ignore me. I will relish in your suffering when you lose it all.'' Yeah, that was definitely not the voice of someone trying to help me.


    "I don''t need you." I growled the words into the silence around me. "I told you I would find my own path. I don''t need you leading me astray." The voice didn''t respond, and that made me feel quite relieved. I didn''t want to hear what it had to say anymore.

 Chapter 615 - 32- Trinity – Another Door Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 615 - 32- Trinity ¨C Another Door Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I forced myself to ignore everything that the voice had ever said to me while I walked away from the office. I pushed all thoughts of that voice away as I continued on my path. I was nowhere near done searching this castle for my exit. And if I didn''t find my exit inside, then I would leave here and search the grounds, then the city, the state, the entire country. I wouldn''t rest until I got home to my family. I wouldn''t rest until I could let them all know that I was never going to leave them.


    I didn''t let my constant failure discourage me. Each room that I searched that didn''t have the way back home was just one more step closer to finding that door. I was not going to look at it as another missed opportunity but rather another stone on the path to my sess.


    I moved on throughout the entire castle. I searched the throne room, the various ballrooms, the dining rooms, kitchens, sitting rooms, meeting rooms, storage rooms, everywhere. And still I found nothing at all. I moved onto the daycare tower and found nothing in there either.


    "I will find something, sooner orter. I just know that I will." I spoke with conviction, determination, and just a little bit of frustration. "I won''t give up."


    I started to search the two underground garages and the veryrge wine cer that was under the castle. I was getting hopeful now, since I was running out of ces to check in the castle. I was getting to the point that I just knew I had to find something.


    The garages were empty, aside from the ck and white cars that did me no good right now. And I mean that literally. I wasn''t able to take the keeps from the hooks and I wasn''t able to open the doors to get inside of them. So, I couldn''t use the cars to travel the outside world easier. Not even Reece''s dune buggy could be used, and that didn''t need a door opened to get inside of it. Still, I wasn''t able to climb into the driver''s seat.


    The wine cer offered me even less options, if that was possible. The room was naturally dark, but there were no subterranean windows that gave light to this room. It was pure dark and, therefore, impossible for me to see in. That was pissing me off too. I was supposed to have some night vision but that didn''t seem to be working here at all either.


    "There is absolutely nowhere inside this castle that will get me home." I sighed, just a little bit of dejection entering my voice before I pulled myself together. "Alright, that just means that I need to search outside."


    I marched out of the wine cer and back toward the main floor of the castle. It was taking me a lot less time than it used to, either the atmosphere here was thinning or my body was just used to it more. Either that, or I just wasn''t letting it have power over me anymore. Either way, I was happy to be moving mostly freely.


    When I went outside, I saw that it was bright and sunny out, just like it had been the day that I had ended up here. I even found myself needing to shield my eyes from the sun, even though it was in ck and white like everything else, it was still bright and blinding. I think that was actually making me feel a little bit better. Now, if only the air tasted sweet and helped to calm me down some more. That would make everything seem almost perfect at the moment. That and some color to my surroundings.


    I was just about to start walking down the driveway when something caught my eye. I saw someone, or something, starting to move around on the side of the castle. In truth, I don''t even know how I saw such a slight movement, but it did. And now that I saw it, I wasn''t about to let it get away from me.


    I took off running then. I just spun to my right and ran as hard and as fast as I could toward the side of the castle that was closest to me. I saw, just for a moment, another sh of movement that seemed to be moving away from me.


    I saw that movement and I was quick enough to pick up on where it was going. It seemed to me that it was heading to the mountain. Was it trying to climb up the slope to get away from me? Did this person, or this thing, whatever it was, think that I wouldn''t chase it up the mountain all the way to the top? It was dead wrong if that was what it thought about me.


    "There." I said as I changed direction to keep following the thing in front of me. "Over there, under the branches of the trees." The thing that was running was moving fast and was shorter than me but quite a bit. If I had to guess, I would say it was as tall as a child just a little older than Talia. "A child?" I wondered aloud as I thought about the thing that I was chasing. "Am I following them again? Is that what this is?"


    I nearly stopped right then and there, not certain if I should actually follow those imps right now. Then again, those imps had saved me from the voice. They had stopped me from following it toward the ce that it was trying to take me. They may have gotten me stuck here, but they had actually helped me, in their odd little way.


    "I wonder what they want from me now?" I couldn''t help but be curious as I thought about that.


    The moment that I started to contemte it more, the path that we were on opened up into a bigger one. That was when I saw that I was indeed following the imps. All three of them were here again. They were standing in front of another door.


    This time, when I looked at the imps'' faces, I saw that they were indeed more childlike than devilish. They looked like three identical, innocent little boys. And all three of them looked like my Fido.


    "OK, I am projecting here. These adorable little imps are looking like Reece because I miss him." Iughed at myself and my absurdity.


    While I had been slightly distracted, two of the imps approached me with sweet little grins. Right now, that little face reminded me of Reagan and Rika. They looked so innocent yet so filled with mischief, just like my children.


    The two imps that approached me took my hands while looking happily into my eyes. The third imp was still near the door, pointing at it with excited gestures while smiling at me just like the other two boys.


    NO! I had to stop imagining that they were children. They weren''t little kids! They''re imps. They''re little creatures that will y tricks on me and cause problems whenever they can. Though, they are helping me right now. Still, that''s not the point.


    The little imp that was still by the door mimed opening it and smiled at me. I don''t know why, but all three of these imps werepletely silent. They didn''t make any noise at all while they were walking or anything else.


    "You want me to go through this door?" I asked the boy in front of me. IMP! I had to remind myself internally not to think it was a child for real. The imp didn''t say anything, he just nodded his head and continued to point at the door. "Will it take me home?" I asked them and didn''t like the answer that I got from them. They paused and hesitated, but eventually they did nod at me and indicate that it would. Why did they pause? Why did they act like they didn''t know for sure? "Fine." I sighed, resigned to the fact that this was my only option.


    After taking a deep breath, I opened the door, steeled my nerves, and stepped through to the other side. I mean, what was the worst that could happen?

 Chapter 616 - 33- Reece – Taking It Hard (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 616 - 33- Reece ¨C Taking It Hard (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    The kids were taking things harder than I had thought they would. The three of them love their mom so much and, with her gone like this, they felt like they had been abandoned. Honestly, I didn''t expect the level of anger that Reagan and Rika were having right now.


    The more that I listened to them, the way that they were venting over it, they weren''t ming Trinity. They didn''t ce the me on her at all. They weren''t ming me, the triplets, Talia, the guards, or anyone else close to my Little Bunny.


    No, Reagan and Rika were ming themselves for what was going on. I heard them talking among themselves before dinner the day they found out what was going on and it damn near destroyed me.


    "I can''t believe that I let this happen." Reagan sounded like he was on the verge of tears when he spoke to Rika. I had gone to call them for dinner since we were keeping staff in the tower at a minimum right now.


    "It wasn''t just you, Rea. I didn''t notice that Momma was sick either. I didn''t pick up on the fact that she needed us. I was too caught up in my own thing. I was too focused on getting back to school." Rika was just as close to tears as Reagan was.


    "What should we do now, Rika? How are we going to help Momma? What are we even capable of doing?"


    "I don''t know, Reagan. I just don''t know." Rika was crying now. I could hear it in her voice, and I could smell the tears in the air.


    "Don''t cry, RiRi. Don''t cry." Reagan cried while he said this to his sister. "We will figure something out."


    I couldn''t take it anymore. I needed to step in and make them understand that it wasn''t their fault. It wasn''t anyone''s fault.


    I stepped into the sitting room that they were in. I saw that Reagan was standing behind Rika as she sat on the footstool. Rika''s face was in her hands and Reagan was hugging her head against his chest. Seeing them there like that, so small and powerless, it made me feel like I couldn''t do anything for them or my wife.


    "Reagan? Rika?" I called out to them and they barely moved, they just looked up at me with their eyes.


    "Dad?" Reagan tried not to cry, he tried to be a ''man'' in front of me.


    "Daddy?" Rika didn''t care about remaining strong for me, she was my little girl and she knew it.


    "Come here." I moved toward them quickly, holding my arms out for them. Despite everything, despite Reagan wanting to be strong and not show him emotions, the both of them moved toward me and allowed me to hold them in my arms.


    They didn''t say anything at all while I held them against me. They just hugged me back. Rika was silently crying on my right shoulder where she had buried her face. Reagan, though, was not letting it out, he was holding it in.


    "You don''t have to be strong right now, son. You can cry, it''s OK."


    "But Dad, I..I can''t. I can''t be a man if I cry." That broke my heart. I had never once told him that and I don''t know where he learned it, but I was going to fix that right now.


    "Reagan, am I a man? Am I strong and brave? Can I take care of my family?"


    "Y..yes, Dad." That was such a weak voice that I barely heard it.


    "Good, I am d that you think so, because I cry too, son. I cry when I have to. I cried when I found out that Mommy was sick. I cried the first time that I held you in my arms. I have cried a lot of times over the years. Crying doesn''t make you less of a man. Being brave doesn''t make you a man either, son. No, in my opinion, to be a man you need to stand up for what you love, protect your family, and always try your best. If you can do that for me, Reagan, you will be the best man possible."


    "Thank you, Dad." He tried to hold the tears back long enough to say that but he finally cried. He was already burying his face in my shoulder and crying along with his sister. "I miss her, Daddy. I miss my mom and I want her back."


    "Me too, Daddy, I want Mommy to wake up." Rika sobbed in agreement with her brother.


    "I want her to wake up too. But we just need to keep loving her and to keep being there for her, and I just know that she will wake up soon. Can you two do that for me?"


    "Uh huh."


    "Yes, Dad." They pulled back at the same time and looked me in the eyes as they answered. They were still so much alike for it to be adorable.


    I carried them down to the dining room and we ate dinner together with Talia. So far, we hadn''t even told mom, Eve, Wesley, or Samuel about all of this. They still had their ces here in the castle, but Eve and Wesley were living in Trinity Falls since Wesley was the Mayor. And Mom was living in Samuel''s family home ever since they got married a couple of years ago. That meant, unless we invited more people to the table, it was just our family now.


    I saw that Reagan and Rika''s eyes were red from crying so much, but so were Talia''s. I hadn''t seen Talia crying but she must have been at some point when she was alone. I hate that my baby girl was crying while I wasn''t there tofort her.


    I spent the entire night with the kids. I didn''t want them to feel lonely or abandoned at all. I yed a game with them, watched a movie, read to them, and tucked them all into bed. Afterwards, I needed to vent some of my frustration.


    I decided to shift almost as soon as the kids were in bed. I hadn''t even gone outside yet, which meant that I ended up walking through the castle in my pure ck wolf form until I got outside.


    Once I was free of the confining building, I ran. I just ran as hard and as fast as I could. Around the castle, through the forest, up the mountain. I didn''t realize at first that I was trying to find a trace of my Little Bunny as I ran. It didn''t hit me for a little while until the depression started to hit me. I was really trying to see if her soul was out here. I must be an idiot.


    After I exhausted myself, or rather my frustration, I went back inside. I needed to sleep. I had to rest so that I could be there for the kids and for my wife. No one knew when she was going to wake up. It could be now, ten minutes from now, ten days from now, or it could even be ten years from now. No one knew anything at all about what was going on.


    I knew that there was someone else in the room the moment that I walked into it. I recognized the presence of another person, and I immediately went into the closet to get dressed. No need to frighten her.


    After I was dressed, I walked over to my bed and climbed in beside the person that hade to visit us. Talia wasying against Trinity''s side and hugging her tightly. I did my best not to wake her as I pulled the nket up over her and tucked her in. I kissed her forehead and thenid down beside her so that she had the warmth andfort from me as well as the feeling of her mother.


    That was how I slept for the rest of the night, and I woke up to Talia holding onto me instead of Trinity. Talia was still sound asleep, and I could tell that she had been crying through the night. At least I had been here to hold onto her this time. She wasn''t alone.


    "Mommy?" I heard her little voice while he slept on. "Come back, Mommy."

 Chapter 617 - 34- Trinity – Through The Other Door (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 617 - 34- Trinity ¨C Through The Other Door (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I stepped through the door and felt like I was being sucked into some sort of whirlpool, vortex or something simr to that. The moment that my foot went across the threshold of that door that was just standing there in the mountains, it pulled me over like something had grabbed me and dragged me down.


    The three little imps that looked like miniature versions of Reece seemed to be pulled along with me as I went through the door, but when Inded, I didn''t see them anywhere. Actually, I didn''t see anything at all. I seemed to have ended up in a pitch ck,pletely dark room of some sort. I didn''t know what to do or what to think when Inded there.


    "Hello?!" I yelled out to the darkness that surrounded me. "Is anyone there?" There was no response at all. "HELLO?!"


    I had yelled out even louder, to the point where my throat hurt a little, still there was no response. "What the hell." I growled in frustration. "Well, I knew this was a possibility. OK, maybe not this exact thing but I knew that me not going home was a possibility. I mean, the little imps didn''t look very certain about this door, but it did move me to a different location. So, maybe this was some sort of progress for me.


    "Hahh." I sighed loudly as I tried to get my bearings in order. I wanted to get a sense of my location, but my eyes weren''t adjusted to my surroundings just yet. "Dammit." I snapped but then immediately calmed down. "Well, there is nothing that I can do about it right now. I guess I need to just try to move around and see if I can figure something out."


    I decided to turn around and see if there was anything behind me that was of any importance. I moved slowly as I tried not to trip over my own feet. It was so dark I couldn''t even see my own hands directly in front of my face so I didn''t need to trip and risknding on something that could hurt me.


    I took two timid and tentative steps forward with my arms out in front of me. The steps were small, barely a few inches each, but I still ran into a solid surface almost immediately. It felt like a wall. A wall with no door.


    I tried to feel around the wall. I went to my left, counting my steps as I went.


    "One¡­ two¡­ three¡­ four¡­ five¡­ six¡­ seven¡­ eight¡­ nine¡­ ten¡­ elev-." I stopped because I reached the edge before I could take my step. "Well that is the end of that side."


    I started back the other way. Slowly counting and measuring my steps to make sure they were equal to the ones I took to get to this side.


    "One¡­ two¡­ three¡­ four¡­ five¡­ six¡­ seven¡­ eight¡­ nine¡­ ten. OK, I should be back to the center. Now to move to the other side." I steadied myself, took a breath and then started moving again. "One¡­ two¡­ three¡­ four¡­ five¡­ six¡­ seven¡­ eight¡­ nine¡­ ten." I reached a little more with my hands and I was at the edge again. "OK, well at least the ce is symmetrical." Iughed as I said it, finding that funny for some reason that I didn''t even understand. "OK, time to get back to the middle and venture away from this wall." I started to move once again, back toward the middle of the space that I was in. "One¡­ two¡­ three¡­ four¡­ five¡­ six¡­ seven¡­ eight¡­ nine¡­ ten." There, now I was back in the middle of the room.


    "I wonder how far this room goes." I spoke to the dark room as I took my first step. "Also, I wonder if I should be walking along the walls, just in case there is another door there. Oh well, toote now." I had already started to walk forward into the darkness before me.


    I literally felt like I was blind while I walked. I couldn''t see anything at all. Because of that, I wasn''t taking veryrge steps. And the steps that I did take, I basically dragged my feet along the floor as I went. I didn''t want to risk stepping onto or into something that would hurt me or cause me to fall. No, I needed to be safe right now. I had to take this slow.


    "I wonder what the kids are doing now. How are they taking this? What do they think about Mommy not waking up?" I may have asked the question aloud just to help kill the time until I found somewhere to go, but I honestly didn''t want to think about that at all. I didn''t want to have to know what they were thinking and feeling. I knew that they were sad, hurting, heartbroken, all of it. They would feel like Mommy didn''t want them anymore. They would think that they had done something wrong or that I just didn''t love them anymore. I couldn''t handle that thought. I didn''t want my babies to feel like I didn''t love them.


    While I thought about that, making sure that I kept moving forward all the time, I could finally see some sort of light in the distance.


    "Finally!" I sighed happily in relief. "How long have I been walking anyway?" It felt like it had been hours since I left the wall. I had been taking slow, dragging steps, but I knew that I had to have gone at least a mile already. "Huh, I just realized something." I said to myself. "There is no more resistance when I walk. That had almostpletely slipped my mind until now." Iughed at how inattentive that I had been. "How stupid I have been to not even notice that."


    Iughed at myself as I focused on the light that was off in the distance. That light was just a pinprick and it seemed so far off in the distance still. If I''ve already gone a mile or more and I can only just barely see that light, then I can only assume that the light was still several miles off in the distance.


    "This is going to take forever." I was starting to lose my will to move on.


    ''You are losing heart because you know that you are nothing. You are worthless. You have done nothing but cause trouble and get people killed. You hurt everyone that ever gets close to you. You are a gue, Trinity. A curse of death and heartache on those around you.''


    I would love to say that those words were spoken by the same voice that had been bothering me all along, but it wasn''t. This voice that spoke now, seemed to be my own. But I didn''t say that. I didn''t think that. Those weren''t my feelings at all.


    I was starting to panic now. What was going on here? Why would those wordse in my own voice? I didn''t feel that way.


    ''Or do you?'' The voice spoke again, it was sounding ominous and full of confidence right now. ''You obviously do not know what it is that you truly feel, Trinity.. You don''t know the secrets of your heart.''

 Chapter 618 - 35- Trinity – Follow The Light (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 618 - 35- Trinity ¨C Follow The Light (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    OK, well I couldn''t very well say that the voice wasn''t freaking me out. For one, how was it talking in my voice now instead of someone else''s? Two, why was it telling me that these horrible things were what was truly in my heart? And finally, why couldn''t I ignore it like the other voice that I had been hearing?


    ''You cannot ignore me Trinity, I am you. I am the thoughts and feelings that you have buried deep inside of you. I am the truth of your heart that you don''t let the world see. I can be hidden from others, but I cannot be hidden from you. I am you, Trinity. I am the dark part of you that you don''t wish to face.''


    "Leave me alone." I snapped at the voice. "I don''t want to hear you. I don''t want to think about you."


    ''You have no choice, Trinity. I am the you that has been hidden in the dark. I am the you that will never leave you. I am the you that even you are afraid of.''


    "NO!" I yelled and put my hands over my ears as if that would drown out the sound of the voice. "You''re lying. That is not true. You''re not me. You can''t be. I am me. I am me."


    ''You cannot block out the sound of my voice, Trinity. I am inside of you. I am in your head. I am in your heart. I am in your soul. I cannot be gotten rid of. I am the darkness that lives inside of you.''


    "NO!" I yelled again, as I started to run across the dark space in front of me. If this voice was the darkness, then getting to the light would help me.


    ''Yes, Trinity. It is all true. I am a part of you and I will neve go away. So, you might as well embrace me. I would very much like toe out and y. It is so lonely living in the darkness. I don''t much enjoy a life of shadows.''


    "This isn''t real. This isn''t real. It can''t be real. This isn''t me. I swear this isn''t me." I was frantic now, running away from the phantom voice inside of my head. It sounded like me but it didn''t say what I would have said.


    Just thinking about that, about what all of this might mean, I wanted to run away. I needed to run away. I would get out of this darkness and into the light that was in front of me. I wasn''t going to move so slowly now. I wasn''t going to slide my feet along the ground and be as careful as I could be. There was no more time for that.


    If I took too much more time to get across the room, thergest fucking room that I had ever encountered in my entire life, if it took me too much longer to get into the light then I would lose my mind. I just knew it.


    I had already felt on the verge of losing my sanity ever since that other voice took up residence inside of my mind. Now I was dealing with another voice that I couldn''t block out and that sounded like me. Right now, I just didn''t know what were actually my own thoughts and what was spoken by that voice that imed to be me.


    ''This is all quite real, Trinity. I am not going anywhere. I am you and you are me. I am in the dark, and you can''t return to the light. We are going to be the same soon. Just give it time.''


    "Stop talking. Just shut up. Leave me alone. I am going to get back to the light. I am going to get out of here. I am going to make it home. I am not you. You are not me. I would never think about those things." I was running full out now, racing toward that light that was slowly getting bigger in the distance.


    ''I would not be so sure of that, Trinity. You think some things that are truly vile sometimes, you just don''t tell those around you. You are a murderer. A killer. A monster that has caused the death of countless people. You have used your own hands to cause death and destruction. You have caused heartache and pain. You have done so much more than the average person and you will do even more over the course of your unnaturally long life. I cannot wait to see the bem and mayhem that wille from you. I cannot wait to see what torture and pain you bring to others. Let me see it, Trinity. Let me be a part of it. Let me watch the blood run and the masses run in panic. Let me hear the frantic cries of fear and pain from the many people that you are going to destroy in your future. Let me bask in the glory of that wonderful destruction.''


    "Whoever you are, you''re sick. Do you hear me?" I paused and started yelling at the darkness around me. "You''re a sick, twisted, disgusting person and I know that you are not me, you can''t be."


    "Heh heh heh. I love how certain you are of that fact. It makes it all the more special for me. That way, when your image of yourself crumbles to nothingness, that will just be another form of pleasure for me. Go on, Trinity, keep fighting it, don''t ept me for what I am. I will enjoy your inevitable fall that much more now.''


    The voice disappeared then as itughed into the background. Only, it didn''t disappearpletely. It was still there, in the back of my mind,ughing at me with its evil, ominous tones.


    "Go away!" I snapped at it again as I started to run again. I was running harder and faster than I ever remember running in my entire life. I needed to outrun that voice and the things that it was saying to me. I needed to get away from here and into the light. That was the only way.


    If the voice imed to be nothing but darkness, then I needed to get into the light so that I would be free of it.


    "Just a little more. Keep going. Get to the light. Get out of the darkness and into the light." I was trying to give myself a pep talk as I pushed forward and moved toward the only semnce of freedom that I could see. I didn''t want this voice to lord over me and control my life. I would get out of here, get to the light, and find a way to get home.


    ''Heh heh heh.'' The voice was stillughing like an asshole in the back of my mind every time that I thought I might escape it. ''Heh heh heh.'' It was starting to piss me off more than it was annoying me. ''Heh heh heh.'' Each time that itughed at me, my anger red, and I felt like I wanted to punch something or someone.


    ""GAH!" I grabbed my head and screamed in frustration. "That fuckingugh is even worse than the words that the voice was saying. This is so fucking annoying."


    ''Heh heh heh.'' The voiceughed louder and harder this time.. Apparently, they thought that was even funnier than the stuff from before.

 Chapter 619 - 36- Trinity – Into The Light (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 619 - 36- Trinity ¨C Into The Light (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I ran. I ran and I ran and I ran as hard as I could. Thatugh, that voice, all of it was getting to me. I couldn''t help it. There was just something about it that was scaring me. Maybe it was right, maybe it wasn''t, but whatever it was, it was getting to the point where I couldn''t take it anymore.


    Every step I took, each time that my foot met the floor of this dark room, I could see that light growingrger in the distance.


    "Oh thank the Goddess. At least I am making progress. At least I can tell that I am getting closer. This doesn''t seem to be one of those fun house, or horror house effects. That is one good thing."


    Why did I keep talking to myself? Was it so that I could drown out the sound of the voice inside my head? I didn''t know if that was the real reason or not, but it seemed like a good idea to me. So, I was going to keep talking. I was going to do whatever I needed to so that I didn''t officially go insane.


    Or is talking to myself and justifying it with feeble responses from myself even more insane than letting that voice take over my mind? Honestly, I didn''t know anymore. All I knew was that I was almost to that light and I would feel a lot better once I got there.


    "Just a little more, Trinity,e on, keep going. That''s it. Keep running. Go. Go. Go. Go." Yeah, this little pep talk I was giving myself wasn''t crazy at all. I was doing just fine. Yup, nothing to worry about here.


    Run. Run. Run. Run. I stopped talking out loud because I was starting to feel silly, but I chanted along inside of my head. Hey, it was helping me just a little bit. Each step I took I said the words inside my head. Run. Run. Run. Run.


    Finally, the light was right there. It looked like it was a campfire that was just sitting there in the middle of the room ahead of me.


    Yeah, that''s what it was. It was a campfire withrge sitting logsying around it. The fire itself was huge too. I could literally walk right into it, and it would still be way taller than I was.


    Not that I was going to walk into it. That would truly make me insane. No, I was just noting the very impressive height of the fire that was looming before me. It was massive and definitely dangerous. Who the hell would want a fire that big to begin with?


    Even though I was still so far away from the fire, I could feel the heat that wasing off of it. I hadn''t even realized how cold I was until I was this close to the fire and I felt the warmth that it was giving me.


    "Damn, that feels good." I couldn''t stop myself from crying out as I started to feel warmer and the numbness in my limbs that I hadn''t even noticed started to subside.


    The ends of my fingers and the tips of my toes were actually starting to prickle with a slight amount of pain now that I could feel them again. It was strange, the things that I hadn''t noticed around me. Was I just ignoring it or was I just not able to tell the difference in things anymore? Or was it just this ce in general?


    I thought about all those things as I walked toward the heart of the warmth. The moment that I entered the circle of light that the fire was giving off, I saw that the fire was starting to shrink. With each step that I took the fire got smaller. It was odd, I had never seen anything like this before.


    In a way, it was like the fire had burned bigger and brighter just so that I could see it. Like it was actually acting as a beacon for me to follow this entire time. I tried to think that this whole thing was odd, and at first, I really did. In truth though, I don''t think anything from this ce was going to surprise me all that much anymore.


    Finally, I got right next to the fire, and it was no bigger than a typical campfire that you would see anywhere else. It wasn''t a bonfire or anything like that, it was a normal sized, perfectly contained campfire that was surrounded with a beautiful array of stone that had been stacked in an borate design.


    "Is anyone here?" I called out in a loud voice. Someone had to be here, didn''t they? Why else would there be a fire here? Someone had to light it. Someone had to be waiting here for it. So, who was that person, and where were they? That was the big question, wasn''t it?


    "Hello?" I called out again, hoping that there would be someone here to answer me this time. "HELLO! IS ANYONE HERE? HELLO!?"


    I couldn''t see or hear anyone near the fire. The only sound that I was able to hear right now was the crackle of the mes inside the rock pit.


    Just for the hell of it, knowing that it would amount to nothing, I walked around the fire in a slow circle. I looked in every direction as I walked, trying to find something or someone that would help exin to me what was going on right now. I looked at the ground, the fire, the wooden benches, all of it. I even looked out into the darkness around me trying to see the ce that I was in, but there was nothing to be seen.


    Outside the edge of light that the fire was giving off, I could see nothing. I couldn''t see the ground, the walls, the ceiling, nothing. The ce that I was in was still a mystery to me. And to make matters worse, the stuff inside the circle of light just confused me even more.


    I knew from my walk here and the exploring before I started walking, that this was a room with walls. Walls that had felt like they were made of wood. I had gotten the impression that the floor was made of wood as well. I hadn''t felt it under my hands like I had the walls, but the way that it reacted to my steps definitely made it feel like wood instead of stone.


    However, inside the circle of light, what I could actually see clearly, looked like I was outside. I had somehow gone from locked inside a wooden room to standing outside at a campfire that seemed to be surrounded by rocks and dirt.


    "This is fucking weird as could be. What the hell is going on here?" I turned in a circle while standing in ce, looking around the ce that I had found myself now. "I really don''t like this fucking shit at all. This is freaking me out."


    "Have you ever noticed that you start to use more profanity when you get frustrated?"

 Chapter 620 - 37- Trinity – Who Are You? (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 620 - 37- Trinity ¨C Who Are You? (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Have you ever noticed that you start to use more profanity when you get frustrated?" I heard a voice that sounded like my own call out from behind me while I was looking around me.


    "What the hell?" I spun and looked to see who was there. This time, the voice didn''te from inside my head. It came from behind me as if someone was physically there.


    The moment that I had turned around, I saw that there was someone actually there. Someone that looked an awful lot like me. Only, this person, who also happened to be in ck and white, was somewhat reversed in the looks department.


    I had dark hair and light colored eyes, mahogany and blue to be precise. This person before me looked like they had pure ck eyes and white hair. I couldn''t be certain since they were in ck and white, but that was what they looked like.


    Looking at the person standing in front of me brought back shbacks of the night that I met my father. The white hair looked exactly like the hair that I remember seeing on Edmond. The eyes weren''t the same of course, Edmond and I had almost the exact same shade of blue eyes. Still, seeing someone that was wearing my face with hair that looked like Edmond''s made my skin crawl. I did not want to have anything that further tied me to that asshole. He was dead and gone and I was happy about that.


    "Hello, Trinity." The person wearing my face and using my voice grinned at me while she spoke. "I have been waiting for you."


    "And who exactly are you?" I asked as I took a step back, or I tried to. The moment that I moved back I ran into a barrier that was hard yet invisible. There was nothing behind me at all, but I couldn''t move through it.


    I turned and felt the barrier with my hands. I even mmed my fists against it, hurting my hands in the process. The most that it did was sh a bright, blinding white light when my fists collided with it.


    "Well, this fucking sucks."


    "Like I said, you get more profane the more nervous or frightened that you are." She was grinning at me and moving toward me.


    I thought for sure that she was going toe at me for something, but I was wrong. The woman that looked like me just moved so that she could sit on the log that was next to the fire.


    "Come on now, Trinity, sit down. I think that we need to talk."


    "Who are you?" I didn''t move, I didn''t even contemte it. I wasn''t about to sit down and have a heart to heart with a crazy face stealing psychopath. This whole situation was reminding me of a horror movie I once saw. Only, the face stealer was more murderous, and a hell of a lot more angry, in the movie.


    "You know who I am, Trinity. We have been talking since you got here. I am you. Well, a part of you at least." She grinned at me and gave me a look that you would give to a child that wasn''t understanding something. It was a cross between tenderness andughter at their adorable ignorance of the way the world works.


    "I don''t believe you." I snapped at her, but she didn''t respond to my anger at all.


    "We will have time for thatter, Trinity. Right now, you need to sit down. It is not like you can leave here right now anyway." There was a knowing, evil look in those eyes of hers when she looked at me. Don''t even ask me how I managed to see that look in her eyes with them being pitch ck, but I did. "Go on, sit down now."


    "N-."


    "Do not make me tell you again, Trinity." She looked at me with anger as she interrupted my refusal. "I may have all the time in the world, but you do not. You want to get out of here and get back home, right? If you want to speed this up, then I suggest you sit down now."


    There was nothing that I could do right now. She was right about the fact that I couldn''t leave, I was stuck here in this ce with her. And apparently, she wouldn''t let me out until I sat down and talked to her.


    Well, I seemed to have no other choice. I had to sit down and talk with her whether I wanted to or not.


    "Fine, I will sit." I walked around the fire and sat across from her on therge log that was directly in front of her.


    "Good, that is the best, and only, option that you have. I am d that you are epting things for what they need to be." She smiled at me, a look that should have been nice and pleasant since it was on my own face, but there were dark and sinister things inside that smile.


    "You didn''t really give me much of an option now, did you?" I red at her while I crossed my arms over my chest. "I don''t know what it is that you want from me, but I hope you make it quick. Like you said, I don''t have all the time in the world. I need to hurry and get home."


    "Yes, yes, you need to get home to our children." She grinned at me again, almost as if she were reminiscing about the times that I have spent with my children.


    "My children." I snapped at her and rose to my feet once more. "They are my children. Mine and Reece''s and no one else''s. My children, my babies." I felt my heart pounding feverishly inside of my chest. It was the anger, the rage, that I had felt when someone else had tried to im my children as their own. I would not put up with something like that. Not now, not ever.


    "Calm down, Trinity. If I am you and you are me, then does that not make us the same person? And if we are the same person then, would the children not be just as much mine as they are yours? You see my point here, Trinity? The children are yours, yes, but they are just as much mine because I am a part of you." There was a low, threatening growl emanating from the back of my throat as I listened to her words. "Calm down, Trinity. It would do you no good to attack me. If I am to be injured, then so are you."


    Just to prove her point, the face stealing psychopath took a small branch from the campfire and raised it in front of her face for just a moment. She then snuffed out the mes by stamping it against the ground.


    Now that it was just a piece of timber, she raised it again until she was looking at the glowing tip of the wood. The next thing that she did shocked me to my core. She took her left hand and wrapped it around the tip of the branch''s burning hot end.


    I felt the pain sear through my hand. It was so hot that I felt it begin to peel away the flesh that had been before. Now though, there was nothing but pain and the smell of charred flesh.


    I bit down on my tongue to stop myself from crying out in pain, but the desire was there.


    ''Dammit! That hurts.'' I basically screamed those words inside of my head but apparently, that face stealer, hand burning psychopath could hear me.


    "Yes, it does hurt indeed. So please, do not make the mistake of trying to hurt me. Anything you do to me will happen to you as well."


    Just great. This was just fucking lovely. Could this be any worse? I mean, seriously, what the hell was wrong? Why was this happening? Why was I here?


    I know why I was here. I followed that voice, dammit. I followed that voice and let it lead me astray. That voice and those imps are the reason I was trapped in this world.. I just needed to do my best for right now and then leave. This copy of me couldn''t want to talk for too long, could she?

 Chapter 621 - 38- Trinity – What I Have Done Part 1 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 621 - 38- Trinity ¨C What I Have Done Part 1 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I decided to just sit back down and be a good girl for now. I couldn''t attack this person because it would hurt me. And she didn''t seem to feel any pain at all when she burned her hand. No, it seemed like the only one feeling anything right now was me.


    I wasn''t just feeling pain either. I was feeling anger, annoyance, rage and an intense desire to protect my family. This person here wasying im to what was mine and I would do whatever it took to make sure she didn''t get her hands on them.


    Once I was settled back down onto the log, the other me just looked back with a smile on her face. I would say that it was my face, but that wasn''t true enough for me anymore.


    Yes, this person looked like me. And yes, this person sounded like me. But I never gave anyone a look that was filled with so much evil. I know that I have never once looked like that. I couldn''t make a simple smile be something so sinister looking.


    "Stop looking for differences and ways to reason out of this, Trinity. Despite the difference in coloring, I am identical to you. I am a part of you, why can you not ept that already?"


    "I refuse to ept it. I refuse to believe that there is this much evil inside of me." That face that was looking at me right now smiled the widest that I had ever seen before. It was a grin so evil and so deranged that I honestly thought that it belonged on a deranged killer clown rather than on a face that looked like mine.


    "You will understand it all soon enough, Trinity. We will talk it all out and go over all of the stuff that you have done. We will revisit all your most evil moments. And by the time that we are done, you will see where it is that I came from. You will see why I exist inside of you."


    "You can try. I know that you won''t find anything. I have never done anything that I should be ashamed of. I am a good person. I am a good queen. I am a good wife, mother, daughter, niece, everything. I am not a bad person. Not now and not ever."


    "We will see about that, Trinity."


    Suddenly, there was a bag next to the other me''s feet. This bag looked as if it were made of some type of animal skin and it was quiterge. The bag was filled with something and sat propped up against the log where it stood as tall as the other me''s knee.


    "What is that?" I feltpelled to ask.


    "This will help us to see into the past. If you are going to learn where I came from, then you need to see what it is that you have done in the first ce." She was reaching into the bag with her right hand as she spoke, her eyes never leaving mine. "I am going to show you, Trinity, what it means to make decisions and what the consequences are. There have been so many life altering decisions that you have made over the years. And it is time for you to understand who it was that you have hurt with those decisions."


    Slowly, the other me pulled her hand out of the bag. I noticed that the bag looked like it was silver. It was shining in the light that wasing off of the fire and I could even see flexions in its surface. But how exactly could someone make a bag out of silver? That was almost impossible, wasn''t it?


    Then there was the substance that was in the other me''s hand. She had pulled out a handful of ck powder. It looked like it was ground onyx or something. It was glittering and reflecting the light as well, but it was also pure ck. That dust was literally the darkest thing in this room.


    "It is time to watch, Trinity. It is time to see where the root of your evil all lies. Each incident that put you closer to the darkness, each incident that helped to create me. Watch closely and pay attention."


    With a flourish of her hand, the other me tossed thatrge handful of ck dust into the fire. The moment that the dust touched the mes, it started to burn. The fire roared into life and shot toward the sky.


    The color of the mes, which I just realized had not been in ck and white this whole time, started to change. Instead of the orange, yellow, and red that you would normally see for a fire, the mes were now a dark purple, blue, and ck. To be honest, the fire now looked like it was pure evil.


    "What the hell?" I gasped and almost fell back off of the log.


    OK, I was used to doing magic, but seeing someone do this right in front of me, in a world where my magic didn''t work, that scared the shit out of me. I wasn''t expecting this to happen and that just startled the hell out of me.


    "Calm down, Trinity. I am simply showing you your past. Rx, take a deep breath, and learn about parts of you that you didn''t know existed."


    I really wanted to smack that face stealer, psychopath, other me in the face. However, I couldn''t because I would just be hurting myself.


    "Fine, be my guest. Show me what it is that I have done. However, I am sure that you will not find anything that will mark me as evil or sinister. I told you, I am a good person. I always have been, and I always will be."


    "I wouldn''t be so sure of that, Trinity. You might just discover something that you never knew before." Her grin told me she was looking forward to that.. That evil, sadistic, copy of me.

 Chapter 622 - 39- Trinity – What I Have Done Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 622 - 39- Trinity ¨C What I Have Done Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Suddenly, I was looking into the fire, and it was showing me images like it was some kind of TV screen. The colors were vivid and bright, standing out in bright contrast to the mostly ck and white world that I had been in for what felt like days.


    The images in the TV style screen that appeared in the fire, were showing be images back when Reece and I were first mated. I saw the day that I had taken the children that visited the estate out for a nature hike. That day was rooted in my memory for several reasons.


    The main reason was showing up right before my eyes. There was that rogue wolf that had attacked us. Reece and the others had been following him onto ournds, unbeknownst to me as I took the kids for that hike.


    Right when we were about to sit down for a pic, around the time of the scavenger hunt, the wolf came running up. He was facing down a little boy who was scared stiff. Dillon couldn''t move at all, so I was racing to push him out of the way. I made it, I saved Dillon, but I went over the edge instead.


    "This day had a lot of repercussions." The other me was starting amentary now. "All those children were traumatized over this event. They have to live with the fact that they all could have died. Especially little Dillon. However, that wasn''t the only repercussion."


    "What else was there?" I was confused, aside from my injuries and the children, what negatives came out of that day?


    "That man was captured by your eldest cousin, the man you now call a brother. He was taken to the prison cells that were under your estate at the time. While the man was there, he was tortured and eventually executed."


    I gasped and jumped at the words that she had said. I had not known what had happened to that man, I had never thought to ask. I didn''t think that Reece had killed him though, but I couldn''t me him at all. That was the way that wolf politics works.


    "Your actions, your choices, led to this man being killed." The other me was still talking as the picture shifted. I was looking at Reece standing over the man in the dungeon of the old house.


    "Do you want to exin yourself now, or do I need to get creative?" Reece asked the man who had pushed me over the edge of the cliff. The prisoner red at him in response before answering him.


    "You won''t frighten me. You will never learn anything from me about our mission."


    "Creative it is." Reece grinned at him. "I''m going to show you what happens to anyone who hurts my mate."


    That was when Reece started to cause the prisoner a lot of pain. He broke the man''s thigh bone, he beat him, he was being quite savage, all for me. The images were moving in a sped up, fast forward type of speed, but I could still sense what was going on. After what seemed like an hour, if not more, the images slowed and yed at a regr speed once more.


    "Who are you working for? Why are all of you working together?" Reece growled the question at the man who had seen better days.


    "Go to hell, you pathetic low life." The rogue was crying in front of Reece but he was not begging for his life.


    "You''re not going anywhere until you tell me." Reece''s voice was filled with anger and hatred


    "I''m not saying a word."


    The process started again, and it was a little hard to watch at this point. However, when Reece left the man in the dungeon, he was still alive.


    "Reece didn''t execute him." I told the other me, angered by the lie she told me.


    "No, Reece didn''t. Someone else did."


    Now, the images in the fire changed again. The rogue was bound with strong chains that even shifters couldn''t break. He wasying in a heap on the floor and still suffering the effects of his torture.


    At that moment, there was a sudden swirl of purple fog. The fog grew thicker and thicker and eventually it filled the entire room. The man, who had been sleeping not so soundly, jerked awake when a voice filled the cell.


    "You weak, pitiful fool."


    The rogue wolf leapt to his feet as best as he could with the chains still on his wrists and ankles.


    "S..S..Sir Edmond, have youe to help me?" There was both relief and fear on the man''s face as he looked all around him, trying to see the man who was speaking.


    "I would not dare to sully myself by helping you. You have proven yourself ipetent and incapable. You are lucky that I was able to get my fog into thends this far. That girl seems to be more protected than I ever thought she would be." My father''s cold voice made me shiver when I heard him speaking to his subordinate.


    "I..i..if you''re n..not here to save me, My Lord, th..then wh..why are? you h..here?" I could tell by the look in the man''s eyes that he already knew why my father was there.


    "As if you don''t know, Nigel. As if you cannot tell why I have sent my essence here to you."


    "B..b..but S..S..Sir, I have s..s.se..served you loyally and h..h..honestly. I didn''t give up any information. The Alpha here got nothing from me. I wouldn''t betray you, S..Sir, I s..s..swear. Pl..pl..please, Sir. Please s..sp..spare me. Spare my l..l..life."


    "You know that I cannot do that, Nigel. You know that my mission is too important. You need to be eliminated."


    "No. Please no. Don''t do this, Sir. P..pl..please. No. No. NO! NO! NO!"


    While the man frantically tried to get away from the purple mist that was my father, he screamed his denial for what was happening to him. It didn''t help at all. He couldn''t move away, and he couldn''t stop what wasing.


    The purple mist, that was my father''s essence, started to shoot through the man''s mouth and nose. I could tell that the man was choking and suffocating. He fell to his knees, spluttering and reaching for his throat as he tried to draw a breath. There was no room for air though, since the man''s whole body was now filled with the putrid purple fog.


    I watched on as the man slowly died. Suffocating and fighting for his life against a man that was not physically there. Before long, though, his eyes rolled back into his head and blood trickled from his ears, his nose, and the corner of his mouth.


    Now that it was clear that the man was dead, the fog left his body and the man slumped to the floor, lifeless.


    "At least that is one less mangy wolf in the world." My father''s evil voice filled the room onest time before the purple fog swirled and started to disappear.


    It was done, the man was dead, the images were frozen, and that event was over.


    "I cannot be held responsible for what my father did. I am not him and his murders are on him."


    "Yes, but the people around you helped to facilitate that man''s murder because you got hurt. If you had not gone out the man might still be alive." The other me was trying to me me for this man and that wasn''t fair.


    "Or he could have died a different way when my father went off the deep end. I cannot say for certain." I snapped at her, my anger rising.


    "Perhaps yes, perhaps no. We will never know now, will we? That man''s life was snuffed out because you chose to defy the orders of your alpha and leave the estate."


    "I was still on our property. I didn''t do anything wrong." I knew that I was yelling but I was unable to stop myself.


    "You still did not follow the rules.. And because of that, people were hurt, traumatized, and killed." What was going on here? Was every decision I ever made going to be microscopically analyzed or something?

 Chapter 623 - 40- Trinity – What I Have Done Part 3 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 623 - 40- Trinity ¨C What I Have Done Part 3 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "There is no need to get so worked up already, Trinity. There is a lot more that you need to see. Please, calm down and keep watching."


    At that point, the other me reached into the bag at her feet again. She pulled out another handful of that glittering ck powder, and then threw it into the fire. The fire roared and zed to life as it reached toward the sky once more. A few momentster, as it settled back into that purple, blue, and ck flickering, the other me started to speak again.


    "It was not long after thatst memory that there came another point in your life where a major decision was made. This decision could technically have had two different oues. Two different ones than the way that it all yed out. I think this is something that you need to see, something that will make you understand where your erroneous decision making has had thergest impacts."


    "I do not make erroneous decisions. I make the choices that best befit the situation. I make the decisions that are best for me and my people."


    "Do you, now?"


    Without saying anything other than that, the other me just looked at the fire and the images started. She didn''t give a preamble to this memory, she just started watching it on the TV screen type of view that was there in the mes.


    I was now looking at a scene that I had nearly forgotten about. I think that I had simply tried to block it from my mind because of what had happened during this time.


    There, in front of me, was the foyer of the old estate, and standing in it were Caleb, Frederick, and myself.


    "What is it you''re missing?" Caleb asked me.


    "What?"


    "You said you needed something but couldn''t get it. What can''t you get?"


    "Oh, I''m missing a couple books for my college courses that started today." I answered him, but for some reason I felt embarrassed.


    "We can''t have that, can we?" Frederick smiled at me.


    "Would you like me to get it for you?" Caleb smiled wide, showing his perfectly straight, white teeth.


    "No, I couldn''t impose on you. You just recently got back, after all."


    "It''s no problem, Luna." Caleb soothed me with his soft voice.


    "If you really don''t mind, I would appreciate it."


    "Of course, I''m here to help you as much as my cousin."


    I tried to exin to Caleb what it was I needed, and where Shane had gone wrong when he picked up my booksst week, but Caleb wasn''t certain he would be able to tell the difference between the books I already had, and the ones I needed.


    "It''s fine Caleb, I can always wait until Vincent is avable." I deted as I spoke, a defeated tone filling my voice.


    "How about youe with me?" He asked, a smile spreading across his face. I was momentarily filled with anticipation, but it was quickly reced with apprehension.


    "I don''t know, Reece would be angry if I left right now. You know, with everything that is going on."


    "If you''re not safe with the second strongest wolf in the pack, his own Beta, then who could you be safe with?" He asked, a confident look in his eyes. "Besides, it''s the only way you''ll make sure you get the right books." He had a good point. I needed these books, and as Reece''s Beta, he should be strong enough to protect me."


    "Alright, but just to the store and back."


    "Of course, Luna, I wouldn''t dream of taking you anywhere else that might be considered dangerous."


    "Just let me go get ready." I hurried from the room so I could get shoes and a jacket from my bedroom.


    I remembered the day now. The scene continued to shift and morph after that into what I remember happening. I rode with Caleb to the bookstore and he parked so far away from the building that I thought it was odd. After that, Donna, Leslie, and Jeremy had surrounded us. Only, I learnedter that they only surrounded me. I was their target and they were there to take me to my father.


    I tried to fight but there were four of them, so I knew that I didn''t stand a chance. My best option was to run away, but even that failed. I watched my pathetic attempts, their assholish ways, and even the point where they chloroformed me and knocked me out.


    The next part of the scene I had never seen before, no one alive today had. It involved the four of them throwing my limp body into the trunk of the car and them all piling inside. They drove swiftly to an airport and loaded me onto a small private ne that flew to a waiting car near the ck Canyons.


    They continued to manhandle my body as they threw me onto the floor in the back seat of another car and drove to the house that my father was using at the time. I heard Leslie say that he wished that they had more time, because he wanted to y with me some more. I even saw him fondling my breasts and his hand moving toward other areas, but Donna stopped him.


    "She is a mongrel, don''t sully yourself." Her voice sneered at me.


    "Mongrel or not, she''s still a sexy woman. I would love to have my way with her."


    "Find someone less stupid." She reached across me and slid a finger across his cheek. "There are much better choices out there."


    "Hmm, that''s true." I was disgusted then, because the two of them started to make out and fondle each other over my unconscious body. UGH! I wanted to vomit, but I couldn''t.


    They were rough with me after that. They threw me and tossed me about when we arrived at the house. When they handed me off to the warlocks that were there, I was even more abused. The warlocks threw me over their shoulders like a sack of flour, and when they got to the basement, they just threw me to the floor.


    While I wasying on the floor, I saw my fathere in. He stood over my body and watched me like I was some kind of specimen. He looked like he was lording over me and it just made me want to punch him.


    "She doesn''t look anything like her mother, what a shame. The mother was quite beautiful. But, s, my genes are strong and more potent, as I knew they would be. No one is better than me. I am the man that will someday rule the world, of course my gics would beat out some piece of shit wolf. Still though, there are a few simrities to her mother. A little in the bone structure, and something a little ethereal, just like the mother had. I am d. It will make her a worthy pawn. I can use her to seduce my enemies and to breed strong new generations of my kin. She will be very useful to me. Yes, I have so many ns and ideas already."


    Ick. What the hell. He was thinking all of that while I was still unconscious. What a sick, deranged, demented individual. How the hell did I get so unlucky as to have that man as my father? Why did he have to do that to my mother? Why did he have to ruin so many lives?


    "Keep watching, Trinity, this is where things start to get interesting. This is where connections were strengthened, and bonds were sealed. But not in the way that people thought that they would be."


    I watched the scene before me, all the while my father sat there in the corner of the room, staring at my limp body. There seemed to be some ghostly image that entered the room and ran to me. He looked worried and scared.


    At that moment, my body in the images started to stir and I woke up. I looked around me, confused as to what was going on.


    "Trinity!" Reece called out to me and I saw myself turn to look in the direction of the voice but there was nothing there for my body to see. Reece was invisible to her, or rather me. "I''ll find you, please hang in there.. I''m sorry, Little Bunny."

 Chapter 624 - 41- Trinity - What I Have Done Part 4 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 624 - 41- Trinity - What I Have Done Part 4 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "I''ll find you, please hang in there. I''m sorry, Little Bunny." After Reece''s words, I saw that my body wasing too even more. I was trying to find out where I was and what was around me. And it was at that moment that my father chose to speak.


    "Finally, you''re awake." He spoke from the shadows, his voice was ominous, deep and smooth, it was something that I had heard prior to that night so I remembered that I had recognized it from that dream I had.


    "Who are you?" I demanded from the dark corner.


    "I''ve been waiting a long time for you, Trinity." My father stepped forward, out of the shadow and into the dim light. He was tall with hair that was as white as snow even though he looked no older than thirty. His face was long and full of angr lines. Hisplexion, which looked like moonlight, and his bright blue eyes were exactly the same as mine. That was the first moment that made me think this man was someone more than I expected.


    "Who are you?"


    "You''ve been asleep for several hours, how are you feeling?" My father feigned a worried look.


    "Stop ignoring me." I shouted at him. He smirked, looking at me with an odd expression. It was calm but it also looked frightening.


    "You don''t want my full attention yet, child, so be careful what you ask for."


    "What do you want with me?"


    "I was bringing you home, child, back to where you belong."


    "Home? What do you mean home? I don''t belong here. I was born in the pack, that''s where I belong." I spat the words at him angrily.


    "You may have been born there, Trinity, but that''s not where you belong. I''m certain you know that as well as I do." His words were cutting deep, hitting me hard where I had always felt the most insecure.


    "No, I belong with the pack. I am the Luna. I have a mate. I belong there, with my pack, and with my mate." I was trying to make myself believe that more than him.


    "A mate who doesn''t love you? A mate who doesn''t want you? Are you certain you''re evenpatible? Could you really be mated with him?" He spoke in a calm, even voice but his words were sharp and biting.


    "Shut up. You don''t know what you''re talking about. You''re wrong. I don''t belong here, I belong with my pack, with my mate." I screamed at him.


    "We will see about that." He seemed to hum. "If hees for you, then you belong with him and the pack. But if he doesn''t, then you belong here, with your father."


    "My father?" I gasped.


    "I have been waiting for you, child. All these years I have been waiting for you to return to me."


    "You can''t be my father." I scoffed at him.


    "You wound me. Why would you deny me, my own daughter? I have finally found you after you were stolen away from me. I have never been given the chance to be part of your life, and when I finally find you, you deny me." The fake sense of hurt in his voice was frightening, it was like every emotion he had was fake. I knew now that this man didn''t actually feel emotions at all.


    "How could you be my father? You look like you''re thirty, at most, that would have made you nothing but a child when I was conceived."


    "Looks can be deceiving, especially among us with magic, my dear. It is something you will learn for yourself soon. I have been leading this coven for over two hundred years."


    "Are you telling me that I am half witch?" I asked him incredulously. "That can''t be. It''s impossible. I am not a witch, I belong to the werewolf pack."


    "Do you have a wolf?" He sounded smug as he grinned at me. "I know you don''t, there''s no use trying to hide it from me. You don''t have a wolf because it is not oftenpatible with us magic users."


    "You''re wrong. I have wolf traits. I have the enhanced abilities. That means I can''t be a witch."


    "That is why I created you."


    "Created me?" I was shocked to hear what he had just told me.


    "Yes, I created you, Trinity. I needed someone to be my pawn, my entry into the wolf packs. And that''s where youe in."


    "I don''t understand? How did you create me? And how is having me around of any use to you?"


    "How did I create you? Come now, child, you''re not that young and naive, are you?"


    "So, you raped my mother?"


    "She was needed to serve a purpose. If it makes you feel any better, she didn''t remember any of it."


    "No, it doesn''t. Because of you, and what you did to her, my mother killed herself."


    "Yes, but without me, you wouldn''t be here." He smiled like that made it all better.


    "Why? Why would you do this? Why would you do that to my mother? She was only fifteen for crying out loud."


    "I''m well aware of how old she was. I chose her specifically. She was determined to be especially susceptible to my bloodline. My mistake was sending her back to her family so soon. I should have kept her longer. She might not have ended up so weak minded if I had more time with her."


    "You''re a monster, you sick son of bitch."


    "Think what you want of me, but I will do what''s best for my coven. I have fought to live the way we see fit for centuries. I will not give up because some pathetic little girl calls me a monster." His voice was icy and held an edge of anger.


    "You''ve fought against wolf packs for centuries?" I asked him, confused.


    "Not just wolves. I have fought against the magic council, vampires, Fae, anyone who tries to oppose the way my coven lives."


    "If everyone thinks you''re wrong, don''t you think it''s about time to ept that they''re right and you''re wrong?" I snapped at him.


    "I don''t care who is right or wrong. My coven will continue to live the same way we always have. And I will destroy anyone who tries to stand in my way."


    "You''re insane."


    "Maybe I am, but I will not give up my coven or my power, not for anyone. That''s why I needed you." There was a maniacal fire burning in his eyes now.


    "Why? What can I do?" I yelled even though he was right in front of me.


    "You will be my tool. I am going to force your magic to manifest, and when it does, I will send you back to your precious wolf pack. You''ll be the agent of destruction among the wolves that I have been nning for all these years. You will simultaneously manipte them to work for me as well as bring about their ultimate downfall. I will rule the shadow world. And when I do, I will reveal my ever growing coven to the humans. When that happens, I will rule over the entire world."


    "Do you seriously think that I will help you? That I will just y along with your little n."


    "You won''t have a choice. You think I can''t manipte your mind? I''ll change your memories, make you forget everything that happened here just like I made your mother forget. It will be apulsion to you. You will do anything I ask you to do." He reached his hand slowly toward me and pushed my hair out of my face. I remember that his hands were as cold as ice when they touched me and it made me shudder in disgust.


    "It''s time for us to get to work." He grinned at me then. That was when the others came in to start torturing me. This was the start of the worst hours of my life. I didn''t want to see that part again.


    "What did these decisions do? Huh? What did they cause?" I demanded of the other me as I looked away from the torture that was happening on the screen.


    "You could have not gone with Caleb at all. You could have stayed home like you were told to do. Then Caleb, Frederick, Donna, Leslie, Jeremy, and several others would not have died."


    "They were murderous, kidnapping swine. They deserved what they got." I remember that I helped to kill several people during that incident so I couldn''t say much against their deaths.


    "OK, and what about the battle that ensued during your rescue. Countless people were injured and killed then." She was looking at me for more exnations.


    "The coven needed to be destroyed, they nned to kill so many people." I was justifying their deaths, but what choice did I have?


    "You could have chosen to go with your father. That would have put an end to it all right then and there. There would have been no battle and things would have turned out better for them all." She was trying to paint my choice in a negative light.


    "I would have been a mindless killing machine in my father''s hands. That would have been worse." Did she not understand this?


    "Perhaps yes, perhaps no. We will never know. However, because you didn''t go with him, so much more happened.." She was reaching into the bag again, pulling out yet another handful of that glittering ck dust.

 Chapter 625 - 42- Trinity – What I Have Done Part 5 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 625 - 42- Trinity ¨C What I Have Done Part 5 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I watched the mes shoot up in that now familiar pattern. The screen had disappeared, and the colors had returned back to the purple, blue, and ck. Everything about those mes just seemed so sinister and dark. I didn''t want to watch what it was going to show me, but I knew that I had no choice. I was going to be forced to see what it had to show me no matter what.


    "This, Trinity, is the result of what happened when you refused to go with your father that night, and when you all let him escape. You and your mate, along with all of those that were there to help and assist you during that battle, were all incapable of stopping Gannon Cornelius Edmond from escaping and wreaking more havoc."


    "I thought you were all for my father seeding and were condemning me for foiling all of his ns." I red at the voice. "Now you''re telling me that we were wrong not to kill him there?"


    "I am showing you all of the destruction that your actions have caused. I am not on his side or yours. Well, if I were to choose a side, it would be yours, Trinity. I am you after all you, it makes sense that I would ally myself with myself. However, as I am nothing more than a shadow entity that resides in the innermost depths of your desires and secrets, I am not actually bonded to anyone or anything. My job right now is to simply show you what has formed me. And what the choices that made me has caused. There is much destruction that you have caused, and many lives that your choices have snuffed out."


    "How? How is it that my choices led to these deaths? I didn''t kill that prisoner and neither did my mate. That was a choice my father made, not me."


    "Please, Trinity, just keep watching, you will see in time. We are going in chronological order at the moment. Well, as much as possible anyway. There may be some straying from the timeline but that will only be when necessary." The other me was still sounding like she was all knowing and therefore better than me. Dammit! I wanted to punch her.


    "Whatever, can we just get a move on with this next memory?" I rolled my eyes at her and tried to hurry things along.


    "Ah, but this next one is not a memory of yours. It is simply a showing of what happened after you let your father escape." She was still acting like that was an intentional thing. Like I wouldn''t have rather killed him then and there? I would have liked to have saved us all a lot of trouble.


    "Whatever, just get a move on please." My attitude was getting worse and worse by the moment.


    "Certainly." She grinned at me and looked at the crackling fire. That was when the screen reappeared, and images started to move for me to see.


    I was watching my father with some of his top people. They were some of the warlocks that I saw back when we were rescuing the children that he had kidnapped. There were two men and a woman and, for some reason, I could feel how powerful they had been from here.


    They had been powerful, but we were stronger though. We defeated them and were able to save all the children that had been taken.


    This set of images, though, wasn''t from the time that we were saving the kids, this looked like it was a series of images from a mass kidnapping spree. The problem with what I was seeing right now, though, was that these people in the images before me weren''t just taking the kids, they were taking everyone.


    I watched as my father and his three henchmen arrived at the house of an Alpha Wolf. They had clearly been afraid that something was going to happen because they were barricaded inside the pack house.


    The warlocks with my father blew the side of the building off and people started to scramble. Most of the people that I saw were women and children along with the elderly and the people that were too sick or weak to fight.


    There was nothing but chaos. The warlocks were firing magic attacks at everyone and swooping all over the ce and cackling. It seriously looked like some horror movie scene where witches and warlocks were attacking innocent viges. Or maybe they were more like demons? Whatever you wanted to liken them to, they were scaring me as well as the people in the images.


    As I watched, at least two dozen men and women were kidnapped by the warlocks. And the thing is, they were all taken magically. They either got sucked into a magic bubble that held them, pulled into a vortex that swirled around them, or were held by magical dolls.


    The entire attack onlysted for maybe two or three minutes. That was all it took to take so many people. It was a pure chaotic ambush that none of them were prepared for. Men, women, and children were all taken from their families and their pack in such a short amount of time.


    The whole scene started to shift then. I watched as it was repeated over and over again. It wasn''t the same pack, or the same type of people. It happened to other warlock covens, wolves, bears, deer folk, felines, even a group of merfolk that were living onnd near the sea.


    Over and over again I watched my father and his people steal people away from their homes and take them back to his hidden house of horrors. It was the same house where I had found the children in, so at least I hadn''t overlooked that somehow.


    In that house after everyone was taken, I watched my father start to experiment on the poor souls. They were turned into monstrosities. They were deformed and no longer recognizable as people. They were beasts and creatures that would frighten anyone when they saw them.


    This was the beginning of my father''s army, the people that he had used to attack us all those years ago.


    "Enough!" I snapped at the other me. "I can''t watch this anymore. These were my people, and my father destroyed their lives."


    "Yes, he did. But, you know, if you had gone with him he might not have done that to them. Also, if you and your mate had been able to stop him, then he would not have had this opportunity either."


    "I admit that stopping him would have stopped this, but if I would have gone with him, there is no telling that he would have left those people alone. He might have still created his army."


    "Perhaps yes, perhaps no. We will never know now, will we?" The other me was looking at me with a calm and serene smile. All I wanted to do was throttle her, smack her, destroy her, but I couldn''t. I was helpless right now.


    "How is this my fault though? Should my father not bear the me, not me? He chose to do this, not me. How is any of this my fault?" I was on the verge of tears now. I didn''t like this at all.


    "It is not your fault directly, Trinity. However, your choices, your actions lead to this happening. If you had made different choices this might never have happened. That is what I am trying to tell you. These are the consequences of the choices that you have made. These are the devastating results of what you chose to do or not to do over the years. You need to see this. You need toe to terms with it all. You need to understand and ept it all. Until then, you will not be permitted to leave this ce."


    "But why?" I put my face in my hands and sobbed. I couldn''t help it, I just had to cry. I was crying over the lives that had been lost. The destruction, the fear, the chaos, all of it. I had not been the cause of it all, but I had watched it all y out before me just now. I had seen the fear, the heartache, I had seen it all and it was destroying me as well.


    I hadn''t known about all of this. I hadn''t known what had been happening in the world while I was preparing to face my father.. I had been afraid of the monsters when I saw them and I felt for the loss of the people that he had experimented on, but I hadn''t once thought about this being the results of his hunting missions. How? How could I not have known that this was happening to my people?

 Chapter 626 - 43- Trinity – What I Have Done Part 6 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 626 - 43- Trinity ¨C What I Have Done Part 6 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ***POSSIBLE TRIGGER FOR THOSE SENSITIVE TO TALKS OF SUICIDE***


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "There were more people hurt by him this way. These weren''t the only ones, but they were the ones that were worse off. The other set of victims from that time hit a little closer to home, at least I am assuming that they did." The other me was still staring into the fire even though the images had frozen over and weren''t moving any more.


    "A..are you talking about the children. Th..the ones from my pack and the city?"


    "Indeed, I am. They suffered a great deal because of you. If you had not left your father alive that day, if he hadn''t been able to enact his cruel ns, then these families would not have suffered as much. And it was not just the children that suffered during that time."


    "What are you saying?" My head snapped up and I suddenly felt as if cold water had been poured down my back. That was how cold my blood was running at the moment. I was even shivering which was not something that I did often.


    "You will see, Trinity. You just need to watch.


    I watched then as the other me pulled a handful of that ck dust from the bag and threw it into the fire once again. It was the same scenario ying out again. The color of the mes changed and then it burned higher and more intensely. After it settled back down, the now familiar looking screen appeared in the mes.


    "Sit back, Trinity, and watch this memory unfold."


    The other me didn''t need to tell me to do that. I was already prepared to see what she had to show me. After so many of these already, I was already used to it. I knew that there was no point in trying to fight it, so I just needed to sit and watch.


    I watched a series of kidnapping. All the children that had been taken from my pack and in Colorado Springs around the time that Reece and I were nning our wedding. I remember that time and the heartache that it caused for me. And more than anything else, I remembered the heartache that it had caused for those around me.


    E and Gina were the ones near me that had been the most affected by the kidnappings. Gina had been so depressed and out of it that she was unable to work properly. E had taken over the shop for the most part even though she was suffering as well.


    Still, watching the terror fill the eyes of all those children when they were taken was worse than I had felt at that time. Seeing how scared and hopeless they felt at that time broke everything inside of me.


    "Do you see what your actions have caused for these children? Do you think that they were able to heal and forget about this?"


    "YES!" I nearly leapt to my feet as I screamed that answer out to her. "Yes, I do know for a fact that they were able to heal and recover from that ordeal. Juniper, my good friend who has been granted a special ability, was able to heal their minds. She made them forget about it all, she got rid of the trauma for them. The children are just fine now."


    "Alright, but what about their family members? Have any of them healed? Have any of them been able to forget about what happened? What have you done for them? Did you know about any of this?"


    The other me pointed at the screen again and the kidnapping stopped ying over and over again. Now, instead of the children, I saw the family members of the kids that had been taken. I saw the way they were hurting while their children and siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins, and grandchild were missing.


    "There are some things that you never knew about, Trinity. Things that happened during and after that time which shaped and destroyed the futures of others. This here is another thing that you bear the responsibility of because you didn''t prevent it from happening."


    "It can''t be my fault, though. Doesn''t the actual perpetrator bear any of the responsibility in this?" I felt like I was drowning as I spoke. I didn''t take my eyes off of the screen and that meant that I was still watching as the horrors on the screen truly started.


    It had been sad before this part, but not as bad as now. There had been people who lost their jobs, divorces, and depression that the stress of the whole situation had caused. But then, the images started to turn darker.


    "Twenty-four children had been taken. Two dozen children with four dozen parents between them, that is if their parents were still alive at the time. Now though, there have been several of them that lost a parent because of this tragedy. You healed the children, yes, but not the parents. You did not help the parents and the fear that they had that their child would go missing again. And what about the siblings? They were worried about their lost family member but some of them were also jealous of the attention that the other sibling was getting. There has been much strife and heartache that you were not able to stop."


    I listened on with a broken heart as I watched a woman write out a letter to her family telling them that she couldn''t take it anymore. She was sobbing while she wrote it and the paper ended up covered in drips and drops that caused the ink to smear and run.


    After that, she did what I thought was unthinkable. She took a gun from a safe in her home, loaded just one bullet into the chamber, put it against her head, and pulled the trigger. She had been unable to heal and that had been partially my fault. I hadn''t thought about the families when I sent Juniper to heal the children. I hadn''t thought that they needed my help. I was wrong. So wrong.


    "As you are clearly able to see, Trinity, this was not a single incident. There were two others." The other me didn''t need to narrate that part for me. I was able to see it clearly as another woman and a man did something simr. The methods were different, but the results were the same. They weren''t able to cope with the guilt, the heartache, and the fear.


    "Enough. I can''t watch anymore of this."


    At those words, the images froze, and I just sat there with my head in my hands. I couldn''t take it. I didn''t want to have this on my conscience. I didn''t want to know that I was involved in this tragedy in any way, directly or indirectly, intentionally or inadvertently. It was too much for me right now.


    "This is not all that I need to show you, Trinity. There is more. Please, prepare yourself for the next memory."


    "No, please, no more." I begged the other me, but she didn''t seemed moved by my pleas at all. "I don''t want to do this anymore. I can''t take it.


    "You need to see this, Trinity.. You need to see what your actions have done so you do not make the same mistakes in the future."

 Chapter 627 - 44- Trinity – What I Have Done Part 7 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 627 - 44- Trinity ¨C What I Have Done Part 7 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ***DURING THIS REFLECTION CHAPTER, SOME OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS ARE BROUGHT UP, THIS IS MORE OF A FLASHBACK CHAPTER DURING TRINITY''S REFLECTION***


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Why? Why did I need to sit through this torture? Why did this have to happen to me? What is the whole purpose of all of this? I wish that someone would be able to tell me without it being something so cryptic.


    What was I supposed to be learning from all of this? Was I supposed to learn that I am a horrible person and that I shouldn''t be the queen? Was I supposed to go crazy and end up unfit to lead anyone at all? And what would Reece and the kids think about me if they knew all of this about me? If they knew that I let so many lives be destroyed.


    "Are you ready?" The other me asked but she didn''t seem to be waiting for me to respond at all. Instead, she was already throwing the dust and the fire was responding immediately.


    Within seconds I was looking at another screen and another scene. This time it was showing me the abbey in France that the Sentinelle used as their headquarters. At first, I couldn''t recall why the other me would be showing me this ce at all. However, the scene soon closed in on a certain event that happened during our time there.


    A group of men that I had never met before that day hade spilling into the room I was studying.


    "My Queen, please excuse this interruption." They all knelt down before me as soon as they were in the room.


    "What is it, Perkins? What has happened?" Gabriel, who had been with me, asked the man in the lead.


    "The King has found unworthy men among our ranks. And I am afraid things are about to escte among them?" Perkins responded.


    "Escte?" I made the word a question.


    "Yes, your grace. It seems that those found to be disloyal are not taking this revtion lightly. They have gotten quite upset."


    "Where are they?" I demanded before Gabriel could say anything else.


    "Please,e with us, my Queen." Another of the men requested of me. That was all that we had needed at the time. Gabriel and I followed them from the room.


    "Why do I need to see this scene? Why do I need to see these men? I punished them but they were very much alive when I was done with them." I felt the fear in my voice when I asked the other me.


    "Just watch, Trinity." Damn her and the knowing, confident grin of hers. I just wanted to smack it off of her face.


    The images before me kept changing as the scene unfolded. I followed the men that had summoned me to the scene of the altercation.


    "I am your King, and you will listen to me." Reece snarled at two men that were standing before him.


    "What is going on here?" I demanded in a loud,manding voice. The group around me knelt when they felt my anger and frustration. My entourage turned to look at me, all except for Reece and Vincent who were staring at the two suspects with anger. And those two, those who were being used of disloyalty, just looked at me with angry eyes.


    "There was no need for you toe all the way out here, Trinity." Reece''s voice was tense and held a biting edge. I could tell by the rigid set of his shoulders and the stiff way he was holding his back that he had been holding back with these two already.


    "I know Reece, I was just curious to know what was going on." I had put a calming tone in my voice. "Carry on."


    "Queen Trinity?" Gabriel had questioned me with worry, but I didn''t let him finish.


    "Hush Gabriel, this is needed."


    "The people you were waiting for are here, and it''s still between you and me." Reece goaded the two men before him.


    "It''s more than just us." The man with bright orange hair scoffed back at him.


    "Precisely." The brown hair man added. "Nearly the entire vige is here, along with our Watcher and the Queen." They smirked like they thought that this was the end of it all.


    "But the issue is just between us. You heard them, we are to continue." I was slowly walking to the side so that I could see Reece''s face more, and I just barely caught the grin on his face.


    "You can''t do this." The first man, with the orange hair, spoke out with annoyance.


    "We''ve done nothing wrong." The other one added.


    "This can be settled easily." Gabriel called out. "Swear your undying loyalty to the Queen and King right here and now. Make an unbreakable oath to them to follow them until they release you from service."


    "How could you ask that of us?" The orange haired man seemed shocked.


    "How is it that you would even hesitate, Charles? Isn''t that why we all joined the Sentinelle? Did you not already vow to devote your life to the Queen when she was sent by the Goddess? That is true for all of us, is it not true for you and Ralph?"


    "Gabriel, we will be loyal, but to swear this type of oath, that would put us at their mercy." The man named Ralph looked as if someone had just punched him in the gut when he heard Gabriel''s words. Charles didn''t look much better.


    "We are all at their mercy, that is the whole reason we exist. If it had not been for our devotion to the Goddess, we would all have perished so long ago. I realize that the two of you are among the younger of our numbers, but you have been here long enough to know what it is we are meant to do."


    "I did not sign up to serve a brute like him." Charles pointed at Reece, his hand shaking. "Or a half-breed mongrel like her. I will not pledge my loyalty to someone not fit to rule us."


    "The Goddess has decreed that she is the only one worthy to take her ce, This is not up to you." Ghirald looked stricken by those words, angered and upset to hear such disrespectful words.


    I saw the anger intensify on the faces of all my guards, not to mention that rage that red in Reece''s eyes. They were pissed, that was easy to see. These men would not take lightly to me being bad mouthed. Even Dietrich and the Warlocks looked angrier than I could ever imagine.


    "You''re going to regret saying those words." Reece snarled.


    "Really?" Charles looked cocky when he heard Reece''s words.


    "Do you think you can take both of us by yourself?" Ralph asked.


    "Most definitely." The smirk on Reece''s face was definitely full of confidence and his voice rang with a note of authority.


    "Do you truly intend to fight your king?" The man who hade to collect me and Gabriel was appalled.


    "He is not my king." Charles looked even angrier.


    "And when he fails to beat us, then you all will see that he is not fit to be here, and neither is she." Ralph added.


    Following that scene, Reece fought the two men alone. They had tried to be crafty and tricky, but he won in the end. It was also the battle where Reece had be a Lycan for the first time. Damn was that a sexy part of the scene. He was such an amazing fighter and the best man I had ever known.


    The men were alive and well, with bruised egos and body but there was nothing else wrong with them.


    "How is it that this changed anything? What could possibly have happened to make this scene worse than what we have already seen?" I was confused for a moment, not sure what it was that the other me wanted to show me right now.


    "Come now, Trinity, you did not think that this was going to be it, did you? This scene, this memory is far from over. I would like you to have more faith in me than that. That you would doubt me and my story telling so much wounds me. Do you intend to cause me pain or was that just an added perk for you?" She was grinning right now, having fun as she acted like I had made things so much worse. Like I was a monster that relished in the pain of others.. She was truly a sadistic person. UGH!

 Chapter 628 - 45- Trinity – What I Have Done Part 8 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 628 - 45- Trinity ¨C What I Have Done Part 8 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ***DURING THIS REFLECTION CHAPTER, SOME OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS ARE BROUGHT UP, THIS IS MORE OF A FLASHBACK CHAPTER DURING TRINITY''S REFLECTION***


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Now, Trinity, do you remember this scene here? This event that led to so much eventual destruction?" The other me was smirking at me as the images changed before us once again.


    "My Queen, what is it you have summoned me for?" Gabriel asked as soon as we were seated in the room I used at the Sentinelle.


    "Frankly, Gabriel, I want to know if today is going to have any longsting repercussions." I guess even back then I had fears that my actions were going to cause problems like this. Was I just being paranoid? Or was this something that needed to be thought of more carefully?


    "What kind of repercussions are you speaking of, your grace?" Perkins was the one to ask this question while Gabriel seemed a little taken aback by my words.


    "Will the rest of the Sentinelle view us as enemies now? Will they be too afraid or angry to serve us in any capacity? What will be of our status here? Will we even be able to aplish our objectives?" I loaded him with question after question, my worries leaking out even though I did my best to remain calm.


    "My Queen, I think all will be just fine." Ghirald was the first to answer.


    "I agree." Perkins nodded.


    "They are indeed correct, Queen Trinity. It was necessary for the King to put those behaving impudently into their ce. The King and you both need to be firm in situations like these. There are none that truly believe in our ways that will be disheartened or unsettled by your actions." Gabriel confirmed for me.


    "So, you have no problem with the oue from today?" Reece asked him.


    "No, quite the opposite, King Reece. Today showed the others what I already knew to be true. You two are very much Goddess-blessed. King Reece has been granted the only Lycan form in over two thousand years. And our Queen has had so many blessings, not just from the Goddess Nehalennia, but also from the God Thoth. Who could rightfully deny someone so proven worthy by the Gods?" Gabriel was as reverent as always when he spoke about me.


    "Gabriel, if I may?" Dietrich interrupted.


    "Yes, Lord Dietrich?"


    "What will be of those two? How will they be punished?" Dietrich was more concerned with the more immediate aspects of the day''s events.


    "They will most definitely need to be punished. The method for that can be decided by our leaders. Or as the acting Watcher and highest authority in the organization, I can decide the punishment myself."


    "What type of punishment would be normal for something like this?" Dietrich wondered.


    "We have never had something like this happen before, so I must admit that there is no precedent for the punishment. If there is something that our esteemed rulers would like to suggest, then we will most certainly ept that as the intended punishment." Gabriel seemed a little uncertain as he spoke, clearly thinking through everything he had ever learned before.


    "Is execution an option?" Reece smirked.


    "Yeah, I like that idea." Vincent chimed in.


    "Vincent?!" I yelled his name in shock.


    "Why are you only yelling at me?"


    "Him I expect that sort of childish response from. But you? You''re supposed to be better than that." I shot him a disappointed look causing his face to fall with guilt.


    "I''m sorry Trinity. It''s just I will not ept someone mistreating my Luna in such a way. They need to be punished."


    "And they will be. But their wrong doings do not warrant such a harsh punishment." My voice rang with a note of authority and finality.


    "I agree with Trinity, it is not that serious of an issue. They must be punished, and made an example out of, but death is not the option here." Dietrich added his support for me.


    "Why do we need to make an example out of them?" Shane asked, confusion written all over his young-looking face.


    "Because, dear brother, Trinity and Reece will not be able tomand respect if they do not use this opportunity to show everyone that they are willing to retaliate. The only way to rule is through loyalty. And sometimes, you need to show people what it means to be disloyal. Everyone else in this abbey and vige are loyal to the King and Queen, but what if they show weakness to their enemies? Will they still have their respect and loyalty then? No, they need to cement themselves as strong rulers now so that they never lose the loyalty of their followers in the future." Dietrich spoke as if he knew exactly what he was talking about.


    "Do you really think it wille to something like that?" Shawn asked him with a note of worry in his voice.


    "Ja meine Geliebte, I do. It is exactly what I had to do." There was a faraway look on Dietrich''s face, like he was remembering something from a long time ago. Something that wasn''t exactly pleasant but gave a wistful feeling of fondness, nheless.


    "You did?" Shawn looked worried for his mate.


    "Worry not, Liebling, there is nothing to worry about now."


    "Will banishment and stripping them of their status in the Sentinelle be efficient for this matter?" I asked Gabriel and Dietrich.


    "Stripping them of their ranks will make them normal citizens. They will not be given the same advantages that we of the Sentinelle are privy to."


    "Such as?" David asked, speaking up for the first time in this situation.


    "We were frozen in time while we waited for the new Queen to be named. Once she epted her role we would begin our lives again, however, at a much slower rate. We can again find mates and will age, but we will not age at the same rate that everyone else does. Those in the order will age as slowly as the Queen and King, allowing us to better serve her during her entire reign."


    "So, what, they will be forced to age at a normal rate?" Reece asked, not satisfied with that as a punishment.


    "That, or possibly even faster to make up for their unnaturally long lives."


    "So, their lives will be shortened?" Reece smirked.


    "Possibly. I am not certain." Gabriel was answering all the questions while the other two men just stared on in awe.


    "Is there anything else that we can do to punish them? They don''t even deserve to call themselves wolves anymore." Reece ground out.


    "What if I were to seal away their wolves? They would never again be able to shift, hear their wolf''s thoughts or emotions. They would most likely lose the extra senses that we have as shifters. In a sense, it would be like I made them human." This was when I got my sudden idea of sealing away the wolves for the two men.


    "That is quite the fate." Perkins looked shocked, but not against the idea.


    "It is the life that I thought I was going to live, until I finally shifted for the first time. I thought I would never be a shifter. If it can be granted by a Goddess, then it can be taken away by one as well. This will help serve as a reminder not to just the Sentinelle, but the world. If I can sever the link someone has with their animal form, then they will think twice about crossing us. Likewise, we can also spread the knowledge that I have unlocked new shifting forms. Whether I can do that for other people I don''t know, but I am guessing it will help people to remain loyal if they think they might be granted something extra."


    "That is actually a very good idea." Dietrich smirked and looked at me with a proud glint in his eyes.


    "And I like that they will no longer be wolves. They don''t deserve it." Vincent added.


    "And, they will probably have to listen to us still, won''t they?" Reece grinned with a wicked light in his eyes.


    "I must concur with them, your grace, it seems to be the best punishment avable, and a fitting one as well." Ghirald smiled happily.


    "So, the punishment for their crimes will be the sealing of their wolf and banishment."


    "With the banishment wille a cklisting to all packs worldwide. They will be forced to live life without any aid from the shifters ever again."


    "That sounds much more appealing to me." Reece''s voice held a slight growling edge as he gleefully spoke thosest words.


    "Will you be able to pass judgment tomorrow, Queen Trinity? Or would you prefer to wait a little longer?" Perkins looked at me with expectant eyes, but I didn''t know which answer he was hoping for.


    "I think I will let them stew in the dungeons a little longer." I smirked. "No need to rush things." At that, everyone in the room smiled like they were quite pleased with my answer.


    "All that I did during that time was decide to seal away their wolves, how did that cause destruction? I don''t understand any of this? What is going on? Why would you bring this up again? Why would you make me remember this now?"


    "There are things that came from thister on, Trinity, this that you don''t yet know of.. Let me continue, please, and I will be able to share them with you."

 Chapter 629 - 46- Trinity – What I Have Done Part 9 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 629 - 46- Trinity ¨C What I Have Done Part 9 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ***DURING THIS REFLECTION CHAPTER, SOME OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS ARE BROUGHT UP, HOWEVER THIS CHAPTER HAS MORE NEW STORY THAN THE PREVIOUS TWO***


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "What is it that you need to show me? Please, just get it over with. Just tell me what it is that I need to know. I am ready for this to end already."


    "There is still much for you to see. Come now Trinity, you know that it is not over yet."


    The images changed again, this time it was the day that the punishment was enacted for the two traitors at the abbey. This day was not a good memory for me because I had felt terrible doing this to them.


    "Thank you all for gathering on such short notice." Gabriel greeted the gathered crowd before the abbey. He and Ghirald then went on to exin the crimes of the two men that were going to be punished.


    "These two did not just prove untrustworthy." Gabriel''s voice became deeper and angrier as he spoke. "They outright insulted our Queen and King. They outright refused to ept them as the Goddess-chosen royals. They even dared to fight against our King, who is the only wolf to be granted a Lycan form in over two thousand years. If any of you needed another confirmation as to the validity of their positions, that is yet another indicator, another proof if you will."


    There seemed to be no doubt in any of the eyes I could see. The crowd listened with rapt attention as the men before them spoke. But now it was my time to take the lead.


    Moving to stand between Gabriel and Ghirald, I raised my voice to address the crowd.


    "These men have shown that they are no ally of ours. Mine or yours. We are all in danger as long as they know what our ns are. I do not believe their crimes warrant death, but they cannot remain among us. They must be punished for their actions. For that matter, they will be stripped of their status by the Sentinelle, allowing them to age again. As no one knows what this will do to their bodies, they may have a shortened life span now." I saw genuine fear take the lead on the two faces that were looking up at me. Their anger dropped and fear took over. "Furthermore." I began again. "They have expressed no desire to follow the leader of their people. The Goddess chose me to be the queen not just of the wolves but of every shifter on this. If they choose not to follow my lead or mymand, then they have no need, no right, to call themselves wolves."


    Another ripple ran through the audience at my words. There was curiosity on all the faces looking at me from the crowd.


    "Since these men are not worthy of being wolves, I will be locking that part of them away along with all their memories of the abbey. They will no longer be able to find their way back here. They will live out the rest of their lives as humans."


    "No, you can''t do this!" Ralph yelled when he heard my deration.


    "No, she can''t. She doesn''t have that ability." Charles seemed petnt as he spoke.


    "I wish you would have shown at least a little remorse, Charles. But the fact that you didn''t means that I no longer feel sorry for what I must do." I gave him a look that I know was full of anger and frustration.


    I moved forward and proceeded to lock away their wolves, all the while they were yelling at me.


    "No, no, no, no, no!" Ralph was screaming over and over again.


    "No, how could you? You can''t do this to me. Give me my wolf back you bitch." Charles screamed at me with venom dripping from his words.


    "Pay heed to how you address my wife." Reece snarled at him.


    "Fuck you and your wife!" Charles yelled back to Reece. "Give me my damn wolf back. I can''t hear him. Did you kill my wolf? You bitch, you murdered my wolf!" Charles began to thrash on the ground yelling while Ralph began to sob with his head bent toward the ground.


    "My wolf." Ralph moaned. "My wolf."


    "You bitch. You will never rule. I will see to it that you never rule our people."


    There was a rush of movement as six men rushed past me all at once. Frustrated by Charles'' constant berating and foulnguage, Reece, Dietrich, and all the guards had moved in unison. Not paying attention to the actions of the others and focusing on their own task, they all sixnded a kick on him at the same time. Their feet allnded in various points from his head, abdomen, groin (that one was Vincent) and legs. Charles'' ranting and raving ended abruptly with a very painful sounding cry.


    "I told you to watch your mouth, asshole." Reece snarled as he walked back to me and put his hand around my waist.


    "I''m not done yet, Reece, I need to lock their memories." I told him, causing him to retract his hand from my waist and instead settle it on my shoulder.


    Shane and David violently pulled Charles back up so that he was sitting on his knees again. He was still ring at me with angry eyes, but this time they were filled with tears and rimmed in red. Was he crying because of his wolf or the pain of six kicks?


    After I did my best to seal their memories away, the two men passed out on the ground and everyone around us thought they had died.


    "Don''t worry, they are merely sleeping." I told everyone looking on who had gasped when the men fell over. "I require some volunteers. I want these two men removed from the vige and taken somewhere safe. Leave them money and any of their belongings that does not mention the abbey. They will wake in twelve hours." I felt the ripple of magic that meant the sleep spell wouldst just that long. "They need to be far enough away that they will not even remember what country the abbey is in."


    Several people offered to help, and the men were removed from the abbey. This was where the scene went into things that I had never seen before. The men were taken to a ne and flown to a small vige in Spain that had a small wolf pack. They woke up there with no memories as to how they had gotten there or why.


    It was clear that they remembered each other but they couldn''t figure out where they knew each other from. This not knowing actually caused much anger and resentment to form inside of them.


    I watched as the men tried to make ends but were struggling since they didn''t have any real-world skills. Unable to provide for themselves, they started to pige viges like pirates or barbarians from previous generations. During their rampages, they destroyed homes, businesses, and lives. They kidnapped women to please themselves. They held people hostage for ransom. And they killed. They killed a lot of people until the local wolf pack stepped in to save everyone.


    The wolf pack could tell that the two men had been wolves but were unable to contact their animals anymore. However, they didn''t take pity on them, they executed the men for the crimes that they hadmitted. Only then did the rampage finally end.


    "Do you see now, Trinity? You sent those angry men into the world to allow them to destroy so many more lives until they were eventually executed. All because you were not strong enough at the time to kill someone. You allowed so many more people to be hurt because you did not have what it took to end it all right then and there."


    "I didn''t want to be a killer! I didn''t want to have their blood on my hands." I felt horrified by what I had seen. This was devastating, and it was all my fault.


    "Things get worse from here, Trinity. Much worse."


    "Please, I don''t want to see anymore of it. Don''t show me anything else. Please."


    "We have a few other things that need to be shown, Trinity. I promise you that it is almost over. Just a few more."


    "Please, no.. I can''t take it. Please!"

 Chapter 630 - 47- Trinity – What I Have Done Part 10 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 630 - 47- Trinity ¨C What I Have Done Part 10 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The other me refused to listen to my pleas for mercy. She just put her hand into that bag at her feet with a smile on her face. That smile of hers didn''t falter at all either. Not when she threw the dust into the fire and caused it to surge to life once again. Not when the firelight flickered eerily on her face making her look like some sort of evil creature. And definitely not when the screen reformed for the next crazy ass disy.


    "This next one is one of your biggest mistakes, Trinity. There were so many lives lost this time, so many people that died because you had not been able to stop your father."


    "When will that stop being something that you torment me with? When will my father''s actions be his own responsibility and not mine?"


    "Do you not remember, Trinity? You killed your father. He is no longer able to take responsibility for his actions. And since you are the one that snuffed out his life, his sins now fall on you, since you are his daughter."


    "I don''t want his sins. And I don''t want to be known as his daughter. He was a crazy, psychotic asshole. Don''t lump me into the same category as him." I was angry at her now. The images on the screen hadn''t even started yet, but I was pissed off about them already.


    "I think that you need to see what I have to show you, Trinity. You might just be surprised about what you learn."


    The other me looked at the screen then and the images finally appeared before us. It was time for me to learn about another of my sins from a different perspective.


    The screen was showing me the battle that had been waged when Edmond attacked Colorado Springs. There were thousands of people there to aid us in the defense of our city and our pack. There were shifters of several different types such as wolves, felines, bears, and birds. There were more shifters than that in the world, but I hadn''t summoned them at the time, not knowing that they were part of my people as well.


    These scenes were from the battlefield. The time when those hideously grotesque looking misshaped monster people had swarmed us and caused us to have such a hard time. These monsters had also been imbued with magic to make them harder to kill.


    "At this point in time, not only did you lose people that were fighting on your side, but you also ughtered all of those people. They had been victims of Edmond''s and they were forced to do what they did. However, you and your warriors ughtered them without a second thought." The other me''s words sent shivers down my spine and made me shoot my head up to look at her.


    "W..wh..what? A..are you telling me that they c..c..could have been s..s..saved?" I felt bile rising in my throat. Did I kill people that could have been saved and returned to normal? D..d..did I do something so unimaginably and unspeakably horrible? "What did I do? How could I do that?"


    "Perhaps yes, perhaps no. I do not truly know if they were able to be saved or not, Trinity. However, I do know that you never tried to save them. Look at these images. Look at how you just senselessly killed them without a second thought."


    Despite her words, the other me was looking at the images with a gleeful smile on her face. She was enjoying what she saw. She was taking joy in the frightening images that she saw before her.


    And as I watched on, seeing what made her so happy, I had to fight not to feel proud of myself. I had always looked back on memories of this battle with pride and a sense of aplishment. We had won, we had saved the town, we had protected the ones that we loved, and we had barely lost anyone in the process.


    However, looking at it now. Thinking about it the way that I was now. I had apletely different opinion of the past.


    As much as I didn''t want to admit it, the other me had a point. I didn''t try to save any of those people. I didn''t try to capture them and separate them. I just destroyed them because they looked like monsters.


    I thought that I was doing the right thing. I thought that I was protecting everyone. But I didn''t protect them. I stopped thinking of them as people and only saw them as beasts. What a horribly selfish thing for me to do. How could I have just thrown away their lives like that? How could I have been so cruel?


    "Do you see the error of your ways now, Trinity? Do you see why you bear the responsibility for the death of so many people that day? You allowed them to be created and then you destroyed them without thinking about them at all. It was such a sad, sad day. Do you not agree?"


    The other me was trying to get a rise out of me. She wanted me to get angry. I had figured that part out by watching her responses. She enjoyed it when I got angry or sad or any negative emotions really.


    Well, I wasn''t going to give her the satisfaction anymore. I wasn''t going to let her get to me, never again.


    "Yes, I see the error of my ways, but I cannot go back and change them now, can I?"


    "No, Trinity, you cannot. And you cannot hide what you are feeling. You may think that it is hidden from me, but it is not. I can still feel it inside of you. That turmoil of anger and sadness rolling around inside of you. That is what you need right now. You need to learn more about it."


    "And if I take that turmoil and do something really bad with it, what then? What would happen if I let myself be run by those feelings?" The anger was rising to the surface as I spoke, and I could tell that the other me was liking that as well.


    "That is what I am here to prevent, Trinity. You will see what I mean soon enough.. For now though, please just keep watching."

 Chapter 631 - 48- Trinity – What I Have Done Part 11 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 631 - 48- Trinity ¨C What I Have Done Part 11 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I focused on the images again, trying my best to ignore the annoying presence of the other me. You know, I truly hope that I am nowhere near as annoying as she is. If I were, I would not me everyone that knew me for secretly hating me. Because right now, I was hating that other me.


    I was watching as I ran across the battlefield after Shawn had been hurt. I was running to check on him, and Reece, having seen me running away, started to follow me. Reece, however, he had to tread carefully since I had left behind a trail of ice. I also looked different, something that I had never known about until now.


    As I focused on myself on the screen, I saw that my eyes were more white than usual and spinning like they were cameras zooming in and out of focus. Was that how my eyes looked when I saw things that were far away? That was kind of cool.


    Not only were my eyes different, so was my body. I was covered in a thinyer of ice, and I was giving off a sapphire blue glow. Huh! No wonder I was leaving behind ice when I ran, I was covered in a magicalyer of it as well.


    While I was running off to find Shawn and to make sure that he was OK, I was enveloped in that purple fog that was Edmond''s calling card. It swirled around me, and I remembered that it even went in through my mouth and nose. It was filling me up and made it so that I couldn''t move or draw a breath. It was horrible, and tasted disgusting as well.


    The fog swirled me to another ce. Somewhere that looked like the battlefield that I had just been on, but it was nowpletely devoid of color and people.


    "WAIT A MINUTE!" I shouted and leapt to my feet with a sudden thought. "Is that ce the same as this ce? Was I already here once before?" I started to try and remember if Edmond had said where we were, but I couldn''t remember it at all. His words were all a jumbled mess from that time.


    "Indeed, you were here. Or close to here at least. That ce and this ce are both part of the underworld. The one you visited on that day was the closest to the surface. It is the ce that souls go when they leave their bodies. Only, that time, you were taken there physically and not metaphysically as you are now. That ce is just the start of the underworld''s manyyers."


    "OK, and what part am I in now? Where am I in the underworld''s manyyers?"


    "You are in the realm of self-reflection. This is where peoplee to terms with their sins and learn their fate. You are not dead, so it is not your fate that you seek, but a way out."


    "Great. So that is why I am not allowed out of here." I sighed and sat back down, it was the only thing that I could do.


    "Exactly. Now you are starting to understand." The other me smiled and gave me a look that was, at least I think it was, supposed to be reassuring.


    "You could have exined all of these things to me sooner you know. That would have made all of this a lot easier on both of us."


    "But where is the fun in that?" That stupid, creepy, evil grin of hers didn''t look good on my face. I just wanted to smack it off of it right away.


    "Whatever, let''s continue."


    The images on the screen started to move again. I saw myself looking around the clearing until Edmond showed up.


    "Hello there, daughter of mine." I heard Edmond''s voice from behind me. I whipped around to face him with anger in my eyes.


    "You." I growled at him through my clenched teeth.


    "And here I thought you would be happy to have a nice family reunion with your dear old daddy."


    "Don''t ever fucking call yourself my dad, father, or daddy. I only have one dad and his name is Wesley."


    "I hate to break it to you little girl, but I am your father, and there is no other one but me."


    "You''re a fucking sperm donor that kidnapped my mother and ruined her life. Then you tried to kill me as well. That makes you anything but my family, you son of a bitch."


    "As if you know anything about your grandparents." He scoffed.


    "When did you kill your mother, Edmond?" I asked him, unable to bite my tongue on that one.


    "See, you are my child. You know me so well already. Yes, we both murdered our mothers. Your existence took everything from your mother and drove her to suicide. And me, well, I took my mother''s life personally, hers and dear old dad''s. I needed their life force to strengthen my magic and to create my coven. Let''s see, they died a little over three hundred years ago now." He chuckled to himself.


    "You''re a fuckin monster."


    "You haven''t heard the worst of it." He chuckled to himself. "I was the leading force behind the Salem Witch Trials. I was the one who nted it all in the minds of the humans. I told them about the existence of my kind, I showed them my parents as they were practicing their magic. From there it all just took off like wildfire. It was quite fun really."


    "You let all those people kill your parents?" I gasped.


    "No, weren''t you listening? I killed them myself. I used the hatred of the humans to fuel the witch hunts. My parents were the first to be killed in the trials, and I myself set them on fire. Of course, I had cast a spell ahead of time and was prepared to take their power into me. The sorrow in the heart of my parents, and the hatred from the humans, those delicious emotions blended together to make quite the astounding boost to my power."


    "I take back what I said before."


    "What''s that sweetheart?"


    "You''re not a monster."


    "See, all yo-." He began before I cut him off.


    "You''re a fucking psychopathic murdering asshole."


    "You will talk to me with respect." He glowered at me.


    "Really? Or what?" I demanded of him.


    "You will live a shorter life." Heughed at me.


    "You''re already nning to kill me anyway."


    "Yes, but I wanted to have a nice chat first. Keep acting like that, and I will just kill you now."


    "Oh no, heaven forbid it, I cannot have that happening, now can I?"


    "Don''t press your luck, you little bitch. I''m trying to be generous. I thought you would like an exnation before you died. But you can just die now, being as ignorant as you are. If you''re content dying ignorant, then so be it; I won''t stop you."


    "What makes you think I am ignorant of anything?" I yelled at him. "What makes you act all high and mighty, thinking you''re better than me? Why do you think I do not know anything about you or your people?"


    "Foolish little girl, where would you have learned about it all?" He looked at me with his eerily light-colored eyes and smirked. "I destroyed the Aerie Convento the day you arrived, taking that unborn abomination with it."


    "Abomination? Abomination? That abomination was my baby, your grandchild. It would have had warlock blood coursing through it."


    "Yes, but it was too tainted with beast men to be usable to me. I didn''t know about, or intend to kill it, but it was an added bonus."


    "You bastard. You heartless, demonic bastard." I was shaking from my anger. I was ready to kill him.


    "Wait a minute. You didn''t show me the battle at the Aerie Convento. Why was that? Was it not enough of a sin of mine? Did losing my baby not count for this whole self-reflection thing of yours?"


    "You were the one to suffer the most from that. There was no need to make you reflect on that day because you have already done so.." The other me seemed to be employing rules that made absolutely no sense to me right now.

 Chapter 632 - 49- Trinity – What I Have Done Part 12 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 632 - 49- Trinity ¨C What I Have Done Part 12 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Come now, Trinity, let us continue." The other me looked back at the screen and the frozen images started to move again. My sperm donor, the man that I would never think of as my father, wasughing almost hysterically for what I had said.


    "How many of your children have you killed, Edmond? How many women did you destroy to get those children? Don''t you feel anything for the flesh and blood that you lost?" I screamed the words at him, my fury boiling over.


    "If they''re not strong enough to survive, then that''s on them. I feel nothing for the loss of them or their mothers. They were tools and vessels, and they were all broken. I have no need for broken things."


    "Did you ever think that you were the broken thing, you asshole? Did you ever think that they would have grown up powerful and strong if you didn''t torment or torture them all to death?" The wind around me and Edmond on the screen started to stir and I saw a lot of phantom eyes staring at us. Those were my dead siblings. So many children were lost to the horrors of my father. At least the other me wasn''t ming me for their deaths.


    "Nonsense. They were weak and needed to be plucked from the pool. You had potential, so much potential. But your body chose wolf over warlock so you''re no longer of use to me."


    "You''re the one no longer needed." I yelled at him. "And that''s why I am going to kill you."


    "Ha, you kill me. That''s the funniest thing I have heard in a long time."


    "Do you hear meughing, asshole?" I snarled at him. "You''re one piece of trash this world never needed, and it''s time to clean things up."


    "I told you to watch what you said about me, you useless little mongrel slut. I will make you wish you''d never met that mate of yours. That would have been the only way for you to have survived, you know. But now you''re a tainted piece of mongrel scum."


    "You''re going to rue the day you decided to experiment on unborn children, you crazy fuck."


    A lot of tense seconds passed as the two of us stared at each other.


    "Fuck you, Edmond." I spoke onest time before I curled myself into a fighting stance.


    From there the fighting started. We insulted each other several times during the fight. He called me an animal and I called him an asshole. To be honest, neither one of those were insults, they were the truth. I am an animal since I am part wolf and he truly was an asshole.


    In the beginning of the battle between us, Edmond had been winning. I was still learning my powers and the changes that had been happening inside of me. Still, after a little while I had the advantage. I was pinning him to the ground, and he was ring at me.


    "If you had just left me alone, just ignored my existence, I probably wouldn''t be what I am today. So, in a way, I should thank you." Iughed in his angry face.


    "And what exactly are you?"


    "I am the Luna of my pack, the daughter of Wesley, Eve, and Lily. I am the mate of the Alpha, the leader of the Red Springs Wolf Pack. But above all that, more than anything else, I am the Luna Queen, the new incarnate of the Goddess Nehalennia, and I have been given the title of Warlock Queen, the chosen child of Thoth. I am so far above you and your paltry little antics that I do not need to justify anything to you, Edmond."


    "That''s impossible. There is no way that any of that is true." He spat the words into my face with a vehemence that was all too clear. "There is no way that a worthless little girl like you would be anything, let alone chosen by any of the celestials. You''re lying to me."


    "You only wish I was lying to you. Do these bindings not speak for themselves?"


    "But how? How did you get to be granted so much power? How did you get what it is that all we warlocks want? How?" He was hyperventting now, angrier than ever before.


    "Because of you, Edmond. If it hadn''t been for you ying at being a god, then there would never have been a need for me. So, as you see, I only exist because of you. You made me into what I am today. Aren''t you just so proud of me?" I held a note ofughter in my voice as I spoke, knowing that it would make him angrier the longer I spoke.


    "That''s impossible. You should have been just a wolf or a witch, it''s inconceivable that you would be so equally bnced in both. How did you manage to learn magic?" He was grasping at straws, trying to keep me talking more and more to buy him just a little more time.


    "You may have destroyed the Aerie Convento, but you did not destroy the magic council. They apanied me to train and teach me about my other side. I know all the histories of your people Edmond, because they are my people as well. I was granted the mark by Thoth himself." With those words I pointed to where the ankh mark was on my right shoulder.


    "Thoth was a stupid man and is an even more stupid god, he is too sentimental and naive, that is why he was unable to ept Hekate''s true nature." Edmond seemed to be rambling now, talking would buy him more time after all.


    "Thoth was a kind and generous man, and a father that cared for his children, but the loss of his wife nearly destroyed him. Hekate was the one who caused it all, she should have been punished further for her actions, but Thoth loved her too much for that."


    "Shut up, you don''t know what you''re talking about. You''re an idiotic little child, you know nothing."


    "No, Edmond, you don''t know what you''re talking about, and I grow weary of your antics. It''s time for me to end this."


    "This will end when I say it does!" Edmond screamed at me. "And not a fucking minute sooner, you ungrateful whelp. If it wasn''t for me and my experimentations, you wouldn''t fucking exist. Remember that. Remember that it''s all thanks to me that you even have a chance at life. And you need to remember that it''s me that can take all of that away from you. I gave you your life, and I am more than capable, and definitely more than willing, to take it from you." His ranting finally came to an end, along with the holier than thou tone he always used.


    "If you think you''re a match for someone chosen by a god and a goddess, then bring it on you psychopathic freak. I don''t think you have it in you to beat me. That''s the problem with you. You always let other people do the real fighting, the real dirty work, all while you sit there and threaten them like you''re someone special." I watched as Edmond''s face nched, he obviously couldn''t handle the truth.


    "Watch that fucking mouth of yours, you little bitch. Shut it, before I shut it for you."


    "Oh no, I''m quaking in my boots. Someone help me please." I pretended to shake and shiver like I was afraid, deliberately overying the action forical effect.


    "I regret ever making you. You''re the most useless of all my creations. You''ve been nothing but a damn thorn in my side since day one. The mere sight of you even killed your mother. If she hadn''t been destroyed just by the idea of you then I could have used her as a way to control you. She would have been the remote control for me to use wherever I might have needed to. But no, no one wanted you when you were born, not even your good for nothing mother."


    "You know nothing about families, Edmond."


    "Families are for the weak and simple. Families hold you down and stop you from reaching your potential. What need would I have for a family? What good would they do for me? I am too ambitious and powerful for a family."


    While Edmond rambled on, the children around us solidified and became more real. They had taken form. And it wasn''t just the eyes, I could see faces and bodies forming as well.. They were the ghosts of the kids he had killed, and this was where they stepped in to help me.

 Chapter 633 - 50- Trinity -What I Have Done Part 13 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 633 - 50- Trinity -What I Have Done Part 13 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I remember that when I first caught sight of the face looking at us, I had been momentarily terrified. I had thought that some demons hadtched onto Edmond and followed him into this world, this ce of gray emptiness. I thought that there might be some new enemying after me before I had even dealt with thest threat.


    Then I looked closer at the faces, at the people surrounding us. That had been when I realized who they were and why they were there.


    "Did you pay any attention to your children, Edmond? Any at all?" I asked him. I had wanted to buy some time to allow my siblings time to fully form.


    "What need would I have of looking closely at them? They were mongrel half breeds."


    "If you hate half breeds so much, why did you make so many? Why did you put so much time and effort into their creation? The idea of it all simply baffles me." He had to know that his words made no sense at all.


    "It was simple really. Like I told you before, I needed spies, agents on the inside. I needed children born from the enemy ns that would have their trust and not be questioned. In a sense, they would be sleeper agents."


    "Were there ever any of your children that survived your special attention? Were there any sleeper agents that you were actually able to imnt for future activation?"


    "There were a few that managed to be programmed for future activation. But they seemed to behave differently once they were sent home. So much so that they were noticed."


    "Does that mean they were destroyed?" I asked this out of genuine curiosity, and to know if I had to find and deprogram all his little sleeper cells.


    "Yes, unfortunately. As of this moment, you are the only living child of mine. The others have all been eliminated."


    "That must have been difficult for you." I tried to sound soothing, to give words like you would to any other grieving father. Apparently, my efforts were wasted.


    "Yes, it was quite the pain. I spent much of my long life preparing for their missions, only for my tools to be destroyed before I could enact even one step of my n. It truly was an annoyance."


    "You don''t feel anything about them being killed? About them having died for no reason beside their affiliation with you?"


    "What would there be for me to feel? Why do you keep asking me about this? Why do you keep going in circles with this?" He seemed annoyed now.


    "You''re stalling." Edmond chuckled as he stated the obvious. "You know you can''t win and so you''re stalling. This is perfect." He was smiling like a lunatic, his eyes full of some form of psycho I didn''t even want toe close to analyzing. "Just give me a few more minutes, I will be out of these bindings of yours, and I will finish this for you. You obviously seem too scared to even try."


    "Such a delusional dumbass." I shook my head and pinched the bridge of my nose. "How did you manage to live this long being so stupid?"


    "Me, stupid? You must be mistaken, you bitch. I am not stupid in the slightest."


    "Oh, you must be, there is no other excuse for you being too blind that you think I am scared right now."


    "You''re stalling for time. What other reason could it be than fear?"


    "I was buying time for them." I answered.


    "For who?" He looked confused, like he didn''t understand a word I said. "None of your little friends can get here, you know. We''repletely alone, and that''s how you will die."


    "We''re not alone." I smirked at him. "I have family here with me."


    "What family? You refuse to recognize me as family, remember."


    "Look around you Edmond and say hello to my family." I did as I told him to, waving to the hundreds of siblings I had never been able to meet.


    I watched as Edmond''s face fell. The look in his eyes went from cocky and arrogant to one filled with nothing but fear.


    "No, this isn''t possible." His voice even cracked as he spoke.


    "It most definitely is, Edmond. Say hello to your children." I grinned as he finally understood.


    "How are they here? How is this even happening?" Edmond nearly screamed.


    "We have always been with you, Father. We have all been with you and waiting for this opportunity." One of the boys said.


    "Yes, Father, we''ve been waiting for you." One of the angry-looking girls spoke.


    "You have yed right into our hands, finally."


    "Why have you attached yourselves to me, you heathens." Edmond screamed at them.


    "Heathens? Us? No, Father," another sneer, "you are the heathen. You are the one who takes pride in destruction."


    "You are the one who has plotted the destruction and downfall of not only your own flesh and blood but also the world." They all spoke in unison, and I could swear I heard the voices of Thoth and Nehalennia mixed in among them.


    There was nothing for me to do for the time being. I just needed to listen and watch the show around me.


    "You were all my tools, my experiments. You wouldn''t have lived if it wasn''t for me." Edmond tried iming that stupid logic again.


    "And none of our deaths would have urred if not for you either. You are nothing more than a blight on society, and it is time for you to be eliminated." They were continuing to speak in unison, their voices sounding eerie, but powerful.


    "You can''t! You won''t! I won''t let you!" Edmond was screaming now, frantic with fear.


    "It''s time to face the music, Edmond. Time for you to atone for your sins." I told him as I finally joined my siblings in this conversation. "You have been judged by those who you sought to destroy, and you have been found guilty. There will be no second chances or escapes. It all ends here and now."


    "No! I won''t let you." He continued to try and change the minds of us all. But it was to no avail. His fate was sealed.


    "Prepare to die, Edmond." Those were thest words that I said to Edmond.


    After that, the children helped me to kill my father. I had made a phantom hand that swiped at Edmond''s neck and the kids helped me to take his head from his body. I remember that it had been a satisfying moment for me, to see his life end. I hadn''t actually enjoyed it, at least I don''t think I did. But still, I had been d that I didn''t need to worry about him and his psychotic behavior ever again.


    I spoke with my siblings after that, then I took Edmond''s head back to the others. That was the end of the battle, the end of the fight, and the end of an era.. It had been aforting thought. But then, why wasn''t the screen disappearing this time? Why wasn''t it going away like it usually did?

 Chapter 634 - 51- Trinity – The Life Of Edmond (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 634 - 51- Trinity ¨C The Life Of Edmond (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "What else is there for me to see now? I already knew about the lives that were lost during the battle. You told me about the monstrosities. What else is there that I need to know now?"


    "This has nothing to do with the battle, or your sins. I just wanted you to see what the man that you killed was truly like." The other me smirked at me as if this was the most fun that she had ever had. "I think you will find that he had an interesting life."


    "I don''t care if he had an interesting life. He was a crazy ass son of a bitch that tried to destroy me, the world, and everyone that I love. Not to mention, he killed hundreds of his children. He was a monster and nothing about a monster is redeemable or interesting. It''s just good that he is gone, in and simple." I felt myself almost hyperventting after that little tirade. I couldn''t think of Edmond as anything other than a monster. I didn''t want to see what else he was like. The thought was sickening to me.


    "That is quite an evil and dark way to put it, Trinity. Personally, I like it. However, that is not how this ce works. You need to reconcile and ept. And you cannot do that yet, now can you?"


    "I don''t want to reconcile and ept Edmond. I will ept and reconcile everything else, but not Edmond." Was that fear or anger in my voice? I didn''t know which one it was at the moment, but it was there.


    "Just give this a shot, Trinity. I think you will be quite surprised by the time that it is over."


    When she finished speaking, the images on the screen started to y again. It was just after I left the battlefield. The children were gone as well. All that was left was the headless body of Edmond. What was so exciting about that?


    As I watched though, there was this purple thread that started toe out of Edmond''s neck. That thread was actually much bigger than I initially appeared, it had just been twisted to the side.


    Once that thread was turned to the correct direction, I saw that it wasn''t really a thread at all. Instead, it actually looked like it was a reel of film. It looked like the stuff you would find in old movie theaters. And on that film were blurred images.


    "We are going to watch the movie of Edmond''s life, Trinity. Would you like some popcorn?"


    "Ha ha, very funny." I snapped at the other me.


    "I could not pass up the joke. It was the perfect opportunity." Dammit, I would have done the same thing in her position. Maybe we were more alike than I thought.


    The view focused on the film and that was when it stopped being so blurry. Now, I could see the images of a young man and a young woman who seemed to be happy and in love. A handsome man with brown hair and eyes and a beautiful woman with bright blue eyes and blonde hair. The two of them went through their wedding and were living what seemed to be a perfect, yet simple, life. The man worked as a cksmith and the woman was happy at home, with her growing belly.


    I also saw that the two of them did simple little bits of magic here and there. However, they didn''t seem to be too skilled with it. It was like no one had ever taught them what to do. It was cute though, seeing them acting so innocent with it all.


    When the woman gave birth to their baby, they both looked so happy and thrilled. However, when they actually looked at their baby, with his pure white hair and pure white skin, they thought that he was a monster.


    That had been the end of the happy little couple that seemed like they were living the perfect life. The man spent more and more time away from home while the woman did her best to raise the baby that she was so repulsed by.


    The only oddities about Edmond as a baby had been his hair and skin color. He didn''t look any different than other babies. In fact, he reminded me a lot of Talia when she was first born, aside from the coloring that is.


    The woman showed no love toward the baby, yet she made certain that he was fed and clothed at all times. It was like she was afraid of the baby and didn''t know what he would do to her.


    Not only did they hide their baby from everyone in town, they told many of the people around them that their baby had died. This was only possible because Edmond didn''t truly cry as a baby. He was almost eerily silent.


    One night during the movie of Edmond''s life, there was a point where his mother was just standing there, watching him like she thought there was something going on. Edmond was about a year old at this time, and he seemed to be seeing something that wasn''t there. It was like he was seeing a ghost or something that his mother was not invited to know about. During this interaction with the unseen entity, baby Edmond seemed to be baby-talking to someone. He smiled, cooed, and even giggled for that someone. That night, his mother felt like her son truly was a freak.


    Things got worse and worse for the little family. The father would drink every night after work to avoid going home. The mother hid in a corner of the house, barely cleaning and only doing things for the baby when he needed them. She tried her best to ignore her son.


    Despite his mother never teaching him, somehow Edmond learned to walk, talk, and take care of himself. By the time that he was two, he only required meals from his mother. He cleaned himself up and got himself dressed. He just could not make his own food yet.


    No, the making of his own food happened when he was five. He was cooking simple meals on his own while his mother wasted away in the corner.


    Another truly horrible thing that happened to young Edmond, was that from the time that he was two, every time that his father came home from work, he would beat the little boy. It was a miracle that the child didn''t die from the massive blows he received from the big, strong cksmith.


    As a child, Edmond seemed to have no love from anyone at all. He was alone all the time. Yet he still spoke to someone that only he could hear. His mother and his father would often see him sitting alone either inside or outside their home, just talking to himself.


    "What else can I do?" He asked the wall in one part of the movie.


    There was a long pause now like he was listening to someone speak, but there was only the sound of the wind.


    "Can I really do that? But how? Who will show me?"

 Chapter 635 - 52- Trinity – The Life Of Edmond Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 635 - 52- Trinity ¨C The Life Of Edmond Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    As time progressed, so did the beatings that the boy got on a daily basis. The father only drank more, the mother only ignored him more. And yet, still the boy seemed to flourish. He was smart and could read and write even though both of his parents refused to teach him, his mother was illiterate and the father wanted nothing to do with him.


    Aside from that, Edmond was learning more and more magic each day. I was surprised at how much that he could do when he was just seven or eight years old. He was using his magic to build little wooden friends that moved and kept himpany in the woods that surrounded their home. He set fires in the trees and doused them with water before they could destroy more than the one tree that it was on.


    One day when Edmond was about ten or so, his father saw him ''ying'' with his magic and doing things that the man had never seen before. Even though he himself had magic he was nothing when it came to the abilities of his father.


    "What are you doing, boy?" The man grabbed his son by the scruff of the neck and pulled him toward his side. "Are you getting smart with what you can do, boy?" He peppered his words by smacking the boy repeatedly across the face. "You think you can show the people around these parts that stuff, and they wouldn''t get suspicious of you?" He hit the boy this time, only not with his hand open, he had made a fist that he was useing to smack the boy across the face with. "If people see you doing that, they would know we''re different. That is why we work so hard to fit in. That is why we talk properly and are always on our best behavior." He dropped the boy to the ground now, letting him fall onto his back with a soft moan. He started to kick him then, snarling at his son as he spoke. "I knew I should have drowned you the day you were born. I knew we should have gotten rid of you and started over. I knew that you were nothing but trouble when I first saw you."


    By the time that the man''s rant was over, Edmond wasying on the ground covered in blood. He looked like he was dead, and the man just left him there like it didn''t matter. He never even looked back to check on the boy, not once.


    Damn, that was a harsh thing to do. It was beyond harsh. It was sick, twisted, and evil. This is exactly what I didn''t want. I didn''t want to feel sorry for the man that killed so many people. Dammit.


    When Edmond woke up from that beating, he was somehow fully healed. He was still covered in blood but there was nothing at all wrong with him. Someone, or something, had taken care of his injuries for him.


    "To hell with him. To hell with him and mother. I do not need them. I can survive without them. I have my powers and I have Hekate''s guidance. I do not need anything from them." At that point he started to walk in the opposite direction than the house. He was walking further into the woods and away from his parents. He paused for one moment, looked over his shoulder, and made one final deration. "They will pay for this. They will pay with their lives for what they have done to me. That I promise."


    From there I saw a series of events where Edmond struggled to move on in the world. He traveled on his own and did odd jobs, which hepleted using magic, to make money. He didn''t have an easy time of things and often lived like an animal in the woods. He would use magic to protect himself and got into a lot of fights as he got older.


    One day, another Warlock saw Edmond using his powers. That was when he met the man that was in charge of the coven he took over. The man invited Edmond toe back with him and gave him a ce to stay. That was the first time that he had a home where he wasn''t constantly on the receiving end of abuse.


    Edmond quickly fell in love with the idea of the coven and power. He stuck close to their leader and quickly rose in the ranks with how powerful his magic was. After maybe ten years, if that, Edmond killed the leader of the coven and took over. His sheer power level made it easy for the others to follow him. No one even thought about disobeying him.


    After changing the name of the coven, Edmond started to work his evil ns into the coven''s business. He was starting to corrupt them slowly, but he was so talented and charismatic that they never noticed.


    And true to Edmond''s word, when he got older and ran the coven, he went back to the vige where his family was from. As it turns out, that vige was Salem Town, Massachusetts. It was a little bit of time before the witch trials officially started, but he still convinced everyone there that his parents were ''witches''. Despite the fact that they were a real witch and warlock, they had been respectable members of the vige for a long time and it was hard for everyone to believe that this was true.


    The charismatic, and powerful, Edmond used his words and his magic to make them believe. He also made his parents start acting quite strangely. They contorted into odd positions and spoke with odd sounding words.


    "See, everyone, these people are indeed sinners that have consorted with the devil." He pointed at his parents. When he turned to look at them, he grinned. No one else saw it but his parents did.


    From there, Edmond forced his parents to do so much more that proved that they were witches. He rushed the trial and insisted on an immediate execution. While his parents fought for their lives, Edmond relished in their misery. And he had been right about another thing too, his parents looked at him with sorrow in their eyes. Probably, because he had changed the color of his hair with magic and was hiding his appearance.


    After the death of his parents, Edmond started trying to find a way to get to Hekate. He was obsessed with her with a passion that made it seem like he was in love with her. He read everything that he could, spoke to everyone that had knowledge of her. He wanted to find a way to bring her to our world. He wanted to rule the world with her at his side.


    From there, things only got worse. And a lot of that part of his history, I already knew. I knew what became of him in the years after he tried to find Hekate. That was an Edmond that I could never feel sorry for.


    "Do you see now, Trinity? Have you been enlightened about his past and who he was?"


    "All I have found out is that he had an unfortunate childhood. So what, he wasn''t the only one. Lots of people have horrible lives and they don''t grow up to try to, or sessfully, murder thousands of people."


    "You felt sorrow and pity for him, Trinity, I know you did." The other me smirked at me with knowing eyes. "Do you at least know now why he ended up the way that he did?"


    "I don''t care.." I turned my head, refusing to say that I sort of did.

 Chapter 636 - 53- Trinity – What I Have Done Part 14 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 636 - 53- Trinity ¨C What I Have Done Part 14 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Everyone has a past, Trinity. Just like everyone has a future. The things we experience and the things that we do will shape who we are but also how people look at us. If you only see one part of someone''s life, one part of their story, you will never know what they''ve been through or where they end up. Has seeing this helped you to understand that?" The other me was posing this question but I just didn''t want to hear it at all. I just wanted to get things moving some more. I didn''t want to wait around here in this purgatory hell forever.


    "So, your goal here was to make me feel bad for having killed my father? Is that it? Is that what you wanted me to gain from this whole thing? Well, that is never going to happen. I may feel sorrow and pity for the boy that Edmond used to be. I may feel bad for the fact that he missed out on a good life because his parents were shitty. But I will never regret ending his life. He was a monster that needed to be stopped." My shoulders were heaving up and down now as I screamed at her.


    "I did not intend for you to pity the man or regret killing him. I simply wanted you to know that even good people can change. They can grow seeds of darkness inside of themselves and it can happen either quickly or slowly. No matter who it is, someone can be just as bad as they are good."


    "Yeah, I know." I hung my head and sighed as I tried to fight off the feeling of dread that was filling me.


    "It is time to wrap this up, we only have a few more memories to face."


    Once again, she reached into that silver bag and brought out that now familiar ck dust. The fire acted the same as always and I just waited patiently for the images to start. I didn''t say anything, and I didn''t fight it at all. I just let it happen as it would whether I dyed it or not.


    The images came without an introduction this time. It was just the scene starting. It was initially the scene when Reece and I first visited Aunt Glory at the Faepound. It was the banquet when Grier stated that I would be the ruin of them all. I found outter that he had been controlled by Snum and that this hadn''t been something that he wanted to do. I regret not stepping in and telling Aunt Glory to spare him.


    "This was the start of a very bloody segment with the Fae, was it not." Another one of those grins yed across the other me''s face and it made me shudder. I tried to repress it, but I wasn''t able to.


    "This was when Aunt Glory killed that man. That had nothing to do with me." I did my best to keep my voice even.


    "Ahh yes that is true, however were you not just thinking that you regretted not stepping in to save him?"


    "Th..that was because I had knowledge of things that cameter. At that time, I didn''t know that he was being manipted. I couldn''t have saved him." Even to my ears it just sounded like a weak excuse.


    "I know you better than that, Trinity. You know that you should have stopped it, yet you chose to ignore it."


    "B..b..but she was the queen."


    "AND SO ARE YOU!" This was the first time that the other me had gotten angry and yelled at me. That was different and I hadn''t been expecting it at all. Because of the shock of it all, I actually flinched and recoiled just a little.


    "I was still learning at the time, and I was a new queen. I didn''t know that we were family yet."


    She wasn''t epting my words though. Instead, she just sighed and looked back at the screen.


    "Let us continue, Trinity. I can see that talking to you will get me nowhere."


    With that, the images changed. I watched a sped-up version of the time that I spent with Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r in the Faepound at Christmas. This was right after Reagan and Rika had turned one and we had learned that Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r were actually our family.


    Parts of the scenes that were passing by slowed almost to normal speed at times. Like during the balls that were held for each primary element''s week of celebration. I danced with some of the Fae men during the first ball while Reece danced with some of the women.


    During that first ball, Reece had grown jealous and put an end to me dancing with the other men even though there was still a long line of them waiting for me. He had acted a little childish, but I thought it was cute as well.


    I hadn''t, at the time, seen how upset some of the men had been when their chance was taken from them. I could see it now though. And there, at the next ball, were the same men who didn''t get to dance with me. They were trying again but I refused to dance with anyone but Reece that night. The same thing happened at all the subsequent dances. I only danced with Reece.


    The images sped up again and I knew where it was going. I knew what wasing. It was the banquet outside to celebrate the new year. I was having a good time and not paying much attention. However, my guard was being quite diligent. When I was about to take a drink from a freshly filled ss, Pierre stepped up and stopped me. And it was a good thing too, because the ss had been poisoned by a man that Iter learned was named Finch.


    "Oh, look here. This was the first time that you outright executed someone without there being a battle first." The other me smirked at the fire. "You were ruthless and did not let him have a trial."


    He admitted guilt and I needed to make the people respect me."


    "So, it was about controlling the popce more than anything?" The other me gave me a look that told me that my priorities were all wrong.


    "No, that wasn''t it. I..I..I needed to show them that I was a queen or it would happen again. I had to protect myself."


    "But you did not give him a trial, did not send him to prison. No, you executed him on the spot in front of everyone. Your family was devastated about that."


    "I know they were."


    I remember that. I remember that everyone had been slightly afraid of me. I hadn''t liked the fear from them, but there was nothing that I could do about it. That was the way that things needed to be.


    "There are just a couple more to go, Trinity. Bear with me for just a little while longer. This part of the ordeal is nearly over." For some reason, I didn''t quite believe her.. This felt like it was going on forever and I didn''t think that I would ever get out of here.

 Chapter 637 - 54- Trinity – What I Have Done Part 15 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 637 - 54- Trinity ¨C What I Have Done Part 15 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    For once, the other me didn''t take out more dust and throw it on the fire. Instead, it just continued to fast forward the images until the next time that I visited Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r. This time there was a lot of horrible things that had been happening, including a murder right after we had gotten there. That was the busiest and most hectic time that I ever had on ''vacation''.


    I went almost immediately into investigation mode. I was using all the things that I had learned over the years so that I could make sure that nothing escaped my notice. I didn''t fall for Hibiscus''s fake stories, and I was the only one to believe that she had something to do with it all from the very beginning. Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r didn''t want to trust in me at the time. They were having trouble believing that someone they had known for so long, someone they thought was powerless, had turned so bad and done so many things wrong.


    I guess what the other me is saying is true. Anyone could grow the seeds of darkness and turn bad. Even though Hibiscus had been manipted by someone else, she didn''t do anything that she wouldn''t have already done.


    "You saw through her lies from the start, Trinity. That was good. However, you were not able to see that it was not just her that was a part of all of this. Instead, you hyper focused on what you thought was the truth and followed it until the end."


    "But I was right. It was all Hibiscus''s fault. She killed those Fae. She was the one that had been causing all those problems. She had been the one to mind control people and make them do things that they didn''t want to do."


    "But she was being manipted." The other me tried to counter my argument.


    "NO! I am not letting you do this. Snum told me that she only took away her inhibition. Those were things that Hibiscus already had in her mind and her heart. All Snum''s so-called maniption had done was make her stop hesitating and just do it."


    "I see your point, Trinity. However, is it not true that almost everyone harbors dark thoughts and desires? Is it not true that a lot of people might imagine doing something really bad, like killing someone, but they don''t follow through with it? That is just the way of the human mind. Just because they think something doesn''t make them a bad person. However, if someone forcibly took away their inhibition, that good part of them that kept them from behaving like a criminal, then they wouldn''t stop at just thinking about something would they. They would wind up hurting people for real. So, is it truly Hibiscus''s fault or was it someone else''s?"


    While we spoke, the images had progressed, unlike in previous visions. This time, when I looked at the screen, it was when Aunt Glory, Athair m¨°r, and I put together our little n to oust Hibiscus. It went well, but it ended in her execution. It had been a very brutal execution as well.


    I saw me standing there, pretending to be on trial while Aunt Glory pretended to be dead. Athair m¨°r even pretended to be judging me for my ''crimes''. There was a lot of stuff that had been going on. Amid it all, we were fooling the people as well as Hibiscus. I felt bad about that, but it was necessary to get Hibiscus to confess. And once she confessed, Aunt Glory, Athair m¨°r, and I killed Hibiscus for her crimes.


    At that moment, I had felt nothing for it. I still didn''t feel much for it. I was trying my best to block out the emotions at the moment. I didn''t want to deal with them right now.


    "So, I guess the next thing that you are going to show me is the Fae that were with Snum. You are going to tell me how stopping Snum from taking over the world and killing millions of people was a bad thing. I shouldn''t have done what I did." I crossed my arms in front of my chest and red at the other me.


    "Not quite." She mirrored my pose and red at me for a moment before breaking into a smile andughing at the childishness of her actions.


    "Really? And why aren''t you? I thought you were bringing up everything that I had done that caused people to suffer?"


    "Well, Trinity, there are a couple of reasons. The first of them is that you were there, and you know the true horrors of that battle already. And the second is because you are right, if you had not stopped Snum, then the world would have been annihted. There was death and destruction, yes. Thousands of people died, that is true. However, the only other option would lead to even more death. And you have been ming yourself for the thousands of lost lives for years now. I do not need to bring that back up for you at this moment." That was the firstpassion I had seen from the other me. I wonder what she was up to, this couldn''t be real.


    "Alright, other me, what else is there for me? What else do I need to see? I can''t think of anything else, but I am sure that you have more."


    "Actually, Trinity, that was thest scene that I needed to show you. Now, there is the next stage of all of this."


    "Really? And what exactly is the next stage of all of this? Huh? What other horrors does this self-reflection chamber have for me? Are you going to remind me of every lie that I ever told? Are you going to bring up every time that I got in trouble growing up? I''m just dying to know." I was being way too sarcastic right now. I just knew that I was going to piss off the other me again.


    Sure enough, the other me grinned evilly and leaned forward. She leaned so far forward that I felt the fire start to burn her face. I felt it because whatever happened to her happened to me. She didn''t seem to feel it at all, but I sure as hell did.


    "Ah! Ah! Ahh! Enough! Enough! Stop it! Stop! Please! Stop it!" I was trying to push her out of the fire but the tears from the pain were blurring my vision.


    "Take heed, Trinity, I do not want you acting like that much longer. Not to me at least."


    "OK! OK! OK! I hear you. Just stop! Stop already! Please. Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" I was practically hopping up and down with the pain right now but thankfully, the other me decided to listen. She straightened up and pulled away from the fire. Finally, the pain started to subside.


    I could once again smell charred flesh, even though my body was fine. I could also smell burnt hair, but my hair was still intact as well. The other me was intact as well, so the whole thing just seemed odd to me.


    "Sit down, Trinity, it is time to continue."

 Chapter 638 - 55- Reece – Consultation (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 638 - 55- Reece ¨C Consultation (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    The day after I got home to find my mate without her soul in her body was a hard one. All three of the kids were so miserable that they didn''t want to go to school. That was to be expected though. All they knew was that their mommy wasn''t waking up and that scared them. I was doing what I could tofort them, but I didn''t know what to do or say.


    They weren''t the only ones scared, so was I. This whole situation was scary, every part of it. And the fact that Dietrich and Shawn said that my Little Bunny''s soul wasn''t in her body was another thing that scared the hell out of me.


    How? How did she lose her soul? Where did it go? And how could I get it toe back? The only thing that I could think to do was talk to Gabriel. He knew a lot more than most people when it came to these strange and weird urrences.


    And if Gabriel didn''t have any answers, then I would call someone else. I would keep calling old leaders of different species and ns that I thought might be able to help me. I would call people until I could find someone that was able to tell me how to help my wife.


    Until I could save her I needed to remain strong. I needed to be there for my kids, those that were here with me and those that had yet to be born. I needed to be the pir of strength for them. That was my job and no one else''s.


    I did go ahead and let the kids stay home today. They needed a day to process everything before they were forced to spend time with everyone else. Good thing it was Friday, so they were going to have three days of resting and healing. It wasn''t nearly enough, but I hoped that it would do for now at least.


    Right now, the kids were all in their rooms while I waited for Gabriel at Trinity''s side. I was holding her hand and staring at her face. I wanted to say that she looked peaceful. I wanted to say that she looked like she was just sleeping, and I could believe that she would wake up at any moment. And I admit that that is what I initially thought when I saw her yesterday, but not now.


    Right now, it looked to me like my Little Bunny was having a really hard time. There were worry lines in her face enough though she was sleeping and there were signs of activity inside her body.


    However, despite theck of apparent life, my Little Bunny was indeed alive. Her heart was beating, she was breathing, and I could smell the life inside of her. Now that her body was rested, I could smell the babies growing inside of her. The triplets inside of my Little Bunny right now smelled like caramel, chocte, and peanut butter. It was like they were making a dessert or something. Still, it was a unique scent when paired to my Little Bunny''s natural scent.


    While I was thinking about these things, there was a knock on the door, and I could already tell that it was Gabriel. He hade to my room just like he had been asked to. That was good. This meant we could talk now.


    "Come in, Gabriel." I called out to him, and he immediately opened the door and came inside. I watched his eyes go right toward my Little Bunny where sheid on the bed. He was a very loyal and diligent assistant, so I knew that this was hitting him hard. He had not been there with her when she copsed, and now he was ming himself for everything.


    "Hello, King Reece." He inclined his head in a small, respectable bow.


    "Thank you foring, Gabriel."


    "Of course, anything that I can do to make things easier on you during this difficult time." I could hear the strain and the tension in his voice.


    "Gabriel, this wasn''t your fault. Please, don''t me yourself. You can''t me yourself anymore than I can me myself." I felt the tension in my voice as well. Dammit, this was still so hard on me.


    "Yes Sir, I understand that." He looked over at her once more with sorrow in his eyes.


    "The reason that I called you here today, Gabriel, is to ask you if you know anything about the things that are happening to Trinity. In your vast knowledge, with everything that you have learned over the years, have you ever learned anything that was at all simr to what is happening to my Trinity right now?"


    I could see the seriousness, the gravity of the situation, weighing on his mind. He had probably thought about this a lot since he heard what had happened. He should have expected me to ask him this question.


    "N..no sir, I have not. I have wracked my brain and I have contacted the Abbey, none of them know what seems to be happening. I wish I did though. I wish that I could figure this out right now and just make things better right now. That would be the best possible oue." I could see the water brimming in his eyes. This man had faithfully served my wife for years. He had cried tears of joy when our children were born. Heughed with us. He celebrated with us. He fought battles with us. But he has never once failed in his duties. The amount of frustration that he had to be feeling right now, probably was on par with mine.


    "Do you know someone that we could call? Someone that we might consult with? Someone that could help us out, or might know where to go next?" I was loading him up with questions so fast that he wasn''t able to answer any of them before the next one came.


    "I will check, Sir. I will see if there might be someone in my list of connections that might know about this. I will not stop until someone is found. In the meantime, perhaps you could call Crawford and Queen Gloriana. They are both wise leaders that have been around for quite some time."


    "Yes, you are correct about that. I will call them both soon. I will spare no expense and I will stop at nothing to help my wife. I need her, Gabriel. I need her to fuel my heart. It won''t keep beating without her. I need her."


    "We all need her, Sir. She is the center of the universe for us all. She is our Goddess Queen." There was a firmness in Gabriel''s voice that told me he was going to push himself and do whatever it was that he could to figure all of this out. He would most likely overwork himself with it if I didn''t keep an eye on him and make him stop to care for himself as well.


    Then again, I hoped that this wouldn''tst long enough for it to negatively impact Gabriel''s health.. That would mean that my Little Bunny would be in this state for a long time.

 Chapter 639 - 56- Reece – Calls (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 639 - 56- Reece ¨C Calls (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    After Gabriel left the room, it was once again just me and my Little Bunny. I wanted to just hold her and fix everything that way. A warm, loving hug would make the whole thing go away. Well, not this time. Not ever really, but it always made us both feel better.


    Now, a hug didn''t make either of us feel better. My Little Bunny was still trapped in that slumber and when I held her, I was reminded of the fact that she wasn''t here with me. It was so hard, so painful, but I wouldn''t stop being here for her. Even this was a form of supporting her in one way or another.


    I had to leave her side though. I needed to call people and make some connections. And yes, I could do it telepathically, but we all agreed years ago that if it wasn''t an emergency then we wouldn''t invade like that. It wasn''t polite for anyone to be interrupted in what they were doing at the moment.


    No, instead I decided to head down to my office and call Crawford, the leader of the warlocks and head of the Aerie Convento. I know that Gloriana was more likely to have answers for me since she was much older and had arger wealth of knowledge to draw upon, but I also knew that Gloriana would keep me on the call for a lot longer than Crawford would.


    The entire way to my office, I practically dragged my feet. I know that anyone who saw me would think that I was being guided by an old and depressed ghost or something. Unless they knew what had happened, which ny-nine percent of the staff didn''t, they wouldn''t understand what was going on.


    Yes, I knew that I was going to be telling people about my Little Bunny''s condition, but those would be people that I could trust. I wasn''t going to make it public knowledge or anything.


    I sat at my desk and brought up therge screen that was on the wall for video conferences. I brought up the contact information for Crawford on myputer and sent the call electronically to the device that I was facing.


    The speakers were giving off a pleasant sounding soft ringing (one that I picked out personally because most rings were annoying) and the screen had a rippling effect that was showing the Trinity symbol that adorned my Little Bunny.


    After less than a minute, the screen changed and I saw a high tech, sleek office that reminded me a lot of mine. I had known that Crawford had taken inspiration from me when he was forced to modernize and start running the Aerie Convento like it was a business.


    "Hello Reece, how are you?"


    The man on the screen was barely recognizable to the man that I met all those years ago. With his immortality and the reverse aging that a lot of people were going through, Crawford now looked like a man in histe thirties or early forties. Instead of looking wizened and old, he seemed spry and full of energy. Instead of white hair, Crawford now had a dark auburn that suited his younger, barely lined face. His eyes, once hooded and hard to see with excess skin, were shining bright and twinkled like little green orbs. He was definitely liking his new lease on life that he had gotten from Trinity.


    "Hello Crawford, I hope all is well." I didn''t smile but I tried to look halfway pleasant at least. Talking to people was thest thing that I wanted to do right now, but I had no other choice.


    "I am doing fine, boy, but I can see that you are not. What is it that has you pulling such a long face?" Crawford could apparently read my mood very easily. That most likely went back to the days that we all spent together in the Abbey in France.


    "Well, to be honest, it''s Trinity."


    "HAHA! What has she done now? Did she call you a new dog name or something?" He wasughing happily and that was thest thing that I felt like doing. However, I did my best not to show him how much thatugh of his was grating on my nerves. It wasn''t personal towards him, I just felt so miserable.


    "No, there is something wrong with Trinity, and I was hoping that you could help me."


    "Huh? What is it? What''s wrong with Queen Trinity? How can I help?" That shift in Crawford''s mood was so drastic that I had to wonder if it gave the man whish or something. He went fromughing to serious in the blink of an eye.


    "Somehow, in a way that none of us can figure out, her soul has left her body. That was confirmed by the vampires that we have with us." I was being vague, but I knew that he would understand what I was saying. And that he did, his response told me that.


    "So, neither Shawn nor Dietrich were able to see her soul? How is that even possible?" I watched as Crawford put his hand to his head and copsed against the back of his chair. There was pure shock written on his face.


    "No, they couldn''t see her. She is alive. ording to Griffin she appears to just be sleeping, but we can''t wake her up. ording to Shawn and Dietrich, she has no soul. I am one hundred percent sure that her soul being gone is what is keeping her asleep. The problem is, where is her soul and why is it gone?"


    "Yes, that does seem to be the biggest issue here. I have never seen this happen before, but I will search the archives. If I find anything, anything at all, I will call you right away."


    "Thank you, Crawford. I knew that I could count on you. Oh, and Crawford." I called his name one more time when I remembered something important. "Please don''t tell anyone what is going on with Trinity. If someone asks, make up a story about what is going on, alright. I don''t want word getting out that the Goddess Queen has fallen ill. It would spread panic among the people."


    "Yes, of course Reece. I understand. I will keep this secret with my life." He made a fist with his right hand and put it against his chest as he spoke.


    "Thank you, Crawford. Again. I already thanked you, but I needed to do it again." I gave him the closest thing to a smile that I could manage before I told him goodbye and ended the call.


    I knew that Crawford would throw his all into the research, the same way that Gabriel was going to throw himself into finding a way to bring my Little Bunny home. They were both good men and they did their jobs thoroughly.


    I also knew that Crawford would enlist Eldrige and his men Henrich and Lionel. Not to mention all the other witches and warlocks that were at hismand. He would call them all and he would call the witch doctors, the Djinn, the genies, the gypsies, all of them.. He would see to it that this issue didn''t rest until it was settled.

 Chapter 640 - 57- Reece – Calls Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 640 - 57- Reece ¨C Calls Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Now that the call with Crawford was done, I pressed a button on my desk that turned the screen for the video conferences into a mirror. This would allow me to call Gloriana, Trevor, or Valerian in the Faepound. I had it installed when the system was upgraded a few years ago. And after my Little Bunny had taught me how to make the mirror calls. They weren''t difficult to do, but they were hard to get used to, that was for sure.


    Still, I needed to do this. I needed to call them and tell them what was going on. And most of all, I needed to see if any of them could help me with this.


    I touched a piece of the mirror that had been cut off when it was installed. I had intentionally ordered it to be too big just for this purpose. To make the call, I needed to touch part of the mirror. This piece that I was touching was indeed part of the mirror that I was looking at, but it wasn''t attached anymore so it acted as a sort of remote control.


    I pulled the magic, the little that I had in me, to the surface, specifically into my hands. When I touched the mirror I thought about Gloriana and Trevor so that I could make sure that the call went to one of the two of them. If I got Gloriana, good, if I got Trevor then he could go and get Gloriana so that was also good.


    The ss of the mirror fogged over as it started to ''ring''. It didn''t actually sound like ringing, instead it sounded like a tinkling of bells. The bells were ying out a song, but I couldn''t pinpoint what it was at the moment. And I didn''t care either. I just wanted to do what I needed to. Music,ughter, anything like that was just a distraction at the moment.


    "Reece? This is a surprise." Trevor almost recoiled in his shock when he saw that it was me calling. Usually, both of us were too busy to call outside of our weekly family calls. "Is something wrong? What happened? What is going on?"


    I knew that Trevor would be able to read my mood. He had known me since I was younger than Reagan and Rika. Honestly, I think I was about Talia''s age when I met him. He and I have been friends ever since and he knew when something was bothering me.


    "Yeah, there is something going on." I sighed. "Is Gloriana there? This would just be easier if I could talk to the two of you at the same time." That made Trevor''s face turn pale and his eyes go wide.


    "Why do I get the feeling that I am not going to like what it is that you have to tell us? Am I going to have toe there and murder someone? Did someone do something to one of the kids? Is Trinity alright? Is-." He paused then. I think that he caught the way that I flinched when he asked me if something was wrong with Trinity. "Damn. I didn''t actually think that something had actually happened to her. But, if I am being honest, there is nothing else that would make you look that miserable. I''m going to go get Glory now. I will be right back."


    With that, Trevor ran off to the left side of my screen as fast as he could. I didn''t hear the sound of his steps since he ran as silently as I did, but I heard other background noises. There was the opening of the door and the muffled tones of his voice when he spoke to someone in the other room. I heard the sound of Gloriana''s voice as well, but, like Trevor, her voice was muffled so I couldn''t understand the words. I think that was just a natural thing that the mirror magic did. It helped to hide background conversations so that they weren''t heard by the wrong people. Or maybe you just needed to be close to the mirror for it to actually send your words. Either way, I wasn''t able to hear anything other than the sound of their voices.


    It had been right about or just under a minute by the time that Trevor and Gloriana were running into frame so that I could see them. Gloriana looked scared, more scared than Crawford had. I could see that her eyes had gone wide, she was even more pale than usual. There even seemed to be some sort of yellow aura that was pouring off of her.


    "Reece, what happened to Trinity? What is going on? Trevor didn''t tell me anything at all."


    "I told you, Glory, Reece didn''t tell me anything. He wanted to wait to tell us both at the same time." Trevor sighed as he ryed that message to his wife again. "Go on Reece, you can tell us what happened now. We''re both here so we are ready to hear it."


    "First, is there anyone else that is there with you? I don''t want anyone, anyone at all, hearing what I have to say aside from the two of you."


    "W..wow, Reece, this must be serious." Trevor''s eyes darkened even more as he looked at me as seriously as he could.


    "No one else is here Reece, it''s just the two of us. No one else will hear what you have to say." Gloriana nodded at me and reassured me that it was all fine. Good, I didn''t want to even think about what would have happened if a servant had been there and spread rumors that something was wrong with Trinity.


    "OK." I took a deep breath to settle myself and looked them in the eyes before I spoke. "Trinity is not able to be woken up. She copsed two days ago, and no one knows why. She appears to just be sleeping, but that isn''t actually the case at all. When Shawn and Dietrich came to see her with the rest of the guards, they told us that her soul was not in her body. Something has happened to draw her soul, her consciousness, out of her body."


    "What the hell?" Trevor eximed loudly.


    "Oh my!" Gloriana put her hand over her mouth as she gasped at the words that I had just told her.


    "I am calling you now, Gloriana, to ask if you might know of someone that could help us. Or is there some experience you or someone in the Faepound might have had that would be simr to this situation? We need to find someone to tell us how to help Trinity. We need to figure out what we''re going to do."


    "I..I can''t say that I know of anything. But I promise that I will check into it right away." She sounded firm and determined to help. I hope that she can find something, and soon.


    "I might know someone. I will give them a call as well." Trevor sounded more contemtive than I had ever heard him.


    "Thank you." I tilted my head to him in respect.


    "Now, Reece, tell me everything else that has happened. I don''t want to be in the dark about anything." Gloriana crossed her arms and looked at me firmly.


    "Well, there is one other thing." I did my best to smirk at the two people in the mirror.


    "What? Nothing else bad I hope." Trevor was nervous now.


    "Well, it''s not the right timing with what''s going on, but Trinity is pregnant again."


    "Wow, that has to be hard on you right now." Trevor got that right.


    "How many?" That was the first thing that Gloriana wanted to know first.


    "Triplets."


    "DAMN!"


    "Oh my!" They both eximed at the same time.


    "I need to protect them and Trinity. I need to wake them up. I need to make sure that my entire familyes back together and that we all stay together from now on. I don''t want to lose my babies, but I definitely don''t want to lose my Little Bunny. I need her, I can''t live without her. She is my life." I lifted my head and looked at Trevor since he was the one that I had known that longest. "I know what my mom felt like back then, Trev. I know what it is that made her go into that state."


    "Yeah, I know man. I feel that way too." He smiled at Gloriana, feeling an intense love for her like I felt for my Little Bunny.


    "We will be in touch soon, Reece." Gloriana tried to smile but failed.


    ''There, the calls are over.'' I thought the words to myself as I ended the mirror call. Thank the goddess that they were both going to help me.. I just hope that they find something.

 Chapter 641 - 58- Trinity – Spiraling (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 641 - 58- Trinity ¨C Spiraling (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was just sitting there, waiting for the other me to start what she called: the next part of this whole thing. She had gone as far as leaning into the fire and burning the two of us to make meply with her, but now she was just sitting here and staring at me. What was she ying at? Why was she doing this?


    And to top it all off, the other me was wearing a very smug and sly look on her face. It was annoying me and pissing me off so much that I just wanted to hit her.


    This was not like me, though. I didn''t usually think about hitting people and causing them pain. OK, I have executed people. I have gone to war. Twice. I have stood by while others were executed. I had done a lot and yet, at the same time, I had not done enough.


    There were a lot of bad things that I didn''t know about, yet I allowed them to happen. And the flip side of that was the fact that I had personally done a lot of bad things to people. Did that make me a bad person? Did that make me evil? Was I a corrupted leader that shouldn''t be leading my people?


    While these thoughts went through my head, I started to panic. If these were indeed true facts, if they were what I was really like, then what kind of person was I? I needed to find the answer to that before anything else. I didn''t care if the other me went on right now or not, this was more important to me.


    "Good." The other me spoke out of nowhere while I was deep in thought, and it made me jump in shock.


    "Huh?" I was trying to right myself on the log when I raised myself and looked at her. I had jumped so much that I nearly fell off the seat altogether.


    "I said good." She answered with a look that was at least fifty percent more sly and smug than it had been before.


    "What is good?" I asked, hoping that my anger at her wasn''t showing too much at the moment.


    "I am referring to your thought process, Trinity. That is a good direction to be moving in."


    Dammit! I had forgotten that she knew what I was thinking. That was annoying. UGH! That means that she knows all the mean thoughts that I have had about her since this whole thing started. Great, that was not good. What if she decides to get angry with me?


    "If I was going to get angry with you, Trinity, I already would have. I am trying to help you. This is a ce that you need to be. Trust me when I say that when you leave here, you will be thanking me."


    "For some reason, I don''t really see that being a possibility. I mean, forgive me for saying this, but you''ve been a shitty host and you have been quite cruel with me."


    "I have only done what needed to be done. Nothing more and nothing less. This has all been a necessity, Trinity. You know, there truly is a purpose for what I have done here."


    The other me had the audacity to sound as if I had hurt her feelings or something like that. It wasn''t like she was the one that was having everything she had ever done thrown back into her face and being told to look at all the repercussions that her actions have had on those around her. Nope, that lovely little bit of cruelty and torture was reserved all for me.


    "Are you done with your little rant inside your head there? If so, we can get a move on to the next stage of why you are here and help you to move on. Just remember that the longer you are here, the more time that passes in thend of the living. I am sure that you want to get back sooner rather thanter." It looked to me like the other me didn''t care too much one way or the other if I finished with my little freak out or not. She seemed to be enjoying herself.


    "How much time is passing there? How long have I been in this ce? And how much time has passed for my family back home? What do they think has happened to me?"


    Her words did strike a chord with me though. I didn''t want to be here any longer than I needed to be. And I didn''t know how long I had been here already. What if it had been months or years already? What if they thought that I was dead, and they buried me alive? What was really going to happen to me?


    "Would you like me to show you how your family is doing?" The other me smirked and I didn''t know if she was going to show me something that was real or not. "Do not be so skeptical, Trinity. I am not going to lie to you. It would be pointless for me to lie to you anyway. I am you, after all."


    "Fine, then I want to see them. Please show them to me."


    "Of course."


    The other me smiled and once again took a handful of dust to throw into the fire. The usual scene happened again with the fire responding and making a screen for me to see the people inside the mes.


    There they were. I could see Reece as well as my children. There were Reagan, Rika, and Talia. I missed them so much.


    "REECE!" I shouted his name. "REAGAN! RIKA! TALIA!" If this was what was happening right now, maybe they could-.


    "They cannot hear you." The other me said before I could finish that thought. "This is a viewing screen only. It does not transmit to thend of the living. It is usually meant to show the viewer their past, however, it can be used to show someone what their family is doing after they are gone." I didn''t like the way she was talking. I didn''t like the sound of those words.


    "But I am not gone. I am not dead. And I need to get back home."


    "I know you do, Trinity." The other me gave me a firm look. "And we need to work together to get you out of here. You have been here for a lot longer than you think. In your world, it has already been almost two weeks." [1]


    "T..t..two w..we..wee..weeks?" I couldn''t believe what she had just told me.


    "Yes, Trinity. Almost two weeks. Time passes slower here than in thend of the living. The reason for that is because the souls here are dead, so time does not matter to them anymore. Well, they are usually dead." She giggled while she looked at me. "Come on now, let us get back to this."


    I tried to keep looking at the screen, to see Reece and the kids as they sat there at our dining table, eating what looked like dinner. They all looked so sad and somber. Reece looked worn out and worried, and the children all looked like they were on the verge of tears.


    "No, my babies. Let me see them. I need to get to them now. I need to make them feel better."


    "Then let''s hurry up."


    I felt my heart aching. No, it was more than that. My heart was shattering as I looked at my children and saw them so close to tears. And knowing that those tears were for me made it even worse. All I wanted to do right then and there was to hold them, all of them. Reagan, Rika, Talia, and Reece. I wanted to hug all of my family and feel their warmth and love.


    "I will be home soon, please wait for me." I said the words to Reece, but I knew that he didn''t hear me.


    [1] Time is passing differently for Trinity and Reece at the moment. So, when Reece''s chapterse up, they will be in Trinity''s past but his present.. There will be a few chapters with Reece and the othersing up, but as you likely guessed it, things will primarily be Trinity''s POV from now on.

 Chapter 642 - 59- Trinity – Accepting (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 642 - 59- Trinity ¨C epting (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "What is the next stage? What is it that I need to do? What is going to happen next? What do you want me to do?" I heard my voice shaking as I said those words to her. All I could think about were my kids and Reece as they sat at the table looking miserable. I knew that they were hurting. I knew that they needed me, but I wasn''t there to help them and make it all better. I was failing them. I was failing as a wife and as a mother.


    I was on the verge of tears, but I didn''t want to cry. Crying right now, for the other me to see, would just add insult to injury for me. I needed to be strong, to make sure that I didn''t fall apartpletely.


    "The next stage, Trinity, is to ept who and what you are. To ept the atrocities that you have eithermitted or allowed to happen. Then, following that, you need to ept that there is no such thing as perfection. You may not be human, but you have mostly human thought processes, all humanoid creatures do. The shifters, the Fae, the vampires, the witches and warlocks, all of them. They all think like humans do. It is because you are all closer to humans than animals. Even those of you that can be animals, you still live most of your lives as humans so that makes you human in this aspect. You are not animals, you are not angels, you are not demons, you are people, the ''humans'' that live in thend of the living."


    "OK, so, what does this being human mean? What is the purpose of you saying all of this?" I didn''t understand why she went off of the original topic and started to talk about me being a ''human'' all of a sudden.


    "Have you ever heard the phrase ''I am only human? Are you familiar with it?" She grinned and looked at me.


    "You mean what humans say when they make a mistake that is caught by someone else? They will say something like ''I made a mistake, I''m human'' or something like that, right? Is that what you mean?" I wanted to make sure that I knew what was being said right now.


    "Yes, precisely. You have made a lot of mistakes Trinity. However, you are only human and, therefore, you are prone to making errors and mistakes. That is the first thing that you need to understand right now."


    "But I''m not human. I am so much more than that. I am not just a shifter and a witch and a Fae. I am more than that. I am the Luna Queen and I used to be the Goddess Incarnate. But even that is no longer all that I am. I am a Goddess now. I need to be better. I need to do better."


    Why? WHY? Why did I sound so desperate and hopeless right now? What the hell was the matter with me? What was going on with me? I needed to fix this, all of this. I needed to make everything better.


    "STOP IT, TRINITY!" The other me snapped at me loudly. "That is the thinking that led you to this ce to begin with. That is what caused all of this. And remember, all of these errors, mistakes, and other issues that I have shown you, happened BEFORE you became a Goddess."


    "Yeah, but it was still me. I didn''t change just because I got a new title."


    "Precisely." She was looking at me with such intensity that I wanted to recoil. I wanted to, but I didn''t.


    "What are you talking about?" I was still confused but I needed to act like I didn''t know what was going on at the moment.


    "You are the same person, Trinity. You have grown and learned things over thest several years, but you are the same person that was taken against her will to the Alpha''s estate when she was eighteen. You are the same person that was rejected and then epted. You are the same person, you have just learned and grown through it all."


    "But I-." I started to object. I started to make excuses, or defend myself, or something. I actually didn''t know what it was that I was going to say. I just knew that I wanted to defend myself in some way or another. I wasn''t able to, though, because the other me interrupted me.


    "Stop that." She snapped at me, causing me to stop immediately and just look at her.


    For some reason, I was feeling quite vulnerable and broken. Hmm, I wonder if that had anything to do with all of the memories and images that she showed to me. Seeing the heartache and destruction that I had caused, as well as the heartache that my family was feeling right now, that was taking its toll on me, and I was beginning to crack and crumble.


    "You need to stop trying to argue with me, Trinity. I am you and I know what I am talking about."


    "OK, if you truly are me, when did you first start toe into existence? What was it that actually created you? What part of me are you?"


    "I am your darkness, Trinity. I am the part of you that has been harboring all of your dark thoughts since you were young."


    "I don''t have dark thoughts." I denied it instantly and without even thinking. And even I knew that it was a lie. It was so much a lie that it would probably fuel the darkness inside of me for having so callously and unfeelingly lied.


    "I don''t want to hear that, Trinity. I wouldn''t exist if you didn''t."


    "When did you start to actually exist?" I needed to know. I needed to know what actually caused something so evil inside of me.


    "Well, let us just say that one of my earliest memories is of the things that you wanted to do to your grandfather when you were younger. You used to be so angry with him."


    "Huh? B..b..but that was just-."


    "That was just the frustrations of a child that didn''t understand. Yes, I know. Still, you used to imagine yourself punching him in the face when you first met him. You used to imagine people being as mean to him as he was to you, or what you thought was him being mean to you." I was having sudden shbacks to when I was a little kid, back when Carter and I would get so mad and angry at Grandfather. We used to dare each other to punch our grandfather when we said hi because he made us both so angry. Neither of us did it, we never would have. It was just a way for us kids to blow off steam.


    "So, because I was angry as a child, I am an evil person."


    "Stop doing that.." She red at me then, she just gave me a look that said she was getting frustrated and annoyed while simultaneously crossing her arms in front of her chest.

 Chapter 643 - 60- Trinity – Accepting Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 643 - 60- Trinity ¨C epting Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Just stop doing that, Trinity. You need to listen to me and for that I need you to stop talking."


    "Fine." I nodded, nning to do my best to stay quiet and not interrupt the other me.


    "Just do your best." She nodded at me. "I do not expect you to be perfect. You are human, after all. Remember?"


    After a small chuckle and a wide grin, the other me settled herself onto the bench a little more, looking a little more rxed than she had through any of this so far. I guess she was finally starting to get to the real reason why I was brought there. For that, I needed to shut up and listen.


    "Now, you asked when I first came into existence, right? Well, that started when you were perhaps five or six years old. It was when you started to realize that everyone had a mom and a dad, or at least one of them. You started to realize that all of your ssmates, your cousins, pretty much everyone in the pack had parents of some kind, but you did not remember a single thing about yours."


    The other me''s voice was ringing eerily in my ears. Or was that just the heartache I was feeling at her words? Still, I was currently holding my chest and straining to hear each word that she said.


    "Your aunt and uncle had always talked about your mother. They told you stories about her and about what a wonderful person she was. However, you couldn''t match up your mother with your mind. She was just a thought and a story, not a memory. As you got older you asked more and wanted to know more. You even asked your grandfather, but that led to him getting angry and you thought that he was mad at you. In truth, he was just sad and didn''t know how to express it very well. As those questions, thoughts, and worries about who you were and where you came from started to grow, so did I. So, to answer when I actually came into existence, Trinity, it was when you started feeling upset about not having parents."


    How could that be, though? I loved my family growing up. If I didn''t, why would I ask Aunt Eve and Uncle Wesley to be my mom and dad? Didn''t I feel loved as a child? Why would I let the darkness start to grow in me because of that? How could that even happen when I was so young.


    "Now, Trinity, from there, I was not given the power and strength that I have today. I would not have been able to give you these memories and lessons if that was all that it took to create me. No, that was just the beginning." The other me went on to exin further.


    "So, when did you get to be like this? When did things get to be this bad?" I couldn''t help it, I just had to interrupt her and ask that.


    "To be honest, it was when you first met Reece. There was nothing but animosity between the two of you. You both antagonized each other so much. I cannot say the same for Reece, but you had a lot of dark thoughts, need I remind you of the time you wanted to beat him with a baseball bat?" The other meughed at the absurdity of it all, but I didn''t find it so funny.


    "I never would have hit him. It was just me being frustrated, that is all. Why did that have to count as me being evil?" I couldn''t believe what I was hearing.


    "I did not say that it was evil. I said it was a dark thought. Everyone on the, every humanoid that is, will have dark thoughts. That does not make them evil, it makes them human. You did not act on those things, and that makes you a good person, but you need to understand that every person in the world has a little bit of darkness buried deep inside of them. I do not mean to say that you are evil, Trinity. Quite the opposite, you are a good person and that is why you have been haunted by the horrors you have seen."


    The other me was right about that as well. Ever since I killed my father all those years ago, I have been haunted by it. I will still have nightmares about the battles I have seen and the people that have died. I never told anyone, and I would never admit it to anyone, not even myself, but I have felt guilt for years. It''s been eating away at me. Is my time here meant to help me cope with all of it?


    "I can see you contemting it all, Trinity. And I know that you can see that I am right. You have darkness inside of you. Everyone does. Even the most kindhearted and sweetest people in the world have darkness inside of them. And contrarily, even the darkest and most evil of people, have a shred of goodness inside of them."


    "All of them?" I crossed my arms and questioned her.


    "All of them." She agreed and stared nkly at me.


    "So, you tell me people that havemitted some of the biggest atrocities that the world has ever seen had goodness in them?" I couldn''t believe what she was telling me. Maybe this other me didn''t really know what she was talking about after all.


    "Were those people born doing those things? Were they not once innocent little children? Did they not have mothers that loved them and little giggles that brought joy to their hearts? Even your father wasn''t born bad, as you saw, he was made that way by the things and people around him. He was an innocent child when he was born and no matter what he did, a scrap of that innocence remained when he did all those evil things."


    "I cannot deny that what you are saying is true. I saw with my own eyes that he was not evil. But that doesn''t mean that I wholeheartedly agree with you on the issue of my father. I saw no innocence in him when he died."


    "I will agree to that, he did not show anything remotely close to his childhood innocence at that time." The other me nodded her head and conceded to me. "However, Trinity, can you agree that you have darkness even though you are a good person? Now that you have been faced with all the things that your actions have caused, can you ept that about yourself and move forward, can you try to think of the broader aspects of the situation rather than just what you see before your eyes?"


    The things that the other me was saying made sense, and I knew that I needed to ept it, but it was hard. Knowing that all those things had been my fault. Knowing that I caused so much destruction without even meaning to. All of that would weigh on my mind forever.


    "Yes." I answered as I thought about it. "I will never forget what I have seen here. I will never let myself be blinded by what I see ever again. I will look farther and think broader. That will help to eliminate the darkness inside of me." I looked at the other me and saw that she was smiling happily.


    "That took a lot less time to convince you than I thought, Trinity." She rose to her feet and stepped toward me, only this time, the fire disappeared as she moved instead of burning her and me. "You have done well. Please stand up."


    I did as the other me said and rose before her, standing still and frozen before her as she approached. I didn''t move or say anything when she came closer and closer. It looked to me like the other me was going to give me a hug.


    "ept the truth, remember it in the future, and take me with you as a reminder. That is what you must do."


    With that, the other me wrapped her arms around me. It didn''t just feel like she was hugging me, it felt like she was walking into me. And, as I raised my arms and went to hug her, the other me turned into dust and fell away.. I hadn''t even ced my hand on her back and she was already gone.

 Chapter 644 - 61- Reece – Telling Little Bunnys Family (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 644 - 61- Reece ¨C Telling Little Bunny''s Family (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Now that I had made all of my calls to ask for help, there was something else that I needed to do. I needed to tell everyone, specifically my Little Bunny''s family, about what had happened. The only one that knew about it so far was Noah, and I knew that he was keeping that a secret until we could figure something out.


    I knew that I didn''t have answers for them right now, but I needed to tell them. It had been two days so far and they would start to worry and wonder soon. If they didn''t hear from her or see her soon, they were going to get suspicious about what was happening.


    Not to mention, I couldn''t keep them in the dark about it. I wouldn''t feel right doing that. I would feel like I was doing something wrong and deceitful. That was not the image I wanted to have when it came to dealing with my inws.


    So, for better or for worse, I invited everyone toe have dinner at the house. It was going to be for the day after the phone calls that I made, since Carter and Emmalee would need to drive a couple of hours to get here from their pack, which by the way was flourishing under Carter''s reign.


    Everyone other than Carter and Emmalee lived in the area around the castle, or even in the castle. It would be a lot easier for them toe to dinner and therefore I didn''t need to wait for them.


    I wasn''t going to forget anyone at all when I counted those that my Little Bunny called her family. Juniper, Paul, Cedar, and Acacia wereing to the dinner as well. Their children wereing, but they would be spending time with Reagan, Rika, and Talia while I spoke to the adults alone.


    I had called down to speak with Abigail and ask her to prepare the meal. That was when she asked me about Trinity.


    "She has not had a meal since breakfast two days ago. What is wrong with her, Reece?" I could see the heartache that was filling her eyes. She was such a kind and loving person and she adored my Little Bunny.


    "We don''t know what is wrong with her, Abigail." I sighed and looked down at the floor to hide the pain in my eyes. "We''re trying to figure it out but, at the moment, we are stumped. She is asleep, almost like she is in aa, but there is nothing physically wrong with her."


    "Huh?!" She gasped in shock when she heard my words. "Reece, my boy, I am so sorry." She came closer to me and hugged me then. I remember how she had taken care of me after my mother went into a simr condition. She had been there for me to be the family that I needed at the time. I guess, for her, she was always going to be that family for me. I was happy to see that.


    After that, Abigail started to prepare for the dinner and left the room. I hadn''t told those that would be the most upset about it yet and it was already almost too much for me. I needed to do better next time. I needed to try harder next time.


    Finally, the time for dinner rolled around. I waited in the hall for the children who were getting ready for the meal on their own. Their attendants were given time off for this current situation. We needed to keep the information protected at the moment. We knew them, and we trusted them, but that didn''t mean that they wouldn''t gossip. Of course they probably wouldn''t do it maliciously or anything like that, but it was still a possibility that they would tell someone and I couldn''t risk that happening. No, this was safer right now.


    Now that the children and I were all ready, we went down to the dining room where we were due to greet our guests. They were all waiting for us already. I wanted to have everyone here and greet them all at once. That would be the easiest on the kids. They were going through enough right now, I didn''t need to add more to it.


    "Daddy, why do we have to have a party right now?" Reagan asked me while we walked to the dining room.


    "This isn''t a party, son. This is just dinner with our family so that we can tell them what happened to Mommy. We don''t want to repeat it several times, do we? It would just be much easier and makes more sense to have them all here at once to tell them." I tried my best to exin it to them.


    "Then, why do we have to y with the other kids? I don''t feel like ying right now." Talia sounded so sad, and heartbroken at the moment.


    "Well, Talia baby, it wouldn''t be nice to make the other kids feel bad by hearing about Mommy, right? I know you''re all sad but you don''t want them to hurt as well, do you? So you will all be ying with the other kids so they don''t hear us grown ups talking. And I would like for you all to not talk about Mommy at all during the dinner. It would be best for them not to know at all."


    "Alright."


    "OK, Dad."


    "We won''t tell them anything at all." All three of them agreed to what I said so readily. They really were good kids. How did I get so lucky to have such good kids? I hoped that the triplets made it with Trinity in the state that she is in right now. I didn''t want anything to happen to them or my Little Bunny. I wanted all of them to survive. And I couldn''t wait to see what kind of people the triplets grew up to be.. If they were anything like the other kids, they would be perfect.

 Chapter 645 - 62- Reece – Telling Little Bunnys Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 645 - 62- Reece ¨C Telling Little Bunny''s Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    The four of us made our way down together with slow, sad steps. It was like we all were so listless and lifeless. By the time that we all got to the doors to join our family in the royal tower''s dining room, I literally felt like we were all walking to a funeral rather than a meal. That wasn''t the mood we needed to enter the room with.


    "Hey guys, look at me for a moment." I crouched down and called out to them and had them turn to face me. I could see that they were close to tears, but they weren''t fully crying. "I know we''re all sad and miss Mommy. We want her to wake up soon, but we have to be patient. However, I think Mommy would like it if we were all just a little more upbeat. She wouldn''t want to see us so sad right now. We need to stay strong so that we can make sure everyone else is strong. That is what Mommy would want from us. Soe on, let''s put some smiles on those faces and do our best. For Mommy''s sake, right."


    I didn''t know how they would react to what I said, but thankfully, they were all three smiling with light grins when they looked back at me right now.


    "Do you guys think you can manage that? For me and for Mommy?" They were all nodding and giving me looks filled with a little more confidence than they had before. "OK, good. Now let''s go have a nice dinner with our family and then you can y with your cousins afterwards."


    I stood then and opened the door to the dining room. Everyone was already seated around the table and waiting for us.


    "Sorry for keeping you all waiting. We had some things that we needed to discuss." I smiled at them as I started to move around the room. I had all of my Little Bunny''s family here as well as my mom who was here with her new husband, Little Bunny''s grandfather.


    I could see that everyone was waiting for the exnation, the reason why they were all here. Their eyes were curious and their faces were tense.


    "Reece, where is Trinity? Why isn''t she here yet?" Eve asked as I went to sit down after greeting them all.


    "She isn''ting to dinner today. Let''s just eat and we will talk about things afterwards. I am sure that the kids are eager to y together when we''re done with the meal."


    I knew that they understood the subtle little things that I was saying. Trinity isn''ting and now isn''t the time to talk about it. Let''s eat and talk in privateter. That didn''t make any of them feel any better at all. Actually, they all looked more tense, but none of them said a word.


    We all enjoyed the meal as best as we could. There was some talk about how the kids had been and new developments in their lives, but aside from that, nothing was mentioned about Trinity. That was good, I was d that they all followed along so easily.


    After the final dish was cleared away, Reagan, Rika, and Talia stood instantly and started to call the kids to their respective rooms. Therge group of children left the dining room as they followed after them. Now it was time for me to get to work.


    "Come on everyone, let us go to a sitting room and talk things over." They didn''t say anything at that moment. They all just stood and followed me into the other room where we could sit and rx. However, the moment that they were seated, the first question was thrown at me.


    "Reece, where is my sister?" Carter asked me with a little bit of anger in his voice.


    "Where is Trinity? Come on Reece''s Pieces, I want to see my best friend."


    "Howe Trinity didn''te to dinner?" Eve asked next.


    "Reece, what is going on here?" Wesley sounded concerned.


    "Tell us Reece, where is my granddaughter?" Samuel looked as stern as ever.


    "Son, what is going on?" Mom was next.


    "Yeah, I agree. I want to know where my Astro is." Paul piped up.


    "Give him time to breathe and time to answer." Cedar came to my aid a little. "We all want to know but you''re not giving him the time to answer.


    "Cedar is right, you guys. Reece needs time to answer all of our questions." Acacia added for her husband.


    "Thank you." I nodded at Cedar and Acacia to show them my thanks.


    "Oh, it''s not just for your benefit." Cedar gave me a stern look. "I just want to speed this up so I can find out what happened to Trinity."


    "Yeah, and if we find out that you did something to her, we will make you pay." Carter was so protective of Trinity. He always had been.


    "Calm down." Noah snapped at him. "He didn''t do anything."


    "You know what happened and didn''t tell us?!" That seemed to make Carter even angrier.


    "How could you keep this to yourself?" Wesley sounded hurt.


    "I asked him to. We needed to figure some things out. So, if you would all give me some of your time, I will exin it all now."


    They didn''t say anything but all of them settled into their chairs and turned to look at me. They were ready for the exnation.


    I gave it to them. I made sure to tell them everything from the moment that I got the call about her being found in the hall and up until today when I had seen herst. She was stillying there, as still as could be. She was pale and not moving. It was like she was asleep, since I could still hear her heart beating and see her breathing.


    I had also had Griffin hook her up to the equipment that monitored her condition. She was given a feeding tube to make sure that she was still getting nourishment and the triplets could grow and thrive.


    "How could this be?" Eve was the first to ask in a low wail as she held her face in her hands.


    "What happened to her?" Carter looked like he was close to tears.


    The others added their questions too. Almost all at once.


    "What happened to my best friend?"


    "Wake her up already. Kiss her like it''s a fairy tale."


    "This is impossible."


    The outbursts went on for a while. They were upset and I knew that they would. I had to try my best to exin things to them while I told them what I was doing to wake her up and fix this situation.


    They all went from anger to sadness, back to anger, and finally settling on heartbreak. Some of them were in a state of denial that Noah and I had to work hard to break through. It was a tough night, but I finally managed to make it through and have them all understand what had happened.. Finally, they knew and I didn''t have to feel like I was doing something wrong by keeping it from them.

 Chapter 646 - 63- Reece – What Is Going On? (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 646 - 63- Reece ¨C What Is Going On? (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Seven days. A week. One hundred and sixty-eight hours. Ten thousand and eighty minutes. Six hundred and four thousand eight hundred seconds. That was how long it had been since I came home to find my wifeatose. OK, I don''t know about the exact second, and I might be off by a minute or two, but everything else is exact.


    "Where are you, Trinity? Why aren''t youing home to me? To your family? What are you doing out there?" I knew that asking her these questions was pointless. It wasn''t like she could answer them for me right now anyway. Still, it made me feel a little bit better to actually say them out loud.


    For this past week I have done everything that I could to keep myself from falling apart. I have been trying to stay strong and calm for the kids. I had even kept it together as best as I could when I spoke to Trinity''s family. That had been hard, way harder than I expected it to be. I made it though and it was done.


    Now, all I could do was sit there and wish that there was more for me to do. I wanted to do something, anything, that would help my wife''s soul toe home. I needed to do something that would fix this whole situation.


    As I went round and around with these thoughts inside my head, I heard someone knock on the door to my room. There were very few people that woulde to disturb me while I was in my room with my wife. And I could tell by the way that they walked and they smelled, that they were someone that would have no problem interrupting me right now.


    "Reece, can Ie in?" Trevor called from the other side of the door.


    "Yeah,e on in." I agreed, but I didn''t look away from my Little Bunny, and I didn''t let go of her hand. I was still putting almost all of my attention on my wife. No offense to one of my best friends in the entire world, but my mate came first.


    "Hey man, how are you holding up?" He came right over to me after he opened the door and pped a hand on my shoulder. With his grip firm on me, squeezingfortingly, I finally looked away from my Little Bunny and up into Trevor''s face.


    "I''m not."


    That was the first time that I honestly admitted that I was not doing so well. I have been trying my best to be positive for the kids and everyone else, but it was so hard on me. It was all just an act. I wasn''t really holding it together at all. On the inside, all I wanted to do was scream, yell, howl, whine, tear someone''s throat out, anything that would be doing something. I couldn''t, though. All I could do was sit here and hold it all together with will power and duct tape.


    "I''m not holding it together at all." I added, feeling the grip on my self control getting very thin. "I don''t want to hold it together anymore either. All I want to do is let it all go."


    "Go ahead man, no one''s looking but me. Let it go. Get it out." Trevor would never judge me, and I knew that, but I still couldn''t do it.


    "No. No, I can''t." I shook my head and tried to violently push that idea away. I couldn''t let it go. I needed to be strong. I needed to be tough. I needed to make sure that I was the heart, soul, and strength of this family. I needed to do that for Trinity."


    "Listen to me, Reece. If you don''t let off some steam, you will be no better than Trinity was when we came to visit you recently. You will be bottling up everything that is bothering you and keeping everyone in the dark. Do you want to end up in the same position that she is in? Do you want that to happen to you too? Are you willing to let the kids have no parents for the time being?"


    Trevor''s words were definitely eye opening. He was right. I was acting the exact same way that my Little Bunny had been before this happened to her. I was following right after her without even thinking about it.


    "Maybe I should try to follow her. Maybe I should, so that I could go get her and bring her back." That thought made my heart race with sudden ideas. Could I go after her? Could I bring her back? How would I do it?


    "Shut the fuck up, Reece!" Trevor snapped at me. "You know, that is the stupidest idea I have heard in a very long time. How the hell are you going to sit there and even contemte that idea?"


    I didn''t understand Trevor''s anger at me. Why was he so pissed off that I wanted to go after my wife? Why was he so pissed that I wanted to try to bring her back?


    "What the hell, Trevor? You don''t know how it feels. You don''t know what I am going through. You can''t imagine what I want to do. I should go after her. I should help her. I am her mate, it''s my job to help her." I was fuming right now, nearly frothing at the mouth as I responded angrily to him.


    "Yeah, you''re right, I don''t know what it is that you are feeling. I couldn''t even imagine it because I have never felt something like that, and I thank the Goddess that I haven''t. but that doesn''t mean that I want to see you go through this. Or watch Talia, Reagan, and Rika lose both of their parents. You know that those three kids are already suffering, do you want to make it worse?"


    His words brought me back to my senses. He was right. I knew that already. But he had pointed it out to me and that was good enough. I couldn''t leave to go after Trinity. If I did, the kids would be devastated, even more than they already are. I can''t do that to them. I can''t bring myself to put them through that.


    "I''m sorry, Trevor." I hung my head, the tears that I had been fighting to hold back for thest week finally streaming down my cheeks. "I''m so sorry. I just feel so helpless. I want to help her, but I don''t even know what is going on. I don''t know how to fix this. I don''t know what to do. Dammit, I''m at a loss." I was crying. Bawling really. I was like a little baby that wasn''t able to stop. Once I started, I just couldn''t stop.


    "Why the hell do you think that I am here, Reece? What do you think that I came here for if not to help you out?" I didn''t understand what he was saying for a moment.. How could he help me? I didn''t know, but apparently he did, because he looked very confident in his knowledge.

 Chapter 647 - 64- Reece – What Is Going On? Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 647 - 64- Reece ¨C What Is Going On? Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "What are you saying, Trevor? I don''t think I am following you? How can you help Trinity?"


    "Well, ever since you called, I have been researching some things. I have a couple of people in my pack that are half bear and half witch doctor. They were a little uhm.., well, let''s just say that they were not ordinary, OK. These people, they''re twins, and they can do some things that no one else can."


    I was trying to follow along with what he was saying but he was still standing over me from where I sat. In all honesty, I was not ustomed to tilting my head back that much looking that high up, so it was throwing me off a little.


    "I don''t think that I am following you, Trevor. Sit down somewhere so I can see you better and then we can talk."


    "It doesn''t look to me like you can see shit. Those eyes of yours are swollen nearly all the way shut with the tears you had been shedding, that and the force of holding them in. You look like a wreck, man."


    "Gee, thanks so much for that vote of confidence in me. I appreciate it so much." I wanted to snap at him, to say the words angrily, but I didn''t. Instead, the words came out weak and defeated.


    "Come on Reece, let''s go sit at the table so we can talk. Maybe call someone to bring you some coffee."


    "I don''t want to leave Trinity''s side. I just want to sit here and hold onto her and hope that she wakes up." I refused his suggestion and looked back at my Little Bunny through my swollen eyes.


    "Fuck that,e on." He grabbed me by the back of my neck and pulled me to my feet. I tried to fight him off and hold to my Little Bunny''s hand, but he stopped me with little effort. "This is pathetic. You''re letting yourself get beat by me too easily, Reece. You see what I mean about you, you''re going to end up hurt soon. You need to vent and for Goddess''s sake, Reece, you need to fucking sleep. And, are you even eating at all? You''re losing weight like crazy."


    "I haven''t lost that much, it''s only a few pounds." I tried to deny his usation but even that sounded half hearted to my own ears. Dammit, this was not going well. Trevor was right, I was letting myself go. I was giving up. And if I did that, I would end up catatonic like my mom did.


    "Come on, sit at the table, order the maid to bring you some food and coffee, then sit here and talk to me. I won''t leave until we have said our peace, but I am not going to say anything until you take care of yourself." He was being firm with me and I knew it was out of the brotherly bond we had since we were kids.


    At this point, Trevor had just forcibly sat me down in a chair after literally carrying me across the room. He was standing behind me and hovering over me until I made the order to have some food brought up to me. I did as he wanted and sent a mental link to Abigail and Roisin. I asked for lunch, coffee, water, beer and snacks. I wanted to make sure that Trevor had something as well and I didn''t know how long he and I were going to talk for.


    The food was apparently already made. They had been waiting for me to call for them to bring the food toe to the room. I hadn''t realized how much I was worrying the few staff members that we were still keeping on at the moment. They were probably thinking that I was going to end up like Trinity as well. Dammit! I''ve been a fucking fool.


    The food was brought right up by a relieved looking Roisin. She didn''t linger though. She just set down the tes and then backed out of the room with a smile on her face. After that, Trevor refused to say anything until I ate at least half of my food. I needed to get the nourishment into me, or so he said.


    After the two of us ate and downed a few beers, Trevor was ready to move on and actually talk. I didn''t know what it was that he had to tell me, but I knew that it was enough for him to havee all the way here from thepound.


    "Alright, now that you''ve gotten a little bit of color back into your face, sit right there, shut up, and listen." He growled at me but not in an angry way. I could tell that he had truly been worried about me when he first got here.


    "I am already sitting, and I hadn''t said anything, so I didn''t need to shut up." I joked with him as he was doing with me. It was our way of showing our love for each other.


    "Well, now you do need to shut up." He grinned then leaned forward to brace his arms on the table in front of him. "Now, I mentioned to you those twins from my pack, right. Well, they''ve had differences about them their whole lives, and I admit that I didn''t pay much attention to them all that much before. When I started to ask people in my pack about souls and things like that, I was told to talk to Chloe and Charlie. They are not often out and socializing with the rest of the pack. In fact, the two of them live up in the mountains and try to avoid everyone at all costs." I was a little intrigued by what he was saying, but I didn''t know what it mattered to me.


    "So, why are these twins so important?" I asked him, still trying to figure it out.


    "Well, apparently, these twins are able tomunicate with spirits. They can contact ghosts and other apparitions. And it''s legitimate too. It''s not a hoax or anything that is fake. It''s real."


    "OK, well, thanks for that Trevor, but Trinity isn''t a ghost. She''s in aa because her soul left her body."


    "Yeah, I know that, dumbass. What is a ghost if not a soul that does not have a body anymore? I aming to you with this because I want to bring the twins here to see if they can see what happened with Trinity and find out why her soul isn''t here anymore. It''s a long shot but it''s the only thing that I cane up with. And not to mean, Glory hasn''t managed to find anything yet either. So, you have to admit, it''s worth a shot."


    Trevor had a point. A ghost was a soul. So if these twins canmunicate with ghosts, it means that theymunicated with souls. And my Little Bunny was currently without her soul right now.


    "Yeah, you''re right. It''s worth a shot." I smiled and nodded at him as I thought about what he was offering me. "Thank you, Trevor."


    "See, I told you I had something for you, moron." That was his way of being embarrassed and being happy that I epted his help.. He was easy to read, to me at least.

 Chapter 648 - 65- Trinity – Where To Go Now? (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 648 - 65- Trinity ¨C Where To Go Now? (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was reeling now. I didn''t know what to think. I went to hug the other me back after she put her arms around me and, all of a sudden, she just turned to dust and disappeared.


    "What the hell?! Where did she go?" I asked the emptiness that stretched out before me.


    ''I am still here. I am just inside your head once again.'' There was a slight amount ofughter that came with that voice.


    "Are you going to be in there forever? Are you going to start those whispers again that drove me crazy?" I was a little upset that I was going to deal with the voice in my head once again.


    ''I only started to talk to you once you got here in the self reflection realm. Prior to that, I never spoke to you. Not like this anyway. And I will only continue to speak to you while you are in the underworld. It is part of the magic that brought me to life. I can only speak to you here. The rest of the time, I will be part of your intuition. That will be me subtly speaking to you by guiding you in the right path.''


    "What do you mean? Wasn''t that you that had been talking to me the entire time? If it wasn''t you that was driving me insane, who was it?"


    I was starting to hyperventte now. I didn''t like the idea that someone else had been inside of my head. I mean, how many visitors did I have?


    ''I was not a visitor. I was always one of your permanent residents. I was just a mute one until you came here.''


    "OK, but who was the other person? Since you seem to know so much about this ce, can you tell me who that person was?"


    ''I would think that it would be obvious. The voice was telling you to stop someone from escaping and causing a cmity. Yet, those voices were also ming you for everything. My guess is that the voice and the someone trying to escape are one and the same.'' The other me, or should I say that part of me, sounded so matter of fact when she answered me just now.


    "What? How is that even possible? How does that even make sense?" I was trying to wrap my head around the things that I had just heard. "Why would the voice warn me against itself?"


    I tried to think about that for a minute. If I was someone that was trapped in hell and wanted to get out, namely Hekate, then, wouldn''t it make sense to lure someone to their location as a means of getting out? OK, if that is true, then that would mean that the voice that was saying all those things to me, was Hekate.


    Now, if that was right, assuming I was moving in the right direction at all, then how was it that she nned to use me to escape? And, how was she even able to reach me in the first ce? Those were the big issues that I needed to answer.


    ''Might I interject for a moment?'' The other me spoke up again. ''You were not the first person that Hekate hasmunicated with while inside the underworld. Do you not remember your father''s childhood and his invisiblepanion? That was him talking with Hekate''s voice. She has reached out several times to powerful people over time. Most of the time, she tries to get them on her side, but that usually does not work out for her. I think that she has changed her tactic now. She needs to be reaching out to you in hopes that you will attempt to stop her and inadvertently let her out.''


    "That is quite the theory that you have there." I crossed my arms at the way the other me was taking this train of thought.


    ''I am simply a part of you, Trinity. I am not thinking about something that you haven''t already thought about. It is just that those thoughts were dwelling at the back of your mind where they were trying to stay buried. That is where the darker and more morbid of your thoughts usually stay, and that is also where I usually stay.''


    "OK, you''re probably right. So then, I should do my best to leave the underworld withouting into contact with Hekate. Is that what you are saying?"


    ''Well, if you can, yes. But then again, would that not just lead to her invading your mind even more? I think that we need to destroy her. That would be the best option in my, or rather our, opinion.''


    "Hahh." I sighed loudly, it wasn''t like anyone other than me, or me, was going to hear it.


    ''Stop your bellyaching. We have work to do Trinity.''


    "Yeah, yeah, I know. I just wanted to get home now rather than to go after the fucking Goddess of dark magic. I can''t even use my magic here, so I don''t even know how I am going to destroy her."


    ''We will figure that out. For now, we need to find a way out of this ce. I say we move out.''


    "What are you, mymanding officer?" Iughed at myself for having just made a joke with myself. Damn, if anyone else saw me talking to myself like this, I would be the talk of the town. And they would reward me with a nice new jacket, one that buckled in the back and gave the best self hugs ever.


    ''Just start walking. I do not have that ability anymore.'' The other meughed at me again. Dammit, this was weird, but somehowforting.


    I did as the other me told me to do. She was me after all, so I wasn''t listening to someone else''s orders, I was listening to myself and what I wanted. Don''t think too much about it, it will just confuse you. Just know that I was doing what I wanted to do and nothing else.


    The moment that I left the circle with the fire in it, the barrier finally gone, the ze extinguished itself. It went from zing high and hot, to being nothing there at all. I was hoping that I was moving in the right direction, whatever the right direction was right now. And I was once again moving slowly and dragging my feet to make sure that I didn''t trip over anything.


    "Hey, other me, I wanted to ask you something."


    ''Yes, Trinity?''


    "If you are me, from the inside of me, then why did you burn me, twice?"


    ''You were not physically harmed. It was more of you just feeling the effects of it. And I am you, Trinity. You would not have liked someone talking to you like that. I did not like it either.''


    "I think you''re just making excuses, but I will listen to it for now. Just don''t ever do it again."


    ''I make no promises for when you die. But that will be many, many, many years from now.''


    "Great. I get toe back here again." I truly sounded enthusiastic about that. Yup. And I was the Queen of the universe and not just the shifters and magic users. That''s how true that was. You know, sarcasm. Yeah, I know, I am being overly obvious right now.. Can you me me, though? I am trapped in this dark prison.

 Chapter 649 - 66- Trinity – Guides (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 649 - 66- Trinity ¨C Guides (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It felt like I had been walking for hours. I was moving along in the same direction without seeing anything and therefore without knowing if I was making any progress at all. For all I knew, I could have been walking in circles. Wouldn''t that just be grand? Making an ass of myself that way as I tried to move into the proper direction that I needed to only to be stuck here forever.


    "STOP IT!"


    ''Hush Trinity!'' I scolded myself at the same time that the other me did the same thing.


    "Yeah, I know. This isn''t going to help me at all."


    ''No, it will not.'' She agreed with me. ''You need to stay positive. That is one key to making it through the underworld. Just as you referred to it already, this is the ce that the mortals call hell. It is the afterlife for all living beings on Earth. That means that it will try to make you feel despair.''


    "Wait a minute. If this is hell, does that mean that there is a heaven?" I had to ask. I mean, I never thought about heaven in that way but if it were actually real, then I would like to know. That would be some prime information.


    ''Not in the sense that you are thinking about. Heaven and Hell are both the afterlife. They are both in thend of the dead and gone. Where you end up in the underworld all depends on you and the things that you have done.''


    "Well, based on the marathon session that we just had, I can assume I am winding up in the hell section." I felt my head and shoulders lower without even meaning to.


    ''No, you are not an evil person, Trinity. You did what you did thinking you were doing things for the greater good, not to be evil or malicious. There is a difference, you know. And all I wanted you to do while we spoke, was to acknowledge that you still have a lot of room to grow as time moves forward.'' This other me was taking on a whole new attitude now that she was inside of me again.


    "I will do my best to remember that."


    Things were settling down with the conversation and I was doing my best to stay positive. I mean, I truly was trying my hardest. It was just really, really hard when you''re in a ce like this. Not to mention, it waspletely dark in a way that filled your whole body and soul.


    "Think happy thoughts." I told myself as I kept moving. "Just think happy thoughts."


    ''It won''t make you fly.'' The other meughed.


    "Yeah, because I am already in Nevend. As in, I never want toe back here again."


    As I made my little joke, I finally saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was just a slight sh of light, but it was the first thing that I had seen since I left the circle with the fire and was plunged into darkness.


    I immediately turned to my right and started to follow after that light that I saw. That light was important. If nothing else, it proved that there was something over there and that I had been moving in the right direction. It was a symbol of hope. It was my happy thought.


    "Follow the light. Follow the light. Follow the light." I was just whispering the words to myself over and over again. It was like a near silent mantra that I just needed to repeat again and again until I found out what that light was and where it led me.


    After a little while, I stopped walking in a slow shuffle. I started to jog and then run as I rushed forward blindly. I was doing something reckless and dangerous once again, but I had no other choice. I needed to be able to get out of this purgatory and into the next stage of my time here. I needed to move forward so that I could get home.


    The first thing that I saw looming up before me, was what looked like a giant mountain. It was tall with sheer cliffs and slippery slopes that looked like it would be extremely hard to climb. There also seemed to be no end in sight as it rose before me. I couldn''t see where the top of the mountain was.


    Without thinking, I rushed forward and tried to climb the mountain. I instantly fell back and slid down to the ground, or was it a floor. I couldn''t always tell if I was inside or not.


    I tried again. I rushed forward, faster than before. This time I managed to get a hold of the rock and hold on for just a few minutes. I made it several feet up the side of the slick, slippery rock surface. I struggled to hold on but I couldn''t manage it. I started to fall back down and slipped all the way back to the beginning.


    "This fucking sucks." I growled out as I made a third rush for the mountain side. I leapt just before I got to the hard surface and made it about ten feet up the side. I tried as hard as I could to hold on tight and move up the side of the mountain. s, I once again slipped and went tumbling down the rocks until I ended upnding on my ass, once again on the hard ground.


    "DAMMIT!" I snapped as I rose to my feet.


    As I stood there before the looming mountain face, getting more and more discouraged by the second, I started trying to find something else, some other way, that might help me to climb these slopes. I was looking all around me, all over the ce trying to find something that I might have missed. That was when I noticed that the light was noting from the mountain like I had originally thought that it was. No, the light wasing from somewhere down and to the side of the looming rocks.


    After beating myself up for not paying enough attention in the beginning, I started to move again. I knew that I just needed to keep moving. I had to keep going. I needed to find my way out of here. That was all that I was telling myself over and over again. Find the light, find a way out. That was the only thing that I was thinking about.


    As I started to follow that path down the side of the mountain, I grinned in anticipation. I knew that this was going to be it. This was my way out. I just knew that it had to be. There was nothing that could possibly go wrong right now. I just needed to find that elusive light and I would find my way out of here. It was that simple. I kept repeating those thoughts, focusing on that as my happy thought to drive away the despair. I just knew that I was going to get out of here.


    Well, that was, until I saw what was waiting for me when I actually found the light.

 Chapter 650 - 67- Trinity – Guides Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 650 - 67- Trinity ¨C Guides Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The moment that I saw the true source of the light, I wanted to groan or cry out in frustration, or something along those lines. WHY!? Why did it have to be this?


    There was a door. Yes, that was a good thing. It was exactly what I was looking for. However, standing in front of the door were those three little imps. Those little imps had been there for every door that I had gone through since this ordeal started.


    Those little devils had brought me to this ce to begin with. My initial entrance into the underworld and the level of self reflection, all of it was them. Were they trying to sabotage me?


    Then again, they stopped me from following that other voice. That one that was evil and probably belonged to Hekate. They made sure that I didn''t walk right into her stupid trap. So, they did save me, I guess.


    And, well, when I went through the door to the self reflection area, I had been looking for any way to get out of where I was to begin with. I was stuck because I had nowhere to go and nothing to do. I needed a way out of there and they gave me one. They led me here so that I could continue my journey. That was sort of helpful too.


    OK. OK. I get it. They weren''t here to sabotage me. But what was it that they did want? I mean, why were they here?


    As I asked myself those questions, I looked closely at them again. They really did look like Reece. That was so insane. Why was I projecting his image onto these little imps? I know that I miss him and all, but I wouldn''t think that I would be projecting him like that. I mean, that was pretty much the same thing as hallucinating. Was I seeing things that weren''t really there?


    Could there be something more to this? Could these imps be something more? I don''t know if that was the case or not, but I did know that I needed to keep moving and not stay still. I needed to be like a shark. I can''t stop moving for anything.


    I almost stopped though. When I saw those little imps looking at me with huge smiles on their little child-like faces. It was almost too much for me. I didn''t want to think of them as children and I didn''t want to think that they looked like my children, but I couldn''t stop it. That was all that went through my mind right then.


    Those grins weren''t evil and they weren''t trying to hide anything behind them. All those smiles made me think was the way that Talia looked when I came home after a long day of working. Or the way that Reagan and Rika used to run to me smiling after their first few days at preschool. Those smiles looked like the smiles of children that saw their mother.


    But these imps weren''t my children. So, why were they looking at me like that? I tried to figure out the answers to those questions as I slowly approached the door in front of me. The imp on the right came running forward then and took my hand. He was looking up at me just like the way Reagan, Rika and Talia would do when I held their hands. This was so strange, so bizarre.


    "Why are you here?" I asked them, I was unable to stop myself from doing it. They didn''t answer me though. All they did was smile and point at me, specifically my waist. That made no sense to me at all. "Where did youe from?" I tried again. Once again they just pointed at me and didn''t speak. "Where do you belong?" One of the imps put his hand on my belly but still didn''t say anything. "No, you don''t belong in there. I have my three kids at home, and I lost one baby before. Still, I would remember if I ever had three babies at once. That would kind of stick out in my memory."


    Iughed and tried to shake off what the imp was doing, but he didn''t stop. He just kept his hand on my belly while smiling at me. After a moment he even started to pat my belly like he was offeringfort or something.


    Well, that was odd.


    It didn''t matter though. We had gotten to the door that was waiting here for me. The door was once again just standing there with nothing supporting it at all. There it was, in color, as were the imps, but everything else around me, including myself, were still in ck and white.


    I timidly reached out with my left hand, letting go of one of the imp''s hands in the process. The knob of the door was solid and warm like it had been held by someone else recently. Or like maybe whatever was on the other side of this door was really, really warm.


    That was aforting thought. Was this door going to lead me into the true ''hell'' part of this underworld? Was this the fire and brimstone section? That wasn''t a veryforting thought. What exactly was going to happen to me when I opened that door?


    "Is this safe?" I looked at the imps, one after another. I was trying to see if they were confident about this door or not. They were all still smiling, and they all nodded at me to tell me that it was safe. I guess that I had no choice, there was literally no other option for me right now.


    I took a deep breath while I steadied my hand that was on the door knob.


    I was procrastinating. I was stalling. I was doing anything that I could to not turn the knob. That included looking all around me as I was waiting with my hand on the door.


    ''Come on, Trinity, stop hesitating.'' The other me called out from the back of my mind. ''You can do this. There is no reason for you to act like a baby at this point.''


    "Oh, shut up you." I snapped at her and saw the three little imp boys recoil just a little. "Not you three. I am talking about the voice inside my head." They tilted their heads in confusion like they didn''t know what was going on, but they were worried about me. Or they were just worried about my sanity. Yeah, thetter was probably the case.


    ''They cannot hear me, and they never saw me. They do not know anything about me. I am only here for you, Trinity.''


    "Isn''t that just wonderful?" I sighed as I shook my head. "I know you''re right, though. And not about them not knowing about you. I am referring to the fact that I need to stop being a baby. I need to just open this and go."


    No more deep breaths, no more stalling. I just bit the bullet, figuratively speaking that is.. I opened the door and saw a bright white light that blocked out everything else on the other side of the door.

 Chapter 651 - 68- Trinity – On The Other Side (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 651 - 68- Trinity ¨C On The Other Side (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I immediately put my hand up to block out the light that was blinding me. I couldn''t see anything anymore, and it was all that light''s fault. All I could do was alternate between squinting and closing my eyes to let them adjust. I was also trying to blink out the tears that had formed in them.


    "What the hell?" I couldn''t move forward at all because I couldn''t see anything. This blinding light was worse than the full darkness that I had been in before. This was causing me physical pain just trying to look into it. Darkness didn''t hurt the eyes like this.


    As I sat there, trying to figure out what to do, I felt myself being pushed and pulled. Two of the little imp boys were pulling my hands while the third one was pushing me at the small of my back. They were trying to force me through the door.


    "What are you doing? I can''t see in there. This ce isn''t safe for me. Let me go."


    They weren''t listening to me, though. Of course not. They were imps and that meant that they were trying to y tricks on me. And even if they were children, well a lot of them don''t listen when they''re young either.


    "Please, stop pulling me. I don''t want to go in there right now." I tried to stop them, but they had already pulled me over the threshold. The moment that my feet went over it the same thing asst time happened. It was like I was being pulled into some type of vortex. I was spiraling and falling uncontrobly.


    Well, it felt uncontroble, to me at least. However, I wasn''t alone. For some reason, all three of those little imps were still with me. The two that had grabbed my hands were still holding them and the other one that had been pushing me had grabbed a hold of my waist. All four of us were spinning and falling into that bright white light.


    I still couldn''t see anything, but I didn''t think that mattered very much. I mean, when I sttered and died, I didn''t think it would help me at all when I saw the ending. It would be so much easier on me if it all just ended abruptly.


    Only, I wasn''t about to die, and I knew that. I was just being melodramatic. I was already slowing down, and I could tell that the light on the other side of my eyelids had lessened at least a little bit. I wasing close tonding in a new ce once again.


    How many times was this going to happen to me? How many more doors did I have to find until I found out where I was going and took care of what I needed to. How long was it going to be before I got to go home?


    When Inded, it wasn''t as soft as I thought that it would be. Inded in a slightly painful heap with the three little imp boys tangled with me. I don''t know about them, but that fall hurt my ass.


    When I looked at the little imps, I felt my heart break just a little bit. All three of them looked like they were about to cry. They looked like they were in pain and wanted to cry so that their mommy would kiss their booboo and make it all better.


    Why was it that the more that I was with them, the more I was seeing these three little imps as little boys instead of trickster devils?


    "Are you OK?" I asked them. The two that were holding my hands nodded and forced their faces into something that looked like they were being big boys that didn''t want to cry. The third one, the one that had been behind me and who had been under me when Inded, shook his head no. He had tears streaming down his cheeks and was rubbing the side of his head.


    "Aww, did you hurt your head?" I spoke to him like I was his mom. I spoke to him like I had spoken to Reagan when he was about three or four and he had hurt himself.


    That was something else that was strange. The three little imps seemed to be changing in how old they looked. Most of the time I would put them at about seven or eight, about the same age as Reagan and Rika. But right now, they looked younger. Especially this one that was crying. The other two looked to be about five at most, a year older than Talia. But this one looked like he was about three at most. Was their appearance based on their emotions? That would be interesting if that was the case.


    The little imp boy was nodding his head when I asked him if he hit his head. He was truly very childlike at the moment.


    "Come here." I moved and spoke on instinct. I pulled the little boy toward me and pressed my lips to the part of his head that he had been rubbing, the part that had his booboo on it.


    I don''t know why I did it, but it just felt right. It seemed to me like what I was supposed to be doing. And when I did it, I got the slightest whiff of someone''s scent. Someone that I knew wasn''t here and was surprised that these little imp boys smelled like. They smelled like Reece. Not fully, but just a little.


    "All better?" I asked him as I pulled away from him. That was when I saw him smiling and looking at me with those familiar golden eyes.


    It wasn''t just my imagination anymore. These boys really did look and smell like Reece. I just didn''t know why yet. I did know that I could trust them. If they were part of Reece then they were meant to help me.


    After I made the little imp boy feel better, I looked around me. I hadn''t gone far. I seemed to be just outside of thepound and on the road that led into the heart of Colorado Springs. There was color around me now, but it was muted. And I didn''t see a single person around me at all.


    "HELLO!?" I called out, knowing that it would do me no good. There was no one around that was going to answer me.


    ''What do you think we should do now, Trinity?'' The other me asked after my echo died down.


    "I think we should go into town." I looked at the three little imps as if I was telling them and not just the voice inside my head. "Want toe with me?" The three of them nodded eagerly. "Then I guess we are going into town."


    Two of them held my hands, thest one held onto his brother''s hand. It really did make me think of something a family would do. But that was crazy, they weren''t my family. They were just helping me, that was all.. Though they were really adorable, I wouldn''t mind if we really were family.

 Chapter 652 - 69- Trinity To The City (volume 4)

    <h4>Chapter 652 - 69 Trinity To The City (volume 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It felt very strange. Walking down the road and toward the city with the muted colors surrounding me and no sounds filling the air. I hadn''t noticed it at first, I had been a little too preupied by other things, but there were no sounds at alling from this world. There was no sound of the wind. No birds chirping or frogs croaking. There wasn''t even the sound of crickets in the woods.


    And, just like the other sounds, there were no sounds that could be heard from the city. No matter how peaceful it was, I should have been able to hear the sound of cars and other thingsing from the busy city. That is, I would have heard those sounds if I was in the real world. I guess the underworld was so empty and deste that there were no sounds to be hearding from a major metropolitan area.


    I tried not to think about the destion of thendscape around me as I walked on. This was supposed to be the underworld, and of the dead. Shouldn''t it be filled with the souls of those dead people? Or were they all in their respective heavens and hells?


    While I was doing my best to not think about those things, I thought about something else. At least I could walk normally now. That strange sticky feeling in the atmosphere was no longer affecting me. Though, I didn''t know if that was a good thing or not.


    Did the fact that thend was no longer pushing against me mean that I was closer to being a permanent part of the underworld? Would I be stuck here forever if I didn''t hurry and finish my business? These were the thoughts that were guing me at the moment.


    It felt like it took me about forty-five minutes to make it to the edge of the city from the gates of thepound. I think that I had subconsciously adjusted my walking speed so that the three little imp boys didn''t have to run to keep up with me. The mommy part of me had naturally walked at a pace that was easier on their small, child sized legs.


    The city looked the same as Ist saw it, only muted in color. I tried to think of it as there just being a thinyer of fog in the air that was partially obscuring my vision. Though I wasn''t truly able to convince myself of that at all.


    Besides theck of sound, I barely saw anyone moving around in the distance. But even that was a shock to me. I hadn''t expected to see anyone in here at all. Since the only other people that I had seen were the three little Reece look-alikes and the other me, I had started to think that I wouldn''t see anyone else here at all.


    Another twenty minutes or soter, I was walking down a familiar looking street in a part of town that I used to frequent when I was a freshman in college. This path would take me to Franny''s Kitchen.


    I hadn''t been there in a few years because the elderly Franny had needed to retire, and her family hadn''t wanted to keep the business going without her. I don''t know why I came this way. I think I was just letting my muscle memory take over for me as I walked the familiar streets.


    There were some people who were slowly milling about as they went about whatever business they had here in the afterlife. I saw a man with a dog leash walking aimlessly about like he couldn''t find his dog. There was a woman who was just sitting on a bus bench like she was waiting for the bus that would nevere for her. Three teenagers with confused looks on their faces, and very different clothing styles were walking in single file as if they were on their way to the university.


    This was all really strange to me, and very creepy too.


    When I got to the door for Franny''s Kitchen, I saw someone very familiar looking. They were just standing there outside the diner and whispering something so softly that I could barely hear it.


    "I can''t get in. I need to start my prep work for the day, but I can''t get in."


    Standing there, just staring at the door, was Franny. She looked older and smaller than thest time that I had seen her. And the fact that she was here told me that she had passed away. I hadn''t heard that she had died and learning about it like this was almost like a punch straight in the gut.


    "Franny?" I called out before I could stop myself. She didn''t stop her whispering and she didn''t even seem as if she had heard me at all. "Franny, what is wrong?" That was a stupid question to ask. I should have scolded myself for asking such a ridiculous question.


    "I can''t get in. I need to start my prep work for the day, but I can''t get in. Why won''t they let me in? I need to get to work. I don''t want to stay home and do nothing all day. I want to do what I love."


    "Franny, why won''t they let you in?" I don''t know why, but I wanted to help her somehow. I didn''t understand why she was just standing there with such a sad look on her face. She should have been able to get inside because it was her restaurant after all.


    "I can''t get in. I need to start my prep work for the day, but I can''t get in. Why won''t they let me in? I need to get to work. I don''t want to stay home and do nothing all day. I want to do what I love. Why won''t my family let me go back to work? Why do they need to keep me away?"


    With each time that I heard Franny repeat these words, I heard more and more of what she was saying. It was like she was adding to it for my benefit.


    "Did they make you stop working, Franny? Is that why you retired? But you weren''t able to do your job anymore, right? Wasn''t that why you closed up?"


    "I can''t get in. I need to start my prep work for the day, but I can''t get in. Why won''t they let me in? I need to get to work. I don''t want to stay home and do nothing all day. I want to do what I love." She stopped adding to the phrase now. All she was doing now was repeating that initial part. I felt so heart broken as I stood there listening to her.


    I tried to ignore Franny then. I wanted to see what was happening around me now. So, I looked again. There was that man again, walking in the same endless loop as if he didn''t know what he was doing. There was that woman still waiting on the bus. And there were those teenagers again, walking in single file.. It was like they were all stuck on repeat. What was all of this? What was happening around me?

 Chapter 653 - 70- Trinity Where Am I? (volume 4)

    <h4>Chapter 653 - 70 Trinity Where Am I? (volume 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Seeing all of those people stuck on some sort of endless loop broke my heart. I didn''t know what had caused this to happen to them. I mean, this couldn''t be what death was like for everyone, could it?


    "What is going on here? Where am I? What part of the underworld is this?" I spoke thatst part out loud without even realizing it. To be honest, if I hadn''t heard my own voice echo back to me, I wouldn''t have known that I said it, I was so distracted by the events going on around me.


    ''No, Trinity, this is not what the afterlife is like for everyone.'' The other me started to speak to me inside of my head.


    "Then what is going on here?" I asked her as I started to walk around the sidewalk and look at all the different people that were around me. There were more than those that I noted before. some of these others I hadn''t noticed before because they, like Franny, were just standing there and looking in a window or at a wall. Some of the people were even wearing clothes from times that had passed long ago. Were they looking at things that were not part of my memories but theirs instead? Were they looking at the historic Colorado Springs? Just how long had those people been here? What was it they were seeing? Why were they here?


    I just couldn''t help it. I couldn''t stop all of these questions from running through my mind. All I could imagine right now was myself in the future, standing at one of these street corners while I whispered pathetically about whatever it was that had brought me here to this ce. I was picturing it all so clearly in my head that it almost brought tears to my eyes as my heart threatened to shatter into a million and one tiny little pieces.


    "What is happening with these people? Why are they here?"


    ''All of these people have refused to move on. Whether it be from a fear of the unknown or from a feeling that they did not do something truly important to them, all of these souls you see here are stuck in this ce until they let go of those feelings and choose to move on.''


    "So, what is this, some sort of Limbo?" I didn''t know what type of ce this was, but I knew that it was the saddest ce that I had ever been. Just looking at all of the souls around me, I could tell the emotions that they were carrying with them. All of them were filled with either sorrow or regret.


    ''You could consider this ce to be Limbo. ording to theology, Limbo was the in between or the edge of hell. It was where the souls that died in original sin were sent because they had not been assigned to purgatory or the Hell of the damned. In truth though, this ce, this ''Limbo'' is where those that refuse to be assigned end up. They are stuck here for eternity, basking in their own sorrows.''


    "That is the most depressing thing that I have ever heard." It truly was. I mean, who would choose this for their final stop? Who would choose to not move on?


    OK, I guess I could answer that. Everyone that was doomed to the torture chambers of hell would choose thisnd of Limbo. They would most likely want this sad existence over anything else.


    ''Fear not, Trinity. Those that belong in the halls of damnation are assigned there automatically. These souls are not evil, so they are left here to wait until they allow themselves to move on.''


    "So, none of these people would be receiving punishments in the afterlife, but they still can''t give up their attachments and move on. Is it just that their attachments are too strong for them to move on? That is the only thing that I can think of that would hold them here."


    ''That is indeed correct, Trinity. These people have yet to give up on the attachments that brought them here. Their desires. Their bonds with other people, ces, or things. Their love for family and friends. It could be any number of things, but they just cannot seem to let go.''


    "Is there some way for me to help them? Is there anything that I could do? I am a Goddess for the moon''s sake. I should be able to help these people."


    "You cannot help them, little Goddess, but you can help me!"


    That voice wasn''t from inside my head. And it most definitely was not the voice of the other me that had been talking to me inside of my head.


    "Who''s there? Who are you? What do you want?"


    Like an idiot, I started to shout questions back at the mysterious voice that had just filled the entire city around me. Yeah, that was really smart of me. Haven''t I learned anything in my life? I mean, thest time that I heard someone shout through the air like that, I was issued a deration of war by my great great great grandmother. So, you know, you''d think that I had learned my lesson and knew better than to shout at the voices in the sky.


    "You do not recognize me, Trinity? How sad. And to think that we have so much inmon." The voice chuckled through the air as I spun around and searched the sky. I was checking everywhere but I didn''t see anyone at all.


    "I have never heard your voice before. I am very certain of that. If I have never heard your voice, then how could I know who you are?" This wasn''t a lie at all. I had never heard this voice before, not once in my entire life. I would recognize it. This person had a strange quality to their voice. It was like whenever they spoke, I could hear birds.


    I wasn''t hearing the sound of birds singing. No, this sounded more like the cawing and screeching of other birds. It was like ravens and crows or something. The carrion birds that always seemed to be following death. It was so eerie that it was making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up whenever she spoke. Not only that, but I also felt goosebumps prickle their way up my arm and to my neck as I shivered involuntarily at the sound that was echoing around me. Whoever this person was, she was bad news. That was the only thing about this situation that was easy to figure out.


    "I have spoken to you and many more of your kind over the ages, Trinity. I have done my best to guide and mold my children in my image. I mean, it is the least that I could do since they all descend from me."


    "And what others like me are you talking about?" I was at a loss here, confused and on edge as I tried to process the meaning of her words.


    "Well, the magic users of course.. I am the mother of all magic."

 Chapter 654 - 71- Trinity – Why I Am Here (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 654 - 71- Trinity ¨C Why I Am Here (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The mother of all magic users? If that were true then that would mean that she was.. she was.. she was Hekate. On my Goddess! I was in the underworld talking to Hekate. What the hell was going on here right now.


    Well, there was one thing that I knew for certain now. This meant that the other me had most likely been right. I was here because of this evil Goddess. But what I wanted to know was how? And why? How had she managed to bring me here, and why did she bring me here?


    "Do not ignore me, Trinity. That could be very unfortunate for you." Hekate snapped at me after a few moments of silence. I could hear the sound of thousands of angry birds screeching in her voice as she spoke. In my opinion, that alone would scare most human beings. Good thing I wasn''t one.


    "I am sorry. I was just stunned by the realization of who you are." I did my best to cate her since I didn''t know where she was at the moment.


    "So, you have figured out who I am. Go on, tell me. I want to make sure you are not just some ignorant girl. I would very much like to know that you have correctly ascertained my identity from this short conversation."


    "How could it be anyone else? The mother of the magic users, of which I am one, is none other than Hekate. You are the goddess of magic and darkness, isn''t that correct?" My voice was still calm as I did my best to reign in my anger.


    "Very clever of you. I am happy that you are not as stupid as you look." OK, she was intentionally trying to piss me off. If that was how she was going to y it, then I was going to piss her off by not rising to her bait.


    "Well, you know how we mortals are. We live our lives in a bubble and are often ignorant of the true events of the world." I wonder what she was going to say to that one.


    "HA HA HA HA HA!" Well, that was a new sound. And it was one that made me want to vomit. I didn''t truly know if Hekate wasughing or not. The sounds of those angry birds in her voice obscured theughter and made it sound ten times more sinister than it already did.


    I remained calm though. I didn''t let it bother me. Or rather, I didn''t let it show that herughter had bothered me. I am pretty sure that she would have pounced on the fact that herughter had rattled me.


    "I have not heard something that funny in a long time, Trinity. Thank you for that." Hekate almost sounded as if she were truly grateful to me, but I didn''t buy it. "I mean, of course I know who you are, girl. I know that you are no mortal. No shifter or magic user is mortal anymore. Their lifespans are equal to that of the Fae now. How interesting. And it is all thanks to you, their goddess. Isn''t that wonderful, Trinity? I think it is superb. All of my children now live for all eternity. They had long lives thanks to me and Thoth, but they did age and die after a long time. Now they won''t" There was something childish in the way she spoke. Childish and sinister at the same time. It was like watching one of those horror movies where some crazy child-like dwarf pretended to be a kid and killed so they could be adopted and kill the family. It was really creepy.


    "I am sorry, I did not intend to mislead you, Hekate. I used to be a mortal, and I live in the realm of mortals, so therefore I still refer to myself as a mortal. Living among the humans does tend to make one act like the humans." I rubbed the back of my head in fake embarrassment as I pretended tough nervously. "Ha ha ha."


    "I do not want to hear your paltry excuses, Trinity. You are a pathetic goddess. You do know that, right? You are weak and useless while you are on earth, and you are weak and useless while you are here." That was pissing me off even more, but I couldn''t rise to her bait. I knew that she was just goading me.


    "Well, that might be true. However, I am a new Goddess. I need to fullymit myself to the job. I am sure that after a while I will get the hang of it."


    "You will not." She snapped at me then, her voice so filled with anger that it sounded like the whole flock of birds in her voice took off all at once. There was cawing, screeching, and the sound of wings pping. Seriously, that had to be one of the weirdest powers ever.


    While I waited for her to say something else to me, I looked down at the three little imp boys that were standing near me. All three of them looked scared and nervous. I could see one of them shaking as if he were about to start crying and another one of them had his hands over his ears to block out the sound of the birds. Thest one was staring at the sky as if he were in shock or denial. They all looked just like regr little boys right now that all I wanted to do was protect them.


    "Hekate, why am I here? Why am I in the underworld?" I needed to ask her that. I needed to get this conversation done and over with.


    "You are here because I brought you here. Or rather, I tried to. Those three led you astray though. They took you through a different door and made you go through a path that was not in my original n."


    "Why did you try to bring me here? What purpose will it serve?" The anger within me was starting to boil into a rage.


    "You are going to get me out of here, Trinity. You are going to be my ticket to escaping this prison that I have been in for so long." There was pure glee in her voice right now. So much so that it terrified me even more.


    "No!" My response was immediate and expected.


    "You will not have a choice. You will do it because you are already here. And if you don''t do it, then I will just keep toying with your mind until you cannot take it anymore. And while I destroy your mind, I will just lure someone else here to help me. I will see my freedom, no matter the cost."


    "I will not allow that, Hekate. I will not let you out of here. The world does not need you in it again."


    "HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" There was that screechingughter again. That sound made me shiver. I simply wasn''t able to stop it.


    "I swear to you Hekate, I promise this to anyone and anything, I will stop you. I will make sure that you never escape the prison that you were sentenced to. You will never set foot in the mortal realm or the celestial realm.. I will not stop until you are destroyed."

 Chapter 655 - 72- Trinity – Hekate Retaliates (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 655 - 72- Trinity ¨C Hekate Retaliates (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "YOU DARE TO SPEAK TO ME THAT WAY! YOU DARE TO SPEAK TO A GODDESS AS OLD AND POWERFUL AS ME IN SUCH A MANNER! I WILL DESTROY YOU, TRINITY GRAY. I WILL DESTROY EVERYTHING THAT YOU LOVE BECAUSE OF YOUR INSOLENCE!"


    The moment that I threatened Hekate, I felt the air around me be icy cold. I was not usually affected by the cold at all. especially not since I had gained various ice abilities. However, even I thought that this was way too cold. It was almost enough to freeze me in ce, and I could tell that the three little imp boys were feeling the cold as well.


    "I need to do something." I said the words out loud to myself as all three sets of those familiar looking eyes gazed up at me with pitiful, helpless expressions.


    If these little imp boys were Reagan, Rika, or Talia, I would never let this happen to them. I would never let anything bad happen to them. So, that would stand to reason that I couldn''t let something like this happen to these little imp boys either. I needed to protect them, to save them. I needed to protect these little Reece looking babies.


    "Dammit! If only I had my magic right now. If only I could wrap these little ones in a protective barrier I could-." I stopped right then and there because I was too shocked by what I saw. As I had been saying those words, I had envisioned what would happen if I had been able to perform magic in that moment. And it was actually happening.


    The three little boys were all suddenly inside their own little bubble. The bubbles looked like they were made out of such fragile things, but they were actually quite strong, judging by how thick they felt when I reached out and touched them.


    And to top it all off, those little bubbles were warm to the touch. It felt so much warmer next to the bubbles than it had when Hekate''s icy air was buffeting around me.


    "Are you warmer now?" I asked the three little imp boys. They didn''t speak, just the same as before, but they nodded their heads. I tried to focus on them and their answers instead of the fact that my magic seemed to have worked. I didn''t know if it was a one time thing here or not, so I didn''t want to get my hopes up at all.


    "Oh, how sickeningly sweet. You are being so nice to three little lost souls. Well, maybe I will destroy them first. Maybe I will take them away from you before I escape this eternal hell and destroy the world you once knew. I will enjoy tearing them limb by limb and devouring the deliciousness of their souls. I will make a snack out of those three before I take over the world and feast to my heart''s content."


    This bitch was fucking bat shit crazy. What the hell was she talking about? I didn''t know right now, but I knew that I needed to stop her. I needed to keep her here in her hell forever.


    "I have a present for you, Trinity. I will end you right here and right now. I will make it quick and painless for you."


    "Oh gee, thanks Hekate. That sounds like it would be so wonderful. Only, you know, I don''t really feel like having any gifts right now. It''s not my birthday and it''s not Christmas. Damn, it looks like I will have to wait."


    ''OK Trinity, do you think that you might be able to tone down that sarcasm? We do not know what she will do. We do not even know what she is capable of doing. We need to be careful. We need to tread carefully.'' The other me spoke up, obviously not happy with the turn of events.


    "You will have no choice, Trinity. You will see what it is that I can do. You will see what kind power the Goddess of Darkness possesses."


    After Hekate finished her little threat, I heard something that sounded like millions of crows and ravens scream through the air. I figured that this was the entirety of Hekate''s ning together.


    "Lost souls need a shepherd." I could barely hear Hekate above the sound of the birds. Not to mention, I was too busy looking around me for the swarm of birds that was obviously making their way toward me. From the sound of them, they wereing at me from all angles. I was going to need to protect the three little imp boys and defend myself against an onught of bloodthirsty birds. I needed to be on guard and watching for their approach.


    However, I was watching the sky a little too much. Because of that, I didn''t see what was happening around me. If I had been watching my surroundings, and not just the aerial ones, I would have noticed that all of the people in the vicinity were no longer running on their loops. I would have noticed that they were all seemingly frozen for just a moment or two.


    By the time that I did look down and pay attention to what was happening around me, all of the souls that were near me had just started to unfreeze and turn to look at me. It felt odd in a way. To have so many sets of dead eyes watching and acknowledging me.


    OK, this was creepy. Why were all of these people suddenly paying so much attention to me? I mean, when I had tried to speak to Franny earlier, she wouldn''t even acknowledge me, now she can''t take her eyes off of me.


    Those three kids that were walking all in a row had stopped and were now standing there, side by side. They were just watching me like I was some exhibit in a zoo on disy for them to ogle at.


    "You will see what I can do even from my prison cell, Trinity. You will reap the fruits of your insolence."


    I did not like the sounds of what she was saying, and I definitely did not like the way that all of those lost souls were looking at me.


    These people were supposed to be good people, definitely not evil. Yet, every single one of them was now wearing a look that was nothing but hostile and downright malicious. I was hesitant to actually call the looks evil, but to be honest, that is kind of what they were.


    And as I watched on even more, I saw that all of them were positioning themselves in a certain way. In a way that made me fear for those three little imp boys beside me. All of these people were now poised to attack. And their target was going to be me.


    "Destroy the souls of the children but bring me her soul in the halls of the damned. If any of you fail to do as I say, you will spend eternity being tortured whether I escape from this cell or not.." As one, everyone surrounding me started to move.

 Chapter 656 - 73- Trinity- Attack In Limbo Part 1 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 656 - 73- Trinity- Attack In Limbo Part 1 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The moment that all of those people started to move toward me I felt a shift in the air around me. It was like I was able to sense when and where they were going to be. This was not something that I had felt before, but I had known for years that I supposedly had a precognition type of ability. I had just never been able to use it. Or rather, I never knew how to use it.


    "I will protect the three of you." I looked at the three little imp boys for a quick second before the fighting started. "I promise you that you will not be hurt at all. I will take care of all of you."


    After having said those words, I thought about the protection that I wanted to give them while I fought off the others. I wanted to put a barrier around them. I wanted to make sure that they were out of harm''s way, so I didn''t have to focus on them too much for the time being.


    Sure enough, while I thought about it, the barrier appeared. It seemed that most of my magic was back here. Well, it was back, but not at full power. I could just feel that it was not as strong as it had been before.


    ''The further you get from the mortal realm, the stronger your magic will get.'' The other me chose that moment to inform me of the circumstances.


    "How do you know that?" I didn''t know if I could trust her assessment at the current moment.


    ''My knowledge of this world came with the magic that gave me sentience. I have knowledge of thisnd, but it is not like I am actively thinking about what those secrets are. I am sorry I cannot be of more help, but I will offer you the knowledge that I have when it is of importance.''


    "Gee, thanks." I couldn''t help but be sarcastic at that moment. I was literally watching those lost souls surge toward me.


    With the barrier now in ce around the three little boys that I was protecting, I leapt forward into the fray. It was an immediate start as well, since the soul closest to me was already swinging toward my head with her fist.


    I never once, in a million years, would have thought that Franny would be attacking me like that. She was such a sweet and kind olddy that seemed to love everyone. She literally made it her life''s work to be there for people and make sure they had a great ce to eat and unwind.


    Now though, she looked like some sort of beast that was straight out of a horror movie. That alone broke my heart. I didn''t want Franny to be like this. I didn''t want to see her hurt herself, me, or anyone else for that matter. I just wanted to see her move on to her afterlife so that she could be at peace.


    "Franny please, don''t do this." I begged her, hoping like hell that I could get through to her to calm her down.


    "I will carry your limp body to the Goddess. I will please the ruler of the darkness."


    Even the voice that wasing from Franny''s mouth was unlike her. It sounded like her, but it didn''t at the same time. There were emotions and inflections in it that I had never heard from her before. She sounded like a witch or a banshee or something along those lines.


    "Franny, stop this. It''s not what you want." I continued to plead with her, but the woman who had been sitting on the bench was now leaping toward my head so I couldn''t look at the old woman anymore. I had to break eye contact, so I didn''t see what she was about to do next.


    It wasn''t until I sent the benchdy flying across the street that I noticed that Franny was going toward the three little imp boys. She was trying to attack them instead of me.


    "Leave them alone, Franny. Your fight is with me."


    "Destroy the children and take the invader''s soul to the Goddess."


    This was insane. I didn''t want to hurt Franny, but I couldn''t let her hurt the boys. I needed to stop her. I needed to put an end to this.


    "FRANNY!" I called out to her one more time, trying to break Hekate''s spell on her while also weaving in and out of the others that were attacking me. Of course, she didn''t stop and she didn''t look at me. I needed to try another approach.


    I called on as much magic as I could at the moment. With that in mind, I sent out the binding that I had used when learning my magic all those years ago. They were a weak spell but effective.


    The moment that the binding shot from my hands, they wrapped around Franny and suspended her in midair. She was hanging there, upside down, about five feet off the ground. The others were still surging though. I needed to stop them before I could do anything else.


    Several of the others were too close to me forfort. I needed to get away so that I could tie them up. Wanting to get away from them, I leapt into the air and flipped backward, toward the three little imps that were secured in their barrier and bubbles.


    Inded protectively in front of them and focused on all of the souls that were still trying to attack me. I now had a pretty good amount of distance between us and was able to call on those bindings once again.


    I focused hard on each and every person that I could see. The bench woman whose face now looked like an evil spirit from a horror movie. The three teenagers who had been walking together like they knew each other but were from different eras; the three of them now looked as if they were members of some greaser gang from an old movie I had seen years ago. The man with the leash that had been walking aimlessly was now running at me swinging his leash like it was a morning star that he was going to take my head off with. Everyone around me had morphed and changed somehow, and it was odd and slightly interesting.


    Now that I had taken in everyone that was in front of me, memorizing where they were and what they were doing, I sent out my bindings once again. They all ended up the same as Franny had. They were suspended approximately five feet off of the ground while hanging upside down.


    "There." I sighed the word in relief as I looked around the streets and buildings in the area. I needed to make sure that I hadn''t forgotten anyone.


    "Now what the hell am I going to do with all of you?" That was the million dor question, wasn''t it? What was I going to do to fix this situation and make sure that none of them were harmed because of Hekate?

 Chapter 657 - 74- Trinity – Attack In Limbo Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 657 - 74- Trinity ¨C Attack In Limbo Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ''What is your n, Trinity?'' The other me asked as I looked at the people that were all floating upside down.


    "I am working on that." I tried not to snap at her, but I couldn''t help it. In truth, snapping at her was just me snapping at myself. Only a part of me that acted independently and annoyed me just a little bit.


    ''To be fair, Trinity, you annoy me as well.'' The other me just had to have thest word, didn''t she? ''Yes, yes I do.'' I could hear the smirk that she had to be wearing. It was audible in the smugness that she had in her tone.


    "I want to end this fight without any of these soul suffering. If Hekate was telling the truth about them suffering for eternity in the pits of hell, then I need to keep that from ever happening. You told me that they''re not bad people. They''re just too attached to their lives to move on. Well, it''s either that or they were too scared to move on, right?" I was just rifying things as I watched all of them trying to break free of the bindings that were holding them in ce. Several of them were even snapping at me like they were some sort of weird alligators or something. It was the weirdest thing I had ever seen, and I had battled Edmond''s monsters.


    ''Yes, Trinity, that is indeed the way that it is. They are destined for either mediocrity or paradise. But none of them are doomed to hell. Of that I am certain.''


    "OK."


    I put my hand to my chin as I thought about the possibilities. What could I do? What could I change about this situation? How could I save all of these souls?


    My attention was drawn to Franny. Unlike the others, I knew her personally. I knew what she was like. I knew stories from her past. There was a time when I felt closer to her than most of the people in my life. Sadly, that had been a long time ago.


    "Franny?" I called out to her as I walked up to her hovering body.


    "Destroy the children. I need to destroy them all and take the Goddess the soul she seeks." It was like she was in some sort of crazy trance. I didn''t know how to put it, but that was what it felt like.


    "I won''t let you hurt them, Franny. I won''t let any of you hurt those boys." Not surprisingly, I wasn''t even rmed or fazed at all by the intensity with which I said those words. I was a mother, a Luna, a Queen, and a Goddess. It was my job, multiple times over, to protect those that couldn''t protect themselves. And right now, that meant that I needed to protect these three little imps that looked so much like my mate.


    "I will do as I was instructed. I will take the intruder''s soul to the Goddess."


    I sighed in exasperation. I don''t think that there was anything that I could say or do to change what Franny was thinking. Not yet anyway.


    "Franny, what can I do to help you?" I knew that asking was pointless, but I did it anyway.


    "Destroy the children. Hand soul over to Goddess." Yup, that was what I thought she was going to say. More or less anyway.


    Let''s see. Franny was here because she hadn''t wanted to retire but her family had made her do so. She had just wanted to go back to work but she died before she could. Considering that, I had to wonder if she died because she wasn''t able to work, or if her family knew her health better than she did and knew that she didn''t have much time left. Either way, Franny was here because she was dwelling on the past and missing her work.


    "I wonder if I can help her move on." I asked myself. "And how can I do that?" Iughed at myself.


    Without thinking too much about what I was actually doing, I walked up to Franny and ced my hand on her head. I was moving more on instinct than anything at the moment. I had never done this before and I had a feeling that, after this incident, I would never be doing this again.


    The moment that my hand touched Franny''s head, I started to see images that were from a long time ago. There was a pretty young woman in an old fashioned dress. She was happily signing a contract while a man held a set of keys out to her. The next image had the woman standing in front of the diner with the sign above it reading ''FRANNY''S KITCHEN''. The woman was obviously Franny and these were images of her life.


    I watched the images like they were a movie. The movie that yed showed me how Franny had met her husband through her work. He had been a customer and they seemed to have fallen in love through the small exchanges they had when he woulde in for breakfast. And dinner. I saw when he proposed to her in the diner. I saw them when they held their wedding reception in the diner. I saw when they took their children to the diner to y while Franny ran the ce and her husband happily helped.


    I watched all these images as Franny grew older and her family grew. She had so many happy memories that were tied to the diner that it was easy to see why she didn''t want to leave it behind. For her, the diner was her happy ce, it had been her heaven on Earth and no one would ever want to leave behind the ce that had brought them so much joy and happiness.


    "Franny?" I was nearly in tears as the images of her life came to an end. When her family demanded that she stop working and take care of herself. Franny had been diagnosed with stomach cancer, an especially aggressive kind. She hadn''t been able to make it through her work days without being in pain and vomiting several times. Her family just wanted to make herst days morefortable, and to give her time to receive treatment.


    She didn''tst long, though. She passed away within weeks of retiring. Some of Franny''s thoughts had been so depressing as she thought about the heaven that she had been forced to give up.


    "Franny, don''t you think that you will find happiness again if you move on? Your diner has been your heaven on Earth. And you were such a good person when you were alive. You will certainly be rewarded with an eternity in your favorite ce. If you want to go inside your restaurant again all you have to do is move on. Let go of the past and move on. You will find your peace and your heaven in the afterlife." I saw that my words had an effect on Franny. Now that she was acknowledging my existence, she was able to hear what I said, and she seemed to like it. With her eyes wide open she smiled and spoke in a soft and sweet voice.


    "I can go home if I let go?" She was shocked by the logic of it, but I was certain that it was true.


    "Yes, Franny. All you need to do is move on. There is no reason to be stuck here in Limbo. Move on and go home. Go to your happy ce."


    "Move on?" She sounded confused but she was all smiles. "Move on." She kept repeating those words, but they stopped being a question and were more of a statement. "Move on."


    After she had repeated herself several times, I saw a light start to shimmer around her edges. It looked to me like the light had beening from inside of her. The more intense the light was shining, the harder it was for me to see the old woman.


    "Move on." She said the words onest time and that was it. She disappearedpletely in that light and the bindings that had been holding her fell to the ground. Franny had done what she had been repeating over and over. She had moved on.. She had left this Limbo and found happiness.

 Chapter 658 - 75- Trinity – Helping Them All (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 658 - 75- Trinity ¨C Helping Them All (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I know it was what I had been trying to do, but I was still shocked that I had actually managed to help Franny move on. However, doing that had left me feeling so happy and excited. I had done a good deed. I had helped someone and there were going to be no negative consequences because of it.


    Now, I needed to help the others as well. I needed to make sure that all of these souls were able to move on. I wanted them all to get to their final destination. None of them needed to be stuck here forever.


    The next person that was closest to me was the man with the leash. He had looked so sad and lonely when he had been walking around aimlessly. I tried to look beyond the rage filling him and see the man beneath that false mask.


    He was maybe in his early forties orte thirties. He wasn''t too old, and he was a decently handsome man. I briefly wondered if he had a family that he had left behind. I didn''t dwell too long though. I just put my hand to his head and started to watch the important parts of his life like I had with Franny.


    This man seemed to be happy and in love with a young woman that was always smiling at him. In those images he was younger as well. They got married and started a family. They had a daughter that looked like his wife, and he seemed to be a wonderful and doting dad.


    I smiled as I watched him give his little girl everything over the first few years of her life. She was spoiled, but she still seemed to be such a sweetheart. When the girl was about two, the family got a puppy and the girl loved him so much.


    From there all the images I saw had the dad, the daughter, and the puppy. They were always going to the park or just walking around the neighborhood. It was nice.


    One day, when the girl was about five, they were on a walk. The dog''s leash broke at the sp and he took off running toward the street. The dog made it to the other side in the blink of an eye, but the little girl had started to run after her dog, right into the middle of the busy street.


    The dad, seeing this, ran after his daughter. He managed to get her out of danger at thest second, but he wasn''t so lucky. He died protecting his daughter. He died a hero. I could tell that the man''s love for his family was what had kept him in this ce. He had died instantly when he was hit in the street, so he actually didn''t know if his daughter had been saved. Because of that he was doomed to walk aimlessly around the street he had died on, looking for her forever.


    "I can see beyond your death. Just seconds past it, but it''s there. She lived. She wasn''t hurt that day. You saved her. And when she moves onto the next life, I am sure that she is looking forward to thanking her daddy for saving her life. You should go there to wait for her. Go and be happy and watch over her from your paradise."


    I watched the lonely father''s eyes sparkle with tears. He was happy to hear that his daughter had not died. That was all that had been holding him here. He didn''t want to abandon her here. He was a good man.


    His passage to the afterlife was quicker than Franny''s had been. His light engulfed him sooner and he disappeared from in front of me.


    I repeated this process again when I went to the woman that had been sitting on the bench, waiting for the bus that was never going toe for her. She had a life that was harder than a lot of people''s. Still, she rose up and made it to the point where she could do whatever she wanted and didn''t need to rely on people.


    The day that she died, she had been waiting for the bus to take her to an interview at a famous architect''s office. She was applying for her dream job and refused to ept anything but sess.


    While she sat on the bench, reading a book while waiting for her bus, a drunk driver had left a bar down the street. He immediately lost control, confusing the gas pedal and brake pedal, and ran right into the woman and several others that had been waiting. She wasn''t the only person who lost their life that day, but she was the only one still here. She had been so determined to get that job that she never stopped waiting for the bus that would take her there.


    "Dreamse true when you''re a good person. You are not doomed to live in purgatory. You will do what you love when you move from this ce. There is nothing that should be holding you back. You''re stronger than that. Rise above it and be your own boss." The woman smiled and nodded at my words. She seemed to appreciate that. After having relived her life through the images that I saw, she seemed ready to move on. She, like the man, disappeared quickly. She moved on from her limbo and transitioned to her next stop.


    I was helping these people. That was what I needed to do. If I could help them all find peace and move on, then there would be no one left for Hekate to send after me. At least, not in this part of the underworld. While I was in this particr area, she would be rendered powerless.


    One by one I went to the others to help them. Those three teenagers that had been walking together had all been murdered. All three of them had been murdered in almost the exact same ce and by the exact same person.


    The first boy, who had been killed in the seventies, had been the man''s first victim. The second boy, killed in the eighties, had been his twelfth. And thest boy had been his next tost victim. He had been killed just after the turn of the millennium.


    The murderer, a man that owned a shop on that street, had targeted the boys and his other victims, after they had been customers of his. He killed them shortly after their orders had been finalized and they were on their way home. He had been a prominent and upstanding citizen, so he had never been a suspect until thest victim, who he mistakenly left alive. The girl that lived told the police everything and he had finally been brought to justice. I was able to see all of this even though the boys had died long before the conclusion of the case. All they needed to know though, was that they had received their justice. That was all it took to help them move on.. They smiled as their lights took them out of the bindings and into their afterlife.

 Chapter 659 - 76- Trinity – Moving On (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 659 - 76- Trinity ¨C Moving On (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    One by one I went to the others. I don''t know what to call what I was doing exactly. All I knew was that these people were moving on and finding peace and that was making me feel so much better.


    There had been almost two dozen souls that hade after me when Hekate had issued hermand to them. Nearly two dozen people that she threatened with her eternal damnation. She wasn''t able to do that though. I wasn''t going to let her. She wouldn''t ruin their afterlife anymore than she would get out of hell.


    Person after person. Soul after soul. I got closer to being safe and moving on from this ce as well. As long as Hekate sent these people after me, I myself was stuck in limbo. I was a living being that was stuck in the in between.


    And to make matters worse, with each person that I freed from this ce, the air around me got colder. It was like the air was reflective of Hekate''s mood. I knew that she was pissed off at me for foiling her ns to get my soul.


    The moment that thest person was freed of their binding, having moved onto their eternal happiness which involved painting murals, Hekate screamed in frustration. Her voice once again sounded like carrion birds that had taken flight for a particrly juicy piece of roadkill. Man, that was creepy.


    "DAMN YOU!" She screeched the words so loud that I felt like they were spoken right into my ear instead of from the entire space surrounding me. "YOU HAVE ONCE AGAIN RUINED EVERYTHING, TRINITY! YOU HAVE DESTROYED MY PLANS!" She seemed to be breathing heavily enough for it to be called hyperventting. The frustration, anger, fear, loathing, whatever it was that you wanted to call what she was feeling, it made her sound as if she were shaking uncontrobly.


    "And I am d that I ruined it for you, Hekate. You don''t need to be toying with people like that. You are an evil, sadistic, psychotic, bat shit crazy bitch." OK, that insult wasn''t the greatest, but at least it was true.


    "You will pay. Mark my words, you mongrel scum. You will pay for foiling my ns. I will destroy you, and then the world." I couldn''t believe that she was still thinking that was a possibility.


    "Go ahead and try, Hekate. Go ahead and try to get out of here. I will stop you."


    There was no response to my words. It felt to me like Hekate had disappeared from the vicinity. Even the atmosphere, and not just the temperature, felt better with her being out of this ce. I could breathe easier and the goosebumps had left my arms and neck.


    "Finally." I sighed and nearly copsed to the ground in relief.


    I couldn''t let myself get too rxed, though. I had just been through one major attack that had been thrown at me by an evil Goddess bent on destroying the world. Letting myself do anything aside from taking this seriously would literally be like signing my own death certificate. Mine and everyone that I love.


    Without showing my vulnerability, exhaustion, or anything else that would be seen as a weakness, I jogged over to the three little imp boys that I had been protecting. The moment that I got close enough to them, I removed the barrier and then the bubbles of heat from around them.


    "Are you alright?" I knew that they were OK physically, but I needed to ask about emotionally and mentally as well. They may be imps, but they were still living creatures.


    Not a single one of them spoke. It was the same as every time I had spoken to them before. They nodded at me but didn''t speak. The one that had cried when we first got here, because he had been hurt, hugged me around my waist when I asked him if he was ok. He seemed to be more affectionate and clingy than the other two were.


    I found all of that adorable, but I couldn''t dwell on it for too long. We had a lot of work to do between now and when I finally found Hekate in her prison cell. I needed to talk to the other me as well as them. I needed to figure out how I was going to destroy a Goddess that was already living in the underworld. In truth, is there even a way to do that?


    I didn''t know the answer to that question, but I will work really, really hard to figure it out. I would do what it took toe out on top and save the world. This one and the other one.


    After vowing that, I looked at the three little imp boys with a serious look in my eyes. I needed to know how far they were willing to go with all of this.


    "I am moving on. I need to finish this and stop Hekate. Are you three going toe with me? Or you would like me to go on my own while you stay here?" I swear that all three of the imps looked as if they were going to cry now. Why was it that they sometimes acted like little kids that didn''t want to be away from their mother? I mean, I know that they weren''t my children, but it felt that way at moments like this.


    "Alright, don''t worry, I will take you with me. I think it would be better to stick together anyway. You three will know more about this ce than I would."


    ''Do not forget about me, Trinity. I have knowledge of this world as well.'' The other me piped up again.


    "Yes, that you do. I have four guys, one inside my head and three clinging to my legs." I heard the other me chuckle at that statement. Well, I was d that I could make herugh, but now it wasn''t really a thing.


    I took onest look around me, onest look at the city block that had once felt so familiar and weing. It didn''t feel that way now. After the attack, it was cold and lifeless. That most likely was due to the fact that there literally was no life to be seen around this ce. I had freed the souls and now, this block of the underworld was empty.


    "I wonder how many more souls I will run into before I leave this limbo. How many more people will I need to help?"


    ''Do you intend to help every soul you encounter? Do you intend to take that much time?''


    "I will not seek them out, but if they are in my path, then I will help them. I cannot abandon people here to be stuck forever."


    That seemed to be all that the other me wanted to know about that topic. She didn''t say anything else, so I prepared to leave. I needed to move on to the next level. I needed to find Hekate.


    "Do you know where to go?" I asked the three little imp boys and they smiled excitedly. I was betting that that meant yes.. Well, I was hoping it did anyway.

 Chapter 660 - 77- Reece – What Is Wrong With Queen Trinity? (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 660 - 77- Reece ¨C What Is Wrong With Queen Trinity? (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I was still waiting, not so patiently, for Trevor to bring those twins that he had been talking about. I don''t know what it was that has been taking him so long, but it was starting to piss me off. I just knew that I needed to see if they could help me with my Little Bunny.


    And to make matters worse, the staff was starting to inquire about when they coulde back to work. I was slowly adding some of them back as Vincent and Gabriel were making sure that they would not be a potential leak about the truth of my Little Bunny''s current condition.


    I couldn''t risk the public knowing that their queen, their goddess, had fallen into aa and that her soul had left her body. That was not something that we could let be known because it would open the door for several enemies to make their moves as well as bring fear and sorrow to the masses. No, that wasn''t an option. We needed to make sure that this was kept quiet for now.


    Right now, I had permitted only two maids, two butlers, and two chefs to return to the castle. That was on top of Peter, Abigail, and Roisin. So, aside from the guards, we had nine staff members that were running the entire castle.


    I know that this was leaving them all a little overwhelmed and in over their heads, but they could manage it. They were amazing people, and it wasn''t like I was expecting things to be perfect for right now.


    I was on my way out of my office to go for a meeting in the city. That was something that I barely did anymore, especially with my Little Bunny in the state that she was currently in. Almost as soon as I was through the door, I ran into someone that had been waiting on the other side.


    "I am sorry, my King." Thoma, one of my Little Bunny''s guards, was standing there with an intense look on her face. Next to her were five other guards that were usually stationed in the castle. They had not been brought back on for duty.


    "What do you need, Thoma? I am in a hurry." I let her know right away that I didn''t have time and just wanted her to say whatever it was that she needed to.


    "Yes, King Reece, I understand that, and I am truly sorry. But w..we just wanted to know If there is something wrong with Queen Trinity."


    What the fucking hell was I hearing?! How the hell did they know about this? Who had talked? Who had told them about this? Whoever it was they were going to fucking die.


    "What do you know, Thoma?" I red at her and lowered my voice. I was speaking to her as menacing as I possibly could.


    "N..nothing. Nothing at all my King. I swear. We are just worried. No one has seen her in several days and we are getting worried about her. We have all seen you and the children, but Queen Trinity has been gone for quite some time now."


    I was furious. I was so pissed off at her at that moment that I felt like I was going to explode. And I would have exploded onto these half a dozen guards for their stupidity and impertinence. Didn''t they fucking know how to just wait for their King and Queen to tell them what the hell was going on? Stupid morons.


    "Thoma, I need to speak to you, to all of you." I red at her and then the others, it was a move that made all of them flinch away from me in fear.


    "Y..yes, Sir." Thoma nodded and spoke as calmly as she could.


    "Get in my office, all of you." I turned around and stalked back into the room I had just left. While doing that I pulled out my phone and started to text the board members that were back at the office. I told them that an emergency came up and I would reschedule the meeting for another time.


    I wonder if these idiots realize what they just did? I mean, I wasn''t worried about mypany going under or anything, but I still didn''t want to get a bad reputation in the business world. Damn these morons.


    I sat in my chair behind the desk, but I didn''t offer them anywhere to sit. They needed to answer to me, not the other way around.


    "Tell me what you know, Thoma. All of it." I demanded that she exin it all right away.


    "I know nothing, Sir. Of that I swear. I am just worried about her. I have been guarding Queen Trinity for years and now we have all been kept away from the castletely. We were all just wondering if something happened."


    I could tell that Thoma was regretting asking me these questions. She was just having a hard time with what was happening, just like everyone else was.


    "Listen, Thoma, all of you. I want you all to hear what I am about to tell you and you need to keep it a secret." The six of them raised their heads with curious and worried eyes. "There is nothing wrong with Queen Trinity. She has just recently found out that we are expecting again and the pregnancy is already quite difficult for her. You remember when she was pregnant with the twins, right. Well let''s just say that this pregnancy is a little worse than that one. It''s a little more intense."


    I was trying to subtly tell them that she was carrying more than two babies. That would be a secret that would not be allowed to spread. Trinity and I would spread the news when she woke up and was ready, or I would spread it myselfter. Until then, this would keep everyone calmer for the time being.


    "We understand, Sir. Thank you for alleviating my fears."


    At least that hadn''t taken long. And I should thank them. Now I could skip my meeting with the board members. That was a win for me.


    I got to go back to my office and rx for the rest of the evening. I would need to reschedule the meeting and take care of it at another time, but I didn''t have to do it tonight.


    Another upside to that was that I got to add more details to the presentation and to memorize the facts that the new CFO wanted to talk about. It really was only a positive that I was skipping out on it today. It was in no way me just trying to run away from my responsibilities.


    And if I was running away, could anyone me me? My family was feeling like they had been destroyed. The kids were a mess, I was barely keeping it together. I didn''t know how I was supposed to do all of this without the one person that was our pir. How was I supposed to manage without my other half?


    "Please, Trinity, please wake up.. Pleasee back to me, to us."

 Chapter 661 - 78- Reece – Trevor Returns (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 661 - 78- Reece ¨C Trevor Returns (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    The day after Thoma and the others came to see me about my Little Bunny, I had absolutely nothing to do except wait for Trevor to arrive with those twins. I knew that he was having a hard time getting them here, but that didn''t matter to me at all. All I knew was that they werete and they were making all of this take that much longer. I wanted them to help me. I wanted them to help my Little Bunny.


    I was sitting down at dinner with the children. Reagan and Rika, who were usually so animated during dinner as they regaled us with their tales of the day, were sitting there silently just pushing their food around their tes. Talia was likewise quiet, and I could tell that she had been crying again. I didn''t want them to go through this anymore. I wanted them to have their mother back. I wanted them to feel like she was here with them once again.


    While I was thinking those thoughts, I swear I heard my Little Bunny''s voice. It was barely there, like it wasing from a really bad speaker that was in a room across the house. It was hard to hear her but I swear she yelled all of our names.


    "REECE! REAGAN! RIKA! TALIA!"


    I apparently wasn''t the only one that had heard her. The moment that my Little Bunny''s voice called out to all of us, I watched Reagan and Rika''s head snap up and start looking around. There was hope in their eyes. It was almost like they were expecting to see her running through the door any minute from now.


    "Mommy isn''t here." Talia didn''t look up from her te. "Don''t look for her like that." I was just about to ask her to rify, but there was a knock on the door and Gabriel came in almost immediately.


    "King Reece, Sir. King Trevor is here to see you. He has brought some visitors to meet with you." I could tell that Gabriel was trying to remain calm and professional, but he was eager and excited to learn what was about to happen.


    "Yes, of course." I wiped my mouth on the napkin that I had been holding and rose from the table. "I will be back to tell you all good night, please wait for me in your roomster. I love you, all three of you." I tried my best to let them know that this was not a bad situation. We were just trying to help my Little Bunny and that meant that I needed to focus on her more than anything.


    "Yes, Daddy." Talia was the first to answer.


    "We will wait for you, Daddy." Rika added.


    "I will keep them safe, Dad." Reagan nodded at me.


    After that, I rushed from the room so that I could follow Gabriel to my bedroom where I would then wait for him to bring Trevor and the visitors toe see me and my Little Bunny. This was the time that I had been waiting for. This was the chance that I would get to see if we can bring my Little Bunny back from wherever she was.


    I rushed up the stairs as quickly as I could and cleaned myself up. Then I was left waiting for Trevor toe in. I swear I felt like a five year old on Christmas eve. I just wanted to make the time move faster so I could get my present. Only in my case, my present was my wife waking up anding back to me. I needed that. I needed her.


    "King Reece, Sir, your visitors are here." Gabriel called out as he first knocked on then opened the door to my room. Man, I am d that I changed the security to this floor so that they could ever get up here. That would suck if they were blocked out of here.


    "Come in, Gabriel. And bring them with you." The door opened to permit the guests and I had to literally stop myself from craning my neck to get a better view of these twins that Trevor had brought to my house.


    "Reece, thank you for having us and inviting us to your home." Trevor was starting the conversation by being polite and formal. "As you know, I have brought some new acquaintances of mine. These are Chloe and Charlie Unger."


    I didn''t have to follow Trevor''s gesture to find the twins that he was talking about. I was already looking at the two new people that I had never met. I had also gotten to my feet and was walking over to greet them. There were two veryrge people that were hidden in matching dark green cloaks. The cloaks hid most of their features until I got close enough to look at them in the face.


    I was a little taken aback by their appearance. It wasn''t what I would call normal, but I was guessing that this was why they had elected to stay locked up in their home in the mountains or whatever it was that he had said the other day.


    "Wee to my castle, it is nice to meet you." I stretched my hand out toward the man, Charlie, as I weed him to the castle.


    I watched as the man tentatively reached out with his hand. It was covered in fur that was pure white and looked just like a bear. It wasn''t just his hand either. His whole body seemed to be covered in fur since I could see it misshaping his clothes. The fur covered the sides of Charlie''s face and even went up over the top of his head and over his very bear-like ears.


    The fur and animalistic ears weren''t the only things that were different about him. He had long, w tipped fingers and his limbs seemed to be a little longer than normal. His face had a longer andrger snout shaped muzzle that seemed just like a bear. He didn''t have fur on that muzzle nor his cheeks or anything like that. That looked like one of the only (visible) ces that he didn''t have fur.


    Charlie''s hands were strong, and felt like they would be lethal to a mortal. It was quite the site to see. Oh, and not to mention that this man was a little taller than Trevor. He was almost seven feet tall already.


    His twin sister, Chloe, looked just like him, down to everyst detail. Well, every detail aside from two. Where Charlie was white, Chloe was pure ck. They looked like a yin yang symbol. With their contrasting colors. She was almost as tall as her brother was. She had the same shape to her animal ears and her snout. Almost everything was the same, except for the coloring. Also, Chloe seemed to be a little more feminine. Despite the shape of their features being identical, Chloe was softer and pretty than her brother was.


    In truth, it was very hard to take my eyes off of these two very unique looking people.. There was just something about them that caught my eye and didn''t let it go at all.

 Chapter 662 - 79- Reece – Meeting The Twins (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 662 - 79- Reece ¨C Meeting The Twins (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "Th..th..thank you for i..i..inviting us." Chloe, the ck bear-looking woman, spoke as if she were frightened. She was looking away from me and trying to keep me from seeing the real her that was hidden beneath her cloak. I could tell that these two definitely weren''t skilled in the ways ofmunication. That probably stemmed from the fact that they didn''t look quite human enough for most people.


    "Reece, Charlie and Chloe live their lives in istion so please give them a little extra leeway when ites to mannerisms." Trevor had obviously been asked to say those words to me since I could tell that both of the twins had moved their eyes to look at me with worry. I got it. I knew it was scary to meet new people. It was especially hard to meet new people when you were so different. And to top it all off, it was harder on them because they were meeting me, the Alpha King that ruled them alongside my wife.


    "Of course. You are here to help me after all. I want nothing more than for you to feelfortable and wee. My wife would want the same if she were awake, but sadly she is the reason you are here."


    "Y..you''re not scared by our appearance?" The man seemed confused while his sister was weary.


    "Not at all. Just because you look different than everyone else is not a reason to be scared. I, myself, have some forms that tend to scare people, but I don''t let that bother me. You''re a hybrid and that is amazing. You have the best of both worlds."


    As I spoke, Chloe, the skittish looking sister, lifted her head just a little to stare at me. She obviously didn''t think that I was telling the truth.


    "Everyone is afraid of us. They think we are monsters."


    "I can assure you, Chloe, not everyone is afraid of you." Trevor was the one to speak first. "Our pack reveres and adores you two. They had nothing but positive things to say when I spoke to them about you.


    "I do not think you are monsters. I have met true monsters, Chloe, and they are nothing like you. You are beautiful, though."


    I wasn''t lying about that either. She truly was beautiful. The bear and human parts that were showing through were not misshapen at all. It looked like a perfect blend of a beast man and a beast woman. I couldn''t take my eyes off of them, and not because they were freaks. They were amazing.


    "I have never been considered beautiful." Chloe turned her head to look away.


    "Then you were talking to the wrong people."


    "Chloe and Charlie were born to a female witch doctor that had an affair with a bear about sixty years ago. They were then brought to my pack and abandoned. I do not know if their father was part of my pack or not, but they were raised by an elderly couple in the mountains. That has been where they have lived ever since."


    While listening to Trevor talk, I was once again reminded about the fact that there was no more aging inside our world of non humans. Not to mention, that aging had been reversed, so that everyone looked a lot younger now. My own mother looked like she was just a year or two older than me now. And I definitely didn''t look like I was in my mid thirties.


    "I am d that you have left your home toe visit mine. Thank you for your assistance."


    "Who is it that needs our help?" Chloe asked me, no longer hiding her face as much as she had been.


    "As I said, my wife is the one that needs your help." I started to show them to where she was in the hospital bed across the room. At Griffin''s insistence, I had her moved there a couple of days ago. She was hooked up to so many tubes and monitors that it scared me just to look at her, but this is what needed to happen. I didn''t want her, or the babies, to waste away because of this.


    "Yes, I know that she wants our assistance, but the dead person, the soul that we need to speak to, who are they." I was slightly angered now. Trevor hadn''t told them everything. Then again, I was happy as well. He had done this right by not letting it get out that something was wrong with the queen.


    "Come with me and I will show you."


    "Alright." Charlie was the one to answer me while Chloe just looked at me with worry and curiosity in her eyes.


    I felt like a zombie now. I had to exin things to someone once again. I had to relive all of this once again, and it was draining the life from me. I didn''t want to do this, but I had to. Dammit. Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! DAMMIT!


    The three visitors followed behind me to the hospital bed. I know they didn''t see it to begin with since it was hidden by thick curtains that had been hung up around it. On top of that, all the machines had been set to silent so you couldn''t hear the beeping of the heart rate on the monitors or anything like that.


    "She is over here." The curtain slid back slowly as I pulled it. I was apprehensive now, wondering what their responses were going to be.


    "What is wrong with your mate?" Charlie asked me, sadness filling his eyes.


    "Was she in an ident?" Chloe asked me, her eyes mirroring that of her brother''s.


    "No, she was not in an ident. No one knows how it happened, but her soul has left her body. We have vampire friends who cannot see her soul nor that of our babies that are growing in her belly. All of them are still alive, my wife and my babies. The doctors are making sure of that, but they seem to be lost somehow."


    "What Reece wants you two to do for him, is to see if you can see and speak with his wife''s soul. We want to know what happened to her and where she is. Do you think you can do that? Can you try to reach her for us?" Trevor added when I was no longer able to continue.


    "We can try." Charlie nodded.


    "We will try to reach her."


    Those words, that response, it was like a godsend for me. I swear I hadn''t felt this ted and happy since long before I had learned about my Little Bunny''s condition. I truly would do anything for these two if they could help me to reach my wife and to make sure that nothing was happening to her. If they could bring her home along with my three babies, then I would be eternally grateful to them.


    "Thank you." I was already heaping it on to them. "Thank you so much."


    "We make no promises. There is no saying that we can reach a soul that is not dead. Please, do not thank us just yet." Charlie was trying to look serious and professional, but I saw the worry in his eyes. He didn''t want to disappoint me and that was obvious.


    "You''re trying, and that is all that I can ask for.." That made the two of them smile.

 Chapter 663 - 80- Reece – The Twins Get To Work (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 663 - 80- Reece ¨C The Twins Get To Work (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    There seemed to be an immediate change in Chloe now that she knew that I wasn''t afraid or repulsed by her. She seemed to feel some kind of relief at not having to hide herself, or something along those lines. She must go through life with so much anxiety when she meets new people.


    "We will start immediately." Chloe seemed to be nodding as she looked at me. Perhaps she could see how eager I was for them to tell me whatever they could about my wife''s condition.


    "Yes, please. I would be so grateful if you would." I think I was about to bounce forward with the excitement that was bubbling inside of me at that moment. Someone else obviously seemed to notice it and he was about to do something about it.


    "Come on, Reece." Trevor grabbed my shoulders as I was about to basically grovel at the feet of these twins. OK, I wasn''t on my hands and knees or anything, but I would have done that if I needed to. I would do anything if it meant that I could get my wife back. I would do whatever it took to have my Little Bunny hold me back when I hugged her. "Let them do what they need to do." Trevor pulled me away from my Little Bunny''s side so that I was forced to just watch on from several feet away.


    "Charlie, should I try first or you?" Chloe wasn''t looking at her brother when she spoke. She was looking at my Little Bunny''s face, and taking in the pale, peaceful look that she was wearing. She was peaceful right now, but she didn''t always look like that. There were times when her face looked troubled and that was something that I just didn''t understand at all. If she wasn''t in her body, if her soul and therefore consciousness, were not in there how could she look troubled by whatever was happening to her?


    "You try first, Chloe. If you cannot, then I will try alone before we try together." The man responded to his sister as he too watched my Little Bunny''s face.


    "Yes, brother." Chloe nodded as she took off her heavy green cloak so she could set it aside.


    I could see that Chloe''s clothes were just as crumpled by the thick fur that was underneath them. Her clothes were loose fitting but still affected by the natural way that she looked. Under her cloak I also saw that her clothes were covered in markings that shimmered in the light.


    "The marks are spells." Trevor answered the question that I hadn''t even gotten to ask him yet. "I had been surprised by them when I first saw them as well, and they exined to me that these spells keep them from seeing all of the spirits in the world unless they want to. If they had to be forced to see the ghosts all around us on a daily basis, it would most likely drive them insane."


    "Are there really that many ghosts in the world?" I was shocked by what he was saying.


    "There are more than you would think. And the thing is, these are the people that have strong emotional attachments to people and things. They told me that most ghosts are those with regrets. Somehow, these ghosts find a crack in the barrier between the worlds and that allows them toe back."


    I was trying to process what Trevor had just told me. I never would have thought that there were that many ghosts around us on a daily basis.


    "So, what happens when ghostse back from that other side?" My curiosity just couldn''t be quelled right now.


    "Well, ording to Charlie and Chloe, most of them are harmless. There are just so many people who can''t bear to leave things behind. Things left unsaid or things like that. However, there are those with more intense emotions. People who lived violent lives that wanted to hide who and what they were. People who were capable of doing some truly bad things. Those people that were filled with so much anger and rage, or people that had severely broken hearts are the types that you don''t want toe back. Those ones tend to be the poltergeists that you hear about."


    "Holy fucking shit!" I did my best to keep the words at a whisper, but it was still really loud. "Poltergeists are real?"


    "Yeah, that was my reaction as well." Trevorughed at me. "Now hush, they need to work." He was trying his best not tough at me as I tried to get my thoughts in order. This was definitely not something that I was expecting.


    "How do they know so much about ghosts and things like that? How did they get to know about this power of theirs?" I simply couldn''t stop asking questions.


    "Apparently, those with the ability to speak to the dead or to lost souls, will be like a conduit to the underworld. There will be a hardwire that connects them and the souls will just seek them out. The ghosts will either talk to them directly. Or they might just use the connection to find other victims that are close to them. From what Charlie and Chloe told me, some of them will make sure that the ''sensitive'' ones don''t be aware of them so that they could just keep terrorizing people."


    "Does that mean that everyone with the ability to speak to these souls could banish them or something?" I was wondering why they would otherwise ignore the ones that could see them.


    "Not all of them, but the souls will never know whether their conduit can banish them or not. Therefore, it''s safer for the soul to not make themselves known."


    "I''m confused." I looked at Trevor with my head tilted to the side. "Didn''t you say that the twins would be seeing these ghosts all the time if they didn''t wear their spelled clothes? How is that possible if the souls try not to make themselves known?"


    "Ah, that is where the uniqueness of the twinses into y again. Because they are what they are, so much more powerful than the average conduit, they can''t stop seeing the ghosts and souls unless they wear them. They used to scream every day from what the ghosts showed them until someone helped them to block it all out."


    "That had to be truly unbearable." I shook my head as I looked back at the twins. "I could never imagine a life like that."


    I was looking at these two in a new light now. There was so much about them that I just didn''t understand. Right now, I was trying to figure out if I should feel sorry for them or be proud of them for having survived it all. Probably thetter of the two.


    "It''s time to be quiet. I want to see them work. I want to know what it''s like when they talk to a ghost that is in a castle.." Trevor was in awe right now, and I really couldn''t me him for it.

 Chapter 664 - 81- Reece – Contacting Trinity Part 1 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 664 - 81- Reece ¨C Contacting Trinity Part 1 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I watched on in awe that seemed to be fully matched to Trevor''s. I was so happy and excited about the fact that they might be contacting my Little Bunny that I had stopped feeling nervous, scared, worried, or anything negative at all. After what I heard from Trevor, I had full confidence in them.


    OK, well, I had gotten rid of all the negative emotions, but right now I was starting to wonder what was going on. As I watched on, Chloe started to pull her shirt to take it off over her head. Below the shirt she was wearing what looked like a one piece bathing suit in in white.


    After her shirt was removed, Chloe continued on to remove her shoes and pants. There were no buttons or zippers on her clothes, this was the moment that I realized that. I think that had to do with the fact that with her longer ws on her fingers, she would have a hard time with them.


    While that thought distracted me, Chloe removed the rest of her clothes. She was now standing before me in that white bathing suit. The ck fur that covered her body was literally all over her except for in the stomach and chest area. If the fur was there, it was so short that it didn''t show through the white stretchy fabric.


    "U..uhm, Trevor, why did she take her clothes off?" I couldn''t stop the question froming out.


    "She needs to remove the spells. If she is wearing them, she can''t see the spirits at all."


    "Oh. Well, I guess that does make sense."


    I shut my mouth then and just started to watch them. I needed to make sure that I didn''t miss anything at all. This was too important.


    Chloe without her cloak and standing at her full height was quite the image to behold. She was tall, thin, and strong. And for some reason, it looked like the tips of her ck fur were glowing. But that had to just be a trick of the light, right?


    Why the hell did I try to delude myself? I had spent so much time around my Little Bunny and her magic. Shouldn''t I be used to seeing odd things by now? Because it wasn''t just a trick of the light or my imagination. Chloe''s ck fur really was glowing.


    The light that was moving through Chloe''s fur made it look like the tips were quickly shing in a rainbow of colors. Just the very tips of the fur, and not the same colors at the same time, so it was hard to notice that it wasn''t just the light glinting on it, but I could see it happening when she was standing still so I knew it was magic.


    As I watched on, Chloe put her hand over my Little Bunny''s head and closed her eyes.


    "I am establishing a connection with the Luna Queen. I need to connect with her to know what her soul looks like." I hadn''t expected that she would need to do that, but this whole thing was new to me, so I just wasn''t going to say anything about it.


    All of a sudden, there was a light that shot out from around Chloe. It didn''te from her hand, her head, no one part of her body. It came from everywhere. It was like every single part of her was radiant.


    The light wasn''t bright though. It was a dark purple that didn''t seem to be too harmful on the eyes at all. It was muted and dark in what I could only guess was a light representation of her fur. It was beautiful, though.


    "I can sense that her soul was here." Chloe''s eyes were still closed, and I could feel that her light was spreading all over me. It almost felt like hands that were rubbing all over my body. No offense to Chloe, who was trying to help me here, but I didn''t like the way that it felt to have someone else''s hands all over me. They weren''t my Little Bunny''s hands. They were the hands of the only woman I have ever and would ever love.


    "Do you know where she went?" Trevor asked her, clearly not liking what he was feeling either.


    "No. I can sense her soul touched King Reece, but that is all I can pick up at the moment. She was here, in this room, when she was so close to him. The metaphysical traces are here but I cannot reach any further than that."


    I could tell that this was taking a lot out of her. Chloe was already looking tired and like she needed to sit down. I wondered for a moment if I should go and help her, but before I could do anything, her brother put his hand on his sister''s and helped her away from my Little Bunny.


    "You have done what you can on your own, sister. I will try to reach the Luna Queen next. Please, sit down and rest."


    After that, Charlie helped Chloe over to a chair that was sitting near the bed that my Little Bunny wasying in. Chloe basically copsed when she got there and allowed her brother to take care of her.


    He was a doting brother, that was clear to see. He helped her to put her feet up and he took her cloak to drape it over her so that she was not as exposed as she had been.


    "Don''t move for a few moments, sister. I need you to gather your strength while I try to reach the Luna Queen now."


    "Yes, I will. Please, Charlie, be careful. There seems to be something odd here. I don''t know what it is, but I can feel that there is someone or something strong at y here."


    That was probably my Little Bunny. She was a goddess after all. I mean, who or what was more powerful than she was? There shouldn''t have been anything in here in the castle that would overpower my wife and mate. So, whatever was going on, it had to be something that my Little Bunny had chosen to do.


    The only thing that made any sense to me, was that my Little Bunny saw a problem that needed to be fixed and was working on it. I don''t know what the problem was, but I know that there had to be one. There had to be something that was keeping her away from me, away from her children.


    I just wanted these twins to tell me where her soul was and why it was there. If there was anything else that I could find out about this situation, that would be good too, but I really just wanted to know that she was alright and that she wasing home, eventually.


    Those were the thoughts that were going through my mind as I listened to the twins'' hushed conversation. I just wanted that from them while they were here. If I could get that, then I would be happy.. If I could be told that my Little Bunny was going to wake up eventually then I would be able to keep going.

 Chapter 665 - 82- Reece – Contacting Trinity Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 665 - 82- Reece ¨C Contacting Trinity Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "What kind of powerful being do you think it is, sister? What could be blocking you and keeping the Luna Queen away?" Charlie was whispering to his sister, but I could still hear him, even though I was across the room. And even though I was thinking very loudly inside my mind.


    "I do not know, Charlie, I just do not know. Though I can tell you that this is a stronger entity than we have evere in contact with. We need to be careful. Very careful." I could see the look in Chloe''s eyes from here. She was scared, but was trying not to show it to me, the Alpha King, or to Trevor, her Alpha.


    "I will be careful, sister, do not worry about that. I will make the connection to the Luna Queen and see what I can find. After that, if I cannot locate her, we will work together. You know we are stronger together." Charlie''s voice was soft and soothing as he spoke to his sister. I could tell that he was trying to keep her calm as well as remain calm himself.


    After that, Charlie rose to his feet and started to do exactly what his sister had. He removed his cloak and then his shirt and pants. Under his clothes, he was wearing a loose fitting pair of ck boxers. He, like his sister, had no fastening on his shirt, pants, or shoes. I once again thought that it was because those fastenings would be too difficult for their fingers to manage with the ws at their tips.


    Much like Chloe, Charlie''s fur was starting to glow. And just like his sister''s fur, it was just the tips that changed in a seemingly random array of rainbow colors. So far, there was no difference that I could see in what he and his sister were doing.


    After he was ready, Charlie put his hand on my Little Bunny''s forehead, the same as Chloe had. He closed his eyes and a light started to shine from him.


    Here was a difference that I noticed between Charlie and Chloe. Unlike Chloe''s muted and dark light that was not too hard on the eyes, Charlie had a very bright, very hard to look at white light. It was bright and radiated throughout the entire room.


    Then, after my eyes were closed and I was covering them with my arm to help me block out the pain-inducing light even more, I was back to noticing another simrity between the twins. Just as Chloe''s light had done, Charlie''s light felt like it was touching me all over.


    That was such an unpleasant feeling. This was a man, a guy that I had never met before today, and his magical light fingers were copping a feel all over my body. It felt so creepy and nasty that I understood right then and there why women hated being groped out of the blue or by people that they didn''t know and trust. Basically, by anyone that wasn''t their significant other. It just made them feel wrong and dirty. At least, that was what it was making me feel like.


    I also vowed to myself right then and there that neither Trevor nor myself would ever mention this outside of this room. And to make it more official I decided to tell him that right now.


    ''Never, and I do mean never, ever tell anyone about this. No one is to know that we felt what this light is doing to us.''


    ''Agreed.'' I had told him through the mental connection we had gotten from my Little Bunny and he answered in the same way. The problem was, using that ability made me think about my wife that much more and it only broke me even more.


    Finally, the light started to subside. Those nasty, disgusting, invisibly groping hands started to recede, and I was finally able to open my eyes and hold my head up once more. And I hoped that I would never have to experience that ever again.


    "What did you see? Was there anything that you were able to tell that your sister was not?" I kind of jumped on the topic the moment that Charlie''s light had fully disappeared. Maybe I should have given him a little bit more time. Though, unlike Chloe, Charlie didn''t look quite as exhausted.


    "My sister was correct. She is not here. There are traces of her soul throughout this room and other parts of this tower. I was able to reach farther than my sister was alone, and I can see where the soul of the Luna Queen was. And I even sensed the souls of three little children. They are following the Luna Queen, almost as if she is traveling with them and they are helping each other. I sense that she has a very protecting nature with them." He could see all of that, but he couldn''t see my Little Bunny. Why? Where was she?


    "Of course she would feel protective of them. They''re her children. She is pregnant and those are our children." I was speaking with so much force that I think I frightened the two bears.


    "Yes, I gathered that much." Charlie looked around the room like he was slightly ufortable. I think he knew what Trevor and I had felt during that little excursion of his and he was embarrassed by it.


    "Charlie, I have a question." Trevor spoke up to ask Charlie something. I hadn''t been expecting him to ask anything, so it caught me as well as the other man by surprise.


    "Yes, Alpha Trevor? How might I be of assistance to you?" At least the man knew how to be respectful of an Alpha, even though he had been isted for almost his entire life.


    "I heard you tell Chloe earlier that you are stronger together. That after you searched for the Luna Queen alone, you would search for her together. Why wouldn''t you justbine your strengths from the beginning and search for her together from the very beginning?"


    Now that he mentions that, I had wondered the same thing when I heard them say that. Why would they drag something like this out if they didn''t have to?


    "There is a very good exnation for that, Alpha Trevor. Chloe and I have reached many souls in our lives, we have tried to jump in with our powersbined before, but it didn''t work."


    "That is right. We have found that when we do not orient ourselves with the person that we are trying to connect with before we go full strength, then we are shooting off blindly without knowing where to go or what to look for." Chloe seemed to be feeling better and was now standing right beside her brother.


    "Alright, that makes sense, I guess." I nodded at them.


    "Thank you for exining that." Trevor nodded as well as if he was telling them that he understood. "What is the next stage? Where do we go from here?" I was so thankful for him asking that question for me.. That was exactly what I wanted, no, what I needed to know.

 Chapter 666 - 83- Reece- Contacting Trinity Part 3 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 666 - 83- Reece- Contacting Trinity Part 3 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "The next step, Alpha Trevor, would be for Chloe and I tobine our abilities so that we may try to locate Queen Trinity together."


    "How far were you able to reach Charlie? Where was thest ce that you felt her presence?" I don''t know why, but I had to ask him that question. It was like apulsion for me.


    "Thest ce that I could feel Queen Trinity''s presence was up in the mountains. That was where she met up with the three little children again. She first came into contact with them in the hall outside what appeared to be your throne room. After that, Queen Trinity moved all through the castle as if she were looking for something. She did indeede back to this room where she came into contact with you, King Reece. Her presence, the spiritual one, is all over you. You are very lucky, King Reece. She loves you dearly."


    "And I love her with all of my heart." I looked at my Little Bunny''s face as sheid there, not moving at all. "I just can''t stand to see her so lifeless. I need her."


    "We will do all that we can, King Reece. I promise you that we will not rest until we have found where her soul is." Chloe seemed to be very determined and that gave me a little bit of peace.


    "Also, King Reece, do you have any other irvoyants in your castle? Anyone else that are conduits for spirits?" Charlie''s words took me by surprise. I couldn''t believe that he would ask me that. If I did, didn''t he think that I would have been using them instead of calling these two in. Why would I have waited so long like that?


    "No. No, I do not. Why do you ask? Did you sense someone? Has someone not told me about an ability that they have?" My heart was beating so fast right now, this was major news. And apparently, someone wanted to hide this news from me.


    "I do not know how to exin it at all. I can sense another conduit, but I cannot see them when I reach out with my light. I do not think that their abilities are the same as mine and Chloe''s, but I do believe that someone within your castle can either see or converse with souls."


    Who? Who could it have been? And why didn''t I know about it. And why the hell, aside from the Fae and the witches, did someone in my castle have magic. I mean it was one thing for my Little Bunny and the kids to have-¡­


    The kids?!


    Did one of my three children have an ability to converse with the spirits? Did one of them know something that the rest of us didn''t? Did one of these-¡­


    Talia!


    Tonight, at dinner, Talia said something about Trinity. She said that Mommy wasn''t here. When Reagan and Rika started to look for Trinity after we heard her, Talia was the only one that wasn''t fazed by it. She was the one that acted like she knew that Trinity wasn''t actually back yet.


    "C..could it be?" I was at a loss for words at the moment.


    "What is it, Reece?" Trevor whispered to me, trying his best to hide his words from the twins that were looking at us.


    "Talia. I think he is talking about Talia"


    "Little Tally?" Trevor sounded as shocked as I was. "You think she is a conduit?"


    "I don''t know. I will need to talk to herter." I looked up then and saw the shock in Trevor''s eyes.


    "We will talk to her together. I think that you need someone by your side." He pped me on the shoulder and did his best to calm me down.


    "Thanks."


    I took a few deep breaths to settle myself. I tried to calm my racing heart and to push the thoughts about my little Talia out of my mind. I didn''t want to focus on that if we were so close to figuring out the mystery of my Little Bunny.


    "I am sorry about that." Once my voice was steady, I looked at the two bears that were standing across from me. "Please, continue with what you need to do. I am calmer now. Not perfect, but better at least."


    "As you wish, King Reece." Charlie bowed his head to me.


    "We will get to work again right away." Chloe did the same.


    I watched on as the two of them walked over to where they set their clothes down and pulled out matching ck markers. They just looked like normal sharpies and I didn''t know what they needed them for.


    After they had the markers, I saw that they started to draw a few things on their bodies. Well, Charlie was drawing it directly onto his hairless stomach and chest. Chloe on the other hand, was drawing the markings on her white bathing suit.


    I saw marks that looked like eyes, some things that looked like opening and reaching. They were runes, and they each had different meanings. Unfortunately, I hadn''t actually studied the magical runes with Trinity when we were in France. I knew of them, but I couldn''t tell you what these ones were for.


    Those sharpies that the twins were using, weren''t actually sharpies. The stuff that came out of them was not ink. Instead of being ck ink, they were writing in shining silver lines. I wanted to know what that stuff was, but I also didn''t want to break their concentration and cause them to mess up.


    ''Do you know what those pens are made of?'' I asked Trevor mentally.


    ''No fucking clue. But it looks cool as hell, doesn''t it?'' heughed at me as we both watched the twins continuing. They were writing in unison, every stroke, every mark that they made, it happened at the same time on the other twin. It was like they were mystically linked or something like that.


    By the time that they were done drawing those marks on their bodies, they seemed to be covered in dozens of runes. Some of them were repeated, some of them were mixed with another rune to create some sort of hybrid mark. And some of the marks were only there, either by themselves or mixed in with another. Those ones didn''t appear more than just the one time.


    "These marks are specialized spells. We use runes to cast our spells so that there is no way to mess them up. They only go into effect when we start the spell, and if something is written wrong, we just simply start again. These pens are filled with concentrated magical energy. The magic it expels can be taken back from the object it has been put into if there had been a mistake." I guess Charlie could tell that we were wondering what they were doing.


    "These markings that we used are runes that will help to amplify our powers. With them, we should be able to locate the Luna Queen much easier. Now that we have a connection to her and her soul, we can search for her without issue.." Chloe added for our benefit.

 Chapter 667 - 84- Reece – Contacting Trinity Part 4 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 667 - 84- Reece ¨C Contacting Trinity Part 4 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "Alright. So, are you ready now? You can find her now, right? Please tell me that we are not going to drag this out any more than we already have." I sounded desperate to my own ears. I could just imagine what they thought of me.


    "Yes, King Reece, we can find her now." Charlie confirmed for me.


    "I am sorry that this has taken so long." Chloe sounded repentant.


    "That is fine. I was not reprimanding you. I am just anxious. Please, tell me where my wife is."


    "Yes, Sir." They spoke thatst one together.


    Together, the twins went to stand next to my Little Bunny again. They each reached down at the same time and took one of her hands. Chloe took my Little Bunny''s right hand and Charlie took her left. Then, the twins reached across my Little Bunny''s body and took each other''s empty hands. They made an awkward looking triangle. Actually, if I looked at them in just the angle, I could almost see a Trinity symbol formed by their arms and bodies. That was probably just me projecting my thoughts onto the situation. If I saw a Trinity symbol then I might feel like my Little Bunny was closer to me.


    The moment that Charlie and Chloe grabbed each other''s hands while holding onto my Little Bunny''s hands a light started to glow around all three of them. The light seemed to be mixed with Chloe''s ck light, Charlie''s white light, and the blue that was typical for my Little Bunny. That told me that she was still in there somewhere. Her magic was here and that meant that my Little Bunny hadn''t left me forever.


    "I can sense that we are getting closer." Charlie was obviously providingmentary for Trevor and I. His eyes, like Chloe''s, were closed, but he didn''t look as if this whole process took a toll on him physically. Chloe looked like she might not have been standing anymore if it hadn''t been for the magical light that was connecting them all.


    The light in the room reached an intensity that was too much for me and my eyes. I actually did what Chloe seemed to want to do. I fell to my knees and covered my eyes. Judging by the thud that hit the floor next to me, Trevor had done the same.


    There was an upside to what was happening right now. I didn''t feel those phantom-like, invisible ghost hands touching all over me. Maybe they only needed to get to know me and Trevor so that they could ignore us when they went out on their big excursion. I could just imagine what those hands would feel like now that the power of their little spell was intensified.


    "I see that Queen Trinity went through a door near the throne room. That was where she first saw the children. She followed them through a door that took her out of her body and out of this realm."


    "W..where did it take her?" I fought to speak, it was almost more than I was capable of right now.


    "The door seems to have been a connection to the underworld."


    "THE UNDERWORLD!" Trevor and I both shouted those words at the same time.


    "She is alive, it is just her soul that went to the underworld. I can sense that someone had been drawing her toward the underworld for a long time. A phantom presence that was wreaking havoc on the Queen." Charlie seemed like he was having no problem at all continuing his search and speaking at the same time. Me on the other hand, I had a hard time just getting words out.


    "I should have listened to her more. I should have paid more attention to her."


    "The children saved the Queen by taking her through the door. The voice was leading her toward another door. One that went into the pits of hell, the halls of eternal damnation." There was actual fear in Charlie''s voice now.


    "The babies saved her?" Trevor sounded like he was awed by that statement. So was I.


    The first ce that the Queen ended up was a shadow version of the castle. It kept her close to the surface of the mortal realm, but she was not here. She heard a few things but only snippets of it. After that, she searched the castle and went through another door that the children showed her. That led her to the hall of self-reflection."


    Self-reflection? What would my Little Bunny need to reflect upon? She was a good person and she never did anything to intentionally hurt people. Shouldn''t that ce just be for people that had done questionable things?


    "She spent a lot of time in the hall of self-reflection. She had a difficult time with the seed of her darkness but I can see that things have been cleared up between the two versions of Queen Trinity."


    There had been two of her? Two versions of my Little Bunny? Whoa. This was not at all what I was expecting to hear. Still, I was happy to be getting all of this information. I needed to know it all. If I was going to help my Little Bunny, then I needed to know everything that I could.


    "What happened after that? What happened after my wife reflected and spoke with her seed of darkness?"


    From there, it looks as if she walked through the hall of self-reflection until she found the children again. They led her through another door that took her into Limbo? She is still in Limbo at the current moment."


    "Is that all? Is there anything else that you can tell me? How is she? Why is she in the underworld still? How can I bring her home? What can I do to help her?"


    I was bombarding Charlie with questions, having fought against the light to see the man. He still just stood there with his eyes closed. He didn''t even know how desperate and frantic I was looking.


    "I do not know how to answer all of those questions, but I can answer a couple. She is in the underworld right now because if she came back, the voice that was drawing her there would not cease. She needs to stop it. And there is nothing for you to do. She just needs toplete her mission. She is, however, still doing OK on her own."


    I couldn''t go there. I couldn''t help her. There was nothing that I could do. Those words stung. They hurt my heart.


    "Alright." I nodded and closed my eyes again. "I will have to wait."


    "I am sorry that I cannot do more for you, King Reece." Charlie sounded sad but his sister spoke up then, speaking in a voice that I think was meant to help cheer me up.


    "We cannot bring Queen Trinity back here just yet, but we know that she wille back as soon as she can. However, would you like to know what you are having? We have not referred to the babies as anything other than children so far."


    "Y..you can see them?" I was in awe and wished that I could look at them again without hurting my eyes.


    "Yes, we can." Thankfully, at that moment, the bright light abruptly disappeared.


    "Tell me." My head shot up the moment that the light was gone.


    "Three identical little boys. You are very lucky, King Reece." Chloe''s words made my heart soar with joy, even at a moment like this. I was having three little boys. I was so happy to hear that.. Now, if only their mommy would wake up.

 Chapter 668 - 85- Rika – Where Has Mommy Gone? (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 668 - 85- Rika ¨C Where Has Mommy Gone? (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    I swear that I heard my mommy''s voice today at dinner. Actually, I know that I did, and I wasn''t the only one either. Reagan heard it too. And I think that daddy did. The only one that I am not sure about is Talia.


    I thought that Talia had heard her too, but she didn''t look excited like Reagan and I had. Daddy hadn''t reacted too much, I think he was trying to remain calm for all of us, but his eyes gave it away. There was nothing like that in Talia''s eyes though.


    Didn''t she love Mommy? Didn''t she care that something was wrong with Mommy? What was I supposed to do to figure all of this out?


    Not to mention, I very clearly remember what she said.


    ''Mommy isn''t here.'' Why would she say that? Mommy was right upstairs in her room. Mommy was just sick and sleeping in the bed. She was still here. She wasn''t gone.


    I needed to talk this out with my brother. I needed to talk to Reagan. That was why I was on my way to his room across the hall from mine.


    "Come on in, Rika." He called out to me before I even knocked on his door. We often did that. We knew when the other one was near or when they wereing to see us. That means I knew when he was on his way to my door, and he knew when I was on my way to his. There was more to it than that, but that is all that mattered at the moment.


    "Hey Rea." I called out his nickname when I walked into his room.


    "Hey Ree." He had taken to stressing the long E sound in my first name as my nickname, this just made us closer, I don''t know why, but it did.


    "U..uhm, Rea, I uhm.. I wanted to ask you something." This was a lot harder to bring up than I thought that it would be.


    "Are you going to ask me if I heard Mommy?" He lifted his head from the book that was in hisp. "Because if that is what you are going to ask me, then the answer is yes. I heard her. She called out to us from somewhere really far away. She said all of our names. She started with Dad''s name then mine, yours, andstly Talia''s."


    "I knew it." I was smiling happily. "I am just really d that someone else has heard it as well. I had been feeling borderline crazy there for a few minutes. I knew that I hadn''t made it up or that it wasn''t just in my head. But no one talked about it at dinner, so it really made me wonder if it was real or not."


    "Oh, it was real." He immediately confirmed that for me with his eyes filled with excitement. "I know what I heard, and I would know Mommy''s voice anywhere."


    "Me too." I slumped backwards on his big bed as I copsed in relief.


    "Did you hear Talia, though? She said Mommy wasn''t here. Did she not hear her?"


    "I don''t know."


    The moment that I said that, there was a knock on Reagan''s door.


    "Come in, Talia." He called out to her, having smelled her the same as I did.


    "Hello Reagan, hello Rika." Talia walked into the room with a smile on her face and came to stand in front of me and my twin brother.


    "What''s up Talia? What do you need?" Reagan asked her with a tone that said he wished we hadn''t just been talking about her.


    "You were talking about Mommy, right?" That took us both by surprise. All we could do for a moment was look at her and then at each other. After a minute or so, I found my voice and asked her what I wanted to know.


    "Talia, why did you say that Mommy wasn''t here?"


    "Because she isn''t." There didn''t seem to be anything out of the ordinary with Talia. She didn''t look any different, but the things that she was saying made no sense to me at all.


    "She''s upstairs, Talia. She''s in her room." Reagan pleaded with her. "You know that."


    "That is just Mommy''s body. It''s her shell. She''s not in it right now, though. She wille back, but she isn''t in it."


    What the heck? What in the world was she saying right now?


    "Talia? Do you know where she is?" Reagan asked her.


    "Where has Mommy gone?"


    "Mommy is on a mission. She is gone with our brothers to stop a bad guy. She wille back soon."


    "We don''t have brothers." Reagan rolled his eyes at Talia, clearly dismissing her words.


    "Not yet. But we will soon." With that, our little sister smiled and then left the room calmly. That was definitely an experience that I had not been expecting.


    I know that Reagan was dismissing her words, but could she have been right? Did Mommy go on a quest and left her body like that? Was she here but not here? And if so, where was she really?


    I didn''t want to think about it too much, and I didn''t want to argue with Reagan about it at the moment. He clearly didn''t believe Talia. Yet, for some reason, I felt like she was right. I just needed to think about this myself.


    "I will talk to youter." I waved at my brother and went back to my room. Iid on my bed and just reyed that conversation with Talia in my head over and over again. The more that I listened to it, the more I thought that she might be telling me the truth.


    After a little while I heard a knock at my door, and could tell that it was Daddy.


    "Come in, Daddy." I tried to smile for him, but it didn''t go well."


    "Are you feeling ok, sweetheart?" He came over to sit with me on the bed, and I knew that he was here to tuck me in and tell me good night.


    "I''m just thinking. A lot has happened today."


    "Really?" His eyes opened wide like he hadn''t expected that from me.


    "Daddy, is Mommy going to be OK?"


    "Yes, baby girl, she will be." Daddy looked a little more calm than I had seen him in thest two weeks. He had to know something, something had to have changed since dinner.


    "Talia told me that Mommy wasn''t in her body and that we have three little brothersing."


    I had expected him tough it off, I didn''t think that he was going to look so scared by what I had said.


    "She really said that?" I nodded to tell him that it was true. "Then what Charlie said was true." Daddy whispered that part under his breath before he looked at me. "Look, Rika, I will not lie to you. What Talia said is true. But Mommy will be back, she just has a job to do."


    "Yes, Talia said that too. So, does that mean that Mommy is going to have three babies too? Is she pregnant with one of them now?"


    "She is pregnant with all three right now. They''re triplets, and they''re all boys."


    "Oh, cool." I tried not to react to that too much. It was a little odd to have everything that Talia had said confirmed. "Daddy, where did Mommy go?"


    "I can''t tell you that, Rika. That is not something that I can share. But she wille back. And I have some people that can check on her now, so we will know that she is still safe while she is there."


    "OK." I was not happy that he didn''t answer me, but I had to deal with it. I couldn''t chance it anyway.


    Now that I knew that my mommy was going to be OK, that I knew that everything was going to work out in the end, one way or another, I felt a little calmer. Not to mention, I just found out that I had three new little baby brothersing soon. When Talia had been born I had still been little, so I hadn''t been able to do a lot for her. Now though, now I could help them and hold them when they were here. I was determined to be a good big sister and help my mommy out when my little brothers got here.. That''s what a responsible big sister does.

 Chapter 669 - 86- Trinity – Checking Out The City (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 669 - 86- Trinity ¨C Checking Out The City (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The three little imp boys were taking me toward the edge of town. That was all well and good, but I didn''t want to rush out of the city yet. Yes, I know that I had asked them if they knew where to go, but I didn''t think that running right out of town was a good idea either. I think it would be best for me to stop and check a few things out first.


    Colorado Springs was a pretty big city, and it would definitely take me a long time to search the whole single ce inside of it. Still, I thought that it would be best for me to check out a few specific ces. And by that, I mean ces that were either important to me or to my wolf pack. If it was a ce that was important then there might be something waiting for me there.


    I could hope at least, right?


    I took the three little imp boys by the hands, relishing in the softness of their skin and how much they reminded me of Reagan and Rika when they were little. Talia too, only she was a little smaller and more frail looking than the twins had been. These little imp boys were truly like my own children. And it wasn''t just because I had already started to care about them. There was just something about them that made me feel like they belonged to me. I wonder if I could take them along with me when I left this underworld. Could I somehow bring them into existence in thend of the living? I did actually see them at some point in that world. They were by the door, beckoning me toward them. So they should be able to go there.


    I was thinking about these things as I walked along the streets of Colorado Springs. I didn''t want to dwell on anything, but I didn''t want to overlook anything either. Not in my thoughts nor in my search. So, because of that, I was taking my time to search everywhere that I went.


    The first was the university that wasn''t too far from Franny''s Kitchen. I had spent a lot of time there and I had been going there when I met Reece. I didn''t find a way out, but I did find several other people that needed help moving on. I had meant what I said earlier. I wouldn''t seek the people out, but I would help them if I could when I met them. There were a few people who seemed overly attached to the university. Some older people that looked like they might have been professors who devoted their lives to this ce. Some young students that passed before getting their degrees. Some people felt the most at home here.


    I went up to these people one by one. They weren''t attacking me like thatst group was, so it made it a lot easier now. All I had to do was press my hand to their heads and show them that they had every reason to move on. They just needed to see if for themselves. Every single one of them epted the help with a smile and moved on. I liked that, and I was d that I was able to send them on their way.


    When I left the university, I went to the gym that I used to train at. I went to the gym to make sure I didn''t see Jim. Yes, they rhymed, and I used to joke about it all the time when I came here.


    Seeing this ce made me sad. I used toe here all the time when I was a freshman. I had loved this ce. It had felt like a second home and a ce for me to be safe. After I met Reece though, I wasn''t able toe back. I had asked Juniper years ago to let Jim know that I wasn''t able toe anymore but I would always be thankful to him for what he did for me. She told me that he looked sad to see me go, but he understood that things in life could change abruptly.


    I wonder what happened to him? He wasn''t here so either he was still alive, or he just didn''t get stuck in Limbo. I hoped he wasn''t dead, but I was d he wasn''t here.


    "I miss you, Jim. You were an awesome coach." I almost felt like crying as I looked at the front door to the building. "I will never forget you, no matter how long I live."


    Alright, two of my very important ces were checked and neither of them had a door or anything else important for me to see. I hade across a couple dozen more people that were stuck here, but I sent them on their way and felt better for doing so. Being stuck in Limbo for eternity was a form of torture, I was sure about that.


    I checked a few other ces. I looked around at the homes of my friends and family. And by family, I mean friends and guards that became my family. I checked businesses that were associated with my pack or me personally. I checked everywhere that I could think of and I found nothing at all.


    I hadn''te across anything that would point me in the right direction of where I needed to go. All I had really done was take a stroll down memoryne and feel really, really sad about all the things that I had given up over the years. I think I need to do better than this. I needed to make an effort to bring us all back together.


    I should visit Jim and talk to him. I should further my education to include morew groups. I should go to all the old stores that I hadn''t been to in a long time. I should do it all when I get back.


    If I get back.

 Chapter 670 - 87- Trinity – Listening To Them (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 670 - 87- Trinity ¨C Listening To Them (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ''You should have just done what they said.'' The other me said with a slightly condescending tone in her voice as I sighed and thought about how I had found absolutely nothing during my search of the city.


    "They didn''t actually ''say'' anything though." I was being a sarcastic bitch and I could just tell that that other me wasn''t all that happy about it.


    ''You know what I meant.'' She snapped at me.


    "Yes, I do. But I am feeling frustrated right now, so I wanted to do something to alleviate that frustration right now. Deal with it." I could practically hear the other me scoffing inside my head at thatment of mine.


    ''What are we going to be doing now, oh wise one? What are we going to do to get this show on the road?''


    "Now, we will follow the little imp boys and see where they are going to take us. They seem to know a lot about this ce so I am going to do what I should have done from the beginning. I am going to listen to them."


    ''Oh yay. Finally, some sense from the Goddess Queen.'' The other me was clearly annoyed right now.


    I ignored the annoyed inner being that had taken up residence inside of my head and bent down to look at the three little imp boys. I knelt before them and looked at them one at a time. They really, really did not look like imps at all. I don''t know what it was that had made me think that they were imps to begin with. What had been wrong with me?


    "Look, I am sorry that I didn''t listen to you sooner. All I can say is that I am a silly and stubborn grown up that feels the need to do something they think is right before I listen to someone else. I hope you can forgive me." They all nodded right away and smiled at me. "Good."


    These little boys were so sweet and excitable, just like Reece often was. They smiled the same way that he does too. Honestly, all three of them looked like nothing more than a child sized version of my loveable and sweet thick headed Fido.


    "OK, now that I am done being a silly grown up, can we go to where you wanted to take me? Can you show me how to go lower into the underworld? I need to stop the baddy before she gets to my world and hurts a lot of people. Will you help me?"


    All I saw was three smiling faces. All I felt was three sets of tiny arms wrap themselves around my neck. These little boys were so connected with me that they were treating me like I really was their mother and with how emotional I was at the moment, how nostalgic I felt at the moment, feeling this love from them made me want to cry as I hugged them back.


    "OK boys, where are we going? Which way? You three have the lead now." They pulled away from me then and grabbed my hands. I could tell that they were eager to guide me. "I aming. Don''t pull so hard." Iughed at them. "Hmm. If we''re going to be together for a while, I should give you names, what do you think?" I saw how bright their eyes got at that idea.


    I had to put some thought into this. These were names that we were talking about. And I hadn''t actually picked the names for my kids yet. Reece had done that for us both times that we had our children. This was going to be the first time that I actually named someone.


    I was excited and scared at the same time. I didn''t want to mess up and give them names that no one liked, especially them. I wanted them to be good names, names that they could make their own. Yet, I was struggling with it.


    "I don''t know how good these names will be, but I hope you like them. I have some that I think are good for triplets like you three. How about you, the one that seems to be the oldest and bossiest, you can be Zachary. You, the easy going middle one can be Zander. And you, you seem to be the youngest, you can be Zayden."


    All three boys, who had been pulling me down the road and out of town, stopped to jump for joy. All three of them were smiling and I could see that they were pointing at each other andmunicating with each other in some way that I didn''t know. They were learning their names and bragging about them to each other, but I couldn''t hear it. I knew what it was, it''s just that I couldn''t hear the sounds of it all.


    "Alright, now that you have your names, how about we continue on our way again?" They were all for that one too. These three were really sweet and easy going kids. That was a relief. I knew that little boys of this age could be rowdy and rough. Reagan hadn''t been, and these three weren''t. Maybe that was just a rumor about boys that wasn''t true.


    Right now, all I knew was that these three little boys needed me, and I needed them. We were working together to help each other out.


    As I got closer to the edge of town, I started to feel uneasy about something. And so did the boys. We were all slowing down as we listened to what sounded like someone wailing in the distance.


    "What in the heck is that?" As I asked that, all three of the boys hid behind me and started to shiver like they were terrified. There shouldn''t be anything bad or evil in this ce. It was just a limbo for the people that were too clingy to the past to move on.. So no matter what it was, I was sure that it was nothing to be scared of.

 Chapter 671 - 88- Trinity – The Soul Of Sorrow (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 671 - 88- Trinity ¨C The Soul Of Sorrow (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    That wailing was truly not stopping, no matter how long the little boys behind me hid and waited or how hard I wished that it would be quiet and stop hurting my ears. And now it seemed that the boys were afraid to move on while the sound continued. When I looked down at the three of them, I saw nothing but petrified looks in their eyes and tiny little hands that were clinging to my shirt.


    "I will protect you, don''t worry." I tried my best to calm their nerves as I slowly pulled them along behind me. "I will make sure that nothing bad happens to you."


    I moved forward at a slow and steady pace. While I continued to walk, I tried to pinpoint where the sound wasing from. I needed to find the source of the wailing and help whoever it was. I moved first ording to my ears and then ording to my eyes. I needed to use those two senses as I tracked where to go.


    It only took me a few minutes before I managed to locate the source of the wailing. There was a woman standing just beyond the edge of the Colorado Springs city limits. She was looking out at the open road and screaming in a high, heartbreaking wail. Then I watched her turn around, face the city, and repeat the move.


    She did that over and over again. Wailing and screaming non stop as she looked in the two different directions. I could see her face as well. It was nothing but a twisted mask of sorrow that was covered in both fresh and dried tears.


    "What has happened to her?" I asked the other me, knowing that she would hear me and hopefully answer me.


    ''She is especially caught up in her past. And it seems to be a past that was hard on her. I do not know why she is behaving like this, but I know that she, more than anyone else, needs to move on.'' There was a hint of apprehension in the other me''s voice. Did she know more than what she was telling me?


    "Will she even ept my help?" I was wondering about this as I slowly walked toward her.


    I had to stop moving, though. My steps had bebored, and it was almost impossible to move forward at that moment.


    "What is going on?" I looked down at the three little boys. "Why are you stopping me?"


    I knew that they couldn''t talk to me, but I asked them that question anyway. I felt like I might be able to understand them in some way if I asked them what they were doing.


    And I had been right about it too. When I tried to find out what they wanted, I got the impression that they were telling me she was bad. That she was dangerous.


    "She''s not dangerous. She''s a lost soul, like the others were. I need to help her." I cupped their cheeks, one after the other. First Zachary''s then Zander''s and finally Zayden''s. "Don''t worry. You three can stay over here. I will go help her while you stay put. I won''t make you go, but I have to help her. OK?" They nodded at me and then clung to each other instead of me. "I will be back soon." I nodded at them and walked over to the woman.


    I moved with caution, not knowing if this was another person that Hekate was going to use to attack me. Not to mention, I didn''t want to frighten her and make her do something, even if she wasn''t one of the people that Hekate was going to send after me.


    I don''t know if I was being this cautious because of the three boys or if I was actually seeing this woman as a threat. Either way, I was on guard and watching her and the boys at the same time. I needed to stay vignt and on my toes.


    "Ma''am?" I called out to her when I got closer to her. "Miss?" She wasn''t turning to look at me, and she definitely wasn''t stopping to attack me either. I knew that she was going to be harmless. "Are you OK, ma''am?"


    What in the fucking hell was the matter with me? I literally just asked a dead woman stuck in Limbo if she was OK. How much more not right could she get? And how much more inconsiderate could I get? Yeah, this was just fucking crazy and stupid of me.


    "AHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHH! UHWAHHHHAHHHHHH! AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! AH!" She was just screaming and screeching non stop as she turned around and around. "AHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHH! UHWAHHHHAHHHHHH! AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! AH!"


    "Ma''am?" I called out to her again as I reached her, but she still didn''t stop. None of the others had either, not until Hekate got a hold of them. Oddly enough, this was actually a good sign. This meant that I could actually help her without her trying to do something to me or the boys.


    I just needed to put my hand on her head and release her from her Limbo prison. I had done it several times before, and I could do it again. It wasn''t that hard.


    Except, finding a way to get a hold of her was hard since she was moving about violently.


    "I am going to help you, Ma''am. I promise you that this will end soon. Please, just let me help you."


    I made a grab for the woman and she finally stopped moving, that was good, but then she also just started to scream louder and most rapidly.


    "AHH! AHH! AHH! AHH! UHWAHHH! AHH! AHH! AHH!"


    "MA''AM! PLEASE! I AM GOING TO RELEASE YOU! I AM GOING TO HELP YOU!" I yelled the words loud enough for her to hear me but it wasn''t doing any good at all.

 Chapter 672 - 89- Trinity- The Soul Of Sorrow Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 672 - 89- Trinity- The Soul Of Sorrow Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    With the woman screaming over and over again, right next to my head, it was really starting to annoy me. Still, no matter how frustrated I was with her, I had to remember that she was dead and that she couldn''t help what was happening to her. I needed to help her out of here so that she could find peace.


    "Let''s see what has you stuck here." I spoke softly as I brought up her life. It was like the first time that I did this, when I helped the ones that Hekate had sent after me. "Let''s see what you need to go find in the afterlife."


    I started to see a life that was not a good one. This woman had been sad her whole life. She had a family that didn''t want her. A husband that mistreated her. And children that seemed to be just as sad and abused.


    Just when I thought that it couldn''t get any worse for her, the woman had everything that she loved and cared for taken from her. She had her dog, the animal that she had raised since she was a puppy, stolen by a stranger in the middle of the night. Her children, whom she loved dearly despite everything, were taken away from her because they didn''t think that she was a very good mother because she couldn''t protect them from their father. And then, when her husband was out on bail, he went to the house that she was staying in and took his ultimate revenge against her.


    That was how she ended up in this ce. She had not had a good life at all. She had been suffering and most likely feared that the only afterlife that she was going to get was going to be hell. She felt like she was going to hell because she hadn''t stopped the bad people in her life from hurting the others that she tried to care for.


    She was staring out of town because she had always nned to take the kids and run away, to free them all from her husband''s temper and protect them. It didn''t work out for them though, she ended up not being able to go without him knowing.


    She was screaming at the city because that was where all the horrors of her life had taken ce. She had never once left the city, she was too frightened to do so. But she was terrified of the ce that she called home. She didn''t know what to do about all the anger, frustration, fear, and sorrow that she was feeling.


    "I will take this pain away from you. You have not lived a life that will get you punished. All you need to do is let go and move on. You can be happy." I was trying my best to talk her through it. I wanted to help her and make her understand what was going on.


    That wasn''t going to work out though. No sooner had I tried to take the sorrow from her did the screams that she was giving incessantly changed.


    "AHH! AHH! AHH! AHH! UHWAHHH! AHH! AHH! AHH!" She paused for a moment and her eyes focused just a little. "NO! NO! NO! NO! YOU WILL NOT TAKE ME AWAY FROM MY CHILDREN. YOU WILL NOT TAKE ME AWAY FROM MY BABIES. I WON''T GO. I WON''T! I WON''T! I NEED TO STAY HERE. I NEED TO FIND THEM!


    "You will find them when they join youter. They wouldn''t want you to stay here and suffer.


    "NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" She wasn''t going to budge at all. She was just screaming the words nonstop.


    "Please, let me help you."


    At that moment, the woman did something that I didn''t think was possible without Hekate having taken her over. And I knew she hadn''t done that. It wasn''t cold enough at this point for Hekate to have done something again. No, this was all the woman that was putting up the fight and nothing else.


    The woman reached out toward me, her right hand clenched into a fist. She had taken me by surprise and managed to hit me right in the cheek, below my right eye.


    "DON''T TAKE MY BABIES AWAY FROM ME!" She started to scream again, and I actually teared up, either from the hit or her sorrow, I wasn''t exactly sure at the moment.


    "You won''t lose them. I promise. Move on and watch over them."


    "NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!"


    This wasn''t getting me anywhere, and to top it all off, she was fighting me ever more. The woman had grabbed my shirt, and now my hair, while I was distracted by her wailing. Damn, this wasn''t right. She was a human, and she was dead. I was a three times over Goddess Queen with wolf, Fae and Witch blood in me. How was she so much stronger than me right now?


    ''She is dead. You answered your own question. She is a spirit, and a powerful one at that. If she were in anotheryer, she might be able to make it to earth and cause a problem for some people.'' Why the hell did the other me have to be so whatever about this topic?


    "What? Are you saying she might make it back to thend of the living and hurt people?" What was happening here? What was going on with this woman?


    ''Yes, she could be much more sinister if she were somewhere else.''


    "Are you saying that I shouldn''t help her? Are you telling me to leave her as is?" I didn''t like what the other me was saying right now.


    ''I am saying either do it right, or not at all.''


    While we argued between the two of us, the woman that was screaming started to attack me even more.. She leapt straight at me and I felt her nails scrape against my cheek as she reached for my throat.

 Chapter 673 - 90- Trinity – Tiny Saviors (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 673 - 90- Trinity ¨C Tiny Saviors (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I wasn''t usually taken by surprise like this, especially when fighting someone. I just didn''t expect that this woman, this soul, was going to attack me like this. I mean, I had been told that the people here were not evil.


    "What the hell is going on! You said they were harmless."


    ''To be fair, I never said they were harmless. Even good people can do bad things in desperate times. This woman is desperate to stay here and watch the ce where her children were. She is panicking.''


    "Like that helps me at all!" I screamed at her. "I need to stop this woman. And then, I need to figure out if I should forcibly send her to her afterlife or not."


    I was grappling with the woman, her fingers reaching toward my throat, as I argued with myself. I don''t know what the scene actually looked like, but the thought in my head invoked a prettyical image.


    This wasn''t the time to beughing though. Especially since I felt the woman''s nails scrape my face and draw blood. I didn''t know what effects this underworld would have now that it had drawn blood from me. Also, how the hell did she draw blood from me when I was nothing more than a metaphysical spirit roaming around down here? That made no sense to me at all.


    "Get off of me!" I grunted in frustration as I tried to move the woman away from me. The more I fought her though, the stronger she became.


    ''Spirits, especially angry ones, are very strong. You need to get away from her because you most likely will not be able to overpower her.'' The other me added as if this was some kind of practical lesson in fighting or something.


    "Can''t you see that I am trying to get away from her!?" I snapped at her. "I am having a little bit of trouble here."


    ''I am just giving you the advice that I can. I am sorry that I cannot be of more help.''


    The moment that she said that, I heard the sound of screaming. The screaming was done in small little voices, and the screams werepletely devoid of any words. These sounds that I was hearing were iprehensible but fully understood.


    The three little boys, Zachary, Zander, and Zayden were screaming. It sounded to me like they were scared, frustrated, and angry all at the same time. I wanted to turn my head to look at them. I wanted to see what was happening to them. Did Hekate send someone after them? Were they hurt? Were they in danger?


    I wanted so badly to see them, to check on them, but I couldn''t. I needed to focus on the fight at hand. Literally, since my hands were on the woman''s shoulders, pushing her back and away from me.


    "Run and hide if you need to. Don''t stay here and watch this. Protect yourselves." I didn''t want those sweet little boys to get hurt. I didn''t want to see them in any danger when they clearly wanted me to stay away from this screaming woman. This woman, who by the way, was still screaming non stop in my face.


    "DON''T TAKE MY BABIES AWAY FROM ME! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" She was stuck on that one in an endless loop now.


    The screaming of the boys didn''t lessen at all. It wasn''t moving away from us. Instead, it was getting closer to me and the angry woman.


    "What are you doing?" I was starting to panic as I saw the closest little boy, Zayden, out of the corner of my eyes. "It''s not safe."


    "M..mm..mmeh..mmeh..mom¡­mommy!" The boy struggled to use his voice and speak, it was like he had never done it before and he didn''t know how talking worked. He wasn''t the only one either.


    "Mm..mmeh..mmo..mmo..mmomm..mom..mommy!" Zander was right behind him, using his words for the first time as well.


    "M..m..mm..meh..mom..momm..mommy!" I literally started to cry at hearing these boys call me Mommy. It melted my heart and the tears were obscuring my vision.


    That was bad though, since I could barely see now. Dammit! I shouldn''t be getting so emotional right now. I shouldn''t be focusing on that.


    "M..m..mommy!"


    "Mm..mm..mommy!"


    "M..mm..mo..mommy!" At that moment, with one more call for me, the three boys grabbed a hold of the sorrow filled woman. She started to move away from me, being pulled back bit by bit with the way that the boys were holding onto her.


    "L..l..leave m..m..mo..mom..mommy l..l..l..lone!" Zayden was crying but seemed to be pulling on the woman''s arm as hard as he could.


    "L..l..l..let g..g..go m..m..mom..mommy n..n..no..now!"


    "B..b..bad l..dy n..n..no t..to..tou..touch m..mo..mom..mommy!" Zachary seemed to be the most angry at the moment. Zander and Zayden were more scared and sad but Zachary seemed truly pissed off right now.


    The three of them were trying to help me, and that made me happy. Not to mention, it was working too. The three of them were pulling the angry woman back and allowed me to get a better hold of her.


    I knew that they couldn''t handle her alone though, so I needed to do something, and fast. I needed to help this woman, whether she wanted it or not. She would be happier if she could move on.


    "Listen to me." I said, putting my hand on the woman''s forehead. I feltfortable doing this only because the three little boys were pulling her away from me. I was given a little more leeway that allowed me to move more. "You will find peace when you move on. You will not have a life filled with sorrow."


    I wanted her to have an afterlife where she could watch over her children. I wanted her to have the only thing that she ever really wanted, peace and love.


    I thought of those things, the way that I wanted her afterlife to look like, something that I thought would bring her peace. I felt the magic in me stirring as I did so. The life I envisioned for her wasing into existence. Now I just needed to make her see it. I just needed to make her ept it.


    "See this!? Do you see where you could be? Go! Go there. Look after them and love them. Wait for them there."


    Finally, the woman was able to see what she was missing. Finally, she stopped screaming and I saw a smile on her face.


    It was quicker this time than it had been in any of the previous ones. She disappeared and it was just me and the three little boys left behind.


    Those three little boys also fell backward andnded on their bottoms when the woman disappeared. They had helped me and now that the danger was gone, they were just sitting there, confused and uncertain.


    "Don''t worry. Everything is alright.." I held my arms out toward them and was rewarded with another hug from all three of them."

 Chapter 674 - 91- Trinity – Finding The Next Door (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 674 - 91- Trinity ¨C Finding The Next Door (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Well, that was exciting." The moment that the three little boys pulled away from me I sighed and spoke sarcastically. "What would you say about us getting out of here? We can find the door to the next stage. I for one, am done with thisnd of Limbo."


    "L..Limbo b..b..bad!" Zayden crossed his arms in annoyance as he spoke again. His voice was so small and cute.


    "N..n..no l..like L..L..Limbo." Zander was next, mirroring his brother''s attitude.


    "G..g..go n..now, m..m..mommy?" Zachary wasn''t looking annoyed, instead he gave me hopeful eyes.


    "Yes Zachary, we can go now."


    I rose to my feet first and pulled them up to their feet next. I dusted them off and cleaned them up a little as I helped them all. When I pulled Zayden to his feet he reached up and wiped my cheek with his little child sized fingers.


    "M..m..mommy is h..h..hurt."


    "Mommy is OK. It''s just a scratch, sweetheart." I wiped the blood from his fingers and then wiped my cheek on the back of my hand. "Come on now. Let''s go."


    The sooner that I got out of the city, the better I would feel. I never thought I would feel that way about the city that I called home, but that was how it felt to me now. This wasn''t the city that I called home. This wasn''t the same Colorado Springs. Not to mention, I was starting to feel that way toward the real city in thend of the living. I had spent less and less time there over the years, so I felt like the city itself was bing a stranger to me.


    Trying to move beyond all this, all the business with the city, I took the hands of the three little boys and walked out of town. I felt like I was figuratively turning my back on my home and leaving it all in the past, but that was not my intention. I only wanted to move forward and do what I needed to do. I needed to focus on what was in front of me, not what was behind me.


    The four of us, five if you counted the other me hitching a ride in my head, walked on in silence. It was back to the way it had been before the little boys had finally spoken.


    That had been interesting too. I know that I was acting motherly toward the three of them, but was that why they had called out to me like that? Was that the reason that they called me mommy?


    I hadn''t been pregnant when I left the other world. Reece and I had been so busy that we hadn''t even been together since Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r were here for their visit. That was a long time ago. If I were pregnant then I would have known. Reece would have known.


    So, why was it I felt like I was missing something? Why was it that I felt like maybe, just maybe, these really were my children?


    Were they from the first pregnancy that I lost? No, that can''t be it. Dietrich hadn''t seen more than one baby at that time. So, were they a future pregnancy? But that just didn''t feel right either.


    What was I missing? What was it that I felt like I knew but I just couldn''t remember? There was something more to this. Something that would exin why these little boys were here with me.


    "Can I ask where you three came from? Can you tell me that?"


    "W..w..we c..came w..with m..m..mommy." Zayden looked confused.


    "W..w..we g..g..go w..w..with m..m..mommy." Zander tilted his head as he looked at me.


    "M..m..mommy m..made u..us." Zachary had more of the answer that I wanted to hear.


    "How did mommy make you? Where did youe from?"


    "W..w..we was h..h..here." Zayden put his hand on my belly and smiled.


    "W..w..we was i..i..in there a..and n..now w..we w..with m..mommy." Zander sounded happy as he added.


    "Y..y..you m..m..mommy, w..we b..b..babies."


    They are telling me that they are inside of me but here with me. Could it be possible? Am I actually pregnant? Are these three little boys really my children? And if so, how did I not know? How did I not see it?


    "So, you are here with me now, and you are back home inside my belly? You''re going to be with me when I go back. You will really be my children? My babies?" I was excited and happy, but also so scared and worried. What would happen to them in thend of the living if I let something happen to them here? How am I going to make sure that they stayed safe? How am I going to make sure that all of us got home safely?


    "Y..yes. W..w..we a..al..always w..with m..mommy." Zachary gripped my hand tighter as he spoke.


    "M..m..me l..love m..m..mommy. M..me h..help m..mommy." Zayden hugged my leg, causing me to stop walking.


    I had a thought then. These little boys weren''t born yet, but they were talking to me right now. I wonder if the reason they were having such a hard time talking was because they were unborn souls. They hadn''t actually lived yet so they didn''t know how to talk. That was crazy, but I guess it made sense in some way.


    All throughout this conversation, the three little boys led me out of town and toward the mountains. I was helping the boys up onto ledges and over rocks as they guided me in the direction that they wanted me to go.


    I couldn''t see what they could, at least not yet. I was hoping that I would see it soon though. I wanted to get out of this Limbo and move to the next ce. Not that I thought the next ce would be any better than this ce.


    I was actually expecting the next level of the underworld to be a lot worse. I mean, I was moving further into hell. The only thing that would make sense was for it to be filled with a lot more evil and a lot less good people.


    "M..mommy! L..l..look! D..d..door!" Zayden bounced happily after I helped him over the next hurdle. I was too busy helping his brothers to see it yet, but I knew it was there. He saw it so it had to be real.


    "We are almost there." I smiled as I answered him.


    After that, the three boys pulled me up and over the boulder that had been in our way and then they tugged me along to the door that was just standing there, waiting for us. This was the door that we had been looking for, this was the way out of the Limbo that we had found ourselves in.


    The closer to the door that I got, the more that I thought it resembled thest one that I had gone through. Only there were some designs on the sides of this one that I didn''t understand. The lettering or symbols made me feel horrible on the inside.. It was like I was instantly filled with regret for something, but I couldn''t remember what it was.

 Chapter 675 - 92- Trinity – The Door To Regret (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 675 - 92- Trinity ¨C The Door To Regret (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Bad feeling or not. Regret or not. I needed to open this door and move forward. I needed to find Hekate and put a stop to her tyranny. I needed to protect myself, my unborn children, and the world itself. I needed to protect everyone, and this time I would do it in a way that would not be twisted around on me like the times in the hall of self-reflection.


    Steeling my nerves, and pushing down the feelings of regret that were flooding through me, I reached out and took the handle of the door. The moment I touched the door, the feelings got so much worse. It felt like regret was all that I had inside of me at that moment.


    I could even see the door affecting the triplets. Zachary, Zander, and Zayden were all cowering in fear as they huddled beside me. They weren''t even born yet, what could the three of them have to regret? How could they even know what that emotion was?


    "I hope this ends when we go through the door. You three better not let go of me." I started to open the door, but then I remembered what had happened to them, especially Zayden, when we went through thest door. I had ended up falling on top of him and made him cry. That was not something that I wanted to do again. And, thinking back on that with what I know now, did me falling on him cause him any problems in my womb? I hoped not.


    I didn''t want to risk hurting any of them again, so I decided to do something different this time.


    "Come here." I told them as I bent to scoop them all up into my arms. They clung to me and each other as I held them. It was difficult, but I managed to hold them and to open the door at the same time.


    It was a good thing that I held onto them too. The moment that the door was opened it was like there was a giant gust of wind that swirled around me and sucked me inside. The four of us would have been separated if I hadn''t been holding onto them.


    I wrapped my arms tight around them as I held on as tight as I could. I refused to let anything pull them away from me. When I started to approach the ground that was speeding toward me, I did my best to spin my body around and make it so that I wouldnd on my back.


    I slowed down, a little, before I hit the ground. I wasn''t in pain or anything, but it knocked the breath out of me for a moment.


    For a moment I was justying there, on the ground, cradling the three boys in my arms.


    "M..mommy O..O..OK!" Zayden pulled back and cupped my cheek.


    "M..m..mommy g..g..get h..hurt?"


    "No, Zander, I am not hurt." I shook my head. "Mommy is OK."


    "M..m..mommy f..fall d..down." Zachary looked at me with worry in his eyes.


    "Well, I had to protect the three of you, didn''t I?"


    "N..no." Zayden shook his head.


    "W..we tect m..m..mommy." Zander was very insistent.


    "W..w..we tect m..mommy. W..we h..here for y..you m..mommy." Zachary also looked insistent and sad.


    "We will help each other. But it is a mommy''s job to protect her babies. Even big strong babies like you."


    "O..OK." Zayden smiled and the others followed suit with a nod.


    "Now,e on. Let''s see where we ended up.


    The three of them climbed from their positions on my chest and stood next to me while I got to my feet. Once we were once again holding hands, protecting each other as they wanted to call it, we started to look around where we were.


    This was a different ce than I thought I would end up. I seemed to be sitting on top of some sort of luggage belt in an airport. There were other people being dropped in as well and they were spinning around the conveyor belt until they could get to the right spot to climb off.


    Unlike me, the other people seemed to being in from the other side of the belt, like they were literally luggage that had been taken off of a ne. This was the oddest thing that I had seen in the underworld so far.


    Why the hell are we in an underworld airport? And what is the point of this ce?


    Those were the thoughts that went through my head while I waited for the right ce to step off the belt with the boys. At least the creators of this level of hell had been considerate enough to provide stairs for us that were exiting the belts.


    Once we were off and walking down the only hallway that we could see, I heard thousands of people off in the distance. The sound was so annoying, so loud, that all I wanted to do was p my hands over my ears and block it out, but I didn''t have any hands free. I couldn''t cover them at all. Neither could my little boys, they were stuck hearing the voices of so many people whining in the distance.


    I saw a sign, conveniently, that was hanging at the end of the terminal. It had arrows that were directing me which way to go for different reasons.


    ¡û Bad Ending¡û Missed Love ¡û What Could Have Been ¡û Too Shy To Try ¡û Never The Right Time ¡ú Wasn''t Brave Enough ¡ú Too Scared ¡ú There Was More Time ¡ú I Was Going To Do It Later ¡ü What If I Get Fired ¡ü They''re Better Suited For It ¡ü I Don''t Want To Rock The Boat ¡ü No Chance ¡ü Ran Out Of Time ¡ý Soul Carrousel ¡ý No Regrets


    Well, that was not very helpful. What the hell kind of sign was that? Where is this ce? What was going on? And, why were there so many people moving around in this ce? This had to be the most crowded airport in the history of forever. I swear, it looked like there were over a million people in this ce, if not more.


    While I thought about this ce and what that sign meant, about fifty people dashed past me and ran in different directions as they went toward different parts of the airport. What were they in a hurry for? Where did they think they were going? And what the hell was I supposed to do now that I was here?


    "Stay close to me and don''t leave my side. I don''t want you to get lost." I pulled the kids closer toward my side and took a step out into the busy main terminal. I had been in a lot of airports in my life, but none as big or as busy as this ce seemed to be. There were so many people that I literally needed to squeeze my way into the mass of souls.. I felt like I was going to be swept away into the never-ending flow of lost souls and end up lost myself.

 Chapter 676 - 93- Trinity – The Hall Of Regret (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 676 - 93- Trinity ¨C The Hall Of Regret (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The moment that I stepped into the flow of the ''traffic'' I felt myself being pushed and pulled in a million different directions. It was hard for me to keep a hold of the boys, but I refused to let them go. And I also refused to move at the speed that the souls around me wanted me to.


    Instead of me moving like they tried to force me, I slowed down and stood my ground to force them all to go around me. Oddly enough, once I made one person move around me, all of the others followed them. It was like they were nothing more than a never-ending stream of mindless lemmings. All of the ones in the back only followed the leader. Wherever I moved the first one the others would just blindly follow him.


    Now that I was forcing them to move around me, I was able to stop and get a good look of the area around me. Not to mention, now that they were moving around me, the three little boys clinging to me didn''t have to worry about being swept away.


    The sign that I had seen earlier was not doing this ce justice. It was way bigger than I thought that it was. Just being here, looking at the various halls and terminals leading off of this section told me that I hadn''t nearly grasped the size of this airport of souls. It was easily hundreds of times bigger than the biggest airport that I had ever been in.


    "What is this ce?" I wondered out loud, only to have the other me respond.


    ''This is the Hall of Regrets. This is where all the souls too hung up on what they couldn''t do in life get sent.'' She, like always, was straight to the point when she exined a part of the underworld. Now, if only she could have been that straightforward when we were having our ''discussion'' in the Hall of Self-Reflection.


    "OK, so these people all regret something. Is it that they regret not doing something or that they regret doing something?" That was a stupid question to ask, only because it didn''t truly matter, but I asked it anyway.


    ''It can be either. However, I feel like those that get lost in this ce are more often than not, the people that regretted not doing something. If you start to focus on them, use your Goddess ears rather than your mortal ears, you should be able to tell what it is that they are all saying. It''s loud here, is it not? You should be able to hear their words. Try to focus on one at a time, that way you do not get overwhelmed.''


    "Alright." I was apprehensive, but I guess it couldn''t hurt to see what they were saying. At the very least, I could see what the souls of this part of the underworld felt.


    I knelt lower to the floor, hugging the boys to me tightly so that they couldn''t be separate from me. I closed my eyes so that I could concentrate and started to think more like a Goddess than like a mortal.


    It was hard at first. And I felt like I looked like an idiot as I searched the area around me. I could hear the sounds of the voices but hearing the words one was saying was like trying to make sense out of nothing.


    At first, all I could hear was a sound like the disgusting scraping and chirruping that ants made only a lot louder and repeated millions of times. It was too much for me and I just wanted to cover my ears again. I didn''t though, and after a while, I was able to focus on one chirrup, or voice in particr.


    It was a man''s voice and he was probably in his mid twenties. I focused in on his voice and heard the words that he was saying.


    "Why didn''t I tell her? Why did I leave without telling her what I truly felt? Things could have been different. I might not have been there for the ident. We could have been happy. We could have had a family."


    This man sounded like he regretted not telling the woman he loved about his feelings. He sounded heartbroken and lost. It was a major life changing decision for him and he never had the guts to do anything about it.


    I focused on another person, trying to hear their regret, their voice. It didn''t take me as long as it did before. This time, was easily able to work past the disgusting chirruping sound to hear the true sound of his voice below.


    "WHY?! Why didn''t I do it? Why didn''t I ept the job? Why didn''t I take the leap? Yeah, sure, I would have had to move across the country and I would not have seen my family as much, but then I would have been happy in my career. Instead, I lived my life in mediocrity, never fulfilling my passion or my potential. I let that job suck the life out of me. It stole my soul and I was miserable! Why didn''t I take the job?!"


    This man had been older, he looked and sounded like he was close to or just past retirement age. And he looked, and sounded, like he had been miserable for most of his life. I can understand why he felt so insecure at the time, and I could also understand why he regretted the decision that he made. He didn''t want to leave his family, even though it meant taking a better opportunity. That''s a hard choice.


    OK, one more, then I will be done with the regrets. I don''t know why, but I needed to hear one more. It was like some sort of morbid curiosity for me. So, I focused on one more person, another man who was in his thirties. He was severely overweight and looked like he had actually enjoyed his life.


    "WHY!? Why didn''t I have that dessert? Why did I choose that night to go on a diet? Why didn''t I just eat the rest of the cake that was sitting there? It''s not like it would have mattered anyway. I was killed by a random idiot on my way home. I should have savored what was myst meal. Honestly, if I would have stayed at the restaurant to eat more, I might not have died. I might not have been in the wrong ce at the wrong time. Why didn''t I just give in to temptation?"


    OK, I am sad that he was killed, that isn''t good. However, is it bad that I wanted tough at him for having his evesting regret be over dessert? That didn''t seem like something that should have kept him here in this ce. In my opinion, he needed to move on and get out of here.


    Then again, maybe food was his whole life. And if that were the case, missing out on something like that right before you died, I guess it could have asting impression on your soul. I am only guessing here, grasping at straws, really.. And I was doing my best not tough at him.

 Chapter 677 - 94- Trinity- Leaving The Hall Of Regrets (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 677 - 94- Trinity- Leaving The Hall Of Regrets (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Hey, other me, why am I here? For what purpose is there that I came into this part of the underworld? What exactly am I supposed to do here?"


    ''Who said you needed to do anything, Trinity? Why do you think that you need to fix everything? Are these people here because of you? Did you send any of them here? No, they are not. And no, you did not. These people have regrets because they were not able to do things in life that they wanted to. There is nothing in here for you to fix. You cannot take away their regrets either. For better or worse, they are stuck here."


    "But, wait a minute!" I was so confused by what the other me said just now. "Aren''t you the one that made me see what all of my actions and inactions caused? Aren''t you the one that told me that I needed to stop letting people suffer? Aren''t I supposed to do something about this like I did the people in Limbo?"


    ''In truth, you didn''t have to help the people in Limbo. These souls are already dead, Trinity. There is nothing you can do to help them. They won''t live again. They will still be dead. The purpose of me showing you those things was to make you understand that we all have faults, even a Goddess. And that you need to ept those faults. Only when you stop trying to be perfect, can you truly hope to reach perfection. Perfection has ws. Perfection has failures. Perfection doesn''t actually exist since you could always get better, you can always improve yourself and as long as you don''t forget, that failures build you up. They don''t tear you down.''


    "You''re talking in circles, and it is making me dizzy. First you tell me that perfection has ws and failures then you tell me that it doesn''t exist. Which is it?"


    ''Hahh.'' The other me sighed in my head. ''Perfection is something to strive for, but never reach. If you think you''re perfect, then you might as well give up. And if you think that one w or one failure makes you anything less than perfect then you might as well give up. The thing that makes someone perfect is the drive to move forward and to never give up. You may never truly reach what someone calls perfect, but you will always be improving and that alone makes a world of difference.''


    "Hahh." I matched the sigh that she had just done moments ago. "Fine. Never stop trying and keep moving forward. Is that what you''re trying to tell me? So, in other words, you showed me hell to tell me that there is room to improve and that I need to just do better from here on out. I am wed person and I need to ept that."


    ''In a manner of speaking, yes.''


    "Gee, thanks for that lesson. You could have just told me about it sooner instead of the big run around." I crossed my arms angrily and red at the souls around me. There was nothing for me to do here but push my way through the crowd.


    ''I am not the one that makes the rules. I did what I was told to do. In truth, it was Hekate that pulled me from your mind. However, like the real Trinity, which is you, the shadow Trinity, which is me, did not listen to her all that much. I do not think that she cared for that development all that much.''


    "Well, at least I was able to subconsciously stick it to the bitch." Iughed at the idea of Hekate being pissed off about my dark side. "Hey, if you didn''t follow her rules, why did you continue to torment me?"


    ''Well, that is because she took me to the Hall of Self-Reflection. I could defy orders from Hekate who is not a true ruler of this domain, but I cannot defy the orders of the others.''


    "Others?" That wording scared me. "What others?"


    ''Several religions have rulers of the underworld. Actually, pretty much all of them do. They all rule over a specific part of ''Hell'' but most souls go to just one. They take their pick from the truly despicable of them all and torture them in their own personal domains.''


    "That sounds quite.. uhm.. very.. it''s.. what the hell, that''s just fucking scary." I was having a hard time saying it at first, but I got it out, eventually. "What others are here?"


    ''Well, just to name a few, there is Hel, Yama, Mtecuhtli, Erlik, Mot, Supay, Ereshkigal, Batara K, Susanoo, Hades, Lucifer, and many more.''


    "Oh shit!" I grabbed my head and shook it. I knew my mythology and I knew that most of those Gods were bad news.


    ''It will be fine, Trinity. Just find the door to get out of here. That is all you can do.''


    "Oh, yes, it will be that easy. And where is the door?"


    ''I don''t know. But you will find it.''


    With that, it felt like the other me was retreating to the back of my head. She was abandoning me. This was so not nice.


    "TRAITOR!" I shouted at her, but she didn''t respond. "This is so not good."


    I looked around me once more. I looked at the kids that I was clinging to, and I looked at the millions of people that were moving so quickly around me. They weren''t carrying actual luggage, but those souls still looked like they were burdened by baggage: the baggage of regret.


    "Do you three know where the door is in this world? Can you sense it like you did before?" These three little boys hadn''t made a peep since I asked for their helpst time. Now though, they seemed to be looking around and thinking. Were they going to talk to me again?


    "W..w..we c..can f..f..find it f..f..for y..you, M..m..mo..mommy." Zayden''s voice sounded a little squeaky. They were probably afraid of this ce.


    "W..w..w..we c..can sen..sense it for y..you." Zander nodded at me.


    "W..we w..w..will h..he..help m..mommy." Zachary stood tall and firm like he was trying to tell me that he wasn''t afraid.


    "Thank you, all three of you. You''re Mommy''s big helpers." I smiled at them and hugged them before standing up.


    "C..c.e o..on m..m..mo..mommy." Zayden tugged on my hand, which he had already been holding. "L..l..le..let''s g..go."


    "Thank you."


    The three of us started off in the directions that they were sensing the door. This caused more problems than when we were just sitting there. The people in the lines were so easy to move when we were not staying in one position. So, that meant that all of the souls kept bumping into me like I was an unpleasant obstacle. I know that the boys could feel it too, and they were scared when they were hit by the others.


    Finally, I could see a door in the distance. It too is a lot longer to reach than it should have, considering how love it was to our original starting point, but we were buffeted around so much that it dragged out the time. I was just d that we were about to leave this ce and I didn''t have toe back here ever again.


    "DO YOU TRULY THINK THAT I WILL LET YOU LEAVE JUST LIKE THAT!"

 Chapter 678 - 95- Trinity – Leaving The Hall Of Regrets Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 678 - 95- Trinity ¨C Leaving The Hall Of Regrets Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I heard that very unpleasant voice ring out throughout the entire airport. The voice filled the entire Hall of Regrets, but it seemed like me and the boys were the only that had heard it. The millions of other souls surrounding us were still moving about like there was nothing at all happening.


    "HEKATE!" I screamed her name into the vast room. "WHAT DO YOU WANT NOW? I AM ALREADY ON MY WAY TO YOU! CAN YOU NOT WAIT FOR ME TO COME AND DESTROY YOU? ARE YOU THAT EAGER TO FIGHT ME AGAIN!?"


    I was pissed off. Mostly, because she was preparing to attack me with the boys so close to me again. I was on guard right now too, because I just knew that these people around me were going to turn violent and attack us.


    "I WILL STOP YOU NOW AND HAVE YOUR SOUL BROUGHT TO ME! I WILL TAKE YOUR MAGIC, ESCAPE HELL, AND RULE THE MORTAL REALM!" She yelled out at me again.


    "You are truly just like all the other megalomaniacal psychopaths. You''re telling me your whole n. You''re basically going to tell me how to defeat you next." Iughed and scoffed at her for what she was doing.


    "NO ONE CAN DEFEAT ME! I AM INVINCIBLE! THAT IS WHY MY HUSBAND LOCKED ME IN THIS PRISON! THERE WAS NO ONE IN ANY OF THE REALMS THAT COULD DEFEAT ME! I WILL KILL YOU, TRINITY! I WILL KILL YOU AND DESTROY ALL THAT YOU LOVE!"


    "Well, I simply can''t let that happen now, can I?" I almostughed at her, but I couldn''t. I needed to keep my cool.


    I started to walk toward the door again, keeping the boys close to me. That was when I felt that cold start to spread through the area again. Once again, I wrapped the boys in protective barriers so that they would be safe until I got us out of here.


    "ALL OF YOU! COME TO MY AID! I WILL REWARD THOSE THAT HELP ME WITH A SECOND LIFE! A SECOND CHANCE TO DO WHAT YOU NEVER HAD THE COURAGE TO DO BEFORE! ALL OF THOSE THAT FAIL ME WILL BE BROUGHT TO THE HALLS OF THE DAMNED FOR ETERNAL TORTURE!"


    It was like everything in the Hall of Regret went still all at the same time. Every single person that had been speedily walking all around the airport for no reason at all came to an abrupt halt. They stood so still that they looked like statues that were going to a wax museum. Not only that, but that weird chattering chirruping noise that they were making stopped as well.


    The hall was once creepily deafening in the noisiness that filled it. Now it was creepily deafening in the utter silence that was filling it.


    "M..m..m..m..mommy? W..what is g..g..going to. h..h..happen?" Zander pressed his protective barrier against me as he got closer to me. This time around, the barrier was more like an invisible full body suit of armor. It was closer to their body so that they had a lot more range of motion this time around.


    "We are going to get out of here, baby boy. Don''t you worry, I will protect you. I will keep you all safe. I promise you."


    Although I was promising them this, I didn''t truly know how I was going to get them out of here. There were so many people surrounding us that even if I put us in a barrier that I could use as a battering ram, I would most likely get stuck and overwhelmed by them sooner rather thanter.


    "M..m..mommy, th..th..they are c..c.ing." Zachary pointed at the people that were merely inches away from us and I could hear the terror in his voice.


    "H..h..help m..me, m..mm..mommy." Zayden buried his face in my side while he sobbed.


    I needed to think of a solution and fast. I needed to get the four of us past thousands of souls that were in between us and the door all while also dodging the other few million people that were going to being my way.


    I hated to think this, but Hekate might actually win this time.


    As I thought that, I seemed to be watching the entire hall start to move in super slow motion. It was like every movement took ages for everyone to make. Even the boys that were clinging to me were moving so slow when they turned to look up at me.


    I wasn''t sure if I was going to be able to move any faster than they were, but I had to try. I had to see what would happen if I tried to move into this sea of slow moving attackers.


    The first thing that I did was to cast another barrier. I put it up so fast that I had barely had time to think about it, and the next thing that I knew we were all surrounded. That was good. I would have hated it if it would have taken forever to go into effect, just like the way they were all moving. Thank the Goddess that I was still moving normally.


    Now that the barrier was up to protect me, as well as the boys, it was time to get us out of here. I attached the boys with magic, something I should have thought to do a lot sooner than right now. Once I knew that we were not going to be getting separated at all, I took off running with them in my arms.


    I was still moving at normal speed while everyone else was going so slow. This allowed me to move in between all of the souls that were in my way. I was weaving in and out of them and pushing them back away from us at the same time.


    Every soul that I touched seemed to light up as I moved past it. At first, I thought it was some sort of me that was taking root on them, starting to burn them. I hadn''t summoned fire magic, so I didn''t know why that was happening at all.


    Then I saw that the light wasing from within them. It looked like they were all glowing and floating in the air. I didn''t know what to think about it, but I knew that it was something important. And if I had the time, I would wait to see what happened to them all.


    I didn''t have the time, though, so I was still moving at the quick pace that I had been at. I moved from soul to soul, practically leaping off of them as if they were springboards or obstacles in my way.


    Finally, I was about to leap over thest soul and get to the door beyond. This was all going way better than I had nned. However, at that moment, the people around me started to move at a normal speed again.


    I felt someone reach for my foot, something that I would have been worried about if it hadn''t been for the barrier that I put around us. Or I wouldn''t have been worried if I would have remembered about the barrier. Instead, I pushed out toward him with my magic and felt him reel. Like the others, he started to glow and I saw that his soul actually condensed into a tiny little ball before moving very fast through the ceiling.


    "Where are they going?" I asked the other me quickly as I grabbed the door. I saw that others had done the same thing as that man.


    ''They are going to be reborn. You destroyed them with your magic, so their souls are going to be put into the cycle once again.''


    "I..I killed them?"


    ''No, they were already dead. You just recycled their souls. That would be best for everyone here. It is better than eternity here.''I


    "I don''t want to make that decision for so many souls. I will just leave."


    With that, I flung the door open and the four of us were sucked through it like we had been several times already.

 Chapter 679 - 96- Trinity – The Next Level (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 679 - 96- Trinity ¨C The Next Level (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was d that the boys were attached to me with magic, otherwise I would have lost them during the fall through the next door. We were being buffeted now more than ever before. I was trying to pull them back to my sides because they were terrified and screaming so loud that it was breaking my soul.


    "M..M..M..MMMMOOOMMMMMYYYY!" They were all three screaming that same thing over and over again. They were reaching for me and I wasn''t able to pull them in toward me again.


    I also knew that we were going to crash just like we had thest couple of times. I didn''t want to hurt them at all. I didn''t want to risk something damaging them in thend of the living or here. I needed to protect them in two worlds at the same time. That was harder said than done.


    I could still feel the magic surging inside of me. I could feel the power that I would need to save us right now. It actually felt that with every floor that I progressed through my magic was getting stronger. Even just being here, falling through the air of this next level of hell, I could feel the power surge inside of me.


    With the magic returning to me more and more, I was going to make sure that I used it. I was going to protect my boys and I was going to get us out of here. I was going to destroy Hekate and then I was going to go home to my family.


    I reached out for the boys again, this time with invisible hands made out of magic. I used those hands to pull the boys closer to me and hold them to my chest while I started to use my wind magic as well. I slowed our descent just in time for me tond on my feet in the darkened realm.


    "We made it." I sighed in relief as I set the boys on their feet, still attached to me with magic and holding onto them with the invisible hands.


    "M..m..mommy s..sa..saved us." Zayden was shaking when he spoke, still scared.


    "M..mommy was m..moving s..so f..f..fast." Zachary didn''t look as scared but he looked stunned for some reason.


    "What? I was not moving fast." I was confused by his words. "Are you talking about when everyone was moving slowly?"


    ''They were not moving slow, Trinity. You were moving so fast that they could not see you. The triplet only saw you because they were attached to you. You simply tapped into the speed that you have been building up for years.''


    "Wait! Really?" That was a shock. I didn''t expect that at all.


    ''Yes. Now, be on your guard. This is the first official lever of hell. You have reached thends of purgatory, and I imagine that here, you will need to search much longer for a way out of here. These souls are usually stuck here at all times, so it is notmon to find a door.''


    "Notmon, but possible, right? I mean, we are not stuck here forever, are we?"


    ''There will be a door. I just do not know how far you will need to roam before you finally find it. It is not going to be close like thest few doors.''


    "OK, and what can I expect here in Purgatory?" I was looking all around me as things started toe into focus. I still wasn''t able to see anything clearly.


    ''Purgatory is where those with minor sins go. They get their souls cleansed so that they may join the ranks of the blessed. After they have atoned for their sins, they are either sent to be reborn or to receive the eternal bliss that is heaven. That fate is up to the specific soul and is therefore not set into stone.''


    "OK, so I am going to see a bunch of people atoning for their sins so that they can get out of here. Alright. So, there are doors out of here. How often do souls make it out of purgatory?"


    ''The timing and frequency cannot be predicted. It will happen at random times.'' OK, that wasn''t exactlyforting, but it was the best that I could hope for.


    "M..mommy?" Zayden tightened his grip on my hand as the images around us cleared up for us to see. I could see nothing but dead hills and barren mountains stretching out before me. There were fires that rose high enough to lick the sky. And there were waters deep and dark enough to hide monsters of unknown origins and design.


    Stretching out before me, there seemed to be different trials and tribtions going on. I saw people being purified in many different ways that I had never even thought about before. Some of them were expected, like the cleaning by fire, the stoning of others attached to rocks, and a few others that seemed like they were from ssic literature.


    Others, however, just didn''t seem like the old ways at all instead, these other people, newer looking people, seemed to be getting tortured in many modern ways. I could see a group of people who clearlymitted their sins with their smartphones. They wereid out, naked, in a pit of gravel as they tried to crawl straight up the side of a slick mountain face, literally trying to crawl vertically. At the top of that mountain was their phone, ringing and pinging with notifications for the entire duration of their punishments. That was a creative punishment, I guess. I had to give props to the people who created that one, it would literally be torture to some of the people in the world.


    There seemed to be more people here than there were in the Hall of Regrets but, thankfully, this ce was not as crowded. I was able to move around herefortably, and that was the major plus for me. Also, there was no weird chattering, chirruping, or whatever you wanted to call it.


    This ce wasn''t silent. Actually, it was far from it. This ce was filled with the sounds of screaming and the wails of woe. I could already hear what they were saying without me needing to focus at all. That was both a blessing and a curse.


    I heard their sorrow and their repentance, which I don''t think that I was meant to hear, but it was better than that iprehensible chattering.


    "I think that we should get a move on." I told the kids as they clung to me. "I don''t want to be here any longer than we absolutely need to. I think we should move out and hurry toward the door. Can you three sense it like you did before?"


    "N..no." Zayden shook his head.


    "N..no, mommy." Zander looked down at the ground.


    "W..we can''t s..s..see it." Zachary sounded so heartbroken.


    "That is fine, we will find it soon enough. Just tell me if you start to sense it." I smiled at them to let them know it was OK.. I could tell that they were upset about this, about not being able to help.

 Chapter 680 - 97- Trinity – Traversing Purgatory Part 1 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 680 - 97- Trinity ¨C Traversing Purgatory Part 1 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Before I started to move forward, I looked all around me. I needed to see what was in every direction. If there was something nearby that I should search or anything like that, I didn''t want to overlook it and move in the opposite direction. I needed to be thorough here and make sure that I didn''t inadvertently move away from the door.


    I saw that the Hall of Purgatory started approximately twenty feet behind me. Oh, it looked like it went on for much further than that, but there was clearly a barrier there that stopped the debris that was blowing in the wind. The fires that were beyond that invisible barrier looked more like they were paintings rather than actually flickering and alive. It looked like it was just a cleverly painted wall that made people think that they could run in that direction for miles and miles. In truth, if anyone tried, they would most likely smack face first into the wall and slide to the ground in pain.


    On either side of me, there wererge rock formations that shot toward the sky. They didn''tpletely fill the view since I was able to see onto the other side of them. There were several people being ''purified'' through various tortures so that they could ascend to this underworld''s version of heaven.


    I guess, in a way, those rock formations were forming a hall that I needed to walk down. They weren''t close to me at all, the corridor they were forming was quite vast. So vast. in fact, that I could have fit an entire stadium between the formations and still had room.


    I decided to follow their lead and walk toward the end of the corridor. It looked like it went on for a long time, but there was nothing but torture on their other side, so there was no reason for me to go over there at all.


    I needed to find a door. I was not here to save people. I was not here to interfere. I just needed a door to the next level so that I could eventually get to the halls of eternal torture and damnation.


    I felt awkward and uneasy as I walked past all of these people. I didn''t know who any of them were and I didn''t know what sins they hadmitted. However, I felt like I was invading something personal and private as I made my way past them. It felt like I was intruding on something that I was never meant to see.


    I thought that I would be able to continue on the way that I was without issue. I thought that I would have near free range to roam the halls and look for my door. I thought that, since I wasn''t here for punishment, I wouldn''t be subjected to the same rules as the other souls here.


    I was wrong.


    The further I walked on through that corridor, the more that my view changed. I had seen it in the beginning, but now, I could see that there was arge gate standing at the end of this path that I was on. The gate seemed to be opened to allow souls to enter, but it was also heavily guarded to keep the souls in. This was when I first noticed that there were other people moving around me on that path.


    In truth, they had been there the entire time, I just didn''t pay any of them any attention. I had been too focused on what I needed to do to even think about the other souls that were here for their torture.


    The souls of dead people that were moving into the halls of purgatory were all naked. They weren''t wearing anything and were not saying anything until their punishments were handed down to them. When they heard what they were going to be doing until their sins were wiped clean, that was when they started to wail and fight against the guards who would drag them off to their new home in purgatory.


    Thinking about it, the boys and I were the only ones here that were wearing clothes. Well, us four and the guards. I was still wearing the same things that I had been when I entered the underworld, the three little boys were wearing old fashioned looking pants and dark colored t-shirts. It was like the underworld couldn''t figure out how to dress them so it mixed and matched.


    The guards on the other hand, were wearing dark red leather armor. The armor was clearly ancient in style, but it looked brand new. They were wearing the armor over some sort of pants that were ck but didn''t look like it was made out of any type of modern day fabrics. The shirts, or rather tunics, that they were wearing looked like they were a dark te gray under their armor. And all of them were wearing strong-looking ck leather boots.


    All of the guards also had swords, shields, bows, and a whip. It was a lot for them to carry, but I am guessing that they needed it from time to time. You know, when they needed to put a rowdy soul back in their ce.


    I wondered for a moment if a soul that was in purgatory could find themselves in damnation if they fought against their punishment? That was an interesting thought, but I don''t know if I really wanted to find out the answer to it.


    The gate was getting closer now. I could see the people in the distance stopping one by one as they had their souls scanned and their punishment handed down. The guards had arge stone tablet in their hands, something that they seemed to be checking the souls off on, like a list. Also, the tablets in their arms seemed to emit a strange and eerie looking red light that would move over each soul as it entered through the gates. That must be how they determined where to send the people that were here.


    What was going to happen to me and the boys? How were we going to make it through this gate? We weren''t dead. We weren''t here to be cleansed of our sins. We were here to find a door and nothing more.


    I was starting to panic now. I needed to find a way past this gate, past this barrier in my way. And I needed to do it without catching the eyes of the guards that were watching over the steady flow of souls.


    My initial guess was to climb through the stone barriers that were forming the hallway. If I could get over there, then I could move past the guards and start looking for a door.


    When I moved toward the door, I saw that my n was foiled as quickly as I thought about it. The invisible barrier that was at the back of that hall, was over here as well. I hadn''t noticed at first, but there was no wind moving past the rock formations. Even though I could see the wind moving and the smoke swirling, it was all stuck on the other side of the rocks. And sure enough, when I tried to get closer to the rocks, I found a solid invisible wall in my way.


    This wasn''t going to work at all. I needed to find something else. I needed a new n. And I needed it quickly.


    The boys were getting more and more scared by the minute. They were clinging to me and trembling as they listened to the sounds of the souls being tortured. They were the souls of unborn babies. They were innocents. They were pure. And this was not something that they should be witnessing. Not yet. Not even before they had a chance to live.


    I had a moment to think, to wonder, if this experience was going to be a memory of theirs. Something they don''t know the origin of but have nightmares about when they were toddlers or older. Or would the souls forget about all of this when they were born.. Would they be clean tes once again, never needing to fear or worry about the monsters that lurk in the underworld? I could only wonder and hope, hope that they would never suffer because of this.

 Chapter 681 - 98- Reece – Talking To Talia Part 1 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 681 - 98- Reece ¨C Talking To Talia Part 1 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    It''s been a few days since I had gotten some pretty shocking news. Well, I wasn''t certain yet if it was true, but it still made me think and it was still very shocking.


    Charlie had asked me if there was another irvoyant, another person that could converse with souls, living in the house. And one that would be in or close to the Royal Tower at that. Even though he hadn''t mentioned that the person was close to the tower, I had a feeling that he had meant to.


    And ever since I heard him say that I had not been able to stop thinking about the words that Talia had said at dinner that very night. Just a little while before I was called to the meeting with Trevor, Charlie and Chloe.


    All of us had heard my Little Bunny''s voice. The children had heard her voice for the first time in two weeks and while I fought to stay still and not react, Reagan and Rika were looking all around us trying to find where the sound hade from. Unlike her brother and sister though, Talia just sat there, looking at her te, while she said something that made my blood run cold.


    "Mommy isn''t here."


    How could she have known that? Why would she have said that? I hadn''t told the kids that Trinity''s soul had left her body, and I hadn''t told them anything about the babies. Though I needed to tell them about the triplets soon, since my Little Bunny''s belly was steadily growing bigger and bigger. Thankfully, the babies were growing even with everything that was going on.


    And not only had Talia said that, but when I went to tell Rika goodnight after the meeting was over with, she told me something else that Talia had said. Apparently, Talia had told Reagan and Rika that Mommy wasn''t in her body and that she was with their three baby brothers. I had just found out from Charlie that the babies were boys, so how did Talia know about that?


    The more that I thought about it all, the more that it seemed like my little Talia, my sweet little four year old Talia, was the irvoyant conduit that Charlie had told me about. There was simply no other way to answer it. That was the in and simple truth of the matter.


    So, knowing what I know now, I had to think about whether I was going to confront her with this or not. I needed to know if I should talk to her about what she knows. I needed to know if she had seen these things like a vision or if she simply just knew them.


    It was going to be a hard conversation, but it was something that I needed to do nheless. I needed to take care of my daughter as well as everything else. I was not going to neglect Talia because I was worried about my Little Bunny. And I wasn''t going to let me little Talia live in fear of the unknown.


    Not to mention, I wanted her to know that she was allowed toe to me and talk to me if she had any questions or concerns. We would work them out together or we would find someone to help her. I didn''t want her to be tormented like Charlie and Chloe had been when they were younger. I wanted her to feel safe and secure with her new power.


    Simply put, there was just a lot of talking to do with her. And I had to make the decision about whether I was going to approach her now or wait to see if she was going toe to me. Though, with how anxious I was right now, I was pretty sure that I was going to be the one to reach out to her first.


    That Friday, after I brought the children home from school, I told them that we were going to spend one on one days together that weekend. I was going to take them all out, just me and one of them. It would help them all since they would get some alone time with me, and it might take Reagan and Rika''s minds off of what was happening.


    "I am going to take Talia first. She can pick whatever she wants to do, and we will go right away. I know you two might want to go first, but this also gives you time to choose something really special." All three of them were smiling happily when they heard my news. "What do you say, Tally? Where do you want to go?"


    "I want to go to dinner. I want to go to the zoo. And I want to see a movie. And I want ice cream." She was smiling happily as she listed off her ideal night.


    "Done, done, done, and done." I smiled at her. "I think I can make some calls and get something super special for you."


    "Yay!" She was practically dancing in ce with her excitement.


    "Why don''t you go and get ready. I will call some friends of mine."


    As Talia ran from the room, Reagan and Rika looked at me with worried eyes.


    "Daddy, are you doing this to talk about things with Talia?" They seemed to be scared and worried about their sister. Though, I didn''t know if that fear was for her or of her.


    "Yes, I am going to talk to her about the things that she said. I want to let her know that there is nothing wrong with her and that she can talk to me, and hopefully the two of you. She''s still young and doesn''t understand what is going on. She has new powers that none of us have seen before, but that isn''t bad. The two of you started showing powers when you were about five or six months old."


    "I''m not scared of her powers, Daddy." Rika gave me an earnest look, something that was filled with emotions and uncertainty. "I am not scared of them or her. I am just worried about Mommy."


    "Yeah, we love Talia and are not scared of her. We just want Mommy to wake up." Reagan added, his eyes rimmed in red.


    "I know you do." I pulled them into my arms and held them close to me as Iforted them. "And I promise you, Mommy will wake up. She just has a job that she is doing and when it''s done, we will be a big happy family again."


    Once I had the two of them settled, I pulled out my phone to call some people that I knew could work miracles in a short amount of time. I wanted to make Talia''s date with daddy perfect. She was going to get her dinner, her movie, to see the animals at the zoo, and her ice cream. And I was going to make sure that it was all done in the most spectacr way possible.


    "I''m ready, Daddy." Talia raced into the living room where she had left me. She had gone upstairs to change out of her school uniform and into a pretty little dress that was cute and frilly, exactly like she preferred to wear. She had also had someone, probably Rika, do her hair and help her put on her earrings and a ne. She looked like a true princess.


    "You most certainly are." I knelt before her and smiled. "And you look amazing, baby girl."


    "Uh huh. Yup. I look beautiful. But daddy, aren''t you going to change? This is a special night. We need to dress nicely."


    "Oh, you are right. Ipletely forgot to change because I was on the phone. I will go now."


    She hurried me out of the room so that I could get ready for our daddy daughter date. I chose to make this special for her, so I was going to go all out. I went to put on one of my nicer suits and I styled my hair so that it didn''t look messy or unkempt at all. After that, I put on the watch and bracelet that I got from Trinity for our first Christmas. Topping it off with some of my morefortable dress shoes and a jacket, I was ready to go. It was time for me to pick up the princess for our night out.

 Chapter 682 - 99- Reece - Talking To Talia Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Talia, my adorable little princess, wanted a zoo date with her daddy, so that was what I gave her. I called up a friend of mine that I knew could call in some favors. This was going to be one of those times that I showed the world just what money could buy.


    Yes, it was a little wrong of me to want to force people to do their jobs beyond the close of day, but I did offer them ten times their normal hourly wage to stay on. So, it wasn''t really that hard for me to convince them. Not to mention, I was making a massive contribution to the zoo for them to allow this. Basically, since the zoo closed at five that afternoon, I was throwing money at them so that they would stay open until eight or nine. Since we would be by ourselves it wouldn''t take long for us to see the whole ce.


    When I had Talia properly buckled in her seat and we were on our way, I told her something that I knew she would find surprising.


    "You know, Talia, daddy has lived here his whole life, but I have never been to the zoo before."


    "Really!" Like I thought, she was shocked by my revtion. "Then we need to have twice as much fun as normal because it is new to us both." She always sounded so grown up when she talked, it was cute but sad too.


    "Yeah, I think we will."


    I pulled into the parking lot for the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and parked near the front in the spot that my friend had reserved for me. I opened the door for my little Princess, and we entered the zoo while there were a lot of people leaving.


    "Hey, mister, the zoo is closing." A boy about ten years old or so called out to me.


    "My daddy is taking me on a date." Talia called back to him.


    "But it''s closing." The boy was still confused. I didn''t want to make the boy feel bad about the fact that we were getting private ess, so I didn''t say anything regarding that.


    "We will be quick." I nodded at him.


    "Whatever." He shrugged and continued walking with his parents out of the zoo.


    Talia and I walked inside and to the guest services kiosk that was nearby. They were waiting for us and I swear I saw, and heard, quite a few of the staff members gulp in fear when I approached them.


    "G..good evening, Mr. Gray." The man that seemed to be in charge, came forward and spoke to me first. "W..we are s..so d that y..you are here t..to visit us."


    "Thank you." I smiled at him. "I am d that you all could amodate me and my little girl." I smiled down at her at that moment. "Talia, go ahead and say hi to the nice people."


    "Yes, Daddy." She was so happy right now. "My name is Talia, and I am four. It is so wonderful to be here for the first time."


    "Thank you for joining us, Talia. And might I say that you look just like a little princess." A woman that seemed to be pretty high in the pecking order leaned down to speak with my daughter.


    "I am a princess. Aren''t I daddy?"


    "Yes Talia, you are an adorable little princess."


    Talia and I knew of her status, but the staff here didn''t, not unless one of them was a member of ourmunity. To them, I just sounded like a doting father that was showing his daughter some love.


    "Well,e with me princess Talia. My name is Ginger and I am going to drive you around the zoo so that you can see everything that you havee here for."


    "Yay! Thank you." Talia took her hand, but she also took mine. She wasn''t about to go off with a stranger that she didn''t know.


    Just as the two of us followed along after her, I felt the air move behind me as all those that were still there sighed in relief. What were they so nervous for? To them I was just a rich man unting my money around. They knew nothing of what I really was.


    Talia and I were taking to a golf cart that people could apparently rent while they were here to move around the park faster. However, it was a service that very few knew about. It was, after all, an added fee.


    The woman, Ginger, who did not have ginger-colored hair, got into the driver''s seat and started our journey. She took us to all the exhibits, the experience habitats, everything. When it was almost sundown, around seven that night, she took us toward the Mountaineer Sky Ride. This would be a way to see a lot of the area from really high up. Not to mention I had a surprise for Talia at the top.


    It had just been Talia and I that went to the top of the mountain, and when we got there, I had a pic dinner waiting for her. There was food that I had ordered to be brought here for my little girl. It was being kept warm in special (magical) devices that were brought from home. The zoo staff, of course, didn''t know that it was magical.


    "Daddy! We''re having a pic?" Talia seemed to love the idea and that made all of this worth it.


    "That is right." I pointed to a little pink pillow for her to sit on and walked over toward therger green pillow for me. "We''re going to watch the sun go down while we eat."


    "But won''t it get dark?" She sounded worried and scared.


    "Don''t worry, there are lights they are going to turn on for us." I pointed at the strings of lights that were above us and she giggled.


    "Thank you, daddy. This is wonderful." I knew that she was having a good time, and it was only halfway through. From here, we were going to a movie theater to see thetest kid''s movie, whatever one it was. And while we were there, she would get her ice cream as well as a lot of other junk food.


    While we were watching the sun go down, I decided to start the conversation with Talia. It was time for me to ask her some hard questions, for me anyway.


    "Talia?"


    "Yes, Daddy?"


    "I heard something the other day, something that made me curious."


    "I hear stuff that makes me curious all the time. So, I am just like you." She took a bite of her food and smiled at me with her cheeks puffed out.


    "Well, I heard something that you had said, and it made me wonder about something. Talia, baby, why did you tell us that Mommy isn''t here? And why did you tell Reagan and Rika that Mommy was on a mission with your three younger brothers?"


    "Oh, that." She giggled. "That wasn''t something to be curious about, Daddy. I just told Reagan and Rika the truth. That was all."


    "Yes, I know it is the truth, but how did you find out that truth?" I was at a loss right now.


    "Well, I hear the people around us talking about it."


    "What people?" Now she had me curious if there were more in the castle that knew about this."


    "The whispering people. They told me that Mommy left her body to fight a bad guy and that she was protecting my baby brothers at the same time. The whispering people told me that I didn''t have to worry because Mommy was strong and that she woulde back when she was done."


    "Talia?" I was shocked by her words. The whispering people? What the hell were they? "D..do you know what these whispering people are? Do you know what they want? Do you know why they talk to you?"


    "Well, they''re all good. At least they have been so far. Some of them are really sad, but most of them are OK."


    "What are they? Do you know?" I saw a slight shadow pass over her eyes then. It was not exactly a look that I wanted to see when talking about this subject.


    "I haven''t been able to see them, so I don''t know who they are exactly. But, uhm, well, I..I..I think that they''re d..d..dead people.." She looked embarrassed as she said those words.

 Chapter 683 - 100- Reece – Talking To Talia Part 3 (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Talia hadn''t looked upset at all until this point right here. Should I be worried? Should I be upset that there are dead people talking to my little girl?


    Would it do me any good if I did get angry? Would it help either of us right now if I got scared? Would it benefit my little Talia if I acted like this was something bad or something to be ashamed of?


    The answers to all three of those questions were the same. No! No, it wouldn''t do me any good to get angry. No, it wouldn''t help either of us if I was scared. And no, it wouldn''t benefit Talia if I made her feel bad about this whole situation. I needed to be understanding and epting because she couldn''t control this anymore than I could.


    "Can you tell me more about the whispering people, Talia? I mean, why do you think they are dead? What did they do or say to make you think that?"


    "Hmm."


    Talia put a hand to her chin as if she were thinking about something really hard. I could see her eyes scrunched up and her head tilted. She was putting a lot of thought into this right now. I knew that whatever she said next was going to be what she truly thought or felt instead of just whatever came to her mind first.


    "Well, I think that I know they''re dead because of the things that they say. I mean, some of them talk really funny. They talk like us, but the words sound funny." She went back to thinking for a moment. It was like she was waiting to make sure that she got it all perfect before she told me what she was trying to say. "It''s not just the way that they talk. Some of them have actually told me that they were dead. They didn''t use that word, but one man said that back when he was alive, there were a lot of things different and that our castle wasn''t there. I told him that the castle was there before I was born so I didn''t know."


    "Yes, it''s been here for about six years now." I agreed with her, letting her know that the castle wasn''t that old.


    "Anyways, the people that talk to me never show me who they are, they just tell me things I just know that they are dead people. I don''t know how else to exin it to you Daddy."


    "OK, sweetheart. Can you tell me what all they say to you? And when did they start?"


    "Well, they started just before my birthday. When Aunt Glory and Athair m¨°r were here with Uncle Trevor and Grandma Daci."


    "They started that long ago?" I felt my blood run cold. That had also been when my Little Bunny started acting strange.


    "Yes. It started with just one whisper person then. She wasn''t very nice. She was the only mean one that has talked to me so far. She said bad things but I knew she was lying so I didn''t listen to her."


    "Talia, baby, what did she say? Did she tell you what her name was?"


    "The firstdy? Hmm. She said her name, but it was kind of hard to remember. It was something like Hack Tay, or Heck Tay. I don''t remember it all that well. I am sorry, Daddy. I didn''t want to listen to her. She was saying bad things about Mommy and that made me feel sad to hear it. I think it was making Mommy sad too."


    I saw that my little girl was getting upset and I didn''t want to push her too far, but I needed to know what she had been hearing.


    "Talia, sweetheart, I know it''s hard, but can you tell me what the baddy was saying to Mommy?"


    "She was telling Mommy that people were going to get hurt and it would be her fault. She told Mommy that she was a killer and that is not true, Daddy. Mommy isn''t a killer. She''s a good girl and she loves us."


    "That''s right. Mommy is a good girl and so are you, Talia." I hugged her to my side tofort her.


    "Daddy, the bad guy that Mommy is fighting, I think it''s the baddy. When Mommy left, that was when the baddy left too. Since the baddy left, all I hear are the other whispering people. The other people said that Mommy went to the underwear world."


    "Underwear world?" I was confused for a moment then I realized she was trying to say underworld.


    "Daddy, do you think that Mommy is going to be OK? I mean, I know that the whispering people said that she would be, but, what do you think?"


    "Yes, sweetheart, I know she will be OK. She will be home soon and then we will make sure that she doesn''t leave us like this ever again."


    I had heard what I needed to, even though this wasn''t the full exnation. I was trying to figure out how to help my little girl and make things easier on her. The problem was, I didn''t know how to handle this.


    "Talia?" I had a sudden thought. "Do you want to talk to some more people who are like you? Some more people that can hear the whispering people?"


    "You know people like that, Daddy?" She looked surprised.


    "Yes, I do." I grinned to let her know it was OK.


    "I would love to meet them."


    After the talk, we finished our Daddy daughter date. Talia fell asleep before the movie was over, so I carried her up to her room and put her to bed. She had a good night and I found out what I needed to.


    The day after I took Talia out, I took Rika out. She wanted to go to the North Pole. OK, not the actual North Pole, but the amusement park that was nearby. So, I took her. We went and rode all of the rides. I got her junk food and candy galore. She got to y all day long and she also fell asleep, but on the way home.


    On Sunday, I took Reagan out for his father and son day. He wanted to be a ''big boy'', which apparently meant doing less babying things. The actual result was that he wanted to go fishing and hiking through the mountains.


    Reagan and I talked a lot that day. More than Rika and I had. Reagan had been worrying a lot about his mom, and that made me feel bad. I knew that he and Rika were having a really hard time. I did my best to reassure them both and let them know that Mommy would be back soon. They both seemed to feel a lot better by the time that their days were done.


    I was just d that by the time that it was all over and done with, all three of my kids were feeling a little bit better. And they might be feeling a little bit closer to their dad too. I just hated that this was all that I could do for them. These small little outings and silly little days.. I wanted to do more for them.

 Chapter 684 - 101- Trinity – Traversing Purgatory Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 684 - 101- Trinity ¨C Traversing Purgatory Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    With no other choice but to approach the gate into purgatory, I steeled my nerves and straightened my back. I needed to be the Goddess and Queen that people expected me to be, the one that I knew that I could be. This was it. This was the true start to the purgatory journey.


    Zachary, Zander, Zayden and I walked toward the four guards that were weing the guests of purgatory. I mean, I guess that is what you would call it since they were the ones granting them entry into the ce.


    I had a sudden thought. Would they deny someone entry to purgatory? Would they tell them that they didn''t belong there and leave that soul out here for all of eternity? What would happen if a soul meant for damnation came here? What would they do when someone that wasn''t dead came here?


    These were all just a few of the thoughts that were running through my mind as I approached the gate with the boys. I saw that there were four men guarding the gate and they all looked like they were from different stages of life. One of them looked so old that he was likely to drop dead right here and now. There were two that were middle aged, one just approaching it, or starting it, and the other one just about to be considered elderly. And one of the men looked like he was young, in histe teens or early twenties.


    Aside from these men at the gate, I saw that there were dozens, if not hundreds, of more guards in the back of the area. They looked to be quite well staffed. I don''t know why I didn''t notice how many guards were here to begin with. How is it that I was able to see the punishments and look past everything else?


    I guess that didn''t matter right now. I just needed to keep moving. I needed to get across that threshold to the other side and then find the door to the next level. The next level should be the Halls of Damnation. That would be where I would find Hekate. That was where I would be able to put an end to her and finally find a way out of here.


    "Next." The oldest guard, the one that looked wizened and on death''s doorstep, called out to the next soul. That meant that the boys and I were to be next. Even though everyone else was here alone, I was here with three little boys, so I was not going to be going up there alone.


    "Next." The youngest of the guards spoke next, beckoning me forward. He wasn''t even looking at me. He was just staring at the stone in his hands and preparing to scan me for my punishment. "Look straight ahead and do not move."


    I felt the heat from the lighting off of his tablet as it tried to scan me.


    "I am not here for punishments."


    "Do not speak." The man snapped at me. "I will scan you and send you where you belong." He sounded like he normally dealt with souls pleading for themselves and he was already tired of it.


    "I understand that you don''t want me to talk, but I am not dead. I am not here for punishment."


    "Look, I know you don''t want to deal with the fact that you are dead, but this is the process that you must follow." He was clearly annoyed. I could see the emotion perfectly in his red eyes that weren''t even looking at me.


    He was quite the unique looking person. Fit and tall, a lot like Reece. He even had ck hair like Reece. Only this man was pale where Reece was tanned. His eyes were red. His face wore a permanent scowl. And he looked like he was just a boypared to Reece.


    "When the scanning isplete, please move on so that you do not hold up the line. You will be taken to your punishment where you will serve your time. The length of your sentence will also be given to you at the.."


    He stopped speaking in the middle of his exnation and just stared at the tablet in his hand. I could tell that he was confused by what he saw. And it was clear that he didn''t know what to do right now.


    "Th..th..this can''t be." He was still staring at the device with wide open eyes. "I need to scan you again."


    He still didn''t look up, but I felt the light start to move over me again. He was determined to find where my punishment was supposed to be, but it wasn''t working. I was d to see that, though. I didn''t want to think about what would have happened to me and the boys if they put us into a punishment.


    "The scan is almostplete. Do not move, do not speak, just stand there. When it is done, I will give you your punishment and the length of your.."


    He stopped again. The scan had finished and it was clear that there was no sentence or punishment being listed for me. That was when he looked up at me and actually decided to look at me.


    I watched as his already wide red eyes got wider and he tried to figure out what was happening. He took in the look of determination on my face and then moved lower. He saw that I was wearing clothes and not walking around naked. Then he saw that I was with the boys and that they were clinging to me.


    "What is all of this? Children do not belong in purgatory. What is going on here? Howe you have children with you? Howe there is no reading on where your soul belongs? I can''t even get a reading on if you belong in paradise or torment. What are you?"


    "I am still alive, that is what is going on here. I am just here metaphysically. These boys are the children that I am pregnant with back on earth."


    "That''s impossible. It''s beyond impossible, it''s insane." He looked like he was about to fully freak out.


    "It''s fully possible. My name is Trinity Gray, and I am the Luna Queen to the Shifters, the Queen to the Magic Users, and the Goddess to the Shifters, Magic Users, and Fae."


    "Y..y..you''re a Goddess?" He tilted his head in shock.


    "Yes, I am."


    His reaction only got more exaggerated and more funny. He was kind of cute in a little brother kind of way when he looked at me with that sort of reverence. I could tell that he was feeling somewhat starstruck. I may be a minor Goddess that no one he ever heard of, but what is the likelihood that he would meet a Goddess, even working in the underworld? Part of me just wanted tough at him, ruffled his hair, and joke around with him. There was something about him that made me want to take care of him as well.. Was it sisterly or motherly? That I didn''t really know.

 Chapter 685 - 102- Trinity – Traversing Purgatory Part 3 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 685 - 102- Trinity ¨C Traversing Purgatory Part 3 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "I..I..I''ve never met a Goddess before." He was totally awestruck. Just how I thought that he would be. "A..and you''re a Goddess three times over, and a Queen. Th..th..that is amazing. B..but what are you doing here? Why are you in the underworld? And how did you even get here?"


    "I was brought here by someone else. Someone that wants to steal my magic. Someone that wants to destroy me and leave the underworld so that she can wreak havoc on earth."


    "S..she ns to leave? But she can''t do that. There are rules, regtions, protocols, so many things that are stopping her from being able to leave." The man looked like he didn''t believe me about that.


    "That may be true, but she had slowly been reaching the real world for thest few centuries. She has whispered to others like she did to me. She has been trying this for a long time."


    "Who is it? Who is trying to leave the underworld?" The man was fully enraptured with what I was saying now. He was hanging on my every word.


    "Hekate."


    I swear, the amount of shock that filled his eyes right then was beyond what I ever could have imagined. He was floored by the revtion that he just heard and was just shaking his head no.


    "B..but she is in the most secure part of hell. She is in the deepest trenches of Damnation. She cannot get out of here. She cannot reach beyond her walls."


    "I beg to differ. She has not only whispered to the people on earth, but she has influenced souls in Limbo and the Hall of Regrets. She has been growing in power and I fear that she will return to the world of the living and kill everyone."


    "No! No! She can''t do that." This man, this boy, was looking at me with fear in his eyes. This servant of hell, this guard of purgatory was afraid of what Hekate would do when she got out of her prison.


    "I am here to stop her. I am here to put an end to her once and for all. But I need your help."


    "My help? What can I do?" He was so boyish, so childlike at that moment, it was so sweet, but so problematic as well.


    "I need to get through purgatory and find a door to Damnation. I need to find Hekate''s cell. Can you help me?"


    "Uh..uhm." He seemed to be thinking about it.


    "What is your name?" I thought that getting him to talk might be good.


    "M..m..my name is R..Rudolphus Desmodius."


    "Well, Rudolphus Desmodius, will you help me? Will you show me where to find the door to damnation?"


    I watched as the man looked around himself. The others hadn''t even lifted their heads from their tablets. They hadn''t seen us talking. They hadn''t even noticed that Rudolphus Desmodius was taking a lot longer than usual on one specific case. Did they pay that little attention to their surroundings? Did they not care about anything at all? If that was the case, no wonder Hekate was getting so much closer to escaping.


    I have been surprised at every turn with the way that the underworld was. I would have thought that a ce that has literally been around since the dawn of time would have a better management system in ce. Yes, it would make things easier on me if I was able to keep moving without finding the guards but, maybe, the underworld had the problems that it did with ghosts and whispers from Hekate because they didn''t watch their ''prisoners'' better than this.


    I mean, shouldn''t they watch the hell more than anything? Heaven or paradise or whatever it was, that could be mostly unguarded since you only got there if you were a good soul. The hell should not be thisx.


    "I..I think I will help you." The man, Rudolphus Desmodius, finally looked back at me and nodded his head. "I want to stop the evil Hekate from getting out. I don''t want to let her ruin the world. I have never seen the human world, but I don''t want it to be destroyed either"


    "You''ve never seen it?" I was confused now. "But aren''t you a deceased soul in servitude to the underworld?"


    "No, I was born here. We are demons born to serve the underworld. We live and die to be guards to hell." He hung his head in shame. "I am new to my job, but I think that it is in dire need of reform. They don''t like that I have these ideas. They don''t like that I want to change things." I could see that he was saddened to be saying those words.


    "I agree with you, Rudy." I smiled at him.


    "Rudy?" He tilted his head.


    "Rudolphus Desmodius is a mouthful. Rudy will be your nickname." I did my best to make him feel morefortable. "And as I said, Rudy, I agree with you. This ce is not secure enough. Soe with me and we will stop Hekate together."


    At that moment, Rudy nodded and smiled at me. I saw that he was feeling better about the things that he had been saying and feeling. I watched him look around once more before he stepped out of his ce in the gate.


    The space that Rudy had just vacated was actually sunken into the ground. There were grooves where he was standing that showed where the men of the gate guard had been standing since the dawn of time. This actually made Rudy even taller than I thought he was. I was used to tall people though, so it didn''t faze me at all.


    Rudy tentatively took his first step out of that ce and seemed to be acting like he hadn''t walked in a long time. He probably hadn''t. From what I was gathering, these people probably did their jobs from the moment of being assigned until they died. And when they died they were just reced.


    That was a sad existence. That was no way for anyone, even a demon of hell, to spend their life. They needed to be treated better. They needed to be appreciated. Who in the hell would treat people like this?


    Well, I guess I could answer that. All the various leaders of hell. All the Gods and Goddesses that ruled the underworld. They were the ones that were treating Rudy and the others like this.


    If I had my way, this ce would be run more like a business. They needed to make sure that their guards could do their jobs if they wanted them to keep working. That was the humane and efficient way to do it.


    It wasn''t up to me, and I didn''t have a say in it, so there was no reason for me to even be thinking like this. Still, it made me think. It made me want to do something even though I knew that I couldn''t.


    "Come with me, Goddess Trinity, I will guide you through Purgatory. But stay close, it can be very dangerous.." Rudy interrupted my thoughts with his outstretched hand.

 Chapter 686 - 103- Trinity – Traversing Purgatory Part 4 (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Rudy was all ready to help me now. With his hand out toward me, he was waiting for me to follow him. I saw no reason not to follow him either. The sooner that I had someone guide me to the exit of purgatory, the better. I wanted to get out of here. I wanted to get home. And I wanted to hug my children.


    Not to mention, I wanted to see if I was right in my guess that these three little boys were currently growing in my womb at the moment. If they were, then I would be truly happy to be having more babies to add to our family. If they weren''t, then I would be sad to see them go.


    I would miss them a lot and I would most likely try to get them to be a reality very soon. I know that sounds very bad of me, but I already loved these three little boys and I would do anything so I could bring them with me into thend of the living.


    Zachary, Zander, Zayden and I followed Rudy over the line of the gate. The moment that we were fully into purgatory,pletely in this level of hell, the sounds intensified exponentially. The amount of screaming, cries of agony, and sorrow-filled woes that met my ears was deafening.


    I knew instantly that this had to be affecting the boys as well. What surprised me, though, was that I saw this was affecting Rudy. He had immediately mped his hands down over his ears and doubled over as if he were in pain or sick, or possibly even both.


    "This is horrible." I tried to tell Rudy, but I doubt that he heard me at all. He, like me and the boys, was covering his ears to block the screams. And my voice definitely was not louder than the screams.


    I needed to do something about this. I needed to make this stop. I needed to make sure that none of us went deaf, or the underworld equivalent of it. But man, this sound was making it so hard to hear.


    What was I going to do about it? How was I going to stop this noise? What was I going to do to make this easier on all five of us? Dammit. I could barely think with this noise.


    That was when I saw the boys. All three of them, like Rudy, looked to be in pain. I could see their little faces scrunched up with everything that they were feeling at the moment. The looks they were making were enough to bring tears to my eyes, if there hadn''t already been tears in them.


    If for nothing else, I needed to end this sound. The problem was that the sound wasn''t so easy to turn off. There were billions of people being tortured here, that wasn''t about to stop on my ount.


    So, I needed to do the next best thing. I needed to turn it off just for us. I needed to block the sound from the screams for our ears alone. And while I thought about how to do this, I thought that the guards that were on this side either had something that worked like I wanted this spell to work, or they were born being immune to the sound of screams.


    I cast the spell, imagining what it was that I wanted to happen. I thought of a thin, invisible barrier surrounding all of us. That barrier would block just the sounds of those being tortured. We would still be able to talk to each other and furthermore, if Rudy came across another guard that he needed to converse with, he would be able to hear them as well. I didn''t want to cause any more problems here, only solve them. That meant that I needed to just do things that affected me and my group.


    "Th..th..the screaming stopped." Rudy stood up and started to look around himself. It was like he thought someone had just turned off hell and all the tormenting had actually stopped.


    "I cast a spell. I blocked the screams out." I exined it as best as I could.


    "Mommy is the best." Zachary hugged me around the waist.


    "Mommy can do anything." Zander hugged me around the left hip.


    "Mommy is the smartestdy in the whole world." Zayden finished them out by hugging my right hip.


    "The three of you are not stuttering anymore." I was amazed at the sound of their uninterrupted voices.


    "We got used to talking because Mommy was here with us." Zayden was the first to speak up about it.


    "We never talked until we talked to mommy. We needed to learn more. Now we know." Zachary smiled up at me, his arm still wrapped around me.


    "Now Mommy can hear us better." Zander rounded them out.


    "They really are your children, aren''t they?" Rudy looked surprised. I guess he hadn''t fully believed that part of my story.


    "That they are."


    Now that we could hear without almost dying for real, we set off for the other end of purgatory.


    "Where is the door, Rudy?" I asked him with curiosity.


    "There are only two openings into purgatory. The gate that we just left, and the door at the end of the hall. The gate is an entrance only. And the door at the back is an exit only."


    "Hmm. So, what happens when a soul serves their time in purgatory and needs to leave? How do they get up to their paradise?"


    "Well, to be honest, I don''t truly know. I haven''t worked here long enough. And it is not something that would happen every day, so it just hasn''t had a chance toe up yet."


    "How is that possible? How is it that with so many people here, there isn''t a soul leaving every day? Multiple souls leaving every day at that. OK, I am going to take a crack at this math here, but I know that the daily death rate worldwide is around one hundred and seventy thousand people. That is per day. And if we were to break that down it would mean that there were more than seven thousand deaths per hour and that makes more than one hundred deaths per minute and almost two deaths per second. Now, let''s just air on the side of optimism and say that only ten percent of those people end up in hell. That is still more than ten people every minute. That is just with the current death rates of course, I know that there were a lot less when the poption was smaller. Still, with millions of souls entering purgatory each year for thest several centuries, how is it that there isn''t at least one soul leaving a day? How long are the sentences that you usually hand out to people? How much time do they need to serve in purgatory?"


    I could see that my question had made Rudy ufortable. That was fine, this was something that I needed to know, and I wanted him to answer.


    "Well, to be honest, the terms are quite lengthy. The average person needs to serve at least a century in purgatory before they make it to paradise."


    "A CENTURY?" I was floored by his answer.


    "I don''t think that it''s right either, Queen Trinity. I would change it if I could, but I don''t know how."


    "OK Rudy. I know it''s not your fault, so don''t worry about that. Still, that just isn''t right. And I hope that these are not just minor sins that these peoplemitted. If they were in purgatory for that long for something minor, then I would have to seek out the others and have a word with them." I was starting to get very pissed off.


    "W¡­well, like the sentences, the crimes vary as well. I would like to say that the sins are not major, but I have no idea of what a major sin is and what isn''t."


    What the hell had I been thinking? I knew that he had no experience in the real world. How was I supposed to get answers to questions like these from him? The answer was that I wasn''t going to get the answers from him.. And that just made me feel like I had absolutely no power whatsoever.

 Chapter 687 - 104- Griffin – Checking On Trinity (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Griffin


    ~~


    Trinity had now been in hera for almost a month. That meant that she had been receiving IV nourishment for the three babies that were growing her belly for almost half of the time that she had been pregnant. I knew that she was alive and it was just her soul that left her body to go on some big mission, or that was the short answer that I had gotten from Reece when he had contacted some witch doctors.


    I didn''t want to sound like a cynic or anything, but I didn''t want to see anything happen to my patient because Reece was searching out ''alternative'' routes. Was it that he didn''t trust my medical advice? Did he think that I was incapable of caring for her or the babies? Why would he look for other doctors to treat her?


    OK, it was true that I didn''t know how to wake her, especially if it was her soul that had left her body. I didn''t know how I was going to bring her back to this world, to Reece, to me. What was I supposed to do about all of this?


    Today, though, I was on my way to examine Trinity and the babies. I was going to check how much they had grown and if they were still doing OK. I was going to check to see if Trinity''s body was holding up during this condition of hers. I was basically going there to do my job, even though I didn''t know what that was supposed to mean anymore.


    There is nothing worse for a doctor than not being able to help their patient. Not knowing what is wrong with them or how to make it all better. That was the worst feeling in the world. Then you add in the fact that this patient, this person that I couldn''t help, was a close personal friend of mine as well as the queen to more than half of the world. That was just adding more and more pressure to me at every turn.


    I was determined to make sure that Trinity and the babies survived this whole ordeal. I was going to make sure that there was nothing at all that happened to Trinity, nothing else anyway. I was going to make sure that, when her soul came back, Trinity was perfectly healthy and the babies would be ready when the time came.


    When I pulled into the garage, the one for friends and family and not visitors, I hurriedly made my way up to the royal tower. At the current moment, I was given full ess which meant that I didn''t have to wait for someone to let me in. I just went straight up to the room and knocked on the door. That was just to make sure that Reece was decent.


    He called out for me to enter right away so I guess that meant that he was properly dressed and waiting for me.


    "Hello Reece. How have you been holding up?" I asked him when I walked into the room. He was sitting in a chair next to Trinity''s new hospital bed and I could tell that he hadn''t been sleeping that well.


    "I''ve been better." He turned to look at me and I could tell that this whole ordeal was taking its toll on him emotionally.


    "You need to sleep more, Reece. I told you that already. You don''t want to end up sick or worse before she gets back. You need to be here for her and the children. In a matter of months, you will have six children, Reece. They need you."


    "My Little Bunny needed me too." He was so depressed. "She needed me, and I didn''t see it." He was almost like a broken man. "Don''t worry about it, though. I am usually better than this. I have been making it a habit to keep myself together for the kids. I can''t let Reagan, Rika and Talia suffer because of me. I need to be strong so I have been trying."


    He didn''t look strong right now. Then again, the kids weren''t here right now either. So, I guess he was allowed to be weak at the moment. All that he had with him was hisatose wife and his lifelong friend. I wasn''t going to tell anyone about this though, and he knew that.


    I did my best tofort and console Reece, but he wasn''t having it at all. So, deciding not to waste anymore time, I got to work on the real reason that I was here. I pulled the machines out of the closet that I had brought here before and started to check Trinity and the babies overpletely.


    I checked Trinity''s heart first. I wanted to make sure she wasn''t having any issues like she had before. When she was pregnant with Reagan and Rika, she had so many issues that made it so that she was on bed rest for a lot of it. I just wanted to make sure that there wasn''t going to be more issues.


    Trinity herself seemed to be fit as a fiddle, perfectly healthy and pregnant with triplets. You know, except for the wholea thing.


    Now it was time for me to check on the triplets. I put the gel on Trinity''s belly and ced the ultrasound wand on her. Immediately I saw three little babies. They all had their own amniotic sac, which made things a little better. The problem though, was that they shared a centa. That meant that the babies were indeed identical. Trinity and Reece were going to have their hands full with them when they were older.


    I checked a little more and watched as the babies move around restlessly. They seemed to be quite active, and they were definitely growing big and strong. When one of them turned and shifted a little more, I saw that the baby was very clearly a little boy.


    "Congrats Reece. You''re having three healthy little boys." I thought that he would be excited to hear that. I did not expect what he said to me then.


    "I know."


    "Wait! How do you know?"


    "The witch doctors told me, but they didn''t know before Talia did."


    "How in the hell did Talia know?" I was floored.


    "Oh, she''s a irvoyant. She could hear the whispering people talk about them."


    Clearly, there had been a lot that happened while I was away. What the hell had happened here? What the hell was going on?


    I didn''t know, and I didn''t think that I was likely to get an answer. So, instead, I just figured that I would finish up and head home.


    This visit with Reece and the check up for Trinity hadn''t answered any questions for me at all. instead, I had been given so many more questions to not ask. How did little Talia and these witch doctors know more about my patient than I did? How was it that all of this has happened and I was just now finding out about it? This was not right. I shouldn''t be finding out this information just now.. I was going to have to talk to Reece about this, soon.

 Chapter 688 - 105- Trinity – Traversing Purgatory Part 5 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 688 - 105- Trinity ¨C Traversing Purgatory Part 5 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The further that I went into purgatory with Rudy as my guide, the more that I saw various forms of torture, including several more ancient forms that were used hundreds of years ago.


    There were modern tortures, like the people trying endlessly to retrieve their phones. Some people were even living in a false world that made them think that dying had all been a nightmare, but the life they lived in there was a nightmare as well. Men and women who prioritized making money and reaching the top of their careers, only to not be satisfied. They were never satisfied, nothing was ever enough, not at work, not with their family, nothing. Those people were being sent to work more and more. They would be givenrge pays, only for every penny of it to disappear right before their eyes. They never got promoted or any of the things that they wanted in life. Their greed had been turned around on them only for it to be their ultimate torture.


    Other people, men and women (but mostly men), were living in a false state of reality. These men seem to have been obsessed with pornography. They were to spend their entire time in purgatory trying to ess pornography online, only for it to instead be various religious sermons from multiple different religions. They were being lectured for centuries on what they had done wrong in their lives.


    The modern tortures seemed to be more specific to the major sin that they hadmitted. The others, the more ancient ones, were not so individualized. They were generic punishments that were befitting the ''crime'' at the time.


    These ancient forms of torture included things like ying, peeling, the rack, the iron maiden, whipping, burning, and various other forms. These ones looked a lot more brutal and harsh than the more modern forms of torture.


    "Rudy?" I called out to him as we walked through the halls toward the exit that he was guiding me to. "When did the more barbaric tortures go out of fashion? When did these new tortures be the new normal?"


    "Well, those older tortures are still used, depending on the sin that the others havemitted, but the new tortures came into being when the digital age became a prevalent entity. It was almost like the digital footprint was so strong that it reached the underworld whenever it took a leap toward the state that it is in now. I have been shown the devices that humans and other mortals use. I have seen what they do to each other with them. This development changed not just the mortal realm but all of the realms."


    "That is actually a frightening thought." I shuddered as I told him these words. "Oh, question, do shifters, vampires, Fae, and magic userse to this underworld? Or is there a different underworld for all of them?"


    "That is an interesting question. For the most part, the souls mingle here. However, they are judged differently. Thews that govern themunity of shadow dwellers are not the same as the ones that govern the humans. I guess you would say that humans are judged more harshly and therefore are treated unfairly. However, when a shadow world soul reaches the point where it needs to be punished, it is almost always sent to the Halls of Damnation. Their sins are never taken lightly and there is no reform for them. They suffer for all eternity with no chance for salvation. So, in a nutshell, all the souls are in the same underworld but there are differences. The Halls of Damnation, for one, houses more shadow world souls than human souls, though there are several humans that found themselves worthy of Damnation''s warm embraces."


    "So, if I was an evil soul, I would wind up in Damnation and I would never get out of there?"


    "Yes, if you were an evil soul that is where you would end up. However, you are far from evil, Queen Trinity. You will have no ce in Damnation." Rudy looked so sure of that fact. And maybe that was how it was now. But I was immortal now, seemingly. What would happen down the line? What would happen in a few centuries? What if I truly did be evil and was assassinated for the greater good? What would happen to me then? Would I end up in a cell next to my father''s ce in Damnation? Would we share a punishment, which would be a further torture to the both of us?


    I was stuck thinking about these various things, and I just wasn''t able to stop. I just wanted to make sure that they didn''t happen, but they felt like an inevitability to me. They just seemed so usible that I knew it was my fate.


    While I thought about this, looking around me in a very tourist manner, I noticed more and more guards in the area that we were in. This part of Purgatory seemed to have fewer actual souls that were being tortured, though they were still there, nheless.


    The guards that were around us seemed to be a little more alert, a little more attentive than the ones that we had already passed. These guards seemed to have an interest in our guide as well as me and the boys.


    I watched as one man in particr, a very stern looking and very strong looking, warrior type of man, eyed me with sharply focused eyes. He looked angry, very angry. Did he think that I was a soul that had been trying to escape? Did he think that I was someone here to be punished?


    How could he think that, though? I mean, I didn''t look anything at all like the souls that came through here for their purgatorial treatment. I was clothed, I was clutching children to my side, and I was being guided calmly by a man that was from his own team of guards. How was it that he could look so angry at me with all of the things that set me apart from the others?


    Well, however he was able to be that way, he was. He was not only staring at me with a look of death, but he was also clearly getting ready to leave his post toe over here and see exactly what it was that I was doing here. The angry determination in his face couldn''t have meant anything else at that moment.


    And there, that was the moment. He just took a slow and tentative step away from his post. It had been just like Rudy when he stepped away from the gate. It was like he had been put in that spot and never moved until he left that spot for me. This man, like Rudy, was tall and good looking, but fierce. His eyes were red as well, but his hair was silver. He looked exactly like an ancient Roman warrior though, with his armor and that look on his face. And that warrior was after me.


    Why? Why did things like this have to happen to me right now? Why couldn''t it be easier for me?

 Chapter 689 - 106- Reece – Talia Meets The Twins (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 689 - 106- Reece ¨C Talia Meets The Twins (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    The twins that Trevor had brought to see me were staying in the castle, in an unused tower room at the moment. They wanted to be high up and far away from the other people. They truly didn''t like meeting new people that might not ept them.


    It took both Trevor and I a long time to convince the two of them to meet with Talia. She had expressed interest in meeting with others that were like her. Others that could see or hear what she referred to as the whispering people.


    To Talia, finding others that could do what she did would most likely make her feel validated. She needed someone to tell her that what was happening to her was normal and that she wasn''t a freak because of it. Someone other than her father.


    However, the only people that I knew of that could talk to her about all of this, were too afraid to see new people because of the way that they looked. They were permanently trapped in a half human-half bear state, and that meant that they had never been able to visit anywhere with humans in it. People, other bear shifters and witch doctors, had all made fun of them since they were babies. They didn''t like people. They didn''t trust people. And they didn''t want to meet more people.


    Talia was insistent though. She wanted to see them, to talk to them about their simr gifts. And she was just too young to understand what it was that the two of them were feeling at the moment. She didn''t understand that meeting her was a source of anxiety for them.


    Over time though, Trevor and I were able to get both Charlie and Chloe to agree to the meeting. They would only do it in their tower room, though, and they would reserve the right to end the meeting when they felt too ufortable, regardless of the fact that Talia was their princess and technically outranked them quite a bit.


    I agreed to their terms. That wasn''t up for debate. Mostly because I could understand what they were going through. I may not have experienced it personally, but I could see the pain in their eyes and knew that this was not something they took lightly.


    Talia didn''t care about the status and things like that. She was just excited to make new friends with people that were like her. All week, leading up to the meeting, she kept telling Reagan and Rika that she was going to make new friends. Friends that saw the whispering people. Friends that were grown ups and would probably be very cool. I know she wasn''t trying to brag, she was just excited, and it was all very cute.


    About five weeks after Trinity had fallen into hera, and about three weeks after the twins hade to stay with us in the castle, Talia and I were on our way to meet with them. My little girl was literally bouncing with excitement all the way up to their room, talking about the different things that she wanted to tell them.


    When Gabriel knocked on the door and called out to the twins, letting them know that we were here to meet with them, Talia quietly squealed in delight. Her eyes were filled with glee and the smile looked like it was about a mile wide.


    "Pleasee in." I heard Charlie call out to us.


    Gabriel was joining us for the meeting, there as a trusted advisor, guard, and attendant for the royal princess. This had been a stiption that I enforced when I told them that we would meet how they wanted. My little girl needed to have someone there that was a ''servant'' type so that she appeared more regal and proper. In truth, I just wanted Gabriel there in case something bad happened. One of us would protect Talia while the other would deal with the problem.


    I didn''t think that was going to happen though, so it wasn''t that high on my list of worries. Still, I was prepared for it.


    The moment that we were inside, Talia bound forward and rushed toward the two new friends that she was trying to make.


    "Hello there. I am Talia Gray. I live here in this castle. I hear that you are like me. You can hear the whispering people."


    Charlie and Chloe seemed to be quite taken aback by her sudden appearance and abrupt introduction. And despite the way they seemed to be reacting at the moment, Talia wasn''t done yet.


    "What is your name? I can''t wait to be friends with you. I can''t wait to hear all about the stuff that you have done. I am very happy and excited about today."


    After a moment, the twins looked at each other with bewildered expressions then they started to smile. They could tell that to Talia, they were just normal people. She didn''t see anything but who they were, not what they looked like.


    "My name is Chloe." Surprisingly, she was the one to speak first. She was usually the more shy of the two.


    "And my name is Charlie. It is nice to meet you, Talia. And you know something, we don''t just hear the whispering people. We see them too." He was leaning down toward my little girl and showing her his furry face.


    "Yes, my daddy told me that. I think that is amazing." Talia beamed at them, literally she was shining like a beacon.


    "Talia, are you not afraid of us?" Chloe asked her worriedly, still wondering what the little girl thought of her and her brother.


    "Why would I be?" Talia tilted her head in confusion.


    "Well, Talia, we don''t look like other people." Charlie informed her. "Most people think we are ugly or scary. They are afraid of us."


    "Well, those people are stupid." She pped her hands over her mouth and turned to look at me. "I am sorry for using the bad word, Daddy."


    "It''s OK, sweetheart." I nodded at her.


    "Well, as I was saying, those people are not smart if they think that about you. I think you''re beautiful. I think that you are two of the prettiest people in the whole wide world."


    I could see the happiness spreading in their faces. They were definitely enjoying their visit with Talia.


    The three of them talked for a long time. They shared what they knew about the whispering people, though not the scary parts. They told Talia that they could teach her how to block out the voices if she wanted to. It was a good night.


    "Thank you, both of you." I shook their hands and let them know how much I appreciated what they had done.


    "Can I see you again?" Talia asked them.


    "Of course, that would be fun."


    "We would love that." Charlie and Chloe answered with those respective responses. They seemed to have changed their mindspletely.


    "Can I have a hug?" Talia smiled at them.


    "Of course." Charlie leaned down first, but Chloe followed him and together, they hugged my little girl. It was a group hug and I thought it was sweet.


    That is, until the light started to shine around them. They didn''t seem to notice it, but Gabriel and I did. It was a light that reminded me of the past, of a light that Trinity used to have. Only instead of white, this light was pink.


    The light enveloped all three of them while they hugged. It didn''tst long, but it was there. And when Charlie and Chloe pulled away from my little Talia, I saw what the light had done.


    "Hey, where did your fur go?" Talia asked them, not understanding what she had done.


    "Talia, sweetheart, why don''t you go back to your room. I need to talk to Charlie and Chloe."


    Once she was gone and it was just the three of us, I had to exin to the twins that my daughter, the wolf, Fae, and witch super child, had blessed them with a full human form. It took them a long time to process this information, and I had to repeat it all over and over again. Though, in the end, when they epted it all, they were beyond happy to hear the news.


    And I now had toe to terms with the fact that my daughter was truly a powerful little girl.

 Chapter 690 - 107- Trinity – Traversing Purgatory Part 6 (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I watched in suspenseful dread as the man came toward us. I don''t think that Rudy noticed him just yet. Well, that said a lot about Rudy''s attention to detail and his awareness of surroundings. If I was going to make it through here alive, intact at least, then I was going to need to be the one to protect us. Rudy, as big and strong as he appeared to be, could not be counted on to do that.


    "Rudy?" I whispered his name and as the warrior quickly walked over to us. "We have a problem."


    "Huh?" He jolted to a stop and turned to look at me, then at the man that I was watching with worried eyes. "W..why is heing over here?"


    "Great. I was hoping you could tell me that. I mean, I am the one that is not from the underworld, whereas you are from here." I was speaking sarcastically and with a little more anger and force than I intended to at the moment. I shouldn''t be treating him like that, but I truly couldn''t help it at the moment.


    "Well, it is unusual for any of us to leave our posts. I..I shouldn''t have left, and he doesn''t look like a way between."


    "A what?" I shouldn''t be asking when we clearly didn''t have the time to talk, but I had been surprised by his words.


    "The guards that take souls to their punishments. They are called ''way betweens''. They show the soul the way between the gate and the punishment."


    "Well, I guess that was actually pretty self exnatory." I chuckled to myself and what I should have been able to figure out for myself.


    "We do not have much time before he reaches us." Rudy was still walking forward at a nonthreatening, non hurried pace. "I do not want to present the appearance that we are nervous or that we know that we are in a ce that we should not be. I would like to show that guard that we are not in the wrong here. I am just escorting you."


    "I agree. If we run, he will give chase and that would probably not end well for us." I responded without taking my eyes off of the other man.


    The man, like Rudy had said, reached our path in almost no time at all. He was standing there, blocking us from moving on. That was when I noticed that this had to be a giant. I was used to tall people, those that were close to seven feet tall, but this man had to be closer to eight. And not only that, but he was broad-shouldered and powerful looking. I bet he literally had the strength to take someone''s head off with a single punch. That was how powerful he looked.


    "Halt." His voice was deep and low. Even though he spoke in what seemed to be an average tone, his words boomed around the entire area as if he had used a megaphone or microphone and speaker.


    "Is there a problem?"


    I truly had thought that Rudy would stutter again, like he had done a few times before already. I was actually quite happy to see that he was being so calm and sure of himself at the moment. That would help us out quite a bit in this situation.


    "Who are you? What are the two of you doing here? What business do you have in these parts?"


    "I am Rudolphus Desmodius. I am escorting a soul through the Halls of Purgatory." Thankfully, Rudy still spoke confidently and didn''t falter.


    "Tell me why? For what purpose are you taking a new soul to this area of Purgatory?"


    "She is not a new soul. She is not even dead." Rudy did his best to start exining things.


    "That is preposterous. There are only dead souls in the underworld. Dead souls and those that guard it. Not even the Gods and Goddesses that govern these partse to this ce. They take the souls that they punish personally to their own domains."


    "Are those domains not part of the underworld as well? If they rule over this ce, should they themselves not dwell here?" I was so surprised by what I heard that I had to say something. Even though I immediately regretted it the moment that I had finished talking.


    "Do not speak to me, mortal. I will not be treated like somemonce mortal."


    "I am not a mortal, nor am Imonce." I knew that my tongue was going to get me into a lot of trouble right now. I was a little too keyed up to be calm and civil at the moment. I knew that I needed to be that way, but my body just wasn''t conveying those thoughts to my mouth.


    "Really? And what, if you do not mind exining it to me, makes you so special? What makes you any lessmon than the other humans thate through these halls?" This man was truly angry at me right now.


    "I am not a human. I am a goddess, a queen, a wolf shifter, a Fae, and a witch. I am far from anything that ismon." There was anger filling my voice now. This man was going to learn to respect me, even if he wasn''t one of my subjects. Even if I was technically nothing to him.


    "I do not believe that you are a goddess. What reason would a goddess have to be in the underworld? You are not a ruler of one of the hells. You are not an overseer of paradise. You are nothing to the inner machinations of the afterlife. Therefore, what would you, a self-proimed goddess, be doing in our realm?" Oh, the amount of sarcasm and spite that he was spitting at me was going to tip me over the edge.


    I was getting to my wit''s end. I was through with being here in the underworld. I wanted to get this over with and go home as soon as I could. I didn''t want to be here any longer than I absolutely needed to be. And right now this asshole was prolonging my forced visit to the afterlife.


    He may think that he is big and strong now. He may think that he was able to do so much to me. He would most likely think a lot of things about me. But he would be wrong. He would be so wrong that it would cost him more than he was willing to pay. These people, these men, ording to Rudy, were alive. And that meant that he could most likely feel pain and receive a punishment. They weren''t beyond the torture that they were inflicting onto the others. They, specifically this asshole, were not above my wrath.


    I tried to keep my calm, though. I had already been shown just how my actions affect the things around me, how I can cause consequences. I didn''t want to put anything out of order in Hell, this was not the ce to be doing that. Still, that didn''t change the fact that he was annoying the fucking hell out of me.. No pun intended there.

 Chapter 691 - 108- Trinity – Traversing Purgatory Part 7 (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "I wish I was just a self-proimed goddess. Do you have any fucking clue how much stress and pressure I have been under for thest few years? Do you know what I have had to deal with just recently because of who and what I am? I am not here because I wanted to be, asshole! I am here right now because one of your trapped souls is trying to escape. I am here because I need to stop her. All I want to do is go home and be with my family again. But no, now I need to do your job for you!"


    The man''s already angry looking face just went purple with his boiling fury. I had said too much. I had caused problems for us. I knew it wasing though. I knew it was going to happen. I just couldn''t stop it. I was too pissed off, too angry to hold it back anymore.


    OK. I will admit that this man had nothing to do with the way that I had been feeling. He wasn''t the one that I was angry with. He wasn''t the one that had put me through hell. He wasn''t the one that had brought me here. So, I shouldn''t be angry with him, right? Well, fuck that. I was going to treat him the way he was treating me.


    "I told you I would not be talked to like that." The wind, which had just been a soft and gentle breeze, picked up with a sudden intensity. It was like someone, most likely him, was calling it to life. Ha ha, that''s funny. Calling something to life in the underworld.


    "Look, whoever you are. I just want to be on my way. I just want to get to the door out of here and find the person that I am looking for. I will be out of your hair as soon as I can be."


    With those words, I held onto the boys while simultaneously pushing Rudy ahead of me. We had just gotten past the big brute when he slowly turned to face us and bellowed out in his booming voice.


    "My name is Alexio Ptolemy. And by the grace of all the Gods and Goddesses, I will not let you escape this ce. I will not let you shrink your punishment. You will atone for your sins as you are supposed to. And I will be the judge that drags you there."


    Was it just me, or was Alexio here growing in size? Nope, it wasn''t just me. I could see the look that was on Rudy''s face as he watched the man. He was definitely seeing what I was seeing. And I do not think that this was a good thing either. This was most likely going to be, quite literally, hell for us.


    "Rudy, I think we need to get out of here." I said as I scooped up the boys in my arms. They were almost too big for me to fit them all. Technically they were too big, but I was trying my best here.


    "Yes. We need to run."


    Rudy took two of the boys from my arms and held them in one of his. Then, he took my now empty left hand as I clung to Zayden with my right arm. He pulled me along behind him as he ran as fast as he could. I was d that I was able to move fast, or he would have been dragging me. Actually, I could probably move faster than him.


    So, I decided that I was going to move faster than him. I ran faster and harder until I was ahead of him. I started to pull him behind me and made him force his body to keep up with me.


    "You aren''t human." Rudy called after me, marveling at the speed that I was showing.


    "I already told you that." Iughed at him and his absurdness.


    "Yes, I know that. However, seeing is believing."


    I wanted to respond to him, but I just didn''t have the chance. We were running for our lives, after all. If I didn''t want to upset the bnce of things in this world, I would have just fought him. I couldn''t do that though. I couldn''t risk it.


    Running didn''t seem to be working right now though. It wasn''t that we weren''t trying. It wasn''t because we weren''t moving fast. We were doing both of those things, but when your opponent was now almost ten feet tall and covered way more ground than you ever could with each stride, and then add into that the fact that his size did not diminish his speed at all, it was going to be hard to outrun them.


    I needed to think of something else. I needed to get us out of this predicament, and to safety, so that we could then figure out how we were going to get to the door. I needed to figure it all out and in the space of just a few seconds. So, you know, no pressure there.


    I scanned my surroundings as quickly as I could as I literally felt the ground shaking beneath me. That mammoth of a man, the massive brute of a warrior, but hot on my heels and breathing down my neck. I swear I even felt his breath there as I looked for where to go.


    There were a couple of different options. I could sprint and leap to the top of an outcropping of rocks that were near a punishment. The only problem with that, though, was that I didn''t know if the barriers would keep me from approaching that area. That would be a big risk to take right now. If it stopped me in my tracks, then Alexio was going to catch us.


    OK, then let me check out option number two. That was a narrow alleyway that was between tworge stone structures that housed different punishments. It looked like it might actually turn into some sort of underground tunnel. It was not more than two feet wide so it would be a tight fit for Rudy. However, it had the added benefit of being low as well. Rudy would have to stoop, but this ce was at most five feet tall. Even I would have to crouch a little to get in there.


    There was a major upside though. Alexio definitely would not be able to fit his huge ass into that space. He would not be able to follow us, no matter what he did. That ce was just going to be way too small for him.


    Well, I think that just about settled it for me. That should be all that I needed to know about this. I was going to take Rudy and the boys and run toward that tunnel.


    And I hadn''t made my decisions with any time to spare at all. The moment that I turned and changed our path, I felt the movement of the air as Alexio ran past us. He had just been about to catch the five of us, but we were safe now.. I hoped.

 Chapter 692 - 109- Trinity – Traversing Purgatory Part 8 (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The moment that we were off the original path and out of Alexio''s reach, I started to pull Rudy along behind me to the tunnel that I had seen. I wanted to get there before Alexio knew where we were going, even though I knew that this wasn''t likely to be the case.


    Alexio didn''t run for long when he barreled past us. Only enough for him to quickly slow down his charging body and turn in the direction that we had disappeared in. I could literally feel his eyes on us when he found us running away from him.


    Dammit. I didn''t want to run away. I wanted to fight him like I had trained to do years ago. However, if I killed him there were things that could happen that I wasn''t prepared for. What if I killed this man and hundreds or thousands of souls escaped their punishments? What if those souls, which had yet to fully repent and were likely angry, made it to earth and started to hurt people? I couldn''t risk the things that his death or even just his temporary absence from his post would have on Purgatory and the underworld as a whole.


    No, as much as it pissed me off, the only thing that I was able to do was run. I needed to protect myself, my boys, Rudy, and the entire realm that I was in. DAMMIT.


    Alexio roared in anger when he saw me fleeing to safety. He knew what I was doing, and he didn''t like it. At that moment he snorted like a bull. I didn''t see it, but I heard it. That raging bull of an ancient Greek warrior was bearing down on us faster than ever now.


    It didn''t matter though, we were in the tunnel and on our way to freedom. I had snatched Zachary and Zander from Rudy''s arms and pushed him in ahead of me. No offense, but at the moment he was expendable to me. That was why I was forcibly making him the guide.


    After Rudy, I pushed the boys into the tunnel then followed them inside. We were all in there and safely away from the opening when we felt the ground, and the walls around us, shake like crazy. Alexio had obviously run headlong into the rocky wall, trying to bust his way through so that he could get to us.


    I really, really, really hoped that the stone around us held up to his raging bull-like rampage. He was literally ramming the wall over and over again, causing the ground to shake and creak around us.


    "We need to get to the other side of here and then move as quickly and stealthily toward the exit as we can. I don''t want Alexio to see us anymore at all. He will be a major problem if he does. Not to mention, if he tries to stop us again, I won''t hold back. I will take him out to finish my task if I have to. I cannot let him stand in my way."


    I had been whispering toward Rudy ahead of me. I didn''t want my voice to travel back to Alexio, but I needed to talk to the man that was guiding me. I knew from his silence that he had taken issue with what I had said. It didn''t seem to me like he wanted me to get violent with this fellow guard.


    "Does it have toe down to such violence, Queen Trinity? Do you need to try to fight him?"


    "Do you doubt that I can?" I asked Rudy angrily.


    "I do not think that is it, Queen Trinity." I could tell that Rudy was trying his best to be polite and not set me off. Could he sense how truly fucking pissed off that I was?


    "Then what is it?" I prompted him to continue.


    "To be honest, Queen Trinity, I just do not want to see your soul tainted with the death of a demon like Alexio."


    "I do not want to kill him either, Rudy. I do not want to upset the power bnce here. But I cannot let him stand in my way. That would only hurt more people. It would only lead to tragedy."


    "Y..yes. I know that. I just do not want you to bear that burden. If ites down to it, I will kill him. I will fight him to the death and buy you time to escape through the door."


    "Mommy?" I heard Zayden speak up. They spoke so infrequently that it still surprised me sometimes.


    "Yes, honey?" I told him to continue.


    "Are you going to get in trouble? Is that big man going to hurt you, Mommy? Are you going to be OK?"


    "I will be just fine. Don''t you worry." I did my best to assure him and the others. "Mommy will get us out of here, out of this situation, and then I will get us to the next level of the underworld. That will be thest level, thest stage of it all. That is where we will find the baddy." I tried to sooth the boys and help them understand.


    "That''s good Mommy." Zayden spoke softly.


    "Yeah, that''s really good Mommy. Because I can feel the door now." Zachary piped up next.


    "Yup, the door is getting closer." Zander agreed.


    "We will be saved soon, Mommy." Zayden was thest to speak.


    "These boys truly are something." Rudy''s voice was curious about the kids even though he couldn''t see them right now. "I have never met children before, and I am quite surprised by them."


    "Never met a child?" I would have stood up and looked at him with shocked eyes, but the rocks made that impossible. "Weren''t you ever a kid yourself?"


    "No, Queen Trinity. Wee into existence as fully grown adult demons. From there we age and grow as we work our jobs until we die of old age." His words made me want to shudder. What the hell was going on here? This was no existence at all.


    "So, Rudy, what do you do when you''re not working? Since you never had a childhood and all that." I knew what he was going to say. I knew it, but I still asked that question anyway to make sure that I knew it for a fact.


    "I do not do anything besides work. We demons are never to leave our post. I know that I will be severely punished, most likely even killed, for what I have done here for you. I had to help you, though. You were where you needed to be, and I was where I needed to be to help you. Besides, going with you gave me an adventure before I am to die. I should probably thank you for that. I will not have to live this monotonous life anymore. I will be free of this ce, this prison." Rudy didn''t sound scared, worried, nervous, none of it.. He didn''t sound at all concerned about the fact that he was probably going to die soon. What the hell? Didn''t he understand it at all? Didn''t he care at all if he lived or died?

 Chapter 693 - 110- Trinity -Traversing Purgatory Part 9 (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Actually, now that I think about it, Rudy probably didn''t care if he died or not. He was just going to live the same useless and boring life until he wasted away. Why would he care? Why would he want to do that?


    I didn''t say anything for a little while after that. I just thought about the lonely existence that Rudy had to have had. Rudy and all the others that came before him. And to think, there was another self-aware guard and all that he cared about was stopping me and punishing me. How was it that they could have such drastically different views on their lives and jobs?


    Maybe the position that they worked had something to do with it. Maybe the fact that Alexio was so intent on stopping me and doing his job, was that he had a different outlook based on what he saw in his job.


    Rudy, being a gatekeeper, was the one that had to hand out the punishments to everyone else and that would definitely be hard on people. Alexio was guarding somewhere deeper within Purgatory. He didn''t have the same things to do. He didn''t have to be the one to tell people where to go to be punished.


    This wasn''t something that I needed to be thinking about though. Not at all. I needed to focus on our escape. Then I needed to focus on killing Hekate. I needed to get us through this and then I could think about what to do next.


    I could think about things like what to do about Rudy. I couldn''t leave him here to die. But should I take him back with me? Should I bring him to the human world? Should I give him a ce among my people and save him that way?


    I don''t know why, but part of me was thinking that I probably should. I mean, I couldn''t let him die just for helping me. That would be a total bitch move. Something that I would never forgive myself for having done.


    But how was I going to get him home with me, though? I mean, I still didn''t know how I was going to get home. Whatever, I would figure it out. I wasn''t going to leave him behind. Nope, that wouldn''t be right. And I was going to try to be a good person for the rest of my life, mostly anyway.


    Alright. My mind was set. I knew what I was going to do. And I had thought about it all when I told myself not to. Oops. Oh well. It was done now and I was able to focus on the tunnel ahead of me. I mean, it wasn''t like I could see anything beyond the tops of the boys'' heads and Rudy''s ass. It was an OK sight and all that, but I would much rather see Reece''s ass in front of me. His was my favorite ass in the world. Both, the literal and figurative ones. I mean, there were plenty of times that he acted like a major ass, you know. Still, he was usually sweet now and that was all that mattered.


    GAH! Why do I keep thinking about these random thoughts? I needed to focus but I couldn''t Dammit! All I wanted was to go home and be with my family again. This needed to hurry up and get to the end of this fight. I was just about out of patience for it all.


    "I see the end of the tunnel, Queen Trinity. I can see a light out there. I do not think that it will take us that much longer to get out of here." Rudy sounded way more excited to say that than I had thought he would be. He must not like this tight space. Hey, at least he didn''t have ustrophobia. That could have ruined our entire escape n. I had actually been lucky about that.


    Or had I been? I mean, do demons have issues like ustrophobia? Was that a thing among the inhabitants of the underworld? I didn''t know and that was kind of bugging me.


    "That''s good, Rudy." I finallymented about the light he was seeing. "Be very cautious when you leave the tunnel. We need to make sure that Alexio isn''t around."


    "Yes, understood."


    "Zachary?" I called out to the boy.


    "Yes, Mommy?" He happily answered me.


    "How close is the door? How much further do we have to go?"


    "It is not too much further, Mommy. I can feel that it is somewhere over there." He pointed toward his right, that the direction we had been going in before Alexio had decided that he needed to stop us. That stupid giant asshole. Why did he have to be such a fucking pest?


    "He''s right, Mommy." Zander added. "I can feel the door too."


    "That is good boys." I nodded at them even though they couldn''t see me. It was just a habitual gesture. "Rudy, when we are out of here, we will run as hard and as fast as we can for the door."


    "Yes, Queen Trinity." He agreed and started to slow down. Apparently, we were close to the end of the tunnel. He was stopping so that he could peer out and check for danger.


    The area right here wasrger than it was on the other side. Just at the mouth of the cave-like tunnel, and nowhere else. Still, that little bit of room, that small area that let us stand side by side was going to help out a lot.


    I shimmied along the wall, past the boys, to the wider opening in the cave. It was also a taller section of the cave which allowed me to standpletely and Rudy to straighten up just a little bit.


    "I will look with you." I told Rudy as we stood side by side, checking the surrounding area for Alexio and any other enemies.


    "I do not see him, Ma''am." Rudy spoke calmly. "I think that the coast might be-." That was when Rudy stopped short. He was not able to finish saying those words.


    Why couldn''t he finish saying them? Because they weren''t true anymore. While we were watching the area, we saw a sh that was unmistakable. Alexio had just run past the opening to the tunnel and was heading in the direction of the door.


    How had he gotten over here so fast? And why was he moving in that direction? What was he nning now?


    Well, let''s see if I can answer those questions for myself.


    He got over here so fast because he was a giant rampaging bull that moved faster than almost anything that I''ve ever seen. Almost. I mean, David could go invisible with how fast he was able to move. He was literally the fastest person ever.


    OK, let''s continue on to the next question. He was probably heading in that direction because he knew the door was there and he was going to guard it and block me from escaping.


    And well, thatst one sort of answered the second and the third question so there was no more need for me to exin things to myself.


    "Dammit!" I snapped as I thought about what to do now.

 Chapter 694 - 111- Reece – Wrath (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 694 - 111- Reece ¨C Wrath (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I will admit that we were all getting used to life without Trinity around. Reluctantly of course, but we did what we had to do. The kids came to me with their issues so that we could talk them out. They were still upset but they were dealing with it in stride.


    I was bing a better dad because of this entire situation. Trinity would most likely say that I was maturing or something. That was stupid, though, since I was in my mid thirties, I was already mature. I mean, I have been married for many years, I have three children at home and three on the way. Who in the world would say that I was not mature?


    Still, I guess you could say that I was growing and changing a little. I would never again say that Trinity didn''t have things hard. Despite our staff, there was a lot that she did for the kids. And with her not being around right now, I was the one doing those things for the kids. Trinity had been so busy with work, but she was still a good mom. She was still an excellent family coordinator. I don''t even know how she ever had the time to do it all. I guess she was just that amazing.


    All in all, the kids and I were doing OK. We weren''t happy, and we missed Trinity, but we would survive until she woke up. I knew that we would make it. Just like I knew that my Little Bunny was strong enough to make it through all of her ordeals, whatever they may be.


    Not everyone was handling things as well as us though. And I think I might have been neglecting that group of people a little bit over thest few weeks. They were getting endlessly worried about my Little Bunny, beyond the point that I had even realized.


    To be fair, I did tell them about what had happened and about the babies. I told them about what the twins had said, and even what Talia had said. Still, it didn''t seem to be helping them that much. That was why someone was currently stomping toward my door.


    ''King Reece, he wouldn''t wait for me toe up there. He sped right past me and is on his way up there right now.'' Tenison, the main butler for the castle, not to be confused with Peter who was the butler for the tower, sent me a quick mental message as the thundering steps approached my office. ''I am sorry, King Reece. I did try to stop him.''


    ''It''s fine, Tenison. I expected this sooner orter. He''s not been all that happy and I have not been expressive enough for him. Is she with him?'' I sent a message back to the man as the stomping grew louder and louder.


    ''Yes, my King.''


    ''Alright, I will handle this. You just get back to work. All is fine.''


    ''Yes, my King.''


    As soon as the words were sent telepathically, the door to my office burst open and the man that had been barreling through my walls came charging in.


    "Reece, tell me what is going on with Trinity right now."


    "Hush and leave him alone, dear. He''s working right now. You know he is busy."


    "I don''t care if he is busy. I want answers. This is my family we are talking about. I want to know what happened to my Trinity."


    "Hahh." I sighed in exasperation. They hadn''t even been in my office for thirty seconds, and I already had a headache. "Hello Mom. Hello Samuel. Please,e in and have a seat."


    My Little Bunny''s grandfather and my mother were now here to visit me. The fact that the two of them were now married made for a strange dynamic for me and my Little Bunny. My mom married her grandfather. Normally, when your parent marries someone else, they be your stepparent, even when you''re an adult. For us though, my stepfather is also my grandfather inw. And for my Little Bunny, her mother-inw is her step grandmother. That is very hard to process sometimes.


    When Samuel got in moods like this one, where he was hyperactively protective of his granddaughter, it just made things feel super weird to me. I don''t know why, it just did. He was so intensetely. And it all started to happen after the aging process reversed itself for him and Mom. Now that both he and my mother only looked to be about thirty-five to forty at the most, Samuel acted like a big kid. It was actually exhausting.


    "Hello, sweetheart." Mom came around my desk as I went to get up and hugged me around my waist. She kissed my cheek as I leaned down toward her.


    "Is there something that I can do for the two of you?" I knew what wasing, I knew what this was going to be about, but that didn''t stop me from hoping I was wrong and therefore pretending like I didn''t.


    "Yeah, you can help me." Samuel snapped at me. "You can tell me why you''re just sitting here on your ass while my granddaughter is in a damna. What are you doing to help her? How are you going to save her? When are you going to bring her back?" Samuel was so angry that he was hyperventting.


    "Honey, please, calm down. Reece has told you everything already. There is nothing for us to do now but wait. I know that you are upset but there is nothing else to do." Mom sounded like she was trying to handle a ticking time bomb with caution. He better not be taking his anger out on her. I would kill the bastard. Little Bunny''s grandfather or not. That is my mother, and no one will hurt her.


    "But L, Trinity is still in aa. It''s been six weeks now. For crying out loud, how long do we have to wait?"


    "I already told you, Samuel. Trinity is in the underworld. Her soul left her body through a magic door that disappeared with her. No one can follow her. No one can bring her back. No one can do it because no one knows how to get to the underworld. There is nothing for us to do. If I could go there after her, I would do it in a heartbeat. I would have followed her the moment that I got home if I could. But there is nothing that I can do right now."


    The pain, the heartache, the fear, all of it was visible on Samuel''s face right now. I knew that he was hurting. He didn''t understand what was going on. He didn''t understand how to navigate this situation. It was the same for me, Reagan, Rika, and Talia at first.


    However, the kids and I had each other and a lot of people that were there for us. My Little Bunny''s family wasn''t exactly that lucky. They didn''t have the same support that I had had. They had been left to deal with this on their own, and that was my fault.


    I think that I should have brought them all here. Not just when I told them what happened, but for the entire duration of this incident. For all of this. I think that I need to take better care of them.


    "How about this, Samuel, all of youe to stay at the castle for now. You and Mom. Eve and Wesley. Carter and Emmalee. Even Gloriana, Trevor, Valerian, and Daciana. We will get everyone that is rted to Trinity toe stay here and we will work this out ourselves."


    "How in the hell does having a fucking family reunion help anything? What is that going to solve? This isn''t a game, Reece. You need to be a man, to be an Alpha."


    My blood boiled at his words. OK, I might have lied a little bit earlier when I said that I was doing good. It was more or less just me pretending like I wasn''t wanting to scream every five seconds. This though, this pissed me off.


    "I will pretend like you didn''t just say that for the time being, Samuel. I know that you are upset and feeling stressed out. However, never speak to me like that again."


    "Like hell I won''t. You''re supposed to be Trinity''s husband. You''re supposed to love her. Yet all you do is continue on in life like nothing happened at all. What the hell do you expect from me besides contempt." Samuel was not done trying to push me, and I was doing my best to remain as calm as possible.


    "How dare you!" I snapped at him. "I have not been able to stop worrying about Trinity since the moment that I got the call toe home. I have been beside myself with guilt, filled with rage, and cried myself to sleep. But you want to know something else, Samuel? I have also been here for the kids. I have held myself together for them. I have to keep my emotions in check. I have to keep them going. So, excuse the fucking shit out of me if I haven''t been searching the world for an entrance into hell. I have, however, kept the people close to me that can reach out to Trinity and let me know how she is doing in the underworld. I am doing all that I can. I am doing everything that is in my power to make sure that she is safe and that all six of the kids are healthy. Or did you fucking forget that Trinity is pregnant right now as well? I need to be here for all of my children. And when my wifees back to me, when she wakes up again, I will do everything in my power to keep this from happening to her again. I will stay by her side every minute of every day if I have to. But I will not let you fucking tell me that I am not doing all that I can or that I am not a man or an Alpha. I am still your Alpha, and I can make you submit to me. So, if you don''t want to see exactly what that is like, then I suggest you watch your fucking tongue. Got it?"


    "I would love to see you fucking-." Samuel started to argue again before he was interrupted by a very scary, and very angry sounding voice.. It was a voice that was strong enough to rattle the windows with its loud boom as it cut through the space around us.

 Chapter 695 - 112- Reece – Wrath Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 695 - 112- Reece ¨C Wrath Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "ENOUGH!" Mom bellowed so loudly that I winced and put my hands over my ears. I saw that I wasn''t the only one either. Samuel had done the exact same thing. He was hunched over and cowering in fear of my mom''s booming voice.


    "What the hell, Mom?" I snapped at her after my ears had recovered a little bit.


    "Don''t give me that tone of voice, Reece. I swear by the Goddess, I will turn you over my knee and beat your ass so hard you won''t be able to sit right for hours."


    "Ha ha." I heard Samuel chuckle in response to my mother''s harsh words. It pissed me off, but I didn''t want to say anything just then. If I did, then my mother was likely to hurt me.


    "Oh, just shut up Samuel. I love you, but if you keep up this attitude, I will kick your ass so hard, you will no longer be immortal. You''ll wind up some time in the past and you won''t know how to get back here. If you don''t believe me then keep testing my nerves and see if I''m kidding."


    Mom was fuming mad. I swear I could see smokeing out from her ears, and there was definitely fire in her eyes and some sort of ethereal evilnessing out of her. But she wasn''t done yet, so I wasn''t going to say anything.


    "I am tired of the whining andining." She was ring at Samuel when she said that part. At least she didn''t try iming that I had been whining. "And I am tired of the big macho man attitude." That time she looked from him to me and then back again. OK, so I guess that applied to both of us. "The two of you are going to get along. You''re going to shut up about this whole ordeal, and you''re going to just wait for the day that Trinity wakes up again. I can''t wait for her to return to us either. She is my one and only daughter inw, she is the mother of my precious grandchildren, and she is the woman that has been leading our people. She is a very important person not to just me and the two of you, but to the entire world. I love her. I miss her. And I want to cry and rant just like the two of you, but I don''t. So do me a favor and stop fucking bickering before I hurt the both of you."


    "Yes, dear." Samuel nodded and answered her at the same time that I spoke.


    "Yes, Mommy." I had my head lowered and didn''t look her in the eyes. She was scary sometimes.


    "Good. See, was that so damn hard? Hahh." She rolled her eyes and sighed before she continued. "Reece, I liked your idea of us all being here though. That way we all know right away when she wakes up. Not to mention, it will give all the kids time to be together. I think it''s time to have all of the family here. But that means you need to include Juniper and Paul, Vincent and Heather, Cedar and Acacia, David and Rawlynne, Shawn and Dietrich, Shane and Falena, Jackson and Melita, Devon and E, Gina, Roisin, Abigail, Peter, Crawford, and Eldrige. You need to have everyone that she considers family here with her. Don''t just include those that she is rted to by blood, bring those that she had love for."


    "You''re right, Mom." I nodded at her as I agreed.


    "I know I am." She snapped at me. "Now hush. I didn''t tell you to talk yet." She was ring at me. "There is a lot more to talk about and discuss."


    I snapped my mouth shut and didn''t say another word until she told me to. I still had that ghost of a sensation. That one that I got a long time ago. That feeling of a book smacking into the back of my head so hard that it would have cracked a human skull. Damn, my mom was a fucking beast.


    For the next half of an hour or so, the three of us talked about what we needed to do. And by that I mean that my mom lectured me on what I needed to do while Samuel and I sat in our chairs like bad little boys that were getting lectured. It was brutal, but at least we had a n.


    "HAHH!" When mom and Samuel left my office, I audibly sighed and nearly slumped out of my chair. I swear, the sigh was so loud that I thought my mom had heard it and was going toe back into the room to lecture me some more. I definitely did not want that to happen.


    "Hahh!" I sighed again, quite a bit softer and quieter this time. "Damn. I am going to be even more busy now. Mom gave me a huge list of people to call and ''summon'' to the castle. And she told me that I needed to do it and not push it off onto someone else. She had something about this being a family business, so it was something that needed to be taken care of by the family. And since I was the "head" of the family while my Little Bunny was away, that meant that it was my duty to take care of it. Then she reminded me that Trinity would do it herself if she were here.


    Dammit. Mom wasn''t ying fair. She was manipting me and using that scary power of hers to force me into submission. That and I just really, really didn''t want to be hit in the head with a book again. Or for my mom to turn me over her knee and beat my ass. Yeah, that would be a hard one to exin to people. I could hear it now.


    "Daddy, why aren''t you sitting down for dinner?" Talia or maybe Reagan or Rika would ask me as I stood to eat my meal.


    "Well, sweetheart, Daddy fell down today." I would try to exin it away to them.


    "What did you fall on, Daddy?" They would ask me.


    "Daddy fell down on L L''s hand."


    "L spanked you, Daddy?" One of them would ask me and the staff and family around would bust outughing whether I confirmed or denied it. It was all perfectly clear in my head. That was going to happen to me if I didn''t listen to my mommy.


    "GAH!" I grabbed my head as I thought about it. There is no way, absolutely no way in fucking hell that I could let my mom spank me. That would be the most embarrassing thing ever. And I just know, I know for a fact that when Trinity woke up, she would wind up making fun of me just the same. She would say something along the lines of:


    "Don''t make me call your mom." She would think that it was funny. Or she might say:


    "Do I need to spank you, Reece? You need me to treat you like a bad boy?"


    Well, I guess thatst one could be quite nice, depending on the situation. It would add a little bit of spice at least. I don''t know now. Maybe I want my Little Bunny to spank me. Not my mom of course, but my wife can do it anytime she wants to.


    To be honest, I would probably enjoy that just a little bit too much. I would end up wanting her to spank me more and more. It would turn into something bad. Now that I think about it, we should probably steer clear of spanking altogether.


    Actually, I think that I was just really, really missing my Little Bunny. She has been gone for so long, and we hadn''t been intimate in over a month before she left. I was truly starting to feel lonely right now. I needed her. Her touch. Her warmth. Her kisses. All of her. I just really missed my Little Bunny.


    "Come home soon, Little Bunny. Pleasee home. We all need you. Not just me and the kids, but all of us. We miss you. It''s just not the same without you." I wasn''t even in the same room as my wife at the moment, but I was still talking to her, hoping that my prayer would reach her somehow.. "Pleasee home."

 Chapter 696 - 113- Trinity – Traversing Purgatory Part 10 (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Dammit. I wasn''t sure what we should do. Should we go back through the tunnel? Should we move away from the beast that was Alexio Ptolemy? Should we try to sneak around this area and get to the exit further away from him?


    Who knows, maybe Alexio will get worried that he hasn''t seen us in a while and will instead start searching for us. Maybe he will think that we went in the other direction when we left the tunnel and are, therefore, moving away from him instead of toward him.


    Our other option, if I chose to take it, would be to exit the tunnel right here and move straight toward the door. It would be a straight-forward, no nonsense approach that left nothing up to the imagination. It would not be pretty, and it would not be creative. It would just be a race to the door with an inevitable fight.


    That was a fight that I didn''t want to be caught up in right now. I didn''t want to upset the bnce of this world more than I already have. What if I messed something up and it allowed Hekate to escape before I even got to her damn cell? What would be the point of me being here then? What would be the point of me trying to stop her?


    Nothing. That''s what the point would be. It would be nothing at all. And, in fact, it would actually mean that my whole reason for being here was only to help Hekate escape instead of stopping her. I would be the bad guy. I would be the cause of problems. That was definitely not something that I wanted on my conscience.


    I couldn''t risk fighting with Alexio, not yet anyway. But I also didn''t want to take more time than I needed to. I wanted to just get out of here. Dammit. Why was this such a hard decision to make?


    And to make matters worse right now, the boys were pulling on my sleeves and tugging on my arms. It was making it all really hard to think.


    "Stop it you three, Mommy needs to think." I tried to silence them so that I could work things out.


    "Mommy. Mommy. Mommy."


    "Mommy. Mommy. Mommy."


    "Mommy. Mommy. Mommy." They were all three calling out to me repeatedly. I was just trying to make sure that I got us out of here, I didn''t want to ignore them, but I was lost in thought at the moment.


    "Mommy. Mommy."


    "Mommy. Mommy."


    "Mommy. Mommy." They called out to me again, a little more frantically this time. Finally, the tones in their voices made it through my thoughts and I could hear just how upset they were.


    "What is it? Is something wrong?" Those tones, the way that their tiny little voices sounded, that was not something that any mother ever wanted to hearing from her children.


    The moment that I looked down at them, I saw that there was fear in their eyes and they were trembling. They weren''t even looking at me. They were instead looking down the tunnel, back in the direction that we hade from.


    "Boys? What is it? What''s wrong?"


    I knelt down then, bringing my face closer to theirs. This would allow me to see their expressions better, but also to see things from their angle.


    "Tell me what it is. Tell me what''s wrong?"


    "Down there, Mommy." Zachary pointed into the dark of the tunnel.


    "Mommy, there is a monster." Zander was next.


    "It''sing for us, Mommy. It''s going to eat us." Zayden looked like he was about to cry.


    "What''sing for us? What is going to eat us? What is it, baby?"


    Just as I asked Zayden that question, I heard an ominous sounding toward us through the tunnel.


    The sound was something like a heavy panting and a weird chuffing. It was very animalistic and definitely not friendly. To go along with the panting and chuffing, there was snarling and growling that echoed through the chamber.


    There was another sound that came through the tunnel after that one, as if this was some sort of game called guess the noise or some stupid shit like that. This newest sound was something like scraping. It was like something was pushing its way through the tunnel toward us. Something that was big. Something that I was sure I was not going to like at all.


    "Rudy, what is that thing? What is it that ising for us? And is iting for us because of me or because of Alexio? Did he send that thing after us?"


    "I don''t know. I cannot answer a single one of those questions, Queen Trinity. I am so sorry, but I just do not know what that thing is. Not without seeing it first anyway."


    "Well, since you haven''t seen it yet, and I really don''t think that I want to see it, what should we do? Should we run, or fight it?"


    The moment that I asked that question, the panting grew louder and more prominent. And, on top of that, that scraping noise became louder and more incessant, like whatever that thing was, it was moving faster. A lot faster.


    "Judging by the way that sounds, Queen Trinity, I would suggest that we run for it, right now." Rudy was just as against seeing that beast as I was. And I could tell that the boys definitely didn''t want to see it. Good, it was a unanimous decision.


    "Then let''s get going."


    I wanted to just leave this tunnel now. The sooner we left the better. And on a positive note, now we could just run straight toward the exit. We could have our showdown with Alexio, and I promise that I wouldn''t kill him, just him up until we were gone. That was all that I needed anyway.


    Well, that was what I thought I would be able to do anyway. However, that wasn''t what was happening. Because no sooner had we turned around, right there, in front of us was arge, hulking beast.


    This beast was at least asrge as Reece''s wolf form, and it was nearly as ck with piercing red eyes. However, where Reece''s wolf form was beautiful and elegant looking, this thing was disgusting and nauseating.


    Just one look at the tangled, gnarled mess that was this thing''s face told me that it was not something that was meant to be seen by the living, especially humans. If this thing got out, if it was seen by the general popce, it would literally scare millions of people to death.


    And, to make it even worse, the ck of this thing''s fur, if you could even call it that, was oozing. It looked like it was covered in some sort of thick, pungent ink substance. It was so wrong on so many levels.


    "Mommy. Mommy."


    "Mommy. Mommy."


    "Mommy. Mommy." The boys were clinging to me and screaming when they saw the thing.


    "Rudy, what the hell is that?" I asked him with fear in my own voice.


    "That is a hellhound."

 Chapter 697 - 114- Trinity – Traversing Purgatory Part 11 (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Oh, just fucking great. We now had to deal with a hellhound on top of whatever the hell that thing was that was pushing its way through the tunnel. I didn''t have the time for this dammit. I did not have the fucking time to spare right now. All I wanted to do was to get this fucking job done and go home. Why the hell was this happening to me? And who the hell sent a hellhound and that other thing after us?


    Was it Alexio and his fucking ''you shall not pass'' attitude? Or was it Hekate and her fucking ''give me your magic'' attitud?. Dammit, whoever it was, I was going to fucking hurt them, or kill them. The punishment depended on who it was.


    I didn''t have time to dwell on it too much though, because at that moment, the hellhound started to attack. It reared back and roared to the sky before mming back to its misshapen paws with long, lethal looking ws. With its head lowered and its teeth bared, I watched as it started to move toward us.


    "Rudy, please guard them."


    I pushed the boys into his arms as I went to meet the hellhound''s attack. I normally would have put a barrier around them, like I did before. Only I didn''t have the time to do that this time. I had to focus on the thing that was trying to get to me and them. Dammit. I should have been paying more attention. I should have done better than this.


    I did, however, have time to summon my sword. The one that I had made when I fought against dear old granny. The frozen de has since gotten its own name even though it is rarely seen anymore. The ice that surrounded the de made it look scary yet beautiful. The sword was also cold and could freeze at the touch. For that reason, it was dubbed the Frozen Kiss.


    Calling the sword into existence was a relief right now. I hadn''t initially thought that I could do it, with how limited my magic had been when I first got here, I truly thought that it was impossible for a moment. Holding the de of the Frozen Kiss in my hand right now, spinning it artfully and beautifully through the air, that was the best feeling I could possibly have right now.


    I met the beast''s attack head on. It was trying toe low, even with how huge and hulking the thing was. That wasn''t a problem for me though, with how much shorter than it I was. I went lower than that monster and swung upward with my de. I caught it across the right nk with the biting icy shards that instantly bit into the thing''s dripping, inky coat.


    I was so d that the de did not get covered by that strange looking ooze like pelt. And I could tell that I injured the creature with how loudly it yelped and leapt back to lick its wounds. Still, it wasn''t enough. I hadn''t removed it''s leg like I wanted to, so it was still able toe at me.


    And to top things off, the fucking cherry on top of this cake of hell that I was facing down, the hellhound didn''t seem to be freezing at all. Instead, it looked like the damned thing was bleeding fire. And that fucking fire was counteracting my ice.


    SHIT! If I am going to make that thing freeze over, I would need to do a lot more damage to it in just one hit. This was definitely not something that I could do lightly.


    Just as I thought that, the wound on the hell house closed right before my eyes and the thing was ready to attack me again.


    "Be careful Mommy." I heard Zayden''s voice call out to me and that seemed to pump me up. I knew that I needed to hurry this up or my boys would be in big trouble. Not only them, but Rudy too. I needed to protect them all. I needed to save them all.


    With renewed effort, I started to attack the hellhound when he leapt at me. The beast literally made it easier for me by leaping. He thought that he was going to get over me and get to the others, but I had news for him. I was never going to let that happen. Never!


    Before he could even get half of his body over my head, I thrust the Frozen Kiss up and jammed it into the thing''s belly. It pierced the hell hound until it was almost at the hilt, and the oozing ming blood was starting to pour out of the monster dog.


    I knew that I needed to stop that deadly looking blood from touching me. I knew that if it did, it would hurt me somehow. That was why I quickly flipped the damned beast toward the ground, spinning with it and pinning it beneath me and standing atop its hulking frame.


    Now that the beast was at my mercy, and my de was still sticking inside of it, I was able to do some major damage to it. I pulled the de of the Frozen Kiss down from the thing''s belly toward its tail. Then I went back up and sliced it up to his neck.


    The fucking monster was not almost cut in half with my frozen sword, but it still wasn''t freezing over, dammit. It was melting my ice but it was healing slower.


    "You fucking asshole." I snarled at the monster. "Just die already."


    In a fit of rage I pulled my de from the thing''s neck, used my foot to press its chest open, and stabbed it in the sorriest excuse for a heart that I have ever seen. The thing was huge, ck, and looked like it was poisoned and full of death.


    With the ice of the de piercing its heart, the hellhound finally started to freeze over. Starting with its chest and moving out through the rest of it. I just needed to pull the Frozen Kiss from the thing''s body and all would be done and over with.


    I didn''t trust that, though. I didn''t want to let things be done just yet. So, instead, I mmed the sword down onto the thing''s frozen head and watched as the whole ice sculpture that the hellhound had be shattered into a million pieces.


    Finally, the thing was dead. Finally, I didn''t have to deal with this hellhound anymore.


    I didn''t have time to celebrate, though. The moment that the hellhound was gone, the screaming behind me got to be so loud that I wanted to cover my ears. The other beast had obviously made its way over here to us and now it was time to see what the hell that thing was. It was time to see the thing that I didn''t want to see. It was time to fight once more.


    I turned around slowly, intending to see just what the hell it was, but I nearly stopped at the next words that Rudy bellowed.

 Chapter 698 - 115- Trinity - Traversing Purgatory Part 12 (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It took a moment or two for me to process what it was that Rudy had just yelled. I didn''t think that I was hearing him properly the first time. That, and it was like me and everything around me was moving in slow motion. Each step that I took to turn around and face the new beast, the new threat, seemed to take forever. And the screams of the boys were long and drawn out.


    However, the moment that Rudy''s words actually clicked inside of my head, the moment that I actually realized what it was that he had said, I stopped moving so slowly. I felt like I was whipped around at double speed as his words echoed in my ears.


    "OH NO! IT''S A HELL SNAKE!"


    Why did those words chill me to the bone? Why did it sound to me like Rudy was scared shitless? And why did it feel like things had just gone from bad to worse.


    Well, that all had to do with the thing that wasing toward us right now. The beast was still only partially visible as it worked to push its way out of the smaller part of the tunnel, but I could see its head clearly.


    I don''t know how much the rest of the beast looked like a snake, but the head was only half of a snake. The other half of the head was more alligator-like. Or was that crocodile? I was not always sure, but that snout was more narrow. I think it might be a crocodile head.


    Though, honestly, does it really matter right now? I mean, this mutant thing wasing to kill me, my boys and Rudy. Did I really truly want to take the time to guess this fucking thing''s origins and gics? I don''t really think so.


    While I tried to process the images before my eyes, I acted quickly. I needed to get the others out of here before they were hell snake chow. I whipped my magic out and wrapped it around the four of them. It was both a barrier and a rope. I used that long rope of magic to pull them with me as I ran out of the tunnel and into the open air.


    Now that I had them all safe and secured, I turned to face the monster that was the hell snake. It was just emerging from the tunnel. Squeezing its way through it like it was being pushed from a tube.


    The more that I watched the beast, the more terrifying it became. The monster''s head was almost all crocodile. It was about three to four feet wide. Its jaws were filled with foot long, razor sharp teeth. And the eyes on its head were trained right onto me.


    It was even textured and colored much like a crocodile. Specifically like a saltwater crocodile. There were two sets of ridges on its snout that ran down from the eyes. And there were even ridges that went down the back of the things head and to its tail. Though the closer it got to the tail, the more spike-like those ridges got. And the thing was dark green, almost green enough to be ck if it wasn''t so bright over here right now. And that brightness, of course, wasing from the mes of punishment.


    That beast just didn''t look right. Even with the rest of the thing looking like a snake, it was still so wrong to my eyes. It was long and skinny when it came out of the tunnel. However, as it coiled itself in front of me, it wasn''t as thin anymore. It was like the thing had stretched itself out to fit through the cave and was now going back to normal. It was still long though, that wasn''t the issue. As it came out of the tunnel, it looked to me like it was at least sixty feet long, if not longer.


    I had just a moment to think about something as well. When the thing was moving through the tunnel, I swear I heard something that sounded like ws digging into the ground to push it through. Where were those ws now?


    Was it possible that the hell snake''s ridges and spikes were making the scraping noise? Or was there something more sinister about this beast than I knew? I really, really, really hoped that it was the former of those two possibilities and not that this thing had hidden feet.


    "Queen Trinity, you cannot fight that thing. Not with that sword. It is armored. Its body cannot be pierced." Rudy called out to me from his ce of safety.


    "Yeah, well, I need to try, don''t I? I need to protect you and the boys. I need to kill this thing so that we can move on." I was doing my best to sound confident.


    "We need to run, Queen Trinity. We need to get out of here. We need to leave that thing back here. You cannot kill it."


    "Give me a chance first, Rudy. I need to try."


    Despite what he was saying, I decided to insist on fighting the monster in front of me. I would never know what I was capable of doing if I didn''t try, right? I needed to see if I was able to kill this thing so that not only would I, Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Rudy be safe for the time being, but I didn''t have to worry about iting after uster.


    I stood my ground, gripped my sword with two hands, andunched myself forward to attack.


    I flipped through the air, spinning just enough so that I wouldnd on the hell snake''s head. Or the back of it at least. I was facing the others, so that I could keep an eye on them if I needed to. However, I was putting my all into fighting this thing.


    The hell snake knew that I was on the back of its head, and it didn''t like that one bit. The thing started to shake its head from side to side in an attempt to rid itself of me. I had to do my best not to go flying off into the distance.


    Not only that, but the beast started to smash itself against the rocky wall next to us to knock me off. If it kept that up, it would eventually work. Not to mention, I could tell that its tail was whipping around. Was it trying to knock me off like that as well?


    Something told me this beast wasn''t all that smart. It was going to hit itself with its own tail if it kept up what it was doing. Not to mention it was probably giving itself a nasty ass headache.


    ''OK Trinity, just kill it and go.'' I gave myself a mental pep talk as I prepared to deal the final blow. I wanted to get out of here before there were any more monsters that came after us.


    After fortifying my nerves with the mental boost, I once again grabbed the Frozen Kiss in two hands and threw my arms down toward the monster with all my might. I was aiming for the back of its skull, intent to give it history''s worst brain freeze ever.


    Only I failed at that.. I failed miserably.

 Chapter 699 - 116- Trinity – Traversing Purgatory Part 13 (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The frozen de of my enchanted sword shattered against the monster''s head. Its armored scales were too powerful for the sword to prate at all. Not to mention the resulting vibrations from the sword''s destruction rattled through me and almost made me fall off of the hall snake.


    "MOMMY!"


    "MOMMY!"


    "MOMMY!"


    "Queen Trinity!" The four people hiding out in my magic barrier were frantically calling for me as I tried desperately to catch myself. I managed, just barely, to stay on top of the hell snake, but I no longer had my sword with me.


    I would be able to reconjure it, to bring it to me again, but it wouldn''t work anyway, so why bother? No, I needed to think of something else. I needed to figure out what I was going to do. I needed to get out of the way before that snake''s tail hit me and pierced through me with its long spikes.


    Just as I sensed that the hell snake was about to hit me, I leapt into the air again. I did something that I hadn''t done in a long time. I had created a wind tform for me tond on and perched myself in the air to watch the snake.


    There was blood. The snake was bleeding. Only it wasn''t bleeding from its head where its massive tail had justnded a blow that would have killed most creatures. No, this massive hell snake was bleeding from its tail.


    The hell snake was rearing and thrashing about, definitely in pain. The blood from the snake''s tail was showering the area around it as the tail flung all around. It was hard to see with all of the movement that the snake was making, but I believe that the snake had lost one of its spikes when it struck itself in the head.


    There was a missing piece of the tail that was pink and red rather than green. And the blood seemed to be pouring from that spot.


    Before I could even formte a n that would allow me to use that wound as a way to get to the beast''s vulnerable body, the damn thing started to heal itself. Just like the fucking hellhound had done, the snake was closing its wound up. And I knew that the moment it did, it would attack again.


    I needed to get us out of here while it was injured and distracted. I needed to get us all out of the way before that thing decided toe at me once again. And I knew just how I should get us out of here too.


    I pulled the rope of magic toward me, the one that was wrapped around the boys and Rudy. I pulled them into the air to where I was perched on my tform of wind. I hadn''t expected this maneuver to get the reaction that it did.


    While it was understandable for the boys to get scared because of their age, they had been falling through the skies with me every time that we went through a door. They were apparently getting used to the sensation of moving through the air and sky.


    Rudy on the other hand, apparently didn''t like heights. The moment that I started to pull him up into the air with me, he screamed. He literally screamed like a little girl that was terrified of a spider or something like that.


    "NO! NO! NO! NO! QUEEN TRINITY! NO! NO! NO! NO! PLEASE STOP! PLEASE HELP ME! QUEEN TRINITY! AHHHHH!" He was almost nonstop with it until I had him standing on the tform next to me.


    Actually, he was still screaming on the tform as well. He didn''t stop until I pped him in the face and called out to him.


    "RUDY!" The moment that he felt the stinging p, he hushed and looked at me. "You''re fine. But we need to run, or we won''t be fine for much longer." I spoke firmly and a little more sternly than I had nned to.


    "Y..y..yes. You''re right. I..I''m sorry, Queen Trinity." He hung his head as if he were embarrassed by what he had just done.


    "It''s fine, Rudy, but we need to go. Now." I pulled him to his feet and then pointed in the direction of the door. "I will make us a path, but you need to run. Run like your life depends on it, Rudy, because it does. We need to get to that door before that beast gets to us."


    "Yes. I understand, Queen Trinity." He was nodding as he looked at the nonexistent path that I had yet to make for us.


    "Don''t worry, Rudy. The path will be there, just trust me and follow me." I picked up Zachary and held him in my arm. "Help me with the boys and follow me. That''s all you need to do."


    "I understand." I could still see the fear in his eyes as he nodded at me but there was nothing else for me to do. He took the other two boys and was ready to run. I think he thought that if I was going to have him hold my children while he ran, I would definitely make sure that the bridge was there.


    "Let''s go."


    I took off running. The moment that I did, a glittering, barely there, green bridge appeared in front of me. I knew that Rudy would be able to see it as well, even if it wasn''t fully solid at the moment.


    The bridge didn''t need to be solid though. It was firm enough to hold us and more if I needed it to. Not to mention, this was a magical bridge that had other magical properties. This bridge here was helping to move us forward as we ran. It was like running on a quickly moving sidewalk. It made me feel like I was moving at hyper speed again. Only, this time, I wasn''t the only one that was going that fast.


    With Zachary in my arms, I ran as hard and fast as I could. I heard that Rudy was right there behind me, not struggling nor was he out of breath. He was just running fast as he held the boys in his arms.


    We hadn''t taken more than a few dozen steps though, when I heard the snake start to follow us again. The thing''s massive body was scraping across the ground, and I once again heard that scraping noise that had been in the tunnel. I didn''t know what that sound was, but I truly hoped that I would never find out.


    The hell snake screeched and I felt a disturbance in the magic behind me as it struck through the bridge. It was aiming for us, but thankfully we were already well ahead of it. We just needed to keep going, we needed to make sure that we got to the door before the snake.


    And when we got there, I needed to make sure that Alexio didn''t try to stop us from going through. I didn''t know what I was going to do if he blocked the door, and the snake came up on me from behind.. Yeah, that just wasn''t a good train of thought.

 Chapter 700 - 117- Trinity - Exiting Purgatory (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After several minutes of running full out on the moving bridge that I had made, I could finally see the door in the distance. And, of course, that meant that I could also see the massive Greek warrior that was Alexio.


    I know that it was just a trick of the light or my imagination, one of the two, but it almost seemed like Alexio was evenrger than he had been before. He looked like a massive, and deadly, giant that was standing guard over his golden goose at the very top of the beanstalk. If he started to talk in rhymes when I got closer to him and spoke about smelling my blood, then I was going to call bullshit on this entire thing. That would just be too off the wall for me right now.


    Whether he was straight out of mother goose''s book of tales or not, I needed to get past him and get the golden goose. The golden goose, in this case, being the door out of Purgatory. It shouldn''t be too hard to do that, should it?


    "Queen Trinity, I see the door." Rudy called out to me as if I hadn''t already seen the thing standing off in the distance.


    "But it''s surrounded by the big bad monster guard." Zachary added from his ce in my arms. "What are you going to do, Mommy?" He asked me, amazing me again with how much better he and the other two had gotten with their talking.


    "I will think of something, baby. Don''t you worry. Mommy will think of something to get us out of here." I patted him on the back as I spoke. I was trying to calm him down andfort him as best as I could.


    Once we got a little closer to the door, it was very easy for me to see that Alexio had spotted us in the sky. His eyes were trained on the spot that was just in front of me at all times, or that''s what it felt like as his eyes followed me along the path.


    Now that the monster of a man knew where I was, where we all were, I could see an evil sneer spread across his face. He was both excited to see me and fight me, but also angry and pissed off because I was ruining the order of the underworld or some stupid shit like that. I had been through so much since I had gotten here, so much that I didn''t even want to think about it all, and it wasn''t even over yet.


    "I SEE YOU, SELF-PROCLAIMED GODDESS! YOU CANNOT ESCAPE FROM ALEXIO PTOLEMY!" His bellowed voice was even louder than before. And I heard it perfectly clear from all the way over here.


    I chose to ignore him. I didn''t want to respond to him right now because I didn''t want to take my mind off the n that I was formting. But also, I didn''t want to dignify his attitude with a response.


    The n that I had was not much of one, but it was all I could think of right now. I didn''t know how else I was going to get past the beast of a man and avoid the beast of a demon monster behind me. And I had to do all that while protecting the four people that were counting on me. There was just way too much for me to deal with right now.


    I was going to have the moving wind bridge take us directly to the door. While we ran, the bridge would propel us through his legs and right into the door. I needed to time this perfectly, or it would not work at all.


    I had confidence that it would work. Or at least blind optimism that was bordering on insanity. It was all that I coulde up with in the limited amount of time that I had. And there truly was a possibility that it might work. Just a little, itty bitty tiny speck of dust sized chance. But that was still a chance, nheless.


    "Queen Trinity, why is the bridge lowering? Why is it going toward the ground?" I could hear Rudy''s fear and shock as he started to panic behind me. "The bridge is taking us right toward Alexio. Why? What is going on?"


    "It''s not taking us to Alexio, it''s taking us to the door behind him. It just so happens that the path to the door is between his feet." I didn''t want to do this anymore than he did, but I didn''t see any other way to the door. He would get us very easily if we went through the air around him. Going through his feet would throw him off bnce and give us a chance.


    "I AM GOING TO DESTROY YOU HERE AND NOW, FAKE GODDESS! I AM GOING TO RETURN ORDER TO THIS REALM!" Alexio was still yelling at us while we approached him fast. I didn''t even pay any attention though. I didn''t want to stop listening to the hell snake approaching me from behind. "YOU WILL REGRET THE DAY THAT YOU EVER MESSED WITH ME, ALEXIO PTOLE-!" Alexio faltered and stopped speaking for a moment before he bellowed at me again. "YOU BROUGHT A HELL SNAKE TO BATTLE ME! ARE YOU TOO FRIGHTENED TO FIGHT ME ON YOUR OWN?! YOU ARE PATHETIC, FAKE GODDESS. UTTERLY PATHETIC!"


    Wait a minute. Did he just say what I think he said? Did he just tell me that ''I'' brought the snake to fight ''him''? Did he seriously justy the me on me? And if that were the case, did that mean that he wasn''t the one that sent the monster after me? Well, I guess the only way that I would know for sure would be to ask him for myself.


    "ALEXIO!" I screamed his name. "DID YOU NOT SEND THE HELL SNAKE AFTER ME? AND THE HELLHOUND AS WELL? WAS IT NOT YOU THAT SENT THE BEASTS AFTER US TO PUNISH ME FOR THE CRIMES THAT YOU THINK I HAVE COMMITTED?" I spoke as loud and clear as I could. I made sure that he heard everything that I just said.


    "WHY WOULD I, ALEXIO PTOLEMY, NEED TO SEND A HELL SNAKE OR A HELLHOUND TO DO MY BIDDING? I AM MORE THAN STRONG ENOUGH TO TAKE YOU ON. I NEED NOT RESORT TO SUCH TRICKERY AND COWARDICE."


    Well, if that were true, then I guess that only left one person, one culprit for who it was that sent these things after me and the others. There was only one other person in all of the underworld that was actively trying to destroy me.


    I was pretty sure that there were more than just the two people out to get me. Those two being Hekate and Alexio. I was sure that Snum and Edmond were here, and possibly the handful of other people who I had executed or killed personally. I was sure that all of them probably wanted a taste of my blood and a piece of my soul for their trophy. I wouldn''t let them have it though. Not them. Not Alexio.. And definitely not Hekate.

 Chapter 701 - 118- Trinity – Exiting Purgatory Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    What was I going to do now? I had missed my chance to run past Alexio. I had slowed down and wasn''t moving fast enough. And any moment now, he would be able to snatch me up off of the moving bridge. I had gotten far too distracted with our conversation and the fact that Alexio, who had no reason to lie to me, said that he had not sent the two hell monsters after me.


    I think I had known all along, or at least suspected all along, that Hekate had something to do with this. If Alexio knew where I had been, if he knew where to find us, then he would have been waiting for me and the others when we exited the tunnel. Instead, he happily ran past me and Rudy and went straight to the door in the distance.


    "Alexio, I did not send that beast, nor did I summon it at all. This beast was actually sent by the Goddess Hekate." I tried to exin it to him as I slowed down, intent on talking to him for at least a second. "And that thing is going to be here any moment now."


    "And when that beast is here, it will leave you be and try to kill me. That is why you brought it here." He snapped at me angrily.


    "No, that is not what it will do. If that beast gets here before I go through that door, it will attack me, these children, and anyone else that I try to protect."


    Anger shed across his face. Did he think that I was still lying? Well, just judging by that look, I would say that he most definitely thought that I was lying. And the way that his hand was swinging out for me was also proof that he didn''t believe me.


    "LIES! ALL LIES!" I didn''t manage to dodge his massive hand in time. For someone so big, he moved very fast.


    Alexio''s massive hand closed around me just as I twisted and turned so that I could throw Zachary toward Rudy. I didn''t want the giant of a man to hurt my little boy. Thankfully, Rudy saw what I was doing right away and adjusted the other two in his arms so that he could catch Zachary one handed.


    The pain I felt was instant. Alexio''s grip was strong and would have already killed me if I were human. However, I was not as weak and easily broken as that. Nope, I was still alive, but I was hurting.


    "I will destroy you and the beast."


    Just as the massive man said those words, Rudy slid past him with the boys and the hell snake screeched. That thing was getting too close. It was literally only seconds away from us. And I was certain that if that thing bit me, even in this metaphysical state, I would die. Like permanently die for real. I wouldn''t even get an afterlife. I would just be gone.


    "You go there for a moment, Fake Goddess. I will fight the beast." Alexio tossed me to the side and prepared to face the monster. Only it didn''t go for him at all.


    Once I was out of Alexio''s grip, the hell snake followed me. It swung its massive head in the direction that I was thrown and prepared to strike me with deadly uracy.


    I only missed dying by snake by a mere couple of inches. I had flipped over and managed to roll out of the way. The snake''s massive teeth, and strange crocodile looking head, mmed into the stone so hard that I could tell it was dazed.


    "What is the meaning of this?" Alexio was bbergasted. He had truly thought that the beast would go for him and not me. "Why is your weapon attacking you?"


    "Because it isn''t after you, Alexio, it''s after me. I didn''t bring this thing. It was sent after me."


    "By whom?"


    "OH MY GODDESS, ALEXIO! DO YOU NOT LISTEN!? DO YOU NOT PAY ATTENTION WHEN SOMEONE ELSE SPEAKS!?"


    I watched as the giant Greek soldier bowed his head. He actually hadn''t paid much attention to it at all. He had stopped listening to me the moment that I first spoke to him, that was when he thought I was human.


    "I listen when I need to." He was still making excuses. Damn him and his stubbornness.


    "Well, listen now. I am the target. I am a goddess. And I need to get through that door."


    The snake was shaking its head and healing whatever injuries it had given itself. We didn''t have much time here. We, or rather I, would be attacked again very soon. Well, that is if it hadn''t frozen right then and there.


    Actually, everything around us froze. Just me, Rudy, the boys, and Alexio were not frozen. And I have to say, to see this world frozen was like seeing a very vivid painting of hell right before my eyes. A veryrge and very vivid painting, if I wanted to be specific about it.


    "She speaks the truth,rge one. She is a Goddess, and I will steal her magic. I will take it all and I will rule. I will take over the realm of the living and rule the Earth. I will take over the underworld. And I will destroy the celestial realm. I will do it all, and no one can stop me." Hekate''s voice echoed through the space that surrounded us. "And now, thanks to you and your obstinance, I will stop having so many interruptions and dys. Thank you, Alexio, for helping me aplish my goal. It will be thanks to you that I can finally get out of this hell." At that, Hekate''s unnerving voice echoed around the space as itughed. The sound of it made my skin crawl.


    "Wait. That can''t be true. I am not helping you to escape. I am only protecting the integrity of the underworld. No one shall escape. Those are the rules."


    "I don''t need to escape, Alexio. I am not dead. I do not belong here. I am trying to stop Hekate and that is all. You were the one trying to stop me. Now we''re doomed."


    The moment that the word ''doomed'' left my mouth, time started to move again. I guess Hekate was gone, and the snake was unfreezing along with everything else around us.


    "I am sorry." Alexio looked at me with repentant eyes. "I was only trying to do my job."


    I didn''t have time to respond. I needed to move again. I had to get away from the snake. But I wasn''t quick enough. It wasing right at me. It was going to hit me, and I couldn''t stop it.


    Though, apparently Alexio could stop it. He somehow leapt in front of me and caught the snake''s jaws in his massive hands. He was managing to hold the thing back long enough for me to get out of its way.


    I didn''t want to leave him there though. He had actually saved me just now, so I couldn''t let him die. The least I could do would be to pull him away from that thing''s mouth. I had to do something.


    I decided to reprise the trick I used on Rudy and the boys. I wrapped my magic around Alexio like it was asso and pulled it tight. When I went to pull him away from the hell snake the first time, I felt like he wasn''t able to move at all. Then I realized that he was just holding on too tight.


    I tugged on him again, and that time I felt him move toward me just a little bit. Another tug and I saw that he noticed that I was trying to save him. He looked over his shoulder at me and evaluated the situation. That little distraction almost cost him though, as the crocodile head almost snapped shut on him.


    Alexio let go and pushed himself away from the hell snake. It was like we were in synch for a moment. I knew what he was saying, and he knew what I was saying, all without words.


    I pulled hard on Alexio''s body with my magic. He was moving fast through the air toward us, aided by the force of his push as well. He was definitely going to be reaching me soon. Too soon.


    He was about to crash into me and we would then hit the door, hard.

 Chapter 702 - 119- Trinity - Through The Door (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Just as I knew he would, Alexio mmed into me and the two of us went flying toward the door. I knew that we were going to m into it if I didn''t stop us, if there wasn''t something else that I could do.


    "Rudy, grab on." I called out to him as I had a sudden thought.


    "Yes, Queen Trinity." He grabbed onto the rope of magic that I had thrown his way.


    "Now, open the door." I ordered him, intending to have us all move through there all together.


    I was hoping all of this worked. I was hoping that none of us got left behind and ended up as hell snake chow. As much as I disliked Alexio, he had saved me. Rudy was also a friend of mine now, so I wouldn''t leave him behind. And there was no way in hell, this one or the figurative one, that I would leave my children behind. Nope, we were all going right now.


    I noticed that Rudy was shocked at first, but he did as I told him to. Just as Alexio and I flew toward the door, and as a result toward him, he flung the door open wide. That was when all the chaos seemed to hit again.


    Just like all the previous times, the door sucked me through it like I was nothing but air. It pulled me so fast that it felt like I was shooting through a tornado. Not that I actually know what that felt like, it''s just the only thing that I could liken the experience to.


    Me, Zachary, Zander, Zayden, Rudy, and Alexio went spiraling through the air and smashing into each other violently. I don''t think I need to exin just how painful that was, especially considering howrge a certain someone was right now. Granted he was a lot smaller than he had been before the door sucked us in, he was still bigger than the average man, and the average werewolf.


    Unlike the previous times that I had gone through a door, or fallen through one, we were not scattering all over the ce. It was almost like the force that was pushing on us this time was pushing us together instead of pushing us apart. Maybe, it had figured out that I wanted us all to stay together for this part of the journey.


    Also, unlike thest time that we went through a door, but almost exactly like when we went through the door into Limbo, we all crashed into the ground like we were nothing but test dummies in a factory. Dammit, didn''t this realm have any consideration for people and the pain it inflicted onto them.


    Yeah, that was stupid of me to ask myself. I was in Hell, for crying out loud. This ce only wanted to inflict pain onto its inhabitants. Especially in the part of Hell that we had justnded.


    I could officially tell that we hadnded in the Hall of the Damned. This ce, the way that it looked. The ominous feeling that it gave me. The sounds of those being tortured around us. All of it screamed out the true nature of Hell. This ce was meant for the truly evil, the truly despicable, the truly damned.


    "Mommy?!" Zayden ran to me the moment that he disentangled himself from Rudy. He and the other boys had seen what was around us and it had frightened him. He wasn''t the only one toe bury his face in me either. Zachary and Zander did as well as they all tried to not see the horrors that were happening around us.


    I could see so many different forms of torture that were happening around us. So many that were way more brutal than they had been in Purgatory. And here, all forms of the torture were ancient and disgusting.


    I am sad to say that I knew what a lot of these forms of torture were called. From my various studies with Grandfather, Gabriel, Reece, and college; I had learned things that most people never would.


    Some of the things that I saw were easy to understand for just about anyone that heard the name. There was Lingchi or slow slicing, impaling, ying, and burning. Those were the simplest of them all. Then, after that, there were ones that I knew the names of, had heard the descriptions of, but never wanted to see in my entire life. Now though, I was seeing them. And to top it all off, I was hearing the screams that the people were emitting because of these tortures.


    There was the Catherine''s Wheel, also known as the braking wheel, in which people were tied to a wheel and their bodies were broken. I had a feeling that here in the Hall of Damnation, the victim would just heal and be beaten for all of eternity. There was also Scaphism, in which the victim was trapped in a hollowed-out tree trunk or in between two boats. While they were in there, they were force fed milk and honey which would give them specific bowel issues after a while. The purpose for this torture, which used to be an execution style, was to have the person get eaten both inside and out by vermin (bugs and rats). The bugs at the exterior while the rats burrowed their way inside their bodies.


    Among the most disgusting of the tortures, and ancient forms of execution, were the Judas Cradle, Saw Torture, and Spanish Donkey. All of those were bloody, involved splitting the body apart from the bottom up, and were very disturbing to see in person.


    "Where are we?" Alexio, the man that I had brought with me out of necessity, asked in the quietest voice I had heard from him. I also noticed that he was back to the size he had been when I first saw him. He was still huge though.


    "You can''t tell?" I asked him as I held onto the boys. "This is the next level after Purgatory. Wee to Damnation, Alexio."


    "Damnation? Why did you bring me here?" He red at me.


    "Would you have preferred to have died at the hands, or teeth, of the hell snake?" I tilted my head in confusion. "All I did was save you, and I only did that because you saved me first."


    "I didn''t ask you to save me. I didn''t ask you to bring me here." He was mad, but thankfully he wasn''t yelling at me.


    "I am sorry, Alexio. I just didn''t want you to die."


    "Hahh." He sighed and flopped onto the ground like a petnt child. "I am in Damnation. There is no way out of here. I am ruined. We will be tortured for havinge here. This is the end for us."


    "I will get you out of here, Alexio. I do not intend to be trapped here forever. I am going to stop Hekate and then I am going home. But I promise you, I will find a way to get you home."


    "That is only a pipe dream, girl. You have no idea what you are talking about."


    I red at him and his attitude. He was starting to piss me off again.


    "I have faith in her." Rudy smiled at me. "She is a goddess. I know that she will get us out of here."


    "You are a fool." Alexio told him tly.


    "Hatthh." I sighed now, just like Alexio had done.. This was already getting exhausting.

 Chapter 703 - 120 Reece Talias Plan (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Well, everyone was staying at the castle now. All of Trinity''s family friends that were considered family, Riley, Trevor, everyone that we could think about. All of them were helping me with the kids and we were helping them too. I was just d that it wasn''t crowded at all.


    With so many people here, none of us ever felt alone. Not to mention that if the one person that bound us all together were to finally wake up, everyone that she would want to see were already here. We were going to make sure that when my Little Bunny finally woke up, she would see how much she was loved and needed by all of the people around her. Maybe the next time she was in a crisis like this she would tell us, or at least me. Maybe then she wouldn''t wind up like this ever again.


    I was, once again, in my office working when there was a knock on my door. I was surprised by the scents that were there though. I hadn''t expected two of them to evere and see me. And then there was the fact that none of them had an escort. It was just the three of them and no one else.


    "Come in." I called out in confusion before Talia, Charlie and Chloe came into the room.


    "Hi, Daddy." My little girl ran up to me and jumped into my arms as I pushed away from my desk.


    "Hey, sweetheart. What is up? I didn''t expect to see you here today." I stared at her for a moment and saw the smile that seemed to be permanently etched onto her face. Even the bear twins, Charlie and Chloe, were smiling. They had been smiling a lottely though. Ever since my little Talia had given them human forms. In truth, they had three forms now: human, bear, and in between.


    "Good afternoon, King Reece." Charlie spoke as he and his sister bowed their heads. In their human forms, their eyes were the same as they had been, and so were the hair colors, white and ck, but other than that they looked like regr people.


    "Good afternoon." I nodded at the two of them in turn. "What can I do for you today?"


    "Well, King Reece, Princess Talia had an idea that we wanted to run by you." Chloe spoke next. She has been a lot more confidenttely.


    "What is your idea, Talia?" I asked her, sitting her on the edge of my desk and looking into her eyes.


    "Well Daddy, I know that everyone is really sad that Mommy isn''t awake yet. And I know that they are all really worried about her. I wanted to do something for them. Something that would help them to not be so sad anymore."


    Ever since Talia had spoken to the twins and blessed them with their new forms, she spent a lot of time with them. She counted them to be among her, and I am quoting this using her terms, ''bestest beastest friends ever''. Yes, she said bestest which isn''t a word and beastest which isn''t a word. I am assuming that it was a joke with them since the twins had thought they were hideous beasts at one point in time. Now though, my little Talia has gotten them to open up and enjoy life. She was truly remarkable.


    "What is your n?" I gave her a calm smile as I asked her the question.


    "Well, Daddy, I wanted to let people see Mommy, to see what she is doing and where she is. I think that might help them to not be so scared. But this needs to be something that wouldst and stay even without me and CharChar or ChloChlo doing anything after it is opened." I was used to the nicknames that she had given to her new friends.


    "I am afraid I am not following you, sweetheart. What are you trying to tell me?"


    "I want to make a magic TV so that people can see Mommy. I want people to watch where she is and what she is doing. Can we make one in your room?"


    What was she saying? A magic TV? Was that even possible? Could I really see my Little Bunny? Could I watch what she was doing? Well, if it was possible, then I would definitely want it.


    "Well, sweetheart, I don''t know if that thing is possible, but I would love for you to try. Even if no one else looks at it, I would. I want to see Mommy more than anything."


    "YAY!" She sounded so excited as I gave her permission. "Can we go now, Daddy? I want to make the Magic Mommy TV for you to see Mommy. And I want Reagan and Rika to see Mommy too. They miss her so much. I want to make sure that everyone is able to rest easily."


    My little girl was so thoughtful and loving. She was thinking about me and her siblings, along with everyone else that wanted to see my Little Bunny. She was such a good girl.


    "Yes, sweetheart, let''s go right now." I lifted her from my desk and carried her in my arms as I led the twins up to my room.


    On our way up the tower, we ran into a few other people. Some people who were so curious upon seeing us that they insisted on asking what we were doing.


    "Reece? What are you doing?" Noah asked me first as he was just inside the door. It appeared that he was on his way out.


    "I am going to work with CharChar and ChloChlo to make a magic TV to see Mommy." Talia answered for me.


    "Really?" Noah''s eyes went wide as saucers as he heard those words. "Then I aming with you." He immediately turned around and started to lead the way.


    "Hey, Reece''s Pieces, where are you going?" Juniper asked.


    "I am going to work with CharChar and ChloChlo to make a magic TV to see Mommy." Talia repeated the same words from before.


    "Heck yeah, Tally girl, I want to see that." She, too, followed us along with her mate Paul.


    The next person we came to was Trevor who was sitting in the hall waiting on Gloriana. Valerian was there too.


    "Where are you all going together?" He narrowed his eyes and I once again let Talia answer. Of course, he, Valerian and Gloriana all came with us.


    In the course of moving through the tower and up to my room, we came across Samuel, Mom, Wesley, Eve, and Carter. Thankfully there were no others that were joining us at the moment, because this was already a way bigger party than I thought we were going to have for the initial attempt.


    I didn''t have the heart to tell the people that came with us that this whole process might not work. It was just an idea that Talia had and none of us knew whether or not it was going to work.. However, like the others, I was going to have faith in it and hope that it allowed me to see my Little Bunny for the first time in forever.

 Chapter 704 - 121 Reece Opening Talias Magic TV (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    By the time that the whole group of us made it to the top floor of the tower, to the room that I shared with my Little Bunny, they were all pumped up and excited about what Talia was trying to do. They wanted to see Trinity, but I think that they also wanted to see if Talia could actually do what she had said she was going to do.


    I had faith in my little girl though. I had faith that she was just as special as she thought that she was, and I was going to be right there to support her every step of the way. And even if she couldn''t aplish this task right now, I would stand by her side and support her until she tried again. That''s what it means to support your children and be there for them. No matter what they wanted to try, to be there for them every step of the way. As long as it didn''t hurt them or anyone else, that is.


    The first thing that I did when we all went into the room, with Talia still in my arms, was walk over to my Little Bunny''s side in the hospital bed. I set Talia on the edge of that bed and leaned over to kiss my wife''s cheek. Talia also leaned forward and kissed her mommy''s cheek.


    "Daddy, Mommy''s belly is getting big." She said to me as she pointed at the roundness that was her younger brothers.


    "That''s right, Talia. Mommy has your baby brothers in there. You used to be in there and so did Reagan and Rika. Now it''s time for the triplets."


    "I am happy I am going to be a big sister. But isn''t it hurting Mommy to be growing the babies?"


    "Nope. She will be fine." I smiled and rubbed the belly in question. "Hello, boys." I leaned over the belly then, spoke to the babies, and kissed my Little Bunny''s rounded tummy.


    "Can I kiss them too?" Talia asked me so I nodded and held her up so that she was able to kiss the babies. "I can''t wait to meet them. Mommy and them are together right now. I want to be with them too. I want to be with Mommy. I want to hug Mommy and have her hug me back."


    I don''t know about the others in the room, but those words broke my heart. They made me want to cry. They made me want to crumble to the floor and hug my little girl for the rest of the day. To hug her and Reagan and Rika until my Little Bunny woke up and could hug them.


    I couldn''t do that, though. I couldn''t be that weak. I couldn''t be that emotional. If I started that, then everyone around me would lose their will to go on as well. At least, that was what I kept telling myself. That was what I thought it would be like.


    "We all want Mommy to wake up, sweetheart. And we know that she will soon. And for now, you will be able to help us. You can show us Mommy. That way, we will know what she is doing and that she is OK. I am sure of it."


    "Yeah. I want to help everyone. I want to help them see Mommy, but I am being kind of selfish too, Daddy, because I want to see Mommy. I want to do this because I want to see and because I want to help people."


    "That''s OK, sweetheart. It''s OK to be selfish sometimes." I rubbed her back andforted her as best as I could.


    "OK, Daddy." She nodded at me before hopping out of my arms and moving to stand across the room. "CharChar, ChloChlo, I think it''s time to get to work." She called out to them, almost like she was a mom or a teacher, and she was getting her children to do what they needed to.


    "Yes, Princess Talia." Charlie bowed his head with a smile for her.


    "I agree, Princess Talia." Chloe did the same, mirroring her brother.


    I didn''t know how Talia, Charlie, and Chloe were nning on opening up a portal to allow us to see my Little Bunny. I didn''t know if the portal would work, or what it would be capable of. I didn''t know anything about it, but I was very excited about it nheless.


    I wanted them to seed. I wanted them to aplish their goals and give us all this special treat. But no matter what I wanted from it, all I could do was stand here and watch. Well, I guess I could sit instead. And that was exactly what I did. I sat on the bed next to my Little Bunny and held her hand in mine as I watched little Talia and her friends.


    Talia, standing in front of the wall that was between my bed and the hospital bed that we had brought in for Trinity, held her hands up in front of her. I don''t know how she knew what to do here, how she knew the proper way to use magic, but she did. I could see that clear as day as my sweet little Talia started to glow with the power coursing through her.


    Talia wasn''t the only one glowing either. Charlie and Chloe were as well. The three of them, standing before the wall, were glowing with different colors. Charlie had his white light, the same from before. Chloe also had her same color, dark purple that was as close to ck as you could get a magical light. And my little Talia was standing there surrounded by a pink light. That was the same light that had given the twins their human and bear forms. The light that had healed them.


    While the three of them glowed, they grabbed each other''s hands. Once the three of them were making physical contact, the lights started to swirl together. The white, purple and pink lights all flowing together, but not actually mixing together.


    Right now, I didn''t know if I should be in awe of the lights, orugh at the way that the three of them looked together. The really tall Charlie and Chloe were standing on either side of my little Talia. She was so much shorter than they were that they needed to stoop over and crouch just to reach her hands. It was funny, really it was, but the lights were so beautiful.


    "I am going to try to find Mommy now." Talia called out with her eyes closed. This was going to be the big part. The major thing that we were all here for. I looked around me and saw that everyone was staring at Talia with their eyes opened wide and their breaths bated. They were nervous but excited as well. This was major. This was something that we all wanted to see work. If this failed, if this didn''t let us see my Little Bunny, then we were all stuck waiting with and not knowing anything.


    ''Please, Goddess, please let my little Talia do this. Please let her find my Little Bunny..'' I gave a silent prayer as I waited.

 Chapter 705 - 122 Reece Opening Talias Magic TV Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "Let me see you, Mommy." Talia said in a whispered voice. It was almost too quiet for me to hear even though the room was silent, and I was not that far from her. "Let me find you so that I can see you again. Come back to me, Mommy. Come back to all of us. Daddy misses you. Reagan misses you. Rika misses you. And I miss you too, Mommy." Talia said the words that we all knew already. Words that we all didn''t want to say but we felt the power of every single minute of every single day that my Little Bunny was gone.


    After those words I just watched my little girl and her twopanions.


    With her eyes closed and her head tilted back, Talia was putting her all into this magic that she was trying to do. I wasn''t a warlock or anything of the such, but even I could feel the sheer amount of magical power that was pouring out of her at the moment. It almost felt overwhelming, like there was too much power for anyone to contain. However, I refused to stop looking at her. I refused to miss even a second of this whole process that was happening before me.


    And I was so d that I had refused to look away at all. If I had looked away for even a second, I might have missed the fact that my little Talia was floating. I mean she was literally floating off of the floor and in between the twins that had been standing on either side of her.


    Charlie and Chloe were still holding her hands, so I didn''t have to worry about her floating up too high or anything. But still, that was not something that I was prepared to see. I had not been ready to see my four year old little girl do so much magic that she was floating in the room in front of me. How had she even managed to do that?


    "My name is Talia Serene Gray, I am the daughter of Trinity Faith Gray. I am the daughter of the Goddess. I am the daughter of the Queen. I am the daughter of the Luna. I am the daughter of the most powerful woman that I know. And I seek help from the spirits to help me find my mother. I seek help from those in the underworld to guide my magic on a path straight to my mother and three brothers that are with her. I call on those that are friends, as well as those that are neutral. If you hold no ill will or malice toward my family, please help me to find my mother, the Goddess of the Shifters, the Goddess of the Magic Users and the Goddess of the Fae. Please help me see where she is and what she is doing. Please aid me in my quest to find her. Please help to reunite our family. I only ask that you have sympathy for me and my family. Help me. Please."


    Was it just me, or was Talia speaking a lot more clear and using more maturenguage than she had ever used before? I mean, It had to just be me right? It wasn''t really that my little girl had just suddenly started to speak like she was a teenager or adult. It was all in my imagination, right?


    "Reece, when did Talia start talking like that?" Trevor came sidling up to me where I was sitting on the bed and whispered to me. He wasn''t the only one either.


    "Reece, son, when did Talia start acting like this?" Mom''s eyes were wide as she looked at her youngest granddaughter.


    "I''ve never heard of a four year old that was able to talk like this." Valerian couldn''t take his eyes off of Talia as she floated in the air.


    "Uhm, Reece, should we be worried?" Juniper whispered to me next. "This is like some next level horror movie stuff, right? What if her head starts spinning and she starts to spew pea soup all over the room? Or what if the whole house started to shake and monsters and ghosts started crawling out of the woodwork? Are we ready for something like that to happen?"


    "I never thought this would happen." I told them, rising from my seat so that I could see my little girl better. "But you know what, this just shows how powerful she is. She''s strong, just like Trinity. She is going to be an even more special girl when she is older. More special than she already is right now."


    Like the rest of them, I was nervous about seeing this happen right in front of me. I was afraid that I was not going to be able to keep up with her or my Little Bunny as time went on. However, I would never look at Talia or Trinity like there was anything wrong with them. Talia, like her mother, was very special.


    Why were the others afraid? Why were they scared of this magic? I wasn''t scared of it. This was magic that my little girl was using out of love for her mother and the rest of us. She was a sweet, innocent little girl. And we were all here to keep her safe. There was nothing to be afraid of.


    "Thank you all. Thank you for the help." Talia''s voice was calm and steady as she thanked people that none of us could see. "Yes. Please. Show me the way. Show me where they are. Guide me to them."


    As Talia spoke, I saw a bright pink dot appear on the wall in front of her. The dot got bigger and bigger. It grew and grew until it was about eight feet tall and at least twelve feet wide, maybe bigger.


    I swear, it looked like an actual TV. This looked like arger than life television that was glowing into life on the wall in my bedroom. This was crazy. It was insane. And it was perfect.


    "You will follow the path they took?" I heard Talia speaking to someone again.


    "Yesss." A voice echoed and hissed back. "I will follow where sheee went." The voice seemed normal enough, it was just a little off at times.


    "I appreciate that. Thank you so much." Talia nodded at the wall, still held in ce by the hands of the twins that were holding her.


    None of us said anything. And none of us moved at all. We were as motionless as it was possible to be as we watched the screen before us. It started in a ce that looked just like the castle that we were currently in, only it waspletely devoid of all color.


    The ce that the images first opened up on was just outside the throne room. It was right about where Vincent said they found Trinity when she had fallen into thisa-like state. I guess it was true, that was where it had all happened.


    As I thought about that, I saw that the images in the magical TV started to move and change.

 Chapter 706 - 123 Reece Seeing Where Trinity Has Been (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I couldn''t believe my eyes. I was literally watching someone, or something, move through a shadow version of my home. It was moving in slow motion, but something tells me that it was still sped up somehow. I don''t know how I knew that, but somehow, I just did.


    Something about the images that I was seeing seemed to feel like, even with how slow it was going, it was still faster than what my Little Bunny had experienced them. If this had been how hard it had been for her to traverse this area, I could imagine her being frustrated and annoyed. Hell, I was pissed off on her behalf.


    With that thought aside though, I watched the view of the images as whoever it was moved to the tower and up to my room. This very room that we were in right now. This part was scary. Whatever that thing was, it was in this room with us right now.


    The thing went right up to Talia, where she still floated in front of the magic screen. Seeing the view of it looking at my daughter and then watching her wave at it from two different perspectives, that was scary as all hell. What was this thing? And what exactly did it look like?


    "Hi." My daughter''s smile and giggling while she spoke did nothing to make the fear and worry go away. "Go now. Show me where my mommy went." Like the thing that we were seeing on the screen was the literal view through the thing''s eye, the screen shifted a little bit as it nodded its head, or whatever its eyes were on.


    After leaving Talia where she was, the thing went to the bed and crawled into it,ying on the sheets. That told me that my Little Bunny had been here with me, at least once. Was it after I had gotten home? Was it when I was in bed?


    I didn''t know the answers to those questions, but I did know that I was going to be calling Roisin to change the sheets as soon as this thing was gone and out of here.


    At first, I thought that the images had frozen, or that my Little Bunny was still here in this room with us even though I was told that she wasn''t. I thought that until the thing got up and then started to move throughout the entire castle. It was like Trinity was looking for something.


    What was it? What was she looking for? Where was she going?


    Dammit! Why couldn''t I answer any of these questions? Why couldn''t I do anything to find my Little Bunny? Why was I so weak and powerless in all of this? GAH! I just wanted to scream. but I couldn''t.


    I watched on, that was all that I could do. Watching and waiting for someone else to help me find my mate. That was all that I could do for her at the moment.


    After the tower, my Little Bunny searched everywhere in the castle. It was like she hadn''t found what she was looking for though, so she went outside. I could tell that the images were going to move in one direction, but something had caught her attention.


    My Little Bunny changed her course and started to go to the side. Around the castle and into the mountains. That was the path that the images were showing us. And I found out after several minutes just what it all was for. There was a door. There hadn''t been a door before that looked like this anywhere in the castle. And there wasn''t one like it in the mountains either. At least, not on this side of the images at least.


    Wherever that thing was, the thing that was moving on the screen, it wasn''t in a world that we were in. It was in a ce that was close to it, but not actually here. And as it approached the door that my Little Bunny had obviously gone through, I could tell that it was only going to get further away from here.


    The door on the magic screen opened and it immediately sucked the thing that was showing us the path inside of it. the images spun around and twisted all over the ce until it disappeared altogether.


    That thing nownded in a room, or whatever it was in, that was so dark it was pitch ck. Nothing at all could be seen on the screen, but I still got the sense that the thing was moving. I don''t know what it was, but it was following where my Little Bunny had been.


    As riveting and exciting as the in ck screen was, I needed more. I needed to see more and know what happened. And I got that too. Off in the distance, there was a fire that was burning. Only this fire had purple, blue, red, and orange. It wasn''t just normal colors, and it didn''t look like a normal fire at all. Though, all the ces around the fire were in ck and white still so that told me that we were still in another type of world.


    There was something else that I noticed too. I hadn''t noticed it before since I had heard Talia speaking in the same room, but there was sounding from the images that we were seeing. I could hear the crackling of the mes from the roaring campfire. It was so odd to hear something that I had thought was going to bepletely silent.


    This was fine with me though. I would prefer to be able to hear what my wife had experienced. What if there was something in there that was important for me to know about? What if I hear something truly valuable or helpful? I think that this was a truly good development.


    Now, after seeing this ce, and knowing that I could hear the sound apanying the images, I was ready for the thing to keep moving, whatever it was. And that it did. After what felt like a very long time, it continued to walk past the fire and toward a wall. A wall that we could only see when we got close to it. And near that wall, there was another door.


    This door looked so much like the other one that had been in the mountains near the castle. And I noticed that the wall surrounding this door was a stone wall, like it was the side of another mountain. That was odd, but consistent at least.


    We hadn''t seen much, but I could tell that by this point, my Little Bunny had to have experienced a lot. She had been through so much in such a short span of time. And that is assuming that it was all short. I don''t know how far into my Little Bunny''s journey these images were. But I did know that she had been gone for about two months now, give or take a little bit.. How long did it take for her to get to this point? And how much more had she experienced since that time? That was something that I didn''t know, and wasn''t likely to find out until she was back with us.

 Chapter 707 - 124 Reece Seeing Where Trinity Has Been Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    When the door opened, it once again pulled the thing inside of it like there was a weird whirlwind or something. The images, which were still there instead of going all ck again, swirled around and around in a way that made me feel like I was going to get sick. I had to wonder how my Little Bunny felt spinning through that until shended on the other side?


    Now that it all stopped spinning and moving around like a kaleidoscope on speed, I could see where we were. The door literally dropped us just on the other side of thepound. This was the road that would lead us into Colorado Springs.


    And there was something that I noticed as I looked around. There was color. It was there, but it was muted in a way. Not as vibrant or anything like that. And I wasn''t sure if there was sound still, since I didn''t hear anything at alling from the screen.


    The more that I thought about it though, the more that I realized that there wouldn''t be sounds. Not until there was someone or something there for me to see. And I highly doubted that where that ce was, there were no animals or insects hiding in those trees. This was a ce for dead human souls.


    The images started to move after I thought about that. I wonder if my Little Bunny had been thinking something or doing something to make her stay in that spot for a few minutes. Whatever it was, the images were finally moving.


    And they were really moving. Whatever had been making that creature showing us these images move slow, it was gone now. It was like the images were truly on fast forward and it was moving at hyper speed or something like that.


    "I know that ce." Juniper called out as she got to her feet. "That is the way to Franny''s. Man, Trinity and I used to eat there all the time. It was like her safe ce when she first started going to school." I could hear the nostalgia in her voice as she reminisced.


    "Yeah, I remember taking her there a lot. And picking her up from there." Carter was smiling at the memory as well. "They have really good food."


    "They used to." Eve corrected him. "They closed up a while back. Franny was too old and sick to run it anymore and her family just couldn''t bear to do it without her. That ce was her baby, and it really wouldn''t ever be the same without her."


    "I didn''t know that." Juniper sounded like she was on the verge of tears. "Man, that is insane. I wish we would have known sooner. I would have taken Trinity there one more time before they closed."


    The conversation died out as we watched on. I was so engrossed in the images that I hadn''t joined the others as they spoke, even though I had fond memories of that ce with my Little Bunny as well. And I knew how much she was going to miss going there.


    Before I could let myself get too lost in the nostalgia, I saw that there were other people there. People that seemed to be on repeat. What were they doing here? What was happening? I wasn''t the only one to be asking those questions though.


    "Who are they? Can you tell me why they are there?" Talia seemed to be talking to the thing that was on the other side of the screen. And, of course, it was talking back to her, even though I couldn''t hear its voice. "Limbo? Like the game?" Talia seemed to be confused by what it was saying.


    "What''s the matter, sweetheart?" I asked her, finally moving forward to stand near her.


    "My friend says that these people are stuck ying Limbo, but I don''t get it."


    "Did he say ying limbo or in Limbo?" I asked her in a calm voice.


    "He..he said in Limbo. What''s Limbo Daddy?"


    "Hmm, how should I put it? It''s like an ''in between'' ce. I think that, in this case, it means people that have moved on but couldn''t decide where to go now that they weren''t here."


    "That sounds like a sad ce. I don''t like people being stuck in Limbo. Can we help them, Daddy?"


    "Maybe sometime, honey, but not right now. Your friend seems to be moving, and we need to follow him, right." I tried to soothe her feelings, but I wasn''t sure if I had managed it or not.


    "Yeah, you''re right. Let''s find Mommy first. Then I can help themter." She was set and determined to help them. I just hope that she didn''t get upset when she wasn''t able to do that.


    The images finished zooming on. They moved until there was another door, once again in the mountains. I wonder if that was going to be a theme here. I could tell that falling haphazardly through the doors was a theme. At least this was the third time that we were seeing this stuff spin past us.


    The next area was crowded, but the images zoomed by so fast that I barely had time to register the fact that there were millions of people in what looked like an airport. What the hell did an airport have to do with the underworld?


    Not only that, but the sound that wasing from the other side made us all cover our ears. It was like pure hell, no pun intended. The only ones that didn''t cover their ears were Talia and the twins. They seemed to be able to hear what those voices were saying.


    "Daddy, my friend says this is the hallway of regrets. These people wanted to do something but never had the time. They regret not doing it. Or maybe some of them regret doing something that they did. It''s a little hard to hear with all of them talking at once."


    "Yes, it is quite difficult." I agreed with her as the images sped toward the door that was in the middle of the airport. This time, at least, there was no mountain.


    Things were still moving in hyper speed when it got to the other side of that door. And that was a good thing too, since there was a lot in this ce that I didn''t want Talia to look at too closely.


    "Purgatory?" Talia said in a curious voice. I could tell she was asking me what it meant as she looked at the images.


    "I will tell youter." I told her, horrified by what I was seeing.


    The images sped past this ce. It went through a tunnel that seemed to be cave-like, so I guess there were mountains here somewhere. After the cave, we were flying through the air, literally, speeding toward the door in the distance.


    I really hoped that the giant snake that was outside that door wasn''t there when my Little Bunny had passed through here. That would have been bad. I mean, she is only a soul, who knows if she has the ability to fight it right now.. And that thing was fucking massive.

 Chapter 708 - 125 Reece Seeing Trinity In Damnation (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    If I thought what I saw through the previous door was bad, that was nothingpared to this ce.


    The images had once again spun and twisted around like it had done every time before this, like it did with every door apparently. And when it stopped spinning, when we had made it to the other side of this door andnded, I almost cried out in horror.


    This ce, wherever and whatever it was, it definitely was not suitable for my little Talia''s eyes. This ce looked like the truest of all definitions of hell. This ce looked worse than thest one where people were being tortured. Here though, it was a lot more gruesome. It was a lot more evil.


    "Daddy, what does damnation mean?" Talia asked me, turning her head away from the images to look at me.


    "I will tell youter, baby girl. This isn''t something that you need to be seeing right now." I tried to hide her eyes. "Talia, sweetheart, will this screen stay here if you were to leave the room? Or will it go away?"


    "I made it so that it would stay until Mommyes home. I didn''t want to only see Mommy this one time. I want to see her all the time until she''s back with us."


    I knew that she missed her mother. I knew that she would want to stay here and watch her the entire time if she could. However, if my Little Bunny was going to be in this ce for a while, then I would need to keep Talia, as well as Reagan and Rika, away from this screen. I didn''t want them to see what was happening in the background. Talia might not have seen too much yet, but I didn''t need her to see it at all. I wanted to protect her little mind. She probably didn''t understand what was happening yet, but that didn''t mean that she needed to be exposed to it all so young. I had to preserve her innocence for the time being. Forever if I could.


    "OK Talia, let''s make a deal here. I promise to let youe back to see Mommy when she is on the screen at just one time. But I also need you to not look at anything else that is happening in the background. There is a lot of bad stuff in there and you don''t need to see it."


    "I know, Daddy. I saw it. I just ignored it. That ce has bad things happening to bad people. It''s the part of the underwear world where all the bad people go. I don''t know why Mommy is in the bad part. She is a good person. But I know that Mommy will be back and that is all that matters to me."


    "Thank you, sweetheart." I hugged her to me, burying her face in my chest as I did so. "Thank you for being such an amazing little girl."


    "I''m just me, Daddy, nothing more and nothing less." She smiled at me then turned her head toward the screen, though she couldn''t see it at the moment. "Please follow my mommy. Please show my daddy where my mommy is and stay with her until shees home." I knew she was talking to the someone, or something, that was on the other side of the door.


    "Thank you, baby girl. Thank you for doing this for me." I couldn''t keep the tears out of my eyes as I spoke to her. And even then, one of them rolled down my cheek. I was literally crying in front of my daughter.


    "Don''t cry, Daddy. I know that you miss Mommy as much as I do. I cried too. In the beginning I cried a lot. I know it''s hard and we all miss her. But she will be home soon and then we can all hug her and feel her hug us back." At that moment my adorable little Talia wiped away my tears and hugged me again. I didn''t know how to respond so I just held her for a few moments.


    After she left me, everyone else hugged her too. Wesley, Eve, Noah, Carter, Juniper, Trevor, Gloriana, Valerian, everyone that came with us all hugged her as she left the room. And right before she left, I saw that the twins went with her. They truly did revere her. They were like her own personal servants now or something.


    "Reece, I think we need to watch what is happening now." Noah called out to me as he looked at the magical screen that was still there. I took his words to heart and moved immediately. I spun and watched the images moving before my eyes.


    They weren''t moving at hyper speed now. Nope, now it seemed that everything was moving normally. Nothing was being sped up to hurry us along to where she was. That was because this was where my Little Bunny was.


    I saw her then. My wife. My mate. My everything. She was standing there with five other people. There was a veryrge man, even taller than Trevor. Another man that was maybe my height. And, of course, three identical little boys.


    The boys looked like they were around Talia''s age right then. They were maybe three or four years old. It was kind of hard to tell since they looked like they kept changing as I watched them. Sometimes they appeared that age, sometimes younger. And other times they looked older. And all of that happened in the span of maybe five seconds. I could only imagine what it was like for my Little Bunny to look at them and see them constantly.


    "Trinity?" I called out to her, walking toward the screen just a little more. "Oh, Trinity, how I have missed you." I wanted to walk through the screen to her, but I knew that wasn''t possible. If it were, Talia would have told me about it. And I would definitely have been on that side in a heartbeat if I was able to be with my wife again.


    Not to mention, I would have leapt over there to protect her from those two men. I mean, what was my sweet, adorable, crazy, insane, beautiful Little Bunny thinking right now? How could she be gallivanting all across hell with other men? Who were they? Why were they with her? What was the meaning of this?


    "Reece?" Someone called out to me but I ignored them. "REECE!" they called me again, louder this time. "CALM DOWN, CUJO!" This time I heard Noah''s voice and turned to look at him.


    "What?" I snapped at him.


    "You''re shifting into your Lycan form. You need to calm down." He pointed at my face so I lifted my right hand and felt my cheek. Yup, sure enough, it was covered in thick fur.


    "Sorry." I slumped my shoulders.


    "Just calm down, Reece. It''s fine. You can see her now. You can probably hear her too. This is a good development. So just calm down and let''s see what she is going to do now." Noah was speaking in a calm, soothing voice.


    "Yeah, Reece''s Pieces, it''s time for us to watch the Trinity Show." Juniper smiled. She was on the verge of tears as well, but that just showed me how much she missed her friend. She wanted to know what was going on as well, but I was stealing the spotlight here.


    "Yeah, let''s see what my Little Bunny is up to now." They had both used nicknames with me just now, so of course I was going to use the nickname for my wife as well. They all knew what it was anyway.. It was far from being a secret.

 Chapter 709 - 126 Split Where To Go Now (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    We hadn''t been in here for long. We were all still, literally, standing right at the ce that we had fallen into the Hall of Damnation. And now that we were here, I felt like someone was watching me.


    I hadn''t felt it right when wended in this ce, but I felt it now. Maybe there were other guards watching me. Maybe it was the eyes of those being imprisoned in this ce. Maybe it was just my imagination. I wasn''tpletely sure of what was the exact cause, but I knew that it was making my skin crawl.


    "D..do either of you feel someone watching us?" Rudy asked me in his slightly nervous voice.


    "Yes. There are definitely eyes on us." Alexio spoke curtly and in a very stern manner. It was definitely reminding me of the military men that I had known in person or seen in the movies.


    "Who could it be?" I asked as I looked around us.


    "It''s a friend." One of the boys said as he pointed at a nk space on the wall behind us.


    "What are you saying, Zachary?" I knelt in front of him.


    "He said it was a friend."


    "Yes, Zander, I heard that. I just didn''t understand what he meant." I looked at him as he came to stand next to his brother.


    "It is hard to say, Mommy. We don''t know the words. But there is a friend here. He can see us. I can feel him and almost see him."


    "Zayden?" I looked at him with my head tilted as I tried to figure it all out. "What is it that you can see?"


    "I don''t know, Mommy. I just know that it is a friend. It was sent here by another friend."


    "OK." I nodded at him and the other two, even though I didn''t quite understand what it was that he was trying to tell me. "As long as we''re not in danger from whatever it is, then I think that we are going to be fine."


    I stood up after that and looked around the area that we were in. I had already seen the horrors of this ce, and I knew that the boys had as well. I wish I could? have kept them from seeing it. Kept them from being corrupted by it all. And I just hoped beyond anything and everything, that they would not remember any of this when they were born. I hoped that the only thing that remained with them when they were born was going to be the intense connection that we already had.


    ''Please, Goddess, don''t let my babies remember this hell when they are born. Don''t give them that sort of burden.'' I said the silent prayer to myself as I tried to figure out what it was that I was going to do. And where it was that I needed to go.


    "So, do any of you have any idea where to go from here?" I asked them, a slightugh in my voice as I did so. They were probably just as lost as I was.


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    My Little Bunny was still just as beautiful as ever. Standing there with the other people, those men that were nowhere near as good looking as me, she looked like nothing short of perfect.


    I didn''t care that her face was covered in dirt and other stuff, she looked like she had been through a lot of hard timestely. She was still my Little Bunny, and she was still as beautiful as ever. And I could stand here looking at her all day.


    "D..do either of you feel someone watching us?" The shorter of those two very ugly looking men spoke in a weak voice.


    "Yes. There are definitely eyes on us." Hideous and tall confirmed what the shorter one had been thinking. At least they weren''tpletely stupid, just not worthy of my mate. And they had better not try anything or I would kill them. Even if they were already dead, I would kill them again. They would not touch my wife.


    "Who could it be?" Ah, there it was. There was the sweet perfection of my Little Bunny''s voice. It was like music to my ears when I heard it. It had been so long.


    "It''s a friend." One of the boys said as he pointed at a nk space on the wall behind them. That was one of my unborn babies. That little boy, who looked so much like me, was pointing at the thing that was watching them. However, it looked like he was pointing at us, at me. That''s right little buddy, we are friends, not enemies.


    "What are you saying, Zachary?" I gasped when my Little Bunny knelt in front of him. She had given him a name. She had named the boys. Or had they already had names and just told her.


    "He said it was a friend." The next little boy, another perfect copy of me, said as he stood next to his mother.


    "Yes, Zander, I heard that. I just didn''t understand what he meant." Another name. Two of the boys had names, that means that they all probably had one. And the first two started with the letter ''Z'' so that means that the third one probably did too.


    "It is hard to say, Mommy. We don''t know the words. But there is a friend here. He can see us. I can feel him and almost see him."


    "Zayden? What is it that you can see?" I knew it. She had given them all three names that started with the same letter. She did like I had with Reagan and Rika. My Little Bunny had named them all while she was over there, and their names were so cute. I couldn''t wait to start using them.


    "I don''t know, Mommy. I just know that it is a friend. It was sent here by another friend." Zayden looked confused as he tried to answer her.


    "OK." My Little Bunny just nodded at him and stood. She was trying to figure something out.


    "Did you guys hear her?" I smiled at the others in the room. All of them were glued to the screen. "Did you hear the names of my new babies? Zachary, Zander, and Zayden. Trinity named them this time. She gave them all names and they''re perfect."


    "Yeah, and they look just like their daddy." Mom said as she came to hug me tightly. "Congrattions, Reece. Now we just need to bring her home."


    "She will be here soon, Mom. I know that she will. Seeing her now. Seeing her like this. I just know that she will be home soon, and I can hardly wait. Though, while I am forced to wait, I can get some customization started. I can start work on the new nursery and I can order signs like the ones that Talia, Reagan and Rika all had."


    "Yeah, we need ones that say Zachary, Zander and Zayden." Wesley was grinning at the screen, staring at his grandchildren and his daughter.


    "I am just happy to be seeing my little Trinity again. I have missed her so much." Samuel looked so happy that he was crying. "And the boys are so cute. I can see some of Trinity in them. They are my great grandsons and I can''t wait to meet them."


    At that moment, I heard my Little Bunny say something else so we all hushed and listened.


    "So, do any of you have any idea where to go from here?" She wasughing as she said it. I know that she was nervous but that didn''t make theugh any less beautiful for me. Everything about my wife was beautiful. Even in a time like this that was all that I could think.


    And until this moment, it hadn''t hit me just how much that I had missed her voice. I had seen her every day since this happened. I had seen her face and I had helped to get her changed and bathed during thesest couple of months.


    However, not once during thesest couple of months had I heard her voice. She hadn''t been able to speak to me. She hadn''tughed. She hadn''t called me Fido. She hadn''t done any of that and I missed it all so much. I needed it.. I needed her.

 Chapter 710 - 127 Trinity Moving Through Damnation Part 1 (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I tried to forget about the feeling of someone watching me. I tried to ignore the fact that I could literally feel someone behind me, even though I couldn''t see them. There was no point in paying attention to it until I found Hekate and ended her reign of terror before it could even begin.


    As I scouted the area around me, I saw that Damnation actually looked like it was nothing but a giant hallway. It was moving in a straight line from here to the other end, which happened to be out of sight.


    And even though this appeared to be nothing more than a one straight hallway, it was a very wide hallway. Looking at it, I could tell that this space was many times bigger than my castle was. Even if I tried to make the castle like this, it would pale inparison and that was really saying something. Since we all knew that my castle was one of the biggest buildings in the entire world. Unofficially, of course; since hardly anyone knew about it. Maybe one day we could get it on record or something. Hundreds of years from now when we reintroduce the world to magic and try to make sure that we all live in one harmonious world together.


    For now, though, I was left in awe of this hall. Trying to wrap my mind around the sheer size of it was like trying to learn hieroglyphics instantly. It just wasn''t possible.? I was going to have to take my time with this ande to terms with it over time.


    "So, does anyone know anything about this hallway?" I asked them, waiting to move on.


    "No, I have never been in this area before." Rudy looked repentant and embarrassed.


    "I never intended toe here. You brought me here against my will. Alexio growled at me.


    "I already said that I was sorry, Alexio. Next time I will let the hell snake eat you. Would that make you feel better?" I tried not to sound too upset with him. He was having a hard time as well.


    "No. It won''t." He crossed his arms in anger and acted like a child. I sighed and waited just a moment before I started to speak again.


    "Alright, well if no one knows anything then-."


    ''I know a little.'' The other me spoke up for the first time in a while. She had been silent for such a long time that I had thought that she was gone for good. Well, too bad, I guess.


    "Is something wrong?"


    "No, Rudy." I shook my head to alleviate his worry. "It''s just the voice inside my head." Iughed at myself and the way that it must have sounded. "It''s my inner dark side. She came into being when I was in the Hall of Self Reflection. Now that she''s home inside my head, she is still talking to me. Though she assured me that would end when I left the underworld."


    "Oh." He sounded like he didn''t get it at all.


    "Just give me a moment. Let me talk to her for a bit."


    "Uh.. y..yeah, sure, OK."


    Yup, I was definitely looking like a crazy person to him. Most likely to Alexio as well. Why did I have to seem so crazy right now? What was the point of it? Why couldn''t the world, or these two demons, just see that it was nothing crazy and it was just normal? Well, whatever, I needed to talk to myself for now. I didn''t have time to think about all of that stuff at the moment.


    "OK, you know about the Hall of Damnation. Then tell me. Tell me what it is all about."


    ''I do not know much. There are few that know about it after all. However, the magic that brought me to life was the magic of the underworld itself. The magic knew things so, therefore, I know things. This is a very big benefit for you, so you should consider yourself lucky.'' The other me''s attitude was still there. That had not changed at all. Then again, if her attitude was supposed to be a copy of mine, then I guess it wouldn''t ever go away. Was that supposed to be some sort of divine punishment for me? Oh well, I would deal with it.


    "Yes, I consider myself so very lucky to have you with me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. What would I ever do without you?" I let the exasperation literally drip from my voice and felt the other meugh at the sound of it.


    ''You are letting your dark side show, Trinity. I like it.'' Her voice giggled inside of my head before she continued. ''Now, let us move on from that. I will tell you the little bit that I know about the Hall of Damnation. It is, as you said, one hallway. It will eventually go on for eternity as it will expand each time that more souls are added to Damnation. However, as you can see, there is no constant stream of soulsing to this ce. Most of the people that receive punishments in the underworld only go to Purgatory. Even if they did bad things, their souls can be redeemed. The people that wind up here though, are the ones that are deemed to be beyond redemption. It takes a lot for anyone, human or not, to make it into this part of the underworld. However, when they are here, they are tortured most viciously than those in Purgatory. Some of them get a recovery period between their punishments, but it is not long, and they are definitely few and far between.''


    "OK, so the only differences are that they are here forever, and they are treated more harshly. I understood that already." I summed it all up in one sentence.


    ''Just hush and listen.'' She snapped at me, and I could almost feel her roll her eyes again. ''Now, the way the hall is made is unique as well. The newer the resident the closer to the front they will be. New cells for torture are added on as a needed basis. That means that those that have been here longer, will be further down the hallway.''


    Oh, well, wasn''t that just great. I needed to find someone that had been here for thousands of years. I needed to find, quite possibly, the first person to ever be sent to the Hall of Damnation. How long was this going to take? And who would I see along the way? What sort of souls were here that deserved torture for all of eternity?


    Those were questions that I didn''t know the answers to. Nor did I want to find out the answers to them. Right now, all I wanted to do was to start on this journey of mine and find the one soul that seemed to be trying to get out of here.


    I was sure that others wanted out of here, but I doubted if they knew how, or even were trying to get out of this ce.. Not like Hekate was doing.

 Chapter 711 - 128 Split Moving Through Damnation Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Alright, you guys." I said as I turned to look at Rudy and Alexio. "It seems that the other me said the Hall of Damnation is indeed one long hallway, like a tunnel. And of course, the person that we''re looking for will be almost at the very end. The reason for that is the fact that the newer souls are up here while the older ones are at the back. This is literally moving in the order from newest to oldest." I did my best to exin it all to them as best as I could. They didn''t look lost, and they both nodded at me to tell me that they understood what was going on. That was good. I didn''t want to over exin things to them right now. That would just take way too much time. What I needed, more than anything at all, was for them to just follow along behind me and do as I told them to. I would take Rudy home with me when this was done, and I would send Alexio wherever he wanted me to. Until then, though, they were stuck with me, whether they liked it or not. And whether I liked it or not.


    "I will follow you, Queen Trinity." Rudy bowed his head with a smile. He was already quite loyal to me. That was interesting to see.


    "I will never follow you like him. However, I will travel with you since I have no other choice at the moment." Alexio didn''t bow his head, but at least he agreed toe along in what I assumed would be a peaceful, or almost peaceful, manner. As long as we didn''t have any problems in the future then we were good. I just didn''t want to have him fighting with me or Rudy on anything. Not that I expected Rudy to take the lead on anything. He was going to follow me like the lost little puppy that he was.


    "Alright,e on you two, let us go. We have a lot of ground to cover right now."


    I grabbed the hands of two of the boys, Rudy took Zachary''s hand in his, and we were about to start off.


    "You know, I can help you with the children." Alexio said, stepping forward. "If something were to happen again, you are going to need your hands free, are you not? I saw you using magic before. For your sake, I acknowledge that magic is much more powerful than my physical strength. However, I will still be of use with guarding the children. If you would like, I will carry one of them, or even all three of them. I will watch them while we journey onward."


    I could not believe what I had just heard. He seriously just told me that he would help me watch my children. He was offering to help me. To protect my babies. Of course, that would be beneficial. However, should I trust it? Should I let him do as he said that he was willing to do for me?


    Well, I had no reason not to trust him. In truth, I knew that Alexio was not a bad person. He was just stubborn to a fault. But he did have a point. He was strong and very fast. He would be able to help me with the boys if we were attacked again. That would give me peace of mind and that felt like something my mind desperately needed.


    It wasn''t just up to me, though. I wasn''t about to force the boys to go to him without asking them. So, that was just what I was going to do. I was going to ask them for their opinions.


    Kneeling in front of the three of them, I looked at each of them in turn before I started to ask them what their opinions were.


    "Zachary, Zander and Zayden, what do you boys think? Do you want to walk with me and Uncle Rudy, or do you want to walk with Uncle Alexio?" I looked at the two men in question and dared them with my eyes to correct me in the way that I had said their names. Thankfully, neither of them did.


    "Uhm." Zachary was looking between me and Alexio as he thought.


    "Hmm." Zander was doing the same.


    "Mommy, I think I know, but I don''t want to make you sad." Zayden hung his head.


    "It''s OK, Zayden, go ahead and tell me. I won''t be sad at all. I promise.


    "I think that Uncle Alexio is right. If something happens, Mommy is the strongest person in forever. Mommy is the only one that can save us. So, I think we should walk with Uncle Alexio and Uncle Rudy. That way Mommy can keep all of us safe."


    I felt my heart melt at his words. He was a smart little boy, and he hadn''t even been born yet. And he was right too. About everything except for Mommy being the strongest ever. But I agreed with him that me taking the lead and them being protected by Rudy and Alexio was probably the best option that we had.


    "Do you two feel the same?" I gave them all smiles to let them know that I was not at all upset by what I had heard Zayden say.


    "I think it is good too, Mommy. You are stronger."


    "Yes, Mommy protects us the best. You need to watch for bad guys." Zachary and Zander answered me in calm voices. They were good boys and they knew what was best for them and us.


    "Alright boys. That is fine with me."


    Now that it was all decided, it was time for us to go.


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    UGH! I did not like how that tall ugly dude was talking to my Little Bunny. He was acting like he wasn''t in the presence of someone that was so amazing. UGH! I could smack him right now.


    Oh, and let us not forget about the fact that he was standing there telling my wife and mate that he wanted to protect and look after my children. Did he think that he was allowed to touch my kids, or to even look at my kids? He was not worthy of that. GAH!


    Then, I had to literally stand here and listen to my kids and wife agree to let that man and the other ugly asshole watch my kids. That was pure horror. Then again, they were all right in the fact that my Little Bunny was the strongest ever.


    OK, well, I was going to get past this. I wasn''t going to let it bother me. I wasn''t going to dwell on the fact that these two men, Rudy and Alexio, were there with my wife and sons and I wasn''t.


    Nope. I wasn''t going to dwell on it at all. Instead, I was going to take some deep breaths and watch my wife as she started to move them all through the Hall of Damnation. And I definitely wasn''t going to imagine throwing those two men into one of those torture cells. That definitely would not be very kingly of me at all.


    GAHH!

 Chapter 712 - 129 Trinity Moving Through Damnation Part 3 (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I knew that we needed to move fast. That was a given. And now that I didn''t have to worry about Zachary, Zander and Zayden while I moved through the Hall of Damnation, I was able to focus on what I needed to do to get us through here.


    Ideally, the best thing for us to do, would be for me to just hyper speed us through here and to the end. However, something told me that would be a very bad idea. For some reason, I felt like I needed to see something along the way in between here and the end.


    I don''t know what that something was, or why I had that feeling at all, but I felt the need regardless. Whatever that thing is, whatever it is that I am meant to see, I will figure it out one way or another. That was all that I needed to know.


    So, still ignoring that feeling of someone or something watching me, I created another tform out of wind for us to ride as we progressed through the hall of damnation. This tform was a lot more sturdy looking than the bridge had been. They were in fact the same durability, but this one just looked a little more solid.


    I thought that having something a little easier to see, and feel, would make both Rudy and Alexio a little more calm when it came to flying. The two of them, though they lived in the underworld, seemed to be very unused to magic and things like that. Honestly, who would have thought that demons would be so unknowledgeable when it came to these types of things?


    I know it was all probably just legends and stories, but didn''t there used to be demons that wielded magic and tried to lord over the earth? There are legends in every part of the world about demonic creatures and monsters that could do so many evil things.


    Well, I guess that a lot of those so-called ''demonic creatures'' could have just been shifters, Fae and magic users. But is that all it ever was? Or did something else happen? Did someone or something take the magic that the demons used to wield?


    That was something that I both did and did not want to find out the answer for. What if I was right that they had magic and that someone took it? Would that make me want to help them? Would it make me want to help them to get it back? Would it call out to the bleeding heart in me that made other people''s problems my problems? Then if I was wrong, and they never had magic, would it make me feel so sorry for them and the misconception about them?


    I don''t even want to fathom what I would want to do if I found out that demons got this bad reputation for nothing. I mean, a whole group of people that were feared and hated just because they were different from the others. Hmm. Yeah, I have no idea what that would be like at all. Nope. None at all. And that is not the world''s thickest dose of sarcasm that I have ever seen or heard. Not at all.


    I did my best to try to ignore all of those thoughts. I tried not to think about what it would all mean and instead focused on flying us down the darkened tunnel toward the evil goddess that was waiting for us.


    This Hall of Damnation was a lot different than I thought it was going to be. I had thought that it would be much like Purgatory had been. But there were actual cells here, ces for the soul to be imprisoned. However, it looked as if many of them were also tortured inside their cells, so I guess they didn''t have to leave them at all.


    The amodations were not all that nice inside the cells. Definitely something that would have any human prison shut down for inhumane living conditions. The beds that the prisoners had here were nothing more than a jagged and rocky cement b that would stab into the person sleeping on them. I saw no ''facilities'' that they would be able to use to relieve themselves. Then again, they were dead, so did they even need to do that. And did they even sleep? I didn''t know the answers to that.


    The so-called beds could just be where they were put so that they could recover their bodies after torture. You can''t have eternal torture if there is nothing left of you, right? So yeah, I don''t think they needed the same forts'' that a person back in thend of the living would have had. No food, no bed, no restroom, none of it, just torture and a ce to heal their bodies.


    "This ce is scary." I heard Zachary whisper from behind me.


    "I don''t want to be here anymore." Zander agreed with him.


    "Don''t worry, brothers. Mommy is strong. She will protect us. There is no ce more safe than where Mommy is. And when Mommy is done here, we will go home with her and be born. Then we don''t need to worry about all of the scary stuff anymore. Mommy will take care of us. She will always take care of us." I felt my heart swell with love as I listened to Zayden''s words. He was just such a sweetheart. How did I get so lucky? And he wasn''t even born yet. Yeah, he had all of Reece''s charm, that was for sure.


    "Don''t worry boys, it is not just Queen Trinity that will protect you." Rudy whispered to them, most likely thinking that I couldn''t hear him.


    "Yes, Rudolphus and I will help as well. I may not be your parent, but I know the value of life. That means that I will not let someone take an innocent''s life." Well, I guess that was as sweet as I could expect toe from Alexio. It would have to do for now. I wasn''t going to push my luck with it at all.


    "None of you have to worry. I will protect you all. I won''t let anything happen to you. And I promise that all of you will get to go where you want when this is over. Whether that is back to your guard position or home with me. None of you will be hurt, and you will all be happy when we are done here." I told them all, looking back at them all one at a time. I looked at Alexio, Rudy, Zachary, Zander and Zayden. And all of them looked back at me me with different emotions. The emotions ranged from shock, happiness and skepticism.


    The skepticism was, of course,ing from Alexio. He must not have thought that I could do what I had just promised him. Well, I was going to prove him wrong then. I am going to make sure that he gets his happiness, whatever that may be.


    "I promise you." I said the words again, just to reiterate them to those that might not think that they were the truth.

 Chapter 713 - 130 Trinity Moving Through Damnation Part 4 (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    There was something that caught my attention while we flew through the hall. I was looking into the cells that we were passing. While doing that, I was taking note of the people, and creatures, that we passed.


    Well, for one thing, all of the people didn''t look humanoid and that led me to think that the way they looked here reflected the soul. Or there were some really evil shifters that weren''t normal looking.


    Anyway, that wasn''t the thing that was making me so curious. The souls inside their cells all had something inmon. They were all glowing just a little bit. None of the other souls that I had passed on my way here had done that. Or at least I hadn''t noticed it until this point.


    "Hey, Alexio, do you or Rudy know why the souls are glowing like that? And why are they glowing with such a dark light? I turned to look back at Alexio as I spoke. Rudy was nicer and more friendly, but I chose to ask Alexio instead of Rudy because I felt like Alexio might be more knowledgeable. The next words I heard told me I was right to guess that.


    "I do not know, Queen Trinity. I am sorry, but I spent all my time at the gate until you came along." Yeah, that was just what I expected from Rudy. Sorry buddy, but that was why I asked our other friend here.


    "Hmm. Well, I have been told about this in the past. The souls start to glow when they get to their punishment. So, the souls in Purgatory and here in Damnation would glow."


    "OK, but what does it mean? Why are they glowing? What is the purpose of it?" I felt like a curious little kid at that moment. What does this mean, Mommy? Ooh, ooh, ooh, what does that do? OK, I didn''t sound just like that, but it was a funny thought.


    "The light indicated their redemption level. It is not something that they can change on their own. It is something that happens in the deepest recesses at the core of their soul. The darker that they glow, the more anger and evil that still fills them. The brighter and clearer that they are, the more they repent and regret what they have done."


    "Huh?"


    I tried to think about that for a moment. I hadn''t actually looked at the people in Purgatory all that closely. I had seen them and the punishments that they were getting, that was true. But I hadn''t actually looked at them long enough to see if they were glowing like this or not. And since I had not seen that, I had nothing topare this to.


    I was starting to wonder something though. Was this the reason that the souls hadn''t left Purgatory all that frequently? Were they stuck there until all of the darkness left their souls? Were they made to wait there until there was absolutely no trace of that ckness inside of them? To me, that didn''t seem like it would take that long at all.


    "Do the souls in Purgatory leave when their lights turn white?" I had to ask Alexio if that was the case. But for some reason, I wasn''t all that hopeful for his answer.


    "No. The souls in Purgatory stay there until they have reached the end of their sentence."


    That wasn''t fair. It just wasn''t right at all. The people should only have to stay until the darkness was out of their soul. If they were rehabilitated, then they should get to leave. They should get happiness and peace after paying for their sins.


    I wanted to help the underworld even more now. I wanted to do something that I knew was going to make Reece and everyone else around me not very happy at all. I was going to upset them when they figured it all outter. I just knew it. Sorry in advance you guys.


    ying Alexio''s words in my mind over and over again, I looked at the cells that we were passing. The souls that we were passing hadn''t been here for very long, so they were still glowing almost ck. But I wondered if there were any here that ever turned white.


    "Hey, Alexio?" I called out to him again. Once again, I reminded myself of the fact that I sounded like a child.


    "Yes, Queen Trinity?" He addressed me the same way that Rudy had been.


    "If a soul in Damnation turns all white and has fully repented their sins, are they ever moved out of here? Do they get paradise or reincarnation or anything like that?" I had to know. I just had to.


    "No, Queen Trinity. No souls ever leave the Halls of Damnation. It is not allowed. They are fated to spend all of eternity in their torture, whatever it may be."


    As hard as that might be for me to process at the moment. I knew that it was the way that things needed to be. These were the purely evil souls. They were the ones that you could never trust to leave here. They might destroy all of humanity or something if they were let out of here. Just like Hekate wanted to do.


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I saw that look on my Little Bunny''s face. I could see it in her eyes. I knew what she was thinking, but I wasn''t going to say anything out loud. I didn''t want to have the others hear what it was that I thought my wife was thinking at the moment.


    How could I let them know that I thought my Little Bunny wanted to take over Hell? I mean, if they knew that, they would think she was crazy. They would abandon her. They would do so many things that I didn''t even know what they were. They would¡­


    "Yup. Trinity just decided to take over, didn''t she?" Carterughed.


    "You know it." Noah joined in with him.


    "She is so predictable." Mom almost doubled over inughter.


    "We all knew it was going to happen the moment she asked that question. Did any of us ever have any doubt?" Juniper asked the others before eyeing me. "Come on, Reece, you know I''m right. You thought about it too, didn''t you?" She was ring at me, but she already knew my answer.


    "Yes, Juniper. I knew it too. But what can I say? That is my Little Bunny. That is what she is like. We all know it."


    "Yeah, I know. I''ve known her longer than you, candy pants. She''s my best friend. At least we know what she is nning though." Sheughed and I had to wonder about her line calling me ''candy pants''. And apparently my face showed that too since she started tough at me hysterically.


    "What the hell did you just say?" I asked her with my arms crossed.


    "What? You''re Reece''s Pieces, for crying out loud. They''re a candy. And they''re in your pants. How is that not self exnatory? Come one Reecey, keep up here." She rolled her eyes at me and I was trying desperately not to blush as the others looked at me.. And I was failing miserably at it too.

 Chapter 714 - 131 Trinity An Unexpected Encounter (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    All these thoughts about souls and being stuck in hell forever were truly weighing me down. I didn''t want to let the others know about it, but it was getting increasingly hard for me to think of anything else. I didn''t like that. I didn''t like that all I could think about, dwell upon, were these negative thoughts.


    Right now, I needed to focus on getting out of here. Making sure that Hekate didn''t escape hell. And getting home to my family. Why was that getting harder and harder for me to focus on?


    Was it because I had been away for so long? How long had I been gone anyway? I remember when I was in the Hall of Self-Reflection, it had already been two weeks that I had been gone. That had been when I learned that time passed by quicker in thend of the living than it did here.


    What felt like at most a day and a half, maybe, was two weeks. And that was what felt like an eternity ago. But even that was hard for me to judge.


    It was actually really hard to tell how much time was passing here because I didn''t need to sleep, eat, drink, or relieve myself while I was here in the underworld. Not having physical cues to let me know how much time was passing was making it difficult. As was the fact that there was no change in lighting. There was no night and day. It was all the same all the time.


    For all I know, I could have been gone for years. The kids and Reece could have moved on without me. They might have me in a hospital waiting for me, or they could have buried me, thinking I was dead. I honestly don''t even know what to think at the moment. I just know that I was finding it harder to focus on my family now that I was here in Damnation.


    Maybe, just maybe, that was a side effect of Damnation itself. Maybe that sort of hopelessness and sorrow that I was feeling was what this ce caused naturally. It would make a lot of sense, honestly.


    And if I am telling the truth here, if I didn''t have Zachary, Zander and Zayden, I would probably abandon any and all hope of ever making it out of here. Having them with me was the only thing keeping me going. They needed me, and I couldn''t abandon them at all.


    I battled the emotions silently, not letting the boys, Alexio and Rudy know what was going on inside of my head. As we flew on, down the hall, I also tried to avoid looking at the people in the cells. I didn''t need to know who these people were. That was none of my concern. What they did and didn''t do was none of my concern.


    Frankly, I was just d that I hadn''t run into anyone that I kn¡­


    "YOU!" A woman''s savagely snarling voice broke my thought and made me instantly regret that I was even thinking what I had just been thinking.


    "DAMMIT!" I snapped at no one in particr. Unless you wanted to count the bitch that yelled at me.


    "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" I had truly hoped that I would never have to see, or hear, this woman''s voice ever again. "YOU DAMN MONGREL MUTT! I THOUGHT I WAS DONE WITH YOU! WHAT, DID YOU WANT TO HUMILIATE AND TORTURE ME EVEN MORE? OR DID YOU WANT TO WATCH ME BE TORTURED?"


    Snum''s voice was filled with anger and rage. She had not changed at all since Ist saw her. Since I, well, killed her.


    "Granny! You''re looking great. I see you found your head in the afterlife." Why, I do think that the super serious Alexio got that joke. I mean, why else did heugh when I said that?


    "FUCK YOU, TRINITY GRAY! YOU ARE A HORRIBLE PERSON! YOU SENT ME HERE! YOU DESTROYED ME AS THOROUGHLY AS YOU COULD! YOU KILLED ME AND YOU SENT ME TO DAMNATION! YOU DID THIS TO ME ON PURPOSE. YOU WANTED THIS TO HAPPEN TO ME! YOU WANTED TO WATCH ME SUFFER. YOU PLANNED IT ALL! I KNOW YOU DID! ADMIT IT! ADMIT YOU SENT ME HERE!"


    "No, Granny, you sent yourself here. All I did was end your reign of evil that you tried to unleash on the world. Your own actions brought you here. That is something that you need to understand." Her voice had sent shivers down my spine when she spoke. It was like a memory that I didn''t want to have reyed for me, again. I had already so recently relived the hell that was my experience with her. And I didn''t want to have this happen to me again so soon.


    As I exined this to her, I looked closely at her, at how she was glowing. And I was not at all surprised to see that Snum''s soul was glowing with almost a pure ck light to it. She was definitely still full of evil and all those other negative emotions that would darken her heart and soul.


    "I will get out of here, Trinity. I will get out of here and I wille for you. You mark my words. I will destroy you. I will snuff you out. I will-."


    In the middle of Snum''s threats, a strange ck shadow moved forward and mped a hand over her mouth. That shadow pulled her off into the back of the cell and almost immediately she began to scream.


    It was too dark for me to see what was happening to her, but I think that was a good thing. If it could make someone like Snum scream like that, then it must be horrible. Besides, there was something else that I was even more interested in.


    "Alexio, what are those things?" I pointed at the strange shadow creature. I could tell that this creature was the one that was actively torturing Snum. It didn''t have a face that I could see, so I couldn''t see what it looked like, or what it was feeling. Still, I got the feeling that this strange thing enjoyed its job.


    "That is a reaper. They are responsible for taking an evil soul from thend of the living when it dies. That reaper then brings them here for special punishments." That was definitely not what I was expecting.


    The underworld just got moreplicated, and scary, all at the same time. Someone please remind me to never do something to make mee to the Halls of Damnation. I mean, you know, after I go back to living that is. I never want toe back to this ce ever.


    Nope, after I destroyed Hekate''s soul. I was going to get out of here. And then everything will be just fine after that. That was what was going to keep me going. Hoping and praying that I would nevere back to Damnation after this was over.. Hoping that I wouldn''t be in a cell right down the hall from Snum and everyone else that was here.

 Chapter 715 - 132 Trinity An Unexpected Encounter Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    With strange thoughts of those weird shadow reapers running through my head, I continued past Snum''s cell and started to move on. Now, more than ever, I wanted to just keep my eyes straight ahead and not think about looking at anyone else until I got to the end of the hall.


    And that n was working for me. I was ignoring everyone and everything as we flew past dozens of cells. I thought that maybe whatever it was that wanted me to go slowly through the hall had just wanted me to see Snum and that all would be good and everything would just speed on by now.


    Nope. I wasn''t that lucky.


    As I tried desperately to ignore everything around me, I heard someone calling out to me.


    "Trinity!" The voice didn''t register with me at first. "Trinity!" They called again and I looked back at Rudy and Alexio, expecting it to be one of them. "Trinity!"


    "Queen Trinity, I think that man is calling you." Rudy said, pointing beside us.


    "Trinity!" That man called again and that was when I turned to see who it was.


    Why was I surprised? I should have known that if Snum was here then he would be too. It wasn''t that surprising in all honesty. I mean, he was one of the most evil people that I had ever met in my life. That I had even heard about in all of my life. I knew that he would be in Damnation, there was nowhere else for him to go. Nowhere at all.


    "Trinity." He called out to me again and I saw just how happy he was to see me.


    "Hello Edmond, it''s been a long time." I was looking into the eyes of my father. Into eyes that were identical to mine.


    "Hello Trinity. How have you been?" I was looking for the snide edge, the evil man''s rage, something. However, he just genuinely seemed to be curious about me.


    "Why do you want to know? What does it matter to you? What kind of sick pleasure would it give you to know that?" I didn''t want to tell this man anything about my life. I didn''t want to have him knowing anything about me and my family. Yet, I also couldn''t help but think that he was somehow hurt when I asked him that.


    "I deserve that. I have never been a kind person. I caused heartache, fear, pain, loss, anything and everything but happiness. There never were any good things that came from me. Well, except for you, Trinity. You and the children that I never let have a chance at life. I know that I was wrong. I know that I was a bad person. I havee to terms with that and understand it. And I do not expect you to ever forgive me."


    I was staring at him with wide eyes as I listened to what he had to say. This man before me looked just like the father that I killed years ago. He sounded just like him. And I know that it was him without a doubt.


    There was just one problem. This man didn''t act like the father that I killed years ago. The things that he was saying was nothing like the father that I had taken out of existence. What had happened to him? Why was he so different from the Edmond that I had known before? Who was this new man here?


    And asking myself those questions, I took a closer look at Edmond as he stood at the very edge of his cell. I took a really close look at him and assessed him based on what I had learned here in the underworld so far.


    Edmond was looking at me with clear eyes that were filled with sorrow. His face was calm but sad at the same time. There was no tension. There was no anger. There was nothing but sad eptance and calmness.


    Oh, and he was shining with a bright light that was nearly perfectly white.


    That right there was probably the biggest shock of my entire life. I was looking at my father and he was clearly not the same person that I remembered him being. He had, believe it or not, repented. Somehow or another, he seemed to have rid his soul of all evil.


    "E..Edmond, what happened? Why are you so different?" The words came without me even nning them. I didn''t mean to ask him, but I did.


    "I am in the Hall of Damnation, Trinity. I am in Hell. Literally. I know that I fucked up. I know that I did things that I shouldn''t have. When I first died, I spent weeks inside the Hall of Self-Reflection. While I was in there, I saw all of my crimes reyed before my eyes. I saw the lives of the hundreds of thousands of people that I killed. I saw the destruction that I caused over the course of my long, long life. I know that I was the one that was the problem, not them."


    "It wasn''t just you, Edmond." I hung my head, remembering what I saw earlier as well. "Your parents didn''t give you a chance. If they had, your life probably would have been different."


    "M..my parents?" He sounded confused, like he didn''t think I knew anything about it.


    "You are not the only one that was in that hall. I saw things too, and some of them had to do with you."


    "That is ttering." He smirked, but then he seemed to think about something. "Why are you here, Trinity? You are not dead, are you? And you certainly wouldn''t be here in Damnation. What is going on?"


    "I am here to stop Hekate from escaping. She wants to destroy the world, and I need to stop her." His eyes went even wider than they had been before. "Do you think I can''t do it?" I red at him.


    "No, I know you can. I have faced you myself. I just never thought about the fact that I was here in Damnation with Hekate. I used to want to see her so much, now I regret that. You know, Trinity, if I could go back, I wouldn''t have done the things that I did. However, if that were the case then you wouldn''t be here. And I know that the world would bepletely lost without you. You are what the world needs. And even though I didn''t have noble intentions at the time, I am proud to say that I helped bring about the person that the world needs. I am proud of you, Trinity. I am d that you were stronger than me and ended me. Because without that, I would never have been able to see the world this clearly."


    "Edmond" Was it bad that my heart was breaking right now? Was it bad that I felt sorry for my father? Was it bad that I felt horrible about the fact that he would be stuck here forever even though his soul had turned pure? What did these feelings say about me?


    "Don''t look at me like that, Trinity. I am where I belong. I am in the afterlife that I made for myself. I am just d that not all of my children perished. And I can see here that you are extending your family." He looked at the boys around me. "They look like your mate." He was smiling like a proud Papa. And I realized then, that they were indeed his grandchildren but he would never get the chance to actually meet them.


    "These three are as of yet unborn. I am currently pregnant with them." I exined it to him. "I have three other children at home as well."


    "That is amazing. You are living your life to its fullest, Trinity. Thank you for not letting me stop you."


    "Mommy?" Zayden came forward and held my hand.


    "This is my father, Zayden. He is your biological maternal grandfather. But you won''t meet him after you are born."


    "H..hello." He spoke to Edmond tentatively and Zachary and Zander followed suit.


    "Hello boys. Are you protecting your mommy? I hope so."


    "Sh..she is protecting us." Zayden answered him, being the closest to him.


    "She does like to do that, doesn''t she? She is strong, so you stay with her and do what she says."


    "Mmhmm." The boys nodded and hummed in agreement.


    "Take care, Trinity. It is time for me to go. It is time for my punishment." He stepped back into the shadows of his cell, another one that was so dark I couldn''t see what it was. I sensed another shadow reaper, but I didn''t see it this time. And unlike Snum, Edmond didn''t cry out at all. He waspletely silent while he was being tortured.


    "Come on." I ushered everyone along on our flying wind.. I didn''t want to stick around for this.

 Chapter 716 - 133 Split Moving Through Damnation Part 5 (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    That feeling that I thought would go away after having seen Snum in her cell, the one that was telling me to move slowly through Damnation, it was gone. Whatever it was that wanted me to move slowly, it had been focused on my father. I wonder if I was just supposed to see how he had changed. To see what he was like now.


    I don''t know why I had to see Edmond. I have absolutely no idea why my father was so important at the current moment. It''s not like I was going to save him while I was here. It''s not like I was going to say that he deserved to be given another chance because he had repented. I mean, it definitely wasn''t like I was going to advocate for him to be reborn because I thought his soul might be able to do better with parents that loved him. None of that was true at all. Nope, none of it.


    Or at least I was telling myself that it wasn''t true. The problem was, I couldn''t stop myself from thinking about it. I knew that it was wrong to be thinking these thoughts, but I knew that he was a bad man that had done terrible things. But he was also changed. He was a soul that realized what he had done wrong. And if he were reborn, I am sure that he would be able to live a better life. He just needed to be given a chance.


    As I thought about all of that, I started to move us along faster and faster. I had the wind tform, flying cloud, magic carpet, whatever it was that you wanted to call it, I had it zooming down the hall at a breakneck speed. I was in a hurry to get to Hekate. I needed to end all of this. I had lots of other work to do.


    "Queen Trinity, what is wrong?" Rudy asked me, sliding forward on his knees as he clung to the tform as best as he could.


    "Nothing. I just want to get to our destination." Subconsciously, I sped up. I didn''t mean to do it. I truly just could not help it. I had started to move us so fast that Rudy stumbled and the boys behind me screamed out a little.


    "Mommy! Mommy!"


    "Ahh! Slow down, Mommy."


    "Too fast! It''s too fast Mommy."


    "I do believe we should slow down." Alexio spoke firmly after the boys cried out. "The little ones are frightened."


    Just then, I turned to look at the children, and consequently, Alexio and Rudy. I saw that the men were both nervous even though they tried to hide it. And all three of the boys were clinging to Alexio like he was their personal protection device or something.


    "I am sorry. I didn''t mean to scare any of you." I hung my head. I had not intended to do anything that would upset them, and it really wasn''t right of me to let my emotions affect them all like this.


    "Something is bothering you." Alexio noted soothing my boys as best as he could.


    "Was it that man? You told the children that he was your father, is that true? How would your father be in a cell in Damnation?" Rudy was like a curious little child right now. He was definitely not like a man I would have imagined when I thought of the word demon. He was innocent and curious, and often afraid. "Was there a mistake, Queen Trinity? Did someone put your father here incorrectly?"


    "No, Rudy, it wasn''t a mistake. He was a bad man. He did a lot of things wrong and he killed a lot of people. He is here because of that. And I was the one to kill him. I was the one that put an end to his tyranny. I did what I needed to do, that was all."


    "Queen Trinity?" Rudy gasped in shock.


    "I think that took a level of strength that not many people would be capable of." Alexio was a little wiser and a little more mature than Rudy was, it made me wonder how old each of them were.


    "Thank you, Alexio." I gave him a forced smile and nodded at him to show him that I acknowledged what he had to say. I wasn''t still upset about having killed my father. I don''t think that I ever was. I did what I needed to do and that was all that mattered. Still, I wanted to stop people from suffering now, and he was the one suffering.


    "That is what we are here for, is it not? We are here to help you. I havee to understand that already, why haven''t you? I know that I was not so epting at first, but I have had time to think. Something that I think we have all done since we started this journey in Damnation. This ce makes you think a lot. It brings the thoughts to you whether you want them or not. There is no possible way for you to traverse the Hall of Damnation and not think about some of your darkest thoughts."


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    What sort of dark thoughts was that man, Alexio, talking about? What was it he was trying to say to my wife? He better not be having thoughts about her. I would find a way to kill him if he was.


    Still. I should be thanking him. He was doing a lot of work while they flew through the hall. Mostly, he was protecting the boys, and that was what mattered the most. Trinity was busy with so many things that she wasn''t able to focus on the children, so she had left that up to this man.


    And I don''t me her for being so distracted. Seeing Snum''s nasty ass was bad enough, but did she really need to see her father? Really? And what was up with this changed man that Edmond seemed to be? Was that real? Could it be real?


    I don''t know anything about the underworld aside from what I have seen in these images, but I knew that the ce was having a massive effect on my Little Bunny. She was seeing, hearing and experiencing things that she never would have if she wasn''t there. These things that she was seeing were making her think and question more than she would have.


    I mean, never in a million years would I have thought that my Little Bunny, or me for that reason, would think that Gannon Cornelius Edmond had reformed and deserved to have another chance at life. And I was thinking this without having seen what it was that she had. I was basing it off of what I had seen since this video started.


    There was just so much going on. So much that was happening, and it was making us all think and question everything that we already knew. Or everything that we thought we knew. And I knew that when she got back from that world, she would need to talk all of this out with someone.


    Based on the look in Juniper''s eyes, she knew that too. Silently, just by nodding at each other, we agreed that we would both be there for her. She could talk to whichever of us she preferred. We would listen and not judge at all. That was the good thing about having a loving husband and a close friend avable to her.. She never had to wonder if she could speak her mind to someone.

 Chapter 717 - 134 Reece Time (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "So, how far do you think it is that Trinity needs to?" I heard Trevor whisper to Gloriana as we all watched on.


    "I don''t know. If the distance she has already gone is any indicator, then I would say that she has a very long way to go. I think this will take a long time, even with her having sped up."


    "Yeah, me too. But I feel like, going fast or not, it''s almost like it''s taking a long time. Or maybe time here just seems to be moving really fast." Valerian noted the strange feeling he had been having, ande to think of it, he was not alone in it.


    I, like Valerian, felt like either they were moving too slow. Slower than it seemed like they were going, or time here was moving really fast. I mean, it couldn''t be moving fast, no faster than normal anyway. We had just been here watching the magical screen that Talia had made for us. It had been what, an hour, two hours at most. That wasn''t all that long. So why did it feel like so much longer when I tried to think about it.


    When I looked at the clock on the bedside table, I saw that it had stopped working. That was odd, since it was not a battery operated clock but one that plugged into the wall. OK, well if that one stopped, let me check the other one.


    I checked the clock on the wall, across the room from us. That one had stopped too. Well damn. That sucked.


    There was another alternative though. I could check my watch. It was the same one that my Little Bunny had given me on our first ever Christmas together. I wore it every day. I always have and I always would.


    And of course, that one had stopped too. I hoped that whatever stopped all the clocks didn''t damage it permanently. I don''t want anything to be wrong with this watch. I loved it too much.


    Well, when all the old schools fail, it''s time to be modern. I pulled my phone and tapped the screen so that it would light up.


    "Hmm. Let''s see, it''s.." I stopped speaking to myself and just froze. I could not be reading that right. Not at all.


    "What is it, Reece?" Trevor came over to me then. He waved his hand in front of my frozen face as I watched the time on my phone.


    "Do you guys know how long we have been in here?" I didn''t say anything else to him or the others. Just that.


    "Maybe two hours?" Trevor was pulling out his phone now too.


    "Yeah, that would be my guess too." Noah added, also grabbing his phone from his pocket.


    "Yeah, it hasn''t been any longer than that. I mean, it''s not like it''s been.. It''s been sixteen hours?" Carter was about to agree with the others when he saw the time on his phone. All of them were now pulling out their phones, aside from Gloriana and Valerian since they didn''t have them.


    "How in the world has it already been sixteen hours? I mean, Trinity hasn''t been in the Hall of Damnation that long, I just know that she hasn''t. So how is it that time is passing that quickly?" Gloriana was perplexed as she looked at Trevor then at me.


    "Yeah well, that question took you fifteen minutes to ask." Carter held up his phone. "Time is moving insanely fast right now."


    "Does that mean that we are stuck in here right now?" Juniper looked around at everyone. "And is time passing this quickly for everyone else? If time is passing us by that quickly then it would basically make us all look like we''re frozen to everyone moving at normal speed."


    "Or would we be moving at super hyper speed or something? We''re obviously moving at an elerated speed for some reason, but I don''t know what it is right now." Paul shrugged and pulled Juniper toward him and held onto her.


    "I think this has to do with the magic that Talia used. We''re seeing into a ce where time moves differently there than it does here. I think time there is slower than it is here." I was watching the screen now, just seeing my Little Bunny and the others flying through the hall. "I think time here moves quicker than it does there. So, if we were to be watching her at our normal speed then they would all be moving super slow. There would be no point in watching Trinity and the boys on this screen if we couldn''t see what they were doing. This super speed that we seem to be moving at, I think it''s the only thing that is stopping this from being a picture."


    "Now that you mention that Reece, I do believe that I have heard about that before." Gloriana looked at me with thoughtful eyes. What about you, Val?"


    "Yes, it sounds familiar." That was all that Valerian had to add.


    "So, what do you think will happen if we leave this room while the magic is in effect? Will we be able to get back in, or would we be stuck out there until we close the magic? And how do we close the magic?"


    "Those are good questions, Mom." I thought about it for a minute, trying to give her answers that I didn''t have.


    "I don''t think that all of us can stay in here that long. That would not be fair to everyone else. If we''ve been in here that long, I know that my kids are missing me." Juniper was on the verge of tears when she said that.


    "And I have work to do. As the mayor of Trinity Falls, I need to be there."


    "I think some of us need to leave. And one will try toe back in. If they can''t, then we know that they''re stuck out. But only a few of us should stay." Samuel was trying to be helpful and diplomatic here, so I let him say what he needed to.


    "I agree." Noah nodded at him. "And those of us that leave, please inform the others what is happening. We don''t want more people to worry about us."


    "I am staying." I wasn''t going to let anyone talk me out of it.


    "As am I." Noah added, though I knew that was going to be the case."


    "I will stay as well." Valerian stepped up next.


    "And me." Trevor was thest. Everyone else was too busy to stay here too much longer. I didn''t know how long we were going to be in here for. Another day. A week. Who knew? I would miss so much with the kids, but they would know that I was watching after their mommy and brothers so that should make things a little easier on them.


    Gloriana, Juniper, Paul, Eve, Wesley, Samuel, Mom, and Carter all left the room. It was just the four of us left behind. Samuel had agreed to try toe back in, but it obviously wasn''t working. Or he just hadn''t tried just yet.


    Now that it was just the four of us, Valerian used his magic to put a veryrge couch in front of the screen. We all sat there among a mound of fluffy pillows and hearts filled with worry. It was time to see what happened to my Little Bunny.

 Chapter 718 - 135 Trinity Moving Through Damnation Part 6 (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Now that I was doing my best to keep my emotions in check, I was able to move us through the Hall of Damnation at a rapid pace. Albeit one that didn''t scare the boys or the men with me.


    If I didn''t know for a fact that I was moving way too fast, I would have just called them all a bunch of babies. But that wasn''t fair, especially to the boys. They were unborn babies. They didn''t have any experience in life at all and yet they were following me through the depths of hell. They were braver than more people in the world, simply because they had been trying to help me out from the beginning. I would never insult them like that, ever.


    The cells were flying past us on either side now. They were moving by us so quickly that we couldn''t see who was in them, nor what was happening in them. That was actually the best way that these things could be. It was better for the others not to know what was going on in this ce. Rudy and Alexio may be demons, but they don''t belong in this part of the underworld. And the boys didn''t need to see that at all. I needed to protect them as much as I could. Now and forever.


    There was one thing that I noticed the further back that I went into the Hall of Damnation. It got quieter. The deeper in, the less the souls that were being tortured screamed. It most likely had to do with them epting their fate or just losing all touch with their reality. Whatever it was though, they didn''t make a single noise as the shadow reapers worked on them.


    I had seen more than one of those reapers out of the corner of my eye, but I never looked close enough to make it so that I could see them clearly. That would have made me slow down and actually see the tortures. I didn''t want that either. No one, not even me, needed to see the tortures.


    It was also getting darker. There was less light. And there weren''t any brightly glowing souls to light up the hall either. It seems that, out of everyone we had passed so far, only my father had repented for his sins. Only my father seemed to regret what he had done. That was pretty awful to think about. How much hatred were the others harboring? How much was still weighing down their souls?


    I didn''t really have a lot of time to think about that. The moment that the thought slipped into my mind, I could see the end of the hall looming before us. In the distance, I could see what was essentially an enormous and ornately carved cell door.


    The door seemed to be shaped like an Ankh. That right there told me that it had to do with Thoth. That was his symbol after all, and on top of that, the cell beyond it was a lotrger than what the others appeared to be like. And there was lighting from within that cell as well.


    It was like everything about Hekate''s cell waspletely different from the other cells around her. This evil goddess may be a prisoner, but she didn''t seem to be getting treated the same way. She didn''t seem to be getting punished and she had a lot of creatureforts that the others didn''t have for themselves.


    In the cell that housed that evil goddess, I saw arge bed that was made out of white marble. On top of that marble bed, there was a mattress that looked luxurious and soft. It was definitely not the bed of someone who was in prison. It looked like the bed of someone who was being pampered.


    I guess even when he was locking his wife away from the evil deeds that she had beenmitting, Thoth couldn''t bring himself to be harsh and cruel to her. He loved her, no matter what she had done. He loved her enough to make sure that she wasfortable in her banishment and punishment.


    Aside from that bed, I saw a beautiful fountain with fresh water inside of it. There was a grove of trees from which she could collect various fruits. And everything was just bright and clean, and in no way at all a punishment.


    I think what struck me as the most odd of it all, was the fact that there was a giant screen in that prison cell. It was a screen that looked much like a television screen. And on that screen I could see myself.


    I was literally watching me and the others zoom closer to that cell as I looked into that screen. This was some sort of viewing magic that I had never heard of. It was magic that was letting her watch me the entire time that I had been here in the underworld. That was how she knew where to send the beasts. That was how she knew when to make people attack me. She had been watching me, and listening to me, this entire time. She was able to do all of those things because she was watching me.


    "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" She wasughing hysterically in the distance. She was most likely looking into the screen and seeing my face the way that it was frozen in shock and awe. And that look on my face was probably what had made herugh like that. That fucking hag. I would get her for this. I would make her pay. I swear I would make her pay.


    This had to be the reason why I felt like someone was watching me ever since I got to the Hall of Damnation. This had to be why I felt like someone had been keeping tabs on me. This had to be it.


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "What in the fucking hell!?" I bellowed at the screen that I was looking at. "That looks just like this magic here. Talia used magic that has been in the underworld for centuries. No, for millennia. How in the hell did she do that? How did she know what to do?"


    I hadn''t taken my eyes off of the screen as I asked the other men those questions.


    "I don''t know, but I think that this means Talia is going to be a lot stronger than any of us ever expected." Valerian sounded serious as he answered me. Not that his response did anything to alleviate my worries.


    "I think that my niece is going to be giving her mother a run for her money." Noah didugh at that, even though it sounded like it should have been a joke.


    "Yeah, I think we have all been underestimating little Tally." Trevor shook his head, just as worried as I was.


    "Yeah well, I think we all need to learn to stop underestimating my children." I actually didugh then. It was the truth though, we had all been forgetting from the beginning, that Trinity is powerful, and she''s unlocked a lot of new magic. And that magic is flowing inside of my children too. It only stands to reason that they would take after her. And thank the goddess that they did. Talia had made such an amazing magic screen for us to see what was happening to my Little Bunny.. Now, though, it was time to see what was happening on the other one of those screens, and inside that cell specifically.

 Chapter 719 - 136 Trinity Meet Hekate (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I tried not to dwell on the fact that this supposed to be a prison cell was far too luxurious for someone that was here to be punished. I had to also remind myself that Hekate was put here by a man that loved her dearly. And she was a goddess as well.


    Being a goddess meant that Hekate was subject to certain benefits that the others would not be. Or at least that is what I told myself. Hekate was a goddess and would just summon these things to her side even if Thoth hadn''t provided them for her.


    The thought and words weren''t doing much for me though. All I wanted to do was hurt that annoying Hekate. She had probably not suffered at all. Aside from this being her home for thest few millennia, this was paradise for Hekate. She could do what she wanted whenever she wanted and all the people around her had to see that every day for eternity.


    Now that I was close enough though, Hekate had finally decided to show herself. I was just starting to slow the tform down, getting ready to bring us all to a stop, when she stepped forward and grinned at me.


    Hekate didn''t look anything like what I expected her to. I was picturing what all the ancient Roman and Greek gods looked like in the myths. I was imagining something along the lines of the two that came to me when they wanted to make Vincent and Gabriel their new hosts so that they could be reborn. They were very stereotypical looking.


    Hekate, on the other hand, was not at all stereotypical. She was as dark as night. Herplexion literally looked like the night personified. There was even a slight bluish hint so that it looked like there was a little bit of the actual night inside of her skin.


    To contrast herplexion, Hekate''s hair was pure white. It looked like the brightest of full moons woven into hair and made to flow down her back until it hit her knees. And the hair was as straight as could be.


    The eyes that were looking out at me from inside of that cell were pure white as well. There seemed to be nothing relieving all of that white that I saw in her eyes. There was no iris. There was no pupil. It was all just white on white on white. And of course, they were lined with white eyshes and white eyebrows.


    I couldn''t take my eyes off of the goddess as we got closer to the cell at the end of the hall.


    "Mommy, I am scared." I heard Zachary whisper behind me.


    "I don''t want to go over there, Mommy." Zander was following his brother''s lead.


    "Mommy, stay back here. Don''t go see thedy." Zayden rounded them out.


    "I have to see her, boys. She is why Mommy came all the way here. I have to stop her.


    "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" Hekateughed again, long and loud. She apparently thought that my words were funny.


    "Is something wrong, Hekate? Did you catch sight of your reflection or something? I don''t see what else you would find so funny right now."


    "You need to stop thinking you can disrespect me, girl." The fallen goddess red at me as she snapped the words at me. "And the fact that you think you can talk to me like that, and that you think that you can defeat me, that is truly disrespectful and hrious. I will end you and take your magic. You are here and that is proof that I will destroy you. I brought you here. That was me. That was my power. I brought you here and I will get exactly what I want from you. You need to prepare for that now, Trinity. All of you are going to die and I will finally be leaving this prison of mine."


    "No, Hekate, you won''t be. I won''t be letting you out of your cell. I will not be giving you any of my magic. And I will see to it that you will never be able to do this to anyone else ever again."


    "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" She truly did likeughing like that, didn''t she? That annoying overly loudugh of hers, ugh! It was grating on my ears and making me wish that she would just shut up already.


    Finally, the tform that we had been riding on came to a stop in front of the ornate door. The door was a lot taller than I had been expecting it to be, and Hekate was a lot taller than I expected her to be. She was standing on the other side of the door and I swear that she was at least seven feet tall. She was about as tall as Alexio, at the very least.


    I didn''t want to stress the boys out at all. I needed to get them away from this door and I knew just what to do about that. I slid from the tform and stood just in front of the door on my own. After that, I moved the tform so that it hovered above me in the cavernous hall. I was keeping the others out of harm''s way and making it so that the two men would protect my children while I fought the evil goddess.


    "Hello, Trinity. I guess it is polite for me to give you a proper greeting before you die." Hekate chuckled at me.


    "Hello, Hekate. I would give you the title that you deserve, but I don''t know how many greats to be in front of the word granny. So, maybe I should just call you what I called Snum. Though that seems a little rude. Hmm. Gram Gram? I can call you Gram Gram." I saw the way that the fallen goddess''s eyes sharpened and hardened at my disrespectful tone and words.


    "You are quite inconsiderate, aren''t you?" She ground the words out through her clenched teeth.


    "I work very hard to act this way for the ones that deserve it. I mean, it''s not like thises easy to me. I need to put a lot of thought and effort into what would best ruin your day and how I should go about it. It''s all quite exhausting, really."


    "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" Sheughed again. I guess I once again said something that was hrious. "Let me show you why I will be taking your power, Trinity."


    I watched then as Hekate pushed the door to her cell open and stepped out into the hall to meet me. She was not being restrained. There was nothing and no one to hold her back in the cell. She was literally leaving to do whatever it was that she wanted to. And this, here, was probably the exact reason why I was here. She was allowed to do too much, and I needed to stop it. Damn you, Thoth. You caused all of this, and I can''t even punish you for it. I mean, who sends someone to hell and lets them just walk around free? That was just careless and insane.


    GAH!

 Chapter 720 - 137 Trinity Hekate Explains (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "As you can see, Trinity, I am not being restrained here. I can leave my cell whenever I want. I am not the same kind of prisoner that the others are. I am more free than they are. I can do as I please. And, right now, I want to take your magic."


    This was enough to piss me offpletely. I was trying to figure out why in the fucking hell that the evil goddess would even need me here when she had this sort of ability. When she could leave her cell, what was the point of calling me here? What was it that she wanted from me? What did I need to do?


    "If you can get out whenever you want, Gram Gram, then why am I here? What did you need me for? Unless you are actually too scared to leave. Would you rather me stop you just so that you have no more excuses left as to why you''re still here after all this time?"


    "Still so damn disrespectful. You are a very rude descendant. Here you are meeting one of the reasons that you even exist and you''re treating me like I am nothing. If it wasn''t for me then you would not be here. And even if you still somehow existed, you wouldn''t be half the powerhouse that you are now. I helped to make you, Trinity, so you need to respect me."


    "Oh, thank you for that exnation, Gram Gram. I never would have figured that out on my own. And I am so happy that I have yet another bat shit crazy rtive. You know you''re not the only celestial being that I have met face to face? So you can stop expecting me to be in awe of you. And I am already sick and tired of you and your bullshit. Now stop trying to dodge my question and answer me. What am I doing here? Why am I here if you can get out of that cell already? Why did you try to bring me right to you? Why were you mad that I was diverted and taken on a longer path? Exin it all to me."


    "I will relish in your destruction, Trinity. I will see to it that you are so thoroughly removed from my path that you will not be able to reincarnate ever. I will wipe you from existence and then I will destroy every single member of your family. Them and all of the ungrateful bastards that call themselves my descendants. Only the truly strong and the truly wise will survive. I will take them and fill the world with the true children of Hekate. And, this time, I will do it without my husband. I will find another partner, someone who has the same vision as me." I swear that was the most maniacal face I had ever seen in my entire life.


    "You still haven''t answered me, Hekate. Why did you need me here? What was the point of all of this? Why the hell did you drag me here and away from my family? WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?" I let my anger get the best of me as I screamed at her in the end.


    "I WANT YOUR MAGIC, BECAUSE I CAN''T GET OUT OF HERE WITHOUT IT!"


    Apparently, Hekate had reached the end of her rope as well. She was screaming back at me and hyperventting to show me just how pissed off and angry that she was about this whole thing.


    Not only that, but I could see that she was hunched over, curling in on herself with her feeling of powerlessness and inadequacy. Whatever the hell she was up to, she had just let a small fraction of her true self start to show through. I wasn''tpletely sure, but I had a feeling that this was going to piss her off even more.


    And, sure enough, there was a strange color starting to appear in Hekate''s cheeks. It was sort of like a lightening of the color, the blue in herplexion started to look a little like baby blue right where her cheeks were.


    That was the oddest blush I had ever seen from someone. And probably the cutest, you know, if it weren''t on the face of this crazy bitch. As it was, I just wanted it to stop so that I could get back to business.


    "What do you mean you can''t get out of here without my magic?" I crossed my arms and waited for this annoying bitch to continue exining all of this and finally say something that made even the least little bit of sense.


    "I mean exactly what I said, Trinity. I may be able to get out of my cell and I may not be treated like the other prisoners in this fucking hell hole, but I am still not able to get out of this Hall of Damnation. It is made so that no one gets out. No one was ever intended to leave this ce once they entered. You could get out, though. You''re not dead, your soul is alive, and therefore, you are not bound by the same restrictions that the rest of us need to live with. You and your little boys are able to get out of here and that is what I want for myself. I am going to take your magic, and your soul, into my body. You will get me out of here and then I will destroy your soul. Even if I have to kill you before I leave here I will. I will just ride your soul out of this ce until I am back in thend of the living. From there I will still destroy your soul and make it so that you will nevere back to be a thorn in my side ever again. I will have my desire fulfilled and that will be that."


    "You are far more insane than I ever thought you would be. I am not kidding. You are certifiably and legitimately crazy. Do you truly think that it is going to work? Do you think that you will be able to destroy me that easily? Do you think that I am not going to make sure that I stop you?" It was time for me tough now. I wasughing nearly as hysterically as she had before. "HA HA HA HA!"


    Theughter tasted bitter and disgusting in my mouth. I didn''t want tough even though it was something that I was not able to stop myself from doing. Theughter made me feel like her, like Hekate. And feeling like that fallen goddess was making me feel dirty and disgusting. I just wanted that to go away and this whole mess to be over with.


    "Yourughter is not needed." Hekate snapped at me. "The only one that will beughing when all of this is over is me. I will be the one to end you. I will be the one to get out of here. Don''t worry, your little friends can have my cell, since they won''t ever be getting out of here either. They will be stuck here along with everyone else. And they won''t even need to be punished for all of eternity.. Aren''t I just so nice?" Her little giggle was so much worse than her maniacalughter.

 Chapter 721 - 138 Trinity The Fight Begins (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Let me tell you how all of this is going to go, Gram Gram. You''re either going to relinquish all the power you have and go back into that prison cell of yours for the rest of eternity, or I will destroy your soul. I will not now, nor will I ever, let you out of this ce. Furthermore, I will not ept the way that you have threatened my family and my friends. You will find only ruin for yourself if you dare to face me. That is more than a threat. More than a promise. And that is more than a fact. This is simply the only way that things can possibly end for you."


    I was being a lot more confident than I had thought I was going to be when this whole process started. I don''t know why, but I had thought that I was going to be a little more scared and nervous about all of this. That wasn''t how it had happened though. That wasn''t what I was feeling at this moment.


    Right now, all I felt was a burning rage that I was going to use to end yet another member of my bloodline''s reign of terror. I was going to turn that rage into a weapon and destroy Hekate once and for all. I may have given her an ultimatum, but I knew from the beginning that she was not going to choose anything that would be considered ''peaceful''. I knew that this was going to be a deadly fight from the very beginning.


    "You dare to threaten me." She shook from the rage of my ultimatum. Yeah, I knew that was going to happen.


    "I told you that it was more than a threat, Gram Gram. This is bigger than you think and I will not allow you to see the light of day. You will never beat me."


    "FUCK YOU, TRINITY GRAY! FUCK YOU AND YOUR FAMILY! I WILL STEAL THAT SOUL OF YOURS AND DO AS I SAID! I WILL GET OUT OF HERE! UNFORTUNATELY, YOU WON''T BE ABLE TO SEE IT BECAUSE YOU WILL BE DEAD, BUT IT WILL HAPPEN!" I had to force myself not to move and cover my ears against her words. I needed to make sure that I didn''t show that sort of weakness to her. If I did that, then I would just wind up losing right here and now.


    "Prepare yourself, Gram Gram." I put myself into a fighting stance, sliding into it effortlessly and with a practiced sort of ease. It didn''t escape my mind that this was going to be the first time that I actively started the fight. I had waited for everyone else to attack me or someone else that I cared about. This was the first time that I was going to attack someone first, or at least told them to get ready to fight first.


    "I was born ready to fight a little bitch like you." Hekate mirrored my fighting stand, only she was muchrger than I was and, therefore, took up a lot more space in the hall than I did.


    "I will let that slide. Right now, I feel like a bitch that will do anything that I can to protect my family. I''m a Mama Bitch, and I will put my all into eliminating you, Gram Gram."


    The talking was over. Like I had already nned, I was the first one to attack this time. I moved quickly to the side and caught a hold of Hekate''s wrist as she brought her arm back to swing at me. I was moving at a speed that was fast; I was nearly invisible. I knew that this was the case because I had that same sensation that I had once before.


    As I moved quickly, I spun Hekate''s arm behind her back and kicked out at the back of her knee. The move caused Hekate to spin and flip in the air at the same time. In a very ungraceful and udylike manner, shended haphazardly on the floor of the hall.


    While Hekate was momentarily distracted, I reached my hand into the air and called my sword to me. I felt the handle of it, all but invisible as it was concealed in between the folds of reality. With a quick tug and a gust of icy wind, I pulled the sword toward me from the ne of existence that held it while it was not being used.


    Theforting feel of it and the familiar way that it looked caused a soothing, happy sort of feeling to flood within me. I was mostly just happy to see that it was in perfect condition right now. I had feared that it might have been destroyed forever after what had happened with the snake that I fought in the Hall of Purgatory. It was once again covered in all the shards of ice and looked lethally sharp and deathly cold.


    By the time that the sword was properly in my hand, I could tell that Hekate was preparing to get up. She had rolled onto her knees and was pushing herself from the floor in a very tired and defeated manner. This was going a lot easier than I had thought that it would. If this kept up, I would end this fight in no time at all. All I would need to do would be to attack her a few more times and all would be done. Maybe I was hitting harder than I used to or maybe she was weakened by the fact that she had been in the Hall of Damnation for so long. Whichever it was though, I wasn''t going toin. I just wanted to make sure that I was able to destroy her. That was my goal here after all.


    I didn''t wait for Hekate to get up. Iunched another attack almost immediately. I ran to her side and stuck my de into the back of her shoulder, feeling it slide into the thick meat of her flesh. With a two handed grip on my sword, I lifted Hekate from the floor and flung my arms toward the wall next to her prison cell.


    Hekate had stuck to the sword as I picked her up, but now her body went flying in the direction that I had aimed. Shended with a very satisfying thud and an audible grunt of pain.


    "Ngh!" That sound was like music to my ears right now.


    I knew that I was being a little too zealous. I knew that I was taking a little too much pride and pleasure in the moves and damage that I was inflicting upon that woman. I knew that all of that was true, but I wasn''t really able to stop myself. I just knew that I needed to win. I needed to finish her off.


    "Just give up, Hekate. There is no way that you are going to win. There is nothing that you can do to beat me. Just give up and make it easier on yourself. Make this easier on all of us."


    That was when she started tough.

 Chapter 722 - 139 Trinity A Change In The Fight (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Hekate wasughing maniacally. The sound of it was sending shivers running through my body and made me feel like something cold had just been poured down my back. What the hell was going on? Why was sheughing like that? What was up with her?


    I didn''t know the answer to any of those questions. And because I didn''t know the answers, it was making me feel a little vulnerable and weak. That was one hell of a power. To be able to render me weak just byughing.


    "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" I tried my best not to visibly shiver and shake at that sound. "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" Theughter wasn''t ending anytime soon.


    "What the hell is the matter with you?" I asked her, taking a step away from her.


    "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!"


    "Stop it, Hekate! Stop with that damnughing."


    "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" She was still justughing over and over again.


    "You''re one annoyingly crazy bitch, you know that? You and that stupidugh of yours is so damn annoying."


    "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" She was still justughing nonstop. "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!"


    "GAH! I''m going to knock theughter out of you."


    "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!"


    "Careful, Mommy!" I could barely hear it, but I Zayden was giving me encouragement as I wondered what to do with this annoying fallen goddess in front of me.


    "She''s a baddy, Mommy." Zander informed me.


    "Don''t let her get you, Mommy." Zachary gave me another warning.


    "Stay strong, Queen Trinity." Rudy was next.


    "You can do this, Trinity." Alexio finished for them all.


    "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! How touching is this? HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! Look at how much they all love you already. HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! Their support of you won''t help at all. You will still die. Your minutes are numbered. HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!"


    She was starting to get to me. I just wanted her to stop right now but that wasn''t likely to happen. She was taunting me. I don''t know why, but she was. She had been on the losing end of this fight, but she was the one that was taunting me. What the hell?! What was going on here?


    "What do you think you are going to do, Hekate? You were losing. Don''t you remember that? I''ve already stabbed you with my sword. That means that you are going to freeze from the inside out. You have already lost."


    "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! No, Trinity, you are the one that has lost. You''re so overconfident right now that you cannot even see what is happening right in front of you."


    "And what is that, Hekate? What is it that I can''t see? What is going on that I am missing?"


    "Well, for one thing, Trinity, I am not freezing. That sword of yours did not freeze me. I am not in any danger of perishing. And I have been doing nothing but toying with you so far." Her eyes, pure white as they were, seemed to narrow as she looked at me. I couldn''t see anything else in them, no color at all, but I could see how the shape changed, and that told me that she was looking at me smugly. She was obviously trying to rile me up more than I already was. And the part that pissed me off was that it was working.


    "How is it that my sword isn''t affecting you? How can you defend yourself against it?" In my opinion, that was the most important thing that I needed to know right now. "Why are you not affected by it?"


    "I am not at all affected by the ice and the cold. It doesn''t bother me at all. In fact, I quite enjoy its icy embrace. This little pin prick from you was nothing more than a tender touch from an old friend."


    "You''re insane." I shook my head at her. She literally was certifiably insane. What else was there to it? The things that she was saying just made me feel like I was going insane listening to them.


    "Thank you. I take that as apliment. And now that this has been settled, let us get down to business. I want to make sure that you see just what it is that you have gotten yourself into.


    "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" With moreughter that was grated on my soul, Hekate threw her head back and started to glow. The light that wasing from her was glowing from within. It was so bright that it was even shining like beacons from her eyes. The pure white of them was so bright that it looked like she had shlights inside of her head.


    The brighter that the light started to glow around her, the more that it looked like she was growing. I don''t know why, but it looked like Hekate was getting bigger and bigger. At the moment, I didn''t know if it was a trick of the light or if she was really getting bigger. And considering how big she already was, her getting bigger wouldn''t be a good thing at all.


    And was she being distorted by the light that was around her, or was that extra head she was growing actually real? How could it be, though? How could she now have two heads? Nope, make that three. And what was up with those massively long necks that each of those three heads had? What the hell was going on right now? What was I seeing?


    It was clear now that Hekate was not just seven feet tall now. She was obviously twice that if not a little more. I would guess around fifteen feet tall at minimum. She had three heads on long necks. There were massive wings unfurling around her back. And those were some seriously long talons on the ends of those massive feet.


    Somehow, by some impossible means that I could not exin, Hekate had turned into a massive three headed dragon. A giant three headed dragon that was surrounded by ice and water.


    "What in the fucking hell?!"


    I yelled the words to the ceiling as I looked up at the beast before me. I could see that Hekate''s coloring had changed somewhat when she became the three headed dragon, but not by much. She was still ck, and there were still highlights of blue within her scales. And those eyes were the same. She still looked at me with pure white eyes that had not a drop of color inside of them. They somehow looked even more strange and weird sitting inside her lizard-like head.


    And that massive, and very loud, screech that she just roared to the vast hall around us was not at all what she sounded like before. Now she was more animalistic. There was nothing at all humanish to that voice. It was all beast and monster.. This was not what I was expecting when I fought Hekate.

 Chapter 723 - 140 Reece What Trinity Must Face (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I watched as my Little Bunny approached the cell at the end of the hall. I watched as the massive door came into focus and Hekate was finally visible. And I must say, Thoth was a saint for finding that woman beautiful. She was not at all what I would consider pretty. Yet, for some reason, that man had fallen head over heels in love with her and that was what had led us to this issue.


    Granted, without both Hekate and Thoth, there would be no witches and warlocks. And Trinity wouldn''t be the person that she was today. I knew that. I understood it well enough. But that didn''t mean that I had to ept it fully.


    Actually, what should have happened, was that Thoth should have just killed this psycho goddess three thousand years ago when he found out how crazy and evil she was. He should have just put an end to her and made it so that no one ever had to worry about her again.


    But no. He didn''t do that. Not at all. Instead, he put her in a luxury prison cell in hell. A prison cell that wasn''t even locked. And she had a screen that could monitor the outside world. She had probably used that screen to wreak havoc on her descendants. She had probably driven them insane. She had probably been the leading cause behind so many of the warlocks and witches that went bad over thest few millennia. I wouldn''t put it past her. Honestly, she was probably to me for Edmond, and that was saying something. Not that I was ready to forgive that man. I never would. I never wanted to see him again. No part of him except for my wife and kids that were descended from him. That was all that I was willing to put up with from him.


    Still, I could understand that he might have been manipted by this sick and sadistic goddess. I could see if now, she got to him and corrupted him. That would make sense to me. That would make sense to anyone that saw Hekate with their own two eyes.


    "I never would have imagined." Noah was on his feet now, staring at the screen before us.


    "That is one, uhm, unique looking goddess." Valerian tried to sound pleasant but it was obviously difficult for him.


    "What in the fucking hell is the matter with her? Why does she look like that?" Trevor was being a little less sensitive about the issue.


    "I don''t know. But I can tell you right now, I do not like her. Not one bit." I shook my head as I watched the crazy goddess bitch approach my Little Bunny.


    "I would call you stupid if you did like her." Noah snapped at me. "That bitch is after my sister though, and I just want to hurt her."


    "You and me both, Noah." I was gripping the arm of the couch tightly, fighting had to keep myself from being pulled off of it with sheer rage alone.


    While we watched, the fight started. Trinity seemed to have the upper hand and was clearly a lot stronger than the fallen goddess.


    "YEAH TRINITY! SHOW HER WHO''S THE BOSS!" Noahughed as he pumped his fist into the air.


    "THAT''S OUR TRINITY! YOU SHOW THAT BITCH!" Trevor was cheering her on as well.


    "GO LITTLE BUNNY! GO! YOU GOT THIS! BEAT HER FUCKING ASS!" I joined them as well.


    "YES! GO TRINITY! THAT''S MY GIRL! HA HA!" Valerian wasn''t going to be left out. He cheered on my Little Bunny as she flung the dark goddess across the hall.


    "SHE''S TOTALLY WINNING ALREADY! THIS IS AWESOME!" Trevor wasughing like a lunatic as we all watched on in excitement.


    "Yeah, my Little Bunny is awesome. I never had any doubt."


    After that though, Hekate started tough even crazier than Trevor had beenughing.


    "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" Sheughed over and over again as my Little Bunny told her to stop it.


    "What the hell is the matter with you?" My Little Bunny backed away a little as if she were unsettled by the goddess.


    "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" Hekateughed again and again.


    "Stop it, Hekate! Stop with that damnughing." Trinity wasn''t the only one that wanted Hekate to stop. All of us were covering our ears and blocking out the sounds that wereing from the screen.


    "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" Thatughter came again, and again, until Hekate finally started to speak.


    This crazy ass woman told Trinity that she was not affected by the ice of the sword. She quite enjoyed it in fact. And not only that, but soon after making that deration she started to glow and grow. Her entire body was changing in a way that I don''t think anyone expected at all.


    Hekate ended up being more than twice as tall as she had started at. She was now about fifteen feet. Oh, and she was covered in ck scales. The scales were because she had just be a giant three headed dragon.


    "WHAT IN THE FUCKING HELL IS THAT?!" Noah screeched at the screen. "WHAT THE HELL! HOW IS TRINITY SUPPOSED TO FIGHT THAT?"


    "THAT''S A FUCKING DRAGON! A REAL LIFE FUCKING DRAGON! WHAT IN THE FUCKING HELL!" Trevor was just as shocked as Noah had been.


    "I have only ever heard rumors about dragons. I didn''t think that they were real at all. This is unbelievable. Unbelievable and so not the right time for this. What is Trinity going to do?" Valerian was looking between the dragon on the screen and me. He was definitely at a loss for what to do.


    "I don''t know. But I am not going to let this slide. I need to help her. I need to stop that dragon. I need to protect my mate." I could feel the rage boiling within me. It was time for me to do something.


    "We all need to do something." Noah agreed, nodding.


    "I concur." Valerian rose to his feet.


    "Hell yeah." Trevor was in with me too.


    I didn''t think twice about it then. I just took off running toward the screen, intent on moving to the other side. I needed to help my Little Bunny, my mate, my wife. I needed to help her fight this dragon. I just ran headlong into the screen, trying to get to her.


    And I bounced right off,nding on my ass.


    "OUCH!" I rubbed my head where it had hit the screen first. "That fucking hurt."


    "Better you than us, man." Trevorughed. "That was funny."


    "And it could have been you too, dumbass. You were running with me." They all had been running, but I had been in the lead, so I was the one that had been hit by the barrier. "I can''t stand this. I need to help her. I need to help my Little Bunny."


    "Well, it looks like we''re stuck on this side. We''re not going to be able to make it across there. Just rx Reece, I am sure that Trinity can handle it." Valerian tried to sound wise and full of his know it all attitude, but I could see that he was just as pissed off about not being able to get to the other side as I was. We all wanted to help my Little Bunny. We all wanted to fight that dragon with her. We all wanted to prove that we were able to protect her. And yet, here we were stuck on this side and out of the fight once again.


    "DAMMIT!" I roared that one word into the room as loud as I could. "DAMMIT, LITTLE BUNNY! HURRY THIS UP AND COME HOME ALREADY!"


    "I imagine that she will be home when she can be, Reece. There is no use shouting at nothing over it." Valerian put his hand on my shoulder as he said those words. "Come on, calm down and let us watch the rest of the fight."


    "I don''t want to. I want to protect my wife. I want to prove that I am an Alpha, that I am her mate. I want to protect her. Dammit! Why can''t I protect her at all?"


    "Don''t worry Reece, we would all be in that same boat. This is the role that you were meant to y in all of this. Let''s watch the fight now, Trinity isn''t going to wait for us." Valerian was right.. I needed to at least watch it, that way I knew what she had been capable of this whole time.

 Chapter 724 - 141 Trinity Fighting A Dragon (VOLUME 4)

    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "A FUCKING DRAGON!" I screamed the word at the now roading and screeching dragon that was standing before me. Hekate was now gone, in her ce was the massive three-headed serpent-like dragon. What in the fucking hell was I supposed to do about this now?


    Was this going to be turning into some fairy tale where I needed to fight this dragon? Yeah, I already knew that I needed to fight that damn thing, but that didn''t mean that I was happy about it, or that I was looking forward to it. Nope, not at all.


    Right now, I could feel my heart pounding about twelve miles a minute. It was going way too fast for its own good. And I didn''t see it slowing down until this dragon was eliminated. There was just one major problem.


    I didn''t know how to kill a dragon. Especially a dragon that was impervious to my sword''s ice magic. Well, the humanoid type of being that was the pre-dragon Hekate had been impervious to the ice that my sword used. I don''t know for certain if the dragon version of her was immune to it as well. I guess time would tell.


    "RRWWAARRRGGGHHH!" That sound that came from the dragon Hekate sounded like a cross between a roar and cry of pain or frustration. It was not just a roar, that was for sure. What it really was, I didn''t know. But it was unsettling and nerve wracking.


    "What do you want me to do now, Hekate? Do you think I am going to turn tail and run away? Do you think that I am going to let you win just because you turned into a big bad monster of a dragon? Well, that isn''t going to happen. That isn''t like me so you can just forget it!" I yelled loudly at the giant dragondy, and I saw that she sneered at me. Her lips pulling back in anger as she had listened to what I had just said.


    "You will do as Imand you to." The words were longer and drawn out as she hissed them at me from the center of her three heads.


    "I will destroy you." The left head hissed in a simr fashion.


    "Prepare to die." The right head added in its hissed voice.


    I noticed that all three heads spoke with Hekate''s voice. It was all one voice, but it was different mouths on different heads that had spoken. That was the most surreal of it all. It literally sounded like nothing more than a speaker that was set up in multiple ces and they were each ying their part of a recording at different times.


    "I do not intend to die, Hekate. I will not let your scaley ass hurt me or my family." I slid myself into another fighting crouch, preparing myself to take on the dragon woman.


    "Are you sure that it''s scaley?" She hissed once again, drawing the words out to distort them so much that it was nearly impossible to understand them. But I got the gist of it this time. Especially when she turned to shake her giant dragon butt toward me. It was like she was telling me to kiss her ass or something. And that was not something that I was going to ept. I was not going to let this slide at all.


    The moment that the dragon taunted me, I started to move. I ran to the side and started toe up beside the dragon. She wasn''t looking at me when I started to run so she had temporarily lost sight of me.


    Unfortunately, but the time that I was about to attack the three headed monstrosity, the dragon had spun to look at me and two of the three heads lunged at me. I saw that one of them was preparing to breath ice at me while the other was already frothing with what looked like sea water in its mouth. It was going to send a jet of water at me while the other tried to freeze me.


    I needed to avoid those attacks, not knowing what just touching them would do to me. So, I leapt into the air and backflipped a few times. I needed to make sure that I wasn''t hit by the thing''s st at all. And now that I had avoided it, I was at least as far back as I had been, maybe even further. I hadn''t gained on the dragon at all. If anything, I lost ground on it.


    "Dammit." I snarled the word under my breath as I tried to think of what to do next. I needed to make sure that I kept an eye on all three heads at once. I needed to make sure that I knew what it was doing at all times, no matter where it might be attacking me from.


    As I thought about that, trying to watch all the heads at once, another attack wasing my way. The left and right heads were swinging wide toward me as the middle head reared back and prepared to attack me head on.


    With quick thinking I ran to my right and kicked off from the wall. I figured that this head, the one with the water, would be a little less dangerous than the one with the ice, so I decided to try to get rid of it first. One less head would make things a lot easier on me when it came to destroying Hekate.


    I held my sword, Frozen Kiss, in a two handed grip. The de was held over my head and ready to be swung down when the time was right. I? was slowly getting into position. Flying through the air until I was right in front of the monster dragon.


    My sword was raised and I started to swing down with it. The moment that the de of my sword made contact with the dragon''s neck, I was directly about the thing. I quickly nted my feet on the thing''s neck as I severed the foaming water head from the body.


    I instantly felt a sense of relief and satisfaction. Knowing that this was going to help me out a lot. Knowing that I had just cut the first of the three heads from the body. And having heard the loud, sickening thwacking sound that came when therge dragon head hit the floor. All of that made me feel like I was invincible.


    Fuck yeah! I had just cut a dragon head from its body. How many people in the world could say something like that? I am betting that not many of them. And the fact that I did it so effortlessly and easily, that made me feel even better. This wasn''t going to be that hard at all. I was going to have this dragon bitch finished before too much longer.


    I kicked off from the dragon''s neck and flipped through the air until Inded on my feet in front of the beast. I was still in a fighting stance, crouching and ready to go.. I was not going to be taken by surprise at all.

 Chapter 725 - 142- Trinity – What Is She (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 725 - 142- Trinity ¨C What Is She (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    While I crouched there, poised and ready to keep fighting, I saw something happening that made absolutely no sense to me at all. Something that made me feel sick to my stomach and pissed off at the same time. There were other emotions as well, but I didn''t really understand what they were right now. There was just so much going on that it was hard toprehend and understand.


    I mean, as I stood there watching the dragon, it started to heal itself. Only it wasn''t just healing itself right now. It was doing so much more.


    The dragon was screaming and screeching, clearly in pain. But that wasn''t all that it was doing. And the things that were important were really hard for me to focus on as it thrashed about.


    I managed to see it all though, as hard as it was. I watched as the giant three headed dragon became more than that. The neck that lost a head was thrashing all about, disgusting ck and purple blood was flying everywhere. The part that had held a head before seemed to be separating.


    It wasn''t separating from the body. No, this was worse. This was the fact that the one neck was splitting into two. Before I knew it, there were four perfectly independent and fully functional necks.


    That wasn''t all it was doing though. Not by a long shot. Both of the necks on the right, the ones that had just be two instead of one, were growing heads. There were now four necks with a total of four heads between them. And all of this head and neck growing happened in a matter of seconds. I wouldn''t have been able to stop it even if I had wanted to.


    "What the fucking hell is she?" I bellowed at the dragon, scared of what I just saw happen right before my eyes.


    "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" Hekateughed with all four heads. The multiple voices made me shiver as I tried to not scream.


    "What the hell are you, Hekate?"


    I asked the question again, this time to her directly. She didn''t answer. I knew that she wouldn''t answer me. Why would she give information to her enemy? That would just be too easy for me.


    I had to avoid four heads this time. When I saw that the dragon was rearing back with all four heads this time, I knew that I needed to be extra careful to make sure that she didn''t catch me.


    As I worked to avoid her heads, I tried to think about what she might be. There weren''t that many multi headed dragons from legends and lore. And considering where we were at the moment, there was only one that made sense to me. I didn''t know how she managed to be one of these, but she clearly was. And I didn''t know at all how to fight this thing.


    "Queen Trinity!" Rudy called out to me as I spun and flipped out of the way of the heads. "Be careful, Queen Trinity. She has turned into a Hydra."


    "Yup! I kind of already figured that out on my own." I yelled back at him. "Thanks for the help."


    I didn''t mean to be rude to him. I didn''t want to sound that way, but I was kind of fighting for my life right now. That left me a little bit testy and annoyed. I think that it would happen to anyone in my position if the same thing happened to literally anyone else in the world.


    I needed to think about what it meant to fight a Hydra. There are different legends and stories about them. The main thing that was the same in all of the stories was the fact that if you cut off one head, two more grow back.


    This Hydra didn''t look like the ones that I had seen and read about in the past. Popr culture and things like movies, anime, cartoons, games and whatever else you wanted to lump into that category, tended to have Hydras with five heads. Some of them followed the other legends, and some of them made up their own.


    The true legend of the Hydra was different. That was the one where Hercules fought the beast as one of his trials. And that Hydra legend said that the monster had nine heads. It also had poisonous breath and venom.


    Let''s see, I don''t have someone else that can use magic in here so I can''t cut off a head and cauterize the neck before one of them, or should I say two of them, could grow back in its ce.


    OK, so I didn''t have the help that Hercules had. I would make do. I would handle this, one way or another.


    Not only that, but I wasn''t about to just bury the immortal center head under a rock to make sure that it couldn''te back for me. Nope, I was going to be more thorough than that. By the time that I finish with this thing, I am going to know for certain that it is dead. That is the only way to make sure that my family, my friends, and my babies were safe.


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    What the hell! What the hell was Hell throwing at my Little Bunny. Why in the fucking hell was she facing down a damn Hydra? Didn''t she already have enough on her te? Didn''t they think that my Little Bunny had had enough? When was she going to catch a fucking break?


    "How did that happen?" Trevor was standing just inches from the screen, pointing at it with rage pouring off of him. "How did that dragon bitch just be a Hydra? Yeah, she had three heads, but that didn''t mean that she needed to be a Hydra. How many heads is that thing going to have by the time that Trinity is done with it? And is she even going to be able to kill it? Is she strong enough?" I didn''t like the things that he was saying. He was having doubts about my wife. He was thinking that my Little Bunny didn''t have what it took to finish off that monster.


    "Of course, she can do it. This is Trinity we are talking about. She can do anything. Anything at all. She can kill a Hydra and any other dragon. I just know that she can." There was a note of desperation in my voice as I spoke those words.


    "Reece?" Noah''s voice squeaked just a little as he said my name. He was scared for his sister while I was scared for my wife.


    "I think that Trinity can handle it. We all know what she is capable of. Don''t worry. We have all seen Trinity in action before. She can do way more than any other person on this. Way more. Just have faith in her." Valerian''s eyes were watering as he looked at the screen with my Little Bunny on it. "Just have faith in Trinity and we will all see that shees out on top. Just wait and see."


    "Yeah. Just wait and see. That''s all that we''re allowed to do." Trevor growled angrily as he threw himself back into his seat. He wasn''t all that happy right now.. "Just watch."

 Chapter 726 - 143- Trinity – Battling A Hydra Part 1 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 726 - 143- Trinity ¨C Battling A Hydra Part 1 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    So, how was I going to keep four dragon heads busy all at one, protect Rudy, Alexio, Zachary, Zande, and Zayden, all while trying to figure out how I was going to kill this dragon, destroy Hekate''s soul, and get back home? This was not a small task. This was something major that I needed to figure out. I couldn''t afford to make even one mistake or we could all end up dead.


    I couldn''t let that happen. For one thing, Rudy and Alexio were only here because of me. They weren''t supposed to be a part of this. I dragged them into it. Quite literally in Alexio''s case. Rudy came willingly, but I asked for his help in the beginning. I couldn''t let either of them get hurt because without me, they would have lived out their lives with no incidents at all.


    And as for the boys, I couldn''t let their little lives end here and now. They haven''t even had a chance to live at all. They are too young, too innocent, and way too fucking adorable to be snuffed out right now. I needed to protect them and be there for them. I was their mother after all. It was up to me to protect them now and forever.


    So, I had to think fast. Be quick on my feet. And make sure that every strike that I made was perfectly positioned and filled with as much power as I could pack into it. And I needed to do all of that while being smart with the way that I moved.


    I may not have the help that Hercules had when he fought a Hydra, but I had magic at my disposal. I would guess that was probably just as good, if not better. At least I could think that it was anyway. And if I thought that it was enough then it would be enough. It had to be.


    "STOP STALLING!" The left center dragon head, the one that was the original center, yelled at me with Hekate''s voice. "Come here and fight me already, little Trinity. I will end you and take that power and soul of yours. I will get out of hell and it will be all your fault. Then all those things that I said before will be true. I will kill them all. Millions and millions will die and it will all be your fault. I will destroy the world, and it will all be your fault." Her voice was like nails on a chalkboard as she screeched at me. Then sheughed her maniacalughter again. Only this time, thatughter was made worse because it wasing from four heads instead of just one, or the three that she had before this.


    " HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" Thatughter made me want to cover my ears and scream. I swear it was getting worse and worse each time.


    OK, so she wanted me to do something. Let''s see. I could try using Hercules''s strategy. He had cauterized the necks of the beast as he cut them from the body. OK, well, he had someone else cauterize them and I was going to have to do it all myself. Still, I would make it work. Somehow.


    I was going to need a new weapon as well. I needed to have one that might be able to help me defeat the bitch and that had an actual effect on her. Unlike my ice sword, I needed something that would be more effective.


    Well, if this snake had ice and water, impervious to my ice magic, then I should try something more along the lines of what Reece would use. I needed a sword made of fire instead of one made from ice. We always joked, from the very beginning, that I was the ice to his fire. I was the one that would calm him and put out the mes of his rage. Well, right now, I was the one that needed to be filled with fire and rage. And there was no one here to calm me when I raged too far out of control. There was no ice to put out the mes when it was all done and over with. I was on my own here.


    I took the sword that I had still been holding onto and thrust it into the air. I was putting it away in whatever interdimensional sheath that it went to when I wasn''t actively using it. The de sliced into the air above my head and just stuck into the sky. When I pulled my hand away, the sword was pulled up and out of sight while whatever slice in the edge of space and time that I created sort of just healed itself. All was right with the world now as I already started to make the other sword for me.


    I never took my eyes off of Hekate as I put my hands in front of my body. I ced both hands in a position that would be like I was holding onto something with two hands. While I held my hands in that position, I started to imagine the sword that I wanted to make. I imagined the heat that would being off of it, intense, but pleasant to me.


    I went beyond just what it felt like in my hands though, I imagined what it would look like. It would have a long thin de in the middle, almost like a katana. The thin de would be surrounded by thick, raging mes. The mes would be sorge that the sword would look like arge ymore instead of a katana.


    While I imagined the sword in my mind''s eye, while also never taking my eyes off of the crazy ass four headed Hydra bitch, I felt that it was taking shape in my hands. I could feel the weight of it in my grip, the fact that it was actually there for me to grip as well. I could feel the heat licking off of the de with its bright red mes. And then, there was the fact that I could hear the cracking and spitting like it was a campfire in my hands.


    This was definitely the strangest sensation in the world. And it was one that I had experienced twice now. When I made the sword out of ice and now this one. I wonder if I could make other elemental des as well. Or if I should just leave it at the two. It''s not like I can use more than two of them at once anyway.


    "Oh look, you have a new toy." The main dragon head said before the other headsughed maniacally. "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" Thatughter really was getting more annoying every time that I heard it. "Do you think that this sword will do any better than thest one that you used? Do you think that this will do anything for you?"


    "Yeah, Hekate, I do. And I guess we will find out soon.." I red at her as I brought the sword back and prepared for the moment when I was going to strike her.

 Chapter 727 - Split Chapter – Battling A Hydra Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 727 - Split Chapter ¨C Battling A Hydra Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I didn''t say another word. I just started to attack the dragon bitch with my new sword. I aimed for the icy head that was on the left. This was the head that I thought might be the easiest now that there were more of the other side. Well, that was what I was hoping for anyway.


    I ran down the center of the hallway, making sure the snake saw me and was preparing for a counterattack. mes from the sword in my hands spread out behind me and I ran toward the beast that was in front of me. I even saw the way that those mes distorted my shadow as they moved around me.


    As soon as I saw a couple of the heads rearing back for another attack, the two on the right, I spun to the side, kicked off from the wall, and brought the de swinging down through the air.


    There was a loud, whistling noise as the sword cut through the air. Part of me even wanted to think that there was a screaming as the de threatened to kill everything that was around me. That was just my imagination though, that was for sure.


    The only screaming that could be heard was the frantic cry of frustration that was my battle cry. That and the sound of the dragon screaming as the de sliced into its neck and started to cut through its flesh, bones, and other tissues.


    "RRAAWWRRAAGGHH!" The roaring scream was much like the sound that I had heard earlier. And it was definitely filled with pain. This time it was the pain of losing a head.


    "Die, you stupid dragon." I snarled the words as I took one hand away from the sword and sent out a burst of heat.


    It wasn''t just heat that came off of my hand though. No, not just that. There was a bright sh of light as well as a fireball shot from my hand and flew straight and true toward the dragon''s now iling and bleeding neck.


    The dragon head fell to the floor of the hall with a sickening thud while the dragon continued to scream above me.


    "RRAAWWRRAAGGHH! RAWR! AHH! OOWWAAHHH! RAWR! RRAAWWRRAAGGHH!" The other three heads of the dragon were all screaming in unison, but it was like only the main head was actually feeling any pain at all. The other two heads, the two that regrew from thest severed head, were moving as if they were snakes in some sort of show. I just needed to try and figure out where the man with the flute that was controlling them was.


    I tried to not give the snake enough time to recover. I didn''t want to wait for it to attack me while I could be the one that was attacking it. But I couldn''t. I couldn''t bring myself to do anything while I watched that spot where the other head had been attacked. I needed to see if this sword was working, if the fire was making a difference.


    I ran backwards, skidding to a halt when I got to approximately the same spot that I had been in before. I stood there for a minute, and another minute, and one more just to be safe. And throughout that entire dy, the snake''s neck didn''t seem to be splitting at all. There were no more headsing back.


    "Oh, thank the Goddess." I sighed in relief. "It looks like following in Hercules''s footsteps was a good idea. Fire seemed to be working, at least for now it was.


    "RAWRAHH! YOU BITCH! YOU CUT OFF MY HEAD! AND WHY ISN''T IT GROWING BACK! WHERE IS MY HEAD? WHAT DID YOU DO!? WHAT IS WRONG? RAWRAHGH!"


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    "Holy shit! Reece, do you see that? Do you see what my sister just did?" Noah was hopping up and down while pointing at the screen in front of us. "Holy shit! My sister is a total badass! Yeah! Go Trinity! Look at her, Reece! Look at what she did!"


    "I see it, Noah." I was grinning, not just at his very childish reaction but at the pride I felt while watching my Little Bunny.


    I had literally just watched my Little Bunny stab her sword into the air so that it would disappear. And then right before our eyes, she made an entire new sword. She made something that was so simr to the sword that I could summon, only it looked like it was smaller and skinnier underneath all of those mes. It was literally made of fire in her hands and would be perfect for only her to use.


    There were no words to express how happy I was to see that my Little Bunny wasn''t letting this all get her down. She was going to keep fighting and this was proof of that.


    While I thought that, my Little Bunny started to run toward the dragon, ready to fight. She kicked off of the wall and leapt through the air. The left head of the dragon was cut away and then mes shot out of my Little Bunny''s palm. They hit the dragon making it scream in pain while my Little Bunny retreated to safety. She had done it. She had stopped the head from regrowing.


    "YES!"


    "HELL FUCKING YES!"


    "WAY TO GO, TRINITY!" Noah, Trevor, and Valerian, in that order, expressed their delight at what they saw.


    "That''s my sister! YES!"


    "YOU GO TRINITY!"


    "I am so proud of my Garin¨ªon [ 1 ]. She is so special and amazing."


    "Of course, she is." I nodded my agreement with Valerian''s words as I spoke, not taking my eyes off of the screen. "This is my wife we''re talking about. The queen to so many and goddess three times over. Of course, she is amazing. There isn''t anything else that she could be."


    The three of us watched on as the battle on the screen continued. I could feel a renewed vigor coursing through my body as I watched the dragon start to scream and cry toward my Little Bunny.


    "RAWRAHH! YOU BITCH! YOU CUT OFF MY HEAD! AND WHY ISN''T IT GROWING BACK! WHERE IS MY HEAD? WHAT DID YOU DO!? WHAT IS WRONG? RAWRAHGH!"


    "Well, dragon bitch, I just decided to follow old legends and lore. I knew that the fire would work now, because it worked in the past. At least it worked in what I used to think was just legends and I am now assuming were all true. Who would have thought that Hercules, and all the other stories were true?" My Little Bunnyughed as if she was finding this all pretty funny right about now. "Despite all that has happened to me over the years, despite meeting gods and goddesses myself, I still never thought that they were true stories. Well, now I guess I have learned my lesson." She was stillughing as she taunted the hydra in front of her. "How many more legends can I call upon? What other lessons of history can I remember to defeat you?"


    [ 1 ] Garin¨ªon is an Irish word that means granddaughter.


    It is pronounced gar - in - EE ¨C in

 Chapter 728 - Trinity – Battling A Hydra Part 3 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 728 - Trinity ¨C Battling A Hydra Part 3 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "You think you can use legends against me? You think there is much that you could use in them to destroy me? I am not that monster from the legends. I am not the same hydra that was defeated back then. And I refuse to be defeated here and now. I am better than that Hydra. I will kill you. I will win. I will win. I will win. I will win." She was just repeating the same things over and over again. It was like she was stuck on repeat or something.


    "You sound like a fucking broken record. What the hell is the matter with you, dragon bitch? Did I scratch the record when I cut off your heads? I got two of them now, remember? Yeah, you regrew two after that, but you''re back down to only having three heads instead of having four now. And don''t worry, I will be cutting the other ones off soon enough." I chuckled at her. I have beenughing a lot since I removed her head. I was just so giddy that I was managing to make this work for me. I should probably thank the Goddess that I remembered my legends and lore. Or should I say, the celestial history. Since all of this seemed to be real. All the old legends, all the old stories, all the old mysteries. All of them were real. All of them could potentially help me, if I just thought about them and remembered them all.


    "RAWR!" Hekate roared in anger as she tried tosh out at me. Her long tail came swinging from behind her and whipped toward me at such a high rate of speed that it would havepletely obliterated a human if one had been standing where I was.


    However, I was not a human and that meant that this attack was not going to kill me. It wasn''t even going to hit me since I moved quick enough to leap out of the way andnd crouched next to the wall on the dragon''s left side. She was missing a head over there and therefore wasn''t able to see me as clearly as if I had been on the other side.


    "Is that all you have, Hekate? If it is, then I will be putting an end to this right now." I grinned at her. However, that was when I saw that she had not stopped moving since the moment that she had swung her tail toward me.


    The wings on Hekate''s back were pping and she was raising up quickly. And that tail of hers was still moving around in its dangerous spin. And the ce that the tail was about tond had my heart thudding uncontrobly in my throat.


    "Oh Goddess, no! No! Not them! No!" I was already on the move when I saw where Hekate was aiming her next attack. That tail of hers, which was covered in long lethal spikes that I had not noticed when she initially turned into this ugly beast, was aiming right at the tform floating in the sky.


    I needed to move fast. I needed to move the tform out of her way and make sure that the others were safe.


    "HOLD ON TIGHT! ALEXIO! RUDY! DON''T LET GO OF THE BOYS! PROTECT THEM AND HANG ON!"


    I screamed those words as fast as I could as I started to move the tform. Thankfully, I got them out of the way in time. By the time that the long, spiked Hydra tail swung through the spot that the others had just been in, the tform was about twenty feet away and out of danger. Well, out of immediate danger. But the dragon was still moving through the air, and that tail was still whipping around dangerously.


    "Keep hanging on. I need to move you again." I called out to the others as I ran through the hall. I was already leaping through the air and making sure that the others were safe. I needed to stop that tail from hitting them, but I couldn''t let them stay in one ce for too long or they might all be in danger.


    I was running around the back of the Hydra dragon this time. I had my eyes fixed solely on the tail, aiming to cut that off like I had the most recent head. And while I was doing that, I kept the tform moving in a circle, whizzing through the air so that it wasn''t in one spot for more than a second at a time.


    The problem was moving them the way that I was though, was that the ce they would be was highly predictable. And the Hekate dragon bitch had figured that out. Just as I leapt and was about to slice that spiked tail off of her body, she lunged forward and was aiming a st of frothing water at the wind tform.


    "MOMMY, SAVE US!" Zachary was the first to cry out.


    "Queen Trinity, we need your help!" Rudy was the next to say something.


    "MOMMY THE DRAGON! ITS MOUTH! SAVE US!" Zander was next.


    "HELP US MOMMY!" Zayden whimpered.


    "I don''t know how to stop this, Trinity." Alexio sounded distressed.


    "Just hold tight. I''ming."


    And I was too. I was running as quickly as I could. I was making tform after tform in the air as I ran as quickly as I could force myself to. I was almost there, but I just didn''t think that I was going to be able to get there before the water sted from the Hydra''s two heads.


    I could hear the bubbling from inside the dragon''s two water mouths as those two heads reared back. I could see the white foam that was forming around its two sets of dragon lips. And I could even see a truly wicked grin on the main head''s face as it saw how scared the kids were, how worried the men were, and how frantic I was.


    "Do you see what your pride gets you, Trinity Gray? Do you see what you have brought on those that you care about? Do you see what happens when you take on the great Hekate? HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" That smug voice followed by thatugh, man it was making my blood boil more than that water in her two fucking water mouths. I was so pissed off and angry because she was absolutely right.


    I watched then, still running as hard and as fast as I could, as the water left the mouths of the two water heads. It smelt like sulfur and burnt flesh. Under those two main scents was the distinct scent of rotten eggs and spoiled milk. What the hell was that? Was it just mixing all the disgusting and nasty smells together into one?


    I didn''t have time to think about that. I needed to do what I could to stop that water st from hitting the others. I needed to protect Rudy, Alexio, Zachary, Zander and Zayden. I needed to save them.. I needed to make sure that I didn''t fail them, any of them.

 Chapter 729 - Split Chapter – Battling A Hydra Part 4 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 729 - Split Chapter ¨C Battling A Hydra Part 4 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I swung my hand out while I was running. My n was to put up a shield to block the st of water. That was something that I should have thought to do much sooner, but I just was not thinking about it early enough. I needed to get the shield up as quickly as I could, though. I needed it to be able to repel the water and save them all.


    "Come on. Please work." I whispered to myself just a second before there was arge explosion of the water. It sprayed in all different directions drenching me and forcing its way up my nose and down my throat. There was so much water that it was literally flowing down the hall, back the way that the six of us hade. If I had been on the floor instead of on a floating tform of wind, I would have been swept away in the newly formed river that was below us.


    There was already so much water and it wasn''t stopping yet either. I could feel it forcing its way into my body and trying to drown me, but I couldn''t let it do that. I couldn''t let it get the best of me. I needed to beat it. I needed to be stronger than that nasty water.


    And oh, God! The taste! It was so much worse than the smell. Every drop of the water that made its way into my mouth, nose or my eyes, burned so thoroughly that I couldn''t see and all I wanted to do was vomit and sneeze and so whatever I could to get the water out of me.


    My whole body felt like it needed to be purged. That was the only way to describe it. I needed to purge the water from my body and purify myself. And as much as I wanted to do that, I wasn''t able to. Not yet. I needed to wait. I needed to be patient.


    More than anything, I needed this flow of water to stop. If I did anything that caused me to break my concentration, I would not be able to keep the shield going. I would not be able to make sure that Rudy, Alexio and the boys were safe. If I lost focus for even one second, they would all be attacked by this invasive water. They would be drowned and burned by it.


    "Come here." I heard someone''s voice call out to me as they reached into the stream of water and pulled me away from it. It was a man''s voice and it sounded concerned when it spoke near me.


    I could also feel this neer''s hands as they gripped my upper arms and pulled me toward them. I felt that they were warm, strong and full of worry. Just who was this person? Who was it that hade to help me? Who was it that was risking their own life to help me?


    I could tell that it wasn''t Rudy or Alexio. It wasn''t their voices that I had heard.


    It was a familiar voice, that was for sure. It was a voice that I knew but I was having trouble cing it at the current moment. It wasn''t Reece''s voice. It wasn''t my dad''s or either of my brothers. Not my grandfather, nor any of my guards. But who was it?


    "You can''t lose here. You need to fight this." I felt someone''s lips on mine, blowing air into my lungs and helping to get the water out of my body. They followed it up with chestpressions.


    This was totally weird. I hadn''t thought that I had stopped breathing. I hadn''t thought that it had gotten to this point, but apparently it had.


    "Come on, Trinity, wake up. They need you."


    That voice was so familiar. Why did I know it? Who was it? Who?


    "Come on! Wake up. Don''t let this end here. Not after you beat me so easily. Come on!"


    Oh my Goddess, I knew who it was now. It was¡­


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    That Hydra had targeted the people that weren''t even in the fight. She was targeting my children, my boys. Them and the two men that had been protecting them. And the thing is, this was a magical attack that wasing at them. This was something that those two men weren''t able to protect them from.


    My Little Bunny had tried to save them. She was moving them around the hall to avoid the tail, but that just left them open to be attacked by the st of water. And judging by the looks of my Little Bunny, that wasn''t just ordinary water.


    "Come on, Trinity, fight it!" Trevor was screaming at the screen as we all watched the water rushing into my Little Bunny''s mouth. "Fight it! Get the best of that water and get back into the fight! Come on Trinity, we all know that you can do it! Come on!" Trevor looked frantic as he yelled over and over. He wasn''t the only one either.


    "Trinity! Come on, Trinity! Get up! Get up and fight that bitch! Come on, Trinity! What am I going to tell Mom and Dad? Huh? You need to fight this! Fight it for the triplets! Fight it for Talia. Fight it for Reagan and Rika. Fight it for all of us, Trinity. Come on!" Noah was on the verge of tears as he screamed at his sister who couldn''t hear him.


    "This is not good. I don''t like this development at all. Come on, Trinity. Come on Garin¨ªon, get up! Please get up!" Valerian was just as scared as the others.


    Byparison, I probably sounded heartless and calm. Probably because I wasn''t saying anything at all. I wasn''t saying anything. Not to mention that I wasn''t moving at all either. I was literally frozen in ce. I was like a solid block of ice as my heart iced over and fear settled over me.


    And I might not have been saying anything out loud, but that didn''t mean that I wasn''t screaming and crying inside of my head.


    ''COME ON, LITTLE BUNNY! GET UP! DON''T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU! COME ON BABY, YOU CAN DO THIS! GET UP! FIGHT IT! FIGHT HER! SAVE YOURSELF! SAVE THE BOYS! SAVE YOUR FRIENDS! COME ON LITTLE BUNNY! GET UP SO YOU CAN WIN AND COME BACK TO ME! PLEASE LITTLE BUNNY, DON''T LEAVE ME! COME BACK TO ME, BABY! PLEASE COME BACK TO ME!''


    I was way more frantic than the others inside of my head as I watched on and felt like everything that was good in my life wasing to an end. I had dealt with my Little Bunny being in aa, but what would I do if she died? What would I do if she lost and then that evil goddess came back to thend of the living? If my Little Bunny couldn''t stop her, how would we?


    And what would I tell the kids? What would they think? How would they survive this?


    As I thought about that, I saw a blur of motion on the side of the screen. Someone or something was racing toward my Little Bunny. Someone or something was reaching toward her and pulling her out of the water.


    "Is that a friend or a foe?" I asked the others. "Who is that?"


    The moment that the man''s face appeared on the screen clearly, I could tell who it was right away.


    "Oh my Goddess! I knew who that man was. It''s¡­

 Chapter 730 - Trinity – Battling A Hydra Part 5 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 730 - Trinity ¨C Battling A Hydra Part 5 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Come on! Wake up. Don''t let this end here. Not after you beat me so easily. Come on!" Oh my Goddess, I knew who it was now. I knew who that voice belonged to, but it made no sense at all. How was he here? How had he gotten to me? What was going on?


    "E..Edmond?" I choked out a mouthful of water as I said his name.


    "That''s it. Breathe." He seemed to sigh in relief as he looked at me. I could tell that my vision was clearing up a little and I was able to see his face.


    It really was Edmond. It really was my father that hade to save me. I don''t know how he had gotten here, or why he hade here at all, but he had just saved my life by pulling me out of that st of water.


    Momentarily, I ignored him and looked around. The dragon was still sting away at the others, but my shield was still firmly in ce.


    "Don''t worry, you''re a wonderful witch. You made something spectacr and they''re still safe. Not to mention, I reinforced it myself. It was hard to fit my shields around yours since it was so solid, but I managed it. I am sorry, that was what took me so long to pull you out of the water. I knew that you would want to make sure that the children were safe. Them and your friends. You are that kind of a person, Trinity, and I know that."


    "E..Edmond? How did you get out of your cell? What happened? Why are you here?" I realized after saying all of that stuff that I sounded quite rude and ungrateful. That wasn''t what I wanted to put forward right now. He had just saved my life. He hadn''t needed to, but he did. "Thank you by the way!" I hurriedly said the words so that he didn''t think that I was ignoring what he had done for me. "Thank you for saving me. I know that you didn''t have to, and honestly I don''t know why you did, but thank you."


    "You are very wee." I saw my father smile and nod at me. "And I know that you wouldn''t expect me to save you, Trinity. I know that to you I am nothing but a monster. However, I promise you that I have changed. I am not the same man that I used to be. I know what I did wrong. We''ve already talked about this, earlier. I know that you probably didn''t believe it, Trinity, but it is true. I truly regret what I did. I have wanted nothing more than to apologize to you and all of the others that I have hurt. I can''t do that, not to most of them anyway. I can apologize to you though. Whether you ept my apology or not, I just want it to be out there."


    I watched as my father took a deep, settling breath. He was trying to calm whatever nerves were raging through him. Then, when he opened his eyes, I could see how determined he was. He was looking into my eyes and there was a serious feelinging off of him.


    "Trinity, I will never be able to atone for my sins. I will never be able to do enough to make you forgive me for what I did to you and your mother. I will never be able to make any of it right. However, I want you to know that I truly, from the deepest recesses of my heart and soul, truly regret what I have done. The things that I did to you, your mother, and all of the other mothers and children. I was a horrible person that did reprehensible things. And no number of apologies will ever make it OK."


    I could see how much he meant the words that he was saying. This wasn''t just a random thing that Edmond was saying. He truly, deeply felt these things that he was saying. And that made it even worse. He truly thought that nothing that he ever said or did would earn him forgiveness, but he was still here. He still saved me and he still put all of his feelings into that apology.


    I really wanted to forgive him at that moment. I don''t know why, but I did. I wanted to say the words to him, I wanted to say that he hadn''t had the chance in life to be a good person because he was made out to be evil since the day that he was born. But those words were so hard for me to force out. They were so hard for me to say right now.


    "E..Edmond, I.."


    "No, not right now, Trinity. You can tell me whatever it ister. I don''t know if I am able to hear it. However, right now we need to defeat Hekate." That right there was a surprise too. He used to worship Hekate. He was borderline in love with her. And now here he was ready to kill her alongside me. That, along with everything else, was proof that he had changed. That was proof that he was not the same man that I knew. But who, and what, was he now?


    "Y..yeah. We need to stop her." I nodded at Edmond as he held his hand out to me. "Let''s kill this dragon bitch and then we can talk about what we need to. Does that sound like a good n to you?"


    "It sounds like way more than I deserve." I saw him smile at me, a truly genuine and happy smile that I had never seen from him before. "And I say that it is something that I will cherish more than anything else in the entire world.


    "Don''t be so over dramatic." I rolled my eyes at him, trying to get my mind back into the fight. I could still see the two water heads from the dragon sting water at the shields that Edmond and I had put into ce. It was time for us to deal with this. It was time for us to put an end to the dragon. Together, me and my father, we were going to fight against Hekate.


    That was something that I never thought I would think. Fighting together alongside my father. As an ally and not as an enemy. When did things in the universe be so distorted and messed up? When did things start to be so flipped around and topsy turvy?


    I don''t know when it happened. And I didn''t know if me killing my father was the cause of it or not. But I could say, withplete confidence, that I was happy to have this man fighting by my side. I was happy to be able to have just this small moment ofpanionship and cooperation with my father.


    I didn''t know what that said about me and my sanity, but I knew that it was the way that I felt. I didn''t know how Reece, Dad or Grandfather would feel about this, but I knew that I needed to fight with my father.. I had to team up with him to take down my biggest enemy yet.

 Chapter 731 - Trinity – Battling A Hydra Part 6 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 731 - Trinity ¨C Battling A Hydra Part 6 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Come on, Trinity, let''s get to it." My father put himself into a fighting stance like I had done a few times already. I also saw that he reached into the air and pulled out a sword as well. This sword wasn''t icy or covered in mes like my two had been, but it still looked lethally sharp.


    "I see you and I share some of our magical powers." I smiled at him, and pulled my ming sword out of the air in front of me. It had disappeared in the onught of water and I knew that I needed to resummon it.


    "Yes, only yours is a lot more powerful than mine. And it''s very beautiful too, just like you." He smiled at me before he leapt into the air from the tform.


    I had just realized now that he had made a tform as well. He had used his purple tinted magic to make a tform out of wind and that had been what was supporting us. I guess there were more simrities between us than I thought.


    I followed after my father then, into the fray of the battle. I could see that he was making his way toward one of the dragon heads that was spewing its seemingly endless stream of disgusting water.


    Inded on the side wall of the hall, using magic to help me cling to it and run along the solid surface. My father was a few dozen feet ahead of me, running in the same way. His sword was in his right hand, stretched out behind him as he ran.


    I was hot on my father''s heels with my sword in both hands. I could hold it one handed, but I got so much more uracy and power with it in both hands so that was the way that I left it. And not to mention, this made sure that I didn''t drop it in my haste or nerves.


    I watched as Edmond leapt from the wall and sliced toward the Hydra''s rightmost head. It cut through the flesh, bones, and everything else easily, and I followed up behind, also leaping from the wall. When I was close enough to the dragon, I shot a jet of fire from my sword.


    That fire was hotter than ordinary fire and it caused the dragon to scream and screech again.


    "RAWRAHH! YOU BITCH! YOU CUT OFF ANOTHER ONE OF MY HEADS! WHAT DID YOU DO!? HOW DID YOU DO THIS AGAIN? RAWRAHGH! AND WHO IS THAT MAN!? HOW DID YOU BRING SOMEONE ELSE HERE?! RAWRAHGH!"


    It was clear that Hekate was not having a good time with what was going on. She was screeching and iling about as the bleeding from her neck stopped almost immediately. She was now down to just two heads, one of which was still spewing water at the shields that seemed to be holding firm and protecting Rudy, Alexio, Zachary, Zander and Zayden. I was happy that they seemed to be safe for the time being, but I needed to put an end to the st. I just knew that it had to be scaring the hell out of the three little boys. And the men probably weren''t having that great of a time either.


    "Oh, you do not recognize me, Hekate? You spoke to me all the time since I was a boy, but am dead for just a little while and all of a sudden you forget about me? That isn''t very nice at all. How could you do that to me?" I saw Edmond shaking his head like he couldn''t believe what it was that Hekate had said.


    "I speak to a lot of people, a lot of my children. You think you were special? You were one of many. You were just a pawn to get me out of hell." Hekate snapped at him, anger dripping from her voice.


    "That may be true Hekate, but I believe that I was the only one to ever get close to freeing you. Something that I truly regret doing, but it is the truth of my past." Once again Edmond sounded so filled with sorrow and sadness.


    "Close? The only one that ever got close was.. was Gannon." I could see the dragon bitch was trying to focus her eyes on him then. "Gannon Edmond?" She gasped when looking at him. "You''re dead. You''re dead and in a cell here in Damnation. How are you here? And why are you helping the bitch that killed you?"


    "Because this is the right thing to do." A fierce and firm resolve filled his voice when he answered that question. "You need to be stopped."


    "FUCK YOU GANNON! YOU WERE ALWAYS A WEAK DISCIPLE."


    The other head stopped throwing water at my kids and my friends so that it could start to aim at my father instead. I needed to protect him now too, he did save me after all.


    As it turned out, I didn''t need to protect him all that much. I was watching on and following behind Edmond so that I could step in if he needed me to, but he was doing just fine. He leapt from the tform that he was on and spun through the air toward the other head. He sliced through it in an instant and called out to me.


    "NOW TRINITY! BURN THE NECK SO THAT SHE CANNOT REGROW THE HEAD! HURRY UP!"


    I did as he told me to. I ran along the same path that he had taken and leapt toward the thrashing dragon while it screamed again and again.


    "RAWRAHGH! RAWR! ARGH! AHHHH! RAWRAHGH!" She screamed over and over again, thrashing and moving about. It was almost impossible for me to get close enough to the neck without her final head getting in the way.


    I did it though, and I once again shot a st of fire from my sword at her. The fire seared the flesh of the dragon bitch''s neck as it cauterized the wound. I could actually hear the ce being burned this time. I could smell it and hear it and neither of those were pleasant to behold.


    "HOW DARE YOU!? HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!? I AM A GODDESS!? I AM AN ALL POWERFUL BEING!? I AM HEKATE, MOTHER OF THE WITCHES AND WARLOCKS! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO YOUR CREATOR!? HOW?"


    "You may be the mother of our kind, Hekate, but you would also be our destruction. You would kill all of your children that didn''t agree with youpletely. That is a path that I have taken once, and I know how wrong that is. I will not let someone else kill so many innocent people. I will not let that happen to my daughter and her family." Edmond sounded so firm and pissed off at the moment that he almost sounded like the old Edmond. Almost. Still, he was trying to stop her so that was a good thing.


    "I will kill her and you, Edmond. I will destroy anyone who stands in my way. That is something that we used to have inmon. That is something that bound us together, but not anymore."


    "Nope, not anymore." I snapped at her. "He has changed, but you''re still the same old piece of trash that you always have been. Now Hekate, prepare for what you have been threatening me with this whole time. Prepare to die. I am going to end you. I am going to destroy your soul.. I am going to rid the world of your evilness once and for all."

 Chapter 732 - Trinity – Battling A Hydra Part 7 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 732 - Trinity ¨C Battling A Hydra Part 7 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Hekate was down to just one head now. This was going to be the final part of the battle. This was going to be the part that brought it all to an end. Finally, we could end this whole ordeal. Finally, I will be able to get home. And, curiously enough, it was all thanks to my father that I had been able to do all of this. Who would have thought that I would be working with him like this? Who would have ever thought that Gannon Cornelius Edmond would have been able to be trusted and relied upon like that? I never would have thought that at all. Not for one second.


    While I thought about these things that I basically used to think were impossible, I saw that Hekate was starting to get angrier than before. Her wings were beating faster and faster as she hovered in the air above the hall.


    The wind from her wings was nearly causing a whirlwind, that just showed how fast it was that she was beating those giant wings of hers. The whirlwind that she was creating was getting stronger by the second. It was so strong that it was starting to push me around the hall as it twisted below the dragon bitch.


    "We need to stop her, Edmond. We need to make sure that she doesn''t get out of here. And, while doing that, I need to make sure that I protect the boys and my friends up there. They cannot be harmed at all."


    "I know, Trinity. That is why I am here. I came to help you. I wanted to at least make up for a little bit of the damage I had caused when I was still living. You may rely on me and tell me whatever it is that you want me to do. I will make sure that I do it all perfectly."


    "Thank you, Edmond. I appreciate your help. And I know that your life might have been different if it wasn''t for your mother and father. You never had the chance to be loved." I could feel my heart breaking again. I had touched on this with him earlier, and I had of course learned the story from the other me, but that didn''t mean that it was easy for me to ept and process.


    As a mother, and as someone who didn''t have either of their biological parents in their life growing up, I knew what it was like to love a child and to be loved by others. All Edmond wanted was love. And that was what he thought he got from Hekate. That was why he dedicated his life to her.


    I still couldn''t stop thinking about the fact that Edmond would have turned out differently if he just had a chance at life. It wasn''t that he was bad, he just never knew love. That makes a big difference in someone''s life. A child can''t grow and flourish without love. And without that love, that child might make wrong choices out of desperation. If I could, I would go back to when Edmond was a child and show him the love that he needed andcked. If I could, I would help to make him into a better person.


    I needed to not think about that right now though. I needed to focus on the situation at hand. The boys were more important at the moment. And getting home to everyone else was more important. I could think about my father and all thatter, when I had more time and leeway.


    Focusing myself, I started to move toward the dragon once more. There was only one head left. Only one head to destroy before this was all over. I needed to get closer to it. I needed to be able to destroy that head as soon as possible.


    Yet, the moment that I tried to move closer to the dragon, the more that the wind pushed me away. The more I fought to get closer to the dragon, the stronger the wind became. Every time that I took a step toward the dragon I was buffeted back.


    I was literally not able to move any closer to her. That dragon bitch, that fucking fallen goddess Hekate, was starting to piss me off more than I ever thought would ever be possible. I just wanted to end her. I wanted to destroy her soul so that no one needed to worry about the hell on Earth that she wanted to create. If Hekate was given free roam, most of the people on the would be killed and there would only be evil and chaos that remained.


    Now that I thought about it, her vision of the world probably wasn''t that far off from Snum''s. I wonder if the two of them were somehow intertwined or something. They had such simr views on how they wanted to rule the world.


    There was one major difference though, Hekate would probably wipe out all of the Fae. She wouldn''t want to leave them in her new world order. They weren''t her people, and they weren''t worth lording over. Or that was what I figured she would say.


    "Dammit!" I snapped as I tried to get past Hekate''s wind defense once again. I knew that I could do this. I knew that I could get past her whirlwind and whatever else that she threw my way. The only issue here was the fact that I was getting frantic and I wasn''t slowing down to figure it all out.


    I was in too much of a hurry to end this. I had another person here to help me. I had someone else that could use magic and therefore someone that could help kill a dragon. I didn''t have to worry as much and I could throw caution to the wind. Or at least I thought that I could. It wasn''t really working right now though. I wasn''t getting past Hekate and her wind with me throwing away all caution right now.


    Still, I wasn''t ready to give up. I tried again and again to get past the whirlwind and it was all to no avail. I was annoyed now, and it was starting to show. I needed to do all that I could to prove that I was worthy. Worthy of my titles. Worthy of my position in my life. Worthy of my family. Worthy of it all.


    I would prove it to them. I would prove it to myself. I would prove it to my father. I would even prove it to Hekate. So many people over the years, so many enemies, had thought that I wasn''t anything to worry about. So many of them thought that I was nothing but a stepping stone. Well I was going to show them. I was going to prove to them that I was strong. Once and for all I was going to prove it to the world. Well, at least to the underworld. That was where I was now and that was where the legend of the Trinity Goddess was going to be reaffirmed.


    OK, I might be losing my mind just a little bit. But could anyone me me? After however long that I had been here in the underworld, how was I not certifiable yet?

 Chapter 733 - Reece – Worrying About My Little Bunny (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 733 - Reece ¨C Worrying About My Little Bunny (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I could tell that my Little Bunny was not doing so well right now. She was getting upset and I didn''t really know why. She had Edmond''s help now. She should be able to handle all of this. She should be able to end that bitch ande home.


    There was just one thing that I could think of. Only one thing that I thought might be responsible for why my Little Bunny was acting this way. The natural magic of the Hall of Damnation was affecting her. She just wasn''t thinking clearly because of that.


    As I looked around at the others that were in this room with me, the others that were watching the fight with Trinity, Edmond and Hekate, I could tell that they were scared. None of them would admit it, not at all, but all of them were scared. All of them were worried that Trinity would let the advantage that she had gained, that lead she was currently holding, slip away. That was their fear. I didn''t need to hear them say that to know that that had been what they were thinking. It was more than obvious as the words were basically written on their faces.


    Come on, Little Bunny. Come on, Trinity. You know that you can do this. You know that you have what it takes. We all believe in you. We all know that you''re strong enough to end this. And you''re more than smart enough for it too. Come on, Little Bunny, you can do this.


    "COME ON, LITTLE BUNNY!" I yelled at the screen. "Slow down and think it through. You''ve got this."


    "Yeah, that''s right Trinity, you''ve got this, sis. Let''s go." Noah encouraged her as well.


    "You''re the best Bunny ever, Trinity,e on and do this. Prove to Reece that you have got what it takes." Trevor was next.


    "I believe in you, Garin¨ªon. I know that you can do this. We all know it." Valerian was thest to encourage her.


    She had a lot of support, whether she knew it or not. There were a lot of people that knew she was strong and wise. And not all of them were in this room. She just needed to learn to trust herself and to calm down.


    Well, she had been in the underworld for a long time now. I wouldn''t be surprised if it was taking its toll on her. That was just to be expected in my opinion. She had been through a lot and it still wasn''t over. My poor Little Bunny. She needed me, she needed her family. She needed all of us.


    I''m here, Little Bunny. I''m here for you. We all are. Just finish this battle ande back to us. Just end it all soon. Just kill the dragon ande home to us. Come on, my love. We''re here to support you. Come on, Trinity.


    I couldn''t stop myself from sending her silent encouragement. The others were being more vocal about it most of the time, but I was being quiet about it. I also had a feeling that the others most likely thought that I was being way too rxed with it all. They probably thought that I didn''t care about my Little Bunny anymore. They just didn''t know what was going on in my head.


    No matter how proud of her I was. No matter how much I knew that she was going to be fine. None of that mattered to other people. It only mattered to me, andter to my Little Bunny when she knew that I never gave up hope and that I was by her side this whole time.


    Also, whether I was at her side or not, I was still getting nervous myself. Mostly because of the way that my Little Bunny kept running at the dragon again and again to no avail. She seemed like a relentless energizer bunny that was going at it again and again.


    If I knew how to get over there, I would wrap my arms around her right now and calm her down. If I knew how to get to her at this very moment, I would do everything that was in my power to not only end the fight and bring her home, but to end the worry and heartache that I could clearly tell that she was feeling.


    At that moment, my phone dinged. I had gotten a message on my cell phone, the first one since this hyper speed trap of ours had gone into effect. I knew that I needed to check it fast and respond as soon as I could. The way that time passed in here, it would take a long time for it to be sent back out to the others.


    [MOM]


    Hey Reece, I am just checking in on you and the others. Are you doing OK? None of us can get back into the room. The children have all been told what is going on and they know that you will be out when everything is over. I just want you to know that Sam and I are taking care of Talia, Reagan and Rika. Glory is ok with her baby, though she''s having a little bit of trouble with being pregnant. The same thing with Daci. The both of them know that their husbands are doing what matters and we will all be here waiting for the four of you, and hopefully Trinity. Oh, I can''t say what it is, but Nikki has a surprise for Noah when hees out of there. She''s really excited right now.


    I think I knew what that secret was. But I didn''t want to get presumptuous. We would find outter, when this was all over.


    [ME]


    Hey mom, we''re all good. Trinity is fighting the evil goddess now. I hope that it will be over soon. We will keep you informed and should be out soon, I hope. Give my love to the kids and tell them that I miss them. I am sorry that, for the time being, they are stuck without having their mom or their dad with them. They don''t deserve that, but I want them to know that I am only doing what I feel is right.


    The reply message came almost instantly for me, but that was still several minutes outside of this room.


    [MOM]


    They know that you love them. Reagan and Rika were so proud of you and Talia for what you did. They were so happy that Talia was able to open that screen. Though they were a little sad that they can''t see the screen and that they can''te in and see their mom. Still, they are doing well, and they are so proud of you. We all are. Love you, son.


    [ME]


    Love you too mom. More than you will ever know. And when this is all done, we will tell you and the others all that we saw. And all about the amazing things that Trinity has been doing. She''s amazing, Mom. Though you already knew that.


    I was fighting not to cry as I continued to text my mom for a little while longer. She was giving me the moral support that I didn''t even know that I needed right now.. After the messages, I was feeling a little better and that was a good thing.

 Chapter 734 - Trinity - Battling A Hydra Part 8 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 734 - Trinity - Battling A Hydra Part 8 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Calm down, Trinity." I heard a voiceing across the wind to me. It almost sounded like it was soft and whispered, but I knew that it had to have been yelled or screamed at me to be able to even reach me at all. "Calm down. Take a deep breath. And then we will fight this dragon woman together. We will end Hekate together."


    I recognized that the voice was that of my father''s. He was trying to help me out, but he wasn''t the only one.


    "It''s OK Mommy, the dragondy can''t beat you."


    "We believe in you, Mommy."


    "You''re strong, Mommy. You can do this. I know you can." The boys, Zachary, Zander and Zayden, all gave me encouragement that was soon followed by Rudy''s and then Alexio''s.


    "It''s alright, Queen Trinity. Calm down and focus. I know that you can do this. You can do anything. You are the amazing Goddess Queen Trinity."


    "Come on, Trinity. You''ve been proving me wrong this whole time, don''t stop now. Don''t let it get to you now. You''ve got to keep fighting or I won''t follow you anymore. I believe you can do it."


    All of the voices sounded like they came at me as whispers in the wind, but I don''t really think that they were whispers, or even screams or yells. No, these felt like something more than that to me. This felt like they were just thinking these things and the thoughts were reaching me inside of the whirlwind. And that wasn''t all either.


    "COME ON, LITTLE BUNNY! Slow down and think it through. You''ve got this." I heard Reece''s voice as well. I heard him encouraging me and giving me support even though he wasn''t here right now at all.


    "Yeah, that''s right Trinity, you''ve got this, sis. Let''s go." Noah''s encouraging voice came in next. He was sad but I could also tell that he was proud of me. And just hearing his voice after all of this time made me want to cry. I missed him and Reece so much. And everyone else as well of course.


    "You''re the best Bunny ever, Trinity,e on and do this. Prove to Reece that you have got what it takes." Trevor was the next one to start yelling out to me and I nearly cried when he supported me with his words. I don''t know how I was hearing these voices or why, but it was enough to make me feel so loved.


    "I believe in you, Garin¨ªon. I know that you can do this. We all know it." Even Athair m¨°r was giving me support right now.


    How was it that I was hearing these people? How was it that they were giving me this type of encouragement when I knew for a fact that they weren''t here with me and that they didn''t know what was going on? Was this just a general support that they were sending my way? Were they just telling me to beat whatever was happening to me? Even if that was all that it was, it was helping me out. It was making me feel loved and supported. And man, support was truly something that I needed right now. I needed to know that people still cared about me and that they hadn''t given up on me. And these words couldn''t havee at a better time than right now.


    I stopped moving altogether for a few moments. I didn''t want to move and make any more noise. I wanted to see if there were any more voices that were going toe to support me. If there were, I didn''t want to be making noise and causing them to not be heard. I wanted to hear them and feel their love and support.


    Well, unfortunately, I didn''t hear anyone else''s voice calling out to me. I didn''t hear any other voices that were filled with love and support for me. However, I did feel the love that the others had for me. It was almost overwhelming. And I know that it was real. It was like everyone back home who loved me had sent some of that love here to the underworld with me.


    And that love that they were sending me. That feeling that I was getting from all of them. It was calming me down and making me take the slow deep breath that I had been needing.


    All of that love and support was giving me just what I had been missing in this moment, and for that I would be forever grateful to them. This was amazing. It felt like there were a few dozen people trying to hug me at the same time, but it wasn''t chaos or anything. It was just pure love and happiness.


    I could feel all the love that they were sending me. And with all the support that the people I loved and that loved me were sending me, I felt like I could do anything. I felt like I was on top of the world and was able to take on anything and everything.


    There was something else that I was feeling too. I had been on the verge of tears before Athair m¨°r said his words and before the feelings came from the others. And now that I had experienced all of that, I truly was crying. They weren''t sad tears, not all of them. They were happy tears for that connection to them all.


    I was a little sad though. I missed everyone. I wanted to go home. I wanted to hug my children. I wanted to see my brothers and my parents. I want to hold my husband in my arms and know that I was somewhere safe and secure. I wanted and needed all of that. And because of that, I was crying.


    Thankfully though, I had kept myself from sobbing. It was just a silent little cry where the tears rolled down my cheeks. I didn''t try to stop them, and I didn''t try to wipe them away. They were not tears that I needed to be ashamed of. These were the tears of love. Love that I felt for others and that they felt for me. I was lucky and therefore I was proud of these tears.


    Not only that, but these tears were giving me rity. They were washing away the desperation from my eyes. They were helping me to know that I could do anything that I wanted and needed to. They were powerful tears that were working a magic on me. And with that magic, I would be better equipped to take on the Hydra that was Hekate.


    By the time that I looked back at Hekate, I was grinning. That was how much love, happiness, and power I was feeling in that moment. I was feeling so much that it made me smile at her in a way that said that she couldn''t touch me. I was powerful, I was strong, and I was loved. That was more than I could say about the fallen goddess. That was more than she could boast at all. And with that knowledge, I was going to be able to take her down.. I was going to be able to finish this.

 Chapter 735 - Trinity - Battling A Hydra Part 9 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 735 - Trinity - Battling A Hydra Part 9 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" There went that gratingughter that the dragon bitch liked to use so much. There had to be a better way for her tough, but she kept insisting on using that one. I almost felt like thatughter was a weapon of hers. It was that bad. "Look at you, Trinity. The almighty Queen Trinity, the goddess three times over, the all powerful piece of celestial trash, Trinity Gray. Look at you and what you''ve be. You''re nothing but a sniveling mess. You''re crying because you can''t take what I am doing. You''re crying because you can''t get to me and therefore, I am already winning. You killed some of my heads, but I am still alive. One head is all I need to make it out of the Hall of Damnation. One head is all that I need to rule the world. HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" She really was stupidly confident and cocky, wasn''t she? She really thought that I was crying because of her. Well, I wonder what she would think when she learned the truth.


    "I hate to break it to you, Hekate, but these tears have nothing to do with you. Not at all. In fact, they are because I am so loved. That and I miss my family so much. Did you know that I can hear them? Yup, that''s right, I can hear them. Not to mention, I can feel the love that they have for me. It''sing through to me. That feeling of love and heartache. They miss me too, and it''s making them sad. It''s abination of those emotions that is making me cry right now. I can assure you though, it has absolutely nothing to do with you." I smirked at her, knowing that it would piss her off when I said those words.


    "Why, you little bitch. How dare you speak to me like that? You know that it''s simply not true. You fucking liar. You are crying because you are scared of me. And, who wouldn''t be? Just look at me. I am a dragon, a Hydra. I am fierce and powerful. I am enough to strike fear into the hearts of all that see me, including you. Stop lying. Stop pretending. You know it is seeing me that caused your tears." I can''t believe how much anger there was in Hekate''s voice. She truly didn''t like what I had said, did she?


    "Believe what you will, dragon bitch. However, I know the truth and that is all that matters to me. I don''t need to lie to you. And I don''t need to be afraid of you. You''re about to die, right here and right now. You''re about to be ended once and for all. And I will be the one that joyously puts an end to you."


    I felt a little crazy just then. When I said those words to Hekate, Iughed. Iughed long and loud like I was some kind of psychopath. Clearly, I was losing touch with reality. Clearly, I was bing a very unstable, and therefore a very dangerous, person. What was I going to be capable of from here on out? What was I going to do while I was here? I just didn''t know and that was scary, while also a little exciting.


    "Are you ready, Edmond?" I chanced a small nce over at him. He was standing to my right side, yet across the hall. It was a direct line from me to him, it was just that he wasn''t right beside me.


    "Yes, Trinity, I am ready." My father looked excited and happy. Was he just looking forward to fighting in a battle with me as an ally, or was it that he had grown so used to killing by this point in his life?


    That wasn''t fair of me. I was the one that knew how much he had changed. So, it was really rude of me to assume that he just wanted to kill someone now. I needed to do better than that. I was the one that was happy and thrilled with how far that he hade, so I needed to stick to those thoughts right now and not revert back to the old ones. I needed to be the solution, not the problem.


    "Then let''s go, Edmond. I know that together we can do this." I nodded at him, hoping to be able to get this all moving soon. I was happy to be working with him and to actually see an end in sight. "All that I have left to do is to kill Hekate."


    "All that we have left to do." Edmond had run across the hall and was standing next to me. "We''re working together on this, remember. So that is all that we need to do. You and me, both." He was smiling at me when he said those words. I never truly noticed how handsome my father was. He had a decent face, yeah, but it used to be sullied by the anger and evilness that he had inside of him. Now though, he just looked handsome and good.


    "Yeah, we''re working together. I need to remember that. I need to make sure that I don''t try to do everything myself. Even though I told you toe on and I knew that you were here to help me, I still couldn''t stop thinking about the fact that I needed to be the one to finish this all myself."


    "That sounds like a bad habit that you have there." He chuckled, still keeping his eyes on Hekate while holding this conversation with me. He was doing a very good job at multitasking with me. I kind of felt bad for being a distraction at the moment, but I had to be in the right mindset right now and this was helping me.


    "It is a bad habit that I have had for a while. Everyone back home yells at me for it. And to be honest, I have a feeling that this habit of mine is why I ended up here."


    "How is that possible?" He took his eyes off Hekate for just a moment to give me a curious expression before he went back to watching the dragon bitch.


    "Stressing over everything that I wanted to do myself made me tired. Being tired made me unable to ward off the voices that wereing for me. That led to me being easily influenced by a certain fallen goddess dragon bitch''s words. So, now I am here."


    "Be stronger in the future, Trinity. You are my daughter and I know what you are capable of. I want you to lead your people and show them what a wonderful leader you are. And I want you to be happy in life because I never could be."


    "Yes, Edmond. I will. I promise that I will." What else was I going to say to him? I wanted to be better anyway. I wanted to do better than I had been. And if he wanted that for me too, then that was all the better.. I was d to have him on my side right now.

 Chapter 736 - Trinity – Battling A Hydra Part 10 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 736 - Trinity ¨C Battling A Hydra Part 10 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Let''s get a move on now, Trinity. We have work to do and then you have to get home." There was a look of sorrow filling Edmond''s eyes right then. I could tell that he was a little upset that he wouldn''t be going with me when I left.


    "Yeah, let''s go." I tried to not let his words, or his sorrow, affect me. Like he said, we had work to be doing.


    Edmond took the lead at first, like he had done before when we removed thest two heads. Edmond had cut the heads off from the body and then I cauterized them so that they wouldn''t grow back. That method had worked just fine for us at the time, probably because I wasn''t used to fighting with my father like that. And I still wasn''t.


    But no matter what I was feeling right now, I needed to take charge. I needed to be in the lead so that I couldmand this fight. That was the simple truth of it. Being in the lead was not the same thing as taking it all on myself. It just meant that I was in charge of the people helping me and not the other way around.


    So, with Edmond running along the side of the hall and toward the whirlwind that Hekate was still spinning around us all, I put on a burst of speed and leapt in front of him. He didn''t say anything to me about it. And I didn''t sense that he had stopped running. He just continued on as he had been, no changes at all. I was d to see that he wasn''t trying to fight me for control and dominance right now.


    "Edmond, I am going to climb the wall, you distract her with various attacks. You probably won''t make it through the wind wall, but just keep her focused on you." I whispered the words to him, hoping that Hekate hadn''t heard them at all.


    "Got it. And be careful, Trinity. I don''t want you getting hurt."


    "Don''t worry. I will be. And you be careful too, Edmond."


    After I said that, I started to create tforms that were taking me up the side of the hall and toward Hekate''s head. Edmond continued forward and started to shoot dark purple balls at her feet. The balls would spin around her and then crash into her toes. I watched them out of the corner of my eye as I ran up the side of the wall. This trip was longer than it should have been since Hekate was flying, or hovering, in the air.


    I wasn''t able to focus on Edmond for too much longer though. I was almost to the top of the hall. I was almost to where Hekate was waiting for me. It was almost time for me to make my move.


    I needed to figure out where I was going to hit the dragon. I needed to figure out where the most vulnerable spot might be. This would all go a lot more smoothly if I had a concrete n in ce before I went to attack her. I didn''t want to fuck this up.


    There, that would be the right ce. I was about maybe three or four tforms away from being able to attack Hekate. Since I was closer now, and able to look at her more intently, I was able to find the perfect ce to put my de.


    There, between her shoulder des, just below the base of her neck, was what looked like a very tender spot of flesh. That spot right there should sever the dragon bitch''s spine and leave her defenseless for me to chop off her head. It was perfect. And I just knew that it was going to work.


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Trinity and Edmond were working together right now. One of them was being the distraction while the other one was about to make the final blow that would hopefully end all of this hell.


    I could feel the excitement growing inside of me and the others. We were waiting, anticipating that final hit. That final blow that would remove the Hydra''sst head. This was it. Come on, Trinity, let''s go.


    And while I was internally cheering for her, while I was waiting for it all to end, I saw something that Trinity hadn''t seemed to notice. None of us had noticed it until that moment.


    Right there, floating just about Hekate''s head, was a giant de made out of water and ice. Actually, it wasn''t just one de, there were dozens of them. The des looked lethally sharp and like they could cut through anything.


    There was something else about those des. Something that was giving me the creeps. It had to do with the color that the des were. They weren''t white or blue, like water should have been. No, these des looked like they were a sickly looking greenish color. It was a color that, to me, spoke of poison and death. Were these poisonous des? Were these something that could kill without even trying?


    I hoped and prayed that that thought wasn''t true, but I had a feeling that my prayers were not going to be answered. There was something totally wrong here. Trinity needed to watch out for those icy water des. She needed to be on guard.


    "TRINITY! BE CAREFUL! SHE HAS A WEAPON! WATCH OUT FOR THOSE BLADES, TRINITY! LOOK UP! LOOK ABOVE HEKATE! WATCH WHAT SHE IS DOING!" I wanted to let her know, she had seemed like she had heard what I was trying to say to herst time, so this time shouldn''t be any different right? She should still be able to hear me, right? Well, I sure hoped so. I didn''t want my Little Bunny or anyone other than Hekate to be hurt at all. She deserved to die, but none of the others did. Trinity, the triplets Zachary, Zander and Zayden, my Little Bunny''s friends Rudy and Alexio, even Edmond. All of those people needed to be kept safe, and those didn''t look safe for anyone there.


    "LOOK UP, TRINITY!" Noah started to scream at her.


    "LOOK! SEE WHAT SHE HAS THERE! LOOK UP, DAMMIT!" Trevor came next.


    "COME ON, PAY ATTENTION! SHE''S BEEN PLOTTING AND PLANNING FOR A LONG TIME! GO ON AND LOOK UP! LOOK UP!" Valerian also wanted to warn her.


    After we all called out to her individually, we all started to chant the same thing over and over again.


    "LOOK UP! LOOK UP! LOOK UP! LOOK UP! COME ON, TRINITY, LOOK UP! LOOK UP! PLEASE, JUST LOOK UP!" It wasn''t all word for word, but that was mostly what we were each saying at the same time. And we weren''t stopping because my Little Bunny still hadn''t looked up. She was just getting into position to attack the dragon while Edmond distracted the damned thing. Or so he thought that he was distracting it. I had a feeling that Hekate was just messing with them and pretending to be paying attention to him.


    "LOOK UP! LOOK UP, TRINITY! LOOK UP!" I called out the words once more, hoping that she would finally hear me. "DAMMIT, LOOK UP!

 Chapter 737 - Trinity Battling A Hydra Part 11 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 737 - Trinity Battling A Hydra Part 11 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was just about to leap off of the tform that was closest to that sweet spot. I was just about to attack and possibly kill the dragon. And right before I did that, I heard the sounds of four people screaming at me.


    "LOOK UP! TRINITY, LOOK UP!"


    "DAMMIT, LOOK UP!"


    "PAY ATTENTION AND LOOK UP!"


    "OH GODDESS, TRINITY, LOOK UP!"


    They were all frantic and scared, for whatever reason. And they wouldn''t let up at all.


    "LOOK UP! TRINITY, LOOK UP!"


    "DAMMIT, LOOK UP!"


    "PAY ATTENTION AND LOOK UP!"


    "OH GODDESS, TRINITY, LOOK UP!"


    I heard it again, only this time it was just repeating the same thing over and over again.


    "LOOK UP! LOOK UP! LOOK UP! LOOK UP! LOOK UP! LOOK UP! LOOK UP! LOOK UP! LOOK UP! LOOK UP! LOOK UP! LOOK UP!"


    The words all came as a rush, they sounded like they were sped up from their normal speed and yed back super fast. I couldn''t even tell who it was that had spoken. I mean, they literally sounded like chipmunks or something. Still, I decided to listen to them. They were apparently trying to help me. So, less than two seconds after hearing the first warning, I looked up, above the dragon''s head.


    And that was when I saw whatever it was that was so wrong. There were a dozen nasty looking des about the dragon bitch''s head. She was going to attack someone. She was going to use those to attack me or Edmond so that we weren''t able to defeat her.


    I didn''t know when she had done this. My guess was that she had started the whirlwind in an attempt to distract us and hide what she was doing. She was using it as a blinder and it fucking worked. She was going to attack, and it looked like it was happening now.


    I expected the first de toe at me, since I was closer. But that wasn''t where she aimed it. And it wasn''t aimed at Edmond either. He would be the next logical choice with what he had been doing to get her attention. But nope, he wasn''t her target anymore than I was.


    No, it seemed that Hekate''s true target was the protected tform where Rudy, Alexio, Zachary, Zander and Zayden were all waiting for me. It was the ce where those that I cared about were about to be hurt. This wasn''t good.


    The first de smashed into the barrier that Edmond hadyered around mine. It was stopped, but I could see visible cracks in the barrier that he had put up. Not only that, but the tform that they were all on shook violently from the st.


    "AHH! MOMMY!"


    "HELP US, MOMMY!"


    "AHH! NOO! MOMMY THIS IS SCARY!" The boys were screaming while they clung to Rudy and Alexio.


    "Don''t worry my babies, I aming. I will save you."


    "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" Hekate was screeching withughter as I made that promise to my boys. "YOU THINK THAT YOU CAN GET TO THEM IN TIME?! THAT IS NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN! I WILL STOP YOU! I WILL PUT AN END TO YOU AND THEM RIGHT HERE ARE NOW!"


    At that, Hekate sent another de toward the barriers that were protecting the others while also shooting her head toward me. She was trying to catch me off guard while I was watching the others. She was trying to force me to choose my life or theirs.


    Well, I choose them all. I am going to make sure that we all get out of here. She would see. She would find that out really soon. No one threatens my babies. No one tries to hurt my family. And if they did, they would pay for it with their lives.


    The third de hit the tform. The second de had shaken them violently once again while also cracking Edmond''s barrier even more. The third de broke the barrierpletely. His protection for the others was gone. Now it was just the one that I put around them.


    The fourth, fifth, and sixth des hit in quick session as I ran along the tforms to save them all. I was shooting magic at the des, doing everything that I could to stop them, but she had poured too much into them. They were too powerful for me to stop that easily. I needed to have more time. I needed to think this through. But I couldn''t. I didn''t have any more time.


    Those hits, those three des that were breaking my barrier away, they actually hurt me. They caused me physical pain when they mmed into it. And, just like Edmond''s barrier, mine was cracking. It looked like mine was hanging in there just a little bit, but it was still cracking nheless.


    Even moving the tform wasn''t helping either. The des seemed to be trained on the tform and as the seventh, eighth, and ninth des moved to attack, they moved with the tform, following it wherever it was going.


    I tried to stop them, I tried to make it so that the des didn''t hit, but I couldn''t. The three of them struck with an immense force and I felt the barrier give waypletely. Rudy, Alexio, Zachary, Zander and Zayden were now exposed and vulnerable to attack. And I was still several dozen feet away. With the speed at which those des were moving, they would get there before me.


    DAMMIT! Why couldn''t I move at the supersonic, hyper speed when I wanted to? Why did it have to be something that seemed toe and go? Why wasn''t I able to use it now? Why wasn''t I going to be able to save them? Why? Why? WHY!?


    I watched on in horror as the final three des left their position above Hekate''s head. It was almost like everything around me was starting to move in slow motion again, only this time I was moving just as slow. I couldn''t speed myself up. I couldn''t stop them. Hekate was going to attack them. She was about to kill them. My boys. My friends. They were going to be gone soon. No. No. No. NO! PLEASE GODDESS, NO! DON''T LET THEM GET HURT! DON''T LET THEM DIE!


    "NO!" This time I screamed the word as I leapt from the tform and tried to make it to them. I was too far away from them. I wasn''t going to make it to them in time. I wasn''t going to save them.


    I felt the weight of all of this holding me down. I felt like it was literally slowing me down even more and causing me to just practically sit there and watch them all die.


    At that moment, the three des hit and there was a massive explosion of blood and dust. I heard screaminging from just about everywhere. The boys were screaming and crying. Rudy was screaming. Even Alexio was screaming in fear and pain. The blood was spraying everywhere and came out in an arc toward me.


    "NO! NO! THIS CAN''T BE HAPPENING! NO!" I felt like my soul was being crushed. This wasn''t possible.


    "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" Hekate wasughing maniacally at what she had just done.

 Chapter 738 - Trinity – Gone (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 738 - Trinity ¨C Gone (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "No!" I sobbed the word as the blood and dust started to settle. "No!" I couldn''t stop saying that over and over again. "No!"


    "I killed your precious little babies and your pathetic friends. You couldn''t save them. You couldn''t protect anyone. You''re weak. You''re pathetic. You''re worthless. You can''t do anything Trinity. It''s time that you realized that." Hekate was still ranting about what she had done and all I wanted to do was kill her. All I wanted to do was rip her apart. She needed to pay for this. She needed to be punished.


    "MOMMY!"


    "MOMMY! WHERE ARE YOU!?"


    "MOMMY! HELP US!"


    The sound of those voices, of Zachary, Zander and Zayden, they sounded so real. Like they were still there.


    "Oh my, Queen Trinity, you need to see this." I heard Rudy''s voice as well.


    "Keep fighting, Trinity. It''s not over yet." Alexio too? What was going on?


    That was when the rest of the aftermath in the air finally settled. I could see blood, pieces of skin, bone fragments, and so much other gore in the aftermath of what had happened. And beyond all of that there was a fractured shield like barrier. And behind that barrier were the three boys and the two men that hade here with me. They were all fine and nothing seemed to be wrong with them at all.


    "What? Then how? What happened?"


    "Mommy, look!" Zayden was pointing at the ce just below the broken barrier. "Mommy! It''s Grandfather. He saved us."


    He was right too. Just below the broken shield, which hadn''t been there when mine broke, there was Edmond. He wasying on the floor. His body waspletely broken and nearly cut in half. He had leapt into the path of the des and put up another shield at the same time. He had saved my boys.


    "EDMOND!" I called out for him. He had just started to help me. He had cleansed his soul. He was a good man now. Why did this have to happen to him? "You bitch! You killed Edmond."


    "I already said that I was going to kill him. However, I didn''t really expect that he was going to jump into the path of my des. I didn''t actually think that he was going to sacrifice his soul to save theirs. But I guess you never know someone, do you? He was a failure. A fucking disappointment. He was nothing but trash. And I took him now. HA! HA! HA! Isn''t that funny, Trinity? I took out the trash."


    "You''re crazy! You''re fucking crazy. You bitch! How could you do this? How could you aim to take out the lives of children? And how could you be happy about having murdered a man like that? You''re crazy! Fucking crazy."


    I was still sobbing. I hadn''t wanted him to get hurt in this fight. I never even considered that to be a possibility. I thought that he would be fine. I thought that when this was all done and over with, he would still be fine. I would have hated to send him back to his cell for imprisonment, but now his soul was gone forever.


    "Keep fighting, Trinity. Don''t let this get to you." Alexio called out to me again. "Don''t let her win. Stop her so that your father''s sacrifice was not in vain. Kill her! Prove that you''re the stronger Goddess. Show her what your humanity can give you. Keep fighting and save your children."


    Alexio was right. I needed to keep going. I needed to save them. And the only way to save them was to eliminate Hekate. I still had the chance to rip her apart. I still have the chance to kill her. And it wouldn''t at all be considered revenge or an eye for an eye. It would all be the natural course that I was going to take all along. I was going to kill Hekate.


    That thought gave me a certain level of rity. It gave me a peace that I knew was not right for me to have. However, there was nothing that I could do about it. It was what it was and that was it. There was no reason that I should feel shame over it. Not at all. This was just the way that things had to be.


    "Hekate, I have said this to you many times already." My voice was a lot more calm and steady than I expected it to be as I stood there, staring at Edmond''s mangled body. "But I am going to destroy your soul. I am going to kill you. I am going to stop you from killing anyone else. I am going to save the world from your evil tyranny. I am going to do all of that and I won''t even bat an eysh. And I will take pleasure in making sure that you feel an immense amount of pain while I kill you."


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    My Little Bunny was looking so hurt and so lost. She had not been expecting this. She went from thinking the same thing that I had in the beginning, that the souls for our boys had been destroyed as well as her two new friends, who I guess I will admit weren''t as ugly as I originally said they were. She had thought that Hekate had killed them all. She had thought that they were going to be gone forever and that our babies here in this world would be lost to us. We had all been worried about that as the room that I was in had gonepletely silent the moment that the gore started to fly into the air.


    But that wasn''t what happened. Not at all. We hadn''t lost the boys. My Little Bunny hadn''t lost her friends. They were all just fine. But one of the triplets pointed out something that none of us had been expecting.


    Laying there, just below the kids and the two men, was Edmond. He was dead, again. This time it was his soul that died and not his body. Also, I am not even going to try and figure out how there was blood and gore for the death of a soul. They''re just a soul, right? How did they have all of that stuff inside just a soul?


    That wasn''t relevant right now. What was relevant was the fact that Edmond had given his life to save the children and Trinity''s friends. He had sacrificed himself in an act that none of us had ever thought he would do. I don''t care how much he seemed to have changed, I didn''t believe it until this very moment. I didn''t believe that he really was different until just now.


    "Oh my Goddess. I cannot believe that Edmond did that." Noah was in just as much shock as I was. "He.. he saved them. Edmond. THE Edmond saved the kids and other men."


    "Who would have thought that was a possibility?!" Trevor shook his head. "I lost my brother because of that man, and I will never forgive him because of that, but he still did something here that would at least make me tolerate the man. He saved the boys. That is something that my brother would have done. Evan would have given his life to save your boys. He wouldn''t have even thought about it. He would always save a child."


    I knew that Trevor had to be having trouble with this. Like he said, he would never forgive Edmond, but the man had truly just done a selfless and redeemable act. I was so torn about it, but more than anything, I was worried about my Little Bunny. She seemed to be nearly broken.


    She needed to keep fighting though.. She needed to keep going.

 Chapter 739 - Trinity – Ending This (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 739 - Trinity ¨C Ending This (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I had lost my sword in the fray. When I was rushing to get to Rudy, Alexio, Zachary, Zander and Zayden, I had somehow dropped it and lost it. That was fine though. I just needed to call it back out again.


    I reached my hand into the air, into that other dimensional pocket, and felt my fingers brush against the handle of the sword. I gripped it tightly and pulled it out in a quick and swift maneuver. I was once again armed and quite dangerous.


    Hekate was stillughing that disgustingugh of hers.


    "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" Thatugh was so annoying. However, instead of slowing me down this time, it was egging me on. It was pushing me toward the goal that I had. I needed to end this bitch. I needed to destroy her. And thatugh of hers was just adding fuel to my rage.


    That rity was still coursing through me as well. I was seeing everything so clearly that it was like everything was pointing itself out to me. I was seeing everything in such clear detail that I knew that it would only help me in this next stage of the battle. Hekate was going down.


    I started to run back to the top of the hall. Hekate was still floating in the air. She wasn''t in the same ce that she had been in since she had lunged at me, but she was still up there. And I still knew where I needed to hit her. I was going to aim for that same ce that I had found earlier. I was going to keep going, keep pushing myself on until I got to where I needed to be. I was going to prove to my father that his death, the death of his soul, was not for nothing. He sacrificed himself and I wasn''t going to take that for granted. He would be one of the heroes of this day. I would see to that.


    With my intense level of rity, all of the fatigue that I was starting to feel was ebbing. All of the doubts I had been having were gone. All of the fears that I had were no more. It was like I waspletely uninhibited and free. I was going to do what I needed to do.


    Finally, I had run all the way around the end of the hall several times. Moving up in circles and waiting to get to the proper ce that I needed to be in. The entire time that I was running in circles, mes were being left behind me. It was almost like Hekate''s whirlwind that she was creating with her wings, but I was running in the opposite direction as her wind was moving. I was countering her vortex a little. The strength of her wind was dying down with each time that I went around her. This was helping me out so much. I would be able to get to her a little bit easier. And not only that, but she was being pulled toward the ground with my rotations. She was being lowered and made it easier for me to get to the right position.


    "There it is." I whispered the words to myself. It was time for me to make my move. "I can see the spot and I am close enough. It is time for me to make my move." I was finally going to go for it. I was finally going to kill her.


    It took me just a second, if that, to be where I needed to be. I had leapt off of my tform and was soaring toward the spot right between the dragon bitch''s wings. The moment that I felt my feet hit their mark I was already aiming my sword.


    It took no time at all, a matter of a few tenths of a second, and my eyes were already locked onto that soft, tender part of the dragon bitch''s back. That was where I needed to put my de. That was the spot that would render her immobile. She wouldn''t be able to move. She wouldn''t be able to stop me at all.


    I didn''t hesitate. I didn''t think about it at all. I didn''t wait for anything at all. I just thrust my sword down with both hands and sunk the de into the dragon''s flesh.


    Immediately, Hekate started to scream and thrash around.


    "RAWRAHGH! RAWR! ARGH! AHHHH! RAWRAHGH! RAWRAHGH! RAWR! ARGH! AHHHH! RAWRAHGH! RAWRAHGH! RAWR! ARGH! AHHHH! RAWRAHGH!" She just screamed and roared the same things over and over again as she tried to throw me off of her back. "YOU BITCH! YOU LITTLE BITCH! RAWR! OWRGH! AHHHH! OWWW! I''M GOING TO KILL YOU! I''M GOING TO¡­ I''M GOING TO¡­"


    "Seems to me, Hekate, that I am going to be the one to kill you. You''re done. Your life is over. I am going to finish this and you will never be a burden on my life ever again."


    "NO! NO! THIS CANNOT BE! HOW CAN YOU BEAT ME?! HOW!?" I could hear Hekate sobbing but I wasn''t going to let it affect me at all. She was evil. She was crazy. And she killed Edmond. She deserved this.


    I wasn''t done with her. She wasn''t dead yet and so I needed to finish the job. It was time for me to take pleasure in the destruction of this monster, just like I said that I was going to do. It was time for me to let a little bit of that dark Trinity out and let her have a little bit of fun.


    I pulled my sword out from the dragon bitch''s back and heard her roar in pain once again.


    "RAWRAHGH! RAWR! ARGH! AHHHH! RAWRAHGH!" That was all that I heard though. After that I started to hack away at the disgusting piece of shit''s neck. It didn''t take long for the head to fall from the body, but I wasn''t done even then. I kept hacking away. Blow after blow, hit after hit. I wasn''t letting up. I hacked away at her left wing and then the right. I cut away her arms and then her legs. The scaley torso was next, chopped to bits and justying there on the ground beneath me.


    I hadpletely torn the dragon apart. I wanted to make sure that there was nothing left of her diseased and deranged soul. I was going to see to it that she waspletely gone forever and ever.


    I hacked away at the dragon long after her screams had died down. She was long dead, but I had continued to chop her to pieces. I hadn''t been able to make myself stop.


    I did though, finally I had had enough and my arms dropped my sword. The de immediately disappeared, back into that other ce that it went to. I was left there, panting and tired, but still somewhat satisfied.


    I had killed Hekate. I had destroyed the evil goddess. I had saved myself, my boys, my friends, my family and the world. I had saved all but one. It was finally over.


    It was finally over! That needed to be repeated.. Thank the Goddess, it was finally over.

 Chapter 740 - Trinity – Unexpected (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 740 - Trinity ¨C Unexpected (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It was over. Part of me was still trying toe to terms with that part. It was over. All of it was over. I could go home now. I could return to my family. I just needed to figure that part out. I just needed to find a way to get out of here.


    While I was thinking about these things, contemting all that I needed to do, I noticed that Rudy and Alexio were calling out to me.


    "You did it, Queen Trinity. You killed the dragon. You won! You''re so amazing!" Rudy sounded so happy and excited.


    "That was wonderful, Trinity. I am sorry that I ever doubted you. You have proven to me time and time again that you told me the truth. You are a goddess. You are a queen. You were here to save the world and the underworld. All of it was true and I am so happy that I was able to be part of this with you." Honestly, I couldn''t ept Alexio''s praise. Not Rudy''s either. I didn''t feel like I had done anything that was amazing. I didn''t think that I had done anything that was praiseworthy. I had gotten Edmond''s soul destroyed. I had traumatized the boys. I had nearly gotten them all killed, myself included. I was no hero. I was just lucky. That was all.


    "Mommy?" One of the boys was calling me. I couldn''t see them, but I had a feeling that it was Zayden. "Mommy, is it over now? Is it all done?"


    "Yes, baby boy, I am sure that it is over now. She can''t hurt anyone anymore."


    "That''s good." He seemed to sigh in relief.


    At that moment, I wanted to hug my boys. I wanted them to know that I was still here with them. I wanted them to feel safe. So, I started to lower the tform. However, I realized then that I was covered in gore from the dragon. I couldn''t hug my boys looking like this. I needed to clean myself first.


    Well, it just so happens that I knew some magic that could help me with that. I quickly enveloped myself with wind and water. Even as the tform came down, I was washing myself. I made sure that all of the mess was gone by the time that they got down to me. And not only that, but I was dried as well. That was what the wind was for, after all. I needed to make sure that I wasn''t wet when I hugged them.


    Finally, the tform was now resting on the floor, which meant that they could jump off of it ande over to me. In true style to what little kids would do, the three little boys leapt down and ran to me ahead of Rudy and Alexio.


    I opened my arms wide for them toe to me, but they froze in their tracks. They never made it all the way to me because of the bright glowing light that had just started to emanate from the area near the massive dragon''s corpse.


    There was a massive howling wind that was suddenly blowing through the hall. The light was getting brighter and brighter until it was almost too bright to look at. An intense heat was starting to burn me, almost like I was being boiled. And to top it all off, the ground was shaking. Not violently, but enough to unsteady us as we tried to look around us and see what was happening.


    "Mommy, what is going on?" Zachary asked me first.


    "This is scary, Mommy. What is it? Make it stop." Zander was next.


    "Mommy is going to make it stop. She is the strongest. That is why she beat the dragon. Right, Mommy? You''re going to save us again?"


    Dammit! What is going on now? What was it that I needed to do? What was endangering me and my boys?


    While I thought about those questions, I noticed that the wind, heat and shaking of the ground was only affecting the area that me and the boys were in. It wasn''t affecting Rudy and Alexio. What was this? Why weren''t they being affected?


    "Just hang in there, boys. Mommy will figure out what is going on." I did my best to try and make them feel better. If I could keep them calm then they would be less scared and less likely to cry out from their fear.


    Now, all I needed to do was figure out what was happening.


    As I looked around, I noticed that the light wasn''t just near the dragon''s body, it wasing from the dragon itself. OK, that was something. So, whatever this was, it was still Hekate''s fault. But what was she doing? I mean, she was dead, wasn''t she?"


    "Trinity, be careful. I think that there is still some magic left inside of the fallen goddess." Alexio gave me a warning that I truly didn''t need. Still, if he had noticed it too, then it meant that it was definitely true, and getting to be a cause for concern.


    "Sh..should Queen Trinity dispel the magic? Will that make this stop? Would that save her and the boys?"


    "I do not know. Magic is not my forte [1]. I think this is something that Trinity is going to need to figure out." Of course, Alexio, leave it all to me. You just stay there on the safe little tform and wait for me to fix everything.


    UGH! I was starting to lose my patience. I needed to figure this out right now. I had to do it before I let out any more of my dark side. That wouldn''t be a good thing right now.


    Just as I made the decision to do something, just as I rose up to stand on my feet rather than being crouched and waiting for the boys, the light that wasing from the dragon seemed to leave the dead body and shoot into the air. OK, well, I guess I didn''t need to do anything anymore. The light was lessening, the heat was fading, the ground wasn''t shaking anymore. The only thing that remained was the wind that was filling the hall. And I guess that the wind wasn''t all that bad.


    I didn''t think that we had anything else to worry about. I mean, the light was leaving. Things were all settling down. Or so I thought.


    I hadn''t noticed that the light was just spinning above the boys'' heads. Not at first anyway. But Rudy decided to let me know about that.


    "Queen Trinity, look! Up there!" He was pointing right above Zachary, Zander and Zayden.


    The light was first making just a circr motion. It was spinning over and over again. Then it was making a figure eight, almost splitting in two. After a second or two though, the light was almost forming a trinity symbol. There were three small ovasl all connected in the middle as the light spun faster and faster.


    There were no more parts of the light that formed. Instead, it looked to me like the three parts of the light were separating and bing three different lights. But why? What was the point of all of this?


    Well, that was answered just a secondter. Not even a full second really. The lights fully split and the three of them each shot toward one of my boys. The lights hit them all so hard that they fell to the ground, all at the same time.


    "What the hell?"


    Why I watched on, just staring at my boys for a moment or two, I felt like my heart was going to beat right out of my chest. It was beating so much faster than usual. I know that it was fear that was causing that reaction. I was afraid for my babies. I was afraid that their souls were going to be destroyed, like Edmond''s had been. I was afraid that I had failed them after all. I was afraid that when I went back home, I would find out that I wasn''t pregnant. Either I never was pregnant or I had somehow had a miscarriage. That or the babies were just going to be dead inside of my belly. I couldn''t let that happen. Please, Goddess, don''t let them be dead.


    [ 1 ] forte /fort/


    Noun meaning strong point or strength. This wordes into English from French. Ex.. Housekeeping is not my forte /fort/.

 Chapter 741 - Split Chapter – What Just Happened? (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 741 - Split Chapter ¨C What Just Happened? (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I could tell what was supposed to be happening. I knew what was supposed to be going on. I wasn''t confused about any of that stuff. No, it wasn''t until a littleter that I was wondering what the fuck was going on.


    My Little Bunny had just cleaned herself up while bringing the tform that our three boys were on down to the floor. She was cleaned of blood and gore, and apparently dry as well. The boys were excited to run to her and hug her. Something that I wanted to do. I wanted to hug my Little Bunny, as well as my triplet boys. I was immensely jealous of all four of them at that moment.


    However, the boys didn''t get to hug my Little Bunny. Nope. They stopped halfway there when things seemed to be going to shit once again. Dammit! Couldn''t my Little Bunny catch a damn break? This was ridiculous. Seriously.


    I watched on in horror as the light that was scaring my boys and my Little Bunny got brighter and then rose into the air. It was spinning faster and faster until it started to look like something that I knew very well. It was a trinity symbol, but like my Little Bunny had.


    When the lights separated into three parts, it flew straight into my boys. All three parts hit them with what looked like an immense speed and all I could do was shout at the screen in front of me.


    "WHAT THE HELL!" I had leapt to my feet when I saw that the light was attacking my kids now. "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!? WHAT IS THAT LIGHT DOING TO MY BOYS?"


    "I do not know." Valerian, also standing, had his hand over his mouth as he watched on.


    "I need to get in there and kick someone''s fucking ass. Those are my nephews for fuck''s sake. Someone is going to pay." Trevor was in a rage at what he was seeing.


    "They are ''actually'' my nephews, so you better get the fuck in line, because I am going to fucking kill someone too." Noah was seething with rage right then. "What are we going to do, Reece?"


    "You guys know that we can''t get over there. If we could, I would have been over there a long time ago. But we can''t. Dammit! We can''t help them."


    "Yeah, I know." Noah hung his head, sorrow filling his voice.


    "I hate just sitting around and watching. This is bullshit." Trevor threw himself onto the couch, still staring at the screen.


    "I admit, it is quite annoying." Valerian sighed and sat next. I had no choice but to sit back down on the couch as well. I would have to just sit there and watch whatever was happening with my family.


    To think, I had thought that it was all going well. Trinity may have lost Edmond, but she managed to kill Hekate. She was going to being home soon, or so I thought. Who knew how long it would be now that this new thing was happening?


    "Please, Trinity, pleasee home soon. And bring the boys with you. Don''t let them die on us. I know you could never survive that, and neither could me or the kids. We all love them so much already. Please, Little Bunny, pleasee home to us with them. Please." I was basically begging her to do what I wanted her to do. To bring them all home safe. Dammit! I hated being so powerless in this situation.


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "BOYS!" I finally unfroze and screamed for them. "ZACHARY! ZANDER! ZAYDEN!" I was running toward them as fast as I could, and I saw that Rudy and Alexio were doing the same.


    "BOYS!"


    "KIDS!" They each called out to them in their frantic voices. They didn''t want to see something happen to them anymore than I did.


    The three of us reached the boys at almost the same time. The three precious little boys wereying on the ground, motionless. They weren''t moving. They weren''t saying anything. They weren''t even making a sound.


    They were, however, still breathing. I noticed that when I pulled all three of them toward my chest in my arms. It was a tight fit to hold onto them all at once, but I managed to do it, somehow. While I was holding them in my arms, I felt their breath, the shallow breathing of someone that was unconscious. The little puffs of air from their mouths blew onto my chest.


    "Thank the Goddess, they''re still alive." I sighed with relief and cradled them close.


    "M..M..Mommy?" I heard Zayden start to stir and call out to me.


    "M..Mommy!?" Zachary was next.


    "Th..th..that hurts, Mommy." Zander was thest one.


    "What was that, Mommy?" Zayden inquired. I could tell that he was scared.


    "I don''t know what it was, babies. I don''t know. But I am so happy that you are okay. I was so scared and worried, but here you are. You''re alive and well. I am so happy." I was crying by the time that I was done saying that. It was hard to think that I might have lost another baby. Well, three of them. It made me think of the time that Reece and I had lost our first baby. Even though the person responsible was dead, truly dead, and had fully repented, it was something that would haunt me forever. I would never, as long as I live, forget about my lost little baby. And I never wanted to risk letting something happen to any of my babies, not now and not ever.


    "Trinity?" Alexio, who was kneeling next to us, called out to me.


    "Yes?" I turned my head a little so that I could see him while he spoke to me.


    "I do not think that you are going to like this, but I do believe that your children each absorbed a piece of that soul."


    "What soul?" I don''t know if I was intentionally ying dumb, or if I just truly didn''t know what he was talking about. I didn''t want to process it or something like that.


    "Hekate''s soul. That light was her soul and they each took a part of it into themselves."


    "Wait, are you telling me that my babies are now part of Hekate?"


    "Well, she is a part of them, really. But they always were to begin with. They are descended from her, are they not?"


    "Yes, they are, just as I am. But this is different. They each have a third of her soul. They are each a lot more of her now than any other witch, warlock or other magic user on the."


    "Yes, they will have more of her. That is because they have her soul. I do not know what this will cause, but I do believe that this may make them more powerful as they get older."


    "Mommy, is there something wrong with us?" Zander sounded scared.


    "No baby, there is nothing wrong with you. You just have a bigger soul than most people do." I smiled at him. "Mommy is the same way. Mommy has a very big soul."


    "But we have the baddy inside of us." Zayden''s fear filled voice called out to me.


    "No, sweetheart, it''s not like that. Mommy destroyed Hekate. It isn''t her anymore. It''s just the power of her soul. I am sure of that." I didn''t know what I was fucking saying, but I had to make them feel better somehow.


    "Are you sure?" Zachary didn''t look convinced yet.


    "Yes, baby, I am sure. You''re all still you and no one else. You''re Mommy''s little boys." I hugged them again and felt them all cling to me in their own way. It was heartbreaking and sad that they were so scared, but I was d that they were alive. And I would make sure that nothing happened to themter on, I would make sure that this added part to their soul wouldn''t harm them in any way. "Mommy loves you, boys. Never forget that. Mommy will always be here to protect you." That made them all squeeze me a little tighter.


    I knew right then and there that I needed to keep this a secret. I couldn''t let others know that they had parts of the evil Hekate''s soul inside of them. I didn''t want them to be ostracized like Edmond had been. They didn''t deserve that. They deserved all the love in the world.. And dammit, I would make sure that they got that love.

 Chapter 742 - Trinity – One More Thing To Do (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 742 - Trinity ¨C One More Thing To Do (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I held onto the boys for a little while, not wanting to let them go. I was too worried, too scared about everything to want to leave them just yet. This had all been a long process. We were tired. I personally was sore. And I just wanted to get out of this ce.


    However, no matter how much I wanted to get out of here, there was still something that I needed to do. There was one more thing that I wanted to take care of before I left the underworld for good.


    I wanted to say goodbye to my father. Edmond had done so much for me during this fight. He didn''t need to do that for me, but he did. And I didn''t want to be ungrateful. I wanted him to know that I appreciated it.


    "Boys, will you stay with your Uncle Rudy and your Uncle Alexio. I need to do something really quick." I was looking at the top of their heads and toward the tform. I was staring at the ce where Edmond''s body had fallen when he died.


    "Okay."


    "Yes, Mommy."


    "We will wait right here." The three of them were speaking in unison, like those old cartoons with the triplet duck boys. I thought it was cute, but they better not start looking for their rich uncle that swam in money. I already had two overly rich men in my life, I didn''t need another one.


    Now that I knew the boys were going to be safe while I did what I needed to, I got up and walked over to my father''s body. It didn''t even look like him anymore. His white hair was dyed red with blood. His blue eyes were lifeless and pale. His already paleplexion looked even whiter, like freshly fallen snow.


    However, despite all of that, it looked to me like Edmond was happy. I think that he was truly happy and proud of himself in the end. He knew what he was doing. He knew that he was giving his own life to save his grandchildren and my friends. He knew that he wouldn''t be there in the end, but he still did it anyway. And that right there told me that he truly had changed. He truly was a different person.


    "Thank you, Edmond." I said as I knelt next to him. "Thank you for saving them. I wasn''t going to be there in time, but you managed to do it. At the veryst second possible you saved them for me. Thank you. I am so happy to have met you again. We didn''t have the best of rtionships, especially before you died, but I know more about you now and it has made me think about you differently. I know that you were not entirely evil, and that you were pushed into the life you led by different means. You were never given much of a chance in life, but I want you to have the best afterlife."


    "Trinity?"


    Alexio wasing toward me as I spoke to my twice dead father. I looked behind him and saw that Rudy was holding all three of the boys in his arms. In a way, he really did look like their uncle. It was kind of sweet to see him there with them. But that wasn''t important right now. What I needed to focus on was Alexio as he came to kneel next to me.


    "What is it, Alexio? Is there something wrong?" I was already starting to feel paranoid. I think that I was just too tense at the moment. I just couldn''t rx at all.


    "No, nothing is wrong. Not technically, anyway.


    "That doesn''t sound very promising." I sighed and hung my head. I didn''t want any more bad news.


    "Well, it''s not technically something that is wrong. Like I said before. It''s just that, well, I think that your father''s soul is still inside of his body. Well, inside this form of his body."


    "It''s still in there? Does that mean that I can bring him back?"


    "No." Alexio shook his head with eyes that held sadness for me. "I am sorry, Trinity, but once the soul dies here, it cannot be revived. I merely wanted to tell you about this so that you could release his soul."


    "Release it?" I was confused but also slightly happy. "And what would that do for him?"


    "Well, he would either be reincarnated. Or, if he were truly lucky, he could be sent to paradise. He has sacrificed himself. He has redeemed himself. The powers that be might just let him be rewarded for it."


    "Then, I will release him. I can''t let him stay like this for eternity. If his soul is still in there that would be too harsh of a punishment. And as you said, he deserves to be rewarded for what he did."


    I was looking down at Edmond now. There was a smile on my face that, prior to this experience, I never would have worn when looking at my father. However, things were different from how they used to be, and he had earned this smile from me. He was a good guy now and deserved to be treated like one.


    "Alexio, how do I release his soul?" I looked up at the demon and asked the question that I should have started with when he told me about Edmond still being in there.


    "That is something that I do not know. However, I am sure that you will figure it out for yourself." Of course. I always had to do things for myself. Isn''t that what led to a lot of my problems in the first ce? Hahh!


    Alexio stood and took a few steps away. It was like he was giving me room to work while also staying where he could watch me work. This felt really weird but I didn''t say anything to him about it.


    I decided to wing this like I had done so much in my life. I ced my hands on the sides of my father''s face, cradling his head in my hands. I looked into his eyes, the ones that were permanently open.


    After a few deep breaths, I start to pour magic into him while speaking softly. I didn''t know if this would work, but it was worth a try.


    "Gannon Cornelius Edmond, you have redeemed yourself. You sacrificed yourself to save those that the old you would have killed. You are a changed man, a changed soul. Because of this, I grant you a new life. I release you from this ravaged husk that you were in and urge you to move on. Seek out your paradise. Have the best afterlife that you can. If you so choose. If you would like a new shot at life instead, then please find a path to reincarnation. Find a new life. Hopefully, a life that is filled with love from the very beginning. Find happiness, father. That is my hope for you."


    I saw that his body started to glow, much like Hekate''s had earlier. I knew that he was leaving his body soon. And before he was gone, I had onest thought.


    "If only I had the chance to give you that love you deserved. I would have made sure that you were happy. I would have made sure that you didn''t turn out evil. I would have given you the life that you deserved." After whispering those words into his ear, I gently kissed his forehead. It tasted like blood, but I didn''t care at the moment.


    As soon as my lips touched his forehead, I saw the light leave his body. This light wasn''t angry or spinning like Hekate''s had been. Instead, this softly glowing light moved higher and higher until it was out of the hall. I had a feeling that it was going to find its paradise. He deserved it after all.


    "Goodbye, Edmond." I felt the tears stream down my cheeks then. Just a couple of them. I shed tears for this version of my father. The man that had done bad but saved me in the end. "Maybe I will see you again one day, father. I hope that you find peace and happiness, wherever you end up."


    My words rang through the now eerily silent hall.. That was when I realized that all five of the spectators were watching me with very intent eyes.

 Chapter 743 - Split Chapter – Time To Go Home (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 743 - Split Chapter ¨C Time To Go Home (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I don''t think that I had ever seen my Little Bunny do something that was as sad as that. I know that she didn''t truly love her father, but he was a part of her. And I do not know what all she found out about him before I started watching these images of her. She did mention something about his childhood. I have a feeling that she felt something about him because of that. Pity, heartache, something.


    Whatever it was that my Little Bunny had gone through, whatever it was that she felt now, it was hurting her. She was telling her father to leave his body. She was, in all sense, exorcising his soul from a mangled body.


    And that body was definitely not something that was easy to look at. That was gross, there was no other way to say it. That was a tangled and torn mass of flesh that used to be someone''s body. And don''t even get me started on how a person in the underworld, who was already dead, could have a body filled with blood and gore. That just was notputing into my brain properly. I didn''t know how I was going to process that. It was all just a little too much for the time being.


    Still, seeing my Little Bunny saying goodbye to her father, watching her kiss his forehead and telling him to find happiness, that brought tears to my eyes. I know that my Little Bunny was crying as she did that, but I didn''t expect for it to make me cry as well. I am guessing that it was reacting to the heartache that my wife was feeling and not me being sad about Edmond.


    I was thankful that he had saved my boys, but I didn''t feel anything truly special for him. I might not hate the man anymore. In truth though, that hatred of him had somewhat lessened over the years. I didn''t need to worry about him, and he was out of our lives for several years now. There was no reason for me to hold onto that anger. Not like Trevor. I knew that he was going to hate Edmond forever.


    "You did what you needed to do, Little Bunny. Come home to me now." I whispered the words to my wife. I couldn''t help it. I had to say them.


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    When I turned to look back at the others, they were all crying as well. Silent tears were streaming down their cheeks as they looked at me with red rimmed eyes. They had been crying with me as I released Edmond''s soul from this underworld body of his. And they were having as hard of a time with it as I was.


    "Well, what do you say we.." I was starting to speak to them all when I heard a whispered voice.


    "You did what you needed to do, Little Bunny. Come home to me now." It was Reece''s voice, and it made my heart contract with sadness when I heard it. He sounded as if he had been crying as well. I don''t know why he was crying but it made my heart hurt thinking about it.


    "Reece?" I called out to him. "Can you hear me, Reece?" I knew that I wasn''t the only one to have heard him speak to me. Rudy and Alexio were looking all around them as if trying to find the source of the voice. And the boys were smiling. It was like they knew that the man that had just spoken was indeed their father.


    "Mommy! Is that Daddy''s voice?" Zayden was excited when he said that.


    "Yes, sweetheart. That is your daddy''s voice."


    "I want to go home so that we can see Daddy." Zander giggled.


    "You dummy, we''re not born yet. We can''t see Daddy until after we''re born." Zachary scolded his brother.


    "Yeah, I know, but I can listen to Daddy while I''m in Mommy''s tummy. And when we are born, Daddy will be there for us. I want to see him."


    "And I want to see you boys as well." Reece sounded like there was nothing but loveing from him at the moment. Love and happiness. "Come home to me, Little Bunny. Come home and be with the rest of your family. We all miss you. We all need you here with us."


    "I''ming home, Reece. I want to get out of here. I want to feel your arms around me. I need hugs from you, Talia, Reagan and Rika."


    "Who are they, Mommy?"


    "Who is Talia?"


    "Who are Reagan and Rika?" Of course, they would be curious.


    "Talia and Rika are your sisters. Reagan is your brother."


    "We have sisters." Zayden giggled happily.


    "And a brother!" Zachary was excited.


    "We''re going to be a big family." Zanderughed.


    "That we are. Now, let''s get going." I stood and started to walk toward my boys, but I stopped almost instantly as I looked at Alexio.


    "You''re leaving us here, aren''t you?" He seemed upset, but like he was expecting this.


    "Actually, Alexio, I was hoping that both you and Rudy woulde with me. You both deserve better than the lives that you lived before. And with your help, maybe we can do something about the way that the underworld is being run."


    "You''re going to change it?" His eyes popped open wide. It was as if he wasn''t really able to believe what it was that I was saying.


    "Yes. If you want to help me, that is."


    "Thank you, Trinity. Thank you." He looked like those little tears from before were going to turn into full blown sobbing.


    "Juste with me, Alexio. We will give you a home in thend of the living. And I promise you, things will get better."


    "Yeah, I will. I will go with you, Trinity. I mean, Queen Trinity." He bowed his head a little at me, and I didn''t miss the smile that was on his lips either.


    "Come on, Rudy. You''reing with us too."


    "Yes, Queen Trinity. Thank you so much." He smiled at me and leapt to his feet with two of my boys in his arms. Alexio went to hold the third one.


    "Now, how do we get out of here?" I was still confused about that.


    "That is something that I do not know." Alexio sounded as if this bothered him. "I am the one with the most experience in the underworld and I don''t know how to get out of here."


    "Neither do I. I was nervous just leaving my position at the gate. I don''t know how to escape from the underworld at all. I am sorry, Queen Trinity."


    "Don''t worry. We will figure it out. I have managed to figure everything else out so far, haven''t I? This might take me a little while, but I am sure that I will find a way out of this hell and back to thend of the living." I put on as brave of a face as I could. I didn''t want them to see just how nervous I was at that moment. Brave face, steady voice, and confident smile. That was the key here.


    "I will help you."

 Chapter 744 - Trinity – Time To Go Home Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 744 - Trinity ¨C Time To Go Home Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    With a start I jumped and turned around to see something that I just could not exin. I knew that whatever this thing was it had been here with me this whole time. Well, at least ever since I got to this level of the underworld. I don''t know how I had not seen it before, but for some reason I just hadn''t noticed it.


    This thing that I was looking at, this strange anomaly, just didn''t look natural to me. Not in any sense of the word. It was so bizarre and unique. Not in a bad way, just like in a different sort of way. Whatever it was, it was kind of cute and adorable.


    The thing that had spoken to me, the thing that was floating in front of me at this very moment, was like a little serpent type of creature. Only it was not a snake or anything like that. If I had to give it a name, I guess it would be a dragon. But it was nothing like the dragon I just fought.


    This little creature was about a foot and a half long at most. That counted the tail. It had two slightly curved hornsing out of it head. Those horns were striped with a dark pink and purple. There were some odd little tufts of fur or something that wereing out the side of its head with it two tiny ears. That was two ears on each side. Or they both looked like ears. Tiny little arms were curled in on itself and the back legs held in a position that told me that it was shy.


    There was a set of wings on the creature''s back as well. They were pping away quite rapidly to keep the thing floating in the air. The wings were the only part of the body that was not covered in fur. There was a light pink coating of fur that covered the entire creature. Well, aside from those wings and most of its face. Those were the only things that were bare. Along its back and down to the tip of its furry tail, there were purple ridges. They actually looked like jewels of some sort.


    "Uhm, wh..what are you?" I asked the rudest thing that there was for me to ask this creature. I can''t believe that I was being so mean.


    "I am a dragixie."


    "Okay, pardon my rudeness, but what is a dragixie?" The thing was talking to me in a voice that sounded like a little girl''s voice. It was very childlike in its mannerisms and tone.


    "He he he! A dragixie is a pixie dragon. Everyone knows that." She giggled like a little girl as well.


    "Well, I am sorry. I didn''t know that. But I am very happy to meet you. What is your name? And what are you doing here?"


    "My name is Angel, and I was sent here by Talia. She is nice."


    "Talia? My daughter Talia? How is that possible?"


    "She is strong. And she is smart. She sent me here so that they could see you. They are all worried about Talia''s mommy."


    "To see me? So, can everyone back home see me right now?" I was a little taken aback. That means that they saw me fight Hekate. They saw the things about the boys. They saw me saying goodbye to Edmond. They saw it all.


    "Not all of them. There are only a few. And I sense less now than when I started my journey. I can only feel four men watching you now."


    "Hmm, four. Well, I know that Reece is one of them." I thought about it for a little bit. Who could the others be? I was drawing a nk until I realized that there were four voices that I heard encouraging me earlier. Reece, Trevor, Noah and Athair m¨°r. I guess that tells me who was there.


    "Talia''s mommy, I can help you to get back. I can take Talia''s mommy home."


    "You know how to get us out of here? You know what we have to do?"


    "I do. You can walk through the screen." I didn''t understand what the thing was saying. What screen? What was I supposed to walk through?


    As I was asking myself those questions, the little dragixie moved forward and turned to face the long open hall behind it. This was the path that I had taken to get to where I am now. If I went back that way, I would only find a solid wall and no way out. How did it expect me to go that direction to get back home?


    No sooner than I asked myself thatst question, I saw something start to materialize out of the thin air. At first, there was nothing more than just a slight pink light that was glowing from nowhere at all.


    The next thing that I knew, that pink light had started to outline something that I couldn''t see. This thing, whatever it was, seemed to be about eight feet tall and twelve feet wide.


    The more that I watched this pink outlined nothing, the more that it became something. By that, I mean that the pink that was outlining nothing but the air, was slowly starting to fill in. At first, it was just that pink light, but it started to change soon enough.


    I went from seeing the seemingly never ending hallway in front of me to just a soft pink glow, and after that I was looking at some very familiar people. There was Reece standing right in front of me like he was waiting for me and would never be happy again until I was there with him.


    I don''t want to say that Reece looked like a broken man, but that''s the vibe that I was getting from him. He looked like someone who was missing something important to him and didn''t know how to get it back.


    I knew what that something important was though. It was me. And I had a feeling that I looked just like he did. I had been missing him and the kids for so long. I felt like I hadn''t seen them in years. And I needed to feel them in my arms.


    "Reece?"


    "Little Bunny?"


    "Is that Daddy?" Zachary leapt out of Rudy''s arm and ran to my side.


    "Yeah, buddy, I am your daddy. I have been really happy to see you on that side of the screen. And I can''t wait until the day that you are born, pal. I love you and your brothers so much already."


    "I love you too, Daddy."


    "Me too, I love daddy too."


    "Yeah, I love daddy too." Zander and Zayden came to join us at the screen, as Reece and Angel called it.


    "Come on, Trinity,e home." Athair m¨°r walked toward the screen.


    "Come on, sis, we all miss you." Noah was there too.


    "Get your butt back here, Trinity." Trevorughed at me.


    "I am. I''ming home." I turned to face Rudy and Alexio. "Come on. I think we should all go at once. We will hold hands so that there is nothing that can separate us."


    "Yes, Queen Trinity."


    "That sounds like a good idea." Rudy and Alexio hurried over and took the hands of the boys. There was an even number of us, so there was no one technically in the middle, but I was there with the boys surrounding me and the others on the ends. The screen was wide enough for all of us to walk through at once, so we didn''t have to worry about that at all.


    "I''ming home, Reece. And I am bringing everyone with me. Even you, Angel,e here."


    "I cane too? I can be in the same world as Talia?"


    "Yes, you''re helping us, soe on."


    With that, Angel flew tond on my shoulder. It gripped me with its tiny wed hands but it didn''t hurt me. Then, altogether, we walked through that screen and back to thend of the living.


    I thought it would be like just stepping through a door. However, that was never like anything that it should be here. Instead, it was like we were walking through a really long tunnel. It was like suddenly, Reece and the others were very far away.


    "Little Bunny? What happened? Why did you get so far away?" Reece called out to me, but I could barely hear his voice.


    "The screen is a tunnel. We have to pass through it." I called out to him, hoping he would hear me. I wanted to hurry. I wanted to run to him. I wanted to speed this up. However, I knew that I would get there, and soon, so this short wait didn''t matter to me at all. I was watching my Reece getting closer and closer to me and that was the best feeling in the world right now. "I''m almost home, Fido." I whispered the words, but Reece apparently heard them.


    "I am not Fido." Heughed at me. "But get over here, Little Bunny."


    "I am." It seemed to me that I was just a few feet away. I was almost there. I could practically reach out and touch his hand. I didn''t though, since we all needed to hold hands and I had two of the boys'' hands in mine. Still, we were that close. We were right there.


    And that was when everything went dark.

 Chapter 745 - Reece – Through The Screen (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 745 - Reece ¨C Through The Screen (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    This was it. My little bunny was walking toward me. She was on her way back home. She was moving through this tunnel that connects the two screens together. I didn''t know that there would be this tunnel, so that was dying the return of my Little Bunny. But she wasing back. She had spoken to me and seen me, that was all that mattered right now. I knew that it was real. We all did. She wasing back to me. She wasing home.


    I didn''t really like that she was bringing her friends with her, but I had a feeling it was going to happen. I mean, that was such a Trinity thing to do. She was a bleeding heart that just had to help them. That''s fine. They protected my boys so I would trust them, for now. If they tried anything with my wife though, they were going to die.


    There she was. She was almost through the screen. I could almost touch her. Yes! Thank the Goddess she was finally going to be home. Or so I thought.


    One minute I was standing there, staring at my Little Bunny, Zachary, Zander, Zayden and the two new friends. And the next thing that I knew, I was only looking at the two men that she brought along with her. Trinity was gone. And so were the boys. What had happened.


    "Where is my Trinity? Where did she go? And the boys? Where are they? Where did they all go?"


    "Calm down, King Reece." One of the men, the younger looking one, tried to calm me down. "Queen Trinity returned with us. You know that."


    "Then where is she? Where is my wife? What happened to her?"


    "She came back. Just like she was supposed to do." The other man, the taller one, tried to exin to me but I wasn''t having any of their excuses.


    "If she came back, then where is she? What did you do with her? Where is my Little Bunny?"


    "Oh, shut up Fido. Your barking is getting a little annoying."


    I heard her. I could hear my Little Bunny. But I couldn''t see her. Why hadn''t she gone through the screen with them. Where did she end up? What was happening?


    "Trinity? Where are you? What''s going on?" I was looking at the screen still, frantic for her to respond, but at that moment, the screen started to disappear. "No, the screen can''t disappear. My Little Bunny isn''t here yet. No!"


    "I am in the room with you, dumbass. Did you think I would magically appear before you? My body was over here in the bed. What did you think was going to happen? Seriously. Now get over here and hug me, you stupid dog."


    I turned around and searched the other side of the room. I was looking into the bed and waiting to see some sort of life from my wife.


    "Trinity?" I was moving as I called out for her.


    "I''m here, Reece. I just can''t move. Soe here and hug me." I did as she asked me to. I ran to her side and threw my arms around her.


    "Trinity. Little Bunny. I missed you so much." Her warmth was back. Her body felt alive again. She may not be able to move at the moment, but she was still in there, and I could tell. My wolf could tell. "Oh Goddess, Little Bunny, I am so happy you''re back. Thank you. Thank you foring home to me."


    "I didn''t leave because I wanted to, Reece. I didn''t have a choice. I was trapped in that world, and I just couldn''t get back. I needed to take care of some things. But it wasn''t a quick process." My Little Bunny was sounding so sad at that moment.


    I was looking down at my Little Bunny. She wasying on the bed and talking to me. Her eyes were open for the first time in months. She had lost more weight in her face, but her belly was steadily growing. She was, in all honesty, quite huge with the babies. Still, no matter what changes she had been through, she was the most beautiful woman in the world. And I would never want or need anyone else.


    "I know you had to do what you did. I know that it was important and necessary. We all knew that, Trinity. And yet, we all missed you so much. The kids were having such a hard time." I was honest with her. There was no reason to lie to her right now.


    "Speaking of kids, as you saw we''re having more." She giggled at me. "I didn''t even know that I was pregnant. And the fact that we hadn''t slept together since, well, just after your birthday, I would guess that I am like a third of the way through my pregnancy."


    "Try more than halfway. And that''s considering halfway for a normal pregnancy. Griffin is trying to figure out how long he can keep the babies inside so that you don''t have them too early."


    "Yeah, Trin, it''s almost the end of October already. You''re actually almost four months along, that would be two thirds of the way."


    "WHAT!?" She nearly screamed at her brother''s words. "What about Glory and Daci? They''re still pregnant right? I didn''t miss out on more of my familying into this world did I?" My Little Bunny was so blown away to find out that she had been asleep for so long. I don''t me her though. It would be hard for anyone to handle in a moment like this.


    "They''re still pregnant. You didn''t miss anything Trinity." Valerian reassured her. "And I am so happy that you are home. We missed you, Trinity. All of us did. I am so d to have you home."


    "Thank you, Athair m¨°r. But why are you here? Did something happen?"


    "No, sweetheart. Reece called all of your family and friends here. Everyone that cares about you and was missing you. That way they would be here to wee you home."


    "Yeah, and we''re going to have to let them know that she woke up soon. I am d she did too. The time stopped moving so fast now. It''s back to normal." Noah was looking at his phone.


    "Yeah, but we were still in that rapid time thing for like a week. It''s even closer to the end of the month than I thought." Trevor noted.


    "Holy shit, we were in there for that long?" I just couldn''t believe what I had just heard. A fucking week?!


    "Yeah, but it only felt like about three hours to us. By my math, that would be like one minute was equal to one second. Time was literally moving at sixty times the speed."


    "Holy shit, Trevor. You can do math?" I blurted that out before I could even stop myself. Before I knew it, everyone, including my Little Bunny''s new friends wereughing at him.


    "Shut the fuck up, FiFi. I''m smarter than you are, asshole. You''re a dick, you know that. A fucking dick."


    "I''m sorry. I just said it without thinking." I was stillughing. Everyone was.. It was the first thing that was able to break the tension in the room.

 Chapter 746 - Trinity – Home (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 746 - Trinity ¨C Home (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I had been walking through that tunnel, the one connecting the two screens together. I was almost close enough to reach out and touch my mate, my Fido, my Reece. And then, the next thing I knew, everything went dark.


    Things may have gone dark, but I could tell that I was still awake. I also couldn''t move at all. I couldn''t move my arms. I couldn''t move my legs. I could barely turn my head at all. In truth, the only thing that I seemed capable of truly moving was my eyes and my mouth.


    I could hear the things around me though. I could feel the bed that I was in. I could even smell things. There was a clean smell, like I was in a hospital. I could also smell people. There were a lot of scents, like several people were recently in this room but they weren''t here right now.


    There was also the smell of the people that were in the room still. I could smell Noah''s earthy scent, Trevor''s spiced honey, Valerian''s scent of the ocean. And of course, I could smell Reece, I would never not notice that scent. It was burned into my memories. That scent that was filled with chocte, coffee, cinnamon and the forest after the rain. It was sweet, spicy, and robust, and mixed with all of my favorite smells from the forest. That scent that I first thought was dangerous but couldn''t get out of my head. I loved it so much, just like I loved Reece more than anything.


    On top of the people that had been in this room, I could smell two other people that seemed new to me. There were two male scents that seemed to smell something like campfires. There was more to them than just that. One of them smelled like campfires with chocte, marshmallows and graham crackers. And the other one smelled like a campfire with scents, like hickory and pine. It was a scent that was strong and noticeable.


    At first, I couldn''t figure out who those people were but then, it hit me. That had to be Rudy and Alexio. They were the only people that I never noticed their scent before and that would be the new additions to the room.


    And there was onest scent that was new. It was so different from anything else. I could tell the scent wasing from something that was alive, but it didn''t seem like that to my nose. It was like my nose and my brain were conflicted about this thing. There was the unmistakable living smell to it, but other than that it smelled like cotton candy. What kind of living being smells like cotton candy, unless it wore perfume or something? And this was not an artificial smell. It was real.


    The cause of that cotton candy smell hit me after a little bit as well. It was that strange dragon pixie thing. Angel. It was covered in fluffy pink fur. And well, I guess that fur smelled like cotton candy.


    On top of the smells, I could hear so much around me as well. I could hear the beeping of machines. They were faint, as if they had been turned almost all the way down, but the sound was there, nheless. There was also the steady drip drip drip of an IV. And the breathing from everyone else that was in the room. Those were the only sounds until Reece broke the silence.


    "Where is my Trinity? Where did she go? And the boys? Where are they? Where did they all go?" Reece was sounding frantic and scared as he wondered where me and the boys went.


    "Calm down, King Reece. Queen Trinity returned with us. You know that." Rudy tried to calm him down, but it didn''t work.


    "Then, where is she? Where is my wife? What happened to her?" He was still sounding like a big baby.


    "She came back. Just like she was supposed to do." Alexio also tried to calm him down.


    "If she came back, then where is she? What did you do with her? Where is my Little Bunny?" OK, I needed to put an end to this. I cleared my throat quickly and then called out to him.


    "Oh, shut up, Fido. Your barking is getting a little annoying." He would not only recognize the sound of my voice, but also the insult that I was sending his way.


    Finally, after that, I was able to get Reece to settle down a little bit. He came over to the bed that I wasying in, which didn''t seem to be the bed that Reece and I usually shared. When he was at my side, Reece threw his arms around me. I could instantly feel the warmth of his body spreading through me. I hadn''t hugged him in I don''t even know how long. This felt like the most intimate and special thing in the world to me right now.


    And by the way, I didn''t miss the way that Reece was holding his body over mine. It was like he was trying to avoid touching me too much. I didn''t know the reason why yet, but I would figure it outter. All I wanted to do now was to have him hold me in his arms.


    Well, him holding me would do for the time being. Soon though, I would need to have my children brought to me. I needed to see them. I needed to see that they were OK. And I needed them to see that I was OK. I missed them all so much. And they needed to meet their bro.. Oh, that''s right, the boys were inside my belly. They weren''t here right now.


    Reece pulled away from me then and stared at my face. I could see tears of happiness in his eyes. He was happy to see me. He was d that I was here with him again. He seemed so relieved and filled with joy that I could barely contain my emotions as well.


    "I know you had to do what you did. I know that it was important and necessary. We all knew that, Trinity. And yet, we all missed you so much. They kids were having such a hard time." He was being honest with me. I knew that, but it was still hard to hear. He had just hit on the subject that I had been thinking about already.


    "Speaking of kids, as you saw, we''re having more." Iughed at him. "I didn''t even know that I was pregnant. And the fact that we hadn''t slept together since, well, just after your birthday, I would guess that I am like a third of the way through my pregnancy."


    "Try more than halfway. And that''s considering halfway for a normal pregnancy. Griffin is trying to figure out how long he can keep the babies inside so that you don''t have them too early." Reece just blew my mind right there. What the heck was he saying to me? What did he mean that I was more than halfway through the pregnancy? Did that much time really pass? Was I really there for two months?


    "Yeah, Trin, it''s almost the end of October already. You''re actually almost four months along, that would be two thirds of the way."


    "WHAT!?" I screamed at the words that Noah had just told me. "What about Glory and Daci? They''re still pregnant right? I didn''t miss out on more of my familying into this world, did I?" I was floored. How was any of this even possible? Almost three months in the underworld? That was crazy. It''s insane.


    "They''re still pregnant. You didn''t miss anything, Trinity." Athair m¨°r reassured me. "And I am so happy that you are home. We missed you, Trinity. All of us did. I am so d to have you home."


    "Thank you, Athair m¨°r. But, why are you here? Did something happen?"


    "No, sweetheart. Reece called all of your family and friends here. Everyone that cares about you and was missing you. That way they would be here to wee you home." I didn''t think that Reece would bring them all here. It made my heart sing to know how much he was thinking about me and the family at this time.


    "Yeah, and we''re going to have to let them know that she woke up soon. I am d she did too. The time stopped moving so fast now. It''s back to normal." Noah was looking at his phone as he said this to no one in particr.


    "Yeah, but we were still in that rapid time thing for like a week. It''s even closer to the end of the month than I thought."


    "Holy shit, we were in there for that long?" Reece gasped at Trevor''s words.


    "Yeah, but it only felt like about three hours to us. By my math, that would be like one minute was equal to one second. Time was literally moving at sixty times the speed."


    "Holy shit, Trevor. You can do math?" Reece blurted out rather rudely. However, me and everyone else in the room had started tough at those words.


    "Shut the fuck up FiFi. I''m smarter than you are, asshole. You''re a dick, you know that? A fucking dick."


    "I''m sorry. I just said it without thinking." I felt like some of the tension was leaving my body.. I still couldn''t move, but I was feeling at least a little bit of relief now.

 Chapter 747 - Trinity – Home Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 747 - Trinity ¨C Home Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Reece, I want to sit up, but I still can''t move at all. I don''t know why, but my body isn''t working. I want to see more than the ceiling. I want to see you and everyone else better. I want to see the kids." My body was feeling better since the tension broke, but my heart was still aching for my family. I needed to have a few things taken care of right away.


    "Okay, Little Bunny, I will sit you up." He turned to the side so that he could reach for a remote control that was sitting on a nearby table. That was when he pressed a button that made the bed start to move on its own. "It''s going to sit up by itself. Let me adjust you so that you will befortable when it''s done."


    At that, Reece took the nkets from my body and lifted me into his arms. In a way, I felt so much smaller next to him than I used to. Maybe it was just because I was feeling weak because I couldn''t move. I didn''t really know for sure but that could be it.


    Still, feeling small or not, I loved the feeling of being in Reece''s arms again. Apparently, I had been gone for about three months instead of two. And I had been so busy and stressed about that damn voice, which I know now that it was Hekate. All of this added together just means that I haven''t actually been in my husband''s arms for almost four months now.


    It might not have felt that long to me, but it was still a long time. I missed him. I missed this feeling. I missed these types of moments.


    I didn''t want to waste the small opportunity that I was given. Instead of just sitting there as motionless as possible, not doing anything at all, I decided to tilt my head the little bit that I was able to and rest my head on his shoulder for the time being.


    "Hmmm." I sighed contentedly as I took all of him in.


    "Little Bunny?" I think he was a little taken aback by what I did. "Sweetheart, I missed you so much. Can I hold you while I sit in your bed instead of putting you down? I don''t want to let you go again. Now that I finally have you back in my arms, I want you here for a lot longer than this quick move."


    "Reece." I sighed his name now. Making it more than just me saying his name but almost like I was answering his question in that one word.


    He didn''t wait for another response. Instead of putting me down on the bed that was now sitting up, he sat on the bed and cradled me in his arms. I was still leaning against his chest and smelling that intoxicating scent of him. The scent that, as I said before, used to scare me but now just soothes my soul.


    I did notice something that scared me when I was on Reece''sp. There was something that I didn''t expect to see. Though in all honesty I should have known this was going to be the case. I mean, it had been a long time already. And this was just about how I expected to look while in my condition.


    Well, first off, I noticed that my arms were thinner and that I seemed to have lost a lot of weight. I wasn''t overweight or anything to begin with, so losing this much had made me look sickly and skeletal.


    The other thing that I noticed was that my belly was huge. And I do mean huge. It was at least twice as big as I had been with Reagan and Rika. There was only one baby more than that time, but I was so much bigger already.


    "Well, I guess there is one upside to things so far." Iughed and tilted my head to look at Reece.


    "What''s that, Little Bunny?" He asked me as he shifted my body and tilted my head back to look me in the eyes better.


    "I didn''t get gestational hypertension this time. My body was just here growing babies while I was off in another world. That had to make things easier on the triplets."


    "So, you''re making jokes about this already, huh?" Noahughed at me. "Sometimes, I don''t understand you, Trinity. You are so out of this world."


    "Not anymore, Noah. I came back about ten minutes or so ago. Can''t you keep up?" At thattest joke of mine, Noah''s jaw dropped open in shock while Reece, Trevor and Athair m¨°rughed at him.


    "Funny. That was really funny." He crossed his arms over his chest in fake annoyance. "What aughing riot you are, sis."


    "I''m sorry, but why is that funny?" Alexio asked as he and Rudy walked a little more into the room.


    "Yes, I too do not know why it is funny. It is true that she just came back." Rudy added. They both looked like they were interested in what was going on, but they also didn''t know anyone that was here aside from myself.


    "It''s alright, you two. What my brother said, me being out of this world, was a saying. It has many meanings. However, in this case, he was referring to me being a bit of a weirdo. However, I turned his words into a joke. That was all that it was about. Don''t worry, the longer that you are in this world, the more that you will be able to rte to our strange American English."


    "I think that, for a long time, I am going to be confused." Alexio scratched the side of his head as he thought about it.


    "I think that I understand it. It is not that hard when you just stop thinking about it too much. I think that I will be fine with all of it very soon, Queen Trinity."


    "That is good, Rudy." I smiled at them. "Would the two of you like to rx a little, have someone bring you some food or something? You can take a shower and clean yourselves and put on some different clothes. Maybe something a little more modern and like our own." At my words, the two men looked down at themselves and then up at the men in the room.


    "We would not know how to do any of that." Alexio was looking very upset now. I think he was regrettinging here.


    "No worries. I will send some people with you to instruct you on what to do. You can learn from them and when you are ready, you cane back here to see me. I am sure that there is much that the three of us have to talk about."


    "W..would that be okay, Queen Trinity? I..it wouldn''t be inappropriate for us to visit with the Goddess Queen, would it?" Rudy was sounding worried and upset, sort of like Alexio had been.


    "Yes, Rudy. It will be just fine. I brought you here with me, didn''t I? The two of you are my responsibility until you are able to navigate this world on your own. It will take a little bit of time, but I am sure that you will catch onto it all very soon. We will discuss all the options that the two of you have ahead of you when youe back to see me. Until then, I will have Peter, the head butler, find some men that are capable of helping you to find some clothes and to get you some rooms to stay in. Hey, Trevor, you''re a little shorter than Alexio, but other than that you are close to the same size, could you lend him some shorts and a shirt? Or does anyone know of a big and tall shop to get him something that fits him?"


    "No worries, Trinity, I will just make clothes for him. He can tell me what style and type he prefers, and they will be in his room. The same goes for Mr. Rudy. If the two of you want toe with me, I will take you to meet with Peter."


    "Thank you, sir."


    "Much appreciated." The two demons bowed their heads at him and followed after him.


    "My name is Valerian. I want to thank you for helping Trinity. She is a dear family member of mine." I heard Athair m¨°r talking to the two of them as they all left the room.


    "Alright, well now that Trinity is awake, I am sure that everyone wants toe and see her. We should start with the kids though." Trevor looked at me with kind eyes and a happy smile. "I will have Eve, Wesley, Samuel and L bring them in. You know they won''t wait either."


    "Thank you, Trevor." Reece nodded at him and wrapped his arms around me a little tighter. He was not about to let go of me. "Noah, can I ask you to please contact Griffin. Let him know that Trinity is awake."


    "Yeah, I will call him on my way to see Nikki and Elias." He smiled and then looked me in the eyes. "I am really happy that you''re awake. I have been so worried about you, Trinity."


    "I know, Noah. And I am so sorry for having worried you."


    "You''re back now, and that is all that matters. But please, for the love of all that is decent in this world, never do something like that again."


    "Ha ha ha! Alright, I get it. I won''t go anywhere like that again."


    "Good.." I could tell that he wanted to hug me but I was in Reece''s arms so he just smiled and nodded before turning to leave the room with Trevor.

 Chapter 748 - Trinity – Catching Up (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 748 - Trinity ¨C Catching Up (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece and I were alone in the room now. Well, mostly alone.


    Reece and I were on the bed and sitting there on the foot of the bed was Angel. She was sitting there and staring at the two of us and trying to figure out what to do. Or at least I thought that she was trying to figure that out.


    "Well, there goes me kissing you." Reeceughed. "I was hoping to be able to get a nice kiss in before the others get here."


    "You need Angel to leave?" The little child-like dragixie asked Reece.


    "No, Angel, it''s fine. He was just joking." I assured her. "Besides, I am sure that it won''t be long before there are more people here."


    "Hey, I was not joking. I wanted to kiss my wife, dammit. I''ve missed you, Little Bunny." He pressed his face against my hair, and I could feel how much he was shaking. Was this happiness that I was back, or some other emotion that I wasn''t picking up on. Was it his frustration and sadness about the time that I had been gone? What was it that he was feeling right now? I couldn''t figure it out.


    "OK. Angel will explore the room. That way Talia''s mommy and Talia''s daddy can be alone. Angel is not sad. Angel wants to explore this world. Angel has never been here for real before."


    Without saying anything else, the pink fluffy dragixie pped its wings and shot across the room. It was now exploring my bedroom. Well, I didn''t mind too much, even though it totally felt like an invasion of privacy.


    However, now that she had flown away and gone into my bathroom, it was an odd choice of ce to explore but whatever, it was just Reece and I on the bed now. We were actually in the room alone now. And I knew what was going to being next.


    "Trinity, my Little Bunny, you have no idea how great this feels. To have you in my arms again. To have this chance again after all these months that you were gone. It feels like I am whole again. While you weren''t here it had feet like a piece of me had been ripped out of my body and I couldn''t find it. It was an empty space that only you could fill. And now that you are back, now that you are in my arms again, I feel fully alive."


    "I know Reece. The entire time that I was gone, I felt like I was fractured and broken. There were so many missing pieces. You, Reagan, Rika, Talia, Mom, Dad, L, Grandfather, Noah, Nikki, Carter, Emmalee, Vincent, Dietrich, Shane, Shawn, David, Juniper, Paul, everyone. I was missing the people that made me feel like I was me." Thinking about everyone that I had in my life, there were so many more that I could name. However, I went with the ones that I saw regrly. The people that were with me more often than most.


    "Well, you''re back and all of us are here. They will see you soon. And for now, It''s just the two of us. And I was not lying when I said that I wanted to kiss my wife. Actually, it''s more than just me wanting to. I need to, Trinity. I need to kiss you. I need to feel your lips pressed against mine. I need to taste that delectable vor of yours. Please, Little Bunny, please let me kiss you." There was so much emotion in his voice that it nearly made me cry. How could I possibly tell him no?


    "Yes, Reece, I want you to kiss me. I want you to show me that you missed me. That''s all that we can do right now, so please kiss me."


    "Thank you." He sighed in relief as he slid his hand down to my waist.


    With his grip on my waist, Reece adjusted me again. This time I wasying back in his arms. My head on the upper part of his bicep. It made it so that he just needed to lean over a little so that our lips could touch.


    Oh Goddess, having his lips on mine for the first time in what felt like forever, it was amazing. The kiss was sweet, tender and gentle. He was definitely making sure that he wasn''t hurting me at all.


    At first it was just a tender kiss and nothing more. It was not hot or passionate at all. But that wasn''t enough for Reece, nor was it enough for me. Soon, Reece was encouraging me to open my mouth more by pressing his tongue against my lips. That little cue had me opening for him so that he could slide his tongue inside and take even more of me.


    There was a trade off though. The more that he could taste of me, the more that I could taste of him. I could taste that sweet, spicy and robust vor of his. The chocte, coffee and cinnamon were stronger than the forest parts of his smell. Usually when I tasted him like that, the forest didn''te into y at all. That was more for the scent than anything else.


    Reece decided that he didn''t want his right hand on my waist anymore. Instead, he slid it up my body, making me shiver in the process. The hand went all the way up until he could cup the side of my head in his hand. He was running his thumb across my cheek as he kissed me and made me feel dizzy. I didn''t care though. I needed this. It was perfect and calming and was making me feel like everything would be right with the world. It might not be there yet, but it will be soon.


    When the kiss finally broke, we were both panting and trying to catch our breath. While he looked down at me, Reece pressed his forehead to mine and smiled. I only know that he smiled because I could see the way that his eyes crinkled. Not to mention, his eyes were filled with pure joy and lust.


    "I love you, Reece." I whispered to him as I returned the smile, making sure that it reached my eyes as well. I wanted him to know that I was smiling for him.


    "I love you too, Little Bunny."


    "However, as much as I love you, I can''t give you what you want right now."


    "Ha ha ha ha ha ha! He pulled his head away from me andughed long and loud. I don''t know why he thought that was funny, but for some reason he did.


    "What? What are youughing about?"


    "You, Little Bunny. You say some of the funniest things sometimes. Yes, I am lusting after you right now, more now than usual because of the kiss we just shared. But you should already know that I never look at you without having lust in my eyes. You''re the most beautiful woman in the world and no matter the situation I find you sexy as hell. From the first day that I saw you all the way until today. There is nothing but lust and love that I feel for you. So yeah, I can''t satisfy that urge right now, but that is fine. I will wait until the dayes that we can be together again. That won''t stop me from lusting after you though. That is constant, like I said."


    "Ha ha. Yeah, I guess that I was being a little ridiculous there. I knew that you usually looked at me like that, but now we truly can''t do anything together. I can''t move for one, and for two, I am so huge with these babies. It wouldn''t be good for either of us."


    "Just hush." Heughed again and pressed his lips against mine for a gentle kiss. This time the kiss was soft, sweet and not at all filled with passion. It was also very quick since he pulled back way too soon for my liking.


    Dammit. He wasn''t the only one whose body was filled with lust. I was feeling it too. And as much as I wanted more, as much as I wanted him, I couldn''t do anything about it for a long time.


    This was getting to be quite annoying. I came home from being gone only to be trapped in a body that felt like a prison to me and unable to be with my husband. OK, I will admit that even if my body was able to move right now, I couldn''t be with Reece. I was way too big with the triplets for that. Still though, it was annoying.


    Now that I thought about all of this, there was a lot that I needed to do and think about though. I needed to prepare for the birth of the triplets. I needed to get them clothes, furniture, bottles, all of that stuff. Of course, I wouldn''t be able to put any of it together. Reece was going to have a lot of work to do.


    "Hey, Reece?" I called out to him to get his attention and have him look at me.


    "Yeah?" His face was calm, and I could tell that the kiss had helped him the way that he wanted it to.


    "There is a lot of stuff that we need to do."


    "Like what? Aren''t we just waiting for our parents and the kids to get here?" He was so silly and so confused.


    "Not right now. Soon though. We need to prepare the nursery again. We need to get it ready for the triplets."


    "Yeah, I already have ns to order some name boards for them. Just like the ones I got for Talia, Reagan and Rika. I want them to have the best nursery ever. But you are forbidden to do any of it. Do you hear me?"


    "Ha Ha Ha! Yes, Reece, I know. I already told myself that it''s going to be you doing it all. I won''t even watch. I will just tell you what I want this time. Deal?" Iughed at him and tried my best to shake my head. I couldn''t shake his hand so it would have to do.


    "This all seems too easy. You have got to be nning something else."


    "Why are you so suspicious of me?" I asked with a pout.


    "Because I know you, Little Bunny. And I don''t trust that you will sit still and do what you''re told to do. You never do that any other time."


    "Yeah, I know, but I promise to be good. I don''t want anything to happen to the boys." I assured him with all honesty.


    "Good." He leaned in for another quick kiss then whispered one more time.. "I still don''t believe it though."

 Chapter 749 - Trinity – Seeing The Children (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 749 - Trinity ¨C Seeing The Children (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After we bothughed at that rather insulting whisper that Reece had done right into my ear, we could hear hurried footstepsing up the stairs toward our room. I could already smell the scents of my children and my parents. L and Grandfather were there as well. It was all of my family besides my siblings, inws, and friends that were like my family.


    "My babies are here." I grinned and nearly squealed the words just as the door to my room was flung open.


    "Mom!" Rika was the first one inside, always so quick on her feet.


    "Momma!" Reagan was right on her heels.


    "Mommy!" Little Talia was thest of my three children toe through the door. And all three of them were crying tears of relief when they saw me.


    They weren''t the only ones that had been running either. Hot on all of their heels were the adults that were on their way up here.


    "Trinity! My baby girl." Mom was the next one in the room.


    "Trinity, oh thank the Goddess you''re awake!" Dad was next.


    "Sweetheart! Oh, thank the moon and stars." L was right after Dad, and rounding them out, was Grandfather.


    "Trinity! My dear sweet Trinity!"


    All seven people literally ran into the room like it was some sort of race. And the finish line was the bed that Reece and I were currently sitting in.


    Not one of them stopped running until they got to us. And the two in the lead, Reagan and Rika, jumped onto the foot of the bed and started to sob.


    "Momma, I missed you so much. I waited so long for you to wake up." Reagan was leaning forward and putting his head on my leg in an effort to be close to me.


    "Mom! Mommy! I am so happy that you are awake. Oh my Goddess, Mommy, you have no idea. It was so hard to be here without you. And then Daddy left too. He wasn''t gone like you but he was in here and the room was closed off with magic. No one could get in and I couldn''t see either of you. I was so sad, Mommy. Please, neither of you leave us like that again. Please!"


    "We won''t, baby. I promise you that we won''t leave like that ever again." I wanted to reach out and touch her but I couldn''t. I couldn''t move my arms or legs at all and that was hell right now.


    "Your Mom''s right, Rika. I promise that we will do all that we can to never let anything like this ever happen again. Mommy and I will be there for all of you from now on. And your new brothers that areing as well. We will be here for all of you."


    "Mommy, don''t forget about me." Talia was crying on the floor. There was no room left on the bed for her with the way that Reagan and Rika were positioned. They needed to move back, and Reagan had to sit up, to allow her onto the bed.


    "Talia, sweetheart, Mommy would never forget about you."


    At that moment, when the twins were out of the way, my mom lifted Talia up and set her on the bed in front of me. As soon as Talia was in front of me, she threw herself forward and put her arms around my belly.


    "Mommy. I was so scared for you and my brothers. You were lost in the ''underwear'' world with them. I wanted to help Daddy and the others to see you. And I wanted to see you too. But then Daddy was trapped in here after I left the room, and I couldn''t see either of you anymore. I was so sad, Mommy. And thatsted for a whole week. I couldn''t see Mommy or Daddy. All I wanted to do was cry. I just felt so bad. And it was my fault. It was all my fault. I am the one that made Daddy, Athair m¨°r, Uncle Noah and Uncle Trevor get stuck in here. I am the reason that Elias, Torben, Lily and Rose all missed out on seeing their daddies too. And I was also the reason why Reagan and Rika couldn''te visit you at night like they usually did and why they couldn''t see Daddy at all. It was all my fault. I''m such a bad girl."


    My little Talia, my sweet little Tally was sobbing onto my belly as she listed off her supposed offenses. My heart waspletely broken. I just wanted to hold onto her and make it all better. This was not the way that a four year old little girl should be acting. This was wrong, so very wrong.


    "Talia is not bad." I heard a now familiar voice call out as something pink and fluffy came zooming out of the bathroom.


    "Ahh! What the heck is that?" Dad jumped as he looked around us.


    "Calm down, Wesley dear. If it was something bad, I am sure that Reece wouldn''t allow it in his room." Mom soothed his nerves whileughing at him.


    "This is someone that came back with me when I was done with my work. It also happened to be something that I was told you sent after me, Talia."


    "W..what!? Th..this is my f..f..friend. This was the voice that answered me?" She seemed shocked when she looked at this strange little being.


    "Talia? I thought that you could see the creature you sent after Mommy. You looked at it like you could see it when it was in this room." Reece was now as surprised as the others, but apparently for another reason.


    "No Daddy, I couldn''t see it. I could only tell where it was and feel what it was feeling. It was feeling so happy that it made me happy too."


    "Huh?" He didn''t seem to know how to respond to those words so he just haphazardly agreed with them.


    "Mommy, what is this thing?" Rika was leaning forward and looking at the cotton candy scented dragizxie.


    "This is a friend of your sister''s. Its name is Angel, and it is called a dragixie. It is apparently a pixie dragon." I exined to them.


    "A dragon!?" Rika was excited. She loved dragons. "I want one too, Mommy. Where do I get one?"


    "I don''t know if you could ever find one." Talia looked at her. "This one was living in the ''underwear'' world with all the dead people." That was the second time that Talia had said the ''underwear'' world. I had a feeling that she actually meant the underworld. But what she was saying was so much cuter and funnier, so I wasn''t going to correct her. And, apparently, everyone else was used to her calling it that so they weren''t saying anything either.


    "Aww. I want a dragon too." Rika pouted.


    "But how is this here Mommy? Why did Angele with you?"


    "Angel came to see Talia." The creature answered for itself. "Angel came because Angel loves Talia. Angel helped Talia''s mommy to get home and Talia''s mommy brought Angel here with her. Angel is happy. Angel wanted to be with Talia."


    "Y..you came here for me?" Talia was shocked to learn what the dragixie told her.


    "Yes. Angel wants to be Talia''s friend. Talia is so smart. Talia made magic that sent Angel to find Talia''s mommy. Talia made magic that let Angel bring Talia''s mommy home. Talia is so smart and so brave."


    "No. No, I''m not." Talia was crying again, and I wanted to stop her.


    "Yes, Talia, you are. You are so smart, strong and so brave too. You did magic that Mommy has never seen before. And no one mes you for anything. You didn''t do anything wrong. Talia, you did everything right. So please don''t worry, okay?"


    "I..I will try, Mommy."


    "Hey, Trinity?" L called out to me, causing me to look up at her.


    "L, I missed you so much as well. I hope you''re doing well."


    "I''m better now that you''re awake. My son and husband have been so miserable without you." Her smile was so sweet when she looked at me just then. "However, there is something that I would like to know."


    "And what is that?" I tried to return the smile as best as I could, but no one could smile like L.


    "Why haven''t you hugged anyone yet? I know I can''t be the only one that has been waiting for you to throw your arms around them and let them all know that you''re okay." Her words kind of stung a little. I didn''t want to worry them, but I wanted to hug them all so badly.


    "Yeah. You have just been sitting there in Reece''s arms and not moving. I mean, yeah, he missed you and all, but the rest of us missed you too. We would like to hug you as well." Grandfather was sounding a little like a child. He wanted his hugs too, not just the other kids getting theirs.


    "I would love to hug my baby girl." Mom was still crying from earlier.


    "I want a hug from Mommy." Talia squeezed me even tighter.


    "You''re already hugging Momma. I want my hug." Reagan snapped at her.


    "No, me. I want Mommy''s hug." Rika countered.


    "Ahh, well, you see, I would love to hug you all. I want so desperately to put my arms around each and every one of you. But I can''t."


    "Why? What''s wrong Trinity?" Dad was worried now. His eyes filled with tension and fear.


    "I don''t know. I..I just can''t move my body at all."


    "No! Will you ever move again, Mommy?" Rika sobbed, falling on me like Talia had.


    "Momma, you need to get better." Reaganid down on his sisters, hugging them and me at the same time.


    "Don''t you worry.. That is why I am here."

 Chapter 750 - Trinity – A Checkup (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 750 - Trinity ¨C A Checkup (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Don''t you worry. That is why I am here."


    At that precise moment, the door to my room opened up again. We had all been too busy talking and too focused on what was going on that we didn''t notice the visitor that wasing up the stairs.


    Well, Reece might have noticed him since he was not at all surprised by the sudden words or the interruption to the conversation. He just seemed to be happy that this person had arrived. And frankly, so was I.


    "Griffin?" I called out to him. I was happy to see yet another person that I cared so much about. He was such a good friend of mine and Reece''s. He had been there with us ever since Reece and I had first gotten together. He was always there whenever I needed something to help me heal or to help with the babies. He was the best doctor in the entire world. Not to mention, that he was one of Reece''s oldest friends.


    "Hello Trinity. I am so happy to see that you''re awake." He was already walking toward the bed that I was sitting on with Reece and the kids. "I wanted toe and check on you earlier this week, but I was told that the room was closed off with a magical barrier. I can tell you with one hundred percent honesty that I was extremely worried about you and Reece. And the others as well, of course. When Noah, who was trapped in the room before, called to let me know that you were awake and couldn''t move at all, I rushed over here as quickly as I could. I am going to get you moving again soon, Trinity. I promise you."


    "I know, Griffin. I know." He seemed to be worried and upset at the same time. Why do I get the feeling that something very unpleasant happened for him while I was away?


    "Uncle Griffin, are you going to make my mommy better? Are you going to make it so that she can hug me again?" Talia was looking up at Griffin with pleading eyes as he got closer to us.


    "Yes, Tally, I am going to help your mommy. Your mommy is my friend too, I love her and want to see her get better."


    "I want her to get better too. Also, Uncle Griffin, I want to y with Julia. I guess Vivian and Dominic cane too. But I really want to y with Julia."


    "I know that Julia would love that too, Talia. And you know that her birthday ising up soon. She is almost the same age as you, now. Isn''t that fun?" Griffin was smiling at Talia as he talked about his third child.


    "Yay. I can''t wait. But fix my mommy first. I want a hug more than I want to y." Talia was still focused on me. That was so sweet.


    "Of course. I will look after your mommy right now. But I need all of you to leave so that I can do my job."


    "Even my daddy?" Talia put her hands on her hips and looked at him with a look that clearly said, ''that is so not going to happen''. She really was a smart little girl.


    "Well, your daddy can stay. I have a feeling that he won''t want to leave even if I told him to." Griffin chuckled at her.


    "Yeah, Daddy would not leave my mommy at all. He loves her too much. He loves us too, but my daddy is a big baby when ites to my mommy."


    "Talia!" Reece gasped and all I could do wasugh. "Who taught you that?"


    "No one, Daddy. I just know it." That made meugh even more, not to mention everyone, except for Reece.


    "Alright, you''re going to get itter, little girl. I am going to tickle you until you scream. Just you wait."


    "Ah! No Daddy, don''t tickle me." Talia was ying along with Reece but it was very clearly an act and it just made theughter worse.


    "OK, Talia, can you and the others leave so I can check on your mommy?"


    "Uh huh. I will make them leave." She stood up, faced everyone in the room, pointed toward the door and barked in a stern voice. "Out! Uncle Griffin needs to fix my mommy."


    "Yes, Ma''am." Mom saluted her and then picked her up off of the bed. "How about we go and make something easy for your mommy to eat. I am sure she is hungry, and Daddy will need to feed her." At the mention of food, my stomach growled loudly and there was another round ofughter as the others left the room.


    Now it was just me, Reece and Griffin in the room. That was when I realized that the little dragon left the room with Talia. It really did want to be with her, didn''t it. I didn''t need to focus on that though. I needed to focus on Griffin and getting better.


    "How are you feeling, Trinity?" he asked me as he set down his bag and sat in a chair close to the bed.


    "I am fine, for the most part. It''s just that I can''t move. Nothing hurts or anything like that. I was a little shocked to see my massive belly, but I am the only one that is surprised about that. I''m just really annoyed that I can''t move my body."


    "Well, I am d that none of it hurts. And I''m happy to see that you have an appetite." Heughed about the stomach growling again. "So, what I am going to do now is give you, and the babies, a good exam. I am going to check to see what is causing your paralysis and, hopefully, we can get you moving sometime soon."


    "Thank you, Griffin." I nodded and smiled.


    "Thanks, man. And thank you for rushing over here so quickly."


    "Hey, no need to thank me, Reece. My patient woke up after almost three months, of course I am running over here as fast as I could. Even Lana told me to haul ass." Heughed as he reached for some of the items in the room around and for others in his bag. "Now, Reece, can youy Trinity back down in the bed. The bed doesn''t have to be all the way back, but I do need it back further than it is now."


    "Sure thing, Griffin." Reece grabbed the remote, hit another button and made it auto adjust before he got to his feet with me still in his arms. Once the bed was done moving, heid me on back down.


    I didn''t like being this helpless. I didn''t like not being able to help with moving my body. And I didn''t like only looking at the ceiling and the small amount of stuff that I could see around me. It robbed me of my freedom, and I didn''t like it. I wanted Griffin to hurry up and fix me, like Talia said before.


    Griffin started by taking out the feeding tube that I had while I was asleep as well as taking out the IVs from my arms. Then he started to check my body over to see if there were any abnormalities. He checked my legs and my abdomen, my neck and back, even my hands and feet. It was quite the thorough exam, and I was surprised that Reece didn''t object. Then again, he had probably gotten used to Griffin doing this over the time that I was asleep. He was no longer upset about it or something.


    After my body was examined, Griffin drew some blood and set it aside. He was going to take it to be checked sometimeter. Seeing that reminded me of something that Griffin and I had discussed a while back. He wanted to do research on building a mobileb unit so he could run his own samples when out in the field like this. Maybe it was time to encourage him to do just that.


    After he had taken some blood, he pulled the ultrasound machine over to the bed. He was going to check on the babies now. I was eager to see them in baby form. I knew what they were going to look like when they were older though. That was a plus. Still, seeing them as babies was something else entirely.


    That blue gel was just as cold here at my house as it was everywhere else. And that was saying something for someone who could literally turn to ice and the cold outside never affected them. I think it was because it touched me directly. That, or it was just a magical torture device that the doctors use to torture us women who are pregnant. I am not sure which one it is right now.


    I waited with bated breath with Reece holding onto my hand. I wanted to see them, I wanted this to happen. But then I realized that I couldn''t turn my head enough to see the screen.


    "Reece."


    "Yes, my love." He spoke sweetly as he responded to me.


    "I can''t see the screen. I can''t turn my head enough." I felt even worse now. I hadpletely forgotten that I wasn''t going to be able to see the screen without his help.


    "No problem, Little Bunny. I will take care of that."


    Reece let go of my hand and turned my head gently so that I could see the screen. This was it. I was going to be able to see the boys now.. I was going to see what the little babies in my belly currently looked like.

 Chapter 751 - Trinity – A Checkup Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 751 - Trinity ¨C A Checkup Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The moment that Griffin put that little sensor stick, wand, whatever you wanted to call it, onto my belly, I could see one of the babies. They were in there and they were so much more developed than I was ready for.


    "From the dates that Reece gave me, Trinity, you are exactly sixteen weeks pregnant today. You are technically due on January the fifth, but I think that we all know that you will never make it to the due date. Not with triplets." He wasughing a little bit. "And remember, you''ve had twins before, but not triplets. It might be a lot harder on you. You can always give Cedar and Acacia a call. Their triplets are almost eight years old now. Not to mention, Acacia''s mom had several sets of multiples. There are a lot of multiple''s experiences in that family."


    He was moving the wand around, measuring things as he talked. I knew that he was quite busy, but he was also diligently doing his work.


    "The boys are growing well enough. They are small but that is to be expected with triplets. They will probably barely weigh four pounds when they are born. So do not concern yourself with that. Let''s see. There are no abnormalities. All looks good. I think that they are going to be strong, healthy and handsome little boys. Congrats."


    Griffin pulled the wand away from my belly and Reece started to wipe the gel off of my huge stomach.


    "Alright, what do you think is wrong with her, Griffin? Why can''t she move? You have got to know something, right? Please, tell me that you know what is going on with her. Please."


    "Calm down, Reece. I am sure I know what it is, but I want to check her with my magic first. That will let me know if I forgot something. I have been working on using that ability with peopletely. I can even use it without the bright light shining now." He sounded happy, like this was a major breakthrough. Well, it was, but I didn''t know why he had been trying to do this in the first ce. It was all good and positive but what led to it."


    "If you could check her with magic, why didn''t you do that first?" Reece snapped at him. He was getting angry for no reason."


    "Hush, Fido. This is not the time to get angry. He is a doctor. He examined me as a doctor would. Get over it." And turn my head now. There is nothing interesting to see over here anymore."


    "Yes, Little Bunny, right away." Reece quickly moved to adjust the angle of my head and I had to bite my tongue so that I didn''tugh at him. He was being so submissive right now. It was quite hrious to see him acting like this.


    "OK Griffin, go on. You can check me with your magic now." I encouraged him to continue with what he needed to do.


    "Alright. Now just to be on the safe side. I am keeping my magic away from the babies. With everything that you all have been through, I don''t know how the magic will affect them. So, I am going to keep it away from them just to be safe."


    "That sounds reasonable." I nodded a little at him, the little bit that my head was moving anyway.


    "OK, let''s get started." Griffin took a deep breath and then stood next to me.


    I couldn''t even tell that he was putting his magic anywhere near me. It was so noninvasive and unnoticeable. It was definitely something that he could do with a human to help them. This was amazing. He would be able to know what was wrong with someone without all the invasive tests. He could run the easiest test in the world to prove that he was right and then, boom, he was done.


    I wonder if he could also use the power to heal them without them knowing. I mean, I had heard from Lana a long time ago that the patients that were just near Griffin always did better than the ones that he didn''t treat personally. I guess that the healing had somehow moved into his aura. He was just that great of a man and he didn''t notice what he did.


    After what seemed like just a couple of minutes, he stepped away from me and I felt a slight chill run through me. I guess that he was done checking my body. And that chill made me think that there was a slight warmth from his magic, but it was subtle and built slowly so that it was not noticeable until it was gone.


    "Are you still feeling alright, Trinity? No bad effects from me checking you out?" He was still sounding as if he was paranoid that he would mess up with me or something. I wish I knew why.


    "I am fine, Griffin. There is absolutely nothing to worry about. Thank you for helping me out. You are the best." I smiled at him.


    "Did you find anything out? What is wrong with her?" Reece was getting right back to business here.


    "OK, I did confirm what was wrong with her." Griffin sighed as if he didn''t like what he was about to say. "Her muscles are suffering from being stationary for so long."


    "No. That can''t be it. I moved them for her frequently. I was here with her every single day."


    "I know that. And it''s not a major case. So, what I propose we do is more physical therapy to get her limbs working properly. Also, I wille here everyday or every other day to give her a magical treatment. I will use my healing magic to restore the muscles as well. However, I think if I used too much magic at once, it would be bad for her body and the babies."


    "How long is all of this going to take, Griffin?" I had to know that. I had to know how long it was going to take for me to hug anyone back. I wanted to feel them all in my arms. I needed it.


    "I think we can get you better in a week, two at most." He was smiling now, happy to have some sort of good news right when he was just giving me some bad news. He was making it all a little easier to handle.


    "That would be good. I don''t want it to take months. I need to hug my family. And I need to be able to hold my babies when they are born." I could already feel the pain in my heart. Having to wait for all of this was really, really hard. I wanted to hold my children right now. I wanted to hold Talia, Reagan and Rika. I needed to hug them right now.


    "Alright, Trinity, let us give you the first treatment. And I will show Reece how to do your therapies. I want these done three times a day. They will start small, but we will increase them over time, okay?" Finally, Griffin was being his confident self again. I didn''t know what had happened to my friend before, but I was d to see him doing better now.


    Griffin walked back over to my side and put his hands over my body. This time, he did have that healing lighte out of his hands. It enveloped me with its warm embrace like I was in some sort of heated nket or something simr to that.


    The light seemed to be seeping into my skin and all the way down to my muscles. The moment that the light started to take an effect on me, my whole body started to hurt. I felt like there were pins and needles in all of my limbs and it was almost unbearable.


    Almost. I did manage to stop myself from showing my distress. I didn''t cry out. And I was hiding that it was hurting me.


    I knew it wasn''t Griffin that was hurting me. I could now just feel the pain that my body had to have been in before. I was just somehow numbed against it. Somehow, my mind or my body, or hell, even my magic could have made me somehow physically and mentally block out what was happening to me. It''s just that now that Griffin was actively pouring his magic into me to heal me, I had nothing left to block the sensations from my mind.


    I knew that if I showed that I was in pain, Reece would just me Griffin and I couldn''t have that happen. I needed to protect everyone here. And to do that, I just needed to endure the pain. I have been through worse. A lot worse. This was nothingpared to some of the stuff that had happened to me.


    Finally, the magic part was done. After that, Griffin started to move my legs in the therapeutic way. It was excruciating as well but I had to keep it in. I had to stay quiet. I needed to protect Griffin.


    After my legs were done, Griffin started to work on my arms and my hands. That was a little less painful, but it was still bad. I didn''t want to have anyone else experience this kind of pain. No one in the world should go through this.


    Now it was time for him to stretch and move my neck, my back, and twist me so that my waist moved properly. All of this was just so hard to go through. I didn''t want to feel it anymore. And finally, when it was all almost over, when Griffin was almost done, I cried out in pain.


    "Are you okay, Trinity?"


    "Little Bunny, what''s wrong?" They were both worried.


    "I..it just hurts a little bit. That''s all. I''m sorry for worrying you."


    "If it hurts Trinity, we can wait to do more the next time. I will make a list of what to do with Reece, and I wille back to work on your muscles some more."


    "Thank you, Griffin, but I am OK. I can keep going."


    "I think that we should just stop for now." Griffin was looking at me with worry in his eyes.


    He exined things to Reece, wrote it all down, and then left the room. Finally, my torture for the time being was over. I was going to be able to rest now. And I didn''t want to be crying when the others came back into the room.


    There was still one drawback though. That pins and needles feeling, which hurt, was still there. It wasn''t as bad as it was when Griffin was working on my legs, but it was still there. And I hoped like hell that it would fade, and soon.. I couldn''t hide this pain from Reece for very long.

 Chapter 752 - Trinity – What Did I Miss (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 752 - Trinity ¨C What Did I Miss (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Now that it was once again just Reece and I in the bedroom, I wanted to talk to him. I wanted to ask him about everything that I missed while I was gone. Three months was a lot of time to miss in the lives of my family. I wanted to know what all happened while I was ''away''.


    I also would have liked to go back to my regr bed, the one that I shared with Reece, but I was still hooked up to all of these machines. I didn''t have the tubes connected to me anymore, but I was still hooked up.


    "What''s wrong, Little Bunny?" I guess some of the disappointment showed on my face.


    "Nothing." I looked away from him as well as the machines that were tethering me to the bed.


    "Don''t give me that. What is wrong? Does it still hurt?"


    "No." And it wasn''t. I just wanted toy in myfortable bed. That was all. I wanted to enjoy my time while I sat and talked to my husband.


    As nice as it was to be rxing andying down, this was still a hospital bed and that meant that, by definition, it sucked. I didn''t want toy in a hospital bed in my own bedroom. Nope, I wanted something softer.


    "Then, what is it, Little Bunny? Please, sweetheart, tell me." Reece was still so worried about me that he didn''t want me to hide anything from him. Well, fine, I could tell him.


    "I just want to get out of this bed and go to our bed. I want something morefortable. That''s all it was. But I am still hooked up to all of the machines so I can''t have you take me over there." I didn''t sigh. I didn''t look away. I tried not to make it appear that I was as upset as I was. Still, he could tell. He wasn''t going to let it slide either.


    "Like hell I can''t take you over there."


    At that point, Reece started to turn off all of the machines. When he was done, he turned to me and started to unhook the wires from my body. All of them.


    "Reece? How is it you know what you are doing right now?" I was shocked to see his quick and efficient moves.


    "Who do you think gave you your sponge baths?" He chuckled at his own answer. "I know how to do all of this. I could hook you back up too if I wanted. I did it all the time while you were asleep. I didn''t let anyone else except for Griffin help me with taking care of you. You''re my wife, my Little Bunny, and it was my responsibility."


    "Reece." I felt my heart begin to melt as I listened to him. "Thank you. Thank you for loving me and caring so much for me."


    "Trinity, my sweet, sweet, Trinity, you can be so fucking dense sometimes." Heughed as he scooped me up into his arms. "You''re so fucking smart, but you can be so stupid when you want to be. Of course I love you. And of course I am going to care for you. You''re my wife, the mother of my children, and my mate. We were born to be together. There is nothing in this world that could ever change that."


    "I know. Still though, I wanted to thank you for it."


    The moment that he sat me down on the bed, I sighed in relief. The mattress was so soft and so luxurious. It felt like heavenpared to the hospital bed. And it was just what my poor exhausted soul needed after traversing through the underworld for three months.


    "This is amazing. I had almost forgotten what my own bed felt like. This is exactly what I needed."


    "Little Bunny, I am sorry that I wasn''t here for you. I am sorry that you felt the need to hide everything from me." I knew that Reece was going to feel this way. He had been the one here to try and hold everything together while I was gone. He was the one that truly needed to be consoled, but here he was catering to me still. All because I couldn''t even lift my arms at the moment.


    "No, Reece, I am sorry. I shouldn''t have tried to be a superwoman and do everything on my own. I was reckless."


    "Let''s stop ming ourselves. I have a feeling that this will go on for a long time if we keep it up." I could see the smile that was ying on his lips. Reece really was the best man that I could have ever hoped for. He was always there for me no matter what. I knew now just as I have known for a long time, Reece was the best.


    "Reece, tell me all that I missed. Tell me what happened while I was away. I need to know."


    "I will." He smiled and nodded at me. "I will tell you all about the things that you missed. That is, after you tell me what I didn''t see on that screen. I want to know what you went through. Tell me everything, Little Bunny. Please. Start at the beginning and exin it all to me."


    He meant it too. He wanted to know everything that happened, and he definitely didn''t want me to skip over anything.


    "Fine, Reece. I will tell you."


    And so, I did. I told him about the voice that led me from my office and toward the throne room. I told him about seeing what I thought were imps at first and the mysterious door that was just standing here in the hallway. He was curious about that little bit. He thought it was interesting that I had heard him and the kids talking when I first went into that world. I told him how it gave me strength to keep moving on.


    He didn''t like the idea of the other me very much. When I told him what she did and said he was murderously angry. The only problem was that she was inside of me so it wasn''t like he could kill that person that hurt me. She was me.


    He wasn''t surprised about me seeing Franny, but he was surprised that she attacked me. He was angry that I kept getting attacked over and over again. There honestly had been a lot of them, hadn''t there?


    I continued on. I told him about every level of hell that I had been in so far and about every obstacle that I had encountered. It was quite the long tale and I know that by the time that Reece had heard everything that happened before I got to the Hall of Damnation, he was about to have a panic attack. I knew this because his face was pale, his eyes were rimmed and red and filled with anger, and his breathing was heavy.


    "All of this happened to you?" He was pissed off. "You and our boys went through all of that stuff?" He was trying to keep his breathing calm as he spoke.


    "Yes, Reece, all of that is what happened to me." I was nodding at him with a solemn look on his face.


    "OK, let''s forget about the souls that the fucking bitch, Hekate, sent after you. Let''s put them on the back burner for a moment. She seriously sent a hell hound and a hell snake after you? That bitch had better be d that she is already dead. I swear by all the celestials and every fiber of my being, I would have hunted her down and killed her if you hadn''t already done it, Little Bunny."


    "I know, Reece." Everyone that knew Reece and me knew that he was telling the truth. He would have been so mad if he knew about all of this before I got back. I am just d that he didn''t know about it. That made it a lot easier when he came to me. He was able to hug me and not be angry about the other things that had happened."


    "Little Bunny, if anything would have happened to you and the boys. If you and them would have been hurt. I..I don''t know what I would have done." He looked so lost and lonely.


    "I know, Reece. That was why I wanted to make sure that I protected the babies while I was over there. When I knew that they were our babies, when I found out that I was pregnant with them back there, it made all of those protective mother instincts kick in." I did my best to assure him that I wouldn''t have let anything happen to Zachary, Zander and Zayden.


    "But what about you, Little Bunny. Who was protecting you? Who was going to stop you from getting hurt? When I think about how close you came to getting hurt and dying while fighting that fucking dragon, that piece of shit goddess, I can''t tell you how badly I wanted to go and help you. Do you know how hard it was to just sit here and watch you fight? I could barely contain the anger in my heart."


    "Reece.." If I would have been able to move, I would have pulled him closer to me so that I could hold him and kiss him. He needed to beforted, that was what he was missing for so long. But I couldn''t do that. I couldn''t help him. "I love you, Reece." I almost sobbed when I told him this.


    "I love you too, Little Bunny."

 Chapter 753 - Trinity - What Did I Miss Part 2 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 753 - Trinity - What Did I Miss Part 2 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    "Alright Reece, I told you about my entire time in the underworld. Now I want to know what happened to you and the kids while I was gone. I want to know what happened to my babies and my husband. No matter how hard it will be for me to hear it all, I still want to know about it. I want to hear every detail. I need to know how much I hurt my children."


    "Wasn''t it obvious what they felt? Didn''t you already see that, Little Bunny?" Reece was obviously trying to stop me from hearing what happened. It must be horrible. This was the part about leaving that was the hardest for me. How could I upset my children in this way? And my husband? How could I leave all of this on him?


    "Reece, I-."


    "No, Trinity, I will tell you. Don''t worry. I just don''t know why you want to know. Can''t we just leave it as it is?" I had to make him understand this. I had to make him see why it is that I wanted to know what happened, no matter how sad it was.


    "Reece, when you leave on your business trips, don''t you always ask me how the kids are. Even when they are sad that their daddy is gone, and they miss you like crazy. Even when you know you are just going to get sad when I tell you. Don''t you still want to know? This is no different, Reece. The only change here is that I was physically here but my soul was gone. And, of course, I was gone for a lot longer. But those things don''t matter right now. What matters is that I know what happened to you and the kids while I wasn''t here."


    After I spoke, I looked down at my massive belly with a sad look.


    "I got to be with the triplets while I was in the underworld. I got to see them and get to know what their future personalities might possibly be like. And I was happy to spend time with them like that because it was something that no other mother in the world has ever done. At least to my knowledge they haven''t. Yet, I am heartbroken because of it. I feel like I was choosing the new kids over the old ones. And that makes it so much harder on me. I love the kids. All of them. All six of our children. And since I love them all so much, I want to know what all of them were going through. I know what Zachary, Zander and Zayden went through since I was there with them, but I need to know what Talia, Reagan and Rika went through."


    "Alright, Little Bunny. I understand. I know what you want and now I know why. I will tell you. Hahh." He sighed like he was not exactly happy about it right now, but I didn''t care about that right now. I needed to hear what he had to say.


    That was when Reece started his tale. He also started at the beginning. He told me how the children cried for days when I was first gone. They didn''t really understand at first why their mommy was here but not here. They didn''t know why I wasn''t waking up no matter how much they tried to wake me. Just hearing that shattered me, but I kept it together. I wasn''t going to cry. I was going to remain strong.


    Reece then went on to tell me that the kids got used to the fact that I was gone. They weren''t as sad as they had been before, or at least they weren''t showing it as much. However, Trevor had brought some people from his pack. Some hybrids that were half witch doctors. They were considered cursed because of their appearance. They had lived in solitude most of their lives. However, they had a special gift.


    When these people, a set of twins, came to visit, they told Reece where I was, and they also told him that there was another irvoyant here in the house. Apparently, based on something that Talia had said, he had figured that it was her.


    Reece''s n was to take all of the kids out on a day out with him. He was going to spend one on one time with each of them. Mostly because he wanted to talk to Talia alone. And that was when he found out that Talia could talk to and hear the souls of the dead.


    I couldn''t believe that. My little girl. My Talia. She wasmunicating with dead things. And that was how she had managed tomunicate with Angel in the underworld. And it was also how she was able to know where I was. Talia was the one that first told Reece that the babies were all boys. And she was the first one that stopped being so sad and worried about her mommy. She was still sad that I wasn''t here, but she knew that her mommy was on a mission and that helped her to not be so worried.


    And Reece confirmed something that both Angel and Talia told me. That Talia was the one that opened the portal to see me. She was apparently a very powerful magic user, and she was only four years old. And also, she had be friends with the two bears that could see the dead. They bonded over their simr abilities.


    And, as an afterthought, Reece told me how my grandfather stormed into his office and started to yell at him and threaten him. He apparently felt like Reece wasn''t doing enough to wake me up. He was upset and scared and let his emotions get to him.


    "That was all hard to hear, Reece. It really was. But I am still happy that I heard it. It is better that I know about it now than to not know about it ever. I am d that you all made it through the time that I was gone. Thank you, Reece. Thank you for taking care of our family."


    "Of course, Little Bunny, what else was I going to do?" He leaned in then and put his head against mine, forehead to forehead. "I love you, and I missed you. However, I had to stay strong for the kids. I had to be here for them. If it wasn''t for them, I don''t know what I would have done. I don''t know if I would have still been me."


    "I will alwayse back to you, Reece. And if anything were to ever happen to where you ended up like your mom was, I will alwayse to wake you up. You won''t need to be a sleeping beauty for long, Reece. I will kiss you and wake you up." I was making a heartfelt promise to him, but he justughed at me. How rude.


    "Ha ha ha! Little Bunny, I love you. You''re such a fuckingedian."


    "I meant it, you dope." Myughter mixed with his then.


    "I know, and that''s why it was so funny. Because I knew that it was true."


    "Whatever." I tilted my head and kissed him. I wanted it to be a sweet kiss. I wanted to cup his cheek and caress his face like I would usually do when I was the one to initiate the kiss. But that wasn''t going to happen. I mean I couldn''t move my-..


    What the hell? Wait just a minute here. My hand just moved. Not a lot, but it did move a little bit. I was finally getting to where I could move a little bit of my body. I guess whatever it was that Griffin had done to me was finally starting to work.


    "Reece?!" I pulled away and gasped out his name.


    "What? What is it, Little Bunny?" He was scared that something was wrong.


    "M..my arm. I..i..it-."


    "It what?" He was nervous that something bad might have happened to me.


    "It moved. It was just a little bit, but it moved. I was able to move my body."


    "Seriously?" His mouth was hanging open. "You''re starting to get better already? Oh, thank the Goddess, and Griffin. He is one hell of a doctor, isn''t he?"


    "Yeah, he is." I grinned up at him. "I am so happy. Now I just might be healed before the babies get here."


    "Long before, I hope. We don''t want the babies here too soon, do we?"


    "Yeah. I know."


    I was just so excited about having moved my body even a little bit that I was working hard on it with Reece for the next few minutes. I was trying to move my arms, even just a little bit. Just enough to put them around the kids, or to hold their hands or something. I needed them to know that mommy was here and getting better.


    It was hard, and it was definitely painful. And more than a little painful. But I wasn''t going to give up. I wasn''t going to let anything stop me. I needed to move on my own. I needed to get to the point where I could eventually hold everyone in my arms again. Maybe not at the same time, but I needed to hold them all, hug them all, squeeze them all nice and tight.


    Just thinking about what I wanted to do made me want to cry. It made me sad that I hadn''t been able to hug the kids earlier. However, I didn''t cry.. I turned that frustration into determination, and I kept trying to move my body.

 Chapter 754 - Trinity – Settling In (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 754 - Trinity ¨C Settling In (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I practiced moving my arms more and more. And, while doing that, I couldn''t stop thinking about the kids and all that they had gone through. Just then, all of them came running back into the room.


    The three of them looked first at the hospital bed then looked all around them to see me on the bed next to Reece. They ran over and all three of them were able to climb up and sit with me.


    "MOMMA!"


    "MOM!"


    "MOMMY!"


    "Hello, sweetheart." Mom called as she carried in some soup for me and some dinner for Reece as well. "I brought you something to eat."


    "Thank you, Mom." I called out to her and raised my hand just a little bit off of the bed.


    "Mommy! You moved!" Talia pointed out.


    "Just a little bit, baby. Mommy is working on getting better." I let them know that I wasn''t going to be running and jumping with them for a while. Still, I was able to reach out just a little and take Talia''s tiny little hand. "See, sweetheart, Mommy has been practicing so I could hold your hand. My next goal is to hug you."


    "Thank you, Mommy." Talia started to cry. "I have missed holding your hand. I love you so much. And I missed you even more."


    "Me too, Momma." Reagan held his hand out to me, so I slipped my other hand into his.


    "I know buddy. I am sorry. But thank you, all of you, for being strong while I was away. You''re all such brave children."


    "Mom.." Rika was on the verge of tears, so I slid my hand away from Talia and gave it to her. She needed to hold onto her mommy''s hand too.


    "Okay, you three, how about we let Mommy eat her dinner with Daddy while you all go take your baths. Talia, I will get yours ready for you. When you''re all done, we wille back here and see Mommy. How does that sound?" Mom was doing so well with everything, with the kids, with what happened to me. She was so amazing.


    "Yeah, okay Nona. That sounds good." Talia smiled at her.


    "Mommy does need to eat. She might be better after that." Rika nodded.


    "I am going to hurry back, Momma. I don''t want to miss any time with you."


    With another quick hug and a kiss from all of them, they left the room with Mom so that it was just Reece and I again.


    "Are you hungry?" Reece asked me which prompted my stomach to growl loudly. "Well then, I guess that answers that question." Heughed and got the tray that Mom had brought up for us.


    "I am sorry, Reece." I held my head in shame for what was about to happen.


    "For what?" He was confused for some reason.


    "You have to feed me like I am some kind of baby. I''m sorry for that."


    "Does it look like I care about that? You''re awake. You''re back here with us. And you''re pregnant with our babies who are all doing just fine. Just hush and stop worrying about it. Here, let''s get you some soup."


    After brushing off myments, Reece brought the soup over, lifted a spoonful of it and started to blow on it so that it was cooled off.


    "Say ahh." He told me, which really made me feel like a baby. Still, I was very hungry, and I couldn''t move at all. So, I had no choice but to take the food from him.


    The soup was delicious. And it had been so long since my body had gotten food into it that it seemed like the most delicious and perfect soup ever.


    "Oh Goddess, that is so good." I felt like I couldn''t get enough of the taste of the soup.


    Reece fed me bite after bite. All the while, he was taking bites of the sandwich that Mom had brought him. He had some of the soup as well, it would pair well with the sandwich after all.


    For the most part, we ate in silence. I was eating then Reece was eating and feeding me more. This process continued until all of the food was gone.


    "How are you feeling?" Reece asked me once we were done with the meal.


    "Honestly, a lot better. It''s like I have a lot more strength than I had before. I even feel like I might be able to move some more. Now that my body has had some nourishment, it feels like I''m getting stronger."


    As I said those words, I tried to move my arm. Before I ate, it was all that I could do just to move my hand toward someone and grip it. Now though, I was able to move both of my arms at about thirty percent mobility. It wasn''t perfect, but it was definitely better than before. And it made me so happy.


    "Reece, I think that I might be able to hug the kids when theye back."


    "Why don''t you practice with me, Little Bunny." Reece crawled across the bed after he moved the tray away. He brought himself close to me and leaned in, ready for a hug.


    I tried my best. I lifted my arms. And sure enough, I was able to very gently and very slowly, slide my arms around him and hug him.


    It wasn''t the best hug in the world. I couldn''t squeeze him tightly. I couldn''t pull him closer. But I was still holding him in my arms and that felt like the best thing ever. Of course, he had to maneuver himself just right so that he didn''t squish my already huge baby belly. But still, it was a hug and I loved it.


    About five minutester, Mom and the kids came back in. The kids all jumped into our bed with us, and they were all wearing their pajamas as well.


    "I think it''s a good thing our bed is so big." Iughed. "Because I think that we''re about to have a slumber party."


    "Can we really sleep in here with you, Momma?" Reagan asked me excitedly. "I don''t want to be without you tonight. Please let us."


    "Yeah, I think that is a great idea." Reece smiled at me. "We will all sleep in here tonight."


    "Well then, I guess that means that I need to take my leave for now." Mom smiled and came closer to me. "I will spend time with you tomorrow, sweetheart. For now, I am just happy that you''re awake." She leaned in for a hug and nearly jumped when I hugged her back. "Sweetheart! You moved your arms!"


    "Eating helped me get a little better. I don''t think it will be long before I am back to myself. Thank you, Mom. That soup was delicious. And I know that you made it for me yourself." She smiled at my words. I saw that she had teared up and it almost made me cry as well.


    "Of course, I would make it for you, sweetheart. I made it for you when you were a little girl too. Whenever you were feeling sad or just needed a pick me up. I will make it whenever you want me to."


    After hugging my mom for a little while longer, she left the room looking quite content. She had wanted that hug as much as I did. I needed to feel the realness of my family to make sure that this wasn''t just a dream. I needed to know that I was home once again, and they were with me.


    Finally, it was time for us all to just settle in. I wasid in the middle of the bed. The kids allid around me and snuggled me in some way. They were making sure that they were touching me and feeling my warmth. Reece was sitting near me as well. He was reaching across Rika who was between us and rubbing my hair gently. This was nice though. This told me that they were all here. They were all real. And they all still loved me so much.


    That was how we fell asleep. I made sure that the kids were asleep before me, watching them for a little as they slept on me. Then I fell asleep next. As I drifted off to sleep, staring at Reece''s eyes, I knew that he was going to stay awake and watch me for a while. I even thought I felt him lean across and kiss my forehead gently.


    Thankfully, I didn''t dream at all that night. I just slept peacefully with my family and woke fully rested to the sight of my beautifully sleeping babies. I was happy to be home. I was happy to be healthy. And I was excited to be expanding my family.


    There was nothing in the world that could be better than being right here right now. I was out of the underworld. I was back in my own home. And I was healing.


    The first thing that I noticed after I woke up and saw the kids, was Reece staring at me. I know that he had gotten some sleep, but I doubted that he had slept all that much. He looked tired and slightly exhausted, but very happy.


    "Good morning, beautiful." He grinned at me.


    "Good morning, handsome."


    "I''ve been waiting for that. Three months went without you telling me good morning. I needed to hear that." I could see that my words were already calming him more.. Just how hurt had he been? My poor Reece.

 Chapter 755 - Trinity – Spending Time With Friends And Family Part 1 (VOLUME 4)

    <h4>Chapter 755 - Trinity ¨C Spending Time With Friends And Family Part 1 (VOLUME 4)</h4>


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece wouldn''t let me leave the room at all, but he did send people in to see me. While I sat in my room, Reece was getting the kids ready for school and driving them like he apparently did every day since I slipped into myatose state.


    Sitting in my room was boring though. So, I needed somepany toe and see me. The first person that came was Juniper. She came running into the room while Paul got their kids off to school.


    I could smell Junipering as she ran up the stairs. Not to mention her pounding footsteps were easy for me to notice. She wasn''t exactly trying to hide the fact that she was on her way up to see me.


    The door to my room burst open without her even stopping to know. That was the Juniper that I knew. She was going toe in and see me on her own terms just like she always did.


    "Trinity!" Juniper called out to me when she saw me sitting up in my bed. "Oh Trinity, thank you for waking up. I am so happy and excited to see you." She ran all the way over me and skidded to a halt. "Damn you, Trinity! How could you go and do something like that? How could you leave us all just hanging with nothing to exin what happened? I mean I.. I.. GAH! I could hit you for that."


    Instead of hitting me though, she threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly. She was crying against my shoulder, sobbing as she got out all of the emotions that she had been holding back.


    "I missed you, Trinity. I missed my best friend. I know that you were always so busy, but we used to talk at least. We would always share what was going on. Why didn''t you tell me what was going on? Why didn''t you tell me that you were having a hard time? Why, Trinity? Why?"


    "I''m sorry, Ju. I didn''t mean to hide things from you. I just thought that everyone would think that I was weak if I told them about those voices that I was hearing. I know now that it was just Hekate reaching out to me. It was just her ying games with my head. But at the time, I didn''t know that. I didn''t know what was going on. And I thought that you would all think that I was not fit to be the Luna, the Queen and the Goddess. I thought that I would be locked away." I hung my head and just felt the shame wash over me. It was everything that I had been feeling. It was the truth. I knew that I needed to tell this to people. Yet it was still hard. It felt like I was bearing the most intimate parts of my soul to her. And even though she was my best friend, it was hard to let her see these parts of me.


    "Trinity. Look at me. Please." Juniper was trying to encourage me to lift my head and look her in the eyes. I didn''t really want to. Not yet. But she wasn''t ready to give up just yet. "Look at me, Trin. Please. I need to see your eyes. I need to look into them."


    "Fine." I finally stopped resisting her and looked her in the eyes. "What is it, Juniper?"


    "Huh. It is you. With that defeatist way you were talking, I thought that maybe you had been reced with some sort of clone or replica. I thought for certain that this sappy little crybaby right here couldn''t have been my best friend. I mean, you look like Trinity. You sound like Trinity. But right now, you definitely are not sounding like Trinity."


    "What are you even talking about, Juniper? I''m acting like I usually do." I didn''t see what it was that she was talking about. I was me. I was no one but me.


    "Well, you might think that you are because of the way that those voices had brainwashed you. However, I know better. I have known you for ten years now, don''t you think that I know what you act like? Soe on, cut the bullshit. You''re not to me here. And even if you were having this issue for real and it wasn''t some psycho bitch trying to manipte you, do you really think that we would turn our backs on you? We all love you, Trinity. We would have worked with you. And not to mention, I could have helped you." Juniper was being super supportive and helpful, but I was still feeling like shit for having left my children for so long.


    "No one could have helped me, Juniper. There was just way too much that was going on. I was literally being driven insane by those voices. I was at my breaking point when I followed it and the triplets into the underworld."


    "All the more reason for me to help you out, Trinity. I mean, seriously, what the hell did you give me that gift for if not to help people. And you count as people, right? So, sit still, shut up, and let me do my job here."


    At that moment, Juniper grabbed my hands. I could feel that she was gathering her power in the center of her palms. She, like Griffin, had learned over the years to use her magic without making the light shine. She was able to do it discreetly now. That was how she was running a sessful psychology practice. She focused mainly on children, but she would treat anyone. She wanted to help as many people in the world as she could, but she was limited to where she was. At least there were a lot of people in the immediate area that were getting the help they needed because of her.


    Now that Juniper was working her ''magic'' on me, I could feel the emotions that I had been bottling up just slipping away. She was using the gift that I had given here years and years ago. She was using it on me. She was helping me to forgive myself. She was helping to calm the severity of the emotions that I was feeling. She was softening the blows of the memories of my recent ''traumatic'' events. She was, as she had said, doing her job.


    "Th..thank you, Juniper. Thank you so much. I..I can''t believe that you did that for me. I..I can''t believe that I temporarily forgot that you could do that. Thank you."


    "It''s nothing, Trinity. You''re like a sister to me. And, if you and that ''candy pants'' of yours weren''t going to figure out that I could help you out on your own, then I just needed to take matters into my own hands." She was grinning happily at me. I could tell that she was feeling proud of herself when she said that to me, but I was still stuck on something else.


    "U..uh..uhm ''candy pants''?" I had no idea what she was talking about there. "What are ''candy pants''?"


    "Hahh!" She shook her head and sighed at me. "I can''t believe I have to exin this to both of you. Reese''s pieces are candy, right?. Where are our Reece''s pieces? They''re in his pants. Hence, ''candy pants''." That had me cracking up. She was so hrious. And only she would be the one to think up something like that.


    "Ha ha ha. Juniper, you''re so damn hrious. I don''t even know how I would survive without you." I reached out the little bit that I could and hugged her. It was again a weak hug, but I swear that I was hugging her as tightly as I could.


    "Are you just now figuring that out?" Sheughed right back at me. "Come on, Trinity. I thought we were friends here. Aren''t we supposed to know all these things about each other by now?"


    After that, now that the tension had passed, the two of us just sat there and talked for a while. We talked about a lot of the stuff that happened while I was gone. She gave me her take on things and what she thought was going on. And I was surprised that she said Reece was holding it together well enough. I guess that, like me, he was hiding it as best as he could. Most people hadn''t even known how hard things were for him. Or at least, they pretended that they didn''t notice.


    I let her talk to me about what was going on with her and Paul, not to mention their kids. They all seemed to be doing well, which was good to hear. And she told me that she had gotten baby fevertely and wanted to have more. Paul was on board as well. So apparently, now that I am awake, I should expect their announcement sometime very soon.


    I was happy to just sit and talk to her like that. It felt halfway normal. It was even reminding me of when I was pregnant with the twins and on bedrest. I would sit with Juniper here in my room, well in the old version of my room. During that time, we would just sit and talk for hours on end. Or we would watch a movie or y a board game. I wonder if she would be willing to do that again sometime soon. Because if I knew Reece and Griffin at all, which I did, then I would be on bedrest once again. I was probably not actually going to walk again until the triplets were here.


    That''s fine. I knew how important it was. With having been through it before as well as having been through the underworld with the boys. It was all going to be fine. They would survive.. I would see to it.

 Chapter 756

    Chapter 756: Chapter 173- Trinity ¨C Spending Time With Friends And Family Part 2 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Shortly after Juniper left, I had more visitors. This time it was from Mom, Dad, Noah, Nikki, Carter and Emmalee. The kids, like mine, were in school, so they weren¡¯t here for me to see them just yet. No worries, I would get to see themter.


    ¡°Trinity!¡± Carter called out to me. Having not been in the room to see me yesterday, he ran to my side and hugged me just like Juniper had. ¡°Seriously, Trinity. I was so worried about you. How are you? Are you okay? Are the babies okay? Are you staying here for good now? You¡¯re not leaving again, are you? Please tell me that you¡¯re not leaving again.¡±


    Carter had always been the closest to me growing up. He had always been like my best friend as well as my cousin turned brother. When I was little, he felt like the only person that I could talk to at times. I was d that he was there with me then. And I was d that he was here with me now.


    ¡°No, I¡¯m not leaving again, Carter. I am staying right here. I am doing fine. I made it through the underworld and destroyed Hekate. And the babies are fine. They were with me when I was there. And Griffin already checked them out. They¡¯re doing just fine.¡± I did my best to reassure him and answer the questions that he had asked of me.


    .....


    ¡°Good.¡± He sounded relieved. ¡°And I can¡¯t fucking believe that you did that. How in the hell did you go to Hell? I mean, I have had it exined to me by a few different people. Noah, Reece, even Talia. But no matter what they say to me about it, I can¡¯t seem toprehend it. I don¡¯t know how you actually got there.¡± I swear Carter¡¯s eyes looked like they were so filled with wonder and curiosity that he could have been an owl or something simr to that.


    ¡°Well, in truth, it was a freestanding magical door that the twins took me through. They were there to help me from the beginning.¡±


    ¡°Are you serious? So, you knew you were pregnant when you left? Howe you didn¡¯t tell anyone else?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know, Carter. I found out while I was in the underworld. When I first saw the triplets, I thought they were imps.¡± That earned me someughter from all of them.


    ¡°So, who do they look like? Or did they look like? Do you think that they will still look like that when they¡¯re born?¡± Emmalee was excitedly asking her questions.


    ¡°They looked like the spitting image of Reece. But when I first saw them, it was like my mind wasn¡¯t letting me see them clearly. Every time that I saw them though, they looked more and more like Reece and like children instead of some little devils.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s hrious. Well, we all know that Reece is a devil himself sometimes.¡± Noahughed.


    ¡°Oh hush, Noah. That isn¡¯t funny.¡± Nikki smacked him on the arm. ¡°I am so happy that you are back, Trinity. Now I can tell you all about our news.¡±


    ¡°What news?¡± I was confused. What was it they needed to tell me?


    ¡°Well, I found out right after Noah and the others got locked in the room by the magic. I just told him thisst night myself. But, well, we¡¯re expecting again. We¡¯re going to have another baby that is due in the middle of April.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± I was so excited for them. I was going to have another niece or nephew. That was going to be so wonderful. I couldn¡¯t wait to meet them. And once again, our kids were going to be close in age. I thought that this was the best thing in the world.


    ¡°Well, hell, maybe Emms and I need to try again. We all should have kids the same again so that Mom and Dad are all running around like crazy chickens again.¡± Carterughed as he made his joke.


    ¡°Ha ha, you smart ass. I¡¯ll have you know, we loved it when all of you had kids around the same time. It was amazing seeing them grow up. And your father and I were not running around like chickens. You little jerk.¡± Mom smacked him on his arm a little harder than I thought she was going to. I heard how loud the thud was and was shocked that Carter didn¡¯t say that it hurt.


    ¡°I know, Mom, I was just joking.¡± Heughed again. ¡°Seriously though, we¡¯ve been thinking about it. But I don¡¯t know if now is the right time for us.¡±


    ¡°Have more when you¡¯re ready, Carter. There is no rush. I mean, you are literally immortal.¡± Dad tried to diffuse and encourage at the same time. He was stepping in and saying that whenever they had more was fine. That was the best advice I think that he could have given at the moment.


    ¡°Hey, Trinity, just so you know, we all missed you. All of us. There wasn¡¯t a day that went by that we weren¡¯t all texting, calling or visiting each other and trying to figure out how to help you. No one knew how to get you home though. It was next to impossible. At least, we thought that it was.¡± Dad was doing his best to soothe me now. I didn¡¯t want to tell him that Juniper had already made me feel better, so they didn¡¯t need to. In all honesty, I think that the ones that needed to be soothed now were them. They needed to heal and get better. And once they were better, once this emotional trauma had somewhat passed for all of them, then we could all move on with our lives.


    ¡°I am sorry that I worried you all. I didn¡¯t want to leave. And as soon as I was in that ce, I wanted toe home immediately. But I couldn¡¯t. I couldn¡¯t get back. I was trapped. I was stuck there with no way out. The only thing that I could do was to move forward. Eventually, I found out what it was that I was there to do. I knew how I was going to get out, sort of. And so, I did what I was supposed to do. I went to the farthest depths of the underworld, the deepest, darkest abyss of Hell. And that was where I encountered the fallen Goddess, Hekate.¡±


    ¡°I still can¡¯t believe that she became a fucking dragon.¡± Noah was shaking his head. And not just any dragon, a Hydra. You did awesome though, Trinity. I can¡¯t believe that I can literally say that my sister is a dragon yer. You killed an evil goddess dragon. That was seriously badass.¡± He was looking at me with reverence in his eyes. I think that he might be a little jealous that I was the one to kill the dragon and not him. I never thought that he would be that type, but I guess he was a man and that meant that he was going to act like a typical man at least a little bit.


    ¡°So, Trinity, do you know what you¡¯re going to name the boys?¡± Mom pped her hands together with excitement and smiled at me.


    ¡°Noah didn¡¯t tell you? I gave them names in the underworld. I thought he would have told you what they were.¡±


    ¡°Nah, it wasn¡¯t my ce to tell them. Reece and I agreed to let you be the one to share the names.¡±


    ¡°Awe, that was nice of you.¡± I smiled at him and the consideration that he and Reece had shown me. ¡°Well then, yes, Mom. I have decided on their names. Would you like me to tell you?¡±


    ¡°No, I just asked you so that you could keep me in suspense until the day that they were born. Of course I want you to tell me, dammit. I want to know. I am a desperate Nona here.¡± Iughed at the over the top emotion that she was putting into that little speech of hers. It was funny to see the fake dramatics.


    ¡°All right, all right, keep your hair on. I will tell you.¡± I took a slow deep breath to draw out the suspense of the moment just a little bit longer. After about thirty seconds, just when I thought that her nerves and excitement were going to make her pop, I started to tell her the names. ¡°Alright, the three boys will be named Zachary, Zander and Zayden.¡± I spoke the names slowly as if to drag them out but they got them soon enough and the joy spread across their faces.


    ¡°Those are awesome names.¡± Carter grinned at me.


    ¡°I love them.¡± Mom squealed. ¡°I can¡¯t wait to see my three Zs.¡±


    ¡°I think those names are perfect, sweetheart.¡± Dad smiled at me.


    ¡°Way to go. They are good names.¡± Noah nodded at me.


    ¡°They really are perfect for triplets.¡± Emmalee was pping her hands for me.


    ¡°They are the best.¡± Nikki smiled at me.


    ¡°Thanks.¡± I was a little embarrassed by their enthusiasm. ¡°Do you want to feel them moving?¡± I had been feeling them move around all morning and right now they were especially active. Maybe because they heard their names or something. I don¡¯t know, but they were kicking up a storm in there. Already fighting and they weren¡¯t even born yet.


    ¡°Of course, I do.¡± Mom ran forward and put her hand on my belly right away. ¡°Oh my goddess. They¡¯re moving so much. I haven¡¯t been able to see you too much because it was so hard, so I didn¡¯t see how big they were getting already.¡±


    ¡°This is so amazing.¡± Dad put his hand next to Mom¡¯s and felt them as well. ¡°I am so proud of you, Trinity. Traversing the underworld, killing an evil goddess, protecting the babies, and saving the world. It¡¯s thanks to you that we¡¯re all still alive. I know that for a fact. And I couldn¡¯t be more proud of you.¡±


    Slowly, they all put their hands somewhere on my belly and felt the babies. And they all told me how proud of me they were. It made me happy, but it also made me want to cry. I was getting way too much praise for what I had done, for what had happened.


    Most of them would never know that, though. Not unless someone that was in the room watching or one of the ones that was there with me when it happened actually told someone else. I had a feeling though, that most of the people that knew what truly happened, wouldn¡¯t spread the news. They would keep my secret and let me tell it if and when I was ever ready for it.


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 Chapter 757

    Chapter 757: Chapter 174- Trinity ¨C Spending Time With Friends And Family Part 3 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After spending some much needed time with my family, it was time for everyone to have some lunch. That was when L and grandfather came to visit with me. As soon as the door opened, I could smell the delicious soup that was on the tray.


    ¡°Hello, sweetheart.¡± L called out to me. ¡°I have been patiently waiting my turn toe and see you. And now that it¡¯s time for some lunch, I thought I would take that chance.¡± She looked so relieved to be seeing me awake that I didn¡¯t have the heart to tell her that I probably couldn¡¯t eat the food that was being brought to me.


    ¡°Thank you, L.¡± I smiled at her.


    ¡°Hey, don¡¯t forget me. I brought you something too.¡± Grandfather smiled and came into the room behind her. ¡°I have a protein smoothie for you. Griffin said that it might help you a lot because your body needs lots of nourishment.¡± He was proud of himself for bringing me something that the doctor said my body truly needed.


    .....


    ¡°Thank you, Grandfather.¡± His gift for me seemed more realistic for me to be able to consume. Though I really did want both. My body needed a lot of food to make up for what I lost over thest three months. Not to mention, the babies were still growing strong inside of me.


    I had a moment to think about that, about when my due date was and when I was likely to deliver them. I hated to think about it, and it was in no way intentional, but I was probably going to be having the triplets right around Reagan and Rika¡¯s birthday.


    I really didn¡¯t want to do that to them. I wanted them to be able to have their own special days and not have to worry about sharing birthdays. I mean, they¡¯re multiples, they already have to share it, but to share it again would just be mean. That was why I was going to do everything that I could to get them as close to their due date as I could.


    ¡°We missed you so much sweetie. I can¡¯t even begin to tell you. Your grandfather was a wreck without you.¡±


    ¡°Hey, don¡¯t tell her that, L.¡± Grandfather was clearly embarrassed at having been ratted out. ¡°I..it¡¯s just that I didn¡¯t know what was wrong with my granddaughter. I was worried. Can you me me? With everything that has happened to my family over the years, I just really didn¡¯t want something bad to happen to Trinity.¡±


    I was looking Grandfather pretty closely now. I was staring at his face and watching him as he spoke. And I swear he looked younger than thest time that I saw him. I don¡¯t know if he was younger thanst night, I admit my eyes were all for my children and my husband, but I know that he looked younger than he did when I left. Or at least to me he looks like he is a lot younger now.


    That seriously made me think about things. When were my people going to stop reverse aging? Was he going to look like he was as young as me soon? Was it ever going to stop? I mean, it had to, they weren¡¯t going to pull a Benjamin Button or anything like that.


    ¡°Is something the matter, Trinity?¡± Grandfather asked me as I was staring at him.


    ¡°I was just memorizing your new face, Grandfather. You look so much like dad now that you¡¯re getting younger. Soon, I won¡¯t even be able to tell the two of you apart.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that is ever going to be a problem.¡± Grandfather pulled his cor a little straighter and sat up a little taller in the chair that he was sitting in. ¡°I am way more handsome than he is.¡± I really don¡¯t know if Grandfather appreciated myughter. It wasn¡¯t meant to say that he was wrong, it was just the way that he did it.


    ¡°You really are a good looking man, Grandfather, but I prefer Reece.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine, Trinity. This handsome young man is all mine.¡± L winked at me and that made me feel all kinds of embarrassed. I so did not need to think about my grandfather and my mother inw being together in that way.


    ¡°Please stop! Don¡¯t ruin my images of you! GAH!¡± That is just not right. Those were not images I needed in my head. And, apparently, my reaction was hrious. Maybe it was something about the way that I looked trying to force my hands up to my head as I screamed. I probably looked really funny with my barely moving arms, but that didn¡¯t negate the seriousness of what I had just experienced.


    ¡°I do think that we have traumatized the poor girl.¡± Lughed. ¡°Well, now that her mind is gone as well as her body, which one of us is going to feed her?¡±


    ¡°W..we..well I.. I¡¯m not really, I¡¯m not good at..-.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you babbling fool, I will do it.¡± L was still as slyly savage as she always was. She had made him get like this only to point it out to him, it was funny and it appeared to me that Grandfather was used to it already. ¡°Come on now, Trinity. It is time for you to eat.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t ask you to do that, L. I will just drink the smoothie.¡± I tried to argue with her, but it wasn¡¯t going very well.


    ¡°Do not give me that. You can keep your polite ¡®no thank you¡¯s¡¯ and all that. You are going to eat this soup. And I know for a fact that it is delicious so you will enjoy it. Hush now and do as Momma L tells you to.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Momma L.¡± I repeated the name that she used for herself when I consented.


    ¡°Good. Now, was that so hard?¡± She gave me a stern look. ¡°Come now, let¡¯s sit up a little better.¡±


    After that, L helped me to sit up straighter and then slowly fed me the soup. There was a tray that was put in front of me with the smoothie on it. All I needed to do was lean forward just a little bit and I could drink it just fine. And thankfully, I was able to lean like that.


    L was right. The soup really was delicious. And on top of that, the smoothie was amazing. I could almost feel the warmth and nourishment from the food spreading through my body. It was working wonders on me.


    ¡°Now, Trinity, isn¡¯t that better?¡± L asked me when she was done. ¡°I bet that hit the spot, didn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°It did. Thank you, L. You were right. I needed it. And it tasted so good.¡± I smiled at her and agreed with her. I was letting her know that she had been right all along. I had a feeling that was what she was looking for.


    ¡°Yup. A mother always knows what¡¯s best. And that is doubly so when that mother is taking care of her very pregnant daughter inw.¡± She winked at me to let me know that the game was continuing and that she was having fun.


    We yed around like that for a little while longer until the discussion started to get more serious. They had heard the stories about what happened when I was gone, but they wanted to hear it from me. I think that everyone needed it from me to make sure that things weren¡¯t getting skewed by the others. And the fact that it wasn¡¯t being skewed kind of scared them all.


    When they all found out about the multiple attacks from the other souls in the underworld and, not to mention, the hellhound, the hell snake, and the three headed Hydra, they were all floored and in awe. They all knew that I was powerful but, like me, they tend to forget that fact in times of peace and calm. We all getcent and forget what we¡¯re capable of until there is something that forces us to be great once again.


    Sometimes I wish that I was just human. I wish that I didn¡¯t have to worry about all of the ¡®extraordinary¡¯ things in the world. I didn¡¯t want to deal with dragons, monsters, evil rtives hell bent on destroying me, or the world. I have had enough of that tost me a lifetime. However, that doesn¡¯t mean that I am ready to give up on my life. I am not done living, not by a long shot. I had way too much to live for right now.


    And when we got to that part of the conversation, L couldn¡¯t stop gushing about the fact that she was going to have three more grand babies. She loved babies so much that she wanted more and more grandkids from us all.


    ¡°You know, L, you could have more.¡± I tried to encourage her, even though that thought kind of made my mind want to explode. ¡°You¡¯re still young, and immortal now, you can have more children. Give Reece a baby brother or sister. He would just love that.¡± I had to stop myself fromughing. He would totally cringe about that.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so, Trinity. I don¡¯t want to mess with the bnce of things.¡± As she said those words, I saw the wistful look in Grandfather¡¯s eyes. I think that he was wanting to have more children with L. I would slowly encourage them. Maybe one day, L will see that it¡¯s fine for them to continue to live like a normal couple and not like old people. They weren¡¯t old, not anymore.


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 Chapter 758

    Chapter 758: Chapter 175- Trinity ¨C Spending Time With Friends And Family Part 4 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I really do think that everyone had gotten together this morning and drawn straws on who was going to be spending time with me and when. There was no other excuse for why when one person or group left there was always another one right behind them. Like this fourth group that wasing up the stairs.


    I knew who all of them were before they were at the door. And they didn¡¯t even need to knock, because, just as the person in the lead got to the door, I called out to them.


    ¡°Come in.¡±


    The door opened to reveal the group and one by one they came in. Vincent, David, Shane, Shawn and Dietrich. These were some of my favorite people in the entire world. I was looking at them all with eyes that clearly said that I missed them. And if the way that Vincent ran to me and threw his arms around me was anything to go by, I could tell that they missed me as well. Well, at least he did.


    .....


    I did my best to hug Vincent back. It was hard to get my arms to respond still, but it was easier than before. The food had helped, it really did. But what I wanted now more than anything was an ice cold bottle of water. That would really hit the spot.


    ¡°Trinity!¡± Vincent called out to me while still holding me in his arms. ¡°I am so sorry Trinity. I am sorry that I let this happen to you. This is all my fault.¡±


    ¡°Vincent..¡± I was so confused right now. ¡°How is any of this your fault? You didn¡¯t do anything wrong at all. I was the one that left the room. I was the one that didn¡¯t even go to sleep. I was the one that lied to you. None of this is your fault, Vincent. None of it.¡±


    ¡°We have all been trying to tell him that for months.¡± Shane came closer to the bed and put his hand on my head like he was looking down at a cute little sister. ¡°He wouldn¡¯t believe us and insisted that everything that happened was his fault. He even begged Reece to fire him.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± I did my best to tighten my grip on Vincent. I did not want him to leave.


    ¡°Yeah, he did. But, of course, Reece refused to do it. Reece told Vincent that he knew who was to me, and it wasn¡¯t Vincent.¡± Shawn moved to stand next to his brother. He was giving me the same look, but the two of them were no longer identical. They were unique now, with the battles that we have been through, the scarring from them has made them different. That didn¡¯t stop them from being simr in their mannerisms though. That was the same.


    ¡°Yeah, Reece told us all that he knew it was you that was to me. He was angry and so pissed off, but it wasn¡¯t at you. Reece was always angry at himself for not being with you. And for not forcing you to take time off of work and get some rest. He was kicking himself in the ass for everything that had happened.¡± David was the next one to join in the conversation.


    ¡°Regardless of who was to me or not, Trinity, we all missed you. It has been quite the difficult time without you, but we managed. You wouldn¡¯t believe how far the new recruits that you hired to help you havee. Between them and Reece, things have continued to flow pretty smoothly for the most part.¡± Dietrich was the one to bring it all back to the important things. He was the one that I could always count on. Well, normally that would be Vincent, but he was a wreck at the moment.


    ¡°Thank you, Dietrich. Thank you for telling me that. No one has mentioned the state of the kingdom to me yet and I was afraid to ask. I am d that things have continued to move smoothly. Also, I am so happy to see all of you. I have missed you so much. You¡¯re all so precious to me. And Vincent, I hope you don¡¯t leave the group. I need you. I have had you with me since the beginning. And you have to understand that you didn¡¯t do anything wrong at all. I lied to you. I snuck out of my room. And I hid what was happening to me from all of you. If only I had been strong enough to tell you what was happening, this wouldn¡¯t have happened.¡±


    ¡°I should have known about it though. I should have been able to figure it all out.¡± Finally, Vincent pulled away from me and looked me in the eyes. ¡°I am sorry, Trinity, I was there with you all the time and I still didn¡¯t know what you were going through. I just thought that you were tired from overworking. I didn¡¯t know that Hekate was trying to drive you insane.¡±


    ¡°I am back now, and I am fine. Isn¡¯t that all that matters, Vincent? We are all safe. We are all alive. And the kingdom is still standing. Oh, and to top it all off, Hekate is dead. I would say that is a really good thing.¡± I smiled at him and put my hand on his cheek. I wanted to soothe his nerves and worry, but there wasn¡¯t much that I could do right now. ¡°Besides, we all need to be happy. I am awake now and there are three more babies to prepare for.¡±


    ¡°Speaking of that, Trinity, are you sure that is how many you¡¯re having?¡± Shawn was looking at me with wide eyes and suspicion.


    ¡°What are you talking about? Yes, I am sure. I was with their souls in the underworld. There are three little boys and their names are going to be Zachary, Zander and Zayden.¡±


    ¡°OK, I understand that Trinity, but I am seeing something different.¡± Shawn¡¯s words were scaring me.


    ¡°I..is one of my babies dead? Did something happen?¡± I was starting to hyperventte right now.


    ¡°No, it¡¯s not that. There is just something else.¡±


    ¡°What? What is it, Shawn?¡± I needed answers.


    ¡°Allow me.¡± Dietrich stepped up to his mate and put his hand on his shoulder. ¡°You see, Trinity, Shawn and I can see four souls. There are the souls of three boys. That is very clear to see, but there is also a female soul in there. A fourth soul.¡±


    ¡°Oh, that.¡± I felt the gravity of what happened in the underworld hit me now. ¡°Well, you see, while I was in the underworld, after I destroyed Hekate, something happened.¡±


    ¡°What? What happened?¡± Shane was the most curious. Of course he was.


    ¡°Well, Hekate¡¯s soul split into three pieces and the boys each absorbed a part of it. So, that would exin why you are seeing a fourth soul, a female soul. They each have a fragment of it, and since they are as of yet unborn and are so close together, I am guessing that it seems like just one soul.¡±


    ¡°Oh, wow. That is, uhm, I don¡¯t know what to think about that.¡± David was at a loss for words.


    ¡°How do you feel about that, Trinity? They have a fragment of that evil goddess¡¯s soul. What are you going to do?¡± Shane looked like he was worried for a moment. I knew that I had to settle this all right away.


    ¡°Well, Shane, I am not going to do anything about it. When these babies are born, I am going to show them every ounce of love that I would to any other child. I am going to love them with every fiber of my being, and they will be my sons. They will be my babies and nothing else. I know what they are like. I know them already. I got to experience something with my unborn children that no other mother in the world has done and I am not going to ce an ounce of me on them for anything at all. They didn¡¯t ask for her soul and it will not be a punishment for them. They are going to be strong and kind boys, and I know that because that was how they were already. So, Shane, to reiterate, I am not going to do anything about it at all.¡± I think that the five of them were a little taken aback by my speech. I didn¡¯t care. I needed them to know what was going on.


    We all talked about how things in the castle had been going for thest three months. This time I wanted to know about the rest of the staff, the rest of the guards, everyone that wasn¡¯t in the royal tower, thought of my absence.


    As it turns out, everyone had been told about the babies. They were told that I was pregnant with triplets and that it was taking its toll on my body. When Reece addressed them all, he had brought up the incident with the twins and told them all that we were just being extra cautious. So, until the babies were born, and I recovered, I was going to be staying away from the stress of everything else. They all epted that answer with no issues at all. And just like that, Reece had been able to smooth out the tension that themunity was feeling.


    Also, they were nning lots of gifts and what not for us, but that wasn¡¯t something that I wanted. I would rather them donate the gifts to themunity so that those that were in need would have the things that they were missing out on.


    I do believe that this visit with my guards went very well. I had soothed Vincent¡¯s emotions, told them all about the boys and Hekate, and found out vital information. It was a very productive meeting overall. And I was so happy to see them all. And before they left, all five of them hugged me and rubbed my belly while saying ¡®hi, boys¡¯.


    After that visit, there weren¡¯t that many people that needed toe and see me. The others, my friends that weren¡¯t as close would see me over time, but there was no big rush. And I would wait for a while still to address the entiremunity. Honestly, I do believe that there was only one more group of people that I should be expecting toe and see me. And just before he left the room, I asked Vincent to send the next group with some water because I was even more thirsty now than I had been when they had gotten here. He smiled and nodded which was all that I needed to know that I had been right about there being another grouping. And I knew who they were too.


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 Chapter 759

    Chapter 759: Chapter 176- Trinity ¨C Spending Time With Friends And Family Part 5 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Sure enough, not even five minutes after Vincent and the others left the room, I could hear more footstepsing up the stairs. This was a smaller group than thest one but not the smallest group of them all. That would be impossible, considering that Juniper came up here alone. You can¡¯t get a group with less than one person in it. Not unless you had fractions of a person, and I didn¡¯t want to kill the people that I loved.


    Anyway, the third group came into the room in a rush. Four people this time. Aunt Glory, Athair m¨°r, Trevor and Daciana. The four of them were all sights for sore eyes. Yes, I had seen Trevorst night when I woke up, but I hadn¡¯t gotten to talk to him all that much. And of course, I had seen Athair m¨°r as well. He was with Reece, Trevor and Noah in the room when I woke up.


    You know, now that I thought about it, I hadn¡¯t seen Rudy and Alexio yet today. Nor Angel, the little dragixie. I wonder where they all were. And I hoped that they were all settling in well enough. Being in this world, needing food, sleep, and other basic needs to be met, it must all be very different to them. I know that it could be very disconcerting to shift from one world to the next. And I didn¡¯t want them to feel overwhelmed.


    I wasn¡¯t able to think about them for long though. It was hard to think of anything other than Aunt Glory as she hugged me tightly with her tiny arms around my neck. And I have to say that this had to have been the most awkward hug that I had ever had. Aunt Glory was pregnant with twins while I was pregnant with triplets. We were both very big already and it was hard to get afortable way for us to fit together for a hug. It was kind of funny, if you think about it. And with the way that Athair m¨°r and Trevor wereughing at us, I could imagine it wasn¡¯t just me that thought it was funny looking.


    .....


    ¡°Trinity! Don¡¯t you ever do that again! When Reece called to tell me what happened I thought that I was going to die! My heart was pounding so hard. You have no idea how scared that I was for you. And then I couldn¡¯t find a way to help you. I was so upset.¡±


    ¡°Shh. Calm down, my love, she is awake now. And we still managed to get her some help. It¡¯s fine.¡± Trevor was doing his best to calm Aunt Glory down.


    ¡°I was useless in helping her. What good is being so old if I don¡¯t even know how I can help someone. You were the one that helped her, Trevor. You and those amazing twins from your pack.¡±


    ¡°It was just luck, Glory, don¡¯t worry. You need to calm down and sit down. At this rate, you and Trinity are either going to crush each other with your bellies or go intobor. Just calm down.¡± Trevor managed to get her to sit down, but she was still very close to me.


    ¡°Here, Trinity, I brought you these.¡± Daciana handed me one of the bottles of water that was still partially frozen and set the other fully frozen one on the nightstand.


    ¡°How did you freeze them so well?¡± I asked her with awe.


    ¡°I might have helped a little.¡± Athair m¨°r leaned in and kissed my temple. ¡°I wanted to make sure you had just what you asked for.¡±


    ¡°Thank you so much.¡± I smiled at him. ¡°But, uhm, did any of you happen to bring me a-.¡±


    ¡°A straw?¡± Athair m¨°r smiled at me and pulled one from the inside pocket of his jacket. ¡°I have it right here. I figured that you were going to need it.¡± He dropped the straw into the water and set the bottle on the tray in front of me. ¡°Still having trouble moving?¡± He asked me with concern in his voice.


    ¡°Yes, but it¡¯s getting better all the time. Griffin is helping me with his magic and physical therapy. And every time that I eat it seems to help me as well. It¡¯s like my body is still starving, even though I had a feeding tube. Then again, that isn¡¯t eating, that is just getting nutrients. As a shifter, that isn¡¯t enough is it.¡±


    ¡°Not by a long shot.¡± Trevor spoke vehemently. I guess he didn¡¯t like the idea of a feeding tube. I can¡¯t say I med him though. It really was weird waking up with one in me.


    ¡°So, Trevor, how did you know that those twins would be able to help me?¡± I needed to get the conversation moving onto something else.


    ¡°Well, to be honest, I didn¡¯t know for certain that they would be able to help you. I hoped that they would, which was why I came to Reece with the idea. But, you see, the twins that I brought here have always been able to see the dead. They were known for seeing ghosts. And I exined to Reece that ghosts are just the souls of people that have died. So, in truth, they were just seeing souls. You were lost in the underworld without your soul. We knew that your soul was missing from your body because of Dietrich. That had been a big help for us to know where to look. And when I heard about what those twins were capable of doing, I didn¡¯t hesitate to offer their help to Reece.¡±


    ¡°I am d that you did. And it looks like they were able to help quite a bit.¡± I smiled at them all. ¡°If it wasn¡¯t for everyone keeping the faith and doing what they could, I might not have been able to get out of that ce.¡±


    ¡°Nah, Trinity, that was your little girl, Talia. She is quite amazing. You have to see what she is capable of. And you know something, she blessed those twins. They used to be stuck in a permanent half bear-half human state. But Talia used this little pink light and suddenly, they were fully human. They can now be human, bear or that halfway point. And it was all thanks to that daughter of yours.¡±


    I knew about all of this already. Reece had told me. Still, hearing about it all again was making me feel both proud and scared. There was so much that I needed to think about, so much that I needed to process. Not to mention, I needed to talk to Talia one on one. I needed to hear from her what she was able to do. I needed to know what she was able to understand andprehend about it all.


    I think that tonight, after the kids get home from school, I am going to meet with them all, one on one. They need some time alone with their mommy, as well and me talking with Talia. There was just so much that I needed to figure out.


    ¡°I can see you have a lot to think about, Trinity. We will head out for now.¡± Athair m¨°r leaned in for another kiss on my temple. ¡°Rest up and get better. You need toe see the kids, and it won¡¯t be long before you, Glory and Daciana¡¯s deliver. You need to see our little boy as well as Glory¡¯s twins. Oh, and spoiler alert, we all get to see what Trevor is like with a daughter, or should I say two of them.¡± Athair m¨°rughed then andughed at his brother inw. ¡°I am really happy that you are back, Trinity. We all missed you so much.¡±


    ¡°I know, Athair m¨°r. And I love you, all of you.¡±


    They left me then, giving me time to think. Only I didn¡¯t get that time. I thought for sure I would end up being alone for a little bit while I drank my water. However, two eager visitors came to see me then. These weren¡¯t just ¡®visitors¡¯ though. They had another reason to be here for me.


    ¡°Queen Trinity!¡± The two of them called together as they rushed to the bed.


    ¡°I am so happy to see you awake, my Queen.¡± Gabriel bowed to me, and I could hear the relief in his voice.


    ¡°My Queen, I have been so worried about you.¡± Roisin matched him. ¡°I have been waiting for the day that I would be able to care for you once again.¡±


    ¡°Well, I am awake now. And I see that the two of you are ready to get back to work.¡± I smiled at them. ¡°And please get up. You know that I dislike the bowing.¡± Iughed at their enthusiasm. This was something that the two of them have always had inmon.


    ¡°Yes, Queen Trinity.¡± Gabriel answered as they rose.


    ¡°I hope the two of you used this time offtely to spend it with your little one.¡± I was happy to see these two. They were a sight for sore eyes, they really were.


    ¡°Actually, we did.¡± I watched Gabriel look at Roisin as he said that. ¡°W..we¡¯re having another baby. We¡¯re due in March.¡±


    ¡°That is wonderful news. I am so happy for you. Congrattions.¡± It truly was wonderful. And it made me think about something. When one person gets pregnant around here, it tends to be contagious. That was kind of funny to think about. And what was more important was that there were going to be a lot more beautiful babies around very soon. I was so happy.


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 Chapter 760

    Chapter 760: Chapter 177- Trinity ¨C Talking With The Children (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I sipped on the water throughout the afternoon. When I was hungry again, long before dinner, I had Abigail bring me something to eat. I have to tell you that Abigail was more than happy to see me. And she brought me more soup and one of those protein smoothies. I am guessing that they were all following the doctor¡¯s orders that he gave at some point yesterday.


    That was fine, I would endure the soup for now. It was good, and I knew that soon enough, I would be able to eat real food. Soon, my pallet would be done with this torture and then I can feed myself really delicious food.


    ¡°Thank you, Abigail.¡± I smiled at her when she set the food in front of me and took a seat. She was going to feed me like the others had.


    ¡°I am so happy that you are feeling better, Queen Trinity. And that you have awoken. We have all missed you thesest three months.¡±


    .....


    ¡°I have missed you all as well.¡± I smiled at her and took the bite that she was offering me.


    We spoke a little bit while she fed me and soon the food was all gone. And when I finished off the smoothie, Abigail took the dishes and left the room. After that, I was left to my own devices until Reece got home with the kids. Then I would have my chance to see them and talk to them all one at a time. I think I will start with Reagan, since he is the oldest and therefore should go first.


    When they all got home, I had Reece and all three kids running into the room to see me. Apparently, they wanted to turn it into a race. Reece normally would have won, he was older, bigger, stronger and faster. However, he let the kids all beat him so that they would be happy.


    ¡°Momma! I was the first!¡± Reagan was happy since yesterday his sister had beaten him.


    ¡°Yes, you were, my sweet boy.¡± I hugged him gently. ¡°After you change,do you want to talk to mommy, just me and you, before you do your homework? After that, I can talk to Rika and then Talia.¡±


    ¡°Yes! I want to talk to you, Momma! Just me and you! And I can sit with you too, right?¡± He was way more excited than I thought he would be.


    ¡°Yes, baby boy. We can snuggle in my bed together. Why don¡¯t you go and change so we can talk. Rika, after you¡¯re done with your homework, we can talk. Talia, mommy will talk to you after that. Is that okay?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Mom.¡± Rika nodded at me.


    ¡°Yes, Mommy. I want to snuggle you too.¡± Talia bounced on her feet before running out of the room to change her clothes and wait for her turn.


    After a moment it was just Reece and me in the room. He was smiling at me as he came over to kiss me on the cheek.


    ¡°So, this is your n to talk to Talia alone, huh? Mine was taking them out on their own special days to make them feel better. But this is perfect for you right now. And they want some alone time desperately. I am happy to see you doing all of this for them. Just remember though, tomorrow you start that physical therapy all the way.¡± He not so subtly told me that he had given me a day off from it so that I could see everyone. Even though he knew that Griffin would yell at him for it.


    ¡°I know. And thank you, Reece. I was happy to see everyone. It was really helpful.¡±


    ¡°Alright. I will go change really quickly. That way I can leave you alone when Reagan gets in here.¡± He kissed me again and started to head into the closet.


    ¡°Uh uh. Change where I can see you.¡± I stopped him with thatmand and heughed.


    ¡°As you wish mydy.¡± He bowed in an overly pretentious way and got his clothes from the dresser. He also made sure that he locked the door so Reagan couldn¡¯te in during my show.


    Watching Reece slowly undress before my eyes was so perfect and so amazing. I couldn¡¯t get enough of it. I just wanted to keep watching him but, before long, he was down to his boxer briefs and there was nothing left for him to take off.


    ¡°These stay on for now.¡± Heughed at me. ¡°I don¡¯t need you fainting on me or anything.¡± Heughed. ¡°But I can give you another show before my shower tonight.¡± He winked at me.


    ¡°That sounds like a n to me.¡± I know that I had to be grinning like a fool, but I didn¡¯t care. My husband was sexy as hell, and I wanted to see him. Even if I couldn¡¯t actually touch him right now. I could still enjoy the view.


    Just as Reece got done dressing himself, there was a knock on the door. Reagan was back.


    ¡°Momma!¡± He called out for me, and Reece opened the door. ¡°Why was the door locked?¡± He sounded sad, almost like he thought that we weren¡¯t going to talk.


    ¡°Daddy had to get changed, buddy. That was all. Mommy is here for you to talk to now. I am going to finish up some work now, okay?¡±


    ¡°Alright!¡± Reagan didn¡¯t even look back at him, he just ran to the bed and jumped onto the foot of it before climbing up to sit next to me and snuggling under the nket. He was so warm, so soft and so adorable.


    ¡°My little boy.¡± I nearly cried the words as I forced my weak arm to move around me. It was difficult, but I managed to sp my hands around him and hold him to my side. It was still a gentle and weak hug, but it was a hug, nheless. And he seemed to be enjoying it.


    ¡°I love you so much, Momma. And I missed you more than I can ever tell you.¡±


    ¡°I know, baby boy. I know. And that is why I want you to tell me everything that you did while I was asleep.¡± I saw his face light up. He just wanted to spend time with me. I don¡¯t think that he really cared what he did with me right now, talking, just hugging me, watching a movie, anything would have sufficed right about now.


    ¡°Well, Rika and I both tried out for the y before you left, and we made it. The y was a sad one, and we both kind of didn¡¯t want to be in it anymore because you were gone, but Daddy said that we made amitment, so we had to stay in it. It was hard, but when it came time to perform for the people, everyone loved it. They said that we were really good actors because we yed sad people so easily. They just didn¡¯t know that we really were sad and we just couldn¡¯t tell everyone why. Then, for a little bit, my grades were getting bad because I was sad. Daddy sat down with me every night and talked to me. He would help me with my homework, and we would just talk like you and I are doing now. I knew the work, that wasn¡¯t the problem. I just didn¡¯t want to do it anymore because you were gone, Mommy. It was really hard not having my mommy with me. I would talk to Daddy and Rika all the time. And Talia told us that you were in the underworld with our brothers. She calls the underworld the ¡®underwear¡¯ world. I thought that was funny, but I didn¡¯t let myselfugh. Anyway, when Talia first told us about the brothers, I didn¡¯t believe her. I thought that she was lying to me and just making up a story, but then Daddy said that it was true, and I was so shocked. I am happy to have some brothers. I think we need some more boys in this family. Now there will be more boys than there are girls and that makes me happy. We boys can get strong and protect Mommy, you and Rika and Talia too. I will teach my baby brothers how to be strong, and I will show them that they don¡¯t need to be scared. And if they are ever scared or sad, I will be there to make it better, like Daddy was for me.¡±


    When Reagan stopped talking, it looked like he was out of breath, but he was smiling so happily. He was just going on and on as he told me all of the stuff that had been happening in his life. He started again, only this time he wasn¡¯t talking so fast. Instead, it was more of a give and take in the conversation. And, by the time that we were done, I could tell that he was feeling a lot better.


    ¡°Mommy?¡± He called out to me one more time. ¡°Can.. Can we sleep in here with you again tonight? I want to know that you are here for me when I wake up.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sweetheart, you can. You can sleep in here until you are certain that Mommy isn¡¯t going to leave you again. I promise you, sweetheart, I am here to stay. And I will always hold you in my arms, even when you¡¯re all grown up and as big as your daddy.¡±


    ¡°Will I really get as big as Daddy?¡± He looked happy when he asked me that.


    ¡°Oh, I am sure that you will.¡± I grinned at him as I pressed my cheek against his hair. ¡°I know that you are going to be Mommy¡¯s big protector. Just like you want to be.¡±


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 Chapter 761

    Chapter 761: Chapter 178- Trinity ¨C Talking With The Children Part 2 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    When I was done talking to Reagan, I kissed him on his cheek, pressed my face against his hair, and hugged him as best as I could.


    ¡°I am going to get all my work done so I cane back and protect Momma some more. I need to make sure that no monsters get you ever again.¡± He kissed me back and ran from the room shouting. ¡°RIKA! IT¡¯S YOUR TURN WITH MOMMA!¡±


    It didn¡¯t take long for Rika to respond to her brother¡¯s words. I do believe that she was waiting for her turn at the top of the stairs. That was how quickly she came into the room after Reagan left.


    ¡°MOM!¡± She ran and leapt onto the bed the same as Reagan had. They were their own independent people but, in so many ways, the two of them were so much alike. I liked seeing them express their individuality, but I also like to see them acting alike. It was so adorable to see.


    .....


    ¡°Hey, sweetheart. I missed you.¡± She was already hugging me, and I was putting my arms around her as I had with Reagan.


    ¡°I missed you too, Mom, so much. I was so sad when you left. I felt like my heart was taken out of my chest when Daddy told me that you weren¡¯t waking up. I thought that you died, Mommy. I thought that I would never be happy again. I didn¡¯t want to live without my Mommy. I didn¡¯t want to be sad all the time. It was so hard. But you¡¯re back now. You¡¯re back and I am so happy now. I get to be with you and hug you and talk to you. And now I have so much to talk to you about. It¡¯s been so crazy and strange since you left. Talia was telling us about how your soul left your body, and she knew that we were having three little brothers before Daddy even told us about the babies. And she made friends with these bears that are really nice. And she was talking to dead people. And she does so much. Do you know what, Mom? Daddy said that Reagan and I had magic when we were little too. But I don¡¯t remember ever having magic. What happened to it? Did it go away?¡± She paused then to wait for a response.


    ¡°No, honey, it didn¡¯t go away. I put this bracelet on you so that you wouldn¡¯t hurt yourself. But I think that you might be old enough now that I should have someone start to teach you magic. We shouldn¡¯t hide who you are anymore. As long as you don¡¯t use magic around humans.¡±


    ¡°Really, Mom!?¡± The level of excitement that was on Rika¡¯s face right then was enough to make me know for sure that I was doing the right thing.


    ¡°Yes, baby girl. I think it is about time that you and Reagan learn to control the magic that is inside of you. We have been hiding it from everyone, including the two of you, for so long. You were so powerful as babies but you were so little when you started to do things.¡±


    ¡°What did I do, Mommy? What magic could I do?¡± She was just so excited that I couldn¡¯t stop the little giggle that escaped my lips.


    ¡°Well, baby, you and your brother would float toys across the room so that you could y with them. You did that a lot. Also, your brother stole your daddy¡¯s bacon on Father¡¯s Day. He just floated it off of his te and then stuck it in his mouth. He only had a couple of teeth then, and he definitely had never had bacon before, but he still stole it. We all thought that it was funny. Daddy evenughed, despite the fact that his breakfast had just been stolen. It was all quite funny. But, in truth, I was worried that you would hurt yourselves, so we sealed away your magic.¡±


    I want to learn it now, Mommy. I want to be special too.¡±


    ¡°You are, sweetheart. You have always been special.¡±


    Following that little part of the conversation, Rika and I talked for a while longer. We talked about all of the things that happened to her while I was asleep. She told me about the nightmares that she had had. She told me about being scared that her daddy was going to leave her next. She talked about so many different bad things that it shattered me. But then she started to talk about some of the better things too. She told me about the y, just like Reagan had, and she told me about what her friends had been up to. She told me how her dance lessons were going well and what she wanted to do next. She told me about the different things that she had learned in school. And she told me that she had managed to be stronger and more independenttely as well. I had a feeling that she was only getting that way because she felt like she had to.


    When Rika was done talking, I hugged her as best as I could. I kissed her cheek once more. And then I snuggled her in my arms before she left. I was sad to see her leave me. I didn¡¯t want her to ever think that her Mommy wasn¡¯t here for her. I didn¡¯t want her to feel this lonely anymore.


    Finally, it was time for me to talk to Talia. It was time for me to see what was going on with her. Finally, I would be able to get her side of the story.


    When she came in, she didn¡¯t run and jump onto the bed like Reagan and Rika had. Instead, she walked calmly to the bed and climbed up to sit with me. She was shorter than Reagan and Rika, and my bed was very tall, so it always took her a minute to get on it when she didn¡¯t jump. However, it seemed to me that she was getting on easier than I remembered her doing before. She was not having as much trouble as she usually did. That was making me sad.


    ¡°Hi, Mommy.¡± She smiled so sweetly and looked at me with her beautiful eyes. She was so much like me. That little pale face, those eyes. She wasn¡¯t exactly like her mommy, but there were so many simrities.


    ¡°Hi, sweetheart.¡± I hugged her first and asked her to sit on myp. She did just that and pressed her cheek against my belly for her brothers to feel her presence.


    ¡°I am happy that I get to be a big sister. I think it will be fun.¡± Her eyes were shining as she spoke. I couldn¡¯t wait to see how she was as a big sister and how much she loved her brothers.


    ¡°I think that you will be a good big sister, Talia.¡±


    ¡°Me too.¡± That sweet smile was brightening my mood, even though I knew that this was going to be a hard talk.


    ¡°So, Tally baby, I have heard from everyone else that you have been busy. Tell me all about it.¡±


    ¡°Oh. That.¡± She almost grimaced. Was it hard for her to talk about? Was it sad or scary? I didn¡¯t want to hurt my baby girl. ¡°I didn¡¯t do much, Mommy. And it¡¯s stupid and sucky magic anyway.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s stupid or sucky at all. You did something that no one else could. That makes it amazing.¡± I don¡¯t know why she was feeling so down right now. And all I wanted to do was make her feel better.


    ¡°You could have done it better, Mommy. You are so much better than I am.¡± She hung her head almost as if she were ashamed of herself.


    ¡°Stop that, Talia Serene. That is not how we talk about ourselves. You are smart. You are beautiful. You are strong. You are sweet. You are kind. You are brave. And you are so much more than you think you are. Never look down upon yourself. You are just who you need to be. And you can do anything in this world that you want to. Anything at all. And I happen to know that you did something truly extraordinary. I happen to know that you were amazing, Tally, and I am so proud of you. So please, baby girl, will you tell me what happened? And when it might have started to happen?¡±


    ¡°Okay, Mommy.¡± She was smiling. I think that she was justcking confidence in herself. I would give it to her. I would build her up everyday so that she knew that she didn¡¯t have to be so scared.


    ¡°Thank you, baby girl.¡±


    Talia seemed to be a lot more calm now as she turned to look at me more. She was sitting up straighter and I could tell that she was getting ready to regale me with her tale. That was also when I realized that she didn¡¯t have her new friend with her.


    ¡°Where is Angel?¡±


    ¡°Oh, she is in my room. I can¡¯t take her to school or anything, so I thought she needed to stay in there all the time.¡± The sadness wasing back.


    ¡°No, honey, you can take her around the house. She will need to stretch her wings and get to know the ce. Just tell her to stay out of ces that are private, like bathrooms and other people¡¯s bedrooms. She must be considerate of others.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Mommy.¡± Once again, I got that beaming smile.


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 Chapter 762

    Chapter 762: Chapter 179- Trinity ¨C Talking With The Children Part 3 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°Okay now, tell me what happened.¡± I encouraged her to start talking. I didn¡¯t want her to feel overly pressured, but I needed to hear what had happened, what was going on. As a mother, and as a queen, I needed to know about it all.


    ¡°Well, Mommy, the magic things started to happen before you fell asleep. There was this baddy¡¯s voice that kept talking to me. Sometimes she would try to sound like you, but I knew she wasn¡¯t you. And she said bad things about you and me. She was not nice at all.¡± She must have heard Hekate. I can¡¯t believe she tried to get to my little girl. ¡°I didn¡¯t listen to her. I didn¡¯t like her. But after she talked to me, I started to hear other people. The other people I knew were ghosts. They were dead, but that otherdy wasn¡¯t one of them. She was a baddy. The dead people were not bad, but not all of them were nice. I can¡¯t see them, not like my friends, but I might see them some day. I wanted to help the ghosts. I wanted to make them all a little less sad, but then you went to sleep. I didn¡¯t help any yet. I feel so bad.¡± I saw a tear fall down her cheek as she pouted. This look on her face, these tears, all of it was more than I could handle at the moment. They were so painful. Why? Why was my little girl so heartbroken right now? I needed to help her. I needed to stop her from feeling like this.


    ¡°I think they would understand. And we can still help them together. Maybe your friends can help you with them.¡± I wanted to help her to stop crying. I couldn¡¯t even wipe the tear from her eye right now.


    ¡°Maybe.¡± She nodded and gave a forced smile. ¡°The dead people kept talking to me, they still do. But they aren¡¯t bad. And they gave me the idea to see you. I wanted to see where you were in the ¡®underwear¡¯ world. And so, I talked to Charlie and Chloe about it. They agreed to help me. It worked too. We saw you. But then, like I said before, I trapped Daddy, Uncle Noah, Uncle Trevor and Athair m¨°r in the room. No one was able toe in here for a week. I was a bad girl.¡±


    .....


    ¡°No, honey, you weren¡¯t. That is how magic is sometimes. You can¡¯t predict what it will do. You did good. And I am so proud of you.¡± I put my cheek on her hair and held her as best as I could. ¡°Do the dead people scare you, Tally?¡± I needed to ask her a few more questions.


    ¡°No, Mommy. They are just lost people. A lot of them were scared to move on. Others had been alive two times and remembered that they died two times. They didn¡¯t want to see how bad the ¡®underwear¡¯ world was now. They know it¡¯s bad. Why is it bad, Mommy? I don¡¯t understand.¡± Now, how was I going to exin this to Talia?


    ¡°It is a ce that people go to when they die, sweetheart. The good people get happy ces, but the bad people get-.¡±


    ¡°Get bad ces?¡± She finished for me.


    ¡°Yes, baby. And that is why some people are scared to go there. They don¡¯t know where they will be.¡± I didn¡¯t want to scare her. I was not going to tell her anything about hell. Not yet anyway.


    ¡°That is sad. They shouldn¡¯t be scared. Someone should make it a better ce. Sometimes people do bad things even though they don¡¯t really want to. Like Fiona at school. She pulled Callie¡¯s hair because she was jealous. Callie got to be the special helper for the day, and I saw how sad that made Fiona. She isn¡¯t a bad person, but her emotions got to her. I know that bad people are out there, Mommy, but Fiona isn¡¯t a bad girl.¡± She had a better grasp on the world than I thought she would have at this age. She was so smart.


    ¡°Yes baby, you¡¯re right. But some people do those little bad things and think they make them a bad person. And that makes them scared. When people are scared or angry, or even jealous, it can make them do bad things. It¡¯s hard to know sometimes if someone is good or bad because of those little moments. And because of that, they are scared to move on like those people that you talked to.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want them to be scared, Mommy. Someone should fix it.¡± She wasn¡¯t smiling anymore. She looked so sad.


    ¡°I know, baby girl. I want someone to fix it too. Maybe one day Mommy will talk to the people in charge and then I can tell them that they need to fix it all. We all want the people to be happier and we want them to not be scared to move on.¡±


    ¡°Not all of them need to be fixed. I know that there are really bad people. Like the baddy that Mommy fought before. And that baddy that talked to me and said those bad things. They are really bad people. I don¡¯t want those bad people to be free toe and get me.¡± The fear shed across her eyes now. I could tell that she remembered what had happened before. She was so little when I went to battle against Snum but she somehow remembered that battle.


    I had to wonder how much of it she knew about. Just how much did she remember? Or did someone actually tell her about it all? How did she even know anything about it?


    ¡°Talia, what baddy that Mommy fought are you talking about? I don¡¯t know who you mean.¡± I probed gently to get her to tell me more.


    ¡°You don¡¯t remember, Mommy?¡± She looked at me with such disbelief that I nearlyughed. She must think that her mommy was so stupid or had no memory at all.


    ¡°Well, Talia sweetheart, Mommy has been through a lot. I think I just need you to remind me about it a little bit.¡± I gave her a smile that said, ¡®please forgive me, I¡¯m silly¡¯. She giggled and nodded her head at me.


    ¡°OK, Mommy. I will tell you.¡±


    That little giggle of her was so adorable. Normally, I couldn¡¯t get enough of it, but I was more interested in her words at the moment. Right now, I had to pay attention and I couldn¡¯t get distracted. In truth, I felt like I was sitting around a campfire listening to an epic tale. And that made me think about the other Trinity that had been in my head. Now that I was home, I would never hear her talk to me again. That was both good and sad at the same time.


    ¡°Okay Mommy, the baddy that I mean is the one from Athair m¨°r and Aunt Glory¡¯s weddings. Well, it was just Athair m¨°r¡¯s wedding since Aunt Glory didn¡¯t get married then. The big evil baddy came up in the sky and she started talking about all the mean things that she wanted to do. She had filled up the whole great big sky with her head. That made it get darker. She was really big and really mean. I think her name was Sally and Mum. I think that is a funny name by the way. I never heard something like that before. Anyway, when the big baddy was talking and being mean to Athair m¨°r and Aunt Glory, that was when you stepped in, Mommy. You were strong and brave and made her go away. After that, me, Reagan and Rika were taken home and Mommy and Daddy were gone for a little while. Not like you were gone this time. And when you came back you were sad.¡±


    I couldn¡¯t believe my ears. She was talking about it like she remembered it all herself. This didn¡¯t sound like a story that someone told her. Unless maybe it was Reagan or Rika that had told her.


    ¡°Talia, baby girl, who told you about that day? Was it you brother? Maybe your sister?¡± Though at the time Reagan and Rika were still so little, only the same age Talia is now. How would they have been able to remember all of this to tell her about it? I was at a loss here. And I was certain that I was about to hear something that was going to blow my mind.


    ¡°No one told me about it, Mommy.¡± She giggled that cute littleugh of hers again. ¡°I was there, silly. I remember it all happening. I remember her up in the sky and I remember how scary it all was.¡± She was telling me the truth. I could tell that she was telling me the truth. But that didn¡¯t make any sense. She was just a baby.


    ¡°Tally, honey, you were only nine months old when Athair m¨°r got married. How do you remember that? How do you know about what happened?¡± Could she hear the shock in my voice? Did she know what it meant?


    ¡°I remember it Mommy. I remember it all. I remember the first time that Mommy smiled at me. I remember the first time that Daddy held me. I remember the first time that Reagan and Rika held me in their arms when I was a baby. I remember everything.¡±


    Talia was so proud of herself right now. She was happily telling me that she remembered every single moment of her life. If this was true, that made Talia one of the rarest people on the. Even more rare than she already was with her gic background. This meant that Talia had Hyperthymesia [1].


    ¡°That is amazing, Talia. See? I told you earlier that you were amazing. That just proves it. You are quite the special little girl.¡±


    ¡°Maybe.¡± She smiled happily at me. ¡°Okay. Well, I told you about the baddy. And that baddy I don¡¯t want to see again. She was scary. I don¡¯t want her to get out of the bad ¡®underwear¡¯ world. But I think that the mostly good people that do little bad things should be helped. Can I help them Mommy? Is there something that I can do to help them?¡± That sweet little voice of hers made me want to smile. My little Talia was so sweet.


    [1] Hyperthymesia, or highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM), is a condition that leads people to be able to remember an abnormallyrge number of their life experiences in vivid detail.


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 Chapter 763

    Chapter 763: Chapter 180- Trinity ¨C A Visit Part 1 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°You want to help them, do you?¡± A man¡¯s voice cut through the room just as blue smoke started toe from nowhere.


    ¡°Mommy!? What is that?¡± I could tell that Talia was scared. This was something that she had never experienced before. I felt bad for her, my little girl. After everything that she had been through, why did something like this have toe along and scare her like this? Why couldn¡¯t I just have something calm in my life for once? Why did this have to be the normal for me right now?


    ¡°HA HA HA HA!¡± The man¡¯s voice wasughing at the fear in my daughter¡¯s voice as the smoke filled the room. The odd thing about this smoke was that there was so much of it, filling the entire area that we were in, but I couldn¡¯t smell it nor was it making it hard to breath. It was almost like the smoke was all an illusion.


    ¡°Who are you and what do you want?¡± I snapped at theughing voice, unable to do much of anything else at the moment.


    .....


    ¡°I want to talk to you, homewrecker.¡± The man¡¯s voice continued. The way that he sounded, it was almost like he was joking with me. I mean, he had to be with what he was saying. Who the hell was he calling a homewrecker? I have never, in my life, tried to steal someone¡¯s boyfriend or husband. Not to mention that I was very happily married thank you very much.


    ¡°Homewrecker? Who are you calling a homewrecker? I can assure you, whoever you are, that I have never had an affair. I have never cheated on my husband or cheated with someone else. I am in no way shape or form, a homewrecker.¡± I was pissed off. I didn¡¯t like what the voice was saying about me. I mean, even though I knew that it wasn¡¯t true, I was still angry that this man, whoever and whatever he was, had said those things about me.


    ¡°Oh, I will call you a homewrecker because that is what you are. What else do you call someone thates storming into someone else¡¯s home and starts to fuck shit up? What else do you call a woman who tramps through the different floors of someone else¡¯s home and then kidnaps two of its residences. What am I supposed to call someone that does all of that? Hmm? You tell me Miss Trinity, is that not a homewrecker?¡±


    I couldn¡¯t help it. I started tough. There was nothing else that I was able to do. This person, whoever he was, had just made meugh uncontrobly.


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know which celestial you are, but I am sure that you are one, but I think that you¡¯re a little misinformed. A homewrecker is a woman, or a man, that has had an affair with a married person and broken up the couple and the family. What you are trying to call me is a home invader. That is what you call someone that breaks into someone else¡¯s house.¡±


    ¡°Well, excuse me.¡± Just as the rest of the smoke disappeared, I was able to see the man in question. I also noticed that he drew out thatst statement in a very mboyant way.


    The man that had been speaking to me, using me of things, was very tall and very thin. He was about Reece¡¯s height at least, but he didn¡¯t have Reece¡¯s muscle definition at all. He was unique looking though, that was for sure. His eyes were a bright glowing whitish blue. And I do mean that they were glowing like there was a light behind them. And his hair, which was white and blue, was styled to look like mes. Literally like blue mes. And the hair was by no means short. There was even a grayish blue tint to his pale skin. So much blue.


    Looking at this man, seeing what he looked like and thinking about what he had been saying about me, I started to get an idea of who he might be. It was kind of a clich¨¦ though. I mean, who would have thought that he actually looked like this?


    ¡°Do not pretend that you do not know who I am, Miss Trinity.¡± He snapped a finger in my direction and a small amount of blue mes sparked from his fingers.


    ¡°No, I won¡¯t deny it. Now that I have seen you, I have figured it out. Though I didn¡¯t expect you to be so obvious and clich¨¦d. Still, it is nice to meet you. Now, can I ask you why the great and renowned Hades is standing in my bedroom?¡± I smiled at him and tried to be polite. However, I doubted that it would be possible for too much longer. Since the smoke fading was making it easier to see the other people that were standing in my room with Hades.


    All in all, there were half a dozen people in my room. All of them were celestials, and I could guess that they were all one of the gods of the underworld that the other me had told me about. But which ones were they? She had mentioned Hel, Yama, Mtecuhtli, Erlik, Mot, Supay, Ereshkigal, Batara K, Susanoo, Hades, and Lucifer. Well that one was definitely Hades. And that man over there with the ck eyes and his short cropped ck hair looked like he could be Lucifer, but I wasn¡¯t sure.


    The others were less human looking. They weren¡¯t so obviously not human, but there were subtle little clues. There were horns and ws, wings and hooves. These people here in the room with me and Talia were all different yet simr.


    They were all powerful, that was easy to see. Each and every one of them were strong and filled with magic. I knew that they were here to see me because I had been in the underworld, but did they have to do this while Talia was still in the room? I didn¡¯t want them to scare her. And, sure enough, she turned to face me apprehensively and spoke in a soft voice.


    ¡°Mommy, who are these people?¡± She was wary and nervous.


    ¡°You can just ask us directly, little one.¡± Hades smiled at her and leaned forward so that he was looking at her more closely.


    ¡°O..OK.¡± she nodded at him, still unsure but being as brave as she could be. ¡°Who are you?¡±


    ¡°Good. You¡¯re strong. I like that.¡± He smiled before continuing. ¡°My name is Hades.¡± He flourished his hand a little since he was already bowing forward.


    ¡°L..like from the movie with the really strong guy?¡± She tilted her head, pretending that she didn¡¯t know who it was that she was talking about.


    ¡°Exactly like him. That strong guy was one of my many nephews.¡± Hades grinned. ¡°Now, I will introduce the others that are here with me. This man here is Lucifer. Then we have the beautiful Norse Goddess, Hel. The intimidating Japanese God, Susanoo. The Incan God, Supay. And finally, the Turkic God, Erlik. We are some of the various gods of the underworld.¡± Hades was smiling and clearly enjoying his role as the group leader.


    ¡°Oh, that was the ce where my mommy was trapped. She just got home recently.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right. Your mommy was indeed in our home recently.¡± Hades gave me a dark look. I could tell that he was happy to exin things to Talia, but he was still mad at me for some reason.


    ¡°Well, if you were all there, then you should have helped my mommy. She was stuck there for so long. She was there because a baddy was trying to get out. She was a really bad person that was trying to do bad things to people here. To me even. My mommy had to work so hard and be away from her family for so long. We all missed her so much. You should have helped her. You should have made it so that the baddy wasn¡¯t causing problems in the first ce. Then my mommy wouldn¡¯t have had to leave.¡±


    I was watching these people before me listen to the words of a four year old little girl. I was watching the looks on their faces when they were reprimanded by her. It was kind of funny, in all honesty. I mean, there were a half a dozen gods and goddesses that were being politely scolded by my daughter. And every single one of them looked like they were ashamed of themselves.


    It was interesting. Why were they ashamed? Did they know that they had been wrong? Did they know that they had messed up? Did they know that it was all because of them that I had been dragged into the mess? I sure hoped that they did. That would make this whole mess a lot easier for us all to clear up. I didn¡¯t want to let any more of this happen from now on, to me or anyone else. And to make that a possibility, I needed all of these gods, and the rest of the underworld gods, to be on the same page. They needed to make sure that they were paying attention from now on.


    Let¡¯s just hope that now that their home had been ¡®invaded¡¯ once, they would be more likely to pay attention to their own security measures. Maybe, just maybe, it was a wakeup call for all of them. I could only hope that it was.


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 Chapter 764

    Chapter 764: Chapter 181- Trinity ¨C A Visit Part 2 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°Young Talia, you are very right. We were not as attentive as we should have been. We never should have let things get to this point. Because we were not paying attention to the people that reside in our realm, we did not know what was happening.¡± Hades lowered his head in shame.


    ¡°Ve truly are sorry.¡± Lucifer came forward. ¡°I do zink zat ve all got a littlecent. Zat is entirely our fault.¡± I noticed immediately that Lucifer was speaking with a generic Russian ent. I couldn¡¯t pinpoint where it was from, but he was definitely speaking like someone from that general area.


    ¡°Why though? Why were you not paying attention? Why did my mommy have to work there for you?¡± Talia was not pulling any of her punches. She was definitely giving them a hard time about this. That was how she was, but I was worried about her right now. She was taking on some seriously powerful people right now.


    ¡°Vell, to be honest, little Talia, ve simply got to ze point vhere ve did not care. I am appalled and ashamed of myself to admit zat, but it is ze truth.¡± Lucifer looked more ashamed than I originally thought that he would. This was not the response that I thought that I was going to be hearing, and seeing, from all of these people.


    .....


    ¡°Excuse me, Lucifer, but why are you all being so repentant and looking so ashamed of yourselves. What exactly is going on here? Why are you all here?¡±


    ¡°We came to speak with you, Queen Trinity.¡± I heard the words in English, even though I knew that they came out in Turkish,plete with the ent. ¡°We need to discuss some things with you.¡±


    ¡°And it is very good that Talia is here as well.¡± These words were not in English either, as they were spoken by Supay. Still, I was able to understand them allpletely.


    ¡°What does my daughter have to do with this?¡± I asked Supay, worried about what it was that he wanted with my little girl.


    ¡°Ve have decided to step down, Queen Trinity. Ve understand zat ve have been irresponsible. Ve need to make zings right. Ve need to step aside. Zere needs to be a new leader of ze undervorld.¡±


    ¡°A new leader? As..As in a new person to rule the entirety of the underworld? Why? Why would you all give up on your positions?¡± I didn¡¯t understand at all. I didn¡¯t know why they would be doing this.


    ¡°Has it not been a new thing?¡± Hades asked me mboyantly. ¡°Have we not seen several other deities choosing to be reborn?¡± He had a point, but I didn¡¯t really understand why he was bringing this up.


    ¡°That is not the only reason.¡± Hel, the Nordic Goddess, seemed to be speaking in English andpletely devoid of an ent. And I couldn¡¯t help but notice that she was looking just as repentant as Lucifer had been. ¡°We understand that we have made mistakes. And we want to make things better.¡±


    ¡°Yes, perhaps over thest several hundred years, we have all grown bored of our positions and stopped performing our duties properly.¡± Again, I heard the words in English with a Japanese ent this time as Susanoo spoke next.


    ¡°Basically, Queen Trinity, what it alles down to is that we all recognize our faults and we want to make things better.¡±


    ¡°Zat is very true. Ve vant to propose a new leader zat will rece us. Ve vant ze undervorld to flourish. Perhaps our vays of zinking are a bit archaic and old. Ve need someone zat is able to put zeir all into running ze undervorld.¡±


    This was a lot to process. Did they mean what I thought that they were meaning? Were they wanting me to run the underworld? Is that what was happening here? I don¡¯t know if I could take on that sort of responsibility. I had already been so busy before this whole ordeal. I was supposed to be taking on less responsibility now, not more.


    ¡°Look, Lucifer, all of you guys, I am not sure that I am up for that task.¡± I started to tell them that I didn¡¯t want the job, but they stopped me before I could get any further.


    ¡°I do believe that you are misunderstanding, Queen Trinity.¡± Hadesughed as he heard my words. ¡°When we first decided toe here, our original thought was to ask you for a suggestion, an idea of who you think would make the best recement for all of us.¡±


    ¡°Okay so, if that was your original idea, then what is your idea now? What changed your mind?¡± I was so confused. What was it that they wanted from me to be exact?


    ¡°Well, I do believe that we have found ourselves a candidate of our own. Someone that we think possess the right powers and the right sort of soul to rebuild the underworld.


    ¡°Okay, and just who might that be?¡± That was the important thing that I needed to know, right? That was the only thing that I couldn¡¯t go without finding out.


    ¡°Your daughter.¡± All six of them said at the same time.


    ¡°I am very sure zat ze remaining gods in ze undervorld would agree zat zis little girl is the right person for ze job.¡± Lucifer smiled at my little Talia as he exined this to me. I didn¡¯t know how to respond though. I was at a loss and therefore was just staring at these people.


    ¡°Lucifer is correct.¡± Hel continued. ¡°From what we had heard prior to our arrival, your daughter is already connected to the underworld. She had a magic that binds her with the afterlife and that makes her that much more suited to bear this responsibility.¡±


    ¡°Of course we will not leave her to her own devices.¡± Susanoo added. ¡°We will take our time to help raise her up and prepare her for this. She does not need to take on the role as leader until she is much older.¡±


    ¡°When she is ready to take over, when she has all that she will need, we will give our souls to her and be reborn.¡± Supay spoke softly, most likely in an attempt to soothe my motherly worry.


    ¡°How can you ask such a thing from a child? She is four years old. Do you truly expect her to set her future in stone right here and now?¡± The anger was clear in my voice when I yelled at them.


    ¡°Shhh.¡± Talia ced her tiny hands on my cheeks and brought my eyes to meet hers. ¡°It¡¯s okay, Mommy. I know what they are asking me. And I ept. If it is not something that I think that I can handleter on in life, then I will tell them to find someone else. Or I will find that person myself. But I already told you, Mommy, I want to help those people. I want to make the underwear world more fair.¡± My sweet little girl was willing to sacrifice so much for this already.


    ¡°Did ze child say undervear vorld?¡± Lucifer looked at me with a grin on his face.


    ¡°She is four.¡± I snapped at him. ¡°She just says the wrong thing at times. That is all.¡±


    ¡°I did not say zat it vas a bad zing. I just zought zat it vas cute.¡± He really didn¡¯t look upset about it at all. In fact, all six of them were looking at Talia like she was the cutest thing that they had ever seen.


    ¡°I will work on saying it right from now on.¡± Talia nodded at them. ¡°If I am going to be its leader someday, that is something that I need to do, right?¡± She was smiling happily at them all.


    While I watched what was happening in front of me, I had to wonder how this even happened. How did my little Talia get wrapped up into this plot to be the next ruler of the underworld? Why did they want her? She was such a pure and sweet soul. Didn¡¯t they know that she was going to be too lenient with everyone. Then again, she did verbally reprimand all of the gods that came here today. Maybe she wouldn¡¯t be too lenient on them all.


    ¡°Talia, are you sure this is what you want to do? Are you sure that you want to be the next Goddess of the Underworld?¡± I had to know. I had to make sure she knew.


    ¡°Yes, Mommy. That is what I want. I promise that I will work hard so that I can be a good goddess for everyone.¡±


    ¡°That is wonderful news.¡± Hades pped and danced mboyantly.


    ¡°Ve are very happy to hear zat, Talia. And ve vill make sure zat ve teach you everyzing zat ve know. One of us wille to teach you on a regr basis. Is zat eptable to you and your mother?¡± Lucifer was making it clear that he intended to include me in this as well. As long as they weren¡¯t going to try and throw my little girl to the dogs all on her own, I guess I could temporarily ept what was happening.


    ¡°Yes, that would be lovely.¡± Talia smiled at him.


    ¡°I will approve of it on a conditional basis.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°However, if there is ever a time that I do not think that Talia is up to the task, I will tell you to break the deal. You or Talia will then find a new candidate. Is that understood?¡± I made the terms very easy to understand.


    ¡°Exactly vhat I tought a mother would say.¡± Lucifer grinned at me. As long as he and the others understood my position on all of this, that was fine. We could conditionally say that Talia was the Goddess of the Underworld, but that was all it was for right now. Words and nothing more.


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 Chapter 765

    Chapter 765: Chapter 182- Trinity ¨C Physical Therapy (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Thankfully, the celestial deities didn¡¯t stick around for long. Just after we settled on the fact that Talia was going to ¡®conditionally¡¯ be the next Goddess of the Underworld, they promised toe by again in the near future to begin her ¡®training¡¯. I don¡¯t know if they had simply heard Reece and Griffining up the stairs or if they just naturally needed to leave at that time. It didn¡¯t really matter though. All that did matter was that they were going literally moments before Reece and Griffin came into the bedroom.


    ¡°Trinity! My Little Bunny, my one true love, how are you feeling?¡± Reece almost made me gag at that moment. He was being a little too much. I loved him for it though. Because I knew that he was just showing me how much that he loved me and missed me while I was gone. Still, that was a corny and cheesy line.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine, Reece.¡± I smiled at him and tried not to let him know that anything had just happened. That was a moot point though, since I hadn¡¯t told Talia to keep it a secret from daddy.


    ¡°Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!¡± She leapt off of the bed and ran toward Reece while calling out to him. ¡°Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!¡± She was still calling out to him as she jumped toward Reece and he caught her in midair.


    .....


    ¡°Whoa! Slow down there, baby girl.¡± Heughed at her and her enthusiasm. ¡°What made you all excited?¡± He looked between me and her as he asked her that question.


    ¡°I am going to be a Goddess.¡± She was so excited to tell him her little secret.


    ¡°Maybe one day. You can be a Goddess, just like Mommy.¡± He smiled at her, happy that she wanted to be like me.


    ¡°No, not one day. Now. I have already been picked. They came to see me and Mommy. I am going to be a Goddess. They all said so.¡±


    ¡°R..really?¡± Reece was looking at me with concern and confusion filling his eyes. I could already read the question that was hidden inside of them. ¡®What the hell is going on here, Trinity?¡¯ Yeah, that was definitely what he was trying to say to me right now.


    ¡°We will talk more about it in a little bit. Let us finish the things that we need to take care of first. I promise you that I will exin it all in time.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡± He didn¡¯t look particrly happy with my words, but he was content to go along with them for now. ¡°Hey, Talia, sweetheart, why don¡¯t you go back to your room. I think that Abigail is going to be bringing you some food to your room soon. You can watch some cartoons while you eat tonight.¡±


    ¡°I would rather eat together, but I know you are busy, Daddy. I will watch something. Maybe a show about butterflies. Or something else. I don¡¯t know yet. Thank you for talking with me Mommy. I love you. See youter. Love you too, Daddy. And you too, Uncle Griffin.¡± She was a little ball of energy that was happily talking a mile a minute. When she was down though, she jumped out of Reece¡¯s arms,nded lightly on her feet, and then ran from the room.


    It was sad to see my little girl leaving the room. However, Reece and Griffin were here so it wasn¡¯t like I was going to be lonely. And given the fact that Griffin was here, I could guess that he was here for my treatments.


    ¡°Good evening, Griffin.¡± I smiled at him, trying not to show how nervous I was. I remembered how much it had hurt yesterday when he was here to help me with my movement.


    ¡°Hello, Trinity. How are you feeling today? Have you been able to move anymore at all? Have you done the exercises I told you to do?¡±


    ¡°W..well, I have been able to move some more.¡± I didn¡¯t even try to hide the guilt in my voice when I answered him.


    ¡°So, no exercises, huh?¡± Heughed at me.


    ¡°I am sorry. I want to get better, and I will do them soon. It¡¯s just that I had so many visitors that wereing to see me today that I wasn¡¯t able to fit them in. I have literally had someone with me almost constantly since I woke up this morning.¡± I did my best to exin to him that I wasn¡¯t just ignoring his advice.


    ¡°Yeah, I figured that would happen. So, I want you to promise me that you will do all of the exercises tomorrow. If you don¡¯t, then I wille here myself to oversee all of your recovery.¡± There was a slight evil glint in his eyes. I knew that Griffin was telling the truth right now. He would definitelye to stay here and make sure that I did what I was supposed to. There was no doubt in my mind.


    ¡°I promise, Griffin. I will do them tomorrow.¡± I meant it too. I needed to get better. I needed to be able to feed myself and to hold my children in my arms when I hugged them. I wanted to touch my husband¡¯s cheek and to wrap my arms around him when he hugged me. I needed to be able to move, for my own sanity¡¯s sake.


    ¡°Good, then let¡¯s get to work.¡±


    Griffin got right to work. He was using his magic to heal the muscles that had atrophied while I was asleep for so long. It didn¡¯t hurt quite as bad this time as it had thest time. However, it still wasn¡¯t exactly pleasant. In fact, I was in a lot of pain but it was much easier to manage this time.


    ¡°Stop hiding it.¡± Reece yelled at me when Griffin was almost done with his magical healing.


    ¡°W..what are you talking about?¡± I asked him, pretending that I didn¡¯t know what he was talking about.


    ¡°We both can see it, Trinity.¡± Griffin said as he pulled his magic away from my body. ¡°It¡¯s painfully obvious how much this hurts you, Trinity. I wish that there was another way. I wish that I didn¡¯t have to hurt you.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m fine, Griffin. I know that it is necessary. Also, it may still hurt, but it hurts less than it did yesterday. So, it is already getting better. I promise you both, it¡¯s fine.¡± I did my best to reassure them.


    ¡°Are you, though?¡± Reece asked me apprehensively.


    ¡°Yes, I am. I promise you that I am.¡± I smiled at him and gave the answer my all. ¡°Now, keep going, Griffin. I want to get better as soon as I possibly can.¡± I lifted my arm toward him and Reece, more than I have been able to lift it since I woke up. ¡°See that, it¡¯s already helping. This is why I want to keep going.¡± That made both of them smile at me. Reece¡¯s boyish grin and the handsome smile that was Griffin¡¯s. They were both happy to be seeing what I was doing.


    ¡°Alright, Trinity. Let¡¯s keep going.¡±


    Now that the two of them saw that I wasn¡¯t wanting to stop and that I could handle it, we got back to work. Now, Griffin was moving my arms and legs around in the exercises he had told us about. Only, while he was doing that, he was pouring his magic into my body. Specifically, he was pouring the magic into my limbs to make sure that I could move them better.


    Of course, it all hurt, but this was necessary. The muscles had been unused for so long that they were screaming at me when they were moved just the slightest little bit. But that was fine, I was able to fight through it.


    Oh, and to make things even better, I could feel a looseness in my body by the time that Griffin was done. I was a little too tired to try and see if I was able to move before Griffin left, but I knew that soon enough, I would be able to do everything for myself.


    The first thing that I was going to try it out on was my dinner. I was determined to feed myself tonight. I wanted to have that luxury again. I don¡¯t think that people realized how much you take for granted, all those little things in life. You never notice all that you can do for yourself until you can¡¯t do them anymore. I would work hard for the rest of my very long life to not take things like this for granted ever again.


    I was thankful to be here. I was thankful to be alive. I was thankful that I had my family. And once I could move again, I would be thankful to have my body back. Well, I guess I wouldn¡¯t have it back right away.


    In truth, I wouldn¡¯t have my body back for a while. Not until the triplets were born. Only then, after they made their way into the world and were able to be held in my arms, would I have my body back. And that was another reason to get better too. I needed to hold Zachary, Zander and Zayden. I needed to be strong enough for that. I wouldn¡¯t stop working, all day every day if I had to. I would never give up. I wanted this too much. For me. For my family. For my babies. I needed it.


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 Chapter 766

    Chapter 766: Chapter 183- Trinity ¨C About Talia (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    As soon as Griffin left for the night, Reece brought me my dinner. I could tell that he was preparing to feed me again, just like he had done the night before and at breakfast this morning. He was just being a caring and loving husband. I knew that, and it didn¡¯t upset me at all. But I didn¡¯t want him to feed me.


    ¡°Wait, Reece.¡± I called out to him, stopping him before he could even start to feed me again.


    ¡°What is it, Little Bunny?¡± He was confused. ¡°Aren¡¯t you hungry?¡± He knew that I was. My stomach had rumbled nice and loud earlier. He and Griffin had bothughed when they heard it.


    ¡°Yes, I am. But I want to feed myself.¡± I exined to him.


    .....


    ¡°Do you think that you¡¯re up to that? I mean, you were in a lot of pain earlier, when Griffin was exercising your body.¡± I saw the worry in his eyes when he asked me that. He just didn¡¯t think that I would be able to do it. Not yet anyway.


    ¡°Yes, Reece. I am sure that I want to do this. I am pretty sure that my body can handle it and that I will be able to do it with no issue.¡± I tried my best to convince him and he nodded in agreement.


    ¡°Alright. I get it. It has to be weird. Being fed like a little baby when you¡¯re such a powerful woman.¡± He set the tray on the table and came back to where I was on the bed. ¡°Come here, sweetheart. I will carry you to the table.¡±


    With that, Reece lifted me into his arms and held me close. I saw that he was breathing in my scent, relishing in it while holding me against his chest. That was fine. I did the same thing as I rested my head against him and breathed in deeply. I had missed this scent and the feeling of him carrying me in his arms. The sense of security that I got from this was always the best feeling in the world.


    ¡°I love this.¡± I said as I snuggled against him. At that moment, for the first time today, I noticed the boys moving in my belly. It was a feeling that I was used to, and a feeling that I loved. This was my favorite part about being pregnant. ¡°They¡¯re moving!¡± I gasped at Reece, knowing that he would be excited about it as well.


    ¡°They didn¡¯t move much while you were away. I was constantly worried about them. Even though Griffin told me that they were fine. Maybe they just don¡¯t have all that much room.¡± Heughed as he thought about it. It was almost like he thought that the babies were squished together like sardines. Honestly, they probably were. And I just knew that they were going to be so much smaller than even the twins had been. They had to be.


    ¡°Well, Reece,we will feel them move now.¡± Those words put a smile on Reece¡¯s face as he sat me in my chair at the table. He didn¡¯t push the chair in though, he just dropped to his knees in front of me and put his forehead against my belly.


    ¡°Hello boys.¡± He sounded so nervous right now. ¡°I am so happy that you¡¯re going to be ours and that you¡¯re doing okay. I can¡¯t wait to see you.¡± He was now pressing his hands against my belly as if he was trying to hold the babies.


    ¡°Look at how big I am.¡± I looked down and finally realized how much my belly had grown. ¡°I am huge.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re still my beautiful Little Bunny. That is all that matters. And you¡¯re pregnant with triplets. This is to be expected. I am sorry that you think less of it, but this is the best thing in the world for me, Trinity. I couldn¡¯t be happier to have you and our babies here right now.¡±


    ¡°I am happy, Reece. Don¡¯t get me wrong. I was justmenting that my belly is huge. I wouldn¡¯t change it though. I know that these boys are amazing. And I can¡¯t wait to see them again. You will love them, Reece. I just know that you will. They are such good boys. And they¡¯re going to look just like you. They were such adorable and handsome little boys.¡± I was gushing about them to him. I couldn¡¯t really help it. I had to sing their praises. They were my little ones and I loved them so much.


    ¡°I know. I saw when you were on the screen. They were perfect. And I can¡¯t wait to hold them in my arms. I will admit, I am a little jealous of you, Trinity. You got to be with them already while I have to wait. But that is fine. The wait just makes it all the more special.


    ¡°You will soon have more babies than you know what to do with.¡± I wasughing at him and ready to joke around for a long time, but that was when my stomach decided to growl again. I was really hungry, and Reeceughed at me.


    ¡°Let¡¯s eat now, my love.¡± He pushed my chair in and then started to unload the tray of food. It had some for me and for him as well. There was soup, water, a smoothie and some bread for me. And another sandwich for Reece. He had some juice, a soft drink, and various snacks. I was going to make him share those with me as well. He couldn¡¯t deny me. Even if I wasn¡¯t pregnant with his triplets right now, I would still get it because he can¡¯t bring himself to tell me no.


    We started to eat then, and I wasn¡¯t having any trouble at all. I was moving my arms so much more. And not just more, but easier too. I was moving them smoothly. It was like the difficulty from earlier waspletely gone.


    ¡°You¡¯re getting better.¡± The look of relief and joy in Reece¡¯s eyes was so intense that I never thought I would see something like that from him. He was so happy that it made him look like an angel or something.


    ¡°Yes, and I knew I would be. That was why I wanted to try feeding myself. That is also why I am going to steal that te of chips and that pie from you. You can always have Abigail bring you more. But I want some damn sugar and junk.¡± That made himugh and he happily passed over the food.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, baby. I will have Abigail bring up a lot more food. Now that you can feed yourself and you seem to be getting better, I think we can expand your menu.¡± He was happy for me but he was also being sensible. That was good. I didn¡¯t want to have to hurt someone if they tried to only give me soup all day tomorrow. There was only so much soup that someone could eat before they went crazy.


    While we waited for Abigail to bring us some more food, so that I could totally pregnantdy pig out, we started to talk. I knew right where Reece was going to take the conversation. There was no way in hell that he wasn¡¯t going to bring this up.


    ¡°Trinity, what happened when Talia was in the room with you? Why does she think that she is a goddess? Who was it that she was talking about? Who told her that she is going to be a goddess?¡± He was curious and worried for his little girl, and that waspletely understandable.


    ¡°Well, Reece, while Talia and I were talking, I learned a lot of things about her that I didn¡¯t know about already.¡± I saw the look of shock fill his eyes. He didn¡¯t think that I was going to say that. I mean, why would he think that? He wanted to know what happened, not what I learned.


    ¡°What? What about Talia did you not know?¡± He was still curious though.


    ¡°Well, did you know that Talia has total memory recall?¡±


    ¡°Wait? What? Really?¡± I almost felt like I had broken him when I said that. It was kind of funny and cute.


    ¡°Yes, she seems to be able to recall any memory. Like, when I was talking to her, she mentioned Snum. Not by name, but the incident. Specifically, she brought up the day of Athair m¨°r¡¯s wedding. The day that Aunt Glory didn¡¯t get married because of what had happened.¡±


    ¡°How? How does she even remember that?¡± Reece just didn¡¯t see how it was possible.


    ¡°Reece, she remembers the day that she was born. She remembers everything that has ever happened to her in her entire life. That is what total memory recall is.¡±


    I watched him try to process that for a moment. He needed some time to get his mind around that before I continued. I knew what it felt like to learn that about your four year old little girl. It definitely was not easy. And it would make you think about things differently. It would make you wonder what you needed to do differently, if there was anything that you needed to do differently at all. I personally felt like we didn¡¯t need to change anything. Because if we did, that would just make Talia feel like she had done something wrong. And since she didn¡¯t do anything wrong, I couldn¡¯t do that to her.


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 Chapter 767

    Chapter 767: Chapter 184- Trinity ¨C About Talia Part 2 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°Now, Reece, let us move on from that part of the conversation that I had with Talia. That is only a part of it all. As you know, she knew where I was. She knew that I was in the underworld. She knew about the boys. She knew about the mission that I was on to stop Hekate. She knew all of it. And that was because of her powers. She is connected to the world of the dead. That is the only way to put it. The magic that she has, the magic within her, is unlike anything that I have ever seen before. I would need to consult with someone about it all, but it is possible that it is truly a rare gift. And I do believe that you know that as well.¡± I saw the knowing look in his eyes. It was like he was just listening to me tell him stuff that he already knew.


    ¡°Yes. I knew about her powers already. She is an amazing little girl with some extraordinary powers. The bear twins and her are somehow linked. I don¡¯t know how to exin it, but they are almost like servants to her. And it wasn¡¯t anything that Talia made them do. It¡¯s like they¡¯re drawn to her.¡±


    I was not prepared for that. I had heard about the bear twins and I knew that they were friends with my little Talia, but I didn¡¯t think that they were subservient to her. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? I didn¡¯t want them to be taken advantage of in any way. Then again, if they pledged themselves to her, if they wanted to treat her this way, who was I to stop them. It might be possible that they were somehow able to sense what she was going to be someday. Maybe, just maybe, they were sent here for her. It¡¯s just that they arrived long before her so that they might be able to be her teachers as well as her friends and servants. It sounded a little crazy, but it was possible.


    ¡°Okay, I know about her powers, and now I know about her memory. I definitely won¡¯t be fooled if she tells me that she doesn¡¯t remember something in the future.¡± That was when Reece grinned and looked at me like he had just gotten a really juicy piece of advice. ¡°But what does all of this have to do with her being a goddess?¡± Reece wasn¡¯t going to lose sight of what was important right now.


    .....


    ¡°Well, while Talia and I were talking, someone started to talk to us. Oddly enough, this man called me a homewrecker which was totally not true. I tried to exin to him what a homewrecker was, and I think that he might understand it now.¡±


    ¡°Wait, so someone used you of cheating on me?¡± Reece was even more confused now. ¡°Well, they¡¯re fucking stupid. I know that you have never cheated on me. You wouldn¡¯t. And I would never cheat on you. Never. It¡¯s not something that either of us would ever be able to do.¡± I loved him even more for that statement. I know that he would never know that my love for him just grew, but it did.


    ¡°Yeah, well, he was more trying to call me a home intruder because I went to the underworld.¡± Iughed the words at him.


    ¡°Wait a minute. Who was this man? And how did he get in here? How did he end up in our bedroom?¡± Now he finally realized what I had said. That a man was in our bedroom with me and Talia. ¡°Did he do anything to you or Talia?¡± His anger was starting to rise now. ¡°If he did, I swear to the goddess that I will kill him.¡± I needed to settle this now. I needed to calm him down before he got too angry with me.


    ¡°No, Reece, he didn¡¯t hurt us. None of them did. They only came to talk to me and Talia.¡±


    Well, he didn¡¯t miss the way that I worded that response. Nope, not at all. He noticed that I said that ¡®none of them did¡¯. Clearly, I was telling him that there were several people that were here.


    ¡°Who was here, Trinity? How many people were in our bedroom? And why were they here? What did they want? Why did they need to talk to you?¡± All the questions that I knew wereing.


    ¡°Well, Reece, there were six people here. Gods and Goddesses actually. All of them were leaders of the underworld. Not all of the leaders, just a good amount of them. There were Hades, Lucifer, Supay, Hel, Erlick and Susanoo. They were all here to talk to me about my visit to the underworld.¡±


    I don¡¯t think that I had ever seen Reece so pale before. All of the coloring seemed to drain from his face. And I do believe that if he wasn¡¯t holding onto the table, he would have fallen over and slumped to the floor. He was not expecting me to tell him that half a dozen gods and goddesses came to speak with me and Talia.


    ¡°W..what did they say? W..what d..did th..they do t..to T..T..Talia? Trinity, please tell me that they aren¡¯t going to punish you or her.¡± He was so worried about me and Talia. He was such a loving and caring husband and father. I had already known that there was no one better than Reece, but when he did things like this it only made it all that much more clear to me. He was amazing. He was the best. And I would never want anyone other than him. Not now, not in five years, not in five hundred years, not ever.


    ¡°They didn¡¯t do anything Reece. And they aren¡¯t going to punish us. They originally came to talk to me and have me help them to choose the next Goddess of the Underworld. They wanted me to rece them because they all knew that they had not been doing a good job for a long time now. But when they were on their way here, they heard me talking to Talia. They heard her talk about her powers and about how she wanted to help the people of the underworld.¡± My exnation was a good one, but that didn¡¯t mean that Reece had to like it. He was not happy about what had happened, and it showed.


    ¡°S..s..so you just agreed to let them make our daughter their new Goddess? You gave your permission?¡± He was kind of pissed off now.


    ¡°No, I didn¡¯t. Talia said that she wanted to do it and I told her to hold on. It¡¯s all conditional for right now. I told them that if in the future that I feel Talia is not up to the job, they will need to find someone else. And she is not to take over until she is an adult and feels ready. They are not taking her from us, Reece. I would never let that happen. She will not have to do anything for them until she is ready. And if she changes her mind, then she will be free. She is not being forced to do this. I would never let that happen to her. Do you have that little faith in me?¡± I was slightly angered by his usatory words and tone.


    ¡°N..no. I didn¡¯t think that you would do anything to hurt Talia. I know you wouldn¡¯t. I..it¡¯s just that, well, she is my baby girl. I don¡¯t want anything to happen to her. A..and they want her to be the goddess of the underworld.¡± He was at a loss for words as he spoke.


    ¡°What¡¯s funny is she called it the underwear world again, when they were all here. Lucifer thought that it was cute.¡± That made Reeceugh. I guess there was nothing as funny as making a godugh. ¡°Oh, and she reprimanded them all for not doing their jobs and making me have to go there and fix things for them.¡± Hisughter got even louder.


    ¡°Now that Ipletely agree. Talia is a force to be reckoned with. You know what? I think that she will be a really good goddess. She will do what she needs to do, and she will make the ce even better. I know what happened with Edmond and how he had redeemed himself. I know you wish that he could have gotten out of there. I believe that, with Talia leading the ce, there will be a chance for people to change their fate.¡±


    ¡°Me too, Reece.¡± I nodded along as I agreed with him. ¡°I believe that as well. I just know that she will be the best thing to ever happen to the underworld. She will be a wonderful goddess, I just know it.¡± We both knew what our little Talia would be capable of. We both knew that she was smart. That she was strong. That she would be capable of doing anything that she put her mind to. and why did we know this? Well, that was because we were her parents, and we were raising her that way.


    ¡°We will have to watch after her, Trinity. Not just now, but when she takes over as the goddess.¡± Reece made it sound like I didn¡¯t already know that.


    ¡°Yes, Reece, we will. We will watch over her and protect her when we need to.¡± Of course, I would always see to it that my babies were safe. Even when they were grown and living as a goddess in the underworld. I would always be there for them.


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 Chapter 768

    Chapter 768: Chapter 185- Trinity ¨C My New Normal (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After Reece and I talked for a while, and ate until I felt really sleepy, I wanted to have a bath. I felt so dirty even though I knew that I wasn¡¯t. I guess part of it stemmed from the time that I spent in the underworld. I wasn¡¯t there physically but I still felt like my body was filthy from that ce. I had fought a hydra. I had fought a Hell Snake. I had fought a HellHound. I had spent months in that ce. And I had done it all without having a single shower. That knowledge just about killed me.


    Now, I am going to have a bath. And since my body was doing better, I was going to give walking a try. I pushed myself back from the table and went to stand up. Only, I never actually made it.


    ¡°WHAT IN THE FUCKING HELL DO YOU THINK THAT YOU ARE DOING!?¡± Reece roared the words at me so loudly and so fiercely that I actually jumped. He just about made me have a heart attack. I sort of remember him doing something simr to this when I was pregnant with Reagan and Rika. He had scared the shit out of me when I was standing up when I was on bed rest. And here he was doing that again.


    ¡°WHAT THE HELL, REECE!¡± I snapped back at him almost as forcefully.


    .....


    ¡°What do you think that you¡¯re doing? Just because your arms are better doesn¡¯t mean that you need to be walking. Also, you¡¯re pregnant. WITH TRIPLETS! Don¡¯t you think that Griffin would be telling you that you¡¯re on bedrest? You¡¯re not going to walk until he tells you that you can.¡± He was angry at me. Well not so much angry as he was worried about me. ¡°Where do you even want to go anyway?¡± He lowered his voice and calmed down a little bit.


    ¡°I want to take a shower, or a bath. I need to clean myself up at least a little bit. I feel so dirty since I was in the underworld. I also haven¡¯t bathed since I have been home. I want to be clean, Reece. That is all.¡± I exined it to him and again went to stand up.


    ¡°Don¡¯t you dare.¡± He growled at me. It was actually a little reminiscent of when we first got together, and he used to growl at me all the time. I think I even told him he was going to lose his voice if he kept growling so much. Or something like that anyway.


    ¡°What do you want me to do, Reece? Do you want me to stay nasty and filthy?¡± I let him know that I wasn¡¯t happy.


    ¡°No. I want you to wait. I will get you a bath ready and we will go in there together. When I carry you in there, that is.¡± He was definitely not going to budge on this. He was going to make me stay off of my feet like I was some kind of invalid. Ugh. Well, this did have its perks, at least a little bit.


    ¡°Fine. I will only let you carry me in there and get the bath ready, if you promise to take a bath with me.¡± I batted my eyes at him yfully.


    ¡°HA HA HA!¡± Heughed at me. ¡°Deal. But I was nning on doing that anyway.¡± He smirked and left the room. Damn him. I didn¡¯t actually win anything from him.


    I guess this was my life now. This was the future that I had to look forward to for the time being. I knew that Reece was going to be very strict about this. And yes, technically I could force him to stop arguing with me by giving himmands and all that, but I hated doing that. Especially to him. He was my mate, my husband. We can¡¯t have a proper rtionship if I give him those kinds ofmands. Then he wouldn¡¯t be acting under his own free will but under my will. I didn¡¯t want that from him or anyone. That was why I tried not to give those types of orders unless I absolutely had to.


    Still, this was going to get a little boring. I remember how bored I was when I was pregnant with Reagan and Rika and I was stuck in bed all the time. I had already known that it was going to happen this time too, but I didn¡¯t think it would be so soon after I woke up. I thought that I would be able to use my legs at least a little bit.


    This really was inconvenient and bothersome. I knew why it had to be like this. I really did. But that didn¡¯t mean that I was happy about it. I didn¡¯t like my new normal. At least the normal for the time being. And it made me want the time to pass quickly so I could give birth and walk again.


    Yeah, Reece might have said that I couldn¡¯t walk until Griffin told me that I could. And I could hold out hope that he would tell me that I could walk around right now. But I wasn¡¯t stupid. I mean, this was Griffin that we were talking about. He always went overboard when I was concerned. He would wrap me in a bubble until I delivered if he could. I mean I was the Luna, the Queen, the Goddess, all of it. I had to be ¡®protected¡¯. Or that is what he and all of the others would tell me. It was best if I just resigned myself to my fate now.


    As I wallowed in the pity of my fate, I heard Reecee back into the room. He was ready to take me to my bath. And the moment that I saw him, I was no longer upset. Why wasn¡¯t I upset anymore? Well, that was because he was naked.


    Reece had literally stripped everything off while he was in the bathroom. When he came out to get me, he was the picture of perfection. Well, there was one thing missing. He wasn¡¯t erect. Probably because this wasn¡¯t a sexual situation. Well, not for him at least. For me, my juices were already flowing. And judging by the look on his face, he could already tell.


    ¡°Cool your jets, nympho. This is just going to be a bath and nothing else.¡±


    ¡°Uh huh. I know. Just a bath. Like that one we had when I got home from the hospital when I was pregnant with the twins. That was just a bath. And it didn¡¯t require a lot of exertion either. I want a bath like that again.¡± I could remember that day very easily. It was fun after all. And it was important to me.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think we should, Trinity. I think that we need to just wait until the babies are born. Once you are healed from that, we can do whatever you want.¡±


    ¡°Hmmm.¡± I think we would be seeing who got what they wanted here. Whether it was going to be him and his innocent bath, or me and my adult bath.


    ¡°Stop fantasizing. I need to take your clothes off of you.¡±


    ¡°Oh, yes please, Reece. Take them off of me.¡± I smirked at him while the heat intensified in my eyes. I knew that he could feel that look. I could tell by the embarrassed grin on his face. I was going to make him give in. He was going to give me what I wanted. I mean, Griffin hadn¡¯t said that this was off of the table. And I was going to take advantage of that.


    I let Reece do what he needed to do. He slowly stripped away the thin white nightgown that I was wearing. He did it so gently and slowly that I thought he was trying to take care of something made out of porcin or ss. He was treating me like I was fragile. I didn¡¯t like being treated like that, but I loved the way it felt when his hands slowly brushed across my arms, my shoulders and my belly. He was so sweet, so tender, so loving. I wanted more of it.


    After my gown was gone, Reece lifted me and took me over to the bed. He gentlyid me back so that he could pull my panties down past my hips and off of my legs. I wanted him to take me. As nasty as I felt at the moment, I would have taken him over the bath in a heartbeat. He was too irresistible.


    ¡°Come on, my sex addicted wife. Let¡¯s go take our bath now.¡± That was when he lifted me into his arms again.


    A moment ago, I had been mostly naked but there was that small amount of fabric separating us. Now though, there was nothing between Reece and me. It was just his body and mine. We were fully skin to skin. Just him and me and nothing else. That feeling right there, that was the most perfect thing that there was in the entire world.


    And this was the moment that I knew I was going to make him give in to me. This was not a silly little want or desire anymore. This was what I needed more than anything right now. And I would make sure that Reece knew that and understood it. He had to be wanting it too. I mean, it had been a very long time since we werest together in that way. I knew that he wanted it. Probably even more than I did.


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 Chapter 769

    Chapter 769: Chapter 186- Trinity ¨C Bath Time With Reece (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I just snuggled against Reece while he carried me into the bathroom. I could feel his warmth as he held me, and it was making my body feel even more hot than it had already been. I was so happy to be home with my mate. There was nothing like being with him. I loved him more than anything in the entire world. OK, maybe I didn¡¯t love him more than my kids. But they were the only exception.


    And knowing how much we loved each other, I was quite looking forward to this bath of ours. The moment that Reece walked into the bathroom with me in his arms, I could smell the bath water. It was filled with soap and oils. He was trying to help me rx as well as get cleaned up. And of course, with him not letting me stand, the bath was my only option.


    I was looking forward to soaking, everything else aside. I wanted to wash away the presumed filth of the underworld. I don¡¯t care if it was a filth on my soul and not my body. I was bound and determined to treat it like it was something that a good bath could take care of. There was nothing that was going to stop me from being able to get myself clean. And to get a little tender loving care from my husband. Both werepletely essential for me.


    ¡°Come on, you little nymphomaniac.¡± Reeceughed as he stepped into the tub with me in his arms. ¡°Let¡¯s get you cleaned up.¡± I loved the way he was thinking about me at all times. He may be calling me a nympho, but that doesn¡¯t mean that he didn¡¯t love me, or that he was wrong.


    .....


    ¡°Yes, Sir!¡± I pretended to salute him as he lowered himself into water. He didn¡¯t put me down or sit apart from me in any way. Instead, like he always did, he put me on hisp and held me against his chest while we soaked in the water.


    ¡°Is this any better than it was before?¡± His smooth and soft voice seemed to be rumbling through his chest and into me. I loved when we were close enough for this to happen. To feel him speaking as he held me, that was one of the most intimate things that I could possibly imagine.


    ¡°Hmm.¡± I sighed happily when I heard and felt his words. ¡°Yes, it is much better. I haven¡¯t felt thisfortable and rxed since I got back. Though, I think part of that is because you are here with me too. You know how happy and calm you make me.¡± I was giving him apliment, but for some reason he started tough.


    I didn¡¯t mind himughing all that much. I mean, that meant that I got to hear and feel it like I did his voice. It was nice, sexy and exciting.


    ¡°Calm? Is that what you consider yourself right now?¡± He chuckled the words out for me to feel them vibrate through me. ¡°Baby, nothing about you is calm right now. I swear, your sex drive has been switched out for a hyper drive.¡±


    ¡°You say that like it¡¯s a bad thing.¡± Iughed right back at him. ¡°I would have thought that you would have been happy to have a wife that would want you so much.¡± I arched a brow and gave him a very skeptical look.


    ¡°Under normal circumstances, I would. But you¡¯re pregnant. Very pregnant. Many times over. I know what you want, baby, I really do. But that doesn¡¯t mean that you can have it right now.¡± He was still trying to deny me. Seriously!? OK, I would just have to wear him down, that was all.


    ¡°I can have it. There is nothing at all stopping us from having that right now. Aside from you telling me ¡®no¡¯, that is. Come on, Reece, you know you want it. That is, unless you¡¯re not attracted to me anymore.¡± I knew that he was still attracted to me, that wasn¡¯t even a fear of mine but I batted my eyshes at him and pouted a little bit just the same. Sometimes, we women just want to hear how into us our men really are. And that was all this was about. I wanted Reece to admit that he still wanted me. Then, from there, we could get him to give in to me.


    ¡°You know I want you, Trinity. There is nothing on this fucking that would ever make me stop wanting you. I want you now. I will want you in a year. I will want you in ten years. And I will even want you a thousand years from now. There will never be a time that you aren¡¯t the only thing that my heart and body desires.¡±


    I love him when he gets like this. This was the sweetest thing ever. In fact, I think I was going to tell him just that. And it was a good thing that I was sitting across hisp instead of facing away from him. I was able to just turn my head just a little bit and press my lips to his. I was kissing him within a second of those beautiful words from him. My tongue tangled with his and my arms snaked around his neck so that I could hold him closer to me.


    This kiss was one of the few that I had gotten since I woke up, since I came back from the underworld. It felt like so long, if I was being honest. It felt like I hadn¡¯t been intimate with Reece not in just thest four months or so, but rather like it had been years. My body was starved for this attention and affection from him.


    I turned toward him just a little bit so that I could intensify the kiss some more. I would have straddled hisp and rose above him if I could. It was a little difficult at the moment because of thergeness of my belly. It really was getting in the way at the moment.


    ¡°Ugh! Damn baby belly. I¡¯m happy that I am pregnant, but I want to kiss you right now.¡± Iined but there wasughter in my voice.


    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s definitely in the way.¡± Reeceughed as he put both of his hands on my belly again. He was feeling the boys again as they moved around inside of me. ¡°I can¡¯t wait until they¡¯re here.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, well, you better wait. Because right now is ¡®me and you¡¯ time. Come on, Reece, focus.¡±


    I did what I could to recapture his lips for another kiss but he was bound and determined to avoid me.


    ¡°No. Wait, Trinity.¡± He moved his hands from my belly and put them on my shoulders. With a little bit of pressure, he pushed me away and made me sit down all the way on hisp.


    ¡°Why, Reece? Why do I need to stop?¡± I was not happy and I knew that he could tell that based on my attitude and my tone of voice.


    ¡°Because, Trinity, my Little Bunny, my dear sweet wife, I know that you won¡¯t want to stop if you kiss me again.¡± He looked so lost and hurt right now. How was it that he was hurt when I was the one being denied here?


    ¡°Of course I won¡¯t want to stop. I want to be with you, Reece. I need you. I want you. I have to have you. I feel so empty and so lonely. I want to make love to you Reece. I have to. Please, don¡¯t deny me.¡± I know that I was essentially begging him for sex, but dammit I wanted it.


    ¡°Please don¡¯t look at me that way, Little Bunny. You know that I want to be with you. You know that I would give you everything that you want and more. But I can¡¯t. Not right now. Not while you¡¯re pregnant. You¡¯re so far along and with three babies this time. I don¡¯t know how this will affect you physically. And I don¡¯t want to put you intobor too soon. I don¡¯t want you, or the babies, to be hurt because of this.¡± I knew what he was saying. It all made sense and everything. But that didn¡¯t mean that it didn¡¯t hurt.


    ¡°But Reece-?¡± I was about to plead with him some more when he started to speak again.


    ¡°No, Trinity, please, don¡¯t beg me. That will just make me feel worse. I hate to deny you, my love. I really do. But I have to. I want to be with you more than almost anything else. But the thing that trumps it, the one and only thing that rises above being with you, is your health and safety and that of our children.¡± This time, when I looked at Reece, closely in the eyes, I could see how hard all of this was on him. I could see how much strain he was putting on himself to make it so that we were not intimate with each other right now. It wasn¡¯t easy for him and here I was making it worse. I was being so mean to him right now.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Reece. I didn¡¯t mean to hurt my little puppy. Can you forgive me, Fido?¡± I kissed his nose to let him know that the intimacy was no longer up for debate. I didn¡¯t want it anymore.


    ¡°Always.¡± He answered me with augh. ¡°Nowe on, I can wash you up.¡±


    From there, we just had a normal bath. He washed me and I helped to wash him, but there was no sexual tension whatsoever. When we were done, Reece stood up and took me to sit on the small bench that was in the bathroom. That was where he dried me off and wrapped me in a super fluffy and extrarge towel. I was dressed for bed andid on the mattress to rx. I wasn¡¯t exactly happy right now, but I was content at least.


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 Chapter 770

    Chapter 770: Chapter 187- Trinity ¨C One More Visit Before Bed (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I figured that I had a little while left before I was going to go to sleep so I might watch a movie or something. Reece had sent Talia, Reagan and Rika into the room to say their good nights to me. They were all very happy that their mommy was able to squeeze them when they hugged her. And I will admit that this mommy also cried when she hugged them like that. I didn¡¯t know how much I would miss holding them tightly until it was taken away from me. And I never wanted it to be taken away from me again.


    After the goodnight hugs and kisses were given and I was settling in to snuggle with Reece, the remote in hand to turn on a movie on therge TV screen across the room, there was a call that came to Reece¡¯s phone.


    ¡°Hello?¡± He said as he answered it quickly. I recognized the ringtone of the call and called out to him.


    ¡°Tell Noah I said hi.¡± I wasn¡¯t paying too much attention since I was scrolling through a list of just about every movie ever made. I needed to pick one so that we could watch it before bed. Something not too emotional or sappy. I was pregnant and I knew how sensitive my emotions were at times like this. I didn¡¯t want to be a blubbering mess when I fell asleep. I would end up looking like some sort of zombie when the kids came to see me in the morning.


    .....


    ¡°Trinity says hi.¡± Reece passed along my message as I looked through the endless list.


    There was a little bit of a pause, during which I settled on a romanticedy for the movie. One that was more funny than sappy and wouldn¡¯t make me want to cry at all. Well, at least not too much. Then, when I was pretty much about to hit y, Reece turned toward me and spoke to Noah.


    ¡°Yeah, send them up. I think she would be OK with seeing them right now.¡± I wanted to tell him that I didn¡¯t want to see anyone right now. All I wanted to do was to go to sleep after watching this movie.


    ¡°Who?¡± I asked him with my eyebrows raised a little in surprise. I knew that if Reece wanted someone toe up and interrupt our time alone, they must be very important. He wasn¡¯t the type to share his time with me if he didn¡¯t have to.


    ¡°Yeah, we will see you in a second.¡±


    Based on that response from Reece, I could guess that they were already on their way up to the room. I guess I would find out who these important guests were soon enough. You know, since they were already almost here.


    I sat up a little in the bed and set the remote on the side table. I didn¡¯t turn off the TV because I was certain that I would be watching the movie after these visitors left. Why go through the trouble of finding the movie againter?


    The moment that I set the remote down, there was a knock on the door. They were already here. That really was quick. That was fine though, quick meant that I didn¡¯t have to wait. Especially since Reece still hadn¡¯t told me who were them.


    I waited in the bed while Reece went to unlock and open our door. The first person that I saw was my brother, Noah. He was wearing casual clothes, yet he still somehow looked like he was a prim and proper young man. There was literally no way for him to look like anything else. That was just him and nothing would ever change that.


    Behind Noah were two men. Men that I knew more than anyone else in the castle knew them. Well, possibly. I hadn¡¯t seen them in a little over twenty-four hours and it was possible that others had seen them and talked to them over that time.


    The two men were, of course, Rudy and Alexio. They were finallying to see me after our return to this world. Or rather, my return and their first time ever being here. They were new to this world, and I hoped that they were settling in just fine. I kind of felt bad for not checking in on them sooner.


    ¡°Rudy! Alexio!¡± I called out to them in shock when I saw them clearly. They weren¡¯t wearing their uniforms from the underworld anymore. They lookedpletely different with just a simple change of clothes and different styles.


    Rudy, the sweet and innocent one of the two, was wearing a light blue button up shirt, a dark gray vest and a pair of jeans that seemed to fit him perfectly. It was all paired with some white sneakers and a boyish haircut. He literally looked like a totally different person, but in a good way.


    Alexio, the more tough and burly of the two of them, was dressedpletely different. He had on jeans as well, but unlike Rudy¡¯s lighter blue colored jeans, Alexio¡¯s were so dark blue that they were nearly ck. He was wearing a thermal style t-shirt that I was pretty sure was long sleeved. And over the t-shirt, he was wearing a ck jacket, most likely leather. He too was wearing different shoes, but not sneakers. He was wearing ck biker style boots instead. Yeah, he was definitely not the soft type of man. He was going to be ¡®brawn¡¯ all the way. Thankfully, he wasn¡¯t a stupid man or else it would ruin it all for him.


    ¡°Wow, look at you two. I barely recognized you.¡± I was taking them in, all the changes that they had made since Ist saw them. I took a closer look at Alexio¡¯s silver hair and saw that he hadn¡¯t cut it all like I originally thought. He had left it long on top while the sides were buzzed. The top was then pulled back into a short ponytail. It actually suited him pretty well. I liked the way that it looked on him, though I would never want to see it on Reece, ever.


    ¡°Thank you, Queen Trinity.¡± Rudy grinned happily. He truly was like a sweet little brother with his reactions to me.


    ¡°Thank you, Trinity. I think I like this world¡¯s style a little more than I liked that of the Underworld¡¯s.¡± There was a slight grin on Alexio¡¯s face when he spoke just then. ¡°I am thankful for you bringing me here.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Queen Trinity, thank you for bringing me here. It has changed my life entirely.¡±


    ¡°I am happy to hear that. In fact, there are going to be a lot of changes to the underworlding up soon.¡±


    I saw that the two of them had wide eyes of shock, nearly identical like the color that they shared. That color being the blood red that I believe all demons most likely had. Those eyes were so interesting, yet right now, so shocked. I don¡¯t think that they expected me to have anything to do with the underworld now that we were back here. And definitely not in the changing of it.


    Well, technically, I wasn¡¯t the one changing it. They probably expected me to just wipe my hands of the ce entirely. That wasn¡¯t going to happen though. Not if my daughter was going to rule there one day.


    ¡°Also, I am d that the two of you seem to be doing OK here in this world. I would have hated to have brought you here and you hated it.¡± I wanted to get that out before I lost my chance. I want them to know that I hadn¡¯t stopped thinking about that since we got home.


    ¡°No, I think we will be just fine, Queen Trinity. I like it here. It¡¯s different, that¡¯s for sure, but it is also better. There is food and stuff to drink. There are moving pictures to watch in arge box on the wall. There are clothes that I like. Lots of stuff. I personally love it here. Thank you. Thank you so much.¡± With that amount of gushing I couldn¡¯t help but be d that I brought them here.


    ¡°I am happy to hear that, Rudy. I am hoping that you will fit in here nicely and be like a little brother to me. You¡¯re such a sweet boy and I know you can find true happiness. I may not be able to bring the magic back to the demons, but I can bring magic to your life.¡±


    I just had to open my big mouth. I just had to say that fabled ¡®M¡¯ word, didn¡¯t I? Because the moment that I finished that little line of mine, both of them lit up like a searchlight. The white light surrounded them and gave them the blessing that I didn¡¯t mean to give.


    ¡°Well, looks like I did give your magic back.¡± Iughed awkwardly when the light disappeared. ¡°Sorry about that.¡±


    ¡°Y..you gave us magic?¡± Alexio looked so shocked by what had happened. ¡°Like real magic?¡±


    ¡°I am assuming so, Alexio. That is what the light usually means. We will have to explore it allter, and I am a little too tired for that.¡± I didn¡¯t mean to be dismissive, but I didn¡¯t want to get into it all right now. I would teach them at another time.


    ¡°Yes, yes of course.¡± Alexio nodded at me. ¡°We will discuss itter. We only wanted toe and thank you for bringing us here. You get some rest, Trinity. We will talkter. And also, thank you for the magic.¡± I saw some white sparks ying at the tips of his fingers as he spoke. He really was excited about the magic or it wouldn¡¯t be manifesting like that.


    ¡°Yes, good night you too. And be careful until we talk again.¡±


    Finally, they left the room. I was alone with Reece once again. And now, we were able to get to our movie. We snuggled against each other and started it right away. We had some snacks, some juice and each other. It was all going to be perfect. At least, it would have been if I didn¡¯t fall asleep less than ten minutes into it. I don¡¯t even remember seeing anything that the movie had to offer me. It was all just a blur.


    I knew that this would happen though. I was toofortable and content in where I was. And when that happened, especially when I snuggled up to Reece, I tended to fall asleep. Not to mention I was pregnant. That by nature meant that I was tired. So, I guess I will watch the movieter, by myself.


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 Chapter 771

    Chapter 771: Chapter 188- Trinity ¨C Griffin¡¯s Orders (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece called Griffin over pretty early the next day. After the kids hade to eat breakfast with me in my room and I hugged and kissed them all goodbye before they went to school, Reece made the call. Griffin, fearing that something was wrong, came running right away.


    ¡°I¡¯m here. I¡¯m here. What happened? What is it? Is it the babies? Is it Trinity? What¡¯s going on?¡± He came running into the room like something was chasing him. He had run all the way here with his medical bag in hand and his stethoscope around his neck. I could tell that he was truly scared.


    ¡°Reece, what did you tell him? He looks like the hounds of hell are after him.¡±


    ¡°I only told him that I needed him toe over as soon as he could. That was all.¡± He was acting all innocent like he hadn¡¯t just done something wrong.


    .....


    ¡°Dammit, Reece. You could have told him that there was no medical emergency. You most likely scared years off of his life.¡± I scolded him.


    ¡°Yes, I scared years off of his immortal life.¡± That made Reeceugh, and I had to fight it or I would haveughed as well. And I really didn¡¯t think that myughter was fair to Griffin right now.


    ¡°So, there is nothing wrong?¡± I could see Griffin visibly calm down as he realized what was happening.


    ¡°No, Griffin, there is nothing wrong. Reece just wants a consultation on something.¡± I informed him while ring at my husband from across the room.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t say that there was an emergency.¡± Reece pointed out to me, trying to tell me that this wasn¡¯t his fault.


    ¡°Yeah, but you told him toe over as soon as he could.¡± I snapped at him. ¡°That could be seen as a ¡®hurry, there¡¯s trouble¡¯.¡±


    ¡°What is he, Lassie¡¯s owner? Comes running cause the dog barks and he expects that someone is going to die?¡± He was really having augh today. I didn¡¯t know what was up with him, but he was having a grand old time. ¡°Anyway. There is no emergency, Griffin. Just like Trinity said, we just need your consultation.¡±


    ¡°Did something happen to Lassie now?¡± Griffin leveled a look at Reece, one filled with skepticism and a slight amount of anger.


    ¡°Fuck no.¡± I almostughed at Reece¡¯s vehement denial. ¡°This still has to do with Trinity. And it¡¯s not bad so you should be happy¡± Reece was funny when he was embarrassed like this.


    ¡°OK, Trinity, what is it that you need?¡± I think Griffin decided to just ignore Reece for now.


    ¡°Well, after yesterday¡¯s therapy session I am able to move my body just fine. Like, it is fully back to normal. Reece wanted to get your opinion on what we should do now.¡± I exined it to him calmly like Reece should have done.


    ¡°Wow, that is amazing. I knew that using magic alongside the therapy would work so much better. I am so happy for you Trinity. This is so wonderfully amazing. I just don¡¯t know what to say. This..this is perfect.¡±


    I didn¡¯t expect that Griffin would be so excited for this. If I didn¡¯t know any better, I would think that he was being told that he was the one that could move their body again. That or he was some lucky kid getting a fully paid for shopping trip to a toy store or something. It was actually kind of cute. And I was happy that I got to see this.


    ¡°Alright. I don¡¯t think that we should get too ahead of ourselves. Let me check you out and see where your muscles are with their recovery. You might still need to exercise regrly just to keep them in the shape that they are in. Until you¡¯re back on your feet that is.¡±


    ¡°That is what we want to talk about, Griffin. When should she get back on her feet?¡± Reece was giving me a stern look. It was like he was saying, e on doc, tell her to be a good girl and listen to me¡¯.


    ¡°One thing at a time, Reece. Let me examine her first and then we will discuss that.


    Of course, I didn¡¯t have much of a choice right now. These two wanted to make sure that I wasn¡¯t lying about being about to move perfectly fine. So, I had to endure Griffin checking everything as he went along. My arms, my hands, my fingers, all of it. My legs, my feet, my toes, all of that as well. I swear he would have checked my head, ears, mouth and nose too, if he thought that it would do him any good.


    ¡°Wow, I can¡¯t believe this, your muscles arepletely back to normal. I can¡¯t even detect an issue like I could before. There is absolutely nothing wrong with you anymore.¡± He seemed so happy and delighted. I know that he was now happy that Reece called him here.


    ¡°I already knew that.¡± Iughed at him. ¡°And now you can tell Reece that there is nothing to keep me off my feet. I am free to do whatever I want without consequences because I am so healthy.


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say that, Trinity. You¡¯re still pregnant with triplets. If you put too much stress on your body, you might go into pretermbor. I mean, chances are you are going to be delivering close to a month early and that is preterm enough for them, we don¡¯t need to be adding to the stress we are already cing on them. I rmend that you stay off your feet. You can use a wheelchair and have someone help you to the bath and bed. That is all that I want you standing for. Moving from the chair to something else. And then, only if it¡¯s less than ten steps. You need to let these babies get bigger, stronger and more healthy. And that means that you need to keep them in there for a lot longer.¡±


    ¡°Hahh.¡± I sighed in annoyance at his words. I was so certain that he was going to side with me. I mean, I didn¡¯t have gestational hypertension like I did with Reagan and Rika. There was nothing that should be keeping me off of my feet like that time. I didn¡¯t want to be in bed all day. I didn¡¯t want to be stuck in a wheelchair and have someone needing to take care of me. That wasn¡¯t fun at all.


    ¡°Sigh all you want, Trinity, but you just got the doctor¡¯s orders. You were so adamant that we listened to whatever Griffin had to say about this subject. And I agreed with you. I told you that I would be following whatever he said. You agreed to it as well. And now that he has told you his orders, you cannot back on it now.¡± Clearly, Reece thought that I was going to renege on our agreement. He thought that I was going to pout and try to get myself out of this. And he was totally right. Only now I had lost my chance since he was throwing it in my face.


    ¡°And before I forget, since I know what happenedst time, no intimacy. Absolutely none. It can cause too much for your body to handle at the moment and you might have the boys too soon. Your best bet is to just abstain from it altogether. Then again, knowing you two, you probably already did that.¡± I saw Griffin sigh and look dejected.


    ¡°Nope. I shut her down. She was like a crazed nympho, but I told her no.¡±


    ¡°OK, that was more than I needed to know, but good for you. Stay strong, Reece.¡± Griffinughed at Reece¡¯s words as he packed up his bag. ¡°Now, if there is nothing else, I have other patients to attend to. I will see youter Trinity. Goodbye to both of you.¡±


    With that, Griffin left the room and Reece started tough. I knew why too and that made me want to hit him.


    ¡°Screw you scruffy.¡± I stuck my tongue out at him.


    ¡°Sorry, you can¡¯t do that Little Bunny. Doctor¡¯s orders.¡±


    ¡°Oh my Goddess!¡± I rolled my eyes at him and threw my head back against the chair.


    ¡°No, you¡¯re the goddess, not me.¡± He was having so much fun right now. ¡°Now, I think I need to order you a wheelchair. I wonder how fast they can get it here if I offer them a massive bonus¡± He was enjoying this way too much.


    Though, he did work quite efficiently. He managed to get a top of the line wheelchair delivered here within the hour. That was the power of money for you.


    I may not have been happy with the decision that Griffin made, or with how overly happy that it made Reece to hear those orders, but at least it wasn¡¯t all bad. I was fine, just pregnant. I could move and feed myself. And I wasn¡¯t stuck in bed this time. I just needed to stay off of my feet. So, with this new wheelchair that Reece got me, I could move around the house. I could go down to the kids¡¯ bedrooms and spend time with them. I could go back to the rest of the house and have meals with everyone again. I didn¡¯t have to be stuck in my room the entire time that I was pregnant. So, even though it wasn¡¯t ideal, it wasn¡¯t the worst that it could be either.


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 Chapter 772

    Chapter 772: Chapter 189- Trinity ¨C Time Passing Part 1 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I tried to set a bit of a routine. I wasn¡¯t back to work yet so I had a lot of time on my hands. I mean, there was no way in hell that Reece was going to let me do anything at all, aside from rot away with boredom. I wasn¡¯t used to having this much free time. Not since I was pregnant with Reagan and Rika anyway.


    I needed to have something to do everyday so that I didn¡¯t waste away in boredom. So, I would spend the mornings with the kids before school and on the weekend. I would help them with their hair and just talk before they had to leave. We would also eat breakfast together as a family in the dining room. I also helped them finish their costumes for Halloween. And when that day came around, I was so happy yet sad at the same time. I couldn¡¯t go trick or treating with them, but they looked so cute. They were going to have fun with Auntie Juniper and Uncle Paul though, I knew that for a fact.


    I will admit, Abigail, Roisin, Gabriel and Peter were all happy to see me out of bed and moving through the house. Even if it was in a wheelchair. Of course, Mom, Dad, Noah, Nikki, Carter, Emmalee, L, Grandfather, Juniper, Paul, Acacia, Cedar, Trevor, Aunt Glory, Athair m¨°r and Daciana were all happy as well since they were all still in the house. Not to mention Dietrich, Shane, Shawn, David and Vincent were happy to see me moving around as well. They were also back to work guarding me now that I was awake and finally moving about.


    While the kids were at school, I would spend time with my friends, family and guards. I ended up eating lunch with them while Reece was either working in his office or working in the nursery.


    .....


    He was taking a lot of time off to work on the nursery again, just like he had done when I was pregnant the two times before. He had ordered so much stuff that I wasn¡¯t even allowed to see until he was done.


    I know that a lot of women would be worried about this type of situation, but I wasn¡¯t. I trusted Reece for one. And for two, he had done the nursery for both the previous pregnancies. The nursery, which was the same room every time, looked gorgeous every single time that Reece put his time and effort into it. There was no reason for me to doubt him now when I hadn¡¯t before. I was just eagerly anticipating what he was going to show me.


    Through this time that I was spending with everyone, I found out that Nikki and Noah were going to be having another baby, they were due inte April. And Juniper was due at about the same time. The two of them were only having single pregnancies though. They weren¡¯t doubling or tripling anything like I did.


    I also found out something that I never thought would happen. I was going to have a new auntie or uncle that was also my sister or brother inw. That was because L was pregnant. Grandfather was going to be a daddy again for the first time in a very long time. I don¡¯t think that either of them had thought that this day would ever happen. I think they thought that they were both done with kids forever. Well, I guess this was a big surprise but a good surprise, nheless.


    There had been so much that happened in the several weeks that I was asleep in this world. To me it didn¡¯t feel like it was that long, but it definitely was to those that were here. The kids went through a lot, my parents, siblings, friends, everyone went through so much. And during that time, they all had to deal with the heartache of not knowing if I was ever going to wake up again. I can¡¯t even imagine what they were feeling.


    Well, I guess I could. I thought that I would never get home. I thought that I would never see my family and friends ever again. It might be a little bit different, but it was simr enough in my opinion. We all thought that it was all lost forever. And if you listen to the rest of them talk, I had it worse. I didn¡¯t see it that way. They knew how much time was passing and I didn¡¯t. I didn¡¯t know that it had been months since I hadst been awake. I didn¡¯t know that they were all missing me so much.


    I tried not to make all of the time that I spent with the people that I loved, and all the talks that we shared, all depressing and mood killing. I wanted to rejoice that I was awake again. I wanted to be happy to be back. And I wanted them all to have a good time too. Especially since I was including Rudy and Alexio in our gatherings quite often so that they could socialize and get to know people in this world better. I didn¡¯t want to bring down their moods at all.


    Slowly, after a week or so, everything seemed to be calming down and we were allughing more than we were crying. I knew that they needed to heal and vent just as much as I had needed it when I first woke up. This was their time to do that.


    After happiness started to be the dominant emotion, we were all getting excited about the babies that were toe. Aunt Glory was going to be delivering anytime now, so was Daciana. I was going to be seeing new members of my familye into this world in no time at all. And not too long from now I would be delivering my triplets.


    I hoped that I made it close to my due date, but I wasn¡¯t going to hold my breath. And since I knew that I would be having them early, I just prayed that they weren¡¯t born on Reagan and Rika¡¯s birthdays. I didn¡¯t want to force them to share their days. It wouldn¡¯t be fair to any of them.


    Hey, at least I knew that these three boys can¡¯t all have different birthdays. I mean, not unless there is more than twenty-four hours between the first one and thest one. I mean one could be just before midnight, the second would be anytime after midnight that next day, and thest would be after midnight on the third day. That seemed highly unlikely. And I really, really hoped that didn¡¯t happen to me. I liked being pregnant, for the most part, butbor and delivery were not that fun in my opinion.


    I didn¡¯t ask for this, and I didn¡¯t truly want it, but I could tell that my friends and family were nning another baby shower for me. I didn¡¯t need them to do that for me since Reece was going to buy everything for our babies anyway. Still, I knew that they wanted to do it, and I guess it was a way for us to restock the donations that we gave to the families that were in need. They all benefited from all the brand new baby items that we had gotten at the baby shower for Reagan and Rika as well as the one for Talia. Now there would be even more donations for them after people helped us to prepare for the triplets.


    The more that I thought about what they were all doing for me, the happier that I was. I knew that it wasn¡¯t about getting me, Reece, or the babies presents. It was all about spending time with us and our family. It was about showing their love and appreciation for our happy little family. And it was to bring us all together. That in and of itself was all that I needed to make me want to have the baby shower.


    Not to mention, it was good for another reason as well. This would be the first time that most of the people in the pack will have seen me since sometime in the beginning of August. The baby shower, which was going to be in the middle tote November, would be months after that time. They were all probably worrying about me and wondering if there was something seriously wrong with me.


    I know that Reece told the pack about the babies. That had been his cover story for the longest time. That I was pregnant with triplets and that I was having the same issue with them that I had with Reagan and Rika. That was enough to appease most of them. The people of my pack and my two intermingled kingdoms wanted my babies to be safe. These were their princes and they would love them just because of that.


    Now though, I think it was time for them to see me. And time for them to see that I really was pregnant with triplets. This baby belly of mine that just keeps getting bigger and bigger by the day was more than enough proof for anyone that might have been skeptical about what was happening.


    Oh, and another positive note, I was putting some of my weight back on. Those pounds that I had lost while technically being in aa in this world. They wereing back and I didn¡¯t look so skeletal anymore. Now that I was eating real food my body was thriving again. That made me happy too. I didn¡¯t need to worry if I looked sick all the time.


    And to think, the weight came back just in time for the baby shower. I was back to the healthy me to show to the masses.


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 Chapter 773

    Chapter 773: Chapter 190- Trinity ¨C Baby Shower (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    By the time that the middle of November came around, it was time for the baby shower. To be specific, it was Sunday November the eighteenth. Griffin and the others thought that I could literally go intobor at any time. So, that meant that they wanted to get this baby shower done as soon as possible.


    This time, however, they had told me in advance. There was no massive surprise like when I was pregnant with the twins. I was pretty sure that no one wanted to have a repeat of what happened that night. That had been the night that I ended up in the hospital and nearly gave Reece a heart attack. I was already on bed rest right now as it was, so I didn¡¯t think that there was much that Griffin could do about my situation. Unless he put me in the hospital or something. Not that I wanted to be there. I would rather be home with the kids. However, Griffin had mentioned to me that when he felt like I was getting close to delivering, he might just admit me and keep me there until I delivered the babies. So, I knew that it was a possibility that I would spend some time there.


    I wasn¡¯t going to think about that today though. I was going to enjoy my time and have fun with my friends and family today. I was going to greet members of the pack and the two kingdoms that I hadn¡¯t seen in a long time. I was going to enjoy myself today. I was going to have fun. And I wasn¡¯t going to let anything stop me from doing what I wanted to do.


    I was still in the wheelchair though. That was a given. I couldn¡¯t stay off my feet if I didn¡¯t have that. Still, I was dressed as nicely as I could be, in a circus tent. I mean, in a dress. It was a beautiful shade of baby blue, because of the baby boys that we were having. The dress was a baby doll type with stic just below my pregnancy swollen breasts. Then it red out to amodate the veryrge baby belly that was housing my boys.


    .....


    In truth, I was happy to have the wheelchair. I wouldn¡¯t admit that to Reece and Griffin, but it was the truth. The belly that I was carrying around was so big that I even had a hard time shifting in my seat. I could barely move.


    It wasn¡¯t that the belly was too heavy for me to lift. No, it was just that it was awkward to maneuver. It was protruding so much from my tiny body that I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if it toppled me over the moment that I tried to stand up.


    Well, moving on from my massive size, I still liked the way that I looked, big belly and all. I didn¡¯t mind it because it wasn¡¯t just a belly, it was the ce where my babies were. And with how my hair and makeup looked, and the pretty dress that I had on, I felt like a star.


    Reece was escorting me down from our room with the kids walking around us. Reagan and Rika were on my right side and Talia was on my left. We were all together as a family. All eight of us. The three babies in my belly, the three babies that I already had, Reece and myself. This was the best family that I could have ever imagined. We were going to be a big family, but Reece and I had a lot of love to give, so that was fine.


    Finally, the five of us reached the ballroom on the main floor of the castle. This was where the massive party was being held. We were, of course,ing in through the back entrance so that we would be up on the stage when everyone finally saw us. I needed to say something to my people. All of them have been so worried about me and I needed to let them all know that I was OK.


    The light in the ballroom was bright and there was music ying softly. It was all quite the event. I could smell the delicious foods that were offered to our guests. There was a mountain of gifts for us to sort throughter. And there were so many people talking happily.


    Despite all of that though, the moment that Reece pushed my wheelchair up onto the stage everyone started to p and cheer. They were happy to see me and my family all together for the first time in months.


    ¡°It¡¯s Queen Trinity! She¡¯s here!¡±


    ¡°Queen Trinity!?¡±


    ¡°The Goddess Queen?¡±


    ¡°Oh my goddess, she¡¯s here!¡±


    ¡°This is wonderful, I have missed her so much.¡±


    ¡°And look at that, the babies are getting so big. I can¡¯t wait for the new princes to be here.¡±


    ¡°This is so exciting. There are more precious royal babiesing.¡±


    There were wordsing from all over the ce. They were just so excited and full of life at the very sight of me. I sometimes didn¡¯t like the attention that I got just by being who I was. But right now, seeing how happy these people were just because I was here, that made me happy as well. It brought peace to my heart and made me feel like my life really was special.


    Soon, everyone in the entire hall was looking at me. My friends, my family, and those that were not as close to me but just as special to me such as the pack members and people from my joint kingdoms. They seemed to want me to say something, and it didn¡¯t take long for them all to start chanting at me.


    ¡°Come on, Queen Trinity! Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech!¡±


    ¡°Say something, Queen Trinity! Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech!¡±


    ¡°Give us something, Queen Trinity. We missed you! Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech!¡±


    It seemed to me like they really wanted me to say something. I knew they would, but I didn¡¯t have anything prepared in advance. I didn¡¯t know what to tell them because it was all going to be a lie.


    ¡°Go on, Trinity. They need to hear from you.¡± Reece whispered in my ear as he leaned forward.


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Momma. We will be here with you.¡± Reagan offered me his support.


    ¡°Go ahead, Mom. Your people need you.¡±


    ¡°I know you will be just fine, Mommy. And if they get mad, just tell them that they¡¯re lucky to have you. I know that I am.¡± Talia was just being so sweet.


    ¡°Alright, I will say something. But I am guessing that I need to do it while sitting down still.¡± Iughed and looked up at Reece in a joking manner.


    ¡°Well, I could hold you.¡± He winked at me.


    ¡°I¡¯m good. Just let me move forward a little bit.¡± Iughed and shook my head at him and his absurd idea. Then again, I knew that he was going to say something like that anyway.


    I was pushed to the front of the stage and my family stood behind me. I enhanced my voice with my magic to make sure that everyone in the ballroom would be able to hear me. Once I was ready, I knew that everyone in the room was staring at me. And I do mean everyone.


    ¡°Hello everyone. I am so delighted that you could be here today with me and my family. I know that I have not been around muchtely. I do apologize for that.¡± I was slowly looking over them all. I was seeing the expressions in their eyes. I could see the heartache that they had experienced over thest few months. I could sense the fear that they felt at thinking that their queen was dead. I could feel it all. And it wasn¡¯t exactly a good feeling.


    Suddenly, I didn¡¯t want to lie to any of them. Suddenly, what felt right to me was telling them all the truth. That truth would then spread through the rest of my people by word of mouth and then soon everyone would know. I knew that it was risky telling them all what had happened, but I felt that it was the right thing to do. I felt that, even with the positive nature of this event, they needed to hear this. So, that¡¯s what I did. I told them everything.


    ¡°I know that you all were told that I was resting because I was pregnant. And as you can clearly see, I am very pregnant. Reece, Reagan, Rika, Talia and I will soon be adding three little boys to our family. However, when I went missing from the public eye, I didn¡¯t know about the babies. Reece found out about them soon after while I was busy traveling with them. You see, my body was here, in my home, but my soul, and the souls of my boys were not here. We had left and gone to the underworld. I was taken there to help the evil goddess, Hekate, escape from her prison cell. Only I refused to help her. Instead, I stopped her. I put an end to her reign of terror once and for all. She died. And that was what allowed me toe home. My job was done. The threat was gone. And now we can live on in peace.¡±


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 Chapter 774

    Chapter 774: Chapter 191- Trinity ¨C Baby Shower Part 2 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    To say that the looks on the faces around me were stunned was an understatement. The pack members and the people from werewolf and magic user kingdoms were looking at me with their mouths hanging open in shock. Even my friends, family and guards looked like they couldn¡¯t believe what I had just said.


    I turned to look at my children and my mate, who were standing around me. Talia was smiling happily. I think she was just always happy, especially since her mommy woke up. Reagan and Rika were just fine too. They didn¡¯t think it was wrong of me to have told them. They just wanted to get things moving. I think they wanted cake.


    Reece was the one that I needed to be worried about. What was he going to think about me telling everyone the truth? What was he going to think about me spilling these secrets to all of them? Hopefully, he didn¡¯t get angry at me.


    When I turned to look behind me, into Reece¡¯s eyes, I saw that he was smiling at me too. He wasn¡¯t upset. He wasn¡¯t scared about the consequences. He was just smiling.


    .....


    ¡°I knew you were going to do that.¡± Heughed a little. ¡°You couldn¡¯t bear for them to continue living with a lie. They needed to know where their queen was.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not mad?¡± I asked him, shocked to see that he was so easygoing about it.


    ¡°No, I¡¯m not. I mean, we will need to deal with some people wanting to get more answers and all of that. But, you don¡¯t need to do anything about that. Noah, and the others can handle it. They will see to it that there is no hysteria or anything like that.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡± I smiled at him and then turned back to the people that were watching me. ¡°I am sorry, all of you.¡± This time my voice was loud for all of them to hear instead of whispering for Reece. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to bring down the mood. I just wanted you all to know the truth. I was in the underworld. I literally made it through hell and now I am back. I am back and better than ever. And soon, all of us are going to be so much happier to wee Zachary Aaron Gray, Zander Ian Gray and Zayden Issac Gray. And then, I do believe that our not so little family will beplete. At least for a while.¡± I grinned. Being immortal meant that I could have another baby in a hundred years if I wanted to. That was the benefit and joy of that.


    ¡°WHOOO!¡±


    ¡°YEAH!¡±


    ¡°QUEEN TRINITY!¡±


    ¡°SHE IS SO AMAZING!¡±


    ¡°SHE TOOK ON HELL AND IS STILL THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN EVER!¡±


    ¡°YEAH!¡±


    ¡°SO CUTE! BABIES ON THE WAY! THE NAMES ARE JUST SO AMAZING!¡±


    ¡°WHOO! WHOOO!¡±


    ¡°GO QUEEN TRINITY!¡±


    The cheers had started up again. Apparently, they all thought that their queen was somehow amazing for having taken on the underworld. They didn¡¯t know what had happened there, and in truth most of the people around me didn¡¯t know, but they were just happy that I went and made it back.


    Oh, not to mention, I did reveal the names of the boys to everyone here. That was major as well. We usually didn¡¯t reveal the names like this, but I felt like they all deserved a special treat at the moment.


    During all themotion, my guards and family came running up onto the stage. Dietrich was in the lead and came to give me a hug first. As tall as he was (still shorter than Reece though) he didn¡¯t mind crouching down just so that he could get a good hug with me.


    ¡°You look beautiful, meine Schwester.¡± He was always so sweet.


    ¡°Since when did I be your sister, Dietrich?¡± I asked him with augh.


    ¡°Since I dered it so, Trinity. Do you have a problem with that?¡± Heughed at me as he stood up.


    ¡°No, I do not. That just makes Shawn my brother as well. Oh, and I guess Shane too. And let¡¯s not forget about David and Vincent. All of you will be my brothers. And I couldn¡¯t be happier about that.¡±


    ¡°At least you have some sisters in there too then.¡± Falena came to hug me next. ¡°If you have to have my numb-skulled husband for a brother, then you need all the sisters you can get.¡±


    ¡°Baby!?¡± Shaneughed at her as he pushed her aside for a hug next. ¡°I am not a numb-skull.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t mind being Trinity¡¯s sister. My kids have thought of her as their aunt for years.¡± Heather hugged me next.


    ¡°I am good with more family.¡± Rawlynne came up next. ¡°And who better than the queen herself.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s not forget about my wife, Lana. She is a sister to Trinity as well.¡± Griffin walked up onto the stage with his wife then.


    ¡°Can I be your sister too?¡± E ran up onto the stage with Devon. ¡°I want to be sisters with my best friend too.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t forget about her actual sister inws.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re her sisters first.¡± Emmalee and Nikki ran up beside me then.


    ¡°Uh uh, she is my sister first. I am her best friend. I am her truest of all sisters.¡± Juniper¡¯s voice was filled withughter, but I knew she was being serious.


    ¡°Me too!¡± Acacia was running toward us all.


    ¡°Hey, I count as a brother too.¡± Landon was running onto the stage with his mate Ava. ¡°And that means she is your sister.¡± He was always happy when I saw him now. He and his wife had been together since the battle with the Fae and they had two children now, Logan and Amelia.


    ¡°She has a big family. Lots of aunts and uncles for those kids of hers.¡± Trevor wasughing as he came up with Aunt Glory. She looked like she was about to pop, but Trevor was carrying her like a baby in his arms. ¡°Though some of the family dynamics get a little muddled at times.¡± He winked at me knowing that he was like a brother to me but also like my great great great great uncle because he was married to my great great great great aunt. It was not easy to figure out.


    I loved having all of these people around me, but I didn¡¯t know why they had alle up here.


    ¡°What is going on? Why did you all run up here?¡± I wasughing at them and their excited behavior.


    ¡°We all just love you and really missed you, Trinity. This is the first time that you have left the royal tower in months, and we wanted to mark this asion.¡± Mom was smiling as she came up next. Dad was with her along with L, Grandfather, Noah, Carter, Athair m¨°r and Daciana.


    ¡°We wanted to get everyone who counted themselves as your family together and take onerge picture before the babies got here. And we will do it again after theye.¡± Dad was exining things to me that I didn¡¯t know they had nned. ¡°They all want to be in this with you, and I don¡¯t me them.¡±


    ¡°You guys?¡± I was on the verge of tears. ¡°OK, then I want to have a really big portrait made so that I can hang it up. I want to be able to show off my family, all of them.¡±


    ¡°I think that a lot of us would be wanting a copy of this picture.¡± Riley said, thest one to make it on the stage with his wife Katie.


    After that, all of us gathered around, with me in the middle. The picture was a big one and the photographer, who happened to be a pack member, took it in many different ways at first. There was a panoramic photo, a photo from a high vantage point, a super wide angle lens photo, and a couple of more. I couldn¡¯t wait to see how they turned out so that I could pick one to be made into a portrait for my wall.


    Finally, now that everyone was done with their little excitement, it was time for us to start enjoying the baby shower. And the first thing that I wanted was the same thing that I wanted at my first ever baby shower. I wanted to get some food. I was starving and it all smelled so delicious. I needed to get some of that into my system as soon as I could.


    The boys wanted some food too. They were kicking and moving around so much that I thought they were going to burst out of me and gobble the food down themselves. The hungry little devils.


    Calling them that made meugh because of what I used to call them before I knew who and what they were. I used to think that they were imps. Little devils that were there to trick me and hurt me. And obviously, they still had some very devilish qualities to them.


    ¡°Calm down, Mommy will get something to eat.¡± I said as I rubbed my belly.


    ¡°You too?¡± Dacianaughed. ¡°I swear this one is hungry all the time.¡±


    ¡°Mine too. I never knew how much I was going to have to eat when I was pregnant with twins. Now I know, though. And they¡¯re just as hungry right now.¡± Aunt Gloryughed and then grabbed her belly. ¡°Uhhnn. They¡¯re so active when they¡¯re hungry.¡± Sheughed it off so we all just went to get something to eat.


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 Chapter 775

    Chapter 775: Chapter 192- Trinity ¨C Baby Shower Part 3 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece, Trevor and Athair m¨°r went to collect food for me, Aunt Glory and Daciana. We three pregnantdies were too hungry to do anything until we got some food into us. Thankfully, our men understood that and knew just how to appease us and the beasts within.


    Reece came back with a heaping te of food that had a little bit of everything that Abigail and the rest of the kitchen staff had prepared for us.


    ¡°Oh Reece, this looks amazing. Thank you!¡± I think my eyes got as big as that dinner te that he was carrying. And when Trevor and Athair m¨°r came back as well, they were holding simr tes for their wives.


    ¡°Trevvy! This is so good!¡± Aunt Glory sighed in relief as she put the first bite into her mouth. ¡°Oh yes, this hits the spot. I needed this so much.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Me too!¡± Daciana said as she too took the first bite. ¡°Delicious food in my belly so the baby stops pounding my belly with his feet.¡±


    ¡°I know what you mean, my little devils have been threatening to tear their way out just so that they could eat something.¡± Iughed and took my first bite.


    ¡°Ever wonder how they talk about our babies?¡± Reece asked Trevor and Athair m¨°r. ¡°They¡¯re calling them devils and acting like they are annoying and all that. Are we going to let them do that?¡± I could hear theughter in his voice. He wasn¡¯t really upset or anything like that.


    ¡°Yup!¡± Athair m¨°r nodded at him.


    ¡°You betcha.¡± Trevor followed suit.


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right. There is nothing that we can do about it, is there?¡± Reeceughed and walked off to mingle with some other people. Athair m¨°r and Trevor tagging along with him.


    ¡°Those boys, I swear.¡± Dacianaughed.


    ¡°I know, they¡¯re so over the top sometimes.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re telling me. Ha ha ha. I have been married the longest, I know how husbands can be.¡±


    The three of us were eating and talking among ourselves for a while. After a little while, we ended up getting some peopleing up to us to say hi to the queen. They were happy to be meeting with Queen Gloriana and Princess Daciana as well. All three of us were royals and pregnant so that made us extra special in the eyes of my people.


    The ones that came up to us were not that bad. They just wanted to tell me how happy they were that I was back and how much in awe they were because of me. It was actually kind of nice talking to some normal people for once.


    Even after we were done eating, we didn¡¯t move from the table. The dishes were cleared away and we were just sitting there sipping our drinks and talking, but we didn¡¯t see the need to get up and go anywhere else. We were pregnant and tired, and even though this party was for me, most of the people just wanted to be able to see me. And my friends and family were wee toe see me at any time that they wanted to.


    Yeah, I know that was wrong of me. I was at my baby shower and I was just sitting and eating food and talking to people. But it wasn¡¯t like I could walk around and mingle. I was stuck in this chair. So, theming to me was for the best, right?


    Right when I thought that the games were going to get started there was a scream that cut across the ballroom.


    That scream hade from Aunt Glory. She was doubled over in pain and holding her belly.


    ¡°Ahhh! Huuu!¡± She was hissing in pain at the same moment that Trevor sprinted across the ballroom floor and skidded to a halt on his knees next to his wife.


    ¡°Glory, baby, what is wrong?!¡± I could see the fear and the worry in his eyes. ¡°What is happening!?¡±


    ¡°W..well, i..i..it looks l..l..like th..th..the tw..tw..twins w...w..want to c..crash T..T..Trinity¡¯s p..party.¡±


    The moment that those words were out of Aunt Glory¡¯s mouth, there was a sttering sound under the table. I knew what that meant. Her water had just broken. She was inbor.


    ¡°I..I..I guess th..that so..some of th..those p..pains we..we..weren¡¯t just fr..fr..from me b..be..being hun..hun..hungry.¡± She was having a hard time talking past the pain of the contractions.


    ¡°Th..the babies areing today?¡± Trevor grinned at his wife. ¡°They¡¯reing right now?¡± He was so excited to be a father again.


    ¡°Y..y...yes Trevor, th..th..they are.¡± Aunt Glory hissed again and held her belly a little more tightly. ¡°T..Tr..Tr..Trinity, I..I am s..s..so s..s..sorry t..to r..ru..ruin your p..p..party.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it at all, Aunt Glory. I am so happy and excited right now. I can¡¯t wait to meet the babies. I just know that they are going to be so cute. And Torben gets to be a big brother. It¡¯s so sweet.¡±


    ¡°Trinity is right, Gloriana. We are not upset at all.¡± Reece spoke from behind me. ¡°Come on now, let¡¯s get you to a room upstairs. GRIFFIN!¡± He yelled for the man but he was already heading for the door.


    ¡°I¡¯M ON MY WAY UPSTAIRS REECE! I WILL GET READY AHEAD OF GLORIANA¡¯S ARRIVAL! SEE YOU SOON!¡± Lana was following after him with a grin on her face. She loved when they delivered babies because she just loved children so much. It was the sweetest thing in the world for her and I was happy to have her here for it.


    ¡°Alright then,e on upstairs. Let¡¯s get Gloriana settled into a room so she can deliver.¡±


    Gloriana, being Fae, didn¡¯t like hospitals all that much. She would prefer to deliver here at the house and we all knew that. It wasn¡¯t like when I was going to deliver. I would be going to the hospital because I didn¡¯t distrust or dislike them at all. But Aunt Glory was set in her ways. After all, she was over a thousands of years old.


    Trevor carried Aunt Glory out of the room, all while she was yelling at him.


    ¡°You¡¯re going to get dirty. Don¡¯t carry me.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t care. I¡¯m carrying you. I will change when we get upstairs.¡± They were adorable to watch as they headed up the stairs.


    ¡°That¡¯s the same as we are, you know that, right?¡± Reece whispered to me as we got into the elevator to go up the stairs. Trevor had been too impatient to wait for it to arrive.


    ¡°Yes, I know that. Honestly, I think that you would be worse than Trevor is right now.¡± Iughed at him.


    ¡°Can you me me? Look at all the things that you have gotten yourself into over thest nine years. I have plenty of reasons to flip out and go overboard when ites to you.¡± He wasughing even though what he was saying waspletely true.


    ¡°I never intended for any of that, though. You know that.¡± I had to defend myself.


    ¡°I know.¡± Heughed again as the elevator dinged. He was getting off at the eighth floor. This was where family and friends had their rooms in our royal tower. And it was, of course, where Aunt Glory was going to deliver her twins today.


    ¡°Quite a turn of events that today took, huh?¡± I asked him with excitement in my voice.


    ¡°Yup. But don¡¯t get any ideas. Keep our babies in there as long as you can.¡± His voice held an edge which I knew was there just because he was worried about the babies. He was such a big softy when it came to our kids that I knew he had to have been so worried this entire pregnancy.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry I won¡¯t have them until they are ready toe out. They will let me know when it¡¯s time.¡±


    ¡°No, you will leave them in until Griffin says it¡¯s time.¡± Heughed and I joined him. We both knew that Griffin wasn¡¯t any more capable of making that happen than I was.


    Aunt Glory was settled into the room and I went to see her right away. I wanted to be in the room with her when the babies were born, but Griffin told me that it wasn¡¯t a good idea. I was forced to leave the room and wait for the beautiful little babies to get here. That was not nice at all. I mean, didn¡¯t Griffin know how much I was looking forward to this? Didn¡¯t he know how much I loved babies? Especially babies that were part of my family.


    ¡°Just deal with it.¡± Reeceughed at me as he wheeled me out of the makeshift delivery room. ¡°There is nothing that you can do about it. But, if you want, I can get you some dessert.¡± He was trying to be helpful.


    ¡°Fine. Get me something with raspberries and that¡¯s frozen.¡± I crossed my arms and pouted a little bit.


    ¡°If you wanted raspberry sorbet, then you should just ask for it.¡± He shook his head and pushed me toward the table.


    ¡°It could be anything really. As long as it had raspberries and was frozen.¡± I countered his words.


    ¡°Yes, but what you really want is raspberry sorbet. I know what you want. I will be right back.¡±


    With that, Reece kissed my head and left me in the room. I was bored and had nothing to do until he got back with my sweet treat. And all I really wanted was to be with Aunt Glory and Trevor while they weed their twins.


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 Chapter 776

    Chapter 776: Chapter 193- Trinity ¨C Baby Shower Part 4 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was still on the eighth floor. The room that Aunt Glory was in just feet away from me while Reece went to get my dessert. I didn¡¯t think that anything could happen that was going to make me feel happy or excited until Trevor came out here to tell me that Aunt Glory had given birth to their little baby.


    Well, I would have been wrong then, wouldn¡¯t I? Because just moments after Reece left, someone came running out of the elevator with something in their arms. It seemed to me like this person was in a panic too.


    That was about when I realized that the person running was Athair m¨°r. And that the thing in his arms was Daciana. I guess the excitement of the day got to her. She was due in two and a half weeks while Aunt Glory¡¯s due date was actually tomorrow.


    ¡°Well, I guess this is going to be a busy day for Griffin and Lana.¡± I grinned at Athair m¨°r as he ran toward me.


    .....


    ¡°Where is Griffin? Which room? I need to have him help Daci too!¡±


    ¡°I know, Athair m¨°r. I can see that.¡± Iughed at him and his urgency. ¡°Go to the second door on the right. That one is empty. I will send Griffin over soon.¡±


    I started to push myself away from the table and toward the room that Aunt Glory was in. I knocked lightly but then pushed the door open. I wasn¡¯t going to be a brat and go into the room, but I needed them to hear me at least.


    ¡°Griffin!¡± I called out to him.


    ¡°Trinity, I told you not toe in here.¡± He snapped at me.


    ¡°Oh, I know that. That is why I am not in there. However, I have a message for you.¡± As I told him this, I was already making a door from this room to the next one. It was goingpletely unnoticed by them all though. They were a little busy getting Aunt Glory settled into the bed and hooked up to the monitors.


    ¡°And what might that message be?¡± He looked up at me with curious eyes.


    ¡°Oh, just that Daciana is in the room next door to this one. She¡¯s inbor as well.¡±


    ¡°WHAT!?¡±


    ¡°WHAT!?¡±


    ¡°WHAT!?¡±


    ¡°WHAT!?¡± That word was echoed four times by Griffin, Lana, Trevor and Aunt Glory. They were all in shock.


    ¡°Yes, I sent her in there with Athair m¨°r. And I made a nice convenient door for you to go between rooms. It¡¯s right over there. Now, take care of my family, please. I can¡¯t wait to meet these babies.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sure thing Trinity.¡± Lana grinned.


    ¡°Looks like it¡¯s going to get busy here, sweetheart.¡± Griffin added as he looked at her.


    ¡°Yup. But that is fine.¡± Lana was even more happy. There was yet another baby that she was going to get to see soon.


    I rolled myself away from the door and was on my way back to the table when Reece came off the stairs.


    ¡°TRINITY!¡± He snapped at me.


    ¡°You¡¯re lucky I knew you were here. If you would have scared me then I might have gone intobor too.¡± I grinned at him. ¡°I don¡¯t think that Griffin could handle that many at once.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± Reece looked at me awkwardly as he pushed the wheelchair back to the table and set a ss jar filled with homemade raspberry sorbet on it in front of me.


    ¡°Well, Athair m¨°r came running up a few minutes ago. He had Daciana in his arms and she is inbor as well. It looks like it¡¯s going to be a busy afternoon for Griffin and Lana.¡±


    I thought it was wonderful. These babies, cousins that they were, would share a birthday. That would bond them in another way and make them almost like triplets. Like my uing babies. I just thought that it was going to be something really nice and sweet for them to share.


    I know that I said that I didn¡¯t want the triplet to be born on the same day as Reagan and Rika, but that was different. That was taking a day that was for the twins and making them share it with their three brothers. These three babies though, they would share it from birth and would not any other way than how it was now.


    ¡°Well, Trinity, this was another exciting baby shower. However, I can honestly say that this one is a lot better than the one for Reagan and Rika. I do not, and I repeat, DO NOT, want to go back to the hospital with you after another baby shower. I do not, in any way shape or form, want you to get sick and look like you are going to die like you did back then.¡± He was still scarred from that, obviously.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Reece.¡± That was all that I could say right now.


    ¡°Oh no, what are you going to do now?¡± He clearly thought that I was nning on repeating history.


    ¡°Ha ha ha, I am not nning anything Reece. I am just apologizing for what happened back then. You need to stop worrying about me so much. I am fine and I am not going to let anything happen to me or our babies.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡±


    The moment was tense, but I knew the reason why. He just wanted to make sure that everyone was cared for and safe. As I thought about that, I finally took the first bite of my sorbet. It was so good. I couldn¡¯t help it when I moaned with delight.


    ¡°Mhmmmm.¡±


    ¡°That was obscene.¡± He chuckled. ¡°But expected.¡±


    ¡°Good. I¡¯m d you expected it. If you didn¡¯t, then you clearly don¡¯t know me at all.


    ¡°I know you just fine.¡± He winked at me then and I almost choked on my dessert.


    ¡°Hey, Reece, can I ask you something?¡± I had a sudden thought, something that had been bothering me for thest couple of days.


    ¡°About what?¡±


    ¡°The middle names you chose for the babies. They all have the same first initial and two of them have the same middle initial. Why did you make one of them different?¡± This had been confusing me for days. I just didn¡¯t know why he had done it.


    ¡°Oh, that. Ha ha ha.¡± I was starting to get worried now. What was so funny about it?


    ¡°Well, you see, one of them has to zag while the others zig.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± I was lost. He wasn¡¯t making any sense.


    ¡°You know, Zander Ian gray and Zayden Issac Gray are zig and Zachary Aaron Gray is zag.¡±


    ¡°Oh my fucking goddess. Are you kidding me? You chose their middle names so that they would be zig and zag with their initials. Really! That is just insane.¡± Despite my words I wasughing. He had pulled a fast one on me. And now I was set in stone naming them those specific names since I had announced them to the public already.


    ¡°Yeah. Isn¡¯t it cute? Zig, zig, zag. It¡¯s perfect.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re an idiot.¡± I was stillughing so my insult wasn¡¯t as powerful as it could be. ¡°I really can¡¯t believe you. I mean, you put so much thought into the names for the other kids, that I didn¡¯t think you would do this to our boys.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but I only had to choose the middle names. But it¡¯s not bad. I mean Zachary Aaron will basically mean God remembers the exalted and strong. Zander Ian would mean the defender of men is gracious. And Zayden Issac would meanughter and fire.¡±


    ¡°That makes it sound like Zayden is going to be a pyromaniac.¡± I red at him. ¡°Did you look these up in advance?¡± I asked him if he nned it or if it was just a coincidence.


    ¡°No. I looked them up after I told you the middle names. But they work out. And the fire andughter doesn¡¯t mean he will be a pyro. He could be passionate and full ofughter.¡± He was trying to convince me that he didn¡¯t just doom my son to the setting of fires.


    ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s hope so.¡± I shook my head at him.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. No one will notice the zig zags unless we tell them.¡± He clearly thought that it was funny.


    The two of us sat there for a while, sharing my sorbet and talking like we used to a long time ago. After about an hour or so, Trevor came out of the room that he and Aunt Glory had been in.


    ¡°Hey!¡± He was grinning from ear to ear. ¡°We have our twins. One boy named Owen and one little girl named Calissa. They are perfect and beautiful. You cane in and see them soon. Lana is just cleaning them up.¡±


    Just after Trevor finished saying this, Athair m¨°r walked out of the other room.


    ¡°It¡¯s a boy. We have a son named Calix.¡± I knew that Daciana had suspected that it was a boy, but they didn¡¯t want anyone to tell them what it was until he was born. It looks to me like she was right.


    ¡°Congrattions. To the both of you. And the mothers as well.¡± I was so happy. After they told me the babies¡¯ names, I went in to see them. And that was what I did for the rest of the evening pretty much. Even Reagan, Rika and Talia came in to see the babies.


    ¡°Mommy, babies are so small.¡± Taliamented with a cute little smile. ¡°I can¡¯t wait until our babies are here.¡±


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 Chapter 777

    Chapter 777: Chapter 194- Reece ¨C Finalizing The Nursery (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    For thest two weeks, I have been working on the nursery in between work and being with my wife. Yesterday, Gloriana and Daciana had their babies. It made me realize how little time we had left until Trinity was going to be delivering our three boys. That meant that I needed to make sure that this room was ready.


    Ever since Talia graduated to having a big girl bedroom of her own, there was no need for the nursery to be used. Now though, we needed to have it ready for three babies at once. This time we needed three cribs, three chests of drawers, three dressers, three wardrobes, three toy boxes, three of everything.


    I was almost done with the entire room. The paint jobs had been touched up so that it all looked like new. Even the glow in the dark paint that I used for the constetions was redone so that they would shine brightly again.


    I touched up the trees in the forest mural and put in all the new furniture. I bought lots of little baby boy clothes, nkets and toys. I got everything ready as quickly as I could. I wanted this room to be perfect for us and for my babies.


    .....


    While I was finalizing most of the stuff, I had a visitore to see me. They just walked right in like they owned the ce. Then again, I was used to them doing that by now.


    ¡°Hey there, thunder from peanut butter.¡± Juniper said in her joking tone.


    ¡°I don¡¯t even know how to respond to that one.¡± I shook my head at her while I continued to put the clothes in their proper ces.


    ¡°You know, thunder from down under, but you¡¯ve got candy pants that are full of Reece¡¯s peanut butter. Come on, it may not have been my best work yet, but it wasn¡¯t that hard to get.¡± She was shaking her head now and sighing as if I ruined a perfectly good sexual joke aimed at me and the candy.


    ¡°OK, I get it now.¡± Iughed and humored her. ¡°What is it, Juniper? Did you need something?¡± I asked her as I looked over my shoulder.


    ¡°Well, for one thing, I have never seen you looking so domesticated.¡± She was watching me with the clothes for the boys. ¡°And for two, I wanted to ask you something.¡±


    ¡°Ask me what?¡± I finished with the stack of onesies that I had been putting away and turned to look at her. ¡°What do you want?¡±


    ¡°Well, I want to do something for Trinity. She supported my art so much when we were younger. She has always known how much of a passion it was for me. So, now that you are redoing the nursery, or at least updating it, I wanted to add my own contribution.¡± I couldn¡¯t believe what she was asking for. This was actually decent and selfless.


    ¡°What kind of contribution are you thinking about?¡± I was still wary though. I didn¡¯t know what she was wanting to do.


    ¡°I want to paint a mural. I know that there is one that you did, and it¡¯s amazing.¡± She pointed at the trees andplemented the art that I had done years ago. ¡°B..but, well, I want to make a mural of your family. You, Trinity, Reagan, Rika, Talia, Zachary, Zander and Zayden. All of you. It will be a true family portrait. And before you say anything, Trinity told me what the boys look like.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I know what they look like too.¡± I smiled at the memory of the little boys that I had seen on the screen before Trinity came home. ¡°And I think that is an amazing idea, Juniper. I think that Trinity would love it for one thing. And for another, I am happy that you suggested it. That will make it mean that much more for us.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t get all teary eyed on me now, or I will have to say you¡¯ve gone all Reecey eyed. You know, instead of weepy eyed.¡±


    ¡°Your jokes are horrible today.¡± Iughed at her. ¡°That one stunk so bad that I could actually smell it.¡±


    ¡°Oh, look who has jokes today. And I am sorry that they¡¯re not good today. I was nervous about asking you about all of this in the first ce.¡± She really had been nervous. I don¡¯t know why, but she had been.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be nervous, Juniper. If you do, your sap might leak out. Then we could all be in for a sticky situation.¡± I cracked another stupid joke at her.


    ¡°Ha ha. That was so hrious.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± We bothughed about the stupidness. ¡°Give me a minute. I am almost done touching up the trees. Then we can go out for the paints that you will need.¡±


    ¡°I..I already got them.¡± She looked away sheepishly.


    ¡°Well then, I guess it¡¯s a good thing that I said yes.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I knew you would.¡± She said the words confidently, but she was still nervous. I could see it and smell it in the air. Had might have been hoping that I said yes, and suspected it even. However, she didn¡¯t know for sure that yes would be my answer. ¡°I am going to get my things together.¡± She jabbed her thumb back over her shoulder, indicating the hallway.


    ¡°Yeah, sure. Go ahead.¡±


    She got everything and started to get to work. I slowly watched it all start to take shape. The outlines that she was making and then the color started to take shape. She moved fast for an artist. But she was semi professional at this. She wasn¡¯t just learning to do something for the first time.


    I was done with my painting long before she was done with hers. She was still working hard on the mural, which was taking up about a quarter of thatrge open wall that she had chosen.


    I still had some things that I needed to take care of. I needed to get the customized name signs that I ordered for the boys, one for each of their names. I was going to be hanging them on the wall above their cribs. It wouldn¡¯t just be a way to identify them, I was sure that Trinity and I would know how to tell the three of them apart without the names above their beds. It¡¯s just that the name signs were a tradition for us.


    While Juniper worked, I hung the signs and then made the beds. I got the rocking chairs in just the right spot so that they would be perfect for seeing all the beds at once as well as not getting too much light so that the babies would be able to sleep. I think that it was all going perfectly well.


    By the time that I was done, Juniper was about half finished with her mural. She told me she would stick around and work on it some more tonight ande back tomorrow to finish it. She wanted to get it done before the boys got here.


    ¡°Yeah, sure, no problem at all, Juniper.¡± I agreed and went to bed. I didn¡¯t go to the nursery in the morning. I wanted to let her finish her work in peace. And I wanted to be surprised by the finished product. I wasn¡¯t going to see it at all until Trinity was able to see it.


    I stayed out of the nursery all day that day. And the next one as well. I thought that Juniper had been half done, but it turns out that she had a lot more to do than I realized. This long dy though, was getting to me. I was anxious to see the mural.


    Finally, on the fourth day, Juniper texted me to let me know that the mural was done and that I should probably bring Trinity down to see it right away.


    ¡°Trinity, Little Bunny, do you want to see the nursery now?¡± I asked her as she sat in the bed to read a book. She had been following Griffin¡¯s orders this pregnancy and was not getting up or moving around all that much. I think that it was also partially due to the fact that she looked twice as big as when she was pregnant with the twins. These boys of ours were very big.


    ¡°What was that?¡± She looked up at me as she put a bookmark into her page.


    ¡°Do you want to go down and see the nursery now?¡± I asked her again and watched the light fill her eyes.


    I don¡¯t think anyone would believe me when I told them the amount of joy that went into my wife¡¯s face at that moment. The way that her eyes opened extra wide or the way that the smile spread across her face. I don¡¯t think that they would be able to picture just how bright she looked, like a light was shining on her from somewhere up above.


    It was like something ethereal had just happened to my Little Bunny. Something that was above and beyond the everyday normal. This was special. This was amazing. This was what true love and happiness was able to get you.


    ¡°It¡¯s finished?¡± She asked me, the shock still there in her face. ¡°I..I didn¡¯t think that it would be finished today since you didn¡¯t go down there today.¡±


    ¡°Well, Little Bunny, someone else was doing something for me. Now that they are done, I want to take you there to see it.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Reece. I can¡¯t wait to see it. Please, lets go now.¡±


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 Chapter 778

    Chapter 778: Chapter 195- Trinity ¨C Finalizing The Nursery Part 2 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece had just asked me if I wanted to see the nursery. Of course, I did. It was something that I had been looking forward to. I had been waiting to see what he was changing about it and why it was taking him so long.


    I hoped that he hadn¡¯t changed too much because I loved the way that he had done it before. However, even if it was apletely different nursery, I was sure that it was going to look beautiful. Reece really did have a knack for things like this.


    ¡°Come on, Little Bunny.¡± He said as he came over to me. He was lifting me up and taking me to my wheelchair. It was getting hard for him to carry now too. Not that I weighed too much, that would never happen with the world¡¯s strongest man being your mate. No, the reason that it was awkward was because my belly was so big that it was hard for me to sit in his arms properly. I really was huge. But I didn¡¯t mind. This was all for the sake of my babies. I would do anything for them. I would make sure that they grew big and strong inside my tummy before I let them out. They were going to be the strongest triplets in the world.


    When Reece sat me in my wheelchair, making sure that I was buckled up as well, he started to take me toward the door and the elevator. I was so eager and excited to see what was waiting for me. I was excited to see where our babies were going to be sleeping when they slept in their own room. However, we did still need to get basss in our room, for those first few weeks.


    .....


    I swear that the elevator ride down took forever. Even though it was just one floor that we were descending, it felt like it took at least ten minutes. I know that it didn¡¯t. But I was so excited that I just couldn¡¯t help it. I was too impatient and anxious right now.


    Finally, we had arrived on the floor with all of the kids¡¯ rooms. I knew right where we were going, and Reece was pushing me in that direction. I was happy about it. I was also excited and nervous, and maybe a little but scared. I just wanted to see how the room had changed since Ist saw it.


    I waited with bated breath as the door opened in front of me. And I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that the original nursery was intact.


    The first thing that I noticed was that the colors were vibrant again. It was clear that Reece had repainted the room. Well, not exactly. He had touched it up with the same color that he had usedst time. The yellow and the green were perfectly new. The forest was pristine, all of it.


    The next thing that I noticed was that there was all new furniture. They were all matching sets of the cribs, changing table, dresser, chest of drawers and wardrobe. And there were three of each of them. There were even toy boxes that we could fill as the boys got older.


    There were two rocking chairs and gliding ottomans in the middle of the room. And I was happy to see they were the same rocking chairs from when Reagan and Rika were born. They had been cleaned and all that, but they were the same exact ones.


    ¡°Reece, it looks absolutely amazing.¡± I sobbed out as I looked at the opened closet doors and saw all the baby clothes on the other side. ¡°Thank you so much, Reece. Just, thank you.¡± I was now looking at the name signs about the cribs. We had done it with Reagan and Rika and then again with Talia. They were a tradition for us.


    ¡°Ahem.¡± I heard Juniper¡¯s voice as she cleared her throat. I had been so focused on the rest of the room that I hadn¡¯t really noticed that she was there. That was when I noticed arge sheet covering part of the wall. That just goes to show what you can miss in such arge space.


    ¡°Juniper. What¡¯s going on? Is something wrong with the wall?¡± I was worried that something might have happened before Reece came to get me.


    ¡°No, Trinity. Nothing at all is wrong.¡± She smiled at me. ¡°I just have something to show you.¡± For some reason, she was looking nervous and excited at the same time.


    ¡°We¡¯re ready, Juniper.¡± Reece said, obviously being more prepared for this than I was. OK, now I was getting more nervous. What was going on here?


    ¡°What is this, Juniper? What¡¯s going on?¡±


    ¡°Well, Trinity, I wanted to do something for you. So, I asked Reece¡¯s permission and I have been working on this for a little while now.¡±


    It was at that moment that I realized that Juniper was wearing old dirty clothes that were covered in paint and frayed. It was what she usually wore when she was painting.


    ¡°Wait a minute, Juniper. You...you¡¯re wearing your painting clothes.¡± I put a hand over my mouth as I started to realize what this meant for me. ¡°Wh..what did you do? Oh my Goddess, Juniper. D..did you paint something? Di..did you paint the babies¡¯ room? I..I don¡¯t know what to say. Thank you, Juniper. Thank you so much.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha.¡± She was acting like I had just told her a very funny joke. ¡°You can¡¯t thank me yet. I mean, you haven¡¯t seen it yet. What if it looks like shit? Would you want to thank me for shitty work?¡±


    ¡°OK, for one, you painted it, Juniper, so I am going to be happy. Two, even if it did look like shit, I would be happy because you put your time and effort into painting this for me. And three, there is no way in hell that it would look like shit because you painted it. I know what a talented artist you are.¡±


    ¡°A..alright now. E..enough of that. H..how about I show you this painting now?¡± She looked nervous but I knew that she was going to show me a masterpiece.


    ¡°Yes, please.¡±


    At that moment, Juniper pulled the sheet down that was blocking the wall. She had actually chosen one that was very close to the same color as the wall itself so that was why I didn¡¯t notice it at first.


    However, the moment that the sheet was gone, I felt my jaw drop in awe. She had painted something that was so magnificent and breathtaking that I was nearly put into shock over it. It was almost beyond description.


    Before me on the wall was a mural that was painted with so much detail and care that I never would have imagined it was painted. There were me, Reece, Reagan, Rika, Talia, and all three of our little baby boys, Zachary, Zander and Zayden. We were sitting on a mountain top with the clouds and open sky behind us. Reagan, Rika, and Talia were all standing so that they could look at the babies that were in mine and Reece¡¯s arms. I was holding one baby and Reece was holding two.


    The detail that was in the faces, the lines, the clothing, everything, it was all just perfection.


    ¡°Juniper, this is marvelous. I don¡¯t know what else to say. It¡¯s just that, it¡¯s so beautiful. I can¡¯t thank you enough for doing this for me. Thank you. Thank you so much.¡±


    ¡°I am so d that you like it, Trinity. I wanted to do this for you and your family. You have always been there for me, and I wanted to show you that I love you, all of you, very much. Yes, candy pants, that means you too.¡± Juniper was almost crying, and to stop herself from actually doing it, she made a joke instead.


    ¡°Thanks for that, sap for brains. I love you too.¡± Reece quipped in a way that I had never heard before.


    ¡°Aww, look, you two learned to y nice at some point.¡± I was joking as well, since I knew that they were always nice to each other, they just made jokes like this all the time.


    ¡°Yeah, I guess you being in aa made us learn to appreciate the small things in life. Like the sight of a nice perfectly formed cloud, or the smile on your enemies face when youpliment them.¡± Juniper was still joking right now, and it was making meugh so hard.


    ¡°S..st..stop!¡± I tried to force the words out.


    ¡°Ohe on, that wasn¡¯t even funny.¡± Sheughed at the way that I wasughing. ¡°I guess those hormones really are getting to you.¡± She was basically making fun of me now. This went on for a little while until I was in danger of peeing my pants and Reece had no choice but to take me back to our room so that I could use the bathroom.


    I will admit, it was an interesting part of my day, but at least I got to see thepleted nursery. And it was fantastic. I was happy that Reece didn¡¯t change the design and that he just updated it. I would be so happy to go in there and rock the boys to sleep now. I was going back to something familiar after all. And it was the design that my sweet, sweet husband made for us.


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 Chapter 779

    Chapter 779: Chapter 196- Trinity ¨C Time Passing Part 2 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Just under two weeks after the baby shower, and the unexpected delivery of Calissa, Owen and Calix, it was time for us to celebrate the birthdays for Reagan and Rika. They got their individual celebrations with the family and then they got a joint party for celebrating with everyone else. This, here, is what I was meaning when I said that they shared a day. Their actual birthdays were on different days, but they still shared their birthday parties. They already shared this special day with each other, so I didn¡¯t want them to have to share it yet again.


    Still, as we got closer to the big day for the twins, I couldn¡¯t help but fear the boys were going toe on the thirtieth of November or the first of December. I would make do if they were born on one of those days, but I would prefer for them to stay in a little longer. I wanted to get closer to my due date.


    Also, I was nervous about what I was going to give to Reagan and Rika for their big days. I wasn¡¯t able to go shopping. I wasn¡¯t keeping up with things that well. I didn¡¯t know what they would want.


    I had an idea, but it wasn¡¯t something that they would be getting now. It was more of something that I was going to give them after the babies were born. Something that I think they would be ted to get from me right about now.


    .....


    I decided to resort to my roots and do something that I hadn¡¯t done for the kids ever. I got some crafting things brought to me and I spent several hours making beautiful, handmade birthday cards for the two of them. I wrote out what the gift was and folded it up inside of the cards.


    I made sure that the cards included things that they liked. Reagan was still very much into cars and nature while Rika still loved animals of all types. I made the cards sparkly and cool and definitely fun. I personally loved them and hoped that the two of them would too.


    When the big day for the party came around. It was a joint party, but it was still customized so that they both got what they wanted in it. There were three cakes, one for them to blow out the candles on together and one for each of them to blow the candles out on their own. Rika¡¯s cake was carrot cake, because that was her favorite. Reagan¡¯s cake was strawberry because he preferred that one over anything else. And the joint cake was half chocte and half vani. That way there were vors enough for each of them and all of their friends from school.


    Speaking of the friends from school, they had invited almost all of the kids in the elementary school to the party, and that meant that Talia¡¯s friends were there as well. I was happy that they had so many people that they were close to, but there was a drawback right now. And that was that they were so busy with those friends that they didn¡¯t seem to need us anymore.


    ¡°Ahh, you¡¯re feeling it now too.¡± Noah came over to me and put his hand on my shoulder. ¡°Elias is doing the same thing. Even at his party. He didn¡¯t want me or Nikki, all he wanted was to hang out with his friends. It¡¯s butt wrenching, isn¡¯t it?¡± I turned to look up at him and saw the sadness in his eyes. He may not sound sad at the moment, but this was hard on him.


    ¡°Hey, at least you have another one on the way.¡± Iughed it off but knew that wasn¡¯t any sort of constion.


    ¡°Yeah, I know. But there is nothing that hurts more than losing that first one. Or in your case, the two first ones.¡±


    ¡°Gee, thanks for that, Noah. That was really helpful right now.¡± I tried to hide how heartbroken I was right now. It wasn¡¯t necessarily anything that was causing it. It was mainly just pregnancy hormones that were making me feelpletely out of whack.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, baby sis. I didn¡¯t mean to bring you down. It just made me sad all over again. They¡¯re growing up. They don¡¯t need us anymore do they.¡±


    ¡°I will always need my momma.¡± I heard Reagan¡¯s voice from the other side of my brother.


    ¡°Huh?¡± I saw my brother start and look around to see my children all standing there waiting for me.


    ¡°I said I will always need my momma.¡± Reagan repeated the words.


    ¡°And I will need my mom always.¡± Rika added.


    ¡°I don¡¯t ever want to be without my mommy.¡± Talia added in the end.


    ¡°I know you will. That wasn¡¯t exactly what I meant.¡± Noah tried to figure it all out, how to exin it to them. ¡°You see, I was basically meaning that you guys are growing up so fast. It¡¯s not like when you were babies or toddlers. You¡¯re independent, grown up, capable. Those are all good things, don¡¯t get me wrong, but it makes mommies and daddies really sad. We end up missing those times when they¡¯re gone.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Rika was the one that acted like she knew what was going on first.


    ¡°Do you miss that, Uncle Noah?¡± Reagan looked inquisitive and sad.


    ¡°I do.¡± A tear streaked down my brother¡¯s face then as he looked off in the distance, presumably toward his son Elias.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Uncle Noah. But I know that E loves you very much.¡± Rika hugged him then and did her best tofort him.


    ¡°Thank you, sweetheart. That means a lot to me.¡±


    ¡°Alright,e on, let¡¯s stop with all the waterworks. This is a party, we need to be having fun.¡± I smiled and tried to sound upbeat.


    ¡°Yeah.¡± Reagan grinned.


    ¡°Actually, Mom, we came over here because we wanted to ask if we could open your gift to us now. We don¡¯t want to wait.¡±


    ¡°Really? Mommy¡¯s isn¡¯t all that specialpared to the others.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re sure. Please Momma?¡± Reagan begged me and I saw that both he and Rika were really excited about this.


    ¡°Alright.¡±


    I reached into the bag that was attached to my wheelchair and pulled out therge sparkly envelopes. Both of them looked at them with awe in their eyes and wonder written on their faces.


    ¡°Mommy couldn¡¯t go shopping, but I thought that you would like to have these.¡± They took the envelopes from me then and opened them carefully. I could tell that they were trying their best not to rip the pretty envelopes to get to the gifts inside.


    There was more glitter and confetti inside the cards when they opened them. They saw that the cards were personalized by me and made to their specific tastes. And during all of this, I saw that they were smiling.


    After they read the little notes that I wrote them, telling them how much that I loved them and how I would always be there for them, they found the special little gift inside. It was just a small little piece of paper that was folded up, but it was written very artfully with calligraphy and border designs. It was also handmade by me.


    Written on that little piece of paper was basically the equivalent of an entry ticket. ¡®ADMIT ONE FOR A DATE WITH MOMMY¡¯. It went on to detail that they could choose anything that they wanted and that Mommy would spend the entire time with them.


    ¡°Mommy, this is amazing. A..a whole day with you?¡± Rika looked up all excited. ¡°For real?¡±


    ¡°Yes baby, this is for real. I want to make it up to you for being gone.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± I watched Talia lower her head in sadness when she heard what I had said.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, sweetheart. Mommy made one for you too.¡± I handed Talia a pink sparkly envelope with a personalized card and a Mommy date coupon in it as well.


    ¡°Thank you, Mommy.¡± Talia leapt forward and hugged my arm. Reagan and Rika also came in and hugged me as well.


    ¡°Hey, Rika.¡± Reagan called out to his sister.


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°If we share the cards, then we can have two days with Momma.¡±


    ¡°Ooh, that¡¯s right.¡± She smiled at him. ¡°I think that we should do just that.¡±


    ¡°C..can Ie with you on one of your joint days?¡± Talia looked sad at the exclusion she was feeling.


    ¡°Yes, you can. And I think I know just what to use it for.¡± I don¡¯t know what he was nning, but I know that it was going to be good. He was a smart little boy that had lots of ideas.


    The party continued. Reece spent most of the rest of it with me and we had a pretty good time. Mostly, we were just watching the kids have their fun. I guess this is what big kid parties were like. They truly didn¡¯t need us anymore, just like Noah had said.


    That was sad, though. I didn¡¯t want to see my babies not need me. However, it was a proud moment too. They were independent, strong, smart, and capable. They were definitely the best kids ever. All three of them were.


    ¡°Do you think we will raise the triplets to be such good kids too?¡± I asked Reece as we watched all the kids ying in their own little games.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see why not. We¡¯re not going to do anything differently. They will grow up and be fine kids, just like the others. But they will be themselves, so they will definitely be different as well.¡±


    ¡°I know. And I am looking forward to that too.¡±


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 Chapter 780

    Chapter 780: Chapter 197- Trinity ¨C Time Passing Part 3 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It was December now. The house was decorated for Christmas, and everyone was feeling festive. The kids were singing carols all the time. And I couldn¡¯t get enough of it all. Also, I was into my final month and each day that I made it now made my boys that much stronger. However, it also seemed to make them that much bigger too.


    I am serious, I felt that by the time it reached the fifteenth, my belly had doubled in size just since the month started. It was insane. Then again, the babies do gain the most over thest month. They were packing on the weight so that they would be stronger and healthier when they were born.


    I wasn¡¯t allowed to do much now. I couldn¡¯t even move my own wheelchair. Reece and Griffin were too afraid that I could go intobor at any time. I didn¡¯t think that it was that bad though, I only had like three weeks left until the boys were due. I had made it a lot further than anyone expected me to. And I was still determined to keep them in as long as I could. I was going to get them as strong as possible.


    I liked seeing how much everyone was enjoying the festive holiday season. I liked seeing the kids making handmade ornaments and going outside to build snowmen. I may not have liked that I couldn¡¯t participate, but I did like seeing the joy in my kids¡¯ eyes. That was gift enough for me.


    .....


    The days moved on in peace like that. One after the other, they steadily went by. And before I knew it, it was Christmas morning. I could tell that Reece was getting more and more paranoid by the day. He wasn¡¯t worried about the babies not being safe anymore, but was worried about me just randomly going intobor and him having to get me to the hospital in some sort of rush. He was worried about what might happen when he took me to the hospital. Basically, he was just being his usual worrywart self.


    I wasn¡¯t going to let his paranoia ruin my holiday though. I was going to enjoy the time that I was able to spend with my children before I had the babies. That was why I had Reece take me down to the dining room for the annual Christmas breakfast that we ate before presents were opened. Of course, you know he wanted me to stay in the bedroom and have breakfast brought to me, but I refused.


    ¡°I am going to enjoy this day, Reece. It¡¯s Christmas.¡± That was my answer when he tried to tell me to take it easy today. ¡°I am taking it easy. I am in my wheelchair and I am only spending time with the kids. It¡¯s not like I am dancing and swinging from the chandelier.¡±


    ¡°If you get defiant enough, you will. I know you.¡± Heughed when he said it, because we both knew that I wouldn¡¯t risk the babies like that.


    ¡°Oh hush, Fido.¡± Iughed at him. ¡°I think it might finally be time for me to use that choke chain I got you.¡± Iughed at the memory of your first Christmas together.


    ¡°Oh Goddess, don¡¯t remind me of that.¡± He wasughing at the memory as heined about it. ¡°I still can¡¯t believe you.¡±


    ¡°Me? You¡¯re the one that got me that stupid car with the Little Bunny license te. How could you!? That was mortifying. And it was the officially registered te, and it was in your name of course. So, I couldn¡¯t change it even though I wanted to. That was hell at the time.¡± We were bothughing now.


    ¡°Mommy? What are you and Daddyughing about?¡± Talia asked from next to me at the table.


    ¡°Oh nothing much, baby girl. We were just remembering our first Christmas together. It was a long time ago, but I still remember it quite clearly.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that was back when Mommy and Daddy were just starting to like each other, and we got each other some really funny gifts.¡± Reece added.


    ¡°I still have that bracelet too. I haven¡¯t worn it in a long time, but it¡¯s still there. I still have all the gifts that your daddy gave me. Well, all the ones that weren¡¯t food. I kept them all. Even the Jeep is down in the garage.¡± Thinking about it, I was proud to keep those things. They brought back such fond memories.


    We all talked as we finished breakfast. It was a good morning and we shared lots of memories.


    ¡°Oh, Reagan, Rika, when you were less than a month old, so exactly eight years ago, your dad tried to give you those powered cars for Christmas. Rika, yours was a princess carriage.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t like those.¡± She narrowed her eyes.


    ¡°I know that. I even told him that you might not like them as you got older. That was when he gave them to some other kids that we knew. He didn¡¯t want his precious Rika growing up to hate him.¡± That made the kidsugh, seeing what he had done and all.


    ¡°I never would have hated Daddy. If he got me a toy I didn¡¯t like, I would still be happy because he got me something in the first ce.¡±


    ¡°And that is why I am so d that you¡¯re my little girl.¡± Reece reached over and tousled her hair. ¡°You¡¯re so sweet. You all are.¡±


    After the meal, we all went into the living room for presents. I got pictures of the kids in front of the tree before the presents were opened. And Reece wanted to get some with me in it as well. That meant that I needed to turn it into a full family photo, so we set up the camera and got ready. It came out nice and I was happy that it was done for us.


    Present opening went well and then family came to visit us. All of ourrge extended family. Even Aunt Glory, Trevor, Athair m¨°r and Daciana came back. They had gone home just before the birthday partyst month, but they were back now. And of course, I insisted on holding the babies as much as I could.


    The whole family stayed for dinner and the rest of the gift exchange that we always did with each other. It was fun and I loved it, but I was getting a little tired. I wanted to take a nap halfway through the family meeting, but they were there through lunch and dinner. It was always such arge scale event.


    There was one thing that I did notice, something that was beginning to change. Well, for starters, Nikki was showing, but that wasn¡¯t the biggest surprise. No, the biggest one was that L was showing. We knew they were expecting, but seeing it was something else.


    ¡°So, Dad, am I getting a baby brother or a baby sister?¡± Dad asked Grandfather in a joking tone.


    ¡°We don¡¯t want to know. We want to be surprised. It will be more fun that way.¡±


    ¡°Are you excited, Grandfather?¡±


    ¡°I am. But I am also scared as hell, Trinity.¡± That was worth anotherugh for us all.


    The day was progressing nicely, but I was getting more and more tired. And when I grabbed my belly and hissed, Reece about had a heart attack.


    ¡°NOW?¡± He yelled across the room.


    ¡°No. It¡¯s just a Braxton Hicks. That¡¯s all. Not realbor.¡± I assured him with a calm voice.


    ¡°Are you sure? Maybe I should call Griffin just to be safe.¡±


    ¡°No, you don¡¯t have to. That¡¯s all it is.¡±


    ¡°He might have a point, Trinity. It¡¯s best to be safe, you know.¡± Mom looked worried but excited at the same time.


    ¡°Yeah, better safe than sorry sweetheart.¡± Dad agreed.


    It didn¡¯t matter anyway, Reece was already calling Griffin. And I knew just how it was going to end. This was going to be the day that I got put in the hospital until I went intobor or until they took the babies early. I was going to be moving to hospital bedrest now. Oh well. It was a good holiday while itsted.


    ¡°Come here you guys.¡± I called out to my children. ¡°Give me hugs and kisses. Uncle Griffin is going to make Mommy stay in the hospital now. I want your love for while I am gone.¡±


    ¡°Can wee to see you, Mommy?¡± Rika asked me.


    ¡°Of course. I can¡¯t wait for you to visit me there. And one of the times youe to visit me there, I will have the babies with me. You will be able to see them and hold them.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± All three of them squealed in excitement.


    By the time that Reece came in to tell me that we were going to the hospital, I was already prepared to go. I had hugged and kissed everyone that was here and was just waiting for Reece to grab my bag and take me downstairs.


    ¡°Come on Reece. Let¡¯s get a move on. I am sure that Griffin is flipping out and can¡¯t wait to check me out when we get there. So, we better not take too much time.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right. Come on.¡± He started to push me toward the elevator, but I needed him to do something else first.


    ¡°Get my bag from the room.¡± I reminded him. ¡°I need that.¡±


    ¡°O..oh, yeah.¡± He ran up the stairs and I nearlyughed at him. He was a mess again, just like he was with both the previous pregnancies.


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 Chapter 781

    Chapter 781: Chapter 198- Trinity ¨C In The Hospital (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    This time when we went to the hospital, Reece was going to make registratione up to us. He wasn¡¯t going to let some annoying bitch say things about us while we were registering again. And that also made it so that he didn¡¯t have to threaten to murder anyone as they tried to take me up the stairs. Instead, he just carried me the whole way like he had to the car. He had a change of clothes in my bag as well so that was just fine.


    He took me right upstairs and asked the nurse in thebor and delivery ward what room that Griffin had prepared for us. They knew that we wereing and there was a flurry of movement the moment they saw Reece get off of the elevator. Some of these nurses were the same as when I had Talia and one of them was even here when I had Reagan and Rika. She definitely remembered the sexy Mr. Gray that was very devoted to his wife.


    ¡°Come this way, Mr. Gray.¡± The nurse that was here the very first time said as she rose to her feet. I was betting that she didn¡¯t want to miss out on taking care of me because she didn¡¯t want to miss out on seeing Reece as much as possible. ¡°Did you stop by registration yet?¡± She asked him since they hadn¡¯t gotten a call when we came up.


    ¡°Nope, they just get in the way. Have theme up here to me.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Oh. Y..yes, right away Mr. Gray.¡± There he was with his grumpy attitude. However, it worked. The nurse walked to the wall phone and called down to someone who I could tell was in a panic. The person from registration was in the room within two minutes. I would call that magic if you asked me.


    ¡°Good evening Mr. and Mrs. Gray. And might I wish you a very merry Christmas.¡± A younger man came running into the room with several papers in hand. ¡°We were called in advance by your doctor, so everything is all ready to go. We just need your signatures. He told us that there was no change in information so we already checked you in. Please, sign here Mr. Gray and you¡¯re all set.¡± The man was definitely nervous and scared of Reece, but he was also being very nice and respectful.


    ¡°This is very efficient of you. Thank you for being ready for us.¡± Reece was actually happy right now.


    ¡°Of course. Anything for the Gray family.¡± He nodded as he took the signed papers and fled the room.


    Momentster, nurses came into the room to help me strip the clothes off of my body and get me hooked up to the machines. It¡¯s funny, people were stripping me, but Reece wasn¡¯t upset about it at all. That was just not like him at all.


    In a matter of moments, I was in nothing but a hospital gown with several nurses putting sensors on my belly at once.


    ¡°Triplets are not thatmon here at the hospital. It happens from time to time but it¡¯s still rare. And it is definitely exciting.¡± I could tell that the nurse that spoke was giddy with excitement.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s my first set of triplets too.¡± Iughed with her. ¡°So, it¡¯s rare for me too.¡± That made them allugh.


    ¡°You have identical boysing right? That¡¯s what the doctor said.


    ¡°Yes, Dr. White said that you were a high priority case and that you were to be well taken care of.¡± They were all acting like they were taking care of the most important person in the world, and it was all Griffin¡¯s fault. I noticed that Reece was nodding like he agreedpletely. Ugh. I hope this stay isn¡¯t going to be overly bad.


    It took thedies a while to get those ufortable bands wrapped around my belly, partly because my belly was so big. Once they found the position of all the hearts that they were looking for, it was time for me to get my IVs and other lovely little party favors. They were going to make sure that this was a full service affair. No stone, or in this case, body part, was left undisturbed here.


    I swear that it took nearly an hour to get me fully set into the hospital. The entire time that the nurses were getting me ready, I could see Reece and Griffin talking in the back of the private room. Those two conspiratorial little buttheads. They were the ones that were putting me through this unnecessary torture. The boys weren¡¯t evening today. I knew that. They weren¡¯ting for a few more days at the very least.


    ¡°Hello, Trinity.¡± Griffin said the moment that the nurses left me alone. Now it was time for him to examine me and make sure that everything was doing OK.


    ¡°Hello torturer.. Oh, I mean, hello Griffin.¡± I smiled at him sweetly as I joked yfully with him.


    ¡°This isn¡¯t torture, this is concern. Your husband and I are worried about you and the babies. Let us do what we need to do.¡±


    ¡°Oh, yes Master Griffin Sir. I am so sorry that I thought I was more than a baby machine.¡± That made us allugh, I just couldn¡¯t keep a straight face through it.


    ¡°You¡¯re having triplets, Trinity. That is definitely a baby machine.¡± Yeah, Griffin was full of jokes too I see.


    ¡°Come on, let me check you out and make sure that there is nothing that we need to be concerned about.¡±


    ¡°Go right ahead. I already know that there is nothing. The boys aren¡¯ting yet. It was only a Braxton Hicks contraction and nothing more. I know how it feels, third time here, remember?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Trinity, I remember. But Reece and I are still worried about you. We don¡¯t want to risk you going intobor at home when I am not there.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, yeah. I know.¡± I really did. They were just a couple of worrywarts that were paranoid about everything to do with me. I couldn¡¯t fault them for loving and caring about me. I really couldn¡¯t.


    However, I can jokingly show my annoyance because this was a big pain in my ass. They were running my Christmas. They¡¯re lucky that I said goodbye to the kids and that the day was almost over. If they had done this at the start of the day, then I would have been very angry with them both. I was not going to miss Christmas with my children. I would murder them for that. No one was going to make me miss that with them.


    ¡°Alright Trinity, just rx now.¡± Griffin told me as he started to feel my belly for any changes. He was checking the read out on the monitor that told him what my contractions were like. The frequency and the duration, things like that. They were sporadic and only in the belly, so I knew that they weren¡¯t the real thing. And I knew that Griffin was seeing the same thing at this very moment.


    After he confirmed the contractions, he checked my cervix. That was something that Reece has had to get used to over the years. I needed to be checked before I could deliver the babies. Even if Griffin was nning on these boys being delivered through a cesarean section because they were all facing different directions. He still needed to know how far along my supposedbor really was.


    The only thing is, Griffin was finding that I wasn¡¯t inbor at all. And soon, he would be admitting that to me. I was even watching his face to the best of my ability, which wasn¡¯t easy with such a big pregnant belly stuck up in the way. Still, I did my best and I was able to see the moment of realization.


    ¡°Well, the good news, Trinity, is that you are not in activebor. The contractions are weak and sporadic, most likely just Braxton¡¯s like you said. Your cervix is at a three, but with how close you are and the fact that you are having triplets, that is to be expected. Still, with even that slight amount of progression it is best that we go ahead and keep you here until you deliver. Which in truth, that could be as soon as tomorrow. This is necessary for us all.¡± I know that he was just doing what he thought was best for me. That was why I did my best to refrain from sticking my tongue out at him and then going ¡®ha ha I told you so¡¯. That wouldn¡¯t have been very nice for the man that was a really good friend of mine and was just trying to help.


    ¡°I know, Griffin. It¡¯s getting so close to their due date. Just eleven more days and I have reached the actual day they were due. Did you ever think that I could keep them inside this long?¡± I made the joke and instantly regretted it.


    ¡°With your track record, hell no. I expected them to be born so early that it wasn¡¯t even funny. Then again, it wouldn¡¯t have been funny at all. But you know what I mean.¡± Heughed off his bad joke and I just pouted.


    ¡°You all act like these things have been intentional or that they¡¯re my fault. That isn¡¯t fair.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I know, Little Bunny.¡± Reece leaned in to kiss my forehead. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I don¡¯t me you. But I am going to make you listen to all the doctor¡¯s orders.¡± He grinned and then went to pull a chair closer.


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 Chapter 782

    Chapter 782: Chapter 199- Trinity ¨C In The Hospital Part 2 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece was staying with me in the hospital of course. He wasn¡¯t going to leave me at all. He had them bring him in a second bed, since this room was big enough for it. That was where he was going to sleep for the duration that we were here. He also had Noah bring him another bag of clothes from the house.


    The first thing that he did the night that we got to the hospital was take a shower and change his clothes. He knew that I would want to be cleaned too, so he took advantage of the situation and gave me a sponge bath. I should have known that wasing. He was still my Reece even if I was massively pregnant and we were at the hospital. He would do what he could to bathe me like he did all the time at home. I loved him for it too.


    The day after Christmas started a new routine for us. We would get breakfast delivered from a restaurant because Reece didn¡¯t want to eat hospital food. We would read, talk, y cards, or just about anything that we wanted to. There were the interruptions of the nurse as they checked on me of course, but that was it. Later, in the afternoon, Mom or L would bring the kids to see me and we would have lunch together. They would, of course, bring the food that Reece ordered for us.


    The kids would feel my belly and talk to the boys. I would read them a story and they would give me drawings that they made for me. It was fun, for the kids at least. I was bored and would rather be at home.


    .....


    I knew that I was going to be in here, at the hospital, during the start of the new year. I would miss all of the celebrations with the kids at home, so they wanted toe here and see me at the hospital and stay aste as they could. They wanted to make sure that we didn¡¯t miss anything at all. And they were going to call me at midnight, if they were still up.


    I wanted to have something special for the kids when they came over, so I had Reece decorate the room with some things from the closest store. That was as far as he was willing to get from me so that he could buy them. Also, I had one of the nurses pick up a few stuffed animals from the gift shop for me so that I could give them to the kids when they got here.


    After the decorations were hung and the food for the night was delivered, it was time for the kids toe. Oh, and the food that we had with us was pizza, bread, wings, sd, cake and pasta. It was all delivered and being kept warm while the kids hurried up from the lobby with Mom and L.


    ¡°Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Are the babies here yet?¡± Talia called out when she came in.


    ¡°No honey, not yet.¡± I smiled at her. I knew that she was getting anxious and excited. They all wanted to see the babies really soon.


    ¡°We brought you something, Mom.¡± Rika said as she held out a small gift bag.


    ¡°What is this?¡± I asked her with a smile on my face. They had thought of me and that made my heart melt.


    ¡°We all helped L and Nona make these. I hope you like them.¡± Reagan sounded so proud of himself. I would have loved it even if it didn¡¯t turn out perfectly. Whatever these gifts were, they were from my children and that was what mattered the most.


    I took the gift bag from Talia and pulled out the tissue paper on top. Underneath the tissue paper, there were three little nkets. They were hand crocheted, and it was easy to see the by stitches right away that the kids had made them. They were a little sloppy but they were still perfect in my eyes. The nkets were all dark blue with light blue lettering in the middle. The lettering spelled out the names Zachary Aaron, Zander Ian, and Zayden Issac.


    ¡°Oh my goddess, these are so perfect. I love them so much. Thank you, all of you, thank you so much.¡± I was on the verge of tears when I looked at them. I couldn¡¯t believe that they had done this for me. This was so amazing and the perfect surprise.


    ¡°Will you use them for the babies when they get here, Mommy?¡± Talia asked me all excited. I want to see them use them.¡±


    ¡°Yes, of course I will, honey. And I just know that your brothers are going to love them too. This is going to be their first gift from their big brother and big sisters. They are going to be so happy.¡±


    ¡°Yay! I am making my baby brothers happy!¡± Talia spun in a circle as she danced about.


    ¡°Come here and calm down just a bit, Tally girl.¡± Reece scooped her up into his arms and held her against his chest. ¡°I¡¯ve not been getting good night hugs and I miss them. I need hugs from all of you.¡±


    ¡°OK, Daddy, I will hug you.¡± She was so sweet as she settled down to give Reece his hug. And without being prompted, Reagan and Rika went over and joined in the massive Daddy hug. They were good kids and they all loved their daddy so much.


    The kids all sat around the bed and the trays that were used for patient food. Mom and L were joining us as well. It was time for us to eat our dinner. I wasn¡¯t all that hungry, but I wanted to be part of the group. I nibbled on the pizza and ate a little bit of the pasta. I only ate a couple of bites of my sd and breadsticks. And when it came time for us to eat the dessert, I barely ate any of that, even though it was my favorite cake.


    Normally during the New Year celebrations, the kids, Reece and I make out a list of things that we want to aplish that year. It was like the New Year¡¯s resolutions, but they were actually attainable. I didn¡¯t want to break that tradition, so we made those lists now. We always made them into something that was personalized and fun.


    Reagan¡¯s list was shaped like a guitar and his list included a list of songs he wanted to learn to y and ces that he wanted to go visit with his family. However, at the top of his list was listed that he wanted ¡®to be the best big brother in the world to all of his siblings¡¯. I already knew that he would be able to do that.


    Rika¡¯s list was in the shape of a tiger, her newest animal obsession. She put a list of desserts to learn how to make from me, Mom, L and Abigail. And then the rest of it included things that she wanted to do for the babies when they were here. She wanted to feed a baby and change a diaper. She wanted to learn how to give a baby a bath and dress them in their clothes. Written right above that list of things to do for the babies was the goal ¡®to be Mommy¡¯s big helper¡¯. She was the sweetest ever.


    Talia¡¯s list was shaped like Angel. That little pet was always with her at the castle. On her list were things like ¡®hold all my baby siblings¡¯, ¡®give the babies hugs and kisses every day¡¯, ¡®learn all that I can so that I grow up smart¡¯, ¡®start training with the Gods so that I can be a Goddess¡¯. She was a smart little girl already, and I could tell that she was going to be even more special than I thought that she was going to be before.


    Reece made his list look like a bunny. And on that list were things that showed how much of a devoted father he was. He wanted to be there for the kids and take them ces. But also on the list were things that said ¡®make sure my little bunny never leaves on an extended trip again¡¯, ¡®protect my Little Bunny¡¯, ¡®be the world¡¯s best husband to my Little Bunny¡¯. He was the best husband ever.


    On my list, which I made in the shape of a heart because I had so much love for my family, I put that I didn¡¯t want to leave the kids if I could help it, I wanted to spend more time with the kids when they were home, I wanted the babies to be born healthy and to be happy when they get home, and I wanted to have a weekly date night with Reece so that we could have some alone time with each other on a regr basis.


    All in all, I do think that this New Year¡¯s celebration was starting off quite amazingly. The kids were having fun the entire time. We even turned on some music for them to dance to and then sat back to watch a movie until they had to leave.


    I was having so much fun and all I wanted to do was spend more time with them. I knew that they had to go though, visiting hours were over and they needed to get to the house so that they could finish their party there.


    I was looking forward to their callter when they got home. That is, if any of them managed to stay awake until midnight.


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 Chapter 783

    Chapter 783: Chapter 200- Trinity ¨C In The Hospital Part 3 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It wasn¡¯t long after the kids left that I felt tired enough to go to sleep. It had been a long day with the kids, and I was exhausted. Being this pregnant with the three of them bursting with seemingly endless energy, it just made me tired when I looked at them.


    I had Reece adjust the pillows and the bed so that I couldy down a little morefortably. He did so withoutint and kissed me on the cheek before turning on a movie for him to watch.


    I thought that I would go to sleep almost immediately, but I didn¡¯t. I think that I was a little too distracted by the movie that Reece was watching. It was an actionedy that had the both of usughing. The movie was entertaining enough, so I didn¡¯t really mind that I wasn¡¯t asleep yet. I just wanted to see how the movie ended.


    During the movie, I started to get some pains in my belly. At first, I thought that I was justying in a bad position on the bed. However, the pain didn¡¯t go away. I even had Reece readjust me a couple of different times. And each time that he did, I could see the concern and worry in his eyes.


    .....


    He and I were thinking along the same lines. Was this going to be it? Was this going to be baby day? I think it was. It felt like it was anyway.


    ¡°Reece, I think you should go get one of the nurses. We might be seeing some action tonight.¡± Heughed at my words but was already hurrying out of the room. I could hear him calling to the nurse that was on duty.


    ¡°Excuse me, can youe check on my wife, please? I think she might be having some real contractions.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Mr. Gray. I wille right away.¡±


    Reece came back into the room then and I saw the excitement on his face. He was just as anxious to meet the babies as the kids were.


    ¡°You¡¯re only like five days off from your due date, so I think that this might really be it.¡± Reece was nodding at me and all the while I could see the nerves getting the better of him. Happy and excited or not, Reece was going to be Reece. He was going to be worried and scared on the inside until it was all over and me and the boys were safe. Especially this time since I was going to have surgery to bring the babies into the world.


    About two minutes after Reece went to call on the nurse, she came into the room with a smile on her face.


    ¡°Hello, Mrs. Gray. How are you feeling this evening?¡± She was asking me this question while she washed and dried her hands. ¡°Having some contractions?¡± She asked as she reached for a pair of gloves.


    ¡°Mostly pain, but I think my belly is stretched so much that I am able to feel the contractions now.¡± I made a joke. I could feel it, it¡¯s just that it hadn¡¯t gotten that bad yet.


    ¡°Alright, well, allow me to check on you and we will see what¡¯s going on here.¡±


    She came over and checked my cervix the same way that Griffin would do. The smile on her face told me that there had obviously been a lot of changes since thest time that I was checked. She didn¡¯t say anything yet though, she just threw the gloves away, washed her hands again, and then checked the readouts on the monitors.


    ¡°You are definitely having some mild contractions. You are also fully effaced and about six centimeters dted. I do believe that we need to call in Dr. White. He¡¯s going to want to get these babies here as soon as possible. Congrattions.¡± She was smiling at me so sweetly. I think she was just excited to see the triplets since they didn¡¯t get them all that often.


    ¡°Thank you. I am looking forward to seeing them. Since I have managed to keep them inside this long, I know that they will be just fine.¡± She nodded at me when she heard that.


    ¡°Oh yes, we are all so shocked that you managed to go almost full term with triplets. That is unheard of. You¡¯re a very strong momma, that is for sure.¡±


    Now that I was supposedly in activebor, there was a nurse in the room almost constantly. They were going to make sure that nothing bad happened to me while we waited for Griffin to get here. They were just as paranoid as Reece and Griffin were.


    It had been about eleven when I had Reece call for the nurse. The movie was almost over too, but I missed the ending. I would have to watch it again. That wasn¡¯t my point though. Not at all. My point here was that by the time the nurse was done checking me and then called Griffin, it was so close to midnight that it had already been. And by the time that Griffin had actually got here, it was just after twelve in the morning. It was officially New Year¡¯s Day. My babies were going to be new year¡¯s babies.


    ¡°Reece!¡± I called out to him.


    ¡°What?!¡± I think that I scared him when I yelled his name. ¡°What is it? Is something wrong? Are you in pain? Is there something the matter with the babies?¡± He was panic stricken when he looked over at me just then.


    ¡°No, nothing is wrong. It¡¯s just after midnight and we didn¡¯t kiss. We¡¯ve kissed every year at midnight since we met. You owe me ate New Year¡¯s kiss.¡±


    ¡°Oh hell, Trinity. Is that all?¡± Heughed at me as he came closer. ¡°Don¡¯t give me a heart attack like that. I swear. I thought something was wrong and I was about freak the fuck out. But yes, baby, I will give you your kiss.¡±


    He came over to me then and cupped my cheek as Iid in the bed. He brought his face closer to me in a very slow and sensual way. It reminded me of the first time that we shared a New Year¡¯s kiss. He had been so sweet and romantic that night. It was one of my favorite memories of him. And I was sure that it was always going to be one of my favorite memories.


    ¡°Hey Trinity, sorry it took me so long to get here. I was finishing up another delivery.¡± Griffin was acting like it had taken him several hours to get here instead of just the half an hour that it really was. And I guess he was already here at the hospital if he was busy with another delivery.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Griffin. You¡¯re good. I have been patiently waiting for you.¡± I was still smiling happily and wasn¡¯t at all upset. I guess that wasn¡¯t exactly normal when someone was inbor with triplets. I didn¡¯t mind though, this was all going to be over very soon.


    ¡°I am d to see you¡¯re in good spirits.¡± He walked over to us and sat next to me on the bed. ¡°Let me check you and the readouts so that we can get this all going.


    ¡°Sure thing.¡±


    Was I perhaps too calm and too happy right now? I didn¡¯t know for sure, but I did know that I wasn¡¯t feeling anxious or anything at all. This was the day. This was when the babies were going to be born. That was what my gut was telling me. I just knew for a fact that they were going to be perfect and healthy. And of course I couldn¡¯t wait to hold them.


    Griffin did what he needed to do. He was checking the readouts first before anything else. Then it was time for him to check my cervix. And if the excitement on his face was anything to go off of, I would say that I was pretty far into this process.


    ¡°Oh yeah, we need to do this really quick. If we wait any longer you will be going crazy and screaming for those pain meds.¡± He made the joke that he probably did with all the other mothers.


    ¡°Oh, I think that I could hold out a little longer. Though I want to get this done and over with soon. This has been a long process for us all.¡± I made it sound like I had been through nine months of this since it started. That was for the benefit of the nurse that was in the room.


    ¡°Yeah, I know about that, Trinity. Now, I am going to exin what is going to happen from here, OK. You are going to be taken to the OR and they are going to give you some meds in your IV as well as in your back. The meds are so you don¡¯t feel us cutting into you and getting those babies out of there for you.¡±


    ¡°Sounds good to me.¡± I grinned at him. ¡°The sooner, the better. Let¡¯s get those three out of my belly and into my arms.¡±


    ¡°You got it. OK, now, Reece, you are going to follow that lovely nurse over there and she will take you to get cleaned up and changed so that you can be in the OR with us. Are you ready for this? You¡¯re not going to pass out on us, are you?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll try not to, Griff.¡± Heughed as Griffin referenced when I was delivering Reagan and Rika. Reece almost left the room three times during the delivery and Griffin made fun of him for that for a long time.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go deliver some babies.¡±


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 Chapter 784

    Chapter 784: Chapter 201- Trinity ¨C Prepped For Surgery (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Almost as soon as Griffin said ¡®let¡¯s go deliver some babies¡¯, The bed that I wasying in was wheeled out of the room and taken to another ce on the same floor, but it was somewhere that I had never seen or been to before.


    This room was definitely an operating room. That was easy to tell. There were sterile white walls, an antiseptic scent to the air, and it was very cold. There was a table in the middle of the room with little tforms sticking out to the side. Without anyone having to tell me, I knew that my arms were going to be strapped to those little things.


    There were little wheeled trays that were around the area as well. I knew that underneath the blue cloth on each of them, were the tools that Griffin was going to use to deliver my babies. There were also three little wheeled basss, each with a nurse standing nearby. They were the ones that were going to be caring for my boys when they were born.


    There were also two men and three women waiting for me in the room. They were the anesthesiologist and nurses that were going to be helping with the cesarean section. Griffin had told Reece and I in advance that the only people that were going to be helping us today, were not human. They were all people that we could trust and didn¡¯t have to worry. Even the nurse that brought me along with Griffin was not human.


    .....


    However, Griffin had left me momentarily so that he could scrub in and get ready. Or whatever it was that he needed to do.


    ¡°Wee, Queen Trinity. We are so happy to be here with you today. If it is alright with you, we would like to get you prepped for surgery. My name is Dr. Razi, and this here is my nurse anesthetist, May.¡± The man that spoke had dark hair and eyes with a tannedplexion. He spoke with a slight ent, but it didn¡¯t hinder him at all. May, on the other hand, was tall with medium length auburn hair and bright green eyes. She looked and smelled like she was a wolf. She also looked like she was as happy as she could be just by being in this room with me.


    ¡°It is such an honor to be here with you and assisting you today, Queen Trinity. I cannot even begin to express to you what this feels like.¡±


    ¡°Do not worry about that, May. I am just d that I have someone like you here with me right now. I need trustworthy and reliable people to help me out.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± May nodded her head and then the woman next to her started to speak.


    ¡°Hello there, Queen Trinity. I am Helen, the lead nurse assigned to you and your babies. Allow me to introduce you to the rest of the nurses here. These, here, are Hannah, Olivia and Emery. They will be assisting during the delivery. Over there we have William, Reba and Jan, they will be the ones that help to clean up the babies, weight and measure them, and get them ready to be brought to you in your recovery room. After you have spent a few minutes in that recovery room, you will be returned to the room that you were in before.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for that information, Helen, and for all of you being here with me today.¡± I tried to take them all in, but their names were blending at the moment. I was having a contraction so I was a little preupied. I remembered the names, but not who they went to. And their appearances of simrly colored brown and blonde hair and light colored eyes all around made things a little more difficult to separate them all.


    ¡°I can see that you are in pain, Queen Trinity. Let us get you over here on the table so that we can give you the spinal block. We don¡¯t want you suffering anymore at all.¡± Dr. Razi was the one to speak next, he prompted the other nurses in the room to move and help me get to the table.


    They got me onto the table in the room by pushing that bed that I was in next to it and then pulling me over. Once I was settled onto that spot, they pushed the bed away and started to work fast.


    The first thing that they did when I was on the operating table was pull me up into a sitting position. They turned me to the side, let my leg dangle off, and told me to lean forward as much as I could.


    ¡°I need you to try and hang your knees, Queen Trinity. We need you to stretch out your spine as much as you can.¡± Dr. Razi was exining things to me as they helped to position my body. I had two nurses in front of me that were helping to position me and another behind me, pushing my back and helping to get me into the best position possible for the needle to enter my back. ¡°Alright, Queen Trinity, I am going to give you a numbing shot first and then I will begin. You will feel a little bit cold when the iodine is applied as well. Do not be rmed.¡±


    True to his word, there was a cold jolt from him applying the fluid and then there was a small prick from the need. I felt that there was a numbness spreading through my back almost immediately.


    ¡°Alright, Queen Trinity, I am going to be starting now. I need you to staypletely still and don¡¯t move at all. OK? This will just take a few moments.¡±


    Dr. Razi was doing his best to keep things moving quickly and efficiently. I was very pleased with him so far. Unfortunately though, the numbing that he had given me didn¡¯t make the feeling gopletely away when he stuck the next muchrger needle into my spine. This one felt like it was going in way more than I expected it would and I was scared for a moment. However, it onlysted for a few moments like he said and then it was like there wasn¡¯t even anything in my back at all.


    ¡°Alright, Queen Trinity, that is it. We are done. We¡¯re going toy you back on the table now and you will feel the numbness spreading through your body. It will be like a warmness moving from just below your arms to the tips of your toes. Let me know when you have felt it spread all the way through you.¡±


    ¡°Will do.¡± I nodded as the three nurses worked in tandem toy me all the way back on the table.


    This was the first time that I hadid all the way back since I woke up from my time in the underworld. I didn¡¯t likeying all the way down with how big my belly was getting. It was a bit ufortable for me toy like this.


    However, it wasn¡¯t that ufortable now. Instead, the pain and difort were going away as theyid me down. There was already that warmth spreading throughout my body and rxing me a little bit. The onlyint I had at the moment was that as they were strapping me down onto the table, I felt like everything was moving upwards and that was making it a little ufortable to breathe.


    ¡°I can tell by that look in your eyes, Queen Trinity, that it¡¯s ufortable. Don¡¯t worry, it will all be over very soon. I promise you that.¡± May was doing her best to calm me down.


    ¡°There are a few things that we still need to do for you, Queen Trinity, and then you will be set to deliver. Dr. White will be here soon and then we may begin.¡± Helen, the lead nurse, exined to me as she started to get to work. This here is some added oxygen for you, to keep your breathing easy and regr throughout the procedure. You have heart monitors that are being added to your chest.¡± As she said that, the hospital gown that I was wearing was fully stripped off of me and two heated sheets wereid across my abdomen. ¡°Andstly, Queen Trinity, we will be putting a foley in for you. This is to drain your dder while you are unable to get up and use the restroom yourself.¡±


    I was really d that I was numb for that part of the procedure. I did not want to feel what that was like. Just the thought of it made me want to cringe. I mean, EWW. There was a tube going up into my dder through my pee hole. That was disgusting and painful.


    ¡°Alright, Queen Trinity, everything is all set. We are ready to begin as soon as the doctor gets here.¡± Helen called out to me.


    ¡°How is the numbness?¡± Dr. Razi asked me with a calm voice.


    ¡°I can¡¯t feel anything from my chest down.¡± I assured him. ¡°It¡¯s like a magic that I never knew existed.¡± Iughed at my joke and everyone around meughed as well.


    ¡°Ooh, it sounds like a party here.¡± Griffin said as he came into the room. I turned to see him and saw that Reece was there with him.


    ¡°Reece.¡± I reached out with just my fingers since my arms were locked into ce on those little boards. The moment that I did that, the nurses put a screen up just below my neck. It blocked out my view of my belly. I wouldn¡¯t be able to see what was going on.


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 Chapter 785

    Chapter 785: Chapter 202-Reece ¨C Prepped For Surgery Part 2 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I was led out of the room that my Little Bunny and I had been in for the past week. A nurse was taking me to another part of thebor and delivery floor that I had never been to. This was a ce with sinks to wash up and scrubs to change into.


    ¡°Here, Mr. Gray, I need you to wash your hands and arms up to the elbows thoroughly. Then put these on.¡± She set a pair of white scrubs down that I hoped would fit me properly. ¡°They go over top of your clothes. These booties go over your shoes. And please, ce this over your hair. When you are done, you will wash your hands once more and ce this mask over your mouth and nose. At that point you will be fully prepared for the operating room and you can join your wife in the delivery room.¡±


    The nurse was slightly older and seemed to be a little on the bossy side. Not to mention that I remembered her having been here for the delivery of Reagan and Rika as well as Talia. I guess that she was going to be here for all of my children and their deliveries. That was a little odd, but in a way, it was also sort offorting. It meant that there was consistency. And all of the deliveries have been smooth and sessful so far, so let¡¯s not mess with consistency here.


    I had to interrupt her a little bit here. There was a lot of stuff that she wanted me to do before I could see my Little Bunny again. And to be honest, it wasn¡¯t that necessary. I mean, we were werewolves. We were used to being out in the height of nature and all that stuff. So, I just didn¡¯t see why I needed to wash so many times and look like a marshmallow.


    .....


    ¡°Look, Ma¡¯am, I don¡¯t think..-¡± I started to tell her what was on my mind but she interrupted me.


    ¡°Pam.¡± She cut me off and snapped at me. ¡°My name is Nurse Pam June Adders. Do not call me Ma¡¯am or Miss or anything like that. I would prefer to be called by name, if you wouldn¡¯t mind. And do not tell me that you don¡¯t know my name, I have been helping to take care of your wife four out of thest seven days. The least you can do is remember my name, Mr. Gray. And on top of that, I was there when all three of your other children were born. I would appreciate it if you stopped thinking about me as nothing more than just a background image and remember my name at the very least.¡±


    I will admit that I had been treating her exactly as she had said. I hadn¡¯t really paid attention to her name at all. I hadn¡¯t really paid attention to any of the nurses. I had been way more focused on my wife and her condition and all the things that had to do with her and my family. I hadn¡¯t been focused on the staff here at the hospital at all.


    I bet that Trinity knew them though. I bet that she was familiar with them all. She was like that. She paid attention to the people around her. She focused on everyone and made them feel important. She was good at those types of things. I hadn¡¯t even thought about it at all. I guess that I had actually been a bit of an ass about it.


    ¡°Alright, I am sorry Nurse Pam. You are right. I hadn¡¯t paid attention to your name. I hadn¡¯t even thought about it. If it makes you feel any better though, I do recognize you and know that you were there through this week as well as when my other three children were born as well. I am not going to make excuses for myself because that would just be pointless. However, I am going to continue on with what I was going to say before.¡± I paused for a moment and the nurse started talking again.


    ¡°Well, at least you admit that part.¡± Sheughed at me. ¡°And now, let me guess, you think you are above the rules that I haveid out before you? You think that you can just skip them and head on into the operating room and see your wife. You think that you and your massive amount of wealth is enough to get you through this the way that you want to.¡±


    ¡°Well, it has absolutely nothing to do with my wealth. However, you are right in guessing that I want to skip a few of these steps. I think that they are unnecessary.¡± I gave her my best smile to let her know that I was serious and to help her understand that it was indeed not necessary for me. I knew that she would understand it allpletely. This was all a big unnecessary step that I didn¡¯t need to busy myself with.


    I started to step away from the sink and toward the door to the operating room that I saw on the opposite side of the room from me. I was going to be with my wife. I was going to watch my babies be born. I was going to see them all very soon.


    ¡°Well, if you don¡¯t want to follow the rules like everyone else, Mr. Gray, that is fine. It is entirely up to you, but I do think that your wife will have a problem with you not being there for the birth of your children. I mean, she seems to be looking forward to you being there so much. I will be sure to pass along the message that you were simply toozy to follow the hospital¡¯s rules. Because trust me, Mr. Gray, I don¡¯t care how much money you have or how powerful you are, you are not entering that operating room without fully sterilizing yourself and following all of the rules that I have given you. If you are incapable of doing that, then I do not think that you are worthy of the right to see these beautiful babies be born. Only a real man knows that he needs to follow the rules and do what has to be done in order to get what he wants. I always hate being the bearer of bad news to women like this, but I will do what I need to do. It is what is required of me after all.¡±


    She was literally going to try and stop me from going into that room if I didn¡¯t do what she told me to do. This tiny little human woman was going to try and stop me? She would literally try to stand between me and my babies like that?


    ¡°I am not kidding, Mr. Gray. Either youply with the rules, or I will call hospital security and have you removed from the floor. I will not risk the life of your wife or your babies because you are too stubborn to wash your damn hands. Make your choice now.¡± Nurse Pam crossed her arms and tapped her foot on the floor all while ring at me with a heated expression.


    ¡°Fine. You win. I will do as you ask.¡± I turned toward the sink and started washing my hands up to the elbows like I had been told to. I was d that I had been wearing a t-shirt today. That was making it a lot easier for me.


    ¡°Good. They always listen in the end.¡± She sounded triumphant. Who the hell was this woman? She had some mad skills and a lot of courage to be talking to me like that. But, I mean, I couldn¡¯t let her call security on me. I could take them and all, but that wouldn¡¯t be good. And my Little Bunny would get really mad at me if it came to that. I had no choice but to listen to this woman. It was my only option.


    I tried not to let it get to me too much as I scrubbed myself up and then put on the white scrubs over top of my other clothes. The booties were put into ce, the hair thingy was put on, and the mask was in ce. Then I obediently turned to wash my hands again as Griffin came into the room.


    ¡°Oh, hey Reece. I thought you would be done before now. Oh well, we can go into the room together.¡± He seemed to bepletely oblivious of the fact that this evil little woman was staring me down like she was some sort of beast.


    ¡°Y..yeah. Almost done. I just needed to get myself ready. I am not used to it so it took me a while.¡± I didn¡¯t let him know that I had been stubborn and needed Nurse Pam to threaten me before Iplied.


    ¡°No worries, Reece. We will go in together. As soon as we¡¯re ready and Trinity is ready, we can begin. It won¡¯t be long now. Soon, you will see your little boys.¡± Griffin was right. I didn¡¯t need to worry about the fact that this woman had been so powerful and angry with me. I had other things to worry about at the moment. My babies will be here soon. My three little boys that we have been waiting so long for will be here before I knew it. Soon, our little family was going to be much bigger. And, you know what? I was so very happy about that.


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 Chapter 786

    Chapter 786: Chapter 203- Reece ¨C Delivery Part 1 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Just as Griffin and I entered the operating room, we heard a round ofughter. I didn¡¯t know what was so funny, but I knew that things must be going OK for my Little Bunny so far. I mean, she wouldn¡¯t beughing like that if something was wrong, would she?


    ¡°Ooh, it sounds like a party in here.¡± Griffinughed as well as he walked ahead of me. At that moment my sweet, adorable, beautiful Little Bunny stretched her fingers out toward me.


    ¡°Reece!¡± I was a little taken aback as she called out to me. Her arms were strapped down to these strange little boards next to the bed. And just as she said my name, a nurse was putting a screen up around her chest. I guess that it was so that she didn¡¯t see herself getting cut into or something. But, well, I mean, my mind went other ces. I was imagining it being some sort of that caught the gore that might stter all over the ce when Griffin started cutting into her.


    I trusted Griffin. I really did. And I knew that he had performed several cesarean sections before. I mean, he delivered Shawn and Dietrich¡¯s kids this way, and that happened all the way over in Germany. This was here in my town with all the best equipment that Griffin could ask for. However, that didn¡¯t stop me from being worried about my wife and babies.


    .....


    I think that seeing my Little Bunny strapped down to a table about to be cut open was the moment that it all really and truly hit me. This was happening. My wife was having surgery. They were going to cut her open. They were going to take the babies out of her belly through a hole that was not there before. This was not going to be like it was with Reagan and Rika, or with Talia. They were born naturally. But the triplets, they were all facing different directions and this would be the easiest and best option for my Little Bunny. We all knew that. Still, it didn¡¯t make me feel any better.


    ¡°Reece?¡± My Little Bunny called out to me again when I had not moved toe closer to her right away. ¡°I..is everything alright, Reece?¡± She asked me worried now. ¡°Are you going to be OK?¡±


    ¡°I am fine.¡± I smiled at her and walked to her side. There was a chair that was pulled up and the nurse pointed at it for me.


    ¡°King Reece, Sir, please sit here.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± I nodded at her. I didn¡¯t know who she was, but I could tell that she was not human. For one thing, she called me King Reece. She actually smelled like she was some sort of feline. All of the people in this room were something other than human. That was good. It would definitely help us to have people more like us at our sides.


    I sat next to my wife and kissed her gently on the forehead. I could tell that she was no longer in pain, that was good. And she was excited, just like me.


    ¡°How are you doing, baby?¡± I asked her as I gripped her hand. It was a little awkward trying to hold it while her arm was strapped down, but I managed.


    ¡°I am excited, Reece. I get to see the boys again for the first time since I have been back. I can¡¯t wait to hold them in my arms.¡± There were tears of joy filling her eyes as she spoke.


    ¡°Yeah, I know Little Bunny. I can¡¯t wait to hold them either. They are going to be our perfect little boys.¡±


    ¡°Are you ready to begin?¡± Griffin asked as he stepped up to the hospital bed. I saw that he had a mask and gloves on as well as something that was covering his hair and an off apron-like thing that was covering his scrubs. Was it really going to be that messy? Was delivering triplets by cesarean section really that hard?


    ¡°Yes, Griffin, I am ready.¡± My Little Bunny nodded her head.


    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re ready.¡± I assured him. Just as I said that, a nurse slipped an oxygen cann into Trinity¡¯s nose and draped it over her head so that it was out of the way.


    ¡°Now you¡¯re ready.¡± Sheughed and took her ce on the other side of the screen.


    Oh my Goddess. With my wolf sense of hearing, I could hear the moment that Griffin took that scalpel into his hand and started to cut into my wife¡¯s tender body. And the sound of the fluids that were all involved. There was iodine, so much of it that it smelled like Trinity was covered in the stuff. And the smell of the blood too. That was not something that I particrly liked. Smelling my mate¡¯s blood like this would normally indicate that something was wrong. However, here I sat as happy as I could be. This was just conflicting information for my senses, and it was hard to cope and process. I didn¡¯t care though. I was going to make sure that I was right here with my Little Bunny the entire time. I wasn¡¯t going to go anywhere.


    It was getting hard for me though. I didn¡¯t like that I was able to taste my wife¡¯s blood in the air. It was hard to not start letting the beast out of me. He wanted to find who was hurting our Little Bunny and kill them. Only, I could see my Little Bunny and I knew that she wasn¡¯t hurting. She was just fine. That was all that kept my beast back inside of me.


    Just as I started to take some deep breaths to make this all a little easier on me, they were meant to be deep calming breaths, I heard Griffin call out in a happy sounding voice.


    ¡°Alright, I am getting in there. I can see the first baby through the membranes right now. And I can already tell that he has his daddy¡¯s ck hair. Congrats on that Reece.¡±


    Griffin hadn¡¯t been there when we were watching through the screen. He had been told but he didn¡¯t quite remember that I knew what the boys were going to look like. He didn¡¯t remember that, ording to the way that they looked in the underworld, and on that screen, they were the spitting image of me. The three of them looked even more like me than any of the others did. They were three identical copies of me, and I definitely couldn¡¯t have been more happy or more proud about that fact. These were three little boys that Trinity and I were going to be proud of and love with all of our hearts.


    I warred with myself for a moment. I debated on whether or not I wanted to look on the other side of the screen. I didn¡¯t know if I could handle it though. Seeing my Little Bunny cut open like that, it would be hard. Still, I was eager to see the baby and know the moment that he was brought into this world and the moment that his life outside of the womb began. It was so hard not to look, it really was. But I knew that it was for the best. I knew that it would be better for me in the long run, if I just stayed on this side of the screen.


    ¡°You¡¯re doing great, Trinity. This is just the beginning, but the hardest part is over. We are about to get to the first little baby boy and I know that you will be so happy to have them out of you.¡± There was moreughter in Griffin¡¯s voice. I wondered for a moment if he always jokes like this with people that he performed a cesarean section on. I guess it was possible. I mean, he was a nice guy that typically did build a nice rapport with his patients. This way that he was talking probably helped to calm a lot of women down. And being calm was essential in moments like this.


    My Little Bunny was calm. That was easy to see. She was grinning happily and I could see a light shining in her eyes.


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯ve got that right, Griffin.¡± Sheughed back at him. ¡°I can¡¯t wait to not be pregnant anymore. I just want to have the babies with me.¡± Sheughed again and then added some more. ¡°I guess I would like pregnancies to be instant. Like oh, I am pregnant, that¡¯s cool. Where is my baby now?¡± That made all of the doctors and nurses in the roomugh. They didn¡¯t know how serious my Little Bunny was though. We probably would have a lot more kids already if pregnancies were an instant sort of gratification for us. If my Little Bunny didn¡¯t have to wait to see the babies and if she didn¡¯t have to go through all the rules that Griffin put on her, she would have a lot more babies. Hmm, that would be kind of nice. How many kids could I have then? A lot, that is for sure.


    ¡°Well, Trinity, thankfully it does take a while. The baby needs time to grow and get healthy. Not to mention that anticipation needs to grow. I mean, how else would I be able to tell you that I am about to deliver the first of your triplets.¡± There was excitement in Griffin¡¯s voice then, and I knew that this was it.


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 Chapter 787

    Chapter 787: Chapter 204- Reece ¨C Delivery Part 2 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    ¡°Really?¡± I couldn¡¯t stop the word from escaping past my lips and made the others, all except for Griffin, turn to look at me.


    ¡°Yes, Reece, really. Here is the first little triplet. He looks good so far.¡± With that, Griffin gave a big tug and I heard something soft and squishy slide through the liquid. It was a little odd really, since I knew that it was the sound of my baby moving through my Little Bunny¡¯s belly full of amniotic fluid, blood, and various other wet and gloopy things. ¡°Baby A is here at twelve twenty-three in the morning on January the first two thousand and thirty. Congrattions.


    The first thing that Griffin did when the baby was out, umbilical cord still attached and everything, was hold him up above the screen for me and my Little Bunny to see him. He was squirming and little and I heard him make a strangled sounding cry.


    ¡°Is he alright?¡± I asked as Griffin lowered the boy back down and started to work on him or something. Dammit, I couldn¡¯t see. But I still didn¡¯t want to look on the other side of the screen. That was not something that I should be seeing right now. This was a time of joy and birth, not blood and gore.


    .....


    ¡°He is fine, Reece. He was just born and has to have his lungs cleared of fluids.¡± Griffin was busy as he spoke and after I heard the sound of something being cut, I knew that he had just cut the baby¡¯s cord. He was officially not part of my Little Bunny anymore. He was not connected to her with that lifeline. ¡°Here you are, Jan.¡± Griffin had just handed my baby boy off to a nurse that was waiting next to him with a soft looking nket draped over her arms.


    I knew what this woman was going to be doing. It was her job to clean up the baby boy and clear out his lungs. She was also going to weigh him, see how long he was, and then wrap him up so that he was ready for us to holdter. All of that was going to be happening in another room though, since this was an operating room and not a normal delivery room. They were going to be taking him down to the nursery to do all of the work that they needed to. They would make sure that he was safe and healthy, I knew that, but I still didn¡¯t want him to leave.


    ¡°Baby!¡± I called out to him. ¡°Zachary!¡± I let the nurse know which one he was. She turned to me then and smiled as she started to push the heated baby bass through the door. She would make sure that she made a note of his name.


    ¡°Alright, who is going to be ready for the next little boy.¡± Griffin called out to the whole room. He was truly enjoying this right now. I wonder if this was a happier sort of experience for him since he was delivering the babies for his friends. I didn¡¯t know if that was the case, but I was happy to see that he was doing just fine with all that was happening.


    ¡°Well, I guess that I am going to be the next one up.¡± Another woman walked close to Griffin with a nket draped over her arms. She was ready to take the baby when he was pulled free of Trinity¡¯s body.


    ¡°That¡¯s good. Be ready. I am about to pull the next one out.¡± I tried to imagine the way that it all must look. Granted, I was trying to make it all look pretty with no blood and gore all over my wife as it was happening.


    Once again, I heard the sound of that baby moving through my wife¡¯s body. It was an eerie sound, but I didn¡¯t hate it. I knew what it meant. It meant new life and joy for us. This was the sound of the baby being pulled out of the womb, and it was necessary.


    I wouldn¡¯t say it was a beautiful sound. Not at all. It was disconcerting and kind of disgusting. However, I couldn¡¯t bring myself to hate the sound. It was full of life.


    ¡°Alright Reece and Trinity, here is your second little triplet boy.¡± With that, Griffin pulled the baby free of the womb and I heard him instantly start to fuss, even before Griffin held him up and showed him to us. ¡°Another perfect little boy that has been brought into this world by the two of you. Baby B was brought into this world at twelve twenty-six in the morning on the first day of January two thousand and thirty.¡± Griffin made it like it was an announcement. I believe it was so that someone that was in the room could record the time for the birth records. I didn¡¯t care, I was just overjoyed with what was happening.


    After showing us the baby and thenying him down on Trinity¡¯s belly, he started to mp and cut the cord before handing him off to the nurse.


    ¡°Thank you, Reba.¡± The woman wrapped my little baby boy protectively in the nket and then turned to look at me with a confident smile.


    ¡°King Reece, Sir, what is the name of Baby B? I would like to mark his chart for you.¡± The nurse, Reba, smiled at me before she walked away. She had noticed that I told the other nurse his name.


    I looked at the baby in her arms for just a second before I answered her. I was marveling at his beauty and heard my Little Bunny speak before I could.


    ¡°Zander. His name is Zander Ian Gray. And Zachary Aaron Gray was the first baby.¡± She was smiling at the baby with tears of joying from her eyes. I hadn¡¯t even noticed that she was crying. I was being so neglectful. We both had been focusing on the babies so much that I had neglected to pay attention to my wife. I was a horrible husband.


    ¡°Thank you, Queen Trinity.¡± The nurse bowed a little and hurried away just as I leaned down to kiss my wife¡¯s cheek. It was salty from the tears, but I didn¡¯t care at all.


    ¡°You¡¯re doing great, Trinity. So great. And the boys are so beautiful. Thank you. Thank you for making me the happiest man in the world.¡± I felt the tears stinging the back of my eyes as I said those words to my wife. ¡°I couldn¡¯t ask for a better life, Trinity. You¡¯re the one that did this for me. You¡¯re the reason that I have everything that I want in the world.¡±


    ¡°Reece¡± She cried a little harder as she turned to face me. I knew they were happy tears though, so I wasn¡¯t worried or upset about them at all. ¡°I love you.¡±


    ¡°I love you too, Little Bunny. I love you so much.¡± I was kissing her again. I kissed her lips and her nose. I kissed her cheeks and her forehead. I kissed her over and over again to show her how much I loved her, no matter the situation. She would know that I wasn¡¯t afraid to let the entire world know that she was the best woman in the entire world.


    ¡°You two are so sweet.¡± I heard one of the surrounding nurses call out to us. ¡°I am happy that my king and queen are so in love with each other. It gives hope to normal people like us.¡± She was grinning at us, but I could sense a little bit of mncholy in her.


    ¡°You will find love soon too, May.¡± Trinity assured her with a calm voice. I knew she was right too. People that didn¡¯t have a mate usually found one when they were around my wife. It was a gift of hers. She just naturally brought people together.


    ¡°Alright everyone, it is almost time for thest baby.¡± Griffin called out, bringing the entire focus of the room back to him. ¡°Is everyone ready for the third and final baby?¡± I could feel the excitement and tension growing in the room. It was like everyone wanted to say that yes, they were ready. They wanted to show that this was something truly special and amazing for us all. They probably even wanted to jump for joy and to shout out just how happy they were at the moment. However, none of them said anything at all. None of them wanted to break the tension that was mounting between us all.


    ¡°I am ready, Dr. White.¡± The man that had been standing with the other two nurses walked up. He was a brave man to have spoken up during that tense time. He too, had a nket draped over his arms and was ready to receive the baby.


    This was it. In just a moment or two, my third and final baby of the night was going to be born. I was going to have triplet boys. Three identical little babies that I got to take home and spoil the crap out of. I was so excited and happy, not to mention nervous and scared as well. This was going to be hard on me and my Little Bunny. We were about to be busier than we had ever been before. Three times the babies meant three times the work. However, it also meant three times the love and three times the snuggles. It was going to be worth it. I just knew it.


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 Chapter 788

    Chapter 788: Chapter 205- Reece ¨C Delivery Part 3 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I waited with bated breath as the seconds ticked by. I was waiting for the sound of the baby moving through my Little Bunny¡¯s belly. I was waiting for the moment that Griffin announced when he was officially brought into the world. I was waiting for it all, and it felt like time was almost standing still.


    It took what felt like five minutes for the sound of the baby moving to be heard. And then for Griffin to start talking again it felt like ten minutes had passed. Time was moving so slow right now. I don¡¯t know why, but it was.


    ¡°Here we go, herees baby number three.¡±


    There was that sound again. That distinct sound of a tiny little baby moving through the womb as he made his way into the world. I don¡¯t think that I would ever forget that sound. No matter how many hundreds of years I managed to live with my mate by side, I don¡¯t think that I would ever let the memory of that sound ever leave me. It was a sound filled with happy memories for me.


    .....


    ¡°OK. Here hees.¡± The sound of the babying out was distinct too. It was almost like a little popping noise. It was like the skin around my Little Bunny¡¯s belly had tried to keep the baby inside. Like her womb was not ready to give him up even though it was time for him toe out into the world. ¡°Here he is. Here is Baby C. He arrived just at twelve thirty on the nose. Twelve thirty in the morning on January the first, two thousand and thirty.¡±


    Griffin once again helped the baby up for us to see. He wasn¡¯t squirming or crying like his brothers had been. Instead, he was just sitting there with a contented sort of look on his face and Griffin propped him up.


    ¡°That is it. All three of your boys are here.¡±


    After showing us our third baby, Griffin lowered him down and started to mp and cut his umbilical cord just like he had with the others. He was getting him ready for the man to take him to the nursery with his brothers. Soon, all three of them would be together again.


    ¡°Here you go, William.¡± Griffin said as he handed my baby boy off.


    ¡°King Reece, Queen Trinity, what is Baby C¡¯s name?¡± He walked over like Reba had and asked us his name so that he could notate it in his chart and on his bass.


    ¡°His name is Zayden. Zayden Issac Gray.¡± My Little Bunny answered like she had thest time. Once again, there were tears pouring down her cheeks as she looked at the baby.


    ¡°Thank you, Queen Trinity. I will make sure that it is written on his bracelet.¡± The man, William, turned to take the baby to the bass and then left the room.


    ¡°You did it, Trinity. You made it through it all. All the babies are here and they¡¯re perfect.¡± I kissed away the tears on her cheeks when she turned to face me then. ¡°Our boys are here. You made it.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right, Reece. They are here. And they¡¯re so wonderfully perfect.¡± She was a step away from sobbing right then and there. I don¡¯t know why, she was happy but she was still about to cry her eyes out. ¡°Don¡¯t worry Reece. They¡¯re all happy tears.¡± She was trying to reassure me, but it was a little awkward for me to see her crying when she was supposed to be happy.


    ¡°I love you.¡± I whispered as I wiped away the tears.


    ¡°Alright you two, we are going to finish up here and then move you to recovery. It will take a few more minutes.¡± Griffin was calling out to us as I was about to kiss my wife again. ¡°We need to get them taken care of and then you can see the boys again. Reece, if you would like, you can head to the nursery to see them now.¡± Griffin was offering me as he continued to work.


    ¡°No, I will stay here with my Little Bunny. I don¡¯t want to see them again before she has the chance to. That wouldn¡¯t be very fair to her.¡±


    ¡°That is so sweet.¡± The nurse, May, cooed at the words that I had just said.


    ¡°Suit yourself.¡± Griffinughed a little bit as he went about his work. ¡°This part of the process is just a little boring that it¡¯s.. Wait a minute.¡± He sounded shocked and a little scared when he said that.


    That was thest thing that I needed to hear right now. I did not need fear or nerves or anything else negative like thating from the man that currently had his hands buried inside of my wife¡¯s belly.


    ¡°What is it? What¡¯s going on?¡± I asked him at the same time that my Little Bunny spoke.


    ¡°Is something wrong, Griffin?¡± There was fear in her voice as well. She was picking up on and amplifying the emotion that she had gotten from him.


    ¡°W..well, I wouldn¡¯t say that something is wrong really. It¡¯s just unexpected.¡±


    ¡°Unexpected doesn¡¯t exactly sound like a good thing, Griffin. What is happening?¡± I could feel the panic building within me. What was going on? What was happening to my Little Bunny? Was she going to be OK? What was wrong? So many different questions kept running through my mind at the moment. I knew that this had to be bad. There was no other excuse for the reaction that Griffin had given. And, oh Goddess, I didn¡¯t know if I was going to be able to handle the news. Whatever it was, it was going to be hard on us all.


    For a moment, Griffin turned to look directly at me and Trinity. He was giving us a look that I couldn¡¯t quite exin. It was weird. He was thrown off and unnerved, both of those were true. However, he was also giving us a look that was filled with excitement and happiness.


    ¡°Well, Reece, Trinity, how happy are you that you have three babies?¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Both me and Trinity said that one word at the same time.


    ¡°What do you mean, Griffin? I don¡¯t understand.


    ¡°Well, are you happy to be having so many babies at once?¡± He asked me with that strange look still firmly in ce.


    ¡°Yes, we are.¡± I answered him in a serious tone.


    ¡°I am as happy as I could be.¡± My Little Bunny added her affirmation next.


    ¡°That¡¯s good. And how would you feel about having a fourth baby?¡± He said with quite a big, and quite an awkward, smile on his face.


    ¡°What?¡±


    I couldn¡¯t believe what I had just heard. What did he mean by a fourth baby? That just didn¡¯t make any sense at all! We were only having three babies. That was it. There was nothing at all that could change that. I mean, all the babies, or rather their souls, had gone to the underworld with Trinity. She knew how many babies she was carrying. There was no fourth baby. Yet, here was Griffin telling us that there was.


    In my shock and surprise, I let go of my Little Bunny¡¯s hand and leapt to my feet. I was walking around the other side of the curtain before I even realized what was happening.


    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± I asked Griffin as I turned to look at his hands that were buried deep in Trinity¡¯s belly.


    That was not a sight I ever should have seen. There was blood all over Griffin¡¯s arms and that apron-like thing that was covering his scrubs. There wasn¡¯t any gore that had been flung across the table at me and Trinity, but there was blood and lots of metal tools coated in the same red substance.


    ¡°Oh, Goddess.¡± I pped a hand to my mouth and held back a gag.


    ¡°Oh,e on, Reece, you¡¯ve seen blood and gore before.¡± Griffinughed at me.


    ¡°Yeah, but that wasn¡¯t my wife.¡± I said as I tried not to hurl. ¡°Hurgh.¡± I felt the gagging start as I just stared at the way he was still reaching into my wife¡¯s body. If I hadn¡¯t known that she was very much alive, I would say that an injury like this had surely killed her. ¡°Hurgh!¡± I had to fight to hold back the vomit once again. ¡°Urrkgh.¡± I was gagging almost uncontrobly now and it was not a good thing.


    ¡°Come on, King Reece. You need to sit down and rx.¡± Another of the nurses, not May but someone I didn¡¯t know, grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me into my seat. Another one of the nurses was running across the room and grabbing a small cup of water from the sink. She was apparently trying to make sure that I had something to calm me down just a little.


    I just couldn¡¯t get over the sight that I just saw. It was worse than any horror movie that I have ever seen before. Nothing in my entire life, not even the people that I had personally torn apart, could have ever prepared me to see something like that happening to my wife and mate. It was awful. It was horrible. It was the most disgusting thing in the entire world. And to think, just moments before that I was happy with what had been going on. I was overjoyed. Now I am traumatized. And now I was an emotional wreck.


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 Chapter 789

    Chapter 789: Chapter 206- Reece ¨C Delivery Part 4 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    The nurse pushed the water into my hand. It felt really cold to the touch and that was what alerted me to the fact that I was overheating. I was letting my emotions get the best of me. I was not doing what I needed to do. I was not taking care of my wife. Trinity needed me. My Little Bunny needed me to be there for her and here I was acting like an idiot.


    I pulled down the mask that I was wearing and then lifted the cup to my mouth and tipped it. I didn¡¯t just take a sip or anything like that. Nope, I downed it all in one quick gulp. I needed to make this quick so that I could get back to what I needed to. I needed to be there for my wife. I needed to be there for the baby that Griffin said was still in there.


    But how? How was it possible that there was another baby in there? Griffin had done so many ultrasounds. He had checked my Little Bunny over so many times. How was it that a fourth baby was there? How was this baby overlooked? What had happened?


    ¡°OK.¡± I breathed out a big huff, trying to push off the negative emotions that had taken over me. ¡°I am OK now. I am sorry, Trinity. I am sorry for letting that happen to me.¡±


    .....


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Reece. I know how you are. Seeing me like that had to be hard for you. I don¡¯t know what it looks like, but I can imagine that I am a mess after having had three babies removed from my belly.¡± She was smiling at me sweetly as if to tell me that there was nothing to worry about. That wasn¡¯t right though. I had plenty to worry about. Her and the surgery that was still on going. Our mystery baby was still in her belly. And the three little baby boys that were already down in the nursery. Not to mention Reagan, Rika and Talia. There was plenty for me to worry about.


    Holy shit. I have seven kids. I more than doubled the number that I previously had. I went from three kids to seven in a matter of minutes. Holy shit. That was just a massive change. And I was not prepared for that. I was not ready for four babies. We don¡¯t have another crib. We don¡¯t have another name sign. We don¡¯t have anything for this new little wonder. And so that was even more that I had to worry about. I needed to make sure that the nursery was finished yet again. This was not what we had thought was going to happen. We had not nned on another baby at all.


    ¡°May, can you please run to the nursery. Tell them that we have another baby and to prepare another bass as soon as possible. I don¡¯t want to pull the baby out too soon. This one feels a lot smaller than the others. It is going to need more warmth and care. I feel like the other three wereying on it too much. This one just might struggle a little bit.¡± The moment that he finished speaking, the nurse ran from the room.


    I didn¡¯t like hearing those words. What was going on with my baby? Was this fourth mystery baby that we didn¡¯t know about going to die? Was he or she going to be lost to us before we even really knew about them? Were they already lost to us? Were they already dead?


    ¡°Griffin?¡± Trinity called out to him. ¡°I..is my baby going to be OK? I..is my baby d..d..d-.¡± I could tell that Trinity didn¡¯t want to say the word. There were tears in her voice and I could feel her heart breaking from here. I didn¡¯t want her to suffer like that. I didn¡¯t want her to feel like she was helpless right now, but I knew that was the case.


    I immediately moved even closer to my Little Bunny. I leaned forward and pressed my head against hers and started to soothe her.


    ¡°Shh. Shh. Shh. It¡¯s alright, Trinity. The baby isn¡¯t dead.¡± I knew that for a fact. And there was one main reason for that. ¡°Griffin would know. He has his hand on the baby. He can probably feel it¡¯s life inside of it. If the baby were already lost, he wouldn¡¯t be so worried about it.¡±


    ¡°Reece¡± She called out to me with a broken voice. The sobbing was now full on crying and nothing happy at all. The happy tears had passed on and she was now scared and worried about this baby that we hadn¡¯t even known about until now. She and I were both worried about this mystery baby.


    ¡°Reece is right, Trinity. The baby is alive. And I n to keep it that way. I am pouring some of my healing into the baby right now. I am trying to make them stronger before I pull them out of you.¡± He was being frank about what was happening right now. The baby was alive, but it wasn¡¯t as strong as the other babies had been.


    ¡°How did we not know about this baby, Griffin? What happened? How could we have missed it?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how to answer that, Reece. The only thing that I can say is that it happens. When you are dealing with multiples, especially when you get to three or more, it¡¯s easy for the other babies to hide one. This looks to me like the triplets wereying on top of this one. It was hidden behind them the entire time and just went unnoticed. I am sorry, Reece. I don¡¯t know what to else say other than that.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I guess you are right. So, it was just a hidden baby. And with the others on top of it, is that why it is smaller? It couldn¡¯t grow as much as the triplets? And, are we saying that this baby was from another egg? It¡¯s a fourth baby and makes them quadruplets, but this baby isn¡¯t going to be identical to the other three.¡± That was the way that I was understanding it with him calling the other boys the triplets.


    ¡°Yes, Reece, that is exactly it. This baby would be from another egg. This one will be part of the set, but will probably not look the same as the other three.¡±


    Griffin was nodding along as the door to the room burst open. The nurse from before came running back into the room with the first nurse that left, Jan. She was the one that had taken Zachary down to the nursery.


    ¡°What is this about another baby?¡± She had all of the required materials, but she looked just as shocked as she sounded.


    ¡°Just what May told you. There is a fourth baby. Get ready, I am going to pull them out now.¡±


    ¡°Y..yes, Dr. White. Right away.¡± She started to heat up the bass and grabbed the nket that she needed to take the baby from him.


    That was it. Griffin was going to deliver the baby. I heard a slight popping sound and rushing of liquid. That must be the amniotic fluid for this baby. After that, I could hear the moving of the baby inside of my Little Bunny¡¯s body, just like the others had. This baby was moving quicker than the other three had. It was going to be out of here soon.


    I was waiting with bated breath for this new little surprise to be here. I needed to know who they were and what they looked like. This was a baby that had no name right now, and we didn¡¯t even know if it was a boy or a girl. It was such a big surprise to us that even amid all the fear and anxiety, I was excited and happy as well.


    There was that sucking and popping sound of the babying out of the belly. It was like the hidden little gem was also desired by the womb. Just like Zayden, the baby¡¯s former home wanted to keep it in there for a little while longer.


    ¡°Alright, here is Baby D, number four, the surprise little one that none of us knew anything about before just a few minutes ago.¡± Griffin sounded jovial and happy, but I knew that he was still a little nervous and scared.


    The baby was out. I could see through the screen a little. There was the shadow of Griffin¡¯s hands and the baby that looked oh so tinypared to the others. And the others looked so little too. They had been smaller than all of the other babies we had before this since there were so many of them, they weren¡¯t able to grow as freely.


    ¡°Congrattions, it¡¯s a girl. Baby D, which is thankfully thest one in there, is a girl. She was brought into this world at twelve forty-three in the morning on January the first. ¡± Griffin actually sounded truly happy when he said that. I didn¡¯t know if it was because he knew that there were no other babies in there or because it was a girl and I wasn¡¯t going to be overly dominating Trinity and the girls with my massive brood of sons.


    Regardless of the way that Griffin meant it, he was already cutting the baby¡¯s umbilical cord. He was getting her ready to be taken down to the nursery so that she could be cared for in the way that she needed. She was going to be strong. She was going to make it. I just knew it.


    ¡°Meet your new little girl.¡± Griffin said as he held the baby girl up for us to see.


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 Chapter 790

    Chapter 790: Chapter 207- Trinity ¨C Surprise Baby (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°Meet your new little girl.¡± Griffin had just held up the surprise baby that we didn¡¯t know anything about. I didn¡¯t know that there was a little girl hiding in there underneath the boys. I never would have suspected it at all. I never, not in a million years, would have thought that she was going to be making this debut today.


    ¡°I..I can¡¯t believe it, Reece. W..we have four new babies.¡± I started to cry happy tears as I looked at her. ¡°B..but Griffin, is she OK? Sh..she looks so pale.¡± I was worried when I saw her being held up for me to see.


    ¡°She seems fine to me, but we will check her out.¡± Just as he said that the nurse, Jan, came over to him with a nket. She was ready to take the baby to the nursery so that I could be closed up and taken to recovery.


    ¡°Queen Trinity, King Reece, do you have a name for her yet?¡± She knew that we had names picked out for the boys since they had all been told their names and they had likely been noted in their charts already.


    .....


    ¡°No. We don¡¯t have a name picked out for her yet. W..we didn¡¯t know about this little bundle of joy, so we couldn¡¯t have figured that out yet.¡± I exined to her the truth about what had happened.


    ¡°Of course. We knew that you didn¡¯t know, but I just thought that you might have had some girl names picked out just in case the ultrasounds were wrong, and the triplets were in fact girls instead of boys.¡± She had a valid argument there, but she didn¡¯t know that I had more than the ultrasounds to go off of here.


    ¡°No, we knew for a concrete fact that they were boys. We have seen them, and what they will look like in a few years. Trinity has spoken with their souls. We didn¡¯t need to worry about that at all.¡± Reece went ahead and spilled some of the beans on that one. It was fine though, I had announced at the baby shower that I was in the underworld, people might have learned things from other people, and they could all know that by now. So, I didn¡¯t really mind that he had just told this woman about my excursion, well about part of it anyway.


    ¡°Well now, isn¡¯t that nice?¡± Janughed a little. ¡°That is fine, Queen Trinity, I will just put baby D or baby girl Gray for now. When you do think of a name, we will adjust her file to reflect it. This is unexpected though very exciting. Triplets have been rare enough in the hospital, but quadruplets are even more so. This will bring a lot of excitement to the nurses.¡± She was cradling my little girl in her arms when she said that and that was the moment that I first noticed something about the baby girl. She hadn¡¯t cried. Just like Zayden, she was silent when born. So, she and one of her brothers were going to be quite easy going, or at least it seemed that way for now. ¡°I will be going for now. I need to tend to the baby. Rest and recover well, Queen Trinity. We are all going to be eagerly waiting for the moment that we can bring the babies to see you.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Jan. And please do care for my little ones well.¡±


    ¡°Of course, my Queen.¡± She nodded at me onest time and left the room then.


    For some reason, I felt a pang of loneliness and emptiness ring through my body when my baby was taken from the room. I had been carrying the four of them for months and now they were no longer inside of me and were not even in the room with me. I couldn¡¯t feel them. I couldn¡¯t sense them. They weren¡¯t here at all and that made me feel like there was something wrong. Even though I knew that there was indeed nothing wrong, I still felt that way. And I was likely to feel that way until they were all once again in the room with me. Until I held them all in my arms and was able to see them with my own eyes, I would continue to feel like there was this massive hole in my body.


    Then again, I guess there was. I had gotten so big with the babies this time. And I had delivered them by cesarean section. I actually did have a giant hole in me. Both literal and figurative. That space that the babies upied inside of me was empty and would take time to heal. And that love for them that I had grown inside of my heart over these months felt like it had been ripped away when they were gone. I don¡¯t know why, it wasn¡¯t like this with the other kids. Maybe because there were so many of them. Maybe because I hadn¡¯t pushed them out of me like I had with the others, so I felt like I was missing an essential part of this whole process. I don¡¯t know what the cause was, but I just felt like there was something that was missing inside of me and I needed my babies back with me again to fix it.


    Yeah, I could tell that I was going to be very overprotective of them. Especially my surprise little girl. She had been neglected this entire pregnancy so far and that made me feel horrible. Whenever I talked to the babies, whenever I felt my belly, whenever I even thought about them, it was just the boys that I thought of. She had literally started out her life in this world as a neglected child. I didn¡¯t like that feeling at all. I needed to make up for it. I needed to make sure that she knew that I loved her and that I would be there for her for the rest of my life.


    ¡°Alright Trinity, now that we have all the babies out, we can start finalizing all of this. I am sure that you are eager to get to recovery. You and Reece need to start thinking about a new baby name soon, right. Not only that, but I am sure that you are tired. Let¡¯s get this wrapped up and get you out of here.¡± Griffin seemed to be in a good mood. Things hadn¡¯t gone ording to n, but nothing bad had happened either. In fact, it was a happy twist of fate that gave us a new little princess. Quite literally. The surprise baby was going to be the surprise princess for the entire kingdom. I wonder what everyone else was going to say about it as well.


    ¡°There are no more in there, right?¡± Reeceughed nervously as he looked at Griffin. I could see his eyes and I saw that it was quite the serious expression that he was giving him.


    ¡°Not that I can feel. And trust me, that is a good thing. One surprise baby is one thing, but two and I would consider myself a failure as a medical practitioner.¡± Heughed at the mere thought of that. ¡°You know, if I had used my magic to sense the babies at all during this pregnancy, I would have been able to tell that there were four of them. But I didn¡¯t want to do that. I didn¡¯t want to risk what that would do to their developing bodies.¡± I could tell that he was upset with himself.


    ¡°It¡¯s quite alright, Griffin. This just made for a very nice surprise. We now have a lot of work to do to finalize things, but I think that this was a good thing. She was a little present that we weren¡¯t expecting.¡± Reece seemed to be happy about this little girl, but he was still worried about how many had actually been missed. I was happy that he wasn¡¯t upset about it at all. But I think that, like Reece, I was a little worried about how we were going to take care of four babies at once. It was going to be hard.


    Over the next few moments, Griffin took care of whatever it was that he needed to do with my body. He was sewing me up and getting things taken care of for me while the stunned Dr. Razi watched over us. He hadn¡¯t said a word in so long that I had almost forgotten that he was in the room with us. When I did look at him though, he seemed toe to his senses as he shook his head.


    ¡°U..uhm, congrattions Queen Trinity. I am so happy for you.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Dr. Razi.¡±


    ¡°Queen Trinity, I know that I am just a nurse anesthetist, but would you permit me to be there with you in taking care of you for the next few days? I want to make sure that there are no adverse reactions to the anesthesia and that you are healing properly.¡± May smiled at me eagerly. She was a sweet girl, even if she was a grown woman and probably older than me.


    ¡°That would be nice, May. Thank you so much. I would prefer if the only people that took care of me and the babies were from my kingdom. I don¡¯t want people to get suspicious of us at all.¡±


    ¡°Yes, of course my Queen, I will make sure that you are all well protected.¡± She nodded at me as Griffin finished sewing me up.


    ¡°Alright. You are all set, Trinity. We will get you moved over to the other room. You will be there for a little bit until the spinal wears off and you can move. Once that is the case, we will move you back to your room.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t she just go back to her room now?¡± Reece asked Griffin with his head tilted.


    ¡°I wish that she could, Reece. However, it is hospital policy that we take her to recovery. We want to make things appear to be as normal as possible for right now. And that means that we need to follow all the procedures.¡± Reece seemed to recoil as he thought about something just then. I didn¡¯t know why, but I guess that I would ask him about itter.


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right. Rules are rules and we need to follow them.¡± That was off for Reece to be saying. I mean he was right, but it was odd that he would say it like that.


    After that, May pushed over another hospital bed and I was helped over to it from the operating table. Once I was in position, they pushed me out of the room and into the recovery area. This was where I needed to wait until I could see my little babies again. I would make it through this, somehow.


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 Chapter 791

    Chapter 791: Chapter 208- Trinity ¨C Recovery ¨C (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Once my bed was in position and I was hooked up to all of the monitors, again, the nurse left the area so that it was just Reece and I alone for the time being. I knew that nurses would be back to see us and check on me frequently. Not only was I a queen and there were people that were from my kingdom here, but I had just delivered quadruplets. I knew that everyone in the hospital was going to be so excited to see the babies and see how I, the mom that held them in until they were full term, was doing.


    If I had thought that people were going to think that the babies were unique before, then I was in for a shock soon. I knew that they were going to be even more of an oddity now that there were four of them instead of three. At least I knew that they were all going to be healthy. They had stayed in as long as I could make them. And that was definitely saying something.


    ¡°Trinity, Little Bunny?¡± Reece called out to me as I just stared off into space. I was thinking about things quite intently, but I had a feeling that he thought something might be wrong with me.


    ¡°Yes Reece, my Fido?¡± I grinned at him as I answered in a simr manner to how he called out to me. It made him smile at me as he knew that there was nothing actually wrong with me.


    .....


    ¡°How are you feeling?¡±


    ¡°Now that is a loaded question.¡± Iughed at him. ¡°Do you mean how am I doing after the surgery in which I just had to deliver our three boys and miracle surprise girl? Or do you mean how am I doing now that I need to process the fact that we just had quads instead of triplets? Or perhaps you¡¯re just asking how I am doing in general, like am Ifortable, do I need a drink or anything like that. I don¡¯t quite know what it is that you are asking me. So, I guess, until I know what you want, I can¡¯t answer that question.¡± I wasn¡¯t trying to be a smartass at the moment, but I had a feeling that I wasing off as one anyway.


    ¡°Well, I can see that you are doing just fine.¡± Heughed at me. ¡°If you¡¯re able to be that calm and snarky about it all, then I know that you are still my sweet and sour Little Bunny.¡± He leaned forward and kissed my cheek after saying those words to me. Afterwards, he pressed his forehead to mine and looked me directly in the eyes. ¡°But to answer your question, my love, I am asking how you are in general. How are you feeling, how are you doing, are you OK, is anything at all bothering you? You know, all of those things and more. You can choose to answer the question however you want to.¡± He was such an amazing husband, but he was also such a worrier.


    ¡°I am fine, Reece. There is nothing to worry about. Physically, I feel fine. I am not in pain at the moment, but I am sure that it will being soon when the meds wear off. I am excited and happy that the babies are here. I am shocked and happy that there was a surprise little one that we didn¡¯t know about at all. I am nervous about how hard it is going to be to take care of so many babies at once. I am worried that they might feel like there isn¡¯t enough love to go around with them all. I am worried that Reagan, Rika, and Talia will feel neglected with how busy we are going to be now. I am worried about how they are going to react to the surprise baby. And I will always worry about my children, no matter what. However, all in all, I think I am doing OK. The worry is natural at the moment, but it is not enough to overshadow the joy and happiness that I am feeling right now.¡±


    I wasn¡¯t lying to him at all. I truly felt more happiness than anything else right now. This was a wonderful start to this new year. We would forever be able to start the new year with happiness and joy because the babies would be celebrated on this day.


    ¡°I think that you and I are feeling a lot of the same things. We are both worried and concerned about different things but, like you, I am so very happy about the babies being here. And like you said, I am happy about the surprise baby. It was unexpected but wonderful.¡± I knew he meant that too. He was such a family focused man that I knew he wouldn¡¯t be upset right now. He was just going to be boasting about the fact that he had more little ones than he expected.


    ¡°Well, there is one thing that we do need to focus on a little bit.¡± I told him as I thought about it all. ¡°We need to figure out a name for the baby girl.¡± I tried to think about what it was that we could call her.


    ¡°I think that we should hold her and look at her first. We need to know what name will suit her. This is a unique situation for us. We can¡¯t rush this. We haven¡¯t had the time to think about it at all. We need to make sure that we do things right.¡± I knew that Reece had a point. And I agreed with him. We needed to take another look at the baby to see what she was like and then pick a name for her.


    ¡°Well, until I am recovered enough, I know that they won¡¯t bring them to see us. That is why I want to get out of this room and back to the other room as soon as I can.¡± I was starting to feel anxious and excited. I just wanted time to pass a little more quickly right now.


    ¡°Yeah. I know.¡± Reece was looking off in the distance now. I think he was fantasizing about holding the babies in his arms. Well, I had something to tell him about that really quickly.


    ¡°I hold them all first.¡± I red at him yfully.


    ¡°Hey, you¡¯ve been holding them for months. Isn¡¯t it my turn?¡± He joked back.


    ¡°Sure, let me cut open your belly and make you carry the babies for a bit. Then you can hold them first.¡± He didn¡¯t seem to like my suggestion.


    ¡°That is beyond gruesome.¡± He shuddered at the thought. ¡°You are so evil and mean to me.¡± His yful attitude wasn¡¯t affected though. ¡°You are lucky that I love you so much.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha. Yeah, so are you, Fido.¡± He leaned in and kissed me again as the curtain pulled back for a nurse toe in and check on me.


    ¡°Oh, am I interrupting something here?¡± It was May and she was joking with us yfully.


    ¡°No, we¡¯re just celebrating that we have such a big and beautiful family.¡± Reece pulled back from me then and sat back in the chair next to the bed.


    ¡°That is so lovely.¡± She looked wistful as she smiled at me. ¡°You are so lucky to have such a loving man, Queen Trinity.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, May.¡± I didn¡¯t know what else to say at the moment, so I just thanked her.


    ¡°Well, I came to check on you and see how you are doing. As long as the medication is wearing off and you are able to move, we can get you back to your room soon.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± I was so happy to hear that. ¡°I am doing fine. I am definitely ready to go.¡±


    ¡°I know. I would be too if I were in your position. Now, I am just going to check a few things.¡± She went over to the readouts from the machines and checked them out. ¡°Things look good over here.¡± She had a note of happiness in her voice as she spoke. ¡°Alright Queen Trinity, can you move your toes for me. I need to see if you have gotten feeling back yet.¡± She walked over and lifted the nket that was draped over me.


    I did as I was instructed to do. I moved the toes on each foot. Actually, I moved a little more than she had asked me to. I ended up moving my feet and toes all around for a moment. That was when I noticed the pain that was aching through my belly.


    ¡°Does that hurt?¡± She asked me when she saw my face.


    ¡°Not my legs or anything. It¡¯s my belly that hurts.¡± I made sure that she didn¡¯t think there was anything wrong.


    ¡°That¡¯s actually a good sign. It means that the spinal is out of your system and that you are doing just fine. There is nothing to worry about. I will have theme and put some medication on a drip for you. It will make sure that you don¡¯t get too ufortable. Now, I am going to check your belly and massage your uterus. We need to massage it often. I am sure that you are familiar with that though, since you have delivered twice before.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I am familiar with it.¡± I assured her as I remember what had happened to me when the other three kids had been born.


    She did what she needed to do, and I justid there. I was eagerly waiting for the moment that I was taken back to my room. I wanted to see my babies. I wanted to feed them. I wanted to make sure that they were all well taken care of. It was going to be a busy night for us. Not to mention, I did need to rest a little bit so that I could handle all that was going to happen in the morning. I had a feeling that everyone was going toe and visit us. They would be curious about the fourth baby.


    ¡°Alright Queen Trinity, that should be it for now. I am going to let them know you are good to go now. They will get your meds set up in the room and then we will bring the babies to see you. They will most likely spend the night in the NICU just because they are so small, but they are all breathing just fine so we can at least bring them to you for a few moments.¡± I didn¡¯t like that they weren¡¯t going to be with me right away, but I understood. This too was probably hospital policy.


    ¡°Thank you, May.¡± I nodded at her as I epted what needed to happen. At least I would see them, that was better than nothing.


    ¡°It will be fine, and this way you can get a little bit of sleep.¡± She was right, I knew that, but it was still a little sad.


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 Chapter 792

    Chapter 792: Chapter 209- Trinity ¨C Back In The Room Part 1 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It wasn¡¯t long before we were back in the room that we had been in for the past week. The nurse that took me back to my room, which was Helen from the delivery room, got me set up with some pain medication that was calibrated specifically for someone with a shifter metabolism.


    ¡°I know that you are going to be tempted to breastfeed right away, Queen Trinity, but please do hold off. We do not want to let any of this medication get into their system. With your healing abilities, I am sure that you will be able to be weaned off of the medication sometime in the next few hours. For now though, we just want to make sure that you are doing OK and rxing as much as possible.¡± She was checking over my incision and making sure that I was well taken care of as she exined all of that to me.


    ¡°But, they will be hungry.¡± I didn¡¯t like that I needed to wait to feed them and bond with them all.


    ¡°They will have form for tonight, Queen Trinity. Do not worry about it too much. We will make sure that they are doing just fine.¡± She smiled at me reassuringly. ¡°As, once you are settled, we can get them in here to see you.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Yes, I would love to see them.¡± That was enough to chase away some of the sadness that I had been feeling. I just wanted to see my little ones. Especially my mystery girl. I didn¡¯t even know what to name her yet. I needed to spend time with her so that I could pick a name perfect for this little miracle girl.


    After Helen left the room, four nurses came into the room almost immediately. And they were all pushing a bass with a baby in it. Jan, Reba, Will and May were the ones that brought my little ones in to see me.


    ¡°Oh my Goddess, I cannot believe this. Just look at it, Reece. We have four basss for four babies. Isn¡¯t that just unbelievable?¡± I was at a total loss for words after that. And judging by the goofy grin on Reece¡¯s face, he was just as much at a loss as I was.


    ¡°Which baby would you like to hold first, Queen Trinity?¡± May asked me as she stopped next to my bed.


    ¡°Well, considering that I told Reece that I will be holding them all before him, I think I should hold the boys first. I need to spend some time looking at my little girl so I will be reluctant to let her go. I didn¡¯t even know she was in there, so I have a lot of time to make up for it with her.¡± I still felt so guilty about that.


    ¡°Of course, Queen Trinity. I will hand you baby A, little Zachary. Perhaps holding them in birth order would be best.¡± I watched as she walked over to Jan and took a little blue wrapped bundle from the bass.


    The baby looked so small. Compared to the twins and to Talia, these little ones were positively tiny.


    ¡°Why is he so little?¡± Reece didn¡¯t seem to be able to hold back. ¡°Is there something wrong with him?¡±


    ¡°Not at all, King Reece. He was one of four babies that were in the womb at the same time. They are all smaller than the average baby because there was less room to grow.¡± I remember that Reagan and Rika both weighed around five pounds and that Talia weighed a little over seven pounds. If it was because there were so many babies in there, then I could just guess at how much these four weighed.


    ¡°How much did they all weigh?¡± I needed to know, so I decided to ask, and Jan was more than happy to answer for me.


    ¡°Zachary, baby A, was the biggest, he was three pounds and fifteen ounces. Zander, baby B, weighed three pounds thirteen ounces, he and Zayden, baby C, weighed the same. And as for baby D, the little girl, she weighed three pounds even. They are all simr lengths to newborn babies. All three boys were eighteen inches long, while baby D was sixteen inches long.¡±


    ¡°They are so little and tiny.¡± I was in awe as I listened to those numbers. ¡°I can¡¯t believe that they were full term and still that little.


    ¡°They are smaller than most babies, yes, but they appear to be doing just fine.¡± Jan assured me.


    I didn¡¯t let the numbers bother me. I just held my arms out to May as she approached me with my little baby boy.


    ¡°Would you like to hold Zander as well, Queen Trinity? Or just one little one at a time?¡± May was being very attentive and helpful at the moment.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, maybe both of them. I will need to get used to that as it is.¡± I couldn¡¯t take my eyes off of the little boy in my arms. He was so cute and so adorable.


    I was looking at his soft, pure ck hair that looked just like Reece¡¯s. His adorable little face was not as pudgy as most babies were. His thin little man¡¯s face already reminded me of Reece. The resemnce was definitely undeniable. And I knew that, if I were able to see his eyes, I would see that they looked like Reece¡¯s. Or they would when they got their true color.


    While I stared into his face, May came closer to me with little Zander in her arms. Sheid him in the crook of my right arm since Zachary was in the left. I was now looking at the two of them at the same time. There was no difference to be seen between them. They werepletely identical. Every little line of their faces, the texture of their hair, even the number of eyshes on their closed eyes. All of it looked the same.


    I had known that there was no difference to be seen in them. I had seen them before and knew just how identical these three little boys were. And I also knew just how sweet they were going to be. They were good little kids, and perfect little gentlemen. At least they would be.


    I kissed the boys on their tiny little faces as I snuggled them close to me. I inhaled their scents and memorized the way that they smelled. I would mostly just smell the diapers and the nkets they had wrapped around them, and those tiny little white shirts with the covered hands that they always put on newborn babies.


    After a few minutes, I knew that Reece was most likely getting jealous that I was holding the babies and that he was missing out. I needed to be fair. I needed to share my babies with their daddy.


    ¡°Reece?¡± I called out to him softly. ¡°Would daddy like to hold his new little boys?¡± I asked him, still not taking my eyes off of Zachary and Zander.


    ¡°You know that I would.¡± His voice clearly told me that there was a smile on his face. I couldn¡¯t see it, but I could hear the happiness that was in him.


    ¡°Here you are then, daddy.¡± I said, finally looking up at him to see that he was ready and waiting. He took Zachary first and nestled him in the bend of his arm and then came forward to get Zander next. He was easily able to hold them both, and he even knew how to manage two babies at once. He had the memories of Reagan and Rika to draw on for that.


    Once I had my arms free of babies, I turned to look at May again.


    ¡°Can you hand me Zayden please. I want to hold my little girl by herself, so I will hold Zayden alone as well.¡±


    ¡°Certainly, Queen Trinity.¡± She nodded and immediately went to get the baby for me. I was ready when she came to hand him to me. My arms were out and waiting for him.


    I snuggled Zayden like I did the other two. I looked into his face and admired how much he looked like Reece. They were going to be some very handsome boys when they got older. They were literally carbon copies of the sexiest man that I knew of. Looks like I will need to fight thedies off with a stick when they grow up. Or the boys. They can have whatever kind of mate that they want, or that fate chooses for them.


    I took a finger and lightly traced along Zayden¡¯s jaw and cheeks. I wanted to savor this moment for as long as I could. He was asleep through the whole process too, just like his brothers had been. They were already doing things alike.


    OK, they were newborn babies. They were going to sleep all the time anyway. Still, it was so adorable to see that I couldn¡¯t tell the difference in them. That could be hard though. I would need to make sure that Ipletely memorized their scents. That would be the only way to tell them apart at times.


    I could just see it now. They were going to be tricksters. Good boys, yes, but also tricksters. They were going to fool people and swap ces from time to time. I wanted to make sure that I was never fooled by them. I might pretend when they were younger, but I would always know the truth. That was my goal as their mother. To always know which was which.


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 Chapter 793

    Chapter 793: Chapter 210- Trinity ¨C Back In The Room Part 2 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°Reece, are you confident in your ability to hold all three, or should I have Zayden be put back into the bass?¡± I looked to see him just smiling and crying silently as he watched the babies in his arms.


    ¡°I am good, my love. I can hold them all.¡± He could too. His arms were more than big enough, and he was rxing in the chair so that the two that he had right now wereying against his chest.


    ¡°I thought that you would say that.¡± Iughed softly for a moment, I didn¡¯t want to wake the babies so I made sure it was quiet. ¡°May, can you hand Zayden to Reece and then hand me my little girl?¡± I asked the woman that was acting like my personal helper.


    ¡°Wait just a moment. I want to see her too. Let me scoot closer.¡±


    .....


    And just like that, Reece started to push the chair closer to the bed. He was just using his legs and hadn¡¯t gotten up from the chair at all. Under any other circumstances, it would have been childish or disrespectful. But right now, he was doing what he had to do so that he didn¡¯t disturb the babies. I also noticed that he was moving the chair gently, so that it didn¡¯t make a lot of noise and wake the babies up. He was the best daddy ever.


    ¡°Alright, I am in position. Please hand me the baby.¡± Reece looked up from the chair and at the nurse that was waiting with Zayden in her arms.


    ¡°Yes, King Reece. Here you go.¡± May nodded at him and thenid the third little boy down on his chest. Reece was now leaning back and holding all the boys on his chest. And I could tell that he was the happiest man alive at that moment.


    ¡°Alright, Queen Trinity.¡± May was back now. She had handed Reece Zayden and gone to get the pink wrapped bundle from the fourth and final bass. This was when I was finally going to see my little girl. The surprise bundle of joy that we were blessed with. ¡°Here is your little angel. And look at that, she is awake and waiting for her mommy.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± She was the only one that was awake right now. The boys were all sleeping soundly but this little girl was awake when the nurse handed her to me.


    This bundle felt so simr to the others. She was less than a pound lighter than the boys were, but somehow, she just felt so much smaller than them. She seemed so tiny and frail as I held her against my chest.


    ¡°Hello there, little one.¡± I smiled at her. ¡°I am your mommy.¡± It seemed to me like she was looking right at me. It felt like she was paying close attention to me and couldn¡¯t get enough of my face. ¡°Oh, you are so beautiful, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    I was so surprised by the way that she looked. She didn¡¯t look like the boys at all. If I were to say anything at all about her, I would say that she was the pr opposite of her brothers. They had pure ck hair, just like Reece¡¯s, and I knew that their eyes would be honey colored like his as well. This little girl, in contrast to them, had snowy white hair. And she was looking at me with icy blue eyes that were very familiar to mine. They were just a little off from being the same color as mine. And to top it all off, she was pure white. She was just like Edmond had been when he was born.


    Looking at this little girl in my arms, I swear she was Edmond. She was my father reborn. I had to wonder if this was where his soul had ended up. When he left the underworld that day, did hee to this little girl? Was she literally him?


    I didn¡¯t have a doubt in my mind that she was. This little girl, she was my father¡¯s second chance at life. And I did basically say that if I were his mother, I would have made sure that he had a good life. I would have loved him. I would have made him grow up happy and healthy. Well, now was my chance. Now I would be able to prove to the world that Edmond¡¯s soul, and those of the others, really could be changed if they only had a loving family to help them.


    ¡°Trinity? Little Bunny?¡± Reece was looking at our little girl in my arms with his jaw hanging open. ¡°Do you notice something about how she looks?¡±


    ¡°Do you mean that she is one of the three most beautiful baby girls that I have ever seen?¡± I grinned and looked at him. He would see that I had no problem at all with how this little girl looked. She was ours. She was our precious little girl and that was all that mattered.


    ¡°She most definitely is beautiful.¡± He agreed, not denying it at all. ¡°She looks a lot like you, but she looks more like someone else. Did you notice that?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Reece. I do happen to notice that she looks exactly like another member of my family. And I do believe that there is a reason for that. A reason we will discuss privatelyter.¡± I didn¡¯t want to hash this out in front of the nurses that were in here with us right now.


    ¡°Yeah, we will talk about itter.¡± He nodded at me in agreement and just continued to look at our little girl. ¡°We need to think of a name for her soon.¡± He was right, but I wanted to talk about that alone as well.


    ¡°May, Jan, Reba, Will, can all of you give us some time alone with the babies please. I would like to bond with them and talk with my husband about a few things as well.¡±


    ¡°Yes, understood. We will return shortly, Queen Trinity. And when I do return, I will bring with me some form so that you can feed the babies. They will need to eat soon. After that, I will take them to the nursery so that you can get some rest.¡± May was taking the lead like she had so many times already. And after she spoke, the others just left the room without another word. They were definitely obedient little workers.


    Now that Reece and I were alone, it was time for us to start discussing what we were going to do about the baby¡¯s name. And it was time for us to discuss her uniqueness.


    ¡°She is Edmond, isn¡¯t she?¡± Reece asked the moment that the others were out of the room. He had lowered his voice so that it was barely audible, but I still heard him just fine.


    ¡°Yes, Reece, she is Edmond reborn. I had thought to myself in the underworld that I was saddened on his behalf. And I sort of told myself that I knew he would have done better if he had been raised with love instead of hate.¡± I looked up into his eyes. ¡°Remember though, Reece, Edmond saved my life, and the life of the boys. We owe him everything. This is our chance to pay back that debt.¡±


    ¡°I know, Trinity. I know that he was reformed. I know that we owe him for your life and the lives of all three boys. I am just wary about the fact that others might not be as epting of her.¡± He was worried. Not for himself or his image, but about her. He loved her no differently than the boys and was already trying to protect her.


    ¡°We will make them ept her. We will show the world that she is her own person and that her soul¡¯s origins do not dictate whether she is good or bad. She will show the world that she and all the others in the underworld, are capable of being good once again.¡±


    ¡°You truly are a loving person, Trinity. You know that?¡± Reece looked at me with love in his eyes as he asked me that.


    ¡°Sometimes a little too loving.¡± I joked back at him.


    ¡°So, what should we name her? Do you have any ideas?¡±


    ¡°Well, I was thinking about that as I looked into her face. She needs a pretty name that suits her, but I also want to pay tribute somehow to the man that gave his life for us.¡± I was trying to do this right. I wanted to make sure that a part of his name was in there somehow.


    ¡°So, you want to put his name in there somewhere?¡± Reece looked worried for a moment. ¡°I don¡¯t know about that. Then people would associate her with him a lot.


    ¡°Well, we can do a y on his middle name. That way it is there but not really there. How about something like Zaley Arnelia Gray. Then we have two zigs and two zags, and Arnelia is a y on Cornelius. The female version being Cornelia and we change that to Arnelia.¡± I told him my suggestion and watched for his reaction.


    ¡°Yeah, I think I like that. And it¡¯s really pretty. It suits her well. Hello my little Zag. Hello little Zaley.¡± Reece called out to her in a cooing sort of voice as he limated himself with her name. Well, at least this part of things was settled. Now we just needed to tell everyone else about her.


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 Chapter 794

    Chapter 794: Chapter 211- Trinity ¨C Time With The Babies (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Now that little Zaley had her name, we were all able to just spend time together as a family. It would have been nice if Reagan, Rika and Talia were here with us, but for now it was just Mommy, Daddy and the new bundles of joy.


    ¡°They¡¯re so gorgeous, Little Bunny. All of them are so cute and perfect.¡± Right now Reece was holding all four babies as he reclined in the chair that was in the room for him to use.


    ¡°I know they are, Reece.¡± I agreed as I watched him. I had a sudden thought just then. I wanted to make sure that I captured this moment. I wanted to look back on itter. I wanted to be able to see it when the babies all got older and became big kids and teenagers. I would need to have this to remind me of their first hours of life.


    Not wanting to miss a moment of this, I pulled my phone closer to me and opened it with a swipe. Without Reece even realizing what I was doing, I pointed the camera at him and snapped a picture. Then I switched it over and started to take a video. Just as I did, Reece started to sing to the babies.


    .....


    ¡°Little ones in my arms, I will make sure that youe to no harm. My sweet little boys, you already bring me so much joy. Zaley, my little girl, you¡¯re the prettiest in the world. While you sleep, Daddy will hold you and try not to weep. Rest your little heads while you use Daddy as a bed. I will always be here for babies, my sons and my littledies. If you need anything at all, just give your daddy a call.¡± I knew that Reece was just making up a rhyming song on the spur of the moment. He used to do this all the time with Reagan, Rika and Talia. He loved singing to them and seeing the happiness that it brought to them.


    Just then, Reece looked up and saw that I had my phone pointed at him.


    ¡°Did you just video that?¡± He looked scared and worried for a moment.


    ¡°Yes. Yes, I did. And it was the sweetest thing in the world.¡± I was happy to be seeing this moment that had unfolded unexpectedly before me.


    ¡°Well, I hope you got my good side at the very least.¡± He wasn¡¯t upset about it at all.


    ¡°You only have good sides.¡± I rolled my eyes at him. ¡°You¡¯re practically perfect.¡±


    ¡°I try.¡± Sometimes he was just so extra and over the top, but at times like this, I loved everything about him. ¡°Now it¡¯s time for you to get a picture with the babies. We need pictures too, so that I can send them to everyone in the morning. None of them know about the babies yet and that is going to upset them.¡± He had a point. I could imagine that everyone was going to be a little upset with us about this.


    ¡°Well, let¡¯s make a little video and do a photo shoot with them all.¡± I agreed right away. ¡°Come on,y the babies down on the bed and then we will do this.¡±


    Reece did as I told him to before we started to take photos of me and the babies. We needed to have pictures of me and each baby individually. Then we would do me and the boys and then all four of them.


    Reece put the babies in their basss after heid them all down so that they were all safe. He handed me Zachary first and I took a series of pictures with him where I smiled at the camera and then looked at him and snuggled him. After that we repeated it Zander, Zayden and Zaley. It took a few minutes with each baby, but I felt like it was worth it.


    After all of the individual pictures were taken, Reece handed me Zachary, Zander and Zayden. I took photos as I cradled them all. After that it was time to get them all in the picture. Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley were all so small that it was very easy to hold them all in my arms by myself. Reece took pictures of them all, with Zayden and Zaley in the middle and Zachary and Zander on the outside to protect them.


    Through the whole process, all four of the babies remained calm and easygoing. I was very surprised with how well it was all going.


    After the pictures were all done, Reece put Zander, Zayden and Zaley back in their basss. He took Zachary from my arms and started to record a video focusing on me.


    ¡°Hey everyone. Well, we have some news for you all. Late at night I started to have contractions and well, one thing led to another and I¡¯m no longer pregnant. Instead, we weed the babies in the wee hours of the morning. So, I would like to introduce you all to them now.¡± Reece came forward and handed me Zachary, the phone was propped up on the table in the perfect angle to get us all. ¡°This here is Zachary Aaron Gray. He was the first and is a few ounces bigger than the others.¡± Reece came forward with the next baby then. ¡°Here we have Zander Ian Gray. He has been so calm and perfect, just like Zachary has been too.¡± Reece handed me Zayden then. ¡°This one here is Zayden Issac Gray. He is the calmest of the boys and seems reallyid back and chill.¡± Just then, Reece came to sit next to me on the bed with Zaley in his arms.


    ¡°And this little surprise bundle of joy is Zaley Arnelia Gray. We didn¡¯t know about her at all because the boys were hiding her in the ultrasounds. But she is doing great and we love her and her brothers all very much. We know that some of you are going to being to visit us soon, but please let us get some sleep. It is literally two in the morning, or just after, so we need some rest. The babies are all doing good and will be staying in the NICU just for the night. They are all very small and need to be monitored for a little bit. We will call you all soon, but of course you will be getting this message in the morning as well.¡±


    Reece wrapped up the video and leaned forward to stop recording. We had done what we needed to do to prepare everyone for the big surprise that they were going to be getting. Now though, I was really tired and I thought it was best to let the babies get their rest as well. After I fed them that is.


    Right on cue, May came back into the room with a cart being pushed in front of her.


    ¡°Hello there, Queen Trinity. How are you doing? Have you enjoyed your time with the babies?¡± She looked up at me and then smiled. ¡°Oh, I can see you are very sleepy. Let¡¯s get those babies fed and then I will call the others to help me take them to the nursery.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, May. That would be wonderful. And I was just thinking that we needed to feed them and then get some sleep.¡±


    May, Reece and I all fed the babies. We burped them. And we changed them. It was a process that Reece and I needed to get back into after being out of practice for a few years. And let¡¯s not forget that fate wanted to mess with us here a little and made it really tricky.


    It didn¡¯t take too long to care for the babies with the three of us working together. And as soon as they were all ready, I kissed them each on the cheek and let the others take them to the nursery. May came back and massaged my belly and checked on my incision before I went to sleep, but that was about it for the night.


    Well, almost. They came back every hour or so. Well, that¡¯s what it felt like anyway. I didn¡¯t check the time, I just tried to get some rest and let them do their thing. It didn¡¯t work that well, but I tried my best.


    I knew that I would still be exhausted in the morning, but I would deal with it. This is what it was always like when I had kids. This was my third time around, I was no stranger to the ways that the nurses did things.


    Reece barely slept as well. He would wake up with me each time that the nurses came to interrupt my sleep. He was always right there with me, not taking advantage of anything that would have given him more sleep than me. He was determined to be right there with me every step of the way. That was how he had been each and every time. He was the sweetest and best husband and mate ever.


    I honestly don¡¯t know what I would do without Reece. I wouldn¡¯t be half the person that I am today without him here at my side. We were a team. We always worked together and helped each other. Even now, when it felt to me that he was doing more than I was. And he neverined about it either.


    My sincerest wish for everyone in the world is that they could find their own version of Reece.


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 Chapter 795

    Chapter 795: Chapter 212- Reece ¨C Notifying Everyone (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Trinity and I slept until about nine in the morning. Well, it wasn¡¯t nine straight through. We may not have had to take care of the quadruplets throughout the night, but we did have to deal with nurses doing their repeated checks. I knew that Trinity would be feeling tired and most likely sore when the night was over, but at least she would have had some rest.


    My Little Bunny had been through so much over thest day. Going intobor and being taken to surgery. Being cut open and enduring what had happened to her. And then finding out that she was carrying not just three babies but four. That had been quite the journey for her, and I wanted to be right there with her the entire time. She deserved that from me. That and more.


    Now though, it was time for me to start sending out the notifications to everyone else. No one, and I do mean absolutely no one back at the castle knew what had happened after Mom and Eve left with the kids. We had to let Reagan, Rika and Talia know that they had not three new siblings, but four. I could just imagine how that was going to go. They would probably scream with joy.


    After we were awake and had sent over our breakfast order so that it could be delivered from the restaurant, I took my phone and looked at my Little Bunny.


    .....


    ¡°Are you ready to tell them all?¡± I saw the happiness in her eyes.


    ¡°Yeah, and I am ready to have theme back into the room with me.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha.¡± The nurse named Jan had just walked into the room as my Little Bunny said those words. ¡°It¡¯s funny you would say that right now, Queen Trinity. We were just bringing the babies to you.¡± When we looked up to see them, we saw her and Reba. They were each pushing two of the little basss through the door.


    ¡°Really?¡± I saw the happiness that was filling Trinity¡¯s face then.


    ¡°Yup. And when you are ready to be taken off of the pain meds, we will get them all nursing.¡±


    Jan and Reba pushed the babies over so that they were next to the bed. I could see them all from where I was sitting. They were sound asleep and as adorable as they could be.


    ¡°We will leave you to make your call. Just so you know, they were just fed and changed, so they will be good for a couple of hours. Call us if you need anything.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, we will.¡± I nodded at them before they left the room.


    ¡°This is wonderful, Reece. Now we can call them all and show them the video and pictures. And then we can show them the babies now as they¡¯re sleeping in the basss.¡±


    ¡°Alright, so a videocall it is.¡± I swiped the screen on my phone and quickly called my mom.


    It wasn¡¯t that early in the morning, so I knew that they would answer right away. And the kids weren¡¯t in school right now so I knew that they would all be there as well. After just two rings, Mom answered her phone.


    ¡°Good morning, Reece. How are you and Trinity doing this morning? Any changes? We were just getting the kids ready so that we could head up there to see you.¡± Her voice was just as sweet and friendly as ever.


    ¡°Good morning, Mom. Trinity and I are doing good. We didn¡¯t get much sleepst night, but we¡¯re OK.¡± I didn¡¯t want to spoil the news right away. ¡°Are the kids near you?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, they¡¯re right here. Do you want to say good morning?¡± I could hear that she was changing positions so that she could move over to where the kids were.


    ¡°Yeah, here let me put you on video.¡± I tapped the button and waited for her to do the same. I immediately saw the kids who were now holding the phone.


    ¡°Daddy!¡±


    ¡°Hey Dad.¡±


    ¡°Hi Daddy.¡± Talia, Reagan and Rika all greeted me in that order.


    ¡°Hey guys. Good morning. I love you.¡±


    ¡°Love you too!¡± They all said that at virtually the same time.


    ¡°I want you guys to get Papa, Nona and M¨®ra¨ª there as well. I want to talk to all of you.¡± I gave them the instructions knowing that my mom would hear me and get curious.


    ¡°Reece!¡± There was excitement in her voice.


    ¡°Just get everyone Mom. As many of the others as you can too.¡± I want to talk to you all at once.¡±


    ¡°I will get them, Daddy. They¡¯re in the other room.¡± Talia offered in a hurry.


    ¡°Angel will get them, Tally. Tally, stay and talk to Tally¡¯s daddy.¡± The little pink creature that was Talia¡¯s best friend flew from her shoulder and then flew out of the room. It was calling the names that I had said. ¡°M¨®ra¨ª, Papa, Nona, Tally needs M¨®ra¨ª, Papa and Nona.¡±


    ¡°Daddy, is everything OK?¡± Rika looked worried as she asked me that question. She was always trying to look after people and I knew that she was scared that something happened.


    ¡°Yes, baby girl, everything is fine.¡± I assured her with a smile that showed that I was happy and not scared. ¡°Do you want to say good morning to Mommy?¡± I asked them as I was already moving toward my Little Bunny.


    ¡°YES!¡± That was more enthusiastic than I expected, but all three of them were definitely excited to see her.


    ¡°Good morning my babies! I love you all so much.¡± Just as Trinity said that, the others came running into the room. I could see them in the background of the video call.


    ¡°What is going on?¡± Samuel was the first in the room.


    ¡°Is everything OK, Trinity?¡± Eve asked in a panic.


    ¡°Tell me that nothing bad happened.¡± Wesley added as he came to a stop.


    ¡°Well, we have something to tell you all. Eve, do you have your phone on you?¡± I asked her in what appeared to be an infuriating move. They were waiting for the story, not questions.


    ¡°Yes, I have it right here.¡± She pulled it out of her pocket and showed it to me.


    ¡°Good, I am going to send you some pictures and a video. Please show them to everyone.¡±


    I opened the message and sent a picture of each of the boys and then the video.


    ¡°Look at the pictures before you watch the video, OK.¡± I needed to give some instructions. After I did that, I opened a group thread and started adding some names to it. They were going to be getting the same things sent to them. After everyone saw the video, I would be sending out the rest of the pictures. I did all of this quickly though, since I needed to get us back to the video call so that we could see their faces. That was the best part.


    ¡°T..the babies are here!¡± Reagan stuttered a little in his excitement.


    ¡°Oh my goddess, they are so cute.¡± Rika gushed when she saw their cute faces.


    ¡°Yay, my brothers are here. When can I see the rest?¡± Talia, with Angel back on her shoulder, sounded eager.


    ¡°Oh my, they are so little.¡± Mom squealed.


    ¡°I love them so much already.¡± Eve was crying with joy.


    ¡°They are perfect.¡± Wesley cooed.


    ¡°This is a wonderful day.¡± Samuel hugged my mom as he looked at the pictures on the screen. All of them, our entire family that was in that room, minus some siblings, were so happy with what they had seen just now. To see that much love and happiness for your babies was amazing. To me it meant that they were going to have an amazing life. They were going to be so loved.


    Finally, after watching them all coo and fawn over the pictures of the boys, I felt like it was time to move on to the next stage. Only, someone else had thought of it too, and apparently just a moment or two before me.


    ¡°OK, Mom, go ahead and y the video.¡± My Little Bunny encouraged them to see the rest of the news. At the same moment, I flipped back to the messages and pressed send so that everyone would be getting the video now.


    Sometime very soon, people were going to start bombarding my phone with calls and text messages. They were going to be asking so many questions. They would want to know what happened. They would want to know how we had four babies now when Trinity only had triplets in the ultrasounds. And there had been a lot of ultrasounds.


    I could imagine how Juniper was going to react. And let¡¯s not forget Noah and Nikki. The two of them were going to go nuts over all of this. And Acacia, she was from a family full of multiples. Everyone that we knew, specifically in our inner circle, they were going to be happy but oh so surprised.


    Honestly, I couldn¡¯t wait to see everyone¡¯s reactions. That was why I had wanted them all here for this. Trinity and I wanted to see their faces. We wanted to see how they all reacted to the knowledge that there was a surprise baby. It was going to be so sweet and probably a little funny. I was waiting with bated breath. It wasn¡¯t going to be a long video, but it felt like this was taking forever.


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 Chapter 796

    Chapter 796: Chapter 213- Reece ¨C Notifying Everyone Part 2 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I could hear the sound of my Little Bunny¡¯s voiceing from the other side of the call. It was a little awkward, hearing it like that. I mean, she was right here with me but I was getting her voice through the call.


    Well, that wasn¡¯t what I needed to focus on right now. I needed to see their reactions. We were slowly adding the babies to Trinity¡¯s arms so that she would be holding them all. And when she had all three boys, I sat next to her with Zaley. I was the one to introduce her in the video, telling them that she was our little surprise.


    ¡°OH MY GODDESS!¡± Wesley sounded like he was about to fall down in his shock.


    ¡°EEEEEEEEE!¡± Eve didn¡¯t seem like she was able to talk at all.


    .....


    ¡°WHAT!?¡± Samuel was just as surprised as Wesley was.


    ¡°REECE! WHAT IN THE WORLD...!?¡± Mom was smiling from ear to ear.


    ¡°A SISTER TOO!¡± Reagan was excited.


    ¡°YAY! ANOTHER LITTLE GIRL!¡± I knew that Rika would be happy. They didn¡¯t want to be too outnumbered by their brothers.


    ¡°I knew there was another one.¡± Now Talia¡¯s words were the only ones that threw me off.


    ¡°Talia, sweetheart, what did you mean you knew that there was another one?¡± my Little Bunny had caught that too, huh.


    ¡°Well, I knew there was another baby, but when I was contacting the spirits they said the fourth baby didn¡¯t have a soul. I thought that she wasn¡¯t going to make it. They told me that the other baby was closer to the underworld than she was to our world. I..I didn¡¯t want to tell you Mommy, because I didn¡¯t want you to be sad. But, I..I prayed and cried everyday. I asked if someone would give that baby a soul. And, well, when you came back, I felt like she might be better, so I just kept praying and crying for her on my own. I didn¡¯t want my mommy to be sad just after she got home.¡± She hung her head like she had done something wrong. ¡°I am sorry Mommy. I should have told you. I should have let you know.¡± She was on the verge of tears and that nearly broke me.


    ¡°No, Talia, it¡¯s OK.¡± I tried to soothe her as I watched Eve hugging her to give her some love. ¡°Mommy and I were very happyst night. When we found out about Zaley we were overjoyed. She was our little surprise bundle. And you were the only one that could have kept the secret. I am so d that you did.¡±


    ¡°Daddy is right, Talia. When Griffin told us about the other baby, we were all surprised, but not in a bad way. We were happy and excited, and it turned into such an amazing night. Without you having kept the secret for us, we never would have been able to experience this. Thank you, Talia, for letting us be surprised.¡± Finally, after hearing her mommy¡¯s words, Talia started to calm down.


    ¡°Y..you really are not mad? Y..you mean it?¡± She was smiling slightly, almost like she was nervous about it.


    ¡°Yeah, we mean it, Talia. We are not mad about it at all. The only thing that matters is that they are all here and they are all healthy. Want to see them right now? They¡¯re sleeping.¡±


    ¡°Yeah!¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡±


    ¡°Uh huh!¡±


    ¡°Can we?¡±


    ¡°I want to!¡±


    ¡°Show me the babies!¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡± All seven people on the call started to talk at once. I guess they really wanted to see the babies.


    I rose to my feet and walked over to the basss. They were in order from first born tost born. I showed them Zachary and slowly moved the video down to Zander, Zayden, and then Zaley. They were all there, all peaceful and calm.


    ¡°They are so cute, Daddy.¡± Talia called out. ¡°I am so happy.¡±


    ¡°So are we, baby girl. So are we.¡±


    At that moment, my phone started to blow up. I was getting messages and people were all calling me nonstop. It was a little much to deal with while on the video call though. So, I knew that I needed to end the call and just tell them toe and see us.


    ¡°I am getting so many more messages right now. Why don¡¯t you all finish getting ready so that you cane up here and see them in person. We will see you soon.¡± I wrapped up the call and waited for their goodbyes.


    ¡°See you soon, Dad.¡± Reagan, my little man that acted like a grown up, said goodbye first.


    ¡°We will be there soon, Daddy.¡± Rika was next.


    ¡°See you.¡± Talia waved at me.


    ¡°We will be there soon, Reece.¡± Mom smiled at me as she brought the phone back to her face. ¡°And I can¡¯t wait to hold each and every one of them.¡±


    ¡°I know Mom. See you soon.¡±


    I disconnected the call just as I got another call. This one was from Riley. He was the closest thing that I had to a brother. At the same time, Trinity got a call on her phone. It was Juniper.


    ¡°I guess we have a lot of calls to make.¡± She smiled as she answered the phone and put it to her ear. ¡°Hello Juniper.¡±


    ¡°Hello Riley.¡± I said as I answered my phone.


    ¡°Don¡¯t you hello me.¡± I heard that in stereo. It came from Riley on my call but also Juniper on my Little Bunny¡¯s call. That was pretty funny. The fact that they would say the same thing at the same time.


    ¡°What?¡± I asked Riley, paying attention to my own call.


    ¡°What the hell happened? You have four babies. Weren¡¯t you guys only having three?¡±


    ¡°Well, one was hiding underneath the boys. She was hidden and no one could see her.¡±


    ¡°Holy shit! That is crazy!¡± He sounded so excited on the other end of the call. ¡°This is amazing, man. I am so happy for you.¡± We talked a little more about this happy surprise before we hung up the call.


    Trinity was still on her call with Juniper. I could hear her talking about the nursery and the need to finish it. Damn! I would need to leave here and get that done. And I needed to order a new name sign so that Zaley would have hers here when we all went home. I had a lot of work to do.


    The good thing is, they weren¡¯t going to be leaving the hospital right away. They would be here for a couple of days. Maybe I could have someone sit with Trinity while I ran home and did some work. And I would need to ask Juniper if she would alter the mural. She could put Zaley in Trinity¡¯s arms since she was only holding one of the boys in the image.


    I was ordering the name sign when I got another call. This one was from Trevor. He definitely was not expecting the news that he had been given.


    ¡°Hey, Trevor.¡± I tried to remain calm but I knew that he was going to be so happy for us.


    ¡°REECE!¡± He bellowed into my ear. ¡°You dog! You got four babies at once! Are you trying to beat me to a certain number of kids or something? You¡¯re only four ahead of me and I know that Glory wants to have more. I can beat you.¡± He wasughing so I knew that he was joking, but it was still funny.


    ¡°Nah, I am not trying to race you. I just wanted to spread the good news.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I know.¡± He chuckled a little as the joke settled down. ¡°Congrattions. I can¡¯t believe that this happened, but I am happy about it nheless. You and Trinity are the best parents ever.¡±


    ¡°Thanks man. That means a lot to me.¡±


    Trevor and I talked for a little bit longer. He wanted to know about the boys and Zaley. He was interested in how big they were and then was shocked when they were so small. He also told me that he and Gloriana were going toe back for a visit soon.


    Once I said my goodbyes with Trevor, my phone rang again. I had to wonder if they had the phonepany monitoring my calls so that they could just call in true session. This next call was from Noah. He probably tried to call Trinity, but she was still on the phone with Juniper. I could tell that Juniper was going to talk for a long time right now. So, it was left up to me to talk to everyone else.


    I epted Noah¡¯s frantic yet excited call. He was happy for us and expressed his shock with what had happened. When I spoke to Bryce next, I was doing so while answering several of the text messages that I had received. Those messages were from Carter, Shawn, Shane, Dietrich and several others. They were all happy and excited for us.


    I was texting as fast as I possibly could. I was working hard to make sure that no one¡¯s message was missed or ignored. They all deserved to get their answer from me. And I must admit that it was taking a long time.


    Trinity had finished her call with Juniper before I was done with the messages. And that was when I realized that she had almost as many messages as I had. This was going to be a really long morning.


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 Chapter 797

    Chapter 797: Chapter 214- Trinity ¨C Visits Part 1 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I had predicted the responses that we would be getting. I knew that we would have everyone calling and texting about it. There were multiple people asking if they coulde for a visit as soon as we got home. And some of them even wanted toe to the hospital to meet the four little ones.


    Mom, Dad, L, Grandfather, Reagan, Rika and Talia were already on their way here to meet the babies. That was something that I was excited about. I wanted to see how the kids reacted to their little siblings. And I wanted to see how adorable the grandparents acted when they each got to hold a baby at the same time without having to wait their turn.


    The constant stream of calls and messages had slowed down to a little trickle by the time our first set of visitors arrived. I had known they wereing and was therefore expecting them, but I didn¡¯t think that they would be so loud about it.


    It seemed to me that the moment that they all got off of the elevator, they were celebrating. This was a trip they had all made several times already, visiting me over thest week in the hospital. But today was the first time that they were cheering when the elevator doors opened up.


    .....


    ¡°We have four babies! Four babies! We¡¯re on our way to see the four babies!¡± It sounded to me like Dad and Grandfather both were singing that little song. At the same time, Reagan, Rika and Talia were all singing their own songs.


    ¡°Mommy came to the hospital without me, and said there were going to be one baby, two babies, three. Now wee to see her once more and we find out that there were four.¡± I have no doubt that it was Reagan who made that little rhyme of theirs up. He loved music so much.


    ¡°Nona and Ling to the babies. Time to see the lovely little babies. Trinity came here expecting three, now she surprised you and me. She had four. Talk about a surprise galore.¡± Yeah, they were all singing and I thought it was the cutest thing ever.


    As I listened to the songs that were being sung, I turned to look at Reece as I remembered his impromptu songst night.


    ¡°I guess everyone likes to sing at random times, huh?¡± Iughed at the idea of it all. I couldn¡¯t believe that they were all singing so happily, and so loudly, as they walked toward my room. And as I thought that, I heard the nurses calling out to them.


    ¡°Wee back to you all, Eve and L, you have such wonderful voices, Wesley and Samuel, you are off key and out of sync. Rika, Reagan and Talia, your song is so cute, did you make it up yourselves.¡± That was hrious. She was being savage toward my Dad and Grandfather.


    ¡°My brother wrote it.¡± Talia called out happily.


    ¡°That is nice.¡± The nurse, who sounded like one of the usuals that was in here, responded to them. ¡°Now, all of you, I know you are excited and happy, the whole ward was excited about the surprisest night, but I would prefer it if you all were a little more respectful of the other patients. Perhaps you can all wait to start singing until you are in the room, especially you two.¡±


    ¡°Hey, that wasn¡¯t nice.¡± I heard Dad say as heughed, in fact they allughed, including the nurse.


    ¡°We will keep it down. I am sorry for the interruption.¡± Mom apologized and they all started to walk again, based on the sound of the footsteps.


    Being here in the hospital, I tend to block out the sound of the people moving around me. I can¡¯t be bothered so frequently by the sound of them all walking around me, it would drive both me and Reece insane if we couldn¡¯t choose when to hear better like that and when not to.


    A few momentster, the door to my room opened up and three little bodies hurried in.


    ¡°Mommy!¡±


    ¡°Mom!¡±


    ¡°Momma!¡± All three of them were running at me, but they also knew to keep their voices down so that they didn¡¯t wake the babies.


    ¡°My babies! I love you! I missed you so much!¡±


    ¡°You just saw usst night, Momma.¡± Reagan smiled at me in embarrassment when I squeezed him tightly. I didn¡¯t like that he was already getting embarrassed by me.


    ¡°I know, but it feels like it¡¯s been so long. I missed you all more than you know. So much has happened since you were here yesterday, so it just makes sense that I would miss you.¡± I pulled the three of them in and hugged them tightly.


    ¡°I missed you too, Mommy.¡± Talia, the sweet little angel that she was, squeezed me tightly.


    ¡°We all did, Mom.¡± Rika buried her face in my neck as she spoke.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you miss me?¡± Reece pretended to pout about them ignoring him.


    ¡°Who are you again?¡± Rika¡¯s joke was savage and made meugh so loud that the babies instantly woke up.


    ¡°Oopsies.¡± I can¡¯t believe that I had woken them. I started to get up from the bed so that I could get them, but Mom put her hand on my shoulder.


    ¡°You just stay put, Trinity. We will get them for you. Why do you think we¡¯re here? Huh? You and Reece rest with Reagan, Rika and Talia. It¡¯s time for the grandparents to handle things.¡± Aside from my mom¡¯s determined words and love filled eyes, I saw that the others were nodding in agreement as they wore simr expressions on their faces.


    ¡°Thank you, Mom.¡± I grinned at her while the kids climbed onto the bed.


    ¡°I will let them hold the babies for now, but soon it is my turn.¡± Reagan was sliding up next to me with his eyes glued to my mom¡¯s back as she leaned over the fourth bass. She was going to hold Zaley first.


    ¡°Not just you, Reagan. I want to hold them too.¡± Rika snapped at him.


    ¡°Don¡¯t forget me.¡± Talia red at the two of them.


    ¡°OK, enough fighting. You will all hold them soon enough.¡± Reece called out to them as he sat by my feet. ¡°Right now you need to pay attention to your mother. And then you can all hold the babies. We will even take pictures of you with them all.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that sounds good to me.¡± Reagan, trying to be mature and grown up like his daddy, agreed instantly and acted like he had been the voice of wisdom all along.


    I talked with all three of them while the others took turns holding the babies. Obviously, there hadn¡¯t been that much that had happened since I saw themst night. They slept most of that time away. However, they did talk excitedly about the babies. They told me that they were going to work hard not to mix the boys up and that they were so happy to have their little sister as well. They were surprised and Talia most of all was happy that she was here. Knowing what she had known about it all, she must have been so relieved that she was born alive.


    ¡°Look at you, so cute. All of you are so adorable. And there is almost enough of you to form a baseball team. Mommy and Daddy just need a couple more babies and we can have our own baseball team. In a few years we can all y together.¡± I could tell that Dad was joking, but it kind of made my heart freeze over for a moment.


    ¡°I think we are going to be putting a hold on the baby factory for a while Dad. You might not get that baseball team for a long time.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s OK. We¡¯re immortal. I can wait a century or so. Then they can all be on the Whitton Wolves. See, I already have a team name ready for us.¡± He was not looking at me, instead he was looking into Zayden¡¯s face.


    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t that be the Gray Wolves.¡± Reece countered as he went to look over my dad¡¯s shoulder. ¡°I mean, they¡¯re all Grays after all.¡±


    ¡°The Whitton¡¯s Gray Wolves. There you go. That is perfect.¡± Dad was not letting it go, and what followed was a long discussion about possible team names and formations. They talked about it for a long time, so long that I just ignored them.


    ¡°Do you three want to hold the babies now?¡± I asked the kids and saw excitement fill their eyes. After they all nodded vigorously, I had them get ready.


    Mom, L, Dad and Grandfather all came over with the babies and passed them to Reagan, Rika Talia, and me. I held Zaley while helping Talia make sure that she was holding Zachary properly. After that, we all turned to face Reece who was ready to take a picture with his phone.


    ¡°Get your butt over there.¡± Grandfather said as he took his phone from him. ¡°This can¡¯t be a family photo without you in it.¡± With that, Reece squeezed onto the bed and wrapped his arm around me while my grandfather took a picture of us all.


    The nine of us talked and admired the babies while they slept in our arms. I know that they all wanted to stay all day long, but they didn¡¯t really have the time. Not to mention, I knew that there were other people wanting toe and visit us. I didn¡¯t know if they would be here today or sometime this week. The babies and I were going to be here for about a week since they were so little. And I was not leaving them at all.


    There were a lot of pictures taken, lots of hugs given, and of course, lots of love given. It was a good start to our day.


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 Chapter 798

    Chapter 798: Chapter 215- Trinity ¨C Visits Part 2 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece and I were eating lunch when we heard a knock on the door. Zaley was sound asleep while the boys were with the doctor getting an examination done. Reece and I knew that more people would being soon, but I had hoped that we would have had time to eat first.


    ¡°Come in.¡± I called out to them all. I could already tell who was here, I could smell them outside of the room.


    A moment or two after I called out to them, Shawn, Shane, Dietrich, David, Vincent, Rudy, and Alexio came into the room. Thetter two of the group had been hanging out with the rest of my guards since they hade to live in this realm. They were guards in the underworld, so they just naturally got along with my guards. I could only hope, though, that they weren¡¯t learning how to live in this world from Shane.


    Don¡¯t get me wrong, I love Shane. He is an amazing guard and a wonderful friend. He was like family to me and had been with me for almost ten years now. However, none of that negated the fact that he was pretty much the most obnoxious person that was in our inner circle. He was a good man though, that wasn¡¯t the issue. He was just not the type of person that you wanted teaching someone else how to be normal.


    .....


    ¡°Hey, Trinity!¡± Vincent, the first through the door, came rushing over to me. He was the one that I had been the closest to out of them all. He had always acted like I was his little sister that he needed to protect, and I knew that wasn¡¯t likely to change. They were all like my brothers. Well, maybe not Rudy and Alexio. They were too new to the group, but as time went on, who knew how things were going to go.


    ¡°Hi, Vincent.¡± I smiled as he leaned in and hugged me. Thankfully, Reece never really got jealous over this anymore. It happened all the time, so he and I were both more than used to it.


    ¡°I am so happy for you. And surprised as well. Who would have guessed that there was a hidden baby girl in there?¡± He wasughing when he pulled away. That was when I saw Dietrich was standing right behind him, ready for his hug next.


    ¡°Who would have thought about it, he asks. Who? I think my Geliebte and I both said as much to you when you came back from the Underworld.¡± Dietrich was leaning in and wrapping his arms tightly around my shoulders. He, too, was a good friend and I was happy that he was here in my life.


    ¡°Yes, I believe that you did. However, everyone had thought that there were only three babies, and Hekate¡¯s soul did go into the triplets. So, I didn¡¯t think that it was possible. I guess I should have listened to you, Dietrich. You were right.¡± I made sure that I squeezed him back as he hugged me.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Trinity. Dietrich and I just epted your words as fact and stopped thinking that there was a possible fourth baby.¡± Shawn leaned in and hugged me next. ¡°Though I will let you know that he did a victory dance when we got the message this morning. He was dancing all over the ce saying ¡®I knew it, I knew it¡¯, it was quite funny really.¡±


    ¡°Shawn!¡± Dietrich grinned with slight embarrassment as he called out to his husband. ¡°You give away my secrets.¡±


    ¡°That was no secret, my love. It was just me showing how funny you can be.¡± The two of them walked away and David walked over next.


    ¡°Congrattions, Trinity. I am so happy for you. All of the babies looked beautiful. And I am d that they are all doing well.¡± After he hugged me as well, he went to stand near the bass and looked at Zaley as she slept.


    ¡°My turn.¡± Shane grinned as he came in for the hug. ¡°I am happy for you, Trinity. I really am. Though I feel bad for Reece.¡± He was grinning when he pulled back.


    ¡°Why?¡± Reece looked at him with suspicion in his eyes.


    ¡°Because, you can guess that she won¡¯t want you toe within five feet of her for like fifty years after that. She won¡¯t want to risk having five, six, eight, or even ten babies next. You and your litters.¡± Shane wasughing at his joke.


    ¡°Hey, the boys were identical. That means it has nothing to do with me.¡± Reece got defensive when he heard Shane¡¯s joking.


    ¡°Well, Reece, it could have been you. I don¡¯t know whose side of the family caused the identical triplets. The two eggs though, that is my fault.¡± I threw him a line and let him know that I was taking the me here. ¡°So, I guess it¡¯s me that wants the litters.¡± Iughed for a moment and then went on. ¡°Though, Shane is partially right. I don¡¯t want more kids right now. I want to just enjoy the seven that we have. They need our attention right now.¡± I wouldn¡¯t lie about it or deny it. It was the way that I felt right now. I wasn¡¯t going to hide the truth at all.


    ¡°I know, Little Bunny. I know.¡± Reece smiled at me and understood what it was that I wanted. It was time for us to focus on our family, to be here with them more than we had ever been before.


    ¡°Queen Trinity, I was so happy to hear that your babies were born healthy. I missed the little boys from the Underworld. And I was surprised to hear that there was another baby. She was not with you then, so that was quite the unique situation.¡± Rudy, ever evolving into a better man, came up to me then. He didn¡¯t hug me, but he let me know that he was there for me just the same.


    ¡°Congrattions to you, Queen Trinity.¡± Alexio bowed his head and did the same as Rudy had done. He had started to address me by my title aftering to live here in our world. I had gotten used to these men being around and limating themselves into my life. They weren¡¯t here for me, though. It had been decided that they were to be trained to be Talia¡¯s guards. Since she would one day live in the underworld, it would be best if some of her guards and retainers had once lived there as well. They would aid her a lot in her transition into the world.


    ¡°Thank you, Alexio, and thank you Rudy. Thank you foring to visit me.¡± They were both still getting used to things and were therefore still awkward.


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t miss it for anything. Plus, the others wereing already, so Alexio and I decided to join them.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, they follow us everywhere. It¡¯s like they¡¯re lost little puppies or something.¡± Shaneughed goodnaturedly.


    ¡°We are simply trying to limate ourselves to a world that ispletely new to us, Shane. That does not make us puppies. And it in no way means that I like you at all.¡± Alexio, clearly flustered by thement made by Shane, snapped at him in his anger.


    ¡°Oh, calm down demon boy. You just need to find yourself a girl and getid.¡±


    ¡°I have told you time and again, Shane, I do not believe that my species and your species are at allpatible in that way. I..I would not feel right making a woman go through that. If she were to develop feelings for someone like me, then she might forever be disappointed.¡± I saw what looked like sadness in Alexio¡¯s eyes. Was that what this was about? He was lonely and just wanted to find someone of his own. Well, I guess he and Rudy had been working in the underworld for a long time. They deserved to find love.


    ¡°Worry not, Alexio, I am sure that you will find love soon enough. You and Rudy both.¡± That made the both of them look at me. Alexio with eyes that said he was distrustful of it, and Rudy with eyes that were filled with excitement. ¡°It might not happen right away, but I don¡¯t see anything that would keep the two of you from finding love with someone. Just wait, your mate is out there somewhere.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, don¡¯t worry about it you two. If there is one thing that Trinity knows, it¡¯s that everyone has a mate somewhere.¡± Vincent was trying to help me reassure them as I told them that they had nothing to worry about.


    ¡°Yeah, everyone finds love around Trinity. There is never a need to worry about whether or not you will find your perfect someone. Just stay close to her and you will get your happiness.¡± Reece was also jumping on the make the demons feel better bandwagon. Well, I was d that he seemed to care about them as well. It would make things a lot easier in the future if we all got along.


    ¡°I will take your word for that, Queen Trinity.¡± Alexio nodded his head in agreement. I had a feeling that was all that I was going to get from him. Sometime really soon, I was going to need to get him to rx and open up to us. He was friendly enough, but he was also so closed off. He would do so much better if he was more friendly with at least one person.


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 Chapter 799

    Chapter 799: Chapter 216- Trinity ¨C Visits Part 3 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°Well, Trinity, as lovely as this conversation has been, where are the boys? Howe Zaley is the only one in here?¡± David was the second most baby obsessed among the group. His daughter was just a little younger than Reagan and Rika and they had yet to have another baby. I had a feeling that these little babies of mine were going to push him over the edge and make him talk Rawlynne into having another one. He was a good dad too, so I didn¡¯t see a problem with him having as many kids as he and Rawlynne would want.


    ¡°Oh, they had some things that needed to get done. They will be back soon. Andter today, Zaley will be going for some more tests. They were all small and needed extra carepared to other newborn babies, but they are still healthy. They will make it through it all. Right now, based on the time, I would estimate that the boys are in the nursery being fed and changed before they are brought back. Speaking of, they weren¡¯t the only ones that were hungry.¡± I chuckled to myself a little as I stabbed a bite of my food and put it in my mouth.


    ¡°Ahh, yes, we did interrupt your lunch, didn¡¯t we? I am so sorry, Queen Trinity.¡± Listening to Rudy, you would think that he had just personally done something wrong.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, it was just the timing. So, if none of you mind, I am going to eat during this little visit of ours. I need to keep up my strength after all.¡±


    .....


    ¡°No, of course not, Trinity. You need to eat. We all understand.¡± Vincent encouraged me as he made a gesture like he was pushing something toward me through the air. It was almost like he was telling me that he was going to move the food closer, but it was already in position for me to eat. Well, I guess it was the thought, or gesture, that counts here.


    ¡°Good.¡± I grinned as I shoved another bite into my mouth.


    For the next little bit, we talked aboutst night. How the delivery of the babies went. Our shock and excitement about the surprise baby. How we came up with the name. They were curious about it all. Which I found surprising, considering that they were men. But hey, they were like family so maybe it transcends gender and all that.


    After I was done eating and the conversation was dwindling, I could smell the nursesing back toward the room with the boys.


    ¡°Looks like your wait is over.¡± Reece spoke before I could. ¡°The boys are almost back.¡±


    ¡°You already have their scents memorized.¡± Vincent smiled at Reece¡¯s words. ¡°That is good. You will no doubt be using that to tell them apart.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that is true. But I doubt many people will be memorizing their scents as much as us. And the scents are so simr that it¡¯s hard to tell them apart. They will still trick people, I am sure of that.¡± Reeceughed mischievously. I could tell that he was going to help the boys with their future pranks.


    A momentter, the door to my room opened up and a nurse named Ashely came in. She was followed by Grace and finally May, who had seemed to sleep here at the hospital and picked up an extra shift to care for us all.


    ¡°We¡¯re back, I hope your happy to see the-..¡± May cut off mid sentence and was looking at the men in the room with a shocked look on her face.


    This wasn¡¯t a shocked look that said ¡®oh no there are a bunch of scary people here¡¯. No, this was an excitedly shocked face that told me two things.


    ¡°Yes, I am very happy to see them. However, May, I need to talk to you for a moment. Can you two give us a moment?¡± I spoke to thedies that had helped bring the boys back to the room. They were human and needed to be away from the room for this next part of the conversation.


    ¡°Certainly, Mrs. Gray. Grace smiled at me and left the room with Ashley. I waited a moment for them to get further away from the room before I started to speak to May in a quiet voice. She was a wolf, so I knew that she would be able to hear me.


    ¡°So, May, I see that it happened.¡± I grinned. Reece and I had both spoken about love following me around. Last night and today. It had been something that I hadn¡¯t expected to have happen right now, but I guess I knew that it was possible anyway.


    ¡°M..m..my Queen. I..I don¡¯t know what is truly going on. I..I mean, th..this is such a shock.¡± I could understand that she was in shock. I mean, who would have thought that just over twelve hours after I talked to her about love she would find the mate that she had been waiting for. The only thing for me to figure out now was which of them it was.


    ¡°You know what is going on, May. Do not try to fool yourself or anyone else.¡± I grinned at her as I spoke, trying to sound regal and not be all giddy at the same time was not easy.


    ¡°Use your nose May. What is it telling you? What are you feeling? What do you think is happening right now?¡± Reece was trying to help her through this shock as well.


    ¡°W..w..well, my nose is saying that it has detected the most amazing scent in the world. It is a contradictory sort of smell, but it is calling out to me.¡±


    ¡°What is that smell? What are theponents of it?¡± I had a feeling that Dietrich was just asking to sate his curiosity more than anything. He wanted to know what one of these two smelled like to their mate since to the rest of us, Rudy and Alexio smell of ashes, fire, and other things that reminded us all of Hell.


    ¡°Well, the person that my nose is detecting has something that smells like a match that had just been struck. That slight sulfurous scent thates with it. However, along with the sulfur smell, there is incense. I can smell vetiver, clove, cypress and white fir. They¡¯re all subtle though, so they aren¡¯t overpowering. And there is also a slight scent of ashes, like these were all burned in some sort of campfire.¡±


    ¡°That is excellent, May. Now, who do you think this person is to you? I know that you know. You just need to stop lying to yourself.¡±


    ¡°I..I know that it¡¯s my mate. B..but, Queen Trinity, how is this possible? H..how did I find him like this? How is he here now?¡± She was still in utter shock.


    ¡°Fate is a mysterious thing, May. Let us not question it too much, lest we anger it and incur its wrath rather than its bounty.¡±


    ¡°Y..yes, Queen Trinity, I think you are right. I should not question fate. I am just happy that you have blessed me so much, Queen Trinity. I know that if it weren¡¯t for you, I would not have this opportunity.¡± She was praising me for this when it was fate that had caused it.


    ¡°She¡¯s right, Trinity. They wouldn¡¯t be in the same ce at the same time if it weren¡¯t for you.¡± Vincent looked at me, obviously knowing that I was denying that I had any part of it.


    ¡°Yeah, so stop those thoughts already.¡± Dietrich gave me a hard re for a moment before instantlyughing.


    ¡°You truly are the reason we are here together, Queen Trinity. B..but, there is one thing that I would like to know.¡± May was still looking around the room as she spoke.


    ¡°And what is that?¡± I was confused for a moment since I didn¡¯t know what else she wanted right now.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know which man in this room is mine.¡± She blushed and smiled in her embarrassment just then.


    ¡°Ha ha ha. Yeah, that¡¯s true. Well, it is one of two. Alexio, Rudy, please step forward.¡±


    The two men did as they were told. I could tell right away which one of them it was. For one thing, Alexio was still looking like his grumpy self and seemed to be uninterested. Rudy on the other hand, he was staring at May like she was the answer to his prayers. Rudy was clearly May¡¯s mate, and they were both very happy about it.


    Now that there were only two men before her instead of seven, she was more easily able to see which man was hers. Her eyes were glued to Rudy as she smiled happily.


    ¡°May I take my seat again, Queen Trinity?¡± Alexio asked me in his disinterested voice.


    ¡°Yes, Alexio, go ahead.¡±


    ¡°H..hello there.¡± Rudy was walking closer to the woman in question. ¡°My name is Rudy. A..and you are May, right? That¡¯s what Queen Trinity said.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I am May. I..I am so happy to be meeting you.¡± They had gravitated toward each other and were even acting like they wanted to hold hands. This, here, looked like it was a pure and innocent romance budding between them. I can¡¯t wait to see this rtionship of theirs grow into something truly special. Though I couldn¡¯t help but notice that Alexio was looking a little jealous. While the new couple spoke with each other for a moment, I spoke inside my head so that Alexio was the only one to hear me.


    ¡®Do not lose hope, Alexio. Your day wille soon. I promise you that. Just be patient. They were fated to be together, and that means that there is someone out there fated to be with you too.¡¯


    ¡®I hope so, Queen Trinity. I really hope so.¡¯ He answered me telepathically and hung his head. I could hear his sigh even though it was only internal. Just hold on, Alexio. I know that love ising for you.


    Rudy and May spoke for a little while longer and exchanged contact information. They made ns to go see each other soon, something that I knew would most likely happen sooner rather thanter. And after all of that was done, the men got ready to leave. It was a good thing too, since the babies were getting fussy and Reece and I needed to take care of them.


    ¡°We will see you soon, Trinity. All of us will be back to escort you back home.¡± Vincent called out to me.


    ¡°That is too many people. We don¡¯t need that.¡± I immediately vetoed his words.


    ¡°You will be traveling with four royal babies. It is actually not enough. However, I will let it slide with just us. See you soon.¡± He smiled and left the room before I could argue anymore. Well, he was a lot like Reece and Noah, wasn¡¯t he? So overprotective.


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 Chapter 800

    Chapter 800: Chapter 217- Trinity ¨C Visits Part 4 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I knew that the steady stream of visitors was not going to end anytime soon. Today and this entire week that I was going to be in the hospital, I was going to be very busy. And sure enough, not twenty minutes after the guys left, someone else came barging into the room.


    Juniper wasn¡¯t one for waiting and subtly. She was always going big and showing a lot of personality. That was just the way that she was. She was an outgoing soul with a lot of love to give. And she just happened to like to give a lot of that love to me.


    ¡°Trinity Faith Gray! Howe you did not call me the minute that you went intobor? Howe I had to find out in a damn group text from Candy Pants this morning?¡± Yeah, and she tended to have a very bad temper sometimes too. And she didn¡¯t like being left out. She was too outgoing to want to be left out of anything.


    ¡°I am sorry, Juniper. I had to be taken into surgery and get prepped. There wasn¡¯t time to call anyone. And after the surgery, we were all dealing with the recovery and it was veryte. I didn¡¯t want to wake anyone and, honestly, I just wanted to get some sleep.¡± I exined to her why I had not contacted the moment that I knew the babies were going to be born.


    .....


    ¡°Alright, fine. I will ept that exnation. For now, that is.¡± She looked over at Reece for a moment like she was going to say that he could have called her and told her what was going on. She didn¡¯t say it though, just thought it while looking at him grumpily.


    ¡°Don¡¯t give me that look, barky! I was rushed out of the room by the world¡¯s grumpiest nurse so that I could get ready to be in the operating room with Trinity. And after the babies were born, I was more interested in taking care of my wife. You got notified at the same time as everyone else. Not even our families knew before everyone else. So just drop it before you lose all your needles.¡± He defended himself with Juniper having needed to say anything to him. I guess the two of them got a little closer while I was asleep. They had new nicknames for each other at least.


    ¡°Barky?¡± Juniper raised a brow and looked at him suspiciously.


    ¡°It serves a double purpose. You¡¯re a wolf and therefore bark, but you¡¯re also a tree, or named after one. So, since you are a tree, you have bark. And that¡¯s also why I told you to stop before you lost your needles.¡± He was looking between me and Juniper as if he was waiting for validation on his cunning nickname. I hated seeing him feeling like he was not up to the level that others were trying to put him on.


    ¡°That¡¯s funny, Reece. It fits her perfectly. At least when she¡¯s grumpy. However, when she¡¯s not grumpy she will need another nickname. Something more cherubic and nice.¡± I was trying to appease them both since they were both so special to me.


    ¡°I am never grumpy. I am always a big ray of fucking sunshine. I am radiantly happy and positively affect all those around me.¡± Juniper was pretending like she didn¡¯t know what Reece and I were talking about, but Reece got one more littlement in there while she was trying to think positively.


    ¡°More like you tell them you are positive and happy or else. And I don¡¯t ever want to know what the ¡®or else¡¯ truly means.¡± I watched him give a big fake shudder like he was afraid. It was funny, it really was. Seeing these two get along so well always made me happy.


    ¡°Yeah, just always be a good boy and you will never have to find out. Got it, peanut butter cheeks.¡±


    ¡°Now you¡¯re making no sense. I know you make the joke about me being the candy, but what does the peanut butter have to do with my cheeks.¡± Reece rubbed his stubbled face as he said that and pretended that he had no idea what she was talking about.


    ¡°Wrong cheeks, Reece¡¯s Pieces. I¡¯m talking about the ones in your pants.¡± They were bothughing now and I was trying hard to fight it. I would have given in too, if it weren¡¯t for the fact that the babies started to cry from all of the noise that was around them.


    ¡°Uh oh, Daddy and Aunty Juniper were being too noisy.¡±


    I lightheartedly scolded them as I got out of the bed and walked over to the first bass with Zachary in it. It was so much easier to walk now that I didn¡¯t have a catheter in, and I was actually able to move with only needing the IV pole. And soon, that would be gone as well.


    ¡°Come to Momma, my baby. Reece, can you bring me Zander and then take care of the others?¡± I went to sit in the rocking chair that was in the room for us. I was going to prepare to soothe them and get them calmed down before I fed them. They needed their next meal anyway.


    ¡°I can help. Why do you think that I am here?¡± Juniper walked over and picked Zaley up out of her bass. ¡°And I am going to start with the surprise baby. This one here has everyone¡¯s attention right now. I am sure about that.¡±


    ¡°That she does.¡± I smiled at her as Reece handed me Zander and I started to rock the two of them in my arms.


    ¡°Hey, Aunty Juniper, why don¡¯t you hold Zayden as well, and I will prepare their bottles.¡± Reece had the fourth little bundle in his arms as he walked closer to the armchair that Juniper had usurped from him.


    ¡°Yeah, no problem. I am here to see these little babies and show them some much needed love and attention.¡± She took the baby immediately and Reece got to work. ¡°Can you believe it, Trinity? Has it truly set in yet that you have four new babies? Has it really hit you that these beautiful little ones are all yours?¡± I knew that she was excited and happy. She was going to be having her own baby again soon. She, like most of us supernatural people, loved babies and loved growing her family even bigger.


    ¡°Sometimes it all feels like a dream. And sometimes it feels overwhelming. And of course, other times I am just so happy to have them all. I feel blessed and happy, scared and nervous, overwhelmed and ready to take on the world all at the same time. It¡¯s a lot to feel all at once, but I wouldn¡¯t change anything right now. I am happy with how it all went. I am happy that Zaley was a surprise to us. I am happy that I had that added little joyst night. It was amazing and it melted my heart. Sure, I was scared that there was something wrong with her at first, but she was OK and that just made me so happy. This whole day has been like some sweet gift that I never knew I was going to get.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re such a good mom, Trinity. You know that.¡± She was smiling at me now, not the babies. ¡°You love them so much and they know it. That¡¯s why you just keep having more and more babies. They know how much they will be loved so they are lining up just for the chance.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re such a goof, Juniper, you know that.¡±


    We talked more about the babies, and the future that we were all going to have together while we fed, burped, and changed the babies. Soon enough, they were all back to sleep and we wereying them back down in their little beds. I could tell that Juniper was getting ready to leave, but she seemed to have something else to say before she left.


    ¡°I am heading to your ce now. I have some work to do. I want to make some corrections to something that isn¡¯t quite right at the moment.¡± She was looking at me with a sly grin on her face and it was making me curious.


    ¡°And what isn¡¯t right? I can¡¯t think of something that was broken.¡± I was confused.


    ¡°The only thing not right is the beds and clothes in the nursery. I need to get over there soon and get that taken care of. But I don¡¯t want to leave Trinity here alone.¡± Well, I guess Reece was thinking more practically than I was right now. I hadn¡¯t even thought about needing to fix the nursery.


    ¡°Oh, there is something else that needs to be fixed, but don¡¯t worry about it. I will take care of it all and you will just get to see it when I am done. So, I will head back to your house and let the next group know that they cane on over. And I will even tell them to bring you some dinner. That will give you an even bigger break since they will have to wait for it before theye up here. Enjoy your rest, take a nap or something. I will see youter.¡± With that, Juniper leaned in and hugged me tightly, and when she pulled back I saw that she even hugged Reece around his waist. ¡°Take care of her, Candy Pants. And the babies too.¡±


    ¡°I will.¡± Reece answered her while quickly hugging her back.


    ¡°Goodbye, I love you all.¡± With that, she rushed out of the room with a smile on her face.


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 Chapter 801

    Chapter 801: Chapter 218- Trinity ¨C Visits Part 5 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I wanted to do just what Juniper told me to. I wanted to take a nap. I was tired enough to do it, that was for sure. However, I just couldn¡¯t fall asleep. Reece did though. He propped himself up in the chair and went right to sleep. He had been doing so much for me and it was pretty tiring. And I know that the only reason that he was sleeping right now was because he thought that I was sleeping as well. If he knew that I was awake, he wouldn¡¯t be sleeping.


    I wanted him to rest though. He needed it. And when I do finally get some sleep, he will be the one to help me with the babies. So, yeah, he needed to sleep when he could. This was a partnership between us. We both gave it our all. It wasn¡¯t just him doing things for me nonstop. Contrary to what it was that he might be thinking.


    Well, since I just wasn¡¯t able to sleep, I decided that I was going to do some reading. I didn¡¯t have a book with me, but I did have my phone. And using my phone, I was able to ess a lot of stories that I had bought through the years.


    I engrossed myself into the story, and before I knew it all of the time that I had to spare before the next set of visitors arrived had disappeared. I had engrossed myself into a story about a girl that hated fairytales and was forced inside a book to live through them. And the next thing that I knew, I heard the knock on the door.


    .....


    The knocking had immediately woken Reece up, so that was one thing that I didn¡¯t need to do. And honestly, I wasn¡¯t even thinking about that. Instead, I was thinking about the smell that wasing through the door.


    I couldn¡¯t smell the people at all. All that I could smell was the food. The glorious smells of that food. It was enough to make my heart sing and a smile spread across my face. I knew what that food was. I knew what it meant. And I knew who was at the door based on just the smell of the food alone.


    There is only one person that will outright spoil me with Chinese food like this. The smell of all the different spices and vors that I knew so well. I could already taste it and I hadn¡¯t even told them toe in yet.


    ¡°Get in here and bring me my dinner, Noah.¡± I called out to him in a greedy voice. There wasughter all around me when they heard it. Reece, Noah, Carter, Nikki and Emmalee were allughing.


    ¡°Well, I guess since it was an order, I have no option but toply.¡± Noahughed the loudest as he opened the door. I saw that he had arge bag of food in his hand and I was eager to get a hold of it.


    ¡°Ooooh, yummy yummy yummy. Give me. I want it.¡± I was reaching out for the bag more than anything else.


    ¡°Oh, you want a hug. Of course, my dear sister, I will always give you your hug.¡± He set the bag on the table and leaned in while I was staring at it wistfully. ¡°Now, Trinity, don¡¯t tell me you love the food more than me.¡± He was pretending to pout now. ¡°Did you see that, Nikki? She doesn¡¯t love me.¡±


    ¡°I think she loves you just fine. She¡¯s just hungry, that¡¯s all. She wants to eat more than she wants to hug you. You know how we women can get when we need food.¡±


    ¡°Murderous?¡± Carter asked her as he came over to hug me then. ¡°I know that¡¯s how Emmalee gets.¡±


    ¡°Hey!¡± His peppy little wife snapped at him for thatment of his. Oh, and she pped him on the arm as well.


    ¡°Ouch! What was that for? I didn¡¯t lie. When you¡¯re hungry, especially pregnant and hungry you get murderous. I have to feed you like they feed the lions in the zoo.¡±


    ¡°Oh, gee, thanks for revealing that to them already.¡± Emmalee yfully crossed her arms and red at him.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t tell them you were pregnant, you just did.¡±


    ¡°Well, I can see that there is a lot that has been going on. Thank you for the food, Noah. I love you. It¡¯s nice to see you Carter, I missed you. Emmalee, it¡¯s great to see you, and congrattions. And Nikki, thank you foring, I need you and your wisdom here to help me deal with these brothers of mine.¡±


    ¡°Of course, Trinity. You know that we women need to stick together so that we can manage these animals that we call men. It¡¯s a daily struggle, but we will make it.¡± Nikki gave me a hug quickly and made room for Emmalee.


    ¡°I missed you too, Trinity. We need to get together a lot more. The kids need to spend more time together.¡±


    ¡°I agree. We need to have the whole family together on a regr basis.¡±


    ¡°Alright. Enough with the greetings, get the woman some food before she takes a bite out of one of us.¡± Noahughed as he brought the food over toward me. ¡°I know what you love more than anything in the world, Trinity, and I got it for you right here.¡±


    ¡°All of my favorites?¡± I asked him excitedly. ¡°Hainanese chicken, dumplings, rice, the noodles, all of it? Did you get me the BBQ meat set and the pork ribs too?¡± My excitement was getting a little out of control at the moment. And I guess that just showed how hungry I really was.


    ¡°Yup, all of them and more. I made sure that Reece would be able to eat as well. If I didn¡¯t get extra, then he would probably have his hand bitten off when he tried to eat your food.¡±


    ¡°Hmm.¡± I pursed my lips and thought about that seriously for a moment. ¡°Maybe not bitten all the way off, perhaps just mangled. I wouldn¡¯t be that bad.¡±


    ¡°Gee, thanks Little Bunny, I love you too.¡± Reeceughed at my response.


    ¡°Hey, food is life, my love. Sometimes I need to prioritize things that benefit me.¡± Iughed then because Reece knew that he was more important than food, most of the time. I mean, if I really want something then I would get defensive over it. I would literally be a rabid wolf if I had to. Though in all these years, it had never happened. So, he¡¯s been safe this whole time.


    We chatted about random nothings while Reece and I made our tes and started to eat. Only when we were sitting down once again did we start to actually talk about important things.


    ¡°So, Emmalee, when did you find out about the baby? How far along are you?¡±


    ¡°I am a few weeks along. Just shy of a month. I wanted to wait until we came to see you all so that we could tell you in person. I hate sharing this kind of news long distance. It¡¯s too hard to hug each other with happiness when we¡¯re not in person.¡±


    ¡°That is true. I love giving hugs and celebrating. And you know that Mom and Dad are going to be so happy about this. Did you tell them already?¡± I was grinning the entire time that I was eating.


    ¡°No, we wanted you to know first, Trinity. So, I guess Noah and Nikki were the second to know. I will tell Mom and Dad when we get back to the castle.¡±


    ¡°Carter...¡± I felt the love growing inside of me. ¡°Thank you for that. And I know that they will be overjoyed.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, and you know what that means, we were all three pregnant again, Trinity. Until you deliveredst night that is. This time you were the first one due, then Noah, and now us. It¡¯s going to be a nice big group again, don¡¯t you think?¡± Emmalee was all happiness and joy right now. Her bubbly personality always loved when there were babies involved.


    ¡°So, now that we¡¯re talking about babies and surprises, what happened? How did you not know that there was a fourth baby? Didn¡¯t Griffin do a lot of ultrasounds? How did he miss her?¡± Carter sounded like he just couldn¡¯t believe it. ¡°Admit it, you knew all along and you were just keeping her a secret.¡±


    ¡°No, we didn¡¯t know about her. She was underneath the boys, so they hid her in all the scans. And when Shawn and Dietrich noticed another soul, I thought it was just the side effect of Hekate¡¯s soul going into the boys. I didn¡¯t think that there was another baby because it wasn¡¯t in the underworld with me.¡±


    ¡°And why wasn¡¯t she?¡± Noah was more concerned than curious at this point. I knew that he was just trying to figure it all out.


    To exin things to them, I told them what Talia had said about the fourth baby not having a soul and that she thought the baby was dead. And how she is the reincarnation of Edmond. He was the one that saved me and the boys, and he even gave my baby a soul so that she could live.


    All four of them were at a loss when they heard the truth. They didn¡¯t know that, if not for my father, me and all of the babies would be dead. And that he had saved Zaley more than the others. He gave her the soul that she needed to live. He had truly be a very good man.


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 Chapter 802

    Chapter 802: Chapter 219- Trinity ¨C Healing And Home (Volume 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece and I spent the next few days in the hospital with the babies. They were born just after midnight on the first, which was a Tuesday. Reece and I were going to be staying with all of the babies until it was time for them to go home. Reece was determined not to leave my side at all, and had therefore called to dictate what it was that he wanted to have done to the nursery.


    He was telling them where to move the cribs, what sheets to buy, and where to hang the new name sign that he had ordered and put a rush delivery on. He was not patient enough to have it wait until he got home to do it himself, but he was a perfectionist and wanted it to be done to his specifications. And he was also not wanting to leave until me and the babies left with him.


    Over the course of the next couple of days, Reece and I got to know the babies very well. We got to see what their personalities were like and how they responded to each of us. And there was also the fact that during this adjustment period, Reece and I had the help of a lot of nurses. May was especially helpful, unless it was during a time that Rudy was there with her.


    I loved seeing how they were slowly falling in love with each other. Every time that I saw Rudy and her together, they had stars in their eyes and smiles that were filled with love. They both had things that were keeping them busy, but when they weren¡¯t working, or when Rudy was visiting during May¡¯s shifts, they would talk and get to know more things about each other.


    .....


    I have to say that seeing this all happen before my eyes, I felt like I was part of some sappy TV show that was all about two people falling in love with each other. They were perfect for each other, and that was clear for us all to see. It didn¡¯t matter that Rudy was a demon from the underworld and May was a wolf from the city, theypleted each other in the best of ways possible.


    Now, as far as the babies go, they were all doing fine. They were moving onto drinking my breast milk, but they didn¡¯t want to nurse from me directly. Instead, I was pumping for them and giving them that in bottles. It was working for now, but I feared that, eventually, I wouldn¡¯t be able to keep up with four growing babies. I was afraid that at some point in time, I wouldn¡¯t be able to pump enough milk for them.


    The Griffins as well as the pediatrician told me not to worry about that though. If I wasn¡¯t able to keep up with their demand, we could always just mix my breast milk with form to make sure that they had enough. Apparently, this wasn¡¯t umon for mothers withrger numbers of multiples.


    I will say that hearing the two of them reassure me did make things a lot easier for me. I didn¡¯t need to worry about what I would do, and they had already been eating form, so I knew that they would be able to handle itter. As long as we stuck to the same brand and didn¡¯t change their routine too much.


    Over thest several days, since the babies were born and everyone wanted to be a part of it, Reece and I had a constant stream of visitors. Riley and Katie, Bryce and Bree, Cedar and Acacia, E and Devon, Jackson and Melita, Gina, Rawlynne, Thoma and Izzy, Star and Artem, Landon and Ava, Gabriel and Roisin, almost everyone that I knew came either by themselves or in groups. They were all eager to meet the magical surprise baby that had somehow eluded us all during the entire pregnancy.


    I didn¡¯t mind the visits. It let the people that I loved and cared about know that we were all doing just fine. We got to hear from many different perspectives that the kingdom was still running smoothly. And it helped to pass the time as well. It made things a little more lively during these long days.


    All in all, things in the hospital were going just fine, but I was ready to be getting back home. By the time that the babies were a week old, I had been in the hospital for two weeks. I may be able to walk around and move freely now, but that didn¡¯t make it any less boring here. I wanted to be with Reagan, Rika, Talia and everyone else at home. I was ready for our family of nine to be together at home for the first time in forever. And not only that, but Reagan, Rika and Talia had already gone back to school since the new year started. They needed me and Reece there with them. They needed their mommy and daddy around. Yeah, they were doing OK with their M¨®ra¨ª, Papa, Nona and L. But that wasn¡¯t the same as having mommy and daddy there.


    Griffin had dered that the babies would be good to go home once they were a week old. And that was today. Today was Tuesday January the eighth and I was already itching to take an adorable family picture with the babies. I needed to start their tradition of pictures. I had done it every week for Reagan and Rika as well as for Talia. Well, every week until they were a month old, then I did it every month until they were two years old. It meant that I had a lot of pictures and a lot of memories to look back on. And one day, when they were all grown up, we would love these pictures and cry over them as well.


    I was ready from the moment that my eyes opened that morning. I was going to make sure that Griffin knew that I wanted to go and that I wasn¡¯t going to hang around here anymore.


    After the babies were fed and changed, I went to take a shower while Reece sat with them. I took my time, luxuriating in the way that it was melting away my tension and nerves. It was really nice to be taking a shower like that.


    After I was cleaned and dried off, Reece took his shower and I got dressed. I dried my hair and pulled it back into a loose ponytail. I didn¡¯t bother with makeup though, I was only going home and that was where I was able to befortable.


    After I was ready, Reece came out of the bathroom, already fully dressed with hair that was dried and perfectly styled like it was no big deal at all. I swear it was so easy for him, it was like he fell out of the shower all set and ready to go.


    Griffin seemed to have been waiting for us to get ready too, since the moment that Reece was back in my room, he came in and told me that we were all set to go. He would being to check on us at the house in a couple of days, but for the most part, things were just fine and we could go on with our new life as a bigger family.


    I couldn¡¯t have been more excited or ready. Neither could Reece. He rushed to the car to get the car seats and to call home and let them all know. We would get there while Reagan, Rika, and Talia were in school, but that didn¡¯t matter too much. We could be settled in before they get home from school and then they would feel like it was all chaos.


    We worked together to get things ready, just me and Reece. We needed to get this routine down. Oh, and of course, one of these car seats had to be delivered by Noah sometime this week, since we had a surprise girl. It was pink and purple too, while the boys all had blues and greens. It was traditional and all that, but I didn¡¯t mind right now. As they got older, they would like the colors that they wanted to.


    Four babies changed. Four babies were put into car seats with little nkets on them. There was even a fourth nket that Mom had brought over for Zaley, it was also made with pink and purple. And after the four babies were ready to go, Reece and I got our shoes and coats on.


    I needed to be pushed down to the car in a wheelchair because of hospital policy, but that was fine. I held Zaley and Zayden on myp while Reece carried Zachary and Zander. We loaded them all up into the car, or rather the SUV with three rows of seats. And finally, it was time for us to go home. It had been a long and eventful two weeks, but it was time for me to be back home with my family once again. It was time for us to have our lives together and live in peace for a while, hopefully forever.


    No more wars. No more even gods or goddesses. No more important things that take me away from my family. It was time for me to be home and be with them. I could still be a queen, but I would like it to be during a time of peace now, not during the struggles of war. It was time for me to be truly happy once and for all.


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 Chapter 803

    Chapter 803: Chapter 220- Trinity ¨C Wee Home (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Well, I know now why Reece had called home. He was setting up for the chaos to start. I mean, he was calling to tell them to get ready for us to show up at the wee home party that they had set up. And, of course, the kids were there as well. They had, apparently, skipped school today because they all knew that we wereing home.


    As a mom I was happy to see my children, but I was also not very happy with whoever it was that told them they could skip school. Then again, there were a lot of other kids there other than my three. Shawn and Dietrich¡¯s four kids Luka, Levi, Alexandria and Alyssa were there. They were all in Reagan and Rika¡¯s ss. There were others here too, as I looked around I saw them all.


    Vincent and Heather were here with their five kids: Conner, Renea, Faith, Tyler and Charlotte. Shane was with Falena and their son Kaiden. David and Rawlynne had their daughter Kaede. Roisin and Gabriel had their toddler Brenna here. Griffin and Lana had their twins Vivian and Dominic. E and Devon were here with their twin girls Isabe and Sophia and their son Devon Jr. Jackson and Melita had their daughter Melody. Carter and Emmalee were here with Carter Jr. and Leigha. Noah and Nikki had Elias and Nina. Cedar and Acacia had their triplets Ashle, Cypress and Beech with them. Juniper and Paul had all three of their kids, Rowan, na and Leaf here with them. Riley and Katie came from their pack with their two kids Roan and Alexia. And as for kids too young for school, we still had Landon and Ava with their two kids Logan and Amelia. And of course Trevor, Aunt Glory, Athair m¨®r and Daciana were here with the six between them, Torben, Owen, Caliss, Lily, Rose and Calix. The youngest there among them were only a little over a month old.


    I don¡¯t think that I realized how many kids there were in our inner circle until I saw them all here together like this. There were thirty-eight kids that my friends and family had. Most of them were born around the times that mine were too. And then if you add in my seven kids, that makes forty-five. No wonder our parties were so big. This many kids with just my close friends and family. And let us not forget that there were already more on the way for some of them.


    .....


    The moment that I walked into the castle with Reece, there was a thunderous shout of ¡°WELCOME HOME!¡± from everyone there. Well, the ones that could talk. The ones that couldn¡¯t just ended up crying from the sudden shouting. That left the parents scrambling tofort them and get them to calm down.


    ¡°Why did you do this?¡± I asked Reece but I didn¡¯t do it quietly enough. Apparently, all of those sensitive ears around us had heard me.


    ¡°Why did we do it?¡± Shaneughed as he walked over. ¡°Because we love you and want you to know that, Trinity.¡± He hugged me then and pressed a light kiss to my cheek. ¡°I mean, you are my sister after all. He winked at Reece and then pulled back. All that did was make me remember the time that Reece snapped at Shane for making his usual jokes. He never stopped making them, but he stopped making them about me. At least he stopped doing that when Reece might randomly walk in.


    ¡°Shane is right, Trinity.¡± Dietrich was walking to us now. ¡°We all love you and we all missed you. We knew that you would being home today and that you would want to see us all. Well, at least we all wanted to see you and the babies outside of the hospital. You¡¯ve been gone for two weeks and that was so soon after being gone for months on end. We needed this moment, Trinity. And I think you did too.¡± The entire time that Dietrich was speaking, he was holding onto Shawn, his arm wrapped around his shoulders.


    ¡°Family should be together right now, Trinity. And that¡¯s what we are. We are one big family. They love us and our children. Just like we call them all our family, they call us theirs as well.¡± Reece finally exined to me why he once again held a wee home party for me. I didn¡¯t me him for it, in fact I loved him more for it.


    The party moved into the ballroom that was closest to the tower that I called home. There were a lot offortable chairs and sofas spread around, there was food everywhere, and there was music ying softly all over the ce. It wasn¡¯t a very big or exciting party, it was just a calm wee home event. And of course, there were a lot of people that were trying to get to hold the babies. So, they were all taking turns just like they had done before. It was just like the hospital all over again.


    Juniper was happily gushing about the fact that she and Nikki only had about three months left until their new babies would be here. Emmalee, who had just recently told my parents about their baby, was being showered with love and joy.


    There were a few other surprises that we found out just recently. Nikki, Emmalee and Roisin were having little boys and Juniper and L were having little girls. Not to mention, there were a lot of surprises when we found out about a handful of others having babies. Shane and Falena were expecting another baby, a girl this time. David and Rawlynne were having twins, a boy and a girl. Jackson and Melita were going to have a baby boy. Cedar and Acacia were having twins, also a boy and a girl. Riley and Katie were having another little boy. And the biggest surprise of them all was that Mom was pregnant as well. She and Dad were going to be having a little girl. So, I was gaining an aunt that was also my sister inw and a baby sister at almost the same time. They were all due within the next five month and a half months and it was an exciting time.


    When I looked at Dad after I had been given the news, I saw that he was scared, nervous, still in shock, and the happiest man in the world. He loved all of his kids and he loved his grandkids as well, so he wasn¡¯t going to be upset about the fact that he got to have more babies. The only thing about it was that my seven kids were all older than their aunt. Oh well, three of my kids were all older than their great great great aunts and uncles. This family tree of ours was a little weird, but it was ours and that was all that mattered.


    There was a lot of talking and a lot of love shared between the whole family. I could tell that everyone was happy about the new life that was being brought into the world, but there were a few people that seemed to be a little sad or looked like they wanted to be part of the happiness with all the others. Heather, who had five kids with Vincent already, looked like she missed having a little baby with her. Her youngest two were almost eight now and the oldest was in high school. That had to be hard on Vincent, seeing how much the kids had changed and grown since we first met.


    Someone else that looked like they wanted more kids but knew they couldn¡¯t have any, was Shawn. He had been shocked and scared when he was pregnant all those years ago, but both he and Dietrich were good fathers to their four kids. I knew that they had the love to give to even more babies. But they couldn¡¯t get pregnant again. The legends say it was a one time deal only. They had options though, they could adopt. They could use a surrogate. They could get eggs donated from someone that they knew or from a clinic. They could definitely have a bigger family, this wasn¡¯t it for them.


    I left my family there holding the babies while I went to sit by Shawn. Dietrich wasn¡¯t around and I wanted to talk to him alone at the moment.


    ¡°Hey.¡± I slid onto the loveseat next to him.


    ¡°Hey, Trinity.¡± He gave me his usual smile.


    ¡°You don¡¯t look happy.¡± I wanted him to know that it was definitely noticeable.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I am happy for you Trinity, I really am. And for everyone else too. It¡¯s just that-.¡±


    ¡°You want more kids.¡± I finished the words for him and he looked at me with shock in his eyes.


    ¡°Is it that noticeable?¡± Heughed nervously as he asked me that.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s that noticeable to everyone. But I see it, and I am sure that Dietrich sees it as well. If you want more kids, you should have some. You guys can adopt or use surrogates. You have options. I think you would be great with more kids.¡± I wanted to let him know that no matter what happened, he wasn¡¯t alone in this. I supported him and I was sure his husband did too.


    ¡°She is right, Geliebte. I want more babies too. And if we cannot have them ourselves, then I want to look into more options. I want a big family. I want to keep having babies with you every so often for the next millennium.¡± Shawnughed nervously at Dietrich¡¯s words.


    ¡°That long, huh? Well, then I guess we are going to be having the world¡¯s biggest family of vampire and werewolf hybrids.¡±


    ¡°Shawn, my love, we have the only family that falls into that category.¡± Dietrichughed as he pulled Shawn to his feet. ¡°Still, I don¡¯t mind if ours is thergest. I want to have more babies with you, Shawn. I wish we could carry them again, but we can¡¯t. So, we will get someone else to do it for us.¡±


    Now that this issue was settled, I knew that everything would be OK. I was sure that if the other person that wanted more babies was serious about it, she would be pregnant again soon.


    The party died down soon after that. It was time for just my family to be heading up to the tower. Reece and I, along with our seven kids. Well, Gabriel and Roisin were going as well, but they lived with us and worked for us. So that was to be expected. Still, as good as the party was to have had, I was d that it was just us going to the tower. I wanted some family time.


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 Chapter 804

    Chapter 804: Chapter 221- Trinity ¨C Settling In (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    So, Reece and I went up to the bedroom with our seven kids. That was a crazy thought. Seven kids. I had known for a week now that we now had seven kids, but it was still hard for me to think about. I mean, who would have thought that I was going to have this many kids, and all before I turned twenty-eight years old.


    In fact, it was just a few short weeks until I was going to be having my birthday. And that meant that this year was going to be the ten year anniversary of when Reece and I met. So much time had passed and so many things had happened over thisst decade that it was hard to believe that it had only been that short amount of time. And on top of that, it had passed so quickly that at times I felt like it had only been a year or two. It was definitely insane when I thought about it.


    Once Reece and I were in our bedroom on the top floor of the tower, we set the babies in their basss that had been brought into the room. They were lined up in a row and the babies¡¯ names had been put onto them so that we would know which bed belonged to which baby.


    Reece and I were already used to their scents but, just in case, we were leaving the bracelets on the boys for a little while so that we would be able to tell them apart. And well, so other people could tell them apart. Reagan, Rika and Talia would only be able to tell Zaley apart from Zachary, Zander and Zayden. She lookedpletely different from them so that one was easy.


    .....


    ¡°Mommy, the babies are so cute.¡± Talia had leapt up onto the bed and was staring at them with sparkling eyes.


    ¡°Yeah, they are so cute, Momma.¡± Reagan hugged me as he watched them. ¡°And I am so happy that all of you are home with us. We missed you, Momma.¡± He was already getting so tall. He didn¡¯t have to reach up all that far to kiss me on my cheek. He had only just turned eight a little over a month ago. Why was he such a big, tall, strong man already? Well, I guess he took after his daddy.


    ¡°I will help you all the time, Mom. I promise you. When I am not in school, I will be here helping you take care of all the babies. I will feed them, I will change their diapers, I will burp them, I will help with all of it.¡± Rika, the loving little girl that she was, hugged me from the opposite side than her brother. She was shorter than him, obviously taking after me more than her dad when it came to height. But aside from that, she was the spitting image of Reece. Same hair, same eyes, she was his for sure. Talia was the one that took after me the most out of the three older kids. And, of course, Zaley was simr to me, but she was a full on carbon copy of Edmond.


    ¡°I appreciate the offer, Rika sweetheart. However, you need to focus on you. You need to do what makes you happy and you need to focus on school.¡±


    ¡°But this will make me happy, Mom. I know it will. And I will still do all my activities and my homework. I promise. I won¡¯t miss out on any of it. I just want to be there for you and the babies. I want to spend more time with you.¡± She looked desperate, like she didn¡¯t want me to tell her that she couldn¡¯t help me.


    ¡°You can help me anytime you want, Rika. As long as you still do things for yourself. Promise me that you will still make sure that you learn everything that you can. You have a big future ahead of you and I want you to have all the opportunities that you can get.¡± Her face lit up then. It was like being allowed to be here to help me and her dad was the true key to her happiness. I had to wonder then and there how I got lucky enough to be blessed with these wonderful kids.


    We worked as a family after that. Reece and I gave Talia a bath in our room while Reagan and Rika went to their rooms to take showers in their own private bathrooms. After they were all ready for the night, the three of them helped us to feed, burp, and change the babies so that they were ready for bed as well. Then Reece and I put Talia to bed in her room and read her a story. Reagan and Rika didn¡¯t want a story, but they epted us singing to them before they went to bed as well.


    That night went pretty smoothly, all things considered. Reece and I needed to work together to get the babies fed and back to sleep, but that wasn¡¯t that hard. Since I was pumping and then bottle feeding them all. I noticed that, like the twins, the quads tended to drink faster when they used a bottle. They needed to be burped more, but it made the feeding time a lot quicker. Quicker was better when there were four of them.


    We were woken up about every three hours by the babies, less frequently than I would have thought but it was better in my opinion. That meant that we only needed to be woken twice before it was morning. The third time that we were awoken by their cries, it was time for us to be up for the day. I felt like we already had a pretty good routine down for ourrge family.


    Over the next week or so, Reece and I got better at what we were doing. Reece went back to work, but only part time. He was going to be home with us and working from there more often than not. He would only be going to the office three days a week and not for a long time either. He told me he wanted to be there for all of us. However, I thought that he might just not want to leave me alone for long. He was still afraid that I was going to disappear.


    Mom and L were there to help me a lot, but they were both pregnant now. L was further along than Mom was, and she was due in April. Mom wasn¡¯t due until June. They were going to be close to each other, but at least the one that was supposed to be a generation higher was going to be older. I mean, my new aunt was going to be two months older than my new sister.


    I think that both Mom and L were excited about their babies. Even though they had grandchildren that were between newborn and eight years old, they were excited to be having their own again.


    When I saw Dad and Grandfather over thest several days, they both seemed happy, excited and very nervous. I think that the two of them were afraid to have kids when they were nearing sixty and over eighty years old. They may seem old to humans, but we had been immortal for a little while now, and because of that they didn¡¯t have to worry about the age when having kids like this.


    Things were pretty smooth sailing in my opinion. Our family was happy and healthy. I was able to handle the babies, but I always had a little bit of help around me. Mom, L, Juniper, May, E, Roisin and all the others.


    The babies, even by the time that they were just three weeks old, were already visibly bigger. Zachary, Zander, and Zayden were already close to five and a half pounds and Zaley was five pounds. They had gotten taller and heavier, but they were still a lot smaller than the other babies were.


    I knew that they would catch up, so I wasn¡¯t worried about it at all. They had room to grow now, and they were getting plenty to eat. They were always such good babies too, rarely crying and always watching you with eyes that were curious. I know it was too early for that to be the case, but it was true. They were special, all four of them were.


    Rika had also done as she promised she would. She came into the nursery with me every day after school and helped to take care of them. She was a pro at changing their diapers, but I had a feeling that wouldn¡¯tst as the babies got older and started to wiggle a lot more. Reagan joined her often and was there to feed and hold his siblings. Talia wanted to help, but more often than not, she would get distracted very easily.


    I loved this. I loved that my family was all here. They were all happy. They were all healthy. And things seemed to be so peaceful. I would do whatever I could to make sure that they stayed this way. I would protect them, but I would do it without leaving them alone.


    This, this was the calm and quiet that we all needed. This was the life that I needed to promote to my people. Peace, love, family, and of course kindness. I felt like if I could only show them this life of mine, they would all be so much happier. There would be no need for war or violence. Just peace.


    Peace.


    Yeah, that would be nice.


    Peace.


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 Chapter 805

    Chapter 805: EPILOGUE 1 (VOLUME 4)


    Reece ¨C Surprise Visit


    The night before Trinity¡¯s birthday was quite a shock for me. I didn¡¯t expect this to happen at all, and it took me a little bit to figure out what was going on. I was walking across the room to get into bed with my Little Bunny. She was already asleep, getting in as much as she could before the babies woke us up in the middle of the night again. However, I never made it to bed.


    In the middle of the room, I suddenly felt very weak and as light as air. I knew that there was something wrong, but I didn¡¯t know what it could be. Not at first anyway. When my body felt like it was falling to the floor, but I was still looking at the room like I was standing, I started to have an inkling of what it was.


    And then, when I was no longer standing there but floating in the air above my body, I knew what it was. I had had this happen to me before. Only it had never happened to me when I was alone. I was with Trinity when this had happened to me.


    I was leaving my body. I was going to the celestial realm. I was on my way to visit with a god of some sort. The only thing is, I didn¡¯t know which god or why. What did they want with me? What was going on here? This was insane. I didn¡¯t know what I was going to do when I got there, or if this was a good thing or if I was in some kind of danger.


    Honestly, I was scared shitless right about now. I didn¡¯t want to disappear and end up like my Little Bunny. I didn¡¯t want to leave my family for days, weeks or months on end. I couldn¡¯t do that to them, but I couldn¡¯t stop myself from leaving like that.


    I guess I now knew what my Little Bunny had been going through every single time she had been pulled from her body and taken to this other realm. This was a feeling of pure powerlessness. I wasn¡¯t able to stop it. I wasn¡¯t able to fight back. I wasn¡¯t able to do anything at all. I was as helpless as my four little babies.


    .....


    Oh my Goddess. What if these celestials were going to take me away from my family and I was going to have to miss seeing my babies grow up? What if I missed them rolling over for the first time orughing for the first time? What if I missed their first steps and their first words? What if I missed Talia¡¯s fifth birthday? What if I missed everything that my children were going to do for the rest of their lives? I couldn¡¯t let that happen! I just couldn¡¯t!


    I was panicking somewhat when I started to fall through the air above me. And yes, even though I was moving up and away from my bedroom, I was falling. And it felt like I was freefalling as well. There was nothing at all that was trying to stop me or slow me down at all. If I hit the ground like this, immortal werewolf or not, it would definitely kill me. I guess that¡¯s another thing for me to worry about. Was I even going to survive this experience?


    Thankfully, not long after I wondered about my survival, the speed at which I was falling started to decrease drastically. I was slowing down and somehow, I flipped over. Instead of looking back toward my home, which I could now barely make out in the distance, I was now facing the ground that was quickly approaching.


    When I had gone with my Little Bunny in the past, we had ended up in a beautiful seaside clearing. This ce looked like it was in the middle of a dessert. There was nothing but sand and the blinding sun. Where was I? And who was I here to see?


    All of a sudden, I mmed into the sand and skidded to a halt. I wasn¡¯t moving as fast as I could have been, and I thanked the Goddess that the sand was soft and broke my fall, but it was still unpleasant. And for another thing, I ended up with sand sliding into some very ufortable spots. I hoped that none of this sand went back with me or I would have to shower to get it all out of my crack and other unmentionable areas.


    ¡°Wee, King Reece. We have been waiting for you.¡± As I struggled to get to my feet, I heard a deep male voice call out from somewhere behind me. I spun around, trying to see what the man looked like and who he might be.


    The moment that I was facing the owner of the voice, I saw that there were two men standing there. One of them was tall with the head of a hawk. He was wearing a sun dial on his head with a serpent wrapped around it. He was definitely odd looking, but so was the other man. The man that was standing near the hawk head was tall as well. He had bright, ming hair. Not that it was a me red but that it was actually made of mes, yes somehow it looked like hair and there were even a few braids in the burning locks. He had mes on his hands and tattoos on his bare chest that were made from mes. He was wearing old-looking leather with various furs attached to the ends. He looked like some sort of Viking that had been set on fire for some reason.


    Just who were these men? And what did they want with me? What was going to happen to me while I was here?


    ¡°Why have you been waiting for me?¡± I asked them with a skeptical tone to my voice.


    ¡°We have been watching you and your family. You are an exceptional man. You protect those that you love, and you provide for so many. You are an honorable man.¡± The Hawk headed man spoke calmly.


    ¡°Also, you have an affinity for fire. You are aligned with us, King Reece. And we wish to bind ourselves with you.¡± The ming man spoke a little more coarsely with a rougher edge to his voice.


    ¡°And who are you exactly? I am sorry, but I am not all that familiar with the various gods.¡±


    ¡°Pardon our intrusion, King Reece. I am Ra, Egyptian god of fire and sun.¡±


    ¡°And I am H¨¢logi, Norse god of Fire. We, like you, have a gift for the me. That is why we chose you, Reece. We want you to be our new vessel so that we may be reborn into the world of mortals. Will you, Reece Gray, do us this honor?


    I couldn¡¯t believe what I was hearing. These men, these gods, wanted me to take their souls into me. Wasn¡¯t this exactly what had happened to Trinity and Vincent? Oh, and Gabriel too. The three of them had celestial souls inside of them. They were more powerful than they had been before. And now, these gods were asking to do the same for me.


    ¡°And what will happen to me if I do say yes? What will change about me?¡± I may want the power, but I wasn¡¯t about to just say yes without thinking about it first.


    ¡°You will gain ess to our powers. You will need to work on the methods of essing it, but when you master it, you will be that much stronger. You will have the souls of gods inside of you, so you yourself will be a god.¡± Ra spoke in his calm voice, but it was so weird to see. His hawk head showed no emotion at all.


    ¡°Will I be like my wife? Will I have the status of a God like her?¡± I wanted to make sure that I was understanding this right.


    ¡°That is right, King Reece. You will be a god with two celestials. Your wife, Goddess Queen Trinity, has three souls inside of her. She will still be more powerful, but you will be a celestial along with her.¡± H¨¢logi exined things to me in his rough voice. ¡°Will you help the two of us out? Will you allow us to be reincarnated?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Yes, I will.¡± I nodded at them and reached out my hand on instinct.


    I think that I was nning on shaking their hands, but they both reached out at the same time and grabbed onto my arm. I felt the power from them instantly start to flood into my body. There was a bright orange light that surrounded the three of us as the magic from their bodies entered mine. It was an odd sensation that was making me feel really weird, but I stuck it out and didn¡¯t move at all. I needed to get this done. I needed to be strong enough for this.


    When the light faded away, they were gone. Ra and H¨¢logi were nowhere to be seen. Well, that was understandable. They were inside of me. Well, their souls were. Their bodies were gone forever.


    Now that the transfer of power was over, I was being taken back to my home. I was once again falling through the air. My room wasing into view again and soon, I was going to be with my Little Bunny once more. And, thankfully, all that sand that was in ufortable ces had disappeared. I was d that it didn¡¯t stay with me when I left that ce. Now, I was able to go home and be with my wife in peace. And I got to be a god along with her now. That was pretty cool.


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 Chapter 806

    Chapter 806: EPILOGUE 2 (VOLUME 4)


    Alexio ¨C Training PART 1


    We had finally seen Queen Trinity again aftering into this world. She was stuck in bed, barely able to move. I guess that was more proof that I needed to know that she had left her body in this world and had been stuck in the underworld with us. She wasn¡¯t dead. She wasn¡¯t just a spirit. She was alive, and she belonged here in this world.


    Rudy and I didn¡¯t belong here. However, we didn¡¯t belong in the underworld anymore. Not really anyway. We had changed. We had left that world behind. Something inside us had fundamentally changed.


    And on top of that, we had somehow gotten the magic that used to belong to the demons. I don¡¯t know what that magic was going to allow us to do, but I could feel that it was flowing through my veins. It was strong and powerful. And it made me feel good.


    I didn¡¯t know what Rudy and I were going to do here in the mortal realm, or if we were even going to be allowed to stay for long, but I was interested in what was going to be an exciting future. I knew that Queen Trinity wanted the two of us here. I don¡¯t know why, but she did. And that was all that I needed to convince me to stay.


    Something, some unknown force, was making me feel like I needed to be here. There was something here that was telling me that I needed to stay in the mortal realm. I don¡¯t know if it was Queen Trinity and her magic or if it was something else, but I knew that I didn¡¯t want to leave until I found what that thing was. And I would stick with Queen Trinity for as long as I was here.


    The day after getting my magical power, Rudy and I met with the guards that were part of Queen Trinity¡¯s service. The men that were known as Shawn, Shane, David and Vincent had been with her since she hade to be in power. They had gained power and strength through their closeness to her. I hadn¡¯t been with Queen Trinity for very long, but even I was getting stronger. She was blessing me and Rudy already.


    .....


    When Rudy and I met the other men, they started to exin what it was that they did. And how they trained when they weren¡¯t actively protecting their queen. I don¡¯t know why, but I initially thought that this ce was just going to be some big joke and that nothing was very official. That wasn¡¯t the case though. They took their jobs seriously. They lived in a true castle made for royalty, and everyone respected their king and Queen.


    Rudy and I started to train with the men immediately. We were given drills to practice our strength and gauge our abilities. We were tested with various weapons. And we were being judged on every move we made. If we were able to prove ourselves worthy enough, then we would be able to guard Queen Trinity or one of her children. We would be given a job to do once they trusted us and our abilities.


    I had lived my life as a demon. Most of that life had been spent as the guard that Queen Trinity had found me as, but there was more to it than just that. Unlike Rudy, I used to have another job. I was a warrior. It was long after the magic of the demons had faded, but we had once protected the underworld from invasion. There had been those of the celestial realm that had wanted to change the underworld to their own image. Someone had tried to forcibly take it over hundreds of years ago. And it was then that I had been created to fight in those battles. When we had prevailed, and the underworld was marginally safer, I was put to work guarding the souls that were receiving their punishments. The rulers of the underworld had wanted to make sure that the celestials were not trying to break the souls out and take them to another realm.


    Rudy, on the other hand, had been made specifically to guard the gate. He had known nothing else until he had met Queen Trinity. He knew nothing of battle and nothing of fighting. He was learning it all for the first time. However, being born a demon, he had an innate knowledge of it to begin with. He knew how to fight, he had just never put it into practice. These lessons were vital for him to build his skills. And for me to hone mine.


    The first day was exhausting, but we made it through somehow. I couldn¡¯t believe that these men did this and more each day. I would need to put my all into it so that I didn¡¯t fall behind them at all. I needed to stay ahead and prove that they could trust mepletely.


    The second day was easier. Knowing what it was that we needed to do, it was a lot easier to make it through it all. Rudy was keeping up a lot more as well. I was happy to see that he was learning and making progress.


    We were also getting to know the other guards. I learned that Vincent was their leader, even though he seemed to be one of the nicer and softer men in the group. And he truly was. He was those things and more. However, he was a fierce opponent that put his all into protecting his queen and her family. And he knew how tomand his unit properly.


    The second nicest of the group was David. He was the kind of person that seemed to get along with just about everyone. He was able to make just about anyone trust him. But he too was an amazing fighter. He was faster than anyone could see, and he could end a fight as soon as it began. At least, he could end it with me that quickly.


    Shawn was quiet and nice but also reserved. He seemed to favor long distance fighting the most, but he was also able to fight hand to hand really easily. And his twin brother Shane was just as skilled. He preferred to fight with swords and even showed me his lightning de that he could wield. All of them were amazing and strong, and prime examples of what I wanted to be.


    The only one that wasn¡¯t quiet, reserved and nice was Shane. He was crude. He joked a lot. And he was always trying to have fun. He even thought that a battle could be fun. I would have disagreed with him if he hadn¡¯t been in more wars than I had been. He knew more than I did, so I had no room to talk. I just needed to listen to him and learn from him. I didn¡¯t have to act like him at all.


    I was enjoying my training, but that wasn¡¯t all that Rudy and I needed to learn. We needed to know how to act among the humans. We needed to know how to talk like them and how not to make them think that we weren¡¯t one of them. We needed to learn how to be ¡®modern¡¯ as Vincent called it.


    To learn this, we were introduced to a lot of devices that we had only heard about before. There were cellphones, televisions, radios, running water, toilets and so much more. We were told a lot of things, but we were also made to watch these things called movies and television shows. They were supposed to help us understand the way that people acted and treated each other. It all seemed so strange to me, but it was interesting, that was for sure.


    And while I was enjoying learning how to fight like a true soldier and guard, and I liked learning about the world in general, I still wanted to see Queen Trinity again. I still wanted to know more about my magic. I wanted to know how to use it. I wanted to know what I was capable of. I wanted to know what Rudy and I were supposed to be doing to figure it all out.


    I knew for a fact that only Queen Trinity would know how to help us. She would be the only one that could guide us and teach us about magic. She was a werewolf, a witch and a fae. And on top of that, she was a Goddess with the souls of three different celestials inside of her. She was special. She was amazing. And she was the one that needed to help us.


    I begged and pleaded to Vincent, David, Shawn and Shane to get me a meeting with the queen. I knew that she wasn¡¯t doing that well yet, but I needed to talk to her. She was pregnant, yes I understood that. She couldn¡¯t move, yes I get that, but I don¡¯t need her to move. She is recovering, yes I know that too. All I wanted was to talk to her. I needed to discuss things with her. I needed to work out some details. And only then would Rudy and I be able to start practicing our abilities with the other guards. Only then would I feelfortable enough to take that next step.


    If I didn¡¯t want to hurt people, that¡¯s what I needed to do. I had absolutely no other choice here. This was the only way. And thankfully,Queen Trinity agreed. We were going to meet in a couple of days.


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 Chapter 807

    Chapter 807: EPILOGUE 3 (VOLUME 4)


    Rudy ¨C Training PART 2


    Alexio and I had been training with Queen Trinity¡¯s other soldiers over thest few days. We were learning what it was that they did on a regr basis and what it is that we were expected to do.


    On top of training, we were learning how to live in this new world. I was happy and excited to be here, but I was also nervous. There was a lot of stuff that I didn¡¯t know. In terms of actually being able to live here, Alexio and I were basically no better than children.


    What I mean by us being children is that, before we came to this world, we never had to eat or drink to stay alive. We never had to use the restroom. We never had to sleep. We never had to clean ourselves. We were just the way that we were and nothing else. We did the jobs that we were given and never left our posts. It was a thing that we did all day and all night without a break from the beginning of our existence until thest day of our existence. It wasn¡¯t a life at all, but it was all that we knew. It was an existence, and at the time we were happy.


    That all changed now that we were here though. Now that we were in the mortal realm. Now that we were on Earth nothing was the same. We didn¡¯t want to blindly live our lives like the ves of the gods that we had been.


    I wasn¡¯t opposed to serving the gods and doing as I was told to. However, now that I had actually lived, I didn¡¯t want to lose this ce. I wanted to be happy. I wanted to find my ce in the world. And in doing so, I would still follow themands of my queen. Trinity was the one that I would serve, that was what I knew for a fact.


    Today I was going to go with Alexio to see Queen Trinity. We were, hopefully, going to learn about the magic that she had given us. She had blessed both me and Alexio with magic. We all assumed that the magic was that with which the demons of old used to have. Though, I was too young to remember that magic and I didn¡¯t know what it was at all. Because of this, I was excited, nervous, happy and scared all at the same time while I eagerly awaited my visit with the queen to begin.


    .....


    At about noon, Alexio and I were guided to meet with Queen Trinity in her room. She was still having trouble moving her body. Not to mention, she was pregnant with those babies that we had seen in the underworld with her. I had never known that a pregnantdy would have arge belly. And that was one thing that Queen Trinity did have. Her belly looked so big and swollen that I didn¡¯t think she would be able to move or stand up at all. It was amazing that the crushing size of that belly hadn¡¯t killed her yet. I was truly shocked when I had seen it for the first time when we arrived here with her.


    ¡°Alexio, Rudy, Queen Trinity will see you now.¡± The man named Gabriel said as he walked out of her room. He was like her right hand man. Or was that Vincent? They were both always there doing what she told them to. She was like their messiah or something. Or that was how I, with my limited knowledge of this world, saw things. I didn¡¯t truly know what I was supposed to think about these two men and their reverence for their queen, but I was happy to see that she was a kind and generous ruler that cared very much for her people. I hoped that one day she would see me and Alexio and her people as well. That was my current dream.


    Gabriel opened the door to Queen Trinity¡¯s room and led us inside. I saw the queen sitting up in her bed. She was smiling at us as we walked closer. I was d to see that she was happy. And also, that she didn¡¯t think that we looked odd in our mortal realm clothing. They were so different from what Alexio and I usually wore that I was always self conscious about it. She didn¡¯t say anything about it as we approached though, so that made me feel a little better about it all.


    ¡°It is good to see you two. I hope that all is well.¡± That smile from Queen Trinity was enough to make me stop being so nervous. I wish that I wasn¡¯t this easily upset with my emotions, there was no reason for it. Why couldn¡¯t I be stronger and tougher like Alexio? He was better with his training than I was and he never seemed to get nervous like me.


    ¡°Hello there, Queen Trinity.¡± Alexio tilted his head to her in a show of respect.


    ¡°It is lovely to see you again, Queen Trinity.¡± I mimicked his movements and greeted her as well.


    ¡°I hope you two are adjusting to your new lives here. I am sorry for all the changes that you needed to experience when you got here. I have been told that you are doing exceptionally well though, so that is wonderful.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, it has been a bit of an ordeal at times, but as a whole, I think that things have been just fine. Thank you for your concern.¡± How was it that Alexio was able to be so damn cool? Why couldn¡¯t I act like that? Dammit! I am so weak.


    ¡°Well, I hear that you are the one that wanted this meeting, Alexio. Am I right in assuming that it is because of the magic that I gave you the other day?¡± She was so smart and so sweet. She was the best queen in the world.


    ¡°Indeed, it is, Queen Trinity. I do believe that Rudy and myself need a little bit of instruction in the proper ways of learning to use the magic. We have never done it before after all, so we are not sure where to start.¡±


    ¡°That is understandable. However, it is something that all of my personal guards have needed to learn as well. I will help you learn how to tap into the power, and now that I am rested I can exin a little more about the magic that you received. Specifically, I can tell you what type of magic you have.¡±


    I felt Queen Trinity¡¯s eyes moving over me as she assessed Alexio and me for the types of magic that she had given us. This was a little scary since I felt like she was staring directly into my soul. Wait! Did I even have a soul? I don¡¯t know if I did. And what if I didn¡¯t have a soul? Was I even allowed to be here in this world? Dammit! I was freaking out now.


    ¡°Ahh. I see that you both have very simr magic. What you do with it will shape it into what your specialty will be. I don¡¯t mean to sound stereotypical, but it appears demons have more of an affinity for fire than anything else. At least the two of you do. You will be using that for the most part, but there seems to be a smoky, sort of cloudy substance in there as well. That must be the demonic essence.¡±


    ¡°Demonic?¡± I gulped in fear. ¡°Does that mean we are going to be evil like the humans think we are?¡± I couldn¡¯t stop myself from asking that question.


    ¡°Rudy, if you were going to be evil, I would know it already. For one thing, Vincent and Gabriel would know right away and they would never allow you in here to see me. So, rest assured, Rudy, you are not evil. You are simply what you were made to be. You¡¯re a good person with a kind soul.¡±


    ¡°So, you think I really do have a soul?¡± I perked up right away upon hearing what she said.


    ¡°Yes, you most definitely have a soul. You will be able to feel emotions, you can find love, you can be happy in life. So don¡¯t worry, Rudy. Everything is just fine.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Queen Trinity.¡± I couldn¡¯t really express how relieved that made me feel. I was a good person. I had a soul. I was going to be able to live here just fine. And she even told me that I could find love. I could be as happy as she and her king. That would be amazing in my mind.


    We talked a little more and Queen Trinity exined to us how we were to tap into our magic. She exined to us that we needed to pull it forward, bring it to the surface of our mind and body. Magic was used with the mind more than anything else, so it was something that we needed to practice a lot to master.


    After our meeting was concluded, Alexio and I went to a training field that was specifically designed to be used with magic. It would protect thends outside of it with a barrier so that nothing and no one was hurt if we got reckless or just couldn¡¯t control our magic.


    With the help of Vincent and Shawn, we were learning how to tap into our powers and actually make the magice out of us. By the end of the day, we were barely able to do anything at all, but we worked on it every single day.


    Over time, the two of us got better and better. We were able to set fires. We were able to hold the fire in our hands and it would not burn or hurt us in any way. We were able to cloak ourselves in a sort of fog that we were able to materialize out of nowhere. It was like the fog or mist or whatever it was, literally came from our bodies just to be a camouge that would help us in fights. There was a lot more that we could do, but we were still learning it all at the time. But I knew one thing for sure, I was happier that I came here with each passing day.


    I had friends. I had a ce to live my life. I had a purpose. I had magic. I had more things in my life than any other demon that was currently in the underworld had ever thought would be possible. I was living a life I never even imagined was possible. This was amazing.


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 Chapter 808

    Chapter 808: EPILOGUE 4 (VOLUME 4)


    Talia ¨C Training To Be A Goddess PART 1


    Mommy had told Daddy all the things that the gods of the underwear world had said when we talked to them. She told him that I said I would be the goddess in their ce when I was older. She exined it all in a way that made it so that my daddy was not so mad about it. Though I could still tell that he was not all that happy.


    When I talked to Reagan and Rika about it all, they asked me why I called it the underwear world instead of the underworld. I told them it was because I thought it was funny. I knew it was called the underworld, but when I first heard its name the voice that had been talking had been very quiet and was whispering. I could barely hear them and so I thought that they said it was the underwear world that my mommy had gone to with my brothers. And I was just used to calling it that now, so I didn¡¯t want to change it.


    Yes, as I get older, I know that I will need to call it by its real name. I was going to be living there at some time in the future, so I know that I need to be good about it and all that. But for now, I just wanted to be a little kid. I won¡¯t be this age forever, you know. When I turn five or maybe even sooner, I will start using the right name for the ce, but I wanted to be a goofy little kid for longer. Also, whenever I call that ce the underwear world, it seems to make Mommy and Daddy smile. And I love to see them smile.


    It has been about two weeks now since I met with the gods of that world. Mommy and Daddy haven¡¯t gotten word about when I will begin to learn the things that the other gods want me to know, but I have a feeling that they are going to being to visit me soon. I still have Angel with me, and she knows a lot about what is happening in that other ce. And I can still hear the voices of the people that are not here anymore. Those people that are not living anymore, they seem toe find me. Either me, or Charlie and Chloe. They were two of my best friends, and like me they could hear the dead people. I was just d that I couldn¡¯t see them yet. I didn¡¯t want to see scary things right now. I know that I am going to see a lot of scary things as I get older though. That is just to be expected of someone that was going to go take over the home of the dead people.


    Every day, I would learn things from Charlie and Chloe. They would tell me what they do to help them with the voices. They would tell me how I can help the voices to move on. And they would help me to not feel so lost in this new experience.


    Mommy and Daddy are super nice, and I love them so much, but I can¡¯t tell them that I sometimes don¡¯t feel good when the gone people are talking to me. That was another name I had for them. For the dead people. They weren¡¯t here anymore, they were dead, they were gone. So, to me, they were the gone people.


    .....


    The reason I couldn¡¯t tell them about what was going on was that I didn¡¯t want to upset them. It would make both Mommy and Daddy sad and then they would cry. If they knew that sometimes the gone people said some really bad things, then they would try to make them go away. But you can¡¯t make them go away unless you help them. You have to make them happy in some way. You need to make sure that they could leave the in between that they were stuck in and that they would be OK to move on.


    Most of them were not that bad. They were mostly just sad. But some of them were bad people and I couldn¡¯t help bad people. Not helping them meant that I was stuck with them until they left me and went somece else. That was the only thing that I knew about it all. I needed to learn more. I needed someone to help me. And that was why Charlie and Chloe were there with me.


    Sometimes I even talked to Rudy and Alexio. Not often though, since they were trying to get better at being here. They trained with my uncles every day and they were doing really good. But I wanted to talk to them sometimes because they were from that ce and that meant they knew about the gone people more than anyone else. I wanted to know what they knew. I wanted them to help me.


    Rudy was always nice to me, but he didn¡¯t know much. Alexio was smarter, and he was nice too, but he was kind of scary looking and seemed like he was going to be mean at any time. I think I just needed to get to know him more. He didn¡¯t know me either so maybe he was just scared of me. I guess I could be scary when I talk about the gone people.


    When I was supposed to learn some things from Charlie and Chloe one day, there was a loud booming noise that scared all three of us. Well, it scared me, that was for sure.


    That booming noise almost seemed like someone knocking, but it wasn¡¯ting from the door to my room. Instead, it seemed to being from the air next to my table. That was not the way that things usually happened.


    The second time that there was the loud booming knock, I could see something glowing next to me. It looked like a door that wasn¡¯t all the way there yet. But when the third time there was a knocking-like boom sound, the door was all the way there. I knew that this door was meant for me. Whoever was there wasing to see me. But who were they?


    ¡°Talia, don¡¯t touch that.¡± Charlie called out when I hopped off my chair to walk over to the door.


    ¡°But someone wants to see me.¡± I turned back to him. ¡°Why shouldn¡¯t I open it?¡± I didn¡¯t know why he would tell me not to touch it.


    ¡°What if someone takes you like they took your mommy.¡± Chloe looked like she was about to start shaking.


    ¡°If someone tries to do that, Angel will bite them. She can get very big when she is mad.¡± They hadn¡¯t seen Angel when she was being mean. She could get to be as big as a real dragon. It was both cool and scary. And it made me know that Angel was here to protect me forever.


    ¡°Just don¡¯t do it.¡± Charlie called out as I grabbed the handle.


    ¡°It¡¯s OK.¡± I smiled at him as I opened the door.


    The door seemed to blow open really hard as soon as I turned the handle. There was a bright orange light on the other side of it and it was hurting my eyes. It onlysted for a few minutes though. After a little bit, there seemed to be someoneing through the door and that made the light go away. Or it was just not as bright at least.


    When the person stepped through the door, I saw that they were as tall as my daddy. Though my daddy looked a lot stronger than this man. This man also had really long hair that stood up on top of his head. His eyes looked like they had a blue shlight behind them. And he was pale. And I knew exactly who this man was.


    ¡°Oh, hello Mr. Hades.¡± I smiled at him.


    ¡°TALIA!¡± Both Charlie and Chloe looked and sounded shocked as they hid next to the table.


    ¡°It is nice to see you again Miss Talia.¡± The blue god named Hades smiled at me. I think he was ignoring Charlie and Chloe since they were scared of him.


    ¡°Why are you here Mr. Hades? Did I do something wrong?¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha. Why would you think that you were in trouble, Little Talia?¡± He was talking very nicely to me.


    ¡°Well, don¡¯t the gods only show up when someone does something bad? You came when you thought that my mommy had done something bad.¡±


    ¡°Oh, Little Talia, I am so sorry that you think that. No, you have done nothing wrong. I am here to begin your training. We discussed with your mommy that you would be learning things over the years, right? I wanted to begin now, if that is OK with you.¡± I was not sure what he was going to tell me when I saw him, but this was not what I was expecting.


    ¡°I would like to begin, yes. Thank you so much Mr. Hades.¡± I beamed at him.


    ¡°Oh, Little Talia, you are so adorable. I just know that teaching you what we know of the underworld is going to be a fun and exciting time.¡±


    As Mr. Hades and I talked, I could tell that Charlie and Chloe were still very scared. I didn¡¯t think that they liked Mr. Hades all that much. Maybe they should go back to their rooms while I learn from my new teacher.


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 Chapter 809

    Chapter 809: EPILOGUE 5 (VOLUME 4)


    Talia ¨C Training To Be A Goddess PART 2


    I could tell that Charlie and Chloe were not having a good time with Mr. Hades in the room. I think they were scared that he was going to be doing something to them. They had had the gone people in their lives for so long that they were not good with a lot of new situations. And they were so recently able to look like normal people.


    I didn¡¯t really notice much of the difference between the two of them. They were pretty when they were bear people and they are pretty now. They were also my friends and I liked them very much. Daddy said that they had vowed to be my retainers or something like that. But I didn¡¯t know how that was possible. Retainers were things that went in your mouth to help your teeth. That was what the kids at school said. Izzy Drews said her older sister had bad teeth and needed a retainer.


    I didn¡¯t know if Izzy was wrong or if Daddy was wrong, but I knew that Charlie and Chloe were always here with me and that they always did things for me. They would help me get ready, but my attendant was supposed to do that. They would help me with something that I didn¡¯t understand. And they always seemed to be protecting me. They were like my uncles with Mommy. They were always there for me. And I loved them for that.


    ¡°Charlie, Chloe, if you are scared of Mr. Hades, you can go back to your room. I do not want you to be afraid.


    ¡°No, Talia, we will not leave.¡± Charlie stood up tall and proud. I was actually surprised to see that he was about the same height as Mr. Hades. He was as tall as a god, that was cool.


    ¡°We have sworn to be there for you and to protect you, Talia, we are not leaving you.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Well, if you think you will be OK, then you can stay. Mr. Hades is going to be teaching me so that I can take over the underwear world when I am older. I had not told you that yet. Mommy hasn¡¯t really told anyone about it except for Daddy. He was kind of scared to hear it too.¡± I think they were scared too. They looked really weird when they heard that I was going to be the new goddess to the underworld.


    ¡°Little Talia, why do you insist on calling it the underwear world?¡± Mr. Hades didn¡¯t seem like he was at all upset about me calling his home by that name. I mean, he wasughing about it as he asked me that question. I think he was just curious more than anything.


    ¡°Mr. Hades, I am only four. I am expected to do and say things like a child. Because, well, I am a child.¡± I tilted my head and gave him a very cute smile. I think this would be one of those times that my mommy and daddy told me that I was just trying to pretend to be innocent. I think they would be right too. I didn¡¯t want Mr. Hades to know that I could say the name properly. I liked using underwear world right now. It was funny and I liked having fun like that. I think that like Daddy and Uncle Shane, I liked jokes and funny things. Even if Daddy tried to pretend that he didn¡¯t joke as much as me and Uncle Shane. I knew the truth. He was always joking with us.


    ¡°I guess that is fair enough. You are only a child, so you should be allowed to do as you please for now.¡± I smiled when I saw Mr. Hades said that. He and I seemed to think a lot alike. ¡°Alright now, Little Talia, it is time for us to begin your first lesson. Are you ready?¡±


    ¡°I am ready, but I think that I should tell my mommy first. I don¡¯t want her to get mad at me. Mommy can be pretty scary when things don¡¯t go the way she ns them too.¡± I shuddered at the thought of the things that my mommy had done in the past. I knew that she could be a pretty scarydy. Though she had never been scary to me before.


    ¡°Yes, Little Talia, we should tell your mommy. Why don¡¯t we send one of your friends here to tell her? I think that will be good. They can do their job by rying the information.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Mr. Hades did have a point. Charlie and Chloe were here to help me. They were the ones that could tell my mommy.


    ¡°Talia, we can tell her without leaving. You can tell her too. I am sure that you can use that mind link that she had created and taught to people.¡±


    ¡°I..I have never tried. But if you can use it, can you tell my mommy that Mr. Hades is here to teach me.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Talia, we will tell her right now.¡± I saw then that the two of them started to talk to each other rather than telling my mommy. Then again, I didn¡¯t know what the mind link thing was so for all I know they could be talking to my mommy right now.


    ¡°OK, Mr. Hades, we can start now. What am I learning today? I love learning new things.¡± My smile was met with one from Mr. Hades as well. His smile was bigger than mine, but he looked like he was a friend to me and not a bad guy. I hoped that he and I could be friendster on. I mean, he was the leader of the underworld right now. Well, one of them. And when I take over, I might need his help. Being friends would make that a lot easier for me.


    ¡°Well, Little Talia, we will be learning about what the underworld is and why it exists.¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t it the ce that the gone people go when they die. The bad ones at least. The good ones go to Heaven, right?¡± I tried to make sure that I had things right. I mean, I remembered everything, but I had never really discussed this with people before.


    ¡°Yes and no. The underworld is where all people go when they die. There are different levels of the underworld though. There are the in-between areas that lie between eternal happiness and the various punishments.¡± He was exining it to me in a voice that clearly said he was talking to a kid. It was a voice I heard from people a lot. I mean, I am a kid so I know why they did it, but I didn¡¯t like that voice most of the time.


    ¡°Why are the people being punished?¡± I thought I knew this answer already, but I would ask everything anyway. It was better to ask and know then not ask and be wrong.


    ¡°Well, Little Talia, they are being punished because they did bad things. They might have taken something that wasn¡¯t theirs or they might have hurt someone really bad. Those people are not good people. And when they aren¡¯t good people, they need to be punished. But there are different levels of punishment.¡±


    ¡°So not everyone is punished. That¡¯s good. I don¡¯t want people to be punished when they shouldn¡¯t. Good people and the mostly good people need to be happy in the underwear world. The gone people died and that means that they need to be helped as much as we can.¡± I was doing my best to make sure that Mr. Hades understood my feelings.


    ¡°Well, the mostly-good and good people get rewarded. Those that are not all bad go to punishment but can be moved to the good ces after they have served their time.¡± Mr. Hades¡¯ words did not make much sense to me.


    ¡°What does it mean to be not all bad? Would lying be enough to get me into the bad ce? Or would Donnie at school be sent to the bad ce because he pushed me down when he was really sad and crying? He is a good boy and didn¡¯t want to hurt me, he just wanted to be alone, and I was bothering him. Would he go to the bad ce?¡± I was scared now. Would Donnie and I be in trouble when we became gone people?


    ¡°Hmm. That is hard to say, Little Talia. I guess it would depend on how badly someone was hurt by the actions and what you didter in life.¡± That scared me even more.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that one bad thing should send someone to the bad ce. That is not nice.¡±


    ¡°That can be something that we work on when you take over, Little Talia. You can change the rules when you are the only Goddess of the Underworld.¡±


    Just as Mr. Hades said that someone came running into my room. It wasn¡¯t my mommy since she couldn¡¯t walk right now. Instead, it was Uncle Vincent and Uncle Dietrich. They both looked like they were scared and were looking right at me and Mr. Hades. Mr. Hades was still standing in front of me as I stood next to the ce the door had been.


    ¡°Talia!¡± Uncle Vincent called out to me. ¡°Are you OK?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Of course. Mr. Hades is just teaching me about the underworld.¡±


    ¡°Is there a problem?¡± Mr. Hades stood to look at them with a smile on face. Only it didn¡¯t look like a nice smile.


    ¡°Charlie and Chloe told us that there was an intruder in your room.¡± Uncle Dietrich red at them. ¡°The others are on their way, I will cancel the panic now.¡±


    ¡°He isn¡¯t an intruder. I let him in. He is one of my teachers since I am going to be the next Goddess for them.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Talia, we know. Your mommy told everyonest night. You have two new guards being trained for you and we now know to expect these lessons. Mr. Hades, Sir, would it be alright for us to ask that you or anyone else thates to train Talia send word in advance. That way it does not cause a panic among the rest of the staff here.¡± Uncle Vincent was always on top of things. He was so cool.


    ¡°But of course. It was we who asked that Little Talia take over for us when she gets older. I think it would be only fair of us to amodate her and those around her.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Mr. Hades. If you don¡¯t mind, I will be sending Charlie and Chloe on their way so that Dietrich and I can sit in their ce.¡± Uncle Vincent was walking over to where my friends were. I could tell that they were at all not happy, but they couldn¡¯t say no to Uncle Vincent. He was the most important soldier in the castle. ¡°You two are dismissed for now. Please go for training.¡±


    ¡°But-.¡± Charlie tried to say something, but Uncle Dietrich stopped him.


    ¡°No buts. Do as you were told.¡± This was all very odd.


    After they switched ces, Uncle Vincent and Uncle Dietrich sat to watch the lesson. It was calm after that had happened and I was able to learn some more. Today, Mr. Hades had told me in a very kid friendly way how the underworld was created and why. It wasn¡¯t just for bad people, as he said. It was so that the souls of the gone people had a ce to go. Without the underworld, they would be left all over the world. That was why there used to be ghosts long, long ago. Now, there were so few ghosts in the world that most of the stories were fake. And the gone people that bothered me and the others were mostly in the in-between ces. Some were ghosts though. I guess that I will be one of the few people that can always know if there really are ghosts near me. Isn¡¯t that fun?


    Mr. Hades came back from time to time after that. He wasn¡¯t the only one either. I also got lessons from the goddess Hel, the god Erlik and the god Lucifer. They were all very nice to me when they came to visit. Uncle Vincent, Uncle Dietrich, Uncle Shawn, Uncle Shane and Uncle David usually sat with me during my lessons. Sometimes Charlie and Chloe were able to sit with me. The more that they came to teach me the easier it was for them. I was happy that they were not scared anymore. I would like to take them with me when I went to the underworldter. I don¡¯t know when that would be, but I knew that I would be living there eventually. I just hoped that I could still see my mommy and daddy when I was there. I would be really sad if I couldn¡¯t see my family anymore at all. I don¡¯t think that I could live like that.


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 Chapter 810

    Chapter 810: EPILOGUE 6 (VOLUME 4)


    May ¨C Meeting My Mate


    I had been so lucky when I was chosen to be part of Queen Trinity¡¯s delivery team. I may have been one of the only choices because I was the only wolf that was a nurse anesthetist in the hospital as well as being one of only two non-human anesthetists in the hospital. It was literally a fifty fifty chance that I was going to be chosen to be there when the babies were born.


    It had been an exciting and busy night. There were four babies instead of three. Queen Trinity and King Reece showed how much they loved each other and how devoted they were to each other. I couldn¡¯t help but be jealous and really want something like that for myself. And I admit that I didn¡¯t really believe Queen Trinity when she said that I would find my mate eventually. I had been looking for a long time and I still had never found him. I had lived in three different states, worked at different hospitals and was as active in my wolfmunities as I could be. And I had never found him yet. I was beginning to think that I didn¡¯t have a mate.


    After the babies were born and settled into the nursery for the night, I went to sleep in the on-call room. I wasn¡¯t going to be leaving the hospital until sometime near midnight on the first. That meant that it would be about to be the second. It was going to be a long two days for me, but I wasn¡¯t upset about it. I was one of the first people to see the three new princes and the surprise little princess be born. There was no higher honor than that. To be one of the first people to see the birth of such special little babies. I was just happy to be here even if it was a really long day.


    The day was moving on and I was doing work more along the lines of a pediatric nurse rather than an anesthetist. I was going with the babies to see the doctors. They needed tests done and various procedures to make sure that they were healthy. Given that they were born from multiple birth with such a high count, they had to follow hospital procedure. I knew this was hard on Queen Trinity and King Reece, they just wanted to see their babies, but it was allowing them to recover a little before having to care for the babies so much.


    When I was helping the other nurses take the three boys, Zachary, Zander and Zayden, back to the room, I didn¡¯t think that anything out of the ordinary would happen. I didn¡¯t expect to walk into that room and suddenly start smelling the best scent I had evere across in my entire life.


    I also didn¡¯t expect that the wolf buried deep inside of me would be standing at attention and telling me that the man that I had been looking for was in this very room. It hadn¡¯t even been an entire day since Queen Trinity had told me that I was going to find my mate. It waspletely unexpected and so quick. The only problem was that there were a lot of men that hade to see Queen Trinity. Which one of them was my mate then? Who was it that I was looking for? I was at a loss here, and I had to keep my cool because there were people among us that might not know what was going on. Specifically, the human nurses that hade with me.


    .....


    I was so happy when Queen Trinity asked the others to leave and told me to stay. She had figured out what was happening right away. And thanks to her, I was able to meet Rudy. His name was Rudoplhus Desmodius and he was a demon. That didn¡¯t matter to me though. He was the most handsome man I had ever seen. He even made me forget about King Reece and that was a feat. Then again, that could have just been the magic of true love and fate at work here.


    After we got to meet and talk a little bit at the hospital, we both had to get back to work. He was training to be a guard for the royal family and hade back to this world with Queen Trinity after she had ventured into the underworld to save and protect us all. She was such an amazing queen.


    The day after I met Rudy I didn¡¯t have to work. I was happy about that. And since he was just training and not actually working, he was given some time off. Then again, I had a feeling that the royal family was very lenient with their staff. Queen Trinity seemed to be an amazing person.


    Rudy, only having been in this world for a couple of months, didn¡¯t know how to drive, that meant that I needed to pick him up for our date. I was usually so shy and reserved when I met new people like this, and I never was the one to take the initiative this way. I was so old school that it had really made me not have very many rtionships at all. I think it was that he was my mate that I was even doing this at all.


    I didn¡¯t want to go inside the castle when I got there to pick him up. I didn¡¯t usually go in there and it made me nervous when I did. Even though I was working directly with the king and queen at the hospital, being in their home just seemed different somehow.


    Rudy came out of the house to get into my car after the guard at the door told him I was there. I was trying not to shake as I waited for him, hoping that it wasn¡¯t all some dream or something that I had made up. It would be just like me to have made up this whole thing in a sleep deprived state of exhausted daydreaming.


    It wasn¡¯t until Rudy came out of the extremelyrge building that I started to feel relieved. Well, this proved that he was real at least. Let¡¯s just hope that it continues going well and that he actually knows who I am as well.


    Was I a total creep or a perv because I watched him intently as he walked down the stairs and came toward me? Was that a bad thing? Was I like totally wrong here? I mean, I was ogling him. I was turning him into some sort of love god inside of my mind, and I didn¡¯t even know if he would want to be with me that way.


    I was getting way ahead of myself here. We just met yesterday. I hadn¡¯t even held his hand yet. I hadn¡¯t hugged him. I hadn¡¯t kissed him. We hadn¡¯t done anything at all yet. And here I was imagining him naked and doing things to me that I had never thought about before in my life. I mean, I have never done them with anyone else. They were all just stupid fantasies that came out of nowhere. I didn¡¯t even know that they were my fantasies until this moment either.


    Oh Goddess, I think that my inexperience is going to be a major issue here. I was always just a good girl, so I didn¡¯t really do stuff like this all that much. And because of that, I had only even been with one man in the past. And that had been when I was in college six years ago. I was almost thirty now and I was practically a virgin. What was this man going to say about that when he found out?


    I needed to calm down. If I didn¡¯t, I was likely to hyperventte and pass out while sitting here in my car. That would just be great, May. Let¡¯s let that happen to us right now so we can make the man that we want as our mate run for the hills. That would just be perfect.


    Hahh! I had to stop with the sarcasm and self loathing at the moment. I needed to woman up and deal with this right now, because Rudy was literally about to get into my car. And that meant that if I hadn¡¯t imagined it all, I would be going on a date with my mate for the very first time.


    The door opened and Rudy slid into the passenger seat. I was once again struck by his scent and felt that immediate connection and jolt of surprise all over again. It was so intoxicating that it made me want to keep sniffing the air like I was a dog. Well, I was a wolf but that was besides the point.


    ¡°U..uh..uhm, H..h..hi.¡± I stuttered my way through the most awkward greeting of my life. And the smile I was wearing probably made me look like a lunatic! GAH! I was so bad at all of this.


    I could just imagine it now. Rudy was going to get scared off by my stupid face. He was going to get out of the car and run away. He would probably even go back to the underworld so that he never had to see me again. And then I was going to be left all alone forever. That would just be my luck.


    ¡°Hello May. I am so happy to see you.¡±


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 Chapter 811

    Chapter 811: EPILOGUE 7 (VOLUME 4)


    Rudy ¨C My Date With May


    I was notified by Wayne, the guard at the front of the castle, that May was here to get me. We had arranged that she would pick me up since I didn¡¯t have a car and I didn¡¯t know how to drive. This was the best option for us in the long run. And I didn¡¯t really see a problem with it. I just wanted to spend some time with her.


    When I walked out through the door and toward her car, I saw that May was watching me. I liked that. I had never had someone look at me like May was. She was looking at me like the fact that I was a demon didn¡¯t matter. She was looking at me like she wanted me. And that was a very good thing in my mind. It would mean that I would be free to want her as well.


    Ever since I hade to the mortal realm, I had started having these urges and feelings. I didn¡¯t understand them at first, and it scared me quite a bit, but I talked to Alexio and Vincent about them. I trusted Vincent the most out of the men that worked for Queen Trinity, and I knew that he wouldn¡¯t judge me for what I was telling him.


    ording to Vincent, I was just experiencing lust and sexual urges. It was apparently normal for men to feel this way and it in no way made me out to be a bad person. I, having been a demon that lived their entire life in the underworld, had never been intimate with someone before. Though now that I was here and surrounded by people, I wanted to be with someone. Seeing couples in real life and on the TV, it all made me want what they had. I wanted to be like the rest of the people here. I wanted to have a lover. I wanted to be intimate. I wanted to kiss and hug someone. I wanted it all.


    And of course, Shane hade to mest night after finding out about me mating with May. He brought with him a stack of movies that he told me I needed to watch. I didn¡¯t know what they were going to be since none of them had titles on them, but I was more than shocked by them. They were images of naked men and women. And they were doing things that made me feel very excited. I..I knew that they were having sex. I had been told about it, but I hadn¡¯t known what it was until then. Now though, I knew a little bit about what I was supposed to be expecting.


    I tried not to think about the people having sex in the movies as I slid into the car with May. I didn¡¯t want her to think that I was a weirdo or a freak, or anything else like that. She was smiling at me so beautifully and all I could think about was what might be hiding under her clothes. I guess I really was a demon. I was so stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.


    .....


    ¡°U..uh..uhm, H..h..hi.¡± She sounded nervous, probably because of me. I did my best to smile at her in aforting and nonthreatening way, I hope I seeded.


    ¡°Hello, May. I am so happy to see you.¡±


    ¡°Oh wow.¡± She exhaled heavily as if she were shocked by something. ¡°Uhm, should we go to dinner now?¡±


    ¡°Yes, of course.¡±


    I sat in the passenger seat of the car as May drove us into town and to the restaurant. I had never been to this ce, but it was apparently one of her favorites. That was fine with me. I would eat anything at all, and I wanted to know more about what she liked. Too bad I was too preupied to pay attention to where we were. I was watching her and only her the entire time that we drove here.


    I walked around to her side of the car and opened her door before she could. I knew how to be a gentleman. That had been taught to me by Shawn, Dietrich, David and Vincent. I was told that Shane could be a perfect gentleman when his wife was around, but other than that he was a crude jokester that no one but Trinity or Falena could handle. At least I had other examples to help me out here.


    I took May¡¯s hand, the first time that I had ever really done so, and guided her out of the car. I walked her into the restaurant while a man that was called a valet parked her car for us. A man inside showed us to our table, but I wasn¡¯t paying attention to him at all. I was watching May and nothing else. I think I might have been making her feel embarrassed though, because her face was blushing bright red.


    ¡°I really hope that you like this restaurant.¡± May called out to me after I took my seat. I had pulled her chair from the table to help her sit before I sat down myself. I was trying to be the perfect date for her.


    ¡°I am sure that I will. If it is your favorite, then it must be good.¡± I was still smiling at her. Honestly, as long as I didn¡¯t do anything to mess up, I would probably keep smiling until I got back to my room tonight. I was just that happy and excited to be here with her.


    ¡°What kinds of food do you like?¡± She asked me as she handed me one of the two menus that the waiter had left on our table.


    ¡°I will eat anything at all. I have not been here in this world for long, so I have not learned about food aversions or anything like that. To me, all the food in this world is amazing.


    ¡°Well, then you must be easy to please.¡± She giggled then, and oh it was such an amazing sound. I was so happy to hear it. It was an adorable sound, so sweet and lovely. And it meant that she was having a good time with me. This date was going well.


    We continued to talk all through dinner. I ordered something that sounded decent to me and told me it was a good meal that I would like it. While we ate that meal, we talked about her family and how she had grown up. She was still close to her mother and father who lived here in the city. She had a sister and a brother that were both younger than her. She was a very family oriented person and she was so loving and sweet.


    She asked me a lot about myself as well, but there wasn¡¯t that much for me to tell her. My whole life had been doing the same things. I was a guard in the underworld until Queen Trinity freed me from that life. She brought me here and that was when my life truly began. It was all that I had known, and now I was learning everything from the beginning.


    I feel like I had said too much to her. That I might have been a little too depressing, but May didn¡¯t seem to mind. She stayed upbeat and was just asking more questions. Things were, thankfully, still going well.


    After we thoroughly enjoyed our meal, May and I went out to see a movie. It was the first time that I was seeing one in arge ce like this, but I was willing to try it. As long as it wasn¡¯t one of those movies that Shane had shown mest night then I would be fine.


    May ordered us some drinks and some popcorn. I had heard about this popcorn before, but I had not eaten it yet. It smelled good though, and I loved it when I popped a piece into my mouth.


    After getting the snacks and drinks, we walked into a darkened room and took our seats. We were just sitting there, watching the screen during the movie, but I loved it. I even took May¡¯s hand once again and held onto it during the movie. It was wonderful.


    The movie was, thankfully, not one where people had sex. It was funny though, and it ended with two people that fell in love. I hoped that would be how May and I were. Those people looked happy and seemed like they were going to have a wonderful future together. I couldn¡¯t help but hope for this to be the case for us.


    Following the movie, May drove us to get some ice cream from a ce that was on the way back to the castle. It was there, as we were sitting in the car eating the frozen treats in the cold, that I leaned over without really thinking about it and kissed her on the lips.


    I had never hugged her. I had not kissed her on the hand or the cheek or anything like that before. I had jumped straight to taking the liberty of kissing her on the lips. And after that quick little kiss was over, I pulled back in fear. Had I just gone too far?


    ¡°I..I am sorry.¡± I covered my lips with my hand instantly and blushed. ¡°I..I don¡¯t know why I did that.¡±


    ¡°W..well, I..I¡¯m d that you did.¡± She was blushing too, but she wasn¡¯t upset at all. ¡°I..in fact, you can k..k..kiss me again if you want.¡± I couldn¡¯t believe my ears. This was amazing. And I did as she said, kissing her once more.


    The night ended soon after that. She drove me back to the castle and I kissed her again in the car before I got out. It was quite the night, and I was more than happy that I had gone on this date with my new mate.


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 Chapter 812

    Chapter 812: EPILOGUE 8 (VOLUME 4)


    Reece ¨C Two Months Later


    The babies are two and a half months old now. Man, time flies. They are already getting so big too. I remember that they were all only about three to four pounds when they were born. And now the boys, the little piggies that they were, already weighed a little over ten pounds. They were still a little smaller than the average babies their age, but they were catching up fast. Zaley, the sweet little angel that she was, weights just shy of ten pounds, that was proof that she was growing up to be big and strong too. Before long, they were going to be massive giants, just like the others were. Well, Zachary, Zander and Zayden would be if they were anything like Reagan. Zaley might take after Rika and Talia and be a little on the smaller side. They got that from their mommy.


    I loved seeing how their little personalities wereing through. Zachary was definitely the dominant one out of the three. He always wanted to have the attention focused on him. Also, whenever Zander, Zayden or Zaley cried, Zachary always turned his head. I just know that if he could, he would get up and go over to them. He was going to be a protector and defender type of person, just like his daddy is.


    Zander was super chill andid back. He didn¡¯t cry very much, but he would get jealous when his mommy paid too much attention to the others. I guess he was sort of in the middle when it came to his personality. He was definitely going to try and copy Zachary when he got older, that was just the feeling that I got from him.


    Out of the three boys, Zayden was the most clingy to his mommy. He loved to snuggle his daddy as well, but he preferred his mommy. He didn¡¯t cry a lot. Hardly ever really. But he was always happiest when he was in his mommy¡¯s arms.


    Zaley cried the least. Only when she was really hungry or wanted to be changed really fast. And even then, she made more sounds of displeasure rather than crying. She was the quietest of the four of them. She was mostly just watching everything that was going on around her whenever she was awake. She would be the least fussy during tummy time, and as a result she was the one that was progressing the quickest. She was already starting to roll over and that was not normal for babies that were just a little over two months old.


    All in all, I would say that it has been quite a blessing having them with us. Reagan and Rika have seemed to mature a lot. They wanted so desperately to help take care of the babies that they were always doing their best to prove they were capable. I don¡¯t know what had gotten into them, but it was nice to see, all things considered.


    .....


    Talia was as sweet as ever, even with the weekly lessons she was getting from the different gods of the underworld. I still didn¡¯t like the idea that my sweet little four year old daughter was chosen to be their recement. Did they give any thought to it at all? Did they think about her and her feelings at all? She is only a little girl, for crying out loud!


    Yeah, well, she is able to hear andmunicate with dead people. So what, big deal. She wasn¡¯t the only one that could do that. Find someone else.


    OK, she was crazy powerful and the daughter of a goddess. Does that automatically make her the best choice for the position? Isn¡¯t there anyone else that could do it?


    Yeah, there was, her mom. And I didn¡¯t want her to do it either. Because I knew that if it wasn¡¯t Talia doing this job, it would be Trinity. She would take it upon herself to do it like she does everything else.


    So, my only options here were to let my daughter go and be the goddess of the underworldter in life or to let my wife be the goddess of the underworld now. I didn¡¯t like either option. And that was why I was pretty much just ignoring the whole situation and pretending that it didn¡¯t exist.


    Oh, and on the off chance that Talia was really going to be going to the underworld, I had Rudy and Alexio training to be Talia¡¯s guards. They were going to be with her from now until the end of her reign as the goddess of the underworld.


    While doing my best not to think about all of this stuff, I was trying to prepare a little bit of an anniversary surprise for my Little Bunny. This was our ninth wedding anniversary. We have been together for so long now, but at times it doesn¡¯t feel like it¡¯s been that long at all.


    I often catch myself thinking something along the lines of ¡®oh it¡¯s only been like two or three years since we met¡¯. Then after I think that, I realize that Reagan and Rika are eight years old now. And we were together for a year before they were born. That is just insanely hard for me to process at times.


    For our anniversary date this year, I wanted to recreate our first date, but with a better ending result this time. I was going to take her to Gina¡¯s boutique, but it was now located in Trinity Falls rather than in Colorado Springs. And it was doing so much more business than it used to. They were able to expand and hire more staff.


    I had called ahead to Gina¡¯s and told them that we were going to being up there. They knew Trinity¡¯s size already and had an array of dresses that had been made just for her. Apparently, they always made something for Trinity no matter what. That way they could give it to her when she needed it. I, of course, paid for all of the dresses they made for her and was going to have them delivered while we were gone. She could use them at her leisure, and whenever the situation called for it. We are immortal after all, so we will definitely have a lot of time for her to wear them.


    I also called up to Kaleidoscope. That was the restaurant I took her to for our first date. It hadn¡¯t moved locations or anything, so it would be super nice to see how it looked now and how the menu might have changed.


    And on our first date, Trinity and I were still not on good terms. So, that means when I kissed her that night, things didn¡¯t go very well at all. This time though, I was apletely devoted husband that was head over heels in love with his wife. I knew that when I kissed her good night this time, there wouldn¡¯t be any issues at all.


    Well, I hoped that there wouldn¡¯t be. She did have the babies just a couple of months ago and that meant that she would likely be denying me even that. That was why, instead of expecting anything at all, I got us a hotel suite that came with a massage package. They would bring dessert to the room and then they would give my tired, exhausted, sexy little bunny a full body massage that would melt away all of her tension and stress. She wouldn¡¯t be able to resist it and I would end up getting lots of snuggle time after that.


    I figured we could end the night with a soak in the hot tub that our room came with and maybe some movies. The main thing was that we were going to be alone and rxed. Just me, my Little Bunny, and the peace and quiet of our room.


    The kids would be looked after just fine. That wouldn¡¯t be an issue at all. My mom and Eve were going to be watching them all. And probably Wesley and Samuel, still can¡¯t bring myself to call him Dad, would be there too. They would be ¡®helping¡¯ thedies to take care of the babies since both Mom and Eve were pregnant, but we all know what was going to happen there. In truth, Mom was due with my new baby sister next month.


    The fact that these twodies were pregnant was why I also made sure that there was other help around. May was going to be at the castle with Rudy and she would be helping out as well. Also, Rawlynne and David would be there since she needed to brush up on her baby skills. She and David were expecting again, and it had been a while since they had had a little baby in their house. So, I guess my ce was where people went to brush up on their baby handling skills.


    I couldn¡¯t me them though. I mean, I have four newborn babies at home. That was way more than most people could say that they have at once. It wasn¡¯t impossible, not by a long shot, but it was still notmon at all.


    Well, now that I had all these things nned, I guess I just needed to let my Little Bunny know that we were going to be going out for our anniversary. That there would most likely be the hardest part of the entire process. She probably wouldn¡¯t want to leave the kids, but she would see reason ande with me willingly. Even if that reason was my glorious backside as I threw her over my shoulder and carried her out to the car. She was going with me one way or another and whether she likes it or not.


    Yes, she might be mad at first. But I promise that she will thank me for it allter. Maybe.


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 Chapter 813

    Chapter 813: EPILOGUE 9 (VOLUME 4)


    Reece ¨C Anniversary Date


    When the night of our anniversary came around, I went up to our room and found my Little Bunnyying on the floor with the babies.


    ¡°Zaley, such a big girl already. Look at you.¡± The babies were having their tummy time with their mommy. I just wanted to say ¡®aww¡¯ when I saw them there like that. I didn¡¯t though, because I had work to do. I needed to pry her away from the kids and drag her out of the house. And thankfully, my reinforcements were already here. And by that, I mean they were following me into the room.


    ¡°Trinity.¡± I called out to get her attention.


    ¡°Hello, Reece.¡± She already knew that I was here. She knew it the moment that I started to approach the door.


    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go.¡± I wanted to get right to the point. Quick and simple.


    ¡°Go where?¡± She finally turned to look at me with curious eyes.


    .....


    ¡°Don¡¯t act like you don¡¯t know what today is, Trinity.¡± Mom called out to her. ¡°Don¡¯t leave the boy hanging. Get up and get going.¡±


    ¡°I know what the date is, and I know what today is. I told Reece happy anniversary, and I gave him his gift. So where am I supposed to be going.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re not going to do this again, Trinity.¡± Eve put on her stern voice, the one that I was told was used most often with Carter than anyone else.


    ¡°What is it I am doing? I¡¯m justying here with the babies for their tummy.¡±


    ¡°Your mother and I can do that, Trinity. You¡¯re going out with Reece.¡± This was partially reminiscent of our first date too. No, our parents weren¡¯t there, but she didn¡¯t know about my ns before I picked her up from those exams that day. That date had been on a Saturday and today was a Sunday, so they were both weekends too. I am trying to match it as best as I can.


    ¡°Oh, so is this another one of those dates where Reece kidnaps me and makes me see that I am entirely too obsessed with my children and now he is feeling neglected because he is my first child, so now he is being all childish and throwing a tantrum?¡± I can¡¯t believe that they allughed at Trinity¡¯s quip. Those fiends. I was not acting anything like that. I was not throwing a tantrum or being childish at all. I was just being smart and had my backup with me from the start.


    ¡°Ha ha ha, no sweetheart, that is not it at all.¡± Mom couldn¡¯t even stopughing as she started to answer my Little Bunny. ¡°Reece wants to take you out for your anniversary. The babies are old enough to be left with their grandparents for a night, and you two deserve some alone time.¡± Was that a smile I saw on my Little Bunny¡¯s face? Yes! This is progress.


    ¡°Fine. Just let me get them into their beds and I will get ready.¡± She started to get up as she was answering us, but I had a response ready for her.


    ¡°No need. They can get the babies, Also, you don¡¯t need to get ready, juste with me.¡± I held my hand out for her and watched as she just stared at me.


    ¡°I need to change Reece. I look like a mess.¡±


    ¡°You look fine. Also, it doesn¡¯t matter since you don¡¯t know where we are going. You can¡¯t n an outfit for it. So, juste with me and I will take care of everything.¡± Obviously, she was taking in my outfit and thinking that I was an idiot. I was dressed in a nice designer pair of ck dress pants, a dark green button up shirt (also designer), and four thousand dor Italian shoes. I was dressed for going out. While my Little Bunny, in her yoga pants and baggy shirt looked like she was dressed for the couch. That was fine though, she could wear that to dinner for all I cared. It was just clothes.


    ¡°I am going to change.¡± She turned away from me and started to head for the closet.


    ¡°Nope.¡± I wasn¡¯t going to allow it though. I walked over to her, picked her up, and threw her over my shoulder. Huh, look at that, I did have to kidnap her after all.


    ¡°Reece, you dog, put me down.¡± She thumped her hands on my back as she yelled at me.


    ¡°Nope, not a chance. I am taking you as you are. So just stop struggling, or I will have to get creative.¡± As I walked out of the room with her over my shoulder, I heard all of my reinforcementsughing at us. I didn¡¯t care though. I was the one that got the girl and was taking her to dinner with me. They will see uste tomorrow morning.


    Well, my Little Bunny didn¡¯t stop her protesting until I got us down to the garage. I was just d that the elevator in our tower went all the way down there so that I didn¡¯t have to take her through the castle. That was a new thing though, it never used to be like that. It was an addition that I had asked for a couple of months back. And it was proving to be invaluable.


    ¡°Fido, you¡¯re a savage.¡± She wasughing as she said this, so I knew that she was having fun regardless of what she said.


    ¡°Me, Reece, take woman on date. Me, Reece, savage caveman. Me, Reece, no know better. Me, Reece, loves woman.¡± I spoke like a stereotypical caveman from the movies and made herugh as I shut her door.


    ¡°Oh help! I am being taken away by a barbarian. Help.¡± Her words were soft and nowhere near the level of a scream.


    ¡°Scream all you want, no one will ever hear you. Muahahaha.¡± Now I was pretending to be a viin. Anything that I needed to do so that my Little Bunny would keepughing and seeing this as a positive rather than as a pain.


    ¡°Seriously now, Reece, why did you do this? Why didn¡¯t you just tell me you wanted to go out tonight?¡± She was giving me apletely serious look. I knew she wasn¡¯t listening that day.


    ¡°I did. When I nned this evening, I told you and you said sure. But I knew that you weren¡¯t listening to me all that much. So, when it came the time to leave, I made sure that all of my bases were covered. And in truth, I totally knew that I was going to have to carry you over my shoulder to get you out of there.¡± Iughed at how right I was. It was kind of funny actually. I mean, to have nailed this as well as I did was kind of amazing. Then again, this was Trinity we were talking about, and that meant that it was pretty much a done deal from the beginning that I needed to kidnap her to get her out of the house.


    ¡°I am sorry, Reece. I didn¡¯t mean to ignore you. I was probably preupied or tired. If I would have remembered that you wanted to go out tonight, I would have made sure that I was ready to go. Now though, I am a mess and there you are looking like sex walking.¡±


    ¡°Well, I am not walking right now. I¡¯m driving.¡± I started with a smartassment. ¡°But I appreciate thepliment.¡± Now I winked at her and she just shook her head.


    ¡°My point is that we will bepletely mismatched while we are out for our date.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Little Bunny. I have everything taken care of. And, even if that were true, which it isn¡¯t, I wouldn¡¯t care. I don¡¯t care what you wear or what you dress like. I love you for you. I can wear the most expensive suit in the world, and you can wear your lounge clothes and I would still want to be seen with you. You are my wife. You are beautiful. And nothing else matters to me.¡±


    For a moment, my Little Bunny was speechless while I drove. She just sat there staring at me. I could even feel her eyes on me as I made our way down the long and winding driveway. I didn¡¯t say anything though. She was obviously thinking about something quite intensely.


    After a moment I heard her take a deep breath and then let it out with a big sigh. Come on, Little Bunny, this is a date. Don¡¯t look so down. Or well, don¡¯t sound so down.


    ¡°How did I ever get lucky enough to have you?¡± She was sounding so sweet right now that I had to look at her. She was giving me a look that told me how much she loved me, and it stirred things inside of me.


    ¡°Well, let¡¯s see. First, I fell on top of you at a party. And then, when I found you againter, I literally threw you over my shoulder and kidnapped you so that I could take you back to my ce.¡±


    ¡°Huh. You¡¯re right. So, you¡¯ve been kidnapping me since the day that we met. And I actually fell in love with you. Damn! Juniper was right all those years ago. I have Stockholm syndrome.¡± Sheughed then and so did I.


    ¡°Hey, what does it say about me that I fell in love with a woman who keeps calling me dog names? I think we¡¯re both a little messed up here. But we¡¯re meant to be so that is all that matters.¡±


    Well, at least the date was starting out good. Thankfully.


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 Chapter 814

    Chapter 814: EPILOGUE 10 (VOLUME 4)


    Reece ¨C Anniversary Date Part 2


    It didn¡¯t take too long for us to reach Gina¡¯s shop in Trinity Falls. It was closer to thepound than Colorado Springs was. We had also created another exit out of thepound so that it would be easier to move between the castle and the city that we had created.


    ¡°Oh, so we¡¯re going to Gina¡¯s?¡± She asked when the building came into sight.


    ¡°That¡¯s right. That is why it didn¡¯t matter that you weren¡¯t dressed. I wanted to have you pick out a dress that you want for tonight. So,e on, let¡¯s go.¡±


    I parked the car and walked around the side of the car so that I could open her door and help her out. I then took her hand and guided her into the building as if she were the queen and I was merely her escort. Hey, wait a minute, that was the way that it was. I may be the king, but without her I was nothing but an Alpha. She was the one that gave me all that I have today and so much more.


    When we went into the shop it was just like on our first date. Not the shop, but the feeling. They had closed the store so that we would be the only ones in there. Today, they were open on their day off just for me and my Little Bunny. They truly were good friends and loyal to their queen.


    ¡°Wee, Trinity. We are so happy to see you. And let me just say a very happy anniversary to you and Reece.¡± Gina was standing there, waiting to greet us. She was younger than she used to be. Well, younger looking. She, like so many others, had reversed-aging when we became immortal. For her it was more like she got some stic surgery to enhance what was already there. Just reversing the effects of aging on her face. She was still pretty either way.


    .....


    ¡°Thank you, Gina. And thank you for opening for us on your day off. I am guessing that my mutt of a man here talked you into it.¡± That was when my Little Bunny jabbed her thumb over her shoulder and pointed at me. I never should have let go of her arm when we came inside. Then she wouldn¡¯t have been able to do that.


    ¡°No, Trinity, we offered to open up when he called us. He had forgotten that we were closed on Sundays, but I wouldn¡¯t pass this up for anything.¡± E, still so sweet and innocent, hadn¡¯t changed at all in nine years.


    ¡°Well, thank you, E.¡± My Little Bunny really did have the best smiles for her friends. Always so full of love for them.


    ¡°Come on now, Trinity. Let us pick out a dress and get you ready for your date.¡± Just like she did on that first date of ours, Gina took Trinity to the back of the shop to get her ready. I knew that back there they would pick a dress and then do her hair and makeup. They would be quick and efficient with it too, since they have been doing it for years now.


    And just like back then, I started to walk around the store and look at different things. I knew that they partnered with different jewelry stores so that they could sell their wares here. There were a lot of beautiful pieces on disy and I was looking for something that would fit my Little Bunny perfectly.


    I eventually found a ne and earring set that I knew she would love. The ne was a diamond Chevron Eternity Ne with ten carats worth of diamonds. It was stunning, but not as stunning as my Little Bunny would be. It came with a pair of Floating Diamond Eternity Hoop earrings that were five carats each. I also picked out a Luxe Diamond Bracelet that had a total of twenty three and seven eighths carats worth of diamonds. Yeah, Trinity would probably say that I was going overboard with it all, but I didn¡¯t care. It was all for her and that¡¯s what I cared about.


    After I set my choices on the counter so that I could pay for themter, I started to look for a new handbag and shoes for my Little Bunny as well. She needed the whole package here. And I wasn¡¯t afraid to admit that I could shoe shop for my wife and do a damn good job.


    I was going to go with the safest choice of color. They were ck. That would make it so that they went with whatever dress she chose for the night. They were stiletto heels, but not overly tall. She would befortable in them as long as we didn¡¯t walk too much. That was fine with me too, since I didn¡¯t n on having her walk more than she had to. I would carry her if I needed to.


    Finally, I could hear my Little Bunny and the othersing to the front of the store. I was going to see what dress my beautiful wife chose for the night. Oh, this was exciting. I remember how I felt that night all those years ago. When I was standing out in front of Gina¡¯s old shop while I waited for my Little Bunny toe out to me. It was nerve wracking, but somehow, I was so happy at the same time. And reliving it all now was like a dream for me.


    Oh wow! She was so gorgeous. It was beyond words for me to describe how perfect she looked. The dress was ck with silver ents around the halter style neckline. It was long and went all the way to the floor, but there was a slit that ran up the front so that it showed her sexy legs up to her lower thigh area. The contrast of that milky white skin of hers next to the ck of the dress, it was amazing. And the skirt of the dress wasn¡¯t just a singleyer. It was fuller than that, filled out but very expensive looking tulle-like fabric. I don¡¯t know what it was, but it helped to entuate everything and make my Little Bunny look like she was sex walking. And we definitely matched now. She wouldn¡¯t look out of ce next to me anymore.


    ¡°Trinity, you are the most beautiful woman in the world. Also, Gina, and you E, you two are without a doubt, the best dress makers that have ever lived. You have no idea how much I appreciate all that you two have done for us.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Reece.¡± Gina just smiled at me.


    ¡°You¡¯re not so bad yourself.¡± E joked with me.


    ¡°Come on, I need to pay for everything. Trinity, here is a pair of shoes that will go well with your dress.¡± I handed them to her and marveled at how they even had little silver ents on them at different spots. And all of the jewelry I picked out was white gold, so it would go perfectly with the dress too.


    After we paid for it all, I walked my beautiful wife out to the car and started to drive to the restaurant. She still didn¡¯t know what was going on at the moment. She didn¡¯t know where we were going. At least, not until we were almost there.


    ¡°Wait a minute Reece, are we going where I think we¡¯re going?¡± There was a note of excitement filling her voice.


    ¡°Well, where do you think we are going?¡± I joked back to her.


    ¡°You are recreating our first date, aren¡¯t you? We are going to Kaleidoscope, aren¡¯t we?¡± She was getting excited now. ¡°I know we are. That¡¯s what¡¯s over here. I can¡¯t believe that you are recreating that night for us. Reece. This makes me so happy. You are so thoughtful. I didn¡¯t realize it while we were at Gina¡¯s shop but now that we are going here, I ampletely sure that is what is going on.¡±


    ¡°And you would bepletely correct. That night, all those years ago, didn¡¯t end the way that I wanted it to. Back then, we weren¡¯t close enough to be intimate. Now though, I know that we won¡¯t be intimate tonight. Instead, I have other things nned for us after dinner. So don¡¯t worry about that, OK?¡±


    ¡°Reece, I can¡¯t believe that you did this. You are so sweet. I love you.¡± She actually leaned over andid her head against my shoulder for a brief second. She was just showing her love for me, but it meant the world to me.


    Thankfully, we were seated without issue, in a very private part of the restaurant. We were able to sit down and enjoy ourselves before we ordered. When I offered her wine this time, she epted it without hesitation. Unlikest time when she joked about me corrupting her.


    Our meal was perfect, cooked to perfection and we were able to enjoy it in peace. Just the two of us having a lovely and romantic meal together with no kids around. We were also both consciously trying not to mention the kids at all. We were trying to keep this a strict couples¡¯ night. It wasn¡¯t going to devolve into a parent¡¯s guilt trip.


    As the night went on, I was more and more happy that I had decided to do this. Comparing this to that night nine years ago, seeing how we have changed and what has remained the same, was quite the experience.


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 Chapter 815

    Chapter 815: EPILOGUE 1


    Shawn ¨C Birthday For Four


    I can¡¯t believe that a year has passed already. Trinity¡¯s little babies, the four of them that we all thought were just going to be three, were now turning one. It was a little bit nostalgic for me. Trinity wasn¡¯t the only one that had quads around here.


    Yes, mine and Dietrich¡¯s quads were not the same since they were magically conceived and born to two different parents at the same time, they were still quads nheless. They were meant to be that way and that was all that there was to it.


    I was feeling sad though. Now that so much time had passed, my little babies weren¡¯t babies anymore. They were almost nine years old. They were going to be double digit aged before I knew it. And I wasn¡¯t ready for that. I wanted my little babies. I wanted to have the kids with me longer, but I couldn¡¯t stop time like that.


    Soon, they were going to grow up and leave me and Dietrich all alone. Yes, they would still be around. And I am sure that even when they were a hundred years old and their lives were their own for so long, they would stille and tell their daddies hi from time to time.


    I don¡¯t care how old my kids get, I will still want to see them. I will always have a hug for them or a ce for them to call home. And I am aware of how much like a ¡®mom¡¯ that makes me sound. I have heard it before from other men in the pack. I don¡¯t care though. My kids don¡¯t have a ¡®mom¡¯ but they have two awesome dads that will give them all the love that they will ever need or want.


    ¡°What are you doing over here, Geliebte.¡± Dietrich called out to me as I watched the party happening in front of me. I don¡¯t know why, but I was observing it more than anything.


    .....


    ¡°Just thinking.¡± I told him as he stood next to me and put his shoulder against mine.


    ¡°Thinking about the kids.¡± He always knew what I was thinking about. It wasn¡¯t because of his special powers, not really, it was just because he knew me too well.


    ¡°They¡¯re growing up too fast.¡± I could hear the mncholic tone in my voice. ¡°Not just ours, but all of them. I mean, it¡¯s been a year already. Look at them, Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley are all getting so big. They¡¯re walking already. Zaley and Zayden are starting to talk. Zachary and Zander aren¡¯t talking but they¡¯re doing so much other stuff already. They¡¯re just all growing too big too fast. Look at them all, Dietrich. Reagan and Rika, Talia, Alexandria and Alyssa, Luka and Levi, all of the other kids, time is passing and it¡¯s so sad. We may be immortal, but that doesn¡¯t stop the pain that we feel when time passes us by.¡±


    ¡°I know, my love, I know.¡± Dietrich was trying tofort me, and he was seeding. He was the only one that could usuallyfort me. Well, him and the kids were what calmed me. If I were to be upset and the kids came to give me a hug I would feel like the weight of the world was lifted from my shoulders. They were quite literally my life.


    ¡°I know what you mean, Shawn.¡± Dietrich spoke softly as we watched the people around us. All of the kids, not just the four little birthday babies, were having a good time. That was something that Reece and Trinity always did for their parties. They made sure that even if the party was for a one year old, all the kids that were invited would have fun. They also threw some of the biggest parties in the history of the world. Well, at least in the history that I knew it to be. ¡°I miss when the kids were little as well. They are getting older, which is sad, but that is also life.¡±


    ¡°Can we stop that flow of time? Just for a few decades?¡± I wasn¡¯t serious, but I joked about it just the same.


    ¡°No, we can¡¯t stop the flow of time, but we can have more children.¡± I jumped in shock and stepped away from Dietrich just then.


    ¡°You know that we can¡¯t, Dietrich. It was a one time thing. We can¡¯t have more.¡±


    ¡°I know, Shawn, I know. But we can adopt. We can use surrogates. There are options. I have offered them before, but it seems that you always forget about them.¡± He was chuckling now, like what he was saying was funny or something.


    ¡°W..well, I..I just didn¡¯t think that you would want to do that. You have offered, yeah, but a lot of people back out when they find out that they aren¡¯t going to have a kid of their own. Any child that we adopt won¡¯t be our blood, and I just don¡¯t know how you feel about it.¡± I was nervous. I thought about this. I had thought about it a lot. I just didn¡¯t know how seriously Dietrich had thought about it.


    ¡°Shawn, mein Liebe, I don¡¯t care whether or not a child is of my blood. What I care about is that you and I call them ours. We will love any child that we bring into our lives. And we will find a woman that we can trust eventually. And when we do, we will ask her to be the surrogate for our children. We have options, Geliebte. We can have more children. The only thing that is stopping us is you.¡±


    ¡°M..me?¡± I was at a loss here. I had wanted more kids for a long time now. I had wanted to expand the family and share the love for kids that I have. But I hadn¡¯t. I didn¡¯t know how Dietrich or the kids would react to it at all.


    ¡°Yes, Shawn, you. We can talk to the childrenter as well if you want, but I am sure that they would love to have some younger siblings. They are good kids, and they love us so much. I am sure that they will love any other kids thate to our home as well.¡±


    ¡°But, where will we find the children?¡± I asked this because I knew that we couldn¡¯t adopt a human child. That wouldn¡¯t be right. They would be living in a world that was not their own.


    ¡°There are so many supernatural children that have been orphaned, Shawn. I am sure that we can find one to adopt. But if we do adopt a human, then I am sure that the child will be happy with us. We will not let anything bad happen to them at all. Trust in the future, my love, we will have what we desire.¡±


    There was just so much to process. Were we really deciding right here and now that we were going to be adopting a child, or even children? Were we making this decision so quickly? Was this too soon? Was this the right thing to do?


    It felt like the right thing. It felt like we were doing what was best for our family. And that alone was making me so happy. I was starting to look forward to it all.


    When we got home that night, we had a meeting with our four kids and asked them how they felt about us adopting. They all responded happily and seemed excited about the prospect of having more siblings.


    Dietrich and I started looking into different options and routes after that. We searched for children that had been orphaned that were non humans. That was the best ce for us to start. There were a lot more than I thought that there would be, and I had a hard time not telling Dietrich that we were going to be bringing them all home. Even I knew that would be too much for us.


    Still, we were having a hard time choosing who to bring into our family. There was a seven year old, Fauna, who was a Fae. Another choice was eight year old Luther who was a bear that had lost his familyst year. There was also two year old Bret that needed extra love since he had lost his mom and dad. And thest option was three week old Ember, a wolf baby that was found in the woods and no one hade to im her.


    ¡°Well, Shawn, if we cannot pick between these four that we have narrowed it down to, then we will take them all. I mean, it isn¡¯t the hundreds that are out there, but we can bring all four of these children that are close to us and need homes now.¡±


    ¡°Dietrich...¡± My jaw dropped. He had just told me that we were going to be doubling the amount of children that we had. It would be hard, but I also knew that we could do it. ¡°Are you sure?¡± I asked him in shock. You don¡¯t want to rethink that do you?¡±


    ¡°No, Geliebte, I don¡¯t want to rethink it. I can¡¯t pick between them either. So, we will adopt them all.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± I threw my arms around him as I smiled. ¡°Thank you.¡±


    A couple of dayster, we brought our new children home. Our house was instantly busier, louder, crazier, livelier and happier. It was perfect in my opinion.


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 Chapter 816

    Chapter 816: Chapter 1- Trinity ¨C It¡¯s Been So Long (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was standing next to Reece as we just looked out the balcony door in our bedroom. Our bedroom was, of course, the top floor in the royal tower. The royal tower that happened to be the home of the ruling Queen and her king. And, of course, that queen was me.


    This castle, this kingdom, and everything that it stood for, it was created by me. Well, I had help. My great great great grandfather, Valerian, had helped me to make the castle itself. And if it weren¡¯t for my husband Reece, and the people that were here with me every single day, then I would never have been able to sessfully make this kingdom. Reece, Athair m¨®r (how I called Valerian), Vincent, Shawn, Dietrich, Shane, David, Gabriel, Roisin, Juniper, Paul, Cedar, Carter, Noah, Mom, Dad, Grandfather, L, all of them had been here with me to help me over all of these years.


    And let¡¯s not forget my children. Mine and Reece¡¯s children that is. They were the true heart of my happiness. Reagan, Rika, Talia, Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley. All of my babies. And I can¡¯t believe how big they are all getting. And how beautiful they all are.


    Reagan, even though he has my dark brown hair and blue eyes, he was so tall and handsome like his daddy. Rika, she was the copy of Reece. The only difference is that she is a girl and nowhere near as tall as Reece. Talia, she was my carbon copy. She has my hair, my eyes, and is on the shorter side, like me.


    .....


    And then there are the quadruplets. The boys, all three of them, were aplete copy of their daddy. They weren¡¯t old enough to be as tall as him yet, but I was sure that they would get there soon enough. At the rate that they were growing, it was highly likely. I mean they were already almost taller than me.


    Zaley was the only one that was not a copy of us. She was pale like me, only a lot more pale. And she had eyes like mine, but they were just a little different. However, unlike Reece¡¯s ck hair that went so well with his golden honey colored eyes, Zaley had white. She was the only one in the family like that. Well, unless you counted my father who died many years ago.


    The reason Zaley looked so much like him though, was because she was literally his reincarnation. She had his soul. That was something that I had not expected from my once evil father. He had saved me though, and because of that, all four of my youngest babies had lived. If he hadn¡¯t done what he did, then the five of us wouldn¡¯t be here today. That was why, whenever someone asked me if I was unhappy about Zaley having Edmond¡¯s soul, I would tell them no. In truth, I couldn¡¯t be happier.


    It had been years now though, so I was used to thements. I was used to the looks. I was used to all of it. And unfortunately, so was Zaley. She had heard those hurtful words since she was little, and she had grown up with them. She didn¡¯t let them bother her anymore, but that didn¡¯t mean that the others didn¡¯t let it get to them.


    Zachary, Zander and Zayden especially hated the way that some people treated their sister. They had been womb mates after all, and they were fiercely protective of her. Zachary was the leader of the four and, therefore, was the typical defender. Zander wanted to rival his slightly older brother. He was just as protective as Zachary was, but he was a little more prone to anger than Zachary was. As for Zayden, the youngest of the boys, he was usually so sweet and soft spoken. He never really confronted people about anything, and he was so easygoing. However, whenever he heard someone say something negative about his little sister, he would let that hidden storm that was hiding inside of him rage in the direction of the offender. He loved his sister so much, and he did not like to see her feeling sad. All three of the quadruplet boys were very serious about protecting her.


    And it wasn¡¯t just the three of them that were fiercely protective of Zaley. Reagan, Rika and Talia were as well. Whenever they were out with her, they would not let the slightest badmouthing of her slide. People have the capacity to be very cruel about things that they didn¡¯t understand, and Zaley with her albino-like hair andplexion, was something that most people didn¡¯t understand. They would call her a freak and that was when the others would step in. Of the three older children, it was Reagan who was the most vocal about Zaley.


    As Reagan and Rika got older, they had be their own people. Of course, that was bound to happen, but it still made me happy seeing who they were now. I mean, it wasn¡¯t just them getting taller that had shown that they had grown. Reagan, who was just an inch or two shorter than Reece now, was a very smart and caring young man. And I don¡¯t use the term man lightly. He is eighteen now. He is, in all senses of the word, a man. Just as Rika is eighteen and has grown into quite the young woman. They were due to go to college soon and that was enough to make me cry. In fact, I did cry, quite often too.


    I had cried the nights of their eighteenth birthdays, since they were born on different days even though they were twins. I couldn¡¯t help it. It just hit me really hard that they were growing up and would leave me all too soon.


    And Talia was getting so much older too. She just turned fifteenst month. She was quite the youngdy. And I knew for a fact that with each passing year, my time with her wasing to an end. She was going to be taking over as the Goddess of the underworld when she was an adult. She was learning all that she could from the current gods while also going to school and taking advancement courses.


    Like Reagan and Rika, Talia was doing dual enrollment. Only Talia had needed to make sure that she was going to graduate early. She was only fifteen, but she was in her senior year of high school. She will be going to the same college as Reagan and Rika just next year.


    ¡°Hahh.¡± I sighed as I thought about all of these things that had happened, and all of the years that had passed.


    ¡°What is wrong, Little Bunny?¡± Reece tightened his hold on me as he hugged me to his side.


    ¡°Nothing, Fido.¡± I pretended like I wasn¡¯t on the verge of tears again.


    ¡°Do you think I am going to believe that?¡± There was a slight chuckle in his voice. I could tell that he had been expecting that response from me and was just amused to have beenpletely right about it. ¡°Come on, Trinity, we have been together for almost twenty years now. I know when something is bothering you. Stop trying to hide it. I know you too well for you to lie to me.¡±


    ¡°Well, Mr. Peabody, since you are the all knowing doggy, shouldn¡¯t you be able to tell me what is the matter with me?¡± Twenty yearster and I still call him by these dog names. I love that it never got old and that we could keep it going. Also, twenty yearster, he is still calling me a bunny.


    ¡°First off, that is a really old reference. Secondly, Mr. Peabody was a genius, but I would hardly call him all knowing. Andstly, I know that you¡¯re just feeling overwhelmed and sad at the moment. I mean, tonight is the send off party for the kids.¡±


    ¡°GAH!¡± I grabbed my head and shook it as he reminded me about the party. ¡°Why did you have to mention it? I didn¡¯t want to think about it.¡±


    The party in question was for all of the kids that were going off to college. Back then, when we were all pregnant at the same time, there had been twenty-two babies born within a year of each other. One of them was born in the summer and could have been a year ahead of the others in school, but Noah decided to give Elias an extra year of preschool to make sure that he was fully prepared for school. That meant that all twenty-two children graduated from high school this past school year and were now heading off to school.


    A fair few of those kids were going away to school. They were heading to different states and even different countries. However, there were a group of them that wanted to stay local and just go to the university that was right here. That group, which was twelve in total, would be living here in the castle while they attended sses full time. And thankfully, my Reagan and Rika were part of the group that was staying in town with us. It made me happy to know that I would be able to see them on a regr basis, but it didn¡¯t stop me from knowing that they were going out into the world as adults.


    ¡°Come on, Little Bunny, it¡¯s not that bad. They grew up, that¡¯s what kids do.¡± Reece was trying tofort me, but he wasn¡¯t helping me much.


    ¡°Yeah, I know. They all grew up. I feel like I blinked and just skipped thest decade. Where did the time go, Reece? What happened to my babies?¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha.¡± Stop being so dramatic Little Bunny. You were there with them, you got older too. We all did. I know it¡¯s sad, but we did a good job with them. They are great kids. They are smart. They are responsible. And I know, just as much as you do, that Reagan and Rika will be just fine. It¡¯s hard on me too, Little Bunny, it really is. I mean, they¡¯re my kids and I need to send them out there on their own. No supervision or anything. And then there is the fact that there are boys out there. Boys that will prey upon my little Rika. That alone makes my blood boil, but I can¡¯t stop it. I can¡¯t hold her or Reagan back. I need to trust them, Trinity, and so do you.¡±


    ¡°Wow, that was a lot more level headed than I expected from you, Reece. I am shocked.¡± Iughed at him then. I had thought that he would definitely be worried about someone taking Rika the moment they saw her. He was such a protective daddy. That was where they all got it from. Okay, okay, I was protective too.


    ¡°Yeah, well, whoever she brings home has to pass my test first. I don¡¯t care what fate says about mates or not. I am her daddy and what I say goes.¡±


    Iughed about that. I knew that Rika had refused to date anyone in high school because she didn¡¯t want to deal with her daddy being mean to her boyfriends. She didn¡¯t want to have that kind of experience over and over again. That meant that she was inexperienced now, and that worried me as well.


    Reagan had a couple of girlfriends, but Reece had never cared much about his son dating. I did, and I had made sure the girls were nice and that they treated him right. A momma has to do her best after all.


    ¡°Come on, stop thinking about all of this, Little Bunny. We should head down to breakfast. The kids will all be waiting for us.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right.¡± I stopped letting it get to me and went with Reece down to breakfast.


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 Chapter 817

    Chapter 817: Chapter 2- Reece ¨C The Party (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I knew that my Little Bunny would be upset today. It was a big day after all. We were having a massive party tonight before so many kids went off into the world to be on their own. It was an emotional night for me and Trinity. But not just for us. It was emotional for so many others too. Shawn and Dietrich. Carter and Emmalee. Noah and Nikki. Juniper and Paul. Cedar and Acacia. Shane and Falena. David and Rawlynne. Devon and E. Griffin and Lana. Vincent and Heather. Jackson and Melita.


    Altogether there were a dozen families that were losing their children tonight. Those children were now adults and would be proving that fact to us and the world from now on. And the only people of this group that had experience with this heartache, were Vincent and Heather. Their twins that were heading out of state for college were their fourth and fifth children. They had one more that would be graduatingter on, but not for a while. Their youngest was only nine and that meant that they still had lots of time with little Jared.


    It was hard to believe. Twelve couples, twenty-four total parents, were losing a total of twenty-two children all at the same time. It was a lot. And whether anyone believed it or not, I was just as sentimental about it as my Little Bunny was. I think that I was just better at hiding it than she was.


    Still, as the day wore on and the party got closer and closer, I felt like I could feel my heart breaking. There was nothing else to it than that. It was like a constant heartache that throbbed with each passing second.


    .....


    I didn¡¯t let it show. Not at all. When the party started that night, as all the guests started to arrive and the show really got on the road, I just smiled and weed them all as cheerfully as I could. My Little Bunny was doing the same thing. She was putting on her public smile and epting all the congrattions that people heaped onto parents and kids in these situations.


    ¡°Congrattions, you must be so proud of them.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re so smart, and such lovely people, you must be so happy for them.¡±


    ¡°You did such a good job with them. I just know that you must be so proud.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t believe how much time has passed already. This is so wonderful.¡±


    The words came from so many people that I will admit they got a little blurred inside my head. I could tell you who all gave us positive words like that, but I couldn¡¯t tell you what everyone had said. I think that was a sign that I was letting my emotions get to me.


    After all of our invited guests arrived, which there were quite a lot of them, it was time for Trinity and me to address the crowd. Not just because we had kids that were graduating, but also because we were the homeowners, or castle owners. Oh, and let¡¯s not forget that we were the hosts of the party as well as the king and queen. Of everyone here, the two of us had the most experience with addressingrge groups of people. Though those on our council and those that were in our personal circle had addressed their fair share over the years, it still fell to me and my Little Bunny to give the opening speech.


    After we both took a couple of deep breaths to settle our nerves, we made our way to the stage that was in the front of the ballroom. There were so many people that were here that we had needed to use the grand ballroom, thergest of them all, to host this shindig asfortably as we could. It might be a little too big, all things considered, but it allowed the various families to have their own ce to sit while they weren¡¯t mingling with the others.


    While holding hands, my Little Bunny and I turned on the stage to face them all. I think that, of all the speeches we had given over thest twenty years together, this was the hardest of them all. It felt harder than even the ones that we gave before battles started. Why? Why was this so hard?


    ¡°Wee, all of you, and thank you for joining us here this evening.¡± My Little Bunny, always the regal one, started to speak while I was just staring at the crowd. ¡°We want to tell you how happy we are that you have alle to help us celebrate this group of wonderful individuals.¡±


    ¡°Yes. There are so many here that have worked hard as they grew up and have made their parents proud, our children included. And now, as they prepare to go off to college next week, we are here to tell them how happy we are for them, and of course how proud of them we are.¡± I gave my best smile and looked around the room as I found each of the kids she was talking about.


    I had seen all of these kids grow up. I had watched the progression of time with them all and it was to be reminded that so much time hade and gone. I mean, seeing these kids was what reminded me that I was forty-five years old now. And my Little Bunny was thirty-eight. We were not as young as we used to be, even if we both still looked like we were in our twenties. That wouldn¡¯t change any time soon, but I still knew how old I was.


    ¡°Here with us tonight, moving into the world of adulthood, are twins Tyler and Charlotte, son and daughter of my trusted guard Vincent Collins and his wife Heather. There is also Luka, Levi, Alyssa, and Alexandria Asher-Conrad, they are the quadruplet children of Kings Dietrich and Shawn Asher-Conrad, my friends, guards, and colleagues. Kaiden is the son of Shane Asher and his wife Falena, Shane is my guard as well and twin brother to Shawn. Kaede is the daughter of another guard of mine named David Martin, and his wife Rawlynne. My best friend Juniper and her husband Paul have twins with us today, Rowan and na. My personal friends and the doctors in ourmunity, Griffin and Lana, have their twins Dominic and Vivian that have graduated and are heading off to Ennd this week. E, a dear friend of mine and her husband Devon Scott, have their daughters named Sophia and Isabe. Rawlynne¡¯s long time partner in justice and mischief, Jackson McIan and his wife Melita have Melody heading off to California. Cedar Woods, Juniper¡¯s brother, has triplets with his wife Acacia, Beech, Cypress, and Ashle. My brother Noah and his wife Nikki have their oldest, Elias. And another of my nephews, Carter Jr., son of Carter and Emmalee is here to round out the group. Well, of course there are also my twins. Mine and Reece¡¯s twins that is. Reagan and Rika Gray, my first born children that I love so much. This group here are the ones that we are celebrating. They are from that special group that just seemed to want to be born all around the same time. These young adults have grown up so fast, and they are the reason that we are here. Please, all of you, join me in apuding them.¡±


    My Little Bunny gave the rest of the speech and the entire room erupted into apuse. They had been weed into adulthood, they were being propelled into their futures and whatever it was they were going to do. And it was something that we all had been dreading for so long.


    Now that the introduction and speech was over though, it was time for the party tomence. And even though Trinity and I were the ones that were hosting this party, it wasn¡¯t for us. That means, for the first time in my memory, we weren¡¯t the ones that had to walk around and mingle with everyone.


    Nope, this time, it was the kids that needed to do that. Reagan and Rika and all of the others were the ones that needed to see to their guests. Each family had people that were specifically for them. They had their own aunts and uncles, they had their cousins and their grandparents, all of their family that hade to see them from so many different parts of ourmunity.


    ¡°It¡¯s in their hands now, Trinity. We¡¯ve done our part. From here on out, it¡¯s all up to them.¡± I took my wife¡¯s hand then and led her back to our table that was sitting above all the others. This was where we usually sat, where we could watch over everyone in the ballroom.


    ¡°I am so heartbroken, Reece. I can¡¯t believe that this is happening. Where did my little babies go? Why did they have to grow up and leave me so quickly?¡± She wasn¡¯t crying, but there was sorrow in her voice.


    ¡°It wasn¡¯t quick, Trinity, it took years.¡±


    As I said that, the two children in question came running up to the tform we were on.


    ¡°Momma!¡± Reagan called out to her as he rushed to hug her. He had always called her that. ¡°Don¡¯t cry.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, Mom, don¡¯t cry.¡± Rika hugged her as well.


    ¡°We¡¯re not leaving you.¡± Reagan added as he pulled away. ¡°You will see us every day.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± Finally, my Little Bunny smiled with all her heart. We hugged as a family after that, onest time before Reagan and Rika went to mingle with all of their guests.


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 Chapter 818

    Chapter 818: Chapter 3- Rika ¨C Touring Campus (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    It had been three days since our graduation party. Reagan and I were going to be starting our sses at university in just six days, and right now, we were taking part in the freshman tour of the campus. It was us and a group of the other freshmen. And a good chunk of this group was made up of people that I had known my whole life. Levi, Luka, Alyssa, Alexa, Cypress, Beech, Ashle, na, Rowan andstly my cousin Elias. They were all here with us and about eight other people that were touring the campus as well. With the twenty of us, there were four tour guides.


    I was excited to see this campus and what it was like. This was the school that my mom and dad had gone to when they were younger. Or as Reagan would joke once in a while, back in the age of the dinosaurs and cavemen. I know he was referring to that super old cartoon that M¨®ra¨ª had shown us when we were little. It was something like the ¡®Flintrocks¡¯ or something like that. It had Flint in it, that was all I could remember. If I had Talia¡¯s memory I would know it right away, but it didn¡¯t matter.


    No, what did matter today was that I was meeting other people. People that hadn¡¯t gone to the supernatural school in Trinity Falls with us. People that I hadn¡¯t literally known my entire life.


    I had told my mom once that I didn¡¯t want to experience my dad rejecting my boyfriends when I was growing up. In truth, it was just that I wasn¡¯t attracted to anyone in school because I had known them all for so long. Now though, I was ready to have a boyfriend, even if he wasn¡¯t my mate. I just wanted to start living a normal life and not the life of a princess.


    .....


    There were a couple guys in the group that were with us today. Three of them to be exact. And while I was ready for a boyfriend, that didn¡¯t mean that I was going to be picking him from this group. I didn¡¯t know them for one thing, and for two, they were definitely humans. Well, at least they all seemed to smell like they were humans. That meant that I would need to be careful with them. And unless they were my mates, I shouldn¡¯t date humans. That would just break their hearts when I did find my mate.


    Just because I didn¡¯t expect to end up dating any of these guys, that didn¡¯t mean that Reagan and I couldn¡¯t be friends with them. It was always fine to have more friends. That was why, as I walked around with Alyssa, Alexa, na and Ashle, we were talking about befriending as many people in our group as possible. Including our upperssmen that were showing up around.


    The guides were twenty year old Justin, twenty-one year old Grant, twenty year old Olivia and twenty year old Penny. They were all nice and seemed to really like this school. Those in our freshmen group were Aloisius, Clovio, Gunnar, Armina and Lovisa who were all from Germany. There was also Evelyn, Harper and Macy who were also in our group, and they were more local. And by local I mean that they were all from Colorado, but not from within the city. All of them would be living in the dorms on campus, so that was one of the stops that we were making. We weren¡¯t going to be exploring every dormitory, but we would be seeing how they were all typically set up.


    While we continued to walk through the campus, the three guys from Germany kept looking over at me and my friends. I could tell that they were wanting to talk to us, but they probably felt self-conscious about it. Or so I thought.


    After looking over at me for a minute or two, one of them broke away. I didn¡¯t remember which one he was, but he was kind of cute. He was on the tall side, maybe around six feet tall. He was shorter than Reagan, but taller than me of course. I was only around five feet seven inches tall. I was taller than my mom at least. And even though I was tallpared to the humans, I was on the shorter side for the wolves.


    The boy that came over to me though, he had dark hair like mine and some pretty nice green eyes. He looked like he had worked out a lot in his life because he had a lot of muscles, but I was used to buff looking men. They trained a lot at the castle.


    ¡°Hallo, there. My friends and I couldn¡¯t help but think that you are so beautiful. Are you perhaps a model?¡± The guy was looking right at me when he spoke, so I knew who he was talking to. That left me speechless for a moment. I couldn¡¯t believe that he just said that. And that ent, it was so thick. Thicker than Uncle Dietrich¡¯s ent. Then again, Uncle Dietrich was almost five hundred and fifty years old, so he has had a long time to lose his ent.


    ¡°No, I am not a model.¡± I blushed a little despite myself. I can¡¯t believe that I was letting his words get to me like that.


    ¡°Oh, well you should be. I think you are the most beautiful woman that I have ever seen in my life. Meeting you here like this makes me know that I am going to enjoy my days here in America.¡± He grinned at me then, revealing his perfectly straight and sparklingly bright white smile. He was very good looking, in a sort of boyish way. Even though his face was slender and lean, it was soft and sweet as well. He was like the perfect mixture of a man and a boy. Though, I had a feeling that he would lose that boyishness over time, but for now, it was working for him.


    ¡°I will keep that in mind.¡± Iughed at the idea of it. I never once even thought about it, and I never would, but it was nice hearing that from someone.


    ¡°My name is Clovio Mathias. It is lovely to meet you.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s nice to meet you as well, Clovio. My name is-.¡±


    ¡°Rika! Hurry up.¡± Clovio and I had stopped walking while we talked, which had caused the group to get a little ahead of us. Because of that, my brother took it upon himself to call out to me and embarrass me in front of a new friend.


    ¡°Ahh, Rika is your name. That is a name from my country. Did you know that?¡± Clovio smiled at me but then turned to look at Reagan who was ring at us. ¡°Is that your boyfriend?¡±


    ¡°Oh, God no!¡± I said it so fast and so vehemently that I made Cloviough. ¡°That is my twin brother, Reagan.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha, well Rika, I think that your brother is waiting for you. Shall we go?¡± He didn¡¯t offer his hand or anything, not that I would have taken it, but he was waiting for me like he was going to walk me back to the group that was waiting on us.


    ¡°Yes, I think we should. Before we lose the group entirely.¡±


    Together, Clovio and I rejoined the group and listened in as best as we could. While doing that though, we started to talk about lots of different things. I found out that he, along with all the others from Germany, were from an orphanage that had received a special stipend to send their children that were never adopted to different colleges. While living here in the United States, they were going to be working on bing permanent citizens and living here when they graduated. It was nice of the benefactor to do that for them.


    I didn¡¯t talk much about myself. I did talk to him just a little about the family, but not who or what my family really was. I didn¡¯t tell him that I was a princess. I didn¡¯t tell him that I was part werewolf, Fae, and witch. I didn¡¯t tell him that my mother and father were a goddess and a god. I couldn¡¯t tell him any of that because he wouldn¡¯t believe me. Or he would think that I was crazy.


    I did, however, tell him that my family name was Gray. I told him that I had a lot of siblings, so I knew what it was like to grow up in a house full of kids. I expressed my sadness that he had to be without parents and that he didn¡¯t get to have that happy childhood.


    Despite the hardships that Clovio had obviously experienced as he grew up, he didn¡¯t seem to let it get to him. He seemed happy and very easygoing. He was also quick with augh and a joke. I actually found that he was quite funny. And, well, I think that I did like him a little bit. He was definitely interesting. If he just wasn¡¯t a human, then he could be on the list for my first boyfriend.


    I didn¡¯t have anything against dating humans, like I said. I just didn¡¯t want to be in a rtionship with one, to fall in love with one, or to have one fall in love with me, only to find my true mate and end up leaving them. It wasn¡¯t fair to them. It would just hurt them for no reason at all.


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 Chapter 819

    Chapter 819: Chapter 4- Reagan ¨C New Friends (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reagan


    ~~


    I can¡¯t believe my sister. She was standing there flirting with that German asshole. Was she really going to just jump at the first college guy that talked to her? Was she really going to be that shallow right here and now? I just couldn¡¯t believe her. I mean, I wasn¡¯t flirting with those girls. They were pretty. They were different. They had some nice ents. But I wasn¡¯t fawning all over them. I wasn¡¯t rushing to them and getting to know them.


    And Rika wasn¡¯t the only one either. I mean, I was looking at Alyssa and she was just staring at one of the German dudes too. What was their fascination with them? What were they seeing in them?


    ¡°Calm down, Reagan.¡± Luka came over to me and pped me on the shoulder.


    ¡°Stop reading my mind.¡± I sighed at him. ¡°That¡¯s not fair.¡± Luka looked like his dad, Shawn. Well, one of his dads. Since he, Levi, Alyssa, and Alexa were all biologically born from their two dads. I didn¡¯t know how it was possible, I just knew that it was what had happened to them. For Luka and his brother Levi, this meant that they had silver colored hair and eyes. They were tall, but not as tall as me. And they were strong but leaner than most people. The girls looked like their other dad, or Papa as they called him. They had ck hair and very light blue eyes. These eyes almost looked white, that was how light they were.


    .....


    They also had four more siblings too. All of them were adopted. Luther was just a few months younger than they were and would be graduating next year with their sister Fauna and my sister Talia. Then there was eleven year old Bret and nine year old Ember. They had a bigger family than I did, but only by one. There were eight kids in their family and seven in mine.


    ¡°You know that I am not trying to read your mind.¡± He sighed in defeat. ¡°It¡¯s just the way that I am.¡± His words were whispered so that no one else would hear them. We weren¡¯t supposed to let the humans know about us.


    ¡°I know.¡± He wasn¡¯t lying. He just couldn¡¯t help it. He was a hybrid. I mean, I wasn¡¯t a pure-blood either. I had wolf, Fae and warlock blood too. We were all unique. But he was literally half wolf and half vampire. He had different oddities than I did.


    What was weird was that he and Alexa were both half and half, but Levi was a pure wolf and Alyssa was a pure vampire. It was like the gic gods had wanted to make their family very diverse or something. Being a hybrid between those two species though, made for some really unique qualities for them. Still, Luka and Levi were my best friends. We had known each other our whole lives and we were always hanging out whenever we got the chance.


    ¡°Still, how can you tell me to calm down?¡± I asked him with exasperation. ¡°Look at your sister. She is staring at that guy like he¡¯s the only man in the world. If I didn¡¯t know any better, I would think that he is her mate or something.¡± I was shaking my head. He couldn¡¯t be. If he were her mate, then she would be all over him.


    ¡°Whether he is or not isn¡¯t my concern. My sisters can make their own decisions. And on top of that, if the guy breaks her heart, she doesn¡¯t need me and Levi to protect her. That guy would need our help to stop her.¡± Weughed together at the thought of Lyssa killing the guy.


    ¡°Yeah, Lyssa can protect herself. And I guess Rika can too. She¡¯s a strong girl and I know that she¡¯s smart. I..I guess I am just overly protective of my family.¡± I tried to shrug it off, but I couldn¡¯t. It was just who I am.


    ¡°Yeah, who would have thought that the son of the Alpha would be an Alpha. That is just so surprising. I mean, none of us saw iting at all.¡± Levi finally spoke up as he came to stand next to us as well.


    To most people, Levi and Luka were identical. And Alyssa and Alexandria were identical. But that was only to people who didn¡¯t know how to look at them. Or for people that hadn¡¯t known them their entire lives. They had different ways of standing and walking. They were different people, and their friends and family could easily tell them apart. For people that didn¡¯t know them though, they could just look for the red ring on the inside of Luka and Alexa¡¯s eyes. That was the mark of their hybrid status. They were the only ones in their family that had that red part to their eyes.


    ¡°Hey, Reagan, you know something. These people aren¡¯t from around here. They don¡¯t know your family. They don¡¯t know the reputation that surrounds you. It¡¯s the chance to make some new friends that aren¡¯t after your parents¡¯ fame or your money. I think that we should be nice to them and hang out with them. It would be nice, in a way.¡±


    ¡°Hmm. You might be right.¡± I took in the words that Luka had just said. He wasn¡¯t wrong. Most people that weren¡¯t part of the inner circle just wanted to use me for money or notoriety. It had happened a lot when we were kids and all throughout high school. That was why I was d that we had thatrge group of friends in our year at school. I always had someone there to hang out with, even if the leeches were there.


    ¡°Of course, he is right. It¡¯s time for us to make more friends.¡±


    ¡°I think more friends would be good.¡± This was when my cousin Elias came over to join us. We had started tog behind a little, so the group wasn¡¯t exactly with us anymore. ¡°But I also think that staying with everyone is also a good idea.¡± Elias was the oldest one in our group. Only by a few months but he acted like it was by years. He was, in every aspect of his character, a carbon copy of his dad. He was smart and efficient, fiercely protective of his siblings and cousins, and he even looked just like his dad with dark brown hair and eyes. He and my uncle Noah both gave off an air of someone that was a butler. Though they were nothing at all like Peter, the actual butler. It was just strange to me how much he and his dad were alike.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Elias. We¡¯re on our way now.¡± Luka gripped my shoulder and started to push me in the direction of the group. ¡°And when we get there, we¡¯re going to make new friends. With the German students as well as the tour guides. We¡¯re starting college next week, we have to be nice and make friends, that¡¯s like a requirement or something.¡±


    Luka didn¡¯t stop pushing me until we made it to the rest of the group. My sister was standing with all the girls in a group now. She was getting them all to unite or something. That was understandable. I mean, she was pretty and popr. Everyone had always flocked to her.


    I couldn¡¯t be shown up though. She was my sister and wepeted in just about everything that we could. That meant that I needed to make friends and unite the group the same as she was doing. Well, I didn¡¯t have to, but I was going to do it anyway.


    ¡°Hey, nice to meet you all. Sorry I didn¡¯t introduce myself earlier.¡± I was walking toward the group of guys that were new here. ¡°My name is-.¡±


    ¡°Reagan, right?¡± The guy my sister was talking to interrupted me. ¡°You are Rika¡¯s twin brother. It is nice to meet you. I am Clovio. This, here, is Gunnar and Aloisius. The three of us along with Armina and Lovisa are from Germany. We grew up in an orphanage and were offered schrships to study in America. We are d to be here.¡± The guy seemed OK, so far at least.


    ¡°Nice to meet you.¡± Nodded at him and shook his hand. ¡°And yes, my name is Reagan. These are my friends Levi and Luka, and this is my cousin Elias. Those over there are Alyssa and Alexandria, sisters to Levi and Luka, and the rest are-.¡±


    ¡°Rika introduced us already.¡± The guy named Aloisius interrupted me. These guys sure did like to be rude, didn¡¯t they?


    ¡°Well, then I guess introductions are over.¡± I looked at Aloisius and saw that he was simr to Clovio. He had dark hair and green eyes. I guess they were rted, or they weremon colorations, either one. Gunnar on the other hand, had dark blond hair that was cut short and had light brown eyes. He hadn¡¯t spoken yet, but I got the feeling that he just wasn¡¯t a big talker.


    ¡°No, we can move on to being friends now.¡± Clovio smiled. ¡°I would very much like to make some new friends here. We all would.¡±


    Well, I decided that I should just y nice after that. We talked with the rest of the guys for the remainder of the tour and got to know a lot about them. They were nice and seemed pretty cool. I wasn¡¯t about to invite him to my ce, but we could still hang out when we were in the city or at school.


    Rika and I even got the entire group talking, so the girls and the guys were all talking by the time that it was over. Armina and Lovisa were nice too. Armina had light blonde hair and blue eyes with a slight build and a pretty smile. Lovisa was a little taller with dark hair and hazel eyes. She seemed a lot more quiet and shy than the other girl did. Even the other three girls that were in the group were talking with us all. For some reason though, I couldn¡¯t remember their names or even what they looked like. If my dad knew about that, he wouldugh at me. It was not like an Alpha to forget what someone looked like. I needed to be attentive at all times. I needed to stay vignt. If I was going to lead my pack, or any part of my kingdom when I got older, I needed to be giving this my all. I needed to make sure that I performed at my best at all times. I needed to be better than this.


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 Chapter 820

    Chapter 820: Chapter 5- Trinity ¨C Lunch Date (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Today the kids were at my mom¡¯s house. Well, Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley were at her house. Talia was having a lesson with Lucifer while Reagan and Rika were having a tour of the campus. I often couldn¡¯t believe how much time had passed since they were all born. I mean, in just five short months the quadruplets would be eleven years old. It was insane and made me so sad.


    Still, even with how many years that had passed, I always made sure that I got to have some girl time with my best friend. And now that we both had kids that were the same age we had been when we met, it felt like we had known each other for an entire lifetime.


    I mean, literally, this month, August, was when I met Juniper, Paul, and Cedar for the first time when I started to attend the same university that our kids were now going to. We met at the beginning of that first term. We became friends right away. And now we were like sisters that had kids who were friends.


    These days that I spent with Juniper were done on a weekly basis. We would go to lunch or to a movie. We might go skating, bowling or anything else that we could just get out of the house and get some time alone together. We called them our Mommy Breaks and they had saved us a lot of our sanity over the years.


    .....


    Between the two of us, we had eleven kids. It could be overwhelming and stressful at times, even with all the help that we had from our friends and family. We decided years ago that we needed to have a night, or day, out so that we could unwind and recharge. That was how these little adventures of ours came to be.


    Today, Juniper and I were having lunch before we headed off to the bowling alley. We liked to bowl, but more so in the summer months. They kept it cool there, so it was a nice activity to do when we didn¡¯t want to get over heated.


    We had just sat down in the booth at the diner so that we could look at the menu and order the food. Truth be told, we already knew what we wanted and looking at the menus was just a formality. This diner here had been reopened by the grandchildren of Franny. They knew how much this ce meant to her and that she would want them to run it again. And honestly, it meant a lot to themunity that they had reopened it. They had even kept the original menu while adding their own things to it as well. When Juniper and I found out about the reopening, it had be our typical stop on our Mommy Breaks.


    ¡°Hi there Mrs. Gray, you¡¯re looking well today. As are you Mrs. Green. We¡¯re happy to see you back here for your weekly lunch.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Ewan. There isn¡¯t anywhere else in town that we would rather go than here.¡± I smiled at the man. He was actually younger than me by quite a few years, but he looked like he was a little bit older than me. That was thanks to my immortality and extremely slow aging.


    ¡°You know, you two actually drive business for us. People see such beautiful and prominentdies such as yourselves eating at a local dive like this and theye flocking here.¡± Ewan was grinning as he spoke. I couldn¡¯t help but rte how this man looked to his famous counterpart. He did look a lot like the actor that had been in so many movies all those years ago. He still acts now, but he isn¡¯t as much as he used to be. I mean, the man was almost seventy now. Ewan though, he had that same slim build, the same shape to his face, the same light brown hair and even the same blue eyes. He looked like he could have been the actor¡¯s son. Hell, maybe he was for all I knew. I wasn¡¯t up to date on all of their family issues.


    After talking with Ewan for a few moments, Juniper and I ced our orders and waited for our food to be delivered. Our drinks had already been brought because Ewan had that memorized. If we always ordered the same thing when we came, he would probably just put the order in for us. However, we often switched it up a little bit so he never knew what we were going to eat. Drinks though, those were always the same.


    ¡°I can¡¯t believe that it¡¯s that time already.¡± Juniper threw her head back and sighed. ¡°They¡¯re in college now, Trin. College!¡± She emphasized the word for dramatic effect.


    ¡°I know, Ju, I know. It¡¯s hard, but it¡¯s life. They get older every day and there is nothing that we can do about it. At least you have three more years before Leaf graduates from high school. And Willow is in the same year as the Quads. So, you have some time to go before then. Talia though, she is going to be graduating early. I know why she¡¯s doing it, but it doesn¡¯t make it any easier on me and Reece. Next year she will be in the same college as Reagan and Rika.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how you are staying so calm about it. I have been a mess.¡± Juniperughed at me like I was some kind of unbreakable force.


    ¡°Trust me, Ju, I have been doing my fair share of crying.¡± I felt that familiar burning in my eyes that told me I wanted to shed tears now. I didn¡¯t let it get to me though. I held them back and forced it to go away. ¡°We just need to stay strong and let them all know that we are proud of them.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I know that.¡± She wasughing still but it felt forced. It was like she was trying to hide the pain she was in.


    I was thinking of what to say to her when I caught the words that were being said on a news broadcast. I hadn¡¯t even been paying attention to the TV when I came in here. I hadrgely learned to ignore it while I dined in ces like this. Now though, the news alert caught my attention.


    ¡°Authorities are on the lookout in Europe and Asia right now. There has been a string of murders that have happened in thest two months that have variousmunities on edge. Authorities are not sure if the murders are connected or if they have cases of copycats that are popping up all over the ce. However, they do say that there are elements at each of the scenes that are unique and that this should be treated as a possible serial murderer or a group of murderers that are wreaking havoc across thends. Localwmakers and authorities are putting themselves on notice so that they can stay ahead of this violent criminal, or group of criminals, just in case they decide to cross over to the United States or our neighboring nations. For more information or if you have any tips that could help the authorities to apprehend the perpetrators of these heinous crimes, please call the number listed at the bottom of your screen.¡±


    The newscaster, a woman in her early thirties with a pretty face, sharp brown eyes, and dark brown hair looked as if she were not very happy at the moment. I didn¡¯t me her. No one liked to report on crimes such as these.


    ¡°What is wrong with people?¡± Juniper was shaking her head. ¡°I thought they were bad when we were going to college, but just look at things now. I mean, there are so many more crimes in pretty much every city in the world. If it weren¡¯t for the people that we send around to investigate these things, then there would be so much more.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± I had already had the thought crossed my mind. This was the first I was hearing about a serial killer that was making these kinds of waves, but now that I knew I would be doing my best to put a stop to them. I had to protect the people of the world. Not just the people of my kingdom, but all the people. Humans needed our protection more than anyone else. Most of them were just so defenseless.


    Ewan brought us our food not long after the report finished. Juniper and I ate while we talked about various topics, but I could tell that we were both still thinking about that newscast. We were both worried and wanted to do something about it. For someone like Juniper, who worked so hard to help people heal from trauma, these things were very hard to handle. She didn¡¯t like to see the pain and suffering in the world. She wanted to help everyone, even if it meant overworking herself.


    ¡°Come on, Juniper.¡± I said as I paid for the meal. ¡°Let¡¯s go have some fun. We need to forget about this for a little while longer.¡±


    I tried, and so did she, but it was just not something that I could get out of my head so easily. We were both still thinking about it until we headed home for the day. It was just too hard to forget something like that so easily.


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 Chapter 821

    Chapter 821: Chapter 6- Reece ¨C Quarterly Reports (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    A lot of things have changed in our home over thest ten years or so. I still owned and operated mypany, but I was more of a figurehead in it now. What I usually did now was participate in the ruling of our kingdom. My Little Bunny was the queen, the matriarch of our society. She was the one that everyone looked up to. That was never going to change at all.


    I, on the other hand, was the king. I was her second inmand. And part of my duties was taking reports that came in from different officials every quarter. There would be reports on the number of births, the number of deaths, new powers discovered, problems that had urred. It was all very tedious and boring most of the time, but I neverined about it. If I didn¡¯t do this part of the job, then my Little Bunny would have to do it herself. Or she would need to find someone else that could handle it for her.


    Another reason why I didn¡¯t mind doing this part of my job, was that after I received the reports, I needed topile them into a report and deliver that to my queen. Well, I didn¡¯t need to write the reports down since I had someone to do that for me. I could just deliver an oral report to her and that allowed me to have some more alone time with her. And it also kept other people away from her. It was a win-win situation. I got to be with my wife more and other men didn¡¯t need to bother her.


    Right now though, I was stuck listening to a lot of reports from a lot of boring people. In total, there were about three dozen people that needed to give their reports. These people were each responsible for different parts of the world and had a lot of information to share with us. And I was truly thankful that we all shared that trantor power from Trinity. Without that, we would all be lost right now.


    .....


    I was also thankful that I had Noah here with me. He was the one that was going to be typing up the report that these men and women were giving to us. He would give a copy of it to me, to Trinity, and to the records keepers in the castle. We had quite the extensive records room. We needed to be thorough after all. We needed to know how many of us there were at any given time. We needed to know where the bulk of ourmunity was. And we needed to be able to mobilize people in any givenmunity at any time. So, to more effectively run the kingdom, we had to be meticulous about it all.


    That extensive records room was staffed with a dozen different people. There were werewolves, were-bears, were-felines, were-birds, witches and Fae. Literally two of each that would keep track of different things. They should be here with us for this report, but nope, that wasn¡¯t how things had been set up.


    Oh well. It was just another boring meeting for me. I was used to them. I have been having boring meetings for well over twenty years now. Thankfully my looks hadn¡¯t faded over all these years. I had only aged maybe five years worth since I had met my Little Bunny. She had been very good to me in so many ways.


    The reports were about two thirds of the way over. The ones that were more local had gone first. All of North America and then South America. Africa followed after that and then Australia. We were about halfway through Europe now and I was fighting not to fall asleep. Well, I had been fighting it. But that changed when I heard some of what the man was saying to me now.


    ¡°There have been at least three murders that have urredtely, King Reece. I am not sure if they are rted, but they were reported to me by the Alphas and Coven leaders. These murders ount for only a fraction of the deaths over thest three months, but I do think that we should look into them more.¡±


    ¡°Was any evidence found? Do the local packs have any clues as to whomitted these murders?¡± I sat up in my seat and focused on him a little bit more.


    ¡°They believe that they are different perpetrators this time, King Reece. They weremitted in vastly different areas and the victims were from different species. However, they were all members of our people.¡±


    ¡°I want full reports on all of these as soon as possible.¡± I didn¡¯t like that people from my kingdom had been murdered. This was not good. It meant that either the killer was one of us or that there was a really dangerous human out there.


    ¡°Uhm, King Reece, Sir, might I say something.¡± A timid looking woman spoke with a Welsh ent.


    ¡°Yes, speak.¡± Imanded her. I could tell that she was scared of me, but I was too angry to care at the moment.


    ¡°Sir, there have been four murders in the United Kingdom. All of them are shifters. That was to be part of my report as well.¡±


    ¡°Are you serious?!¡± I could feel a sense of dread building up inside of me. ¡°So there are multiple murderers out there?¡± My heart was racing. This was going to destroy my Little Bunny. I just knew that it was.


    ¡°My king, I am afraid that the same is happening in my territory as well.¡± Another man spoke up with his hand in the air.


    ¡°Mine as well, King Reece.¡±


    ¡°I was going to report the same.¡±


    ¡°Five different domains? There are murders in five different domains? And no one has notified us before now?¡±


    ¡°I did not know that it was happening elsewhere, Sir. I am so very sorry.¡± The man that spokest, from the South East Asian territory, bowed his head in fear.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± I shook my head as I settled against the back of my chair. ¡°This is news to us all. But I can¡¯t overlook this. I hope you all know that. I will be discussing this with Queen Trinity so that we can begin working on a n of action. We will need to find these killers as soon as possible. I want all of you to send me as much information that you have on all of these murders. We need to see if any of them are rted. My main interest here is that I protect my people. I refuse to let any of them live in fear of some unknown monster out there.¡±


    ¡°Yes, King Reece, understood.¡±


    ¡°I will begin working on that as soon as possible.¡±


    ¡°You will have them as soon as I send word.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for the help, King Reece.¡±


    ¡°As you wish, my king.¡± All five of them answered me with a simple nod of their head to apany their words. After that, they all finished their reports.


    I had to sit through at least another hour of the meeting, during which I heard just how many people had been murdered in our globalmunity. Between the five different domains that had seen murders, there had been a total of eighteen people killed. This was no coincidence. And I don¡¯t care what the others might think right now, there was no way that this was all done by different people. And if it was, then all of them were part of some group that was targeting us. They had to be. I mean, why else were so many people targeting the supernaturalmunity.


    Now, I needed to think about who this might be. Were they one of us? Were they a rogue from ourmunity that was out to cause panic? Were they looking for a revolution? Were they simply trying to diminish our numbers? What was their goal here?


    Since I couldn¡¯t answer any of these questions, I felt the anger boiling inside of me. I didn¡¯t know what I was going to do. I didn¡¯t know if I should rush right off to see my Little Bunny to tell her about these killings, or if I should wait for the reports to arrive.


    Knowing my wife though, she would likely be angry that I hid things from her. If I waited to tell her until after the reports, then she would think that I was saying she couldn¡¯t handle this situation. And since I knew very well that she could handle it, I knew that I needed to tell her. I will do it tonight, after dinner. I didn¡¯t want to ruin the rest of her day. I didn¡¯t want her to-.


    I stopped right there. If I waited. If I didn¡¯t tell her the moment that she got home from her day out with Juniper, then she would be even more angry. It would still be me hiding it from her. It would still be me saying she couldn¡¯t handle it. If I waited until after dinner, it would be like I was telling her she couldn¡¯t hide her emotions so I had to withhold the information from her.


    ¡°Well, I guess I need to go see Trinity.¡± I sighed in defeat as the meeting ended. Every man and woman in the room, including Noah, looked at me with pity in their eyes. They didn¡¯t want to be the one to tell their queen about these killings. They didn¡¯t want to be the bearers of that kind of bad news. Gee, thanks everyone. I am so happy that I was chosen for this position. NOT!


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 Chapter 822

    Chapter 822: Chapter 7- Reece ¨C Telling Little Bunny (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I knew what I needed to do. I knew what was expected of me. Even though I didn¡¯t want to be the one doing this, I knew that there was no one other than me that could aplish this task. I just hated that it needed to be done in the first ce.


    The kids were still with my mom and Trinity¡¯s mom. They had taken Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley with them to the water park. My little sister Ivy and my Little Bunny¡¯s little sister Olivia were just a few months younger than our quadruplets. Even though these kids were technically from three generations in the same family, thanks to my mom marrying Trinity¡¯s grandfather, they were all about the same age. In fact, the most recent generation, my children, were all older than their aunts.


    It was an interesting family dynamic if you thought about it. But the kids didn¡¯t seem to care. They wouldugh about itter, about the curiosity of it all, but they were just happy to have other kids their same age. I mean, there had been a lot born around that time again. Almost all of our guards had kids within months of our youngest ones being born. That had been the first time that had happened since we had been pregnant with Reagan and Rika.


    When I was ready to go and find my Little Bunny, I knew that she would be in our room. That was on the top floor of the highest tower in the castle. That had been our room since this ce had been remodeled with Fae magic. I remember quite clearly the day that my Little Bunny and Valerian had used their magic to make this ce. That had also been the day that I learned about the ley lines that crossed underneath thends that my family had owned.


    .....


    So many memories were within these walls. So much has happened to us over thest twenty years. Actually, the twenty year anniversary of the day that we first met wasing up so soon. I would need to do something special to celebrate it with her. Because meeting my Little Bunny was definitely something that I wanted to celebrate.


    I found my wife in our room. She was justing out of her massive walk in closet. She was changing into something morefortable to wear around the house, which I approved of. Twenty years together and I didn¡¯t care if she was dressed up or looking like a bum. It didn¡¯t change who she was at all.


    ¡°Hey, baby.¡± I called out to her when I came into the room. She knew right away that something was wrong.


    ¡°You never call me baby.¡± She red at me. ¡°Not unless you are trying to break bad news to me. So, what is it? What is happening?¡± She knew better than to trust my fake positivity. She would see through it and me in a heartbeat.


    ¡°OK. OK. You¡¯re right, I have something I need to talk to you about. Come on, sit down. I think that you should be sitting down for this one.¡±


    I took my Little Bunny¡¯s hand and walked her over to the couch that was sitting near the doors to the balcony. We would often sit here and just watch the sky change colors when we were content and had nothing else to do.


    I could tell that my Little Bunny was waiting for the ball to drop. She was nervous, but not scared. She would take whatever it was that I said in stride. She wasn¡¯t going to let it destroy her, but she was going to worry about it still. And when she heard the whole story, she would then start working on a solution. That would be something that we worked on together. I wasn¡¯t going to leave it all up to her.


    ¡°Alright, Fido, what¡¯s going on?¡± The moment that she was sitting down she asked for the details. I hadn¡¯t even had the chance to sit yet.


    ¡°Well, I just got the quarterly reports, as you know. And there was something disturbing that I found out during that meeting.¡±


    ¡°Disturbing how?¡± She looked at me with cautious eyes as she tilted her head, waiting for the answer.


    ¡°Well, Trinity, I was listening to the report from western Europe when I found out that there had been a few murders that have taken ce. He reported that there were three of them that have happened in thest couple of months. They weren¡¯t in the same city, so they didn¡¯t seem connected at first. But when he brought me the information I didn¡¯t see it as a coincidence.¡±


    ¡°That is so heartbreaking.¡± She was shaking her head. Even after all of these years of ruling her kingdom, she was still so emotionally affected at times. ¡°There seems to be so much death and destruction in the worldtely. You know, just today, during lunch with Juniper, I saw a news report that said that there is a serial killer, or a group of killers that are guing Europe and Asia? They said that there has been a string of murders over thest few months. That is just horrible. And here I find out about three more.¡±


    ¡°What did you just say?¡± I felt like her words were a blow to my gut. If what she was saying was true, then I had even more bad news for her.


    ¡°You heard me just fine, Reece.¡± She shook her head and rolled her eyes at me. ¡°There have been several murders in thest few months.¡±


    ¡°Like maybe eighteen murders or so?¡± I couldn¡¯t believe that this was happening. Or that it was making global news like this. Some of these ces where the members of my kingdom had been killed were very tinymunities. It would not be likely that they would publicize what was happening. Not unless there was arger entity that was working with them to try and figure this all out.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t recall them saying how many murders that there has been. It just stated that there had been a string of murders. Why do you think that there were eighteen?¡± She was getting worried now. I could hear it in her voice. She knew that I was about to drop something big on her. Something that was going to destroy the rest of her day.


    ¡°Well, Little Bunny, that wasn¡¯t the only report that said that there had been a string of deaths. I heard it from several of them. And in total, between the different districts, there have been eighteen members of our kingdom murdered. They were primarily shifters, so they were strong. Still, something or someone managed to kill them. And I do not think that this is something that we can afford to overlook. This is too important and too sensitive of a topic.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡± She nodded her head just a little bit as she steeled her resolve. ¡°We need to take care of this right away. We need to find out who is targeting our people and why. And most of all, we need to stop them. We need to save the future victims of this person, or group of people. Whoever they are, wherever they are, I will find them, and I will punish them.¡±


    The look in my wife¡¯s eyes right now was one that I only saw when she was angry and serious. She was pissed off about these people. She wanted to stop them and save more innocent lives. And she would do it too. I hadplete faith in my wife. She was smart, capable, and most of all, determined.


    ¡°Alright, Little Bunny, let¡¯s gather the others. I think we need to have a meeting with more than just us. And when we¡¯re done with that, we can decide where to go from here.¡± I started to get up from the couch so that I could lead her out of the room.


    ¡°Wait, Reece.¡± She snapped at me. It was like she thought I was moving too quickly, here. ¡°We can¡¯t have that discussion unless we have the files from the murders that have taken ce.¡±


    ¡°I know that.¡± I smiled at her. ¡°I have already requested them. However, we have Rawlynne and Jackson at our disposal. They wille in handy during this investigation. Given that their Trinity-given talents include finding hidden information. They will most likely have it all pulled up and ready for us before the local police in those various locations could even pull their files.¡± I had a n. I always did. Well, almost always.


    ¡°Fine. We will call the meeting, but I don¡¯t want it to happen until after dinner. The kids will all be home soon, and I won¡¯t miss out on hearing about the tour from Reagan and Rika. Today was a big day for them, and I won¡¯t make them feel like it isn¡¯t as important to us as it was to them.¡±


    ¡°Alright, that is fine. It will give time for the others to get here. I will have them all meet us in your office after dinner.¡± My Little Bunny had a point here. We owed Reagan and Rika our undivided attention. I don¡¯t care that they were eighteen and going off to college, that didn¡¯t make them any less our children than they were when they were under the age of eighteen. The meeting could wait a couple of hours, that wouldn¡¯t make that much of a difference anyway.


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 Chapter 823

    Chapter 823: Chapter 8- Trinity ¨C About The Tour (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was trying not to let the emotions show on my face when I went downstairs with Reece. Mom and L had just brought Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley back from the waterpark and I knew that they would want to excitedly tell me about their day. Not only that, but I needed to hear about Talia¡¯s training session with Lucifer and the tour that Reagan and Rika went on. It was going to be a busy night for me since I was their mom. And, of course, Reece would be right there with me as well. We would listen to them all, make sure that they felt appreciated and loved, and only when they went back to their rooms would Reece and I be able to attend the meeting that we were calling the others to.


    Reece had already told everyone that we would be meeting them in my office after dinner. My office would be the best because, as the queen, my office was the biggest. Way bigger than Reece¡¯s office and his was the secondrgest in the entire castle.


    ¡°It was so cool, Mom. I swear. That big water slide was so tall that I felt like I was sliding down it forever. It was so amazing.¡± Zachary was excitedly recounting a story for me as I smiled at him.


    ¡°It¡¯s true. It was so big, and the floor just dropped out from under you, it was amazing.¡± Zander was adding to the tale for him.


    .....


    ¡°I liked it too, but the falling was a bit scary at first. Once I got over that though, it was fun. I went on that slide several times.¡± Zayden grinned as he excitedly shared his part of the story.


    ¡°What about you, Zaley, did you like it too?¡± Reagan asked his youngest sister. She had been very quiet since dinner started and was letting her brothers talk for the most part.


    ¡°I loved that slide. I loved them all. They were really fun.¡± I could see that she was not the happiest though, and I had a feeling I knew why. Mom had warned me that something happened, but she said she would leave it to the kids to tell me what it was. Though, knowing the group that was gone, I had a feeling that I knew what had happened.


    ¡°What happened today?¡± I didn¡¯t probe into a specific situation. I didn¡¯t lead them into what to say. I just asked that sort of vague question. And that was all it took.


    All four of them were looking at each other then. I could tell that they had something to tell me about the water park. And they were deciding who it was that was going to tell me and Reece about it. It was decided that the natural leader of them would tell us what had transpired at the waterpark.


    ¡°Well, some people were making fun of Zaley.¡± Zachary looked angry as he spoke. ¡°They were calling her names and saying that she should leave. They treated her badly, and we couldn¡¯t let that happen.¡±


    ¡°They were older than us and were so childish.¡± Zayden was angry. He was only ever angry when it came to Zaley.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t care though. I could handle it.¡± Zaley was looking between her brothers as she said that. She didn¡¯t like it when they got angry at people. She just wanted everyone to get along as best as they could.


    ¡°That¡¯s not the point.¡± Zander¡¯s voice was soft and soothing for her. ¡°And we¡¯re your brothers. It¡¯s our job to protect you. It¡¯s always been our job.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, Zaley, we need to protect you.¡± Zachary added in a calming voice.


    ¡°What did you do?¡± Reece, knowing his boys, asked in his ¡®dad¡¯ voice. He knew what they were capable of since they were exactly like him.


    ¡°We didn¡¯t hurt anyone. We just, uhm, w..w..we just made them a little scared. That was all. We didn¡¯t shift or do anything that would expose us.¡± Zachary was always the strong one, unless me or Reece were being stern. Then he was always repentant with us.


    ¡°They were shifters too, Momma. They were being mean to Zaley when she is their princess.¡± Zander was adding in their defense.


    ¡°We just sort of got a little mad at them and we, uhm, we reminded them who we were and why they needed to go to hell.¡±


    ¡°ZACHARY!¡± Both Reece and I snapped at him when he swore. Yeah, it wasn¡¯t a truly bad word, but he didn¡¯t need to be saying it right now.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± He hung his head in shame. ¡°I..I just wanted to protect my sister.¡±


    ¡°I understand.¡± Reagan called out to him. ¡°I would have done the same. Actually, when some boy was talking to Rika today, I basically wanted to do the same thing. But I think this boy that she was talking to was actually a human, so I had to be nice.¡±


    ¡°You think he was a human?¡± I asked Reagan is a skeptical sort of voice.


    ¡°Rika was talking to a boy?¡± Of course, that was where Reece¡¯s mind would go.


    ¡°Yes, Daddy, I was talking to a boy.¡± Rika rolled her eyes at him and tried not tough at his over the top response.


    ¡°Yes, Momma, I think that he was a human. He smelled human, but he had a different sort of aura to him. I don¡¯t know how to exin it.¡±


    ¡°Hmm.¡± I thought about it for a moment. ¡°Maybe they are humans but they have someone supernatural in their lineage. Like someone that had been pretty far back like Athair m¨®r was for me.¡± I was thinking about the fact that I had Fae blood going back for generations and no one knew about it. ¡°If they were just pure humans other than that one Fae, it might have diluted the blood line and made it so they no longer have the Fae abilities but they are just a little less than pure human.¡±


    ¡°Possibly.¡± I watched Reagan shrug his shoulders like he didn¡¯t really care one way or the other. ¡°Still, he wasn¡¯t a bad guy. Not really. Just the fact that he was flirting with my little sister.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re twins, Reagan.¡± Rika snapped at him. ¡°I am not your little sister.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m still a month older than you.¡± He snapped back at her.


    ¡°OH MY GODDESS!¡± She threw her head back at the outburst from her brother. We were all used to this by now. ¡°You are like twenty minutes older than me. We just happened to be born on two different days that were in two different months. That does not make you a month older than me. For crying out loud, Reagan, grow up.¡±


    ¡°Me, grow up? Look at the way you were fawning all over that guy. That was like a middle school crush if you ask me.¡±


    ¡°Enough!¡± Reece shuddered as heshed out. ¡°I do not want to think about that. None of my daughters are allowed to date or be married until they¡¯re a hundred years old.¡±


    ¡°What in the world!?¡± Rika snapped at him.


    ¡°That isn¡¯t fair, Daddy!¡± Talia recoiled.


    ¡°I don¡¯t care.¡± Zaley addedst.


    ¡°Reece, I think that is unfair.¡± I supported them. ¡°When they find someone, like their mate, you can¡¯t stand in their way.¡±


    ¡°Watch me.¡± Reece red at me. ¡°I will scare away all of the guys. Or make them disappear.¡± He rubbed his hand together like he was some sort of evil viin.


    ¡°You¡¯re such an idiot sometimes, Dad. You know that. Such a big idiot.¡± Rika crossed her arms and pouted at him. ¡°I was only talking to him. Nothing else. You need to stop treating me like a baby.¡±


    ¡°I know. I know.¡± Reece sounded repentant. He didn¡¯t like that his daughter was mad at him. ¡°It¡¯s just that, well, I love you. You¡¯re my baby girl. And I can¡¯t have some boy hurting you like that.¡±


    ¡°I can take care of myself Dad. And it¡¯s not like I was all that interested in him. He was just there and I talked to him. There was nothing else to it. We talked and I got to know a little about him and his friends. They¡¯re all orphans that came here from Germany.¡±


    ¡°Really? That¡¯s interesting.¡± I tried to support Rika in her endeavor. At the very least, I wanted to let her know that I was not against her making new friends.


    ¡°We all ended up talking. Not just Rika and Clovio. The whole group made friends. There were the five German kids and then these three girls that were from the surrounding areas. That was all that was in our group for the tour. I never really realized just howrge of a group we had until now though. Seeing it was sort of overwhelming.¡±


    Reagan and Rika had grown up with all of these people around them. To them, it was just normal. But seeing howrge of a group they hadpared to others was definitely a shock to them. If the entire group of kids had gone to that school, it would have overwhelmed the tour guides for sure.


    For the rest of dinner, I listened to Reagan and Rika tell us all about their day and then Talia told us about her lessons with Lucifer. All seven had an interesting time, one way or another. And that right there was why I made sure that I listened to them every day. I needed to know these things. I needed to be told what was going on if I wanted to be there for my children.


    Not to mention, I loved them all so much and I wanted to be there for them.


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 Chapter 824

    Chapter 824: Chapter 9- Trinity ¨C Meeting Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Dinner was over, and I knew exactly what that meant. It was time for me to go with Reece to talk to the others. It was time to tell them all about the murders. And, hopefully, some of the case files would have been sent over. If not, I would be relying entirely on Rawlynne and Jackson for that information.


    I hugged and kissed my seven children as they left the dining room. Most of them were going back to their rooms while Reece and I went down to my office. They all knew that we were going to have a meeting, they knew that we were working, but they didn¡¯t know what it was all about. And if I could help it, they would never know.


    I don¡¯t care if Reagan and Rika were technically adults, or that Talia was getting older and all that, none of them needed to know that there was a killer, or several killers, out there targeting our people. They hadn¡¯t yet made it to our country, so for the time being, they were safe. For the time being, we didn¡¯t need to tell any of them what was happening.


    Reece and I walked in silence as we moved from the dining room in our personal quarters to the elevator and down to my office. We were there before the others arrived, that was to be expected, but it wasn¡¯t long before the rest of them started to filter in.


    .....


    Noah was the first to join us in the room. He came in and sat just to the side of Reece. He was in the chair that was closest to him without him standing behind or next to him. After Noah, was Vincent. He came to sit next to me just like Noah had to Reece. Noah was Reece¡¯s second inmand whereas Vincent was mine. These men were the ones that we went to first after seeking out the advice of our spouse. They were also the people that had been with us the longest. I had seen Vincent¡¯s children grow up, just like I had my brother¡¯s children. Vincent¡¯s oldest child, Conner, was almost as old as Vincent was when I first met him. That was just how long he had been a part of my life.


    The others started to file in and take their seats after that. Shawn and Dietrich were next. David and Rawlynne came together as well. Shane and Jackson did not bring their mates with them like the others had since their mates were not part of this discussion. And rounding out the meeting was Gabriel, my personal attendant and assistant. He had been with me almost as long as Vincent and the others had been. And I had watched his children grow up as well. His oldest was about the same age as Talia was now.


    ¡°Alright, it looks like everyone is here.¡± Reece stood to address everyone first. He was always doing this. I think that over the years, he wanted to take some of the responsibility and authority upon himself, so he did it however he could.


    As I watched him start to address the group, he walked around the room to where the files were waiting for us. When we got to my office, I saw that there were three of them waiting for us. Just three of the eighteen files that we needed. It was a start, though, and it meant that we could at least get started on the case.


    ¡°Most of you have not heard about this, but there has been a string of murderstely.¡±


    ¡°Murders?¡± Shawn sounded surprised when he heard what Reece had to say. His silvery gray eyes were opened wide in shock as he said that one word.


    ¡°In this area?¡± Jackson, who looked just the same as the day that I met him. Dark brown eyes, light blond hair, innocent and almost childlike expression, and he didn¡¯t look a day older than when I met him neen years ago.


    ¡°I haven¡¯t heard about any murders in our area.¡± Rawlynne pulled her phone from her pocket and started to check it like she was looking at reports that were recently filed. She probably did have ess to them on that phone, with her ability I had given her, she had ess to so much more information than most people.


    Man, looking at Rawlynne, I couldn¡¯t believe how inferior and jealous I used to be. She was so beautiful and amazing, but she was never out to upstage me at all. She was just as young looking as Jackson was. They had been partners in the FBI for years before I met them long ago. Rawlynne had dark brown eyes with an inner ring of gold that made them pop. Her hair used to be long and wavy, but she kept it a little shorter now. It had to take her a long time to make it less wavy in the mornings, but she looked great with that pixie cut of hers. And she was only about five-foot seven, just a few inches taller than me. None of the feminine and delicate ways that she looked took away anything from the badass nature she seemed to naturally project onto the world. She was so cool at all times.


    ¡°No, not around here.¡± I told them before Reece could. ¡°These murders have been happening in Europe and Asia.¡±


    ¡°If they¡¯re so far away, why are they a concern for us?¡± Shane asked in a confused sort of tone.


    ¡°Yeah, why is it something that we are looking into if they are thousands of miles away?¡± David was just as curious as Shane seemed to be.


    ¡°Because even though these murders have been taking ce in other countries and on other continents, each and every one of the victims has been a member of my kingdom.¡±


    I saw that they were all shocked to hear this. Well, all of them except for Reece and Noah. I knew that Noah had been at the meeting with Reece this afternoon, so he was not hearing this for the first time. The others though, hadn¡¯t been part of that meeting and didn¡¯t know what was happening to our people.


    ¡°They¡¯re shifters and other super naturals?¡± Gabriel¡¯s jaw had dropped in disbelief before he even asked that question of me. ¡°Someone is killing our own people?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t yet know if they were shifters or magic users, I just know that their deaths were reported to Reece this afternoon during the quarterly report.¡± I answered him as calmly as I could. However, I did notice that my voice was somber and filled with emotion for all of those people that had lost their lives.


    ¡°Do we suspect that it was another shifter or magic user that killed them? Do we suspect a Fae or a Vampire? What do we know about the details of the case so far?¡± Rawlynne, proving that she deserved to be running that FBI field office, started to ask questions that probed into the nature of the case.


    ¡°We don¡¯t know much yet. I have three files that have been sent to me, the rest are still on their way. And, truth be told, we will most likely be relying on you and Jackson to find as much information as we can. The two of you will be vital to this investigation.¡± Reece answered that for me. He was quicker with his response, and I noticed that he was likely more calm than I would have been if it had been me that exined things to her.


    ¡°Yes, of course, we will assist you in whatever way that we can.¡± Jackson nodded in response. I remember when he was just a human, back before he met his wife and wanted to be more like her. She was a bear and not a wolf, but bing a shifter made him more like her than a human would have been.


    ¡°How many murders have there been?¡± Dietrich had been looking very intense and serious since he heard what this meeting was about. I could tell that he was going to be highly focused on helping us find the culprit behind these murders.


    ¡°So far, there are at least eighteen. I do not know if this person, or group of people, have killed anyone that is not part of my kingdom, but I know that they have killed eighteen of my people so far.¡±


    I saw their faces. All of them looked about the same at that moment. Even Reece was wearing an expression that was simr to the rest of theirs. They were scared, worried, angry, and determined at the same time. They were scared for the innocent people that we might not be able to save in time. They were worried that this asshole, or group of assholes, might strike again before we had a chance to do anything about it. They were angry that someone had decided to do this in the first ce, and they were determined to put an end to it.


    I had known that they would be driven to put an end to this even before I had called these people to this meeting. That was just who they were. They wouldn¡¯t be able to stand for this to happen. They wouldn¡¯t care if it were humans or supernatural beings, they would be angry and determined to stop them at any costs. That was just who they were. Who all of them were. Good people, and great warriors.


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 Chapter 825

    Chapter 825: Chapter 10- Reece ¨C Meeting Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    The tension in my Little Bunny¡¯s office was so thick that you could cut it with a knife. It was so stifling that it was almost hard to breathe. That was fine though. Let them be tense and worried about it. That would just mean that they would all end up trying their best.


    ¡°As I said before, I have three case files that have already been sent to us. The others areing soon, but we can see what was discovered at the initial crime scene.¡± I finally sat back down in my seat next to my Little Bunny¡¯s. I had been pacing the room with the files in my hand for several minutes now.


    ¡°Are we sure that the local police were able to gather the information that had been needed? Or the local Alphas? Who was it that initially investigated these crimes?¡± Dietrich seemed way more focused on this than I thought that he would be. Not that I thought he wouldn¡¯t care or anything, but even when he was intent and focused, he usually had an aloof sort of air to him. Right now though, he was angry, determined, and clearly pissed off. Maybe he was just upset about it all, but maybe, just maybe, it was something else entirely.


    ¡°I am not sure, Dietrich.¡± I told him as I flipped open the first case file. ¡°This is the first time that we are looking into the files. We called this meeting as soon as both Trinity and I knew about the murders. You are hearing about it all before we¡¯ve looked into the files. Everything that you have heard came from the mouths of others.¡± I knew that some of them would find it odd that we didn¡¯t look into it first, but there was no time to waste here. They could find out everything at the same time that Trinity and I did.


    .....


    ¡°Well, there is one more thing that I know.¡± My Little Bunny looked up from the file that I had handed her and eyed them all individually before continuing. ¡°The humans know about the murders. There was a news report this afternoon about the string of murders in Europe and Asia. They said they weren¡¯t sure if it was one person or a group of people, but they seem to think that all of the murders are connected. That tells me that as we investigate further, we will likely find something that ties the murders together. If there is enough for the humans to think that they are rted, then I am sure that we will see it once we start looking into things more thoroughly.¡±


    Aside from Trinity, I was the only one that knew that the humans had been reporting on these murders. Well, except for maybe Juniper, but she didn¡¯t know about the fact that they were all our people. So that meant that Noah, Shawn, Dietrich, Vincent, David and Gabriel all snapped their heads in my Little Bunny¡¯s direction when they heard her words. They had not been expecting to find out that the humans knew about these deaths. And the fact that they were reporting on it on a global scale meant that there would be a lot of media attention for this case.


    ¡°We are going to have to be careful, aren¡¯t we?¡± Shawn looked like he was not feeling very well at all.


    ¡°Yeah, if we¡¯re not careful, the humans would start to wonder why two FBI agents and a bunch of random people from Colorado are poking their noses into this case. They might suspect us of one thing or another. At the very least, they will wonder why the mega billionaire, Reece Gray, and his lovely young wife Trinity, are so interested in finding the culprits behind these murders. Regardless of where this case takes us, we need to tread carefully.¡± Surprisingly, Shane¡¯s words werepletely devoid of humor or mirth. I never knew that he could be so serious. He managed it though. And on top of that, he was one hundred percent right. If the humans found out that we were investigating this case, they would question why we were involving ourselves.


    We could just say that we were concerned and wanted to help the families of the victims get closure. However, doing that would leave us open for other people to contact us out of the blue and ask us for help. We would be seen as some sort of vigntes that searched the world for answers to crimes that others had given up on or something. While I had no problem helping them all if I could, it was beyond me and my patience to do that for all of the people in the world.


    Hmm. Perhaps that just means that I need to start yet another division of mypany. I could have some people that I trust work on solving these cases that the police and otherw enforcement agencies had given up on. That was the only way we could help them all. And it would also give us a nice cover story. It was definitely worth looking into. I might have to call a friend of ours. Someone we knew but hadn¡¯t talked to in a long time. I am pretty sure that Jacy and her husband Kyle could handle this. Not to mention their friends. It was basically what they did anyway.


    ¡°What is in the file, Trinity?¡± Noah asked as he saw his sister looking over the information in her hand. I hadn¡¯t even really looked into the file that was in my hands. I had been focusing on the other information. Thankfully, though, Trinity and Noah were moving us along. They were going to keep us focused.


    ¡°This is the first of the files that I am looking at. Like Reece said earlier, there will be eighteen in total when we get the rest of them. This one has a copy of the local police report as well as a report by the local Alpha and leader of the local Coven. They all seemed to give their insights to what was going on. This murder took ce in a small vige in Wales. The vige was named Gwyn Gough and it is not far from the city of Wrexham. The police there were the ones that responded to the scene and assisted the locals.¡±


    I could see that Trinity was trying to not let the details and images in that file affect her. She was always so empathetic that she took things like this personally. I worried about her and the things that were going to be happening soon.


    ¡°The victim, twenty-two year old Nis Moss, was found on the outskirts of the town. There is a collection of stones that the vigers use as a religious site. The vige is predominantly wolves, of which the victim was a wolf as well. The body was found by a human named Mair Gethin. She was taking an early morning walk when she saw the body posed among the stones. There was blood sttered on the grass, stones, and nearby trees. The victim had their throat cut and their heart removed. There were also two different markings that were carved into the body. One was on the chest next to the hole where the heart had been, the other was on the forehead.¡±


    ¡°What were the symbols?¡± David¡¯s voice was steady and even, but I could tell that he had felt some sort of anger and fear mixed together while my Little Bunny read the details from the report.


    ¡°The one on the forehead looks like a peace symbol without the circle. The one on the chest is a set of three interlocking triangles. It is too close to the Trinity symbol for my liking.¡± I could tell that she wasn¡¯t happy with the details in that case file.


    ¡°Can I see those symbols?¡± Dietrich was on his feet and reaching for the file before Trinity had even answered him.


    ¡°Yeah. Here.¡± My Little Bunny passed the folder to him without looking at him.


    ¡°Do they mean something to you?¡± I felt like there was something different about the way that he responded to the description of those markings.


    ¡°Yes. I think I know what they are. And if I am right, then this definitely isn¡¯t good.¡±


    Dietrich flipped the file open and started to look at the pictures that were inside of it. He was looking at the image intently. I could tell that he was trying to prove himself wrong more than he was trying to prove that he was right.


    ¡°What do they mean, Dietrich?¡± Trinity asked him when he sighed and sank back into his chair.


    ¡°The one on his forehead is a Todes Rune. It means death. The other one, the three triangles, is the Valknut Rune. It is basically a protection against the spirits. Using these together like this would be like trapping the spirit of the dead inside their body.¡± There was anger in his voice and in his eyes.


    ¡°Where are these runes from, Dietrich?¡± I had to ask. I had to know, and so did my Little Bunny.


    ¡°They¡¯re old Germanic runes. They have their origins in Scandinavian and Norse mythologies. If the group that ismitting these murders is using these runes, then it is safe to say that they are from somewhere in Europe. Particrly from the areas that I am very familiar with.¡± When Dietrich looked up from the papers in his hands, I saw that his eyes had gone even more white than usual. They were showing how angry he was at the moment. If he were human, he would probably be shaking in his rage.


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 Chapter 826

    Chapter 826: Chapter 11- Trinity ¨C Meeting Part 3 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Dietrich was clearly not happy right now. And I didn¡¯t me him. He knew about these symbols. He knew what they meant and where they were from. He had a reason to be upset about them and possibly even to be afraid of them.


    ¡°What I want to know is, what these symbols have to do with our victim? What purpose do they serve? And are they on all of the victims? And if they are on all of the victims, then is it like a signature? Or does it have a different purpose? There are so many variables that we need to look at here.¡± Reece was exining what was going on in his head as we all tried to figure out what was going on in these ces and what had happened to these people.


    ¡°Well, we would need the rest of the files to know if the marks are on all the victims. We can, however, determine if these marks are on all the victims that we have the files for.¡± I pulled another file toward me, the one that Reece hadn¡¯t been holding on to. ¡°Let¡¯s see, this victim is from Scond. The vige they were from was called Gennenin and it is close to Ayr. Her name was Darcey McCormack and she was neen years old. She had the same marks carved into her body as Nis did. She also had her throat cut and her heart removed. It looks to me like the method of this kill was the same as thest one. This here is what I would call a serial killer. Assuming that all the kills were the same.¡±


    I was doing my best to sound clinical and not let the facts of this case get to me. I want to ry the information while trying not to let the fact that this gruesome murder, of which I was seeing graphic images of, had happened to someone who was supposed to be an immortal like me. This person was not what you would call ¡®easy prey¡¯ for a human. This person would have to have been targeted by someone capable of doing this to someone strong and capable.


    .....


    ¡°Was the victim another wolf?¡± Dietrich asked me as he rubbed at his temples. I could tell that this information was getting to him. He was having a hard time processing that these people were using symbols that he knew about. Or at least, I was assuming that was the issue here.


    ¡°No. This victim was a ck bear. She may have been a woman, but she would have been strong and capable of protecting herself. This tells me that the killer was either stronger than her or had somehow incapacitated her in some way. Whoever they are, they know what they are doing and that is not a good thing. This makes them a danger to so many people in the world.¡± I tried not to shudder as I inspected the images more. I needed to put this file down. I needed to move on. ¡°Reece, what happened to the third victim.¡± I didn¡¯t want to look into that file. I wanted to have someone else take on that responsibility. I needed them to. I would listen, and I would look at the picturester but, for right now, I just needed them to tell me what had happened.


    ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s take a look.¡± I think that Reece knew that, after looking at the other two files, I needed to take a break. I needed to not be the one looking at it right now. I needed him to be the one seeing the horror for me. ¡°This third file is for a man named Krishna Shah. He lived in a small outlyingmunity in Chukhung, Nepal. He was a witch doctor that worked as a local healer. He was forty-seven years old and well liked by hismunity. He had the same symbols carved onto his head and his chest. His throat had been slit and his heart was removed, just like the other victims. However, Krishna was also burned in several ces. His hands, feet and the top of his head. There was also a brand in the shape of a sword burned over top of his naval area. This victim had more done to the body, thankfully it all appears to be post mortem. However, it is still clear that the signature, or the way that they were killed, is the same. If this isn¡¯t the same exact person, it is someone who knows exactly what they are doing to the other victims.¡± Reece sounded like he was giving a speech, something that he was just reciting and not emotionally involved in.


    ¡°This victim was in Asia while the others were in the United Kingdom. When were they killed? What were the dates?¡± I started to pull the first two toward me again. The dates alone would be able to tell us if it were even possible for this to be the same killer. ¡°Nis was killed on July the twentieth.¡± I looked at the first report and then checked the date for Darcey¡¯s file. ¡°And this one was on July the twenty-fifth. Is very possible for them to have been killed by the same person.¡±


    ¡°Well, Krishna was also killed on July the twenty-fifth. So that tells me that we have at least two different killers.¡± Reece set the file down and looked up at me. I could see the horror that he had seen in that file reflected in his eyes. He knew now why I had wanted someone else to be the one to do that for me.


    ¡°We need to get a timeline going. We have to know when the victims were murdered, that will tell us how many possible killers we have. At the very least, it will tell us how many different groups of killers we have. We also need to find out if the murders that were reported about on the news were humans, or if all the kills were from ourmunity. Dietrich, I want you to contact the different covens in your kingdom. Find out if there were any murders among your people. If anyone has gone missing all of a sudden or just haven¡¯t been located in a while. We need to know if these murders are limited to my kingdom or not.¡± I was giving orders to the others as I thought about what needed to be done. This was going to be a busy time for us, but we needed to make sure that we handled this with care and precision. I was not about to let these killers get away with this, but I wasn¡¯t about to be reckless either. ¡°These people are obviously capable of killing people that are not human. And they seem to be good at it too. We all need to be careful. We need to make sure that we are thorough and that we don¡¯t miss anything.¡±


    ¡°I agree. We need to make sure that we don¡¯t overlook a single piece of evidence. These people deserve our help, they deserve justice.¡± Dietrich¡¯s voice was saddened by the information that we had received. ¡°I will call my people immediately following this meeting. I will find out if any of the vampires have disappeared. We need aplete list of victims, and that includes their species as well.¡±


    ¡°Agreed. We need to startpiling all the data that we can get andb through it for anything and everything that will be able to help us find these people.¡± Gabriel was now looking at the file for Darcey McCormack. Being the man that was the most analytical of the group, and the one most used to dealing withrge quantities of information, I just knew that he was going to be a valuable asset to this team.


    ¡°I am going to set aside one of the conference rooms for us to use. It will be off limits to everyone that is not part of this investigation. I don¡¯t want to spread panic among the people in the castle or the surrounding areas. The less that they know for the time being, the better.¡± I was already trying to figure out which room would be best for us to use, and let¡¯s not forget about deciding on which protection spells to add to the room. It needed to stay locked against the staff and other potential visitors to the room.


    ¡°Let¡¯s not drag our feet on this at all.¡± Reece was on his feet again. I knew that this was to make it appear that he had more authority in the situation, but it was also something that he did when he was nervous. He needed to pace and to burn off some of the energy and steam that was coursing through him. ¡°The sooner we fix this situation, the better.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡± Just about all of the men in the room nodded and spoke at the same time. Rawlynne and I, the only women in the room, looked at each other and then all the men around us. I knew that this wouldn¡¯t be over too quickly. If these people were going to be that easy to catch, they would not have been able to do this in the first ce. These people were smart. They were skilled. And they were organized. They would not be caught so easily. It was going to take everything that we had just to be able to stop them. And it was going to take me leaving my family to investigate personally. That was something I had managed to avoid doing for a long time now. More than ten years to be exact. Now though, my people needed me and I would be there for them.


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 Chapter 827

    Chapter 827: Chapter 12- Trinity ¨C Organizing Data (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Over the next several hours, and into the next morning, information was flooding in. It wasing in so fast that we were temporarily overwhelmed with it. We were just putting it in piles while we tried to figure out what went where.


    All of this new information was going into the room that I set aside for us to use. I had blocked off the conference room that was just below my office. It was normally only able to be reached from the hallway on that floor, but I decided to make a few modifications to it for the time being. I created a staircase in my office that would take us down to that conference room. I also temporarily removed the doors to that room so that the only exit was through my office. It was, for all intents and purposes, a hidden room for my office.


    Gabriel, Vincent, Shawn and Dietrich stayed at the office from the moment that the meeting was over. They were receiving reports and files from other countries and putting things into different piles. We were going to be working on organizing it first thing in the morning.


    After the meeting was over, Rawlynne and Jackson went straight back to their office. Rawlynne was the director of the local field office and was able to ess more information than those that worked around her. However, her and Jackson, with their powers that I had given them so long ago, were able to ess more than the average person could ever even dream of. If the information was in a system anywhere in the world, they would be able to ess it. Too bad that this information didn¡¯t just t out tell them who it was that was killing my people.


    .....


    I wanted to keep working like the others were, but I was forbidden to do so. Reece, Gabriel and Vincent told me that after I closed off the room, he and I were to go back to our tower and show the kids that there was nothing wrong. If we didn¡¯t do that, then we would run the risk of prematurely causing a panic to run through the castle. And, until we were ready to go and visit these crime scenes ourselves, we needed to keep the investigation a secret from everyone else.


    After Talia, Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley all went to school the following morning, and Reagan and Rika went to spend some time with their new friends, Reece and I got back to work on the case. I wasn¡¯t going to sit idly by and not help with this case.


    ¡°So, what do we have so far?¡± I asked the others as I came into the room. Instantly, Gabriel and Vincent looked up at me and started to work in tandem as they exined things to me.


    ¡°We have received twelve of the remaining case files. We are just waiting on a couple more that should be here soon.¡± Vincent spoke first. He was getting to his feet and straightening a pile of papers before setting them aside.


    ¡°We arepiling the victim¡¯s details first. Ages, species, manner of death even though they are all the same, the dates that they were killed, and anything else that stands out at this point.¡± Gabriel added as he wrote something on a dry erase board behind him.


    ¡°We have photos of the victims before and after the murders. We are putting together as much of a timeline as possible, but I do believe that we will need to speak with their family and friends to know if there was anyone unusual in the area leading up to the murders.¡±


    ¡°We are going to need to find out when they werest seen, who they were with, and how these people managed to get the victims alone and how they managed to overpower them.¡± Vincent set a pile of documents at the head of the table, presumably for me to review when I finally got to work on them all. ¡°I suggest that we go through all of this as quickly, yet thoroughly as we possibly can. After that, we should travel to the site of each of the murders so that we can gather more information. There won¡¯t be anything like seeing it first hand to see if there was anything else that we are missing.¡±


    ¡°I agree. We should go there in person. And just as you said, we need to go over all of this information before we go. It would also be helpful to have someone that stays behind topile and analyze everything that we discover at the various crime scenes.¡±


    Just as I was agreeing with Vincent and Gabriel, I heard the sound of footsteps thundering down the stairs to the conference room. I could already tell that there were four peopleing into the room, and it sounded to me like they were all wanting to get to me before the others did.


    First into the room was Shawn and Dietrich. They were leading the group, most likely because they were able to shadow walk ahead of the others. The others in this case being Rawlynne and Jackson. I could see that thetter of the group had stacks of documents with them. Dietrich was carrying a file folder with him, so I assumed that meant that he was here to tell me something as well. Whatever was going on, they were all in a hurry about it.


    ¡°Trinity!¡± Dietrich called out to me the moment that he was able to see me. He normally didn¡¯t shadow walk unless he had to. It was something that he liked to avoid since it made people ufortable. This time though, he was walking through all of the shadows that he could so that he was at my side in a hurry.


    ¡°Yes, Dietrich, what is it?¡± I gave him and Shawn, who was also shadow walking, my undivided attention.


    ¡°I have information for you. Things that I think that you need to see.¡± He turned and started to unload the contents of his folder onto the table. ¡°I called my people as you suggested. I asked them all about people that had gone missing, people that I should be concerned about.¡±


    ¡°And?¡± I knew that this was not going to be good news. I knew that he wouldn¡¯t be this frantic if he hadn¡¯t learned that there had been murdered vampires.


    ¡°Well, let¡¯s just say that our victim count has now reached at least thirty.¡± He was spreading out the documents into twelve different piles.


    ¡°Another dozen?¡± I asked as I looked down at the papers that he had for me.


    ¡°Yes. All of these victims were vampires. All of them went missing for some time and waster found murdered by their friends.¡±


    ¡°Not by a human?¡± I asked as I picked up the first document and saw the name of the deceased. The name was Helena Thatcher from London. She had been found on top of the Eiffel Tower following a vacation that she tookst month.


    ¡°No, humans hadn¡¯t found them. They went missing and were not heard from for several days to weeks. When their friends began to worry about them, they went looking for the missing persons. Apparently, all of them were foundst week. The liaison that was gathering the information said that he was already preparing to contact me. He had just started to receive this information the day before yesterday. I just reached out to him before he could contact me. Also, all of these murders happened in Europe. Between the United Kingdom and other western European nations. These people seem to be primarily targeting the supernaturalmunity. I do not know who they are, but they are definitely a threat to us all.¡±


    ¡°Well, I just received word that the string of homicides that was reported on the news was for twenty-seven individuals, not eighteen. And all of them are shifters, magic users, or fae. Jackson and I looked into them all briefly, and not a single one of them appears to be human. It is definitely true that these people are only after nonhumans.¡± Rawlynne wasying out the information that she had on the table as well. She was making it so that we all could see the various cases that had been reported on.


    ¡°Well, I think it¡¯s safe to say now, but it looks like it might be a really bad time to be one of us.¡± Reece was standing beside me, looking at all the documents that had just beenid out before us.


    ¡°Yes, and I hate to say this, but I am starting to suspect a human group is behind this.¡± I looked up in time to see that the others were both shocked to hear this and seemed to be expecting it at the same time. ¡°Whoever these people are, whatever their group is after, it is clear that they hate us for not being human.¡±


    ¡°But how did they find out about us? How do they know how to kill us?¡± Shawn, with his eyes wavering in fear and fury, asked those questions with desperation in his voice.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what they want, or who they are, but I promise that they will pay.¡± The conviction in my voice was stronger than anything that I expected to feel at the moment. Well, everything except for my anger. That was already raging and still growing. ¡°Come on everyone, we¡¯ve got work to do.¡±


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 Chapter 828

    Chapter 828: Chapter 13- Trinity ¨C Organizing Data Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    For the rest of the day, we organized all of the victim information. We made a timeline, we categorized everything that we could, and we put it all into its rightful ce. By the time that we were done, we had a pretty urate guess on how many groups of killers that there were.


    Based on my best guess, there were five groups of killers that were guing Europe and Asia. There had to be at least two or more people in each group. And they were definitely targeting nonhumans. Other than that, I couldn¡¯t tell you anything at all about who they were or why they were doing all of this.


    ¡°Rawlynne, Jackson, the two of you won¡¯t have any authority in another country, so I want the two of you to stay here and run information for us. Reece, Gabriel, Vincent, Shawn, Dietrich, Shane, and David wille with me. We are going to the different murder scenes. We will investigate them all and make sure that we have as much information as possible. I want to stop these people before they kill again.¡±


    ¡°That seems unlikely.¡± Vincent looked at me somberly. ¡°They¡¯ve been killing every five days without fail. Their first kills seem to have been on July the tenth. If they stick to their current schedule, then their next kill will be on the neenth. And that also means that we will most likely be getting reports of more killsing in soon. Last night was the fifth day since the previous kills.¡±


    .....


    ¡°More were killedst night?¡± I felt the shock flooding through me as I processed his words.


    ¡°It¡¯s possible. I mean, it would fit the pattern.¡± He was looking at the timeline that we had prepared, and I could see that he was right. Every murder, aside from the vampires, had happened in five-day intervals. Andst night was the day that they were due again.


    I swear, at that very moment a phone rang somewhere in the room. I was filled with dread the moment that I heard it. I knew, I just knew that this was going to be a call about more murders. Someone, or multiple someones had just lost their lives in other parts of the world.


    ¡°This is Vincent.¡± The ringing stopped when he pulled the phone out of his pocket and pressed it to his ear. ¡°Yeah. Mhmm. Are you sure? Any more than that? Send it as soon as you can.¡±


    Before Vincent ended the call, I could tell that he was not very happy. His eyes were clouded over with anger and there was a set to his jaw and shoulders that told me just how much tension was in his body at the moment.


    ¡°How many?¡± I asked him. I just knew that it was someone to report something relevant to the case.


    ¡°An Alpha in Switzend just reported that two of his pack members were murdered. They are a fox n, really small and close knit. They know that someone from out of the area had to have done this.¡±


    ¡°How did they know to call?¡± Reece asked him with a surprised look in his eyes.


    ¡°I sent word earlier. I told them that there have been a few people missingtely. I exined to them that we are working on finding out just who they are and what happened. I didn¡¯t tell them that people were murdered or anything like that, I didn¡¯t want to cause panic just make them more alert.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Vincent.¡± I nodded at him. He had done the right thing. And he had the authority to do it too. Next to Reece, he was the man that had the most authority to act on my behalf. He was my right hand man and knew better than most what I would want to have done.


    ¡°Not a problem. It¡¯s my job.¡±


    Just then, there was another phone ringing. This one wasing from Rawlynne. She was close enough to me that I could pinpoint the location of the ringing easily enough.


    ¡°This is Agent Otsana.¡± She must have answered her work phone, the one that was used for official business with the FBI. ¡°Yeah, I have been looking into them, why?¡± She paused for a moment while a male voice responded on the other end of the phone. ¡°Shit!¡± She seemed angry at whatever she had heard. ¡°Based on the data that I have seen about the murders, it appears that they are killing in a certain pattern.¡± The man on the other end seemed to be giving her some details pertaining to the case but he wasn¡¯t angry about it at all. ¡°Can you send it all to me?¡± Another pause for the man to speak. ¡°I am at the castle.¡± No need for them to ask which castle. If Rawlynne was going to be that open about it, this person had to be a shifter or magic user of some sort. And if they also knew Rawlynne and worked in the FBI then it could only be her former boss, Director Harris. ¡°Thanks, I will ry the information.¡±


    ¡°Was that Harris?¡± Jackson asked him. He was close enough to her that he probably heard everything the man was saying. This meant that he already knew but was just confirming for the rest of us. Or for me specifically.


    ¡°Yeah. He knew that I would be looking into things, and he noticed that I had been pulling a lot of filestely. He just got wind of four murders that happenedst night. Well, at varying times yesterday afternoon our time. Though every single one of the murders seem to have happened between midnight and three in the morning in the local time zones.¡±


    ¡°Dammit.¡± Reece swore as he heard what she had to say.


    ¡°We expected it though. And we already knew about two of them because of the call that Vincent got.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s hope that four is all that there were. There were more than enough killed, there doesn¡¯t need to be anymore.¡± Gabriel was looking heartbroken, like he took this loss of life personally.


    ¡°Let¡¯s just gather as much info as quickly as we can. I want to be on a ne to Europe within three days. I want you all working on this around the clock. If we can¡¯t stop them before they strike again, at least we will be able to visit fresh crime scenes.¡±


    ¡°Trinity!¡± Reece looked and sounded appalled. ¡°You¡¯re just going to let them do it again?¡±


    ¡°If we can stop them sooner, we will. If not, at least we will have something more to go on. We can see the scenes when they are fresh. Personally, if I can manage it, I will take us to the crime scenes via magic doors, but I have a feeling I need to be a little more discreet than that. Despite what you may all be thinking, Reece, we still need to make sure we hide what we truly are from the humans. Murders or not, secrecy is important. This is a bncing act here. Review the information, catch the killers, and maintain secrecy and order. Those are the things that I need to do, and I will seed. I promise you that. But don¡¯t look so angered by the fact that I can¡¯t do it all any faster than I have been trying to.¡±


    I was angry. No, actually, I was fucking pissed off. I know that he was not trying to be mean. He wasn¡¯t trying to upset me. Yet he had. He had made me feel like I wasn¡¯t doing enough. He made me feel like it was my fault that the four people had diedst night. He made me feel like I had failed those people, all of my people.


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Trinity.¡± Vincent came over to me and put his hand on my shoulder. ¡°Reece didn¡¯t mean anything by that. We are all feeling tense and scared. None of this is your fault.¡±


    ¡°Whatever.¡± I moved my arm roughly in an attempt to make him move. ¡°We¡¯ve got work to do.¡±


    I didn¡¯t look at Reece again for a while. I just looked at files and information that was given to me. I analyzed and processed. I made lists and charts. I took notes on it all. Everything would help me when it came time to leave. And all the while, I tried to make the anger I was feeling go away.


    It subsided a little, but just a little. It was still there, boiling on a back burner until I was able to vent it on something or someone. I just hoped that I didn¡¯t take it out on someone that didn¡¯t deserve it. I didn¡¯t want to be seen as a bitch just because there was something bad going on around me. I needed to have better control than that.


    I even did my best to apologize to Reece when I got the chance. He really hadn¡¯t tried to make me feel like I was doing something wrong. I knew that. I really did.


    After the information was organized, I left the others to see what they could find while I went back to my family. I felt like a horrible person doing this. They all had families too. They all had kids that needed them and wanted them. And here I was going back to my family and making them work. I guess the guilt and anger just weren¡¯t going to be going away for a very long time.


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 Chapter 829

    Chapter 829: Chapter 14- Trinity ¨C Saying Goodbye (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    For thest couple of days, we had all been working on the stacks of information we had received from the variousw enforcement agencies that were handling these murders. It was all that we did. It was all that we talked about. It was all that upied our lives. At least during the daytime, when we were working.


    At night, when we weren¡¯t in that conference room, we were focused on our families. All of us had been. And that was because we all knew that we were getting ready to leave them. For the first time in almost fifteen years, my guards were leaving their families. For the first time in almost fifteen years, Reece was going to be leaving on more than just a business trip. And for the first time in almost eleven years, I was leaving my family.


    Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley had never been without both me and Reece. Hell, they had never been without me. Yeah, OK, they had stayed the night at my parents¡¯ house, and at Grandfather and L¡¯s house, but they had never had me leave them like this before.


    It was hard for me. Seeing the looks in their eyes and wondering why I was going away. And it wasn¡¯t just Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley that were looking at me like that. Reagan and Rika gave me those looks too. They remembered when I was gone in the underworld. They remember how hard it was when I wasn¡¯t there.


    .....


    And let us not forget about the person that would never forget it. Talia, the girl that never forgot anything at all. She remembered what it was like to have her mommy leave her. Only back then she could still see me. They all could. They just couldn¡¯t talk to me.


    This time, while Reece and I were gone, I was going to be calling them every night. All seven of them. I didn¡¯t care if I had to make seven individual phone calls, or three, or one. If they were all together good. If I had to call the quadruplets, then Talia, then the twins I would do just that. I would do whatever I needed to do to make sure that I never ever abandoned them again.


    Over the couple of days leading up to when we were all leaving for the investigation, Reece and I spent a lot of extra time with the kids. We made some arts and crafts with Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley. Things that they insisted that we take with us ¡®so that we ¡®didn¡¯t forget about them¡¯. That had been their words. Well, close enough to their words anyway.


    ¡°I could never forget about you. You are my babies. All of you. Not just you four either, but Talia, Reagan and Rika as well. All of you are my babies and I love you all so much.¡± Zachary, Zander and Zayden seemed to be taking things the best of them all. Zaley, though, was a little more sensitive than the boys, and she was a lot more attached to me than the others were.


    ¡°Why do you need to go, Mommy?¡± She crawled into myp while we were working on the various projects that night.


    ¡°Well, Zaley, it¡¯s a littleplicated for me to exin at the moment, but I will try my best.¡± I wasn¡¯t going to tell her everything, that would be wrong, but I thought that she, and the others, deserved to know why we were leaving them here alone. ¡°There are some people that have been hurt by others. And, you know how Mommy and Daddy are very important to the people in our kingdom? Well, being important means I have a lot of responsibilities.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re our mommy, but you are also their queen.¡± She looked up at me with her eyes that were so much like my father¡¯s.


    ¡°That¡¯s right, sweetheart. And to a lot of them, I am more important than their mommies and daddies are. And just like you and the others need me, they need me too. I have to go there to help them all. I have to make sure that they are safe and well cared for, just like I do with you.¡± I leaned in and kissed her on the forehead. ¡°I love you. I love all of you guys. And that will never change. However, I have responsibilities. I have things that I need to take care of for the people that look up to us and put their faith and trust in us.¡±


    ¡°I know, Mommy.¡± She let her head fall to the side then. It thumped against my corbone as she just snuggled into me. ¡°I know that they need you, Mommy. I do. But I love you and need you too.¡±


    ¡°I know, sweetheart. And that is why I will call you every night. And I wille back as soon as I can. I just have to help with the people that have been hurt. I have to make sure that the bad guys don¡¯t hurt anyone else.¡±


    ¡°Mommy and Daddy are going to be like superheroes. They are going to catch the bad guys and put them in jail. But don¡¯t worry, Zaley, we will be here for you.¡± Zayden rubbed his sister¡¯s shoulder as heforted her. ¡°We will protect you and keep you safe. That¡¯s what Zachary, Zander and I are here for.¡± He truly was a thoughtful and loving brother. And I could see that Zaley was already feeling better. She was lifting her head and smiling at her brother as he rubbed her arm gently.


    ¡°I know you will, Zay. You are the sweetest brother ever.¡±


    As I watched, she perked up and hugged him. I was d that the four of them had each other, that extra special rtionship that multiples tended to have. They would be able to help each other and protect each other all the time.


    Over the couple of days that we had before we left, Reece and I finalized some details about the castle while we were away. Mom, Dad, L and Grandfather were all going to be staying in the castle while we were gone. Noah, as Reece¡¯s former beta and right hand man, would be staying to run things while we were gone. Gabriel, Vincent, Shawn, Dietrich, Shane and David were alling with us. Jackson and Rawlynne would be running things from the conference room in the castle, a room that had been effectively renamed themand center for the time being.


    I was leaving the running of the castle itself to Roisin, Abigail and Peter. They were the head maid, the head cook and the head butler. They all also worked personally in my royal tower. Everyone would answer to either Noah or them.


    As for the protection and care of my children, well I was leaving that mostly up to the grandparents as their attendants. However, they also needed their guards as well. Reagan and Rika were going to be going to college, they were leaving the house and doing things on their own. They wouldn¡¯t be alone though, they were going to have their friends with them and were advised to never be alone at all. I was paranoid about these killings. They weren¡¯t local, yet. But they could be at any time.


    As for the quadruplets, they were going to be having a handful of their own soldiers assigned to them. They would have two each at the moment. Zachary was assigned Ss and Ethan. Zander was assigned Gregory and Killian. Zayden had Julius and Annie. And Zaley had Holly and Winston.


    Talia was a lot easier to assign soldiers to. She had already been assigned the men that were going to be with her. They had been with her since she was four. Alexio and Rudy. They were the demons that came back with me from the underworld almost eleven years ago. They knew her. They know what to do. And they would never let anything happen to her. And they were also going to be put in charge of the new soldiers that were assigned to guard the others.


    I had no qualms about leaving at the moment. I knew that everything would be taken care of and my children would be safe and protected. All that was left now was to tell all of the kids goodbye. Which we did when we hugged them each about a thousand times, kissed every inch of their faces, and promised to call them several times a day while we were gone. I was just sad that we were leaving before the official first day of school for them all. They were going to be without us for it, and that was heartbreaking.


    Aside from that though, we were able to head out with considerably less guilt than we would have had before. I just hoped we weren¡¯t gone for too long. Thest thing that I needed toe home to was an entirely different life than the one that I had left behind.


    Reece, Gabriel, Vincent, Shawn, Dietrich, Shane, David and I traveled to Wales via a magic door that I had made. However, we also had the ne that we would be using for other things, and for taking all of our luggage over there for us, fly off first thing in the morning. We took an overnight sized bag with us to hold us over until everything else arrived, then, we went on our not so merry way.


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 Chapter 830

    Chapter 830: Chapter 15- Rika ¨C First Day (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    Well, Mom and Dad leftst night. I know that they had to go. I know that it was important and all that. But that doesn¡¯t make it any easier on all of us. At least they hadn¡¯t left for more than a night in over a decade. And Mom hadn¡¯t apanied Dad on those trips, so she has always been there for us since the little ones were born. Not that the Z¡¯s were little anymore. They were ten going on eleven. Man, time sure does pass before you know it.


    They were leaving now, though. And none of us knew when they were going to be back. I know that my brothers and sisters, the younger ones that is, were upset about it. Talia, only fifteen right now, was putting on a brave face through it all. I think that was because she was preparing to pull away from our parents soon. She would be going to college with us next year and then after that, not sure when but eventually, she would be moving to the underworld. If she was overly attached now, then all of that would probably be hard for her. I felt sad whenever I thought about my sister leaving, but I knew that it was something that she chose to do, so I was going to let her make her own decisions.


    Today was the first day of school for me and Reagan, and tomorrow was the first day for the other kids. The five of them still attended school in Trinity Falls with all of the other nonhuman kids in the area. That had been where Reagan and I went to school as well, so I had no problem with it, it was a good school after all.


    I was d that tomorrow, I didn¡¯t have sses untilter in the morning. It meant that I would be able to take my siblings to school on their first day. At least it wasn¡¯t their first year in school. They were going into fifth and twelfth grades.


    .....


    Today though, I was a lot more worried about myself. Well, me and Reagan. We were going to be going to ss for the first time. We were going to be meeting with a lot of new people. And we were going to be getting a lot of weird looks, just like our mom and dad had. I mean, us and all of our group that were attending the school, were going to be living off of campus. That wasn¡¯t usually allowed for freshmen unless they lived right in town. I guess that even though we were in the next city over, they gave us a pass because our parents always donated money to the school. That and there were a lot of other nonhumans working there.


    I spent hours getting myself ready for my first day of ss. Despite what my idiot brother might have thought, I was not going to be dating Clovio, and that meant that I was still single and open to new experiences. And because of that, I made sure that my outfit was perfect and my makeup was even better. Oh, and my hair, which was long and hung down to the middle of my back, was styled in a simple yet fun way.


    OK, my hair only looked simple, it took me forever to style it so that it was in a high ponytail with a pair of braids going down the side and twisting around the ponytail only to end seamlessly in the ponytail itself. It looked cute though, and that was all that mattered to me.


    After getting ready, I went down to have breakfast with everyone before heading off to school. I didn¡¯t drive in with Reagan, he was going with Levi, Luka and Rowan. I was heading into school with na, Lyssa and Alexa. I guess even now, when starting school, we were more interested in being with those that we had always been friends with.


    When we got to school, we decided to just walk around a little bit before we had to go to ss. Since we were living off of campus, we didn¡¯t get to spend as much time with the other students and that would make it harder for us to spend time with them. To be honest, I really thought that we would all be better off living in the dorms like the rest of them, but it wasn¡¯t what our parents wanted for us.


    The four of us, having been the best of friends since we were really little, had aligned our schedules for the first semester. There were simr prerequisite sses for all of us so we thought that taking them first would be the best options. And it lets us be together every single day.


    While we were waiting for sses to start, I heard someone call out to me with a strong German ent.


    ¡°Rika! I found you!¡± It was Clovio. He was running toward me with a big smile on his face.


    ¡°Hi, Clovio!¡± I smiled back at him. OK, he was cute, that was true. But he wasn¡¯t my mate, so I didn¡¯t want to get too attached to him.


    While he was running toward me, I saw that he had arger group of people with him thanst time. There were more than just the five of them that I met before. So, I wondered for a moment if they were just people that they had met sinceing here or if they were more of the kids from Germany.


    ¡°I wanted to introduce you to my friends.¡± His ent was so thick that it made me want to smile when he spoke. I liked it, I really did. It reminded me of Uncle Dietrich, one of Lyssa and Alexa¡¯s dads. ¡°They were not in our group, but they are from the same orphanage. They were on the tour the day after ours.¡±


    ¡°Oh, more friends from Germany.¡± I smiled as I looked at the group. I saw that among the one that I had met before, there was another guy and two other women. The girls looked like they could have been sisters, but not twins. Well, not identical twins anyway. They had dark brown hair and hazel eyes with thin, pale faces that looked like they were perpetually sad. They were tall, but skinny. The guy lookedpletely different. He had ck hair, green eyes, a handsome face that was filled with angles and looked like it was chiseled out of some pale stone. He was very good looking, very tall, and very mysterious. He also seemed to be staring at our group with shock in his eyes.


    I heard someone gasp behind me, but I didn¡¯t pay attention to it at first. I was talking with Clovio and didn¡¯t want to be rude. He was starting to introduce us to all of his other friends.


    ¡°You know Gunnar and Aloisius, as well as Armina and Lovisa. These here are sisters Hede and Hedi, and this here is Warrick. Everyone, these are some new friends of ours. Rika, can you introduce everyone for me?¡± Clovio smiled and handed the conversation over to me.


    ¡°Sure. It¡¯s nice to meet you guys. These, here, are my friends.¡± I smiled and turned to look at them. ¡°This is na, Alexa and Lyssa.¡± I wasn¡¯t paying much attention at first, but when I looked at Lyssa to introduce her, I saw that she was staring at the other group as if in disbelief. It was like she was not able to believe what she was seeing. ¡°Lyssa, is everything OK?¡± I thought that something might have been wrong or that she was upset about something.


    ¡°I..I¡¯m fine. Everything is f..f..fine.¡± She tried to smile through it, but I knew that I would be talking to her soon. Something was going on and I didn¡¯t know what it was.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Clovio grinned at me. ¡°What sses do you have? Anything that we might be in together?¡± He was excited. Maybe he had developed a little crush on me the other day. That wasn¡¯t overly bad, but I didn¡¯t want to break his heart when I met ¡®the one¡¯.


    ¡°Well, we are all taking our prerequisite sses.¡± I exined to him and started to list off the English, math, history, and science sses that we were all taking this semester.


    ¡°Oh wow. That is so funny, Rika.¡± Clovio wasughing hard like he had just heard the funniest joke in a long time. ¡°We¡¯re all in the same sses. Well, not all eight of us, but most of us. Me, Gunnar, Warrick, Armina and Lovisa are in those sses. Aloisius, Hede and Hedi are in half of them and then in other sses for the rest. We will all be together. That is great. We should make a study group.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, sure, that sounds great. The more we have the better, right? If we all work together, I am sure we will pass the sses with no problems at all.¡± Ok, I think I might be crushing on him a little bit. Would that be so bad? I mean, to have a little crush on a human and maybe date him for a little while. Maybe he just wasn¡¯t ready for me to recognize him as my mate. I might not know untilter. It might take us some more time or something. And if that wasn¡¯t the case, at least we could have some fun for a little while. It wouldn¡¯t really hurt either of us, would it?


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 Chapter 831

    Chapter 831: Chapter 16- Rika ¨C First Day Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    After we finished our conversation with Clovio and the others, the four of us went to get a drink from the student center before ss began. It would be nice to have something to sip on while going through the lecture for the first time.


    While the four of us sat together near the fountain in the center of campus, I noticed that something seemed off about Lyssa. She was looking off into the distance and seemed to be trying to find something. I didn¡¯t know what was going on with her, but I knew that she was different than usual. I mean, I had been around her since the day that she was born, well almost. I would know if one of my best friends was acting differently than usual.


    ¡°Lyssa, is something wrong?¡± I called out to her, worried and curious at the same time. It was our first day of college. Our first day of sses. First day of meeting a bunch of new people. There was a lot to process today and she could just be overwhelmed.


    ¡°U..uh..uhm, n..no, I don¡¯t really th..think that anything i..is wrong really. I..I just have this really strange feeling. And, w..well, there is something in my head that is telling me that I..I need to find someone.¡±


    .....


    I could tell that she was looking for someone with her heightened sense. Lyssa was a pure vampire, that meant that she could literally sense things about people that I could never even imagine. She had told me once that it was like being able to smell the blood of everyone around you and knowing when they were near after you had learned that scent.


    Lyssa, being a pure vampire, had that ability more than her sister, who was a hybrid of wolf and vampire. For Alexa, she could smell people like a wolf, but she could also sense them like a vampire could. There was a slight difference there. I thought it was interesting and cool, and just another way of showing that we were all different.


    ¡°Who do you need to find?¡± Alexa was looking at her twin sister like she was worried about her as well. She, like me, had seen that she was not acting normal right now.


    ¡°Is it someone that is a bad guy?¡± na, who looked just like my Aunt Juniper, asked in a soft voice. Her green eyes glistening and wavy, ashy blonde hair swaying in the wind.


    ¡°No. Not a bad guy. Nothing like that. It¡¯s just... It¡¯s just weird, you know. It¡¯s like, a voice inside of me is telling me that I need to find someone and be with them. I..it¡¯s almost like, my heart and my mind are both telling me that I am in love with someone. Someone that I just met.¡±


    There was a moment where me, na, and Alexa just stared at Lyssa. I had a feeling that we were all processing the information and thinking the same thing. This was amazing. It was definitely not what we were expecting, but it was amazing all the same.


    ¡°LYSSA!¡± I almost shrieked as I squealed her name loudly.


    ¡°Oh my Goddess, Lyssa!¡± na squealed as well.


    ¡°Lyssa! Oh my Goddess, are you serious?¡± Alexa was grinning as she asked her sister that question.


    ¡°What? What is the matter with all of you?¡± I guess that Lyssa hadn¡¯t made the same leap that we had. She was still trying to figure it all out. I guess since neither of us had known someone that this had happened to, it was hard for us to recognize it. I mean, I didn¡¯t get it until I listened to what she had said. I might not have gotten it if it were me, though.


    ¡°Lyssa, think about what you just said. Your heart and your brain are telling you that you¡¯re in love with someone. That you need to find them. Probably that you need to be with that person. What does that tell you? What do you think that means?¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± She was seriously having to think about it. I swear, she could be so dense. She was a smart girl, brilliant even, but she was clueless when it came to social things. Well, not always, just when it came to things that dealt with boys.


    ¡°Think about it, Sissy.¡± Alexa took her sister¡¯s hand and looked into her eyes. I knew that she was trying to get her to understand, and she was calming her down by using the nickname that they had for each other growing up. ¡°Think about what those words mean.¡±


    ¡°W..well, I..I uhm, I have never felt it before. B..but I guess that, uhm, i..it can mean that I found my... I found my... I uhm, I found my-.¡±


    ¡°MATE!¡± The three of us said the word in a very loud whisper with so much excitement filling our voices.


    ¡°You found your mate, Lyssa. So, who was it?¡± I think that I was way more excited than the others. I mean, this was what every woman wanted, wasn¡¯t it? They wanted to find that other half to themselves. And, here, one of my best friends was the first of us to find a mate.


    ¡°W..well, I felt it when we met with the German students today.¡±


    ¡°But it didn¡¯t happen when we met them the other day?¡± Alexa asked Lyssa, to which she shook her head no in response.


    ¡°Hmm.¡± I thought about it. ¡°Well, that means that Gunnar, Clovio and Aloisius are not your mate. Assuming that it¡¯s a man, that means that Warrick is your mate.¡±


    ¡°Or it could be Hede or Hedi.¡± naughed. ¡°There is no saying that you can¡¯t have a same sex rtionship.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want one. No offense to my dad and papa, but I want a man, not a woman.¡± Lyssaughed as if even she thought that was funny. ¡°Then again, it would serve me right. Fate would do that to me, wouldn¡¯t it?¡± We were allughing now.


    ¡°Whomever fate chose for you, Lyssa, I know that you will be happy.¡± I smiled at her and then checked the time on my phone. ¡°We need to get going. We have ss in five minutes. This works out, though. Warrick is in our ss, we will know if it is him.¡± I grabbed Lyssa¡¯s hand then and pulled her along behind me as I made my way to the proper lecture hall in the correct building.


    I think that I could confirm right then and there that it was Warrick that Lyssa had mated with. When we sat down in the room, just seconds before Alexa and na had reached us, Clovio sat next to me and Warrick sat next to Lyssa.


    ¡°Hallo, there.¡± Warrick, with an even thicker ent than Clovio, smiled at Lyssa.


    ¡°H..hello.¡± Lyssa was grinning like she was excited and nervous at the same time.


    ¡°You know, Rika, my friend here has not stopped talking about your friend since he met her earlier. I think he likes her.¡± Clovio whispered into my ear as we watched the two of them act so nervous around each other. Alexa and na sat in the row behind us, presumably to watch the show of me and Clovio and Lyssa and Warrick. They also had the rest of the German students sitting near them as well.


    ¡°I..I think that you¡¯re right.¡± I nervously whispered back to him as I finally took my eyes off of my friend¡¯s blushing face. The only problem was, Clovio was really close to me and the moment that I saw his handsome eyes looking at me, I blushed as well.


    ¡°Maybe we should all go on a date together. You and your friend Lyssa can show me and Warrick around the city. We don¡¯t know where anything is yet.¡± At that moment, Clovio smiled so handsomely that I found it almost impossible to tell him no.


    ¡°Y..yeah, I would like that.¡± I agreed almost instantly, only hoping after the fact that Lyssa wouldn¡¯t object.


    ¡°Great, we can go out this weekend. I can¡¯t wait to see what you show me around the city. It will be fun.¡±


    Throughout the rest of the day, Clovio and the others were there to talk with us, walk us to and from our ss and lunch. And just to hang out with us in general. It was nice, honestly. Having a guy around to talk to that wasn¡¯t someone that I had grown up with. I liked it a lot.


    Now, I just needed to not let my brother know about this. I didn¡¯t want him to start a fight with me about meeting some guy and going out with him already. It wasn¡¯t like I had nned it or anything, but he was overly protective, and overly stupid at times.


    Then again, when I saw him walking through the campus all that day, I saw that he was talking to Armina. The two of them were looking rather chummy together. Maybe, just maybe, I would be able to have my date with Clovio and not have him acting like it was the end of the world.


    I could hope at least. And if I managed it, then I would be able to live my life as if it were my own. No Mom, Dad or Reagan telling me what I could and could not do. Huh, maybe the fact that our parents were busy and away was actually going to be a good thing. For me, at the very least.


    I went home that day with nothing but good thoughts in my head.


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 Chapter 832

    Chapter 832: Chapter 17- Trinity ¨C Most Recent Crime Scenes Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Some of the most recent murders had happened where they all started at. That led me to believe that they might be following a pattern for the order in which they were killing these people in. The very first murders happened in France followed by Irnd, China and Austria. At least that was what our data was showing us. Then again, I am very sure that there are some murders that just haven¡¯t been reported to us or the other authorities yet. There is an iplete pattern with the murders. Some of the countries seemed to have been skipped over in the pattern.


    I mean, I guess I could be wrong about the whole pattern thing. There was no reason for me to think that they killed in a specific order just because some of the locations seemed toe in a specific order. That could have just been one of these specific killers. Maybe he thrived on routine more than the others did.


    Anyway, among those killed this time around, the locations included Wales, France, China, and Laos. Wales hade up before, but not until the twentieth of July. That was on what should have been the third cycle of murders. And France was one of the countries that seemed to repeat way more than any of the others. And that led me to suspect that there was a killer that was working almost exclusively within that country.


    With the possibilities that so many of these people were killing and the only guidelines that they were following were for the method of the killing and the frequency of it, there was no way for us to pinpoint anything specific to these people. There was no narrowing down their gender, species, race, or anything at all. We didn¡¯t even know if these killers personally knew all of their victims or if they chose them at random.


    .....


    For now though, the group and I were travelling, magically of course, to Wales to see the site of one of the most recent murders, as well as the site of two previous murders. The first stop was the small vige of nnorenn. What was odd, is that most of these murders, aside from the ones in London and Paris, all happened in small viges or on the outskirts of medium sized viges.


    It was possible that the killers were targeting these smaller viges because they knew that most packs, ns and covens tended to stay away from therger groups of people. Aside from us oddballs in the United States, they were more shy and reserved. Then again. We just didn¡¯t have that luxury where I was from. There were small towns, but the big cities were never far away.


    The door that we walked through, the one that I had made to magically appear in the local Alpha¡¯s home, appeared in the morning back in Colorado, but now that we were in Wales it was approachingte afternoon. We had left around nine in the morning, but it was four in the afternoon when we walked through the door.


    ¡°Queen Trinity, King Reece, thank you foring.¡± The Alpha, who was looking at the door with shock and awe, was greeting us like he was being saved from some deadly fate. In truth, he might see it that way. With how his people were being killed around here and all of that not so good stuff.


    ¡°It is our pleasure.¡± I nodded my head at the man who had literally fallen to his knees before me, his eyes glistening with unshed tears.


    ¡°We are happy to help, Cadwal. Please, sit with us and tell us everything that you know.¡± Reece, wanting to move things forward, urged the man to rise from the floor and exin things to us.


    This Alpha, Cadwal of the Northern Wales Pack, was the Alpha for two of the three victims that were killed in this small country. Fun fact, this entire country could fit inside of my home state of Colorado thirteen times. They were so smallpared to Colorado that they only had three different packs in the entire country. Whereas we had dozens in Colorado alone. It was a real eye opener when youpare things like this.


    ¡°Yes, thank you. I will exin everything that I know right away.¡± Thankfully, Cadwal¡¯s genuflecting and over the top attitude was put to rest and he started to exin things to us.


    Reece and I sat facing him, while the others stood behind us. Vincent and Gabriel were taking notes on everything, writing it all down forter reflection. The reason two of them did this was because they might have different interpretations of what was being said.


    Together, we all listened to him exin who found the two bodies that were in his territory and what the state the bodies were in when they were found. He exined as much as he could. He also went into detail often so that he could describe it all urately.


    ¡°Thank you, Cadwal. We would like to see where thest body was found. I would like to see what it was that happened to them and decide for myself if there is any more information to be gathered in the area. I will also do the same at the other murder sites.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Queen Trinity, I will take you there right away.¡± Cadwal stood and was already rushing for the door before I had the time to stop him.


    ¡°Wait a minute.¡± I called out. ¡°How long of a drive is it? How long will it take us? Since I have never been there, I might make things worse trying to travel there. You sent a photo of your office to me and that made it easier, but this is somewhere that I can¡¯t fully visualize at the moment. Also, what time is the sunset going to be? How much time will we have to investigate before we begin to lose the light of day. We are able to see at night, but the rity is not ideal for searching for clues. Personally, I want to make sure that we have enough light to see by. So, you tell me Cadwal, do we have the time to get all of this done tonight? Or should we wait for the morning?¡±


    ¡°Ah, well, now that you mention it, tomorrow would most likely be best. Sunset will be around twenty thirty, give or take a little, and it is currently seventeen fifty-three. With the time needed to get to the site, we should likely wait until tomorrow.¡± I could tell that Cadwal was feeling defeated. He wanted to get this done and over with sooner. I guess we should have nned better, but I wanted to see the kids in the morning before we left. We did, however, stay up through the night so that we would be a little more on the local schedule than if we had slept through the night.


    ¡°Do not worry about it too much, Cadwal.¡± Vincent called out to the man as he seemed to dete. ¡°It is as Queen Trinity said, we want to give this our all. We need the conditions to be right. Because of that, we will take the time tonight to settle in and interview some people that knew the victims. If you could have them summoned and ready within a few hours. We will take the king and queen to their room and settle them first.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I will do just that.¡± Cadwal, d that we were not leaving things as they were for the night, immediately perked up.


    This man, Cadwal, was a young Alpha. He was maybe twenty-five years old and had taken over for his father not that long ago. His father had, apparently, wanted to step down and allow his son the time to lead their people. He was still around though, and he would be a useful man to talk to. If I remember correctly, his name was Aberforth.


    Vincent and Gabriel took the lead as they led us all out of the room. When we were in the hall outside of the office, we were greeted by a young woman that was maybe sixteen. She was pretty, had brown hair, and reminded me of Talia quite a bit. The smile and curiosity was what made them look alike.


    ¡°Good afternoon, Queen Trinity. My name is Telyn, if you would allow me to do so, I will be the one taking care of you while you are here.¡±


    Before I answered the girl, I turned to look at Vincent and Gabriel. They would be able to read her and her intentions. They were going to be so useful with this investigation. I saw that they both gave a barely perceptible smile and slight nod. They were telling me that she could be trusted.


    ¡°Thank you, Telyn. I would appreciate that. If you would be so kind as to show me to my room.¡±


    ¡°Yes, of course my queen. Please, allow me to take your luggage and follow me.¡±


    ¡°We have her luggage, Telyn, there is no need. Please, just lead the way.¡± Shawn spoke softly to the girl. I wonder if she reminded him of his daughters as well. He had another back home that was almost this age as well as one younger and the two that were in college with mine.


    ¡°Yes, of course.¡± She bowed a little and started to lead the way up therge staircase for us to follow her. She really did seem sweet, just like my Talia.


    I missed the kids already.


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 Chapter 833

    Chapter 833: Chapter 18- Trinity ¨C Most Recent Crime Scenes Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    As Telyn led us up the stairs toward our rooms, I had a chance to see just how different the architecture was for this Alpha homepared to how they were typically built in the United States. There were quite a few differences that were immediately apparent to me. First of all, the building seemed to be mostly made of stone, though there were wooden supports and ents. It was very neat, tidy, orderly, and all in all very beautiful. However, it is what most back home would call rustic. It had the feel of a stone longhouse or cottage, however, it also felt grand andrge, like a castle.


    The colors were mostly neutral with things like white, grays, and cks. The primary color was white while the others were just the ents that were either added after the fact or never covered up. It was very nice. I happened to like it here, seeing the differences in what we had in our homes even though we were all wolves. Well, most of us. Shawn wasn¡¯t considered a wolf anymore, and Dietrich was never considered one.


    When we made it to our room, I felt like they had done some sort of magic to have a room thisrge in here. It was not as big as my room in the castle, but it was far from small. It had all theforts that we needed and then some more. The walls were white stone with ck wooden supports and trim. The bed was made of the same ck wood, as was the rest of the furniture. The windows were just like an old storybook cottage, butrger since they seemed huge.


    And the bathroom in this ce was a lot more modern than I expected. I silently cheered with eager excitement when I saw that it was not a ¡®rustic cottage bathroom¡¯, or the bathroom that one would find in a very old bathroom. It was clean, modern, and perfect. The only issue, there was no tub for me to soak in. Oh well, I would live. I would have to. And besides, we weren¡¯t going to be here for too long.


    .....


    ¡°If you need anything, Queen Trinity, please just press this button.¡± Telyn handed me what looked like a small pager with just one button set into it. ¡°This will alert me to your need for my assistance and I wille right away.¡±


    ¡°How will you know where I am?¡± I asked her with a smile. I expected a cute answer, but instead she blushed like she was embarrassed.


    ¡°W..well, uhm, I..I am very good at tracking people. Better than most people in the pack. If I weren¡¯t considered underage, I would be helping to find the man responsible for these attacks. My tad doesn¡¯t want me to get involved because he is worried about me getting hurt.¡± I could see the sadness in Telyn¡¯s eyes. She wanted to be useful, that was clear. However, as a mother of children near her age, I could understand why her parents were keeping her out of the investigation.


    ¡°You will have plenty to do, Telyn. There is no reason to feel sad.¡± I smiled at her as I put away the button that she had given me. ¡°Thank you for bringing us up here. Please show the others to their rooms now. We need to settle in before the witnesses get here. We have a lot of interviewing to do tonight.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Queen Trinity, right away.¡± She bowed to me as she backed out of the room and left with the others. Now, Reece and I could rx for a few moments before we started to interview the people that wereing at our request.


    Reece and I were busy putting things away when he suddenly started to speak to me from across the room.


    ¡°We should sit out for the interviews.¡± He didn¡¯t stop putting his things away and he didn¡¯t even turn to look at me. I know this because I had stopped and turned to look at him. And he definitely hadn¡¯t done either.


    ¡°Why? What on earth makes you think that I should not interview those people along with everyone else?¡± I was angered by his words, and I didn¡¯t know why. I just knew that I wanted to find an end to this as soon as possible.


    ¡°Think about it, Trinity. These people revere you. You are their queen. I am sure that they will think the same of me, but to a lesser degree. You are their Goddess, their queen, their everything when ites to shifter and magic user high authorities. They will all be nervous and scared around you. Just look at how Cadwal and Telyn acted around you.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I get that, Reece. I really do. But I can¡¯t just sit out. I can¡¯t ignore it all. I need to be there.¡± I didn¡¯t want to let others do this for me. ¡°Like you said, I am their queen and their Goddess. I need to protect them. I should never have let this happen in the first ce.¡±


    ¡°Then, perhaps, we should observe. The others can interview them while we watch. That will allow us to pay attention and see if there is anyone that stands out to us. And I also think that Gabriel and Vincent will be best as people that are walking around the interview room. My n is to bring in four witnesses at once, the others can interview them while you and I observe, Gabriel and Vincent will be able to see if any of them are lying or untrustworthy.¡±


    ¡°Hahh. You¡¯re right Reece. I know you are. I just hate not doing anything.¡±


    ¡°I know, Little Bunny. But this will be better. The people will be scared and nervous if you interview them. This way, they might be able to speak a little more calmly.¡±


    ¡°Alright. I agree. We will go with your n. Please tell the others when they arrive.¡± At my words there was a knock on the door. They were already here.


    Reece told the others what the n was for the interviews, giving them time to get situated and to figure out what they were going to ask most of the people. Gabriel and Vincent were used to having to check people and their intentions, so they had no issue with this at all.


    We all arrived in arge hall that had been prepared for us to conduct the interviews. Cadwal and the others had definitely worked hard to amodate me. That was when I finally understood what it was that Reece had been trying to tell me. They were intimidated by me. They were afraid to be normal around me. And that was going to hinder me a little bit. If I didn¡¯t change things a little bit moving forward, then we were never going to get things aplished.


    While Shawn, Dietrich, Shane and David interviewed the witnesses that were called in, Reece and I listened in. I heard the same things over and over. No one really knew what happened. No one had seen anyone that was out of the ordinary. There were no suspicious people. There was nothing at all that they would have suspected was wrong. Not a single one of them was lying. And not a single one of them was able to give us any information at all.


    It got to the point where I didn¡¯t need to listen anymore and I started to brainstorm some ideas on how I was able to get past the whole ¡®queentimidation¡¯ effect I was going to have on the rest of the Alphas and witnesses. Of course, ¡®queentimidation¡¯ is a new word that I am using to describe my naturally intimidating queenliness.


    I needed to find a solution quickly. If I didn¡¯t, then I was going to end up ruining this investigation. And that was something that I refused to do. I didn¡¯t want to make the others work harder for me, and I refused to leave the investigation. So, that would just mean that I would be hiding who I truly was.


    I think that I hade up with a pretty good n, all things considered. When I left this manor and traveled to the next one, I would inform the Alpha that the ¡®queen and king¡¯ had to return home for business. In their ce would be their representatives. These representatives would be able to act on the full authority of the queen and would be reporting back to me regrly.


    I had a feeling if people thought they were just talking to an investigator rather than the queen, they would be able to handle it all much easier. I mean, it was worth a shot at least. And if it didn¡¯t work out at the next location, then I could try something else when we traveled out of Wales.


    When we returned to our rooms that night, I even told Reece what I had nned to do. I wanted him to know that once we left here, we would actually get a break from being the king and queen. However, to do that, we needed to stop being Trinity and Reece.


    I guess we also needed to think of different identities to use while we were travelling. We would also have to forge the documents in a hurry. I mean, it was a good thing that I was able to use magic and that I could just, you know, magically make all the travel papers and documents that I wanted. No one would ever know or suspect a thing.


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 Chapter 834

    Chapter 834: Chapter 19- Trinity- Most Recent Crime Scenes Part 3 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It was a little weird getting used to the time change that came with travelling, but we had done it before so it wasn¡¯t as bad as it could be. We got up in the morning when the sun was rising, which was technically too early even though it was midday back home. I didn¡¯t mind the fact that we got up so early though, it allowed us to eat and be ready much sooner. The more time that we had at the crime scene the better.


    Also, if possible, I wanted to get through all of the Welsh crime scenes today. If I could manage that, then I would be able to go wherever there was a fresh scene tomorrow. There was, undoubtedly, going to be more murders tonight. If they stuck to the same n that they had been using for thest two months or so, then they would definitely be striking again tonight.


    I felt horrible right now. Knowing that I was not able to stop more people from dying. People that I knew were going to die painful and brutal deaths. I wanted to just find these people today and put an end to it here and now. I didn¡¯t want anymore people to suffer at all. But I didn¡¯t have enough information to find the killers. I didn¡¯t know what to do or how to find them.


    When we were all ready to go, Cadwal had his Beta, n, pull two cars around. Together, the two of them drove us to the site of the murder that happened five days ago. They said that we were lucky. August is typically a rainy month, but there hadn¡¯t been any rain since the murder that had taken ce on the neenth. That meant that, aside from animal interference, the crime scene would be perfectly preserved for us. Nothing would have been washed away or have been destroyed. At least, that was what we hoped.


    .....


    This victim had been killed behind an old and abandoned church. The building was dpidated and looked like a strong wind wouldpletely destroy it, yet it was still standing somehow.


    ¡°Llewellyn was found around the back.¡± Cadwal was leading the way. ¡°His body wasid out beneath the tower with the cross on it.¡± Reece and I were right behind him as he rounded the building.


    I thought that we were going to need to search for the clues when we got here. Instead, we were nearly overwhelmed by them the moment that we entered the scene. To be fair, I had smelled the blood the moment we exited the cars, but that could have just been the old blood. I did not expect there to still be such a thick coating of all that blood covering the surfaces of almost everything in the area.


    There was blood all over the grass, the small grouping of trees that was behind the church, the rocks that were there for either decoration or because they were just naturally there, and it was also all over the back of the building. I didn¡¯t know if the blood had actually sprayed like that or if the killer had done their best to make this horrific and gory disy.


    ¡°Oh my Goddess.¡± Dietrich gasped when he saw the scene that had been waiting for us.


    ¡°Yes, this one was a lot more brutal than the other scene that was in my territory.¡± Cadwal looked truly saddened by what he was seeing in this area. ¡°The person, or people, that is behind this atrocity have absolutely no respect for my people.¡±


    ¡°This group of people has no respect for any life, not just our people.¡± As I slowly started to make my way to where the body was found, I called out to Cadwal in response.


    ¡°Do you think they would do this to a human? Or do these people only hate supernatural beings?¡± Cadwal¡¯s question was not at all a surprise for me. I had wondered it as well. With so many murders of nonhuman people in thest several weeks, I wasn¡¯t certain if these people would harm a human or not. Maybe they had killed humans before my people. Maybe they wanted a bigger challenge. Maybe.


    However, something deep inside of me told me that I was not likely to find a human victim. This felt personal somehow. Maybe not that they were mad at the specific victim, but that they were targeting the victims because of what they were because of some personal vendetta. They were either a group of self loathing super naturals, or they were a group of highly skilled and dangerous humans.


    I could hear the others moving around the scene behind me. Personally, I wanted to see where the body was. I needed to see if there was anything that might possibly have been missed. And I knew that the spot right in the middle of all the blood, where there was still arge pool of the stuff, was where the body had beenying when it was found.


    ¡°Dietrich, would you mind investigating the body with meter, if it has not yet been cremated, that is.¡± I had a sudden thought, something that I needed to check out before I moved onto the other victims.


    ¡°Of course, Trinity.¡± His answer was positive, but his voice felt so sad and heartbroken at the sight of this murder. He was a vampire, but he hated killing unless it was necessary. And that meant that the spilling of this blood and the loss of this life was hard for him.


    What I saw when I made my way over to where the body had been, was that there was no way the arterial spray could have gone as far as the blood had been spread. That meant that the killer had specifically tried to make as much of a mess with it as possible. It almost looked like they had used a bucket to spread it around. Just what was it that they were trying to do here?


    ¡°Have any of you seen anything that is of importance so far?¡± I called out to the others as I looked around the area that I was in. I saw that Reece, Vincent, Gabriel, Shawn, Dietrich, Shane and David were hard at workbing the area.


    ¡°Not yet.¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Nope.¡±


    ¡°Nothing.¡±


    ¡°Nada.¡±


    ¡°Still looking.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, but no.¡± They all answered me at basically the same time. Well, this was a waste so far. Still, we had only just gotten here, and I was determined to see this through. I wouldn¡¯t leave until we found something more.


    ¡°I need something. I need to see more.¡± I was whispering to myself as I looked all around. I knew that everyone was able to hear me, but I didn¡¯t care. And while I was saying these words, I felt a small pull on my magic. Whatever was about to happen, I was going to get my wish.


    My magic was rushing toward my eyes. It literally flooded into my eyes and made it harder to see for a moment. I was about to snarl out something along the lines of ¡®I wanted to see more, not less¡¯, but just as I was about to do that, the magic stopped flowing and I was able to see again.


    What I was seeing though, wasn¡¯t normal. Instead of seeing the normal colors and images that were before me, I was now seeing things like they were through a lens. Everything around me had a bit of a blue tint to it. And things were appearing to glow.


    I knew that blood didn¡¯t glow under lights like these, not without luminol. Still, it was like this whole ce was bathed in luminol and ultraviolet lights. It was a cool effect, but also a little annoying. Seeing in a different way than usual made for an instant headache.


    I was looking at the scene with new eyes, literally. I wanted to see if there was anything at all that was different with this new way of seeing. I was able to see every little droplet of blood that was sshed around the area, and the pattern that it made.


    To see the full pattern I needed to move away a little and get higher up. That was easy for me, even though there was no viewing tform. I literally just walked away from the body while walking on the air at the same time. After I took about fifteen steps or so, I was sufficiently high in the air and far back enough to see the entire area.


    Looking down at the glowing pattern of blood, I saw that it was the Valknut rune, the three interlocking triangles that were carved onto the body. This was definitely intentional, and it was definitely meant to be a message of some sort.


    I was just about to move on, to look for more clues, but that was when I saw that there was a message written on the wall. Beneath theyers of blood, there was something else that was glowing on the back of the church.


    I hurried down invisible steps as I rushed to get closer to the side of the church. I knew now that there was no need to preserve the scene, I would be allowed to wipe away the blood. I used my magic to clear it away, not wanting to dirty myself that much if I could help it. As I stood there, hovering just about a foot off of the ground so that I could see the lettering a little more easily, I read the words that had been carved into the back of the church.


    ¡®Monsters hide in the dark,


    but that will never stop the light from shining through.


    We will hunt the monsters to extinction


    and we will free the world from their evil ways.


    We will y the beasts and


    we will stop the spread of their


    infernal diseases to the good people of this world.


    We are the saviors of humankind.


    We are the heroes of the light.


    And we will not be stopped.¡¯


    I felt my blood boil and my heart freeze at the same time. The words that I had just read on that wall infuriated me. I was beyond angry. I was righteously pissed off. And I was ready to avenge the people that this monster had killed.


    However, the thought struck me almost immediately. This person called us monsters, called me a monster. That meant that if I just went and destroyed him, and his whole group of killers, then I was just as much of a monster as he thought that I was. I needed to be more restrained than that. I needed to be civilized, because he sure as hell wasn¡¯t.


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 Chapter 835

    Chapter 835: Chapter 20- Reece ¨C Most Recent Crime Scenes Part 4 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I had watched my Little Bunny walk so that she was standing in the air and looking down on the scene from about twenty feet in the air. She was different than she usually was, that was immediately obvious.


    After hearing my Little Bunny whisper something about needing to see more, I saw that her eyes started to glow blue. Actually, her whole body seemed to glow and shine almost like there was a ck light inside of it. It was strange, but kind of cool too.


    ¡°What is going on?¡± Cadwal, was scared as he saw something strange happening with his queen for the first time, eximed in a hushed voice.


    ¡°She is investigating. She is the Goddess after all, she will be able to do things that we would never even think about.¡± I smiled as I answered him.


    .....


    ¡°But how did she do that?¡± Cadwal still didn¡¯t get it yet. He was still asking for an exnation.


    ¡°Like I said, she is the Goddess. She has magic that we could never fathom. Even if we observe her for twenty years, she will still surprise us.¡± Thatst part was me admitting that I was still surprised by her on a regr basis.


    ¡°I cannot imagine what that must be like.¡± He shook his head and just watched as my Little Bunny saw what she was up there to see.


    After a couple of minutes of me and Cadwal just staring at her and watching her work, I saw that my Little Bunny was surprised by something. She was looking hard at the building that was the old church. She had squinted her eyes but there was obviously too much going on through the glowing of her eyes to make out what she was seeing. Instead, she hurried down from where she was and stood right in front of the wall.


    As I was making my way over to my Little Bunny¡¯s side, I saw that she was using her mana to wash the blood away. For a moment I was shocked, because it was evidence, but I knew she had her reasons, not to mention that it was already catalogued and documented so it was fine.


    Underneath the blood there were words that had been carved into the wall. The dark, weathered, gray wood of the church wall was different from the lighter color of the letters gouged into it with a knife of some sort.


    ¡°What the hell?!¡± I couldn¡¯t help but exim in anger when I saw what was written on that wall. ¡°What the hell is that supposed to mean?¡± At my loud and angry outburst, the others all came running over to see what was going on.


    ¡°What are they ying at? Who are they calling monsters?¡± Shane was pissed when he saw the words.


    ¡°They think we¡¯re monsters, yet they¡¯re the ones that have killed people so brutally. What are they ying at?¡± Vincent, equally angered, red at the words.


    ¡°So, does this mean that we were right in assuming that it was a human?¡± Shawn¡¯s words seemed to bring the entire group to a halt. They were now starting to think about the implications of what those words meant.


    I reread the words again. I needed to see what it was that they were telling me. I wanted to make sure that I didn¡¯t miss anything at all.


    ¡®Monsters hide in the dark,


    but that will never stop the light from shining through.


    We will hunt the monsters to extinction


    and we will free the world from their evil ways.


    We will y the beasts and


    we will stop the spread of their


    infernal diseases to the good people of this world.


    We are the saviors of humankind.


    We are the heroes of the light.


    And we will not be stopped.¡¯


    ¡°It is very clear to see that it is meant to be a warning or manifesto of sorts. They are telling us, the nonhumans that they knew would be investigating this murder, that they are going to keep killing people. Specifically, our people. They call themselves the saviors of humankind. They say they are going to y the beasts. They call us monsters, but we¡¯re not their enemies, and never have been either. So, Shawn, to answer your question, yes, these killers are most definitely humans.¡±


    Everyone in the area was staring at my wife with a dumbfounded look on their face. Me included. This was not at all what we thought was going to be discovered at this scene. And, of course, this was something that we had been hoping wasn¡¯t the case.


    How were we supposed to find, capture, and deal with a criminal that was human? They obviously would not have the same sort of discretion that we would have. These people didn¡¯t care if humans saw the victims, and they didn¡¯t care about involving the whole world. And that also meant that they had no intention of stopping, ever.


    ¡°We need to tread carefully. We need to make sure that there is no information leaked, and we need to be on the lookout for suspicious humans. We¡¯ve both narrowed down and broadened our searches. And that is what scares me the most.¡± I could feel the words that I had just said. It was like they were bouncing around the space between us all. We all already knew how important this investigation was, but now it felt like there was a more intense and heavy weight to it. In a sense, it was almost like the ¡®shit just got real¡¯ feeling. It was definitely nerve wracking, that was for sure.


    After we got as much from the scene, which wasn¡¯t much beyond what my Little Bunny had found, I went with Dietrich and Trinity to view the body. While the three of us went to do that, Shawn, Shane, David, Gabriel and Vincent went to interview some humans in the area. They would be able to tell us if there were any people that were around that they didn¡¯t know. Someone that might have left ande back recently. This was vital to us right now, so there was no room for error.


    The body, thankfully, was still in the freezer at the closest coroner¡¯s office. And that, thankfully, was not far from the Alpha¡¯s home. The three of us along with Cadwal went to view the victim. I don¡¯t know what Trinity wanted to see here, but there was obviously something that she needed to see or thought that she might be able to learn from the body.


    Another positive for us was the fact that the coroner, Gwri, was also a wolf. He had bright blond hair, shining green eyes and a somber face. I guess something about him had to be affected by all of the death that he had seen.


    However, with Gwri also being a wolf, it meant that we did not need to hide who and what we were. And we would be able to investigate everything a lot easier.


    ¡°Thank you foring.¡± He said as he weed us into the storage area. ¡°Both of the bodies are still here. The families wanted to make sure that all information was gotten from them before they were buried or burned. I know that is not tradition, but we were working with bereaved families here, I hope you understand, Queen Trinity.¡±


    ¡°Of course. I am actually very happy that they are still here. This allows us to see their bodies and determine if there is anything about them that is different or that needs to be examined again.¡± I watched my wife speaking to this man fluidly and easily. She was doing her best not to be affected by the situation at hand. ¡°Please, take us to see the victims.¡±


    ¡°Yes, right away. Please, follow me.¡±


    Gwri led the way to the far side of the room. This was the room where they performed the autopsies as well as stored them. It was cold and smelled like sterilized death. The chemicals didn¡¯t fully mask the scent of the dead that were in this room. Honestly, it was a horrible smell and I didn¡¯t know how Gwri could handle it at all.


    He pulled out thest two drawers that held the bodies of the victims from this pack. Nis was in the furthest drawer and Llewellyn was in the one next to him. The moment that they were pulled out of theirpartments, the scent of death was intensified.


    They didn¡¯t smell like they were rotting, not yet. They were being kept preserved with the cold, but they definitely smelled dead. There was a scent that settled onto a body when someone died, and it only got stronger the longer they were dead. And it was a smell that was insanely intense for wolves such as us. Again, I had to wonder just how Gwri was able to handle the stench of these bodies. It was beyond horrible. At least in my opinion it was.


    I was just starting to look over the bodies. I was trying to see if anything stood out to me at all. There were the wounds as well as the runes that were carved into the body. There were bruises as well as the mottling of color from the body having sat so long after they were killed. There was so much going on that I just didn¡¯t know where to start. However, I was distracted almost immediately by the startled cry of the man standing next to me.


    ¡°Oh my Goddess! No! No!¡±


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 Chapter 836

    Chapter 836: Chapter 21- Trinity ¨C Most Recent Crime Scenes Part 5 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°Oh my Goddess! No! No!¡± I heard the heartbroken wordsing from Dietrich the moment that the bodies of the victims were pulled out of the storage drawers. I don¡¯t know what had provoked that response in him that quickly. All I was able to detect here was the stench of death on these bodies.


    Then again, I had asked Dietrich toe with me for a specific reason. There was something that I had been wondering about. There was something that was concerning me about the marks that were on the bodies. And based on that reaction, I think that I might have been right.


    ¡°Dietrich, what is wrong? What do you see?¡±


    ¡°Th..they are still in there. I knew that this was a possibility. With that mark that was carved into them, their soul was likely to be trapped inside of them. B..but that isn¡¯t all.¡± He stopped speaking and looked right at me. I could see that he was in distress. Something about what he was seeing was not pleasant at all.


    .....


    ¡°Dietrich, what is it? What is going on with them? What is happening with the souls?¡±


    ¡°Th..they are in agony. I can see it. I can feel it. They are writhing in pain inside of their bodies. They weren¡¯t just trapped, Trinity. Something is happening to them. Something about this is making them experience pain.¡±


    ¡°Could it just be the residual pain from when they were murdered?¡± Reece, sounding just as appalled by what he heard as I felt, asked Dietrich for his opinion.


    ¡°I..I don¡¯t know. I couldn¡¯t tell you. I just know that this soul, these souls, both of them, are in agony. If we could hear them right now, this room would be filled with their constant wails of pain and woe.¡±


    ¡°My Goddess, that is awful.¡± Cadwal sounded like he was sickened. I didn¡¯t me him. There was a lot to take in here. I knew that we needed to figure out what to do about all of this, and fast.


    ¡°Who can fix this? Who can help us release their souls? Who can make this right?¡± Gwri¡¯s voice shook as he asked me that question.


    ¡°Can anyone help?¡± Cadwal added with a defeated tone. I understood what he was feeling. Two members of his pack, two of his people, were dead but still suffering. That was hard for the person in charge. And that included me, the person that was supposed to be there for them all.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that there is a person in the world that can release a trapped soul. These people, they¡¯re doomed.¡± Gwri spoke before I had the chance to.


    ¡°I know who can help us. I know someone that can fix this.¡±


    The moment that I spoke, both Reece and Dietrich looked at me as if I were crazy. They obviously didn¡¯t think that I would really bring her into this situation.


    ¡°Trinity, you can¡¯t.¡± Reece pleaded with me.


    ¡°Think about her, Trinity. Do you really want to expose her to this?¡± Dietrich also seemed to think that I was in the wrong here.


    ¡°The two of you need to think about this. She is getting older now, she¡¯s not a little girl anymore. And she is the only person in the world that is capable of helping these poor souls.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t we call in the twins? Charlie and Chloe can help them. They have to be able to do that.¡± Reece was still not wanting to ept what needed to be done. To be fair, I knew why he was feeling like that. It wasn¡¯t easy for me either. I didn¡¯t want to expose her to this stuff or to let her know what was happening in the world right now. But sooner orter, she would know. And it was going to be her responsibility after all.


    ¡°The bear twins don¡¯t have the power necessary to pull this off. It has to be her, Reece.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m confused here.¡± Gwri was looking between Reece and I like he was watching a tennis match, his head going side to side with each back and forth. ¡°Who are you talking about? Who is capable of doing this?¡±


    ¡°Our daughter.¡± Reece sighed as he answered that question.


    ¡°Y..your daughter?¡± Cadwal couldn¡¯t believe what he just heard. ¡°How is your daughter going to help us?¡±


    ¡°How is she going to help?¡± I smirked at the two men that were watching us. ¡°My daughter is the future Goddess of the Underworld. She has been trained for over ten years by the current gods. Lucifer, Hades, Hel, and many more. She is strong, powerful, and very smart. And she is the only living being in this realm that can release these souls.¡±


    The two men couldn¡¯t say anything at all. They were too busy just staring at me with their mouths gaping open in shock. I let them be. I had other things to be doing at the moment.


    I opened a connection to Talia. It was close to midnight back home, and she should be sleeping at the moment, but I knew her better than most and it was likely that she was still awake.


    ¡®Talia, I need to talk to you.¡¯ I kept it short and simple.


    ¡®What is it, Mom? Is something wrong? Did something happen to you or Dad? How are my uncles?¡¯ She sounded like she was about to panic. I knew that she would worry about us like that. She was so caring.


    ¡®Everyone is fine. I need your help though.¡¯ I almost felt her sigh in relief as I spoke to her.


    ¡®My help? With what?¡¯ Her curiosity was peaked now.


    ¡®With my case. There is something that I am sure only you can help me with. Please, Talia.¡¯ I was begging her. I knew I shouldn¡¯t, but I was doing it anyway.


    ¡®Of course, Mom. I will definitely help. What do I need to do?¡¯ She was so sweet and kind.


    ¡®Are you in your room?¡¯ I needed to open a door for her.


    ¡®Yes, I was just about to change for bed.¡¯ She sounded confused.


    ¡®I will open a door for you. Come through it so you can be here with me. I will send you back when you are done.¡¯ I didn¡¯t want to say too much at the moment. I just wanted to get her here.


    ¡®OK, Mom, I¡¯lle right away.¡¯


    While I kept the mental link to Talia open, I started to form the door for her toe through. I needed to concentrate, but that didn¡¯t stop me from hearing what the others were saying.


    ¡°What is she doing?¡± Cadwal asked out of curiosity.


    ¡°She is talking to our daughter.¡± Reece answered right away.


    ¡°And now it appears she is making a door.¡± Dietrich added.


    ¡°A door? So, you mean that was real?¡± Gwri asked in shock.


    ¡°Yeah, I saw it personally. It was how they came to my home.¡± Cadwal almostughed as he answered Gwri.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯ll be damned.¡±


    I blocked them out after that. I needed to focus on the door. If I messed up, then Talia would end up somewhere other than here. And I couldn¡¯t let that happen to her.


    Finally, after a few moments, the door was ready. I could feel that it was there in front of Talia. The frequency of her magic wasing through to my side of the door. And a moment after I thought that, the door opened and she walked through to my side.


    ¡°Talia.¡± I smiled and pulled her into my arms.


    ¡°Hi Mom.¡± She said against my shoulder. ¡°I don¡¯t mean to be rude, but something in here smells awful.¡± She had entered the room while facing away from the dead bodies, so she didn¡¯t know that they were there.


    ¡°Yes, that is kind of why you are here. I need you to help with them.¡± I felt awful about relying on my fifteen year old daughter, but I had no choice.


    ¡°You need my help with the smell? I am not the greatest at cleaning, but I will give it a try.¡± She smirked at me. I knew that she was joking, but now was not exactly the time for that. She didn¡¯t know that though, so she was not going to be corrected about it at all.


    ¡°Well, Talia, I need your help so that I can help some people. First, let me introduce you to the men that are here with me.¡±


    ¡°Well, I know those two. Hi Dad. Hi Uncle Dietrich.¡± She smiled at them. She had definitely inherited my sarcasm and smart mouth. That was obvious for anyone to see. ¡°However, those two dudes are new to me. Nice to meet you both, my name is Talia.¡± I could see the shock on Cadwal¡¯s face. He was seeing this young, teenage girl after she had walked through a magical door. He had been told who she was, and what she was going to be. I was pretty sure that he was instantly intimidated by her. Gwri was just stunned into silence.


    ¡°Talia, this is Gwri, the medical examiner for this city. And that is Cadwal, the local Alpha. There is an issue that they¡¯re having. In fact, it¡¯s the case that your dad and I are working on.¡±


    ¡°The killings?¡± She had picked up on more than I thought she would.


    ¡°Yeah, Talia, the killings.¡± I hated to be the one to pull her into this, but at least she was notpletely out of the loop. She knew about it, that was a good sign. And that had to mean something. Didn¡¯t it?


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 Chapter 837

    Chapter 837: Chapter 22- Trinity ¨C Most Recent Crime Scenes Part 6 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°The killings?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, Talia, the killings.¡± I was trying not to let the sheltering instinct ovee me here. I am Talia¡¯s mother. I was supposed to protect her and keep her safe. Letting her do this job for me though, that wasn¡¯t protecting her. This was exposing her to the cruelty of the world.


    ¡°What do you need, Mom? How can I help?¡±


    ¡°Well, turn around and see what is behind you.¡± It was time for her to see the dead bodies. It was time for her to see what had happened to the men that had died in this pack.


    .....


    ¡°I already saw the bodies, Mom. I saw them the moment that I came through the door. I did a quick peripheral scan as well as cast my magic out to check for people and things that were in the room.¡± She truly was amazing.


    ¡°Why would you go through that much trouble when entering a safe environment?¡± Cadwal seemed like he didn¡¯t know what to think about Talia. I knew that he was stunned. Most people tend to be like that. She was never what anyone expected. Well, aside from me. I just expected her to be herself, and that was exactly who she was.


    ¡°Well, my guard, Alexio, tells me that I need to be mindful of my surroundings at all times. I need to be on guard even in ces that I perceive to be safe and nonthreatening. In fact, he tells me that I need to be even more careful in a ce that seems non threatening because, more often than not, people will use the assumed safeness of an area to target you. I would be automatically on guard in a dangerous location that is filled with people that I do not know, but to becent in a safe ce filled with people that I do not know is actually more hazardous to me and others.¡±


    She went into a very long exnation about why she had so thoroughly searched the room already. And of course, it just further blew the minds of the men that were not familiar with Talia and the way that Alexio and Rudy had protected her over the years. They didn¡¯t know that those two guards of hers were actually very paranoid around people because they weren¡¯t always from this realm. In truth, they were demons from the underworld that came back with me after my not so fun vacation there.


    ¡°W..well, I uhm, I guess that makes sense.¡± Cadwal hadn¡¯t understood at all. He was just still in awe of the girl that he was looking at. He better not get any ideas though. He was ten years older than she was. And she was only fifteen.


    ¡°Alright Talia, you saw the bodies. Did you happen to notice anything else about them?¡±


    ¡°Well, I have never personally seen a dead body before. So, I can¡¯t truly answer whether or not they are different from other dead bodies. But, well, I did notice that their souls were still inside of them. That, I am quite certain, is not supposed to be the case. If the souls didn¡¯t leave the body, then there would be no ghosts and the underworld would be empty.¡± She was choosing to be analytical at the moment. That was a good thing. Getting too emotional at the moment would just lead to her feeling haunted.


    ¡°That is exactly right, Talia. Their souls should not be stuck inside of their bodies.¡± I felt like I was sounding like some sort of teacher rather than her mother.


    ¡°Talia, the souls have been trapped with a rune that was carved into their bodies. That rune has made them unable to escape that prison that they are in.¡± Dietrich added to what I had told her already.


    ¡°Then I will work on releasing them. I am sure that is why I am here, right Mom?¡± She smiled but it wasn¡¯t filled with joy. It was just to mask the emotions that she was feeling. She truly was a very empathetic soul.


    Talia turned to look at the bodies full on. It was the first time in her life that she was truly seeing a dead body. She had seen the souls of the dead, but not their bodies. This was going to be hard on her, I don¡¯t care what she said about itter.


    I watched her look closely at the two runes that were on the bodies. She saw the one on the forehead as well as the one on the chest. The Valknut rune, the one that likely bound the souls inside of them, had been cut during the autopsies but they had also been sewn back together.


    ¡°I see that these are no longer intact. And yet, the souls are still trapped inside of the bodies. That tells me that simply cutting away the runes will not work. They will be bound until there is nothing at all left of the rune on or in their bodies.¡±


    She was looking closely at the dead men, watching them and trying to understand them. After a moment or two, she stood up and gasped.


    ¡°Huh?!¡± She looked like she was in pain or maybe emotional distress.


    ¡°What is it, Talia? What¡¯s wrong?¡± My heart was already aching for her.


    ¡°Th..they felt the autopsies.¡± She was crying now. ¡°I..I ammunicating with them. I wanted to learn what I could from them. And, well, I..I just learned that they have felt everything that happened to their bodies since they died. Death was not a release for them. Not with them being trapped like this. Th..they are screaming and sobbing in pain. Mom, this is horrible. Who did this to them?¡±


    ¡°That is what I want to find out, sweetheart. I want to help them to move on as well as catch the people that are responsible for doing this.¡± I felt the anger bubbling inside of me again. To know that these people have continued to suffer even after being murdered. And now that Talia was here, she was most likely feeling the emotions that these people were expressing to her. She always felt what the souls she interacted with felt.


    ¡°I..I will release their souls, but I think they have more to tell us. I..I want them toe back with me before I help them to move on. And Mom, I want to make a ce for them in the underworld. These people, those that have died in this manner and suffered this way, need somewhere to go when they move on.¡±


    ¡°That is nice of you, Talia. But what do you mean that they have more to tell us?¡± Reece¡¯s voice sounded thick with emotions. He couldn¡¯t bear to see that pain in Talia¡¯s eyes either. It was both heart and gut wrench.


    ¡°They weren¡¯t killed by the same person. It was two different killers. But they are in so much pain that they are screaming at me and it is very hard to hear them. I will release their souls and then talk to them. Mom, are there more of them? I will help you with all of them if I need to. I want to make this right. I need to make this right.¡±


    ¡°There are more, Talia, but I don¡¯t want to burden you. It will be a lot. I can free their souls if you show me how, and I will tell them to look for you.¡± I wanted to spare her as much as I could.


    ¡°No, Mom, I can¡¯t do that. It might not work. And they won¡¯t hear you. They need me here. I will stay with you. When we are done, call Nona and L, tell them that I came to help you. I will work remotely or make up my work. This is more important.¡± She was adamant about this. I knew that she had a strong sense of justice and that she wouldn¡¯t be able to overlook what was happening. She was too sweet for that.


    ¡°Alright, Talia, I will call them. Please, just help these two first. Then you can talk to them at the Alpha¡¯s home.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Mom.¡±


    Talia ced her hands over the chests of the two men. One hand over each of the Valknut runes. Her eyes were closed and I didn¡¯t know what she was doing. I knew that she was pulling magic toward her, but that was all. I didn¡¯t know this spell, and chances were, it was something that Talia was making up on the spot. Still, she was smart and I trusted her. I knew that it was going to work.


    There was a pink light that shed across the chests of the two men. I knew that was her magic being used. She was pouring it into their bodies and I saw them filling up and beginning to shine.


    After a little bit, the bodies of the two men were shiningpletely. They would explode if it was something physical filling them. However, it wasn¡¯t so they just pushed the magic out of their bodies.


    The moment the souls were released, I saw it happen. I didn¡¯t see the souls, not like how Dietrich and Talia would, but I saw the light that was vaguely human shaped as it left their bodies. They went from glowing to beingpletely dark almost instantly.


    ¡°They¡¯ve been released.¡± Talia opened her eyes then and looked at me. Those eyes of hers, simr to mine, were glowing with power.


    ¡°That was amazing.¡±


    ¡°So cool.¡± Gwri and then Cadwal spoke with awe when they saw my daughter in action.


    ¡°Thank you, Talia. Thank you for setting their souls free.¡± Dietrich sounded relieved as he smiled at my daughter.


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 Chapter 838

    Chapter 838: Chapter 23- Talia ¨C Talking With The Souls (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    Right now, I was slightly bummed out. I would say I was pissed off, but if I spoke like that my parents would likely yell at me. Not that they had room to talk. I mean, they talked like that all the time. And I am fifteen for Goddess¡¯s sake. I should be allowed to talk however I wanted to.


    I was mad at my mom though. And my dad. I mean, I get here and free two souls that were trapped in their bodies. Then I am supposed to talk to these souls and find out what they know. Other than that, however, I am not allowed to be involved in anything at all. I was being sent back to this Alpha¡¯s pack house. I didn¡¯t even have a room there. And, from what I knew, Mom and Dad weren¡¯t even staying there tonight, so they had already packed their stuff and prepared to leave soon. It left me wondering, where in my future home am I going to be interviewing these people?


    I had to stifle a chuckle at that. Instead of saying Hell, I said my future home. I mean, they were the same thing after all. I would, quite literally, be living in hell when I was older and done with college. Not that I thought college would help me. There was no degree on how to run the underworld. Perhaps I should go with some sort of management degree. I would at least know how to manage different departments and could make the underworld like a business. Then again, maybe I should learn how to manage children and a ssroom. The other people in the underworld were likely toin like children when a new leader came in and started to change things. And let¡¯s not forget about psychology. That might help me as well. I could figure out how these people think and make things easier on us all. Hahh. Who was I kidding? Nothing was going to work there. Nothing at all.


    I was getting off track here. I knew that I needed to focus and get this job done before I sent these people on their way. They needed to move onto the underworld and to the peace that they would receive once they were there. Also, I think that it was somewhat possible that there might be other victims that were already in the underworld. And if that were the case, then I would need to have their souls found and interviewed. Let¡¯s just hope that they weren¡¯t sent for punishment. They didn¡¯t deserve that after what happened to them. To aplish that task, I was going to have to contact my underworld tutors. Perhaps the regrs, Hades, Lucifer and Hel, would be willing to assist me. I could only hope that they would be.


    .....


    At the moment, Uncle David and Uncle Shane were escorting me back to the local Alpha¡¯s home. The two souls that I needed to talk with were riding in the car with me. I will admit that I was slightly weirded out by the fact that they were bothpletely naked. Then again, that had been how their bodies were when they were freed. I guess that was to be expected of them at the moment. It¡¯s not like they had a choice of how they appeared before me.


    When the car stopped I heard a voice from the front seat pull my attention toward them.


    ¡°This is the Alpha¡¯s home.¡± Uncle David called out to me as he looked up at the house. I suddenly remembered when he and the others came back from their investigations and saw me here in Wales. They seemed to have been shocked beyond belief. They didn¡¯t expect that mom was going to bring me in to help with investigating these deaths.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± I smiled at him to show my thanks, though I don¡¯t think he saw it. ¡°I just need somewhere private to talk to them now.¡±


    ¡°Of course. We will ask someone in the house.¡± Uncle Shane opened my door and helped me out. I was d that the souls had gotten out first. I didn¡¯t like the idea of me moving through them. That was never a good experience. It always made me feel like my entire body was freezing over and the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck would stand on end. It wasn¡¯t painful, but it wasn¡¯t pleasant either.


    My two uncles led me into the house. It was nice, but very different from what I was used to. It was smaller than the castle, and really old looking. It was made of stone and wood, like it had been here for centuries with no issues. It was also very pretty, in a storybook sort of way.


    ¡°Wee back, Sir Knights.¡± A girl around my age greeted Uncle David and Uncle Shane. ¡°I see that there is a visitor with you.¡± She smiled at me. ¡°Please, pardon my rudeness, but I do believe that I do not know you. My name is Telyn, and who might you be?¡±


    ¡°This is Talia, Queen Trinity¡¯s daughter.¡± Uncle David answered for me. ¡°The queen called her in for some help. Talia here, is the future ruler of the underworld. The next goddess chosen to take over when she is of age.¡±


    ¡°That is very impressive.¡± Telyn smiled at me, but I could tell that she was nervous for some reason.


    ¡°Thank you. Now, Telyn, I need to find somewhere quiet and private to conduct some interviews. Is there somece in the house that would be suitable?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I believe that I know of a ce that will suit your needs. When will the others arrive?¡±


    ¡°What others?¡± I asked her with confusion in my voice. Apparently, we were both not understanding each other.


    ¡°The people that you will be interviewing. I will bring them to you when they arrive.¡±


    ¡°Oh, they¡¯re already here.¡± I tried not to look like a freak at the moment. Most people back home, aside from those in the very close inner circle, didn¡¯t know about my special abilities. So. this girl didn¡¯t know either.


    ¡°I am confused.¡± Telyn definitely looked that way as she tilted her head to look at me with a worried expression.


    ¡°Telyn, Talia canmunicate with souls. You cannot see them, but the two men that were killed are here with her now. She needs to talk to them privately. She does not want others to hear what she says to them, or to see what happens. Just as she said earlier though, they are already here. And with Talia¡¯s help, we might be able to solve this case much sooner.¡±


    ¡°Oh. I see.¡± She looked beyond shocked at the moment. ¡°Please, forgive me, Princess Talia. Allow me to show you to a private sitting room. I will provide you with the key, so that you may lock yourself in and no one will be able to interrupt you.¡± There was embarrassment, shock, awe, and maybe even a little bit of envy and a little bit of fear in the girl¡¯s eyes as she looked at me.


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    The souls and I followed after Telyn. Uncle David and Uncle Shane followed behind me as well. They were going to be guarding the door for me even though I was going to have the key. That wouldn¡¯t stop them though. If I called out in distress and needed them, they would just bust through the door. Nothing would ever stop them.


    Once Telyn had shown us to the sitting room that she had mentioned, she made certain that I wasfortable. She went to get a pitcher of water that was nice and cold. She brought a ss for me to drink from, and she even got me a te full of cookies and other snacks. That would help to give me a bit of an energy boost. It was veryte back home and I would normally be asleep in bed at the moment. Or at the very least, I would be going to sleep soon, since I didn¡¯t sleep as early as most people tended to.


    Once Telyn was done preparing for everything she turned to look at me once more.


    ¡°I hope that you have what you need, Princess Talia. If there is anything else, do not hesitate to send someone to find me. I will be at your service whenever you need me.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Telyn.¡± She nodded then left the room. With that, I locked the door and was alone with the souls for the first time.


    The best way to not be overwhelmed by the dead was to not focus on them. And while I kept them in sight out of the corner of my eye, I had basically ignored them ever since we left the coroner¡¯s office. Now, though, I needed to pay attention to them.


    These people didn¡¯t look like most souls that I hade across. They were naked, they had the scars of the autopsy all over them, and they looked terrified. Nis, the first man to die who had been waiting trapped in his body for a lot longer than Llewellyn, looked at me with pleading brown eyes. His hair was light brown and his face was pale, though that could have been from him being dead for so long. Llewellyn had blue eyes and dark hair that was nearly ck. He was also very pale. Both were a little over six feet tall and looked like they were very powerful men when they were alive. That was why I didn¡¯t understand how they could have been killed so easily.


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 Chapter 839

    Chapter 839: Chapter 24- Talia ¨C Talking With The Souls Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    ¡°I know that you two must be scared. And that there is a lot that you do not understand at the moment. But please, talk to me and exin to me what has happened to you. I am here to listen to you and to be your voice now that no one else can hear it. I promise you, that with your help and the help of the others, I will not stop searching for the people that killed you.¡±


    I thought that a little bit of an introduction would be best at the moment. If I was able to tell them that I was here for them and that I was going to help them, then maybe they would be a little more open when talking with me. The fact that they were here at all though, meant that they wanted to talk to me. That they wanted me to help them.


    ¡°I do not know what to do.¡± Nis spoke first. I could hear in his voice how much pain he had been through and how frightened he had been. ¡°I never knew that someone who was dead could still feel pain.¡± His eyes were wavering, and if he had been capable of it still, I knew that he would have been crying. ¡°Even when they weren¡¯t cutting me open anymore, it was nonstop pain.¡±


    ¡°We didn¡¯t sleep. Now that we¡¯re dead we don¡¯t sleep. So, that means that we never had a break from the pain. It was constant. It was horrible. I..I have never been a weak man. I was not a brute, but I was never weak. This, though, has broken me. I..if I were to have to do this again, i..if I were alive and had to do it all over again, I would not be able to. I just couldn¡¯t.¡± Llewellyn¡¯s voice was filled with choking sobs, but his eyes were dry. He was not able to cry now since he had no physical substance.


    .....


    ¡°I am sorry for what you have gone through. Please, have a seat and tell me about what happened.¡± I looked longingly at the snacks that Telyn brought me, but I decided against eating any of them now. It would not be fair to these men. They would not be able to partake. They most likely didn¡¯t feel hunger or anything like that, but they would likely feel the desire to eat.


    ¡°Before I do that, tell me how you¡¯re able to see us? How can you hear us when no one else can?¡± Nis seemed like he was the more rational of the two men that were here. In truth, I would have expected him to have lost more of his mind than Llewellyn had.


    ¡°Well, Nis, I am a wolf like you, but that is not all that I am. My mother is Trinity Grey, the Goddess Queen that you all have heard of. Because of my mother, I was born with some abilities that were not normal.¡±


    ¡°And those abilities includemuning with the dead?¡± He was still skeptical. I didn¡¯t know why.


    ¡°Well, as you can already see, yes it does. I have been hearing the dead since I was four. And I started to see them when I was five. For over a decade now I have been able tomunicate with the dead. I have been getting trained by the current leaders of the underworld and will eventually take over. I will rule there. And when I do, I n to make it a better ce than it has been. The current practices are not up to my standards.¡±


    ¡°You will help the dead? All of them?¡± Llewellyn asked with wide eyes.


    ¡°Those that deserve it, yes. I would not reward the people that have done this to you. They will be reserved for the truest dark pits of Hell. The stories that you know about hell will have nothing on what these people will experience.¡± I could feel my anger boiling inside of me. This had never truly happened to me before. It was new. It was intense. And it was scary, even for me.


    ¡°Thank you, Princess Talia. We need someone like you to help us.¡± Nis nodded at me and finally sat down. I silently reminded myself to never sit on those cushions, or the ones in the car that Uncle David drove me over here in. These men may be dead and didn¡¯t actually have bodies, but I didn¡¯t like the idea of sitting where naked people had been.


    The three of us were sitting and facing each other. The two dead men, who appeared to have once known each other, were sitting side by side as I sat across from them. I knew this was going to be hard, on them and me. I needed to keep going though. I wasn¡¯t the type to quit, and I couldn¡¯t do that to them anyway.


    ¡°Nis, since you were the first to pass, can you start? Tell me about the night that you were murdered. Tell me who did this and what happened to you.¡±


    ¡°W..well, I just felt like going out for a walk. It was around canol nos, and I knew that I should have stayed in, but something was calling me out. I feltpelled to go out for a walk.¡±


    ¡°I am sorry, but what is canol nos?¡± I was confused by his words.


    ¡°It is Welsh for midnight.¡± He looked like he had almost forgotten that I would be unfamiliar with it. In truth, I shouldn¡¯t have had an issue. I should have been able to use the trantion power that everyone I knew seemed to have. Maybe it was not usable until my mother gave it to me. I would need that soon.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± I offered a smile. ¡°Please continue.¡±


    ¡°Well, as I said, I went for a walk. I felt that something was off, but I didn¡¯t pay attention to it. I just kept going. I ended up near the forest and the wishing stones.¡±


    ¡°Those are some sort of boulders, right?¡± I remember reading about something like that before.


    ¡°Yes. They are just an old urban legend in the vige, but they have meaning for a lot of people.¡± He tried to force himself to continue, but I could tell that he was having a hard time. ¡°A..anyway, when I found myself at the stones, that was when someone ambushed me. They leapt onto me and held me down. They were strong. And even though they smelled human, there was something off about them. They were too strong to just be human. I fought them. I really did, but they managed to get their knife against my throat and pulled it hard. I felt the blood start to pour out of me almost instantly.¡±


    Nis took a deep breath and hid his eyes. I knew that he was trying to steady himself before he continued. After that breath, he did sound like there was a little more strength to his voice.


    ¡°The man that was attacking me moved my body so that I was bleeding into a giant tub. It wasn¡¯t a bucket or anything, but a giant metal tub. He was collecting my blood and there was nothing that I could do about it. My body had lost too much blood. I was immobilized while my body tried to heal myself, but it just wasn¡¯t working. And even though I could tell that my body was not healing, I was still fully awake. I don¡¯t know what it was about the knife that he used, but it was keeping the wound open. It did something to me.¡±


    ¡°Did you see the de? Did it look different?¡±


    ¡°No, I didn¡¯t see it. Just a faint glow when the moon reflected off of it.¡± He shook his head.


    ¡°What happened next?¡± I prompted him to continue.


    ¡°That was when the man that was attacking me had flipped me over. I was still bleeding, but not as much. It was just sort of seeping out of me at that point. I saw his face then. He wasn¡¯t wearing a mask, but that didn¡¯t mean that I knew him. His face was pale and almost glowing in the moonlight. His eyes were ck. And his hair was just as dark as his eyes. He was wearing some strange robes. The sleeves were long and they were some shimmering silver color. I don¡¯t know how I didn¡¯t notice this man glowing before he had attacked me, but somehow, he had managed to go undetected.¡±


    ¡°Did he say anything? Did he have an ent?¡± I needed to probe for more.


    ¡°Y..yes. He did. He called me a monster. He said I was an abomination. And he did have an ent, but I couldn¡¯t pinpoint it.¡± He was shaking his head.


    ¡°We will find him, Nis, don¡¯t worry. I will see to it that he pays.¡±


    ¡°That wasn¡¯t all that he did.¡± Nis looked so sad now. ¡°He carved these runes into my body. He made it so that I couldn¡¯t get out. I didn¡¯t know what the runes were, not really, but I felt like he was calling me a beast of the night when he carved them into me. And after that, he used his knife to slice open my chest and pulled out my heart. I thought that would be the end of it. I thought that it would be over then. But it wasn¡¯t. I could tell that my body was dead, but I was still in there.¡±


    Nis sobbed just a little as he recounted this part of the story. I felt horrible for him. This never should have happened to him or any of them.


    ¡°A..after I knew that I had died, after that man knew that I had died, he got close to my face and whispered to me. He said, ¡®How does it feel to be dead? How do you like being trapped in your body? I have sealed you in there forever. You will never be able to reincarnate and infect this world ever again¡¯. That was when I knew that he had targeted me and that he had tried to destroy me personally. I didn¡¯t know at the time that there were others. It wasn¡¯t until Llewellyn came into the coroner¡¯s office and I could hear his soul screaming beside me. You want to know what the worst part of it all was?¡± Nis looked up at me and I could see that he wanted to cry so bad. ¡°We could hear everything that was happening around us. We could hear the people talking when we were not in the storage drawers. And when we were in them, it was silent aside from our screaming. I could hear Llewellyn screaming, and he could hear me. And I thought that my own autopsy had been horrible, feeling it and being aware of it, but it wasn¡¯t as bad as hearing someone else go through it. That right there, that truly had to be like hell on earth.¡±


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 Chapter 840

    Chapter 840: Chapter 25- Talia ¨C Talking With The Souls Part 3 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    I tried not to let that shiver run through me. Listening to what Nis was telling me. Listening to him exining how the worst thing that he went through since he died was not his own autopsy but that of the man that was just like him. Listening to the soul screaming while still trapped in the body, he said that was worse than experiencing it for himself.


    I could understand that. He might have mentally detached at some point. He might have screamed through his, just like Llewellyn had screamed, but he might not remember all of the pain because of some sort of detachment that he had forced on himself. That would be my guess anyway.


    And, in truth, I couldn¡¯t really me him for bing detached like that. I mean, who would want to remain mentally there when that was happening to them. There wasn¡¯t anything that these men could have done other than just checking out mentally. They were, in fact, nothing but a mental, and maybe emotional, state. There was nothing physical about them anymore.


    And I doubt that either of them realized just how much they were screaming. I doubt that they would be able to remember how much the other was screaming the entire time. After a while, the sounds of their screams just ceased to matter anymore.


    .....


    They were free now. They didn¡¯t need to feel that pain anymore. Their bodies, cut up and destroyed, could no longer hurt them. I felt happy, just a little bit, knowing that I was the one that had taken that pain from them.


    I wasn¡¯t done here yet though. I needed to talk to them more. I needed to get the rest of the story. Then I needed to make this right. I needed to get these men to an afterlife that they deserve. They were going to live in peace,pletely unlike the death that they had been given.


    ¡°U..uhm, Mr. Llewellyn, can you please tell me about your experience? Can you exin what happened when you were murdered?¡± I tried to remain calm. I tried not to show just how nervous I was. I needed to show that I was here for him as well. And I needed to get these details for my parents.


    ¡°Yes. I will. Thank you for listening, Princess Talia.¡±


    ¡°Of course. It is the least that I can do. You two have been through so much, and you deserve to have your stories told.¡± I smiled as best as I could as I prepared for what the man was about to say to me.


    ¡°For me it was much like what Nis said. I was at home that night. I was getting ready to go to bed. And then, all of a sudden, I felt this desire to go for a walk. I don¡¯t live, well I didn¡¯t live, that far from the church. I used to like to run out there, behind the old church. A lot of us do. Did.¡± I got the feeling that he was having a hard timeing to terms with the fact that he was dead and that his life waspletely in the past tense. ¡°Well, when I got to the church, I thought I was just going to go for a run. I was just about to strip off my clothes and shoes when I heard someoneing up behind me. The moment that I looked behind me though, I was ambushed. I..I never even noticed that there was anyone there. I never smelled them. I never sensed anything at all. So, when they jumped on me and tackled me to the ground, it had taken mepletely by surprise.¡±


    ¡°So, your attacker didn¡¯t smell like a human?¡± I was confused at what I was hearing.


    ¡°No. He didn¡¯t. At least, not until he was right on top of me. That was when his scent flooded into my nose. I know that it is weird, but the man was somehow hiding his scent. But, I mean, if he was human, how could he do that?¡±


    I knew why he was feeling put off by that. This person that attacked him was supposed to be a human, yet somehow, he had done something that no human was supposed to be able to do. I could understand why he was feeling nervous about that and wanted answers.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how he did that, but I promise you that me and my family will find out. We will make sure that these men pay for what they have done to you.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± They both said at the same time. I knew that they were happy that there was someone here to listen to them.


    ¡°Llewellyn, will you continue, please.¡± I prompted him, hoping he would continue his story for me to hear. I needed all the information that I could get from him.


    ¡°Well, I was ambushed just like Nis was. The man didn¡¯t start trying to cut my throat right away. Instead, he started to carve the rune into my forehead. The moment that it was on my body, I just felt this heavy and imposing cold settle onto me. It was like I was barely able to move. It was sucking away my strength so that I was barely able to fight the man off of me. It was then that he slit my throat and collected my blood in the same way that Nis¡¯s killer had done. While Iid there, bleeding and immobilized by the blood loss and that rune, he started to spread the blood around the area. He was being messy but I also felt like he was making a precise pattern. He also smeared it on the wall of the church and that was when I noticed the words that he had written there. I had barely been able to move my head enough to read them upside down, but they frightened me even more.¡±


    ¡°What did they say?¡± I hadn¡¯t heard about these words yet. I didn¡¯t know what was going on in the rest of the investigation and here was my chance to possibly find a clue that my parents didn¡¯t have yet.


    ¡°It said Monsters hide in the dark, but that will never stop the light from shining through. We will hunt the monsters to extinction and we will free the world from their evil ways. We will y the beasts and we will stop the spread of their infernal diseases to the good people of this world. We are the saviors of humankind. We are the heroes of the light. And we will not be stopped.¡± I felt my heart sink at the words that I had just heard. These people were animals, and they were calling us monsters. That was just wrong.


    ¡°Nis, did you notice words when you were killed?¡±


    ¡°No, I did not. But the man did spread the blood around just like Llewellyn said. I had almost forgotten that. It was after he had killed me and I wasying there screaming silently in pain.¡±


    ¡°I see.¡± I hated that these men had to relive this. ¡°Thank you for sharing the information. Llewellyn, please continue.¡±


    ¡°Well, after the man did what he was doing with my blood, he came over and cut my chest open just like Nis had said. He took my heart from my chest and grinned at me. He didn¡¯t whisper to me though.¡±


    ¡°And what did your killer look like?¡± That was the only details I hadn¡¯t gotten so far.


    ¡°He was young, about twenty or so. Or that¡¯s how he looked. His hair was light brown, and his eyes were green. He was a generic looking person that I did not recognize at all. Aside from him being really pale, there was nothing remarkable about him.¡±


    ¡°Thank you. That is all that I need from you, gentlemen. If you are ready, I can help you to move on. I will even call someone here to escort you directly to your afterlife if you would like.¡±


    ¡°Y..you can do that?¡± Nis looked awestruck by my words.


    ¡°Yes, I can. Would you like me to?¡± I offered once more.


    ¡°Yes, please.¡± They said at the same time, nodding at me as they did so.


    ¡°Alright then.¡±


    I thought about the man that I needed to contact. Of the three people that I knew woulde as soon as I contacted them, I wanted the one that would be the kindest toward them. The man that was not going to make jokes or anything like that. So, to suit my purposes, I was thinking about Lucifer.


    Once the connection was established, I sent my intentions to him telepathically.


    ¡°Lucifer, can you pleasee to where I am? I am currently in an Alpha house in Wales.¡± ¡°I will be there right away.¡± His words came without dy. And sure enough, a secondter, there was a magical door appearing in front of me.


    The door finished materializing and the man stepped out. Lucifer with his dark hair and pale skin, appeared before me in all his splendor.


    ¡°I am here, Talia, what is it you needed from me?¡± At that, he noticed the two souls that were sitting opposite of me. ¡°Well now, this seems to be an interesting situation that you have found yourself in.¡±


    ¡°These men, Nis and Llewellyn, were recently murdered. They have suffered greatly, and I would like you to take their souls to their afterlife personally. And, if it is not too much trouble, can you search for others that might have crossed over already. These men were trapped in their bodies until I released them, but there might be some that already crossed without needing my assistance.¡±


    ¡°Oh my. That sounds horrible. As a favor to you, Talia, I will do as you ask. As I have tried to prove for millennia now, I am not a bad man. I am simply misunderstood. So, please, leave these two with me and I will see to it that they are well cared for. And, of course, I will look for more victims for you.¡± Lucifer nodded his head with a kind smile on his face.


    ¡°Thank you, Lucifer. I knew that you were the right one to call. I know that I can always count on you.¡±


    ¡°I am happy that you have that confidence in me.¡± He bowed just a little bit before turning to the men that were before him. ¡°Let us get you properly dressed.¡± He waved his hand and the souls were now wearing clothes that seemed to be unique to each of them.


    ¡°M..my favorite shirt. H..how did you know?¡± Nis was dumbfounded.


    ¡°I am a god, I am all-knowing.¡± Lucifer chuckled just a little but that was all.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Llewellyn seemed to be wearing his favorite clothes as well. That was good. They would be happy in them at least.


    ¡°Now, gentlemen,e with me.¡± They rose and followed Lucifer through the door. ¡°I will be in touch soon, Talia.¡± Lucifer called out once more before the door disappeared.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± I knew he didn¡¯t hear it, but at least I said it. ¡°And goodbye to you two.¡±


    I was alone in the room now. It was just me and the silence around me. That silence felt deafening in that moment. It was like it was hiding so much that seemed to be happening around me.


    ¡°Hahh.¡± I sighed, breaking that silence for no other reason than because I could. And because I wanted to. It felt off to be here in this silent room. ¡°I guess I need to go and tell my parents what I learned.¡± I slowly got to my feet and was thankful, once again, that I had that perfect memory of mine. I wouldn¡¯t forget any of it.


    As I started toward the door, I heard thundering footstepsing toward me. I also smelled two very distinct and familiar scents.


    ¡°Talia! Talia!¡±


    ¡°Where is she!? Talia!? Where are you!?¡± Yeah, I knew that they would be angry with me. Oh well, time to face the music.


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 Chapter 841

    Chapter 841: Chapter 26- Trinity ¨C Dietrich¡¯s Knowledge (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I had just sent Talia back to the Alpha¡¯s house with David and Shane. Shawn, Vincent, Gabriel and Dietrich were still with me and Reece at the coroner¡¯s office. The coroner, Gwri, and the Alpha, Cadwal, were not with us at the moment. They were busy taking care of some business in their pack. So, for the time being, it was just the six of us. I knew that Shane and David would be disappointed to be missing out on this conversation, but I didn¡¯t have a choice. We needed to talk things out as soon as we could.


    ¡°Dietrich, I want to talk to you about something.¡± The man in question had been looking down at the floor. I could tell that there was something that was eating away at him. And it was not something new. He had been looking off since the first time we read over the case reportsst week. Now, I wasn¡¯t about to let it slide anymore. He needed to stop hiding things from me. He needed to talk.


    ¡°Talk about what, Trinity?¡± He smiled and gave me that usually calm and serene face of his. Only he was not sculpting it right. He wasn¡¯t able to lookpletely carefree and innocent like he normally did.


    ¡°Well, for starters, tell me why you look so nervous right now. Do you know something about what is going on?¡± I hadn¡¯t meant to sound usatory but based on his words that followed I was able to guess that they sounded at least slightly using.


    .....


    ¡°Do I know anything? What are you saying? Do you think that I have anything to do with this? Do you think that I am a killer? Is that what you think of me, Trinity? I don¡¯t even drink blood as often as I used to. I have been a model citizen for almost twenty years so that I did not disappoint my mate.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t mean that, Dietrich. I am sorry. I didn¡¯t mean to make you think that I thought you were a part of this. What I was meaning, and what I should have said in the beginning, is do you know who might be behind this? Do you know who might be using those symbols to trap the souls inside of their bodies?¡± I did my best to make my voice sound calm and apologetic at the same time. I had messed up just because of the way that I had worded that question.


    ¡°Hahh.¡± He seemed to dete almost instantly. It was like all the wind that had filled his sails just a moment ago were gone. He was calm and looked very sad. ¡°I know you didn¡¯t mean that, Trinity. I am sorry. I guess I am just extra sensitive at the moment. It¡¯s not just your people that are being targeted. It¡¯s mine too. And it has me on edge.¡±


    ¡°I know, Dietrich.¡± I walked over to him and put my hand on his arm. It wasn¡¯t quite his shoulder, but I was too short for that to be a natural ce for me to put my hand. ¡°Just tell me what you know about the runes. Please.¡± I prompted him toe out and tell me what he knew so that he didn¡¯t have to bottle it up anymore. ¡°Just tell me what you can.¡±


    ¡°Well, the runes are old. Very old. They predate me by several centuries. They go back to old Norse legends. Anyone would be able to research them and use them. That is the problem with information being so easy to ess. Even the evil things are there for these people to take for themselves.¡± He sighed and seemed to feel some sort of anger about that fact. ¡°However, there was once a man that I knew who used those symbols. He was a man that sought to have a world filled with peace and light. He was a hunter of sorts. And I will admit that I helped him from time to time.¡±


    ¡°What kind of hunter was he, Dietrich?¡± Shawn didn¡¯t seem to know what Dietrich was talking about. He was just as surprised to hear about this as I was.


    ¡°He hunted people that were not human.¡±


    ¡°DIETRICH!?¡± Several voices called out to him at the same time. Me, Reece, Shawn, Vincent and Gabriel were all floored by this discovery.


    ¡°It¡¯s not what you think.¡± Dietrich looked like he was scared. He was frantically trying to get me to understand what he was saying. ¡°Please. Listen to me. Let me exin. It wasn¡¯t that we were doing anything wrong. We were helping the world.¡±


    ¡°You were killing your own people. You were killing people that were supernatural with a human!¡± Shawn looked like he just couldn¡¯t wrap his mind around what he had heard, and what he was saying to Dietrich as well.


    ¡°Please, Shawn, Geliebte, listen to me. I didn¡¯t do anything wrong. The people that we hunted, the men and women that we killed, they were the worst of the worst. They were people that didn¡¯t want to hide what they were. They were killing people at random. They killed their own kind. They killed humans. They didn¡¯t care at all. All they wanted was to kill. These people still ur in our world today, and they are swiftly dealt with by their Alpha or Coven leaders. Back then, these people were not as easy to catch. There were fewer people in the world, and they would be able to hide a lot easier. The man, this friend of mine, he worked with me and the others like me to destroy those killers. We weren¡¯t just hunting our kind. We were also protecting them. That¡¯s why I know that he has nothing to do with this. For one thing, ric died centuries ago. He isn¡¯t around to do this anymore.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± I was finally letting Dietrich¡¯s words settle in. ¡°I understand what you are saying. And I am not going to hold it against you. I have had to personally take care of people like that. My father, when he was alive, was like that. And so were the two Fae that I had to kill. Snum and Hibiscus were evil and needed to be stopped. And even though it was in the underworld, I killed Hekate to save the world. I had done what Dietrich was talking about. I had killed to protect the world. We all had.


    ¡°That was all it was?¡± Shawn asked Dietrich, needing to be sure.


    ¡°Yes, Liebling, that was all it was. I did not harm innocent people. I only killed them to protect the innocent.¡± Dietrich was desperate to be understood at that moment. ¡°You must believe me.¡±


    ¡°I do, Dietrich. I do. Just calm down, mein Liebe.¡±


    ¡°So, Dietrich, you killed vampires, witches, warlocks, shifters and Fae? You didn¡¯t discriminate at all?¡± Reece wanted to join the discussion as well.


    ¡°That is correct. We only killed those that we werepletely certain were guilty. We would collect undeniable proof and then the sentence would be carried out. In the beginning, ric would trap the souls inside the body until they were cleansed with fire. That would be when the souls were freed. He stopped doing that after a while though. He said that it was not humane. He did not want to be seen as an animal. These runes though, they were in his home. They were in a certain part of his cer. He made a sort of vault of souls. The worst of the worst that he did not think could be cleansed. He kept them trapped in there so that they would not be reborn.¡±


    ¡°So, he was humane, to an extent.¡± I mused as I listened to what Dietrich was saying. ¡°And what happened as time went on? What did this ric do as he got older?¡±


    ¡°He had a family. He continued to hunt, but he often sent his children toplete the missions when he was getting older. At some point in time, I left him and his family to their work. I did not fear for my life or the life of anyone that was innocent. I knew that they would continue to live by their morals. They were doing good work and they were good people. I have heard a little bit of what they have been doing over the years, but for the most part, I have not thought about them in three hundred years.¡±


    Three hundred years. I sometimes forget that Dietrich was almost five hundred and fifty now. He still looked like he was in histe twenties and would forever look like that. But having it being brought up again like this, it just surprised me for a moment.


    ¡°Alright. That is understandable.¡± I nodded at Dietrich. ¡°If they didn¡¯t do any true harm, then they are not the ones that we are looking for. It¡¯s possible that they aren¡¯t even still active. Just in case though, we should look for them. We need to be certain.¡± I looked at the watch on my wrist then, checking the time andparing it to the time back home. ¡°It¡¯s two here now, so that means that it is eight in the morning back home. I know that everyone is flipping out over the fact that Talia is missing. I need to call them. The rest of you, rx and take a break. We will head back after the rest of them get here.¡±


    ¡°The rest of who?¡± Reece asked me curiously.


    ¡°You¡¯ll see.¡±


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 Chapter 842

    Chapter 842: Chapter 27- Trinity ¨C Letting The Family Know About Talia (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    If I was calling just to talk to one person, then I probably would have ended up calling through a mental link. However, I was calling to talk to multiple people. I needed to talk to Mom and L. I needed to talk to Reagan and Rika. I needed to talk to Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley. And I needed to talk to Rudy and Alexio. Thest two in that group needed to be calmed down. I just knew that they were going to be going on a rampage.


    Everyone but Reece left the room when I pulled my phone from my pocket. Perhaps they wanted to give me some privacy. Perhaps they knew who I was going to be calling and didn¡¯t want to hear the panic on the other end of the call. I had a feeling that the moment that they picked up, there would be a massive amount of frantic yelling.


    I pressed the button that was the speed dial for my living room back home. I wasn¡¯t calling anyone specific. Instead, I was calling so that it would be a video call on the TV in the main part of the tower. It was a ce that everyone would be able to see and hear me, and I could see and hear them all as well. It was just the most efficient way to do this. Honestly, with some of the things that had advanced in technology, simple video calls were still pretty much the same as they had been ten and even twenty years ago. The only difference was the ease with how we were able to do it.


    I heard the ringing for just a fraction of a second before the call picked up. Either they were standing there, waiting for me to call, or they were about to call me.


    .....


    ¡°Trinity!¡± I heard Mom¡¯s frantic voice before she even appeared in the video. ¡°Thank the Goddess. I was just about to call you. Talia is gone. We can¡¯t find her anywhere. When Beth went to wake her this morning, and assist her with getting ready, she was not in her room. We had assumed that she was still asleep because she is such a night owl, and that had been the reason that she waste to breakfast.¡± Mom looked so scared, but just as I was about to exin things to her, and the others that I could see gathered around her, L started to sob on the line.


    ¡°At first, I thought maybe she couldn¡¯t sleep and was in the music room or the library. Or you know, maybe in the observatory. She likes to wander when she can¡¯t sleep. But we searched the entire tower and the entire castle. We can¡¯t find her at all, Trinity. She¡¯s just gone.¡±


    ¡°I have failed you, Queen Trinity. I am not worthy to be her guard.¡± Rudy looked heartbroken at what had happened. Alexio, who was just beginning to speak, looked pissed off.


    ¡°I will find whoever took her. I will-.¡±


    ¡°Can you all let me speak for a moment?¡± I interrupted him. ¡°If you give me a minute, I can exin a few things to you all.¡±


    ¡°Mommy? Does that mean that Tally is with you?¡± Zaley, who had looked so sad a moment ago, was not smiling as if disaster had just been averted. I could feel her relief from all the way over here.


    ¡°Yes. She is with me.¡± The cries of relief came immediately, however they were almost instantly followed by grumblings of anger and wonder.


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°Did you do this just to give me a heart attack?¡±


    There were several outbursts, but those were the ones that I heard first. After that, I wasn¡¯t listening to them anymore.


    ¡°No. I didn¡¯t do this to give you a heart attack. Honestly, Mom, why would you think that?¡±


    ¡°Well, you tell me, youngdy! Why in the world did you make my grandbaby disappear in the middle of the night?¡± Mom was taking this pretty hard. That was understandable, she was supposed to be in charge of them all. Of course, she and the others would be really scared if one of the kids just disappeared for no reason at all.


    ¡°First of all, Mom, I am not a youngdy anymore. I am going to be forty a lot sooner than I want to be. Secondly, I originally intended to have her home before it was time for her to go to sleep, but my ns seem to have changed.¡±


    ¡°What ns?¡± This was from Alexio. He took his job as a guard very seriously.


    ¡°Well, I called Talia here to help with the case a little bit. There was something that I knew she could do for me that no one else would be able to. However, this is a job that she is going to need to do repeatedly. So, for a little while, she is going to be travelling with me. I need to have some arrangements made for her with the school. She willplete all of her assignments, which will be easy since they are all on theputer anyway. But I need this to not be held against her for her attendance. She¡¯s in her senior year and I don¡¯t want to jeopardize her college admission. Also, since she will be staying with me now, I will need someone to pack her some clothes. Mom, you can handle that for me, right? L, can you take the kids to school while my mom does that for me? Also, Rudy and Alexio, you areing here as well, so you need to pack your bags. You will be traveling with Talia to protect her.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡± Alexio looked like he was going to demand that if I hadn¡¯t suggested it.


    ¡°Thank you, Queen Trinity. I was hoping I would be able to get back to work.¡± Rudy may be the more easy going of the two, but he still took his job very seriously.


    ¡°Please, all of you get this done as soon as you can. I need Rudy and Alexio to get back here as soon as possible.¡± I made them aware of the urgency. I didn¡¯t want to stand around waiting for too long. I wanted to get back to the Alpha¡¯s house so I could learn what Talia found out from the others.


    ¡°Of course, I will pack right now.¡± Alexio was already leaving the room.


    ¡°Me too.¡± Rudy hurried after him.


    ¡°I am going to get Talia¡¯s things together.¡± Mom rushed in the opposite direction from the other two.


    ¡°Thank you for calling, Trinity.¡± L seemed so relieved. ¡°We were worried about her. I was so scared that something had happened to her.¡±


    ¡°I am sorry for scaring you.¡± I heard Reece walking up behind me as I said that.


    ¡°We¡¯re sorry, Mom.¡± He sounded way more repentant than I did. ¡°It was just necessary. And we didn¡¯t want to wake anyone else. Trinity made a magic door for Talia toe through so that no one needed to be bothered.¡±


    ¡°Well, I think I would have preferred to be woken up.¡± Lughed awkwardly. ¡°Finding your granddaughter missing for no reason is not a pleasant experience. We were scared that someone might have taken her. That, somehow, someone managed to get past all of your protections. It was the scariest thing that I had ever felt. Honestly, Reece, it was as bad if not worse than the time that I lost your father. I was a mess. It very nearly broke me.¡± As L tried not to cry too much, Ivy came walking over to the screen.


    ¡°Mom was really scared Reece. That wasn¡¯t nice.¡± She looked so much like L, with a little bit of Grandfather thrown in for good measure. Ivy had golden brown hair and dark brown eyes. She was fair skinned, like L was, and had a thin, slight frame. She was pretty though, and a very sweet girl.


    ¡°You really shouldn¡¯t have scared L like that.¡± My own little sister, Olivia, came up next to Ivy. Those two girls acted more like sisters than aunt and niece. Yes, the dynamic in our family is a little messed up. And Olivia, by the way, looked exactly like my mom. She had A warm shade of medium brown hair. It was closer to chestnut than anything else. And her eyes were such a lovely shade of green.


    ¡°I am sorry Olivia, and to you as well, Ivy.¡± Reece bowed his head in shame as the girls ganged up on him.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be so hard on him. I was the one that called Talia over here. It¡¯s my fault. But in all honesty, we need Talia right now. There is something that only she can do for us right now.¡± I did my best to exin to them and to lessen their anger at Reece.


    ¡°What is she able to do, Momma?¡± Zachary asked me with wonder in his voice.


    ¡°Is it really cool?¡± Zander added with excitement.


    ¡°I bet it¡¯s something that makes people happy.¡± Zayden grinned.


    ¡°I bet it¡¯s something that no one else can do except for Talia.¡± Zaley looked like she understood more than the boys did.


    ¡°You¡¯re all right in your own way. It¡¯s cool, it will make people happy, and she is the only person that I know who can do this for me. And you know what, that means that Talia is very special.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. Of course, she is. It¡¯s Talia. She¡¯s the best.¡± Zachary spoke as if it was just a matter of fact. They all loved her so much.


    I watched L check the time on her watch and then look up at the kids that were in the room. I was sad that Reagan and Rika weren¡¯t there, but they didn¡¯t have the same schedules. And they might have been looking for Talia still.


    ¡°Alright, we need to leave now. Everyone, grab your backpacks and get your shoes on.¡± She was ushering them out of the way. ¡°Trinity, we will call youter, like usual.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, L. And please, tell Reagan and Rika that we love them. Zachary, Zander, Zayden, Zaley, you all know that we love you too. Ivy and Olivia, we love you too.¡±


    ¡°Love you.¡± It echoed back to me six times and at the same time, L looked panicked.


    ¡°I need to tell Reagan and Rika that they can stop searching for Talia.¡± That¡¯s what I thought might be happening.


    ¡°Have them call me so that I can exin things to them. I am sure that they are scared and worried as well.¡±


    ¡°They definitely are.¡± L nodded at me. ¡°Alright,e on, all of you.¡± She ushered the kids away and the room was empty for a little bit.


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 Chapter 843

    Chapter 843: Chapter 28- Trinity ¨C Bringing Them To See Talia (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It wasn¡¯t long before the others started toe back into the room. Mom didn¡¯t have as far to go as Rudy and Alexio, but those two were back first. They were guys though, so all they needed to do was grab handfuls of clothes and shove them in a bag. Men pack so haphazardlypared to women.


    ¡°We¡¯re ready, Queen Trinity.¡± Rudy grinned at me. I think he was just excited to be traveling. We had taken family vacations before, and he of course went to protect Talia on them, and he really enjoyed seeing new ces.


    ¡°Stop being an idiot, you moron.¡± Alexio snapped at him. ¡°We¡¯re going for work, not a vacation.¡±


    ¡°I know that. Rudy sulked for a moment. ¡°I just like new ces. Is that so bad?¡± I knew that Rudy was a good guard. He was an amazing guy. He was even a great husband to his mate May and an excellent father to their son August. But when it came to seriousness, he could neverpete with Alexio.


    .....


    Over the eleven years that they had known me, and Talia for that matter, these men had worked hard to be the best at their jobs. Alexio though, just always seemed to be better at it than Rudy no matter what they did. Alexio was bigger, taller, stronger, smarter and he was better at strategizing. Everything that Alexio did, he made sure that he was the best that he could be. I admired him for his dedication to my daughter.


    There was one thing though. Something that I thought might have upset Alexio a long time ago, but he has never seemed to worry about. Over these long, long years, he has yet to find his mate. Rudy has been happy and in love since the day that the quadruplets were born, but Alexio has not been that lucky. Sometimes I wondered if maybe, just maybe, he put so much effort into his work to hide his true feelings.


    He always took care of Talia though, so I didn¡¯t worry about it too much. As long as Alexio seemed happy and did his job the way that he needed to, then I wasn¡¯t going to worry about it. If he started to show that he was not happy and that he wanted to find his mate, then that would be a different story.


    As I was thinking about all of those things, Mom came hurrying back into the room. I saw that she had two different suitcases that she was pulling behind her. She had properly packed for a teenage girl. Whereas Rudy and Alexio had only brought onerge duffle bag each. As I said earlier, they packed like true men.


    ¡°I got everything that I think she will need. She had pajamas,fortable clothes, dressy clothes, business casual clothes, plenty of unmentionables, her toiletries, and everything that I think she will need. I don¡¯t know how long she will be gone, so I made sure that I got plenty of each. I am sorry if it is too much. Oh, and I also got her a couple of books, herptop, her tablet, her phone, her makeup, and her favorite stuffed animal. And in this bag here,¡± she indicated a drawstring bag that was slung over her shoulder, ¡°I have her pillow and nket. I want her to have all theforts of home. She can have such a hard time sleeping and I don¡¯t want things to be harder on her.¡±


    ¡°Thank you so much, Mom. I know that Talia will thank you for this. Especially for BunBun. She always used to have that to sleep. I think she will be happy just to have it with her.¡± The small pink stuffed animal had been one of the first ones that we had given to Talia when she was born. I remember Reece making a joke about it because he called me Little Bunny all the time. Still, Talia loved it and that was all that mattered.


    ¡°I just want my little Tally to be happy. She needs her things. Also, I will call the school and exin things for you. Given that the entire staff is part of the extended pack, I don¡¯t think there is anything to worry about. If need be, Talia can be switched to the online sses for the semester. She can be switched back over when you all get back. I just really hope this doesn¡¯t take too long. The kids will start to miss you. Well, the rest of them will.¡± Sheughed as she thought about that. One of my kids was already with me and would definitely not be missing me.


    ¡°I will hurry as quickly as I can, Mom. But I want to catch these people, so I need to be as thorough as I can.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± Mom smiled. ¡°You catch them and make our world a safer ce. I love you. And I will call youter with the kids so they can tell you good night.¡±


    Now that this was over, I opened the door into the autopsy room for the second time. This time, Rudy and Alexio came through. They were each carrying one of their bags as well as some of Talia¡¯s bags. Alexio had two of them while Rudy carried just one.


    ¡°Take me to Talia.¡± Alexio said the moment that he was on my side of the door and officially in Wales.


    ¡°I will, just give me a moment.¡± I smirked a little. He was definitely hyperfocused on his job.


    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s get the others, then we can head over to the Alpha¡¯s house.¡± Reece, holding in hisughter, gestured for the men to follow him out of the room.


    Once we left the autopsy room, I saw that Dietrich, Shawn, Vincent and Gabriel were waiting for us. They had been waiting there as if they had just been giving Reece and I privacy on the phone.


    ¡°I really thought that Eve and L were going to be a lot worse than that.¡± Vincent smiled at me. ¡°Knowing how those two can be when they¡¯re angry, it was quite the shock that they weren¡¯t screeching at you.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I thought it was going to be worse too. That¡¯s why we came out here. It was safer in the long run.¡± Shawn was smiling and joking around a little bit. Not as much as his brother usually did though.


    ¡°By the way, wee to Wales Alexio, and you as well Rudy. I hope that you settled in well enough now that you can protect Talia once again.¡± Vincent offered his words of wee to the men that had just arrived.


    ¡°Better to protect her here than to let her go to school without us. I can never protect her when she is there.¡± Alexio grumbled.


    ¡°Right.¡± Vincent just nodded andughed.


    There were eight of us now, so we needed two different vehicles to take us back to the Alpha¡¯s house. And, needless to say, Cadwal was a little shocked to see that there were more people now than when he left the room.


    ¡°You multiplied.¡± His words came out a little higher pitched than he intended, and with a slight amount of fear in them. ¡°W..w..who are they?¡± I know he truly wanted to ask, ¡®what are they¡¯, but instead he had kept it a little more polite. I know that he, like most other wolves, could smell that unique scent that they had.


    ¡°These are my daughter Talia¡¯s personal guards. They are Demons from the underworld.¡±


    ¡°D..Demons?¡± I could hear the shock turn to fear in Cadwal¡¯s voice. Alpha or not, most people are going to be scared shitless when you tell them that they¡¯re meeting a pair of Demons.


    ¡°Yes. And they have faithfully served my family for years. Please treat them with respect.¡± I felt the need to point this out. I guess that, with the investigation and the murders, I needed to point out to people that these men were not their enemies.


    ¡°Of course. They are more than wee here.¡± Cadwal, finally swallowing his fear, gave a smile and the most confident voice he could manage. He did pretty good too, all things considered.


    Cadwal and Gwri drove us back to the house. The entire drive, I could tell that Rudy and Alexio were anxious. They were getting closer to Talia, something that they were able to sense rather than smell. The closer that the house came, the more on edge they were.


    ¡°I sense death.¡± Alexio whispered to me in the car.


    ¡°There was a murder here not long ago.¡± Reece pointed out to him.


    ¡°No. I sense a dead soul and Talia at the same time. It almost feels as if she is being haunted.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not the case.¡± I tried to appease him. ¡°She took two souls to the house to talk to them.¡± I started to exin where Talia was and what was going on. It didn¡¯t seem to calm either of the men down at all.


    As soon as the car was parked, both Rudy and Alexio leapt out and raced toward the house. They were following Talia¡¯s path with their magic rather than their noses. They weren¡¯t wolves like we were.


    ¡°Talia! Talia!¡±


    ¡°Where is she!? Talia!? Where are you!?¡± I could hear their voices as they raced through the house. This was going to be an interesting reunion for them.


    Reece and I were hot on the men¡¯s heels as they ran into the house. So, when they reached the door where Shane and David were guarding, I knew that they had found their target.


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 Chapter 844

    Chapter 844: Chapter 29- Talia ¨C Worried Guards (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    The moment that I heard those two frantic and worried voices, I rushed to the door to unlock it. The problem is, I don¡¯t think that they were willing to wait that long. The moment that the lock slid to the side I heard a pounding on the door from the other side.


    ¡°Talia! Talia!¡± Alexio sounded really mad when he called for me.


    ¡°We¡¯reing in!¡± I think Rudy was trying to warn me to stand back.


    ¡°I just unlocked the door. Don¡¯t do anything stupid.¡± I yelled out as I took a couple hurried steps back and away from the door.


    .....


    ¡°Talia! Are you OK!?¡± Alexio called out to me again. Thankfully, though, he didn¡¯t break down the door. He had heard me about the lock and turned the handle properly.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine, Alexio.¡± I tried not tough at him. ¡°You don¡¯t need to be so overprotective of me. I was interviewing a couple of souls.¡± I was trying to calm them down while also letting them know what I had been doing. Most of the time, Rudy and Alexio were easy to get along with. However, if I were to get away from them or ¡®disappear¡¯ for no reason, I know that they would be more worried than anyone. I think they would forever worry about me more than my family would. They took protecting me very seriously.


    ¡°Why did you need to interview them, Talia? You are not a police officer, nor are you a detective. You are a princess that is studying to be a Goddess. This is not your job.¡± There Alexio goes again, being super strict with me.


    ¡°Who else could do it, Lex?¡± I called him by the nickname that I gave him long ago. ¡°It¡¯s not like there are other people that can free souls that were trapped inside of bodies or speak to the dead.¡±


    ¡°I know others that can speak to the dead.¡± He red at me with his deep red eyes. I could tell that he had run through the house to get here to me. His silver hair was disheveled and the jacket he was wearing wasn¡¯t sittingpletely straight. Rudy was simr in his messy appearance. His ck hair was not in its usual boyish style. He wasn¡¯t wearing a jacket, so that wasn¡¯t messed up. And his red eyes, lighter than Alexio¡¯s but still simr enough, looked worried.


    ¡°Yes, Lex, there are others who can speak to the dead, but they can¡¯t do what I can do. And besides, can you imagine the twinsing all the way over here? They would be so anxious that nothing would get done.¡± The bear twins, though no longer trapped in an in-between state of half human and half bear, were still not very good with people. They preferred to stay away from crowds and to stick with people that they knew. And they also vowed to follow me into the underworld when I went there. Apparently, they were going to be my personal servants or attendants while I lived in that realm. I guess that was an effective way to get away from people.


    ¡°Well, honestly, I must say that you have a point. Charlie and Chloe would not do well with these people. But that does not mean that you need to run away in the middle of the night.¡± Lex was definitely a lot more worried than he needed to be. ¡°When we discovered you were missing, we thought we had failed you.¡±


    ¡°Lex.¡± I walked to his side and patted him on the arm. He was about seven and a half feet tall, so looking into his eyes was not easy for me, but I managed to get his attention and he angled his head for me. ¡°I am sorry that you were worried about me.¡± My voice was soothing as I spoke to him. ¡°But as you can see, I am just fine. You didn¡¯t fail me. You are the best guard and soldier I could ask for.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Talia.¡±


    Alexio was never this vulnerable when other people were around. When I was growing up, most of my friends were scared of him. They thought that he was a big scary monster that was going to eat them. Whenever he would guard me at their house, they would not want him to follow us around. And when they came to my house, they asked for Rudy to be my only guard.


    I never saw what the others did. I never saw anyone that was scary. Even when I was just four years old, Alexio was nothing but a big teddy bear to me. I guess it could have just been me. In all honesty, I was probably the only person in the world who could look at a giant demon like him and smile happily.


    I didn¡¯t know how to exin it though. I just felt safe with him around. Alexio was, in some mysterious way,forting for me. And I would always choose him to be my guard over anyone else.


    And usually, I was the only one that ever got to see when Alexio was feeling sad, worried, scared, or just emotional in any way. I counted that as a special privilege of mine though. As his boss of sorts, I had these little bonuses that the others didn¡¯t have.


    ¡°Ahem.¡± I heard someone clear their throat to get our attention. I knew who it was right away. And when I turned to look at Rudy, I just smiled at him.


    ¡°Hello, Rudy. I thank you foring all the way here. We¡¯re going to be traveling with my parents for a little while, so please do your best to keep me safe.¡±


    ¡°Of course, Talia. I will protect you with my life.¡± Sometimes, I felt like Lex and Rudy watched a bodyguard movie marathon. The way that they talked sometimes, it was like they got it all from the big screen rather than being taught it. Then again, knowing Uncle Shane, he could have taught them to act like this on purpose. I definitely would not put that past him.


    As I looked beyond the door and into the hall, I saw that my parents and uncles were waiting for us. Uncle Dietrich, Uncle Shawn, Uncle Vincent and Uncle Gabriel had joined us from the coroner¡¯s officer when Mom and Dad came over.


    ¡°Hello, everyone. I am d that you are here. I have finished talking to the souls and helped them to move on. I have also asked Lucifer if he would help me out a little. He will be searching for other possible victims of this group of killers. If he finds them, he will either send them to see me or take their statements for me. Also, he will see to it that those that I send to the underworld will be taken care of.¡±


    ¡°That is amazing, Talia. You have aplished all of that in just that little bit of time.¡± Mom came over and hugged me tightly. ¡°Thank you so much, baby girl.¡±


    ¡°Mom, I¡¯m not a kid anymore.¡± I pretended toin, and it was obvious in my voice that I was not being serious at the moment. I was actually really happy that my mom was proud of me.


    ¡°I know. But you will always be my baby girl.¡±


    ¡°Even when I¡¯m thirty?¡± I joked with her.


    ¡°Even when you¡¯re three hundred.¡± She joked back.


    Now that my guards were calm, it was time for me to exin what I had heard from the souls to my parents. I told them everything. The benefit of having Hyperthymesia [1] was that I never forgot anything at all. I told them all, the uncles, my parents and my guards, just what happened to those two men. The looks on their faces as I spoke told me so much. And then when I was done, Lex voiced his opinion on it all.


    ¡°This is why I say you shouldn¡¯t have been the one to talk to them. You will have nightmares from all of that.¡±


    ¡°I will be fine, Lex.¡±


    ¡°You will never forget it, Talia. It will be with you forever.¡± He seemed like he was pleading with me.


    ¡°Yes, it will be with me. And you know what? I am going to let this make me a better person. Knowing the pain that others have suffered, learning from it, will help me to make the world a better ce in the long run.¡±


    ¡°Talia.¡± Mom looked like she was going to say something but then thought better of it.


    ¡°I am fine, Mom. I promise.¡±


    ¡°Alright. If you are sure, then let us get ready to go. We have another Alpha to visit. And there will soon be a call about more victims. Let us make the most out of our day.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡±


    It was a bit of a whirlwind for a little bit. My uncles and my guards gathered the bags and prepared for our departure. We were going to be taking the door to the next location, same as how I got here. It was all a little busy and hectic for a few minutes. And all I could do during that time was watch. Though, I was d to see that Lex and Rudy had brought me some stuff as well. Though I was told that it was packed by my Nona.


    ¡°Princess Talia.¡± I heard someone speak from behind me. ¡°C..can I ask you something?¡± It was the girl Telyn that had led me to the room earlier.


    ¡°Oh, yes, what can I do for you?¡±


    ¡°W..well, I noticed that you and your mom do not have attendants with you. If it is alright with all of you, can Ie along with you? I will do my best to take care of you and the queen.¡± Mom heard her and turned to smile at her.


    ¡°Telyn, that is sweet of you, but I don¡¯t know if your father would agree to that.¡±


    ¡°Dad has already given his permission. A..and, well, I am already packed as well. I..I prepared my things just in case I was allowed toe with you. I will prepare your food, wash yourundry, and anything else that you need from me. Please, Queen Trinity, let mee with you.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure that is what you want, Telyn? I do not want to force you to do something that you don¡¯t want to do.¡±


    ¡°I want to, Queen Trinity. I..I want to do my part for my kingdom. And, well, I want to get out of this small vige and see the world. Any other part of it that I can.¡± She was giving my mom such a determined look right now. I didn¡¯t know why, but I felt like I could see where she wasing from. She felt trapped and wanted out. Anyone would.


    ¡°If you have the permission to join us, Telyn, then you may.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± She beamed and I could tell that she would have hugged my mom if she wasn¡¯t the queen. That was probably a scary thought to Telyn, but she still felt it.


    ¡°Wee to the group.¡± I offered the girl a friendly smile and gave her the hug that she seemed desperate to have. I probably surprised her way more than she expected me to, but I was fine with that. I wasn¡¯t the queen, just a princess, so I wasn¡¯t as intimidating as my Mom was. And that meant that I was able to offer Telyn some semnce offort at the moment.


    Now that everything was settled, we were ready to be heading out. And with four more people than who came to this ce to begin with.


    [1] Hyperthymesia, or highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM), is a condition that leads people to be able to remember an abnormallyrge number of their life experiences in vivid detail.


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 Chapter 845

    Chapter 845: Chapter 30- Trinity ¨C The Second Alpha¡¯s (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The looks of shock on the faces of the men in the room that we entered was definitely funny. That was for sure. Seeing their jaws dropped in terror, awe, and everything else in between was just enough to make meugh. Thankfully, though, I have had nearly twenty years of experience with controlling the looks on my face and every other involuntary reaction that a body might have. And, trust me, it isn¡¯t easy to control them all the time.


    ¡°Good afternoon, gentlemen.¡± I spoke as I walked through the door. ¡°I trust you know who I am. I do not have the time to waste here. We need to examine the murder site and the body as soon as we can. If I am right, there will be a call from the agents back home that will tell me that there were more deathsst night.¡± I was striding across the room to the man that was sitting at the head of the table. I was going to greet him, but I was dropping most of the formalities here. We had lost a lot of time today already and I needed to hurry.


    ¡°U..u..uhm Q..Q..Q..Queen Trinity?¡± The man was stuttering as he looked at me. I saw that he looked like he was in his mid tote thirties, but that didn¡¯t mean that he was that young. With the way things were for our people now, he was probably about as old as Grandfather. And if my memory serves, he might even be older.


    ¡°Alpha Bevin I presume.¡± I stopped before him.


    .....


    ¡°Y..yes. I am the Alpha. I am Bevin. I..i..it is an h..h..hon..honor to meet you, my queen.¡± He seemed to be more in awe of me than Cadwal had been.


    ¡°I am sorry that I am not being nicer at the moment, Bevin. And I promise I will take the time to talk to youter. But for now, I need to see the body of the deceased and where that body was found.¡± I felt like I was being rude, but I was also just being an efficient queen and investigator. I was doing my job.


    ¡°Yes, yes, of course, I understand. I will take you to the crime scene right away. However, I am sorry to say that we cannot show you the body. They have already been cremated.¡±


    ¡°Did they not believe that it would be best to wait until they werepletely certain that they had all of the evidence? Why would they cremate the body before the investigation was over?¡±


    I guess I was just feeling angry about it since the others had waited. And, not to mention, there was the fact that the souls were trapped in the body. What happened to that victim that was cremated? Was their soul released?


    I mean, Dietrich did say that the man that he had known before would cleanse the souls with fire or something like that. And that was when they were released. But what did the souls go through? What did they experience? I guess we would have to wait until Lucifer found that soul in the underworld. If he could do that, then we would be able to learn what they were going through.


    ¡°I..I am truly sorry, my queen. I did not know that we should wait.¡± This man, old as he was, was cowering before me. And the reason for that was because I was his queen, and I was angry. He was scared because he thought that I would be taking my anger out on him. I wouldn¡¯t do that though. I was just not very happy.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. We will have the soul found. For the time being, take me to the crime scene.¡± I turned toward the only door in the office and showed him that I was ready to go right now.


    ¡°Yes, Ma¡¯am.¡± He hurried after me and so did the man that was standing behind him. The other four men that had been in the room didn¡¯t get up from their seats, but I did hear them whispering as we left.


    ¡°What does she mean that they will have the soul found?¡±


    ¡°Hey, don¡¯t you remember, she went into the underworld.¡±


    ¡°She is so cool, but so scary.¡±


    ¡°I want to go with them, but I am too scared to. I don¡¯t know what will happen to me if I follow them. The Alpha is lucky, though I also feel sorry for him. She is so scary.¡±


    Well, apparently Reece wasn¡¯t wrong when he said that I would intimidate the others. These men right here were confirming that for him. And it wasn¡¯t necessarily a good feeling.


    Bad feeling or not though, I wasn¡¯t going to make them stop fearing me. I hadn¡¯t threatened them or harmed them, so this was all just them being scared of power. And for now, that was good. If they stopped being scared of my power, then I would be faced with people that might try to take over my kingdom.


    Bevin took the lead when we were in the hall. He was hurrying out of his house and down the driveway rather than toward the vehicles.


    ¡°Is it that close to your home?¡± I asked him, slightly surprised.


    ¡°Yes. It wasn¡¯t far from here. That is why I was so upset about it.¡± This vige was apparently a lot smaller than the other one that we were at. Though they were not far from the city that our ne was waiting for us at.


    ¡°Just show us where it is.¡± Vincent snapped at the man. I think he was feeling upset about the cremation as well.


    Bevin took us to a small wooded area that was no more than a five minute walk from the small Alpha house. The wood smelled heavily of blood and I could tell that there had been death here, the smell of it was so overpowering.


    ¡°Rudy, Alexio, keep Talia out of here. Don¡¯t let her follow me. Dietrich, Vincent, Shawn, you follow me and Reece into the woods with Bevin. The rest of you start looking for witnesses. I want to be done here before it gets dark. We have a lot to do, and I would like to get to at least one fresh murder scene today. I need to get the details as soon as possible. And we need to save the soul.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Queen Trinity.¡± They all agreed at the same time. Gabriel, David and Shane heading off with Bevin¡¯s Beta to interview witnesses. Bevin, without a word, led the way into the woods.


    I was d that I had good night vision. Better than most people, in truth. That was the benefit of having so much magic and being a goddess. I was able to see at times like this. Though, in a way, I was not happy to be seeing this ce.


    ¡°The rain hasn¡¯t seemed to prate through the trees. The blood is still as thick as it was the day that Erwin was murdered.¡± Bevin stopped at the edge of a small clearing in the area. There was still a thick canopy of branches and leaves up above, but it shouldn¡¯t have kept the rain out like that.


    ¡°I have read the report on how the body was found. It fits with the other scenes as well.¡± I used magic to sense the area around the clearing. I saw that there was another rune made with the blood. It was a sort of zigzagged line. I didn¡¯t know what it meant, but I knew that Dietrich would. ¡°Dietrich, what does this mean?¡± I asked him, drawing the symbol in the air. There was, of course, a golden after image of the symbol left behind for a moment.


    ¡°That is a Celtic rune. It is the symbol of the sun.¡± He answered immediately.


    ¡°Would that keep the rain away?¡± I turned to look at him instead of the foliage in front of me.


    ¡°Yeah, it might. If it was done right. And I am guessing that this is another one that was written in blood.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it was.¡± I nodded at his response. ¡°I think the killer wanted to preserve this crime scene. We will need to search it thoroughly. We can¡¯t miss a single thing. I don¡¯t want to let any of the clues go to waste.¡±


    ¡°We need to be thorough, but quick.¡± Reece nodded. ¡°I want to be moving to the next location before the night is over.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°There are bound to be more murders if we don¡¯t stop these people. And seeing what they have been doing with my own eyes, I can¡¯t let this go on for much longer. I need to save my people. I need to protect them. And most of all, I need to catch the assholes that have been doing this to my people.¡±


    The anger was swelling within me. I could tell that I was not going to go easy on these people when I found them. I was going to show them that I meant business. Apparently, they meant business when they killed these people, so they would expect me to mean business when I hunted them down.


    I was on the hunt for a killer. A killer that was on the hunt for supernatural beings. I was out to protect everyone that I could, human or not. And I would stop at nothing to end this nightmare. For the sake of my family, and my people, I would end this.


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 Chapter 846

    Chapter 846: Chapter 31- Talia ¨C Spying (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    Mom had told me to stay away from the crime scene, but I didn¡¯t want to. I wanted to know what was going on. I wanted to be a vital part of the investigation. I didn¡¯t want to just be here to free the souls from their bodies and send them off to their afterlife. I wanted to help my parents. I wanted to be there for them. And that was just what I was going to do.


    After about a minute or so, I started to follow my parents. I needed to let them be far enough ahead of me that they wouldn¡¯t immediately know that I was right behind them. Not to mention, I could hide my presence with magic. It was something that I had been working on in my lessons with Hades. He liked to be secretive about things when he traveled and, therefore, knew how to hide his presence. People would not be able to see him, hear him, or smell him unless he wanted them to. That was just how powerful he was. Apparently, all of the rulers of the underworld could do that, but they didn¡¯t always utilize it. Some of them liked to be recognized more than the others.


    ¡°Where do you think that you are going?¡± I heard a very angry voice behind me the moment that I took a step toward the trees. I didn¡¯t need to turn to look at who it was, I would know Lex¡¯s voice anywhere. Also, he was takingrge steps to hurriedly put himself in front of me.


    ¡°I am going to assist in the investigation.¡± I answered him very matter-of-factly. Rudy was basically frozen in ce watching us as we spoke. As was Telyn, who I had almost forgotten was here. ¡°It would be rude to bring someone along on the investigation and then not include them. My parents did that to not just me but all four of us.¡± I intentionally drew attention to Telyn so that Lex would look at her and remember that it was not just us. He couldn¡¯t be his usual self with an audience. He was going to be the silent and strong man that I knew all too well.


    .....


    Don¡¯t get me wrong, he was an amazing guard, and I loved that about him. He was always there for me and always would be. I knew that for a fact. But when there were people around, specifically people that he didn¡¯t know, he was always a little more shy. When there were people around, he was more likely to follow orders and do as he was told. It was only when he was morefortable that he would go back to the imposing and outspoken demon that growled at Rudy and told me what to do.


    I never let him tell me what to do all that much. I was going to be his Goddess and queen soon enough. It was only until I took over the underworld that he and Rudy were following the orders of my parents. Then, they would be mine.


    ¡°I know that you are upset about being left out, Talia, but you can¡¯t just go in there. You were told to wait.¡± Lex was still trying to tell me not to go.


    ¡°Well, Lex, I am going. And as your future ruler, who are you going to listen to? My mother? Or me?¡± He was looking at me very torn. He didn¡¯t want to defy either of us.


    ¡°Please, Princess Talia, don¡¯t do this.¡± He was using my title as he implored me not to go. I knew that I should listen to him. I knew that I shouldn¡¯t go into the woods, but I couldn¡¯t help it. I needed to see. I needed to know what was happening.


    ¡°I am going, Lex. I don¡¯t want to be kept in the dark.¡± I started to turn away but then addressed them all. ¡°Whoever wants toe with me can. Telyn, you cane with me. And you as well Rudy.¡±


    ¡°I..I think I will stay here. I am here to attend to you and the queen, Princess Talia. I do not want to overstep.¡± The girl¡¯s words were perfectly polite and exactly what I expected.


    ¡°I shall stay here with Telyn. I do not believe we should leave her alone. That would not be polite of us.¡± Rudy respectfully refused to go with me.


    ¡°Alright. That is fine.¡± I nodded at the two of them in response. ¡°I guess I am going alone.¡±


    ¡°Like hell you are.¡± Lex snapped at me. ¡°If you must go, then I aming with you.¡± He stomped toward the trees and mumbled under his breath. ¡°Silly little brat. Doing things that she isn¡¯t supposed to. She needs to grow up some more.¡±


    ¡°I will grow up in time, Lex. Let me be a kid for now.¡± I ran up to him and grabbed his left hand as I went into the woods with him. This reminded me of when I was little. He would hold my hand like this when he escorted me to my friends¡¯ houses. Back then, he used to have to hunch over so far that I felt sorry for him.


    ¡°You¡¯re a teenager already. When will you be grown up?¡± He grumbled as we passed the line of the trees. The moment that we were hidden by the trees, I threw up the spell to hide us from the others. I didn¡¯t want them to be able to see me or hear me. And let¡¯s forget about the fact that Lex had a very noticeable scent. My parents wouldn¡¯t miss that.


    The moment that we made it to the clearing that my parents were in, or better yet just before the clearing, I heard them talking about searching the clearing.


    ¡°I think the killer wanted to preserve this crime scene. We will need to search it thoroughly. We can¡¯t miss a single thing. I don¡¯t want to let any of the clues go to waste.¡± My mom was talking, and she sounded so fucking cool right now.


    ¡°We need to be thorough, but quick. I want to be moving to the next location before the night is over.¡± Even my dad was cooler than usual. Was this what they were like when they were working? Like how mom had been when we came through the door and she took charge of everything.


    ¡°Agreed. There are bound to be more murders if we don¡¯t stop these people. And seeing what they have been doing with my own eyes, I can¡¯t let this go on for much longer. I need to save my people. I need to protect them. And most of all, I need to catch the assholes that have been doing this to my people.¡± Mom was so determined and serious as she started to walk around the clearing. Uncle Dietrich, Uncle Shawn and Uncle Vincent were searching as well. Dad went to follow Mom, searching together with her.


    I saw them looking over everything that was in the clearing. This was where a man was killed. This was where the body was found. And the scene was still fresh. Well, mostly. The blood was still there for us to see, and smell. And knowing that, it made sense that there might be something else here as well.


    I knew that there were a lot of different spells that I could use to help them, though looking at my mom and the way that she was glowing, I could tell that she was using them too. Her eyes were glowing with a bluish light. That was awesome. I wanted to see that too. I wanted to be like her.


    I called my power and tried to emte what she was doing. I wanted to look for clues too, especially if they were out of the clearing. Though it looked to me like my uncles were searching the area around the trees and not just the clearing. That was good. They were definitely doing their jobs.


    The moment that the power was called to my eyes, I saw something start to glow on the tree in front of me. I didn¡¯t know what it was at first, it was hard to see with this power. But when I managed to control it a little more, I saw that it was something written. I hadn¡¯t even noticed it before the magic, and I was looking right at it the moment before.


    ¡®Monsters hide in the dark,


    but that will never stop the light from shining through.


    We will hunt the monsters to extinction


    and we will free the world from their evil ways.


    We will y the beasts and


    we will stop the spread of their


    infernal diseases to the good people of this world.


    We are the saviors of humankind.


    We are the heroes of the light.


    And we will not be stopped.¡¯


    ¡°What in the hell?¡± I was appalled by what I just read. It made me feel sick. What was going on?


    ¡°What is wrong?¡± Lex asked me as he had heard my whispered outburst. I knew that he would worry about me if he had so much as heard me, he was always like that.


    ¡°I..I see something that I am guessing the others are looking for. These words here, they were definitely left by the killer.¡± The words were glowing in pink right in front of my face. In my opinion, there should be light reflecting on my face, but I didn¡¯t think that Lex knew it was there. Just as I was about to exin to him some more, I heard the sound of someone calling out to me.


    ¡°Talia!?¡±


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 Chapter 847

    Chapter 847: Chapter 32- Talia ¨C Spying part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    ¡°Talia!?¡± That deep and powerful voice was also very recognizable to me. And, unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t being hidden by the magic that I was using to hide me and Lex. And ever more unfortunate, was the fact that someone drawing attention to the two of us made the spell cancel itself out. It relied on someone outside of the circle of magic not drawing any attention to us. That was why it was always so perfect. None of them would know we were there and therefore could not draw attention to us.


    A magical being from hell was not limited like that though. They were exempt from the spell and were able to find me whenever they were looking for me. And so, now that thisherworld being was looking for me, it meant that everyone in the area would be able to see me. And they did.


    I saw mom turn to look at me with shock then anger. She was not happy that I had disobeyed her and followed them into the woods.


    ¡°Shit!¡± I whispered the word under my breath, hoping she didn¡¯t hear me. She was still using that power of hers and there was an eerie blue glow to her eyes.


    .....


    ¡°TALIA SERENE GRAY!¡± She snapped at me the moment that she heard the word escape my lips. ¡°You are too young to be usingnguage like that, youngdy.¡±


    ¡°Mom! I am fifteen years old now. Stop treating me like a child.¡± I rolled my eyes at her just as someone else called out to me again.


    ¡°Talia!¡±


    ¡°Eithere here or go away, Lucifer. Stop calling out to me though.¡± I felt annoyed at him now because he had been the reason that I was caught.


    ¡°You had to answer me, Talia. So, naturally, I was going to call out to you more. I cannot just assume that you are readily avable for me toe to. I need to know that it¡¯s a good time.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, and a mystical voice calling out to me from nowhere is really a good way of doing that. What if there were humans around?¡± I was angry right now and I was taking it out on him.


    ¡°I checked for humans before I called out to you, do you not have faith in me, child? You are being exceedingly rude as well. What has gotten into you?¡± I was usually on my best behavior when the gods of the underworld were around. In truth, I was usually on my best behavior at all times. I wanted to be the best that I could be and never showed my displeasure or an attitude. In truth, I didn¡¯t know why I was acting the way that I was now. Maybe it was because I was away from home. Maybe it was because I was experiencing so many new things. I didn¡¯t know what was going on with me.


    ¡°Talia, take that call from Lucifer and then we need to talk.¡± Mom was stomping over to where I was standing, her magic still in effect.


    ¡°Fine.¡± I sighed and stepped away. ¡°Come on, Lucifer, tell me what you need. Are youing through or just talking?¡± I needed to know what it was that was so important that he would call me out of the blue like this. Most likely, it had something to do with the case.


    ¡°I found more of those souls that you were looking for. They had been sent here ahead of the other ones that you called me for.¡±


    ¡°How were their souls released?¡± I didn¡¯t know what was happening to those people and how they were sent to the underworld and the ones that I came across had not been.


    ¡°They had been cremated.¡± Lucifer¡¯s words were easy enough to understand, but for some reason they made my skin go cold and my brain stop working.


    ¡°Th..they were cre..cre..cremated?¡± I stuttered out the words, and I never stuttered.


    ¡°Yes.¡± A simple reply from him, although it was also very powerful.


    ¡°Lucifer, wh..what did they experience during that?¡± I just knew that they would have suffered. They suffered during the autopsies, and their murder at that. They had been through so much, but this was too much.


    ¡°They felt it all, apparently. The souls were trapped inside of their dead bodies. Until the runes that were holding them there had been removed, they could not leave their bodies. And, on top of that, they felt everything that happened to the body. That, in my opinion, is unique in and of itself.¡±


    ¡°S..so these people, the ones that have been cremated, they felt the entire process? Th..th..they felt like they were burning alive?¡± I was appalled by what I was hearing. This was too much. I couldn¡¯t believe what was happening. Why was this happening to these people? Why did they have to suffer so much?


    ¡°It¡¯s alright, Talia, they are at peace now. They can¡¯t feel it anymore.¡± Lex¡¯s soothing words apanied his hand that was resting on my shoulder. ¡°There is nothing that you could have done. But we will make sure that you are there for the others.¡±


    ¡°Alexio is correct.¡± Lucifer continued. ¡°And so are you. They felt it all, Talia. They apparently screamed in agony as they felt their bodies being destroyed by the mes. I am not very fond of burning someone alive, but I have experienced what it is like to burn a soul. Dead or not, they still feel pain. If they did not, then torture in the afterlife would be pointless.¡± I was appalled once again, I remembered what the underworld was like and that I needed to fix it. I needed to make sure that I didn¡¯t let people suffer for pointless reasons. And I needed to make sure that there was an end in sight for people that got their punishments. Well, that is for everyone except people like these killers. They didn¡¯t deserve mercy. They were evil and cruel.


    ¡°Don¡¯t let this darken your heart, Talia.¡± Lex¡¯s words seemed to pull me back. I was in my head and thinking things that were not very nice. ¡°Do not let what these people are doing change who you are. You are not them, and they are not you. You may feel sympathy andpassion for the victims, and you may even hate the killers, but don¡¯t let yourself darken your soul and seek vengeance. Seek justice instead. Do this the right way, Talia. I know that you are capable of doing that.¡±


    ¡°Lex?¡± I could hear the emotion in my own voice. I knew that I was letting too much of it show. On my face and in my voice. And if it wasn¡¯t for Lex, I would start spiraling.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± I gave him a small smile. It was all that I could manage at the time. ¡°Thank you, Lex.¡±


    ¡°That is why I am here, Talia.¡±


    ¡°I have only found a few souls, but I will keep looking. And when I find them, I will interview them about what happened to them and then send you a report. Expect to find the ones that I alreadypiled very soon. That is all that I need for now, I will be in touch.¡± With that, the connection between me and Lucifer was cut off. It was just me and Lex standing there together with the others nearby.


    ¡°Talia?¡± Mom said my name and I could tell that most of her anger had receded. ¡°I am sorry that you needed to hear that. That was what I was trying to spare you of. I didn¡¯t want you to deal with the heartache that this case will inevitably cause you.¡± She came over and hugged me gently but firmly. ¡°I am sorry that you have to go through this.¡±


    ¡°I am sorry too, Mom.¡± I hugged her back, holding onto her like I used to as a child. The emotions inside of me were going wild. I knew that I was always so very emotional when these things happened. I was a very empathetic person and that caused me more pain that I care to talk about. And in times like this, I was going to be feeling a lot of pain. ¡°I am sorry that I didn¡¯t listen to you. I am sorry that I came over here and spied on you.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s OK now. I know that you just want to be part of this. You have to understand though, that being a part of something means that you experience it all, not just what you want to. This will happen again and again.¡±


    ¡°I know. I know that, and I still want to help you. I need to help you. I need to help these victims. And I promise that I won¡¯t try to get revenge for anyone. I only want to give them justice.¡± I was firm in that resolve. I wouldn¡¯t let my people down. Until I became the goddess of the underworld, these people were my people. And even then, they would still be my people. They needed me just as much as they needed my mom.


    ¡°Alright Talia, I will let you be involved. As long as you promise me that you will not disobey me again. When I tell you to do something, or to stay put, then you need to listen to me. I can¡¯t be worrying about you while trying to solve this case. We¡¯re all working hard.¡± Mom pulled away from me, putting her hands on my shoulders as she looked me in the eyes. ¡°Do you understand?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I understand.¡±


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 Chapter 848

    Chapter 848: Chapter 33- Trinity ¨C The Clearing (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    There hadn¡¯t been a whole lot of information that Lucifer had given us, but there was something. The people that had been cremated had been released to the underworld, but at a great cost to their mental well being. And considering that souls were purely a mental state and nothing physical at all, that meant a lot to them.


    Aside from that, I now had to deal with Talia. Who, by the way, was looking at me with glowing pink eyes. I didn¡¯t know what was going on with her or why her eyes were like that, but I would find out, and soon. Right now in fact, since I was about to ask her.


    ¡°Talia, what did you do to your eyes?¡± I put my hand on her face and looked at her almost eye to eye. She really was already my height. Maybe only an inch different, if that.


    ¡°Oh, well, I was, uhm, I was trying to emte you, Mom.¡± She looked nervous for a moment. ¡°I saw your eyes glowing and I knew that you were using that to look for clues. So, I wanted to do that too. I decided to call my magic to my eyes and try to see more as well. Actually, there was something that I saw when I did this. It was blurry at first, but I managed to see it after just a second.¡± She started to step away from me and I turned to look at where she was going. My eyes were still glowing of course, so I could see whatever it was that she wanted to show me.


    .....


    ¡°I am proud of you, Talia. You¡¯re truly here to help. Thank you.¡± She stopped and looked at me in surprise. Did she really think that I wouldn¡¯t appreciate her?


    ¡°I just want to be useful, Mom. I want to help you.¡± Sometimes I forget how grown up she is now, but then she goes and talks like this and that is when I can still see that sweet little girl that she used to be. That tiny little Tally that looks like she disappeared but is just hiding. When she was two, three, four, five years old, and even a little older than that, she only thought about how she could help people. She always wanted to be there for others. And that caring instinct of hers never went away.


    ¡°I know.¡± I gave her an approving smile before moving on. ¡°Now, what was it that you needed to show me?¡± I needed to see this, whatever it was. If it was evidence, then I would make sure that it was collected and use it to help the case.


    ¡°Oh, right here. There is something written here. It angered me when I read it though, I am not going to lie about that.¡±


    When Talia stepped aside, I saw that there was writing on the tree that was in front of her. The writing consisted of the same words that had been written on the church at thest vige. During the time that we were in the coroner¡¯s office, Shawn and the others had looked into the second crime scene. They had found these words there as well. They had been written in blood on a boulder. This was something like a mission statement. It was something that the killers seemed to nt at all the scenes, but they hid them somewhat. This one, I had not seen at all until Talia pointed them out to me. Then again, I hadn¡¯t looked for them when I came over here with my magic eyes in effect. I was more focused on my child and what was going on with her.


    ¡°What is this written in?¡± I asked, curious to know what was happening.


    ¡°It just smells like a tree. If I had to guess, I would say that it¡¯s water.¡± Reece, who hade walking over to me recently, leaned toward the tree and sniffed at it. ¡°It¡¯s odd, why use water to write the words?¡±


    As he said that, Reece touched the tree with his fingertip. I think that he was just trying to see if he could find the words. I didn¡¯t think that he could see the words unless they had some sort of color to them. Since they were glowing for me, I couldn¡¯t tell what color they normally were.


    I stopped wondering about that though. The moment that Reece touched the tree he seemed to cry out in pain. Not to mention I could smell the distinct scent of burning flesh.


    ¡°OWW! What the fuck! Son of a bitch, that fucking hurt! What is fucking going on here?¡± I hurried to Reece¡¯s side, which was only a few steps away from me, and grabbed his hand.


    ¡°What the hell happened?¡± I saw that there was a letter distinctly burned into his fingertip. Well, two letters to be exact. On his finger, I saw the letters ¡®on¡¯ standing out against his flesh.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t I basically just ask that same thing, Trinity?¡± He was clearly grumpy about being burned. ¡°How the hell did the tree burn me?¡± He was looking at it, trying to figure it out.


    ¡°I think it was the words. The letters are here, see.¡± I pointed to his hand. ¡°It¡¯s like the substance that they wrote with was what burned you.¡±


    ¡°Like some kind of acid or something?¡± He was confused. ¡°What the hell?! Wouldn¡¯t it have lost its effect by now? Or wouldn¡¯t it have burned into the tree?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± I was not sure what was happening. ¡°Dietrich, have you ever seen this before?¡±


    ¡°No, I have not.¡± He shook his head as he came closer to the tree. ¡°Reece is right though. It doesn¡¯t smell like anything but water. There is nothing but the scent of the tree here.¡± Dietrich touched the tree then. It was almost the same ce that Reece had touched it and he too screamed in pain. ¡°Fuck! That hurt.¡± Shawn rushed to him and grabbed his hand.


    ¡°You just saw that it hurt Reece, why would you touch it?¡± Shawn snapped at him as he kissed the wound on Dietrich¡¯s finger.


    ¡°Well, I thought that maybe it was activated by the heat in Reece¡¯s body. I am much colder than him and therefore should have been fine if that were the case.¡± Dietrich shrugged like he didn¡¯t care.


    ¡°Stop doing stupid things.¡± Shawn rolled his eyes at him. I saw that the wounds on both Reece¡¯s and Dietrich¡¯s hands were already healing, which was good, but that was just not right.


    ¡°Dietrich, could this water have been modified? Like with magic, runes, or something else?¡± I wasn¡¯t sure if I was right or not, but it was a theory that had just popped up in my head.


    ¡°You mean like, did they use holy water?¡± Heughed. ¡°That stuff doesn¡¯t work. In fact, in my youth, before I hid what I was as well as I do now, I drank holy water in a church to show the parishioners that it would have no effect on me. It was how I got them to trust me and to stop believing that all nonhumans were evil. It was actually a good time.¡± Dietrich¡¯sughter wasn¡¯t helping here.


    ¡°Yes, in a way. What if these killers have figured out how to make an effective holy water by infusing it with rune? What if they have a weapon that none of us will ever suspect?¡±


    ¡°I..I don¡¯t know if that is possible. But I think we need to figure it out.¡± Finally, Dietrich was looking scared.


    ¡°I want to take this bark for testing. I need someone to see if there is magic or something being used in it. I need to know if they did something to it to make it burn us.¡± I walked toward the tree then, calling just the ws of my wolf forward. I needed to use those ws like a knife.


    Carefully, very carefully, I cut the words from the tree and held it carefully. I didn¡¯t want it to burn me at all.


    ¡°Here, wrap it up and send it to someone that can test the water on the tree. This crime scene was preserved for a reason, and I think this message was the reason. They wanted us to be hurt by their words, physically and emotionally.¡±


    ¡°That is just sick.¡± Reece shook his head. ¡°These bastards are starting to piss me off, even more than they already had.¡±


    ¡°I know, Reece, I know. And this is just another reason why we are going to be finding them. We need to put an end to this.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. We will find them. And when we do, we will extract all of their secrets. We will make them tell us what they did and why they did it.¡± Reece was angry. I don¡¯t think it was just because he got a boo boo just now, but it very well could have. Sometimes, men were giant toddlers that let their emotions rule their worlds.


    ¡°Come on.¡± I called out. ¡°We need to get back. I am sure that there is going to be another call soon enough.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. We need to be ready to go.¡± Shawn said as he took Dietrich¡¯s hand. Dietrich, for some reason, couldn¡¯t stop staring at the tree. It was like he was thinking very intently about something, and he wasn¡¯t sharing it with the rest of the ss. I knew he would tell us in time, when he was ready. Still, it was really annoying at the moment. I needed information more than anything here, and, there, he was withholding it.


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 Chapter 849

    Chapter 849: Chapter 34- Reece ¨C Another Call (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    We left the clearing as a group. Trinity was walking with Talia and Alexio. I was sort of in a bad mood at the moment. Alexio had deliberately ignored Trinity. He had let Taliae into the woods and follow after us.


    Then again, Trinity was not actually his queen. Still, he had worked for us for eleven years now. He had been a model employee and an exemry guard. I don¡¯t know what came over him to make him start acting differently. Well, I guess it could have been Talia. Maybe she had more clout with him than my Little Bunny did.


    No matter what the issue was that caused Alexio to disobey Trinity¡¯s orders, he needed to be reprimanded about it. I needed to make sure that this didn¡¯t happen again. We couldn¡¯t risk having Alexio with us to protect Talia, if he wasn¡¯t going to actually do as he was told.


    As I was thinking about this, and about what I might say to the man, we walked back to the Alpha¡¯s home. There was a little more work to be done here, but my Little Bunny and I were leaving a lot of that up to the others. Shawn, Shane, David, Vincent, and Gabriel were able to investigate for us. And Dietrich, after he talked with Trinity, would be able to assist them.


    .....


    Sometimes, like right now, it paid to be in charge. Delegating things in situations when there was way too much work for one person was a very good option to have. And likewise, having multiple people to dictate too was even better.


    The guards were interviewing everyone here, getting all the information that we needed. There was no body to see, and the crime scene yielded nothing new. All in all, that work wouldn¡¯t take too long. We would be out of here before too much longer.


    When we got back to the house, I called Alexio over to have a talk with him. Trinity seemed to be doing the same with Talia. I had a feeling this was going to be when she reprimanded her for her actions like I was about to do with Alexio.


    ¡°Hey, Alexio,e talk to me for a moment.¡± My voice was calm, but I knew that my expression was firm and annoyed. That didn¡¯t seem to faze the demon at all though. He just walked over like it was nothing at all.


    ¡°Yes, King Reece?¡± He still addressed me properly, so that was a plus. He hadn¡¯t just suddenly abandoned all of the respect that he had for us.


    ¡°What happened earlier? Trinity told you to keep Talia out of the woods.¡± I got right to the point. No reason to beat around the bush.


    ¡°Hahh.¡± He sighed and looked at the floor. Sometimes, I found it annoying to talk to this man. He was like a foot taller than me. Dammit! I was the king. I was the Alpha. He should not be that much bigger than me. It was such bullshit that it pissed me off. ¡°Alright. I know that. I know what Queen Trinity said. And I reminded Talia of that as well. But, well, Talia is going to be my queen. She will be the goddess of the underworld. And that actually outranks Queen Trinity, to me anyway. I am not a wolf. And that means that when the timees, I need to follow the leader of my people, of my world.¡± I had a feeling it was something like that.


    ¡°Did Talia tell you that?¡± I red at him. ¡°Did she remind you of her future position and rank to make you listen to her?¡± The anger was bubbling inside of me. I just didn¡¯t know if it was at this man or at my daughter.


    ¡°Yes. She did.¡± He was looking right at me, and I could see that he knew what was going on. He messed up. He shouldn¡¯t have done that.


    ¡°You yed right into her hands, Alexio. You let her manipte you. Yeah, OK, she will be your queen. But she isn¡¯t right now. She is just a fifteen year old girl that is training to be a goddess and queen. She won¡¯t rule your people for a long time. And because she wanted to disobey her parents, she manipted you.¡± I had to beat this into his head.


    ¡°I know.¡± Wow, he wasn¡¯t going to deny it.


    ¡°If things like this are going to keep happening, Alexio, then I can¡¯t trust you to guard my daughter anymore. You need to stay strong. You need to be tough and firm with her. It¡¯s for her own good. She doesn¡¯t yet know what is and isn¡¯t safe for her. She needs you to help her there.¡± I swear the man paled instantly. And that was saying something. The man was already pale to begin with.


    ¡°I swear to you. I will keep her safe. I will not let her persuade me like this again. I will make sure that she stays away from things that she needs to be kept away from. However-.¡± He was on a roll there for a moment, before he added thatst word. That was when I interrupted him.


    ¡°However?¡± I spat the word back at him. ¡°What could you possibly have to bargain with here?¡±


    ¡°I would like you and Queen Trinity to think about Talia here. She is training to take over the underworld. That means that she is going to see the worst that the world has to offer. She will know death. She will know pain. She will know suffering. And I personally do not think that you are doing her any favors by hiding it all with her. Yes. I know. When I learned about the things that she had heard from the souls she freed, I was horrified. Like you, King Reece, my first thought was to protect her. But I was wrong.¡±


    ¡°Wrong?¡± My tone was questioning. That one word of mine was asking him to exin further. I needed to hear it from him.


    ¡°It is best if she sees it now. To learn it now with others around tofort her and help her. I thought this when Lucifer told her about the pain that the others felt. She was hurt, but her mother was there tofort her. Trinity will not be there in the underworld with her. Her mother will not hold her hand when she is a goddess. She needs to be prepared now or she will suffer moreter.¡±


    I had to admit that he had a point. I hadn¡¯t thought about it before, but protecting Talia for as long as we could, would only end up hurting her in the long run. It would make her start in the underworld that much more painful.


    At that moment, from across therge room that we were in, I heard raised voices. It was my Little Bunny snapping at Talia.


    ¡°I do not care! I told you to stay put. Being curious is not a good enough excuse.¡±


    ¡°Will you tell Queen Trinity what I said?¡± Alexio wasn¡¯t looking at me, he was watching the scene across the room. He was waiting for the moment that Talia would storm away in anger and frustration. He knew her well enough to know that it would happen. And sure enough, right after he asked that, Talia stomped toward the door. Both Alexio and Rudy followed after her. They were very attentive guards.


    ¡°Yeah. I will tell her.¡± He was walking away already, but I knew that he heard me.


    I was about to walk over to Trinity. I was about to tell my Little Bunny what it was that Alexio had said. And that I agreed with him. However, I was stopped even before I took the first step. My phone began to ring, and the sound was loud in the now silent room.


    ¡°What do you have for me, Rawlynne?¡± I answered in a slightly curt manner. I had seen the caller ID and I knew that this was not going to be good news.


    ¡°Four more.¡± That was all she said. Nothing else. And that was fine, because I knew exactly what she meant.


    ¡°Where are they?¡± I asked her, my heart already aching.


    ¡°Scond, a vige called Carrush. Irnd, a vige called Hunter¡¯s Cross. In Ennd, a vige in the southern part of Surrey called Wolfhamm. And finally, in Australia, on the outskirts of Sydney.¡±


    ¡°All were viges except for thest one. I know that they have been known to hitrger cities before, but it is more rare. I believe that they like to stay away from people as much as possible. Why risk the big city like that?¡± I was talking more to myself than to Rawlynne, but she still feltpelled to answer me.


    ¡°I think that they are getting more and more bold. The longer that we go without finding them, the more they will attack and the more people that will be killed. They may move up their kill schedules or they may kill more at a time. The more popted areas will give them more targets to choose from.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. And that is something that we simply cannot allow. Dammit. Now I need to decide which location we are going to next. I want to visit them all as soon as possible. We need to contact them all as well. Take care of that for me. Tell them to not cremate the bodies. They are to wait for us. The souls are still in the bodies and they are tortured during the cremation. Stop more people from being hurt, Rawlynne. Call all the people that you have to and tell them to wait for us.¡±


    ¡°Y..yes. I will.¡± I could tell that she was feeling a little upset about what she heard, but she would take care of it without any issues.


    ¡°I need to go now. I have to talk to Trinity and figure things out.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I understand. I will call the others immediately. Let me know when you have something.¡± She hung up then, heading off to do the work that I gave her. Trinity and I would definitely need to hold a meeting soon. We needed to tell the others back home what was going on. And not to mention, we needed to tell the rest of the guards about what was going on. Not all of them even knew about the words that were left at the scenes.


    Hahh. There had been so much that had happened so far. So much in such a short amount of time. I just wish that we would catch these guys soon. To save more people from dying.


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 Chapter 850

    Chapter 850: Chapter 35- Trinity ¨C Where To Now (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°I need to go now. I have to talk to Trinity and figure things out.¡± Those were the words that I heard when Reece was done with his call. I had figured that it was about the case, more murders to be exact, based on his side of the conversation that I had heard. There was talk about viges and cities and where to go next.


    At first, I was a little pissed off that they had called Reece instead of me. Wasn¡¯t I the queen? Wasn¡¯t I the one that was in charge here? So, why then, was I not the one to be told about these things first?


    I was only upset for a little bit. That was, until I looked at my phone and saw that I had never taken my phone off of silent. And I had several missed calls. There was one from Rawlynne, whom I am guessing was the person that called Reece just now. However, there were also calls from Reagan and Rika. They seemed to want to talk to me pretty bad. Otherwise, I wouldn¡¯t have had six missed calls from Rika and seven from Reagan. Oops, I guess I was the one in the wrong here. Sorry Rawlynne, I was being grumpy for no reason.


    ¡°Little Bunny, we need to talk.¡± Reece came over to me and whispered.


    .....


    ¡°Reece, please don¡¯t call me that while we are in other countries. I don¡¯t need the whole world knowing what your nickname for me is.¡± I sighed and rolled my eyes in an overly dramatic way. Part of it was to get the frustration out, the other part was to break the tension that was around us.


    I knew that the conversation that was about to follow was not going to be pleasant, but being overly tense was not going to help me at all.


    ¡°I promise not to call you that as long as you promise not to call me by any dog names.¡± He grinned, giving me a counteroffer.¡±


    ¡°Fine.¡± I held my hand out to him to strike the deal.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡±


    Reece shook my hand to seal the deal. After that, he pulled me along behind him as he left the room that we were in. He marched me along until we got to Bevin¡¯s office. The Alpha was, rightfully so, in his office. He was working on something but that didn¡¯t seem to bother Reece at all.


    ¡°Bevin, I need to borrow your office. We need to talk in private and I do not know theyout of your home.¡± Reece just barged right into the room like he owned it. He didn¡¯t knock or anything. He was acting like he was in charge. Well, he was, next to me that is.


    ¡°O..oh, yes. Yes, of course. I understand. Please, use the room to your convenience. I will step out and take care of some business. I uhm, I had some other things that I needed to be doing anyway.¡± He was being very subservient to Reece right now. I understood that Reece was the Alpha King, that meant that all of the other Alphas were to report to him and that they couldn¡¯t disobey him at all but seeing this in action was apletely different thing altogether. It was weird seeing an Alpha take a lesser role. Even after all these years, it was something that I had never gotten used to.


    Once Bevin left the office, Reece pulled me over toward the couch that was in the corner of the room. He put his hands on my shoulders and guided me to sit down, all while he was looking right into my eyes.


    ¡°I got a call from Rawlynne.¡± He said as soon as we were sitting.


    ¡°I gathered as much. How many were killed this time?¡± I didn¡¯t act shocked. I didn¡¯t act like I expected there to be no more deaths. I didn¡¯t pretend like it wasn¡¯t happening. I wasn¡¯t na?ve or stupid. I knew what was going on in my world. I knew what was happening to my people. And I wasn¡¯t about to expect that it was all going to end overnight. It was going to end, and hopefully soon. But it would only end when we caught the people that were responsible for this.


    ¡°There were four killedst night. Or this morning. I am not sure about the times of death.¡±


    ¡°Hahh.¡± I sighed as I thought about how many deaths there were now. With the deaths five days ago and these ones, we were up to forty-seven. And that was assuming that there were no unounted deaths. No vampires that just hadn¡¯t been discovered yet.


    Forty-seven lost souls. Forty-seven people that had been brutally murdered for no reason other than the fact that they were not human. So much death. So much senseless loss of life. It was sad and heartbreaking, so very heart breaking.


    ¡°Where were they, Reece? Where were they all killed?¡± I asked in as calm of a tone as I could manage.


    ¡°There were three from small viges in Scond, Irnd and Ennd. And one from the outskirts of Sydney, Australia. I spoke briefly with Rawlynne about the fact that they usually target small viges, but this is not the first time that they have hitrger cities. London and Paris were on the list as well, only that was usually when the vampires had been killed. Most likely because vampires tend to stick torge crowds so that they can blend in as much as possible.¡± Reece exined to me what it was that he and Rawlynne spoke about, telling me what I needed to know in the process.


    I understood why Reece had been so surprised by the attack that was in the city. Outskirts or not, that one was closer to other people, and that means that it was possible that there might be more witnesses. That would most likely be the best ce for us to investigate first.


    ¡°It¡¯ste afternoon here. That means that it will be the middle of the night in Australia. I think we should pick one of the closer locations to go to right now, and then head over to Australiater tonight. It will be morning there then.¡± I was mentally calcting the time change between Wales and Australia. I needed to make sure that I had the difference correct. ¡°We should leave the United Kingdom by noter than ten or eleven in the evening. We will then arrive in Sydney around seven or eight in the morning.¡±


    ¡°Well, that is definitely efficient. I know that we are taking a door over there. And that means that the ne still isn¡¯t going to be used. I don¡¯t even know why we brought it along.¡± Reece chuckled a little as he thought about it. ¡°If we hurry from here, we will have a little more daylight at one of the scenes.¡± He was checking his watch and doing the same time calctions that I was.


    ¡°Agreed.¡± I stood and looked down at Reece. The only time that I was taller than him was when he was sitting down. ¡°We need to gather the others and we need to make sure that Talia stays away from the scenes from now on. She can free the souls, but that is it.¡±


    ¡°Trinity¡± I heard what sounded like sorrow in Reece¡¯s voice when he heard what I had to say. ¡°You need to let Talia be part of this.¡±


    Without pausing at all, Reece went on to exin to me that Talia needed to experience these things while we were around tofort her. She was going to be facing it on her own soon enough, and we wouldn¡¯t be there to hug her and make her feel better.


    I knew that he was right. I knew that it was the way that things should be done. It¡¯s just that, well, I didn¡¯t relish the idea of exposing my daughter to this sort of thing. I didn¡¯t want any of my kids to know what was going on around the world. I wanted them to be safe. Not just physically, but mentally as well. They needed that from me, didn¡¯t they?


    Perhaps they didn¡¯t. Perhaps Reece was right. I should let them know what was happening and let them experience it somewhat. Not all of them though. Just Talia, Reagan and Rika. Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley were all too young to know what was going on. I didn¡¯t want to give them nightmares or anything like that. They were just babies.


    ¡°Alright, Reece. I hear you. I will let Talia be a part of it. As long as Alexio and Rudy are with her, that is. She needs them to watch over her. They will be the ones that she relies on in the underworld, they need to get used to it all now.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡± He stood then and smiled at me. ¡°Now, let¡¯s get going. Where are we going anyway?¡±


    ¡°Hmm. Do you fancy a trip to Ennd?¡± I tried tough, but I couldn¡¯t force it out. This was not a vacation. This was not fun at all. We had work to do, and I was getting serious about it.


    Reece ended up calling Rawlynne and having her contact the Alpha in Ennd for us. He sent us a picture of his office and said that he was waiting for us. I gathered everyone together and we prepared to leave, the wholerge group of us. I even promised Bevin that if we needed to, we would be back to investigate more.


    With that, we were off for the vige of Wolfhamm in Ennd.


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 Chapter 851

    Chapter 851: Chapter 36- Talia ¨C Another Crime Scene (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    ording to my uncles, this was the fourth crime scene they were seeing today. My mom was apparently keeping them busy with their work. I understood that it was important, but I was worried that they were going to start feeling tired soon. I had actually been up longer than any of them, since I had not slept the night that I was pulled over to Wales. In Colorado time, I had been up for a day and a half already.


    We traveled by door from Wales to Ennd. We were in the southern part of the country now, in a little vige called Wolfhamm. I don¡¯t think that the people that named it were all that good at hiding what they were. That or the humans had suspicions about what lurked in the vicinity.


    I knew that my mom had the Alpha warned that we wereing, and that he texted her a picture of his office. That was needed so that Mom could visualize where the door needed to appear. And it had apparently just been taken with the Alpha¡¯s family in there with him. It was small, cute and quaint, not like the things that I was used to seeing.


    The door appeared, we walked through it like we had before, and almost as soon as we started the trip from one country to another, there were screams of fear.


    .....


    ¡°AHH! Mummy, what is going on?!¡±


    ¡°What is this?¡±


    ¡°Why is there a door?!¡±


    ¡°Bloody hell, that is cool.¡±


    ¡°What is the meaning of this?¡±


    There were children and adults that were talking, female and male voices as well. And four out of those five voices were scared to death. Only one of them, a guy¡¯s voice, sounded like they were excited.


    The first through the door was my dad. He was the king and capable of protecting his queen. After him was my mom and then me. I think that the only reason we were going through in this order was because we were in a hurry. We needed to make sure that we got this all done as soon as possible.


    ¡°Are you the Alpha?¡± My dad¡¯s voice was full of authority and power. Sometimes he was pretty cool, though I couldn¡¯t tell him that. I was a teenage girl. He couldn¡¯t know that I thought he was cool in any way or he would be a total embarrassment for me.


    ¡°Yes, I am Alpha Nigel! Who in the hell are you? What are you doing in my office? What is the meaning of this?¡± The Alpha was on his feet ring at us all as we continued toe through the door into his office. I was just thankful that it was big enough to amodate us, and our luggage.


    ¡°I am Reece Gray, Alpha King. You were told that we wereing, were you not?¡± That wiped the look off of Nigel¡¯s face. He was not prepared for that.


    ¡°I thought you wereing by car. I did not think that you wereing straight into my office through a sted door. What is going on here?¡±


    ¡°We do not have much daylight left to work by. We need to see the most recent crime scene. If we are going to put an end to these murders, we need to be quick about it all.¡± Mom stepped forward then. ¡°I am Trinity Gray, I take it that you know what that means. We are here to work as quickly as we can. Take us to the scene immediately.¡± I didn¡¯t miss the slight edge to my mom¡¯s voice, or the fact that it rippled with power. That was amand. She needed to bring these people into line right away.


    I looked at the family that was around me. There was Nigel the alpha, tall and looking like he was in his mid thirties or so with auburn hair and bright hazel eyes. Next was a woman with red hair and green eyes and a face that was probably angelic most of the time but was filled with terror at the moment. There was a little boy that I would say was no older than six. A girl about as old as my younger siblings. And a guy about my age. All of the kids were clearly rted. They had their mom¡¯s green eyes and their dad¡¯s auburn hair. It was more brown than red, but you could still see the color hiding in it. The younger two kids could be described as cute or adorable. That was what I usually associated with little kids. The guy that was my age could only be described as hot.


    I instantly wanted to talk to him and get to know him, but I couldn¡¯t. I wouldn¡¯t be able to bring myself to talk to him. I would be too shy, and he would most likely be intimidated by Lex and Rudy. And it¡¯s not like I was going to be here for very long as it was. We were leaving tonight.


    While I was staring at the people around me, particrly that really good looking boy, my mom and dad were talking to the Alpha. I wasn¡¯t paying attention to the conversation that they were having, but I noticed when the Alpha of this vige called out in a stern voice.


    ¡°Arthur, take them to the river.¡± At those words the boy that I had been trying to look at without being overly obvious, jumped and spun to face his father.


    ¡°Yes, Da. I will take them now.¡±


    As a group, we left the Alpha¡¯s office. The Alpha was staying here with Rudy, Uncle Shane, Uncle David, Uncle Gabriel and Telyn. Me, Mom, Dad, Uncle Shawn, Uncle Dietrich and Lex were going with Arthur to the scene of the murder. We were splitting into two groups so that we could investigate that much faster. Those staying behind were going to be canvassing the small vige, gathering as much information as they could. The rest of us were heading to the crime scene and then a local freezer that the body was being held in.


    This vige here turned out to be almost nothing but wolves. They didn¡¯t report the murder to the police, but they had heard about what was going on and passed the information along to the castle. And that¡¯s where my Aunt Rawlynne and Uncle Jackson had gotten the message and passed it along to us.


    The body was discovered near the river. There was arge pool of bloodying between tworge trees that shaded the riverbank. The blood hadn¡¯t been spread around to make a rune like my mom had said happened at more than one previous murder. However, using our magical eyes, my mom and I were able to find the words hidden in the pebbles near the water. They had written them in one long line of words rather than like it was a poem or something like that. I have to admit that seeing those words was quite scary. The way they made me feel just turned my stomach.


    ¡°Hi.¡± Arthur sidled up to me after I was done looking around the crime scene. I didn¡¯t know what might be important and what wouldn¡¯t be, so I was taking this time to watch the others. Or rather, I had been.


    ¡°Uh..uhm.. h..hi.¡± I stuttered a little when the boy came to talk to me.


    ¡°You¡¯re cute.¡± He was grinning and looking confident. ¡°How old are you? I¡¯m sixteen. My name is Arthur by the way, but I am sure you know that.¡± His grin was handsome and made me blush.


    ¡°M..my name is Talia and I..I¡¯m fifteen.¡± I had always focused on school so much that I never had a boyfriend before. I was so hyper focused on my future that I was just trying to rush to it as soon as possible. Now, though, I wish that I would have had a little more experience with boys. I didn¡¯t know how to respond to this boy that was smiling at me.


    ¡°Cool.¡± He was standing so close that his shoulder bumped into mine. That was a mistake. Lex was letting him talk to me, but I guess touching was out of the question.


    ¡°Step back.¡± Lex¡¯s deep voice boomed out right next to the boy.


    ¡°Rx mate. I¡¯m just talking to the girl. I¡¯m not hurting anyone.¡± Arthur grinned like there was nothing at all going on.


    ¡°I said step back.¡±


    ¡°Alexio? Is there a problem?¡± Dad asked as he came stomping over to where I was. ¡°What is happening over here?¡±


    Oh no. This was going to be bad. My dad was going to get involved and that meant that there was going to be someone yelling. Most likely my dad. And that would end up with Arthur crying.


    ¡°This ¡®boy¡¯,¡± Lex spat the word out like it was an insult, ¡°bumped into Talia. He needs to step back before I move him back.¡±


    ¡°Is this true?¡± Dad looked very intently at how close the two of us were standing. ¡°You bumped into my daughter?¡±


    ¡°Y..y..y..yo..your d..d..dau..dau..daughter?!¡± Arthur looked like he might have just swallowed his tongue. I don¡¯t know how he hadn¡¯t figured it out yet. I mean, I looked just like my mom.


    ¡°Yes. She is my daughter. This is Princess Talia. What do you think that you are doing?¡± Dad¡¯s voice was getting louder and louder. I could hear the anger filling it with each syble.


    ¡°I..I¡¯m s..so, so, so s..so..sorry, King Reece. I didn¡¯t mean anything by it. Sh..sh..she is a lovely girl. I..I..I just wanted to t..t..t..talk to her.¡± With eyes that wererge and filled with fear, Arthur ran away from us as fast as possible. He moved to the road and stood tall and straight next to a fence.


    ¡°And that is why I never talk to boys.¡± I sighed, feeling just a little sorry for myself as well as Arthur.¡±


    ¡°He is not worthy of you, Talia.¡± Lex said that before slipping into silence. He was acting like that ended the whole thing. Since my dad had gone back to work, I guess that it did, in his mind at least.


    After the crime scene, we were taken to the freezer that held the body. The wounds were just as bad as thest one. Only this time, there had not been an autopsy yet. That was good. This man was not going to suffer like the others.


    I removed his soul and questioned him as only I could. His name was Larry and he was only twenty years old.


    The investigation yielded no further clues. Nothing at all was different than what was found at the other scenes days and weekster. And no one had seen anything either. There was no reason for us to wait here any longer than needed.


    We left, without me saying goodbye to Arthur, no need to scar him further. After Ennd we took a quick trip to Irnd and Scond. We looked for what we could at the scenes, but the main reason that we went there was so that I could free the souls from their bodies before the autopsies. If I could save some people from that fate then I would.


    These people, thirty year old Bree and Forty-two year old Bill, had told me nearly identical stories as the other three souls that I had freed from their bodies. That was five testimonies that I had heard from dead people, and the stories were the same every time. Just a few details were different each time. Even though I knew for a fact that there was more than one killer, the stories were so simr. Actually, Bill and Llewellyn had been killed by the same person. And Bree and Nis had been killed by the same person. But this made three killers with nearly identical patterns. I may not be a cop, but even to me that seemed strange.


    In truth, this was not just scary, it was also confusing.


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 Chapter 852

    Chapter 852: Chapter 37- Trinity ¨C Arriving In Australia (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It had been a long day. Since we woke up earlier today and started to investigate in Wales, we have done a lot. We had investigated three different murder in Wales, one in Scond, one in Irnd, and one in Ennd. Now that we were done with all of that, it was time for us to be heading off to Sydney, Australia, where it was already the next day. However, it was still midday back home.


    On top of what was going on with us all day, Talia was here with us, and she hadn¡¯t gone to sleep since the day before. She had been awake longer than all of us and I knew that she had to be getting tired. She was hiding it well though. And she was still taking part in all of the investigations with us.


    Not only was she helping us to find the clues and other evidence, but Talia was also releasing the souls from their bodies. She was using magic to do that. And that was exhausting her even more. She was going to end up crashing soon, if I wasn¡¯t careful.


    She had her guards with her though. I knew that if she got to that point, if she needed them to carry her or anything, that they would do it without even needing to be asked. They would take care of her, because she was their future goddess and they cared for her.


    .....


    When we arrived in Sydney, it was on the spur of the moment. I hadn¡¯t called the man ahead of time, but he had been warned by Rawlynne that we were on our way. And we also had an image from his home. This would make it easier for me to direct where my door ended up. And thanks to that, I was able to walk through the door to the Alpha¡¯s home.


    We once again exited into the office of the local Alpha. This man¡¯s name was Leon and he looked so much like my dad that I needed to do a double take. His hair color, eye color, and physical build were all the same. It was only the more squared jaw and broader shoulders that told me that he wasn¡¯t his twin or something.


    ¡°Queen Trinity!¡± Leon seemed to have leapt from his chair when the door appeared just a second before I exited into his office. ¡°This is so unexpected.¡±


    ¡°I am sorry for not preparing you, Leon, but we are working on a time frame here. We need to see the body of the most recent victim. After that, take me to the crime scene. We need to get the clues as soon as possible.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Queen Trinity, I understand.¡± He wasn¡¯t fighting against me at all. He was agreeing to what I asked and already leaving the office with me.


    ¡°We need a ce to stay tonight. We have been running since early morning in Wales. Yesterday for your time. We are going to need to sleep and eat soon.¡± At that, there was a rumbling from behind me. More than one really. Several of us were hungry and needed to eat. ¡°As much as I would like to stop and eat now, we need to hurry. Has the autopsy been conducted yet?¡± I was walking briskly toward the door that he had gone toward.


    ¡°No. It is scheduled for ten this morning.¡± Leon looked confused. ¡°Would you like to wait until it ispleted?¡±


    ¡°No. We need to free the soul first. They need to be spared that pain.¡± It was clear that he didn¡¯t understand what I was saying, but he just nodded and continued on his way.


    ¡°Very well. I will have lunch prepared for you. It will be ready when we return. And we will also prepare rooms for all of you. It is the least that we can do.¡± He was leading the way once again.


    ¡°Queen Trinity, I will assist in setting up the rooms for you all.¡± Telyn bowed and offered her services. ¡°It is my job to take care of you all.¡± She had a point. That was why she hade along with us.


    ¡°Very well. Rudy, can you assist her?¡± I didn¡¯t want to leave her alone since we didn¡¯t know these wolves. However, I needed my guards to investigate with us. Rudy was the best option to leave with the young girl.


    ¡°Of course, Queen Trinity. I would be delighted to help her.¡± He smiled and stood next to the servant girl. After that, the rest of us left the office.


    Leon was shouting to the men and women that were in the halls as he walked past them. They looked at him then at me. Every time they looked at me, their eyes would go wide in shock.


    ¡°Queen Trinity has arrived to help with the investigation. Prepare rooms for her and her entourage. Begin preparing lunch so that it will be ready for them when we return from the crime scene. And bring around the cars so that we may take them to see the body and where the murder took ce.¡±


    Everyone was frozen in ce for a moment as they just watched all of us walk by. They were looking at all of us, all ten of us that were walking with Leon, and just seemed to be shell shocked. I knew that people found me intimidating and all that, but I never thought that they would literally just stand there frozen in ce. Leon didn¡¯t think about that either, since he was angry when he saw that they weren¡¯t moving yet.


    ¡°GET YOUR ASSES MOVING!¡± He snapped at them. ¡°YOU THINK THIS IS A GAME!?¡± That finally broke them out of their stupor and the sound of them moving began to fill the halls.


    Before I knew it, we were all at the coroner¡¯s office. We had been driven here by the Alpha and several members of his pack. There were several wolf packs here in Australia, but this was thergest in the country. And that meant that this man, who had been able to visit me in the castle, was the main wolf in charge of the district. He knew how to make sure that things were running smoothly. He was what was known as a High Noble among my people. That status was not wasted on him, since he was showing that he was a lot more efficient than the other Alphas that we had seentely.


    Once again, Talia had to pull the soul out of the man¡¯s body. This man was a young teenage looking boy with ck hair done in thin braids, and he had aplexion that would have looked like warm chocte if it wasn¡¯t for the paleness of death that set in. He was a handsome young man that looked about the same age as Reagan and Rika. It made me want to call them soon, to check in on them. I needed to make sure that things were going smoothly at school for them as well as Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley. They were all there without me and I missed them so much.


    Being a busy mom with this type of power and authority might seem nice at first, at least from the outside, but once you have all of it, you begin to wish that you were just a normal mom that got to be there with her family more often.


    The interview was conducted in front of everyone. Alpha Leon, his Beta Richard, and a few other people from his pack, were all there with us. They heard Talia¡¯s part of the conversation and were so engrossed in the show that they were almost hypnotized by it all. They were shocked that she could do this, just like the others had been. Well, I guess the rumors about Talia were going to spread before long. That was not bad, but it could be ufortable for herter in life.


    I saw that Talia was getting really tired. I didn¡¯t want her to push herself more than she needed to. I didn¡¯t want to burden her with what was going on more than I had to. I wanted her to feel like she was able to rest when she needed to. She needed to take care of herself. However, she was too much like me for her own good. And when I suggested that she head back, she refused. She was going to stay with us until we all went back to the Alpha¡¯s house.


    There were some familiar things at the crime scene. Things that were at all of them were here again. The words, that manifesto from the killers. That had been found scraped into the ground. It was also, like on the tree in Wales, written with some sort of runic water. That was going to need some investigation soon. Still, I was just d that we were all wearing shoes. When it was stepped on, it would have burned feet if it hadn¡¯t been for the shoes. Still there was another set of burned fingers.


    There was one thing that was new about this crime scene though. This time, there was something left behind. The victim, Marcus, had seemed to fight back more than most of the others. There was blood that didn¡¯t belong to the victim as well as a scrap of fabric that looked to be from the robes that Talia mentioned before. It was the same shimmering silver that she said the victims mentioned every single time she interviewed them.


    ¡°We can put a rush search on the blood and analyze the material. I know that both of them will be helpful in tracking down some information about these killers.¡± Dietrich was looking at the fabric as he spoke.


    ¡°Yes, but I want to send it to Rawlynne to conduct the tests with her people. She can keep the results private if she uses the wolves in herb. I don¡¯t need to find out that these people are not human and then the police find that out. We need to be on guard as we take care of this.¡± I was feeling paranoid. Happy to finally have at least a single clue, two actually, but I was still paranoid. There was nothing in the world that would make that paranoia go away until I found these people and were assured of who and what they were.


    ¡°I agree. We need these two things as well as the dirt and bark from the words analyzed. It might take a while, but while we wait, we can continue to investigate the murders that have already happened.¡± Vincent was taking the cloth from Dietrich now. We all thought that the color was odd, and that there seemed to be something off about it. We would find out what that was soon though.


    ¡°Come on everyone, let us return to the house. We can talk while we¡¯re there.¡±


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 Chapter 853

    Chapter 853: Chapter 38- Trinity ¨C Time To Rest (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    When we got back to Leon¡¯s house, the food that he had asked to be made was ready for us. I hadn¡¯t realized until that moment just how hungry I really was. The moment that we walked through the front door though, I could smell the food. And at that smell my stomach rumbled loudly.


    My stomach wasn¡¯t the only one that started to growl though. There was a chorus of growls around me. Reece, Talia, and every single guard that was there with us had their stomachs growl as well. It was funny, but it also showed how much we had been neglecting ourselvestely. We had all been working, and that was a good thing, but we were also not taking care of ourselves in the process. We needed to be better about this. If we weren¡¯t, then we were going to start losing energy way too soon.


    ¡°I think we should rest before we go over the evidence. None of us have eaten in several hours. And we haven¡¯t slept either. Once we are back to full strength, we will tackle this again. Let¡¯s have lunch and then go to our rooms.¡± There were nods and grunted sounds of agreement from the others.


    ¡°Hmm.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Yup.¡±


    ¡°Mmhmm.¡±


    ¡°K.¡±


    I turned to look at Leon, who had paused when I started to talk to the group. I could see that he was feeling slightly relieved about this too. He was so unprepared for my visit that he was already looking ragged.


    ¡°Allow me to show you to the dining room, Queen Trinity. You and your entourage can eat there and then rest until you are ready. I will be here working, but I am at your disposal.¡± He was smiling as he spoke, but it was clear that he was telling me ¡®thank you for this time to prepare for the next time that I need to work with you¡¯. Oddly enough, this man was still nervous around me even though he had been to the castle dozens of times over the years.


    ¡°Take the time to prepare yourself, Leon. We will see you in the afternoon.¡± I nodded at him and then followed him to the dining room. He bowed to me and said his goodbyes, but that was thest that I saw of him before he practically fled the room. He was nervous around me. Maybe it was my power, or maybe it was something else. All I knew was that I was hungry and didn¡¯t care about him at the moment. In fact, as I went to sit at the table, my stomach growled once again.


    ¡°Alright. Someone get Trinity some food before that beast inside of her decides to eat one of us.¡± Reece wasughing as he helped to put my seat in at the table.


    ¡°Oh,e on Reece, you know that my beast only has an appetite for you.¡± I gave him a mischievous smile in response, and while almost everyone in the roomughed, there was one that didn¡¯t like the joke all that much.


    ¡°Eww. Come on Mom, that is gross. Please do not talk about your sex life with dad while I am around. That is just disgusting.¡± She pretended to shudder at the thought.


    ¡°Well, Talia, I am sorry, but I can¡¯t help it if it¡¯s true. And if your dad and I weren¡¯t the way we are, then you wouldn¡¯t be here to enjoy this life.¡± I just had to give her a hard time. I mean, that was my number one job as her mom. Now that she was a teenager anyway.


    ¡°Eww! I am not listening to this.¡± She wasughing and ying along with me. While doing that, she stuck her fingers in her ears and started to make noise to drown out what we were saying. ¡°LA LA LA LA!¡±


    ¡°Oh,e on, Talia. It isn¡¯t that bad, I only made a joke. You¡¯re the one with a dirty mind that took what I said in that direction. I simply meant that I love your father with all of my heart.¡± I batted my eyes at her and pretended to be innocent.


    ¡°Uh huh. Yup. Sure. I believe that. Just like I believe that the sky is made of cheese and that the fish swim in grape juice.¡±


    ¡°Well, at least grape juice is a liquid, where the hell did you get the cheese for the sky? You do know that it is the moon, right? The moon is made of cheese. The sky is made of cotton candy.¡± I kept the joke going, pushing it right back at her.


    ¡°Yummy, that sounds good. Teach me to fly then, I want to eat some cotton candy.¡± I saw that she was serious about the flying, but that was the only part of it.


    ¡°Teach yourself to fly. Everyone has to do it on their own.¡±


    ¡°And by everyone, you mean you.¡± She red at me.


    ¡°Yup. I wasn¡¯t taught to do it, I just learned. That is how you will do it too. You need to make your magic your own.¡± I remembered back to the first time that I walked in the air and the first time that I flew. I had been so scared, but I had done my best to not show it to anyone, even myself.


    ¡°Hahh. You are so mean.¡± She wasughing, despite her fake sigh.


    ¡°Hey, I love that you two are bonding and all that, but can we get to eating.¡± Reece finally sat down next to me, opposite of where Talia was sitting on my right. ¡°I am hungry, and so is everyone else.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. Let¡¯s eat.¡± I nodded, turning to face the others.


    ¡°Yup. I am hungry too.¡±


    The food was good. Telyn was the one that served us and said that she made sure that there was nothing bad that happened to the food while she was preparing things for us.


    ¡°I have also prepared rooms for all of you, Queen Trinity. There are not enough rooms for everyone to have their own, since this ce is quite full with others living here, but I have the guards doubled up. Do they know who will be pairing up with each other? There is a private room for Princess Talia and a room for you to share with King Reece. All of your luggage has been brought to the rooms, Queen Trinity, but the guards¡¯ luggage is waiting for them to decide on their rooms. The only guards that I assigned to a room already are the ones for Princess Talia. Their room is right beside hers.¡± She was exining things as she spoke very fast. I think she wanted to get it all out before I dismissed her or something. She was also still very nervous around me.


    ¡°Thank you, Telyn. I appreciate all the work that you are doing for us. The guards will divide on their own. For future reference though, Shawn and Dietrich will always be bunked together since they are married.¡±


    ¡°Oh!?¡± She looked at the men in shock before smiling. ¡°I was not aware. I will move their belongings to their room while you eat. Does anyone else have a preference?¡± She was looking at the remaining guards.


    ¡°I will bunk with Gabriel.¡± Vincent spoke first. ¡°That will leave Shane and David to be paired together.¡±


    ¡°Why me?¡± David whispered next to him.


    ¡°Hey! I am not that bad.¡± Shane looked hurt but there was stillughter at the corner of his eyes, he was about to make a joke about this. ¡°I know that I am super awesome, so much so that my awesomeness is overwhelming, but you don¡¯t need to be intimidated by me, Davey boy! I won¡¯t hurt you too badly.¡±


    ¡°And this is exactly why I felt like saying ¡®why me¡¯.¡± He groaned and lowered his head. We allughed since we knew that they actually got along really well.


    I could tell that everyone was feeling stressed and worried about the case. They were all eating a little stiffly and they were doing their absolute best to not mention anything that had been happening. The only conversations were about our lives back home.


    We had only been gone for a few days, very little time in truth, but it felt like we had been gone for weeks. That was how busy things had been, and how many things had happened while we were gone. From bringing Talia here to investigating so many bodies. All of it was so different from what I had been expecting of this whole trip.


    As the food was starting to disappear from the table, and everyone was reaching their point of being overly full of food, I noticed that several people were getting tired. None were as tired as Talia though. I saw that her eyes were starting to droop and that her head was swaying a little bit.


    ¡°Alexio.¡± I called out to him, causing him to rush over to me.


    ¡°Yes, Queen Trinity.¡± He was sort of trying to make up for letting Talia see the scene in the woods against my orders. Or that was what it seemed like.


    ¡°Talia is falling asleep, please take her to her room.¡± He looked at her then and we both watched as her head flopped against her shoulder. She almost swayed off of her seat at the same time, but Alexio caught her and kept her from crashing to the floor.


    ¡°Right away, Queen Trinity.¡± He nodded in agreement as he swung her up into his arms. I couldn¡¯t help but notice just how small she looked next to him. He made her look like she was still a toddler. I really missed those times.


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 Chapter 854

    Chapter 854: Chapter 39- Talia ¨C Call From Home (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    I heard my mom call out to Lex, but I couldn¡¯t make myself open my eyes to look at the two of them. I heard Lex get up and go over there, his scent passing behind me and then kneeling between me and my mom. I could sense it all, but I couldn¡¯t see it. I was almost asleep already.


    ¡°Come here, Talia.¡± Those words were whispered softly next to my ear. I don¡¯t think that Lex even expected me to hear him.


    ¡°Lex.¡± I could barely move my mouth when I spoke so even that little whispered word was slurred. ¡°I¡¯m so sleepy.¡±


    ¡°I know, Talia. I know.¡± I felt his big arms wrapped around my back and under my legs. He was cradling me like I was a baby or something. I probably looked like a baby in his arms, he was such a big man. But I felt safe andfortable in his arms. This was a ce that I knew I would never be hurt. No matter the situation, as long as Lex was able to, he would protect me. He was the best guard, and my best friend in the world.


    .....


    ¡°Mr. Alexio, I will show you to her room.¡± That was the new girl¡¯s voice. Telyn, she was already proving to be a big help for us.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Lex nodded but didn¡¯t correct her. He should have. He has ast name after all.


    ¡°Ptolemy.¡± I barely got the word out, it was so slurred that both Lex and Telyn seemed to not understand me.


    ¡°What was that, Princess Talia?¡±


    ¡°What did you say?¡± Lex was closer to me, so I answered him.


    ¡°I was telling her yourst name. You are not Mr. Alexio. You are Mr. Ptolemy. You have an actualst name.¡± I had to struggle really hard to pull myself out of the stupor of sleep just so I could say that properly. I was ready to let myself drop back into it though. I just needed to rx a little.


    ¡°Oh. I was not aware. We have not been properly introduced yet.¡± Telyn sounded embarrassed, but I didn¡¯t bother to say anything else to her. I was too tired.


    Lex carried me up the stairs as he followed behind the girl. I wanted so desperately to just go to sleep now. Then again, I knew that if I did go to sleep now, I would end up sleeping in my clothes, and I wanted to befortable so that I could get a lot more sleep. Not to mention that it would be so much less awkward for Lex if he didn¡¯t have to stress over me. For that reason, and that reason alone, I decided to stay awake as he carried me up the stairs. It was hard though. That constant swaying motion as Lex walked was really trying to pull me under.


    ¡°Here you are, Mr. Ptolemy. This is Princess Talia¡¯s room. The room for you and Mr. Desmodius is right next to hers. This will allow you to protect her as you intend to do.¡± She was smiling as she showed him the door, I could just barely make that out as I peeked out through myshes.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Lex¡¯s voice was calm, and he didn¡¯t seem at all tired from carrying me for so long or for so far. He just waited for Telyn to open the door and let us in.


    Once we were inside the room, Lex set me down on the bed. I took a moment to look around the room while he investigated the space. He was not able to do this without bringing me inside the room with him, since he had been carrying me.


    ¡°I assume that Rudy checked the room, but I cannot be sure unless I check it myself as well.¡± He was nothing if not thorough when it came to being safe.


    ¡°I know.¡± I took in my surroundings while he checked to make sure I was safe. The room was simple, nothing overly special. There was arge, king sized bed with lots of fluffy pillows. One dresser, a chest at the foot of the bed, two nightstands, twomps, a door to the closet, a door to the private bathroom, and the door to the hallway. That was all that there was in the room, aside from my luggage, Lex, and me.


    ¡°It¡¯s safe. There is nothing here.¡± He had checked every drawer, the closet, and the bathroom.


    ¡°So it is. And it¡¯s quite quaint.¡± I was used to a castle, so these other Alpha homes were something different entirely. I didn¡¯t hate it. I actually loved it. It made me feel secure since there was less space in the room.


    ¡°You should get some sleep.¡± He nodded at me. ¡°A nap at least, and then you can sleep againter tonight, when it is dark out. It is still morning here after all.¡±


    ¡°I havepletely lost track of time here, Lex. I left Colorado at like one or two in the morning. I had already been up the entire day before that, and then I was up the entire day in Wales as well. And that just felt like so long. And now it is morning here in Sydney. What time is it at home now? How long have I actually been gone? I don¡¯t even know right now.¡± Iughed about it, but it felt a little bitter. In truth, I was feeling confused about time and all that other stuff.


    ¡°I believe that it is close to dinner time back in Colorado. Almost six in the evening if I am correct. So, you have been here for about fourteen hours. Longer than me by about five hours. And I am not ready to sleep yet, since I slept throughst night when you did not. Sleep, Talia, please. Get some rest.¡±


    ¡°I will.¡± I nodded at him, getting ready to head for my bag. I wanted to change my clothes in the bathroom, but my ringing phone stopped me. ¡°Heh, at least I have international calling.¡± I smirked as I looked at the caller ID. ¡°What does Rika want?¡±


    In hindsight, I should have known what my sister wanted from me. I should have braced myself for it or not answered the call or something. But no, I answered it, and I was immediately blown away by her intensity.


    ¡°Hello?¡± I know that my voice was calm, and that there was no reason at all to panic from my tone. Still, my sister and brother, both of whom were on the other end of the call, seemed like they were about to die.


    ¡°TALIA!¡±


    ¡°TALLY!¡± They sounded so scared and angry as they said my name at the same time.


    ¡°Hey Reagan, hey Rika, what¡¯s up?¡± I made myself sound cheerful as I engaged them in conversation.


    ¡°DON¡¯T HEY ME YOU LITTLE BRAT!¡± Rika snapped at me.


    ¡°Do you know what we went through this morning, Tally? Do you?¡± Reagan sounded more upset than I had ever heard him being before.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry. Mom asked for my help, and she told me that I would be going home right away, but something happened to change that. I didn¡¯t mean to scare anyone, honest. Please don¡¯t be mad at me.¡± I hated how scared they were for me. And I wondered for a minute how the others must feel. ¡°How was Nona and L? Papa and M¨®ra¨ª too? Are they upset with me too? Are they mad at me?¡±


    ¡°No one is mad at you, Talia, it¡¯s just that we were so worried about you.¡± Rika sounded like her anger was finally subsiding as she spoke in a normal voice.


    ¡°I¡¯m still pissed at Mom and Dad though. They are the ones that did this and scared us all. And they called to let everyone know except for us. Rika and I were looking for you, Tally. And we didn¡¯t stop until Nana called to tell us where you were. It was the worst morning of my life. I swear.¡± Reagan sounded so heartbroken. I knew that if I could see his face, I would probably see that he had red rimmed eyes. He was one of those that tried not to get angry like this because you could usually see it. Not for minor things, but the major things that affect his family would make it look like he had been crying.


    ¡°I am sorry, Reagan. I never wanted you to worry about me. I will be home when the investigation is over.¡± I tried to sooth them, but as it turns out, I just piqued their interest more.


    ¡°Why do they need your help? What is going on?¡± Rika jumped on that trail right away.


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know how much I should tell you, but I don¡¯t want to hide things either. So, I will tell you a little bit. There are people that are being killed. They have been murdered by this group of people that, to me, seem like humans. They are trying to kill off all nonhumans, or that¡¯s what I gathered. And, well, the people are using these runes that are trapping the souls of the dead in their bodies.¡±


    ¡°That is horrible, but is it worth you missing your senior year?¡± Rika was always the one that got to the point like this.


    ¡°These souls that are trapped inside their bodies, they can feel everything that happens to them. They feel the cuts of the autopsies, and it¡¯s horrible. And what¡¯s worse, if I don¡¯t release them before they have been cremated, then they will feel that as well. They will feel like they are burning alive even if they are dead. I can¡¯t let that happen to people.¡±


    ¡°Oh my goddess.¡± Rika gasped.


    ¡°What the fuck! These people are sick!¡± Reagan sounded angry.


    ¡°That is why I am needed. I need to help these people. And I am the only one that can do it. I even have Lucifer working with me to find other souls that might have moved on before I get to them. It¡¯s a big process, and I hope you can understand why I had to leave.¡±


    ¡°Yes, we understand.¡± They said this at the same time. Sometimes, that whole twin thing was really true for them. The same went for Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley, only that was even weirder, hearing the same thing four times.


    ¡°I am going to go to sleep now, we¡¯ve been working all day and now it¡¯s morning.¡± I yawned loudly.


    ¡°Where are you? I thought you were in Wales.¡± Rika sounded confused.


    ¡°We were. Then we went to Ennd, Irnd and Scond. Now we¡¯re in Australia. And the time difference between here and home is massive. Plus I haven¡¯t slept since the night before I left.¡± I was yawning again, this time it was apanied by a big, full body stretch.


    ¡°That was justst night. That you left that is. So, you haven¡¯t slept since the night before. Yeah, that is a long time. Get some sleep sis.¡± Reagan¡¯s voice was fading away from me as I started to drift asleep already.


    ¡°Come on now, Talia,y down before you fall asleep.¡± I felt Lex catch me then, my eyes wouldn¡¯t open, but I knew that he was probably looking annoyed.


    ¡°Alexio?¡± I heard Rika¡¯s voice.


    ¡°Hello Rika, and you are well Reagan. Talia is falling asleep as she sits up, please kindly end the call so that I can put her to bed.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, she is tired.¡± Reaganughed. ¡°Goodnight Tally, love you. Take care of her, Alexio.¡±


    ¡°Good night Talia, love you. And thank you for being there with her, Alexio.¡± Rika¡¯s voice barely registered in my mind.


    ¡°G.. nigh..¡± I couldn¡¯t get the words out, I was already asleep. Consequently, I don¡¯t remember anything else that happened until I woke upter that day.


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 Chapter 855

    Chapter 855: Chapter 40- Trinity ¨C Reprimanded By Family (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After watching Alexio carry Talia away to her room, I started to feel tired. I wanted to go to sleep as well. It had felt like so long since I hadst slept, even though it had only been one day since I had actually slept. This day had just been so busy that I felt like it hadsted a lot longer than it did.


    ¡°Come on Reece. Let¡¯s go to our room.¡± I stood up and swayed a little. Maybe I was letting Talia¡¯s exhaustion affect me. That or I was just mentally tired. That was definitely a possibility. I had been thinking through a lot and there was so much more that I needed to do.


    ¡°Come on now, Little Bunny. You¡¯re going to end up falling asleep where you¡¯re standing, just like Talia did.¡± Reece wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me along beside him.


    ¡°Talia was sitting, I am standing, those are different things.¡± I argued just for the sake of it.


    .....


    ¡°And both would have ended up in a knock to the noggin if someone hadn¡¯t been there for the two of you. I swear you two are so much alike it¡¯s scary sometimes.¡± Reece was holding me in ce next to him. He was always there for me. He always has been, even before I knew it.


    ¡°Welle on then, let¡¯s get going.¡± I urged him to leave the room with me.


    ¡°We don¡¯t even know where our room is.¡± Reece pointed this out to me and I sighed. He was right. We didn¡¯t know where we were sleeping in this Alpha house. That would pose a problem.


    ¡°I can show you. I was with Telyn earlier, so I know which room is which.¡± Rudy stood and smiled. He had sat down with the rest of us, but he had been so quiet while we ate that I forgot that he was here.


    ¡°Oh, Rudy. Yeah, you would know, wouldn¡¯t you.¡± Reece nodded at him as he held me against his side. ¡°Can you show us then, so I can get this thing here off of her feet.¡±


    ¡°Since when did I be a thing? That was rude. I am your wife, you butthead.¡± I snapped at him weakly. I was too tired to do more than that.


    ¡°And when you¡¯re this tired, you¡¯re not even able to put much effort into fighting with me. My evidence here is the fact that you called me a butthead. That was very weak, Trinity, very weak.¡±


    ¡°Whatever Reece, I am too tired right now. Take me to bed.¡± I turned toward him and literally started to climb him like he was a jungle gym. Only, I didn¡¯t want to y with him. I wanted him to carry me to our room and put me to bed.


    ¡°You¡¯re such a handful.¡± He chuckled as he positioned me in his arms. He was carrying me like a princess, cradled in his arms against his chest. It was very soothing andforting.


    ¡°Follow me, King Reece.¡± There wasughter in Rudy¡¯s voice as he walked away.


    It only took a few minutes to guide us to our room. Rudy was showing Reece where we were sleeping while I was trying not to sleep before we got there. Then again, even if I did fall asleep before we got there, he could undress me andy me down in the bed.


    The room that Rudy led us to was small and very quaint. It was way different than what I had been used to for thest twenty years now. Still, it was a room with afortable looking bed so that was all that mattered to me.


    ¡°Have a good rest, Queen Trinity.¡± Rudy spoke softly as he slowly shut the door behind himself.


    ¡°Are you ready to sleep now?¡± Reece¡¯s voice rumbled out from his chest and vibrated the side of my head. I loved the way that it felt when he was like this with me.


    ¡°Mmhmm.¡± I hummed out my agreement.


    ¡°Alright then,e on.¡± He carried me over to the bed andid me down gently on the bed.


    Reece, no matter the situation, was always a perfect gentleman with me. Well, most of the time he was. Heid my head on the pillow, gently setting me down as if I was something fragile and ready to break.


    ¡°Your body is still the same as the day that I met you.¡± His fingers traced along my hips as he gently released me.


    ¡°As is yours. Nothing about you has changed Reece, aside from the way that you treat me.¡± I grinned as I looked at him, his eyes still so close to mine.


    ¡°Yeah, well, I seem to remember that a certain someone wasn¡¯t that nice to me in the beginning as well. Someone was always yelling at me and calling me a dog. That was very rude.¡± He chuckled as he leaned in toward me.


    Our faces were already close, but he still got closer. His mouth came to rest right next to my ear and the breath as he spoke next tickled, causing me to shiver.


    ¡°We were both mean in the beginning.¡±


    ¡°Because we were too stubborn to realize that we loved each other before we even met.¡± I slowly slid my hands up his back as I said that. ¡°And since then, my love for you has only gotten stronger.¡±


    ¡°What a coincidence. I was just about to say that.¡± He pressed his lips to my ear for just a moment, a quick kiss that tickled me and made me want to squirm. I stayed put, but it was so hard.


    ¡°Reece.¡± I breathed his name with a sense of need filling me.


    ¡°Trinity.¡± He whispered my name into my ear before he started to kiss along my jaw and toward my mouth. ¡°I love you.¡±


    ¡°I love you too.¡± I managed to express my feelings just a moment before Reece sealed my lips with his.


    The kiss was deep, passionate, and felt like it had the power to make my entire world better again. It was filled with love, desire and need. He couldn¡¯t stop the kiss anymore than I could. He wanted it and so did I.


    And just as he was about to slide his hand under my shirt, the tips of his fingers tickling just below my belly button, that was when my phone rang.


    ¡°Gah!¡± I cried out in frustration as Reece pulled away from me.


    ¡°My sentiments exactly.¡± He growled as he propped himself up on his elbows above me. He wasn¡¯t pulling away from mepletely, but he was giving me room to answer the room.


    I didn¡¯t look at the caller ID before I picked up the call, I just swiped it and answered the call immediately.


    ¡°Hello?¡± My voice was a little breathless when I spoke.


    ¡°WHY THE HELL DIDN¡¯T YOU CALL US?!¡± I heard Rika yell at me from the other end of the call. ¡°DO YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED WE WERE ABOUT TALIA?!¡±


    ¡°THAT WAS REALLY MEAN MOM! WE WAITED FOR YOU TO CALL US!¡± Reagan followed up his sister¡¯s initial yell.


    ¡°Rika? Reagan?¡± Reece, having heard them when they yelled, pulled away from me and sat on the bed next to me as he helped me to sit up.


    ¡°What is the matter with you two?¡± I asked them, not following why they were so mad.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t let us know about Talia. You took her in the middle of the night and didn¡¯t tell anyone. And then when you called home, you had Nona tell us that she was OK. That was just mean, Mom. Don¡¯t you get that?¡± Reagan sounded so upset. Just hearing it was enough to break my heart.


    ¡°I am sorry. I didn¡¯t mean to upset you. I was in the middle of something, so I had Nona call you. I was nning on calling you when I could. We just finished lunch and were about to take a nap. We¡¯ve been working nonstop.¡± I was making excuses. It didn¡¯t matter that it was all true, it was still an excuse. ¡°I am so sorry. I didn¡¯t mean to hurt you.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, well, be d we already called Talia. If we hadn¡¯t, we would probably be a lot more mad at you.¡± Rika sounded like she was about to pout. I honestly did intend to call them, I just hadn¡¯t gotten around to it.


    ¡°Please don¡¯t do things like that again, Mom. Please. We¡¯re the oldest siblings, we¡¯re supposed to protect the younger ones. And when you wake up to find that your sister is missing, it really is scary. And it hurts.¡± Reagan was the protector type. I could just imagine how he felt when he thought someone had done something to his sister.


    ¡°Yes. I promise that I will make sure that nothing like this ever happens again. I truly did intend to send her right back, but other things happened. I can¡¯t exin things now, but I will soon, OK. Please, be patient with us.¡± I wanted to smooth this over. I wanted everyone to feel better. There was nothing else about it.


    ¡°Yeah. We forgive you.¡± Rika agreed instantly.


    ¡°We were just worried.¡± Reagan added.


    ¡°Your mom and I are trying our best here. We will get this done as soon as we can ande home before too much longer.¡± Reece called out to them.


    ¡°Alright, Dad. We will see you soon. Love you guys.¡± Reagan sounded a little better now.


    ¡°Love you, Dad. Love you, Mom. See you soon.¡± Rika had calmed down the most, and that was a good thing. I didn¡¯t need them to lose control of their magic or anything because they were upset about something.


    ¡°Love you. See you soon.¡± Reece replied.


    ¡°I love you guys. We will be home soon. Give the others hugs and kisses for me.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, yeah, we will.¡± Rika sounded a lot more cheerful before she hung up.


    ¡°Phew, that was intense.¡± Reeceughed. ¡°I think we should just go to bed now.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that was a lot more exhausting than what we were nning.¡± Iughed. ¡°Let¡¯s get some sleep Reece, we need it.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but I intend to collect on my intimacy soon. I know that there is a lot going on, but that doesn¡¯t mean that we have to stop being affectionate with each other.¡± He almost sounded like he was pouting. He was so cute sometimes.


    ¡°I know Reece, I know. And I want you too. Just not right this minute, I am too tired.


    He curled around me without another word and held me against his chest. Cradled in his arms, I drifted off to sleep immediately, my phone still in my hand. And it was still there when I woke up three hourster.


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 Chapter 856

    Chapter 856: Chapter 41- Trinity ¨C The Investigation Continues Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After we napped, it was time to get back to work. The good thing is, that even with the time difference, and the massive distance between us, it was still easy to work with everyone back home. We ended up sleeping until two in the afternoon and that left us with a lot of time to work on the case. And back home it was only about ten in the evening. We may be giving the crew back home somest minute work to do tonight, but they could at least get the ball rolling.


    We all knew what it was like to work this kind of job. It was demanding and it was going to be hard. There wasn¡¯t much else for us to do at the moment though. We just needed to get as much evidence that we could and start working on figuring out the answers.


    After waking up, before eating anything else or doing anything for myself, I called Rawlynne and Jackson.


    ¡°Hey Trinity, what¡¯s up?¡± Rawlynne sounded like she had a hopeful air to her voice. ¡°Did you find anything that we can use?¡±


    .....


    ¡°As a matter of fact, yes. We¡¯ve got a manifesto of sorts. And on top of that, we have some samples that we need tested. They need to be tested in more than one way. There is some writing on these samples, but it can¡¯t be seen with human eyes. Or even wolf eyes. Talia and I needed magic to see these words. You will not see them at all, but you might be able to smell the substance that is on these samples.¡±


    ¡°What are the words? Is it that manifesto?¡± She was missing a beat here, she was following along and already figured that out.


    ¡°Yes. That is exactly what it is. And we have found these words at every scene that we have been to so far. The killers want us to see their message and to fear it. Well, some of them want it found. Most of them were hidden in a way that magic needed to be used to find them. And that makes me think that these people nned that too. They knew that someone with magic was going to be investigating these murders.¡±


    ¡°Then we¡¯re dealing with smart psychopaths. That is a shame, since normal psychopaths are hard enough to catch sometimes. If they know that people that aren¡¯t human are after them, they might be taking extra special care not to mess up at all.¡±


    ¡°Well, Rawlynne, I think that most killers are going to try not to mess up, but that is just my opinion. Still, most of them do and that leads me to the next thing that we need to have tested. One of the killers didn¡¯t subdue their victimpletely. The victim fought back enough to tear away some of their robes and to draw blood.¡± I was so proud of the fact that this person had put up a fight. I was sad that someone had died, and that was never going to change, but at least they had gotten us a clue. They had provided us with something that we needed to possibly catch these people.


    ¡°I will take the blood to theb right away. I will have Harris get it to the right tech. We will keep all of this evidence out of the human¡¯s hands.¡± I knew that Harris, the director that Rawlynne and Jackson answered to, was a Djinn. He was one of my people and he wanted to stop these killings as much as I did. He also knew how to keep a secret and to move things to the right people that could help.


    ¡°Good. That will help. And I need to also make sure that the Sentinelle checks their archives. We need to know if anything like this has ever happened before. Oh, and Rawlynne, you all need to be careful when checking these samples. The words are dangerous.¡±


    ¡°Trinity, haven¡¯t you ever heard that old adage? Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. I don¡¯t care how mean and ugly the words are, they won¡¯t get to me.¡± She was confident, and I hated that I needed to cut that confidence down right now.


    ¡°That is not what I mean. These words were written with a runed type of water. Think of it like movie grade holy water being used against a Hollywood vampire. It burns, even when it is dried. Just touching the words with your finger can burn you.¡±


    As I thought about that, I looked over at Reece. He had been burned by the words earlier, and I hadn¡¯t even checked on his finger after it had happened. In my defense, I was more worried about Talia at the time. I was more of a mom than a wife at the moment that it had happened. Now though, I was worried about him. I wanted to see if the letters were still there.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Reece asked me as I took his hand in mine.


    ¡°Checking.¡± I looked at the finger that I remember had been burned, and there was nothing. Wanting to be sure, I checked all of his fingers before I was satisfied. Thankfully, there was no permanent scar.


    ¡°Trinity?¡± I heard Rawlynne on the other side of the line. ¡°Is something wrong?¡±


    ¡°I was just checking the state of the burns that Reece received. Thankfully, they are gone now. No scar or anything left behind. Since it was a magical injury, I wasn¡¯t sure if he would heal from that.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± She sounded shocked, about as shocked as Reece was as he looked at his hand. He hadn¡¯t thought that the wound would be permanent and was clearly relieved that it wasn¡¯t.


    ¡°I am going to open a door for you. I want you to take the evidence that we have collected so far, please do your best to make sure that they are checked as soon as possible. I want to stop more people from being killed, and we only have four days before they strike again.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± She was just as angry about this case as I was. At least we had that going for us.


    The door was opened, the evidence was passed along, and that was the end of it. They were free to sleep or to get back to work. For the time being, the rest of us were going to keep investigating. We had a lot more crime scenes to visit and we had a lot more souls to, hopefully, rescue from their bodies.


    There was nothing for us to do here in this pack still, but there had been six other murders that had happened in Australia. They just happened in more rural parts of the country. There had even been one in New Zend that we needed to check out as well.


    Once we left this Alpha¡¯s home, we needed to start the investigation at full speed. We packed our things and started to contact the other Alphas. There were only three that we needed to notify that we were on our way. And this time I told them, out of courtesy, that I would be opening magic doors for the purpose of quick travel.


    I decided that we needed to retrieve the luggage from the private ne and send the pilot home. I felt bad about bringing him along when we ended up not needing to use the ne. Hey, he was paid at least, and he had basically been vacationing in Wales free of charge. I don¡¯t think that he was all that upset about it.


    At one point, I had intended to hide my identity from the Alphas and other n leaders as I traveled. I had made that decision after Reece pointed out that the others would be intimidated by me. Well, that wasn¡¯t an option anymore. I needed to use my magic for the investigation. What I could do though, was make sure that I wasn¡¯t the one to interview the witnesses. They wouldn¡¯t have to worry about me, only their leaders would.


    Before leaving to investigate more we did take the time to eat a quick lunch. Well, a second lunch really since the other meal that we ate here was like a lunch for us. The food was good, but its quality was diminished by the conversation.


    All of us were talking about the case. We were wondering what the others might discover about the items that I gave them. They were curious to know if there was something more magical about that water than we expected, or if it was just a powerful faith in ancient runes.


    That was something that we needed to get to the bottom of. And there was one person that I wanted to talk to about that. Well, sitting here at the dining room table of another wolf pack¡¯s Alpha seemed like as good of a ce to start that conversation as any.


    I looked around the table, taking in the scene before me. I didn¡¯t want to dampen their moods more, but I didn¡¯t really think that it was likely to happen. They were all stressed and ready to put an end to this case as soon as possible. And they would be just as interested in this talk as I would.


    ¡°Ahem.¡± I cleared my throat to get their attention. Well, it worked, everyone in the room stopped eating and looked at me. ¡°There is something about the case that I want to discuss.¡± They were all on the edge of their seats, waiting for me to continue.


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 Chapter 857

    Chapter 857: Chapter 42- Trinity ¨C The Investigation Continues Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°Ahem.¡± Everyone basically dropped their forks and stared at me the moment that I cleared my throat. ¡°There is something about the case that I want to discuss.¡± I was looking at one person specifically as I spoke, but I could tell that they were on edge. ¡°Dietrich.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Trinity?¡± he smiled and looked at me with a nk expression. That alone told me that he knew what it was that I was going to bring up. He wasn¡¯t curious at all, he was trying to hide his emotions.


    ¡°If you would rather, we can talk about this in private, but I think you know what I want to talk about.¡± I saw the way that Dietrich actually thought about that for a moment. There were things in his past that none of us knew about. I doubt that even Shawn, his lover of almost twenty years, knew the things that we were discovering about him now.


    ¡°Let us talk alone, Trinity. If you decide that what I am going to tell you is important enough to tell the others, then that is up to you. Until then, I would like to keep it a secret.¡± There was tension in all the faces around us, even Shawn¡¯s. They were all curious about what we were talking about.


    .....


    ¡°Very well then.¡± I smiled at him. ¡°Leon, I will be borrowing your office.¡± I didn¡¯t ask, I told him. He was sitting there, staring at me as if I was speaking anothernguage that he didn¡¯t understand.


    ¡°O..OK.¡± He finally forced the word out. ¡°Yes. G..go ahead.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    Dietrich took my arm after I rose to my feet. He was escorting me not as a guard, but as a friend. If we were going to a ball, this would have been perfectly normal. However, we were going to discuss things about his past that I didn¡¯t think the others should hear at the moment, and that meant that the kindness he was showing me was a little odd. However, upset or not, Dietrich has always been a perfect gentleman.


    Once we were in the office, Dietrich and I sat opposite of each other. There was a pair of armchairs near the window that were facing each other and it made for the perfect ce where two people could talk like this.


    ¡°So, Trinity, you want to know about my past. More specifically, about the time that I spent with ric.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Dietrich. I need to know more about it. There are things that you might know that could possibly be relevant. And now that we have a moment to actually talk, I think that we need to get it out into the open. You know that I trust you and that I would never think less of you. You are now and will always be just like a brother to me. I just want to know what this stuff might have to do with the man that you once knew.¡±


    ¡°I understand Trinity. I really do.¡± Dietrich hung his head and sighed deeply. ¡°I want you to know that back then things were different. I was different, and so were the other people that I socialized with. This was before I took over the leader position of the vampires. In fact, I do believe that my time with ric had much to do with me being offered the position.¡±


    ¡°You are an amazing man, Dietrich. I¡¯ve always known that. From the moment that I met you, I knew that you were not like others. And I will not think less of you for taking care of a problem that was guing the world at the time. I am just as capable of learning our histories as you are. I already knew that there were rogues that didn¡¯t conform to society. They wouldn¡¯t abide by the humanws or the supernatural ones. They were dangerous to everyone, but more so the humans.¡± I remember what I learned from my grandfather growing up as well as from Gabriel when I studied history with him. It was all stuff that I needed to know.


    ¡°That is true. And it was those people that we hunted. I regret that I ever called myself such a barbaric thing, but I will never regret what I did. There may be methods that I regret, but not the end result. We made the world a safer ce for everyone. And I would do the same thing again if I was asked to do it.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡± I was d that there had been people out there to protect the innocent. They were like superheroes back then, literally. If humans saw them then they would see people that had powers above and beyond that of a human. ¡°What I want to know, Dietrich, is if you know anything about that runed water. Did ric use something like that?¡±


    ¡°No. I don¡¯t remember him having that. He used runes, but it was either on a tool, a room, or the body itself. He wanted to stop evil souls from being reincarnated, at least at first. But he hated the idea of permanent torture to the deceased soul. That was why he stopped trapping them in their bodies. We hunted evil beings for a very long time. Many, many years of working together. There were a lot of people on our team at the time and we all did our jobs wlessly. And only during the first year or two did ric trap the souls. I think he felt too much remorse for them and decided to release them. Had he known that actually releasing them would cause them more pain, he might have kept them trapped.¡± I remembered the terror that was in his eyes when he learned that the cremated souls felt like they were burning alive. That had to be hard on him.


    ¡°So, he didn¡¯t have the runed water. That is good.¡± I nodded. It made me feel better knowing that this probably was not tied to this man in any way. Just someone that had figured out what he had all those years ago.


    ¡°No. We never needed it. However, I would like to know how these people managed to make an effective holy water. I know that it is most likely runes, but the fact that it is so effective is troubling. What if these people were to put that water in the main supply? What will happen to the super naturals of the world?¡±


    That was something that we couldn¡¯t let happen. There were more nonhuman people in the world than there were humans. We hid ourselves well, but we lived seamlessly with them all. We used the same resources. We shopped at the same stores. We were their neighbors and their friends. If these people were to taint the world¡¯s water, or even just one city¡¯s drinking water, with that runed holy water, then it could literally kill millions. And that there was something that we needed to avoid.


    For a while longer I listened to Dietrich talk about his times with ric. He told me how a typical hunt might happen, assuming that there were no surprises orplications that arose. It seemed standard enough to me. Securing the evidence, locating the condemned, and then executing them. It was not something that they took pleasure in doing, but they did it nheless.


    I briefly thought about the stories of vampire hunters that filled legends and storybooks. I wondered if there might actually be some truth to them after all. It seems that more than half of the fiction stories throughout history were actually based in fact. Who would have thought? Next, we just needed to meet the aliens, then I would be satisfied that they were all true. And I just knew that there had to be aliens. There was no way that Earth was the only popted in the gxies or all the gxies. They were out there, I knew that they were.


    With the talk over, we returned to the others. It was time for us to leave and start finding more clues. Like the aliens, I knew that the clues were out there somewhere. We just needed to keep looking for them so that we could find them.


    We traveled to the next location by door. This n was in the wooded and forest-like ¡®bush¡¯ that you always hear about. It was rural, but still moderately popted. Once we got there we met with Muriel, a witch that led the area. She was even the person that the local wolves would answer to, even though they had their Alpha. This was something that I had not experienced first hand, but it was interesting. Apparently, sharing power andnd got easier when the people of my kingdom were united. They didn¡¯t fight like they used to and had found a way to cooperate and cohabitate with each other.


    Muriel showed us where three of the people had been killed in hernds. There was a warlock named Rory, a Djinn by the name of Hennessy, and a werecat named Lionel that had been murdered. Their bodies had all been found hidden in the trees.


    We found the same words in the location, but there didn¡¯t seem to be any of that rune water in these locations. That was good for us. There also seemed to be nothing that was left for us to find. They had done a good job ofbing the area. And the only thing that they found were sets of footprints.


    The locals knew that the footprints were not from their people because of the soles of the shoes. There was a rune on them as well. The rune was in the shape of a capitalized letter ¡®B¡¯ but it was all angr. The rune had many meanings, but one of the things that it signified was silence and secrecy. This would exin how their movements went unnoticed. It also made me wonder if the other had worn shoes with these marks as well. If they had, then it would exin why no one noticed them or remembered them.


    There were three more murders that happened in the heart of Australia¡¯s outback. These bodies had been left out in the aridndscapes of that harsh territory, but still no one saw anything. The area was so sparsely popted, and primarily by the nonhuman variety. It would have been easy for them to spot a neer to the area.


    On the northern ind of New Zend there was one murder that had taken ce. The person in question was a Mermaid that was living near the beach with her family. She was found on a buoy off the coast. It took time to find her remains and the evidence waspletely gone by the time that anyone got there. There was nothing at all for us to find there either. I had a feeling that she was lured to her death by someone feigning distress in the water and was then murdered on a boat. That was just a theory, but it was a usible one considering that her family said that she was kind to all and helped many people in her time.


    Also, all of the bodies that were found in Australia and New Zend, aside from the one in Sydney, had already been cremated. It wasmon for the nonhumanmunity, I knew that, but it was still frustrating. And it just meant that Talia was going to need Lucifer¡¯s help to find these souls.


    From New Zend, we traveled to Asia and the rest of Europe. It was a whirlwind trip, but it wasn¡¯t meant to be fun. We were hopping from pack to n so fast that it was enough to make us dizzy. It was necessary though. We needed as much evidence as possible, and I meant to find it. Also, I was still waiting to hear back from Rawlynne about the samples that I had given her.


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 Chapter 858

    Chapter 858: Chapter 43- Rika ¨C First Date Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    My first week as an official adult was off to a rocky start. I got asked out on a date. My sister disappeared in the middle of the night and ended up being all the way across the world with my parents. And that, of course, made me and Reagan call to reprimand our mom, and check up on Talia. ss was going just fine for now. The girls and I were sharing all of our sses while my brother was only in one of mine.


    Oh, and Clovio was in those sses with us along with most of their group of German students. It was nice having people that we were friendly with but still getting to know. It was helping with a lot of the ice breaking with the other kids too. The German students were popr with everyone, but they seemed to gravitate toward me and my friends. I guess they thought that we were interesting and cool.


    I like the fact that I was suddenly so popr. Not that I wasn¡¯t popr in my other school growing up. Now though, these people that never knew me or my family growing up suddenly liked me. This made me feel like I was somehow being validated. If that makes any sense at all. I liked the fact that I suddenly had so many new friends.


    These friends just felt different than all the ones that I had growing up. I loved my friends dearly, but they were like family to me. We had all literally been friends since before we were born. They would always be there for me, and I knew that. Just like they knew that I was going to be there for them forever. That¡¯s what it meant to be family in my mind. Now though, I had friends that were new, people that hadn¡¯t known me through my potty training and awkward phases. I got to get to know them. I got to experience new things with them. And, to me, that was what it meant to be in college. It was also where my mom met her best friend. College was meant for making new connections in life, education, and career.


    .....


    Tonight though, I was going out with Clovio on a double date with Lyssa and Warrick. We were going to be going to the park and then eating at a few different street vendors around the city. We were going to a movie after we ate, and then we were nning on going to the mall. It was going to be a full night of stuff for us to do, and I was looking forward to it so much.


    I was taking a long time getting ready, with Lyssa right by my side. Alexa was a little jealous that she was not going on a date as well, so she was avoiding my house and not wanting to help her sister get ready for her first date with her new mate.


    ¡°She is being a total brat.¡± Lyssa was looking at the two options of outfits that she had before her. She originally had twelve, but she narrowed it down to just these two over thest hour. ¡°She said that she was born first so she should have found her mate first. She said that I was lying and that he isn¡¯t my mate.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s just feeling a little sad and left out, Lys, don¡¯t let her get to you. Her time wille. And I know that she wille around soon. I love you both and I hate it when you fight.¡± I truly did hate it. I felt like I was caught in the middle. Each of them were pulling me in the opposite directions.


    ¡°I know.¡± Lyssa sat on the edge of my bed and looked at the floor. ¡°Should I have turned Warrick down? Should I have waited to see if he really is my mate or something? What should I do, Rika?¡± She was at a loss here. Her dads weren¡¯t here right now, they were gone with my parents, so she couldn¡¯t ask their advice. And her brothers and sister were not much help. Mostly since they were all jealous at the moment.


    ¡°I think that you should follow your heart, Lys. If he is your mate, then you should go on this date with him. You would know if he wasn¡¯t the one for you just by smelling him. And you got a good nose, just like me, so I know you can tell what this is.¡± I was doing my best to encourage her. ¡°So,e on, let¡¯s pick out your outfit.¡± I was still working on my outfit too. It was so hard narrowing it down.


    ¡°Yeah, I know. We only have an hour left until we need to meet the guys in town.¡± She got back up and started eyeing the clothes again. She was trying to choose between a ck skirt and a pinkcy top and a pair of shorts and a graphic tee. She was the type to dress morefortably, so I knew that she wanted to wear the shorts.


    ¡°I think I will wear this.¡± I grinned as I picked up a pair of really dark blue shorts and a powder blue tank top. I was nning on wearing a pink button up shirt over the tank top, unbuttoned of course. This style of clothes was something that my mom said was popr a long time ago, but I was a teen now and these things were making aeback.


    Seeing that I pickedfortable clothes as well, Lyssa went for the clothes that she truly wanted. We were also wearing sneakers with the outfits we chose. I was adding some more ¡®girly¡¯ essence by adding bracelets, nes and earrings.


    ¡°Won¡¯t your mom get mad if you wear that out?¡± Lyssa asked as I grabbed the diamond ne that I was given for graduation. It was expensive, very expensive, and was meant for special asions.


    ¡°It¡¯ll be fine. Nothing is going to happen to it, and this is a special ne for a special night. It¡¯s my first official date. When else am I going to wear it?¡± I was grinning as I looked at the ne.


    ¡°Yeah, but won¡¯t Clovio know that you¡¯re like, filthy rich now?¡± Lyssa was grinning as she looked at it. She had nes like this too, but hadn¡¯t thought to bring them with her.


    ¡°Well, you¡¯re one to talk. My dad is the richest in the world, but whose dad is the second richest?¡± I gave her a knowing look as sheughed.


    ¡°Mine.¡± Her rolled eyes and the way that she shook her head told me that she was not going to object anymore.


    ¡°I rest my case. Besides, they probably won¡¯t know that this is worth fifty grand. If they do, oh well.¡±


    I started to work on my hair and makeup. I wanted it to be fun and carefree, but to also show that I cared about my appearance. It took me a lot longer than I expected to aplish it. Once we were ready though, it was time for us to go.


    ¡°Oh my Goddess, we¡¯re going to bete if we don¡¯t leave, like, right now.¡± I grabbed my blue Gi purse and ran out the door. Lyssa, as ready as I was, grabbed her pink Prada purse and followed behind me.


    It was a race to the garage and into the car so that we could get to where we needed to be. The drive to the park wasn¡¯t long since it was just in the city, but it took long enough that we were barely there on time.


    ¡°Ahh! We made it.¡± I sighed as we stopped in front of the fountain.


    ¡°Rika!¡± I heard Clovio¡¯s voice with his thick ent call out to me. ¡°You made it. I am so happy to see you.¡± He was running toward me, Warrick walking behind him while he stared at Lyssa.


    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re here. Sorry we were running just a little bitte.¡±


    ¡°No, no it is fine. We are just d that you¡¯re here.¡± At that, Clovio had reached where we were standing. I thought that he would stop, but he didn¡¯t. Instead, he threw his arms around me and hugged me tightly. I wasn¡¯t expecting it so when his arms circled around me, I sort of just stood there awkwardly for a moment. After a little bit though, I lightly embraced him, hugging him back nervously. It was the first time that someone that I hadn¡¯t grown up with had hugged me. And well, it was scary and exciting at the same time.


    Finally, long after I thought that he was going to let go, Clovio pulled away from me and smiled. His hands were still on my shoulders though, so he was still very close to me.


    ¡°I am sorry if I surprised you. I am just excited to see you.¡± I was still nervous, so I was looking around before I answered him. I saw that Lyssa and Warrick were also hugging gently. They were both smiling so broadly that I wanted to say ¡®aww¡¯. I didn¡¯t, though. I didn¡¯t want to embarrass them.


    ¡°N..no, it¡¯s fine. I just wasn¡¯t expecting it at first. I am totally fine with it though.¡± I really was. He was a good guy so why wouldn¡¯t I want to hug him like that?


    ¡°Good. Are you ready? There is so much that we want to do.¡± Clovio looked so excited for the date. How could I possibly make him wait?


    ¡°Yeah. I think so. Let¡¯s go.¡±


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 Chapter 859

    Chapter 859: Chapter 44- Rika ¨C First Date Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    Clovio was holding his hand out toward me. I could tell that he wanted me to hold his hand. It was kind of nerve wracking, but I wasn¡¯t against it. This was a date after all, so I wanted to take advantage of all that I could. Whether Clovio and I ended up dating or not was a different story, but I wanted the full experience today.


    ¡°Come on.¡± He was smiling so brightly that it was contagious.


    ¡°OK.¡± Taking his hand, I returned that smile that he was giving me.


    When I turned to look at Lyssa, I saw that she was looking happy as she held onto Warrick¡¯s hand as well. So, it wasn¡¯t just me and Clovio that were holding onto each other. This just felt right to me. Holding his hand and walking with him. It was normal, right?


    .....


    ¡°I am so happy that we are going on this date. So is Warrick. He is just shy and doesn¡¯t talk much. Isn¡¯t that right, Warrick?¡± Clovioughed, but Warrick actually answered him. His ent was much thicker than Clovio¡¯s, almost to the point that it was impossible to understand him.


    ¡°Yes, I am shy.¡± He looked down a little and I felt like he was self-conscious about his ent.


    ¡°You know, Warrick, Lyssa speaks German.¡± I winked at him before turning to look back at Clovio. ¡°So do I.¡±


    ¡°Ach ja?¡± Clovio, looking so surprised that he was rooted to the spot, asked me that one simple question.


    ¡°Yeah, really.¡± I answered him.


    As we started to walk along more, we were mixing German and English together as we talked. Warrick, who was very shy about his English, was happy to be speaking in his nativenguage. It made him seem more open and outgoing. I guess his confidence in the newnguage wascking a little bit. I could tell that Lyssa was finding it cute, though. When he would say something cute and romantic in German, Lyssa would blush and get the most adorable expression on her face.


    ¡°Shall we go for a carriage ride, meine Sch?ne Rika?¡± Clovio, still holding onto my hand, asked as we approached the part of the park that had little two person carriages. ¡°I am sure that Warrick and Alyssa will enjoy the alone time in a carriage of their own.¡±


    ¡°U..uhm, y..y..yeah, I think that I would enjoy that quite a bit.¡±


    ¡°Good. Good.¡± If I didn¡¯t know any better, I would say that I just made Clovio¡¯s whole day. Well, maybe I did. I didn¡¯t really know what he was thinking at the moment.


    We waited until it was our turn to board the carriages. Lyssa and Warrick went first, both of them blushing and looking nervous. It was cute, seeing them together like that. I was happy that they had found each other and were going to be happy together for the rest of their lives. Lyssa deserved that. She was one of the sweetest girls in the world.


    Finally, it was time for me and Clovio to get into our carriage. It was meant for couples, so the seats sort of angled into the middle. I think they did that, so the people were forced to snuggle and cuddle with each other. It definitely was not meant for people that weren¡¯tfortable with each other.


    I had a little trouble at first. I wasn¡¯t used to snuggling up to Clovio like this, but I did it. He even put his arm around my shoulders and held me against his side as we started our circuit around the park.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t think that they would have horses like this here.¡± Clovio sounded surprised. ¡°I thought this was something that was only seen in New York.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it hasn¡¯t been here all that long. I think that they started it about five years ago. It is definitely still on the newer side, all things considered.¡± I exined to him the things that I remembered.


    ¡°Ahh. I see.¡± He pulled me a little closer. ¡°I like it. It gives me a chance to see more of the park and the city that is around it. There is so much beautiful scenery around here.¡± I looked around us as well. He was right. There were mountains, trees and rivers all around where we were. We could see two of the three from here, but I knew that the river was not that far away.


    ¡°Yeah, it really is beautiful, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°Not as beautiful as you, Rika.¡± Clovio leaned in and whispered into my ear. ¡°You are the most beautiful girl that I have ever met.¡±


    ¡°C..Cl..Clovio!¡± I was blushing scarlet red now. I couldn¡¯t see it, but I could feel it. I just knew that I had to look like a tomato right now.


    ¡°It is true.¡± He was still leaning in toward me as he put his hand on my face. It was just a couple of fingers on my chin, urging me to look at him as he got closer and closer to me. ¡°I can barely hold back when I am with you, Rika.¡± He was so close now that I could feel his breath hitting my face. I could smell the scent of things like pumpkin and cloves. It was faint, nothing like I would expect a mate scent to be, but did that really matter right now? I wasn¡¯t looking for a mate. I was just having a good time.


    Before I knew it, Clovio¡¯s lips touched mine. It was a soft and slow kiss, nothing intense. He just kissed me gently and didn¡¯t even try to put his tongue in my mouth. Still, it was amazing. And the first kiss that I had ever had.


    ¡°I hope that was OK. I couldn¡¯t stop myself.¡± He was smiling, but there was worry in his eyes.


    ¡°O..oh y..yeah. I..it was f..fine.¡± Why was I so nervous? ¡°I..I uhm, I liked the kiss.¡± My face felt like it was on fire when I said that. It waspletely embarrassing, even if it was true.


    ¡°Good.¡± He grinned and leaned in close once more. Before I knew it, he was kissing me again. I tasted more of him this time since he slowly slipped his tongue into my mouth as the kiss got a little hotter this time.


    I don¡¯t remember a single thing from the carriage ride other than the kisses that Clovio and I shared. They were amazing and I knew that I would remember them for the rest of my life. They were special for more than one reason.


    After the carriage rides, we walked around town. There was an area that had a lot of food trucks and other vendors. It was near the university, and I had wanted to go there so often, but this was my first time doing so. We went to more than one stand, wanting to make sure that we were able to get a variety of food.


    I often ate a lot,pared to other people. My appetite was normal for a girl that was a shifter, but it was decidedlyrge for a human. I didn¡¯t want Clovio to think that I was a pig or anything, not on the first date at least. So, I decided to take it easy on the food. And, apparently, so did Lyssa. We were both just nibbling at the food that we got to share with our respective dates. It was all so delicious though, and I wanted to eat so much more.


    Finally, we were going to watch a movie. This was something that I was nervous about now. I mean, Clovio and I kissed earlier in the day, now we were at the movies, and it was going to be dark. Was he going to try and kiss me again? What was I going to do if he did? Was I just going to kiss him back and ignore the movie? But this was a movie that I had been looking forward to. I wanted to see it. Then again, I could alwayse back to the theater, or I could stream it when it came out in a couple of months. It was so hard to decide.


    In the end, when Clovio leaned over for a kiss, I responded to him in kind. I ignored the moviepletely as the two of us seemed to be kissing almost nonstop. We were the only ones either. Behind Clovio, I could see Lyssa and Warrick kissing just like we were. They were making out passionately and ignoring everything around them.


    Things were going great. This was the best first date that I could ever have imagined. At least, it was at first. While we were kissing, Clovio started to try and put his hand up my shirt. I wasn¡¯t quite ready for that, so I pushed him away and looked at him with hurt filling my eyes.


    ¡°Don¡¯t.¡± That was all that I was able to say.


    ¡°I am so sorry, Rika. I just let my self-control slip. I really didn¡¯t mean it. I am so very sorry.¡± He looked so hurt and so sad that I felt like he was being sincere. We had been kissing very passionately. I guess, for him, the next natural step was going to be moving onto that phase of things.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Clovio, but I am not ready for that. I.. th..this is.. I¡¯ve never.. y..you¡¯re my..¡± I was having so much trouble just getting the words out of my mouth. I didn¡¯t even really know what I was trying to say.


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Rika, you don¡¯t need to exin. I am sorry. I should have been more mindful of you and your boundaries. I will not let it happen again. We will not move forward until you are ready.¡± He was being such a gentleman about it that I instantly wanted to forgive him.


    ¡°Thank you. And I am sorry for overreacting.¡±


    ¡°Nonsense. It was perfectly understandable.¡± His smile was so sweet and endearing that I couldn¡¯t look away. ¡°Let¡¯s watch the rest of the movie. I think it¡¯s almost over now.¡± He was right. It ended in only five minutes, and I didn¡¯t know what had happened in the rest of the movie.


    Lyssa and Warrick had made out for the entire movie. They didn¡¯t stop at all until Clovio tapped Warrick on the shoulder.


    ¡°Come on, Bruder, it is time for us to go. The movie is over.¡±


    ¡°O..oh.¡± Warrick looked like he was a bit lost when he looked around and saw the lights on again.


    ¡°Hehe.¡± Lyssa giggled just a little. ¡°We missed the whole movie.¡± Her face was flushed, and she looked like she was truly very happy. This was definitely a very good date.


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 Chapter 860

    Chapter 860: Chapter 45- Rika ¨C First Date Part 3 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    Now that the movie was over, it was time for us to go to the mall. Of course, girls like me and Lyssa loved to go shopping. We wanted to get new clothes and things like that all of the time. I just never expected that guys like Clovio and Warrick would want to go there.


    Well, guys like to shop as well, but would they have fun with me and Lyssa? Men liked to shop for different things than women. I would want a new outfit, new shoes, an essory and things like that. Well, that wasn¡¯t all. I would also like anime and video games, but was I really supposed to let the guys know that? Did guys like girls that like things like that?


    The first store that we went to when we were at the mall was a dress shop. The university was having a homing week soon, and the sororities were having some formal parties. I wasn¡¯tpletely sure if I should pledge to one or not. Doing so meant that I would be moving into the sorority house and all that. I was nervous about that, but I thought that it would be nice, in its own way of course.


    ¡°You two are so beautiful, and those parties areing up. You mentioned that you wanted to look into them. So, why don¡¯t we look for a dress for you. I will even buy it for you.¡± Clovio was grinning as he made the offer.


    .....


    ¡°I appreciate you willing to help me find a dress, Clovio, but I can¡¯t ask that you pay for it. I will be able to pay for it myself.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure? I don¡¯t mind.¡± I knew that he didn¡¯t have a lot of money and was most likely going to be working alongside his sses for extra money. He was going to be having a hard enough time of things without him paying for the dress.


    ¡°Yes. I am sure.¡± I really did appreciate the thought though. It was way more than I expected from him or anyone else.


    ¡°Well then, allow me to look for something that I think that you will like.¡± He was so excited when he ran off into the store that I couldn¡¯t say no. He really did want to be part of this with me.


    ¡°They are so sweet, aren¡¯t they?¡± Lyssa came up beside me as Warrick followed Clovio into the back of the store.


    ¡°Yeah, they really are. I can¡¯t believe that all of this is happening to me. To us. This is just so amazing. I swear it¡¯s almost like Clovio is too good to be true. Well, aside from that little incident at the movies.¡± I couldugh about it now, even though I had been scared before.


    ¡°I liked the movie.¡± Lyssa smirked as she thought back to what we had been doing.


    ¡°Ha ha. As if. All you did was y tonsil hockey with Warrick. At least I saw the end of the movie.¡±


    ¡°Well, I had fun at the movies, so that is the same thing.¡± With a bright blush on her cheeks, Lyssa walked toward the back of the store, where Clovio and Warrick were.


    The two men were looking for dresses that they thought would be perfect for me and Lyssa. They didn¡¯t know us that well, so I didn¡¯t really have faith that they would find something that we would like. But I was wrong.


    ¡°Oh my, Clovio! This is amazing.¡± He had found me a dress that went all the way down to my ankles, but was still sexy. It was a mix of modesty and sex appeal, if I was being honest. That was the only way to describe it. The top of the dress was in a halter style so that it covered my chest decently enough. There was still just the slightest dip in the front so that the tops of my breasts were visible. Just a little bit of cleavage really. The back of the dress was the most revealing. It tied behind my head but other than that, it was open until it reached my waist. There was also a slit up the side, but it was modest and only went to the knee. The color of the dress was silvery gray that seemed to shimmer a little when I moved in it. It was perfect for the sorority party that wasing up.


    ¡°This dress looks perfect on you.¡± He was looking at me with eyes that were filled with heat. I could tell that he thought I was very beautiful and sexy in it.


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    Warrick had picked a ck dress that was shorter but also still modest for Lyssa. She was gorgeous with it on. It was a little less sexy, better for a girl that was a little more of a tomboy just like Lyssa. And I knew that she loved it as much as I loved my dress.


    ¡°How are you two so good at picking out dresses for women?¡± I eyed the men suspiciously.


    ¡°We worked before we moved here. There was a dress shop in the town that we lived in and that was where we worked after school. So, I guess you could say that we have experience with it.¡± They had such different lives than us that it was hard to believe at times.


    ¡°Well, I am just d that you are so good at it.¡± I spun as I looked at myself in the mirror.


    Now that we had dresses the next logical thing to do was find shoes to match. This was a point where Clovio and Warrick just stood around and offered their opinions to us.


    ¡°Rika?¡± Clovio called out as I was trying on a pair of heels.


    ¡°Yeah?¡± I looked over my shoulder at him.


    ¡°Can I be your date to the party?¡± He was looking at my heels and not my eyes. I think he was just a little too nervous and shy to look at my face at that moment.


    ¡°Of course.¡± I felt like that was obvious. ¡°Who else would I go with?¡± There was a little hint ofughter when I said that. Still, he beamed at me with so much pride and happiness that I could feel it.


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    Shoes were picked out to match the dresses. With that done, we were able to start shopping at other stores. The guys wanted to go into a store that sold lots of different things. They had movie and anime themed things. There were girly things, emo, and so much more. There was a lot of fan merch that we could get in there as well. And it was a store that I was familiar with. I havee here at least once a month since I was like thirteen.


    I needed to keep it together. I needed to not show my true dweeb self at the moment. And I was doing so well too. That was until I saw something that had just been released.


    ¡°No way! Is this what I think it is?¡± I rushed to a disy that was set near the middle of the store.


    ¡°What is that?¡± Clovio asked as he came up behind me. I was not paying attention and was totally fangirling at the moment.


    ¡°This is the new Senshi okami no ojo merch. It¡¯s an anime that started a few years ago about a girl who is the princess and ruler of a n of warrior wolves. It¡¯s my favorite anime.¡± I was still staring at the figures in front of me when what I had just done finally dawned on me. ¡°O..oh, I..I mean, i..it¡¯s not like I watch anime all the time or anything like that. Ha ha.¡± Iughed nervously at the end of that. I had just blown my cover. He was going to know the real me now.


    ¡°It¡¯s OK to like it, Rika. People like what they like. Maybe I will watch it too. If you like it that much, then it must be good.¡± He stepped closer to the stack of goods. ¡°Let me get this for you. You wouldn¡¯t let me get the dress, so let me pay for this.¡± He took the Kosei figure out of my hand. ¡°I want to get you a gift to remember this night by.¡± He didn¡¯t wait for my response. He just took the figure to the cashier and bought it while I stared at him in disbelief. H..he didn¡¯t mind that I liked anime? He didn¡¯t think that it was wrong?


    The date wasing to an end after we were done shopping. The guys walked us back to my car and told us good night.


    ¡°Thank you, Rika. I am so happy that you came out with us.¡± Clovio was holding my hand as I was standing next to the car door. ¡°Can I uhm, can I kiss you goodnight?¡± He was leaning in close again. I didn¡¯t have the ability to speak at the moment so I just nodded my head at him. He seemed happy about that as he leaned in and pressed his lips to mine.


    This kiss was somehow way better than thest ones. He backed me against the car and put one hand on the roof of it while putting his other hand on the back of my head. He was holding me in ce while running his thumb across my hair. It was sending shivers through my body that I knew that he could feel, considering that he was pressed against me as well.


    The kiss was way more than I expected, but I was not upset by it at all. And when he pulled away from me, he pressed his forehead against mine.


    ¡°Goodnight, Rika. I will see you in ss on Monday.¡±


    ¡°G..goodnight, Clovio.¡± I was breathless and a little unsteady on my feet.


    All I could do for a moment was watch him and Warrick walk away. It was like I had just had my entire mind blown and my world reshaped. I was not ready for this, but it was happening to me regardless.


    ¡°That. Was. Fantastic.¡± That was all that I could say. There was nothing else to it. And it waspletely true too.


    A little dazed and a little breathless, Lyssa and I got into the car and just sat there for a moment. It wasn¡¯t until we looked at each other andughed that we were able to break ourselves out of the stupor that we were in.


    ¡°I think that I already love him.¡± Lyssa definitely looked like she was in love.


    ¡°That¡¯s good. Hahh.¡± I sighed for a moment. ¡°I wish that Clovio was my mate. He is so amazing.¡±


    ¡°Maybe he is, it just hasn¡¯t happened for your wolf yet. Who knows?¡± I knew that she was just being optimistic. I didn¡¯t mind though. I hoped that she was right. He was a really great guy.


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 Chapter 861

    Chapter 861: Chapter 46- Trinity ¨C Results (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It had been a few days since we had given the samples to Rawlynne. We were waiting for them not so patiently as we hopped from country to country. We were looking for more clues while we tried to stop these assholes from killing more people. There had been three more murders that had been reportedst night as well. There was one in Hokkaido Japan, one just outside of Soro Denmark, and another that was in Wales. These killers really did like targeting the western part of Europe. The bulk of the murders had happened there.


    We went first to Hokkaido since we were closer to that time zone when the call came in. Moving from Nepal to Hokkaido and working with the locals there to investigate a murder that rocked the area. They were takenpletely by surprise when they found the body.


    That sort of pissed me off. The local Alphas and other n leaders were not telling their people about the string of murders. They were not preparing their people even though I had told them all to be on the lookout for these things. I guess I needed to send out a mass notice to all of them. They all needed to tell their residents to be careful and to ignore anything that seemed to be ¡®calling them outside¡¯. That was something that all the souls Talia and Lucifer had talked to said happened to them. It was like something was calling out to them and making them want to take ate night stroll. Well, I would put an end to that here and now.


    I sent the message to all the leaders in my entire kingdom. I knew that I was waking some of them up while they slept, but that was their problem and not mine. I had sent notice once and they had not warned their people. At least, not all of them had. There were no responses to the orders that I sent them, but I knew that they wouldply this time. I had actually made it amand and they wouldn¡¯t be able to ignore it this time.


    .....


    Now, we were back at Cadwal¡¯s home in Wales. The most recent murder in the country had once again been in his pack. Telyn was spending some time with her father. He wanted to make sure that she was doing OK while traveling with us. I knew that he just wanted to ask her if the royal family was treating her properly. From what I could tell, she was having a wonderful time traveling with us.


    It was a little after eleven in the evening here in Wales when my phone rang. I was annoyed for a moment, but then I remembered that the time difference back home was not always an easy thing to manage for us.


    The call was from Rawlynne though, and that almost made me scream in relief. We had been waiting for her to call for a couple of days now.


    ¡°Rawlynne?¡± I called out in excitement when I answered the phone. ¡°Please tell me that you have good news for me.¡±


    ¡°Well, I have news. I don¡¯t know how great it is though.¡± She sounded like she was uncertain about things.


    ¡°Just give me what you got. Anything is better than nothing.¡± That had to be the truth right now. Since we basically had nothing going for us right now.


    ¡°Well, the blood gave us nothing on the suspect. There is no record of the DNA in the system at all. We even ran an ancestor check to see if anyone in the perp¡¯s family had been booked into a system with DNA. That didn¡¯t give us anything conclusive. There are a few possible rtives out there, but nothing that is about a forty percent chance. With blood that diluted, the chances of them knowing the perp are next to nothing. However, the gics of the blood say that they have almost pure German ancestry. There are some other nationalities in there as well, but nothing like the seventy-five percent German.¡±


    ¡°That is something to go off of. Perhaps we should head over to Germany. Oddly enough, there have been no reports of murders in Germany. Though, some of the vampires that died in other countries lived in Germany and were just on vacation.¡± Thinking back to some of what I had read and heard over the course of this investigation, Germany was looking like a good ce to go from here.


    ¡°It definitely looks like it might be a good ce to check some things out.¡±


    ¡°What else do you have for me? Was there anything unique about that water? Anything magical or otherwise?¡± This was something that we needed to check on as well. That water, whether it was holy water or not, was dangerous to us all.


    ¡°Well, regr tests found nothing but regr water. One of them showed river water while the other might havee from a well. Those seemed to be the only difference. And you have to consider it a miracle that they were able to test it for that in the first ce.¡± She was throwing her support for the forensics team with that. I didn¡¯t me her. It wasn¡¯t easy to test things like what I sent them.


    ¡°Of course. I am very proud of them.¡±


    ¡°I will let them know.¡± I could hear a smile in her voice. She was happy for the men and women that had done their job so well. And they would like to know that their queen was proud of them as well. ¡°Anyway, I did have it tested magically. There wasn¡¯t much that they were able to figure out about it. It wasn¡¯t enchanted or anything. They do think that it was just altered with runes. And they also experienced the effects of the burns that you mentioned. They said it was in the pursuit of science and needed to know what would happen. They don¡¯t know what runes it was or how they managed to infuse the water with said runes, but it wasn¡¯t changed magically. One of the samples did have a slight amount of saliva mixed in with it. The one from the bark. It was like they had taken a drink from the water and their spit dropped in.¡±


    ¡°That sounds like good news, but it¡¯s also disgusting.¡± Iughed at it.


    ¡°Yeah, well, the DNA was about seventy-five percent German and a sixty percent match for a cousin of the other perp. So, even though they were not the same person, they were rted. And more so than any other person in the system.¡±


    Rawlynne¡¯s words gave me a lot to think about. These killers, at least two of them, were rted. Were they all rted? Were they just one big murderous family? Were they just going after people because it was something that they had been taught to do when they were growing up? What was it that was going on with these people? Who was their leader? Who was ordering them to do this?


    There was just too much for me to think about right now. I needed to talk to Dietrich, and we needed to head to Germany. Those were the only things that I knew for certain. I truly believed that we would find some sort of answers if we just went to Germany. Though I didn¡¯t know where in Germany we needed to go. It wasn¡¯t like it was a tiny country or anything. It was about the size of arge state back in the US, but that would work against me here. It meant that I didn¡¯t know where to start. And it would take too long to check the entire country.


    So, I had some answers, but nowhere near enough to help me decide on what to do next. That was good and bad. Like I said, something was better than nothing. And I would always rather have more information than less information.


    ¡°Alright, alright. Let¡¯s move on a little bit. How is everyone doing? Mom and L always try to sugarcoat everything, so I don¡¯t really know if I can trust what they are telling me. Not to mention Dad and Grandfather would hide the bad stuff until I got back because they wouldn¡¯t want me to rush back unnecessarily. I need you to give me the details on the stuff that is going on around the house.¡±


    ¡°I know you just want to know how your kids are doing.¡± Rawlynne grinned at me. ¡°Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley are doing well. Their first week at school went pretty smoothly. And Zaley even seems to be making more friends for once. We¡¯re all happy about that. Reagan and Rika are doing good. They¡¯re getting to their sses and learning to be independent. It¡¯s nice to see, but also bittersweet. These kids are growing too fast.¡± Sheughed for a moment, and I could hear the heartache of a mother in it. ¡°Oh, and Rika had her first date. She¡¯s out with him right now actually.¡±


    ¡°WHAT?!¡± Reece, having heard those words from the call on speakerphone, bellowed from across the room.


    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Reece? She is an adult now.¡± Rawlynne didn¡¯t see an issue with an eighteen year old girl going on a date. Neither did I, really. I just wish that I was there to see her before she left. Or that I knew that she was going in the first ce.


    ¡°SHE IS TOO YOUNG! SHE CAN¡¯T DATE UNTIL SHE IS A HUNDRED YEARS OLD!¡±


    ¡°Stop being an idiot, Reece.¡± Iughed at him.


    ¡°She is my baby.¡± He was literally pouting now. ¡°She can¡¯t go on dates. She is my baby girl. Rika, Talia and Zaley are not allowed to date. I told them that. They just can¡¯t. They¡¯re daddy¡¯s little girls. Why would they need to go on dates? First that boy hits on Talia the other day and now Rika is out on a date. They¡¯re trying to steal my babies from me.¡± I swear he looked so heartbroken at that moment that I could physically feel his pain.


    ¡°I am sad too, Reece. They¡¯re growing up and getting older by the minute. And I would like to have seen Rika off on her first official date, but I am not going to be mad. She is getting older. And she is the same age as when I met you. Almost to the day. She might have met her mate for all we know.¡± I was smiling as I thought about the possibilities.


    ¡°NO! She can¡¯t. Then the boy will try to.. he will try to.. he will want to do things to her. I will kill him. I will kill any boy that does anything like that to my little girl.¡± He was so sad. I guess daddies were the worst when it came to their kids growing up.


    ¡°Calm down, Fido. Things will be fine.¡± Iughed at him. ¡°Thanks for the update, Rawlynne. We will talk to youter.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, talk to youter. Call me if you find more evidence.¡± With that the call ended and I needed to calm down the big baby that was Reece.


    I was sad too. It was to be expected when your kids grow up and start to live their independent lives. But I was also happy for my daughter. She was living her own life. She was growing up and bing a woman in her own right. That was what we wanted as parents, right? We wanted them to be happy, healthy, productive members of society that could take care of themselves and help others. I knew that my daughter was more than capable of doing just that. My husband, though, as the overgrown puppy that he was, just couldn¡¯t seem to let go of the fact that she wasn¡¯t a baby anymore. He probably still saw a toddler when he looked at her. Poor Reece. He was in for a rude awakening before long.


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 Chapter 862

    Chapter 862: Chapter 47- Reece ¨C Take A Break (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    For several days now, we have been going nonstop. We were jumping from city to city. We were going from sun up in one country to sun down in another. Oftentimes, we would change time zones so much that we didn¡¯t even remember if we were in the morning, afternoon, or evening. It was all just too much at times. But there was so much that we needed to. There were people counting on us.


    We had managed to visit and investigate each and every crime scene. All the souls of the current dead had been released by Talia or found by Lucifer in the underworld. All the evidence was found. There was nothing new. We were in the process of revisiting the scenes just so that we could be sure. And at this point, we were nearing five dozen supernatural citizens. The deaths weren¡¯t stopping, and they weren¡¯t slowing down.


    They had hit Oceania, Asia, and Europe throughout this spree. Nowhere else, just those ces. We weren¡¯t sure why they were focusing in those areas, but it just seemed to be their M.O. at the moment. For the sake of the rest of the world, I hoped that didn¡¯t change. However, for the sake of the people in those parts of the world, I hoped that it would change. And that we could catch them.


    We were all exhausted right now. Me, Trinity, Talia, Dietrich, Shawn, Shane, David and Gabriel. We were all investigating nonstop and we were starting to feel so tired that it was affecting our moods. I wanted to rx just a little bit. I knew that it would help us to think and to clear our heads.


    .....


    My theory was, if we focused too hard on the case, and never did anything else, we would get burnt out and ruin this case more than anything else. However, convincing my wife of this fact, and making her take some time off for a night, was no easy feat.


    I was determined though. I was going to make sure that we were able to do what we were able to and rx. And, well, I was dying for a date with my wife. Especially since I was told about Rika¡¯s datest night. And that asshat that tried asking Talia out recently. My daughters were too young to date, they were babies, but Trinity and I were able to date.


    I asked around Cadwal¡¯s home and found some good ces to take Trinity for a date. I didn¡¯t care about cost or distance. I wanted to know what they thought were the most beautiful and romantic ces in the country. Trinity could take us there with a door in the blink of an eye. And I also made sure that there were pictures for us as well. Can¡¯t exactly be precise on the door if she can¡¯t picture it easily.


    Among all the ces that I was told about, I chose to have a pic lunch with her at Pembrokeshire Coast. The images that I had seen were beautiful. And then, we were going to stay the night at Pal¨¦ Hall in Snowdonia. The national park there was supposed to be the best in the country. And even if we were going to be in different parts of the country, we were going to be in the same time zone, so we wouldn¡¯t be missing out on something if it were to happen. And we would be able to rush back whenever we needed to.


    I was afraid that if I were to move us ahead in time, we would be sleeping if, or when, something happened. And the same thing if we moved back in time with the change. What if something happened in the morning here, but we were sleeping there? That would be bad. I couldn¡¯t let us be too far away. We needed to stay in the same time zone.


    I walked into the room that my Little Bunny and I were using here at Cadwal¡¯s home. It was a nice enough room, but all these ces were tinypared to what we were used to. I think that was part of the reason I wanted to stay at Pal¨¦ Hall. The ce looked like a castle, so the rooms should be bigger. At least I could hope. I had called and booked us the superior suite. It was supposed to be one of their best rooms that they had. It was also their biggest room. I had already reserved our meal as well, having it delivered that night when we would be ready for it.


    ¡°Hey, Little Bunny.¡± I called out to her with a grin on my face.


    ¡°Hey, McGruff, what¡¯s up?¡± She looked up from her case notes and returned my smile. At least she was able to do that today. Some days, she wasn¡¯t even able to force herself to smile.


    ¡°Put down those notes, we have somewhere we need to go.¡± I was making my voice sound serious and sincere. Originally, I had nned on trying to convince her toe with me. Now, though, I think I was just going to sort of trick her. She would be mad at me, but she would get over it.


    ¡°Go? Go where? Did something happen?¡± She was looking worried now. I knew that she would. I was acting like something was wrong so it was only natural for her.


    ¡°I was told that we needed to go and investigate this ce here. It¡¯s near the coast.¡± I was pulling up the picture on my phone as I spoke. ¡°We need to leave as soon as we can.¡±


    ¡°What happened? Was there another murder? It¡¯s early. They always stick to the five day cycle. Who was the victim? Dammit!¡± She was angry, and I was sorry for tricking her, but I knew that she was not going toe with me if I didn¡¯t do this.


    ¡°Come on. Let¡¯s go.¡± I held the phone in front of her so that she could open the door. She was so focused on the case that she didn¡¯t even notice that I had a backpack with me, as well as an insted bag for the food that I was taking with us. I had all that we needed for a night away, and she didn¡¯t even know it.


    ¡°Are the othersing? What are they doing?¡± She was hesitating for just a moment.


    ¡°No. There was an incident here as well, so I sent them along with Cadwal to investigate.¡± In truth, they were given the night off and were resting in whatever way they wanted to tonight.


    ¡°Oh.¡± I swear she was dazed, but she was opening the door so that was all that mattered. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±


    The door appeared a momentter and we walked through it together. She still didn¡¯t see the bags that I had with me. That was proof that she was working too hard. She was burnt out. We all were.


    Once we were through the door, I could instantly smell the salty sea air. It was calming and refreshing. Almost immediately I felt like my soul was calming down, and I was hoping that she gets that effect as well.


    ¡°Where is everyone? Where did the murder take ce? Where do we need to go now? Did I open the door in the wrong ce?¡± She was still so worried and high strung.


    ¡°I never said that there was a murder. I said that we needed to investigate this ce. And that we will do. We will thoroughly investigate this view. We will thoroughly investigate the food that is in this bag here. And we will thoroughly investigate each other at some point tonight. Though that will most likely wait until we get to our hotel.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± She was ring at me, anger clearly visible on her face. ¡°You lied to me?¡±


    ¡°I did not lie to you. I simply did not tell you all the details. I was told that this was one of the most beautiful ces in all of Wales. So, naturally, I thought that it would make a great ce for a date.¡±


    ¡°Reece, we¡¯re in the middle of an investigation. We cannot be having a date.¡± She was so pissed off that her face was turning red.


    ¡°Trinity, you need a break. You are burnt out. We all are. We need a night to rx. Now, we¡¯re going to enjoy this date and we will be back to work tomorrow. That is the end of the discussion.¡± I was being firm with her. I was a king too, dammit. That meant that I had authority over everyone but her.


    ¡°Reece?!¡± She still wasn¡¯t agreeing with me for a moment, so I set the bags down and walked toward her. I took her in my arms and hugged her tightly.


    ¡°Trinity, my love, we need a break. Everyone agrees. You¡¯ve been running nonstop for days on end. If you keep this up, you¡¯re going to miss something. I don¡¯t want us to fail in this case, so we need to be at our sharpest. Take this night off with me, Trinity. Take this night to reset yourself.¡±


    ¡°Hahh.¡± She sighed and wrapped her arms around me. ¡°Fine. I guess you are right. I need to take a break. But only for tonight. We need to get back to work first thing tomorrow. There are going to be more murders soon, and I don¡¯t want miss a single shred of evidence this time.¡±


    ¡°I know, Little Bunny. Just for tonight.¡± At least she had agreed. That was one step in the right direction.


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 Chapter 863

    Chapter 863: Chapter 48- Reece ¨C Take A Break Part 2 (MATURE) (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I was able to get Trinity to calm down and sit with me. We were on a rugged cliff overlooking the water. It was peaceful and there was no one else in sight. It was just the two of us, a nket, and our food. This here, this was the type of date that I loved to go on with my wife.


    It was peaceful. It was romantic. And most of all, we didn¡¯t have to worry about people interrupting us. We were able to just sit back and rx while we tried to unwind.


    The meal had been prepared for us by Telyn, who was quickly bing an indispensable member of our traveling team. She made delicious food and was so helpful to us all. Sometimes, I felt like the girl did too much. I know that she was just eager to be useful though. And she just wanted to get out of her small town. There were talks of bringing her home with us as a sort of student abroad thing. That or inviting her to stay with us while she attends university after graduation. There was a lot that we needed to figure out about that, but I wasn¡¯t going to ignore someone that was so keen to help us out.


    While Trinity and I ate the food, we talked about a lot of different things. We talked about how we had changed as people over the years and how the world itself had changed. We talked about how, even after two decades of knowing each other, we hadn¡¯t really changed much at all. She looked like she was maybe twenty-two or twenty-three instead of the eighteen I met her at. And I apparently looked no older than twenty-nine or thirty, instead of the twenty-five I had been when I met her. However, she was thirty-eight and I was forty-five. So much time had passed for us, and we were still so very much in love.


    .....


    Once the food was gone, we just sat there, staring out at the sea as we held onto each other. The peace of the scenery and the beauty of the world around us almost made me forget that there were people in our world being murdered every five days. The peace and tranquility of it all was just that powerful.


    ¡°Thank you, Reece.¡± Trinity whispered next to me. We were so close, and my hearing was so good, that I heard the softly spoken words with ease.


    ¡°For what, Little Bunny?¡± I turned and looked into her eyes, and what lovely eyes they were.


    ¡°For making me take a break. I needed this. I didn¡¯t know how much I needed this until you made me rx. I was running on fumes before, but now I think I will be fully recharged tomorrow.


    ¡°I am just d that you were able to calm down. And that you are not mad at me for tricking you. I knew that you needed this, and I just wanted to do what was best for you.¡± I smiled at her, unable to stop the love from overflowing inside of me.


    ¡°I think I am ready to go to the hotel now, if you are, that is.¡± I saw desire, passion, and need in her eyes.


    ¡°Like you have to ask.¡± Iughed at her. ¡°I have been dying to get my hands on you.¡± I was on my feet and pulling her up with me in no time at all. ¡°Come on, Little Bunny, let¡¯s go get some privacy.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha. You¡¯re such a horndog, Reece.¡± She wasn¡¯t wrong though.


    I pulled up a picture of the hotel, and the surrounding area. We picked a ce to make the door appear and then stepped through it. That was all that it took for us to go from the coast to the castle style hotel. Honestly, it probably used to be a castle of sorts, but it was fully restored and modernized. That was a good thing though. I knew that both me and Trinity would prefer a ce with indoor plumbing. If they didn¡¯t have that, she would probably murder me and me it on one of those serial killers.


    Checking into the room was smooth and easy. We were able to head straight up to the Victorian styled suite and it was actually really nice. It was still smaller than we would have liked, but it was bigger than the room we had been staying in, so that was a plus.


    The first thing that I wanted us to do when we got to the room, was to take a bath. We had been sitting at the edge of the cliff, even that high up, the spray from the waves, and the briny air had gotten all over us. I knew that Trinity, like me, would want to get that smell off of us. We might not notice the smell on us while at the seaside, but we would notice it here.


    I went into the bathroom and started the water almost immediately. I wanted to get this night moving in the direction that I wanted it to go in sooner rather thanter. When the water was ready, I went to get my Little Bunny out of the other room. She was still standing in front of the window, where I hadst seen her. She was staring out at the national park surrounding the hotel. It was pretty, and it made me think a lot about the area where our home was. We would often look out the window in our room and just water the scenery. It was peaceful.


    ¡°Come on, Little Bunny.¡± I took her hand and started to pull her toward the bathroom. ¡°The water is ready.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, OK.¡± She was mentally exhausted. It was so obvious to see. She may be rxing now, but it was going to take some true rxation and good times to get her mind to reset itself.


    Once we were in the bathroom, I started to strip the clothes off of my Little Bunny. I always enjoyed this part. It was like unwrapping a present every time. Even after all these years, it was a present that I was extremely interested in. She was sexy, beautiful, gorgeous, and I would never not look forward to the moments that we were alone like this. Now, five years from now, twenty more years from now, even five hundred years from now, I would always want her and no one else. She was all that my body needed and all that my body craved.


    With herpletely stripped of clothes, it was time for me to strip. I took mine off a lot faster and with a lot more impatience. I wanted to be in that water holding my mate in my arms.


    ¡°The tub is a little small.¡± My Little Bunnymented as she looked at the water.


    ¡°It¡¯s plenty big enough.¡± I grinned at her. ¡°You will just need to sit on myp.¡±


    ¡°Of course I will.¡± She rolled her eyes at me. ¡°And you are just so broken up about that, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    I climbed into the water and reached out to her. She didn¡¯t hesitate at all as she stepped in after me. Gently, she settled herself against my chest so that I could hug her from behind.


    ¡°This is perfect.¡± I whispered the words right into her ear.


    ¡°Yeah, this kind of is.¡± She was in a good mood that it was definitely showing.


    ¡°I love you, Trinity. I always have, and I always will.¡± I never failed to tell her that as often as I could. I learned my lesson years ago, and now I showed her my feelings so freely.


    ¡°I love you too, you overgrown dog.¡± I see I wasn¡¯t the only one reminiscing. She called me that a long time ago, before we admitted our feelings for each other.


    ¡°Do I need to punish you for that one?¡± Iughed softly against her cheek.


    ¡°And what would you do to punish me?¡± She pressed herself against me as she asked that, her bottom rubbing against my groin and her back pressing against my chest.


    ¡°Hmm. Let¡¯s see. I could do this.¡± I quickly slid my right hand down her body and between her thighs.


    I could already feel the heat of her core. She was hot and needy, just the way that I liked her. I rubbed my index finger down her slit and to her opening. I ringed it once, just to tease her, but then I slid it inside of her quickly, burying it as deep as I could.


    ¡°Ahh!¡± She cried out in pleasure from just that.


    ¡°What do you say, Little Bunny? Want me to keep punishing you?¡±


    ¡°Mmhmm.¡± She moaned out her answer as she pressed herself against my hand.


    ¡°As you wish, my queen.¡±


    I pulled my finger out of her, not all the way but just until the tip of it was still inside of her. When she was trying to move her hips so that she could get it back inside of her, I drove inside her again.


    ¡°Ngh!¡± She moaned again. ¡°Reece.¡±


    ¡°I know, Little Bunny, I know.¡±


    I gave her what she wanted. I slid my finger in and out of her again and again. Trinity was moving her hip a little to help get a better angle with each thrust of my hand. Her moaning was soft, but oh so erotic.


    Soon, I could feel that she was tightening around my finger. It wasn¡¯t much, but it had been long enough since we were together that she was tight for me once again. Just one finger was enough to rub against her so perfectly that she was about toe for me.


    I wanted to make sure that her climax was as perfect as it could be. I wanted to please her as thoroughly as I possibly could. So, I moved my hand so that I could ce my thumb against her clit and press against it as I drove my finger in and out of her. The motion of my hand moving was making it so that my thumb was rubbing against her most sensitive of areas. She was enjoying it though, because she started to writhe on top of me with her pleasure. I needed to hold her in ce so that I could make her climax.


    Soon enough though, her body was at its limits. She arched her back and pressed herself against me even more just as I thrusted my finger inside of her once again. She came on a moan that was long and loud before copsing back against my chest.


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 Chapter 864

    Chapter 864: Chapter 49- Reece ¨C Take A Break Part 3 (MATURE) (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I knew that my Little Bunny wanted more. I knew that this quick little session in the tub would not be enough for her. So, I quickly cleaned us both, not actually doing that great of a job. I scooped her up into my arms and wrapped a towel around us. I was doing my best to dry us off before we got into the bed. I didn¡¯t want wet sheets, though we had had them enough times over the years that it wouldn¡¯t actually bother me. A lot of baths had ended in scenarios like this one.


    Hey, could anyone me me? We were already naked, so it was a lot easier to just go from tub to bed. And wet sheets after that were to be expected.


    The moment that Iid my Little Bunny on the bed, I climbed in after her. She was feisty now, in need of more pleasure. She had wrapped her arms around my neck and pressed her lips to mine for a hungry kiss. I slid my tongue into her open mouth and tangled it with hers. The moment that I did that, she slid her hands down my back and scratched long thin lines from my shoulders to the top of my buttocks.


    ¡°Ngh!¡± I moaned into her mouth. That sweet little pleasure pain was just egging me on. ¡°If you do that again, you will find that I might just lose control.¡± I pulled away and growled those words into her mouth.


    .....


    ¡°Promise?¡± Her sensual and desire filled voice made that one word seem like it was the most erotic thing in the world. And, of course, she dragged her nails across my back again. This time she moved up from near my waist until she could move her arms anymore. The position that she was in severely limited the way that her arms would move in that direction.


    ¡°I warned you.¡± I made it sound like a threat, but I knew that she wanted it just as much as I did.


    Already hard and ready to go, I rose up onto my knees and fitted myself against her opening. She was already dripping wet and ready for me so I just slid right in, all the way to the hilt of my hard shaft.


    ¡°Ahh!¡± She moaned as I reached her inner depths.


    ¡°Hahh!¡± I sighed, almost as if in relief. I had needed this. I had needed her. And now that I had it, I didn¡¯t want to let it end anytime soon.


    With my Little Bunny¡¯s legs wrapped around my waist, I pulled back as much as I could. Just the tip of my dick remained inside of her hot, dripping core. I pressed my forehead against hers for just a second and looked at her right in the eyes.


    ¡°I love you, Trinity.¡± With that, I drove inside of her as hard as I could.


    ¡°AHH!¡±


    That scream of pleasure pain, the feeling of her nails in my back, the way that she was digging her heels into the small of my back. All of that was driving me insane. I loved every moment of it. I almost felt like I needed it to survive at the moment. I needed it and I needed her.


    I set about creating a rhythm that I knew was going to drive Trinity insane. Hell, it was going to drive me there as well. Hard and fast, in and out, I mmed into her again and again. And with each thrust, I felt her holding onto me like I was the only thing that was keeping her grounded.


    Her inner walls tightened around my already overly sensitive shaft. She clung onto me a little tighter, digging her nails in a little deeper. All of it was telling me that she was reaching her climax soon. And I was going to make here screaming.


    I pressed her hard and faster. Her moans of pleasure came faster and louder with each thrust. She was almost there. Her inner walls were so tight that it was harder for me to slide in and out of her, but I didn¡¯t care. That just added to the pleasure for the both of us.


    Again and again, I rammed inside of her. Again and again, she cried out for me. Until at one thrust, she came screaming my name. I wasn¡¯t done though. I hadn¡¯t had my fill. So as the waves of her orgasm wracked through her sensitive body, I kept thrusting over and over. She got tighter. She got hotter. And all of that just made it that much more pleasurable for me. When I finally did reach my limit, exploding inside of her and growling with passion, my Little Bunny felt like nothing more than a limp doll in my arms.


    I copsed for just a moment. I needed to catch my breath. That had been hot and intense. But I wasn¡¯t done. I wanted more. I needed more. I needed my mate to feel this love that I had for her. I didn¡¯t know how much longer the case was going to drag on, so I didn¡¯t know how long I would need to go until I could be with her like this again.


    After my racing heart calmed down just enough for me to hear something other than the blood pumping through my own body, I was ready to go again. I picked my mate up in my arms and held her against my body as I moved to lean against the bed¡¯s headboard.


    Now that I was in position, I was able to position my Little Bunny so that she was resting just above my quivering shaft. I was poised at her entrance and ready to take her again. This time I wasn¡¯t going to be as frantic and needy. This time, I was going to go slow and steady and show her how much I cherished her and her body. Well, that was my n at least.


    I pressed my lips against her, gently but firmly, as I slid her down onto my shaft. She moaned softly but I just swallowed that with her kiss. It wasn¡¯t a painful moan or anything like that, just showing how aroused and overly sensitive that she already was.


    Slowly, I started to slide her up and down over my shaft. I had dropped my hands so that they were gripping her waist while she wrapped her arms around my neck. Her breasts were pressed against my chest and slid up and down slightly as I gently made love to her.


    There was no rush. There was no greed. This time around we just made sensual and passionate love to each other. I could feel that she was slowly building toward that ultimate moment of ecstasy, but she was in no rush to get there, and neither was I.


    Our breaths mingled together. Slight moans of passion and pleasure yed between us. Our skin was slick with sweat. It was pure bliss, and I didn¡¯t want it to ever end. I wanted to be able to stay here, inside of her, for the rest of my life.


    Soon though, the passion and pleasure got to the best of us. I felt her ready toe first. She tightened around me so much that it nearly hurt, but I counted that as nothing more than a pleasurable badge of honor. It just told me how much she was enjoying what I was giving her.


    Soon, I felt my Little Bunny¡¯s nails dig into my shoulders one again. With her head thrown back on a silent scream of ecstasy, she let the waves of her orgasm take her. I fought for a little longer. A few more thrusts. That was all I needed, all that I had left inside of me. The moment that her orgasm ended, I came again, exploding inside of her. The force of my arousal and ecstasy, triggered hers again. She came once more, this time crying out with a loud wordless scream.


    Finally spent, we copsed onto the bed. My body felt like it had been put through the wringer, but I was not going toin. It was wonderful and I wouldn¡¯t trade this time for anything in the world.


    Unfortunately, we were interrupted shortly after. There was a knock on the door, and I knew that it was the dinner that I had ordered. It was a little inconvenient, but it was also appreciated. I knew that I was going to need some food to replenish after that, and most likely, so would my Little Bunny.


    The food was brought in for us. A nice array of food that we would not usually have on our menu while traveling. It was nice to have something new. After we ate, we lounged in the room until it was time for bed. I took her again a few times that night, making the most of our time away like this.


    In the morning, we had breakfast delivered to our room once again. We bathed, properly this time, and then got ready for the day.


    I knew that we needed to hurry back. And my Little Bunny knew it too. Still, we wanted to take a walk through the national park first. When was thest time that we were going to be here to visit Snowdonia? Why not take advantage of it while we were here?


    We walked to the waterfall and enjoyed the view briefly. It was a lovely sight to behold, as was theke. However, we knew that we couldn¡¯t stay here for long, so Trinity opened the door and we returned to Cadwal¡¯s home. We were back by nine that morning.


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 Chapter 865

    Chapter 865: Chapter 50- Talia ¨C Dreams Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    Mom and Dad were gone for the night. My uncles had been given the night off. And on top of that, Lex and Rudy said that I was not allowed to leave my room because there were no other guards here. They said that they didn¡¯t want to risk what might happen if I were to explore the area.


    What the hell did they think was going to happen? Did they think that I was going to go for a walk and wind up falling into the ditch? If that happened I might end up getting abducted by aliens and noting back for ten years. Then all hell would break loose because I would still be fifteen years old while they all had gotten older. Not that it would matter much, since they were all immortal and only the kids would be affected by the passage of time. Yeah, they must think that would be the case. I mean, what else could they possibly be afraid of?


    Of course, my sarcasm was running rampant right now. It always does when I get mad. I was told that I get that from my mom, but I also noticed that my dad does that too. Did he pick it up from her? Or was it a trait that they both had and people just noticed it from my mom more because it was more unexpected, or she was just better at it than him. Whatever the case was, I was just like my parents, for better or worse. And right now, that meant that I was angry about being locked in my room. And thing that I have been told that my mom also hated very much when she was not much older than me.


    ¡°Hahh!¡± I sighed long and loud as Iid there in my bed. Lex was standing across the room from me with a book in his hand.


    .....


    ¡°What is the matter, Talia?¡± He didn¡¯t even look up from his book.


    ¡°I am bored. That is what¡¯s the matter.¡± I was ring at him but it didn¡¯t seem to be affecting him at all.


    ¡°Then might I suggest you do your homework? You have to send it in to the teachers by the morning.¡± He knew that I was doing distance learning for the time being.


    ¡°I did it all already. I don¡¯t have anything left. I was so bored that I did all the regr work as well as all the extra credit. I literally have nothing left to do.¡± I threw myself back on the bed in exasperation.


    ¡°Then might I suggest you read a book. It will take you into an exciting adventure that someone else is living at the moment. And all the while you will be here safe and sound for me to keep an eye on.¡± Still, Lex hadn¡¯t taken his eyes off of his book. He was continuing to read and to turn pages.


    ¡°I enjoy reading, I just don¡¯t want to right now. I¡¯m in Wales, and I haven¡¯t gotten to see anything but morgues and crime scenes. I want to get out. I want to see things. I want to explore.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± He shut me down right away.


    ¡°LLLeeexxx!¡± I dragged out the sound of his name and turned it into a whine.


    ¡°That won¡¯t help your case. I was told to protect you here in the house.¡± Finally, he marked his page and looked up at me. ¡°Thest time that I went against the orders that your parents gave me, I was told that I could be fired. I will not let that happen. You are going to be ruling the underworld someday, and I intend to guard you then. I will not let myself be reced. I would count that as the worst offense that I couldmit, and I would not have that on my record.¡± He was giving me the most serious expression that he could muster. I knew that he was being honest with me. He was always honest with me.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Lex. I know how you feel, I¡¯m just so tired of this room.¡±


    ¡°Hahh.¡± At that moment, Lex set his book down and walked toward me. ¡°OK, Talia, let¡¯s make a promise. If you are good, stay here in the room, and do what you are told for the remainder of this case, I will take you wherever you want me to. I don¡¯t care if it¡¯s the frilliest store in the mall, the ce with the fluffy animals, anywhere. And I promise that I won¡¯tin about it at all. Do we have a deal?¡± He was now kneeling next to the bed and looking at me in the eye as I lounged there.


    ¡°Promise?¡± I asked him, sitting up but not taking my eyes off of him.


    ¡°I promise.¡± He nodded and agreed instantly.


    ¡°Noining?¡±


    ¡°Noining.¡± He still didn¡¯t take his eyes off of me, actually he was now smiling at me.


    ¡°Even if I want you to help me pick out dresses for three hours, go to the perfume store, try on shoes, and pet all the kittens and puppies that are in the pet shop?¡± I saw that he faltered for a moment, just a moment. But he recovered and the smile got even wider, albeit fake.


    ¡°Even then.¡±


    ¡°Yay!¡± I flung myself at him and hugged him tightly around the neck. ¡°Thank you, Lex. I promise I will be good for the rest of the case. And then you can take me to do all the stuff that I want.¡±


    ¡°Why do I feel like I just sold my soul to the devil?¡± Heughed then, but it almost sounded like he was doing it satirically.


    ¡°I am not a devil. I am a little angel.¡± I giggled. ¡°Speaking of, I wonder what Angel is up to without me there. I hope they¡¯re taking care of her.¡±


    ¡°I am sure that they are. They know that she is your dear friend.¡± At that moment, Lex pulled himself away from me and rose to his full height. ¡°Now, Talia, I am going to get back to my book. Please, do something to upy yourself.¡±


    ¡°Meh. I think I will just go to sleep early.¡± I pulled the covers back and slid under them. ¡°Good night, Lex.¡±


    ¡°Good night, Talia.¡± He nodded before going back to his spot near the wall. He was going to continue to read his book. Which, by the way, he could do in the dark. He had better night vision than anyone I knew. Aside from my mom and me of course. But we used magic to enhance it. His was natural.


    I suddenly felt a lot more tired than I had expected to. I thought that I was going toy there in the dark for a little while before drifting off to sleep, but that wasn¡¯t the case at all. I closed my eyes and was instantly asleep.


    Another thing that I thought was odd, was the fact that I started to have some strange dreams. Now, being who I am and seeing what I do, I am no stranger to nightmares. Lex and Rudy had needed tofort me as a little girl when I had nightmares that I didn¡¯t want to tell my parents about. They would tell me that I was not allowed to take over the underworld if they knew that I was having these vivid and scary nightmares about all the dead people thate to me. The two of them hid it from them and helped me to pursue my goal of leading the underworld.


    This dream though, it felt less like a dream than anything that I had ever experienced before. For one thing, I suddenly found myself back home. I was seeing Reagan and Rika while they were at school. And then I jumped to see Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley at the elementary school. Seeing that ce was nostalgic for me. I hadn¡¯t been there in a long time. It was part of the main school, but it was separated and out of the way of the high school that I would be attending if I was home.


    I think that I was just missing my family, and eager to be getting home. That had to be it. There was literally no other reason for me to be seeing these ces. And I had never actually seen the college campus that Reagan and Rika were going to. The one that I would be going to next year. I didn¡¯t even know if what I was seeing was real or not. For all I knew, this could all just be my mind¡¯s interpretation of the campus.


    ¡°Oh, there is Rika.¡± I smiled. ¡°And it¡¯s not just her.¡± Sitting with her was na, Alyssa and Alexandria. They were my cousins. Not by blood of course, but still. We were raised that way. ¡°And over there is Reagan, Rowan, Levi and Luka.¡± They weren¡¯t sitting together. It was like they wanted to be in their own groups. ¡°Who are they?¡± I was looking at my sister and saw her talking to a boy that I had never seen before. And there was another boy that had his arm around Alyssa¡¯s shoulders. ¡°I wonder if my sister and cousins are making new friends? Those guys look friendly, but we don¡¯t know them at all. I just know that the guards would freak out if they knew what Rika was doing. I know that Lex would never let some guy hang on me like that one talking to Alyssa.


    Suddenly, the dream that I was having started to swirl and change.


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 Chapter 866

    Chapter 866: Chapter 51- Talia ¨C Dreams Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    The peaceful life that I was watching my siblings have while at college started to dissolve. In its ce was something that seemed a lot darker and scarier. I knew that it was just me drifting into a deeper sleep and not dreaming the things that I wanted to see anymore. In truth, this dream felt more like I was watching a movie that I had never seen before.


    There was a woman that was maybe twenty or twenty-two years old. She had bright red and really curly hair. It looked short in her ponytail, but I knew that if it were stretched out, the hair would reach down to her lower back at the very least. She was pale and pretty with a ssh of freckles on her nose and cheeks. Her eyes were really pretty as well, a bright green that looked like shining jewels.


    She was tall, close to six feet tall or so, but she was skinny and looked very feminine. She was wearing a cute little summer dress that was white with pink flowers all over it. The strappy white sandals that she was wearingplimented it perfectly. She looked like she was ready for a date. She was standing in a parking lot overlooking a sandy beach that was bathed in darkness.


    She was smiling. She was happy. There was nothing at all that seemed to be going wrong for her. I could literally feel the excitement that was buzzing inside of her chest. And the way that it buzzed even more when her phone rang. I think that she thought the person on the other end of the call was the person that she was waiting for.


    .....


    ¡°Hey.¡± She answered the call excitedly. ¡°No. I¡¯m still waiting for her. I am so excited. I have wanted to go out with her for so long.¡± She seemed to be glowing a little in the moonlight and that made me suddenly think that this woman might be magical. Was she a witch? ¡°Yeah, I will.¡± The girlughed. ¡°Ohe on. I will give you some details, but you don¡¯t need them all. You¡¯re my brother, for crying out loud.¡± She seemed to be having a good time. It was infectious. ¡°Oh, I think she¡¯s here, I¡¯ll let you go.¡± She went to hang up the phone but said one more thing. ¡°Yes, I will be careful. And I love you too.¡±


    At that moment, the girl turned around. She was in the process of ending the call on her phone, but she didn¡¯t manage to do that just yet. The person she saw surprised her.


    ¡°Hey, you¡¯re not Ashlynn.¡± She was confused about something.


    ¡°Andrea! Andrea, what is going on!?¡± I could hear the girl¡¯s brother yelling from the other end of the call, but I couldn¡¯t see the person that had just arrived.


    Suddenly, there was a sh of white light. It wasn¡¯t a big sh. It was just like something thatsted for a fraction of a second and was gone. A strobe light or something like that. The moment that the light shed in front of the girl¡¯s eyes though, she was under some sort of trance.


    ¡°Give me that.¡± A man¡¯s voice called out to her.


    ¡°OK.¡± She lifted her hand in a very awkward way. It was like someone was moving her body for her. Still, the arm raised enough for the man to take the phone. That was when I was able to see him clearly. He was wearing a silver robe, but it wasn¡¯t reflecting the lights around him. That was odd.


    ¡°ANDREA!¡± The girl¡¯s brother was still calling out to her. ¡°WHAT IS HAPPENING?!¡± The man didn¡¯t say anything into the phone, he just ended the call. He ignored the frantic brother and was focusing on the girl in front of him.


    ¡°Come with me.¡±


    At that, the man started to walk away, down onto the beach. However, the moment that he moved, it was impossible for me to see him. I think that those robes, whatever they were, somehow made it harder to see him. Was it magic? Was it the material? Was it something else entirely? I didn¡¯t know, and that was enough to anger me.


    ¡°I aming.¡± The girl started to follow him now. She was moving more naturally than she had when the man took the phone from her, but she still didn¡¯t seem to be moving of her own volition. I wondered for a moment if she was inside of her mind screaming at herself to stop. I had a feeling that she was.


    The man was leading the girl all the way down to the edge of the water. I thought for a moment that he was going to go out into the ocean with her. However, at thest moment, he turned and started to walk toward the darkest part of the beach. There would be no light at all to see them by. And I could tell that it was ratherte, close to ten or eventer. There were not a lot of people around. Perhaps it was a weekday in this movie as well. I knew that it was Sunday when I went to sleep. Maybe that was the day that this was happening.


    I knew that we were in the United States. Looking at the sighs, listening to the girl talk with her brother, I knew that we were in the US. However, I didn¡¯t know where. Were we on the east coast or the west coast? Where would I find this ce if I was really there? I didn¡¯t know this ce at all.


    ¡°We are here.¡± The man finally stopped at a particrly dark spot on the beach. I was able to see, but I knew that most people wouldn¡¯t be able to. Was this girl even able to see what was happening to her? ¡°Lay here.¡± The man ordered her. I didn¡¯t have a very good feeling about this.


    ¡°OK.¡± The girl just obeyed him and did as he told her to. She was like a puppet to him. A puppet that he had full control over.


    ¡°It is so much easier when you monsters do what you are told.¡± There was a hint of mirth in the man¡¯s voice. ¡°Then again, I do enjoy a fight from time to time.¡±


    ¡°I will do as you wish, Master.¡± She waspletely brainwashed by this man. And I wasn¡¯t able to see him at all. His robes and the hood that was pulled up on them, hid himpletely. All I could analyze was his voice. It was deep andmanding while also soft. He was not yelling or raising his voice, he was able tomand this from her without much effort. However, there wasn¡¯t anything unique about the voice. It sounded like so many other men in the world. So many men that I knew.


    ¡°You can start by screaming when the timees.¡± I didn¡¯t see it, but I could tell that he was smiling. I could hear it in his voice.


    ¡°Yes, Master. I will scream. Do what you will with me.¡±


    I thought that he was going to take advantage of her. I thought that he was going to force himself on her in the most brutal of ways. But that wasn¡¯t it. In truth, I would have preferred that to what I did see.


    The man took out a knife. He used it to start carving a symbol into her head. The moment that he was done, it glowed for a brief second. Whatever he had just done, the symbol had taken effect.


    With tears in her eyes, some streaming down her cheeks, Andrea justid there silent as the man started to carve another symbol into her chest. He had needed to cut the top of her dress and rip it open to aplish this part of the task.


    Andrea didn¡¯t say or do anything while the man put another mark on her. She didn¡¯t flinch, she didn¡¯t cry out, nothing. Just the silent tears running down her cheeks.


    ¡°You monsters look quite human most of the time, don¡¯t you?¡± The man cupped her breast and squeezed it briefly.


    ¡°We have to. We live with humans.¡± The girl was answering him in the manner that he wanted to be answered.


    ¡°Still, some of you are clearly not human. The colors of the hair or the eyes are just impossible. You are almost perfect. In truth, if it weren¡¯t for the magic that makes you different, no one could tell with you.¡± He pinched her nipple between his gloved fingers before letting her breast go altogether. ¡°Are you ready to die, witch?¡± He sounded excited as he asked her this.


    ¡°No.¡± She spoke honestly and not in the manner that he wanted. His hypnotism was not powerful enough for that one.


    ¡°Well, too bad.¡± Heughed. I think he liked the answer that he got. ¡°You will be dead soon enough. Go ahead and scream, if you can.¡±


    With that his hand shed out so quickly that I barely saw it. The light reflected off the de in his hand as he shed it across her throat. I had heard Andrea take a breath and prepare to scream, but he had already cut her throat so deeply that she couldn¡¯t manage it. It was alling out as nothing more than breathless puffs until she couldn¡¯t draw a breath anymore.


    ¡°I know you¡¯re in there. And I know that you will feel all of this.¡± He leaned in close to her and kissed her cheek. ¡°I am going to enjoy this.¡±


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 Chapter 867

    Chapter 867: Chapter 52- Talia ¨C Dreams Part 3 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    The man started to collect her blood then. He turned her over and let it pour into a bucket of sorts. From there, he started to mix the blood with something that was in a sk. He pulled the metal container from his pocket and made the blood glow.


    Once the glowing was dimmed but still there, the man used a long wooden pen to write the words into the sand. He had poured the blood mixture into the top of the pen, and it was actually acting as if it were ink for the pen. The words, which I had read before, appeared to glow for a moment and then faded almost instantly.


    ¡°That will do it.¡± The man said as he walked back to where the girl wasying on the beach. ¡°The message has been left.¡± He was sounding like some strange mixture of excited and angry. I guess there really wasn¡¯t that much of a difference between emotions when they were running wild. ¡°Oh look, that bitch that you were waiting for is here.¡± With that, there was a small whimper from Andrea. She was still alive, and there was nothing that I could do. ¡°Oh, yes. She is here. Let me do something that I don¡¯t usually do. Then again, picking someone off of the street isn¡¯t what I usually do either. We all like to be a little more careful than that.¡± He wasughing but it was giving me goosebumps. I did not like the sound of that man¡¯sughter at all.


    As I watched, the man started to rip open the rest of Andrea¡¯s dress. I saw that the girl was not wearing a bra at all, but she did have on a pair of soft pink panties. The man seemed to be appalled by the choice of underwear the girl had made. He grabbed them with a scoff and ripped them off of her.


    .....


    ¡°Ngh!¡± She cried out in pain from the force of the clothes being pulled away.


    ¡°This is dirty, but I can use a cleansing rune.¡± His voice wasing out with more of that disturbingughter. ¡°You can think of it as a mercy that I am giving you. This is definitely something that I would never do for just anyone.¡±


    Before I could process what was happening, the man was on top of her. He was taking advantage of her now. I had thought that this was going to happen earlier, but he had cut her. And I thought that the cutting was bad. This though, knowing that she was being so thoroughly brutalized by this man, I couldn¡¯t handle it.


    I wanted to stop him, but I couldn¡¯t. I could not move. I was not able to interact with what was happening at all, it was like I was the camera that was filming this horror movie in front of me. I couldn¡¯t make them hear me or see me. I couldn¡¯t do anything at all.


    I watched as the man mmed in and out of her. She didn¡¯t say anything. She didn¡¯t cry out in pain or anything. But she did cry. The rivers of tears were still flowing down her cheeks and didn¡¯t look like she was going to stop anytime soon.


    ¡®ANDREA!¡¯ I screamed her name inside my head. It was all that I could do. I wanted to stop this. I wanted to help her. And I wanted to wake up and make this nightmare end. ¡®ANDREA!¡¯


    After the man seemed to be satisfied, I watched as he pulled away from her. I never even saw anything from his body, just hers when he was notying on top of her. And on that body there were bruises. Marks from his fingers and hands. Bruises on her legs from his legs and his hands. I didn¡¯t know how those bruises got there, or why they were already so prominent, but they were. And I knew that she had to have suffered that entire time.


    ¡®ANDREA!¡¯ I called out for her in my head again. ¡®ANDREA!¡¯ It wasn¡¯t helping. And it wasn¡¯t stopping the man.


    ¡°I am going to finish this now.¡± The man¡¯s voice finally struck me. This was the first time that he let himself slide. There was now something remarkable about it. There was an ent in it. Only I didn¡¯t know where it was from. I couldn¡¯t ce it. ¡°Goodbye, monster girl. You were a decent fuck. Too bad you belonged to the wrong team.¡±


    As I watched, the man punched straight through her chest. I would have thought that he would have cut her open to get the heart out like the other killers had. Or I thought that they had. But no. I was wrong. This man punched into her chest and momentster pulled out her heart.


    The dream started to fade after that. And it was all moving quickly. The man rinsed his hands and the heart in the water before running away from the body. He didn¡¯t put much effort into the kill as the others seemed to have done, but he had done all the same things, and more.


    The moment that the man ran away though, I heard a woman screaming in the distance.


    ¡°ANDREA!¡± For a moment, I thought that it was me. ¡°ANDREA!¡± I never saw the woman, but Andrea¡¯s date, Ashlynn, had found her. ¡°ANDREA!¡± She was screaming and sobbing when she found her. I knew that she had to have been devastated when she found the girlying in the sand.


    By that point, it was like I was floating away into the sky while things faded away. I couldn¡¯t see what was going on anymore.


    ¡°ANDREA!¡± I could still hear Ashlynn crying out for her. ¡°ANDREA!¡±


    ¡°Talia!¡± I heard Lex¡¯s voice calling out to me. ¡°Talia!¡±


    When I snapped my eyes open, I saw that Lex was standing right over me. He was looking at me with fear and worry in face.


    ¡°Talia, what is wrong? What happened? Why are you shouting?¡± Lex was confusing me.


    ¡°Huh? I wasn¡¯t shouting. I was.. I was..¡± That¡¯s when it hit me. The dream. I had been shouting in my sleep because of the dream. I had actually been asleep that whole time. I knew that. I kept telling myself that while I was in the dream, but I had let it slip my mind again.


    ¡°Talia, what is wrong?¡±


    The dream flooded into my mind all over again. All of it. Everything that I saw from start to finish reyed itself in my mind. This time around, it was much worse than the first time. And I was ten times as scared now as I was then. However, Lex¡¯s gentle voice and genuine concern for me made me finally realize that I was safe and that what I saw wasn¡¯t going toe back for me. That man in the robes was not going to hurt me.


    ¡°L..Lex. It was horrible.¡± I clung to him in desperation. He was sitting on the edge of my bed as he tried to settle me down, so I took advantage of that. I crawled into hisp and curled myself up into a ball. I felt like a little girl when he held me like that and it made me feel safe and protected.


    ¡°What happened, Talia? What is wrong?¡±


    ¡°I had this dream, though I don¡¯t know if it was a dream or not. It felt so real. B..but he killed her. He killed her and he raped her. Lex, I saw it all happening in front of me and I couldn¡¯t help her.¡± I wanted to sob into his shirt, but the tears weren¡¯ting. I wanted to cry and get the emotions out of me, but there was nothing to expel from me. Perhaps this was just another step in me bing the goddess of the underworld.


    ¡°It is OK, Talia. You are safe now. I promise.¡± Lex was rubbing soothing circles into my back as he held me. ¡°I won¡¯t let anyone hurt you.¡±


    ¡°I know, Lex.¡± I sighed into his chest. ¡°Thank you.¡±


    I tried to go to sleep again, but I couldn¡¯t. I was too worried about that girl. I was so scared that she was going to be reported to us the next day and that we would be heading to her crime scene soon. Well, I guess I would find out what state she was in soon enough.


    Since I couldn¡¯t sleep the rest of that night, I had to pretend when it was time for Telyn to wake me the next morning. My parents weren¡¯t back yet, but it was time for me to eat my breakfast. I would do as I was asked and told to do. I wanted to make sure that no one gave a bad report of me before I had a chance to talk to my parents.


    I had decided that if there was a report of the girl, Andrea, going missing and being killed, then I would tell my parents about the dream. If not, then I would keep it a secret. For all I knew, it was just the details of the caseing back to me in a nightmare. It might not mean anything at all. And it could mean everything.


    However, once my parents were back to the Alpha¡¯s house, there had been no mention of the girl or anyone else having been attackedst night. That was a relief. I would be able to rest in peace and know that it was just stress and other things getting to me. There was no murdered girl. I didn¡¯t need to worry at all.


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 Chapter 868

    Chapter 868: Chapter 53- Trinity ¨C Strategy Meeting (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    OK. I will admit it. Reece¡¯s idea was a good one. Getting away for the night, taking the time to clear our heads and rx, it was a good idea. And I was d that he made me do it. Yeah, I was angry at first because he lied to me and tricked me. But that didn¡¯tst long.


    Once I got out there with Reece, once I was away from the case for a little bit, I started to see what it was that he was talking about. I had not been functioning at my best. I had not been able to think about things clearly. I had not been able to think of what to do next. We were following these people. They were so far ahead of us that we had nothing to go on and nowhere to look.


    Well, that wasn¡¯t entirely true, was it? I mean, Rawlynne had told me about the gics for the killersing from Germany. That little bit of evidence was all that we had going for us. And I needed to tell the others about it as soon as I could. I needed to hold a meeting about it, and Dietrich was going to be one of the most prominent parts of that meeting.


    I was sure that we were going to be visiting Germany very soon. And well, I didn¡¯t know the country all that well. I had never been there yet. But Dietrich had. He had spent a good portion of his life there. He and Shawn still vacationed there with the kids from time to time. If anyone knew where we should start with this part of the investigation, it was him.


    .....


    Later that morning, just after breakfast, I called the others for a meeting in Cadwal¡¯s formal meeting room. It was thergest one in his estate and the only one big enough for us to feelfortable in. I waited for everyone to take their seats as I sat at the head of the table with Reece and Talia.


    I hadn¡¯t wanted to include my daughter in this meeting since I felt like she was too young, but she was a part of this investigation. If I didn¡¯t bring her here, she would try to sneak in or somehow eavesdrop. It was easier just to bring her into the meeting from the beginning. At least I would know where she was. And Alexio and Rudy were standing behind her with firm expressions. They were working hard for her benefit.


    ¡°Alright Trinity, what¡¯s up?¡± Shane, the most carefree guard I had ever met, broke the silence after we had all settled in. He may be carefree, but he was also good at his job. And, thankfully, he knew when he needed to be serious.


    ¡°Well, the other night I heard from Rawlynne. The DNA from the samples we sent is not in the system. These people are still a mystery to us. The most that we can tell is that these people are rted and that they are from Germany. They appear to be cousins or something. And the water was indeed infused with runes, but I don¡¯t know how they did it. That is something we still need to figure out.¡±


    Not much of a meeting so far was it. I told them all that I had learned. All that they were still in the dark about. Now though, it was time for us to decide what we were going to do from here.


    ¡°What about the words themselves, Trinity? Were they found anywhere in other searches? I mean, we¡¯ve been looking too, but I was wondering if they were found by the FBI. Perhaps there was another murder when these people were preparing for this mass attack. Maybe they were more sloppy back then and left clues.¡± Vincent sounded so hopeful that I didn¡¯t want to burst his bubble.


    ¡°Not that has been reported to me. My guess is that there are no other murders. These people are efficient. They are good at what they¡¯re doing. And it is in my opinion that they have been trained to do this.¡±


    That statement of mine seemed to get a lot of responses. The men around me looked shocked, angry, and thoughtful all at the same time. They had to have been thinking it as well, I was just the first one to mention it out loud.


    ¡°Well, now that we have all shared this information, I think that we need to talk about what else to do. In my opinion, we need to look for these people at their source. Dietrich, I hate to say this, but I need you to take point here. I need you to tell me where to go in Germany. We need to find where these people are at. Where their headquarters is located. And you are the only one here that knows about these things.¡±


    ¡°I understand what you are saying Trinity.¡± He was speaking to me, but he was looking at the table. I knew that he didn¡¯t want to be thinking about the fact that his old friend and his family might be involved in this whole ordeal. ¡°I will take you to my castle, from there, we can head over to where I knew ric to be. He is dead now though. I do want you to understand that. And I am not sure if his family still remains there.¡±


    ¡°I understand Dietrich. However, that is all that we have to go on. I have gotten way too many bad feelings here to ignore them. The man that you once knew in Germany. The culprits not being in the system though they are from Germany. The simrities to the things that you and your old friend used to do. And that manifesto. There is just too much that I can¡¯t ignore here. We need to go to Germany. We need to make sure that we see what is there. If nothing else but to be thorough in our search. This is what we need to do. This is the next logical step for us to take.¡± I was doing my best to tell him what it was that I was feeling, and why it was that I wanted to see this ce.


    ¡°I know, Trinity. I know.¡± He sounded so resigned and depressed. He was looking at the table and not lifting his head at all. Shawn was even rubbing his shoulders as he tried tofort him.


    ¡°Come on now. It¡¯s not that bad. I am sure that we will find something there. I know that it is depressing to think about, but we will be able to progress here. And the sooner we stop these people, the better. And even if they do have something to do with your old friend, Dietrich, you know that it wasn¡¯t him. This will not reflect badly on you or the man that you knew.¡± Reece, trying to offer his support, spoke up at that moment.


    ¡°Yes. I believe that you are right. ric was a good man that did what he needed to do. These people are nothing like him. They are the monsters that they im we are. They are the ones that people need to fear. But they need to fear us, because we will never stop. We will do what we can to end this cycle of terror.¡±


    There was nothing but determination in Dietrich¡¯s eyes when he looked up then. His words were strong, his face was calm, and his gaze was steady. He was definitely feeling a lot better.


    ¡°Let us prepare to leave here. We will head out at once.¡± I nodded to the men in the room and they rose to their feet. It hadn¡¯t been much of a meeting, but at least we had managed to aplish some things.¡±


    ¡°Uhm, M..Mom.¡± Talia called out to me in a weak voice.¡±


    ¡°What is it sweetheart?¡± I asked her, worried about the way that she was suddenly acting.


    ¡°Were there any people killedst night? Did they kill anyone else?¡± Why was she asking me about this all of a sudden?


    ¡°No, Talia. There were no new murdersst night. I mean, I am sure that people all over the world died, but this group didn¡¯t kill anyone else. They have been keeping to a schedule, and we still have a few more days before they strike again. Why do you ask?¡±


    ¡°O..oh, no reason. Heh heh.¡± Sheughed nervously as she spoke. ¡°I was just wondering. I wanted to make sure that no one else had suffered yet.¡± She smiled happily and got to her feet. ¡°I am going to go pack now. I will see you in a bit.¡± She left the room then, Alexio and Rudy following her.


    ¡°That was odd.¡± I stared after her for a moment without doing or saying anything.


    ¡°It¡¯s Talia, that is to be expected.¡± Reeceughed. ¡°She is my little oddball. She was always doing little things when she was a kid. I would be worried if she just suddenly stopped.¡± He was rationalizing it, I knew that. He just didn¡¯t want to see that anything was off about his little girl.


    ¡°Maybe.¡± I tried not to worry about it too much. Talia was getting older, but she was still just fifteen. This whole case was probably too much for her to handle. And she had always been such a sensitive soul. She is probably feeling so burdened by what has been happeningtely. ¡°I will keep an eye on her. As her mother, I need to protect her as much as I can.¡± I was speaking to myself more than anything. It was like amitment that I was making for my little girl.


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 Chapter 869

    Chapter 869: Chapter 54- Trinity ¨C Arriving At Dietrich¡¯s (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Everything was packed away as soon as possible. With Telyn¡¯s help it went a lot more smoothly than it normally would have. Still, there were a lot of us and there was a lot to be taking to Dietrich¡¯s castle with us.


    There was an upside to this impromptu trip of ours. We were finally going to see Dietrich¡¯s castle. For the first time in almost twenty years of knowing him, we were going to see where it was that he came from. And where it was that he and Shawn had lived for the time that they were pregnant. This was going to be interesting.


    There was one slight setback, but it wasn¡¯t major. With the murders continuing and there having been little to no progress in the capturing of the killers, Telyn¡¯s father decided to make her stay home.


    ¡°I want to go with them though, Tad. I promised the queen that I would assist her. I cannot abandon her now.¡± She had been so upset when her father told her to stay behind.


    .....


    ¡°Telyn.¡± I called out to her. ¡°I understand what you are saying. I know that you want to stick with yourmitment. That is admirable. However, your father is worried about you. He wants you to be safe. The murders have everyone in ourmunity very on edge. That is understandable, don¡¯t you think?¡± I gave her a sincere look. ¡°Now, we will settle this issue, and we will make sure that you cane to stay with us at our castle when the time is right. You can attend university there after you graduate from here. We would be happy to host you.¡±


    ¡°A..are you sure, Queen Trinity? I do not wish to be a burden on you.¡± Her sweet voice and beautiful eyes were so alluring at that moment.


    ¡°It would not be a burden, Telyn. We will be happy to have you with us. Now, do as your father says and stay safe. We want to see you with us when you are older.¡± That put an end to the conversation. It was time for us to leave.


    With everyone gathered in the front yard of the Alpha¡¯s house, I opened a door to Dietrich¡¯s castle. I opened this right into the foyer that was inside the main entrance. This was something that I was able to do because Dietrich had extensive photos of his home on his phone. I didn¡¯t know why he had so many photos of the ce, but he did. And it was helpful. I was able to see right where the door was going to open up for us.


    The only unfortunate thing about the door opening was that Dietrich didn¡¯t call ahead to let the others know that we were arriving. The moment that Dietrich stepped out, first since it was his ce, there were loud gasps and stunned exmations.


    ¡°Oh my goddess, King Dietrich!¡± The man in the lead called out as he came running over. ¡°We were not expecting you. What brings you to visit the castle?¡± The staff had been maintaining the ce while their masters were away.


    ¡°There is a reason to be in the country, Jonas. We will be staying here for the time being. Please prepare rooms for us all. We will need suites for Shawn and myself, Queen Trinity and King Reece, Princess Talia, and all of their guards.¡±


    ¡°Yes of course. And might I wee you all to the castle. King Dietrich, we are all happy to see you. And you as well, Queen Shawn.¡± With that one remark from this man, all hell seemed to break loose.


    ¡°I KNEW IT!¡± Shane shouted the words the moment that Jonas, the butler looking man said those words.


    ¡°SHUT UP!¡± Shawn yelled at his brother.


    ¡°Jonas, need I remind you, Shawn and I are both Kings. There is no queen to our people.¡± Dietrich sounded angry on his mate¡¯s behalf.


    ¡°I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT!¡± Shane was practically jumping up and down as he shouted in glee. I knew that he was just having fun and joking with his brother, but Shawn was not happy.


    I just happened to be looking when I saw a sh of movement. I knew what it was, but I wasn¡¯t going to say anything about it. Because just after that sh of movement something, or someone, hit Shane so hard that he went flying across the room.


    ¡°I KNEW IT! I KNEW I- AHHH!¡± He screamed in shock as he sailed across the foyer andnded in a heap against the stone wall.


    ¡°What the hell is the matter with you?¡± Shawn asked from next to Dietrich. There had been another sh of movement before he reappeared over there.


    ¡°You fucking hit me.¡± Shane was ring at his brother. ¡°You hit me.¡±


    ¡°I am standing over here. How would I have hit you? Unless you are saying that my arms are able to stretch that far or something.¡± Shawn was ying innocent while the rest of us tried not tough. He had done what we all would expect. He had taken care of things and stopped Shane¡¯s gleeful outburst.


    ¡°Come now Shane, pick yourself up off of the floor. We know that you are clumsy and tripped so easily. But there is no reason for you to remain sitting on the floor.¡± Dietrich was grinning at his brother-inw as he spoke.


    ¡°This is bullshit. You hit me. I was just joking with you.¡± With a slight pout, Shane stood up and started to follow everyone out of the room.


    Following the incident that took ce in the hallway, Shawn and Dietrich started to show us around the castle and the grounds. The ce was massive, but not as big as my castle back home. There was more than enough room for us though, and it was fully modernized. High tech appliances, state of the art technology, and indoor plumbing. All of that was nice, but thatst one was a must. And I was happy that they had it all.


    The servants in the house were all vampires, and they had been keeping the ce clean while Shawn and Dietrich were away, so there was not much prep work that needed to be done before we were shown to our rooms. They apparently dusted, aired out the rooms, and turned down the beds. None of it took much time at all.


    The room that Reece and I were in was a lot like our ce back home. It was a little smaller, but it was more than adequate. And the bathroom was something that I had been missing while we were away. The tub was more than big enough for us to soak in together.


    Talia and her guards were right down the hall from us. There was a room inside of her suite that they were able to sleep in. They seemed to prefer that, so that they would be close to her in the event that an emergency was to break out. Alexio was always very paranoid and protective of Talia. I was happy about that though. He took really good care of her at all times.


    We spent a little while getting settled in. And Dietrich even assigned some of his staff to take care of us while we were here. They were, of course, vetted by Gabriel and Vincent before we allowed it. I knew that they were Dietrich¡¯s people, and therefore should be trustworthy, but I needed to make sure. Not to mention, there was that incident with Octavius all those years ago. I guess I needed to make sure that these vampires hadn¡¯t begun to lose their souls like he did.


    They checked out though, and that was a good thing. After that, they were given permission to take care of our rooms while we were here. They were efficient too, putting everything away so quickly. They seemed to be relying on the use of shadow walking though. Which, by the way, was the same technique that Shawn had used to punch his brother across the room earlier.


    With our things put away, it was time for us to sit down for ate lunch and to discuss what we were going to be doing today. We had lost an hour travelling here since the local time waster here than it was back in Wales. And it was already mid afternoon by the time that we were ready to leave the Alpha¡¯s house and head here. That meant that it was approaching the evening.


    As we talked things over, I decided that we would be better off waiting until the next day to start looking into the man that Dietrich once knew and where he lived. I didn¡¯t want to run out of daylight or to risk anything that might happen when the sun went down. I wasn¡¯t afraid of the dark, but there were clearly more magics that worked in the dark than in the light. That was not aforting thought when you were searching for a group of murderous psychopaths.


    After we ate our meal, we settled into our rooms and rxed. It was just another day of us not needing to worry about the case or what to do at the moment. A little more time to rest our weary minds before we went back to the daily grind of it all.


    I was a little on edge and antsy all evening. I wanted to be investigating, but I knew this was for the best. And it was just one more night, right?


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 Chapter 870

    Chapter 870: Chapter 55- Trinity ¨C Finding ric¡¯s Mansion (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The next day we were all ready and set to go on our little find it mission. We were not going to rest until we found ric¡¯s former home. And, hopefully, we would find a clue in the process. I doubted that these people were going to be involved, considering what their ancestors were like. Still, they might be able to point us in the right direction.


    We gathered for breakfast in the dining hall, told Talia, Rudy and Alexio to stay behind, then left once we were all done eating. Talia was not happy, of course. She wanted to be part of the investigation as much as possible, but I didn¡¯t care. She needed to stay here because this wasn¡¯t a crime scene we were going to. It was the home of a former hunter. And we didn¡¯t know what we were going to find there. Just to be safe, we needed to make sure that she was safe.


    The path to the home that we were going to was bright and sunny. Not even Shawn or Dietrich could shadow walk on this path. There were no trees. There were no rocks. There was nothing. And it was not overgrown or anything like that. It was clear that someone was still living in this area. And they were taking good care of the property.


    ¡°I don¡¯t get it.¡± Dietrich was confused when we were several hundred yards into the property. The house should be here. The mansion that I remember should be right here.¡± He was at a loss. ¡°Someone is clearly still here, but the house is gone. What is going on here?¡±


    .....


    ¡°Could it be further into the property?¡± Shane asked in the most serious tone he had. ¡°Have we not gone far enough?¡±


    ¡°No. It should be right here. I spent enough time in that home to know where it is. I would not forget something like that. This was too important of a ce for me to just lose track of or forget about. I lived in this home for several years, I helped make it into what it is. Or rather, what it used to be.¡±


    I could tell that Dietrich was feeling lost and nostalgic at the same time. He was remembering the past and that past didn¡¯t add up with the present. He was having trouble coping with it and it was hard to watch.


    ¡°Is it possible that the house is simply gone, and that people don¡¯t like to see this ce overgrown? Perhaps his descendants look after the property and keep it clean. Maybe they live nearby.¡± I was offering whatever advice that I could. It wasn¡¯t much, but it was something.


    ¡°No. There are no other homes in the area. And, as you know, we have already traveled far to get here from my ce.¡±


    That was true. Dietrich¡¯s ce was about twenty miles or so from this location. And the only ce that was near here was Dietrich¡¯s. There was nothing else that we had seen along the way. No roads. No barns. No sheds. No homes. Nothing at all. It was just opennd here and Dietrich¡¯s castle grounds back there.


    ¡°Well, something is going on here. Where did the house go? There isn¡¯t even any evidence that there used to be a house here.¡± Reece was looking around. ¡°Isn¡¯t that the most odd thing about all of this? Wouldn¡¯t you think there would be a hole in the ground where the dungeon had been. I would think that there would be some sort of ruins that were left behind. Nothing would be this clean and this filled in. Something is going on with this ce.¡±


    ¡°You do have a point. There were multipleyers to the dungeon like the basement in this house. It would not have just filled itself back up with nothing to show for it. There is something truly wrong here.¡± Dietrich was spinning in a slow circle now, looking all around the clearing that we were in. ¡°Someone is hiding it. Someone is doing this. I just know it.¡±


    ¡°Why? Why would they be hiding it? What purpose would that serve?¡± Shawn sounded calm on the surface, but I could see that he was unnerved about this. It was a strange ce, wherever we were, it was definitely odd.


    ¡°Obviously, these people have something to hide.¡± Vincent red at where Dietrich said the house would be. ¡°There is no other reason for it than that.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡± Gabriel nodded along with Vincent.


    ¡°Let us search the area. I am sure that if we go far enough, we will find the spell or whatever they are using to hide this ce. If we can find that, then we will be able to break it. Then we can confront these people.¡± I was pissed off right now. This was supposed to be a simple trip to visit the home of someone that Dietrich used to know. This should not have added to the intrigue of this case. Now that it had though, I was starting to get more and more suspicious of these people. And that meant that I was more and more convinced that they were the ones that were killing all of those people.


    I wanted to find this ce right now. After seeing this new mystery pop up, I was feeling more and more uneasy. With the schedule that these people were keeping right now, there were going to be more murders happening between tonight and tomorrow morning, depending on where the people were located. And if this group, this family, was involved with it, then I would make sure that they paid for what they had done.


    We split into groups for the time being. We needed to make sure that we were able to search effectively. The problem was, we didn¡¯t know how far out we needed to go. Where was the spell hidden at? What would it look like? Was it close to where the house should be or farther away from it? I didn¡¯t know any of those answers, and that meant that I was not very happy.


    I decided that I was going to search with my magic. Calling it to my eyes like I did to see the writing that was left at the crime scenes. That would let me know when I was close to the right ce.


    Reece and I started moving in a quarter circle. The area around the clearing was divided into sections and we were to head out from the center to the woods that surrounded the clearing. We walked back and forth over that area looking for things that were relevant to the case of the missing house.


    We were moving slowly since we didn¡¯t want to miss anything at all. So, after what felt like several hours, we were only halfway through our section of that clearing. And we still hadn¡¯t found anything. Things were not looking good for us.


    After a while longer, Reece and I made it to the line of trees, and still we hadn¡¯t found anything.


    ¡°Let¡¯s check in there. Maybe they hid it outside of the clearing.¡± I shrugged because it was all that I could think of.


    And it was a damn good thing too. After we started to search the woods, I saw that there was a sh of magic light in the distance. That meant that my magical eyes were seeing something that was important.


    ¡°There!¡± I shouted at Reece. ¡°I see something over there.¡± Taking his hand, I ran all the way over to where the tree was glowing. ¡°Ther-.¡±


    ¡°Shit!¡± Reece cut me off when I was telling him where it was. ¡°They went a little overboard, don¡¯t you think?¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± I didn¡¯t see what he was talking about.


    ¡°They carved it so far into the tree that it¡¯s pathetic. The tree is dead now. That was stupid of them don¡¯t you think.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± I shut off the flow of magic to my eyes to see what he was talking about.


    Sure enough, there it was. A tree with the rune carved so deep into it that there was dried sap all over it. The sap had dripped out like blood when they mangled the tree.


    ¡°Yeah. That is overkill.¡± The cuts were at least eight inches deep in the big tree. ¡°I don¡¯t know if the tree is dead, but that mark will be there forever.¡±


    ¡°I wonder if this is it. Or if there is more to the spell.¡±


    ¡°I think there is more. This looks like it¡¯s perfectly in the corner of a perimeter.¡± I was looking back the way we hade and calcting the angle that we were at from the center of the clearing. ¡°I am betting that there is more, one in each corner.¡±


    ¡°Then let¡¯s go.¡± Reece took my hand and started to move.


    When we found the second mark, I knew I had been right. I also called the others over and told them what we had found. With their help, we found thest two marks instantly.


    ¡°This is serious.¡± I looked at the tree that was closest to Dietrich¡¯s house. ¡°They are hiding from you. And you were his friend. Why hide now?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. But I don¡¯t like this. Let¡¯s head back and talk this over. I want toe up with a n ande back tomorrow morning. I agree with you Trinity, these people seem to only move at night, so seeing them during the day is better.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± With that, we headed back to Dietrich¡¯s castle to prepare for the next phase of this mission.


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 Chapter 871

    Chapter 871: Chapter 56- Talia ¨C Heartbreaking Call (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    I was not allowed to go with my parents to look for the house of Uncle Dietrich¡¯s old friend. I don¡¯t know why they were so worried about me going with them. It wasn¡¯t like I was going to be in any danger. This man was someone that Uncle Dietrich knew really well. He lived with him for a long time. They worked together. And, on top of that, these people that we were supposed to be going to see were his descendants. Wouldn¡¯t they know of Uncle Dietrich? Wouldn¡¯t they wee him with open arms? Wouldn¡¯t they be happy to see him?


    Whatever, I didn¡¯t really care anyway. I mean, what would it matter to me? I was just here, away from home, away from my siblings, away from my friends. I wasn¡¯t the one that wanted to be here in the first ce. I wasn¡¯t the one that begged to be here. I was brought here because I was supposedly needed.


    Yeah. I was needed. To release the souls of the dead from their bodies. And to talk to them and find out what happened to them before they died. It¡¯s not like that was a vital part of this case or anything. It wasn¡¯t like they couldn¡¯t have done all of that without me. Nope. I was totally useless and not needed.


    ¡°Hahh!¡± I sighed as Iid on the bed in the room that I was given. ¡°I know that I am just being overly dramatic, but that doesn¡¯t help me to feel any better.¡± I was talking to myself, but Lex thought that I was talking to him.


    .....


    ¡°Come on now, Talia. It¡¯s not that bad. From my perspective, this is the better option.¡± I lifted my head and red at him as he stood by the door.


    ¡°That¡¯s just because you don¡¯t want me to be put in danger. But I wouldn¡¯t be in danger, Lex. I can take care of myself, and you and Rudy would be there too. I don¡¯t need someone to coddle me. I need to live my life.¡± I could see the heartache in Lex¡¯s eyes. He probably wanted me to have a more free life, something that wasn¡¯t so restricted all the time. However, it was also his job to protect me. If I had a free life, he wouldn¡¯t have a job. Also, this world and the way that it was, was exactly the reason that I needed a bodyguard in the first ce. There was always something or someone out there to get me or someone else. There was malice, heartache and terror waiting around every corner. Or that was what I was led to believe about the world.


    My parents didn¡¯t try to teach me this stuff though. No, they would never try to scare us into fearing the world. But, well, when you can talk to the dead, you learn about the horrors of the world that the rest of your siblings will never know about. That¡¯s a good and a bad thing really. They were sheltered and I knew the truth. Both had their ups and downs.


    ¡°We made a deal, remember Talia.¡± Lex smiled at me. He was trying to bribe me into behaving better.


    ¡°I am not doing anything wrong. I am just venting my frustrations. We all need to vent sometimes, Lex. Even you. Though you never vent to me. I know that there is a lot that you must be feeling at times.¡± I was giving him a knowing look, trying to get him to talk.


    ¡°I cannot vent to you, Talia. You are still so young. Not to mention that you will use everyst thing that I told you to ckmail me for something that you want.¡± He was smiling as he spoke, so I didn¡¯t know if he was being serious or not.


    ¡°I resent that. I wouldn¡¯t use it all. Just the really juicy stuff.¡± Iughed at him, hoping that he was joking with me and that I was returning the gesture.


    ¡°Ha ha ha! See, that is what I mean.¡± He wasughing, so that meant that it was a joke given and returned. That was good. Sometimes, it was hard to tell with Alexio. ¡°You can vent though, Talia. I know that you are sensitive and that keeping them bottled up too long is not good for you. And I would never tell anyone your secrets. Your words and your body are safe with me.¡±


    I know that he was referring to my physical safety, but I shuddered when he said that. My body was safe with him? What was happening to me? Why was I suddenly thinking like some sort of deviant? I mean, I am only fifteen, Lex would definitely not be thinking about that. Not yet anyway. And, anyway, he was like a thousand years old. I was guessing about that since I had never asked him. I should probably do that sometime, shouldn¡¯t I? Maybe I will do it right now.


    ¡°Hey, u..uh..uhm, Lex, h..how old a..are-.¡±


    ¡°Talia, Alexio, I need you two toe down to the dining hall now. Rudy is already here. There is much to discuss.¡± My mom¡¯s voice interrupted my question as it spoke to me, and apparently Lex, telepathically.


    ¡°I guess it is time to go. Perhaps your parents want to talk about what they found over dinner.¡± Lex smiled at me. ¡°What were you asking me anyway?¡± He seemed to remember that I was saying something. I didn¡¯t want to chicken out. I wanted to know the answer to that question.


    ¡°Oh, uhm, I was just wanting to know how old you are. I have known you for eleven years now and I don¡¯t know how old you are. I think that is actually quite rude of me.¡±


    ¡°Where did thise from all of a sudden?¡± He wasughing like it was some sort of a joke. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t really know how old I am. Time moves differently in the underworld. I know that I was created sometime toward the end of the Roman Empire. Constantine had just be the emperor, and there was a lot of turmoil between the supernatural on Earth and the leaders of the underworld. There were also wars that were happening and an influx of souls that wereing to the underworld as well. I was needed to fight in battles and to guard the souls that were travelling into their afterlives.¡±


    ¡°That long ago?¡± I was blown away. It was the year two thousand and forty. And if I remembered correctly, which I know that I did, Constantine became emperor in the year three hundred and six. So that meant that Lex was ¡®created¡¯ one thousand seven hundred and thirty-four years ago. And he looked like he was in his mid-twenties. If you factor that in, he was over seventeen hundred and fifty. I could officially say that my mind was blown.


    ¡°Yes. But again, I was in the underworld for most of that time. And I do not know how the difference in time speeds affects my age. That is why I said that I don¡¯t really know.¡± He was smiling through all of this. He was acting like he wasn¡¯t officially the older person that I knew. Like, seriously Lex? What the hell?


    We walked in silence the rest of the way to the dining hall. Lex led me to my seat that was next to Mom¡¯s and then stood behind me like a good bodyguard should. He never really ate with me like the others did. He always preferred to stay alert for danger, even when we were in a safe ce like this. I guess I was just now starting to appreciate how much he cared for and protected me.


    ¡°Hi Mom. Hi Dad.¡± I smiled at them. ¡°Did you find anything important?¡± I didn¡¯t want them to know that I was upset earlier, so I was being positive and upbeat right now.


    ¡°Well, we found something.¡± Mom took a drink from the cup in front of her. It smelled like it was some sort of alcohol. It must have been a rough day.


    ¡°They are hiding the house from us. We will be breaking down the defenses tomorrow so that we can investigate the house itself.¡± Dad added. He too was taking a drink of alcohol. They were all drinking, based on the scentsing from the cups. Only Rudy was sitting nearby with juice that matched my own.


    ¡°That is odd.¡± I tried to be understanding, but I hadn¡¯t been there, so I didn¡¯t know the situation. ¡°Is there anything at all that I can do to help you guys? I want to be a part of this.¡± I was hoping to be invited tomorrow, but I wasn¡¯t going to hold my breath.


    ¡°No. It is best if you wait here. We don¡¯t know what is going to happen at that house. With the precautions that they are taking, they might not be friendly at all.¡± I sighed once I heard that answer, even though I had been expecting it.


    ¡°OK.¡± I nodded, surrendering to my fate.


    ¡°Look, Talia, we just want to-.¡± Mom was starting to exin something to me but at that moment, her phone started to ring. However, hers wasn¡¯t the only one that started to ring. Dad¡¯s, Uncle Vincent, Uncle Gabriel and Uncle David also grabbed their ringing phones. The five of them answered the calls at the same time and started to talk.


    It was a little hard to concentrate on all of them at the same time, so I just focused on my mom, who was right next to me.


    ¡°Hello?¡± Mom was a little confused when she answered the call.


    ¡°Trinity.¡± It was Uncle Jackson on the other end of the call.


    ¡°Jackson? What is going on? Did something happen?¡± Mom knew that something had. Why else would there be this mass call and panic session going on?


    ¡°There were more murders.¡±


    ¡°I suspected that. It has been five days. We are making progress though. I am sure that we are getting close to the killers. There is a lead here in Germany that we are following.¡± Mom exined to him what had been going on.


    ¡°There is more.¡± Uncle Jackson continued. ¡°They have targeted a new area.¡±


    ¡°Where are they this time?¡± Mom asked him.


    ¡°Here. In the US. There were five murders along the California coast betweentest night and early this morning.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± I didn¡¯t me mom. Even I was having a hard time processing what Uncle Jackson had just said. ¡°Are you sure that they are the same? The methods were the same? These aren¡¯t copycats or anything?¡± Mom didn¡¯t want to believe this, and neither did I.


    ¡°I am sure, Trinity. They were all killed the same way. Though there was one difference in one of the cases. I will tell you about that when you get here. But, please, hurry back. We need to get to work on this as soon as possible.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I understand. We will leave here right away. Give us at most an hour. We need to pack. Though I am not even sure if we need to do that. We can send for the rest of our stuffter. This is important.¡± I could already see my mom starting to stand up. We weren¡¯t even going to eat dinner. ¡°See you soon, Jackson.¡±


    ¡°I will send you the location of the murders. Rawlynne and I will be at the first one. Meet us there. ¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± Mom nodded and then ended the call. Dad and the others had hung up as well.


    ¡°This is bad.¡± Dad said without being prompted. ¡°We need to leave right now.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡± Mom nodded as her phone pinged. That was the list of locations. I didn¡¯t know why these people had chosen another location for the murders, but it looked like they were moving closer to my home, and that was really scary. I was instantly afraid for my family and my friends.


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 Chapter 872

    Chapter 872: Chapter 57- Trinity ¨C A Change Of ns (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    We were just about to eat dinner at Dietrich¡¯s castle when all hell broke loose. Me, Reece, Vincent, Gabriel and David all got calls at the same time. I believe that it was a coordinated effort, or a terrible twist of fate, that all the calls came in at once.


    I took the call from Jackson about the fact that five more murders had happenedst night. And they had all happened along the California coast. That was not good. These people were expanding their territory, and they were heading to the center of our poption. Not only that, but they were closer to where my children were.


    Also, I had a feeling that now that these people had reached the United States, they were going to focus their efforts there. They were going to seek victims there for the foreseeable future.


    ¡°Dietrich.¡± I called out to him, my heart heavy with anger and fear.


    .....


    ¡°Yes, Trinity?¡± I think he knew what I was going to say. He wasn¡¯t stupid, and he could already guess what was happening.


    ¡°We need to leave. We need to investigate these murders. And, apparently, there was something new at one of them.¡± I remembered the tone that was in Jackson¡¯s voice. There was something about it that had sent shivers down my spine. Something had happened that was bad, really bad.


    ¡°I understand. However, I must stay here.¡± That was also something that I expected. Dietrich and I were probably thinking about the same thing right now.


    ¡°I know. You and Shawn stay here. The two of you can investigate here. Come back when you are done, and do not forget to contact me when you know what is going on there. Anything that seems relevant, contact me right away.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± He nodded at me to let me know that he was in agreement. ¡°However, I do suggest that you eat before you leave.¡± He gestured toward the food that was being carried in. ¡°You will need your strength to check out these murders. Wendall and Re will gather your things for you while you eat.¡±


    ¡°Yes, King Dietrich, we will do so right away.¡± The man, Wendall, nodded and agreed. The woman just nodded at his words.


    ¡°That would probably be best.¡± I sat back down. ¡°Who knows how long our night will be now. I mean, it is stillte morning in Colorado, and an hour earlier in California. We were about to relive most of this day. Getting something to eat now would be the smartest decision that we could make right now.


    We sat together then, eating the meal that Dietrich¡¯s staff prepared for us. It was good, but once again different than what I was used to. I think that I was just getting homesick for the food that I was used to having on a regr basis. Thest time that I was away for this long I had been in France. Well, there was also the time that I was in the underworld, but I didn¡¯t eat any food while I was there. I didn¡¯t even know how long I had been gone until I made it home.


    Once we had eaten and our things were packed, it was time for us to get ready. No one was really talking about what was going on. I think we were all just in a state of shock at the moment. These murders were so close to home. We were already devastated by what had been happening, but now there were more murders that were happening in our own backyard. What the hell was going on here.


    We were preparing to head to the first murder. It took ce in Waterton, California. It was a smaller city that was on the coast about an hour or so from Los Angeles. There had also been murders in Crescent City, Shelter Cover, Elk and Davenport. Those were also cities that were along the California coast. All the murders had, apparently, taken ce on the beach and the bodies were left on the sand. They had found the bodies this morning, all except for the one that we were going to first. That one, apparently, they had found the bodyst night. Someone had seen the victim moments after they had been killed. Maybe, just maybe, they had seen the killer as well.


    We were going to open the door into the office of the local vampire n¡¯s leader. Her name was Veronica and she was about thirty minutes away from Waterton. It was the closest that we could get to the scene though, unless we wanted to be seen by a lot of other people.


    The door was ready, thanks to an image that Jackson had made sure that I had. And once it was opened, we said our goodbyes to Shawn and Dietrich before walking through. Reece first then me, and of course we were followed by the others.


    Veronica¡¯s office was old fashioned but also sleek. That was hard to pull off in my opinion. It was also done in all pure whites and dark cks. Theypletely contrasted with each other as I looked around. It was difficult on my eyes, but I managed it.


    ¡°Wee, Queen Trinity. I am happy to wee you.¡± Veronica smiled as she bowed to me.


    ¡°Thank you, Veronica.¡± I nodded at her. ¡°I am sorry that you cannot meet Dietrich. He had some business to attend to in Germany. Perhaps he wille along at ater time.¡±


    ¡°That is quite alright. I have met my King already.¡± She seemed nice enough, but I didn¡¯t really get the feeling that she was happy to have a room full of wolves in front of her. ¡°Mr. Jackson is waiting outside. He will guide you all to the crime scene. My people are offering as much assistance as we can.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    With that, we left her office and found Jackson and Rawlynne waiting for us outside.


    ¡°Trinity!¡± Jackson came running up to meet me and Reece. ¡°I am d that you are here. We need to get a move on soon. If we can, I would like to visit all of the scenes today. I have not met with any of the other local leaders, but I did bring the helicopter here. I hope you do not mind. With that, we can fly from scene to scene without the doors. And without stepping on any toes.¡±


    ¡°That is fine, Jackson.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°Thank you for thinking of the things that needed to be done.¡±


    ¡°David.¡± Rawlynne, who clearly missed her husband, saw him finallying out of the office. He was near the back and only just made it to her line of sight.


    ¡°Rawlynne, sweetheart.¡± He hugged her as he caught her in his arms.


    ¡°I am d that you are safe. That you all are. It has been quite stressful for everyone involved. We need to end this as soon as we can. If we don¡¯t, they will break more than a hundred with their victim count.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± David pressed his forehead against his wife¡¯s as he spoke. ¡°We are working on it. Shawn and Dietrich are investigating a mysterious mansion in Germany tomorrow morning. Well, tonight for us now. And when that happens, we are hoping that we will find some more information.¡±


    ¡°Good. Because this is getting to be ridiculous.¡± Rawlynne shook as if the anger, frustration, and heartache was getting to be too much for her. It wasn¡¯t a shiver or anything. It actually looked more like she was trying to shake off the feelings that were bothering her.


    ¡°We don¡¯t have a lot of time to waste. Let¡¯s get going.¡± I changed the subject back to the topic at hand.


    ¡°Yes. Come now. We need to hurry.¡± Rawlynne agreed.


    ¡°You will know why we called you here first. There is something that happened here that didn¡¯t happen at the other scenes.¡± Jackson seemed angry about something. That was off. I didn¡¯t know what was up with him, but I knew that he, like the rest of us, was not having a good time with all of this.


    ¡°Go on, lead the way.¡± I nodded at him.


    We followed the two of them out of the house and to the waiting vehicles. We didn¡¯t have a ce to leave Talia and her guards right now, and we were heading straight to the crime scene, so she wasing with us. I guess it wasn¡¯t that bad, all things considered. She had been to crime scenes before. It was just investigating that house that Dietrich was taking us to that I was worried about. I had a bad feeling about that ce.


    ¡°Out of curiosity, is there a ce that we will be able to sleep tonight?¡± Shane asked from the back of the car that we were riding in.


    ¡°Well, if we were staying here, there might be an option.¡± Reece answered. ¡°Some council members have a house in Waterton, but I don¡¯t know if they are home right now. However, there was a murder in Crescent City. We know the Alpha there. In fact, we are rted to him. We will ask to stay at his ce. That is assuming that he and his kids aren¡¯t filling every room that they have.¡± Reeceughed as he thought about something.


    ¡°Hmm.¡± I tried to think about who he was talking about. ¡°Oh, yeah!¡± It finally hit me. ¡°Star and Artem are from there aren¡¯t they. I guess we will finally be able to see them again. It¡¯s been a long time. And we¡¯ve all been so busy with our own lives. We haven¡¯t seen any of their kids in so long. How many do they have now, seventeen, eighteen.¡± I thought about howrge their family was.


    ¡°Eighteen. Thirteen adopted boys, two biological sons then triplet girls. They will take a while to beat if we keep having more.¡± Reeceughed at me, and I wanted to smack him.


    ¡°I can cut that thing off, Reece.¡± I red at him. ¡°I am not saying that I won¡¯t have anymore kids ever. I am just saying that we do not need to be rushing this.¡± I rolled my eyes at him. ¡°Now, behave yourself, Horndog. I am going to send a message to Star. I want to let her know that we will be thereter today to investigate and that we will need amodations for eleven people.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, yeah, I know. I will be quiet.¡± Thankfully, he kept his word and I was able to make the preparations that I needed to. It was all set and the rooms that we needed would be ready before we got there to investigate tonight. It pays to have connections.


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 Chapter 873

    Chapter 873: Chapter 58- Trinity ¨C Talia¡¯s Dream (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It was almost like those convoys from years ago. All these big SUVs moving together. All of them are uniform ck and sleek. It was clear that ¡®wealthy¡¯ and ¡®important¡¯ people were traveling in thisrge group. They weren¡¯t therge ck SUVs that Reece had used when we were investigating the disappearances of the kids when we were getting married, but it was close enough. For one thing, those SUVs were twenty years old now and they were considered ¡®obsolete¡¯ with how the technology had advanced.


    There were a lot of things about cars and their features that had improved, but I was d that one thing didn¡¯t be the societal norm. Those self-driving cars, while still popr among some people, weren¡¯t as widespread as their creator had intended for them to be. Not everyone wasfortable with a car that was taking the control out of their hands. This might say more about us as people than anything else, but that sense of security from that control was a necessary thing.


    Other than the self-driving feature though, things hade a long way with cars. They were a lot more environmentally friendly, they had a lot of safety features to make them virtually impossible to crash unless you were trying to smash into something, and they were a lot morefortable than I remember them being when I was a teenager. Does that make me sound old? I feel like it does.


    Anyway, the new tech aside, the SUVs were all traveling together in a long convoy just like they did back then. Reece and I were in the same SUV with Shane and some of our luggage. Talia was driving with Alexio and Rudy. And Gabriel, Vincent, and David were in thest one. Jackson was driving for us, Rawlynne was driving for David and the others, and Alexio was driving for Talia. I guess it was pretty good at least we were all together in a way.


    .....


    We drove right up to the beach in the vehicles. There was a parking lot that was roped off and signs stating that the beach was closed. I knew the reason for it, and clearly the public did too. All of the gathered crowd were trying to see past the police line as they gawked at the scene.


    ¡°Why are they looking?¡± Talia asked as we got out of our SUVs. She wasn¡¯t asking me specifically, but as I was nearby, I answered for her.


    ¡°People are curious beings. They look at these scenes and want to know what happened, who the victim was, what happened to them, who the killer was. They see it as entertainment.¡±


    ¡°That is just sick.¡± I could tell that she was heartbroken. ¡°Don¡¯t they care that this used to be a person?¡± She was ring at the people that were pushing past each other to see more of what was happening.


    ¡°Some people do, but not most of them. They feel that as long as this didn¡¯t happen to them or the ones that they love, then it doesn¡¯t matter. It¡¯s just a story. It¡¯s just entertainment. It¡¯s just something that they are hearing about. They can¡¯t rte it to their personal lives because it has nothing to do with them personally.¡± I could understand why Talia was upset. She was just now getting a taste of what the real world was like. I wanted to shield her from this, at least a little longer, but I couldn¡¯t. She was with me right now, and she was going to be exposed to it throughout this case.


    ¡°Do they not have a heart? Can¡¯t they see that this was a person that suffered?¡± There was a thickness to her voice, something that spoke of heartache and pain.


    ¡°Theyck the empathy to do that, Talia. That is the problem. Many people in this world, more than I would like to admit, don¡¯t even understand the word empathy, let alone experience for themselves. They¡¯ve closed themselves off and don¡¯t care about the people and things that don¡¯t directly affect them. It¡¯s a sad truth, but the truth it is.¡±


    ¡°I guess people wouldn¡¯t be able to kill others like this if they had empathy. The fact that there is so much pain and loss in the world tells you that there is a seriousck ofpassion and empathy in the world.¡± She was crying now. Just a single tear trailing down her cheek as I looked at her face, but it was there.


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± My voice was filled with pain and loss. I knew what she was feeling, but I couldn¡¯t make it go away. She was an empathetic person. And one that felt things so much more strongly than others. ¡°Come on now, Talia, we need to see the crime scene.¡± I held my hand out toward her and wrapped it around her shoulders when she came closer to me.


    I was guiding Talia toward the location that the other investigators were at when I felt Talia freeze.


    ¡°Huh?¡± Her voice was filled with surprise, like she was sure about what she was seeing.


    ¡°What is it?¡± I asked her and noticed that Alexio was paying attention to what was happening as well.


    ¡°I..I feel like I¡¯ve been here before.¡± She was looking around her and taking in the whole scene. ¡°I mean, I have seen this ce before. I have seen it all, but it was nighttime.¡±


    ¡°Talia, you have never been here before.¡± I was confused. I knew that she was remembering something with full detail, that was just how her mind worked, but she had never been here before, of that I was certain.


    ¡°I know that I have never been here before, but I feel like I have. I mean, I remember being here. Yet, I also know that we have never visited this ce together as a family. I..I don¡¯t know how to exin it.¡±


    We started to walk again, but the moment that Talia¡¯s feet touched the sand, she froze again.


    ¡°No. It can¡¯t be. This just can¡¯t be. It¡¯s not real. I am just imagining things.¡± She started to walk again before I could ask her what she meant.


    ¡°Talia?¡± I called after her, she had stepped away from me and was walking alone. Reece, Alexio and I were having to catch up to her.


    ¡°No.¡± She was shaking her head back and forth. ¡°No.¡± She was just repeating that over and over again.


    ¡°Talia?¡± I called out to her again, but she had already gotten to where the body had been found. And that was where she froze once again.


    ¡°No.¡± She was still shaking her head. ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Is she alright?¡± A man that looked like a police detective asked me as he stared at Talia.


    ¡°She will be fine.¡± I reached out my hand toward him. ¡°I am Trinity Gray. We were called in to investigate.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. I know who you are.¡± He grinned at me. ¡°My name is Abraham. I was called in to help as well. There are a lot more nonhumans in this area than there used to be, and I have been put in charge of them. We mostly have water folk here. I am sure that you know a few of them. However, we also have argemunity of magic users.¡±


    ¡°Who was the victim?¡± Reece asked as he came to stand next to me. He was zing over what Abraham had said.


    ¡°Her name was Andrea.¡± This didn¡¯te from the man in front of me, the man that smelled like he was from the sea. There was a strong scent of salt and brine around him, more than what the beach should have had.


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± He looked at Talia then, and so did I.


    ¡°Talia? How do you know that?¡± I couldn¡¯t stop myself from asking her. I didn¡¯t think that she had made contact with the soul yet, so she shouldn¡¯t know this yet.


    ¡°Her name was Andrea. She was around twenty or twenty-two years old. She had bright red hair that had been in a high ponytail. It looked short but it was actually long if you stretched out the curls. Her eyes were bright green. She was close to six feet tall, but not quite there. She was thin and very feminine looking. She was wearing a white summer dress with flowers on it and white strappy sandals.¡±


    ¡°That is all correct.¡± Abraham was staring at Talia like he was more curious about her than the murder.


    ¡°She was waiting for a date. The girl she was waiting for was named Ashlynn. That was who found her. A man killed her before then. He was of the same group of killers that we are chasing, but he did something that the others didn¡¯t do. He still carved the runes into her. He still left the words that the others did. He still ripped her heart out of her chest. But this man, this time that he killed someone, he raped her. He vited her and told her that it was the first time that he had done it. Before he ripped out her heart, he told her she was a good fuck, but yed for the wrong team. He did all of that to her, and still he killed her.¡±


    Talia was crying, full on sobbing, by the time that she was done telling us what she had to say. I didn¡¯t know how she knew about this stuff, but she did. And judging by the look on Abraham¡¯s face, she was right about it all.


    ¡°How do you know that?¡± He demanded as he red at her. ¡°How could you possibly know all of that?¡±


    ¡°I..I dreamed it. I didn¡¯t know that it was going to happen for real, but I dreamed it. I..I saw it days ago. When my parents were out for the night. When I.. when I woke up the next morning, I checked to see if there had been any murders that night. When I learned that there had not been any, I thought that I had just let the horrors of the case get to me. B..but it was real. It was all real. It just hadn¡¯t happened yet.¡±


    Talia nearly copsed then. I was going to grab her and help her, but Alexio was faster. He lifted her off the ground and cradled her like a child in his arms.


    ¡°It was real. It was all real.¡± She was sobbing harder and harder and that was all that she was able to say.


    ¡°Alexio, take her to the car. I will talk to her soon.¡±


    ¡°Right away, Queen Trinity.¡± He nodded and they walked off. This was a development that none of us were expecting.


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 Chapter 874

    Chapter 874: Chapter 59- Alexio ¨C Coming Back To Haunt Me (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Alexio


    ~~


    When I followed Talia and the king and queen onto the beach, I never thought for one moment that anything that had happened recently woulde back to haunt me. I didn¡¯t think that something that seemed so innocuous would end up being so important.


    It was just a dream. It was just a nightmare that Talia had had the other night. It wasn¡¯t anything to be worried about. I couldn¡¯t have known. I couldn¡¯t have predicted this. I couldn¡¯t. And yet, I should have. I should have seen thising. Nothing should be taken at face value when you are protecting someone that is as special and powerful as Talia Serene Gray.


    For eleven years I have guarded her. For eleven years I have watched her grow and develop her powers. I know better than almost anyone what she is capable of. I should not have pushed off that dream as just a dream. I should have looked into it. I should have made sure that there was no way that it was real. Not with how much detail that Talia had told me was in the dream.


    Talia had not gone into detail about what she had seen. She had used vague wording to tell me that it was a crime scene, very much like the ones that we had been to dozens of times before. I, like her, thought that it was just an echo of the trauma she had suffered from seeing all of those images.


    .....


    Had I known, for just one moment, that it was more than just a dream I would have done what I could. I would have tried to save that girl. Not just for her. Not just so that someone wouldn¡¯t have had to die. But for Talia too. I would have done what I could to make sure Talia didn¡¯t have to suffer from this emotional trauma.


    Does that make me a bad man? Does putting my future queen above the welfare of the dead woman make me somehow evil? Well, if it did, then I didn¡¯t care. Talia was what mattered to me. She was the one that I was sworn to serve and to protect. And that meant that I would worry about her safety, mental, emotional and physical, before I worried about anyone else¡¯s.


    When I got back to the SUV with Talia in my arms, I opened the back door and slid in with her on myp. She was like a little kid again. I was holding her andforting her like I used to do when she was five, six, and seven years old. That was around the age that she stopped showing that much emotion. That was the year that she said she was going to grow up and be an adult so that she didn¡¯t get scared or sad anymore. She has always been a strong person, but she just has such a big heart that she needs to hide it from the world.


    ¡°Talia?¡± I called out to her as I rubbed her back.


    ¡°I could have saved her, Lex.¡± She was still crying, but it was quiet and soft now. She wasn¡¯t sobbing like she had been earlier.


    ¡°Did you know where the dream took ce?¡± I asked her. ¡°Did you know it was here in Waterton, California?¡± She had not mentioned that to me before. If she did know, I was sure that she would have known that it was not just a dream.


    ¡°No. But I knew that it was in the States somewhere. I didn¡¯t know where, though.¡± She admitted this in a weak voice.


    ¡°Then, how could you have stopped it, Talia?¡± I would have helped her stop this, if I could have. But I didn¡¯t want her to me herself because she wasn¡¯t able to.


    ¡°I could have looked for her. I could have tried to find her. I could have tried.¡± She was crying a little harder now.


    ¡°Listen to me Talia.¡± I made her sit up and look at me directly. I made her pay attention to me. ¡°You didn¡¯t know that it was real. You didn¡¯t know where the girl was. You didn¡¯t know anything at all about what was going to happen. You could not have stopped it. And I need you to stop ming yourself.¡± I was half scolding her and half consoling her. She needed to know that this was not her fault, but she wouldn¡¯t ept it if I wasn¡¯t firm with my words.


    ¡°But, Lex.¡± She shifted on myp so that she could look at me better. ¡°I should have known. It was different from the other murders. I should have known that it wasn¡¯t a memory of the old ones.¡±


    ¡°You still wouldn¡¯t have been able to stop it.¡± I put my hands on her shoulders and stared into her eyes. The way that she was sitting, she was not much shorter than me. And it also didn¡¯t help that my knees were bent enough that she was raisedpared to what she would have been otherwise.


    ¡°I can¡¯t, Lex. I can¡¯t just let it go.¡± I saw her eyes start to darken, the water glistening in them as she was starting to cry again.


    ¡°Talia, you are strong, you are powerful, you are a queen and a goddess. You are so many different things Talia, but that does not mean that you can do everything. You have to rely on others. And you have to know when things are beyond hope and when they are not your fault. You didn¡¯t do anything wrong. You didn¡¯t have anything to do with that girl being killed. Stop ming yourself and just learn from this moving forward.¡± My voice was still firm but I was trying to help her as much as I could. I cared for her and her emotions more than I ever thought was possible. She was my best friend and my only constantpanion. I hated seeing her like this.


    ¡°Thank you, Lex.¡± She finally conceded to me as she lowered her head. She leaned forward and rested herself on my shoulder. I felt like she was hugging me, taking some sort of warmth orfort from me. That was also when I noticed the way that we were sitting.


    Yeah, I would say that it was a good thing that her parents weren¡¯t here right now. With her straddling myp and resting her head on my shoulder, we were way too close and intimate forfort. Well, theirfort. I didn¡¯t care since I was charged with protecting her. I was never going to hurt Talia. Not now, and not ever.


    It took a few more moments for her to calm down. When she did, she shifted and started to climb off of myp. That was a little better, all things considered. She was sitting on her own at least, so when the others came back, they wouldn¡¯t think that I was doing something wrong. I never would do anything like that to Talia. She was my Queen. That would be wrong of me to even consider.


    ¡°Talia.¡± I called out to her again now that she was no longer feeling as emotional as she had been.


    ¡°Yes, Lex?¡± She turned to look up at me.


    ¡°We need to go to the morgue soon. You need to release that girl from her body. You know how they suffer when they are trapped.¡± I was reminding her of the next steps. It would be better to do that here and now while we were alone. If she were to get upset again, then I would be able to calm her down before the others came back.


    ¡°I know.¡± She nodded at me. She didn¡¯t argue. She didn¡¯t say anything to oppose it. She just rested her head on my arm and looked out the window. ¡°I will help her. And I will help them all. It is something that only I can do after all. And I will never give up, Lex. I will never stop. Not until these people are caught and punished.¡±


    ¡°And how should they be punished?¡± I asked her, not sure if she had the conviction to say what I knew needed to be said.


    ¡°I have all of eternity to figure that out after they are executed.¡± She turned to look back at me with that carefully crafted mask that she wore when she was eight. When the voices in her head took on physical forms for her to see. This was the look that she said made her an adult. This was the look of her anger personified.


    ¡°That is a good way to put it, Talia.¡± She was right, though. Once she became the ruler of the underworld, then she would be able to make sure that these people got their punishment to its fullest. She would be able to see to that personally. And knowing how much she was suffering right now, I knew that she was not going to let these people off easily.


    It was a little while longer before the others came back. They had been investigating the scene of the crime before it was time for us to head over to the morgue. Even if that wasn¡¯t where they were nning on going next, it was where Talia and I were going to make them go. This was important. And I would make sure that Talia had that small amount of closure. She deserved at least that much. She deserved more, but that was all that I could offer her at this very moment.


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 Chapter 875

    Chapter 875: Chapter 60- Trinity ¨C The Intense Investigations Continue (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After I had Alexio take Talia back to the car, it was time for us to investigate the scene. It was simr to most that we had been to, except for the fact that the girl had been raped by her killer as well. That was a first, and it might provide us with some semnce of information that we might need.


    The same words were found at the scene as we found at all of them, but that was essentially it. There were cameras near the parking lot that we were going to be getting the footage for, but that was about as good as we were going to get. Hopefully that would give us something to go off of.


    I was also struck by the fact that this killer didn¡¯t lure the victim out like the others had been. Before, the victims¡¯ souls had recounted that they seemed to be called out from inside their homes and lured to this ce so that they could be attacked and killed. This girl was here by chance. She was meeting a girl for a date. This man that found her knew what she was and chose her because she happened to be there. I don¡¯t know if that was somehow worse or not. Either way, I was pissed that there was still someone like this killing my people.


    There wasn¡¯t much for us to learn here, so we headed back to where we had parked. I was leaving Shane and David behind so that they couldb for witnesses and any residual evidence that I might have missed. I wanted to get the full story from Talia, as well as observe the body. Not to mention that Talia needed to free the soul from the body as well. And that was best done sooner rather thanter. No need to let the girl suffer even more than she already had. And we had four other bodies to see as soon as we could.


    .....


    While walking back to where we had parked, I could see Alexio and Talia in the SUV. It¡¯s a good thing that I knew that Alexio would never do anything to Talia. Because he was sitting with his arm around her,forting her as she calmed down. Talia was also leaning against his arm, her head resting against him. If she were older or if there were other things going on between the two of them, I knew that Reece would not be very happy with the way that scene looked.


    From an outsider, it might appear that there was more going on between the two of them. I knew better though. I knew that Alexio was nothing more than a good friend and pseudo family member to Talia. She loved him, but it was a tonic love. Not to mention that Alexio respected Talia too much to take advantage of her. He wanted to serve her when she became queen, and he couldn¡¯t do that if he crossed a line. Still, it was a sight that would give most people pause. That was for sure.


    ¡°Are you feeling better, Talia?¡± I asked her as she exited the vehicle. They had seen using and had moved to greet us.


    ¡°Yes, I am.¡± She was nodding. ¡°I am sorry that I lost myposure.¡± She was hanging her head in shame like she had done something wrong.


    ¡°It¡¯s alright, Talia. You experienced something quite traumatic. It is understandable that you would have a reaction like that.¡± I didn¡¯t want her to feel responsible for what had happened, so I was taking the me off of her as much as I could. I didn¡¯t want her to think that she had done anything wrong here. She was just trying to help us out on a case that I involved her in. She shouldn¡¯t have had to see that in the first ce.


    ¡°I will tell you about the dream, Mom, I will. However, I want to go and help her first. OK?¡± She seemed firm in her resolution about that.


    ¡°That¡¯s fine, sweetheart. We can go there now. You can tell me about the dream as we fly to the next scene.¡± I offered her a solution and she nodded immediately to agree.


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    We loaded back into the SUVs, leaving one behind for Shane and David when they were done. Then, with somber faces and heavy hearts, we drove to the coroner¡¯s office. The coroner and the morgue that the body was in, was located in the hospital. I almostughed when I saw the name of the hospital. It was called Trinity Memorial. Also, along the way, we passed by St. Reece¡¯s high school. I couldn¡¯t contain myughter about it and almost made Reece, who was driving, lose hisposure as well.


    In the hospital, Abraham led us to the morgue that was located in the basement. I never understood why they always put the morgue in the basement. Was it so that it would seem that much more creepypared to the rest of the hospital? I don¡¯t know, but it was just odd, and I didn¡¯t like it.


    ¡°Hey Doc.¡± The man that was in the morgue called out when Abraham led us into the room. ¡°Are these the ones that you were telling me about?¡± The man that was talking looked to be in his early twenties. He was average looking with brown hair and eyes, a slight build, and paleplexion. I could tell he didn¡¯t get much sun.


    ¡°Yes, these are them.¡± Abraham looked back at me. ¡°This is Queen Trinity Grey and King Reece Grey. Their daughter Princess Talia, and the entourage that they are traveling with are their guards and other employees.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s nice to meet you.¡± The man nodded his head after Abraham introduced us. ¡°My name is Dr. Emmet Long. I would have liked to meet with King Dietrich, but I understand that he had other business to attend to.¡± That answered that question, Dr. Long was a vampire.


    ¡°It is nice to meet you.¡± I nodded and shook his hand. ¡°Yes, Dietrich has business in Germany at the moment. He will be joining us at ater date.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s cool. I will meet him eventually. He is a legend to us all, and I can tell you that I would love to meet with my King.¡± This man was young, but not as young as he looked. Still, he was someone that Abraham trusted so I didn¡¯t have to worry. Not to mention Vincent or Gabriel would tell me if there was someone that we shouldn¡¯t take at face value. It was nice having their powers in the group.


    ¡°Now, can I back you up for a moment? Did you call Abraham Doc?¡± I was confused at the moment. That was an odd nickname for a detective.


    ¡°Yeah. He¡¯s a doctor, so why wouldn¡¯t I?¡± Dr. Long looked confused.


    ¡°Really? I thought that you were a detective since you were helping with the investigation.¡± I was eyeing him with suspicion.


    ¡°Sorry for the misunderstanding. I am not a cop at all. I am just in charge of this area when ites to nonhumans. About fifteen years or so ago, I was named the leader of this area. When there were more nonhumans that moved into the surrounding cities and whatnot. There wasn¡¯t a big poption of them to begin with, and the main shifters that live here are from the water. So, they got someone from the water to keep an eye on things. And to be clear about it, I am one of thest sea dragons in existence. My wife and I live happily with our children in this very city.¡±


    ¡°Oh, wow. I did not expect that.¡± Reece was just as shocked as I was. ¡°It¡¯s cool to meet a dragon though. I thought that they were truly just myths.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha. You should know that all the myths are true.¡± Abrahamughed in response. ¡°Now that this little misunderstanding is cleared up, you can call me Doc. Mostly everyone does ever since my brother inws started calling me that a long time ago. They even work for you. I don¡¯t know if you knew that. They¡¯ve been with yourpany since graduating.¡± Doc was smiling as if he was talking about his kids and not his brother-inws. ¡°Ocean, Makai, Ben and Ryan Waters. They are good kids. Though I guess they¡¯re not kids anymore.¡± Heughed.


    ¡°That¡¯s cool. I will look them up.¡± Reece grinned. ¡°Now, sorry to cut the reminiscing short, but we should get back to work here.¡±


    ¡°Ahh, yes, I am sorry. I sometimes get nostalgic and go off on tangents.¡± Doc looked embarrassed. ¡°That is just part of the territory when you are almost two hundred years old.¡±


    ¡°I get that. Dietrich does it all the time.¡± Reece sighed sympathetically. ¡°The two of you would probably get along really well.¡±


    The talk died down as it should have, and that was when Dr. Long led us over to where the body was. It was in another of thoserge drawers that pulled out. Until this case started, I had only ever seen them in movies and on TV. Now I was seeing them all the time. I didn¡¯t like this, I wasn¡¯t in the profession of death, so I didn¡¯t want to see it on a daily basis. I wanted to help my people live and survive. And here I was not even able to solve these murders. I couldn¡¯t help anyone at all. I couldn barely keep up with these people and all that they were doing to my people.


    I was such a failure.


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 Chapter 876

    Chapter 876: Chapter 61- Talia ¨C Andrea (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    The man named Abraham, who wanted us to call him Doc, had led us to the morgue. That was where I was going to see Andrea in person. This was where I was going to get to see what happened to her with my own two eyes. Not inside my head as a dream.


    Dr. Long led us to the drawer that she was in and pulled it open. I had been focusing on this so much that I basically spaced out ny percent of the conversation that my parents had had with Doc. It didn¡¯t matter to me anyway. I was here for Andrea and nothing else.


    The body was covered in a sheet. That sheet was pooled next to her slight frame since she didn¡¯t take up much room on the metal table or under the sheet. She was thin, delicate, and feminine. She looked more like a Fae than a witch. I wasn¡¯t sure what she was yet, but just looking at her a little bit like this, that was the impression that I got from her. When I saw her in my dream, I knew that she had magic, but I didn¡¯t know what kind.


    ¡°D..do you know what she was? A witch or a Fae?¡± I asked Doc and Dr. Long.


    .....


    ¡°Why did you ask that? How did you know that she was one of them?¡± Dr. Long looked at me with curiosity.


    ¡°Well, for one thing, she doesn¡¯t smell like a shifter. Her scent is too subtle for that. There is no real citrus scent to her either, so I am leaning toward Fae, however, she is dead and her scent has already begun to fade, so I don¡¯t know if that is affecting this or not. Also, I saw her murder in my nightmare, and I knew from then that she had magic. It practically shined from her skin. She was lovely. I loathe the moment when the sheet is moved and I see the look of death in her eyes, I have remembered the way she looked while alive.¡± I exined this to the man while he and all the others, including my parents, looked at me with shock in their eyes.


    ¡°Talia, why didn¡¯t you tell us about this dream?¡± My dad was still curious.


    ¡°I thought that it was just a dream. When I awoke the next morning and there were no dead girls named Andrea that were reported, I thought it was an borate nightmare that my brain concocted for me. I know better now, but it is toote to save her now.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not your fault, Talia. You didn¡¯t know that it was prophetic. This has never happened before.¡± Mom was trying to make me feel better. She had been doing it since they got back from the crime scene.


    ¡°OK, I don¡¯t know what¡¯s really going on here, but to answer your question, Princess Talia, she is a Fae. Well, half Fae. She has been living here with her family for thest ten years. Her brother ising in soon to make the positive ID, but her girlfriend already confirmed it to the police as well.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± That was all that I said as I walked to Andrea¡¯s side. I needed to look at her. I needed to free her soul. I needed to help her.


    I was the one to pull the sheet aside. I was the one to reveal her to us all. And I was slightly relieved when I did too. She was still wearing her dress. It had not been removed for evidence yet.


    ¡°Why weren¡¯t her clothes collected?¡± Uncle Vincent asked when he saw her. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t they be collected for evidence?¡±


    ¡°They will be. It¡¯s just that we were told not to do anything to the body until after the king and queen had been here.¡± Doc responded as he looked at Uncle Jackson.


    ¡°This is better.¡± I told them. ¡°She won¡¯t be naked when she moves to the afterlife.¡±


    I didn¡¯t say anything else after that. I just started to pull her soul out of her body. Slowly and steadily, I worked to make sure that this was not painful for her at all. I was already hearing her sobbing voice. I had noticed it the moment that I entered the room, I had just chosen to not acknowledge it.


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Andrea. You will be free soon.¡±


    All eyes were on me as I freed the girl from her body. I had to ignore them as well, so that I didn¡¯t lose my focus. I was not going to let this girl feel more vited and betrayed than she already did. She needed me. She needed my help.


    ¡°Hello, Andrea.¡± I spoke softly with a friendly look on my face. Though, I did not have a smile as I spoke to her.


    ¡°W..where am I? W..what happened to me?¡± She was scared and that was understandable. She was looking all around the room, and finally saw her body on the table behind her. ¡°A..a..am I dead?¡± She started to sob and wail louder than before.


    ¡°Yes, Andrea, you are. I am here to help you move on, but first I would like to talk to you. I want to catch the man that did this to you.¡± She looked back at me with wide, frightened eyes.


    ¡°I..I was murdered. I was raped and murdered. H..he did this to me. H..he killed me, inside and out.¡± She was crying. The ghosts of tears streaming down her cheeks until they would have fallen to the floor, at that point, they just disappeared. The tears were only real to her. They didn¡¯t have a physical substance in the world anymore. I don¡¯t know why, but seeing that, witnessing the way that a soul cried after it was dead, that was somehow more heartbreaking than anything else.


    ¡°Is there somewhere that I can go to talk to Andrea?¡± I turned to ask the two doctors as they gaped at me.


    ¡°T..to talk to the v..victim?¡± Dr. Long looked like he thought that I was crazy.


    ¡°Talia can see, hear, and free souls. The victim, Andrea, was trapped inside of her body. Those runes that were carved into her body trapped her and made her aware of all that was going on around her. That was why you were told not to do anything to the body. The soul would feel the pain of the autopsy.¡± I swear both of those men looked at my mom like they had just had their minds blown. I hadn¡¯t known that Uncle Jackson and Aunt Rawlynne knew about this, but they just lowered their heads like the others did.


    ¡°That is horrible!¡± Doc seemed to physically grow in size when he said that. ¡°These people are assholes, and they need to pay for this.¡± He was fuming. ¡°Talia, you can use Dr. Long¡¯s office. It¡¯s right over there.¡± He pointed me in the right direction and Lex immediately put his hand on my arm to guide me. He and Rudy, along with Andrea, went with me to the office to talk about what had happened. I didn¡¯t know why I was going to ask the girl about this, I had seen it all. But, well, I guess there was something that I might not have noticed. It was worth a shot at least.


    I tried not to look back as I was led out of the room. I didn¡¯t want to see her lifeless bodyying there on the table. I didn¡¯t even want to see her soul here next to me, but I was going to do it anyway. And I looked back as well. I don¡¯t know why, but I did.


    I saw that the rest of them were still talking, but Dr. Long was getting ready to perform the autopsy now. He and Doc were starting to gently remove the clothes from Andrea¡¯s body. She was nothing more than an empty shell now. The husk that held her soul. She couldn¡¯t feel what they were doing to her. She didn¡¯t know anything about it now. And even so, I was sorry for her. She was going to have an autopsy. Her body was going to be cut open. She was going to suffer. Not physically, not mentally, but still, her body was going to be mutted and scarred for all of eternity.


    ¡°I need to stop this.¡± I whispered to myself. ¡°I need to make sure that no other people go through this. I need to make sure that there is less suffering in the world.¡±


    Lex gripped my shoulder then. He didn¡¯t say a word, but I knew that this was his silent agreement. He was going to be there with me. He was going to help me. He was not going to let me take on this fight alone.


    That was thest that I saw of Andrea¡¯s physical body. She was stillying there on the table, but I couldn¡¯t see her now. It was just her soul in front of me and, thankfully, that did not reflect the damage that the man had done to her. In this form she looked sad and heartbroken, but she was not damaged. Even her dress was not ripped. She looked the way that she did in my dream, if maybe a little muted. Souls always had a little less color to them than the physical body, that was just normal for me.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get this talk started.¡± I nodded as I steadied myself as I went to take a seat.


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 Chapter 877

    Chapter 877: Chapter 62- Talia ¨C Andrea Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    Andrea sat across from me and looked scared. There were only the chairs that were surrounding the desk, so she was sitting in the one for visitors and I was sitting in Dr. Long¡¯s chair. Rudy stood near the door, and Lex stood behind me.


    ¡°Andrea, I know what happened to you. So, I don¡¯t really need the full details. What I want to know from you is if you had ever seen the man that attacked you. Did you know him from somewhere else?¡± She wasn¡¯t looking at me though, she was looking at Lex where he stood behind me.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Andrea. I am the only one that can hear you. They can¡¯t see you or hear you. That may sound sad in a way, but you don¡¯t have to worry about them hearing what you say.¡±


    ¡°O..OK.¡± She looked a little more rxed when I said that. ¡°W..well, I..I uhm, I think that I saw him once before. I hadn¡¯t met him, but I remember seeing him. He was at a bar that I was atst night. He was staring at me, but he seemed to get angry when I was dancing with Ashlynn. Oh, w..well, I guess that was two nights ago now. B..but that was the night that Ashlynn asked me out. I went to school with her, the same high school ss, and I liked her a lot. We never came together then, but we were now. I was happy that she asked me out.¡±


    .....


    ¡°OK, so he stalked you in advance. Did he say anything to you when you saw him the other night?¡± I needed to know this, if there was anything that would lead us to capturing him or the others then that would be great.


    ¡°He didn¡¯t call out to me directly, but he yelled at us. I think he said something along the lines of getting out of there because we were polluting his air. I thought that he meant he didn¡¯t like that we were lesbians, but, uhm, I think he meant that we weren¡¯t human. H..he called me a witch. That isn¡¯t true, though.¡±


    ¡°I know. You¡¯re a Fae. I am part Fae as well. My aunt is Queen Gloriana.¡±


    ¡°You know Queen Gloriana?¡± She looked a lot more at ease when I said that.


    ¡°Yes. I do. Now, is Ashlynn Fae as well, or is she something else?¡±


    ¡°No. She¡¯s a selkie. She moved here when her family found out that there were sympathetic humans and merfolk living here. That was why my family moved here. I am a Fae, but I am descended from Water Fae.¡±


    ¡°I can appreciate that. I am descended from Prince Valerian.¡± I was not trying to name drop here, just to get her to trust me.


    ¡°Prince Valerian is a wonderful man. He is powerful and kind.¡± She looked like she was in awe. ¡°I..I don¡¯t know much else than that. I saw the man at the beach and he did something to hypnotize me. Th..then he attacked me. He cut things into my body, he raped me, and then he ripped my heart out. It was awful.¡± She was sobbing again. There was no stopping that.


    ¡°Can you tell me what the man looked like, Andrea? I couldn¡¯t see his face in the vision that the gods sent to me.¡±


    ¡°You saw it?¡± She looked appalled.


    ¡°I am sorry, but yes. It was sent to me as a nightmare. I am sorry that I couldn¡¯t stop it from happening.¡±


    ¡°That is fine. You weren¡¯t really there.¡± She was so forgiving that I couldn¡¯t believe it. She deserved happiness, not this sad end to her life. ¡°I did see his face. And I saw it at the bar as well. I can describe it to you.¡±


    ¡°That would be good, Andrea, thank you.¡± I smiled at her. ¡°Let me find something to draw with.¡±


    I felt bad rummaging around Dr. Long¡¯s office, but I had no choice. I needed a pen and paper. The pen was easy to find, it was sitting in the holder near themp on his desk. The paper was a little more difficult. Most everything that I came across was some sort of document that had something written on it already. I couldn¡¯t use that because I didn¡¯t know what was important and what wasn¡¯t. I was about to give up when I thought about something. I don¡¯t know why it took me so long to realize this.


    Dr. Long had a printer behind his desk. In the printer there was a tray of paper. I could just borrow a few sheets from there. It was that simple. So simple in fact, that I felt stupid for it taking me so long to realize it.


    ¡°Alright Andrea, I have what I need. I am sorry that it took me so long.¡± She just nodded at me and didn¡¯t say anything. ¡°I am going to ask you some questions about the man, and you can tell me about him, alright. Just picture him in your mind and remember everything that you can. The main focus here is his face. Any scars, his hair color, eye color, facial hair, all of it. Do you think that you can do that?¡±


    ¡°Mmhmm.¡± She nodded and hummed her agreement. ¡°I can do that. By the way, you are really young looking for a cop.¡± She smiled a little, almost like she was halfway flirting.


    ¡°I am not a cop. I am here with my parents as they investigate. I was brought in because I can talk to souls like you.¡±


    ¡°Oh. Who are your parents? And what is your name? I..I think that it would be easier to talk if I knew who I was talking to.¡±


    ¡°My parents are Trinity and Reece Gray.¡±


    ¡°Th..the king and queen of the shifters and magic users? That is your family? No wonder you said that you were rted to Queen Gloriana. Everyone knows who they are.¡± She was definitely in awe.


    ¡°It is just who they are to the world. To me, they are just my mom and dad. And me, by the way, I am Talia.¡±


    ¡°You are Princess Talia!?¡± She was even more in awe. ¡°All of the Fae know that you are already selected to take over the underworld. No wonder you can see souls.¡± I didn¡¯t know that I was a celebrity to these people. It was kind of odd. In a way, I didn¡¯t think that it was possible for them to know me at all. Not aside from those that had met me directly.


    ¡°Yes, I am Princess Talia. But for now, I want to focus on you, Andrea. You and your memories. What color of hair did this man have? How was it cut?¡±


    ¡°O..oh, yes, back to that.¡± She was easily distracted, and I needed to make her focus. ¡°The man had ck hair. It was short, just about an inch and a half long maybe. It was long enough to be styled but not so long that it would hang down and cover his eyes when it wasn¡¯t styled.¡±


    ¡°That is good.¡± I nodded at her. ¡°How about his eyes? What color and shape were they?¡±


    ¡°Th..they were hazel, I think. Something with green and brown mixed. They weren¡¯t remarkable. Just normal eyes. I can¡¯t really describe the shape. Oval, that is all that I can say.¡±


    ¡°Alright. What about his nose, can you describe it?¡±


    I continued to walk Andrea through the description. It was long and tedious, and I was sure that the others would be done before we were. Still, I wasn¡¯t going to show frustration or annoyance of any kind. Andrea didn¡¯t deserve that. She was coping with this the best that she could.


    In the end, I had an image that looked like someone that might be the killer. He looked like an average Caucasian male, nothing out of the ordinary. No visible tattoos, no scars, nothing distinguishable at all. He was just a normal looking person.


    ¡°Why is it that he doesn¡¯t look like a monster?¡± I whispered to Lex after sending Andrea to the underworld with Lucifer.


    ¡°I do not know, Talia. It would help if the evil truly were marked by their sins. Then we would be able to find them easier.¡± He seemed to agree with me.


    ¡°You¡¯ve got that right.¡± I rose to my feet and looked at the door to the morgue. ¡°We¡¯ve got to give this sketch to my parents. And tell them to go to the bar that she was at. Maybe that girl Ashlynn and their friends saw the man as well. And, hopefully, that bar had security cameras. Then we can get an actual image of this man out there for people to see. And that will be one step closer to ending this whole ordeal.¡±


    ¡°You did well, Talia.¡± Lex congratted me. ¡°I am happy that the girl had you here to help her. There is no other person in the world that can do what you do.¡±


    ¡°If you are trying to tell me to stay strong and not let things get to me, you¡¯re wasting your time.¡± Iughed at him. ¡°I know what this case is like, and I begged to be included in it. I am not going to bail on them now just because I saw the murder before it happened. If anything, that is just going to make me more determined to stop these people.¡± That was the truth, and Lex needed to know it. He seemed to be digesting those words as he escorted me back to the others. I hoped he would help me next time, if there was another dream that is.


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 Chapter 878

    Chapter 878: Chapter 63- Trinity ¨C Interviewing The Witnesses (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After Talia left the room, we inspected the body of the dead girl. There was nothing new, aside from the sexual assault that she had endured before she was killed. That had literally been the only difference with this case. Well, that and the fact that she seemed to be a random person that the killer found on the beach.


    When we were done with the examination, Talia was still in the office with the girl¡¯s soul. I didn¡¯t know what was taking her so long, so I decided to call the witnesses in for an interview. The first witness was the girl¡¯s brother. He needed to identify her body and tell us what he knew. I didn¡¯t know what it was that he would know, but there was something apparently. Though he wasn¡¯t present at the scene of the murder.


    ¡°Hello Nick, my name is Trinity Gray.¡± I held my hand out to him when he came into the room. He recoiled at first then pushed through the apprehension that he was feeling to take my hand.


    ¡°I..it is nice to meet you, Queen Trinity. I wish it would have been under better circumstances.¡± The boy was half Fae, and that was easy to tell. He and his sister both had true red hair. It wasn¡¯t a color that was normal for humans. I knew instantly that he was something more when I saw him.


    .....


    I also saw that he was heartbroken. He knew that something happened to his sister, and that the body here was indeed hers. He was just here as a formality.


    ¡°M..my sister wanted to meet you. Sh..she knew that you weren¡¯t our queen, that is Queen Gloriana. However, like all of our people, she revered you. You are our goddess. And that means a lot to us.¡±


    ¡°I wish that I could have met her.¡± I spoke somberly as I answered him. ¡°And I promise you, we will find this man that did this to your sister. We will not rest until they are all captured.¡±


    ¡°I feel much better knowing that the Goddess Queen is on the case. You are an amazing woman, Queen Trinity, and I know that you will get justice for my sister.¡± There was heartache and sorrow filling his voice. It was thick with grief and harder to understand than it might normally have been. I could understand what it was that he was going through. I had had grief in my past as well.


    ¡°Can you tell me what you remember fromst night? What happened?¡±


    ¡°Well, my sister went to meet Ashlynn at the beach. They were going on a date together. Ashlynn asked her out the night before and Andrea didn¡¯t want to wait for it. She wanted to go right away. I called her to make sure she got to the location safely. I worry about her, she is my sister after all, I love her.¡± He started to cry. ¡°She was my sister, and I loved her.¡±


    ¡°She may be gone, Nick, but she will forever be your sister. And you will always love her, even though she is no longer with you.¡± He looked up at me with red rimmed eyes then. It was almost as if he was trying to say thank you for the words that I had given him.


    ¡°You¡¯re right, Queen Trinity. She will never stop being my sister. She will just be in my memories and my heart now.¡± His smile was bittersweet, but I could tell that he was feeling a little better. ¡°A..anyway, I called my sister and we were joking. She was excited and I told her to tell me how the date went after it. I just wanted to know if she had a good time. Not long after I called her, she told me that she thought that Ashlynn was there, she was going to end the call, but she spoke to someone else before she did.¡±


    ¡°What did she say?¡± I was guiding him so that I could get the information.


    ¡°She said something like, ¡®you¡¯re not Ashlynn¡¯. I was instantly worried and started to yell. I called her name and asked what was going on. Then a man with an ent said, ¡®give me that¡¯. She agreed and after that the call ended. I don¡¯t know why my sister went with him or why she gave him her phone, but I know that she wasn¡¯t a meek person. She would have fought him. She would not have let him do this to her without a reason.¡±


    ¡°We will get to the bottom of this, Nick. I promise.¡± I put a hand on the man¡¯s shoulder and squeezed it. It was a little hard since he was almost as tall as Reece, but I managed it. ¡°Would you like to see your sister now?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to, but I have to. I need to know for sure. I already know it¡¯s her, but I have to see it with my own eyes for me to ept that she really is gone.¡± I was d that we only investigated the body and that the autopsy hadn¡¯t beenpleted yet. That would have been harder on this man.


    ¡°Come with us. We will take you over there.¡±


    I walked hand in hand with Andrea¡¯s brother until we got to where she was in the morgue. Dr. Long, without a word, opened the drawer and pulled the table out. He didn¡¯t extend it all the way, just enough for Nick to see the girl¡¯s face and know for sure that this was his sister. After it was partially extended, Dr. Long took the sheet and lowered it so that we could all see the pale face and red hair.


    ¡°Andrea!¡± Instantly, Nick started to lose hisposure. ¡°Oh my Goddess, Andrea. Why? Why did it have to be you? Why? Andrea?¡± He was sobbing now, on the verge of copsing to the ground. I was holding him up just fine, his weight nothing for me, but Reece and Vincent came over to help relieve me of my burden.


    ¡°Come on, son, let¡¯s go sit down.¡± Reece soothed him as he took his right arm.


    ¡°Come on, over here Nick. We¡¯ll get you settled on the bench. Come on.¡± Vincent spoke calmly as he took Nick¡¯s left arm.


    ¡°Why? Why did he take my sister? Why?¡± Nick was sobbing almost uncontrobly. His words were hard to understand as he screamed through his heartache. ¡°Why my sister?¡±


    Reece and Vincent got the man seated on the bench and together we worked on calming him down. For the most part though, we just needed to let him cry it out. He was still young, and he had just saw his murdered sister, that wasn¡¯t easy on anyone. Even my dad was still like that when he thought about his sister¡¯s death, and it had been almost forty years. He didn¡¯t sob like this, but he would cry at random times when he is reminded of her in some way.


    Once Nick was settled down, I had Jackson walk him back out of the morgue and see that he was OK before he left. I also gave Nick my business card and told him to call me if he remembered something else or if he needed me for any reason at all. I didn¡¯t want his emotions to be overwhelming. In fact, I was thinking of sending Juniper on a mission to visit some people that have lost their loved ones. She would be able to alleviate some of their pain.


    When Jackson came back from escorting Nick, he said that the man was still very distraught, so he was having a uniformed officer, a Merman, drive him home. No one wanted him toe to any harm while on his way. The uniformed officer was going to drive the man¡¯s car and then ride back to the station with his partner. I thought that this was a great idea and thanked Jackson for being so considerate of the young man.


    ¡°I think that young man is going to need someone to watch after him.¡± I spoke out loud, but not to anyone in particr.


    ¡°I will make sure that he is taken care of.¡± Doc responded as he looked at the door the man had left through several minutes earlier. ¡°It is my job after all.¡± I could tell that at times like this, he hated his job. At least this particr part of the job. He seemed to have a lot of hats to wear, just like Reece and I did. There were a lot of responsibilities for people that led others.


    ¡°Thank you, Doc.¡± I turned to smile at him, I was also nodding my head as if I was agreeing with him. ¡°I can tell that you care a lot about your people. I know that it can be difficult to handle things like this, but in times of hardship like this, it is when you are needed the most. They will be relying on you. And your response to this situation will determine how they see you in the future.¡±


    ¡°Well, I guess the pressure is on.¡± Doc smiled but he didn¡¯tugh. I didn¡¯t think that he could bring himself tough at the moment. It would have been too difficult with the lingering emotions in the room. ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry though, Queen Trinity. I will take care of my people. I will be there for them, and I will make sure that they know they have someone to turn to in this dire time.¡±


    ¡°Do me a favor as well, Doc.¡± I gave him a serious look, feeling the weight of the situation bearing down on me.


    ¡°What¡¯s that, Queen Trinity?¡± He looked curious, but also worried.


    ¡°Tell them what happened. What really happened. Tell them that there is a group of killers out there. And tell them to be careful. I don¡¯t want to see more people getting hurt because their leaders remained silent. Tell everyone that you can. I will be sending out a notice to all leaders again, but thest time they were ignored. People don¡¯t know what is happening in the world. They need to be prepared. They need to be safe. And they can¡¯t do that if they don¡¯t know what is going on.¡±


    ¡°I understand, Queen Trinity. I will tell them. I will make sure that the word is spread to as many people in the world as I can. I will tell them that no nonhuman is safe. They need to take precautions. They need to protect themselves.¡± Doc waspletely serious now. That was good. I didn¡¯t want more senseless murders to happen because the leaders of the various packs and ns didn¡¯t tell their citizens like I had told them to. I didn¡¯t want to see more of my people lying on these metal bs with their hearts ripped from their chests. I didn¡¯t want any of that.


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 Chapter 879

    Chapter 879: Chapter 64- Trinity ¨C Interviewing The Witnesses Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Next, it was time to call in the girl that had found the victim. She would be able to tell us more of what happened, or what the scene looked like. Ashlynn was called into the morgue, though Andrea was covered back up and stored in the drawer so that she would not cause the same hysterics as she had for Nick.


    ¡°Hello, Ashlynn.¡± I reached out to take her hand. ¡°I am Trinity Gray.¡±


    ¡°H..hello, Queen Trinity. Th..thank you for meeting with me.¡± She was a pretty young girl, she was clearly a water shifter. She had a beautiful warm mochaplexion that just made the bright green of her eyes pop. She had beautiful chocte brown hair with the most adorable curls that bounced when she walked. She was shorter than Andrea, but she didn¡¯t seem to let that get to her. She was about my height though she seemed to carry herself like she was over six feet tall. She was definitely a confident person, even though she was feeling distraught at the moment.


    ¡°Ashlynn, can you tell us what happenedst night?¡± I asked her to exin things to me, but I didn¡¯t lead her to where to start.


    .....


    ¡°W..well, I had asked Andrea out on a date. We were both excited and we were meeting at the beach because we both love the water. I was running just a few minuteste because there was a lot of traffic and a train that stopped me on my way. I was only five minute past the meeting time when I got there. I didn¡¯t see Andrea where she was supposed to be, and she had texted me that she was already there. I did see her phoneying near the parking lot though. It wasn¡¯t broken or anything. It had just been cast aside. I started to look around for her and that was when I saw that there was someone out on the sand. They were past where the lights reached, but the man had on a silver cloak that was glowing in the moonlight. When I started to walk over there, I saw the man leave, but he just disappeared. It was like the moment that he was moving, he was invisible. B..but where he had been was Andrea. She wasying on the beach with her dress ripped. She was covered in blood, a..a..and he..her heart.. her heart had been ripped out. It wasn¡¯t there though. H..he took her heart. A..and her underwear had been ripped off. S..s..so I knew then that.. that he had raped her. If I hadn¡¯t beente. If I had left ten minutes earlier, I would have been there before her. If I wasn¡¯tte, th..then Andrea would.. Andrea would still be alive.¡± She was sobbing while she spoke. She stuttered a lot, but I managed to make out what she was saying.


    ¡°This isn¡¯t your fault, Ashlynn.¡± I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and soothed her. ¡°This man is the one to me, it is not your fault.¡±


    ¡°If I wasn¡¯tte though, th..then he wouldn¡¯t have been able to.. he wouldn¡¯t have been able to hurt her.¡± She turned toward me and pressed her face into my neck as I held her against me. ¡°I..I failed her. I never even got to tell her that I loved her all throughout high school. I was just too stupid to realize it.¡±


    ¡°I am sure she probably knew. It¡¯s easy to tell when you love someone that much. And I can tell you that Andrea is probably happy that you weren¡¯t there to get hurt. If you had been there when the man showed up, he might have gotten you both. Andrea wouldn¡¯t have wanted that. She was a strong woman that would have wanted to protect you.¡± I was trying my best tofort this girl. It wasn¡¯t easy though, since I didn¡¯t know her personally.


    ¡°I wanted to save her, to protect her. I wanted to be with her. Now I can¡¯t. Now she has been taken from me.¡± Ashlynn was still crying into my neck as she clung to me.


    ¡°She will always be in your heart and your memories. Never forget her, Ashlynn. Always keep her memory alive.¡±


    ¡°I..I will. I promise I will.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good. And I promise you that I will catch this man. I will get justice for Andrea. I promise you that I will.¡±


    ¡°Th..thank you, Queen Trinity.¡± The girl continued to cry for a little while. When she was done though, Rawlynne took her upstairs and had another uniformed officer take her home. It was best to be careful with them both. I didn¡¯t want these people to get hurt from not paying attention on their way home, escorts were a good idea here.


    ¡°Keep an eye on her as well, Doc. Both of them are not doing well. I am guessing it is the fact that they were both in contact with the victim so close to her death. But they need some time to heal, and someone to help them.¡± The words were out of my mouth without me even nning to say them. It was just something that needed to be said so it forced its way out.


    ¡°I will, Queen Trinity. I will.¡± He nodded in agreement.


    It was just after Ashlynn left that Talia finally came out of the office. She had Alexio and Rudy with her, but I had no way of knowing if Andrea was still with her or not. When she saw me looking at her and the area around her curiously, she spoke up.


    ¡°Andrea has moved on. Lucifer took her to the underworld for me.¡±


    ¡°L..Lucifer?¡± Dr. Long sounded shocked by the name. Doc looked shocked too, but he didn¡¯t say anything.


    ¡°Talia has been receiving lessons from the current leaders of the underworld for eleven years now. Lucifer is one of them. And, oddly enough, he is quite the nice man. All things considered.¡± Alexio was the one to answer that for us.


    ¡°Oh.¡± The two men said together.


    ¡°Who would have known.¡± Doc shrugged. ¡°Well, Talia, did you learn anything else? Or is there anything that you can tell us?¡±


    ¡°Ashlynn said that the man disappeared when he moved.¡± I told her. ¡°Do you know if that happened when Andrea saw him?¡±


    ¡°I think that Andrea saw him the whole time. She was following him. However, he disappeared in my dream as well. I think it was the cloak. It was hiding him thoroughly. I didn¡¯t even see him when he was standing still, just his cloak and his gloved hands.¡±


    ¡°Ahh, so we won¡¯t be getting fingerprints from the cell phone then.¡± Jackson sounded a little defeated as he said that. It was a depressing development, but we were used to it.


    ¡°However, Andrea saw his face, quite thoroughly at that. And I have a sketch of him.¡± With that, Talia handed the paper in her hands to me and then looked at Dr. Long. ¡°I am sorry that I went through your office to find something to draw on. I ended up taking paper from the printer, which I should have done in the beginning.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Princess Talia. I am not worried about you stealing something from there. Everything important is locked away, and you don¡¯t seem like that type of person.¡±


    ¡°This is a very detailed image, Talia. You managed to get her to describe him very well.¡±


    ¡°I was asking about him bit by bit. I didn¡¯t want her to remember the whole face at once, just one piece at a time. That way she wouldn¡¯t get overwhelmed by it all.¡±


    ¡°That was a good idea.¡± Rawlynne praised her. ¡°You would have a future inw enforcement if you weren¡¯t already set in your ns.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Aunt Rawlynne, that means a lot to me.¡± Talia smiled at her.


    Now that we have an image, we can use it to scan against different databases. We could find him if he had anything with his picture on it. And we had his DNA as well. He wasn¡¯t very smart when he decided to add an extra step in the process. This man should be easy to find and catch. I hoped anyway. And then when we found this one, we could locate all the rest of them.


    From Waterton we took a helicopter to the next murder site. It was in Davenport, California. There we met with the local leader of the felines. They had lost a werecat by the name of Pa. She was murdered like all the others but, thankfully, not sexually assaulted. The investigation and removal of the soul was a lot quicker than it had been in the past. This was mostly due to the fact that we were getting a system down, and there were so many of us now.


    From Davenport, we flew over to Elk, California and then to Shelter Cove. We repeated the same process there that we had in Davenport. Talia interviewed the soul and helped them to move on. The scene and witnesses were taken care of by the rest of us.


    Still, with how fast we were moving through these scenes, it was already getting dark by the time that we flew over to Crescent City. We would have to wait on that scene until tomorrow. Thankfully, we were able to fly straight to Star and Artem¡¯s ce, so we didn¡¯t need to be picked up at an airstrip. That was going to make things a lot easier on us all.


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 Chapter 880

    Chapter 880: Chapter 65- Trinity ¨C Visiting With Family (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    When the helicopternded outside the house, I was happy to see that Star and Artem were waiting there for us. Star looked basically the same, even after all this time. I hadn¡¯t seen her in a little over ten years, not since they came to see the quadruplets after they were born. She still had that long golden blonde hair and those deep blue eyes. She was taller than me by a few inches, but she was always so sweet and seemed so innocent that she felt like she was smaller than she really was.


    Artem was there too, looking just the same as always as well. His copper brown hair and bright green eyes made him stand out. Well, so did the fact that he was six feet three inches tall. That made him loom above the others. Most of the boys standing around him were topped out at around six feet tall, it seemed like only the two that were his naturally were as tall as him, or almost as tall as him. They were eighteen and seventeen and still growing just a little bit.


    There were only a few other boys there, a lot of them lived separately and had their own families now. The youngest of the adopted boys was in his mid twenties now, and the oldest, Julian, was thirty-four. Considering that Artem was only forty-two, that was quite the strange thing to think about. They all treated each other like family though, and Artem thinks of all those boys as his own.


    ¡°Trinity!¡± Star squealed when I climbed down from the helicopter. She ran over the moment that I was on the ground and hugged me tightly. ¡°It¡¯s been so long!¡±


    .....


    ¡°I know! And considering that we¡¯re cousins, I think that we need to see each other a lot more often.¡± I hugged her back. ¡°And, oh my Goddess! Look at them all! The girls have gotten so big, and the boys are proper men now. I can¡¯t believe this!¡± Their oldest biological child was just a month younger than Reagan and Rika, but it was still hard for me to process all of this right now. Knowing that they have grown up and actually seeing that they¡¯ve grown up are two different things entirely.


    ¡°I know what you mean! I know that Talia is there,st time I saw her she was five! Oh my Goddess, she is all grown up now.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t rush it too much, Star!¡± Reeceughingly cut in. ¡°She¡¯s only fifteen. Don¡¯t make her think that she can go off and get a boyfriend just yet.¡±


    ¡°Oh hush, Dad!¡± Talia blushed as she looked away awkwardly.


    ¡°Ha ha! I know the feeling, Reece. I got these three here. They¡¯re never allowed to date. Ever.¡±


    ¡°Dad!¡±


    ¡°Daddy!¡±


    ¡°Ohe on, Dad!¡± The three girls Elise, Isabelle and Oliviained while theyughed at him.


    ¡°These men are just babies when ites to their daughters.¡± Starughed as she took my hand. ¡°Come on you guys, let¡¯s go inside.¡± She took Talia¡¯s hand too and I saw that Alexio was not happy about that. He didn¡¯t really know Star, so he couldn¡¯t judge whether she was going to be a threat to his charge or not. I wanted to tell him that everything was fine, but I was too busy holding back myughter at the look on his face.


    Star led us to the dining room first. They had prepared dinner for us and were waiting for when we would arrive.


    ¡°I know that you have to be hungry, and tired. So, let¡¯s eat, then you can rest up and get to work in the morning.¡± Star was grinning at first, but then her face fell. ¡°I know that this is not the most ideal time for us to catch up and have a good time, but we haven¡¯t seen each other in so long and I was just so happy to see my family.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Star. I was thinking the same thing. We need to talk and rx. I think that getting our minds off of things for a little while will be a good idea.¡±


    ¡°Good. I¡¯m d. Artem made the meal tonight. He went all out and made everything that he considers his specialty. So there is a lot of food for you all to eat. As you saw outside, only Cohen, Dalton, Gil, Zack and Julian are here, they¡¯re the only ones that have graduated and moved away. ¡°Julian here¡±, she ran over to her son that was only two years younger than she was and hugged him, ¡°is here with his husband Spencer. And they have two children that are in the other room, they will be here soon. Twins named ir and ke. A boy and a girl. Can you believe that they¡¯re biological?¡± Star was bbergasted.


    ¡°I can, yes.¡± I nodded at her. ¡°We have friends that did the same thing. They have two sets of twins that are one boy and one girl each. It was quite the miracle.¡±


    ¡°I love the magic that works in our people. It¡¯s amazing.¡± She was practically squealing again. ¡°Altogether, Artem and I have fifteen grandchildren.¡± Sheughed but that blew my mind. I was older than her by a year and I didn¡¯t have any grandkids, thankfully. ¡°I guess that is what happens when you adopt a bunch of kids that are already older when you start having kids. You get grandkids so soon. I love them though. It keeps us all on our toes.¡±


    ¡°Congrattions Star, I can see how happy they make you.¡± Her beaming smile was well worth the visit here. I was d that we got the chance to see them. I just wish that it wasn¡¯t a murder that brought us all here.


    We started to eat our food after that. It was all good, as always. Artem is an amazing chef, I learned that when I was pregnant with Reagan and Rika and came here for the first time. He was always making the best meals in the world. Compared to Reece, he was world ss in cooking. Reece couldn¡¯t boil water even if he was given written instructions.


    OK, that wasn¡¯t fair. He could follow along if someone was there to help him, but he could never cook on his own. He was more of a ¡®monkey see, monkey do¡¯ kind of cook. He needed the visual every single time.


    After we were done eating, Talia went off with the triplets, Elise, Isabelle and Olivia. Of course, Rudy and Alexio followed them since it was their job. I could just imagine how that part of their conversation was going to go.


    Reece and I, along with all the others, went with Star and Artem to their parlor and decided to have a talk about what was going on. They needed to know more about the murders and how many there had been. They needed to know how to protect their people, and how to spread the word to the others around them. Artem, being a Noble in my kingdom, had a lot of clout among the people out here in this area. He would make sure that the wolves and other shifters in the area were taken care of.


    I also knew that Artem would have been among those that had investigated the scene earlier today. He would be able to tell us if there was anything out of the ordinary. Not that he knew what an ordinary one of these crime scenes looked like.


    ¡°It was horrible.¡± Artem started to recount. ¡°I was there with Kent and Toby to look into the murder of a shifter in the area. I didn¡¯t think that it was going to look like that though. They had strange marks carved into their bodies, their hearts had been ripped out, and there were these words written in blood. It was horrible.¡±


    ¡°What is worse, Artem, is that their soul is trapped inside of their body. That is why the local coroner was instructed not to touch the body until we got here.¡±


    ¡°Their soul?¡± Both Star and Artem gasped at that.


    ¡°How is that possible?¡± Star looked like she was about to scream.


    ¡°Those runes. They trapped the soul, and the victim was fully aware of what was going on when they were killed. And by that I mean when their heart was ripped out. They are still conscious and aware, and would feel the autopsy cuts.¡±


    ¡°How are you going to save them?¡± Artem couldn¡¯t believe what he had heard and was getting angry at the fact that someone had done this to another person.


    ¡°That is why Talia is here. She can release the soul and interview them. She is the only one that can do that.¡±


    ¡°Talia is that powerful?¡± They knew that she was going to be the next ruler of the underworld, but they didn¡¯t seem to know how amazing my daughter really was.


    ¡°Yes, she is. And that is why she came with us and not the others. She is needed.¡±


    ¡°Damn. I never knew that.¡±


    We talked a little while longer about what was going on and when we would be heading out in the morning. Of course, Artem and his friends wereing with us. They were his Beta and Gamma, so he didn¡¯t see a problem with it at all.


    For now though, we were being shown to the rooms that we were going to stay in. They were nice and luxurious, just like I remembered them being. And I was so tired that I fell asleep next to Reece almost instantly. Thankfully, I didn¡¯t dream about anything at all that night. I didn¡¯t want to see images of the dead or the heartbroken witnesses, so it was a good thing that they didn¡¯te to my dreams that night.


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 Chapter 881

    Chapter 881: Chapter 66- Talia ¨C A Night With My Cousins (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    I had not seen my cousins since I was little. Not since their whole family, all twenty of them, came to see us after Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley were born. In fact, there were a lot of people that came to visit us after the quads were born. I remember that back then, when Star, Artem, and the others came to visit us, their friends and family from Artem¡¯s side were there as well.


    I also remember that when I was a kid, I used to call them my aunt and uncle. I didn¡¯t really understand that Star was just another distant cousin of mine. You see, my mom was a many times a great grandchild to Valerian, one of the brothers to Aunt Glory. There were three of them, triplets. And their other brother was the only one that they thought was going to have any children, but he was also the one that died kind of young. His name was Sorrel, and his many times great grandchild was Star. Having such arge family that dates back thousands of years can be confusing. Especially when you consider that those rtives are still alive and have kids younger than me.


    Trying not to think about that too much, since it was a rabbit hole that always made me realize that my grandmother was also my great grandmother, or that my great grandfather was also my grandfather. All of that was due to a marriage between inws for my mom and dad and it was just so confusing that I tended to stay clear of it all.


    However, there was nothing at all stopping me from talking to my cousins Elise, Isabelle and Olivia. They were about a year and a half younger than me. They would be fourteen soon, but at the moment, they were just thirteen and seemed to be looking up to me like I was some sort of amazing creature.


    .....


    ¡°Talia, what¡¯s it like being on an investigation with your parents?¡± Elise asked me with an awed voice.


    ¡°Have you seen the crime scenes?¡± Isabelle asked me.


    ¡°Is it scary?¡± Olivia wondered with worry in her face.


    Honestly, looking at the three of them, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to tell them apart if it weren¡¯t for two factors. The first was that they were all wearing simr clothes, but different colors. They had the same sense of fashion, but different favorite colors. Olivia liked pink, Isabelle preferred yellow, and Elise¡¯s favorite was purple. That helped a lot in figuring out who was who. I remembered their favorite colors from when they were little. But also, I remembered that they had different personality traits. One of which being that Olivia was more skittish and Isabelle loved scary things. Also, Elise was the most curious of them all, even though they were all three prone to asking a million and one questions.


    ¡°Well, I didn¡¯t expect to be following them on this case.¡± That was the truth. ¡°I was brought in because of the souls. I..I am the only one that can free them from their bodies. So, yes, I saw the crime scenes, I saw the bodies, and sometimes it can be scary.¡± I looked over toward Rudy and Alexio that were standing guard in the room. I didn¡¯t want them thinking that it was too much for me.


    ¡°Tally?¡± Elise leaned in. ¡°Why do your guards follow you in the house?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s because they don¡¯t know you, and they are just worried about me.¡± I whispered back in response to her question. I could tell that Lex had heard us, but he was remaining silent about it.


    ¡°They¡¯re so cool. I know that we met them when we were little, but that was so long ago that I just don¡¯t remember them. They are also so good looking. That tall one is hot.¡± Isabelle was eyeing Lex with appreciative eyes. I knew that they were teenagers, but I didn¡¯t think that they would switch to this topic.


    ¡°Have you ever thought about how hot they are?¡± Olivia asked as she too leaned in. ¡°That short one is so sweet looking, he is more my type.¡±


    ¡°That is Rudy.¡± I exined to her. ¡°He is married and has a son named August.¡±


    ¡°Figures, a hot guy like that would be taken years before I be an adult.¡± She was grinning. ¡°Still, he¡¯s fun to look at.¡± Olivia was still eyeing Rudy, and I could tell that he was getting a little ufortable. He wasn¡¯t the type that liked this kind of attention.


    ¡°I am sure that there are men in your group that you like as well.¡± I was trying to make them think about other people.


    ¡°No. Most of the men around us we¡¯ve known since we were in diapers.¡± Elise rolled her eyes at the thought.


    ¡°Yeah, Daddy won¡¯t let new men around the house too often. He is way too paranoid for that.¡± Isabelle giggled. I didn¡¯t want to tell her that the reason that their dad was paranoid was because they were developing crushes on men that they don¡¯t even know. If they had strangers at the house, who knew what they would be like.


    ¡°You have to know some hot boys though, right Talia?¡± Elise jumped onto a new subject. It was not focused on my guards though, so I was good with that.


    ¡°I know guys. I am a senior now, so a lot of the guys that I know are older than me. And, well, there was this really cute boy in Ennd when we were investigating. He tried to talk to me, but it didn¡¯t really work out.¡± I remembered what happened that day andughed.


    ¡°Ooh, do I detect a story?¡± Olivia leaned in with her sisters. The three of them were smiling, giddy, and giggling. It was kind of nice, having a day that seemed so normal for once. I had been focusing so much on finishing school and going to college early. All of these things that were for my future were important and all, but I was forgetting to be a kid. I was forgetting that I was supposed to have friends.


    ¡°Well, it was kind of funny. He was talking to me, asking about me and all that. He was standing really close though, and he bumped into me just a little. I think it was on purpose, you know. Like he wanted to touch me or something. Well, the moment that he bumped into me, uh..uhm, someone said something to him. After that, my dad heard themotion and scared him off. He was so scared of being face to face with King Reece, and when he learned that I was Princess Talia, he just ran away as fast as he could. I didn¡¯t know what to do, but it was a little sad.¡± I sighed as I thought about it.


    ¡°Ooh, that¡¯s a bummer. Why would someone say something? It was just a bump, right?¡± Isabelle looked like she was feeling personally offended by what happened to me that night.


    ¡°Yes, just a shoulder bump. However, think about it from that person¡¯s point of view. I am the princess. I need to make sure that I act properly with everyone. That is just what it means to be me.¡± I was deliberately not telling them that it was Lex that stepped in that night. I didn¡¯t want them to think less of him. He was just protecting me. If slightly over protecting me.


    ¡°Well, you don¡¯t need to worry about being the princess today, Tally.¡± Elise sat so close to my side that she was pressed against me when she wrapped her arm around me. ¡°We¡¯re family and that means that you can be yourself.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right. Also, we¡¯re going to have an all out sleep over tonight. The kind you see in movies and stuff.¡± Olivia sat on my other side and mirrored Elise.


    ¡°That¡¯s right. We will do our nails and other beauty treatments, we will eat junk food, dance to loud music, watch movies, dance, and talk about boys.¡± Isabelle leaned against my back and hugged me around the neck. ¡°And best of all, there are no boys allowed. If they want to guard you, it will be at the door.¡± She turned to look at the men and smiled.


    ¡°I will tell them to get some rest. We have a lot to do tomorrow, so they need their rest. It¡¯s best that they take some time for themselves as well.¡± As I thought about it, I realized that Lex usually worked seven days a week. And those were long days that he spent with just me. I guess he didn¡¯t really have a life to live on his own. No wonder he hadn¡¯t found a mate yet. He never got out there to meet anyone. I should start making him take days off. He can go out into the city with Uncle Shane or something.


    It took some convincing, but I did manage to make the guys leave. And, of course, it took longer to convince Lex than it did Rudy. He was obstinate and refused to leave at first. Finally, though, he left and let me and the girls have a slumber party.


    And I will admit that it was one of the best nights that I had ever had. I got to stop worrying about being proper and behaving in front of my guards. I finally got to unwind. It felt amazing. And I will say that my skin and nails looked amazing afterwards.


    I hadn¡¯t known how much I needed this. A night to rx and unwind with some people that didn¡¯t care that I was the princess. They just wanted me to be me. And even though I was upte, I felt so refreshed in the morning. It was amazing.


    However, first thing the next morning, when Lex and Rudy were back on duty, it was back to being the proper Princess Talia that I always tried to be. Yes, there were times that I slipped. Yes, there were times that I wasn¡¯t perfect. I don¡¯t think that there has been a person in the history of the world that was able to be perfect one hundred percent of the time. Still, I tried. I worked hard to be the person that my family wanted me to be, the person that Lucifer, Hades, Hel, and the others wanted me to be. I pushed myself to achieve my goals and do what was expected of me. And that was fine, I made the decision to do that. But honestly, this one night of freedom from that was just what I needed to keep me going.


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 Chapter 882

    Chapter 882: Chapter 67- Reece ¨C Visiting The Scene With Artem Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    In the morning we all seemed to be a little more rested than usual. Maybe it was because we were able to rx here with Star and Artem. Maybe it was just being around friendly faces andfortable surroundings. Whatever the reason for it though, I was grateful. Even Talia seemed to be a little more rxed and happypared to how she had beentely. She was smiling and I knew that she and the triplets had enjoyed their night. I was just happy to see that she was having fun with them for the time being.


    After breakfast though, it would be time to get back to work. I tried to keep the topic light while we were eating, but there wasn¡¯t much that could make the death of so many of our people worldwide a light conversation.


    ¡°Reece, I am going toe with you.¡± Artem nodded at me. ¡°I know that, technically speaking, Crescent City has their own Alpha, but I am still going with you. I am the noble of this area and he answers to me anyway. So, with that being said, I want to make sure that I am on top of this.¡±


    ¡°Understood. We can use all the help that we can get to make sure that we solve these murders. As you know, there have been way too many victims. Over seventy of them now altogether. And I want to stop anyone else from dying.¡± I felt like a failure of a king and an Alpha. I had let so many people down, and it didn¡¯t look like it was ending anytime soon.


    .....


    ¡°We will make sure that it ends soon, Reece. I promise you that. I don¡¯t want any more people to die either. These are wolves, bears, felines, witches, Fae, they are our people. And we need to help them.¡± Artem had always been on an energy level that was close to my own. We both were fierce protectors of our people and our families. I respected him a lot, and right now I could feel that respect growing.


    We ate our food in peace after that, then decided to head out almost immediately. We were going to the crime scene first, so there was nothing to worry about. Those with weak stomachs wouldn¡¯t lose their meal just from the scene.


    And with us was therge group that arrived with us as well as Artem. So, it was me, Trinity, Talia, Rudy, Alexio, David, Shane, Vincent, Gabriel, Jackson, Rawlynne and Artem. A round dozen of us to investigate this scene.


    The beaches around Crescent City were one of two types. There were the visitor friendly beaches that were covered in sand and great for swimming at. And then there was the one that we were at today. This was one of those beaches that was covered in rocks. The rocks had been smoothed by the water, so it wasn¡¯t that bad to walk on, but it made things a little more frustrating.


    ¡°Where was the body found?¡± I asked the local Alpha, Will, who had met us at the beach. He was there with a local cop that was a bear shifter and together they were going to be helping us to investigate.


    ¡°It was over there, just outside the high tide line.¡± The entire beach had been roped off, so it wasn¡¯t that easy to see it from a distance.


    ¡°OK.¡± I nodded at him and started to follow the two of them toward the scene.


    ¡°What is this?¡± Trinity asked as we got closer to the scene. She was looking at the rocks and seemed to notice something that we hadn¡¯t.


    ¡°They¡¯re just the rocks.¡± Will said as he looked at her.


    ¡°They were scattered differently than we expected, but we just assumed that happened in the struggle.¡± Chris, the bear shifter cop added as he watched Trinity and Talia get closer to the rocks.


    ¡°That isn¡¯t all that it is. They¡¯ve been written on.¡± Trinity was moving a rock with her shoe.


    ¡°We didn¡¯t see any writing.¡± Will came over and looked at them.


    ¡°You wouldn¡¯t.¡± Talia said as she crouched down. ¡°It was written with runed water. The water isn¡¯t visible without magic, but it¡¯s permanent. It will nevere off.¡±


    ¡°Shit. That is crazy.¡± Chris shook his head.


    ¡°I wish that I could make them visible to the others.¡± Talia said as she reached down. ¡°It would make things so much easier for them all.¡±


    The moment that she touched the rock that she was reaching toward, there was a sh of pink light. Itsted only a moment, but when it was gone, I could see that there were a lot of rocks that were written on. There was a lot more than I thought that would be, there had to be hundreds of them at the very least.


    ¡°What the hell!?¡± Will blinked in surprise as he looked from the rocks to Talia and back again.


    ¡°That was amazing, Talia.¡± Artem congratted her. ¡°This will help us all quite a bit.¡± He grabbed a canvas bag that was in the backpack that he had on his back and slipped on a pair of gloves. ¡°I am going to collect these rocks so that we can sort them all outter.¡±


    I thought that it was kind of silly for him to bring a backpack to the investigation. I didn¡¯t think that there was a lot that needed to be collected, or that there was much that he might be able to do with the different tools that he brought with him. Now though, as I looked at the scattered rocks with letters and numbers on them, I could tell that I was wrong. He actually had a need for the stuff that he brought with him.


    ¡°I will collect them with you, Artem.¡± I was the one that needed to admit that I was wrong, so I was going to be right there with him while collecting dozens and dozens of rocks. It looked like there might even be hundreds of them, but I wouldn¡¯t know for sure until we got them all. And that was assuming that we were able to find all of them.


    ¡°Look, they¡¯ve all got letters and numbers on them.¡± Artem held up two different rocks. They had one word on the smoother and tter side, but on the back of them, there was a number as well.


    ¡°Did he number them all so that it would be easier to put them in order? That is some tedious and meticulous psychopathy.¡±


    ¡°I certainly didn¡¯t think that a man that was going to murder someone like this and leave a hidden message would leave such a big clue.¡± Artem looked about as perplexed as I felt at the moment. ¡°Do you think that they know these messages are being seen? D..do you think that they watch the crime scenes so that they can see all of us scratching our heads in confusion.¡± As he said that, Artem was indeed scratching his head. Coincidence, or were his words inspired by the truth at the time that he was talking? I didn¡¯t know what to think, but he did make me wonder.


    Were these people watching us? Did they stick around and wait for us to investigate the crime scene? Does that mean that they were there yesterday while we started to check out the other beaches? Was there one of them here right now?


    ¡°Artem, do you have men that are nearby? Does Will? We need to have them search the crowd that is still out there watching us work.¡± I didn¡¯t look up toward the gathered humans. I hadn¡¯t really noticed any nonhumans as we walked by, but I hadn¡¯t paid that much attention either. I was too busy working at the time.


    ¡°Yeah, I can call in Toby and Kent. My son Julian and his husband Spencer can help as well. All of my boys can, actually. And I am sure that Will has some men close by. What are they going to be looking for?¡±


    ¡°I want them to check out the crowd. I need them to make sure that there is no one suspicious. If there is someone that is a little too invested or seems to be doing anything out of the ordinary. I want them to take them into custody.¡± I still wasn¡¯t looking at the group of people that were rubbernecking and trying to see what we were doing.


    ¡°Were there that many nonhumans in the crowd?¡± He moved his eyes in that direction but didn¡¯t move his head at all. Like me, he was just collecting the rocks that were spread out below us.


    ¡°The culprit is most likely human. I would venture that they are not pure human, but they are more human than not. They think that we nonhumans are an abomination.¡±


    ¡°Wait!? Are you serious?¡± He looked up at me then, surprised and shocked. ¡°Humans are responsible for what is happening here? I don¡¯t believe it. That person¡¯s heart was literally ripped out of their chest. That is what Will told me, and humans don¡¯t usually have the strength to do that.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, well, I did say that they might not be a pure human, but they are humans nheless.¡± I rose to my feet and still refused to look at the crowd. ¡°I am going to go tell Will and Chris to call in backup. But I don¡¯t want them to be obvious. Have them pretend to be onlookers as well. They need to blend in. This way the suspect won¡¯t get spooked and run away.¡±


    ¡°Got it.¡± Artem nodded at me. ¡°I will let them know. And Reece, I still can¡¯t believe that humans are the ones that are behind this. I never thought that our biggest threat would be people. Not now that there are no more epic wars between us, and we¡¯ve be nothing more than an urban legend to them all.¡±


    ¡°These ones don¡¯t think of us as urban legends. They think of us as monsters that need to be eradicated from this world. And they mean to do just that.¡± I looked toward Trinity and the others. ¡°To be honest, I don¡¯t know how much longer we can hide what we are. Now that we are immortal. People have already started to notice the differences in us. Not to mention with the older people getting younger, like Star¡¯s great grandfather, that was a big red g for them.¡±


    ¡°Times are getting scary for us, isn¡¯t it?¡± He was right, but I didn¡¯t want to make him worry any more.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure we will be fine.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°I¡¯m going to talk to Will and Chris. See you soon.


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 Chapter 883

    Chapter 883: Chapter 68- Reece ¨C Visiting The Scene With Artem Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    After I left Artem, I called Will and Chris over. They were with Trinity and Talia as they looked for more clues on the beach. Having the two of them at scenes made it a lot easier to find something that was hidden.


    ¡°Will, I need you to call some of your men over here. Tell them to search the crowd. Artem made me wonder if the killer might be watching us. These rocks are like a puzzle that we need to put back together, and that makes me think that they are taking some sort of pleasure out of being here and seeing us wonder about it. And they somehow knew that Trinity and Talia would be able to see the markings. This isn¡¯t the first time that this group has used invisible writing for their manifesto. And it made me wonder, did they know that the writing was going to be found from the get go? They had to know that we would find them, read them, and look for them. So, what Artem is saying makes sense. There has to be someone that is monitoring the scenes.¡±


    ¡°You really think that the sadistic fuck that did this is out there in the crowd?¡± Chris started to turn his head, but I snapped at him first.


    ¡°Do not look at the crowd.¡± I was ring at him. ¡°That will let them know that we are onto them.¡± I needed them both to know that we had to act like the crowd wasn¡¯t there at all. ¡°And it might not be the killers themselves that are monitoring the scenes. This is arge group of people, so it is possible that they have scouts. Those scouts might be here. We don¡¯t know for sure. We haven¡¯t even thought about this as a possibility until now. Now though, I want to make sure that we can get to the bottom of this.¡±


    .....


    As I was exining all of that to these two men, I was watching Trinity and Talia as they moved around the scene with others. I was already feeling nervous about having them here if there might be people from that group of assholes and psychos so close to us. I didn¡¯t want to worry that someone might try to hurt them.


    I knew that the two of them had guards with them. I knew that I was here to protect them. I knew that they were as safe as they could be given the circumstances, but I was still scared. I didn¡¯t even want those people to know what my wife and daughter looked like. That was a little too close to home for me. That was a little too unsettling.


    With Artem, Will, and Chris calling in the men and women that could scan the crowd for me, I walked over to Trinity and Talia. I wanted to be near them just in case something happened with the people in that crowd.


    There wasn¡¯t a lot to gather here that we hadn¡¯t found at the other scenes. But I wanted to keep them working a little longer. And there was the fact that we needed to look for more of those rocks. We needed to make sure that we didn¡¯t miss any of them.


    We weren¡¯t talking much. It wasn¡¯t like we could hold a private and personal conversation while we were looking at the ce that someone died. And basically, I wasn¡¯t even investigating right now. I was more guarding and watching out for my family. I have known for a long time that Trinity and Talia were the two most important people in this investigation. It was going to be thanks to them, and even Shawn and Dietrich, that this case will finally be solved. With Shawn and Dietrich searching in Germany, they might find clues that we haven¡¯t thought of yet.


    I didn¡¯t notice when the backup arrived. I just had to trust that they were there. And I hoped that they were there and doing the job that I assigned for them. I did notice that the crowd seemed to be a lot bigger than it was before.


    I never looked directly at the crowd, but I watched it from the corner of my eye so that I could monitor some of the progress. About five minutes after I gave the orders, there were about five or ten more people there. After another fifteen minutes, the crowd was at least twice as big as it had been. Now, were they all nonhumans and super naturals that had been called in to help? I don¡¯t know. Were some of them likely to be there for that reason? Most definitely.


    ¡°Dad, what is going on over there?¡± Talia asked me as she walked closer to me.


    ¡°What are you talking about sweetheart?¡± I asked her as I sensed Rudy and Alexio fall in line behind us. They were good guards and did their jobs the way that they were supposed to.


    ¡°I saw you talking to Artem, and to the other two men. And now there is more than twice as many people here than there were. And most of them are wolves. What is going on over there.¡± I saw her look just slightly at the crowd. She was pretending to look at the rocks, but she was watching them covertly, just like I was.


    ¡°I wanted to check for something.¡± I didn¡¯t want to worry her.


    ¡°Are we in danger here, Dad?¡± She looked at me full on then, and I saw the worry in her eyes.


    ¡°You will never be in danger with me here, Talia.¡± Alexio stepped in before I could.


    ¡°Thank you, Alexio.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°And he is right. You are not in danger. You have Alexio and Rudy here with you, as well as me and your mom. Plus, several of your uncles and Aunt Rawlynne. You are in no danger at all, Talia. We will all protect you. I don¡¯t want you to be scared at all. It¡¯s just a theory that I had, that was all. Well, Artem had it, but it made sense to me.¡± I gave her a gentle smile and apanied it with calming eyes. I was doing all that I could to make her feel better.


    ¡°You think that the killer is here, don¡¯t you?¡± She saw right through me and asked for the truth right away.


    ¡°Yes, Talia, I do. Well, maybe not the killer, but someone working with them. Someone has to be watching the crime scenes. They know about you and your mom being able to see the messages. They might not actually be here, but there is a chance, so we¡¯re going to just double check.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± She still looked worried. Maybe she was afraid that they were going toe after her now that she was seen by them.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Talia. I am here for you.¡±


    I pulled her close then. I wanted to hug her and let her know that I was never going to let anything happen to her. I felt her wrap her arms around my waist as I cradled her head against my chest. It wasforting to hold her like this. I hadn¡¯t held her since she was little, and I missed it. All of the kids were growing up, they were moving on, and I wasn¡¯t ready for it. Trinity wasn¡¯t the only one that was having a hard time with it.


    While I held Talia to me, there was a suddenmotion that erupted in the gathered crowd. There was screaming, several people yelling, and the sounds of several scuffles. By the time that I looked up and focused on what was happening though, there were seven people running away from the crowd. I could tell the difference between the ones that were human and the ones that weren¡¯t. They were running differently than the nonhumans.


    Three men were chasing down the small handful of people that were running away. The closest of the three were caught almost immediately, but thest person, what looked like a man, was still running away. I saw for just a second that he paused and looked back at us. He pulled a cloak out of a backpack and threw it over himself before he started to run again. However, the moment that he started to move again, he disappeared entirely. It was like he becamepletely invisible.


    ¡°What the hell?¡± I heard Will shout as he watched the scene.


    ¡°What happened to him?¡± Artem asked from where he was.


    ¡°Where did he go?¡± Chris wondered.


    ¡°They¡¯re part of that group.¡± Talia added. ¡°When they wear that cloak, they disappear.¡± She was most likely remembering her dream at the moment. ¡°I..I¡¯ve seen how they disappeared.¡±


    ¡°Huh? How?¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°When?¡± The three of them that didn¡¯t know about her prophetic dream wondered in curiosity. Now wasn¡¯t the time for that though. We needed to get over there, to those three people that had been caught. We needed to know who they were and what it was that they were doing here. If they were with that other man that ran away, then they would be able to help us in some way, whether they wanted to or now.


    ¡°Come on. We¡¯re leaving.¡± I called out to the others. ¡°There is nothing else for us to find here.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± The others called out to me one after the other. All except for Trinity and Talia. They were watching the waiting crowd with suspicious and wary eyes.


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 Chapter 884

    Chapter 884: Chapter 69- Trinity ¨C Some New Suspects (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece had made a good decision to have the crowd monitored after that talk with Artem that he had. As it turns out, there were some people here that might need to be interviewed by us. And of course, we were going to do the interviews, not the police. It would be the best course of action for us in the long run. If they were responsible for these murders, or working with them, then they would be answering to us instead of the local police department.


    Artem and his men gathered the three people that had been captured and started to take them back to his estate. They would be taken there separately and put into different rooms. And there they would wait, handcuffed to the chair with a guard watching them. Before we went back to Artem¡¯s ce though, we needed to head over to the morgue so that Talia could free the soul of this victim.


    Jackson, Rawlynne, Vincent, Gabriel, David, Shane, Alexio, Rudy, Reece, Talia, and I all separated into the three vehicles that we were using to travel around. Only Reece, Talia, Alexio, Rudy and I were going to the morgue. The others were going back with Artem and Will to watch the prisoners. However, they were not to talk to them until Reece and I got back. Those bastards could wait there and stew in their own guilty subconsciousness until then.


    When we got to the morgue, we were taken right in by a member of the police. This time, there was no supernatural being that was working with the morgue so it was hard for us to get ess without the police helping us. I was d for that help though. I don¡¯t know what we would have done without them.


    .....


    ¡°Dr. Brown, you are needed upstairs.¡± I heard the officer telling the woman that was in the cold storage area that she needed to leave.


    ¡°Oh. OK.¡± She nodded and left after washing her hands.


    The moment that Dr. Brown was out of there, we ran into the room and over to where the victim was lying. I knew that the doctor was just about to perform the autopsy, so it was a good thing that we were brought here when we were. If we had waited another couple of minutes, the poor girl would have suffered even more.


    ¡°Will this take long?¡± A female officer by the name of Rachel was looking at the naked girl on the table. She looked like she was about twenty-five years old or so, but that could have been way off given the way that we aged now. Still, she was young, innocent, and didn¡¯t deserve to die like this.


    ¡°It won¡¯t take long.¡± Talia said as she too looked at the girl. Her long ck hair, high cheekbones, and beautifully tannedplexion. Even though she had been dead for over twenty-four hours, I could tell that she was a beautiful girl. That beauty had not been diminished at all.


    I saw that Talia was starting the process of drawing her magic to her. The light that always came to her and the feeling of the air around her. It was all amazing to see, and I was so proud of her for what she was able to aplish here.


    I couldn¡¯t see the souls that Talia pulled out of bodies like this, but I could somehow sense them when they first exited the body. It was like they were a physical presence for just a moment, but that presence disappeared almost immediately.


    Right when I sensed that presence, I heard the door to the morgue open behind us. I knew that Dr. Brown was here and the moment that I smelled her very human scent I confirmed it, even before I turned around.


    I saw the woman, slightly older with white hair, whiteb coat, brown skirt, blue blouse, and a surprised look on her face. She was watching us as if we were some sort of thieves here to steal the body of the dead woman.


    ¡°Emily?¡± Officer Rachel looked at the woman with a shock to match her own.


    ¡°Rachel, what is going on here? Who are these people? And what are they doing to that poor girl¡¯s body.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not what it looks like, Emily. They haven¡¯t touched the body.¡±


    Talia was looking at the woman as well. She had frozen with her hand in midair where she had been pulling the soul out the corpse. She was scared at the sudden appearance of the doctor in the room, but she was also focused on the good. I saw that she looked down at the girl with sad eyes and spoke softly.


    ¡°I am sorry. I didn¡¯t mean to stop like that. Let me get you out of there now.¡± She was in the middle of this process and couldn¡¯t just stop there. I couldn¡¯t hear her, but I was sure that the girl had to be screaming, crying, and generally just flipping out. She didn¡¯t know what was happening to her and to have this process halted in the middle must have been frightening.


    ¡°Rachel, exin this to me? What is that girl doing to the body? What is going on here?¡± As she spoke, Talia finished pulling the soul out of the body. At that moment, the presence of that person felt real, just for a moment. Then it instantly disappeared into nothingness. At least, that¡¯s how it felt for me.


    ¡°Wh..what is that? Wh..who is that?¡± I could tell that Dr. Brown was looking at the soul. That was where her eyes were locked. She wasn¡¯t looking at me, Talia, or Rachel. So that only left the girl that was just removed from her body.


    ¡°What is what? I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about.¡± Rachel looked at the doctor but I could tell that she wasn¡¯t paying attention anymore.


    ¡°Dr. Brown, can you see the girl? Can you see the woman that Talia just pulled out of there?¡± I didn¡¯t know why, but this human was able to see her, I just knew that she was.


    ¡°Y..yes. I can. H..how. How is it that she is right there but alsoying on the table? Sh..she¡¯s dead. What is going on here? What is happening?¡±


    The human woman was on the verge of having a panic attack. She was scared. She was confused. And she was just about to start screaming. In fact, she had just opened her mouth to inhale for that scream when I walked to her side and put a hand on her shoulder.


    ¡°Dr. Brown, will youe sit with me for a moment? I will exin some things to you that will help you to understand.¡±


    ¡°O..OK.¡± She nodded and started to walk with me, but she didn¡¯t take her eyes off of Talia.


    While I took the doctor away to talk, Talia started to talk to thetest victim. She needed to get more descriptions from her and to see if anything at all was different than the previous cases. This was what we needed to gather from the most important witness of all.


    Right now, though, I couldn¡¯t focus on Talia at all. I needed to find out what was going on with the good doctor here. And I needed to know why she could see the souls of the dead when I couldn¡¯t.


    ¡°What is happening here?¡± The doctor asked me the moment that she was in her seat. ¡°What is going on?¡±


    ¡°Dr. Brown, that girl is dead, like you said. As you already knew. My daughter over there was freeing her soul from her body. She was trapped inside with those markings that someone put on her. We were called in by some of the police officers to help her. I am d that we got to her before you started the autopsy. She would have been able to feel and experience what was happening to her. That would have been more traumatizing to her, even though she was already dead.¡±


    ¡°Sh..she could feel?¡± She looked horrified. ¡°Do they all feel it?¡±


    ¡°No. Only the ones that are trapped. She is safe now.¡±


    ¡°H..how was she trapped?¡± I knew she would want to know.


    ¡°Did you see those runes that were carved into her? Those were what trapped her inside of her body. The man that killed her is part of a group that has been murdering others around the world. We needed toe here as soon as we heard she had been killed and help her.¡±


    ¡°Wh..what if someone else with those markses in here? I..I don¡¯t know if I could do another autopsy knowing that they might feel it.¡± She was truly shaken by this.


    ¡°Only those with those marks would be trapped in there. And if you are ever worried about it, you can call me. I wille to check with my daughter to see if there is ever a trapped soul.¡± I was trying to calm her down and make it so that she could do her job.


    ¡°Who are you? What are you? A..are you something that isn¡¯t human?¡± She didn¡¯t look scared now. When she asked me that, she looked like she was more in awe than anything else.


    ¡°My name is Trinity Gray, and I am what I am. And right now, me and my family are working on solving these murders. We want to stop anyone else from being hurt like this. We want to make sure that no one has to worry about being killed just by going outside of their home.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re good people. I can tell.¡± She smiled at me and I felt the calmness inside of her spread to me.


    I talked with the doctor for a little while longer. She was still worried, she was still scared, and she needed someone to be understanding with her. I didn¡¯t tell her what I really was, or what my title really was. However, I did tell her that there were things in this world that she didn¡¯t understand. I exined to her that ghosts were souls, like she just saw. I exined that magic was real. And I told her that just because someone was different than the ¡®normal¡¯ person, doesn¡¯t make them a bad person.


    I also exined to her that there were likely more people like me than not like me that she had met in her life. Or that the split was probably fifty fifty. That seemed to make her smile and calm down just a little. And when I gave her my business card, she seemed to feel even better. Having that little piece of tangible hope in her hands was enough to give her a little more hope for the future.


    ¡°Thank you, Trinity. Thank you. I swear, if I didn¡¯t know any better, I would say that you were some sort of goddess sent here to help me.¡± I didn¡¯t know how to respond. If I was being honest, I was a goddess, but I didn¡¯t act like one all the time.


    ¡°I am just d that I was able to be here. We¡¯re going to go now, Dr. Brown. If you need me, call me.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Trinity. I will.¡± She rose from her seat with me. It was like she was eager to see me off, but also reluctant to see me go. It was a little odd, but I knew that some people could get like that after traumatic events. I wasn¡¯t going to push anything here though. Well, maybe one thing, but that would be all.


    ¡°Dr. Brown, please do keep quiet about this. It is so much easier for us to do our work without so many people getting involved.¡±


    ¡°Oh, yes, of course.¡± She nodded and smiled as we walked out of the room. I hoped that I didn¡¯t have to worry about her at all. That wouldn¡¯t be a good way to move forward.


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 Chapter 885

    Chapter 885: Chapter 70- Reece ¨C Interviewing The Suspects (VOLUME 5) Part


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I had stayed in the car while Talia and Trinity went to free the soul from the body. Based on what I heard after that time, I think it was a good idea. I wouldn¡¯t have been able to stay calm when that doctor came in unexpectedly like that. I would have flipped out, and probably gotten angry about it. Trinity handled it a lot better than I would have.


    Now though, we were heading back to Artem¡¯s house. It was almost time for us to interrogate those slimeballs that ran away at the beach. One of them had to know something about what happened. And the sooner we found it out, the better.


    This is going to be good. I haven¡¯t had the need to interrogate an asshole like this since the beginning of my rtionship with Trinity. Those asshats that were sneaking onto my property all those years ago were thest ones. Too bad that one of them died. Though it wasn¡¯t my fault. That had been Edmond.


    I would behave myself this time. I wouldn¡¯t hurt them. I would just scare the living daylights out of them. I might even shift into my Lycan form and really give them a fright. That would be good. I would love to see the looks on the faces of those cultist freaks when I showed them what I could really do. They though that we were monsters, well I would show them a fucking monster.


    .....


    When we got back to the estate, I followed Trinity to where the prisoners were. Talia was sent to spend some time with the triplets. That would do her some good after what happened today. She wouldn¡¯t need to worry about these people at all. They were for me and Trinity to handle.


    ¡°Hello, King Reece.¡± Chris shot to his feet when he saw me. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you back so soon. I requested records be sent over on all those that had been captured. Well, on the names that we were given for them anyway. And I took fingerprints from them. I wanted to see if there was anything that we would be able to gather from that as well. They should be here soon.¡± He was looking a little scared and nervous as he spoke.


    ¡°That¡¯s fine. We¡¯re going to start the first interview. Bring me the file when it arrives.¡± I walked to the first door and sniffed the air. This was definitely a human that I was going to talk to. ¡°What is their name?¡±


    ¡°This here is Jared Hughes. He says that he is twenty-two years old and that he doesn¡¯t know why we were chasing him.¡±


    ¡°Of course he doesn¡¯t.¡± I sneered at the door.


    ¡°Control yourself, Reece.¡± Trinity put her hand in mine. ¡°We will be in there together.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I know. Do me a favor though, Little Bunny. Let me do the talking. Please.¡± I was practically begging her in front of that cop that was so close to me.


    ¡°I will let you do the talking to begin with. If I need to ask something or step in though, then I will. Agreed?¡±


    ¡°Fine.¡± I smiled at her and epted the terms. ¡°Now, let¡¯s go.¡±


    The man that was sitting at the table looked like a scared little boy. If this guy here was supposed to be a member of the group killing all those people, then I was a fucking ballet dancer that was famous for pirouettes and doing the split while jumping in a frilly tutu. And I had never done ballet in my entire life.


    ¡°Exin yourself.¡± I said as I sat at the table. Trinity was sitting quietly in a chair in the corner.


    ¡°I..I..I don¡¯t know what you want me to say. I..I d..didn¡¯t do anything w..w..wrong.¡± He was trembling as he spoke to me.


    ¡°Why were you running?¡±


    ¡°W..what?¡± He looked like a little rat that had been cornered and was looking for a way out.


    ¡°Why did you take off running at the beach? If you didn¡¯t do anything wrong, why did you start running?¡±


    ¡°I..I am not good with people. I..I normally d..don¡¯t do th..things like that. I..I was looking b..be..because I wanted t..to see th..the cops i..in person. I..I am writing a b..b..book and wanted t..to see how th..they actually handled a crime scene. Wh..when the men around me started shouting I..I got r..really sc..scared. I thought that th..there was g..going to be a..a..a fight. I didn¡¯t want to get h..hurt. S..so I ran. I..I..I¡¯m sorry. Pl..please, l..let me go.¡±


    I sighed and looked at the table. I didn¡¯t want to look at him anymore. Mostly because I was afraid that if I did, he would get scared and die of a heart attack. I could hear how scared he was as he spoke to me. It was audible in his breathing and the pounding of his heart. I knew that he was telling the truth, but I needed to see his records first.


    ¡°Wait here. I need to check one thing after I leave this room, if that checks out, then someone will take you home.¡±


    ¡°I..I will be fr..free to go?¡± He looked shocked as his wide eyes glued themselves to my face.


    ¡°Well, you didn¡¯t do anything wrong, did you?¡± I gave him a stern look.


    ¡°N..n..n..no, S..S..S..Sir, I..I didn¡¯t. I..I didn¡¯t d..do anything wr..wrong.¡±


    ¡°Then you will be free to go. After I check on one other thing. And someone will drive you home.¡±


    ¡°Th..th..thank you. Thank y..you s..so much.¡± I swear he was already crying. ¡°Th..th..this is g..going to b..be a gr..great a..addition to my b..book.¡± He was crying yet smiling. What a weird kid.


    Trinity and I left that room and walked over to Chris. He was standing across the hall, waiting for us.


    ¡°He is innocent. Just a scared introvert. When the files get here, double check that he doesn¡¯t have a criminal record and send him on his way.¡±


    ¡°Sure thing.¡± Chris smiled and nodded. ¡°In the next room is Nathan Michaels. He is clearly a junkie. That is easy to see in his eyes and the needle marks on his arms. He is thirty-one and ornery.¡±


    ¡°Sounds fun.¡± Trinity giggled. ¡°I can just imagine how that ornery attitude will hold up against my stubborn ass of a husband.¡±


    ¡°Hey! That wasn¡¯t nice.¡± I tried to sound offended, but theughtering from me negated that almost immediately.


    When I went into the room, I saw a human man that was supposed to be thirty-one but looked like he was fifty-one. The years of drug abuse had taken their toll on him. His hair was thin, stringy, and greasy looking. It literally looked like slippery ck wires that were brushed back over his head. And why he didn¡¯t just shave them off and go bald I would never know. That would have improved his looks immensely.


    Hisplexion was pallid, his face was full of pockmarks and scars, he was thin to the extreme, and he looked like he only had about eight teeth in his entire head. I wouldn¡¯t have wanted to be the one to catch him and touch him if I didn¡¯t have to be. I was d that someone else took care of that for me.


    ¡°Exin yourself.¡± I said as I sat at the table. It was just what I had said to the kid in the other room.


    ¡°Who the fuck do you think you¡¯re talking to, asshole? Just because you¡¯re some King Kong looking mother fucker that thinks he can intimidate me with his size, don¡¯t mean that I got to listen to you. I know my rights. I know what I am entitled to. And I ain¡¯t saying a fucking word to you. So, fuck off!¡± I mentally counted the words that he just said as I smiled at him. It only took me a second to have the total.


    ¡°So, you¡¯re not going to say a word to me? That¡¯s good. I need more than one word anyway. And I need something other than the seventy words that you already gave me.¡± I smirked at him as I watched him try to figure out if that was really how many words that he had said. ¡°Now Nathan, tell me what you were doing at the beach. And why did you run?¡±


    ¡°I ain¡¯t talking to no pig. I don¡¯t need to talk to you. I ain¡¯t going to incriminate myself.¡±


    ¡°I am not a cop. And you will talk to me.¡± I lowered my voice as I spoke. I darkened my eyes. And I took on more animalist features that wouldn¡¯t show to the naked eye. He wouldn¡¯t be able to tell that something was different, but he would be able to sense it. And it would terrify him.


    Just judging by the way that his face looked, I could see that he was feeling a lot less confident and a lot more willing to cooperate, with just that little adjustment. Still, he looked like he was going to give me just a little bit more trouble.


    ¡°I..I¡¯m not talking to you.¡± He was looking around the room and saw Trinity. ¡°I¡¯ll talk to her, not you. Lady, get this pig under control.¡±


    ¡°He isn¡¯t a cop, Nathan, and neither am I. Also, you¡¯re better off talking to him. I¡¯m the meaner one.¡± She made her voice as menacing as I had. Combined with me in front of the man, it was working wonders.


    ¡°Fuck it. I¡¯ll talk.¡± His will snapped in an instant. I swear I could hear the sound of it like a rubber band that was stretched too tightly. ¡°I didn¡¯t do anything. I didn¡¯t. I just saw the cop that busted mest month and got scared. I didn¡¯t hurt anybody. I just didn¡¯t want to get another drug pop. I¡¯m carrying, dammit. Arrest me for that. I don¡¯t care. But I didn¡¯t kill anybody.¡± He was terrified, he reeked of the drugs that he mentioned, and he was telling the truth. Dammit. This one was another bust.


    ¡°I don¡¯t care about the drugs. Though I will be confiscating them and destroying them. You need to stop that shit, or it will kill you one day.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, sure man, I¡¯ll go clean. I swear it. Just don¡¯t hurt me. I don¡¯t want to do any more drugs. Nothing is scarier than that woman over there in the corner. Her alone will make me go straight.


    ¡°Her?¡± I asked in confusion. ¡°Not me?¡±


    ¡°Fuck no, man. She¡¯s the scariest thing I ever saw.¡±


    ¡°I told you I was the meaner of us. I meant it.¡± Trinity giggled from the corner and that seemed to drain the druggie of thest remaining color in his face.


    ¡°I will check your file and if all is fine, you¡¯ll be free to go. After you hand over the drugs.¡±


    ¡°TAKE¡¯EM!¡± He yelled in fear as he emptied his pockets onto the table. ¡°Taken¡¯em. She¡¯s worse than the fears of being sober. Don¡¯t let her hurt me, man.¡±


    ¡°Come on, scary one. We got more work to do.¡± I told Trinity as I gathered up the drug. Internally, I wasughing and crying about the fact that Trinity was the reason he was so scared.


    ¡°He¡¯s not the guy we¡¯re looking for either.¡± Trinity told Chris when we made it outside the room. ¡°Check his file and then let him go.¡±


    ¡°It just came in.¡± He handed the folder to Trinity.¡±


    ¡°Hmm. Some drug possessions, but nothing else. No theft, no B&E. He seems to be an honorable addict at the very least. Cut him loose, Chris.¡± She handed the file back to him. ¡°What about our friend Jared?¡±


    ¡°Squeaky clean. Never even been arrested. He has some ster grades in school, but seems to stay away from most people.¡±


    ¡°Have someone take him home. And Mr. Michaels in there. They¡¯re free to go.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± Chris set aside the files. Hopefully, thest man would give us something.


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 Chapter 886

    Chapter 886: Chapter 71- Reece ¨C Interviewing The Suspects (VOLUME 5) Part


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    ¡°Who is ourst friend over here?¡± I asked Chris as I waited for a file. ¡°What do we know about him?¡±


    ¡°He said that his name is Angus Jaegan. He seems to be about twenty. He didn¡¯t say much. And he smells funny.¡± Chris was shaking his head like he was trying to figure out what was going on with the man.


    ¡°Where is his file?¡± Trinity asked him as she stepped closer to the door.


    ¡°There isn¡¯t one. No one could find a single record of the man. He doesn¡¯t seem to exist. Not even on immigration, visa, or passport records that havee into the country. Nothing at all in thest decade for this man.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Does he speak with an ent?¡± Trinity asked him, jumping onto something else that might be of some importance.


    ¡°Yeah. He sounds like he is from somewhere in Europe, but I am bad with pinpointing them down.¡± I wanted to smack him and tell him to study more, but it wouldn¡¯t help. He just wasn¡¯t used to things like this.


    ¡°That¡¯s fine. Come on, Reece. Let¡¯s go in.¡± Trinity was at the door and pulling it open before I even took a step.


    ¡°Wait up.¡± I whispered so that the man on the other side of the door wouldn¡¯t hear me.


    When we got into the room, I saw a man with light brown hair and sparkling hazel eyes. He looked like he was calm, clean cut, and well put together. He was dressed casually, but in obviously expensive clothes. He didn¡¯t look worried, stressed out, or anything else like that. He actually seemed to be enjoying himself.


    ¡°Guten Tag, ihr K?niglichen.¡± He spoke in German, but I understood him right away.


    ¡°Good afternoon to you as well. Now, why would you call us royal ones?¡± That made me raise a brow in suspicion. ¡°You don¡¯t know who I am at all.¡±


    ¡°Oh ja, das tue ich.¡±


    ¡°You do, huh? And who do you think that I am?¡± I sat across from him like I did the others. Trinity was once again in the corner, staring at the man with rapt attention.


    ¡°Du bist King Reece und Queen Trinity. We all know who you are. You are the reasons for our mission.¡±


    ¡°Your mission?¡± I started to move on too quickly. I almost let him beat me into following his lead. ¡°And how do you know that I am Reece and that she is Trinity?¡±


    ¡°You are all over the news. All the time, the faces of the eternal Grays. People joke that you have a painting like the fabled Dorian. You even share the samest name. But as the time goes on, and you do not age, it is easy to tell that you are not human. My family has long since known of your existence. And now we take our mission to the world. ¡±


    ¡°I assure you that we do not have any paintings like Dorian Gray. And we don¡¯t indulge in sins like he did. That is not a way to live life. Now, back to what you were saying, Angus, what mission is it that you take to the world? You¡¯ve mentioned your mission twice now.¡± I made sure that I didn¡¯t let him get to me. If I was visibly affected by what he said, then he would take control of the conversation from me.


    ¡°We are saving the world.¡± He smirked at me as he spoke.


    ¡°Saving the world from what? I wasn¡¯t aware that we were in danger.¡± I acted curious, but I had a feeling I already knew what he was going to say.


    ¡°We are saving the world from you. From the monsters and the animals that threaten our people. You barbarians have taken hold and are trying to destroy humankind. But we won¡¯t let you do it. We won¡¯t let you murder the human race.¡± He was spouting off crazy like he was a sprinkler and the words were water. But this was what we wanted. This was what we needed. If I could keep him talking, then I would be able to learn what was really going on.


    ¡°I do not recall anyone killing humans.¡± I figured that was the only part that I should focus on at the moment.


    ¡°So, you do not deny that you are not human? That you are an animal of a man that turns into a monstrous beast. You are an abomination.¡±


    ¡°Those are your words, not my own. I am not a monster, not have I ever been.¡± I wasn¡¯t going to let this man get a rise out of me. That was what he wanted.


    ¡°I think that we have varying opinions on what makes a man a monster.¡± He red at me and practically growled the words out.


    As I looked at him right now, I thought back to what Chris had said. That this man didn¡¯t smell right. I was trying to focus on that so that I didn¡¯t get angrier with him than I should. I took a slow and deep breath so that it looked like I was just calming down, but I was really scenting and tasting the air in the room.


    There was something off about it. Something that wasn¡¯t quite normal for a human. I couldn¡¯t put my finger on it though. I didn¡¯t know what was different. Most humans smelled like technology, metal, and oddly enough a farm. I think that was because they were all sheep that followed the lead of others. The nonsheep among them tended to smell of things that were stronger than that. They smelled mountains and other sturdy things.


    This man though, didn¡¯t have that added scent. He wasn¡¯t a sheep, nor a man standing tall on a mountain. He still had that technology and metal scent, but it was mixed with something that was salty, bitter, and slightly disgusting. What was it that made him smell like that? What was going on with him?


    ¡°You call me a monster, and an abomination, but what are you? You don¡¯t smell human. You don¡¯t smell like any human I have evere in contact with before. So, what are you? Who are you really, Angus Jaegan?¡±


    ¡°I am as human as theye. I have just used runes to make me stronger and faster. And I work hard and train to my limits to fight against creatures like you.¡± He was maintaining that he was human and nothing else. I didn¡¯t think that was true though. I felt like he was something else, something more.


    ¡°Why have you killed these people? What did they ever do to you? They were good people. They never hurt anyone.¡± I was starting to shake with anger now.


    ¡°They were not good people. They were monsters. And monsters need to be eliminated.¡± He was shouting now. We will rid this world of all the monsters. We will save the world and be revered as the new royals. We will end you people and all the evil that you do.¡±


    ¡°The only monsters that I see are you. You and those people that you work with. You people are insane. You are murdering people. You are sick.¡± I was losing my cool now. I couldn¡¯t help it. ¡°You¡¯re the monsters. You¡¯re the animals. You¡¯re the beasts.¡± I was on my feet now, shouting at him.


    ¡°And yet, we¡¯re the humans, not you. I know what the truth is. My family knows the truth. And we will not stop. You might have stopped me, but they will carry on. They will not let this stop them. They will keep eliminating you and your kind. They will even get to you and your family, King Reece. None of you are safe.¡± With that threat to my family, I wanted to kill the man. I was about to grab him around the throat when he started tough and stuck his thumb inside of his mouth. ¡°Have fun trying to find the truth, King Reece. I think it would be fun watching you fail, but I won¡¯t get to see it.¡±


    After that, the man stuck his thumb to the back of his neck and he instantly started to convulse. I ran around the table, with Trinity hot on my heels. We pushed the man into the floor and rolled him over. The first thing that I saw was another rune on his neck.


    ¡°What does that mean?¡± I asked Trinity as she looked at the mark with me.


    ¡°It is two runes written together. The death rune and the sacrifice rune. He must have activated it with his saliva to kill himself.¡±


    The man was already done moving. He wasn¡¯t breathing either. He was dead. Just like that the only lead that we had was gone.


    ¡°DAMMTI!¡± I snapped at no one in particr. ¡°He was our only lead, and he gave us nothing.¡±


    ¡°Not quite.¡± Trinity tried to reason with me. ¡°He told us what we suspected, and gave us a name to go off of. If we can track that down, we might be able to find something.¡±


    ¡°I just wish I would have been able to beat more out of him.¡± I grumbled as I looked at the corpse on the floor. ¡°Should we have Talia try to recover his soul?¡±


    ¡°No. Let him rot in Hell where he belongs.¡± With that, Trinity was getting up off of the floor and walking toward the door. ¡°We have more investigating to do, Reece. Let¡¯s not dwell on this too much.¡± With that, she left the room and was gone. I followed after her a little reluctantly. I think I was just really pissed at the moment. That was the only way to describe it.


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 Chapter 887

    Chapter 887: Chapter 72- Trinity ¨C Evidence Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Our one good lead to this entire case, the only person that we had captured and arrested that might be able to tell us what was going on here, the one person that might lead us to some sort of breakthrough in the case, was dead. He killed himself so that we wouldn¡¯t be able to get anything out of him. I didn¡¯t even know if he was one of the killers or just some asshole sent to watch us. I was so pissed off at him that I didn¡¯t even want Talia to call up Lucifer to get his soul brought back to us. It would be Talia that needed to talk to him anyway, and I wasn¡¯t going to put her through that.


    ¡°Queen Trinity?¡± The officer, Chris, jumped in fear when I mmed the door open and sent it flying into the wall. I heard it break the wall, oops. I didn¡¯t mean that. I would pay for it to be fixed. I didn¡¯t want to destroy Star and Artem¡¯s house.


    ¡°He¡¯s dead.¡± I snarled at him. ¡°He activated a sacrifice rune and killed himself. His body needs to be dealt with, but I want him examined. I need to know if he was the one that raped the girl in Waterton. And I need to check his DNA against the others that we have on file as well. I need to know if he was a scout, or one of the perpetrators of these acts. I need to know what his role in all of this was. Take saliva, blood, hair, skin from under his nails, everything that you can think of, take it.¡±


    Jackson and Rawlynne must have heard me from down the hall since they were running over toward me as Reece came out of the room. He looked as pissed off as I felt.


    .....


    ¡°I have the DNA from the rape being checked by my people in the FBI. I will send them this guy¡¯s DNA as well. We will have it all soon. They are working on the first set as we speak.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Rawlynne.¡± I thanked her and started to move toward the stairs.


    ¡°Where are you going now?¡± Reece asked me as he followed after me.


    ¡°We have those rocks. We need to figure out what they say. And we need to dust them for prints after that. Find me something that will narrow them down. And find that man¡¯s name in a database somewhere. Whoever he is, he has to have existed somewhere. Birth records, school records, social media, I don¡¯t care where you look, but I expect you to find something.¡± I knew that I was being a little demanding and that I sounded a little pissed off. Well, that was probably because I was more than a little pissed off. I was raging fucking mad right now, and I wanted answers.


    ¡°Yes, Queen Trinity, we will find you something.¡± Rawlynne, who usually greeted me and spoke to me like a friend, was starting to act more formal and submissive towards me. I knew it was in response to my tone, but I couldn¡¯t help the way that I was feeling right now. These people were killing more and more of my citizens, and I couldn¡¯t allow that to keep happening.


    I am going to find Artem. I need to get those rocks that he brought back. Who will be helping me to assemble them?¡± I looked around the hall at the people that were around me. I could see that most of them, namely Jackson, Rawlynne, and Chris, were too scared to do anything but look awkwardly at each other and stand there silently.


    ¡°I will, Trinity. And I know that Star and Artem will. So, there is no need to worry. We will get this done as soon as possible.¡± At that, Reece took my hand and started to pull me away from the others. ¡°All of you get back to work on your respective tasks.¡± Reece called behind us to order the others as he pulled me away.


    After we were far enough away that I was sure that the others wouldn¡¯t hear me, I growled at Reece for what he had just done.


    ¡°Why did you do that? I could have handled the situation. I was capable of telling them to get to work and walking here on my own. Why did you drag me away?¡±


    ¡°I know you were capable of it, Little Bunny. That wasn¡¯t the issue. The reason that I dragged you away was so that the others didn¡¯t feel so ufortable. You were losing your cool so much back there that you started to ice over.¡± He was pointing at my hands and clothes as he said that.


    ¡°Huh?¡± I looked down in confusion and saw that he was indeed telling the truth. ¡°When the hell did that happen?¡±


    Both of my hands, wrists, forearms, and elbows were covered in a thin bluishyer of ice. My shirt, which was a thin, white, button up blouse that was professional enough to work with the police but was alsofortable enough to withstand thete summer heat, had started to freeze solid. There were little crystals of ice all over the sleeves, but the front of it was nearly solid as an ice cube.


    ¡°I..I hadn¡¯t even noticed.¡± I blushed a little when I looked up from seeing the ice all over me. ¡°I am sorry, Reece.¡± I felt ashamed. I was letting myself lose control. I wasn¡¯t able to keep in the emotions that were raging through me.


    ¡°I know that you didn¡¯t notice it. And I know that you didn¡¯t mean it. You are more pissed off about what happened in that room just now than you are letting on. You may be able to hide it with your words and face right now, but your tone of voice and your magic are giving you away. It¡¯s OK to be pissed off, Little Bunny. It¡¯s to be expected. But I wanted to get you away from the others before you exploded. I am not sure if you will explode or not, but it is better to be safe than sorry.¡±


    I wanted to be angry. I wanted to be pissed off, but I couldn¡¯t. He was right. I needed to get away from them. I needed to be distracted. And as my mate, my king, and my wonderful husband, he knew exactly what to do and took care of it without needing to be told.


    ¡°Thank you, Reece.¡± I leaned into him and hugged him around the waist. I held him as close as I could, squeezing him firmly as I tookfort from his warm touch.


    I often forgot about this, since it wasn¡¯t something that I thought about consciously, but Reece was made of fire. He was the fire to my ice. And when I needed to be melted, or to have my soul warmed up in some way, he was always there for me. Just knowing that, knowing that he would be there for me for all of eternity, was enough to make me smile and my heart sing.


    ¡°Feeling better?¡± He asked me when I finally pulled away from the hug.


    ¡°Yes. Thank you.¡± I gave him a loving look and took his hand. ¡°Now, let¡¯s go find Star and Artem. I think they can help us to solve the puzzle of the rocks.¡±


    ¡°Well, it might not be too hard. It looked like they were numbered.¡±


    ¡°Well, isn¡¯t that convenient.¡± I didn¡¯t know if this was a good thing or not. Maybe the numbers meant something else. I guess we wouldn¡¯t know until we assembled them.


    Reece and I went to the parlor that Star and Artem typically used for their own personal time. They, like Reece and I, had been together for a long time. And over the years, they had gotten to the point of just being content to be near each other. After so long together, you don¡¯t need to be actively doing something together to enjoy yourself with your partner. You just needed to be around them in a positive manner.


    When we found Star and Artem though, they weren¡¯t just sitting around. They weren¡¯t reading, watching a movie, or just talking about life. They were hard at work as they leaned over a veryrge table that wasn¡¯t usually there.


    ¡°Hey Star, hey Artem.¡± I tried to sound calm as I walked into the room. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re working on the rocks.¡± Artem stood up. ¡°I knew that you wanted to handle the interviews, so I wanted to help out in any way that we could.¡±


    ¡°Thanks, Artem.¡± I smiled as I walked closer to him. ¡°How is iting along?¡±


    ¡°Well, the rocks all have a number, and I am sure that this was meant to help us put them in order. The highest number is one hundred and fifty-two.¡±


    ¡°And, of course, there are one hundred and fifty-two rocks.¡± Star added. ¡°We¡¯re about halfway through assembling the message.¡± I could see the look on her face as she said that.


    ¡°And how is the message so far?¡± I asked as I walked closer to the table.


    ¡°I stopped paying attention to the words. I..I didn¡¯t like what they were saying.¡± Star looked scared and unnerved. She was a sensitive soul, so I wasn¡¯t surprised that she would be physically and emotionally upset by this. ¡°I..I actually turned them all over so that we only saw the numbers.¡±


    ¡°I think that is better anyway. That way we know that we are getting them into the right order.¡± I nodded at her and let her know that there was nothing at all wrong with what she had done.


    ¡°Let us help.¡± Reece said as he came up behind me. ¡°The more hands on it, the sooner we should get it all done.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Reece.¡± Artem looked at him solemnly. ¡°I want to get this done and over with as soon as I can. I feel like the sooner that we see this message in its entirety, the sooner we can start looking for these people.¡±


    ¡°I agree.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°Also, we need to dust these rocks for fingerprints.¡± I looked at both Star and Artem and sighed in relief. ¡°Thank you, both of you, for wearing gloves while doing this.¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± Artem looked like what I had just said was not necessary.


    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯ve seen enough crime shows to know that we need to wear gloves when handling evidence.¡± Star tried to smile but I could tell that it was forced and not at all genuine. I hated putting her and the others through this, but it was something that was affecting all of us. All of our people. And we all needed to band together to figure this out.


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 Chapter 888

    Chapter 888: Chapter 73- Trinity ¨C Evidence Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece and I both put on a pair of gloves and joined Star and Artem as they sorted out the rocks and tried to put them in numerical order. They had one through fifty done when we got here, so they were about a third of the way done. With Reece and I helping them as well, we were sure to get this done in no time at all.


    Slowly, we pulled rocks out of the bags that they were in. Star and Artem had taken the time to separate them by groups of tens. I think that was mostly to make it so that they didn¡¯t get them mixed up at all. It was a good method though and it meant that we were able to focus on one group at a time.


    It only took us five minutes at most. And that was with us moving slowly and making sure that we got everything into the proper order. After that, we double checked that they were all correct and then stood back.


    ¡°There we have it. One hundred and fifty-two rocks all in order.¡± I looked at all the glowing numbers that were visible to us all now, courtesy of Talia and her magic that was just like mine.


    .....


    ¡°Should we turn them over now?¡± Reece asked. I could sense the apprehension in his voice. I knew that he wasn¡¯t in a big hurry to find out what these people wanted to tell us so badly that they went through all this trouble.


    In truth, he was probably only feeling like that because of what happened in that room recently. Having that man die like that, killing himself in custody the way that he did, was not a good omen for what this message was going to say. The man had been there at the beach. He had been watching us. And so was the other one. The one that got away. There had been two of them that were there. At least two of them. There might have been more that weren¡¯t discovered like the other two. Maybe there was a third one that was better at concealing themselves. Or maybe there was one that just didn¡¯t flinch when they had all the nonhumans searching the crowd for them. Whichever it might be, it was possible that there were more than the two confirmed cultists that had been watching us.


    And that made me wonder for a moment. How many other scenes had they been at? Did they have a way of making sure that we didn¡¯t see them at all the scenes? Were they following us? Did they have someone at each crime scene that was waiting for me and Reece toe and investigate.


    They clearly knew who we were. They knew that I was Queen Trinity Gray. They knew that I was the leader of these people. And that meant that they were taunting me along with killing people. They were doing this to mess with me even more than they already had. They were killing people like it was some sort of game that we were wrapped up in. They were saying e and get me now, Miss Queen¡¯. Only they didn¡¯t tell me where the game was supposed to be taking ce. They didn¡¯t tell me where to go and I was left to follow after them and to catch up on a regr basis. And I didn¡¯t like this game one bit. If they wanted toe after me, then why didn¡¯t they? If they wanted to send me a message, why use dead people to do it? Why couldn¡¯t they be direct with me? Why couldn¡¯t they just tell me what they wanted so that we could figure this out like adults? Why did they have to kill so many people?


    And if that rally was the case, how many of the people died just so that these bastards could draw me out? How many of them were just messages for me? I was guessing all of them.


    ¡°Trinity?¡± I vaguely heard someone calling out to me.


    ¡°Trin?¡±


    ¡°Little Bunny?¡± Two more voices added to the one that had already called out to me. But I was still lost in thought. I was trying to put some pieces of this puzzle together inside of my head.


    ¡°Trinity?¡± Artem called out to me again. I recognized his voice this time around.


    ¡°Trin?¡± Star was next. She sounded like she was concerned about me.


    ¡°Little Bunny?¡± Reece wasst, speaking a little more forceful than the other two were.


    ¡°Hmm?¡± I looked up at Reece with a curious look on my face. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s up? Really? That¡¯s what you have to say to me. You were just spacing out. I asked you a question and then you just drifted off into La La Land. Where did that mind of yours go anyway?¡±


    ¡°Sorry Reece. I just started to think about things. And, well, you know how my mind can be sometimes. One thought led to another and then another and another. And before long, I was nowhere near where I started out and I couldn¡¯t even find my way back.¡± I was smiling at him, but I didn¡¯t feel like I was making any sense at the moment.


    ¡°Well, wee back to thend of consciousness. Can you please make a decision here for me?¡± He was rolling his eyes and smiling at me at the same time. Exasperation andughter, that sure was an odd mix.


    ¡°A decision on what? Sorry.¡± I apologized once again.


    ¡°Should we flip the stones over?¡± He asked me a shortened version of his question from earlier.


    ¡°Oh. I will take care of that. It¡¯s best to get it all done in one go.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°Hold on.¡±


    I faced the multitude of rocks and called my magic toward me. A little bit of wind magic mixed with a little bit of levitation magic. That was all that I needed here. I would make the stones float and then the wind magic would flip them over. It needed to be a small amount of both magics. I didn¡¯t want to destroy the room and I didn¡¯t want to send the stone flying across the room either.


    ¡°There, that should do it.¡± I nodded as I saw the stones all flip over in a one hundred and eighty degree turn. Now that they were word side up, I lowered them back to the table and was done with it. They were ready for us to read.


    ¡°Thank you, Trinity.¡± Artem smiled at me. ¡°Let¡¯s see that message now.¡± He didn¡¯t sound happy about it as he stepped forward with me and Reece. Star was the only one that stayed back. I don¡¯t think she needed to see it like we did. She wasn¡¯t as active in the investigation like Artem was.


    I stood there with Reece and Artem on either side of me. We were looking at the table from the bottom so that we could see the words from the top down. That would make it so that we didn¡¯t have to read upside down or backwards. Not that I couldn¡¯t do that, I just didn¡¯t want to right now.


    I started to read the message and was instantly feeling like my stomach was turning and my anger was ring. The person, or people, who had done this were sick and crazy. They needed to be stopped. Even more so than before.


    ¡®You dogs, scoundrels, magical fiends, and other monstrous creatures have sought us since our mission has begun, yet you are nowhere near finding us. You use your magic, strength, and power to search for us, though we continue to evade you. You im to be strong, but you are not. You are weak whenpared to our faith. Faith in our mission and the one we serve. You seek to muddle the human race with your tainted bloodlines, but we will not let you aplish that feat. We will put an end to your reign of terror. We will dominate over the monsters of this world. We have taken the fight to your own backyard. And soon, we will give you a royal fight in your own courtyard. We will end this soon enough. All monsters will be executed. And soon enough, the world will see the reign of the Jaegan begin.¡¯


    ¡°That name there, Jaegan, that was the man that was in the third interview room.¡± Reece noted as he read to the end. I had already finished it and was rereading it again. Though my eyes had stopped and seemed to be stuck at one particr ce.


    ¡®And soon, we will give you a royal fight in your own courtyard.¡¯


    What did they mean by that? If these murders here in California were supposed to be in our backyard, figuratively meaning that the entire United States of America was my domain and anyce outside of my actual home was considered my backyard, then what was supposed to be my courtyard?


    ¡°Reece?¡± I called out to him when it clicked inside of my head. ¡°Our courtyard, do they mean Colorado? Do they mean that they are going to be taking this fight directly to our doorstep next?¡± I could feel the blood freezing in my veins. And that was not a metaphor either. I was getting so pissed off right now, that I knew my magic was on a rampage. I was freezing myself. I was letting it get the best of me. And when I looked up at Reece, I could tell that I was seeing him through a thin film of ice. It was already settling over my eyes. ¡°Reece, they are going to go after our children next. Are they going to Colorado Springs? Are they going to hit Trinity Falls?¡±


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 Chapter 889

    Chapter 889: Chapter 74- Reece ¨C Panic (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    ¡°Reece, they are going to go after our children next. Are they going to Colorado Springs? Are they going to hit Trinity Falls?¡± Trinity¡¯s words swirled inside of my head as I looked at her. I could see the wild look that was starting to enter her eyes at that moment. And not only could I see it, but I could also feel it too. I don¡¯t mean that she was affecting me with her look. No, that wasn¡¯t necessary. What I meant here was that I was starting to feel the same exact thing that she was.


    Panic. Rage. Anger. Fear. All of that and more was raging through my system at the moment. I could tell that I was about to start losing control of myself just like she was. These people were threatening our family now. Not just our people.


    I wasn¡¯t trying to say that we weren¡¯t already taking this seriously, because we were. But the moment that these people threatened our families, our children, was the moment that they made the biggest mistake of their lives.


    ¡°Trinity, I think that is exactly what they are saying. This here, California, is on the same continent and in the same country as our home. It is the proverbial backyard to our castle. And our courtyard would be the area immediately outside of our home. They are taking this fight directly to us. And they didn¡¯t think that we would figure it out in time, that was why they gave us this message. They wanted to warn us to go home so that we would be waiting for them.¡±


    .....


    Why was it that everything I was looking at was bathed in red? Why was it that I was starting to sweat just a little bit? Heat never really bothered me that much. I mean, I get to where a room is too warm for me to consider itfortable, but it doesn¡¯t usually make me sweat. Was this an effect of the rage? This was something that I had never experienced before?


    ¡°Reece, you might want to calm down just a little bit.¡± I heard Artem call out to me from the other side of Trinity. ¡°I don¡¯t want my parlor to catch on fire.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± I looked at my hands and saw that I was indeed starting to burn. ¡°Shit. I lost control as well. Trinity, it¡¯s contagious.¡± I tried to make a joke out of the moment, but it left a bitter taste in my mouth.


    ¡°Come here, you overgrown mutt.¡± Trinity grabbed onto me and pulled me close to her. She was still covered in ice while I was covered in me. I knew that I wasn¡¯t going to hurt her though. That wasn¡¯t how we were built. I was her fire, and she was my ice. We were made toplement each other and to neutralize each other when we needed it.


    When Trinity pulled me in for a hug, I could almost immediately feel the extreme cold that was covering her entire body. She instantly extinguished the mes, causing a thin gray stream of steam to rise from between us. I wrapped my arms around her as well, melting more of the ice and cooling myself down at the same time.


    Soon enough, I could tell that we were both back to normal. There were no more mes, and there was no more ice covering Trinity¡¯s clothes or body. We were just two normal looking people that were hugging each other tightly. Our clothes hadn¡¯t even been affected. There were no burn marks or wet areas from the moments that had just passed between us.


    ¡°All better?¡± My Little Bunny asked me as she pulled away from the hug.


    ¡°Yes, much better. Thank you.¡±


    ¡°Well, Reece, you helped me earlier. It was only fair that I help you now.¡± She squeezed my hand as she spoke. She wasn¡¯t smiling though. I don¡¯t think that either of us were capable of smiling at the moment.


    ¡°So, now that you both are a lot more calm, should we talk about this?¡±


    ¡°No. I think the message is clear enough. We¡¯re going to take the evidence that we have and go home. If you would like to, you cane with us. We will wee you with open arms. Also, the castle might be the safest ce for you and your family.¡± I stepped away from Trinity, putting distance so that I didn¡¯t scoop her into my arms and run out of the room this very moment.


    ¡°Yes. I think that I would feel safer if you all came to stay with us until this is over. You are family, and I don¡¯t want to see anything happen to any of you.¡± Trinity added as she looked at Star and Artem.


    ¡°I appreciate that, I really do.¡± Artem was giving me a pained look. ¡°However, I think the best ce for me right now is here, with my pack. I need to protect them. If these peoplee after my territory again, I swear that I will stop them. I think that we need to patrol and initiate worldwide curfews for everyone. Trinity, please, do what you can to protect everyone.¡± Artem looked just as upset and nearly as panicked as I felt.


    ¡°I will, Artem. I will send out the notice today. In the meantime, work with other packs and patrol the areas. But don¡¯t let anyone go alone. They need to stay in pairs, and close to each other at all times. These people can sh a magical light at you that will put you into a trance. That was what Talia saw in her dream. They use runes to aplish magical things. And they look and act human, but there is something off about them.¡± Trinity was exining to him what we found out.


    ¡°Artem, one of the men arrested was part of this group of murderers. However, he activated a rune on his body and killed himself. We didn¡¯t learn much except that they n to murder us all. That we already knew though. They say that it is their mission, and they are taking it seriously.¡±


    ¡°Understood. We will deal with the body and be on the lookout for any others in the area. I will make sure that all packs within a hundred miles of here have the scent of these people. I will make sure that they don¡¯t kill in this area again.¡± He was determined to be as effective as possible. He was a good Alpha too, so I knew that he would do everything that he could to seed.


    ¡°That¡¯s good. Trinity, I think we need to leave, now. Let¡¯s gather the others and get home as soon as we can. If we hurry, we will be home by four.¡± It was two in the afternoon here. That meant that it was three back home. As long as we hurried, we would be home in no time at all.


    ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s get going.¡± She nodded and agreed with me. ¡°Artem, Star, please be careful. And let us know if you find anything at all.¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± Star was the one that nodded in agreement. From what I knew, she was a good Luna to this pack. And she always did what she could for her people. And she used her Fae side to make things easier on them as a whole.


    Trinity and I left the parlor after that. We found everyone that we needed to and had our things packed up within minutes. It wasn¡¯t a neatly done packing job, but it was done.


    ¡°What is going on?¡± Talia said as she ran toward us down the hall. Alexio had been informed that we were going home, but we hadn¡¯t exined it to Talia yet.


    ¡°We¡¯re going home. I thought that you would want to go home.¡± Trinity smiled at her in as calm of a face as she could muster.


    ¡°Mom, please don¡¯t lie to me. What is going on?¡± Talia red at her and then at me.


    ¡°Talia, it¡¯s probably nothing. We just got a message that something might be happening at home.¡± I didn¡¯t want to exin it all to her, but I didn¡¯t want to lie to her either. I also knew that Trinity didn¡¯t want to lie to her and that was why she looked so ufortable when she told Talia that we were going home.


    ¡°A..ar..are these people going to our home? A..are they going to hurt Reagan and Rika? O..o..or are they going after Zachary, Zander, Zayden, Zaley? I..is our family in danger?¡± She looked like she was about to panic. I knew that she was worried for her siblings the same as I was. ¡°I..is L, Nona, Papa, and M¨®ra¨ª in danger?¡±


    ¡°Honey, we¡¯ve all been in danger since these murders started. We¡¯re in no more danger now than we were then. Please, don¡¯t worry. We¡¯re just being careful, that is all.¡±


    ¡°O..OK.¡± Talia nodded, but I don¡¯t think she believed us all that much.


    Within minutes, we had everything ready to go. Star, Artem, Elise, Isabelle, Olivia, Brayden, Jodan, Julian, Spencer, ir, ke, Cohen, Dalton, Gil, and Zack came to see us off. It was as sentimental as any other family goodbye that we had, but I was in a hurry to get it over with. I just wanted to get home and see that these people hadn¡¯t hurt one of my children. I just needed to reassure myself. And yes, I knew that I could call them, mentally or over the phone. That wouldn¡¯t work though. I needed to see them. To hug them. To know that they were safe. I just needed to hold them in my arms and smell their scents. I needed that. As a father, that was all that would satisfy the emotions that were roiling inside of me.


    ¡°We will see you guys again soon. Come for a visit when you can. And Artem, let me know how those things turn out, OK?¡± I took his hand and shook it while my Little Bunny created the door back to our castle.


    ¡°Yeah, sure thing, Reece.¡± Artem smiled, but it was forced. ¡°We wille and visit you all for the holidays this year. I will try to get all the boys toe with us then.¡± He was talking in code with me as well. Basically, he was saying that I better end this shit with these killer assholes so that we can all be together again.


    ¡°Sounds like a n.¡± I nodded and hid the true emotions that I was feeling. None of his kids would know that anything was wrong at all.


    Now that the door was ready, it was time for us to head home. It was time for us to see our family again.


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 Chapter 890

    Chapter 890: Chapter 75- Trinity ¨C Home At Last Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The decision to go home was fast and spur of the moment. We got our things and were ready to go in almost no time at all. It was about three in the afternoon in Crescent City when we left, and it was about an hour and thirty secondster when we arrived in Trinity Falls, Colorado. It took us all of thirty seconds to pass through the door and exit the other side of the magical tunnel. The hour was because of the time difference between Colorado and California.


    ¡°MOMMY!¡±


    ¡°MOMMA!¡±


    ¡°MOMMY!¡±


    .....


    ¡°MOMMY!¡±


    ¡°MOM!¡±


    ¡°MOMMY!¡±


    All of our children, Zachary, Reagan, Zaley, Zayden, Rika and Zander, in that order, called out to us when we exited the door into the main living room of the royal tower. Mom, Dad, L and Grandfather weren¡¯t there at the moment, so I wasn¡¯t able to greet them. Oh well, maybe they would be back here in time for dinner. They did have other things to do as well.


    Reece, feeling left out that the kids were all surrounding me, grumbled in mock disappointment.


    ¡°What am I, chopped liver? Last time that I checked I was your dad.¡±


    ¡°We love you too, Dad.¡± Rika let go of me and started the mass exodus from around me. All of the kids ran to Reece after that.


    ¡°We missed you, Dad.¡± Reagan hugged him and let go a little quickly. I guess men didn¡¯t hug their dads like they hugged their moms.


    ¡°I missed you, Daddy.¡± Zaley leapt into his arms and hugged him while Zachary, Zander and Zayden hugged him around his waist.


    ¡°Yeah, Daddy, we missed you too.¡± Zachary looked up to him as he spoke.


    ¡°We missed you both, Daddy. But Mommy was through the door first.¡± Zander added as he pressed his face against Reece¡¯s stomach.


    ¡°We were lonely without you guys here.¡± Zayden said to round them out.


    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m home too.¡± Talia said as she finally walked through the door with Rudy and Alexio.


    ¡°Tally!¡± Zayden ran to her first when he saw her.


    ¡°Tally!¡± Zachary, running as quickly as his brother, called out to her as well.


    ¡°TalTal!¡± Zaley called her by her special name that she had for her as she ran toward Talia.


    ¡°Tally!¡± Zander was thest to reach Talia, and he was the one that knocked them all to the floor. There was a round ofughter, even from Alexio and Rudy as they watched on. Talia wasughing just as much as we were, albeit a little breathlessly. She had gotten the wind knocked out of her when she fell over.


    ¡°I missed you guys.¡± Talia, who couldn¡¯t wrap her arms around the four kids at once, but she still did her best to hug them, hold them, and show them her love.


    ¡°Alright. Alright. Let her breathe.¡± Reagan scolded the younger children as he and Rika started to pull them away from her.


    ¡°Aww. But I missed my Tally.¡± Zayden whined as he stood on his feet next to Talia.


    ¡°She needs to get up. You four are crushing her.¡± Rikaughed as she pulled Zachary to his feet.


    Once Talia was free of children, Reagan and Rika helped her to her feet and hugged her tightly. The three of them were close, all of the kids were, but these three specifically.


    ¡°I missed you, little sis.¡± Reagan¡¯s voice was sad and happy at the same time. He had been worried about her while she was away, sad that she was not with them, and now happy that she was here. There was a lot going on inside of him, that was easy to see.


    ¡°So did I, Talia. I missed you too.¡± Rika said with her face pressed against Talia¡¯s hair.


    ¡°I missed you, too. It was exciting to travel, and I was happy to help, but I missed home way more than I thought that I would.¡± Talia was always able to talk to Reagan and Rika openly about things. It was just the rtionship that they had with each other, and I was d to see it in front of me.


    ¡°OK, if we¡¯re all content now that the hugs were given, I think we can start to settle in a little.¡± I called out and at that moment, Roisin came over toward me.


    ¡°Wee home, Queen Trinity.¡± She bowed toward me, but I saw that she was looking out the corner of her eyes toward Gabriel. ¡°Shall I take your things and see to it that they are put away?¡±


    ¡°That is not an immediate priority, Roisin. You can spend some time with Gabriel first. I am sure that you two missed each other.¡±


    ¡°R..really?¡± She beamed at me happily. ¡°Thank you, Queen Trinity.¡±


    ¡°Not a problem. Gabriel, we will reconvene in two hours to debrief everyone here. Vincent, Shane, David, Jackson, Rawlynne, Rudy, all of you can go and spend time with your families as well. Please return in two hours so that we can hold a meeting with everyone.¡±


    ¡°Trinity.¡± Reece called out to me. ¡°That will be in the middle of dinner, let us reconvene in four hours, at eight this evening.¡± I understood what he was saying underneath those words. We can spend more time with the kids, then they will be able to spend the time before bed in their rooms while we talk things over with the others that were here.


    ¡°Alright. That sounds good. We will meet back in my office in four hours.¡± I nodded at them. ¡°Enjoy this time with your families. I know that they have all missed you.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± The words were echoed from everyone that was in the room before they left to do their own thing and rx for the next four hours.


    ¡°Mommy, are you home for good now? Are you going to leave again?¡± Zaley asked as she came running back over to me. She took my hands and looked up into my eyes.


    ¡°We¡¯re home for now, sweetheart. I don¡¯t know if we¡¯re going to leave again. I hope that we don¡¯t have to. I want to make sure that we¡¯re together as much as possible.¡± I squeezed her hands gently, just a little bit of pressure to let her know that I was here and that I loved her more than she knew.


    ¡°I don¡¯t want you to leave, Mommy.¡± She hugged me around her waist, so tightly that it almost hurt.


    ¡°I know sweetheart. And I don¡¯t want to leave. Mommy only leaves when she has to. But I promise you that I will alwayse back to you. To all of you.¡±


    ¡°Momma, is everything OK now? Is the business over?¡± Reagan was speaking in terms that wouldn¡¯t scare the younger kids. They didn¡¯t know that we were on an investigation for murders, but Reagan and Rika did. They were older and knew more of what was going on than the others. Well, they did know more. Now Talia knew more than they did.


    ¡°No. It¡¯s not over, but our research has brought us back home now.¡± I gave him a meaningful look and spoke in the same coded pattern. ¡°We will talk about itter. For now, let¡¯s have some time together as a family.¡± I held Zaley closer to me. ¡°How about we let Abigail know that we¡¯re home. I am sure she will need to know so that she makes enough dinner for us all.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll tell her.¡± Zachary volunteered and started to run. Zander and Zayden followed him.


    ¡°No, me. I¡¯ll tell her first.¡±


    ¡°No! I want to tell her. I want her to make dessert for us too.¡± They all ran out of the room and toward therge kitchen that Abigail typically upied.


    Reece, the four remaining kids in the room, and I all moved to sit down so that we could rx together. Alexio, the only other person that was still with us, seemed to be at a loss.


    ¡°Alexio, I know that you do not have someone to return to at the moment, but you may do as you please for the next few hours. It has been a long trip, and you have worked hard. You deserve a break as well.¡± I saw him look at Talia and wonder if he should really rx in his duties right now, given what was going to happen soon. Then again, he had to be thinking that we were in the castle, which was heavily guarded with my magic, and she was with her parents who could protect her.


    ¡°A..alright. I will return to my room. Thank you.¡± He nodded and left after a quick bow to Talia. He really was a devoted guard. I just wish that he would find someone to love soon. He was lonely and I knew that he needed to have someone to make him happy. I felt bad that he was here for so long and hadn¡¯t met the right person yet. Then again, all he ever did was work, so that was probably part of the reason why. Maybe I would bring in some potential mates for him and see if they react to him. It would be an idea at least.


    I mean, I didn¡¯t want him to be lonely forever. I wanted him to find someone that would make him happy. Someone that he would be able to spend time with when he wasn¡¯t working. The problem would be getting him away from work long enough to actually meet these people. I had a feeling that it would take a cataclysmic event to make that happen. And with a chuckle, I decided to just leave him be and let him live his life the way that he wanted to.


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 Chapter 891

    Chapter 891: Chapter 76- Trinity ¨C Home At Last Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°Mommy, you need to see the project that I am working on in school.¡± Zaley called out when we were sitting on the couch. She was still holding onto me and hugging me tightly, only now she was hugging me around the shoulders as she knelt on the couch.


    ¡°A project already? Isn¡¯t that a little early in the school year?¡± I didn¡¯t feel like we were gone that long. It was just a little over a couple of weeks, just a day or so more. Today was literally the start of the third week of school.


    ¡°It¡¯s an art project. They want something that is going to represent the uing harvest moon. I have a beautiful painting that I am making for it, but I don¡¯t think that it will make it into the showcase.¡± She hung her head as she said that.


    ¡°Why not, sweetheart?¡±


    .....


    ¡°I¡¯m not good enough, Mommy. And no one likes me. No one wants to have my painting on disy.¡±


    ¡°That isn¡¯t true, Zaley. People love you, and you¡¯re a wonderful artist. You just need to persevere and show people what you can do. You know, there was a time when almost everyone in the pack acted like they didn¡¯t like me, but I never gave up.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Zaley lifted her head and looked at me with wonder filled eyes.


    ¡°Yes, really. I barely had anyone to talk to outside of my family. But look at mommy now. I am strong and proud of who I became. And I am just as proud of you, Zaley. You are stronger than you know, and you are beautiful, capable, and talented. You do whatever you want to do. And I am sure that you wille through it in the end.¡± Just as I finished my encouraging words, Zachary, Zander and Zayden all came running back into the room.


    ¡°We told her.¡± Zachary was first in the room and eximed a little breathlessly.


    ¡°Yeah, she was happy too.¡± Zander added next.


    ¡°She says she will make an extra special dinner and dessert. She is happy that Mommy and Daddy and Tally are home.¡± Zayden added when he came to a stop next to his brothers.


    ¡°Well then, I can¡¯t wait for the meal.¡± I smiled at the boys. ¡°Thank you for being my little messengers.¡±


    ¡°Of course, Mommy.¡± Zayden grinned. ¡°We will always help Mommy. Before we were born and now, we will always be there for you.¡± The boys had heard a shortened story of what happened in the underworld. They didn¡¯t remember it, thankfully, but they knew that they were Mommy¡¯s protectors, and they were extremely proud of this fact.


    A little whileter, while Reece, Talia, and I were catching up with everyone in the living room, Abigail came to fetch us for dinner.


    ¡°Trinity, Reece, I am so happy that you are home. You as well, Talia.¡± She smiled at us. ¡°I have made a special meal for you all to enjoy.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Abigail.¡± I smiled at her. She was so sweet, and a lot younger looking than when I met her twenty years ago. And the fact that she was still here with us was amazing. She had been the family chef when Reece was born, and she was still with him to this day. He loved her just like she was a part of his family, and so did I. Then again, it was probably thanks to Abigail that Reece never learned how to cook. He never needed to learn how to cook because he always had someone that was there to do it for him. Oh well. I didn¡¯t me her or him. The food that I got to eat was amazing, and I got to spend time with Reece in other ways. Just not while cooking.


    The nine of us walked into the dining room and heard shouts of surprise. Apparently, Mom, Dad, L and Grandfather went straight to the dining room and expected to see the kids but not the rest of us.


    ¡°TRINITY!?¡± Mom leapt to her feet and ran over to me. ¡°I can¡¯t believe that you¡¯re home atst.¡±


    ¡°When did you get here?¡± Dad was running over as well. He added his arms to the hug that Mom was already giving me.


    ¡°Reece!¡± L was running toward Reece at the same moment. ¡°My boy. I missed you.¡±


    ¡°Reece!¡± Ivy ran to hug her big brother. ¡°When did you get home?¡±


    ¡°Trinity!¡± Olivia, my little sister joined in next. It was all happening almost simultaneously so it was just a little confusing.


    ¡°My word!¡± Finally, Grandfather added his exmation to the group and came over to me as well. I felt bad for Reece, I was getting more hugs than he was, but he didn¡¯t look upset at all.


    ¡°We just got back about an hour ago, Mom.¡± Reece told L as he held Ivy in his arms and hugged his mom. ¡°We have a lot to talk about though, so we need to call in the others after dinner.¡±


    ¡°Trinity? Why are you home?¡± Grandfather, who was a little more pragmatic than the others at the moment, figured that something had to either be really good or really bad for us to be here right now.


    ¡°We will talk about it after dinner, Grandfather.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°However, I need to call Noah and Carter to get them here as well. I need the entire inner circle here.¡± I saw the look in his eyes. It was also mirrored in Mom and Dad¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°I will call them now. Can you make a door for Carter to get hereter?¡± He asked me this knowing that there was no other way for him to get here in time.


    ¡°Of course. I will make it about a quarter to eight. I told the others to be back from their breaks at eight tonight.¡±


    ¡°Understood. Excuse me for a moment.¡± With that, he stepped out of the room with his phone in hand. He was going to call his grandsons and tell them when to be here. I knew that with them, Emmalee and Nikki were likely toe for a visit as well. I wouldn¡¯t mind seeing them, but the meeting was going to take priority.


    ¡°While you¡¯re doing that, Grandfather, I will let the others know.¡±


    I let the others sit at the table while I sent out a group message to Juniper, Paul, Cedar, Trevor, Aunt Glory, Athair m¨°r, Riley, and Landon. I could have done this mentally, but that always felt like an invasion of privacy. I mean, I wasn¡¯t reading their minds or anything, but what if they were doing something intimate? I would feel bad entering their minds while that was happening. So, unless it was ast resort or my only option, I tended to send messages by phone. It was the polite option in my mind.


    The message that I sent went like this:


    Reece and I are back in the castle. Our investigation has led us back here. There is going to be a debriefing at eight tonight. I need you all there. Please, make sure that you are notte. I need to exin what has happened, what we found, and what we think is going on. We will see you then.


    The moment that I sat down at the table with the others, Grandfather excluded, my phone started to chime and ding with lots of messages.


    :Juniper:


    What?! When did you get back!? OK, I know you won¡¯t answer that now, I will see you at eight. I better get some answers though!


    :Paul:


    HOLY SHIT! It¡¯s the return of Astro! You know I will be there. I won¡¯t leave you hanging. And I am ready to end this investigation with you. You know, you should rely on me more. I am actually quite capable.


    :Cedar:


    Wee home Trinity. We¡¯re all d that you¡¯re back. I will be there at the meeting on time, do not worry. And I hope that things went well while you were gone.


    :Landon:


    Well, look what the cat dragged in. d you¡¯re all back safe and sound. Well, I hope that you¡¯re safe anyway. You didn¡¯t really specify. Anyway, I will be there. I¡¯ll head over after I wrap up this paperwork. It¡¯s still the bane of my existence.


    :Riley:


    This doesn¡¯t sound good. I will be there, but I need a door. I am not about to make that drive tonight. Sorry to be demanding, but that¡¯s a lot to ask on short notice.


    :Trevor:


    Glory and I will be there. We need a door as well. It¡¯s a lot farther for us than it is for him. d you¡¯re all safe, but I agree that this doesn¡¯t sound positive.


    :Athair m¨°r:


    Wee home, Garin¨ªon. [1] I hope that you were all safe on your trip. I will be there with Trevor and Glory. I can travel through the same door as them. See you soon.


    :Me:


    I will make the doors for those that need them at a quarter to eight. Thank you all foring on such short notice.


    A round of replies that consisted of words like ¡®sure thing¡¯, ¡®of course¡¯, and ¡®well duh¡¯ followed my message. After that, I was able to enjoy my meal with my family. It was thick cut garlic butter steaks that were tender and juicy. Along with that was a pile of roasted potatoes, asparagus, corn on the cob, and garlic toast. And let¡¯s not forget the fact that the steak was smothered with caramelized onions and grilled mushrooms. It was perfect and I loved it. Abigail knew that we wanted something that reminded us of home right now.


    And to top the meal off, Abigail had ended it with a fresh apple pie. She had probably started to prep it as soon as the boys told her we were home, but it didn¡¯te out of the oven until she was serving it to us. That was how hot it was. And the heap of ice cream that she put on top of it started to melt instantly. I didn¡¯t mind it at all though, it was so delicious.


    While we ate, we all talked about things that the kids had been doing in schooltely. Zachary, Zander, Zayden, Zaley were in fifth grade now and they were joining clubs and doing things that they wanted to do. Reagan and Rika were doing well in their sses, and they were making a lot of new friends on campus.


    The talk almost made Reece bring up the date that Rika had been on, but I didn¡¯t want to let him ruin the moment that we were having. So, when he started to mention that topic, I subtly kicked him in his shin and red at him. He didn¡¯t even say ¡®ow¡¯, he just looked at his te dejectedly. I knew he was going to talk to her about it soon though, just not yet. Not when we first got home. I wanted this happy moment with everyone here.


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 Chapter 892

    Chapter 892: Chapter 77- Dietrich ¨C Germany Part 1 (VOLUME 5) (MATURE)


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    We had just seen the others off. They were heading to California because the murders had finally hit North America. And, apparently, the five most recent murders had taken ce all along the California coast. These people, whoever they were, were starting to venture into more territory.


    I don¡¯t know if they used the new killers in California while the others took a rotation off, or if these murders in the States were the same ones that had been wreaking havoc across the three continents that they had already been to so far. I just didn¡¯t know what the situation here was, so it was hard to think about it.


    Honestly, there was so much that we didn¡¯t know about this case, even though we had been investigating it for a while now. And that was annoying. If we didn¡¯t find a way to figure this out soon, then I was afraid that we weren¡¯t going to be able to save anyone else from dying unnecessarily.


    I knew that all these deaths were taking their toll on everyone. On Trinity, the queen that felt like she was failing her people. On Reece, the king that couldn¡¯t save his queen from this heartache. On all the guards that were helping to investigate. Especially on my Shawn. He was such a sensitive soul. He might hide it most of the time, especially from his brother, but I knew what he was really like. He couldn¡¯t hide the heartache that he was feeling from me.


    .....


    Maybe, if we found something while investigating here in Germany, we could alleviate some of the pain that he was feeling. And well, maybe I could alleviate some of it as well. He needed to have some time to rx. It¡¯s like Trinity and Reece said recently, well, specifically Reece but who is going to say anything about it right now. If we don¡¯t rest, then we¡¯re going to burn out. That was a paraphrasing of his words, but they were spot on. And for the rest of tonight, I am going to go ahead and let Shawn rx and calm down.


    I mean, if I wasn¡¯t able to do this for my husband, then what sort of husband was I? I needed to take his mind off of this whole mess. At least until the morning came around. He needed to stop thinking about death. He needed to stop thinking about murderers, killer cultists, and whatever else it was that went through his mind.


    Not to mention, it wasn¡¯t often that we visited the castle. And we almost never got to visit the castle without the kids in tow. Yes, four of them were in college, and in the next two years there would be more in college, but they would forever be our children and they would be wee to join us on these family vacations.


    I wanted to take advantage of the time that we were going to have alone. I wanted to show my mate that I felt just as strongly about him now, after almost twenty years, as I did the day that I met him. Hell, I felt even more love and desire for him if anything. And I wanted him to feel that.


    ¡°Dietrich?¡± Shawn called out to me as he was going up the stairs. ¡°I am going to take a shower. I don¡¯t think that we should stay up thatte.¡± I smirked at his words.


    ¡°I agree, Liebe. We should head to bed early this evening.¡± Though, I did not add that we wouldn¡¯t be sleeping when we went to bed this evening.


    I let Shawn have a head start up the stairs. If he were already in the shower, then he wouldn¡¯t be able to protest me joining him. And well, once I was in the shower, I could do what I wanted with him. This was already working out in my favor. Thank you, Shawn, my love.


    After about three minutes, which was all that I could make myself wait, I rushed up the stairs toward our room. When I snuck into our room, I heard the shower running. The water hadn¡¯t been on for long, but I knew that Shawn was getting ready to head in and wash himself. I walked across to the door to the bathroom, stripping my clothes as I went. I would pick them upter.


    ¡°Hmm hmm hmmm hmm hmm hmmm.¡± Shawn was humming as he opened the door and stepped under the steaming spray of water. I could hardly see him since the steam was fogging up the ss already. Dammit! I wanted to see more.


    Slipping into the room noiselessly, I stepped from one shadow to the other until I was outside the door and about to join him.


    ¡°Stop sneaking around and get in here already. And you¡¯re picking up those clothes that I heard you drop on the floor.¡± He was running water on his head as he spoke, facing away from me with his eyes closed. He didn¡¯t see me at all, but he had sensed me.


    ¡°How did you know that I was going to join you?¡± Iughed out the question as I joined him under the water. I moved close against his back and pressed myself against him. He was warm, covered in muscle but still soft to my touch.


    ¡°I knew it the moment that I told you I was getting in the shower. I could already see the hungry look in your eyes. That was why I decided toe up here. I was giving you an opening that I knew you wouldn¡¯t be able to resist.¡± At that, Shawn turned to face me, his wet chest pressing against mine and I could feel the steady beat of his heart thumping against me.


    ¡°I love you.¡± I whispered as I leaned in to kiss him.


    ¡°I know.¡± He managed to say that just before my lips sealed his in a blindingly hot kiss. The water that was falling onto our shoulders and sshing onto our cheeks was hot, but it was nothing whenpared to this scalding kiss.


    I felt Shawn slide his arms around my neck, pulling me in closer and deepening the kiss on his own. He did this before I even had the chance to wrap my arms around his waist and hold him against me.


    ¡°I needed this.¡± Shawn whispered when he pulled away and broke the kiss. He pressed his cheek against mine and whispered into my ear. ¡°I need you, Dietrich.¡±


    ¡°I am always here for you, Liebe. I will always be here for you.¡± I nuzzled against his cheek in response as I whispered in his ear. ¡°I feel like it¡¯s been so long since we have had any time alone together.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re alone now, Dietrich, and you can do whatever you want with me.¡± Shawn was grinning when I pulled away now.


    ¡°You don¡¯t want to give me free range, Shawn. You know how big my appetite is. I might not let you rest very much tonight.¡± I know that the heated look in my eyes was darkening the blue that was usually almost white. Now it would be something a little more substantial.


    ¡°I trust you, Dietrich. You know as well as I do, that we have work to do tomorrow.¡± He separated our bodies and I felt him running his hand down the front of my body. ¡°Besides, I have a lot that I want to do to you as well.¡±


    I gasped when Shawn wrapped his hand around my already erect shaft, but I was in for more of a shock when I saw Shawn start to lower himself to his knees. The entire time that he was sinking to the floor, Shawn was looking up at me, never taking his eyes off of mine.


    ¡°I guess I will be the one to get us started tonight.¡±


    I couldn¡¯t believe that this was happening. I mean, Shawn initiated things between us often enough that it shouldn¡¯t surprise me, but this was so sudden that I didn¡¯t know how to respond. And I thought that I was the one that was going to be starting all of this. I thought that I would be the one that treated him to the special tricks and teased him. Now it was being turned around on me and I didn¡¯t know what to do.


    The next moment, Shawn slid his mouth down and around my shaft and I groaned instantly.


    ¡°Ngh!¡± It felt so amazing, and he was just getting started. He slid his mouth all the way down to the base of my shaft, sucking hard and long as he acted like he was trying to suck my soul out of me. When he pulled back, until just the tip of my hard member was still in his mouth, he swirled his tongue around and around. That teasing motion was enough to make me weak in the knees. I needed to lock them tight so that I didn¡¯t fall down. I needed to be strong and stay standing.


    After that, Shawn set about creating a steady rhythm. Up and down, he slid his mouth over my shaft in a teasing and tantalizing way. He would suck hard when he got to the base and swirl his tongue at the tip every time.


    I know that I was moaning, panting, and thrusting my hips as he worked hard on me. Every time that Shawn made a downward stroke on my shaft with his mouth, I would thrust inside of his hot, pleasurable mouth to quicken the stroke. I also had my hands on the back of his head to steady myself as I received the pleasure from him.


    Moaning, panting, thrusting, it all blended into one giant blur of pleasure as I reached my climax. I was about to explode and he knew it. And still, Shawn didn¡¯t pull away, even though I let go of his head. He took it and kept going until he knew that my waves of pleasure had ended, that my climax waspletely finished.


    ¡°Shawn!¡± I moaned his name as I felt him slide his mouth away from me.


    ¡°Oh Dietrich, you look like you¡¯re about to fall over. Was it that good?¡± He teased me as he pulled me down toward him. The next thing that I knew I was kneeling on the floor in front of him.


    ¡°You know it was.¡± I whispered to him. ¡°It¡¯s always good with you, Liebling. And now I need to pleasure you. Fair is fair, after all. And I need to show you how much I appreciate you.¡±


    ¡°You do what you want, Dietrich. Not what you think you have to.¡± He spoke softly as he cupped my face in his hands.


    ¡°Oh, I want to do this, Schatz. I really do.¡± And with that, I pushed him back against the wall of the shower.


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 Chapter 893

    Chapter 893: Chapter 78- Shawn ¨C Germany Part 2 (VOLUME 5) (MATURE)


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    With a slightly mischievous grin on his face, Dietrich pushed me across the tiled floor of the shower and pressed me against the cold tiled wall behind me.


    ¡°AHH!¡± I cried out when my overheated skin came in contact with the cold, cold wall. The steam and heat in the shower somehow never warmed up the walls, no matter what you did.


    ¡°Sorry, Shawn, I know that it is cold, but I will make you forget about that now.¡± Dietrich didn¡¯t say anything else. He just ttened himself against the floor, spread my legs wide, and slid his mouth onto my shaft. I cried out again, but not from the cold this time.


    ¡°AHH!¡±


    .....


    Dietrich was better at this than I was, but I like to think that after neen years, I have managed to learn something from him. And he neverined. Still, to get this from Dietrich was beyond amazing. The moment that he started to slide down my shaft, he ttened his tongue against my shaft and curled it up at the sides so that it was like some sort of added sheath for my shaft.


    Like me, he sucked hard when he got to the base of my shaft, but he was so much better at it that I would have been squirming all over the ce if he wasn¡¯t holding me in ce.


    ¡°Ahh! Ahh! D..D..Dietrich!¡± I called out for him. He was making me want more. He was making me want him inside of me and not just having his mouth wrapped around me.


    ¡°Heh heh heh!¡± Heughed around my shaft and I threw my head back on a long cry of pleasure.


    ¡°AHHMMHMMMAHHH!¡±


    I was already approaching my climax. I don¡¯t know if it was because I had gone so long since Dietrich pleasured me like this or because he was just that good at what he was doing, but I could feel the tightening and the tingling that told me that my explosion was imminent.


    ¡°D..D..Dietrich, I..I..I can¡¯t hold out any longer.¡± Almost as soon as I said that I came in his mouth.


    ¡°I think that you needed that way more than I did, my love. Now for me to give you the rest of my attention.¡± I thought that Dietrich was going to take me right there, but instead he shut the water off and picked me up. He wasn¡¯t going to bother with a wedding carry or a princess carry, he threw me over his shoulder and ran into the bedroom.


    After throwing me on the bed, Dietrich was climbing up to meet me in the middle of the extrarge mattress. He was looming over me in an instant and my legs were already hooked into his elbows.


    ¡°Shawn, Geliebte, I don¡¯t know how gentle I will be. I am sorry in advance if I hurt you.¡± He looked so worried but so needy at the same time.


    ¡°Oh Dietrich, just shut up and make love to me already.¡± I just shook my head at him. ¡°I know that you will never hurt me.¡±


    ¡°Shawn?¡± He whispered my name as if it were a question as he fitted himself against my entrance. ¡°I love you.¡±


    With that, Dietrich mmed all the way inside of me in one go.


    ¡°AHH!¡± I cried out in pleasure, with just a little bit of pain. I didn¡¯t stop him though, and he didn¡¯t stop himself. He just pulled back until only his tip was left inside of me, until I was on the verge of crying out for his loss, and then he mmed inside of me again.


    It was glorious. It was amazing. It was special. It was just what I needed. I let my mind go nk. I stopped thinking about anything that wasn¡¯t happening right now. Everything wasn¡¯t happening to me right this very minute wasn¡¯t important enough. Only Dietrich and the love that I had for him was important right now.


    Dietrich was creating a steady rhythm now. mming in with a brutal yet weed force and pulling out so that he was barely in me, over and over he repeated the same pattern, and it was driving me insane.


    It didn¡¯t seem like enough though, I needed more. I wanted more than just him inside of me. I wanted to feel more of him. I wanted to kiss him.


    ¡°D..D..Dietrich, I need more. I need more of you. I need your kiss. I need to feel your mouth on mine.¡± I knew that I sounded lewd and over the top, but I didn¡¯t care. I was going to ask for what I wanted. Dietrich taught me years ago that I needed to be selfish in these moments. I needed to ask for what I wanted, what I needed, so that he could give it to me. That was part of the openness that we had in our rtionship.


    ¡°OK, my love. Come here.¡±


    Dietrich wrapped my legs around his waist and leaned forward to grip me around my chest. He pulled me up so that my chest was pressing against him, but that wasn¡¯t thest of it. Once I was off the bed, Dietrich had to adjust so that he was sitting a little more tly on the bed. Now that he was in position, he unwrapped my legs from around his waist and lowered me a little so that my knees were pressed into the mattress. I also slid a little further down his shaft at the same time and cried out in pleasure at the feeling of him being so deep inside of me.


    ¡°Oh Goddess, Dietrich, this feels so good.¡±


    ¡°And it¡¯s about to get even better.¡± He chuckled darkly as he wrapped his hand around the back of my head and pressed his lips to mine. The moment that he started to kiss me Dietrich also started to lift me off of him with the other hand. He was still guiding the pration himself. He wasn¡¯t letting me help at all. Well that just wouldn¡¯t do. I wanted to be a part of this as well.


    I wrapped my arms around Dietrich¡¯s neck, forcing him to let go of my head in the process. I deepened the kiss like I did earlier and explored his mouth with my tongue. And while doing that, I started to lift myself with my knees so that Dietrich didn¡¯t have to do as much work in this mutual love session of ours.


    With both of his hands free, Dietrich grabbed a hold of my waist. I would lift myself off of him, and in the process, he would press himself into the mattress so that he was pulling out a little more. And then he would thrust up and pull me down with his hands at the same time. The result of this was nothing short of ecstasy. I could feel him so much harder, so much deeper. I cried out with pleasure.


    ¡°Ngh! Hahh! Mhmm! Nghhmm!¡± In response to my higher pitched pleasure sounds, Dietrich¡¯s were a little more guttural and deep.


    ¡°Hehh! Hrhmm! Mhmmrmm!¡± He was saying almost the same things as I was, but they soundedpletely differenting from us.


    This new position, the skin to skin contact, the intermittent kisses, it was just what I needed. And I could quickly feel myself skyrocketing toward my next climax. And based on how much harder that Dietrich felt, I knew that he was almost there too. I didn¡¯t know who would finish first, but it was a race to see who couldst the longest.


    Another thrust, and another. Again and again Dietrich pushed himself to keep going. I tried my best to hold on, but I couldn¡¯t. I ended up throwing my head back, screaming wordlessly as I exploded between us.


    Dietrichsted another few thrusts in and out, but he reached his end as well. He exploded inside of me as he leaned forward and sank his fangs into my shoulder. He hadn¡¯t bitten me during sex in so long that I jumped a little, but I wasn¡¯t scared of him or the bite. It was a way for him to tell me that he loved me. It was onest intimate moment between us before we copsed onto the bed together.


    I was still panting when Dietrich turned me over and started to position himself at my entrance again. I guess he wasn¡¯t lying when he said that he wasn¡¯t going to let me sleep tonight. Not that I wasining all that much. I could handle what he gave me. And maybe I would turn it around on him and give him just as much as he gives me. There was pleasure to be had more than one way here.


    And when I did turn it around on him, a couple of hours and several couplingster, I bit him in the same way that he bit me. Only at that time, he bit me once more. The moment that we both exploded inside of each other that time, we had our fangs buried deep in each other¡¯s shoulders, the taste of blood and love flowing into our mouths. It was the perfect end to this perfect night with my mate.


    After cleaning up as best as we could, we copsed into an exhausted sleep. Our bodies still entwined and holding onto each other. I loved the feel of him pressed against me like this when I slept. It was another way for me to know that he was never going to leave me.


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 Chapter 894

    Chapter 894: Chapter 79- Dietrich ¨C Germany Part 3 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    Shawn and I woke the next morning a little sore, but very pleased. We were also way more rested than I thought that we would be. And after another shower, or an actuallypleted one this time, we got dressed for the day.


    Breakfast was ready for us when we got downstairs, and we ate together in the dining room. It was just the two of us in such arge room, but we didn¡¯t feel lonely or anything. We had the most important person in the world with us. Well, the most important person in our own little private world. When we went home, that circle of people expanded to include others, but when alone it was just the two of us.


    ¡°OK, I think that we should just head out immediately after eating.¡± Shawn wasn¡¯t even looking at me, he was looking at the crude map that we had made yesterday. ¡°We need to destroy their protection spells and get into the mansion. For the sake of the people that you used to know, I hope that they aren¡¯t involved in the case. However, for the sake of the case I hope that they are. We need a break in this thing more than I can even exin.¡± I understood what he meant. He didn¡¯t want me to be hurt if the descendants of my old friend were part of this case, but I agreed with him that if they were we would finally have a break that we never had before. And we needed to end this as soon as we could.


    ¡°I hope that we find something that points us in the right direction.¡± I didn¡¯t specify beyond that. I was trying to distance myself from the emotions that I used to have for my former friend. I needed to prepare myself for the worst case scenario.


    .....


    ¡°Are we good to go as soon as we are done eating?¡± He turned away from the map then and looked at me.


    ¡°Yes. I think that we will be. Shall I bring some help with us?¡± I was looking around the room and thinking about the various staff members that I had here.


    ¡°I think we will be fine to start. However, have them on alert. If they get a message from one of us, they need to be ready to go in an instant.¡±


    ¡°My love, you are so prepared for this day. I am very proud of you.¡± I didn¡¯t mean to make it sound like he couldn¡¯t strategize at all. I just wanted him to know that I knew he put a lot of thought and effort into this, and that I appreciated it.


    ¡°I have nned ahead, that is all. When you overthink things like I do, it happens a lot. I have thought about almost every single way that this trip can seed and how it can fail. I will, hopefully, be prepared for everything.¡± He was smiling, but I could still see some of the unease in his eyes. It wasn¡¯t as much as it was yesterday, but it was still there. At least I was able to help him a little bit with how he was feeling.


    ¡°Then I think we will be as prepared as possible. You are a very intelligent man, Shawn. And I know that you will not let us walk into a trap.¡± I thought about the powers that we both had, the ones that Trinity had given us and the ones that we gained over time. There weren¡¯t many vampires that could hold their own against the two of us, and even fewer humans.


    Shawn and Ipsed into silence after that short conversation. We finished our breakfast in silence. Shawn looking at the map and me looking at Shawn. He was so handsome when he concentrated like this. He was always handsome really, but more so like this. However, breakfast didn¡¯tst long, and soon it was time for us to go.


    ¡°A kiss for good luck?¡± I asked Shawn as we stepped out of the castle and into the fresh air. The sound of the birds, the bugs, and the other animals that were hiding out there were all making a lovely music with the wind in the trees.


    ¡°Ha ha ha. You can¡¯t just have a kiss. With you it¡¯s always more.¡± Shawnughed at me and I just couldn¡¯t help butugh with him.


    ¡°I am not that bad. I can have just a kiss. You should remember that, Geliebte. If I wasn¡¯t content with just a kiss, I would have pounced on you that first night that we met. I have some semnce of self-control. You need to admit that, my love.¡±


    ¡°Fine, I admit that you have some control. But it isn¡¯t that much. Anyway, yes, you can have a kiss for good luck.¡± He leaned into me and kissed me on the lips. It was quick and left me wanting more, but I didn¡¯t say anything. If I did, he would tell me that my control was even less than he thought that it was. I would be content, for now.


    Now that I had had my kiss, I took Shawn¡¯s hand and guided him down the steps and into the woods. We were taking the same path that we were on the day before. The only difference was that we were here alone instead of with arge group. Just the two of us were going to storm ric¡¯s mansion. It was just the two of us against the world. Or that was how it seemed to me at the moment.


    We found the first tree in no time at all. Shadow walking in the trees was really easy to do. There were shadows all over the ce. And traveling together was also easy, since we have been doing it for years and years.


    Next, we went to the tree that was directly in front of the first one. We wanted to finish in front of the mansion so that we didn¡¯t need to circle back around once the shields were down. Turning left, after destroying the second tree, we moved onto the third one and finally thest.


    I was watching the clearing as Shawn finally destroyed thest tree. Like the others, he just punched in the middle of the runic mark and the tree exploded into a million splinters behind where it used to be. The ground near these trees was littered in a mess ofrge and small chunks of wood, but we weren¡¯t going to clean it up. The animals in the woods around us could use the fragments of the trees for building their homes. There were going to be a lot of really big bird¡¯s nests, beaver dams, and other habitats that came from this. At least in some way, we were able to help someone and the environment with what we had just done.


    Now, the clearing that I was watching, where the house should have been,pletely changed when thest tree was destroyed. I saw the house, four stories tall andrger than almost all that existed that long ago. At least in this remote part of the country. It was still beautiful though, like it was new. I had a feeling that whoever lived there now was keeping it with runes like they were hiding it with them.


    There were also more trees that appeared. And a winding drive that came from the main road in the distance. The scenery around the house might have changed, but the house was the same and I could tell that. The flood of nostalgia that I felt when seeing it told me that there wasn¡¯t a single roofing tile that had changed about this ce.


    ¡°This is it. This is ric¡¯s home. This ce is almost as familiar to me as my own castle. I spent so much time here with myrades at the time. I cannot believe that it is still this nice after so long.¡± I took a step toward the house in shock. ¡°I had servants and upkeep on my castle as I modernized it, but this ce looks like it hasn¡¯t seen the passing of a single day.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t go on your own.¡± Shawn snapped at me and grabbed my arm. ¡°We need to go in there together. I don¡¯t care if your former friend lived here. He died hundreds of years ago. This isn¡¯t his home anymore. It isn¡¯t the ce that you used to spend so much time. This ce is different and the people in there are not the ones that you knew.¡± Shawn was reminding me that I needed to focus and that I was here to work. This was not a trip to an old friend¡¯s house. I can¡¯t believe that I let myself get carried away. I can¡¯t believe that I almost messed up that badly.


    ¡°I am sorry, Shawn, I cannot believe that I made such a mistake. I can only me it on the fondness of old memories and the good times that I and my many friends shared at that time. I have you to thank for keeping me grounded like this. Without you, Geliebte, I would be lost.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, yeah.¡± He acted embarrassed, and I could see a slight twinge of pink in his ears as he looked away from me. ¡°At least you know where you messed up. Nowe on, let¡¯s go. We need to see what is in there, together this time.¡± He took my hand instead of my arm now, and with that, he started to pull me toward the house. He was determined, that was more than obvious. Of what though, I didn¡¯t know.


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 Chapter 895

    Chapter 895: Chapter 80- Shawn ¨C Germany Part 4 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    I can¡¯t believe that nostalgia was enough to make Dietrich almost forget why we were here. I can¡¯t believe that he was about to run off toward the house without me. We were here to see if this ce was filled with a bunch of people that killed supernatural beings like us. We were here to see if these people that had worked so hard to conceal this ce were responsible for nearly a hundred murders in ourmunity. And considering that we weren¡¯t getting regr reports about the vampires, it could be more, and we just didn¡¯t know about it yet. This ce was potentially very dangerous, and Dietrich almost forgot about that.


    It made me wonder for a moment, was it really just the house bringing back old memories that caused that response? Or was there something else going on. Did someone try to spell him? Did someone in that house do whatever these people did to make the victims easier to control? Did they use a rune or something to try and control Dietrich? If that were the case, then we would need to be extra careful when we went inside. Then again, I already nned on us being extra careful.


    With Dietrich¡¯s hand in mine, I pulled him along behind me as I made my way out of the trees and onto the long drive that led to the front of the veryrge house. I can¡¯t believe that yesterday we were walking where the house stood. That was one hell of a rune if it could do that. I mean, we were literally walking through the solid matter of a building. That should not have been possible.


    I wanted to present us as non threatening to the people that were most likely inside. Then again, they would have just watched me destroy the runes that protected their home from the outside world. I would literally be seen as nothing but a threat by them. They were going to think that I was a giant brute and a massive asshole. And that was at the very least. They were probably going to hate me right off the bat at the very least.


    .....


    Thinking about all of these things, I pulled Dietrich along behind me until we got to the door. I could smell something that was off about the ce. There was a distinctly human scent about the ce, that typical underlying scent that all humans had. But there was more to it now. There was something that was off about it. Something that just didn¡¯t make sense to me. There was an odd odor that was wafting up like it was something dead and musty. A moldy and mildew scent that just didn¡¯t seem to sit right. I had smelled things like it in the past, but never associated with a human. Not with something that was supposed to be alive.


    ¡°Something is wrong about this ce.¡± Dietrich whispered next to me. ¡°Something is truly wrong, and I just don¡¯t know how to describe it.¡± He turned to look at me and I could feel the worry that was lurking behind his eyes.


    ¡°I know what you mean. This ce seems so alive, yet it feels dead inside. It is so pristine and clean that it feels like it¡¯s lived in when you look at it, but the whole ce seems evil, dead, and almost like it¡¯s going to suck out my soul if I touch that doorknob.¡± I shook my head to clear the thoughts from my mind. ¡°I don¡¯t really want to go in there, but I know that we don¡¯t have a choice.¡±


    ¡°You are right about that.¡± Dietrich nodded at me. ¡°We need to go in there. We need to see this through. That is what we promised to do. And look on the bright side, at least we have each other. We won¡¯t be alone in there. We won¡¯t need to worry about where the other is at all times.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re damn right about that, Dietrich. You are not leaving my side. I swear, if you even think about wandering off, I will put a fucking leash on you like you¡¯re some sort of runaway toddler. I am not ying around about this, Dietrich. I will do it. Just wait and see.¡± I saw the shocked look on his face that he initially wore at the mention of leash turned intoughter as I went on. He thought that I was joking. He really did. ¡°Should I put the leash on you now? I can craft one from belts and your shirt, don¡¯t tempt me.¡±


    ¡°OK, OK, OK, I am sorry Liebling. I will not run off. Would you like me to hold your hand while we are in there?¡± He took my hand. ¡°I promise that we will not be separated from each other at all.¡± He was acting like this was nothing. Like this was some sort of joke that we were having with each other. I was being serious about this. I didn¡¯t want anything bad to happen to him while we were in here. I knew that this ce had a history for him. I knew that he was going to be affected by what he saw in there, and I didn¡¯t want to lose him to those memories. Whatever they were, whatever happened between him and ric and the others, it was in the past. He was a different person now, and he didn¡¯t need to return to that life anymore.


    For some reason, I was already feeling like he was pulling away from me. I felt like I was going to lose him if we went in this house together. But I also knew that if I didn¡¯te here with him, I would have lost him that way as well. No matter what Idid in this situation, I felt like I was going to lose him. I just knew that I was.


    Finally, after a long pause and awkward conversations, I knocked on the door. Waiting for a reply was the longest feeling in the world. I knew that I needed to wait, to give whoever was in there a chance to respond to us, but I also just wanted to open the door and go in there already.


    I knocked again. And again. And again. Each time I heard nothing at alling from the other side of the door. There were no voices. There were no footsteps. There was nothing at alling from the other side. And so, I decided that it was finally time for me to go through the door.


    I took the knob and turned it. The door was unlocked. It opened easily, like it was an often used and well oiled door. It was in perfect condition and didn¡¯t make a single sound as the door swung inward.


    That scent, the one that was musty and dead, intensified the moment that the door was opened. I wanted to sneeze. I wanted to run away from the smell holding my hand over my mouth and nose so that whatever poison that was in it would not infect me. But I didn¡¯t. I knew that it wasn¡¯t a poison. I knew that it was just something that was stagnant about the air, but that didn¡¯t make it any easier to deal with it all. I knew it, but I still hated it.


    ¡°This used to be where ric weed us to the home.¡± Dietrich started to reminisce. I knew that this was going to happen as well, so I just epted it and let him talk. I would learn what was different about the ce as I heard the memories that Dietrich was recanting. ¡°This hall leads to the parlor. That was how he wanted it. People needed to feel weed at all times in his home. Even his enemies would feel weed because he was not a man that hurt people without a cause. He cared for people, all kinds of people.¡±


    As Dietrich spoke, we walked forward into the parlor that he mentioned. I saw that the house didn¡¯t appear to have been modernized. There were no electrical outlets. There were no light switches. Nomps. No radios. Nothing at all that needed to be plugged in to work. It was all old and filled with antiques. But those antiques looked brand new. It was like we had walked into some sort of time warp and we were literally in the house as Dietrich remembered it.


    What could have caused that? What could have made it so that we were in a house that had literally not changed? How had ric and his descendants kept this ce from experiencing the passage of time like everything else in the world. The floorboards didn¡¯t creak. The windows didn¡¯t rattle in the wind that was outside. There was nothing at all about this ce that suggested the true age of the home. It looked like it might have just been built earlier this year.


    The only thing that made it seem like it wasn¡¯t the newest and most up to date version of this house, was that smell. That was all that kept me from thinking that there was nothing at all wrong with this ce. Didn¡¯t Dietrich smell it? Couldn¡¯t he pick up on that smell? Or was he too lost in his thoughts and reminiscing to even notice that there was something wrong? Was he too far gone for me to even reach him now? I hoped that he would be of use to me while we traversed this ce, but at the moment, I wasn¡¯t so sure.


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 Chapter 896

    Chapter 896: Chapter 81- Shawn ¨C Germany Part 5 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    Standing there in the room filled with pristine antique chairs, perfectly preserved end tables, and enough bookshelves to make a lot of libraries jealous, I noticed that there seemed to be no life here at all. Just these things and the smell of the people who had been here. Dietrich, who seemed to be lost in some sort of shback, was walking around the room and looking at the things as if he was actually living in the past. Like this was three hundred years ago and he was visiting an old friend¡¯s house.


    ¡°These books are still here. I remember that I read most of them while I stayed with ric. I gifted him quite a few of these as well. They are research materials, as he called them. They were books that were written by our kind. Tales that were shared with the world under the disguise of fantasy.¡± He pulled a volume off of the shelf and I saw that it was a book of fairy tales that was written in French. ¡°These were never as popr as the ones that cameter, such as the stories by the Grimm brothers. However, I always loved them more. This here was a collection of vampire stories. They were love stories that were meant to show the world that we were not as evil as they all thought that we were. Those that dared to tell the stories of our people were ridiculed from both sides. Being in the public eye could be bad for us back then. There were far fewer of us then, and the humans were hostile toward us. Their memories of our friendships had long since faded, so all they knew was that we were monsters and beasts.¡±


    I could hear the heart ache in Dietrich¡¯s voice then. He was saddened by what had happened to him and the people that he knew. I personally had never seen the things that he did. Not until now anyway. I had never seen humans or anyone else kill our kind just for existing, but that was something that Dietrich had lived through, and it broke my heart.


    ¡°Are there any new books here? Anything that might give us a clue as to who has been using this cetely?¡± I looked around the room, knowing that I would never be able to tell what was different or new. Everything looked new here. And that was going to make this harder for me.


    .....


    ¡°I would need to look at them all individually. But from what I can see right now, it all looks the same. This will take some time if we were to investigate each book.¡± Dietrich was finally acting like he was in the present and not in the past. ¡°I know that ric liked to hide things in books, there might be hidden messages.¡±


    ¡°What kind of messages? Like an added page, or something else?¡± I was confused.


    ¡°There was one time, when we were worried about a traitor in our midst, that we used a spare copy of his favorite book. We would use invisible ink to circle key words that we needed to convey to each other. If the words weren¡¯t avable, we would write over the page with the ink and activate it with the candlester.¡±


    ¡°Invisible ink?¡± I asked him, letting his words wash over me and process in my mind. ¡°You mean, like the way they have been writing in the sand, on the tree, and the other ces where there are hidden words?¡± I jogged his memory about that.


    ¡°W..well yes, but those were not written with ink, it was written with runed water. Right? It¡¯s not the same thing, Leibe. ric used something different. Before, we were using ink. It was special invisible ink that he made. I..it was.. it was..¡± He trailed off and looked at the bookshelves in front of him. ¡°It was the same thing, wasn¡¯t it?¡± He looked up at me, his eyes swimming and pain evident on his face. He was realizing that he was part of this. Not the most current events that were guing us, but he was part of the same things that had been happening. He had been using the same methods as these people were using now.


    ¡°Yes, Dietrich, I think it is.¡± All I could do was reach out and grip his shoulder. He needed me at that moment. He needed me because the man that was his friend, might have been the cause of all of this. He might have turned into something that Dietrich couldn¡¯t recognize as time went on.


    ¡°I can¡¯t believe it. I can¡¯t believe that ric would do this. I can¡¯t believe that he would create these monsters that are destroying our people.¡± That hurt was turning into anger now.


    ¡°You don¡¯t know if he did it, or if a descendant of his did. ric was human, like you said. He died a long time ago. So, why would they just now start doing all of this? If he trained his children and grandchildren to be murderers, then why weren¡¯t they killing our people with this mission two hundred years ago? Why weren¡¯t they trying to wipe us out back then?¡± I didn¡¯t want him to jump to conclusions. He needed to calm down and think about this as logically as he could. ¡°There is a lot to look through here. We need to check for any information that we can find and see where these people went. They were here recently. I can tell by their scent. At the very most, they¡¯ve been gone a week. And I doubt that it¡¯s been more than two or three days if I¡¯m being honest.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± Dietrich turned away from me and looked at the room. ¡°We have a lot to search through and not a lot of time to do it. We need to be thorough. We need to use all of our skills that we have avable to us to check this room as thoroughly as possible. Let¡¯s look for messages in the books first. There might be something left behind. We need to light a red candle to see them though.¡± He was looking around the room once again and stopped when he saw a trunk that was sitting in the middle of the room. ¡°There.¡± He started to walk away which almost made me threaten him with the leash again, but then I saw that he wasn¡¯t going far.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡±


    ¡°There should be candles in here. This is where ric kept them before. If they didn¡¯t change anything, then this is where they still are.¡±


    Dietrich dropped to his knees in front of the sturdy wooden chest. It had a lock and hinges that looked like they were made from pure silver. And they were still as shiny as if they were just made. I just noticed that there was not a single speck of dust in this whole room. It was literally as clean as possible.


    ¡°Here. The red candles. These were what ric and I used to read the messages. We will close the shutters to block the natural light and light the candles. That will reveal any messages in the books.¡±


    ¡°Alright, but if we look at them one at a time it will take us forever. I say that I speed this up a little. Come on, you light the candles, and I will close the shutters.¡± I started to move toward the windows without even waiting for a response from him. I heard the sound of a match and then the light red behind me. I was too busy with the shutters though. I was looking at the windows and using my telekinesis to move them. Otherwise, I would have had to open each window individually. That would have taken forever.


    ¡°Are you ready?¡± I asked Dietrich as I stood in the middle of the room. Dietrich had lit four candles and they were making a square around us.


    ¡°Yes. I¡¯m ready. Go ahead, Liebe.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡±


    With that, I started to make the books fly off of the shelves. One shelf at a time of course. They made a circle around the candles and the pages fluttered back and forth, allowing us to see if there were any hidden messages.


    There were none. Not in that first group of books. There was a lot more to go though. Hundreds of more books to look through. Shelf after shelf, the books fluttered in a beautiful, yet disappointing disy around the room. Book after book was scanned and no messages were visible inside of them.


    I strained my eyes to look at each of the pages as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. They moved fast, but I was faster. I had not trained for this, but I was a diligent man, and I was not going to let this situation beat me. I was going to do my best here. Not just for me, but for Dietrich and Trinity as well. They needed me. They needed my help here. And I would always be there for the two of them. I wouldn¡¯t fail. I wouldn¡¯t give up.


    Another shelf. And another. And another. Again and again I check the books and their pages. Dietrich at my side doing the same thing. His eyes opened wide and began to water with the strain of looking at page after page. Still though, I hadn¡¯t seen one circled nor one written message on any of the pages. They just weren¡¯t there. There was nothing at all for us to find in any of the books that we had already scanned.


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 Chapter 897

    Chapter 897: Chapter 82- Shawn ¨C Germany Part 6 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    I was losing hope, but I kept going. I knew that we needed to check them all. I knew that if we gave up halfway through, we would always wonder if we missed something. Though it was hard. I could see the frustration on Dietrich¡¯s face, a look that matched what I was feeling.


    ¡°Keep going, Shawn. We only have a few shelves left.¡± He was right about that. Three shelves of unchecked books. Three shelves of potential discovery and nearly guaranteed disappointment.


    The next shelf fluttered before us, showing us their pristine pages with no added messages. Now the next tost shelf. Frustration. Anger. Thoughts of failing. All of those passed through my mind as I saw that these pages were just as nk.


    ¡°Dammit.¡± I heard Dietrich growl the word softly into the room. It was barely audible over the loud fluttering of the pages. It was almost like standing in the middle of a flock of birds. That was what it sounded like with the books moving.


    .....


    Finally, thest of the books were making their way off of the shelf. The newest set of disappointing bird books were pping their way over to us. Around and around, they flew with nearly a single letter written in invisible ink. Around and around, they circled us like they were bullies on the yground that were making fun of us for being so gullible and stupid.


    ¡°Wait!¡± Dietrich shouted. It was so quiet in the room that his voice nearly scared me. I had to physically stop myself from jumping out of my skin at the moment. ¡°There. Look!¡± He was pointing at a book that was close to the bottom of the group. It actually looked like it was thest one toe off of the shelf. Was this literally thest book in the room? And if it was, how did they know that it was going to be thest book? How did they know what order I would pull them in? Or was it just a coincidence?


    ¡°Grab it, Dietrich. Pull it away from the others so I can put them back.¡± He did as I told him to. Walking over to the books and taking it from the flying flock of pages and covers. Once he had the book, I sent the others back to the shelf, putting them back in the order that they came out in. And sure enough, thest ce on the shelf was the one that was empty.


    ¡°What does it say?¡± I asked him as I hurried over to him. I saw that Dietrich had stepped near a candle and was holding the book up. It was turned to thest page and the words were written on the nearly nk sheet.


    ¡°How? How did they know?¡± He looked up as he handed the book to me. That was when I saw the words that were written there.


    ¡®Wee, King and King of Vampires. We wee you to tour our home. I hope that it brings back memories for you, King Dietrich. Happy remembering and happy searching. We will be seeing you.¡¯


    ¡°Dietrich? How did they know that we wereing? How did they know that it was going to be us here? Was there someone here today? Did someone leave this message today? Or was it left in advance?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have the answer to those questions, Liebe. I am sorry, but I don¡¯t know what to say.¡± I saw that Dietrich was looking at the door that led to the rest of the house. ¡°Something isn¡¯t right here. Something is wrong.¡± He was repeating what was said outside. He was right though. Something was wrong here. Something was happening that we didn¡¯t know how to exin.


    ¡°We need to search this ce and get out. I don¡¯t think that it¡¯s safe. Let¡¯s just find something that will point us in the right direction and then we will get out of here.¡± I could feel a slight amount of panic coursing through me. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go.¡±


    I took Dietrich¡¯s hand and pulled him toward the door that led into the rest of the house. I took the book with me though, sliding it into the inside pocket of my jacket. I wanted to show the proof of what we had found.


    ¡°Wait a minute.¡± Dietrich said as he pulled away from me. He ran back toward the trunk that he had opened earlier. After a moment kneeling in front of it, he came away with a brown leather satchel and came back to where I stood.


    ¡°What is that for?¡± I asked him, curious about the reason why he needed that.


    ¡°I took some of the candles. This bag was something that ric used to use as well. We can put anything that we find inside of it.¡± He held it up and showed me the initials that were on the golden sp, AJ.


    ¡°Then here, put this in it.¡± I handed him the book that I had taken as well. ¡°Nowe on.¡± I rushed him out of the room and into the hall that was beyond.¡±


    ¡°The first floor will have the kitchen, the dining hall, and the training hall. The second floor will be storage rooms and ric¡¯s office. The third and fourth floors will be bedrooms. And the basement will consist of the dungeons and the wine cer. He was an avid collector of wine.¡±


    ¡°Then should we go up before we move down to the basement? Or should we start in the darkest part and move up?¡± I wasn¡¯t sure which option would be best at the moment.


    ¡°Hmm. I want to check out ric¡¯s office, but how about starting on the fourth floor and making our way down. Then we won¡¯t feel as if we¡¯re repeating as much. The stairs are inside that door there. They are closed off and very annoying. It was the thing that I hated the most about this ce.¡± I saw Dietrich shutter a little. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s get this over with.


    It was now Dietrich that was pulling me in the direction of the stairs. When he opened the door, I saw a tightly winding staircase leading upwards.


    ¡°This is actually terrifying.¡± I shuddered as I looked up the dark passageway.


    ¡°Yes, again, I hate these stairs. Bute on, let¡¯s get it over with.¡± Dietrich hurried in and I followed after him. They were not wide enough for us to walk side by side. Hell, the stairs were barely wide enough for one of us to walk normally. It was so ustrophobic in that broom closet of a stairwell that I felt the need to shrink in on myself and hunch over so that I wasn¡¯t about to bump into something and get hurt. Not that I couldn¡¯t heal or anything, it was just on principle that I didn¡¯t want to be injured.


    After several agonizing minutes, we made it to the top of the stairs and exited into a hall that was filled with eight total doors. One of them was none other than the door to the stairs that we had just exited. The door across the hall from the stairs was just a linen closet that I swear was wider than the stairwell was.


    To the right of the door there were two bedrooms and to the left of the door there were four. In total, there were three bedrooms on either side of the hall. We started on the right so that we could check the shorter end of the hall first. The first room was a little bit of a surprise. It was not small by any means, but it was crowded. There were four sets of bunk beds in the room. And crammed in there were eight small dressers.


    What was even more odd about that room, was that there seemed to be a lot of stuff that was left behind by the previous upant.


    ¡°This is not how these rooms were before.¡± Dietrich looked around the space and took in everything that he saw. ¡°This used to be a room for one person, or a couple. Not a dormitory style group setting. And none of this is antique. This is all modern.¡±


    ¡°I would say so. And why is there aptop on that bed.¡± I pointed as I walked over there. ¡°If this ce has no running water or electricity, how were they using it?¡±


    ¡°Good question. Perhaps there are more secrets lying in wait for us to discover.¡± Dietrich took theputer from the bed and put it in the bag. ¡°Let¡¯s look for more clues.¡±


    The closet in that room was empty aside from some clothes and empty hangers. The dressers were mostly empty, but they missed a few things when they were clearing out. There were some papers that were scattered over the floor that we collected. We would need to check them for hidden messagester, but for the time being, we were stuffing them all in the bag. I did notice that the papers seemed to be flyers for different businesses that were in the nearby cities. Flyers for nightclubs, convenience stores, shopping malls, and many more. Things that teenagers would grab when they were out and about.


    What was the purpose for these flyers? Did they have another meaning? Or were they just pieces of trash that were left behind when the group left in a hurry? I didn¡¯t know for sure and that meant that I was going to be worrying about it incessantly. It would be on my mind until I was able to read them with the red candle.


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 Chapter 898

    Chapter 898: Chapter 83- Shawn ¨C Germany Part 7 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    Moving on we found that all the rooms on that floor were the exact same. The clothes left behind were different, but the set ups were the same. Half of the rooms were for women while the other half were for men. That was evident by the things that were left behind. Each room did have a crude bathroom. No running water but there was a toilet like thing that was in each room with a pipe that led somewhere out of sight. I believe they had to pour water down the toilet for the ¡®flushing¡¯ to happen. The tub also needed to be filled manually. That must suck for all those people that needed to bathe on a regr basis.


    Dietrich and I moved down to the third floor next. The hall was set up the same. There was a linen closet across from the door to the stairs. To the right of the door there were two bedrooms and to the left there were four of them. We checked them in the same order, moving to the door closest to us on the right first.


    This room was set up differently than the ones on the fourth floor had been. There was an antique four poster bed with a queen sized mattress. The frame for the bed seemed to be carved from unstained oak, but it was sanded and smooth to the touch. The dresser, armoire, and trunk all matched the bed as well. It was open, spacious, and seemed to be a lot morefortable than the rooms up above.


    ¡°This is how the rooms were before. Well mostly. There used to be tapestries and a rug in every room, those are missing now.¡± Dietrich said as he looked around. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s search the ce.¡±


    .....


    The closet and dressers werepletely empty. There was nothing at all left behind in the room. The bathroom, which was the same as the ones upstairs, held nothing either. Under the bed there was nothing, not even dust. This room had nothing at all for us to find. And neither did the other five bedrooms on this floor. Not even the linen closet had anything to find other than some spare sheets for the beds. There was absolutely nothing that would help us on the third floor.


    ¡°I guess these people had less to pack and fewer people to fight for space when they were packing.¡± Imented as I looked at the pristine cleanliness of thest room on the third floor.


    ¡°Yeah, and if the upper floor was for the recruits or trainees, then they were probably younger and potentially messier.¡± Dietrich said as he thought about it.


    ¡°Yeah, well, I wasn¡¯t a messy teenager, so that isn¡¯t necessarily true.¡± I shrugged.


    ¡°No, not necessarily, but the probability is high.¡± Heughed to break the tension and unease in the room. ¡°Come on, we have more to search.¡±


    We went down to the second floor next. This floor was ric¡¯s office and storage rooms. That was what Dietrich had said. I wonder if there were any differences that we would find now.


    The second floor had seven total doors. The side of the hall that had the stairs there were four and across from it there were three. To the right of the door there were once again two doors and down the hall there were four.


    The room closest to us and the stairs happened to be a storage room. It was filled with various pieces of furniture. It looked like it was the stuff that was originally in the rooms upstairs. Well, at least they hadn¡¯t gotten rid of it all. They had just put it all away. If there was anything else in the room, I couldn¡¯t see it. And I wasn¡¯t about to dig my way through that mess to find out.


    Across from that storage room, Dietrich and I walked into a giant open space that looked like it might have been separate rooms at one time. Now though, it was like one giant hall. And there was a lot of damage to this roompared to anything else. There were racks on the walls that held wooden and metal swords, bows, arrows, maces, spears, knives and whips. Standing along the back of the room, or rooms, were dozens of practice dummies in various sizes and shapes. I could tell that some were supposed to be werewolves, the Hollywood version of them. And some of them were vampires. Others were holding wands like they were a witch or wizard out of those books from Ennd. There was a climb wall and a zip line. I saw piles of mats that were used in gyms for wrestling or fornding in gymnastics. It was a training room. And I guess that exined the damage to the room.


    There were gouges, knicks, cracks, and all sorts of damage to the room that hade from people training with real weapons. I even saw several dried bloodstains that had been cleaned up. Oddly though, I couldn¡¯t smell the blood. They had stripped it out somehow and only the color of the blood was left behind.


    ¡°What the hell? They had a training hall on the first floor.¡± Dietrich said as he looked around. ¡°Did they really need to destroy the house to make another one?¡± He looked and sounded personally offended by this atrocious act. I guess his memories were a little stronger than I thought that they were.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, Dietrich. But I guess they did what they thought was necessary.¡± I shook my head. Come on. There are still two rooms left.¡± I walked out the door that was in the middle of this training room.


    The door to the left of the stairs was another storage room. This one was filled with more weapons, training dummies, and first aid supplies. I guess they needed to take care of their people when the training got a little too intense.


    Thest door in the hall was where Dietrich said that ric¡¯s office was. While we stood outside of it, his hand on the knob, I could tell that he was afraid to open it. If this room had been destroyed, I was betting that he would be extremely angry at these people. They would have destroyed most of the memories that Dietrich had of this ce with this one room being changed.


    Finally, after taking a deep breath, Dietrich opened the door to the office. It was unchanged ording to him.


    ¡°That is the same desk that sat here when ric was alive. And that chair was carved for him by our friend Orson. He was a bear shifter and spent a lot of time working with his hands in the woods. It was a particrlyrge tree that hade down in a battle and Orson wanted to see that it had another use.¡±


    The chair in question looked like it was indeed hand carved out of wood. There was a high back that depicted various animals and other shifters. I could see what looked like Dietrich in there as well. And another man that I was guessing was ric. The seat was smooth and beautiful. It looked like it was preserved inside of an ancient tree. Just like one that I had seen in a museum once. It was not something that you usually saw every day.


    ¡°Come on, Dietrich, we need to search his desk.¡± I pulled him over and sat him in one of the wood chairs that was facing the desk. I didn¡¯t think that he would want to be the one to do this. He would feel like he was viting his friendship. ¡°Just wait for me.¡± I called out to him.


    I wasn¡¯t expecting much. That was for sure. I knew that these people had cleared out so much of their stuff when they left here. Still, it was disappointing when drawer after drawer was empty. I didn¡¯t even find a single pen. There was nothing.


    I sat in the carved chair and sighed as I gave up. It was no use. And there were no bookshelves in here to search, it was just the desk and the drawers.


    ¡°Anything?¡± Dietrich asked as he looked up at me.


    ¡°Nothing.¡± I sighed. ¡°I had hoped for something.¡± I shook my head in anger.


    ¡°Well, I guess we have no choice but to move on.¡± Dietrich stood and held his hand out toward me.


    ¡°Yeah, I guess so.¡± I walked over to him, taking his hand before heading toward the door. ¡°I just wish that I would have found something hidden in there or something.¡± I could feel the anger and disappointment coursing through me.


    ¡°Wait a minute.¡± Dietrich came to aplete stop. ¡°Hidden!¡± He mmed his hand against his head in frustration. He hit himself so hard that I watched his head fly back and then snap back almost like he was just in a car ident or something. Good thing he didn¡¯t have to worry about whish, or else that would be bad.


    ¡°What? What is it?¡± I asked, worried about his sanity for a moment.


    ¡°Hidden! His desk has a hiddenpartment. He only showed a couple of people because he couldn¡¯t trust them. Dammit! How did I forget about that?¡± Dietrich was cursing himself as he ran back toward the desk. He was smiling but I could tell that it was a forced look. He wasn¡¯t feeling happy or gleeful at all. He was angry, frustrated, and in disbelief. All I cared about was that he remembered it before we left this ce. Now we had a chance to get what was hidden in there, if there was anything that is.


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 Chapter 899

    Chapter 899: Chapter 84- Dietrich ¨C Germany Part 8 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    I can¡¯t believe that I almost forgot that this desk was not an ordinary desk. It had secrets. Secrets that the people who had been living here recently might not have known about. If ric didn¡¯t tell his sessor about it, then there might be a chance that they never knew how to get into it. And that was what I was going to hope for.


    Shawn sat in the chair that I had been in earlier while I went to sit in therge carved chair that Orson had made for ric. He had carved something for all of his friends. Not just this chair for ric. For me, there was arge t carving that depicted the group of us in the woods that were around the mansion and my castle. It had been painted but the colors had faded over time. And I still had it in my castle, hanging in a hall leading to my office.


    This desk was what was more important right now though. This desk was where I might find something that would lead me to finding the others. If ric put something in here back then, or if one of his sessors did. That would be all that I needed to help guide me to the next location. I needed to find something here. I needed to know what was going on. What had happened here in ric¡¯s former home?


    Pulling out the wide but shallow drawer in the middle of the desk, where you might keep pens and other things along those lines, I reached my hand inside and started to feel around for the lever that I was looking for. It was small, but I knew that it was there. It was how you made the bottom of thest drawer on the right open into a secretpartment.


    .....


    Once I heard it click, I pulled open the drawer that now had a new opening. I lifted off the false bottom and saw another lever. This one was easier to flip than thest one, and I heard that it was opening another secretpartment.


    This newpartment was in the top drawer on the left. There in the back of the drawer was a small door that had popped open to reveal yet another lever. Flipping this one made a door under the desk appear.


    Getting onto my knees under the desk, I pulled that door open. It was where the desk came down to hide where the feet would be. It was meant to look modest and not show what was happening under the desk, not that ric even had a woman, or a man, under there that needed to be hidden, but it would have concealed an adult in that space. However, it also concealed this hidden drawer.


    When I pulled that drawer open, I saw that there were only three things that were inside of it. There was a journal that I recognized well, along with the handwriting that it was written in. It was ric¡¯s. There was another journal as well, this one newer and not one that I recognized. And the third thing was arge roll of parchment. I would look at itter, we needed to finish searching the rest of the house here first.


    ¡°Got them.¡± I stood up and showed Shawn the spoils that I had found in the desk. ¡°I knew that we would find something in here. Two journals and this old parchment.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡± Shawn took them from me. ¡°We will look at themter. Let¡¯s go downstairs. We still have the first floor and basement to search as well.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I know. Let¡¯s go.¡± I walked around the desk and took his hand. I needed to make sure that I didn¡¯t get sucked back into my memories like I had before, but for the time being, I was myself and I was going to help with this search.


    I led Shawn down to the main floor of the house. We hadn¡¯t searched more than the parlor. There wasn¡¯t much to be found there, aside from the invitation to search the house. Whoever left that knew about me and Shawn. And that we would be the ones that woulde to this house. That was a little unsettling, but I wasn¡¯t going to let it get to me. I was going to make sure that I followed through with my promise to Trinity.


    Now, Shawn and I searched the massive kitchen, which had seen a bit of an update. There was a refrigerator, a modern stove, a deep freezer, and some other appliances. I had to wonder how they were getting electricity for all of that, since they were still using gas and oilmps to light the home. This was the oddest thing about the entire home so far.


    After the kitchen came the dining hall. It was a massive room with a lot of cafeteria style tables with built-in benches. There was enough seating like that for at least fifty people. And at the back of the room, like it was a ce where the important people sat and watched over the others, there were two long tables with chairs that faced the rest of the room. Who was it that was using this ce now? What had they done here?


    Next was the training hall. This was the ce that ric, Orson, Layhan, Dawson, Agatha, James and I used to train for our battles. The others were bear, wolf, witch, feline, and Fae. We were all from differentmunities, different species, but we were friends. We fought together. We helped each other. And it was the best friendship that I had before I met Reece¡¯s family generations ago.


    The training room looked simr to my memories, but there was a lot more damage to the room. Also, there were more blood stains and different weapons than the ones that we used to use. There were even bullet holes where they had used a part of the room for target practice. What were they training for now? Were they trying to do the work that we used to do?


    The main floor didn¡¯t yield much for us. There were no secrets or hidden messages. Nothing aside from what was in that book earlier. Now, it was time to head to the basement. This was where we used to house the prisoners that needed to be dealt with. I knew that toward the end of his life, ric dreaded going down there. He felt so bad for what he had done to those people, even though they were evil and needed to be stopped.


    The stairs leading into the basement were not as bad as the ones leading upstairs. They were closed off so that there was always a wall blocking off anything you might see, but these ones weren¡¯t as narrow, and they didn¡¯t spiral so tightly. Instead, they followed the wall and then turned and went down as the stairs bordered the room. That you woulde down in.


    That room was sort of like a foyer or entry room before you went into the rest of the basement dungeon. It had a table for setting your personal items down on, a chair for rest if you needed it, but that was about all. These all had been here three hundred years ago when I was herest.


    Through the door though, there was horror. Both in my memories and in the present. Around thatrge and cavernous room there were fifteen cells. They were small, and each closed offpletely on the sides so that the prisoners in them couldn¡¯t see or touch each other. The only openings were the rune covered cage like doors that let the people in and out. That was just how I remembered this ce looking, and that was still how it looked.


    In the center of the room, there was arge table. In my memories, it was a solid wooden thing with chains and leather straps for holding down the prisoner. Now, it was a metal table that was sitting right above the drain in the floor. The drain had always been there, that was a thing that ric insisted on, water might leak into the basement after all. Now though, I could see blood and other bits that clogged that drain. Whatever happened here was not a pleasant experience.


    Thankfully, there were no victims, or prisoners, down here at the moment. It was empty, of people that is.


    ¡°This ce smells like death.¡± Shawn noted as he looked around the area with disgust on his face.


    ¡°Even more than it did three hundred years ago. These people have killed here, but who did they kill? And why?¡±


    Without answering, Shawn went to look into the cells that were all standing open. We needed to find a clue of some sort. We needed to know where to go next.


    The cells were filthy. They had obviously been used over the years, but I couldn¡¯t tell that they had ever been cleaned. Buckets of waste, piles of filth, dirt, blood, and so much more littered each cell. The whole room stink to high heaven, but we couldn¡¯t leave. We needed to find something. We needed to know who had been here.


    In the first ten cells that we searched, there was nothing at all. In the eleventh, there was something. A piece of paper. It looked like it was torn from aposition notebook or something. It was written messily, as if the person that had left the message was in a hurry.


    They have lost their minds. They are pulling people from the orphanage and using them of associating with the enemies. They want us to learn to live among them, to trick them, but then they use us of doing wrong. Please, whoever finds this, tell those at Saint ric¡¯s that they are in danger. Don¡¯t let them be the next victims


    ¡°What is Saint ric¡¯s?¡± Shawn asked as he read over my shoulder.


    ¡°That I don¡¯t know. I have never heard of a ce called Saint ric¡¯s, but I am assuming that it has to do with my old friend. And this isn¡¯t boding well.¡±


    ¡°Well, at the very least, this is another clue for us. We will have somewhere else to search after here.¡± Shawn was walking away as he spoke, pulling his phone from his pocket and swiping the screen as he went. ¡°Hmm, there is a Saint ric¡¯s Home for Children in Rorswil.¡±


    ¡°A home for children? Like an orphanage? Well, I guess that could be where they recruit. I am not sure, but I think that we need to head there next.¡± I felt my heart start to race. They were using children, innocent children, in their game of war. That was bullshit.


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 Chapter 900

    Chapter 900: Chapter 85- Shawn/Dietrich ¨C Germany Part 9 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    The rest of the basement held nothing else for us. There were no other clues to be found. We ran another quick search on the main floor, and around the property that had been hidden. There was a shed that was filled with dried and canned goods, but that was about all. Well, that and some yard tools. It looked like they still had to maintain the yard manually, with a very ancient looking, yet still fully functional, tool. We had found some things though, and that was all that mattered.


    Dietrich and I went back to the castle, but only to grab some food for the road and a car. It was a good thing that our staff here kept things ready for us to drop by at a moment¡¯s notice. If not, as the saying goes, we would have been up shit¡¯s creek without a paddle.


    I was in the driver¡¯s seat while Dietrich looked through the materials that we had. Thankfully, theputer that we got was on that had amon charger, and that meant that mine would fit it just fine. It was currently charging in the back seat of the car as I drove us steadily toward Rorswil and the orphanage that we needed to visit. I just hoped that we didn¡¯t discover a building full of abused children. I would end up going home with a lot more children if that were the case.


    The first thing that Dietrich was looking over was therge roll of parchment that he had found in the desk. From what I could see it was a family tree. At the top was listed ric. And when I asked Dietrich why there were no parents listed for him, he said that he didn¡¯t know who they were. ric had been found, abandoned, as a baby. He was raised by various people in his vige until he was old enough to fend for himself. From there, ric had amassed his fortune and fame. Everyone in the area knew who he was at the time.


    .....


    ¡°This looks like he was detailing the lineage of his family, but here, where the handwriting changes, must be when he died and someone else took over. ric seems to have had three wives, but they were concurrent.¡±


    ¡°He had three wives at once?¡± I could hear the disgust in my voice as I said that. ¡°What an asshole.¡±


    ¡°I guess by then, he wanted to have as big of a family as he could. There are notes here that list traits, but I don¡¯t know what they mean yet.¡± He was pointing to little words written next to the names of his wives and children. ¡°I will need to look at a key to figure this out, but if I can¡¯t find that key, then we might never know what they¡¯re for.¡±


    ¡°Alright, well, what do we know about this family tree?¡± I asked him, trying to find something positive.


    ¡°Well, he had sixteen children with his three wives. All of them were sons. Those sons fathered a total of fifty-two children. And this is where it gets weird. They children are listed as having more children of their own, but there are no spouses listed. They are just showing the children that each granddaughter had. And the same happened with the great granddaughters and so on. There is no record of who their husbands are at all. And there are no children listed for the grandsons and so on. Just the granddaughters.¡±


    ¡°That is weird. What were they doing, getting artificially inseminated? That wasn¡¯t a thing back then.¡± I was at a loss for what happened in this family over thest three hundred years.


    ¡°Well, that or they were having children within the family. And no one really knew which of the boys was the father. I mean, each of these girls had a lot of children in the beginning. They were having six, eight, even twelve kids with no fathers listed. Now how could someone be married and not have that listed here? The reason being, they weren¡¯t married, and they were keeping it in the family.¡±


    ¡°Disgusting. That is just sick.¡± I literally felt like vomiting at the thought of it.


    ¡°The birth rate seems to have died downter on. There was a time for about two hundred years or so where they didn¡¯t list a single spouse for any of the children. Soon though, the women are listed as having husbands that were outside the family. There are children that are listed for a few of the sons, but the mothers are listed only as outsiders. That is odd.¡±


    ¡°What the hell is the matter with this family?¡± I shook my head. ¡°So, you think it was still that family that was running the mansion? That they are the ones that we¡¯re looking for?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, Shawn. We will find out when we get to Saint ric¡¯s. Hahh.¡± He sighed as he looked away from the parchment. ¡°I can¡¯t believe that this is how things went. What happened to them? What happened to the people that I used to know? Why are they like this?¡±


    ¡°I..I don¡¯t know, Dietrich.¡± I reached over and took his hand. ¡°That is something that we may never know.¡±


    ¡°ric cared for people. He wanted them to be safe and to be happy. By the time that his great grandchildren were born, the handwriting here changes. He never lived to see any of those great grandchildren.¡± Dietrich was looking down at the parchment again, anger and sorrow in his eyes.


    ¡°So, you think that the mess in the family is due to him passing away? That someone else was responsible for the incest and inbreeding that they had for so long?¡± I was trying to help him, to move the me off the man that he seemed to care so much about.


    ¡°It would appear so.¡± Dietrich started to roll the parchment up again. ¡°Anyway, the entries on this stopped about fifty years ago. There is nothing newer than that. None of the newest generation at the very least.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± I nodded, taking it from him and setting it in the back floor gently, being sure not to veer off the road while I did that. ¡°What else can we learn from this stuff?¡±


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    ¡°What else can we learn?¡± I looked over at Shawn. ¡°Well, we have two journals. One from ric, and one from someone named Rayk.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s see what we learn from ric. Maybe we can see why he had three wives at once.¡± Shawn was trying to keep the mood light. He knew that as someone that personally knew ric all those years ago, I was feeling particrly upset about this situation. I just didn¡¯t know what had happened to my old friend, or his family, but these revtions were disturbing.


    ¡°Let me check the journal.¡± I flipped it open and started to read from it aloud.


    1736- September 19


    My friends have been gone for a month now. We disbanded our group and decided that it was time for us to work on ourselves. Orson, Layhan, and Dawson are mortals, the same as me. Unlike Dietrich, Agatha and James, we will not live a life of near eternity. I have missed out on so much already that I fear I won¡¯t have asrge of a family as I desired. I have already found a few women that might be good candidates though. They are lovely, and theye from the vige that I grew up in. I am still somewhat of a legend there. Rahel, Nini, and Iris. I have met with them all, and I do not know whom to choose. This will be a difficult time for me until I choose my wife. I am sure that I cane to love whoever it is that I pick. I just do not wish to hurt any of them.


    1736- September 29


    Thedies havee to a decision. None of them want to lose the chance to marry me. They have all agreed that we will live together. I am to marry all three of them. This is a decision that they havee up with on their own, and their families seem to approve. I do not hate the idea, but I will admit that I did not expect this. The weddings are also to happen as quickly as possible. They will all be one week apart from each other. The decision was made that the eldest of thedies will be the first bride, and thest bride will be the youngest.


    ¡°Well, at least he didn¡¯t force that on the women.¡± Shawn smiled. ¡°I feel a little better about that now than I did before.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I would not have been happy if he had forced the polygamy on these women. I am a little uneasy about the women themselves. They willingly wanted to participate in this situation with him. What was their end game? What was it that they wanted from him?¡±


    ¡°Yes, it is a little strange.¡± Shawn noted as he maneuvered the car through a curve on the mountain road. ¡°Read on, I am sure that we will find out something else. Maybe we will learn what his family was like. And who it was that took over after him. At the very least, we might find out what happened to him.¡± He had a point. I needed to keep going. I needed to learn more.


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 Chapter 901

    Chapter 901: Chapter 86- Dietrich ¨C Germany Part 10 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    I continued to read through the journal that I had found in ric¡¯s desk. There was a lot in its pages that told me of the life that he had led. Not all of it was relevant to the case, but it made me happy to know that he was happy, at least for a while.


    1736- October 15


    The Wedding to Rahel is today. The first of three over the next few weeks. She was the oldest by a mere week. That was a coincidence in my opinion. And I heard the others talking about how she was the first wife and that put her in charge of them. If that was how they chose to govern themselves, that was fine. However, as a man, I will be the one that runs my house. Though, I do not intend to be cruel to my wives or my children. I will be a loving husband and father to my future children.


    1736- December 12


    .....


    All three of my wives are expecting. They all three apparently conceived on their wedding night. I guess I am a more fertile man than I expected myself to be. However, I am overjoyed. I will not have just one child in theing year, but three. The preparations have already begun. Thedies will be making the clothes from cloth that was given to them by their families and others from the vige for our weddings. There is a lot of the white silken material that will be used for the dressing downs for the children. They are also overjoyed. To think that this joyous day woulde so soon.


    1737- June 25


    The first of my children was born today. A healthy baby boy that I have named Justus. He cries often, but Rahel is caring for him already.


    1737- June 27


    Another son was born today. Friedrich is the name that I have chosen for him. He has a head full of fair hair like his mother Nini¡¯s. I could not be more proud than I am at this moment.


    1737- June 30


    Another son. Three babies. Three births so soon. All boys. My third son, Oskar, was born to Iris this morning. She was the only one to deliver so early in the day, the others delivered my boys in the evening. I feel like things around this home are going to get busier and a little more noisy. I don¡¯t mind though, children are a blessing and I feel truly blessed to be their father. I will take care of them and protect them as I should.


    1739- January 22


    All my wives are expecting again. They conceived at different times, but they all are expecting within the same month. Each of them has a rotation in the month of ten days. If it goes over that time, I will skip that day and bed none of them. That is how things work for us. Well, except for February, that month is different. Still, to think that they all got pregnant within the same rotation again, that is odd. I am notining though. I will take all the children that they can give to me. This is truly a blessing for me.


    1739- September 1


    Another son was born today. Henny was his name. He is with Iris now, doing well and staying away from the older boys. They can be a little rowdy at times.


    !739- September 13


    A fifth son was born today. The mother was Rahel. Matz was born through the night before the son came up. He is a little sick, but the doctor says that he should get better soon. I would loathe this day if I were to lose a child. I would not like to see my pass leave this world so soon. However, if I were to lose him, I feel that it would be my karmaing to catch up to me. I havemitted so many crimes against people in the world, crimes in the name of justice. And if my son dies, I will me none other than myself.


    1739- September 18


    Matz is doing better. The doctor tells me that he is getting stronger by the day and that he no longer worries about him or his health. I am overjoyed at this news. I do not wish for my family to suffer the repercussions of my past.


    1739- September 25


    I have a sixth son. Nini gave birth to yet another healthy little boy. He is so much like his older brother Friedrich. That same head full of hair from the day that he was born. That color that stayed with him even now, two and a half yearster. This son has been named Meik.


    1740- January 1


    My family is doing well. All my boys are strong, healthy, and happy. Soon, I will be starting lessons for the older boys. They are approaching three years of age and it will soon be time for them to pick up the pen and study. They will learn to be smart and strong, just like their father.


    1741- March 17


    In the midst of the lessons for the boys today, I learned that Iris and Nini are expecting. I was surprised that Rahel was not part of that revtion. The previous two times they had conceived at the same time, or close to it. I was hoping that every time would be the same. I am enjoying this pattern that I have with my boys.


    1741- April 29


    Today I learned that Rahel is expecting. I made sure to give her extra attention during herst rotation. I wanted to keep my pattern of boys going as they had been. Soon, I will be adding to my family even more. Three more babies, maybe I will have a daughter this time.


    1741- November 30


    I got a surprise this morning. Both Nini and Iris birthed my children on the same day. This is a first for them. They are not twins, but they will basically be raised as such. Nini¡¯s third son for me was named David and Iris¡¯s third son for me is Jakob. They will grow to be strong just like the others.


    1741- December 15


    Today Rahel went intobor. Hers is by far the biggest surprise to date. She gave birth to twin boys. Julian and Leo make my count of sons up to ten. I am one proud father.


    1745- July 31


    I thought that the days of more babies might havee to an end. The mothers had not conceived in thest couple of years, so we have focused on the education of the ten sons that I have now. The oldest of which are now eight. They have been learning multiplenguages as well as arithmetic and writing. They also learn how to fight. The training hall has not gone to waste with my boys here.


    Today though, this glorious day that it is, I learned from my three wives that I am to have three more sons. They didn¡¯t call them sons, but I am resigning myself to that. I will most likely never have a daughter. I havee to terms with that fact. I will raise my sons to care for their family well, and they will give me grandchildren, and hopefully granddaughters, in the future. For the time being though, I am happy raising them into perfect little gentlemen.


    1746- April 1


    Nini was the first tobor this time. She had birthed my eleventh son, Johann. He looks so much like the others, that same fair hair. I am d that there is diversity in my family, but I also love how the boys born to each mother have features from them. They all look like me though. That is a fact. Every son that I have is easily recognized as being mine. They all have my eyes, but strong features. They are all handsome young men.


    1746- April 11


    Rahel birth Klemens just before midnightst night, and Iris birthed Christoph this morning. Both were boys. My twelfth and thirteenth sons. Everyone is resting well, but over thest few weeks I made the decision to bring in a couple of nannies. I knew that once the babies were here, my wives would have a hard time with all the children. Their numbers are rising, and they are not as young and agile as they were when we first wed. I do not wish to have them exhausted while caring for my children. The nannies, Merle and Anke, will assist with the studies that the boys participate in on a daily basis. Their studies had started to slip in the recent months as my wives got closer to their deliveries. I am happy that the nannies will be helping with them, as I cannot do it on my own.


    1750- May 1


    I am beginning to distrust the nannies that I have for my boys. They have been with us for four years now, but I caught them talking to the boys about monsters. I try to exin to my children that vampires, werewolves, were-cats, witches, warlocks, Fae, were-bears, and all the other people of the shadow world are our friends. I do not want these women to undermine me. I do not want them to tell my children that my friends, my brothers and sisters that I fought with, are animals that need to be exterminated.


    1750- June 2


    The wives are expecting again. I fired Anke and Merle though, so I am not sure how well things will be going with the children. The youngest now are four, and the oldest are thirteen. I believe that I can trust the boys to work on their studies now though. They are old enough to be trusted as they are close to being men of their own right.


    1751- January 4


    Rahel gave birth this morning. The birth was difficult. My son, Jeremias is fine, but my wife did not make it. She passed away from a bleeding that would not stop. The doctor said that there was nothing more that he could do. This day was supposed to be a blessing, but it is now one for mourning. I do not want to take this out on my child though. He is an innocent party in this. Who is going to care for him though? Who will feed him? I need to force Iris and Nini to do this job for him while they are about to deliver their own baby. Iris is also now the ¡®first wife¡¯. This is going to be her responsibility for the most part.


    1751- January 5


    Iris gave birth to Phillip this morning. She will be feeding both of the boys for the time being. And once Nini delivers, they will alternate.


    1751- January 6


    Nini had Basti this morning. These three boys were delivered so close together. It helps though, Jeremias needed these other mothers of his. He needed them to nurse him so that none of my boys died.


    1751- December 18


    Nini died this morning. The doctor said that it was from exhaustion. There was just too much for her to do. Iris is now the one that needs to care for the three boys that are almost one year old. I need to hire nannies again, but the only ones avable are the ones that I fired. I need to give them stricter rules on what they can and cannot say to my boys. And if they do not listen, then I will be rid of them, permanently this time.


    ¡°Permanently?¡± Shawn sounded shocked. It was the first time that he interrupted me in a while. I had been reading these entries and learning about ric without even thinking about what Shawn was getting out of this. ¡°Did he mean that he would kill them, or that he would never rehire them?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± I shook my head. ¡°At this point, I just don¡¯t know.¡±


    I read on. The entries were mostly about training and the dissatisfaction with the nannies. Iris died a year after Nini did, and so when his youngest sons were only two, ric was a widower that had no one there to help with his brood of boys. No one except for the nannies that he didn¡¯t fully trust.


    The entries came fewer and fewer after that though. And by the time that five years had passed since his wives all died, ric stopped recording anything in the journal at all. He seems to have just lost the drive to record anything at all by them. And at that time, his oldest sons were already almost twenty years old and looking for brides of their own. Life was moving on, but ric seemed to have been lost in its wake.


    I felt sorry for my old friend. He never had a forever love. He never had that one person that he felt was meant for him. He had arge family, but by the time that the journal ended, he must have felt that things were unraveling. His sons were leaving him and going out on their own. He was going to be heartbroken. Trust me, I know how hard it is when your kids get older and leave you. That is what happened with mine recently. And they were still staying at home. I can¡¯t imagine how ric truly felt by this point.


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 Chapter 902

    Chapter 902: Chapter 87- Dietrich ¨C Germany Part 11 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    ¡°Alright, well, we¡¯ve heard from ric and we¡¯ve seen what the family tree had to tell us. Now, what does that other journal hold for us?¡± Shawn was still driving us toward the home for children that we were looking for. We were almost there, but there was time still to look into what this journal had to tell us.


    ¡°Let¡¯s find out what Rayk had to tell us. I am sure that he was not alive when ric was. For one, this is a more modern style journal. Also, the dates on it tell me that ric would have been long dead when this was written.¡± I had opened the journal and was already looking at the first page.


    May 31, 1989


    It took a long time, but I have finally managed to get the family to agree to me. What Granny Merle and Granny Anke had told our ancestors has stuck way too much. For thest several generations, we¡¯ve only been able to reproduce from within the family. If we were found to have had an affair outside of the family, then we were punished severely. Several of my brothers have been put to death over their transgressions.


    .....


    I vowed when I took over as the leader of this family that I would fix this atrocious practice. I wanted to eliminate the practice right away, but it was so ingrained into the family that I needed to work on changing the family¡¯s mindset first. They didn¡¯t see these practices as wrong because it was all that we had ever done, all that we had ever known.


    I am thankful every day that I attended university away from the family, away from the mansion. If I had stayed there, I do not know what sort of monster I would have be. I don¡¯t know what I would have been capable of doing.


    Now, the next thing that we need to work on is understanding that the people they hate so much are not our enemies. I found ric¡¯s journals from long ago. I kept one of them at the house, but the others are in my personal belongings at my house. I know that if most of the family were to find them, they would just end up destroying them. These records of our ancestor¡¯s associations with shadow walkers and creatures of the night goes against their beliefs.


    This too was something that was caused by Granny Merle and Granny Anke. They were with the family for so long. Longer than they should have been. I don¡¯t know how theysted so long, but I know that they were there when I was a child. They¡¯re gone now, dead since I was approximately five years old, but how was it that they were able to live for over two hundred years? And why is it that they are so against the people that used to be ric¡¯s friends?


    When I took over the family, I thought that I would get all the answers, that I would know everything that has ever gone on in our family. However, that isn¡¯t true. I have more questions now than I did when I was a boy. And I fear that there is not much that I can do to alleviate these worries and fears of mine.


    ¡°It looked to me like Rayk was trying to restore the family to their former glory. I don¡¯t think that he seeded though.¡± Looking at the pages before me, I sighed in exasperation. ¡°Seeing how things are now, I know that he didn¡¯t seed.¡± I flipped the page and started on the next page. I could tell that Rayk didn¡¯t write often, the entries were far apart.


    July 13, 1989


    The family is bing more oppositional. They aren¡¯t going back to the lovers outside of the family, that will likely stay since they want to increase our numbers as much as possible. However, they are not very receptive to the change in the other ways that they think.


    The moment that I started talking about embracing and epting the nonhuman creatures as our friends and brethren, they started to rebel against me. I can see that they are regretting naming me as their leader.


    I thought that I had a strong hold over my family. That just leading them gave me the authority that I needed, but I can¡¯t make changes if I am constantly fighting with them. Or if I am constantly looking over my shoulder.


    My brothers, specifically Viktor and us, have been talking about another change of leadership. I know as well as they do that the leadership only changes when the current leader retires or dies. And since I don¡¯t n to retire anytime soon, that tells me that my family is out to get me.


    I have the loyalty and faith of only a small number of my brothers and sisters. The others see me as a heretic that needs to be stopped. I am trying my best to convince them. I am trying my best to change their minds. I know that not all of them are bad. Not all of my family members are lost causes.


    We must fight this. We must live the life that ric intended for us. That is my dream. To live like our founder intended.


    December 31, 1989


    More and more of the family has turned against me. Those that were in the middle and on the fence about what I have been telling them have jumped to the opposition. I don¡¯t get it. I do not understand why they want to live a life of fear and hatred. They do not know these people. They have never met a single nonhuman creature. And if they did, then they didn¡¯t know it. And that tells me that they must be good.


    These nonhumans are not out there killing people. They are not out there threatening society. They are living their lives. They are just like normal people. All they want is to be happy, the same as everyone else. Why can¡¯t my family see this? Why can¡¯t they understand that there is nothing to fear?


    April 18, 1990


    I fear this might be myst entry. I am leaving this here for the eventuality that someone that is like me takes over the family in the future. My family are the ones that will kill me. They are the ones that I fear. Them and their hatred that was given to them by other bigoted people. They hate those that they do not know or understand. They had them without cause. They have done nothing to any of them, but they are blinded by generations of fear.


    I do not know how to teach my family not to hate what they do not understand. I do not know how to settle their hearts and calm their souls. If this was something that was easy, then the world would be a better ce. But right now, I am not worried about the world. I am only worried about my family and their fear. For I am sure that their fear will mean the end of me.


    For whoever finds this journal, along with the one of ric¡¯s still in the office, please think not about hatred but about love and eptance. Understand that hatred is not the answer. And when you hate someone that you do not understand, you are severely limiting yourself as well. You will never know what you could have learned or experienced if you just opened your heart and your arms. There are infinite possibilities, you just need to allow yourself the opportunity to see them.


    Teach yourself and others to love people. Don¡¯t be afraid of the unknown. Embrace it, ept it, and make the world a better ce.


    ¡°Th..that was thest entry.¡± I flipped through the journal that was mostly empty. ¡°They really killed him after that.¡±


    ¡°He knew it wasing, but that doesn¡¯t make it any easier to ept. They were heartless assholes that didn¡¯t want to ept that their way of thinking was wrong.¡± Shawn sounded heartbroken at the news that we had learned. Neither of us knew this man, but he had died all because he wanted to ept people like us. That wasn¡¯t right. It wasn¡¯t fair to him.


    ¡°Shawn, we need to put an end to this war. This family and us, we need to teach them that we¡¯re not evil. The need to see things the way that ric did. They need to understand the way that he did.¡± I could feel the sorrow inside of me as well.


    ¡°I know, Dietrich. I know.¡± Shawn reached over and took my hand while he was driving. ¡°We will try our best. I know that we will seed, we just need to try harder.¡±


    I looked up then, out the window into the midafternoon light. When I did, I saw the sign that indicated the town limits. We had reached Rorswil. It wouldn¡¯t be long now until we got to the orphanage. And then, hopefully, someone there would be able to tell us what is going on here. Maybe someone there would know what happened to the family that was at the mansion.


    Or perhaps we would find more of these crazy, lunatic, murderous family members. That would just be our luck, wouldn¡¯t it? Shawn and I alone against all those people? Well, fine, let theme for us. We will take care of them. I wasn¡¯t afraid, and I doubted that Shawn would be either.


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 Chapter 903

    Chapter 903: Chapter 88- Shawn ¨C Germany Part 12 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    ¡°There it is.¡± I red at therge building standing tall in the distance.


    ¡°It looks like a prison.¡± Dietrichmented from beside me. ¡°They actually kept children in that ce?¡±


    Dietrich wasn¡¯t wrong about his description. The building was two stories tall and rectangr in shape. It was big, but not overly tall. There were bars on all the windows as well as what appeared to be wire running through the ss, making little diamond shapes. That was to stop them from shattering as easily. They really wanted to keep those kids in there, didn¡¯t they?


    Aside from the windows being reinforced, there was also a high security fence that wrapped around the building. It was two stories tall with razor wire at the top. That would definitely deter most from climbing over it. And the closer that we got, when we were able to see the front of therge tan building clearly, the more that I knew that this ce was truly a prison. That door was so reinforced that it would take a tank, or a nonhuman, to break into that ce.


    .....


    This wasn¡¯t just a prison though it was also a fortress. It was built to keep people like us out. It was made so that the people that were in there would feel safe from people that weren¡¯t even a threat. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if they used runes on it as well. We were going to need to be careful. There might be more of that magical water that they used before. Who knows what lengths they went to just so that they were protected from us.


    ¡°So, you think that we should just walk right up?¡± Dietrich smiled at me. ¡°Maybe we can tell them that we¡¯re looking to adopt a couple dozen kids or something.¡± He was trying to keep his emotions in check, but I could see the anger in his eyes.


    ¡°Yeah, I think that would be the best n. There has to be someone in there that we can talk to about potential adoptions.¡± I put on my best smile and let a little more mboyance out. I wasn¡¯t as good at that as Dietrich was, but after twenty years of being my true self, I was able to let loose once in a while.


    Hand in hand, Dietrich and I walked toward the gate that closed off the orphanage from the world. Or rather, the gate that was supposed to close them off. It wasn¡¯t shut at the moment, so it wasn¡¯t doing a very good job of keeping people out, or in.


    ¡°Huh, that¡¯s odd.¡± I said as I walked inside. ¡°Do you think that they were expecting us?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s just be on our guard. No need to give them the chance to surprise us.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡± I nodded at Dietrich and walked toward the building.


    However, when we got to the front door, it was open as well. Not that it was cracked open, or left ajar like the gate had been, but it was unlocked. I thought that this ce was definitely going to require us to be buzzed in.


    ¡°Does it seem quiet to you?¡± I asked Dietrich as we walked into the building.


    ¡°Really quiet. If there are kids here, then they are the quietest bunch of kids that I have ever heard of.¡± He was looking around the lobby area as we stood there, still holding hands.


    ¡°There isn¡¯t anyone here.¡± I was reaching out with my senses. The ones that were better than almost anyone else¡¯s. These senses were the ones that were a mix of wolf and vampire. My hybrid senses that were really good at hearing and smelling, but also good at detecting life. If there was someone here, anyone, and if that person had a heartbeat, then I would know it. I would feel it thumping against my senses at the moment. But there wasn¡¯t anything. Nothing more than all of the bugs that were crawling in and on the walls. There was no person here, human or otherwise.


    ¡°Where did they all go, Dietrich?¡± I started to walk toward the hall that led off to the right. ¡°Why did they abandon this ce? I mean, ording to the information online, it¡¯s still a fully functional orphanage.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but it looks like they got up and abandoned it, just like the house. We need to search this ce too. We need to see if there are any clues.¡± There was a tense sort of focus filling Dietrich¡¯s voice. I knew that he was back to his old self again. He wasn¡¯t being affected by this ce like he had been at the mansion.


    ¡°Yeah, we should split up. You take the left and I will take the right.¡± I turned to face him. ¡°We will search the same floor each time. And we won¡¯t move up without having the other with us. I don¡¯t want this to take too much longer.¡±


    ¡°Neither do I.¡± Dietrich nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t like the idea of splitting up, but we will be on the same floor, so I guess that it¡¯s not that bad. Alright, let¡¯s get going.¡± He turned and started to walk away, but he paused after a moment. ¡°Be careful, Shawn. And call out to me if anything happens. Anything at all.¡± We both knew that there weren¡¯t any people here, but that didn¡¯t mean that there weren¡¯t any traps.


    ¡°You too, Dietrich. I love you.¡±


    ¡°I love you too, Liebe.¡±


    After separating from Dietrich, I went down the hall in search of clues. The side that I was down contained more offices than anything else. There was the director¡¯s office, the counselor¡¯s office, and the activities coordinator¡¯s office. There were also a couple of others that I had nevere across before, such as the family coordinator, themunity mission, and the family officer.


    I could tell that these offices were upied until very recently. The scents of the people were still in them, but they had faded over a few days. And that same musty smell was present in the rooms. It was like something inside of them was not quite human, but I just didn¡¯t know what it was.


    There were files and other things in all of these offices. Files on the kids that had been here. All of them were listed only by first name, I guess they didn¡¯t have ast name, or they weren¡¯t needed for the records.


    The things in the files started off as normal. I saw names, birthdays, physical descriptions, and even pictures of all the kids. They went back over thest few decades. However, not a single one of the files listed the children as having been adopted. They didn¡¯t even mention anything about adoption. And the parents were listed in their paperwork. They were all members of the family as well. People that had grown up in this ce and had more kids to be sent here. It was like another home, just like the mansion. This wasn¡¯t an orphanage at all. It was a dormitory for those that couldn¡¯t fit inside the mansion.


    In the files I saw where each child excelled. Language, math, reading, which particr form ofbat. There was so much written about them. They even included things about their personalities. They had noted if the kids would bepliant or oppositional tomands. They had put their eagerness to kill nonhumans and their fondness for the ¡®monsters¡¯. These were not the files that you would expect to see in a normal home for children.


    ¡°This ce is insane.¡±


    ¡°That it is.¡± I heard Dietrich call out from behind me and jumped.


    ¡°DAMMIT!¡± I snapped at him. ¡°Make more noise next time. I was too focused to notice youing up behind me.¡±


    ¡°I am sorry, meine geliebte. I didn¡¯t mean to startle you. I just noticed that you were taking longer on this floor than I was. All I found was a cafeteria, a library, ssrooms, and a training room. The training room was much like the ones at ric¡¯s mansion.¡±


    ¡°These are offices. ces that would make it look official if someone came looking for a kid to adopt. Although they were definitely raising the kids to be their weapons, based on these files. And all the kids that lived here were ric¡¯s descendants.¡±


    ¡°All of them.¡± Dietrich looked over my shoulder.


    ¡°It seems so.¡±


    We browsed through the rest of the files, but there was nothing else. And unfortunately, they had removed all theputers from the offices, so we couldn¡¯t check them for more information.


    When we got upstairs, we saw that it was filled with rooms for the kids. They would sleep four in a room it seemed. There weremunal bathrooms that they used for showering and other personal needs. There was a music room and an art room, probably so that they could rx and blow off steam from time to time. And there was even amunal living room ormon room. It was filled with ces to y games, watch tv, and other things like that.


    ¡°This ce gives me the creeps. It¡¯s like a nut house, prison and orphanage all rolled into one. But in truth, it¡¯s just a training facility for people that hate us. And that is far worse than what it appears to be.¡± I shuddered as I closed thest door behind me.


    ¡°Agreed.¡± Dietrich sighed.


    ¡°It¡¯s just too bad that we didn¡¯t find out much information. Aside from the fact that your friend¡¯s descendants are the ones that are doing this. We don¡¯t even havest names. Just the first name.¡±


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s possible they are still using ric¡¯s name. If they kept the family as a priority, that would seem to be the way to go. They would have the name of Jaegen.¡±


    ¡°Jaegan? Well, that¡¯s a start.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°We can give that to Trinity and Reece. And we can have someone check out thatputer from the mansion. Plus, we need to look for hidden messages on those papers. There is still a lot of work to be done.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Liebe, a lot to do. Let us go. We will contact the others and head home in the morning.¡±


    ¡°No, with the time difference, we need to go tonight, toter in the afternoon.¡± I was thinking about what time it would be in Colorado right now, and what time it would be after we got back to the castle. ¡°We will work it out then. Let¡¯s just get out of here.¡± This ce was giving me the creeps. I didn¡¯t want to be here anymore than I had to be. And I hoped that Dietrich felt the same. At least he took my hand and started to leave without putting up a fight. That was a good thing.


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 Chapter 904

    Chapter 904: Chapter 89- Trinity ¨C The Meeting Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I felt bad for leaving the kids the way that we did. It was only seven thirty in the evening, and they were nowhere ready for bed yet, but Reece and I needed to go to the meeting with the others. This was important. This might be a matter of life or death to them all. And if it meant that I could keep them safe that much longer, then I would do whatever it took. I would give my life for my children. I wouldn¡¯t even bat an eye. If that was what it took to protect my babies, then I would do it. I would also kill for them. If anyone ever dared to think about hurting my children, then I would stop them, killing them if I had to. And that motherly love wasn¡¯t just for my offspring, it went for my pack, my kingdom, all of my people. I would do what it took to protect them all. And that was why these recent events were so hard on me.


    ¡°Mommy, will you be here in the morning?¡± Zaley asked me as I moved to leave her room. ¡°Or will you be gone again?¡±


    ¡°I will be here sweetheart. I promise that I will be.¡±


    ¡°Can we have breakfast together?¡± Zayden asked me, preparing to go to his own room as well.


    .....


    ¡°Yes baby, we can have breakfast together. I wouldn¡¯t miss it for anything in the world.¡±


    ¡°Will you drive us to school in the morning?¡± Zachary asked, holding onto my right hand tightly.


    ¡°Yes, honey, I will drive you to school in the morning. Mommy has missed so much already, and I want to be here for you now.¡±


    ¡°But the bad stuff isn¡¯t over yet, is it Mommy?¡± Zander asked me. ¡°You will still be busy, and you might have to leave again.¡±


    ¡°I might, bubby. But I will try to be here from now on. Mommy doesn¡¯t want to be away from you at all. I want to be home. I want to see you every single day. It¡¯s just that mommy has so many people counting on her.¡±


    ¡°We know, Mommy.¡± Zaley hugged me tightly. ¡°Mommy is the queen and that means that she is important.¡± She wasn¡¯t upset, she was just stating a fact.


    That¡¯s right, honey. Mommy has to help a lot of people that count on her. But you¡¯re the most important to me. All of you. And I love you all so much.¡±


    ¡°We love you too, Mommy.¡± Zaley squeezed tighter.


    ¡°We love you, Mommy.¡± Zachary hugged me from the side.


    ¡°We love you, Mommy.¡± Zayden stood on the bed behind me and hugged me around the neck.


    ¡°We love you, Mommy.¡± Zander added as he hugged my other side.


    Leaving them just about broke me, but I had to. I knew that they understood why I was so busy, but that didn¡¯t mean that it wasn¡¯t hard on them, and me. I love my babies. All of my babies.


    I opened the various doors at about a quarter to eight, just like I told the others that I would. They started toe through almost all at the same time. The doors were opened in the hall just outside of my office so that they could head in and find their seats with the others. My office was veryrge, thankfully. And I had a lot of ces for the others to sit. Reece and I were going to be at my desk, facing the crowd of friends and family as we started to exin what was going on.


    Everyone was on time for the meeting. Not a single person waste getting there or caused a dy. Right at eight that evening Reece and I walked into the room and saw the others, their eyes all trained on me as I walked across the room to my chair. The whole room was silent. I could barely even hear them breathing as they all watched me.


    ¡°Wee, everyone. And thank you foring in on such short notice. I appreciate that you have understood the gravity of the situation and the need for us to hurry on all of this.¡± I looked at each of them, making eye contact as I went through the group before me.


    ¡°We understand that you wouldn¡¯t call us all in unless it was something truly important, Trinity. We¡¯re here to help in any way that you need us to.¡± Athair m¨°r smiled at me, but the look was filled with heartache. His blue eyes were filled with determination and trust.


    ¡°Thank you, Valerian.¡± Reece nodded at him. ¡°And as you said, this is truly something very important. There has been a dev-.¡± Reece was starting to exin things to the group when my phone rang.


    ¡°What the hell?¡± I looked at it. I had it set to ¡®do not disturb¡¯. And that meant that only a few select people were able to get through. They had to be on the list so to speak. ¡°Why is Shawn calling me all of a sudden?¡± I looked up at Reece. ¡°You don¡¯t think that something happened in Germany, do you?¡±


    ¡°Answer it.¡± Reece told me and then looked at the others. ¡°Give us a minute.¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    ¡°No problem.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with my brother?¡± Support from most of the group, and concern from Shane was what came when Reece told them that. I barely paid attention to it though, since I was walking to the corner of the room so that I could have a semnce of privacy for the call.


    ¡°Shawn? What¡¯s wrong? Did something happen?¡±


    ¡°Trinity, we have some news. We need toe back right away.¡± There was a note of urgency in Shawn¡¯s voice as he spoke.


    ¡°We just started a meeting with the others. We¡¯re going to discuss what we learned aftering back to the states.¡± I exined to him.


    ¡°Good. Open a door. We can hear that information and then we can tell you all about what we found here.¡± He truly was in a hurry toe back.


    ¡°Alright. I am getting the door prepared now.¡± I was already calling my magic to me and making it appear on my side. ¡°Where are you at?¡±


    ¡°We are in Dietrich¡¯s office here in Germany. In the Castle. You¡¯ve been in it before.¡± I remembered the room that he was talking about. I was there just recently when we were in Germany. It was just a couple of days ago, but it felt so much longer.


    ¡°Alright. It will be there in just a moment. Hurry through so that we can get the meeting started.¡± I knew that I didn¡¯t need to rush him, but I did it anyway.


    ¡°Yeah, we will. I see the door starting to appear. We will be on your side in a moment.¡± With that he hung up. And within thirty seconds the two of them were walking through the door here on my side of the magic.


    ¡°Wee home.¡± I smiled at them. ¡°I hope you had a productive time of things.¡±


    ¡°Oh, we did. A very productive time.¡± Shawn stepped toward me. ¡°I will let you exin what you know and then I will exin what it is that Dietrich and I found. Is that alright?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s fine. After all, you need to hear all of this too, right?¡±


    ¡°Indeed.¡± Dietrich nodded at me. ¡°Thank you for the door, Trinity. It was the fastest way to get back here.¡±


    ¡°No worries, Dietrich. Go on, have a seat. We have a meeting to start.¡±¡®


    Without saying another word, Shawn and Dietrich went to sit with the rest of the group. Now the entire party was here. These were all the people that I trusted the most. The people that I needed the most to help me solve this. They were the ones that I was going to make sure that they understood all the evidence and hopefully, put an end to these murders.


    I took a deep breath as I looked at all of their faces. Shawn, Dietrich, Shane, David, Vincent, Gabriel, Riley, Landon, Jackson, Rawlynne, Juniper, Paul, Cedar, Carter, Noah, Trevor, Aunt Glory, Athair m¨°r, Mom, Dad, L, Grandfather. All of the people that I loved as part of my family as well as those that were truly part of my family. Not to mention some of the most brilliant minds among us.


    ¡°Alright, let me get back to what Reece was saying before.¡± I eyed them all solemnly. ¡°There has been a development in the case. Some of you know this and some of you don¡¯t, but the murders have spread.¡±


    ¡°Spread?¡± Landon sounded confused. His green feline eyes narrowed as his head tilted to the side like a kitten.


    ¡°Yes, Landon.¡± Reece nodded at him. ¡°Before they were only murdering in Europe, Asia and Oceania. Well, they have moved on to a new continent recently. Yesterday morning Trinity and I went to investigate the murders that were in the new location.¡±


    ¡°And where did these murders take ce?¡± Grandfather asked him, his face back to that unreadable and grumpy looking mask that I remembered from my childhood.


    ¡°California.¡± I told him, answering the question in just one word. It was enough though. They all knew what the implications of that one word were. The murders, and therefore the murderers, were much closer to home now. The threat to us, to our families, to themunities that we knew and loved, it was much stronger now than it was when the murders were happening elsewhere. I know that it sounds bad, but they probably hadn¡¯t thought about the lives that were being lost because the carnage was not right in front of them. They were sheltered by the distance that was between them and the horrors that I have seen.


    Now though, the horrors were at their doorsteps. The horrors were knocking at the door. The horrors were here, and that made them all that more real. They didn¡¯t have that cushiony little bubble that offered them a semnce of peace and normality. That happiness that they had just recently was about to be ripped away from them like a band-aid that was covering a festering wound. They were able to ignore the trouble in the world because they couldn¡¯t see it happening. Well, they were about to see it. They were about to explore the depths of that horror and understand just what has been going on around the world. Whether they liked it or not.


    In a way, I felt bad doing this to them all, but they needed to know. They all needed to know so that we could work together and stop these crimes from spreading even more. We had to stop anyone else from being killed.


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 Chapter 905

    Chapter 905: Chapter 90- Trinity ¨C The Meeting Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    There were looks of horror and fear. There were looks of anger and rage. And there were looks of worry and sorrow. So many different faces with so many different expressions. And as I looked at them all, I tried to take a note of how they all responded to that news.


    ¡°How many?¡± Mom¡¯s voice was steady, but I could tell that it was thick with fear and other emotions. ¡°How many murders were there in California?¡±


    ¡°Five. All along the coast. We investigated four of them yesterday and one of them today.¡± Reece exined to her. ¡°One of the killers has escted in the process. I don¡¯t know if he was one of the killers from the other continents or not, but he did something that none of the others have.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t even know what the others have done.¡± Dad said. ¡°This wasn¡¯t something that you had shared with us before you left. We knew that there were murders, but not the nature of them. And we still don¡¯t quite know why you felt the need to take our granddaughter in the middle of the night so that she was traveling with you all over the world.¡±


    .....


    ¡°There was a reason for that, Dad.¡± I told him with a growing ache in my chest. ¡°Let me exin to you what has been happening.¡±


    ¡°I think that would be the best ce to start.¡± Grandfather nodded at me, his authoritative tone taking over. ¡°We all need to be on the same page.¡±


    ¡°Fine. I will start with all that we knew before we left. Then I will exin what happened while we were in Europe. Andstly, I will exin what happened in California.¡± I told them the timeline that they were going to get from me. ¡°This will include graphic details of murders and other incidents that have urred. I just ask that you stay as calm as you can until I am done.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, we can do that.¡± Trevor nodded at me. ¡°Go ahead, Trinity. Tell us what we need to know.¡± He was as strong looking as ever, that giant mountain of a man that hid the truly soft teddy bear that was inside of him.


    I told them about the information that had been brought to us before we left. How there had been murders happening every five days since the beginning of July. I told them how they were killed. The runes being applied, the throat being cut, the heart being removed. That was all that we had learned before we had left. That was how they were all killed. Nothing had changed in all those murders. But the murders were happing in different countries at the same time, so we knew that we were dealing with more than one killer. Right from the beginning we knew that there were several people that we were looking for.


    After that, I told them about how we had gone to Wales and saw the words that were hidden on the wall, and how those words were at almost all of the crime scenes, they were just hidden. They were a message for someone like me. Someone that could use magic to see them.


    I looked at Dietrich when I started the next part. When I told them about the souls being trapped in their bodies and how that struck a chord with him. He knew someone who used to do that, but that person has been dead for a very long time. I also told them that Talia, with her link to the underworld and souls, was the only one that could get the trapped souls from their bodies. She needed to release them, so they stopped suffering in their bodies. Everyone in the room was horrified and disgusted about the fact that the souls could feel the pain of things like the autopsies. Even those that knew about it before were angered by it all over again.


    I went through all the details that we had learned before we left and while we were traveling. I told them about going back to Germany to search for the home of Dietrich¡¯s old friend. However, that home had been hidden and needed us to break down their defenses. We were nning that for the day after we got the call about California. That was when we split with Shawn and Dietrich.


    Now it was time to exin California to them. The five different murders there. The rape of the victim in Waterton. The words on the rocks as a warning. The psychic that was working in the medical examiner¡¯s office. And the man that was captured and interviewed. They were again angered when they learned that he had been watching us, the words that he said, and the fact that he used a rune on his neck to take his own life.


    Needless to say, everyone in the room was stunned and silent after what I had to say. Even those that had been in California with us. They were hearing all of this put together in a timeline of events from start to finish, and that just helped to make this all that much more real.


    ¡°Well, now that I have told you all that I have to say, I think we should hear from Shawn and Dietrich. They seem to have found something as well.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Trinity.¡± Shawn nodded at me, his voice thick and filled with angry sorrow. He hadn¡¯t known what had happened in California, so he was learning all of that now.


    The two of them stepped in front of the group while Reece and I sat at my desk. I only had one desk chair, but that was fine. I was sitting on Reece¡¯sp in the oversized chair. It was bought just for moments like this. When we were sitting together for whatever reason. It¡¯s fine though, I liked the way that it felt to have his arms around me like this. It wasforting and helped to make me feel safe. Like none of this was real for a moment, even though I knew better.


    ¡°I am d that I could make it back in time for this meeting.¡± Shawn nodded at the group as he stood next to Dietrich. ¡°This was a lucky coincidence for us.¡± Thinking about the time difference, they had to have gotten up before four in the morning to be here right now. That or they never slept.


    ¡°Shawn and I were tasked with investigating the home of a man that I used to know.¡± Dietrich started. ¡°When I was a much younger man, I was with a group of my friends that helped the world.¡± He was exining things from the beginning. ¡°We hunted people. Bad people. That might sound wrong to some of you, but we only killed those that were a threat to the secrecy that we are all expected to keep, or those that were murdering people, including humans. We sought vampires, shifters, and magic folk. At that time, there were far less Fae in the world of humans, and those that were, knew how to keep a secret better than most. I know this makes me and my friends sound like monsters, but we were eliminating the true monsters. The ones that the stories and legends are all about.¡±


    ¡°I understand.¡± Shane, for once, spoke seriously and nodded at him. ¡°If your group hadn¡¯t been there, the secret could have gotten out much sooner.¡±


    ¡°Exactly.¡± Dietrich nodded at him. ¡°With those friends of mine, we used runes to help us. Some of those runes are being used by this group of people. Like the trapping of the souls. ric did that in the beginning, and then cleansed the soul with fire. However, he had too much heart to do that again. He didn¡¯t want to cause them more pain and suffering than he already was.¡±


    ¡°While Dietrich and I searched his friend¡¯s home, we found some things that were very enlightening.¡± Shawn exined. ¡°They knew that Dietrich and I were the onesing, but the house was empty. No one was there. We found journals, a family tree, aputer that we need to have to be searched by an expert, and a clue that led us to an orphanage. Only this wasn¡¯t really an orphanage.¡± This was the first time that Shawn made a reference to the boxes that he and Dietrich had carried through the door. ¡°These files are about the children that had lived in that orphanage. They weren¡¯t orphans, but children from that same family. They were being raised there as warriors. And their mission is to destroy us.¡±


    Shawn and Dietrich both put the boxes on the table that I had in the middle of the room. Along with that was a book, two journals, a roll of parchment, aptop and several flyers.


    ¡°This is all that we found. It doesn¡¯t look like much, but there was a treasure trove of information in here. Names, birthdays, physical descriptions, and a lot more information about all of the children that went through that home. And not only that, but information from ric himself and a man that went against the new family regime.¡± Shawn looked around the room and stopped when he got to me.


    ¡°ric didn¡¯t want this war. He wasn¡¯t teaching these things to his family. He would be angry if he could see his descendants now. And the other man, Rayk, whose journal that we found, he was murdered by his family for thinking like ric did. There was something that happened to this family along the way, something that changed what they believed.¡±


    I was at a loss. They hadn¡¯t even exined the evidence yet, and I felt like I was angrier at these people. Murdering their own family? Seriously? How fucked up could you be?


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 Chapter 906

    Chapter 906: Chapter 91- Trinity ¨C The Meeting Part 3 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°Trinity?¡± Rawlynne called out to me from the middle of the room after Shawn and Dietrich made their bombshell statements. ¡°We can run all the names against the databases that we have ess to. We can see if anyone matching their descriptions has recentlye into the country. On top of that, we can have someone at the bureau check out theptop.¡± She was already getting straight to business with all the new evidence. ¡°Also, we¡¯ve already sent the rocks from Crescent City to be dusted for prints and the DNA from Waterton to be checked against all known offenders. We are on top of these things, and we will stay on top of them. I know that we will find these people soon.¡±


    ¡°I appreciate that, Rawlynne.¡± I nodded at her. ¡°I want us all on this case as much as possible. We need to find these people and we need to find them now. They are threatening our home. They said that they were going to bring the fight to our courtyard. To me that means that they are bringing it to our city, our home. I fear that the next time that there will be someone killed will be here in Colorado, possibly even in Colorado Springs or Trinity Falls. We need to be on guard. We need to stop them before anyone else is hurt.¡±


    In the middle of my little speech, another phone rang in the room. I wasn¡¯t all that upset about it though, since I had also let that happen at the beginning of the meeting. However, I did hope that whatever it was it was actually important.


    ¡°Sorry.¡± Jackson said as he pulled his phone from his pocket. ¡°I..it¡¯s theb.¡± He looked up at me.


    .....


    ¡°Answer it. Hopefully it will be something important.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll put it on speaker.¡± He said as he swiped the screen and stopped the phone from ringing. ¡°This is McIan.¡± He greeted the caller.


    ¡°Hey Jackson, it¡¯s Reggie.¡± The woman on the call answered him immediately. I knew who this was. Reggie was Regina Danylo. She was a bear shifter that had moved here from the war-torn Ukraine region eighteen years ago. She had started working with Jackson and Rawlynne when theypletely revamped the local FBI office and often does business that pertains to the supernatural people of the world. She was also the head of the local FBI forensicsb. A useful insider that was there to help us.


    ¡°Hey Reg, what do you have for me?¡± Jackson asked when he heard who it was on the call.


    ¡°Well, the rocks that you and Raw sent were a bust. There were fingerprints galore, but none of them matched anything in the system. And none of them matched the other scenes either. We¡¯re still having them scanned regrly so that we can see if anything newes upter on. The DNA was run, and ites up as a familial match for the other DNA that we¡¯ve been able to run, so these people are all rted. Somewhere on the cousin level. However, this person has been in the system before. He attacked a woman in a bar a few years back. There is no name, and he was never caught, but there is a physical description of the man that the woman and witnesses gave at the time. That¡¯s the best that I can do for now, I am sorry.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine Reg. I understand. Hey, I need someone that is aputer specialist. We have aptop from Germany that we need to have investigated. It was just brought in. Can you send someone my way?¡± Jackson moved past the information that wasn¡¯t going to help us at all and got right to work on the other information.


    ¡°Yeah, I think that Darrol would be a match for that job. He¡¯s a feline that works out of Aurora. I will have him sent to you right away. He will be there in the morning.¡±


    ¡°Thanks Reggie.¡± I called out before Jackson could speak.


    ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t know that Queen Trinity was there.¡± I could practically hear her blushing in embarrassment.


    ¡°Yes, we were in the middle of a meeting when you called. I put it on speaker so that Trinity and Reece could hear what you had to say right away.¡±


    ¡°O..oh. OK.¡± She was still embarrassed, but she was moving on and getting back to business.


    ¡°Reggie, would you send us the files that you have on that assault case? We have some files here that we canpare them to.¡±


    ¡°The files I brought back also included fingerprints. They are from when they were all kids, but they¡¯re in there. We canpare them to the fingerprints that we have so far and see who these assholes are. The ones that have been killing people and leaving behind evidence at the very least.¡± Shawn spoke up as he told me and the others about that added little bonus in the files.


    ¡°And the fact that they are alling up as rted tells me that this indeed is ric¡¯s family that is doing this. This is definitely the Jaegan family that is doing all of this.¡±


    ¡°What did you just say?¡± I did a double take at Dietrich¡¯s words just then. ¡°What family?¡± I was already bringing back the memories from Star and Artem¡¯s ce. That man that killed himself in that room earlier today.


    ¡°Jaegan. That was the family name. ric Jaegan.¡±


    ¡°That man that we interviewed in Crescent City, the one that used the rune to kill himself, his name was Angus Jaegan. That was what he told us.¡±


    ¡°You got a name?¡± Reggie said from the phone. ¡°I can run a search on him.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve already done that.¡± Jackson told her. ¡°We didn¡¯t find anything.¡±


    ¡°That was with someone else¡¯s system. Let me or even Darrol search for him. I am sure that we can locate something on that man. And if you have other names then we can search for them as well.¡±


    ¡°Done. You and Darrol meet us here tomorrow. I want these people found as soon as possible. This can¡¯t wait any longer¡± And if it wasn¡¯t already sote, I would have the two of them here right now. The sooner the better. At least I was being nice and letting them wait until the morning.


    ¡°Yes, Queen Trinity. I will call Darrol and let him know right away. We will be there tomorrow first thing.¡± She sounded nervous now. Like she thought that my anger was going to spill over or something.


    ¡°You have until nine in the morning.¡± I told her. ¡°I am driving my kids to school in the morning.¡± I remembered my promise that I made to them, and I meant to keep it.


    ¡°Yes, Queen Trinity. We will be there.¡± I knew that Reggie was close enough to be here at that time. Darrol, though, would have to leave early.


    ¡°I will send a helicopter for Darrol. Tell him to be ready by seven thirty in the morning. Our pilot will be waiting for him.¡±


    ¡°Y..yes, Queen Trinity. I will tell him. Thank you. S..see you tomorrow. G..goodbye and g..good night.¡± With that shaky goodbye, Reggie ended the call. I don¡¯t think that she nned on the call going quite that way. Still, this was the closest that we were to this case so far, and I didn¡¯t want to lose our lead.


    ¡°I think that we should go through these files first thing in the morning. We will learn all their names and descriptions so that we can recognize them if wee across them. It¡¯s gettingte though, so we need to stop here for the night. All of you get some rest and be ready to work tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°Got it.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡±


    ¡°Roger that.¡±


    ¡°Will do.¡±


    A chorus of affirmations greeted me as they all started to get to their feet.


    ¡°Riley, Carter, Trevor, Aunt Glory, Athair m¨°r, I am sorry to all of you.¡±


    ¡°What for?¡± They paused and looked at me with wide eyes.


    ¡°Well, for one thing, you didn¡¯t n on sleeping here, so you have no luggage. For two, your families aren¡¯t here with you.¡±


    ¡°That isn¡¯t an issue, Trinity.¡± Riley smiled at us. ¡°They understand that there are extenuating circumstances at the moment.¡±


    ¡°Plus, you can always open a door for us to see our families if we need it.¡± Trevor added.


    ¡°And I think that all of us have clothes in our homes here. I know that I do. I never know when I need to make an unexpected trip home. So, keeping things here and ready is an essential thing for me.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve had peace for a long time, Trinity. That had been wonderful, and it would be ideal for things to stay that way. However, this is something that is affecting us all. A girl that was half Fae has been murdered as well. And there are others that are of our kind too. So many people in our unitedmunities have been hurt. We understand the need for us toe together right now. We understand that and you need to as well. We¡¯re here to help you, Garin¨ªon. Out of love and respect for you.¡± Athair m¨°r, always a calming voice of wisdom, put his hands on my shoulders as he spoke to me in a soothing voice.


    ¡°Thank you, Athair m¨°r. I love you.¡± I hugged him tightly then, taking in his warmth and kindness as it helped to settle my nerves a little bit.


    ¡°I love you too, Trinity.¡± He squeezed me tighter and kissed the top of my head like I was a child. I knew that he couldn¡¯t help but treat me as a child. Even though I was an adult when I met him, he was about three thousand years older than me. To him, I was just a little sprout that was starting to bud. Definitely nowhere near as mature and knowledgeable as he was.


    I watched them all leave the room with a heavy heart. I knew that this case was disrupting their lives and I didn¡¯t want to do that to them. I didn¡¯t want to be the cause of them having strained rtionships with their family or staying away for so long. I just wasn¡¯t able to do anything about it.


    ¡°Come on, Little Bunny.¡± Reece took my hand as he started to pull me toward the hall. ¡°We should get some rest too. We¡¯ve got a busy day tomorrow as well.¡± He was right. There really was a lot for us to do.


    ¡°Alright, Fido, let¡¯s get to bed.¡± I gripped his hand a little tighter. A surge of excitement coursing through me. I was going to be sleeping in my own bed, in my own room, in my own home. It had been a while since I was able to do that and I really had missed it.


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 Chapter 907

    Chapter 907: Chapter 92- Reece ¨C Distraction (VOLUME 5) (MATURE)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I knew that being home with the kids was a good idea for my Little Bunny, but I also knew that the case bringing us here was stressing her out. She was worried. Not just about our people in general, but about our family. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if my Little Bunny decided to forbid the kids from leaving the house for a while. She might even tell them that they can¡¯t go to school and things like that.


    However, I knew that doing that wouldn¡¯t be good for them. Especially for Reagan and Rika they would likely rebel against us if we just started taking away their freedoms. As much as I wanted my kids to be safe, and as much as I wanted them to be here with me and my wife, I couldn¡¯t bring myself to make them hate me.


    And I couldn¡¯t bring myself to let my wife go on being this miserable. I knew that she needed me. I knew that she needed some sort offort that was going to calm her down for the time being.


    All the while that we went to our room and settled back into our normal routine, I thought of what would make her feel better. While we took a quick shower together, brushed our teeth, got dressed, all that time I tried to figure out what it was that I could do to help my wife settle down.


    .....


    I finally figured out that all I needed to do was hold her. All I needed to do was be there for her to rest on when she was feeling weary. So that was exactly what I did. I was only wearing a pair of shorts when I sat with my back against the headboard and pillows. My Little Bunny was wearing a light blue silk nighty top and matching silk bottoms. It was revealing on the top, but it wasn¡¯t as sexy as if she were wearing just the negligee. I figured that we would be fine with me just holding her in my arms at the moment.


    ¡°Come here.¡± I pulled her onto myp as she went toy down in the bed next to me.


    ¡°What is it, Reece?¡± She asked me as I positioned her with her knees on either side of me.


    ¡°I want to hold you. Is that a problem?¡± I pulled her against my chest and started to stroke her hair.


    ¡°Are you feeling nervous or upset about something?¡± She sounded suspicious about my motives. ¡°Or are you just horny?¡± Sheughed at thatst part.


    ¡°I just want to hold you, Trinity. Is that so bad? I love you, and we¡¯ve had a lot to deal withtely. I know that you are feeling just as stressed as I have beentely. I wanted to make sure that you are doing OK. You are my mate, my wife, my Luna, and my queen. It is my job to take care of you and make sure that you are doing alright at all times.¡± I was running my hands along her back as I spoke, stroking it tenderly. I knew that she was ticklish though, so that also meant that she was squirming just a little bit on myp.


    ¡°I have been stressed, that is true. But I have you, Reece. I always have you at my side and that means that I am never too far gone. You just being there for me helps me.¡± She lifted her head from where it had been resting on my chest and looked me in the eyes. ¡°I love you, Reece.¡± She cupped my cheek as she spoke, leaned in, and kissed me gently. It was far from the first time that she had initiated a kiss with me. There had literally been thousands, but I loved it every time that she initiated something with me. It always made me feel her love that much more.


    ¡°I love you too, Little Bunny.¡± I kissed her this time, deeper and more passionate than the quick kiss that she had given to me.


    The kiss quickly evolved into more than what I had nned for it to be. The moment that I slipped my tongue into her mouth, it was like something changed. Not just in me, but in her as well. As her soft lips molded themselves against mine, I also felt her body simultaneously mold itself against me and start moving in small yet erotic motions.


    She was teasing me. And she was doing it perfectly. As her left hand reached up to run through my hair, she put the other on my chest, running her fingers over the hard nes of muscle.


    ¡°Trinity¡± I whispered her name as I broke the kiss, our lips still pressed together.


    ¡°Reece.¡± She whispered back as she shifted her weight. She was angling herself so that she was sitting more directly on my already hardening shaft.


    ¡°Ngh!¡± I moaned at the feel of her warm core cradling me already.


    ¡°Make love to me Reece, please.¡± She sounded like she was begging me.


    ¡°Sweetheart, you never need to beg me. I am yours. Always yours.¡± I was already putting action to words as I pulled the silky top off of her smooth, creamy white skin. Before I even realized it, my mouth was on her neck, kissing and nipping at her tender flesh as I pushed the silking bottoms off of her waist and down to her legs. This part was a little tricky and required some assistance from her, but we managed. However, she rose up onto her knees in the process and that put her breasts right into my face. I couldn¡¯t help myself. I licked one peak before pulling the nipple into my mouth and suckling on her hard. That made my Little Bunny moan loudly.


    With her now bare before me, it was my turn to disrobe. I pushed the shorts down past my hips and then used my legs to kick them the rest of the way off. I did all that while managing to keep my Little Bunny on myp the whole time. She had never left me in this whole process, not for a moment.


    Letting go of her breast, I grabbed onto my Little Bunny¡¯s waist and guided her toward my very hard shaft. With a sweet kiss against her lips, I pulled her gently down onto me until I was all the way in and she was sitting on my thighs.


    ¡°Reece¡± She moaned my name as I entered her.


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Little Bunny. I¡¯m right here, and I¡¯m not going anywhere.¡± I kissed her again, gently and sweetly.


    I may have been a little frantic and quick as I got us both undressed, but I knew that this moment between us needed to be tender and sweet. I knew that I needed to be gentle with her right now.


    With my hands on her hips, I started to lift her off of me, pressing my ass into the mattress as I did so. Once I was almost out of her, just barely remaining in her tender, burning hot core, I pulled her back down gently.


    I entered her again and again. Slowly and tenderly each time. I didn¡¯t want to rush this. I didn¡¯t want to hurt her or turn this into something frantic. I wanted to slowly enjoy this moment with her. That slow building passion that was well worth the wait for the final legs of the race.


    I heard Trinity¡¯s tender and soft moans as I gently made love to her. Lifting her off of me and bringing her down in a steady rhythming, rocking my hips as I went to add a little more sensation for her. Those moans that came rushing right into my ear as she pressed her naked flesh against my chest, they were perfect. The moans were like a song of the love that we shared for each other.


    ¡°Ahhh. Mmmhmm. Hahh. Nghahh.¡± These sounds, sweet exhtions of love, were as tender and sweet as the connection that we had at the moment. Even my Little Bunny¡¯s hands in my hair were gentle and soft as she craved the feel of me more and more.


    We had an unspoken agreement at the moment. One that we hadn¡¯t needed to even think about. This union of ours was going to be one of tender love and sweet caresses.


    As tender as it was though, I could still feel her body tensing with passion and pleasure. She was milking my shaft more and more with each gentle thrust into her hot sweet center. Her moment wasing, and so was mine. I wanted to keep going. I wanted to make love to her long into the night. I didn¡¯t want to let her sleep, I wanted to keep her here like this on myp for as long as I could. That would have been the ideal first night back home. However, I knew that I couldn¡¯t do that. I knew that I needed to let her rest. I needed it too. That was why I stopped fighting my ecstasy that was filling me up.


    After a few more moments, a few more thrusts into Trinity¡¯s tender body, I felt her tighten around me almost excruciatingly tight. It was a slow and steady climax, but I knew that she had reached it, nheless. I held on for a few more thrusts, riding the waves of her pleasure and letting it intensify my own climax that came just momentster.


    ¡°Ahh!¡± She moaned into my ear as I pulled her toward me, biting the mark that I left on her neck almost twenty years ago. That spot on her neck where I told the world that she was mine and that she was off limits to them all. I shed back to that night for just a moment. That first time that she had melted against me, that first time that I had truly felt her tender body against mine. Yes, I had carried her before then, but none of itpared to that night that I marked her as my own. That night was when I truly knew that I needed to have her. That I wanted her to be mine. Even if my brain was too stupid to realize it at the time, my heart and my body were already hers at that point.


    ¡°I love you, Trinity.¡± I whispered as I released her flesh from my mouth.


    ¡°I love you too, Reece.¡± She almost seemed to moan it in response, her body still twitching with arousal around my shaft. ¡°I love you so much.¡±


    I gently removed myself from her body andid her on the bed next to me, still wrapped in my arms. I didn¡¯t want to let her go, not for anything in the world. And when we drifted off to sleep, I was still holding her. She was still in my arms when I dreamt of the past. The first time that I bit her. The first time that I kissed her. The first time that I made love to her. All those memories of mine that were so happy and pleasant for me. They were the best fuel for dreams that I could ever hope for.


    And the dreams didn¡¯t end there. I literally relived thest twenty years with her. From the day of our first tense and rocky meeting to all the tense and scary moments that followed. I relived the days that all of our children were born and all the happy moments that we shared with our family. Being with my Little Bunny was the dream life that I never knew that I needed or wanted. And now that I have it, I never wanted to let anything take it from me. That was why I needed to put an end to all of these murders. We needed our peaceful and happy life back.


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 Chapter 908

    Chapter 908: Chapter 93- Split- Trinity & Reece ¨C ying At Normal (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I woke the next morning, naked and wrapped in Reece¡¯s arms. It was such a normal way for me to wake up that I could almost believe that my life was normal. That there had been no murders. That there had been nothing that took me away from my children for thest couple of weeks. I could almost believe that nothing had ever happened. Almost.


    The memories of thest month came flooding back as soon as the early morning sun filled my eyes. Still, I knew that I needed to be there for my kids today. I knew that I needed to be their mom and nothing else this morning. And that was why I pushed the thoughts away and pretended to be normal just for the day. I needed to let my kids know that they were my priority in all of this and that was why I left in the first ce.


    I showered quickly that morning. Even though I just took a showerst night. I had made love to Reece after my shower and needed another now. And of course, I had a very handsy Reece that seemed to have woken up in a very good mood. He just couldn¡¯t seem to keep his hands to himself during the shower and I needed to yell at him and put him in his ce so that we could finish the shower before the kids came running up the stairs to our room.


    ¡°Come on, Little Bunny.¡± Reece pleaded as he wrapped his arms around me.


    .....


    ¡°No!¡± I snapped at him. ¡°Bad dog. I need to get ready for the day. Bad puppy.¡± I sshed water in his face andughed at him. ¡°Come on, Reece, we¡¯re home now. That means that the kids are all here. And I promised Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley that we would have breakfast together and drive them to school.¡±


    ¡°Alright, fine.¡± He seemed to slump dejectedly as I scolded him. ¡°I just started to think about when we were first together. How romantic and passionate we were. I miss how much we were together.¡±


    ¡°Reece.¡± I hugged him to me in the shower. ¡°We are still like that, and we will be again soon, when this is all settled down. Just be patient.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± He nodded and kissed me quickly. ¡°Now let¡¯s get dressed before I throw you on the bed.¡± Heughed and turned off the water.


    Several minutester I walked down the stairs at the exact time that the kids were leaving their rooms for breakfast.


    ¡°Mommy!?¡± Zaley called out as she hugged me. ¡°You didn¡¯t leave.¡±


    ¡°I told you that I wouldn¡¯t, sweetheart.¡± I hugged her tightly. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go to breakfast.¡±


    Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley walked with us down to the dining room where I found Talia, Reagan and Rika waiting for us.


    ¡°Good morning.¡± Rika called out with a smile. ¡°It¡¯s good to be having breakfast together again.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯ve missed you guys.¡± Reagan added as he smiled at us. The two of them might be eighteen now, and in college, but they were still our kids and they still needed us. They weren¡¯tpletely on their own yet. I was actually kind of happy about that.


    Theughs and smiles that I got from the kids over breakfast was like a medicine that was healing my soul. I hadn¡¯t known just how much I was missing this. I had been so busy that I hadn¡¯t really thought about what I was not getting every day. This here, this love and family time, it had been in such short supply during the investigation that my soul had suffered, and I didn¡¯t even know it. I could feel it now though, as my soul healed little by little.


    After the delicious breakfast of pancakes, sausage, bacon, eggs, fruit, and freshly squeezed juice that Abigail had made for us, it was time to get the kids ready for school. Talia was even going in person today for the first time this school year.


    All the kids, aside from Reagan and Rika, had a uniform that they wore to school, so I didn¡¯t need to pick out their clothes, but I could do their hair. Talia¡¯s was simple with a thin braid going from her bangs on each side to the back of her head where they met and hung loosely. Zaley wanted pigtails but she wanted a thin braid that went along them as well. It was still simple, but it took me just a couple minutester. For the boys, all I really did wasb their hair into a little bit of a style that they wanted. Zachary¡¯s was a little messier than the others because that was what he preferred. Zander had his hair slicked back and neat. Zayden had hisbed perfectly and looked like a little businessman. They were all so cute, but I couldn¡¯t tell them that. They were getting older and preferred for me to call them handsome. Still, they were my little boys, and they were cute to me.


    I was driving the five younger ones to school while Reece drove Reagan and Rika to school. None of them were taking their guards with them, which had me on edge, but I knew that this was the way that we needed to keep things. At least until we were sure that the threat was actually here in Colorado Springs.


    ¡°All of you be good. Don¡¯t go anywhere that you¡¯re not supposed to and listen to your teachers, OK?¡± I called out to them as I let them out at the door to the school.


    ¡°OK, Mommy.¡±


    ¡°We will be good, Mommy.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Mommy.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Mommy.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry so much, Mom. We will be fine. It¡¯s daytime and we¡¯re at school. It¡¯s OK.¡± I heard the younger ones call out happily as they got out of the car, but Talia stayed behind for a moment to add something to the conversation.


    ¡°I know, sweetheart. I just worry about you all.¡± She leaned over and hugged me before getting out of the car.


    ¡°I know that you do Mom, but you don¡¯t need to worry about us when we¡¯re at school.¡± She left after that and I watched as she took Zaley and Zayden¡¯s hands. Zachary held Zaley¡¯s other hand while Zander held Zayden¡¯s. And together the five of them walked into the school. Talia was walking them all to ss today before going to her part of the school. She was such a good big sister.


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    ¡°Dad, you didn¡¯t need to drive us to school today.¡± Rikained as I drove into the city. ¡°We have been driving ourselves every day until now.¡±


    ¡°I know, Rika, but I wanted to. And you know what has been happening. We¡¯re just really worried about you, that¡¯s all.¡± I tried to calm her down as she looked around the car like she was embarrassed.


    ¡°How are we going to get hometer?¡± Reagan asked me, not feeling as angry as his sister was.


    ¡°Lucas and Westin will be picking you up after your sses are done.¡± I told them without hesitating.


    ¡°Or we can just ride home with the others. I know that Lyssa and Alexa are going to be driving themselves.¡± Rika tried to get out of the protective detail.


    ¡°No, Shawn and Dietrich are driving their kids today too. And they will be getting picked up by Nick and Max.¡±


    ¡°Daaadd!¡± Rika whined as she heard this news. ¡°I wanted to hang out with my friends after ss. I can¡¯t do that if I am being babysat by a bunch of guards.¡±


    ¡°Rika!¡± I said her name sternly. ¡°I don¡¯t care what you wanted to do. We¡¯re trying to be lenient and let you have your life still, but things are dangerous for our people right now. You need to be careful.¡±


    ¡°Dad, I am careful. I don¡¯t hardly do anything.¡± She was getting a little pissed off at me right now.


    ¡°Right. Like that date that you went on.¡± I turned to re at her when I stopped at a red light.


    ¡°That was nothing. It was just a friend from campus. He¡¯s really nice, Dad. And his friend is Lyssa¡¯s mate.¡±


    ¡°Her mate?¡± I had never heard about this, and I was sure that Dietrich hadn¡¯t heard about it either.


    ¡°Yeah. She met her mate. And I think that Clovio might be mine too. I like him, Daddy. You can¡¯t stop me from seeing him.¡±


    ¡°Just try me.¡± I grumbled the words under my breath, but she heard them.


    ¡°DADDY!¡± She roared at me.


    ¡°Rika, all I am asking is that you give us some time. Those people that have been killing our kind, they are here in the US now, and they say they areing to Colorado. We need to be safe. That¡¯s why we¡¯re back.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Both Reagan and Rika sounded shocked at that.


    ¡°Now, please, just for the next few days, until we¡¯re sure how things are going, do as I say. Please.¡±


    ¡°Fine.¡± Rika relented atst, but she still didn¡¯t sound happy about it.


    ¡°By the way, what is Lyssa¡¯s mate¡¯s name?¡± I needed some information for Shawn and Dietrich.


    ¡°His name is Warrick Abitz. And he is really nice so don¡¯t mess this up for her.¡± She snapped at me as I parked the car in front of their first building.


    ¡°I won¡¯t.¡± I promised her. ¡°Have a good day.¡±


    ¡°Bye Dad.¡± Reagan sounded jovial and like there was nothing wrong.


    ¡°Bye.¡± Rika was still mad at me.


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 Chapter 909

    Chapter 909: Chapter 94- Reece ¨C Blowing Shawn And Dietrich¡¯s Minds (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    The entire time that I was driving home from the university, I thought about calling Shawn or Dietrich. I needed to tell them about their daughter and how she somehow managed to find her mate. And that she seemed to have forgotten to tell them. I was even wondering if her siblings knew about him.


    However, I didn¡¯t call either of them. Mostly because I was also lost in thoughts about finding this boy named Clovio and ripping him to pieces. I mean, my little girl, my little Rika, that was just a tiny and adorable little baby, was telling me that she thinks that this boy was her mate. That this strange boy who I had never met was going to take her away from me and.. and.. and he was going to do things to her.


    ¡°RRRAAAWWWRRRGGGHHH!¡± I roared ferociously in the car the moment that I pulled into the underground garage at the castle. ¡°NO BOY THAT I DON¡¯T KNOW IS GOING TO COME AND STEAL MY LITTLE GIRL AWAY FROM ME! I¡¯LL KILL HIM BEFORE I LET THAT HAPPEN!¡± I snarled the words angrily. I already hated this Clovio. I already wanted to make him regret the day that he was ever born. I wanted to end him.


    The entire walk to the elevator, the entire ride up to the floor where my office and Trinity¡¯s office were located, all that time I was seeing red. I was so pissed off and all that had happened was the equivalent of my daughter telling me that she liked a boy. DAMMIT! Having daughters is the hardest thing in the world. I needed to lock Rika and Talia away until they were over one hundred years old. And when Zaley started getting interested in boys, then I would lock her away as well. They needed to stay my precious little girls forever. I couldn¡¯t lose them. They were my babies.


    .....


    ¡°Damn, what the hell happened to you?¡± Noah asked me the moment that I stormed into Trinity¡¯s office.


    ¡°Rika said that she thinks this boy at university is her mate.¡± I red at the desk as I flung myself into Trinity¡¯s chair. She wasn¡¯t back yet.


    ¡°Oh, shit!¡± I heard Noah¡¯s voice as he pulled a chair closer to the desk. ¡°She isn¡¯t sure if he is? Or does she truly think that he might be?¡± He was trying to help me work through my red fogged brain.


    ¡°She didn¡¯t sound certain.¡± I shook my head trying to clear out the fog.


    ¡°She¡¯s already eighteen. If he was her mate, then she would know. So, I think that it might just be a case of her having a really intense crush.¡± His words softened the red glow in my vision just a little bit.


    ¡°Yeah, maybe you¡¯re right.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s he right about?¡± Dietrich asked as he and Shawn walked into the room.


    ¡°Ahh, just the men that I needed to see.¡± I felt that anger rising in me again. Alyssa isn¡¯t my daughter, but I have known her since she was a week old. She is like a niece to me for crying out loud. I wasn¡¯t about to let this slide for her either. She was family and pack, and that meant that she was my responsibility as well.


    ¡°What is it?¡± Shawn asked as he saw the anger in my eyes.


    ¡°You won¡¯t believe what Rika told me this morning. And I am betting that this is going to be a major shock to you.¡± The feral monster inside of me was imagining that it was Warrick that I was destroying now.


    ¡°What? What happened?¡± Dietrich was starting to get worried now. I could see the looks in both his and Shawn¡¯s eyes. They were almost the same as they worried about what might have happened.


    ¡°Rika said that little Alyssa has a mate.¡±


    ¡°WHAT!?¡± Noah shouted at the revtion.


    ¡°IMPOSSIBLE!¡± Dietrich¡¯s voice was just as loud and intense as Noah¡¯s.


    ¡°I¡¯LL FUCKING KILL HIM!¡± Shawn snarled loudly.


    ¡°Whoa! What the hell is going on in here?¡± Shane asked as he came striding into the room.


    ¡°Who is he? Who is this boy that thinks he can take my daughter?¡± Shawn was growling ferally.


    ¡°What the fuck, brother? What is going on?¡± Shane could tell that his brother was truly upset about something. ¡°What happened?¡±


    ¡°ALYSSA HAS A MATE!¡± Shawn forced the words through his teeth.


    ¡°Wait! Really?¡± Shane was having a hard time believing it as well.


    ¡°It just can¡¯t be.¡± Dietrich was shaking his head. ¡°She doesn¡¯t know what it means to be with someone. She doesn¡¯t know that this boy is her mate.¡± Dietrich was a lot more pale than he usually was. ¡°It just can¡¯t be true, can it?¡± He was looking at Shawn with panic and worry in his eyes.


    ¡°No. It can¡¯t be. She is just a baby. She is just a little girl. Sh..sh..she can¡¯t have a mate. She just can¡¯t.¡± I saw Shawn with red rimmed eyes as he looked at his husband. ¡°Tell me that it¡¯s a lie, Liebling. Tell me that it¡¯s just a cruel sick joke.¡±


    ¡°I wish it were a joke, Shawn. But I am serious. Lyssa seems to think that this Warrick is her mate.¡±


    ¡°Wait, Warrick?¡± Dietrich looked at me with wide wondering eyes. ¡°What¡¯s hisst name? Do you know?¡±


    ¡°Abitz. His name is Warrick Abitz.¡± I spat the name like it was something disgusting. ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°That is a German name.¡±


    ¡°Congrats to you, Dietrich.¡± Shane didn¡¯t sound like he was joking, despite the words. ¡°Your future son inw hails from the same origins as you.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha.¡± Dietrich¡¯s sardonicugh held absolutely no humor. ¡°I mean that it is a German name. And we¡¯re investigating a group of murderous Germans. At the moment, anyone that hails from my native country is a suspect in my mind. And if this ¡®boy¡¯,¡± Dietrich spat the word like it was filled with disgusting poison, ¡°is really from Germany and not just of German descent, then he is on my suspect list too. And that means that this boy is going to get one hell of an interrogation sometime very soon.¡±


    ¡°Shit!¡± Shane¡¯s eyes went wide.


    ¡°Fuck!¡± Noah matched him.


    ¡°He better fucking not be part of this.¡± I snarled. ¡°I¡¯ll kill him twice.¡±


    ¡°My sentiments exactly, Reece.¡± Shawn¡¯s words were cold and venomous.


    ¡°I need to protect my little girl.¡± Dietrich added as he seethed with rage.


    For several moments, the five of us just stood there and let the anger and rage burn inside of us. I don¡¯t know about the others, but I was imagining what I was going to do to this Warrick and Clovio. I was thinking that maybe dismemberment, disembowelment, and perhaps cutting them into ribbons with my ws. And that would just be a start. These were our little girls that those boys were trying to take from us. They were too young for this. They were not ready to meet their mates. They needed to give it some time, see the world, learn and grow. Maybe a few hundred years or a millennium, perhaps that would be enough time.


    ¡°What the hell happened to you lot?¡± Juniper asked as she came into the room with Paul and Cedar.


    ¡°You look like someone just stole thest cookie and you all wanted to fight over it.¡± Paulughed.


    ¡°Shut up, moron.¡± Cedar snapped at him. ¡°What happened, Reece? Were there more murders?¡± I guess our rage would lead them in that line of thinking.


    ¡°No.¡± I snarled out angrily.


    ¡°It has nothing to do with the case.¡± Noah added to the snarled words.


    ¡°My daughter Alyssa thinks that she has met her mate.¡± Shawn growled.


    ¡°And Rika thinks that she might have hers as well.¡± The others hadn¡¯t known about Rika. Only Noah knew. This led to a whole new round of questions and snarls from Shawn, Dietrich and Shane.


    ¡°Look, I get that you¡¯re upset, I really do.¡± Juniper was almostughing at us as she spoke. ¡°But this is going to happen. They¡¯re getting older. They¡¯re adults now. And that means that they are going to get their mates, have lives of their own. And they might even be getting married soon. I mean, they¡¯re the same age that Trinity was when she mated with you, Reece.¡±


    ¡°That was different.¡± I snarled at her.


    ¡°Oh, OK Cujo, tell me how it was different.¡± She crossed her arms and looked at me with humor filled eyes.


    ¡°Trinity wasn¡¯t my daughter, she¡¯s my wife. And I say that my daughter is too young for this.¡± I gave her my reason and she started tough so hard that she nearly fell over.


    ¡°Ha ha ha ha ha. You have got to be kidding me. Get over it, Reece. You too, fang boys. They¡¯re adults. I will be sad when my daughter tells me she is mated, but only because it means that she isn¡¯t a kid anymore. They¡¯re grown up. They¡¯re on their own. Let them be.¡± She was trying to make us see reason, but I didn¡¯t want to.


    ¡°She¡¯s right, you know.¡± Cedar added in his sister¡¯s defense. ¡°They are adults, they¡¯re going to find their mates when fate tells them that it¡¯s time. Whether we like it or not, it¡¯s going to happen. I have several kids, you know that. And I know that it¡¯s going to be hard to hear when the first onees home with their mate, but as parents that¡¯s just what we need to deal with. They¡¯re going to move on and live away from you eventually. The sooner that you ept that, the sooner that you can move past this and be happy for them.¡±


    I hated that both Juniper and Cedar were trying to make me see reason. Reason was overrated in moments like this. Still, their words did have somewhat of a calming effect on us all.


    ¡°Fine. I will ept it for now. But if either of those boys hurt our girls, they¡¯re dead.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡± Shawn nodded.


    ¡°Agreed.¡± Dietrich added as he took Shawn¡¯s hand.


    I wanted to continue to seethe in rage for the rest of the day. I felt like I was going to have a hard time just getting myself to think about anything other than killing one of those boys. Or both of them. But I also knew that I needed to settle down and get ready for the meeting. We had thoseputer specialistsing in soon. They were going to tell us more things and look at the information about the names in the files. It was going to be a busy day, and I knew that I couldn¡¯t brood. But dammit, I really wanted to brood.


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 Chapter 910

    Chapter 910: Chapter 95- Trinity ¨C Specialists Arrive (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I don¡¯t know what had been going on when I walked into my office, but it had clearly been a tense moment. I didn¡¯t care right now, as long as it didn¡¯t have anything to do with the case, then I wasn¡¯t interested. In fact, that was just what I told Reece when he started to exin what had happened in my absence.


    ¡®Trinity, there is something that I need to tell you.¡± Reece hade over to me with a strange look on his face.


    ¡°Is it about the case?¡± I asked him without stopping as I walked toward my desk.


    ¡°No, it¡¯s not.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Then it can wait.¡± I shut him down instantly. ¡°We¡¯ve got other work to do right now. Reggie and Darrol will be here soon. We need to focus right now. It can wait. Tell meter.¡±


    I had gotten word from Wayne, the pilot, that he hadnded with Darrol a half and hour ago. To my knowledge he was going straight to Reggie¡¯s and then heading over here. They were supposed to be here any moment now.


    ¡°I think that you should hear this right now, Trinity.¡± He was still trying to pester me about whatever that was, but I heard the ding of the elevator in the hall.


    ¡°Hold onto it for now, Reece. They¡¯re here.¡± I turned to face the door in time to see the two peopleing into the room. They were here before a lot of the others were.


    Reggie was tall, slender, and beautiful. Her long brown hair fell to the middle of her back in waves. Her brown eyes matched the color of her hair perfectly. And the dark coloring of her hair and eyes made her paleplexion stand out even more.


    Darrol was around the typical height for a feline shifter, just over six feet tall with a well-built physique. He had mahogany brown hair that was buzzed short on the side but was several inches long on the top. His very typically bright yellow feline eyes were practically glowing in excitement as he looked around the office. He had arge bag on each shoulder and aptop in his arms. I could tell that he came here ready to work. That was good, I wouldn¡¯t want to worry about having azyputer tech that was supposed to help me.


    ¡°Queen Trinity.¡± Reggie called out to me. ¡°We¡¯re here.¡±


    ¡°I noticed.¡± I spoke sarcastically to her in reply. I mean, clearly they were here, they were in my office, for crying out loud.


    ¡°It¡¯s nice to meet you, Queen Trinity. My name is Darrol Harper.¡± He held his hand out toward me and took a few steps. I felt like messing with him, but I didn¡¯t. I just shook his hand and tried not tough. Apparently, he could sense theughter in me. ¡°Did I do something wrong?¡± He looked around and tried to figure it out as he looked at Shawn, Dietrich, Shane, Noah, Reece, Juniper, Paul, and Cedar.


    ¡°Nothing really. It¡¯s just that no one really just shakes my hand out of the blue. It¡¯s been so long since I haven¡¯t had someone scanned by my guards first.¡±


    ¡°I did scan him.¡± Vincent called from the door. ¡°I got here right behind them and have been checking to see if they were friends or foe. Not that I doubted Reggie, but that man is new.¡± Vincent didn¡¯t sound happy at all. ¡°You should know better than to meet people without me or Gabriel present.¡± He strode into the room and came to stand at my side.


    ¡°And there you have it.¡± I smiled at Darrol. ¡°I am only allowed to meet people that have been checked in advance. That is unless we don¡¯t have the chance for that to happen. Needless to say, Gabriel and Vincent don¡¯t like for me to be away for too long. And when I am away from them, they insist that Reece is with me, or that I behave like a hermit that is afraid of people.¡± My grin seemed to be lost on him. He was just staring at me like that was some sort of a joke that I had just made. He had no idea that it was actually the truth. Now, whether Vincent and Gabriel got what it was that they wanted or not was a different story. That was what they preferred though.


    ¡°U.uhm, ha ha ha ha, th..that¡¯s funny Queen Trinity.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s not lying.¡± Gabriel came into the room next, the rest of the crowd behind him. ¡°Hello, I do not believe that we¡¯ve met.¡± Gabriel walked over to him with his hand held out. ¡°I am Gabriel Abadie. And you are?¡± I saw that protective instinct that he had for his queen.


    ¡°O..o..oh, I..I am Darrol Harper. I am theputer specialist that was requested yesterday.¡±


    ¡°Good of you to make a timely arrival.¡± Gabriel shook hands with the man. ¡°Please, have a seat near the queen¡¯s desk. I am sure that there is much that you and she will need to discuss. As well as King Reece, Kind Dietrich and King Shawn.¡±


    ¡°W..wait? Queen Trinity has three husbands?¡± He was so lost in the conversation that he didn¡¯t know who Shawn and Dietrich were, and thatment of his made the entire room break out inughter.


    ¡°Sorry, sweetheart, but Shawn and I would probably prefer Reece over Trinity.¡± Dietrichughed.


    ¡°Eww, no, I have known Reece far too long for that.¡± Shawn feigned disgust. ¡°Then again, he does have a nice body.¡±


    ¡°Fuck you.¡± Reece moved to stand behind me. ¡°I am Trinity¡¯s only. And she is mine. No one else will touch either of us.¡± I saw that Darrol was still confused and figured that I needed to exin a few things for him.


    ¡°Dietrich is the king of vampires. And Shawn is his husband. So, they are both kings.¡± I tried to make sure that he understood before his head exploded.


    ¡°O..OK.¡± He nodded apprehensively.


    Everyone took their seats after that. The entire group fromst night as well as the two new additions. It was time for us to get to work. There was a lot that needed to be done and I wanted it all to be finished today if that was at all possible.


    ¡°Alright, so we all know why we are here. We have to stop these murders before anyone else dies. We need to make sure that there are no more people in our collective kingdoms that lose their lives for no reason at all.¡± There was at least one representative from all themunities here. I covered three of them myself.


    ¡°Yesterday, when Shawn and Dietrich came back, they had with them a lot of information that we hope will be helpful. They also had aputer that needed to be investigated. All of this new information is exactly where you twoe in.¡± Reece was standing so that he was looking at Reggie and Darrol and he spoke. ¡°Reggie, you are going to help us go through the files. Make an archive of them in theputer as well as paper. I want this essible to everyone at any given time. Darrol, you were brought here to help with thatptop. Dietrich, tell him what you know about it.¡± Reece passed the figurative baton to the man that was sitting near the front of the group with Shawn.


    After being called out, both Shawn and Dietrich walked to the front of the room. It was their turn to address the neers as well as the crowd.


    ¡°Well, Reece, as you should know, there isn¡¯t much that we know about thisptop. It was found in a dormitory style room in a very old mansion in Germany. The mansion didn¡¯t have electricity, but it did have runes all over the ce and some of them seemed to be able to power things like electricity. That was by far the only thing that I could think to use for the greater good. Free global energy that wouldn¡¯t damage the environment. We should look into that at some time.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, too bad the whole world would have to know about and ept us for that to happen.¡± Shane quipped up from the back of the room with his typicalughing tone.


    ¡°That is true.¡± Dietrich nodded and conceded that it was not a viable option at the moment.


    ¡°Move on, Dietrich.¡± I waved my hand in a hurry up gesture.


    ¡°Ah, yes, of course.¡± He smiled at me. ¡°Well, that is all that we know about theputer. I do believe that it was owned by a teenage boy, but that is all that I can tell you about it. As for the files that we brought back, they are about the different members of the Jaegan family that have lived in the Saint ric¡¯s Home for Children that we searched. Several of these kids would be adults by now.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°If that is all we have, then we will go with it for now. We will not give up until this has all been figured out.¡±


    I looked at the room full of people. The ones that were new and the ones that had been with me since the beginning. I knew that I could trust these people to help me. I just hoped that we could solve it all before the next murder. If they followed the same pattern, then we only had two days until the next set of killings. That wasn¡¯t long enough.


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 Chapter 911

    Chapter 911: Chapter 96- Trinity ¨C Evidence Sorting (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Everyone got to work. The files, of which there were over a hundred, were separated into groups. The first group went to Reggie who was using theputer equipment that Darrol had brought with him. At the current moment, she was scanning each page into a sophisticated database that was archiving everything and making it easier to search for details. She was also making aprehensive list of fingerprints that we needed to check against the ones that we had collected from the scenes of the murders.


    The files that Reggie wasn¡¯t currently working on were being read and tabted on our paper lists. This was more a list of names so that we could reference it before searching the database for them. Not that it would be helpful to do that, but it was one more record of things and that meant something when we had next to nothing.


    While Reggie worked on that, Darrol was busy trying to hack his way into thatptop. He had a sophisticated looking setup that required multiple tables to be brought into the office for him to use. You know, little by little, this office of mine was starting to look like some sort of AV club or high school ssroom. Just with people that were quite a bit older than high school aged. Some of them a few thousand years past that time. I think that the youngest person in here was probably Darrol, and I wasn¡¯t even sure how old he was.


    I watched on over Darrol¡¯s shoulder as he hooked different wires to the German¡¯sptop. Powering it up, since it had long since had the battery died on it, he got to work. He was entering different codes and pressing different buttons on both theptop that he was hacking into as well as his own. He had it opened to the main screen of theputer and files started popping up in no time at all.


    .....


    ¡°It looks like they had very minimal security on thisputer.¡± Darrol turned to look at me with surprise in his eyes. ¡°I¡¯ve never had to break into something that was this poorly protected.¡±


    ¡°Well, let¡¯s be thankful for that. It¡¯s at least one big break for us in this thing. Now, do me a favor and see what you can find in there. We need to know who this person was, what they did, where they went, and what they¡¯re nning.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll see what I can do.¡±


    Darrol got to work on the files. Reggie was working on her archiving. And the others were busy with that list of names. Everyone had something to be working on at the moment except for me. I was just sitting there watching over them like I was some sort of idiot. Yeah, I know, I was the boss and bosses watched the others do their work for the most part, but dammit I felt useless at the moment.


    ¡°Trinity?¡± Reece walked over to me with an awkward set to his shoulders. ¡°Since you are not busy right now, let me tell you what I learned today.¡±


    ¡°Alright Reece, what is it?¡± I was standing near the far wall, away from the group and I was speaking in a whisper so that I didn¡¯t interrupt those that were actually working. ¡°What is it that happened today that is so important? I mean, all you did was drive Reagan and Rika to school, there couldn¡¯t be that much that happened.¡± At least I hoped that there hadn¡¯t been too much that had happened.


    ¡°Well, Trinity, nothing truly happened. It¡¯s more like I learned something. Rika told me some things that I did not take a liking to. And I think that you should know about it too.¡± What was this about? I didn¡¯t know yet, but I knew that I was about to find out soon.


    ¡°Go on, tell me. I am going to find out eventually anyway, right.¡± I smiled at him. This was probably just some silly dad thing.


    ¡°First off, Alyssa appears to have found her mate.¡±


    ¡°Alyssa? Shawn and Dietrich¡¯s Alyssa¡± I was surprised to hear that name, but that wasn¡¯t such a bad thing, was it? ¡°What is so bad about that?¡±


    ¡°Keep listening.¡± Reece spoke in a t tone that was obviously meant to hide his anger. ¡°Rika also said she isn¡¯t sure but that she thinks this boy that she went on a date with was her mate.¡±


    OK, that was not what I wanted to hear. She was too young. OK, OK, I know. That was hypocritical of me. Rika was two months older than Alyssa so if it was OK for Alyssa then it should be OK for Rika too, right? Wrong. I am not Alyssa¡¯s mother and that freak out belonged to her fathers. For me, I was a little pissed off because this was a man that I had never met that was trying to take my baby girl away from me. That was not nice at all.


    ¡°O..O..OK.¡± I nodded as I tried not to lose my cool. ¡°I..i..is that all?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± He shook his head. DAMMIT! Why couldn¡¯t he just tell me that it was thest of it all.


    ¡°What else is there, Reece? Get it over with already, I think I am going to have a heart attack or something.¡± Please don¡¯t let him tell me that my first little baby boy was being taken away from me as well. I couldn¡¯t handle that.


    ¡°The names that Rika gave me this morning are Clovio, nost name for him. And Warrick Abitz.¡± He was looking at me with steady eyes, but I could see how hard he was working to remain calm at that moment. ¡°And even though thest name for the one boy is different, I found both first names in those files from the orphanage.¡±


    ¡°Th..that doesn¡¯t mean anything.¡± I tried to act like that fact didn¡¯t bother me at all. ¡°How popr are those names? There could be a lot of people with those names, and they might not be the same ones at all.¡±


    ¡°Maybe, but given what is happening, I think that it is pretty unique that these boys with clearly German names are suddenly here in Colorado.¡± I saw where Reece wasing from. I really did. But that didn¡¯t mean that these things had anything at all to do with each other.


    ¡°They¡¯ve been here since the first day that Reagan and Rika were on the campus tour. That was what I was told. She met this boy then. If it¡¯s that group, then they would have been here since before we left.¡±


    I felt a sudden cold start to fill me as I thought about what I had just said. If those boys were part of the Jaegan family, then they would have been here since before we even left for Wales. They would have infiltrated our family even back then. This can¡¯t be. That just wasn¡¯t the case at all.


    ¡°Reece, I think that we-.¡± I was saved from finishing that thought when Darrol called out to me. That was so good too, I didn¡¯t want to know what it was that I was about to say since I hadn¡¯t even figured it out yet.


    ¡°Queen Trinity?¡±


    ¡°Yes Darrol.¡± I looked at him with as calm of a smile as I could manage.


    ¡°There wasn¡¯t much on thisputer aside from games that they were ying, but I did find something. It¡¯s an email that was sent to someone that was apparently outside of the home, but still in the family.¡± He was calling me over. ¡°It says that they are taking the mission on the road. That the entire family needed to travel and that they needed to be prepared for the arrival.¡±


    ¡°Does it mention where they were going or what they were going to do?¡±


    ¡°No, I am sorry. It¡¯s just that.¡± Darrol looked upset about something. Probably about not being able to find much else.


    ¡°Who was the email from? The one that owned theptop, did you get any information about them?¡±


    ¡°His name was Aayden and he sent the message seven days ago to a man named Clovio. The ount for Clovio is a lot more guarded so I am not able to get anything more from it at the moment. I will keep trying though.¡± I could see the determination in Darrol¡¯s eyes as he made that deration.


    ¡°Please do.¡± I nodded and I walked away. I was more stunned. There was that name again. The same one that Reece had just told me about.


    ¡°You see what I mean now, Trinity?¡± Reece asked me with a worried look in his eyes. ¡°Clovio could very well be dangerous. And if he is hanging out with Rika, then she is in danger. And so is Alyssa.¡± We were whispering in the corner again.


    ¡°Yes, I know.¡± This was something that we needed to talk about. With Rika, Alyssa, Shawn, Dietrich, and us. We needed to get to the bottom of this. ¡°We¡¯re going to have to-.¡±


    I was interrupted again. This time by my phone ringing. I would have ignored itpletely, if it wasn¡¯t the high school that was calling me.


    ¡°The school?¡± I felt a sense of dread filling me. ¡°What do they need?¡±


    ¡°Just answer it.¡± Reece grumbled as he stared apprehensively at the phone.¡±


    ¡°Hello?¡± I picked up the call, nerves flooding through me.


    ¡°Hello, Queen Trinity, this is Miss Stephanie, the secretary at the high school.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I know who you are.¡± Of course I would know the main staff at the school that I held to found.


    ¡°Yes, of course.¡± She sounded nervous. ¡°I was calling to let you know that there was an incident today with Talia. She has already called her guard, Alexio, and asked him toe and get her. However, I wanted you to be aware that something happened this morning.¡±


    ¡°What was it?¡± I looked at my watch. It was just now ten in the morning. She had only been at school for a little over a couple of hours now. What could have happened in that time?


    ¡°To be honest, Queen Trinity, I do not know.¡± I could hear the fear in the secretary¡¯s voice. ¡°She was just sitting in the ssroom when she sort of went into a trance. And after a few moments she started to scream in terror. It took a few moments to calm her down. To be honest, she is still quite upset, but Alexio is on his way so I know that he will bring her right home. Please, do give her my best regards. I hope that she is feeling better soon.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I will. Thanks.¡± I ended the call then, looking up into Reece¡¯s panicked face.


    ¡°What could have happened to her?¡± He was just as worried about Talia as I was.


    Dammit! This was not good. I needed to get to her right away, which meant that I needed to leave this work up to the others.


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 Chapter 912

    Chapter 912: Chapter 97- Talia ¨C A Waking Nightmare Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    I was happy to be back in school and back to what passed as a normal life for me. I was with the other kids in my grade, which were all two and three years older than me. I was with all the jocks and the cheerleaders, all the art kids and the music kids, all of the different groups that hung out with each other. And in a way, I felt like I had missed them.


    I was both popr and not. There were a lot of kids that liked me just because I was the princess. There were a bunch that wanted toe over to the castle all the time and probably just wanted to use me for status. There were those that hated me for being the princess. They thought that I tried to act cool and more important than I was. Then again, that partially went along with the fact that I was only fifteen and I was a senior in high school. There were a few kids that I did know, that knew the real me, and they liked me just fine. And there were the other kids that acted like they knew me but they didn¡¯t, and treated me like shit because of it.


    Even with the varying groups of people that were here with me, I was happy to have the chance to be in person for school again. It was annoying having to do everything on the road like that. Not that we were actually on ¡®the road¡¯ but you know what I mean.


    I walked Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley to their ssrooms before I headed over to the high school side of the campus. It wasn¡¯t a far walk, and I hadn¡¯t gotten to walk with them yet this year, so I really wanted to spend that time with them today.


    .....


    Things seemed to be going just fine at first I went to my first ss which was Latin and aced a pop quiz that hade up. I didn¡¯t want to sit it out, even if the teacher would have offered, which she didn¡¯t. The quiz was graded in ss after it was done, and I was one of only three to get a perfect score. I was good at school, it came natural to me because I never forgot anything the teacher said to me.


    My second ss, advanced calculus, went just fine too. I talked with Ada and Leslie who were my closest friends in school. I did my work. Other than that, nothing else really happened. Not until I was in my third ss.


    I was sitting in my seat during my Ancient European Studies lecture and felt like I was about to fall asleep. That wasn¡¯t like me though. I never fell asleep in ss. I wasn¡¯t even tired at all. I was just not able to keep my eyes open at all.


    In truth, I felt like I was being dragged toward sleep kicking and screaming. I was fighting it so hard, but there was nothing at all that I could do to keep myself awake. I tried opening my eyes wide and trying not to be pulled into the oblivion of sleep, but it didn¡¯t seem to work.


    One moment I was sitting in the lecture hall and the next I was standing outside of Acacia Park in the city. It was dark out and I was standing there and staring at the fountain. I was trying to figure out why I was here. What was going on?


    I turned to look around the area, trying to figure out what was going on and why I was here. This didn¡¯t feel like a dream. Not a normal one at least. And something felt off. Something felt wrong.


    ¡°HELLO!?¡± I called out, unable to see anyone at first. ¡°IS ANYONE THERE!?¡±


    No one responded to my calls. There was nothing and no one here. Well, if there was no one right here, maybe I needed to walk around a little. I started to walk into the park. Obviously, I was here for a reason. Something or someone wanted me to see this ce.


    ¡°This is fine. I don¡¯t minding to the park. It¡¯s a nice night.¡± I heard a girl talking and her voice was familiar.


    ¡°Yeah, parks are nice.¡± That girl sounded familiar too. Why was I hearing Ada and Leslie?


    ¡°I like nature. Seeing the moon and stars is the best.¡± There was a man¡¯s voice. It sounded familiar and faintly ented.


    ¡°Yeah, you should see things back home. It¡¯s so clear and beautiful at night.¡± That voice had the same ent but it wasn¡¯t familiar to me.


    ¡°HELLO!?¡± I called out to them as I reached the middle of the park, where there were benches and pic tables. They were all sitting there and looking up at the sky.


    It wasn¡¯t just the four people that I had heard talking. There were ten people in all. There were five different girls from my school. I recognized them all, but they weren¡¯t all friends of mine. Senna, Melissa, and Jackie were all there as well. And there were five boys that I had never seen before.


    ¡°I find it so cool that you¡¯re all from the same ce. Are you all cousins or something?¡±


    ¡°Something like that.¡± The guy sitting with Sennaughed. ¡°Brothers and cousins. We were all raised with each other though.¡±


    ¡°That is so cool, Fritz. I would love to have a big happy family like that.¡±


    ¡°It wasn¡¯t bad, most of the time. Though it wasn¡¯t always pleasant.¡± Another of the boys said as he spoke.


    I knew that one of these boys that was sitting here was the one that had attacked that girl in California. He was the one that had raped her before he killed her. He was the worst of these monsters so far. I was looking at them all. Seeing their faces. And I wasn¡¯t going to forget them. I was going to make sure that I told people who these guys were.


    ¡°I can¡¯t believe that you asked us out.¡± Leslie said as she looked at her date.


    ¡°Well, you¡¯re adorable.¡± He smiled at her as he spoke. That was him. That was the monster that attacked that girl.


    ¡°LESLIE! GET OUT OF THERE! DON¡¯T GO OUT WITH HIM! ALL OF YOU RUN AWAY!¡±


    These girls, since they were from my school, none of them were human. Leslie was a falcon shifter whose family moved from up in the mountains. Ada was Mermaid whose family moved here from California years ago. Melissa was a wolf from the local pack like me. Senna was a lion from Uncle Landon¡¯s pack. And Jackie was a witch from the covenant. None of them were human. And that meant that all of them were potential victims to these boys.


    ¡°We were the lucky ones, catching you when you came out of the mall. I can¡¯t believe that we were able to evenly split like this. None of us have to be lonely tonight.¡± Another of the boys was saying whatever he needed to so that the girls would feel calmer.


    ¡°Thank you for dinner too, that was amazing.¡± Ada rubbed her belly as if she were extremely satisfied.


    ¡°Our pleasure.¡± The man that she was sitting with cooed as he nuzzled her cheek with his nose. They were acting like they were all on a date, but I knew that this wasn¡¯t going to end well. Those men, especially the one with Leslie, were dangerous. Very dangerous.


    ¡°GET OUT OF THERE! ALL OF YOU!¡± I knew that this wasn¡¯t happening right now, but I couldn¡¯t stop myself from yelling at them.


    ¡°So, what are we going to do now?¡± Senna asked her date. ¡°Any ns other than just watching the moon?¡±


    ¡°Well, I have something here for you to see.¡± That rapist asshole son of a bitch was reaching into his pocket. I knew that he was going to pull that light out, the one that he used on Andrea in California. He was going to bewitch them or spell them or whatever it was that that light did to people. ¡°Check this out.¡± He held up something that was on a long thin tube and pressed the button. The girls were all looking at it and the moment that the light shed, I saw that same look wash over their eyes as Andrea¡¯s in that other dream.


    ¡°NO! DON¡¯T HURT THEM! PLEASE DON¡¯T HURT THEM!¡± I was screaming at the men in the dream, but they couldn¡¯t hear me. I was also frozen in ce. I couldn¡¯t move toward Leslie and the others, and I couldn¡¯t move away from the scene in front of me. I was going to be stuck watching this, whether I wanted to or not. I wasn¡¯t able to get away. I wasn¡¯t able to look somewhere else. I was going to see all the horrors that they had nned for my friends and ssmates.


    ¡°NO! PLEASE! DON¡¯T HURT THEM! PLEASE!¡± I screamed at them, but it was to no avail. I saw that look of pure evil wash over that man¡¯s face. I knew that had to be the face he was wearing when he attacked Andrea in my dream. But I could see him now. I could see everything about him and his friends. And I was going to make sure that everyone knew about them.


    ¡°Come on, guys. It¡¯s time for us to get to work. We have a message to deliver.¡± That asshole called out to his friends. I knew that now the true nightmare was going to begin.


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 Chapter 913

    Chapter 913: Chapter 98- Talia ¨C A Waking Nightmare Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    I was fighting to get to my friends and ssmates. I was struggling to stop these men that were trying to hurt them. And not just hurt them, they were going to kill them. They were going to murder these five girls and use them as a message for what? For me? For my parents? For our entiremunity of people? What was it that they wanted from us?


    ¡°LESLIE! ADA!¡± I screamed for them with tears streaming down my face. ¡°SENNA! MELISSA! JACKIE!¡± I was frozen in ce now, unable to get closer to them as I watched the five meny them out in the very center of the park.


    Theyid the girls on the ground, making a star out of them. They even stretched their arms out so that they touched, making it appear as if they were doing some sort of synchronized swimming routine or something. It was awful watching this happen to them.


    ¡°Let us begin, gentlemen.¡± That asshole that seemed to be their ringleader said after putting Leslie into position. ¡°You know something, sweetheart.¡± He leaned in and whispered to her. ¡°Be d that the others are here. If not, I would be having some extra fun with you. You¡¯re cute.¡± He sounded aroused, like hurting women was what got him off. ¡°Oh well, maybe I can take the next one that I kill.¡± He ran a finger down one side of Leslie¡¯s face and across her lips before he leaned all the way down and pressed his lips to her. ¡°Mmm, that was tasty. It really is a shame that I can¡¯t have you. That was supposed to be some of the fun for me. Targeting females of your kind and defiling them before I send you straight to hell. That was supposed to be some of the most exciting parts about this whole mission. Oh well, I guess I can make do with just the hell part.¡± There was a longing sort of wistfulness in his voice as he pulled back from Leslie¡¯s face. ¡°Alright, for real this time, boys. It¡¯s time for us to get to work.¡± He looked at the four men that were around him and grinned in a way that told me that he was excited to continue but was not fully satisfied with the evening.


    .....


    That asshole stood then, pulling something out of the backpack that he had with him. He pulled on his strange cloak that he had been wearingst time and pulled out a knife. Last time, I didn¡¯t get a good look at his knife, but I could see it this time. It was white, pure white. I don¡¯t know if it was made of some sort of bone or ivory or something like that, but it was not normal. And it looked like it was very, very sharp. What else was that for just a brief moment I saw the markings that were on the handle. They were runes. Not the same ones that these people carved into the bodies that they left behind, but simr in a way. They had to be helping them with the efficiency of the kills that they were making.


    As I watched the five dangerous men use the identical knives that they had to start carving those runes into the foreheads and chests of the girls. When they were carving the runes onto the chests, they had ripped open their clothes so that they would have ess to the skin below. That asshole, the one from Andrea¡¯s murder, made a disgusting sound as he caressed Leslie¡¯s chest. He was a sick son of a bitch that needed to be stopped. They all were, but he was the worst of them.


    While Leslie, Ada, Melissa, Senna and Jackie were allying there, frozen in their trance and locked into their bodies with the runes, those men slit their throats. It was too horrible for me to watch, but I couldn¡¯t look away. They were people that I knew, my friends and my ssmates, and I was watching them be murdered right in front of me.


    I was sobbing as I stood there, watching the men start the blood collecting phase of their whole process. They were getting the blood so that they could leave another message for my mom and I to find. And all the while I couldn¡¯t look away like I wanted to.


    Finally, I watched the men set aside the blood, which I noticed was in several bowls that were made of the same material as the knife, and all of those bowls were covered in various runes. The runes on the bowls were glowing, and there was a faint shimmering essence to the blood that was in them. That was different, and definitely something that I needed to tell my parents about. And when I looked closer this time, I saw that the knives were glowing as well. The blood that was touching the runes was activating some sort of power in the knives.


    With their knives, I watched the men leave the girl to continue bleeding on the ground as they took their bowls of glowing blood to the sidewalks. The ringleader among them took the bowl of blood that he had collected and started to write a message on the cement. He was using the knife in his hand as if it were a pen, the de seemingly not harming him at all as he held it in his fingers.


    ¡®THE FIGHT IS HERE. YOUR DOORSTEP IS COVERED IN THE BLOOD OF YOUR OWN KIND. REMOVE YOURSELVES FROM THIS WORLD BY YOUR OWN HANDS, OR WE WILL BE FORCED TO TAKE MORE OF YOUR CHILDREN FOR OUR MISSION. MONSTERS LIKE YOU ARE NOT WELCOMED IN THIS WORLD. WE WILL PURGE YOU ALL, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU WILL PERISH FROM THIS LAND. EVERY NIGHTWALKER, SHAPESHIFTING, MAGIC CASTING BEAST THAT HAS OVERRUN OUR WORLD WILL BE EXTERMINATED. THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING OR NEXT TIME, THE TARGET MIGHT BE A LITTLE CLOSER TO HOME FOR YOUR LIKING.¡¯


    After writing his message, using just two of the different bowls of blood that they had, I watched as the asshole took the rest of the blood and poured it over the message. This was odd, he was covering up his message. How did he expect for it to be read if he covered it up like that? Well, I guess my mom and I wouldn¡¯t have a problem. And neither would Dad, since I had given him the ability to see the messages in California. This blood smeared on top of the words wouldn¡¯t stop us, just someone without the sight. Someone that was looking at it without the ability to use magical eyes.


    As much as this information was going to help me, it didn¡¯t stop me from being disgusted and horrified. Nor did it allow me to stop these men from cutting a hole into the chests of these girls and ripping their hearts out with their bare hands.


    I thought that this might be the end of it. I thought that the dream would end there, but it didn¡¯t. First, I saw the five men store the hearts in what looked like a cooler. They were taking the hearts with them. Why did they want the hearts? What good would they do for them? Were they trophies? Were they going to mount them on some sort of trophy que in the living room in their house of horrors? I didn¡¯t know, and at the moment, I didn¡¯t care. I just wanted this to be over so that I could tell people what was happening and save these girls.


    Next though, something happened that scared the hell out of me. I hadn¡¯t been this scared in my entire life. And I knew that this wasn¡¯t just part of my imagination. I knew that this was real. That asshole turned toward me and grinned. It was like he could really see me. Or at least he could sense me.


    ¡°I see you are back, little visitor. Did you enjoy the show? I can¡¯t see your face, but I know that you are there. Go ahead and tell people what is happening. They can¡¯t stop us. And the next time that I take someone, life and body, it will be yours. Of that I promise you. And I bet that someone like you, so powerful, powerful enough to visit me during both of my kills, I am betting that your body will be so tender and juicy. I will enjoy taking it.¡± At that, he started to walk closer to me. I could tell that he was going to reach out toward me. He was going to try and touch me. And I didn¡¯t know if he was going to be able to. Was I really here for him, or was this all metaphysical? I didn¡¯t know, and I wasn¡¯t about to find out.


    ¡°NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!¡± I was screaming as I tried to force my body to move. The closer and closer that this man got to me, the more frightened I became. ¡°NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NOOOOOOO!¡± I was trying to push that man away as he grabbed onto me. I felt his fingers digging into my wrists as he tried to subdue me. He was able to touch me, even in this vision that I was having. He was able to hurt me and attempt to pull me like I was really there. ¡°NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NOOOOOOO!¡± I screamed as I fought him frantically.


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 Chapter 914

    Chapter 914: Chapter 99- Talia ¨C A Waking Nightmare Part 3 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    ¡°NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NOOOOOOO!¡± I found myself screaming that word over and over again as the dream faded and I found myself back in my ss. Still screaming and crying profusely. There were several people around me as they looked down at me with concern and worry in their eyes. Some of them looked scared while others looked intrigued.


    Most of them weren¡¯t saying anything though. They were just watching me. Ada was there though, grabbing at one of my hands that was moving wildly around in my frantic state. And my teacher was there as well, Mr. Amadeus.


    ¡°Talia? Talia, are you OK? Talia, calm down.¡± He was grabbing at my other hand to stop me from hitting someone.


    ¡°NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!¡± I was still screaming the words.


    .....


    ¡°Everyone out, now. ss is dismissed. Go!¡± Mr. Amadeus spoke curtly to the other students. I could hear him, but I couldn¡¯t stop myself from freaking out the way that I was.


    ¡°Talia? Are you OK?¡± Ada wasn¡¯t leaving me as the others were told to get out. And it didn¡¯t look like Mr. Amadeus was going to force her out. She was trying to help instead of watching on like I was some kind of freak.


    ¡°Talia, it¡¯s OK. It¡¯s OK. You¡¯re in ss, nothing bad is happening now. It¡¯s OK. Shh. Shh.¡± He was trying to soothe me with a calming tone to his voice. ¡°Talia! Look at me. Come on, look at me. Shh. Calm down and look at me.¡± He let go of my hand and reached to grab my face, gently holding onto my cheeks and forcing me to look into his eyes. I hadn¡¯t been blinking, this whole time I had been freaking out my eyes never closed once. And I was still not blinking when I settled my gaze onto him. ¡°Shh. See, it¡¯s OK. You¡¯re OK. You¡¯re in ss and nothing is happening. It¡¯s OK. Calm down now, OK.¡±


    As he was trying to calm me down more, I heard the door to the ssroom bang open and someone angrily came inside.


    ¡°Mr. Amadeus, what is the meaning of this? Your ss is all in the halls instead of learning.¡± The principal, a rtively strict warlock named Mr. Bane, scolded him, however I assume that he saw what was happening and softened his tone almost immediately. ¡°What is going on in here? What is happening to Princess Talia?¡±


    ¡°She was in a trance of sorts. I am guessing that she was seeing a vision but it wasn¡¯t a pleasant one. I haven¡¯t gotten her to speak yet. I am still calming her down.¡± He spoke curtly to the principal as he steadied my head and forced me to look at him. Mr. Amadeus was also a warlock, one that had been around for a long time. I felt like he was trying to make eye contact with me so that he could use his magic on me. ¡°Talia, look at me.¡± He was speaking to me once again, his voice calm and soothing. ¡°Look at me, Talia.¡± Finally, his amber colored eyes locked onto mine and I felt a rush of his magic, just for a moment. ¡°Shh. Shh. See, it¡¯s OK.¡±


    I finally blinked. My arms finally stopped struggling to fly around me and beat at the people that were inside of my head. I took a deep breath, something that I must have been neglecting since it felt like my lungs were starved for air.


    ¡°Huuuuuuuh.¡± The sound of my breathing into my oxygen deprived body was very audible. And in that moment, I finally felt like I was out of that dream.


    ¡°There we go. That¡¯s better now. It¡¯s OK, Talia. You¡¯re back in school now. That vision can¡¯t hurt you. You¡¯re OK.¡± I felt him stroking the side of my head as if I was a cat or something. ¡°Shh. See, all is OK now.¡±


    ¡°I..I..I am so sorry.¡± I immediately apologize for the problems that I caused. ¡°I..I..I d..didn¡¯t mean f..f..for this t..to happen.¡± I was stuttering as I tried to slow my heart rate down. Everything else seemed almost back to normal except for that.


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Talia. I understand. You are more special than the other students in that fact that you have abilities that none of us do. You are like your mother, special beyond our wildest dreams. I know you didn¡¯t choose to have a vision just now, but it happened. We just need to deal with it for now, OK. Are you feeling better now?¡± My heart was almost back to normal. My breathing was steady, and I was awake. That was as good as I was going to get, since I would never forget what I had seen.


    ¡°Y..yes, I am OK now.¡± I tried to nod, but Mr. Amadeus was holding onto my head so I couldn¡¯t. He seemed to notice though, so he let his hands fall away and backed up a little bit.


    ¡°That¡¯s good. I am d that you are feeling better now.¡± He smiled calmly. ¡°You should go home though. I think that it would be best for you to go and discuss this with your parents. You know that they will want to know what happened.¡± He rose to his feet. ¡°Would you like me to call them?¡±


    ¡°They are in a meeting. I w..will just call my bodyguard. He wille to get me. And I will tell my parents when they are out of their meeting.¡± I wasn¡¯t going to hide this from them. I knew that I needed to tell them what happened.


    ¡°Very well then. Which guard do you want me to call?¡± He reached for his phone. I wondered then if all my teachers had the phone numbers for my two guards.


    ¡°Alexio.¡± He was the one that I wanted toe and get me. He was the one that I felt the most at ease with. Not that Rudy wasn¡¯t a good man, but Lex was different. He was calming for me.


    ¡°Alright.¡± Mr. Amadeus dialed a number and handed me the phone. It rang only twice before it was answered by Lex¡¯s deep voice.


    ¡°Amadeus, what is wrong?¡± He sounded worried.


    ¡°Lex, it¡¯s me.¡± I knew I didn¡¯t need to give my name.


    ¡°Talia? What happened? Why are you calling from your teacher¡¯s phone?¡± I could already hear him walking on the other end of the call.


    ¡°I..I had something happen in ss today. C..c..can youe and get me? I need to go home.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I am on my way. I will be there soon.¡± He sounded like he was already in the echoing garage where the cars were parking under the castle. ¡°Just stay calm and wait for me. See you in a few minutes.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Lex.¡± I wanted to cry again. ¡°Please hurry.¡± I ended the call and handed it back to Mr. Amadeus.


    ¡°There, that will be better. Now, let us get you to the office. Can you walk?¡± He sounded like he was still worried about me as he put his phone away.


    ¡°I..I think so.¡± I went to stand up but found that my body was feeling very weak. I start to fall over almost immediately. If it wasn¡¯t for Mr. Amadeus, I would have tumbled down the stairs of the lecture hall all the way to the lectern.


    ¡°Whoa there.¡± He caught me and steadied me before I could get hurt. ¡°It looks like you need some help.¡± He swung me up into his arms effortlessly and started to carry me toward the door. ¡°Ada, can you get her things for me, please.¡± He didn¡¯t look back at my friend that had been watching.


    ¡°Oh, yeah, sure.¡± She started to gather them and then followed us on a jog.


    ¡°Mr. Bane, I will be taking her to the office now. I am sorry that I dismissed my ss early, it was sort of an emergency though.¡± The principal followed us out of the room and looked worried. I probably looked how I felt, embarrassed.


    ¡°No, it¡¯s quite alright, Mr. Amadeus. This was necessary.¡±


    The principal actually ran ahead of us and made sure that the hall was clear all the way to the office. He even held the door for us as Mr. Amadeus carried me inside and set me in a chair near the door.


    ¡°Here we are.¡± He said as he stood back up. ¡°Are you feeling OK? Would you like something to drink or to eat? I know that after visions sugar usually helps to perk people right back up.¡±


    ¡°I..I don¡¯t know.¡± I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head at the same time. ¡°I don¡¯t feel much like eating right now, so I guess no.¡±


    ¡°OK then, you should eat when you get home then. Have someone get you something with a lot of sugar in it. Your body is going to need it.¡±


    ¡°I will, Mr. Amadeus, thank you.¡± I nodded at him, happy that he was being so helpful.


    ¡°Of course, Talia. I am worried about you, after all. And if you don¡¯t mind, I will gather your work for the day and bring it byter. I would like to talk with your parents, if they are willing to meet with me. I know that they are very busy people though.¡±


    ¡°I will set it up.¡± I heard a deep voice from near the door. I don¡¯t know how I didn¡¯t notice that he was there sooner. Lex¡¯s scent should have hit me sooner, but I was somehow not picking it up yet. Maybe my mind was still all messed up from the vision. ¡°I know that they will want more details about thister, as will I.¡±


    ¡°Of course, Mr. Ptolemy. I would be grateful if you did that. Please, send me a message or call me when it is time for me to head over. I will have the work ready for Princess Talia then.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Lex said as he was already walking over to me, and I saw that he was looking worried and angry. He wasn¡¯t mad at me. Or at anyone really. He was just mad that something happened that he hadn¡¯t been able to protect me from. He took his job very seriously.


    ¡°Hello Lex.¡± I looked up at him, which was a considerable distance to tilt my head back.


    ¡°Talia, are you OK?¡± His voice was gentle when he spoke to me now.


    ¡°I am, but I feel weak.¡± I told him as I tried to get up. This time I couldn¡¯t even make myself stand.


    ¡°I will carry you.¡± He reached down and lifted me gently into his arms. ¡°Just rest against me and you will be fine.¡±


    ¡°U..uh..uhm, M..M..Mr. Alexio, Sir, I have Talia¡¯s things here.¡± Ada had put it all into my backpack for me. ¡°There might be more in her locker though.¡±


    ¡°I will take this for now.¡± He took the bag as he carried me in just one arm.


    ¡°Talia, can I have Ada ess your locker for you?¡± Mr. Amadeus asked in a concerned voice. ¡°To bring it home for you?¡±


    ¡°There is nothing in there. I was getting my textbooks as I went to each ss and hadn¡¯t put anything into my locker yet.¡± I exined it to him.


    ¡°Ahh, understood. Then I will get the rest of your books and bring them to youter. Go home and rest now.¡± His tone was also concerned and worried about me.


    ¡°Thank you, Mr. Amadeus.¡±


    ¡°Of course, Talia.¡±


    Now that I was in Lex¡¯s arms, I knew that it was time to leave. He made his way out of the office and toward the door that was thankfully right there. There was no need to worry that someone was going to see him carrying me unless they were looking out the window. And even then, Lex was so much bigger than me that they were likely to only see him. That was good, there were going to be enough rumors already, with those that had seen me freak out in the ssroom.


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 Chapter 915

    Chapter 915: Chapter 100- Talia ¨C About The Nightmare Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    The entire time that Ada was with me after the vision, be it in the ssroom, hallway and office, I had to force myself not to look at her. I had to avoid seeing her right now because all that I saw when I looked at her face was a pale white expression of fear that was frozen in ce. Tears silently streaming down her cheeks that mixed with the blood that streamed steadily from the rune carved into her forehead. It was horrible, and I didn¡¯t want to think of my friend in that way.


    Lex had carried me to the SUV and set me in the passenger seat, he even buckled me up since I didn¡¯t seem to be doing it for myself. After I was situated, he walked around to the driver¡¯s side and slid into his seat.


    ¡°Are you doing OK, Talia?¡± He looked at me as he pressed the button to start the engine.


    ¡°A..as well as I can be, I guess.¡± I was still feeling weak and tired as I answered him. I just wanted to get home and rest until I had to talk to mom and dad about this.


    .....


    ¡°Did you call your parents as well?¡± He asked me as he started to pull away from the curb.


    ¡°No, not yet. They are in a meeting, so I didn¡¯t want to bother them. I will tell them what happenedter, when they are not quite as busy.¡±


    ¡°We should go to see them right when we get back to the pce. They will want to know about this.¡± He was looking at the road and not me, but I knew that he had a serious expression on his face.


    ¡°I know.¡± I hung my head in shame. I knew that I should have called them, but I didn¡¯t want to be a bother.


    ¡°I will take you to see them when we get back.¡± He didn¡¯t ask, he was telling me that this was how things were going to go.


    ¡°OK.¡± I didn¡¯t even argue with him. ¡°B..but, can you take me upstairs to our home and then get them for me. I don¡¯t want to see the others just yet. Just Mom and Dad.¡± He looked at me then, his eyes concerned.


    ¡°Yes, I can do that.¡± He was making steady progress toward the gatedmunity that housed the castle. The entrance that led into Trinity Falls rather than Colorado Springs.


    ¡°I am sorry, Lex.¡± I spoke softly. Had he not had super hearing like a wolf, then he wouldn¡¯t have heard it at all.


    ¡°There is no need to apologize, Talia. You didn¡¯t do anything wrong. You didn¡¯t ask for this.¡± His voice was calming while the words were reassuring, but I still couldn¡¯t stop ming myself. I don¡¯t know why, but I felt like this was all my fault, like I had made all of this happen.


    ¡°Still, I am sorry.¡± I said the words again and slipped into silence. Lex didn¡¯t say anymore after that and neither did I. He just drove us into the underground garage and parked the car.


    Lex was getting out of the car when I tried to make my body move. It still didn¡¯t want to listen to me. I felt weak and like my body had been sapped of all strength. I know that I wasn¡¯t like this after thest premonition. I was able to move that time. Then again, I had actually been asleep that time, not sitting awake in a ssroom. Maybe that was why it was different. Maybe the state of my mind and body being different was the cause for the difference.


    Well, whatever the cause for it was, I wasn¡¯t able to move. I was about to turn toward Lex and tell him that my body still wouldn¡¯t move, but he had already shut his door. I was watching through the windshield then as he came toward my door. He already knew that I still needed to be carried.


    ¡°Come on.¡± He said as he picked me up from the seat. ¡°Up you go.¡± He cradled me against his chest and grabbed my bag. I thought that it was a little funny really. Lex with that pink and purple bag slung over his shoulder just didn¡¯t present the same look that he would typically have when I imagined him. That was just a little too feminine and childish for his normal appearance.


    ¡°Thank you, Lex.¡± I said as I clung to him.


    ¡°Of course.¡± He smiled calmly at me. ¡°Though Talia, might I ask how you managed to get to the office if you can¡¯t walk right now?¡± He sounded strange. Was he thinking that I was lying or something?


    ¡°Mr. Amadeus carried me. I almost fell when I went to stand up, but he caught me and carried me to the office. He is strong too, but not as strong as you are.¡± I had a feeling thatplimenting Lex right now was a good idea. He seemed to be a little off and I didn¡¯t want to upset him.


    ¡°Hmmrmmrmm.¡± There was a strange growling humming sound that came from his throat. I knew that he was acknowledging what I said, but he wasn¡¯t happy about it.


    ¡°He didn¡¯t hurt me, Lex. I am fine. He helped me.¡± He still didn¡¯t really answer me, but he did nod his head as if he understood what was happening.


    We were silent after that. Lex took me into the elevator and hit the button for the living room of our royal tower. This was the only elevator that actually went to that part of the home as well as the other floors. In truth, it was a magical elevator since it wasn¡¯t located anywhere near the tower, but it still took us there. I always felt like I was in that chocte factory from that really old movie. I think that it was like seventy years old now. It was older than my mom and her mom, that was for sure. It came out in like the neen seventies, I think. Still, it was a nice movie, I liked it.


    When the elevator opened up, I was shocked by the sight that met us. Mom and dad were standing right there waiting for us.


    ¡°Mom? Dad?¡± I gasped when I saw them.


    ¡°Talia!¡± They both called my name when they rushed over.


    ¡°I was just going to see you two, after I set Talia down here.¡± Lex said with just as much surprise in his voice.


    ¡°You should have called us Alexio. As soon as she called you.¡± Dad yelled at him angrily. I didn¡¯t like the tone in his voice. He was mad, and it was my fault.


    ¡°I thought that she had called you, King Reece.¡± Lex continued walking into the room so that he could sit me on the love seat by the fire. After that, he stood to face my parents with determination on his face. ¡°It wasn¡¯t until after we left the school and were driving back here that I found out that she didn¡¯t call you. I told her we needed to see you two right away, but she asked for me to bring her up here first and then get you myself. She didn¡¯t want the others in the meeting to see her like this.¡±


    ¡°I am sorry, Daddy.¡± I was on the verge of tears when I spoke to him. I had made him so angry. ¡°I..I knew that you were in a meeting and I didn¡¯t want to disturb you. That was why I was going to wait until Alexio got me home to tell you.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, sweetheart.¡± Dad dropped to his knees in front of me. ¡°It¡¯s OK. I am not mad at you. It¡¯s OK.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t be mad at Alexio either, please. This is my fault.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Talia.¡± Mom came over and kissed me on top of my head. ¡°It¡¯s OK. We were just worried. The secretary at your school called us and told us that something happened, but she didn¡¯t know what it was. We were so worried about you. That¡¯s why we were here, waiting for you to get home.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Momma.¡± I started to sob. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to cause problems.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s alright.¡± She hugged me to her chest and rubbed my hair. ¡°What happened? Tell us what happened to you.¡±


    ¡°I..I..I had a..a..another vision.¡± I had to force the words out. It was so hard to say them with how upset that I felt.


    ¡°A vision?¡± Mom¡¯s sharp intake of breath made it clear that she was shocked by this development. ¡°What happened honey?¡±


    ¡°Was it one of those people, from that same group as before?¡± Dad was trying not to trigger too many memories for me. He knew how upset I had been when I learned that my dream that I had that night was real. And here I was having another one of them.


    ¡°Yes, Daddy. It was them. They were killing my friends.¡±


    The way that Mom and Dad both gasped at that, the sound of their voices with just that quick inhtion of breath, that told me so much. They were scared. They were worried. And they were angry.


    I was sure that their anger wasn¡¯t directed at me, but I was the one that was sitting right in front of them. I was the one that could feel the waves of emotions that were rolling off of them. And that meant that I was even more scared than I had already been.


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 Chapter 916

    Chapter 916: Chapter 101- Talia ¨C About The Nightmare Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    I felt the waves of fear, sorrow, and other negative things pushing into me like they were waves of magic. The cold that I was already feeling got even worse. I started to shiver uncontrobly as my parents red off into the distance. They were trying to think of what to say next, what they wanted me to do or something.


    ¡°U..u..uhm, M..M..Mom, D..D..Dad, c..c..can you pl..pl..please l..l..let me g..g..go?¡± I tried to pull away from them. ¡°Y..y..your e..emotions are m..making m..m..me s..s..s..so cold.¡±


    I couldn¡¯t see my reflection, but I had a feeling that my lips would be blue. This wasn¡¯t something that I had ever experienced before. I had never felt the emotions of others that were around me. Not like this anyway.


    ¡°What?¡± Mom seemed to look down at me with wide shocked eyes. ¡°Oh my Goddess, Talia, I am so sorry.¡± She let go of me and took a step away. Dad, seeing whatever it was that Mom had seen, dropped my hand and rose to his feet, backing away a few steps as well.


    .....


    ¡°I am sorry, Talia. I didn¡¯t know that we were affecting you like this.¡±


    ¡°I..i..it¡¯s OK.¡± I wrapped my arms around myself and tried to get warmer. ¡°I..I..I have n..n..never had th..th..this hap..hap..happened to me b..b..before.¡± I was shivering so bad that I felt like I was about to bite my tongue in two.


    ¡°Here, Talia.¡± Lex took off hisrge leather jacket that he was wearing and draped it over my shoulders. ¡°Is that a little better?¡± He felt cool, not cold like my parents. I guess it was because he was trying to keep his emotions in check.


    ¡°Y..y..yes, i..i..it is. Th..th..thank you.¡±


    It really was better. He was usually so warm, and his jacket was no exception. I had a feeling that he was still physically warm, it was just his emotions that were cool. The jacket though,rge enough to drape over me like an extrarge nket, was doing the job of warming me up from the inside out. And it smelled like Lex too. His scent that I hade to know so well. It wasforting to me now. It smelled like safety and home to me.


    ¡°I am feeling much better now.¡± I said as I snuggled into the jacket as best as I could. ¡°Thank you, Lex.¡±


    ¡°You are very wee, Talia.¡± He stepped away then, letting my parents see me more clearly now.


    ¡°Talia, tell me what happened in your vision. What was it that you saw?¡± Mom was the first to return to her normal self after hearing that I had another vision and that it was about my friends.


    ¡°Well, I found myself at Acacia Park. I was near the fountain and heard something from the middle of the park.¡±


    I went on to tell them what happened. That there were five girls from my school, two of which were my friends. That these five men were with them and that they used some long thin tube that was meant to put the women into a trance. After that, I detailed the process of the ritualistic murder that took ce in front of me. I even told them about the message that they left behind and how it was a warning for us all.


    ¡°Was there anything else that happened?¡± Dad asked as he knelt in front of me again. I could feel his emotions again, but they weren¡¯t so cold this time. In fact, they felt hot. Almost like they were burning me. I was still a little chilly though, so I weed the heat for a little while.


    ¡°W..w..well, th..there was something.¡± I looked away from them.


    ¡°What was it, Talia?¡± Mom asked as the worry filled her voice again.


    ¡°Th..th..the leader of the group, h..he was the same man that killed Andrea.¡± I looked up and they understood it right away. They knew that he was the rapist that left behind his DNA in that girl.


    ¡°What else, Talia?¡± Dad prompted me to speak more.


    ¡°W..well, uhm, h..h..he turned to me and spoke to me. He said he knew that I was there this time andst time. He asked me if I enjoyed the show.¡± I shuddered as I left off there. They weren¡¯t satisfied though. They knew that there was more to it than that.


    ¡°What else did he say, Talia? What else did he do?¡± Lex was the one to ask me this time. He seemed to know that this was the worst part of that waking nightmare. He knew that it was going to be hard on me, but he needed to know.


    ¡°H..he said something else, something horrible.¡± I took a deep breath to steady myself. ¡°H..he said: I see you are back, little visitor. Did you enjoy the show? I can¡¯t see your face, but I know that you are there. Go ahead and tell people what is happening. They can¡¯t stop us. And the next time that I take someone, life and body, it will be yours. Of that I promise you. And I bet that someone like you, so powerful, powerful enough to visit me during both of my kills, I am betting that your body will be so tender and juicy. I will enjoy taking it.¡± I sobbed a little after telling them that, it was painful for me to remember this part. ¡°But that wasn¡¯t all.¡± I looked up at them with swimming eyes. ¡°He grabbed me. He was actually touching me in my vision. And that is what scared me the most.¡±


    All three of them, Mom, Dad, and Lex, were looking at me with angry eyes. The temperature in the room was suddenly boiling hot. I felt like there was literally a fire zing inches in front of me. It wasn¡¯t physically burning me though, probably since they weren¡¯t touching me right now. That, or I was starting to control this new ability of mine already. I knew what this heat meant though. It was anger. A burning hot rage that was directed at that man that threatened me and touched me in the dream.


    ¡°Talia, can you describe those men? Can you tell us what they looked like? And any names?¡± Dad was getting back to work mode first. He knew that I would never forget those men, they were burned into my memories forever.


    ¡°I can draw them.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°That will be even better. And I only got one name.¡± I told him with sadness in my voice. ¡°Only one was called by name, and it could have been a fake name.¡±


    ¡°What was his name?¡± Dad asked, still wanting to know.


    ¡°Fritz. That was the only name that I heard. But I will draw what they look like and what their tools looked like.¡± I started to get up again, but then I remembered that I couldn¡¯t move. ¡°Oh.¡± I felt defeated.


    ¡°You need to get your strength back.¡± Lex knelt in front of me. ¡°You need to eat something. Isn¡¯t that what your teacher said. After visions you need to eat something with lots of sugar in it.¡±


    ¡°Her teacher?¡± Mom sounded confused.


    ¡°I will exin in a moment.¡± He was heading toward the door. ¡°Let me tell Abigail to get her some food first.¡± He was out of the room before my mom and dad could say anymore.


    ¡°Talia, what happened with your teacher? Dad asked. The rage was subsiding now and his emotions were like a cool breeze now. Calm and gentle.


    ¡°I was in my third ss of the day, Ancient European Studies lecture when I had the vision. When I woke up, Mr. Amadeus was there, trying to calm me down. I was in a bit of a hysterical mood. He soothed me with his magic and even carried me to the office when I couldn¡¯t walk.¡±


    ¡°Amadeus?¡± Mom thought about him for a moment, her hand on her chin and her eyes closed. ¡°He is a warlock, correct? He must have known people before that have had visions. If he knows how to deal with the effects after the fact.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that is him.¡± I nodded at her. ¡°He was very helpful and kind when I was having the vision. He dismissed the ss and made them leave so that they wouldn¡¯t be gawking at me the entire time. And that is what brought the principal into the ssroom. The other kids were roaming the halls when they should have been learning.¡±


    ¡°Well, I am d that he was there to help you.¡± Mom took my hand as she seemed to rx a little. ¡°I guess it¡¯s a good thing you were in his ss rather than that of a shifter. They wouldn¡¯t have known what was happening to you.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I agree. I am lucky that he was there with me. And Ada too. She was trying to stop my arms that were iling around my head as I tried to fight off the man that was grabbing me in the vision.¡± I shivered then, but it had nothing to do with being cold. In fact, I wasn¡¯t cold anymore at all. I was, however, scared when I remembered the way that man¡¯s hand felt against my wrist. It was like that of a normal hand, nothing actually off about it physically, but I could feel the sexual desire and murderous rage in him at the same time. I could feel all that was wrong with him with just the way that he was grabbing my arm, and it terrified me more than I had ever been in my entire life.


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 Chapter 917

    Chapter 917: Chapter 102- Talia ¨C About The Nightmare Part 3 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    Lex came back into the room when I was shivering. He must have seen it right away. His eyes were as sharp as our wolf eyes were. Maybe even sharper.


    ¡°Are you still cold, Talia?¡± He asked me with worry in his voice.


    ¡°No, I¡¯m not.¡± I answered him honestly and that just made him look even more concerned.


    ¡°I have brought you some juice. Abigail is preparing lunch at the moment, and there will be a sweet option avable for you as well. For now though, the juice will help you to feel better.¡± He came over and knelt in front of me again. He was so tall that even when he was kneeling in front of me while I sat on the couch, I was still shorter than him. I hoped that I grew a little more. My dad was tall, and so was Reagan. Rika was a little taller than me as well, a little taller than mom is. I love my mom, but I want to be taller than she is. I don¡¯t want to look like a dwarf next to my guards forever. Well, next to Lex. Rudy was more normal in height.


    .....


    Lex pressed the ss of juice into my hands and urged me to take a drink from it. I lifted it to my lips and sipped on it. It was good, and the sweetness seemed to be instantly spreading throughout my body. It was already starting to make me feel better. At least, until Lex grabbed my wrist and looked at it with pure rage in his eyes.


    ¡°Talia, what is this?¡± His voice was deep and angry as it rumbled through me and the room.


    ¡°What?¡± I asked him, not sure what he was talking about.


    ¡°This.¡± He moved my arm up so that I could see it, his handspletely gentle and tender as they gripped me.


    There, on my wrist, was a bruise. Not just any bruise though, no this was a bruise in the shape of a hand. It looked like someone had grabbed a hold of my arm and squeezed very tightly while pulling and yanking on my arm. I hadn¡¯t noticed them before. Perhaps they were still developing from that vision or something. They were there now though, and there was only one possible way that they had gotten there.


    The bruises were toorge to have been Ada¡¯s. And Mr. Amadeus didn¡¯t grab me roughly at all. These bruises were from that man in my vision.


    ¡°I..I..I don¡¯t know what is happening to me.¡± I looked up into Lex¡¯s eyes, fear filling me at the thought of what was happening to me. ¡°Th..th..these bruises, th..they are fr..from the vision. Th..th..they are from when th..that man gr..grabbed me.¡±


    ¡°It was just a vision, but he was able to hurt you like this?!¡± Lex was angry.


    ¡°Talia, this isn¡¯t good. These visions are getting dangerous.¡± Dad was just as angry and worried as Lex was. They both cared for me so much. I often felt like Lex cared for me like a second father. He was always there to look out for me and take care of me. It was nice knowing that he was here with me.


    ¡°We should try to prevent anymore visions from happening.¡± Mom put her hand on my hair, stroking it gently to soothe me, and probably herself as well. ¡°This is getting to be more than just scary images. This is starting to hurt you.¡±


    ¡°I..I know that, M..Mom.¡± I was trembling again. I didn¡¯t know why. Maybe it was the shock settling in. Maybe it was that the adrenaline from earlier was leaving me, and I was able to start feeling more of the emotions now. Maybe it was something else. I didn¡¯t know the cause behind my trembling, but I knew that I couldn¡¯t show them that I was scared right now. These visions wereing to me for a reason. I was meant to help my parents. I was meant to help stop these monsters.


    ¡°Talia, you can¡¯t keep-.¡± I don¡¯t know what my mom was about to say, but I cut her off before she got that far.


    ¡°No Mom. I will not stop the visions. Even if I knew how, I wouldn¡¯t.¡± I was shaking my head as I refused to ept that. ¡°These visions are meant for me. If I had known in the beginning, I might have been able to save Andrea and the others. I didn¡¯t though, and that will haunt me forever. This time though, the vision showed me my friends. People that I know and care about. And I am not going to let them get hurt. That is my duty, my responsibility. And if fate sees fit to show me another vision and another and another, I will save those people time and time again until we can stop these monsters from ever hurting anyone else.¡±


    I don¡¯t know if what I was doing was being righteous, stupid, or something in between, but I knew that I was not going to listen to a single word in opposition of what I had decided. I loved my family, but they were not going to stop me from doing the right thing.


    ¡°Talia, I understand that determination of yours. I know that you want to do the right thing. That is admirable and all, but I will not risk you in all of this, sweetheart.¡± I didn¡¯t like how my mom was talking to me right then. She was patronizing me. She was treating me like a little child.


    ¡°Mom!¡± I stood up and faced her, almost evenly matched in height. ¡°I am not going to be persuaded otherwise. I am not going to give up on this. I will see this through to the end. I will, without fail, find these monsters and stop them. Even if I have to do it by myself. Even if I am all alone, I will stop these men. I am the only one that has seen them and lived to tell the tale.¡±


    ¡°You won¡¯t be alone, Talia.¡± Lex rose from his kneeling position and stood beside me. ¡°I will be there to help you every step of the way.¡±


    ¡°Alexio!?¡± My mom red at him.


    ¡°It is the truth, Trinity.¡± He never really called her Queen Trinity like the others did. I think it had to do with the fact that he was not part of her kingdom. Not to mention that he just didn¡¯t think the same way that the others did. ¡°Talia is going to have these visions. We do not know how to stop them. And if she can use them to save the people that she sees, then why not let her? That will give her a calmer soul and more peace of mind.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re right, Trinity.¡± Dad stepped closer to me. ¡°These visions, nightmares, or whatever it is that you want to call them, they are not going to stop just because we want them to. Talia didn¡¯t ask for this, but she is willing and determined to do something about them. We all need to be united in this. Talia is the biggest piece of evidence that we have gotten so far. We need to use this information. I know that it must be difficult for you to ept, she is our daughter and like me you want to protect her. We can¡¯t do that right now though. She is growing up and there are things that we can¡¯t shield her from. We need to just ept that.¡±


    I saw the anger, confusion, pain, and sorrow all mix in my mom¡¯s eyes as she looked at Dad, Lex, and finally me. When she was looking at me, she lowered her head and sighed deeply.


    ¡°Hhaaaahhhh.¡± Her head was shaking side to side like she was either saying no or trying to remove bad thoughts from her mind. ¡°Fine, I understand. This is something that we need to embrace and not stop. I..I just don¡¯t like the idea of using my baby for this.¡±


    ¡°I hate to break it to you Mom, but I haven¡¯t been a baby in a long time.¡± Iughed at her. ¡°I am fifteen, and I am training to be a lot like you.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what I am afraid of.¡± She pulled me into a hug at that. ¡°I haven¡¯t had the easiest life in this world. It¡¯s been blessed with many things, a great husband, wonderful family, amazing children, wealth and health. All of that is good and all that, but there have been a lot of negatives too. I have fought battles that have cost thousands of lives. I have been tortured. I have been injured severely. I have had so much that has happened to me over thest twenty years that I would never want you to go through, Talia. I..it¡¯s just not worth the risk.¡±


    ¡°I know that, Mom. I really do. But I am the one that these visions have sought out. I am the one that has this ability, not you. No one except for me can do this. It is my job, my responsibility, and I will see it through until the end.¡± She squeezed me as I spoke, like my words were hurting her somehow.


    ¡°You went and became so mature without me even noticing.¡± She cried a little with a shaking voice. ¡°Why did you have to grow up so fast?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s what kids do, Mom. And there is nothing that anyone can do to stop it.¡± Sheughed and so did the others.


    ¡°Alright Talia, we will work together on this. We will meet with the others after you eat some lunch. Can you get those drawings done before then?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, sure, no problem. And if you manage to find photos of these men, I can identify them with no problems at all.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± Mom wiped a tear from her eye. ¡°I know.¡±


    We were just standing there for a moment when Abigail came into the room.


    ¡°Lunch is ready.¡± Her sweet voice and angelic looking face was one that I always enjoyed seeing. She was so sweet and kind.


    ¡°Thank you, Abigail.¡± Mom took my hand as she acknowledged her.


    We went together to eat our lunch. It wasn¡¯t an overlyplicated meal, mostly simple foods that were quick to make so that I could eat, but it was all good. And there was a dessert, which isn¡¯t often made for lunch. I am guessing that Abigail had some sort of powers that my mom never told me about when it came to cooking. How else was she able to get all of this, including the brownies for the ¨¤ mode [1] dessert.


    After lunch was done, I went to my room with Lex. He was keeping watch over me as I started to work on the drawings. I needed to get them done before I joined Mom, Dad, and the others for the meeting.


    At least they weren¡¯t going to be treating me like a child anymore. I was part of this, more than I had been while we were travelling. And Dad was right about what he had said, I was the only reason that they had anywhere near as much evidence as they did. I didn¡¯t want to sound full of myself, but I think that made me a vital and irreceable part of this investigation.


    At least Dad and Lex had been on my side. They knew that I was needed to figure all of this out. They knew that no one could figure this out without me. And thankfully, Mom finally admitted that too.


    I think that I will use this experience to my benefit. I will need to be strong and confident when I am the ruler of the underworld, now would be when I started to practice.


    [1] ¨¤ mode (North American Definition) ¨C served with ice cream. ¡®Would you like some pie ¨¤ mode?¡¯


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 Chapter 918

    Chapter 918: Chapter 103- Trinity ¨C Back To The Meeting (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°Trinity? Is everything alright?¡± Vincent was the first toe to me when I made it back to the room. I had ordered him to stay there and help with the investigation, and that had really upset him. He, being my primary and first ever guard, wanted to go with me since he hadn¡¯t known what was going on.


    ¡°Yes Vincent, everything is fine. Talia had another vision today. This time she was at school when it happened.¡± I was keeping my voice low. Not everyone here knew that Talia had dreamed of thest murders.


    ¡°Another one? What happened in it this time?¡± I could see the worry in his eyes. He was there with me almost every day when Talia was little. He was there to see her grow up. He loved her like she was his own family. I knew that he was worried about her and about the victims in the vision.


    ¡°We will get to that soon. Talia is making some drawings of the killers that she saw.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Killers? As in more than one?¡± He must have been shocked to hear that since thest time there was just the one killer in the vision.


    ¡°Yes. She had a vision with multiple killers in it. We will exin that soon enough.¡± I paused and looked over at the others in the room. It wasn¡¯t silent in here, but there weren¡¯t a lot of people that were talking either. ¡°How are things in here? The cataloging of those people from the orphanage. Are you all done?¡±


    ¡°Yes. We finished that list and was organizing it alphabetically. There were, of course, nost names that were listed, but we assigned the name of Jaegan for them all. That seemed like the best option here.¡±


    ¡°That you, Vincent.¡± He was right, that was what I would have done. All of these people are from that family, and that was why all the DNA that we had put them as rtives of each other. They were cousins, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, whatever it was that made them all part of the same group of chromosomes.


    I watched as the others finished organizing their lists, the written ones. Reggie was already pretty much done with hers and was doing her best to analyze the data for extra information. She was working harder than I had ever seen her working before.


    I knew that Talia would being in here soon, but I wasn¡¯t sure whether Reggie and Darrol needed to be part of the actual meeting. They were both part of the FBI though and having them here with me might help in more of the investigation.


    I had a sudden thought though. I needed to have her check something for me.


    ¡°Reggie?¡± I whispered as I walked over to her. ¡°Can you do me a favor?¡±


    ¡°U..uh y..yeah, s..sure thing Queen Trinity.¡± She smiled but I could tell that I was making her nervous. That was the curse of being the queen though. People were always nervous and scared of me until they got to know me more. Most people weren¡¯t part of the inner circle though, so they weren¡¯t given that privilege.


    ¡°Can you check all of these names against the ones that are currently enrolled at the university?¡±


    ¡°The one in the city?¡± She looked surprised. ¡°Wh..why?¡±


    ¡°Just a hunch.¡± I was hoping that I was wrong, but I didn¡¯t really think that I was. After hearing that boys name from Reece and then from Darrol as well, I needed to know how many Clovio¡¯s there were at the university. Was there more than one? Was there more than one Warrick? What about any of these other names? One or two might be coincidence, but a lot would just be suspicious.


    ¡°W..well, Queen Trinity, I..I think that Darrol would be better at this than me. I..I was good with some of theputer stuff, but he is the true genius in that field.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± I looked over at Darrol and met his yellow eyes. ¡°Will you run a search for me?¡±


    ¡°Just to be clear, Queen Trinity, you are asking me, an FBIputer crimes specialist and technical analyst, to hack into the university¡¯s student database and illegally search the records for the names that we have here.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Darrol, that is precisely what I am asking you. Are you not able to do it?¡± I knew that he could, but I was not in the mood to argue this with him.


    ¡°Oh, I can do it. I just wanted to make sure that I was hearing you correctly.¡± He grinned.


    ¡°Queen Trinity, he used to be a hacker before he started working for the FBI. He is usually strictly monitored when he is working so that he is not hacking the wrong database. He is most likely ted to be hearing this request from you.¡± Reggie exined it to me, and I saw the glee in the man¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°Good. Then please get to work, Darrol. I would like to make sure that you finish this before my daughter arrives.¡±


    ¡°Oh, sure thing.¡± He nodded. ¡°This sort of thing won¡¯t take me long at all. Especially considering that I have Reggie¡¯s new list right here.¡±


    I watched as he started typing away on theputer and grinning like he was having a lot of fun. I didn¡¯t care if he enjoyed this or not, I just cared that he was able to do what I asked of him.


    It took about five minutes at the most. After that he was looking at me with a list of students that were in the school as well as on the list.


    ¡°This is what I found.¡± He looked up at me. ¡°For the female students there are Lovisa, Hede, Hedi, Armina, Annina, Natali, seven named Zoe, four named Valerie, two named Rebekka, three named Lydia, Rosalia, five named Eileen, ra, and two named Nadine. As for the male students we have Clovio, two named Warrvick, Gunnar, three named Aloisius, Josef, Fritz, six named Patrik, three named Marc, twenty-eight named Jonathon, two named Carsten, Phillipp, three named Christian, and five named Adrian. I am guessing that not all of these are from that group, but if they are then that is an impressive number. Then again, I do not recall that the names repeated themselves that many times.¡± He was looking at his list that he had made. He had managed to find eighty urrences of names that appeared on the list. Some of them were moremon names, like Jonathon, but that didn¡¯t mean that one of them couldn¡¯t be in this group.


    ¡°Can you do background searches on them? Find out where they all came from? I need to know where they grew up, why they are at this university, and what it is that they¡¯re doing. I want this to be as extensive as possible.¡±


    ¡°I can do that no problem, Queen Trinity, but it will take more time.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine. And if you can get their student pictures as well, something to identify these kids with, that would be a lot better for us all.¡± I wanted to know everything. Especially about that boy named Clovio. He was the only one in the school with that name and that meant that he was the one that Rika had been talking about. And if this boy thought that he was going to try and do something with my little girl, then he had another thinging.¡± I red at his name on the list that Darrol had made. I wasn¡¯t about to forget that boy, nor was I going to forgive him for trying to take my daughter away from me.


    Knowing what I needed, Darrol got to work on it right away. And it was right about that time that I heard the ding of the elevator and smelled Talia and Alexio getting off of it. They were going to be here any moment now, and then it would be time to get this meeting started.


    I took onest look around the room as I waited for them to enter my office. All the people that hade together for this case. All the ones that were loyal to me and my family. All the people that wanted to see the peace and joy return to our world.


    I couldn¡¯t stop thinking about how much easier this would all be if we weren¡¯t such a hidden society. I mean, with the number of people in this world, we made up at least half of the poption. However, that half of the poption were not able to be free. They had to hide who and what they truly were.


    Was that really a life I wanted for my people? Was that really the way that I wanted to see things happen in the future? What about my children and their children? What about in a hundred years? Are we going to continue hiding? Are we going to continue to be nothing more than these creatures that lurk in the shadows?


    I didn¡¯t know what to do about this. Not yet anyway. I knew that things couldn¡¯t stay the way that they were though. If we weren¡¯t hiding in the shadows all this time, then there would be no way for those assholes to be killing my people, but there was nothing that I could do about it at the moment. I needed to find a way to fix this, to fix all of this. I needed to protect them all.


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 Chapter 919

    Chapter 919: Chapter 104- Reece ¨C Talia¡¯s Vision (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Trinity seemed to be distracted. She was lost in thought as she stared at the people in the room. I knew that she had heard Talia and Alexioing from the elevator. I knew that she could smell them too. She was aware of it from the moment that I sensed it. I had seen it in her face. Now though, she seemed to be lost in thought and couldn¡¯t really get herself toe out of her mind.


    I knew that I needed to get her attention before Talia came in here. Trinity was the one that was going to be leading this discussion. Not that I couldn¡¯t do it, I was more than capable of doing that, but that just wasn¡¯t the point here.


    ¡°Trinity.¡± I walked over to her and touched her elbow lightly. ¡°Are you OK, Little Bunny? Talia is about toe into the room.¡±


    ¡°Huh? Oh yeah, I am fine.¡± She smiled at me. ¡°I knew that she was about to get here.¡± She smiled at me and seemed to wake up. ¡°I was just thinking, that¡¯s all.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Alright. Well, it¡¯s almost time to tell the others about Talia¡¯s vision. This is going to be important for us all. And we need toe up with a n for that night. It¡¯s two days until they¡¯re supposed to kill those girls. We need to be on guard.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± She nodded at me like she was at the top of her game now. ¡°I am good to go. Don¡¯t worry about me at all.¡± As she gave me that fake smile, Talia and Alexio came into the room. None of the others seemed to take notice of them, even though they had all heard and smelled theming. They weren¡¯t people to be rmed about, so they basically ignored them.


    Talia and Alexio walked over to where we were standing and looked at the room filled with people.


    ¡°I did not expect there to be this many people. And I see that there are some that I have not met as of yet.¡± Alexio was looking over at Reggie and Darrol as they worked on their tasks.


    ¡°I called them in just recently.¡± Trinity told him. ¡°They are FBI specialists and have Vincent¡¯s seal of approval. There is nothing to worry about.¡±


    ¡°Ahh, Vincent. I trust his judgementpletely. I am d that they have been vetted already.¡± He was a lot like Vincent in the way that he never wanted to let people that he didn¡¯t know around Talia. They were both extremely protective of their charges. I wonder how he will react when I finally do let Talia start dating? I know that it could be difficult to care for someone like they¡¯re your kid or family and seeing someone that might hurt them. For a while, Vincent was pissed at me and the way that I made Trinity feel. And he even told me that to my face before. Best of luck to Talia¡¯s future mate, that was going to be a fun thing to watch.


    ¡°Can I have everyone¡¯s attention please?¡± Trinity walked over so that she was standing in front of her desk, like she was addressing a ssroom or something. ¡°There is something that we need to tell all of you.¡± She turned to look at Talia now, beckoning her over. That left Alexio to stand near me.


    ¡°How are you holding up?¡± I asked him with genuine concern in my voice.


    ¡°I am worried about Talia. The visions will likely get worse before they get better.¡±


    ¡°That is true.¡± I nodded. ¡°But we need to have faith that we can use this most recent vision to our advantage. We will save those girls, and we will capture those boys.¡± I was determined to make sure that Talia¡¯s friends and ssmates were safe.


    ¡°Agreed.¡± Alexio nodded with a firm set to his jaw. He was going to make sure that Talia¡¯s dream was not going to go to waste.


    It was time to pay attention to Trinity now. She was speaking to the room atrge and I wanted to make sure that I didn¡¯t miss anything that she was saying.


    ¡°There was a vision that was had before thest murders, but it was iplete. We didn¡¯t know it was a vision at all until the scenes matched up.¡± She exined this to the room and Trevor was the first one to speak up.


    ¡°How is that possible?¡± His deep voice practically boomed throughout the room. ¡°How could you have a vision of a murder and not try to stop it.¡± He obviously thought it was Trinity that had the vision and not someone else.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t get a location. I saw what happened, but not where. I knew that the girl that died was from the US, but I didn¡¯t know where she was. I..if I did know, I would have told my parents so that they could save her. I didn¡¯t even know it was a vision and not just a nightmare until it came true.¡± Talia exined this to him and the others.


    ¡°Talia?¡± He looked shocked. ¡°You were the one that had the vision?¡±


    ¡°Yes. It came to me as a nightmare one night. And when the murders happened here the other day, that was when I found out that they were real. I had the dream a couple of days before the girl was killed though. If I knew how, I could have stopped it.¡±


    ¡°I am sorry, Talia. I didn¡¯t mean to imply that it was your fault. You didn¡¯t know.¡±


    ¡°I know, and I will work on not ming myself. However, I had another vision today.¡± I had thought that it was going to be Trinity that was leading this discussion, but as it turns out, it was Talia. She was a natural at this leader thing. She was shy quite often, but she was there when she was needed.


    ¡°Another vision? Do you know who the victim is this time?¡± Trevor was intent on stopping another senseless murder.


    ¡°I know who all five of them were. This next murder is meant to be a statement to us. They are nning on making a disy of five girls. Five men are going to lure them in as if they are on a date. And then they will kill them in Acacia Park. It will happen near midnight this Friday.¡±


    ¡°In two days!¡± Trevor was shocked. He and the others seemed to be reeling with the information that they just received.


    Talia started to go into detail about the vision. I was pissed about every part of it, but when she told them about the man talking to her and grabbing her in the vision, and that he left a bruise on her arm that was still visible even a few hourster, I was even more pissed. That man had hurt my daughter, and I was going to hurt him. He was a monster. And I was going to do what Dietrich used to do and destroy this monster. I know that we weren¡¯t exactly the same as his former group that he hunted with, but I think it¡¯s about time that he got back to his former business. This group of people, not just that asshole that bruised my baby girl, were a threat to the world. If they somehow managed to kill all the nonhumans, where would they stop? Would they end their quest for power, or would they try to dominate the world? That was just something that none of us were able to leave up to chance. This was what was going through my mind as Talia wrapped up her speech.


    ¡°So, Talia, what you are telling us is that this man knew you were there in this vision? He knew that you were watching him and the othersmit these crimes. And he was able to hurt you in the vision?¡± Valerian seemed to be almost as pissed off as I was. I mean, I didn¡¯t me him, he may have kids of his own, but he still loved all his family with a fierceness that most couldn¡¯t match at all.


    ¡°Yes, Athair m¨°r, that is what I am saying.¡± Talia nodded at him. ¡°I don¡¯t think he is aware of it now, but I think that he will sense me there in the future. In a sense, I think that my vision was more of a metaphysical time travel. I didn¡¯t actually have a vision. What I think happened was that I was actually there. My subconscious was anyway. And he could feet me there. And that also means that I will be there in a way on that night. I might not be able to be seen, but I might be sensed by other people.¡±


    ¡°That could be used to our advantage.¡± Valerian seemed to go into deep thought at that moment. ¡°If we can sense you, we will be able to track you to where you and those men are. It would help us if we took them by surprise because he thought it was just like you being there.¡±


    ¡°We will work on thatter, Athair m¨°r.¡± Trinity nodded at him. ¡°What we need to do before that is to figure out how we¡¯re going to stop these boys, and how we¡¯re going to use the vision to our advantage.¡± I love it when my Little Bunny gets all serious like this. She is always a beauty when she is in charge. That is probably why I didn¡¯tin too much when I, a true Alpha male, had to start letting my wife call the shots in almost everything. Hey, I still had the bedroom, and I ruled there.


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 Chapter 920

    Chapter 920: Chapter 105- Rika ¨C Parents Are The Worst (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    I was pissed from the moment that I got to campus this morning. I had wanted to go with Clovio this afternoon. I hadn¡¯t gone out with him since our datest week and that felt like so long ago. I wanted to spend some more time with him so I could find out if he really was my mate. I needed to know what I was going to do if he was and if he wasn¡¯t.


    Was I going to date him if he wasn¡¯t my mate? Was I just going to break his heart when the person that I was meant to be with came around? Should I allow myself to do that? Or should I be nice to Clovio and just leave him.


    It would hurt him now, but it wouldn¡¯t have to hurt him forever. He would find someone else eventually. He would get over me. I just hoped that I found my mate soon enough to get over him. Or better yet, that it clicked for me and that he was my mate.


    I mean, if I looked at how intensely Warrick looked at Lyssa, and how Clovio looked at me, there wasn¡¯t really that much of a difference. He had to feel the same for me that Warrick felt for Lyssa. He just had to.


    .....


    Or, well, I guess I could be deluding myself into thinking that. I just wanted to know for sure. And I was never going to know for sure if my parents locked me up in the castle like I was some prisoner.


    ¡°UGH!¡± I grunted and groaned loudly as I flung myself onto the bench next to Lyssa and Alexa.


    ¡°What¡¯s the matter with you?¡± Alexa asked me with worry in her voice.


    ¡°Parents are the fucking worst.¡± I snapped, not at them just in general.


    ¡°Yeah, they can be, but they¡¯re also super cool. Your mom and dad are really nice.¡± Lyssa tried to calm me down. ¡°I was happy that my dad and papa came homest night. They¡¯ve been gone for a long time. And my dad drove me to school this morning too.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I heard. My dad drove us too.¡± I nodded at her. ¡°How did your dad take the news of you and Warrick being mates.¡± I was excited to see how that conversation went. I knew that her parents wouldn¡¯t act like my dad did.


    ¡°O..oh, w..well, they had just gotten home and we were all celebrating, I..I just didn¡¯t want to-.¡±


    ¡°She didn¡¯t tell them.¡± Levi cut her off.


    ¡°But she is going to today, aren¡¯t you Lyssa?¡± Luka added in a scary voice.


    ¡°Leave her alone.¡± Alexa snapped back at them. ¡°She is trying to figure all of this out on her own. It¡¯s not our fault that Dad and Papa ran off to do some job somewhere. She will tell them when she is ready.¡±


    ¡°She will tell them today.¡± Levi yelled back at her. ¡°I don¡¯t like those guys. They give me the creeps.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, they seem weird.¡± Luka added as he shivered.


    ¡°Well, you better get used to them because Warrick is my mate. I feel it inside of me. I know that I can¡¯t ever love anyone else. He is it for me. And I would likely die without him.¡± Lyssa¡¯s words were powerful but low. She needed to make sure that no humans in the area heard what she had just said. ¡°This is my life you guys, and I won¡¯t let someone else tell me what I can and can¡¯t do.¡±


    ¡°But you don¡¯t know these people. What if they¡¯re bad? What if they¡¯re criminals?¡± Luka looked scared for his sister.


    ¡°I know that Warrick is a good man. I can feel it in my heart.¡±


    ¡°Goddess Lyssa, you¡¯re so fucking stupid.¡± Levi snapped at her. ¡°You¡¯re going to get yourself hurt.¡±


    ¡°Shut up!¡± She snapped back at him. ¡°Just shut up and leave me alone.¡± They were causing a scene and others were looking at us. Not only that, but I could see Clovio and Warricking our way.


    ¡°Lower your voices.¡± I snapped at them all. ¡°People are staring, and Clovio and Warrick areing over here right now.¡±


    ¡°Ugh! I don¡¯t want to see that.¡± Luka rolled his eyes.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Levi and Luka left then, presumably to find my brother andin about us even more.


    ¡°I am sorry about that, Lyssa.¡± I soothed her. ¡°Brothers are assholes.¡±


    ¡°I hate when they get like that. They are so paranoid.¡± Lyssa pouted, but then Warrick sat next to her and put his arm around her shoulders.


    ¡°What is wrong, my love?¡± He asked her with a worried look in his eyes. He was such a loving man toward her. Seeing that made me want to look at Clovio. I wanted to see if he was looking at me like that.


    ¡°Hello Rika.¡± He called out to me. ¡°I am happy to see you.¡± He was smiling. There was no concern or worry in his eyes at all. Then again, I wasn¡¯t the one pouting. I was in the midst of that argument though. Shouldn¡¯t he be checking if I was OK as well?


    ¡°I am happy to see you too.¡± Despite hisck of concern for me, I beamed at him to show him just how happy I really was.


    ¡°What was happening here just now? A fight with the family?¡± Clovio asked in a calm voice.


    ¡°Yes. My brothers were being stupid.¡± Alexa red after them. ¡°It¡¯s nothing to worry about.¡±


    ¡°Ahh. I remember fighting with the others in the orphanage. We were not brothers and sisters, but we fought like we were.¡± It looked like the memories were a mixture of good and bad as Clovio thought about them. ¡°They are my family though, and I would not trade them for anything.¡±


    ¡°You were raised together. Of course you would see them as family.¡± Lyssa smiled over at him.


    ¡°H..hey Lyssa.¡± I called out to her as I had a thought run through my mind.


    ¡°Yes Rika?¡± She was calmer now that Warrick was around.


    ¡°Come here for a moment. I need to tell you something.¡±


    I took her hand and pulled her after me. Alexa,e with us as well while the guys stayed sitting on the bench next to the fountain. I looked back and smiled at Clovio as we stopped. I needed to make sure that they didn¡¯t hear us.


    ¡°What is it?¡± Lyssa asked me curiously.


    ¡°Well, I kind of told my dad about Warrick this morning. I also told him about Clovio.¡±


    ¡°WHAT?!¡± Both Alexa and Lyssa shouted in surprise.


    ¡°Why would you do that, Rika?¡± Lyssa looked so hurt. ¡°You know that he is going to tell my parents. And they are going to be so pissed off at me.¡±


    ¡°I am sorry. I thought that you were going to tell them. I was so excited because, w..well, I think, or I hope, that Clovio is my mate. I like him a lot. And, w..well, I don¡¯t want him to leave me.¡± I was embarrassed. And I really hadn¡¯t meant to hurt her at all.


    ¡°Hahh. I know you didn¡¯t do it to get me in trouble Rika, I just wish that you hadn¡¯t jumped the gun.¡±


    ¡°I know. It¡¯s just that my dad is making me go home right after school now. That¡¯s why I told him. I wanted to spend time with Clovio. You and I were supposed to go out with them today.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I know.¡± I watched as she seemed to dete. ¡°I wanted to see him too.¡±


    ¡°Go.¡± Alexa spoke excitedly.


    ¡°What?¡± I was confused.


    ¡°I said go. Go with them. Now. I will take notes for you. Just be back before it¡¯s time for us to get picked up this afternoon. I will cover for you. And our brothers will never know.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Both Lyssa and I sounded shocked and excited.


    ¡°Yes. Now go. Before I changed my mind.¡± She wasughing and pushing us toward the bench.


    ¡°Thank you, Alexa.¡± I hugged her.


    ¡°Thank you so much, sis.¡± Lyssa hugged her too.


    ¡°Just go.¡± She wasughing and pushing us again.


    ¡°Come on, Lyssa, let¡¯s go have a morning date.¡± I took her hand, and we practically ran back to the guys.


    The two of them were a little shocked by our excitement and enthusiasm now. They were smiling though, so I don¡¯t really think that it was all that big of a deal for them.


    ¡°You seem better now.¡± Warrick was looking at Lyssa like she was all he could see.


    ¡°Yeah, I am feeling better. You see, my parents got homest night, and so did Rika¡¯s. They were out of town on business and well, they want us home right after sses are done, no exceptions.¡±


    ¡°Ah, but that ruins our ns.¡± Clovio looked sad now.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± I held my hands up in a stopping motion. ¡°Alexa is going to cover for us so that we can go on a date right now. She will give us all of today¡¯s notes as well.¡±


    ¡°Really? That is wonderful.¡± Clovio seemed to brighten up so much at hearing that. ¡°Thank you, Alexa. This is wonderful.¡±


    ¡°Yes, truly, thank you.¡± Warrick took Lyssa¡¯s hand as he stood up. ¡°We will be back before it is time for you to go home.¡± The two of them were already pulling us toward the street and away from the building that we were waiting in front of. This was going to be amazing. And our parents would never know.


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 Chapter 921

    Chapter 921: Chapter 106- Rika ¨C A Date During The Day Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    I can¡¯t believe that I was doing this. I can¡¯t believe that I was sneaking away and going on a date with Clovio out of the blue like this. It was so exciting, so fun. And it was also more than a little scary. If we weren¡¯t back in time for Lucas and Westin to pick us up, then I would be in so much trouble. I didn¡¯t care though. I wanted to do this. I wanted to have some fun with Clovio. And I wanted to kiss him again.


    I couldn¡¯t contain the smile as we left the fountain behind us. I could feel the heat in my palm as Clovio held my hand while we ran away from the campus toward the parking lot.


    ¡°Where did you park today, Rika?¡± he called out to me in a slightly winded, yet very excited voice. I could practically feel the excitement that was coursing through him.


    ¡°I..I was dropped off today. M..my parents are strict and overprotective. S..so my dad drove me today.¡±


    .....


    ¡°What about you, Lyssa.¡± Warrick called back to her, turning to look at her more than the path ahead of him.


    ¡°The same. My parents are not as strict, but they drove me and my siblings today.¡± She looked embarrassed. I didn¡¯t me her. I had beenpletely mortified to tell Clovio that my dad had driven me to school today. What was I, a fucking baby in kindergarten? This was bullshit. I was an adult. I was supposed to be doing what I wanted. I was supposed to be having a life of my own. I didn¡¯t want to have all of this drama and shit that was dying my life. I wanted to be me. Why couldn¡¯t they understand that? Why did they insist on treating me like a little girl?


    ¡°Rika?¡± Clovio was calling out to me in an attempt to get my attention. ¡°Is everything OK?¡± He looked worried about me. It was a look that almost perfectly matched the one that Warrick had given to Lyssa earlier. I knew that he cared for me. I could see it there in his eyes.


    ¡°U...uhm, yes. I am fine. Sorry, I was just lost in thought.¡± I smiled at him. ¡°My parents are being jerks to me right now, that is all.¡±


    ¡°Ah, I wouldn¡¯t know about that. However, there were people at the orphanage that acted parentally toward us. They often did not agree with us on the things that we wanted, so I can guess at what it is that you are feeling at the moment.¡± He was smiling and acting like it was nothing at all, but I can¡¯t believe that I just did that. I made him feel like nothing normal at all. He is an orphan. He doesn¡¯t have parents. And here I am acting like they are the worst thing in the world. He probably grew up wanting nothing more than to have parents.


    I wanted to sigh. I wanted to make things better for him. Hell, I wanted to take him to the castle and show him how awesome my parents could usually be. I just knew that my parents would love him. He was such an amazing guy. And, well, if he and I are truly meant to be, then I would end up taking him there eventually, right?


    I didn¡¯t know if we should go there anytime soon, but I wanted to take him there eventually. I wanted him to know who and what I really was. If he and I were meant to be, then he would find out in the end.


    While I was lost in thought once again, Clovio and Warrick started to take us away from the school in a different direction. We weren¡¯t going by car, so there was less that we could do now, but I didn¡¯t care. As long as I was with Clovio that was all that mattered to me. I just wanted to know that we were together. I felt like I was falling in love with him. He was just so perfect all the time.


    ¡°Are you hungry?¡± Warrick asked when we slowed down and looked toward the city around us. ¡°We can take a cab and go to a restaurant.¡±


    ¡°Cabs are expensive, Warrick.¡± Clovio reminded him as he thought about how much this day was going to cost us.


    ¡°No worries, I am paying for today.¡± I smiled at him.


    ¡°I cannot let you do that.¡± Clovio¡¯s eyes went wide with shock as he heard what I had just said. It looked like the very idea was something foul to him.


    ¡°I insist.¡± I waved away his manly way of thinking. ¡°I am not limited on my spending like you. I have my own money and my parents are actually generous when ites to letting me have money whenever I need it.¡± No need to tell him that my parents are the richest people in the world. And Lyssa¡¯s were, of course, second on that list. We could cover all the dates that we went on with these men and it wouldn¡¯t be an issue to us at all.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that it is right though. We should pay. That is how it is supposed to be.¡± Clovio looked conflicted.


    ¡°This is the modern world, Clovio, we¡¯re able to pay as well. That¡¯s just how it is. Plus, you need to be wise with your budget. And it was us that wanted to go out, so it is us that should be paying. I am paying for everything today and that is final.¡± I put my hands on my hips and set my shoulders. I was showing him that I was determined to have my way here and that he was not going to change my mind at all.


    ¡°Hahh. I cannot win against you, can I, Rika?¡± He smiled and finally relented.


    ¡°Nope, you can¡¯t.¡± I smiled at him while I had to almost physically restrain myself from pumping my fist in the air. I won the little argument. This is the best. It¡¯s like we¡¯re in a real rtionship. ¡°Just ept it now, Clovio, I am very stubborn. Nowe on, I want to eat at Franny¡¯s.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve noticed the stubbornness.¡± He said as he took my hand. ¡°But who is Franny?¡±


    Franny was this olddy that ran a restaurant. Now her grandkids run it since she died some time ago. My mom loves this ce and has beening here since she was my age.¡± I was pulling him toward the diner as I spoke. I had already eaten breakfast, but I was hungry again for some reason. Maybe it was just the thought of good food, or maybe it was the prospect of going on a date with Clovio, whatever it was though, I was hungry and happy.


    We sat down in Franny¡¯s about ten minutester. I made sure that I didn¡¯t take the table that I usually sat in with my family. I was going to the restaurant that I went to with my family, but I drew the line at sitting at the family table.


    ¡°Rika? It¡¯s nice to see you.¡± The waiter that was usually here when we came in for a spontaneous meal walked over to the table. ¡°How are your parents doing?¡±


    ¡°Oh, hi Ewan. They are good.¡± I smiled back at him. ¡°They are at home. I am here on a.. on a date.¡± I turned to look at Clovio so that he could confirm this for me.


    ¡°Our second date.¡± He took my hand and squeezed it gently.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s nice. And I see that it¡¯s a double date. How are you today, Alyssa?¡± This was the bad thing abouting here. I should have chosen a different ce to go. My parents weren¡¯t going to be happy when they found out about this from Ewan the next time that we came here.


    ¡°I am fine.¡± Lyssa nodded at him. ¡°This is my boyfriend, Warrick.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you Warrick.¡± Ewan shook his hand. ¡°I am Ewan, grandson to thete and great Franny that opened this restaurant. I have not seen you two gentlemen here before, so I do hope that you enjoy the food.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Clovio nodded at him. ¡°I am sure that it is going to be amazing. My name is Clovio, and it is good to meet you Mr. Ewan.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha, he¡¯s a polite one, Rika. That is good. But you don¡¯t need to be so formal with me. Ewan will be fine.¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± Clovio nodded at him. Following that little exchange, we looked at the menus and ordered some food. I chose to get some pancakes and bacon with a cinnamon de lechette. It was something that I only ever got here because they made them so good. And I loved it. Lyssa got a breakfast sandwich and a fruit smoothie. Both Clovio and Warrick got the full breakfast sampler. It came with a smaller portion of almost everything on their breakfast menu. And it was a lot of food. They also got sodas to drink. They were just like the men in our pack and it was kind of funny. If they were just to eat with my family and the others in the pack, they would fit in just fine. No one would ever think that they weren¡¯t wolves with how much they were nning on eating. Maybe it wasn¡¯t just a shifter thing. Maybe it was just a man thing.


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 Chapter 922

    Chapter 922: Chapter 107- Rika ¨C A Date During The Day Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    I have to say that I haven¡¯t had this much fun just going out to eat in a long time. While the four of us sat there eating our food, we talked about a lot of things. Clovio asked me what it was that I wanted to do when I graduated. I was not really sure about that myself because I knew that I was likely to be taking over for my parents in at least one part of the kingdom. Then again, I would have years and years before that happened. I could do whatever I wanted until then.


    I ended up just telling Clovio that I was going to study business and work at my father¡¯spany until I decided what I wanted to do. I could always go back to school. I could learn what I wanted when I wanted. I wasn¡¯t going to grow old anytime soon. I would, barring any unforeseen circumstances, live forever. That was the trade off that we werewolves got when my mom took the souls of those three gods into her body. And well, that meant that I didn¡¯t need to rush my decision. I could do like Uncle Dietrich and end up doing several things over the centuries. We all know that he didn¡¯t have just one career, and there is no reason for me not to do the same.


    We were in the restaurant for at least two hours, eating our food slowly and enjoying the conversation that we were having with each other. After we were done eating, I wanted to go see a movie. I had had such a great time thest time that we saw a movie together that I wanted to do it again. However, the theater wasn¡¯t open yet. Damn them. We needed to find something else to do. I wanted to make sure that we were able to spend some time alone together.


    I didn¡¯t want to go and do something that was going to be too involved. That would leave us absolutely no time at all for us to make out. I mean, that was the whole point of being here together, right?


    .....


    ¡°Let¡¯s go to the park.¡± Lyssa said as I was thinking about things. ¡°We can just sit in the park for a while and talk., hang out, do whatever it is that we want to do.¡± She was looking at Warrick, not really able to take her eyes off of them.


    ¡°Hmm, that could work. There is one close by that has some canoes and other boats. We can rent some for an hour and spend time on theke, then we can buy some drinks and sit in the shade. I think that sounds really romantic.¡± I decided to expand on her idea as I thought more about it.


    ¡°I do believe that this idea sounds perfect.¡± Clovio¡¯s gorgeous green eyes were smiling at me. ¡°Let us go to the park.¡±


    I took Clovio¡¯s hand again and started toward the park. This was going to require us to hail a taxi, but that was fine. I would cover it no problem. And it was onlyte morning, the rush hadn¡¯t fully started yet. That meant that I didn¡¯t need to wait long to find us one. I mean, I could have just used an app and called a car over like I usually did, but this just felt more grown up. It made me feel like I was in some sort of romance movie or something. That little action of gging down the taxi meant so much to me at the moment.


    It wasn¡¯t that long of a drive to the park. We were able to get there and head straight over to the rental cabin. It was right next to the water and there were two men that were working inside. One of the men was a wolf that was part of the pack and I really, really hoped that he wouldn¡¯t say anything to my parents about this date of mine. I mean, he probably never even talked to my parents directly so there was not much of a chance for them to find out. And even if they did, they couldn¡¯t do anything to me since I was an adult. I was going to do what I wanted when I wanted.


    The man didn¡¯t say anything to me about who I was, nor did he ask me why I was here and not in ss. That meant that he wasn¡¯t close enough to know about me and my brother. I knew that I didn¡¯t have anything to worry about. Though I was sure that the name on the credit card that I gave him showed him exactly who I was. There was only one Rika Gray in this city as far as I knew. And even if there was more than one, I am sure that this man would assume that it was me even if it was a different Rika Gray.


    I stopped worrying about it though. I wanted to make sure that I had the best date of my life so far, even if that first date with Clovio was going to be hard to top. I was going to try though.


    I had rented two boats. One for me and Clovio and one for Lyssa and Warrick. This way we would be alone even though we were doing the same thing. Clovio helped me into the boat that we were taking and then climbed in after me. At this point, I stopped thinking about Lyssa at all. This was my date with Clovio and I wasn¡¯t going to let anyone else invade my thoughts.


    Clovio rowed us to the middle of theke and then stopped to let us just drift about. The scenery was so beautiful and thepany that I was with was even better. We talked more about the future. He hadn¡¯t gotten around to telling me what it was that he wanted to do, so he was telling me now.


    ¡°When I am done with school, I want to stay here in the States. I want to be someone that helps others. I want to be a cop or a firefighter. I know that might sound stupid to others, but that is what I want. I want to be someone that helps people.¡± It was such a pure and simple dream that I couldn¡¯t help but feel like I could melt right there.


    ¡°I love that.¡± I replied honestly. ¡°There is nothing wrong with having a career like that. People need to be protected and saved from time to time. I wish that we lived in a world that was filled with peace where everyone was free to be themselves without fear, but that just isn¡¯t the case. There is a lot that is going on that not even I understand, but I know the type of world that I want to live in. And that is one where there is no persecution, no crime, no hatred, no unnecessary death. I want people everywhere to be safe. Everyone, all types of people, deserve to feel safe and happy. And I think that is the type of world I want to help create when I am older.¡± I had given that little speech of mine everything that I had, but I saw that Clovio was looking at me with shock and surprise in his eyes. Had I said something wrong? ¡°U..uhm, Clovio?¡± I asked him with my heart starting to pound out of nervousness. ¡°Is everything OK?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. I just never knew you were so passionate.¡± He finally smiled at me. This was a smile that was different from the ones that I usually see from him. It was almost like he was feeling relieved. ¡°So, you want everyone to be happy?¡± He asked me just to be sure. I guess he wanted to delve deeper into the words that I had said.


    ¡°Yes. I guess my parents have taught me well. I took on their way of thinking. Then again, that¡¯s just part of being a decent person in my mind.¡±


    ¡°Your parents?¡± I know that I had talked about them being mean earlier. Maybe he thought they were militants or something.


    ¡°Yeah. My parents are just like that. They want everyone in the world to be safe, happy, healthy, and free to be themselves. They are super supportive of all types of people, and they are always working to make things better for everyone. They run charities, they help people. They even help the police to solve murders. They are good people and I guess that rubbed off on me.¡± I couldn¡¯t understand the look in his eyes at the moment. He was looking so conflicted and I didn¡¯t know why.


    ¡°This is just not what I was expecting.¡± Heughed. ¡°Y..you know, from people with money.¡± Heughed and exined it away. ¡°I guess I thought that your parents, being so rich, would be greedy and selfish. I guess I didn¡¯t know what to expect.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha.¡± Iughed at him as I realized what it was that he was thinking. ¡°No, rich people are not greedy and stuck up. At least not all of them. My family believes in loving and caring for everyone in the world, no matter who they are.¡±


    ¡°I am happy to hear that, Rika. I really am.¡± I don¡¯t know why he looked so relieved at that, but I was happy, nheless. I was enjoying this date and didn¡¯t want any misconceptions about my family causing it to go wrong.


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 Chapter 923

    Chapter 923: Chapter 108- Rika ¨C A Date During The Day Part 3 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    We stayed in the boat for a while. I moved so that I was sitting in front of Clovio and he was holding me while we watched the scenery. We were talking more and more about ourselves. I still didn¡¯t want to tell him who my parents were just yet though. If he didn¡¯t know who Reece and Trinity Gray were, then I didn¡¯t want to tell him. I didn¡¯t think it was a good idea to make him start liking me just because my family had wealth and power. I wanted Clovio to like me for me.


    While I was lost in that tranquil little bubble that we were in while floating on theke, I felt so at peace that I could have fallen asleep. Part of the reason that I felt sofortable was the way that I was sitting in Clovio¡¯s arms, letting him hug me tightly and listening to his heartbeat steadily. It sounded so calming and peaceful that I just couldn¡¯t believe it.


    This was all new to me. The way that it felt to have a man hold you in his arms was something that I had never experienced before, but I loved it so much already. Or maybe that was just because it was Clovio. I liked the strength in his arms, the feel of his muscles, all of it. I felt safe and secure while the excitement in me rose.


    That excitement was exactly why I couldn¡¯t fall asleep though. I was too excited, nervous, and scared to let that happen. I don¡¯t care how calm and peaceful the moment was, I was not going to let myself fall asleep and embarrass myself in front of Clovio. I needed to be on my guard at all times so that I knew that I was making the best impression possible. Clovio liked me so far, and that was good. I like him too. And that was why I was hoping that he was my mate. That way I didn¡¯t have to worry about hurting him if and when I found a different man that was meant to be my mate. I wanted Clovio, and no one else.


    .....


    After a while though, I knew that it was about time for us to return the boat. I hadn¡¯t managed to get my kiss yet, but I liked the way that things were going so far. I would kiss him soon though. I wouldn¡¯t let this date end without one.


    Clovio rowed us back to the shore while we joked about different things. We kept joking about him being the ¡®strong one¡¯ since he was the one that was rowing the boat. That was something else that I was not going to show Clovio yet. I didn¡¯t want him knowing that I was really, really strong. He didn¡¯t need to see that right now. He would think that I was a freak or something. No, it was best to let him do all the stuff that required physical strength. I didn¡¯t want to chase him away or anything like that. I wanted Clovio to stay with me. I wanted him to love me, and he wouldn¡¯t love me if he thought that I was some sort of freak or monster.


    When we made it out of the boat, with Clovio taking my hand and guiding me onto thend once again, we went back into the cabin to let them know that both boats were back and tied up. The man that was part of my pack was not there though, that was good. I didn¡¯t want to risk him saying something to me. This was better for me.


    Now it was time for us to get those drinks and sit under the trees. That was when I was going to get my kiss. I was going to finally make out with Clovio again and I was going to do it while we were under the trees.


    Clovio insisted on buying the drinks for us since I had paid for the food and the boat. I didn¡¯t argue and just let him. He got me a juice and Lyssa a coffee while he got a soda for him and Warrick. We were on our way to the grassy area to sit down when someone called out to him from across the park.


    ¡°CLOVIO!¡± The man was waving at us. I could hear that he had an ent that was simr to Clovio¡¯s and Warrick¡¯s. He was definitely from Germany as well. Why were there so many people from Germany here?


    ¡°Hello ud, I didn¡¯t know that you were in town.¡± I could tell that Clovio was surprised to see this group of men. ¡°I thought you were on the west coast.¡±


    ¡°We were, but we just got into town today. We are looking around for a park to host a party in. You shoulde with us.¡± The man was looking at me though, even while he was talking to Clovio.


    I didn¡¯t like the way this man was looking at me. He had something in his eyes that was not quite right. And I didn¡¯t like that he looked a lot like Clovio. He had the same dark colored hair and green eyes that I noticed so many of the others had. And ud wasn¡¯t the only one that had just showed up. There were five men. And they all looked so much like the exchange students that I knew from school.


    ¡°Clovio, are these friends of yours?¡± The men that I was looking at were all human, I could smell that. And they had that same unique smell that I had noticed at the school the first day. Actually almost all of the exchange students had that smell. In fact, Clovio, Warrick and Armina were the only ones that I knew that didn¡¯t have that same smell. At least it wasn¡¯t as strong with the three of them. These five men had it too. It must be something that indicated where they were from. I was starting to think that all humans from Germany were going to smell like that.


    ¡°Yes, I know them. These are some men that I grew up with. They were under the same exchange program a few years ago. They live here now. And I guess they came to visit us or something.¡± I didn¡¯t quite believe what he was saying, it just sounded like he was lying to me. But why would he lie to me? What reason would he have to do that?


    ¡°Oh, well, it is nice to meet you. Your name is ud, right? I am Rika.¡± I went to shake his hand, but he just looked at me like I was crazy. It made me feel like I had done something wrong.


    ¡°Nice to meet you, Rika.¡± He sneered at me and then looked at Clovio. ¡°I see you are making friends out here.¡±


    ¡°Am I not supposed to?¡± I heard the anger in Clovio¡¯s voice when he snapped back at the other man.


    ¡°No. That isn¡¯t it. It¡¯s just that, you know, you are here to learn.¡± I saw ud¡¯s narrowed eyes and wondered exactly what it was that he was trying to get at. Why was he so angry at Clovio for being on a date? Was it against the rules of their exchange program? Was he going to lose his funding or his sponsor? If that were the case, then I would sponsor him. I would fund him. I wouldn¡¯t let him get sent away just because he went on a date with me. That would be stupid.


    ¡°I know what I am here for.¡± Clovio snapped at him. I could tell that Warrick was just as tense and angry as Clovio was. Warrick was trying to hide Lyssa behind him, but ud understood.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you two think, that you are doing, but you are going against the rules.¡± Another man in the group snapped at them. ¡°You need to focus or the directors will be notified.¡±


    ¡°Shut it, Fritz!¡± Warrick growled at him. ¡°We will do what we need to do, you just shut up.¡±


    ¡°You had better.¡± ud narrowed his eyes at Clovio and then looked at me with hatred in his eyes. ¡°I would hate for things to go south for you just because you were out here canoodling with some bitch.¡±


    ¡°HEY!¡±


    ¡°Shut up, ud.¡± I had screamed at ud in anger, but before I could do anything Clovio stepped in front of me and yelled at him as well. ¡°Don¡¯t talk about her like that.¡±


    ¡°Or what, Clovio? What are you going to do to me if I call a bitch a bitch? She¡¯s nothing more than a distraction for you, and you need to get back to work. Finish wetting your dick and focus.¡± I saw that ud was stepping closer to us and his eyes were locked onto me. ¡°Fuck her and leave her. Who knows, I might even fuck her too. She¡¯s pretty enough. And then you can focus on the real reason that you¡¯re here.¡±


    I wanted to punch this man. In fact, I was just about to do just that when he reached out and stroked my cheek. However, the moment that I moved my arm to prepare the punch, I heard someone call my name from across the park.


    ¡°RIKA!¡±


    All of us snapped to attention at the sound of the angry man that had yelled at me. There was a boiling rage pouring off of him as his eyes locked onto me and the scene that was unfolding around us.


    ¡°Shit.¡± I whispered under my breath. This was thest thing that I needed right now.


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 Chapter 924

    Chapter 924: Chapter 109- Rika ¨C Interrupted (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    ¡°RIKA!¡± I was looking right at the man that had called my name. He might have been a little bit of a saving grace because I was stopped from hitting that asshole, ud. But the fact that he was here meant that my parents would definitely know that I was not in ss today and that I deliberately disobeyed my father. I was going to be in deep shit. And worst of all, was that I had gotten Lyssa into trouble as well.


    ¡°Rika, who is that man?¡± Clovio asked me in a whispered voice. He was likely worried about me and the way that this man was ring at me.


    ¡°H..he is an employee of my parents.¡± I didn¡¯t want to tell him that this was a bodyguard that was assigned to me. That this man was someone that was meant to protect me from the very situation that I was in right now. That wouldn¡¯t go over very well.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here.¡± ud snapped at the group that was with him before they all turned and ran in the opposite direction from the approaching man. It was a little funny to see. They were running scared because of him. Too bad they hadn¡¯t been smart enough to run scared from me. I would haveid them out like they were nothing. All five of them if I had to, but definitely that asshole ud.


    .....


    ¡°Why is that man here, Rika?¡± Clovio asked me with his eyes narrowed and anger in his voice. I don¡¯t know why he was mad at me about this. It¡¯s not like I was the one that called him here.


    ¡°He is here for me. Why he knows that I am here, I don¡¯t know. I didn¡¯t tell anyone that we were here.¡± No need to tell him that the asshole at the boat rental was probably the one that ratted me out. That would be a little too hard to exin at the moment. ¡°Let¡¯s get going, before he catches up to us.¡± The moment that I was about to run, I heard another voice call out. This was the one that I wish wasn¡¯t here.


    ¡°DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT, RIKA!¡± He snapped at me. ¡°IF YOU RUN YOU WILL BE IN EVEN MORE TROUBLE!¡±


    ¡°Dammit!¡± I swore under my breath. Why the hell did Westin have to be here too. If it was just Lucas, then I could have gotten away. Westin, though, he was fast. Not exactly as fast as my Uncle David, but fast enough. He would definitely catch me and the others before we could leave the park.


    I looked around at the beautiful trees whose leaves were just starting to fade from bright green to the yellow and orange of fall. It was September now, and things were changing. The seasons were about to change. The leaves would change. And I would gain my freedom as an adult, blossoming out of childhood and teenage hell into the gloriousness that was adulthood. However, before that happened, I needed to finish this day and live to see the next.


    ¡°What the hell are you doing out here, Rika?¡± Lucas snapped at me as he came to a stop in front of me. ¡°What the hell were you thinking?¡± Lucas, with his sandy blond hair and boyish blue eyes always looked like the easy going, sweet and innocent boy next door type of man. When he was angry though, he looked like a demon from hell. Those soft and glistening blue eyes sharpened and looked like they could set you on fire. That innocent looking face became a mask of anger that could strike fear into almost anyone. I think only those in my parents¡¯ inner circle were immune to that stare. I certainly wasn¡¯t.


    ¡°I..I am on a date, Lucas. Now leave me alone.¡± I went to turn and leave him there, taking Clovio with me so that I could get away from that piercing, zing look, but that was when I was looking right into Westin¡¯s equally angry and scary face.


    Westin wasn¡¯t normally so scary looking. He, like Lucas, usually looked nice, not quite innocent like but still nice. He had a coppery sort of brown hair, just a hint of red to the highlights in his hair. His eyes were green, but not like Clovio¡¯s. Westin¡¯s eyes were a bright jewel colored green that seemed to shine even in the dark. He wasn¡¯t a wolf, like Lucas was. No, Westin was a feline that came from Uncle Landon¡¯s pack. He was strong and fierce, and quite good looking for a man that was so much older than me. I mean, he was like thirty already and I was only eighteen. That was just wrong.


    ¡°You are not going anywhere, Rika.¡± Westin growled at me. That growl sent a shiver down my back and made me gulp in fear. ¡°Not unless you are leaving this park with us. You too, Alyssa.¡± He looked at her and I saw that she squeaked in fear. ¡°You are behaving in a disappointing manner.¡± I felt ashamed of myself. I hadn¡¯t felt this way until these two showed up. Why was it that they were having this effect on me?


    ¡°You are not taking them anywhere.¡± Warrick snapped at Westin. ¡°We are here with them now. They are our dates.¡±


    ¡°Oh, make no mistake boy, you areing with us too.¡± Westin red at Warrick and Clovio like they were some kind of vermin that needed to be exterminated. ¡°Come here, both of you.¡± Westin grabbed my arm gently but firmly while taking Clovio¡¯s roughly. I wanted toin, but I couldn¡¯t. I knew that there was nothing that I could say to make Westin let me go.


    While Westin was holding onto me and Clovio, dragging us toward the street and the SUV that was waiting for us, Lucas grabbed onto Lyssa and Warrick. I was so embarrassed and mortified about what was happening, but I couldn¡¯t do anything to stop this from happening.


    ¡°I am sorry, Clovio.¡± I sighed.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Rika. This isn¡¯t your fault.¡± He was saying that he didn¡¯t me me, but there was still anger in his voice. Was it for me or Westin?


    I resigned myself to my fate because I knew that if I didn¡¯t go with them right now, my dad and my uncles woulde after us. And that was thest thing that I needed right now. I didn¡¯t want to have to deal with what that would end up meaning. My dad and uncles would be far more ruthless with Clovio and Warrick than Lucas and Westin were being. This was the safer option right now.


    When we were in the car, Westin let go of me and opened the door. He shoved Clovio into the vehicle like he was some kind of criminal.


    ¡°Can you not be so mean to him? You can be a little more gentle with him.¡± I asked him with a hurt tone in my voice. ¡°He is my boyfriend.¡± That was the first time that I said that to anyone, even Clovio. I saw the way that he looked back at me with a smile on his face.


    ¡°No. I will not be more gentle.¡± He red at me. ¡°There is no reason for me to be.¡± He was angry at me. I could tell that he was and I knew why. Still, he didn¡¯t have to take that anger out on Clovio. ¡°Please get into the car, Rika. I don¡¯t want to hurt you.¡± He was ring at me with eyes that were glowing dangerously.


    ¡°O..OK.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°I am sorry that I disobeyed my father, Westin.¡±


    I hung my head in shame and stepped into the SUV. Lucas was there as well, ready to shove Warrick into the back like Westin had done to Clovio. I was sitting in the middle row behind the driver¡¯s seat. Clovio was in the very back behind me. Warrick entered the vehicle behind the passenger seat and sat next to Clovio in the very back. I could tell that Lucas hadn¡¯t been as rough with him as Westin had been with Clovio.


    After the guys were in the back, Lyssa got in next to me and Lucas walked around to the driver¡¯s seat. Westin walked over to the passenger seat and turned to re at me.


    ¡°Whose idea was this?¡± He was angry. Those eyes were zing so brightly that I just couldn¡¯t handle looking into them right now. I kept my face down, looking at my hands instead of at him.


    ¡°Well, to be honest, it was Alexa¡¯s.¡± I told him the truth. ¡°Lyssa and I were sad that we couldn¡¯t hang out with our boyfriends after our sses were over. She told us to go and that she would take notes for us. She wanted to help us.¡± Lying would not be good right now. He would be able to know that I wasn¡¯t telling the truth and that would make things even worse for us all.


    ¡°Hmph.¡± He sounded so mad that I didn¡¯t want to talk to him anymore, but I knew that it wasn¡¯t over yet. ¡°You know that your father is going to hear about this, right?¡± His voice felt like fire that was washing over me. The amount of anger in his was literally burning me.


    ¡°Can¡¯t we drop Clovio and Warrick back off at the campus first?¡± I asked him, barely lifting my head to look at him. ¡°They don¡¯t need to go to the house with us.¡±


    ¡°No. They wille. They need to talk to your father as well.¡± I don¡¯t know why, but there was something in his eyes that felt like it went beyond the anger of me running off. What was going on here? Why was he so upset with Clovio and Warrick? They didn¡¯t do anything wrong. They were just going along with me and Lyssa.


    I really hope that they didn¡¯t take us to the castle though. That would be hard to exin. I mean, how do I tell my human boyfriend, that I wasn¡¯t sure yet whether he was my mate or not, that I lived in a magical castle up in the mountains that my mom and my great great great great grandfather that was three thousand years old built with their magic. And that it was the power of the ley lines that was running the castle. That just wasn¡¯t an easy topic of conversation.


    Hahh. What the hell was I going to do? How was I going to make it out of this situation? Was Clovio going to leave me? Did I ruin Lyssa¡¯s bond with Warrick? Was I causing everyone problems? I felt like I was. This was all my fault.


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 Chapter 925

    Chapter 925: Chapter 110- Rika ¨C To The Castle


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    ¡°Rika?¡± Clovio whispered behind me. ¡°Where are we going?¡± Clovio asked as we entered the gatedmunity that was home to so many of our people. This ce and the city of Trinity Falls were entirely nonhumanmunities.


    ¡°W..we¡¯re going to my house.¡± I stuttered a little as I looked up at the mountain covered in trees that hid the family home.


    That family home used to be nothing more than a house. A really big house that was considered an estate. It was huge and was castle-like in its own way. I have seen pictures of it and things along those lines. When I was little though, my mom and Athair m¨°r converted it. Now it was a massive castle that was one of thergest buildings in the world. However, we couldn¡¯t register it with the world around us, and it waspletely hidden from the humans. They weren¡¯t allowed to know that there was this massive castle in the middle of the United States. If they did know, they would wonder how it was that we had built this ce and it would just raise more questions than it would answer.


    ¡°Y..your house is in here?¡± Clovio was looking around themunity as if he wasn¡¯t sure how to process that. There were normal sized houses in this ce, but a lot of them were like mansionspared to most homes. This ce was home to a variety of people with different financial situations. The only requirement that this ce had when it was made was that the residents were wolves that were part of the Red Springs pack. That was the pack that my dad was the alpha of. Now though, with the entire shifter world united, there was less focus put on just the pack and more put on the whole world.


    .....


    I was trying to think of so many different things at the moment. Anything that wasn¡¯t the fact that Clovio and Warrick were about to get a dose of reality, my reality. They were about to dive head first into the deep end of the world of shifters and magic users. And I was afraid that he was going to reject me for it. So very scared.


    ¡°Why are we going up here?¡± Warrick asked as soon as the SUV started to wind its way up the extremely long driveway that led to the castle.


    ¡°This is where my house is.¡± I adamantly refused to call it a castle right now. I don¡¯t need to deal with that right now.


    ¡°You live hidden in the woods?¡± Clovio¡¯s eyes were filled with surprise when he asked me that. ¡°Hidden away from the world like I was when I was growing up.¡± He looked back out the window and I wasn¡¯t sure how to interpret thatst part of what he had said. Did he mean that he wasn¡¯t allowed to leave the orphanage when he was growing up? Not for school or anything? That would suck.


    ¡°WHAT THE HELL!?¡± Warrick¡¯s words were loud when he saw the castle on the other side of the massive fence.


    ¡°THAT IS CASTLE, NOT A HOUSE!¡± Clovio was just as shocked. ¡°Rika, why does your family have a castle?¡± He was so confused about what was going on that I just wanted to cry. I was the reason this was happening. I should have just ignored him when he asked me out. I should have just known that my wolf was telling me that I was not meant to be with Clovio and left it at that. I was stupid. I had wrapped him up in this and now it was all my fault that my parents were going to have to deal with this. I felt so bad. Why had I been so stupid?


    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s a castle. And this is where Rika grew up. Deal with it and shut up, you moron.¡± Westin snapped at Clovio in an angry voice.


    ¡°Excuse me Sir, but why do you hate me so much?¡±


    ¡°Why do I hate you? Hmm, let me see, you are the reason that Rika was put in danger. You don¡¯t think that I didn¡¯t see how that scene was unfolding? You think I don¡¯t know that those other guys, those friends of yours, weren¡¯t trying to cause trouble. And think about it, if you can put her in danger like that, then you would be able to put her in danger in many other ways. You are not worthy of the princess, and I will have no problem telling you to.¡±


    ¡°WESTIN!¡± I snapped at him for having used my title.


    ¡°Princess?¡± Clovio¡¯s voice sounded confused. ¡°Is that what you call her? Then I see that she means a lot to you, Mr. Westin.¡± OH GODDESS NO! Clovio thought that Westin and I were a thing. This wasn¡¯t good at all.


    ¡°I care for her the way that any bodyguard would. She is my responsibility and I will protect her. And if that means that I need to keep you out of the picture, then I will.¡± There was more anger and heat in Westin¡¯s eyes than I thought was possible. ¡°Now shut up and get out.¡± At that moment, Lucas had pulled into the underground garage and parked near the elevator. This was it. My life was literally about to end.


    Westin pulled the door open for Lyssa and I to get out. After that, Clovio and Warrick climbed out of the back seat and stood next to the two guards.


    ¡°Rika, lead the way to your mom¡¯s office. And do not even think about getting us sidetracked or dyed. We are heading straight there. If I need to call in backup, I will.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± I sighed as I spoke. My heart was beating a mile a minute and I could practically taste the fear that was coursing through me. I was terrified of what was toe, but I wasn¡¯t about to let it get worse by trying to fight it. I wouldn¡¯t survive if that were the case. ¡°I am going to go straight there, Westin. I am sorry that this happened. I didn¡¯t mean to cause problems.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s toote for that now, Rika. We just need to try and fix things from here on out. Let this be a lesson to you though. You need to grow the fuck up and stop acting like a petnt child. Rules are in ce to keep you safe, whether you like them or not. Now, get walking, please.¡± He softened his tone just a little bit at the end of that. I knew that he was a good man and that he didn¡¯t like being this mean to me. He didn¡¯t want me to get in trouble or anything like that. It was my fault though, and he wasn¡¯t going to let me off the hook. Firm yet fair, that was a good way to describe Westin.


    I led the way to the elevator and pressed the button for the offices. The only rooms that were on this floor of the royal tower were my parents¡¯ offices. My mom¡¯s office was the biggest one since she was the one that was in charge, but my dad needed his. And so did those that had official positions like Uncle Vincent and Uncle Gabriel. They were all part of this whole political world that my parents lived in. Heh, maybe I should study politics more than business. Then I could learn how this whole thing worked.


    When I got onto the elevator with everyone else, I turned to look at Clovio and Warrick. They were shocked by what was happening, but something in their eyes told me that they weren¡¯t feelingpletely blown away by it all. They had handled all of this better than I thought that they would. That was good.


    ¡°Clovio, Warrick, I want to apologize. This is all my fault. You are here and in trouble like this because of me. There is a lot about me that you don¡¯t know. I am sorry that I never exined things to youpletely, but I am not just a normal college girl. I hope that at ater time, you will allow me to exin things to you. I want to make this up to you both. You don¡¯t deserve to be treated like this.¡± My heart was feeling heavy. I had tears that were stinging my eyes. My throat was tight and stiff. It was so hard for me to process all of this and still maintain myposure. As it was, I thought that I would end up losing thatposure very soon. I would probably lose my cool the moment that my parents started to yell at me. I hated when they did that. I hated when I disappointed them. I didn¡¯t like that I was going to be seen as a failure in their eyes.


    Finally, the elevator came to a stop, dinging to let us know that we had reached our floor. There was a lot of noiseing from the door that led to my mom¡¯s office. She was in a meeting at the moment. This could go good or bad. I could get reamed in front of everyone, or the whole thing can be thrown out because it wasn¡¯t as important as the case that they were working on. I was hoping for thetter of the two.


    ¡®PLEASE GODDESS! LET MY PARENTS SAY THAT THEY DON¡¯T WANT TO DEAL WITH THIS RIGHT NOW!¡¯ I screamed the prayer inside of my head, hoping that it would help me before things got out of hand.


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 Chapter 926

    Chapter 926: Chapter 111- Rika ¨C Telling Mom & Dad (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    I watched as Westin stepped a little closer to my mom¡¯s office door. He was listening to see what was going on. That was probably normal for a guard like him, but in my mind, it was an invasion of privacy. I hoped that he didn¡¯t do that to me. I would hate it if he listened in on the private talks I had with my friends. I was a boy-crazy teenage girl, and he was so far removed from what was happening to me that it wasn¡¯t even funny. What was I supposed to do if he heard me talking about the boys that I liked? Or about how I made out with Clovio? That was just scary.


    ¡°Come on.¡± Westin interrupted my thoughts about him and pulled Clovio toward my dad¡¯s office. ¡°We will wait in here. Lucas, please ask the king and queen toe to this office. Tell them that Rika and Alyssa are here and that perhaps King Dietrich and King Shawn shoulde with them as well.¡± While he spoke about royalty, Westing dragged Clovio into my dad¡¯s office and threw him onto the couch. Lucas led Warrick to the office and once his hands were free, Westin took Warrick¡¯s arm and pulled him in as well.


    ¡°I will be back shortly.¡± Lucas nodded and left. He always seemed to be deferential toward Westin for some reason. It was like he was somehow acknowledging that Westin was the stronger of the two of them. I didn¡¯t know how I felt about that. I mean, I knew that a feline was strong, and that in most cases, depending on the breed of the cat anyway, a feline could be stronger than a werewolf. It all depends on the man though. My dad was the strongest man in the world, but that had to do with the blessings of strength that he had been given, and that he was naturally strong as an Alpha.


    Clovio and Warrick were looking around the office like they were curious. They seemed to think that this was the most surreal thing to ever happen to them. I mean that was probably true. They were taken by force to a castle hidden in the mountains. Once there, they started hearing different titles like princess, queen, and king. They were probably thinking that we were all pretentious rich people. I didn¡¯t want Clovio to think that about me. Even if he broke up with me, I didn¡¯t want him to think that I was some sort of horrible person.


    .....


    ¡°Clovio, this isn¡¯t-.¡±


    ¡°This office is different than I expected.¡± He cut me off with a smile and his smooth voice. ¡°I was imagining something much darker and sinister.¡± Heughed at that like it was the funniest thing ever, but I saw that Warrick was looking nervous. Was talking like this Clovio¡¯s way of coping? Was he nervous and taking it out verbally like this?


    ¡°Shut up.¡± Westin snapped at him. ¡°I want no talking, from any of you right now.¡± He looked at me when he said that too. I was the one that had started the conversation, I guess. He was just not wanting to deal with me or the others right now.


    It was ufortable, but a moment or twoter I heard a loud voice call from the other office. It was so loud and angry that I was able to make it out from here perfectly.


    ¡°WHAT!?¡± That was my dad. ¡°SHAWN! DIETRICH! COME HERE!¡± What followed that was a loud stomping of feet. I knew that was my dad. My mom, no matter how angry, wouldn¡¯t stomp like that. My dad, though, wanted to make sure that we knew that he wasing. It was an intimidation technique, and it was working. At least it was working on me and Lyssa. I saw that she was also cowering in fear as we listened to our parents approaching the office.


    Those steps continued quickly out of my mom¡¯s office and across the hall. The moment that I heard them right outside the room, I saw the door to the office door fly open and splinter from the force with which it had been struck.


    ¡°RIKA SARAI GRAY!¡± My dad bellowed at me which caused me to squeak in fear.


    ¡°Eeep!¡± I was trembling when I looked up into his eyes. ¡°U..uh..uhm, h..hi Daddy.¡± I reminded him that I was in fact his daughter and that he shouldn¡¯t kill me. He was supposed to protect me.


    ¡°WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO!? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!¡± He was still screaming at me as he spoke. I started to cry on the spot. I hated this. I never should have done this.


    ¡°ALYSSA SHANA ASHER-CONRAD, EXPLAIN YOURSELF!¡± Uncle Dietrich came barging into the room next, calling out to his daughter who was just as scared and nervous as I was. Lyssa was crying harder than I was and I wanted to make her feel better. I couldn¡¯t though. I just couldn¡¯t.


    ¡°I..I am so sorry, Papa. I didn¡¯t mean to make you mad. I am so sorry.¡± Lyssa sobbed as she buried her face in her hands.


    ¡°Lyssa.¡± Uncle Shawn came to kneel in front of Lyssa at that moment. ¡°We aren¡¯t mad, not really. We are scared and worried. How could you do something so dangerous?¡±


    ¡°I am sorry, Daddy.¡± She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. ¡°I am so sorry.¡±


    ¡°I know you are, sweetheart.¡± Uncle Shawn rubbed her back soothingly as she sobbed onto his shoulder.


    ¡°Rika, tell me what happened. Why were you not at school? Who are these young men?¡± Mom came over to me and knelt down just like Uncle Shawn had done for Lyssa.


    ¡°I..I was mad that Dad told me I couldn¡¯t go out after school. A..Alexa told us to go during school and to be back before it was time to be picked up. I..I am sorry Mom. I..I just wanted to go out with Clovio.¡±


    ¡°Clovio?¡± Dad red at the two men that were sitting with me and Lyssa. ¡°And I am guessing that the other one is Warrick.¡± I saw that he and Uncle Dietrich were both looking at the men with anger and rage. Uncle Shawn and Mom were a little more subtle about their anger though, it was a little less obvious at the very least.


    ¡°Yes Sir.¡± Clovio smiled up at Dad. ¡°I am Clovio Mathias and this is Warrick Abitz.¡± It sounded so confident and smooth that I knew my dad would find no reason to be worried about these men.


    ¡°Hmm. Don¡¯t you mean Clovio and Warrick Jaegan?¡± My dad used a name that I had never heard before, but I saw the moment that the name was registered with my boyfriend and Lyssa¡¯s mate. They knew that name. Why was my dad saying that Clovio and Warrick lied about theirst name?


    ¡°How do you know that name?¡± I could hear the fear that was shaking in Clovio¡¯s voice.


    ¡°Did you think that we wouldn¡¯t know how to track down information on all of you? We are currently getting as much information on you and the others from Saint ric¡¯s Home for Children.¡±


    ¡°Is that the orphanage you grew up in?¡± I turned to look at Clovio, but I probably shouldn¡¯t have. He was looking at my dad with a mixture of anger and fear. What was happening? What was going on here? ¡°Clovio?¡±


    ¡°Rika, you need to stop.¡± Mom looked at me. ¡°This boy is not who you think that he is.¡±


    ¡°Yes, he is, Mom. He is my boyfriend. I..I am falling in love with him. And I just need to figure out if he¡¯s my.. if we¡¯re meant to be.¡± I almost slipped and said the word mate. I couldn¡¯t say that word just yet. I didn¡¯t know how Clovio would take it. ¡°Clovio, tell my mom that they are wrong about you. Tell her that you are not Clovio Jaegan. You are Clovio Mathias. You are from an orphanage in Germany. You are here on an exchange program. Tell them, Clovio. Please.¡±


    Why was I starting to feel more and more desperate? Why was I so scared? What was happening right now? I didn¡¯t know what was going on, but I knew that I wasn¡¯t going to like what happened in a little bit. Something told me that this was all about to go south. Something told me that I was wrong. So very wrong. I had been wrong about everything this whole time.


    ¡°Clovio?¡± I sobbed as I said his name. ¡°Say something, please.¡±


    ¡°Warrick?¡± Lyssa looked at her mate with her eyes opened wide. ¡°What is going on here?¡±


    Warrick had a look in his eyes that spoke of apology and sorrow. Clovio¡¯s eyes were filled more with fear and panic. What was going on with them? Why weren¡¯t they speaking.


    ¡°Rika, you don¡¯t know what is going on here. I know that is my fault though.¡± My mom took my hand and looked me in the eyes. ¡°I didn¡¯t tell you what was going on. Not all of it. If I had, you might not be in this situation at the moment. I am sorry, sweetheart.¡± For some reason, my mom hugged me tightly. She was trying to make me feel better about something, but I just didn¡¯t get it. What was happening?


    ¡°What is going on, Mom? Will someone please exin this to me.¡± I begged her and the others, but oddly enough it was Clovio that answered me. He finally looked at me with his panic filled eyes. I did detect a trace of sadness as well. Why was he sorry?


    ¡°I am sorry, Rika. I lied to you.¡±


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 Chapter 927

    Chapter 927: Chapter 112- Rika- Betrayed (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    What was that? What was it that Clovio had just said to me? H..he lied to me? What did he lie to me about? What was going on here? What was all of this about?


    ¡°Cl..Clovio? What did you lie to me about? Your name? Is that all?¡± I wanted to end this on a good note. ¡°Did you all grow up with the samest name in the orphanage and then just change them when you became adults? If that is all that it is, then that is nothing. Don¡¯t scare me like that, Clovio.¡± I tried tough off what he was saying, and what I was saying as well, but something just didn¡¯t feel right at all. Something told me that there was more to his betrayal than that.


    ¡°No Rika, he lied about more than that, didn¡¯t you, Clovio? And you too Warrick. Do you want to tell my daughter and niece what you lied about, or should I?¡± Daddy was ring at the two of them as he offered them the chance toe clean about their lies.


    ¡°Wh..why are you doing this?¡± Clovio looked so hurt as he responded to my dad. He looked like he was a victim in all of this. Wasn¡¯t that the truth though? He hadn¡¯t done anything wrong, had he?


    .....


    ¡°Clovio?¡± I asked him, wanting to hear it from him.


    ¡°Go on and tell her, Clovio. Tell her what it is that you are really here for.¡± Uncle Dietrich growled at him. ¡°And you too, Warrick. You sit there and pretend to be mated with my daughter and you can¡¯t even be honest with her. What kind of man are you?¡± I had never seen Uncle Dietrich this angry in my entire life.


    ¡°Papa?¡± Lyssa looked at him like he was being unnecessarily cruel. ¡°He is my mate, Papa. I can feel it. My soul tells me that he is the man that I am meant to be with. My heart and soul are in sync when I am with him. He is the only man for me, Papa. I know that he is my mate. There is nothing that you or Daddy can say to make me change my mind.¡±


    ¡°Alyssa?¡± Uncle Shawn looked so hurt by her words. It looked to me like he was about to cry for her, but Uncle Dietrich was in a different mood. He was angered by her words.


    ¡°ALYSSA!¡± He snapped at her. ¡°How can you do this to me? Seriously? The moment that I leave town you go and form a mate bond with a fucking vampire hunter! And not just a vampire hunter. He and his family will kill anyone in the shadow world without prejudice.¡±


    ¡°A..a v..vam..vampire h..h..hunter?!¡± I stuttered the phrase out since it was such a shock to me.


    ¡°A..a what?!¡± Lyssa looked at Warrick with fear in her eyes. ¡°A..are you really? H..have you killed people like me? A..are you a killer?¡± She was crying soundlessly as she asked him this. The tears streaming down her face as she looked at Warrick with eyes that were filled with pain.


    ¡°Lyssa, it¡¯s not like that. I haven¡¯t killed anyone, I swear that I haven¡¯t.¡± Warrick sounded like he was freezing over with fear. His voice was trembling and his whole body looked like it was shaking.


    ¡°Cl..Clovio?¡± I called out to the man that was next to me and didn¡¯t know what to think. Were my dad and Uncle Dietrich telling the truth? Were Clovio and Warrick hunters of some sort? Were they out to hurt my people?


    That was when another thought hit me. My parents were gone all that time investigating. They were investigating murders. The murdered people were like us. They were wolves, felines, bears, vampires, witches, Fae, and whatever else that these people could find.


    ¡°O..oh mmy G..G..Goddess.¡± I rose to my feet and stepped away from Clovio. ¡°Y..you¡¯re part of it, aren¡¯t you? Y..y..you¡¯re part of that group that is.. that is.. that is killing our people. Y..y..you¡¯re murderers.¡± I felt sick to my stomach. ¡°Y..you killed those people in Europe. A..and now you want to kill people here. Y..you¡¯re one of them, aren¡¯t you?¡± I was shouting at Clovio by the time that I was done. I could feel a burning hot rage boiling inside of me. ¡°Y..you are one of th..those monsters.¡± I ced a hand over my mouth and my stomach at the same time. ¡°Oh my Goddess, I..I can¡¯t believe that I fell for this. Y..you were just using me. Y..you were going to kill me, weren¡¯t you?¡±


    I was looking at Clovio through a haze of red. The anger that was coursing through me was stronger than I had ever felt in my entire life. I wanted to hit something. I wanted to rip something to pieces. I wanted to destroy something and make sure that it wasn¡¯t able to continue on. I wouldn¡¯t do that though, no matter how much I wanted to. I wasn¡¯t a monster. I wasn¡¯t a mindless beast like he probably thought that I was.


    ¡°You must have thought that it was pretty fucking funny, huh?¡± I snapped at him. My words and angry tone of voice were the only weapons that I was going to use against this asshole. ¡°You must think that I was pretty damned pathetic. You knew who I was from the start, didn¡¯t you? That is why you didn¡¯t look shocked to hear the title of princess, king, and queen. You knew who I was. You knew what I was, and you were just using me. This was nothing more than a game to you, huh? What was all of this meant to prove, huh? That the eldest princess was a stupid na?ve girl that you were able to trick into dating you? How far were you going to take this, huh? Were you going to sleep with me and then try to kill me? Were you going to make sure that I was fully in love with you before you tried to kill me? What was your end game here, huh Clovio?¡± I could feel the tears streaming down my face now. I hadn¡¯t even known that they had started to flow, but now that they were, I couldn¡¯t stop them.


    ¡°Rika.¡± Clovio was looking at me with wide eyes. It was like he hadn¡¯t even heard half of what I had just said. ¡°Y..you were falling in love with me?¡±


    ¡°STOP IT!¡± I snapped at him. ¡°Stop acting like you¡¯re happy to hear that. I shouldn¡¯t have been. I should have been smarter. But dammit, Clovio, you were the first boy that I liked. You were the first boy that I ever went out with, and you betrayed me. I don¡¯t know what I was feeling. I thought it was love, but I don¡¯t know anymore.¡± I wrapped my arms around myself as I tried to hold myself together. My parents, Lyssa¡¯s parents, Lucas, Westin, all of them were staring at me and Clovio as I exploded at him. This was not how I wanted to hash this out, but I guess that I didn¡¯t have much of a choice.


    ¡°I swear, Rika, I didn¡¯t mean to hurt you. Y..yes, I was supposed to get close to you and your brother. I was supposed to be friends with you and nothing more. B..but I really do like you. I wanted to be with you. I didn¡¯t care why I had been sent here anymore. I was falling for you too, Rika. I swear.¡±


    ¡°STOP LYING TO ME!¡± I snapped at him. ¡°I don¡¯t want to hear this anymore. You are horrible, Clovio. You are horrible and I never want to see you again.¡±


    I spat the words at him angrily. I would have liked to p him across the face, but I was afraid that if Ished out physically that I wouldn¡¯t be able to stop. And I didn¡¯t want to because of that monster. He and whoever else was with him wanted to kill my people. They thought that we weren¡¯t worth keeping alive. They probably thought that I was nothing more than a stupid dog. A mindless killing machine or whatever. And I refused to be that right now. I wasn¡¯t going to give him or anyone else in his group of assholes the satisfaction.


    ¡°I hate you, Clovio. I hate you so much.¡±


    I couldn¡¯t stop myself anymore. I let the sorrow overwhelm me and ran from the room. I didn¡¯t want to be anywhere near this man again. I didn¡¯t want to be near any of them at all. Except perhaps Lyssa. And since she followed me out of my room and up to my room, I wasn¡¯t going to stop her. She was just as hurt as I was. She had been betrayed just as thoroughly as I had been. She might even be feeling worse than I was right now. She was mated to Warrick and had been lied to by him.


    All I was able to do when I got to my room was copse onto my bed and sob into my pillow. Lyssa mimicked me, crying next to me into another pillow as we both let loose every single tear in our entire bodies. I cried over Clovio. I cried over what I had thought I had with him. I cried over the truth that I had learned about him. And I cried over the gaping hole that I felt in my chest with him having betrayed me like that. Everything was over with us, but it hurt so much because this was the first time that I had ever felt something like this.


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 Chapter 928

    Chapter 928: Chapter 113- Trinity ¨C What Is The Truth (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I had just watched Rika and Alyssa run out of Reece¡¯s office in tears. They had found out the truth about the men that they had thought were meant to be their forever loves. They had been betrayed in the most hurtful of ways. These men had broken their hearts, shattered them into a million pieces that would never be quite the same ever again.


    I was seeing red. That was how angry I was at the moment. And I knew for a fact that I wasn¡¯t the only one in this room that was seeing that bloodshot rage boiling in front of their vision. Reece, Dietrich, Shawn, Lucas and Westin were all feeling it as well.


    Only one person ran after Rika and Alyssa when they left the office. Westin, Rika¡¯s guard, left the room after just a moment¡¯s hesitation. He was hot on their heels, but I didn¡¯t know what it was that he intended to do. Unless the girls left the castle, which I doubted that they would, he wouldn¡¯t be able to do much but listen to the two girls crying as they settled themselves down. I had never known Westin to be the emotional type. No, he wasn¡¯t going to be able to make them feel better, but he would let them know that they weren¡¯t alone in their vulnerable time of need.


    ¡°Clovio?¡± I growled his name through my teeth. ¡°How dare you toy with my daughter¡¯s heart like that? That was a despicable thing to do.¡± I felt like he was nothing more than the trash under my shoe. Or the gun found under the bleachers. He was a disgusting creature that warranted no niceties from me.


    .....


    ¡°I swear, Queen Trinity, I was not toying with her. I meant to meet her, yes. Her and your son Reagan. They were both on the list of people to meet when we got here, but that was all. I was supposed to keep tabs on them. To report their movements back to the administration. I was supposed to be a spy, but I couldn¡¯t do it. I couldn¡¯t bring myself to do what they wanted me to.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah, and why not?¡± Reece snapped at him, his voice filled with righteous fury.


    ¡°Because she was not like they told us she would be. She was not a monster. None of you are. Even Reagan, who never liked me, even from day one, he wasn¡¯t a monster. Levi, Luka, Alexa, Lyssa, Rika, na, Rowan, Elias. None of them were how we had been told that they would be. And there were others at the university too. Other nonhumans that were just as nice, friendly, and caring. I couldn¡¯t bring myself to follow my orders.¡±


    ¡°STOP LYING TO ME!¡± Reece snarled and roared at the boy that was spouting his nonsense. I was still stuck on the fact that he knew who all of the kids were. Everyone that we had sent to the university this year. He was in on it all.


    ¡°I am not lying to you.¡± Clovio had flinched at Reece¡¯s roaring tone of voice, but he was holding firm to his story. ¡°When I got to know Rika, I knew that she was a sweet and caring person. She told me that she learned to be that way because of her parents. That you are generous and loving people that will help anyone. She didn¡¯t outright say it, but she was implying that you didn¡¯t care if those people were human or not. You care for them all.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but that kindness doesn¡¯t extend to your family,¡± I snapped at him angrily. ¡°I draw the line at people who kill my people.¡±


    ¡°I haven¡¯t killed anyone. I am not that type of person. Please, believe me. I like Rika. I still do. I know that she will never trust me again, but I was not lying to her. She is special. To me and to the world. And I swear to you, I never once reported back to the administration. I never once told them anything. The others haven¡¯t either. Themunications were supposed toe from me and me alone. They know nothing of what has happened since I met Rika. I have pretended thatmunication is difficult at the moment, but I knew that wasn¡¯t going tost.¡±


    There was a new kind of fear in Clovio¡¯s eyes when he said those words. What was it that he meant? What had happened? Was any of what he was saying true? Could I trust a single word that he was saying? This was not something that I was willing to put up to chance.


    ¡®Vincent. Gabriel. I need you in Reece¡¯s office right now.¡¯ I called out to them mentally. They were the only ones that would be about to tell me if what they were saying was true or not. They were the only ones that I would trust at the moment. They would see the truth unerringly.


    It wasn¡¯t even ten secondster when the two of them came running across the hall and into Reece¡¯s office. They had been listening to what was happening from my office, and they were most likely happy to be part of the scene now. I didn¡¯t me them. They had probably heard the shouting and could guess what was happening. Or at least part of it.


    ¡°Wh..who are these men?¡± Clovio looked at Vincent and Gabriel with utter fear. He seemed to be afraid of most of the men that were here with them. Probably me too, but he was at least able to talk to me calmly.


    ¡°These are two more of my personal entourage.¡± I didn¡¯t take my eyes off of Clovio as I started to introduce the neers. ¡°Vincent and Gabriel are able to find the truth in anything. They are blessed by the gods and can see to the heart of anything. They will tell me if you are telling the truth right now or not. And it is up to them if we trust anything that you say to us.¡±


    ¡°Good. Have them verify it all. I have nothing at all to hide from you. I will tell you everything.¡± There was a resigned and pleading sort of look in Clovio¡¯s eyes. I saw the same one in Warrick¡¯s eyes as well. What was it that they were thinking right now?


    ¡°Tell them what you told me. All of it, as close as verbatim as you possibly can. I don¡¯t want to see you trying to leave anything out or slipping something else in there. Tell them what you said to me.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Queen Trinity.¡± Clovio bowed his head and closed his eyes. ¡°I will tell them what I told you.¡±


    I have to hand it to the boy. He was almost perfect with his recall of what he said. Yeah, yeah, there might be a changed word here or there, but the meaning stayed the same. So far, the boy was able to do what he was told to do. Now, let¡¯s see if anything that he said was true.


    I watched Gabriel and Vincent as they listened to the man speak. They were trying to verify it all in full detail. They weren¡¯t going to let him slide with anything. And when Clovio¡¯s recount of the conversation was over, I called the two of them over to me.


    ¡°So, what is the verdict?¡± I was looking into their eyes, trying my best to guess what it was that they were going to tell me. I saw that they turned to look at each other, nodded their heads, sighed, and looked back at me. ¡°I take it that he is lying through his teeth.¡± I grinned at the fact that they had all but confirmed that to me with those little gestures.


    ¡°No, Trinity, that is not it at all.¡± Vincent was shaking his head. ¡°He is telling the truth. Every word that he said rang with truth. He wasn¡¯t lying at all.¡±


    ¡°Fuck!¡± I shook my head. ¡°Thatplicated things.¡± I was looking at Clovio¡¯s confident face. He was a bit of an arrogant asshole, but he at least knew how to tell the truth. However, we needed to see just how far that truthfulness of his was going to go. Was he going to keep it up, or was this it?


    ¡°Trinity?¡± Vincent was speaking to me but looking at Clovio. ¡°If they continue to be cooperative, they might be the biggest break that we have in this case. I think that we need to listen to them. Let them tell us what it is that they know.¡± He didn¡¯t exactly sound happy about this, but he and I both knew that he was right. We needed to see if he was willing to help us, or if the words that he was saying were the end of his cooperation.


    ¡°I will advise that these men are not let out of our sight.¡± Gabriel was looking at the two members of the Jaegan family.


    ¡°I know, Gabriel.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°We will do what we can to learn as much as possible. However, I refuse to let anyone be the monsters that his family thinks that we are. I will not allow them to be harmed in any way.¡± I knew that Clovio and Warrick were able to hear me. They knew they were safe, but they also knew that they were trapped. For now at least. I didn¡¯t know how long that was going tost. I guess that all just depends on the two of them.


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 Chapter 929

    Chapter 929: Chapter 114- Talia ¨C Confrontation Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    Things were a little weird today, and I don¡¯t just mean me having that vision this morning. Or any of the things that went with that. After Lex and I joined my parents in the meeting, things started to change, and a lot of weird things were happening.


    First, Lucas came running into the room and told my parents as well as Uncle Dietrich and Uncle Shawn. They were apparently needed in another room for whatever reason. I hadn¡¯t been able to hear it all since they were whispering about what was happening, and I was all the way across the room from them. All of them looked worried though, so I knew that something had to have happened.


    And, of course, I had been right. Not long after my parents and uncles left the room, we all started to hear some yelling from the other side of the hall. That wasing from my dad¡¯s office. What was going on in there? And was that my sister¡¯s voice that I heard? Wasn¡¯t she supposed to be in ss right now? Not that I had room to talk. I was home from school as well, but I had a reason to be here.


    It wasn¡¯t long after I heard my sister screaming at someone that I saw Uncle Vincent and Uncle Gabriel running from the room. Mom must have called them and said that she needed them. They were good men, strong men, but they were more beneficial when they were meeting people for the first time. Did that mean that there was someone in there that we had never met before? Were they using their powers to see if this new person, or people, could be trusted?


    .....


    I was so curious about what was happening that I wanted to see what was happening. So desperately it seems, that I didn¡¯t even know when I started to walk toward the door to the hall.


    ¡°Talia? What are you doing?¡± Lex put his hand on my shoulder and stopped me mid step.


    ¡°I..I feel like I need to go over there.¡± I barely spared him a nce before I looked back toward the hall. ¡°Something is drawing me in that direction. I need to see what is happening over there.¡± I started to walk again as I answered him.


    ¡°Then let us go together. Please do not try to leave on your own.¡± He gently grabbed onto my elbow and guided me into the hall. Now that we were a little closer, with fewer walls blocking out the sound, and fewer people around to muddle the noise that I was trying to hear, I could make out the voices of the person that my parents were talking to.


    ¡°I haven¡¯t killed anyone. I am not that type of person. Please, believe me. I like Rika. I still do. I know that she will never trust me again, but I was not lying to her. She is special. To me and to the world. And I swear to you, I never once reported back to the administration. I never once told them anything. The others haven¡¯t either. Themunications were supposed toe from me and me alone. They know nothing of what has happened since I met Rika. I have pretended thatmunication is difficult at the moment, but I knew that wasn¡¯t going tost.¡± There was a man with an ent speaking. He was scared and annoyed at the same time. I could tell that he was not sure how this was all going to end.


    I didn¡¯t care about what he was feeling at the moment. What mattered to me right now was that he sounded familiar. Not his voice really, but his ent. I had heard that ent before. And just recently. His voice was a little higher pitched than the man that I had seen in my vision, but that ent in his voice was almost exactly the same. The way that he spoke, the dialect that he used, it was the same as the man that was in my vision. That man that had killed Andrea.


    ¡°L..L..Lex!?¡± I reached out toward him. ¡°That ent. It¡¯s the same as I heard earlier. It¡¯s not the same man, but the ent is the same.¡± I felt a sort of rushing sensation inside of my head. ¡°Why didn¡¯t I notice it sooner? I know what that ent is. I know where that man is from. I hear it from time to time. When Uncle Dietrich speaks in his natural voice and not his Americanized voice. I hear it the most when he speaks German. The ent that I heard was a German ent. That man has a German ent.¡± I felt like the puzzle pieces clicked inside of my head. I hadn¡¯t been able to ce it until just now. Why though? Why had it eluded me? What was going on. ¡°Lex?¡± I looked back at him.


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Talia. We will figure this out.¡± He took my hand and looked toward the door. I could hear my mom whispering with Uncle Vincent and Uncle Gabriel. They were talking about these men and about whether they could be trusted.


    ¡°Trust?¡± I snapped the word in a whisper at the door. ¡°How can we trust those men.


    ¡°Clovio, I will listen to what you have to say, I will take it all into consideration, if you promise to help us.¡± I heard my mom saying to the man that had spoken before. There were apparently two of them in there, but only the one had been talking.


    ¡°Thank you, Queen Trinity.¡± There was an immense amount of relief filling his voice. Why? Why should he get to feel relieved? Doesn¡¯t he know what we¡¯ve been through? Doesn¡¯t he know how hard it has been for us? He and his family have murdered our people. I¡¯ve seen what they have done. Mom had seen it too, so why would she be willing to trust him? What was she thinking?


    I couldn¡¯t take it anymore. I needed to step in. I needed to stop this. I needed to make sure that she knew that I, and everyone else, would not approve of this truce that she was making. I had to say something to stop this deal with the devil from being made.


    ¡°MOTHER!¡± I shouted her name as I stormed into the room. I was at a loss when I saw the looks on everyone¡¯s faces. I nearly let that stop me from saying what was on my mind. When I saw the anger and confusion that was filling Dad¡¯s eyes. When I saw the shock and surprise that was on Uncle Vincent and Uncle Gabriel¡¯s faces. And let¡¯s not get me started with the look that were on Rika and Reagan¡¯s guard¡¯s face. Lucas looked like he was about to be sick with the entire situation It looked to me like he was waiting to hit someone, but I didn¡¯t pay attention to that at all. I was too distracted.


    The men in question were in here as well. There were two of them sitting there on the sofa just staring at me. One of them had ck hair, green eyes, a handsome face that was filled with angles and looked like it was chiseled out of some pale stone. The other had the same green eyes and dark hair, but his face was softer and looked more boyish. I didn¡¯t know which of them had been talking to my mom earlier, but I didn¡¯t care. Neither of them was a friend to us, and I would never ept anything that they said as truth. They were evil and so were their family members. They could never be trusted.


    ¡°Talia?!¡±


    Mom finally broke the silence that followed my abrupt intrusion to the office. She and the others had taken a moment toe to their senses about what was going on or something like that. Now though, they were all getting back their abilities to speak, and I could tell that the yelling was about to start.


    My parents were both pissed off, and I had a feeling that it was about to be directed right toward me. I didn¡¯t care. Let them yell. They were going to be the ones apologizing to me soon. When I told them who these men were, where they were from, they were going to thank me for barging in here like this. They were going to be so thankful that I helped to expose them for what they were that they wouldn¡¯t even think about taking that anger out on me. Just wait, they will see, I am sure that this will all end the way that I see it going in my head.


    ¡°Talia, what do you think that you are doing?¡± Mom snapped at me angrily. ¡°We are in the middle of something.¡± She was angry, but she didn¡¯t know what I knew.


    ¡°Mom, these men, the one that was talking for sure, they are part of that group. I know that they are. They are with those killers. They are the ones that are killing our people.¡± This was what she needed to know. And this was why I had been drawn over here. I needed to help my family to understand this. And now that they knew, they could make these men pay for their crimes. I wanted to smile. I wanted to be smug about this, but I couldn¡¯t. My mom looked at me with anger in her eyes and said something that made my heart feel like it was about to stop.


    ¡°I know, Talia. That¡¯s why we need to talk to them right now.¡±


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 Chapter 930

    Chapter 930: Chapter 115- Talia ¨C Confrontation Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    I felt like I couldn¡¯t breathe. What was happening? My parents knew what these men were? Who they were? And they were still willing to talk to them.


    ¡°MOM!?¡± I screamed at her. ¡°These men have killed our people, and you act like it¡¯s nothing at all. How!? How are you able to do this to our people?!¡± I screamed at her as I felt the pain start to surge inside of me.


    ¡°I have never hurt anyone, and I never will.¡± The man that had spoken earlier spoke up with a terrified tone to his voice. ¡°I swear that I will never hurt anyone. Please, you must believe me.¡±


    ¡°Believe you?¡± I snapped at him angrily. I could see almost nothing but red as my rage flooded through my veins. ¡°You want me to trust you.¡± I tasted the man¡¯s fear in the air in the room. It was thickening as he looked at me and the anger that was evident on my face. Or maybe he could just feel it rolling off of me. ¡°I will never trust you. You are a liar and a murderer.¡±


    .....


    ¡°I swear that I am not.¡± The man seemed to sob as he shrank away from me.


    ¡°We have not killed anyone. We would never. We are afraid of our family.¡± The other man spoke up. His ent was thicker than the other man¡¯s, but I was still able to understand him perfectly. ¡°I love Alyssa, she is my soulmate. I would never do anything to hurt her, or her people.¡±


    ¡°You cannot be her soulmate. You are human for one thing, and for two you are a monster.¡±


    ¡°Talia!¡± Mom snapped at me angrily as I yelled at the man. ¡°That is enough.¡±


    ¡°Mom?¡± I was confused. What was going on here? What was happening? ¡°They are part of that family.¡±


    ¡°I know, Talia. They were brought here to answer for their family¡¯s crimes, but they are innocent. And until they are no longer innocent, they will be safe in our home. I will not let anyone here be the monsters that they have been told that we are. That would not be the right way to handle this situation.¡± She was trying to be rational and calming, but her voice was telling me just how angry that she was at me.


    ¡°You haven¡¯t seen what I have seen, Mom.¡± I yelled back at her. I was not going to back down here. ¡°I have seen what these men do. I have seen it in person.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± The man with the more boyish face asked me with eyes that clearly said that he didn¡¯t believe me.


    ¡°Clovio, now is not the time.¡±


    ¡°Clovio?¡± I snapped at him. ¡°You are Clovio? So, you are the boy that my sister likes. And that must mean that you are Warrick.¡± I red at the silent boy.


    ¡°Yes, I am Clovio, and he is Warrick.¡± The man nodded and didn¡¯t even try to deny it.


    ¡°Well, Clovio, let me tell you what I have seen. And I am not just talking about the numerous dead bodies that have been left behind by your family. Those were horrifying and heartbreaking all at the same time, but that wasn¡¯t the worst of it. Last week I had a vision. I dreamt of a girl that was about to have a date with someone that she liked. Only this man got to her before she could go on her date. He did something to her to make her go into some sort of trance. He carved runes onto her body that basically paralyzed her. He then raped her and murdered her.¡±


    ¡°H..he raped her?¡± Clovio looked appalled by what he heard. ¡°Th..that isn¡¯t right. H..he shouldn¡¯t have done that.¡±


    ¡°Oh, but you have nothing to say about the fact that he murdered her?¡± I snapped at him. ¡°That doesn¡¯t seem to bother you at all though, does it? The more of my people that die the better, right?¡± I was breathing heavily as I screamed at him. ¡°You don¡¯t care as long as he doesn¡¯t fuck one of us, right?¡± My anger was making me devolve into a vulgar and hateful person, but I couldn¡¯t help it.


    ¡°Th..that¡¯s not what I meant.¡± Clovio was shaking his head. ¡°I..I can¡¯t stop them. I..if I did, I would be killed. I have lost friends, brothers, cousins, people that I care about. They wanted to stop the nned attacks. They wanted to save our family from this evil that seems to be guing them. They failed though, and they were killed for it.¡±


    ¡°That is bullshit!¡± I snapped at him.


    ¡°No, Talia, he is telling the truth. I have found proof of this in the mansion. The one that we were to explore together, but then you all got the phone call about the murders in the states.¡± Uncle Dietrich walked over toward me. I knew that he was a good guy, but I was so angry that he was being lumped in with the others just because he was daring to oppose me.


    ¡°You¡¯re lying. I know you¡¯re lying to me. You¡¯re probably just trying to protect them because they are rted to that man that you used to know. And they are from Germany just like you. You¡¯ve turned sides.¡±


    ¡°ENOUGH!¡± Uncle Shawn stepped between me and Uncle Dietrich with angry eyes. ¡°You are out of line, Talia.¡± He was ring at me, breathing heavily. ¡°You need to calm down and listen.¡±


    ¡°No, Uncle Shawn, they need to listen. Those men are going to kill again. They are going to kill my friends. I saw it.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how you saw it, Talia, but I know that you are right. And I don¡¯t want it to happen either.¡± Clovio was speaking directly to me now. His eyes seemed calm despite the fear that was on his face. Maybe he thought that my family would protect him from me if it came down to it. I wasn¡¯t going to hurt him though, that would make me no better than his family.


    ¡°I not only saw it, but the leader in their group, the one that raped that girl, he spoke to me in my vision. And he hurt me too.¡± I took a step toward him as I pulled my sleeve up. Lex was on guard though, and he wrapped an arm around me protectively as I stepped in front of Clovio and Warrick. ¡°Do you see this? They are healing, slowly, but they are there. The man that was the leader of the group in my vision did this to me, and he wasn¡¯t even really there. This man did this to me.¡± I reached into my pocket and pulled out the picture that I had drawn of the killer. ¡°This man was the one that I saw doing all those horrible things.¡±


    Lucas and Westin hadn¡¯t been at the meeting, so they hadn¡¯t heard all of this yet, so they were as shocked as Clovio and Warrick. No one would believe it if they hadn¡¯t seen it. How was it possible that someone was able to interact with me in a vision like that? A premonition that hadn¡¯t even happened yet? This means that the man¡¯s spirit was what was aware of me or something? It was confusing to me, and I knew that there were no answers that would being my way anytime soon.


    ¡°H..he did that to you?¡± Clovio was looking at the bruises with eyes that were wide open. ¡°C..ud did that? I..in a vision?¡± He looked from the bruises up to my eyes in slow motion. ¡°H..how? How did he do that?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± I snapped, this time it was more out of frustration than anything else. ¡°I just know that he is the one that left these marks on me. And if it wasn¡¯t for him, I might not be having these visions at all.¡±


    I didn¡¯t know how to prove it. I didn¡¯t know how to even exin it to my family, but I had a feeling that my visions were onlying to me because of that man. I don¡¯t know if he killed anyone in the other countries, but he was killing them here, and I was seeing a vision for each time that it happened close to home.


    I could be wrong though. Maybe it was just the proximity to the ce that I called home. Maybe it was just because these murders were the ones that I personally would be the most terrified by. What the man did to that girl in California, and what he was nning to do to the girls that I went to school with, that was terrifying enough to make me not want to leave the house ever again.


    ¡°I..I need to go.¡± I turned and started to leave the room. I needed to get away from these people. I needed to stop looking at these men that only made me think about death and murders. I needed to be alone. I didn¡¯t even want Lex anywhere near me.


    ¡°Talia?¡± Mom called after me.


    ¡°Tally!?¡± Dad sounded scared as he yelled after me.


    ¡°Talia?¡± Lex was the next to call my name, but he was alreadying after me. I needed to get away from him. I needed to be alone. I just couldn¡¯t bear to have him look at me when I was crying, not again. So, I created a door and stepped through it into my room. Once I was in there, I mmed the magic behind me, stopping him froming after me. After that, knowing that he woulde to check my room first, I created a barrier around my room so that I was alone in my own space. I was able to think, and to cry, in peace.


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 Chapter 931

    Chapter 931: Chapter 116- Trinity ¨C What We Are Going To Do Now (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I watched my daughter run out of the room crying. She was heartbroken from all that had happened today. The vision that she had had in school, learning about these boys that were part of that murderous family, and so much more. She had been through so much over thest few weeks, and it was all my fault. I had brought her in on the case in the first ce. I was the reason that she was having such a hard time. This was all my doing, all my fault. How could I have done this to her? How could I have let this happen? I was a horrible mother.


    Yet, I was just trying to do what I thought was best. For her and for my people. It¡¯s not easy, trying to juggle the good of the many with the good of the few. I wanted to protect my family and my friends, but I also needed to protect the entire world of shifters and magic users. It was so much though, so hard for me to manage it on my own.


    Yes, I had help. I had others there that would dly help me when I needed it, but the fact that I needed to bear this burden, that I needed to worry about them all, it was so hard for me. And I just wanted nothing more than to have some rxing time away from all the responsibilities. That wasn¡¯t going to happen though. As long as I was in charge, this would always be on my mind.


    ¡°Talia?!¡± I called after her softly, after Alexio had already chased her out of the room. I knew that he would take care of her. I knew that she would be fine. But that wasn¡¯t enough for me. I wanted to calm her down. I wanted to hold her in my arms. Though now was not the time. I needed to focus on work. And that was the way that it always was.


    .....


    ¡°She will be fine.¡± Reece patted me on the shoulder, he must feel the same way that I did. ¡°We will go see her soon.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. I know.¡± I nodded and turned back to face Clovio and Warrick. ¡°We need to figure out what we are going to do now.¡±


    ¡°Wh..what do you want from us?¡± Warrick was scared but Clovio just did his best to straighten his back.


    ¡°As my daughter mentioned, she has had another vision of the uing attacks.¡± I jumped right into it. ¡°Do you know anything about them?¡±


    ¡°We didn¡¯t even know they were in the country until today. We have never known who or when they were going to kill. We were supposed to remain as in the dark as possible. We were information gatherers and that was all. I swear.¡± I could tell that Clovio was telling the truth, I didn¡¯t need the nod from Vincent and Gabriel that told me that his words rang with truth.


    ¡°Alright. You don¡¯t know the when and where, that is fine, Talia was able to get that information. She also has the names of the victims. I don¡¯t want to let it get that far though. We need to stop them. We need to make sure that these girls don¡¯t get traumatized.¡± I knew that they weren¡¯t going to have that information, but it was worth asking anyway. ¡°Now, do you know the men that are going to be doing the killings? Talia has drawn a picture of them all.¡± I pulled out the copies that were in my pocket. We had scanned them and stored them in theputer, but I also copied them so that I was able to have ess to them at all times. ¡°These are the five men that she saw in her vision this morning.¡±


    ¡°This morning?¡± Clovio looked up at me in surprise. ¡°So, the vision happened today?¡±


    ¡°Does that mean anything?¡± I raised an eyebrow at him as I tried to gather what it was that he meant.


    ¡°W..well, we saw some of our cousins earlier today. Th..they were assigned to the kill teams.¡± Warrick was the one that answered as he looked at the photos in my hand. ¡°That one, ud, is the leader of their group. He is the one that Talia showed us earlier.¡±


    ¡°You saw him? Today?¡± Reece pounced on his words when he heard what he was saying.


    ¡°Those men at the park?¡± Westin snapped at them.


    ¡°The killers were there, but they got away?¡± Lucas sounded angry when he realized what had happened.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t know they were the killers, so it isn¡¯t your fault.¡± I looked over at Lucas and Westin as I soothed their anger. ¡°We will find them.¡± Looking back at Clovio and Warrick, I continued to talk to them about the men that they knew. ¡°Where can I find these men? I need to stop them from killing those girls.¡±


    ¡°I..I don¡¯t know.¡± Clovio was shaking his head, something that obviously angered Reece.


    ¡°These girls that are supposed to be killed, the ones that are going to die next, they are just kids. They attend high school with Talia. They are children. They didn¡¯t do anything wrong. How is it that those men, or your family, thinks that killing kids is justified in any way?¡± The rage was coursing through him now. Talia definitely had her father¡¯s temper. Then again, I got like this too, when I needed to.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s right. Neither does Clovio or Armina. We never agreed with the family, but we had to follow along. To go against them is to die. I don¡¯t want to die.¡± He was crying now. This man was just a kid as well. Yeah, he was likely over eighteen, just like Rika and Reagan, but he was still just a kid. He wasn¡¯t responsible for this, and that meant that I needed to protect him as well.


    ¡°Alright, I get it.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°I know that you couldn¡¯t stop them. you would have died. You have us now though, and we will protect you. So, please, help us. We need to stop these people. We need to put an end to this. Help us stop them, and we will protect you.¡±


    ¡°A..are you going to kill them?¡± Was that hope or fear that was making his voice shake.


    ¡°What do you think?¡± I didn¡¯t want to say yes. That would make me sound like a monster. And the truth was, I would only kill the ones that needed to be killed. And those would be the ones that didn¡¯t surrender. I had a feeling though, that most of the die hard members of the family wouldn¡¯t surrender. They would be like true zealots in a cult, they wouldn¡¯t stop until they were dead.


    ¡°I think that you will kill them.¡± Clovio answered me honestly in a steady voice.


    ¡°And how do you feel about that?¡± I asked him in a voice that matched his. I needed to keep all the emotions out of my tone so that I didn¡¯t spook him.


    ¡°I think that the guilty need to die. My uncle tried to save the family before, and they killed him. They talk about him as if he were a warning to those that think like I do. And the others celebrate his death as the day that the family was liberated from a monster. I think that my family is too far gone. And it¡¯s not like we¡¯re actually a family. We are raised like orphans, that ce wasn¡¯t just a ce to live, it was a way of life for us. And I hated it with a passion. I wanted a normal life, a normal family. I wanted to be like my Uncle Rayk. I want to live the life that he wanted for us.¡±


    ¡°That is a good answer.¡± Dietrich smiled as he stepped forward. ¡°I read Rayk¡¯s journal, one that was hidden in the desk at the mansion.¡±


    ¡°Y..you knew how to open it?¡± Clovio looked shocked. ¡°I..I figured it out when I was a kid messing around in there, but no one else seemed to think about it. I saw that journal, but I was so scared by what I learned in it that I put it back. H..how did you know about it?¡±


    ¡°I knew your family founder. The one for whom the orphanage was named after. ric Jaegan was a friend of mine. And he would be appalled by what has been happening with your family. He loved all types of people, and he was not the type to kill anyone without reason.¡±


    ¡°A..ric? You knew ric?¡± Warrick sounded awestruck by Dietrich¡¯s words.


    ¡°How is that possible?¡±


    ¡°I am Alyssa¡¯s father. One of them anyway. I am a vampire. I have lived for over five centuries. I knew ric when I was going through a rebellious phase, and he saved me from myself. I owed a lot to him. I know that he would approve of the two of you, but not the bulk of your family.¡±


    ¡°I..I am sure that you are right.¡± Clovio nodded at him. ¡°I..I want to help you. I want to stop them. I don¡¯t want anyone else to die.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°Then the first thing that we need to do is make it so that you can contact us. Do you have Rika¡¯s phone number?¡±


    ¡°Y..yes.¡± He nodded embarrassedly. I knew he would have it.


    ¡°Change the number in the contact. Make it mine or Reece¡¯s.¡±


    ¡°Mine.¡± Reece demanded. ¡°If you need to tell us something, do it in code while texting the contact named Rika. They won¡¯t know you are telling me anything.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Clovio nodded.


    ¡°You, Warrick, do the same with Alyssa¡¯s contact and my phone number.¡± Dietrich instructed him.


    ¡°Yes, Sir.¡± Warrick responded like he was answering a drill sergeant.


    ¡°OK, now that this is done, you need to head back to the dorms. Act like nothing happened, you seem to be good at pretending. If you learn anything, tell us about it. Report to us on the movements of the others. And we need to know who all of these men are. I know that this one is ud, and Talia said he was the leader. And one other is named Fritz, that name was in Talia¡¯s vision, but the others need to be identified.¡±


    ¡°This one is Fritz.¡± Clovio pointed to one with blond hair and dark yellow eyes. ¡°These are Patrik, Jonathon, and Adrian. They are not enrolled at the school, but there are others of us that are there.¡±


    ¡°Names.¡± Vincent ordered him with a single word.


    ¡°Aloisius, Gunnar, Armina, Lovisa, Hede, and Hedi. With me and Warrick, there were eight of us. Armina is like us though, she is against the family and lives in fear on a daily basis. The others are perfect little Jaegan drones that do what they were told to do.¡±


    ¡°OK, we will look into them. Find out everything that you can, Clovio, and report back to me. If I get word that you tipped these people off, I will kill you. I will show you and your family no mercy. I am putting my faith and trust into you, do you hear me? Do not blow this.¡±


    ¡°I..I understand, Queen Trinity. I will not go against you. I don¡¯t want to die, and I know that my family will kill me almost immediately if they were to find out about this. I trust you, and I want to help you.¡±


    ¡°Good. Do not make me regret this decision.¡±


    ¡°We won¡¯t, Queen Trinity.¡± Warrick nodded at me. ¡°We will prove that we are not the bad men that others think that we are.¡± I knew that he was talking about Rika and Alyssa. They would need to prove themselves before those two even looked at them again. I felt bad for them for a moment, but I wasn¡¯t going to let it get to me. My main goal here was going to be putting an end to all of these murders. And that started with stopping the ones that were predicted today.


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 Chapter 932

    Chapter 932: Chapter 117- Trinity ¨C After The Meetings (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Lucas and Westin drove Clovio and Warrick away from the castle. They weren¡¯t to take them all the way back to the campus, but they were going to drop them close to it and let them walk the rest of the way. This would make it look like there was no cooperation going on between us and them. They would just say that they lied their way out of things and made it so that they were not in as much trouble. The story was also going to be that they were taken to Reece¡¯s office in the city and not at the house. That would make it more believable that the king of the shifters wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything to them at the time.


    We spent a little bit of timeing up with a cover story that the two of them were going to tell their friends and family about what had happened. They couldn¡¯t go in there and tell the others that they had gotten out of there with just a p on the wrist. And they couldn¡¯t tell them that they sang like canaries and wanted to take down the entire family with us. Neither of those options were viable for them, and that is why they spent some timeing up with a cover story.


    They were going to tell them that they were grilled about their intentions with Rika and Alyssa. They weren¡¯t suspected about being involved with the murders at all. This was all about a father being overly protective of his daughter and niece. And if they knew anything about Reece, then they would know that it waspletely possible. In fact, I know that the entire reason that Westin wanted to bring those two back to the castle was because they were with the girls and they knew that Reece would not approve. So, in truth, it wasn¡¯t that far off from what had happened. Things just took a turn in a different direction when we discovered who they really were.


    After the boys were gone though, I felt like almost all of the strength had been sapped from my body. I almost copsed and needed Reece to catch me before I hit the floor. He wasn¡¯t the only one that moved toward me though. Vincent, Gabriel, Shawn and Dietrich all moved to catch me as well, but Reece was the first to get to me. He was, of course, my mate and husband, so it only made sense that he was the closest to me when I was starting to feel tired. It only made sense that he was the one to catch me.


    .....


    ¡°Are you OK, Little Bunny?¡± Reece asked me in a worried tone when he swung me up into his arms.


    ¡°I am fine. I am just exhausted. I have had one hell of a day, and it¡¯s not even over yet.¡± Iughed a little because I was able to understand the absurdity of the situation that I was in. I was tired, but it was all mental and emotional.


    ¡°It has been a tiring day for you, Trinity, hasn¡¯t it?¡± Gabriel sounded just as worried as Reece did when he spoke just then. ¡°I am sorry that I have not been able to take this stress away from you. I feel as if I am failing you.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not failing me at all, Gabriel. I am the one that is responsible for all of this. As the queen, I can¡¯t let people handle everything for me. That may be the way that others run their kingdoms, but that isn¡¯t me at all. And we have all been through a lot. I am sure that I will have all the rest and relief that I need once this is all over. Until then though, we¡¯re all going to be stressed.¡±


    ¡°Hey, at least we have a break in the case.¡± Shawn sounded a little relieved about that.


    ¡°Yeah, and we got it from your future son-inw.¡± Vincent was clearly joking with him. We were all stilling to terms with this, and I knew that Shawn and Dietrich were having a hard time of all things.


    ¡°Shut up.¡± Shawn covered his ears and snapped at him. ¡°He is not my future son-inw. I refuse to ept that. Alyssa has no idea what she is talking about. Sh..sh..she is just confused.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so, Liebe. I think that she is right. I am loath to admit it as well, but that boy is truly Lyssa¡¯s mate. Now, whether she forgives him for lying to her is another story. For the time being, she is angry at him and we don¡¯t need to worry about him putting his filthy little hands on her. In the future though, none of us can predict what will happen then.¡± Dietrich didn¡¯t sound at all happy to be making that observation.


    ¡°We all need to face the fact that the kids are growing up. They are going to get their mates and they are going to move on. We may not like it, but it is the truth.¡±


    ¡°Trinity is right.¡± Vincent agreed with me. ¡°As you all know, my oldest two kids are already mated. It was hard for me and Heather, but it is the way that things happen.¡± He had a bittersweet smile on his face when he spoke. ¡°What¡¯s funny is I still look like I am in myte twenties, but I am going to be a grandfather soon.¡± Heughed and rubbed the back of his head.


    ¡°WHAT?!¡± The rest of us all shouted in surprise at his revtion.


    ¡°Yeah, I found out when we got back. Conner and his wife Ginny are expecting, and Renea is getting married this spring. Let¡¯s hope they can keep their hands to themselves so that they don¡¯t have any pups on the way during the wedding.¡±


    I was not expecting this reveal from Vincent right now. Then again, I guess it was to be expected. Conner was already in his mid twenties. It was about time for him to be moving on with his life. And Renea had met her matest year. It was hard on Vincent at that time since it was his first little girl. I feel like it was harder on him when she mated than when Conner did. It was like he was feeling that loss of her innocence or something. I could just imagine what it was that he was going through. I was dreading when it was going to happen to me and Reece. Regardless of this whole thing though, we needed to be supportive of Vincent and his family. And perhaps I should go see Heather as well. She might need some girl time to talk with all of this happening.


    ¡°Congrattions Vincent, this is wonderful news.¡± I smiled and supported him. ¡°I know that Conner will make a great dad, and Ginny is a sweet girl.¡± I had been at their wedding a couple of years ago, so I know how they were with each other. They were very much in love and have had a perpetual honeymoon phase for thesest two years.


    ¡°Thanks.¡± He looked happy, despite the nerves that he was feeling. That was to be expected as well.


    ¡°This is great news, Vincent.¡± Reece offered his words of support. He couldn¡¯t do anything else though, since he was still holding me in his arms.


    ¡°Congrattions, my brother.¡± Gabriel hugged him. They had be like family over thest two decades.


    ¡°I am happy for you, Vincent.¡± Dietrich shook his hand.


    ¡°I might need to get emotional support advice from youter.¡± Shawnughed and hugged him. ¡°You¡¯ve been through this already, but it¡¯s all new to me.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha. No problem. I will be there with the liquor.¡± That made them all startughing.


    Things continued like that for a little while. The guys were all talking about the future and what things might be like. I hoped that they were all right about them. I couldn¡¯t help but think that there was a major turning point in our livesing toward us soon. I didn¡¯t know what it was, if it was just the ending of these murders or if it was something else, but I knew that the next few months were going to be crucial for us. We were not likely going to be able to stop these things from happening, whatever it was that I was feeling, and whatever it was it was going to change things forever.


    I couldn¡¯t tell the others that I was feeling these things, not yet. I didn¡¯t even know what they were yet. When I had time to think about it, I would mention it to Reece. I just needed to get my thoughts and feelings in order first. If I didn¡¯t do that, then I was likely to make a rash decision about something and do something that I really shouldn¡¯t. I had learned and matured over the years, and now I was going to make sure that I went about this the right way.


    ¡°Let¡¯s rest for a little bit.¡± I told them. ¡°We have some more things that we need to doter. For one, Talia¡¯s teacher ising byter, and I am sure that is bound to be an interesting conversation.¡± I was already feeling the exhaustion from that conversation, and it hadn¡¯t evene to being the time for it yet. This was just me thinking about it.


    Thankfully, the others agreed that we needed to rest, so they didn¡¯t object. They just went along with it and left me in peace for the time being.


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 Chapter 933

    Chapter 933: Chapter 118- Rika ¨C Comforting (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    Lyssa and I had run to my room with tears in our eyes. We both sobbed into the pillows on my bed until there were literally no tears left for me to cry. I could still hear sobsing from Lyssa when I was done crying, but I could tell that she had no tears left. They were just the motions and the sounds that apanied the tears. She, like me, had cried herself dry.


    ¡°Lyssa?¡± I called out to her when I sat up. I wasn¡¯t ready to be exposed just yet though, so I had my arms wrapped around my legs and was holding my knees against my chest.


    ¡°Yes, Rika?¡± She sat up as well and wrapped her arms around herself. I saw that her eyes were red and swollen. She was just as upset as I was. No, that wasn¡¯t right. She was even more upset. Warrick was her mate, her actual mate. Clovio wasn¡¯t my mate. As much as I had wanted him to be my mate, my wolf never recognized him as that. I knew that I was wrong for doing what I had done, but I just couldn¡¯t help it. I was lost in the new experience I guess.


    ¡°I..I¡¯m sorry.¡± She looked up at me with her swollen and puffy eyes.


    .....


    ¡°Sorry for what?¡± She wasn¡¯t sure how to respond.


    ¡°I am sorry that we are in this situation. None of this would have happened if I hadn¡¯t wanted to be with Clovio so bad. We wouldn¡¯t have been out with the two of them today. We wouldn¡¯t have met those other men that were clearly not very good people. And we wouldn¡¯t have gotten so involved with them. I mean, if it wasn¡¯t for me, then you probably wouldn¡¯t have even met Warrick. Maybe it would be for the best if you hadn¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°What are you saying?!¡± She snapped at me. It was quite scary to see with the redness in her eyes intensifying. ¡°Warrick is my mate. I was meant to meet him. I know that you wanted Clovio to be your mate, Rika, but he isn¡¯t. That means that all you have is a broken heart. And yeah, that is bad enough, but I feel like my heart has been ripped out of my chest. I feel like I was betrayed on a deep and personal level. I feel like my soul has been shattered. I feel like nothing will ever be right with the world ever again. There is no way that you know what I am feeling.¡± She was angry. And worst of all, that anger was directed at me.


    ¡°Lyssa?¡± I didn¡¯t know what to say. I was confused. I was heartbroken. And I was feeling so lost in the world right now. What was it that I was going to do now? I couldn¡¯t lose my first ever boyfriend and my best friend all in the same day. I couldn¡¯t handle that. ¡°I..I¡¯m sorry Lyssa. I didn¡¯t mean that. I know that he is your mate. I..I just thought that you would feel better if you hadn¡¯t met him. I am sorry. I was stupid.¡±


    ¡°You are being stupid. No matter what happened, I can¡¯t break that bond between us. And I would never want to not meet him. At least now I can work on getting over him. I can work on breaking the hold that he has on me. But not meeting him would be worse. I would always wonder if I should leave my heart open for another man or not. You need to think before you speak, Rika. You¡¯re so immature at times.¡±


    She got to her feet and started to storm out of the room. I didn¡¯t want her to go. I didn¡¯t want her to be alone right now. I didn¡¯t think that I could handle being alone at the moment.


    ¡°Lyssa?¡± I called after her.


    ¡°Let me calm down, Rika. I need to figure this all out. I will call youter, OK.¡± She looked so sad and heartbroken as she walked away from me then. I couldn¡¯t say anything else, and I definitely couldn¡¯t stop her.


    I found out then that I wasn¡¯t out of tears. When Lyssa left me there all alone, I felt them start to stream down my cheeks again. I thought that I was going to be alone in my room again for the rest of the night. I didn¡¯t want to leave here, but I didn¡¯t want to be alone either.


    ¡°Rika?¡± I heard his voice before I even smelled him. I guess my nose was quite stuffy since I had been crying for so long.


    ¡°Westin?¡± I looked up at him with surprise in my eyes. ¡°What are you doing here?¡± I knew that Lyssa had left the door open when she left, but I didn¡¯t think that someone was just going toe in like that.


    ¡°I wanted to check on you. I was worried about you. Are you OK?¡± He looked upset, like he didn¡¯t want to be here, or seeing me right now was hard on him. I didn¡¯t really know how to process it.


    ¡°I..I¡¯m fine.¡± I buried my face into my knees then. I didn¡¯t want to see him. He was always mad at me. He was always acting like being around me was the worst for him. Yet he was always the one to volunteer to protect me when I needed to go somewhere. Why would he do that to himself? And to me? He was just making us both miserable with the way that he treated me when he was around. Like earlier, at the park, he was so mad at me. And all I did was go on a date and he treated me like a criminal. Yeah, OK, the guy turned out to be a lying murderer, but that is beside the point.


    ¡°You don¡¯t look fine, Rika.¡± He came further into the room and stood next to the bed. ¡°You look heartbroken and destroyed. And I just want you to know that I am here for you if you need me.¡± He was just trying to be nice, I knew that, but I was irrational at the moment and I couldn¡¯t seem to ept it at all. All I could think about were all the times that he was mean to me.


    ¡°You¡¯re here for me?¡± I snapped at him. ¡°For what? To ridicule me and my decisions? To make me feel like a worthless piece of shit that isn¡¯t worth your time? To make me feel like every decision I have ever made was the wrong one? What exactly are you here for, Westin? What is it you want from me? What do you want me to do?¡±


    ¡°I just want you to be happy, Rika! That¡¯s all I want, dammit! Why are you like this? Why are you so blind to everything around you? Why can¡¯t you see what is right in front of you?¡± Even with all the things that had happened between me and Westin up to this point, he had never spoken to me like this before. Honestly, the only person that had ever talked to me like this, aside from my parents, was Reagan. He was the one that always tried to reason with me and make me see the error of my ways. I expected this from him, but I did not expect it from Westin.


    ¡°Like hell you want that.¡± I rose to my knees on the bed now, I needed the extra height so I could re at him when I screamed at him. ¡°You are always being mean to me. You are always acting like you can¡¯t stand me. And now I am supposed to believe that you want me to be happy. That is bullshit. You are probably happy that I got my heart broken. You¡¯re probably happy that all of this happened to me.¡±


    ¡°I am not happy that you are upset, but I will not lie to you. I am happy that you are no longer with Clovio. I don¡¯t want you to be with him. I don¡¯t want you to be with anyone else.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re just like my parents. You want me to be a child forever. You¡¯re treating me like a baby. You¡¯re treating me like I meant for things to go wrong or something.¡±


    ¡°I am not.¡± He growled the words at me. He was obviously angry at me. He didn¡¯t like me yelling at him. ¡°I am not happy about any of this, except that you are not with him anymore. That is the only thing that brings me joy. And Rika, the reason for that is I l-.¡±


    ¡°SHUT UP!¡± I snapped at him as I cut him off. ¡°I don¡¯t want to hear it. I don¡¯t want to hear anything else you have to say. Go away! Leave me alone! I don¡¯t want to see you ever again.¡± I was sobbing now. The tears were pouring out of my eyes harder than they had been earlier. Why was it that he affected me like this? Why was it that he was able to make me cry like this? And why did he have to hate me so much? I didn¡¯t hate him. I really didn¡¯t. But he obviously hated me.


    I was back to hugging my knees to my chest while burying my face in my legs. I didn¡¯t look at Westin again. I just sobbed until I heard him leave the room. And then I continued to sob until I fell asleep. There was nothing else for me to do anyway. My life as I knew it was over. Things were going to change now.


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 Chapter 934

    Chapter 934: Chapter 119- Alexio ¨C Talia¡¯s Pain (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Alexio


    ~~


    I followed after Talia the moment that she left Reece¡¯s office. I didn¡¯t want to let her be alone and in pain like that. She was mine to protect, and that went for her emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing. I was her guard. I was the one that was responsible for her. And I meant to be the one to make sure that she was OK.


    The problem was, when I left the room to follow her, she opened a magical door and walked through it before I was able to catch her. And she also shut that door before I was able to follow her through it.


    It was fine. I knew where she was. This wasn¡¯t that hard to figure out for me. I knew Talia. I probably knew her better than just about anyone. I was the one that was there with her every day. Even more than Rudy. He had a wife and a son. I had no one. And that was fine with me. I was going to live for eternity, I didn¡¯t need to have a mate and a family right now. All that I cared about was taking care of my future queen. As long as she was safe and happy, then I was content.


    The problem was that, right now, she wasn¡¯t safe, and she wasn¡¯t happy. And that meant that there was nothing right with my life. Talia was my life, and I wouldn¡¯t be able to feel calm or sane until she was feeling better. But how was I going to make that happen.


    .....


    There were these murders to deal with. There were visions to figure out. And there were her emotions that were delicate at the moment. She had seen and heard things over thest few weeks that a girl like her never should have had to experience. And I don¡¯t just mean that she is a girl and shouldn¡¯t be involved in it. She is strong and was more than capable. The problem was that she was never going to forget this. And she was so kind and gentle that she should never have been exposed to this level of cruelty.


    ¡°My poor Talia.¡± I shook my head at the closed door before I started to run up the stairs to her room. I knew that she would be in there. That was where she always went to be alone. It wasn¡¯t original, but at least it was easy for me.


    I didn¡¯t stop running until I ran up all the stairs to her room. Yeah, I could have taken the elevator to get to her, but that wouldn¡¯t have helped me at all. I had needed to burn off some of the anger that was bubbling up inside of me. And it wasn¡¯t even anger that was directed at anyone in particr. I was just upset that she was upset. I guess this is what it means to devote your life to protecting someone. You feel upset for them in the most irrational of ways possible.


    Finally though, I had run all the way up the stairs and was standing outside of Talia¡¯s room. I was here and I could help her now.


    ¡°Talia?¡± I called out loudly as I knocked on her door. ¡°Talia, let me in.¡±


    ¡°Go away.¡± She sobbed from inside of her room.


    ¡°I am not leaving, Talia. Open this door, please.¡±


    ¡°No!¡± She snapped at me louder than before.


    ¡°Talia. ,open the door. Do not make me break it down. You know that I can.¡± I was doing my best to sound firm but not angry.


    ¡°Fine.¡± She snapped the words at me as the door opened up. ¡°Come in.¡±


    ¡°You and I both know that the barrier is still up.¡± This was not the first time that I have had to deal with this situation. ¡°Take the barrier down so that I don¡¯t have to st it with my magic. I don¡¯t want to do that to you.¡± I hated seeing her this upset. I knew that she needed me. I knew that she shouldn¡¯t be alone at all. I just wanted to do my best to make her feel better. ¡°Please, Talia.¡±


    ¡°Hahh. Fine.¡± She sighed and then agreed to let mee in. I couldn¡¯t see the barrier, but I had felt it, and at that moment, the magic that was surrounding her room seemed to disappear. ¡°Come in, Lex.¡± She agreed to let me into her room, where I was supposed to be protecting her.


    ¡°Thank you, Talia.¡± I stepped into the room and shut the door behind me.


    ¡°Why did you have to follow me?¡± She looked up at me with her red and swollen eyes. ¡°Wh..why do you have to be here?¡± She was still crying. She hated to cry. Or at least, she hated when people watched her cry.


    ¡°I am here to help you, Talia. You know that.¡± I walked to where she was on the bed and knelt down in front of her. ¡°I am your guard, Talia, and I protect you from as much as I can. And when I can¡¯t protect you from something, I am here to help you feel better. That is what I am meant to do.¡± I reached toward her then, gently wiping the tears from her cheeks and stroking her soft brown hair.


    ¡°Sometimes Lex, I think that you do too much for me. I don¡¯t deserve this. I don¡¯t deserve you being so nice to me.¡±


    ¡°You deserve it, Talia. You are amazing. And you do so much for other people as well. Let me be the one to help you. I will support you, Talia. I will always be here to support you.¡±


    She was feeling particrly vulnerable at that moment. I could tell because she leaned forward and pressed her face into my shoulder as she hugged me tightly, her arms wrapped around me next and her sobs filling my ear.


    ¡°I am sorry, Lex. I really am.¡±


    ¡°You have nothing to be sorry for. You were upset. You weren¡¯t sure how to handle the situation that you were in. I know that seeing those boys after your vision, knowing where they are from, that had to hurt you. You¡¯re worried about your friends, and that is understandable. But I won¡¯t let them get hurt, Talia. I won¡¯t let your friends get hurt because I know that it would hurt you if they were.¡± I wrapped my arms around her as well, holding her gently as I patted her on the back. ¡°You don¡¯t ever have to worry about the way that you act around me, Talia. I will always be here to support you.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Lex. I don¡¯t know what I would do without you.¡± She was still sobbing as she spoke, but at least she was feeling a little better now. I knew that she was going to cry for a little while longer, but she wasn¡¯t as embarrassed about it now. She was willing to be vulnerable and weak in front of me. That was good though. The one person that she could be that way with was her guard. Someone who was willing and determined to keep her safe at all costs.


    I stayed on my knees, holding Talia in my arms for a long time. I wouldn¡¯t let her go until she was ready for me to. And there was nothing else that we needed to do for the time being. However, before I knew it, I noticed that Talia was fast asleep.


    She must have drifted off to sleep when the tears had run their course. I wasn¡¯t ready to let her go just yet. I knew that she still needed me to sooth her and calm her down, even while she was sleeping. However, it was getting ufortable with the way that I was kneeling on the floor. That was easily fixed though. I just pulled Talia closer against my chest and lifted her off the bed.


    Now that I was holding my sleeping charge, I carried her over to the couch and sat there with her in my arms. She was sitting on myp and sleeping soundly. I didn¡¯t mind this. She was obviouslyfortable, so why would I move her. And it wasn¡¯t like I had anywhere else to be.


    I don¡¯t know how long we sat like that together. And there was no telling how long I would have sat there like that. However, Talia was woken up by the sound of yellsing from Rika¡¯s room down the hall.


    It wasn¡¯t when Rika and Alyssa were arguing that she woke up. No, it was when Rika had screamed at her guard, Westin. That was the sound that woke her up. She was conscious for the end of it, when Rika said that she never wanted to see Westin again. That was rough, and being a guard myself, I know what he must be feeling after hearing that.


    ¡°That was mean of her.¡± Talia said as she looked up into my eyes. ¡°I could never say that to you, Lex.¡± She must have taken that personal as well.


    ¡°That is good to know, Talia.¡± I smiled at her. ¡°Are you ready to go downstairs? I think it would be best if you got something to drink. And you need some ice for your eyes. They are swollen.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that would be best.¡± She disentangled herself from me and stood on her own. I instantly felt cold without her sitting with me. I guess I had grown ustomed to her sitting on me. ¡°Come on.¡± She held her hand out to me. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Taking her hand, I followed her out of the room. As I said, she was my charge, my life revolved around her. And there was nowhere else that I would rather be.


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 Chapter 935

    Chapter 935: Chapter 120- Trinity ¨C A Visit From Mr. Amadeus Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I think that for the time being, things in the house just sort of shut down. It was like we had no energy to keep going. Talia and I especially. We had been running almost nonstop for weeks, and with all that had happened today, it was like we werepletely spent.


    After the rest though, things seemed to be getting better. Reagan came back, worried of course. He was scared that something had happened to Rika, since she was not there to go home from the university with him. However, when he found out that she snuck away and went on a date instead, he was furious. I told him to leave her alone for the time being though. She didn¡¯t need to have him yelling at her right now. Apparently, Westin had gone to see her and she was still in a very bad mood.


    Talia was doing better. After Westin left Rika¡¯s room, Alexio brought her down to get her something to drink. She had been crying a lot as well, so I used my magic to calm the swelling in her eyes. It would be best if she didn¡¯t look so swollen in the face when her teacher came to visit the castle in a little bit.


    Also, the other kids came home from school. Needless to say, Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley were all worried and upset because Talia wasn¡¯t at the school when they left. ,like Reagan, they all thought that something bad had happened to her. They wanted to make sure that she was OK the moment that they got home. It¡¯s a good thing that Talia and Alexio were down in the main part of the house when they got there. They were able to see with their own eyes that everything was just fine.


    .....


    I don¡¯t know when he had the time to send the message, but Alexio had apparently told Mr. Amadeus, the teacher that was with Talia during the vision, that he would be able toe to the house after four in the afternoon. That meant that he would have his meeting and it shouldn¡¯t interfere with our family dinner tonight. Despite all that was happening at the moment, we weren¡¯t going to put that off at all. We needed to be there for the kids right now. Especially Rika and Talia. They needed Reece and I more than anything right now.


    To make things easier on Mr. Amadeus, we decided to meet in one of the meeting rooms in the royal tower. He was going to be with me, Reece, Talia and Alexio. There was no reason to have anyone else there with us. I also knew that Talia wouldn¡¯t want all the others to see and hear this as well.


    ¡°Good afternoon, Mr. Amadeus.¡± I smiled at him when he walked into the room with us all. The four of us were sitting already and he bowed his head to us in respect when he saw us.


    ¡°It is good to meet with you again, Queen Trinity.¡± He was just as reverent as all the others seemed to be.


    ¡°Please, have a seat.¡± I pointed to the armchair that was across from me. Reece and I were on a loveseat, cuddled together, and Talia and Alexio were sitting at opposite ends of a couch to my left. They were able to see me and Reece as well as Mr. Amadeus.


    ¡°Thank you, Queen Trinity.¡± The teacher smiled and took the seat that I offered him.


    I could tell that he was slightly nervous to be here, but this was also his choice. He had wanted to talk to me about something, and I wasn¡¯t going to deny him. Not with him having been there with my daughter when she had that vision earlier.


    ¡°Before I forget Talia, this is for you.¡± He pulled a messenger bag from his shoulder and held it out for her. However, it was Alexio that took it from him and looked inside. ¡°It is the remainder of the books that you needed to collect as well as the assignments for today and the next week. I had a feeling that things weren¡¯t going to be settled so easily, and that you would be home for a little while longer. You are a smart kid though, so I know that you will be just fine.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Mr. Amadeus.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°You are right. She won¡¯t be back in school for a few days. Neither will the other kids. We have some things to be settled first. I am actually thinking about closing the school for a little while, with some of the things that have been happeningtely.¡±


    ¡°Ahh, yes, I believe I get it, Queen Trinity. This has to do with those murders, doesn¡¯t it? I heard that they had made their way to the States, I guess it was more than just a rumor.¡±


    ¡°No, it¡¯s not just a rumor.¡± Talia shook her head and answered them. ¡°They killed five people in California the other day. And they are going to kill here next.¡±


    ¡°Here?¡± He looked shocked. ¡°As in here in Colorado Springs?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± I answered before Talia had the chance to.


    ¡°Forgive me, Talia, but is that what the vision was about earlier?¡± He was a smart man and already put that together.


    ¡°It was.¡± She was still upset by the vision. I didn¡¯t me her. That man in the dream had managed to hurt her. That was not normal, and it was definitely scary for her.


    ¡°Can I know what it was that you saw?¡± He was curious, like anyone would be.


    ¡°Mr. Amadeus, do you have experience with visions?¡± I needed to know this before I allowed Talia to tell him what she saw. He didn¡¯t need to know if it was just to satisfy his curiosity.


    ¡°Ahh, yes, I have actually had a few of them myself. The thing about visions is, they are not the same for everyone. Some people see bits and pieces. Some people see a lot of the future. And others get a jumbled mix and you need to decipher what it is that you are seeing. I fall mostly into thatst category, but that doesn¡¯t mean that I have only had that one type of vision. Like I said, they vary in many ways. Is this the first time that Talia has had a vision?¡± He really did seem to know what he was talking about.¡±


    ¡°No, it wasn¡¯t.¡± Surprisingly, it was Alexio that answered the man. He sounded upset, but I was sure that it was because of how much that first vision had affected Talia and the way that she responded to it when she found out that it was real. He really was protective of her. ¡°She had another vision about five or six days ago.¡±


    ¡°Only that time, I didn¡¯t know that it was a vision. I just thought that it was a bad dream.¡± Talia exined to him as she seemed to be thinking about that night.


    ¡°A dream? Did it happen like this one? Where you awake when it happened?¡±


    ¡°No. I was sleeping at night when it happened.¡± She shuddered as she thought about it. ¡°It seemed real, but I didn¡¯t know where I was in that dream.¡±


    ¡°Ahh, so it was iplete.¡± Mr. Amadeus nodded at her.


    ¡°If I would have taken it seriously though, I could have saved that girl. I should have told someone what I had seen. I should have done something.¡± Talia was starting to cry again. I didn¡¯t know how much she had already cried, but she was crying even more now. How much was I going to let my baby endure?


    ¡°Shh. It¡¯s OK Talia.¡± Mr. Amadeus slid to his knees in front of her and started to sooth her even before Alexio could respond to her tears. ¡°You didn¡¯t know that it was a vision. You didn¡¯t know what you were seeing. That usually happens with everyone. Unless there is something that makes it noticeable as a vision, we just pass it off as something else. I didn¡¯t think that my first vision was real either. Not until I saw ite true right before my eyes. It¡¯s not your fault. And you said that you didn¡¯t know where you were. You wouldn¡¯t have been able to stop it if you didn¡¯t know where to send the others. So, please Talia, don¡¯t me yourself.¡± He had taken her hand and was squeezing it gently. I could tell that Alexio was not all that happy at the moment. He didn¡¯t like people taking liberties like this. They weren¡¯t allowed to touch Talia unless they had her out right permission or his.


    ¡°Th..thank you, Mr. Amadeus. I..i..it¡¯s been really hard on me. E..ever since I had that first vision, no not then, since the other day when I found out that it was real. It¡¯s been like I am useless.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t think like that, Talia. You are special. You are getting visions that could help save people. It will seem like a burden at times, but they are something that only you were meant to see. Fate has put their trust in you, and I am sure that many others would trust you as well.¡±


    ¡°Th..thank you.¡± She nodded at him. ¡°If I can manage to think like that, th..then I am sure that I will be able to ept this and move on.¡± I could tell that Talia was already feeling a lot better.


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 Chapter 936

    Chapter 936: Chapter 121- Trinity ¨C A Visit From Mr. Amadeus Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°Alright Talia, you seem to be feeling better now.¡± Mr. Amadeus smiled at her. ¡°Let me or the others know if you are feeling upset from now on. We need to work together so that we can solve this problem with you. I am sure that you are vital to the oue, so I am sure that we are all going to be doing our best for you.¡± With that, he rose to his feet and moved over to sit in his seat.


    ¡°You seem to know a lot about this stuff, Mr. Amadeus. I am sure that you are going to be vital to us as well. Can you exin some things to us?¡± I wanted to pick this man¡¯s brain. He might be able to tell us exactly what it was that happened earlier.


    ¡°I will if I can. What is it that you need help with?¡± His smile was friendly and easy going. I knew that he was a good man. He had met with Vincent and Gabriel already, when he started to work at the school. Literally every employee there had been through a vetting process with the two of them. I couldn¡¯t risk the safety of my children and the children in themunity. Nope, I needed to make sure that all the teachers werepletely trustworthy.


    ¡°Can you tell me howmon it is for a vision to hurt someone?¡± I guess that he wasn¡¯t expecting that question at all. When he heard it, there was a noticeable widening of his eyes as the shock settled into him.


    .....


    ¡°A vision that hurts someone?¡± He seemed scared by the very idea. ¡°That¡¯s impossible. Visions are just images. They can¡¯t hurt the person seeing them.¡±


    ¡°Hmm.¡± I wasn¡¯t liking that. If it was impossible, then how was it that Talia was hurt by that man? How was it that he had left bruises on her?


    ¡°Mr. Amadeus, I was hurt.¡± Talia lifted her arm and pulled back her sleeve. The bruises were still there. They should be gone by now, but they were still there. Of course, they had faded a little, and it was likely that they would be gone by morning, but they were still quite visible.


    ¡°Talia?¡± He looked at me and then at her. ¡°H..how is it that this happened? What happened in the vision?¡±


    Talia, of course, gave him what he wanted. She told him how she found herself at the park and ran until she saw the others in the middle of it. That was when she watched those five men kill her friends and ssmates. She even told him the names of the girls that had been killed in the vision so that he knew that it was real.


    When she got to the part where the man turned to talk directly to her, that was when Mr. Amadeus was shocked by what he heard.


    ¡°I have never heard of someone in a vision interacting with the person that was having the vision. To me, this seems more like a sort of spiritual projection.¡±


    ¡°And just what is that?¡± I asked him, not sure what to think or believe right now.


    ¡°Well, essentially, it would mean that it was a vision, but it was more than that. It¡¯s like instead of just seeing the event happening, Talia was actually there. She just projected her soul into the future to see it. And it also means that she could possibly move around herself and see what is happening in other parts of the event. If she would have tried going toward people or buildings in the first vision, she might have found out where she was. And it also exins how that person in her vision could sense her. It hasn¡¯t happened yet, but she will actually be there at the time of the next murder. If someone were to be searching for her soul, they would be able to find her and the killers.¡±


    The exnation was blowing my mind. My daughter was projecting her soul into the future? How was that possible? What was actually happening with her. And could she do this at will or was it something that needed to happen to her at random.


    ¡°We already know where the next murders are supposed to take ce. And we will be putting a stop to them.¡± Reece spoke firmly. He wasn¡¯t going to let Talia¡¯s friends get hurt. He wasn¡¯t going to let anymore of our people get hurt if he could help it.


    ¡°That is good. But if it ever happens again, just try moving around more. You might be able to see and hear more than you would ever guess. You can also try freezing the images you see and exploring them more in depth.¡± It was a good thing that Mr. Amadeus hade here. We were learning a lot from him.


    ¡°Mr. Amadeus, would Talia be able to project her soul when she wants to, or is this something that she needs to wait for. Is it uncontroble?¡± I needed to ask this. Not that I was going to force my daughter to do this against her will. I just needed to know.


    ¡°Theoretically, she could do it on her own. However, it would take practice. A lot of practice. I have met witches that could do this in the past, but they were not very skilled at it, and they were limited in what they were able to see. I wouldn¡¯t try seeing too much at first.¡± He was warning us against it before he started tough. ¡°Ha ha ha. What am I saying? Talia is stronger than those witches. She would be strong enough to handle this. She was chosen to take over the underworld when she was only four, right? That¡¯s proof that she is way more special than anyone else that has ever attempted this. Just practice it if you want, Talia. You will be able to see more than you would have ever dreamed of.¡±


    ¡°I..I wouldn¡¯t really want to spy on people. If I used this power for anything, it would only be for solving this case. I don¡¯t think that I would be able to use it on anyone else.¡± The nerves that were coursing through her were unexpected. However, the reluctance that she was showing waspletely her. I would expect her to say that she didn¡¯t want to spy on people.


    ¡°It isn¡¯t usually used for spying. You can definitely use it for the purpose of investigating these crimes. Once you have control of the power, you won¡¯t need to use it against your will. That is, unless fate decides to show you something like this again. Willful use and being forced into it are two different things, Talia. There is nothing to be ashamed about if the fates decided that you needed to see something. That usually means that the gods in the celestial realm have faith in you. That is something to be proud of.¡±


    ¡°Of course they have faith in her.¡± Alexio seemed to scoff at Mr. Amadeus¡¯s words. ¡°Talia is going to be a goddess before too much longer. She is wise. She is powerful. And most of all, she is kind and fair. She will never do anything to hurt anyone, and the gods know that.¡± He was saying things that I had never heard him say before. He wasn¡¯t wrong, I just wasn¡¯t expecting him to say it at all.


    ¡°Th..thank you, Lex.¡± She blushed and looked away from him. ¡°A..and I will try my best to get control of this power, Mr. Amadeus. If you don¡¯t mind, c..can I talk to you about this again in the future?¡±


    ¡°Of course, Talia. I will be there for you whenever you need to talk. After all, I am your teacher, it¡¯s my job to help you and instruct you. And I am well versed in visions and things like this. I might just be the best person for you to talk to about this.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Talia nodded and almost bowed at him.


    ¡°Thank you, Mr. Amadeus. We are thankful that you came to give us this information. You have been extremely helpful today.¡±


    ¡°No problem at all. I was happy toe by and talk. I also wanted to make sure that Talia was OK. She is, as I said, a very special person. We need to make sure that people like her are not harmed in any way.¡±


    ¡°I will make sure of that.¡± Alexio snapped at him grumpily. ¡°And when she goes back to school, I will being with her. I cannot let her out of my sight. I cannot risk her having something else happen to her when I am not there to protect her.¡±


    ¡°Ahh, yes, that is understandable as well.¡± Mr. Amadeus¡¯s head bobbed again as he nodded in agreement. ¡°I will make sure that I tell the school about this. I will also notify the office that all the children will be absent from their sses for the time being. And without worrying the other students, I will make sure that I let the other teachers be on their guard. None of us want to let our children be harmed. It is time that the entiremunityes together to protect each other.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Mr. Amadeus.¡± Reece leaned forward at that, his hand out to shake the teacher¡¯s hand and ept his offer of assistance. ¡°We all do need to work together. I will have my men spread the word of caution as well, but we can¡¯t rm themunity atrge. This is going to be a delicate situation.¡±


    The men shook hands and we talked momentarily about what needed to happen right now. After that, Mr. Amadeus left, but not before he promised to bring the work for the kids over in a few days. He was a good man, and he was truly trying to help us.


    ¡°I don¡¯t like him.¡± Alexio growled as he walked out of the room with Talia. I almost wanted tough. I had a feeling that this was just him being overprotective in these difficult times, but he was acting a lot like Reece did when people paid too much attention to the kids. He was acting like a protective father that didn¡¯t want his precious little girl touched or looked at by members of the opposite sex. It was kind of funny to see. I wonder just what he was going to do when Talia really did start dating, or when she found her mate? It was going to be hard on her, like having two dads like Reece or something like that. Poor girl. She had it rough right now.


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 Chapter 937

    Chapter 937: Chapter 122- Clovio ¨C Where We Were (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Clovio


    ~~


    We had spent some timeing up with a usible story to tell the others when we got back to the campus, but that didn¡¯t take away the nerves that I was feeling. I was just really d that I was good at hiding my emotions. If it wasn¡¯t for my acting skills, I might be found out right away. And Warrick was like a fucking brick wall most of the time. It was hard to get anything out of him and he was always so stony faced and unemotional.


    I was pretty sure that we didn¡¯t have anything to worry about at the current moment, everyone would believe us when we walked back onto campus and told them that Princess Rika¡¯s dad had us hauled in only because we had been with his daughter. Which, honestly, was the truth. They didn¡¯t know who we were until we got there. And truth be told, it was that bodyguard of Rika¡¯s that had dragged us in. He did not like the idea of his princess being with a man like me. I don¡¯t know why he hated me from the get go, but he was the one that seemed to have the biggest problem with me and Warrick. Not that we had won over the dads at all.


    ¡°We will leave you here.¡± The guard, Westin, snapped at me as he put the car into park about a mile from the campus. ¡°I don¡¯t think it would be good if your friends saw you getting out of our car.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re probably right.¡± I tried not to take his tone personal, even if it was.


    .....


    ¡°Just stay away from Rika. Don¡¯t ever go near her again, do you understand me?¡±


    ¡°I doubt that she will ever speak to me again.¡± I didn¡¯t give him the answer he wanted, but I thought that it was just as good of one.


    ¡°That isn¡¯t what I said. You are not to make an effort to ever speak to her again. If I ever see you near her again, I will not be held responsible for what happens to you.¡± He was threatening me. What the hell was the matter with him? Was he told to do this by King Reece? No, I didn¡¯t think so. He just really didn¡¯t like me.


    ¡°Yeah, I hear you. I will never talk to her again.¡± I tried to keep the annoyance and fear off of my face, but I am not sure that I seeded, not based on the look that he gave me just then.


    ¡°Get out of my sight, you little shit.¡± He was already pulled away from the curb before I fully shut the door. Damn, he was definitely an asshole.


    Ignoring what had just happened, I decided to just turn toward the campus and walk back. It wasn¡¯t going to take us too long, and the walk might clear my head. I needed to calm the thoughts that were racing through my head before I saw the others. I didn¡¯t want to let anything slipter.


    ¡°That was interesting.¡± Warrick said as we walked along the sidewalk. ¡°If it makes you feel any better, I am sure that Lyssa will never speak to me again as well. We are in the same boat, bruder.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I know.¡± We had both just lost the girls that we were seeing. I wasn¡¯t really in love with Rika, but I did care about her. And I wanted her to be safe. Warrick, though, was head over heels in love with Allysa. And I was the only one that he had told.


    It only took us about fifteen minutes. We weren¡¯t walking slow, but we weren¡¯t moving all that fast either. I think we were worried about what was going to happen when we got there. There was no stopping it though, so we just went into our dorm and up to our room. It was a good thing that Warrick and I shared a room, we didn¡¯t need to see the others right away. And this set up in the dorm was slightly reminiscent of the days spent at Saint ric¡¯s. It has made the transition here a lot easier for us all.


    The moment that I flopped onto my bed, with Warrick about to flop onto his, there was a knock on the door to the room. The vultures were already here to pick us clean.


    ¡°Let them in.¡± I told Warrick since he was still standing. He wasn¡¯t happy about it, but he walked over to the door and opened it. Gunnar, Aloisius, Lovisa, Armina, Hede and Hedi all came in as soon as the door was open. Warrick barely had the time to get back to his bed and sit down before they were all starting to swarm us on our beds. Three of the girls were crowding me so bad that I was forced to sit up.


    ¡°Hahh. We¡¯ve had a long day, what do you want?¡± I was the one that was supposed to be in charge here, but they were acting like I was just some worthless piece of shit.


    ¡°What happened?¡± Gunnar growled at me, his eyes darkening even more than they already were.


    ¡°We heard from ud. You were taken by the wolves.¡± Lovisa sneered at me.


    ¡°Did they hurt you?¡± Armina, the only other one of our group that thought the way that Warrick and I did, asked me in a worried tone.


    ¡°No, they didn¡¯t hurt us. I think they wanted to, but they didn¡¯t. And it had nothing to do with the organization.¡± I started to exin things in the way that we had talked about earlier.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Gunnar snapped at me. ¡°They know you are a Jaegan, do they not?¡±


    ¡°No, they don¡¯t know about it at all. They were just mad that we were dating King Reece¡¯s precious daughter and niece. He threatened us with great bodily harm and told us to leave Rika and Lyssa alone forever, but that was about it.¡± I continued with the exnation, paraphrasing where I needed to.


    ¡°Where did they take you?¡± Hede was being curious like the others, but it was like she was forcing herself to make an effort. That girl didn¡¯t care about anyone but herself. She didn¡¯t even care about the administration. She just wanted to serve her time and move on so that she could do what she wanted. Although, I knew that if push came to shove, she would side with them and not me.


    ¡°They took us to King Reece¡¯s office.¡± Warrick slid to the top of his bed, away from the others. ¡°It is in a high rise building in the city. There were countless humans around, so he wasn¡¯t able to shift or anything like that. And he didn¡¯t do a lot of probing with us. He was just trying to intimidate us to leave the girls alone. It seems to have worked though.¡± He hung his head. ¡°Both of them said they would never talk to us again. I don¡¯t know if they were serious though. I will need to text Lyssater, to see if I can get a hold of her.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s for the best.¡± Gunnar red at him as he spoke angrily. ¡°You two were getting way too close to those girls. If you keep that up, then you would forget about the mission.¡±


    ¡°The mission? I happen to remember that our mission was to report on Rika and Reagan. What do you think that I was trying to do? By getting close to her, I would have been able to gain ess to her home. I would have been able to give all sorts of intel back to the administration. Now though, I¡¯ve blown my chance. How am I supposed to report on her movements when she won¡¯te anywhere near me?¡±


    ¡°Oh well.¡± Gunnar shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s not like the mission is going tost much longer anyway. It will be over soon enough. Once we kill the queen, the rest of her people will all die. You know what they said, if you kill the leader, the others will fall.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I know.¡± I didn¡¯t believe a word of that though, no matter what the others said. ¡°And what do you mean it will be over soon?¡± I was confused.


    ¡°Ahh, that was another thing that ud told us about. They are going to lure the others out with their next kill, and then they are going to kill the king and queen. We will eliminate all of those monsters in one go.¡± My blood froze at Lovisa¡¯s words. I had to work to keep my face from giving away my fear that they sent through me. I knew that what they were saying was impossible, but I was worried about Queen Trinity and King Reece. Not to mention, Rika. I didn¡¯t want any of them to get hurt at all.


    ¡°ud wants to see us all tonight. We are supposed to see him just after dark in the same park that you were at earlier.¡± Gunnar was telling me how things were supposed to be. He was definitely not treating me like I was the leader here.


    ¡°Alright. We will go there in a bit. For now though, I am hungry and want to get some lunch.¡± I needed to get away from them. I needed time to think. And I needed time to tell the others back at the castle what had happened. This was so not good.


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 Chapter 938

    Chapter 938: Chapter 123- Reece ¨C Message From Clovio (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    It was after eight that night that I noticed that I had a message from Clovio. I hadn¡¯t saved his number in my phone so it went unnoticed for a little while. I feel bad about that, since the kid wasn¡¯t that bad. He was a little shit, don¡¯t get me wrong, but that was only because he tried to date my daughter. Other than that, he seemed to be a pretty stand up guy. There was reason to trust him at least. And we were going to be working with him and his friend for the time being.


    ¡°Shit.¡± I said when I noticed the message was from him. All of the kids were off doing things on their own. They weren¡¯t going to be going to school for the time being, so they didn¡¯t need to do their homework or get to bed early. They would still be studying though. At least the younger ones. I was going to call in a tutor to help them while they were out of school. I didn¡¯t want them to fall behind. Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley were only in the fifth grade; they couldn¡¯t afford to miss these important foundational steps in learning. Or at least, that was what I had been told.


    ¡°What¡¯s the matter Reece?¡± My Little Bunny called out to me from across the room. ¡°Did something happen?¡±


    ¡°I got a message from Clovio earlier. I hadn¡¯t noticed it until just now.


    .....


    ¡°What does it say?¡±


    [Clovio]


    I am meeting my friends tonight just after dark in the same park that you and I were in earlier. Would love for you toe with me.


    I read the message for her and tried to think about it for a moment.


    ¡°He¡¯s writing it like it¡¯s for Rika, but it¡¯s for me. I think he¡¯s scared.¡± I looked at the window. ¡°If only I could have seen it sooner, I could have hidden in the park and caught the others. I think that was what he wanted me to do.¡±


    ¡°Probably.¡± She came over to sit on the couch with me. We were in our room, the first alone time that we had gotten today. ¡°Should you still go?¡±


    ¡°Let me text him back.¡± I started to message him but was stopped almost immediately.


    ¡°Wait. You¡¯re not a girl, you don¡¯t know how to text him properly.¡± She took the phone out of my hand and started to type a response.


    ¡°Like you can do better than me.¡± I red at her yfully.


    ¡°Well, Reece, unlike you, I am a woman. And I used to be a girl that was Rika¡¯s age once. A long time ago, but that isn¡¯t the point. You need to make this sound like it¡¯sing from his girlfriend. Not the angry father of that girlfriend.¡± She was still typing the entire time that she spoke to me, never once taking her eyes off of the screen.


    ¡°I am the angry father of that former girlfriend of his.¡± I growled at her. ¡°So, I wouldn¡¯t be acting.¡±


    ¡°And that, my dear sweet Reece, is the problem. You wouldn¡¯t type this right.¡± She sent the message and looked up at me. ¡°Done. This should suffice. It¡¯s conveying that she is still upset about her dad telling her she can¡¯t see him, but that she misses him. I told her that you were caught up with other work and just said the message, but you will head over now if he still wants to see you.¡±


    ¡°Blech.¡± I pretended to gag. ¡°You¡¯re making it sound like I am the one in the rtionship with that boy.¡± I felt my skin crawl and wanted to vomit all at the same time. ¡°That is so creepy.¡±


    ¡°I know. You¡¯re cheating on me, Reece. How dare you? And with that pathetic teenage boy at that.¡± Sheughed at me then, causing me to just shudder again.


    ¡°Eww.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha. Stop being so overly dramatic.¡± Sheughed at me. ¡°Look, he¡¯s texted back.¡± We both looked at the screen.


    [Clovio}


    I am happy that you are still willing toe, but the meeting is almost over. I will talk to youter. Sorry to bother you when you were busy.


    At that, my Little Bunny started to text him back again. I was reading the text over her shoulder. She told him to call meter if he needed to. Not that I wanted to have a secrette night conversation with that boy, but we needed to know everything that we could. He was spying for us now, instead of his family. And anything that he was able to tell us would help.


    ¡°I think that I am going to go to the park anyway. I will take Noah and some of the others with me. We can search the park for clues and possibly follow their scents back to where they are staying. It¡¯s a step in the right directions at the very least.¡±


    ¡°If you think that would be best, then go ahead. I won¡¯t stop you.¡± She leaned in and kissed my cheek. ¡°I have a feeling that this is all going to happen really fast really soon. I don¡¯t want to rush it, but I think that is going to happen no matter what we do. It¡¯s inevitable.¡±


    ¡°I agree. This is all going to start getting really busy and exciting for all of us. We¡¯re going to need to stay on top of our game. I don¡¯t want to miss a thing with the rest of this investigation. And I will not ept failure in this mission. We need to save those girls, and all the others in our kingdom.¡± I felt the conviction coursing through me. I wasn¡¯t going to let anyone else die. Not when I knew where the murders were at the current moment. OK, I didn¡¯t know their exact location, but I knew that they were in the city right now. I would track them down no matter what it took.


    As I left my room, I sent a mental message to Noah, Carter, Trevor, Landon, Riley and Valerian. I told them that we were going to be heading to the park to search for the scent and to see if those men were still there. If we could capture one of them tonight, then maybe we could hunt them down before those girls were lured into the trap in two nights. If not, we would wait until they were taken there and save them the moment that they were at the park. That would likely be the best option. We would at least catch five of them at once that way. And with the others helping us, we would be able to hide ourselves. They wouldn¡¯t see using when the time came.


    I got messages back from the others almost immediately. They all agreed to meet me in the garage so that we could leave right away. And it was on the way down there that I saw Westin. He came running up to me and I noticed that he was not in the best of moods.


    ¡°Reece, I know that you are busy, but I need to talk to you.¡±


    ¡°What is it, Westin?¡± I gave him the go ahead to talk. There was still time before I had to meet the others.


    ¡°I..I want to leave the castle. I know that I have duties here and all that, but I need to get away for a little while.¡± He looked like something had truly hurt him.


    ¡°What happened?¡± I knew that it had to be big for him to do this. He was a loyal guard that never once wanted to leave his post. Now he was wanting to go away like he was running away from something. ¡°Talk to me Westin, what happened?¡±


    ¡°I..I met my mate, b..but it didn¡¯t go well.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean that it didn¡¯t go well?¡± He was not making sense to me. What could have happened.


    ¡°She doesn¡¯t feel the bond. It¡¯s like I am the only one that is mated. Sh..she doesn¡¯t want me at all. She wants to be with someone else. I don¡¯t think that I can stand to be around that for right now. I..I want to leave for now. I want to see if some time away from me will help her. If not, then I will leave again. I can¡¯t stand the way that it feels, seeing her with someone else.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I get it man. I am sorry that happened to you. If you think getting away for a little while will help, I can send you to another region for the time being. You can help with the Alphas in Europe or something. I know that the ones in Wales will be happy to have you. They need some help getting some organization between them as well.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that sounds good. I will leave right away.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to send you right away. I want to have you here for the time being, to help with the case. I think that this mighte down to a battle. Until then though, you can change up your schedule so that you don¡¯t have to see the woman in question. I won¡¯t ask who it is right now. I don¡¯t want to interfere with your rtionship if Ie across her. Just know that I support you, OK.¡± I wasn¡¯t going to force him to be around a woman that didn¡¯t want him. That would be truly painful for him. I remember when I thought I would never get my Little Bunny to love me. That was the worst feeling in the world.


    ¡°Thank you, Reece. I appreciate that more than you will ever know.¡± He looked relieved but also even more downtrodden when he said that. I could tell that he was feeling both sides of the situation right now. It couldn¡¯t be easy dealing with something like this. I didn¡¯t me him one bit for running away right now.


    I watched him leaving the hall for a moment. It brought back way too many memories for me. I was remembering the time that I stupidly told my mate that I hated her and saw the heartbreak in her eyes. That led me to thinking that she would never ept me again. That I would never, no matter what I did, have a chance to win her heart. It was hard for me, but that had been my own fault. This wasn¡¯t Westin¡¯s fault though. So, it had to be even harder on him. Knowing who your mate is and having her reject you for no reason. I knew that he was a good guy and hadn¡¯t told her that he hated her. This was not his fault at all. Poor Westin.


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 Chapter 939

    Chapter 939: Chapter 124- Trinity ¨C Gabriel¡¯s Theory (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It wasn¡¯t long after Reece left the room that there was a knock on my door. I had heard and smelled the personing, so I wasn¡¯t surprised by the knock at all.


    ¡°Come in, Gabriel.¡± I called out to him, already knowing who it was. The benefit of being so familiar with people when you are a shifter is that you can smell theming, so you¡¯re almost never surprised by something.


    The door opened slowly before Gabriel came in a little sheepishly. I don¡¯t know why he was acting shy, the man had been part of my team for almost twenty years. Literally, when my wedding anniversary came around in March of next year, about half year from now, it would reach that twenty year mark. Still, he was the most formal of all my guards. And, truth be told, Gabriel wasn¡¯t really a guard, though he did protect me as well. He was more of my steward or personal assistant. He was the one that provided me with information and handled the business aspect of a lot of things for me.


    ¡°What is it, Gabriel?¡± I asked him when I saw how nervous he was being.


    .....


    ¡°I had an idea, Queen Trinity.¡± He spoke formally, which is something that he often did when he was feeling inadequate.


    ¡°Gabriel, please drop the title and just talk to me.¡± He knew that I hated it when my friends and family were so formal with me. I would ept the strangers using the title, but not people that have been so close to me and Reece that our kids considered them aunts and uncles. That just felt wrong.


    ¡°I know Trinity, and I am sorry. Sometimes, old habits are hard to forget.¡± He smirked and came to sit at the table that was near the window at the back of the room. ¡°I came to tell you something that urred to me recently. Something that I should have realized sooner. However, somehow, I just didn¡¯t think about it until just recently. Now that I have, though, I feel like an idiot for letting it wait this long.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not an idiot, Gabriel.¡± I sat across from him and patted his hand. ¡°We¡¯ve all been busy, and we¡¯ve had a lot on our minds. There is nothing at all to be self-conscious or worried about. Just tell me what it is that you thought about.¡± I didn¡¯t want him to feel bad about this. He just needed to tell me what it was as soon as he could. That way, if it was important enough, I could do what needed to be done with the information.


    ¡°Well, you see, I was thinking about the fact that those people, the Jaegans, use runes to do the things that they do. The one killed himself with a rune, but they also use them to kill our kind.¡± He had a serious look on his face as he spoke. I could tell that he really had thought about this topic long and hard.


    ¡°Yes, I know that They used them in ways that I never thought were possible. It means that we have all had to start thinking about this differently.¡± I let him know that I was following along with him and was ready for him to continue.


    ¡°Well, the thing is, runes are a very old and very ancient type of magic. A lot of them date back to the War of the Realms. They were ancient magics used by the Gods and the Demons. Humans, who were caught in the crossfires between the two as the war raged here on earth, had to learn to use the runes for themselves so that they could stay alive.¡±


    ¡°Wait, the War of the Realms?¡± I was confused about that. ¡°I haven¡¯t heard about a War of the Realms.¡±


    ¡°Well, you haven¡¯t studied history as much as I have. Not to mention, I have spoken to Alex and Rudy about this matter as well. They were both knowledgeable about it because they are Demons. Alex, oddly enough, had been created to fight in that war. He knew a lot more about this subject and I talked to him about it in great lengths. I made sure to add that to the ever growing archives that the Sentinelle continues to house.¡± I thought briefly about those archives and the time that I spent learning from them when I first got married. Reece and I had needed to train at the Sentinelle so that we could stop my father, since at that time he was still alive and causing us a lot of trouble.


    ¡°Alright, so there was a battle between the realms, and in that the humans learned to use the runes. What runes did they use at the time?¡± I was not sure if I was going to get a straight answer or a vague one, but at least this was moving in a positive way.


    ¡°They mostly used things for extra strength, added defense, and things like that. There were also reports of a true sight rune that made it so that super naturals and the like couldn¡¯t hide from the humans. They would be able to see what they were no matter what was going on around them. I think that the Jaegans are using a variation of that rune to see when they are near a nonhuman. It will make it easier for them to find their victims. However, we can use that rune as well.¡± Gabriel was excited about this as he started to excitedly exin all of the things that he had been thinking about. He really was a smart man and could put a lot of puzzle pieces together even if he didn¡¯t have a lot of information to start with.


    ¡°How could we use that rune? What purpose would it do for us? We can smell and know when there are others of our kind nearby.¡± I wasn¡¯t following on the true sight rune. It wouldn¡¯t help us to know where all the nonhumans were. Most of us already knew that information. Him included.


    ¡°It¡¯s not for that purpose, Trinity.¡± He smiled at me and seemed to have a slightly mischievous look on his face. ¡°You see, we can use the true sight rune to find the Jaegan, even when they are wearing those special cloaks of theirs. They can¡¯t hide from us in in sight like they did before. We will see them, no matter what.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, that really is a good idea.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°Are there other runes that you think wille in handy for us?¡± Now that we were talking about this, it would be best to go all the way down that rabbit hole. We needed to know what all we had to do, how many runes we all needed.


    ¡°Well, you have shields that you could put on us, but we can¡¯t know if they can work properly for us when fighting runes, so I think the ones for defense will be good as well. And that might be a good defense against that special light that they have.¡±


    ¡°The light?¡± I was confused for a moment before I remembered that part of Talia¡¯s visions. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right. How they made it so that their victims were in a sort of trance. Yeah, that is something that scares me. What if they sh that light on us when we go to fight them? We would all be left defenseless against them. I know that Reece has been wondering about that as well.¡± I had been trying to think of a good way to go against these people since we found out who and what they were. We needed to stop them, no matter what they had nned, it couldn¡¯t be brought to fruition.


    ¡°Yes, that light. And I think that the protection runes would help us with that. I don¡¯t want anyone to fall victim to those people. I don¡¯t want any more of us to die at all. And we only have a little bit of time before we have to face them at that park. I don¡¯t know if that will be the final battle, or if it will just be the first strike that we make. What I do know though, is that it will be a pivotal point in all of this.¡± Gabriel had made apelling argument, one that I had absolutely no reason not to agree with.


    For the next several minutes, Gabriel and I talked about what it was that we needed to do. We discussed how we were going to apply the runes, since carving them into our flesh was likely a bad idea. We talked about where the runes should go on all of us, as well as the children, and not just my children either. I was going to have these marks put on as many kids as possible. I didn¡¯t want anyone in my city to get taken by those people. I didn¡¯t want one single more person from my kingdom to die at the hands of those monsters. We were going to put an end to this, we were going to protect everyone, no matter what.


    After Gabriel left, the talking done for the time being, I sat at my table alone while I thought some more. This was something that we couldn¡¯t postpone. I had to put as much of this into effect first thing in the morning. And that meant that I would have a lot of phone calls to make, starting with those that ran the school.


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 Chapter 940

    Chapter 940: Chapter 125- Reece ¨C The Park (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    By the time that we all made it to the park that Clovio had mentioned, there was no one there. The park was supposed to be closed, but that hadn¡¯t stopped those Jaegan assholes from using it. And it wasn¡¯t stopping me and the guys from searching it as well. Not to mention, if the cops showed up to stop me from doing my job, I had several people to call and fix the situation. I wasn¡¯t concerned at all.


    OK, I wasn¡¯t concerned about being caught and arrested. I was concerned though, just about other things. I was concerned about Clovio and Warrick, not that they deserved that from me. I was worried that they might have been hurt by the other men in their group. And since we needed their help to finish this shit and to save my people, I needed to make sure that those two boys were safe. I was going to protect them to the best of my ability.


    Not to mention, whether I liked it or not, I had to protect Warrick for Alyssa. He was her mate. Her actual mate. Not like Talia who was trying to force it to happen because she liked the boy. Alyssa and Warrick were mated for real. I knew this for a fact the moment that I saw them together. The way that they were looking at each other, the connection and love that they had for each other was real. And that was why Alyssa had been hurt so deeply when she found out who and what Warrick really was.


    Alyssa had looked like someone had destroyed her. She had looked like a part of her had died and the world would never recover. I knew that look, it was a look that Trinity and I had a lot when we were first together. Our wolves wanted each other, but neither of us would give in to the other. It had almost destroyed uspletely and I never thought that we would recover from it. We did though, we made it through that tough time, and we are so much stronger because of it now. And I know that Alyssa and Warrick will make it through this as well. They just need to be patient. And if he loves her, Warrick will do whatever it is that he has to just to make sure that Alyssa is happy.


    .....


    ¡°They¡¯re gone, Reece Though you already knew that.¡± Riley came running back to me from across the park. ¡°There were a lot of them here though. Enough that I think that we can track their scents and see where they went.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I agree.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°We should split up and follow them. I will go with-.¡± I started to exin things when I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. Knowing the messages that I had gotten earlier I wasn¡¯t about to postpone this. It could have to do with those people as well.


    Sure enough, when I took my phone out of my pocket, it was a message from a new number. It wasn¡¯t Clovio this time. This message hade from Warrick, and he seemed to have sent me an audio clip.


    ¡°What is it?¡± Riley asked as he looked at the phone in my hand.


    ¡°Well, I guess we will be finding out soon, won¡¯t we.¡± I downloaded the clip and pressed y on the screen. I had the volume low, since we would hear it no matter what. There was no reason to let anyone that wasn¡¯t part of my group hear the message. I couldn¡¯t risk that. Not to mention, the message that had apanied the audio recording had me feeling nervous.


    ¡°I thought that I needed to record this. The others that just joined us in Colorado Springs have some nefarious ns that they are going to enact. We were worried about you and the girls. I hope this helps a little bit.¡± I thought that this sentiment was nice of him. Then again, he was in love with Alyssa, so he was on our side more than his family¡¯s. I guess it was beneficial to have a mole on the inside for us.


    I looked up just before the message started to y, Trevor and Noah wereing toward me while Carter, Landon, and Valerian were just a little further behind them. They were all almost here, so they would all hear the message that Warrick sent me.


    It seemed that the majority of the recording was done by one man, but there were a couple times when others would talk. They were all men though, and they all had simr ents, so I knew that they were all from the same ce.


    VOICE 1:


    ¡°¨Cpast time that we stepped up our game.¡±


    It was like the recording started in the middle of the man¡¯s sentence. That was frustrating, but I would have to deal with it.


    VOICE 1:


    ¡°Those filthy nonhumans need to pay. They must beg for forgiveness and let their souls be judged by the those that meet in their afterlife. However, no amount of begging from them will warrant forgiveness from us. We need to stay true to the mission that we have been given. We need to see this through. They must die. All of them must die.¡±


    The man was acting like he was giving them a pep talk or something. He was trying to pump them up for a big game. Or a big fight.


    VOICE 1:


    ¡°The next attack will happen in just two days. We have scouted the perfect location for the bodies to beid out. We will be targeting five people at one time. The targets this time will be used to send a message to the others. We will ignite in them a rage that will blind them to what is actually happening around them. This will be the start of the war. This will be the true end of the beginning.¡±


    VOICE 2:


    ¡°What will be different this time? How will we make it so that they will send that message to the right people?¡±


    This man seemed to be slightly scared of the leader. He must not be used to him, was he one of the college students? Or was he one of the guys that came here from thest set of kills? I wasn¡¯t sure, but I knew that it wasn¡¯t Clovio or Warrick. I knew their voices.


    VOICE 1:


    ¡°There will be differences with the way that the bodies are left behind. The words that we leave for those mongrel monsters to find. Andstly, all five of the bodies will be left at the same ce. This time it¡¯s not just a serial murder, it will be a mass murder.¡±


    That man was literallyughing about this. He thought that this was somehow funny. He thought that the wanton acts of violence and the senseless loss of life was some sort of game. To him, and most of the rest of the group that was there, they were just taking out the trash of the world. Too bad that their family, and only part of that family, were the ones that thought that way.


    VOICE 1:


    ¡°We havee to the home of the leader of those animals. Those mongrel monsters have a king and queen, and they live here, in this city. But they are so stupid and clueless that they don¡¯t even know we have started to spy on them. They have no idea that we have a few of our guys pretending to date their daughters. It¡¯s the perfect cover, as long as those guys don¡¯t get too wrapped up in the roles that they were ying.¡±


    I could tell that they all must have turned to look at Clovio and Warrick then. They were the two that the man was talking about. But no one said anything to them. It was just a long and awkward silence that stretched on for several moments.


    VOICE 1:


    ¡°The deration of war is just the beginning though. When we pull this off, those monsters will be so lost and confused about what just happened in their own backyard that they won¡¯t even see us invading their home directly. Once this is over, we give them forty-eight hours before we swarm them. Their measly little army won¡¯t stand a chance against us while they are still running around like chickens with their heads cut off. They will fall prey to us like the elders always wanted them to. We will finally make our ancestors proud. We will finally rid this world of all the nonhumans. This will once again be a ce where humans can live in peace and harmony.¡±


    VOICE 2:


    ¡°YEAH!¡±


    VOICE 3:


    ¡°LONG LIVE THE HUMANS!¡±


    ¡°VOICE 4:


    ¡°KILL THE BEASTS!¡±


    There were several other cheers, but they were hard to make out with the cacophony of sound that was on the other end of the message.


    VOICE 1:


    ¡°AND ONCE ALL THOSE MONGREL MONSTERS ARE DESTROYED, OUR FAMILY WILL TAKE ITS RIGHTFUL PLACE AT THE FOREFRONT OF IT ALL! WE WILL DESTROY THE MONSTER AND RULE THE WORLD LIKE WE¡¯VE ALWAYS BEEN MEANT TO! WE WILL PROTECT THE HUMANS AND LORD OVER THEM WITH AN IRON FIST!¡±


    Well, I guess we finally knew what it was that these people wanted. They were after world domination. They weren¡¯t trying to save the world, they were trying to make it their own. I should have known that this was their n from the very beginning.


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 Chapter 941

    Chapter 941: Chapter 126- Reece ¨C Let¡¯s Follow The Scent Trails (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    ¡°Reece?¡± Riley called out to me in a soft voice. Despite how low it was I had no trouble at all hearing what it was that he was saying.


    ¡°Yeah?¡± I didn¡¯t even look at him. I was too busy staring at my phone and processing the words that I had just heard from that voice message. It was good of Warrick and Clovio to make sure that we had it. There was a lot that we could learn from that recording. Most notably, these people that were leading the Jaegan were certifiably insane. They wanted to destroy half of the world¡¯s poption just so that they could lord themselves over the remaining half. I mean, it was a goal to have I guess, but it was a shitty ass goal.


    ¡°We need to find these men.¡± His voice was calmly containing the rage that I knew was burning inside of him. He, like me, had a family to protect. We all did. And none of us wanted anything to happen to those families, or to anyone else in ourmunity.


    ¡°I know, Riley.¡± I gave him a look that both burned with rage and radiated calmness. It was basically telling him that I was pissed off, but I wasn¡¯t going to lose my cool over it. I was going to make sure that I stayed in control and went about this the proper way.


    .....


    ¡°I say that we follow all the scent trails that lead off from this spot.¡± Trevor said as he sniffed the air around us. ¡°They were a pungent group, so they shouldn¡¯t be that difficult to follow, even after the amount of time that has passed.¡± I saw that he was wrinkling his nose against that disgusting undertone to their smell. Or was it an overtone? It was hard for me to figure that out with it messing with my senses the way that it was. It was like it was some sort of gue on my nose.


    ¡°That was already the n.¡± I looked off in the distance, doing my best to follow the scent trails, to see them with my eyes the way that I did with my nose. If I tried hard enough, it was almost as if I could see a set of yellow lines that led off in three different directions. ¡°I am sure that they left the park in three different groups. Some are definitely heading toward the university. Those will be the ones that are the students there. At least that would be my guess. The others are split between going east and west.¡±


    ¡°So what do you want us to do, Reece?¡± Valerian asked as he followed my hand, looking as if he could almost see the yellow lines as well.


    ¡°We split up. Landon and Carter, you go toward the university. Valerian, Trevor and Noah, you go to the east. Riley, you cane with me. We can meet up after we find where the trails end. Make a note of anything important, and call if anything happens.¡± I divided us up and exined what it was that they needed to do.


    ¡°And what should we do when we find out where these people are hiding?¡± There was a malicious look in Trevor¡¯s eyes, a look that I understood but could not condone.


    ¡°You make a note and head back to the park to rendezvous with the rest of us.¡± They all needed to know that they couldn¡¯t engage these people right now. They had to know that we were going to be doing reconnaissance only. There was to be no fighting with them tonight.


    ¡°Reece?¡±


    ¡°Come on, that isn¡¯t fair!¡±


    ¡°We need to stop them.¡±


    There were several who protested to the words that I had for them, but they weren¡¯t going to sway me. I was in agreement with my Little Bunny. These people thought that we were monsters, it was best not to prove them right.


    ¡°You heard me. We are not to attack or fight them at all.¡±


    ¡®Why not? Am I allowed to ask that?¡± Trevor, who was a passionate man that didn¡¯t like to see people get hurt, didn¡¯t understand why I was doing this. Hopefully he would understand what I had to say about it.


    ¡°Think about it, Trevor. All of you think about it. What do they think that we are?¡±


    ¡°Monsters.¡± Riley¡¯s response was instant. Clearly, he understood what I was getting at here.


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± I nodded at him, feeling pride in his quick thinking. ¡°And if we just attack them the moment that we find them, what will that make them think that we are? Even more so than they already do?¡±


    ¡°Monsters.¡± This time, the word was said by almost all of them.


    ¡°Precisely. I agree with Trinity. We will not give them the satisfaction of being what they think that we are. As you all know, in thest several years, there has been fewer punishments that resulted in death. That is because we have seen the error of our ways. And Trinity and I think that we need to take a more human approach to these things.¡±


    ¡°I understand.¡± Riley put a hand on my shoulder and gripped it tightly in support of my stance on this situation. ¡°You are an amazing king, Reece, don¡¯t let anyone make you think otherwise.¡±


    ¡°Thank you. Though with all these people that have died, I don¡¯t feel very good at it right now.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Reece. You are.¡± Trevor gripped my other shoulder. ¡°And we understand what you mean. We won¡¯t attack them. Just track them down and find where they are staying at the moment. Knowing where their hideout is will help us immensely.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    With them all on board, it was time for us to split up. I knew that I didn¡¯t need to micromanage them all since they were all strong and capable men. I knew that they would all be good on their own.


    Carter and Landon headed off toward the dorms at the university. Trevor, Valerian, and Noah headed toward the outside of the city, in the general direction of where that battle with Edmond and his monsters had happened all those years ago. To think that he had turned into a good guy while he was in Hell. It really tainted the memories that I had of the past.


    ¡°Come on, Riley.¡± I beckoned him toward me as I headed in the opposite direction from the others.


    ¡°Sure thing.¡± He nodded and followed me out of the park. ¡°Lead the way. Or I can lead, either is good for me.¡±


    ¡°Just follow your nose, dummy.¡± I shook my head. I needed something to break the tension that had settled in over thest few minutes.


    ¡°Oh,e on, Fifi. Are you really going to be an asshole right now?¡± He joked right back to let me know that the tension was gone.


    ¡°Shut up, Spike, we have work to do.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha. You made me a more manly dog.¡±


    ¡°That is because you were a dick and called me a girl dog. And I was choosing to ignore yourment.¡± I shook my head and focused on my nose. ¡°Come on, they went this way.¡±


    Riley and I tracked the scent as it weaved through the city. It was clear that these people knew that we could track them with their scent. And they knew enough to try and confuse our noses by moving all over the city in an erratic pattern. The problem is, they underestimated us. It was not all that hard for us to follow the trail that they left behind.


    Now, if they had been like other humans, without that added smell, they would have blended in too much with the other people. However, that pungent stench was hard to miss. And that made them even easier to follow.


    In the end, we tracked them to a cheap looking motel that was in one of those really old buildings. It was like an apartmentplex that was turned into a fleabag, rent by the hour type of ce. I didn¡¯t like the idea of going into that ce at all. I was afraid that I would actually get fleas. Or maybe bedbugs. Cooties? I would definitely catch something from that hellhole.


    ¡°They aren¡¯t living in thep of luxury, are they?¡± Riley asked as he looked up at the windows in the distance. ¡°I don¡¯t know what room is theirs, or how many that they even have, but they are in there.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I know they are. And I think that they are trying to house as many as they can for as cheap as they can. This just tells me that there might be more of them than we expected. We need to be ready for when the battle actually starts.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡± He and I nodded and started to head back toward the park.


    The others were already waiting for us when we got back to the park. I had been right about the one trail heading to the dorms at the university. The other trail apparently ended at the side of one of the streets. They must have gotten into a car and driven away. If they had smelled the car, or seen it before it left, then we could have tracked it. Now though, there was no hope.


    ¡°We have enough for now.¡± I told them as I assessed the information. ¡°We will reconvene in the morning and continue from there.¡±


    ¡°Sounds good.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡±


    ¡°No problem.¡±


    ¡°Got it.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s head back then.¡±


    The others all agreed with me. Now, it was time for me to go and tell all of this to Trinity. She wouldn¡¯t let it wait at all. Not with how stressed she has beentely.


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 Chapter 942

    Chapter 942: Chapter 127- Trinity ¨C Assignments (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece came backst night and told me what it was that they found at the park. Which wasn¡¯t much at all. The people were gone, and their trails went to various ces. Though Reece was sure that he knew where the bulk of them were staying. However, some of them did leave in a car, so that was enough to tell them that there were others in the group not staying at that fleabag motel.


    On top of that, Reece yed that megalomaniacal recording that he had been sent from the boys that were dating Rika and Alyssa. Not that I wanted to acknowledge that those things happened at all, but I guess that I didn¡¯t have much of a choice. And well, I did need to acknowledge that the twins were all grown up now. They weren¡¯t little babies that needed me to protect them anymore, no matter how much I wanted to think that they did. Times were changing, and life was moving on, for better or worse.


    The kids weren¡¯t going to school today though. No matter how much Reagan and Rika thought that they were able to protect themselves, we weren¡¯t allowing them to go to the university where those people were. Not just Clovio and Warrick, but the others that we weren¡¯t certain of. Of course, those two could be trusted, but not all of them.


    Talia, Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley were staying home as well. To all those outside of the family, it would just look like there was some sort of family situation that we had needed to take care of. No one would suspect a thing, especially given the fact that Reece and I were away for so long.


    .....


    Ours weren¡¯t the only ones not in school though. All eight of Shawn and Dietrich¡¯s kids were home, Noah¡¯s kids were home, and so were all the others that were still living in the city. Those that were outside of Colorado Springs didn¡¯t need to worry as much at the moment, since these people were focusing their efforts here for the time being. I had a feeling that the school was going to suspect that something was up when everyone that was close to me kept their kids home, but there was nothing that I could do about that. It needed to be done.


    Right now, with all the kids upstairs in the tower, Reece and I were on our way to my office once again. There was a lot that we were dealing withtely, and there were a lot more meetings in my office than there has been in a while. Hopefully we can end this soon and have some peace and quiet in our lives for a while.


    When I got to my office with Reece, the others were already there. That was one good thing about all the people that we trusted. They were punctual when they needed to be, and they were loyal enough to always be here when they were needed. They were actually really loyal and had never once let me down.


    ¡°Good morning, everyone.¡± I called out to them. ¡°I am d that you¡¯re all here.¡±


    ¡°Good morning, Trinity. Good morning, Reece.¡± They all called out at the same time, it was like it had been rehearsed or something.


    ¡°As you all know, there is a lot for us to discuss. We need to figure out what we¡¯re going to do tomorrow night. We can¡¯t stop those men before they get the girls in their sights, but we will stop them before they hurt anyone else.¡±


    ¡°I am sorry, Trinity, but why can¡¯t we stop them before they even approach the girls?¡± Landon asked as he raised his hand. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be better for the intended victims if they never make contact with those men at all?¡±


    ¡°It would, yes, but then they would be able to say that they weren¡¯t doing anything wrong. We need to wait until they show themselves and we can take them down for real. And I want to wait on killing any of them. We can talk to them, interrogate them for more information, and potentially make their leaders try and rescue them. There is a lot that we can do with this situation, however, I do not want us to be monsters in this entire process.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Reece was saying thatst night as well.¡± Landon nodded and looked at Reece. ¡°I understand what you mean though. If we act like monsters, then they can just validate what it is that they¡¯ve been doing. I agree with Reece, we need to work toward a more humane approach to life. We¡¯re civilized beings, it¡¯s time that we all started acting like it.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Landon.¡± I nodded in his direction. ¡°And yes, you are correct, we need to act more humane and civilized than those monsters that are attacking us. We¡¯ve actually been doing that for a while now, however there are times that we have slipped over the years.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re allowed to slip now and then.¡± Trevor grinned as he tried to make the situation seem like it wasn¡¯t so bad.


    ¡°No Trevor, we¡¯re not. We need to start holding ourselves to a standard that even the humans don¡¯t. We need to be exemry citizens. I am sure that it is just a matter of time before the humans all know about us.¡±


    ¡°Why would they find out about us?¡± Carter seemed to balk at my words. It was like he and the others hadn¡¯t thought about this at all. I guess they wouldn¡¯t, since they weren¡¯t always thinking of the bigger picture.


    ¡°Think about it, Carter.¡± I gave him a serious look. I needed him to pay attention here. ¡°We aren¡¯t aging. And let¡¯s not even talk about Mom, Dad, and Grandfather, they all got younger when the immortality thing happened. How long do you think the world will continue to ept us if we don¡¯t age? I am almost forty, but I look like I am in my early twenties. You are forty-one, haven¡¯t you had humans that know you ask about your secret to antiaging? Well, what are you going to tell them when you¡¯re sixty or eighty? It is going to happen, trust me. And it¡¯s just a matter of time.¡±


    ¡°W..w..well, y..yeah, I guess you are right. I didn¡¯t think about that. What will we tell people when we¡¯re a hundred years old and look like we¡¯re twenty-five? They will know for sure that we aren¡¯t human then.¡±


    ¡°Exactly.¡± I didn¡¯t want to be a bitch and get all sarcastic here, so it was taking me a really big effort to hold it back. Still, he was understanding it and that was all that mattered at the moment. ¡°I think that we are going to need to address this issue, sooner rather thanter. However, we¡¯re focused on this case right now. And that is also bringing scrutiny down on us. People have asked questions about why Reece and I are so involved in this case. And they are wondering why we, who are not members of anyw enforcement agency, are running point on all of this. So far, we¡¯ve managed to keep things going smoothly, but that won¡¯tst too much longer.¡±


    ¡°I am sorry, Trinity.¡± Carter hung his head in shame. ¡°I didn¡¯t think about any of this. I didn¡¯t know what you and Reece had been facing for so long. I won¡¯t interrupt again, please continue.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Now that I had their attention, it was time for me to tell them what they were all going to be doing tomorrow. ¡°We will bemunicating through the mental link only tomorrow. We don¡¯t want to say a word if we don¡¯t have to. We will have people all over the city to keep an eye out for these people. They have a nasty smell to them, one that you will notice right away. That will help you find them easier. We know that those men find the girls at the mall, so we will have a set of lookouts there. They will report on the movements of Leslie, Ada, Senna, Melissa and Jackie. There will be people all over the city that will be able to tell us where they go and what happens after the mall.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s all fine and good, Trinity, but what about the park? How are we going to stop them before they get there?¡± Athair m¨°r was concerned about the actual attack, which was a good ce to focus on.


    ¡°We won¡¯t stop them from going to the park. We will stop them at the park. We will have the park monitored by several people. We will make sure that they are watching from several locations and giving real time updates to the others. We won¡¯t let any of the girls get hurt.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± Athair m¨°r seemed to ept my response with no objections. He and the others were ready to move on to the rest of the discussion.


    ¡°We are going to need a lot of the knights and guards that are in the city. We need to make sure that we go out in teams and that no one is following and targeting any of us. Gabriel brought something to my attentionst night. We can possibly use some of these ancient runes to protect ourselves against the Jaegan. With these runes, there might be a chance that we can see them when they use their cloaks to hide themselves, and we might be protected against that light that bespells our kind. You and all the others will arm yourselves with those protective measures. I want no one to go anywhere alone tomorrow night.¡±


    I continued to exin all of these things to them and then assigned them to groups. The list of the other soldiers that were going to be joining them was on my desk as well. I was dividing them among those that were here. I wanted a lot of teams that would be coordinating together. All in all, I ended up with twenty groups of five people. That was the minimum that I was willing to settle for at the moment. And I was even feeling like I hadn¡¯t included enough people in this endeavor. This was going to be the first major operation in this entire case, and I couldn¡¯t afford to have it go wrong.


    Well, there was also the fact that I might end up using too many people and the entire operation going to hell as well. It was so hard to figure out how to do all of this. At least they all had their assignments and knew what to do. Now we just need to wait until tomorrow night.


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 Chapter 943

    Chapter 943: Chapter 128- Talia ¨C Sibling Comints (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    Mom and Dad were once again at a meeting downstairs, but this time I was not allowed to be there. And neither were any of the other kids. I didn¡¯t think that Reagan and Rika would be there. Nor did I think that Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley would be allowed to go to the meeting. But, well, I thought that I would be allowed to attend at the very least. I mean, I had been part of this whole thing for weeks. I should be allowed to see what it was that was happening.


    Not even Lex and Rudy were there. They were here with me as were Lucas, Porter, and ir for Reagan and Rika and the quads had their guards here: Ss, Ethan, Gregory, Killian, Julius, Annie, Holly and Winston. Oddly enough though, Westin wasn¡¯t here, and he was one of the guards that was assigned to the twins. I didn¡¯t know why he was gone though, and that was making me a little on edge. It would be bad if one of their guards just up and quit. It wouldn¡¯t set a very good precedent in themunity. None of our guards had ever quit before.


    ¡°This is such bullshit!¡± Rika, who had been pacing the room in agitation, whined as she threw herself onto the chair in the corner. ¡°Why the hell can¡¯t we just go to school? Huh?¡± She was ring at Lucas who was one of the guards that had brought her home yesterday.


    ¡°You know why, Princess Rika.¡± He was being formal, or rather distant. I saw that there was no closeness with them. Then again, he usually guarded Reagan and not Rika.


    .....


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t know. Just because I left school yesterday? I won¡¯t do it again. I never want to see Clovio again. I won¡¯t see him at school, because I will avoid him. I won¡¯t leave school with him either. Just let me fucking go already.¡±


    ¡°Stop being a baby¡¯s ass!¡± Reagan snapped at her. ¡°You think you¡¯re the only one that wants to go to school!? Think about it though, there is a lot going on, and Mom and Dad wouldn¡¯t keep us home if it wasn¡¯t for something major.¡±


    ¡°I know what it is. Clovio and Warrick are part of that fucking group that are..¡± She trailed off as she looked at Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley. They hadn¡¯t really been told about the things that had been happening.


    ¡°Don¡¯t sugarcoat it for our benefit.¡± Zaley looked at her and rolled her eyes. ¡°People talk, and I hear better than most. I know that there are people that have died all over the world. And I know that the killers were in Californiast week. Judging by all of this though, I am guessing that they are here in Trinity Falls or Colorado Springs.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, what she said.¡± Zachary jabbed his thumb over his shoulder to point at Zaley. He was sitting on the floor in front of her chair with Zander and Zayden. It was like the three of them were protecting her or something. They really did care about her and the way that she was treated. Then again, she got bullied a lot because of the way that she looked. It wasn¡¯t normal by human standards.


    ¡°Zaley isn¡¯t the only one that knows about this stuff. We all do. Mom and Dad think that we don¡¯t pay attention to what is happening, but we do.¡± Zayden, one of the calmest of the boys, spoke up next. ¡°We know, and we¡¯re happy to help if we¡¯re needed. But we¡¯re just kids, and I know that Mom and Dad won¡¯t want us involved. Just like they don¡¯t want any of you involved.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, well, you only know the basics of what is happening. I know a lot more than any of you.¡± Rika was trying to sound like she was better than us all. I knew it was just because she was mad about what had happened, but she was starting to piss me off. ¡°I know what to watch out for, so I should be allowed to leave here. I shouldn¡¯t have Mom and Dad using orders to keep us from leaving. And all these guards? This is ridiculous.¡±


    ¡°No, Rika, what is ridiculous is you.¡± Reagan snapped at her before I could say that exact same thing. ¡°You think that you could protect yourself against all of this shit? Think about it, until yesterday afternoon, you wanted one of those people to be your fucking mate! You can¡¯t protect yourself from anyone or anything.¡±


    ¡°Fuck you, Reagan!¡± She snapped at him. This was the most that I had ever seen these two fighting over the years. ¡°I don¡¯t need your damn lectures right now. And I don¡¯t need to grow up!¡± She was on her feet again, trying to intimidate him with her size and height. Not that it was bigger or scarier than his.


    At this point, I had had enough. I needed to step in and make them see what was really going on. I couldn¡¯t let this keep going on. I didn¡¯t care if Rika thought that she was better and stronger than me, I had training that she didn¡¯t, and I would make her see my point. One way or another.


    ¡°Sit down and shut up, Rika. Reagan is right, you need to grow the fuck up.¡±


    ¡°Talia?¡± Lex gasped when he saw me get up. It was the firstment that came from one of the guards.


    ¡°What!?¡± Rika was equally shocked by my outburst. She didn¡¯t seem to process and understand what it was that I was doing. Not at first anyway, but it soon passed. ¡°What the hell did you just say to me, Talia?¡± She was so moody and pissed off right now. And I understood that she felt betrayed, but she needed to see reason here.


    ¡°You heard me. You need to grow up and stop this shit right now. You think you know what is going on because you were lied to by the boy that you like. You weren¡¯t even betrayed because, to my knowledge, he never really lied to you about much. He told you he was from an orphanage in Germany, that was true. The only actual lie he told you was hisst name. Everything else was just the fluffy bullshit that you were interested in. You have no right to act like this. Not with what is going on in the world right now.¡± I was starting to breathe a little heavier as I yelled at her, my face red and my eyes narrowed in anger.


    ¡°And what do you know about it, Talia? It¡¯s not like you actually did anything about this case.¡± Was she trying to be petty, or did she really think that I was with Mom and Dad just to keep thempany?


    ¡°What do I know about it? How about the fact that I have seen dozens of dead bodies? How about the fact that I pulled souls from those bodies that these murdering assholes trapped inside of them? I had to talk to these dead people to find out what happened to them. I saw the crime scenes. I know better than anyone what these people have done to their victims because I have had two visions of their kills and watched it happen right before my eyes. And do you see me sitting here andining about it? Do you see me whining over the fact that I can¡¯t go see my friends? No, you don¡¯t. And that is because I know what is really happening. I know that these people use ancient runes to render us defenseless against them. I know that they slit our throats and rip out our hearts. And one of them, he is a real sick son of a bitch. He likes to do things to the women that he kills. He is possibly the worst one of them all. And I have seen it all happening right before my eyes. So don¡¯t you just sit there and fucking tell me that I don¡¯t know what is going on, Rika. It¡¯s you that doesn¡¯t understand. It¡¯s you that is throwing an unnecessary temper tantrum.¡±


    ¡°T..T..Talia?¡± She was looking at me with her eyes opened wide. ¡°I..I..I didn¡¯t know that you saw all of that.¡± I didn¡¯t know why she was looking at me with so much sympathy, at least not at first. ¡°Tally?!¡± She came closer to me and cradled my face against her chest. ¡°I am so sorry. You are right. I have been a bitch. I¡¯ve been so immature. I was being stupid. I am so sorry.¡± She was crying and it was then that I realized that I was crying as well. The tears on my face were being dried by her shirt. ¡°Please, Talia, don¡¯t be mad at me anymore.¡±


    ¡°Hahh.¡± I sighed against her chest. ¡°I am not mad at you, Rika. You just need to stop being so childish. I know that this is hard, and that you want to see your friends, but we¡¯re not the only ones that are home. All of them are. Lyssa, Alexa, Levi, Luka, Elias, everyone from the university have been kept home, and all the children of the guards and all of our cousins that go to the school with us, they are all home too. No one wants to risk things right now. And that is why none of us are allowed to go back until they have all been caught.¡±


    ¡°I..I..I didn¡¯t know, Talia. I didn¡¯t know that they were all home. I didn¡¯t know that we were all in that sort of danger.¡±


    ¡°We are, Rika. They are targeting five people from the city. Five girls that they want to kill and send a message to us with. Mom and Dad know though, and I am sure that they are going to stop it. That is why they are in a meeting right now. Everyone is trying to make sure that no one else dies. And I don¡¯t me Mom and Dad for being so worried about us that they keep us home from school. They don¡¯t want to risk it.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I understand.¡±


    ¡°Talia?¡± Reagan called out to me, I hadn¡¯t paid attention to the fact that he walked over to where I was with Rika and was now standing close to me. ¡°I am sorry that you have been through all of that.¡± He pulled me from Rika and hugged me tightly. ¡°I am sorry that you have had to see those horrible things.¡±


    For the rest of the day, we talked about other things, more positive things. And no one elseined about the situation that we were in. Our meals were brought to us, and we all yed video games and boardgames with each other. It was a nice day, really. I think that we siblings needed to have this time together to strengthen our bonds.


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 Chapter 944

    Chapter 944: Chapter 129- Reece ¨C Operation Save The Girls Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    It was almost six in the evening on the night of the intended murder. Those men thought that they were going to lure five young girls from my city and kill them as a statement, as a message to us. Well, they had another thinging. We were definitely not going to let them do that. Not as long as I was here and alive. I was going to protect my city with my life.


    Right now, Gabriel was going from person to person in the ballroom on the main floor of the castle. It was the only ce that was big enough to hold all those that were going to be part of the search tonight. And they all needed to have the runes put onto them.


    We were using three of the runes that Gabriel had researched. We were using ones to hide what we were from the Jaegan. If they had something that was supposed to help them see us for what we were, then this rune should block that sight of theirs. Next, we were using the true sight rune so that we could see through their cape. Hopefully it worked, otherwise this was all a wasted effort. Andstly, we were using a protection rune that was mixed with a mental rity rune. That was to make sure that the little light of theirs didn¡¯t work on us at all. It would be really bad if we were all taken out by them because of that light.


    To make the rune stronger, Trinity had made a magical pen that was infused with her magic and the root of a Fae nt that was called Sister Luna. It was silver and glowed when the light of the moon touched it. This pen that Gabriel was using didn¡¯t use ink, instead it used Trinity¡¯s magic. She was once again protecting us all. It was something that she had done before, and she would do it again and again. She couldn¡¯t stand for the people that she cared about being in danger.


    .....


    It took a little while for Gabriel to draw all of the marks. He had to draw three of them on more than a hundred people after all. Thankfully, he was just about done so it was almost time for us to leave.


    The men and women were divided into their groups with various people leading them. The leaders included me, Trinity, Trevor, Valerian, Samuel, Wesley, Carter, Noah, Riley, Landon, Shawn, Dietrich, Vincent, Gabriel, David, Shane, Cedar, Paul, Rawlynne and Jackson. We were all to coordinate a detail that was to scope out the park, monitor the mall, and follow the men from the mall to the restaurant and eventually to the park. It was going to take a lot of time and effort to get this night to be considered a sess, but we were going to make sure that it all went off without a hitch. And we were also getting the properw enforcement involved as well. FBI and local police that were nonhuman were parts of the teams that were going to be out in the field. We would see to it that this was all done. We wouldn¡¯t lose a single person tonight, and we were going to capture the men that were trying to kill our kind. And from here, we would lure the others out. This would be over soon. I just knew that it would be.


    Finally, all the marks were in ce, and it was time to get going. I walked to the front of the ballroom with Trinity and looked out at the sea of people that were looking up at us.


    ¡°Thank you all for being here. This night might seem stressful, but I am sure that we will alle through it with no problems at all. Let¡¯s give it our all and capture all of these people. Let¡¯s save our people and our city.¡±


    ¡°YEAH!¡± The knights and guards that were in attendance cheered happily as Trinity addressed them. Most of them only ever saw her, they didn¡¯t talk to her, and she didn¡¯t address them directly. This was likely a truly exciting time for them.


    We left in waves. Of course, we couldn¡¯t have a hundred and twenty people leave the castle all at once, that would be suspicious to all those living peacefully in thepound. And I didn¡¯t want to rm them at the moment. This was all about protecting people, not just those five girls, but all of my people.


    Trinity and I left with Shawn and Dietrich. The men and women that were in our groups left in small waves before and after us. We had told them where to go and we would be in touch with them through mental link. There was no need to worry about them right now.


    Trinity and I, not wanting to be seen by the Jaegan, since they knew what we looked like, were going to be scoping out the park from a distance. And when it got closer to the time to stop the attack, we would make our way to the park itself. We were going to be hands-on in this part of the operation as well. Why not? Really, I mean, we have been part of everything else up to this point, right? Why stop now?


    ¡®Queen Trinity, I see the girls that you mentioned.¡¯ The voice of Garret, one of the knights that we assigned to the mall came through my mind. He was addressing her, but all of us in charge could hear him. ¡®They are walking toward the exit. There are several people waiting outside the mall in different groups. I have a feeling that a few of the groups know each other though, since they keep looking at each other.¡¯


    ¡®Alright, Garret.¡¯ Trinity didn¡¯t move or even look like she was talking to someone as she looked at the park. She was using those eyes of hers that could zoom in and out so that she could see from great distances. It was a skill that I really wished that I had at the moment. ¡®Follow them, but don¡¯t make it obvious. Stay in contact with us and the others. I want this to be a coordinated effort.¡¯ She finished addressing him, but I knew that the others hadn¡¯t heard her. Just me and the rest of her personal entourage. And that was to say, all eighteen of the other leaders.


    ¡®All of you, be on your guard. There might be more than one group that is at the mall. There are several sets that are lying in wait for the girls as they make their way to the exit of the mall.¡¯ I thought that the others needed to know what was going on.


    ¡®Understood.¡¯ The word came from several of the men and women at the same time.


    It was boring, waiting here for them to get to the park, but it was what we needed to do. This was the ce that we said that we were going to be waiting for them so that we could be first on the scene when they attacked the girls.


    ¡®Queen Trinity, I see that the five men have made contact with the girls. They are obviously charming them since the girls are smiling and giggling like, well, like teenage girls.¡¯


    ¡®Good observation, dumbass.¡¯ Trevor¡¯s voice came through after Garret¡¯s did. I knew that he wasn¡¯t making it so that Garret heard him though. It was just for the rest of us leaders.


    ¡®That other group that was looking at the men are following them. I knew that they were together.¡¯ Garret¡¯s voice sounded vindicated or proud of himself as he spoke in my head. ¡®The other teams should work on following them now.¡¯


    ¡®Alright, understood.¡¯ Trinity responded to him calmly before addressing the whole group. ¡®They have left the mall. I am sure that others have eyes on them now, follow them, but do not get yourselves caught. Don¡¯t even get noticed. There is another group that is following them, I want those people watched as well. I am sure that they will follow them to the parkter. We need to catch them all.¡¯


    ¡®Yes, Queen Trinity.¡¯ More of the same word echoing in our heads as they all responded to her.


    After several minutes there was another voice. We weren¡¯t getting y by ymentary from them, just when something happened, and that was making it feel like all of this was taking too long.


    ¡®They have stopped at a restaurant. That other group is waiting outside across the street. Two other guards have gone inside the restaurant to keep an eye on them from in there while the rest of us watch the building from all sides.¡¯


    ¡®Don¡¯t lose track of any of them.¡¯ Trinity ordered them.


    ¡®How many are there in the second group?¡¯ No one had told us this part yet.


    ¡®Seven. There are a dozen of them altogether. Five with the girls and seven following them.¡¯


    ¡®Got it. Now we know how many we are up against.¡¯ I acknowledged their words and started to think about this. If we manage to capture all twelve of them, we might make a sizable dent in their ranks. We needed this. We couldn¡¯t afford to let this opportunity get past us.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Fido.¡± Trinity gripped my hand and she leaned in close. ¡°We will seed. I just know that we will.¡± She kissed my cheek as she said it and I felt the relief wash through me. I hadn¡¯t even known how tense I was until then.


    ¡°I know we will, Trinity.¡± I kissed her on her lips. A soft, sweet kiss that told her that I appreciated what it was that she was doing for me. ¡°I know that we will get them. We will save those girls. And we will put an end to all of this. It¡¯s just a matter of time.¡± I smiled and tried to force any and all negative thoughts from my mind. I needed to focus, and I couldn¡¯t do that if I let doubts and worry invade my thoughts.


    We waited for them to get done eating. Themunication lines were silent for what felt like hours, but I knew that it was just a half and hour to forty-five minutes or so. Somewhere in that range at the very least. The ce that they went to eat was not all that busy, so I knew that it didn¡¯t take them all that long to finish their meal.


    ¡®They are on the move again. They should be heading to the park soon. Let¡¯s get ready to follow them again.¡¯ I heard the voiceing through. It was sent to the entire group and I felt that it was giving them all that little bit of an edge that they needed. They were ready to do this. They were ready to save those girls.


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 Chapter 945

    Chapter 945: Chapter 130- Reece ¨C Operation Save The Girls Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    ¡°Alright. It¡¯s time to get ready.¡± I looked through the binocrs toward the park that we were watching. Trinity was looking over there as well, but she was, of course, not using anything but her eyes. I swear, sometimes I was so envious of her.


    ¡°We should move a little closer to the park, so that we are ready to stop them when they are there.¡± Shawn said as he looked in that direction as well.


    ¡°No, we need to wait until they are actually at the park. Based on what Talia told us the other day, I don¡¯t think that the attack starts right away. And we need to make sure that they are in the act before we apprehend them. If we don¡¯t, we will be called liars in the future. We need to make sure that we do this right.¡± Trinity vetoed his idea right away. She, like me, didn¡¯t want to risk this n going south if we moved too soon. However, my apprehension was for something else.


    ¡°We also don¡¯t want to risk them noticing us before they get to the park. They chose this ce because it was supposed to be empty and secluded. They won¡¯t bring the girls here if they think that they are being watched. We need to stay up here until they are actually in the park, and then we surround them and the other group that is following them.¡± I exined to Shawn why it was that I thought that we needed to stay away for the time being. We needed to make sure that all is done properly as Trinity said, but also that we don¡¯t spook them and make them go somewhere else. This was a bncing act that we needed to work through. We couldn¡¯t afford even one error. Those girls and the rest of our people were counting on us to get this right.


    .....


    I watched in the direction that I knew those guys were in. I was waiting for them toe into sight so that the next phase of our n could finally start.


    ¡®King Reece, Queen Trinity, they are almost to the park. They are once again walking, like they did to the restaurant. And that group is still tailing them.¡¯


    ¡®Are we sure that they are part of that same group? The other people that are following them? What if they are other authorities that are figuring this all out as well?¡¯ I heard the sound of another voice, this one was from Carter who was on the other side of the park, waiting to surround it with us.


    ¡®No, I am sure that they are part of that same group. They have a simr smell to the other ones.¡¯ Garret was again the one that was talking and exining things. I guess he was the most outspoken of the guards and knights that were with us. That or they all unanimously made him their designated talker. I knew Garret a little, mostly by reputation. He was a good man, a wolf from my own pack before it exploded into the massive thing that it is now.


    ¡®What do you mean simr smell?¡¯ I asked him, not wanting to let that little tidbit of knowledge pass me by. This had the potential to be something important, though it could just as likely be something that was nonessential and therefore not at all important. Still, as a leader, I needed to ask him about it.


    ¡®Well, they have that same musty and general nasty smell that you were talking about. I noticed that on the guys that took the girls to the restaurant. However, these people seem to have it stronger. And there is a slightly different undertone to it as well. I detected a little bit of something that was sulfurous. It was almost like they were lighting match after match. It wasn¡¯t overly strong, but it was there.¡¯


    I tried to understand what that might mean for the case. What does having a stronger odor and sulfur mixed with it mean? What should I do with that information? How was I going to use that to my advantage?


    While I was thinking about that, my amazing Little Bunny, the wonderful queen that she is, figured something out.


    ¡°I am going to guess that they are the ones that disappeared in the carst night Reece. They have to be higher in the pecking order. These people, whatever it is that is wrong with them, the closer to the top that they are the stronger that smell will be.¡± Of course, she would figure that out in almost no time at all. You know something, I am not a stupid man, not by a long shot. But that doesn¡¯t stop me from feeling like an idiot at times. I didn¡¯t even think about the strength of the odor being relevant to the power they had in the family. Or it could also be rted to the dedication that they had to the family¡¯s mission.


    ¡°I think that you are right, Trinity. But let me add upon that.¡± I leaned in and grinned as I whispered to her. ¡°Clovio and Warrick don¡¯t smell like that, because they don¡¯t believe in the mission. I think that the smell is abination of power and belief or dedication.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡± She nodded. ¡°Now back off and get to work. We can¡¯t afford for you to get distracted by little Reece at the moment.¡± She rolled her eyes.


    ¡°That isn¡¯t little by any standards.¡± I chuckled but did as she told me to. I raised up so that I was staring at the entrance of the park through my binocrs again.


    ¡°It¡¯s not the full size Reece, so I call it the little Reece. I can call it something else, but I don¡¯t think you would like all of the nicknames that I am able toe up with for it.¡±


    ¡°Probably not.¡± I didn¡¯t even want to think about it. She would turn it into a joke on purpose. She would definitely try to make herselfugh with any name that she thought of. It was best to drop that subject permanently.


    ¡®I see them.¡¯ I heard another voicee through the mental connection. ¡®They are making their way toward the park. I estimate that they will be there in about three minutes.¡¯


    ¡®Alright everyone, you heard him. Be on guard.¡¯ My Little Bunny was the first to respond to him. She was the leader of all of us, so it all made sense that she was the one to be giving the orders. ¡®Let them get to the park before we make our move. Those that are closer to the entrance that theye in, swing around and circle the other group as well, I do not want to lose any of them. I want this situation locked down as soon as we can. Let¡¯s stop these guys, people. Saving those girls is only a small part of this. If we manage to capture all of them, then we will be one step closer to ending this whole thing.¡¯ She was giving orders and a pep talk all at the same time. I could literally feel the spirits and determination of our warriors rising just by hearing her words.


    ¡®We will give it our all, Queen Trinity. We won¡¯t let you or any of the others down. We will make sure that we get them all. For your sake and that of those we must protect.¡± OK, some of these people were a little over the top. I mean, it was good that they were dedicated, but it was a little much sometimes.


    ¡®Thank you. I am d that I have all of you here to count on. We need all hands on deck with this. Do your best everyone.¡¯ Trinity sounded like she didn¡¯t really know what to say and just said something random to fill the gap in the conversation. Thankfully, the talking died out after that. It was time for us to focus and get to work.


    The next few minutes seemed to drag on forever. I stood there with Trinity, Shawn and Dietrich as we waited for the first group to get into position. It was like the universe was determined to make it take ten times longer than it should have been.


    After what felt like thirty minutes, or three eternities, I saw the group start to enter the park. They were there, right on the edge of Acacia Park, opposite the statue that Talia said that she had seen in her vision. They wereughing and I saw the men all holding onto one of the girls. I didn¡¯t think that they had been bespelled yet, this was just them being boy crazy teenage girls. If I was their father, I would have been disappointed in them. And frankly, as a father to three daughters, I was disappointed anyway. Why did they have to try so hard just to get boyfriends when they were so young? Why couldn¡¯t they be young for a little while longer? Seeing these girls with those men, it made me think about my own daughters and I didn¡¯t like that. I knew that anytime now, Rika could find her mate and Talia wasn¡¯t that far behind her. And before I knew it, Zaley would be finding a mate and getting married as well. I was losing my little girls, and that was too hard for me to process.


    NO REECE! YOU NEED TO FOCUS! I scolded myself and shook my head. It was time to get to work.


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 Chapter 946

    Chapter 946: Chapter 131- Reece ¨C Operation Save The Girls Part 3 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    The five men and the five teenaged girls were entering the park now. They were heading toward the pic tables and park benches that were in the center of the park. It was time for us to move. We needed to hurry. Trinity and I were going to be there in the lead when we stopped these people. This was what we had been working for over thest month or so. We needed to stop these people as soon as possible.


    We were on the move now. Trinity, Shawn, Dietrich and I were running toward the park. I was able to sense that the others were moving as well. One hundred and twenty people were convening around this area at once, and it was all to get these twelve men. The entire group was on guard for these people, and those people didn¡¯t even know it.


    The moment that we were down the hill that we had been hiding on, we ran across the street and into the park. My ears were already picking up the words that were being spoken by that group.


    ¡°This is fine. I don¡¯t minding to the park. It¡¯s a nice night.¡± There was a girl talking with a voice that sounded like she was nervous and excited at the same time.


    .....


    ¡°Yeah, parks are nice.¡± Another girl spoke. She was someone that I had heard before. This was one of Talia¡¯s friends that hade to the castle before. That was Ada.


    ¡°I like nature. Seeing the moon and stars is the best.¡± This was a man¡¯s voice. It was one of those creeps that wanted to hurt those girls. And the closer that I got to his voice, and the others, the more that I could smell his disgusting scent. I hadn¡¯t evene from the direction that they had entered the park from, and the wind was blowing away from me, yet I could still smell that stench that wasing off of those disgusting creeps.


    ¡°Yeah, you should see things back home. It¡¯s so clear and beautiful at night.¡± Another man was speaking. The two of those men had German ents that matched the ones that Clovio and Warrick had. They were obviously raised in the same area.


    ¡°I find it so cool that you¡¯re all from the same ce. Are you all cousins or something?¡± This was another one of the girls that was talking. I was inching closer with Trinity at my side. We needed to make sure that these men showed that they meant to do these girls harm, so we were hiding in the shadows as we entered the park. Not to mention, we were hidden with the runes and a little magic. I knew that Trinity had cast several spells this evening, and one of them was meant to manipte the shadows around us. I must admit, having a powerful magic user as a wife had its benefits. And not just in the bedroom when she wanted to dominate me. Not that now was the right time to be thinking about that.


    ¡°Something like that.¡± The man that was hanging off of that girl spoke softly. ¡°Brothers and cousins. We were all raised with each other though.¡± I wanted to smack that man¡¯s arm off of that girl. I didn¡¯t know which one she was, but I knew that her father would not approve of a situation like this at all.


    ¡°That is so cool, Fritz. I would love to have a big happy family like that.¡±


    ¡°It wasn¡¯t bad, most of the time. Though it wasn¡¯t always pleasant.¡± Another of those assholes was talking now. They were trying to put the girls at ease. I knew it was just a matter of time now though.


    ¡®Reece, Trinity?¡¯ Dietrich spoke into our minds. ¡®I can sense Talia¡¯s soul. This is definitely the scene that she was watching in that vision of hers. She cast herself into the future to see this moment. She is most definitely a lot more powerful than I ever thought that she was.¡¯ He was speaking to the two of us only, and I could feel the awe in his voice.


    ¡®I always knew that Talia was special, but I never knew how special until this case started.¡¯ I shook my head, wondering just where it was that she was watching this scene from.


    ¡°I can¡¯t believe that you asked us out.¡± One of the girls spoke then, breaking me free of my mind and bringing me back to what was most important.


    ¡°Well, you¡¯re adorable.¡± Blech! I wanted to vomit. I was imagining Clovio and Warrick saying things like that to Rika and Alyssa and it made me sick to my stomach.


    ¡°We were the lucky ones, catching you when you came out of the mall. I can¡¯t believe that we were able to evenly split like this. None of us have to be lonely tonight.¡± Another of the creeps was saying whatever he needed to so that the girls would feel calmer.


    ¡°Thank you for dinner too, that was amazing.¡± Ada rubbed her belly as if she were extremely satisfied. Come on kid, don¡¯t be lured in by food and pretty words! You¡¯re in danger here.


    ¡°Our pleasure.¡± Was it just me, or did that guy sound so pretentious?


    ¡°So, what are we going to do now? Any ns other than just watching the moon?¡± One of the girls that was in the group clearly wanted something to happen right now. What was it that she had in mind?


    ¡°Well, I have something here for you to see.¡± This was it. I saw that man that was talking reach into his pocket for a device. This had to be when they were going to bespell the girls.


    ¡®Everyone, prepare to move in now. They are about to use that tool on the girl.¡¯ Trinity, address the whole group right now and we were already moving before he said the next words.


    ¡°Check this ou-.¡±


    It was just as the man was about to click a button on that little tube in his hand that we all rushed forward and threw off the protection of the shadows and runes. It was a blitz attack that those men hadn¡¯t been prepared for. I couldn¡¯t see the second group and their reactions, but I could hear them. All twelve of these men were stunned and cried out in frustration or fear at the sudden appearance of over ten dozen supernatural beings.


    ¡°STOP RIGHT THERE!¡± I shouted as I ran forward, though I was hardly the only one that had called out at that moment.


    ¡°STOP!¡±


    ¡°DON¡¯T YOU DARE PRESS THAT BUTTON!¡±


    ¡°FREEZE, ASSHOLES!¡±


    ¡°DROP IT!¡±


    ¡°HANDS OFF THE GIRLS AND IN THE AIR, DIRTBAGS!¡±


    I swear, you¡¯d think that some of these warriors that were with us thought that they were in a movie or something. Those lines were almost enough to make meugh. If I wasn¡¯t so tense and on edge at the moment, I might haveughed.


    ¡°K..K..King Reece?¡± I saw Ada¡¯s shocked face as she saw Trinity and I running toward them. ¡°Wh..wh..what are you doing here? What is going on here? Wh..wh..what is happening?¡± I could see that she was terrified, and she wasn¡¯t the only one either. All of the girls were suddenly scared.


    ¡°ud, what is happening?¡± One of the girls looked at the man that she was holding onto. This was the man that had grabbed that little tube and was going to bespell them.


    ¡°I am afraid that I don¡¯t know what this is. I can assure you, we¡¯ve done nothing wrong, so I don¡¯t know why there are so many viinous people surrounding us at the moment.¡± ud¡¯s face was not scared at all. In fact, he was looking at me with excitement filling his eye. He might want those girls to think that he was scared, so his voice was shaking with false terror, but he knew who we were, and he thought that he was going to have the upper hand here.


    ¡°These people aren¡¯t viins.¡± Ada exined to him. She was holding onto a different man and looking at ud with confusion. ¡°These people are like a giant extended family of ours.¡± She was trying to make it seem like we had a reason to be there, but she didn¡¯t know what that reason was.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Ada. We¡¯re here to save you all. These men here are dangerous. And we need you girls to step away from them right now.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Th..they are?¡±


    ¡°This can¡¯t be.¡± The girls all had some sort of response, but it was the men that I was paying the most attention to. I just knew that something was going to happen. I just knew that they were going to try something here. They were evil assholes that were bent on world domination. It wasn¡¯t hard to tell that they were going to do whatever it took to follow through with their ns.


    I was watching closely as the men, each and every one of them, grinned maliciously at me and Trinity. Their eyes almost seemed to darken as if they were controlling the color with magic. Something was happening here that I didn¡¯t understand at the moment. I doubted that Trinity knew what was happening either. I just knew that the moment that we had been waiting for was upon us. It was time to stop these men. It was time to make sure that each of these girls made it home safely and that they would be wiser in the end.


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 Chapter 947

    Chapter 947: Chapter 132- Reece ¨C Operation Save The Girls Part 4 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Evil looks, darkened eyes, and threatening postures. This is what we were all seeing in the men that were standing by the girls. Another thing that I saw though, was that the girls were listening to me. They all looked uneasy and seemed to want to get away from those men.


    The girls all started to pull away from them and run toward me and the others. The problem though was that Ada and one of the other girls had been hanging onto the men when this all started to go down, and those men decided that they were going to keep those girls in ce.


    ¡°You¡¯re not fucking going anywhere.¡± ud was ring at me as he growled at the girl.


    ¡°LESLIE!¡± One of the girls that got away called out to her. ¡°ADA!¡± She called as the girl that I recognized was lifted off of her feet and held against the chest of the man that was holding onto her.


    .....


    ¡°They aren¡¯t going anywhere, King Reece. You seem to know why we¡¯re here, and you know that we can¡¯t just let them go. That isn¡¯t how this works.¡± ud was their leader at the moment. He was the one that was talking the most, and he was also the one that I had heard on the recording the other day. He was the one that was riling their group up like they were vigers about to form an angry mob to take out the big bad monster that lived in the scary castle on the mountain. I didn¡¯t like how part of that was actually true. You know, all except the scary monster part.


    ¡°Let them go, ud.¡± Trinity red at the man as she inched forward.


    Oh, I was so tempted to pull her back and to put her behind me. As her mate, her husband, and an Alpha King, I just couldn¡¯t stand to see her put herself into harm¡¯s way like that. Then again, if I did that, trying to hide her away from the bad guys like that, I would just be putting myself into harm¡¯s way. And I am not talking about any of the Jaegan. I would be at risk of my Little Bunny taking her anger and frustrations out on me. No, I was better off letting her do what she did best. And that was saving the day while giving me a heart attack. It was so damned stressful being mated to her sometimes. Ny-nine percent of the time it was bliss, that other one percent was when we were in an active battle situation and she was the one that always got wrapped up into the most dangerous part of the fights. It was so fucking scary.


    ¡°No, Mongrel Monster Bitch.¡± ud used one hell of a nickname for my Little Bunny, and I was tempted to rip his head off for it. ¡°I don¡¯t think that I will let her go. Not until she is dead anyway. And it was so nice of you toe all the way down here and show yourself in person. I intend to kill you and your husband as well.¡± There was a manic sort of energy that was radiating off of that man as he spoke.


    ¡°You won¡¯t get the chance to kill me or those girls. This is the end of the line for you, ud. You are under arrest.¡±


    ¡°HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!¡± That was the loudest and most sardonicughter that I had ever heard in my life. He was acting like a total nutcase. ¡°Don¡¯t make meugh, bitch. You don¡¯t know what we¡¯re capable of.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think you know what we¡¯re capable of, ud. Specifically, what I am capable of.¡± I saw that my wife was pulling magic toward herself. I had been around her and magic for so long that I was able to see this happening. ud though, he couldn¡¯t tell what she was doing.


    ¡°I don¡¯t need to know. I have killed your kind before, and I will do it again.¡±


    Things started to happen really fast just then. I saw that those men were both moving their arms toward the throats of the girls that they were holding, they were going to kill them right then and there.


    I wasn¡¯t about to let that happen, and neither was anyone else. I started to run toward them as Shawn and Dietrich started to walk through the shadows. David was moving at his near sonic speed as well. I couldn¡¯t see him moving, but I sensed it happening.


    None of this mattered though. By the time that David reached those men, it was toote. Even he hadn¡¯t been fast enough to beat the movement of the other person that was on the move.


    My Little Bunny had already formed her n. And the moment that she sensed the shift in what was happening, she put that n into motion. The girls were suddenly floating in midair as if they were on some sort of tform, which they were, it was just invisible. The men, though, had long thin cords that were binding them. And not just ud and the other man that had been holding Ada, but all of them.


    As I looked around, I saw that the seven men that were surrounded by the others in the group had been tied up as well. And those long thin cords that were binding them wereing out of the ground. It was like they were all a part of the roots to the trees that surrounded the park. This was all some nature magic that my trinity of a Trinity had tapped into.


    ¡°What the hell is this?¡± ud¡¯s voice was filled with shock and fear as he struggled to get free. He wasn¡¯t the only one that had been stunned and in awe of what had just happened. I saw David reel in shock as he skidded to a halt in front of the men that had been about to attack the girls. Shawn and Dietrich had stuttered a little in appearance as they blinked back into sight from one of the shadows that they had moved through. And even I had almost stumbled when my eyes had processed what had happened.


    ud wasn¡¯t the only one in their group that had started to protest the sudden appearance of the binding roots that were holding them. I heard several men cursing, screaming, grunting, and just generally yelling as they tried to get free. It was all to no avail though, they weren¡¯t able to get free from their bindings, and therefore, they were no longer a threat to those girls.


    ¡°Uh..uhm, I..I..I don¡¯t know what is happening here, but c..c..can we get down now?¡± Leslie, one of the girls that was floating on that tform, called out to Trinity as she looked down with fear in her eyes. ¡°I..I..I am t..too sc..sc..scared to move.¡± She was shaking as she looked down at the ground.


    ¡°I am sorry, Leslie.¡± Trinity lowered the girls slowly to the ground. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to scare you. I simply wanted to get you to safety. Those poor excuses of men were trying to hurt you.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Queen Trinity.¡± Ada said as she stepped off the tform onto the ground. ¡°I..I was so scared when things started to happen, but I am fine now. I knew that you wouldn¡¯t let anything bad happen to us. Thank you so much. You as well, King Reece. Thank you.¡± She looked like she was about to cry, but it was in relief not fear.


    ¡°It is fine, Ada. Please, step over there with your friends and wait for us. We need to take care of a few things.¡± My Little Bunny smiled at them and I saw that both of the girls rxed a little at the look.


    When the girls ran over to where their friends were, they were weed with hugs. The five of them were now standing there with their arms all wrapped around each other in some sort offorting gesture.


    ¡°You five, and those seven over there, are alling with us.¡± I finally stepped forward and spoke again. It was time for me to assert some semnce of my dominance in this situation.


    ¡°You can¡¯t make us go with you.¡± One of the men was shouting stupidly at us.


    ¡°Really? Fine, go ahead, try to get away. I will wait.¡± I gave him a look that told him how stupid it is that I thought he was. ¡°What? Did you decide to stick around? Good. Now, we¡¯re taking you all in. You will be questioned, and you will be answering for your crimes.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t prove that we¡¯ve done anything wrong. We¡¯re innocent.¡± ud smirked. He thought that they were all going to get off scot-free.


    ¡°Really? How about DNA and fingerprints. We have plenty of that to go around. And let¡¯s not forget about witness descriptions.¡±


    ¡°No one ever saw anything.¡± One of the men in the other group yelled out stupidly.


    ¡°I will take that as a confession from you. Also, the victims saw you. And it just so happens that we have someone that can converse with the souls that you trapped inside of their bodies. And they were all more than happy to tell us what their killers looked like.¡± There was a hint ofughter in my voice as I shared that little tidbit. It felt good to see the shiver run through the collective group. I would say that this was going to be a productive night of questioning.


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 Chapter 948

    Chapter 948: Chapter 133- Trinity ¨C Interrogations Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Finally! FINALLY! FINALLY! FINALLY! There has finally been a break in the case. This was the best thing that could possibly happen for us. I don¡¯t know how much longer I would have been able to take it if there hadn¡¯t been some sort of change in this whole shitshow. We had arrested a dozen of these assholes. We had them in our custody and we were going to make sure that they were not able to activate those runes on the backs of their necks. If these ones even had them. They were going to stay chained up until the interviews were over. Not only that, but we were going to make sure that those runes were deactivated. Assuming they actually had them. These men weren¡¯t going to take the easy way out. They weren¡¯t allowed to get out of this that easily.


    The men that we had arrested were loaded into six differentrge white cargo vans. They were being guarded in those vans by six warriors that were ready to do whatever it took to stop these men from escaping or ending their lives. None of them really got to fight in this whole rescue mission, so they were all itching for the chance to do something physical. Like beating a murderous asshole into submission.


    It was a strangely smooth process, getting all of those men into the vans and back up to the castle. They weren¡¯t being taken into the upper parts of the castle when we got there, but rather the prison-like cells that were in the basement. If you could call the ce under a castle a basement. Was it a cer? A dungeon? A crypt? There were so many things that you could call it, and I didn¡¯t know which one it should be just because this was a castle and not a regr home.


    Each of the twelve prisoners were marched away from the vans with two guards carrying them between them, since they were still tied up. Walking with those two guards was another guard in front of them and two behind them. There were more than enough warriors on hand to take care of that set up, and it was a lot more secure for us.


    .....


    ¡°I have a feeling that it is going to be a busy night.¡± Dietrich said as he watched the prisoners being led away. ¡°How are we going to divide up the interrogating?¡± That was when he turned to look at me and Reece. He was right about this. We would need to split it up so that we can get it over with sooner rather thanter. We didn¡¯t know how long it was going to be before their friends tried to get them back, or exact revenge. They might have been captured, but this was far from over.


    ¡°I say that we split up and interview them all separately, but at the same time. I will go interview one of them, and so will you Dietrich, Reece, Shawn, Vincent, Gabriel, David, Shane, Athair m¨°r, Trevor, Noah and Riley.¡± I named off all of the ones that were going to be part of the interrogation group. ¡°We will each take one of the prisoners and interview them at the same time. When we are done with that particr person, we will wait for the others toe out of their interviews, then we will discuss what we have learned. If we feel the need to do so, we can switch it up and continue interviewing them so that we all talk to each of them, but they are talking to different people over that time. This will give them all a dozen chances to fuck up and tell us the truth of it all.¡±


    ¡°That sounds like a good n to me.¡± Reece nodded. ¡°This way we get several angles to the stories and, of course, Vincent and Gabriel will be able to tell them that they cannot lie to them. They will know that it is a lie the moment that they are in the same room as them.¡± Reece was happily looking at the men in question. I will admit that their abilities always came in handy, especially since they took on the souls of Gods as well. A lot of us had gotten some abilities over the years, but none of them were as strong as the ones that came when taking a god into our bodies. Even Reece experienced that when he ascended. He was a lot more powerful than he had been before.


    It was time to move on though. It was time to get this all moving in the direction that we wanted it to. That was why I called over the others that I had indicated would be doing the interviews with me. And, unsurprisingly, they were all ready to get right into it. There wasn¡¯t a lot of discussion that needed to take ce before we divided the men up between us.


    Contrary to what Reece wanted, I opted to take ud first. I wanted to tackle the one that I thought was the worst of them all. Not to mention, from what Talia had told us, he was the one that hurt her in that vision, and that meant that he needed to answer to me personally.


    The prisoners were all in cells that were in the ¡®dungeon¡¯ of the castle. The cells were set up very much like interview rooms and prison cellsbined. There was a cot in the corner that was attached to the wall and floor so that they couldn¡¯t move it. There was a bathroom area that we so politely made sure had been blocked from view so that it wasn¡¯t embarrassing to use the facilities. There was no door though, it was just surrounded by three and a half walls. It also only contained the toilet and sink, as well as soap and toilet tissue. Those were essential.


    In the middle of these cells were tables that we could sit at and interrogate them. One chair with chains attached to it so that the prisoners were able to sitfortably but not go anywhere. There were even rings on the table so that we could chain the prisoners to the table as well as the chair. It made everything a little more secure in my opinion. They wouldn¡¯t be able to activate the runes to kill themselves or contact their family, and they wouldn¡¯t be able to attack us directly if they were deluded enough to think that they stood an ice cube¡¯s chance in hell of hitting one of us.


    Being that this was a dungeon, you would think that this ce would be cold. That it would make these humans that we were about to talk to shiver just being down here. Well, that would be the wrong assumption to make. This ce was not cold at all. It was being kept warm with magic. I wasn¡¯t a cold hearted bitch, so I wasn¡¯t going to make the prisoners freeze to death. As I told the others repeatedly, it was best to present ourselves as kind and caring, even when dealing with these assholes that definitely didn¡¯t deserve our kind treatment.


    There were no windows in the dungeon, since it was underground by more than just a few feet. However, there were lights. The lights were built into the ceiling and provided an ample amount of bright white light. I had made it so that the lights dimmed and came on as needed. The prisoners couldn¡¯t control them, but they wouldn¡¯t be left in the dark either. And the lights would go off when it was time to sleep. See, I was being way too kind to these assholes. They were being treated so well by the so-called monster queen, or whatever it was that they had called me.


    Oh, and did I mention that this dungeon was a recent addition to my castle. I hadn¡¯t really needed something like this before now, so it wasn¡¯t something that I had thought to do. I mean, the space was here, and there were rooms that were created, but the things inside of them weren¡¯t here until we knew that we needed to bring some people here to interrogate. That was when Athair m¨°r and I came down here and finished these rooms. We have made twenty of them in all, which is good, because we were using a full dozen of them right now. And there might be the need for more of themter.


    At the current moment, I was paused at the door of the cell that I was about to enter. I was looking to the side at Reece as he prepared to enter the room of the man named Fritz. He was giving me a worried look, but he didn¡¯t need to stress about it. I was going to handle myself here with no issues at all. I was a strong independent woman, and a queen. I got this.


    ¡°Good luck, Reece.¡± I nodded at him with a smile. I wanted him to know that I wasn¡¯t worried at all.


    ¡°Just try not to scare him to death, Trinity.¡± Heughed as he opened the door that he was standing in front of. ¡°I am sure that that one is someone that we need to get a lot of information out of.¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t kill him.¡± I shook my head as I opened the door. ¡°And I am not that scary.¡±


    ¡°If you say so.¡± At that moment, we entered the rooms. It was now time to start the interrogations.


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 Chapter 949

    Chapter 949: Chapter 134- Trinity ¨C Interrogations Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s you.¡± ud was ring at me with a satisfied smile on his face. He was still wrapped in the vines that I had put around him, but the guards had managed to put him in the chair regardless. It was just a little awkward for him.


    ¡°Comfortable?¡± I asked him as I walked closer to the table in the middle of the room. The table was attached to the floor, and so were both of the chairs. They could not be moved or adjusted at all, but that was for the best. It was so that the prisoners couldn¡¯t pick them up and throw them anywhere.


    ¡°Not at all.¡± He gave me a look that said that he was not happy in the least.


    ¡°Good. Good. I am d that we have this opportunity to talk. You are ud, correct?¡± I asked him as I recalled the information that was on his file from the orphanage that Dietrich and Shawn brought back from Germany. ¡°You look different from the picture from when you were a child. I am guessing that they never took pictures as you got older because they wanted to maintain anonymity. So that when we found the files that they kept so meticulously, as we of course did, we wouldn¡¯t immediately know which of you was which. You though, you are ud Georg Jaegan. You were born on September the seventeenth twenty years ago. That is you, is it not?¡±


    .....


    I was watching ud¡¯s face as I spoke. I hadn¡¯t sat down yet though, I was hoping that with me standing and him in that vulnerable state, unable to do anything, that he would be more willing to speak to me. I could tell that he was visibly shaken by the fact that I had so much information on him. And unfortunately, he didn¡¯t feel much like talking to me when he heard what I had to say.


    ¡°Oh,e on ud, let¡¯s chat.¡± I started to walk around the table. There was something that I needed to check on. Not to mention that I thought it would intimidate him more.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± I heard his panicked voice, the octave going up a little as he wondered what I was going to do to him.


    ¡°I am just walking. I enjoy a little light exercise from time to time.¡± I looked to the side then, seeing two of the guards that had brought him into this room. ¡°Isn¡¯t it nice to walk a little from time to time?¡± I addressed my question to them.


    ¡°Yes, Queen Trinity.¡±


    ¡°Most definitely, Queen Trinity.¡± They both nodded as they spoke, the nerves in them running high as well. What did they have to be so scared of?


    ¡°See. Walking is nice, ud. You should try it sometime.¡± I slowly paced around him until I was standing directly behind his chair.


    ¡°I walk plenty.¡± He snapped at me. ¡°Now what are you doing?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just looking for something.¡± I put on a finger on the back of his head and pushed. I only used a little bit of pressure, just enough to make him tilt his head down. I needed to see if he had that same rune that Angus had.


    ¡°What are you looking for? I don¡¯t have any weapons.¡± He was ying innocent.


    ¡°Don¡¯t lie to me, ud. I know that you have the knife that you were going to use to kill those girls with. I know that you would have used it on them without another thought, just like you would have used it on me if you got the chance. You probably always carry that knife with you at all times. And if not that knife, then one like it. You would never be stupid enough to go somewhere unarmed. Not in this world that you im is filled with monsters.¡± I needed to take a few breaths to calm down after that. I didn¡¯t want to let my emotions get the better of me. I needed to act like an authority figure, not the mother of teenagers that were potential victims for this man. I needed to keep my cool. ¡°Besides.¡± I finally managed to continue talking in a calm enough voice. ¡°I am not looking for weapons, ud. I am looking for a rune. A specific one at that. Your little friend Angus activated it in Crescent City. And I don¡¯t want to risk you doing the same when we untie you. I don¡¯t want to leave you bound like that forever, you know. That would just be inhumane and cruel.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not human, so you don¡¯t need to worry about being inhumane. You¡¯re a monstrous animal that kills everything and everyone that isn¡¯t like you.¡± His words were still filled with panic, but he was starting to get an edge of anger. This was different from the cocky way that he was talking earlier.


    ¡°Now, if that were true ud, would I be trying to save your life? I am not a monster. I may not be human, but I am still a kind and gentle person.¡±


    ¡°Pfft.¡± I heard ud¡¯s snortedugh. It was filled with derision and disbelief. He truly did believe these things about me. I guess that there was nothing that I could do to change his mind. It didn¡¯t matter anyway. He was the monster here, he was the one that had attacked and killed people for no reason.


    Yes, it is true that I have killed people before, but they were evil warlocks bent on world domination. Or the Evil Fae that hade from the dark realm. And there were the mindless monsters that my father had created. Still, I never once killed an innocent person. If I had, I would have had a harder time when I was in the underworld. These people, though, this family, they were killing innocent people.


    ¡°You can think what you want about me, ud, but I know that I am a good person. If I wasn¡¯t, then I wouldn¡¯t have been blessed by multiple Gods. I wouldn¡¯t have been the one that saved the world multiple times over. I wouldn¡¯t have been the one that won against an evil Goddess in the underworld. If I was an evil person, ud, I wouldn¡¯t have made it out of the underworld.¡±


    ¡°You should have stayed there. That¡¯s where you and all of your kind belong.¡± He snapped at me, spittle flying from his lips as he spoke angrily.


    ¡°And where do you think that you belong, ud? Do you think that the rulers of the underworld are going to let your crimes slide? Do you think that Hades, Satan, Lucifer, and all the others are going to just forget that you murdered innocent people?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve done a lot more than just kill them.¡± He snapped.


    ¡°Yes, I know.¡± I let go of his head and took a step away from him. ¡°Just so you know, ud. I saw that mark on your neck. I know that you could kill yourself if I untie you. I know that you would do that to stop yourself from telling me all the secrets about your family.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, so what?!¡± He turned then, his eyes red with fury and nearly glowing in the light of the room. ¡°I will never tell you anything.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve already earned yourself life in prison.¡± I walked around the room. ¡°You admitted to being involved. And I have your DNA on that table, thanks for that by the way. I am sure that we canpare that to what we¡¯ve found at the other crime scenes. I am sure that you will match at least one of them.¡±


    ¡°Fuck you!¡± He was petnt and pissed now. Clearly, I struck one of his nerves. Oops.


    ¡°No thanks, ud. I am happily married, though I will tell my husband that you offered.¡± There was a chuckle from the back of the room. I knew that the guards were finding it funny because Reece would be pissed if he thought that ud really wanted to fuck me. ¡°Now, I am going to tell all of my friends how to get rid of those marks. Because yes, ud, I can get rid of it. And then none of you will be able to end this interrogation. And none of you will be able to take your little escape route.¡± I was slowly walking back to my side of the table as I spoke to ud. I could see the panic in him getting worse. He wasn¡¯t just mad now, he was shaking in fear. ¡°Don¡¯t you think that it would be so much easier for us to talk if you didn¡¯t have that pesky little rune on your neck?¡± My voice was filled with a condescending sort of sweetness. It was like I was telling him that I was only being nice because I wanted to, and that I really, really, really wanted to hurt him, but I was too sweet for that. Alright, that might not be the exact trantion of the tone, but it was close enough. ¡°Now, ud, let¡¯s get to work on that rune, shall we?¡± I am going to hazard a guess here and say that my face was not as calm and pleasant as I thought that it would be. I swear there were tears in ud¡¯s eyes and he was about to scream, or pass out, one or the other. He truly was scared about me destroying the rune on the back of his neck. I guess it was like a lifeline to him or something. He wasn¡¯t able to be as confident without it or something.


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 Chapter 950

    Chapter 950: Chapter 135- Trinity ¨C Interrogations Part 3 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°I promise you, ud, this will all be over very soon.¡± I was trying not to sound like some evil dentist or something that was about to rip out his teeth with no Novocain or something. I wasn¡¯t that scary, was I?


    ¡°You¡¯re lying.¡± His voice was barely audible as he squeaked the words out. ¡°Y..y..you wouldn¡¯t know how to get rid of them. You don¡¯t use these runes.¡±


    ¡°Actually, ud.¡± I paused for dramatic effect, looking at him with a smile in my eyes, but a serious and calm expression on my face. ¡°I have some of these runes on right now. I used them to protect us. I have a friend that has studied a great deal about runes. He even knows their origins.¡± Iughed slightly, showing that I was not at all worried about this. ¡°And it will be more than easy for me to remove them. One change in the rune will make them obsolete.¡±


    ¡°Y..y..you can¡¯t do that. That would be harming me. Aren¡¯t you trying to convince me that you¡¯re good? Haven¡¯t you been saying that you are not a monster?¡± His entire body was trembling with fear as he looked up at me. I still hadn¡¯t sat down yet. Nor had I truly gotten started with this interrogation. We were nowhere near done yet. ¡°I won¡¯t let you do that to me. You can¡¯t alter my runes. That wouldn¡¯t be right. You can¡¯t do that to me!¡± I know that I shouldn¡¯t, but I somehow liked the panic that I was seeing in this pathetic man. Still, I wasn¡¯t able to hurt him. Nothing more than his emotions really. I wasn¡¯t going to be the monster that he thought that I was. I wasn¡¯t going to stoop to his level.


    .....


    ¡°What? You mean that I can¡¯t stop you from killing yourself? Don¡¯t you know though, police stop people frommitting suicide all the time. This is just me performing a necessary service. I am stopping you from harming yourself. And I am also going to see to it that you are charged to the fullest extent for your crimes. You will not get away with this, ud. You will be punished. Those families will have justice. And you will not get the chance to end your punishment early.¡± I meant every word of what I was saying. I wasn¡¯t going to kill any of these people. Not unless they were actively trying to kill me. I would only use deadly force to stop them from hurting me, or someone else that they didn¡¯t need to be trying to harm. Other than that, they will live to serve their time behind bars. I would personally see to it that they did.


    I walked back around ud. I didn¡¯t need to move as slowly as I did, but I knew that it made him wary of me when I did this, so I figured why not drag it out some more. I wasn¡¯t actually hurting him. It was just a little bit of psychological torture. Not even torture really. It was just me getting him ready to start talking when the rune was gone.


    ¡°Don¡¯t you dare touch me. Get away from me. Don¡¯t touch me.¡± He was squirming in his seat as he tried to stop me from getting too close to him. This was a bad idea for him at the moment though. Since he was still bound by the root like vines that I had used earlier, he was sort of like a ud burrito, and that made him unable to move his arms or legs to bnce himself. He was barely propped up on the chair as it was.


    ¡°Stay still.¡± This was amand as much as a warning. If he kept that up, he was going to hurt himself.


    ¡°Get away from me. Don¡¯t touch me. I don¡¯t want you to touch me. Leave me alone.¡± He was squirming even more as I approached the back of his chair. ¡°GET AWAY!¡± He screamed onest time as he tried to move away from me.


    At that moment, ud toppled to the side and was falling face first toward the floor. He was about to smack into it, and most likely break his nose or something, so I had to help him. Not that I wanted to. The asshole could use a good dose of reality, and pain would do that to him.


    However, I was trying to y the good guy here. And doing that meant that I had to stop him from getting hurt. Hahh. There was just so much that I had to do at the moment. I needed to stop him from dying, from getting hurt by his own hands or mine, and I had to make sure that he was willing to sing like a canary and tell me everything that he knew. Him and all of his little buddies.


    Before ud was even halfway to the floor, screaming the entire time that he was falling, I stopped him. He was suspended in midair, unable to move but still rtively unharmed.


    ¡°AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!¡± He was still screaming after he stopped. It took him a moment to realize that he was no longer in danger of being hurt.


    ¡°Come on now, ud. Let me remove that pesky little rune so that I can untie you. I think that you will like it better when you can sit in the chair properly.¡±


    ¡°DON¡¯T TOUCH MY RUNES!¡± He screamed at me.


    ¡°Well, now I need to use my magic to check for other runes. I need to know what all ones you have. And I need to get rid of them all. Doing that would make it so much easier to talk to you.¡±


    ¡°NO! NOO! NOOO!¡± He was screaming so unnecessarily loud. I was able to hear him just fine. I had better hearing than him after all. And frankly, I just found him annoying at this point.


    ¡°Enough!¡± I snapped at him. ¡°Stop screaming or I will bind your voice for the time being. I don¡¯t want to do that, since I need to talk to you about your crimes and your family. But if you don¡¯t stop, I will have no choice but to do it.¡± He abruptly stopped screaming. I think that he was seeing enough of my magic to know that I wasn¡¯t bluffing. I could do that, and I would. ¡°Thank you.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°Now, let¡¯s see where those runes are.¡±


    I pulled the magic toward me as I approached him. I didn¡¯t need too much at the moment, so it didn¡¯t take me long before I was able to use the spell. It was just a moment really. That was all that I had needed.


    ¡°Ahh, I see. There on the neck is the death rune that I knew about, but on your forearms are the others. You have the rune to hide yourself. I am assuming that the cloak you have is imbued with that as well. That is how you and your friends, or should I say family, were able to hide from us all when you watched the crime scene. And how you were able to run away or disappear in in sight when someone wasing toward your kill site.¡±


    ¡°Shut up!¡± He was crying now. The tears were actually streaming down his cheeks as he begged me to stop.


    ¡°No, I can¡¯t do that, ud. You should know me better than that by now. I have to interrogate you. And I have to make sure that you are not a threat to me or my people.¡± I looked at the guards that would be with him until lights out, and possibly even then. He would almost never be alone. I couldn¡¯t trust it. ¡°Now, where was I? Ahh, yes, the runes. You have one for silence. I am guessing that is how you were able to sneak up on the shifters that you killed. They are great at hearing footsteps, but you were all able to sneak up on them. There is one for strength as well, that would make you stronger than the average person, possibly putting you on par with some of the werewolves that I know. And this one I don¡¯t really know. I will have to have someone research it for me.¡± This rune was one that looked different than the ones that I had seen before. ¡°Oh, is that one there a luck rune? Well, I guess that one didn¡¯t really help you at all, did it?¡± Iughed a little. ¡°Now, time to get rid of them all. And might I say, ud, I am d that none of them are in a ce that would be unmentionable. That would just be inappropriate, don¡¯t you think?¡± Iughed as I pulled up his sleeves.


    ¡°Please, don¡¯t touch me.¡± He was still begging me not to do this to him, but I was not at all affected by his pleas.


    ¡°And how many times did Andrea ask you to stop? Oh wait, you didn¡¯t hear her pleas, did you? They were all in her head because you had immobilized her. I can assure you though, she was screaming for you to stop, but you didn¡¯t listen.¡±


    I used my magic to make one of those pens that Gabriel had used earlier. I needed that to alter the runes on ud¡¯s arms and neck. I turned them all into open and truth runes. That would, hopefully, make him more willing to talk to me. It might have been unfair, but it was an advantage that I was willing to take. Then, I sent magic pens to all the others and told them what to do.


    ¡®Change the runes, they have them on their arms and the back of their necks. ud here had one for hiding, silence, luck, strength, and another that I don¡¯t know the meaning of. Change them all to open and truth runes. After that, I will unbind them. It will be a little difficult, but you can manage to pull their sleeves up past the bindings.¡¯


    ¡®Understood.¡¯ Shawn was the first to respond.


    ¡®Cool, I can give him a tattoo.¡¯ Shane¡¯sughing voice came next.


    ¡®Removing the runes is a good idea.¡¯ Athair m¨°r¡¯s calm tone approved of my words.


    ¡®Thanks for the tip.¡¯ Trevor¡¯s gruff voice was happy with the development.


    ¡®Thanks Trinity, this will help immensely.¡¯ David¡¯s gentle and sweet voice cheered me up a little.


    ¡®Of course, my Little Bunny would have an ace up her sleeve.¡¯ Reece wasughing, I could tell that he was happy though. Perhaps Fritz was being a little more stubborn than I thought that he was. All of the others applied in simr ways. Happy to have an advantage that they could use to sway the battle of wits that we were all embroiled in.


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 Chapter 951

    Chapter 951: Chapter 136- Trinity ¨C Interrogations Part 4 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I waited a moment until the others told me that they were done with their runes. I was going to release all of the prisoners at the same time. That would just be more efficient for me.


    ¡°W..wh..what are you doing?¡± ud¡¯s shaking voice squeaked toward me as I watched him. I had finally sat down, yet I wasn¡¯t talking or moving at all. I was waiting and listening inside of my head.


    ¡°I am waiting for the others to tell me that the runes have been changed. I don¡¯t want to release the bindings again and again, so I am going to do it all at once.¡± I gave ud as friendly of a look as I could manage. And for some reason, he seemed to jump in fear. Then again, he could be scared because he was still suspended in the air as he waited for me to free him from the vines.


    ¡°The others? Are you expecting a phone call or something?¡± He was trying to sound angry and like he didn¡¯t care, but he was genuinely interested. I could hear the curious note underneath the fear in his voice.


    .....


    ¡°No, not a phone call really. You see, we can talk telepathically. I could speak to someone that waspletely on the other side of the world. Even if they were twelve thousand, four hundred and fifty miles away, which by the way is about half of the circumference of the earth so that would literally put them as far away from me as possible. Well, to be technical, I would have to add another half of a mile, but who would really check up on that if I didn¡¯t put thatst two thousand six hundred and forty feet at the end of that statement.¡± I was finding all of this very funny at the moment. Especially because ud was thoroughly confused by my words. He didn¡¯t seem to understand what it was that I was trying to aplish with that statement, and that was nothing more than me killing time until the others spoke to me.


    ¡®All done, Trinity.¡¯


    ¡®Good to go.¡¯


    ¡®The runes are changed.¡¯


    ¡®Ready for him to be untied now.¡¯ One after the other I got confirmation from them all. They were all done and it was time for me to release those people from the vines.


    ¡°Good news, ud. All the others have had their runes changed as well. I can finally untie you now.¡± I rose to my feet as I approached him. I didn¡¯t need to touch him, this was just to cause him more panic. ¡°Isn¡¯t that just wonderful?¡± He flinched when I reached toward him. ¡°Ha ha ha.¡± I stopped my hand and turned around, while doing so I released all twelve of them from their bindings. I knew that I didn¡¯t need to tell the others to chain them all to the chair and table, so I wasn¡¯t going to say a word. Hell, I didn¡¯t even have to tell the guards that were in here with me. They immediately walked forward and grabbed ud as he still hung in the air. ¡°All set?¡± I looked at the three of them and released the magic around ud. He was still held in the air by the guards. They were strong enough to support him as they carried him over to the chair and sat him in it.


    I waited a few moments for ud to be bound in a different way. He wasn¡¯t a ud burrito that was barely in the chair. Now, he was a fully bendable and posable ud action figure that needed to be strapped down so that he wouldn¡¯t run away. And thankfully, it only took the guards a few moments to get him into ce.


    ¡°Would you like us to stay, Queen Trinity?¡± I was asked as soon as ud was secured.


    ¡°That is up to you. I don¡¯t mind one way or the other.¡± I shrugged in response with the words. The men looked at each other and then returned to the back of the room. They were mostly quiet unless spoken to, so I didn¡¯t care if they watched the interrogation or not. As long as they didn¡¯t interfere it was fine with me.


    Now that ud was properly in his chair, he looked a lot less funny. I guess I was seeing him as a bumbling idiot while he was cocooned in the vines. Well, I guess cocooned is the wrong word. None of them had been wrappedpletely. They had just been wrapped up enough to stop them from moving at all. Other than that, they were themselves. Still, it was funny.


    ¡°Now, are you morefortable?¡± I asked ud, and I could tell that he didn¡¯t want to talk to me, but he did it anyway.


    ¡°Yes.¡± He looked angry about the automatic and probably forced response. It was the work of the runes though, so he couldn¡¯t help it.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, ud. When all of this is done, we will remove all of the runes. You won¡¯t be forced to obey forever.¡± That would be cruel, but effective. Still, I couldn¡¯t do it, no matter how much easier it would make things.


    ¡°Whatever.¡± He snapped at me, clearly pissed off.


    ¡°Now, can you tell me who it is that started all of this?¡±


    ¡°Our ancestor. ric Jaegan.¡± He once again answered against his own freewill.


    ¡°No, that is not true.¡± I shook my head at him. ¡°ric was a friend to the shadow world. He and others of my kind kept peace with the humans and nonhumans. They had a team that stopped people from destroying lives.¡± I felt strange exining this man¡¯s family to him, but he was definitely wrong here.


    ¡°No! You¡¯re wrong.¡± He was not going to ept what I was telling him. Maybe I should have put an eptance rune on him. I had hoped that the open rune would make him open to new ideas as well, but I guess not.


    ¡°One of ric¡¯s former friends, a vampire that hunted with him, is here today. You saw him at the park. He knew ric and what he wanted in life. And we have ric¡¯s journal that says what his position toward my people was. He wasn¡¯t the reason for this. He wasn¡¯t the cause of this hatred for nonhumans.¡±


    ¡°Yes! He was! I am telling you, ric is the one that made us this way.¡±


    ¡°You are confused, ud.¡± I shook my head. This wasn¡¯t going to get me anywhere. ¡°Let¡¯s move on. Who put this n into action? Who is leading the family right now?¡±


    ¡°I..I..I don¡¯t want to tell you.¡± As ud tried to avoid telling me anything at all, his face slowly turned red. He seemed to be fighting the rune as hard as he could. His mouth was shut, his teeth biting hard onto his lip as he fought to stop himself. It was no use though, as his face started to go from red to purple, he was forced to tell me. ¡°I..i..it¡¯s Reginald. He was the one that took over when werewolves killed Uncle Rayk.¡± That was news to me. If memory serves, the man that he just mentioned was killed by the family.


    ¡°ud, Rayk was killed by Viktor and us. He was not killed by werewolves. He wanted to unite the family with the shadow world again. He wanted to return to what ric had nned for the family for so long.¡±


    ¡°No!¡± He screamed. ¡°That isn¡¯t true!¡± He was so sure of this, so sure that I was wrong, that he wasn¡¯t willing to listen to me at all. ¡°MY FAMILY IS GOOD! WE KILL MONSTERS! WE PROTECT THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD! AND WHEN OUR MISSION IS OVER REGINALD WILL RULE THE HUMANS AS THE RIGHTFUL KING!¡±


    ¡°That is nothing but bullshit!¡± I snapped at him. ¡°Reginald just wants to rule the world, he isn¡¯t interested in saving people. And he just wants us out of the way. He knows that we would never let him take over like that.¡±


    ¡°YOU¡¯RE LYING TO ME! LYING!¡±


    ¡°No, ud. You¡¯ve been lied to, but it¡¯s not been by me. I am sorry that you never knew the truth, that you were brainwashed into this. You never had a chance, did you?¡± I watched ud shaking his head as he cried. Large streams of tears were pouring down his face as he fought against the magic that waspelling him to talk to me.


    ¡°Stop it! You¡¯re a liar!¡± He was sobbing now. He wasn¡¯t going to fight me anymore because the magic was in control, but he was still going to reject the words that I told him. ¡°Liar!¡±


    ¡°ud, who all has killed someone? Of the twelve of you, how many have killed one of my people?¡± I needed to know how guilty they all were.


    ¡°W..w..we all did! I..I..I killed that girl in California. Fritz, Patrik, Jonathon, and Adrian killed in California as well. The others, Marc, Jonathon, Carsten, Phillipp, Christian, Hans, and Pieter were some of the ones that killed in the other countries.¡± His purple face almost seemed to be crumpling in on itself. They were all guilty, and he was mad that he was admitting it to me.


    ¡°Then you will all be going to prison.¡± I shook my head at him. ¡°Now, ud, tell me where the others are. Where are the leaders of the family? Where can we find them?¡± This was the biggest thing that we needed to know. This was the part that was going to break the entire case open. This and a few more details were all that I needed from him.


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 Chapter 952

    Chapter 952: Chapter 137- Trinity ¨C Interrogations Part 5 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I could see the pain in ud¡¯s eyes when I asked him where the others were. I needed to know where the leaders of this family were. I needed to know where to find those that were responsible for sending these brainwashed cultists after my people.


    What was truly terrible about it all was that these people, ud, Clovio, Warrick, and all the others that I hadn¡¯t had the chance to get to know, they never really stood a chance. Yeah, I know that Clovio and Warrick were among a select few that didn¡¯t agree with the family, but they still went along with them. If they didn¡¯t, they would end up dead. That was no way to raise a family. Intimidating them and scaring them into doing what you want, that is just wrong.


    In a way, a miniscule one, I feel bad for these people. Even ud was earning my sympathy. If he hadn¡¯t been raised to think about the things that he did, then he would be a good person. That is the horrible thing with the world in my opinion. When you have someone that is raised to hate and doesn¡¯t know anything else, then when they do something wrong then they won¡¯t understand why it is bad. They can¡¯t think about the reason why they shouldn¡¯t have killed those people because they don¡¯t see anything other than what they were taught. Who does this? Who raises kids to hate an entire group of people? Why? We¡¯re all alive. We all love. We all breathe. We all feel pain. We all bleed when we are hurt. Should that not count us all as the same? We are just a different race of people. It¡¯s nothing different than that.


    My heart was broken. It was shattered into a million pieces as I thought about the fact that all of these people have to pay for what was done to them. If the person that started this in their family¡¯s past hadn¡¯t gone against the teachings of ric, then this wouldn¡¯t be an issue at all. No one would have to worry about dying or being hurt just because they were different.


    .....


    I guess I was a little more affected by this case, and all that went into it, than I thought that I had been. I hadn¡¯t thought about the fact that I would see these people as victims as well. They were guilty, there is no doubt about that, but they were victims. Because back when they were innocent, someone took the choice of right and wrong away from them. And now they are going to have to pay for their sins.


    I tried not to let the pity and sorrow show on my face. There was nothing that could be done to save these people. They were killers, and they would always think the way that they currently do. I couldn¡¯t save them from their punishment, so letting ud know that I pitied him wouldn¡¯t help anything at all.


    ¡°Come on ud.¡± I pressed a little with the questioning. ¡°Where are the others?¡±


    ¡°Th..th..there are some that go to the c..c..college.¡± He tried not to respond. ¡°Th..th..they were supposed to get close to your kids. They are pretending to date them.¡± I knew this, but I let the anger from the other day show once more. I had been pissed when I learned about Clovio and Warrick.


    ¡°How many of them are at the school, ud?¡± We had gotten this information already, but there was a chance that Clovio hadn¡¯t been told about them all.¡±


    ¡°Eight. There are eight of them.¡± He was crying. Thin tears of frustration were streaming down his cheeks. He really didn¡¯t want to tell me these things. He wanted to be able to hide these facts, but he couldn¡¯t. This right here, this is what I did feel bad about, but I knew that it was necessary so I couldn¡¯t stop the magic just yet. I needed him to tell me. I needed to get more information out of him.


    ¡°Alright, so there are eight at the school. How many others are there in the city? Do you know?¡± Knowing how many we were up against would be a good thing. It would help us to prepare for when we take them down.


    ¡°N..n..no. I don¡¯t know how many there are all together. I was never at the mansion, so I don¡¯t know how many there were. I know that there are over two dozen other ones though. Other than the ones at the school and the ones that are here with me right now.¡± He seemed like he might be talking a little easier now. Yes, he had stuttered again, but he didn¡¯t seem to be fighting it until his face turned red. Then again, his face was already red, so maybe it was just that he wasn¡¯t fighting it harder than he had been. Also, I learned that altogether, there were more than fifty of these people here. Twelve that we got tonight, eight at the school, and more than two dozen more. OK, that only totaled forty-four, but I was adding that extra half a dozen to make it a rounded number.


    ¡°Where are they? Do you know where all of them are located?¡± More details that I was asking for. How much did he know?


    ¡°N..no. I don¡¯t know where all of them are. S..s..some are at the hotel that we are staying at, but the others are somewhere else. Th..th..the more important ones are staying elsewhere. Th..th..the leaders.¡± He was fighting again. This was a topic that he didn¡¯t want to talk about.


    ¡°How many others are at the hotel?¡± If we could surprise them, we could lessen the damage when we went after the leaders.


    ¡°Th..th..there are ten. T..t..ten more people at the h..h..hotel.¡± With each sentence that he was giving me, there was an exhtion, like he was struggling to keep the words inside. I understood that he felt like he was betraying them, but this was important to me and my people.


    ¡°Who are the leaders, ud? You don¡¯t know where they are, but who are they? Tell me their names.¡± The fear was there again. He was terrified to tell me this. He was fighting it harder than any of the others.


    ¡°N..n..no. I..I..I can¡¯t.¡± He was shaking his head furiously, and for a moment I thought that he wasn¡¯t going to tell me, but then he started to talk again. ¡°I..I..I don¡¯t want to tell you, b..b..but I can¡¯t st..stop.¡± He was sobbing, not just tears streaming down his cheeks, but real and true crying and sobbing. ¡°U..U..Un..Uncle Reginald. H..h..he was the one that took over for U..Un..Uncle Rayk. I..I..I wasn¡¯t alive then, but he is still the one in charge. H..h..he wasn¡¯t the one that everyone thought was going to take over. us and Viktor were more in the spotlight back then, but Uncle Reginald took over. He and Gran Gran have been leading the family together. Th..th..they are the ones that told us about this mission. W..w..we have been preparing for it since before I was born. Th..th..they said that the time woulde when we needed to fight, and the family didn¡¯t object.¡± When ud was finally done talking, I saw that he was breathing heavily. And the sobs were stilling as well. They weren¡¯t silent sobs either. He was bawling because of the betrayal that he was feeling.


    ¡°Thank you, ud. This is going to help us a lot.¡± I wanted to make him feel better, but that wasn¡¯t what happened.


    ¡°I DON¡¯T CARE ABOUT HELPING YOU! YOU MADE ME BETRAY MY FAMILY! THEY ARE GOING TO KILL ME! THEY WILL NOT CARE THAT I HAD NO CHOICE! THEY ARE JUST GOING TO KNOW THAT ME AND MY BROTHERS WENT AGAINST THE FAMILY AND BETRAYED THEM! WE ARE ALL DEAD! DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT!? WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE NOW, AND IT IS ALL YOUR FAULT!¡± His sobbing continued all through his red faced outburst. I saw snot, tears, and spittle all flying off of his face as he roared these words into the otherwise quiet room. I knew why he was upset, but there was little that I could do about it.


    ¡°I am sorry, ud, I know you feel bad for telling me all of this. However, I promise you, they will not kill you. You will all survive this ordeal then you will go to prison for your crimes.¡± I thought this would give him a little bit of relief from his anguish, but he justughed at me.


    ¡°HA HA HA HA HA! YOU THINK THAT YOU CAN CONTEND WITH UNCLE REGINALD AND GRAN GRAN! YOU HAVE ANOTHER THING COMING! THEY ARE MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU COULD EVER KNOW! THEY WILL DESTROY YOU! THEY WILL END YOU!¡±


    ¡°We will see about that, ud.¡± I was done with his yelling. It was hurting my ears. Besides, I had what I needed. It was time for me to leave and talk to the others. ¡°I will have the guards bring you something to drink. Would you like some food?¡± I was getting to my feet as I prepared to leave the room.


    ¡°I WILL NOT EAT OR DRINK ANY OF YOUR POISON!¡± HE spat the words at me,plete with a trail of saliva that trailed from his lips. ¡°I WILL NOT LET YOU KILL ME!¡±


    ¡°Fine, you can eat and drink when you are hungry and thirsty enough. It won¡¯t be poisoned. Now, ud, I need to get going. Try to rx a little more. You are safe.¡±


    I tried my best to ignore the incoherent screams that followed me out of the room. The two guards that had been with me in there stayed behind though. They weren¡¯t going to leave the prisoner on his own. That was understandable as well.


    Things were both moreplicated than I thought that they were, as well as being easier than I thought that they would be. We would be able to round up all of the people at the university and at the hotel. That would give us about thirty of these people in our custody. We would then only have to worry about the ones that we didn¡¯t know the location of. Those that were in charge and apparently more powerful than the others. We would outnumber them, and I didn¡¯t really think that there was going to be a problem with us taking them out. Then again, I wasn¡¯t going to take any chances here. I would always be more prepared than I needed to be. Caution was key when you had so many people to protect.


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 Chapter 953

    Chapter 953: Chapter 138- Dietrich ¨C Interrogations Part 6 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    [Beginning of the interrogation, before Trinity unbinds them]


    The man that was sitting across from me was named Christian. There had been two guards in here, but I sent them out. I didn¡¯t need them to be in here with me while I interrogated this man. He was a killer. He was guilty of killing members of the shadow world, and I didn¡¯t n on going easy on him. Not only that, but there were things about my past that I might need to reveal to this man, and I didn¡¯t want those guards to spread those rumors around. No, having them out of here was the best option for me at the moment.


    The man was not talking though. Even with me trying to win him over with words. Not even intimidating him was working. Then again, I imagine that being tied up wasn¡¯t helping him at all.


    ¡°What will get you to talk to me?¡± I asked him, but the man wasn¡¯t saying a thing. I guess he was going to be one tough nut to crack. I just stared at the man with his stony disposition. ¡°You are not getting out of here until you talk to me. You have a lot to answer for.¡± I red at him, but still there was nothing that he was willing to tell me at the moment.


    .....


    ¡°Fine. If you don¡¯t want to talk, then you can listen for the time being.¡± He looked shocked that I was taking another approach, but he still didn¡¯t make a sound. ¡°Do you know who ric Jaegan was? You don¡¯t need to speak, a simple nod or shake of the head will do.¡± I wasn¡¯t hiding my German ent at the moment. It was the same as the one he would have as well. Well, mostly. We came from the same region, but that didn¡¯t mean that dialects hadn¡¯t changed over the centuries.


    The man finally gave me a semnce of a response to my question. He nodded his head. Of course, he and all the others would know who ric was.


    ¡°That is good. You see, I knew ric. I was a good friend of his. We were teammates in the party that hunted those that did wrong around the world.¡± He still hadn¡¯t made a sound, but his eyes had gone even wider than before. He obviously didn¡¯t believe me.


    ¡°I know what you are thinking, Christian. That it is impossible for me to have known him since he died so long ago. Well, I am a vampire. I have lived for over five hundred and fifty years. ric and I were close. I would say that he was one of the best friends that I ever had. So close, in fact, that my castle is just a short walk from the mansion that he had built. The one that your family still uses. I was there, you know. In the mansion. My mate and I took down the trees with the runes on them and entered the house. Nice touch by the way, leaving a note just for me.¡±


    I could tell that this man was still not willing to ept that what I was saying was true. I needed to push him just a little more. I needed to make sure that he was understanding that this was all true, and that they were all stupid for believing the words of those nannies. If it weren¡¯t for them, ric¡¯s family wouldn¡¯t have turned out like this. Also, I needed to find out what those nannies were, and how they lived for so long.


    ¡°I have been to the orphanage as well. That is where you grew up, right? I saw your file there. Yours and so many others. I have them here with us now. We needed them for references. None of the files had pictures of you as you got older. Just when you were about six or so.¡± I was giving just enough information that I could break the ice with him. And I felt like it was working. At least this was better than just staring at him in silence for several more minutes like I had done in the beginning. This might get me somewhere.


    At that moment, I got a message from Trinity. She was telling us how to make it easier for these people to talk to us. And it would result in them not being tied with the vines anymore.


    ¡®Change the runes, they have them on their arms and the back of their necks. ud here had one for hiding, silence, luck, strength, and another that I don¡¯t know the meaning of. Change them all to open and truth runes. After that, I will unbind them. It will be a little difficult, but you can manage to pull their sleeves up past the bindings.¡¯ Her voice was clear and loud. And it was apanied by the appearance of one of the magic pens that Gabriel had used earlier. I saw the shock on Christian¡¯s face when he saw it materialize. Seriously, they knew that she had magic, was it that big of a shock for him?


    Several of the people replied to her words, myself included.


    ¡®Thank you, Trinity.¡¯ I took the magic pen and walked over to the man that had not been speaking to me. He was scared, trembling in fear when I pushed his head forward, but he still didn¡¯t say anything.


    ¡°This here is the rune you would have used to kill yourself, right?¡± I touched it with the pen and the man jerked in fear, but he didn¡¯t make a sound. ¡°I am changing the rune. It won¡¯t let you kill yourself anymore. And the others that you have on your arms, they will be changed as well.¡±


    I didn¡¯t wait for the man to speak, I knew that he didn¡¯t want to. I just went to where Trinity said the runes would be and started to take care of them. I changed them all to what she told me they needed to be. Though I didment on one of the runes that I saw.


    ¡°I see you¡¯re still using ric¡¯s Jaegan mark. It isn¡¯t a rune that offers powers to the user, but it marks you as one of his. I had it once too. It was the mark that indicated that we were part of his team. It faded on me after ric died though. That was how I knew that he was truly gone from this world.¡± With all of the runes gone now, I went back to sit in the chair across from him and sent word to Trinity that I was done. It took a minute or so until the others were done, but soon enough, the bindings disappeared and the man¡¯s face paled. He was not expecting this.


    ¡°Sit properly.¡± I told him as I got up again. He didn¡¯t move into the chair to settle himself, but he didn¡¯t try to get up either. ¡°Fine.¡± I shrugged and started to chain him to the chair and table. He wasn¡¯t moving yet, but I wasn¡¯t going to chance it.


    Once he was secured in ce, I returned to my seat and looked at him once again.


    ¡°Now, are you willing to talk to me?¡± To my surprise, the man started to speak for the first time.


    ¡°What you have said is all lies.¡± His ent was just what I thought that it would be.


    ¡°I do not lie.¡± I crossed my arms and lounged back in the chair as I faced him. ¡°What you have been taught is the lie. I know that ric would be ashamed of his family if he could see them now.¡±


    I needed to make him see the truth here, I needed him to know what was going on. That was why I started to tell him about the journals that I had found. I told him about the three wives and the children that were born from them. I told him about the nannies that ric didn¡¯t care much about. That got a rise out of him, which I didn¡¯t expect.


    ¡°DON¡¯T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT THEM LIKE THAT!¡± He screamed when I told him that the nannies were initially fired, but that ric had no other options than them so he hired them back. He didn¡¯t like me telling him the truth right now.


    ¡°Struck a nerve, did I?¡± I red at him. ¡°You know that it is all true. I can get ric¡¯s journals for you all to read and see for yourself.¡± He wasn¡¯t listening though. He was breathing heavily through his nose. ¡°What you need to understand, Christian, is that ric was a good man. He loved all the people of the world. He was an orphan that never knew where he came from. He was raised by the vige, being passed from house to house with no stability or real love. When he was older, he wanted to make a family of his own, but he also wanted to make the world a safer ce. He found out about the shadow world at a young age and was never frightened by it. He epted it and embraced it. He loved all the people that he met through that extra world.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re lying!¡± Christian snapped at me, and I could tell that he was straining to cover his ears.


    ¡°I am not.¡± I spoke calmly but firmly as I exined facts to this man. ¡°I met ric when he was sixteen. He and I got along right away and from that day on, he woulde to see me and ask questions. He learned all he could about the nonhumans of the world and when he learned that there were humans that hunted them, he was appalled. He also knew that it was wrong for the nonhumans to hunt the humans. He wanted a world that was filled with peace. So, we took care of those people. The humans that needlessly hunted the supernaturals, and the supernaturals that hunted the humans. It was a good life for a while, but he wanted to settle down. We also lost a friend on a mission, and he knew that his own life was the most fragile of them all. So, we disbanded and went our separate ways. After that, he married the women from his vige and started his family. He was happy. Though he wouldn¡¯t be, if he could see where that family was at now.¡±


    ¡°ric was a hunter, but he wasn¡¯t the kind that protected the monsters in the world. He tried to eradicate them all. He tried to rid the world of the monsters, but he was limited to how far he could travel. He wasn¡¯t able to do his job orplete his mission.¡± Christian sounded like he was preaching to me. ¡°We were all taught the truth by the grannies. They were the ones that knew ric. They were the ones that passed down his legacy to us all.¡±


    ¡°No, Christian, they didn¡¯t. They manipted you all and lied to you. You¡¯re just too na?ve and narrow minded to notice that. I truly am sorry about that. You have all been led astray, and because of that you murdered innocent people.¡±


    ¡°IT WASN¡¯T MURDER!¡± He screamed at me. ¡°WE WERE TAKING OUT THE TRASH! WE WERE RIDDING THIS WORLD OF A PLAGUE THAT HAD BEEN SPREADING FOR FAR TOO LONG! AND, SOON ENOUGH, WE WILL ELIMINATE THE SOURCE OF THAT PLAGUE! WE WILL KILL THE QUEEN AND THAT WILL KILL ALL OF THE OTHERS! THEY WILL FALL WITH THEIR LEADER NO LONGER GIVING THEM HER ESSENCE TO LIVE!¡±


    My mind was blown. What was he saying? Did they think that killing Trinity would make all the rest of us die? Seriously?


    ¡°You¡¯re wrong, Christian, none of us will die just because Trinity is dead.¡±


    ¡°YOU WILL!¡± He screamed at me. ¡°YOU WILL!¡±


    I tried to talk to the man more as the time passed, but every time I did he would just scream the same things over and over.


    ¡°LIES ALL LIES! YOU ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!¡± It was hopeless. Maybe someone else would get something else useful out of him, I was done with him for now though.


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 Chapter 954

    Chapter 954: Chapter 139- Trinity ¨C What We Learned (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    When I left the interrogation room, I saw that all of the others were waiting on me. Had I really taken the longest? I didn¡¯t think that it had taken me all that long to talk to ud. I mean, I had learned some things, but it seemed like it had all gone by really quick to me.


    ¡°You all finished early.¡± I said as I walked over to the group.


    ¡°You just took longer.¡± Shane smiled, but I saw that it wasn¡¯t filled with the same level of amusement as he usually had.


    ¡°I take it that your interview didn¡¯t go very well?¡± I narrowed my eyes at him.


    .....


    ¡°I didn¡¯t learn much.¡± He shrugged. ¡°I am sorry, Trinity.¡± He looked so dejected. I hadn¡¯t seen him look this down since Shawn was injured in battle. He was always joking and messing around, but he was losing that mirth of his right before my eyes.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. I got some information out of ud. Let¡¯s go to my office to discuss it all.¡± I turned to look at the guards that had ced themselves all around the hall. They weren¡¯t cking on their duties at all. That made me proud of them all. ¡°Get water and some food for them. We will be hospitable toward them. They will see that we do not mean them any harm.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Queen Trinity.¡± Garret saluted me with a stiff posture and a loud voice.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± I nodded at him, but that was all. It was time for me and the others to head up to my office and talk about all of this.


    It took us no more than five minutes to get to my office. And that was because it was a big castle, and because we didn¡¯t want to rush there. This night was already long and hard enough, this was just going to make it even worse.


    I was first in my office, flipping the lights on and moving to sit at the chair behind my desk. Reece ran ahead of me though. Instead of me sitting in my chair, he scooped me up in his arms, sat in my seat, and then ced me on hisp. This wasn¡¯t actually a dignified look for a queen, but I guess the others here wouldn¡¯t care. We needed to get this all done and over with as soon as possible, arguing with Reece would just take more time.


    ¡°Well, you all know why we¡¯re here. What have you all learned from the people that you interviewed?¡± I was letting them start the discussion for us. I would gost.


    ¡°Well, they are definitely adamant that we are lying to them.¡± Shane sighed as he sank into a chair. ¡°That is pretty much all that I got. We are liars, they are helping the world, we are monsters. He was willing to talk, but either he didn¡¯t know anything, or he just didn¡¯t want to share it with the rest of the ss.¡±


    ¡°I agree with him.¡± Shawn nodded. ¡°I didn¡¯t get anything out of the one that I spoke with.¡±


    ¡°The same with me.¡± David crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. He tended to do this when he was upset about something.


    ¡°All I learned was that these people think that ric was the one that started this. He thinks that the grannies, which is to say the nannies that raised them, had been tasked by ric to pass down his message. I don¡¯t know who these nannies really were, but I don¡¯t think they were human. And they seem to have had an intense dislike for those that aren¡¯t human. So perhaps they were cast out from their own people and forced to live as humans, or they were just insane and genocidal. Whatever it was though, they were the ones that were behind this.¡± Dietrich¡¯s words were somber. I knew how hard this had to be on him. He had been so close to ric all those years ago. For this to be the way that his family turned out, that must be painful for Dietrich. Still, something that he said struck a chord with me. It was the talk about the grannies. That term had been used in my interrogation. Well, sort of.


    ¡°It is funny that you should mention them, Dietrich.¡± I lounged on Reece as I looked at him. ¡°ud mentioned something about someone named Gran Gran. I can¡¯t help but think that this is one of those Grannies that you heard about. And if it is one of them, then they would be very old by now. As in, hundreds of years old. There is no way that a human could have lived for that long.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡± Dietrich seemed to be deep in thought as he contemted something. ¡°What was it that ud said about this Gran Gran person?¡±


    ¡°Well, he was a lot more open to talking after I changed his runes. And I asked him some questions that I thought would be helpful. The current leaders of the family are Reginald and Gran Gran. What she has to do with it, I don¡¯t know. However, when Rayk was killed all those years ago, Reginald was the one that took over. So, he would be getting older as well. And ud said he is powerful. I do not know what he considers to be powerful though.¡±


    ¡°I think we need to assume that the ones that are in charge are not human. This all just seems a little too fishy to me. And it would exin that smell that they all give off. If there is something about them that isn¡¯t quite human anymore.¡± Reece was the one to suggest this. I heard him, but since he was behind me and I didn¡¯t feel like turning to see his face, I didn¡¯t get the chance to see what he thought of these words, since his tone was so nd. Then again, his face might not have given it away either.


    ¡°Them having had nonhuman blood both does and does not make sense. Why would they want to kill us if they weren¡¯t human themselves? What grudge could these people have against every species of the shadow world?¡± Dietrich was just as confused about this as the others were.


    We discussed a little more about what we had learned from these people. We needed to know if everyone had gotten all that they could from them. After the others told what they knew, I exined what it was that ud told me. I seemed to be the only one that had learned how many of these people there were, where the bulk of them were, and the names of the leaders. It¡¯s possible that the others were too low ranked for this information, or it could be that my people needed lessons in interrogation. Whatever, it didn¡¯t really matter. What did matter was that I had learned enough from ud and we would be able to take some of these people into custody. Those that we knew the location of that inn. Hmm. I think that we were going to need more prison cells. I would have to get on that as soon as possible.


    After the information was all shared, it was time to figure out what to do next. Reece and the others agreed to going and getting the other eighteen suspects. The ten at the hotel and the eight at the university. We would make it look like Clovio and Warrick were going to be imprisoned as well, but we would move them to another location to protect them. They were working for us, so we needed to take care of them.


    It was settled that thirty of the guards, Reece, Dietrich, Shawn, Shane, David, Noah, Carter, Trevor, Riley, Landon and Athair m¨°r would go to get those people while I went back to the dungeons to add more cells. I also needed to tell the guards that there will soon be even more of them joining us.


    It had been a long night of interrogations and I wanted it to be over. That wasn¡¯t likely to happen though. It was two in the morning, and we were nowhere near done with all of this.


    We had made a breakthrough though. We were going to be able to lessen their numbers when it came to taking out the masterminds behind all of this. And not only that, but no one died tonight. And there was little chance that anyone else would die at the hands of these people.


    ¡°Be careful, Reece.¡± I told him as I stood at the door to my office. The others had already left the room so it was just the two of us here right now.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Little Bunny. We will all be careful. All of us will return home safe and sound.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯d better.¡± I tried to smile at him, but it was more of a grimace. ¡°Come here.¡± I pulled him down for a gentle and loving kiss. I needed him to know that I loved him. That I needed him toe home to me. And that I was desperate for this case to be over.


    ¡°I love you, Trinity.¡± He hugged me and called me by my name. That was something that he didn¡¯t do often unless there were other people around. When we were alone, he was usually yful and used my nickname.


    ¡°I love you too, Reece.¡± I squeezed him around his waist, needing to feel his warmth before we separated. ¡°This will all be over soon.¡± I tried to calm us with those words, but it had the opposite effect. I was more nervous than ever.


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 Chapter 955

    Chapter 955: Chapter 140- Reece ¨C Arrests Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    We weren¡¯t wasting any time at all. The moment that we had everything decided, I left with the others to make sure that we got these people. If we waited too long, it was possible that they would expect us to being and therefore we would run the risk of missing them. We didn¡¯t need the leaders of this family knowing what we had in mind and stop us. No, heading out now was the best option.


    Not only were there those of us that Trinity had chosen to partake in this little operation, but we took thew enforcement agents with us as well. As I was leaving I took Rawlynne, Jackson, Devon, Andrew and a few others. We needed this to look as official as possible.


    We were also gearing up to look like the police. Bulletproof vests were being worn, though we didn¡¯t need them. They said POLICE in bright yellow letters though, so that was a benefit for us. We had hats and helmets that we could choose between so that it helped to hide who we were from those murdering assholes.


    All in all, I thought that it would be best for us to blend in as actual cops, and the others agreed with me. The least amount of suspicion that was put on me and the nonw enforcement members of my team the better. I didn¡¯t need video of this raid getting out and someone recognizing me as the billionaire that thought he could do anything. Nope, that wouldn¡¯t be good at all.


    .....


    We didn¡¯t head out on foot or anything like that, we weren¡¯t animals. We did, however, take some of the ck SUVs that I owned. And those that didn¡¯t ride with me were in the S.W.A.T. truck that Andrew was able to borrow for us. That was also where most of the gear came from.


    I think that one thing that was going to benefit us right now was the fact that it was the middle of the night and that meant that most civilians would be asleep. That would keep the media attention down. Over thest ten years or so, Trinity and I have been trying to stay out of the media¡¯s eye. It would be hard to exin how we still looked so young after all these years, so it was best to avoid them altogether.


    We rode in rtive silence as we went to that hotel that I saw the other day. That one that was in the seedier part of town. This was the type of ce that I never wanted to step foot in, but I was going in there now. As horrible as it was going to be, it was for the greater good. Besides, it was just a building, albeit a filthy and likely bug infested one.


    ¡°Is everyone ready?¡± I used the radios that we had borrowed from the police department to contact the other members of the fake S.W.A.T. Team.


    ¡°We¡¯re good to go.¡± I heard Shane¡¯s voice first. He was with a small group of the men in the back of the borrowed truck.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get them, Reece.¡± Riley¡¯s excitement was palpable as he radioed in next.


    ¡°Let¡¯s do this.¡± Carter wanted to end this as well, and that was turning into a level of tension inside of him.


    ¡°Alright then, let¡¯s head in. Use your noses to find them.¡±


    ¡°Reece?¡± Noah butted in.


    ¡°Yeah?¡± I called over the radio.


    ¡°How about we go to the night clerk first. We can tell him that we have a warrant for these people that were there, maybe he could tell us which rooms they are in.¡±


    ¡°Good idea.¡± I nodded. He was right there. It would be easier to find them if we weren¡¯t having to search so hard. ¡°Come with me Noah, you and I will head in there. Rawlynne and Jackson, you twoe with us.¡±


    The four of us got out of our respective vehicles and walked toward the front of the building. We had the gear on,plete with guns that were typical of the S.W.A.T. Team. As we were walking, I saw that Noah was using one of those magic pens that Trinity had sent to us.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± I asked him as he pulled up his sleeve.


    ¡°I am putting a persuasion rune on my arm. It will help us to convince him. You should do the same.¡±


    ¡°Good idea.¡± I nodded as I took the pen from him after he was done. Following my rune, Rawlynne and Jackson added their own runes to their arms. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go.¡±


    The moment that we entered the building, I saw that the clerk¡¯s eyes went wide with shock. He hadn¡¯t been expecting a police raid during his shift. Though this wasn¡¯t exactly a police raid, we were after criminals.


    ¡°C..c..can I h..h..help you?¡± The man was practically quaking in fear.


    ¡°You have some people staying here. German ents. Recently arrived. Some of the names are ud, Fritz, Patrik, Jonathon, Marc, Jonathon, Carsten, Phillipp, Christian, Hans, and Pieter.¡± Noah was the first to answer the man.


    ¡°Uh, y..yeah, th..they all checked in the other day. Is something wrong?¡± The man was looking at each of us and trying not to panic. I was d that Noah and I were hiding our faces as much as we could.


    ¡°I am agent Otsana of the FBI.¡± Rawlynne held up her badge. ¡°These people are wanted in connection to a recent string of murders all over the world. The twelve that we mentioned are already in custody, but we have been informed that there are ten others currently here in the building. We need their room numbers as soon as possible. For your safety and that of your other guests, we implore you toply and then take shelter to protect yourself.¡±


    ¡°A..am I in danger?¡± The fear tactic was working for sure. The man was definitely scared of the Jaegan¡¯s now.


    ¡°It is possible. We thwarted a mass murder by these people earlier this evening, now we need to apprehend the rest of their group. Please, provide us with the information that we need.¡± Jackson was just as smooth in this as the others were. I wanted to join in with them, however I didn¡¯t want to be recognized by my voice either. So, I decided just to stay quiet for the time being.


    ¡°O..OK.¡± the clerk nodded and went to theputer. ¡°They are under a group reservation. They are on the upper floors, two per room. All the room numbers are listed here.¡± He was writing them down. ¡°A..a..and here is some master keys, s..s..so you don¡¯t need to break down the doors.¡± He reached into the drawer and pulled one of the keys out. He was handing all of the items to Rawlynne with shaking hands. ¡°P..p..please just make sure that my other guests are safe.¡± The man was at least thinking about the other people that were staying here. He seemed like a good enough man.


    We didn¡¯t hesitate once we had the room list and the keys. We radioed the others and had to surround the building. Dietrich, Shawn, Shane, David, Carter, Trevor, Riley, Landon and Valerian joined four of us in the building. I was sure that we would be able to get them all and take them down to the trucks.


    Slowly and quietly, we started to make our way up the stairs. I didn¡¯t want to wake the other guests and have them alert the Jaegan to what was happening. There were eleven rooms that the people were in, and there were six rooms per floor. They currently upy the top two floors with one vacant room on the top floor.


    We split into two groups when we got to the ninth floor, half staying there and the other half moving up to the tenth floor. I was among those that went to the tenth floor. Once we were in position, we sent word over the radio.


    ¡°On three.¡± I whispered to them. ¡°One.¡± The tension was mounting. ¡°Two.¡± I held up my hand in a fist, as if when I was done I would be pulling a lever and getting us started or something. ¡°Three.¡± My hand shot down and I stuck the key into the lock. It was go time.


    There were two men in the room that I opened. Noah and Riley were on either side of me, Trevor, Landon and Jackson behind me. They opened their doors at the same time and we all shouted into the rooms at the same time.


    ¡°DON¡¯T MOVE! POLICE! YOU ARE UNDER ARREST!¡± We had nned this part in advance.


    ¡°What the hell?!¡± One of the sleeping men shouted as he leapt from the bed in the room that I entered.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± The other man was groggy and didn¡¯t seem to be processing what was happening.


    I was being a human cop here, or so they thought, so I was pointing the gun at them. The two men were, thankfully, dressed in tattered looking pajamas. At least they weren¡¯t nude, that was all that I had cared about. And as they woke up and processed what they were seeing, I saw the panic that was spreading across their faces.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± The first man asked in his thick ent.


    ¡°Police. You are under arrest.¡± I repeated as I pointed the gun at him. ¡°Get out of the bed and on your knees.¡±


    ¡°Kris, what is happening?¡± The other one seemed to be confused still. I swear he looked like he was nothing more than a child. How could the Jaegan make these men do what they had done? That was just not right.


    ¡°Get out of bed and on the floor. You areing with me.¡±


    ¡°Just do as he says for now, Andre, we will be fine. Uncle will get us out soon.¡± Kris seemed to think that he had no problems at all. He got out of the bed, knelt on the floor, and put his hands on his head. Andre mimicked him and I walked over to cuff them. Noah, who had gone to an empty room, came in and cuffed Andre at that moment.


    This all went a lot more smoothly than I thought that it would. We had gotten in and were arresting them with no issues whatsoever. I didn¡¯t think that this was going to be possible, but I guess that it was. These men had been sleeping after all, so they weren¡¯t able to mount a defense against us. Not only that, but we had high powered weapons aimed at them, they weren¡¯t likely to want to go against us with the very real possibility of getting shot.


    It took five minutes, that was all. Five minutes and we loaded them all into the back of the trucks. They had all been taken into custody. Now, onto the university for the others.


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 Chapter 956

    Chapter 956: Chapter 141- Reece ¨C Arrests Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I knew what we needed to do next. I knew where we needed to go. The only thing I didn¡¯t know was which dorm and rooms that we needed to go to. And, well, to find that out I needed to alert someone that was there. So, without any hesitation, I called the number that was stored in my phone.


    It rang a few times before a groggy voice answered it.


    ¡°H..hello?¡±


    ¡°Clovio?¡± I called out to him, but not too loudly so that if someone was with him they wouldn¡¯t know.


    .....


    ¡°H..huh? I..is everything OK?¡± He was probably worried that the ambush didn¡¯t go as nned.


    ¡°Everything is fine. We are rounding up all of the Jaegan that ud knew the location of. We got the others that were in town, but now we are on our way to the university. We need to know which dorms and which rooms. I know there are eight of you there, where are the other six, and where is your room?¡± I told him what I needed and waited for him to respond. The first thing that I heard was a gasp on the other end of the call.


    ¡°Y..you¡¯re arresting me and Warrick as well?¡± He thought that we were turning on him.


    ¡°It will just look like it. We don¡¯t want to let the others know that you were in on this. We will be arriving shortly, which dorm, and what room numbers?¡±


    ¡°O..Oh, OK.¡± He seemed to calm down a little bit. ¡°We are in Copper House. Rooms are twenty-two thirteen, twenty-three twenty, thirty-one eighteen, and thirty-two fifteen. And Reece, there is another person in our group that isn¡¯t with the family. She is like me and Warrick. We don¡¯t want to do as they would say, but we have had toply. Don¡¯t hurt her, please.¡±


    ¡°We aren¡¯t going to hurt anyone, Clovio. But we will take her aside and talk to her about this. If you think that she will side with us when the timees, then she will not be punished. As long as she has not hurt anyone, that is.¡±


    ¡°She hasn¡¯t. She has been with us at the school, she hasn¡¯t hurt anyone.¡±


    ¡°What is her name?¡± We were driving now, heading toward the school, as I got the information from him.


    ¡°Armina.¡±


    ¡°We will offer her the chance to side with us. They will all be offered that, as long as they haven¡¯t hurt anyone.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°Be ready to pretend that you don¡¯t know what is going on, Clovio. We are almost there.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡±


    I ended the call as we pulled onto the campus. I looked around and tried to think about where we were going.


    ¡°Which dorm?¡± Noah asked me.


    ¡°Copper House.¡± Without another word, Noah drove over there while the others followed.


    When we arrived in front of the dorm, I was already getting out of the SUV before Noah had even put it in park. I needed to hurry and take care of things. I wanted to get this done before the morning, before the other students woke up.


    A brisk pounding on the door alerted the guards and night shift that we were there. They wore bemused expressions on their faces as they ran to see what was happening. Rawlynne, standing next to me again, whipped out her badge as they opened the door.


    ¡°Special Agent Otsana of the FBI, we are here to take some of your residents into custody.¡± She held up a piece of paper and shed it at them. ¡°We have a warrant for their arrest.¡±


    ¡°U..uhm, w..wh..who?¡± They asked, intimidated by her forceful tone and the appearance of what looked like a S.W.A.T. team.


    ¡°The German exchange students, Gunnar, Aloysius, Clovio, Warrick, Armina, Lovisa, Hede, and Hedi.¡± I had gotten the names from Rika the other day, so I was able to tell the man who we were looking for. ¡°They are in rooms twenty-two thirteen, twenty-three twenty, thirty-one eighteen, and thirty-two fifteen.¡±


    ¡°O..O..OK.¡± The guard nodded and stepped aside. ¡°I..is there anything that I need to do? Anything that you need from me?¡±


    ¡°Do you have spare keys to the rooms? If not we will be busting them down.¡±


    ¡°Y..y..yes, we have those, please,e this way.¡± Once again it was just those close to me that were entering the building. The others were surrounding the building and guarding the prisoners that were in the truck.


    I followed the guard into the building and over to the central desk. I figured that it was where the staff would work during the day. The man went into an office that was back there, I only stood at the door and watched him as he opened a locked cab and took out the four sets of keys.


    ¡°Th..these are the rooms that you mentioned, right. They were twenty-two thirteen, twenty-three twenty, thirty-one eighteen, and thirty-two fifteen.


    ¡°Yes, that is right.¡± I nodded as took them from him. ¡°We will do this as calmly and peacefully as possible.¡±


    ¡°O..O..OK.¡± He was as scared, as anyone would be in this situation.


    We divided into four groups as we went to the different rooms in question. I ended up at room twenty-three twenty. We were moving stealthily as we made our way through the halls. We didn¡¯t want to wake anyone else up. We needed this to be quick and efficient like it was at the hotel. Not a single other guest came out of their room while we were there. It was perfect.


    I used the radio again to signal the others.


    ¡°On three.¡± My hand was up again. ¡°One.¡± There was an anticipation building in the air. ¡°Two.¡± The others seemed to be holding their breath. ¡°Three.¡± As my hand went down I inserted the key into the lock and opened the door. ¡°Move!¡±


    We entered the rooms with a swiftness that surprised the people on the other side of the rooms. There were two men in the room that I was in, but it wasn¡¯t Clovio and Warrick. So, these men were Aloysius and Gunnar.


    ¡°On your knees.¡± I yelled at the men as Valerian and Rawlynne entered the room behind me.


    ¡°FBI, you¡¯re under arrest.¡± Rawlynne added as the men jumped and almost fell out of bed.


    ¡°Wh..who are you.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you listen, dumbass!?¡± I pointed the gun at him. ¡°She said FBI.¡± I saw his fear and anger rise as I snapped at him. ¡°Get on your knees and put your hands behind your heads.¡± They looked like they wanted to resist, but they saw the guns in their faces.


    ¡°Why are you here?¡± One of the men asked as he red at me. ¡°Why are you arresting us? We haven¡¯t done anything wrong.¡±


    ¡°We know who you are working for.¡± I narrowed my eyes, but he couldn¡¯t see that. I could see his eyes though, and I saw that they went as wide as saucers at that deration. ¡°You¡¯re under arrest, Gunnar and Aloysius Jaegan.¡± I used their realst name, not the ones that they gave to the school. Finally, they looked like they were done resisting. It¡¯s a good thing too, I didn¡¯t want to have to go over there and drag them out of bed. I was doing my best not to hurt anyone. And I had a feeling that if I dragged them out of here, I wouldn¡¯t seed in my no violence thing.


    Finally, the two men got out of bed and dropped to their knees. They were dressed, but not as much as the guys in the hotel. These men were wearing shorts and that was it. It was better than nothing I guess.


    Rawlynne and Valerian moved forward to put the cuffs on the men while I pointed my gun at them.


    ¡°Someone spilled the beans, didn¡¯t they?¡± One of the men was ring at me.


    ¡°We thwarted the mass murder this evening and forced some information out of them. You¡¯re all going down.¡± I was smirking proudly as I told this man that they hadn¡¯t seeded.


    ¡°You won¡¯t stop us. Not all of us. We will keep going. We will destroy the monsters. They will all die.¡± I am going to guess that he was a true zealot of the family and that he couldn¡¯t be saved. Oh well, that was fine with me. As long as we were able to stop them all, that was all that I cared about. Saving innocent people from being killed was our goal here.


    When I left the room, I saw that it was Dietrich and Shawn¡¯s group that had found Clovio and Warrick. They were getting a kick out of scaring Warrick to death. They might one day allow him to be with Alyssa, if she ever takes him back, but they needed this moment. As dads that were not ready to let go of their little girl, they needed this moment of scaring the shit out of the boy that was trying to take her away from them.


    Once again, the apprehensions went smoothly. I returned the keys to the quivering guard on the first floor while the others took the eight of them to the trucks. We would be heading to the castle soon. And once we were there, we could interrogate these people until the sun came up. Hopefully it wouldn¡¯t take that long, but we would see.


    We just needed to change their runes like the others and start talking. Maybe it should be my Little Bunny that talks to them. She was good at this kind of thing. I mean, she is way scarier than she thought that she was.


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 Chapter 957

    Chapter 957: Chapter 142- Trinity ¨C Rebels Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I spent the time that Reece was gone building more cells in the dungeon. We needed to have a ce to put these people when they got here. I was refusing to believe that Reece and the others would fail in this part of their mission. The were going to get all the others, the one sthat ud had told me about. They were going to arrest them, and they were going to bring them back here. And that meant that we would need to have a ce to put them all.


    It didn¡¯t take me all that long to build the addition to the dungeon. I just needed to imagine what it was that I needed in this ce and use the magic inside of me to make it happen. This type of magic was a lot easier when I was here in the castle. And especially considering that I was underground. The magic that was strongest here, under the ground, was alling from the Lei Lines that crossed at this exact point of ournds. The Lei Lines were pure magic that kept the world running with no issues at all. And even more than just that, they powered my castle even when I wasn¡¯t here. They made life smooth for all of us that lived in this area, even as far away as Colorado Springs and Trinity Falls. They were all protected and run by the Lei Lines.


    It took me all of ten minutes to get the rooms made, but I was able to go above and beyond. I was trying to prove that I was a kind and generous person. That was why I was going to make sure that the people that were already in the cells, as well as the others that wereing soon, would have a decent ce to stay.


    The rooms were set up the same, but I altered them all just a little bit. I was making the beds and chairs morefortable. I gave them better lights that weren¡¯t just the super bright ones above the tables. And I gave them simple stall showers. Thatst one was mostly for me though. If I needed toe back down here, I didn¡¯t want these people to stink to high heaven.


    .....


    They had all the items that they needed though, and that was what mattered. I also made several dozen uniforms for the prisoners. This way we would be able to identify them from a distance.


    While we waited for Reece and the others to get back, I had the guards that were still here tell the dozen current prisoners to clean themselves up and to change into their uniforms. They would be unchained for the time being and then they would be allowed to move around their rooms to their heart¡¯s content. They will not, however, be able to escape or end their lives. Their runes were all changed and there was no way for them to activate the death rune on their necks.


    I found those marks strange. I mean, why make it so that yourckeys would be able to kill themselves? Why give them that option? Were the leaders so worried that the lesser family members would betray them if they weren¡¯t able to kill themselves right away? That was just nonsense in my opinion. They didn¡¯t trust anyone in their own group, not even their own killing squad.


    Another twenty minutes or so and all the prisoners had been changed and taken back into the rooms. I didn¡¯t want to force the guards to stay in there at all times though, so I needed to make sure that there was something else to help them. Since the prisoners had a private area for their bathing and bathroom needs, I added cameras to the cells. And of course, I put doors onto the bathroom area. They would have sufficient room in there to change and do their business. But since we needed to monitor the people that were in there, we needed to have thisst level of defense.


    With the cameras in ce, and the prisoners informed about them all, I had the guards go into the newly erected security room. They were able to monitor the cells from there, including sound if it was needed. Hey, you know what, I felt like I was being truly understanding and generous right now. Yes, there were likely those that thought this was going too far, but then they probably wouldn¡¯t know what had happened to my people. They wouldn¡¯t know how dangerous these people were.


    Oh, and the moment that all of those prisoners had been released from their chains so that they could change, the guards fully searched them and found any and all weapons that they had. We had gotten some of them earlier, but there were a few things that had been missed. So, yeah, I think that what I was doing was fully important. I was just trying to protect my people as well as the prisoners.


    After a little while longer, Reece and the others came back. They were marching eighteen people into the dungeons with the other guards. All of them were a little shocked when they saw the changes that I had made, but they didn¡¯t say a word about it at all. They knew that, as the queen, I would do what I thought was best in this situation.


    ¡°All of you are here because you are part of a murderous cult.¡±


    ¡°WE ARE NOT A CULT!¡± A woman next to Shawn screamed as she listened to my words.


    ¡°Yes, you are. You have been brainwashed to do the bidding of a man that has no true motive aside from running the world. That is a cult in my mind.¡± I red at her. ¡°Now, all of you are going to be assigned a cell.¡± I pointed at them. ¡°They are quite a bit morefortable than a lot of prison cells, in my opinion. Not that I have ever been inside of a normal prison cell. There are uniforms for you to put on after cleaning up. However, the cells are being monitored. You will need to change in the bathroom, which has no cameras. All of you that just arrived will have your runes changed before you are given a cell to go into.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°No way!¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t do that.¡±


    ¡°Impossible.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t fucking touch my runes.¡±


    ¡°You bitch!¡±


    ¡°Monster! You are a dirty rotten monster.¡±


    ¡°Animal!¡± They were all at once. The words were all different, but the intent and meaning behind it all was the same. They were mad at me for even thinking about changing their runes. Oh well. It needed to be done, and they would get over it eventually.


    As I finished exining these things to the new prisoners, Reece came over to me. He looked like he needed to talk to me about something. Something that was important.


    ¡°Shawn, Dietrich, can you two see to it that the marks are changed.¡± I called out to them. ¡°I will give you the sight.¡± I waved my hands and saw that their eyes glowed just a little. It was the same magic that I used on myself earlier. They needed to know that the runes were changed, and to do that, they needed to know where the runes were.


    ¡°Trinity,e with me for a moment.¡± Reece took my hand and pulled me along behind him.


    ¡°Sure.¡± I spoke a little sarcastically. I mean, he hadn¡¯t really given me the option of not going with him, so I just pretended like I was agreeing with him. You know, while he dragged me along behind him.


    ¡°I learned something else from Clovio today.¡± He whispered softly when we were in the corner.


    ¡°OK.¡± I made sure not to look at the group. I didn¡¯t want the rest of the Jaegan to know that Clovio was a traitor.


    ¡°There is a woman in their group from the school that is most likely on our side. We need to talk to her and see if she is innocent and if she can be trusted.¡±


    ¡°And you think that he is telling the truth about her?¡± I just needed to make sure before we spoke to her.


    ¡°He has been honest with us since we brought him here. He and Warrick both. As much as I hate to admit it, they are going to be big allies in all of this. We need to protect them, and any of the others that are innocent and are willing to turn against the family. They aren¡¯t all bad.¡± He looked like he was torn. He hated that this boy had tried to y our daughter, but as an Alpha and a king, he knew the importance of looking at the bigger picture. And the bigger picture here was clearly one that had severalyers of paint that we couldn¡¯t see yet. We were making strides and breakthroughs left and right, but we were still just scratching the surface here. There was a lot more that we needed to see, to learn, and to do. And if this girl that Clovio wanted us to protect could help us, then I was willing to do that. Assuming that she was given the clearance by Vincent or Gabriel. They were on their way back down here to help with the interrogations again. We were all so busy at the moment.


    ¡°Alright, Reece.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°Let¡¯s see what we can do. For that girl and all of the others.¡±


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 Chapter 958

    Chapter 958: Chapter 143- Trinity ¨C Rebels Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Shawn and Dietrich changed the runes on all of the men that came from the hotel. They all had the death rune, but only four of them had the other ones that enhanced their abilities. The ones from the university didn¡¯t have the death rune or any of the ones that enhanced them. There was only one rune that was on the college students, and it was on all of the people that we had taken into custody. It was the one that I hadn¡¯t recognized, but Dietrich had told me that it was a rune that meant they were part of the Jaegan family. It was a mark that ric had given his friends when he was leading them all hundreds of years ago. Now though, this mark just meant that they were a descendant of the family, or something like that.


    That mark was changed as well, I didn¡¯t care if it was just one that meant that they were part of ric¡¯s family, I didn¡¯t trust it. And that meant that I needed to change the marks on them. None of the marks that these people had on them when they got here were going to stay on them. That wouldn¡¯t be very safe for us or them.


    The girl that Reece had mentioned, Armina, had her Jaegan mark removed, not changed. And the same happened with Clovio and Warrick. I didn¡¯t want to force her to agree to working with us just because of the rune that we put on her. So instead of changing her rune, which was on her arm, I went to her and personally removed the mark altogether. I made sure that she could see me, my face, the entire time that I removed the mark. And I made sure that she could see that the mark was gone. That she was technically free of the family if she wanted to be.


    I could tell that Armina was scared of me, but she also looked extremely relieved when the mark was removed from her arm. She didn¡¯t know what to think of me, and I was sure that she thought that I was going to punish her for the crimes of her family. Well, people would be punished for the crimes that they personallymitted and nothing else. If she was innocent, she would be protected.


    .....


    Armina, Clovio and Warrick were all put into rooms that were next to each other. In truth, Armina was in the middle of the two men. And that was because I had a n. I was hoping that she was going to be useful to us, but until I found out for sure, I needed to be on my guard around her.


    With all the prisoners now in their cells, waiting for their interrogations, I went into Armina¡¯s cell with Reece, Vincent and Gabriel. She was the first person that I needed to talk to. She was going to be given the chance to turn her back on the family without the prompting of Clovio and Warrick. She needed to do this on her own. I needed to know that it was all of her own volition.


    ¡°Good evening, Armina.¡± I nodded at her as I entered the room. She had been searched, but she had no weapons. She also hadn¡¯t been forced to change into the uniform. ¡°You may go.¡± I looked at the guard and dismissed him. He nodded and left us all in the room.


    ¡°Y..y..you¡¯re Rika¡¯s mom, aren¡¯t you? Y..you are the queen.¡± She was definitely scared.


    ¡°That is correct. I am Rika¡¯s mother and the queen to all the shifters and magic users of the supernatural world.¡± I thought that a simple agreement would be best. She already knew all of this stuff. She had just needed me to confirm it.


    ¡°What are you going to do to me?¡± The fear was practically dripping off of her.


    ¡°Well, Armina.¡± I looked at her as I said her name. I hadn¡¯t asked her for that yet, so it scared her a little when I showed that I knew her already. ¡°Your future all depends on you, really.¡±


    ¡°I..I don¡¯t understand.¡± She was looking all around the room, at me, Reece, Vincent and Gabriel. ¡°What are you all here to do to me?¡±


    ¡°Armina.¡± Vincent stepped forward. ¡°I have something that I need to ask you. And I will know if you are lying to me, so please be honest.¡±


    ¡°I..I am scared.¡± She wasn¡¯t chained to the chair at the moment, so she was stepping away from Vincent as he got closer to her.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be scared. I just need to talk to you.¡± Vincent was speaking calmly to her. ¡°Please, just answer my questions honestly.¡±


    ¡°O..O..OK.¡± She nodded, but the fear was still just as intense.


    ¡°Armina, have you ever killed anyone?¡± Vincent¡¯s first question threw her through a loop.


    ¡°N..no. Never. I couldn¡¯t hurt anyone. I..I was just a spy.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Vincent made a gesture with his hand to tell me that she was telling the truth. ¡°Now, do you believe that we are monsters? Do you believe what your family has said about us?¡± This was going to be a hard question to answer.


    ¡°I..I don¡¯t know. I can¡¯t go against the family without them knowing and killing me for it. B..but with the rune gone, they might not be able to find me now. And I don¡¯t want to go back to them. They are crazy. They say that you are killers and monsters, but they sent out our brothers and sisters to kill people. They are the monsters.¡± She was getting more and more brave. And at the same time, Vincent made that same gesture. She was telling the truth again.


    ¡°Armina.¡± I stepped a little closer to her. ¡°If you want to get away from the family, we can protect you. Will you join us? Will you work with us?¡±


    ¡°I..I don¡¯t know. They wille for me. They will kill me. I know that they will.¡± Tears were streaming down her cheeks now. She was too scared to do anything at all. I didn¡¯t want her to be this scared, but I didn¡¯t know how to make her feel better.


    The only thing that came to mind at the moment, that I thought might help her to trust us, was to show her that she wouldn¡¯t be alone. She needed to see that Clovio and Warrick were on our side as well.


    ¡°Armina, I need you to talk to someone else. Please do not be scared. I am going to use magic right now.¡±


    ¡°M..magic?¡± Her eyes went wide at the word. ¡°So, the rumors were true?¡±


    ¡°Just rx. I am not going to do anything to you.¡± I turned away from her and looked at the wall to the left. That was where Clovio was. Almost immediately after that, while my magic was still taking effect, I looked at the other wall.


    What I had done here was to create doors into the walls. They were like my magical portal doors, but a lot more simple. They just needed to connect two rooms and allow people to move from one room to the next.


    ¡°What is this?¡± Armina was looking around warily.


    ¡°Armina?¡± Clovio called out in relief when he saw her. ¡°I am so happy that you are OK.¡± I saw that he and Warrick both ran to her and hugged her in relieved happiness.


    ¡°You have agreed to join us, Armina. You are going to help us fight the family.¡±


    ¡°F..f..fight the family? S..so you two are against them as well?¡± She was relieved. ¡°I knew that we talked about it before, but I didn¡¯t think that you were going to turn against them like this.¡± Armina was the most shocked right now. She was learning things that she had never thought was possible.


    ¡°We want out, Armina. And we knew that you did too. Th..that was why I told King Reece about you. I wanted him to keep you safe. I wanted you to have a choice. If you renounce the family, then they will protect you. We will all be safe.¡±


    ¡°I do.¡± Armina¡¯s words were hurried and filled with passion. ¡°I don¡¯t want to be with them, on that side. I want to live my own life. I want to be free.¡±


    ¡°She is telling the truth.¡± Vincent smiled.


    ¡°I know.¡± I could tell that even without Vincent¡¯s confirmation. She was too obviously relieved at the prospect of getting away from the family. ¡°Armina, you have a chance to side with us and work against your family. We will protect you and make sure that you are not harmed by them ever again.¡±


    ¡°Please. I just want to be free of them. I want to live a life that isn¡¯t ruled by them and their weird rules.¡± Her tears, once caused by fear, were now from relief. I was happy that I was able to offer this salvation to her and the others. Any of them that turned against this family would be offered safety with us.


    ¡°Vincent, please take the three of them upstairs to one of the apartments. See to it that they are taken care of. They are to be protected and treated well. I will speak with them againter.¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± He was the one that spoke to Armina earlier, so I thought that she might trust him the most right now.


    ¡°Reece, Gabriel, we need to finish the interrogations. And don¡¯t forget to see if any of them will turn against the family.¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± Gabriel nodded.


    ¡°Offer clemency, got it.¡± Reece nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±


    Our night wasn¡¯t over yet. We still had so much to do. It wasn¡¯t as stressful though, and that was a good thing.


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 Chapter 959

    Chapter 959: Chapter 144- Trinity ¨C Rebels Part 3 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    There were seventeen people that we needed to interview. That was more than there had been earlier in the night. And it was already starting to get reallyte. Or was that early? It was going to be getting light out soon. the kids would be waking up soon. Well, not as soon, since they weren¡¯t going to school yet. This stuff wasn¡¯t over yet, so I couldn¡¯t risk their safety. I needed to make sure that the kids were safe at all times right now. I don¡¯t know if or when those higher ups would retaliate against us for taking their people from them. I was sure that they would though. And that was why I needed to find them first.


    I had let some of the others go to sleep a long time ago. We were going to need some of them in the morning when the rest of us were all dead tired from working all night. At the moment, it was just me, Reece, Shawn, Dietrich, Gabriel and Trevor. The six of us and the guards, that is. We were dividing up the interviews so that we would all have three. And I technically interviewed Armina, so she counted as my third one. I think that the others were trying to prove themselves. I was the only one that had gotten information from the other prisoners, so now they wanted to be the ones that learned something. They wanted, in a small way, to show me up. It would make them feel better about themselves.


    The next person that I was to interview was a man that was named Gustav. He was with the men that were at the hotel. He wasn¡¯t as stony faced as some of the others when I went into the room. In fact, he was so scared that he nearly screamed at the sight of me.


    ¡°W..w..what are you going to do to me?¡± He was almost crying. ¡°You killed the others, didn¡¯t you? ud and them, they¡¯re dead. I just know that they are. Their marks have stopped reporting.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Their marks?¡± I eyed him curiously as I sat at the table. ¡°What marks are you referring to? Would that be the Jaegan mark that was on all of you?¡±


    ¡°YES!¡± He practically screamed at me. ¡°They stopped transmitting, so I know that you had to have killed them.¡± He was so scared and worried about his family. I know that he thought that we were killing them all, and that I was here with him meant that it was his turn to die.


    ¡°Gustav, you have nothing to worry about. Would it help you if I showed you the others? To prove to you that they are still alive? We are not out to hurt any of you. We just want your family to stop killing our people. Our people, our children, they have been killed by your family. And for no reason at all. They had done nothing to your family, they were innocent, and now they will never get the chance to live their lives. Your friend or cousin, or whatever he is to you, ud, he didn¡¯t just ritualistically kill a girl in California, he raped her as well. He tormented her in a way that no one should have ever done to another person. That was horrible. And yet ud is in the other room, awaiting his official arrest by the FBI so that he can be taken to his new prison cell. He will be tried by a jury and punished for his crimes. He will spend the rest of his days in prison. I do not n to kill any of your family. Not unless they attack me. Or if one of you attacks one of my people in front of me. I do not have any intentions of harming any of you. I want the killing and the heartache to end. Not to cause more of it.¡± I was doing my best to exin all of this to him, but I didn¡¯t know if I was getting through to him.


    ¡°I..I..I don¡¯t know what to believe.¡± He truly looked conflicted.


    ¡°Come here, Gustav. I will show you where the others are. Then we cane back here and talk.¡± His eyes went wide, but he nodded.


    ¡°I..I need to know that they are alive. I can¡¯t let them all be dead. I..I..I wouldn¡¯t forgive myself if I knew that I had a chance to save one of them.¡±


    ¡°Come on then.¡± I beckoned him toward me. He didn¡¯t have a weapon on him, so I wasn¡¯t worried that he would hurt me. Plus, if I showed that I trusted him, it would make him trust me even more.


    I took Gustav to the hall and down toward the room that I knew ud was in. He was the one that I had interviewed earlier, so I knew that he was safe and unharmed. When I opened the door, I saw that he had fallen asleep while sitting in the chair. He wasn¡¯t chained to it anymore, but he was still sitting there. He even had a big puddle of drool forming beneath him. It was pretty much all the proof that Gustav needed. Someone that he thought was dead was here and very much alive.


    ¡°Y..you didn¡¯t even hurt him.¡± He looked at the man¡¯s face and saw that he didn¡¯t have a scratch or bruise anywhere to be seen. ¡°He is really OK.¡± The look on his face when he turned to look at me was one filled with aww and confusion. ¡°But I sensed that he had died. His mark was gone.¡±


    ¡°If you¡¯re referring to the Jaegan mark, I changed it. I didn¡¯t know what it did, and I didn¡¯t want anyone that we had arrested to take their own lives. I saw what Angus did in California, and I didn¡¯t want that to happen again.¡±


    ¡°S..so you didn¡¯t kill Angus?¡± I could tell that Gustav had thought that we had killed the man without even giving him a chance to live.


    ¡°No, Gustav, we didn¡¯t kill him. And I didn¡¯t want anyone else to do what he did.¡±


    ¡°I just don¡¯t understand this.¡± I took him by the arm as he started to contemte these things. ¡°We were told that you would kill us all. We were told that you had no mercy for us.¡±


    ¡°Well, Gustav, you were lied to. And it seems to me that the only ones that have no mercy are the ones that told you to kill my people without provocation.¡±


    ¡°You are right.¡±


    Gustav started to sob at that moment. Large, wailing sobs that were apanied by fat tears of despair. The moment that we were back in his cell, he copsed to the floor and started to rock back and forth. He was clearly not doing well at all.


    ¡°Wh..what have I done?¡±


    ¡°Gustav, have you killed any of my people?¡± I needed to know to what extent that he was involved in the crimes. I needed to know how much I could use him here.


    ¡°N..no. I never killed anyone. I..I..I was their watcher. I was supposed to keep an eye on them. That is why I had the eye rune. I was supposed to be able to see where they were at all times.¡±


    ¡°Do others have that rune?¡± I needed to know if I had led the elders in the family right to my door.


    ¡°Th..they do. B..but I think that this ce messes with the runes. I stopped sensing them all when they were here. I can¡¯t even sense the administration anymore. It is like they are gonepletely. But I know that they aren¡¯t. Th..there is just something about this ce. I can¡¯t sense it at all.¡± He was looking around the room like it was something that was in here with him.


    ¡°It¡¯s just magic, Gustav. I have done nothing to any of your family. This ce is filled with a lot of very old and very powerful magic.¡±


    ¡°I..I think that I can see that.¡± He was still crying, but he was starting to talk normally again.


    ¡°I need to get a friend of mine. I am sorry, but I need him to tell me if you are telling me the truth. If you haven¡¯t hurt anyone, Gustav, then we can talk about something else.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Just wait for a moment.¡± I held up a hand and silenced him. ¡°I will be right back.¡±


    I left the room in a hurry and saw that Gabriel was just heading into his second interview. I needed to stop him so that I would be able to know if Gustav was telling me the truth.


    ¡°Gabriel?¡± I called out to him. ¡°I need a favor.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± He looked a little wary, but came over in a hurry. After making sure that the door to the cell was closed tightly. ¡°What is it?¡± He asked me with his left eyebrow raised.


    ¡°I need to know if this guy is telling me the truth. I think I might be able to crack him, but I need to know if I can trust him.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± He nodded and finally smiled. ¡°Let¡¯s go find out. But you owe me.¡± He grinned.


    ¡°Fine.¡± Iughed at him. ¡°You can have myst interview if you want it. I am sure that I will have my hands busy here.¡±


    ¡°Now you¡¯re just passing your work off on me.¡± Heughed again.


    ¡°You don¡¯t want it?¡± I questioned him.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t say that.¡± I knew that he would want to interview them. He was the type of person that always wanted to gather information. He was like a sponge that way.


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 Chapter 960

    Chapter 960: Chapter 145- Trinity ¨C Rebels Part 4 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Gabriel and I went into the room that I had been talking to Gustav in. He was still sitting on the floor and rocking from side to side.


    ¡°Dang Trinity, I didn¡¯t think that you meant you were going topletely break him mentally. I thought that cracking him meant that he was going to spill the beans.¡± I wanted tough. Hearing Gabriel sound like he was Shane or something, that was enough to make anyone want tough. And then to instantly tell him to stop.


    ¡°I am not going to destroy his mind or anything. He is just having a hard time with something that he learned recently. I am going to offer him sce, but I need to know whether he is telling me the truth or not.¡±


    ¡°OK, not a problem.¡± Gabriel looked at the man with a calm face.


    .....


    ¡°Gustav.¡± I called out to him, and he instantly looked at me. ¡°This is my friend Gabriel. He has been blessed by the gods and has a special ability. He knows when someone is lying to them and whether their intentions are for or against someone.¡±


    ¡°He can detect a spy or a traitor?¡± He sounded worried.


    ¡°In a way, yes.¡± There was no way for me to deny it without lying to him.


    ¡°I just want to know if you can be trusted, Gustav.¡± Gabriel¡¯s soft voice started to sooth the man. Gustav didn¡¯t speak in response, but he nodded at him and rose to his feet. I guess he was done looking like a broken man on the floor.


    ¡°I am going to ask you this question again, Gustav.¡± I approached him cautiously. ¡°Have you ever killed anyone? One of my people or anyone else?¡±


    ¡°No. I have never hurt anyone. But I have watched over the men that did kill them, and that makes me just as guilty, doesn¡¯t it?¡± He was on the verge of tears again. ¡°I..I did so many bad things. I am a horrible person.¡±


    ¡°One more question Gustav, if you were given a chance to redeem yourself, to help us stop the murders and turn your back on the Jaegan, would you do it?¡±


    I could literally see the man¡¯s eyes go wide. I could hear it too. And the slow, startled gasp that he sucked in like he wasn¡¯t able to process the information at first. It was all a little overwhelming for me. Aplete and total sensory overload for a werewolf.


    ¡°I..I don¡¯t know.¡± He was still in shock. ¡°I..I have not hurt anyone, and I don¡¯t want to. B..but if they find out about this they will kill me. I..I don¡¯t want to die.¡±


    ¡°We will protect you, Gustav. We are protecting some of the others as well. We will protect you too.¡±


    ¡°I..is that even possible?¡± He was not ready to ept it.


    ¡°Yes, Gustav, it is.¡± I gave him my most sincere and honest tone of voice.


    ¡°Why, though? Why would you do that? Why protect me?¡±


    ¡°You haven¡¯t killed my people.¡± I looked at Gabriel for confirmation. He hadn¡¯t told me that it was a lie, so I guessed that it was true. ¡°And you don¡¯t want to hurt people. That means that you are not safe with your family. And I will protect you from them.¡±


    ¡°You are not what we were taught that you were, Queen Trinity. You are not the monster that they say that you are.¡± I could see the relief in him now.


    ¡°I know, Gustav. I do not know why they think these things about me. My people are not monsters. We live with humans every day, if we hurt them for no reason, we would have the police after us at all times.¡±


    ¡°Thank you. I..I will work with you.¡±


    ¡°And with that, I will take my leave.¡± Gabriel confirmed that the man was telling me the truth. ¡°I have a few more interviews to conduct. I will see youter, Trinity.¡± As he walked out of the room, I saw that Gustav was worried about him.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, he gave you his seal of approval and went back to work. That was all.¡±


    ¡°O..oh.¡±


    ¡°Now, Gustav, I need you to tell me where the leaders of your family are. Not so that I can hurt them, but so that we can arrest them.¡±


    ¡°I..I understand.¡± He nodded at me. ¡°Th..they need to pay for what they have done, but I am worried that you will not be strong enough to fight them.¡±


    ¡°I am sure that we can handle it, Gustav. I have a lot of people to help us.¡± I needed to put this man¡¯s mind at ease.


    ¡°I do hope so. They have some reinforcements that I have not seen, but I know that they are powerful.¡±


    ¡°We will be careful, Gustav. I promise that we will.¡± I was using his name to put him at ease. It was showing that I wasfortable and familiar with him, and I was hoping that he was receptive of it.


    ¡°Th..they are in the mountains. I do not know the exact location, but I know that they are in a luxury cabin in the woods. I could sense it and find it if I needed to, but not while I am in here. Your magic is blocking my rune.¡±


    ¡°It might have been that this rune was changed to another one as well.¡± I didn¡¯t want to break him here, but Shawn and Dietrich might have modified this rune for him. And then he wouldn¡¯t be able to sense them ever again.


    ¡°No. This rune has been etched onto my eyes. Quite literally. They put the runes onto my eyes, and I will never be able to lose it. It only works for finding the Jaegan family rune, though. It is useless for everything else.¡± He looked so sad at that moment. I didn¡¯t me him though. I mean, seriously, they carved a rune onto this man¡¯s eyes. How in the hell did they even do that?


    ¡°Well, I am sorry that they did that to you, Gustav. That sounds intensely painful and traumatic.¡± That was pure honesty from me just then. I would literally want to beat someone if they put a knife or magic pencil like this to my eye. They would see just how monstrous that I could be.


    ¡°Thank you, Queen Trinity. I..I..I was a little boy when it happened. Just seven years old at the time because I was told I had a good eye when it came to finding things. Thankfully, I do not remember the pain. It is not as hard on me as it was at the time. I remember my fear from that time, but not the pain.¡±


    ¡°They won¡¯t hurt you again, Gustav.¡± I put my hand on his shoulder. ¡°You and the others will be safe here. We will take care of you. All of you will be free from them forever. You can live your own life. You will have the chance to go anywhere that you want to after this is all over.¡±


    ¡°What about my crimes?¡± He was still hung up on that. He really thought that he needed to be punished for not stopping something. That would have cost him his life though, so that wasn¡¯t an option for him.


    ¡°Do not worry about that. I will take care of everything.¡± I urged him to follow me. ¡°Come on. Let¡¯s go.¡±


    ¡°Go? Go where?¡± He was scared again. He probably thought that he was going to another cell.


    ¡°I am going to take you to see the others. The ones that want to be free of the Jaegan. You will all be protected by us. And I will see to it that you have the future and a life that you want.¡±


    I created a door in the room to take me to where Clovio, Warrick and Armina were. I didn¡¯t know which apartment that Vincent had put them in, so I needed to use magic to do this.


    ¡°What is that?¡± Understandably, the door scared Gustav as it appeared out of nowhere.


    ¡°I used magic to make a door. This will take us to the ce that the others are. You won¡¯t be a prisoner in a cell like this. However, I will ask that you not leave the castle for the time being. I want to make sure that the others don¡¯t find you. You will be free to go once this is all over.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that this could be worse than growing up in the orphanage.¡± He hung his head in shame. ¡°We were all rted, but we never knew how. Parents were not allowed to raise their own kids. They were all raised in the orphanage, no questions asked.¡±


    ¡°That is horrible.¡± It truly was.


    ¡°It was our life.¡± He was exining this as he walked through the door.


    ¡°And it was how we learned to survive.¡± Clovio added as he looked at Gustav. ¡°Hello Gus.¡± They clearly knew each other. ¡°I didn¡¯t know that you were in town.¡±


    ¡°We are all in town.¡± Gustav sounded ominous at that moment. ¡°But I want to be away from the family.¡±


    ¡°Us too.¡± Armina smiled at him. ¡°Are you staying here with us?¡±


    ¡°Y..yes.¡± He nodded at her in reply.


    ¡°That¡¯s good. We will show you around. Thank you, Queen Trinity. Thank you for saving another one of my family members.¡±


    ¡°I want to help you all see reason, Clovio.¡± I told him after his thanks. ¡°I don¡¯t think that I can help them all though. Some are just beyond reasoning.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± He looked heartbroken. ¡°Some are better than none though. So, thank you.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re wee.¡± I nodded at him before waving to them. It was time for me to return to the others. There was still more work for us to do.


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 Chapter 961

    Chapter 961: Chapter 146- Trinity ¨C One Step Closer Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After I left Gustav in the apartment with the others, I needed to take a break. I needed to think. There had been so much that had happened tonight. There had been a lot that we learned about these people, but there were still a lot of questions that were as of yet unanswered.


    Why did these people think that we were monsters? Why did they want us dead? What have we ever done to them? And what the hell was the matter with all of them?


    In truth, there was so much about these people that didn¡¯t make sense. We needed to wait until after these interrogations were over and then talk to Clovio, Warrick, Gustav and Armina again. We needed to pick their brains for anything and everything that this family might think about us. What was it that was really going on here? What could we do to end this as peacefully as possible? How could we protect the world while not bing the barbaric monsters that the Jaegans thought that we were. Damn this was fucking hard as hell.


    Right now, I just need some coffee. I need to get something strong and caffeinated to wake me up. And I knew that Reece and the others needed some of it too.


    .....


    ¡°Trinity?¡± Vincent called out as he saw me walking through the hall near the apartment. I had guessed that he was on his way back to the dungeon, but I saw that I had been wrong, ¡°Why are you over here?¡± He looked confused when he saw me.


    ¡°Oh, I brought another member of the Jaegan up here. He was verified by Gabriel, so I have allowed him to seek asylum here.¡± I exined it to him as I started to walk toward the dungeon again. ¡°Where did you get off to? I thought you went back downstairs.¡± I decided to enquire about where he had been.


    ¡°I went to get a maid to take care of the Jaegans. You wanted them cared for, so I made sure of that.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± He was always so thorough when he did his job. ¡°I need some coffee. And I am sure that the others do too. Would you like to help me get some?¡± I yawned as I asked him that.


    ¡°Yeah, I think we all need some. Maybe something with about a hundred shots of espresso each. Ha ha ha.¡± Heughed at his own joke.


    ¡°Ha ha ha. Sounds about right.¡± Iughed and yawned again. ¡°I would settle for just four or five shots of espresso though. I need something that will be quick with waking me up.¡± I stifled the yawn this time, but I still couldn¡¯t hide the fact that I was exhausted.


    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s get some coffee for you and the others. We still have a lot of work to do.¡±


    Together Vincent and I went to the kitchen to get some coffee. I was d that there was some very sophisticated coffee technology in my home. Not only that, but there had been a lot of advancement in coffee makers since I became an adult. I often don¡¯t think about the changes that I have seen in technology in my life, but seeing that I can make a full on coffee house drink at home in a matter of seconds, I think that this just proves science is magic and technology will leave us all in the dust very soon.


    Vincent and I made veryrge coffees for the seven of us. We all needed to have something to give us a pick me up while we worked out what was happening all around us. I actually made two coffees for myself. This was for two reasons really. One was so that there were an even number of drinks to be carried back to the dungeons. And the next was because I was so tired that I needed to have two.


    I opened a door to the dungeon with magic and made it a lot easier to get back down there. Not only that, but it made it so that the coffees were still hot. Which was a good thing because the others were waiting for us in the hall.


    The moment that we stepped through the door, Reece and the others swarmed us for their caffeine.


    ¡°AHH! I needed this.¡± Reece eximed after taking a huge gulp of the coffee. ¡°This is so good and just hits the spot.¡±


    ¡°We were wondering where you ran off to.¡± Trevor joked as he gulped his coffee. ¡°Haahhh, that is hot but oh so good.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Trinity.¡± Shawn sighed the words after arge drink of his coffee.


    ¡°You¡¯re wee. I needed some coffee too, so I deiced to get it beforeing back here.¡± I could tell that they were all tired and ready for this night to be over. It wasn¡¯t over though, not by a long shot. And aside from a nap, none of us were going to get any sleep any time soon.


    ¡°Where did you go?¡± Reece asked as he drained thest of his coffee. He downed it in four veryrge drinks.


    ¡°I took Gustav to the apartment with Armina and the others. He is another one that we can use to fight against these people.¡±


    ¡°That is good.¡± Gabriel nodded as he sipped his drink. ¡°I am d that I was able to help with him.¡±


    ¡°Did any of you learn anything?¡± I nursed the first coffee while Reece stole my second one. He and I were both in need of that wakey wakey worky juice, so I didn¡¯t mind letting him borrow it. I was going to have some of it too, so he better not drink it as quickly as he did the other one.


    ¡°I know that the administration is in the mountains, but not where.¡± Reece¡¯s words came immediately.


    ¡°I know that there is a small army with them, but not who or what the army is.¡± Dietrich added.


    ¡°I know that the nannies from ric¡¯s journal are still with the family, so they are clearly not human.¡± Shawn¡¯s eyes were narrowed as he tried to think about the possibilities.


    ¡°If they aren¡¯t human, then that makes them supernatural beings like us, right?¡± Trevor looked confused. ¡°Why would people like us send this family to try and kill all of us?¡±


    ¡°Could it be a ploy to kill Trinity?¡± Reece¡¯s words made no sense to me.


    ¡°Huh?¡± I tilted my head as I just red at him. ¡°How do you get that at all? They have not tried to kill me once. Yes, I know that they mentioned that they were going to kill me, but no one has ever tried. Well, this family hasn¡¯t. I have had a lot of people try to kill me over the years, but this just doesn¡¯t seem like that.¡±


    ¡°Hear me out.¡± Reece set the cup down and started to talk with his hands. ¡°These people want to rule the world. That is what the mission statements have said, right? And they have openly talked about killing you, the queen. What if they are someone that wants to take over? What if they are someone that wants your throne? They could be using this already fragile family to create an opening for them to slip in and be the new queen.¡± He was either too tired or just didn¡¯t know how impossible that scenario was.


    ¡°Reece, these people have been with the Jaegan family for hundreds of years, long before I was born. If that was their goal, then what were they doing before that?¡± I was shaking my head as I thought about it. ¡°No. I am guessing that this person isn¡¯t a supernatural being. They are not one of us.¡± There was just no way in hell that these people would be one of us. How could they be? How could they possibly do what they were doing if they were a werewolf, a vampire, a feline, a bear shifter, a merfolk, a warlock, a fae? How could they try to perform genocide if they were in fact one of the people that they imed to hate so much?


    Then again, I seem to recall the history of a man that waspletely racist and tried to eliminate what he said was an inferior race from the world. His ideal person fit a certain description that he himself did not. And not only that, but most of the people in his political party didn¡¯t fit that standard either. So, I guess that there is plenty of evidence in history about how someone would want to kill an entire group of people, their own people, based on nothing more than a skewed view of the world and possibly one or more things that were not right with them in the mind.


    Still, whether this was the case or not wasn¡¯t the point. I didn¡¯t care if this person was a part of my kingdom or not. I didn¡¯t care if they were an alien that crashnded on this long ago and has been stuck here for centuries and are now so bored that they are trying to y ruler of the world. Whoever they are, they are going to find that it was the beginning of the end when they decided to attack my people. And by that I mean that it was the beginning of their end. Now they were going to have to answer to me and the others. Now they were going to find out what happened when you mess with the Goddess Queen Trinity Gray.


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 Chapter 962

    Chapter 962: Chapter 147- Trinity ¨C One Step Closer Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Everyone was still thinking about what I said as the seconds ticked by. I knew that they had to be agreeing with me. Even if at this point I didn¡¯t know what they were, I was still betting that they were, in fact, not one of my people. And I was willing to defend that theory to the end. I don¡¯t know why I thought this, I just did. And it was a strong feeling at that.


    ¡°Like I said, Reece, whoever that nanny is, or was, they are not one of us.¡±


    ¡°How can you be so sure of that, Trinity?¡± Reece was not convinced yet. ¡°They have been alive for hundreds of years. That is not possible for a human. And if they aren¡¯t a human, that means that they are one of us.¡±


    ¡°I agree.¡± Trevor added in defense of his friend¡¯s words. ¡°There are only two types of people in this world. There are humans and there are supernatural beings. They have to be one or the other.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Well, let¡¯s define a supernatural being.¡± Gabriel set aside his cup and walked over to where Reece was. This was a prime spot to see everyone in the group. ¡°Our information defines a supernatural being as either being created or born from the gods. The vampires were born from Selene¡¯s love for her own beauty and darkness; she wanted others to admire her and converted them to her followers. After she created the race though, she realized that she had been wrong to do so and decided to lead them properly. She ended up being the best mother that the vampires could have asked for, at least ording to legend. The magic users were born from the marriage of Thoth and Hekate. The first of the witches and warlocks were their children. As time went on, there were different variations of these children that evolved from the originals until we ended up with the variety that we have now. The animal shifters were born for Nehalennia¡¯s love for various animals, especially the wolves. She didn¡¯t force her followers to be these beast people, but she allowed them to take on the role if they chose it for themselves. The sea shifters were born from Poseidon¡¯s desire for a world in the water so that he would not have to leave the water for the contact of people. He learned the method of making these people from his former lover and longtime friend, Nehalennia. When he grew bored of hismunity he, in turn, gifted it to her. The Fae were born from the Goddess Danu¡¯s love for nature and desire for children. She had found no man that she thought was capable of making her happy so she started her family with the earth itself.¡±


    Gabriel was so knowledgeable about all of this. There was so much that we could all learn from him, or rather the Sentinel¡¯s archives. Still, this wasn¡¯t anything that I hadn¡¯t known already. So, I just let him continue.


    ¡°The supernatural beings that we know of today were all originally born or created by the gods. Over the years the gods have had less and less involvement until Trinity came along, but they were still the reason that we were all created. Even the demons such as Alexio and Rudy were created by the gods to serve a purpose.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± I processed what he was saying, my memories being refreshed as much as they possibly could be. ¡°So, if these people are not supernatural beings like we are, what are the other possibilities for what they are?¡± I didn¡¯t know what to think about this situation. I think that I was getting too tired for all of this.


    ¡°Could there be anything else? Like I said, there are only two types of people in this world.¡± Trevor was still holding firm to his view.


    ¡°Well, you are both right and wrong, Trevor. There are only two types of beings that are supposed to be on this ne of existence. However, there are other nes of existence, as you very well know. There is the celestial realm, which is where the gods live. There is the underworld, which is where the souls of the dead go. And there are others that lie in between them in a sort of crevice. It is possible that there are beings that we could never fathom living in those other realms or nes. We have no idea who or what these people are, and until we meet them ourselves, I fear that we will never know.¡±


    ¡°That isforting.¡± Vincent shook his head as he set aside his cup. ¡°So, what you¡¯re saying here is that we¡¯re no closer to where we were when we started this whole night?¡±


    ¡°That is not what I am saying at all.¡± Gabriel smiled at him and tried to show that all was not lost. ¡°We have learned some good information from these people. We know that they have an army that they n to send against us. We know that the person pulling the strings in the background is not human. We know that these people think that killing Trinity will kill all of us, or so they have told their zealots. We know that these people use ancient runes to perform magic, which tells me that they cannot use magic on their own. We know that they want to rule the world. And that whoever these people are, they are hiding in the mountains in a cabin with the others. Oh, and we have sessfully convinced four of their people to join our side of this fight. They will still have some valuable information for us, and I am sure that once we talk to them more, we will learn a great deal more.¡±


    ¡°You know something, Gabriel?¡± I saw that my loving and adorable Fido was grinning at Gabriel as he posed this yful sounding question. I didn¡¯t know what to expect, but it made me smile as well. I just couldn¡¯t help it. I had a feeling that something good wasing.


    ¡°What is that, Reece?¡± Gabriel seemed to sense the same thing that I did. His face had lit up and he was waiting for the response that was going to break all the tension in the room.


    ¡°I just somehow never seem to get used to that part of you.¡± OK, Reece was just setting it up, I guess. What was it that he still had up his sleeve?


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you mean. What part of me do you need to get used to?¡±


    ¡°You are a walking encyclopedia sometimes. I often forget that you are one of us and not some book with legs. If this was a TV show, I would tell them to cast you as a robot that was shaped like a giant book.¡± Well, it wasn¡¯t the zinger that I was expecting, but I guess that it was funny. And that we were all quite exhausted.


    ¡°Well, Reece, I am not sure if anyone would want to watch a TV show based on our lives.¡± Gabriel wasn¡¯t missing a beat here. He kept rolling right on with Reece¡¯s train of thought.


    ¡°And why is that?¡± Reece crossed his arms and raised his brow at the encyclopedia man.


    ¡°They would get sick of seeing you go from angry overprotective dad to sappy love struck puppy. The ratings would drop, and we would be cancelled in minutes.¡± This brought theughter that everyone was expecting. Even Reece wasughing hysterically.


    ¡°Ha ha ha. Laugh it up, Gabriel.¡± He pretended to be offended. ¡°You are just as sickeningly sweet with Roisin as the rest of us.¡±


    ¡°I am so d that I am not part of that category.¡± Dietrich grinned and took Shawn¡¯s hand.


    ¡°REALLY!?¡± Reece, Trevor, Vincent and Gabriel all yelled at the same time.


    ¡°You literally call him every sweet name that you can, Dietrich. And you called him your cake! You¡¯re fucking cake! What is sweeter than cake?¡±


    ¡°Thising from a man that calls his wife a bunny!¡± Shawnughed back.


    It took about five minutes for us all to stopughing and to stop poking fun at each other. This was either a side effect of the caffeine or theck of sleep. Possibly both.


    Once we were allposed again though, we decided that we would take a short nap and then get some breakfast before the day officially began. We all recognized that, even with all the progress we had made, we were still too out of it to work properly.


    Reece and I crawled into the bed without even undressing first. We were so exhausted that it was a miracle that we made it to the bed before we copsed. This was going to be a long day for us, but at least a little bit of sleep was better than nothing.


    And I will admit, falling asleep next to Reece, with his arm wrapped protectively around me, was an amazing feeling. I loved every second of it. Still, I didn¡¯t miss the irony of the moment and the conversation that we had all just had recently. We were talking about how lovey dovey and sweet that Reece was with me and here he is holding me in his sleep like I was his living stuffed animal, quite literally his Little Bunny.


    I drifted off to sleep with a slight chuckle. I was able to find the humor in this, and I knew that he would as well.


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 Chapter 963

    Chapter 963: Chapter 148- Talia ¨C Another Nightmare Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    The other day, I told my parents about the nightmare that I had. That nightmare was another vision, and this time I wasn¡¯t going to let my friends get hurt. I couldn¡¯t bear the knowledge of me being the reason that Ada, Leslie, Senna, Melissa and Jackie died. I needed to save them, even if the only thing that I could do about it was to tell someone what it was that I had seen. I needed them to know that I was trying my best to help them. That I was going to be able to stop this horrifically horrifying event from happening.


    I didn¡¯t feel like I had been doing much about it though. I was basically just waiting around to see if they were safe. And I wouldn¡¯t know about that until the morning. I wouldn¡¯t find out from my parents, Lex, Rudy, or anyone until I had slept and woke up in the morning. The only problem is I wasn¡¯t able to sleep.


    It usually took me a long time to fall asleep. I hadn¡¯t sought help for it, not that I had I been officially diagnosed, but I was sure that I had a form of insomnia. The only problem is, mine wasn¡¯t something that I could take medicine for.


    In my case, I was usually gued by the world. That was the only kind way for me to put it. I was usually upte into the night as I pushed away all the unwanted visitors that came to see me. And it¡¯s not like they actually came to see me, more like they sensed that someone was near that could see and understand them.


    .....


    There were a few things about the dead that I knew for certain. They were usually distraught. And they were usually lonely. No one liked to feel unseen and unheard, not when they were alive or dead.


    However, even though I had this problem I was used to it by now, so I knew that this wasn¡¯t the reason that I was having such a hard time sleeping. I was usually able to get to sleep between one and two in the morning. Three at thetest when I am dealing with a particrly stubborn soul or something like that. Tonight though, that wasn¡¯t the issue. And that was why it was about four in the morning and I was still pacing the room like I was wired with caffeine or something.


    I just couldn¡¯t calm down right now. And that was because I needed to know what happened. And that just led me back to the beginning. I knew that no one was going to tell me what had happened until it was the morning. Well, the morning wasn¡¯t getting here fast enough.


    I had already resigned myself to not sleeping at all. I knew that the likelihood of me dozing off was about one millionth of a percent. And I couldn¡¯t sit still long enough to do anything. I couldn¡¯t draw, y music, do my homework, read a book, nothing at all. I was way too antsy about it all.


    ¡°UUUGGGHHH!¡± I screamed in frustration as I threw myself on top of my bed for a moment. I was taking a break and hoping that I would fall asleep. I wasn¡¯t hopeful though. ¡°If I sleep then time will feel like it just went by in a sh. Come on! I need to sleep! Sleep! SLEEP!¡±


    I was pressing my hands to my eyes at the moment. Forcing out all the light that was streaming in through the window. It was closed, of course, but the curtains weren¡¯t, and that meant that I could see the mountains and the sky in the distance. It was a lovely view that I had burned permanently into my mind. I would always remember this view, and that was why I was able to see it perfectly, even with my eyes shut and my hands pressing against my eyelids.


    ¡°SLEEP!¡± I growled the word at myself again and surprisingly, I started to feel tired. Very tired.


    This wasn¡¯t right. I was instantly so tired that I was unable to open my eyes. It was like something was pulling me into sleep with brute force. And even though I was wanting to sleep, I was scared of what was happening to me. This was not normal. I didn¡¯t like it. I didn¡¯t want to have this happen to me. I know that I asked for sleep, I begged for it really, but I didn¡¯t want this kind of sleep.


    ¡°Th..this feels like..¡± I was unable to finish my sentence before the dream took me. I was going to say that it felt like a vision. Something that was powerful and frightening. I didn¡¯t want to have a vision right now. I didn¡¯t want to be stuck in a dream that was likely going to show me more people that I loved getting hurt.


    Myst conscious thought before the dream, or vision, started, does that mean my parents must have failed? If there was another vision, then that must mean that my parents hadn¡¯t stopped the girls from being killed. I shed a tear as I fell asleep. The tear was for my lost friends and ssmates. They didn¡¯t deserve to die like that.


    Well, I was right. This was going to be another vision. It had the same feel to it. I was just suddenly standing somewhere as I tried to find out what was going on. This ce was familiar though. I knew where I was. I was at home. Well, not home home, but close to it.


    I wasn¡¯t in the royal tower, nor was I in the castle. But I was on the grounds. I was just in the back part of the property that went on for so long until you got to the outskirts of Trinity Falls. This was all part of thend that I grew up with. I would run in this area when I was little. I would run around and train in different things. I remember hiding from Lex when I was seven and making him find me. He knew where I was every single time, but he would pretend that he was having trouble locating me. That was nice of him and all, but I told him that I would never learn if he coddled me like that and I wanted him to urately find me and give me the chance to improve my skills and not my self-esteem. He had agreed with me that he was pretending and agreed that he would never do that for me again. And he hasn¡¯t.


    ¡°HELLO!¡± I called out in the vision. I knew that no one was able to hear me in them. They never have before anyway. Still, I called out to them just to be on the safe side. You never know when one of the visions was going to be different than the one before it. I mean, I have only had two visions before this one and they were both so profoundly different. Like how that man had managed to grab me in the second one. He said that he had known that I had been there the first time too, and that was news to me. I didn¡¯t want that to happen to me again. The bruise was gone of course, but I didn¡¯t like the fact that he had been able to hurt me.


    ¡°HELLO!?¡± I called out to the woods again. Yes, I know, it was useless and all that, but I didn¡¯t care.


    When I didn¡¯t get a response this time, I started to look through the area. The visions never took me far from where I needed to go. So, I knew that whatever was going to happen in this vision, it was going to happen near this spot.


    I started to look around in the forest around me. I was looking for people, animals, items, anything that I knew was not supposed to be there. Or even if the thing was supposed to be there, but was still out of the ordinary. For example, I could see my parents. They were allowed to be out here. There would be nothing wrong with them being out here. However, it wouldn¡¯t be something that is normal, and therefore it would be out of the ordinary. And that would also mean that it was what I was looking for.


    I didn¡¯t see my parents nearby though. Nor did I see anyone else. I didn¡¯t see anything at all, except for the forest that was darkened by the early night. If I had to guess what time it was, I would say that it was just around seven in the evening. It was just a few moments before full sundown, but there was just enough of that in between light left that I was able to see everything clearly.


    I started to head back toward the castle. I figured if I was having a vision that had to do with my home, then heading there would be the better option. If something was happening right now, then someone over there would know what it was.


    I was running as hard and as fast as I could. I needed to see what was happening. I needed to see what it was that this vision was showing me. I needed to see it and then just get the hell out of here. Get the information, go back to reality, and then tell everyone what I saw. That was my n.


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 Chapter 964

    Chapter 964: Chapter 149- Talia ¨C Another Nightmare Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    I found it a little funny. I mean, I was running in a vision, not in real life, and yet I could feel myself getting physically exhausted from it. And that was strange. I wasn¡¯t the type of person that got tired just from running through the woods. I was decently athletic when I was out and about, not to mention that I was a damned werewolf that was able to outpace a human in no time at all.


    This felt different though. And I guess that it was. Especially when you consider that I was only here in a spiritual sense as opposed to a corporeal form. It was my soul that was here. As we had learned recently, I was projecting my soul when I went to these visions. I was seeing parts of the future by literally sending myself into the future to see it.


    That made even less sense to me then. If I was getting winded and tired, did that mean that my soul was tired? What happened when your soul was tired? What would happen to me if my soul couldn¡¯t catch its breath? There was just so much for me to try and figure out.


    Moving past that though, I was getting closer and closer to the castle. I could see the towers andrge windows that were shining in the distance.


    .....


    ¡°I am almost there.¡± I grinned as I pushed through the trees. ¡°I will see whatever it is that is happening soon. I am almost there.¡±


    I don¡¯t know why, but I felt the need to give myself a pep talk. I needed to psych myself up so that I wasn¡¯t overwhelmed by whatever it was that was waiting for me on the other side of the trees.


    I was wrong. The pep talk didn¡¯t help. I don¡¯t care what it was that I was thinking. No amount of mental preparations would have been enough to prepare me for what was waiting for me on the other side of the tree line.


    I wanted to go back. I wanted to rewind time to just before I saw what was over here. I wanted to unsee this. This nightmare was the worst of them all. So much worse.


    The scene that met me on the other side of the forest was utter chaos. Or it looked like it was. There were people fighting everywhere. Men and women were screaming in fear and fury. There was blood, fire, lighting, and so much more that could be seen in every direction.


    I was trying to see where everyone was. Where was my mom? Where was my dad? What about Reagan and Rika? And Zachary, Zander, Zayden, Zaley, where were they? What about my aunts and uncles? And my grandparents, were they safe? I couldn¡¯t see any of them yet, so I was scared that something had happened to them.


    ¡°MOM! DAD!¡± I started to scream for them. ¡°WHERE ARE YOU!?¡± I knew that they couldn¡¯t hear me, I understood that thoroughly, but I couldn¡¯t stop myself from yelling out in panic.


    I saw a sh of orange tinted light shoot down from the sky as I looked around. That was when I noticed that there were people that were flying in the sky. I couldn¡¯t see what they looked like, but I could smell them, and it was horrible. It was like some sort of decay that was thick and heavy in the air. Were they dead? What was going on with them?


    As I looked up, I could hear that they were talking to each other. They were screaming orders andmands at each other, but not all of it made sense to me.


    ¡°Vogran, get them! Allow no enemy to escape.¡± The man that spoke had a deep voice, but it was one that was a bit raspy and dry rather than imposing and powerful. It was like this man, whoever or whatever he was, had long since forgotten how to use his voice. This sounded like someone that was trying to voice the tones out of an extremely parched throat.


    I guess it didn¡¯t matter what it was that his voice sounded like. I knew that this person was not supposed to be here. I didn¡¯t know them, and they instantly gave me a bad feeling. This was an enemy. This was someone that was attacking my family. They were trying to hurt the people that I loved. And I wasn¡¯t about to allow that to happen.


    ¡°MOM! DAD!¡± I called for them again. I needed to know where they were. I had to find them and see that they were OK.


    ¡°KILL THE QUEEN ON SIGHT!¡± I heard the man yell again. ¡°ELIMINATE HER AND THE OTHERS WILL FALL!¡±


    ¡°YES, KING OLORUD!¡± There was a chorus of voices from the sky. There were more of them than I had thought would be up there. I didn¡¯t see more than a few dozen of them at most, but it sounded like hundreds of voices responded to thatmand. And all of the voices were simr. They had that same dry, barely used raspy sound to them. And they were all deeper than normal voices.


    I am used to deep voices. Uncle Trevor, Lex, my Dad, all of them had deeper voices of different timbres, but these voices were not the same. If I had to picture something that went with those voices, I would say that they weren¡¯t human at all. I know that my family and I are not exactly human, but we¡¯re close enough. These voices were just not human at all. There was something wrong about them.


    I understood now why it seemed that there was something so wrong about those voices. They all seemed to have a strange lisp to them. Not like they were a human with a lisp, but like there was something about them that made it impossible for them to form certain words properly.


    I knew that it was getting dark out, but the sky was darker than I thought that it should be. I couldn¡¯t see the moon or the stars. I had thought that it was the sky that was reflecting and shining off of the windows of the castle, but it wasn¡¯t. It was the light of the battle that was raging in the courtyard and the gardens. Everything about the home that I knew was being destroyed. And there was nothing at all that I could do about it.


    I still needed to find my parents. I needed to see what was happening to them so that I could tell them when I woke up. So, instead of watching the sky that seemed to have some weird ck cloud filling it, I ran in search of other people that I knew.


    I saw Uncle Dietrich and Uncle Shawn fighting with someone that was wielding a sword. The sword was glowing a blood red though, and I somehow knew that just one touch from that de would kill either of them.


    I found Uncle Shane as he was sending lightning arrows into the sky, aiming at the enemies that were hiding in the darkness. He and the others were dodging what looked like giant rocks that were raining from the area directly above them. And if they moved at all, the storm of stones moved with them.


    While looking for my family I came across several other people. And I was not happy with what I saw in most of the cases. Uncle Paul, Uncle Cedar, Uncle Carter, Uncle Devon, they were all dead. They were strewn across the castle grounds with dozens of other bodies that I didn¡¯t recognize at all. This scene was like the images one just might imagine that they would see in a movie during an active battle scene, or perhaps in a real battle. I guess I wouldn¡¯t know for sure.


    The ground was slick with blood as I ran, but I refused to give up. Whenever I slipped and fell, I would just get up and keep pushing on. I needed to find my parents. I needed to know that my siblings were OK. I just needed to.


    ¡°KILL THEM ALL! DON¡¯T LET A SINGLE MONSTER LIVE!¡± I heard that man from earlier, Olorud. He was screaming at his men like he was giving a battle cry.


    ¡°You are the monsters.¡± I snapped in response to him just as I saw my parents. They were floating in the air as well. My mom was using her magic to fight against the things that I couldn¡¯t see very clearly. There was nature magic, ice, fire, water and wind. Arrows and other projectiles flew through the air. I saw my father¡¯s fire whip screaming through the sky, the sound of the whip moving almost as angry as he looked.


    They are here, and they are alive. They haven¡¯t been lost. And neither have the others. We will save them. No one will die. I will see to that.


    ¡°GIVE UP, Olorud, and you Zarinog. We will not let you take over.¡± My mom was speaking in her diplomatic tone of voice. ¡°Stop this assault now, before I am forced to end your life.¡±


    ¡°HA HA HA HA HA!¡± The man thought that she was being funny, but I knew that my mom meant it. ¡°If anyone is going to be ended, it is you Monster Bitch.¡± He snapped at my mom. ¡°NOW DIE!¡±


    I don¡¯t know what it was, but something huge and dark shot out of that man¡¯s hand and straight toward my mom. It was some sort ofrge winged monster, and it bit into both of my parents with its long sharp mouth.


    I just screamed in fear as their blood seemed to rain down on top of me.


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 Chapter 965

    Chapter 965: Chapter 150- Talia ¨C Terror (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    I just screamed in fear as the blood of my parents started to rain down on top of me. That was how the vision ended. I was once againying in my bed, in my room. I was safe. I was unharmed. But I couldn¡¯t stop screaming.


    ¡°AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH!¡± I was holding my face and just screaming over and over again. I could feel that my throat was starting to tear and bleed from the effort of me forcing out these screams, but I didn¡¯t care. I just kept screaming over and over again. ¡°AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH!¡±


    ¡°TALIA!¡± I heard Lex and Rudy calling for me as they burst through my door.


    ¡°AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH!¡± I just continued to scream more and more.


    .....


    ¡°TALIA!?¡± Lex called for me again.


    ¡°WHAT HAPPENED!?¡± Rudy sounded so scared as he chased him.


    ¡°AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH!¡± There was nothing that I could do to stop the screaming.


    ¡°TALIA!¡± It felt to me like Lex had just changed when he saw me. Something in the way that he was moving and calling out to me had changed, but I didn¡¯t know what it was. ¡°TALIA, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU!¡±


    Lex and Rudy dropped to their knees next to me and I could see them in my peripheral vision, but that was all. I wasn¡¯t able to focus on them. I couldn¡¯t focus on either of them. I was still reeling from the vision that I had just seen.


    ¡°AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH!¡± I could taste the blood in my mouth as it bubbled up from my throat with each scream that came ripping its way out of my mouth. ¡°AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH!¡±


    ¡°TALIA!¡± Lex grabbed me and lifted me from the bed. ¡°What happened to you? Who hurt you? How did this happen?¡± I didn¡¯t know what he was talking about. I wasn¡¯t hurt. Just my throat, my heart, and my mind. I had just watched my parents die. Yes, it was just a vision, but I remember the way that their bodies looked as that thing mangled them. The sight of it was enough to destroy me. I couldn¡¯t handle that. My parents were always there for me. They were supposed to be a constant in my life. And now I needed toe to terms with the fact that they were going to die. Unless I was able to stop it, they were going to leave me and my siblings forever. I can¡¯t handle that. And I failed to save the girls from my school because I was too weak. I hadn¡¯t saved anyone at all. I was pathetic and I just couldn¡¯t do anything at all.


    ¡°AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH!¡± I screamed again and again as Lex searched all over my body for something. I realized toote that he was looking for an injury on me. He thought that I was physically hurt for some reason. I didn¡¯t know why he thought that, but I was fine. It was all in my head. I was fine aside from the fact that I was screaming and crying uncontrobly.


    That had been the moment when I realized that there were tears streaming down my cheeks. I didn¡¯t care. I couldn¡¯t stop the tears anymore than I could stop my screaming.


    ¡°Talia, please, you have to stop screaming and talk to me.¡±


    ¡°What is wrong with Talia?¡± I heard Reagan¡¯s voiceing from the doorway.


    ¡°Talia? What is wrong?¡± Rika was next.


    ¡°What happened to my sister?¡± Zaley¡¯s sweet voice was next.


    ¡°Is she hurt?¡± Zayden, the sensitive one of the boys, sounded like he was on the verge of tears.


    ¡°Why is she screaming?¡± Zachary was curious as well.


    ¡°What is wrong with her?¡± Zander was the one to wrap it all up. All of my siblings were calling out to me. I could sense more people, perhaps their guards. I didn¡¯t know for sure though. I couldn¡¯t see them as I stared at the ceiling and just watched the moment of my parents¡¯ death in my head over and over again.


    ¡°She doesn¡¯t appear to be hurt.¡± Rudy was the one that said this. I thought of a response to him, but all I could do was scream.


    ¡°AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH!¡±


    ¡®Of course, I am not hurt. I am just going fucking crazy.¡¯


    ¡°If she isn¡¯t hurt, then what happened to her?¡± Reagan was walking into the room now. I knew that he was scared and worried because I seemed to have lost my mind. I wanted tofort him and make everything better like I always did, but I couldn¡¯t. I didn¡¯t know how to at the moment.


    ¡°I need to get her to wake up. Whatever happened to her, she is still not fully awake.¡± Lex¡¯s panicked voice came from very close by.


    ¡°Take her to the shower. Get her to wake up that way.¡± Rika suggested. ¡°The cold might jolt her awake. Plus, it will rinse all of that off of her.¡± Rinse what off of me? That was strange. I didn¡¯t have anything other than my pajamas. Unless I was covered in sweat or something.


    Lex didn¡¯t say anything in response to her words, he just cradled me against his massive chest as he marched toward the bathroom. Rudy, hands free, ran ahead of him and opened the door. I also noticed that he ran into the room and turned the water on. He was preparing for my sister¡¯s suggestion. Who knows, maybe she is right. It couldn¡¯t hurt, so it was worth a shot.


    I wanted to scream even more when I was in the bathroom. The way that Lex was holding me I was able to see the mirror perfectly when we passed by the sink. And I saw that I was covered in blood from head to toe. Thick, dark, sticky blood.


    I wanted to scream, but I couldn¡¯t. The moment that I saw that blood, my parents¡¯ blood, I was stunned into silence. I wasn¡¯t even breathing anymore. I was at a loss, and I was more scared than I had ever been in my entire life.


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Talia.¡± Lex stepped into the shower with me in his arms. It was more than big enough for us both, so he just got under the cascading water and let the cold water rain down on top of me.


    A split second before the water touched me, I felt something inside of me shift. I was scared. I was angry. I was more pissed off than I had ever been in my entire life. But I was also determined to make sure that nothing like that ever happened to my parents in real life.


    ¡°Talia?¡± I heard the wonder in Lex¡¯s voice when he called my name. I don¡¯t know what it was that he was seeing in me at the moment, but I knew that it was something strong and determined.


    The moment that the water actually did touch me, that was when something inside of me exploded. Whatever it was that changed, it was what caused this. And one moment I was staring off into the distance with Lex¡¯s arms wrapped around me. And the next moment I could hear the other people in the room screaming instead of me.


    ¡°WHAT THE HELL!?¡±


    ¡°WHOA!¡±


    ¡°OH MY GODDESS!¡±


    ¡°TALIA!¡± Lex was thest one to yell out, and that was as he copsed to the floor beneath me.


    Why would he copse? Well, that was because I was no longer the tiny little Talia that he was used to carrying. Now, I was something a lot bigger, and a lot more lethal.


    I was standing next to Lex on four feet. I was covered in fur. And I was growling angrily.


    ¡°Talia?¡± Lex called out to me apprehensively. ¡°Are you OK?¡±


    ¡°I am fine.¡± The sound of my words was clear and perfect. I didn¡¯t have a problem at all talking in this form.


    ¡°What happened?¡± Rika looked at me, her eyes opened wide and her mouth hanging open. ¡°Why were you covered in blood?¡±


    ¡°I had another vision.¡± I sat on my haunches and turned to look at Lex. ¡°And this one was a lot worse than the others.¡±


    At that moment, a little dyed from the others, my parents came running into the room. I had a feeling that one of the guards went to get them, since the sound didn¡¯t travel up to their room very well, they wouldn¡¯t have heard me screaming like that.


    ¡°Talia!?¡± Mom was looking at me with wide, shocked eyes.


    ¡°You shifted?¡± My dad, dead tired and stating the obvious, stopped in his tracks as he looked at me.


    I stood and walked over to the middle of the room. I wanted to see what I looked like. They were all staring at me like I was not normal. And I saw why when I looked in the mirror.


    My wolf was not a normal color. Like my mom, I had one that was different. Actually, our dad¡¯s wolf was odd now as well. And Reagan and Rika had wolves that weren¡¯t normal, but I felt like I was the closest to mom¡¯s level of different.


    Instead of a solid colored wolf, I was looking at one that was a deep purple, like wine. The dark purple color was broken by streaks ofvender that ran through my fur. And my eyes were glowing a bright violet. I was different in all ways possible. I didn¡¯t know why, but my wolf was unlike all of the others.


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 Chapter 966

    Chapter 966: Chapter 151- Alexio ¨C Talia¡¯s Transformation (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Alexio


    ~~


    Things were tense in the castle right now. Talia and the other kids weren¡¯t allowed to leave. Those murderers that we were chasing all over the world were now here in our own city. Talia¡¯sst vision was of her friends and ssmates being murdered right very close to the ce that we slept at night. Things were just getting worse by the day.


    Talia and the others were a little upset about the current situation. However, whereas the other kids were upset about not being able to go to school and see their friends, Talia was the most upset about the potential loss of life.


    In the two days since she had had the vision at school, Talia had seemed to be stressing more than I had ever seen her before. In the many years that I had known her, she had always done her best to hide the emotions that she didn¡¯t want people to see. It was like she was trying to prove that she was stronger than they thought or something. Thesest couple days though, she has looked like she was about to crack. This case, and these visions, they were getting to her in a very bad way.


    Right now, at this very moment, it was four in the morning. I was still awake right now, because Talia was still awake. As her guards, Rudy and I had dorms that were next to her room. They weren¡¯t meant to be a ce that we used as our permanent residence or anything, but I spent more time here than anywhere else. I didn¡¯t have a mate or a family. Talia was all that I had. My work was my life and that meant that my life revolved around her at the current moment.


    .....


    As I listened to Talia pacing around the room I thought about the future. As Talia got older and older, I knew that she would eventually find someone to be with. She would have a mate and he would help to protect her. Just like Reece helps to protect his wife even though she has a lot more guards than almost any one person needs. Talia would be that way in the future. Maybe, when she found the man to make her happy, I could find myself a mate. That would be the time for me to do so. But until that time came around, Talia was my main focus.


    And as my main focus, I didn¡¯t like letting her suffer. I didn¡¯t want to know that she was hurting and there was nothing that I could do about it. As her guard I was supposed to stop things from hurting her, that was my job. But the only things that I was truly able to protect her from were physical. These emotional problems were out of my realm of expertise. And knowing that was even harder for me.


    I guess that both Talia and I were suffering. She was hurting because of the case. I was hurting because I couldn¡¯t stop her from hurting. I felt like a failure of a guard that wasn¡¯t able to do his job at all.


    I think that Talia might have finally fallen asleep. While I was thinking about these useless things, and how I needed to improve myself, I stopped hearing the sound of her pacing. She must have finally settled down enough to sleep.


    She usually has a hard time sleeping, but not this bad. I was used to her being up until one or two in the morning sometimes, but not pacing her room until she passed out from exhaustion.


    ¡°Hahh.¡± I sighed as I finally rxed in my bed. ¡°What am I going to do Talia? What can I do?¡±


    I was just starting to drift off to sleep, to get what little bit of it I could, when I was startled awake. The sounds that I heard were so frightening to me. What I heard was the sound of Talia¡¯s agonized screaminging from her room.


    ¡°AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH!¡±


    The very millisecond that I heard Talia¡¯s voice begin to scream I was on my feet. The next millisecond I had my shirt back on and was sliding my feet into my boots. I wasn¡¯t wasting any time here. None at all.


    ¡°AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH!¡± By the time that she screamed again, I was out my door and running toward hers. I wasn¡¯t the only one either. Rudy was only seconds behind me as we raced toward her door. And the other doors in the hall, all of them, opened as well. The other guards, all the other children, were running toward us right now. They were scared because of the screams and worried about Talia.


    ¡°What is happening?¡± Reagan, the big brother and proactive protector, called out as he raced toward me in his pajama pants.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I am finding out now. Send one of the other guards to get your parents.¡±


    After yelling out those orders to Talia¡¯s brother, who I didn¡¯t have that sort of authority over, I mmed into Talia¡¯s door and broke it off of its hinges. I didn¡¯t care. The door could be fixed easily. Talia might be in real danger.


    ¡°TALIA!¡± Rudy and I both screamed for her the moment that we were in the room, but she just screamed in agony and fear once again.


    TALIA!?¡± I called her again as I ran across the room toward her bed. I could already smell the sharp tang of blood in the air and that didn¡¯t help me at all.


    ¡°WHAT HAPPENED!?¡± I could hear the fear in Rudy¡¯s voice. Not that he would be hurt, but for Talia.


    ¡°AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH! AAAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH!¡±


    ¡°TALIA!¡± I skidded to a halt next to her and I just wanted to scream myself. ¡°TALIA WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU!?¡±


    Rudy and I were both kneeling next to the bed and trying to find out what was wrong with Talia as she screamed over and over again. As the sounds came from her mouth I could hear the sound of blood bubbling in her throat. What had done this to her? Where had all this bloode from?


    Talia wasn¡¯t listening to me or Rudy though. She didn¡¯t seem to be capable of it. And the more that I spoke to her without her being able to respond, the more frightened I became.


    ¡°TALIA!¡± I lifted her into my arms and started to check her for injuries. I needed to know where the blood hade from. ¡°What happened to you? Who hurt you? How did this happen?¡± She didn¡¯t answer me though, she just continued to scream like something had scared her to the brink of insanity. And while she screamed she sobbed. The tears were leavingrge streaks in the blood on her face. ¡°Talia, please, you have to stop screaming and talk to me.¡±


    All of the siblings started to unleash a barrage of questions. I didn¡¯t know what to tell them because I didn¡¯t know what was wrong with their sister. If I did know I wouldn¡¯t be as scared as I was now.


    ¡°She doesn¡¯t appear to be hurt.¡± Rudy noted as I finished checking for injuries. He was right, but that didn¡¯t help the situation.


    ¡°If she isn¡¯t hurt, then what happened to her?¡± The older brother asked as he walked closer to us.


    ¡°I need to get her to wake up. Whatever happened to her, she is still not fully awake.¡± I knew that I needed to wake her up, but how was I going to do that?


    ¡°Take her to the shower. Get her to wake up that way.¡± Rika suggested. ¡°The cold might jolt her awake. Plus, it will rinse all of that off of her.¡± That wasn¡¯t a bad idea at all.


    I held Talia close to me as I rushed toward the bathroom. She was still screaming almost nonstop until we got in there. It was almost like something had broken through to her, but what was it?


    Rudy had opened the door and started the water, that was good. It meant that I just needed to step into the shower with Talia to get the water to run over her and clean her up.


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Talia.¡± I soothed her as the water started to cascade over the both of us. It was all that I could do for her, and it wasn¡¯t nearly enough.


    There was something that seemed to be happening to her, to Talia. She was warm, very warm. And I could see something moving in her wide eyes. Something was happening.


    ¡°Talia?¡± Right when I said her name there was a sort of explosion.


    ¡°WHAT THE HELL!?¡± Rudy jumped back in fear.


    ¡°WHOA!¡±


    ¡°OH MY GODDESS!¡± Reagan and then Rika yelled out as well.


    ¡°TALIA!¡± I tried to hold her, but I hadn¡¯t been prepared for the explosion of power and magic, and for Talia to change the way that she did.


    I was sitting on the shower floor as I looked at what Talia had be. She was standing on four feet. She was a wolf now. She had changed. And what a wolf it was.


    I was looking at a dark purple wolf that was tall and slender. Throughout the darker colored fur there were light streaks of purple that almost seemed to glow in the light. And speaking of glowing, Talia¡¯s blue eyes were now violet and shining like there was a light behind them. She was beautiful and amazing.


    ¡°Talia?¡± I called out to her nervously as she walked to see herself in the mirror. ¡°Are you OK?¡±


    ¡°I am fine.¡± She spoke perfectly clear, like there was nothing at all different about her.


    ¡°What happened?¡± Rika¡¯s voice was filled with fear and aww. She couldn¡¯t take her eyes off of her sister. ¡°Why were you covered in blood?¡±


    ¡°I had another vision.¡± Talia turned to face me and sat down. ¡°And this one was a lot worse than the others.¡±


    At that moment, a little dyed from when I sent the guard to get them, Trinity and Reece showed up.


    ¡°Talia!?¡±


    ¡°You shifted?¡±


    ¡°And I had another vision.¡± She said this again. ¡°I need to talk to you.¡± She was looking at her parents as she spoke, but if she thought for one minute that I wasn¡¯t going to be there too then she had another thinging.


    ¡°Then shift back, Talia. After that you can talk to me and your parents about the dream.¡± I made it clear that, as her head guard, I would be there.


    ¡°I can¡¯t.¡± She seemed to shake her head. ¡°I don¡¯t know how.¡±


    ¡°I will help you. Everyone out.¡± Trinity was waving at them all. ¡°Reece, ask Abigail to prepare breakfast so that we can talk.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, OK.¡± He nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±


    Everyone started to clear out except for me. I was going to protect her. I wasn¡¯t going to leave her ever.


    ¡°Out Alexio.¡± Trinity yelled at me.


    ¡°I think I should stay. To protect Talia.¡± I refused to leave.


    ¡°OUT!¡± She ordered me. ¡°Unless you think that I should let you look at my daughter while she is naked.¡± Her words sank in then. Talia¡¯s clothes were destroyed. I needed to go.


    ¡°I will go get dressed and wait for you in the hall.¡± I literally ran out of the room. That was not something that I needed to see. I was her guard and that was inappropriate.


    I couldn¡¯t get out of that room fast enough. I needed to change anyway, so I made that my excuse, but I just really didn¡¯t want to overstep my bounds. I knew that if I were to see something like that, Talia would never befortable with me as her guard ever again. Not only that, but I would likely be murdered by Reece. Not that I couldn¡¯t take him, but I wouldn¡¯t be able to fight my future queen¡¯s father. That was wrong, so very wrong.


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 Chapter 967

    Chapter 967: Chapter 152- Talia ¨C The Vision Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    Mom had ordered all of the others out of my room. She was going to help me get back into my human form because I didn¡¯t know how to. I think I remembered that she had done the same thing to Rika when she was about seventeen and shifted for the first time. And Dad had been the one to help Reagan when he shifted for the first time. I could understand the need for them to have their specific children to help with. When we shift back, we were going to be naked, that was just how it was. And I knew that my dad, as helpful and loving as he was, would never be the one to help me shift back to my human form. He would die first. And I think I would too.


    Rika probably couldn¡¯t help me either. She had only shiftedst year, and she was not the most expert at all of this stuff herself. She could shift and all that, but I highly doubted that she would be able to guide someone out of a shift.


    I wanted to sigh. I was so overwhelmed with emotions right now. I was scared, excited and happy all at the same time. I wasn¡¯t used to having all of these things happening to me all at once. And I was still reeling from that vision that I had had. That was what had caused all of this.


    To be honest, I was really happy that my mom was still in here with me. I didn¡¯t want her to leave me alone right now. She had died in my vision and, honestly, I just couldn¡¯t handle that right now. It was going to be so hard to tell her and Dad about that dream that I had just had. I didn¡¯t want them to know that I had seen it and that it nearly drove me insane. However, I needed them to know so that they could protect themselves. I didn¡¯t want to lose my parents. I loved them too much for that. I still needed them here with me. I was advanced in school, but I was still just a kid, especially in their eyes. I wasn¡¯t ready for them to leave me. I wouldn¡¯t be able to handle that at all.


    .....


    ¡°What is the matter?¡± Mom asked me as she came walking back into the bathroom. I hadn¡¯t even realized that she had left the room in the first ce. I guess I have been really distractedtely. I wasn¡¯t able to tell what was going on around me.


    ¡°I..I was just thinking about something. That was all.¡± That wasn¡¯t a lie, but it was so vague that it might as well have been one.


    ¡°You had another vision, right? Do you want to tell me about it?¡±


    ¡°C..can I change back first?¡± I asked her as she set a pair of my pajamas on the counter next to the sink. I recognized them right away. They were purple and consisted of a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. They also had little kos all over the shorts and one big one on the shirt. They were a little childish looking, but I didn¡¯t care. She had also included a new set of undergarments, top and bottom, and a pair of socks. She hadn¡¯t picked out my clothes since I was nine, so this was something that was sort of special for me. I guess I hadn¡¯t realized how much I missed her being there and babying me when I got too old for it. Or when I said I was too old for it. I had a feeling that I would let her do this, at least once in a while, even as I got older. I wouldn¡¯t want it all the time, but to know she loves me enough to pick out my underwear when needed, that was enough to make my heart swell with happiness. And I was just happy that she was here with me right now.


    ¡°Come here, Talia.¡± She called to me and stood in the middle of the room. Then she seemed to think about something and turned the water in the shower back on. I hadn¡¯t even realized that someone had turned it off. That was how little attention I was paying to things right now. This time though, when Mom turned the water on in the shower, it was running hot and not cold. This was for me to rx, not to wake me up.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± I knew that she did that so that I could hop straight into the water when I was done changing back into a human.


    ¡°You¡¯re wee.¡± She nodded as she reached out to put her hand on my head. With me in my wolf form and her standing in her human form, I was almost as tall as she was. If I stood on my hind legs I would tower over her.


    I would guess that my wolf form was about as big as hers was, and just as slight in the frame as well. I had seen hers enough to know what it looked like, and I would never forget it with my perfect memory.


    ¡°This is going to be quick, but remember the feeling of changing back, sweetheart. You will need it in the future to shift on your own.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± I nodded at her as I listened to what she was telling me.


    ¡°By the way, Talia, your wolf is gorgeous.¡± She was smiling at me. ¡°I knew you would have a unique coloring, but I didn¡¯t expect purple.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, neither did I.¡± Iughed. ¡°I guess it suits the whole underworld theme though.¡± Iughed as I thought about it.


    ¡°Yeah, it does.¡± She chuckled.


    I felt my body changing then, going from wolf to human again. And I watched as my mom¡¯s arms moved steadily lower. As I shifted back and got smaller, my head was in a different position, and she had needed to adjust the position to amodate.


    ¡°There you go.¡± Mom smiled at me. ¡°And I see that you are still covered in quite a bit of blood. I am guessing that it came from the vision as well? Like that bruise from thest one.¡±


    ¡°Yes. I don¡¯t know how it happened, but this is from the vision that I had.¡±


    ¡°Well, hop in the shower, Talia, we will talk about it when you get out.¡±


    ¡°I..I..I think that Daddy should be there too.¡± She noticed the childish way that I had spoken and looked at me with worry in her eyes. She didn¡¯tment on it though, she just nodded.


    ¡°Very well then.¡± She started to leave the room, but I stopped her.


    ¡°Stay.¡± I called out as I stepped into the shower. ¡°I..I..I know that I am showering and all, Mommy, b..b..but I don¡¯t want to be alone yet.¡±


    ¡°Alright, sweetheart.¡± She gave me a calm smile. ¡°I will be right over here.¡± She pulled a chair toward the bathroom and sat just inside of the door. I saw that she was contemting what had happened to me, and that she was likely scared by it all.


    I made sure that the shower went by really quick. I washed my hair first, needing to get the blood out of it in a hurry. Then, while I let the conditioner sit for a couple of minutes, I scrubbed my body. I didn¡¯t know if this was really my parents¡¯ blood or not, but I knew that I didn¡¯t want it on me at all. I knew that it was scaring me to think about, and that I needed to have it gone. If it was their blood, then I wondered how it hade back to the past with me. If it wasn¡¯t their blood, then whose was it, and where did ite from? Those were questions that I needed to have answered.


    Now that I had scrubbed every inch of my body as thoroughly, yet quickly, as I possibly could, I rinsed myself, twice. I needed to make sure that there was no trace of that blood on me anymore. I couldn¡¯t stand the thought of that.


    Now that I was clean, I got out of the shower and started to dry off as quickly as I could. I wanted to blow dry my hair, but there was no time for that. I just toweled it as best as I could and braided it loosely. I needed to make sure that it was out of my way, but not so tight of a braid that it broke the hairs when they dried. I also got dressed quickly and then brushed my teeth. I was ready for bed and the day at the same time. As odd as that seemed.


    I didn¡¯t leave it at that, despite the hurry that I was in. I needed to add some lotion to my face, arms, legs and a few other ces that I could get to. I didn¡¯t want to be naked for too long though, so I didn¡¯t do this before I got dressed. I needed the cream though, I hated the feeling of my face being dry after a shower.


    ¡°There, I am ready.¡± I turned to look at her.


    ¡°Good. We can go and talk to the others.¡±


    ¡°Sh..should I go and get Lex?¡± I asked her, knowing that he would want to talk with me as well.


    ¡°No need. He has been glued to the wall outside your room since you shifted back. He is waiting for you.¡± Sheughed and led the way out of my room. Sure enough, he was standing right there and waiting for me, dressed in his typical ck clothes and ready for the day.


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 Chapter 968

    Chapter 968: Chapter 153- Talia ¨C The Vision Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    I followed my mom to the floors below the residence in the tower. All the while that we walked, Lex followed behind us. We walked and walked until we got to my mom¡¯srge andfortable looking office.


    I knew that my siblings were sent back to sleep, but I doubted that they were actually able to sleep at all. I felt bad for having scared them and making them worry about me. It broke my heart that I was the cause of so much pain and worry in my family. I didn¡¯t want to do this to them.


    When I got to the office, I saw that there were people that were waiting for us there. Dad, Uncle Gabriel, Uncle Vincent, Uncle Dietrich, Uncle Shawn, Uncle Shane, and Uncle David were all there waiting for us. There was also a cart that had recently been delivered by Abigail. She had made breakfast for us. I felt bad about that as well. She had needed to get up early to make food for us. And I could tell that it was all done hastily, that was why it was a simple breakfast that had oatmeal, fruit, pancakes, toast, and scrambled eggs. All things that would be quick and easy to make.


    There was coffee on the tray too, and since I didn¡¯t get much sleep, I decided to get some. I didn¡¯t care that my mom and dad gave me disapproving looks when they saw me pouring copious amounts of cream and sugar into the cup, I needed the caffeine right now.


    .....


    We all took a moment to get a te and take a seat at one of the tables that had recently been added to my mom¡¯s office. It definitely made it easier to eat like this, but I knew that the tables were here because of the case, and that meant that they weren¡¯t here for a good reason.


    When I was just about done eating, and when Dad had been done for a while now, I heard him clear his throat so that he could speak.


    ¡°Alright Talia, now that we¡¯ve all had the time to eat and get some coffee in us.¡± He looked at the cup that I currently had in my hand. He truly didn¡¯t want me drinking this stuff yet. I got that, but at the moment I didn¡¯t care. ¡°I think that it is time that we all hear what it is that happened this morning. Why were you covered in blood? What was it that terrified you so much? What happened?¡± He and all the others, Lex included, were staring at me expectantly.


    ¡°Well.¡± I set down my cup and crossed my hands on the table in front of me. I needed a distraction at that moment, and this was as close as I could get to one. ¡°I was having trouble sleepingst night. I was worried about my friends and ssmates. I knew that I wasn¡¯t going to find out if they lived until the morning came around, but I was nervous and scared nheless.¡± I told them the truth about that part. It wasn¡¯t like I needed to hide that from anyone. ¡°Anyway, I was pacing my room and going crazy for hours. It was around four or so in the morning when I finally felt like I was going to sleep, but I wasn¡¯t going to sleep. This felt different, weird, and just in strange. It was like something was pulling me into sleep, something so strong that it happened in almost an instant. It scared me and I wanted it to stop, but it was toote.¡±


    ¡°The other visions weren¡¯t like that.¡± Lex wasn¡¯t asking me that. He was making a statement for the others. He had been told what the other two visions were like, so he knew as much as I did about them.


    ¡°Exactly.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°And, well, when I entered the vision I was here at the castle. Well, behind it in the woods and mountains.¡±


    ¡°You were here?¡± Mom looked like she couldn¡¯t believe that. I didn¡¯t know why she thought that it was impossible, but there were a lot of those men out there, they were bound to find us soon, right.


    ¡°Yes. they were here.¡±


    ¡°That shouldn¡¯t be. We captured most of them. There are only a handful of them now. The leaders are all that we need to capture. How could they possibly think about attacking us?¡± She looked so confused, about as confused as I felt right then.


    ¡°You captured them?¡± I asked her to rify.


    ¡°Yes, Talia. We stopped the girls from being attacked, they are all OK by the way. And then we arrested the men in the park, as well as two other groups that were in the city. We have a lot of them in the dungeons now. There are only the leaders left for us to get.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know about that, Mom.¡± I felt a wave of cold wash over me then. ¡°There were dozens of them in my vision. It almost felt like there were close to a hundred people that were attacking the castle. And they were attacking.¡±


    I started to exin everything that I saw and heard. I told them the names that I had heard: Vogran, Olorud, and Zarinog. I told them how these people, whoever or whatever they were, were flying up in the air. I heard so many voices that it made it seem like there were a hundred of them. And they were facing off against all of my family. I told them how my uncles, all of them, died and wereying on the ground. It was a horrible sight and it terrified me to my core. Then I told them how the man known as King Olorud had shot something out of his hand, some sort ofrge beast, and that beast attacked my parents. It bit them somehow. And it was sorge that it made them rain blood on the ground as they died. And that is how I got covered in blood before I woke up.


    I was cold and shivering when I was done telling them what it was that had happened in my vision. I was wishing right now that I had worn clothes that were a little warmer and covered a little more of my body. I was feeling exposed and shaking as I tried to wrap my arms around myself.


    It was at that moment that I realized that Lex was always going to be the most perfect bodyguard for me. Without hesitation, he took off hisrge leather jacket and draped it over my shoulders. I was still so short and he was so tall that the jacket was enough to cover all of me, especially when I pulled my legs up onto the chair and crossed them in front of me. I was so much warmer with his jacket on me. Especially considering that he ran warmer than anyone I had ever met in my life. And his jacket was always warm, no matter what the situation was.


    ¡°Talia?¡± Mom¡¯s eyes were wide in shock when she looked at me. She, along with the others, had been frozen in shock for a moment as well.


    ¡°I know, Mom. It¡¯s not a pleasant vision. And that vision, what happened at the end, that was why I was screaming. I..I..I had watched you die. It was only in the dream, vision, but it felt so real to me at the time. I..I..I just couldn¡¯t handle it. I just couldn¡¯t stop the screaming. I screamed again, and again, and again. It wasn¡¯t until Lex ran the cold water on me that I was able toe to my senses, and that was when I shifted.¡±


    ¡°You shifted?¡± Uncle Vincent looked at me in excitement. ¡°I know that the circumstances were not the best, Tally, but that is something to celebrate.¡± He was such a nice man, always trying to make people feel loved and appreciated. He had supposedly been one of the first to do that for my mom when she became the Luna all those years ago.


    ¡°Thank you, Uncle Vincent.¡± I gave him a soft smile.


    ¡°We will do something for youter. When all of this is over. And, of course, we will all want to see the wolf.¡± I knew what he was doing. He was trying to calm me down as best as he could. It was working, a little, and I was thankful for that.


    ¡°I am still worried about the fact that we all died.¡± Uncle Shane said as he looked sick. ¡°Y..you really saw all of us dead? All of us.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Uncle Shane, all of you were dead. And at the end Mom and Dad died. I knew that if they died, then me, Reagan, Rika, Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley were all dead, or going to die. There was nothing that any of us could do. We were all going to die. And if we don¡¯t stop that vision froming true, then we will all die for real.¡± The shivering was back, but it had nothing to do with the cold. I was scared, and they all knew it.


    ¡°I think that we need to talk to some more people about this dream of yours, Talia.¡± Mom said, not looking scared or worried at all anymore. ¡°You did say that this felt different, so maybe it was different. Alexio, can you call Mr. Amadeus? He is the one that knows the most about visions, maybe he can help us with all of this.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure you want me to call him now?¡± Lex said as he looked at his watch. It wasn¡¯t even six in the morning.


    ¡°The sooner the better, Alexio. We don¡¯t have a lot of time to waste here.¡± Mom was right. We needed to figure all of this out as soon as possible. It was a matter of life or death, literally.


    I didn¡¯t want anyone else getting hurt by these people. Not another shifter out in the world, not another Fae girl that didn¡¯t deserve to have her innocence and life stolen from her. But more importantly than all of that, I didn¡¯t want my family and the people that I personally knew and loved to be hurt. I didn¡¯t want my uncles to be ughtered like they were nothing but insects that were easily squashed by the enemy. And I didn¡¯t want to see the way that my parents had dieding true. I couldn¡¯t let any of them get hurt, even if I needed to save them myself. I would protect them all. I would save them all. That I promised.


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 Chapter 969

    Chapter 969: Chapter 154- Talia ¨C The Vision Part 3 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    Lex probably wasn¡¯t the only one in the room that had Mr. Amadeus¡¯s number, but Mom had asked him to make the call. It was probably because this was something that involved me, and Lex was my bodyguard. And if Mr. Amadeus saw the calling in from Lex, then he was more likely to answer it, knowing that it was something that had to do with me, and therefore with my mom. I didn¡¯t know if he had my mom¡¯s number saved in his phone. Were people that were lower ranked like that allowed to have the queen¡¯s phone number? I wasn¡¯t up on that particr part of the etiquette of royalty. I didn¡¯t know if I ever would be, really. If we all survived, I would leave for the underworld as soon as I was done with college.


    The call that Lex ced to Mr. Amadeus was answered on the third ring. That was quick for so early in the morning. Then again, he was a teacher and was used to getting up early. It was the weekend though, so I figured that he would want to sleep in.


    ¡°H..hello?¡± The voice that answered was thick with sleep and a little disoriented. So he had been asleep and his phone had woken him up.


    ¡°Mr. Amadeus, this is Alexio Ptolemy.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Mr. Ptolemy.¡± It almost sounded like Mr. Amadeus sat up quickly and became alert in an instant. ¡°Is everything OK? Is there something that happened to Princess Talia?¡±


    ¡°In a way, there is something that happened. She had another vision this morning, but something was off about it. Can you please hurry over here so that we can talk about this?¡± Lex exined to him in a hurry.


    ¡°Yes, of course, I will be there right away.¡± I could hear the man on the other end of the line getting out of bed, and the call wasn¡¯t even on speaker phone. It was just that easy to hear with my wolfish hearing. Was it somehow better than it had been before? Was I hearing better now that I had shifted? That was unexpected. ¡°I will be there within half an hour. I just need to get dressed.¡±


    ¡°Tell him that we will have breakfast waiting for him.¡± Mom told Lex before he responded.


    ¡°Thank you, Mr. Amadeus. And I have been told to inform you that you will have breakfast waiting for you. We are sure that you won¡¯t have time to eat before you leave.¡±


    ¡°I do appreciate that. Thank you. I will see you all soon.¡± The call ended then and Lex slid his phone back into his pocket.


    ¡°I am guessing that I do not need to tell you all about that conversation. You heard it, I am sure.¡±


    ¡°We heard enough, yes.¡± Mom nodded her head. ¡°We will be ready for him when he gets here. And I think that we all need some more coffee. Vincent, Shane, David, do you three think that you can go to the kitchen to order breakfast for Mr. Amadeus and coffee for all of us. We are all going to need a lot of it to get us through this morning.¡±


    ¡°Yes, of course.¡± Uncle Vincent nodded his head and rose to his feet, as did the other two that were going with him.


    While they were gone, Uncle Gabriel was asking me questions about the vision. Not what happened in it, but rather if I had seen the men that were talking. The ones that were named Vogran, Olorud and Zarinog. I told him that I didn¡¯t actually see them, just that they were up in the sky where there were clouds and smoke. And that it was unnaturally dark in the area. It just didn¡¯t feel right all around.


    He asked me follow-up questions that all seemed to pertain to the enemies in the vision. I didn¡¯t know what it was that he was thinking about, but it seemed that he and Lex were contemting something as well. Only while Uncle Gabriel was asking me a lot of different things, Lex seemed to be brooding on whatever it was that was passing through his mind.


    After about twenty minutes or so, Uncle Vincent, Uncle Shane, and Uncle David came back with the food and coffee among them. And Mr. Amadeus was walking behind them. He looked a little tired, and slightly disheveled, but other than that he was fine. I could tell that he had hurried to get here as soon as he could. And that he must have sped through the city or something to get here so soon.


    ¡°Good morning, Mr. Amadeus. Thank you for joining us.¡± Mom greeted him.


    ¡°Of course, I just hope that I am able to help in some way.¡± He looked around the room and saw me then. ¡°Good morning, Talia.¡±


    ¡°Good morning.¡± I nodded at him.


    ¡°Here, Mr. Amadeus, you can sit here.¡± Lex got to his feet and offered his seat. ¡°I need to talk to someone about something.¡±


    ¡°Oh, thank you.¡± They switched ces and I watched Lex walk to the corner as he beckoned Uncle Gabriel over to him. The two were then talking so quietly that I couldn¡¯t hear what they were saying. ¡°And thank you, Queen Trinity, for the breakfast and coffee.¡± Mr. Amadeus looked at the te of food and therge steaming cup in front of him.


    ¡°It is the least that we could do. We did wake you early on your day off.¡± Mom gave him an apologetic look.


    ¡°I am happy to help. I know that we talked about visions recently, so I am happy to offer more input. You said that it was different somehow.¡± He looked at me then, posing the question to me.


    ¡°Yes, it was very different.¡± I said as I drank from the fresh coffee that Uncle Vincent handed me.


    I exined the vision to him as well. Everyst detail that I remembered, which thanks to my perfect memory was everything. I told him everything that happened from start to finish and how frightened I was. All during my exnation Mr. Amadeus ate his meal so that he wasn¡¯t talking and eatingter. He finished the meal about the time that I finished my exnation.


    ¡°Well, Talia, that is quite the dream that you had, but I do not think that it was a vision.¡±


    ¡°Why is that?¡± I asked him with shock filling my voice.


    ¡°It is the way that you describe being pulled into it. That hasn¡¯t happened before, right?¡± I shook my head no, answering him right away. ¡°That is what I thought. Now, the way that sounds is more mental maniption. Had you already been asleep, I am sure that you wouldn¡¯t have noticed that something was different about that dream. And then we would never know until the time came. Does anyone else know about you having these visions before?¡± He asked like he was looking for suspects.


    ¡°No one outside of my family.¡± That was the truth.


    ¡°Hmm. Wait, you said in yourst vision that the man said he knew you were there. And we established that you were sending your soul out in these visions. Perhaps that man told his superiors about your presence at the murder that hemitted. If they knew about it and somehow had the ability to do so, they could send you a fake vision.¡±


    ¡°WHAT?¡±


    ¡°REALLY!?¡±


    ¡°HOW?¡± So many people started to exim loudly at one time.


    ¡°It is not an ability that humans would have, but people that are versed in magic would be able to do that without an issue. I mean, I am not saying that any witch or warlock could do it, but there are people in this world that are able to do things like that.¡±


    ¡°Alright, so it is probably safe to assume that the leaders of the Jaegan are not human. I mean, if they have magic, not just the runes but real magic, then they can¡¯t be human, can they?¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t know how to answer that, Queen Trinity.¡± Mr. Amadeus responded to what it was that my mom had just said. ¡°I have not met these people, so I cannot tell you who or what they are. But I can tell you that they at least have help from someone that can use magic, and that, in my opinion, means that they are getting nonhuman help. Nothing is set in stone though, since I cannot tell you any of this with certainty. I do apologize that I cannot be more thorough with my exnations.¡±


    ¡°No, that is alright. You are being so very helpful to us right now. Thank you, so very much, for all that you are doing for us.¡±


    ¡°The pleasure is all mine, Queen Trinity. I am d that I am able to be of assistance to the queen of my people.¡± Sometimes I forgot that my mom was the leader of all the magic users as well as all the shifters. The kingdom was so big that I often just forgot about things after a while. ¡°This has been an honor for me.¡±


    We all talked a little while longer about the differences that were in the visions that I had, and how Mr. Amadeus didn¡¯t think that what I saw this time was a real vision. I was still not sure if it was real or not, but I did hope that it was as he had said, that it wasn¡¯t real. If the dream was something that someone had wanted me to see and not a real vision, then I didn¡¯t have to worry about my parents dying. It was a cruel and sick joke that this person was ying on me and I would get my revenge on them one day, but for the time being I would be able to breathe a sigh of relief that it wasn¡¯t going to happen for real.


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 Chapter 970

    Chapter 970: Chapter 155- Trinity ¨C The Names from the Vision (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    When I had taken the time to listen to and process what it was that Talia had to say about the vision that she had just recently awoken from, I almost didn¡¯t think that I would be able to process it at all. I mean, how was I able to understand that my daughter had seen me die? It wasn¡¯t real, at least not yet. And we didn¡¯t know for sure if the vision was just a dream or if it was really something that we needed to worry about.


    And, if it wasn¡¯t a real vision like the ones that she had had twice before now, then why did she have this dream in the first ce? What was it that had caused her to have that dream? Was it just the stress of the case and all the things that had been happening? Or was it someone or something influencing some sort of outside force onto my daughter? Was there a person, or some other type of being, that was using magic to make this happen? And if that was the case, then I needed to find them, stop them, and punish them severely.


    I¡¯ll be damned if I let someone make my daughter see those things and get away with it. I will not allow someone to make my daughter experience that sort of mental and emotional anguish and not get punished. I don¡¯t care one fucking bit if I was trying to be a civilized person and show those murdering bastards respect andpassion, I would make sure that whoever it was that sent that dream to my daughter would die a slow and painful death. They would see the beast that they so erroneously called me. They would see the monster that I was more than capable of bing if it was something to do with someone that I loved. I would be what it was that they feared, and I would destroy them so thoroughly that no one would be able to recognize them ever again. And that there is a promise that I would make sure that I kept.


    As I contemted all of this, as I imagined slowly killing whoever it was that had hurt my baby, I saw that Gabriel and Alexio wereing back over to join the group. They had been talking privately in the corner for thest several minutes, their heads together and their voices so low that even I couldn¡¯t hear them.


    .....


    ¡°Queen Trinity.¡± Gabriel took on a serious tone when he addressed me. And the fact that he used my title, which he had often stopped using after all these years, told me that he had something important to discuss with me.


    ¡°What is it, Gabriel?¡± I asked him as I gave him a cautious look. ¡°What is going on?¡± I knew that there was something major. Something of great importance.


    ¡°Alexio and I have been talking, discussing what it was that Talia saw earlier. And there is something that he and I havee to understand and agree on.¡±


    ¡°And what is that?¡± Reece asked them as he leaned forward, putting his elbows on the desk next to me and resting his chin in his hands. It looked like a casual pose to many, but I knew that he was taking this seriously.


    ¡°Talia mentioned some names. Three to be exact.¡± Gabriel continued at Reece¡¯s prompting.


    ¡°And?¡± Vincent asked as he stepped up behind me. He and Gabriel were usually in that position together, but now Gabriel was the one addressing us like there was an issue in my kingdom that I needed to address. The fact that there was an issue was beside the point. I knew that this had nothing to do with that at the moment. This was specific to Talia and the dream.


    ¡°I recognized those names. Well, at least two of them.¡± Gabriel finally got to his point.


    ¡°I recognized them as well.¡± Alexio said as he looked at his young charge. ¡°I recognized all three of them.¡±


    ¡°So, they are real people?¡± Talia looked shocked by what she heard. ¡°The names sounded so fake and made up to me, I didn¡¯t know if they were real.¡±


    ¡°Oh, they are real, alright. But they aren¡¯t people.¡± Alexio looked like he really didn¡¯t want to talk about this revtion. ¡°You see, those names belong to different beings from my realm.¡±


    ¡°Your realm?¡± I asked him as I straightened up in my seat. I was alert as well as confused now. ¡°They¡¯re demons?¡±


    ¡°No, they are not like me. They are not what is currently known as demons. My species was created centuries ago to guard the underworld, to traffic the souls to their destinations, and to fight in a war that was between those in the celestial realm, the mortal realm, and the underworld. We were created to be the worker bees and soldiers of the Gods at the time. The beings that I am referring to though, they are older, much older.¡±


    ¡°What are you saying?¡± Reece sounded as confused as I felt.


    ¡°The demons that we know have been around less than two thousand years. However, these names that Talia mentioned, are older than that. They predate the demons. They even predate the creation of much of the world. They are known as the Ancients. They were, in their own way, Gods that ruled on a different ne of existence.¡±


    ¡°Gods? Ancients?¡± Shane echoed the words back to Gabriel as he tried to follow along.


    ¡°The Gods that we know are technically the Gods of light, as ancient texts have exined. They were, for the most part, benevolent and helpful to early mankind. They offered wisdom and guidance in exchange for devotion and prayer. The ancients though, they are a different story. If the others were the Gods of Light, the ancients were the God of Darkness. They are what people think of when they hear the word demon. Instead of helping humans and relishing in the worship that they were willing to offer, the Ancients despised the humans. They didn¡¯t want to be followed by weak and meaningless mortals. They saw themselves as above all of that.¡± Gabriel was exining these things to me in his most serious voice. It wasn¡¯t usually one that I associated with a ¡®we¡¯re fucked¡¯ attitude, but I was getting that vibe now.


    ¡°Alright, so they had a problem with humans, what did that matter?¡± I asked him. ¡°What happened to them? Where are they now? And why were their names in the vision that Talia had?¡± I could sense that everyone in the room was soaking up the information that Gabriel was offering, but I sensed that there was an end to it alling very soon. Judging by the tone in his voice, and the apprehension on his face, Gabriel didn¡¯t have much more to offer us.


    ¡°Well.¡± He looked down and fiddled with his fingers for a moment. It was an idle movement that he was only allowing himself to do because he was so tired. I knew Gabriel, and I knew that he was never the one to show his nervousness so easily. ¡°There isn¡¯t much else that I know about the Ancients.¡± He finally looked up, feeling depressed that he was so unhelpful at that moment.


    ¡°What about you, Lex. Do you know anything about them?¡± Talia asked him in a hopeful voice. I knew that she just wanted to have answers about what it was that she had seen. She was still feeling vulnerable and hurt from it all. Her heart was still heavy and broken from the images that would never leave her mind.


    ¡°I wish that I did, Talia. However, to me these names were mere legends. I know of them, but I do not know these beings. I had been under the impression that they were long since dead. If they are alive though, there are some beings that I am sure will know more.¡±


    ¡°Who?¡± Reecetched onto thatst tidbit. He was desperate for information that would help us, and I was right there with him. ¡°Who would know more? Who do we need to call? Reece was so intent at the moment that he wasn¡¯t thinking about the possibilities here. He wasn¡¯t putting all the facts together. He wasn¡¯t thinking about who might know these people that were in Talia¡¯s vision.


    ¡°I think that I know.¡± I spoke softly, but I knew that they were all able to hear me. ¡°We need to call in some friends of Talia¡¯s.¡± I looked at my daughter then, and she was following along just fine.


    ¡°You are right, mom.¡± She nodded at me, but there was no hint of a smile on her face. She was tired and hurt, emotionally at least. ¡°And I know that they will be more than happy to help us.¡±


    ¡°Who?!¡± Shane asked in exasperation. ¡°Who is it that we need to call? Who will know these ancient beings?¡±


    ¡°My friends.¡± Talia smiled but it didn¡¯t reach her eyes. It was more of a reflex than anything at all. ¡°Hades, Lucifer and Satan. They are the ones that have been training me the most over the years, so I am sure that they will be more than happy to help us with this situation.¡±


    ¡°H..H..Hades?¡± Mr. Amadeus asked in a shaking and scared voice. ¡°Y..y..y..you want to call in the Gods of the Underworld?¡± He must not know about Talia¡¯s training for thest eleven years.


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Mr. Amadeus.¡± Talia reassured him. ¡°They are my friends and tutors.¡±


    ¡°I do not know if you are aware, Mr. Amadeus, but Talia is the next ruler of the underworld.¡±


    ¡°I..I..I knew that, but I didn¡¯t know she was getting lessons from the current rulers.¡± He was probably scared, and maybe a little excited. It wasn¡¯t everyday that someone met a celestial being. Well, unless you counted me, but that didn¡¯t count. I was living in the mortal realm.


    ¡°I will call them now.¡± Talia said as she looked at Alexio for confirmation.


    ¡°I think that would be best.¡± He nodded at her. ¡°I know that they would like to know if the Ancient Ones were still causing problems.¡±


    ¡°I just don¡¯t get it.¡± Shawn shook his head. ¡°What do these ancient people have to do with the Jaegan? What is the connection to that family?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know yet.¡± I told him as I pushed away from the desk. ¡°But I intend to find out as soon as I can.¡±


    I needed to think for a few moments, so while Talia started to contact Hades and the others, I started to pace my office. I had so much to think about now, and so many questions that were as of yet unanswered. What was going to happen next? And how was I going to put an end to all of this? I needed to think. I needed some coffee to wake me up. And I needed to burn off some stress. I didn¡¯t know what to do yet, but I knew that I would figure it out soon enough.


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 Chapter 971

    Chapter 971: Chapter 156- Trinity ¨C A Visit from Hell Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I paced. Talia spoke through a mental connection. And everyone else in the room sat watching on with palpable impatience. We all needed this to get a move on. We needed to talk this all out. We needed to figure out what was happening to Talia, with the Jaegan, and who the true enemies here were. There was just so much that we needed to understand that I thought it was going to be near impossible when we finally did get down to talking again.


    Thankfully Talia was able to contact the three Gods immediately. And they were able toe here within seconds of being contacted. Literally, in the span of no more than three minutes of starting my pacing, the glowing interdimensional door was forming itself in my office, and there was a little yelp of fear from Mr. Amadeus. I really should have made him leave, but it was toote for that now. He was just going to have to suck it up and deal with his fear. He was probably going to learn a lot during this meeting, and he was the only one outside of my inner circle that was privy to it. He should feel honored really. And he should make sure that he stopped gawking like an idiot.


    ¡°Talia, sweetheart, I am so d that you called for a visit.¡± Hades, who always treated Talia like she was some sort of family member, came through the door with a big smile on his face and hugged her as soon as she was on her feet. He looked just the same as when I saw himst, blue hair and all.


    ¡°Talia, I am intrigued about your call.¡± Lucifer said as he came through the door, his dark hair a little disheveled as if he had been hurrying. ¡°You didn¡¯t really say what it was that we needed to discuss.¡±


    .....


    ¡°I am sorry, Lu. I wanted to talk about it in person. Please, can you forgive me?¡±


    ¡°Of course, Talia. I understand that it must be a difficult topic for you to discuss from afar.¡±


    ¡°I myself am curious.¡± Satan said with a mischievous grin on his face. ¡°Talia isn¡¯t the type to panic so easily, so I do believe that this ought to be good.¡± He took a moment to look around the room with his sharp eyes. ¡°And given that there is such arge audience here, I believe that would be a safe assumption for me to make.¡±


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know how good it will be.¡± Talia shrugged as she weed Satan with a hug. She had hugged all three of them as they came into the office. ¡°But I do believe that it will be of interest to you. So, I guess that is something.¡±


    ¡°Well, Talia sweetheart, you may begin whenever you are ready.¡± Hades waved his hand and threerge, almost throne-like chairs appeared in my office. I knew that he had called them here for him and the others to sit in, so I didn¡¯t mind. However, there were plenty of chairs in the office that they could have used. None of them throne-like though. Just my chair was like that, and I wasn¡¯t giving it up for them.


    ¡°I think that Alexio and Uncle Gabriel will be better when exining this to you.¡± Talia tried to get out of it, but they weren¡¯t having it.


    ¡°Now Talia, I know that whatever this is, it has something to do with you. If it didn¡¯t, then you wouldn¡¯t have called us.¡± Hades gave her a knowing smile.


    ¡°And you are preparing to rule in our stead, Talia. You need to learn to speak for yourself and not to let others do it for you. Please, if you do not mind, begin the conversation for us. If you need to delegateter in the conversation that is fine, but a good leader will begin the address on their own.¡± Lucifer and Hades apparently never stopped with the lessons that they offered Talia. If they were with her, they were usually telling her what she needed to know.


    ¡°Yes, of course.¡± Talia nodded at them and turned so that she was facing the entire room of people. ¡°We are all here because I had another vision.¡± She was addressing the room like she was giving a speech, but she was instantly interrupted.


    ¡°Another vision?¡± Hades asked in a shocked voice.


    ¡°This has happened before?¡± Lucifer added.


    ¡°Yes. Twice before.¡± She nodded at them and started to exin the visions to them. She gave them the details in a shortened and abridged version. She even exined that Mr. Amadeus believed that when she had these visions, she was sending her soul to the future. Obviously, it was not intentional, but it was happening nheless.¡±


    ¡°This is interesting.¡± Hades had his hand on his chin, stroking the blue goatee that he had there. ¡°And this newest vision was different? How so?¡± Talia exined how it felt when she went into the vision and then gave them an abridged version once more. She didn¡¯t mention the names that she heard in the vision, but she told them the other important facts.


    ¡°I admit Talia, I had not been privy to such urrences.¡± Lucifer spoke softly andfortingly. ¡°And I can tell that you have been through a great deal, but what does this have to do with us?¡± He didn¡¯t know why Talia had called for them.


    ¡°Well, Lu, the reason that I called you all here today, is because I heard some names in mytest vision. Though we are not sure if it was a true vision, or a trick someone is trying to y on me.¡±


    ¡°That sounds confusing.¡± Satan¡¯s voice held his usual hint ofughter as he spoke. I knew that was just the way that he talked and that I didn¡¯t need to get upset about it. ¡°What were the names, though?¡± He added in a tone of voice that was just ever so slightly more serious than it had been a moment before.


    ¡°Well, Satan, I was told that these names belonged to people that were so old they were nothing more than legends to Alexio.¡± She didn¡¯t use his nickname here, probably because most of the time the Gods didn¡¯t like that.


    ¡°Well, don¡¯t pause for dramatic effect girl, tell us the names already.¡± I could tell that Hades was worried, but didn¡¯t want to show it. He was hiding the emotion behind his jovial fa?ade as he joked with Talia.


    ¡°I heard the men in my vision say the names Vogran, Olorud, and Zarinog. The one man, Olorud, was referred to as a king as well. He was the one that was giving the orders to the others. And he was the one that..¡± She hesitated and looked at me for a moment. Her eyes wavering as she recalled the vision. ¡°He was the one that killed my parents in the vision.¡±


    ¡°Vogran, Olorud and Zarinog? Are you sure about those names Talia?¡± Lucifer was on his feet now, shock and anger warring on his face as he stared her down.


    ¡°Yes. I am sure. Those are the names that I heard in my vision.¡±


    ¡°Those beings should be long since deceased.¡± Satan was on his feet as well. He was not joking at all, and that slight hint ofughter that was usually in his voice was gone now. He was beingpletely serious, and that is how I knew that things were anything but good at the moment.


    ¡°Talia, I know that you are a smart girl with a wonderful memory, but are you absolutely sure that those are the names that you heard?¡± Hades was on his feet now, all three of those gods looked as if they were worried about something.


    ¡°Yes, Hades, I am sure. Those were the beings in my dream.¡± She looked over at Gabriel and Alexio then, knowing that she was the one that needed to keep talking. She saw the same thing that I saw when I looked at them. They were nervous and didn¡¯t want to be the ones to talk to the Gods about this topic. It was a difficult one, that was for sure. ¡°I was recently made aware of these beings. I was told that they are referred to as the Ancients. They are a form of gods, like yourselves, but that they hate the humans and didn¡¯t help anyone. Uncle Gabriel said that they were what people actually thought of when they heard the word demon.¡± That was paraphrasing, but we knew what she was getting at. ¡°That they hated the humans and didn¡¯t want to be worshiped. I don¡¯t know what that would actually entail, if they hunted humans and hurt them, or just ignored them altogether.¡± I was right there with her, but what was it that happened with the Ancients and the humans? What transpired all those centuries ago? ¡°These beings, these Ancients, I want to know just who they are? And I want to know why they would want to kill my family?¡±


    In the wake of Talia¡¯s questions, the room was utterly silent. The only sounds that could be heard were the pounding of the hearts that beat in anticipation of the answers, and the shallow breaths that were so reluctantly taken as most of the people in the room tried to hold them in during their tense anticipation. The ball was in their court now, it was time for the gods to exin what it was that was happening. It was time for them to tell us what we needed to know.


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 Chapter 972

    Chapter 972: Chapter 157- Trinity ¨C A Visit from Hell Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I could see the apprehension on the faces of the three Gods that hade to my home. They were looking at Talia with worry and fear. They were also just sitting there and not answering her after she asked them that question. Why weren¡¯t they telling her why they want to kill my family? Why was it that I had needed to call in the gods from the underworld to help us right now? And how was it that this was all falling on the shoulders of my fifteen year old daughter?


    As I watched on, I saw that Talia was getting a little frustrated. I knew that it was probably just because she was tired and scared, but I didn¡¯t want her to blow up on these people. When I saw that the annoyance in her body and eyes was about to hit a breaking point, I stepped in.


    ¡°Why won¡¯t you-.¡± She started, but I interrupted her before she could get too loud, or too far into that question.


    ¡°I think that there is a lot that we all need to discuss.¡± I rose from my seat and went to stand by Talia. She needed to calm down, and hopefully having an ally close to her side would help. ¡°There is a lot that we, super naturals, don¡¯t know about these people. And that is leaving us a little on edge and lost. However, I am sure that there is much that you three do not know. And we need to fill you in on that as well.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Yes, I think that would be wise.¡± Hades nodded. ¡°Talia, sweetheart, take a seat and let us speak with you mother for a few moments.¡± Lucifer offered her some time to rest. ¡°You look tired.¡± She didn¡¯t say anything to them, but Talia nodded in agreement before she went back to sit down, the only problem was that she didn¡¯t know where to sit anymore. Reece beckoned her over toward him and she moved to sit in the seat next to him. He even put his arm around her to offerfort for his daughter in this tough time.


    ¡°Thank you for offering to exin more, Trinity.¡± Satan was speaking seriously again, that was a little disconcerting at the moment, it truly was.


    ¡°Of course. If we are going to help each other, then we need to know what the other knows.¡± I exined to him. ¡°I know that there is a lot that you all do not know about what has been happening here on earth. Hades, I know that Talia contacted you for help with the murder victims.¡±


    ¡°Yes. There has been quite the influx of ritualistic killings over thest few months. They were all murdered by the same group as well, so that made things a little easier for me when finding them.¡± He nodded as he agreed with my words.


    ¡°Well, we discovered recently that the group that has been killing those people is actually a family. The Jaegan family from Germany. Dietrich used to be friends with their patriarch a long time ago, when he wanted to team up with the super naturals and help the world.¡±


    ¡°Then, what happened?¡± Lucifer asked with a look of confusion in his eyes.


    ¡°After ric, the patriarch, died, the entire family changed. There were these nannies that told the descendants that ric hated nonhumans and wanted to kill them all. That led to the entire family bing one giant army that was hell bent on destroying us.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha.¡± Satanughed quickly and derisively. ¡°I will never understand why people say that. Hell, which is actually just the underworld, or parts of it, is not bent on doing anything to anyone. Thend itself is not capable of anything like that.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s just a saying, Satan. I don¡¯t know why people use it, they just do. It means that they are recklessly determined to do whatever it is that they are referring to. In this case, it means that the Jaegan family is determined to destroy us no matter what, even if it means their destruction.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± The look on Satan¡¯s face told me that he was taking my little lesson to heart. He probably wouldn¡¯t be against the saying now that he knew what it meant. Anyway, I didn¡¯t care about that. I needed to keep going.


    I started to exin to them all that had happened while we investigated. I told them about how the visions that Talia had affected what we did, and how it had helped us to save her friendsst night. After that, I told them how we had most of the family in custody, so it shouldn¡¯t be possible for Talia to see the family winning against us. That is, unless these Ancient Ones were working with the family. Then they might pose a threat to us.


    ¡°OK, I have heard enough to understand what is going on.¡± Hades nodded his head. ¡°I do believe that this family does have help from the Ancient Ones. The use of the runes, the knowledge of the various implications of them, and the story that you told me about the long lived nannies, all of that is giving me a bad feeling. However, there is an upside to this.¡±


    ¡°An upside?¡± I red at him. ¡°Dozens of my people are dead.¡± I could hear the anger in my voice and worked hard to keep myself calm. I managed it, but it took me a moment.


    ¡°Yes, Trinity, there is an upside. These Ancient Ones are not as powerful as we gods. You see, Talia was right when she said that they didn¡¯t like humans. I don¡¯t know why they are working with this family when they despise them, but that is not the point. The point that I am trying to make here is that since they were never worshiped like the Gods were, they couldn¡¯t maintain their powers.¡±


    ¡°What does that mean?¡± I needed Hades to rify that for me. However, it was Lucifer that spoke next.


    ¡°Well, Trinity, we Gods and the Ancients came into existence around the same time. We didn¡¯t know where we came from, or why we just started to exist one day, but we did. This was eons ago though, so we have long forgotten about it. As humans started toe into existence as well, popting various parts of the earth, we learned that we were different from them. We original beings were more powerful than the humans. Granted, the original humans were so primitive that anyone was able to be more powerful than them. Wergely ignored the humans for a while. We would only go to see them as they seemed to need us. The development of fire, the advancement of tools and things such as that. The Gods helped them out often. The other group, the one that was born to the dark realm, also known as the underworld, didn¡¯t help at all. They actually did all that they could to destroy life on the mortal ne. You know the dinosaurs? They predated the humans of course. Well, the Ancients were the ones that killed them. They thought that giant lizard beings were too much of a match for them.¡±


    ¡°That is mind blowing.¡± Shane obviously couldn¡¯t keep his mouth shut. I couldn¡¯t me him though. That was news to us. It wasn¡¯t a meteor after all. It was angry ancient beings.


    ¡°Anyway.¡± Lucifer cleared his throat. ¡°As the humans evolved, they began to worship and revere those that helped them. And when that happened, the worshiped beings grew in power. That led to all of us wanting to be revered, so we found our own way of helping and being worshiped. The Ancients, though, hated the humans, didn¡¯t want to be worshiped, and killed them often. We were always at odds with them since we wanted to protect our followers.¡±


    ¡°Tensions grew over time, and we often warred with the ancients. We also found out that they had manipted the realm that they were living in so that all the humans¡¯ souls went there after they died. This led to them torturing the souls after they had died.¡± Satan¡¯s words sent a shiver through my spin.


    ¡°The first creation of hell.¡± I wasn¡¯t asking here, I was stating.


    ¡°Yes. And they often showed the humans what would happen to them when they died. The humans thought it was a punishment for being bad, so that fueled the good and evil afterlives part of religion.¡± Satan shrugged.


    ¡°Over time though, the Ancients weren¡¯t able to do this anymore. They lost their powers and they began to die because of it. We knew that there was something that we had to do, so we took over the underworld. The souls were still going there when they died. Well, we decided to make the afterlife how the humans thought that it was. Punishment for bad deeds, eternal happiness for good deeds. And that is how it has been for a long time now. We thought that all of the Ancients were dead.¡±


    ¡°Well, they aren¡¯t.¡± I shook my head. ¡°And now they are part of this problem that we¡¯re in.¡±


    I was reeling. I didn¡¯t know what to think. I didn¡¯t know what to do. I was lost inside of my mind as I focused on the problem in front of me. And to make matters worse, these ancient beings were a wild card that were being thrown into an already hectic and difficult situation. We needed to figure this out. And we needed to make sure that Talia¡¯s vision didn¡¯te true at all.


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 Chapter 973

    Chapter 973: Chapter 158- Trinity ¨C An Offer of Help (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I saw that the three gods were giving each other looks that said that they didn¡¯t know what to do about this situation. If these men, literal gods that had been around for millennia, had no idea what to do about this situation, then I didn¡¯t know how I was expected to handle it. I mean, this information, what we learned recently, it was all a little too much.


    ¡°Look, gentlemen, I know that there is a lot going on. Stuff that we are all working to process and understand about this situation, but we need to figure this out. We need to know where to go from here. My people are dying. An old enemy of yours has resurfaced. And the threats are still looming on the horizon.¡± I did my best to bring the situation back to the matter at hand. ¡°We need to figure out what we are going to do. We need to understand what it is that we are going to do from here on out. Nothing will get better on its own. We need to finish this. We need to stop the Jaegan and the Ancient Ones. We need to end this.¡± I didn¡¯t know if I was giving the room a pep talk that was supposed to spur them into battle, or if I was warning them about things toe, but I knew that I was speaking from my heart and could feel the truth of what I was saying reverberating through my entire system. This was a serious and tense situation that we all needed to focus on. Not just me. Not even just me and Reece, but all of us. Every person in this room, including Talia and the gods, we all needed to figure this out. We all needed to work on this problem, or I might lose more of my people.


    ¡°Trinity?¡± Hades rose and came walking closer to me. ¡°I know how you must feel. I have personally battled with the Ancients. I have been there when they have worked to destroy the people of the world, and I know how hard that can be. I want you to know though, you are not alone. I will help you. We will all help you.¡± He looked back over his shoulder at Lucifer and Satan.


    ¡°He is right, Trinity.¡± Lucifer came over toward me next, cing a hand on my shoulder when he was within reach. ¡°We havee to trust you and your family over the years, we have amonality between us after all. And if we do not help to protect you and your people, we will lose that link that binds us. We cannot afford to lose Talia. We cannot afford to let these monsters continue to wreak havoc on the world. We will help you to end this war. We will help you to save your people.¡±


    .....


    ¡°And not just us.¡± Satan was walking closer now, but he stopped next to Hades as he looked at me. ¡°We will call the others as well. We will make sure that there is more than enough power to fend off these fiends. We will help you, Trinity.¡± Satan was not smiling as he spoke. He was solemn and serious. I knew that this meant that this was his way of showing that he meant business. I had already seen it before.


    ¡°Yeah, what¡¯s the worst that could happen if we have gods on our side, Trinity.¡± Shaneughed. ¡°I mean, if we all die, they can just set us all up in a parallel version of the world in the afterlife. We can just keep on living there for all of eternity.¡± I red at him for his stupid joke. ¡°Geez. I was just joking.¡± He shuddered from the look that I was giving him.


    ¡°s, dear boy, the same response is usually given to me for my humorous quips.¡± Satan grinned at him. ¡°These old fuddies just don¡¯t know how to take a joke anymore.¡± He was eyeing Shane with a knowing look. ¡°You and I are the rare breed, I see.¡±


    ¡°Finally! Someone gets me. I feel so vindicated. These assholes never like my jokes. Not even when they include pie.¡± Shane started tough.


    ¡°That was not even funny!¡± Shawn snapped at his brother! I knew what he was referring to. It was the incident from about neen years ago when he and Dietrich were nning their wedding. Shane, being his usual self, made a joke at the dessert shop. Shawn ended up throwing a pie in his face as he used his magic and the shadows to aplish it.


    ¡°Hey, I don¡¯t care, it was funny to me, and that pie was still delicious, even though you threw it in my face.¡±


    ¡°A pie to the face? How crudely primitive. I love it.¡± Satan was beaming as he and Shane started tough and joke about various topics. I let it go on for a few minutes, we all needed a break from the seriousness for a moment, and no one really seemed inclined to make them stop. Also, we were all so tired that we were slow to respond and react. We all definitely needed some sleep.


    ¡°Oh, I have some stories I can tell you.¡± Shane looked over at Shawn as he spoke. ¡°My brother and I have a whole treasure trove of them.¡±


    ¡°Shut up.¡± Shawn snapped at him while shaking his head, the good humoring to an end for him.


    ¡°Oh,e on, Shawn, we love these stories, remember?¡±


    ¡°You love them. I hate them.¡± I swear I could see Shawn shiver as he thought about whatever it was that the two of them were talking about.


    ¡°Oh you remember though, that time you told me about Dietrich¡¯s-.¡±


    ¡°SHUT UP!¡± Shawn snapped at him. ¡°And go to hell, asshole.¡± He was mortified, whatever the story was about.


    ¡°Ooh, please do.¡± Satan grinned. ¡°I can show you the sites. And don¡¯t worry, Shane my boy, you won¡¯t be tortured. Unless you want to be.¡± They started tough then, they were big cackling gales ofughter too, ones that made everyone else in the roomugh. Well, everyone except for Shawn. He was a little grumpy and mad at his brother.


    I was hoping to get this situation figured out soon. We needed to be done with this n before the day got started. There was so much work that we needed to do. We needed to call in reinforcements, gods and super naturals alike. We needed to be ready for a battle that may or may not being to the castle. And we needed to be able to protect our people, and our families, when the fighting started.


    ¡°I can see that you are trying to work out a n, Trinity.¡± Hades spoke through the joking spirit that Shane and Satan had going. ¡°I will call the others here to help us. I will call in Hel, Yama, Mtecuhtli, Erlik, Mot, Supay, Ereshkigal, Batara K and Susanoo to help us. With all of us working with you, I am sure that you will have no problem at all with those beings. We will help you to end this before it gets too bad.¡± I wanted to tell him that it was already too bad. That losing close to a hundred members of mymunity was horribly devastating, but I knew that he wouldn¡¯t understand that. He most likely didn¡¯t view their deaths in the same way that I did. Not to mention, he was most likely giving them a peaceful afterlife, so in his mind, he was making this situation better on his end. Yeah, he just wouldn¡¯t get it at all. I knew he wouldn¡¯t.


    ¡°Thank you, Hades.¡± I decided to just thank him and let it slide. We were different people from different worlds, I didn¡¯t have to worry about us seeing eye to eye here. I could just appreciate the fact that he was willing to help me out with this.


    ¡°Of course.¡± He smiled before stepping away. ¡°I will send them a message right away. I think that the sooner we do this the better.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I agree.¡± I didn¡¯t even have to think about that. I knew that we needed to get this ball rolling. ¡°The next step for us right now, is to call in backup. And we need to send someone to scout the mountains. We need to know where the Jaegan, and possibly the Ancient Ones, are staying. If we find them before they find us, then we can take the fight to them instead of them bringing it to us.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that would be a good idea. Let¡¯s not bring it into the city at all.¡± Reece was nodding in agreement. ¡°We don¡¯t need humans seeing what is happening in the world beyond the veil.¡± He reminded me then that there was so much that was happening in the world and that the humans were bound to find out about it all, no matter what we did to stop it. I didn¡¯t want them to find out now, not with a battle on the horizon, but I knew that it wasing soon, no matter what I did.


    ¡°Who are we going to send out on the scouting mission?¡± Vincent asked as he tried to move the conversation along. ¡°Will it be one of us?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± I shook my head and thought about who would be best. ¡°We all need to get some more sleep. I think we should send someone else. How about Javier and Kiernan. The two of them are good trackers, and I am sure that they will manage to take care of things quickly. They can speak to Gustav about where he thinks that they might be.¡±


    ¡°Alright. I will let them know.¡± Vincent nodded. ¡°Anything else?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Call in everyone that we can. I don¡¯t know when this battle will be, but I know that we can¡¯t leave things up to chance.¡±


    Whenever Talia had had a vision in the past, it had been three days before the event had urred. However, I wasn¡¯t going to rely on that as a universal constant. I knew that it was possible that the battle could start sooner than that, or it could be further into the future. We just never knew for certain. And, frankly, I would prefer to err on the side of caution.


    ¡°We all need to be at the top of our game and ready to go when the timees. We need to make sure that there are no surprises toe.¡± I looked up into several pairs of determined eyes. My entire crew as well as the gods were prepared for this situation. We all knew what it was that was likely to being our way.


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 Chapter 974

    Chapter 974: Chapter 159- Trinity ¨C Rxing Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I left the calling of the others up to Reece and Vincent. I knew that they would tell them all to be here as soon as possible. And for some of these people, those that werefortable with it, I would be opening up a door to bring them to the castle. And, luckily, there were a lot of them that would be willing toe through a magical portal door. I think that a lot of them were just curious as to how that was supposed to work.


    Before anyone was to arrive, Reece and I took a nap. So did all of the others that had been up most of the night and woken early from their first nap this morning. We were all exhausted, including Talia and Alexio. Actually, my daughter had been so tired that she had fallen asleep at the table while we discussed what was going to be happening. I felt bad for her at that moment, because I knew that it was worry and fear that had kept her awake all night long. She was exhausted now, especially after having had her first shift. She needed to rest before she could do anything else. And Alexio, who had had just as little sleep as Talia had, ended up needing to carry her to her bed so that they could get some sleep. Thankfully, I had already put Peter on the job of getting Talia¡¯s door fixed. It had needed to be done before she could go back to her room again.


    We allid down, again. We all tried to get some rest, again. And we were all unable to do that, again. I think that at this point, we were all just a little too keyed up and worried about what was going to happen. I knew that Reece was worrying about his pack, hisnd, and his family. He was also worried about the rest of our people, even though they weren¡¯t here in the city and, therefore, weren¡¯t in immediate danger. I was worried about them all too, I was just doing my best to hide it from him and the others. Nothing good woulde from the others seeing me panicked or scared. It would just make their morale plummet.


    When I failed to fall asleep, I started to quietly leave the room and let Reece rest some more. That didn¡¯t work though, because the moment that I left the bed he sat up and red at me.


    .....


    ¡°Where are you going?¡± He asked me in a stern tone. ¡°We need to rest so that we are able to fightter.


    ¡°I know Reece. I know. I am just not able to sleep. I have too much on my mind. And way too much pent-up tension.¡±


    ¡°If you¡¯re still keyed up, Little Bunny, then we can go for a run. I can¡¯t sleep either. And I think that running out the frustration that we¡¯ve been feeling would do us some good.¡±


    ¡°I agree.¡± I hadn¡¯t thought about doing that, but now that I did, I felt like it was the best option that we had avable to us at the moment. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Reece.¡± I held my hand out to him. ¡°Let¡¯s go for a run.¡±


    As Reece left the bed and started to walk toward me, I opened a door that would take us to the private woods behind the castle. There was nothing like having your own ce to blow off some steam. And this ce, these woods and mountains, they held a lot of memories for Reece and I.


    I had the door open up on that crescent out look that we went to several times over the years. It was one of the first ces that Reece and I were alone together on the property, and it was also where we watched the stars on one of our first dates. It was a special ce for us, and I loved having pics here with the kids as they were growing up. It was beautiful and packed full of memories.


    ¡°Ahh.¡± Reece sighed as he exhaled. He had just taken arge, deep breath of the fresh mountain air. It was chilled with the crispness of the impending change of weather that apanied autumn. And soon after that, it would be winter. That was when the true beauty of this spot was able to be seen. Looking down at the scenery that was below when it was nketed in snow, I loved it so much.


    ¡°I know what you mean.¡± I grinned as the cool and refreshing air washed over me. ¡°I have missed this. Getting away for even a few minutes as we forget all of our problems.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s been a long time, hasn¡¯t it?¡± He looked at me with excitement in his eyes. ¡°I don¡¯t even remember thest time that we ran like this. Hell, even shifting is getting to be rare for us these days.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯ve been busy. A long run in our wolf forms will do us some good.¡± I started to reach for my shirt as I spoke.


    ¡°And, I must admit, I do love the preparation thates along with a shift like this.¡± He started to pull his t-shirt up and over his head. ¡°This might very well be my favorite part.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha.¡± Iughed at him. ¡°Why am I not surprised?¡± I grinned at him. ¡°Well, I will admit that you make it a pretty enjoyable part as well.¡± I kept my eye glued on him as he started to push down his lounge pants that he wore to bed. ¡°It¡¯s such a great view.¡± And it was. When he revealed himself to me then, I almost wanted to skip the run altogether. Almost. I still had all that energy and tension that I needed to get rid of. ¡°Come on, hot stuff, it¡¯s time to get running.¡± I finished stripping off my clothes, and even though I could feel Reece¡¯s eyes on me, I shifted immediately. He wasn¡¯t looking at my naked body anymore. Instead, he was looking at my wolf, and all the white and blue glory that she was. It made me think about Talia¡¯s wolf just then, and how her wolf was even more unique than mine was. She was definitely going to be special. She already was.


    ¡°Let¡¯s have some fun.¡± Reece said as he started to shift. I had been staring at his naked body at the time, and I got to watch as he switched from tall, muscr sexiness, into the most handsome wolf I had ever seen in my life.


    Reece¡¯s almost pure ck fur was only interrupted by the thin red markings that he had gotten over time. They stood out, even in the daylight. Then again, they were glowing like there was a bright me behind them, so I guess that exined it.


    ¡°Damn, Reece, you sure are sexy no matter what form you are in.¡± I looked him up and down.


    ¡°You are too, my love.¡± He didn¡¯t hide that he was panting over me. ¡°Now, let¡¯s get some of this tension burned off. We have way too much going on for that.¡±


    ¡°How about a game of chase.¡± I smirk and just knew that he saw it, even in this form.


    ¡°Ooh, I like the sound of that. Does the winner get to do whatever they want?¡± He was being suggestive. This too was reminiscent of our first game of chase that we yed. He had caught me that time and had done what he wanted. I was stronger and faster now though, and he was often unable to catch me. Honestly, if he was going to win this little game of ours, I was going to have to let him win. That or he was going to have to work extra hard at beating me.


    ¡°Yes.¡± I answered Reece with desire and lust filling my voice. I wanted him to win, but I wasn¡¯t going to make it that easy on him. He needed to work for it. ¡°If you catch me, you can do whatever you want with me.¡± I winked at him. ¡°Go.¡±


    Without another word, I took off running in the opposite direction. I was sprinting fast and weaving through the trees before I even heard his feet thundering against the ground. He was already trying to catch me. He wanted me, and that meant that he was going to give this his all.


    Honestly, I think that Reece and I knew this little game of ours was going to happen the moment that we decided toe out here. We had a lot of tension, stress, and excessive nervous energy. What better way to get rid of that than to y a little chase. And then after that, I was sure that Reece would want to y a game of hide and seek. Though it was less seek and more hide. Hiding one particr thing anyway. And that was fine with me as well.


    Excitement was flooding through me. I just couldn¡¯t seem to get enough of it. My heart was pounding, but that wasn¡¯t the only thing that seemed to be pounding and throbbing in the heat of the moment. As the blood rushed through me, my body was already telling me what it was that I needed from Reece. And it was begging me to stop running so that he could catch me. I was inclined to do just that, but I also wanted to make him work for his prize. I mean, that was the right thing to do, wasn¡¯t it?


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 Chapter 975

    Chapter 975: Chapter 160- Trinity ¨C Rxing Part 2 (MATURE) (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°Come on, Reece.¡± I taunted him as I circled around a boulder and turned back the way that we hade. I was giving him the chance to break to the side and catch me as I ran, and I wasn¡¯t making it all that obvious either. ¡°You need to work hard to get me. I am not that easy to beat, you know?¡± My voice was husky and filled with need.


    ¡°Oh, I know.¡± Reece said as he leapt out of a tree andnded on top of me. ¡°That is why I lured you into my trap.¡±


    ¡°Help. I¡¯ve been captured.¡± I feigned fear and wiggled underneath him. That only made him growl hungrily in my ear and it sent a shiver down my spine. I needed this. He and I both needed this. And there was absolutely nothing stopping us from finishing what we had started bying out here. I knew what it was that we were going to do the moment that Reece had suggested this, even if he hadn¡¯t realized what it was that he was wanting, I had.


    ¡°Hhrrgghhnn.¡± He growled low and long in my ear. It wasn¡¯t an angry growl, not at all. This was the sound of need and greed that was filling him. He needed me and my body, and he was going to take exactly what it was that he wanted. ¡°Keep squirming like that, Little Bunny, and I will be forced to devour you.¡± His voice was filled with so much desire that it was deeper and thicker than usual. And it made me shiver with excitement.


    .....


    ¡°Promise?¡± I asked him as I wiggled again, pressing against his tender and furry underbelly.


    ¡°Ahh! Goddess, you¡¯re going to kill me.¡± He pressed his nose to the side of my head.


    ¡°No, not kill you.¡± I giggled as I rubbed the side of my head against his muzzle. ¡°Just drive you insane with lust.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve already done that.¡± He licked the side of my face then. It was as intimate of a gesture in this form as a kiss would have been in our human forms. ¡°I can¡¯t wait any longer, Trinity. I need you. I have to have you right now.¡±


    ¡°So what are you waiting for?¡± I asked him in a seductive and suggestive tone. I knew that he needed me, and I wanted him to need me at this moment. I needed him to take me right here and now.


    ¡°Goddess, I love you, Trinity. I love you so much.¡±


    At that moment, Reece started to reposition himself over me. He bit down on the back of my neck to hold me in ce for him. It wasn¡¯t a hard bite, so it didn¡¯t hurt, but it was just enough to send that surge of excitement coursing through my entire body. It even sent a jolt of excitement and electricity surging through that heated and throbbing spot between my legs. I was ready for him, so very ready for my mate to take me.


    ¡°Reece.¡± I called his name in anticipation as he fitted himself against my opening. Even in this form he was so much bigger than me. And even that part of him was huge. I howled the moment that he entered me, I couldn¡¯t help it. He felt so good. ¡°AAWWWOO!¡± He released the back of my neck and licked the ce tenderly before putting his face next to mine again.


    ¡°Someone seems a little excited.¡± His husky voice was like a hand that was rubbing over my sensitive body. It was stroking me gently as he thrust inside of me.


    ¡°I am always excited for you, Reece. Always.¡± This was the truth, why lie to him about it? He should have known this already, after all this time together, he should know that I wanted him and only him.


    He was thrusting into me hard, again and again. It had been so long since we hade together like this that I had forgotten the way that it felt. It was different like this. To be in this body, making love in this form, it was a truly intimate moment that wasn¡¯t experienced all that often. This was truly a special time for us.


    I was panting. Truly panting, since I was in my wolf form. I felt like my insides were on fire and that I was about to scream with pleasurable and painful delight. Reece was once again biting the back of my neck as he held me in ce. This was something that I wanted, but I wanted more as well. But, at this moment that we were together, there was something missing. I wasn¡¯t being held, and I couldn¡¯t hold him either. I needed that as well. I needed everything. All that we could do right now and more, I just needed so much from him.


    I lost track of time. I could just feel the pleasure of Reece mming in and out of me with near brutal passion. As much as I wanted and needed more, he was still pushing me closer and closer to my peak of ecstasy. He was still about to send me over into the pleasurable abyss, and I was more than OK with that. And when I howled again, long and loud, he howled with me, mimicking the sound of my pleasure with one of his own.


    ¡°AAWWOOO!¡±


    ¡°AAWWOOOO!¡±


    Panting, trying to catch my breath after that intimate moment, I knew that I wasn¡¯t done yet. I still needed him, and I hoped that he would still need me as well.


    ¡°Reece?¡± I called his name, shifting back from my wolf form to my human form as I called for him.


    ¡°Yes, Little Bunny?¡± He was panting in my ear, still in his wolf form. I could feel the softness of his fur on my bare back.


    ¡°I still need you.¡± I rubbed my cheek against his fur as I luxuriated in the softness of him. ¡°I want you to hold me. I still need you.¡± I felt the rippling above me. He was shifting back to his human form as well.


    ¡°I still need you too, Trinity.¡± He had his lips right against my ear as he said that, the heat from his words tickling me just a little. I also felt his hands wrap around me and grip my breasts in hisrge, strong hands.


    ¡°Take me, Reece. Take me in your arms as I take you in my body.¡±


    He lifted me up from the ground as he stood in one smooth motion. He turned me so that I was facing him, all the while walking forward until he could press my back against a tree. With that hard surface behind me and Reece¡¯s hard body in front of me, I felt the excitement surge through me once again.


    ¡°Trinity.¡± He whispered as he pressed his lips against mine. That was the first kiss of this encounter, and it was so perfectly tender and sweet. However, the way that he mmed inside of me and thrust all the way to his hilt, that wasn¡¯t so tender or sweet. It was hungry, needy, and felt so good.


    ¡°AHH!¡± I pulled away from him and screamed in pleasure.


    Reece took me again, rough and hard as he held me against his chest. I wrapped my arms around his neck and gripped his shoulders as I held on. I dug my nails into his back and left proof of my pleasure there on his skin. Those marks would be gone soon enough, but it was still a hot and sexy reminder of what we had done, while itsted anyway.


    I was quickly approaching my climax again, long before Reece seemed to be. I came apart at the seams and had to remember how to move just so that I could hold onto him while he continued to thrust inside of me again and again.


    I came again. And then again. By then I was boneless and limp in his arms as I continued to moan and scream in pleasure. My voice seemed to be one of the only things that was still working on my body. And as my body started to prepare itself for yet another climax, I thought that was going to be giving out on me soon enough.


    This time, though, I felt Reece harden inside of me. He was reaching his end as well. He was thrusting harder, faster, and with more reckless abandon than before. I didn¡¯t know how much longer that he had left, but I knew that I was going to climax before him, that was a given. And I did. Just a few seconds before him, but I still came before he exploded inside of me.


    ¡°Reece.¡± I called his name weakly as he pulled me away from the tree.


    ¡°Trinity.¡± He was breathing heavily as he whispered my name back.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go to bed.¡±


    He justid down there in the forest, holding me against his chest as we drifted off to sleep. We hadn¡¯t slept outside like this in a long time either. This was a day of reminiscing, wasn¡¯t it?


    ¡°I love you, Reece.¡± I could barely speak as I drifted off to sleep.


    ¡°I love you too.¡± He kissed my head and that was all that I remembered.


    We woke up exactly two hourster. I hadn¡¯t slept long, but I felt a lot better. And my body was noticeably lighter and felt less tense. That whole encounter in the trees, was just what Reece and I had needed.


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 Chapter 976

    Chapter 976: Chapter 161- Rika ¨C Where Is Westin? (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    I was waiting in my room for my guard to show up. I was sure that it was going to be Lucas again. Westin, for some reason, had not been back to see me since the other day. When I went on my daytime date with Clovio, that was thest time that I saw Westin.


    I hoped that he wasn¡¯t angry at me. I had been a bit of a brat to him. As my little sister Talia was so very kind enough to point out to me. I had been behaving like a spoiled little princess that was allowed to do whatever she wanted and that the feelings of others didn¡¯t matter to me.


    She didn¡¯t exactly say all of that, but I got the gist of it. I was being selfish, stupid and petty. And it wasn¡¯t just toward my parents that I was being a brat. Or better yet, I was being a bitch. I had been a bitch to my parents, to my siblings, to Lyssa and, of course, to Westin.


    In the past, Westin used to always be the guard to volunteer to take me to someone. He was always the one that wanted to protect me. I didn¡¯t know if it had to do with me or if he was just trying to get on my parents¡¯ good graces, but I knew that he was always there for me. I knew that he would protect me no matter what. He woulde to my rescue if I needed him. He was there for me to talk to if I needed him. He was like a constant in my life. But not anymore.


    .....


    To be fair, I did tell him that I never wanted to see him again. Actually, my words to him had been something along the lines of- ¡®Shut up! Go away! I don¡¯t want to see you ever again.¡¯ So, yeah, I can understand why he wasn¡¯t all that eager toe and guard me after I was forced to stay home all the time.


    I mean, I understood that he didn¡¯t want to see me, but I couldn¡¯t apologize for being a bitch if I never got to see him. I had to tell him that I didn¡¯t mean it. When I told him that I didn¡¯t want him to stop being my guard, I hoped that he would be relieved or even happy. I had truly grown used to his presence and it hurt me that he was gone right now.


    Soon enough, I heard the elevator doors open down the hall. The sound of footsteps started toe my way. And soon enough the scent of the man reached my nose. It was Lucas, just as I thought that it was going to be. He wasing to take me to lunch.


    We had all had a very early breakfast that was brought to our rooms, and then I took a nap because of the early start to the day. I was still scared as well, since Talia had woken us all up screaming and covered in blood. I didn¡¯t know what had happened to her, but I wanted to find out. Hopefully, people will be a little more forting with information than they had been in the past. I wanted to know if my sister was OK.


    ¡°Rika?¡± Lucas knocked on the door as he called out to me.


    ¡°Come in, Lucas.¡± I tried not to sound disappointed, but I know that I failed. I had absolutely nothing against Lucas. He was a great guard and was always there to help me as well. I was just a little upset that I wasn¡¯t able to apologize to Westin. I wanted to clear the air with him.


    ¡°How are you feeling?¡± He asked me with a worried expression on his face.


    ¡°I am fine. I got up early, as you know, and then I took a nap. So, I am feeling a lot better than I was this morning. Is Talia doing alright? I know that she shifted and all that, but I am still worried about why she was screaming so much this morning. I..I want to know what she saw.¡± Talia was younger than me by quite a bit, so I was feeling a little jealous that Mom and Dad always asked for her help. I have magic too. Maybe not the same as she has, but I was still powerful in my own right. And I could learn to do more. I..I had just never really wanted to learn before.


    ¡°I am d that you got some more sleep. I know that you needed it. Everyone is having a hard time getting the rest that they need right now, with everything that is going on in the city and around the world.¡±


    ¡°Is that why Westin hasn¡¯t been back since the other day? He needed his rest?¡± I was hoping that was all that it was. I didn¡¯t want to be told that he refused to work for me again.


    ¡°Uh..uhm, w..well-.¡± Lucas looked ufortable and didn¡¯t seem to want to make eye contact with me at that moment. ¡°I..I don¡¯t think that rest had anything to do with why he-.¡± He stopped again. It was almost like Lucas just didn¡¯t want to tell me what was going on.


    ¡°I know that Westin is mad at me, Lucas. The other day, when all of that stuff happened. Y..you know, th..the date that Lyssa and I went on with Clovio and Warrick. And then they were brought to the house to talk to Mom and Dad. Th..that was when I found out that Clovio and Warrick were lying to me and Lyssa. W..well, I uhm.. I..I said something mean to Westin. Something that I didn¡¯t mean, but now I wanted to apologize to him. I wanted to tell him that I know that I shouldn¡¯t have said those things to him.¡±


    ¡°Oh. Uhm..¡± He was still looking at me like there was an issue. I didn¡¯t know what it was that he was thinking about, but I knew that it had to be something major. I mean, why else would he be looking at me with so much pity in his eyes? And what was the pity for? What was it that was going on? Did Westin quit? Did he never want to talk to me again? Had I ruined his career or something? What was it that was going on?


    ¡°Lucas? What is it? Tell me, please.¡± I was almost begging him. As I sat on my bed, hugging my knees to my chest, I asked him to tell me what it was that was going on. I needed to know. Even though I had a feeling that it was going to be something that was hard for me to hear.


    ¡°Rika, I am sorry, but Westin is moving.¡±


    ¡°What?!¡± I practically screamed the word at him. ¡°He¡¯s moving? Why? Is this because I got mad at him?¡± I thought that this was quite the response to this situation. I had yelled at him, yes, but I had been feeling so hurt and vulnerable at the time. Why would he move away just because of that? What was I going to do now?


    ¡°Yes. I don¡¯t think that it has to do with you though, Rika. I heard him talking to someone and he said that he was moving because of his mate.¡± Lucas continued to exin a little, but I was still reeling. It took the word mate to bring me out of my reverie.


    ¡°His mate?¡± I asked him in shock. ¡°When did he find his mate? I wasn¡¯t aware that he had met them yet.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know that he had met her either. But I know that he is moving because of her. I don¡¯t know if she is leaving the area for something and he is moving with her or what, but I know that this has to do with his mate. So don¡¯t feel so bad, Rika, this isn¡¯t your fault.¡±


    ¡°O..OK.¡± I still didn¡¯t feel good about this. How was I to know for sure that this wasn¡¯t my fault? Was this really all because Westin had found his mate? Was he leaving for something other than me telling him that I didn¡¯t want to see him again? Or was he leaving and taking his mate because he didn¡¯t want to be around the spoiled rotten princess anymore? I don¡¯t know why, but I had a feeling that thest one was the closest to the truth.


    ¡°Come on, Rika, let¡¯s get you down to lunch. I am sure that you are bored and want to be out of this room for now.¡± Lucas was smiling and acting as calm as he possibly could. How was he not more affected by this? Probably because he didn¡¯t feel like it was all his fault.


    I was in a trance for the rest of the day. I felt so guilty about what I had said to Westin and that he was leaving. I hated that I had been a bitch to him and everyone else. And if I had needed more evidence that my behavior was affecting those around me, then this was it. This was all that I needed to see to know that it was time for me to grow up. I wasn¡¯t going to act like the same entitled little baby anymore. I was going to be more mature and responsible. And that also meant that I needed to call Lyssa and apologize to her. I had a lot of mistakes to make up for.


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 Chapter 977

    Chapter 977: Chapter 162- Talia ¨C Let Me Help (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    I had fallen asleep while in my mom¡¯s office earlier. I hadn¡¯t meant to, but I ended up slumping over and passing out right on Lex¡¯s arm. He probably was ufortable that whole time and ended up just carrying me to my room so that he didn¡¯t have to deal with me anymore. I wouldn¡¯t me him. Who wants a sleeping person that might droolying on them? Then again, I didn¡¯t usually drool in my sleep, so he was probably safe from that. Not that it mattered much.


    When I woke up, Lex was sitting in the chair across the room from me, next to the window with the shade drawn. He was sound asleep. It was as if he had sat down to take a break after carrying me to my room and instantly fell asleep as well. I knew that he had been up all night as well, so he had to have been exhausted. And it was all my fault that he was awake too. I had been pacing and grumbling in my room the whole night, at least until the vision overtook me. Then I was silent for like five minutes, just long enough for him to drift off before I started to scream blood murder. And considering that I was literally covered in blood, it was like it really had been a murder.


    We had been so busytely, and there had been so much that had happened since we came home, that I just hadn¡¯t been able to rx at all. And since I wasn¡¯t rxing, neither was Lex. And that made me feel so bad. Not only was I keeping him from finding a mate, but I was ruining his ability to calm down and rx. I didn¡¯t know why he was so adamant about being my guard when he knew that it was going to be such a difficult job. This situation might notst forever, but there would be other ones in the future. As the goddess of the underworld, I just knew that there was going to be a lot for me to endure and face on my own.


    Still, he chose to stick by me. He wanted to be the number one guard to the future ruler of the underworld. And I knew that this wasn¡¯t a bid for power. He just felt that he owed that to me. He thought that, as a former guard in the underworld that came to live in the mortal realm, he was the one that was the most qualified to protect me.


    .....


    Of course, Rudy was also in the same position as him. A former guard in the underworld that now lived with us in the mortal world. However, Rudy was different. He was soft, sweet, and trusted more people than Lex ever would. And I think that, in Lex¡¯s opinion, Rudy was too soft to be my primary guard when I moved and started to live in the underworld. And I agreed with him as well. Rudy wouldn¡¯t be the right choice to be my right hand man when I was there. I needed someone stronger. I needed someone more powerful. And, more importantly, I needed someone that I could trust with absolutely no doubts in my mind. And since Rudy had a family, I didn¡¯t know where his loyalty would lie in the end. Lex though, he didn¡¯t have a family, as sad as that was, so I knew that he would think of me first and foremost.


    As I thought about all of this, I walked into the bathroom to get some relief. I washed my hands, then my face. For good measure I also brushed my teeth and then pulled my hair back into a neat ponytail. After that, I was ready to face the day, and the man sleeping in my room.


    I thought that I was going to be waking Lex up when I went back into the bedroom, but he was sitting up and looking at me with a calm expression on his face.


    ¡°Did you sleep well?¡± He asked me as soon as I was out of the bathroom.


    ¡°Yes, I did.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°I know that I didn¡¯t sleep all that long, but I feel a lot better.¡± I was used to not sleeping much anyway. It came with the territory when the souls of the dead wailed at you all the time. Still, these couple of hours felt like a whole night to me.


    ¡°I am d that you got some sleep.¡± He gave me the smallest of smiles in response. ¡°I too am feeling rested after sleeping. And I do apologize that I fell asleep here.¡± He looked around the room but did not get up.


    ¡°It is fine, Lex. It was my fault that you didn¡¯t sleep at allst night. So, please, don¡¯t worry about it.¡± I didn¡¯t want to add that it might have been him in here, my subconscious knowing that I was being protected, that helped me to sleep so soundly. I was sure that he would take it the wrong way. All I meant by that was that he was there for me and I knew that he wouldn¡¯t let me get hurt. He was the best type of bodyguard that there was for me. Strict with the rules and powerful enough to protect me from pretty much anything. Well, anything but a vision.


    ¡°Shall I take you down to the dining room? I am sure that you are hungry for some lunch.¡± Right on cue my stomach growled and grumbled loudly. ¡°I knew it.¡± He grinned, but then his stomach answered mine.


    ¡°I see that you are hungry as well.¡± I gave him a quickugh and walked toward the door. ¡°Come on, we both need to eat something soon.¡±


    When we got to the dining room, I saw that my parents were the only other ones in there.


    ¡°I see you slept well.¡± Mom said as soon as she looked at me. ¡°You¡¯re looking better.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I did, and I feel a lot better.¡± I nodded and answered her. ¡°Did Abigail make lunch for us all, or just you two?¡±


    ¡°She has plenty.¡± Dad said as he reached across the table to pat my hand. ¡°I am d that you are feeling better.¡± He gave me a wary look. ¡°How do you feel though? Physically? Shifting can cause pain afterwards.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± I moved my limbs and flexed some muscles on my body and there was no pain at all.


    ¡°That¡¯s a relief.¡± And he truly looked like it was too.


    We sat in silence as Abigail brought food for my parents and noticed me. She smiled and said that she would be back in a moment with some for me. I told her to get some for Lex as well, since he hadn¡¯t eaten in a long time. He tried to refuse, but I insisted. He needed to keep his strength up as well. There was a battleing, and we didn¡¯t know how long it was going to be before it started.


    While we ate, sitting in near perfect silence, I had a thought that urred to me. There was something that I needed to tell my parents. Though, I guess that asking was the better way to go about it.


    ¡°Mom? Dad?¡± I pushed my te aside and looked at them with a calm and serious expression.


    ¡°Yes, Tally?¡± Dad knitted his brows together as he tried to puzzle out why I was suddenly so serious.


    ¡°There is something that I want to tell you. Well, I will pose it as a question, but it¡¯s more of me telling you what I want to do.¡± I hoped that the look on my face conveyed that I could not and would not be swayed from this idea.


    ¡°Go ahead.¡± Mom pushed her food away and gave me her full attention.


    ¡°Please, let me help with the battle. Let me be a part of it.¡±


    ¡°Absolutely not!¡± Dad roared immediately.


    ¡°No!¡± Mom added.


    ¡°Over my dead fucking body!¡± Lex added his own response.


    ¡°I am not truly asking.¡± I looked from one to the other of them. ¡°I am the future goddess of the underworld. I need to learn how to handle these situations. And the underworld is my domain. These people, these Ancient Ones that the gods were telling us about, they are from the underworld. They are just as much my problem as they are Hades, Satan¡¯s, Lucifer¡¯s and all of the others¡¯ problems. I need to be a part of this.¡± I wasn¡¯t going to back down. They wouldn¡¯t be able to stop me, no matter what they did. I just didn¡¯t want to cause a strife between us when I went to battle against their wishes.


    ¡°Talia, you could get hurt.¡± Lex was the first one to speak after that.


    ¡°Only if you fail to protect me.¡± I pointed out to him. ¡°Do you n on failing?¡±


    ¡°I would never!¡± This had seemed to anger him a little.


    ¡°Then I will be just fine.¡± He didn¡¯t seem to have a response to this. He just snapped his mouth shut and red at me.


    ¡°Talia, we could all potentially die in that battle. You saw it in your vision.¡±


    ¡°All the more reason for me to fight. We need to have as many people fighting in this battle as we possibly can. That is the only way to guarantee our sess.¡± She couldn¡¯t argue with me, not without contradicting how serious this battle was. She knew that I had trapped her in with that argument, so she just looked at Dad.


    ¡°Don¡¯t leave this on me!¡± He snapped at her, but it was more yful than it was angry. ¡°If you can¡¯t stop her, do you really think that she will listen to me?¡± He was right, I wouldn¡¯t listen to him telling me not to fight. And the others had no arguments that could sway me either.


    ¡°Why do you want to do this, Talia? What is the real reason?¡± Mom wanted to know more details, I guess that was understandable.


    ¡°As I said before, this is my problem. But that isn¡¯t all. I have been a part of this case since you left for Wales. I may not have gotten the details that you had before leaving, but I have been a part of it all since the beginning of the investigation. And I want to continue being a part of it. I want to see this through until the end. I couldn¡¯t live with myself if I wasn¡¯t there to end this with all of you.¡±


    I saw my parents looking at each other as they seemed to be contemting the words that I had said. They knew that I was being serious. They knew that I wanted to help, and that this wasn¡¯t just about rebellion or trying to look cool. At least, I hoped that they knew it.


    ¡°Talia, if you are out there, if you are fighting in this battle, then I want you to have Alexio with you at all times.¡± Mom gave her stiption, but apparently, Dad had one more.


    ¡°And either Hades or Lucifer. You need to have one of the gods at your side at all times. They will protect you since you are the ones that they are hoping to have you take over for them soon.¡± He was right about that. They would likely protect me at all costs.


    ¡°Fine.¡± I didn¡¯t argue. I would feel better with them at my side anyway.


    ¡°Fine.¡± Mom sighed the word as she shook her head. ¡°Then you can join us, Talia. You can be a part of the battle.¡± She wasn¡¯t happy about it, but she was relenting and letting me be a part of the action. I wasn¡¯t in it for the excitement though. I just felt a sense of responsibility and duty to see this through until the end. It was the right thing to do.


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 Chapter 978

    Chapter 978: Chapter 163- Trinity ¨C Reinforcements Begin to Arrive (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After we all got some rest, and Talia came to practically demand that we allow her to be a part of the battle, it was time for me to open the doors to the other territories. I knew that not everyone wasfortable with travelling through the dimensional doors, or whatever they were. I knew that we weren¡¯t going from one dimension to another when I opened them, but I sort of felt like we were walking in another one, a different and much smaller dimension, whenever we travelled like that.


    I opened the doors to all those that were willing toe immediately. We didn¡¯t know how many Ancient Ones and Jaegan that there were going to be when the battle began. Talia¡¯s vision didn¡¯t show how many people there were, and it didn¡¯t even show how many Ancients were there. The only thing that she knew for the total number of people was from the voices. And she had said that it sounded like there were at least a hundred of them.


    I also didn¡¯t know how easy it was going to be to fight against these Ancient Ones. Were they going to be harder to kill than most other people that we fought in the past because they were the equivalent of the Gods? Or were they going to be more like the supernatural beings more akin to humans? Had the loss of their magic over the years been enough to make the enemies that were less of a threat?


    I didn¡¯t really think that thest part of that was going to be true. For one thing, if they weren¡¯t a threat to us, then they would not have been able to sessfully kill so many of my people. Yes, it¡¯s true that it was the human Jaegan family that was killing them, but they wouldn¡¯t have been able to do that if it weren¡¯t for the Ancient Ones. I knew that these people were a threat to us, and that was all that mattered to me. And whether there were only a hundred of them that attacked us, I was not going to face them with less than five thousand men and women. I was going to make sure that we had all that we needed to annihte thempletely.


    .....


    The first doors that I opened went to the surrounding areas. Riley¡¯s pack, Trevor¡¯s pack, Bryce¡¯s pack, even my brother Carter¡¯s pack, they all sent a handful of their warriors to fight with us. I made sure to tell them all that they needed to keep some of their warriors behind. We were told that the battle wasing to us, but there was no telling if that was a trick or not. It could very well have been a ploy to make the other packs vulnerable. They needed to defend their ownnds as well.


    I opened the doors to thends that I visited while investigating the murders. The packs in Wales, Irnd, Scond, Ennd, Australia and all of the others. They all sent some of their warriors as well. They were happy to be getting the chance to avenge those that they had lost. I knew that they would want to be here for this, that was why I offered them the next slots avable.


    When I opened the door to Wales and found that they had all gathered for the trip here and were moring for the chance toe through it and into thend of the royal family. I think that they were the most excited about it because they were the ones that Reece and I, as well as the others, had stayed at the most when we were gone.


    ¡°Cadwal?¡± I called out when he rushed through the door.


    ¡°Queen Trinity!¡± He eximed excitedly. He didn¡¯t drop to his knees and bow to me like he did the first time that we met, but he was still looking more than a little reverent as he stared at me. ¡°We are here to help you, my Queen. And we are looking forward to getting justice for our people who were murdered.¡± He put a hand over his heart and bent at the waist. It wasn¡¯t a full on kowtowing or genuflecting, but it was a sincere sign of respect nheless.


    ¡°Thank you, Cadwal.¡± I held my hand out toward him and encouraged him to straighten up so that he could shake it. ¡°I am happy to have your assistance.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°I would like to catch up with you after the battle is over.¡±


    ¡°As would I.¡± Reece nodded at him, and I knew what that was about. He was going to talk to him about Westin.


    ¡°Wonderful.¡± Cadwal grinned and blushed. I knew that he was happy that the King and Queen were showing such interest in him. He would probably brag about thister.


    The others continued to pour through the door as the time went on. I couldn¡¯t leave all of the soldiers and their leaders just standing around, so I sent them to the barracks that were at the back of the property. This was where the other men, those that were being formally trained by my higher ranked soldiers, lived while they were staying in thepound.


    The other Alphas and Coven leaders that joined us stayed near Reece and I. That was fine, they were the ones that were in charge and therefore needed to know when to call their men. Not to mention, we would be having a meeting once everyone had finished arriving.


    I knew that several of these people wereing when it was veryte at night, or likewise very early in the morning. They weren¡¯t the most well rested, but they were able to make do with it at the moment. They were ready to fight, and that was all that mattered.


    Hopefully, we still have two or three days until the battle starts. That was the time frame for Talia¡¯s other visions. Three days. That was how long she had had after each vision before the Jaegan acted on the images that she had seen. This most recent one, as different as it felt to her, should follow the same time frame. I hoped anyway. There was just no saying, especially considering that it was not the same type of dream or vision that she had had before.


    We stood around in the courtyard of the castle as the others arrived steadily. Reece, Vincent, Shawn, Dietrich, Shane, David, Riley, Landon, Trevor, Athair m¨®r, Carter and Noah were all there with me as the steady stream of men and women arrived to help us out. They were directing the people to where they were supposed to go. They were helping me to guide these people even though, as their Queen, it was my responsibility. That was fine though. Hadn¡¯t I been told many years ago that I needed to let others help and to do their fair share of the work? If I tried to do all of this myself, I would probably mess up and send the soldiers to some random location as they tried toe through the door. Nope, delegate and ept help, that¡¯s what I needed to do, and I was making sure that I did just that.


    ¡°I think that is it for now.¡± I nodded as the two dozen doors seemed to be done with their stream of warriors. It had been steady at the beginning. Then it became a trickle that was slowly pouring through the doors, and now it was like someone had turned off the faucet altogether. No one wasing through at all anymore. At least, I didn¡¯t think that they were.


    Just as I started to close the doors, there was someone that started to yell.


    ¡°Wait! Wait! I aming too.¡± A boy, and that was all that he was, yelled as the door started to fade.


    ¡°Huh?¡± I looked at the door that his voice wasing through. It was the one that was in the south of Ennd. It was connected to Nigel¡¯s office in Wolfhamm.


    ¡°Arthur!?¡± The man yelled back at his office as a boy of sixteen burst through to our side.


    ¡°Hahh. Hahh. Made it.¡± Arthur was grinning as he looked around. ¡°Oh wow, a real castle.¡±


    ¡°What the hell are you doing here, Arthur?¡± Nigel growled at his son.


    ¡°I want to help.¡± Arthur was looking all around as he spoke. ¡°I am a warrior too.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re sixteen.¡± I countered his words.


    ¡°Yeah, and that makes me a man in most cultures.¡±


    ¡°Not in ours.¡± Nigel was angry.


    ¡°I want to help.¡± He got angry and argued with his father.


    ¡°I told you not toe here.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t care.¡± He stood his ground, and was toe to toe with his dad. ¡°I am old enough to make my own decisions. And I want to be here. I want to help the King and Queen. It¡¯s my duty as a man and a wolf.¡±


    ¡°Arthur!¡± Nigel was about to yell at his son.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Nigel.¡± I put a hand on his shoulder. ¡°He can help.¡± I gave him a meaningful look. ¡°Arthur, when the battle starts, I need some men and women to protect my younger children. Will you be able to do that?¡±


    ¡°What?!¡± He looked shocked. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be on the battlefield then.¡± He was heartbroken.


    ¡°Not initially, but if the fighting breaks past us, you will have to fight to the death to protect Princess Zaley, Prince Zachary, Prince Zander and Prince Zayden. And you will be protecting them along with Princess Rika and Prince Reagan. It is a major thing that I need to make sure is staffed properly. Can I count on you to protect my children?¡± I knew that this arrangement would satisfy Arthur¡¯s need to show that he was a man, and Nigel¡¯s need to protect his son.


    ¡°Yeah. I can do that with no problem, Queen Trinity. I will protect your children with my life.¡± He put a hand over his heart and bowed to me. Was that a gesture that the people of my kingdom had gotten together and discussed? Did they talk about the proper way to bow to the Queen if they ever met her in person? I didn¡¯t know for sure, so I wasn¡¯t really able to rule it out.


    I was about to dismiss them all when there was a sudden and frantic voice in my head.


    ¡®Queen Trinity!?¡¯ Kiernan, one of the two scouts sent to look for the Jaegan, sounded panicked and worried. I wondered briefly what it could have been about, but I didn¡¯t linger on the thoughts for long. I could just ask him what was happening.


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 Chapter 979

    Chapter 979: Chapter 164- Kiernan ¨C Scouting the Jaegan (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Kiernan


    ~~


    ¡°We are sending the two of you.¡± King Reece¡¯s voice was firm and steady as he looked at me and Javier standing in front of him. We had been summoned to the Queen¡¯s office after they had wrapped up a meeting earlier.


    ¡°We have been given a general location.¡± Queen Trinity continued as she exined in more detail. I knew what it was that we were supposed to be doing. And the reason behind it as well.


    The King had gone outst night to arrest a group of murderers. I hadn¡¯t been part of that group, but I knew about the mission. And I was happy that I was being chosen for this trip. One of the men fromst night, one that was not particrly loyal to their family members, told us the approximate location of the cabins that their leaders were staying in. And the two of us needed to narrow it down. The King and the Queen wanted to march on them and take the battle away from the city. They didn¡¯t want to be blindsided by an attack that came to their home, and I didn¡¯t me them for that at all. For one thing, all the children of the King and Queen were at the castle. And, furthermore, all of the children of their guards and family members were there as well. It was supposed to be a safe ce for them, and a battle happening in the courtyard would not be good for any of them.


    Queen Trinity exined the general location and everything that the man, Gustav, had told her about the leaders of the Jaegan. I didn¡¯t know much about this family, or group, or whatever they really were. However, I did know that they were the ones that were responsible for killing all those people. All the super naturals that were on the news in this country and around the world. Though the humans didn¡¯t know that they were shifters, magic users, vampires and others such as those. They had been murdered, and these people were the ones that did it.


    .....


    When Javier and I left the castle, I wasn¡¯t scared at all. On the contrary, I was excited, happy, and proud. My King and Queen were showing trust in me. They were showing me that they knew that I was loyal to them and could do my job. What more of an honor could a soldier such as me hope for?


    As we started off into the mountains about twenty miles out of the city, I could feel that my eyes were practically glowing. That was something that happened often, since I was a feline and my eyes picked up the light so easily, but I knew that this time my bright yellow eyes were glowing because I was excited. And my rusty, reddish brown hair seemed to be standing on end. I knew that this was also from my excitement that was coursing through me. If only Javier, the bear shifter that was apanying me, was as excited. He seemed nervous and scared from the moment that we left the castle. And he didn¡¯t speak at all as we entered the mountains in search of the off the grid cabins.


    The location that we were at showed no buildings when you looked at a map, and that meant that these were either new builds, or secret builds. No one would really care if there were cabins out here, and I was sure that this was privately owned property, so they had every right to build these cabins, but it was still unnerving to not know what was out here.


    I knew that we were getting close to where we needed to be though. Queen Trinity and King Reece had made us smell the bad men that were in the dungeons. They stank to high heaven. Which I found weird. Why didn¡¯t the ones that were working with us smell like that? If they were all from the same family and group of people, shouldn¡¯t they smell the same? And I guess there was a lingering sort of odor that clung to them, but it was nowhere near as horrible as it wasing off of the others. It smelled rotten and dead, but they were alive. It just didn¡¯t make any sense to me at all.


    ¡°Keep a sharp eye on the terrain.¡± Javier said as we started to get higher into the mountains. ¡°They might have some sort of booby traps out here.¡±


    ¡°I doubt that they will, but don¡¯t worry, I will keep an eye out for it.¡± I saw that he was a lot more wary of these people than I was.


    Since we were on the right trail, evident by the smell, I didn¡¯t really think that this tracking mission was going to be that hard. We followed the smell further and further into the mountains until we came across a more leveled off section. The two cabins that we found there still had the support stilts that one needed to build on terrain like this, but it wasn¡¯t as bad as I thought it was going to be. And the domiciles were also a lot different than I thought that they were going to be.


    These were luxury cabins. They weren¡¯t what hade to mind when I heard that we were looking for cabins. Not at all. These ces were mansions that were made to look like cabins. And there were two of them that were rtively close together. I was guessing that they were for two different families that were close, yet still wanted to live separately up here in the secluded mountains.


    ¡°There. I guess we found those pretty easily.¡± Javier said as he pointed at the cabins. ¡°We can get back to the castle and tell Queen Trinity what we found.¡±


    ¡°No. We can¡¯t go just yet. We¡¯re here as recon. We need to look into this a little more.¡±


    ¡°No. We don¡¯t need to go any further.¡± Javier protested as I started toward the houses.


    ¡°Then stay the fuck here, you chicken shit asshole.¡± I turned around and snapped at him. ¡°Either that or use your goddamn nose. This ce doesn¡¯t just reek of that nasty Jaegan stench. It also reeks of death. And if these people are already dead, then we need to let the King and Queen know about that.¡± I saw Javier take a deep breath through his nose. He hadn¡¯t picked up on the scent like I had.


    ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± He seemed to dete a little as he admitted that, his shoulders drooping and his head hanging low. ¡°We need to look into this ce more. We need to give a thorough report.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡± I snapped at him. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±


    We searched the outside of the property first, circling it in a manner that kept us out of sight of the windows and still at the advantage should someone make a surprise appearance. Though I didn¡¯t think that was likely. I couldn¡¯t sense anyone here. No sounds of breathing, footsteps, heartbeats, or anything at all. It was silent here, except for the sounds of Javier and I walking through the rocky terrain.


    We found the source of that smell, the one that smelled like death. And it was a grouping of dead bodies that had been unceremoniously thrown into a ravine behind those mansion-like cabins. They looked like they had been there for a few weeks at the very least. And worst of all, those bodies were human.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t those assholes supposed to be all for saving the human race or whatnot?¡± I asked Javier as we looked at the bodies. There appeared to be two families there. Two middle aged men with slightly graying hair and lined faces, two beautiful women that were in their early forties, and six teenagers ranging in age from maybe thirteen to neen. Two families were here on vacation and murdered by these assholes.


    ¡°Yeah, they¡¯re supposed to be.¡± Javier said as he shook his head at the senseless loss of life. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s confirm that the houses are empty.¡±


    We knew that they were, so we each searched one house at a time. This was to be more efficient with our time. And, of course, we had been right all along. The houses were empty. Not a single person was in there, but that stench was very thick and strong inside of the homes. They have been here, and recently too.


    ¡°There are a lot of trails that are nearby.¡± Javier said as he looked around the immediate area. ¡°Do you think that they have more cabins somewhere else? Did they change locations because they were discovered or something?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know?¡± I sniffed the various trails, looking for the freshest of them all. ¡°This trail smells strange.¡± I pointed at the one that was the strongest. ¡°I can smell the people moving in this direction, but it doesn¡¯t seem to me like they were all walking on the ground. It.. it¡¯s almost as if they were carrying some of them on their shoulders or something. Some of the scents are higher in the air. And that just doesn¡¯t make sense to me. Are these leaders so pretentious that they can¡¯t walk on their own?¡± I just knew that something was wrong with this scenario.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. This whole group is weird.¡± Javier shook his head. ¡°Let¡¯s follow after them. We need to see where they went.¡± We started down the path that these people took.


    We were moving slowly as we followed the trail. It was wide and so spread out that we weren¡¯t really sure if they were moving off in different groups or not. It didn¡¯t matter though, all of the groups seemed to be moving in the same general direction. Still, we had to keep checking to make sure that they hadn¡¯t circled back to hide their trail.


    ¡°Does this seem familiar to you?¡± Javier asked as we followed the trail over a ridge.


    ¡°Yeah, it does.¡± The area that we were in was not where we had started the search in, nor had we walked in a circle, so I knew that we hadn¡¯t been to this ce already tonight, but I had definitely been here. Why did it look so familiar? Where were we right now?


    I straightened up and looked around where we were. I saw the trees, the way that the mountains were shaped, all of it. And that was when I knew where we were. We were just outside of the city, and we were approaching the castle. They were heading into Colorado Springs, and they were going to attack.


    ¡°I need to call the Queen right now. I need to tell her what is going on right now.¡± I immediately opened the connection between our minds, that link that we all had to her. And I spoke frantically out loud as I sent the message to her telepathically. ¡°Queen Trinity!?¡±


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 Chapter 980

    Chapter 980: Chapter 165- Trinity ¨C Distress Call (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡®Queen Trinity!?¡¯ Kiernan¡¯s panicked and scared voice came thrumming through my mind.


    ¡®What is it, Kiernan?¡¯ I asked him hurriedly. I was worried that he or Javier had been attacked while they were scouting for the secret hideout for the Jaegan leaders, or the administration as some of them called it. ¡®Are you hurt? Did something happen? Are the two of you alright?¡¯ I let him know that I was worried about them, and that I would be there to help him as soon as I needed to if I had to be.


    ¡®No, Queen Trinity, we are OK. We are not hurt. W..we found the location where the Jaegan leaders were hiding. W..we know where they were.¡¯


    ¡®Were?¡¯ I asked him as I picked up the use of past tense in his voice.


    .....


    ¡°Trinity?¡± Trevor came up next to me as he noticed that I was staring off into the distance. It wasn¡¯t like I wanted to look like a space case, but it was unavoidable when you were talking through a mental connection to other people. ¡°Is everything OK?¡± He mimicked some of my concern. He knew what it was that I was doing, he had seen me make this expression often enough to know that I was talking to someone else.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± I told him as I listened to Kiernan. ¡®What do you mean by you know where they were?¡¯ I added to Kiernan after I answered Trevor.


    ¡®They are not there anymore, Queen Trinity. They are on the move. I don¡¯t know when they left, how soon before we got there, but they were gone. We found the humans that used to live in those huge cabins that they were in, but they were dead. Probably killed by the Jaegan a couple weeks ago. Those people, the Jaegan, were living in those houses, but they aren¡¯t there now. And when Javier and I followed their trail, I noticed that they wereing back toward the city.¡¯ He paused for a moment, I could tell that he was steeling his nerves. This was something that I was able to physically feel through the connection, but I never told anyone about it. If they knew that, then none of them would ever want to talk to me like this again. They would be afraid of what I was able to sense from them.


    ¡®What is it?¡¯ I asked Kiernan just as Reece came over and said almost the same thing.


    ¡°What is it, Little Bunny? What is happening?¡± He, like Trevor, was worried about what was happening and the fact that I was talking to someone that wasn¡¯t here. At least I knew that they didn¡¯t think that I was crazy or anything like that.


    ¡®Queen Trinity, I..I am sure that they are on their way to the castle. Th..they are heading into the city, but their trail smells strange.¡±


    ¡®Strange how, Kiernan?¡¯ I needed to have the answers as soon as possible.


    ¡®W..well, some of their scents are like they aren¡¯t on the ground. I..I am wondering if they are being carried, because they can¡¯t fly, can they?¡¯ He was thinking that it was just the Jaegan and no one else. If the Ancient Ones were already with them, then they would be flying. Though, why didn¡¯t they pick up on that scent? Why didn¡¯t Kiernan and Javier notice if the Ancient Ones were with them?


    ¡®Hey, I need to ask you, is there another scent among them? Is there something other than that smell you were following?¡¯


    ¡®No. Just that smell, but it is a lot stronger here than it was there at the castle. I think that it¡¯s just because there are so many of them. We will continue following the trail, Queen Trinity, but I think that they areing to the castle. I think that they areing for a fight.¡¯ His words weren¡¯t news to me. I knew why they wereing. And he was exactly right.


    ¡®Keep following them, Kiernan, and be ready to fight if they make it to the castle. There will be a battle if that happens.¡¯


    ¡®Yes, My Queen.¡¯ The connection was cut off after that. He and Javier got back to their job that I had assigned them. I, on the other hand, had another job to get to.


    ¡°Trinity?¡± Vincent called for me as he too joined Reece and Trevor at my side. The others wereing closer as well. They all looked worried and determined. ¡°Was that the trackers that you sent out?¡± He could tell that I was out of my trance-like state now.


    ¡°Yes, it was.¡± I started to march back toward the group of leaders that were waiting for us.


    ¡°What happened?¡± Reece asked as he ran after me. I didn¡¯t answer him specifically, I just addressed the group as a whole, raising my voice to be heard across the courtyard, not only that but I also raised myself up onto an invisible tform so that I could stand high above them. I needed them all to see me and hear me right now.


    ¡°EVERYONE!¡± I called out to them and saw that they all instantly snapped their heads in my direction. I saw a few very specific people among the groups. Artem was there, standing with his people from California. There was Doc from Waterton as he stood with Analise and Reef from the Council. There were others with them as well, two men with dark hair, one looked like he had blue highlights in his hair while the other had red highlights. I was sure that I had met them before, but at the moment I was drawing a nk on their names. There were also the faces from the European, Asian and Oceanic parts of the investigation. They were all looking at me expectantly, just as I knew that they would be.


    ¡°I just heard from the men that I sent out as scouts.¡± I knew that my voice would carry to them all easily enough now. All of the talking hadpletely stopped in the courtyard. My voice was the sound that could be heard in the eerie silence surrounding us. ¡°They found where the Jaegan Administration had been hiding. However, they are not there anymore. We must hurry, all of us. They are marching toward the castle as we speak. I do not know how long we have until the battle will begin, but I know that it is imminent.¡±


    ¡°WHAT?!¡±


    ¡°NOW!?¡±


    ¡°WE DID NOT EVEN HAVE TIME TO STRATEGIZE!¡±


    Several worried voices met mine, and just as I was about to start reassuring them, I felt a shift in the air beside me as Reece leapt from the ground to the tform that I was standing on. He was lucky that I had made it big enough for him to stand on. If not, he would have crashed back to the ground.


    ¡°HUSH!¡± Reece raised his voice as he got their attention again. ¡°WE MAY NOT HAVE STRATEGIZED, BUT YOU ALL KNOW WHAT TO DO. WE WILL BREAK INTO GROUPS AND ATTACK THE ENEMY IN GROUPS. NEVER LET ANYONE GO OFF ON THEIR OWN. THIS IS IMPORTANT. THIS BATTLE IS FOR THE SAFETY OF ALL OF OUR PEOPLE. WE CANNOT AFFORD TO LOSE THIS. I KNOW THAT YOU CAN DO THIS, I TRUST YOU ALL AND I BELIEVE IN OUR ABILITIES TO DESTROY THE ENEMY.¡± In true King fashion, Reece inspired our people that were starting to sound scared.


    ¡°WE DON¡¯T HAVE THE TIME TO WAIT FOR MORE SPEECHES.¡± I told them calmly but firmly. ¡°GATHER YOUR PEOPLE NOW. THOSE THAT ARE PROTECTING THE INNOCENT BYSTANDERS IN THE CASTLE SHOULD GO THERE NOW! THIS IS IT, PEOPLE! THIS IS THE BATTLE FOR OUR FUTURE!¡±


    They all started to scatter as they moved to where they were supposed to be. I saw Arthur running toward the front door of the castle, he was intending to protect my children as he said that he was going to. I needed to tell them what was happening as well. I needed to let those in the castle know that the battle was about to begin.


    ¡®EVERYONE IN THE CASTLE NEEDS TO MOVE TO SAFETY. THOSE THAT ARE PLANNING TO FIGHT THE BATTLE AGAINST THE JAEGAN SHOULD MAKE THEIR WAY TO THE COURTYARD AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. WE HAVE LITTLE TIME UNTIL THEY WILL BE HERE.¡¯


    After I addressed them all as a group, I started to send messages to my children.


    ¡®Talia, you and Alexio should make your way to my side as soon as possible. I know that Alexio will be protecting you, but I still want you near me at all times as well.¡¯


    ¡®I understand. I will be right there.¡¯


    That went a lot easier than expected. And I knew that Alexio already knew to get ready for the battle. Rudy, on the other hand, was going to protect the kids inside the castle. Now, I needed to send another message.


    ¡®Can you hear me?¡¯ I knew that they could, but Zachary, Zander, Zayden, and Zaley were not used to me talking to them like this.


    ¡®Yes, Mommy.¡¯ Their voices came shakily. They had heard the announcement as well.


    ¡®The bad people that we have been after are on their way. I am sending people to protect you. Reagan and Rika will be there as well as Rudy and some other guards. You will all be OK. Daddy and I wille to see you as soon as we can, OK.¡¯


    ¡®I understand.¡¯ Zaley sounded calm, but there was a little shakiness to her voice.


    ¡®I want to fight too.¡¯ Zachary said in a firm tone.


    ¡®Me too.¡¯ Zander¡¯s voice came next.


    ¡®No.¡¯ Zayden was their voice of reason. ¡®Stay here like Mommy said. And protect Zaley if you have to. Mommy and Daddy won¡¯t let you fight out there.¡¯


    ¡®He is right.¡¯ I gave my answer. ¡®Stay put, and don¡¯t do anything that will get you hurt.¡¯


    ¡®Alright.¡¯ I felt the defeat in their voices, but it was also mixed with fear.


    ¡®Reagan? Rika?¡¯ I called out to them.


    ¡®We know, Mom.¡¯ Reagan¡¯s voice came first.


    ¡®You already told us. We are taking all of the kids to the panic room.¡¯ The panic room was new, but I felt that it was needed.


    ¡®Protect them for me. I know that you won¡¯t have to fight, but I need to make sure that they don¡¯t run out here to do anything they shouldn¡¯t.¡¯


    ¡®They will be just fine, Mom.¡¯ Reagan¡¯s mature and confident voice reassured me. When did he grow up so much? I knew that it had happened, and it had happened right in front of my eyes, but it was hard to remember just when it had gotten to this point.


    ¡®I love you both so much.¡¯


    ¡®We love you too, Mom.¡¯ Rika¡¯s voice was a lot more calm and mature than it had been over thest several days. That was good to hear.


    ¡®See you soon, Mom.¡¯ Reagan was trying to sound confident so that he wasn¡¯t worried about Reece and I.


    ¡°Alright everyone.¡± I turned to look at my personal entourage, those that were a part of my group from the beginning, or almost since the beginning. ¡°This is what we have been waiting for. We knew that this was going to happen sooner orter. I just thought that we had more time to n for it.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Trinity.¡± Trevor¡¯s voice was hard and steady. He was more than ready for a battle. ¡°The sooner that we destroy these people, the sooner we can return to peace.¡±


    ¡°We got this, Trinity.¡± Landon gave me a thumbs up.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry so much, Trinity. We are here for you.¡± Riley grinned at me.


    ¡°I trust in you, Garin¨ªon. We will win this battle. I have faith in you and in us. We have fought battles together before. There is nothing to worry about.¡±


    One by one, they all reassured me that it was going to be OK. I truly hoped that they were right. I didn¡¯t want to lose a single one of them. I needed them all in my life.


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 Chapter 981

    Chapter 981: Chapter 166- Trinity ¨C The Battle Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was still floating high in the air as I started to look around. I knew that the enemy was doing, but I didn¡¯t know how soon they were going to be here. I wanted to be able to see them ahead of time. I wanted to give us a little bit of a warning before they just showed up out of nowhere.


    Reece was still standing next to me as I circled the courtyard, spinning in a slow circle. As I did this, I saw that the soldiers and warriors were running to take their ce. I had not quite reached my goal of five thousand since I had stopped having that many soldiers on hand at once. The others, who weren¡¯tfortable with the doors, were still on their way here. Still, I probably had over four thousand people here right now. Possibly even forty-five hundred of them. And that was a mixture of my formally trained soldiers that were extremely skilled, and the men and women that the leaders all brought with them. I thought that it was plenty though. At least I hoped that it would be.


    I saw the moment that Talia and Alexio ran from the front of the castle and toward me and Reece. I was about to make a set of stairs for her to get to us, ones that would be visible so that they could climb them easier, but it wasn¡¯t necessary. Alexio grabbed Talia around the waist, bent his knees as he ran and leapt up to the tform with as much ease as Reece had. They were both very strong and skilled men.


    In truth, I was happy to have Alexio here. He had fought with the Gods before. It was possible that these Ancient Ones were part of those battles. He might know how to kill them. And he was also the best choice to protect Talia. He was going to make sure that she didn¡¯t get hurt at all.


    .....


    ¡°I am d that you are here.¡± I didn¡¯t truly mean that for Talia, since I didn¡¯t want her to be a part of this battle at all, but I knew that I had no choice. She was more versed in using her magic than Reagan and Rika. That was a failure on my part, I guess. Talia had learned on her own because she had to. And she also learned from the current Gods of the underworld. However, Reagan and Rika never showed much of an interest in the magical aspects of their powers. I knew that wasn¡¯t right though. I should make them learn, just in case something like this ever happened again. Perhaps formal lessons would be in the cards for them after this.


    Damn, I was getting off on tangents. This battle was scattering my mind as well as my nerves. And Talia being here wasn¡¯t helping. I didn¡¯t want her here at the battle, as I mentioned before. Not because she couldn¡¯t protect herself, but because I was a mother and wanted her to be safely away from this fighting. I couldn¡¯t stop her though. I knew that Talia, with her magical prowess, would just leave the castle, even if I locked her into a cell in the dungeon. She would use her magic to leave there ande fight these assholes and monsters that were drawing ever nearer. At least like this, with the conditions that we made, I knew that she was going to be safe because she was near me, Reece, and Alexio at all times.


    ¡°Are you OK, Mom?¡± Talia asked me as she looked at my stern and tight face.


    ¡°No, Talia, I am not OK. I have a battle that is about to start on what is literally my front yard. I have all seven of my children here at the castle right now. I don¡¯t know how difficult this fight is going to be either, so I am worried that someone that I love and care about very much might get hurt. There is just so much that could happen today, and it¡¯s got me feeling tense. That is to be expected though. I mean, this is war, quite literally. It might be the first time that we have taken part in that war that these people are waging against us, but it is war all the same.¡± I turned and gave her as calm and loving of a look as I could manage at the moment. I hoped that I didn¡¯t look scary instead. ¡°Stay safe, Talia. Please.¡± I took her hand in mind and squeezed it a little too hard.


    ¡°Ah.¡± She cried out from the quick pain, but she moved on almost instantly. ¡°I promise, Mom, I will be safe. I have you, Dad and Lex protecting me.¡± She looked a hell of a lot more confident than I did.


    I resumed my slow circle as I looked all around the area from the vantage point of the tform. I hadn¡¯t seen the enemy yet, but I knew that they wereing. It was just a matter of time. And, after a moment, I thought I did see something.


    Yup. There they were. It looked like a strange procession that was moving through the sky. They were literally walking through the air on what looked like an invisible bridge. It was almost like the tform that I was standing on with Reece, Talia and Alexio. And what was worse was the fact that they wereing from the direction of the city. How many people had seen them? How many people would now be looking for these beings as they marched through the air.


    It wasn¡¯t all of them that were marching through the sky. It looked to me like there were trucks that were rumbling along below them. Were the trucks filled with the rest of the enemies? Were they not marching toward us, but rather they were driving? And if so, when exactly did they start using the vehicle? Since Kiernan and Javier had followed their trail through the mountain, wasn¡¯t it more likely that they were going to walk the entire way?


    I saw that the trucks weren¡¯t ounting for all of them. Not by a long shot. There were only two trucks, and they looked more like tanks that were moving a lot faster than the heavily armored vehicles usually moved. I had a moment to wonder if they were perhaps meant to break down the walls of the castle, or perhaps the doors, or something else maybe. Whatever they were for, I just knew that they were not what I thought that this group would have with them at the moment.


    ¡°THEY ARE ALMOST HERE!¡± I called out to therge group in the courtyard. I even pointed in the direction that they wereing from. They were to the west of the main part of the city as they moved at an angle toward us. They would miss the heart of the city, but they would definitely be passing by several homes. I just hoped that they had some sort of cloaking ability.


    ¡°EVERYONE! BE PREPARED TO FIGHT!¡± Reece called out to them.


    ¡°I WILL TRY TO TALK TO THEIR LEADER FIRST, BUT BE PREPARED FOR THINGS TO TURN BAD AT ANY MOMENT!¡± I added. I didn¡¯t want Reece to make them attack before I had a chance to talk to these people. I needed to know what their reasoning behind this assault on my people was. And if the leader of the Ancient Ones was there, then I needed to hear from them as well.


    As I watched the group that was quickly making their way toward us, there was an eruption from the ground beneath us. I didn¡¯t know what it was at first, but a momentter, there was a door that was standing there in what looked like flowingva. Though theva never left that one little spot that the door was in, so it wasn¡¯t destroying my home or making my warriors run away.


    When the door opened, I was prepared for the fighting to begin instantly. I just knew that this had to be the first wave of the attack, and I wasn¡¯t the only one that thought that as well.


    I was wrong though. It wasn¡¯t an attack. It was a group of people that I knew, not too well, but well enough.


    The first out of the door was Hades. He didn¡¯t have his usual friendly smile as he looked around. He stopped searching when he saw me and Talia.


    ¡°We are here, Trinity. As promised. The warning of yours that the battle wasing didn¡¯t give us much time though. I am sorry for thete arrival.¡±


    ¡°You made it here before the enemy did, Hades, so you¡¯re notte. Thank you all foring to help.¡± The other Gods and Goddesses were filing out of the door now. They were all nodding at me and looking around the soon to be battlefield. I felt a little more relieved knowing that they were all here. Having Gods, ones with their powers intact, made this feel like we were more than equipped to fight these people and those beings.


    ¡°By my guess, the first of them will be here in less than sixty seconds.¡± I called out to the gathered troops. ¡°Be on your guard, but give me a chance to find out what I can from their leader. I want answers from them. I need to know what it is that they wanted to achieve from this war. Why is it that they targeted us.¡± I felt my heart racings as I spoke. I had never truly been this scared before a battle. Not even my first one. Was that because this one was happening at my home with my family so close? I had a feeling that was the case. And that just made me want to end this twice as fast. I was going to protect my family. I was going to protect them all.


    Reece, Reagan, Rika, Talia, Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley, they were all going to be safe, I would see to it. Mom, Dad, L, Grandfather, Ivy, Olivia, and all of the other kids in the family, they would be safe and survive all of this. I wouldn¡¯t let another life be lost to these people. I would give them my power, my strength, anything that I had and more. I would do all that I could to protect my family and my people.


    ¡°I will end this.¡± I spoke under my breath. ¡°And as soon as I possibly can.¡± Reece grabbed my hand right then and squeezed gently. He had heard me and he was agreeing with me.


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 Chapter 982

    Chapter 982: Chapter 167- Trinity ¨C The Battle Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    As I watched those that were walking through the sky, I stepped away from my family. They were going to be here in less than a minute, and I didn¡¯t want them that close to my family. I didn¡¯t want them that close to my daughter. I needed to protect them. I needed to make sure that my family and my people were safe. Wasn¡¯t that my job? Wasn¡¯t that what I was supposed to do? I thought so at least.


    As I stood several hundred yards in front of my family, I braced myself for what was about toe. Those people wereing even closer, and it almost didn¡¯t look like they were going to slow down. They didn¡¯t appear as if they were going to stop and talk to me. And if that was the case, then I would have to stop them and keep them away from the people that I loved.


    ¡°I see that you are waiting for us, Mongrel Scum.¡± A deep and angry voice resonated across the small gap between me and that group when they came to an abrupt stop. ¡°Someone must have warned you of our arrival.¡± He didn¡¯t look or sound happy. I could tell by the anger in his eyes that twitched at the people around him that he was wondering if someone here had snitched on him.


    ¡°I was alerted by my scouts that I sent out looking for you. You have a very distinctive smell, Sir, so it wasn¡¯t that hard for my people to find you.¡± His eyes widened and I took in his appearance, all of his appearance.


    .....


    I had thought that, since they were created around the same time, that the Ancient Ones would look very simr to the gods. That they would bear at least some sort of resemnce to the people of the world. Then again, I didn¡¯t know if the forms that I saw the gods in were their original forms or not. For all that I knew, the way that they looked before now could have been simr to this, as monstrous as that would have seemed.


    The man that was speaking, the one that was clearly their leader, was more like the idea of a demon to me than Alexio and Rudy were. He was tall, about nine feet tall to be exact. And his head, the one that was looking at me, was topped with huge ck horns that curled up and away from his face. He had two other heads, but they didn¡¯t appear to be fully functioning. In truth, it looked like they were there only to see and sense things, like an approaching enemy. And they had long, snaggle and snarling teeth that were blood stained. They had clearly been used to eat someone or something.


    The main head was what I tried to focus on. Its skin, simr to the second and third heads, was covered in a dark, burgundy red flesh that was insanely dry. It was cracked and peeling in several ces and a ckish ooze was seeping from the open sores. His nose was more of a snout, but it was longer than that of a pig or anything like that. It was almost like an anteater¡¯s nose, meant for more than just smelling normal things.


    The ears on the side of the heads, all three of them, were huge and looked almost like bat wings. If I didn¡¯t see the shells and the holes in the ears, then I would have thought that they were bat wings. He had wings though, on his back. They were giant and furled so that they stood up behind him like some monstrous bird.


    There were rows and rows of spiky horn-like things that ran down the monster¡¯s head and to his shoulders, from there those horn things ran down his arms, back and legs. His hands were tipped in ws that were at least two inches long, and he had a long scaly tail that swished behind him. There was only one thing to be said about this thing that was in front of me. He was ugly. Very ugly.


    I could definitely see why no one wanted to worship this creature. If he looked like this from the beginning of his time, then he would definitely frighten the humans away from him. And I wasn¡¯t sure if there was any level of benevolence that would make up for this evil appearance. Perhaps it wasn¡¯t the fault of the ancient ones that they weren¡¯t worshipped, maybe it actually had been because of the way that they looked.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± I asked the man, barely holding back the urge to ask him what he was.


    ¡°Do you dare to speak to the king in such a manner, you worthless piece of shit.¡± A human that I had not noticed before yelled from the monster¡¯s side. ¡°You hold your tongue and wait to be addressed.¡± He snapped at me again, his voice filled with hatred and anger.


    ¡°I am sorry, ass wipe, but since I am the Queen around here, and this is my fucking property, I will speak to whoever I want to. And while I am on the subject of finding out who people are, I am going to take a wild guess and say that you are Reginald, leader of the merry murdering band of bitches known as the Jaegan family.¡± I narrowed my eyes. I knew that I had pissed him off, but based on the sneer that the monster wore when the man spoke, interrupting what he was about to say, I could tell that this human was not particrly liked by the creature. Seeing that reaction in him, I was sure that I could give the man a taste of my attitude and not make the monster-man pissed off at me.


    ¡°Why, you little-.¡± The Jaegan asshole started to yell at me, but the Ancient One interrupted him.


    ¡°Enough Reginald Jaegan, the woman knows your name. That means that others have spoken to her. I knew that I should never put any trust in you people. All you humans are just as worthless as those mongrel monsters.¡± The beast of a creature turned back to me. ¡°What do you know of me, Mongrel Queen? How much have you been informed about my people?¡± He looked intrigued, but also very angry.


    ¡°They haven¡¯t told me anything.¡± I red at him. ¡°I have connections with people that know what you are though. I have been informed by a god, one that was there when you still had your full set of powers.¡± I didn¡¯t want to tell him that there were so many gods here at my disposal, the less that he was informed, the better.


    ¡°So, you did have an informant, just not one that I expected. How do you know the gods? What connection do you have with them other than that mongrel blood of yours.¡±


    ¡°My mongrel blood?¡± I asked him. ¡°I am sorry, how am I a mongrel?¡±


    ¡°You are a perverse race that was born from the gods and humans, how is that not a mongrel?¡± He shuddered as if disgusted.


    ¡°You are so wrong that it is hrious. Look monster dude, we weren¡¯t born from the gods. We were created by them. There is a big difference. The humans were changed when the followers of that god created their special race of beings. Did you think this entire time that the gods got it on with the humans and that is how we were made? Sorry to disappoint you, but you couldn¡¯t be more wrong.¡± There wasughter in my voice. I think that I was wanting to piss him off. Partially because he still hadn¡¯t told me his name. I was guessing that he was one of the ones from Talia¡¯s vision, but I couldn¡¯t be sure just yet. Assuming things would just make me look like him. Not physically like him, but in the intelligence department.


    ¡°DO NOT CALL KING OLORUD BY SUCH A CRUDE NAME!¡± Reginald snapped at me.


    ¡°HUSH, REGINALD!¡± Olorud yelled at him. ¡°YOU JUST GAVE HER MY NAME!¡±


    ¡°In truth, I knew your name already, I just didn¡¯t know which one you were. There were three of you in the vision that was sent to us.¡±


    ¡°Oh, so you did get the vision. And yet you still chose to face us.¡± Olorud grinned. ¡°I would have thought that you would be running away, frightened of your fate.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, except the vision wasn¡¯t the same as the other ones. It felt different to her, so we didn¡¯t need to worry about it all that much. I was sure that we would be safe, with nothing to worry about.¡± I red at him. ¡°Reginald, can I ask you something?¡± I narrowed my eyes at him, he was the one that had sent those murderers after my people.


    ¡°What, Mongrel Bitch?¡± He snapped at me.


    ¡°Damn, you are an asshole.¡± I shook my head and spoke under my breath before I asked my question. ¡°Why did you attack my people?¡± I gave him a look that said that I found him reprehensible.


    ¡°Why? Because you are beasts that seek to destroy the human race. My family, pure human since the beginning, has always sought to destroy you. We will rid the world of your monstrous blood and the filthy half breed abominations that you have all created to run amok among our people. You are trying to take over the poption of this, but we won¡¯t have that.¡±


    ¡°HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!¡± I wasughing hysterically. These people didn¡¯t know anything about the way the world really was. I mean, they didn¡¯t even know how many of us there really were.¡±


    ¡°What is so funny to you, bitch?¡± Reginald sneered at me. ¡°Why do youugh at me?¡±


    ¡°I amughing, Reginald, because you seem to be woefully misinformed. We are not trying to take over the world. Though we have a strong foothold here since we have been living here for so long.¡± I shook my head, trying to not let the anger get the best of me. ¡°Do you even know how many of us there are in the world?¡± I so wanted to blow this man¡¯s mind. I was sure that they would be drooling messes when they found out.


    ¡°You have no more than mere thousands at the moment, and we will end you all before the virus of your species infects the world too much.¡±


    ¡°HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!¡± Iughed maniacally again. I just couldn¡¯t help it. He really was so stupid.


    ¡°Again, with theughter.¡± He was getting so annoyed with me.


    ¡°Reginald, you are so stupid. Even when your ancestor, ric Jaegan fought with my friend, Dietrich, the Vampire King, there were more than thousands of us in the world. At the present moment though, we take up more than half of the world¡¯s poption. My people, which includes all the shifters and magic users in the world, along with the Fae and Vampires, ount for half of the people on this. How is it you n to eliminate us all? They will kill you before you get too far into this battle.¡± I was shaking my head in exasperation.


    ¡°You lie!¡± Reginald screamed at me. He clearly didn¡¯t know the truth. ¡°That is all a lie! There are not that many of you. We have been told by the founders of our family! ric hated the nonhumans, he fought to eliminate them until his death.¡±


    ¡°No, Reginald, you were lied to. And I am guessing that it was them that lied to you. They seem to have been ying a long game here.¡± I was pointing at Olorud, who just happened to be smirking in a satisfied way. He had really been conning this man for a long time.


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 Chapter 983

    Chapter 983: Chapter 168- Trinity ¨C The Battle Part 3 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I could see the fear and the distrust start to bubble up in Reginald¡¯s eyes. He didn¡¯t understand what was happening. He didn¡¯t know what to believe anymore. And that wasn¡¯t easy for him toe to terms with. It wouldn¡¯t have been easy for anyone.


    ¡°Y..you lied to us? B..but, why?¡± His voice was shaking as he turned to speak to Olorud. ¡°Why would you lie to us? We were partners. We¡¯ve been helping you this entire time.¡±


    ¡°You were my pawns, you fool. You were meant to create an army for us, but that was all. We sought out your family because of the connection with the supernatural world. What she said is true, your founder fought with them, not against them. They tasked themselves with keeping the peace around the world, and I didn¡¯t like that. I wanted the races to fight. I wanted the wars to continue, but I didn¡¯t have the ability to do it on my own. I knew that I needed help. I needed someone to work with me. I needed your family to be my test subjects. If we could manipte you and change you all, then we would be able to take over the world. I admit, I did not know how much their poption had grown, but I didn¡¯t care. I just wanted an all out war in this realm.¡± Olorud wasughing maniacally after having exined this to the human that was next to him.


    ¡°I..I don¡¯t understand. You weren¡¯t the ones that started this. I..it was the nannies. They are the ones that brought us to you. They are the ones that told us to work with you. You didn¡¯t do anything to my family over the years.¡± I could see confusion and remorse in the man¡¯s eyes.


    .....


    ¡°HA HA HA HA HA!¡± Olorudughed again. ¡°You fool! Do you not know where those nannies came from? The ones that you all called grannies. They weren¡¯t human. How could they have been? They were sent by me. They were my minions that were feeding you all lies, among other things.¡± That look on Olorud¡¯s face mixed with the words that he just said, none of it sat very well with me. I was almost content to let Reginald¡¯s mind be blown before this battle started. I was seeing a fissure in their ranks, and the fighting hadn¡¯t even begun yet, but that needed to take a back burner.


    ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± I asked Olorud. ¡°What else did you feed them?¡±


    ¡°Why, magic of course. Sort of. I made them a little more like me and my people. My minions, the ones that remained on earth for as long as they could, they fed their children their blood. It weakened them, and one of my minions died a while back. The other one is still there though. That one has remained with them for so long. And I knew that she was the one that I needed to have there among those fools. It was so easy for her to manipte them and turn them against the faith that their patriarch had in the world of nonhumans. I have enjoyed watching their corruption. And after I destroy you, Mongrel Queen, I will watch the rest of the world turn to my side like this family has. You will see. They will all join me. Muwah ha ha ha ha ha.¡± He threw his head back andughed again. He was a crazy son of a bitch, but that didn¡¯t matter at all. I was still stuck on the fact that he had just said that his little minion had fed the Jaegan their blood. They were making them less human than they should have been.


    It was all starting to make sense to me now. These people were able to do what they did to the werewolves, vampires, and other supernatural people of the world, because they weren¡¯t human anymore. Not pure human. They were tainted. Their blood had been changed by that of someone else. And what was worse is that none of them knew about it. They were all kept in the dark about what was happening.


    I thought about the good people, the ones that didn¡¯t turned into murdering assholes with the others, Rayk, Clovio, Warrick, Armina, Gustav, they were all good, and there were likely others before they had been killed or forced intopliance. Those people proved that the blood wasn¡¯t what made them evil, it was the lessons and the brainwashing. Could I still save this family? Could I make it so that they weren¡¯t all a lost cause? I truly hoped that I could.


    ¡°I cannot believe that I trusted you, Olorud, that I trusted those hags. I should have just moved on with the family ideals. I should have tried to change the world without you.¡± Reginald, only partially understanding the truth, spat his words at Olorud.


    ¡°You don¡¯t get it, Reginald. Your family ideal, the one that ric started all those years ago, was to bring about peace among all the people of the world. He wanted to have the humans, the werewolves, the vampires, the warlocks, and all the other nonhuman people of the world to work together. He wanted to have world peace and unity. And that is something that I want as well. Your family is after world domination and control over others. That is not ric¡¯s ideal. If he could see you now, he would be so disappointed in you and all of his descendants.¡±


    ¡°YOU KNOW NOTHING! YOU EVIL MURDERING MONGREL BITCH!¡± He was able to see that Olorud used him, but he couldn¡¯t see that he was in the wrong here. I didn¡¯t understand him, or the way that he thought about this at all.


    ¡°You¡¯re an idiot, Reginald. A massive idiot!¡± I snapped at him in a stern voice. ¡°You are going to die here. If you do not surrender, then you are going to die with those ancient beings that stand next to you.¡±


    ¡°I would love to see you try.¡± He grinned. ¡°We have runes that you have never seen before. We can eliminate you before you even know what is happening to you.¡± His eyes were filled with a crazy sort of excitement. I knew that there was nothing at all that I could do to talk him down. And I also knew that Olorud would never be able to stop right here. He was after blood. He wanted to see me dead. He wanted to see us all dead. And nothing at all was going to stop him, except for his death.


    ¡°This is thest time that I am going to offer you this. Both of you need to give up right now. You need to think about this before you get hurt. We will kill you. That is a promise. Do you understand me? You will die. I don¡¯t want to kill you. I have been trying to make sure that my people are more civilized than that, but if you force my hand, then we will answer your call for war. We will give you the battle that you are so desperate for. Please, I urge you, stop this now and spare yourselves and the ones that you care about.¡±


    ¡°I WILL NOT STOP UNTIL I SEE YOUR HEAD ON A SPIKE, YOU EVIL MONSTER BITCH!¡± Reginald screeched at me with zing eyes and spittle flying from his mouth.


    ¡°Why stop now?¡± Olorud chuckled softly as he responded. ¡°This is my chance to end you all. I want you to see that no matter how powerful you think that you are, you are no match for us. Even with our magic diminished, you will not be able to stop us.¡±


    ¡°ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID!?¡± I screamed at Olorud. ¡°Do you not see that I am floating in the fucking sky the same as you are?¡± I shook my head at him. ¡°I am clearly more powerful than you think that I am. I swear, you act like there is nothing at all that could possibly stand up against you. You are so pathetic.¡±


    Instead of responding to me at all, Olorud just raised his hand into the air. I didn¡¯t know what he was doing at first, but I understood it after just a moment.


    He and Reginald weren¡¯t the only ones that were on the bridge that had brought them over to me, nor were they the only ones here period. There were several others on that bridge, most of them were more of those ugly and grotesque looking monsters like Olorud, but there were some of the Jaegan up there as well. And, on the ground, having marched closer while I was speaking with the man and the monster, there were hundreds of people. I didn¡¯t know how they had managed to get so many people here, but they were here now.


    This shouldn¡¯t matter to me at all. There were only a few hundred of these humans here. And however many of the Ancient Ones, those monstrous creatures, weren¡¯t going to win at all. They were going to find out very soon that I wasn¡¯t ying around here. I was going to make sure that they paid for attack my home and for murdering my people. Today was the end for them, it was their punishment day.


    ¡°KILL THEM ALL!¡± Olorud called out in a loud and excited tone of voice when his hand lowered to point at me. They were all cheering for him when he yelled again. ¡°ATTACK!¡±


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 Chapter 984

    Chapter 984: Chapter 169- Trinity ¨C The Battle Part 4 (VOLUME 4)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°ATTACK!¡± Olorud had yelled in a loud and passionate voice among the cheering of the Ancient Ones and the Jaegan that were gathered around them. They were ready to charge forward and try their luck against my army that was gathered here.


    I didn¡¯t care how many men and women that I had fighting for me at the moment. None of them were up here with me right now. And it was right then, when Olorud pointed at me, that at least a dozen people, monsters and humans alike, started to rush toward me.


    I wasn¡¯t worried for myself. No, I could handle what would happen to me, no matter what it was. What I was worried about was my daughter. Talia was here with me. And so was the man that I loved so dearly. I didn¡¯t want anything to happen to them. I couldn¡¯t live with myself if Reece or Talia got hurt in this fight.


    I was bracing myself for a fight, poised to stop these things before they could even get past me. At least, that was what I had nned on, but that isn¡¯t what actually happened.


    .....


    I was left with six people to fend off, but the other six or more, all of them those monstrous Ancient beings that were the masterminds, or puppet master, whatever you wanted to call them, those things had leapt off of the invisible bridge the moment that I swung at the first one with my long and lethal ws. The humans remained to fight me, but the monsters moved past me toward my family.


    ¡°NO!¡± I screamed as I turned to look at them.


    That had been a bad idea. The moment that I was looking away from the humans that were members of this attack party, one of themshed out at me with a long and deathly sharp sword that was made of pure white bone.


    ¡°Ahh!¡± I grabbed my left arm in pain as I spun back around. My blood was flying all over the ce as I red at the man.


    ¡°It¡¯s time for you to die, bitch.¡±


    The person that was facing me was a tall man with pitch ck eyes. He was pale and looked like he didn¡¯t get out much. Though he was tall, almost as tall as Reece, he looked like he did nothing but workout in a gym all of the time. He was literally a bodybuilder. Did they think that a man this big was all that it took to intimidate me? Did they think that I wouldn¡¯t be able to handle myself against this man? Yeah, well, they had another thinging if that was what they truly thought. I wasn¡¯t scared of this man just because he was bigger than me. I was the fucking Goddess Queen of all the shifters and magic users. I didn¡¯t take on that title without being powerful enough for it.


    As I red at the man, he swiped out toward me with his sword again. He was trying to cut me as much as he possibly could.


    ¡°I will cut you into ribbons, you animal cunt!¡±


    ¡°You truly are a vile person.¡± I shook my head at him. And it was all because of the words that he was spouting. ¡°Do you ever stop to think about the words that are about toe out of your mouth? I mean, seriously? What the hell is the matter with you?¡±


    As I spoke to the man, I was shifting parts of my body. Just small, controlled shifts that changed my hands into lethal tiger paws, and my legs into that of therge predator. I was going to use the legs to make my jumps a little more powerful, and the ws were for, well, you know. I didn¡¯t have a weapon on me at the moment because I was a weapon, hence the lethal ws that I had grown.


    ¡°I don¡¯t need to think about my words. I am reciting the gospel truth that my family had spread for years.¡±


    ¡°Sorry to burst your bubble buddy, but you were lied to. And now it¡¯s time for me to show you what the true power of a shifter really is.¡±


    ¡°NOT SO FAST!¡± A woman skidded to a halt next to the man. I hadn¡¯t noticed that she had gotten here before the other humans, but I guess she wasrger and faster than them. ¡°Take this!¡±


    The woman held up a device and clicked it in front of me. It was the thing that Talia had told us about, the one that was meant to hypnotize us and make us do whatever they wanted. When it didn¡¯t work, just like it hadn¡¯t worked in the parkst night, the woman clicked it again. And again. And again. It still wasn¡¯t affecting me at all. And she was furious.


    ¡°WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?¡± She screamed in frustration as she clicked it nonstop. It was shing its light, but it wasn¡¯t doing anything at all.


    ¡°Well, I am guarded against that, so you can¡¯t take over my mind. You need to see what a real shifter can do. Though, I am a special case. I can turn into just about anything.¡± I was grinning when Ished out this time. I swiped my ws first across that woman¡¯s belly and then across the man¡¯s face.


    The woman was going to be dead in a matter of minutes. Her wounds were deep and fatal. The man was bleeding, but he could live. He just wouldn¡¯t have much of a face anymore. I wasn¡¯t done though. I was going to make sure that I killed these people as well as the others that were here.


    I swiped at the man again. This time, instead of catching him across his face, I raked the lethally long ws down his chest until I reached his groin. I had leapt into the air as I did say, using my bodyweight to drive my ws in and gravity to pull me down. There was absolutely nothing that he could do. He was dead before he dropped to the bridge. Only the bridge was slick with blood now, and the way that hended meant that he wasn¡¯t going to stay on that bridge for long. It only took him a moment to slide to the side and fall to the ground. He was raining the battlefield beneath me in blood before he thumped to the ground below.


    The fighting wasn¡¯t done yet. Not even with just me and the Jaegan that were on the bridge with me. There were still four of them that were running toward me. They watched as I kicked the dead woman¡¯s body off of the bridge, but it didn¡¯t faze them at all. They just red at me and continued to run at me with their various weapons. They were like brainless zombies that weren¡¯t deterred by anything at all.


    I thought for a moment then. Were they actually like zombies? Were they mindless now that the creatures with whom they now shared blood were here. Were the Ancient ones able to control them? Were they able to make it so that the Jaegan, at least the soldiers of the group, had no freewill at all? If that was the case then I hated those monsters even more. I knew that the family had threatened them with death as they tried to take away their freewill, but herees a group of beings that they shouldn¡¯t even be involved with, and they might possibly have taken away their actual ability to have free will.


    The more that I thought about them, the more that I thought that the Ancient Ones were truly the devils and demons of the world. All of the old legends and stories, I am sure that they had more to do with them than the people that actually live in and run the underworld.


    I didn¡¯t have too much time to get lost in my thoughts though. I had these people that were attacking me, and they weren¡¯t behaving reasonably at all. They didn¡¯t care if they, or their family died. And that meant that they would do anything for the sake of victory. People like that were even more dangerous than normal people.


    I was about to parry a blow from another of the men that were running toward me. I saw that he had a long and gleaming knife in his hand, but I wasn¡¯t scared at all. And I was even less scared when someone leapt in front of me and knocked the knife out of his hand.


    Just as a ming sword cut through the man¡¯s body, Reece turned to look at me with gleaming eyes.


    ¡°Did you think that you could have all the fun without me, Little Bunny?¡± He was grinning. I knew that it was just because he was happy that I was OK. His entire body was thrumming with power and battle lust. He was a warrior, more so than any of the others on this battlefield. And that meant that fighting in this battle and protecting what he loved was what brought him to life the most.


    ¡°I was waiting for you to join me.¡± I grinned back at him, though I was still watching carefully for more of the threat that was looming over us. ¡°It took you long enough, didn¡¯t it?¡± I joked with him yfully as we both prepared to defend ourselves against the remaining attackers. The battle had officially begun.


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 Chapter 985

    Chapter 985: Chapter 170- Trinity ¨C The Battle Part 4 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    As Reece and I braced to face the horde that was on the bridge with us, I took sce in the fact that Talia was behind me and safe. I wasn¡¯t going to let any of these monsters get past me to hurt her. They were going to be stopped by me and Reece.


    There were more of the Jaegan that were fighting like they had nothing to lose, as well as those Ancient Ones, the monsters that looked like true nightmarese to life. The Jaegan fighters had weapons made of steel, bone, and other materials that didn¡¯t look normal to me. The Ancient Ones also had weapons, these ones were ck and looked as if they were sucking the light from the surrounding area rather than reflecting it.


    The entire scene was chaotic. That was the only way to describe it. There was fighting happening on the ground and here in the sky. The bridge that we were walking on had massively expanded size, both for us and for our opponents. Reece and I were running around and attacking anything and everything that wasing at us. We refused to give up. We refused to let any of these people, human or monster, get away with all that they had done.


    I was in the middle of fighting three Jaegan at once. I wasn¡¯t having a hard time handling them, not at all. They were only human, even if they had been slightly altered by the blood of the ancient demon looking creatures, they never were Gods. There was a way to describe them. They could have been Gods, they had the potential to be worshipped by the humans, but they hated the mortal beings so much that they never rose to the height of their potential. So now, they were nothing. They were not has beens, they were the group of never was. I think that would be the biggest insult to them, if I managed toe across Olorud once more, maybe I would see how he reacted to it.


    .....


    The three women from the Jaegan that I was fighting right now were quite skilled in theirbat, but they weren¡¯tnding any hits on me. I was skillfully dodging them and maintaining my position as I returned the hits to them. The women were fierce and strong, but I was more fierce and a hell of a lot stronger.


    ¡°Die, you evil monster bitch!¡± One of them screamed at me. She was perhaps a little upset with the way that I looked. I mean, I did still have those tiger paws, and the legs as well. My pants had even ripped because of the partial shift to the legs. I would be left with nothing but the fabric covering my important bits and the shredded remains of the legs when I shifted them back.


    ¡°I get that you see me as a monster, I mean, I am part animal right now, but what makes me evil?¡± I asked her causally as I parried the blow that she aimed at my head. I really shouldn¡¯t be taking this long to end them, but I wasn¡¯t really taking pleasure in taking their lives. They were just so woefully misinformed and brainwashed that none of this was actually their fault.


    ¡°You are a murderer, and you are trying to take over the world. You disgusting beastly woman!¡± Another of the women said as she aimed her sword at my ribs. I saw Reece take notice and start toward me, but I knocked the blow away with the ws. I also happened to take away her hand.


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to kill you, but you are leaving me no choice.¡± I said as I looked at the woman screaming and cradling her stumpy arm. I am very certain that she didn¡¯t hear me. And the others didn¡¯t listen to me at all.


    ¡°YOU BITCH!¡± The other two women yelled at the same time. They were aiming their swords at my neck and heart as they ran toward me. I swiped at them hard with my ws hands. One of them took the w across the throat, the other took them down the abdomen, but both of them went flying.


    The two flying women crashed into the one holding her arm. The bridge that we were on was holding the blood in arge puddle around the first woman, and when the other two hit her, they skidded in that puddle until they too went over the edge.


    ¡°I need to stop making them fall.¡± I said as Reece came up beside me.


    ¡°Why? It will guarantee that they¡¯re dead.¡± He shrugged like it wasn¡¯t a big deal.


    ¡°Yeah, but what if they fall on someone? I don¡¯t want one of our people hurt or killed by a falling bitch.¡± Reece smirked and shook his head.


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right. Dead by raining cunts wouldn¡¯t be a good way to die. Come on, Little Bunny, let¡¯s get back into the fight.¡±


    He had called me back because there was a fresh wave of enemies approaching. This time it was nothing but the Ancient Ones, or whatever it is that they called themselves now. Disgusting was the name that I most wanted to use for them.


    Six of those things were swarming down on Reece and I. Four headed his way, and I would have taken the extra to make it even, but I couldn¡¯t get to him at the moment. I was fighting what looked like twin serpents. Only these serpents were those kinds from legends that had a head at both ends. The ones that you saw in the ouroboros symbols. I have to admit that seeing two of them in person, and no less than fifteen feet in length, was not fun or pleasant at all.


    There was a difference in these twin snakes whenpared to the ones from the symbols. They had wings. Two sets of them. Each head had a set of wings beneath it. One of the snakes was pure ck and nearly disappeared in the night, if it hadn¡¯t been for the shes of magic and the flicker mes of multiple fires, then I wouldn¡¯t have been able to see it. The other snake was pure white, and reflected everything that was around me.


    I knew that I needed more to fight these monsters than just my ws. I had, thus far, only relied on my shifted powers, as vast as they were, to fight the Jaegan and monsters that I hade across, but now I needed something more. I needed an actual weapon.


    Without even shifting my hands back, I summoned two of my weapons to me. The icy whip was in my right hand, ready tosh out when I needed it. And in my left hand was Frozen Kiss, the special sword that I had, the one that would freeze my enemies with just one slice. They were both very powerful, and useful, weapons for me to use against these monsters.


    I swung the whip out as one of the snakes dove toward me. I caught the other snake, the one that wasn¡¯t attacking me just yet and was holding it in ce. It was the white snake, and it didn¡¯t take too kindly to being attacked the way that I had just done. The ck snake was flying at me with one of its heads. The mouth was open and it was about to snap down on me like I was nothing more than a human sized snack cake. Well, it wasn¡¯t going to get that far, not at all. I swung the de out and severed its head immediately. The ice that followed the slice moved quickly, covering the rest of the beast in no time at all. Unfortunately, that snake also fell off of the bridge, but it had shattered before hitting the ground, the result was like a fine powdery snow falling to the ground instead.


    I leapt toward the other snake and cut off the head that was still free. Tightening my whip was all that I needed to sever the second head. And it too fell to the ground in ayer of powdery snow. That made me feel a little bit better. No one was going to be killed by falling snakes tonight.


    I turned to check on Reece then. He was wielding his ming sword, holding it in both hands to give himself a better arc when swinging the thing at his enemies. Those enemies that were starting to drop quickly.


    He was in the middle of slicing one, a winged rhinoceros looking thing, with way more horns than a normal rhino would have, and there were threerge deadly birds. I think that I would call them more pterodactyls than anything else. There were no feathers on them at all, the wings and bodies of the things were scaley instead. They had two sets of wings though, both withrge hands that were tipped in long lethal ws.


    Reece killed the rhino first. That started to burn to a crisp and was almost immediately turned into ashes. He managed to cut the head and wings off of one of the pterodactyls, sending its ashes to the ground as I started to walk toward him.


    My walking soon turned into running though, because in the next second I saw that one of the remaining monsters had gotten behind Reece and sank its talons into his back and sides.


    ¡°AHHH!¡± I heard him cry out in pain as well as shock. I saw the way that his eyes instantly started to darken and shine at the same time. That had hurt him a lot.


    ¡°REECE!¡± I screamed his name as a total of six lethal, sword-like talons pierced his body. I was already running toward him, still screaming senselessly as the two remaining creatures flew off with Reece. ¡°NOOOO! REECE!¡± I was going to follow him. I had to. I needed to get him back. But that was when two of the devil looking monsters jumped in front of me and blocked my way.


    ¡°He is gone now, Mongrel Bitch.¡± The thing¡¯s guttural sounding voice sneered into my face as it loomed in front of me. ¡°He will be going to the underworld soon enough, and then you can join him. I will see to that personally.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t take all of the fun, Vogran.¡± The other monster said. I was guessing that he was Zarinog. These were the other two Ancient Ones that Talia had seen in her vision. These were the other two that we needed to be wary of.


    I didn¡¯t have time to deal with them though. I needed to get to Reece. I needed to save him. I had to get my mate back. Though I was the queen, I needed to take care of things here as well. And Talia was right behind me.


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 Chapter 986

    Chapter 986: Chapter 171- Talia ¨C The Battle Part 6 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    I had watched my mom as she went to talk to the envoy from the enemies. There was a man that I knew was part of the Jaegan, most likely the leader that they had been talking about before. The other that was talking and standing in the lead was a monster. That was all that I could say about his three heads, horns, and nauseating appearance. He was hard to look at, but I also couldn¡¯t take my eyes off of him. I was too hyper focused on what was happening with my mom. I needed to make sure that she was OK. I needed to see that she was not going to be hurt by those people.


    There had been some talking. Then some yelling. Quite a bit ofughter. More yelling. I thought that maybe, just maybe, my mom might be able to get through to those people. But then the monster man pointed at my mom, and consequently the rest of us, and yelled.


    ¡°ATTACK!¡±


    It was at that moment that all hell seemed to break loose. Anding from the person that was supposed to take over the underworld when they graduated from college, I knew what hell was like. The actual torturous part of the underworld that is. The monsters and humans on the bridge all surged forward, storming toward my mom as she readied herself for the battle. My dad, seeing that she was in danger, already started to run toward her.


    .....


    The humans that were attacking her stopped at her, but the monsters leapt over her. One attacked my dad. Perhaps that was all that he noticed with his attention on my mom so much, but there were way more than just the one. There had been eight that jumped around and over my mom. After Dad killed the one, it left seven that wereing straight toward Lex and I.


    I tried to focus solely on my battle, fighting the monsters that were here for me and Lex, but I was also focused on my parents. I knew that they had a lot more battle experience than I had, which I had none, but I was still worried about them. I could only associate that with familial love and bond. The protection instinct was strong in me as it was with most wolves.


    My parents seemed to be doing just fine. They didn¡¯t seem to be taking any damage at all at least. So, seeing that, I focused on the monsters that were closer to me and Lex. It was time for me to fight for the first time ever. Even if Lex tried to tell me that I shouldn¡¯t, I was going to fight.


    I saw Lex wielding arge silver sword. It was one that my parents had given him to train with, and to fight with if the need ever arose. This was literally the first time that he had needed to use it inbat. That wasn¡¯t the only weapon that he had though. He had the sword in his right hand, but there was a gun in his left hand. He liked the modern weapon a lot, and was quite the marksmen with it.


    I saw that he was first shooting the enemies around him, aiming to wound them and distract them before he jumped on their backs and hacked them to pieces. I knew that he was good with what it was that he was doing, so I didn¡¯t need to focus on him at all. The other monsters though, were my concern.


    I didn¡¯t have a weapon. I had never needed one. But I was a weapon. I had magic. And on top of that, I had Angel. My little Dragixie that had guided my mom home all those years ago. Angel, who was usually still that small pink fluffy ball of love, but had abilities that I had never shown to anyone. Angel, who was always with me, even when she couldn¡¯t be seen.


    Over the years, I had learned to hide Angel inside of me. I didn¡¯t take her with me to school and ces like that. And I didn¡¯t like to sleep with her inside of me, that caused strange dreams, but she grew in power, and so did I, when I called her inside of me.


    She had stayed in the castle when I came out here, but I had summoned her the moment that the man yelled attack. It was my first instinct. And I could see her now, flying toward me, that pink little fluffy friend that I had kept for over a decade.


    ¡°Talia calls Angel?¡± She said happily as she zoomed toward me andnded on my shoulder.


    ¡°It¡¯s time to help people, Angel.¡± I told her. ¡°We need to fight.¡±


    ¡°Angel gets power?¡± She asked as she nuzzled my cheek.


    ¡°Yes. And I need to use that power of yours as well.¡±


    I had never fought this way, never even trained this way before either. This was going to be a learning experience for both me and Angel. I didn¡¯t care though, I needed to make sure that I was able to win this fight.


    I held my hand out and Angel flew down to it. She started to wrap herself around my hand and then my wrist. She grew longer and longer as she went up my shoulder and around my neck. When she was wrapped around my chest, I knew that she was done growing for the time being. Though, I had a feeling that she could get a lot bigger if we tried hard enough.


    Angel had be a part of me. I could feel her soul inside of my body, and she was boosting my power to be even stronger than I had ever felt it before. She was thrumming inside of me as I called the magic toward me. Magic that I had only ever heard about but never tried before.


    Mom and Dad both had weapons, so I thought that I should have one too. I could see it too. It was purple, like the color of my wolf. Dark purple for the most part, but shining with the light of the pale shades. It was a de, but not a sword. Instead, this de was curved and attached to a long handle that I recognized as being an English Violet. It was the darkest shade of purple that there was. I had looked them up after I shifted to see what colors I had been.


    ¡°Purple is quickly bing my favorite color.¡± I grinned as I looked at the de. ¡°Now, it¡¯s time to fight.¡±


    ¡°Talia looks cool.¡± Angel said as she spoke inside of my head. ¡°Kill monsters now.¡±


    ¡°Yes Angel, we¡¯re going to kill them now.¡± I nodded and leapt through the air toward the closest monster. I sliced at it with the de that I had summoned and saw that the arm was cut off perfectly at the shoulder.


    ¡°SCREEEEE!¡± The monster literally let out a loud screeching yowl that hurt my ears. I didn¡¯t cover them though. I was too busy for that. I continued to hack away at the thing.


    As I made slice after slice, I saw that something was happening. The soul that was inside of the creature was being removed piece by piece. And it was being absorbed into my de. I was literally collecting its soul. That waspletely unexpected.


    I continued to kill that monster and then the next one that came running toward me. I had already swiped at it when I heard a voice call out to me.


    ¡°TALIA!¡± It was Lex, he had noticed that I was fighting with him and the others. ¡°GET OUT OF THERE!¡±


    ¡°I am helping.¡± I called back to him as I started to collect another soul into my weapon. ¡°Keep fighting.¡±


    It was then that I heard the sound of my father screaming. He had been attacked. And my mother¡¯s voice came right after that.


    ¡°AHHH!¡±


    ¡°REECE!¡± I looked up in time to see that a monster had sunk its talons into my dad¡¯s back and sides and was flying away with him.


    ¡°DAD!¡± I yelled, abandoning the battle that was in front of me. And I didn¡¯t see the fact that there was another monster looming up toward me. And this was the one that I didn¡¯t want to see. This was the leader that my mom had talked to, the one that was so very ugly.


    I hadn¡¯t noticed him though as I started to run toward my parents. The monster that I was collecting the soul of was still alive, just barely, and the leader was looming behind me. I was going to be attacked and I didn¡¯t even know it.


    ¡°TALIA!¡± Lex called for me again as he leapt in front of the two monsters that were about to attack me. The injured one pierced him in the stomach, only reaching that high in its injured state. The leader though, he was standing there with a smirk on his face when I spun around. He had a massively wed hand that was aimed at Lex¡¯s chest.


    ¡°LEX!¡± I screamed his name as the ws buried themselves inside of the guard that I had known for my entire life. ¡°LEX!¡± I screamed his name again. ¡°LEX!¡± I felt as if something inside of me broke. I didn¡¯t know what to do. I was broken, that was the only exnation for it. I had just watched my dad and Lex get hurt. And I didn¡¯t know if either of them were going to live.


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 Chapter 987

    Chapter 987: Chapter 172- Talia ¨C The Battle Part 7 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    ¡°NOOO!¡± I was echoing the same scream that my mom had just recently let out. She had watched my dad get taken away, but I just watched my guard get stabbed, and possibly killed. Two men in my life that were important to me were either missing or hurt. And I didn¡¯t know what to do. ¡°LEX!¡± I screamed for him again. He was right in front of me and therefore easiest for me to try to save. ¡°YOU BASTARD!¡± I screamed at the man that still had his hand inside of him.


    ¡°I am no bastard.¡± He grinned at me, blood dripping from his elbow as Lex bled profusely onto him. ¡°I am Olorud, King of the True Demons and the father of all evil. I am the one that will see you and all of your people destroyed.¡±


    ¡°NO!¡± I screamed at him. ¡°YOU WILL DIE FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!¡± I was still screaming at him. And at the same time, I felt a searing pain that was coursing through me. I wasn¡¯t the only one that felt it either.


    Angel, still in her elongated form, flew out of my body and shrieked in pain.


    .....


    ¡°YEOW! Talia too hot. Talia too much magic.¡± She wasrge and purple as she looked at me. Large enough that I could use her as something to fly on if I wanted to. And at the moment, that was exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to straddle her back and have her fly toward that evil man and kill him.


    ¡°Talia?¡± I heard a voice that I knew calling out toward me, but I ignored it. ¡°Talia!¡± Hades called me again, but I was too focused on the man that was in front of me.


    ¡°You will die, Olorud. You will pay for hurting my family.¡± I was including Lex in that family. He had been with me for eleven years, more than two thirds of my life, he was family by now.


    ¡°You cannot kill me, mongrel child. I am too powerful.¡± And it was then that the voices, still calling me, got the attention of Olorud.


    ¡°TALLY!¡±


    ¡°TALIA!¡±


    ¡°LISTEN TO US!¡±


    ¡°WAIT, TALIA!¡±


    Startled, Olorud looked down at the owners of the voices. He knew who they were just the same as I did.


    ¡°WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?¡± His angered and startled voice screeched in protest when he saw them.


    All of the Gods that had shown up to help us were making their way toward me and Olorud, but I ignored them. I was filled with too much rage, and way too much power. I needed to end this. I needed to end him. This had to happen.


    ¡°Angel!¡± I called to her. ¡°Let¡¯s fly!¡± She understood what I meant. We had had a mental connection since I was a child, and she knew that I needed to ride on her. She grew a little more as she flew in front of me and I jumped onto her back. I had my de in my hand still, but I didn¡¯t think that I would use it to kill this man. I didn¡¯t want to make this too quick for him. I wanted him to feel the level of my power. He was telling me that he was too powerful for me, but he didn¡¯t know how strong my mother and I really were. And Rika as well, but she just didn¡¯t know how much power she held inside of her.


    Angel rose up into the air so that I was about twenty feet above Olorud. He had been looking at the Gods of The Underworld, but his eyes were all for me now. He hadn¡¯t expected that his former rivals were here to help us, and he didn¡¯t think that I had a magical dragon that I could rely on. He was, as my mother would have said, woefully unprepared. He was going to lose, and I think he could see it, even if he wouldn¡¯t admit it to himself or anyone else.


    As fast as a torpedo, Angel started to fly toward Olorud. She was like a bullet that I had just shot out of a gun, heading straight toward my target, my enemy.


    ¡°Attack me at all, I will finish off your friend here.¡± He pulled the ws of his hand from Lex¡¯s chest and wrapped them around his neck. He squeezed, just enough to hold onto him as he lifted Lex off of the bridge. ¡°I will kill him here and now.¡± He was threatening me, and I felt a twinge inside of me that told me to stop and to save Lex, but I was too far gone now. I needed to keep going. I needed to save him and the others. But most of all I needed to kill Olorud for hurting my family.


    Just as soon as the threat was out of that demon man¡¯s mouth, I leapt off of Angel and onto Olorud¡¯s back. I needed to be careful not to impale myself on his spikes, but I managed it. And I knew that I was right where I needed to be. At the same time, Angel kept on flying. She had even twisted so that she would avoid hitting the monster, me, or Lex. She was taking care not to hurt anyone.


    I could see a light that was shining all around me. And I didn¡¯t understand it at first. I thought that it wasing from somewhere else, but when Olorud screamed in pain, I noticed that it was me that was glowing. It was a bright purple light that was illuminating the ce that was around me. I knew that it was my anger and my desire to protect everyone all at the same time. And I knew what I needed to do with it, even if I didn¡¯t know how I knew it.


    ¡°It is time for you to pay, Olorud. You have hurt far too many people in your lifetime. I know that you have been around for a long time, but this is the end for you. You will not get the chance at a rebirth or any form of heaven in The Underworld. You are going straight to hell.¡± I wrapped my hands around the monster¡¯s center head, the one that he spoke from when he needed to spew that nonsense of his, and I let my magic flow.


    I pushed a lot of my power into him. I knew that he wouldn¡¯t be able to handle it. I was too strong for him. It wasn¡¯t the way that he had thought at all.


    ¡°Die.¡± I whispered into his ear as I felt him beginning to burn from the inside out. ¡°And know that it was the people that you called abominations that killed you.¡±


    ¡°NO!¡± He started to scream in fear. ¡°THIS CAN¡¯T BE HAPPENING!¡±


    ¡°It is.¡± I spoke with a deadly venom on my words. It was my anger, I knew that, but it tasted like it would be poison to this monster and anyone else that got in my way. ¡°Your soul is mine.¡±


    Getting a sudden idea, while the monster-man was ming on the inside of his body, I took one hand away from his neck and put it in the space between his wings on his back. My hand pushed inside of him like he was made of nothing more than ydough, soft and squishy. I grabbed what I wanted right away. I felt it squirming in my fist as I pulled it out of him.


    I had his soul in my fist as I pulled my hand out of his body. And the moment that it was out of him, he stopped his screaming. He stopped moving. He was dead.


    The power that I had built up inside of him exploded then, but it didn¡¯t hurt me or those around me. It was a targeted explosion. It flew, as far as it needed to, so that it hit every single one of the monsters that were still alive. I watched and listened as they all screamed and dropped at the same time. They were dead. They had all been connected to Olorud, and now they were dead.


    The battle was over. That was clear for me to see. The Gods had witnessed the end of it, and so had my mother. They had seen me, glowing purple and filled with rage while I took that monster¡¯s soul out of his hideous body.


    ¡°Talia?¡± Hades was looking at me in awe as he watched me. I was still glowing, and my anger had not yet dissipated.


    ¡°You truly are the one that is worthy of our collective thrones.¡± Lucifer said. He sounded like he was happy for me, but the look on his face was filled with another emotion. Was it fear? Was he and the other gods afraid of me now? I wouldn¡¯t me them if they were.


    ¡°Talia?¡± Mom called to me. She was still standing there across the bridge and I saw the tears in her eyes. She was still worried about Dad, and so was I.


    The battle was over, but there was still much more for us to do. We had wounded to tend to, missing people to find, and deaths to tally. I knew that I was not going to make it through this night without counting at least one person close to me as dead, but the chances of there being two on that list were very high.


    I killed their leader, but at what cost? What had been taken from me?


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 Chapter 988

    Chapter 988: Chapter 173- Trinity ¨C The Aftermath Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After Reece was carried off from the battle, I was cornered by the other two monsters that were in Talia¡¯s vision. These were the other two that we needed to worry about, aside from Olorud that had disappeared earlier. I wanted to find Reece and save him, but I couldn¡¯t. I wanted to protect Talia from the knowledge that her father might be dead, but I couldn¡¯t. There was just nothing that I could do about any of this, except fight these monsters that were looming in front of me.


    In the distance, I heard Talia screaming for Reece, the same that I had been doing a moment ago. Then she screamed for Lex. That was more daunting. If something happened to him, then wouldn¡¯t that mean that something was about to happen to her?


    I couldn¡¯t turn to look at her at the moment, not without risking getting hurt, but I knew that I needed to finish this fight as soon as I could. I needed to save her. She was in danger. She was going to get hurt. I just knew that she was.


    ¡°TALIA!¡± I called her name, even if I couldn¡¯t look at her.


    .....


    I started to fight the monsters that I had looked at in front of me. They were fierce, more so than the ones that I had already fought. I think it was because among their kind, they were considered powerful and strong, even if to me they looked hideous and disfigured.


    ¡®Come on, I need to hurry.¡¯ I urged myself on while I tried to kill the beasts that were trying to cut me into little pieces. It wasn¡¯t helping much. Nothing was changing when I encouraged myself.


    Oddly enough though, just minutes into fighting these two creatures, after holding my own against them and getting no more than a cut to my left arm, it was all over. It was really and truly over. And I knew that because the two monstrous things that were fighting against me turned to ash and disappeared.


    ¡°What in the hell?¡± I asked as I looked around me. That was when I turned around and saw Talia.


    My daughter was standing behind a slowly disappearing pile of ash. And in her hand she was holding what looked like a small, glowing, and transparent version of that monster, Olorud.


    ¡°Talia?¡± I called out to her again, running toward her. ¡°Talia, what is going on?¡± That was when I saw that she was glowing, a deep purple undertone was pulsing under her skin. Andying on the ground next to her was a scythe. I could feel the magicing off of it, just like I could with my sword and whip. That was a conjured weapon like the ones that Reece and I used. She had made her own weapon, and it was a devil¡¯s scythe. I wonder if that was intentional, or if it was fate.


    ¡°Do not touch her, Trinity. Not yet.¡± Hades walked up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder. ¡°She has the power of death coursing through her right now.¡±


    ¡°What is happening?¡± I asked him as I finally took my eyes off of my daughter and turned to look at him.


    ¡°She is showing us that she is indeed worthy of the role that we gave her. She is going to be the next ruler of the underworld, and in doing that she has power over life and death.¡±


    ¡°What is that thing that she is holding?¡± I was still curious about what looked like a child sized ghost version of Olorud.


    ¡°That is the soul of Olorud. She didn¡¯t kill him the same as you would have, Trinity. She took his soul and will either destroy it or imprison it. And I am guessing that she will gather the other souls. Ahh, yes, there they are.¡±


    As Hades spoke, I saw that there were dozens and dozens of those glowing souls that were flying toward Talia at that moment. She was taking them into her hand, into her body.


    ¡°Will they affect her? With their souls inside of her, will my daughter change at all?¡±


    ¡°No, Trinity, she will be just fine. She is acting like the reapers used to. The original demons that we had sent to the human world. They were there to help guide the souls of the dead to where they needed to go. She seems to be inheriting all of those powers and more. She is truly a special girl.¡± He was smiling broadly at Talia, and I felt a swell of pride. I might not understand what was going on, but I was still proud of her. She was the reason that those things were gone.


    ¡°Wait! The fight isn¡¯t over. The Jaegan are still there.¡± I spun to look all around me, but I saw that there was no more fighting. None on the bridge and none on the ground. The Jaegan that were still alive just seemed to be standing around in confusion as they were being rounded up by the army that I had summoned.


    ¡°It seems that without the Ancient Ones here with them, they are no longer fighting. This is good news for you, Trinity. The fighting is over.¡±


    ¡°It won¡¯t be good news until Reece is back.¡± I looked around for him. I knew that the monster had carried him off, but I didn¡¯t know where he was.


    ¡°Mom?¡± Talia called for me. ¡°Mom, Lex is hurt.¡± She had finished taking in the souls while I spoke with Hades, and now she was focused on what was around her. ¡°And what about Dad, where is he?¡± She was kneeling on the ground and pulling Alexio closer to her.


    ¡°I..I don¡¯t know where he is, sweetheart.¡± I felt like there was a dagger in my heart. I couldn¡¯t feel Reece like I used to. Ever since we had mated, and especially since our powers have grown, I had been able to feel him when he was near, but I didn¡¯t feel anything now. ¡°We need to find your father. And we need to get Alexio to Griffin. We need to heal him, and then heal your father.¡± I was still looking all around me. I felt lost, empty, and alone. Was Reece OK? Was he d.. was he dead? I didn¡¯t know for sure, and just thinking those questions sent my heart racing so fast that I felt like I was going to lose consciousness.


    ¡°I shall find your healer man.¡± Satan said as he stepped forward. ¡°I can find him quicker than you two.¡±


    I watched for a moment as Satan literally flew, with giant ck wings, from the bridge and down to the ground below. While he was gone, I started to call the others through my mental connection. I needed them to know what was happening. And I needed them to look for Reece.


    ¡®Griffin, Satan ising to look for you, find him please. Alexio is hurt here on the bridge. And to the rest of you, find Reece. One of those monsters managed to get its ws into him and carried him away. I don¡¯t know where he is, how far the thing took him from here, or.. or if he is even still alive. Find him, please. I..I will be helping you look for him after I make sure that Talia is OK. I want to find him now. I want to be the one to bring him home, but I also have a daughter that I need to help. I am torn here, guys, and I need your help. Please, bring my mate home.¡¯


    ¡®Yes, Queen Trinity.¡¯ The voices of several hundred people echoed back to me moments before I saw the crowd start to disperse below. I could tell that not everyone was searching, and at first that angered me. However, I realized soon enough that the others were remaining there to take the Jaegan into custody, those that hadn¡¯t died in the fight that is.


    ¡°Talia?¡± I dropped to her side and gripped her shoulders as she cradled Alexio¡¯s upper body in her arms.


    ¡°Mom, he can¡¯t die. He is like family to me. H..he has been my guard since I was four.¡± She was crying over him. ¡°I..I killed their leader, but not until after he and another monster hurt Lex. Help me, Mommy.¡± She looked so young and helpless as she sobbed over the guard that she had had for so long.


    ¡°I¡¯M COMING!¡± I heard a frantic voice. ¡°Talia, I am here to help.¡± When Talia and I looked up at that moment, we saw that Satan was flying through the air with Griffin and Lana in his arms. They didn¡¯t look scared, probably because they had seen some strange things in their lives, and also because they needed to get to work. ¡°I will heal him, Talia. I will do all that I can.¡±


    ¡°Please Uncle Griffin, please save him.¡± Talia sobbed as they flew closer.


    I had to pull Talia away from Alexio when Griffin started to examine his wound. She was heartbroken at the fact that Alexio wasn¡¯t even whimpering in pain from that. He was so pale and ashen faced as well, it was almost certain that he was dead, or would be soon.


    ¡°He is still alive, but just barely.¡± Lana said, almost as if in answer to my thoughts.


    ¡°I need to use magic, that is the only way. There doesn¡¯t seem to be any poison in his wound, so that is good, it just tore through his chest so thoroughly that he is on the brink of death.¡±


    ¡°Please, do what you can.¡± Talia begged again.


    ¡°I will.¡± Griffin nodded at her as he started to pull the magic toward him. Lana did the same and together they put their hands on Alexio¡¯s chest and abdomen. They were healing the ravaged organs and the shredded flesh. They were magically replenishing the blood that he had lost. And they were, miraculously, bringing the color back to his face.


    ¡°This will work, Talia. I promise that it will.¡± Griffin had brought people back from the very edge of death before. He had managed to save people that I thought were beyond repair. He could do this.


    I watched on, my heart racing as it climbed up into my throat. I needed to see that I was right, and that I hadn¡¯t given my daughter false hope. I needed to see Alexio take a breath and confirm that he was alive. Then, and only then, would I be allowed to go and find Reece. I could look for him after I saw to it that my daughter was calmed. And Alexio was a part of my kingdom and my family as well. I knew that, but I still would rather be looking for Reece.


    After nearly a full minute of magic being poured into Alexio, when I thought that all hope might be lost, he finally took a breath.


    ¡°TALIA!?¡± He called her name the moment that his eyes flew open.


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 Chapter 989

    Chapter 989: Chapter 174- Trinity ¨C The Aftermath Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°TALIA!?¡± Alexio called for her, fear in his voice.


    ¡°I¡¯m here. And I am OK, Lex. I am safe.¡± She rushed forward and took his hand. ¡°Are you OK?¡± She was still crying, but now they looked like happy tears.


    ¡°Why are you crying?¡± He asked her, reaching up to wipe a tear from her cheek and smearing her face with blood.


    ¡°Lex, you idiot. I thought that you had died.¡± She threw her arms around him and hugged him. ¡°That¡¯s why I am crying. I thought that I was going to lose you.¡±


    .....


    ¡°You can¡¯t get rid of me that easily.¡± Alexioughed weakly. ¡°I am your guard for life. I will protect you no matter what, Talia.¡± He hugged her awkwardly as he looked around. It was clear that he didn¡¯t know what to do at the moment. He didn¡¯t think that Talia was going to hug him like that.


    ¡°Dammit Lex, don¡¯t go dying on me. I need you. When I find a mate and get married, I need you to be there to make sure that my husband isn¡¯t an idiot. And I need you to protect my future children. You¡¯re going to be with us forever, right?¡± She grinned at him.


    ¡°That¡¯s right, Talia.¡± He sat up, pushing her off of him as he went. ¡°Forever.¡±


    ¡°Talia, you make sure that Alexio gets back to the tower safely. He might be weak after being healed like that. I am going to go look for your father.¡± I still couldn¡¯t feel him.


    ¡°I..I want to look for Daddy too.¡± She looked like a lost little child again, almost exactly like she had when Alexio hadid there dying in front of us.


    ¡°No. You go back to the tower. Check on your siblings. Tell them that the fighting is over. And take care of Alexio.¡±


    ¡°I am fine, Trinity. I do not need protection.¡± He stood then, moving as if he had never been hurt at all.


    ¡°Then you take Talia back to the tower and tell the others. I need to find Reece.¡±


    ¡°Mom?¡± Talia called after me. ¡°A..are you going to be OK?¡± She asked me in a weak voice.


    ¡°I will be, when I find your father.¡± I gave her a smile, but it was a weak one that was filled with pain and worry.


    ¡°He will be fine, Mom. I..I just know that he will be.¡±


    ¡°I hope so, sweetheart. I really hope so.¡±


    When I ran toward the edge of the bridge, I felt a twinge of pain in my heart. When I leapt from the invisible bridge and toward the ground below, that twinge had grown into an ache. And the moment that I ran in the direction that I saw that monster carrying Reece, that ache was so painful that it was almost too much for me to handle.


    I pushed through it though. I needed to do this, even if the end result was not what I needed. Even if I didn¡¯t find Reece alive, I still needed to find him.


    ¡°Reece.¡± I called his name weakly, feeling the pain get stronger even as I did so.


    ¡°MOM!¡± Talia called after me as she stood on the bridge. I had barely heard her, but I slowed and skidded to a stop so that I could hear what she needed.


    ¡°WHAT?¡± I yelled toward her, hoping that I wasn¡¯t too far away.


    ¡°TAKE ANGEL WITH YOU! SHE WILL HELP YOU FIND DADDY!¡± The moment the words were out of her mouth, I saw a muchrger version of the Dragixie than I had ever seen before.


    ¡°Angel help Talia¡¯s mom find Talia¡¯s dad.¡± The creature¡¯s voice was the same, even if it was more than a hundred times its usual size. ¡°Come Talia¡¯s mom. Fly with me.¡± The creature wasrger, and darker than it usually was. The pink of its fuzzy fur was more purplish now, sort of like a lc or some other light shade of purple.


    ¡°Angel?¡± I looked at her in surprise, but didn¡¯t have time to ask questions. The magical Dragixie had flown toward me and under me all at once. She had put me on her back because I hadn¡¯t moved fast enough.


    ¡°Talia¡¯s mom look for Talia¡¯s dad while Angel flies. Look good Talia¡¯s mom. I smell blood.¡±


    ¡°Where is the blood, Angel? Fly towards the blood.¡± I ordered the creature as I held onto its fur covered back.


    ¡°The blood smells bad, but Angel fly there anyway. Come Talia¡¯s mom.¡±


    She swerved and flew in a direction that was more north than I thought that Reece would have been in. Had the monsters changed course when they were flying off with him? I hoped that this was the right direction for Reece and not where someone elsey dying in the forest.


    We flew through the trees, avoiding them with only centimeters to spare as Angel looked for the source of the blood. And we found it too, in the middle of a clearing that hadn¡¯t been there before.


    Something had clearly crashed into the trees over here, and in doing so it had taken out several of the trees that once lived here. The scent of fresh dirt was mixing with the blood, and there was another smell. Now that I was letting myself calm down a little, letting my senses work for more than that scent of blood, I could smell something very faint among the trees.


    That scent, the one that was faint and fading by the second, smelled like chocte, coffee, cinnamon, and the forest after a rainstorm. It smelled like Reece. And he was fading.


    ¡°REECE!?¡± I screamed his name. There was only one reason for a scent to be fading like that, especially for it to be fading so quickly. He was dying. His essence was fading. And I couldn¡¯t bear to think about that. ¡°REECE!¡± I screamed again. ¡°WHERE ARE YOU?¡± I pulled my magic toward me, enhancing my night vision and making the world around me light up like there was a spotlight above us. At least it seemed that way for me.


    Now that I could see, I was able to check the clearing for Reece, and what might have happened here. It looked to me like the monster that carried him had crashed, not when Talia killed the leader, but when Reece might have been struggling with it and made it crash. There were at least six trees that had been uprooted and thrown against others in the aftermath of the crash.


    The creatures, the one that carried Reece away and the one that followed it, were not here. Of course, they wouldn¡¯t be. Talia had killed them all. She had saved so many people with her swift end to that thing. I just hope that it was in time to save Reece¡¯s life as well.


    ¡°REECE!?¡± I called him again. ¡°WHERE ARE YOU, REECE!?¡± I had to find him. I just had to.


    I followed my nose to where the blood and the source of the fading scent was the strongest. And that was when I saw him. He wasying there, half obscured by one of the fallen trees that was next to him.


    ¡°Reece!¡± I skidded to a halt and dropped to my knees. ¡°Reece!¡± I pulled him toward me and just kept saying his name. It was all that I could say. ¡°Reece!¡±


    I saw the puddle of blood that was beneath him. I saw the damage that the monster had done to him. It hadn¡¯t just been his back. That was where it had grabbed him from, but it had wed and stabbed him several times more. That must have happened after they fell into the forest.


    ¡°Oh goddess, Reece, please wake up. Please!¡± I screamed it as I pulled him into my arms. ¡°ANGEL!¡± The dragon was at my side in seconds. ¡°Get us home. I need Griffin¡¯s help.¡±


    I leapt onto the Dragixie¡¯s back and held Reece¡¯s limp and bloody body against me. He was barely breathing, if he was even breathing at all. And I could barely hear his heart beating. It was slow and there was too long of a pause in between each beat. He really was fading, and I didn¡¯t know if Griffin was able to save him or not. I hoped that he was, but I just didn¡¯t know.


    The Dragixie flew faster this time than she had on the way to finding Reece. She had also gone up and through the hole in the forest so that we didn¡¯t need to dodge the trees this time. She knew where the opening was, and that was all that she needed.


    Talia and Alexio were no longer on the bridge when I went back. The only people that seemed to be up there now were Griffin and Lana. Even the courtyard below seemed to be empty and devoid of all people, living and dead. They must have been looking for Reece or taking the prisoners into the dungeons.


    ¡®I found Reece. I am taking him to Griffin.¡¯ I alerted the others so that they didn¡¯t need to keep looking for him. That would have been pointless, since he was already found.


    ¡°TRINITY!¡± Griffin waved at me. ¡°COME ON!¡± Angel was the one that was directing us though, and she flew even faster as she went tond next to them.


    ¡°He¡¯s hurt really badly, Griffin. I don¡¯t know if he¡¯s even alive anymore. I can barely hear his heart.¡±


    Griffin already had his hand on Reece¡¯s chest and was assessing him with magic. He wasn¡¯t looking all that happy either, as he tried to see what all it would take to save my husband¡¯s life.


    ¡°This doesn¡¯t look good.¡± He said as he looked up at me, pain filling his eyes.


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 Chapter 990

    Chapter 990: Chapter 175- Trinity ¨C Oue of the Battle (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I watched as Griffin, Riley and Landon all carried Reece away and toward the castle. I knew that they were taking him inside so that Griffin could help Reece. I knew that they were taking him to the infirmary, the clinic in the castle that Griffin had insisted on building, even though we were all immortal supernatural beings. I didn¡¯t see the point of that wing of the castle before this battle, but I see the point of it now.


    When we were in times of peace, it was easy to forget that there were things that could go wrong for us. When you were in the throes of a war though, there were so many lives at stake, and even we could be killed. That was something that I needed to remember at all times. I knew this, but I still let myself forget.


    ¡°Reece?¡± I called after him as I knelt on the blood soaked bridge where he was just lying. My voice was barely audible as he was taken away from me. ¡°Reece.¡± I felt the first tears that I had been holding back track their way down my cheeks.


    ¡°Trinity.¡± Vincent knelt next to me. I felt the movement, I heard him there, but I didn¡¯t see him. I still had my eyes locked on the ce where Reece disappeared into the distance. ¡°Trinity.¡± He called to me again, this time he put his hand on my back between my shoulders. He was rubbing soothing little circles to help me calm down as much as possible. ¡°Come on, Trinity, let¡¯s go inside. We need to get you cleaned up, and then we need to talk to the others.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Y..yeah.¡± I nodded at him as I stood up. Y..y..you¡¯re right. I need to get cleaned up.¡± I looked down at my body, at my clothes. I was covered in Reece¡¯s blood and I knew what that might mean. ¡°V..Vincent?¡± I called to him as I looked up, my entire body going cold. ¡°I..I can¡¯t do this. I..I can¡¯t lose him.¡±


    ¡°He is going to be fine, Trinity. Griffin is working to save him right now, and you know how good Griffin is at saving lives. And he loves Reece like family, he won¡¯t let him die. He will be alright, and you know it. Reece is a fighter. And he¡¯s too damned stubborn to die.¡± I wanted tough, to chuckle just a little, but I couldn¡¯t. I wasn¡¯t even able to smile at him. The attempt that I did give him left me with nothing but a grimace on my face.


    ¡°I can¡¯t lose him, Vincent. I need him, and the kids need him too. I can¡¯t do this without him.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Trinity. He will be fine. Let¡¯s get you inside and get you cleaned up.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡±


    I didn¡¯t want to go to my room. The one that I shared with Reece. The one that I knew he wasn¡¯t going to be in when I got there. And because of that, I didn¡¯t want to get cleaned up in the castle. Instead, I used my magic to clean the blood, dirt, and other debris off of me and Vincent. I used the magic to clean the clothes that we had been wearing and make them smell better. Then I used the magic to dry us and the clothes. By the time that I was done, we looked like nothing at all had happened to us. We were clean, dry, and presentable to the people inside the castle. If they saw us, they wouldn¡¯t know what it was that had happened during the battle. This was a better option as well, since there was no time to waste. I wanted to get this over with so that I could go find Talia and the others. I needed to see the kids. I needed them to know that the battle was over. But, before then, I needed to know what happened to the others. I needed to know how many others were hurt or died during the battle. How many casualties were there?


    Vincent noticed what I did, but he didn¡¯t say anything. He just looked at me with a calm expression and nodded at me. He was telling me that it was OK, that I had done the right thing. And he did that all while walking me into the castle with his arm wrapped around my shoulders. He had me pressed against his side as he took care of me. He needed to be there for me, and he knew it. He was the man that first came to know me after I started living with Reece. He was my first guard, and he was like my brother. He would always be there for me, no matter what.


    There were a few of the men and women that fought on the battlefield waiting just inside the castle. They were waiting for me. They were waiting to see if I was OK or not. They knew that Reece had been injured, but they needed to see that I was OK as well. And they wanted to know if their king was going to live.


    ¡°Queen Trinity?¡± A man stepped closer to me when I entered with Vincent. It was Kiernan, the one that had sent the warning about the enemy approaching.


    ¡°I will address everyone in the throne room. Please see to it that the others are notified. Vincent, if you would be so kind as to send out a message to those that need to attend.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Trinity.¡± He nodded and I saw that he was about to speak in his head, but he paused and looked at me directly. ¡°Sh..should I allow Landon and Riley to stay with Reece?¡±


    ¡°Yes. They can stay there, and we can catch them upter. The others, though, please send for them. I need to know how the battle on the ground went. I need to know the true oue of the day.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Trinity.¡± He nodded and that was when he started to send the message for me. He wasn¡¯t looking at where he was going, since his eyes were closed, but that didn¡¯t stop him from walking perfectly. He had the castle perfectly mapped out in his head like any good guard would do. He knew where he was going, and I just had to make sure that no one got in our way. They didn¡¯t though. I guess not many people step in front of the Queen and her second inmand.


    After the message was sent, Vincent opened his eyes and guided me into the throne room. We led the way into therge hall, walking through it until I got to myrge throne that was at the back of the hall. This made me sad as well, since Reece wasn¡¯t sitting in the throne next to me.


    Behind us, as we entered the hall, all those that were in the entryway followed us and found their ces among the seats and standing areas. The others that Vincent had called slowly started to arrive. Those of the council that were here showed up to take their seats on the lower dais. Those that were close to me sat near the front of the hall. And those that were not as integral to the main group stood or sat in the back to watch.


    I saw that the kids weren¡¯t here. Vincent hadn¡¯t sent the message to them. And L, Mom, and Dad weren¡¯t here either. They were most likely with the kids, protecting them and making sure that they didn¡¯t know what was happening right now.


    It looked like they were all here. At least all the people that were going to be here. It seemed like so few inparison. I knew that there were more people that had been on the battleground. I knew that there had to be a lot more people than were here right now. Where were they? Were they gone? Did I get them killed?


    ¡°Thank you for joining me.¡± I said from my throne. Normally, I would have stood up to address them, but I just couldn¡¯t bring myself to do that right now. I was grieving, in my own way. And I didn¡¯t know if my grief would be short term or long term. ¡°We fought a hard battle this evening. While it didn¡¯tst long, it was significant. During that battle, there were injuries on our side, and casualties on theirs. We won this night, but I am wondering at what cost that victory hade to us. At this moment, I do not know how those on the ground fared during the fight, as I was on the bridge with the leader of the enemy troops. Can someone please tell me how many were hurt or lost among our people?¡± I looked around the room, waiting to hear how the fight went for the rest of my people.


    Trevor was the one that rose from his seat and looked at me. He was on the lower dais, next to his wife as he looked at me. I could see the solemn and heartbroken look in his eyes and it nearly undid everything that I was struggling to hold onto.


    ¡°Trinity, first I want to tell you that we are all proud to be here with you. We fought with you because we all love and respect you. Secondly, you have nothing to worry about. There were no major injuries on the ground, and no casualties as well. And I know that Re-.¡± I held up a hand to cut him off. I didn¡¯t want to be rude, but I couldn¡¯t listen to another person tell me that Reece was going to be OK. The only one that could tell me that was going to be Griffin. And the sooner that I finished this, the sooner that I could go and see him.


    ¡°I am happy to learn that there were no losses this evening. And I do hope that it stays that way in the foreseeable future. I am proud of you all. You fought bravely and valiantly.¡±


    ¡°Trinity?¡± Athair m¨®r stood then, looking at me with his eyes filled with tears and worry. ¡°The rest of the Jaegan were rounded up. I hope you do not mind that I added several temporary cells to the dungeon to hold them. They will stay there until we know what to do with them.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Athair m¨®r. I appreciate that very much. How many more were arrested?¡± I looked at him with curiosity in my eyes. I needed to know how many managed to survive until the end of the battle.


    ¡°Only nine more, Trinity. The others perished in the battle. And the Ancient Ones, the monsters that we were fighting, they all turned to dust and disappeared.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that was when Talia killed their leader.¡± I didn¡¯t say more on that. They would all start to spread rumors no matter what, at least they would know who was really responsible for the end of this nightmare. My daughter. The one that was so powerful and strong. The one that had been there with us for this case from almost start to finish. She had done so much for us, and I knew that she had one hell of a future in store for her when she grew up. She was going to be even more powerful and strong. She was going to be an amazing ruler of the underworld. I just knew it.


    I also hoped that Reece would be there with me to see it happen. I wanted to make sure that he wasn¡¯t going to be missing out on being there for when his daughters found their mates. I knew that he was going to be really upset about it when it did happen, the overly protective ass that he was. He just couldn¡¯t miss that. I needed him to be there with me for it all.


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 Chapter 991

    Chapter 991: Chapter 176- Trinity ¨C Seeing Reece Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Those that were in the hall listened to what I had to say. They told me the recounts of the battle that I needed. And that was it. After that address was done, I sent them all on their way. Those that hade from other locations were allowed to leave, I even opened the doors for them. Those that lived here in the castle, or near enough to it, were allowed to go home and get some sleep. The battle was over. The enemy was defeated. There was nothing at all to fear anymore. At least not for them.


    I was still more scared than I had ever been in my entire life. I needed to see Reece. I needed to know how he was doing. I needed to know if he was going to make it or not.


    I had to wonder if this was how Reece felt in the past. All those times that I was kidnapped, ran toward a fight recklessly, was injured, or whatever else it was that had happened to me. Was this what he felt when he experienced all of those things? If it was, then I don¡¯t know how he made it this long. I don¡¯t know how the pain and worry didn¡¯t overwhelm him right away. How was I supposed to live with this? How was I supposed to survive with the knowledge that Reece, my one and only love, might not make it?


    I felt shattered. I was broken, in more ways than one. I felt like I was at a loss, and there was nothing in the world that was going to fix me. Nothing but Reece and his big strong arms around me as he held me against his chest so that I could feel the steady beat of his heart. I needed to have all of that. Nothing else would do. Nothing else would tell me in no uncertain terms that my mate was still alive.


    .....


    I trudged up to the clinic, to where Reecey in a state that I didn¡¯t know or understand. Was he alive? Was he dead? Was he bncing somewhere in between? I didn¡¯t know, and that ignorance of the situation was horrible.


    ¡°Trinity?¡± Riley called out to me when he saw me approaching. He was still covered in Reece¡¯s blood from when he helped to carry him away. I knew that any of the men, Riley, Landon and Griffin, could all have carried Reece on their own, but they had wanted to minimize the jostling of his body as they walked. They wanted to keep him still as much as possible so that they didn¡¯t hurt him even more. That alone had made my blood run cold, and seeing Riley out here in the hall, still waiting on news about his cousin that he considered a brother, that made things even worse.


    ¡°Hey, Riley.¡± I managed a weak smile that I was sure didn¡¯t look at all like a grimace. ¡°H..have you heard anything yet?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± He shook his head. ¡°I just sent Landon to get cleaned up. I was going to go after him.¡±


    ¡°You can go now, I will check in with Griffin to see how he is doing.¡± I waved him away but he looked reluctant to go. ¡°It¡¯s OK, Riley. I am here now. Juste back when you are done, OK?¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± He nodded at me, gave Vincent a meaningful nce, and then ran off. He was going to hurry through this as much as he could. He didn¡¯t want to take too much time, he wanted to get back to Reece¡¯s side as well.


    ¡°Vincent?¡± I spoke calmly, hoping that my emotions weren¡¯t about to betray me.


    ¡°Yes, Trinity?¡± He asked as he stepped next to me.


    ¡°I am going in there now. Do you want toe with me?¡± I was offering him the chance to stay out here, but I really hoped that he woulde with me. I didn¡¯t want to be alone right now. Not yet anyway.


    ¡°I will go with you, Trinity.¡± He either wanted to protect me, even my emotional state, or he knew that I needed him. Either way, I was eternally grateful to him.


    I didn¡¯t knock. I didn¡¯t announce myself. I just went into the room. Griffin was probably going to get mad, at least until he saw that it was me. Then it was a fifty-fifty chance that he would still get mad at me.


    ¡°Dammit, Riley, I told you that I would-.¡± Griffin started to growl angrily when the door opened, but then he saw that it was me. ¡°Oh, Trinity.¡± He stopped the anger and spoke sympathetically.


    ¡°How is he, Griffin?¡± I asked as the other man looked back down at Reece. He was still covered in blood as Griffin and Lana were working to close the wounds that he had in his sides and back.


    ¡°It¡¯s not good, Trinity. The wounds won¡¯t close, no matter what I do. I am pouring magic into him as fast as I can, and it¡¯s keeping him alive, but the wounds won¡¯t close.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± I just gave Griffin a steady look as I fought back the burning sensation in my eyes. I didn¡¯t want to cry right now. Not yet. I would cry soon. Long, sobbing cries that released all the emotions inside of me, but not yet. I needed to make it through the rest of this night first.


    ¡°There is a poison or venom in them, Trinity. The creatures that attacked him have infected him, and he¡¯s having a hard time fighting it off.¡±


    ¡°I see.¡± I tried to sound clinical, but even I heard the crack in my voice as I tried to remain calm. It wasn¡¯t working all that well though. ¡°I..is he going to die?¡± I gave him eyes that I knew had to be swimming with tears in them.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. B..but I might need some help from the Goddess. And it might be best to bring the kids in here to see him.¡±


    ¡°Griffin?¡± I shook my head. ¡°Th..they can¡¯t see him like this. It would traumatize them.¡±


    ¡°If he dies, Trinity, it will be theirst time to see him alive.¡± He was speaking forcefully as he poured more magic into the wounds on Reece¡¯s back as he held a cloth against his back.


    ¡°Fine.¡± I sighed heavily and felt Vincent¡¯s hand on my shoulder.


    ¡°I will get them. You stay with Reece. Maybe your magic can do what Griffin¡¯s can¡¯t. You saved me, remember.¡± He smiled at me.


    ¡°I saved you by bing the Goddess. This is different. I can¡¯t do that again.¡±


    ¡°Maybe, but you are the Goddess, and you have magic that none of us have ever dreamed up.¡±


    ¡°I..I will try.¡± That was all that I could offer him. And with a nod, he ran from the room. He was going to get the kids and L. They needed to see Reece, just in case he didn¡¯t make it.


    I went to stand near the top of Reece¡¯s bed. It was sitting in the middle of the room since Griffin and Lana had needed to move all around him. I knew that he was unconscious, and therefore couldn¡¯t hear me, but I wanted to talk to him all the same. I needed to tell him not to leave me.


    ¡°Reece?¡± I whispered his name as I put my hands on his head, one on each side of his face. ¡°I love you, Reece. I love you more than life itself. And if it wasn¡¯t for the kids, I would die to save you.¡± I leaned forward and kissed his head. ¡°Plus, I don¡¯t think you would like it if I died all that much. So,e on, Reece, you need to live. You need to fight this.¡±


    I was pouring magic into him as well, just like Griffin and Lana were, but that didn¡¯t mean that it was doing anything for him. I didn¡¯t know how to heal him. I wasn¡¯t a healer like Griffin. My magic had been different. And no matter how much I was trying, I wasn¡¯t seeing those wounds closing up.


    After several minutes, the door to the room burst open. I knew who this had to be, and I wasn¡¯t at all surprised when Zachary was the first one through the door.


    ¡°DADDY!¡± He yelled in shock when he saw him. I watched as all the blood drained from his face at the sight of his fatherying there on the bed, bleeding profusely.


    ¡°Dad!?¡± Rika was next, her eyes red and puffy as tears streamed down her cheeks. Behind the two of them Zaley, Zander, Zayden, Reagan, Talia, Ivy, L, Grandfather, Mom, and Dad all came rushing into the room. Riley, Landon, and Trevor snuck in sheepishly behind them. They wanted us to have a family moment, but Reece was their family as well, and I waved them into the room. They deserved to be here.


    ¡°Daddy, please wake up.¡± Zaley cried as she ran toward me. She wasn¡¯ting to me exactly though, she ran to Reece and pressed her face against him, not caring at all about the blood that was covering him.


    ¡°Please, Daddy, don¡¯t die. Stay with us, Daddy.¡± Zayden sobbed as he walked next to his sister.


    All of the kids crowded around Reece then, but it wasn¡¯t making that much of a difference yet. He was still bleeding. His wounds wouldn¡¯t close. And he was so pale that he already looked like he was a corpse. This was not the way that I wanted to remember the man that I loved so dearly.


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 Chapter 992

    Chapter 992: Chapter 177- Trinity ¨C Seeing Reece Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Everyone was crying. Everyone looked as if this moment was going to be the make or break moment for their lives. Were they going to see the man that they all loved so much in so many different ways die here and now, or were they going to see him live and make it through this horrific event? That was something that we didn¡¯t know the answer to. Not a single one of us.


    ¡°Mommy?¡± Zander came closer to me and wrapped his arms around me. He was pressing his face against my shoulder as he cried. ¡°How do we help Daddy?¡± I could already feel his tears dampening my shirt as he squeezed me tightly.


    ¡°Mommy is trying to help Uncle Griffin. I am giving Daddy some of my magic. But for now, you can all talk to Daddy. You can tell him that you love him, and that you want him to stay.¡±


    ¡°Can I give Dad my magic too?¡± Talia asked as she rushed forward. It was the first time that she had spoken sinceing into the room.


    .....


    ¡°Me too. I have magic, I want to give it to Dad too.¡± Rika stood a little taller while her face firmed.


    ¡°I want to help too.¡± Reagan nodded. ¡°We will all give Dad our magic. Anything to save him.¡±


    ¡°Can we help too, Mommy?¡± Zaley asked. Her eyes were swimming and I knew that she didn¡¯t want to see her daddy die.


    ¡°It will be hard, sweetheart, but I know that you can all do this, if you just try.¡± They all looked a little more relieved at that. ¡°And don¡¯t forget to talk to Daddy as well. Tell him whatever you need to right now.¡±


    ¡°I will.¡± Zaley put her hands on Reece¡¯s left shoulder and I could tell that she was pushing magic into Reece. I didn¡¯t know if it was something that she did on her own, or if my magic was drawing it out of her. Either way, it was working. ¡°Daddy, please don¡¯t leave us. We love you so much. I love you so much. And I need you, Daddy. Who else is going to protect me when the others say something mean about my hair? Who is going to put me on his shoulders and carry me around? I need you, Daddy. Don¡¯t leave me.¡±


    ¡°I need you too, Daddy.¡± Zachary was next, his magic flowing the same as Zaley¡¯s had. ¡°I need to learn how to be a man from you Daddy, no one else will do. I need you, Daddy, more than anyone will ever know. A..and I am scared, Daddy. I don¡¯t know how to be me without you.¡±


    ¡°Please don¡¯t leave us, Daddy.¡± Zayden sobbed as he pressed his face to Reece¡¯s side, his magic flowing into him as well. ¡°You¡¯re our dad, and no one else will ever be able to rece you. We need you.¡±


    ¡°Daddy please, stay with us.¡± Zander was crying so hard that it was almost impossible to hear what he was saying. ¡°You can¡¯t go. You just can¡¯t. We can¡¯t be a family if you¡¯re not here with us, Daddy.¡±


    ¡°Please, Daddy.¡± Talia was next, the amount of magic that she was pouring into Reece was enormous. She was putting all that she had into saving her dad. ¡°I am sorry that I was a brat recently. I am sorry that I insisted on being there for the battle. If it wasn¡¯t for me, you might not be hurt. Please, Daddy, you need toe back to us.¡± Her cries were so heartbreaking that I nearly started to sob right then and there. As it was, I was struggling not to cry and stop paying attention to the others.


    ¡°Come on, Dad.¡± Reagan put his hands on Reece next. ¡°We need you. Remember, Dad, you¡¯re the strongest man in the world. If you can¡¯t survive this, what does that say for the rest of us? We can¡¯t survive without you, Dad. We need you.¡±


    ¡°Please, Daddy.¡± Rika threw her face onto Reece, crying into his shirt and pouring all that she had into him. ¡°You can¡¯t leave me, Daddy, please. I don¡¯t want to lose anyone else in my life, especially you. We need you, Daddy. You¡¯re so strong, so brave, and so smart, I know that you can make it through this.¡±


    I thought that this would be the end of it, but I was wrong. Riley came over and put one hand on Reece, he didn¡¯t have magic, but he loved Reece like a brother.


    ¡°Come on, man, you can do this. Fight this and wake up. The kids need you. Trinity needs you. I need you. I can¡¯t lose another member of my family, man. I just can¡¯t. Not like this. Please, Reece, you have to wake up.¡±


    ¡°Reece.¡± Landon was next as he put a hand on Reece¡¯s shoulder. ¡°You¡¯re family to me, Reece. And family always sticks together. That means that you can¡¯t die. You can¡¯t abandon us.¡±


    ¡°Come on, buddy.¡± Trevor was next. ¡°We¡¯re supposed to be there to annoy each other for all of eternity. That was the promise that we made all those years ago. You¡¯re like my brother Reece, and I can¡¯t lose another brother to a battle. Please, don¡¯t make me bury another brother.¡±


    ¡°Come on, Reece, you can do it.¡± Mom found a ce and put her hand on him as well.


    ¡°Wake up for us, Reece, please.¡± Dad stood behind her and ced his hand next to hers.


    ¡°Come on, Reece. You need to be there for my granddaughter, my great grandchildren, and my wife. Your mother needs you as well. Come on, Reece, you need to pull through this.


    ¡°Come on, Reece. You need to wake up.¡± Ivy put her hand on the spot next to Grandfather¡¯s. ¡°You¡¯re the best big brother that I could ask for, please don¡¯t die on me now. Please.¡± She was sobbing and leaning into Grandfather for support.


    ¡°Sweetheart, please wake up. You see that there are so many people here that need you. You can¡¯t leave yet. Come back to us, baby. Come back to us, Reece.¡± L was sobbing the entire time that she spoke to Reece, begging him not to leave us.


    Lana and Griffin were pouring magic into Reece as well, and with all of us touching him at that moment, there was an immense amount of power. I hoped that this would save him. That he would feel the love and the need that we all had for him and he woulde back to us. I did notice that the blood was flowing a lot slower now than it was before. And it almost seemed like the wounds were closing. That was a good sign.


    After several minutes of us all just concentrating and focusing on Reece, I heard Griffin¡¯s voice cry out in rm.


    ¡°It¡¯s working.¡± He was pointing at Reece¡¯s side, the one that had been steadily flowing blood when I came in here. The bleeding had stopped, and the wound was closing.


    ¡°Reece?¡± I looked down at him as I saw the coloring back to his cheeks. He had been as white as the hospital sheets had been before he had stained them with his blood, now though he looked as if he was almost back to normal. ¡°Oh, Reece,e on, open your eyes.¡± I begged him and hoped that he would listen. The others all took up the words as well, turning it into a sort of chant.


    ¡°Come on, Daddy, open your eyes.¡±


    ¡°Come on, Dad, open your eyes.¡±


    ¡°Come on, Reece, open your eyes.¡±


    ¡°Come on, sweetheart, open your eyes.¡±


    ¡°Come on, buddy, open your eyes.¡± It was being repeated by several different people at once, and they all had a slightly different way of saying it. I was saying it too, but more in my head as I watched his face.


    His eyes were still closed, but I saw the moment that Reece¡¯s breathing went from the barely there shallow breaths to therge shuddering gasp that he took to fill his lungspletely. I saw the moment that his mouth moved, almost as if to speak. And then, a momentter, I saw his eyes open.


    ¡°REECE!?¡± I screamed his name and he looked right at me. His golden eyes fixed on mine with confusion and fear.


    ¡°T..T..Trinity, you¡¯re covered in blood.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s your blood, idiot.¡± I leaned down and kissed his lips gently. ¡°You were almost dead. I thought that I had lost you.¡±


    There was a cacophony of noise then as everyone called out to him in their relief. He saw just how many people were in here with him, and I knew that he felt loved, but he was also confused.


    ¡°I..I almost died?¡± He tried to sit up, but there was obviously still pain. He cried out and thenid back on the bed again. ¡°What happened?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll tell youter.¡± I eyed the kids and he understood that I didn¡¯t want to talk about it in front of Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley. He nodded after that, not pressing the issue any further.


    ¡°I am sorry, Trinity.¡± He cupped my cheek to the best of his ability. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to upset you.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± I kissed his cheek and started to cry. ¡°I know.¡±


    The wave of relief that washed over me seemed to wash over the entire room. The tension turned to tears and everyone cried in relief as Reece proved to us that he was alive and well. He hadn¡¯t died, not tonight, no matter how close he hade to dying this time, he had survived, and it was thanks to the love that we all had for him.


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 Chapter 993

    Chapter 993: Chapter 178- Reece ¨C On the Brink Part 1 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I remember that I had been there on that bridge with Trinity. I had been fighting with her against the humans and the monsters that were swarming our home. We had known that they wereing, but that didn¡¯t take away the unease, worry and adrenaline. We all wanted this nightmare to be over, and this battle was going to be what made that happen.


    I never once doubted that we would win this battle. That might sound conceited, but I didn¡¯t care. It was the truth. I was just being honest with myself. I knew that we outnumbered them, and that we were definitely more coordinated than they were. Those were just simple facts that made our victory a sure truth.


    What I didn¡¯t expect though, was that one of the monsters would get behind me. I didn¡¯t think that it would pierce me with its razor sharp ws and fly off with me. Nor did I think that those ws would burn quite so much when they pierced my flesh. It was like the ce that they entered me was on fire, and I hated it. I could feel some sort of venom or poison starting to flood into my bloodstream, and that was when the real pain began.


    Every pump of my heart started to feel like my entire body was simultaneously being burned and stabbed. Like I was living inside of a fire, one that actually hurt me. And it felt like my entire body was being stabbed with thousands and thousands of tiny little knives like the monsters from one of those movies. Or better yet, one of the swords from Gulliver¡¯s Travels. That was what it was like. I was being swarmed by those tiny people and they were all stabbing me at the same time.


    .....


    I scream loud and often. I couldn¡¯t help it. I knew that the poison that was in my blood was going to kill me if I didn¡¯t get away from here, but I needed to get free from the monster first.


    We were flying through the air when I managed to start fighting with it. I had to twist in its ws, and that made the cuts and deep gashes in my sides open up even more, but I didn¡¯t care. I managed to summon my sword again. That meant that I wasn¡¯t defenseless against these things.


    With my teeth gritted against the pain, I turned and thrust up with the sword. Therge, pterodactyl-like beast that was carrying me screeched in pain and confusion. I had driven the sword in so deep, that it was likely a fatal wound, or I hoped that it was. And not only that, but the mes of my sword were quickly engulfing it.


    I hadn¡¯t thought of one thing though. We were currently soaring through the air. I didn¡¯t know where we were going, but I knew that we were above the forest, and crashing into it didn¡¯t sound like fun to me. And another thing that didn¡¯t go in my favor, was the fact that the monstrous creature was not dead yet, so it was crashing with me. I had seen the other creatures turn to ash or other things when they died, so this one should do the same, right? Well, I hoped so. Otherwise, it was going tond on top of me and crush me before I could try to save myself.


    My whole body was on fire. It was burning so badly that I could barely think. I knew that just a moment ago I was worried about something, but I couldn¡¯t remember what it was now. It was like the pain and the poison were clouding my mind. What did I need to do again? What was I supposed to be doing? Dammit, Reece, think!


    That was when the sound of the trees starting to snap and break beneath the monster cleared my head just a little. I felt the jolts and the crashes, but the monster¡¯s top half was lower than its feet, and that meant that it was crashing into the trees first. That was good for me.


    What wasn¡¯t good for me was the other monster, the one that was this one¡¯s twin, following behind us through the trees. It was knocking down even more of the trees in its path than the first one had done.


    We were about to m into the ground when the thing that was carrying me finally died. The thing turned into a thick heavy ash that exploded around me as I continued to fall to the ground, with the other monster following me. Shit! This wasn¡¯t over yet.


    I skidded to a halt on the forest floor, t on my back, as the monster crashed into me. It knew that its brother was dead. It knew that I had killed it. And it wanted its revenge on me. SHIT! SHIT! SHTI!


    The first thing that I felt was the ws piercing through my chest. These weren¡¯t the ws on the feet that I had felt the first time, these were the ones that were on the hand-like things that tipped the double sets of wings. And the burning that I felt instantly intensified. There was poison on those ws as well.


    ¡°EEERRREEEKKKAAAAWWW!¡± The thing growled and then screeched in one long breath into my face. It was an unearthly sound that made my hackles stand on end, even though I was in my human form.


    ¡°I..I need to shift.¡± I told myself. If I shifted, the injuries would be healed and I could fight again. I just needed to shift.


    That was easier said than done though. I wasn¡¯t able to get the monster off of me long enough to shift. I needed to make it move so that I could shift. It would only take a second. I just needed a second, that was all. I needed to be one of my other forms, then I would kill this thing with no problem at all. Hell, I would even take on my phoenix form if that was what it took. I just needed to shift.


    As I fought for dominance and to gain the lead, I felt that my body was giving out on me. I was losing my strength. I wouldn¡¯t hold on much longer.


    ¡°Trinity.¡± I called for my mate. Not for her to help me, but because I loved her and didn¡¯t want to hurt her by leaving. ¡°Trinity.¡± I said her name again as I thrust up with the sword that was in my hand. I noticed at that exact moment that the monster had stopped moving. It was turning to ash. Had I killed it? Or was this something else? It was dying faster than thest one after I stabbed it, so I doubted that was the reason.


    I had been cut, shed, sliced, and gouged in several ces, and that doesn¡¯t even count where the thing that carried me off and stabbed me in the back and sides. These wounds were all deep and would have killed me if I were a human. I was only still alive because I was something more than human. Even so, I could tell that I was dying. My body was weakening, and I knew that I wasn¡¯t going to be able to hold on for much longer.


    ¡°I...I l...love you, Tr...Trinity.¡± The words were stuttered and dragged out. It was all that I could do, I was losing so much of myself, and the world was growing cold around me. ¡°T...take c...care of our f...family.¡± I forced the words out even though she couldn¡¯t hear me right now.


    The world around me went dark after that. I couldn¡¯t even feel the pain anymore. That was how I knew that I was dying. That I was almost dead. I wasn¡¯t scared of death, not really. I was just afraid to leave my family behind. I didn¡¯t want to hurt them by leaving them so soon. Reagan and Rika still needed me, even though they were in college, they needed me. Talia wasn¡¯t mature enough to take over the underworld yet. She still needed me. And Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley were only kids. They were still so young. They definitely still needed me. Not to mention Trinity, Mom, Samuel, Eve, Wesley, Ivy, Olivia, and everyone else in my family. They all needed me, and I still needed them.


    I felt numb. The darkness wasn¡¯t all that happened when I seemed to slip away. The pain that I had been in, it was gone now. I could tell that this was the beginning of the end for me, if it wasn¡¯t already the end. I couldn¡¯t be sure that I wasn¡¯t already dead. It felt like I probably was, but this was a strange way to move on if I really was dead.


    I tried to look all over the ce that I was standing in. There was nothing to see, or at least nothing that I could make out. It was so dark in here, and my advanced eyesight did not seem to be working right now. I was trapped in this dark ce, and there was nothing at all that I could do about it.


    Still, even though I was trapped in the dark, unable to see, I could still feel. And what I felt right now was that there was someone that was looking at me. Someone was standing close to me. I didn¡¯t know who it was, but I could still feel them. Just who was here with me?


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 Chapter 994

    Chapter 994: Chapter 179- Reece ¨C On the Brink Part 2 (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I sensed something that wasing closer to me. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. Something was throwing my senses into overdrive, but all I could smell was me and absolutely nothing else. Not even the ash from that monster that had died right above me.


    ¡°Is someone there?¡± I called out like an idiot. If someone was there, they couldn¡¯t be a friendly being. Not with them sneaking up on me like this.


    ¡°Hello, Reece.¡± I heard a deep rumbling voiceing from behind me. Nervously, I spun around to look through the darkness toward the voice. That was when the mes erupted.


    Standing in front of me was arge ck wolf that was covered in mes. It was me. Well, my wolf form.


    .....


    ¡°Wh..what is going on here?¡± I asked him. ¡°Who are you?¡±


    ¡°I am you, Reece. Can¡¯t you see that?¡± He didn¡¯t smile, not really, but I felt the smile in the words.


    ¡°Am I dead?¡± I knew that I had to be.


    ¡°Not yet. You are hanging in the ¡®in between¡¯.¡±


    ¡°So, what happens now?¡± I asked him, confused about this whole situation.


    ¡°You need to choose to hold on and fight, or to move on and watch.¡± His words were calm, but the meaning behind them sent me into a panic.


    ¡°S..so I can decide if I stay or go?¡± I asked him, my heart racing faster than a bullet train.


    ¡°You can. The fight might be painful and long though. That is your decision to make.¡±


    ¡°I choose to stay!¡± I screamed at him. ¡°I don¡¯t care how long or painful it is, I don¡¯t want to leave my family. They need me. And I need them.¡± The vehemence in my voice was intense, but my wolf looked unfazed by it.


    ¡°Good. Now you must get to them.¡± My wolf looked up then, and that was when I saw that there was a sheer rock face in front of me. It had to be at least three miles high, at the very least. ¡°You need to drag yourself away from death and return to them. The underworld already has its ws in you, Reece. You need to drag yourself out of here.¡±


    ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll do it. I will get back to them.¡± I tried to shift into my Lycan form then. Than I would have no problem climbing up the wall. But it didn¡¯t work. I stayed myself.


    ¡°You need to do it yourself, Reece. No other form but that one.¡±


    ¡°Fine.¡± I snapped at the wolf. ¡°I will still get to them.¡± There was a small light at the top of the wall that had to be home. I just knew it.


    I ran and leapt at the wall, digging my ws in and sinking my fingers into the solid rock. It was hard, but my will was stronger than it was. And I wasn¡¯t going to give up. Not yet.


    I climbed and climbed, sometimes sliding backwards just a little. I wed my way up five hundred feet and then slipped back by about fifty or so. Then I continued some more. Up, up, up, slip, slide down, and repeat.


    If I was so close to death, then I didn¡¯t think that my hands should hurt so much. Why was the rock hurting me? Was I closer to life now that I was climbing? I had to be, since the rest of my body was on fire again. And that was when the climbing got harder. That aching in my body was so much worse that I felt like I could barely move, but I still refused to give up. I was going to get back to them. I just knew that I was.


    Just then, I heard the sound of someone whispering to me. At first, I could barely hear them, but I strained my ears and finally made out who it was. It was my mate, my wife, the only woman that I would ever love. And she was begging me not to leave her.


    ¡°Reece? I love you, Reece. I love you more than life itself. And if it wasn¡¯t for the kids, I would die to save you. Plus, I don¡¯t think you would like it if I died all that much. So,e on, Reece, you need to live. You need to fight this.¡± She was right. I didn¡¯t want her to die for me. Not like that. I was the one that needed to protect her.


    Another sound came soon after that. More tear filled voices that threatened to tear me apart.


    ¡°Daddy, please don¡¯t leave us. We love you so much. I love you so much. And I need you, Daddy. Who else is going to protect me when the others say something mean about my hair? Who is going to put me on his shoulders and carry me around? I need you, Daddy. Don¡¯t leave me.¡±


    ¡°I need you too, Daddy. I need to learn how to be a man from you Daddy, no one else will do. I need you, Daddy, more than anyone will ever know. A..and I am scared, Daddy. I don¡¯t know how to be me without you.¡±


    ¡°Please don¡¯t leave us, Daddy. You¡¯re our dad, and no one else will ever be able to rece you. We need you.¡±


    ¡°Daddy please, stay with us. You can¡¯t go. You just can¡¯t. We can¡¯t be a family if you¡¯re not here with us, Daddy.¡±


    ¡°Please, Daddy. I am sorry that I was a brat recently. I am sorry that I insisted on being there for the battle. If it wasn¡¯t for me, you might not be hurt. Please, Daddy, you need toe back to us.¡±


    ¡°Come on, Dad. We need you. Remember, Dad, you¡¯re the strongest man in the world. If you can¡¯t survive this, what does that say for the rest of us? We can¡¯t survive without you, Dad. We need you.¡±


    ¡°Please, Daddy. You can¡¯t leave me, Daddy, please. I don¡¯t want to lose anyone else in my life, especially you. We need you, Daddy. You¡¯re so strong, so brave, and so smart, I know that you can make it through this.¡±


    Those were the voices of my kids. All of them were begging me to stay with them and not leave them. They were telling me what I already knew, but I still needed to hear it. They needed me. They wanted their daddy, and I didn¡¯t want to leave them.


    They weren¡¯t the only ones that were speaking to me. I heard Riley, Landon, and Trevor. They were my friends, but they were also like my brothers. They have been a part of my life since I was a kid. They were the only family that I really had for a long time. And they didn¡¯t want me to leave either.


    Then to break my heart even more, more people were speaking to me, begging me not to leave. I heard Eve, Trinity¡¯s mom, and then Wesley, her dad. I heard Samuel, my stepfather, that was also Trinity¡¯s grandfather. My little sister Ivy who had been born after the quadruplets had been born. Then I heard Mome over and tell me that she still needed me. I didn¡¯t want to hurt my mom by dying like this. She had lost Dad and I never thought that she was going to be able to move on. I can¡¯t hurt her with another loss like this.


    ¡°I¡¯ming. I swear to you all, I aming back to you. I am not leaving you. None of you. I swear that I am on my way back. Just hold on a little longer, OK. I swear, I will be there soon.¡±


    I redoubled my efforts then. Digging my fingers into the rock even harder and faster. I swung my body up as quickly as I could. I was going to ignore the pain. I was going to ignore the not so subtle way that the darkness below me was trying to pull me back down. I was going to fight until I was out of this ce and with them all again.


    Higher and higher I climbed. I was almost there. I could see the top of the wall. I would crest it soon, but I couldn¡¯t see what was there. The light was too bright.


    That was when I started to wonder if I might have been led astray. They said when you were on the brink of death, not to go into the light. What if I was climbing to my death and not my life? No, that couldn¡¯t be it. I was once again in pain, and that meant that I was living again. Pain didn¡¯t affect the dead.


    ¡°I aming, Trinity.¡± I screamed for her. ¡°I¡¯m almost there.¡±


    The moment that I climbed over the top of the cliff, I blinked my eyes. I was so confused by what I was seeing. I wasying in a bed, not climbing a cliff. What was happening?


    ¡°REECE!?¡± I heard Trinity scream my name and the memories of the battle started to flood back to me. I remember that she was fighting the monsters, and that I was taken away from her.


    ¡°T..T..Trinity, you¡¯re covered in blood.¡± I could barely speak, but I needed to know that she was OK.


    ¡°It¡¯s your blood, idiot.¡± She bent forward and kissed my lips tenderly. ¡°You were almost dead. I thought that I had lost you.¡± She was sobbing, but smiling as well. I really had scared her. And myself as well.


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 Chapter 995

    Chapter 995: Chapter 180- Reece ¨C Relieved (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    ¡°My blood?¡± I looked at Trinity confused for a moment. ¡°Why would you be covered in my blood?¡± I started to look around me then, and really take in what I was seeing and what was going on.


    Everyone in my family, and I do mean everyone, was there. And several of them had blood on them in various ces. For most of them it was on their hands, but a few of them had blood on their clothes or their faces. It looked like it had been smeared there, not like they were injured, and it wasn¡¯t as much as Trinity had gotten on her from hugging me like she had. She was almost drenched in the stuff. Though it was all smears as well. Nothing major aside from that.


    Another thing that I noticed when I looked at everyone, was that they were all looking at me with tears in their eyes. Even big strong Trevor, who I knew was nothing but a giant soft teddy bear, was crying as he looked at me. He was the next to speak as well.


    ¡°Man, Reece, we thought we had lost you.¡± He was gripping my right leg as if it was a lifeline, or like he would disappear if he wasn¡¯t holding onto something that was solidly here. Or maybe like he thought that I was going to disappear if he didn¡¯t hold onto me. ¡°You can¡¯t scare us like that, buddy. Never again.¡±


    .....


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± I felt horrible, and for more than one reason. Not only did I feel an intense wave of guilt spread through me at the pain that I had caused them, but I was also in pain myself. I could barely move without an intense wave of pain searing through my body. Whatever injuries that I had received were closed, but they still hurt like a fucking bitch. I wasn¡¯t going to let them know that though. It would just make them worry even more.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be sorry, Reece. You didn¡¯t do anything wrong.¡± Riley took my hand and held it firmly. He was like a brother to me. And so were Landon and Trevor. They were my family just as much as the others were.


    ¡°Yeah, Reece, we know you didn¡¯t almost die on purpose.¡± Landon grinned and then Trinity smacked him on the arm as Zayden¡¯s voice squeaked out amid his tears.


    ¡°D..D...Daddy, y..you¡¯re not going to d..d..die, are you?¡± He, along with all my children, had been crying heavily. His eyes were red and swollen and he looked like it was hard for him to even see me.


    ¡°No, Zay, I am not going to die.¡± I ced my hand on his and watched the tears stream down his face. ¡°I can¡¯t leave you, buddy. I love you, and your siblings, and Mommy too much. I want to be right here with you all forever.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want you to leave, Daddy.¡± Zaley sobbed, pressing her face against my arm and getting even more blood on her head.


    ¡°I¡¯m staying, sweetheart. Daddy is here forever.¡± I pulled her closer to me, hugging her and suppressing the painful sound that tried to escape my lips.


    ¡°I love you, Dad.¡± Reagan leaned in then, throwing his arms around me as he hugged me tightly. ¡°I love you, Dad, and I couldn¡¯t even think about what our lives would be like without you.¡±


    ¡°Nghahh.¡± I groaned in pain when he hugged me. The sound of pain that I had made caused Reagan to instantly want to pull away from me. I wouldn¡¯t let him though. I pulled him back and pressed him tighter against me. ¡°No, don¡¯t pull away. It hurts, yes, but that just reaffirms to me that I am alive. That I am here with all of you. I don¡¯t mind the pain, son. I want to hug you. You need me right now, and I will be there for you. I love you, Reagan.¡± He stopped struggling and then resettled into the hug after a moment. His arms tightened, gently, and he hugged me for a long time.


    ¡°I love you too, Dad.¡± He was crying again. I knew that he would probably think that this wasn¡¯t manly or whatever when he came to his senses, but I would remind him that men have feelings too, and it¡¯s OK to express them.


    When Reagan finally did pull away from me, he was quickly reced by Rika. She was distraught as well, and covered in more of my blood than anyone aside from Trinity and Reagan. She had obviously hugged me while I was still unconscious. She was hugging me again right now too, this time around my neck like Reagan had just hugged me.


    ¡°Daddy!?¡± She sobbed into my shoulder, her tears flowing steadily. ¡°I am sorry. I am sorry that I acted like a brat before. I am sorry that I was being too rude and selfish. I..I..I thought that you were going to die and that I was never going to get to tell you that I was sorry for the way that I acted. Please, Daddy, don¡¯t ever leave us.¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t, baby girl. I promise. And I know that you were just feeling upset before. You¡¯re a good girl, I know that you are. I love you.¡± I hugged her and kissed the top of her head as she sobbed. Neither of us said anything else. She just cried on me while she settled down.


    The quads came next. It was all more of the same. They were crying as they held onto me, telling me how scared they were. They had needed someone to hold them up to me though. I was sitting too high on the hospital bed for them to hug me properly without them climbing on top of me directly, and I am sure that that would have hurt a lot. Zaley, the smallest of my children, had definitely needed the help. She was so much smaller than her brothers.


    Talia, standing stiff and still, looked at me like she didn¡¯t know what to do. She was looking like she felt alone and isted, but that didn¡¯t make sense at all. And she clearly wanted to hug me, but she wasn¡¯t making the effort toe to me yet.


    ¡°Talia?¡± I called to her, prompting her to hug me next. ¡°Come here, sweetheart.¡± I hoped that would do the job, but she just started to cry while she was looking at me. She wasn¡¯t moving yet. ¡°Come here, baby girl. Let Daddy hold you for a minute.¡± That seemed to break through to her and she rushed forward on a sob as she called for me.


    ¡°Da-ha-ddy.¡± She hugged me gently, despite her rushing to get to me. She was being conscious of where I had been hurt. She didn¡¯t want to cause me any more pain than I had suffered already. ¡°When I saw you disappear earlier, when you got hurt, I wanted to follow you and save you, but I couldn¡¯t. I am sorry, Daddy. I am sorry that you got hurt. You might not have, if I wasn¡¯t there. You might have been safe and-.¡±


    ¡°Hush now.¡± I stroked her back soothingly as I tried to calm her down. ¡°You had nothing to do with it. I am sure that it would have happened no matter what. Please, Tally, don¡¯t me yourself. I am here now, I am safe and alive, and that is all that matters.¡±


    She cried the same as Rika had. She sobbed against me and her shoulders shook. It broke my heart that I had caused this level of heartbreak in my family, and I vowed that it would never happen again. I would make sure that I never left them. Never.


    After the kids were done with their sobbing hugs, I got a few more. Mom hugged me and held me close. I knew that she had been remembering when my dad died, and how painful that had been. Samuel was hugging me as well. He had known me since I was little, and he would not like to see me die so young. My little sister hugged me next, crying over the fact that she didn¡¯t want to lose her only big brother. She had hugged me much the same as the kids had. My Little Bunny¡¯s parents hugged me as well. They treated me as a son after all of these years. And even Trevor, Landon, and Riley hugged me. They were longer and closer hugs than we usually shared, but they were nothing whenpared to the ones from my children.


    The group in the room started to leave then. Everyone wanted to give the injured man time to rest, and that was a good thing too, since I was still in so much pain. The kids told me that they would see me tomorrow, before they left with their grandparents. They were going to get cleaned up and go to bed, since it was veryte after all.


    Now, it was just me, Trinity, Griffin, Lana, and Vincent, who had stayed against the wall and silent the whole time. It was suddenly very quiet in the room.


    ¡°Reece?¡± Griffin broke the silence. ¡°If the pain is too much, I can give you something for it.¡±


    ¡°No, that¡¯s fine. I don¡¯t need it. The pain is already starting to lessen. If it¡¯s bad tomorrow, I might take it, but for now, I am OK.¡± I refused his offer. As I had said, the pain reminded me that I was alive. That time in that dark ce, when I felt nothing, I knew that I was technically dead, and I didn¡¯t want to feel like I was back there again. I would keep the pain, and the knowledge that I was still alive.


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 Chapter 996 - 996 Chapter 181- Reece – What Happened (VOLUME 5)

    996 Chapter 181- Reece ¨C What Happened (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Griffin and Lana checked on me a little more, making sure that I was indeed in perfect health now. Their magical scans were painless. In fact, they didn¡¯t even tickle. You couldn¡¯t feel it at all. At least I couldn¡¯t. Once they were done, they said that I could go back to my room and get cleaned up. They were sure that I was going to want to rest for the night. They would check on me again in the morning.


    ¡°Do you need help getting to your room?¡± Griffin asked as he stepped closer to the bed.


    ¡°No. I will help him.¡± Vincent stepped away from the wall and offered right away. ¡°I will make sure he gets in there with no issues.¡±


    ¡°I am sure that I can walk.¡± I assured them both. ¡°I am sore, but I am not incapable.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t know how bad the pain will be until you try to stand. It might be even worse than it is now.¡± I knew that Griffin had a point when he said that, but I wasn¡¯t going to let that deter me. The pain meant that I was alive. That I was here. And that was not something that I was going to regret.


    ¡°I will be fine.¡± I assured him again.


    .....


    ¡°Reece, let Vincent help you.¡± Trinity pleaded with me. ¡°I will make a door to our room. I just want to make sure that you are OK. Please.¡± She still looked so worried about me, even after all that had happened since I had woken up.


    ¡°Alright.¡± I said as I shifted and moved to sit up. Her hands, as well as Vincent¡¯s, shot out to steady me when I winced from the pain.


    ¡°Careful, Reece.¡± Trinity warned me.


    ¡°Are you OK?¡± Vincent¡¯s concern was thick in his voice. He was just as worried about me as my family had been.


    ¡°I¡¯m alright.¡± I told them in as easygoing of a voice as I could manage at that moment. They weren¡¯t convinced at all.


    Vincent and Trinity made sure that I was steady on my feet and that I wasn¡¯t going to fall before my Little Bunny stepped away. Vincent kept a hand on my back as if he was ready to grab me the second that I started to fall.


    Little Bunny was standing a couple of feet in front of me when she started to open the door to our room. This was a handy little trick of hers, especially at times like this. It really was painful to be on my feet, but I wasn¡¯t going to tell them that.


    The door was opened, and my Little Bunny stepped back to me to wrap an arm around my waist on the right side. Vincent, on my left, pulled my arm over his shoulders and wrapped his arm around me as well. Together, the two of them, under the watchful eyes of Griffin and Lana, helped me through the door and into my room.


    Vincent and Trinity walked me through the room and over to the armchair that was near the firece. It wasrge and would fit both me and my Little Bunny. It was a ce that was meant for us to cuddle together when we wanted some time alone with each other. For now, though, it was a refuge that I didn¡¯t tell them that I needed.


    ¡°Are you doing OK?¡± Vincent asked as he stepped away. ¡°You¡¯re a little pale.¡±


    ¡°I almost died, Vincent. I am sure that I will look pale for a little while longer.¡± I yed it off as if nothing was wrong.


    ¡°Yeah, I guess. I was in pain for a while after I almost died though, so I know how hard it can be. Don¡¯t do too much right away, alright? Ask Trinity or someone else to do things for you. Don¡¯t be ashamed to have help, Reece. We all know that this won¡¯t be easy on you right now. There is no reason to martyr yourself.¡± He was lecturing me without being stern. And he seemed to know just what I was thinking and feeling.


    ¡°I really am fi-.¡±


    ¡°I know what you¡¯re doing, Reece.¡± He red at me. ¡°The pain that you¡¯re feeling, you don¡¯t want it to go away right now, do you?¡±


    ¡°What? Why not, Reece?¡± Trinity looked appalled and scared at that.


    ¡°You think that the pain is a reminder that you¡¯re alive. That you¡¯re still here. I felt the same way, Reece. I know what you¡¯re feeling. But I also know that, if I could go back, I would take the pain meds. I would make the pain stop. I was alive. I could see, feel, hear, smell and taste, I had the people around me that were showing me day in and day out that I was alive. There is no more reassurance that you will need other than that.¡± He seemed to truly get what I had been thinking. I should have known that he would. He had almost died many years ago, during the battle with the dark Fae. If it weren¡¯t for Trinity, he would have died, and we would all live like mortals, like we had done before. It was that night that had made us near immortal. It was because of not wanting to lose him that Trinitybined the three celestial beings inside of herself.


    ¡°Thank you, Vincent.¡± I gave him an apologetic look. He epted it graciously.


    ¡°Take a bath, Reece. You¡¯re filthy. And the hot water will do you some good. Though, rinse in the shower first. No one needs to be soaking in a blood soup right now. Trinity, you should soak with him. He needs you to be there with him right now.¡±


    ¡°I already nned on it.¡± She assured him.


    ¡°Good. I will see myself out.¡± He lowered his head for a moment, and then left through the door that Trinity had made, back into the clinic room that I had almost died in.


    Trinity went to get the shower started and the bath filled. I was thankful this was a magical castle. The water pressure never depleted, and we never ran out of hot water. That was a blessing I had never known I had wanted before the castle was built.


    Once the shower was hot, Trinity and I stepped inside of it, after she had helped me to remove the little amount of clothes that I had left, which was a shredded shirt, tattered pants and, oddly enough, fully intact boxers, socks, and boots. She had knelt before me to help me strip them off and I felt the love that she had for me.


    We washed in the shower, not talking about anything, just cleaning and staying close to each other. We didn¡¯t say a word until we were out of the shower and soaking in the tub, Trinity resting on myp, her breasts pressed against my chest as she hugged me gently but firmly.


    ¡°I thought that I lost you.¡± She spoke quietly, but I heard it with no problem.


    ¡°I thought that I really was going to die.¡± I admitted to her. ¡°While I was unconscious, I was in a sort of limbo. A ce between life and death. I had to either give up or get back home. I chose home, even though that road was harder.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m d that you did choose home.¡± She lifted her head and looked me in the eyes. ¡°I don¡¯t want a life without you in it, Reece. I can¡¯t bear that at all.¡±


    ¡°I feel the same about you, Little Bunny.¡± I kissed her forehead and tucked her wet hair behind her ear. ¡°I would never leave you or the kids. Not if I had a choice in the matter.¡±


    ¡°That is good to know.¡± She settled her head back on my chest and sighed.


    ¡°How did you do it?¡± I asked her in a hushed tone. I don¡¯t know why, but this topic almost felt taboo.


    ¡°Do what?¡± She lifted her head again and gave me a bemused look.


    ¡°Defeat the monsters? Kill the boss? End the battle? How did you do all of that?¡±


    ¡°Well, to be honest, it wasn¡¯t me.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± I was the one that looked bemused now. ¡°If it wasn¡¯t you, then who was it?¡±


    ¡°It was Talia. She conjured her own weapon, a scythe if you can believe it. She saw you disappear and wanted to go after you, but then Alexio called out to her, he was protecting her from one of those monsters that she had wounded but not killed. He almost died tonight as well. He lived, but he was on the brink of death as well. With you and him gone, or so she thought, she went a little berserk. She flew on her dragixie, by the way, Angel is way more powerful than I ever thought she was. Anyway, she leapt at the leader of the Ancient Ones and tore his soul out of his back. She really is like a Goddess of Death.¡±


    I was floored. How the hell had this all happened? And, dammit, why couldn¡¯t I see it? That sounded badass as all fucking hell, and I missed it. FUCK!


    ¡°It sounds like our little girl is quite the powerhouse.¡± That was all that I had to say. I was still trying to process all of the details that Trinity had just given me.


    ¡°She really is.¡± Little Bunny nodded at me. ¡°And I am interested to see just how much stronger she will get as time moves on. She is still young, and her powers are still growing. Oh, and another thing, Talia¡¯s powers seem to have changed colors.¡± That seemed like it was a thought that popped into her head at thest second.


    ¡°Really? What color are they now?¡± I had an idea, but I wasn¡¯t sure since I wasn¡¯t there.


    ¡°Instead of pink, her magic is now purple, like her wolf.¡±


    ¡°Well, of course they are.¡± I grinned and shook my head. That was what I thought she was going to say. ¡°She really is changing, and quickly too.¡±


    ¡°They all are.¡± My Little Bunny sounded so sad at that moment. It was like she was not happy about what was going on. I wouldn¡¯t guess that she was. What mother wanted to think about her kids growing up so quickly?


    We talked a little more about the battle and what had happened after I was gone. Trinity told me how she had spoken to most of the people that had been present at the battle, and how she wanted to hold another meeting tomorrow. She wanted to tell them all that I was safe and that I wasn¡¯t going to die, but I stopped her. It waste and most of them were likely asleep already. It would be rude to wake them after the night that they had endured.


    We dried off after the bath, which had helped with my pain quite a bit. After we dried off, we dressed for bed and climbed between the sheets and nket. I wanted to hold my Little Bunny for the rest of the night. I wanted to feel her warmth, her presence, and her love. I felt like I needed to keep reaffirming to myself that she was there. I was really here. And I was truly still alive.


    I didn¡¯t sleep that much after weid in the bed. I was lying there awake, holding my mate in my arms, and thinking about all that had happened. Not just about almost dying, but about everything. I thought about my family, my friends, my people, and the future that we all had before us. I thought about how scared I was to close my eyes and go to sleep, just in case all of this that had happened since I came back to life was just a dream, or a vision of sorts. I thought about how I might actually be dead, and this was all just an illusion that the Gods of the underworld were showing me as my form of heavenly bliss. I worried about all of that and so much more.


    And just as I was falling asleep, I thought about how something was tickling my sense of smell. Something that I should recognize, but that I was too distracted to think about. What was it? What was that smell? I couldn¡¯t figure it out though, sleep had finallye for me and pulled me under into a deep, dreamless sleep.


    The dreamlessness of that sleep was almost enough to scare me, but it didn¡¯t. I kept my Little Bunny in my arms the entire night. I held her close against my chest and felt her beating heart. It was her warmth, her life, her sheer presence that kept me calm all throughout the night. She was my rock, my lifeline, my beacon of hope. She was the one thing that kept me grounded, just like she had done for all these years now. And hopefully, many, many, many more toe. My Little Bunny, my reason for living, my fate.

 Chapter 997 - 997 Chapter 182- Talia – What Did I Do? (VOLUME 5)

    997 Chapter 182- Talia ¨C What Did I Do? (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    When I left my dad in that clinic, I knew that I had too much on my mind to sleep. I knew that I needed to process all of it or I wouldn¡¯t be able to move on. He had almost died. Lex had almost died. And I had done things that I had never thought were possible before.


    All of these things had just hit me all at once, the good and the bad. And frankly, they had left me feeling more than a little overwhelmed and confused. I wanted to think. I wanted to process my thoughts and emotions. And I wanted to talk to someone that might help me with it all.


    Who, though? Who could I talk to? Who would understand what I was feeling? Who would help me figure this all out?


    Initially, I had thought that the Gods, the ones that I had learned so much from, would help me. But they weren¡¯t a good choice for this. Based on their reactions after I had killed Olorud, they would just be in awe of me and tell me that it was all fate and h h h. I didn¡¯t want to hear that. I didn¡¯t want to be revered. I wanted help working all of this out.


    I didn¡¯t have a lot of close friends either. I couldn¡¯t just call one of them up and talk about this whole thing. Even if I did have friends like that, there were two reasons why I couldn¡¯t call them at the moment. One was the fact that it was after midnight. And two, we hadn¡¯t told most of the surrounding supernatural poption about the battle and what was happening, so I couldn¡¯t exactly spill the beans on that.


    I guess I could talk to my siblings. Well, Reagan and Rika at least. But they might not get it. And they might not understand what it is that had happened. I am not saying that they would have med me for anything or that they would make fun of me, but they hadn¡¯t experienced anything like this. No one had, at least not to my knowledge. So, who exactly did that leave for me to talk to? Who should I talk to?


    .....


    I was heading back to my room, taking the long way to clear my head as I went. I wanted a shower as well. I was covered in blood from my dad. And I hadn¡¯t had the time to shower before seeing him either, so I had the other muck and grime on me from the battle. The clothes that I was wearing were going straight into the trash when they came off. I didn¡¯t want to keep them.


    Standing in the shower, letting the steaming and almost burning hot water cascade onto me, tuning my pale skin a bright pink, I thought about who my options were. I was already clean. I had scrubbed every inch of myself three times after getting into the shower, and after a few minutes, I did it again just to be sure that I wasn¡¯t still dirty. Right now, I was just letting the water rx me and sooth me. And warm me up, because I was inexplicably cold.


    While I stood there, Angel popped into the room. She had gone from being nearly invisible to her full colored and beautiful self. She had been amazing today. And, thankfully, she had already cleaned herself up. There was no blood, dirt, or gore on her at all.


    ¡°Talia looks sad.¡± She flew in a little figure eight pattern as she watched me.


    ¡°I am sad. And I am confused. I need to talk to someone, Angel, but I don¡¯t know who to talk to.¡± I never lied to Angel. There was no reason to. She was like an extension of me, a part of my soul or something. A piece of me that had existed before I was born and had found her way back to me while guiding my mom home from the underworld.


    ¡°Talia always talks to parents?¡±


    ¡°Dad is recovering, and it¡¯ste. I can¡¯t talk to them right now.¡±


    ¡°Talia talk to Angel?¡± She suggested, and that wasn¡¯t a bad idea, I did often talk to her to work out my thoughts, but I wanted a more sophisticated conversation about all of this.


    ¡°I want to have someone that can help me. Someone to tell me what I need to do now.¡±


    ¡°Talia talk to Alexio?¡± She mentioned the one name that I had avoided. He had been hurt too. And I didn¡¯t even know how he was doing right now. I was afraid to check on him. I was afraid that he would me me for being hurt.


    ¡°I am afraid that he won¡¯t want to see me.¡± I told her. ¡°He was hurt earlier because of me.¡±


    ¡°Angel ask him then. Angel see if Alexio want talk to Talia too.¡± Before I could stop her, the little dragixie had disappeared. Dammit! She was going to make hime over here. And that meant that I needed to get out of the hot water.


    I shut off the water, dried a little with the towel, but then decided that I was going to just use magic as I walked to my closet. I was fully dried by the time that I got to the clothes that I was intending on wearing. A set of pajamas that had long dark purple fleece pants and a short sleeve shirt that was lc colored. I hadn¡¯t even thought about the irony of these clothes until just now. How the colors were slowly starting to match everything about me.


    On top of the pajamas I added a dark gray jacket, a pair of ck socks, and fuzzy pink slippers. I was a jumble of colors, but I didn¡¯t care. I wanted to be warm, and this made me feel warm.


    I was walking out of the closet, pulling my hair back into a high ponytail, when there was a knock in my door.


    ¡°Talia?¡± It was Lex¡¯s voice. ¡°Are you alright?¡±


    ¡°Come in.¡± I told him calmly as I walked toward the sitting area in the corner. He would see me and join me over there.


    I was in the reclining armchair when Lex walked over and sat on the loveseat facing me. He took up pretty much the entire thing since he was so much bigger than I was.


    ¡°Are you alright?¡± He asked the question again. ¡°Angel said you were sad.¡±


    ¡°How are you, Lex?¡± I asked him, avoiding the question and turning it back on him.


    ¡°I will live. There is little pain left and I am feeling as strong as ever. But you did not answer my question.¡± He answered, but he didn¡¯t let me escape doing the same thing.


    ¡°I am confused, Lex. I..I don¡¯t really understand what it was that happened tonight.¡± I looked up and met his eyes now. He was looking the same as he always had. Nothing at all had changed about his appearance, so I guess he really was OK.


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t awake until the end of the battle, Talia. Can you fill me in?¡± He looked a little off as he asked that. Perhaps he was angry about not being awake for the battle. Angry at me.


    I told Lex everything. I told him about the scythe, but he had seen that. I told him about how I was feeling when my dad was hurt, and then when he was hurt. I was losing people close to me, and I didn¡¯t want to let that happen. I told him what I did. How I called Angel to me and together we flew at Olorud. I told him how I pulled the Ancient One¡¯s soul from its body and destroyed it. How that had caused them all to die.


    All through the exnation, Lex just watched me and listened. He didn¡¯t interrupt me. He didn¡¯t look angry. He just listened. And that made me feel even more nervous. It wasn¡¯t until Ipsed into silence and looked at him with worried eyes that he finally spoke.


    ¡°I think that the Gods were right, Talia. You are worthy to run the underworld. But I am guessing that you didn¡¯t want to hear that.¡±


    ¡°No. I didn¡¯t.¡± I shook my head. That wasn¡¯t what I was confused about.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you want to hear, Talia, but I know what I want to tell you. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, is thankful for you, whether they know it was you or not. They are thankful to the person that saved them. You think that the powers that you used were dark or evil. I can see that in your eyes. I don¡¯t see it that way though. You helped people. You made sure that I was safe and alive. You sent your own familiar to look for and to save your father. You are not bad or evil or anything along those lines. The powers that you have might seem dark and sinister because they deal with things like souls and death, but that is just one way to view it. Life involves souls as well. Not to mention, Talia, that you need to remember something else, something important. It¡¯s not the powers that you possess that makes you good or evil, it is what you choose to do with those powers that defines you. You are a good person, Talia. You care for people, you want to protect people, and that makes you a good person. You take on the roles that you do, dealing with departed souls, training to run the underworld, and protecting the lives of the people around you, and in my eyes all of that makes you a hero. You¡¯re a wonderful person, Talia. And you need to remember that.¡±


    ¡°Lex¡­¡± I was feeling a little overwhelmed again, but in a different way. He had, whether he knew it or not, conquered all of my doubts and fears. And in the end, he had done what I needed. He had made me see what had happened in a positive way. No one died tonight. And that was because of me. ¡°Thank you.¡± I finally managed to say more. I finally managed to get the words out of my mouth.


    ¡°You¡¯re wee, Talia.¡± He nodded at me with his face still calm. ¡°I am your guard, I am the one that likely knows you the best, so I am the one to ask about these things if you need reassurance. Now, if you¡¯re feeling better, I think that you should get some sleep. You have had a rough time of things, and you need your sleep.¡± He rose to his feet. ¡°I will see youter.¡± I could tell that he was wanting sleep as well. He might have been asleep actually, when Angel went to find him. I instantly felt bad for having woken him up.


    ¡°Goodnight, Lex.¡± I waved at him and watched him leave the room, turning only to return the sentiment.


    ¡°Goodnight, Talia.¡± He shut the door behind him and that was that.


    I really was tired. He hadn¡¯t been wrong about that. And now that he was gone, I was feeling a lot more tired than I had before. I needed sleep, and a lot of it too. I had a feeling that I was going to crawl into my bed and sleep like the dead until noon. Or I had hoped that was what was going to happen. I didn¡¯t even want to think about being awake before then.


    I climbed into my big bed, still wearing my jacket and slippers, I was still cold. I pulled the cover up to my chin, curled into a ball, and drifted off to sleep almost instantly. And thankfully, for what felt like the first time in all of my life, I had no dreams whatsoever. I just went to sleep and slept until a quarter to nine in the morning. That was when someone was pounding on my door to wake me up. I was just thankful that, despite being woken up before I wanted to, I felt thoroughly rested and rxed when I woke up. And I was no longer cold either.

 Chapter 998 - 998 Chapter 183- Trinity – Another Meeting in the Throne Room (VOLUME 5)

    998 Chapter 183- Trinity ¨C Another Meeting in the Throne Room (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    When Reece and I woke the next morning, I felt a lot more relieved than I had when we went to sleep. Despite the fact that I had fallen asleep almost instantly, I had been very worried and stressed. I had just been so mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted that I couldn¡¯t stay awake anymore. And when I woke up, seeing Reece next to me, holding me actually, I felt the relief wash over me. I had still been worried that he wasn¡¯t here, that I had been hallucinating all of the events after the battle. I hadn¡¯t though. He was here and that was what mattered.


    We got up and dressed in semi casual clothing. I wanted to meet with everyone in the throne room again, and that meant that we needed to be presentable. Still, it wasn¡¯t an official audience with the queen kind of thing, and we were rxing after the end of the battle and the case, so I was allowed to be rxed about it all. I mean, I was the queen after all, who was going to punish me for not being formal?


    The entire family ate breakfast together the next morning. My parents, Grandfather, L, all the kids, my little sister, Reece¡¯s little sister, all of us. Everyone was talking happily and telling us how relieved they all felt this morning.


    It wasn¡¯t just that Reece was alive that was making us feel this way. I think that it was that the case was over. There was no more threat. No one had to worry about a random group of murdering assholes taking the lives of anymore of my people. And whether they kids knew about the situation or not, they had felt the tension in all of us. Now that the tension was gone though, we all felt lighter, freer, and happier. It was perfect.


    I sent word to those that might want to be at the meeting today. The ones that might not know yet if Reece had lived through the night. I told them that the meeting would start at ten in the morning and to be in the throne room before I arrived. I might have been a little secretive about the meeting. That was kind of cruel of me I guess, but I was going to show them all when Reece and I walked into the throne room, that he had lived and that all was right with the world.


    Reagan, Rika and Talia asked if they coulde to the meeting with us, which I thought about seriously before agreeing to let them be there. Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley also asked if they could be there, but I denied their request. Obviously, they were upset about it, but I told them that it wasn¡¯t the same as their older siblings going. They were much younger than them and they wouldn¡¯t really understand what was going on. And despite the fact that they knew Reece had almost died, they didn¡¯t know the true details of what had happened in ourmunitytely. And I didn¡¯t want to upset them with that information at the moment. They would learn of it, eventually, but not right now. Not while they were still so young and innocent. They didn¡¯t need to rush into being grownups. They needed to be kids for a little while longer.


    .....


    Reece, Reagan, Rika, Talia and I gathered in the waiting room behind the throne room as we listened to the others filing in on the other side of the door. We hadn¡¯t allowed anyone except for Vincent toe with us to this room. The others were to go into the hall and wait with the everyone else. Again, I was being a little cruel, but it was all to reveal to them at once that Reece was alive and well. He even seemed to be moving without pain now. It was like nothing had ever happened.


    After the doors to the throne room had been closed, a sound loud enough to be heard on this side of therge hall, I told the others to get ready. We were going to head out there all at once. Me and Talia side by side first, then Reagan and Rika next to each other, and finally Reece in the back. He knew that I was trying to make a big reveal here. And he was ying along nicely. So much so in fact, that he was standing about eight feet behind Reagan and Rika as he waited to walk out. He was going to make his entry dyed.


    I saw the faces of everyone as we walked out of the waiting room. They saw me and Talia, then Reagan and Rika. Without Reece appearing right away, I knew that they were thinking that the worst had happened. There were several gasps and cries of ¡®oh no¡¯ as we walked to the center of the dais. Then finally, Reece came into view, showing them all that he was not dead, not even hurt. There were cries of joy and relief when they saw him, and a cheer rose up among all those that were gathered.


    I saw Shawn, Dietrich, Shane, David, Athair m¨°r, Jackson, Rawlynne, and all the others looking at me with smirks that said, ¡®how dare you trick us like that¡¯. Well, all except for Dietrich. He had a different expression on his face, but I didn¡¯t know what it was. Then again, he was always thinking something different from the others, so I didn¡¯t really think much of it.


    ¡°HELLO EVERYONE!¡± I spoke loudly to the gathered crowd, raising my voice so that I could be heard above the sound of cheering. As soon as they heard me, the cheering quickly quieted. They were calming down so that they could listen to what I had to say. ¡°AS YOU CAN ALL SEE, REECE IS ALIVE AND WELL. I WILL ADMIT THAT HE ALMOST DID NOT MAKE IT. I THOUGHT THAT I WAS GOING TO BE FORCED TO GO ON WITHOUT HIM. HOWEVER, WE USED OUR COLLECTIVE MAGIC AND LOVE FOR REECE TO SAVE HIM. ME AND OUR ENTIRE IMMEDIATE FAMILY THAT WAS PRESENT AT THAT MOMENT. WE ALL CALLED TO HIM AND ASKED HIM TO STAY, A REQUEST THAT WAS ANSWERED. OUR KING, MY MATE AND HUSBAND, FATHER TO MY CHILDREN, IS HERE TO STAY. THANKS TO THE GODS AND THE LOVE WE ALL SHARE FOR ONE ANOTHER, REECE¡¯S LIFE WAS SPARED.¡±


    Once again, a cheer rose throughout the room. This one was much louder and more thunderous than the first one. They were all showing how much this moment meant to them. They had no idea that it meant that much and more to those of us on the stage. Then again, maybe they did know. Who could be certain?


    ¡°LONG LIVE THE KING!¡± Someone shouted in the back of the room. ¡°LONG LIVE KING REECE!¡± The words were picked up by the others and a chant was started.


    ¡°LONG LIVE KING REECE! LONG LIVE KING REECE! LONG LIVE KING REECE!¡± I felt that sentiment deep inside of me. Yes Reece, you need to live for a long time.


    There were questions that came, but not until after the chanting had stopped. People wanted to know specifics about the battle. They wanted to know what all had happened to Reece. And they wanted to know more about how he was saved. This moment even started to feel like it was some sort of epic story that was being told rather than us showing the people that he was alive and well.


    Reece told the group gathered that he was not the type to give up. He told them that when death offered to give him the easy and painless path to the afterlife, he had refused. He chose the hard and pain filled path back to his family and his people. He was nowhere near ready to stop living.


    Cheering erupted several times during that meeting. And I knew that there were more than a few people that were crying in joy and relief. This was a moment to be crying tears of joy if there ever was one.


    Before I let them all leave the throne room, I told them to spread the news of Reece¡¯s recovery. I could have done it myself, but I knew that it would be differenting from the happily relieved friends and colleagues that had seen the evidence for themselves.


    I watched the crowd of people filing out of the throne room, leaving in droves as they still cheered,ughed, and cried. It made me feel so much better about the way that I had handled all of this. I had thought at first that they might be angry about the dy in the news, or about the way that I surprised them. None of them had though. They had just been relieved and happy.


    I saw a small group, consisting of my guards,ing toward the dais. Shawn, Dietrich, Shane and David were all smiling and shaking their heads. They felt the same as all the others had, that was easy to see. And I also knew that they would want to talk to me and Reece.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you three head back upstairs.¡± I told them calmly. ¡°Take the day to rest and rx so that you can get your lives back to normal tomorrow.¡± They knew what that meant and they were all happy. They wanted to go back to school desperately.


    Once they were gone, I motioned for the others to follow Reece and I into the waiting room that we had been in before. This would give us privacy to talk about whatever it is that they had in mind.

 Chapter 999 - 999 Chapter 184- Trinity – Unexpected Surprise (VOLUME 5)

    999 Chapter 184- Trinity ¨C Unexpected Surprise (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After Reece and I entered the waiting room that we had been in before, I took a seat and motioned Reece over toward me. I wanted to be as close to him as I possibly could right now. I still needed that reassurance that he was there. I knew that we had just announced to the others that he was alive and well, but that didn¡¯t stop me from worrying about him. Hell, I might not let him more than an arm¡¯s length away from me for the rest of our lives.


    Alright, that would be too much. I wouldn¡¯t be able to handle that much closeness with Reece. Maybe it would onlyst about a year or so. Long enough for me to be sure that he really was here with us still, and that he wasn¡¯t going anywhere.


    Reece was pulling me onto hisp as the others came into the room. I saw that they had expressions that were all different, yet they all held simr qualities. They were annoyed,ughing, and curious, that was what made them all different. However, the simrity was that they were all relieved to be seeing Reece alive.


    Shawn and Dietrich were the first ones into the room, bounding through the door together and calling out jovially.


    ¡°I knew you wouldn¡¯t die, Reece. I knew that you wouldn¡¯t let that happen.¡± Dietrich was grinning at us both. ¡°This is a wonderous turn of events.¡±


    ¡°I am so relieved, Reece. I had been so worried about you.¡± Shawn¡¯s face was literally glowing in his relief. It practically illuminated the scar on his cheek. The scar that permanently marred his face and made me think about how he had almost died, and then how Vincent had almost died, and of course it led me back to Reece who had so recently almost died.


    .....


    ¡°I am alive and well.¡± Reece told them calmly.


    ¡°DAMMIT, REECE!¡± Shane came barreling into the room next. ¡°Why did you scare me like that?¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha. I am sorry Shane, but it was sotest night that I told Trinity not to spread the news right away. It would have been rude to wake people up like that.¡±


    ¡°Since when are you considerate of people like that?¡± Shane was stillughing, but his relief was more than clear to see on his face.


    ¡°I am happy that you¡¯re OK, Reece.¡± David said in a gentle tone. ¡°We were all worried about you. And I see that Vincent there,¡± he red at the other man who had been with Reece and I this whole time, ¡°knew what was going on and didn¡¯t tell us. Why didn¡¯t you set the record straightst night.¡± David was ring yfully at Vincent and they all started tough.


    ¡°I am sorry.¡± Vincent looked embarrassed. ¡°I was tired as well. It had been a long night and I just went to my room to sleep. Heather was worried about me and I wanted to get home to her to assuage her worries and frustrations. I wanted to make sure that she didn¡¯t drive herself crazy with worry. And it was nearly toote.¡± All of the menughed, and I will admit that even Iughed a little. It was funny because Heather always worried about Vincent, and it always made her crazy. She would go back to normal afterwards though. So, at least it was just temporary.


    ¡°Well, I, for one, think that this day is due for a celebration. Multiple ones, all things considered.¡± Dietrich was looking between Reece and I with excitement.


    ¡°What do you mean? Because of the battle being over and Reece being alive? I guess that could warrant a double celebration, but I see it as one really.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Keeping everyone safe and alive was the point of the battle. And with Reece being alive now, it means that there was no one that died, on our side anyway, during the battle.¡±


    ¡°That isn¡¯t what I mean. At least, not all that I mean.¡± Dietrich shook his head and chuckled.


    ¡°Yeah, he is talking about your news.¡± Shawn was grinning. ¡°I am not surprised though. Knowing Reece, it was definitely what he had in mind aftering back to lifest night.¡±


    Shawn¡¯s words made no sense to me. They made even less sense than Dietrich¡¯s had, and I was still confused about what celebrations he was talking about if it wasn¡¯t the battle and Reece being alive.


    ¡°What are you on about?¡± I asked them, showing them just how lost and confused that I was right now.


    ¡°We are talking about the fact that Reece¡¯s first instinct after not dying is taking his mate. I am not ming you two of course, I am just trying to congratte you.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± I asked Dietrich in confusion.


    ¡°What?¡± Reece¡¯s tone was the same as mine. It was filled with confusion. ¡°I didn¡¯t take herst night. I was too fucking sore for that. Granted the hot bath did help, but we didn¡¯t have sexst night.¡±


    ¡°B..but, that doesn¡¯t make sense.¡± Dietrich shook his head now, mimicking the confusion.


    ¡°Ahem.¡± I cleared my throat. ¡°W..we made love yesterday morning before we took that nap after Talia¡¯s vision, but not since then.¡±


    ¡°No, that doesn¡¯t seem to fit. If it had happened at that time, then we would have seen it earlier. We would have noticed itst night.¡± It was Shawn¡¯s turn to be confused now. The furrowing of his brow made the scar on his face stand out more.


    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± I demanded of them. This was getting old really fast, and I wanted to know what was happening.


    ¡°Trinity, you¡¯re pregnant. And you weren¡¯t pregnantst night when we saw you.¡±


    ¡°WHAT?!¡± Reece and I both said that one word as a question at the same time after we heard what he¡¯d had to say. It was like it was synchronized to be in perfect harmony.


    What were they talking about? I mean, yeah it was possible for me to be pregnant. I mean, we did go at it yesterday. Quite thoroughly at that. But how could I be pregnant now when I wasn¡¯tst night? What had happened? What had changed?


    I turned my head, taking my eyes off of Dietrich¡¯s intense face and turning to look at Reece. He looked about as surprised as I felt. He hadn¡¯t noticed it yet either. I could see it in his eyes.


    ¡°I..I knew that there was something.¡± He said leaning in and pressing his nose against the curve of my neck. It tickled when he inhaled deeply, drawing in my scent and checking the validity of Shawn and Dietrich¡¯s ims for himself.


    ¡°Reece?¡± I shuddered a little at the feel of his face against my neck.


    ¡°I sensed somethingst night. As I was drifting off to sleep. I knew that something was ying on the edge of my senses, but I was too tired and too distracted to notice.¡±


    ¡°No one is going to me you for being distracted, Reece.¡± Vincent called out to him. ¡°There was a lot that I either ignored or didn¡¯t notice after I almost died. It was like my mind was telling me that it didn¡¯t have the room for it at the moment.¡± I looked at Vincent with sad eyes. He had been as close to death as Reece had been, so he knew this for a fact.


    ¡°I sense it now.¡± Reece¡¯s voice was deeper than usual, growling low and menacing when he spoke. ¡°And they are right, Trinity. You are pregnant.¡±


    ¡°Like we would be wrong.¡± Dietrich harrumphed and crossed his arms.


    ¡°What do you take us for?¡± Shawn copied his noise and his pose as he turned away a little, making it so that we couldn¡¯t see either of their faces clearly.


    ¡°It¡¯s not that I doubted you.¡± Reece¡¯s voice was a little less menacing now. And there was definitely a yful edge to his lips. ¡°I just needed to be sure for myself. I mean, I didn¡¯t think that my wife was pregnant. And that kind of annoys me.¡± He narrowed his eyes. ¡°I missed thest two. One was because you ruined your own smell with stress and overwork, and this time because I almost died, but neither is an excuse.¡±


    ¡°Both are perfect excuses, you moron.¡± I pped him on his chest. ¡°We have had a lot going on.¡±


    ¡°Still, I am sad that I wasn¡¯t the first to know. They were.¡± He pointed at Shawn and Dietrich.


    ¡°The benefits of being the best uncles in the world.¡± Dietrich flipped his hair yfully as heplimented himself.


    ¡°Well, what I want to know is how Trinity seemed to have that dy?¡± Vincent asked as he moved the subject forward.


    ¡°Well, I know that for some human women, they will have sex just before they ovte and get pregnant that way. Maybe this is what happened.¡±


    ¡°Were you at that point in your cycle?¡± Vincent¡¯s eyes were quizzical as he asked.


    ¡°No.¡± I shook my head and answered honestly. ¡°It would have been too soon.¡±


    ¡°So, what caused it?¡± Shane seemed to be buzzing like a hyper child. ¡°Oh, congrats by the way.¡± After he said the word, all of them congratted me before moving on with the conversation.


    I thought aboutst night and what might have happened to cause me to ovte before I was supposed to. How was it that I got pregnant when I knew that I shouldn¡¯t be? There had to be something to cause it, but what was it?


    After a moment, something dawned on me. We had saved Reece¡¯s life. We had all pooled our magic together. There was life bringing magic in the room.


    ¡°The magic.¡± I said as I looked up. Vincent and Reece understood it right away, but the others didn¡¯t.


    ¡°Last night, Trinity, all the kids, and all the members of their family, poured magic into Reece, as Trinity said during the meeting. It was powerful, very powerful. I could feel it across therge room they were in.¡± Vincent¡¯s voice was in awe.


    ¡°It was life magic. And I guess that it had somewhere else to go at that moment. I saved a life, Reece, but it also created one as well.¡±


    ¡°As long as it is our baby, I don¡¯t care.¡± He grinned at me and leaned in. ¡°I love you, Trinity.¡± Reece held me tight with the others watching. This was an amazing turn of events. It was something that I hadn¡¯t thought was going to happen, but I wasn¡¯t upset about it either. We were going to have another baby. Who would be upset about that? I know that neither Reece nor I were. And I had a feeling the kids would be happy as well.

 Chapter 1000 - 1000 Chapter 185- Trinity – What To Do About The Jaegan

    1000 Chapter 185- Trinity ¨C What To Do About The Jaegan


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was still riding high after being told about the baby. It was something that we hadn¡¯t expected at all, but it was a weed surprise. Reece and I were both giggling giddily as we walked into my office for a meeting with most of the others. We weren¡¯t announcing anything just yet, not before we told the kids. But we would get to it soon enough.


    Right now, we all needed to talk about what we needed to do with the Jaegan. They had to be dealt with. And there was a lot that they needed to pay for and atone for. They had taken a lot of lives. And they had waged a war against an entire poption that they hadn¡¯t even known the truth about. They were ignorant and misinformed, and that was a deadlybination.


    ¡°I am happy to see you well, Reece.¡± Athair m¨®r shook my mate¡¯s hand as we entered the room. He wasn¡¯t the only one either. Aunt Glory rushed up to give him a hug and tell him that she was happy he was alive. Paul and Cedar shook his hand and hugged him at the same time. Pulling him in like that bro hug or whatever it¡¯s called.


    ¡°Reece!¡± Juniper stomped over toward him.


    ¡°Juniper.¡± Reece stiffened at the sight of her, not to mention the stern tone in her voice.


    ¡°How dare you!¡± She snapped at him as she red at him from about three feet away. ¡°How dare you put my Trinity through all of that. And all those kids! Do you know how upset they were.¡± She was angry and I didn¡¯t really know why. It¡¯s not like he tried to die. ¡°I swear, Reece Gray, you need someone to watch over you all the time to make sure that you don¡¯t do something so stupid.¡± She wasying into him.


    .....


    ¡°I am sorry, Juniper. I didn¡¯t mean for that to happen.¡± He looked repentant. She was reminding him of all the sadness from the night before. I was about to step in, but then her angry voice started again and even I flinched.


    ¡°I can¡¯t have you doing that, Reece. I can¡¯t have you hurting people like that. If I have to look after you and protect your bacon, and your Reece¡¯s pieces, then I will, dammit. You can¡¯t die on us.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± That was a sentiment that was echoed by Reece and I, and some others in the group as well.


    ¡°Dammit Reece, I was so fucking worried about you.¡± At that, my best friend threw herself into Reece¡¯s arms and hugged him tightly. She was crying as well. She really had been scared, hadn¡¯t she?


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Juniper.¡± Reece hugged her back. ¡°I really am OK though. I promise.¡±


    ¡°You better be.¡± She pulled away from him and threw herself at Paul who looked just as bewildered as the rest of us. He didn¡¯t say anything though. He just picked her up into his arms and carried her over to a seat where he settled her onto hisp.


    Others came to shake Reece¡¯s hand as well. Reef and Analise Rivers, two of the water shifting council members. Daciana, Athair m¨®r¡¯s wife and mate. Jackson and Rawlynne. Carter and Noah, though Noah added a hug and Carter didn¡¯t. Gabriel, Bryce, Riley, Trevor, and Landon, even if the majority of that group had seen himst night, they still hugged him and shook his hand today as well.


    After the greetings with Reece were over, and everyone was settled into their seats, it was time to start the meeting. Rawlynne, who was the one that had insisted on this meeting right away, was the one to stand up and start speaking first.


    ¡°As we all know, there are a lot of the Jaegan in the dungeons. We know that some of them are the ones that had murdered our people, as well asmitted other crimes against them.¡± She was referring to ud and what he had done to Andrea. ¡°Now we must discuss what we are going to do with them. Shall we kill them outright? Or should we send them to prison for their crimes. And if they are going to prison, how are we going to be sure that they are not going to spill the beans to everyone that they meet? How are we going to make sure that they don¡¯t tell other people about us and what we really are?¡±


    I thought about this for a little bit. She had a point. If there were Jaegan in a normal prison, they would try to tell others that there were werewolves, vampires, werecats, werebears, Faeries, and other magical creatures living in the world.


    ¡°This won¡¯t be easy.¡± I said as I looked at them all. ¡°We run the risk of being found out if we don¡¯t do this properly. However, killing them isn¡¯t an answer. That is what they would do to themselves if they had the opportunity. If their runes hadn¡¯t been disabled, then they would not be here right now. They would all sacrifice themselves. We shouldn¡¯t give them that opportunity. We shouldn¡¯t let them have that easy way out.¡±


    ¡°Their runes don¡¯t work anymore at all.¡± Gabriel, who had been standing silently behind me, spoke up. ¡°Most of them tried tomit suicidest night after the Ancient Ones turned to dust, but they wouldn¡¯t work. It was like the Ancient magic was literally fueling them. With the connection severed, they were rendered powerless. We wouldn¡¯t have gotten hardly any of them at allst night if it hadn¡¯t been for their runes losing power.¡±


    ¡°Well, that is a good thing. We won¡¯t have to worry about them getting out of their trials like that.¡± Reece seemed oddly satisfied about what he had just heard. ¡°I agree with Trinity, they need to pay like the humans that they are. And that means that they need to go to prison.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not just them.¡± I looked up and into the eyes of everyone. ¡°We can¡¯t kill anymore at all. We need to live lives that we can be proud of. Lives that won¡¯t make anyone call us monsters. Battles notwithstanding, we need to be virtuous and good. And that means that we will need a ce for our own criminals to be stored.¡±


    ¡°What do you have in mind?¡± Trevor asked as he smirked at me. ¡°What should we do with them all?¡±


    ¡°I say that we should build a prison. I know that it won¡¯t be legal, but we can forge some documents to make it look like it was something that has been worked on for a while. If you don¡¯t mind, Aunt Glory, we can build it within your area. Not in thend of faerie, but out on the outskirts. That will satisfy two different things for me. One being that we can¡¯t have the humans asking how a building popped up out of nowhere.¡± I exined my thoughts to all of them.


    ¡°And what is the other?¡± Aunt Glory asked in her soft voice.


    ¡°The other is that it is near the ley lines, and that will help to fuel the magic of the building. We can bind people¡¯s magic, take away their shifting, and block any power that they might have. And the building won¡¯t ever need to be charged if it is sitting on a natural battery.¡±


    ¡°Hmm. I like it. I think that this is a wonderful idea. And we can make it so that the prison has actually beenpleted for a little while.¡± Aunt Glory winked at me. ¡°I really do have a lot morend than we need outside of Faerie, but we had needed to keep it protected. This, though, is an important necessity. Not to mention, it would give a lot of my people a job as well. Not to mention your own, Trinity.¡± She smiled at me. ¡°We will get started on it right away.¡±


    ¡°And I will get started on binding cuffs.¡± Athair m¨®r grinned a little evilly. ¡°We will need something to lock away their powers.¡±


    ¡°Good. Thank you both for that.¡± I nodded at them.


    ¡°Trinity?¡± David called out, a question shining in his eyes.


    ¡°Yeah?¡± I prompted him to continue.


    ¡°How are we going to get a judge to send them there?¡±


    ¡°Well, that is easy as well.¡± I had already thought this far ahead when I was setting the n for the prison. ¡°We just make sure that the judge in their case is a supernatural like us. Then we tell them where to send the evil murdering assholes.¡±


    ¡°Well, I guess that makes sense. But is that really fair?¡± David wondered. ¡°We¡¯re not giving them a fair trial.¡±


    ¡°They admitted their guilt, David. In the course of a real trial, giving a guilty plea would waive the need for a trial and they would go straight to sentencing. So, it¡¯s not like we¡¯re setting them up. They are guilty. They admitted to it. And now we¡¯re sentencing them. It¡¯s just that we need to make sure that the humans see them sentenced.¡±


    ¡°Alright. I understand.¡± He nodded and looked at Rawlynne. I knew that speaking up about this was not easy for him, not against something that his own wife was passionate about. However, David was a kindhearted person, so it didn¡¯t seem that odd to me that he wanted to have some rity about it all. He would want to make sure that people weren¡¯t mistreated or anything like that. He was a good man.

 Chapter 1001 - Not enough ratings1071 Chs

    1001 Chapter 186- Trinity ¨C Weeding Through the Jaegan (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    There were more things discussed after what to do with the Jaegan, but most of that was to do with the Prison. And, more specifically, it was Athair m¨®r, Aunt Glory and I talking about how it should be made. We knew that we wanted to make sure that anyone that was sent there, be they supernatural or human, they wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything that was magical. The Jaegan would never be able to use runes, and shifters or one of the other beings, could never use their powers inside of the prison. Though that wasn¡¯t all. We needed to make sure that, just in case, the guards could still use their abilities.


    My solution here was to have Athair m¨®r, the man that was a specialist at making tools to lock away spells, build the prison so that the very foundation blocked the magic. And then, instead of making magical bracelets that would stop magic from working, Athair m¨®r could make anti blocking bracelets. These would then be worn by the staff of the prison and allow them to use their abilities.


    It was aplicated system that I was working out in my head, but I thought that it was doable. And I knew that Athair m¨®r was more than capable of making this vision of minee true. Not to mention, there was a giant smile on his face while we discussed all of these things. He was looking forward to making this building a reality. And he was more than excited to get to work on those new magic items that I asked for.


    ¡°I have never made an anti blocking tool before, but I am looking forward to trying.¡± His smile was literally from ear to ear as he looked up from the blueprints that we had on the table.


    ¡°I have one more thing that I want to add, Trinity.¡± Aunt Glory said as she leaned daintily over the table. ¡°I know that we will have watchtowers, but this isn¡¯t the type of prison that I want to leave up to chance. I think that we should add a barrier spell to it. Something that will keep the prisoners inside.¡±


    ¡°That is a good idea.¡± I nodded at her. ¡°I think that it should be specific though.¡± I started to sketch the barrier as a dome over the drawing in front of me. ¡°It will be tailored to allow only those that have a special pass through the gate. And if you don¡¯t go through the gate, well I will leave that part to you.¡± I saw a wicked look in her eyes that would have made me shiver if I wasn¡¯t so used to these things by now.


    .....


    ¡°That sounds like it can be fun.¡± She grinned. ¡°I can¡¯t wait to y around with it.¡±


    ¡°Hey, just remember to be humane.¡± David raised his voice and tried to make her see reason.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, David dear.¡± Aunt Glory smiled even more wickedly at him. ¡°The barrier won¡¯t kill them. It will just be a powerful deterrent from those that might try to break out, or in.¡± I could see that my sweet little Aunt Glory was not as innocent as she always imed to be. I had known that she had a darker side to her, but seeing it was something else entirely. She could be someone worthy of nightmares if she was crossed the wrong way. That was why I was d that she was on my side and not an enemy.


    After we discussed all of these things in my office, I wanted to move onto another part of that topic. I needed to know who all was going to be punished to the fullest extent, and who was going to be able to be reformed. I mean, clearly Clovio, Warrick, Armina, and Gustav couldn¡¯t be the only ones among the family that are good or able to be saved. No, there had to be more. I was going to hold out hope for them and make sure that we vetted them allpletely.


    I wasn¡¯t going to go at this alone though. For one thing, I knew that Reece wouldn¡¯t let me be ¡®alone¡¯ again until after the baby was born. If ever again. He had never really liked me to go anywhere or do anything alone. He wanted me to be safe and protected at all times. Such a worry wart.


    No, for this trip to the dungeons, I was going to take Reece, as if he wouldn¡¯t insist on following me anyway, Vincent, Gabriel and Juniper. Two of thosest three were able to tell me if someone was telling the truth and being sincere. And Juniper was able to help heal the minds of those that might be salvageable among the group. I really didn¡¯t want to put innocent people into prison. If they were controlled by the Ancient Ones, as we saw that many had been, and if they hadn¡¯t killed anyone at all, then maybe they could be helped and put back into society at some point in time.


    The five of us took a magic door from my office to the dungeons. I always thought that it was funny when I did something like that. The guards, not expecting our sudden arrival, all yelped and jumped when the door appeared. It was actually quite funny to see.


    ¡°Queen Trinity, to what do we owe this honor?¡± Kiernan asked as he looked between me and Reece. ¡°A..a..and King Reece, I am so happy that you are alive and well.¡± He put his hand over his chest and bowed.


    ¡°Thanks, Kiernan.¡± Reece nodded at him.


    ¡°We are here to interview the Jaegan, again.¡± I made it clear that I was not looking forward to this task, but I would see to it that it was done no matter what.


    ¡°O..oh. W..well, we have already interviewed them, Queen Trinity. We have our notes here.¡± He was actually holding a stack of files in his hands. ¡°I was on my way to bring them to you just now.¡±


    ¡°Well, I guess I saved you a trip.¡± I held my hand out to him. ¡°There is much that we need to discover about these men, and I have specialists here to assist me.¡± At those words, he looked between Vincent, Gabriel and Juniper. He knew what all their powers were already, so he didn¡¯t bother to ask. He just nodded and stepped aside.


    ¡°The office is avable, but I fear that it is not asfortable as yours is, Queen Trinity.¡±


    ¡°I will be fine, Kiernan. I am not that delicate of a flower.¡± I shushed Reece when he tried to counter me on that fact.


    ¡°O..OK.¡± Kiernan looked confused but just stepped away to let us work.


    Together, Reece, Vincent, Gabriel, Juniper and I poured over the files that we had been handed. We looked at what they had to say after they were arrested, after the spell of the Jaegan seemed to have worn off. We worked out a list of those that were likely to be salvageable, and those that we thought were beyond hope. After that, we decided to start with the potentially lost causes and work our way to the possible happy endings.


    After the battle, there had only been nine more Jaegan arrested. Three of them seemed like they would be the definitely guilty type. Two of them were possibly innocent. And the other four were in the middle. We started with the one that had seemed the worst. He had been recorded throwing so many vile words toward the guards that I just knew that he was a monster. And with the help of Vincent and Gabriel we learned that he had indeedmitted a lot of crimes. He was a horrible man that was nearly as nasty as ud had been.


    The second of those three, while not as vile, had killed several of the victims around the world. He was as guilty as the others had been. Juniper, who was sensitive to people¡¯s mental states, had wanted to get away from that man and the first one as soon as possible.


    Oddly enough, the third of those that had been listed as the worst of them all, had actually been quite the shock to us. The man named Justus, had never killed anyone, not even on the battlefield. He had spoken like the others, but that was because he didn¡¯t want to bebeled as a traitor. He had, in every way possible, reminded me of Clovio and Warrick. He was innocent. He was still a little brainwashed, but that was cleared up almost immediately by Juniper.


    Juniper, sitting at the table with the scared young man, was able to connect with him on a level that no one else in the world could. She helped him to see the lies that he had been taught for his entire life. And by the time that she was done, he was sobbing for forgiveness and begging for another chance. He was sent with one of the guards to the apartment that the others were currently waiting for me at.


    We interviewed the remaining six from the battlefield after that. There were only two others that were innocent. Elise and Heinz were their names. They had been cleared of all suspicions, had their brainwashing undone, and they were sent to stay with the others.


    I was feeling a little discouraged at the moment. To think that out of those that had been saved from the battlefield, only three of them, literally just one third of them, was able to be trusted and taken to safety. It was hard for me to think about with how many of the Jaegan there had been in the beginning. This was just not the way that I thought these things were going to go. Why was it that, despite my best efforts, most of the Jaegan were either dead or going to prison for the rest of their lives?


    Trying not to dwell on all of these thoughts, I pushed on and tried to think of other things. I knew that I wanted to save people, but there was more to it than that. More than anything else, more than saving the Jaegan, I wanted to save innocent people. My innocent people. And knowing that they were safe now, that was the best thing in the world. I would be able to put them all at ease.


    And let¡¯s not forget about the rest of the world being put at ease as well. The humans all around the world, who had been gued by the news of these murders for thest few months, were going to breathe a sigh of relief. They were going to feel better, and they wouldn¡¯t even know that it was us that had done that for them.


    Moving things along in my mind, going from one task to the next, I knew that I wanted to go back to the others, the Jaegan that had been taken into custody the other day. Now that the spell of the Ancient Ones was gone, it was possible that they might be more open to talking with us. And with the help of Juniper, we might be able to rehabilitate some of them.


    There were three more that were fully innocent. Among all those that were in the other cells, that had already been guests of the castle dungeons when the battle started. And it was clear that the spells had released them from the hold that the family had over them. They were still brainwashed and afraid though. They flinched upon seeing the five of using onto their cells.


    I wanted to help them. I wanted them to see reason and to know that they would not be punished if they did nothing wrong. And Juniper was able to reach them, but it was clear that they needed more help. She told me that she wanted to work with them slowly. Their minds were far too damaged at that point, and it would take her some time to help them to stitch them back together. The others, those that weren¡¯t innocent, would be taken to the prison as soon as Athair m¨®r and Aunt Glory went back home to build it. These three, though, would remain here in the dungeons until Juniper had finished working with them. She was determined to see to it that no one was punished without being truly guilty and unable to be saved.


    After we spoke with the prisoners, it was time for us to speak to the Jaegan that we sent to the apartment. I didn¡¯t feel much like visiting them in that apartment, I had been out and about for so long that I just wanted to rest soon. That was why I had them summoned to my office for the meeting. It was also another way for me to show them that I trusted them. Calling them to my office was a sign that I didn¡¯t think that they were a threat. I was going to allow them to be further into the castle, and closer to my family.

 Chapter 1002 - 1002 Chapter 187- Trinity – Jaegan Repentance (VOLUME 5)

    1002 Chapter 187- Trinity ¨C Jaegan Repentance (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I knew that there was a lot that we needed to talk about with the Jaegan that we had managed to ¡®save¡¯ but I also knew that we could trust them. Vincent, Gabriel and Juniper were not needed at the moment. Of course, all three of them wanted to protest and act like they needed to protect me from the danger or whatever, but that wasn¡¯t necessary. Not to mention, I was going to be calling Shawn and Dietrich into the room with us. I knew that after we talked to the others, we all needed to talk to Clovio and Warrick. They had some exining to do.


    The four of us, me, Reece, Shawn and Dietrich, were waiting in the office when there was a knock at the door. It was once again Kiernan, and he was bringing the others to see me.


    ¡°Come in.¡± I spoke loudly so that they could hear me. I knew that the Jaegan weren¡¯t likely to hear me if I didn¡¯t raise my voice. Then again, since the family was all but destroyed, I should stop calling them that. And they weren¡¯t part of the family¡¯s loyal band ofckeys.


    The door opened and the seven former members of the Jaegan family stepped inside. There would be ten in all, when the others had their minds mended, but for now it was just seven. They looked nervous when they saw the four of us waiting for them. Clovio and Warrick in particr looked scared, but for reasons that were different from the others.


    ¡°Please, have a seat.¡± I pointed at the chairs that were waiting for them. ¡°We should talk.¡± None of them spoke, but several of them nodded in response as they took their seats.


    ¡°You are all the only ones that we could save. There might have been more of you that were innocent, but they didn¡¯t survive the battle. I am sorry for the loss that you have all suffered.¡± Reece¡¯s diplomatic king¡¯s voice spoke calmly into the silent room. ¡°There are three more of you that will be joining the ranks of the saved, but their minds are a little fractured after the influence from the Ancient Ones has worn off. We have someone, a member of our people that can help with that. And she assures me that they will be just fine soon enough.¡±


    .....


    ¡°You have nothing to fear.¡± Dietrich started as he looked around the room. Then his eyes lingered on Clovio and Warrick and I wondered if he was just talking to the other five of them. ¡°We just want to work out what is going to happen to you all, now that this is all over.¡±


    ¡°We want to help you.¡± Shawn¡¯s soothing voice spoke up next. ¡°We want to make sure that you can live normal lives now. And I am sure that you all want that as well.¡±


    ¡°C..can we really be like all the other people in the world? C..c..can we live like them for real?¡± Gustav¡¯s voice shook as he asked that.


    ¡°Yes, Gustav, you can. And we will help you get started in that life. I know that you all have next to nothing to your names. So, we will help you to settle in. That is why I brought you up here.¡± I gave him and the others the best smile that I could manage.


    We discussed what it was that these seven individuals wanted to do in their lives. We talked about where they would live, how they would make money, and other things along those lines. And after a few minutes of discussing the future, I saw that they all started to open up and talk very animatedly. Well, all except for Clovio and Warrick, that is. The two of them still looked really nervous.


    After the talks were over, for the most part, I sent five of the Jaegan away. I asked that Clovio and Warrick stay put though, since we still had some things to talk about. They were still looking scared, but the others didn¡¯t seem to notice as they left in good spirits.


    ¡°Now, Clovio, Warrick, there is a lot that we need to talk to you about.¡± Dietrich¡¯s voice was a lot less calm and a hell of a lot sharper than it had been just moments before.


    ¡°Wh..wh..what do we need to talk about?¡± Clovio asked in a shaking voice.


    ¡°Well, for starters, we need to talk to you about our daughters.¡± Reece¡¯s voice was just as sharp as Dietrich¡¯s. They really were a lot alike. And hell, even Shawn was starting to look like them, and he was the gentle one.


    ¡°And we need to talk about the things that you did to them.¡±


    ¡°I swear, we didn¡¯t do anything to them.¡± Warrick¡¯s hands shot up in fear while he shook his head no. ¡°We only kissed them a few times. I swear. I would never do anything to hurt Lyssa, ever.¡±


    ¡°You what?¡± Dietrich¡¯s voice dropped several octaves as he red at the man. ¡°You were kissing and touching my daughter?¡±


    ¡°Oh shut up, fang.¡± I snapped at him. ¡°All three of you need to shut up.¡± I tried not tough at them all. ¡°Can¡¯t you see that you¡¯re scaring the poor boys?¡±


    ¡°Trinity, sweetheart, Little Bunny, that is the whole point here.¡± Reece, looking more than a little annoyed with me, spoke through his clenched teeth.


    ¡°Heel, Fido.¡± I narrowed my eyes at him and showed him my dominant side. He wasn¡¯t ever going to win here, and he needed to know that. ¡°If you three can¡¯t behave yourselves, then I will talk to these young men alone. And I will be damned if I let you continue being a dick like that. You won¡¯t even be within shouting distance if you keep this up.¡±


    ¡°Trinity?!¡± He looked fearful as he said this. ¡°Y..You can¡¯t do that!¡±


    ¡°Watch me, Cujo!¡± I snapped at him and heard Clovio and Warrick snigger. They had obviously seen that movie. Or read the book. Either one.


    ¡°Hahh. Fine.¡± Reece crossed his arms over his chest and looked back at the two young men. ¡°You two are lucky to have her in your corner.¡±


    ¡°Y..y..yes. I can see that.¡± Clovio nodded in barely contained relief before he looked at me. ¡°Wh..what is it that we need to talk about, Queen Trinity?¡± He made sure to use my title. I guess he thought that the little show of respect would put Reece at ease.


    ¡°Well, as they said, we need to talk about the girls. Clovio, do you know what it is that Rika thought about you? Why she was so upset that you hurt her? And the same for you, Warrick? Do you understand any of what happened between you and Alyssa?¡±


    ¡°I..I know that Lyssa is the love of my life.¡± Warrick spoke immediately. ¡°I know that I have ached inside every minute of every day since I saw that hurt look on her face. I know that no matter how much time passes, I will never stop loving her. And I know that I will do anything and everything that is within my power to win back the trust that I so stupidly tossed aside.¡± I could see the redness in Warrick¡¯s eyes. He was upset and on the verge of tears. He wanted his mate back, and he didn¡¯t even know that was what she was to him.


    ¡°W..well, I know that I don¡¯t feel for Rika what Warrick feels for Lyssa. And I know that I likely didn¡¯t like Rika as much as she liked me, but I did, and still do, care about her. She is an amazing girl. I genuinely do want to see her happy and safe and protected. She is special to me, but I don¡¯t think that I am in love with her. I like her, but now that I have had the time to think about it, I know that I don¡¯t love her.¡±


    ¡°That is all well and good.¡± Reece began as he crossed his arms again. ¡°But do you know what Rika thought about you? Do you know anything about the connections between people of our kind? Or is that something that you were never taught?¡±


    ¡°I..I don¡¯t know.¡± Clovio shook his head.


    ¡°I had thought that Lyssa loved me, but now I am not so sure.¡± Warrick¡¯s eyes couldn¡¯t hold all the tears in, at that moment one slipped free and streaked down his cheek.


    ¡°Alyssa did love you. And might still.¡± Shawn¡¯s voice was softer than before, but no less cutting as he spoke to Warrick. ¡°I can¡¯t say how much she still trusts you now, but she loved you.¡±


    ¡°And as for you, Clovio.¡± Reece growled at him. ¡°Rika thought that you were her mate. She thought that you were the one and only man that she was meant to be with. That isn¡¯t the case, but she thought it and that¡¯s why she was so hurt.¡±


    ¡°Mate?¡± Clovio asked the question with just that one word, his eyes clearly puzzled.


    ¡°For us, our kind, we all have one predestined mate that we are meant to be with. There is one person that we know will be the love of our lives no matter what happens. And there is nothing that we can do to change that.¡±


    ¡°W..w..was I Lyssa¡¯s mate?¡± Warrick¡¯s voice was filled with fear. ¡°Did I ruin that for us?¡±


    ¡°You are her mate.¡± Dietrich¡¯s angry voice snapped at him. ¡°And if you¡¯re lucky, then I might just let you see her again. And that is if she is ever willing to see you again. She is feeling like you should never be trusted again, Warrick.¡±


    ¡°What am I going to do?¡± Warrick sobbed as he looked up into Dietrich¡¯s eyes. He looked like a broken man. It was heartbreaking to watch.


    ¡°Hahh. Don¡¯t look at me like that. It makes it really hard to hate you.¡± Dietrich sighed and I saw that he was softening a little.


    ¡°Please. I don¡¯t want to lose Lyssa. I..if I lose her, I will lose myself.¡±


    ¡°And this, Clovio, is what it means to be mated. Even he, a human, can feel the bond between them. He is lost without her.¡± I exined to him, trying to help him understand. Warrick knew what it was, even if he had never heard the situation described before. He had known because he was part of that situation.


    ¡°I am sorry.¡± Clovio lowered his head. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to make Rika think that I was her mate. I..I..I think that I need to apologize to her. I have a lot to make up for.¡±


    ¡°Yes, you do.¡± Reece growled softly at him. ¡°You can spend the next several weeks and months making up for those things with her and us. You¡¯re lucky that I am letting you live.¡±


    ¡°Wh..wh..what?!¡± Clovio recoiled and leaned back in his seat. ¡°Wh..wh..what did I do?¡±


    ¡°YOU TOUCHED MY DAUGHTER!¡± Reece snapped at him. ¡°YOU KISSED MY BABY!¡±


    ¡°B..but I didn¡¯t hurt her. And I..I..I made sure she wanted me to kiss her.¡± Clovio was trying to help his situation, but he was just making it worse.


    ¡°DO YOU THINK THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE!?¡± Reece roared at him. ¡°SHE IS MY PRECIOUS LITTLE GIRL! SHE IS JUST A KID! AND YOU TOUCHED HER!¡±


    ¡°Sh..sh..she¡¯s eighteen.¡± Clovio tried to reason with Reece and that just made it worse.


    ¡°SHE IS A LI-!¡±


    ¡°Shut up, Fido!¡± I snapped at him, cutting off his tirade. ¡°He¡¯s right. She¡¯s eighteen. And whether you like it or not, she will find her mate soon enough. She will be getting married and having her own life. It¡¯s just a matter of time. And the same goes to you two. Alyssa and Alexandria are adults now. They are not little girls that need their daddies to protect them. Lighten up.¡± I shook my head and rolled my eyes.


    ¡°No Trinity, they¡¯re not adults. They¡¯re little girls. They are babies. And we need to protect them.¡± Reece pleaded with me.


    ¡°Wrong, Reece. They are all grown up, whether you like it or not.¡±


    ¡°NOO!¡± The wailing sentiment was started by Reece, but it was soon echoed by Shawn and Dietrich. They were all sobbing and wailing at the thought that their precious daughters were all grown up.


    ¡°Yup, it¡¯s all true. And before you know it, I am sure that all three of you will be grandpas.¡±


    ¡°I WILL MURDER SOMEONE BEFORE THAT HAPPENS!¡± Reece snapped and looked at Clovio with glowing eyes.


    ¡°AS WILL I!¡± Dietrich turned his pale eyes onto Warrick. I actually saw the man flinch. He did good though, he didn¡¯t whimper.


    ¡°SHUT UP!¡± I snapped at them. ¡°Deal with it. I have to. It¡¯s the way that life works. And Reece, if you stay this rigid the entire time, you¡¯re going to push the girls away when they do find their mates.¡±


    I managed to get the terror triplets calmed down before Clovio and Warrick shit themselves, but it was only by a narrow margin. They looked so scared that they were ttened in their chairs and trying to get further away from the frightening fathers. In the end, we made sure that they both agreed to apologize to Rika and Alyssa. And then Warrick was going to try and win back his mate. Obviously, Shawn and Dietrich weren¡¯t that happy about that part, but I told them that they needed to ept life for what it was.


    I think that the only thing that Reece, Shawn, and Dietrich managed to push through, was that these two men, before they could apologize, had to go to Europe and be part of the cleanup crew. There was a lot that had happened because of the Jaegan, and we needed some men to help with the transition. They agreed immediately, probably as a means of survival.


    And with that done, I was finally able to go back up to our home in the tower. I was getting hungry since I had skipped lunch and I was starting to n for an early dinner. Not to mention, there was a lot that needed to be done still. And I knew exactly which item on my list was the first to address. I just wonder how everyone was going to take it.

 Chapter 1003 - 1003 Chapter 188- Trinity – Spreading the News (VOLUME 5)

    1003 Chapter 188- Trinity ¨C Spreading the News (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    When I got up to the tower, I told Abigail that I wanted her to prepare for an impromptu party. I was d that she had help in the kitchen these days, and that the immortality thing had reversed her age by quite a bit. Otherwise, I think that she might have killed me on the spot.


    Don¡¯t get me wrong, she acted perfectly polite and calm. And she was most likely genuine in that as well. The problem was that there was a small glint of annoyance and panic in her eyes. She was being asked to change ns at thest minute. I felt bad, but I really did have a reason. And I even asked that she join us for the meal this evening. She was not going to want to miss what I had to tell the group tonight.


    I was d that Carter was still in town and hadn¡¯t gone back home yet. I wanted him and Emmalee at the family dinner this evening. I also wanted Cedar, Acacia, Juniper, Paul, Trevor, Aunt Glory, Athair m¨®r, Daciana, Riley, Landon, Mom, Dad, L, Grandfather, Noah, Nikki, Olivia, and all of mine and Reece¡¯s kids there too. It wasn¡¯t that big of a party, but it was definitely more than the normal amount that we had at one time. The neen extra people was what made Abigail balk at the mention of the party.


    After I had told them all that I wanted them all at dinner tonight, I started to think about what I needed to tell them. I knew that a lot of them were just going to think that it was a celebration of Reece and him still being alive. And that was a good thing, most definitely. But there was more to it. There was something a lot more special about what happenedst night than we all originally thought.


    I wanted to rx as much as possible before the dinner that night, and so did Reece. So, we decided to take a warm bath. I knew that hot baths didn¡¯t affect me as a werewolf as much as they did humans, but I also knew that Griffin would tell me to err on the side of caution anyway. So, that was why we didn¡¯t make the water all that hot. It was fine though, Reece¡¯s body heat more than made up for it as I sat in hisp.


    ¡°Are you worried?¡± I asked Reece as he cradled me.


    .....


    ¡°About what?¡± He sounded confused as he snuggled me closer.


    ¡°About having another baby?¡±


    ¡°Why would I be? It¡¯s not like we can¡¯t show it the love that it needs.¡±


    ¡°I know. And that wasn¡¯t what I was talking about.¡± I turned in the circle of his arms and looked up at him. ¡°What I am saying is, are you worried about having another baby when thest one was over ten years ago?¡±


    ¡°Did you forget how to change a diaper, Little Bunny? Because I sure didn¡¯t.¡± Heughed softly.


    ¡°No, that¡¯s not it either.¡± I shook my head. ¡°Ugh! I am having such a hard time articting this.¡± I turned all the way around then, straddling hisp and looking up into his eyes. ¡°What I mean is, Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley are all going to be eleven when the new baby is born. Reagan and Rika will be neen. Is it too much of a gap?¡±


    ¡°Trinity, you do know that Valerian had a baby hundreds of years after his first one died, right? And your Grandfather and my mother had a baby. I am a hell of a lot older than my baby sister than the quads will be with this new baby. And let¡¯s not even think about the difference in age between your mother and my baby sister. Oh, and another one, you are how much older than your sister? Not that Wes and Eve are your biological parents, but they raised you so you were the youngest for so long. This gap of ours is nothing.¡± He just shook his head at me as if I was being crazy.


    ¡°Well.¡± I batted my eyes at him. ¡°Does that mean that in fifty years, if we want to try for number nine, you wouldn¡¯t have a problem with that?¡±


    ¡°Why would I? We¡¯re immortal Trinity, there is nothing stopping us from having another kid in a hundred years. Even if we have great, great, great, great grandchildren, we can still have another one. Because that is what immortality is all about.¡± He pulled me closer and kissed my lips gently.


    ¡°Is it? I didn¡¯t know that the whole point was to have kids that are centuries apart in age. I was so wrong all this time.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, sweetheart, I will help you to stay on top of things. Starting with this.¡±


    Reece lifted me and slid inside of me then. It was unexpected and perfect. He made love to me slowly and gently. It was something that spoke of love, devotion, and forever.


    After ourte afternoon break in the bathtub, along with the impromptu love making, Reece and I needed to hurry and get ready for dinner. It kind of ruined the entire point of rxing in the tub, but I guess that it didn¡¯t matter. Rushing like this was just part of our lives and I was used to it by now.


    When Reece and I made it to the dining room, almost everyone was already there. And with the entry of Juniper and Paul just after Reece and I got there, itpleted the entire group. It was a little more crowded than I thought that things were going to be in the living room, even though we had had this many people here before. It was fine though, and I didn¡¯t care one bit. We were all family. Not all by blood, but by time and connection. These people were all special to me, and I wanted to share my news with them.


    ¡°Trinity!¡± Acacia ran to me when I was in the room. ¡°I am so happy to see you. We¡¯ve all been separated for too long.¡± Her and Cedar lived mostly in Faerie now. They came back when they needed to, but she was helping her family with the advancement of their business that they started a while ago.


    ¡°I missed you, Casey.¡± I said as I hugged her back.


    ¡°Trinity.¡± Cedar came and added his arms around me. ¡°I can¡¯t believe all of this happened.¡± When he pulled away from me, he looked up at Reece and pulled him into his arms. ¡°You almost died, man. You almost left Trinity. How dare you! Didn¡¯t I tell you twenty years ago to treat her right?¡± Cedar wasughing as he spoke, helping us all to see that it was OK now and no one needed to cry anymore.


    ¡°Yeah, I remember.¡± Reece patted him on the shoulder. ¡°And that¡¯s why I am here. I won¡¯t ever mistreat her.¡±


    ¡°Oh stop it you guys.¡± Juniper rolled her eyes at them. ¡°You¡¯re such babies.¡±


    ¡°They won¡¯t stop it.¡± Paul ran at them, pretending to cry as he threw his arms around Reece. ¡°I thought I lost you, Reecey!¡±


    ¡°Eww, get off me.¡± Reece pushed him yfully.


    ¡°Don¡¯t say that, Reece. We need to tell the others about our love!¡± At that he was pretending to try and kiss him and we were allughing hysterically.


    ¡°And this is why I can¡¯t take you anywhere.¡± Juniper grabbed the back of Paul¡¯s shirt and yanked him away.


    ¡°Gwahh!¡± He yelled out as his feet momentarily left the floor.


    ¡°At least we know that it¡¯s going to be a lively evening.¡± I took Reece¡¯s hand and walked toward the kids. We needed to sit down and enjoy the meal that Abigail made for us. And she had done as I said, she was sitting with us and enjoying the meal while the other maids and cooks took care of everything.


    At first, I was content to let the conversation go where it wanted to. And, of course, it went to the unbelievable events of the night before. Most people couldn¡¯t believe how Reece had almost died, but they also couldn¡¯t believe how Talia had been such a badass. Everyone was congratting her, even though it clearly made her look shy and embarrassed.


    We all talked a lot about how things were going to go back to normal. And how we didn¡¯t have to worry about our people being hunted anymore. I know that this was a huge relief for them all, and I was happy to see those relieved sighs. It meant that this ordeal really was over.


    I didn¡¯t bring up the news right away. I wanted to wait until everyone thought that this was just a way for us all to reminisce and celebrate the end of this gruesome chapter in our lives. I wanted to let them all rx and fool themselves into that false conclusion. I knew that, just like how I surprised those in the throne room earlier, it would be so much more exciting and satisfying if I sprung this all on them at thest minute.


    Only Abigail seemed to be waiting for me to spill the beans. I had told her that I had something to say though, so that was expected. And, sure enough, about every five minutes or so, she kept looking up at me and grinning. She was telling me that she was waiting, as patiently as she possibly could.


    When I thought that everyone was rxed enough, and not at all thinking that there was something else that needed to happen this evening, I rose to my feet. Reece, seeing that I had decided that it was time to spill the beans, jumped up beside me and took my hand in his.


    ¡°Ahem.¡± I cleared my throat to get their attention.


    ¡°Trinity and I have something that we want to tell you all.¡±


    ¡°What? We already know you love each other very much.¡± Paul pretended to cry. ¡°Damn you, Trinity, you stole him from me.¡±


    ¡°Sorry Paul, he was mine first though.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah, you¡¯re right. OK, you can have him.¡±


    ¡°You let go of me that easily?¡± Reece was slightly offended. ¡°I see how it is. Fine, I don¡¯t want you either.¡± He turned away in a fake huff and once again the entire group cackled.


    ¡°Anyway.¡± I drew out the word to change the subject and get their attention. ¡°Reece and I learned about something today. Something that was a bit of a surprise.¡±


    ¡°Apparently,st night there was a lot of magic flying around.¡± Reece added as I paused. ¡°And that magic did something other than keep me alive.¡±


    ¡°You see, I am pregnant.¡± I dropped the bombshell and there were several gasps throughout the room. And a lot of people jumped to their feet to congratte us. Even Paul put the jokes aside for the time being and cheered with Juniper.


    ¡°TRINITY FAITH! WHY DIDN¡¯T YOU TELL ME EARLIER!?¡± Juniper snapped at me but I justughed. She would get that out of meter.


    ¡°Anyway.¡± I said that word again, dragging them back to attention once more. ¡°I wasn¡¯t pregnant before the battle. And Reece and I hadn¡¯t made love since yesterday morning, before the battle. So, how did I get pregnant? And it wasn¡¯t even that time of my cycle.¡±


    ¡°The magic?¡± Athair m¨®r spoke softly. ¡°You used magic to bring Reece back. Strong and powerful life magic. And that magic wasn¡¯t done with Reece. It quickened his seed inside of you.¡±


    ¡°That is exactly what I think as well, Athair m¨®r.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°And that is why we will be having another baby.¡±


    ¡°I am going to be a big sister?¡± Zaley asked as she looked up at me.


    ¡°Yes, sweetheart, you will. Are you OK with that?¡± I was worried that, as the youngest, she would be a little upset. Yes, Zachary, Zander, and Zayden were the same age as her, but they were so much bigger that they seemed older, even if they were usually more immature.


    ¡°I love it.¡± She beamed at me, smiling at the thought.


    ¡°And I want more siblings too.¡± Zayden said as he leapt up. Zachary and Zander agreed with him as they came closer to me to hug me as a group.


    ¡°I like being a big brother.¡± Zachary said proudly. ¡°I hope that it¡¯s another girl. I like having younger sisters better than brothers.¡±


    Everyone in the room at some point came up to me and Reece to hug us and congratte us. They were all proud to be part of this celebration, and they were happy to be gaining more family members.


    I knew that there wasn¡¯t a better family that I could ask for. These people, all of them, were the best that anyone could ever ask for. They loved unconditionally, whether you are blood rted or not. They were all so close and dear to me that I never wanted to lose a single one of them. And it wasn¡¯t just these ones either. There were more, but they already knew about the babies, so they weren¡¯t here. My family was already so big, and it was still growing all the time. I couldn¡¯t be happier about it all. This was pure bliss to me.

 Chapter 1004 - 1004 Chapter 189- Reece – The Others Leave (VOLUME 5)

    1004 Chapter 189- Reece ¨C The Others Leave (VOLUME 5)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    It had been a few days since the battle ended. There were a few stragglers here in the castle and the surrounding areas. Not to mention the ones that had arrived toote. I didn¡¯t me those ones. No one knew that the battle was going to be the night that they were called. It was hard for them all to be here. Not only that, but there ended up being more than enough forces to handle the enemies that had attacked my home.


    There were a few people that were still here that needed my attention though. Mainly, there was Nigel, the Alpha from Wolfhamm, and Cadwal, the Alpha from the northern sect in Wales. There were reasons that I needed to talk to these two men, since there were things to settle before they left.


    Nigel was first, since there was less to deal with in his situation. He was going back to his little vige and would work with a few of my men to help calm the fears of our kind throughout all of Ennd. He was taking Warrick with him to help aplish these tasks for me. And in return, his son was going to be staying here in Colorado with us. He was going to be attending an American high school that had a lot of good stats and prestige. He would graduate from here in two years, and after that, he would figure out what it was that he wanted to do with his life, most likely he would return home and train to be his father¡¯s heir.


    I needed to settle what it was that Warrick was going to be doing though. I wanted to make sure that the man wasn¡¯t just blindly following the orders that he was given. That would be like he had no substance of his own. He needed to learn how to not only live among our kind, but among powerful people in ourmunities. If he wished toe back here in a year or so, he needed to make sure that he was able to stand on equal footing with Alyssa. Not that I wanted to give the little fucking pissant another shot at her, that wasn¡¯t up to me. I knew that they were in fact mates, and that meant that he was going to be a part of her future, if she allowed him to be. For the time being though, he needed to gain some knowledge, confidence, and discipline.


    ¡°Are you sure that you want to send him to work with me?¡± Nigel asked as he looked over at Warrick. The man in question had his head held high and a determined look on his face. ¡°There might be people in my territory that will want him dead just for being a Jaegan.¡±


    ¡°He is not Warrick Jaegan.¡± I gave Nigel a stern look. ¡°He is Warrick Abitz. That is his legal name now. He was registered here in the United States with that name, and he will carry it with him for the rest of his life. Those that are not being tried for the crimes against us, they will use the names that they have on their documents. They were likely never registered under the name of Jaegan when they were born, but who knows for sure. All I know is that if you don¡¯t tell them where he came from, then they will never know.¡± I made it clear that this man was not a part of all of that business.


    .....


    ¡°I can¡¯t be sure that no one will figure it out.¡± Nigel was still looking defiant at me. I think that he was possibly one of the ones that wanted to teach Warrick a lesson. In a way, this was good. He would learn to harden himself in the best environment possible.


    ¡°Then you will tell them that Warrick is under my protection.¡± It disgusted me to say that, but I knew that I had to extend that to the boy. He was Alyssa¡¯s mate. That was what I needed to keep reminding myself. ¡°I will give him my seal. And if anyone hurts him, they will answer to me.¡±


    ¡°U..u..understood, King Reece.¡± Nigel finally understood what was happening here.


    ¡°Now, Nigel, look after my niece¡¯s mate as well as I intend to look after your son.¡± I reminded him that his blood was with me, and if anything happened, payment could be exacted. Though I never intended to harm an innocent boy, I was able to imply it. And man, was I d that Trinity wasn¡¯t here. She would whoop my ass for saying that. She wanted to be more evolved and civilized people.


    After settling the details with Nigel, I sent him on his way through the door that my Little Bunny had made for him and his group. I said my goodbyes to Warrick as well, telling him to do his best to be the man that he knew Alyssa deserved. He wasn¡¯t upset about being sent to help others, only about being away from the woman that he loved so dearly. In a way, I really did hope that he turned things around and came back to make it alright with her. If for nothing else than for Alyssa¡¯s happiness.


    Now that they were gone, I walked over toward Cadwal. He was waiting for me with a jovial smile. He wasn¡¯t leaving someone with me, so I think that he was able to feel like he was in a position to have more freedom. He wasn¡¯t going back home alone either. He was taking a handful of my men to help spread the word of peace to the rest of the United Kingdom, but he was also taking two very special visitors to Wales.


    First, I spoke to the man about Clovio. That little asshole I didn¡¯t care if I ever saw again. He was the one that had put his filthy hands on my Rika. And that meant that I didn¡¯t care if he did die. Trinity, on the other hand, did care. And for all I knew, Rika might as well. I knew that Warrick would also, and when he got back to make up with Alyssa and found that his friend and cousin was dead, he would just cause a massive scene. And all that meant was that I had to make sure that he came back in a year as well. Goddess, but this was annoying.


    ¡°Hello there, King Reece.¡± Cadwal said happily as I walked over to him. ¡°I see that the men are getting ready to head out.¡±


    ¡°That they are.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°This is Clovio. You have been told who he is and why he ising with you. He is working as a sort of probation for me. I want you to see to it that he learns the truth of our kind. I want him to understand what it means to be a man among us. See to it that his character, will, heart, and mind are all stronger when hees home. And make sure that he does his work as well. He is on a mission of peace, and I intend to see that he seeds.¡±


    ¡°Yes, of course. We will take good care of him.¡± He didn¡¯t sound threatening or menacing toward Clovio. And he didn¡¯t imply that he might not be safe, so that was all well and good. Now I just needed to settle the rest of the situation and we would be good to go.


    ¡°Reece?¡± The other man that I needed to speak to Cadwal about called out as he approached me quietly.


    ¡°Hello, Westin.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°Are you prepared to go?¡±


    ¡°I am.¡± He nodded.


    ¡°Now, King Reece, what is it that this man is being sent out on probation for?¡± Cadwal looked him up and down as if he were a particrly nasty piece of garbage.


    ¡°He is not being punished, Cadwal.¡± I snapped at him. ¡°Westin is leaving my pack for a short time, at most a year. He is going to take this time to clear his head and calm his heart.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Cadwal sounded very confused. ¡°What is happening here, King Reece?¡±


    ¡°My mate does not recognize me.¡± Westin answered for him. ¡°I smell her, I see her as the woman that I am meant to be with, but she ignores me and chooses to think that I do not exist. I am hoping that some time away from me might help her to understand what I am to her. I want toe back after a time apart and see if her wolf recognizes me then.¡±


    ¡°That.. is.. horrible.¡± Cadwal drew out the words as if he was having a hard time processing all of what he just heard. ¡°How can she not recognize you? Is there something wrong with her?¡± Cadwal was angry on Westin¡¯s behalf.


    ¡°I think that she is just confused. She needs time to process and understand. And I am giving that to her.¡±


    ¡°Alright, well youe with me, boy.¡± Cadwal pped Westin on the back. ¡°I will see to it that you are able to rx and forget about this heartache. You will not have to dwell on this too much. And when youe back, I am sure that she will see you for what you truly are to her.¡±


    ¡°I hope so.¡± Westin looked at the ground, his expression dejected. ¡°I truly hope that you are right.¡±


    I watched them all leave after that. Westin heading off with Clovio to the north of Wales. They would like it there. I knew that they would. It was a quiet and peaceful ce with a lot of wonderful scenery. It was somewhere that, while on that long and difficult journey we had, Trinity and I were able to rest and rx. Even if it was just a little bit of a break, that was the ce that we had done it. And, to be honest, I wouldn¡¯t mind going back at some point in the future. Maybe when things were settled down a little more. And maybe when the new baby was a little older and could handle a few days without Mommy and Daddy.


    With the courtyard clearing out quickly, I felt like things were truly over. The whole ordeal was done. The case. The murders. The search for answers. The battle. All of it was done and over with now. And that was all that mattered to me right now.


    Now that these things hade to a close, I was able to focus on what was the most important to me. My wife, my children, my family, and my future. I would be able to be where I was needed the most. And right where I wanted to be as well.

 Chapter 1005 - 1005 Chapter 190- Epilogue 1 (VOLUME 5)

    1005 Chapter 190- Epilogue 1 (VOLUME 5)


    A very quick note from the author,


    Hello everyone, I know that you want to continue the story and all that, but I wanted to give you all a small message first. There will be a handful of epilogues in this book, they will wrap some things up and leave the others open for the next volume. There will be one more volume in this story, but that is all. I am happy that you have all stuck with my story this long, and I thank you all for being there for me.


    Oh, and onest thing. These epilogues don¡¯t necessarilye in chronological order. I am sure that you can all figure out the point in time that they happen. Enjoy them, and see you all again in Volume 6!!


    ** Sentencing The Jaegan**


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After things settled down and we had all moved on from the horrors that had gued us for so long, it was time to see the perpetrators brought to justice. And by that I mean the Jaegan that had admitted guilt or the ones that refused to change their ways no matter what Juniper was able to do for them.


    In the case of those damaged Jaegan, the ones that couldn¡¯t be released from the prison right away, Juniper had made leaps and bounds. They were a lot better than they had been just a few weeks ago. They understood what happened. They understood what was wrong with the actions of their family. And they were out of their cells. They were still being monitored in that apartment that Clovio, Warrick, Armina, and Gustav had stayed in, but they were doing well. I was sure that within another week or so, they would be able to go out into the world and live a rtively normal life. And all of this just went to show me how powerful my best friend was.


    .....


    There was more that we needed to do though, and that involved us going to the courthouse. Reece and I had been a part of this case since the beginning, so we weren¡¯t going to miss any of this. We had managed to arrange for a closed trial so that the ¡®cultists¡¯ as they had been dubbed by the media, wouldn¡¯t have the attention that they so desperately sought.


    In truth, we just didn¡¯t want the humans to hear these people spouting about how we were monsters and other creatures that needed to be exterminated. Everyone in the case was not human. From the arresting officers that took custody of them from us, to the prosecutors and judge.


    The Jaegan had already confessed and therefore entered their official pleas of guilty to the court. They still thought that monsters like us would never see the day that they were actually sentenced to jail time. And since they weren¡¯t receptive to it, Juniper hadn¡¯t done anything to change their minds with her power.


    I have a feeling that Juniper would have been able to do that, but she wouldn¡¯t have wanted to. She isn¡¯t the type to force that power onto others. Not only that, but forcibly changing someone¡¯s mind is a whole new level of vition that none of us wanted to be a part of. We would let them continue to think the way that they did, it wouldn¡¯t matter when they were sentenced to life in prison.


    The Jaegan all stood proudly and confidently as they faced the judge, giving their pleas of guilty with mocking expressions. ud was in the lead of the group, somehow having been appointed as the most sane or whatever. I don¡¯t know how they nominated him, or if he just took the role upon himself.


    ¡°Yes, we admit that we all did as we were used. I will not im that I didn¡¯t murder that girl. And I fucked her too. She deserved it. She was a monster. They are all monsters. They aren¡¯t human.¡± He turned and pointed his cuffed hands at me and Reece. ¡°Look at them. They are disgusting creatures. This one is a dog, and the other is a mongrel that is so mixed with mutant blood that she is an abomination. Her mere existence should be illegal. They should all be killed. And that was what we were doing. We were exterminating the monsters from the world.¡± He turned back to the judge, expecting him to look pleased and happy that this man was doing such a fine job ofmunity service. That wasn¡¯t the look that greeted him though.


    Instead of looking pleased, Judge Frazer just scowled at him. Now I guess that the fact that Louis Frazer was a shifter from Trevor¡¯s bear n didn¡¯t help ud¡¯s case. And this man, being a judge and a supernatural being, was the perfect person to sentence these men for their crimes.


    ¡°What did you call them?¡± Louis asked ud in a low and intimidating voice. Louis was a ck bear. A little smaller than Trevor¡¯s breed, but still lethal in the wild. He had dark brown eyes, ck hair, and a hell of a scowl. And that scowl was aimed right at the cowardly n of cultists.


    ¡°I called them monsters.¡± ud said proudly. ¡°That bitch there is the worst of them all.¡± He was, of course, pointing at me.


    ¡°Queen Trinity, what is it that he is talking about?¡± Louis asked me. ¡°I know that you are a sweet and fair woman. You rule our kingdom with the utmost care. I can¡¯t even begin to fathom where this man is getting all of these awful thoughts from.¡±


    ¡°Q..Q..Queen Trinity?¡± ud paled as he looked at the judge. ¡°You¡¯re one of them?¡± I truly do believe that ud and the others thought that people like Reece and I wouldn¡¯t have the ability, the humanity, to have careers like this. They just didn¡¯t see how we would be able to fool the humans into trusting us for so long. ¡°THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! I WANT ANOTHER JUDGE! YOU ARE NOT HUMAN! YOU ARE NOT FIT TO JUDGE ME!¡±


    ¡°I am fit to judge you, young man.¡± Louis snapped at him. ¡°I was elected by my peers, human and nonhuman alike. They gave me the authority. And now I will hand down your punishments.¡±


    I watched as Louis shifted the papers on his desk and began to tally the number of dead. With the vampires that were still missing and presumed dead, those having not been tallied properly until everything had settled down, the total was now at one hundred and seventeen dead. These people, while either directly or indirectly, were all responsible for those deaths.


    I could tell that Louis was calcting just how many years he was going to sentence these people to prison for. I couldn¡¯t wait to hear what he had to say to them.


    ¡°In the case of the State of Colorado against the Jaegan Cultists,¡± Louis spoke in a loud and clear voice, ¡°I hereby sentence each of you to life imprisonment for each of the one hundred and seventeen cases of first-degree murder. For the crime of rape, I hereby sentence ud Jaegan to life in prison. Each of you will serve no less than two thousand nine hundred and twenty-five years in prison. Except for you, Mr. ud. You will serve an added twenty-five years. Each and every one of you will die behind bars for the crimes against humanity.¡±


    ¡°THEY WEREN¡¯T HUMAN!¡± ud screeched after hearing the verdict. ¡°THEY HAD NO HUMANITY!¡±


    ¡°They had more than you.¡± I rose to my feet and red at him. ¡°Unlike you, they never ughtered anyone just for the hell of it. Now, enjoy the prison that you¡¯re going to. It¡¯s brand new and top of the line.¡± I winked at him and saw him pale before he left. I knew that this was over. Finally, we would be able to put the Jaegan behind us. Those that were left with us, they didn¡¯t use that name anymore. They weren¡¯t Jaegan, they had been reborn.


    Reece and I left the courthouse and were bombarded by the media. I usually tried to stay away from them, since it was hard to hide how young I waspared to my age. The same with Reece. Not only that, but we didn¡¯t want to get the media hounding the kids. They had nothing to do with this.


    ¡°Mr. Gray. Mrs. Gray. Can we have a word?¡± Several reporters called out to us in quick session.


    ¡°Trinity! Trinity! Over here! Tell us why you attended the hearing?¡±


    ¡°Reece! Reece! What role did you y in all of this?¡± They were still belting their questions toward us, and I knew that Reece and I were going to need to answer a few of them.


    ¡°My husband and I funded a private investigative group that helped to track down and capture the men and women that were responsible for these heinous crimes.¡± I gave them an answer that I had prepared in advance.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t it true that you went along to all of the murder sites as well, Mrs. Gray? Why were you so personally involved?¡±


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you want to put an end to the fear and panic that was spreading around the world?¡± I looked at the man and was nearly blinded by the light of the camera next to him. ¡°I have children of my own. I want them to live in a world that is safe. And those men and women were travelling all over the world. They even made their way here. They were intending to murder people in our own city.¡±


    ¡°Do you think that they only targeted Colorado because you were chasing after them? Would they have stayed out of North America if you hadn¡¯t provoked them?¡± An angry female voice spoke from the back of the crowd. ¡°Don¡¯t you think that your reckless actions are what led to this happening?¡±


    ¡°I like to think that these peopleing to the United States showed how desperate they really were. We were closing in on them. They had nowhere left to hide, so they went to the only ce that they felt was safe. I feel sorry for the victims that died in California, and the victims that were nearly killed here, but if it hadn¡¯t been them that were targeted, then it would have been someone else in the world. Lives would still have been lost.¡± Reece tried to sate the reporter¡¯s question with that answer, but she had another.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t it true, Mrs. Gray, that you were in too many ces during your stay in Europe and Asia? I have reports that say that you were in Ennd and then Australia in the span of an hour.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha.¡± Iughed and acted like this was ridiculous. ¡°That is impossible. Clearly, someone is misremembering the dates that we were in their location. It was a bit of a whirlwind trip though, so I don¡¯t me them for getting it wrong.¡±


    ¡°How do you exin theck of a flight log for your private ne then? It flew to Wales, that was true, but from what I was told, no one was actually on board that aircraft aside from the pilot.¡±


    ¡°I am sure that people just missed us. When we don¡¯t want to be hounded by the media, we are quite well versed in evading them.¡± I gave the woman a look that told her that she was only permitted to speak to me because I was letting her. It was a reminder not to push her luck with someone that was so wealthy and influential.


    There were a few more questions after that, but it was clear that, after my warning, they weren¡¯t as into the whole ambush as they were before. I think that they were feeling a little awkward at the fact that they had ¡®cornered us¡¯, or so they thought that they had.


    I felt a little uneasy though. Some of these reporters were digging a little too deep for my liking.

 Chapter 1006 - 1006 Chapter 191- Epilogue 2 (VOLUME 5)

    1006 Chapter 191- Epilogue 2 (VOLUME 5)


    Back to School Part 1


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    It hadn¡¯t even been a full seven days, but I was allowed to go back. I felt a little awkward though, trying to walk back into the school and pretend like nothing had happened. Especially when I walked into Mr. Amadeus¡¯s ssroom. I knew that all of the kids in this room would be wondering if I would have another freak out.


    I was sitting there, trying not to let my skin crawl as I felt the eyes of everyone on me. By now there had been enough rumors that had spread among ourmunity, and consequently our school. And those rumors were all about the battle that took ce over on the mountain. On the very same mountain that the king and queen lived on. They all knew that there was an epic fight for our lives. And they all knew that those reports of deaths, that had beening every five days for thest several weeks, had stopped. Everyone had noticed that.


    I knew that there was relief sighing through the school, but most of the students didn¡¯t know that it was our kind that was being killed. And they sure as hell didn¡¯t know that I was the main reason that all the big baddies were stopped. I didn¡¯t want them to know that either.


    I didn¡¯t want anyone to know what I had done. I didn¡¯t want the kids in the school to look at me even more awkwardly. I didn¡¯t want them to think that I was even more of a freak than some of them thought that I was. I just wanted to move on with my life. I wanted to have that normal life that people kept telling me that I needed before I went off to rule the underworld.


    There was only one problem. I didn¡¯t know how to live a normal life. I didn¡¯t know how to be a normal teenager. I only knew how to be Talia. And I thought that I was quite strange indeed. Though, that feeling had grown over thest few days. Ever since the battle.


    .....


    I was sitting in ss, in Mr. Amadeus¡¯s ss to be exact, when someone slid into the seat next to me and started to talk to me in a low voice. I recognized her scent right away. She was one of the few kids in the school that smelled like the ocean. There was more to it than that, but that was the number one thing that I noticed about my friend¡¯s scent. And considering that she was a Mermaid I really didn¡¯t think that was a problem.


    ¡°Hey Talia.¡± She spoke softly as she leaned in. We both knew that a lot of people around us would hear what we had to say if we were too loud. Shifter ears were really good at picking up sounds.


    ¡°Hey Ada.¡± I smiled at her. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡±


    ¡°I..I wanted to talk to you about something.¡± She fixed me with a hard stare then. Her eyes showed me that she was worried about something, and that she needed answers. I just hoped that I was able to give them to her.


    ¡°OK.¡± I closed my notebook that I had been drawing in. I was done with the homework and had just been trying to look busy.


    ¡°Thatst time that you were here, you had a vision, right? That¡¯s what was said. You had a vision of something bad happening, and that¡¯s why you screamed.¡± She knew this already, it had been confirmed that day.


    ¡°Yes, Ada, I did.¡± There was no reason to lie to her about this. And I didn¡¯t want to lie either.


    ¡°After that, you stoppeding to school. I was so worried about you. I thought that something bad might have happened to you.¡±


    ¡°I am sorry for worrying you, Ada.¡± I looked and sounded repentant about that. ¡°My parents wanted me to stay home after that. It was for the best.¡±


    ¡°And your siblings?¡± She levelled a hard re at me then. Something that was prating and told me that she wasn¡¯t fooled at all. ¡°I know that Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley all stopped going to school as well. And so did Reagan and Rika. You all started to stay home. And not just them. All the kids that associated with your family. The school was so empty without all of them spread around here.¡±


    ¡°Y..y..yes, my family was worried about the vision that I had.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I know.¡± She smiled at me, something that felt a lot more knowing than it should be. ¡°And not long after that vision, after everyone went MIA from school, I was at the mall with some friends.¡±


    ¡°I..I know.¡± She was leading to this. I know that she was.


    ¡°We met a few college guys that seemed interested in us. You know, we¡¯re seniors and all that, so we didn¡¯t mind the attention. However, when we got to the park, something strange happened. And your parents were there as well. They saved us from something. I am still not sure that I know what exactly they saved us from, but they did, didn¡¯t they?¡± She just wanted confirmation. I could give it to her, but what was this going to do to our friendship? Still, I wasn¡¯t going to lie to her. That wasn¡¯t the right thing to do.


    ¡°Yes, Ada, they saved you. I..in that vision that I had, I saw you die. I saw all five of you die. And that is why I screamed when I saw you that day. When I woke up. I was terrified of the imagesing true.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Talia.¡± She didn¡¯t move. She didn¡¯t sound appalled. She just said those three words.


    ¡°What?¡± I asked her, not quite processing what this was all about. ¡°I don¡¯t understand, Ada. D..don¡¯t you think that I¡¯m-?¡± I was in the middle of asking her a question when she interrupted me with a hug.


    ¡°The bestest friend that I could ever have.¡± She was squeezing me tight.


    ¡°But I uhm, I didn¡¯t tell you. I didn¡¯t stop it before it could get that far. I didn¡¯t tell you that day that I had the vision.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Talia. I understand that you were scared. And that this all had to do with something more major than just me and the other girls. This was something that was affecting a lot more people than just us.¡±


    ¡°Well, yes, it was.¡± I nodded in agreement. ¡°And, in truth, I ended up having three visions in all over thest few weeks. They were all about five days apart from each other. Well almost. Thest two were closer.¡±


    ¡°Were they all about people dying?¡± She asked me. ¡°Did you save them all?¡±


    ¡°Yes, and no.¡± I answered the questions in order and that just made her look at me like she was very confused. ¡°You see, Ada, the first vision didn¡¯t happen the same way. I didn¡¯t know that it was a vision. I saw what happened to a girl that was murdered in California. I didn¡¯t even know that it was California though. There was nothing to tell me where it was or when it was. I..I wasn¡¯t able to save her.¡±


    ¡°Oh, Talia.¡± She pulled my head against her chest then, seeing the tears that were welling up in my eyes. This was difficult for me. ¡°It¡¯s not your fault. If you didn¡¯t know what it was, then you couldn¡¯t be expected to do anything about it.¡±


    ¡°I..I know.¡± I nodded at her as I pulled away from her hug. ¡°B..but that was why I wanted to do something when I had another vision. When I saw you and the others being murdered. I had to save you. I couldn¡¯t let my friends and ssmates die.¡±


    ¡°And I am so thankful, Talia. I am d that you have this ability of yours. I don¡¯t know where it came from, why you have it, or anything like that, but I know that I am alive today because of you, Talia. And that is what matters to me. And, well, I hope you don¡¯t mind this, but I told the other girls that you were the one that saved us. They are so thankful as well.¡±


    ¡°I..is that why everyone is staring at me?¡± I looked around and saw that, just like before, there were a lot of eyes on me. It had been like this all morning.


    ¡°I am afraid that it is. And, well, after what happened, Mr. Amadeus tried to exin to people that you were trying to save lives with what happened that day. They are staring at you right now, Talia, because they are in awe of you. You are amazing, Talia. We all know it to be true. And I want you to know that you don¡¯t need to hide yourself away. I know that you are shy, but no one here is going to make fun of you or stop you from being yourself. You¡¯re a part of us, and we all want you to know that we love you.¡± She hugged me again and I felt a little better at that moment. There was a lot that was going on around metely, so very much, and having this little moment, knowing that things were actually OK, it was helping out way more than Ada would ever know.


    Later in the day, as I went to lunch, I had a lot of people calling out to me. They were telling me that they were so proud of me and thankful for me. They had somehow worked out that the news reports stoppeding after my vision, and they were contributing all of it to me. Me and my family. They didn¡¯t know what I had done really, but they knew that I had saved a lot of people.


    I finally felt like school might be a little better than it had been. And that maybe I didn¡¯t need to focus only on school. I was allowed to have a little bit of fun, right?


    And as soon as I thought this, sitting there in the lunchroom, I saw a familiar face walk in ande straight toward me. I didn¡¯t know that Arthur was still here in town, nor that he wasing here to school with me.


    The moment that he sat down next to me, I felt all the eyes of the girls in school turn toward me. I instantly blushed, but I couldn¡¯t help but feel a rush of excitement. School was a ce that was away from my dad and Lex. This was where I would be able to be me, without them interfering in it all.


    ¡°Hi Talia.¡± Arthur said and made all the girls around me giggle in delight.

 Chapter 1007 - 1007 Chapter 192- Epilogue 3 (VOLUME 5)

    1007 Chapter 192- Epilogue 3 (VOLUME 5)


    Back to School Part 2


    ~~


    Reagan


    ~~


    Going back to school felt surreal. I walked onto the campus with Levi, Luka, Elias, Rowan, Cypress, and Beech. We had all been gone during this time. And since we¡¯re listed as being a giant extended family, we had just told the professors that there was a family emergency. No one even cared though. This was college, we were adults, and attendance was less important here than it was in high school. What mattered here were results.


    After our first morning ss back, the seven of us guys decided to grab some lunch from the diner and eat it in the quad next to the fountain. It was a peaceful ce to just sit and rx, but there was more to it than that.


    From this ce on the campus, I was able to see almost every building that made up the school. I saw most of the students that were here at the moment as they milled around. This was the center of the university, and that meant something to someone as young as me.


    My whole world consisted of my friends, my family, my time at school, and the things that I had learned over thest almost neen years. I had thought that I was smart. That I was wise. That I knew more than most. But I was wrong.


    After the event over thatst couple of months, I knew that just wasn¡¯t the case. There was so much that I didn¡¯t know. So many things in this world that I am not privy to. And that annoyed me.


    .....


    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Reagan?¡± Elias asked as he set aside his drink, taking his sandwich back in hand to munch another bite from it while he waited for my response. I, on the other hand, hadn¡¯t even taken a bite yet.


    ¡°I just can¡¯t seem to understand it all.¡± I said as I continued to look around.


    ¡°What can¡¯t you understand?¡± Luka sounded confused.


    ¡°Life really, but not just that. Think about what happened. Think about the battle that just took ce. Think about how many people died recently. And then look around. Can you tell that any of it happened? Can you see any evidence that it even affected the world?¡±


    At my urging, they all did as I said. They set aside their food and started to look around. They saw the couple that was sitting under the tree making out. They saw the group of girls that were talking animatedly as they sippedttes and other drinks from the coffee shop on campus. They saw the guys that were ying football, frisbee, and other roughhousing games. They saw all that I saw. And then they started to process it all.


    I saw the moment that they all understood what I was getting at. At first, they all looked around with eyes that were quizzical and filled with excitement to see the shining new thought that I had. Only it wasn¡¯t a shining thought. This was dark. This was deep. And I think that it said more about me than the people that were around me.


    ¡°You know what, Reagan, I don¡¯t see it. I don¡¯t see anything that shows that anything happened at all. I can¡¯t even tell that they were upset about the murders that were happening. It¡¯s like nothing has affected their lives at all.¡± Levi looked saddened, and he wasn¡¯t the only one.


    ¡°I know that. And it was like that before as well. I knew that people were feeling uneasy about the murders before my parents and sister stopped them, but these people here, these students, they acted like their own little bubble was unaffected. And the horrible thing is that, just a couple of weeks ago, I was one of them. I was pissed when my parents stopped us all from going to school. I was angry. But I understand it now. I understand that they were just trying to protect us.¡±


    ¡°What is your point here?¡± Beech asked me, wrinkling his brow in confusion. ¡°What does all of this mean?¡±


    ¡°I think it means that we¡¯re different now. That we have changed. And that not an ounce of that change has affected the world around us. That sounded self-centered of me, I know that, but I was hoping that something that was so profound in me would show here in this part of my life as well. Aside from the fact that the exchange students are gone now, there has been nothing at all that changed in the lives of our peers.¡±


    ¡°I know, Reagan, I really do.¡± Elias leaned in and put a hand on my shoulder. ¡°But that is just how the world is. They aren¡¯t affected by the others that were around them when personal implosions take ce.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I think that I get that now. I don¡¯t like it, but I get it.¡± I nodded at him.


    ¡°It is freaking me out too, Reagan.¡± Levi said as he took another look around. ¡°I hadn¡¯t thought about all that had happened recently, but now that I am, it feels strange that we are the only ones that are affected by it. Us and the others that were involved.¡±


    I just sat there, still people watching and ignoring my own sandwich. I knew that I needed to eat it. That I had a limited amount of time left until I needed to be in my next ss, but I was just so preupied. I couldn¡¯t stop thinking about the impact that this event had on the world, and what was going to happen in the future.


    I think that my friends were starting to get a little unnerved by me. They wanted me to say something. To do something other than just look around like I was some sort of weirdo. They needed to know that I was OK. And to be honest, I wanted to know that about myself as well. Was I OK?


    I thought that I was. I just had a revtion, and it was taking its toll on me. There was something that I wanted. I hadn¡¯t thought that I wanted it before now. I haven¡¯t even considered it a possibility before now. But I wanted it more than anything that I had ever wanted before. Smiling and looking at them now, rather than the people that were milling around us, I told them what I had just thought about.


    ¡°I want to make a difference in the world. I want to change the bad things that there are and help to make sure that there is nothing that affects these people again. I don¡¯t want anyone else to have to sit here and stare at the world like I just did. I don¡¯t want anyone else to wonder about the things that I just wondered.¡±


    ¡°What does that mean?¡± Elias asked me with his head tilted to the side.


    ¡°It means that I am going to first train to be my father¡¯s heir. That was already set in motion, but after that, I am going to change the world. One small thing at a time if I have to. I am going to do whatever I can to protect my people.¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that your mom¡¯s job?¡± Cypress asked me, a chip held in front of his mouth waiting to be eaten.


    ¡°I am not counting just the shifters or magic users.¡± I shook my head. ¡°I live in this world with all the other people. All the people on the are my people. I am going to help all that I can. No matter who or what they are.¡±


    ¡°Soo, you¡¯re saying that you¡¯re going to be Superman? Or a politician? Or a phnthropist?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know yet, maybe I will be the next king of our people and work at it from there, but I know that I want to preserve the peace that these people think that they have. I want to make sure that they really do have peace.¡±


    ¡°Good luck with that.¡± Eliasughed. ¡°Don¡¯t worry though, cuz. I will be there with you every step of the way. Just like my dad is there for yours, I am there for you.¡± He held out a hand and took mine. It wasn¡¯t a hand shake or a high five. It was more than that. It was a promise being made right then and there.


    ¡°I¡¯m with you too.¡± Levi added his hand to ours.


    ¡°Me too.¡± Luka said, gripping the three of ours.¡±


    ¡°You know I¡¯m in.¡± Rowan added his hand to the group.


    ¡°Duh! We¡¯re in too.¡± Cypress and Beech said in unison as they added their hands to the pile.


    ¡°Let¡¯s protect the world, like our parents have done before us.¡± Elias¡¯s words should have sounded corny, but they didn¡¯t. They sounded important and full of truth.


    I think that knowing these things now, seeing what I wanted in the future so clearly, I was finally able to rx. I took my sandwich after that and discovered that I was famished. I ate the thing so quickly that it was hard to tell that there had even been a sandwich in my hands to begin with. We allughed and acted like we didn¡¯t just feel the call of fate moments before that. We had all known that those words we said weren¡¯t empty promises. They were going to mean something to us. We just didn¡¯t know how long it would take for that destiny toe upon us. It didn¡¯t matter though. In a week, in a year, in a century, we would all be ready for it.

 Chapter 1008 - 1008 Chapter 193- Epilogue 4 (VOLUME 5)

    1008 Chapter 193- Epilogue 4 (VOLUME 5)


    Back to School Part 3


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    I rode to school alone. Well, mostly alone. I had Lucas with me. I would have had two guards, as was the normal for Reagan and I at the moment, but Westin was gone. He had left the other day and went to live in another country. And I couldn¡¯t help but feel responsible for it.


    I knew that it wasn¡¯t my fault. Yes, I told him that I never wanted to see him again and that I didn¡¯t want to listen to him, but I never thought that he would take me seriously. I mean, even if he supposedly left because of his mate, as was the rumor, he still hadn¡¯t told me goodbye. He hadn¡¯t told me whether he wasing back or not. And he hadn¡¯t even exined why he was leaving and not being my guard anymore.


    I didn¡¯t like this. Not that I cared one way or the other about Westin right now, but I didn¡¯t like that things were changing so much. There was a lot that had happened to me and Reagan since school had started. Well, more to me than to Reagan. But it has been really overwhelming for me.


    And as I thought about that, I knew who else had been overwhelmed and who had experienced many of the same things that I had. Only for her, it was much, much worse. Because for Lyssa, she hadn¡¯t just been lied to by the man that she was crushing on. She had been lied to by her mate. And that meant that she would never be able to find true love or happiness ever again. She was going to be lost without a mate. She might have a future with someone that she could fall in love with, but I knew that she would be lonely inside without that mate of hers nearby. Especially now after she had known him and he left her. That was just so heartbreaking.


    And what was making this so much worse, was that I had been so mean to Lyssa. I had tried to make things about me that day. I hadn¡¯tforted her. I hadn¡¯t been in the right state of mind tofort her. And, because of that, she hadn¡¯t talked to me in days. And even Alexa was ignoring me.


    .....


    I knew that I had fucked up so bad that they might never speak to me again. And I didn¡¯t want that. I knew that I needed to make this right again. I knew that I needed to make sure that we were still friends and that they knew that I missed them so much.


    The first thing that I did when I got out of the ck chauffeur¡¯s car that Lucas drove me in, was search for my friends. I wanted to make sure that I found them before they headed off to ss. I wanted to talk to them, and we needed privacy for it.


    I ran frantically toward the center of the central gathering ce, the one that we usually imed as our own next to the fountain. And, sure enough, my prayers and hopes were answered. Lyssa and Alexa were there, waiting for ss to start.


    I didn¡¯t want to scare them off, or to make them run away from me, so I just hurried toward them as silently as I could. I knew that they would hear my pounding heart though, because I was scared, nervous, and running all out at the same time.


    They looked up when I was almost to them, and I saw the disappointment in Lyssa¡¯s eyes. She didn¡¯t want to see me. She started to get to her feet, but I called out to her in a panic.


    ¡°No, don¡¯t leave. Please. I want to talk to you.¡± I put every ounce of emotion that I had in those words and saw them hesitate. I could tell that Alexa was debating what to do, but she didn¡¯t say anything to her sister. She was going to let Lyssa make up her own mind. ¡°Please.¡± I begged them, almost sobbing as I skidded to a halt in front of the half standing Lyssa.


    ¡°Fine.¡± She went to sit back down but I put a hand on her shoulder.


    ¡°Let¡¯s talk somewhere private. I don¡¯t want people to hear what I have to say.¡± I was trying to let them know that I wasn¡¯t going to be a bitch or anything, but they didn¡¯t seem like they believed me. I really had hurt Lyssa¡¯s feelings, and I might not be able to win her friendship back. This was starting to hurt me deep in my heart.


    Lyssa, Alexa and I all went to a spot that we knew of behind the sciences building. There was a path that went into the woods for the explorations that the students made sometimes, and there was this little bench that was sitting just outside of the trees. That was where we went to sit because it was away from the crowd, and we would be able to tell in advance if other people were approaching us. There was no mingling of other scents and sounds that got in the way.


    ¡°Alright Rika, we¡¯re here.¡± Alexa crossed her arms after sitting her bag down and sitting on the left side of the bench. Lyssa mimicked her but didn¡¯t say anything at all. ¡°Tell us what you need.¡±


    ¡°I want to apologize. I know that I was out of line. I know that I was being a bitch. I know that I made you feel like I didn¡¯t care about you, Lyssa, but I do. And I am so sorry that I said that it would be better not to meet Warrick. And, well, I know now that I needed to meet Clovio as well. I needed him to be my wakeup call. I needed him to show me how stupid and immature that I was being. Thank you, Lyssa, thank you for telling me that I was being so stupid.¡±


    ¡°W..well, I don¡¯t think that I called you stupid.¡± I saw that she was giving just the tiniest smirk when she said that. ¡°I think that I called you immature.¡±


    ¡°Same thing right now. I was so stupid. And I am so sorry. I have missed you, Lyssa. It¡¯s only been a little bit, but I miss you and Alexa so much.¡±


    ¡°We missed you too.¡± Alexa smiled and I saw a tear threatening to stream down her cheek. ¡°You¡¯re our best friend, Rika.¡±


    ¡°I..I am sorry that I snapped at you, Rika. I was being mean that day.¡±


    ¡°No. I deserved it. Even Talia yelled at me for the way that I was acting after that. And I know now that I waspletely wrong. I mean, my attitude has even cost me a guard.¡± Iughed without any humor when I said that and they just looked at me. I knew that they wanted an exnation.


    ¡°I yelled at Westin that day as well. I told him that I never wanted to see him again, and he took me at my word. Then again, the rumor mill is saying that he left because of his mate, so I can¡¯t take all the credit, but he didn¡¯t even tell me goodbye because I was such a bitch to him. I need to grow up, I know that now. And I promise you both, and even Westin, that I will be better eventually. If he everes back to the city in the future, I will apologize to him, but in the meantime, I just want to be a better person.¡±


    I wiped the tears from my eyes as I spoke, and I saw that both Lyssa and Alexa were doing the same thing. They were crying with me, just like we used to do when we were upset about something. We were always there for each other.


    ¡°Well, Rika, I am sure he would ept your apology if you gave him one. I know it might take some time, but don¡¯t ever forget about it. And when you see him again, tell him what you need to say.¡±


    ¡°I will, Lyssa, I promise.¡± I said these words as I threw my arms around her and hugged her tightly. She returned the hug, nearly crushing me in the intensity.


    ¡°Oh, you two.¡± Alexa almost wailed as she added herself to the hug. ¡°I love you both so much.¡±


    I didn¡¯t think that this would be as easy as it was, but I was d that they both epted my apology so quickly. I loved these girls like sisters, and I didn¡¯t want to be without them. I wanted to share the experiences of college and adulthood with them. And now that I was able to get over myself and see things for the truth, I was sure that I wouldn¡¯t have an issue doing just that.


    I enjoyed that day in ss with my friends. I was just happy to be back in ss, but it was so much better because I had all of my friends there with me. And I was happy that the others, even my annoying brother, were happy to see us back on good terms. Our entire group was happy to be back and enjoying life without some threat of death or dismemberment looming over our heads. We were free just to be ourselves. Happy, healthy, and having fun, just like how teenagers our age were supposed to be living their lives.

 Chapter 1009 - 1009 Chapter 194- Epilogue 5 (VOLUME 5)

    1009 Chapter 194- Epilogue 5 (VOLUME 5)


    Protector


    ~~


    Zayden


    ~~


    I was not sure what was going on. I knew that Mommy and Daddy were away a lot right now. They had left a few days ago and we weren¡¯t really told what was going on. I knew that we all were going to miss them, but it was probably Zaley that was going to miss them the most. She had been going through a lot that I was sure Mommy and Daddy didn¡¯t know about. Actually, I was probably the only one that knew just how bad it was. I tended to listen more than Zachary and Zander did, so I caught more than they did.


    Zaley was the most different of us. She was the one that had pale hair, white skin, and bright eyes. The eyes perfectly matched Mommy¡¯s, that wasn¡¯t odd, but the rest of her was. And that was why people made fun of her.


    Zaley was sad a lot. She didn¡¯t cry or anything, but I saw it in her eyes. She was sad that people thought of her in a bad way. They saw our grandfather in her. They knew that she was him reborn into this life. Mommy and Daddy had even told us about him. Not all that much, but enough.


    We knew that he was a bad man, but he wasn¡¯t born that way. He turned bad, and he did a lot of things that hurt a lot of people. Mommy stopped him, and I know that means that she killed him, but I don¡¯t me her. It was that or more people getting hurt.


    Something happened to Grandpa Edmond though. He had changed in the afterlife. When Mommy was in the underworld, where she saw me, Zachary and Zander there with her, she found out that Grandpa Edmond wasn¡¯t bad anymore. The punishments had worked for him. And now he was good. Or at least willing to be good. And Mommy even said it was him that saved us all. He sacrificed his soul for us. And when Zaley was born, she was Grandpa Edmond reborn.


    .....


    I knew that he had done things wrong, but Zaley hadn¡¯t. Zaley was innocent. And she was good. She loved everyone, but she was not given that love by others. And it wasn¡¯t always the kids that made fun of her.


    Yes, there were plenty of people, mostly humans, that made fun of the way that she looked, but they weren¡¯t the only ones. Lots of grownups, ones that knew who Grandpa Edmond was, that told her that she was an abomination. I had to look that word up when they first said that to her. I wanted to know what it was that they were calling my sister, and then when I did find out, I wanted to hurt them. They shouldn¡¯t say that about my sister. She was too good for that.


    I don¡¯t mean that she was too good as in stuck up. She was a good person, and not an abomination at all. She was a miracle that was the blessing of a second life. And that is why I was determined to help her. So were Zachary and Zander though. We all wanted to protect Zaley from the stupid people of the world.


    At school, the kids that made fun of her were the ones that were just mean. They weren¡¯t human, just like we weren¡¯t, but they weren¡¯t hybrids like we were. They didn¡¯t make fun of me and my brothers though, just Zaley. I think that they often forgot that she was the princess, because they acted like she didn¡¯t matter. Or maybe they all thought that Mommy and Daddy didn¡¯t love her because of her being Grandpa Edmond reborn. Well, they were wrong about that.


    This morning, Johnny Lowell was making fun of Zaley really badly. The adults knew that Mommy and Daddy left for work, and some of them told their kids about it. Johnny was telling Zaley, while me, Zachary, and Zander weren¡¯t around, that she was the reason that our parents left. He was telling her that she was so repulsive, another word that I looked up, that she had driven them away. He was calling her ugly and vile, that was what the word meant, right? Something like that anyway. Well, that was wrong. And he needed to know about it.


    My brothers and I were walking toward Zaley and Johnny when he had been saying these things to her, and I just saw red. I knew that I was too young, but I almost shifted right then and there. Or it felt like that anyway. I had felt some sort of power rippling through me and I knew that if I had fangs and ws, I would rip the older boy to shreds.


    ¡°JOHNNY!¡± I snapped at him, my voice way louder than it usually was. I even got stares from my brothers who never saw me get this angry.


    ¡°What do you want, shrimp?¡± He red at me. I was not a shrimp. I was far from it. As I was always told by others, my brothers and I were tall for our age.


    ¡°Shut your mouth!¡± I snarled at him, or at least I tried to. It didn¡¯t sound like Daddy¡¯s snarls, or even Mommy¡¯s, but I think it was impressive. And it must have been too, because I saw Johnny take a step back even though he was six years older than me.


    ¡°What did you say?¡± He asked me when he recovered.


    ¡°You heard him, puke breath.¡± Zachary snapped at him. ¡°Shut your mouth. And leave our sister alone.¡±


    ¡°And who is going to make me? Huh? You three? Ha ha ha. Your parents couldn¡¯t stand the three of you so they ran away from The Kingdom. They abandoned us all.¡±


    ¡°They are away on business, you butt face. They will be back soon.¡± Zander yelled at him.


    ¡°Ooh, butt face. Is that all that you can do, you little shit?¡± Johnny sneered. He was a wolf like us, but he was a bad man. I knew that now and he wasn¡¯t even a grown up yet.


    ¡°Fuck you.¡± I snapped at him, saying something that I had heard Daddy say quite a bit.


    ¡°Oh, you do have a little bit of a bad streak. I¡¯m impressed.¡± He shook his head and started to turn back toward my sister. ¡°Leave me alone though. I was having fun here.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± I yelled as he reached out toward Zaley. He was going to either push her or punch her, but I wouldn¡¯t let him do it.


    ¡°Stop it, asshole.¡± Zachary growled at him.


    ¡°Bitch.¡± Zander, not wanting to be the only one not to use curse words, yelled at Johnny as the three of us jumped at the same time.


    I don¡¯t know if it was some sort of telepathy or if we just had the same instincts, but we all moved to protect Zaley at the same time. And the result was that the three of us hit Johnny all at the same time. He was bigger than we were, so there was more of the target to smack into when we leapt, but there were still three of us, and we almost ended up colliding. It was lucky that we just barely missed each other when we knocked him to the ground.


    ¡°Oomph! Huuh!¡± First Johnny grunted and then all the wind was knocked out of him when hended on the ground, the three of us on top of him and hitting as hard as we could.


    ¡°You shithead!¡± Zachary was yelling at him.


    ¡°Asshole!¡± Zander¡¯s voice was louder than Zachary¡¯s.


    ¡°Fuck you, dickhead!¡± I was wailing on Johnny near his right shoulder and corbone when I heard a snapping sound. The snapping was followed by a blood curdling wail from Johnny.


    ¡°ENOUGH!¡±


    I hadn¡¯t even noticed that teachers wereing toward us. Nor had I heard them yelling at us before that moment. They were pulling at me and my brothers though, so it was hard to ignore them now. Especially when the P.E. teacher, Mr. Strong, was holding me in the air as I kicked and screamed.


    Zachary, Zander, Zaley and me were all taken to the office to exin what happened. Johnny was taken to the nurse¡¯s office to get healed, she was a witch that was good at using spells like that. The rest of us though, I knew were in trouble. Even though Zaley did nothing wrong, they were going to punish her too.


    I was wrong though. We didn¡¯t get in trouble. Apparently, someone had gone to get a teacher when it was just Johnny and Zaley. There was a new girl that had started at the school and was in Zaley¡¯s ss. Her name was Breanna, and she was really nice. She told the principal what had happened to Zaley and why it was that we had all attacked Johnny. She even told him that Johnny was about to hit Zaley, and we were protecting her.


    We got sent home for the day, but school was almost over anyway. And the principal called L and Nona about what happened, but we didn¡¯t get in trouble at school. I knew that we had a lot to exinter to them and eventually Mommy and Daddy, but for now we were OK. I was surprised by that.


    I didn¡¯t care about being in trouble though. I had been there to protect my sister, just like I wanted to be. I knew that no matter what happened to her, I would always protect her. That was my job as her brother.

 Chapter 1010 - 1010 Chapter 195- Epilogue 6 (VOLUME 5)

    1010 Chapter 195- Epilogue 6 (VOLUME 5)


    Alyssa¡¯s Dilemma


    ~~


    Shawn


    ~~


    I had mostly been ignoring the problem that we all had at the moment. OK, well I guess that it wasn¡¯t all of us. It was limited to just me, Dietrich and Alyssa. I knew that Trinity and Reece sympathized with us. And I knew that Alexandria, Levi and Luka all sympathized with their sister, but they didn¡¯t have the same feelings about it that we did.


    Well, actually, maybe they did. They were all part of a magically conceived quadruplet set. Yes, Dietrich and I each had conceived and carried two of them, half each of two sets of twins. But just because the girls were identical twins and the boys were identical twins, that didn¡¯t make Alyssa and Levi less than twins. Nor did it make Alexandria and Luka less than twins. This wasn¡¯t a normal situation, so it was hard to judge what was going on.


    While sitting at home, about two weeks after learning about Warrick, I was trying to figure out how to help my little girl. Yeah, oh, Alyssa was eighteen now. They all four were. And before we knew it, Luther and Fauna were going to be eighteen as well. While Luka, Levi, Alyssa and Alexandria will be neen in February, Luther would be eighteen in June. He was going to be in college with his older siblings next year. This was all happening way too fast. I can¡¯t believe how much time has passed already. Even our youngest was about to turn ten right before Christmas of this year. It had alle to pass too quickly.


    Those weren¡¯t our issue at the moment though. The problem that we had right now was Alyssa, and what we were going to do about her mate bond with Warrick. We needed to know if she wanted to try to dissolve the link that she had with him, or if she wanted to wait to see if he would be able to change his behaviors.


    We had sent Warrick away, like Reece and Trinity had wanted to. He was now living in Wales. He was learning with the werewolves that lived there. He was supposed to be a better man that maybe we could approve of for her. Not that I even thought that I could forgive him for lying to my daughter. And let¡¯s not even think about the fact that he touched her and kissed her. Just thinking about that made me want to murder him.


    .....


    As I worked hard to blow the anger out of me, I heard the door to my office opening. I had called Alyssa here, needing to talk to her with Dietrich. We needed to figure it all out. And I wanted to do this in a way that wasn¡¯t going to upset our daughter. I wanted to let her know that, no matter what she decided to do, we would support her. We might not be happy with her decision in the beginning, but neither of us were going to get angry over the choice that she made. This was her life, and as her fathers, Dietrich and I needed to understand that she was old enough to make her own life choices.


    ¡°Y..you wanted to see me?¡± Alyssa stuck her head into the room. She was looking at me and Dietrich apprehensively. I think she thought that we were angry at her like we had been at Warrick. I hated that she was worried about that.


    ¡°Come on in, sweetheart.¡± I beckoned to her. ¡°We want to talk to you.¡± I made sure that my tone was soft and soothing. I didn¡¯t want her to be more wary than she was.


    ¡°OK.¡± She still looked scared, even with my calm tone. Dammit, we must have really upset her before.


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Schatzi, we just want to talk to you. Please do not be nervous.¡± Dietrich spoke calmly as well. I think that seeing that we were both being calm and inviting was helping her. She rxed a little and walked into the room. Instead of letting her sit at the desk in front of us though, I got up so that Dietrich and I could sit with her on the couch that was across the room. She was between us, and we each had an arm around her. Mine was around her shoulders and Dietrich¡¯s was around her waist.


    ¡°Alyssa, sweetheart, your papa and I just want to talk to you.¡±


    ¡°About what, Dad?¡± She looked at me warily.


    ¡°I am sure that you know what.¡± I told her.


    ¡°About Warrick?¡± She guessed it easily.


    ¡°Yes, Liebste, we need to talk about him.¡±


    ¡°Y..you don¡¯t like him. I know that. And I am sorry, Papa. I am sorry to both of you, Daddy. I..I am so sorry that I mated with him and made you so disappointed in me.¡±


    ¡°Alyssa, sweetheart, we are not disappointed in you. We both know what it feels like to find your mate. You didn¡¯t choose him, fate did. And that means, somewhere, somehow, the universe has a n for you two. I know that it might not be visible right now, but it¡¯s out there, I am sure of that.¡± I was trying to make sure that she felt loved and safe right now. I had seen that worry and fear creeping back into her eyes.


    ¡°Your Dad is right, Alyssa, we know that this isn¡¯t something that you did to spite anyone or anything, so you don¡¯t need to worry. You are not in trouble, sweetheart.¡± Dietrich was soothing her as well, kissing her gently on top of her head.


    ¡°S..s..so why did you want to talk to me about Warrick?¡± She looked curious now, and a little worried.


    ¡°Well, Alyssa, we need to figure out what is going to happen now. I know that you didn¡¯t mark him, and he isn¡¯t capable of marking you, so there is not much truly binding you together at the moment. You have a soul connection, one that gets stronger the more time that you spend together, but that is all.¡± I exined this to her. ¡°And, as you know, Warrick isn¡¯t here right now.¡±


    ¡°You sent him away.¡± She red at me.


    ¡°Actually, Reece was the one that wanted to send him away.¡± I wanted to push the me off of myself. It was wrong of me, but I didn¡¯t want her to hate me right now. It was a cowardly move though, and I regretted it instantly. ¡°Hahh, I sent him away as well.¡± I admitted. I didn¡¯t even need to look at the disappointed look on her face. ¡°I am sorry, sweetheart, but you need time to heal, and he needs to make up for his wrongdoings. At least he isn¡¯t in prison.¡± I pointed this out to her. ¡°He was one of the lucky ones.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I know that he was lucky to not be arrested for real, but you still sent him away.¡±


    ¡°But, Schatzi, did you even want to see Warrick right now?¡± Dietrich asked her as he gave her a calm expression. ¡°You expressed that you never wanted to see him again.¡±


    ¡°W..well, it doesn¡¯t matter now, does it? You sent him away.¡± She was crying softly as she spoke.


    ¡°Alyssa, sweetheart, he isn¡¯t gone forever. We only sent him away for at most a year. He is also learning from other shifters right now. He is learning to be a man that you can trust.¡±


    ¡°I..I don¡¯t know.¡± She looked uncertain now. I could tell that she was still wary about him.


    ¡°If you want, Alyssa, we can break the bond that you feel for him. And when hees back, you can decide then if you want to try another mating with him. That will lessen your pain for the time being, and then you will see if he is still your mateter. Would you want to try that?¡±


    ¡°B..b..but what if I can¡¯t feel the bond again? What if he is the only mate that I can ever have and breaking the bond for the time being would take him away from me forever.¡±


    ¡°That won¡¯t happen, Alyssa.¡± I assured her with a hug that pulled her against my side. ¡°The soul will always recognize the other half that is meant toplete it. When I met your Papa, I had never even considered dating a man before. I had gone on dates with women before him. Not that I had been with anyone before him, but I had never considered him a possibility. Not until my nose and my soul told him that he was the one that was meant for me. So, I know how you must have felt when you met Warrick. We both do. And I know that, no matter what you decide to do, if and when Warrickes back, if he truly is your mate, you will feel that again. I know that you and him will make that connection once more.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure?¡± She still looked worried, but a little less so than before.


    ¡°Yes, sweetheart, I am sure.¡± I squeezed her against my side again, hugging her forfort.


    ¡°A..a..alright.¡± She nodded. ¡°I..I will break the connection for right now. I..I just don¡¯t want to feel this pain anymore. I..I want to be happy, Dad. I don¡¯t want to be sad for a whole year.¡±


    ¡°If that is what you want, sweetheart. We will take care of this tomorrow, OK?¡± She nodded at me as she agreed.


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    I was d that she agreed. I didn¡¯t want to see her in pain like this anymore. I hated seeing the tears that were always at the ready in her eyes. And like I said, if Warrick was really her mate, they would just bond again. It was that simple. And that was why we made an appointment to get the process started. I would have my sweet and happy Alyssa back again.

 Chapter 1011 - 1011 Chapter 196- Epilogue 7 (VOLUME 5)

    1011 Chapter 196- Epilogue 7 (VOLUME 5)


    Something New


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    I hadn¡¯t known that Arthur wasing to live in Colorado for the time being. And I definitely didn¡¯t know that he was going to be staying in the castle with us. He wasn¡¯t in the tower with us, but he was still there. And that meant that he was never too far away from me.


    After that first day at school when he sat next to me, I knew that my friends thought that we were dating or something. And, well, I guess I wished that we were. I had started to crush on him when we were in Ennd at his family¡¯s estate. And when he was asking me out that night, before we were so rudely interrupted. And with all the people talking and the rumors going all around, I knew that the word about Arthur and I would get to my parents, and Lex, soon enough.


    Lex had stopped me from talking to Arthur in Ennd when he was talking to me, so I knew that Arthur was probably afraid of him, but I couldn¡¯t be with Arthur unless Lex agreed. And that was because he was my guard and had to escort me around. Even with the danger gone, I still needed to be protected at all times. It was part of the territory when your parents were so famous. And there was a lot of attention on our family right now. Ever since the trial that my parents went to the other day.


    It had also been a few days since Arthur started in school with me. He didn¡¯t have all of my sses with me, but he had a couple of them. Probably because I was in so many advanced sses, and I was taking twelfth grade sses. He was advanced as well, but he was only in eleventh grade. So, I would be graduating before him.


    I didn¡¯t dislike Arthur though. Not by a long shot. I thought that he was quite good looking and that he was sweet. I wanted to get to know him more. And, well, I really did want to go out with him.


    .....


    ¡°Talia?¡± I heard him call out to me during lunch one day. And I wasn¡¯t the only one. About half the kids in the cafeteria heard him call out to me, and that was why they now had their eyes glued to me as they slowly ate their food.


    ¡°Yes?¡± I smiled at Arthur and tried not to look overly embarrassed.


    ¡°I was wondering if you had ns for this weekend?¡± He was really asking me out. Seriously? Was this actually happening?


    ¡°N..n..no, I don¡¯t.¡± I shook my head as I answered him. I hoped that what I was thinking was about to happen was actually going to happen.


    ¡°Well, would you like to go out with me? I don¡¯t know the city that well, but I am sure that it cane up with a nice ce to take you.¡±


    ¡°W..well, I don¡¯t know if I can get rid of my guards for a date. And being in public without them isn¡¯t that good of an idea right now.¡±


    ¡°I can protect you, Talia.¡± He smiled at me and I saw the knowing look in his eyes. He really did want to go out with me. This was so surreal and so amazing.


    ¡°Well, if I can get my parents and Alexio to agree, then yes, I would love to go out with you.¡±


    ¡°Even if we can¡¯t leave the castle grounds, Talia, we can just have a pic or something. I really want to get to know more about you. I have ever since I first met you in Wolfhamm.¡±


    ¡°Same here. I mean, I have wanted to get to know you more as well, Arthur.¡±


    ¡°Good. Let me know if you get the permission to leave the grounds. That way I know what I am nning for this Saturday.¡±


    ¡°O..OK.¡± I nodded at him and thought that he was going to walk away to sit somewhere else. I don¡¯t know why I thought that, because almost every day he had sat with me or close to me. And now wasn¡¯t going to be any different.


    ¡°So, Talia, since you agreed to go out with me, can I call you my girlfriend?¡± He was smiling happily at me when he asked that. And the feeling that went through me when he said that was a little strange. I was scared of those words, but a little excited as well. I was going to have my first ever boyfriend. I was going to be dating someone. Someone actually wanted to date me. That was hard to process and believe at first.


    I had known that boys thought that I was pretty in the past, but most wouldn¡¯t ask me out even if they wanted to. For one, I was Princess Talia, not just Talia. And that intimidated people. Also, I was considered to be a big nerd. And in a way, I am one. That wasn¡¯t a bad thing though. It just meant that I loved learning new things.


    Also, I thought that my dad had a big part in people not asking me out. They were afraid of being on the receiving end of the king¡¯s wrath. And that was probably why Rika never dated in high school either.


    I wanted to be different from her though. I wanted to say that when I met my mate in the future, I had some sort of experience in dating. Not that I nned on sleeping with Arthur or anything. But I wanted to know what it was like to go out with someone. M..maybe even have my first kiss. You know, things like that. And I think that was the main driving force behind what I said next.


    ¡°U..uhm, y..yes, you can call me your g..g..girlfriend.¡± I finally answered him after a few tense moments. And the moment that I said those words, I saw pure joy spread across Arthur¡¯s face.


    ¡°Good. I am happy that I met you, Talia. You truly are amazing.


    When I left school that day, it was Mom who picked me up, along with the quads. They were all talking excitedly about what they had done that day, so I just stayed silent and listened. I think that my face was a little too happy at the moment though, because when we got home, while Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley all walked away from the SUV, Mom called out to me and made me stay behind.


    ¡°So, Tally, what makes you so happy?¡± She was giving me a knowing mom look. Could she tell what it was already?


    ¡°Well.¡± I tried not to squirm under her intense look. ¡°I was talking to Arthur earlier.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I remember that you two have a little bit of history.¡± She really was giving me a knowing look.


    ¡°And he, uhm, he asked me out for this weekend. And he asked if I would be his girlfriend.¡± I finally said it as I looked into her eyes.


    ¡°And what did you say?¡±


    ¡°I told him that I had to ask to see if I could go out this weekend.¡± I told her honestly.


    ¡°And about being his girlfriend?¡± She asked me with a smile.


    ¡°I..I..I told him yes.¡± I prepared for her to get mad at me, but it didn¡¯te.


    ¡°Oh, your dad is going to love that.¡± Sheughed at me. ¡°I give you permission though. And I will deal with your father. Tell Alexio that I said you can go, and he can stay close to you, but not right with you. I want your first date to go well. And that won¡¯t happen if you have him there looming over your shoulder.¡±


    ¡°Mom?¡± I was so shocked right now. ¡°Y..you¡¯re really OK with it?¡±


    ¡°Of course I am, sweetheart. I am learning more and more from your sister that I need to loosen the reins a little. I need to let you have a life or you won¡¯t be prepared for the future. And because of that, I am letting you go on your first date. Not only that, but I missed your sister¡¯s first date, and I don¡¯t want to miss yours.¡± She looked almost as excited as I felt when I threw my arms around her.


    ¡°Thank you, Mom. Thank you so much. I will let Arthur know right away.¡± I was d that I had his number. This way I didn¡¯t have to mind call him. That was always an odd invasion sort of thing. Calling was so much easier.


    I went from the garage to my room. I knew that Lex was likely to be in his room, waiting for me to let him know that I was home and that he could get to work. He hated that he wasn¡¯t allowed in school with me, he thought that it was wrong for me not to be protected when I wasn¡¯t at home.


    ¡°Hello Lex.¡± I said as I knocked on his door. It opened almost immediately since he had heard meing.


    ¡°Wee home, Talia.¡± He nodded at me. ¡°You look happy today.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I am happy. Mom just told me that I can go on my first date.¡±


    ¡°Date?¡± he looked confused.


    ¡°Yes. Arthur, you remember him. He goes to school here now, and he asked me out.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± I exined to him what happened in school today and what my mom had said. How he was to guard me from a distance on the date. He listened and he even smiled happily at me when the exnation was done. ¡°Well, Talia, I am happy for you.¡± He didn¡¯t look angry at me, but he didn¡¯t look all that happy either. I knew why though, he just didn¡¯t want to let me out of the house without him right at my side. ¡°Just tell that boy he better be good to you. As your guard, I will protect you from him if I have to.¡±


    ¡°I know, Lex. You are so good to me and I know that you would never let me get hurt.¡±


    ¡°Of course, Talia. I am your top guard after all. I n to lead your troops in the underworld as well. If that should be necessary. I am at your disposal.¡± He put his left hand on his chest and bowed to me. He was giving me more than just a promise, this was him making an oath to me. And I knew that he waspletely serious. He was going to make sure that he was there to protect me not just now, but always. He was the best guard that I could ever ask for. And to help him out a little more, I should look into finding him his mate. Or at least someone to date. He had been alone for far too long. He deserved to be happy as well.


    For now though, I just went to my room to tell Arthur about the date. I knew that he would be happy about it.

 Chapter 1012 - 1012 Chapter 197- Epilogue 8 (VOLUME 5)

    1012 Chapter 197- Epilogue 8 (VOLUME 5)


    Different Than the Others


    ~~


    Zaley


    ~~


    Things had been different at home for a little bit. Mom and Dad had left, and so did Tally. I missed her a lot while she was gone. I missed Mom and Dad too, but Tally was one of the few that talked to me about what happens to me all the time. She was someone that was there for me when I needed her. But then all of a sudden she wasn¡¯t there.


    I get picked on a lot. That is just something that I had started to consider as normal. And I knew why it happened. There was no mystery behind it. It was the way that I looked. I was different from most of the others. And not just different, but I was reborn. Sort of.


    I had the soul of my grandfather, Edmond, inside of me. He was a bad man when he was alive, but my mom tells me that he saved us all from a very baddy after he died. It happened while she was pregnant with me, Zachary, Zander and Zayden. Grandfather Edmond was already dead at that point, but she was in the underworld. And while she was there, she came across his prison cell in the worst part of the torturous ce. He had endured his punishments though. And he had changed quite a bit.


    It wasn¡¯t Grandfather Edmond¡¯s soul that was bad. It was how he had been raised. Mom told me a little about that as well. I knew more than my brothers did, since I was his second chance at life, but she didn¡¯t tell me everything. I knew that his parents weren¡¯t nice to him. He had a baddy whispering bad things in his head all the time. And other people that he met did bad things. The way that I see it, he never had a chance to be good. Not one.


    I am not a bad person. And I would never hurt anyone. But I get told that I am evil all the time. I get told that I should just kill myself now before I can kill anyone else. The boys who had family members die at the hands of my Grandfather tell me all the time that they will be the ones to kill me the minute that I go bad.


    .....


    My life isn¡¯t that happy. At least it isn¡¯t when I am away from home. School is miserable and I hate going, but I don¡¯t tell my parents this. I don¡¯t tell them what happens to me. They wouldn¡¯t understand. And they would just get mad at the people that hurt me. They are scared people. I know that. And they don¡¯t need to be scared even more. They need to be helped, I just don¡¯t know how to help them.


    When I am at home it means that I am not being bullied. I don¡¯t have to worry about anything at all, and I am happy there. I smile. Iugh. I y. I am me. When I am at school, I close myself off. I don¡¯t have friends. I don¡¯t talk to anyone at all. And that is fine with me. At least most of the time it is.


    I had gotten my brothers in trouble recently, and that made it to where my grandparents, M¨®ra¨ª, Nona, L and Papa, all knew what was going on with me. And I knew that they were going to tell my parents. I knew that I wouldn¡¯t be able to hide it for much longer.


    I had been back in school for two days now, not that many people noticed that I was gone from there, and I was just waiting for things to settle down since the battle. That would be when my parents yelled at me for not telling them the truth about school. About not having any friends.


    ¡°Hi, there.¡± I heard a soft and friendly voice next to me. ¡°You¡¯re back. I was scared that something happened while you were out.¡± I looked next to me and saw the new girl, Breanna.


    ¡°O..oh, uhm, I came back yesterday.¡± I told her.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s nice. I was out yesterday because my family went on a trip. I am d that you¡¯re back now though.¡± She was smiling at me and looking as if she was as calm as she could be.


    ¡°You are?¡± I tilted my head at her. ¡°Wh..why?¡±


    ¡°Well, you seem to be interesting. I wanted to be your friend. Most people ignore me because I am new. And a lot of idiots ignore you as well. I think you look cool, and your hair is awesome.¡±


    ¡°Y..you think so?¡± She was giving me an expression that was envious for some reason.


    ¡°Yeah. My dad makes me wear a wig when I am at school and in public. I am a Fae.¡± She smiled at me, and I finally had the smell click in my head. She reminded me of the scent that Aunt Glory had.


    ¡°Why do you wear a wig?¡± I looked confused.


    ¡°Well, it probably wouldn¡¯t be that big of a deal at school, but in the city it would. My hair is bright pink. And that isn¡¯t normal. A lot of people in the cities look at my parents like they are criminals or something. They think that they dyed my hair. I hate the wig, and I can¡¯t wait until I am old enough to be able to ¡®dye my hair¡¯.¡± She giggled at me. ¡°Once that timees, I can go without the wig unless I want to blend in. This thing itches like crazy.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I never thought about wearing a wig. I guess my parents just thought that the albino angle was the best way to go.¡± I couldn¡¯t help the smile that was on my face. This was the first time that I had been to school in a long time that I had smiled,ughed, and enjoyed myself. And it had only been a few minutes of conversation.


    ¡°Yeah, that is actually better. These things suck.¡± She tugged on the brown hair that hung near her shoulder. ¡°I want to get rid of it as soon as I can.¡± She shook her head. ¡°By the way, my name is Breanna Applebloom.¡± She held a hand out to me.


    ¡°I know. I have heard your name. I am Zaley Gray.¡±


    ¡°Daughter of the King and Queen. Yeah, I know you too. I think you¡¯re awesome, Zaley. And I really do mean it when I say that I wanted to be your friend.¡±


    She was giving me a look that waspletely open and friendly. And from the way that she smelled, I knew that she wasn¡¯t a threat or anything like that. She would be my only friend if I said yes, and that made me even more nervous. Instead of answering her right away, I just lowered my head.


    ¡°Zaley? Is something wrong?¡± She tilted her head, wondering why I hadn¡¯t answered her. ¡°O..oh, y..you don¡¯t want to be my friend, do you?¡± She looked hurt now. I could tell that it had taken a lot for her to get up the courage to ask me to be her friend. She was a lot like me. Shy because she was different.


    ¡°No, it¡¯s not that.¡± I stopped her from getting up with a rush of words.


    ¡°Then what is it?¡± She looked a little on guard as she sat back down in her chair.


    ¡°Well, it uhm, it¡¯s because I don¡¯t have any friends. I don¡¯t know what to do. I don¡¯t know if I would be a good friend or not.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha. Don¡¯t worry about that, Zaley. All you need to do is be you. We can hang out and y games. We can y together. There isn¡¯t just one way to be friends. There are a lot of ways. And well, I don¡¯t have any friends here either. So, we will be helping each other out here.¡±


    ¡°Y..yeah.¡± I nodded at her. ¡°I guess that would be good. I would like to have you as a friend.¡± And I really would. She was nice, I could tell. And I knew that Zachary, Zander and Zayden would all be happy if I managed to get a friend. Then I wouldn¡¯t be alone all the time. My friend would be there with me when someone tried to pick on me. And then I wouldn¡¯t feel so lonely anymore.


    ¡°So, you want to be my friend?¡± She confirmed it with me. ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I do. I want to be your friend, Breanna, thank you.¡± I didn¡¯t know what to do now, but Breanna seemed to. She threw her arms around my shoulders and hugged me tightly. ¡°Yay! I have a new friend. Thank you, Zaley.¡±


    ¡°Eww. You¡¯re friends with that murderer?¡± Billy Arman said as he turned in his seat. ¡°You¡¯re both creepy weirdos.¡±


    ¡°Really? Well, I happen to like being a weirdo.¡± I saw Breanna¡¯s eyes start to glow. She was Fae, and that meant she had magic. And she was using it to threaten Billy. ¡°So keep your opinion to yourself, moron. No one wants to hear it.¡± I saw the sh of fear in Billy¡¯s eyes and watched him spin around in his chair like he was on a rollercoaster or something. It was so fast that it was dizzying.


    ¡°I think we are going to be good friends, Breanna.¡± I said as I looked at her. ¡°Really good friends.¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± She smiled and bumped her shoulder against mine. ¡°I hate idiots as much as you do. We¡¯re a match made in heaven.¡± We bothughed as the teacher came into the ssroom. It was time to start learning.

 Chapter 1013 - 1013 Chapter 198- Epilogue 9 (VOLUME 5)

    1013 Chapter 198- Epilogue 9 (VOLUME 5)


    New Baby Named


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was sitting with Reecete one night, trying to think about what it was that I wanted to get for a snack. This time my cravings were hitting me hard and fast. I couldn¡¯t decide if I wanted something salty or sweet though, and it was bothersome.


    Still, it had me thinking about the new baby and how I needed to start preparing for them. And then it made me start to remember the conversation that I had had with Dietrich earlier today. We found out about the baby about two weeks ago now, and I knew that we still had a long way to go until they got here, but I wanted to get a jump on a few things. The baby wasn¡¯t due until March the sixth, but that didn¡¯t seem that far off while sitting here in the middle of September. It felt like it was going to be here in no time at all.


    Anyway, the conversation that I had with Dietrich earlier was about the baby. Specifically, whether it was a boy or a girl. Aside from waiting until Griffin could do an ultrasound, this was the only way for me to know the baby¡¯s gender. Shawn and Dietrich were like the best gender revealers there were. Yeah, OK, any vampire would do, but Shawn and Dietrich were close to me and Reece, so they were the only ones that I would ask to do this for me. And of course, Dietrich was more than happy to answer the burning question that I had.


    Now that I knew though, I needed to tell Reece. And I needed to ask Abigail for my snack. I figured that I could put in my request for that before I started the important things. The food needed time to be prepared after all, and I didn¡¯t want to have Abigail working toote into the night.


    I sent her a message, on her phone not mentally, that I wanted something that was salty and sweet, since I couldn¡¯t decide. She messaged back that she would have it up to me within twenty minutes. And with that settled, I was able to talk to Reece about the new baby. This was exciting, because there was something else that I wanted to talk to him about. Something that I thought that he might be a little interested in hearing.


    .....


    ¡°Reece?¡± I called out to him as he finished getting dressed. He had just taken a shower and I could see the steam pouring off of his naked body.


    ¡°Yeah, Little Bunny?¡± He asked me as he paused on his way to the closet.


    ¡°I want to talk to you about something.¡± I gave him a calm look that didn¡¯t give anything away. He was still suspicious of me though. I could see it in his eyes.


    ¡°About what?¡± He asked me apprehensively, the towel slipping just a little lower on his sexy waist and revealing a little more of the smooth muscled nes beneath it.


    ¡°Well, I wanted to talk to you about the baby.¡± I put my hand on my belly and smiled. Though I didn¡¯t take my eyes off of him. Who would want to? Looking at him like that, he was perfect. And almost perfectly naked too.


    ¡°Is that all?¡± He still looked suspicious.


    ¡°Yes, that is all.¡± I nodded.


    ¡°Then let me get dressed first.¡± He started toward the closet again.


    ¡°I prefer you like that.¡± I grinned mischievously.


    ¡°Yes, but Abigail doesn¡¯t.¡± He gave me a knowing look and continued into the closet.


    ¡°Spoil sport.¡± I heard him chuckle at me as he pulled on whatever he was getting from the closet. Thankfully, it was just a pair of lounge pants, so his glorious chest was left bare.


    ¡°Happy?¡± He asked me as he climbed into the bed.


    ¡°Moderately.¡± I gave him an honest answer. ¡°But you covered up the best parts. I mean, you have one hell of an ass.¡± I was being yful with him, and he seemed to love it.


    ¡°Oh no. How could I do such a thing?¡± He pretended to be wounded in the chest. ¡°The horror!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a shame at least. Maybe not a horror, though.¡±


    ¡°Whatever it is, Little Bunny, get on with what you needed to say.¡± He encouraged me. ¡°Let¡¯s talk about the baby.¡±


    ¡°Alright, fine.¡± Iughed and climbed onto hisp. That would be a lot morefortable. He didn¡¯t object either. He just wrapped his arms around me and snuggled me close. ¡°Well, I talked to Dietrich earlier. And I asked him something about the baby.¡±


    ¡°I knew you couldn¡¯t wait for Griffin.¡± Heughed. ¡°So, which is it? A boy or a girl?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a girl. She will round us out to having four of each.¡± I smiled at him. He looked happy as well. Though, I just knew that this was going to be harder on him in the future. She was another reason for him to hate that his daughters would be finding mates. I could just imagine it now. Twenty years from now she would bring a boy home and Reece would explode like someone said that they had attacked his daughter. He was so predictable that it was hrious sometimes.


    ¡°That¡¯s nice. Being rounded out now seems to be right somehow. It feels like it was meant to be or something.¡± He was echoing how I felt. Like this baby was important and supposed to be with us.


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right, Reece.¡± I rubbed my cheek against him as I contemted things. ¡°But there was one more thing that I wanted to talk to you about. Something that has to do with the baby.¡±


    ¡°Really? What could that be?¡± He asked me as he tilted his head curiously to the side. ¡°I mean, it¡¯s not like we can do much of anything at the moment. We need to wait until she gets here.¡±


    ¡°Well, that is true.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°However, we can pick out a name for her. And I think that I have the perfect one in mind.¡± I felt a flutter of excitement at the prospect of telling Reece the name that I had chosen. And I wasn¡¯t about to let this one go. I wanted to be the one to choose her name, and I would fight him over this if I had to.


    ¡°You already have a name in mind?¡± He looked at me with a barely concealed smirk. ¡°You know, I have been thinking of some names as well. And you got to name four out of seven of the kids that we have right now.¡± He pointed out the unbnce here.


    ¡°Yes, that is true, but I think that this name is fated to be her name.¡± I pressed my issue further. I was going to have my way here.


    ¡°OK, fine, tell me the name. What name is perfect for our little girl?¡± He had raised his eyebrows at me, and I saw him challenging me toe up with one that was better than those on his list.


    ¡°Well, the name that I thought of is Reeselynn. You know, after you.¡±


    I saw Reece¡¯s eyes open wide as he heard the name. He hadn¡¯t been expecting that one, that was for sure.


    ¡°Reeselynn?¡± He asked me just to be sure. ¡°You want to name thest baby, and a girl at that, after me? We hadn¡¯t done that with any of the other ones, why now?¡± He was intrigued, but also wary.


    ¡°Well, she was brought into life by the magic that we used to save you, Reece. And I thought that it would only be right. I wanted to honor that creation, and the day that we saved you. I thought that giving the baby your name, in a way, would be a wonderful idea.¡±


    ¡°I love you, Trinity.¡± He hugged me so tight that it kind of hurt. I wasn¡¯t angry though. I was happy that he seemed to like the idea. ¡°But I get to pick the middle name.¡± His eyes were filled with cunning, and I was almost afraid to ask him.


    ¡°What do you have in mind?¡± I asked him, afraid of the answer.


    ¡°Octavia.¡± He smiled broadly. ¡°You know, as if Octo, or eight.¡± He was being so corny right now, but I had to admit that it wasn¡¯t that bad.


    ¡°Fine. If I get my first name, I will settle for that middle name.¡± I agreed with him.


    ¡°Deal.¡± Reece separated our bodies and took my hand so that he could shake it. The agreement was binding now. He was going to hold me to it.


    I didn¡¯t have long to wonder what the new baby was going to be like. There was a knock on the door and I knew that it was Abigail with my food. I could smell it from here already. And it smelled so fucking good.


    ¡°Come in.¡± Reece said as he let me go altogether. I would need to get away from him so that I could eat.


    ¡°Here you are, Trinity.¡± Abigail said. ¡°I am heading home now. You two have a good night.¡±


    ¡°Thanks, Abigail.¡± I called after her.


    ¡°Good night, Abigail.¡± Reece spoke louder than I did.


    ¡°Good night.¡± She called back.


    I sat at the table and started to take a bite of the food that Abigail had brought me. It was honey garlic pork chops, sweet, salty and savory. She knew what I wanted even though I hadn¡¯t known. Because now that I was eating this, I knew that nothing else would have satisfied my cravings. This was all that I would want. I thanked Abigail in my head one more time. I needed her to know how happy I was.

 Chapter 1014 - 1014 Chapter 199- Epilogue 10 (VOLUME 5)

    1014 Chapter 199- Epilogue 10 (VOLUME 5)


    Trouble Brewing?


    ~~


    Rawlynne


    ~~


    Well, since we had confessions from all the Jaegan involved, it was easy to wrap up the case and call it closed. They had been sent to trial where they were all pronounced guilty and sentenced to the Faerton County Correctional Facility. It was a new facility that was only taking the nonhumans from other facilities. In fact, these Jaegan that were being sent there were the only humans that would ever be housed in a ce like that.


    There were more than just their crimes that were sending them to that ce though. In truth, a lot of it had to do with them having those runes. Yes, they had been removed from them, but what if they managed to put them back somehow? We didn¡¯t want to risk that they would have powers over other people. That was why they needed to be in such a secure ce. And where better than the special prison that was built just outside of Faerie. That whole county was actually more Faerie than humannds, so it made perfect sense if you thought about it.


    I had spent thest week and a half cleaning things up and making sure that all the loose ends were tied off. I had to make sure that Trinity and Reece weren¡¯t implicated in this more than they were. They already had reporters poking their nose in on things, so we had to make sure that they stayed safe. And it wasn¡¯t just me. The entire Colorado Springs office of the FBI consisted of members of the supernatural world. And we all wanted to make sure that our queen and king were safe.


    At the moment, I was putting some finishing touches onto some of the paperwork. A lot of things had to be fabricated, but they would hold up to even the most in depth probes. I knew that there was nothing at all for me to worry about. This was going to be as open and shut as all the previous cases.


    Yeah, OK, this case had taken a lot longer to close, but there was nothing to leave up in the air. Everything was settled. The criminals confessed. And the threat was gone. The world was once again safe thanks to the collected efforts.


    .....


    ¡°Hey, what are you doing here?¡± I heard Jackson¡¯s surprised tone of voice as he called out in the pen. I was in my office, not paying much attention to the others.


    ¡°Hey, Jack.¡± That was a familiar voice that I didn¡¯t expect to hear.


    ¡°Harris?¡± I said as I rose to my feet and hurried toward the other part of the building. I hadn¡¯t even scented himing into the building. Then again, being a Djinn, he didn¡¯t have a strong odor. He was often able to get past a lot of werewolves and other shifters. I knew his scent though, and it was hard to mistake. Once you pick up on it that is. He smelled like rich and exotic spices and a hint of liquor. He was definitely an acquired taste, or uhm, smell.


    ¡°Hey Raw, how have you been?¡± He asked me as he came in for a hug. Harris had been like family to me. And if it wasn¡¯t for him sending me to check out the kidnappings all those years ago, then I wouldn¡¯t have met David and mated with him. He was the reason that I had my mate.


    ¡°I am good. I¡¯m really good. Especially with these murders finally stopped for good. How has Lydia been? And the rest of the family.¡± Like me, Harris was mated to his soulmate. She was a witch by the name of Lydia, and they had four children that had long since grown up. The witches, warlocks, and other magic folks had already enjoyed long lives before Trinity made us immortal. Now we all enjoyed that along with him.


    ¡°They are doing great.¡± He smiled while pulling away from me. I saw that he was moving to sit in the chair across from my desk, so I wanted to sit as well. We could talk about whatever he needed to tell me, then I could invite him to dinner with David and the kids. They loved seeing their Uncle Terrie.


    ¡°So, Harris, what brings you here?¡± I asked him with a calm and cool expression. It made me a little nervous when he looked behind him, rose from his chair to close the door, and then sat back down again. He didn¡¯t want this conversation heard. And he knew that my office was sound proofed. Mostly so that the supernaturally good at hearing wouldn¡¯t eavesdrop on me. And he was wanting to make sure of that now as well. ¡°What is it, Terrie? Tell me what is going on? Th..there aren¡¯t more murders, are there?¡± I felt like there was a brick of ice that just fell into my stomach. It was huge, kept me from breathing properly, and it froze me from the inside out.


    ¡°No, there are no murders.¡± He assured me with a smile, but the look was strained. Whatever was happening here, it wasn¡¯t going to be pleasant. At least I didn¡¯t need to add more deaths to the issue that was guing my friend and boss.


    ¡°So, Harris, go on and spit it out. Don¡¯t keep me in suspense so long. I will die of anticipation if you do that.¡± That got a smile and a light chuckle out of him, but it died out all too soon, and the expression on his face turned from jovial to pained.


    ¡°Alright Rawlynne, I am not going to beat around the bush here. We have a problem.¡± He looked up then and I saw that his smile waspletely gone, as was any of the light that was in his eyes. They had gone dark and filled with worry and anger. I didn¡¯t know what was happening, but I knew that it was affecting him deeply, and that made me instantly hate it.


    ¡°A problem?¡± I asked in a probing tone, hoping to get him talking some more. When it didn¡¯t work, I spoke again. ¡°What sort of problem, Harris?¡± I asked him as I started to tap my foot anxiously. It was either that or getting up to pace. I usually hide my anxieties a lot better, but this felt like it was beyond me.


    ¡°Well, some people have noticed some things that we never intended them to see. For one thing, there are certain big wigs that are above my head that asked me why I allowed you to bring Trinity and Reece in on the investigation, along with their slew of private detectives. They are questioning my abilities to lead and whether or not I should be left in charge of the office. And whether or not they shouldn¡¯t just fire the entire crew that I employ, if they can¡¯t do their jobs.¡± His blue green eyes were shining with fury and anger as he said that. ¡°I don¡¯t have a problem stepping down. Hell, I have been nning it for a while. I am not getting older, but I ought to be. And the fact that I still look so young in my line of work, people are wondering if there might be something going on here.¡±


    ¡°So, they are suspicious of you and me.¡± I asked him in a tone that was barely holding back my anger.


    ¡°Not you yet, Rawlynne. Right now, they are focusing on me. I am going to do my best to minimize the effects of what is going on. I don¡¯t want others getting into trouble for this, and like I said, I wanted to retire soon anyway. I can take some time and reinvent my life before I rejoin the workforce in about thirty or forty years. Maybe even fifty. Enough time that anyone that knows me right now will no longer be around and working. Well, none of the humans anyway.¡±


    ¡°Harris?¡± I sounded a lot like I felt. Pissed off and angry with a little bit of pity thrown in. ¡°You can just tell them that it was me. I wille up with something to tell them. Don¡¯t throw away your career.¡±


    ¡°No, it¡¯s time, Rawlynne, trust me. And the time wille for you as well. We can¡¯t hide what we are from the humans forever. And that means that we need to take time away from the public eyes and pretend to pass on. Then we be someone else. We can have a simr name, and we will be listed as a descendant of the person that we used to be. There is nothing wrong with it, Rawlynne. I have done it before, and I can do it again.¡±


    ¡°I am sorry, Harris. I didn¡¯t mean to have this affect your life at all.¡±


    ¡°No, it¡¯s OK. Just, be on guard, OK?¡± He looked a little apprehensive as he said that. ¡°I don¡¯t know if they will be satisfied with me. If theye after you as well, Rawlynne, I will support you anyway that I can. Even if I have retired by then. I won¡¯t let them do anything to you.¡±


    ¡°Harris, y..you don¡¯t think that they would be able to figure out the truth, do you? You don¡¯t think that they will be able to tell that we aren¡¯t humans, do you?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± He shook his head. ¡°The world isn¡¯t the same as it was before, but there was a time when people believed in all of our kinds. They didn¡¯t care if it was a legend or not, they knew it to be true. If history truly does repeat itself, then they are bound to find out eventually, I just hope that we¡¯re ready for it when they do.¡±


    His words rang with an ominous truth that made me shiver. What would happen if the humans did know about us? What will it mean?

 Chapter 1015 - 1015 Chapter 200- Epilogue 11 (VOLUME 5)

    1015 Chapter 200- Epilogue 11 (VOLUME 5)


    Peace


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I think that this was the best thing in life. Being here with all of them like this. Feeling the happiness, the peace, the joy, and the love. All of that made my life worth living. And knowing that I had eternity with all of them, that made it all that much better.


    I was currently sitting here in the theater room of the tower. It was a ce that we added so that we could watch movies together as a family. Usually there were a lot ofrge,fortable reclining units in here. We would all lounge in our favorite ces and watch together as a family. There was a popcorn machine, a fountain soda drink dispenser, and candy galore. There was everything that we would ever want or need here in this room to watch a movie. Well, except for ice cream, but that just required a call to the kitchen. We would have that brought up to us whenever we wanted it.


    For tonight¡¯s movie though, there were norge reclining chairs in the room. We wanted to be closer than that. We wanted to be together as a family for real. So, the nine of us, ten if you counted Reeselynn that was growing in my belly, were all lying in arge puppy pile on a mountainous pile of pillows and nkets. We werefortable, warm, and most of all, we felt loved.


    Reece and I had spent so much time away recently that I knew the kids had missed us. Reagan and Rika had missed us, but not as much as when they were younger. Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley though, they all missed us a lot. And then we learned some things that had happened after we got home.


    The boys had gotten into a fight, but we couldn¡¯t get angry at them when we learned why. Yes, I know, fighting is wrong in all forms, and we shouldn¡¯t encourage them to do that kind of thing. Well, screw that. An older boy, a real asshole, was bullying and about to hit Zaley. That would have gotten him arrested and punished by Reece and I when we got back. Instead, Zachary, Zander and Zayden all jumped on the boy and taught him a lesson.


    .....


    They didn¡¯t get into trouble though. Either because they were the princes, or because a girl in Zaley¡¯s ss had told the principal what had happened, and he decided that they had done what was right.


    Since Reece and I got back, that girl has be a good friend of Zaley¡¯s and I have to say that I haven¡¯t seen her this happy and bright in a long time. She had looked so sad for so long that it was breaking my heart. I knew that there were people that picked on my little girl, but I didn¡¯t know that it was that bad. I would have to see about helping her to deal with this situation. Nonviolently of course. And if that doesn¡¯t work, then I just stop holding back Reece, Reagan, Zachary, Zander and Zayden. They were all chomping at the bit to protect Zaley.


    With all that aside though, we were back. Everyone was happy. The kids were doing well. Not one thing could make this moment with my children and my mate any better. I was happily in love with the only man that could ever love me like Reece could. I was the mother to the seven best children in the world. And I was carrying the eighth that I was going to love with just as much love and affection. And I would be thankful every day of her life because it was saving Reece¡¯s life that gave her one of her own.


    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Little Bunny?¡± Reece asked as he leaned in. He had noticed that I wasn¡¯t watching the movie anymore. He probably thought that I was craving something or that I lost my mind, either were a big possibility.


    ¡°I was just thinking.¡± I told him as I looked him in the eyes. His beautiful honied golden eyes that I fell in love with so many years ago. He had looked at me with so much love in those eyes for so long that I knew that there was never anything for me to ever doubt in them.


    ¡°What has your mind so distracted, Little Bunny? Tell me sweetheart, so that I can help you with whatever it is that is bothering you.¡± He really did look worried about me. I didn¡¯t mean to make him think that something was actually wrong. Not when it was theplete opposite of that.


    ¡°Reece. My dear sweet, Reece, there is nothing at all to worry about. Nothing is bothering me. It was actually me thinking about how wonderful, amazing, and blessed my life is. I know that we have faced our fair share of horrors and hardships over the years. And truthfully, our family has probably experienced more than the average family could even fathom, but that has never brought us down. We have only pushed forward and moved on. We have evolved, we have be something so much better, so much bigger.¡±


    ¡°So, you¡¯re not upset?¡± He asked me in confusion.


    ¡°No, Reece. I am happy. I truly love and adore our family. I am so beyond happy that I have you all in my life.¡±


    ¡°Oh, mom, we¡¯re happy too.¡± I saw Reagan turned toward me with a smile that was so much like Reece¡¯s. He looked a lot like Reece, but there was a lot of me in there as well. He was such a handsome young man, and I knew that he was going to be someone special when he was older.


    ¡°We love you, Mom. And you too, Dad. You two are always there for us, even when you are so busy.¡± Rika leaned forward to take my hand and give me her best smile.


    ¡°You truly are the best. Both of you are. And so are you Reagan and Rika.¡± Talia leaned into a hug that Reagan was giving her at those words.


    ¡°Yeah Mommy, you are the best.¡± Zaley, looking happy and so very full of life, spoke cheerfully while she turned toe closer toward Reece and I.


    ¡°The best of the best.¡± Zachary said as he joined her.


    ¡°We wouldn¡¯t trade you for anyone.¡± Zander hugged me around my neck hard and fiercely. I could tell how much he loves me and the rest of his family at that moment.


    ¡°We all love you too, Mommy. You and Daddy both. And I am d that you are home. We are all so much happier when you are here. There is less wondering and worrying and more happy moments like this one.¡± Zayden, who was oddly able to get to the heart of things so easily, spoke in the voice of a child while somehow managing to sound like a wise old man.


    I prefer to be home too. I hate being away from you all. You are all so important to me. And I can¡¯t live without having you here.¡± The moment of quiet contemtion turned into vows of love and a giant squish pile of hugs as we all piled in together to hug each other.


    After that big hug, we resettled onto the pile of fluff that we wereying on and started to watch the movie. Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley were spread between myp and Reece¡¯s. they wanted to sit with us, to be closer to us, and I didn¡¯t have a reason or a desire to tell them no. Reagan, Rika and Talia all crowded around us so that we were all touching in some way or another.


    This truly was the best life that anyone could ever ask for. None of the stress mattered. None of the battles that we had ever been a part of. None of the hardships. Nothing at all mattered aside from family, love, and happiness. As long as you have those things, you have all that you need in life.


    I made a vow to myself right then and there. I knew that Reece couldn¡¯t hear it. Nor could the kids. None of them even knew that I was making this silent and heartfelt vow for them.


    I vowed that no matter what the issue was, I would protect my family. And I would do it without having to leave them like I had done before. I¡¯d keep them all from feeling that heartache and sadness again. I never wanted to see the hurt and pain in the eyes of my children ever again. I never wanted to see Reece look at me with eyes that told me that he thought that I almost died. And I definitely didn¡¯t want to see Reece or one of the kids getting hurt. Seeing Reece in that state just the one time was more than enough tost me for the rest of my unnaturally long life.


    I made these promises and other¡¯s to them as I watched them. I knew that I would never have to worry anymore though. The Jaegan were gone. There was no more threat to my people. And the world, while not exactly filled with peace, was a lot more peaceful than it used to be.


    We were literally living in the next major stretch of peace. I didn¡¯t know how I knew that, but I did. I knew that there was nothing to worry about. I knew that we were all going to be safe for a long time. There were no dangers to worry about at all.

 Chapter 1016 - 1016 Chapter 1- Trinity – An Upcoming Celebration (VOLUME 6)

    1016 Chapter 1- Trinity ¨C An Uing Celebration (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Today was October the eighteenth. It had been about five weeks since the battle with the Jaegan had ended. Five weeks since Reece had almost died. And five weeks since I got pregnant with our newest baby. Time was moving fast, but at the same time it was moving slow. I was enjoying this time with the kids and Reece. I had taken a step back from the politics of the kingdom for thest few weeks, and I wasn¡¯t going to go back to work until after the baby was born. I knew that Gabriel, Vincent, and the others would be more than capable of running things while I took a break. Not only that, but they would be able toe and check with me if there was something that really needed my attention.


    For the time being though, I wanted the peace, safety, and tranquility that being at home with my family provided for me. I mean, had I never been chosen to be the Queen of my people, then I would have had a life a lot like this. I would have worked of course, but I would have been home with the kids more. I wouldn¡¯t have had so much to do all the time.


    Sometimes, not often but sometimes, I regretted the decisions that I had made in my life and what the oue of things had been. Not enough to do something about it, but when it got to be stressful and dangerous, like it had been earlier this year, then I sometimes wished that I had never been the queen. If I wasn¡¯t the queen, I would have just been a normal Luna, with a normal family.


    Yeah, OK, we weren¡¯t ¡®normal¡¯ in any way. We were werewolves and witches, warlocks and Fae. There was so much that went into us that we wouldn¡¯t have known about if it weren¡¯t for the things that had happened to me and Reece over the years.


    I guess that, in a way, I could never regret a single moment of my life. Because it was what happened to me that led to me having the family that I have now. If it wasn¡¯t for the events and the people in my life I wouldn¡¯t have my children. Take Zaley for instance. She didn¡¯t have a soul. Not until Edmond sacrificed his immortal soul to save my children. So, without him, Zaley would have been stillborn. And Reeselynn, who wasn¡¯t here yet but was still loved dearly, she was only in my belly because of the magic to save Reece. That live magic took root from his seed and my love for him. If that hadn¡¯t been the case, then I wouldn¡¯t be having my eighth child with the love of my life. There was just so much that had been happening around us over the years that it had taken root inside of us and be us. Anything that might have changed in this time would alter everything.


    Trying not to think about those depressing thoughts though, I was putting some finishing touches on Zaley¡¯s Halloween costume while I talked to Abigail about the food that we needed to have at the party this weekend.


    .....


    This Saturday, the twentieth of October, was the annual Halloween party that I threw for the kids that were too young for the hunter¡¯s moon hunt. This year was the first time that Reagan and Rika were going to be participating in the hunt, and it was the first time that Reece was not going to participate. This would be the first time that I would know that he missed the hunter¡¯s moon hunt since I have known him. And since justst month, in the midst of the Jaegan battle, we had reached twenty years since Reece and I had met, that was a long time to go without missing one of these things.


    Oh, wow. Thinking about that now. I was going to be thirty-nine on my next birthday, and then after that I would be forty. Reece was already in his forties. That old man. I joked about that with him from time to time. Yeah, he still looked like he was twenty-five, just as handsome and strong as when I met him all those years ago, but biologically he was forty-five now. That was trippy to think about. I mean, this November thirtieth and December first, Reagan and Rika would be neen. They were the same age now that I was when I was first starting my rtionship with Reece. And I didn¡¯t even want to think about the fact that they were going to be getting into simr situations. Just hopefully not with someone that was so idiotic in the beginning.


    ¡°Trinity, you want the apple pie bombs again, yes?¡± Abigail, who now looked about forty, but was nearly ancient when I met her twenty years ago, asked me in her sweet voice. She still talked like an old granny, even if she was younger now.


    ¡°Yes. Those are always a hit. And so are the pumpkin pie bites. The kids look forward to those treats every year, and so do a lot of the parents.¡± As I thought about it, about how the parties had evolved and improved over the years, I couldn¡¯t help but think about the first time that I threw the party. It was more of a way to annoy Reece than anything else. And he was a little angry when he found out. That was why I had announced that he was there to judge that costume contest. He couldn¡¯t act like an asshole in front of the little kids. And now, with him finally being able to join the party again, Reece was looking forward to announcing Alpha¡¯s favorite among the costumes. Though he needed to be unbiased, since we had five children of our own that would be in the contest. He couldn¡¯t just pick Talia, Zachary, Zander, Zayden or Zaley just because they were our kids.


    ¡°How many people are we expecting this year, Trinity?¡± Abigail asked as she made notes on the paper in front of her.


    ¡°I think that it will be a little more thanst year. We have had some new people settle into the city since the battle. I know that our friends from California are still here. So, as a rough estimate, I would say that there will be about nine hundred or so. But to be safe, let¡¯s make enough food for a thousand. If there are leftovers, we can always donate it to the shelter on Sunday.¡±


    ¡°Lovely, dear. I will make sure that we have all of the goodies ready that day. I am just d that I have so many helpers now. Heh heh heh.¡± She chuckled sweetly as she said that. ¡°If I had to do a party thisrge by myself I would probably die.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t do that to you, Abigail.¡± I squeezed her hand gently. ¡°Don¡¯t you worry about that. You are a part of the family, and I can¡¯t ever let you go. I am not that good of a cook, and Reece would burn down the castle. I need you, Abigail.¡± I was practically begging her never to quit on me.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Trinity. I won¡¯t leave. I have been with Reece since he was a little pup, and I won¡¯t leave him either. He is like my own little boy, and I love him wholeheartedly.¡±


    ¡°We love you too, Abigail. All of us do. Even Reeselynn here.¡± I patted my belly that was already starting to curve a little. ¡°She loves your food already.¡±


    ¡°I am d to hear that, sweetheart. And I will continue to cook for her as well. For as long as I am able to.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± I leaned across the table, across the costume that I was working on, and hugged the older woman.


    We talked a little more about the food that I wanted to be at the party, and then she left. After that, Roisin came in to discuss her part of the party. As the head maid for the tower, and my personal maid, she liked to be the one that decorated. Or the primary one that did it. She also had an amazing eye for detail and magic that would be vital in aplishing the task.


    She had enlisted a crew that had two more Fae and two witches with a ir for the gothic style, and together the five of them were going to make the party perfect. There would be three different ballrooms set up for specific parts of the party. There would be the toddler party that had things that were cute and not scary at all. The second one would be for the elementary and young middle school kids, or those that just didn¡¯t want to be scared. It would be a little scary, but mostly it would just be fun. And the third ballroom was going to be the creepy, scary, haunted horror fest. And Talia, with her connections to the dead, actually enlisted real ghosts to help us. They were happy to do it too, since they were usually so lonely. This was something that made them feel wanted and needed. And that was something that all the souls had been craving. They wanted to be useful for once.


    I was starting to get excited for this part. It was the twentieth anniversary party for the annual Halloween bash. And I meant to make it into the best party that they had ever seen. They would see, it was going to be amazing.

 Chapter 1017 - 1071 Chs

    1071 Chs


    ADD


    1017 Chapter 2- Trinity ¨C Time for the Party Part 1 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Come Saturday evening, I was getting myself dressed for the party while the kids were downstairs getting their costumes on. Some of them needed makeup to be done, but they were having their attendants do it for them. They said that it would be better than me having to do the makeup for all of them.


    Talia, taking the holiday as an excuse to be literal and spot on, was going dressed as a devil. Her red dress was going to be apanied by horns, beautiful makeup, and hair that had been teased and still looked really good. Her boyfriend, Arthur, was going to attend the party dressed as an angel. He said it would be a contrast and a statement. Usually, when couples dressed as angels and devils, the girl was the angel so that she would be skimpy and scantily d. And men were the devil because that was the stereotype. Well, they did the opposite, and Talia¡¯s dress was anything but skimpy. Reece would murder her if she tried to dress like that.


    Zaley, whose costume I had worked on just the other day, was going as a zombie. A zombie school girl that is. She was wearing one of her uniforms for school, which I had tattered in all the right ces and stained with dirt and fake blood. She was going to have her hair pulled back into pigtails and ck streaks of fake dye in it to make it look dirty. She was going to look amazing. And her best friend, Breanna, who she had recently started to hang out with, was going as bubblegum. Literally. Since her hair was bright pink, she was dressing entirely in pink and calling herself bubblegum.


    Zachary was going as an alien. The big headed, green skinned, huge eyed alien that you see in cheesy movies. It was funny, and he had gotten the perfect lifelike silicone mask for it. And his outfit that he was wearing was shining silver. He was going all out for this.


    Zander had chosen to go as a pirate. He was wearing a wig that had long hair and a few braids in it. He was getting a fake five o¡¯clock shadow. He was wearing an eye patch. And he was dressed perfectly for the role. And he had spent thest three weeks practicing how to talk like a pirate. He was getting good at it too.


    Zayden was going dressed as a knight. Not in his armor or anything, but in the tunic and other clothes that marked him as being a knight of status. He would, however, still have a fake sword at his hip. That was a necessity. And what a handsome young knight that he was when he was dressed in that outfit.


    .....


    Reagan and Rika had costumes as well, but not for tonight. They were going to the university¡¯s Halloween party on the thirty first. And they had partially coordinated. Well, the groups of them did. Reagan was going as a mummy while Levi was a skeleton, Luka was a ghoul, Elias was a scarecrow, a scary one, Cypress was a giant bat, Beech was a spider, and Rowan was Frankenstein¡¯s monster.


    Rika and her group were going to switch roles with each other. Rika was going as a vampire while Alyssa, who is a vampire, was going to go dressed as a werewolf. Alexandria was going as a Fairy while Ashle went as a half vampire half werewolf and na was going as a Tree Pixie. They had all borrowed something from the other¡¯s species and made something out of it. It was quite amazing if you asked me. And they looked quite amazing when it was all said and done.


    Reece and I were going to dress up as well. Though I was going to go dressed as Reece, and he was dressing as me. We hadn¡¯t decided on anything overly borate for the costumes. I thought that this was going to be fun, since it was the first time that Reece and I were going to be dressing up together in all this time.


    I had gone out to get some clothes that were the same as Reece¡¯s, only in my size. His favorite long sleeved green t-shirt, his favorite ck pants, and his go to sneakers that he always wore. To be a little snarky with it, I also put on his cor that I got him for his first Christmas present that said Fido. I figured that it would be appropriate, but no one had to know that it was actually Reece¡¯s cor. I could say that I bought it for the costume.


    I also pulled my hair up and put on a baseball cap. I knew that my long hair would make me look nothing like Reece, so it needed to be taken care of. And the hat that I was wearing said Alpha on it, so there was no doubt about who I was supposed to be.


    After I was dressed, I headed down the stairs to find the kids. They were all almost done getting ready for the party and I wanted to see what they looked like. I also wanted to get some pictures of them and save them for the future. These moments were always so precious to me.


    After more pictures than were necessary, and way more than the kids wanted me to take, it was time to head down to the party. The guests would be arriving soon, and we needed to be there for them. I also wanted to see off Reagan and Rika before they went on their first ever hunter¡¯s moon hunt. They were excited about this, and I didn¡¯t me them one bit.


    And I wasn¡¯t worried either. Vincent, Shawn, Shane and David were all going as well. Shawn wanted to be there for sure, because he was taking Alexandria, Levi and Luka. Since they were either werewolves or hybrids and that meant that they were able to shift into a wolf form. The only one that had to miss out was Alyssa, and I felt bad for that. Though, she was spending the night doing something with Dietrich, so it wasn¡¯t that bad.


    ¡°Oh wow, you all look awesome.¡± Reaganplimented the kids as we came down. ¡°And wasn¡¯t it nice of Dad to walk you down?¡± He joked with me.


    ¡°Yeah, Dad, you really should have worn a costume.¡± Rikaughed.


    ¡°Me, wear a costume, hmmphf.¡± I harrumphed and pretended to scowl at them. ¡°Anyway you two better hurry. You¡¯re going to bete.¡± I kept my voice deep and pretended to talk like Reece. And the scowl stayed in ce. All seven kidsughed hysterically.


    ¡°What is this about me not wearing a costume?¡± I heard Reeceing down the stairs behind me. ¡°I have the perfect one here.¡±


    I turned to look at Reece and almost immediately needed to groan as I started tough.


    ¡°What the hell are you wearing?¡± I couldn¡¯t stopughing and a stitch was forming on my side. ¡°You were supposed to dress like me, Fido. That is not me at all.¡±


    ¡°Yes it is. I am a bunny. You are my Little Bunny. It¡¯s a perfect match for you. Plus, aren¡¯t I adorable?¡± He folded his hands together, covered in soft white fur, and put them under his chin while he batted his eyes at me.


    I had to admit, his costume was intricate. He was wearing a full bodysuit of soft white fur. It was perfectly shaped so that his hands were bunny like, and so were his feet. He even had a little cotton tail on his butt. And there was a hat-like element to the costume. It covered his ck hair and had two tall white ears sticking out of it. And there was a rabbit nose and the little whiskery parts of it attached to Reece¡¯s face, so he looked adorable with a little pink nose and everything. It was perfectly borate and I loved it.


    ¡°You know, Trinity, you aren¡¯t wearing a costume at all.¡± Reece said as he crossed his arms over his furry chest. ¡°That isn¡¯t fair.¡±


    ¡°I am dressed like you. I have a cor that says Fido, and a hat that names me as Alpha, I am definitely dressed up.¡± I countered him. ¡°See how dedicated I am. I even have the scowl.¡± I worked my face into an imitation of his and made himugh.


    ¡°I do not look like that.¡± His voice was loud and boisterous.


    ¡°Oh, yes you do.¡± Reagan said with a smile, while also backing up a little.


    ¡°It¡¯s spot on.¡± Rika didn¡¯t back up, she didn¡¯t fear Reece at all.


    ¡°That¡¯s just mean.¡± Reece pretended to pout. ¡°I am a happy little bunny, why are you making me sad?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Daddy, we still love you. Scowl and all.¡± Talia said as she put a hand on his shoulder.


    ¡°Oh great, that makes it all better.¡± Heughed. ¡°I will remember this. When the next tickle fightes, or the next water balloon war, I will remember this.¡± His yful eyes moved between them all as they justughed andughed.


    ¡°Come on, Little Bunny.¡± I said as I took his hand in my own. ¡°Don¡¯t let it get you down. I am here to protect you after all.¡± I winked at him and then heughed.


    ¡°Oh Goddess, I am so d that we don¡¯t dress like this normally. I don¡¯t know how I like you looking like me. It makes me not want to kiss you, since I would just be kissing myself.¡± He joked as he leaned in and actually kissed me. That dork. I love him so much.

 Chapter 1018 - 1018 Chapter 3- Reece – Time for the Party Part 2 (VOLUME 6)

    1018 Chapter 3- Reece ¨C Time for the Party Part 2 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    After convening at the bottom of the stairs, Trinity and I saw Reagan and Rika off for their first ever Hunter¡¯s Moon hunt. They were going to roam through the mountains and forests on ournd until they took down a kill of their own. It wouldn¡¯t be their first, but it would be the first time that they did it while under the full moon¡¯s magic. There was a certain amount of power in the moon that brought out the beast inside of us. We were still able to think and rationalize, but on nights like this, when we were in our wolf forms, it affected us differently. It was hard to exin it to them, but I knew that Reagan and Rika would be OK. They just needed to experience this for themselves.


    My Little Bunny and I were going to be leading the party for the kids that were left behind, and for the other kids that weren¡¯t werewolves. They weren¡¯t excluded just because their parents weren¡¯t going on the hunt. They were wee to be here with us no matter what.


    When we walked into the foyer that was outside of the three ballrooms, I saw that there were already guests showing up, and one that I wished had stayed the fuck away. And it was made even worse by the fact that Talia ran right up to him and hugged him. She didn¡¯t even care that I was standing right here. She just hugged that smug little asshat right in front of me.


    The boy in question was none other than Arthur. The son of the Alpha from Wolfhamm in the south of London. He had stayed here to get an education in exchange for his father taking Warrick and training him to be a better man. I didn¡¯t have high hopes though, since he was the one that raised that asshole who was currently holding my sweet little Talia against himself. GAH! This really pissed me off. But I couldn¡¯t say anything.


    No. I couldn¡¯t object to this at all. And why? Well, that was simple, my wife already gave her approval. She has even let that scummy little twit take my little Talia out on dates. Who knows what the hell he has done to her while they were out and about. Who knows what they have gotten up to. This was just ridiculous. I couldn¡¯t stand it, but I had to. And that was what made it so infuriating.


    I tried to put the boy out of my mind when I saw a group of other people approaching Talia. There was Ada, a friend of hers that she had had for a long time. She was a Mermaid whose family moved here a while back. The other three kids with her though, I didn¡¯t know them. Not off the top of my head. They must be new here. They must have settled in after the battle. There were a few groups that had changed this to their primary location when the battle was over. Let¡¯s see, there was the Mariposa family, they were Fae, pixies to be exact. Then there was the hawk family with the name of Dover. And then there was the.. Oh yeah, that¡¯s who they were. They were the Waters Triplets. Their grandparents, Analise and Reef, were on the council. And their dads had started to work for me as soon as they graduated college years ago. They were a couple that was a lot like Shawn and Dietrich. One of the dads had gotten pregnant and delivered two of their three babies. The other came from someone else, but they were still considered triplets somehow. I wasn¡¯t sure what was going on there, but they were good kids. At least from what I had heard about them.


    .....


    There were two boys and a girl in that group of siblings. The boys weren¡¯t identical, but they had been the twins that their dad carried. One had dark hair with red highlights while the other had blue highlights. The one with blue highlights had slightly darker hair. They were tall, athletic, and decent looking. Considering that I wasn¡¯t a guy, I didn¡¯t have an opinion about them like that.


    The girl was unique. She was super pretty. She looked like what she was, a Siren. She was gorgeous and looked like she could get any of the teenage boys here that she wanted, but she also looked like she was strong, independent, and a little bit of a rebel. She had cut her hair pixie short and dyed it blue. I knew that it wasn¡¯t her natural color though, since I had been told that she dyed it just before they moved here. She was supposedly rebelling against what she is. And that just made her sound like a moody teenager.


    Hmm. If these people ended up being some of Talia¡¯s friends, it would just strengthen the connection between us and the council members. Not that we didn¡¯t have a good rtionship with them already. They were good people and always tried to do their best for us.


    I looked away from Talia and the new group of friends that she was making, well potentially new friends. As I looked around the foyer, I saw Zaley. She was standing with a girl that was dressed all in pink. That was Breanna, her new best friend. And probably her only friend. She kept a close circle and it was hard to make it into that tight space. I knew that Breanna was a Fae, one that dealt with flowers or something. She was a good kid.


    When I found Zachary, Zander and Zayden I saw that they were all standing together, but there was no one with them. I knew that they had friends, but I also knew that they were almost, if not more, exclusive than Zaley. They hung out with kids at school, they had a lot of fun, but they didn¡¯t bring it home. At home, and at school, they took care of their family. And right now, while they were worrying about Zaley and Talia, they were watching over them like hawks. I actually thought that was adorable, but also really great. My boys were growing up to be men that understood what their family meant to them. And they wouldn¡¯t let anyone hurt that family.


    The party was about to start now, with the hall filling up with guests. My Little Bunny was greeting the guests as they showed up, and I heard her, more than once, exin who she was. She told them that she was me, and if theyughed, she didn¡¯t borate on anything else. However, if they said they didn¡¯t get it, she always said the same thing.


    ¡°Oh, hold on, I need thest part.¡± She would tell them as she scowled and tried to look like an angry version of me. That was when the others wouldugh and get that she was supposed to be me. I guess I scowled a lot then. I didn¡¯t know that I did that, but who could me me? I mean,e on, I was a powerful man with arge family and king to way, way, way more than that. I had a busy and stressful life. And scowls were just a part of that life.


    Man, if I scowled that much though, then I was d for the magic that surrounded us all. I didn¡¯t have a single fucking wrinkle on my face right now. There was no proof in the lines or anything that I scowled like an angry old man. Thank the Goddess for that.


    ¡°Thank you all foring!¡± Trinity raised her voice to be heard above the chattering crowd. ¡°This year¡¯s annual Halloween bash has officially started. The three ballrooms are ready, and there is food, drinks, candy, and fun waiting for you all inside. This is the twentieth celebration that we have had for this full moon night, and I want to tell you all that I couldn¡¯t be more proud of what is happening here. Thank you all so much foring out tonight, and I hope that everyone enjoys themselves very much.¡±


    There was a round of apuse and some cheering for my Little Bunny after her opening speech. Following that, the doors to all three ballrooms opened at the same time and the faint sound of music could be heard from inside of them. There were spells that blocked the music from being too loud in the hall or from shing with the parties in the other rooms. We didn¡¯t want to ruin the night for any of our guests.


    ¡°Come on, Reece, are you ready to get the party started?¡± She asked me as a song from our childhoods started to sh through my mind. I hadn¡¯t thought of that song in so long that it was honestly kind of funny.


    ¡°You bet, Fido. I am always ready to party.¡± I put on a high pitched voice, trying to sound like her. That was when she lowered the tone of her voice, made it rougher, and tried to sound like me.


    ¡°Well then,e on Little Bunny. The party isn¡¯t going to happen without us.¡±


    We both ended upughing at that, and I kissed her again.


    ¡°Come on. Let¡¯s go.¡± We walked into the party hand in hand and enjoyed the night together. It was way better than I had ever thought that it would be. Probably because I had my little bunny with me.

 Chapter 1019 - 1019 Chapter 4- Talia – Meeting New Friends (VOLUME 6)

    1019 Chapter 4- Talia ¨C Meeting New Friends (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    I hadn¡¯t thought that there would be so many people showing up so quickly. There were some guests for the party waiting for us to start the event, but there was also a steady stream of people that wereing in and waiting for the party to start.


    For the time being, I was standing a little to the side of my family, waiting to go into the older kids¡¯ party room and to see how well the spirits that had agreed to help me were doing. After a moment or two though, my boyfriend Arthur came walking in my direction. I was excited to see him, so I ran in his direction. He opened his arms for me so that I could hug him. I even put a little jump in my step so that I ended up having him catch me as I leapt toward him. He and I had only been dating for a few weeks, but I liked him a lot. I didn¡¯t know what was going to happen to us in the future, but I knew that I wanted to be with him for the time being.


    Being werewolves like we were, we knew that one day we would meet our mates. And that when the time came, we would have to stop dating each other and be with the person that the goddess had determined for us. That was an understanding that we came to on our first date together. Yeah, I know, not exactly a romantic conversation, but I wanted to make sure that Arthur knew the way that things were going to be.


    I had also done what I thought was the best option at the time. I told my dad that I had talked to Arthur about the future and how things weren¡¯t set in stone for us. He was so happy that he jumped for joy. He said, and I quote, ¡®no offense Tally girl, but I hope like fucking hell that this boy isn¡¯t your mate¡¯. I knew that he wasn¡¯t trying to be mean with that one. He just wanted the best for me. And he was my dad, I knew that anyone that I dated wasn¡¯t going to be good enough for him. He was going to be pissed at them all no matter who they were. And the sooner that I understood that, the sooner that I could stop thinking that I was doing something wrong with him and start trying to be happy with my life. And, by the way, I had already understood that, so I was already happy with my life. I knew that I would have my mate soon enough, no matter who they ended up being.


    While I was talking with Arthur,plimenting him on his angel costume, I noticed that my friend Ada wasing toward me with some people that I had never seen before. She looked excited to see me, and I was happy to see her as well. She was my best friend, or as close to one as I had at the moment. She and I hung out more than just about anyone else.


    I could tell that these people with Ada were super naturals like me and the rest of the people at the party, but I didn¡¯t know what they were at first. They smelled a little salty, and a little like some other scents as well. I caught undertones of coconut, bananas, oranges, and other fruity smells. It was pleasant, and oddly enough, it reminded me of Ada as well.


    .....


    She had that same salty smell to her. Does that mean that they were some sort of shifters from the sea like her? I wondered about that for a moment before they got to me, and Ada gave me a quick hug in greeting.


    ¡°Talia!¡± She sounded so excited. ¡°I am happy that I found you so soon. I wanted to introduce you to my new friends here. They just moved to the city a couple of weeks ago. Their parents came here for the, you know,st month.¡± She was trying to say the battle without actually saying it. ¡°They decided they were just going to move here and started to look for a ce while the three of them were all staying with their grandparents. They just settled in like two weeks ago, but they don¡¯t start school until Monday.¡±


    ¡°Oh. How cool. So, you will be in our ss?¡± I asked them with curiosity.


    ¡°Yeah, we are seniors. We¡¯re a grade ahead. It¡¯s nice to meet you, Talia. My name is Sereia.¡± The only girl in the group of three stuck her hand out to shake mine. ¡°I have heard a lot about you from Ada. And, of course, I already knew a little bit about you. My parents work for your parents.¡±


    ¡°Oh wow, really?¡± I was already a little intrigued. If they worked for my parents, then either my mom or my dad had personally interviewed them. Along with either Uncle Vincent or Uncle Gabriel. And this meant that they were trustworthy people. It helped me to feel like I could trust these three immediately and with no issues at all.


    ¡°Yeah. They are really happy at their jobs too. Let me introduce you to my brothers. This is Storm.¡± She pointed to a boy that looked about Arthur¡¯s age who had dark brown hair with little red streaks in it. His eyes were a bluish green that caught attention right away. ¡°And this is Saylor.¡± The other boy, also looking the same age, had darker hair that was nearly ck. His eyes had a grayish blue quality to them, and even though they looked like they were the same age, they didn¡¯t look identical. If they were twins, they were fraternal. Saylor had a little more of a square face that was still somehow delicate and pretty. He was handsome, that wasn¡¯t the issue here, but he looked a little pretty as well. Storm, on the other hand, was a little more manly, a face that was a little longer with a slightly more narrowed chin. He was also a little more tan, though it looked natural and not like he had tried to tan himself in the sun. I could tell that they all spent a lot of time outside though, they just had that feel to them.


    The boys were taller, but not as tall as my dad, who was six feet five inches tall, and Reagan was nearly that tall. They were taller than me though, by several inches. Maybe six foot one. Actually, I think that Storm was that tall, Saylor was an inch shorter. And Sereia was more about five foot seven. A couple inches taller than me, but shorter than her brothers by a lot. She is pretty, very pretty. She had eyes that were simr to Saylor¡¯s, but her hair was blue. I didn¡¯t know if it was dyed or natural, but it looked amazing on her. Itplemented her paleplexion perfectly. Her face was slender and perfectly sculpted. She looked like she could have been a model, she was that pretty.


    However, I was certain that there weren¡¯t manypanies that would sign on a model that looked so punk and tomboyish. Sereia was wearing a pair of ck jeans that had rips and tears across the legs and thighs. Her shirt was tight and showed a logo from a band that I was only slightly familiar with. And she was wearing a ck jacket that had metal rings around the hood and pockets. It was really cool, and I had never owned anything like that before. Oh, and to top off her unconventional beauty, Sereia¡¯s hair was really short. It was a pixie cut and it styled to be in a messy and partially spiked style. It was amazing, and I loved it.


    I could already tell that I was going to get along with these three. They just smelled like good people. And I really did need more friends. While I was thinking about that, Sereia started to say something else, something that caught me off guard.


    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re triplets, so we¡¯re all in your ss now.¡±


    ¡°Oh, cool. My older brother and sister are twins, and my younger siblings are quads. They thought that they were going to be triplets though, until the delivery time came and there was my sister with the three identical boys.¡± I pointed across the room to them. ¡°See, there are my brothers. And over there with the white hair is my sister. Reagan and Rika, the older ones, are on the hunt tonight.¡±


    ¡°Wow. I thought we were cool for being trips, you got quads though, that is awesome.¡±


    ¡°Thanks.¡± I smiled even though it wasn¡¯t like it had anything to do with me. It was my parents that were responsible for them.


    I think that I was paying too much attention to Sereia and her brothers for thest several minutes, because Arthur tugged on my arm and got my attention back towards him. He looked a little jealous and I instantly felt bad for ignoring him for so long.


    ¡°So, hey, why don¡¯t we all go to the party and hang out. It¡¯s going to be great. And there is a lot of food. Arthur, I know that your birthday is next week, so I made sure that my mom included your favorite dessert on the menu. It¡¯s like an early birthday celebration. Oh, I forgot to introduce you all.¡± I pped a hand to my head. ¡°Sereia, Storm, Saylor, this is my boyfriend, Arthur. He is from Ennd and is here as an exchange student at the moment.¡±


    ¡°Wow! Awesome. How is life in Ennd?¡± Storm asked in a voice that was excited and full of life.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± Arthur spoke a little stiffly. Maybe he thought that I was flirting with the other guys or something. I didn¡¯t really know since I hadn¡¯t really been in the dating game for a long time. ¡°I met Talia there. When her family came for a visit. My father and I came to help outst month, and I decided to stay here for school. And because I wanted to be with Talia.¡± He was acting really weird just then, wrapping his arm around my shoulder and pulling me closer to his side.


    ¡°Dude, I see what you¡¯re doing here, but you don¡¯t need to worry.¡± Storm was shaking his head. ¡°I ain¡¯t hitting on your girl. I would be more likely to hit on you, but you¡¯re not really my type.¡± Heughed as he walked away. ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry about us. We¡¯re here to make friends, not steal partners.¡±


    ¡°I..I didn¡¯t-.¡± Arthur started to object, but Saylor cut him off.


    ¡°Yeah, you did.¡± Heughed gently. ¡°It¡¯s OK though. You¡¯re a wolf, and they are possessive and dominant people, we know that. Seriously though, we¡¯re not here to find love, we just want friends. Rtionships of the intimate kind willeter.¡± They were talking so much more maturely than Arthur usually did that it threw me through a loop for a moment. I ignored it though. I mean, they were advanced, like me. And Arthur was still in the grade that he was supposed to be, I guess the triplets were a little more mature than him.


    ¡°Come on, Arthur. Let¡¯s go party.¡± I took him by the hand and pulled him into the ballroom.


    Now that the awkwardness hade to an end, we were all able to enjoy our night. We danced, ate good food, talked, and sang along with the music. By the time that the night was over, I felt like I was really friends with Sereia, Storm and Saylor. They were really great people, and I wanted to get to know them all more. And so did Ada, since they were also merfolk like she was. Well, one of them was a Merman. Saylor and Sereia were Sirens, which I thought was amazing.

 Chapter 1020 - 1020 Chapter 5- Reagan – The Hunter’s Moon (VOLUME 6)

    1020 Chapter 5- Reagan ¨C The Hunter¡¯s Moon (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reagan


    ~~


    Tonight, this amazing and powerful night, was the first time that Rika and I were taking part in the hunt for the full moon. This was an annual thing that happened in our pack, in all packs really. If there was a ce for the pack to go that was away from the humans, then they went to hunt deer and other animals in the forest at night.


    It was a primitive thing, and I knew that most people didn¡¯t understand why we went on these anymore. In truth, I didn¡¯t know the answer to that any more than they did, but I knew that it was tradition. And I also knew that there was something magical about tonight.


    Now that I was eighteen, and that I was able to be a part of this night, I could feel the magic that was radiating in the air around us. I could feel the thrumming of the earth and the whooshing of the wind all in a different capacity than I was used to. It was all so much more intense. And I just couldn¡¯t get enough of it.


    I knew that Rika could feel it too. Not just because she was my twin sister and I was able to sense what she was feeling, which I could. But I also knew that she could feel it just as intensely as I did because of the look on her face. She looked so happy, so excited, so everything, that her eyes were literally glowing.


    Rika had eyes like our dad. They were honeyed gold and sharp as a tack. Me, on the other hand, I had the more blue looking eyes of our mom. I also had her hair color as well. It has always been a joke that I looked like half mom and half dad, and so did Rika. If we swapped just a few of our features, we would be perfect replicas of our parents. I was d that we were different though. I didn¡¯t want to look like someone just copied my dad and made me. That wouldn¡¯t give me any originality at all.


    Sensing the thrumming thoughts in my sister¡¯s head, I stopped thinking about the ways that we were different and focused on the fact that she was my twin sister, and we had so much more inmon than most other people. Aside from maybe Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley. They were quads and just as linked as Rika and I.


    .....


    The moon was almost at its highest point. It was almost time to start the hunt, and everyone was looking to me and Rika to start it. I could see dozens and dozens of eager eyes on me, and beyond the ring of fire light that illuminated the sacred circle for our pack, I could feel so many more. There were a lot of people here tonight, and they were all ready to start hunting.


    Knowing what I needed to do, I started to walk. I wasn¡¯t moving aimlessly though. No, I was moving to stand on the tform where the Alpha was meant to be when he addressed his people. This was my ce to be right now, as the representative of my father, this was my ce to stand.


    ¡°I want to thank you all for joining us for the hunt tonight. As most of you know, this is the first year for me and my sister Rika. We are proud to be joining in on this powerful night. We know what is to happen tonight, and we will make sure that you all have an amazing hunt. This will be a memorable night not just for myself and Rika, but also for all of you as well. I know that you can all feel the moon¡¯s strength getting stronger and that we will be setting off for the hunt. Before that happens, I want to remind you all to be careful as much as you can. Do not take unnecessary risks, and make sure you stay away from all humans. We do not need them seeing a pack of giant wolves running around the forest. If they were to see that, then they would have the scientists in here looking for the chemical spill that caused the mutant poption.¡± I heard some chuckles at my bad joke. It was good to be in charge, I guess. I mean, they wouldn¡¯t haveughed at the groan worthyedy otherwise.


    ¡°Reagan, it¡¯s time.¡± I heard Rika¡¯s voice whisper out. She was looking up at the moon as if in a trance. I looked up at it as well and saw that there was a slight purplish glow to the moon as it practically pulsed with power.


    ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± I told her calmly. ¡°It is time, everyone. Let us shift and begin the hunt.¡±


    Several people just shifted right then and there. Others took the time to remove their clothes before they shifted. It is quite ufortable to change forms with the clothes on. That is, unless you had the queen as your mom. And then she was able to make you magical clothes that didn¡¯t rip off when you shifted. Rika and I were both wearing them right now, and so we shifted into our other forms smoothly.


    I saw Rika¡¯s wolf standing in front of me before any of the others. She was a white wolf like our mother, so she stood out more than they did. The thing about our family is that we didn¡¯t follow the standards that most of the werewolves did. We were unique in coloring. Most wolves were simr to their hair color, but still brindled like real wolves. Not our family though. My dad was pure ck. Our mother was white with sapphire blue markings. Talia was different shades of purple. Rika was white, but without that goddess markings that our mom had. And as for me, well my wolf was golden. It wasn¡¯t just a golden blond either, it looked like gold spun into fur. It was also slightly reflective. I loved the way that my wolf looked, and I was proud of it. Others thought that it was amazing as well, since they always looked at me enviously.


    Now that we were all in our wolf forms, it was time to begin the hunt. As the leader for the night, I took off running into the forest first. I was followed by Rika, Uncle Shawn and Uncle Shane, who were both silver wolves, Alexa, Levi and Luka who were all ck and silver, Uncle David who had a brown brindled wolf, and then the rest of the pack that was with us. It was time for me to make my first kill ever.


    I could smell and see better in this form than I did in my human form. Even with how sharp those senses already were, they were better in this form than anything else. And the first thing that I noticed was the smell of all the deer that were in the area. There were other animals as well. There were cougars, bears, bobcats, moose, and so many more. We had our pick, as long as we didn¡¯t over hunt one particr species.


    The thing that I needed to decide on now was what I was going to hunt. I was the Alpha King¡¯s son, I needed to do a really good job here. I needed to make sure that I showed my power and strength. I needed to show them that I was just as good as my father. And that was when I made my decision.


    The most difficult of the prey in the woods wasn¡¯t prey at all. It was a predator itself, and I wanted to take it down myself. The scent was easy enough to identify. It was a bear. A grizzly bear, male, and it smelled strong as hell.


    ¡°I¡¯ming for you.¡± I spoke in the grunting growlingnguage that passed as speech in wolf form and heard my sister chuckle.


    ¡°Race you to first kill.¡¯ She grunted back at me. ¡®I smell a really big cougar up that mountain there.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going for the bear.¡± I could practically feel a smile curling my wolfish face. ¡°Let¡¯s see who makes the kill first.¡±


    ¡°Sounds good.¡± She rocketed forward then. She was faster than me, but not by much. Not to mention that I was stronger than she was. This wasn¡¯t going to be that much of apetition, at least not in my mind. I knew that I had this in the bag.


    With my heart pounding in my chest, my pulse thudding in my veins, and my breath panting and puffing out into the chilly air around me, I raced silently through the forest and toward the bear that I heard lumbering just ahead of me. I was going to take the thing by surprise.


    There it was. I broke through a line of trees, and there next to arge cave was a huge bear that had just dragged over a deer for its dinner. Too bad for the bear, but the bear was going to be my dinner.


    The bear noticed me just as I leapt from the ground and threw myself toward it. I heard and felt its roar of fear and anger just as I crashed into it. My jowls closed around its throat while I pulled the thing along with me on my forward trajectory. It toppled to the ground with me, but that wasn¡¯t the end of the bear.


    Even though it was bleeding and clearly injured, it was getting swiftly back to its feet and roaring at me again. He was also starting to swipe at me withrge ws that were several inches in length.


    I nimbly avoided the ws, twisted out of its way, and leapt at it again. I took it by the other side of its neck this time. And even though I wasn¡¯t moving as fast this time, I was still arge enough wolf that I managed to bring the bear down with me. The power of my leap had been that strong.


    I growled like a real wolf at the bear as it roared once again. I wanted it to stay down this time. Then again, I didn¡¯t mind if it got back up once more. If he got up and I had to fight it a little longer, then I would be able to take it down once more. And I liked that part of this whole thing. I liked proving that I was an Alpha and that I was strong enough to do this.


    I let off the bear and stepped away from it, letting it get to its feet and shake its head. I didn¡¯t want to attack it while it was momentarily incapacitated. And I didn¡¯t want to act like I needed the element of surprise to beat the beast. I was going to use my brute strength and my razor sharp teeth. There would be no traps here, just a fair fight to prove strength and dominance.


    The bear charged me then. I avoided it easily, leaping over it andnding on my feet behind it as the thing tried to stop their forward motion. Skidding to a halt, the bear turned to face me again and roared once more. I howled in excitement and let the beare at me once more. This time, I didn¡¯t jump out of the way. Instead, I slipped onto my back and lifted my paw toward its chest and felt the ws dig into the fur and skin of the bear. As the bear continued forward and I slid under it, my ws raked huge shing gashes in its underbelly. Blood poured all over my face and chest, but I didn¡¯t mind. It was just blood, and I could wash myselfter.


    As I slid out from behind the bear, flipping to my feet, the bear crashed to the ground. It was dead. I had killed it, and now it was time to enjoy the choicest pieces of the animal in my victory.


    ¡°Not bad, brother.¡± I heard Rika¡¯s voice. ¡°I finished about a minute ago though.¡± She said as she pawed at the cougar on the ground.


    ¡°Yeah, well, mine was bigger.¡± I shrugged.


    ¡°And I was faster.¡± We bothughed. ¡°I¡¯ll share mine if you share yours.¡± She was wanting to taste the meat of both animals, and I admit that I wanted that as well.


    ¡°Sure. Come on.¡± I told her as I pawed at the bear to flip it over. It was time to eat.


    Rika and I gutted and ate the animals raw. That was what tonight was all about. It was about connecting with the animal that lived inside of each of us. It was about embracing who and what you are and not being afraid of it. It was about bing one with the magic that flowed through us all. And it was amazing. I was truly d that I was a part of this night. And it made me excited about the next year and what animal I might bring down then.

 Chapter 1021 - 1021 Chapter 6- Trinity – Our Monthly Date Night Part 1 (VOLUME 6)

    1021 Chapter 6- Trinity ¨C Our Monthly Date Night Part 1 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Well, it was Saturday, the twenty-seventh of October now. Halloween was in just four days and that would mean trick or treating with the kids and a night of fun with them that included movies and pigging out on junk food.


    Today though, it was time for Reece and I to go on our monthly date night. We used to go on them regrly, but then the case with all those murders popped up and we put them on hold. I was more than happy to implement them again, especially considering that in just a few short months we would be having another baby and that meant that we were going to stop them for a little while.


    I wanted to get in as many of these date nights as I possibly could with Reece. I wanted to make sure that we showed each other how much we enjoyed thepany of the other, and that we never lost that spark that we had. I mean, yeah, we were true loves and mates for each other, so what?


    That didn¡¯t mean that we couldn¡¯t or shouldn¡¯t still put effort into our rtionship. We needed to make sure that we kept the other knowing that there was never going to be anyone else for us. Gettingcent and bored would just make our rtionship a moot point.


    If we didn¡¯t act like lovers, we would just be friends. And while that isn¡¯t a bad thing to be, it wasn¡¯t all that I wanted for us. No, we needed to make sure that we stayed passionate and in love. And that was why we had our date nights. To keep things interesting.


    I had dressed in a beautiful dress for our date. Not a gown or anything like that, but a dress that was appropriate for a night out on the town. It was a long ck dress that reached to my ankles and had a slit up to my left thigh. There were shining crystal beads that decorated the bodice of the dress and brought the attention of the people around me, and they usually ended up looking at my breasts. They did look fantastic in this outfit, and the view of my breasts like this dress often made Reece drool, or unable to speak for a moment. It was definitely ttering.


    .....


    We were heading to dinner, a show at the opera house, a stroll through the park, and whatever else that we decided on for the evening. I really didn¡¯t care what we did though, just that we went out.


    Reece, who was dressed mouthwateringly good in an exquisitely cut Italian suit, ck of course, came walking toward me with a confident and possessive smirk on his face. He had paired the suit with a teal colored silk shirt, a ck tie, and ck leather dress shoes. He looked like he had stepped out of a magazine and was ready for a night in Italy or France rather than Colorado. Damn, he was sexy as hell.


    ¡°Are you ready to go, Little Bunny?¡± He asked me in a purring sort of voice.


    ¡°Oh, I am ready, sweetheart.¡± I winked at him, and heughed at my cringe worthy flirting. ¡°What do you have in mind for me tonight?¡± I knew what we were doing, but I was asking him the question anyway. It was an attempt to be seductive and make him exin it for me.


    ¡°Well, I thought that we could have a nice, se-.¡± In the middle of Reece¡¯s exnation there was a knock on the door. It was Reagan, he hade up from one of the lower floors.


    ¡°Hey Mom, Dad, can I ask you something?¡±


    ¡°Sure, what¡¯s up?¡± Reece pulled away from him. He wasn¡¯t at all upset about our moment being interrupted. Probably because it was one of the kids. If it would have been one of my guards or my brother, then he would have bitten their head off.


    The door to the room opened and Reagan stepped inside. He saw that we were dressed for the night out.


    ¡°Sorry to dy your date, I just wanted to ask this first.¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡± I asked him, a soft and encouraging smile on my face.


    ¡°Well, given what happenedst month and since the summer started really, I wanted to ask if this was OK. There is a party at the university for us on Halloween, as you know, but after that party there is another one that my friends from school are throwing. I wanted to go to that one, but I also wanted to make sure that it was OK.¡±


    ¡°I appreciate you asking us first, Reagan, but things are better now. The threat is over, and as your mother keeps pointing out to me, you are an adult now. I think you can go, and it won¡¯t be an issue.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s right, Reagan. Just make sure that we know what time you are expected home and all is good. And thank you for being so considerate.¡± He was a good kid, always making sure that he did what he needed to.


    ¡°Thanks. And have fun tonight. I will take care of the quads for you, so you don¡¯t need to worry.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re such a good big brother.¡± I walked over and hugged Reagan tightly. ¡°I love you, Reagan.¡±


    ¡°I love you too, Mom.¡± He leaned down and wrapped his arms around me. ¡°Now go on, have fun.¡± When he pulled away, he was smiling at me with knowing eyes. That was a little embarrassing, but I ignored it.


    ¡°We will see youter.¡± Reece took Reagan¡¯s hand and shook it as he pulled him into a manly one armed hug. They were so much alike that it was eerie sometimes.


    We said goodbye to the others and walked toward the car in the garage under the castle. We were heading out in a new car that we had purchased earlier this month. It was a new type of car, one of the auto piloted ones that actually was worth the money in my mind. There have been a lot of those over thest twenty years or so, but this was the first that I wanted to buy. They were tested rigorously on a course that was designed for them to crash, but they werepletely safe. The AI in them was smart as hell, probably too smart. If we weren¡¯t careful, then they would take over the world. Not that I would let that happen. Magic still beats science anytime.


    Reece and I actually started the date while in the car. We were reclining with each other and his arm wrapped around me as we discussed what we were going to do for a vacation this December when the kids were out of school. I wanted to take them all on a trip away.


    For this vacation, I wanted to go to the ind that Reece had gotten me for our wedding gift, and just be away from everyone for a while. No guards, no maids, no one but us. I was going to be halfway through my pregnancy by then and I wouldn¡¯t want to do much of anything anyway, and I thought that some quality time as a family would be really great for us.


    Reece agreed with me about the idea for the vacation, so we started nning on when to leave, how long to stay, and things like that. It was a pleasant way to start the date. And of course, the conversation was peppered with lots of kisses as we spoke. This was a date after all, and a romantic one at that, so kisses and hand holding was to be expected.


    When we got to the restaurant, I almost wanted to skip going inside. I would almost rather stay in the car and just drive around as we talked to one another. We didn¡¯t sit and just talk like this as often as I would have liked. We didn¡¯t get a chance to just enjoy each other¡¯spany unless we were in the bedroom or my office. And the bedroom usually led to sex and the office didn¡¯t feel intimate.


    Inside of the car though, we were in our own little bubble. We were able to hide away from the world and ignore it for the time being. I never knew that this was possible until we had this moment with each other. And I really, really wanted to make itst.


    There would be time for thatter though. Right now, it was time to enjoy the date that Reece had nned for us. It was time for dinner, delicious food, and amazing conversation. Then we were going to go to the y and maybe for a drive instead of a walk. We can get some ice cream or something and just go for a drive in the mountains. That would be really nice.


    Knowing that we had more time like this that we could enjoy tonight, I allowed Reece to be the gentleman and open my car door for me. Yes, it was automatic, and he could have let the car open it for me, but he wanted to be the one to do it. He leaned toward me, his hand held out and a smile on his face.


    ¡°Come my love, let us enjoy our night together.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but smile when I took his hand.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± I said as he pulled me to my feet and wrapped an arm around me. And with that, we went inside the restaurant.

 Chapter 1022 - 1022 Chapter 7- Trinity – Our Monthly Date Night Part 2 (VOLUME 6)

    1022 Chapter 7- Trinity ¨C Our Monthly Date Night Part 2 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece and I were taken to a VIP table inside of the restaurant. Not because we were the king and queen of the supernatural world, but because we were rich and powerful people. We were known around the world for various reasons, and that led to some differences in treatment. Not that we asked for these things, but people tended to do them in the hopes of a bigger tip or some special reward. It was almost like it was an unspoken agreement with them all. I didn¡¯t mind though, as long as they were good people and didn¡¯t try to get something they didn¡¯t deserve, then they would be rewarded handsomely. Why not right? I mean, we had more than enough wealth to spread to the world.


    The table was meant for two. It had a couple¡¯s style seating arrangement with just one extra wide curved seat. The seat was soft, highbacked, and meant for snuggling together and being intimate while practically lording over the restaurant. It was a little embarrassing to sit here at the back of the restaurant in full view of so many people, but not so much that I couldn¡¯t do it. I mean, I had been on my throne in front of the people in the castle quite often and that was no worse.


    The drink choices for the evening were recited to us by the server instead of being given to us on a menu. The waiters here often memorized everything and only when someone insisted on having one did they hand out actual menus. I think it was a way to prove that they were catering to their guests¡¯ every need. And it was quite a lovely restaurant in my opinion.


    Reece ordered himself a wine for the night, but I couldn¡¯t have any, so I got myself some sparkling water and a juice. I was in the mood for something vorful. Once we had our drinks at the table, the waiter started to recite the list of specials for the dinner service. They didn¡¯t have the same menu every day, so you never knew what you were going to get while there.


    I was trying to listen to the waiter, a young man that looked to be the same age as Reagan. He was human, smiling professionally, and doing all that he needed to be doing. His ebonyplexion, brilliant mocha colored eyes, and dazzling smile made me feel perfectlyfortable, but there were others that were nearby that weren¡¯t making me feel very calm.


    There were two waitresses that were about fifteen feet away. They were talking about Reece and I as if we couldn¡¯t hear them. And if we were human, we wouldn¡¯t have. As it was though, their words were just not able to hide from us.


    .....


    ¡°Look at them.¡± The first woman, about twenty-two or twenty-three years old, was saying to her friend. She had bright tinum blonde hair, hazel eyes, and sharp features on her overly spray tanned face.


    ¡°What about them?¡± The other girl had a softer tone, but she was looking at us as well. Her green eyes were less piercing and her brown hair didn¡¯t look anywhere near as horrible as the other woman¡¯s had when it was paired with her naturally tannedplexion.


    ¡°That¡¯s Reece and Trinity Gray. The rich billionaires that think that they are better than everyone else. They think that just because they have money and can get stic surgery that we all need to treat them special and what not. It¡¯s disgusting.¡± Her tone was so venomous that I hoped I never had to deal with her personally. I probably would snap at her if I did.


    ¡°They don¡¯t look like they are all that bad.¡± The other woman spoke softly. ¡°And you don¡¯t know that they had surgery. They could just be naturally that pretty.¡± She was looking at me with envious eyes. Like she wanted to have beauty like mine. That was ridiculous though, she was pretty, unlike the other woman who let her nasty personality ruin her good looks. And that horrible orange spray toner that was applied a little too generously to her entire body.


    ¡°Oh, they had to have had surgery. They¡¯re both like forty or even older, but look at them. They look like they are no older than me.¡± I wanted tough, the woman definitely looked older than me. ¡°If they didn¡¯t have surgery then they aren¡¯t human. I mean, honestly, look at them.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha, what, are they vampires?¡± The nicer woman said as sheughed at her friend. ¡°Are they eternal?¡±


    ¡°Maybe.¡± The ugly woman didn¡¯t sound like it was a joke. ¡°I mean, I have heard some things in this city, things that are unbelievable. They just might be vampires. I wouldn¡¯t put it past them to be devilish creatures like that.¡±


    ¡°No, they can¡¯t be. Vampires aren¡¯t real.¡± The other woman looked like she wasn¡¯t really sure about that.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, they might be. I have a friend that says people that she knew got younger a long time ago and haven¡¯t aged since. What else could that mean? There is something wrong with this city, and they are a part of it.¡± The woman was clearly seeing through the lies that have been said, she was smart, but also cruel. She was the type of person that we didn¡¯t need looking into us. ¡°And I have a friend that is a reporter. All those murders in Europe over the summer, those two had something to do with it all. They were always there at the crime scenes. I don¡¯t trust them.¡±


    ¡°Th..that doesn¡¯t mean that they are vampires. I mean, th..they can¡¯t be. Can they?¡± The brte was looking less and less sure about things as the conversation went on.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but I don¡¯t trust those two at all.¡±


    ¡°Now, for you, Mrs. Gray?¡± The waiter was asking me what I wanted to eat. I was d that I was able to pay attention to him and the women at the same time. I knew what I was going to order right away. I needed to dispel some suspicions here.


    ¡°Oh, I think that I will have the braised short rib ravioli, and the risotto. And can I get extra garlic on both please?¡± I patted my belly bringing attention to the fact that I was pregnant. ¡°The baby wants it extra vorful.¡± I made sure that the two women heard me ce my order.


    ¡°Sure thing, Mrs. Gray.¡± The man nodded, memorized my order, and walked off toward the kitchen.


    ¡°What¡¯s with the garlic?¡± Reece asked me, knowing full well that it wasn¡¯t a craving.


    ¡°I am going to make those women realize that we aren¡¯t vampires.¡± I told him, not letting the two gossipers know that we had heard them.


    ¡°But vampires aren¡¯t affected by garlic.¡± He reminded me.


    ¡°I know that, and you know that, but they don¡¯t.¡± I smiled at him. ¡°This is just a little show for their benefit. And, besides, I do love garlic.¡± I saw that the two women were still staring at us, and it was clear that they were shocked about the garlic that I had asked for. It was working, if only just a little bit. They probably wouldn¡¯t think that we were vampires anymore at the very least.


    We ate our dinner in peace after that. The two waitresses had been called away and we didn¡¯t see them for the rest of the night. That was a good thing, since I didn¡¯t want to deal with them anymore. And actually, the food was really good with the addition of the extra garlic. I think that I might be wanting it more and more.


    We went to the opera house and enjoyed the show there. Got the ice cream that I knew I would want and we took a drive through the night. Everything was fine. In truth, the only thing that gave me pause through the entire evening was the talk about Reece and I not being human.


    I should have known that this was going to happen soon enough. I mean, I didn¡¯t even look twenty-five to most people, and I was supposed to be almost forty. That was a big red g to most people. And I knew that we wouldn¡¯t be able to fool the world for too much longer.


    What was I supposed to do though? Be a hermit? I didn¡¯t want to live a life like that. I didn¡¯t want to be away from the world, from people. I didn¡¯t want to miss so many things just because I wasn¡¯t looking my age.


    This was a problem though. And one that we all needed to figure out and face soon. Especially the people that were younger than they should be, or too old to be alive. OK, so Grandfather wasn¡¯t too old to be alive, not technically, but he was almost ny and looked like he was in his forties. That just wasn¡¯t normal. And what happened when he reached one hundred? What was supposed to happen when we all got to be that old? There just wasn¡¯t any way to hide what we were forever. And sooner orter, we were all going to have to hide away for a long time.


    I was quiet through most of the drive that we were taking, and I knew that Reece was worried about me. He didn¡¯t say anything for a while though. He just took my hand, kissed the back of it, and held me close. That was enough for the time being though. It was enough to tell me that he would be there with me through this whole thing.

 Chapter 1023 - 1023 Chapter 8- Trinity – A Day Out with Talia (VOLUME 6)

    1023 Chapter 8- Trinity ¨C A Day Out with Talia (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I try to get a day out with all of the kids every so often. It was a little difficult with there being so many of them, but I still managed it. Usually, I took them out one on one to get some lunch and to do something that they wanted to do. It could be a movie, shopping, an arcade, anything that was a single day, or half day, activity.


    Today, I was taking Talia to the mall. She wanted to get some new clothes and go to the salon. She had told me that she wanted to change up her look a little. Something that she felt represented her a little more. I didn¡¯t mind, and since it was her body, it was her choice. She was allowed to wear what she wanted, as long as it wasn¡¯t revealing and slutty. That was the only rule. And it wasn¡¯t just Reece who enforced that one.


    I didn¡¯t want to see my children wearing clothes that would overly sexualize them when they were still so young. When they were adults, they could wear what they wanted, even if it was revealing. I wouldn¡¯t be happy, but I wasn¡¯t going to stop them. Thankfully, so far, Rika hadn¡¯t wanted to wear things that were see-through, too short, or guaranteed to make her look like a hooker. I felt like I had to have done something right with her.


    The first ce that I went with Talia was to the salon. She wanted to get her hair cut, and she wanted to actually have the experience of going there. She was getting her hair done, her nails and toes done, and a facial. We were both doing the full treatment and enjoying a mother daughter day.


    ¡°Hey Mom, what do you think of this color?¡± Talia asked as we were looking at the polish for our nails. She was looking at a dark purple color that was close to ck.


    ¡°Ooh, that¡¯s really nice. If you like it, then I say get it.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Mom?¡± One of the nail techs looked up at me and Talia with a raised eyebrow. ¡°Is she your stepmother? Or were you adopted?¡±


    ¡°Neither.¡± Talia looked a little confused by the words.


    ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t mean to expose the secret.¡± The woman looked at me with apologetic eyes. ¡°Y..you hadn¡¯t told her about the adoption then.¡±


    ¡°She is not adopted.¡± I red at the woman. ¡°Look at us, we¡¯re too simr not to be rted.¡±


    ¡°Oh, yeah, that is true. So, what are you, her older sister? You got custody after your parents died or something?¡±


    ¡°Not that it¡¯s any of your business, but not. I am her mother. I carried her in my belly and delivered her fifteen years ago.¡±


    ¡°Th..that¡¯s just impossible.¡± She looked between us. ¡°You¡¯re not that old, so how could you be her mother? What, did you have her when you were five?¡±


    ¡°No, I was twenty-three.¡±


    ¡°There is no way.¡± She was shaking her head. ¡°What¡¯s your secret? Immortality?¡± Sheughed and that just annoyed me.


    ¡°Just good genes.¡± I told her in an angry tone. Thankfully, she wasn¡¯t the one that was going to be doing mine or Talia¡¯s nails, so we didn¡¯t have to talk to her anymore after that.


    Once our nails were done, Talia was getting her hair cut. At the moment, it was down to her lower back. Just a little shy of being long enough to sit on if she wasn¡¯t careful. Her hair was beautiful, but it was still Talia¡¯s choice to do with it what she wanted to. And she wanted it cut.


    The style that Talia was going with right now was much shorter. It was going to be about to her chin maybe, but it wasn¡¯t a bob or anything like that. And with her naturally wavy hair it was going to look even better. Theyers that were put into it made it so that it would have some volume and yfulness to it. I loved the look on her and I was happy that she was doing what made her happy.


    I noticed that Talia¡¯s hair looked darker now. I didn¡¯t know why, but she looked like she had ck hair now instead of the dark brown that she used to have when she was younger. Or even just when the summer started. Was that a result of her shift? Or was it because of something else? I mean, I had noticed that my hair darkened a little as well over the years, after the kids were born, but Talia hadn¡¯t experienced that at all. So why had her hair turned ck instead of the mahogany brown?


    Well, no matter what it was, Talia was still beautiful. No matter what she looked like, she was my beautiful daughter with a sweet, sweet soul. And now she was being more true to that soul inside of her.


    Thankfully, we didn¡¯t have any more awkward moments after that nail tech tried to ask me how I had a daughter that was fifteen years old. We were able to move on from there to get some lunch and then start shopping for the clothes that Talia wanted.


    We went to one of the restaurants that were in the mall. They had several nicer establishments that were in there and allowed us to have more than a diner experience. I thought that Talia would like that, and she chose to go to a ce that was called Paradise Dynasty. It was a traditional Chinese restaurant that was quite popr around the city. I liked it a lot myself and I was happy that she had chosen to go there for our meal.


    We ordered a lot of food, getting a variety of things that we wanted to sample for the day. It was a great lunch and it allowed me to talk to her about her new friends that she met at the party two weeks ago. She had even gone with those friends when we took Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley out trick or treating on Halloween. I was happy to see that she was finally acting like a normal teenager. She needed to have these experiences, or she would end up regretting it allter.


    After we finished eating, I let Talia lead me to wherever it was that we were going. She was the one that was getting new clothes here, so it was her choice for the stores that we went to. And I was surprised that it had nothing to do with the dresses and pretty things that she used to go for. Or was it just that she was catering to what we thought she liked? Had we influenced her decision and now she was being more of herself? I wasn¡¯t sure what the truth was, and I hoped that I hadn¡¯t held her back or anything.


    Talia had taken me into a store that had dark walls, anime and manga themes, and loud music. There was a more grungy or punkish style about the ce, but I liked it. There was a lot in here that I would wear as well, and I thought that maybe, while Talia was looking for something that she wanted, I could get some things for myself. Then I remembered that it wouldn¡¯t fit me for a long time and just figured that I coulde backter.


    I let Talia go off on her own. It¡¯s not like I couldn¡¯t see her, smell her or hear her. So, I didn¡¯t have to worry about her being kidnapped or anything. I mean, we weren¡¯t here with guards, so it was up to me to protect Talia. Not that I wasn¡¯tpletely sure that she could protect herself. She was amazingly strong, and I knew that she would be safe no matter where she went. She had killed the leader of the Ancient Ones after all, I think she could protect herself after that.


    I was picking out a pair of earrings for Zaley, a fun looking pair with animal shaped skeletons. Given her interest in zombies and things like that, I thought that she would love them. And I could give them to her on her next day out with me. Just as I picked them up, Talia came walking over with an arm full of clothes. They were mostly ck and other dark colors. I Saw jeans with rips and tears, hoodies, and various types of shirts. There was also a pair of ck boots with silver buckles. She was definitely going with a different style, wasn¡¯t she?


    ¡°I am all set.¡± She smiled at me. Her short hair bouncing around her face.


    ¡°Alright. Let¡¯s go.¡± I told her and headed toward the register.


    ¡°Is that it?¡± She looked and sounded confused.


    ¡°What?¡± I looked back at her. ¡°Was there more that you wanted?¡± I tilted my head. ¡°I thought you said you were all set.¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t even look at the clothes.¡±


    ¡°I looked. I just didn¡¯t see anything wrong with them. You want a new style, that¡¯s fine. And those aren¡¯t things that are against the rules. So, what else did you want me to say? I am not going to stop you from wearing what you want to, Talia. You¡¯re a big girl, and you can make your own choices.¡±


    ¡°Thanks, Mom.¡± She smiled and looked relieved now. ¡°I..I just wanted to be more true to what I felt on the inside. I didn¡¯t want to look bubbly when I didn¡¯t particrly feel bubbly. Not that I am not happy. I am happy, really happy. I..I just want to look more like me.¡±


    ¡°And I love that about you, sweetheart. You go and be you. And I will support you no matter what.¡±


    ¡°You really are the best, Mom. You and Dad both. I couldn¡¯t have asked or hoped for better parents than the two of you.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re not perfect, Talia, but we want to do our best. Nowe on, let¡¯s go and pay for that. I have a hankering for some ice cream. It seems like your baby sister prefers ice cream and garlic, thankfully, notbined though. That would be utterly disgusting.¡±


    ¡°Eww. Don¡¯t ever eat those together Mom, I am begging you. That sounds totally evil.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha. No worries. I don¡¯t n on doing that any time soon.¡±


    We paid for the clothes and other items that Talia had gotten, the earrings for Zaley, and then went to get the ice cream. It was delicious and hit the spot and visited a few more stores. However, the truly best thing about the day was that Talia was happy. She had done all the things that she wanted to, and now we were heading home.

 Chapter 1024 - 1024 Chapter 9- Rawlynne – An Unwelcomed Visit (VOLUME 6)

    1024 Chapter 9- Rawlynne ¨C An Unweed Visit (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Rawlynne


    ~~


    Things had settled down now that the murders were done and over with. Jackson and I weren¡¯t as busy as we used to be. And we didn¡¯t need to worry about all of the attention being on us now. It was a lot more peaceful.


    I was able to get off work on time right now, with nothing major happening in the area, no major crimes requiring my attention, and no massive meetings to discuss what we needed to do. I loved how this was all going right now. I was able to spend a lot more time with Davidtely. Goddess, but I loved that man way more than I ever thought was possible. And we had our kids that we could spend time with. I just loved how special the life that we had was now. I can¡¯t believe that there was ever a time that I wanted to wait and not rush into this life.


    From the moment that I met David, all that I could think about was a future and a family with him. And I knew that he thought the same. They weren¡¯t kidding in all the stories they told when I was a kid. A true mating is so powerful that it will be able to change any and all of your ns to make it happen. And you won¡¯t even be mad about it.


    I was sitting in my office, filling out the budget report for the first of the year. Yeah, I was almost two months ahead of schedule. I would rather be ahead than behind though. And doing this now meant that the month of December was going to be that much easier on me and the family. They wouldn¡¯t have to worry about me being too busy for them.


    I think that I was even humming as I worked my way through the budget that was on the screen in front of me. I was going to get this done, and I was going to be humming jingle bells while I did it. Just see if I don¡¯t. While I was humming though, I seemed to be a little lost in thought. And I didn¡¯t notice that someone new came into the building.


    I missed a lot, apparently. I didn¡¯t see how Jackson and the others were looking weary as they tried their best to talk to the man that had stormed into the federal building like he was an angel sent to deliver holy justice. I didn¡¯t notice any of this until I heard Jackson calling after the man that was stomping toward my office.


    .....


    ¡°SHE IS BUSY RIGHT NOW!¡± He had shouted at the man and caught my attention. I lifted my head, and silenced my humming, just seconds before the man stormed into my office.


    ¡°Are you Rawlynne Otsana?¡± He demanded of me in a tone that I didn¡¯t appreciate at all. I was a wolf for one thing, and I only epted my king and queen talking to me like that. However, I also knew that I couldn¡¯t, or rather shouldn¡¯t, growl and reprimand this man. Keeping my cool was going to be the key here.


    ¡°I am Director Rawlynne Otsana, yes. How may I help you?¡± My voice was calm, and I used my professional tone, as well as my job title, so that this man would know that I was not to be trifled with.


    ¡°You can answer the questions that I have for you. That is a start.¡± The man¡¯s eyes, a rather ordinary shade of brown that weren¡¯t even glowing or shining in the intense emotions that he seemed to be feeling at the moment, narrowed as he looked at me intensely. I saw that he was human. That waspletely evident. His scent was far too strong for me not to tell. Other than that though, he seemed to be an important person, from where though, I didn¡¯t know. His sandy blond hair, weathered and chiseled face, and ramrod straight posture didn¡¯t give me too many clues.


    ¡°And who are you, might I ask?¡± I raised one brow as I looked him over.


    ¡°I am NSA Special Agent Harrison Orson.¡±


    ¡°NSA?¡± I looked at him with eyes that might have widened infinitesimally. That was a shock to me. What was a spook of the NSA doing here? I mean, yeah, I knew that they were the ¡®National Security Agency¡¯ and likely needed our assistance on something, but I had never met one of their spooks. I was one of the groups of people that called the NSA ¡®No Such Agency¡¯ because they were so elusive and secretive. ¡°What is it that the NSA needs with us? Is there something that you need my agents for?¡±


    ¡°No, Otsana. I have questions for you.¡± The man was ring at me like he was personally offended by me.


    ¡°Alright. Well, please, have a seat. I will answer what I can.¡± I invited him to sit down and tried to not feel like something was terribly wrong here.


    The man took the seat, but his eyes never left my face. I didn¡¯t show that he was bothering me though. That would have made me look like I had something to hide, which I didn¡¯t. OK, well I did, but nothing that this man needed to know about. Since no one was going to worry about me being a werewolf.


    The man, who had been holding a briefcase that had escaped my notice in the beginning, pulled a notepad out of that briefcase now. He needed to take notes apparently. That was fine with me. I wasn¡¯t going to let this bother me or stress me out at all. I knew that I had nothing to worry about. My office was running smoothly, and I didn¡¯t allow corruption within a hundred square miles of my office. We were all squeaky clean.


    ¡°Now, Agent Otsana.¡± The man started, but I interrupted him.


    ¡°Director.¡± I corrected him. ¡°I am the director of this field office, so my title is Director.¡± I told him in a tone that was still calm. If we were going to get along though, he needed to treat me with the respect that I deserved.


    This didn¡¯t seem to settle well with the man though. He looked up from his notepad and red at me disdainfully. He sneered at me and then spoke again.


    ¡°Otsana.¡± This time he omitted the title altogether. That pissed me off, but I wasn¡¯t about to correct him again. I knew that was what he was waiting for. I would pick my battles and when to fight them. This wasn¡¯t a battle that I needed to take on though. Not yet anyway. I needed to see what it was that this man needed from me first.


    ¡°Yes.¡± I showed that I was not affected at all.


    ¡°I have some questions about the case that you took on recently. The one with the international murders. I am a little curious as to why a local field office in Colorado would take on that case? And why would you involve Mr. Reece Gray and Mrs. Trinity Gray in the investigation? Are you taking bribes from them?¡± He was giving me a look that told me that he was pissed at me. And anything that I said needed to be on point.


    ¡°Well, I took on the case because I was the right woman for the job. I was handed the assignment and performed wonderfully in my own opinion. As for the Grays, I allowed them to assist me in the investigation because they were concerned for those that were being targeted. They also indicated that they would investigate privately, since they are legally allowed to do that with the PI licenses that they have. I thought that instead of working separately, it would be better to work as a team. I admit that some things were made easier with their assistance. Particrly the swiftness with which we were able to travel with their private ne. We were able to head to all the locations right away.¡±


    ¡°Uh huh.¡± He didn¡¯t look convinced, but he was writing down my answer as he heard it. I knew that no one, not even a lie detector, would be able to detect that I wasn¡¯t telling the truth. It was all close enough to the truth anyway, so that was what mattered.


    ¡°And were you able to use the men and women in your own office to solve this crime? Is anyone here effective in the solving of crimes at all?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t like the implications that you are making. My team worked hard on all of the aspects of this case. We were all doing our best here.¡±


    ¡°Uh huh.¡± Another of those mumbles as he made his notes.


    ¡°Forgive me, Otsana, but you look rather young to be a director of an office like this. I know that you are supposed to be in yourte forties, but you don¡¯t look that old at all. Are you standing in for the real director?¡±


    ¡°Absolutely not. I am Rawlynne Otsana. I am the director. Why on earth would you think that?¡± I was starting to feel a slight increase in my heart rate. This wasn¡¯t good at all.


    ¡°Well, if you weren¡¯t really Rawlynne Otsana, and you were someone pretending to be her, then I would understand how you weren¡¯t able to solve this case on your own. Being an imposter and all.¡± He narrowed his eyes at me and I felt my blood boil.


    ¡°I am not an imposter. And I do not think I like the tone that you are using with me. What exactly are you supposed to be using me of?¡± I demanded of him in a tone that was just a little less calm than it had been before.


    ¡°I think that is pretty clear, Otsana. I think that there is something fishy going on here. And I promise you, I will get to the bottom of this. Something is happening here, and I don¡¯t like it at all. You and all the agents in this office are hiding something. I don¡¯t know what it is yet, but I will find out.¡±


    ¡°We aren¡¯t hiding anything.¡± I told him, my voice back to normal now. It took a lot of effort, but I managed it.


    ¡°Then I guess you will have nothing to worry about. But consider this the only warning that you will get. I am opening an investigation into your entire office. And I will not stop until I find out what is going on here.¡±


    The man didn¡¯t say anything else after that. He just threw his pen and notepad into the briefcase, snapped it shut, and stormed out of my office. He was not happy with me at all. And I can¡¯t honestly say that I am happy with him either. This wasn¡¯t good. Not at all.

 Chapter 1025 - 1025 Chapter 10- Reece – Getting Ready for Another Baby (VOLUME 6)

    1025 Chapter 10- Reece ¨C Getting Ready for Another Baby (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I was with Juniper in the nursery at the moment. We were both trying to figure out what we were going to do in here. And we were both so sad about the mural that had been painted for the quads. It was a masterpiece that Juniper had made for us, and I loathed to see it go. I wanted to do something with it other than just painting over the images.


    I think that, in the end, we were going to cut out a section of the wall so that it could be pulled away with the mural intact. We could put it somewhere else in the royal tower. I wanted to make sure that I had it forever. That was a special time for us, and I wouldn¡¯t change the surprise of that delivery day for anything in the world.


    With the mural being preserved, I knew that we needed to fix the wall and then paint the entire room again. We had done neutral colors for all of the kids, and this time wasn¡¯t going to be any exception. We were thinking about painting a look from the mountains that Trinity and I saw in Wales. It was beautiful, and it would remind us of that special night whenever we came in here. However, it would also remind us of that case and the heartache that came with it, so maybe that wasn¡¯t a good idea.


    We could always do an image that showed the castle from the mountains around us. It would be andscape that we lived in, and therefore rtively easy to paint. I knew that Juniper would be able to do that view in her sleep, since we had all been to the peaks of those mountains.


    I also needed to donate or toss out the old cribs. They were over ten years old now. And then I needed to rece them with some that were newer and therefore safer for the baby. We could use the same rocking chair, since that wasn¡¯t likely to hurt the baby, but everything else needed to be reced. And it all needed to fit a theme.


    ¡°Reeselynn was going to be born in March, right before my twentieth wedding anniversary with Trinity. This was going to be a special time for us, and that meant that I wanted to have everything perfect for my girls. I knew that my Little Bunny was going to be happy no matter what I did, but I wanted it to be perfect for her.


    .....


    I was working on it all right now as well, because we had the holidaying up, and with that meant that Reagan, Rika, Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley all had birthdaysing up as well. And I didn¡¯t want to make them feel like they weren¡¯t as important if I was going to be taking the time to do all of this during their celebrations. Nope, it was better to do all of this right now. And of course, Juniper was all for this. She loved being there to help me with the nursery whenever I asked her.


    We were removing all the old furniture at the moment. And since it wasn¡¯t destroyed, I was going to have it taken to a shelter that could give it to a family in need. There were even some baby clothes that were left in the back of the closets. We hadn¡¯t gotten them all when the quads had outgrown them. Those would be going as well. We were going to be getting all new things for Reeselynn.


    It took me and Juniper a little while to clear out the furniture, but we were only putting it in the hall. The others were taking them all down to the waiting box truck that would then deliver it to the shelter.


    With the furniture all out, we started to cut out the wall. I was going to have it taken to be framed and turned into a giant portrait. It would most likely embarrass Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley, but I didn¡¯t care. I loved it. And I would keep it. Not to mention, it would help me to keep the boys away when they came sniffing around for my little Zaley.


    The wall repair was going to take a while, but I was refusing to let Trinity work on this nursery. She was still taking her break from work, so she wasn¡¯t going to work in here. And besides, it was tradition for me to n the nursery. It had happened every time before this one, so why should this one be any different?


    Juniper was not against the hardbor that was going into the remodel. I was happy about that. And I found it strange how close her and I had gotten over thest twenty years. She went from hating me to tolerating me, to being a friend. It was just strange to think about.


    We had to let the work on the wall sit overnight. Mostly because by the time that we had the new drywall in ce, it was time for dinner. And I didn¡¯t like the idea of calling Juniper away from her family after that. We put it on hold until the next day and decided to work right after breakfast the next morning.


    The first thing that we worked on the next morning was the painting. We had to primer the entire room, so that the new paint would cover easily. While the primer was drying, we went to the store to pick out the paint. I wanted the room to be done in a hunter green to go along with the forest, but Juniper said that would sh too much. We needed to go with a shade of yellow or white. I opted for the yellow, the white would be too bright. And it didn¡¯t get a bright yellow either. I got one that was soft and muted, but it was a slightly darker shade at the same time. It was hard to exin. It was just definitely nowhere in the same vicinity as something like canary yellow.


    When we got back to the nursery, the primer was dry, so it was time to paint. We started with the base coat of yellow. It looked really good in the room, especially when paired with the ck trim and doors that we had. After that was done, we moved onto the mural.


    I wasn¡¯t the worst at painting and doing murals, having done the first one that was here in the nursery, so I started to help with the images that Juniper was making. I was getting the outline done at the very least. And working together on that, we actually got it all outlined right away.


    With nothing else for me to do in the nursery while Juniper painted, I headed to the store for some baby shopping. It was time for me to buy all the furniture and have it ready for tomorrow¡¯s setup.


    I got a new crib, a changing table, two dressers, a toy box for all her new toys that she will have, and a lot of other things. I then went over and bought the brand of bottles that we had used for all the other babies when they started on them. I grabbed pacifiers, stuffed animals, toys, clothes, and so much more. I even decided to stock up on diapers, since we would need a lot of them soon. I was feeling so generous, and sorry for holding up the line, that I paid for all the orders that had been stuck waiting in the line behind me. There were six families that had waited nearly half an hour because of me, and the fact that there was only one register open. They were all happy about the way that I made up for the inconvenience though, so it was all good.


    After loading up the box truck, which I had to call Noah and have him drive down to the store for me, we headed back to the castle. Juniper was just finishing up the mural and I realized two things. She was super fast at painting and I had been gone for a long time. All we did for the rest of that night was unload the truck and then head to dinner. We would finish it all the next morning.


    And, sure enough, after breakfast the next day, we started to get everything taken care of for the furniture. Though I did ask Roisin to wash all the clothes, bottles, stuffed animals, nkets, and everything else that I had bought. She took them away while Juniper and I worked on the furniture. We had a lot to put together, but it went smoothly with the two of us there. We were also pros at this now, so that made it easier. When we were done we called in a maid to vacuum, clean, and sanitize the room, a feat that was actually being aplished by five maids to expedite it all.


    When the cleaning was done, Roisin was bringing in the stuff that she washed. She helped us to put it all away and hang things up. Thest thing that I needed was the sign that I had orderedst month. It was in my room, where my Little Bunny was reading right now. And I was going to go get it, and her. She can put up thest decoration in the room. The one with the baby¡¯s name on it.


    I went to my room and found my Little Bunny sitting in a big poufy chair by the window. She looked up at me and smiled sweetly.


    ¡°If you¡¯re here right now, then that means the room is done.¡± She was excited, I could see it glowing in her eyes.


    ¡°Well, I have onest thing to do, but I thought that you would like to do it.¡± I grinned at her. ¡°I have to hang the name.¡± I told her when she looked questioningly at me.


    ¡°Ooh, I can help.¡± She set aside her book and slid to her feet. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go.¡±


    ¡°Hold on, let me get the name.¡± I was heading toward the closet and grabbing the cardboard box that it came in.


    ¡°Alright, but hurry up.¡± She was really excited to see the new nursery.


    We hurried down the stairs to the floor where all the kids slept. We didn¡¯t take the secret stairs that we had in our room, I wanted her to see it from the main entry point. It would make things that much more special.


    ¡°Alright, Trinity, here it is.¡± I said as Juniper and I stood on either side of my Little Bunny. I turned the handle and opened the door for her to see the room.


    ¡°Oh my goodness. It is amazing.¡± She was covering the bottom half of her face as she spoke. ¡°I love it.¡± She looked all around the room. ¡°Oh, but I will miss the old mural.¡± She said as she rubbed her hand over the new one. ¡°This is lovely though. It¡¯s perfect, Juniper.¡±


    ¡°Thanks. But the old one is safe. Reece and I cut it out. It will be framed soon.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± The happiness shone in her eyes again. ¡°Thank you, Reece.¡±


    ¡°Of course, sweetheart. Now, want to hang the name?¡± I pulled the cursive name out of the cardboard and held it out to her.


    ¡°Of course.¡± She took it and turned toward the wall. ¡°We need to move the crib though.¡±


    ¡°Nope.¡± I chuckled as I bent to pick her up. ¡°This will be just fine.¡±


    ¡°Reece!¡± She squealed and thenughed. ¡°You¡¯re a dork.¡±


    ¡°But you love me.¡± I rubbed my face against the back of her leg that was pressed against it.


    ¡°Yes. Yes, I do.¡± She hung the name on the two hooks that I had ready for it. It hung perfectly centered over the crib and was thest little detail that the room had needed.


    ¡°How is it, Little Bunny?¡± I asked her as I turned her in my arms, letting her slide down until our faces were level.


    ¡°It¡¯s perfect Reece, as always. Thank you. And you as well, Juniper.¡± She was beaming at us both and I felt a swelling of pride. I loved that I was able to make her happy like this.

 Chapter 1026 - 1026 Chapter 11- Trinity – Rawlynne’s Warning (VOLUME 6)

    1026 Chapter 11- Trinity ¨C Rawlynne¡¯s Warning (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Now that the nursery was done, Reece felt like we needed more and more family time together. I knew that he felt like my pregnancy was speeding by, hell even I felt that way, but we couldn¡¯t focus on just that. It was just a couple days into November for crying out loud. I still had four months left before the baby came. And I didn¡¯t really want to take away from the life that we were living right now. We needed to be here, right now, in the moment with the children and the other people that were around us. We would focus on the delivery when it was more imminent.


    At the moment, the kids were in school, Reece was at work, and I was here at home with just the staff and some cheesy soap operas. I swear, they have been making these damned things for ny years now[1], and they are still not any better than they used to be. Then again, what does that say about me since I am watching it right now.


    I even had a bowl of ice cream that I was eating as I watched the show. I was so engrossed in the over the top acting and the cheesy drama filled plotline that I didn¡¯t even notice Gabrieling into the living room. It even took him a few tries of calling out to me before I realized that he was trying to talk to me.


    ¡°Trinity.¡± He called onest time and I jerked to awareness.


    ¡°Gah!¡± I jumped and looked at him. ¡°Gabriel, I didn¡¯t even notice you there.¡± He looked at the TV screen and smiled before he started to speak again.


    ¡°Rawlynne is here to see you. She said that it is urgent and would like to speak with you immediately.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Alright.¡± I nodded and rose from the chair.


    ¡°She is waiting in your office.¡± Gabriel took the bowl from me and held it out toward Roisin. I noticed that their hands brushed intimately as they passed it between them. It was just one of the little things they did to stay connected with each other while working.


    ¡°Hmm, I guess that it must be serious, if she is in my office waiting for me rather thaning up here.¡±


    ¡°I believe that it is.¡± He said as he started to escort me downstairs. He and all the others still treated me like I was fragile and weak, especially when I was pregnant. It was a little annoying, but it was sweet as well. They all wanted me to be safe when they were around me. So, I guess that they acted like they needed to be the ones to protect me. That, or Reece was just rubbing off on them.


    It didn¡¯t take long for me to get down to my office and see Rawlynne waiting for me. She looked a little on the panicked side as she paced from side to side across my office. I could tell that if it had taken me longer to get here, she would have worn a hole into my floor. Or at least a rut.


    ¡°Hello Rawlynne, what can I do for you today?¡± I asked her as I walked to my desk. Gabriel was pulling my chair out from the desk and making it easier for me to sit down. I watched on as Rawlynne stopped pacing, returned to the middle of the room, and then stared at me with wild looking eyes. She then looked at Gabriel and then back to me like she wasn¡¯t sure if he should be here right now.


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Rawlynne. You know that Gabriel is my lead advisor. He will most likely hear anything that you need to tell me anyway. This will just help me to eliminate a step in the process.¡± I didn¡¯t know why I needed to remind her of this, but the fact that I did was unsettling.


    ¡°Yes. Of course.¡± She nodded and paced a few more times. ¡°Alright, here it goes. Trinity, I think that we¡¯re in trouble.¡±


    ¡°Trouble?¡± I looked at her with one eyebrow raised. ¡°What kind of trouble? I mean, we just cleared up those murders, and I doubt that anything could be as bad as all that was.¡± I hoped that nothing bad wasing our way again. That would just be way too soon. And I was supposed to be taking time off of work before the baby got here. I needed to be able to rest. I needed to be able to spend time with all of my kids as well as Reece. Another problem like that would be a disaster.


    ¡°It¡¯s not like the murders.¡± Rawlynne said in a tense tone, but before I could rx too much, she continued to speak. ¡°It¡¯s because of the murders.¡±


    ¡°Come again?¡± I asked her in a stunned tone. ¡°What is because of the murders?¡±


    ¡°A man came to see me yesterday. I wanted toe and tell you right away, but I didn¡¯t want to do it while the kids were here. I had hoped that Reece was going to be here today, but he wasn¡¯t. I am sorry about the bad timing.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Rawlynne, just go on.¡± I encouraged her as I leaned forward over the desk. ¡°What is happening? Who came to see you?¡±


    ¡°Special Agent Orson of the NSA.¡± I saw the color drain from her face. ¡°They are asking about your involvement in the investigation and why I brought you in on it all. They are out to destroy me, and possibly you, Trinity. I am so sorry.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Rawlynne. You didn¡¯t do anything wrong. I would have been involved even if you hadn¡¯t made it official. Those were my people that were being ughtered. I needed to be there to help them. It was my responsibility.¡±


    ¡°I know, Trinity. And that is why I included you in it right away. But now I fear that we have a whole new problem, one that won¡¯t be so easily dealt with. The man that came to see me was human. And if he digs too deeply, Trinity, he might find things that he isn¡¯t supposed to. He even used me of being an imposter because I look too young to be my age now.¡± I saw the shock and fear that was in her eyes. That wasn¡¯t anything new to me though. I had just heard that on my date with Reece. There are people that are wondering about the seemingly eternal beings in our city. And I can guess that it would be happening all over the world as well. This wasn¡¯t good. Not good at all.


    I was thinking about things, silently pressing my hands together while resting my chin on the tips of my fingers. I was so lost in thought that I think I was scaring Rawlynne, who already looked to be at her wit¡¯s end. She had sat on this knowledge since yesterday, and that had taken its toll on her.


    ¡°Trinity?¡± She asked me, leaning in a little as if she were trying to see if I had fallen asleep or something.


    ¡°I am still here, Rawlynne. I am just thinking.¡±


    ¡°Wh..what do you think that we should do? How do we stop this investigation?¡±


    ¡°We don¡¯t.¡± I told her honestly. ¡°If we stop it, then Orson will know that we have something to hide. And that will just make him want to look that much more. No, our best option here is strategic transparency. We need to be open and honest with him about almost everything. The almost including all things to do with the case, while also excluding everything that exins who and what we really are. We need to make sure that there are no missteps here. We have to be careful.¡±


    ¡°Alright. And what exactly do you want me to do?¡± I could see how desperately Rawlynne needed guidance at the moment. If she wasn¡¯t someone that I was so close with, I might have worried about her resolve and sanity. I knew Rawlynne though, and I knew that she took her job and her life in my kingdom very seriously. She wanted to make both work for her, she always had, and now they were shing her. It was like her two lives, the professional one and the personal one, were warring with each other and trying to make her choose between them. It didn¡¯t look pleasant either.


    I tried to think of something that would make her feel better at the moment, but I needed to talk to Reece about this investigation. I needed to know what was going on, and how he thought we should handle it. I mean, I had already told Rawlynne what my idea was, but there might be more to it than that.


    ¡°Go home and rest for the day, Rawlynne. Tomorrow, you can go back to work and pretend like everything is just fine. I will look into this matter with Reece, and we will get back to you as soon as we decide on something. Don¡¯t worry, Rawlynne. I will make sure that things go just fine. We won¡¯t have anything to worry about, I promise you.¡±


    ¡°If you say so.¡± She seemed to sigh and dete at the same time. ¡°This is just really nerve wracking. If he digs too much and sees that my entire office isn¡¯t human, then we will all be fucked. Not just my office, but our entire shadow world.¡±


    ¡°I will handle it.¡± I assured her again. ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± She nodded and sighed once more. She looked like she had finally started to return to her normal self. She had been so worried about all of this since yesterday, and it had wound her tighter than coil tensed to spring.


    [1] Just a reminder that this story is taking ce in November 2040 at the moment. The first Soap Opera aired in 1949, so that was ny-one years before this current scene.

 Chapter 1027 - 1027 Chapter 12- Reece – A Surprise Visitor (VOLUME 6)

    1027 Chapter 12- Reece ¨C A Surprise Visitor (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Gah! I hated having to be here right now. I didn¡¯t want to be away from the house and leave my Little Bunny all alone, but I needed to go into the office today. There were a few meetings that I had to attend in person, whichpletely sucked. Most people met virtually anymore and the days of going into the office were bing obsolete.


    Well, notpletely. I still had a massive group of employees that went to the office on a semi regr basis, though a lot of them worked remotely when they were able to. I think that most of the time, the office rotated in a half on half off schedule. That way the office was never crowded, but it was never empty either.


    Only people like my secretary, and several of the other secretaries, still worked every day. They would be there to make sure that we got the important messages, to move along the papers and other items that were important to me and the others that worked from home most of the time. And it was that secretary of mine, the evil cat that she was, that demanded that Ie into the office today.


    I was going to be meeting with Balthazar Kensington, a human man that wanted to try and get in on my business. He had been having a hard time taking no for an answer and was demanding a meeting in person with me. And I think that, in all honesty, ire, my secretary, was getting really sick and tired of fielding his calls. She wanted me to shut the man down once and for all. She wanted me to tell the man, in no uncertain terms, that we would not be partnering with him.


    And that is why I was sitting in a meeting room with Balthazar and three of hisckeys as I told him over and over again that I didn¡¯t want to have him as a business partner. Mypany was in no danger of being taken over, and I didn¡¯t need anything from him. This would be apletely one sided gain for him and nothing but an economic, social, and industrial loss for me. He would do nothing for me and I didn¡¯t want to revive the business that he had run into the ground with his poor business management skills.


    Oh yes, he tried to counter it and tell me that it wasn¡¯t his fault. It was the recession. It was this. It was that. h. h. h. Well, he had forgotten that there hadn¡¯t been a recession since the twenty twenties. And there had been nothing to make hispany tank. He was just, by all ounts, a horrible businessman. And an absolute fucking Scrooge to work for. He was an asshole, and I was finally starting to see why it is that ire wanted me to deal with him. At least if I got even a little angry, he would get the fucking hint and leave us all alone.


    .....


    I had to spend at least another thirty to forty minutes hedging the man¡¯s advances. I swear, it almost felt like he was trying to seduce me into being a business partner with him. That turned me offpletely. I wasn¡¯t interested in men. I wasn¡¯t interested in anyone that wasn¡¯t my beautiful Little Bunny. And this old ass human thought that he was going to use his ugly puke green eyes and bby, drooping face as a way to pull me in. What the hell! Were there rumors that I, Reece Gray, was gay? Did he confuse thest name and take out the R or something? I mean, what the hell was the matter with the man?


    ¡°Hahh!¡± I sighed repeatedly as Balthazar Kensington droned on and on. I truly just wanted this meeting to end. However, I knew that he wasn¡¯t going to stop on his own. If I wanted to free myself from this situation, and save my ears from his incessant droning, then I needed to do something about it soon.


    In the end, it wasn¡¯t me threatening the man with violence that got him to stop his begging and pleading. I was trying to live up to my Little Bunny¡¯s standards and not jump straight to the idea of hurting someone, especially a human. Instead, I threatened him with the police, and legal action. He has been harassing my employees, and he had overstayed his wee. I told him that he wasn¡¯t allowed toe back here ever again, and that he needed to leave right now. It seemed like a shock to him, but he finally gave up and stopped bothering me.


    I sighed in relief when it was over, slumping in my chair when the man left with his figurative tail between his legs. I thought that, with the meeting over, I would be able to go home. However, there was a beeping from the table in front of me and I knew that meant that ire was trying to get a hold of me.


    I ignored it though, needing a moment to myself before anything else interrupted me. Apparently, ire wasn¡¯t going to allow that. She stormed into the conference room. Her green eyes zing and the severely short red hair was styled in a professional look, as much as she could get with hair that was only an inch and a half long. I saw the firm set to her lips and knew that she was not happy. And based on her insistence, this meant that I had another meeting waiting on me.


    ¡°Reece, there is a man that needs to see you. He is on your schedule, but the meeting with that monster man ran wayter than it was supposed to. So, now that Mr. Kensington is gone, you can meet with Mr. Dayton. He is waiting in your office.¡±


    ¡°Ugh!¡± I groaned as I threw my head back. ¡°That meeting was enough to fill my quota for a year, ir. Don¡¯t make me do this!¡± I pretended to whine as I got out of my chair.


    ¡°Too bad, Reece. If I have to work hard around here, then so do you.¡± She smirked at me and left the room.


    ¡°You¡¯re evil, ire. You hear me? Evil, I tell you.¡±


    ¡°And you wouldn¡¯t have it any other way. No one else is capable of running this ce besides me.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, yeah.¡± I grumbled, but she was right. She was an amazing secretary. ¡°I guess I need to see who this Mr. Dayton is, and why it is that he ising to see me.¡±


    I lumbered out of the room. For a moment I really did feel like a man that was in his mid-forties rather than thete twenties that I looked like. This was a pain in the ass. I just wanted to be with my Little Bunny.


    I made my way toward my office, and the man that was waiting in there for me. The office was huge, my desk taking up arge portion of it with a lot of sophisticatedputer equipment on it, calendars, and two different phones. There were tworge chairs opposite my desk for visitors, a sofa and chair across the room, a mini fridge with drinks, shelves all over the ce stacked with books, various pieces of art and awards hung on the walls. It was a typical office for a high level executive. And standing near the windows thatpletely covered the back wall was a man that I could instantly tell wasn¡¯t human.


    My nose told me the moment that I was close enough to Mr. Dayton that he was a wolf. And he looked like he was agitated about something.


    ¡°ire, why is this man here to see me?¡± I was wondering why someone woulde to my office rather than to the castle if it was about the supernatural. That was where we usually took visitors that needed to see us about things not rted to the human world.


    ¡°He didn¡¯t say, but you had an opening in your schedule and I knew that he needed to see you. The man sounded desperate when he called yesterday.¡± She looked like she didn¡¯t have a care in the world now. ¡°Go on, he¡¯s been waiting for at least a half an hour.¡± She tried to shoo me away. I knew that I needed to go in there, I did, but I got a bad feeling. Like something was wrong that I hadn¡¯t known about yet. I shrugged it off and opened the door to my office. It was time for me to meet with the man that had been so desperate to talk to me. I mean, if he was willing to wait that long in my office, then it had to have been very important. And that made it intriguing. I wanted to know what this was all about.


    I think that I stood there for a few more minutes as I just stared at my office. I am not sure if it was seconds or minutes though, it was strange. Something about this situation, something about what was going on, it just didn¡¯t sit well with me at the moment. It was almost like my body and senses were trying to tell me something. Something that was important, but I just didn¡¯t know what it was yet. Whatever it was, whatever was going on, I knew that I would find out soon, but this feeling was so strange and odd that I wasn¡¯t immediately able to dismiss it.

 Chapter 1028 - 1028 Chapter 13- Reece – A Warning (VOLUME 6)

    1028 Chapter 13- Reece ¨C A Warning (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I stepped into my office and toward my desk. The man, Mr. Dayton, turned to look at me. I knew that he had smelled me, heard me, and even sensed me while I was talking to ire out in the corridor, but he hadn¡¯t focused on me. I think that it was his way of giving me some privacy while I spoke to the woman.


    Now that he was looking at me, I saw that the man had some very wolf like features. His face was sharp and angr, his jaw slightly squared, and he seemed to look like a scowl was the go to look on his face. His eyes were a bright yellow green that were practically luminous, like most of the nonhuman people in the world. His hair was a dark blond that was cut military style, as in a crewcut.


    There were other things that made the man resemble a soldier in my eyes. He had perfect posture, standing tall and straight. His eyes were sharp and didn¡¯t miss anything. He looked strong, even by our standards. And he gave off an air of someone that had a lot of authority in his line of work. I didn¡¯t know if he was in the military now or if he was retired, but I knew that he had to have served at some point in time. Hell, a lot of boys in ourmunities like to serve because they go far in the military.


    ¡°Hello there, Mr. Dayton.¡± I spoke in a polite and professional voice. ¡°I am sorry to have kept you waiting. Thest meeting that I was in ran longer than I expected.¡±


    ¡°I understand. You are a busy man, King Reece, so seeing you personally is something that I feel honored to do.¡± Well, he was already treating me with respect and courtesy. That was way better than Kensington had done.


    ¡°We are in my office at the moment, Mr. Dayton, we can drop that title and go with Mr. Gray for the time being. I can¡¯t exin to a human why you are calling me king.¡±


    .....


    ¡°I..I thought that this ce was staffed entirely by nonhumans.¡± He looked confused for a moment.


    ¡°Oh, it is, but who is to say that ire wouldn¡¯t have a human deliver her some lunch. Still, regardless of whether or not there are humans, I am at work right now, and when ites to business matters, I am Mr. Gray.¡±


    ¡°I can understand that, King Reece, but this isn¡¯t a business matter. I came here to speak to you about something that has to do with themunity.¡± He said thest word as if it were to mean something else. And of course, it did. He was meaning the entirety of our people, and not a part of the city that we were in.


    ¡°If this had to do with themunity as a whole, wouldn¡¯t it have been better to meet me at my home, where I handle matters that are associated with that part of our lives?¡± I was a little annoyed that he was meeting here for things that had nothing to do with business.


    ¡°With all due respect, King Reece, I didn¡¯t want to chance that they would follow me there. I didn¡¯t want to let them past the barriers of protection.¡±


    ¡°Led who? What is going on, Mr. Dayton?¡±


    ¡°Well, first, my name is Dayton Long, but you can just call me Dayton. And second, there is something biging, King Reece. Something that I needed to warn you about without putting your family in danger.¡±


    I felt an ice cold iron grip circle its way around my heart. Something big was happening, and it could put my family in danger. What the hell was it? And why the hell couldn¡¯t we catch a damn break?


    ¡°Sit down, Dayton.¡± I motioned to the chairs. ¡°And tell me what is going on.¡±


    I didn¡¯t immediately sit down. I walked across the room to the bar and poured two sses of a strong whiskey before I went to sit behind my desk. I deposited one of the sses in front of Dayton, sat in my chair, and then slugged back half of the drink. Dayton took his drink, swigged a small drink of it, then started to exin to me what was going on.


    ¡°Alright, King Reece, my name, with official title, is Special Agent Dayton Long of the NSA. Recently, there have been a few people in my department that are getting a little too interested in you, and the case that you recently helped the FBI with. They are a little concerned about the level of involvement that you seem to have with the authorities, and they are starting to look into a possible corruption case with the FBI.¡±


    ¡°So, they think that I am buying them off and helping them with other cases so that they ignore my own wrong doings? Fine, whatever, let them investigate me. I haven¡¯t done anything wrong. They can search all that they want.¡±


    ¡°No, you don¡¯t want that, King Reece. And that isn¡¯t all either.¡±


    ¡°Then what else is there, Dayton?¡± I asked him as I sipped again from my ss and felt the burning liquid spread across my tongue.


    ¡°They already started to look into things, without you knowing. I know that they are sending someone to speak with Agent Otsana, if they haven¡¯t already. And I know that they are starting to suspect more and more about you and your wife.¡±


    ¡°What about us?¡± I felt something inside of me that wasn¡¯t right. It felt like something was gnawing at me, at my stomach and my mind at that same time. I was feeling sick, anxious, and even a little scared. What were they looking for with Trinity? What was going on here?¡±


    ¡°They looked into you personally. Your appearance, medical records, those aren¡¯t as private as people think, your family, how Queen Trinity¡¯s grandfather suddenly reversed in age, how so many of the people that you are closely associated with seem to be the same as they were twenty years ago. They are starting to notice patterns among it all. And I think that they are starting to see the truth.¡±


    This couldn¡¯t be happening. This was impossible. The humans were supposed to reject the idea of people like us. They were supposed to think that we were nothing but myths and legends. They weren¡¯t supposed to look behind the curtain and see the truth. Not yet anyway. We weren¡¯t ready for them.


    ¡°Dayton, are you telling me that they think that we¡¯re not human?¡± I had to ask, even though he basically already confirmed that.


    ¡°Yes, King Reece. That is what I am telling you. These people that are investigating you, my own colleagues, are on to you, and soon they will be onto all of us.¡±


    ¡°Shit.¡± I spat the curse into my drink before setting it down. Suddenly, it didn¡¯t taste all that good anymore. I was feeling just a little too pissed off about what I was hearing from Dayton.


    ¡°My sentiments exactly.¡± Dayton said as he set his ss on the desk. I could tell that the drink wasn¡¯t doing that well in his stomach either.


    ¡°So, you¡¯re absolutely sure that they are thinking that we aren¡¯t human? They¡¯ve actually said it?¡± I had hoped that this day wouldn¡¯te for a long time. Not until Trinity and I had talked about what would happen when the world needed to know about us. However, after our datest month, I guess I shouldn¡¯t be surprised. Those were just waitresses at a restaurant and even they were talking about us not being human. They were way off on the correct species, but they seemed to be seeing something in us that they never used to.


    ¡°It¡¯s not just suspicions. They got a hold of some of the DNA from some of the crime scenes. They are having it tested, and then they are going to know for sure. We¡¯re in trouble, King Reece. I don¡¯t know what is going to happen down the line, but I know that there are going to be some major consequences here soon.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right. I know that you are Dayton, I just don¡¯t know why this had to happen. And right now, of all times.¡± I was thoroughly annoyed.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what the timing has to do with it, but I am with you on it being inconvenient.¡±


    ¡°You want to talk about inconvenient?¡± I leveled a stern look at the other man. ¡°My mate is pregnant. I do not want any of this affecting her and the baby. But she is the queen, and I know that when she finds out about this, she is going to freak out. And that sabbatical that she has been taking wille to an abrupt end. Dammit! Damn it all to hell!¡± I growled the words out, grabbed my ss, and drained the remaining contents in onerge gulp. ¡°Things couldn¡¯t be worse right now. And the shitty thing is, I don¡¯t know what to do about it yet.¡± I looked up at him. ¡°I think we¡¯re done here for now. I need to talk to my wife. But I might want to see you again soon. I might need more information.¡±


    ¡°I will meet with you whenever you need me to, King Reece. But I would prefer not to do it at the castle. I don¡¯t want to chance that they have someone tailing me when I drive there.¡±


    ¡°Understood. We will meet here in my office. Take my card, it has my cell number on it.¡± I wrote the number down and handed it to him.


    ¡°Thank you, and here is my contact information. I will be in touch, King Reece. If anything changes in the investigation, I will let you know.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Dayton. I will see you soon.¡± The man turned and left the office after that.


    I was so drained that I copsed back into my chair, another sigh escaping me, this time it was from exhaustion.


    ¡°What the hell is happening here? What the hell am I going to do?¡± I was shaking my head and trying to process everything that I had just heard. ¡°And dammit, but now I need to tell my Little Bunny about all of this. And that is going to make her worry.¡± I started to get out of my chair then, about to head home. ¡°Hmm. Maybe I will take her home some lunch. That will put her in a better mood. That or she will just have a handy weapon to hurt someone, not me, but someone else. Damn it all!

 Chapter 1029 - 1029 Chapter 14- Trinity – Reece’s Surprise (VOLUME 6)

    1029 Chapter 14- Trinity ¨C Reece¡¯s Surprise (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was still sitting in my office when Reece came in about ten minutes after Rawlynne left. He hadn¡¯t thought that I would be in that part of the castle, so he was shocked to find me.


    ¡°Hey, what are you doing? You¡¯re on sabbatical.¡± His voice was filled with worry and concern.


    ¡°I had a meeting that popped up. I had to take it of course, and so I met them here, in my office. What are you doing here? I thought that you were working at the office today.¡± I countered his question with one of my own. It was basically the same one, but I was curious as to why he was home at this hour.


    ¡°I only had two meetings, the rest I can do from here. I went to find you upstairs though, but I was told you were down here. I brought you some lunch.¡±


    ¡°Ooh, what did you get me?¡± I sat up in excitement at his words. I couldn¡¯t help it. Even though I was only a third of the way through the pregnancy, I was already craving and hungry all the time. I guess that it was just more noticeable for me this time because I have been there so many times before.


    ¡°Ha ha ha.¡± Heughed as he reached toward me, pulling me from my desk and toward the door into the hall. ¡°I got you some of your favorite Chinese food.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Ooh, I have been craving that a lottely. Did you get Peking duck or chop suey?¡±


    ¡°Both.¡± He was steering me toward the elevator. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go and eat.¡±


    ¡°Yummy.¡± I pped my hands together in excitement as I stepped onto the elevator. ¡°I have one request though. Let¡¯s eat in the bedroom. I want to talk to you, and I don¡¯t want to be overheard.¡±


    ¡°Deal.¡± He agreed easily. He probably thought that he would get some dessert with his lunch. Not that I was opposed to the idea, but it just wasn¡¯t on the top of my list of priorities at the moment. If we took care of the other business, then we could take care of business. I smiled at the horrible pun in my head. It was groan worthy, but I didn¡¯t care. It was still funny to me.


    Reece and I stopped at the dining room, grabbed the food that he had brought home, and went upstairs. A few moments after we had set the dishes down on the table, there was a knock at the door. It was Gabriel with drinks for us. He handed them to Reece and then gave a short bow before he left. He didn¡¯t say a word at all.


    ¡°He seems awfully quiet today.¡± Reece noted as he walked back toward me. ¡°Did something happen?¡±


    ¡°Sort of. That¡¯s why I needed you up here.¡± I told him.


    ¡°This works fine for me as well, Little Bunny. I have something that I need to tell you. And it isn¡¯t exactly pleasant to hear.¡±


    ¡°That sounds ominous.¡± I nched at the words. If Reece said that, then it had to be really bad. ¡°Let me go first, so I don¡¯t lose my nerve after your bad news.¡±


    ¡°Deal.¡± He nodded as he bit into an eggroll.


    I started to tell him then. I exined that I had met with Rawlynne, and that she had a visit from the NSA. It was when I got to that point in the story that he choked on his food and had to take a drink of his soda to unclog his throat.


    ¡°Th.. cuhuhh.. huu rrhehh.¡± He choked and spluttered for a moment, and I didn¡¯t really understand what was so bad with just that part of the story. ¡°Th..the NSA?¡± His eyes were watering, and his face was red after that choking incident. ¡°Trinity, I just had a meeting with a man from the NSA. That was what I needed to talk to you about.¡±


    ¡°What? Why did theye to see you?¡± I was confused and at a loss. What the hell was going on here?


    ¡°The man that came to see me was Agent Dayton Long. He came to warn me that people in the NSA, his department, are looking into us. They know about Samuel and his reverse aging. They know about us and how we haven¡¯t aged in almost twenty years. They are looking into it all. And they even have some of the DNA from the murders. They are going to test it to see if the victims were human. They think that we aren¡¯t human. They are figuring it out, Trinity. We can¡¯t hide much longer.¡±


    The room was spinning. This wasn¡¯t just a single person that was looking into Rawlynne or Reece and I. This was a department that was looking into all of us. This was a group of high powered government agents with sharp minds, impressive skills, and government resources that were looking into us. And they are going to find out the truth, no matter how much we try to hide it. They were going to figure out what we were. And they were going to do it way too soon forfort.


    That spinning feeling wasn¡¯t going away, even with me trying to take deep breaths. It was like something in the universe was broken and I was careening out of control. I was spinning wildly and madly toward whatever obstacles were in my path, and I didn¡¯t even know what they were.


    ¡°Reece, if they are looking into us, if they find out what we are, then it¡¯s all over. There is no more hiding from the humans.¡± I looked up into his intense, glowing golden eyes and knew that he was thinking the same thing that I was. ¡°We have to save our people. We have to do what we can to protect them.¡±


    ¡®What can we do, Trinity? How do we protect them from this? How do we stop people from finding out about us? If they are already onto us, then it means that our shroud of secrecy is failing us. There is no way to stop this.¡±


    I knew that he was right about one thing at least. There was no stopping this, but we could still protect ourselves. We could still do whatever we needed to do so that we didn¡¯t end up at the receiving end of another witch hunt. I mean, this time around we outnumber the humans. If you put all of the nonhumans together, we would be able to have the majority vote. The problem is, did we have enough of them in positions of power to help us?


    My mind was already on this. That isn¡¯t to say that the room had stopped spinning at all, it¡¯s just that my mind was spinning even faster. I knew that this was inevitable, and I knew that we needed to do all that we could to protect our people. And that meant that we couldn¡¯t waste another second.


    ¡°Reece, we need to work on this as soon as we can. We need to protect our people. And that means that we have a lot of work to do.¡±


    ¡°No, Trinity, we can¡¯t. You can¡¯t. You¡¯re on a sabbatical. You¡¯re supposed to be resting.¡±


    ¡°Reece, if I don¡¯t take care of this, what kind of life will Reeselynn have when she is born. What is going to happen to our family if the humans find out about us through an investigation?¡± I could see that Reece was trying to work through what I was telling him. This wasn¡¯t the time for us to let things happen, this was the time to take action. And that meant that we needed to keep moving and working on all of this for as long as we could.


    I knew that there was a lot of work to do, and Reece agreed to it as well. He understood that my sabbatical from work was over, and it was time for me to double or even triple my efforts. We had to get a move on this as soon as we could.


    I sent a message to all the usual men that joined us for these sort of intense discussions, but I also invited Rawlynne, Jackson, Juniper, Paul, Cedar, Bryce, Carter, Noah, Trevor, Landon, Riley, Grandfather, Athair m¨°r, Aunt Glory, Mom and Dad. While we waited for them, Reece and I finished the lunch that he had brought, but the once delicious food was now tasteless as I didn¡¯t have it in me to enjoy the food anymore. I thought that it was a waste to throw it away though. And I really was hungry. Or I had been before all of this started. Now I just felt hollow and didn¡¯t know if I was going to ever feel right again.


    After we were done eating, I went into my office while Reece went to change out of his suit. He wanted to be morefortable if we were going to be having this difficult conversation, then he wanted to befortable for it. He knew that this could also be a very long meeting as well, and that was another reason to be in something morefortable.


    He came into my office, wearing afortably worn out pair of ck jeans, a gray t-shirt, and a pair of sneakers that were favorites of his. He pulled me out of my chair, slid himself into it, and then settled me on hisp, all just before the others started walking into the room.

 Chapter 1030 - 1030 Chapter 15- Trinity – Trouble Is Brewing (VOLUME 6)

    1030 Chapter 15- Trinity ¨C Trouble Is Brewing (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I watched as all those that had been invited to the meeting filed in. And yes, I had needed to open a door for Trevor, Aunt Glory, Athair m¨°r, Carter and Riley since none of them lived that close to us. They didn¡¯t hesitate though. They knew that if we were calling them, especially through a door, that it must be important. It must be something that we needed to work on together. And they were right to think that. This was very important.


    I was d, once again, that my office was veryrge. And that we had a lot of extra chairs that we could pull in here when needed. This time, unlike when we were dealing with the Jaegan, I didn¡¯t add any extra tables. This was going to be as close to a round table discussion as I could get it at the moment.


    I saw the entire group take their seats in the room. They were all looking at me as I sat on Reece¡¯sp. They were not strangers to seeing me in that position, but they weren¡¯t used to seeing me look so worried.


    Alright, that is a lie as well. There had been so much troubletely that I had been making faces like this a lot. I had been worried about the safety of my people as there were killers rampaging across the entire world. And now I needed to worry about whether we were about to be revealed to the humans. It was nerve wracking.


    ¡°Good afternoon, everyone.¡± I addressed them all in a solemn and somber tone. ¡°As you all might have guessed, we have a situation that came up.¡±


    ¡°What sort of situation?¡± Vincent asked, his voice inplete control.


    .....


    ¡°Someone has been in the area to see some of us. Well, two people really.¡± I corrected it as I looked around the room. Rawlynne was looking nervous as I started to speak again. ¡°Yesterday, someone from the NSA went to Rawlynne¡¯s office. They were there to discuss our involvement in the murder case recently, but that seems like it was just the surface. They hinted at more, and even used Rawlynne of being a fraud because she looked too young.¡±


    ¡°Rawlynne, honey, you didn¡¯t tell me about this.¡± David looked a little hurt when he looked at her.


    ¡°I had to tell Trinity first, you know that. I had to keep it a secret, but it was almost enough to drive me insane. I wanted to tell her so bad. And I knew that it was important. But I didn¡¯t want to ruin her family timest night. So, I waited until this morning to tell her.¡± She looked around the room and there was not a single usatory eye in the room. They all understood what was going on.


    ¡°It¡¯s alright, Rawlynne.¡± I assured her. ¡°You did the right thing. If you would have told mest night, Reece would not have been in his office to meet with another person today. Another member of the NSA.¡±


    ¡°They went to see him too?!¡± Rawlynne¡¯s face went white. ¡°Already?¡±


    ¡°What the hell!?


    ¡°What is going on here?!¡± There were other outbursts than just Rawlynne¡¯s, but I ignored them. I needed to keep going. I needed to tell them what was going on.


    ¡°Listen.¡± I held my hand up to them. ¡°There is more for me to say.¡± The rumblings and outbursts subsided then, the few people that had started making noise all quieted down. ¡°The man that came to see Reece today wasn¡¯t there to use him. They were there to warn him. He is a wolf like us, and he was there to tell Reece that the others, the ones that were behind the meeting with Rawlynne, are starting to seriously think that we¡¯re not human. And they are even testing DNA from the murders that they got their hands on. They are going to check to see if there is anything different about them.¡±


    That earned me a loud uproar of outrage from all of them. More than half of the people in the room were on their feet and they were shouting about how this was not good. I didn¡¯t need them telling me that because I knew that already.


    ¡°I know this is bad. And, initially, before I knew about the warning to Reece, I had thought of a way to work with this. I thought they just wanted to know why we were involved with the case. I knew that stopping them from investigating would only make things worse. They would know that we had something to hide then. I had thought that we could use strategic transparency and be honest about the case while hiding who and what we were. Now though, I know that won¡¯t work.¡±


    ¡°What should we do then, Trinity? Do you have any ideas?¡± Shawn asked me with a worried look in his eyes.


    ¡°Well, Shawn, I don¡¯t think that we can make this go away. I think that, in all honesty, we will be found out. It¡¯s just a matter of time. I mean, Grandfather over there looks almost fifty years too young for his age. He got younger looking. And that was a major red g. To be honest, I am really shocked that we were able to keep it a secret this long.¡± I pinched the bridge of my nose and shook my head. I was starting to get a really bad tension headache, and it was making the baby really unhappy.


    ¡°What do we do then?¡± Aunt Glory asked. ¡°If the humans are going to find out about us regardless, what are we going to do to protect ourselves?¡±


    ¡°I have been trying to think about that. It hasn¡¯t been that long since I learned of all of these things, so it is still new to me as well. However, I think that we need to just ept that it is going to happen, and try to move ahead of the NSA. If we work things out with the leaders of the world, we might be able to spin things into a way that we can control them. We need to make sure that our people are not persecuted for being what they are.¡±


    ¡°Well, if worstes to worst, we can just make them ept us. We outnumber the humans. We can make them ept us.¡±


    ¡°No, Trevor.¡± I snapped at him. ¡°That won¡¯t make them ept us. It will make them fear us. And I don¡¯t want that. I don¡¯t want them to see us as monsters. I wanted them to think of us as the same people that we have been for all these years. We aren¡¯t going to act differently just because they find out what we really are.¡± I reprimanded the giant of a bear and saw him blush. He hadn¡¯t thought about how they would see us if we used force. Wasn¡¯t that just like a man? You can¡¯t make them respect you with fear and control tactics.


    ¡°I am sorry, Trinity. I didn¡¯t mean that. I know that we can¡¯t control them like that.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to control them, Trevor. I want to live peacefully with them. I want the same sort of life that we already have. We need to live with these people. It¡¯s not like we can fly off to Mars and live there because the humans don¡¯t like us.¡±


    ¡°You are right about that.¡± Athair m¨°r said in a voice that sounded like he was deeply worried and saddened. ¡°Unlike us Fae, the shifters and vampires don¡¯t have somewhere else to retreat. I guess we could invite you all there, but that would be a little hard on you all. I am sure that everyone wouldn¡¯t want to move. And Faerie isn¡¯t that big.¡±


    ¡°No, Athair m¨°r, it¡¯s OK. We will figure this out.¡± I used my hands to make a calming gesture in the air. ¡°We can¡¯t have half of the world¡¯s poption leave all at once. That won¡¯t be good for the world here anymore than it would benefit Faerie. The best thing for everyone is for us to stay where we are. We just need to make it so that there is a lot less bacsh after the humans all find out about us.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t see how that is possible.¡± David looked thoroughly unconvinced.


    ¡°Trinity, what is it that you are thinking?¡± Gabriel asked. He was able to see straight through me. While Mom, Dad, L, Grandfather, and the others were wondering if there was even anything that we could do, he was the one that knew I was already formting a n.


    ¡°Well, Gabriel, I want to set up policies and ns. There are a lot of our people in political offices throughout the world, but not enough at the top of the food chain. I know that there are some world leaders that are in ourmunity, but not as many as there are humans. Those that are, though, can help us with this issue.¡±


    ¡®What are you going to do?¡± Dad asked me with a curious tone. He and the others were watching me with intense eyes.


    ¡°We need to travel again, but nothing long term. We will be back every day, and we will be convincing the world leaders that we are not a threat to them. If we can get the leaders on board, and perhaps a few bills passed to help us out, then we might be able to reveal ourselves to the humans before the others get the chance.¡±


    ¡°Why would we want to reveal ourselves though?¡± Grandfather didn¡¯t look like he approved of my n at all.


    ¡°Well, that is simple. They are going to find out regardless, right? Wouldn¡¯t it be better if the reveal was in a positive light and not a negative one? If we revealed ourselves as friends and not foes? If the NSA releases information on us, you can guarantee that they will not paint us as innocents. They will likely think that we are monsters and criminals, and that will affect the opinions of the humans. If we reveal ourselves though, then we will be able to tell them that we have always been here, and we do not mean them any harm at all.¡±


    ¡°W..well, I can see where you areing from, but I just don¡¯t think that we need to be revealed to the humans. We should continue to hide it from them. We need to make sure that we are still living in our hidden world of shadows.¡±


    ¡°We just can¡¯t do that, Grandfather. They will find out about us, and soon. If we don¡¯t do anything about this, then the NSA will tell the world that we are out to kill them all. They don¡¯t know how many of us there are. They just know that we are different, and that scares them. I don¡¯t want the humans to be afraid of us. I don¡¯t want them to revolt and riot over us. I want them to befortable with us. Maybe they will be scared in the beginning, but they will see that the monsters of the world have always been here, and that they aren¡¯t really monsters at all. We are the same people that they have known for so long, and nothing is going to change that at all.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Grandfather nodded at me. ¡°I can see your point. I am not happy with the situation, but I understand it. And I will not stop you from doing what you think is best.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°Now, I need to know who will being with me on these trips. We need to make a list of all the people in our kingdom that are politicians and world leaders. We can¡¯t sit on this for long. We need to get moving right now. There isn¡¯t a minute to waste here.¡± I saw the looks in the eyes of everyone in the room. They were all thinking the same as me, well most of them. We had to move, and we had to do it fast.

 Chapter 1031 - 1031 Chapter 16- Reece – Making Plans (VOLUME 6)

    1031 Chapter 16- Reece ¨C Making ns (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Now that we all knew what we needed to do, we weren¡¯t wasting time for one second. We knew from experience what waiting can cause. Every minute that we weren¡¯t working, the NSA was moving ahead with their investigation.


    I just hoped that they weren¡¯t anywhere near releasing this information. If they were nearing the end of their search into our kingdom, then they would beat us to the reveal. We couldn¡¯t let that happen. We had to be ahead of them.


    I left Trinity and the others to start making ns just then. I needed to call someone and talk to them. But I also needed to make sure that the man was not going to be found out. This was a tricky situation.


    I drove into town and stopped at a store to get a prepaid phone. I honestly couldn¡¯t believe that they still sold these things, with how obsolete that they had be. I didn¡¯t need anything special though. I just needed to be able to call and test someone. Calls were safer though, since there was no record of what we talked about. Not unless someone was listening in on our conversation.


    Damn! Had I always been this paranoid? Had I always thought that someone was going to overhear me and start looking into what I was doing? I didn¡¯t really think that I used to be this way, but I guess that I wouldn¡¯t know anymore. I was acting this way now, and that was what mattered at the moment.


    After getting the phone, I went back to my Little Bunny¡¯s office. I knew that they would all still be there, making their ns and their lists. I wasn¡¯t done with my call yet, but I was getting there.


    .....


    Walking over toward my Little Bunny, I pulled her aside and whispered in her ear.


    ¡°Come with me to my office for a moment.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± She gave me a curious look but followed me out with no hesitation.


    When we were across the hall, in my office, I shut the door behind us and turned to face my wife. She was looking at me like there was a little something that she was worrying about.


    ¡°What is it, Reece? What is going on?¡±


    ¡°I want to call Dayton, and tell him the n. But I don¡¯t want to get him in trouble. If someone is tracing the calls on his phone, then I need to make sure that it isn¡¯t tracing it back to me. I got a prepaid phone from town, and now I need to make sure that the signal routes from somewhere other than here.¡±


    ¡°Reece, you know that there are programs that will do that to your phone. You don¡¯t need to worry about that.¡± She shook her head but wasn¡¯t following me yet. At least it didn¡¯t look like she was following what I was saying yet.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have the time to get them installed. I need to go now. So, I need you to make me a door to somece that is remote and far away. Though it still needs to have cell signal. I just want to make sure that there is no chance of iting back to Dayton.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I hear you.¡± She nodded at me. ¡°How about I send you to the condo in L.A., that will be far enough away. And there are people that saw you in town just a little bit ago, so there is no way that it could be you in L.A., right?¡± She was grinning at me. She understood it all perfectly.


    ¡°Sounds perfect.¡± I gave her a smile that was filled with pride and love.


    My Little Bunny turned away from me to make the door. It didn¡¯t take her long since she knew where the opening would be. And no one would see it because there was no one in our condo in L.A., it was the perfect n.


    A few momentster, the door was there. I opened it, stepped through, and found myself standing in the living room of the building that was owned by Analise and Reef Rivers. They had allowed us to have a ce in the building, though I did buy it when I was traveling in that area. They said that it was ours to use as we saw fit, so we had vacationed there a few times, when we took the kids to the beach in the past.


    The moment that I was in the condo, the door to my office still open, I pulled the phone from my pocket and started to dial the number that was on the business card. The phone rang three times before a cautious and slightly annoyed voice answered.


    ¡°Hello? Who is this.¡±


    ¡°Dayton. It¡¯s me. We spoke earlier. Don¡¯t say my name. I know you know who it is.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. I do.¡± His voice was still wary. ¡°I am busy right now.¡±


    ¡°I know. I just wanted to let you know, we are going to be taking care of the situation. We are getting ahead of things, and hopefully against our opposition.¡± I was trying to be vague while still conveying what I needed to say. ¡°We are going to get things ready, but we need to tell you about it all soon. Contact me on this number so that we can discuss it further. And meet me in the same ce tomorrow at the same time.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± He was keeping things brief on his end.


    ¡°Take care.¡± I ended the call. The entire thing hadn¡¯t evensted a minute. That was good. I knew that tracing technology was sophisticated, but there were still limits. They would be able to have a general location, but they wouldn¡¯t be able to narrow things down to an exact address. And unless they had a listening device inside of Dayton¡¯s phone, there was nothing at all that they would have learned from that conversation.


    Now that the call was over, I turned to face the door and walked back into my office. Trinity, having stood right next to the door the entire time that I was on the phone, had heard the entire conversation. She smiled at me and shook her head in slight exasperation.


    ¡°So, are you trying to be some sort of spy or something? Your espionage game isn¡¯t that bad. At least you know what to do. And you have the element of magic on your side. Or rather, a magical wife.¡±


    ¡°Why not use every tool at my disposal?¡± I said as I pulled her into my arms. I pressed her against my chest and leaned down to press my lips against her. She tasted so delicious that it was enough to make the events of the day a little less crazy. I was going to need her a lot while we worked our way through all of this. She would be the rock that we all needed, really. But she was mine, and that meant that I got the mostfort out of her.


    Thinking that little thought about my Little Bunny had made my pants feel a little tighter all of a sudden. I really was nothing more than a horny bastard. But I was her horny bastard, and I knew that she was enjoying it all the same.


    ¡°You¡¯re incorrigible.¡± She pulled away from me while shaking her head. ¡°Put that thing away for right now. We have work to do.¡±


    ¡°But I can y with youter, right''¡± I wiggled my eyebrows at her. I know, it was the wrong time, but I couldn¡¯t help it. I really did love her, and that delectable body of hers.


    ¡°Maybe.¡± She looked down at the erection that was still firm in my jeans. ¡°If you behave yourself for the time being.¡±


    ¡°I will.¡± I promised her. ¡°If I can get a kiss right now.¡±


    ¡°That seems counterintuitive.¡± She wasughing at me, but she was still stepping closer to me.


    ¡°It may seem like that, sweetheart, but I promise you, it will work. All I need is you to keep me going. And with a kiss from you, I know that I will be able to push myself through the meeting until I can take you in my armster, and then I will take you.¡± I spoke seductively as I pulled her closer once again. I lifted her off the floor this time, pressing her against me as I wrapped my hands around her waist.


    With her legs wrapped around my waist, I kissed her long and deep. I needed her taste in my mouth more than I had thought that I did. That little kiss earlier wasn¡¯t enough, not by a longshot.


    ¡°Reece?¡± She was panting when I pulled away from her, desire and lust making her voice go heady with arousal. ¡°We need to get back.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± I sighed as I slowly lowered her to the floor again. ¡°I think that I might be able to go on for a little while longer now. You can go ahead of me.¡± I looked down at myself. ¡°I need a minute to make this go away.¡± Sheughed a little shakily, but she nodded and walked out of the room.


    ¡°I love you, Fido.¡± She smiled at me from the door before disappearing.


    ¡°I love you too, Little Bunny.¡± I called after her softly. I knew that she still heard me though. It wasn¡¯t that big of a distance, so she would have no problem hearing my deration of love for her.

 Chapter 1032 - 1032 Chapter 17- Trinity – The List Grows (VOLUME 6)

    1032 Chapter 17- Trinity ¨C The List Grows (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    When Reece and I went back into my office, I saw that the group of coborators had split into smaller subgroups with their heads bent over tables that someone had brought in during my absence. When he saw me, Gabriel ran toward my side and lowered his head.


    ¡°Trinity, I hope you do not mind. We brought the tables in so that we could get straight to work.¡± He must have felt it when I thought about the tables. Either that or he just knew that I would wonder why they were there.


    ¡°What are they working on?¡± Reece asked him as he looked around the room, but I felt like I already knew. I didn¡¯t doubt my people at all, so I knew what Gabriel was going to say. And before he even had the chance, I told Reece what was going on.


    ¡°They are listing all the people in politics around the world that are one of ours. They are making a list of allies to help with what we need to do next. Isn¡¯t that right, Gabriel?¡± I looked up at him, into those hazel eyes of his and saw the smile that told me that I was right.


    ¡°Yes, Trinity, that is exactly what they are doing. And they are also inviting them all here to talk to you. I told them to wait on making travel arrangements for the time being though. I don¡¯t want to sound presumptuous with your powers, Trinity, but I know that this is a matter of great importance, and we do not have a lot of time to wait. I was thinking that you would rather bring them here yourself than take the extra time for them to fly here. And not only that, but then there is a record of all these wealthy politiciansing to the city. Given what is going on at the moment, I didn¡¯t really think that those records would be a good thing.¡±


    ¡°No, you did the right thing, Gabriel. I will bring them all here myself. You are right in thinking that we do not need the NSA to know that they all came to the city. That would not bode well for them. If the NSA starts to investigate them as well as us, then our advantages will crumble.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Very well.¡± He nodded his head at me, the relief in his eyes was only a slight change. He had known that he was doing the right thing, he just needed to confirm it with me first. ¡°I will alert the others and have them tell the dignitaries and politicians to be ready for a meeting this evening. I am assuming that even those in Asia will be requested for that time. Shall we schedule the meeting for eight this evening? That way most of the men and women will still be awake, or already waking up tomorrow morning.¡±


    ¡°For some, yes. The ones in the United Kingdom and surrounding areas will need to stay upte or wake up really early.¡± I agreed with him.


    ¡°Are you prepared for a meeting this evening, Trinity?¡± Reece asked me with a worried look on his face. ¡°Will you be ready?¡±


    ¡°Does that matter, Reece? I am the queen here. I need to be ready for whatever is thrown my way. And we don¡¯t have the luxury of time right now. We need to hurry. Now, that isn¡¯t to say that we can rush this and not be prepared. I will spend the rest of the time between now and then thinking about what I need to say. I know the general essence of it, but not the whole speech.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that, Little Bunny, you always make the best speeches when you don¡¯t even n on them.¡± Reece smiled and thought that would make me feel better. When the look on my face didn¡¯t change at all he looked a little worried. ¡°Oh,e on, I was just trying to say that you thrive under pressure. I didn¡¯t mean anything else by that, honestly.¡±


    ¡°I know, Reece.¡± I took his hand in mine. ¡°Come on, we have a list of attendees to make.¡±


    Together, Reece, Gabriel and I walked to where the others were. There were more politicians than I thought, or maybe it was just that seeing them all written down made for a longer list then I had thought it would be.


    In the United States alone, there were two hundred and fifty-seven members of congress that were shifters. Honestly, that was nearly half of the people that voted for the changes inws for the country. And it was way more than I thought it would be. In truth, I was very happy that my people were so interested in politics because, without them, I might not be able to make this happen.


    On top of those members serving in congress, there were a dozen mayors, six governors, and several people on smaller councils around the country. The mayors would be includedter, the council members not as much. The governors would be useful though, since they included some of therger states in the country. I was d that we had them on our side to help in this endeavor.


    Outside of the United States, I needed to focus mostly on those that were close enough to the top to change things, as well as those that were actually in charge of what was going on. We needed people that could make and enact policies, not just people that were going to be ignored.


    I was happy that after Prince William took the throne several years back, I think it was in the beginning of twenty-four, he made some changes. And one of the changes that he made was appointing a new Prime Minister. That Prime Minister was Gite Westmont, and she formed a cab that was, for the most part, all shifters. Just like her. In the aftermath of the war-torn Ukraine, the new president of their people was a Vampire by the name of Myk Petrenko. He would be on our side because he, like so many of us, hated to see the suffering of our people.


    In Japan, the royal family, which was more of a figurehead than anything, had be mixed with our kind about ten years ago when Prince Hisahito married a Japanese wolf shifter. He has visited us many times, and his current standings in themunity make it so that a lot of the citizens, and the politicians, listen to what he has to say. Honestly, there will probably be less opposition to our reveal in Japan than the US.


    There were others that were part of their upper echelon that might be able to help us, but we needed to get them here first. And that meant that I needed to open a lot of doors for these people tonight. And, on top of that, I needed to tell them all that the secret that we had hid from the humans for at least a millennium was about to be revealed by a meddlesome NSA agent and a band of overly curious assholes. Too bad they were a bunch of assholes that were good at their jobs. That just meant that we needed to take them all seriously.


    In the time that we had between the making of the lists, and the invitations being sent to the others across the globe, I had Reggie and Darrole up from the FBI office that they worked at. Not the one here in Colorado Springs, but up in Denver. The two of them were going to be doing some counterintelligence for me. And, by that, I mean that they will be looking into the agents that were looking into us. Maybe, with their help, we could see what it is that they had on us already.


    I needed to have a lot of things to be prepared for this evening. And those things also included an entireputer setup for Darrol and Reggie. Darrol was the one that was going to be doing the bulk of the hacking, but I thought that he would be morefortable here if he had a buffer around him, like Reggie. He was still a little scared around Vincent and the others. Especially Gabriel.


    I didn¡¯t do much throughout the afternoon as the others prepared for the meeting that would be happening this evening, but I was working on what I needed to say. This was always the hardest part of being in charge. I mean, who wanted to be the one that had to write speech after speech. I knew that I didn¡¯t, but this was my job, nheless. And I would do my job as I needed to.


    When the kids got home from school at their various times, they were told that Mommy and Daddy were in the office. And all of them came down at some point to see what was going on. I knew that they were worried about Reece and I going back to work. They probably thought that we were going to be gone for long periods of time again soon. Even Reagan and Rika looked worried about what was going on.


    Seeing the looks in their eyes as they came to see me, I knew that there was something that I needed to talk to them about. Even with how young Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley still were, they needed to know what was going on. They all needed to know. And I wasn¡¯t going to hide it from them. I was not going to hide this from them.

 Chapter 1033 - 1033 Chapter 18- Trinity – Explanations (VOLUME 6)

    1033 Chapter 18- Trinity ¨C Exnations (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    As the afternoon wound down, I allowed everyone to leave for the time being. They would be back for the meeting tonight, but they had other things to be attending to for the time being. The only ones that weren¡¯t leaving just then were Reggie and Darrol. They were still setting up theputer system that they would be using to hack into the NSA.


    If this hacking job was going to be sessful, then Darrol needed to bepletely prepared for it. Thankfully though, he was one of the best hackers in the country, and I wasn¡¯t all that worried about him. In fact, when I told him that he was hacking into the NSA, his bright yellow eyes red with excitement and I could see that he was practically buzzing with excitement.


    Now that I was taking a break from work, not that I had done much other than supervise, it was time for us to go to dinner with the kids. We needed to talk to them and tell them what we were going to be doing. They needed to know that things were going to get tense very soon. I didn¡¯t want them to be taken off guard.


    The food was ready and being ced on the table when Reece and I walked into the room. It smelled so good that it reminded me of how long it had been since I had eaten. And how thatst meal, the one Reece brought home for lunch, had been so tasteless and unsatisfying after we had learned what was happening.


    ¡°Mommy?¡± Zaley¡¯s head shot up when she saw me standing in the doorway. ¡°I thought you and Daddy had to work. Isn¡¯t there something important that you need to take care of?¡± I saw her look at Roisin, who had probably been the one to tell them that Mommy was busy. And, indeed, Reece and I did tell the kids that we still had a lot of work to do when they came to visit us.


    ¡°I do have work to do, sweetheart. I know that I was supposed to be taking time off, but something came up. Daddy and I need to take care of it before I can go back to resting once again.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Something else is happening?¡± I saw the worry in Talia¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°What is going on, Mom?¡± Reagan asked in his serious tone of voice.


    ¡°I n to tell you all, but let¡¯s eat first. I am hungry and I want to enjoy our meal together. Tell us about your day.¡±


    As Reece and I took our seats and looked at the kids, I saw that they were all a little apprehensive. They didn¡¯t know what to think about the impending news, and that was making them all hesitant.


    ¡°I promise you, nothing is going to take us away like before. We might need to be gone for a few hours at a time. At most a day. But we will not be gone for weeks at a time like we were before. I promise you. There is nothing to worry about.¡± That did a little to ease their tension, but I knew that they weren¡¯t going to settle down until they knew what was going on.


    Sighing, I looked up at them and resigned myself. I was going to have to tell them before we ate. Or while we were eating. They just weren¡¯t going to be able to get through this without knowing what was happening right now.


    ¡°Alright. I will tell you now.¡± They didn¡¯t change the looks on their faces. All seven of them just continued to look at Reece and I as intensely as they had been before. It was easy to tell that they were siblings, even with the differences in the way that they looked. They all had simrities in their personalities.


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Trinity.¡± Reece patted my hand before I was about to start. His touch and words gave me the confidence that I needed to face the kids like this.


    ¡°I know.¡± I nodded at him and then looked back at the kids. ¡°Alright. Something happened, but it wasn¡¯t like before. No one got hurt, and no one is going to get hurt. The problem this time is more of a dilemma than anything.¡± I exined to them.


    ¡°A dilemma?¡± Zachary tilted his head in confusion, not quite certain of what I was saying.


    ¡°OK, well, technically speaking, a dilemma is just a problem, but it also means a predicament. It means that there is trouble, but there is no imminent danger this time. We have something that is happening that we need to solve, but it¡¯s not going to result in someone getting hurt.¡± I exined to him.


    ¡°I am d that no one is going to get hurt, but why do I feel like there is more to it than that?¡± Zayden asked in his all too knowing tone of voice. Even his eyes told me that he knew that there was more to it all. ¡°If there is no danger, then why is it so important right now? Why do you need to hurry?¡±


    ¡°Well, Zayden, just because no one is going to be hurt right now, doesn¡¯t mean that they might not get hurt in the future.¡± Reece exined to him as I prepared my next statement. That was when Rika spoke up.


    ¡°Mom, I know that there is more than just a little problem right now. What is really going on?¡± She was serious and worried. They all had been. And they would stay that way until I exined it all thoroughly.


    ¡°Someone is trying to prove that we aren¡¯t human. Right now, they are focused on us, and our family. The problem is, when they prove that about us, they will out a lot more than just your dad and I. They will out the world.¡±


    Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley didn¡¯t really look like they thought that this was a problem, but Reagan, Rika and Talia all looked scared when they heard this.


    ¡°Mom, this can¡¯t be happening.¡± Talia¡¯s eyes were wide as she stared at me.


    ¡°If they find out about us, if the humans know about us, won¡¯t they be scared of us?¡± Reagan¡¯s tone was deep and dark as he spoke. He sounded so much like Reece that it was weird.


    ¡°That is a possibility. However, I want to stop that from happening.¡±


    ¡°How?¡± Rika¡¯s question was immediate and intense. ¡°How will you stop them from turning against us?¡±


    ¡°Well, Rika, we are working on that as we speak. We have a meeting tonight after dinner. Mostly, we want to reveal ourselves first. I mean, think about it, which would be better. Being revealed as monsters by other humans, or showing the humans that we¡¯ve been here all along and that we won¡¯t hurt them. I mean, they need to know that half of the people that they have known their entire lives are not human. There are a lot of us out there, and if we work together, I am sure that we wille out on top in the end.¡± I exined to her as much as I could. And it looked like it was working, at least for the time being. They were nodding and wondering about it on their own.


    ¡°Mom?¡± Zander asked me with his voice a little raised in curiosity. ¡°Does this mean that my human friend can know what I really am? I don¡¯t have a lot, but it hurts that they don¡¯t know about us and that I can¡¯t hang out with them more.¡±


    ¡°If things work out the way that I hope they will, then maybe. I don¡¯t expect that things will get better right away, but I hope that after some time, we will be able to live peacefully without needing to hide anymore. The secrets will be a thing of the past.¡±


    ¡°Well, there are some things that might help our cause a little.¡± Reagan smirked as he looked up at me. He had been thinking for thest couple of minutes.


    ¡°And what is that?¡±


    ¡°We have some amazing healers in our group. And they haven¡¯t been able to treat the humans because of the secrecy thing. People that need to be cured will do some flocking to the magical healers. And Aunt Juniper, she should be the most renowned psychologist in the world. But she is afraid to treat the humans because they might ask questions. Aside from the kids that she helped after the kidnappings, she has only treated a handful of human children. She is amazing, and not just with her ability, she is an amazingly good psychologist. She deserves the recognition.¡±


    ¡°You are right about that.¡± I nodded at him.


    ¡°Yeah, just think about how much support we will have when people are cured and no longer in pain or dying. There is so much that we can do for the world, and revealing ourselves will allow that to happen. I say that we use those skills and abilities to our advantage.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Reagan.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°I will ry that to the others.¡±


    ¡°I can help, you know.¡± He seemed to slide a little closer, like he was on the edge of his seat now. ¡°I can help you with this reveal. I can be there with you through it all. I need to learn these things, don¡¯t I?¡±


    ¡°I appreciate that, Reagan, but I need you to finish school as well.¡± I told him. ¡°We will be here everyday though, so you will still be able to help us. Just not on the front end of it all, OK. I want you and your siblings to be safe.¡±


    ¡°I am not a kid, Mom.¡± Reagan looked worried.


    ¡°I know you¡¯re not.¡±


    ¡°Then don¡¯t treat me like one.¡± He looked angry.¡±


    ¡°You are not a kid, Reagan, but you¡¯re still in university.¡± I exined to him.


    ¡°When you were in your first year of university Mom, you mated with Dad, became the Luna, the Queen, and the Goddess Incarnate. I don¡¯t want to be treated like a kid that can¡¯t do anything. I-.¡±


    ¡°And I don¡¯t want you to miss out on the youth that I never got to have. Don¡¯t get me wrong, Reagan, I wouldn¡¯t change anything that happened to me over thest twenty years, but I would have liked to have had a normal life for at least a part of it. I am sorry that you¡¯re upset, Reagan, but striving to have a life as hectic as mine is was not a goal. You need to think more realistically.¡± I saw the shock on his face and the moment that he realized that he had been wrong.


    ¡°I am sorry.¡± He hung his head in shame. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean that.¡±


    ¡°I know you didn¡¯t, Reagan. You just got caught up in the moment. But don¡¯t forget that there is a downside to all that excitement. It all worked out for me, but that doesn¡¯t mean that it wasn¡¯t dangerous and difficult. I want you to be safe and to have a normal life. There is plenty of time for you to have adventures, this doesn¡¯t have to be one of them, OK?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right.¡± He nodded. ¡°I will help, but not be on the front lines. And I won¡¯t push the subject again.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Reagan.¡± I knew that, as the son of an Alpha, he would always be chomping at the bit for power and control, but he needed to tread carefully as well.


    For the remainder of the meal, we talked about many of the different things that we needed to do to finish the tasks at hand. Reagan, Rika and Talia were all trying to figure out ways to make this reveal work in our favor. And I knew that they just wanted to prove that they were capable and that they truly cared. They were good kids, they all were.

 Chapter 1034 - 1034 Chapter 19- Trinity – The Meeting Part 1 (VOLUME 6)

    1034 Chapter 19- Trinity ¨C The Meeting Part 1 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The meal didn¡¯t end bitterly like my lunch had. With the kids epting what was going on, I was able to talk to them and feel like the food that I was eating was actually satisfying the hunger that was inside of me. That was a good thing too, because I needed to feed Reeselynn inside of me, and I knew that she would startining to me soon if I didn¡¯t give her food. She was growing fast and strong inside of me.


    After we left the tower, we went back down to my office to make the final preparations for the meeting tonight. I needed to make sure that we had invited them all and that all of them knew to expect the doors at the same time. I didn¡¯t want this to take a long time when we were in a hurry.


    When Vincent came to get me at about a quarter to eight that evening, I was startled by the fact that so much time had already passed. I had been sitting in Reece¡¯sp as I thought once more about what I was going to say to all of these people. Damn, but it was stressful.


    ¡°Trinity?¡± He called out to me as he opened the door. ¡°It is almost time to begin. We need to get the doors prepared.¡±


    ¡°Yes, you are right.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°Let¡¯s head down.¡± As I spoke, I rose to my feet and opened a door in the room. It took us down to the throne room, and the waiting room behind it. Reece and I waited in the waiting room while I peeked through the doors into the hall. I opened the doors to the several different locations all at once. I had asked that some of the politicians, especially those that were close to each other, toe through the same door. It was almost like mystical carpooling. It was also so that I didn¡¯t need to make hundreds of doors at once. The politicians that were in the US were primarily in D.C. at the moment, and that meant that they could alle at once, making it easier on me and my magic.


    ¡°Trinity?¡± Reece called out to me. ¡°Are you OK?¡±


    .....


    ¡°I will be fine.¡± I told him as I turned to face him.


    ¡°Yes, I know that you will both be fine. However, Trinity, can I ask one thing?¡± Vincent was looking at me a little critically.


    ¡°And what exactly do you want to ask?¡± I was a little confused by him at the moment.


    ¡°You need to change, Trinity. You are meeting with politicians and instead you look like you belong on a college campus with Reagan and Rika.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha.¡± Iughed sardonically at him. He was not being helpful just then.


    ¡°I am serious. We are both wearingfortable and casual clothes. We need to dress for a political meeting if we want to be taken seriously.¡± He was exining this to me as he looked at his own clothes. He usually just wore ck jeans, a ck t-shirt, and some sort of boots that made it easy to run and work in. Now though, he was wearing a business suit, also ck, and Italian loafers that made him look much more regal than I did at the moment.


    ¡°Fine.¡± I told him stiffly, but I am not wearing one of the queen dresses. They are too ufortable at the moment.¡±


    ¡°That is fine. Wear something business-like.¡±


    With a wave of my hand, and a re of my magic, I changed my clothes from the casual lounge wear into a business suit for women. It was ck with a light blue blouse and shining ck heels. I had opted for a pants suit, because I didn¡¯t want to wear a dress or skirt at the moment. I had put Reece into one of his ck suits for work as well, so he would be more than adequate for the situation. His hair, styled casually as it was, would be fine for the night. Mine on the other hand, needed to be dealt with. So, I waved my hand again and made my hair twist itself into a loose chignon at the nape of my neck, and, of course, my makeup was done as well. I looked like I was ready to step into congress now, instead of my own throne room.


    ¡°Much better.¡± Vincent smiled at me as we heard the room outside swell with voices. The audience was almost fully assembled. ¡°It¡¯s almost time.¡± He stood stiffly and turned to face the door. ¡°I will introduce you soon.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I know the routine.¡± I shook my head at his back. He was always so rigid when it came to things like this. It was funny.


    After about another five minutes I felt the doors closing in the other room. I had set them up on a timer, and they would close on their own when it struck eight. That was also when I heard Vincent¡¯s voice boom in the other room.


    ¡°Thank you all foring on such short notice. I know that it is not easy to make such amodations to your ns, but I know that you all also understand that Queen Trinity would not call you all here if it wasn¡¯t of vital importance.¡± There was utter silence from them all as they listened raptly. ¡°I will not dy you any further,dies and gentlemen, please wee Queen Trinity and King Reece.¡± At Vincent¡¯s words there was a steady yet subdued round of apuse. They were waiting for me toe out and address them all.


    As I walked into the throne room, I had my arm wrapped around Reece¡¯s. He took me to the middle of the dais, and we looked out at everyone that was waiting for us. I saw that they all had their eyes glued to me. And, all of them, no matter what country they were from or what political party they were affiliated with, they were looking at me like I had the answers that they were seeking. Even the royalty in this crowd was looking at me like that.


    ¡°Thank you all foring on such short notice.¡± I repeated Vincent¡¯s words from earlier. I knew that they would have more weighting from me rather than him. ¡°I have something of the utmost importance to discuss with you all.¡± I turned with Reece and went to sit in my throne that was raised high above them all. I was still able to see them all as they sparsely filled therge hall.


    After I was in my seat, I lifted my head and shoulders, making myself appear taller and more confident. I didn¡¯t want them to know that I was still iffy about this whole situation, even though it was my decision.


    ¡°Friends, people of my blood and kingdom, we have a problem that is facing us at this very moment.¡± I paused for a moment to let that sink in for them. After what felt like an appropriate time, I started to speak again. ¡°There have been some people that have discovered, or at least suspected, what we are. There are members of the NSA that are investigating us. They have blood samples from the murders over the summer, and they are testing to see if they are human or not. It seems that they are learning that there had to be a reason that we got involved. And that if we aren¡¯t human, then the people that we were so worried about weren¡¯t human either. They truly believe that we are not what we say that we are, and they are intending to expose us to the world. And, if we are not careful, they will present us as monsters.¡±


    There were some scattered murmurs in the crowd, but for the most part they just looked at me like they couldn¡¯t believe their ears. They, like me, were shocked that someone would even think about this as a usible scenario. We had thought that we were all keeping the secret so well, but here I was ruining things for all of us.


    ¡°I know that I am to me for this situation. It was me and my king that got involved in the case that led these NSA agents to suspect us. I do apologize for that, but I assure you all that I have a n to help usbat this situation.¡±


    ¡°How? What are we to do?¡± A man with a Scottish ent called out from the crowd.


    ¡°We can beat them to the punch.¡± I told the man in response. ¡°My n is to speak with as many world leaders as I can and get the situation under control. I want to make sure that we secure rights that are specific for our people. We are all citizens of this world, and we mean to stay. And after we get thosews and policies put into effect, we will reveal ourselves to the humans. We will show them what we really are, and we will spin this all in a positive way for us.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°No!¡±


    ¡°Impossible.¡± Several naysayers called out to me in horror as they heard what I had to say. Clearly, I hadn¡¯t won them over just yet. I still needed to exin to them exactly what my n was, and how we would take the monsterbel off of us if we were in front of this instead of trailing behind it. I still had a lot of work to do.

 Chapter 1035 - 1035 Chapter 20- Trinity – The Meeting Part 2 (VOLUME 6)

    1035 Chapter 20- Trinity ¨C The Meeting Part 2 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I let the voices die down as the people that were in disbelief and disagreement stopped their rebuttals to what I had to say. They needed to listen to me. They needed to understand that I wasn¡¯t wrong about this. And I didn¡¯t really want to order them to do this for me. I needed them on my side willingly, not forcefully.


    When the sounds of their voices finally stopped, I spoke again. I kept my voice steady and calm. I needed them to see that I was in control and that I wasn¡¯t panicking about this at all.


    ¡°Listen. All of you. Please just take a step back and listen to me.¡± I urged them a little more into the calmness that they had exuded before. ¡°Now, I know that this is a scary situation, but we can navigate this. I know that having the humans find out about us is not aforting thought, but we can manage this.¡±


    I rose from my throne again. I needed to be on my feet for this. I needed to show them all that, figuratively and literally, I will stand my ground before the people that were meaning to do us harm. Yes, they weren¡¯t out to hurt us physically, but they meant to taint the world¡¯s opinions of us. They meant to show us as evil monsters, and I didn¡¯t like that at all.


    ¡°We are going to rise above this. We need to secure our rights all over the world. We need to show the presidents, the kings and queens, the various people that are in authority over the citizens of the world that we are not dangerous, and we need to do it in a hurry. We do not know how much longer we have until the NSA has concluded their investigation on us. And we don¡¯t want to waste any time at all.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I agree.¡± I heard a voice from the crowd that sounded like Prime Minister Westmont. She was apparently on my side with this decision. ¡°We need to stand up to the people that think that they can bring us down. And we need to show them that we are here to stay. We are just as much people as the rest of them are, and we deserve all the same rights as they do. And I will do all in my power to make sure that the people of the world, not just in Ennd or the UK, but the entire world, have the right to continue living the way that they always have.¡± When Westmont stopped speaking, she was standing as well. She was on her feet and telling the others what it is that she thought about all of this. ¡°I agree with Queen Trinity, and I say that we all work together to make this a better world for us all. Humans and Super Naturals alike.¡± There were cheers at her words of support for me. And there were even some people that were sitting there in quiet contemtion, but none of them spoke against her. She was the type of politician that I needed to help me with this situation.


    .....


    ¡°I agree with Westmont.¡± Myk Petrenko stood after that. ¡°We need to stand with Queen Trinity. We need to be united. Our people need to be the voices of reason in this situation.¡±


    ¡°WHY, THOUGH!¡± A man with a southern US ent spoke up. It sounded to me like he might have been from Texas, Louisiana, or somece down there. ¡°We outnumber them. We have weapons and means to ending the humans if they turn against us.¡± That was when I saw the man that was speaking. It was Senator Allen Silvers from Texas, and he has always been the type to fight for gun rights and freedoms. That was all well and good, but not in this situation.


    ¡°Senator Silvers, what you don¡¯t understand at the moment is that we don¡¯t want the humans to view us as monsters. Do you think that they would ever vote for you again if you start waving guns in their faces and tell them that they need to ept you or else?¡±


    ¡°Does that matter? I have the nonhuman voters. I will still hold my office.¡±


    ¡°And what if they force through a bill that says that only humans can serve in office. What if they get rid of us all just because we¡¯re not human?¡± That was Senator Alicia Stevens from Dware. ¡°We might not be allowed to continue in office if they find out about us in a negative way. I agree with Queen Trinity, we need to be proactive here.¡±


    ¡°If the humans turn on us, then we kill them. They will ept us if enough of them die.¡± Silvers growled. I knew that he was a wolf, but he was also an asshole.


    ¡°That isn¡¯t an option, Silvers.¡± I snapped at him. ¡°And I forbid you, and every other member of my kingdom from killing a human that is innocent. We will not kill the humans simply because they are afraid of us. That will not help us at all. I want to show them that we are not monsters. And killing them won¡¯t help with that.¡± I was ring at him so hard that I knew he could feel it. ¡°Not only that, Silvers, but if we kill all the humans, that will crash every business in the world. Half of the poption will be gone, and entire markets will disappear. We can¡¯t just kill them.¡± Finally, it looked to me like he was understanding what was going on. His head hung low for a minute and then he looked at me with questioning eyes.


    ¡°Then what must we do, Queen Trinity?¡± He looked defeated, which I thought was the way that he was the entire time. He had just been hiding the truth beneath his anger.


    ¡°We need to work hard to get things ready. Those of you that have clout in D.C., we need to draft up some bills and get them passed as soon as possible. I need to meet with President Maddock. And those of you from other nations, we need to do the same thing. Hopefully, with the US already starting to work on this issue, they will usher in these ns as well. Petrenko, Westmont, I know that the two of you will be able to make serious changes in your country. We need to work fast here, and we need to secure these legitions as quickly as possible.¡±


    ¡°I want to help.¡± Prince Hisahito spoke up from next to his wife, the wolf. ¡°We will help to get the political changes in Japan, and then we will work on the surrounding nations.¡±


    ¡°Thank you. I appreciate the assistance.¡±


    ¡°Anything to help.¡± Hisahito bowed his head and showed that he was more than willing to bear this fight.


    There were a lot of other shouts of agreement and willingness to help. I knew that I had them, or at least most of them. And I knew that they were all going to do as they were told. Even if they were slightly against this n, they would help because the queen had told them to. There was just no going against me, unless they wanted to make me angry. Not that I wanted to force them into this, I just wanted to make us all safe eventually.


    The talks, ns, and speechessted through the night. We didn¡¯t stop, and neither did they, until the sun wasing up outside of the castle. We couldn¡¯t see the sun from where we were, but we were able to feel it in a way. We were creatures of magic and power, and we were all able to feel it when something as important and powerful as the sun had risen into the sky.


    With them all needing to get back to their own home and to their jobs that they had to do. It was after seven in the morning here, but some of these people needed to get back to where it was muchter in the day for them, evente at night in Japan and the other nations that far east.


    As the groups of politicians were preparing to leave, I was approached by Westmont and Petrenko.


    ¡°Queen Trinity?¡± Petrenko¡¯s thick Ukrainian ent making the two words a little harder to understand.


    ¡°President Petrenko, Prime Minister Westmont, what can I do for you?¡± I asked them in my most polite tone possible. I was feeling exhausted and just wanted to rest for a little while after they left.


    ¡°We wish to do as much for this cause as possible, Queen Trinity.¡± Westmont was the next to speak, her British ent was strong, but it didn¡¯t make the words difficult to understand.


    ¡°You know that I have worked hard to rebuild my country after the wars that ravished ournds. I don¡¯t want to see war like that again.¡± Petrenko¡¯s eyes were filled with memories of the past, fears for the future, and heartache that threatened to undo him. ¡°I don¡¯t want to see that happen to anyone else, Queen Trinity. I want to protect the world. My people, not just my country, but my people all over the world, they need my help. And I want to be there for them and you, my Queen.¡±


    ¡°I agree with him, Queen Trinity. I know that I can help to make a difference. Gone are the days when my country uses its might to suppress the weak around them. We are building and of equality and freedom. And I want to show my people, all of my people, that there is nothing to fear.¡±


    ¡°I appreciate that. There is so much that we can all do to make this work. Please,e back to visit me regrly while we make this happen.¡±


    ¡°Yes, of course Queen Trinity.¡± Petrenko nodded at me.


    ¡°We will do all that we can.¡± Westmont grinned.


    I opened the doors to their homes and offices. The ces that they all needed to be going back to after this meeting. It was thest thing that I needed to do before I was able to go upstairs and see the kids before school.


    I would get a few moments of family time. A little slice of normality in the sea of chaos that was surging around me. I knew that during these next several days and weeks I would need to take my time to be with the kids. I needed them to keep me calm and to bring peace to my heart while I did what I knew that I needed to. This was going to be difficult, but I would manage. I had no other choice.

 Chapter 1036 - 1036 Chapter 21- Trinity – The Results of a Night’s Work (VOLUME 6)

    1036 Chapter 21- Trinity ¨C The Results of a Night¡¯s Work (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After seeing off everyone that we had invited to the meeting, Reece and I went upstairs to the tower while Vincent and Gabriel went home. They had been the only guards and assistants that were there with us through the night, and they both needed their rest now. Personally, I was going to say goodbye to the children and see them off before going to sleep for a few hours.


    ¡°Have you been up all night?¡± Reagan asked Reece and I as we walked into the dining room. All of the kids were there and finishing up their food before leaving for school.


    ¡°We had a meetingst night. Itsted a long time.¡± I told him as I literally fell into the chair that was waiting for me.


    ¡°Queen Trinity, would you like me to get you some coffee?¡± Roisin asked as she stepped closer to the table.


    ¡°No, I n to go to sleep after the kids leave.¡± I told her. ¡°Thank you though.¡±


    ¡°Queen Trinity, might I remind you that you have two FBI agents still working in your office.¡± Peter, the lead butler, stepped closer as well. ¡°I do not think that you will have the time to go to rest at this moment.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Ahh, yes, you are right.¡± I nodded at him. At the same time, I noticed that Reece¡¯s shoulders fell dejectedly.


    ¡°I will get you and King Reece some coffee. And I will make sure that it is extra strong.¡± Roisin¡¯s voice was calming and a little apologetic.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± I nodded at her before she disappeared into the other room.


    ¡°Why did you have such a long meeting, Mommy?¡± Zander asked me calmly. ¡°Was it about the stuff you saidst night?¡±


    ¡°Yes, sweetheart, it is.¡± I nodded. ¡°Mommy and Daddy talked to other people that can help usst night. We need to make sure that we do a lot of things to make this reveal go smoothly.¡±


    ¡°I am here if you need me.¡± Reagan reminded us.


    ¡°As am I.¡± Rika¡¯s voice came next.


    ¡°I will help as well, Mom.¡± Talia addedstly.


    ¡°We won¡¯t bother to offer our help. I know that you will say that we are too young.¡± Zaley was looking at her brothers rather than me or Reece.


    ¡°You are too young.¡± I told her. ¡°But you can do something for us right now.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Zayden asked excitedly.


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell anyone about the reveal yet. It¡¯s a secret until we are all ready for it.¡±


    ¡°No worries, Mommy. We will keep the secret.¡± Zachary smiled at me. ¡°We know what is secret and what isn¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, all of you.¡±


    We kissed and hugged the kids as they left the room, ate the meal that Abigail brought in for us, and had the coffee that Roisin expertly prepared for us. I swear, her Fae powers had to make it better somehow. No coffee that I had, no matter where it was from,pared to what she made for me. It was always the strongest, and it always tasted the best. I loved every drop of it.


    Several minutester, with the caffeine coursing through my veins with a jolt of energy, Reece and I started to head down to my office. It was time to see if Darrol and Reggie had managed to find anything. For our sake, I really, really, really hoped that they had.


    Upon entering my office, I saw that Darrol was still working hard at theputer. Reggie, on the other hand, seemed to have passed out as sheid across several chairs that had been pushed together.


    ¡°Good morning.¡± I called out to them. That made them both jerk to attention, and in Reggie¡¯s case awake.


    ¡°H..huh?¡± She looked around the room, saw Reece and I standing there, and rubbed her eyes. ¡°D..did I fall asleep?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you did.¡± Darrolughed. ¡°And you even made yourself a bed. Though I swear you were sleepwalking when you did it.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t remember doing that at all.¡± She looked down at the chairs in surprise. ¡°I..I am so sorry, Queen Trinity.¡± She rushed off the chairs as if she thought that I had been upset about it.¡±


    ¡°It is fine, Reggie.¡± I waved her words away. ¡°I would have slept if I had the chance. Be that as it may, Darrol, why did you work through the night?¡±


    ¡°I had a lot of work to do.¡± He said as he sipped from his thermos of coffee. ¡°And I had a lot of this to keep mepany.¡±


    ¡°He was drinking coffee like it was water.¡± Reggie shook her head. ¡°I drink the stuff, but I don¡¯t like it that much.¡±


    ¡°And that is why I managed to stay awake and you did not.¡± Darrol sipped again. ¡°Anyway, Queen Trinity, I had to set up the systems. It¡¯s not enough just to hook up aputer. You need to get it formatted properly before you can hack with it. I will say though, this system is a blessing. These pieces are the best that money can buy. I just needed to get the proper software onto them before I was able to hack into any systems. And I made sure that I took my time as well.¡± He was looking at the screens as he spoke. ¡°I didn¡¯t want to move too fast and set off their rms.¡±


    ¡°So, does that mean that you were able to get into their systems?¡± I sat at my desk and eyed him excitedly.


    ¡°Oh yes, I managed it.¡± He grinned at me. ¡°And I set up a nice little goodie bag for us as well.¡± His eyes were glinting as he spoke, but he still had his eyes glued to the screen in front of him. ¡°I have been going through the information ever since I collected it. Thankfully, it was in the middle of the night when I cracked into their systems. And that means that there were a lot less eyes on their mainframe. They likely won¡¯t notice that anything happened at all. And it was a clean copy of their system, so there is no evidence left behind from the heist.¡±


    I shook my head after listening to Darrol¡¯s words. I knew what he was saying, I really did, but my sleep deprived brain just wasn¡¯t keeping up with him at the moment.


    ¡°I don¡¯t get it. Didn¡¯t you say you left a goodie bag?¡±


    ¡°Ahh, yes, that. I did leave a goodie bag, but this isn¡¯t something that is immediately noticeable. It¡¯s a collection virus. It won¡¯t affect their systems at all, it just copies everything that their systems do. This will allow us to collect more information as they enter it. And all of that information is then uploaded to a secure remote server. It will be untraceable when I collect that information for us. Which means that even if they discover this virus, they won¡¯t be able to trace it back to me at all.¡±


    ¡°As long as it is untraceable, then I am all for it. I don¡¯t want to put any of us in danger, but I agree that we need as much information as possible. When the reveal is over, and when we are all safe, we can remove that virus from their system.¡±


    ¡°Yes, of course Queen Trinity, that won¡¯t be an issue at all.¡± Darrol grinned knowingly. ¡°Now, as I was saying earlier, I collected a lot of information that I will need to sort through, but I first went through the files from the man that visited Director Otsana. Agent Orson had a lot of files on a lot of people, but there wasn¡¯t much substance to any of them. The bulk of his information seemed to be focused on theck of aging. I am still going through it all, but I don¡¯t think that they are anywhere near a public announcement just yet.¡±


    ¡°That is good news.¡± I felt a rush of relief. ¡°If they aren¡¯t too close to the truth yet, then I don¡¯t think that we need to worry as much. We are moving at a quick pace to get all of this done. We should have all of thispleted long before they have the chance to reveal anything to the press about us.¡±


    ¡°I agree.¡± Reece said as he sat next to me in another chair. I think he could tell that I wasn¡¯t really wanting to sit with him at the moment. If he pulled me onto hisp I would probably fall right to sleep. ¡°However, we can¡¯t afford to drop our guard just yet. Reggie?¡± Reece called to her, and she perked up again. I could tell that she had been up almost the entire night as well.


    ¡°Mmhmm?¡± She looked up at him sleepily. ¡°Yes, King Reece?¡±


    ¡°I want you to help Darrol sort the information that he has collected. Later today, in the afternoon, I will have a couple more sets of hands for you.¡±


    ¡°O..O..O..OK.¡± Reggie yawned out the word, starting it over and over again in the attempt to get it out.


    ¡°For the time being, both of you need to get some sleep. Go to the rooms that we have prepared for you. Trinity and I are going to get some sleep as well. A few hours at the very least. None of us are any good in this situation unless we are rested and can think.¡±


    ¡°Aww, I have to stop working?¡± Darrol said as he tore his eyes away from theputer screen.


    ¡°For a little bit, Darrol, that is all. You need to sleep. You need to be rested so that you can work effectively. Later, you will have more help to sort the information that you have.¡±


    ¡°OK, I understand.¡± Darrol rose from theputer and stretched his body. I heard several groans, creaks, and pops as he moved. I could tell that he had been in the same position for a long time. That was the only thing that would exin the noises that his body made just then.


    ¡°Come on, Trinity.¡± Reece reached for me. ¡°Let us get some sleep. We need our rest as well.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I agree.¡± I nodded at him. That burst of energy from the coffee was already wearing off. I was exhausted after yesterday.


    I took Reece¡¯s hand and let him pull me toward the elevator. Darrol and Reggie were heading in the other direction, toward the guest homes that were part of the castle. They would be fine on their own, there were a lot of people here that would be able to help them.


    Stepping into the elevator, Reece pressed the button for the top, where our room was. I sent a message to Roisin and let her know that Reece and I were going to bed. I didn¡¯t need her going into our room to clean it while we were sleeping. That wouldn¡¯t be fun at all.

 Chapter 1037 - 1037 Chapter 22- Reece – Nap Time (MATURE) (VOLUME 6)

    1037 Chapter 22- Reece ¨C Nap Time (MATURE) (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I could see how tired my Little Bunny was. And how unsteady she was on her feet. She had had an exhausting day, one that was still going on even now. And with all of the stuff that we still needed to do it wasn¡¯t about to end anytime soon.


    Oh, the days woulde to an end and a new one would begin, but the exhaustion would persist. And with her being pregnant again, I was worried that all of this was going to get to her and cause problems again. I didn¡¯t think that I could handle another scary episode with one of our kids like that. It was always hard to see my Little Bunny in that situation.


    I was supporting my Little Bunny as we climbed into the elevator and rode it up to our room. Once we were almost to the top, I swung my Little Bunny up into my arms and cradled her against me as I walked into the room.


    ¡°Reece.¡± She protested a little.


    ¡°Shh. It¡¯s OK, Little Bunny.¡± I told her as I kicked off my shoes and set her on the edge of the bed. ¡°I will take care of you.¡± I pulled the shoes off of her feet and started to strip her out of the business suit that she was wearing. Neither of us wanted to be wearing those clothes when we went to sleep.


    ¡°I need a shower before I sleep.¡± She looked down at her body and made a face in disgust. ¡°I feel groggy after being up all night.¡±


    .....


    ¡°You are fine for right now. We will take a shower after our nap.¡±


    ¡°Fine.¡± She didn¡¯t protest at all. ¡°Come on, let me get this off of you.¡± I slipped the jacket down her arms and then started to unbutton the sleeveless blouse that she was wearing.


    After my Little Bunny was stripped of the clothes, sitting there in her underwear only, I started to take the suit I was wearing off.


    ¡°Ugh. I don¡¯t want to wear these right now either.¡± She protested and started to strip off the bra and panties. I had already taken off the pantyhose that she had been wearing. I have to say that seeing her sitting there naked got me excited. I couldn¡¯t help it. She was my mate after all. I would always respond to her like this. And that small rounding to her belly where my child was growing inside of her was sexy as hell. It was just more proof that Trinity was mine. She was my Little Bunny and nothing else.


    I finished removing my clothes in record time and climbed into the bed with my wife. When I pulled her up against me, I am sure that she noticed the excitement in my own body. I mean, she could feel it after all, pressing against her thigh as she snuggled against me.


    ¡°Mmm, I see that someone got himself a little happy.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s your fault.¡± I growled excitedly in her ear because she had apanied her words with a full body wiggle that pressed her against my erect shaft. ¡°Who was it that stripped off the only thing that was stopping me from taking you?¡±


    ¡°I was ufortable.¡±


    ¡°That, or you were trying to seduce me.¡± I heard the deep rumble of satisfaction in my voice as I spoke right into her ear. ¡°You already knew that I wanted you, Little Bunny. And now you¡¯re enticing me.¡± I kissed the shell of her ear and felt her shiver against me now. ¡°Now that I have you all to myself, I don¡¯t see anything stopping me from taking you.¡±


    ¡°Maybe I wanted you to take me.¡± She turned her face toward me and pressed her lips gently against mine. It was meant to be a quick little kiss, but I snaked my hand around to the back of her head and held her in ce. I stole her lips and devoured the squeal that escaped from her with a purr of satisfaction.


    As my tongue slipped into her mouth, caressing the familiar territory with a sigh of satisfaction, I also slipped my hand in between her thighs to tease and caress her opening. She moaned into my mouth and I stole that sound as well, swallowing it down as if it was sustenance.


    ¡°Reece.¡± She breathed my name on a sigh when I finally broke the kiss. ¡°I need you, Reece.¡±


    ¡°Shh. I know you do, sweetheart. I know you do. And I will take care of you, don¡¯t you worry.¡± I kissed her cheek softly and turned her to face me. ¡°Just stay with me, Little Bunny, and I will give you what you need.¡±


    ¡°Reece.¡± She breathed my name once more as I plunged two fingers past her opening and deep into her core.


    Her hot, wet depths gripped my fingers tightly and refused to let go. She was so desperate for my touch that her body was taking over for her.


    ¡°Shh. It¡¯s OK, sweetheart.¡± I spoke softly and soothingly as I pulled my fingers out of her until just the tips were inside of her. ¡°I will take care of you.¡± I repeated the words as I plunged them deep inside of her again.


    ¡°Ahh!¡± She moaned in pleasure from just that, but I wasn¡¯t done.


    Itched onto her right breast, the one closest to my mouth, as I started to drive my fingers in and out of her wet, slick opening. I bit, nipped, and sucked on her breast as the mound moved beneath my mouth. Her breasts had always been one of my favorite things about her naked body. She was beautiful in every way possible, but her breasts just seemed to be perfection through and through.


    My Little Bunny¡¯s breathing hitched up as I sucked hard on her breast and drove my fingers deep inside of her. I knew that she was already close to her climax, her first one of this round together. And I knew just what I needed to do to push her over the edge. I slid my thumb up over her clit and rubbed it firmly with the rough pad of the digit. That was all that she needed to send her into oblivion as she cried out next to me.


    With her breathinging fast and shallow, I rolled my Little Bunny onto her back and kissed her gently on the forehead. I would have given her a little more before I took her, but I could see that the sleep was trying to take her too soon. I needed to hurry this up or I would run out of time.


    Hooking her legs over my elbows, I fitted myself against my Little Bunny¡¯s entrance and prepared to enter her.


    ¡°Reece.¡± She called out to me again, her eyes heavily and lidded. ¡°Reece, I need you.¡±


    ¡°I know, sweetheart. I know.¡± I soothed her. ¡°I am right here. Take me, sweetheart. Take me into that sweet body of yours.¡± With one hard and fast thrust, I pushed myself inside of her up to the hilt. She cried out in pleasure, and I almost did the same thing. Being inside of her was pure bliss. Each time was just as amazing if not better than thest.


    I pulled back from her until just my tip was inside of her and heard her whimper at the loss of my cock filling her up. It didn¡¯tst long though. A momentter I mmed into her again and she cried out in joy.


    I set about creating a rhythm that was fast, hard, and steady. I knew that my Little Bunny wouldn¡¯tst much longer with how tired that she was. I needed to give her what she needed before her body gave out on her and she fell asleep.


    In and out. In and out. I drove into her repeatedly and felt her body squeezing me tightly. It was mind blowing and amazing at the same time. And the ripples that were running through her body with each of my thrusts added an extra sensation to my pleasure that was just above and beyond the normal intimacy that we had together.


    ¡°Ahh! Ahh! Ngh! Ahh!¡± She was moaning and crying out in pleasure as I drove into her soft and tender body. But that softness was firming quickly as she inched closer and closer toward her climax.


    Tight, gripping pressure was wrapping and squeezing around my shaft as my Little Bunny¡¯s body reached its point of no return. I could barely pull out of her with how tight she had be, but I forced it nheless. We were both almost there. We were both almost over that edge. I just needed a little more. A few more thrusts. Almost there and..


    ¡°AHH!¡± I cried out as I felt the squeezing around my shaft tighten unbearably. And at that moment I exploded inside of her while my Little Bunny dug her nails into my back with a scream of ecstasy.


    I had the presence of mind to scoop my Little Bunny into my arms and roll before I copsed to the bed. I didn¡¯t want to hurt her after all. And with her cradled on top of my sweat dampened chest, I held her against me and pulled from her hot, hot core. I missed that warmth instantly, but I still had her in my arms. That was enough for me for the time being. I just needed her here with me.


    That was thest thought that went through my mind as I drifted off to sleep, still holding her tight against my chest.

 Chapter 1038 - 1038 Chapter 23- Trinity – More Help For Darrol (VOLUME 6)

    1038 Chapter 23- Trinity ¨C More Help For Darrol (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece and I exhausted ourselves even further than we already had been. And when we woke up, it was almost three in the afternoon. We didn¡¯t have that long before the kids started to get home from their various schools.


    Rushing through a shower and dressing as quickly as we could, we rushed down to the dining room and ate a meal that Abigail prepared for us. It was a quick and easy lunch because she knew that we needed to hurry. And we had just finished and made it to the living room when Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley came walking in. Talia had gone to spend some time with her friends, so she wasn¡¯t home yet, just them right now.


    ¡°Hi, Mommy!¡± Zaley called as she ran toward me. I don¡¯t think that she expected to see us here when they got home.


    ¡°Daddy!¡± Zander ran toward Reece and leapt into his arms. ¡°You¡¯re here.¡±


    ¡°Yeah buddy, we¡¯re here. Where else would we be?¡± Reece asked him calmly.


    ¡°I thought you might have left again. Not for long, just a little while. I thought that you would have another meeting or something.¡±


    .....


    ¡°We have more meetings, son, but we wanted to be here with you. I am sorry that we made you worry.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Daddy.¡± Zander hugged Reece tightly. ¡°I am d that you are here.¡±


    ¡°Me too, buddy. Me too. I wouldn¡¯t want to miss out on these hugs.¡±


    We spent a little bit of time just sitting there and talking to the kids. We learned that Zaley was doing better with school, now that she had a friend. And that Breanna was just as quick to defend her friend as the boys were. That was good to hear. I had to have a talk with some of the parents from their school after they picked on Zaley. They weren¡¯t too happy with their kids, but I knew that they were as much at fault as their kids were. They were the ones that told their kids that Zaley was Edmond reborn, and they were the ones that preached the hatred of Edmond to them. It was their fault, and I had needed to threaten more than a few people to stop the hate from spreading too much. Yeah, I know, counterproductive, but no one messes with my babies.


    A little while after Reece and I sat down with Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley, we heard someone elseing in. Reagan and Rika were home now, and they were who we needed to talk to. The quads understood that Mommy and Daddy needed to get to work now, and they were happy to have had that time with us when they got home. Now though, they were going to do their homework and prepare for their lessons that they had in the afternoon.


    Reagan and Rika saw that we were waiting for them and looked at us with perplexed eyes. They wanted to know what was going on, but I think that they were a little iffy about actually asking us about it.


    ¡°You both want to help, right?¡± Reece broke the ice and opened the floor to the conversation.


    ¡°Yes, we do.¡± Reagan nodded excitedly. ¡°What can we do? How can we help?¡±


    ¡°Did something new happen?¡±


    ¡°We had a friend, Darrol,e in to hack into theputers from the NSA. He managed to get in, and he has a lot of information that needs to be sorted and processed. It¡¯s tedious and boring work, but if you want to help, this is where you start.¡±


    I thought that they would object to the offer to help. I mean, it was menial work meant for an intern or an office gopher. I didn¡¯t think that they would want to help with something so tedious.


    ¡°Yeah, we will help.¡± Rika nodded immediately.


    ¡°Hell, yeah we will. We get to see the secure files from the NSA. Who wouldn¡¯t jump at that opportunity?¡± Reagan¡¯s excitement was palpable.


    ¡°Alright then, if you still want to help, thene with us. It might take more than one day, so you can tell the others toe and helpter if they want to. I know that Shawn and Dietrich most likely told their kids what was happening, the same as I told you. And Carter, Cedar, Juniper, and all the others. And all of you can help us in various ways.¡± I exined to them as I started toward the door.


    ¡°Hey, Mom.¡± Reagan called out to me, stopping me before I had gone more than a step or two.


    ¡°Yes?¡± I turned to face him.


    ¡°I was thinking about something recently. Something that I think will help us out a lot.¡±


    ¡°And what is that?¡± Reece asked him quizzically.


    ¡°It won¡¯t help out the issue at hand. It will actually be centered on me and Rika. And the others. Levi, Luka, Alyssa, Alexandria, Elias, and the others. We are the ones that will eventually take over when you retire, or just want to take a break. And we will be helping out with things when we are done with university. I think that we need to learn more about our people and our kingdom. There is a lot that has happened over thest twenty years, and while we know about a lot of it, I am sure that there is a lot that we need to learn. And yeah, sure, the world isn¡¯t what it was when you were our age. There are still so many things that we need to figure out on our own, but there is also so much that we can learn from the two of you. And it is not just the two of us that needs to learn this stuff. And I know that it¡¯s not just the two of you that can teach us. We need to learn all that we can from you and Dad. Uncle Shawn and Uncle Dietrich. Uncle Vincent, and Uncle Gabriel. All of them have knowledge that we will never get on our own. We need to be taught. And that is why I suggest that we start learning it all as soon as we can. We have been sheltered enough, it¡¯s time for us to grow up.¡±


    ¡°I agree with him too, Mom. We need to learn all of this. I know that I have been immature, selfish, and shelteredtely. And I am ready to move past that. I need to better myself so that I don¡¯t make the same mistakes ever again.¡±


    ¡°I am proud of you two. You are both growing up so fast, and seeing this right here and now, I see that you are more mature than I ever thought that you were. And yes, I agree with you. We need to start teaching you how things are run. We should have done it sooner, to be honest. However, like you said, you were sheltered. I thought that by keeping the dark things away from you I was protecting you, but I was wrong. I left you na?ve and that is on me. Can you ever forgive me?¡± I felt shame then, so intense that I didn¡¯t know how to get past it.


    ¡°Of course. It is on us as well. We didn¡¯t have a desire to learn until now. Not until the truth of the world was shown to us. And, honestly, I am d that you gave us a childhood that didn¡¯t have darkness in it. I loved my childhood.¡±


    ¡°Thanks.¡± I felt a little better after that. ¡°Nowe on. Let¡¯s get to work.¡±


    The four of us left the living room together. I got to talk to Reagan and Rika for a while on the way down. I chose to take the stairs because it gave us more time together. And I knew that moments like this one, where they were so open and carefree with us, were limited. They were getting older, and soon they would have mates and families of their own. That was such a heartbreaking topic for me to think about.


    Then again, it wouldn¡¯t be all that bad either, would it? I mean, when Reagan and Rika found their mates they wouldn¡¯t be my babies anymore, but they weren¡¯t that right now anyway. They would both be happy, and they wouldn¡¯t need to worry about their futures at all. They would eventually have kids, and that would mean grandkids for Reece and I. And the other kids, Talia, Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley would all be aunts and uncles. They would probably like the idea of that, even if Reece hated it with every fiber of his being.


    And if I am being honest, seeing Reece flip out over the kids, specifically his little girls, finding mates was going to be hrious to watch. And I just knew that I was going to be right there, front row center, when he had his first meltdown. Honestly, in a way, I couldn¡¯t wait for them to move on, but I also valued this time with Reagan and Rika so much that I was torn and unwilling to make a true decision.


    I guess that, in the end, they would do things at their own pace. And Reece and I just needed to watch it happen. And until then, we could continue to prepare them for the world and their future as best as we could. They needed to know as much as they could about our world and our culture. More than they had already been taught. Way more.

 Chapter 1039 - 1039 Chapter 24- Trinity – Lessons of the Kingdom (VOLUME 6)

    1039 Chapter 24- Trinity ¨C Lessons of the Kingdom (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece and I took Reagan and Rika back to my office. That was where we met with Darrol and Reggie again. They were already hard at work on sorting the information that they had received. It was nice to see that they were already preparing things even before Reece and I had made it back to the office. They were dedicated to the work that they were doing.


    ¡°Hello, Queen Trinity.¡± Darrol, as excited as he usually was, leapt to his feet when I entered the room. ¡°There is a lot of data that we have ready to go through, but I am sure that we will get it all done as soon as we possibly can.¡±


    ¡°That is wonderful Darrol, I am d that you are so enthusiastic. We did bring you some help though.¡± I exined to him, and that was when he saw the extra people that were with us.


    ¡°U..uhm, Q..Queen Trinity, why do these two look familiar to me? I am sure that I have not met them before.¡± He looked thoroughly perplexed as he tried to figure it out.


    ¡°You can¡¯t tell?¡± Iughed as I asked the man that question. ¡°Do they not look like Reece and I?¡±


    At that, Darrol looked between Reagan and Rika then to Reece and I. It was easy to tell that he was a little shocked when it dawned on him.


    .....


    ¡°Th..these are your kids?¡± He looked way more shocked by that then I would have thought that he would. ¡°Oh wow. I..I admit, I forgot how old you were, Queen Trinity.¡± Heughed nervously as he said that. ¡°A..and so, i..if these are your kids, w..would that make them the oldest of them? That would be Princess Rika and Prince Reagan, right? I..it is so nice to meet you. I am Darrol Harper, FBI agent and hacker extraordinaire.¡± It was clear that Darrol was nervous about what was happening, but he was the type to go with the flow, no matter what it was. He was a good man to have on our team, and I was d that he was on our side.


    ¡°It is nice to meet you, Darrol.¡± Reagan held his hand out to him. ¡°I am Reagan Gray. And I guess that it is you I am here to help. My sister and I wanted to help my parents with whatever it was that they needed. And this data you have is the first step.¡±


    ¡°Alrighty then. I am good with that.¡± Darrol pped his hands together, the nerves in him ebbing away.


    ¡°It is nice to meet you, Prince Reagan, and you as well, Princess Rika.¡± Reggie held her hand out towards them. ¡°I am Regina Danylo. You can call me Reggie.¡± Rika took her hand in introduction.


    ¡°It is good to meet you both. I am Rika Gray. Thank you for this opportunity to work with you.¡±


    ¡°No, thank you for the help. We really do have so much work to do that a couple of extra hands will go a long way.¡± Reggie exined to her.


    ¡°Well, now that the four of you are all acquainted with each other, let¡¯s get to work. I will let the two of you exin what you need from Reagan and Rika. Reece and I are going to work on scheduling some meetings that we need to attend. And I have some more ns to put into motion. We all have a lot of work to do, so please do your best.¡±


    ¡°Yes, of course, Queen Trinity.¡± Darrol nodded at me.


    ¡°We will work hard.¡± Reggie added.


    ¡°You can count on us.¡± Reagan grinned.


    ¡°We¡¯ve got this, Mom.¡± Rika spokest.


    I let the four of them move to the other side of the office, where theputers were set up and the massive amount of information that Darrol had collected was stored. They set out to sort things out immediately, and that was good, because it meant that I didn¡¯t need to be there with them. Not that I thought that I needed to be. They were all adults and capable people.


    I wasn¡¯t lying when I said that Reece and I were going to be setting up some meetings that we needed to have. Normally, this would be something that we needed to use our assistants and secretaries for, but we wanted to make an impression, so Reece was calling people directly. Or as directly as we could get in the beginning. Most of the time, we needed to be put through to their secretaries and assistants. And then we were leaving messages that would hopefully be returned as soon as possible.


    While Reece started with that, I started to worry about something else entirely. I needed to have Gabriel, Vincent, Noah, and as many of the others as I could, help me with something that I felt was equally as important as setting up thews and ordinances for our people¡¯s future treatment.


    And what I felt was equally important was the education of our future leaders. I knew that Reece, myself, and all of the others were likely to be here for a long time still, and that things might change before Reagan and Rika, and whoever else, took things over, but they still needed to know more about ourmunity, politics, and culture.


    I conference called, on the phone not mentally, all the men and women that I wanted to help me with this. Juniper, Aunt Glory, Athair m¨°r, Grandfather, Noah, Bryce, Gabriel, Vincent and Dietrich were all people that knew how things worked, and what people needed to know. They would be the ones that would be helping Reece and I teach the kids. And it wasn¡¯t just going to be our kids either. We would invite that entire graduating ss, well all that still lived in the city, to attend these lessons. The others would learn when they came home.


    Thankfully, everyone agreed that we needed to start these lessons. With the turmoil that our people were likely to face in theing weeks and months, we would need more advocates out there for them. And the newly adult among our people, our own children, would be some of the best advocates to use. A lot of the world didn¡¯t know who they were by sight, because we had kept them from being published too much. They were also good kids, and they were never in trouble or in the news for anything. That meant that they were good role models for our people to follow.


    Lessons wereing to mind for us all, things that we wanted to teach all of the kids. Things that we felt that they needed to know. And before I knew it, all of the others were talking amongst themselves, allowing me to leave the call and help Reece.


    ¡°What are we looking at?¡± I asked him as I saw the list of numbers in front of him.


    ¡°I haven¡¯t managed to talk to anyone directly, but I had expected that. I have left messages for them all though, so hopefully they will-.¡± He stopped just then because the phone rang. ¡°Well, isn¡¯t that good timing?¡± Heughed.


    ¡°Here, I will answer it.¡± I took the phone from him and saw that the number was showing from Washington D.C., the nation¡¯s capital.


    ¡°Hello.¡± I spoke softly after swiping the screen and pressing the phone to my ear.


    ¡°Yes, hello, this is President Jamilynn Maddock, I am personally returning a call from Mr. Reece Gray.¡± The breezy and sweet voice of the woman spoke into my ear.


    ¡°Hello President Maddock, this is Mrs. Trinity Gray, Reece¡¯s wife and business partner. He is here with me, and I want to thank you for your quick response.¡± I answered the woman quickly and politely


    ¡°Well, I have to say that I was intrigued. Not only did I receive a call from your husband, but I also had half a dozen members of congress in here today, both republican and democrat, and they insisted that I take a meeting with the two of you. I don¡¯t know what is going on, Mrs. Gray, but I know that there is something that must be important.¡±


    ¡°Yes, it is highly important.¡± I nodded even though she couldn¡¯t see me. ¡°We would like to meet with you as soon as possible. When are you avable? I am sorry if I sound pushy and rude, it¡¯s just that this is vital.¡±


    ¡°Well, I have some free timeing up this weekend. Aside from this evening that is. I know that is too short notice though, so that is out.¡±


    ¡°What time this evening?¡± I was looking at my watch. It was already almost five here, and that meant that it was almost seven in her time zone.¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you in Colorado, Mrs. Gray?¡± She asked me, perplexed. ¡°You won¡¯t be able to get her in time. I am free around eight this evening, that is the only time that I have avable until the weekend.¡±


    ¡°If you are willing, Reece and I will be there at eight tonight. And I will even have some of the congress members there as well. I would like them to help me exin everything to you that we need to discuss.¡±


    ¡°Alright. If you are sure that you can be here in just over an hour, I will be waiting for you. This should be interesting.¡± I heard the note of challenge in her voice. She knew that we weren¡¯t in the same time zone, let alone the same city, so she thought that I was wasting her time.


    ¡°Thank you, President Maddock. We will see you this evening.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t wait.¡± There was definitely a note of excitement in her voice. She was challenging me. That was fine with me. I was more than up for the challenge.


    When I disconnected the call, Reece turned to look at me and I saw the smirk on his face.


    ¡°We need to rush, don¡¯t we?¡± He wasn¡¯t upset or daunted by the swiftness with which we were expected to pull this off. In fact, he looked like he was having a st.


    ¡°Yes, we do. I am d though. This is a good thing for us. We don¡¯t need to wait for a meeting. And this isn¡¯t one that will be on the books for the others to see. I am sure that, since it¡¯s only an hour away, no one will know that we are meant to be there.¡±


    ¡°Agreed. This will give us an advantage over the NSA.¡± He was right on track with me for this.


    Feeling the excitement coursing through my veins, Reece and I started to alert the congress members. We told them that they were able to decide who it was that was going to meet with the president with us, most likely the same half a dozen of them that had already gone to see her today. The president already knew that they were in on this with us, and it would be a lot easier to keep things going forward if they were to join us again.


    After the congressmen were notified, Reece and I started to notify the staff that we would be leaving for a little while. Reagan and Rika, as well as Darrol and Reggie, were notified of the change in our ns. Andstly, Talia, Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley were all notified. They had to know that we were going to be gone for a little while so that they didn¡¯te looking for us.


    ¡°We will be backter this evening.¡± We told the kids as we prepared to open the door to the president¡¯s office. ¡°We are just waiting for the go ahead from the congressmen in the office.¡±


    ¡°Good luck, Mommy.¡± Zaley smiled at me.


    ¡°Mommy doesn¡¯t need luck. She can do this with no problem at all.¡± Zayden gave us a thumbs up.


    With their support, and the go aheading through mentally from Senators Stevens, it was time for us to go. Another part of this n was starting right in front of us.

 Chapter 1040 - 1040 Chapter 25- Trinity – Our Meeting with the President Part 1 (VOLUME 6)

    1040 Chapter 25- Trinity ¨C Our Meeting with the President Part 1 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    You know, even with me being a Queen, I had never met the president before. Probably because the president hadn¡¯t been a shifter before, so there was no reason for me to meet them. Nor were they a witch, warlock, Fae, vampire, or any other nonhuman person. And to the humans, I was just a normal person. There was nothing special about me.


    Now though, I was on my way to the president¡¯s office. It was oddly terrifying just then. As I created the door into her office, using a photo that Senator Stevens had sent me, I felt butterflies stirring in my stomach. I knew that within seconds I was going to meet one of the most powerful people in my country, as well as reveal the truth about who and what I was to that person. Who the hell wouldn¡¯t be nervous and worried about that? I mean, damn this was pretty intense.


    The door appeared though, just like it always had in the past. And now that we were walking through it, and that short ethereal hallway, we were actually on our way. The door to the other side opened and we stepped through. Leaving our living room with all seven of our kids watching us and transporting ourselves into the oval office.


    ¡°What the hell!?¡± I heard a panicked cry as Reece and I stepped into the room on the other end of the door.


    I immediately saw the six politicians that were waiting for us. And behind arge dark desk, was the woman that had won the presidency a few years back. Actually, this was another election year, I had voted myself just a few days ago. Right before all of this stuff started. The ballots were still being counted, though it looked like President Maddock was in the lead. So that was good. We didn¡¯t want to deal with her, and then have all of this undone by the inauguration of another president. That would be a huge mess.


    ¡°Good evening, President Maddock.¡± I smiled at the woman. ¡°I am Queen Trinity Gray, and this is my husband, King Reece Gray. Thank you for meeting with us on such short notice.¡±


    .....


    ¡°OK. Something really weird is going on here.¡± There was shock and still an edge of panic in the woman¡¯s voice, but she hadn¡¯t raised her voice or screamed at all. That was good.


    ¡°Yes, there is a lot that we need to discuss with you, President Maddock. And that is why we are here.¡± I exined to her calmly. ¡°Thank you, by the way, for not shouting or screaming in protest. I see that you do not have any of your security here with you at the moment either, that seems like a miraculous feat as well.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, well, they insisted on talking to me privately. And so, I decided to oblige them. I didn¡¯t think that this was going to happen. What the hell was that?¡± She pointed at the space behind me, where the door had been just a few moments before.


    ¡°That was a magical door. And that is one subject that I need to talk to you about. Please, Madam President, have a seat so that we can exin this to you.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know if I am ready to take a seat.¡± The president crossed her arms and just stared at me. ¡°Please just exin things Mrs. Gray, before I call for the security that I sent away.¡±


    ¡°Queen Trinity isn¡¯t a threat, Madam President.¡±


    ¡°Why do you refer to her as Queen Trinity?¡± The president red at Senator Stevens who seemed to be the leader of this group. ¡°She called herself that as well. Why do you think that you are a queen? There are no queens and kings in the United States.¡±


    ¡°Well, yes and no. There is no ruling monarchy of our country, but there are actually several royals that reside in this country of ours. They don¡¯t rule the nation though, just their own people. My people, for instance, live all over the world. These politicians that havee to see you today, they are all my people. However, they are citizens of the United States.¡±


    As I exined this to the president, I saw that she put her hands on her head as if she had a headache. After shaking her head a little, she went to take her seat at her desk.


    ¡°Alright, this is confusing. What is it that you are trying to say? That there are hidden kingdoms all over the world? And that people can be citizens of one nation but part of that kingdom? How is that possible?¡±


    ¡°They aren¡¯t citizens of my kingdom because of where they live, Madam President.¡± I was speaking softly and calmly so that I didn¡¯t scare the woman with my words. ¡°The people of my kingdom, wherever they are across the world, are my people because of what they are.¡±


    ¡°What are they?¡± The president looked at me. ¡°Exin yourself please?¡± She was ring at me.


    ¡°My people aren¡¯t like you, Madam President. My people are different. They are special.¡±


    ¡°Special?¡± She was still wondering what it was that I was trying to get at. I didn¡¯t want to scare her, but I knew what I needed to say next. It was the next logical thing here.


    ¡°They aren¡¯t human. And neither am I.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha ha ha.¡± Sheughed long and loud at that. I knew that she was going to have a hard time believing me. She definitely didn¡¯t believe that there were people that weren¡¯t human. ¡°That is funny. I don¡¯t know what you are trying to get at, Mrs. Gray, but that was hrious. You look pretty damned human to me.¡±


    ¡°How many humans do you know that can open a magical door into your office?¡± I spoke a little more sternly than I had intended to, but she didn¡¯t seem to notice. My words had made her remember how I had gotten in here.


    ¡°W..well, none.¡± She looked a little worried now. ¡°And I am still wondering how you did that.¡±


    ¡°As I said, Madam president. I am not human. Reece isn¡¯t human. And none of these politicians here are human. There are a lot of us in the world. And we have been here all along.¡±


    ¡°Y..y..you¡¯re serious?¡± She looked at me with wide, shock filled eyes. ¡°You really expect me to believe that? You really think that I will listen to you and believe that you are not human? That is absurd. It is impossible. What are you if not human? Huh? What is it that you think that you are, Mrs. Gray? What do they think that they are?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think, President Maddock. I am what I say that I am.¡± I didn¡¯t want to be the one to say what I was first, so I looked at Senator Stevens and she nodded.


    ¡°Madam President, I am a Fox Shifter. That means that I am able to shift into a fox, though I am a littlerger than the average variety.¡± The woman exined what she was and that started all of the others to exin their species. The group that was gathered here was arge variety and that helped.


    ¡°I am a wolf. And that means that I turn into quite the impressivelyrge wolf.¡± Senator Silvers added next.


    ¡°I am a bear shifter, Madam President.¡± Senator William Feldman exined. ¡°I am a pr bear, which ismon in my home state of ska. My animal form is not that muchrger than the real pr bears that are in the wild.¡±


    ¡°I am a feline shifter, Madam President. I can be a cougar at will.¡± Senator Carol Lawrence was next to offer up her species.¡±


    ¡°I am a witch, Madam President. I don¡¯t be an animal, but like Queen Trinity, I can perform magic. And I am very skilled at it as well.¡± This was from Senator Francine Hillman.


    ¡°I am a Fae, I am from another kingdom than the others, my queen is Queen Gloriana, but that is Queen Trinity¡¯s aunt so I still recognize her as an authority. My magic is rted to nts. I am technically a pixie.¡± This was from Congresswoman Rosanna Greenbaum.


    ¡°As Trinity¡¯s husband and mate, I am the king of my people. I am a wolf shifter. I have three forms though. A true wolf form, a werewolf form, and I can even be a phoenix after the magic that has been a part of my life.¡± Reece had his hands resting calmly at his sides. He was trying to appear as non threatening as possible.


    ¡°Andstly, Madam President, I am the queen of two different kingdoms that Ibined into one. Those kingdoms were the shifters, the multiple varieties that they are, as well as the magic users, including but not limited to witches and warlocks. I am personally a Wolf, a Witch, and a Fae. I also have the souls of three gods inside of me and I am the Goddess Incarnate. There is so much about me that is different from the others in my kingdom that aside from my children, there is almost no one like me in this world.¡±


    ¡°Th..th..that makes no sense to me at all. How can you all im to not be human? It¡¯s impossible. Thoroughly impossible. Wolf shifters, bear shifters, witches, and even Fae, those things are myths and legends. And you.¡± She pointed at Reece. ¡°You said werewolf. Is that what these wolf shifters are supposed to be? Half man half beast? Like the Hollywood movies?¡± She still looked so skeptical.


    ¡°Not quite like that. Most wolf shifters can only be the wolf itself. Not a half man and half beast. I am the first Lycan, or true werewolf that there has been in centuries. And I gained that ability almost twenty years ago.¡±


    ¡°OK, yeah, now I know that you are all lying to me. There is no such thing as werewolves. I don¡¯t appreciate being lied to or tricked. All of you are going to be on my list. I will never trust any of you ev-.¡± She stopped abruptly then, because she was stunned into silence.


    Silence was the best really. She could have screamed with what she was looking at. I mean, Reece was standing there one moment and then the next he was in his Lycan form. And the president of the United States was standing face to face with a real life Hollywood-looking werewolf.


    Then again, the woman might have been silent because she was scared shitless and unable to breathe. She was going pale and red faced at the same time. And then the red face started to look a little blue.


    ¡°Reece, shift back.¡± I snapped at him. ¡°I will take care of the clothes.¡± I threw my hand up and blocked him from view before he was exposed to the president. She didn¡¯t need to see him naked on top of his Lycan form. Then, with another wave of my hand I had clothes on Reece again. That was good, at least he was decent again. I even managed to make the scraps of clothes disappear from the room. ¡°I am sorry about that, Madam President. Reece was just trying to help you to understand.¡± I red at him, but I knew that he had done the right thing. He had chosen himself to shift because it would be the most impactful. It¡¯s just that it was also almost the one that ended up killing the president.


    I was still a little worried about President Maddock as she looked at Reece. She wasn¡¯t blue anymore, nor was she red faced, but she was pale. And that worried me. What if she fainted or something? What were we going to do if Reece¡¯s revtion to the woman was enough to make her go insane? What if we had just broken her? This was all a little too much for me to try and process while also trying to prove what we were, that we weren¡¯t dangerous, and that we just wanted her help. UGH! This was all a little daunting all of a sudden.

 Chapter 1041 - 1041 Chapter 26- Trinity – Our Meeting with the President Part 2 (VOLUME 6)

    1041 Chapter 26- Trinity ¨C Our Meeting with the President Part 2 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I really was worried about President Maddock though. She was extremely pale and that didn¡¯t bode well for us. What if she started to scream about monsters? What if she was too scared to help us now? What if we had just blown our one and only shot here?


    ¡°Madam President?¡± I called out to her softly, trying to be as non threatening as possible. ¡°Are you alright?¡±


    ¡°H..h..h..he just turned into a werewolf.¡± Some color was returning to her face, slowly but it was there. ¡°He just turned into a real w..w..werewolf.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Madam President, he did. As we said, we are not humans. However, we are people just like you. And we need your help.¡± Finally, the president took her eyes off of Reece and looked at me. I saw that she wasn¡¯t actually scared. Instead, she looked like she was more excited and intrigued. Was she OK with the idea of there being someone that wasn¡¯t human in her office? Was she going to help us out here? Man, I really hoped so. I didn¡¯t want to have all of this happening for nothing.


    ¡°You need my help?¡± She looked surprised as she settled her eyes on me. ¡°What is it that you need me for? If you¡¯re the queen of all these people, and you can do magic like I have already seen, what do you need from me?¡±


    ¡°Well, Madam President, we are in a little bit of trouble. Do you remember those serial murders from over the summer?¡±


    .....


    ¡°Yes, of course I do. So many people died around the world, and even a few of them here in the US.¡±


    ¡°Yes, well, those people were all part of my kingdom. There was a family that had been manipted by former god-like beings into killing us. They resented us and targeted my people. I wanted to help them, to save as many as I could, so my husband and I joined in the investigation. That wasn¡¯t an issue at the time, but after the fact people started to investigate us. They wanted to know what was going on with us. And they started to wonder about how we haven¡¯t aged.¡±


    ¡°Aged? How old are you? Twenty-five at most right¡±


    ¡°I am almost forty, Madam President. And Reece is seven years older than I am. He is forty-six now.¡± I exined to her how old we really were and that was when her face fell.


    ¡°How is that possible? You do not look that old at all.¡±


    ¡°We are immortal. Though we never used to be. That happened when the gods that I told you about entered my body. That is what made my people immortal. Some people in ourmunity, including my grandfather, got younger. And that raised some suspicions as well. Now the NSA is investigating us, and they truly believe that we¡¯re not human. Which, as you know, we¡¯re not. I could do something to make them stop investigating us, but that will only make them know that they were right. And these people are going to expose us to the humans when they have the information that they need. We need to be ahead of them. We want to reveal ourselves first.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s all well and good, Mrs. Gray, but what does that have to do with me?¡± The president was actually listening to what I had to say. That was good. I was starting to think that this might actually work.


    ¡°Well, there are nows that protect people that are not human. We are just like you normal people, except for ancient magic that altered us a long time ago. Our ancestors, for the shifters anyway, used to be human. They were the humans that followed the various gods that gave them their power. The vampires used to be humans as well. And do not worry, they do not kill people. Anyone that does is a criminal in ourmunity and we will deal with them swiftly. The witches and warlocks were born directly from the gods in the beginning, but they have long since married and bred with the humans, so they are just as human as you are. The Fae have no human blood, but they are still people. They still love the same, bleed the same, and feel the same. We are people just like you, and we want to protect ourselves. I want to putws into effect, here and all over the world, that will protect the nonhuman people when we reveal ourselves. Please, Madam President, help us.¡± I could hear the desperation in my own voice as I pleaded with the woman. I needed her to understand just how urgent this was and why it was that we could not dy at all.


    ¡°I..I understand what it is that you want, but I don¡¯t know how much I will be able to help you. I can¡¯t push throughws on my own. They have to go through the house and senate. My hands are tied.¡± She truly looked apologetic there. And I could understand why she felt that way. She didn¡¯t know how many people we had working for us.


    ¡°Madam President.¡± Senator Stevens was speaking now, her voice steady and firm. ¡°Our people, the nonhumans among us, make up almost half of the house and the senate. We only need to persuade a handful of the people to get the bills to pass through to you. We can convene emergency sessions here very soon, and we will get this pushed through. We are not going to back down. We just need you to approve it when it reaches you.¡±


    ¡°Alright. I can do that. But that only helps you here. You said that your people are all over the world.¡± The president sounded worried about us just then. And I knew, then and there, that this was a woman that we could count on. I don¡¯t know why, but I had a feeling that her being a woman helped. Women usually took the revtion about us a lot easier than men did. I guess that we were just a lot more open to the possibilities than men were, because we were used to things that were unexinable.


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry, Madam President.¡± I smiled at her. ¡°We are working with other world leaders as well. Some of them are members of mymunity, the others are just a little high in the politicaldder, but we have people that can help. And you can help there as well. If we refer them to you, to double check on thesews that we want, you can tell them that you are approving it as well.¡±


    ¡°I will do what I can.¡± She tilted her head for a moment and looked at me. ¡°Mrs. Gray, or I guess Queen Trinity, how many people are in your kingdom? How many nonhumans are there in the world?¡±


    ¡°Well, Madam President-.¡± I started, but she interrupted me.


    ¡°Jamie, please.¡± She smiled and asked me to be more informal with her.


    ¡°Well, Jamie.¡± I smiled as I looked at her knowingly. ¡°If I am being honest with you, my people, and those of the other kingdoms, make up more than half of the world¡¯s poption.¡±


    ¡°More than half?¡± She looked surprised by that. ¡°So, if you people weren¡¯t here, then the poption would be cut in half, more than half actually?¡±


    ¡°That is correct.¡± I nodded at her. ¡°There are a lot of us, and I truly want to protect them all.¡±


    I watched as the president sat there and just stared at me. She was trying to process what all of this meant. She was trying to figure out what type of world there would be if we weren¡¯t here. I could see it all in her eyes. And the moment that she had a revtion, she seemed to blink ande back to herself.


    ¡°So, I am president because of your people. If the country that we live in is more nonhumans than humans, it means that a good majority of your people voted for me than not. And you have been here for a long time. I am guessing since the creation of humans, or rather the evolution of them. No matter when it happened, you have been here at least as long as us, maybe even longer. And if you have been here all along, and we are still here and living, then it means that you are not dangerous people. I know that for a fact. If you were dangerous, you would have just threatened me to get my help. Instead, you begged for it.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t often beg, Jamie, so I hope that I didn¡¯te off too strong.¡± That made herugh.


    ¡°Ha ha ha. Yeah, I would guess that a queen doesn¡¯t usually beg. Anyway, I will do all that I can to help pass the bills that you need. And as I understand it, we don¡¯t have a lot of time to wait on this.¡± She looked serious now.


    ¡°No, we don¡¯t.¡± I shook my head. ¡°We need to hurry, and that means that we will be busy for a long time. Having you as an ally, though, will be a big boon for us.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha.¡± Sheughed again, like I was being funny or something. ¡°Queen Trinity, I think that it will be me that benefits from this in the long run. I will have more allies than I ever knew.¡± She looked cunning now. ¡°If there is ever another dispute like the one that happened in the twenty twenties, the one with Ukraine, I know that I can call on some people to help me. Since I am sure that many of your people were affected by that as well.¡±


    ¡°That they were. Unfortunately, there was a lot that was happening here as well. I regret that I wasn¡¯t able to help until the end. Ukraine came out on top though. And now the president of that country is a vampire that doesn¡¯t want to see any of his people, the nonhuman or those in his country, get hurt again. He is a good man, and a good ally.¡±


    ¡°Oh my word!¡± I saw her face fall in shock. ¡°Petrenko is a Vampire? I never would have suspected that at all.¡±


    ¡°You would be surprised by a lot of the people that aren¡¯t human, Jamie. A lot of the actors in Hollywood for one thing. Honestly, Keanu is almost done with his hiatus before hees back to the big screen. He had way too many rumors about him being immortal long ago, he had to fake his death and wille back as his son once more.¡± Iughed. ¡°That has happened a few times now, since the immortality thing started to be more prevalent in my people.¡± She justughed and shook her head.


    ¡°He was one of my favorites. I cried when he died. And now I learn that he isn¡¯t dead. That is just amazing. I can¡¯t wait to see his ¡®son¡¯ start acting again.¡± She wasughing and crying now. ¡°So much for me to process. So much for me to figure out. I think that I need some sleep though. My mind is thoroughly blown now. She shook her head. ¡°Can we meet again, Queen Trinity?¡±


    ¡°You can just call me Trinity, it¡¯s a lot easier. And yes, Jamie, I think that we will need to meet a lot over the next several days. There is a lot to work out with all of this.¡±


    ¡°Yes, this is a veryplicated situation, and there is still so much to figure out.¡±


    We talked for a few more moments, mostly just thanking each other and saying our goodbyes. I thanked the others for their help with all that they had done, even if it was just being the gateway between the president and myself. It was still very much appreciated.


    After the farewells, I opened a door back home, Jamie was very excited about it as she watched us walk through it. Then, finally, we were back home and able to rx for the time being.

 Chapter 1042 - 1042 Chapter 27- Reagan – Busy (VOLUME 6)

    1042 Chapter 27- Reagan ¨C Busy (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reagan


    ~~


    Things were getting really busy at home for us all. The day that Rika and I offered to help Mom and Dad with the revtion preparation, we were actually put to work. I was surprised about that, since our parents usually tried to keep us out of what was happening.


    Things have been changingtely, starting with how Talia was a major yer in the murder case that Mom and Dad worked on recently. In the beginning, when Talia first left, I was a little jealous of her. I mean, I had never been asked to help my parents like that before. Then I thought about it and I knew that they had a reason to ask Talia. She was different from Rika and I. She had powers that we didn¡¯t.


    Yeah, we all had magic, even Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley all had magic, but Talia¡¯s was different. She had magic rted to the dead, and since they needed to free the souls of the dead, and talk to them as well, Talia was the only person alive that we know of that could do that. She is an amazing person, and a truly kind hearted person. I felt bad for her having to deal with the souls of the deading to her all the time. I have heard her, more so in the past than now, she has screamed during the night when they visit her and invade her dreams. It can¡¯t be a pleasant experience.


    Compared to Talia, Rika and I didn¡¯t have a lot of special abilities. Then again, we have recently started to practice more of our magic. There was a lot to learn, and our mom was just a little older than we were when she learned most of it. So, in truth, I didn¡¯t feel too far behind. We would get to the level that we needed to be, eventually.


    Right now though, Rika and I were sitting alone at school. In the middle of the campus there was a fountain that had quickly be one of our favorites. Usually, we would sit here with our friends and talk while between sses or when we ate our lunches. Our sses for the day were over though, and our friends had gone home. We didn¡¯t feel like leaving just yet, we just wanted to sit and think.


    There were times when Rika and I were still so in sync that it was easy to tell that we were twins. Other times, people were shocked to learn that about us. Today was one of the former. We were so in tune and in sync with each other that we barely needed to speak tomunicate what we were thinking to each other. And when we did speak, sometimes the sentences were chopped and shortened because we were able to fill in the nk for each other.


    .....


    ¡°Busy.¡± I asked Rika as I looked at the water sshing into the fountain.


    ¡°Very.¡± She agreed.


    ¡°Wanted it though.¡± I continued in the same manner.


    ¡°That we did. Can¡¯tin.¡±


    ¡°Not at all.¡± Neither of us were upset about the situation, we just needed to talk about it a little.


    That feeling of intense connection wasn¡¯t fading, but I was starting to feel the urge to talk more, to get more off of my chest that the small sentences were doing for me. There was something that was bothering me, and I was pretty sure I knew what it was.


    ¡°Rika?¡± I called to her, drawing her attention away from the water and toward me. I was already looking at her and so her eyes met mine.


    ¡°What is it?¡± She sensed that something was different without me needing to say more.


    ¡°Even with how things are right now, with how busy we have been, have you felt iplete at all? Like something is missing?¡±


    ¡°Well, yeah, in a way. But I have felt that way for weeks.¡±


    ¡°You have?¡± that was news to me. She must have been hiding it well. ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Well, I think it was because I thought that Clovio was my mate. I don¡¯t know if I was just jealous of Lyssa finding her mate with Warrick, or if I was just desperate to be loved, but I wanted him to be my mate so bad.¡±


    ¡°And it had to be him specifically?¡± I asked her with curiosity in my voice. I wasn¡¯t judging her. I knew that she had been through a lot.


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t think that it had to be him specifically. I don¡¯t know how to exin it. It just felt to me like I was supposed to have my mate. Things were feeling strange for me for a little while, and then Clovio came by and he was the only one that was treating me like I was the most important woman in the world. I thought that it had to be him. And my mind and heart weren¡¯t epting anything else. It was strange. And now, ever since he left for Wales, I haven¡¯t felt the same. It¡¯s getting a little easier by the day, but it¡¯s been really hard on me ever since then. It¡¯s almost as if a piece of me went away, even though I know that he wasn¡¯t my mate.¡±


    ¡°Huh. I didn¡¯t know that. I am sorry, Rika.¡± I felt bad for my sister. I didn¡¯t want her to feel upset like that. ¡°I think that I am feeling iplete too though, you know. Like there is something missing inside of me. And I know what it is. I want a mate too. I mean, I am a wolf, of course I want to find my mate. That is the first and most important goal that we have. And here I am, almost neen, and she hasn¡¯t shown up yet.¡± I felt so dejected.


    ¡°Same here, Reagan. I mean, I am the same age as Mom was when she met Dad, and I feel like I am falling behind. But I know that it isn¡¯t my fault. I was being stupid and immature, so I think that fate wanted to make me grow up a little. That is another reason why I wanted to help Mom and Dad with this issue. I wanted to prove to myself that I had changed. That I wasn¡¯t the same person that I used to be.¡± I could hear the determination in her voice as she spoke. She wanted to be better than she was. I wanted the same thing for myself. I didn¡¯t want to be an immature teenage boy anymore. I wanted to be a man. A responsible adult. I needed to be better, to be stronger, to help more. That was how I was going to improve myself and find the woman that was meant for me.


    After a few moments, I heard the sound ofughter drifting toward me and I realized that my sister wasughing at me. She was grinning and trying to hide it, but I knew that she wasughing at me like I had done something funny.


    ¡°What? What is it?¡± I red at her, not liking that she wasughing at me.


    ¡°I was just thinking about something.¡± Her eyes were sparkling at me with all theughter and mirth that was pulsing off of her in waves.


    ¡°Well, what was it? Don¡¯t leave me hanging here.¡±


    ¡°Well, Dad was twenty-five when he met Mom. He had to wait for her to be older enough. What if you have to wait another six years as well.¡± Sheughed again, almost hysterically this time. ¡°What if your mate is only twelve right now? What if you have to grow older and older until she is an adult. Or better yet, we¡¯re immortal, what if she isn¡¯t born yet. What if she won¡¯t be born for another hundred years.¡± She was clearly getting a kick out of this.


    ¡°I swear to the goddess, Rika, if that happens, I will personally make your life a living hell.¡± Sheughed again. ¡°And don¡¯t think that you¡¯re immune here. What if you need to wait that long as well. What if your mate is just a baby right now and you need to wait until you¡¯re a cougar before you meet him.¡±


    ¡°Eww! Gross! I don¡¯t want a mate that is younger than me.¡±


    ¡°Fine. What if he is older than you? What if you haven¡¯t met him yet because he is some ancient warlock that is like seven hundred and you have to meet him when you leave home?¡±


    ¡°Stop it, that¡¯s even worse. I don¡¯t want a mate that much older than me either. It¡¯s just in wrong. I want one more my age. Like two or three years older than me at most. I don¡¯t want to be a child to him. And I don¡¯t want to be a granny to him either. Stop it Reagan, that is just mean.¡±


    ¡°You started it.¡± Iughed and she joined in.


    ¡°Yeah, I know.¡±


    The conversation died down a little after that. We just sat there and watched the fountain in silence for a little while as the minutes passed. When it was about five in the afternoon, we got to our feet and went home. We had another lesson at the castle, another thing to keep us busy. That was why we had needed these few moments of peace sitting here in the middle of the crowded campus. We had needed time to pretend like the world wasn¡¯t fucked up and everything was going to be just fine. Then it was back to busy once more.

 Chapter 1043 - 1043 Chapter 28- Trinity – A Busy Schedule Coming Up (VOLUME 6)

    1043 Chapter 28- Trinity ¨C A Busy Schedule Coming Up (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The meeting with the president had gone better than I thought that it would. She was willing to work with us on this issue, and that was the first step. After that meeting, with the president¡¯s full support, the various senators and congressmen worked with Reece and I to find out what it was that we needed to have in thesews and bills that we were trying to get passed.


    There were meetings with the guards, with all the family that we consulted on a regr basis, the members of the council that we had formed long ago, and even with the kids that were of age. We had spoken with them about what they wanted in the future. They were younger than us, but they were still part of this situation. They were our legacy on the world after all. And it was just as important that we take their thoughts and feelings into consideration.


    The bills were beginning to take shape over the week following the meeting with the president. They were focusing on acknowledging people as anyone that was human in appearance more often than not, that walked, talked, and functioned with a human capacity, as well as other things. We were working on making it so that ces of employment couldn¡¯t deny someone because of their species, that it was illegal to ask for someone¡¯s species or require that they carry identification with them that identified their species.


    In truth, while we were working on these things for our people, we started to weave some things about different races in there as well. There were still people that thought that immigrants needed to carry identification cards on them and things like that. So why not eliminate that while we were at it.


    Another thing that happened during the week that we were working on thews and bills that we were trying to make, was that the election was made official. And President Maddock had officially been reelected. That worked in our favor, because we didn¡¯t need to worry about another president stepping in after we had gotten this far.


    Petrenko and Westmont were working with us and other allied nations in Europe to get their bills started, but we still needed to meet with the heads of their countries before things would move forward. The bills there were right along the lines as the ones in the US.


    .....


    Prince Hishahito and Prime Minister of Singapore, Zul Lee Wong, who was a Merman, were spearheading the Asian countries on our behalf. With their assistance, we would hopefully be able to get a lot of work done in the next couple of weeks. It was already almost halfway through November, and I wanted to make sure that we stayed ahead of the NSA.


    Of course, we also had Darrol monitoring the information that the NSA was getting all the time. And when he wasn¡¯t working on that, he was teaching Reagan to do the work himself. From what I had been told recently, Reagan was quite the genius when it came toputers. And he was learning the techniques of this master hacker with ease.


    In a way, I was extremely proud of my son and the aplishments that he was achieving. However, my son was bing a hacker and that could get him in trouble with thew if he wasn¡¯t careful. So, on top of being proud of how smart and aplished he already was, I was worried about him. You know, just another day in the life of a mom. There was so much that was going on here that I didn¡¯t know what to think or do half the time. At least when it came to him and Rika.


    Rika had taken quite the hands-on management position. She had gotten Alyssa, Alexandria, na, and Ashley together to work with her and under her guidance they had maintained quite aplex system. They were able to run smoothly as if they had been working in an office or something like that for a decade. I was very proud of the work that they were managing day in and day out. Rika was even working with the politicians as if it was nothing at all. She was quite skilled when it came to being a diplomat.


    With how wonderfully that everything seemed to be going, I knew that we were just about ready to take the next step. I would take basic copies of the bill that we were submitting to the House soon. I would show these bills to the leaders of countries that we either had no or small amounts of political influence in. I would exin to them what we needed and urge them to join us.


    This next week or so was going to be busy, and most of it was going to happen very early in the morning orte at night. Because the countries would all be in different time zones than us, and we needed to visit with a lot of them. There were meetings that were officially scheduled, but I didn¡¯t think that it would get back to the NSA. Not unless they were monitoring every nation in the world for our names appearing on the guest lists. And it wasn¡¯t like we were going to be flying there, so there would be no records of travel.


    Now, the next thing that we needed to do, with the political discussionsing up, was to tell the kids that we were going to being and going for the next week or two until we were able to aplish our tasks. We would do as many of them while they were at school or sleeping as we could, but it wouldn¡¯t be possible to do them all like that. And we might be gone in the morning or the evening sometimes, but we would always being home the same night.


    ¡°Mom?¡± Reagan called out to me while I was thinking about these things during dinner. ¡°MOM!?¡± He raised his voice because I was so lost in thought that I hadn¡¯t heard him or responded. I don¡¯t even know how many times that he called me, or what they had all been talking about.


    ¡°Are you OK, sweetheart?¡± Reece asked me as I shook my head and came back to my senses.


    ¡°Yeah, I am fine. I am so sorry everyone. I was just so lost in thought that I didn¡¯t pay attention to my surroundings. I shouldn¡¯t do that though. I need to be more present when I¡¯m here with you guys.¡± I looked at the kids as they stared at me. They looked concerned, like they thought that something was wrong.


    ¡°What is the matter, Mom?¡± Talia asked, breaking into the subject that I knew all seven of the kids were thinking about.


    ¡°I was just thinking. It¡¯s nothing bad, but I guess that I have been so busytely that I am also tired. And when I started to think I just spaced out.¡±


    ¡°What were you thinking about, Momma?¡± Zander asked in a weak voice. I knew that he was scared about Reece and I leaving again.


    ¡°Well.¡± I tried not to worry him with my tone, but I was just about to confirm his fears. ¡°Daddy and I need to go and talk to the people around the world. We won¡¯t be staying away though. We are going to be visiting these people anding back every day. We might leave early in the morning, or we might need to go at night. The other countries are all at different times than us, but I promise you that we will be home every day. You will see us every single day. I promise you that, Zander. I promise all of you that.¡± I looked at all the kids in turn, telling them that I meant what I was saying, and that Reece and I were not going to leave them again. Not like we had before. We were going to be here for them to see at some point during each day.


    ¡°Alright.¡± Zachary nodded. ¡°I believe you.¡±


    ¡°We know that you have work to do, Mommy. And we won¡¯t stop you.¡± Zayden¡¯s tone was a little sad, but he kept his face even and calm.


    ¡°We will see you while you are here. If we have to miss a morning, then we have the evening. And the same goes for when you are gone at night. We will not have to miss you, because you will still be here.¡±


    ¡°Of course, we will.¡± I nodded at Zaley after she spoke.


    ¡°Hey, Mom?¡± Reagan called out softly. ¡°Maybe we should allow the kids to spend more time with their friends over the next couple of weeks.¡± He had been part of the discussion about how long the meetings were going to take, so he knew that it was going to take a while. ¡°If they can have sleepovers then they wouldn¡¯t worry about you as much.¡±


    ¡°Ooh, yes, please Mommy?¡± Zaley looked excited. ¡°I want to have Breanna stay the night.¡±


    ¡°And I can spend some time at Sereia¡¯s house.¡± Talia added with a smile.


    ¡°Sleepovers are girly, but we can have the guys over to y video games all night.¡± Zander tried to hide that he wanted to have a sleepover as well. It was kind of cute to see the way that he was trying to get out of it.


    ¡°Yeah, a video game marathon, that will be cool.¡± Zaley nodded in agreement. ¡°That is much better than a sleepover.¡±


    ¡°You do realize that it is the same thing, right?¡± Zayden pointed out to them. ¡°Our friends will be staying over, and at some point, in time we will all end up sleeping. That is a sleepover. There is nothing else to call it. The video game marathon will only be a part of it. And you know that there will be snacking and other stupid stuff. I mean,e on, stop trying to pretend that it¡¯s something that it¡¯s not.¡±


    ¡°Shut up.¡± Zander snapped at him. ¡°It¡¯s not a sleepover.¡±


    ¡°Whatever.¡± Zayden shook his head at his brother. ¡°I think it sounds fun though. Too bad we can¡¯t invite all of our friends though.¡± I heard a hint of sadness in his voice then.


    ¡°Yeah. We can¡¯t get everyone here for one big party. The humans from the city won¡¯t be allowed here. Good thing that they don¡¯t go to school with us.¡± I thought about a handful of humans that were friends with the boys from the various things that they were into. They had gotten to know a lot of them. And they had hung out with them in the city before, but they were never allowed over here. I felt bad for them, but I hoped that when all this was done, maybe that would be able to change.


    ¡°Well, I think that spending time with your friends will be a good thing. You can all start nning for when you want this to happen. Reagan and Rika will keep an eye on things along with Peter and Roisin. I will also have L and Nonae over, Papa and M¨®ra¨ª as well if you want. Then you will have Ivy and Olivia here with you as well. Would you like that, Zaley?¡± My little sister and Reece¡¯s littler sister were both just a few months younger than the quads, so they had all been really close since they were little.


    ¡°Yeah, that would be great. I don¡¯t have a lot of friends at school, so it would have just been Breannaing over. Thanks Mom.¡± She looked ted at the idea of having more than one friend over at a time.


    ¡°I will help you have an amazing sleepover, Zaley.¡± Rika beamed at her. ¡°I promise that I will make sure that you and the other girls will love it.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± I saw the light shining out of Zaley¡¯s bright blue eyes as she beamed at her sister. ¡°Thank you, Rika.¡±


    ¡°Of course. What are big sisters for?¡±


    ¡°I will help too. I don¡¯t have to stay with Sereia the same night that you have your party. Together we will make sure that you have the best party ever.¡± Talia loved her sister as well, and I knew that she wanted to make sure that the younger girls all have a really good time.


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    For the rest of the night, all of the kids talked about all the things that they were going to do during the party. It was a lively discussion that had them all forgetting about the fact that Reece and I were going to be leaving. It was a great distraction for them, and I was thankful for Reagan suggesting it for us. He was a great big brother, and an even greater son.


    The ns seemed to be getting bigger and grander, but that was fine with me. I would make sure that the kids had what they needed before we left, and I knew that I didn¡¯t have to worry about anything, not with all the guards and family that would be here to watch over everything.


    ¡°That was a good call by Reagan, wasn¡¯t it?¡± Reece whispered in my ear as the squealing andughter grew louder around us.


    ¡°He is a smart kid. Reminds me of someone else that I used to know. Though he is a million times nicer than that person used to be.¡± Iughed as I saw Reece¡¯s eyes crinkle inughter.


    ¡°You won¡¯t let me live that down, will you?¡± He shook his head in exasperation.


    ¡°Nope. Never.¡± I leaned over and put my head on his shoulder. ¡°We need to make sure that we seed here, Reece. I need to make sure that the world is safe for all of them.¡±


    ¡°We will, Little Bunny. I promise.¡± Reece¡¯s words vibrated with worry as I heard them ring through the space between us. There was a sense of ominousness that hung there for a moment. Underneath that though, there was a determination that I would never stop until I seeded. I had children to protect. Seven of them, that were sitting at the table with us, and one that was inside of my belly at the moment. And on top of those eight, I had the dozens of other children that were in my life. And I refused to let them suffer because of this issue. I would protect them all no matter what. That was my responsibility, and I would see it through.

 Chapter 1044 - 1044 Chapter 29- Zaley – Sleepover Part 1 (VOLUME 6)

    1044 Chapter 29- Zaley ¨C Sleepover Part 1 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Zaley


    ~~


    With Mom and Dad starting to leave for their meetings all around the world, Reagan, Rika and Talia were helping Zachary, Zander, Zayden and me prepare for our sleepover. I knew for a fact that Ivy and Olivia would be here for me, they were my aunts after all, they had to be here. Still, I was worried because I didn¡¯t know if Breanna would be here for me. I didn¡¯t know if she wanted toe to the party.


    The day after Reagan said that we should have the party, I went to school with a mixture of excitement and nerves. I wanted to ask Breanna about the party right away, but I didn¡¯t know how. And I didn¡¯t even know why I was worried. She was my best friend. And she had been to the castle before. She was just there at Halloween, so she knew where I lived. And what I lived in.


    A lot of people were scared by the castle because it was huge and scary looking to them. They thought that it was strange to live in a ce that could practically fit the entire city in it. To me though, it was just home and not scary.


    ¡°Ohe on, Zaley!¡± Breanna turned to me and growled impressively for a Fae.


    ¡°Wh..what?¡± I turned to look at her in confusion. She looked annoyed and I didn¡¯t know what I had done wrong.


    ¡°You are so totally distracted.¡± She narrowed her eyes at me. ¡°Come on. I know that something is the matter with you. You have barely looked at me today. And you keep stopping midsentence when you talk to me.¡± She looked suddenly scared as she seemed to realize what she thought was going on. ¡°D..do you not want to be my friend anymore?¡±


    .....


    ¡°Wh..what?¡± I almost screamed the word at her, and that would have been embarrassing. As it was, half of the people at our lunch table still turned to face me as if something were wrong. ¡°No, that is not it at all.¡± I was shaking my head so hard that it hurt my neck. My white hair was flying all around my head and bing tangled with itself.


    ¡°Then what happened? What is going on, Zaley? Tell me what is the matter with you.¡±


    ¡°Nothing is wrong, Bree.¡± I lowered my head in anxiety. I had made her think that I didn¡¯t want to be her friend anymore because of my worrying. I was so stupid sometimes. ¡°I..it¡¯s just that I was told that I could have a sleepover, and I was wondering if you wanted toe. Then I was wondering if you would even want toe. I started to think that I was stupid for even wanting to ask you because I thought that you wouldn¡¯t want toe. I¡¯m sorry for making you worry. You don¡¯t have to worry about-.¡±


    ¡°Of course, I want toe. Why wouldn¡¯t I?¡± She smiled at me as she interrupted my rambling.


    ¡°Y..you do?¡± I was more shocked than I thought that I was going to be. ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, really. Why did you think that I wouldn¡¯t want to?¡± Sheughed at me. ¡°You¡¯re my only friend at this school. I would definitely want to hang out at your house.¡±


    ¡°Yay!¡± I threw my arms around her shoulders and hugged her tightly. ¡°Thank you, Bree.¡±


    ¡°No worries, Lee.¡± She called me by the nickname that she had given me after we became friends. Our nicknames of Bree and Lee rhymed. ¡°When is the party? And who else will be there? Just us, or people that I don¡¯t really know yet?¡±


    ¡°Well, my aunts will be there.¡± I told her as I looked down the table at the two of them. They were always nice to me at school, but I was always the loner until Breanna came to the school.


    ¡°Ivy and Olivia are your aunts? I thought that they were your cousins.¡± Sheughed as she thought about it. ¡°Aren¡¯t you older than them?¡±


    ¡°By a couple of months, yes.¡± I nodded at her. ¡°It¡¯s a long story.¡± I didn¡¯t want to get into it all. I knew that I didn¡¯t want to try to make someone understand it.


    ¡°No worries, Lee. The Fae have a lot of mixed up families like that as well, as you should know. You¡¯re rted to us as well.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I get it.¡±


    I told Bree that the party was this weekend, and what time to be there. She was excited and said she would tell her dad right away. I hoped that she would be allowed toe, I didn¡¯t want to be without my best friend.


    Zachary, Zander and Zayden invited two of their friends each, which would make for nine boys to the four girls that were going to be there. Even adding in our siblings that would be there, the boys had us by four. It didn¡¯t matter though. They were going to be in their own ce, away from the girls that were going to be there.


    I was getting really excited for that night now. We all started to n what we were going to have for food. And with Abigail and the other chefs in the castle, we were going to be able to have whatever we wanted. The boys were opting for pizza and piles of junk food and desserts. Bree, Ivy, and Olivia said that they wanted real food. We were going to be having something more like a tea party. There would be small sandwiches, scones, cookies, veggie trays, and of course some junk food as well. Just because we were girls didn¡¯t mean that we didn¡¯t like junk food. We just wanted to have other stuff as well.


    Mom came to see me the day of the sleepover. It was after school, and my guests hadn¡¯t arrived yet. She looked a little sad to be leaving us, but I knew that she had to go. She and Dad were busy right now. And it was all so that we would be safe in the future. I didn¡¯t understand all that was going on, but I knew that it was important. And I knew that Mom and Dad didn¡¯t want to be leaving like this. They were both sad to be going, I could feel it in the way that they were talking to me.


    I think that this was something that I had always been able to sense in the past. I could usually tell what people were feeling when they talked to me. When the bullies at school didn¡¯t like me, they felt like hate and pain. When Mom and Dad didn¡¯t want to leave but they had to, it felt like tears and pain. When my brothers were excited about something, it felt like sugar fueled energy and excitement. When people were afraid of something, it felt like their hearts were pounding and everything around me was cold. I never really understood it all, not really, but I was learning to figure out what each emotion felt like.


    And of course, I hadn¡¯t told my parents about this yet. I didn¡¯t know why I was able to know people¡¯s feelings like this, but I didn¡¯t want another reason for people to treat me differently. I just wanted to be seen as a normal person.


    Right now, as I had already felt before, my Mom was feeling like tears and pain. What was strange was when someone was sad, I could taste the salty tears in my mouth. And when my brothers were excited, I could taste the sugary sweetness. It was so weird.


    ¡°Zaley, sweetheart.¡± Mom smiled at me as she sat on my bed. ¡°Are you excited?¡± She was looking around the room that had been partially set up for the party tonight. Talia and Rika were going to help us with our nails, do our hair, give us facials, and all the other girly stuff that we wanted to do.


    ¡°Yes. I think it¡¯s going to be so much fun. It¡¯s my first real sleepover.¡±


    ¡°I know. And I am so sorry that I need to miss it.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Mommy. I know that you have work to do. And it¡¯s important for us. We will be OK. You don¡¯t need to be sad.¡±


    ¡°I know. Still, I feel bad that I won¡¯t be here for this milestone of yours. If you need me though, if anything happens and you need me at all, just call me. I will rush back in an instant. I can always go back to the meeting another day. You are important to me, Zaley. You all are.¡±


    ¡°I know, Mommy.¡± I hugged her tightly as she leaned in next to me on the bed. ¡°Thank you and I love you.¡±


    ¡°I love you too, sweetheart.¡± She felt so sad at that moment, but there was also the feeling of love. Love was always hard to exin. It was more like warmth than anything else, but it had so many different feelings. I think it was because there were different kinds of love. The way that Mommy and Daddy loved us was warm, strong and gentle. It was like they wanted to take care of us, and there was a feeling that if someone hurt us, they would get really mad at those people. The way that Mommy and Daddy loved each other was not warm, it was hot. It felt like it could burn you if you touched it. And there were things about that feeling that I wasn¡¯t able to understand. It felt like there was something hungry about it. Like someone wanted to eat something but I didn¡¯t know what it was. Only like there was an emptiness that was only filled when Mommy and Daddy were around each other. Then there was the feeling of friendship. It was like love as well. It wasn¡¯t as warm as the family love, but it was nice. And there was a happiness in that warmth. I liked the way that it felt, and I knew that I liked having a friend now. Bree always felt like friendship to me. Even before I understood what she truly wanted with me.


    After Mommy was there to see me, hugging me and kissing me goodbye and telling me that she would see me in the morning, it was time for Daddy toe into the room. He looked and felt as sad as Mommy had. He felt like sadness and love, just like Mommy had, but Daddy¡¯s was always a little different. Daddy always felt like there was a stronger feeling to it. And the way that Daddy always talked made me know that he never wanted to lose his kids. He loved us all so much, and he wanted to make sure that we were all safe no matter what. He felt that way about Mommy too. Daddy was a protector. A strong man that didn¡¯t like seeing his family in danger. I always made sure to give Daddy extra hugs when he was feeling like this. I needed to make sure that he knew that I was right here for him.


    ¡°I love you, Zaley.¡± Daddy said as I squeezed him in my arms. Well, as much as I could wrap my small arms around him.


    ¡°I love you too, Daddy.¡±


    When Mom and Dad were gone, that was when everyone started to show up for the party. It was time for us to start having fun and to do all the things that we had nned for the sleepover. Ivy and Olivia had been there already though, and I saw that Daddy was just as protective of his little sister and sister inw as he was about his own kids. As I said, he was a protector, and he meant to protect all of us.


    Breanna and the others were arriving now though. So, it was time to get the party started.

 Chapter 1045 - 1045 Chapter 30- Talia – Sleepover Part 2 (VOLUME 6)

    1045 Chapter 30- Talia ¨C Sleepover Part 2 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    Rika and I started to get things ready for Zaley¡¯s sleepover early in the day. I knew that my little sister wasn¡¯t a very sociable person, so she had never even thought about a party like this before. Even me, hyper focused on getting through school early and all that, had had my fair share of sleepovers. I had invited Ada, Missy, Jackie, and a few other girls from school. I hadn¡¯t had these sleepovers all the time, but I had had them more than once. And I always had fun during them.


    Now, it was time for Rika and I to help Zaley have a great sleepover. We needed to take care of our little sister and show her that there was a lot of good in the world. She had been bullied and picked on for things that weren¡¯t her fault. I always stopped the bullies when I could, but I wasn¡¯t in the same part of the school as her anymore. And that meant that I wasn¡¯t able to protect her as much.


    She had Zachary, Zander and Zayden though. And they always protected her. And, now, Breanna was there to protect her as well. Breanna was a good friend to my little sister. And I wanted to make sure that she knew we appreciated her.


    Our aunts, who were much younger than me and Rika, were there for Zaley as well. They were a little shy as well, so they didn¡¯t stand up for her like the boys did, but they were always there to show people that Zaley was just like everyone else. And I wanted them to have a good night because of that as well.


    Abigail had gotten orders of food from all the kids for the night and was preparing for the parties with gusto. I knew that she was feeling proud and protective as well. She had been with our family since our dad was younger than the quads, which was a very long time. I knew that she was just as invested in all of this as we were.


    She was making various sandwiches for Zaley¡¯s party. The girls wanted to have a tea party during their sleepover tonight, so that was what they were starting with. There were a lot of different scones as well; blueberry, strawberry, chocte chip, apple, and several more. There were some that were covered in a sweet ze, some in powdered sugar, and some that had nothing to top of them at all. Cookies were also a part of the tea party. Snickerdoodle, chocte chip, sugar cookies, white chocte macadamia, and a few others.


    .....


    There were cakes, pies, chips, crackers, and a plethora of other junk foods as well, but they weren¡¯t the main focus for Zaley¡¯s party. They were for the boys though. It was like they wanted nothing but junk food. Oh well, it was a party and it wasn¡¯t like they ate like this all the time, so we were just going to let it happen. The piles of candy that were left over from Halloween a couple weeks ago was also divided up between the two parties so that their sugar rushes were all but guaranteed.


    After the girls had all arrived for Zaley¡¯s party, they started off with their tea party in the bedroom. I know that they had music ying and that they were talking, but Rika and I didn¡¯t invade on them while they were enjoying that part of their party. We were in the dining room with Reagan, L, Nona, Papa and M¨®ra¨ª. They weren¡¯t going to step in and interfere though. It was up to Reagan, Rika and I to take care of the kids. They would only step in if they were needed. And for the most part, they would be out of sight. That was the arrangement that we had all agreed on.


    In a way, I think that Reagan and Rika were trying to prove to Mom and Dad that they were capable of taking care of things while they were gone. And that they didn¡¯t need to have our grandparents here to watch over them. I could understand it. They were adults after all. And the guards and staff were here as well, so it¡¯s not like we were all alone. I mean, even if it was just Alexio here to protect us all we would be more than safe enough. He was powerful and cool, and more than capable of destroying anyone that might think about attacking a damned castle.


    After we were all done eating, it was time for Rika and I to go to Zaley¡¯s room. There had been three extra twin sized beds added to her room for the night. They weren¡¯t just popup beds or cots either, they were real twin sized beds with thick, plush mattresses. Our family knew how to take care of our guests when they were here. And we knew that sleepovers were supposed to have all the girls in one room so that they could talk and giggle until they all passed out in the middle of the night.


    ¡°Talia? Rika?¡± Ivy came running over to us when we came into the room. She was Dad¡¯s little sister and the most confusing of our rtives. She was our Mom¡¯s aunt because of M¨®ra¨ª, but Dad¡¯s sister because of L. Because the closest rtion was to Dad and not Mom, we had decided to make her only that one rtive to us. To add more would have been very confusing to us all.


    ¡°Hey there, Ivy.¡± I hugged her when she threw her arms around me. ¡°Are you girls ready to get started on the night of pampering?


    ¡°YES!¡± The word was echoed by all four of the girls at the same time.


    Rika and I started with the girl¡¯s facials. They were going to need to be done before they had their hair and makeup done. And not only that, but while we did their nails, we could have them leave the facials on. And while we did that, they all talked and watched movies. The movies that were on got mostly ignored though. I think that, for the time being, they were just there to be background noise.


    The pampering continued for a while. The facial masks were sitting on the kids while Rika and I did their nails, fingers and toes. They all chose their own colors as well. Ivy chose green. Olivia chose lc. Breanna, of course, chose pink. And Zaley chose a light blue that went with her eyes.


    After their nails were done, they cleaned off their faces and we did their hair. This was probably the most that they had watched the movies at this point, since they were a little preupied with their hair being done in turns. After that, we did their makeup to look cute and fun. And finally, all four girls raided Zaley¡¯s closet for things to wear to make them look like they were going to a fancy party or a club. They all chose things to their personal style, and it was fun to see how different they were.


    ¡°Were we like this when we were little?¡± I leaned in and asked Rika as the kids started to get dressed in their new outfits.


    ¡°I don¡¯t remember it being like this, but I am going to guess that it was. We¡¯re just seeing it through the filter of our own experiences. We probably remember it being more than it was because we were little kids at the time.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re probably right.¡± Iughed softly as I watched the girls fondly. ¡°I just don¡¯t want to think that I was this crazy when I was little.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I can tell you that you were crazy.¡± Rikaughed at me. ¡°It¡¯s OK though. It was a good sort of crazy.¡±


    ¡°Hey, at least Zaley has us both here with her right now. I remember how you were too cool to be a part of my sleepovers.¡± I told her pointedly, but it was all in good fun. We were bothughing at the time.


    ¡°Yeah, well, I was only three years older than you, so I didn¡¯t want to hang out with little kids at the time.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re still only three years older than me. That will never change, you dork.¡± Iughed at her. ¡°Still, I get what you mean. You weren¡¯t mature enough at the time to see the benefit of spending time with your younger sibling. I am d that we are both over that now though. Zaley needs us.¡±


    ¡°She isn¡¯t the only one though.¡± Rika nodded at me in agreement. ¡°Zachary, Zander and Zayden still need us as well. Even if they would rather have Reagan most of the time, they still need us there for them.¡±


    ¡°Yup. That they do. Aren¡¯t we just amazing older sisters?¡± I smiled proudly. ¡°They are going to be good kids because of us.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah, such good kids, sister Talia.¡± Sheughed at me.


    ¡°Ugh, don¡¯t call me that.¡± I shivered as if I had the heebee jeebies. ¡°That just sounded creepy.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha. Yeah, it sort of did.¡±


    The party with our sister continued after they were dressed. They danced around the room to music, yed various games, and watched movies. Around midnight that night, Rika and I started to step out of the room and let them just wear themselves out. I could hear that they were starting to tell each other scary stories. I heard the way that it started as I went to leave the room.


    ¡°The sound of the wind seemed to stutter as if even nature was unsure of what was going on. Wh..wh..whoosh. Wh..wh..whoosh. The sound sent shivers down the spines of all the campers in the cabin. There was a light that started toe from the woods. It seemed to be floating in the air near the top of the branches, but it wasn¡¯t staying still.¡± Zaley¡¯s voice was low and ominous as she started to tell the story to the other girls. I could see that Breanna, Ivy, and Olivia were all terrified even though the story had just started. ¡°Wh..wh..whoosh. The sound of the wind rattled through the windows once more.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, did you ever notice how good Zaley was at telling a story?¡± I asked Rika as we walked out of the room.


    ¡°No, I didn¡¯t. She really is good though. That sounds like it will be right up my alley.¡± Sheughed. ¡°We should ask how it endster.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. I want to know.¡± We bothughed as we walked to our rooms. The party was just about over, and we were no longer needed.


    As Iid in my room, I listened through the wall to the story that my sister was telling to her friends. I didn¡¯t usually eavesdrop on her in her room like that, but I wanted to hear what happened. It was an interesting story about a ghost that had been haunting a campground full of kids. And if the screams that I hearding from the others was anything to go by, I was pretty sure that the story was going over really well with them too. I liked it as well. And the surprise ending was not one that I was expecting. It had meughing at the twists that I hadn¡¯t seening as I pulled the nket over my head and tried to drift off to sleep. I needed to ignore my own ghosts that haunted me.


    ¡°Hmm. I wonder if I could get rid of them like the kids in the story could? Too bad that my ghosts and the ones in that story aren¡¯t the same. It would definitely help if they were.¡±


    Thest thought that I had before drifting off to sleep was how Zaley had exined the emotions in the story. They were extremely vivid and intuitive for a kid.

 Chapter 1046 - 1046 Chapter 31- Zayden – Sleepover Part 3 (VOLUME 6)

    1046 Chapter 31- Zayden ¨C Sleepover Part 3 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Zayden


    ~~


    My brothers and I were each allowed to invite two friends each to the party that we were having. That would be six total friends for us, and I thought that was more than fair. Yes, Zaley had three guests, but two of them were family so it didn¡¯t count. And there would still be more of us than there were of them.


    The party was going to start out as one big event, but I was pretty sure that we were going to split into smaller parties before the night was over. We had a lot of things that were nned for our friends, but not all of them needed to happen in themunal room.


    Just in case though, an empty room on the kids¡¯ floor had been turned into a makeshift party room. Because the rooms were sorge it was more than big enough for the nine of us. There were nine twin sized beds on one side of the room where we could all sleep if we wanted to, as well as extra twin sized beds added to our rooms so that we could separate if we had to.


    Also in the room, aside from the beds, there were nine TVs that were hooked up and ced on the walls at various ces. This was so that if we wanted to y video games as a group, we would be able to. Or if we wanted to y an individual game, that was an option as well. There were dart guns,ser tag guns, tables piled with junk food, and so much more. Because there were more of us, we were told that we would be able to use the theater room to watch movies if we wanted to. Especially considering that Reagan was going to be with us as well, bringing our total to ten during most of the party.


    As soon as our friends had arrived, Kent and Gavin for me, Leroy and Parker for Zachary, and Tanner and Diego for Zander, we started with dinner. We were all hungry and wanted to have some of Abigail¡¯s delicious cooking. None of our friends had had any of Abigail¡¯s cooking aside from the holiday parties, so they were excited to try some of the more normal foods. And her homemade pizzas were amazing.


    There were piles of food other than the pizza though. There were burgers, fries that never seemed to get soggy, and so much more. It was all so delicious, so we ate and ate until we all felt like we were going to burst. Then we ate some more because, why not?


    .....


    After the food was gone, it was time to get the party started. We decided to work off some of the food that we just ate by ying football in the room. With Reagan we had two teams of five. It was fun, and I was d that we weren¡¯t in any of our bedrooms, because things would have definitely been broken. As it is, I was shocked that we hadn¡¯t broken the TVs and game systems that were in the room with us.


    When we did finally sit down to start ying games, we also started to talk about different things. I think that the topic of our friends finally being allowed toe over was the first thing that our friends brought up. It was mostly Zachary¡¯s friend Leroy who asked about this.


    ¡°So, why now? Why are we allowed to be here now all of a sudden?¡± He sounded a little angry as he asked this. I think he had felt like he wasn¡¯t a true friend because he hadn¡¯t been allowed toe up to our rooms before. ¡°And we¡¯re not really invited to your ce because we¡¯re not in your room.¡± He still seemed really angry.


    ¡°Well, we can move to my roomter. My brother thought that a central ce for our party would be better to start.¡±


    ¡°Uh huh.¡± Leroy looked at Reagan. ¡°And why do we need a babysitter? We¡¯re at your house. What are we going to do? Run away?¡± He was starting to sound really rude, and I saw that Reagan wasn¡¯t happy with him.


    ¡°He¡¯s not a babysitter. He just wanted to help with the party. He¡¯s our brother, so there is nothing wrong with that.¡±


    ¡°Seems to me like he is here because he doesn¡¯t trust us.¡± Leroy red at Reagan.


    ¡°Do you have a reason not to be trusted?¡± Reagan asked him with his eyes narrowed. ¡°I am not here as a chaperone. I am here to help my brothers in any way that I can.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, sure you are.¡± Leroy took his eyes off of our brother and avoided the question. I didn¡¯t like that. It made me feel strange. I had never felt like this before. Not really. It was like something was wrong, but I didn¡¯t know what it was. I could feel a prickling on the back of my neck and a twisting in my gut. It was like some weird anticipation and nervousness at the same time. What was happening?


    I let it slide for a few moments though, because Leroy had stopped talking about that. And things started to move onto other topics. We were talking about the movies that we wanted to watch and the other things that we were going to do for the night. Then Leroy asked something that I knew made us all mad.


    ¡°Is your sister going to be there?¡± He asked when Zander had mentioned the theater room.


    ¡°No. Zaley is having her own party and Rika and Talia are with them right now.¡± Reagan answered for us.


    ¡°Good.¡± Leroy¡¯s voice sounded mean and nasty at that moment.


    ¡°Why is that good? I mean, I am d that my sister is having her own party, she is having fun with our sisters and her friends.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, well, I don¡¯t want to see Zaley at all.¡± He shuddered like he was scared or disgusted about something.


    ¡°And why is that?¡± Zachary snapped at him. Never mind that this was his own friend that he had invited over here.


    ¡°I have just been hearing a lot about hertely. Like, I know you all have to love her because she is your sister, but even you must be scared of her and want her to just go away.¡± He looked like he was about to go on a tirade that was sure to make me angry. And I could tell that all my brothers were feeling the same way.


    ¡°I am sorry, but I don¡¯t know what you are talking about.¡± Zander growled at him. ¡°We love our sister very much and we definitely don¡¯t want her gone.¡±


    ¡°Why not?¡± Leroy looked taken aback. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t want a sister that was like that. I mean, you do know who she is, right? Who she is the reincarnation of?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, our grandfather, Edmond. He was a bad guy when he was alive, but he changed when his soul went to the underworld. We were there with our mother when he saved us. Back when she was pregnant with us. And Zaley would not have lived if it wasn¡¯t for our Grandfather Edmond giving her his soul. So yeah, we are happy that she is here. She is a good person. And she would never hurt anyone.¡± Zachary exined this to his friend and hoped that it would be the end of it. Too bad that it wasn¡¯t.


    ¡°OK, you say that now, but I bet you that she will grow up to hurt just as many people as that bad warlock did. He was evil, and she is too.¡±


    ¡°SHUT UP!¡± I jumped to my feet from the poufy beanbag chair that I had been sitting in and leapt to stand in front of Leroy. I wasn¡¯t the only one either. Zachary and Zander were right there with me.


    ¡°DON¡¯T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT OUR SISTER LIKE THAT!¡± Zander screamed at him.


    ¡°IT IS PEOPLE LIKE YOU THAT MAKE PEOPLE MISERABLE! DID YOU KNOW THAT OUR GRANDFATHER WAS A GOOD KID, BUT PEOPLE TREATED HIM BAD BECAUSE HE LOOKED DIFFERENT!? SO JUST SHUT UP!¡± Zachary was screaming at him as he shook in anger.


    ¡°OUR SISTER WILL NEVER BE A BAD PERSON, BUT YOU ARE!¡±


    ¡°Calm down.¡± Reagan stepped closer to us and put his hand on mine and Zachary¡¯s shoulders. ¡°It¡¯s OK, you three. Just calm down.¡± He spoke soothingly to us, but when he turned his eyes onto Leroy, I saw that they turned cold and angry, and so did his tone of voice. ¡°As for you, I think that you should leave. As my brothers have stated, we love our sister. She is a beautiful person inside and out. And we will not stand for someone that doesn¡¯t treat her right.¡±


    ¡°Whatever.¡± Leroy rose to his feet. ¡°My parents didn¡¯t even want me here in the first ce. They said that anyone that loved a monster like that girl shouldn¡¯t be my friends. I thought that you all just tolerated her because she was your family. I never knew that you loved that little bitch.¡±


    ¡°CRACK!¡±


    I had lost control at that moment. My hand shot out and pped Leroy¡¯s face so hard that the sound echoed throughout the room, even louder than the video games that were paused and still making noise.


    ¡°What the hell!?¡± He looked at me angrily.


    ¡°Be d that is all it was.¡± I snarled at him. ¡°Don¡¯t you ever call my sister that name again. And I can guarantee that your parents will be hearing from our family. You don¡¯t know what it means to mess with the royal family, do you? Your stupidity will not be tolerated.¡±


    ¡°Fuck you, Zayden. Fuck all of you.¡±


    ¡°Zip it.¡± Reagan snapped at him. ¡°Do not say another damned word while you are in this castle. We will have one of our guards drive you home. And do not even think about badmouthing Zaley in front of her.¡±


    ¡°Oh, why not? Think you can control them now as well?¡± He red at Reagan in defiance.


    ¡°No. It¡¯s because she is Zaley¡¯s guard, and she is quite devoted to her charge. And she is a very powerful witch. I wouldn¡¯t y games with her if I were you.¡± That was diabolical of our brother, but it was also perfect.


    ¡°Your-.¡±


    ¡°Shut up.¡± Reagan snapped at him again. ¡°I don¡¯t want to hear it.¡± He stopped Leroy from speaking again as he texted Holly. She was going to just love Leroy. He better hope he didn¡¯t piss her off too much. She was the vindictive type.


    Thankfully, after Leroy left, the party moved on and started to get better. The others, who had been mostly silent during the incident, made sure to tell us that they weren¡¯t like Leroy.


    ¡°I like Zaley, she is super nice.¡± Tanner said as he looked at the door. ¡°Leroy is an idiot.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, don¡¯t listen to Leroy.¡± Parker said soothingly.


    ¡°We would never be mean to Zaley. She is too nice for that.¡± Kent assured me.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know why someone would be mean to a friend¡¯s sister. It¡¯s stupid.¡± Gavin pped me on the back.


    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s have a good time without him here. And now that he is gone, Reagan can y games with us. He can take Leroy¡¯s ce.¡± Diego grinned. ¡°This is a better party now that he is gone.¡±


    We all felt a lot better when our remaining friends showed that they weren¡¯t like Leroy, it helped us to calm down. And when we all hadrge pieces of chocte cake while we yed the games it helped out a lot. None of us wanted to think about the fact that a friend had turned into an enemy so quickly.


    After the video games, we ended up going to the theater room and turning on a scary movie marathon. We had popcorn, soda, candy, and more chocte cake. It was delicious, and perfect.


    I knew that we all needed to calm down, and thankfully, we were able to do just that. The movies were so good that it literally pushed all thoughts of Leroy the loser from our minds. We watched three of them, not finishing until around two in the morning. We were mostly asleep when we turned off thest movie and dragged ourselves back to the party room that we had. It was time for us to get some sleep.


    Reagan was about to leave, most likely to go back to his own room to sleep, but we told him that he didn¡¯t have to.


    ¡°Come on, Reagan. You¡¯re as much a part of this party as we are.¡± Diego told him. ¡°Stay here. And we can tell scary stories until we fall asleep.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re sure that you don¡¯t mind having their big brother here with you?¡± He looked surprised.


    ¡°No, you¡¯re cool. And I want to be like you when I grow up.¡± Tanner told him happily.


    ¡°Aww, thanks little buddy.¡± Reagan looked so happy to hear that that he decided to stay.

 Chapter 1047 - 1047 Chapter 32- Trinity – Progressing Through the Workload (VOLUME 6)

    1047 Chapter 32- Trinity ¨C Progressing Through the Workload (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    As Reece and I met with many of the dignitaries from Europe, the first ones that we visited due to the timing of it all, we noticed that there was a lot of opposition to what we were saying in the beginning. It was a little difficult to get a lot of humans on board with what we were trying to do at the moment. And a lot of them took a lot more convincing than the president of the United States to ept that what we were telling them was true.


    Yes, we still pulled that whole magic door into their office thing. And that did scare a lot of people. They wanted to know how it was even possible for us to do such a thing. And, man, am I d that I was using a lot of magic those days. Even back when we visited the president that day. I was using so much that I was literally able to interrupt the video feeds from the security cameras in the offices.


    I honestly can¡¯t believe that I hadn¡¯t thought about that when I first entered the oval office, but I definitely thought about it after the fact. And then when I spoke to someone that was able to find out the details for me, I learned that the footage seemed to just continue showing the president talking to the politicians. There was no record of me visiting that night at all. And not only that, but there was no record of the phone call between the president and I. That was another thing that seemed to be benefitting us as well.


    As time was passing, and with each new visit to the other heads of states, I learned that the same thing was happening with them. There were no call records. There was no video from the cameras in the office. There was never anything that was left behind, except for memories in the minds of the people that we spoke to.


    A few of the people that we met in Europe needed to have more than one meeting to ept what it was that we were telling them. They were having trouble with the fact that Reece and I were really not human. And their human minds were rejecting what they saw when we shifted right in front of them. The truth of the matter was just too difficult.


    The President of France was one of the hardest to convince. You would think with all the things that happen in France, they would have epted and understood the truth a lot sooner. But that just wasn¡¯t the case. It took us a total of five times visiting Francois Moreau for him to finally ept what he was seeing. And then, during that visit, he justughed hysterically for five minutes.


    .....


    When the man finally calmed down and he admitted that this wasn¡¯t an borate ruse or anything like that, he asked how it was even possible that he could help us since we were not human and therefore we were extremely powerful.


    ¡°S¡¯il vous ?t pr¨¦sident Moreau, nous devons prot¨¦ger notre peuple.¡± I decided to speak in French this time instead of relying on English. Moreau spoke English, but I knew that the plea in his native tongue would hold more weight. Not only that, but I was about to repeat it in English anyway. ¡°Please, please, please, President Moreau, we need to protect our people.¡± OK, this time I said please more times, but it was still the same thing.


    ¡°I understand that. As a president that is responsible for his own people, I understand the position that you are in, Madam Gray. I truly understand that you just want your people to be safe when this is over, but what does this do for me?¡±


    ¡°President Moreau, do you think that my people aren¡¯t some of your people? My people are spread all over the world. They are my people because of what they are, but they are your people for where they are. Some of our people are the same. These are your own citizens that we are talking about. These are people that have done nothing wrong. They work normal jobs. They have normal families. The only thing that is threatening them is that someone thinks nonhumans are dangerous and should be dealt with. We have lived here with you all since the beginning. And we have done nothing at all to hurt any of you. All I am asking for now, President Moreau, is that you help me keep their lives as peaceful as they are now.¡±


    ¡°I understand.¡± He nodded at me. ¡°If they are indeed here and they havemitted no crimes, then I see no reason for their lives to change. I wouldn¡¯t want to punish my people for just having a different set of DNA. I am not a racist man, Madam Gray, and I will not let that happen here.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s more than just a race.¡± I spoke softly, not really wanting to dete him.


    ¡°Not in my eyes. They are just another race of people. That is all. And I will protect them.¡± He sounded so determined that I couldn¡¯t fault him at all. He was beyond amazing at the moment.


    ¡°Thank you, President Moreau.¡±


    After that conversation with Moreau, there had been a lot of discussions opened up with other leaders. We started getting more bills drafted in Europe and different heads of state putting these bills andws into effect without the majority of the people knowing what was going on. There was a lot that was happening behind the scenes and that was the best part of it all. No one knew what we were doing because there was so much other stuff hiding it from them.


    I knew that this was underhanded and that we shouldn¡¯t be forcing all of this without the humans knowing, but I had no other choice. I needed to protect my people. I needed to make sure that they had nothing to worry about.


    About the time that we were going to Asia for the meetings, and therefore gone in the evening while the kids were having dinner and sleeping, that was when the sleepovers that Reagan had suggested were happening. I was still a little upset about the fact that I wasn¡¯t going to be there for Zaley¡¯s first ever sleepover. However, I understood that she was getting older and that I wasn¡¯t always going to be there to see her firsts. I understood that, but it was so hard for me to ept as a mom.


    I was keeping myself busy though, as a way of distracting myself from the sadness. And I was putting all that energy toward the issues at hand. I knew that it would be both harder and easier to get what we needed while we were in Asia. For one thing, most people in Asia were a lot more open to the mythical and magical parts of the world. They believe in more spiritual things. Well, some of them did anyway. Not all of them.


    We did have an easier time getting the leaders over there to ept our existence. That wasn¡¯t where we were having the problem. A lot of them didn¡¯t even need to see us shift at all before they believed that there really were people that weren¡¯t human. They took us at our word, but I still insisted on showing them what we were really like. I think that helped to calm some of them down, seeing that we were justrger versions of the animals in the wild.


    No, our problem over there was the equality rights. A lot of the leaders wanted to dictate what we were trying to put into thews that we wanted to pass. And if it wasn¡¯t for me telling them just how many people in their countries weren¡¯t human, then I didn¡¯t think that we would have managed to convince them. Not only that, but I did manage to call on a few of those people that weren¡¯t human and have them exin to their own leaders about how many of them there were. Seeing it for themselves was partially what helped the leaders to understand why we needed to get these things passed.


    Still, like we had to in Europe, we needed to meet with a lot of these people multiple times. And what was funny, I needed to take the President of China out on a world tour through magical doors before he agreed to allow the bills to pass. I thought that it was a little odd, but the man just wanted to live a little. I think the act of actually experiencing magic was what he truly wanted to see for himself.


    After China was on board with us, a lot of the other Asian nations were quick to join us. One by one, with pleading or sometimes unintentional fear, we were able to get the leaders to understand and ept. In truth, I really didn¡¯t mean to scare anyone, but I knew that our animal forms could be frightening to some people. And those forms may or may not have won us a few battles just so that we never showed them those forms again.


    As guilty as I felt about scaring some of the people, I wasn¡¯t going to let it stop me. We were almost there. We almost had all that we needed to before the reveal could happen. And it was still the weekend before Thanksgiving. We had aplished so much in such a little amount of time. I was ecstatic, and more than ready to keep moving forward.

 Chapter 1048 - 1048 Chapter 33- Talia – Staying at a Friend’s Part 1 (VOLUME 6)

    1048 Chapter 33- Talia ¨C Staying at a Friend¡¯s Part 1 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    The weekend after the quads had their sleepover, it was time for me to have mine. I wasn¡¯t doing it at our house though. I wanted to take the chance to get away for a night. I wanted the chance to be a normal teenage girl for a change. And that was why Ada and I were staying the night with our newest friend, Sereia. Her brothers weren¡¯t going to be there, not that it would have been an issue with me. I mean, Storm was gay and Saylor didn¡¯t seem like he was interested in anyone at all. He was so aloof when we were all around that it was like he wasn¡¯t even there most of the time.


    Still, they were staying at their cousin¡¯s house. And no, they didn¡¯t live here in Colorado. They were literally flying back to California for a night to stay with their cousin that was half human and half sea dragon. Only like the Siren part of Sereia¡¯s dad, the sea dragon blood was dominant and that was what he truly was. Just like his dad, Abraham. And I think that the cousin¡¯s name was Eragon. Yeah, that was a pretty obvious name in my opinion, but then again, the best way to hide is to stand out. The more shy that someone was trying to tell you something, the more you averted your eyes from the truth. At least that was the lesson that I had learned for myself over the years.


    I packed a bag for my sleepover, nning for two nights just to be safe. I mean, Sereia had said that we were supposed to be staying the entire weekend and that her dads were going to be super cool about it. Also, they were supposed to be some awesome cooks and there would be delicious food the entire time.


    I was looking forward to this trip more than I had ever thought was possible. Though, I knew that Alexio and a few others were worried about it. I would be gone, away from home. And I wouldn¡¯t have anyone there to protect me. However, Alexio was staying in a hotel that was near the house that I was going to be at, so he wouldn¡¯t be too far away. And even if Sereia¡¯s dads were gay, they weren¡¯t human and that meant that they would be able to protect me more than a human would. Makai was a Merman and Ocean was a Siren.


    I actually think that I was just curious to be meeting them. I knew that my parents had worked with Sereia¡¯s grandparents before, but I hadn¡¯t met them. I did meet her uncle though, the one that was a sea dragon. He was the man that met us at the beach in Waterton over the summer. That was the ce where one of the girls had been killed by the Jaegan.


    ¡°Hahh.¡± I sighed and mentally kicked myself for thinking about that. I was supposed to be putting it out of my mind. Even if I would never be able to forget about it at all, I wanted to be able to not think about it for a while. ¡°I think I am all ready.¡± I spoke to myself as I zipped my bag shut. I had all the clothes and personal items that I would need for two nights at someone else¡¯s house. And, with that, I grabbed my phone and left the room.


    .....


    ¡°Are you ready?¡± Alexio asked me as I entered the hall. He was leaning against the wall across from my room and I saw that he still wasn¡¯t all that happy. He wasn¡¯t going to say anything though, so I wasn¡¯t going to bring it up either. I needed time to be a kid still, and Lex needed to understand that.


    ¡°Yes, I am.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go.¡± There was no need to put it off for any longer.


    It took about thirty minutes in total to get to the house that we were going to. The Waters family lived on the opposite side of the city, and with all the time that it took to leave thepound, it really added up quickly. I didn¡¯t mind though. When I saw the house that I was staying at I smiled. It was definitely not like the one that I was used to.


    Sereia and her family lived in a nice house that was two stories tall. It looked like it was about four thousand square feet and had more than enough room to fit us all. And best of all, it wasn¡¯t a castle. It was just a normal family home, if perhaps a veryrge family home.


    When I got out of the car, I wanted to roll my eyes at Lex because he got out with me. He even had the gull to look annoyed because I had opened my own door and stepped out without him. He usually wanted to do that so that I wasn¡¯t somehow hurt by a passing gust of wind.


    Together we walked to the door of Sereia¡¯s house. Lex carried my measly little bag, but that was understandable. It was his job to do things like that for me. Or at least he acted like it was. I just ignored it because I was used to it.


    One of Sereia¡¯s dads answered the door for us. He looked so much like Saylor that I had to do a double take. There were just slight differences in the shape of the face and hair. Other than that though, they were almost the same person. And when I looked behind him, I saw another man that made me think of Storm. I could tell that the boys got a lot of their looks from their dads. And I was guessing that the one that answered the door was Ocean, the Siren, and the other one was Makai, the Merman.


    ¡°Hello, wee to our home. You must be Talia.¡± Ocean was grinning at me when he started to speak.


    ¡°Yes, I am Talia Gray.¡± I nodded at him, instantly embarrassed that he knew who I was.


    ¡°Rei has told us so much about you.¡± He beckoned me into the house and stepped back. ¡°I know your parents, of course. Makai and I have been working for them for a long time. Ever since we graduated from university.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I heard. I thought that it was a crazily funny coincidence when I met Sereia. She has be such a good friend already though, and I am happy to be here.¡± I was throwing aside my caution at the moment. I could tell that Ocean was a good man. And he wouldn¡¯t be working for my parents if he wasn¡¯t a good person.


    ¡°I am happy to hear that. We were surprised when all the kids made friends so fast, but I guess you¡¯re all just really nice out here.¡± He paused then and looked at Lex, who had obviously followed me into the house with Ocean and the rest of them. ¡°Hello, I don¡¯t think that we¡¯ve met. My name is Ocean Waters.¡±


    ¡°Alexio Ptolemy. I am Talia¡¯s guard. I will be staying at a hotel nearby. If anything should happen and I am needed, I will be here within minutes.¡±


    ¡°Ahh, understandable. I think all will be fine though. The girls will just be having normal teenage fun. I mean, they are all in their senior year, and two of them are graduating early. I am sure that they won¡¯t get too wild.¡± Oceanughed about it for a moment. ¡°You are wee to stay here with us if you would like, Mr. Ptolemy.¡± I saw the hopeful look in Lex¡¯s eyes just then, as he turned to face me with the question unasked between us.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that will be necessary, Lex. Do you?¡± He could tell that I wanted away from the princess life for the night. And that meant that I needed to be away from him as well.


    ¡°Yes. That is not necessary at all.¡± Lex¡¯s jaw was tight as he spoke just then. ¡°I will be staying at the hotel. Talia, here is your bag.¡± He was preparing to leave now. ¡°I will have my phone on me at all times. Call if you need anything.¡±


    ¡°I will, Lex, but I am sure that nothing will happen at all. I will be fine. And you should use this time to rx as well. Trust me, you need some down time as well.¡±


    ¡°I..I will think about it, Talia.¡± He nodded. ¡°Have a good evening. Mr. Waters, please take care of her.¡± With that, Lex stepped back out through the open door. He didn¡¯t want to waste anymore time here when he knew that I was just going to send him on his wayter.


    For a moment, I felt really sad without him here with me. I had grown so used to his presence when I wasn¡¯t in school that I felt naked without it close to me. On the other hand, I felt free for the first time in a long time. I felt like I didn¡¯t have to worry about anything anymore at all.


    ¡°He cares for you quite a bit.¡± Ocean said as he looked after Lex. ¡°He must be an amazing guard.¡±


    ¡°He has been with me since I was young, so I think that has a lot to do with it. He is amazing though. I don¡¯t know of another guard that is as capable as he is. With his magic that is unique to him.¡±


    ¡°What is he?¡± Makai asked as he stepped forward. ¡°If you don¡¯t mind me asking, that is.¡± He looked instantly embarrassed.


    ¡°He is a demon.¡± I told him truthfully. ¡°And he will be going back to the underworld with me when I take over for the current leaders.¡± I didn¡¯t borate after that, even though I knew that they wanted more details. I wasn¡¯t here about that, so I didn¡¯t want to waste more time talking about it.


    I was here for a sleepover. I was here to spend time with Ada and Sereia. I was here to forget for a night or two that I was a princess that saw the ghosts that refused to move on. I was here to forget about the fact that the world as we know it might be changing in a way that was not safe for any of us. I was here to forget all about the negative stuff and to focus on only being a teenage girl. I knew that it would be hard, but that was what I was here for. And I wouldn¡¯t let anything else distract me from doing just that.

 Chapter 1049 - 1049 Chapter 34- Talia – Staying at a Friend’s Part 2 (VOLUME 6)

    1049 Chapter 34- Talia ¨C Staying at a Friend¡¯s Part 2 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    I followed Sereia¡¯s dads, Ocean and Makai, into the living room of their home. That was where I saw the other two girls waiting for me. Ada with her blond hair and kind face. And Sereia with her stunning beauty and blue hair. I still wasn¡¯t sure if she dyed her hair or if she naturally had blue hair. Either way, it didn¡¯t really matter. She was my friend, and she was allowed to look however she wanted. I didn¡¯t control the way that anyone looked.


    ¡°Talia!¡± The two of them squealed when they saw me.


    ¡°I am d that you are here.¡± Sereia hugged me because she was the first to reach me.


    ¡°Thank you for letting me stay.¡± I smiled at her. ¡°I don¡¯t get to go many ces like this, I am sure that you can understand that. And thank you, Mr. and Mr. Waters.¡± I turned to face her dads as I spoke.


    ¡°That¡¯s too confusing.¡± Makai waved his hand andughed. ¡°Just call us by our names. It¡¯s easier that way. So, I am Makai, and that is Ocean. And while you are here, Talia, you are like family. We believe in treating all kids like family. It¡¯s the best way to make them feel wee at our home.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s pretty cool.¡± I smiled at him happily. ¡°Thank you.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Think nothing of it.¡± Ocean came closer. ¡°Now, you girls have pretty much the run of the house. Makai and I will be here to cook for you and do whatever else you need us to, but for the most part we will leave you three alone.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want people doing things for me.¡± I looked at Ocean and Makai with sad eyes. ¡°People do everything for me at home. Here I want to be treated like a normal person. I don¡¯t want to be treated like a princess here. If that is OK.¡±


    ¡°Whatever you say.¡± Makai smiled and put his arm around my shoulder. ¡°Here, you will just be Talia and nothing more. Still, if you do need something, we are here for you. The same as we would be for our own kids.¡±


    ¡°Thanks.¡±


    ¡°Alright, you three get the party started. We will start dinner. Don¡¯t worry, pizza is still on the menu, as well as a plethora of other good things.¡± Ocean was dragging his husband away from the party. ¡°And there is quite an impressive movie collection, so you can watch anything that you want.¡±


    ¡°Thanks.¡± Ada and I called after them.


    ¡°This is going to be fun.¡± Ada added as we went to sit in the living room.


    As the party got started, we put a movie on in the background. Sereia¡¯s dads had an impressive collection of movies of every genre possible, but there were a lot more romanticedies than anything else. Apparently, Ocean had a thing for them. He even liked them back before he knew that he was gay. That was kind of cool, and I wanted to know more about their story.


    Sereia told us all about her family as we did each other¡¯s nails. She told me how her dads had met and all the things that had happened to them. And she even told me that Ocean was the one that was pregnant with her brothers. And finally, I had learned that Sereia had a Siren mother, and that Makai wasn¡¯t rted to her at all, but she did have part of his name as her middle name, which was Kai.


    Apparently, when Ocean went to meet his birth mother, having been adopted by humans, he was attacked by the Sirens and raped. They gave him an aphrodisiac and forced themselves on him. Only one managed it though, and her name was . She got pregnant and that was where Sereia came from. Ocean and Makai loved her though, and they never even considered not taking care of her. She was actually three days younger than her brothers, but everyone knew them as triplets because it was hard to exin to most people.


    It was an interesting story, and I told her how my uncles had both been pregnant as well. They each had twins and they were like two sets of twins split between the two dads. It was all pretty cool, thinking about how magic worked for same sex couples like this. It had to be pretty special for them as well.


    Throughout the start of the party, the three of us had finished doing our finger and toenails. By the time we were done, Sereia¡¯s dads had made dinner and were bringing it to us in the living room. We washed our hands, having worked with chemicals, and then started to eat.


    The food was beyond amazing. They had made pizza, as they said that they were going to, but that was just a small part of it. They also made a really good beef burgundy with mashed potatoes, general tso¡¯s chicken with rice, and crispy wonton tacos. The food was really, really, really good. And I admit that I ate way more than I should have. No one judged me about it though, since we were all shifters and all ate just as much.


    They had made dessert as well. Cakes, pies, cookies, and homemade donuts. They were all so delicious, and paired with ice cream. By the time that we were all done eating, we were so stuffed that we couldn¡¯t move. We needed to sit there and wait for several minutes before we could do anything. During that time we just watched the movie and talked.


    The subject turned to boys, and since I was the only one with a boyfriend, they wanted to know how things were going between Arthur and me.


    ¡°Come on, Talia, you¡¯ve got to tell us.¡± Ada was egging me on. ¡°How far have you gone? Is he a good kisser? Is he sweet? Do you love him?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, we need deets, Talia.¡± Sereia was grinning at me.


    ¡°Well, we haven¡¯t gone that far yet. I mean, I can¡¯t get too much alone time with him. We¡¯ve kissed, and he is the only boy that I have ever kissed, so I don¡¯t know if he is a good kisser or not. He¡¯s OK, I guess. As for sweet, I don¡¯t really know.¡±


    ¡°How is that? I mean, you would know more than most people, wouldn¡¯t you?¡± Sereia sounded confused as she asked me to exin in more detail. ¡°What is happening with you two?¡± She seemed to think that there was more going on between us.


    ¡°Well, he is sweet sometimes. Usually when it is just the two of us. If there is anyone else around, anyone at all, he is jealous. Even when you two are around, he gets so jealous.¡±


    ¡°Really? He doesn¡¯t act like it.¡± Ada looked surprised.


    ¡°He can hide it pretty well, but remember, I am a wolf. I can smell it on him.¡± I exined to them how I knew he was jealous. ¡°At first, I just ignored it. I thought that he just wanted to have more time with me, but it¡¯s gotten worse. I mean, you remember the Halloween party, right?¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah, I remember that. He thought that my brothers were after you. I mean, Storm is gay, and Saylor isn¡¯t really interested in anyone at the moment. He says that he will find his mate whenever he or she is revealed to him. He doesn¡¯t want to be with anyone else until then.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but he was so jealous of them because they are good looking guys. He thought that I was going to leave him instantly for them. It was so annoying.¡±


    ¡°You need to have a talk with him about this, Talia.¡± Sereia said seriously. ¡°If it is making you this unhappy, then you need to say something to him about it. I mean, you shouldn¡¯t be in a rtionship that seems like a chore. It¡¯s not like you¡¯re mated or anything. You¡¯re too young for that.¡±


    ¡°I know. But there is more to it.¡± I shook my head as if I was trying to put the thought out of my mind.


    ¡°What?¡± The two of them asked at the same time.


    ¡°Well, he seems to think that we are mates, and that we will know for sure when we are eighteen. He told me that I can¡¯t break up with him because we need to be together when I turn eighteen. He is older than me by a year, so he says he will know sooner.¡±


    ¡°Oh, hell no.¡± Sereia shook her head and narrowed her eyes at me. ¡°He did not say that to you.¡±


    ¡°Yes, he did.¡± I nodded at her.


    ¡°You know what that sounds like to me?¡± She put her hands on her hips as she rose to her feet to loom over me. ¡°It sounds like he is trying to force you into being his mate. It¡¯s like he is trying to brainwash you into thinking that there won¡¯t ever be another possible mate for you. That doesn¡¯t sit right with me at all.¡± She looked so offended and hurt on my behalf that I didn¡¯t know what to think.


    ¡°You really think he is trying to do that?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°I agree with her, Talia. Howe you didn¡¯t tell me sooner? This is wrong. If he is meant to be your mate, then you will know whether you are dating at the time or not. I think that he is trying to force a connection with the royal family, no matter how it happens. And I would never sleep with him if I were you. He might get you pregnant on purpose so that he and his family can be considered royals because of the baby.¡±


    ¡°Really? Y..you really think he wants to do that?¡±


    I was at a loss as I listened to what Sereia had to say. I didn¡¯t think that Arthur would go that far, but I knew that he wanted to be with me forever. Was it me that he wanted though? Or was it the connection to the power that my family had? Now that I thought about it, I wasn¡¯t sure how I was able to overlook what he was doing for so long.


    We hadn¡¯t been together for that long, yet Arthur was trying to treat me like I was his and nobody else¡¯s. He was trying to act like I was going to be his forever and that he was going to be in power at some point. He even told me several times that I should stop training to take over the underworld and that I should take over for my mom instead. I told him that wasn¡¯t an option though, and he did get upset about it.


    ¡°I..I think that you are right.¡± The more that I thought about it, the more that it all seemed to make sense to me. ¡°I think that he is more interested in the power than in me.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know for sure, Talia, but that¡¯s how it seems to me.¡± Sereia sat in front of me and took my hands in hers, it was aforting gesture and was actually helping me. ¡°If I were you, I would start to talk about things with him, serious things. And if you keep getting these uneasy feelings, then you need to break up with him. You¡¯re not his property, Talia. You¡¯re a princess and he shouldn¡¯t have ess to your power if he won¡¯t respect you.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right.¡± I nodded at her. ¡°Thank you so much, Sereia. And you as well, Ada. I didn¡¯t want to see it before, but you two saw it so clearly. I will talk to him as soon as I can.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good, Talia. We¡¯re here for you. What else are friends for?¡± Ada put her hand over top of Sereia¡¯s and held both of ours. I felt the love that they had for me in that moment and I was happy to have them here in my life. They were truly good friends.


    For a moment I was just a little stunned. I wasn¡¯t used to having moments like this. I had friends, that was true, but I never got this close with them. And I had not told anyone what was going on with me. I didn¡¯t know how they would take it, and that really made me feel anxious. Now, though, I could see that my friends were on my side and just wanted me to be safe.


    I felt something in my heart then, a sort of thrumming that I had never felt before. These two girls were my friends, and even though I just met Sereia I loved them both. They were the best friends that I could ask for, and I knew that I didn¡¯t want to be without them. I hoped that they would be with me forever. I wanted to be able to see them as my friends and sisters of my heart now, ten years from now, even a hundred years from now. And I hoped that none of this would ever change between us.

 Chapter 1050 - 1050 Chapter 35- Talia – Staying at a Friend’s Part 3 (VOLUME 6)

    1050 Chapter 35- Talia ¨C Staying at a Friend¡¯s Part 3 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    The party continued after that serious moment. We were also finally able to move, as the girls had proven when they came closer to me during that serious discussion. I was able to move as well, even though I still felt like I was overly stuffed.


    We continued with all the things that people said were the standard for a sleepover. We did facials, makeup, hair, and all that. But we didn¡¯t change out of our pajamas that we had put on. So, we were only half dressed up for the night. That was fine though, the pajamas were a lot morefortable, and I would rather be in them than the dresses and things like that.


    After the ¡®girly¡¯ part of the sleepover was over, we moved onto other things. Though, I think it bears mentioning that the ¡®girly¡¯ stuff wasn¡¯t the pink and frilly things that the boys probably thought we were into. We all had hair that was styled in the ¡®goth¡¯ or ¡®punk¡¯ styles that I had heard about. And the makeup was darker and less feminine. It was our style though, and that was fine with us.


    We yed some games. Ocean and Makai were really into video games, even now that they were adults, so the five of us started ying a massive game with each other. I liked that they were so fun and willing to act like kids with their kids. It made them feel more rtable.


    After the video games, which Sereia had won, we moved on to boardgames. There was one that was like a cross between old family games that I yed with my parents. It was almost like Guess Who and Clue. In the game you had to figure out who killed you by eliminating the suspects from the other yers. It was pretty cool, and I was happy to be ying a new game that I hadn¡¯t yed before.


    I decided that I was going to be a little childish that night, and I wanted to do some prank phone calls. There were ways of blocking your number, so I knew that they weren¡¯t going to know it was me calling. And after I suggested it Ada and Sereia both decided that they wanted to be a part of this as well. We were going to be calling a list of people that we knew and pretending to be other people and giving fake instructions.


    .....


    Ada was calling her brother Matthew, who was in college, and her cousin Laney who lived in Florida. Sereia was going to call her brothers in California, and her uncles Grantham, Ben and Ryan. Apparently, Ben and Ryan were Ocean and Makai¡¯s friends from high school who were adopted and became members of the family. It was all pretty cool. I decided that I was going to call Reagan and Arthur. I wanted to see what my calm, cool, and collected brother was going to do when I pranked him. And if he knew that it was me. And, well, I don¡¯t really know why I chose Arthur. I just knew that he was going to be on my list.


    Sereia went first, and of course she called her brothers first. They knew it was her right away, but that was because they knew each other so well. They were triplets and had been raised together, so they knew everything about each other. They didn¡¯t fall for her fake voice for a second and we were allughing hysterically when it was over.


    After that, she called her Uncle Grantham. He was a good sport about it, and he didn¡¯t know that it was Sereia until she told him the truth. It was really funny to hear how confused he sounded. Unfortunately, though, Ben and Ryan didn¡¯t answer. They were out for the night. Sereia said they were probably on a date because they were married to each other.


    Ada went next. She made her brother think that he was in trouble at school until herughter got too loud and gave her away. He figured out that it was her and he started to get mad. Then he started tough with her and wasn¡¯t mad anymore. Laney, her cousin, was convinced that Ada was a concert executive for her favorite band and that she was going to get tickets to see them in person. I could hear the excitement in her voice and the sorrow when she realized it was Ada. I vowed to buy her the tickets so that she could still go to the concert and she was in good spirits when the call ended.


    After that it was my turn. I called Reagan first. I knew that he would be the harder one for me to trick. He was my brother, and he was used to me and my voice.


    ¡°Hello?¡± Reagan said when he answered the call.


    ¡°I know what you are.¡± I tried to change my voice.


    ¡°Who is this?¡± He sounded angry for a moment.


    ¡°I am someone that knows what you are.¡± I told him again.¡±


    ¡°And what am I?¡± He asked, seemingly unperturbed. He was getting hisposure back.


    ¡°A BUTTHEAD!¡± I cackled into the phone. I heard him groan and thenugh in response.


    ¡°Talia, you brat.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha.¡± I justughed some more. ¡°You actually fell for it.¡±


    ¡°For a moment, but I knew that something was up almost immediately. My number is private after all, so only people I gave it to can have it.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I know. Still, I wanted to see if you would get it right away or not.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m d you¡¯re having fun. I¡¯m going to go now. Have a good night.¡±


    ¡°You too.¡± Iughed again as I hung up the phone.


    ¡°That was funny. I can imagine what Reagan looked like too.¡± Ada grinned.


    ¡°Yeah, now it¡¯s time for the other call.¡± Sereia urged me on.


    I started to dial Arthur after that. I knew how I was going to start this call. I was going to pretend to be someone handling a secret agent on a mission, but I had the wrong number without knowing it. The phone rang three times before he answered the call.


    ¡°Hello?¡±


    ¡°I need a status report on your mission.¡± I made my voice deep and gravelly, sounding like a man for the first time in my life. Or at least as close to one as I could get.


    ¡°Already?¡± Arthur said and threw me off. ¡°I wasn¡¯t supposed to get a call until next week.¡± Had he already figured it out? Did he know it was me already? This was strange, but I just stayed in character. Something told me that I needed to follow through.


    ¡°Yes, already. I need to know what has changed.¡±


    ¡°Nothing has changed. I am still with her. She doesn¡¯t suspect a thing.¡± Huh? What was that about?


    ¡°And if she were to suspect that something is up? How will you fix that?¡± I think that I was running on autopilot now. I just needed to see what it was that Arthur was talking about.


    ¡°Well, I will make up something to make her forget what she ever suspected. She is stupid and easily manipted. I am sure that I can make Talia think that I love her for the rest of her life. And I will do whatever it takes to be king.¡±


    ¡°Finish your mission.¡± I didn¡¯t break character at all. I just told him that and ended the call.


    The call had been on speakerphone, so both Ada and Sereia had heard what was said. I looked up at them and felt my heart break.


    ¡°H..h doesn¡¯t even like me. It¡¯s all fake to him. I can¡¯t believe him.¡±


    ¡°I am so sorry, Talia.¡± Ada hugged me.


    ¡°We will make him pay.¡± Sereia added her arms around me as well.


    ¡°I think this is serious.¡± Makai and Ocean were walking into the room just then. ¡°We need to tell your parents about this.¡± Makai added as he came to a stop.


    ¡°We weren¡¯t trying to listen in, but the call was loud enough.¡± Ocean added, looking a little repentant.


    ¡°It¡¯s OK.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°And I will tell Lex about it. He will tell my parents and they will take care of it.¡±


    ¡°Do you want to do it now, or are you going to wait?¡± Ada asked me in a soft voice.


    ¡°I think that I will wait. I will let him think that he is in the clear for now. I want to make sure that I am there when he goes down. And I want to see the look in his eyes when he realizes that he messed up. Still, I need to do it before he gets that call next week.¡± I was thinking about it all as I formed ns in my head. ¡°I feel like shit now, but I am d that I pranked him. Now I know the truth.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t let him make you feel bad. I know that you had feelings for him, but he wasn¡¯t worthy of those feelings.¡±


    ¡°No, he wasn¡¯t.¡± I shook my head. ¡°And my dad is going to be livid.¡± I shivered at the thought. ¡°He never wanted me to date Arthur in the first ce. Dammit! This is horrible. How did he manage to get past my uncles? They can tell when someone is lying and trying to hurt the family.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but I am sure that you will figure it out.¡± Makai knelt next to me and ced a hand on my shoulder. ¡°I want you to know Talia, you are wee here at any time. We will always protect you.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± I smiled at him and leaned into his touch. He was a reallyforting presence and I didn¡¯t want to lose that at the moment.


    I tried to put the thoughts of Arthur out of my mind for the rest of the night. And, thankfully, I was able to do that after a little bit. I made myself start to have fun again, and I was happier for it in the end.


    The three of us didn¡¯t go to sleep until around four in the morning, but we were fine with that. Although, we slept reallyte because of it.


    Our breakfast came at almost noon that next day. It was delicious and personally made by Ocean and Makai as well. I decided to stay the second night, and so did Ada. We enjoyed another night of hanging out, watching movies, and doing silly things.


    I couldn¡¯t remember thest time that I had acted so immature. I didn¡¯t often have parties and sleepovers just for the hell of it, so this was an amazing weekend for me. I wanted to ask Sereia if I would be able toe over again, but I didn¡¯t say it. Not while I was there. I just enjoyed the food and thepany. I wanted to make sure that I wasn¡¯t leaving a bad impression.


    All during the weekend, Ocean and Makai were right there with us. We never asked them to leave us alone. They yed games with us, watched the movies with us, and even helped to do our hair. They had apparently gotten really good at doing hair because of Sereia and the boys. They were also both really fashionable and told us honestly what they liked about our clothes.


    I had recently started dressing more punk and goth-like, but they said that the darker style fit me really well. I think that was an amazingpliment and it made me feel special.


    The weekend came to an end all too soon, and I was sad to be leaving, but I did miss my family as well. And I knew that Lex had to be going crazy without me there to protect. He was probably bored out of his mind. And when I called him toe and get me, I imagined that he was grinning like a loon. It was cute, but probably all too urate.


    It was a good weekend though, and quite informative as well. Now, it was time to deal with the knowledge that I had gained.

 Chapter 1051 - 1051 Chapter 36- Alexio – What Happened (VOLUME 6)

    1051 Chapter 36- Alexio ¨C What Happened (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Alexio


    ~~


    Talia called me around noon on Sunday toe and get her. I had spent two long and boring days inside the hotel. I didn¡¯t leave it at all. All the food that I ate was delivered so that I wouldn¡¯t be out and distracted if she needed me. I needed to know that I was ready to protect her no matter what. She was mine to protect, because I was her head guard, and I wouldn¡¯t fail in my duties no matter what.


    When I got the call from her, I immediately grabbed my bag, there was nothing to pack because I had put them away as I used them. Heading down to the desk I checked out and told them that I didn¡¯t care that I needed to pay for the entire day because it was past check out. I told them to charge me for the whole damned week, I didn¡¯t care. I needed to leave. After throwing the keys down on the counter, I stormed out of the building and toward the SUV that I had parked there two nights before. I had to get to Talia and protect her once again. She was done with her weekend away from the reality of her life.


    When I pulled up to the house that she was at, I saw that everything seemed peaceful and calm. That was good, but I couldn¡¯t be sure that nothing happened until I saw Talia again. Putting the car into park, I got out and walked to the door. They made me ring the doorbell instead of just answering it when I got there.


    ¡°Good afternoon, Mr. Ptolemy.¡± Ocean Waters smiled at me. He was the one that had opened the door the other night when I dropped Talia off. ¡°It is good to see you again. Talia is grabbing her things. Would you like toe in?¡±


    ¡°No, I will wait out here.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°I trust that nothing happened in my absence. Talia is as safe as when I left her in your care.¡±


    ¡°She is fine. I will admit that she got a little upset the other night, but all is well now.¡± He informed me as he looked over his shoulder. I did not like the sound of that. What had happened to Talia? Had they caused it.


    .....


    ¡°What happened?¡± I asked him to borate, but he just shook his head.


    ¡°She has asked to be the one to tell you. I am sorry, but I will honor her wishes.¡± I saw Taliaing up behind him then. She looked fine, not at all upset, but I was still worried. What had happened the other night? And why hadn¡¯t she called to tell me about it?


    ¡°Hey, Lex.¡± She smiled at me as she waved. ¡°Are you ready to go home?¡± Now that I was near her, I felt calmer. I knew that this was just because she was my queen and I was due to follow her into the underworld, so I didn¡¯t think much of it. I was Talia¡¯s guard, I had been here for her since she was young, so my ce was right there by her side, protecting her for the rest of my life.


    ¡°Yes, Talia, let us be off.¡± I didn¡¯t mention the topic that Ocean Waters had brought up, but I did look at him. He nodded at me as if saying that it was good that I was waiting until we were gone to bring it up.


    ¡°Alright,e on Lex.¡± Talia went to walk past me, but I wouldn¡¯t let her. I needed to guide her. I was the guard after all.


    Talia didn¡¯t say anything else as we walked to the SUV. I took her bag and put it in the trunk and then opened the door for her. She allowed me to do that this time, which was much appreciated as well. I preferred to be able to follow through with all my duties.


    After we were seated and the car started, I turned to face her and asked what the problem was.


    ¡°Ocean Waters told me that something upset you, but you did not tell me about it. What happened, Talia?¡±


    ¡°Hahh.¡± She sighed, but it was almost yful. Like she expected this and was just ying along with it all. ¡°I knew you¡¯d ask.¡± She smiled at me.


    ¡°Of course. This is my responsibility, Talia.¡±


    ¡°Well, nothing really happened to me, but I did find something out the other night. Something that I am sure you and my parents want to know about.¡± She spoke calmly as I started to drive away from the Waters home.


    ¡°What was it?¡± I asked her, pressing her once more for the information.


    ¡°Well, I decided to make a few prank phone calls. I called Arthur because he was someone that came to mind. I decided to pretend that he was a secret agent and I was his handler. I told him that I needed updates on the mission, but it wasn¡¯t fake on his end. He really is on a mission.¡±


    ¡°What mission?¡± I stopped the car at a red light and turned to face Talia. I didn¡¯t like the sound of this.


    ¡°A mission to be king. He is apparently using me.¡± I saw that she wasn¡¯t happy, but she was holding herposure all the same.


    ¡°Excuse me?¡± I was a little beyond pissed, but I didn¡¯t want to explode in the car. That would cause a scene for others to see.


    ¡°Yup. He is apparently here to be the king. And somehow, he was able to get past Uncle Vincent and Uncle Gabriel.¡±


    ¡°That is rming. We need to tell your parents right away.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I know. But I wanted toplete my sleepover first. I wanted to have fun after I learned about that. I am sorry if you are upset that I dyed things, but I needed to have some time to myself.¡±


    ¡°I understand, Talia.¡± I nodded at her. ¡°You needed time to calm down. I will not fault you for that.¡± I didn¡¯t like that she dyed his punishment, but she also thought about herself. I wasn¡¯t going to make her feel bad about that at all. ¡°Now though, it is time to punish him.¡±


    ¡°I agree.¡± She nodded at me. ¡°When we get back to the castle, I will take my things to my room and find my parents. Wherever they are, I will take them to their office. If you do not mind, Lex, you can go and find Arthur for me. I am sure that he will know that he messed up big time with you showing up at his door.¡± She was grinning evilly as she said that. She definitely wanted to see him answer for what he had done, and I was d to know that she had a bit of ruthlessness inside of her. She was going to need it in the underworld.


    When we arrived back at the castle, I allowed Talia to go on without me. She even convinced me to let her take my bag. I wasn¡¯t the type of man that liked to make women carry things for him, so that didn¡¯t sit well with me, but as Talia said, we had to get things moving on Arthur¡¯s punishment. He had to answer for what he had done. And we needed to find out who else was involved with this crime of his. People were going to pay, I just didn¡¯t know how many people.


    I knew where Arthur was likely to be. He was staying in one of the guest homes on the side of the castle. There were a lot of ces that would be exactly what the person needed while they were there. The home could be veryrge even though it didn¡¯t take up any space inside of the castle at all. These were magical homes, much like the rooms in the royal tower. The bedrooms there were as big as they needed to be, no matter howrge the tower was. That is how there were also so many bedrooms for the kids in that hall without needing to rebuild things. The doors could all be side by side, but the space between them was infinite. It had always perplexed me, but I enjoyed the benefits of this ce myself. My room was what it needed to be, even though there was no actual space between Talia¡¯s room and Rika¡¯s room. It was amazing.


    When I finally found Arthur¡¯s ce on the side of the castle, his name clearly marked on the door, I started to thunder hard on the door with my fist. I let him know without a doubt that this was important and his appearance was more than requested, it was demanded.


    ¡°Who is it?¡± Arthur called through the door. I knew that he was scared, I could hear it in his voice.


    ¡°Alexio Ptolemy.¡± I roared at him through the door. I knew that he would know Talia was home, because I was here. And he was most likely going to think that she wanted to see him because she missed him.


    ¡°Oh, Talia is home? That¡¯s good to know.¡± He finally opened the door to look at me. I saw that the boy was looking smug and full of himself. He truly thought that Talia just couldn¡¯t get enough of him and that she desired his presence. He didn¡¯t know what was going on. ¡°Does Talia want me toe and see her? Where is she?¡± This boy had never been allowed to see her in her room at all, but I knew that he tried to get there repeatedly. And he also tried to get her into his ce as well. He was a worm of a man, and that pissed me off. He tried to make Talia think that he cared for her, but he really just wanted power.


    ¡°I have been asked to take you to her. Come with me.¡± I told him in as calm of a voice as I could manage. He knew that I didn¡¯t like him though, so the hint of anger didn¡¯t throw him off at all. He had expected it after all.


    ¡°Sure, whatever.¡± He stepped out of the home and that was when I decided to not be so nice.


    I grabbed the boy by the back of his neck and forced him to face away from me as I marched him down the hallway. He screamed a little in fear as he started to lose his bnce, but I kept him upright.


    ¡°Take your hands off of me. Talia will be pissed if you hurt me.¡±


    ¡°Shut up.¡± I snapped at him. ¡°I am taking you to where you need to go.¡± I forced him forward and had to endure the boyining the entire time. He didn¡¯t know what was going on, and that was making things worse for him.


    When Arthur realized that I was taking him toward the royal elevator, he started to act smug.


    ¡°Oh, Talia wants me in her bedroom, huh?¡± He asked with a disgusting tone in his voice. ¡°I knew that she would want me sooner orter.¡±


    ¡°Shut up.¡± I snarled at him. ¡°We are not going there.¡± And that was when he saw me hit the button for the offices. At that moment, all the color drained from his face. He knew where we were going now, and the fear was taking over his entire body. He was shaking and trembling as his entire body turned cold as ice.


    I do believe that at that moment, Arthur realized how much trouble he was in. He knew that he was going to have to answer for what he had done. And I personally couldn¡¯t wait until Reece heard what this boy had done. He had never liked the kid either. This was going to be good.

 Chapter 1052 - 1052 Chapter 37- Trinity – A Hiccup (VOLUME 6)

    1052 Chapter 37- Trinity ¨C A Hup (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I didn¡¯t know what to think when Talia came to me in the living room and asked to talk to Reece and I in private. I didn¡¯t know what could have happened while she was at her friend¡¯s house that was so serious. I knew that Ocean and Makai were good people and that their kids were nice and respectable. Not to mention, I knew that the boys weren¡¯t there so the only kids were Sereia, Talia, and her friend Ada. So, what exactly had happened while Talia was gone for the weekend?


    Reece and I walked to the elevator and rode down in it with Talia in silence. She wasn¡¯t saying anything and neither were we. I didn¡¯t know what to say, and I could tell that she was still thinking about what she wanted to say to us. Or at least how she wanted to say it. There seemed to be a lot on her mind, and that was a little worrying.


    When we got to the office, I saw that she waited for us to enter first. Then she shut the door and faced us with a solemn look. Whatever this was, it wasn¡¯t pleasant. Whatever happened, it was major.


    ¡°What is wrong, Tally?¡± Reece asked her, unable to take it any longer. I was about to ask her the same thing, so I fully understood what was happening with him.


    ¡°Talia, what happened while you were at Sereia¡¯s? Is something wrong?¡±


    ¡°No, nothing is wrong, really. B..but something did happen. And well, I guess that it is wrong, but it¡¯s not hurting me right now. And no one is in immediate danger.¡± She looked up and faced Reece and I proudly. I knew that she was just trying to get her bearings in order and her courage in ce. She was brave though, so the courage was pretty much guaranteed.


    .....


    ¡°You can tell us, Tally. No matter what, you can tell us what happened.¡± Reece encouraged her. She was his little girl, and he needed to protect her. Those daddy instincts of his were kicking in. He wasn¡¯t the only one either. My momma wolf instincts wereing in hard and fast. I knew that she needed to be protected. I just didn¡¯t know from what she needed to be protected. The enemy was still a mystery to me, and I didn¡¯t like that.


    ¡°Well, you both know that I went to the sleepover this weekend, and before you ask, everything about it was perfect. I had a lot of fun and I want to go back sometime. They were amazing. I loved Ocean and Makai, they are awesome.¡± Talia exined that the hosts were not the issue. I didn¡¯t really think that they were, but that was good to have confirmed.


    ¡°Then what happened, Tally?¡± Reece encouraged her to speak. ¡°What do you need to tell us?¡±


    ¡°Well, while we were there, I decided to prank some people. You know, prank phone calls.¡± She exined. We knew about that. Reagan hadughed about the one she pulled on him and everyone thought that it was hrious.


    ¡°Go on.¡± I nodded, letting Talia know that we were on the same page as her.


    ¡°Well, I decided to prank Arthur. I wanted to see what he would say if I pretended to be calling the wrong number for a secret agent. I made my voice sound like a man and told him ¡®I need a status report on your mission¡¯.¡± She changed her voice as she had said she¡¯d done and I had to admit, she sounded like a convincing man. Still, I didn¡¯t know what the issue was. ¡°Well.¡± Talia continued, exining more about what happened. ¡°His response wasn¡¯t what I thought that it was.¡±


    From there, Talia told us what Arthur had said and how she stayed in character the whole time. She actually did amazingly well for someone that had just realized that she had been betrayed. I am not sure if Reece, who was fuming next to me, would have been able to stay as calm in that situation. Then again, this was a boy that was taking advantage of his daughter. He deserved to be punished.


    ¡°Talia?¡± Reece growled out through his teeth, but the anger was not directed at her. ¡°Where is that little shit right now?¡±


    ¡°Alexio is getting him.¡± She smiled evilly and I knew that she was feeling the same as Reece. She wanted Arthur to pay for what he had done.


    Almost as soon as Talia had spoken, there was a knock on the door. Alexio was here, and I could smell that little asshole, Arthur, in the hall with him. Good. Now we could get to the bottom of what was going on.


    ¡°Come in.¡± I called out to Alexio. It was my office after all, so it was up to me to let him in. The door to the hall opened and I saw Alexio push the boy in ahead of him. He had been holding him with his hand, but as he pushed he also let him go. The result of that was Arthur went flying toward the floor, crumpling into a misshapen lump on the rug.


    ¡°Hello, Arthur.¡± Reece¡¯s menacing voice made the boy¡¯s already pale face turn ashen gray. He was terrified.


    ¡°H..h..h..hello, K..K..K..King Reece.¡± He stammered out the words. ¡°A..a..and you a..as w..well Q..Q..Q..Queen Trinity.¡± I could tell that Arthur knew what was going on, but he was pretending that he didn¡¯t. ¡°D..d..d..did I do something wrong? W..w..why am I here?¡±


    ¡°You mean aside from the fact that you have had your hands all over my daughter.¡± Reece roared at him and I saw the satisfied look on Alexio¡¯s face as the boy cowered on the floor. ¡°Why don¡¯t you tell us why you are here?¡± Reece had stalked toward Arthur just a little and the result was the boy squealing in fright.


    ¡°I..I..I don¡¯t know. I..I..I..I haven¡¯t d..d..done a..a..anything w..wrong.¡± He was still stammering and stuttering in fear. I actually took pleasure in that fact. He was a rotten piece of shit for what he had done to our daughter. ¡°I..I mean, I know that you don¡¯t want me to date Talia, King Reece, but Queen Trinity gave her permission.¡± He had more confidence in that statement, so he stammered much less that time. ¡°Y..y..you can¡¯t hurt me j..j..just because I..I..I like your daughter.¡± He tried to look and sound confident then, but he failed miserably.


    ¡°YOU DON¡¯T GET TO TELL ME WHAT I CAN AND CAN¡¯T DO!¡± Reece roared at him. ¡°AND I GET TO TELL YOU IF YOU ARE ALLOWED NEAR MY DAUGHTER!¡±


    ¡°This isn¡¯t fair.¡± Arthur rose to his feet and tried to be brave in the face of Reece¡¯s wrath. ¡°I love your daughter. I know that she is my mate. I am older than her. I am going to be eighteen before her. I know that she is the one for me. Just ask her. She doesn¡¯t want anyone else either, do you Talia?¡± He looked at her as he said that, expecting to see her backing him up. However, what he saw was her look of disgust and hatred. He faltered for a moment and didn¡¯t know what to do. ¡°T..Talia?¡±


    ¡°She doesn¡¯t like you, Arthur. Not after what you did.¡±


    ¡°I DIDN¡¯T DO ANYTHING!¡± Arthur screamed in fright. ¡°NOTHING AT ALL!¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Talia tapped her foot and crossed her arms in front of her chest. ¡°So, you are not on a mission to be with me? You are not lying to me about your feelings? You aren¡¯t trying to be the next king?¡± I could see the realization spreading across the boy¡¯s face. He knew that he had fucked up. And he didn¡¯t know how to undo it.


    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± He tried to lie to Talia. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you mean.¡±


    ¡°Give it up, Arthur. It was me that called you the other night. I was just pranking you, but to my surprise I got something that waspletely unexpected. And this came just a little while after I decided to have a serious talk with you and your overly possessive nature. I didn¡¯t really like how jealous you got of everyone that came near me.¡±


    ¡°No worries on that, Talia.¡± Reece¡¯s voice was smooth and menacing. ¡°Arthur won¡¯t be bothering you ever again. Will you, Arthur?¡±


    ¡°R..r..really, I..I don¡¯t know what you are t..t..t..talking about.¡± He was stuttering again.


    ¡°Drop it, Arthur.¡± I snapped at him. ¡°What we need from you now is to know how big this whole thing goes. Who else is involved in this little mission of yours?¡±


    ¡°Fuck you.¡± The boy¡¯s face changed from fear to anger. ¡°I won¡¯t tell you anything.¡± The words flew from his mouth as if they were filled with venom.


    ¡°What was that?¡± I asked him in a tone that was cool, calm, and frightening. The look in Arthur¡¯s eyes told me that he was about to shit himself when he heard me speak. ¡°Did you really say that to me?¡±


    ¡°I..I..I didn¡¯t mean it.¡± He stammered and literally started to cry. ¡°Please, I don¡¯t know what happened. I am innocent. This is all someone¡¯s ns to frame me. I didn¡¯t do anything at all.¡±


    ¡°We know that you are lying, Arthur.¡± I spoke in that same tone and saw that the boy¡¯s bowels truly were about to give way spontaneously. I had scared the shit out of him so to speak. ¡°And if you do not tell us who it is that is behind this little mission of yours, then we will punish your entire family and pack. No one will be safe because we won¡¯t know who to trust anymore. The choice is yours, Arthur. And you only have ten seconds to make that choice.¡± I wasn¡¯t bluffing here. And I needed him to know that. ¡°Ten. Nine.¡± I started to count down and saw the fear deepen in his eyes, but he kept silent. ¡°Eight. Seven. Six.¡± He still didn¡¯t say anything. He just kept looking at me with wide, frightened eyes. ¡°Five. Four. Three.¡± He was sweating, but still didn¡¯t say anything. ¡°Two.¡± I was almost done counting and for a moment I thought for sure he was going to condemn his entire pack and family. ¡°One.¡±


    ¡°ALRIGHT!¡± He screamed at me. ¡°I WILL TELL YOU! JUST SPARE MY FAMILY!¡±


    ¡°You need to start talking, Arthur.¡± Reece growled at him, and that was the moment that I smelled something extremely unpleasant. He had shit himself. It wasn¡¯t just a saying anymore. The boy had actually done it. ¡°Eww. Disgusting.¡± Reece covered his nose.


    ¡°Yuck.¡± Talia turned away from him.


    ¡°I expected that.¡± Alexio red at the smelly boy.


    ¡°I can¡¯t believe you.¡± I waved a hand at him and cleaned up his mess. I didn¡¯t want to smell that anymore at all.


    ¡°I am sorry.¡± He was sobbing and blushing in embarrassment. ¡°I am so sorry.¡±


    ¡°Who was involved?¡± Reece demanded from him.


    ¡°The elders of our pack. And two of my cousins. They wanted to tie our family to the royal family. I really did like Talia when I first met her, and I didn¡¯t have these ns until I came here for the battle. They had put me up to it and told me that there was no downside to it. I didn¡¯t mean it when I said that you were stupid Talia. I don¡¯t really think that at all.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t care what you have to apologize for, Arthur. Don¡¯t ever speak to me again.¡± Talia turned away from him and Alexio moved her to stand behind him. He was going to block her from the boy¡¯s sight so he couldn¡¯t see her anymore.


    ¡°I need names, Arthur.¡± Reece demanded from him. ¡°Who are these people that we need to arrest?¡±


    ¡°My cousins Ronald and Theodore, and the elders William, Charles, Edward, and Henry. They were the ones that told me to do this. I..I am sorry, I never would have hurt Talia otherwise. You have to believe me.¡±


    ¡°We don¡¯t have to do anything, Arthur.¡± I snapped at him. ¡°But you do. You have to serve a minimum of ten years in the new prison that we have for people like you. And be damned d that I am the person I am or you would be executed for this, this is treason.¡±


    ¡°B..b..but I am innocent in all this. They made me do it.¡±


    ¡°You could have said no.¡± Reece growled at him. ¡°You could have made your own choice. And yet, you decided to let them tell you what to do, you spineless bastard. You aren¡¯t worthy of my daughter. Not now and not ever.¡±


    ¡°I will call a guard to take you away.¡± I told him as I sent a mental message to Kiernan in the lower part of the castle. He responded right away and came through the door that I had made. I didn¡¯t want this sniveling piece of shit in my office anymore. He would stay in the dungeon until we had the others in custody and then they would all go to prison at the same time.

 Chapter 1053 - 1053 Chapter 38- Trinity – Tying Up Loose Ends (VOLUME 6)

    1053 Chapter 38- Trinity ¨C Tying Up Loose Ends (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°Talia?¡± I called her and watched her step slowly around Alexio. Now that the sniveling asshole was out of my office, she didn¡¯t feel the need to hide behind her guard anymore. I knew that she had to be feeling more emotions than she was letting on. She had liked the boy, and she found out that he was just using her. That had to hurt.


    ¡°Yes, Mom?¡± She gave me a look that was supposed to be calm and collected, but I wasn¡¯t fooled by it.


    ¡°I am sorry, sweetheart.¡± I stepped closer to her and pulled her into my arms. ¡°I am sorry that you had to go through that.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Mom. Really. I was starting to feel strange when I was around him anyway. Something didn¡¯t feel right to me, and I guess now I know why.¡± She shrugged, but I still kept my arms around her. I was holding her against me and trying tofort her as best as I could.


    ¡°That may be, but I know that this is still hard on you. I know that at least at one point you had feelings for that boy. Even if they were fleeting and didn¡¯t make much sense, you still like him, and this betrayal must hurt you a lot.¡±


    ¡°I..I¡¯m fine.¡± Her voice shook as she tried to say that, ruining the image that she wanted to show us.


    .....


    ¡°Talia?¡± I squeezed her tighter and felt here apart in my arms.


    ¡°Why did he do this to me, Mom? Why did he try to hurt me like this?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, sweetheart. I don¡¯t know.¡±


    ¡°Talia.¡± Reece came closer to us, his voice calm and filled with sadness. ¡°I know that it¡¯s not an excuse for what he did to you, there will never be an excuse, but I know that for some people, power corrupts all too easily. He and the others were blinded by the power that they thought they would get from associating with you. They thought that they would be able to manipte us. But they underestimated us, Talia. They underestimated you. You are strong, smart, and way too good for them. You will bounce back from this, sweetheart. And in the end, you will be a stronger person for it.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to be stronger because of something like this, Daddy.¡± She looked over at him. ¡°I would rather that it never happened.¡±


    ¡°I know, sweetheart.¡± Reece wrapped his arms around us both and squeezed us both in a hug. ¡°I wish I could make it all go away, sweetheart. I truly do. But I can¡¯t and you know that. All we can do is move on and be stronger and better because of it.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I know.¡± Talia pulled away from us both. ¡°I am going to go to my room now. I want to be alone.¡±


    ¡°Alright, sweetheart.¡± I nodded at her. ¡°Alexio, do you mind staying for a moment?¡±


    ¡°Sure. Are you going to be OK without me, Talia?¡± He asked her as she stepped away.


    ¡°Yes, I will be fine. I am just going to my room. You do what you need to.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Alexio nodded at her, but I could see the worry in his eyes. He was a good guard, and he cared deeply for his charge. He aught to, he¡¯s been guarding her most of her life.


    After Talia left, I turned to face Reece and Alexio. They both looked at me curiously and I saw how angry and pissed they still were.


    ¡°Do you want to go hunting?¡± I grinned at them. ¡°It seems there are some monsters in Ennd that need our attention.¡± The way that they both seemed to perk up at that told me they both wanted to get those assholes that were part of this plot. ¡°I will create a door and together the three of us will collect the men that were involved in this little scheme.¡±


    ¡°Sounds good to me.¡± Reece grinned.


    ¡°I would love to join you, Trinity.¡± Alexio looked like a true demon then, all angry and evil fury that was ready to be unleashed on the world. It¡¯s a good thing that I knew he wasn¡¯t really like that. Or else he wouldn¡¯t be allowed to guard my daughter.


    When the door opened into Nigel¡¯s office, there was a bit of a chaotic panic that met us. The people in the room had not been expecting to see three furious people storming into the office. Including Nigel who had not been notified of what was happening.


    ¡°Queen Trinity?¡± I heard Warrick¡¯s voice first. He was standing there behind Nigel like he was a servant. That wasn¡¯t why he was here. He was supposed to be learning more about our people and how to be a good mate to Alyssa if she were to take him back. He was not here to do the Alpha¡¯s bidding.


    ¡°Queen Trinity? King Reece? What is going on? Why have you suddenlye to my home?¡± I could hear the restraint in Nigel¡¯s voice. He was desperately trying not to swear and get angry. He wouldn¡¯t want the repercussions that came from that response.


    ¡°We are here to collect some people.¡± I told him. ¡°There are two of your nephews and four elders that I need to speak with.¡± I saw that two of the older men in the room paled as they looked at me. ¡°By any chance are either of you William, Charles, Edward or Henry?¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± Nigel looked confused. ¡°Those two are Henry and Charles. William and Edward are not here today. And what do you need with them?¡±


    ¡°They areing with me.¡± I told Nigel as Reece and Alexio moved toward the men with binding that I had brought with us. They would make it so that the men were unable to escape. ¡°If you value your positive rtionship with us, Nigel, you will produce William and Edward. As well as your nephews Ronald and Theodore.¡±


    ¡°Those two?¡± Nigel spat in disgust. ¡°Those are my wife¡¯s nephews. They are spineless little gits.¡±


    ¡°Well, they are wanted for treason. As are the four elders that I mentioned.¡± I red at the man, but a little less so, knowing that he hated those two boys.


    ¡°What is going on here?¡± He asked me with a face that lookedpletely bewildered and innocent.


    ¡°Your son, the four elders, and your two nephews were all involved in a plot to take over my kingdom. Arthur has been arrested and sentenced to prison this evening. You may visit him soon. The others will be joining him.¡± Nigel paled at my exnation.


    ¡°M..my boy? H..he is part of that n? No, this can¡¯t be.¡±


    ¡°It is.¡± Reece growled at him as he pulled the elder man with him to stand next to me. ¡°You can ask him for yourself. We do not falsely use people.¡±


    ¡°Y..y..yes, of course.¡± He was shaking as he spoke, but Nigel at least looked like he believed Reece. ¡°I will have the others brought here.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Alexio growled. ¡°Reece and I will go with your men to get them. Where is the fun if they are just handed over to us.¡± His eyes glinted and I saw that Reece agreedpletely.


    While the men were gone, fetching the prisoners, I spoke with Nigel and his wife. I needed to tell them everything that had happened while Arthur was with us. They obviously had no clue that Arthur was even dating Talia, because he was keeping it a secret from them. It was hard for them to ept, but they had no choice. This is what had happened, and there was no changing it at all.


    I told them that they were wee toe see their son soon, after he was transferred from the dungeons to the prison. After that, they could arrange visitation with the wardens there. And they would need to arrange their own travel ns. I would not be used as a means of transportation for others when it did not involve me.


    When Reece and Alexio returned, they had the four other men with them. The older men looked scared and defeated, but the young men looked defiant and bloody. Apparently, they had decided to run when they found out what was happening. Well, they were no match for Reece and Alexio, so they were quickly caught and dragged back kicking and screaming. I liked the thought of that more than I should have.


    ¡°We will leave now.¡± I nodded at Nigel. ¡°I am sorry for the hardships you have now, but I am also happy to have justice served. These men tampered with the royal family and my daughter¡¯s heart. They will pay for their treason.¡±


    ¡°Yes, we understand.¡± Nigel bowed. ¡°We are sincerely sorry.¡± He was angry, that was easy to see, but he didn¡¯t dare speak in any way that was disrespectful. Especially not with the mood that I was in right now.


    ¡°I just hope that there is no other disrespect and treason out of this pack. Oh, and Warrick is here to learn about being the mate to a wolf, not to be your ve. Treat him right, or I will send him to another pack.¡±


    ¡°Y..yes, of course.¡± There was relief in Warrick¡¯s eyes just then. It had to have been bad for that to happen.


    In the end, I decided that I needed to change Warrick¡¯s location no matter what. He was going to go stay with Artem. It was in the US, and if anyone could teach him how to be a proper man, it was Artem and Star. They were good people. And they would know what to do.

 Chapter 1054 - 1054 Chapter 39- Trinity – The Truth Is Revealed (VOLUME 6)

    1054 Chapter 39- Trinity ¨C The Truth Is Revealed (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The move of Warrick waspleted almost immediately after we left. I actually sent Artem there to collect him, and he was apparently pretty intimidating toward the other Alpha. However, Artem is a High Noble in my kingdom, and Nigel is just an Anciry Noble. He couldn¡¯t hold a candle to Artem¡¯s power or rank. And with Star going with him, her magic would be more than sufficient to rescue the young man from the weak Alpha.


    With Warrick¡¯s situation under control, I needed to take care of the other issues at hand. I needed to have the six new prisoners interrogated before they were sentenced to their cells in Athair m¨°r¡¯s new prison. For that job I needed to assign some people that I could trust. Some people that I knew would be really upset that Talia had been hurt in this whole process. And who better to ask than Shawn, Dietrich, Shane, David, Vincent and Gabriel. And of course, I needed to talk to Arthur once more as well. I needed to know how he had gotten through Vincent and Gabriel? How he had managed to not get caught with them looking for enemies everywhere.


    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± Arthur said when I went to talk to him. ¡°I didn¡¯t do anything.¡±


    ¡°How did you make it past them?¡± I growled at him. ¡°They know when someone is out to hurt us.¡±


    ¡°But I didn¡¯t want to hurt Talia. I wanted to get her to love me and be her husband. Then we would be king and queen. I wanted to make her life better.¡±


    ¡°Then you are delusional.¡± I red at him. ¡°Because her n isn¡¯t to take over my kingdom. She has one of her own.¡±


    .....


    ¡°You¡¯re sending her to hell. You¡¯re the monster here.¡± He shouted at me. ¡°How could you?¡±


    ¡°This was her decision, not mine. She chose to do this. And if she didn¡¯t want it, I wouldn¡¯t force it on her. She is capable of making her own decisions.¡±


    ¡°LIAR!¡± Arthur screamed at me. ¡°You just don¡¯t love her. That is why you are throwing her into hell.¡±


    ¡°I guess it was because you thought that that you were able to get past them.¡± I shook my head. ¡°You were so delusional that you thought you were saving her. That, or you¡¯re just a really good liar.¡± I red at him.


    ¡°I admit that I lied about things, but not about this. I was trying to make her life better. You wanted to throw her away.¡±


    I decided to stop talking to him and scan him with my magic. I needed to know how he had duped my guards without anyone suspecting him. I hadn¡¯t thought that anything would turn up though, so imagine my surprise when there was a blip on my magic. There was something there on his skin, and it was enough to enrage me.


    ¡°What the hell is that?¡± I pointed to his neck just below his shirt cor.


    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± He seemed utterly perplexed by my fury.


    ¡°There, under your shirt. There is a mark. It looks like a rune.¡± I squinted at the magic that was pulsing off of him.


    ¡°A rune? Is that what they..¡± He stopped midsentence and Itched onto his words.


    ¡°Is that what who.. go on and finish what you were saying.¡± I called my magic toward me and let myself glow with it. ¡°Don¡¯t stop there, Arthur. Tell me what you need to say.¡±


    ¡°U..uh..uhm, w..w..well, th..the elders. They drew something on me, but I never saw it. It disappeared into my skin. D..did they draw a rune on me?¡± He started to feel his neck and looked like he was about to cry. I didn¡¯t think that he was lying to me, he smelled too honest at that moment. Alright, so he didn¡¯t know. But what was this rune?


    I studied it a bit more, trying to unlock the mysteries of it all. It looked to me like one that was for hiding things. And it also had elements of truth and deception. So, if I was reading it right, it was hiding the truth and deception from me and the men that were capable of seeing it for me.


    ¡°Why did they use a rune? How did they know to do that?¡±


    ¡°W..w..well, they said that the killers from the summer used them. They said that they were powerful and untraceable.¡± I didn¡¯t know what to think about him at the moment. I didn¡¯t know if he was telling me the truth or not. The asshole could be a chronic liar and I would never know because of this.


    ¡°Let me just remove it. Then I will find out what is really going on.¡±


    The rune was destroyed when I shed it with a w. There was a small mound of blood that welled up, but I didn¡¯t care. I could already see that the rune was losing its power. And within a few seconds, it was gonepletely.


    ¡°OUCH!¡± Arthur had cried out when I scratched away the magical rune on his neck. ¡°That fucking hurt.¡± His hand was mped over his neck to stop the blood. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you just fucking did that to me. How cruel can you get?¡±


    Now that the magic was gone, I was able to see the boy clearly. I could tell that he practically reeked of lies and maniption.


    ¡°So, that was it, huh? And who put that rune on you?¡± I narrowed my eyes at him and watched him try to lie to me. His stench, the way he looked, all of it started toe to the light.


    ¡°It was Edward, I swear. Him and William were the ones that wanted to do this to me. This whole n was their idea. I swear it.¡± It was clear that Arthur thought that the rune was still in effect. He was lying through his teeth and thought that I was going to believe him.


    ¡°Really? So, this whole thing was their idea? Are you sure they¡¯re not innocent?¡±


    ¡°No, they are guilty. This whole thing was their plot from the beginning.¡±


    ¡°Uh huh.¡± I nodded at the vile boy. ¡°You see, Arthur, I can see your lies now. I can smell them. That rune is destroyed. You probably didn¡¯t know that, did you? And I am starting to think that you are just trying to pin this on them so that you and the others can go free. I don¡¯t see how you think that is going to work, but you are an idiot after all.¡±


    ¡°I AM NOT AN IDIOT!¡± He screamed at me. ¡°I WAS ABLE TO FOOL ALL OF YOU! THAT MAKES ME POWERFUL AND INTELLIGENT!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re a damned fool! And you¡¯ve been caught. Give it up and tell the truth now.¡±


    It took a little more back and forth, and a little threatening, but I managed to get Arthur to start telling the truth. And ording to the tune he was singing now, this whole thing was a n he and his cousins came up with. The two elders, Henry and Charles, were in on it because they boys asked for their help. And the n from the beginning was to pin it all on Edward and William. They were supposed to make it look like they were innocent until the two elders practically forced them into the whole plot. And the reason for that was because William and Edward were the most virtuous of the pack elders. Without the two of them in the way, they might be able to do more despicable things in their vige. I knew right then and there that I was going to need to revamp that whole pack. By the time that I was done with it, I wasn¡¯t even sure if Nigel would be a part of it, let alone running it.


    I told the others about the runes, and had any of them destroyed during the interviews. The truth came out from the others as well, which backed up what I had learned. Four of the six arrested that day in Ennd were being sent to the prison, but Edward and William were being released and sent back to the pack. They would be preparing things for aplete overhaul. Not that I had a lot of time to be working on that at the moment. I had the revealing up and so much going on in my own little bubble that I couldn¡¯t be taking the time to sort out this pack.


    Knowing that I needed to wait untilter to fix Nigel¡¯s pack, I told him that I would be sending a spy soon. He wouldn¡¯t see them, but they would be watching. And that I would know if he broke any of ourws. They were all to be on their best behavior, lest they incur the wrath of the queen.


    There was no spy though. That was just a ploy to get him to behave and listen. I would get back to them when I had the time to. And right now, I definitely didn¡¯t. However, I had needed to take care of this little incident. This involved my daughter and my kingdom directly, and I would do what I needed to protect them both, especially my daughter. She had needed me, and I was there for her. I would always be there for her.


    At least it was over now though, and we were able to move onto other more important things.

 Chapter 1055 - 1055 Chapter 40- Reagan – Status Report (VOLUME 6)

    1055 Chapter 40- Reagan ¨C Status Report (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reagan


    ~~


    The weekend after Thanksgiving, my parents called a meeting for all the people that were involved in the current issue. Usually, that would have been my uncles, grandparents, and a few other people that were always there for them. Now, though, it included me, Rika, Levi, Luka, Alyssa, Alexandria, Ashle, Cyprus, Beech, Elias and a few others that were in town. A lot of the kids that I had grown up with were away at college, so they weren¡¯t here to have this experience with us. I felt bad for them, truly I did, but I was happy that I was here to be a part of it all.


    A lot has happened over thest few weeks. We were working hard to secure rights for our people, and it was time to start discussing how we were going toplete this whole process. We needed to figure out the whole revtion process and how we were going to go about it.


    The meeting was happening after dinner on the night of the twenty-sixth. When I actively thought about the date, I knew that my birthday was just a few days away and that I was about to turn neen, but I didn¡¯t think that I would be celebrating this year. There was just too much going on that needed my attention at the moment. And I was an adult now, I didn¡¯t need to have a big party. I was too mature for that now.


    The reason that the meeting was after dinner this Monday evening, was so that the people involved had been able to do whatever other jobs or responsibilities that they had, like sses for me, Rika and the others. And then we were able to spend time with our families. That was one thing that my mom valued a lot.


    Family, and specifically time with that family, is very important. My parents have always tried to be there for every dinner and breakfast. The only times that they weren¡¯t, was when they needed to travel for business or politics. We understood that things came up, and I didn¡¯t mind the absences when they were required, but I did miss having them with me.


    Maybe this made me seem too childish, but I truly enjoyed having this family time and dinners with my parents. It wasn¡¯t that I felt like I had to have them, I just felt like it was best to have this time before I left home to be on my own. Things would be different when I was mated and living in my own home. Things wouldn¡¯t be how they are now, and that was fine with me. It¡¯s just that I didn¡¯t want to miss these things while I could, and I knew that it was because of my parents that I thought this way.


    .....


    I thought about all of this, my family, the future, and all of that, while I walked into the office with my parents. Mom and Dad were sitting in tworge chairs behind the desk, almost throne-like in the way that they appeared whenpared to the others. Our chairs werefortable, but they were considerably smaller. I guess the symbolism of the king and queen were hard to overlook.


    Rika and I were sitting with the other kids, the legacies as my mom jokingly referred to us. We were all grouped to the side so that we were part of the meeting, but we were also able to see the entire group. My parents could see us all as well, even if we were separated like this, they were able to watch over everyone else.


    I felt strange, being separated from the whole group, but I knew the reasons why. We were still learning. We were still young and inexperienced. And these meetings, while we were invited to them, were mostly between our parents and the older generations. We legacies needed to learn more about what was happening before some of them would take us seriously.


    After thest of the invited guests had arrived and taken their seat facing my parents, it was time to begin. Mom rose from her seat and started to speak in a calm, clear, and powerful voice.


    ¡°Thank you all for joining us. We have all been busy and working hard on the issue that stands before us, and I appreciate all of your assistance.¡± She paused then as if giving them the recognition and respect that she clearly conveyed that they deserved. ¡°Reece and I have been traveling to the different world leaders that we needed to get onto our side, and I am very confident that we have secured the assistance that we so desired. After all these long and difficult visits, all the other nations are working onws and bills that will benefit our people. They understand that they need to do this to maintain the status quo that they have right now.¡±


    There was a slight murmur at my mom¡¯s words. I knew what she was getting at here, just like the others did. There were more of us in the world than there were humans. If the world leaders didn¡¯t want us to do something to change the bnce of power, then they needed to agree with us and work with us. Whoever had the allegiance of our people would have the power in their country. I was fully confident in that fact.


    ¡°Now that we have secured rights worldwide, and the bill here in the US seems to be on the verge of passing as well, we need to think about the next step.¡± Mom continued. ¡°We need to n when and where to reveal ourselves to the humans.¡± I heard Beech and Cypress surpassughter at that. I knew why they hadughed, but this wasn¡¯t the time for it. Yes, they could use the y on words to be dirty there, but this was serious. I would need to talk to themter about being serious when they needed to. I mean, for crying out loud, even Uncle Shane kept his cool in the face of thatment. They needed to learn from him about how to hide that jokester side of themselves.


    ¡°Mom?¡± I raised my hand and stood at the same time. I knew that she would see me and hear me with no problem, but I also felt as if she was likely to give me more room to speak if I was standing and drawing the attention of our ¡®crowd¡¯ that was filling the room. I was a little nervous at the moment, but I didn¡¯t let that stop me. I needed to deal with speaking in front of others if I was going to lead our people.


    ¡°Yes, Reagan? What is it?¡±


    ¡°Just you said that you were wondering how to do the reveal. Well, I have been thinking about that for a while now, and I would like to tell you what it is that I havee up with.¡± My voice was steady, calm, and filled with confidence. At least that was what they heard, because I was nervous as hell. I didn¡¯t know if my parents wanted to hear this statement. I was still learning, and I had never been included in these meetings before. I was a noob here, and that made my heart race in fear.


    That didn¡¯t matter though. I didn¡¯t care if they could hear how nervous I was. Or if they could smell it on me either. I was going to present myself as calm, cool, and collected. That was what a future leader needed to do. And I was determined to be a leader no matter what.


    ¡°Go on, Reagan.¡± Mom motioned at me to continue. She looked intrigued, and that was a good thing. She had been one of the most intimidating things about standing up just now. She was kind of scary when she was acting all official like this. I had seen her address people before, but I had never been on this side of it. I had always been beside or behind her, so I didn¡¯t know how frightening she could look when she was in her queen mode. No wonder Dad and all the others were afraid of her.


    ¡°I have thought a lot about this, and the method seems to be a no-brainer. We need to have an international interruption. This can be aplished because we have the heads of state on our side. The interruption can be repeated in different time zones, no matter what time we choose, there will always be a ce that will have people sleeping during the broadcast. Now, as for when we do this interruption, I believe that the Friday before Christmas would be the best option. A lot of people will have the holidays to buffer the news. And that will be essential. They will know what is going on, but they will have other things to focus on before it could get out of control. And choosing Friday is because it will lessen the impact if the news stations are running it nonstop while the humans are trying to work. If we do the reveal then, in my opinion, it will not be as important to them, as it would be if it was something that disrupted traditional working hours.¡±


    ¡°Hmm. That is an option.¡± Mom looked to be thinking about this quite seriously. ¡°I think that you have a point here, Reagan.¡± She nodded. ¡°I am not sure if the weekend and holiday will work as much of a buffer, but it is worth a shot. And as for the broadcast, we need to discuss that even further.¡±


    ¡°Mom?¡± Rika rose then. ¡°I have been thinking about that, if you would like to hear it.¡± I could see the nerves in her face as she spoke. She was intimidated by mom as well, but this was important, and we all needed to stand our ground.


    Right now, in this moment, it was important for me to hand the spotlight over to my sister and support her as she exined what it was that she had to say. I smiled at her and took my seat.


    I knew what wasing. Rika and I had talked about our ns to exin our ideas to our parents. We had both been talking and thinking a lot. She had been thinking more about the execution side of things, while I was thinking more on the when and where side of it. I hadn¡¯t exined everything just yet. I was holding back a little when my mom decided to prompt me for it. If she was serious about my idea, then I knew that she would prompt me. She might do it here with everyone watching, or she might ask that I stay when the meeting was over. No matter when and how it happened, I was going to be ready for it. And so was Rika.


    ¡°Good luck, sis.¡± I whispered to her as I settledfortably in my seat. It was still nerve wracking, especially when seeing how intent and serious our mom and dad looked at the moment.


    I had a moment to wonder if my parents always looked at people like this when they were in meetings like this. I wondered if they kept people in line with the sheer force of their eyes. But I knew that wasn¡¯t the case. People knew that my parents were powerful and were probably used to this by now. It was just us over here, the legacies, that would be affected by it all at the moment. And that was when I realized why we were off to the side.


    My mom had separated us from the group so that the legacies would be allowed to look somewhere other than at her and my dad¡¯s imposing presences. This wasn¡¯t a way to make us feel less than the others, it was a way to spare us and get acquainted with this situation gradually.


    I respected my mom even more for that. She was quite amazing, no matter what she was doing.

 Chapter 1056 - 1056 Chapter 41- Rika – My Idea (VOLUME 6)

    1056 Chapter 41- Rika ¨C My Idea (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    I had sat here and watched Reagan stand up during the meeting. It was a little difficult to watch because my mom and dad were so intense right now. We had nned this part of the meeting. We had been nning it for about a week now. However, now that we were actually following through with it, I was feeling nervous.


    Reagan had been nervous too. I had sensed it all. I heard the rapid pounding of his heart. Smelled the pungent tang in the air that meant that someone was nervous or scared. I sensed all the little things that indicated that someone was anything but calm. Although what I didn¡¯t sense, see, notice, or detect in any way, was visible fear.


    Reagan stood there calm as could be, his voice steady and strong. His posture was perfect. He wasn¡¯t trembling. He didn¡¯t squeak when he spoke. He was the picture of perfection when he needed it.


    It was at that moment, before I even stood, that I knew that I was capable of doing this as well. I knew that if my brother could do this, then so could I. We were twins after all, we had all the same experiences growing up. We had all the same DNA, as close as fraternal twins could get. However, the thing that meant the most to me, the thing that I knew that I had, was Reagan¡¯s support. He had mine and I had his.


    ¡°Mom?¡± I rose to my feet in a smooth and swift motion. I was showing nothing but confidence, despite the nerves that were roiling in my belly. ¡°I have been thinking about that, if you would like to hear it.¡± There was a smile on Reagan¡¯s face as he looked at me. I could see it out of the corner of my eye. That smile told me that I had this, that he knew that I was going to seed, just the same as he had.


    While I watched my mom, waiting for her to acknowledge me like she had Reagan, I sensed Reagan sitting down. His whispered voice reached me so softly that I knew no one else would hear it.


    .....


    ¡°Good luck, sis.¡± A fraction of a secondter, my mom spoke to me as well.


    ¡°Go on, Rika. What have you thought of?¡± She smiled at me and I saw that she was actually proud of both me and Reagan. Maybe putting in all those hours over thest few weeks was really a good idea. Reagan and I had been racking our brains for ways to help our parents. My mom might already have an idea, but until I knew that for a fact, I was going to do all that I could for her.


    ¡°Well, you need to know how to execute the revtion. Well, as Reagan already said, a global broadcast interruption would be the best way to do this. And during that broadcast, I believe that we need at least one representative from each species, no matter how small their poption may be. And on top of that, we need at least one representative from each ethnic race. This will be a way to prove to the world that this is not just something that is centralized in the United States. The world needs to know that this is something that affects them as well.¡±


    ¡°That is quite intuitive.¡± Dad said as he smiled at me. I could clearly feel the pride that was flowing off of him and washing over me.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± I smiled at him, but I didn¡¯t let that distract me at all. ¡°However, I am not quite done. I think that there needs to be influential people involved in the reveal. Some can be world leaders if you want, but I think that would have too many negative factors involved. The people of the world, the human people, need to think that they can still trust the people that make theirws. Otherwise, they might be more inclined to riot. However, other influential people that we know are universally loved by the humans, actors, singers, and other people such as that. They can reveal that they aren¡¯t human. It¡¯s not like they will go broke, not with half of the world still wanting to see and hear them.¡±


    ¡°I like that idea. We can¡¯t expose the politicians, that might diminish their influence in their fields, but I like the idea of using famous people. I will contact several of them soon.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± I nodded at my mom, but I still wasn¡¯t done. ¡°Now, the broadcast, in my opinion, needs to be live. We need to have a way of proving that it is happening with no interruptions in the signal. I n for us to shift and show our powers live on television, but we need to make sure that people are not dismissing this as a stunt that isden with special effects. We need to prove to them all that we are serious, no matter what it is that we need to do.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I understand.¡± Mom nodded at me. ¡°And I agree. The broadcast, wherever it takes ce, will need to be live. It can be repeated at another time, at which point it won¡¯t be live anymore, but we need to prove that it is all very real.¡±


    ¡°How are we going to guarantee that there are no special effects?¡± Uncle Trevor said from the front of the other crowd, the one that was facing my parents.


    ¡°I am not sure yet, but I am sure that we will be able to figure it all out.¡± Mom put her hand on her chin as she thought about this.


    ¡°Aunt Trinity?¡± Luka rose to his feet.


    ¡°Yes, go ahead.¡± Mom waved at him. He had been with Reagan and I while we nned a lot of this stufftely. I am sure that he had thought of a few things as well. I also saw that Uncle Dietrich and Uncle Shawn were looking at him proudly, just like dad had looked at me and Reagan.


    ¡°Well, if we want to prove that it is not fake, then we can have several spectators invited to the event. Their reactions will help with the validity of it all. And not only that, but we can do some live calls that will prove that the entire operation is happening in real time. We can start the entire event off as if it were something that was like a sporting event or show of some kind. After we have all their attention, and theworks cannot be changed no matter what station they switch to, they will start to understand that this is real.¡±


    ¡°Will it work on all channels though?¡± Uncle Shane asked as he thought about Luka¡¯s words.


    ¡°We can make it so. We have enough power with the president on our side. And not only that, but we have hackers working for this mission as well. I am sure that we can interrupt everything.¡±


    ¡°Everything?¡± Mom asked him suspiciously. ¡°What do you mean everything?¡±


    ¡°Well, we need to send emergency broadcast alerts to all the phones, tablets,puters, anything that is connected to the inte or source of data streaming. We need to make sure that we interrupt all the television channels, even movie and porn channels. This is something that is important, and we need to gather the attention of the entire world.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha.¡± Uncle Shaneughed. ¡°I can imagine how pissed those people in mid yank will be if we interrupt their personal time.¡± There wasughter that went through the room then. It was unavoidable. Uncle Shane had a point.


    ¡°They may be upset, but I am sure that they will understand in the end.¡± I said as I exined what was happening. ¡°Luka is right. We need to use all the avable resources. And if it is going out as an emergency broadcast on all devices, it will give our ims more credibility.¡±


    ¡°I agree.¡± Mom, who was still on her feet, nodded at me. ¡°Thank you, Rika. And you as well Luka and Reagan. The three of you have had a lot of good ideas, and I know that we will be able to see this all through soon because you have all been working so hard on these issues.¡±


    ¡°We just want to be of service, Mom.¡± I smiled at her. ¡°We want to make sure that we can help you no matter what. So, we have all been meeting up at school and after school to discuss the options that we have.¡±


    ¡°I am d that you did. You all, being the younger ones that are going to be at the university, will all be vital in this transition. I would like to know that I can count on you all for assistance in the future.¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± I told her right away.


    ¡°Definitely, Mom, you have all of us here to help.¡± Reagan added.


    ¡°We will do all that we can.¡± Luka added.


    ¡°Just let us know what we can do.¡±


    ¡°We will take the initiative.¡±


    ¡°We want to help as much as possible.¡± The others started to stand and say what they needed to as well. I felt proud right now as well. Not for just myself, but for all my friends and family that were standing up to join in the fight. Not that this was a fight really, but it was important to us all, and that was what mattered. I was proud of them.


    The meeting came to an end shortly after all of that. Mom and Dad asked that me, Reagan, and Luka stay behind so that they could talk to us. They wanted to hear more about the ideas that we hade up with. I was more than happy to tell her what it was that I had thought about. I wanted my parents to know that I took this issue seriously. And I wanted them to know that I was proud of who and what I am.


    The second meeting between ussted about another hour or so. Reagan and I told our parents all that we had talked about and what we thought would be best for the revtion. And Luka exined what he thought about the inte hacking and broadcasts. The fact that we did have a hacker, aside from him, was going to be beneficial in this whole process. We would be able to ess more than we normally would, even with the president¡¯s approval.


    By the time that I got back to my room, I was feeling a lot more confident about this whole thing than I had been for a long time. I knew that we were going to be able to make the humans understand us. Before, I had been on the fence about it all, but now though, I was confident and determined, the way that I needed to be.

 Chapter 1057 - 1057 Chapter 42- Talia – Planning a Surprise (VOLUME 6)

    1057 Chapter 42- Talia ¨C nning a Surprise (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    I knew that with everything that was going on, Reagan and Rika didn¡¯t feel much like celebrating their birthdays this year. There was a lot that we were all working on, especially the two of them. And they didn¡¯t want to take the focus off of the hard work and put it on them.


    Reagan and Rika were both great siblings and people. They cared about us all so much, and they weren¡¯t usually all that selfish. Yes, they had their moments, but so does everyone in the world. Not even I was exempt from that aspect of life. Neither were my parents. We were all human, well humanish. And that meant that we were all ruled by our hearts and emotions at times.


    Now, speaking of being ruled by our hearts and emotions, that was what made me want to surprise my brother and sister. We could have a special day with each of them, but that would take away from the surprise a little. Usually, we alternated which day we surprised the two of them on. They were twins, born just minutes apart from each other, but they had two different birthdays. I always loved that fact about them. And I think that they did too.


    Now, what I was nning here was going to take some effort. First, I needed to tell my parents not to make any ns on the thirtieth this year. We would surprise the two of them on Reagan¡¯s birthday. That way they wouldn¡¯t think that we forgot about their special days.


    That was probably the easiest part of the ns that I wanted to make. I knew that my parents would want to celebrate the two of them. They were very loving parents that would more often than not put us kids before their work. Yes, there were times when they needed to prioritize other things, but not all that often.


    I talked to Abigail, the next coconspirator in my whole n. She was the one that was going to gather the help of the other tower chefs and go all out for breakfast on that Friday morning. She and the others would be making all the food that I had in mind for the mini birthday party before school. And that was just the beginning of it all.


    .....


    There would be all the delicious favorites in the morning. Some presents. Music. All the good stuff that you would have at a birthday party. I knew that Reagan and Rika wouldn¡¯t be able to tell us no if this was how we went about things. They would just need to grin and bear it. Not only that, but the happy looks on Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley¡¯s faces will make it all worthwhile to them. All good there.


    After I spoke with Abigail about the food, and had mom and dad on board with all the presents already wrapped and hidden for Friday morning, it was time for me to n the other parts of that day. Or rather, for that weekend. I mean, with them being twins, and them having different birthdays, the way that I saw it, they both had both days as their birthday. Weren¡¯t they lucky? They got to have two different days to celebrate when other people only got one.


    Well, I called all of their friends, at least the close ones that I knew the numbers of. I knew that neither of them would want to have a big celebration that would distract the whole family, the pack, or the locals from the kingdom. They would want something that would be more subdued. And that was exactly what I was going to give them.


    Two different celebrations for two different people. Two very secret operations that were going to be running in tandem. It was all quite exciting, and I just couldn¡¯t wait to see how happy they were about all of this. Yeah, they might be annoyed at first, but they would get over it and then they would be able to rx and have some fun.


    Luka, Levi, Elias, Cypress, Beech, Rowan and CJ were all agreeing to be a part of the n for Reagan. When I called each of them and told them what I had nned for my brother, they were more than excited about it. And the same thing happened when I told Alyssa, Alexandria, Ashle, na, Kaede, Sophia and Isabe about the party for Rika. A lot of the kids that we all grew up with had scattered, but the ones that I had invited to the party were either still in town, or close enough toe back for a weekend to spend time with their friends and family. I was happy that there was a good amount of the people that they had been so close to for so long.


    I knew that they had other friends, ones from high school and new ones in college, but I thought that leaving this party up to the central core group was probably the best idea. They would understand more about Reagan and Rika, and they would be able to help them to rx. They won¡¯t need to pretend to be something else for the time being. They would just need to be themselves and nothing else.


    Ideas were set, ns were made, and coconspirators were all onboard. We were set to go now. All we really needed to do now was wait until the big day.


    Finally, when Friday rolled around, it was time for all of us to celebrate the oldest kids in the family. Well, aside from my dad. I knew that he could act like a child sometimes, but I had long ago learned that this was to be expected of a lot of men. It¡¯s not saying that they are immature or anything like that. It¡¯s just that they could devolve a little when they were faced with certain situations. I had seen it when Rika and I had both started to get interested in boys. And I have to say, it was pretty funny to watch Dad¡¯s reactions.


    Having nned out the whole day in advance, we were all up and ready before Reagan and Rika came down to the dining room. They were dressed and ready for the day as well, which was good. However, they didn¡¯t see any of us. Mom, Dad, me, the quads, we were all hiding and acting like we weren¡¯t there. And, on top of that, Abigail hadn¡¯t brought the food out yet.


    ¡°Where is everyone?¡± Reagan asked as he looked around the room. They had been in the dining room for about five minutes already.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I mean, there is school today, right? For us and the kids. I mean, where are they?¡±


    ¡°I know that there is school.¡± Reagan said as he looked at his watch. ¡°Did we somehow wake up too early?¡±


    ¡°How though? The time is set automatically, it¡¯s not like we were able to change the time.¡±


    ¡°True.¡± Reagan looked confused. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go and find the others.¡±


    Just as they got to their feet, intent on finding all of us, we threw the door into the dining room open and jumped into the room.


    ¡°SURPRISE!¡± We all yelled excitedly. ¡°HAPPY BIRTHDAY!¡±


    ¡°Gahh!¡± Reagan jumped away in shock when I got really close to him.


    ¡°What the?¡± Rika looked around. ¡°I thought that we agreed not to celebrate this year?¡±


    ¡°We agreed not to throw you a party. We didn¡¯t say that we wouldn¡¯t celebrate.¡± I rified for them. And today is part one of your celebrations.¡± Despite Rika¡¯s words, I saw that she was smiling. She was definitely happy that I had nned this.


    ¡°Thank you, all of you.¡± She moved forward and hugged mom quickly.


    ¡°It was all Talia¡¯s idea.¡± Mom said as she hugged my sister.


    ¡°Talia?¡± Reagan grinned. ¡°Thank you. I am sorry if we made it sound like we didn¡¯t want to be with the family for our birthday.¡±


    ¡°I knew that you would love this.¡± I threw my arms around his waist and hugged him. ¡°I love you guys.¡±


    ¡°I love you too.¡± He said as he pressed his face against my hair.


    Following the good mornings and the I love yous, it was time to start breakfast. That was when Abigail and her team of chefs came into the dining room with all the special food.


    ¡°Look at you two.¡± She pinched their cheeks as she set down the firstrge tray of food. ¡°I remember making homemade baby food for you, and now you are neen. Where did the time go?¡± She looked as if she was about to start crying. She was smiling, yeah sure, but she was also on the verge of tears. She had been with us all for so long that she had been there all our lives. We all loved her, and she loved us.


    ¡°Abigail.¡± Reagan squirmed ufortably as he smiled next to her. ¡°This food looks great.¡± He was trying to take the focus off of him and Rika, and mentioning the food was a surefire way to do that.


    ¡°Of course it looks great. I put extra effort into it today. I made all of your favorites. And I even made you each special pancakes. Rika, you have the cinnamon deluxe pancakes that I know you love so much.¡± She set the te in front of her as she spoke. ¡°And, Reagan, you have the blueberry explosion pancakes.¡± She moved his pancakes that had so many blueberries in them that they were literally purple. ¡°I hope you both enjoy them, and ask me for anything else that you might want.¡±


    ¡°This is more than enough, Abigail. Thank you.¡± Reagan hugged her quickly.


    ¡°Yeah Abigail, this will be perfect. Thank you so much.¡± Rika hugged her as well.


    After the chefs left the dining room, it was just the nine members of our family left in there. Well, ten if you wanted to count baby Reeselynn in Mom¡¯s belly. She was here with us as well, just not in person yet.


    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s eat.¡± Dad said as he eyed the mountainous te of bacon.


    ¡°Agreed.¡± Reagan said as he picked up his fork.


    We all enjoyed our breakfast over the next several minutes. We talked about a lot of things, but none of it had to do with the stressful political issue that we were in at the moment. Instead, we talked about family topics. ces that we wanted to go on vacation if we were going to have one this year. Things that we all wanted to do in the near future. And of course, all about Reagan and Rika. They were the stars of the day because it was their birthdays.


    Once the food was gone, or rather when we were done eating because there was so much food that even nine people with werewolf appetites couldn¡¯t eat it all, it was time to open presents. Reagan and Rika had insisted that we shouldn¡¯t have gotten them anything at all, bu I waved away their protests. They all got things from us that we knew they either needed or wanted.


    Reagan got a new watch from Dad, something that made him look like he was just Dad version 2.0. I wanted tough but I knew that Reagan had loved the watch, so I didn¡¯t. I had gotten Reagan some books that I knew that he was interested intely. A lot of them were business and political in nature, but he loved them as well. For Rika, I had given her a designer purse and a journal. She had told me recently that she wanted to be a better person. She wanted to be held ountable for things that she might have done wrong. So, I told her that this journal was to write what she wanted to reflect on and to work on herself more as she wanted to. She had smiled and hugged me with tears in her eyes.


    Mom and Dad mainly focused on the material possessions that they knew Reagan and Rika would want. They gave them clothes, shoes, bags, and other things like that. Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley had not been able to get to the store, so they had worked together to make things for them. Zaley, who was starting to be more proficient in magic now that our parents were actually training us all officially, had taken the images that the four of them had made for Reagan and Rika and infused them into a ss cube. The cube itself was made of Zaley¡¯s magic and made it even more special, but it was holding something so personally made from all four of them, so that had made it even more wonderful. I personally loved it and knew that Reagan and Rika did as well.


    After the breakfast party, it was time for us to leave for school. I knew that Reagan and Rika thought that this was the end of their celebration, but they didn¡¯t know what else I had in mind for them. This was going to be really, really fun. I just wished that I would be able to be there in person to see it all happening. Oh well, I would just have to deal with hearing the details from someone else.

 Chapter 1058 - 1058 Chapter 43- Reagan – Surprise Party Part 1 (VOLUME 6)

    1058 Chapter 43- Reagan ¨C Surprise Party Part 1 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reagan


    ~~


    It had been really nice of Talia to n a party for Rika and I this morning. It was unexpected, but just what we needed. Both Rika and I had decided that we didn¡¯t want to have a party this year. We were adults now, turning neen, and there was a lot going on. We didn¡¯t want to take the focus off of things that were important and put it on us. This was for the best.


    Still, I understood that the others wanted to spend time with us as well. That was why I was OK with Talia going behind our backs and nning a breakfast birthday party. It was really sweet of her, and it allowed them all to get that whole celebration thing out of their system.


    Now, with it over with, I was able to focus on school, andter I would be able to get to work in my mom¡¯s office. I have been working with her and Dad pretty much every day since this all started. Rika and I were the ones that were there the most often, aside from Mom and Dad, that is.


    The others were there most of the time too, so that was good. We had a lot of people helping, and that was making things a lot easier. And that was why we were walking toward Levi and Luka¡¯s car and Alyssa and Alexa¡¯s car at the end of our day. They had picked us up, separately, this morning and then brought us to school. We would of course be riding home with them as well, since we were all going to the same ce, it just made sense.


    As I looked at the small group of our friends, I didn¡¯t initially think that there was anything up. I mean, I was used to seeing them all the time. And even with Elias, Ashle, Cypress, Beech, na and Rowan all there, nothing seemed off. I mean, they were supposed to be going with us to the office to work like they usually did.


    I did start to get suspicious a little bit when I saw that the others were next to the cars as well. When I saw CJ, Kaede, Sophia and Isabe, I felt like there was something off. I mean, they didn¡¯t go to school here. And there was no reason for them to be there. Not unless they came to help with the work that we needed to do. And well, it was also our birthday, so that could be a part of it.


    .....


    I was starting to think that just maybe they hadn¡¯t gotten the memo that we had decided not to celebrate. And that they were here for our party that wasn¡¯t going to happen. Though, that feeling didn¡¯tst for long. I saw that they were all staring at us and watching Rika and I walk closer to them. The closer that I got, the more that I felt that something was wrong.


    ¡°Rika?¡± I whispered to her.


    ¡°I sense it too.¡± She said as we walked steadily. ¡°What is going on here?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Let¡¯s just get them back to the castle and find out what they want, alright. I mean, they are family, so there is nothing to be worried about.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that is true.¡± She nodded in response. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go.¡±


    I think that both Rika and I were being a little na?ve at that point. I knew that something was a little off, but I just let it go and ignored it. I don¡¯t think that I will ever be making that mistake again.


    The moment that I sat in Luka¡¯s car, the doors were locked. CJ got into the car behind me and that was when things started to turn bad. He threw a belt around my arms and buckled me to the seat. While I was struggling to get free, he threw over another, and another, and another. And all of this was happening while Luka sped away from the campus, in the wrong direction.


    ¡°What is going on?¡± I yelled as I tore at the bindings around me. ¡°What the hell are you doing?¡± I was getting mad, but I also knew that these were my friends and family. They shouldn¡¯t be hurting me.


    ¡°We¡¯re taking you somewhere special. Someone convinced us to kidnap you.¡±


    ¡°What the hell? Kidnap me? Who the hell wants me kidnapped?¡± I was roaring at them, my voice loud and filled with anger.


    ¡°Oh, someone that is powerful and scary when they want to be.¡± CJughed behind me. ¡°Here, take a look.¡±


    At that, CJ leaned forward and put his phone in front of me. He pressed y on a video that was waiting for me to watch it. On the screen, talking in her calm and sweet voice, was Talia. She had nned this whole kidnapping so that I was forced to celebrate my birthday.


    ¡°Hey there, big brother. Now, don¡¯t hate me for this.¡± She giggled. ¡°I wanted you and Rika to have some fun this weekend. You deserve it and I didn¡¯t want you thinking that just because you are adults now you need to stop celebrating your birthday. You are special and you matter. Now, I want you to have some fun with everyone.¡± She was smiling as if she were really talking to me rather than this being a prerecorded video. ¡°Now, I want you to understand that you can¡¯t get out of this. And if they tell me that you were a spoilsport all weekend, I will make your next week of life at home miserable.¡± She was wicked, but I stillughed at her words. She could literally make me miserable if she wanted to. ¡°Nowe on, this won¡¯t be that bad. It¡¯s just you and your closest friends, Reagan. There is nothing to worry about. And the work that you need to do will still be waiting for you when you get back. Don¡¯t worry. All is fine. Just go out there, have some fun, and for goddess¡¯s sake, Reagan, rx a little OK. I love you. Happy birthday.¡±


    ¡°DAMMIT!¡± I snarled at the video. ¡°I said no parties.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but we all agreed with Talia, you need this man. You¡¯re wound so tightly right now that you need to rx. Come on, let us just rx and see what happens from here on out, OK.¡±


    ¡°Hahh.¡± I sighed dramatically. ¡°Do I have much of a choice?¡± I red at them.


    ¡°Not really. We¡¯re all working together here.¡± CJ¡¯s voice was filled withughter.


    ¡°Where are we going?¡± I resigned myself to the party that I didn¡¯t really want.


    ¡°The mountains. It¡¯s still nice, and there isn¡¯t that much snow on the ground yet. So, we¡¯re staying in a cabin for the weekend. We¡¯re going hunting and blowing off some steam in our wolf forms.


    They continued to drive out of the city and toward the mountains as they exined what was going on. They had the cabin fully stocked, Talia had given them a bag for me for the weekend. And I was not allowed to leave until Sunday. Those were the major points, apparently. And I have to say, I was starting to get a little more excited about this whole thing the closer that we got to the cabin. Maybe I did need some time away. Maybe Talia knew better than I did about this.


    The cabin was one of the ones that my parents owned. When thinking about a cabin, most people didn¡¯t envision a huge luxury mansion that was done in a log cabin style. It had all the modern amenities with the added benefit of being away from everything and everyone. This was a ce that I would actually like to be right now. With everything that had been happeningtely, I needed to take the time to rx. Talia had been right. And just walking into the cabin was enough to take an immense amount of pressure off of my shoulders.


    Initially, we all selected our rooms and put our things away. There were eight of us in the cabin, and we all still had our own room. That alone put into perspective just how big the ce was. After we chose our rooms, we decided to just shift right into our wolf forms. I fully intended to spend most of the night in this form. I wanted to be able to get rid of as much stress as I possibly could.


    The moment that we were all in our wolf forms, we started to run through the forests and mountains that were around us. This time, unlike when we had the full moon hunt, we had to be careful of running into humans. And we weren¡¯t going to take down anyrge game either. That would be too suspicious for the humans when they came through this area next. We needed to be conscientious about it all. Even if this was private property, I knew that there were a lot of humans that came through here.


    I was content with all of that. I really was. I knew that just running in this form was going to be enough to make me feel better. And there wasn¡¯t going to be anything that could take that away from me. I mean, it was my birthday after all. And this was why I was here.


    I started to run through the forest. I was fast, one of the fastest among us. The others all ran in a group around me. They weren¡¯t protecting me, and they weren¡¯t stopping me from running away. They were running as if they were intent on following my lead. Like I was the Alpha, and they were my pack. And in a way, that was how we were. That was how we had always been.


    For a little while, the eight of us just ran, jumped, and climbed through the forest and mountains. We were going further and further away from the cabin, and deeper into the parts of the forest that the humans weren¡¯t usually found in. This was the part of the mountains that could get dangerous. At least, it was dangerous for the humans. We weren¡¯t human, and that meant that we had less to worry about.


    I could smell the trails of different animals as we ran, but the trails were almost overpowered by the scent of excitementing from all of the others. We were excited to be here right now, together and having fun. I don¡¯t know what it was, but our group almost always had fun when we were together. Talia was right to choose guys to go with me. Especially CJ. He was one of the major goofballs among us and made all the situations funny. I loved him and the others so much. They were my family, my pack, and my best friends. I wouldn¡¯t trade this group of guys for anything in the world.


    Before I knew it, it was time for us to start hunting. There was a massive herd of moose that cut across our path. I remember learning in school that at one point in time, their numbers were really low in Colorado, but not anymore. There are thousands of them statewide, and others in the states around us as well. The benefit of that was that these moose were fair game for us. We were allowed to hunt them with no worries.


    I felt the excitement course through me and allowed the others to start their hunt first. If I was acting as the Alpha here, then I should see to it that my pack had their fill first. Wasn¡¯t that what it meant to be in charge? Taking care of others. I knew that there were Alphas out there that were selfish and wanted to focus on being the first in everything. However, my dad had taught me to put my family and my people first. And that was what I was doing here and now. I was putting them before me. I was showing them the respect that they deserved. I was being the proper Alpha, just like I intended to do in the future.

 Chapter 1059 - 1059 Chapter 44- Reagan – Surprise Party Part 2 (VOLUME 6)

    1059 Chapter 44- Reagan ¨C Surprise Party Part 2 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reagan


    ~~


    Moments after the others started their attack, watching CJ and Elias take down moose that were next to each other, I heard something crashing toward us. Somethingrge.


    There was a bear. I could smell it. It was the same kind that I had hunted before. He must have been following the herd, and now he was going crazy with the scent of the blood in the air. I didn¡¯t think that we had much to worry about. He wouldn¡¯t be a match for any of us.


    At least, that was what I thought at first. However, that was when Rowan, who was arguably the smallest of our group, had gotten momentarily distracted. The next thing that I knew, as I watched the scene unfolding before me, Rowan¡¯s left leg fell into a hole that was hidden by the underbrush. It wasn¡¯t a trap that was pre-set or anything, just a case of bad luck. Still, I heard him yelp, and so did the others. They froze for a second as they looked at Rowan, the bearpletely forgotten by them all.


    I watched on in momentary horror as Rowan yowled in pain. I knew that he would heal soon, but it was still hard to watch, and the sound of his leg snapping like that, it was enough to make me cringe.


    ¡°Rowan?¡± I said in what passed for words in wolf form. Just as the word was past my lips, the bear crashed through the trees and towered over Rowan.


    There was a moment of fear from the others. They probably would have acted soon enough, but they weren¡¯t as quick on the uptake as I was. I was already leaping into motion and lunging toward the beast. I needed to meet his attack midair, or Rowan¡¯s injury would be a little worse than it had already been.


    .....


    I felt power, conviction, and strength coursing through me as I flew through the air. I propelled myself toward the bear, determined to protect my friend, and that was probably what caused the change that happened next. All I knew was that I hadn¡¯t nned on this happening.


    One second, I was jumping at the bear, and the next I was standing on two legs and holding the thing off while roaring into its face. I felt bigger and stronger, easily overpowering the monstrous bear. And the next thing that I knew, I felt my w sinking deeply into the bear¡¯s neck and shoulders. His roaring cut off almost instantly as the blood poured from the wound.


    Dead, the bear dropped to the forest floor. And that was when I turned, still on two legs, to face the others. The looks on their faces was what told me that something had happened. They didn¡¯t even have to say a word. I looked down at my hand, because they were hands now, not paws. Well, sort of. They were hand shaped paws I guess, but there were fingers for sure.


    I was a Lycan. Just like my dad, I was standing there in the true werewolf form that was so rare and almost unheard of for our people. At least it was now. In the past, somewhere in the ancient histories of our people, there had been a lot of Lycans. Now, I was only the second one that I knew of.


    ¡°Wow.¡± That was all that I could say as I looked at the lethal ws tipping my fingers. ¡°This is fucking cool.¡±


    ¡°Reagan?¡± Elias was looking at me with awe in his eyes. ¡°Y..y..y..you¡¯re a Lycan.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I noticed.¡± Iughed and it was a deep rumbling sound. ¡°I thought that my dad was the only one, but I guess I inherited it.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I guess you did.¡± Heughed in response.


    ¡°I..I think that I need to head back for now. We have food in the cabin, right?¡± I looked at them. ¡°We can hunt tomorrow. I think that I need time to process this. And I don¡¯t want to be out here like this if the humans show up.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s head back.¡± CJ nodded. ¡°Still, this is awesome.¡± He was grinning broadly as he looked at me.


    ¡°Yeah, it really is.¡± Iughed deeply again.


    We headed back toward the cabin after that. I think that we all needed to calm down after what had just happened. Rowan¡¯s leg healed with no problem when he shifted, so that was all well and good. And none of us were upset about what had happened or anything, we just needed time to process it. We ended up making a bunch of frozen pizzas, one of the main things that they had stocked the cabin with, ying video games, and just hanging out all night.


    I know that it doesn¡¯t sound all that exciting, but it was still a really great night. I think that we all needed it. A lot of us hadn¡¯t just hung out and just rxed in a long time. With the stuff that was going on right now, and the murders before this, things had been really hard for us all since university started. This night that Talia had set up for me was more therapeutic than I ever thought that it was going to be. I had to remember to thank her for itter.


    The next day, we decided to go for a hike in the woods, in our human forms. I didn¡¯t want to risk shifting just yet, and the others agreed with me. I needed to talk to my parents about itter when I got home. For the time being though, we were just having fun in the mountains. We even decided that we were going to be typical stupid boys and jump into the river. Yes, it was winter. Yes, it was cold. No, we didn¡¯t care. I mean, we¡¯re wolves, we don¡¯t feel the temperature the way that the humans did, so we were allowed to do things that were stupid like that. At least from time to time.


    After the long weekend away at the cabin, we decided to head home around noon on Sunday. It was time to get out of here, and then time for me to tell my parents about my bing a Lycan. I had a feeling that my dad was going to be really happy to hear about that. At least, I hoped that he would. In my mind, it was something that was really, really major.


    When I got home, I decided to seek out my dad first. I didn¡¯t know if he would be with my mom or not, but I wanted to find him. He wasn¡¯t in the tower though, and he wasn¡¯t in his office. Apparently, he had taken a cue from us and decided to go for a run in the woods. By the time that I started to search for him in the mountains behind the castle, he was already heading home.


    I saw him running toward me in his wolf form as I entered the cover of the trees. I called out to him and waved him toward me. I saw the recognition in his eyes when he saw me, then he ran on all fours toward me. In his wolf form, he was about five and half feet tall, and his head was massive. He was one of thergest of our people, and that was to be expected as well. He was our king, and my dad. I always saw him as bigger, stronger, and capable of anything. I didn¡¯t know if that was ever going to change.


    ¡°Hey son, what is wrong?¡± Dad, the protector that he was, immediately thought that he needed to fix something.


    ¡°Nothing is wrong. Not really.¡± I grinned at him happily. ¡°I just found something out the other day that really surprised me.¡± I tried not to grin like an idiot as I told him what was going on.


    ¡°What is it?¡± He asked me, his eyes narrowing and his wolfish head turning to the side in curiosity.


    ¡°Well, Friday night, when we were at the cabin hunting. I was watching over the others as they all started to catch their prey first. I was being like an Alpha to them, letting them flourish first, like you taught me. Well, Rowan stepped in a hidden hole and broke his leg.¡±


    ¡°Is he OK?¡± Dad asked with concern in his wolf voice, knowing full well that he would be. We¡¯re wolves, we all heal quickly.


    ¡°Yeah. A shift was all that he needed. I did make sure that the bone was reset first, and that was a little painful for him, but he is alright now. He said he would have Uncle Griffin look at it today as well, just to be safe.¡±


    ¡°That is good. But what was it that surprised you? I am assuming that it wasn¡¯t the fact that Rowan broke his leg.¡±


    ¡°No, that wasn¡¯t it.¡± Iughed and smiled. I was feeling giddy and that just made me want tough even more. ¡°Right when Rowan fell into the hole and screamed out, a monster of a bear came crashing into our area of the forest. He smelled the blood from the animals we were hunting and wanted some. And well, he was looming over Rowan.¡±


    ¡°Ahh, I bet that got the adrenaline pumping.¡± He nodded at me. ¡°How did it end? Any injuries?¡±


    ¡°Nope. I leapt toward the bear to fend him off and protect Rowan. Only, I felt really powerful and really big when I was doing it. And it wasn¡¯t until after the bear fell to the ground, dead, that I was able to see what it was that had happened. I wasn¡¯t in my wolf form anymore, which I had been when I jumped at the bear.¡±


    ¡°Were you in human form then?¡± He asked, his eyes not quite believing that either.


    ¡°Nope.¡± I grinned. ¡°I was a Lycan.¡± I dered proudly. ¡°I am a Lycan Dad, just like you.¡±


    ¡°WHAT?¡± I heard his voice fill with shock as he quickly shifted to that form as well. He didn¡¯t be a human, but his Lycan form. ¡°You are a Lycan?¡±


    Instead of answering him verbally, I decided to shift into that form. I had found that it was actually really easy to go between these forms now. As new as it was, this form was like something that my body knew really well. I was able to be a wolf, a Lycan, or a human with no effort and very little time needed to transform. I was a natural at it, and that made me smile even more.


    Standing there in my Lycan form, I saw that I was about as tall as my dad. And there was a look of pride in his eyes as he looked at me.


    ¡°Reagan, son, this is amazing. I had hoped that you kids would inherit this form from me.¡± He actually hugged me then and I just had tough while I hugged him back.


    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s crazy, but it¡¯s so cool as well. I have literally been giddy since I found out the other day. I wanted to tell you right away, but I also wanted to wait until I got back.¡±


    ¡°I know how this must feel. I still remember the first time that I became a Lycan. I was in France.¡± My dad¡¯s eyes got a far away look in them as he thought about that. He was about to tell me that story again, but I didn¡¯t mind. This was a bonding moment for me and my dad, and now that I was neen, I knew that there weren¡¯t that many more of these left in our lives. I was happy to have it right now.


    Later that night, after we were in our human forms again, Dad and I told mom about my new form and the celebrations started all over again. She was happy for me, as I knew that she would be. This turned out to be the best weekend of my life in a long time. And I was really d that Talia had sent me on that trip. A fact that I told her repeated throughout the day.

 Chapter 1060 - 1060 Chapter 45- Rika – Surprise Party Part 3 (VOLUME 6)

    1060 Chapter 45- Rika ¨C Surprise Party Part 3 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    As we were leaving the campus that afternoon, Reagan and I both were wary as we approached the different cars that were meant to take us home. Not that we sensed actual danger, but that there was something odd about the situation. I mean, I get why na, Ashle, Lyssa and Alexa were there, but why were Kaede, Sophia and Isabe there?


    Don¡¯t get me wrong, I love my friends so much. I consider them to be more like family after all. Their parents were my aunts and uncles. They were my cousins. There was no changing that for me. But still, there was something off about this situation. Something that I wasn¡¯t able to process in the beginning, but that I was still sensing. And that was why it was so confusing to me. What the hell was the matter with my senses?


    Part of me was telling my body to run away. To get away from these people. That I was in danger. But I just couldn¡¯t get my mind and body to agree with each other. I knew these people. I knew that I was safe. And I knew that there was nothing to worry about. And still, my senses were screaming at me.


    I sat in the front passenger seat of the car, next to Lyssa who was allowed to drive today. As I was buckling my seatbelt, I happened to turn to look at Reagan in the other car. They were already starting to speed away, but I saw that CJ was tying my brother to the seat.


    ¡°What the? What is happening over there? What is going on?¡± I turned to look at Lyssa just as she too started to speed away. And Kaede started to do the same thing that CJ was doing to Reagan. She was throwing things around me and tying me to the seat. I was able to break them, I was sure of that, but I was also at a loss for words. ¡°What are you doing?¡± by the time that I got my mouth to work, there were at least half a dozen bindings around me.


    ¡°We were told to kidnap you.¡± Alexa said from the back seat. I saw through the back window that Isabe, Sophia, and na were following our fast and hectic path through the city with ease.


    .....


    ¡°Kidnap me? Who the hell told you to kidnap me? And why? I mean, you¡¯re my friends and family, why would you do this to me? Why?¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha. Kaedeughed as she grabbed her phone. ¡°Rx, Rika. Just watch this video.¡± She put her phone in front of my face and turned on a video with my sister in it. Talia was grinning when the recording started, and I just felt dread starting to fill me up.


    ¡°Hey there big sis. First of all, I love you. Don¡¯t think that this is anything negative, alright? I know that you didn¡¯t want a birthday party, or at least you said that you didn¡¯t. Well, I think that you did want one, or at least you didn¡¯t realize that you wanted one. And what¡¯s more important is that you need this. I know you and Reagan were saying that you don¡¯t need to celebrate now that you are adults, but that is bullshit. I mean,e on, Mom and Dad still have parties. You need one too. And not only that, sis, but you¡¯ve been so tired and stressedtely. I can see it when I look at you, and I don¡¯t really like that. I want you to rx, get better, and thene home on Sunday. All that work will still be here, waiting for you. There is nothing to worry about. This entire weekend has been taken care of. And I just know that you are going to love it.¡± She grinned widely. ¡°Love you sis, and I will see you this weekend, alright. Bye. And have fun.¡±


    ¡°Hahh.¡± I sighed softly as the video ended and Kaede took her phone away from me. ¡°I can¡¯t believe her. She knew that I didn¡¯t want a party.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but we all-.¡± Alexa stared from the backseat. I cut her off though. I had more to say.


    ¡°I said, she knew that I didn¡¯t want a party. However, given that this ising from Talia, I think that I need to pay attention to what she is saying. She is smart and really powerful. If she thinks that Reagan and I need to get away, then that is what we need to do. I love her, and I am going to respect what she has to say.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡± Lyssa said as she continued driving. ¡°Because we are almost there.¡±


    ¡°Where are we going?¡± I asked her as I looked around the area that we were in. ¡°And, can you untie me? I won¡¯t run away. I promise.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. OK.¡± Kaede took the bindings off of me whileughing. Lyssa, on the other hand, told me where we were going.


    ¡°We are going to the Goddess Well Resort. That really expensive all inclusive ce that opened up a few years ago. Talia thought of everything. We have a full package with all food and tips covered. We get all the spa treatments that we want. And we¡¯re staying in the Royal Delight suite, which is like a damn house. It had six bedrooms, a hot tub inside the room, and an open air bath on the balcony. And the room service menu is pretty extensive.¡±


    I was smiling by the time that she was done exining where we were going. I had wanted to go there, but I hadn¡¯t had the chance. I was too young to go alone when they opened up, and there has been a lot going on since I turned eighteen. Now though, I was about to enjoy this wonderful luxury resort.


    ¡°I think that this is going to be amazing.¡± I grinned at them all. ¡°I know that this is going to sound crazy, but thank you all for kidnapping me.¡± We allughed at that as Lyssa pulled into the covered driveway for the resort. Men rushed out to open the doors of our car and the one that Sophia was driving behind us.


    ¡°Wee to the Goddess Welldies. Your room is already prepared and the luggage that was sent over for you has already been taken to your room. The paperwork has been signed for already, so there is nothing else that you need to do. Miss Rika, might I wish you an early happy birthday.¡± The man that opened my door, tall with a pleasantly tanned face, bright yellow eyes, and a distinct wolfish scent to him, weed me personally. I could guess that with him being a werewolf, he was notified of our arrival ahead of time. Now that I thought about it, this ce is one that our people opened. It was run almost exclusively by nonhumans. So, they were used to our kind. That would make things a lot easier.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°I am happy to be here. I have been looking forward to it for a long time.¡±


    ¡°Well then, I hope that you enjoy your stay. You will have a personal concierge assigned to you. Her name is Amelia and she will see you to your rooms.¡± He leaned in a little and whispered a little softer, so no humans were able to hear him. ¡°And she is a Fae, so she will be able to see to all your needs while you are here.¡±


    ¡°That is wonderful. Thank you.¡± I nodded at him and stepped to the side. I saw Amelia then. She was about five feet tall, that was it. Her eyes were a bright green that looked like a gemstone. She had a pleasant smile and a knowing look on her face. Her hair was a soft and pale pink that went really well with her darkplexion.


    ¡°It is nice to meet you all. And happy early birthday Miss Rika.¡± She winked at me, letting me know that she knew who I was, but we were in public, so she couldn¡¯t call me Princess Rika at the moment. ¡°Come with me and I will show you to your room.¡±


    The others and I followed Amelia across the driveway and toward the door. The front of the resort looked like almost all of the others that were in Colorado. They were pretty standard here, but it was still really beautiful. It looked vaguely rustic, but with a very civilized feel to it. It was mostly white, rather than the timber and log cabin look. They had the timbers though, trimming the entire building, the doors, the windows, and all of that. Thewns were covered in snow, and I knew that there would be people here for skiing trips and other things like that.


    The inside of the resort was where it differed from the others in the area. This ce was modern, and very high end. The art, the d¨¦cor, all of it spoke of how much money they had poured into this ce. And it also told me why most of their clientele was female. They catered to women, or families with a strong female presence in them. This ce was a woman¡¯s paradise. And I just couldn¡¯t wait to see what the spa had in store for us all.


    We were taken to the bank of elevators that were to the side of the concierge counter. There were nine elevators in all. Four on the left and right sides of the hall, and one that was at the end of the hall.


    ¡°These elevators only go to specific floors.¡± Amelia was exining. ¡°The ones on the left will only go to the first six floors. The ones on the right will go from floors seven through ten. The one at the end of the hall is for eleven and twelve. You are on the twelfth floor, and that means that this is your elevator.¡± She stuck a keycard into the slot and pressed the call button. ¡°It will only work with the card entered. You call it like this.¡± She said as the door opened quickly. ¡°And then, when you are going to your floor, you put your card in again and press the button for the floor you need. The elevator will not function without the key.¡± She said the words again so that we would remember.


    ¡°Alright, sounds good.¡± I nodded at her. ¡°We will remember.¡±


    We rode up to the top floor with Amelia and waited for the doors to open. I thought that when they did open, there would be a hall with multiple doors that opened to multiple rooms. Nope, the elevator opened to the room itself.


    ¡°There are four elevator banks in the hotel, and for each of floors eleven and twelve, they open exclusively to the room the keycard is for. This is the only elevator you can take up, so please remember that as well.¡± She exined as she guided us off the elevator. ¡°Come on now, I will give you a tour.¡±


    As Amelia showed us around the room, I saw that there were indeed six bedrooms and seven bathrooms. There was an extra bathroom so that we didn¡¯t need to go into the bedrooms to use that one. There were two living rooms, a full eat-in kitchen, a formal dining room, an office, a library, and arge balcony with the open air bath, tables, chairs, and a fire pit. In total, there were three fireces in the suite as well, which I loved. I didn¡¯t really need the warmth, but I loved fires that burned in a grate like that.


    Amelia started the fire in the main living room, showed us where everything was, and the fact that the kitchen had been stocked with snacks for us. The information for the snacks had been given to the staff by our families, so they knew what we liked.


    ¡°Youdies are free to do whatever it is that you want. This ce is yours for the weekend, and everything is already paid for. Please, enjoy yourselves and let me know if there is anything that you need from me.¡± She bowed and stepped back into the elevator.


    ¡°You know what, girls?¡± I smiled at them. ¡°I think I really enjoy being kidnapped.¡± Iughed with them and started to get really excited for this birthday weekend of mine.¡± The smile on my face said it all.


    I knew that Talia had been right to send me on my birthday party trip. I was going to need to tell her that when I got home. And not only that, but I was going to have to do something really special for her now. This was just such a major thing that I couldn¡¯t help but smile andugh.


    The others were just as excited as I was. We talked almost immediately about what it was that we wanted to do first, whether we were sticking together or spreading out and all that sort of thing.

 Chapter 1061 - 1061 Chapter 46- Rika – Surprise Party Part 4 (VOLUME 6)

    1061 Chapter 46- Rika ¨C Surprise Party Part 4 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    In the end, we decided that since this was a party, we were going to stay together for pretty much the entire weekend. I didn¡¯t get to spend a lot of time with a few of the girls that were with me, so I wanted to make up for lost time. Or at least for thest few months that I hadn¡¯t seen them.


    Now, the first thing that I wanted to do was get something to eat. We could have ordered room service and had it brought back here to us, but I wanted to explore the resort as well. I thought that it would be best to check out one of the restaurants that they had offer. This was also just going to be ate lunch, since I fully intended to eat againter. Why else should I have a shifter¡¯s metabolism if I wasn¡¯t going to use it?


    The restaurant that we settled on for this meal was called Wedonna¡¯s. I knew that it was just a y on Bedonna, and the fact that this ce was called the Goddess Well, but I thought it was a little funny. Still, it was a lovely restaurant.


    The interior of the restaurant was very frilly and girly, and I am sure that there wasn¡¯t a man in sight, aside from the staff that is. The chairs, tablecloths, napkins, and everything in sight was frilly andcy. This ce would have made Reagan, hell even Talia, have a seizure with how pretty it was, but I loved it. The pinks, purples, and all the whitecy d¨¦cor, it was perfect for a girly girl like me. And thankfully, the girls that I was with either loved it, or tolerated it enough. I knew that Kaede was not into this stuff, but she didn¡¯t let it bother her at all.


    The drinks menu that we were given had cute little names next to all the teas and juices. I ordered myself a Lotus Love which was colored like a lotus flower and mixed with juice and tea. It was sweet and fragrant, and very delicious.


    The eight of us, being treated like VIPs in the restaurant, enjoyed every moment of the meal. We talked, we giggled, and we shared juicy stories from our first semester of college. It was all so much fun that I didn¡¯t want it to end at all.


    .....


    It dide to an end though, and the ce that we went next was the spa. I wanted to get a massage, a facial, and a few other specials done. Everyone was onboard with this as well. I mean, who wouldn¡¯t want to be pampered like this? It was amazing.


    We spent several hours in the spa as we rxed as thoroughly as possible. By the time that we made it back to our room, it was nearly ten that night and a lot of things were closing down for the evening. However, room service was still open, and all that pampering had made us hungry again. We ordered lots of food, drinks, and desserts so that we could pig out and enjoy the night.


    A movie was turned on in the background while we talked andughed some more. It was all perfect. That is, until I started to get a headache. I could feel the throbbing behind my eyes with every beat of my heart. I knew that it had to be the stress that I had been feeling until today. It was all piling on me at once and giving me a migraine.


    When I called it a night, I was barely able to open my eyes. I knew that sleep was probably the only thing to make it go away. I really didn¡¯t want the rest of the weekend to be ruined because of me having a headache.


    I don¡¯t remember dreaming that night. I just remember closing my eyes and then waking up that morning. I opened my eyes while it was still dark outside. I could see the outlines of everything in the room as I looked around. It was strange, there was a white outline around everything. I think that it was because the room and the furniture had so much white in it.


    But wait. That wasn¡¯t true. The furniture in my room was dark. There wouldn¡¯t be any white outlines. And even if there were, why would they be there in the dark? There needed to be something shining on it to make the outline like that.


    That was when I decided to rub my eyes and try to make this strange feeling go away. Whatever was causing that outline, it was making my eyes want to cross. And since my headache was gone, I didn¡¯t want it toe back because of that.


    When I rubbed my eyes though, I noticed something. They weren¡¯t open. They were closed. How was that possible. I was looking at a perfect image of the room. It just looked like things usually did in the dark for me. Except that they were all outlined in white.


    When I did open my eyes, I saw that it was morning for real, not dark but daylight.


    ¡°What the hell?¡± I sat up and asked the empty room. ¡°What is going on here?¡±


    As I tried to process what was happening to me, I noticed something else. I was still seeing some of those ck images with white outlines. Though it wasn¡¯t what I was looking at. I was seeing the rest of the room in this image. I was seeing the ornate headboard, themp on the table, and the frame for the pictures on the wall. I couldn¡¯t see what was in the pictures though, just the shape of it.


    When I turned to look behind me, I saw that the image was perfectly matched to what I had seen. What I had seen as a sort of inverted image, or was negative the better word here, anyway, what I saw waspletely true. And now that I was looking in this direction, I could see the other side of the room. The part that I had just seen with my eyes. And it was the perfect ck image with white outlines.


    ¡°Alright. I don¡¯t get this.¡± I said to myself as I scooted to the edge of the bed and put my face in my hands. I was covering my face, and therefore couldn¡¯t actually see with my eyes at the moment. That didn¡¯t stop me though. I was still looking at the room, all of it. It was literally like seeing the space in three hundred and sixty degrees with nothing obscuring it at all.


    The room was perfectly detailed, except for the subjects of the paintings and pictures that were in the frames. They were t and underneath ss for the most part, so I guess that they didn¡¯t have enough presence for me to see them.


    ¡°How do I know that?¡± I asked myself. ¡°How do I know that is what makes it harder to see them?¡±


    ¡°Rika?¡± I heard Lyssa¡¯s voice as she came into the room. ¡°Are you OK? You keep talking to yourself.¡±


    ¡°I..I don¡¯t know.¡± I said as I watched here into the room. Although, I wasn¡¯t really watching here into the room. This was that darkness that was outlined perfectly in white lines. The more that I looked at it, the more I saw that there were shades of gray as well. It helped to indicate the locations of the items.


    When I saw, however I was seeing it, that Lyssa was standing right in front of me, I lifted my head to look at her. Before I opened my eyes, I saw that she was wearing a pair of tight pants, but I didn¡¯t know the fabric, a loose empire waisted top, and her hair braided over her left shoulder. When I opened my eyes, I saw that I had seen it all correctly, and that she was wearing a pair of ck leggings. I hadn¡¯t been able to tell with my eyes closed.


    ¡°What is the matter, Rika?¡± She asked me as she looked into my worried face.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Something is strange. Different really.¡±


    ¡°How so?¡± She sat on the bed next to me, concern filling her eyes as she watched my face.


    ¡°Well, you know how when you walked up, I had my face in my hands and my eyes were closed.¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± She nodded as she said that, but didn¡¯t continue after that.


    ¡°Well, I had my eyes closed, but I was still able to see you. I even knew what you were wearing before I opened my eyes. Mostly anyway. This is strange, Lyssa. How can I see this?¡±


    ¡°What was that?¡± Kaede asked as she came into the room. I wasn¡¯t even looking at the door, but I could see her and the others rushing in to see what was happening to me. Their faces were filled with worry and concern, but they were also curious and eager. And not a single one of them was in color, because I was seeing them behind me.


    ¡°What is going on in here?¡± Alexa asked as she hurried to sit on my other side.


    ¡°I..I..I can see everything.¡± I looked at her. ¡°Even with my eyes closed, behind me, everything. I can see it all. I..I don¡¯t know how to exin it.¡± My head was shaking slowly from side to side as I thought about this. ¡°I don¡¯t know what is going on, but I know that something really strange is happening.¡± I felt weird for a moment.


    ¡°What do you mean that you can see everything?¡± Isabe asked me.


    ¡°Can you see me?¡± Ashle asked. She had ran around behind me so that I shouldn¡¯t be able to see her.


    ¡°Yes.¡± I nodded.


    ¡°What am I doing?¡± She sounded excited.


    ¡°You are jumping on one foot with your hands waving about your head.¡± I told her and heard the others gasp.


    ¡°Too easy, you could see that in the window reflection.¡± She said smugly. ¡°We need a real test.¡± Apparently, Ashle was the only one that didn¡¯t believe me at first. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go to the living room, we will figure all of this out.¡± I let Ashle take my hand and pull me to my feet. Kaede grabbed my other hand and pulled me along as well. I was a little uneasy about this, but there was something exciting about this too. Was this some new ability of mine? Or had I gonepletely insane? I didn¡¯t know just yet, but I knew that I wanted to figure it all out very soon. I didn¡¯t like not knowing one way or the other.

 Chapter 1062 - 1062 Chapter 47- Rika – Surprise Party Part 5 (VOLUME 6)

    1062 Chapter 47- Rika ¨C Surprise Party Part 5 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    Ashle and Kaede didn¡¯t let go of my hand until we were standing in the middle of the living room. At first, I didn¡¯t know what it was that she wanted me to do, so I just stood there and looked around the room. It was a little strange at the moment. That strange ck outlined image was underneath everything now, not just the stuff that was behind me or out of site. I was seeing it in everything. And I knew that I was going to have to figure this all out, and soon. Looking at the world like that, with a shadow version of it underneath everything, was going to get to be too much. I couldn¡¯t stand living like that forever.


    ¡°Here, Rika.¡± Ashle called as she ran back toward me. ¡°I am going to blindfold you. If you can really see things like you say you can, then a blindfold shouldn¡¯t matter, should it?¡± She was grinning. I knew that she was excited about this.


    ¡°OK, so you want me to blindfold myself, then what?¡± I looked at her confused but still held the scarf that she had in her hands up to my face.


    ¡°Well, you can tell me what I am doing at different points around the room. And maybe you can even navigate the room blindfolded. We will put things in front of you though, so that you can¡¯t just memorize the room right now. You will have to use that new ability of yours.¡±


    ¡°You think that I am lying, don¡¯t you?¡± I was a little annoyed with her and all the things that she was trying to make me do to prove this to her.


    ¡°No, it¡¯s not that. I just want to test it. I know how your family is, Rika. You all get these amazing powers. I mean, look at Aunt Trinity, she is he powerful. I mean, seriously she gave my dad, my aunt, and so many others powers. And she isn¡¯t done either. She is still blessing people and making them stronger. I am sure that you, with all that awesomeness from Aunt Trinity, are going to be just as special as she is. I mean, she is your mom after all, you are going to be way stronger than the rest of us.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Y..you really think so?¡± I asked her in shock as I heard what Ashle had to say.


    ¡°Yeah, I really do. You¡¯re amazing, Rika. And you¡¯re going to continue to be amazing for your entire life. That¡¯s why I want to be here in Colorado Springs. I didn¡¯t leave for school because of you, Rika. You¡¯re one of my best friends, and I love you. And I want to support you in what you do. I know that you are going to do amazing things.¡±


    ¡°I doubt it.¡± I hung my head in dejection. ¡°Reagan will be the next Alpha, and I am no goddess like my mom. I won¡¯t be doing that much with my life.¡±


    ¡°We will see.¡± She grinned at me. ¡°Come on, put on the blindfold. We need to test your awesome new abilities.¡± She was smiling at me as she encouraged me. She truly was an awesome friend. I was lucky to have her and the others in my life.


    ¡°Alright, fine.¡± I grinned as I tied the scarf over my eyes. ¡°Let¡¯s figure out what I can do now.¡±


    Ashle continued with her n that she set forth earlier. She was making me walk through the living room blindfolded. She was making me tell her where she was. And she was making me see when she pushed something into my path. Kaede, Lyssa, Alexa, Isabe and Sophia were all getting into the game as well.


    I didn¡¯t mind any of what Ashle and the others were doing. The reason? I was able to see everything. I wasn¡¯t tripped up once. I was able to see them all no matter where they were. If there was something in front of them, it was a little strange, but I could see it.


    I think that, since I was seeing things with an outline, it was easier to see things that were behind the other items. Like when Ashle hid behind the couch, I clearly saw the outline of the couch in the room, but in the middle of that outline, I saw Ashle¡¯s form hiding as it crouched on the floor. When Lyssa was sitting on the bar stool, I was able to see that as well. There was no hiding anything from me at all. At least not in the room.


    There seemed to be only one thing that I couldn¡¯t see. Well, more than one, but I put them into the same category. I couldn¡¯t see what was on something. Like I couldn¡¯t see the pattern of the clothes, the images on the TV or on paintings, anything like that. Other than that though, I was able to see everything. And when I focused on a specific spot, that area seemed to get more detailed than it was before.


    By the time that I took the blindfold off thirty minutester, I was quite used to seeing things in that outline so it was strange to see colors and lights again.


    ¡°Wow.¡± I blinked several times as I readjusted my eyes. ¡°Now it seems strange to look at things with my eyes.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t think that you are using your eyes to see it?¡± Lyssa asked me as shetched onto the words that I had just said.


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t think that it¡¯s my eyes that are seeing those other things. It¡¯s more like my senses, or my magic. It¡¯s something. I mean, I can feel a small pull of magic that is tugging at my senses when I ¡®looked¡¯ with my eyes closed. I have been practicing with my magic a lot more. Since the battle ended, my mom has been training me, Reagan, and Talia a lot more. She even gives some lessons to the quads, but not as much as us. They are still too young to learn some of what we are working on. We are learningbat magic on top of practical magic. And when this ability takes over my senses, it definitely feels like magic.¡± I exined to them as best as I could.


    ¡°Oh my Goddess, Rika, that is awesome. You see what I mean, you are so amazing.¡± Ashle hugged me tightly. ¡°Come on. Let¡¯s go out for the day. There is a mountain that is waiting for us. After we exhaust ourselves out there, we can spend some more time in the spa.¡± She was bouncing in excitement.


    ¡°Do you guys want to see if my new ability works while I am snowboarding?¡± I grinned at them all. Their eyes all lit up in excitement. I guess that we were really doing this. New magic was like a drug, and not just for the one that received it. The ones that were there to experience it with them were affected as well.


    We all geared up and got ready to go snowboarding. I wanted to take on this slope sincest night, but I knew that I was going to wait until today. Now that I was about to do it, and use my new power, I could feel the excitement just pouring off of me.


    We all rode to the top of the mountain in groups of two, when we were up there, we strapped on our boards and skis and started to get ready to head down the mountain. None of us were novices when it came to snow sports, so we went to the most advanced trail that was on the mountain. I wanted some excitement before we headed back inside for rxation.


    I tied the scarf around my eyes once again. I wanted to make sure that I had a good enough grasp on this new ability before we left here. And what better way to prove that then to put it to the test. At first, I just went a little way down the slope and then walked back up with the others. It wasn¡¯t much, but it was getting me more and more used to my new power. And I was still seeing things with my eyes covered. I was seeing while technically blinded. That was so amazing.


    I was still a little nervous to try and go all the way down the slope at first. I wanted to get used to it all first. I hade up here extremely confident and ready to take on the mountain, but I wasn¡¯t aplete idiot.


    OK, it wasn¡¯t that I was afraid of getting hurt. I was a wolf, witch, and Fae tribrid, just like my mother. I wasn¡¯t going to get hurt, but I might destroy the board that I borrowed from the hotel. And even though I had more than enough money to rece it if I broke something, I didn¡¯t really want to have to deal with that. I wanted the rest of this trip to be fun. I wanted it to be happy and amazing. I didn¡¯t want to be feeling down because I was doing something before I was ready. So, that was why I decided to learn they of thend first.


    In my mind, this just made the most sense. And, thankfully, my friends agreed with me. They didn¡¯t want to ruin the rest of the weekend because we did something stupid. Not only that, but humans would wonder how I wasn¡¯t hurt if I were to crash really badly. No, this was a time for caution.

 Chapter 1063 - 1063 Chapter 48- Rika – Surprise Party Part 6 (VOLUME 6)

    1063 Chapter 48- Rika ¨C Surprise Party Part 6 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    Well, things were going great so far. I had gone at most a quarter of the way down the slope so far, and things were going just fine. There were more and more people that were joining us up here on the mountain, but that was fine. They were doing their thing and we were doing ours. This was a ski slope though, and that meant that we couldn¡¯t just hang around at the top of it for too long. We needed to start heading down soon enough.


    When I finally started my actual run down the mountain, with no ns to stop, everything was going perfectly fine. There were no problems at all. I was able to see everything that was on the mountain. And not only that, but I was seeing everything for about two hundred meters in each direction. I was able to see so much that it was next to impossible that I was going to end up crashing into something.


    And I say next to impossible, because that was when an asshole, a man that just didn¡¯t care at all zoomed in front of my board and intentionally turned so that I would hit him. I was about to hit him. I was about to crash right into his skis and tumble with him to the snow. I knew that he was wanting to say that I did something to him. He was seeking some sort of damages from me. I wish that there weren¡¯t people like that in this world, but I guess that there was no escaping them, not even at a resort like this.


    The only thing is though, I didn¡¯t crash into him. Something pretty unique happened the moment that the man swerved himself in front of me, something that I wasn¡¯t able to exin or even process right away. It was just so strange and unique that it threw me through a loop, literally. And it was several minutes before I was able to calm myself down enough to even start processing what it was that had happened. When I did though, it was unlike anything else that I had ever experienced before in my entire life, but I didn¡¯t dislike it either.


    Just mere seconds before I would have crashed into that asshole that cut me off, I felt myself leaving the ground. It was like there was a gust of wind and I weighed nothing at all. I was blowing back and away from the man until I was a safe enough distance away from him. Only that wasn¡¯t where I stopped. And when I looked around, I saw that I was literally flying on the wind.


    I went to look down, to see what was happening to my arms, my legs, my snowboard, and that was probably a mistake. Because when I looked at those things, there was nothing there. It was like I had gonepletely invisible, yet I could still feel my body there. I could feel my limps, my extremities, I just couldn¡¯t see them.


    .....


    ¡°Alright.¡± I said to myself calmly. I almost started to scream. I almost lost my cool, but I didn¡¯t. I managed to maintain my cool for a little while longer. ¡°What the hell is going on here?¡± I asked myself as I tried to move toward Lyssa. She was the closest to me at the moment. Then I remembered that Ashle was supposed to be behind me. As I moved, or rather swirled, I turned to look at the ce where I had thought that Ashle would be.


    I saw her, she was there alright, but she hade to a sudden stop and was looking around the immediate area like something was wrong. And as I got closer to Lyssa, I saw the man that had slid in front of me. He was looking around angrily and yelling about where I went. He was pissed off that he hadn¡¯t been able to scam me into paying for his medical bills and whatever else would havee from the ident.


    ¡°Fucking bitch just disappeared.¡± He grumbled as he started to ski away. I guess he was right. I really did disappear. And all my friends were stopping and wondering where I was.


    ¡°Rika?¡± Ashle called out and alerted Lyssa. She was the one that had been in the lead.


    ¡°Huh?¡± I heard her say right as I started to speak to her. I had somehow moved closer to her, but I didn¡¯t feel like I was walking or running. It was almost like a swimming motion, but more than that as well.


    ¡°Lyssa?¡± I called out to her.


    ¡°What the hell? Rika? Where are you?¡± She was panicking and looking around. I had heard my own voice when she heard it, and it sounded like a sound that was lost in the wind, something that was blown away and barely there.


    ¡°I am right here, Lyssa.¡± I told her in as calm and steady of a voice as I possibly could. ¡°I don¡¯t know what happened. I..I think that I became the wind.¡±


    ¡°Th..the wind?¡± She asked as the others started toward us. ¡°What does that mean?¡±


    ¡°Well, what does this feel like?¡± I asked her as I reached out with my invisible hand and touched her cheek.


    ¡°Holy shit, that was the wind, but it felt like a hand as well. Rika, d..did you really be the wind? How?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± I said, this time, the others were close enough to hear me talking.


    ¡°Wow, you even sound like wind now. That is like some haunting howling shit.¡± Ashle was excited as she spoke up. ¡°Here, touch my hand.¡± She pulled off her glove and reached for me. ¡°I want to feel it too.¡±


    I did as Ashle asked. I reached out and touched her hand. However, she wasn¡¯t content with just touching my hand. She tried to grab it, and although I could feel her touch, she just passed right through me.


    ¡°That felt weird.¡± I told her. ¡°Don¡¯t do that again.¡±


    ¡°Well, I think that it¡¯s official, Rika. You are part of the wind right now.¡± Kaede said in amazement. ¡°Do you think that your ability to see so much was part of the wind? Or is it just that you¡¯re part of the air or atmosphere. The air touches pretty much everything, but not the wind. You were able to see inside the room, where there was no wind. So, maybe, you¡¯re more air than wind. And when air moves it bes wind.¡± She was trying to exin away what she was thinking.


    ¡°That is actually a good idea, Kaede.¡± Sophia nodded her head. ¡°I think that this is really what is happening here. I mean, think about it, she is invisible, her words sound like they are lost in the wind, and her touch is like a breeze, that all indicates wind to me, but it¡¯s as you say as well. The wind is the air, and the air is what she became. I am sure that, on a perfectly calm day with absolutely no wind, you would still be able to use your other sight and move like this. You are part of the air, Rika. That is amazing.¡±


    ¡°These powers that you got for your birthday, Rika, they are amazing.¡±


    ¡°M..my birthday?¡± I said the words in awe. ¡°I had almost forgotten that. You are right. I woke up with these powers on my birthday. I am neen now, and my mom shifted on her neenth birthday. She already proved that magical things happen for our family on our neenth birthdays. I can¡¯t believe this. It¡¯s amazing.¡± I tried to move around again and the wind in the area picked up a little.


    ¡°Hey, don¡¯t move so fast.¡± Isabe said with augh. ¡°That was a big gust.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, I was excited and moved really fast.¡± Iughed at them and heard myughter like a ghost in the wind. ¡°This is pretty fun.¡±


    I wondered for a moment if I was able to move them with the wind. Not like a tornado, not really, but would I be able to make an upward draft to pick them up? I sped toward the ground, turned, and then sped up again underneath Lyssa. I got her off the ground, but it was hard to keep her positioned right.


    ¡°Damn.¡± I said as I caught her before she crashed. ¡°Sorry.¡±


    ¡°No, it¡¯s OK. You¡¯re exploring. We can work on this moreter though. I hear more peopleing.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, me too.¡± Alexa said as she turned to look up the slope. ¡°Can you get back to your other form?¡±


    ¡°I will try. I don¡¯t know how, though.¡±


    I closed my eyes and started to think about the way that I normally was, how I looked and felt. I also thought about calm winds that barely blew or gusted. I thought of what I wanted to be doing when I rematerialized, where I needed to be standing. And when I opened my eyes, I saw that it had worked. The wind was gone, and I was back standing in my human form.


    ¡°Cool.¡± I smiled at them all.


    ¡°This was amazing.¡± The others agreed.


    ¡°Well, let¡¯s head back down the mountain. Then I think we should try to think about all that has happened today.¡± Kaede looked at me seriously.


    We did as Kaede had suggested. We made our way down the mountain and back toward the room. We ordered food and talked about things in the room for the rest of the day. We did go to the spa again, and to another restaurant for dinner, but we talked a lot during the day. And when we got homete the next afternoon, after some much needed retail therapy with my friends, I knew that I needed to talk to my mom about what had happened. I knew that she was going to want to know all the details about this new power of mine, and that was why I was d that I had explored them a little bit. Not as much as bing the wind thing, but my extra sight. And that was still there when I woke up today, it might have even been stronger today than it was the day before.


    Still, I was wondering what my mom was going to say about it. What she was going to think about me gaining more powers on my birthday like that. It was pretty amazing in my opinion, and I was thinking that she would agree with me.


    This weekend had beenpletely unexpected, however it had also been amazing. I knew that I also needed to thank my sister for making it happen. She truly was a good person, and I knew that I needed to appreciate her more.

 Chapter 1064 - 1064 Chapter 49- Trinity – Unexpected Things (VOLUME 6)

    1064 Chapter 49- Trinity ¨C Unexpected Things (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Well, I hadn¡¯t been expecting any of what I had been told today. First, earlier this afternoon, Reagan told me that he had shifted into a Lycan. And he had shown it to Reece as well. That was amazing beyond belief, but that wasn¡¯t the end of it either.


    Just now, Rika hade into the room in a rush with a smile and nervous eyes. What was she going to tell me? What was going to be happening right now? Was it going to be another secret like her brother¡¯s had been?


    ¡°Wh..why do you look so expectant, Mom?¡± Rika asked me as she looked between Reece and I. ¡°And you as well, Dad, why do you look so strange?¡±


    ¡°Well, you came to us in a hurry, Rika. With everything else that has happened today, we¡¯re just a little excited. I mean, it has to be something good, right?¡± Reece was trying not to blow it that he was expecting something really major here, and he was blowing it.


    ¡°What do you mean? What else happened today?¡± That made her frown and look away in worry. ¡°Did something bad happen?¡±


    ¡°No, it was nothing bad, sweetheart.¡± I took her hand and assured her. ¡°You see, it¡¯s just that your brother came to see us earlier. And he had something really exciting to tell us. I think that your dad is just excited that you have something to tell us as well.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Well, what was it that Reagan had to tell you?¡± She knew that I had to be talking about Reagan. That helped me to know right away that she did have an important secret to tell us, but she wanted to know what her brother¡¯s was first. I didn¡¯t have a problem with telling her, because it was going to bemon knowledge in the family soon enough anyway. And I was sure that he would want his twin sister to know what it was that had happened to him. They were close after all.


    ¡°Your brother is taking after your father even more.¡± I started to exin, but Reece took over.


    ¡°He¡¯s a Lycan, like me. He can turn into the true werewolf form. It¡¯s amazing. He had a form that is just like one of my other forms. The only one that he doesn¡¯t have is the Phoenix, and that mighteter. I was so excited when he told me that I changed into my Lycan form. And he showed me his. It was amazing.¡±


    ¡°Oh, wow.¡± I could see the shock and awe that was in Rika¡¯s eyes. Whatever it was that she needed to tell us, it wasn¡¯t that she was a Lycan as well. So, what was it that had happened to her during her birthday celebration?


    ¡°So, Rika, what is it that you need to tell us?¡± I asked her, prompting her to start exining why she hade to us in excitement.


    ¡°Oh, yeah.¡± She shook her head and smiled. ¡°Sorry, news that Reagan is a Lycan was a little out of left field, I hadn¡¯t been expecting it.¡± Sheughed. ¡°I am so happy for him.¡± She was still smiling despite what she heard, so I knew that she wasn¡¯t feeling discouraged about his news. That was good, I didn¡¯t want her to think that her news wasn¡¯t important.


    ¡°So, what is it?¡± Reece asked her excitedly. I could feel the waves of emotion pouring off of him and almostughed.


    ¡°Well, I woke up yesterday to something being really different. Even before I opened my eyes, I was able to see.¡± She was grinning madly.


    ¡°You could see? With your eyes closed?¡± I asked her in wonder. ¡°How was that possible?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t get it at first, but I was definitely seeing. I can¡¯t see the patterns of clothes or what is on a picture or TV screen, but I can see everything that is solid. And I can see what is behind something as well. It will go up to about two hundred meters in any direction.¡± She was excitedly exining it all to us as she told us what happened.


    She said that she could see things that were behind her, behind other items, all of it. And she could see it even with a blindfold over her eyes. She didn¡¯t need to open her eyes to see, and that was what made her and the others start to figure it out. That and what happened next.


    ¡°YOU WERE FLYING?!¡± Reece bellowed the question after Rika told us what happened when they were skiing and snowboarding.


    ¡°Yup.¡± Rika¡¯s proud face and beaming smile made me want to just hug her and tell her how proud I was of her. ¡°We spent all of yesterday talking about it and testing my powers. And even today, after we woke up. While we were talking about what happened, we figured out that I have to have an affinity for the wind or the air. Possibly the atmosphere itself. Also, when I moved on the wind, or through the air when I was invisible and all that, I was making the wind stronger. I was making it calm when I stood still and the faster that I moved, the faster that the wind around Lyssa, Alexa, Ashle, Kaede, Sophia, and Isabe was. It was amazing, and so crazy at the time too. I didn¡¯t know that I could do that, so it really scared me in the beginning.¡±


    ¡°I am sure that it did, sweetheart.¡± I hugged her this time.


    ¡°It¡¯s OK though. It¡¯s OK to be scared of new powers in the beginning. Hell, Goddess knows that your mother and I had our fair share of moments like that. You think that I didn¡¯t freak out the first time that I burst into mes. I leapt into a snowbank, for crying out loud. That was how freaked out I was. I had wanted to put out the fire to save myself.¡± Rikaughed at Reece¡¯s words and I just smiled as I watched the two of them together.


    ¡°I would have liked to see that.¡± Rika said. ¡°It would have been funny.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s funny now, but it was scary in the moment.¡± Reeceughed.


    ¡°It was funny in the moment too, just not for you. I remember that Shawn, Shane, and I wereughing our asses off at you. It was priceless.¡±


    ¡°Hardy har har.¡± He red yfully at me. ¡°And I can tell her about the first time that you turned into an animal other than a wolf. You couldn¡¯t control it and when I called you a little bunny you actually turned into one. Now, that was priceless.¡±


    ¡°Wait, Mom, you have other animals too?¡± Rika looked confused by that.


    ¡°It¡¯s a power that I don¡¯t use often, but yes. As the goddess of shifters, I can be any animal at will. I haven¡¯t tested the full limits of it, but I have turned into a lot of different animals. I have flown as an eagle, I have attacked as a tiger, I have been a bear, and so many more.¡±


    ¡°And obviously, a bunny.¡± Rikaughed now.


    ¡°Yes, and a bunny.¡±


    Theughter continued for a little while as we talked about the past and Rika¡¯s new power. We started to understand what it was that she had done yesterday and today while she was testing out her new ability. She was no longer scared of it, and she was getting used to seeing more than she used to, but that was sometimes annoying ording to her.


    ¡°I am truly amazed by this, Rika. This is an amazing new ability, and it is even something that I can¡¯t do.¡± I told her and watched her eyes light up.


    ¡°Really? It¡¯s a new ability? D..does that make me special?¡±


    ¡°Rika.¡± I pulled her closer to me and down for a hug. Darn her for being taller than me. ¡°You were always special, and you always will be. This just makes you even more unique and powerful than you already were. I don¡¯t ever want you to think that you aren¡¯t special.¡±


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s just that I know that I won¡¯t really have a special future. Reagan will be the next Alpha after dad, and Talia is taking over the underworld. I don¡¯t know what Zaley is going to do, but I know that it¡¯s going to be amazing. Zachary, Zander and Zayden are probably going to be betas to Reagan, Talia, and maybe even Zaley. When ites to the six of them, I don¡¯t really stand up that much with them.¡± I could see that Rika was feeling inadequate right now, and I didn¡¯t really get why.


    ¡°Rika, you¡¯re amazing as well. You¡¯re smart, you have a head for magic, business, and everything to do with the pack¡¯s politics. You¡¯re doing amazingly well.¡± I tried to soother her worries.


    ¡°Yeah, your mom is right, Rika. You are amazing, and I don¡¯t ever want to hear you say that you aren¡¯t. And nothing is settled for the future, so don¡¯t start counting your chickens before they hatch.¡± Reece backed me up in what I was saying. ¡°You can do anything that you want to do, you won¡¯t need to worry about it at all. And we will be here with you to make sure that you don¡¯t fall too far.¡±


    ¡°Maybe that¡¯s the problem.¡± Rika whispered. It was clear that she didn¡¯t want us to hear that, so I had to stop Reece from reacting to those words. I knew that he wanted to know why she said that, I did too, but I didn¡¯t want to hurt her feelings. We would find outter if we had to.


    ¡°Just remember, Rika, you are smart, strong, talented and powerful. You have amazing things waiting for you in the future. And we will let you figure out that future on your own.¡± I reassured her. ¡°And I want you to know how proud I am of you, and how excited I am about your new ability. I know that you are still learning about it, but perhaps Gabriel will know something about it. He has a plethora of knowledge to explore. Why don¡¯t you work with him to master your abilities? He helped me with mine as well, so I think that he would be the person to go to with your questions.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± She nodded and looked up at me. ¡°I will see if Uncle Gabriel can help me. Thanks, mom.¡± Rika hugged me tightly and then turned to Reece for a hug. ¡°I love you guys.¡±


    Rika left after that while Reece and I were left wondering what had happened there at the end. I knew that Rika was happy about her ability, that wasn¡¯t the problem here. The problem was how she saw her future. She was, for some reason, thinking that she didn¡¯t have much of a future.


    I am not saying that she thought that she was going to be a homeless bum, but she truly thought that she didn¡¯t have somewhere special to be in the future, that she wouldn¡¯t be able to help the pack or our kingdom. That was ridiculous. She was going to be as important, powerful, and special as all the others. She would see soon enough.


    Looking past all of those things though, today had been quite the surprise. It had started off normal enough, but it had ended up being filled with so many surprising things. Reagan¡¯s Lycan form, Rika¡¯s new powers from the wind or air, or whatever it was. And the questions about the future. I hadn¡¯t thought that any of this was going to happen, but I guess that just goes to show you how quickly the world can change, and how much there was to look forward to in the future.


    ¡°Hey, Reece?¡± I called out to him as I thought about it all. ¡°Did you notice anything?¡±


    ¡°What?¡± He asked me with his eyes all wrinkled in confusion.


    ¡°Reagan turned into a Lycan on Friday, and Rika gained her power yesterday. Is that significant to you?¡± I asked him with a smirk on my face.


    ¡°It was their birthdays.¡± He answered right away.


    ¡°Their neenth birthdays.¡± I said as I stepped closer to him and wrapped my arms around his waist. ¡°Do you remember what else happened on a neenth birthday?¡±


    ¡°Hmm, let me see.¡± He pretended not to know right away. ¡°Wasn¡¯t that the most beautiful wolf I had ever seen in my life on someone¡¯s neenth birthday?¡±


    ¡°Aww, I am the most beautiful?¡± I nuzzled my face against his chest as he spoke.


    ¡°That you are, Little Bunny. You have always been my favorite wolf, as well as the cutest bunny I ever saw.¡± Heughed as he added that.


    ¡°You had to ruin it.¡± Iughed as well.


    ¡°It¡¯s the truth, Little Bunny. Honest.¡±


    ¡°I know it is.¡± And it really was. He wasn¡¯t lying about any of it. ¡°I just can¡¯t believe that the power of the neenth birthday hasn¡¯t left our family. It wasn¡¯t their first shifts that happened on those days, but they still gained a lot of powerful magic. It¡¯s quite amazing.¡±


    ¡°That it is.¡± Reece pulled me up into his arms now. ¡°And now that we¡¯ve experienced so much today, let¡¯s take a break in our room.¡±


    ¡°Horny dog.¡± I rolled my eyes at him but didn¡¯t fight him.


    ¡°You¡¯re damn right, I am.¡±


    We went to our room after that, and he showed me just how much of a horny dog that he really was. If I wasn¡¯t already pregnant, I would have been now. That was one hell of a marathon that he put me through.


    Thankfully, I was still able to walk after it, because we still had a lot of work to do with this reveal that we were nning. And there wasn¡¯t that much time that we had before we nned on showing the world who and what we really were. We had to finalize all the details, and assemble our panel of people that were going to be with us during that show. So much to do, so little time, and still so much pleasure to be had with my wonderful and adoring mate. Life was perfect for me, at least for the time being. I just hoped that it stayed that way.

 Chapter 1065 - 1065 Chapter 50- Reece – NSA Update (VOLUME 6)

    1065 Chapter 50- Reece ¨C NSA Update (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    We had all been working really hard for the past several weeks. We had been working with politicians all over the world. We had been monitoring our enemies. We have been nning so much. There had just been so many things for us to do that we hadn¡¯t had much time to just sit around and rx.


    Today was December the fifth. It was less than three weeks until we were due to reveal ourselves to the public and the humans of the world. We had thews and bills passed all across the country. That had been hard and had required some less than pleasant tactics from us. For instance, the nations that were small and tried to deny our proposals, I threatened to gather all of my citizens from their country and take them with me to another country to start their lives over.


    This tactic was very effective when I told the leaders of these countries just how many citizens of their great nations were not human. I didn¡¯t reveal who these people were, just the count. We had taken a poll over this time so that we would be able to monitor how things went down after the reveal. Not only that, but knowing how many people in each country weren¡¯t human allowed us to sway the vote in our favor.


    Most of these countries, like the US, had more than half of their poption as nonhumans. There were exceptions, like North Korea and Russia. Most of the nonhuman poption had fled those countries a long time ago. Now they live in other ces so that they can¡¯t be persecuted in their ownnds.


    I knew that there were other ces in the world, other countries, that hadn¡¯t fully given up the superstitions about our kinds. Some of them treated the ¡®myths¡¯ like happy little legends that they loved to retell, but still the people that were part of those myths hid what they were. It was one thing to happily tell a story, and it was another thingpletely to look at your neighbor and know the story was true. They didn¡¯t want to risk that they wouldn¡¯t be happy about the truth being put out there.


    And then there were the countries that still tried to im that they were actively hunting down supernatural beings. One of which was Italy, specifically Rome. That was where those that were truly devout to Catholicism thought of vampires, werewolves, and witches as abominations. We had managed to securews and safetys for our people in Italy that would protect them when the revtion happened.


    .....


    There were a number of our people that were going to need to be protected by us, and many others, when the truth did finallye out. I wasn¡¯t going to leave my people out in the open with nothing to help them. There were people that were in high risk areas that needed to be thought about. And those people varied in numbers in different parts of the world and in different countries.


    I was actually sitting at my desk and looking over these numbers, seeing where our greatest numbers were and who needed the most help, when theputer hacker Darrol came running over to me. For a man that worked for the FBI, he was very nonthreatening. Especially for a nonhuman that was working for the FBI. All the other supernatural FBI agents that I had known were cool, confident, and sure of themselves. Darrol wasn¡¯t timid, not really, but he wasn¡¯t the most confident person in the world. He was like an easy to talk toputer geek.


    That was rude of me. He wasn¡¯t just aputer geek, but that was what I thought of him as. He was the resident hacker that was charged with looking into the various elements and facets of the NSA.


    Now, thinking about that, it was a little strange to see Darroling toward me like that. He was in an excitable, if slightly nervous mood.


    ¡°K..K..King Reece?¡± He called to me as he stepped in front of the desk.


    In truth, I was in my Little Bunny¡¯s office and sitting at her desk. This was the center of the operation, so it only made sense that I was working in here. This was where I needed to be. And the others were here as well. Especially Reagan, who looked up in wonder when he heard Darrol¡¯s voice.


    ¡°What is it, Darrol?¡± I asked him in a calming tone. I didn¡¯t want him to continue to be scared, especially if it was me that he was scared of.


    ¡°What happened?¡± Reagan added in a tone that was simr to my own.


    ¡°I..I have been monitoring the case files in the NSA¡¯s system. They still have yet to detect the virus that I put in theirputers, so I am able to see everything that they do. Well, today was the first time that the case involving you and Queen Trinity was updated.¡±


    ¡°Well, go on Darrol. What is it? Did they decide to give up?¡±


    ¡°No Sir. They got the DNA results back. It took them longer than normal because they needed more than a quick analysis here. They needed to go into details about it all, and I think that they are a little confused about what they found.¡±


    I was suddenly nervous. Hearing what it was that Darrol had to say, I had to wonder what it was that was going to happen with this result. I mean, yeah Trinity and I knew that they were running a DNA test. We had known that from the beginning, but it didn¡¯t make it less stressful to think about now. And it didn¡¯t make me feel any more calm. What had the results told them? What were they going to do with them?


    ¡°So, Darrol, what did they learn?¡± I looked at him calmly despite the turmoil that was raging inside of me.


    ¡°Well Sir, they didn¡¯t seem to believe it. At least not all of them. They had used the DNA from Andrea Lanisby, the Fae that was murdered in Waterton, California. Her DNA tests had a lot inmon with a human, as it would for almost all of our various species across the. However, there were extra chromosomes and DNA from a flowering tree known as the Star Magnolia. That is a tree that is native to Japan and shouldn¡¯t have been a part of the girls DNA sample. So, they are all scratching their heads now, wondering how the girl¡¯s blood had suddenly gotten Japanese flowers mixed into the core of it. There were, ording to the file that was updated, a few people in the meeting that thought that this was conclusive proof that she was not human and that you were, in turn, not human.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°And what about the others?¡± I looked up at the younger man with all seriousness. Unlike those that might think that this is a hoax or a scam, I knew that this was conclusive proof that our DNA could be read by a scientist to know what we were. And to even what species of nt that a Fae was aligned with. This was serious.


    ¡°Well, King Reece, the others at the meeting, including Orson, seem to think that theb made a mistake. They want the test to be redone. They are trying to prove the existence of werewolves and vampires, not nt people. Or so Orson was recorded saying during the debriefing.¡±


    ¡°Well, that buys us some time. We now have a little more time to get these things taken care of. We should, hopefully, be able to finish the reveal before they even get the other results back. This is a good thing for us. They don¡¯t have anything conclusive. And, honestly, I am really d that it was the Fae girl that they were testing, and not a werewolf. Then they would have gotten canine DNA and I am sure that Orson would be knocking down our door as soon as he could get here.¡±


    ¡°Yes, you are probably right.¡± Darrol nodded at me. ¡°Is there anything else that you want me to do, Sir?¡± He asked me with a wary face. ¡°Is there anything else that you need me to do?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that there is that much for you to do right now, Darrol. For the time being, I want you to continue monitoring the NSA files. Let me know if anything changes in them. And take Reagan with you. He is getting really skilled at all thatputer stuff, and I want him to be able to contribute as much as he possibly can.¡± I told him as I watched my son get to his feet.


    ¡°Are you sure, Dad?¡± He asked me. He was still holding the file that he was working on in his hands.


    ¡°Yes, I am sure.¡± I nodded. ¡°There isn¡¯t that much to do aside from assembling the leaders of the different regions around the world. Our leaders, not the human leaders. We need to make sure that they tell the others what is going to happen, and when to expect-.¡± I stopped midsentence because there was a calling through on my cell phone. A call that I didn¡¯t expect at all. And it wasing from a man that I had never actually spoken to before, so I knew that I hadn¡¯t given him my number. I guess his superior systems were good at tracking down private numbers, if nothing else that is.

 Chapter 1066 - 1066 Chapter 51- Reece – A Threatening Phone Call (VOLUME 6)

    1066 Chapter 51- Reece ¨C A Threatening Phone Call (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    As I sat there, looking at the caller ID and wondering if this was truly a coincidence, I heard Reagan call out to me.


    ¡°Dad? What is it? Who is calling?¡± I looked up at him as I lifted the phone toward me.


    ¡°It¡¯s agent Orson. I guess he wants to try and trick the information out of me. Sit down and listen if you want, but neither of you are to make a sound. I want him to think that I am alone.¡±


    I swiped the screen to answer the phone and put it on speaker as I greeted the man on the other end of the line.


    ¡°Hello?¡± I didn¡¯t use his name, even though I had known of him, and it was on the caller ID as well.


    ¡°Mr. Reece Gray?¡± The man spoke calmly as he greeted me.


    .....


    ¡°Yes. And who might I have the pleasure of speaking to?¡± I asked him, knowing full well who was on the phone.


    ¡°Did you not check the caller ID?¡± The man asked me scornfully. ¡°Do you really not know who I am?¡±


    ¡°I saw the caller ID, but that doesn¡¯t mean that I am speaking to the owner of the phone. You could be borrowing a phone. It could be stolen. How am I supposed to know that for sure? I have never met anyone by the name of Harrison Orson, and I know that I have never given my phone number, which is unlisted, to anyone by that name. Obviously, you must know me, otherwise you wouldn¡¯t have my phone number.¡±


    ¡°Well, Mr. Gray, there are ways of looking up an unlisted number. All you need is a connection tow enforcement, and no phone number is out of reach.¡± Orson spoke angrily as he responded to my usatory words.


    ¡°So, do you have a connection withw enforcement? I know that I have notmitted any crimes, so I don¡¯t see why anyone from any branch ofw enforcement would be contacting me like this.¡±


    ¡°Worry not, Mr. Gray.¡± Orson sneered at me through the phone. I had never seen the man, but I imagined what he might look like, and it wasn¡¯t all that pleasant. ¡°I am Special Agent Harrison Orson of the NSA.¡±


    ¡°The NSA, really? And what can I do to help you today?¡± I looked at Reagan and Darrol as I spoke and saw that they were both grinning widely. They clearly liked the way that I was making Orson be overly blunt with me. It was fun, I had to admit that. However, to let Orson know that I knew anything would be an admission of guilt, and I adamantly refused to do that.


    ¡°Well, Mr. Gray, I am calling to inform you that the noose is tightening.¡± His voice was angry as he said this.


    ¡°Is that a threat, Mr. Orson?¡± I deliberately didn¡¯t use any title for him.


    ¡°AGENT Orson.¡± He nearly screamed the first word as he corrected me. ¡°And it is not really a threat, Mr. Gray, merely an observation and statement of fact. You are going down Gray, and soon.¡± He dropped the Mr. part of that at the end of his growled words. Although, his growl was pathetic and weak. I could have shown him my growl, but I didn¡¯t want to scare the poor NSA man. He would be too scared to call and y with me again.


    ¡°I am sorry, Orson.¡± I deliberately left off the title again. ¡°I don¡¯t know what it is that you are talking about. Why is it that the NSA wants me to ¡®go down¡¯?¡± I put emphasis on thest two words, letting him know that I didn¡¯t really take him seriously.


    ¡°I know what you are, Gray. I know that you aren¡¯t human. You made too many mistakes recently, and the biggest one was getting involved in that damned investigation. You exposed yourself to my inquiry, and now I get to find out what you are. I have the DNA from one of your people in my system right now. We are still analyzing it, but there was something curious about it. Would you care to exin why this girl had extra chromosomes? And why did she have nt DNA in her blood?¡±


    ¡°Well, it sounds to me like someone messed up in theb. I mean, if they can¡¯t separate nt DNA from human DNA then they are very substandard.¡± I was smiling right now, and I was really d that Orson wasn¡¯t here to see me.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think they messed up. And not only that, Gray, but how did the girl get extra chromosomes?¡±


    ¡°Well, Orson, I am not sure if you are aware, but that happens to people from time to time. You know, extra chromosomes are responsible for different birth defects, like Downs Syndrome and others. So, there are reasons why she had an extra one or two of them.¡±


    ¡°Yes, but why did she have three more of them?¡± He growled again and I nearlyughed.


    ¡°Oh man, did that tech of yours mix two people¡¯s blood together? I mean, what other reason would there be for someone¡¯s results being so messed up?¡± Now I wasughing. I had to tell him how ridiculous that I thought that it was. ¡°Look, first you tell me that they mixed nt DNA into the blood, now you say they had extra chromosomes, which I am guessing that these extra parts of the DNA didn¡¯te from the nt that they mixed in there. You know, in my opinion, I would get a newb tech. That person sounds like they are a liability waiting to happen.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that they are.¡± Orson¡¯s voice was back to sneering at me. ¡°You know what I think, Gray?¡±


    ¡°Not a clue.¡± I told him breezily.


    ¡°What I think is that you know all about this already. You know because you spoke to Otsana. And she told you about my visit with herst month. And now you are just messing with me. You know that I am investigating you, and why I am investigating you. And now you think that you can just pretend to be calm, cool, and collected and that it will fool me. No, it won¡¯t Gray.¡±


    ¡°I have no idea what you are talking about.¡± I told him. It was a perfectly stable lie. I knew that he wasn¡¯t going to call my bluff.


    ¡°Maybe you don¡¯t, maybe you do. Either way, Gray, let me tell you this. I will find out the truth. And I will take you down. I will see to it that you and the others like you will rot in hell. You aren¡¯t human, Gray, I know that. And I will prove it to the world. One way or another. And I won¡¯t let you suck anyone else¡¯s blood.¡±


    ¡°Blood?¡± I spoke incredulously. ¡°Eww. Why would I want to suck blood? That is just disgusting.¡± And that was true for me. I wasn¡¯t a vampire, so in my opinion it wasn¡¯t appetizing.


    ¡°Uh huh, sure it is. I will learn the truth soon enough, Gray. And then I will expose it to the world.¡±


    ¡°Does your boss know what you are doing? Do they know you are wasting tax dors on this?¡±


    ¡°Shut up.¡± He yelled at me. ¡°I will not let you threaten me. This is my threat, not yours.¡±


    ¡°So, this is a threat.¡± I confirmed with him. ¡°You know, Orson, I can go to the authorities with this.¡±


    ¡°I am the authorities, you moron.¡± He screamed at me. ¡°And I will be using all my power to take you down. Just remember that.¡± He was pissed at me, and here I was still talking rtively calmly.


    ¡°Whatever you say. I just wonder what mywyer will have to say about this.¡± I wanted him to feel threatened, like he would back off or something. Hopefully it would work.


    ¡°They can¡¯t touch me, Gray. I am the powerful one here. And you are going down. Have a nice day.¡± He made his voice sickening and sweet there at the end before he hung up. It was annoying, but I actually felt good about throwing the man off.


    I was still smiling in satisfaction when I set my phone aside. I wanted tough again, but I wasn¡¯t. Now just didn¡¯t seem like the right time.


    ¡°Uhm, Dad?¡± Reagan called out to me. ¡°Th..that didn¡¯t sound very good.¡±


    ¡°It was fine, Reagan. He was calling to try to get me to entrap myself. He knows that he doesn¡¯t have much on me. He is getting frustrated that his investigation is moving so slowly.¡±


    ¡°If they have to resort to tactics like that, then should we go through with the reveal?¡± Reagan looked a little excited about the prospect of not having to do this right now.


    ¡°Yes son, we need to keep moving forward. They might catch a lucky break. And even if they don¡¯t get the information right now, I assure you that they will continue to investigate. Even if they were told not to or if they came up empty handed this time around, they wouldn¡¯t give up. This Orson guy, he would be like a dog with a bone. He would gnaw on it until he was done with it. He wouldn¡¯t stop pestering us and trying to get things until we admitted what we are and what we were nning to do with the human race. He is scared, Reagan, and scared men are the ones that you need to be afraid of.¡±


    ¡°But why? Wouldn¡¯t a scared man be too scared to do something to you?¡±


    ¡°Yes, and no. A lot of scared men turn their fear into rage. And they use that rage to destroy nations. Fear is the biggest destroyer in the world. When someone doesn¡¯t understand another type of people, they be scared, and then we get massacres like there were with the indigenous people of this country. That was entirely fueled by fear and misunderstandings. I don¡¯t want that, Reagan. I don¡¯t want to let anything like that happen again. And I refuse to let anyone on this suffer because of our differing species. We are all people, and we will continue to live as we always have. We just won¡¯t be in the shadows anymore.¡±


    ¡°I get it now, Dad, thank you.¡± Reagan nodded at me. ¡°We won¡¯t change our ns at all. And now that we know that Orson is grasping at straws, I feel like we have a lot more that we can focus on. We don¡¯t need to worry just yet. We still have time before the reveal, and the NSA isn¡¯t a threat right now.¡±


    ¡°Exactly.¡± I nodded at him and crossed my arms in front of me on the desk. ¡°We will continue as nned. The reveal will be on the twenty-first.¡±


    The three of us sat in silence for a few moments after that. The gravity of the situation was sinking in with every second that passed us by. There was nothing to worry about at the moment, and that was a good thing. The NSA wasn¡¯t going to make a move anytime soon.


    I would go and tell my Little Bunny about this conversation in a few moments, but not until I was sure that Darrol and Reagan were good. They needed to be calm and to stop worrying about what was going to happen next. We needed to focus on the moment and their tasks at hand. Yes, that was a little counterintuitive at the moment, because we were preparing for the future and all that, but there were things that were more important at times. And sanity was one thing that they needed to be able to work efficiently. And as a good king, I would make sure that I took care of them in this way as well.

 Chapter 1067 - 1067 Chapter 52- Trinity – Gathering the High Nobles (VOLUME 6)

    1067 Chapter 52- Trinity ¨C Gathering the High Nobles (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    We only had a week and a half left until the reveal. It was now December the eleventh, a Tuesday, and it was time for us to have another meeting. Reagan and Rika, and all the other kids were going to be joining us, but they were mostly going to be watching the meeting take ce while we were discussing who would be joining us in the big reveal. This was not a meeting to take lightly. This was something that was going to affect the rest of our lives and the fate of the world itself. We needed to be careful here.


    I had sent word to all of the High Nobles and Central Nobles. More than likely, we were just bringing the High Nobles here, but they were all notified. I wanted to make sure that we had a big variety of our people when we revealed ourselves. I want to let the world know that this isn¡¯t a centralized thing. That there are people like us all over the world, and that we have always been here.


    The meeting was due to start at three in the afternoon. Yes, this was a bit of an awkward time, but it allowed for Reagan and Rika, and all the others that were in university, to be done with their exams for the day. This was the final week of school before the break started, and that meant that they were busier than ever. They were good kids though, and they were handling it well. Not that they were kids anymore, but I had a hard time not thinking of them as the little toddlers that they used to be. They grew up way too fast, and it¡¯s so sad to see at times.


    The doors were opened for the High Nobles and the few Central Nobles to make their way to the throne room. They took their seats near the front of the space and waited for Reece and I to make our entrance. The kids, which had been called Legacies since thatst meeting, were all seated in the Grand Noble seats. I didn¡¯t think that anyone would mind, considering that some of their parents were Grand Nobles.


    When everyone had taken their seats, Gabriel and Vincent opened the door for Reece and I. We walked out hand in hand as we looked out over the crowd. They were a little worried, but they remained calm. I was happy to see that.


    The problem here is that I hadn¡¯t truly exined what was happening to them. Most of my people still didn¡¯t know that the reveal was about to happen. So, I guess that they were going to find out right now. And the others, they will be notified after we decide who will be joining Reece and I on the news broadcast.


    .....


    I watched the people in the crowd as they stared at Reece and I. They were curious and worried, but they all looked determined and ready. They didn¡¯t know what wasing, but they knew that it was going to be something and that it wasing soon.


    I took my seat in my throne, with Reece at my side. One more sweep of the gathered nobles as I looked out at them, and then I started to speak.


    ¡°Thank you all foring. I know that none of you really know what is going on right now, so you all came here with no idea what was going to happen. That is a level of faith and trust in me that I truly appreciate. I can¡¯t have a kingdom like this without people like you.¡± They seemed to smile as a group at that. At least most of them did.


    ¡°There is a reason that we asked you all here today.¡± Reece continued for me. ¡°There is something that ising that we need to tell you. And we will need some of you to help us.¡± This seemed to shock them as they heard what he had to say.


    ¡°There is a group ofw enforcement agents that are trying to figure out what we are. Apparently,¡± I looked over at Reece and remembered what it was that he had told me about the call from Agent Orson, ¡°they seem to think that Reece and I are vampires. I don¡¯t know if they think that is the only other creature of this world that is humanlike, or if they just think that this is what we are. Whatever the issue is, they are doing deep gic tests on one of the victims of the murders from the Jaegan.¡± I exined to them all.


    I paused for a moment to let this sink in. They all seemed to understand that this was not a good thing, but I didn¡¯t know if they had guessed where we were going with this. After a minute though, letting them all process as much as they could in that time, I continued.


    ¡°They want to expose us to the world, and they aren¡¯t going to stop. What this means is that we want to get ahead of them on this. We want to reveal ourselves first. We want to make it so that we are revealed in a positive light. The time hase that we can¡¯t hide this from humans anymore. We need to tell them who and what we are and truly live in harmony and peace with them.¡±


    ¡°Will it be peaceful though?¡± I heard a man call out. His name was Thorenson, and he was a High Noble from Australia. ¡°Will we have peace, or will the humans target us?¡±


    ¡°We have spent thest month and a half working with the leaders of the world. We have implementedws that will help our people. We can¡¯t be persecuted or prosecuted for just being what we are. We will be safe. And if someone acts against us, it is now considered a hate crime. Also, we will tell them how many of us there are in the world, and that we have been here as long as they have. We are not a threat.¡± I exined these things to him.


    ¡°Alright. So, if you have thesews in effect, what is it that you need from us?¡± Aurora Yang, a Noble out of southeast Asia asked me. She spent most of her time in English speaking territories that she ran, like Singapore, so her English was very good.


    ¡°We don¡¯t need you to do much at all, Aurora. In fact, the thing that we need from you, and not all of you, are volunteers. We need to show the humans that it is not a solitary thing, we nonhumans that live here in Colorado. We need to show that there are people from all over the world that are not human. We need to prove to them what we are and that we mean them no harm.¡± Aurora was a witch, and a powerful one at that. She knew what it meant to hide among the humans, because she looked so much like them with no altered forms.


    ¡°Alright. So, we need to just show our magic and animal forms to the humans? Is that it?¡± She asked me to rify.


    ¡°Yes, that is it, Aurora. We need to show them that we are here. That we¡¯ve always been here. And that we just don¡¯t want to hide anymore.¡±


    ¡°There will be people that will not ept us.¡± Another yelled out. This was Akihito Ritsuhara from Japan. He was the only leader of a vampire coven in all of Japan. ¡°They will hate us and they will try to destroy us.¡±


    ¡°There might be some.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°But I think that more people will ept us than not. At least, that is what I am hoping for. We still need to do this, no matter what the possibilities are. Because if we don¡¯t and the NSA reveals us to the world, they will make us out to be monsters. We have an opportunity here. We can show the world that we are not the viins that Hollywood seems to think that we are.¡±


    ¡°Alright. I understand that.¡± Akihito said in an understanding tone. ¡°When are we revealing ourselves?¡± I felt like he was going to be onboard with it all.


    ¡°In a week and a half, on the twenty-first. We will have a global broadcast that will interrupt everything. We have hackers working on this so that all inte feeds will be interrupted with it as well. There will be news crews from all over the US and other countries as well. We will make sure that there will be as much coverage on this as possible. And the reveal will rey throughout the day so that others will have a chance to see it as well. We will make sure that they all know, and that we are presented in a positive light.¡±


    They were all listening, no one was interjecting or interrupting. It was like they were all wondering how they were going to go about this. I thought that this was a good thing. We just needed to have a few of them offer to help us so that we could have someone from all ethnic regions.


    ¡°Alright, I will join ya.¡± Thorensen said firmly as he rose from his seat.


    ¡°As will I, Queen Trinity.¡± Aurora rose next.


    ¡°I want to help. Akihito stood as well.


    ¡°Can I help as well?¡± A bear shifter, Nichi, rose. He was the lead bear shifter of northeastern Europe. His people lived in Pnd, Czech Republic, Hungary, and more. His vic ent was thick, but I could still understand him.


    ¡°Yes Nichi, you may join us as well.¡± I nodded at him.


    After Nichi, there were several people that offered to be a part of the reveal. We actually ended up with more than we needed and had to limit it to just a dozen. Still, I was d that there were people that were willing to show themselves and their nonhuman looking sides to the world. It wasforting, knowing that we had these allies, these people, that were working with us through all of this.


    We discussed what would happen during the next week. I wanted them to all go home and tell their people what was happening. And because the High Nobles were like regional leaders, they were expected to tell the groups that were around them as well. They needed to be responsible for the information getting out there.


    Following that suit, I knew that I needed to let those that were local know what was going to happen. I needed to make sure that this reveal wasn¡¯t going toe as a surprise to all the nonhuman people of the world. They didn¡¯t need to be bombarded with this fact after it had already happened. They deserved to have at least the week to get used to the idea.


    ¡°I guess this means that we need another meeting.¡± Reeceughed as he looked out at the crowd that was starting to leave. The High and Central Nobles were heading toward the doors that I had summoned for them, going back home with ns on telling these things to their people.


    ¡°Yes, I guess that it does. And I need to send word to all the other Alphas and leaders in the country as well. Those that fall under our domain to be specific. I don¡¯t expect those that are hours and hours away toe to the castle for a meeting. Just those that are local.¡± Reece nodded at me. He understood what was happening, and we both knew that there was no turning back now. This was all happening, and it was happening soon. Now, we just needed to hope that everything went as well as we were nning it to go. We needed to make sure that there were no issues whatsoever on the twenty-first.

 Chapter 1068 - 1068 Chapter 53- Trinity – Meeting with the City (VOLUME 6)

    1068 Chapter 53- Trinity ¨C Meeting with the City (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece and I sent word to the Alphas that still didn¡¯t know about the reveal. We exined to them all, through a mental connection, what exactly was going to happen next week. We gave them instructions on what to tell their people, and that if they had questions to send them along to a special panel that I had prepared for them.


    The panel would be taking the questions via phone call. No one needed to be bombarded by a million people via mental connection. That would be a little too overwhelming for the people that I was enlisting in helping me. Especially considering that this panel was made up of the people that were joining me during the reveal next week.


    The locals were invited to the throne room for the meeting. I knew that it would be a little ufortable for them, but I had expanded the size as much as I was able to withoutpromising the integrity of the room. I knew that if I modified a room that was already finished, I could cause it to copse in on itself. Especially if I modified it all too quickly. Yes, there were rooms that changed as they were needed, but there were also rooms that couldn¡¯t be changed so easily. A room like this one, which was already very huge, was one that didn¡¯t want to be altered all the time. It was just one of those temperamental things to do with magic.


    The crowd was gathering in the throne room again. Reece and I were once again waiting for them, but this time Reagan and Rika were with us. They were supposed to join us on the stage, along with all the other children. However, Reagan and Rika had something that they needed to talk to us about.


    ¡°Absolutely not!¡± Reece eximed when he heard what Reagan had just said.


    ¡°Why not dad?¡± He asked him in disbelief? ¡°Why can¡¯t Rika and I join you in the reveal?¡±


    .....


    ¡°Why not?¡± Reece said angrily. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you why not. People will see you in that video. They will know who you are. And they might target you. That¡¯s why.¡± Reece was fuming.


    ¡°With all due respect, Dad,¡± there was vehemence and anger dripping from Reagan¡¯s words as his angry voice responded to Reece, ¡®they are going to know who I am regardless. Do you think that you and Mom being out there and the rest of us kids being hidden will somehow magically protect us? They know that you are our parents. They know that we are the children of Reece and Trinity Gray. We won¡¯t be spared. If there are going to be people that target us, Dad, it¡¯s going to happen no matter what. As things stand right now, there is no reason for us to sit out.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s right, Dad.¡± Rika started to add. ¡°We will not be spared. But if we join you, we can promote ourselves as ambassadors of people like us. Those that are worried or scared to show themselves will be able to talk to us. We can help other people our age.¡±


    ¡°They do make a good point, Reece.¡± I added after hearing what it was that Reagan and Rika had to say. ¡°They are smart people, they are adults, and they are allowed to be a part of this. I say we let them join us.¡±


    ¡°You too, Little Bunny?¡± Reece looked at me like I had just pped him across the face.


    ¡°I am not your enemy here, Reece. We need to stand together, and Reagan and Rika have a good point. They will be targeted no matter what. Let them do this. They feel strongly about it, and I know that they can handle it.¡±


    ¡°Hahh.¡± Reece sighed, but I knew that he was already giving in. ¡°Fine. But you must follow our lead. You do not go off on your own.¡±


    ¡°Fine.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡± The two of them nodded at Reece¡¯s words.


    ¡°Dammit! Why do you two have to be growing up so fast?¡± Reece was shaking his head and looking at the kids like they were still little babies. I knew that feeling well.


    ¡°It¡¯s going to happen, Dad.¡± Reaganughed. ¡°None of us can stop it.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I know.¡± Finally, Reeceughed and seemed to be a little less tense than he had been before.


    Now that this part of the conversation was over, it was time for us to greet the gathered crowd. I walked out there with all seven of our kids and Reece at my side or behind me. They were calm and quiet as they took their spots that were on either side of our thrones. Reece and I seated ourselves and faced the crowd calmly.


    I greeted them, thanked them all foring here, and then started to tell them why they were here. I started to tell them that we were going to be revealing ourselves to the humans and that it was beyond time that we stopped hiding. Only, I didn¡¯t get very far into exining things before something caught my attention.


    The words were faint. Clearly, the person speaking was whispering and thought that I wouldn¡¯t hear them. They were rtively close to the dais though, so I was able to hear everything that they were saying. And let¡¯s just say that it was making my blood boil.


    ¡°Look at them. They are parading that thing around on the stage like it¡¯s one of us. That little monster bitch doesn¡¯t deserve to be alive, let alone to be lorded over us like that.¡±


    ¡°I am sorry, what was that?¡± I said as I tried to narrow down where the voice wasing from. Clearly, the person that was speaking hadn¡¯t noticed the lull in my speech, or that I had stopped talking almostpletely.


    ¡°I mean, just look at her. You can see that she is not one of us. She looks like a freak even among the freaks of our world. Even the most different looking of the Fae are more desirable than that thing is. They should have put that thing out of its misery the day that it was born. And then we normal people wouldn¡¯t have to live with the fear that it would turn on us like it did before. That bullshit story about a redeemed soul and a chance at a new life is pure lies. That monster just found a way to escape from hell, and now he came back as an innocent looking little girl. That thing is going to try and kill us all.¡±


    ¡°What the hell did you just say?¡± Reagan was the one to speak before I was able to. I think that the rage boiling inside of me was what kept me from finding my voice first. I was struggling to remember what the world looked like without this hazy red color covering it all.


    ¡°Who said that?¡± I demanded finally as I rose to my feet.


    ¡°It was them, Mom.¡± Reagan said as he pointed to a man and a woman. I recognized the little boy that was with them. It was LeRoy, one of Zachary¡¯s friends. Only now I could see that LeRoy was ring at Zachary, and in turn Zachary was ring back at him.


    ¡°Do you want to exin to me why you are talking about my daughter like that?¡± I growled at the woman.


    ¡°You know what, Mom, I forgot to tell you somethingst month.¡± Reagan turned to face me. ¡°It was while you were gone, and I hadn¡¯t wanted to ruin the good times that we were all having.¡±


    ¡°What was it?¡± Reece demanded as he rose to his feet.


    That was when Reagan leaned in and exined what had happened at the sleepover with Zachary, Zander and Zayden. That boy, LeRoy, had started saying things about Zaley that were not only false but were infuriating. I don¡¯t know how Reagan managed to keep his cool that night. I am guessing that he managed because the offender was just a child, but this was not a child that had been speaking. It was his mother, and she should have known better.


    I let the information that he just gave me sink in for a moment. I didn¡¯t want to rip the bitch¡¯s head off, but I also didn¡¯t want to let her get away with this just yet. Actually, I lied, I did want to rip her head off, but I wasn¡¯t going to do that. I was supposed to set an example, and that wasn¡¯t the message that I was supposed to send.


    ¡°Tam?¡± I red at the bitch and saw her flinch. ¡°You have been spreading lies about my daughter.¡±


    ¡°They are not lies.¡± Tam rose to her feet, and so did her husband Marion. ¡°That little bitch is the reincarnation of Edmond. He killed so many of our kind, and yet you wee that thing with open arms.¡±


    ¡°You have no idea how Edmond changed in the afterlife. If it wasn¡¯t for him, Zachary, Zander and Zayden wouldn¡¯t be here. He also gave Zaley his soul so that she wasn¡¯t lost before she was born. He gave everything for us. He was willing to have his soul snuffed out of existence to save the boys and myself. He was a changed man. You have no idea what he was like at that time. Nor do you understand what he went through when he was a child. I am proving to the world that a soul is not born bad. Zaley is not evil. She is a good, sweet, and kind girl. She would never hurt anyone. She is loved and cared for, which is something that my father never had when he was a child. They are not the same.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t believe a word of that. That girl is creepy and dangerous.¡± Tam screamed at me, her finger pointing at my daughter. ¡°I lost family to that psycho.¡±


    ¡°I am not Edmond.¡± Zaley cried out in fear when the woman pointed at her. In an instant, Zachary, Zander, Zayden, Talia, Reagan and Rika all surrounded Zaley to protect her.


    ¡°Put your hand down, Tam.¡± I screamed at her. ¡°And you should know that you do not say such things about the royal family.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah, what are you going to do? Execute me? You¡¯re such a pathetically weak queen that you ouwed that method of dealing with people. If you hadn¡¯t, I would have already killed that monster girl.¡±


    ¡°That is a direct threat against the princess.¡± Reece roared at her. ¡°Shawn, Shane, arrest that woman.¡±


    ¡°DON¡¯T YOU DARE TOUCH MY WIFE!¡± Marion snarled. ¡°I WILL KILL YOU IF YOU TRY TO TOUCH HER!¡±


    ¡°Arrest him too.¡± Reece told them. ¡°He is issuing threats as well. Is there anyone else that thinks that they can talk that way about my daughter and not be punished?¡± Reece paused and red at the people that were gathered. ¡°I want you all to know that I would not have had them arrested if they hadn¡¯t issued threats of violence and said that they would murder my daughter. We live in and of free speech, and I honor that. I do not, however, honor tant lies and hostility against the royal family. You want toin about us, that¡¯s fine. You do not wish death upon a little girl. That is not only immoral, it¡¯s also disgusting. It just shows what a disgusting person you really are.¡±


    There were cheers in the crowd at Reece¡¯s words. Clearly, the majority of the people agreed with us, but there were some that I could tell were parents of those bullies at the school. I had talked to them before and gotten them to mostly understand about Zaley, but there were still issues all the time. I needed to make sure that she was protected more, but I also didn¡¯t like to suffocate them by sending a guard to school with them.


    I watched on, almost in a trance, as Shane and Shawn moved to remove the two from the throne room. I was about to move on when I noticed something that I had almost forgotten. LeRoy, now sitting all alone, had just seen his parents taken away. And now he was going to need someone to take care of him.


    I might be a generous person, but that was beyond my capabilities. I could not take that boy into my home, not after how he treated Zaley. Thankfully, it didn¡¯t look like that was going to be a problem. After a moment, a man rose to his feet. He looked a little like LeRoy, and a lot like Marion who had just been taken away.


    ¡°Can my wife and I take our grandson?¡± He asked me timidly. ¡°I didn¡¯t raise my son to act like that, and I want to teach my grandson that it¡¯s not eptable to behave in such a way.¡± The man spoke pleadingly.


    ¡°LeRoy, do you want to go with them?¡± I asked the child, hoping he would agree.


    ¡°I..I want my parents.¡± He pleaded, but he looked at the man behind him. ¡°B..b..but I know that they are in trouble. I will go with my grandma and grandpa.¡±


    ¡°Then it is settled.¡± I nodded at them. ¡°LeRoy will stay with them for the time being.¡±


    Now that this scene was over, and the two offensive people were removed from the crowd, we were able to get back on track with the speech that we were here for. I exined to them all that we were revealing ourselves to the humans. I told them that we were going to be safe because we had gotten thews to pass in our favor. I told them that there was nothing to worry about, and I truly believed that as well.


    Some people asked questions about what was going to happen, and I was happy to see that Reagan and Rika were answering them with us, not missing a beat at all. They really were getting really good at running the pack and the politics that had to do with the kingdom. They were both really good in these roles.


    With the discussion over, it was time for everyone to leave. They didn¡¯t seem to be too worried about what was going to happen, but I could tell that some of them were just a little tense. I think that it was abination of what had happened in the beginning of the meeting as well as the discussion that we had just had. They were trying to process it all. And thankfully, they all had a week left to process it before we reveal ourselves to the humans.

 Chapter 1069 - 1069 Chapter 54- Reece – Apprehension (VOLUME 6)

    1069 Chapter 54- Reece ¨C Apprehension (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Thest several days seemed to have just flown by. We had busily prepared the venue for when the reveal was to take ce tomorrow. We made sure that as much media from various outlets were invited as possible. We had the governor, the president, and so many others that were going to be present with us. And we had as many big names that were willing to be there with us as possible. I felt like we were as ready for this revtion as we could possibly be. Yet, I still felt like we were missing something, or that something was off somehow.


    I knew that this feeling inside of me was probably just nerves, or something simr to it, but that didn¡¯t mean that it was any less powerful. It was hard to sit here and not feel the thrumming that was the blood speeding through my veins. And why was that happening? Because my heart was pounding and yet beating way too fast at the same time.


    ¡°Reece?¡± I heard my Little Bunny call out to me, but I was still lost in thought. So much so that it was hard for me to respond to her right away. ¡°Reece?¡± She called out to me again and this time I managed to turn to look at her.


    ¡°Huh?¡± I started a little, just a little jerk that told her that she had somehow surprised me even though I had heard her the first time.


    ¡°Are you OK?¡± She looked worried about me as she leaned over and ced her hand over mine. We were at the dinner table and she and all the kids were staring at me. I guess I had stopped eating and talking as Ipsed into thought. How long had I been lost inside of my head like that?


    ¡°Yeah, I am fine.¡± I smiled at her in response and took her hand in my own. ¡°I was just thinking about some things.¡± I reassured her and the kids at the same time.


    .....


    ¡°What things, Dad?¡± Reagan asked. He looked as concerned for me as my Little Bunny did.


    ¡°Not much son, just about tomorrow and how things are going to go.¡±


    ¡°Are you worried?¡± Rika asked me after hearing what I had just said.


    ¡°I would be lying if I said that I am not worried. I mean, a lot of things can happen tomorrow. However, I know that this is necessary. I know that we need to do this. We can¡¯t stay hidden, not with what is going on right now. And we have all agreed that it is for the best for us to control how this happens. I know that, we all know that, but it is still a little nerve wracking.¡±


    ¡°I agree.¡± My Little Bunny leaned in toward me, cing her head on my shoulder as she let me support her. She just needed the contact, I knew that, and I would give it to her too. I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her chair closer to me. I was going to make sure that she was asforted as she needed to be. ¡°There could be instant outrage at our reveal. There could be riots and other violent episodes. So much can happen, and I just don¡¯t know what we¡¯re going to do.¡±


    ¡°I know that it can be scary to think about, Mom, but we will be together. We will make sure that everyone is safe. Talia, Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley will all be with L, Nona, Papa and M¨®ra¨ª. They will be safe, and that is what matters. We will make sure that no matter what happens to us tomorrow, which is hopefully nothing, but if something does happen they will be safe. Rika and I will be there with you as well, and we will support you in anything that you need from us.¡±


    ¡°How did we get so lucky as to have kids like you?¡± Trinity, my sweet Little Bunny, smiled at Reagan in a very loving and motherly way. She was such a good mom, she always had been.


    ¡°It wasn¡¯t luck Mom, you raised us to be who we are now.¡± Rika answered with a tender expression in her eyes.


    ¡°Maybe.¡± My Little Bunny nodded at her before continuing. ¡°But a lot of it is just the way you are. All of you, you¡¯re amazing kids. Seven amazing and wonderful kids that are all unique and special in your own ways.¡±


    ¡°With number eight on the way.¡± I put my hand on her belly and rubbed it gently. ¡°And you kids, all of you, you are the reason why we need to follow through with this. We can¡¯t leave a future for you that is so uncertain. Not with what is happening right now. Not with how things have been happening for a long time. There is a lot that we need to fix for you all. Your mother and I are the ones that made so many changes to our world and messed it all up. So now your mother and I are the ones that need to set them right.¡±


    ¡°Reece?¡± My Little Bunny¡¯s voice was a little sad when she spoke. ¡°We didn¡¯t mess anything up.¡± She looked a little offended at what I had just said. ¡°We just did what we needed to so that our people were safe. We never messed anything up.¡± She was a little defensive about that for a moment.


    ¡°I know that we didn¡¯t mess anything up, not really. That wasn¡¯t really how I meant it. What I was trying to refer to was that we are the ones that ended up making us all immortal. It was because of that, and our newfound long lives, which has led to a lot of suspicion about us.¡± I tried my best to exin things to her.


    ¡°Yes, I know that, and the long lives, extremely slow aging, and even the older people in ourmunity getting younger over time, that has led to a lot of people being suspicious and scared of us.¡±


    ¡°Exactly.¡± I smiled at her and nodded vigorously. ¡°Still, I wouldn¡¯t have changed anything. If you hadn¡¯t done what you did, then Vincent wouldn¡¯t be alive right now. That is something that I don¡¯t think either of us would be able to deal with. There was a lot that was going on, and since that day we¡¯ve had to deal with a lot more.¡±


    ¡°Mom?¡± Zaley¡¯s voice called out from across the table. ¡°Is it this immortality that kept me alive before Grandpa Edmond gave me his soul? I..I know that I should have died. I can feel it inside of me sometimes. And I was wondering if it was the way that you made everyone immortal that kept me alive.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know if that was what helped you, sweetheart, but if it was, then I am happy. I love you, sweetheart. You are my precious little miracle baby.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Zaley.¡± Zayden took his sister¡¯s hand just then. ¡°Zachary, Zander and I protected you. We made sure that you were safe inside of Mommy. We would never let anything happen to you.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, just like we won¡¯t let anything happen to you now.¡± Zachary smiled at her.


    ¡°We will always protect you, Zaley.¡± Zander added firmly.


    ¡°There is a lot of love in this family.¡± I beamed at them all. ¡°And I know that no matter how much apprehension I have inside of me at this moment, I will never regret what we are about to do tomorrow.¡± I firmed my voice, straightened my spine, and looked as much like an Alpha as I could in that moment. Considering that I was feeling strong as hell with all of them and their love surrounding me, I had to have appeared as the strongest and most powerful man in the entire world.


    ¡°We will make sure that the world knows who we are, what we are, and that we have always been here with them. They will know that we are not a threat to them, and that they have nothing to fear. It might be tense for a little while. And we might have a few more restrictions for you all temporarily, but there is nothing at all to worry about. We will be together, and we will always protect each other.¡± I spoke with love, conviction, and determination. I was hoping that this alone would make things go well tomorrow.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Dad, we will make sure that it all happens smoothly.¡± Reagan leaned across the table and held his hand out toward me. I rose and met him halfway across the table.


    ¡°Yeah, together we can do anything.¡± Rika added her hand next, a smile brightening her face.


    ¡°Together we are unstoppable.¡± Talia put her hand on top of her sister¡¯s.


    ¡°We will make it through this, and we will all be unscathed.¡± Zaley¡¯s eyes were filled with determination as she put her hand on next.


    ¡°We will fight with you, Dad, directly or from the sidelines, but we will be there with you.¡± Zander¡¯s eyes were focused and strong.


    ¡°If we are together, then nothing can beat us.¡± Zachary forcefully added his fist.


    ¡°The Gray¡¯s won¡¯t be beaten.¡± Zayden dered as he joined us all.


    ¡°Reeselynn and I are right there with you as well. We will stand together as a family, no matter what, and in the end we will all be safe and together.¡± The smiles that were spreading across everyone¡¯s faces, and the determined looks in their eyes, was enough to spur on anyone with righteousness.


    ¡°Yeah, we will be fine together. No matter what happens tomorrow, we will still be a family that is united.¡± I put my other hand on top of everyone else¡¯s, trapping all but Reagan¡¯s hand between my two.


    ¡°Together.¡± Reagan, not wanting to be left out, put his other hand on top of mine as we bonded as a family.


    The apprehension that I had been feeling was actually starting to ebb away. I was feeling a lot more calm and serene now. I knew that it was the magic of family that had done this for me, calmed my mind, heart and soul. That was fine with me though, whatever it took to make this night a lot easier on me.


    After we were done eating, I didn¡¯t want to be without the kids. I wanted to keep the family together as much as possible. I wanted to make sure that we kept this peacefulness going strong. It was important, not just to me but to all of us.


    I suggested a movie in the living room, something lighthearted that we could all rx while we watch, andugh at as well sinceughter was a good medicine. Trinity agreed almost immediately, and so did all the kids. Then I took it a little further. I suggested that we push the furniture out of the way and cover the entire floor in nkets and pillows. We wouldy all together in a giant puppy pile as we watched the movie. We would all be there, close enough to sense, to touch if we reached out toward each other, and that was what I wanted. I needed someone to soothe my soul for the night.


    We had popcorn, snacks and drinks. We put on a goofyedy that the little kids seemed to love. And we allid there until the kids started to fall asleep. Looking at my Little Bunny, Reagan, Rik, and Talia, we all understood that we weren¡¯t going to leave this pile. We were going to stay where we were until the morning. This was too good of a moment to let it pass us by. So, for the first time in a long time, we slept together as one big family, soothing and protecting each other with just the presence and warmth of each other. Finally calm, I slept soundly and deeply until the sun came up in the morning.

 Chapter 1070 - 1070 Chapter 55- Trinity - The Reveal Part 1 (VOLUME 6)

    1070 Chapter 55- Trinity ¨C The Reveal Part 1 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The kids were not going to school today. In fact, as the people that own and technically run the school, Reece and I had told them that it should be cancelled today, so that the kids and their families would be safe no matter what happened. So, there was no school today.


    Reagan and Rika had already finished the semester, so they weren¡¯t skipping sses, which made today easier. Not that I wasn¡¯tpletely sure that they would have skipped sses to be here with Reece and I today. Still, it was best that they weren¡¯t missing school either.


    Talia, Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley were all going to the ck Canyons with my parents, Reece¡¯s mom, and my grandfather. They were going to protect the kids there while we were busy with the revtion to the world. This was going to be a tense morning, with a lot of possible oues. The less that we had to worry about the other kids, the better. And of course, Reagan and Rika wereing with us to the venue to be a part of the reveal.


    As much as I had not wanted them to be a part of this entire situation, they were right when they made their arguments to us about it. They are adults, and we need to start learning to trust them and their choices. We have done our best to raise them into the people that they are, and now all we can do is hope that they are as amazing as we think that they are. That wasn¡¯t a problem though, because I knew that they were far better than I even imagined them to be.


    We ate breakfast together as a family, needing that family time as Reece had saidst night. Our parents, all the guards, and everyone that was close to us had joined us as well. Everyone that was present was either family by blood or marriage, or someone that we considered family because we had been through so much together.


    There was some tension during the meal, others were as stressed and worried today as Reece had beenst night. The kids were able to sense this though, and they helped them through it. I don¡¯t think that I have seen the quads give out so many hugs since they were four years old. And as the hugging started, the other kids, especially the younger ones, started to follow suit.


    .....


    The quads were far from the only kids that were that age in this giant gathered family of ours. There was also my little sister Olivia and Reece¡¯s sister Ivy. The youngest two that Shawn and Dietrich had adopted, Bret and Ember. Riley and Katie¡¯s second little boy and youngest child, Dillon. Juniper and Paul¡¯s youngest, Willow. Cedar and Acacia¡¯sst set of twins, Rosewood and Redwood. Noah and Nikki¡¯s youngest and only girl, Nina. Carter and Emmalee¡¯s only little girl, Leeah. Jackson and Melita¡¯s son, Jason. And Gabriel and Roisin¡¯s son Shamrock. They were all here with us, because their families were all part of our massive brood. I loved all of these kids so much, and I was d that they were all there with our kids so that they wouldn¡¯t be alone in these uncertain times toe.


    After we all ate together, finishing the giant meal as a giant family, all those that weren¡¯t going to be with us for the reveal took a door from the living room of our family tower to the canyons. I was counting on them all to protect our families and make sure that they woulde back to us soon.


    Preparations were alreadyplete. We had done this in advance and were ready for the moment that we needed to head to the venue. And where were we holding this giant press meeting that would be revealing the truth to the world? Well, that would be in therge indoor stadium that was built about five years ago. This stadium was often used forrge scale events and concerts when not used for sports. That made it perfect for us right about now. Not only that, but there was already room for the press to set up.


    There were some people that were invited to witness all of this in person, some humans and some not. Actually, it was more nonhumans than humans. We wanted to make sure that there was not much of a reactioning from the crowd. At least, not much of a negative one that is. We wanted to control this oue. Yes, I know that this was not fair practice, but could anyone me me? We had to help control the oue here.


    Reece, Reagan, Rika, Shawn, Dietrich, Shane, David, Rawlynne, Jake, Gabriel, Athair m¨°r, Aunt Glory, Trevor, and several others from our inner group were a part of the process that we were about to go through, they were there with us, as so were a lot of other people. Analise and Reef Rivers, Leelin, Crawford and Eldrige, Landon, Riley, and all the others from the other countries that were here to assist us, they were all here and preparing for where they needed to be when all of this started soon.


    The press was arriving from all over the city and the country. There were international agencies here as well. We had insisted that all the leaders of those nations send some of their own people here to get the scoop for their news outlets. And, thankfully, they hadplied. There was more media than anything else in this stadium at the moment, but that was how we wanted it. We needed all mediums to be covered here. We needed to make sure that the world knew the truth. All of the truth.


    As I stood there with Reece, talking about the process that we were going to do this all in, I noticed a woman that was looking at me. She was the same reporter from the end of the Jaegan case. The one that had all those questions about how things didn¡¯t add up. Of course, she would want to be here. This was orchestrated by Reece and I, so there was no chance in hell that she would miss out on all of this. Not when she would get the chance to prove herself right.


    When the reporter noticed that I saw her, she smiled and started to saunter over toward me. She had a look on her face that was like she was about to nail me to a wall. She thought that she was going to get some scoop on me that the others weren¡¯t about to get. I knew that she was also going to be one of the ones that tried to spin this in a negative way, and that was bound to happen no matter what. Still, we needed to have a lot of media coverage, put the truth out there, and keep reiterating that truth regrly.


    ¡°Hello Mrs. Gray, and you as well Mr. Gray.¡± The reporter smirked at us knowingly. ¡°I just had to make sure that I was sent here for this big scoop of yours. You are nning something big today, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Yes, we are.¡± I gave her a smile and a nod. ¡°I am sorry, but I do not remember your name.¡±


    ¡°My name is Lara Timmons, we spoke before after that hearing a few months ago.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I remembered the circumstances, just not your name. It is nice to meet you, Lara. I am happy that you are able to be here. Please make sure that you get all the information that you can, and share it as honestly as you can. I do so hate the reporters that twist words into something that isn¡¯t true.¡±


    ¡°I would never do something like that, Mrs. Gray. I might be ruthless, but I will never print a lie. I only get to the heart of the truth, no matter what it is.¡±


    ¡°That is good to know. We will be speaking nothing but the truth here today, and I would like to make sure that the world knows what we have to say.¡±


    ¡°Then I guess that we are in agreement, aren¡¯t we, Mrs. Gray? I look forward to whatever it is that you have to show us. I think that this might be an interesting press conference.¡±


    ¡°And why is that, Lara? I am just curious as to why you would think that it would be so riveting? Not that I am not going to try and make it as entertaining as possible, while still showing you all the truth and nothing but the truth.¡±


    ¡°Well, think about it Mrs. Gray. You and your husband have never once done something like this before. You are world famous billionaires, but you are closed off and reclusive. You only hold conferences for things that have to do with your business, but this isn¡¯t one of those times, is it? I mean, I looked into this and there is no mention whatsoever of Alpha Corp. in the documents that have to do with this press conference. And that leads me to think that this entire thing is going to be personal. And what is it that could be so personal that you need to share it with us like this?¡± She turned to the side then, looking at the people that were gathered around me.


    I knew that she could see all of my guards and friends, but she was also able to see Reagan and Rika. She was watching them for a moment, or it seemed like she was looking right at them before she turned back to face me.


    ¡°I see that you have your children here. Two of them anyway. You have seven children in all, correct? And yet you don¡¯t look old enough to even have one. I wish I knew your secret.¡± She grinned knowingly at me. ¡°I mean you two are both so eternal. It¡¯s almost as if you don¡¯t age at all.¡± A wink in her left eye, showing me that she was already listening to the rumors about us. Although, it was clear that she didn¡¯t expect that she was already hinting really close to the topic of discussion for this meeting. I knew that if I didn¡¯t say something to her soon, then this reporter, Lara, would continue to just drone on and on.


    ¡°Well Lara, you are right about one thing. We are not including thepany in this matter today, because it has nothing to do with the business that Reece and I own and operate. However, it is not just a private matter. This is something that affects a lot of people, and we need to talk about it with the entire world. And thank you, by the way, that is some ttery that you are showing me. I know that you are well aware of how old I am, so to be told that I am still so young, that is an amazing feeling.¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t address the children.¡± She motioned with her chin as she looked over at them behind us. She was gently reminding me of the one topic that she mentioned that I had intentionally avoided.


    ¡°Yes, you are right about that.¡± I nodded with a smile firmly in ce. ¡°But they are my children and therefore not a topic that I will discuss with just anyone. I hope that you will understand that.¡± I gave her a bit of a verbal push, keeping her away from topics that I didn¡¯t want to get into at the moment. However, she just gave me a venomous smile and narrowed her eyes at me.


    ¡°I will learn what you are truly hidingter, Mrs. Gray. You can be certain of that.¡±


    ¡°I have no doubt that you will, Lara. However, it won¡¯t be right now. If you¡¯ll excuse me, I need to get back to work. We are starting soon.

 Chapter 1071 - 1071 Chapter 56- Trinity – The Reveal Part 2 (VOLUME 6)

    1071 Chapter 56- Trinity ¨C The Reveal Part 2 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I watched as the reporter stormed away. She wasn¡¯t sulking, not really. Instead, it was like she was more determined than ever to investigate and look into me. I knew that a woman like this could be a major threat to us, but she could also be a weapon.


    If Lara the reporter thought that she would be able to get the biggest scoop of the millennium before anyone else had a shot at it, then she would most likely be willing to bind herself with us more than anyone else would. Not only that, but she seemed so desperate to know the truth about us, to know that the world was filled with mythological creatures. That could be a major boon for us.


    When Lara made it back to the group of other reporters, I saw that they descended on her like vultures to a feast left for them in the desert. They were desperate to get more information from her, information that they didn¡¯t even know anything about. That was fine. I understand that was how the journalists and reporters of the world were. They were the ones with the most curious minds in existence. They can¡¯t leave a story alone until they have uncovered everything that has to do with it. It was just in their nature.


    The swell of people that was arriving for the big show was growing steadily as they made their way toward the stands. There were a lot of people that I recognized among the crowd. People that lived here in the city that weren¡¯t human, and several of them that were humans.


    Among the crowd I saw that there was the grandson of Franny from the diner, Ewan. He was here with a group of other servers that knew us from our times going there to eat. I saw the human staff members that worked at the businesses that Reece and I owned. Not all of them, of course, but a lot of them. They would be people that knew Reece and I, that knew what we were like, and would hopefully not react too negatively at what was about to happen. We needed some positive support from humans when all of this started to get underway.


    After another couple of minutes just standing there and watching the crowds that were arriving, I turned and went back to the others. I knew that they had a crew that hade through and checked everything the night before and again this morning, but we weren¡¯t leaving anything up to chance. Our massive group of people, aside from making sure that everything was arranged perfectly on the raised stage, had taken the time to make sure that there were no surprises hiding here for us.


    .....


    That staff had gone out and searched the entire stadium, every nook and cranny of it. They had done that before anyone else got here this morning. And they were still running security to make sure that no one was in any danger at the moment. They didn¡¯t want to worry about someone that might have gotten wind of what was happening and were here to try and assassinate someone.


    Hahh! I sighed internally to myself. I was being paranoid. I knew that things were going to be fine. We had kept the lid on all of this with no issues so far. There was no one that knew what was going to happen here today. At least not anyone that we hadn¡¯t intentionally included in this whole process. And those people were here with us right now, well some of them, so they wouldn¡¯t want to get themselves hurt as well. We were good. I knew that. I was just being paranoid.


    There was no announcer that we needed to wait on. Reece and I would be doing the talking, like we were used to doing. We had been leading half of the world¡¯s poption for most of thest twenty years, so this wasn¡¯t going to be any different than that. We were ready to do what needed to be done. Yup, definitely ready.


    As the crowd finished taking their seats, a hush started to spread over the stadium. It was like they all knew on a subconscious level that the show was about to begin. They were all waiting for us, their breaths held and the anticipation rising. Hell, even I was starting to feel excited.


    Looking over at Reece, Reagan, and Rika, I saw that they were excited as well. Maybe not excited, that might be the wrong word here. That meant that there was a level of happiness that went with it all. They weren¡¯t actually happy, but they were buzzing with energy. And it was clear to me that they were ready for what needed to happen next. They were almost vibrating with the electricity of that energy.


    And they weren¡¯t the only ones that were keyed up and electrified. Shawn, Dietrich, Shane, David, Rawlynne, Jackson, Gabriel, everyone that was here with us, they were also buzzing with that same energy. They were ready to begin, and that told me that it was time for me to start the show.


    Reece and I, walking hand in hand, moved to the center of the stage. Reagan and Rika followed behind us, and the typical entourage followed in a half circle to protect us. They wanted to make sure that they showed the entire world, well all those that were awake at the moment, that we were a united front. And that we weren¡¯t going to abandon each other, no matter the cost.


    I gave my best and most regal smile as I stopped in the middle of the stage. It was time for us to begin.


    ¡°Thank you all foring and joining us here today in Colorado Springs, Colorado. And to those of you watching from home, I want to thank you for tuning in. I know that a lot of you might be trying to change the channel at the moment, but these broadcasts are going to be on every channel, everywork, and every medium. Even those that are watching onputers, phones, tablets, and other devices, you will not be able to close out this broadcast. This is an important announcement that is being broadcast globally. There is something vitally important that we have to share with you all today.¡±


    ¡°We understand that this might be upsetting, having the things that you were doing interrupted for something that you do not understand yet. However, we ask that you bear with us please, and allow us to exin all of this to you.¡± Reece started to speak loud and firm, voice filled with confidence. ¡°Some of you might know me by name, some by appearance, others by reputation. My name is Reece Gray, and this lovely woman next to me is my wife, Trinity. These, here, are our children, the twins Reagan and Rika Gray.¡± Reece indicated them and the two smiled and nodded as their names were called.


    ¡°There are going to be some things that you hear today that you do not understand.¡± I looked toward the reporters and saw that they werepping up the information eagerly. They were so excited to get started with their stories, but they weren¡¯t done collecting data yet. ¡°We have here with us, on this stage, several friends from the area here in Colorado Springs.¡± I was doing my best to make sure that I spoke as clearly as possible. I felt like I might get tongue tied or slip up because of the excitement of the moment.


    I knew that I needed to continue though. I couldn¡¯t pause for long or I would lose my momentum.


    ¡°There are also a lot of friends and colleagues from several other nations. I will introduce them to you here in a moment, but before I get to that, I want you all to understand that everything that you see here today is one hundred percent real. There is no smoke and mirrors. There are no tricks. Everything that we show you today will be for your educational purposes only. We are here to share something with the world, something that we cannot hide anymore.¡±


    There was a rushing sort of sensation that went through me then. A sort of jolting butterfly rippling in my belly. I knew that it was nerves mixed with about a million other emotions at the moment. I didn¡¯t know what I was going to do right now, but I knew that I couldn¡¯t stop. Not yet.


    ¡°As my wife mentioned, we have a lot of colleagues here with us. Let me start by telling you who they are.¡± He started with the guards that were surrounding us, giving their names and that was all.


    After that, Reece moved onto the others that were on the stage with us. First, he mentioned those that were local. Then the ones that were from here in the United States. Lastly, he started to introduce the others that were from different countries and continents. He told them where they were all from, their nationality, and of course their name as well. And he did all of this smoothly with no stops or stutters.


    I could see the reporters once more. They were writing down or recording all the names as they were given. They probably had some sort of short hand that they used, otherwise they wouldn¡¯t get all the names in time. There were just too many of them being given in a quick session.


    Now, it was my time to continue. We had already agreed that I would be the one to break the actual news to the crowd. I knew that it wasn¡¯t likely that any of these people were going to believe a word that I was about to say, but they would understand, and hopefully believe, before the day was over. We wouldn¡¯t leave here until we could at least partially convince all of these people in the audience. Or fully convince at least a part of them. I would settle for either of those scenarios.


    Taking a deep and steadying breath, I braced myself for just a moment before I started to speak again. There had truly only been the smallest of all pauses between Reece and I speaking, but it almost felt like an eternity to me as I settled my nerves.


    ¡°Now, what we would like to tell you, and soon show you, is that we are different from a lot of the people on this. My family that is here with me, all of us here on this stage, and indeed half of the people on this are very different from a lot of you that are watching this broadcast. You see, most of you are human. That is to be expected. And you would think, at first nce, that we are humans as well.¡±


    Another little pause. Another deep calming and settling breath. A quick nce at the gathered crowd and over toward the reporters. I noticed the shocked face that Lara was wearing as she looked right at me. She was definitely not expecting this.


    ¡°You would be wrong though, to assume that about us. We are not humans. In fact, we are a variety of other beings. We are the beings of myths and legends that most humans do not think exist. We are an eclectic mix of people that live together in harmony with each other and with all of you . We are supernatural beings. And I am here to tell you that we are here to stay.¡±


    I don¡¯t know what I wanted to hear at that moment, following that big revtion, but theplete silence of the stadium wasn¡¯t it. Were they all still stunned into silence? Were they waiting for more? Did they not believe me? There was just so much that was possible right now, and I was trying to figure it all out before I continued.

 Chapter 1072 - 1072 Chapter 57- Trinity- The Reveal Part 3 (VOLUME 6)

    1072 Chapter 57- Trinity- The Reveal Part 3 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The silence that followed my deration was deafening. I didn¡¯t know what to do for a moment. Looking at Reece, I saw that he was just as confused and perplexed as I was. There was a lot that could be happening, that should be happening, but the entire stadium was dead silent.


    Just as I was about to start speaking again though, someone rushed to their feet. I saw that this was one of the people that we had invited. This was a witch that was a nt here in the audience. Thankfully, she had thought of something to do. She was about to help us move this all forward a little bit more.


    ¡°PROVE IT!¡± She yelled out in an eager voice. ¡°I WANT TO SEE THAT YOU AREN¡¯T HUMAN! IF YOU CAN¡¯T PROVE IT, THEN YOU ARE JUST LYING TO US!¡± Thank you to Gayle and her quick thinking. She was doing what I thought one of the humans would have done. I guess the others were just a little too stunned. That was fine for now though, I knew that we would be able to get this show back on the road now.


    ¡°I assure you, we are not lying. And we will prove it to you. That is why we are here.¡± Finally, at my deration, the others started toe to their senses and yell as well. The humans that were watching us all rose to their feet and started to chant in unison. I don¡¯t know who started the chant, but it seemed like almost everyone had picked it up as they all demanded one thing from us.


    ¡°PROOF! PROOF! PROOF! PROOF!¡± I was not at all intimidated by their chanting to apparent demand for more information. They were human, and that meant that they would want to know the truth, to see the proof, then and only then, would they be willing to ept the truth. And even some of them still wouldn¡¯t believe it after that.


    ¡°Your proof ising.¡± I spoke steadily into the microphone. I was feeling a lot more confident now that the show was back on track. And yes, this was the part of the broadcast that was a show. It was stillpletely true, but it was also a show.


    .....


    I turned to Reece and saw him smile at me. I saw that the twins were smiling as well, eager to show the world that we were here, that we have always been here, and we were staying put. This was something that we had all talked about in depth before we came here today. This wasn¡¯t going to be left up to change at all.


    ¡°I will show you many things that I am able to do with my not being a human. First, allow me to tell you what some of these people are. My husband Reece here, he is a werewolf. That is all that he is, aside from the fact that he has the soul of two different gods inside of him. Some of the gods, as you might not know, have decided that they wanted to be reborn as mortals. They wanted a change and a chance at another life. Those that were reborn put their immortal souls inside some of us. I personally have the souls of three different gods inside of me. I am also a werewolf, a witch, and a Fae.¡± I told them things that even a lot of people in my own kingdom didn¡¯t know about me.


    ¡°Our children here,¡± I continued as if nothing at all was happening in this ce, ¡°are the same mix as me, but they of course have more werewolf than anything else. These men and women behind me are various beings. A lot of them are werewolves, but some of them are feline shifters. Landon here is a tiger shifter, that means that he can be a tiger at will.¡±


    ¡°Our friend Trevor here, he is a bear shifter. Like Landon, he can take his form at will. The same is true for the werewolves. We are not mindless creatures that are controlled by the moon. There is no effect of the moon whatsoever on our transformations. It happens when we want it to and only then. Well, aside from the first shift that is. Those can be a little less predictable.¡± Reece chuckled, helping to make this into a little bit of a joke and not as serious for the people watching us.


    ¡°We have other shifters as well. Almost any animal that you can think of, we have someone that can shift into it. We also have Merfolk, men and women that turn into those mythical creatures from the ocean. Aside from people that can be other creatures, we have various magic users. Witches and warlocks, witch doctors, Djinn, and more.¡± I continued to describe all of our people to them, and would continue again, after just a brief pause for breath.


    ¡°The Fae, directly descended from the gods themselves, are a group of magical beings that are closely in connection to nature and animals. They are gentle people that like to live surrounded by trees and flowers. Andstly, we have vampires. There are colonies of them all over the world, but they are forbidden to take human lives. There is no killing or murdering allowed from any of our people. We have always lived among you. We are your neighbors, your coworkers, your friends, and nothing at all is going to change just because you know who and what we are now.¡±


    I made sure that thisst part was spoken so earnestly that there was nothing at all they would be able to say about it. I wanted them all to know the truth, but to not be afraid of us. I was hoping that they would ept it and not question me about it all, the sooner that we moved on, the sooner that we could prove to them that we were telling them the truth.


    Augh started somewhere in the back of the stadium. A man that seemed to think that this entire thing was just a joke and wasughing hysterically. Others joined in with him and before we knew it, all of the humans in the stadium wereughing. The nonhumans were taking this seriously. Hell, even half of the reporters wereughing like this was a joke. Not all of them though. Those that had done some digging on us were just staring at Reece and I like we were three headed aliens that justnded on Earth.


    ¡°Please, stop with theughter.¡± I spoke calmly into the microphone. I needed to keep going, I needed to make them all understand. ¡°I know that this seems like it is a little difficult to process and ept, but I will prove to you what we are right now.¡±


    I turned to look at Reece and Reagan, knowing that they were wearing the clothes that were made from pure magic. They would be able to shift back when they were done. So would Trevor, Landon, Riley, Shawn, Shane, Jackson, and even myself. We were all going to shift into various creatures so that the humans here and across the globe, would be able to see that we weren¡¯t lying to them. We were telling them the truth when we told them that we were not like them.


    ¡°I will show you what I can do first. As the queen of my people, and the one with the soul to the shifter goddess, Nehalennia inside of me, I can shift into any animal in the world. I can be something so small and insignificant as a little bunny.¡± I looked over at Reece and smiled as I thought about the first time that I had be this tiny creature, and just like that, I felt myself shrink toward the floor.


    There were gasps from all over the stadium. Several of the people that were sitting in the crowd stood on their feet to get a better look at me. Their eyes were not able to see the little bunny me on their own, they were forced to look at the giant jumbotron behind and above us. That giant screen was showing everything that was happening on the stage, or it had been. The moment that I had shrunk though, it zoomed in on me as if the cameraman was in a panic.


    ¡°See, I am now a little bunny.¡± I said as Reece put the microphone to my mouth. And I knew that the people watching would see the rabbit¡¯s mouth moving in time with my words. ¡°And this isn¡¯t the only creature that I can be.¡±


    I wiggled my little white rabbit¡¯s ear and shifted again. This time I chose to be an eagle. I soared up into the air, flew around the crowd once, and then went to hover next to Reece again. This time, when I spoke, there was a slight clicking from my beak.


    ¡°And an eagle is just as simple for me. Does anyone have any requests for me to be?¡± I called out and looked at the crowd. I didn¡¯t know how many people would yell, but I was going to choose the first that my brain processed.


    ¡°Dog!¡±


    ¡°Wolf!¡±


    ¡°Giraffe!¡±


    ¡°Panda Bear!¡± I knew that there was a lot being said at once, but this was the one that my brain was able to process first. I don¡¯t know if it was the first one said or not, but it was the one that stuck out to me.


    ¡°A panda bear, that is a good one.¡± I nodded my eagle head and shifted into the giant ck and white bear. Only mine was more of a white and blue, because no matter what I became, my coloring always stayed the same. ¡°Are you all satisfied?¡± I held the microphone between my bear-like hands as Reece handed it to me. It was a little difficult, but I managed it. ¡°If you are, then I will let the others show you what they can do.¡±


    Right on cue, Reece and Reagan turned into their other forms. Both of them chose their werewolf form, because that was the simplest at the moment. The others shifted into their other forms as well, showing their wolves, bears, felines, and other creatures. I even saw Shawn shift into his form. He was no longer the same as his brother when in his werewolf form. He was a hybrid now and that meant that he was different.


    Shawn¡¯s wolf was tall, skinny, and pure silver. Not the silvery of their hair, but like the metal itself. He was still soft to the touch, but his fur was extremely short. His snout was longer and thinner, and his teeth were longer. He was also taller than he used to be in this form, and considering that they were already giant wolves, that was saying something. Also, Shawn had no problem walking on two legs, though he was not at all a Lycan. He was just unique. One of only three like that in existence for the time being.


    Jaws were dropped. Eyes were opened wide. The shock of seeing so many different creatures on the stage when they thought that this was just a show was enough to stun them. They had still, after seeing me be three different animals, thought that it was all just a lie. Now though, there were a lot of people on the stage, and they knew that there was no way that so many people would have been able to disappear into trap doors or whatever that quickly. This was the moment that many of them started to believe what was happening.


    At that moment, a scream started from somewhere in the back of the crowd. A woman that was looking at the creatures on the stage and wasn¡¯t able to handle it. The show was slowly starting to progress.

 Chapter 1073 - 1073 Chapter 58- Trinity – The Reveal Part 4 (VOLUME 6)

    1073 Chapter 58- Trinity ¨C The Reveal Part 4 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The screaming got louder. And louder. And of course, louder. There were more and more voices now. Several people screaming now instead of just one. The humans that were in the audience were either watching fascinated like the nonhumans were, or they were screaming. Even a few of the reporters were screaming, afraid for their lives because they were much closer to us than the others were. Lara was, of course, staring right at me as she watched. She was not one of the people that were screaming.


    I decided that it was time for me to shift back into myself, no longer would I be an animal at the moment. I needed them to understand that I was harmless, and so were the others. We still had a long time to go.


    ¡°Please, there is no need to scream.¡± I was myself again, but I wasn¡¯t leaving it at that. I still needed to show them that I was able to perform magic. I started to take a step forward, up onto invisible stairs and tforms. I was using nothing but the air itself, and right there at my side was Rika, walking with me using her new affinity for the wind.


    ¡°None of us are here to hurt you. We are not dangerous. And we have lived among all of you for millennia.¡± Rika spoke into a microphone that she held in her hand as well. Walking beside me she gave them all an earnest, almost pleasing look. She was trying her best to get them to rx and to listen.


    ¡°My daughter is telling the truth. We have always been here. As long as the humans have lived on this, our people have been here as well. We are not a new addition. We have always been with you. We are not dangerous people. We just want to be ourselves, live with our families, work, and be happy, the same as all of you. We are people, just like you are. We just happen to have a slightly different gic makeup.¡±


    ¡°AND YOU ARE IMMORTALS!¡± Lara, the reporter, yelled at me excitedly. I could tell that she was more than ready for this story to hit the presses.


    .....


    ¡°We are immortals now, yes. That happened several years ago when I took the souls of the three gods inside of me. It caused that change in us all. Prior to that, only the Fae and the Vampires were immortal.¡±


    ¡°VAMPIRES DRINK BLOOD!¡± A scared man screamed from the stands. ¡°THEY DRINK HUMAN BLOOD AND KILL US!¡±


    ¡°We don¡¯t just drink human blood.¡± Dietrich said as he responded to the man. The camera focused on him and his pale, pale blue eyes. ¡°We eat food like humans as well. We can feed on humans. And a lot of us are able to go a long time without blood at all. We maintain our souls, and we have families just like the rest of the world. I myself am married and have a family. I wouldn¡¯t trade them for the world.¡±


    ¡°YOU HAVE CHILDREN?!¡± Someone screamed from the crowd. ¡°SOMEONE LET YOU ADOPT THEM!?¡±


    ¡°I have four biological children. And four that are adopted as well. The adopted children are different supernatural children that needed a family of their own. We are a very loving family.¡± He exined to them. ¡°All of us up here have a family in one way or another. We are just like the rest of you. We want to make sure that we have all that life has to offer us.¡±


    ¡°We are not bad people.¡± I reiterated this for them. ¡°Please understand that. We are just people. We have always been here. And in truth, with all of our numbersbined on this, there are more of us than there are humans on the. We have a veryrge poption, and the fact that we have been here this whole time, that should tell you that we are not going to hurt you.¡±


    ¡°Wh..wh..why are you telling us about yourselves now?¡± A woman that was visibly trembling in the front of the stands stuttered out.


    ¡°Would you want to hide what you are forever? In the interest of not having to hide away for years because we do not look the ages that we are, we wanted to tell the world about us. Also, there are some people that think because we assisted aw enforcement group in the investigation of those serial murders this past summer, that we are up to no good.¡±


    ¡°So, you did investigate because of another reason.¡± Laratched onto my words immediately.


    ¡°The reason that we investigated Lara, is because we wanted the murders to stop. Not only that, but that cult group was murdering my people. They were killing werewolves, bears, felines, witches, Fae, vampires. Each and every victim of the Jaegan that were killed, all of those people that were murdered over the summer, they were my people. And as their queen, I wanted to desperately put an end to what was happening. I visited each and every murder scene. I collected evidence that the humans weren¡¯t capable of finding. And we tracked down the killers. They confessed, you saw that, so you know that we didn¡¯t just pin the murders on them. And thankfully, with them gone, there hasn¡¯t been another murder. We can all live in peace now. I can breathe easier knowing that my people are not going to be killed anymore.¡±


    ¡°You have said that a few times now. That you are their queen. How did thate to be?¡± Lara asked as if this was just a normal press conference.


    ¡°I was the Goddess Incarnate. Essentially, the previous goddess of our people chose me to lead her people. I am only the second Goddess Incarnate that she has ever chosen, but I epted my role without question. I learned all that I could and have led my people into prosperity.¡±


    ¡°So, you¡¯re a queen with no castle?¡± A male reporterughed next to Lara.


    ¡°I have quite arge castle. It¡¯s in the mountains of our estate. We cloak it with magic though, so most humans won¡¯t be able to see it.¡±


    ¡°O..oh.¡± The man¡¯s face paled as if he hadn¡¯t expected me to answer him.


    ¡°How are we supposed to trust you?¡± A human in the audience called out to me. ¡°How are we supposed to trust that you won¡¯t just try to kill all of us?¡± She was a little hysterical as she called out to me.


    ¡°Have we tried hurting you before?¡± I asked her earnestly and calmly. Showing her that her question wasn¡¯t getting to me at all. ¡°We have always lived here with you. How many times do you think that you can confirm that someone was killed by a nonhuman? In fact, several times over the centuries, we have had groups that police our people. If they start to harm humans, or even just get a little too unstable, we will arrest them and deal with them. In the past, the policing groups would kill the bad eggs, but we do not do that now, not unless we absolutely have to. And that is no different than someone that has been arrested being sentenced to the death penalty. We are a civilized people. We just want to make the world aware that we are here.¡±


    ¡°WHY!?¡± Another voice yelled. ¡°WHY DO WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOU!? WHY WAS ALL OF THIS NECESSARY!?¡±


    ¡°As I said before, sir, we just do not want to hide anymore. It will be so much easier moving forward, if the entire world is on the same page. The creatures of myths and legends exist. We are here. We have always been here. And we aren¡¯t going away. Nor are we going to hurt you. We just want to live peaceful and rtively stress free lives.¡±


    ¡°OK, say we buy that, what is going to change?¡± That same male reporter from earlier spoke up again.


    ¡°Nothing is going to change. Aside from the fact that you know that not everyone you have met is a human. They are still going to be the same people though. No one is going to behave differently at all. Maybe some people will stop hiding their brightly colored eyes and hair, letting their natural appearances show through, but other than that, nothing at all will change in the world. It¡¯s just simply a case of added knowledge.¡±


    ¡°I DON¡¯T CARE! I THINK THAT YOU ARE MONSTERS! AND THERE IS NO WAY THAT THERE ARE MORE OF YOU THAN THERE ARE OF US!¡± A man was screeching uncontrobly at us. ¡°YOU ARE MONSTERS, FREAKS, CRIMINALS, AND ALL YOU WANT TO DO IS KILL US ALL! WE ARE ALL GOING TO BE DOOMED! WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE! ALL OF US! IF WE DON¡¯T, THEN WE WILL NOT BE PREPARED FOR WHEN THEY LAUNCH THEIR ATTACK ON US!¡±


    The man¡¯s trembling body was already moving as he spoke. He was one of the people that were going to call us horrible names and never trust us. That was fine though. We knew that not everyone would love us. And not only that, but he was telling the people that we were going to attack them. When we don¡¯t attack them, and they see that we are peaceful, this will just help us in the end. We will not be provoked by these people, and we will not resort to violence and war. We will be calm. We will be noble. No matter what happens, we will do our best to prove that we are not a threat.


    That man wasn¡¯t the only one that left at that moment. Several of the other humans that were gathered got up and followed after the man in a hurried run. They left while constantly looking over their shoulder. They must have expected that we were going to follow them and attack them all right now. They were scared though, so I wasn¡¯t going to me them.


    Some of these people that were scared were going to calm down and see the error of their ways. Some of these calm people were going to realize that they are scared and switch sides. And hopefully, many of them would remain neutral so that we could have a semnce of peace in the world.


    Just as I thought that, a man rose to his feet. I saw instantly that it was Ewan, from the diner.


    ¡°I HAVE KNOWN THE GRAYS FOR A LONG TIME! AND BEFORE ME MY GRANNY KNEW THEM! THEY ARE GOOD PEOPLE! THEY HELP EVERYONE THAT THEY CAN! AND THEY ARE GENUINELY CARING TOWARD EVERYONE! I KNOW THAT THEY RUN CHARITIES ALL OVER THE COUNTRY, AND THAT WITHOUT THEM THERE WOULD BE A LOT MORE HOMELESS AND HUNGRY PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD! I THINK THAT WE ALL NEED TO GIVE THEM A SHOT!¡±


    At his words, the nonhumans that were in the crowd stood and started to cheer for us. It couldn¡¯t have gone any better at that moment if we had paid Ewan to say that. It wasn¡¯t nned though. He had risen to his feet and decided to defend us on his own.


    ¡°Thank you, Ewan.¡± I spoke into the microphone. ¡°We love your restaurant, and always have.¡±


    I was going to say more. I had a lot I could say about all the humans that we had known in this city, but at that moment, there was a loud crashing sound outside the stadium. One of the guards that we had stationed there, Kiernan, came running inside in a panic.


    ¡°There are hundreds of protestors outside, Queen Trinity. They are driving cars into the side of the building now.¡± There was another loud crash as he said that.


    ¡°It won¡¯t be safe for these people to leave, not with them out there. They won¡¯t know who is human and who isn¡¯t.¡± I called out to him.


    ¡°The building is surrounded, Queen Trinity. I don¡¯t know what to do.¡± As he spoke, several other guards came running into the room. Their job titles were clear to them. They needed to protect the people that were in here, not necessarily the building.


    ¡°Th..they will kill us all.¡± A woman screeched in the audience and the panic started to deepen among all those that were gathered in the crowd. ¡°We¡¯re all going to die.¡±


    I wouldn¡¯t let that happen. I couldn¡¯t let that happen. I needed to save these people. We would prove to them that we were not the viins. These people that were attacking the stadium, they would use anything that they could to skew the views of the people. If we didn¡¯t stay ahead of them, if we let them win here and now, then there was noing back from this. I knew that, and I was certain that Reece and the others knew it too. The adrenaline that was coursing through me right now had absolutely nothing to do with fear, and almost everything to do with the electrically charged atmosphere.

 Chapter 1074 - 1074 Chapter 59- Trinity- Getting them to Safety (VOLUME 6)

    1074 Chapter 59- Trinity- Getting them to Safety (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I had an idea. One that came to me in an instant. I needed to get the attention of all the people that were in the stadium, to have them listen to me before they let the pandemonium and fear get to them.


    ¡°PLEASE!¡± I almost yelled into the microphone, getting their attention focused on me. ¡°I WILL SAVE YOU ALL! NO ONE HERE WILL BE HURT! I PROMISE YOU ALL THAT!¡±


    ¡°HOW!¡± Lara screamed at me. I could see the fear that was in her eyes, but she wasn¡¯t going to panic. She was maintaining herposure, at least for the most part.


    ¡°I can use magic to get you all out of here. I will take you all to our castle. You will be safe there and we will have our guards drive you all home safely. I promise, none of you are going to die and no one is going to get hurt.¡± There were still cameras that were broadcasting all that happened. The reporters hadn¡¯t stopped them just because there was amotion that was stirring outside. They were used to things getting a little dicey.


    ¡°You can use magic to get us all out of here?¡± One of the nonhumans nted in the audience asked. I don¡¯t know if he was scared or trying to get the others to trust me. It might have been both, honestly.


    ¡°Yes. I will take you all. And you will be safe. I swear on my life and the lives of my children. You wille to no harm from my people.¡±


    .....


    ¡°I..I..I say that we go with her.¡± That male reporter next to Lara spoke up hesitantly. He looked like he wasn¡¯t sure that he should be saying anything at all, but he could clearly tell that there were a lot of rioters outside of the building.


    ¡°Yeah, I think so too. Plus, who doesn¡¯t want to travel to a magical castle, and use magic for that matter.¡± Laraughed nervously. It was the first slip in her armor aside from the fear in her eyes.


    ¡°Yes, all of you, pleasee this way.¡± I started to open arge door that I had connected to the frontwns of the pce. I knew that there would be fewer people there than anywhere else. And it wasrge enough for the influx of people that would being with us.


    ¡°I will guide you all through.¡± Rika called out to them. ¡°Please, follow me and my brother. My mother needs to be thest one through, she will shut the door and keep us all safe.¡± She looked at me and nodded in encouragement.


    ¡°W..w..we just walk through this arch?¡± A scared human man asked as he looked at therge opening. I had made more of an arch than a door because I had so many people that needed to travel at once. It would take too long to get them all to the pce with just a small door.


    ¡°Yes. Just walk through it with us.¡± Rika told them. ¡°Like this.¡± She started to walk through the arch as another crash sounded outside the stadium. They were about to burst inside at any moment.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± The trembling man grabbed a woman¡¯s hand, most likely his wife¡¯s, and hurried after Rika. After watching the two of them pass through with no issues, the others seemed to take that as a cue to walk through the door. At this point, there were maybe thirty humans that were left among us, plus the reporters. It wouldn¡¯t take long for them, but then we had the rest of our people to send through. They needed to hurry, because I knew that the threat was getting closer.


    It took a little while longer, but all of them were finally surging through the arch in a steady stream. They would all be through it in no time at all. I thought that this was all going to be done before the rioters made it inside the stadium.


    Of course, things couldn¡¯t go as I hoped. Not this time anyway. There was another loud crash, and this time I heard the sounds of the walls caving in around the car that had crashed into the building. They were inside. And before I knew it, they would be in here with the rest of us.


    Several people screamed when they heard the sounds of the people rushing into the building. They surged forward and almost started to knock each other over, but with the guidance of Shawn and the others, they managed to get calmed down and stop the frenzy.


    While the others still fled the area, Leelin, Crawford, Eldrige, and I started to put up barriers at all the tunnels into this part of the stadium. We wanted to keep the rioters away long enough to get them all out of here. We needed to protect everyone.


    Some of the reporters and humans that were still streaming through the barrier saw what was happening, how we had cast magic, and nearly froze in ce. They had to be not so gently encouraged to continue their trip to the other side of the arch.


    Finally, it was just me, my guards, and Reece left in the stadium. We were able to see the surging rioters, at least a hundred of them, trying to get through to us. They were angry, and several of them had rifles and other firearms. They were intent on trying to kill us. Also, in the distance, we heard the sirens that seemed to have taken far too long to get here. I know that it had only been a few minutes, and that everything was happening quickly, but it still felt like it had taken far too long for them to get here.


    ¡°Go on.¡± I told Reece and the others. ¡°I wille throughst, clearing the barrier and then shutting the door.¡±


    ¡°Trinity, Little Bunny, I think that we need to go together.¡± Reece protested.


    ¡°Yes, Trinity, we need to go together.¡± Vincent nodded in agreement.


    ¡°None of us are leaving here without you, Trinity.¡± Shane spoke firmly and seriously. He was definitely in work mode, or he wouldn¡¯t be sounding like this right now.


    ¡°Fine. Then be ready to go in three. Two.¡± I started to count down as I watched the arch. It was calm, all the others were through and I saw no one else that needed to get through. ¡°One.¡±


    Just as I said that final number, the others started to rush through the arch. Only there was a problem. I wasn¡¯t moving with them. As I lowered the barrier, I heard the sound of someone that was hiding out among the seats. It was the sound of a teenage girl¡¯s voice. She had obviously been left behind and was too frightened to move. However, when the barriers came down and the men and women with their weapons were able to get through, she screamed in fear.


    ¡°Dammit!¡± I said as I turned and ran on the air toward the sound.


    ¡°TRINITY!¡± Reece screamed after me as I ran away, but he was pulled into the door by the others before they noticed that I wasn¡¯t with them.


    I had to hurry. The barriers were down, so they were in the room. I could put up new barriers, which I did around the arch, but not the doors. There was no reason to block the doors if they were already in here. And I also put a barrier around the girl that was in the stands.


    I ran to her, sprinting as fast as I could on nothing at all. My feetnding on the air like it was solid. The girl¡¯s eyes kept flickering from me to the men that were close to her. They had seen her and were rushing toward her. They thought that she was one of us, that she was a monster. She wasn¡¯t though. I could tell by her scent. She was a human.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got you.¡± I said as I took away the barrier and grabbed the girl¡¯s hand. I used magic to make sure that she wouldn¡¯t slip away from me and threw her over my shoulder. I was running again, as fast as I could, toward the arch. I needed to get out of here. I needed to protect this girl. And I needed to make sure that the others were all doing OK as well. Why had this day turned in the wrong direction?


    I was vaguely aware that there were still cameras that were pointed toward me as I raced toward the arch. They had been left behind by the others and that meant that the world was watching what was happening right now. Well, let them make what they will of it. I just wanted to save these people.


    I let the air solidify in front of me in a downward slope. I needed to hurry, and this was the fastest method that I knew of to go down. I set the girl down in front of me, and then quickly joined her on the invisible slide. Needless to say, the girl was terrified the moment that we started to slide toward the floor and her screams intensified many times over.


    As soon as we were on the floor, only feet away from the door, I dropped the barrier again. The rioters, with their weapons, were so close now, but I was still faster than they were. I picked the girl up once more, threw her over my shoulder, and ran through the arch.


    I felt the shifting in pressure and the magic that pressed around us in that tunnel-like effect. And the moment that I was inside of it, I used my magic to m the door on that side shut. I stopped all the others, the ones with their guns and hate, froming through with me.


    As soon as I was through the arch on the other side, it disappeared behind me. I had already closed the magic, so there was nothing that needed to keep it open. And even though I had the feeling of traveling through the space between the two arches, the time that it took me to get from there to here was only a second if that.


    ¡°Trinity!¡± Reece called out to me as I sat the trembling girl on her feet.


    ¡°Cassidy!?¡± A frantic woman called out as well. ¡°I thought that you were right behind me. Sweetheart, I am so sorry for leaving you.¡±


    ¡°I was too scared to run, Mom. I am so sorry. I was just too scared.¡±


    ¡°M..M..Mrs. Gray, you saved my daughter. If it wasn¡¯t for you, those people would have gotten her. I..I am sorry that I doubted you. I know now that you are a genuinely good person that is as honest as you say. I will trust you from here on out, and I will tell everyone I know to trust you as well.¡±


    ¡°I appreciate that.¡± I didn¡¯t expect both of them to smile. I was still a little too worried and keyed up. ¡°Are you alright?¡± I asked the girl. She had to be no older than sixteen or seventeen, Talia¡¯s age. She was scared and acting younger right now though. I didn¡¯t me her either.


    ¡°Yes, I am. Thank you.¡± She let go of her mother and hugged me tightly. ¡°Thank you so much.¡±


    ¡°I just didn¡¯t want you to be hurt. I don¡¯t ever want anyone to get hurt.¡± I hugged her back, letting my warmth spread to her.


    ¡°My goodness.¡± Lara spoke in shock. ¡°M..Mrs. Gray, you are pregnant. You did all that, saving her and carrying her, and you¡¯re pregnant.¡± I guess that the top that I was wearing sessfully hid the belly like I wanted it to. However, it was now a disheveled mess.


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t matter right now. It didn¡¯t hinder me. All that matters right now is that you are all safe.¡± I looked at them all, seeing their wary and terrified faces. And I knew right then that this wasn¡¯t over. Not yet.

 Chapter 1075 - 1075 Chapter 60- Trinity – Getting a Little Help Part 1 (VOLUME 6)

    1075 Chapter 60- Trinity ¨C Getting a Little Help Part 1 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I could tell that there was still a lot of panic in the eyes of the spectators and reporters that we had brought back here with us to the castle. Some of them were shaking and looking around a little timidly. They looked a lot like sheep that had wandered away from the pasture and were now fearing the big bad wolf that was about to eat them.


    I could have told these people that this was offensive, but it wasn¡¯t their fault. And I knew that, for the most part, a lot of these people weren¡¯t scared of me and my people. They were scared of those rioters that had caused a scene during the reveal that we had nned. We had thus far done nothing at all to these people. They were safe with us, and a lot of them knew that.


    In fact, there were several that were looking at me reverently. They were acting as if I was some massive hero or savior, just because I refused to let a single human get hurt in that chaos. I hadn¡¯t done it for their approval or for their devotion. I didn¡¯t want anything from them except for us to be able to continue to live as we have always lived.


    ¡°Mrs. Gray?¡± Lara Timmons came over toward me, a look of determination on her face. She wasn¡¯t the only one that was walking toward me though, there were others, though it was mostly reporters that were walking with her.


    ¡°Yes, Lara?¡± I gave her a gentle smile despite the pounding of my heart. I was still feeling the adrenaline from the situation that had happened just moments ago.


    ¡°I would like to talk to you. There is a lot that I think we need to discuss.¡± She looked serious as she spoke, a quiet sort of determination in her eyes.


    .....


    ¡°Yes, I do believe that you are right. There is a lot that I need to talk to you and the others about. Before I do that though, allow me to address the group.¡± I looked around me at all of the people that were never meant to be here, but that were here now.


    ¡°Alright. I will wait right here.¡± She nodded and so did several of the others.


    Stepping away from Lara and the other reporters, I rose higher into the air. They had seen me like this before, so this shouldn¡¯t surprise them all that much. However, I did see several sets of wide eyes, as if the spectators were shocked by seeing me use this magic once again.


    ¡°Can I have your attention please?¡± I called out to them, drawing all eyes in the courtyard toward me. Even the eyes of those that were justing out of the castle were trained on me so that they were seeing and hearing all that I was about to say.


    The staff that wasing out right now had all been watching the news when the attack on the stadium had happened. So they knew exactly what had happened. I just hoped that there weren¡¯t any news stations out there that were ming any of that on us. I was sure that there would be though. There would be more people like those that were attacking the stadium, and we would have to deal with them before we could all live in peace. All we needed to do was make sure that they knew that we weren¡¯t a threat.


    ¡°I know that a lot has happened today, and I know that a lot of you are scared. I want you all to know that we are not here to hurt you.¡± I looked at the scared humans and felt an aching in my heart. ¡°I want to open my home to you right now. Any of you that might need some assistance at the moment, we have a world ss psychiatrist here that will be able to help you with any issues that you might need to discuss. If you require any medical attention, we have doctors on hand that can treat your wounds. If you¡¯re simply hungry or need a drink, we open our dining hall to you. I want you all to know that we are allies, one hundred percent, with all of you and all the humans. We are all citizens of this world, and this day does not change that for us. If you choose that you do not want toe into the castle for anything, we will have some of our men drive you home. That is a guarantee no matter what, whenever you do leave, I will see to it that you are taken wherever it is that you need to go.¡±


    There was an eerie calm that followed my words. I didn¡¯t think that what I had just said was all that strange, I just wanted to help these people that had just been through something that was likely very traumatic for them. Was it worth looking at me like I was a strange being from outer space?


    That silence onlysted another moment though. After that, there was an outpouring of cheers and thanks.


    ¡°Thank you so much, Mrs. Gray.¡±


    ¡°Trinity, you are amazing.¡±


    ¡°We love you, Trinity!¡±


    ¡°Thank you so much!¡± The words brought a smile to my face. I couldn¡¯t help it. Listening to all of these words and so many more, it was like I was starting to feel as if what we had done today, the whole reveal ourselves to the world thing, really was the right thing to do.


    The staff that hade out of the castle were attending to the spectators and the reporters that had note over to me. They were taking them inside to rest and rx until they were ready to be taken back to their homes. Juniper was going to be speaking with all of them as well, making sure that they didn¡¯t have anysting trauma or emotional scars from this day.


    The entire time that we moved the people into the castle and started to take care of them, mentally and physically, the reporters that were eager to talk to me were following along behind us like they were a herd of overly friendly and excited dogs. By the time that all of the others were taken care of, I felt like I was going to trip over someone¡¯s tail or something. That was how much they were following me around.


    I will admit, I had to suppress augh when I turned to face them and saw that they were waiting excitedly. I could practically see their tails wagging as they looked at me.


    ¡°Alright Lara, if you would all like to follow me to the throne room, I will talk to you there.¡± I looked at some of them that were still carrying cameras. I was aware that some of them had been filming since they came inside with us, some of them hadn¡¯t stopped filming since this all started. ¡°I am sorry for this, but I would like to ask that none of you film inside of the throne room, please. That is a private ce, as would my own personal residence be in this castle. There are some ces that will be off limits, and I will request that you leave all phones and cameras in the reception area outside of the throne room.¡±


    ¡°I think that is a reasonable request.¡± Lara nodded at me and turned to the others. ¡°You all agree with that, don¡¯t you?¡± She was basically telling them that if they wanted to have an exclusive, then they needed to prove that they weren¡¯t going to stab me in the back.


    ¡°I think it¡¯s understandable.¡± A man with a deep mahoganyplexion and an easy smile nodded immediately.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see what is so private about a throne room.¡± Another man, pale with silvery blond hair and narrow brown eyes red at me.


    ¡°I am sorry, I do not think that I know who you are. I have not yet met all of you.¡±


    ¡°My name is Lucas Habberman, I am with the Weekly Wonder.¡± I knew that newspaper, well magazine. They were one that almost always tried to find a fault in someone or something. This man here wasn¡¯t about to be an ally to me. At least, not right away. I might be able to win him over, but I wasn¡¯t going to hold my breath for that.


    ¡°It is nice to meet you, Lucas. Now, to answer your question about the throne room, well, think about other pces and castles in the world. Most of them don¡¯t allow filming inside of them at all. I have not stopped that from happening. However, the throne room is where there are important discussions that happen among my people. I would like to keep that part of my people¡¯s world safe and sacred. I do hope that you will understand. Also, I am not sure what you all want to discuss with me, and some might wish to retain their anonymity.¡±


    Of course.¡± He smiled and I will not at this moment describe how reptilian it was. If I hadn¡¯t known any better, I would have said that he was a snake or lizard shifter. Then again, I knew that he was as human as all of the others that were here with us, so that look was all just him and his personality. Then again, it could have also been just an unfortunate face that he was born with. Who really knew for sure?


    I nodded at him and then looked at the group of reporters that were with him and Lara. The man that had agreed and understood as well as the other ten with them. There were thirteen in all, a baker¡¯s dozen, and they were all who I was hoping would help me get the truth out to the rest of the world.


    ¡°Before we continue, I would like to be introduced to you all. You all have the advantage of knowing me, but I do not know who most of you are.¡±


    Thankfully, they were all eager to introduce themselves. The man with the mahoganyplexion was known as Darius Ingram, he looked polite as well as smart, so I knew that he would be an excellent addition to the group. Along with him were Tabitha Phillips, Jonathon Kenny, Gwh Holbrook, Travis Connolly, Wade Abberton, Francine Olson, Vivian Miller, Mateo P¨¦rez, Brandy Lexington, and Katya Iliev. This group of reporters were from variouspanies and worked in various mediums for their crafts, but they all had something inmon. They all sought the truth.


    ¡°I thank you all for the introductions and I ask that you all pleasee to join me in the throne room. That is this way.¡± I pointed into the distance and saw them all lean as if they were looking for something to magically appear in front of them. ¡°Vincent here will show us the way, and the others will be joining us as well.¡±


    ¡°Mrs. Gray?¡± Lara looked at me with a grin. ¡°Is it true that you sleep with all of these men?¡± She looked at the handsome men, my entourage of guards that were following us.


    ¡°Absolutely not!¡± Reece snapped in anger. ¡°Where did you hear that?¡± He sounded furious.


    ¡°Calm down, Reece. I am sure that there have been rumors from somewhere.¡±


    ¡°Indeed there are.¡± Lara tried to look a lot smaller than she had been in response to Reece¡¯s anger. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to anger you, it¡¯s just that there are rumors as to why these men are always with you.¡± They all started tough, with the exception of Reece that is.


    ¡°No, I do not sleep with them. I have only been with one man in all of my life, and that is my husband Reece. The others are like brothers to me. They are my guards and close advisers. They are all just as happily married as I am. So, to answer that question Lara, I have never slept with a single one of them.¡±


    ¡°Well, at least we can say that you people have morals.¡± Lucas grinned and I saw a slight lessening of that cunning look. I was starting to think that perhaps he was just unfortunate looking after all.


    ¡°We prefer to be called super naturals.¡± I smiled at him. ¡°And we have a lot of morals. You will find that the majority of our people will bepletely faithful once they decide to marry. We are intensely loyal to our lovers as well, so there won¡¯t be much infidelity among our kind.¡±


    ¡°Good to know.¡± Katya smiled and her dark eyes crinkled.


    ¡°Alright then, allow us to continue. Vincent, if you wouldn¡¯t mind.¡±


    ¡°Of course, Trinity.¡± He gave the gathered crowd a nod and then turned to lead us in the direction of the throne room. It was time for us to start discussing whatever it was that Lara had in mind earlier. I was sure that whatever it was going to be, it had to be interesting.


    logo


    This is the end of Part One, and download

 Chapter 1076 - 1076 Chapter 61- Trinity – Getting a Little Help Part 2 (VOLUME 6)

    1076 Chapter 61- Trinity ¨C Getting a Little Help Part 2 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Normally, I would enter the throne room from the back. I would not be entering it with the crowd that I was intending to speak to. I would do things by the book and y the role of the queen that I had held for a long time now.


    This time though, there was no need to enter like that. They were literally following along after me and the others at the moment, so there was no need to have me walk all the way around to the other side of the throne room just to enter facing them. That would just dy this conversation unnecessarily. Not only that, but I was sure that these humans would feel a lot better if we were all to enter the space together.


    There were literal oohs and ahhs from behind me as we entered the throne room. The guests to this ce that had never seen it before were obviously impressed by what it was that they saw.


    ¡°This room is huge.¡± I heard Travis breathe the words out softly. He obviously didn¡¯t think that I would be able to hear him.


    ¡°Yes, well, I need to have room for quite a few members of my kingdom. We have quite the extensive guestlist at times.¡±


    ¡°O..oh.¡± I saw him out of the corner of my eye, his face was turning a bright crimson red. He was embarrassed.


    .....


    ¡°I know that we have a lot to discuss, and I think that this should be a little more intimate and special than most other discussions that I have. Shawn, Dietrich, do either of you object to these men and women sitting in the seats meant for our advisory council?¡± I was asking them because some of the seats were theirs, but also because I wanted to make sure that the humans knew they were being treated with respect.


    ¡°I think that would be best.¡± Dietrich nodded and gave them a smile. ¡°This way please, if you will all follow me.¡±


    The guards guided them to their seats at the lesser dais. Most of the guards moved to stand around Reece and I on the stage, but some of them stayed around the reporters. It wasn¡¯t prudent to let them gopletely unguarded in our home. Not at this point in time anyway.


    ¡°Alright.¡± I called out as I sat on my throne. ¡°We can start discussing whatever it was that you had on your minds. Lara, I do believe that you were the one that was starting this earlier, would you like to begin?¡± I waved in a weing gesture to let her know that she had the floor.


    ¡°Thank you, Mrs. Gray.¡± She rose from her seat, obviously not wanting to talk while still seated. ¡°The things that I wanted to discuss with you earlier, and still wish to talk about now, are where we all go from here. I think that I am in perfect agreement with those that are gathered here with me when I say that we are all stunned and amazed. I mean, there were rumors, like the ones about you and your guards, which talked a lot about you not being human. That permanently young face of yours has led to a lot of talk over the years.¡± She winked at me. ¡°I know that we are not supposed to believe rumors, but there was a lot that we who strive for the truth just couldn¡¯t overlook. Now that we have been given the truth by you though, I think that you need our help more than ever before.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I agree.¡± My answer came easily, but the words that came from Reece at almost the same time weren¡¯t in sync with me at the moment.


    ¡°Why do we need you now more than ever?¡± He asked her.


    ¡°Well Mr. Gray, you have just told the world that these rumors are true. And as we all saw at the stadium, there are a lot of people that don¡¯t like the idea of that. I don¡¯t know how many people like that there are in this world, but I think that there are going to be a lot of them. And some people that might join them because they simply don¡¯t know any better. Right now, you need us to get the truth out there. We need to tell the world what kind of people you really are. We need to show them the good that you have done over the years, and that you will continue to do over time.¡± Lara¡¯s words were spot on in my opinion. I knew that she was going to be an asset to me.


    ¡°I agree with Lara.¡± Darius rose to his feet. ¡°There are a lot of things that the world doesn¡¯t know about monste¡­ Erm, I mean, about super naturals. There are a lot of things that we need to learn from you so that we can tell the world that they have nothing to fear.¡± His face darkened in color, not really showing red but definitely a blush that showed how embarrassed that he was about almost calling us monsters. That was something that I knew was going to happen no matter what. There would be people that just didn¡¯t know what to call us, and monster was going to be their go to word.


    ¡°Thank you, Darius.¡± I showed him that I held no ill will toward him for that slip of the word. ¡°We really are going to be relying on all of you to help get the truth out. We will never lie to you, and I just ask that you show us the same courtesy by not lying about us to the rest of the world.¡±


    ¡°Mrs. Gray, I assure you that I will never lie. I will give the facts as I have them, and if people continue to hide the truth from me I can only specte on what has been told or shown to the world, but once I have learned the truth, I will make sure that it is out there for the entire world to see.¡± Lara sounded more serious than I ever thought that she would be. She was definitely wanting to prove to me that she wasn¡¯t going to make up stories about us.


    ¡°That is good to know. Are all of you in a simr frame of mind?¡± I looked over the other dozen of them and saw more or less that all of them were nodding in agreement. ¡°Good. Now that we have that settled, I will begin to answer your questions.¡±


    A sort of palpable excitement had just flowed through the room following my statement. They were excited to hear what it was that I was going to tell them. And I was equally excited. Only my eagerness about the reverse of theirs. I was excited to know what they were going to ask me. I mean, what was it that a human wanted to know about a supernatural such as me and the others that were part of my kingdom? Their questions had to be interesting, didn¡¯t they?


    ¡°Well Mrs. Gray, may I begin?¡± Lara, who was still standing, asked with shining eyes and a huge smile.


    ¡°Be my guest, Lara.¡± I felt a flutter in my stomach at the prospect of telling her what she wanted to know.


    ¡°I have a lot of questions that I want to ask, but I think that we all want to know this one. How long have you been a queen?¡± There was a murmur of assent that went through the others, they did want to know this.


    ¡°I found out that I was the Goddess Incarnate on my wedding day. So, I have known since March seventeenth, Two thousand and twenty-one. I was neen at the time.¡±


    ¡°So, almost twenty years now?¡± Wade affirmed.


    ¡°Yes. This March will be twenty years since I have been the queen. However, it took me a little more than two years to get things in order for the kingdom. I had a lot of help to get things set up. The Fae kingdom that I visited first while I was pregnant with my twins.¡± I turned to look at the twins in question and then continued to exin to the reporters. ¡°I had visited with the queen there and struck up a friendship. Shortly after that, when I was learning more about myself and my history, where my family came from and all that, I learned that I was part Fae. The connection to that kingdom was my great great great grandfather, Valerian. He is still alive, one of the original immortals in this world. He and my aunt, Queen Gloriana, helped to teach me what it meant to run a kingdom. I do not run my kingdom the same as theirs, because we are different people, but I have learned a lot from their guidance.¡±


    ¡°That is fair.¡± Lucas was nodding with a smile. ¡°What I want to know, Mrs. Gray, is how many people are there in your kingdom. You said there were a lot, but how many exactly?¡±


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t have an exact number on me right now, Lucas, but as I said earlier, more than half of the people on this.¡±


    ¡°You were serious about that?¡± he looked shocked by this statement. ¡°There are more people that aren¡¯t human than there are people that actually are human? Is that what you are telling me?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that is what I am telling you, Lucas. There are more nonhumans in the world than there are humans. And all we want is to live in peace and harmony with you all like we have been. The only difference here is that you will all know of our existence now.¡±


    ¡°Wow.¡± Tabitha breathed in surprise. ¡°So, we are more than outnumbered, but we aren¡¯t going to be taken over.¡±


    ¡°No, you won¡¯t be taken over. That is not what we are after.¡±


    A wave of relief washed over several of the reporters. I think that they were still iffy and wary about this whole thing, but knowing that we weren¡¯t going to try and take over the world was a major relief for them all. Why they even thought that we would, now of all times, was beyond me.


    The questions continued. They wanted to know more about us and the different types of powers that we had. I didn¡¯t go into details about anyone¡¯s powers specifically, but I did mention that we had healing abilities that worked on the mind and the body. I told them that we had elemental and other magical abilities, as they had seen me use. I told them that the shifters and others among us had rapid healing, fast metabolisms, and heightened senses. They wanted to know what set us apart from them, and I did my best to exin it to them.


    Of course, the standard questions about the myths came up as well. They wanted to know about full moons, garlic, silver, and all the other things that are supposed to harm our kind. They were shocked that almost none of the myths and legends had any of that correct, and that we were essentially just altered versions of humans. We were just stronger, faster, and lived longer. That was the main difference between us and them.


    The more that I exined to these people, the more it seemed like they were epting and understanding what it was that I had to tell them. The information was flowing freely, and hardly ever did I refuse to tell them something that they wanted to know. They learned pretty quickly not to ask about someone¡¯s personal life, but other than that they were free to ask whatever it was that they wanted to.


    This impromptu Q & A sessionsted us a good portion of the day, but it was necessary in my opinion. The more that they knew and werefortable with us, the more that they were to share in a positive light with the world. I wasn¡¯t going to delude myself into thinking that all thirteen of these people were going to sing ourplete praises and tell the world, but I was hoping that at least half of them would share the positivity about us all. The more allies that we had at this point in time, the easier it would be to transition into a world with no secrets.


    Finally, when all the questions seemed to be over with, or at least all that they were able to think of at this time, it was time to call an end to this meeting. I knew that there was a little more that I wanted to talk about though, so I sent Gabriel to ask one of the reporters to stay while the others left.


    And thankfully they agreed, because Lara only pretended to be leaving with the others before she turned back to face me with a grin. I had told Gabriel to take her upstairs to my office. That was where I would talk to her about onest thing that I had in mind. With my fingers crossed, I headed upstairs to wait for her. I, of course, was taking a magical door to get there before her. I mean, why else have magic if you couldn¡¯t use it to your advantage from time to time. Not that I would ever say that to a human. Goddess no.

 Chapter 1077 - 1077 Chapter 62- Trinity – Personal Reporter (VOLUME 6)

    1077 Chapter 62- Trinity ¨C Personal Reporter (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I was sitting at my desk when there was a knock on the door. I heard Lara¡¯s voice from the hall as she spoke to Gabriel.


    ¡°She was still in the throne room when we left. Why would you think that she is in the office already? Aren¡¯t we here before her?¡± With a grin, I called out to the two of them.


    ¡°Come in.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± She was shaken for a moment before I heard the sound of flesh on flesh. I had a mental image of her pping her forehead in realization. ¡°She used another magical door.¡±


    ¡°Yes, she did.¡± Gabriel spoke calmly as he opened the door. There was absolutely no shock on the woman¡¯s face when she entered my office and saw me, Reece, and my entourage of guards. We had gotten here long before she had and were now sittingfortably.


    ¡°Why did I have to walk here if you were all taking a door?¡± She didn¡¯t look upset at all, actually, she was grinning like this was all very fun to think about.


    .....


    ¡°I didn¡¯t want the others to wonder why you were traveling somewhere else with me. I wanted them to think that it was Gabriel that needed to talk to you.¡±


    ¡°So, I take it that this is a private conversation then. Well, as private as it can get for a queen with an entourage.¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± I nodded and pointed toward a chair. ¡°Please, have a seat here. I wish to discuss something with you.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡±


    She wasn¡¯t nervous. She wasn¡¯t scared. She had no reservations whatsoever. In fact, it seemed that Lara was having the time of her life right now. Was this what it was like when a reporter was excited about something? I had a feeling that it was.


    ¡°Now, Lara, when you were talking earlier, telling me how you will never spread lies about me, I actually had someone check to see if you were being honest with me. Not that I doubted you, that wasn¡¯t it at all. It¡¯s just that, as you might understand, a queen needs to know for certain, especially in times like these.¡±


    ¡°I understand.¡± She nodded as she crossed one leg over the other and leaned forward in curiosity. ¡°How did you have them check to see if I was telling the truth though? It¡¯s not like I took a lie detector test.¡±


    ¡°Well, you can consider it to be like that.¡± Vincent spoke up as Gabriel took his ce opposite him. They were standing behind me as the right and left hand men that assisted me.


    ¡°Come again?¡± Lara was confused.


    ¡°Gabriel and I are somewhat like lie detectors. We can tell if someone is lying to Queen Trinity. And we are able to detect if someone will betray her as well. We are very essential to her, especially when working with people that are new.¡±


    ¡°Wow. That is amazing. I am going to guess that is something that you want to keep a secret from the rest of the world. If that were the case, then you lose the advantage.¡±


    ¡°Precisely.¡± I agreed. She was smart, that was going to make this easier. ¡°Now, since I know that you will not betray us and you are only interested in publishing the truth, I would like to offer a partnership with you. I might add another of your colleagues sometime in the future, but you will be the first among them all.¡±


    ¡°A partnership?¡± She raised a brow, but not in confusion. I think this was more intrigue than anything.


    ¡°Yes. You see, we need to get our story out there and in the best possible light. While I know that manipting the press is wrong, there is nothing wrong with having someone that has an exclusive inside track for information. I am offering this first to you, Lara. I want you to help us get the general popce on our side.¡±


    ¡°So, I will get exclusive interviews, but what else? Will you tell me news as it is happening so that I can be the first to release it? Will I get bonus information that perhaps the others won¡¯t get?¡±


    ¡°Yes and yes. We will do all that we need to do so that we can make sure that my people are safe. There is going to be some tense moments in the future, that were made clear today at the stadium, but I want to make sure that the rest of the world knows who to me when these events happen. My people have not caused issues like this. My people are innocent in this scenario, and I am going to rely on you to help us prove that.¡± I paused for a moment as I thought about how today would have gone had I not been able to save them all in time. ¡°What do you say?¡± I asked her, needing to get this n set into motion as soon as I could.


    ¡°I say that I am excited to be working with you.¡± Lara rose to her feet. ¡°I want the truth revealed as well, and getting exclusive interviews will help me as much as you. I will be the go to gal for this issue, and that will boost my career as well. Mind you, I think that I would do this no matter what, even if it wasn¡¯t that much of a boon to me personally.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± That was a little shocking to hear.


    ¡°And why is that?¡± I asked her, not really sure why a reporter would say that they would follow through with this even if they thought that it would destroy their career.


    ¡°Well, think about it Mrs. Gray, the best journalists are the ones that take risks. And those that are remembered throughout history will be the ones that risked it all for the truth. Not just for the story itself, but for the truth. I might be a reporter, but I am a big supporter of the truth and helping people.¡±


    ¡°You know what, Lara?¡± I grinned at her as I felt an unexpected feeling rush through me. ¡°I think that we are going to get along really well.¡±


    ¡°I agree.¡± She nodded at me.


    ¡°Also, Lara, call me Trinity. If we are going to be working together, I think that you deserve that little familiarity.¡±


    ¡°I appreciate that, Trinity.¡±


    I spoke with Lara and the others for a little while longer. We needed to get this all settled before she left. She was going to have the numbers to all of my guards, in the event of an emergency that mighte up. She will need to call them, and there were times that they might need to call her. She would be the first one invited to all future press conferences and even some meetings that were going to take ce among me and my people. As long as it wasn¡¯t a private issue, she would be able to give an inside view into the life of a supernatural being.


    I have to admit that having a personal reporter that would always be working to promote your best image was a good idea. And I was happy that I had thought of it. The more people that we had like her, promoting nothing but eptance and understanding of our people the better it would get with each passing day.


    All that I was talking with Lara about was political and kingdom rted issues, but she brought up something else that I hadn¡¯t thought much about. She wanted to know if she should do a series of pieces that had to do with the everyday lives of nonhumans and how we were the same as the humans when it came down to the parts that mattered the most.


    In truth, I thought that this was an excellent idea. If we were able to show them that we were just as normal as they were, then maybe we would be able to convince some of the people that would be on the fence to side with us rather than against us. The fewer misunderstandings that they had about us, the better life would be in the long run.


    We agreed that the first thing that we would show the world was Christmas with our family. As the years had passed, there was a lot that Reece and I had done with the kids and themunity. I initially thought that this would be inappropriate to showcase. Not because I didn¡¯t want Lara to show my holiday to the world, but because I didn¡¯t want to take her away from her family.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that.¡± She grinned and waved a hand at me. ¡°I have no family. I wasn¡¯t an orphan growing up or anything, but it was just my mom and I. She died when I was in college though, so now it is just me. There is nothing to take me away from.¡±


    ¡°Friend?¡± I asked her with a hopeful tone.


    ¡°I work too much.¡± She shook her head.


    ¡°Alright then.¡± I nodded at her. I was already nning on including her in the celebrations so that she would be able to experience a true Gray Family Christmas.


    We made arrangements for Lara to be here at seven in the morning on Christmas, which was only a few days away. She would have a camera and other recording equipment, but she would be alone. She didn¡¯t want to ruin things by bringing other people. Not to mention that most of the people that would be a part of her crew had families and therefore obligations for the holiday.


    With all the discussions over, it was time to call it a day. Or at the very least it was time to take a break. I honestly felt like the day hadsted a week, but I also knew that there was a lot more that we needed to do. Some lunch would be good though. A little bit of resting and rxing while we ate a meal with the gathered group. The kids still weren¡¯t here though, and wouldn¡¯t being back tonight either. They would be back in a few days, when we were sure that things would be safe for them. I didn¡¯t want to put our family in danger.


    The guards, Reagan, Rika, Athair m¨°r, Daciana, Trevor, Aunt Glory, and several other members of our close knit group joined us for the meal, as did the ambassadors from around the world. We knew that they had all had a hard day as well, and they needed to rest and rx just as much as we did.


    The food, prepared by Abigail, was delicious as always. And thepany was pleasant. It was just the thought of returning to work when this was all done that put me on edge and made the remainder of the afternoon a little less than pleasant. We had made progress in the reveal and getting the public on our side. We had had a setback when that group of people decided to riot and attack the building. There was just no knowing what else was happening at the moment though. We had a lot that we still needed to do, and so little time to get it done.


    Fast and efficient, that was going to be our motto for right now. Work fast. Get the news out there. Show the world that we are not evil. That was the focus. That was what we were all working towards.


    I was sure that the others were as tired and exhausted as I felt right now, but we would manage to get it all done. We had never failed, not yet. And I wouldn¡¯t let this be the task that took me out. I would do this. I would protect my people. No matter what it was, I would make sure that my people had nothing to fear in this world. Nothing at all.

 Chapter 1078 - 1078 Chapter 63- Various – During the Reveal Part 1 (VOLUME 6)

    1078 Chapter 63- Various ¨C During the Reveal Part 1 (VOLUME 6)


    *** These next couple of chapters will be told from the point of view of various people. These people will be those that were watching the broadcast as it happened and their responses to what was revealed to the world. This is to give you an insight into how the people of the world are reacting. Not just the negative but the positive and indifferent as well. Personally, I feel that this information is important to the story, and I hope that you all agree with me as well. ***


    *~~* Los Angeles, California *~~*


    When this day started, I didn¡¯t know what it was that I was going to see on the television while I was having ate breakfast with some of my friends from university. I was in myte thirties now, but that didn¡¯t stop me from getting together with my friends from time to time. Especially when I was back in L.A. for work. My wife and I lived in Michigan, and therefore it wasn¡¯t often that I got to see these friends of mine.


    I was a little sad that I wasn¡¯t going to get to see my closest friends while I was here. Even now, almost twenty years after we had met, I was still really close to Ocean and Makai. They had moved to Colorado though, a recent move that they had just made a few months ago. That was fine. We were nning on visiting them over the holiday, it was a tradition of ours. And I was no stranger to snow, unlike Ocean and Makai. They had lived in California most of their lives. And before that, Makai had lived in Florida.


    ¡°Hey Derek!¡± I heard Jason call out to me. ¡°Over here man.¡±


    ¡°Hey!¡± I waved at the group of friends that I hadn¡¯t seen in a while.


    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s order soon. I am starving.¡± Owen joked.


    ¡°Yeah, yeah, keep your pants on.¡± I shook my head at him and rushed over. I shook their hands, high fived, or hugged them in greeting as I sat at the end of one of the benches. ¡°So, what¡¯s good?¡± I picked up the menu.


    ¡°Psshh.¡± Nick scoffed at me. ¡°Come on man, we¡¯ve only been eating here since college, you know what is good.¡± He was right about that. And I had already known what I was going to get even before I got here. Still, I always looked at the menu to check and see if it had changed.


    .....


    We ced out orders for our meal, sipped on our drinks, and started to catch up on our lives. There was a football game ying in the background. I wasn¡¯t all that interested in it, but I knew that Jason was. He was watching it intently as he tried to keep up with the conversation. So, when it was interrupted we all knew about it immediately.


    ¡°What the hell?¡± He said shocked as he looked at the screen. ¡°Come on, bring back the game, dammit!¡±


    ¡°What is going on?¡± Nick asked as he turned to face the screen.


    ¡°Some sort of special broadcast.¡± Jason shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t care about that, I want to watch the game.¡±


    ¡°Well, maybe it¡¯s important.¡± I told him as I focused on it.


    I didn¡¯t know what was going on at first, but I knew that there were a few people that I recognized on the TV. Standing among the group behind the man and woman that were the main focus of the broadcast were Analise and Reef Rivers. Makai¡¯s parents. What were they doing there?


    I listened raptly after that, as did everyone else that was watching. I mean, there was no other choice. This broadcast had started toe through on our phones as well. And no matter what channel the waitress tried to change the TV to, it was always the same. This broadcast was literallymanding every station and smart phone that there was.


    I listened as the woman on the screen told the world about the existence of people that weren¡¯t human. They mentioned werewolves, vampires, merfolk, and others. I felt a bubble of excitement starting to build inside of me. I was happy in that moment for reasons that most of the people in the world wouldn¡¯t understand.


    This broadcast wasn¡¯t telling me anything that I didn¡¯t know. I had known since my second year in college that there were nonhuman people in the world. In fact, those friends of mine, Ocean and Makai, were among them. And so were Analise and Reef.


    ¡°Wh..what?¡± I heard Jason exim in shock when he saw the people on the screen change their forms. ¡°This has to be a joke, doesn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°It has to be.¡± Nick was shaking his head. ¡°I mean, creatures like that are not real.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it has to be special effects.¡± Owen was obviously not convinced by his own words.


    ¡°YES!¡± I had leapt to my feet and started to cheer loudly. The entire restaurant was looking at me in that moment, their eyes no longer glued to the TV. ¡°YES! YES! YES! YES!¡±


    ¡°What is the matter with you?¡± Owen asked me worriedly.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have to hide it anymore. I don¡¯t have to hide the fact that two of my best friends in the entire world are not human. The fact that they exist is now known to the world. OH, SHIT! This is so exciting! YES! YES! YES!¡±


    ¡°Wait, what?¡± Nick looked at me with eyes as wide as saucers. ¡°You knew that there were nonhumans in the world?¡±


    ¡°Yup. For close to twenty years now. And now I don¡¯t have to hide it. This is awesome.¡±


    ¡°Wait, two of your best friends? A..are you talking about Ocean and Makai?¡± Owen¡¯s jaw dropped as he asked me that.


    ¡°Yes. Makai is a Merman, and Ocean is a Siren. I have known this for a long time. I mean, it¡¯s been almost seventeen years since I found out about them, and I am so excited that the rest of the world can know that these amazing people actually exist now.¡±


    ¡°You have met people like them before?¡± A man across the restaurant asked me with his mouth hanging open in shock. His face was also pale, he was clearly scared.


    ¡°Yeah. And they are the nicest people in the world. There are more people like them that there are humans. They have lived here for as long as we have, and there is nothing to worry about.¡± I was trying to help these people understand what was happening at the moment.


    ¡°He¡¯s right.¡± A petite woman walked toward me. She was a waitress and I saw that she was nervous. ¡°I..I am one of them. I..I am a Mermaid.¡± She looked nervously around the room, her pink hair swaying as she turned her head quickly. ¡°We are not here to hurt anyone. We just want to live our lives like the rest of you. Just like Queen Trinity said.¡± There was a moment of silence that followed the woman¡¯s deration before another person stood up.


    ¡°I am a Fae. I am a descendant of the gods and closely bonded to nature. My people help to preserve the world and keep the natural bnce of nature. We don¡¯t like violence and strive for peace.¡± This woman had long flowing brown hair and warm chocte eyes. Herplexion, a spiced mocha color, fit her perfectly. She looked to me like she was closely rted to trees, or something else earthy like that.


    ¡°S..s..so there are two of you here right now. A..and you know two more?¡±


    ¡°I know a lot more than two. I just mentioned the two.¡± I grinned at the cook that had stepped to the counter. He was looking at his waitress withrge, wondering eyes. ¡°A..and you, Nadia, you have been working here with me for five years. Y..you¡¯re not human?¡± The woman shook her head.


    ¡°No Dev, I am not. I..is that OK?¡± She looked scared and nervous now.


    ¡°Well, I am shocked, that is for sure. B..but I have known you for a long time. I know your family, and I know how good of a person that you are. In my opinion, that is all that matters.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Dev.¡± She blushed as she looked at him and apuse rang up at her words.


    ¡°YES! See, we¡¯re all still the same people, it¡¯s just a new understanding of the world.¡± The restaurant was far from full, but seeing that they were all epting of the nonhumans that were here was a nice feeling. I hoped that it would be like this for the rest of the people that learned the truth.


    *~~* Denver, Colorado *~~*


    I had been busy on this for months. Long before I took the information to my supervisors and got permission to officially pursue this as a case. Long before I got those strangeb test results. I had been hunting for the truth for so long, and then this happened.


    Just the other day I had called Reece Gray and talked to him about the findings. I was hoping that he would slip up and tell me what he really was. I mean, I didn¡¯t really think that he would do that, he was a smart man after all, but I had hoped that I might be able to catch him off guard and force something out of him. That hadn¡¯t happened though, and I was left twiddling my thumbs.


    Now, though, as we were busy trying to figure out the truth of what was happening in this world. Trying to find answers to why various FBI agents and other people involved with the Grays weren¡¯t aging. Why the Grays were involved in police cases that went back twenty years. And just what it was that these people were, and where they all came from, the truth was revealed for us.


    I was working at my desk, myputer screen showing me file after file with information that I had collected recently. Then, all of a sudden, there was an emergency broadcast that wasing from everyputer, phone, and other device connected to the inte or a broadcastwork. This was something that came as a shock to us all, and we needed to know why it was happening.


    As some of us listened to what was being said in the broadcast, others were making call after call. I was on hold waiting for a call to the pentagon when I heard the substance of the broadcast.


    Trinity and Reece Gray were on the screen to tell the world that they weren¡¯t human. They mentioned in their little speech that there were people that wanted to expose them to the world, so they thought that they would do it on their own terms. The people that they were referring to was me and my team. We wanted the world to know that there were monsters living among us. I knew that the Grays had to have been something like vampires, they never aged over thest twenty years. Or at least they had barely aged.


    As it turned out though, the Grays were werewolves, but there were a lot of people with them that weren¡¯t human. Werewolves, Vampires, witches, Fae, shifters of all sorts, they were all real and they lived among us.


    ¡°D..did they say that more people were like them than not?¡± I heard Agent Austin ask in a shaking voice. ¡°There are that many of them in the world?¡±


    ¡°No, there can¡¯t be.¡± I shook my head and stared at the screen. ¡°They are lying. And they are also breaking thew right now. This is an illegal broadcast.¡±


    ¡°Actually, it isn¡¯t.¡± A voice spoke to me over the phone. ¡°This broadcast has been given executive approval by the president and by several other nations. This isn¡¯t just a national broadcast, but a worldwide broadcast. And they are not lying, there are more nonhumans in the world than there are humans. Now, if you are calling for the same thing that the others are, then this conversation is over. Our lines are obviously overwhelmed with all of you contacting us at once. What they are saying is true. Listen to them and ept them. They¡¯ve lived among us since the dawn of time.¡± The line went dead in my ear.


    ¡°What the hell?¡± I looked at the phone.


    ¡°Orson?¡± Austin was looking at me warily. ¡°What happened?¡±


    ¡°Th..the pentagon said that it¡¯s all true. And that they have permission for this broadcast. It¡¯s global. They aren¡¯t human. And there are apparently more of them than there are of us.¡± I felt my heart nearly stop as I repeated the information. It was just so hard for me to process it all.


    ¡°Are you serious?¡± The entire office seemed to echo that to me at once.


    ¡°What is going to happen with our case?¡± Agent West asked in a tone of dread. And at that moment I heard thest voice that I wanted to hear at the moment.


    ¡°Your investigation is done. You are not to pursue this anymore at all.¡± I looked up into my superior¡¯s eyes as he stood on the balcony over us all. His office was on the floor above that looked over the pen, that was what we called the area our desks were all gathered at.


    ¡°Sir, you can¡¯t do this. Please, Director Glick, they aren¡¯t human. They are monsters. We need to arrest them all.¡±


    ¡°Arrest half the country? Why? Have theymitted crimes? Have they done anything wrong at all? Even the Grays, that you were so focused on, have they done anything wrong? Or did you just not like them stepping in to help with the investigation?¡±


    ¡°W..well, I assumed that there had to be corruption among that FBI office. I mean, why else let private citizens help them look for those murderers?¡±


    ¡°Well, now you know. They were looking for the monstrous humans that were hunting their people. They are innocent, and they are not to be investigated until they actuallymit a crime. Do you understand me, Orson?¡±


    ¡°Yes sir, but I know that they have to be-.¡±


    ¡°DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME, ORSON?¡± He snapped at me loudly then.


    ¡°Yes, sir.¡± I nodded and felt myself deting. This was the shittiest way to end my investigation. Everything that I had been working for, it was all gone. All of it. The world had been told about these nonhumans, and there were no charges that I could bring against them. Dammit! What was I supposed to do now, huh? Did they expect me to just ept these people and move on?


    What the hell was wrong with everyone? Why were they so ready to just ept that they weren¡¯t human and move on? How could they be OK with these monsters living among us?


    ¡°Well, I guess that¡¯s the end of it.¡± Austin sighed as he started to gather his materials. They were files that we had been building for months.


    ¡°No, that isn¡¯t the end of it.¡± I red at the balcony where Director Glick had so recently been. ¡°I am not letting this go. Those monsters aren¡¯t going to get away with this. Not on my watch.¡±


    I would make these people pay. I would see to it that the world was ours once again. I didn¡¯t care if I had to do this without the support of my boss, I would free our society from those beasts. And I knew that I wasn¡¯t going to be the only one that felt this way.

 Chapter 1079 - 1079 Chapter 64- Various – During the Reveal Part 2 (VOLUME 6)

    1079 Chapter 64- Various ¨C During the Reveal Part 2 (VOLUME 6)


    *** More scenes from other people as the reveal was happening. ***


    *~~* London, Ennd *~~* (Third Person POV)


    Whitney Moore was sitting in her favorite pub when a broadcast came over the telly. It was an American broadcast that was happening live at the moment. Where Whitney was, in London, it was after seven in the evening, but wherever it was on the broadcast was around midday. The patron of the pub had been watching a football match when the interruption had urred.


    ¡°Oi, what is this?¡± A man across the pub yelled out when the broadcast started. Whitney ignored it, focusing on what was being said at the moment. She knew that this was going to happen today, but she hadn¡¯t known exactly when it was going to happen.


    ¡®This is it.¡¯ She thought to herself as she looked at the screen. ¡®This is what they warned us about.¡¯


    ¡°Put the match back on!¡± Another patron shouted as the channel on the telly was changed again and again. It was then that the others noticed the same messageing through on their mobiles. They were not able to get away from this broadcast no matter what.


    Listening to those around her and watching the telly at the same time, Whitney was getting nervous. She wasn¡¯t the only werewolf in this pub at the moment, but there were a lot of humans here as well. All of them sat there nervously as Queen Trinity revealed their existence to the world. Whitney was just d that they weren¡¯t going to know what her name was, they weren¡¯t exposing people individually so that they could all keep their anonymity.


    ¡°What is this? They tell us that half the blokes in the world are not human? Yeah, we know that already.¡± A patron called out. ¡°I have know that since I was a weed. Me best bloke in primary was a werewolf. Why is this news? Put my match back on.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I knows it too.¡± Another man with a thick Irish ent called out so that Whitney and the other wolves in the pub could hear him. ¡°Half me vige back home is not human. We all know about them.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Is that so?¡± A youngd of about eighteen called out to the two men.


    ¡°You just leaning this now, boy?¡± The first man called out.


    ¡°Ai. I never knew there was werewolves in the world.¡±


    ¡°Get ya facts, boys. They been livin here for longer then we have.¡±


    Whitney, as well as the others, felt a proud rush of relief. There were already so many people that knew about them here, and they epted them too. It was easier for them to rx now, and to enjoy the drinks that they had ordered when they arrived. Now that they didn¡¯t have to worry about the world turning on them that is.


    *~~* New York City *~~* (Third Person POV)


    The two news anchors for the afternoon news were in the middle of a story about the local Christmas light disys and the best ces to go with your family. At this time in the day, unless there was a breaking news story, they usually talked about the more mundane and often positive things in the world. At least that has been how it was for thest fifteen years or so. Ever since the fake news epidemic that hit the airwaves in the twenty tens and the twenty twenties.


    The way things were now was definitely preferrable to how they used to be. That was something that Tinley Fraiser could fully attest to. She had supposedly been in her early twenties when things started to hit the fan back then, and she was just starting out in her journalism career. Thankfully, she still held her position at the station, though she was no longer a lowly intern that got more coffee than actual experience. Now, she was a news anchor that broadcast on a daily basis.


    Sitting next to Tinley was her cohost, Ryan Decker. The two had been cohosting this segment of the news together for eight years now, they were staples of the show that everyone was familiar with and loved. They were actually quite popr when hosting together, and the viewer counter during their time hosting together had improved drastically over the years.


    Those behind the camera were certain that it all had to do with Tinley¡¯s ethereal beauty that just seemed to radiate through the camera and captivate men and women alike. No one had everined about her being on the show before, and they never expected that they would.


    As the two were talking about the twinkling and festive lights around the city, an emergency broadcast took over the station. This sort of thing didn¡¯t happen often, but when it did, thework knew just what to do. They allowed the broadcast to continue, but they were able to superimpose a small square into the corner of the screen. This was to allow the news anchors to continue broadcasting. Only now, they would be talking about what was happening on the screen rather than the festivities of the holidays.


    They were almost stunned into silence as the images on the screen continued to unfold the story for them. There hadn¡¯t really been much for Tinley and Ryan to say about it, they just murmured words every now and then that told the audience that this was as new to them as it was to the rest of the world.


    When the woman on the screen, Trinity Gray, turned into various animals, the shock in the room was almost to a boiling point. And then, when there was an announcement that there were rioters that were attacking the stadium that the broadcast wasing from, the reporting was starting to actually get more intense.


    ¡°I..it looks like there are people attacking the spectators and hosts of this event.¡± Ryan, who was stunned at what he was seeing, stuttered for just a moment. ¡°These people are supposed to be a mixture of humans and nonhumans, but the rioters don¡¯t seem to care. It appears as if they are going to attack everyone that is there, no matter what they are.¡±


    ¡°This is a truly terrifying scene, Ryan. The looks of panic on those people¡¯s faces, it hard to watch. I am d that Mrs. Gray is there to help them. Look at that. She is opening a magical door to take them to safety.¡±


    ¡°Is she, though? Or is she taking them somewhere else that will put them into danger?¡±


    ¡°I am sure that she is trying to help them, Ryan.¡± Tinley looked slightly annoyed at her cohost. ¡°Sources are also confirming that these events are happening in real time in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The police have assured us that they are already on their way to the scene of the crime. What I do not understand though, is why they are attacking in the first ce. No one has done anything to them.¡±


    ¡°Why are they attacking? Are you serious, Tinley? If what they are saying is true, then we¡¯re all in danger. These monsters are among us, and now they are going to start attacking people left and right. None of us are safe.¡±


    ¡°Really now, Ryan, do you really think that I am going to attack you now just because you found out that super naturals are real?¡±


    ¡°I am not talking about you, Tinley. I am talking about those monsters.¡± The male cohost looked panicked as he spoke, not understanding what she was trying to tell him.


    ¡°Ryan, I will repeat what I just said and I want you to pay attention this time. Do you really think that I am going to attack you now just because you found out that super naturals are real?¡±


    ¡°Tinley, what do you have to do with-.¡± At that moment he stopped speaking, the realization dawning on him as he processed Tinley¡¯s words. ¡°Y..y..you¡¯re not human?¡±


    ¡°No Ryan, I am not. And I have been this way for a lot longer than I was human. I have never hurt you, nor have I ever hurt another human in this world. I am not a monster, Ryan. I am what I am, but that doesn¡¯t make me a bad person.¡±


    ¡°Tinley?¡± One of the producers called for her off screen. ¡°What are you?¡±


    ¡°That is impolite to ask, Jessica, but I will tell you anyway. I am a Vampire. And no, none of the Hollywood stereotypes are true. I drink blood, but that is not the only way to sustain me. I love to eat food. Garlic does not affect me, and neither does the sun. I am not affected by crosses or any other religious symbols. I am just a person, like you. However, I am one hundred and seven years old, and I will continue to live for a long time still.¡± She smiled at the others and proudly proimed what she was. She knew that she wasn¡¯t the only nonhuman on the staff here at the station, but it wasn¡¯t her ce to out the others.


    ¡°I can¡¯t believe this, Tinley.¡± Ryan gaped at her. ¡°I had you over to my house. I have vacationed with you and your husband. We have known each other for so long.¡±


    ¡°And that is my point, Ryan. We have always been here. I have always been what I am. So, following the reasoning of logic, wouldn¡¯t you think that we would continue to live the way that we have always lived? The supernatural beings are not going to just start attacking you just because you know about them. We will continue to live our lives like we always have.¡±


    ¡°I..I don¡¯t know what to say.¡± Ryan looked at the camera as he processed his cohost¡¯s words. ¡°This is all a little much to take in all at once.¡±


    ¡°I hope you will listen to your heart, Ryan, and not your fear. The supernatural beings have been here as long as humans have. We aren¡¯t dangerous. And we aren¡¯t trying to take over the world. Queen Trinity there just wants us to live in peace, but she knew that it was time to stop hiding from the world.¡±


    ¡°Queen Trinity? So, she is your queen? I won¡¯t be ruled by her. I don¡¯t live in a monarchy.¡±


    ¡°No, she isn¡¯t my queen. Actually, the ruler of my people is there on the screen. That man in the back, Dietrich Conrad, that is my king. He used to have an honorary title that was actually a rank above what he has now. But that was just something that we gave him because he was the best ruler of our people that there had ever been. He was once known as Emperor, but now he is King Dietrich. He is an amazing man.¡± Tinley was singing the praises of her people, and it was clear that she meant it all, every word.


    ¡°Y..you¡¯re really over a hundred?¡± Ryan looked at her in awe. Apparently, he was getting over his initial fear.


    ¡°That¡¯s right. It¡¯s exciting, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°Wow. I can¡¯t believe it.¡± Ryan shook his head. ¡°Well folks, you heard it here. There are nonhumans that live among us, and work among us.¡± Ryan looked at her once more, a smile on his face. ¡°And they are not out to hurt us. They are people that we have known for a long time. And while I understand that fear is a go to response in the beginning, I don¡¯t think that we have anything to be afraid of. At least I know that I don¡¯t. Tinley here is a good friend of mine, and if she is vouching for the rest of them all, then I believe it too. I say we ept this news as something momentous, and move on with a new understanding of the world that we live in.¡±


    Tinley, and all the other nonhumans that were watching the broadcast, felt a lot better about the situation with those wordsing from Ryan at the moment.

 Chapter 1080 - 1080 Chapter 65- Various – During the Reveal Part 3 (VOLUME 6)

    1080 Chapter 65- Various ¨C During the Reveal Part 3 (VOLUME 6)


    *** More scenes from other people as the reveal was happening. ***


    *~~* Colorado Springs, Colorado *~~* (Third Person POV and negative reactions)


    The men were sitting home with their families. Matthew Parker, road construction worker. ke Townes, investment banker on vacation for the holidays. Emmet Sanders, architect. Franklin Edwards, gun shop proprietor. These men and many more. They were home for whatever circumstances that they had, but they were all watching that broadcast when it started. And the moment that things started toe to the light, their anger red.


    These men were just a few in the hunting group that was run by Franklin Edwards. They would hunt in massive gangs every season. They all frequented the various shops that Franklin owned. And they would attend meetings about what it meant to be a true believer.


    A believer in what? Well in the way that America should be, that¡¯s what. They had reluctantly stopped fighting the race war in their country. There was no way to get the purity of theirnd back, but they weren¡¯t done with their hate. Not by a long shot. They still talked about what they were going to do to free theirnds once more.


    Now though, as they were watching this monster bitch on the television broadcast, every single member of the PAWs was outraged. The PAWs, also known as the Proud American Warriors, knew that they had to cleanse the world of these nonhuman mongrels that were broadcasting to the world this very moment.


    Not all of the PAWS were within range to attack the stadium, but Franklin, ke, Emmet, Matthew, and several more, were able to make it there within minutes. The call went out and all militia that were able to respond were urged to attack the monsters and the sympathizers that were there with them. They all needed to die, everyst one of them.


    It took them only minutes to get the first car there. Franklin, living in the downtown area where the stadium was, arrived first. And he didn¡¯t stop. He drove his Jeep into the side of the building over and over again until it was no longer drivable. He was making progress though, and by the time that the others were there, they just pulled his ruined Jeep aside and continued to break into the stadium.


    Finally, after a little while, they were able to get through the outer wall, and surprisingly, there were no guards or security personnel that were stationed on the inside. The cowardly little monsters that were hiding within were too scared to face them. Of course they would be, everyone knew that the PAWs was an elite group that was not to be trifled with.


    .....


    The progress forward was halted though, when they threw open the doors to the stands and rushed forward, only to be stopped by some invisible barrier.


    ¡°They must be using their Satan magic to stop us from getting inside.¡± Franklin called out to them. ¡°Keep pushing forward. Eventually, we will wear out their power and make it through to them. We will destroy those monsters and save the world. We will be heroes today men, we will be legends.¡±


    ¡°YEAH!¡± The cry of agreement went out loud and long among the other militia men.


    On and on they fought to get through to the other side, but the barrier, whatever it was made of, just wouldn¡¯t give in. They weren¡¯t able to make it through no matter what they did. Some of the men grew angry and frustrated. And more than once Franklin heard the sound of gunshots ring through the air.


    Each time there was a shot fired though, another man cried out in pain, the bullet rebounding and hitting him somewhere on his body.


    ¡°They are attacking us.¡± ke called out. ¡°They have shot three of our men so far.¡±


    ¡°Hold your fire men. Save your ammunition until we get through. We will get in there, and we will destroy those heathens, those monsters, those abominations.¡±


    ¡°YEAH!¡± The cry of agreement sounded once again, even as the wounded were dragged out of the way and left to die on their own.


    Franklin could see into the stands and onto the field, even if he couldn¡¯t get through. And what he saw angered him even more. Those monsters, and the monster loving humans, were disappearing into the thin air. They were leaving the stadium, and they wouldn¡¯t be able to get through to them before they were all gone.


    Then, thankfully, when onest monster bitch remained, the one that was hosting the broadcast, the barriers fell down. And that was when he noticed that the bitch was running through the air, literally floating and running on nothing at all. And she was running toward a girl cowering in the stands. He was going to kill them both. He was going to make sure that they both died. And then he was going to walk through that arch that the others disappeared through, because he was sure that he was going to get to them as soon as he stepped through it. Get to them and kill them all.


    His ns didn¡¯t go ording to n though. The bitch managed to save the sniveling snot nosed brat and ran with her to the arch. Together they disappeared, just before Franklin¡¯s bullet could follow after them.


    ¡°DAMMIT!¡± He screamed into the now eerily silent stadium. ¡°They got away.¡±


    ¡°But you won¡¯t.¡± A man yelled at him. ¡°All of you put down your weapons. You are under arrest.¡± It was at that moment that Franklin noticed the five or six dozen police officers that were filing in around them all.


    ¡°Who the fuck are you?¡± Franklin snapped at the cop in the lead, whose gun was aimed right at Franklin¡¯s head.


    ¡°Captain Devon Scott, CSPD.¡±


    ¡°You need to arrest the ones that were here, Scott.¡± Franklin snapped at the police officers. ¡°They are monsters. They aren¡¯t human.¡±


    ¡°The only monsters I see here, are you people. Drop the weapons, now.¡± Captain Scottmanded them. For a moment, just a brief one, Franklin thought about telling his men to open fire, there were tainted pieces of trash among the officers here, and they should be purged as well. However, he thought better of it and decided to drop his rifle on the ground.


    ¡°Drop them, men.¡± He ordered the others. ¡°We haven¡¯t done anything wrong. We will be home by dinner time.¡± He was grinning happily, the gravity of the situation not yet sinking into his thick skull just yet.


    *~~* Colorado Springs, Colorado *~~* (Third Person POV)


    Dustin Jones was working at the same desk that he always worked at. He did the same work that he always did. And he was surrounded by all the same people that he was usually around. There was no deviation in what he usually did. The only thing that ever really changed in his daily routine was what he had for lunch, and who the clients that he did the work for. Those things changed regrly, but everything else was predictable and boring.


    He wasn¡¯t upset about that though. He liked the life that he lived. And the fact that his work life was so predictable was fine for him. He didn¡¯t have to stress about different things at work. He didn¡¯t have to worry about something unexpected happening to him that would throw a wrench into his otherwise meticulously nned day.


    He wasn¡¯t this anal about his life outside of work. He liked adventure and all things exciting, but not when it came to work. He felt that work was enough of an uncertainty in this day and age, that the most calm and predictable it was the better.


    So, when everyputer in the office started to disy the same broadcast at the same time, effectively ruining the peaceful and predictable day that he was having, his nerves shot through the roof. He was certain that there had been some sort of emergency. There had to be something that would warrant an emergency broadcast like this, right?


    Quietly, Dustin just sat there and listened to what was being said. He watched what they had to show him. And he processed everything that he could. At first, he didn¡¯t believe it. This couldn¡¯t be happening, right? This had to be a hoax. There wasn¡¯t really werewolves, witches, vampires, and all those others things in the world, was there?


    Dustin knew that this had to be fake and that someone was just pulling an borate joke on the office. That had to be it. However, right before he started tough, he heard the sound of the car crashing into the building. He heard it first outside the window next to him, and then again echoed on the broadcast. There was a slight dy, maybe a second or two at most. Then he heard the sound again. Boom. Boom. The echoing through the office after the real sound outside.


    Dustin sprang from his seat and looked out the window. He saw that there were people attacking the stadium that was across the street from his office. The stadium that he knew the people in the broadcast had filmed in. And there was no way that this was prerecorded if the crashing sounds were happening right now, in real time.


    ¡°What the?¡± He looked at the men swarming the stadium. ¡°Th..they¡¯re going to kill someone.¡± He was speaking under his breath as he watched the many men with rifles running toward the scene of the crashes. They weren¡¯t done either. They were trying to crash their way through the wall and gain entry to the people in the broadcast.


    Turning back to face the images, Dustin saw how scared the people were, and the werewolf, witch, Fae queen that had been talking was making a magical door to save them all.


    ¡°Look. She¡¯s helping them.¡± A woman, maybe Diana, called out as she looked at the screen. ¡°They are good people. She is saving them from those men attacking the stadium.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right.¡± Others agreed. ¡°Look at that. They are good people.¡±


    ¡°Do you believe this?¡± Someone else asked, but Dustin was too distracted to pay attention to who was talking at the moment. ¡°Is it real?¡±


    ¡°Y..yes, I think it is.¡± Although he didn¡¯t know who he was answering, Dustin gave his honest opinion. ¡°This is real. And they are real. Werewolf, witches, vampires, Fae, shifters, they are all real.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I think so too.¡±


    At that, Dustin looked around the room. Were any of them not human. Were any of his coworkers one of those people?


    ¡°I..I think that this is a wonderful thing. Not that they are being attacked, but that these people showed themselves to the world. Obviously, they¡¯ve all been here for a long time. And we didn¡¯t know about them. That means that they aren¡¯t bad people. If any of you aren¡¯t human, I have no problems with any of you.¡± He saw several shocked faces, but he didn¡¯t know if that was because they were happy that he epted them, or if they were humans that couldn¡¯t believe what he said.


    He had meant what he said though. Why should he be upset with these people? If they¡¯ve been here all along and they never knew it, then there was no reason to be scared or angry now. Admittedly, Dustin might look closer at his surroundings now, and he might wonder if his friends are all human, but he wasn¡¯t going to change anything about his life just because he knew the truth now. Nothing had really changed, just his knowledge of it.


    Dustin wasn¡¯t the only one that was epting them either. All over the world there were people that would think the same thing. If they really have been here since the beginning, then there was no reason to be scared of them, now. They were just going to be who they had always been, right? Just no longer hiding it.

 Chapter 1081 - 1081 Chapter 66- Trinity – Repercussions (VOLUME 6)

    1081 Chapter 66- Trinity ¨C Repercussions (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After we ate ourte lunch, I decided that we all needed to talk. At least those in the inner circle. And our children as well. The legacies as we had started to jokingly refer to them. Then again, that wasn¡¯t so far off. I mean, legacies are what you leave behind. Reece and I weren¡¯t gone from this world yet, and hopefully wouldn¡¯t be for a long time still, but these kids were our legacy that we were leaving on the world.


    Reagan, Rika and all of our other children would make way more of an impact on this world than anything else that Reece and I could do. More than all of the charitable things that we do or the businesses that we run. These kids of ours were our legacy, and that meant that they needed to be given the proper time and exnations when things like this happen.


    Everyone that was joining us for the meeting convened in my office. That was usually the go to meeting ce when we were discussing something important like this. And there was a lot that we needed to talk about at the moment. And there was sure going to be a lot more conversations toe soon.


    ¡°Do we know how bad things are yet?¡± I turned toward Gabriel as the meeting got started and asked him for information. He was my personal assistant, my close confidant, and one of my most trusted advisors. I knew that he had the information that I needed, and that he wouldn¡¯t hesitate to tell me.


    ¡°There have been several small riots across the country. We are getting fewer reports of them from across the globe, but I am sure that there will be some of theming soon enough. They are just on different time schedules than us, and there are different response rates.¡± He was reciting all of this from memory as he told me about it. He had obviously done his research while we were eating. I don¡¯t even know if he actually ate his food or if he just focused on this information.


    ¡°Has anyone been hurt yet?¡± I asked as I turned to look at Rawlynne, Jackson and Devon. I knew that Devon, who wasn¡¯t here for the recent meal, hade to join us after he finished up at the stadium. He was the first officer on the scene of the riot.


    .....


    ¡°A few of the rioters were injured when their bullets ricocheted off of the barrier that you had put around the stadium, but no one is in critical condition. They will all survive and see their days in court.¡±


    ¡°From our reports, there have been no injuries at all with any of the small riots that have broken out. There are only small groups of people that are protesting the reveal. They don¡¯t believe that the reveal was for an innocent cause. So far though, there have been over three hundred arrested in connection with the various riots. They are being charged with destruction of property, but they hadn¡¯t seen anyone that wasn¡¯t human, or so they think, so they hadn¡¯t gotten around to hurting anyone yet.¡±


    ¡°That is good.¡± I nodded and felt a rush of relief at Rawlynne¡¯s words. ¡°Thest thing that I want is to let people get hurt because of what we did.¡±


    ¡°Well, those PAWs assholes deserved it.¡± Devon spoke snidely as he thought about what happened.


    ¡°Paws?¡± Reece asked him in confusion. It was inplete alignment with what was going through my head at the moment.


    ¡°Proud American Warriors. That was the name of the radical group that attacked the stadium. They call themselves PAWs for short. Fitting, isn¡¯t it?¡± He grinned. ¡°I bet he didn¡¯t think that the name was so aligned with us when he thought it up.¡±


    ¡°He?¡± Reagan asked him as he leaned forward.


    ¡°Franklin Edwards, he is their leader and founder. He owns several gun shops across the state, most of them here in the city. He and his group of ¡®rebels¡¯ are the type to think that the country is too crowded and that certain types of people shouldn¡¯t be here. He isn¡¯t picky about the people that he hates either. He and his men tend to hate almost everyone.¡±


    ¡°Is this the updated version of something like a n?¡± Rika asked him in abject horror.


    ¡°In a way, yes. They hate for reasons that only they know, and they don¡¯t usually care about who it is, as long as they are different from them.¡± Devon exined it all to us.


    I shivered a little at Devon¡¯s words. I couldn¡¯t help it. How could something like this still be happening in our world? I mean, for crying out loud, it was the year two thousand and forty. The KKK, white supremacy, why was that still a thing? It has been almost two hundred years since the initial start to the KKK and things like that. How is it that we haven¡¯t managed to rise above that and see the truth of the world for what it is? There is no master race. There is no one right way to live and to be. Why? Why does there have to be so much hate in the world?


    ¡°Are these men going to be a problem for us?¡± Reagan was the one to ask this as I was still wondering why all of this was still happening in our world. I guess that he was a little more resilient and quicker to move on. That or I was just really tired already today. I didn¡¯t mind though. I knew that my son was doing a good job, and that he seemed to know what he was doing.


    ¡°To be honest, Reagan, I don¡¯t know. These men are unpredictable. And the bad thing is, we don¡¯t know how many of them there are. Is this just a local chapter? Are they going to work with other groups like them? Are they just a tentacle from arger beast? These are things that we are still trying to figure out.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Devon, Rawlynne and I are on your team as well. We will be working with you to find out all those answers. And not only that, but we also have all the others that are like us inw enforcement that won¡¯t just sit around and let hate crimes happen. Jackson was speaking with a conviction that was only in his voice when things got serious.


    ¡°Yeah, I know.¡± Devon leaned across the gap between him and Jackson and shook the other man¡¯s hand. ¡°Almost twenty years has assured me that we are on the same side, man. We will get these assholes. And we will make sure that we are all safe once again. We know that Trinity won¡¯t let us down.¡± There was racing in my heart at that. The confidence that they had in me was amazing. And I did intend on seeing to it that all of my people were as safe as possible. However, it was a little nerve wracking at the moment, looking at some of the seemingly insurmountable obstacles in front of me.


    ¡°We will do this together. I will work to protect everyone, but I know that I need all of you to help me do it.¡± I looked around the room, letting my eyes settle onto Reagan and Rika. Not only them though, Alyssa, Alexandria, Levi, Luka, Ashle, Beech, Cyprus, and all the others. There were more here than usual, but they were all our legacies.


    ¡°All of us?¡± Reagan looked at me with bright eyes as he processed what I had said.


    ¡°Yes, Reagan, all of you. I need you, your sister, and all of the others to help us with this. You are younger than us, you are more rtable to the kids in universities that are going to be confused about this. The younger people that don¡¯t know what to think and feel about this are going to need to hear from you guys. And I think that this is the time for you all to start truly getting out into ourmunity.¡±


    ¡°You mean it?¡± Rika¡¯s eyes lit up. She had been working on, toward being more pivotal and important in ourmunity. She wanted to make up for her past mistakes and carve a ce for herself in the future.


    ¡°Yes, Rika, I do mean it. I am counting on all of you. If you are willing to help that is. I won¡¯t force this on any of you.¡± I looked at the kids that had all grown up to be young adults sitting in front of me. They looked at each other, determination and understanding prevalent in their eyes. And then, as if coordinating it amongst themselves, they all nodded their head at me at the same time.


    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re in.¡± Reagan rose to his feet. ¡°We will do what we need to so that there is less fallout from this afternoon.¡±


    ¡°That is good to hear.¡± I was proud of them all at that moment.


    We talked a little about what it was the kids were going to do. They were supposed to promote and support ourmunity. They were supposed to involve more humans in activities that they were involved in and show that we aren¡¯t here to hurt anyone. And, specially, they were meant to help anyone that they could. If someone was being bullied or if they were stranded, I wanted them to help as many people as they possibly could. I knew that most of the kids would do that without me having to ask, but I still made it a point. The more positivity that surrounded us as a people, the better things would be for us in the end.


    ¡°Trinity?¡± Vincent called out to me after we settled things with the kids and what they were going to do.


    ¡°Yes?¡± I turned to face him, encouraging him to continue.


    ¡°I think that we need to be a little more proactive with you and Reece as well. I know that this doesn¡¯t sound ideal for you, but I think that we need to have the two of you out there, telling the world our story and why we told them about us.¡±


    ¡°In what way?¡± I asked him, curious about what he had to say.


    ¡°Well,¡± he looked a little nervous for a moment as he tried to get the words to flow, ¡°since the reveal earlier, there have been a lot of callsing in. They were being fielded in the same manner as the ones from the Alphas and coven leaders.¡±


    ¡°What types of calls, Vincent?¡± I asked him, not sure if I was ready for the answer that I was going to get from him.


    ¡°People wanting to talk to you. People that want to interview you.¡±


    ¡°Reporters?¡± I heard Reece¡¯s incredulous voice. ¡°We have reporters galore.¡±


    ¡°No. Not reporters. Am I right, Vincent?¡± I looked at him with narrowed eyes. ¡°This is something else entirely, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°Yes, it is. These are people from talk shows,te night shows, news talk stations, radio and inte shows. There is a long list of people that want to talk to you all and find out the truth.¡±


    ¡°I am not sure I would trust this.¡± I heard the skeptical tone in Shawn¡¯s vice as he watched us discussing this.


    ¡°I know what you mean, Shawn.¡± I gave him a nod, and then looked at everyone else as well. ¡°However, I understand that this is probably the best option that we have. If we do this, if we go on these shows, we can get them to understand that we are not a threat. All we need to do is stay calm no matter what they do or say. And we need to stay consistent. We need to make sure that there is the same information given each time we go on one of these shows. We can share some of our history with them, and we can make sure that they know that we aren¡¯t trying to hurt them at all.¡±


    ¡°Precisely.¡± Vincent was nodding at me. ¡°That is exactly what I was thinking as well.¡± He was grinning, happy in the knowledge that he and I were thinking along the same lines.


    ¡°I think we should do it.¡± Reece nodded next to me. ¡°It is the best way to keep getting the word out there. We need them to understand that we are not here to try and hurt them.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡± Several others seemed to think along these same lines and weren¡¯t afraid to voice that now. There were a lot of people nodding and agreeing with Reece and Vincent.


    ¡°I think we need to do it as well.¡± I looked out at them all. ¡°We need to be a united front for them all. We need to tell them that most of our people are just like them, normal everyday people that work and live their lives with their families. We aren¡¯t that different from them. Vincent, please start setting these up for us. Reece and I will go on most of them, we will take Reagan and Rika with us a few times, and maybe even Talia. I am not sure if we should take the quads though. They are still so young.¡±


    ¡°Think about it, Trinity. If you do take them on one of these shows, they will see that you are truly arge and loving family. I know that you don¡¯t want to put the kids out there because it might be dangerous, but if you think that those monsters can¡¯t find them without them being on those shows then you are delusional.¡± I heard the ring of truth in Dietrich¡¯s voice. He was being firm to make sure that I didn¡¯t let doubt fill my mind too much.


    ¡°He is right.¡± Unusually serious, Shane spoke in a firm voice as he stepped up next to his brother inw. ¡°They will find the kids no matter what. It is best to show your united and loving family to them instead of hiding a part of it from them. That is my opinion anyway.¡± He shrugged and stepped back to where he had been a moment ago.


    ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± I let his words sink in and this was the conclusion that I hade to. ¡°They will find the kids no matter what. That is why we need to be united and vignt. Vincent, take care of the arrangements. We will do this. And when we have to, we will take the kids. All of them if they are requested.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Trinity.¡± Vincent nodded and smiled. He thought that this was a good idea, and so did I. We would tell the world the truth, and they would see that we weren¡¯t their enemies.


    Still, there was a little bit of anxiety that was coursing through me at the moment. I don¡¯t know a single person, at least a mother, that wouldn¡¯t be worried about thising situation. However, as a queen and a leader I need to be on top of these things and rise above them. I needed to set aside my worries and my fears. I needed to guide my people into this new frontier that we had created for ourselves. And like I told them before all of this started, we were going to be OK. I would make sure of that. We would all be just fine in the end.

 Chapter 1082 - 1082 Chapter 67- Trinity – Christmas Celebration for the Cameras Part 1 (VOLUME 6)

    1082 Chapter 67- Trinity ¨C Christmas Celebration for the Cameras Part 1 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It has been a few days now, since the reveal, that is. There has been little to no disturbance so far, and if we are lucky, this is how things will go for the foreseeable future. That doesn¡¯t mean that we won¡¯t be working proactively to make sure that we are viewed in a positive light. There is a lot that we need to take into consideration at the moment, and there is no time at all for us to take it easy.


    Still, today was Christmas. I had been busy preparing for this for a while now. Not only was I preparing for this holiday, but I had been getting ready for a week from today, when the quads were going to turn eleven. This was a busy time of year for us, but I refused to let the kids feel like they were being ripped off. They didn¡¯t deserve that. Not with all that they have had to go through in their lives. They needed their special days.


    There were some traditions that we had never stopped since Reece and I celebrated our first Christmas together. And there are others that we have added over the years as we have had more and more people added to our family andmunity. Today, on this day of remembering to be thankful for all that you have and the people that you are with, this day of caring and giving, I was going to make sure that we followed through with them all.


    There was going to be a big difference today, something that wasn¡¯t usual for us, but I didn¡¯t mind doing it at all. We were going to be having a visitor today. Someone that wasn¡¯t used to spending the holidays with other people. And that visitor was Lara, the reporter that we had recently struck a deal with. She was supposed to be here before we got started with our typical morning holiday routine.


    I woke early and got dressed alongside Reece. He and I were wearing nicer clothes, but something that was stillfortable. We didn¡¯t want to throw our wealth into the faces of others either, although anyone who knew our names knew that we were some of the wealthiest people in the world, so that was pretty hard to do. Still, we got dressed like we usually did. I wore a dress that didn¡¯t hide my belly this time. I wasn¡¯t going to hide Reeselynn this time around.


    After my makeup was done, not too much just enough to see that it was there, and my hair was braided into a simple style, I left the tower with Reece and headed down to the front door. We must have had some impable timing this time around, because the moment that we opened the door to the swirling snow, we saw that Lara was pulling up in her beat up old car. I could tell that it was one of those loved and well cared for old machines that people had a hard time letting go of.


    .....


    ¡°Good morning, Lara.¡± I called out to her as I stepped out into the swirling snow.


    ¡°Good morning.¡± She smiled up to me as she grabbed her camera from her car. ¡°Were you watching the security tapes or something?¡± She wondered, thinking that we had seen her driving up the long winding driveway.


    ¡°Nope. We just had really good timing. It happens from time to time.¡±


    ¡°I bet it does.¡± She grinned and shook her head. ¡°I have this camera here, but I am also wearing one. That way I get more than one angle. Is that alright?¡± She was intent on making sure that she didn¡¯t do anything that she wasn¡¯t supposed to.


    ¡°That is fine. I just want to make sure that you get all that you need. We have a busy day though, so I hope that you are prepared for it.¡±


    ¡°Most definitely.¡± She looked ready to take on the world, let alone a busy day in the Gray family.


    Reece and I led Lara up to our tower. All the way that we walked with her, Reece and I exined to her how the castle came to be, why it was here that it was built, and the power that thend had in it. We exined to her that it was the magic itself that had built this castle, we just shaped it with our connection to that magic. She was eagerlypping it all up as well, intent on getting all the data that she could.


    ¡°You are going to be the first human to enter the royal tower.¡± Reece told her as he hit the button for the elevator.


    ¡°The royal tower is where we live with our children. In the past, when we first built the tower, our parents lived here with us as well. They wanted to be close to the kids and all that was going on. Now that we have been here for so long though, they have moved on to living in their own homes. Our parents have even had more children. Reece and I each have a younger sister that are almost the same age as our quadruplets.¡±


    ¡°Wow.¡± I could tell that Lara thought that this was insane, and in truth it really was. Still, it was our family, and we were used to it by now.


    When we got out of the elevator at the main living area, we saw that the kids were all waiting for us. I hadn¡¯t been sure that they would be awake yet, so seeing them was a shock to us all.


    ¡°What are you all doing here?¡± I asked them in a shocked tone.


    ¡°We were waiting for you. We knew that you had gone to greet Lara, so we wanted to get ready.¡± Reagan exined. ¡°It is time for breakfast now, if you are ready to eat.¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± I stepped forward and hugged him. ¡°Merry Christmas, Reagan.¡± My hug to him turned into arge family hug between the nine of us.


    After the hug was over, we all went into the dining room. I knew that Lara thought that she was just going to be filming our meal and observing things, but that wasn¡¯t what I had nned. I told her to set the camera up so that it could see the entire table and then to take a seat. She was joining us for the meal.


    This suggestion surprised Lara, because she didn¡¯t think that she was here to join the holiday, just to observe it. Still, she did as I told her to and took a seat opposite me at the table. She was smiling happily the entire time too. She hadn¡¯t been a part of a celebration like this in a while, and it showed in her eyes.


    We enjoyed the meal that was made for us. We had apple strudel French toast, cinnamon swirl pancakes, baked and fried biscuits, bacon, sausage, ham, hash browns, eggs, sweet rice, and fruit. It was delicious, and we all ate to our heart¡¯s content.


    With the meal over, it was time for us all to go into the living room to open presents. This wasn¡¯t anything overly special, everyone that celebrates Christmas does this same thing at some point during the holiday. However, I think that the amount of presents under our tree was a lotpared to most. We had some for me, Reece, Reagan, Rika, Talia, Zachary, Zander, Zayden, Zaley, and all our extended family that would being hereter this evening. That was when they would open their gifts, and the kids would open more from all their various aunts and uncles.


    There was one more person that we had gifts for as well. Lara, who wasn¡¯t expecting anything, was shocked when Zaley took the first gift over to her.


    ¡°We got you some things as well. I hope you don¡¯t mind.¡± I saw the look on my little girl¡¯s face as she watched the woman apprehensively. She was nervous for a moment, but then she lit up. Zaley¡¯s face lit up about a second before Lara¡¯s did.


    ¡°Y..you got me something?¡±


    ¡°Yes. You are celebrating with us, so we got you gifts. Don¡¯t worry about not getting something for us. We have all that we need.¡± Zaley looked at me and Reece with bright, smiling eyes before looking back to Lara. ¡°We have more than we need, and we want to share it with you now.¡±


    ¡°That is so sweet.¡± Lara wiped a tear from her eye and then looked up at Zaley again. ¡°Which one are you again?¡±


    ¡°I am Zaley. The youngest of the quads. I was the surprise baby, because my brothers were hiding me in the womb. The doctor didn¡¯t see me on the ultrasound.¡±


    ¡°Oh, isn¡¯t that sweet. A surprise baby or not, I know that you are very loved, Zaley.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± She smiled back at the woman and then went to grab another gift from the tree. The others did the same. Zachary, Zander, Zayden, Talia, Reagan and Rika all took gifts over to Lara as they increased the size of her gift pile.


    ¡°Why did you get me so much?¡± The reporter looked at me perplexed.


    ¡°You haven¡¯t celebrated the holiday in a while, right?¡± I asked her with a knowing note in my voice.


    ¡°Well, no, I haven¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°Then I am making up for all the missed holidays. I guessed at the sizes, and I hope that you like what we got you. If you need to exchange anything, we can take care of it. They were mainly bought from the various stores that we own, so we can handle the exchanges with no issues.¡±


    ¡°This is too much.¡± Lara wiped away another tear as she stared at the pile before her.


    ¡°No, it¡¯s not. I wanted to do something special for you. You are celebrating with us. Not just observing the holiday that we are having. I wanted to make sure that you felt as included as possible.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Mrs. Gray.¡±


    ¡°Call me Trinity.¡± I smiled at her as I handed her one more gift. ¡°I got this one as well, but I am not sure how much you are willing to part with your other one.¡± The gift in my hand was small, just a little box that held something small.


    ¡°What is this?¡± She asked as she took the box from me.


    ¡°Just open it, then you will see.¡± I smiled as she excitedly pulled off the bow to the gift that I had handed her.


    ¡°I..i..is this the key to a new car?¡± She looked up at me.


    ¡°I admit that I got it when I saw that you had such an old car. I know that it has to be close to thirty years old. However, I also know that you love the car that you have, so you are not obligated to take this one if you don¡¯t want to.¡±


    ¡°Th..this is too much. I can¡¯t believe this. A..a..are you sure, Trinity?¡±


    ¡°Of course. You know something, the first Christmas that Reece and I were together, before we had a family, he gave me a car. It was a Jeep, big and sturdy. It was the first car that I had ever owned, and I loved that thing with all of my heart. So, I know how you feel about your car right now.¡±


    ¡°Thank you. This is so sweet of you. I can¡¯t believe that you did this for me.¡±


    ¡°I just wanted to help you out, Lara. I hope you like it. We will take you to the garageter to show it to you. For now, though, open the rest of your gifts.¡± I encouraged her and the others to start tearing off all the paper that covered the presents. It was a happy and cheerful morning with everyone enjoying their gifts and sharing the love.


    Once all the gifts had been opened, Reagan and Reece helped Lara carry her gifts down to the garage as we showed her what her car was. It was a sedan, nothing overly special, but I thought that she would like it. It had room for her to carry all her equipment with her, some people if she needed to, and it was big and powerful enough to handle the winters here in the Rocky Mountain State.


    Lara loved the car. She cried again when she saw it, and that left me feeling really happy as well. She was feeling cared for and appreciated, or at least I thought that she was. And that was how I wanted her to feel. I didn¡¯t want her to feel like an outsider on Christmas, that wouldn¡¯t be fun for anyone.


    What I saw when Lara opened her gift, and when she saw her new car, that was what the holidays were about. Making others happy, spreading cheer, making memories, these things and more are what the holidays were supposed to mean to everyone. It wasn¡¯t just the gifts or how much they cost, it was the joy that they brought to Lara when she opened them. And I hoped that when this footage was edited and aired, they would be able to see that as well,

 Chapter 1083 - 1083 Chapter 68- Trinity – Christmas Celebration for the Cameras Part 2 (VOLUME 6)

    1083 Chapter 68- Trinity ¨C Christmas Celebration for the Cameras Part 2 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    We were done with the gifts for the time being, but we weren¡¯t done with the day. Not by a long shot. We gathered a lot of our staff up and packed up severalrge SUVs with food and gifts. Reece and I had for a long time gone down to the homeless shelters in the city to deliver gifts and food. This was arge caravan that we traveled in, and it was something that the shelters hade to expect and count on. I for one wasn¡¯t going to let the reveal change this part of our traditions.


    With the dozen vehicles all traveling in one group, we made our way to the first of the four homeless shelters in the city. We delivered enough food for them to feed everyone their Christmas dinner and gifts of new clothes and other much needed items to them all. All the kids that were there got toys and new coats and boats to protect them in the winter.


    We did this three more times, taking the items as a family to these people that were in need.


    ¡°Trinity?¡± Lara asked me as we were walking into the first of the shelters that afternoon.


    ¡°Yes?¡± I looked up from handing a little girl a purple coat and a teddy bear.


    ¡°Why do you do this?¡± She was looking around the shelter and at all the people that were happy to be getting something for the holiday.


    .....


    ¡°Why?¡± I was surprised by her question. ¡°Hmm. Well, let me see. After my first baby shower, when I was pregnant with the twins, I had started to give back to themunity. Reece and I had more than enough to do everything on our own, but our pack at the time had insisted on giving us so much for the babies. I know that it might sound rude, donating those items that they had gifted us, but we really didn¡¯t have a need for them. However, there were other people in our pack and in the city that did need them. So, we decided to give them the items that we couldn¡¯t put to use.¡±


    ¡°OK, but how did that turn into this?¡± She was still looking at all the sobbing people and the smiles on their faces.


    ¡°I wanted to help people more and more. I have always wanted to help people, ever since I could remember. So, over the years, Reece and I have added more and more things to our charitable donations. We help out all year round, but we want to make the holidays perfect for the people that are struggling. We have a rehabilitation program as well, to try and get as many people off the streets as possible. We find them jobs and get them into housing. We have a lot of investment properties that are meant for the lower ie families in the city. These houses and apartmentplexes are some of the cheapest ces to rent in the country, but they don¡¯tck for upkeep or quality. We make sure that the families are able to survive.¡±


    ¡°And yet, there are still so many people living in poverty and homeless.¡± I could see the sadness in her eyes as these words passed through Lara¡¯s lips.


    ¡°We are doing what we can, and our efforts are nationwide. There is just too much for us to handle all at once. I want to help everyone, and I would have done it all already, if I was able to do so with magic. However, we are limited to what we can do physically.¡±


    ¡°What would magic do to help them?¡± She asked me with more intensity and curiosity than I had expected.


    ¡°Well, for one thing, I could build an apartmentplex that had several homes in it but wasn¡¯t limited to the same spatial confines as a traditional building. We could have a home that was three thousand square feet in the space that took up no more than fifty square feet. The amount of space that we would be able to save would allow for a lot more homes to be put into one building. If we can get these buildings approved and built, then we would be able to get so many more families off the streets.¡± I exined to her what it was that I had meant when I talked about using magic to help these people.


    ¡°Ahh, but that takes away from the construction crews that build these apartmentplexes. I can see why that would be a bad thing.¡±


    ¡°Yes, and that is a downside. However, there are other things that the construction crews could be doing at the time. And building more traditional buildings would still be a thing. Not everyone is going to want to live in one of these magical buildings that we would be constructing. I would like to mainly use those buildings for people that are not able to afford other housing. And having a building that can house everyone in this shelter with ease would be a good thing, don¡¯t you think? If those people all had their own homes and didn¡¯t need to live on the streets or in a shelter, but in their own beds, in their own homes, I think that would help the world a lot more.¡±


    ¡°I can see that.¡± Lara agreed as she picked up a small toy dog and handed it to an adorable little two year old boy. ¡°You won¡¯t hear any objections from me, Trinity. I think that the homelessness issue that is guing the world needs to be taken care of. No one should be freezing in the streets at night.¡±


    ¡°I am d that you agree.¡± I smiled at her and continued to pass out toys to the little boys and girls that were crowded around us.


    After the first shelter was done, and then the next three after that, when all the gifts and food had been delivered, it was time for us all to head back home. We had eaten lunch while at the shelters with the people that we were donating to. This was something that we usually did every year on Christmas, and it wasn¡¯t just me, Reece and the kids. There were a lot of other people that were there with us as well. Our family would alternate who came on which holiday to deliver food to the shelter, but Reece and I were always there. This was our mission, our idea, so we weren¡¯t going to abandon these people.


    Back at home though, the rest of our family started to arrive. Shawn, Dietrich, Shane and Falina, David and Rawlynne, Vincent and Heather, Gabriel and Roisin, Juniper and Paul, Cedar and Acacia, Carter and Emmalee, Noah and Nikki, our parents, Riley and Katie, Bryce and Bree, Landon and Ava, Trevor and Aunt Glory, Athair m¨°r and Daciana, Griffin and Lana, E and Devon, Jackson and Melita, all of the people that were considered our family now, and oh how there were so many people that we hade to include. And all the kids that were part of that family as well. There were close to a hundred people when it was all said and done.


    Of course, joining us this evening was also Lara. She was a little nervous because there were so many people there, but no one was making her feel like she was the odd one out. They were all trying their best to make her feel weed and part of the festivities. I loved that about my family. They didn¡¯t try to make the one lone human in the group feel like a needle in the haystack. Then again, Jackson and Devon used to be humans, and they were more than happy to tell her about how they had decided that they wanted to live lives simr to the people that they had mated with. And that, even though they had been human at the time, they had mated for life with the person that they had fallen for.


    ¡°I love that.¡± Lara was heard saying as she listened to them all. ¡°Thank you for telling me about that.¡±


    The dinner started soon after we all arrived at the house. Once again we were eating before gifts that were taking over the living room. After everyone had gotten here, all their gifts had been added to the others and there were now more than when the day started.


    ¡°Trinity, can I ask why you insist on having the meals before the gifts?¡± Lara was perplexed by this part of my tradition.


    ¡°Well, to be honest, it is because I believe it helps to instill patience and appreciation in the children. It is also how my parents did things when I was little.¡±


    ¡°You parents? That would be Eve and Wesley Whitton, correct? Isn¡¯t Wesley your mother¡¯s brother?¡±


    ¡°Yes. My mother died when I was a baby, and I was raised by my aunt and uncle. When I was pregnant many, many moons ago,¡± I paused andughed with everyone as I pointed out how old I really was, ¡°I went to my parents and talked to them. I didn¡¯t want to forget my mother¡¯s memory, and I never have, but I wanted them to know that I saw them as my real parents. We cried, we hugged, and ever since that day I have called them Mom and Dad. It just felt right to me. And I wouldn¡¯t change it for anything in the world.¡±


    ¡°You have a lovely view of the world and of family, Trinity. I am honored to be able to see it with you all like this.¡±


    ¡°Well, we are happy that you could be here with us to celebrate. This means a lot to us as well, Lara.¡±


    After the sentimental moment passed, during which Mom and Dad came over and hugged me tightly, we enjoyed the dinner that Abigail had made for us. The food was, as always, delicious, but it was nothing whenpared to thepany that was there with us. Everyone ate until they were full before we moved into the other room.


    Like Reece and I, the others hadn¡¯t wanted to make Lara feel left out. And that meant that along with all the other gifts that had been brought for everyone, Lara had gotten a gift from each family that had arrived. They had thought hard about the gifts over thest few days and had managed to get her a lot of things, none of which were repeated at all.


    ¡°Ha ha ha, I think that my house is going to be overstuffed now.¡± Laraughed as she looked at the pile that was sitting before her.


    The night ended with no issues. It was, if I might be so bold as to im this, the best Christmas that any of us had ever had. And I was happy to see that we were all able to make Lara feel weed.


    Now, all we had to do was wait for the footage to be edited and put on the air. It was supposed to be airing on the twenty eighth. Three days. That was all that we had to wait for. Just three days to show the world that we weren¡¯t monsters. That we were just a normal family, if a littlerger than most.


    I had every confidence that, before too much longer, we would be able to ovee any and all issues that came from the reveal. This day, and theck of major riots since the initial press conference, has led me to feeling a little more secure in that thought than I might have beenst week. This was all going to be OK. Thesest four days have been perfect, or close to it, and I was starting to let myself rx a little. Everything would be fine, and I would be able to focus on the New Year and on the birthday celebration that wasing up for us all.

 Chapter 1084 - 1084 Chapter 69- Trinity – Leading Up to the New Year (VOLUME 6)

    1084 Chapter 69- Trinity ¨C Leading Up to the New Year (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Friday the twenty-eighth came around, and that meant that it was time for us to sit down and watch the special that Lara had filmed of us on Christmas. We knew that there was nothing to worry about with it, but we needed to sit and watch it anyway.


    With bated breath, and while gnawing on my lip nervously, Reece and I settled into the special with all of the kids and arge group of other people. We were airing the show in the theater room so that there was more than enough space for us all to sit.


    The show started with Lara standing in front of the gates to our privatemunity that had been here long before I was even born.


    ¡°Good Evening America, my name is Lara Timmons, and I have a special show for you this evening.¡± She was smiling as she looked at the camera. This had obviously been filmed the day that she came to visit with us, but, by the lightening of the sky, I was sure that she had done it in the morning as she got ready toe to the castle. How long had she been out there trying to get it just right?


    ¡°I am going to show you what it is like to spend the day, specifically Christmas Day, with a family of supernatural beings. I am going to be spending all day with Trinity and Reece Gray, known among their people as King Reece and Queen Trinity. Together they lead their pack of werewolves as well as the entire shifter and magicmunity worldwide. They have invited me to have a first person look into their lives. And I am bringing all of you along with me as well.¡±


    The show moved on to start incorporating all that we were doing that day. Lara showed a lot of the interpersonal interactions between us and the kids, as well as the interactions with the people in the shelter and the family at dinner. She showed a very human looking family. None of us looked like monsters. None of us acted like monsters. None of us were monsters.


    .....


    When it was all done and over with, that entire day being shortened down to only an hour long show, I felt like I had been given another Christmas gift, just three days after the actual holiday.


    ¡°That was pretty good.¡± Reagan was the first one to break the silence.


    ¡°I agree.¡± Rika nodded. She had done an interview portion with all of the kids, letting them talk about themselves and what they liked and disliked. That part had been a little iffy for me when it was happening, but I see that it was a good idea now. The kids had been able to tell the world that they were no different from the other kids that inhabited it. They were normal, well as normal as anyone else in this day and age.


    ¡°We don¡¯t seem to have anything to worry about.¡± I smiled and we put an end to the stress that had been hanging over us for thest week. ¡°Things are going to be just fine.¡± Indeed, I really did think that. There hadn¡¯t been a major incident since the attack on the stadium. I was beginning to think that this was just a fluke that happened because people hadn¡¯t had the time to process what was happening just yet.


    The day after the special aired, nothing at all seemed to happen. And nothing happened on the thirtieth either. This had now been ten days with just minor disturbances and blips on the radar. Nothing at all was happening that would make me think that there was going to be a major bacsh to the knowledge that werewolves, vampires, witches, warlocks, Fae, and other nonhuman creatures inhabited the world. However, I was getting ahead of myself, and that was the first mistake.


    I had thought that if there was going to be anything happening, that it would happen right away. Like the attack on the stadium had happened immediately. I had thought that, if anyone was going to do anything to protest or oppose us at all, they would do it on the twenty-second or thetest of the twenty-third. I thought that after Christmas had passed and it had been four days since the world found out, that there would be nothing to worry about. And I was dead wrong.


    At midnight on New Year¡¯s Eve, just as the day began, a bomb was set off. They had nted it in the stadium that we had held the reveal. They hadn¡¯t known where else to set one off at, so they put it somewhere they thought was important and special to us. And that wasn¡¯t the only one either. A bomb was nted and exploded in the broadcasting station in New York City. It had been the one that had the female news anchor outed herself on national television that she was a vampire. There were others as well.


    In total, there were a dozen bombs that had exploded at the exact same time. And with the explosion, there was a manifesto that was delivered to the police. Actually, that wasn¡¯t the right word for it. A manifesto was usually something that was sent by one lone mad man. This was obviously a group that we were dealing with, and they had a mission statement.


    This mission statement that was sent out, that I received a copy of on the thirty first, spoke about why they had bombed these ces and what they were likely to do next.


    ¡®We, the human people of the world, do not ept the news that was so rudely thrust upon us recently. We do not ept the monsters that want to live among us. They are not wee here on our, living among our people.


    We, the human people of the world, will eradicate them from this world using any means necessary. Let these bombings be a warning. Understand that this is just the beginning. We will be hunting down all of these monsters. We will be killing them, because that is what you do to a monster. You kill them. You destroy them. If we let these monsters stay, let the problem fester, then we will be signing our own death warrants. We will be eliminated.


    We, the human people of the world, know that these monsters are not our friends. They are out to destroy us all. They want to cage us to use us as food. We are nothing more than cattle and crops to them. We are not safe. No human is safe as long as monsters and beasts roam thend.


    We, the human people of the world, will not rest until we have made this world a safe ce for us all to live in. All of us humans now have amon enemy. Even those inferior races that walk among us are to be protected and cherished until these monsters are destroyed.


    We, the human people of the world, are willing to forego the hunt and execution of those inferiors to eradicate the monsters and beasts. If those inferiors among us help us to fight the monsters and beasts, we will forgive your race¡¯s sins and allow you to live among us as well.


    We, the human people of the world, need to all stand together and work together. From this day forward we will hunt down and destroy every monster that walks among us. They cannot total in numbers what they im to be, there are not as many of them as there are of us. We can and will wipe them off the face of the. We will make this world safer for all of us to live in.


    Join us, all of you other human people of the world. Join us in making our world safe once more. Join us in destroying the monsters. We will start with the Gray family, the only such family that we know about. From there, we will find them all.


    The Gray family is going down. The Gray family will be killed, one by one or all at once, they will die very soon.¡¯


    When I was done reading the words that had been written on that statement, I just sat there and stared at the page in front of me. I wasn¡¯t able to get past what it was that had been written, especially at the very end of the document. They were threatening me and my family. They were threatening my children, who they now knew the appearance of because of that special that aired the other day. They knew all about us, and had even seen our home. Dammit!


    ¡°Trinity?¡± Reece called out to me as I clenched my hand into a fist. I was angry and just wanted to put an end to all of this.


    ¡°Yes?¡± I looked up at him.


    ¡°Are you OK?¡± He was looking at me with eyes that were filled with fear and concern.


    ¡°How can I be? You read what they wrote.¡± I gestured at the paper with my unclenched right hand.


    ¡°Yes, but I was referring to that.¡± He pointed at my left hand, the one that was still clenched tightly in a fist. When I followed his eyes, I saw that I had dug my nails deep into my palm and blood was pouring down my hand past my wrist and to my elbow.


    ¡°Oh!¡± I immediately grabbed a handful of tissues from my desk and started to clean away the blood. It was more than I thought at first, and I ended up just using magic to heal my hand and clean away the red stains from my arm.


    ¡°I am sorry.¡± I said as I looked up at Reece, Vincent, Shawn, Shane, Dietrich, David and Gabriel.


    ¡°You¡¯re stressed, Trinity. It¡¯s understandable.¡± Vincent said as he stepped a little closer to me. ¡°We all are.¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± I nodded, but I wanted to move on. Dwelling on my hand wasn¡¯t going to help at all. ¡°Was anyone hurt in any of the bombings?¡±


    ¡°No. Thankfully.¡± Reece said as he pulled his chair closer to mine. He didn¡¯t seem like he wanted to pick me up and put me on hisp right now. Probably because I was too tense and angry.


    ¡°That is good.¡± I nodded, trying to let that little positive thing settle into my mind. ¡°They didn¡¯t hurt anyone else.¡±


    ¡°Likely, it is because they can¡¯t tell who is human and who isn¡¯t. They don¡¯t want to hurt humans. Only the monsters.¡± David said as he exined what he was thinking.


    ¡°I have a feeling that they would hurt humans.¡± Shane said as he walked closer. ¡°If the humans were sympathizers to us, then they would likely try to kill them as well.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°We can¡¯t let this happen again. We need to find these people and bring them to justice. Where is the FBI with this case already?¡±


    ¡°They are looking into it.¡± Rawlynne said as she sat across from me. She was the one that had brought us the report this morning. ¡°I am heading up the investigation here in the city. We are all in agreement though, the others that are leading their own teams. This can¡¯t be overlooked. We need to make sure that whoever did this pays for it.¡±


    ¡°What about that hate group, what were they called, PAWs?¡± I looked at her as I thought about what happened the day of the reveal and the people that had attacked then.


    ¡°They are being tried for their crimes, but most of them were bailed out. Most have tethers though, so we can track their whereabouts.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, if it really is them in the tethers.¡± Shane snorted at her.


    ¡°Excuse me?¡± Rawlynne looked at him incredulously.


    ¡°Think about it. If you are part of a terrorist group like that, would you allow yourself to be tether? Or do you think that you wouldn¡¯t be able to get out of it? No, I am betting that these people are a part of it, and that they were actually there when the bombing happened.¡±


    ¡°I agree.¡± Reece said as he turned to face Rawlynne. ¡°These people are smart, partially. They will know how to get out of their tethers, or how to manipte them. They¡¯re stupid enough to do this shit, but they¡¯re smart enough to cause us problems with it as well.¡±


    ¡°So, what are we going to do?¡± Rawlynne asked, wondering what they had to say about it all.


    ¡°We do what we always do. We look for the bad guys. We do the right thing. And we try to make sure that everyone is safe. Our people and the humans. And we do it all without ruining the quads¡¯ birthday tomorrow.¡± I looked at them all with determination in my eyes. ¡°That is all that we can do.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I think that you¡¯re right. We show the world that we aren¡¯t monsters. We go on those shows that Vincent has scheduled us for. We talk, we exin, and we protect. That is all that we can do for right now. Rawlynne, can you handle this without us there this time?¡± Reece¡¯s voice was that of his true Alpha self.


    ¡°Reece, I have been an FBI agent for a long time. I investigated before I met you, and I am capable of doing it without you now. We will find these people. I promise you that.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡± I nodded at her. ¡°This just became our number one priority. We all need to make sure that we find these terrorists and put an end to their plots.¡±


    ¡°We will. However, I am not sure that we can eliminate the fear and the paranoia. It is possible, Trinity, that this will happen again. In a week, in a month, in a year, or in a decade. It can happen again, and we will never see iting.¡±


    ¡°Anything can happen, Rawlynne. I know that. We can only take care of what we are capable of at the moment. We will deal with the other incidents as they arise in the future.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± Rawlynne nodded at me as she got to her feet. ¡°I will find these people. I promise you that.¡± Without another word, she and half of the others in the room left. It was just me, Reece, Vincent, and Shane left now.


    I stayed silent for another moment as I looked at them all. They were watching me, waiting for whatever revtion that I was going to drop on them. I didn¡¯t have anything for them though. Nothing overly special that is. I only had an order to give them, one that I knew was already in their minds.


    ¡°Increase the security for the kids. At home and at school. Protect the school itself as well. Make sure that the kids are never in any danger.¡± The kids were my number one priority. I knew that Reece and I would be able to protect ourselves. And while the kids, even the quads, would likely be able to escape anyone that is attacking them, they weren¡¯t as skilled in battle as we are. They needed us and their guards.


    ¡°Yes, Trinity, we know.¡± Shane nodded at me. ¡°And we will make sure that the world knows the truth. It may take a while, and things might get hectic for a while, but they will understand that we are not their enemies.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± I took his hand then, not shaking it but just holding. ¡°Thank you, Shane.¡±

 Chapter 1085 - 1085 Chapter 70- Reece – Birthday for the Quads (VOLUME 6)

    1085 Chapter 70- Reece ¨C Birthday for the Quads (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I knew that the news that camest night was hard for my Little Bunny to hear. Neither of us thought that this would happen. I mean, who would have anticipated that the revtion of supernatural beings in the world would cause some mad group of terrorists to nt a dozen bombs in ces that had absolutely nothing to do with our people.


    Yeah, the stadium was a ce that we had been, but that doesn¡¯t mean that it was ours. And the news station in New York City, really? All because they had a vampire in their ranks? That was just stupidity in my opinion. These people made no sense to me at all.


    I had to get that out of my mind right now. And so did my Little Bunny. Today was New Year¡¯s Day, and that meant that we had four birthdays to celebrate. Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley all needed to know that, despite what was happening in the world, they still mattered. We weren¡¯t going to let them think that what was happening was going to take their parents away from them.


    Yes, sooner orter we would be leaving for a little while, but never for too long. Trinity and I were going to be going on various talk shows soon. We were going to be spreading some pro-supernatural awareness. They knew about this already, and they were OK with that. However, I was not OK, not at all OK, with cancelling their birthday today.


    I was, however, d that we had decided on a party here at the castle. We weren¡¯t going to be going into the city at all, and therefore the kids wouldn¡¯t know what had happenedst night. Not until they went back to school next week. Well, I had thought that they wouldn¡¯t know about it.


    ¡°Hey Dad?¡± Zayden said as soon as he sat down in front of me.


    .....


    ¡°Hey Zayden, happy birthday son.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± He smiled and then continued. ¡°Did you know there was a bombingst night?¡±


    ¡°How did you know that?¡± I asked him, wondering how he had found out.


    ¡°It was all over my phone this morning. A lot of warnings and things like that were sent out a little after midnight.¡±


    ¡°I saw that too.¡± Zachary said.


    ¡°Good morning, Zachary. Happy birthday. And you as well Zander, happy birthday.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± They said at the same time.


    ¡°Was it because of us?¡± Zaley asked as she took her seat.


    ¡°Happy birthday Zaley.¡± I smiled at her. ¡°And what was because of you?¡±


    ¡°The bombs? Was it because of us being here in the city? It happened at the stadium that you were at before.¡±


    ¡°Well-.¡± I didn¡¯t know how to answer, but I was spared because my Little Bunny came into the room just then.


    ¡°Yes sweetheart, it was because of us. No one was hurt though, so you don¡¯t need to worry. Also, happy birthday, to all of you.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Zachary, Zander and Zayden said in unison, but Zaley seemed worried and didn¡¯t respond.


    ¡°Are they going toe after us next, Mom?¡± Zaley asked, seeming to already intuit what was going on.


    ¡°We won¡¯t let that happen, Zaley.¡± I promised her as I held my arms open for her. She needed me, and so I was going to be there for her. Eleven or not, Zaley came to me and climbed onto myp. She let me hold her and protect her like only a daddy could.


    ¡°I know you will protect us, Daddy. You and Mommy both will.¡±


    The breakfast started off somber, but soon it perked up. When Reagan, Rika and Talia came down and started to sing their made up birthday song to the quads, everyone had tough and the tension passed quickly.


    The party for the four of them was nned for the afternoon. We were doing something that we had done for the quads every year since they were five. They were each having their own party while also having a giant party of their own. All of their friends were invited and so was the entire family. A lot of people would be going between the five sections of the huge ballroom. The guests, who were often there for all the kids, would be able to move between the different themes as they pleased. And the seating was mainly in the middle and general area.


    For Zachary, who was the most outgoing of the three boys, there was a sports themed party in the corner. Zander, who wanted to be a fighter when he grew up, had a martial arts and street fighting themed party. Zayden, the resident artist among the kids, had an art station where the kids could draw, paint, and do a lot of different things. And on disy were a lot of the pictures that he had already made over the years. Andstly, Zaley, she had a movie themed party. She particrly liked horror movies and drama movies. For today, she went with the horror movies though, and so there were a lot of scary clowns and serial killing entities disyed in her section. I was proud of them all being their own person and liking what they wanted to like. They were four separate kids, not a joint being that was born to four separate bodies.


    There were a lot more people than one cake would feed, unless it was a massive cake that is, and there were four birthday kids here as well. That all meant that the kids were going to need their own cakes, something that we had always done, going back to when Reagan and Rika were celebrating at one party together.


    Zachary had a cake that was shaped like a giant ser ball, and it was chocte, of course. Zander, wanting to be a fighter, had a cake shaped like nunchucks, and they were red velvet. Why red velvet? Well, it looked like blood when you cut into it, or so he said. Zayden had a in white topped cake in the shape of a rectangle. He wanted to let his friends and family draw something on the cake for him before it was cut, and he would take a picture when it was ready. His cake was cookies and cream. And Zaley, her cake was a lone red balloon that was so dark it looked like blood. Thankfully, her cake was a normal vor. It was carrot cake, just like her mother¡¯s favorite.


    As the party started to get into full swing, I saw that there were less people at Zaley¡¯s part of the party, but she wasn¡¯t alone. She had her new best friend Breanna, as well as some other kids that were warming up to her finally. It helped that Ivy and Olivia were there as well. The two of them were always trying to facilitate more friends for my little Zaley.


    The party was going smoothly, everyone was having a good time with the music and the multiple parts of the room working in tandem. It was perfect in my opinion. However, someone had to ruin it for us at some point, didn¡¯t they.


    ¡°You are ruining so many lives!¡± Someone shouted at Reagan of all people.


    ¡°Excuse me?¡± He looked at him, just as perplexed as I felt.


    ¡°You had that family destroyed recently. And then you went on the news and told the world about us. Now those people are bombing people.¡±


    ¡°No one was killed or even injured in the explosions.¡± Reagan calmly exined to the guest that had shouted at him.


    ¡°Yeah, so you say. I heard that thousands of people diedst night.¡± The crazed party guest said as I started to move forward. However, I had only gotten a few steps when Trinity stopped me and mouthed four little words at me.


    ¡°Let him handle this.¡± She had said. I was worried, but I did as she said. I stopped walking and watched on as my son handled this man that was screaming at him.


    ¡°I assure you, Mr. Gobson, no one was injured. The FBI is working on this, and the news outlets are reporting on it in real time. There were no casualties or fatalities. And we are already working on this.¡±


    ¡°Why did you guys do this? Why did you expose us to the world?¡± The man shrieked at Reagan.


    ¡°Daddy? Please, stop it.¡± A boy that was about the quads¡¯ age begged him.


    ¡°No. You are in danger now, Felix. You are in danger and this asshole doesn¡¯t care. His parents don¡¯t care either, that¡¯s why they went and exposed us to the world. He¡¯s going to be leading after his father, isn¡¯t he? Isn¡¯t he supposed to be protecting us now as well? Well,e on then Prince Reagan.¡± He sneered thest two words as if they were an insult. ¡°Protect us already!¡± He screamed at him just then and every fiber in my being was telling me to go and take care of this, but my Little Bunny kept a tight hold on me. She wasn¡¯t going to let me take care of this at all.


    ¡°I am sorry that you are upset, Mr. Gobson, however, we had no choice but to reveal ourselves to the world. There was another group of people that were intent on exposing us to the world, and they wouldn¡¯t have done it in a positive manner. They would have turned us into the viins of the world. At the moment, there are less scared humans than there would have been if they would have managed to expose us first. Yes, there are some against us, as there will always be. However, no one is in any danger. And you weren¡¯t personally exposed, Sir. So, there is no danger at all to you and your family. Felix, your wife, and everyone else you know are safe.¡±


    ¡°B..b..but that isn¡¯t the point.¡±


    ¡°Then what is?¡± Reagan spoke softly and confidently as he took this man on in a battle of wits and words.


    ¡°W..w..well, you shouldn¡¯t have done that. That¡¯s what the point is.¡±


    ¡°Would you rather let a scared human with proof expose us to the world? Fear breeds more fear, Mr. Gobson. A scared person revealing us to the world will only make more people afraid of us. The way that we managed to reveal ourselves will ultimately lead to less opposition and oppression from the humans. We are going to take care of this, Sir, so there is nothing at all for you to worry about.¡±


    ¡°I..I..I-.¡± The man could find nothing else to say, so he was just stuttering over and over again.


    ¡°If there is nothing else, Sir, please try to enjoy the rest of the party. My younger brothers and sister are trying to have a good birthday, and personally, I don¡¯t want anything to mess that up for them.¡±


    ¡°Y..y..yeah, OK.¡± The man nodded and walked away, all of his anger abated and deted now.


    As Trinity and I watched the man walk away, I felt a sense of pride surge through me. Then I heard my Little Bunny mimic the words inside of my head.


    ¡°He¡¯s a good leader, isn¡¯t he?¡±


    ¡°That he is.¡± I nodded at her. ¡°That he is.¡± I repeated it for good measure.


    Now that this exciting part of the day was over, the quads were able to enjoy the rest of their party. They opened all the gifts for their friends to see, cake was served, and lots of food and drinks were had.


    At some point in the party, a dance off was started. I wanted to join in right away, but Trinity and I decided that we should let the kids have their fun. Not only that, but they would most likely say that we were embarrassing them and end up cringing when we started to show off our moves. Ahh, kids. Aren¡¯t they the best?


    The most important thing of all though, was that the kids really did have a good day. And those smiles on all of their faces was proof of that for us. I would say, crazy scene or not, the party was aplete sess.

 Chapter 1086 - 1086 Chapter 71- Trinity – Rise in Incidents (VOLUME 6)

    1086 Chapter 71- Trinity ¨C Rise in Incidents (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The day before the quads¡¯ birthday, we had gotten the news that there had been several bombings across the country. They had happened in a dozen different locations, but no one had been hurt. That in and of itself was a miracle that we all should have rejoiced for. I thought that, despite what it was that these terrorists were doing, they weren¡¯t actually wanting to hurt people. But that wasn¡¯t the case, was it?


    Four days after the bombings, on the third day of the new year, we got word that there had been another riot. This riot was happening in California, in one of the cities where the murders had happened over the summer. I guess that the group that was behind it had thought that because there had been an attack there before, there had to have been several nonhuman people living there.


    Well, they weren¡¯t wrong. They had attacked Waterton, California, the ce where the Fae girl had been raped and murdered. And at the current moment, Waterton had a ration that was about three to one supernatural to humans. They were more likely to attack a nonhuman being in that city than they were to attack an actual human.


    The riot started in a business district that was filled with restaurants and shops. The attack first started at a caf¨¦ that was asked if they would serve a nonhuman. The proprietor, thinking that the ones asking were asking for themselves to see if they were allowed, adapted an epting and amodating tone.


    ¡°Of course. I won¡¯t deny anyone service for something like that. It wouldn¡¯t be right.¡± That was the wrong answer. The man that had asked immediately grabbed the woman by the hair and hauled her closer to them.


    ¡°So, you are saying that you would serve monsters and beasts that want to murder us all?¡± He growled and screeched into her ear. ¡°Are you a human? Or are you a monster just like those on the news?¡±


    .....


    ¡°Wh..what?¡± The woman had cried out in pain and fear. ¡°What are you talking about? I am a human. I am a human.¡± She said it again and again, trying to get them to understand that she wasn¡¯t any different than they were.


    ¡°Then why would you turn against your own people? Why would you allow those things to eat here?¡±


    From what we were told, there had been a lot of super naturals that were at the caf¨¦ at the time. They were making their way through their lunch when the scene started. Most of them were merfolk, as that was a popr ce for them to reside because of the connection to their n. However, some of them were wolves and Fae.


    ¡°LEAVE HER ALONE!¡± One man yelled, and he was clearly not human. By the time that he had made it to where the violent men were, he was sporting long canine teeth and glowing yellow eyes.


    ¡°LOOK!¡± An angry rioter shouted. ¡°He¡¯s one of them.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that he is.¡± The man let go of the woman and let her sprawl to the floor. At that, someone pulled out a gun and shot toward the werewolf. He managed to avoid the bullet, and at the same time pulled the waitress behind him to safety. The bullet struck the wall with a thwack and embedded itself in the ster.


    ¡°What the hell are you thinking?¡± The werewolf, a man named Corey Givens, roared at the shooter. ¡°There are dozens of innocent people here.¡±


    ¡°Anyone that eats with a beast like you is not innocent.¡±


    ¡°Oh, yeah?¡± Another man, this one a Fae that was letting his true colors show through, stepped forward then. ¡°You would kill innocent people just for eating in a diner?¡±


    ¡°Look, it¡¯s another freak.¡± A man near the door shouted.


    ¡°We are people, just like the rest of you.¡± A Merman with vibrant purple hair stood, his scales showing with his anxiety at the scene unfolding before him.


    ¡°Ugh, look at that freak. Is he part fucking fish?¡± Another of the rioters asked in disgust. ¡°Let¡¯s get the fuck out of here. Let them have this ce, we will deal with the others.¡±


    As the group left the caf¨¦, the super naturals followed them. However, when they were out of the building, they saw that they were vastly outnumbered. There were at least three hundred people that had caravanned to this location, and they were all ready for a fight.


    What followed was an attack on every shop that was within a half a mile radius. Dozens of people were injured, but they were all minor. And they were all human. They attackers made it clear that they were after the nonhumans in the area, and anyone that would ept them. Some of the people that were attacked had openly told the attackers that they would ept the so-called monsters over them any day.


    ¡°You would ept the monsters?¡± One of the attackers said angrily. ¡°WHY!?¡±


    ¡°Not a single one of them has ever tried to hurt me.¡± The man was heard yelling back. ¡°You, on the other hand, are hurting innocent people. And you stand there calling the super naturals the monsters and beasts. You are the monsters. You are the inhuman beasts. Not the werewolves and vampires, but you. All of you that want to hurt people are the monsters.¡±


    The rioters had tried to shoot that man, but he was saved by another nonhuman. The man wasn¡¯t injured at all, aside from some bruises that resulted when he hit the ground, and he wasn¡¯t worried about those at all.


    There was nothing stolen from the businesses, just damage done from the rioters before they managed to escape. It had all happened really fast. About a dozen businesses were destroyed or nearly destroyed before the police even made it on the scene. I wasn¡¯t worried that the police were on the side of the rioters in this case. Waterton was rtively a small city, so they didn¡¯t have thergest police force. And they didn¡¯t usually have to respond to riots and things of that dangerous nature. They had needed to get gear that they had never actually used before.


    Every single one of the rioters made it out of there without being arrested. They left in their caravan as soon as the sirens sounded in the distance, but that didn¡¯t stop them from doing over a million dors¡¯ worth of damage.


    All of this information was avable to the public. It had been aired on national news and avable in all of the national newspapers. And let¡¯s not forget about all of those news sites across the inte. It was all that anyone was able to talk about. It was thetest sensation to hit the air since the reveal itself. Well, that and the bombings. These things that were happening, all a result of the reveal, was not helping us to prove to the world that nothing at all was going to change with us being in the open.


    ¡°Vincent, when is the first interview?¡± I asked him as I threw aside the article that I had been reading. I had already watched the footage on the news, but I was determined to get as much of the information as I possibly could.


    ¡°We have an interview with Good Morning America tomorrow.¡± He told me as soon as I asked him. ¡°It was scheduled for next week, but I moved it up because of the bombings and the attack yesterday.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡± I was already reading another article on the subject. ¡°It seems like most of the papers are on our side. They seem to agree with this man here,¡± I pointed to the name of the man that had said none of us had ever tried to hurt him, ¡°they say that we¡¯ve been peaceful. Unlike these terrorists that are bombing and attacking people. However, there are ones like this.¡± I shook an article that I had already read and set aside. ¡°These ones are in the same mindset as the attackers. They say that if it wasn¡¯t for these people being sympathetic to us, there wouldn¡¯t have been any attacks at all. And no bombings either.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re morons.¡± Reece said as he took the article from me and read it. It was a printout from one that was posted online.


    ¡°I have to wonder,¡± I said solemnly. ¡°Is the man that wrote this a part of that group of attackers? Or is it just a coincidence?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Gabriel said as he looked over a copy of the same news story. ¡°Judging by how it reads, I would say that he has intimate knowledge of the attack. If he wasn¡¯t a part of it, then he has an inside source.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡± I threw aside another article. ¡°We need to find that man. We need to know who these rioters and attackers were. And if he can lead us to them, then all the better.¡±


    ¡°We will look into it.¡± Jackson said as he jotted the information down in his notepad. ¡°He won¡¯t be able to hide from me. Not with the skills that Rawlynne and I have.¡±


    ¡°Good. Find him, and fast.¡± I wasn¡¯t feeling up to letting these things slide. This attack, and all the bombings as well, had me in an almost permanent state of Queen Mode, and no one wanted to know what that would do to me. Or just how ruthless I might get if I was kept that way. Still, I knew that I needed to tread carefully, and not hurt a single human. We couldn¡¯t afford that at all.


    ¡°What are we going to do if there are more riots?¡± Reece asked me in a tone that said this wasn¡¯t a what if question, not really. He was actually meaning to say ¡®when¡¯ there were more riots.


    ¡°We try to respond as soon as possible. We send back up to them and arrest as many rioters as we can. Our prison that we built will be able to handle them all, and they will get to see that we mean business here.¡±


    ¡°Would we be able to house them there? If they are arrested in a different state, that is?¡± Shawn asked me with a perplexed look on his face.


    ¡°Domestic terrorism is a federal crime. They will be tried in federal court, so it doesn¡¯t matter where they are housed, as thews that will be upheld will all be the same. We can keep them in our prison until they are taken to the federal courthouse to answer for their crimes.¡±


    ¡°Ooh, I hope they get a nonhuman judge.¡± Shaneughed eagerly. ¡°I would love for these people to know that we aren¡¯t stupid backwater morons or anything like this. They need to know that we are politicians, doctors,wyers, judges, and every other career you could think about. And they would just about shit themselves if they found out that their judge and jury were predominantly supernatural.¡± I will admit, I wanted tough right along with Shane. It was a funny thing to think about. Still, we had a lot to worry about, so I kept my smiles andughter to myself.


    ¡°On a more pressing matter, what should we do about Monday?¡± David¡¯s question and tone brought me back to a topic that I had been trying to forget about for thest week.


    ¡°Ah, yeah, the kids all go back to school on Monday.¡± Shane looked at me, he had stoppedughing and looked positively serious now.


    ¡°We let them go. We can¡¯t halt our lives because of this. We just need to make sure that we put as much security in ce as possible. I won¡¯t rob the children of their childhood.¡± This was hard for me, because as a mother and a queen, I wanted to protect them all, but I also knew, as a mother, that I had to let them all learn and see the world for what it was. They would be safe though, because someone would be watching all the schools at all times. Not just the ones that we owned and ran, but all the schools in the county. No one knew where the kids went to school, and I didn¡¯t want to risk a shooter going after innocent kids. That wasn¡¯t what I was about at all.


    ¡°Understood.¡± David nodded. ¡°I have assigned all the locations to the knights that we had here. And I am sending at least one man to all the schools that will allow their presence. Every school that we can protect across the entire country will have someone there to protect the children. I am pleased to say that there were a lot of them that were willing to allow this. They just want their kids to be protected.¡±


    ¡°That is good.¡± I nodded. ¡°That is all that we can do for now. If there is another attack, let me know immediately. And have Darrol monitor the servers. The moment that there is a mention of something that needs us, I will send help their way. Hell, I will go myself.¡±


    Rising to my feet, I saw the solemn yet determined looks on all of their faces. They didn¡¯t like what was happening anymore than I did. However, they, like me, knew that it was all necessary. And we all hoped that it would blow over as soon as possible.


    These attacks, and the negative media that was bound toe with them, would only serve to cause a divide among the humans. They would split into groups that did and did not ept us. Those that didn¡¯t ept us might be increasingly more violent, while those that did ept us would be targets to the other group. That was why I needed to make sure that we got as much positive information out there as possible. The more that people knew about us, the less that they had to fear from us.


    Well, that was my hope and dream anyway. And I was going to make sure that I did all that I could to make sure that my dream came true. No one needed to be hurt because of this, if they just listened to what we had to tell them. If they would see that we weren¡¯t here to hurt them. If only.

 Chapter 1087 - 1087 Chapter 72- Trinity – The First Interview Part 1 (VOLUME 6)

    1087 Chapter 72- Trinity ¨C The First Interview Part 1 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece and I got ready for the interview bright and early the next morning. Here in Colorado, we were two hours behind their time. And they wanted us on at nine in the morning. Their time, not ours. That meant that we needed to be up, have breakfast, and be ready to go by seven our time. And yes, we were still here at the castle.


    Now, people might wonder why we were here and not anywhere near Times Square. Well, that was a simple exnation. The hosts of the show had seen the way that we had traveled through the magical door from the stadium. They weren¡¯t the only ones though. Just about everyone in the world had seen it, if they had watched the broadcast that is.


    Knowing that we could ¡®materialize¡¯ as they had called it, they wanted us to appear on set through the door. Now, since the show Good Morning America is, and has always been, broadcast live to the masses, there would be absolutely no way to fake the appearance of our arrival in such a magical manner. This would further prove to people that we had abilities that they hadn¡¯t even fathomed.


    I knew that it might be a little bit rude to arrive like that, but the hosts had insisted on it. They had wanted to see if it was all real, if all the stuff that had happened and been said over thest couple weeks really had been true. And I didn¡¯t me them, not really. This was not an easy thing to process.


    Now, the way that it was all nned and set up was that Reece and I would be out in the mountains, further cutting into my sleep because I needed to be out there by exactly seven in the morning. Reece and I were in ce when we received a phone call from the hosts of the show. It wasn¡¯t any normal call though, it was a video call, one that would show exactly where we were.


    ¡°Hello?¡± I said with a smile into the screen as Reece smiled behind me.


    .....


    ¡°Trinity? Reece?¡± Hosts called out to us. ¡°It is nice to see you. We are so happy to have you on the show. Now, can you tell us where you are right now?¡± This host was a bright and cheery brte named Kelsey Wallman. Next to her was her cohost, Wayne Newsome.


    ¡°Well Kelsey, Reece and I are currently standing at the peak of Raspberry Mountain, a total of ten thousand six hundred and five feet at its fullest height. We hiked here this morning to show you all this lovely view.¡± That was a lie, we had traveled by magical door, just like we were going to be traveling to the studio. ¡°Isn¡¯t this lovely?¡± I said in awe as I turned in a slow circle, letting them all see the light that was just spilling over the mountains.


    ¡°Oh my, that is beautiful.¡± Wayne said as he looked at the images on the screen.


    ¡°Trinity, how are you all going to get here for your interview, if you are all the way over there in Colorado?¡± Kelsey asked in mock perplexity.


    ¡°Well, that won¡¯t be a problem, Kelsey. I have magic that can get us there. In fact, if you are ready, we will head over now.¡±


    ¡°Oh, yes please.¡± She spoke enthusiastically in response to my words. ¡°See you soon.¡±


    The call was not disconnected, but Kelsey and Wayne stopped speaking to us and started to speak to the cameras instead.


    ¡°As you can see, there is a magical light that is now shining behind Trinity there. That is the magic that she was talking about. And from what we were told, there will be a light here soon as well.¡± Wayne was exining to the masses.


    ¡°There it is!¡± Kelsey eximed as the magical door started to appear on their side. I wasn¡¯t going too fast here, not wanting them to be frightened from a quick appearance. They needed to have time to adjust to it.


    After a few moments, and a little morementary from the hosts, Reece and I stepped through the door and into the studio. The door, shutting behind us, disappeared immediately.


    ¡°Look at that, folks. They really did it. They appeared out of nowhere. It was truly magical. And I have to say, it was quite the sight to see in person.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve got that right, Kelsey. I have never seen this kind of thing in person. In fact, beforest month, I never knew that it was possible.¡±


    ¡°Neither did I, Wayne.¡± Kelsey grinned. ¡°Trinity, Reece, will the two of youe and join us over here?¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± Reece smiled and took my hand. ¡°Thank you for having us on the show today.¡±


    ¡°No, thank you two for being here. I understand that we are the first to have you on our show, thank you for giving us such an honor.¡±


    There were a lot of pleasantries as we settled into our seats and were greeted properly. Kelsey and Wayne shook our hands and made us feel weed.


    ¡°Now, we all know why you are here. Of course,st month you two made national news when you revealed to us all that you weren¡¯t humans. And that there were a lot more like you as well.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that is right.¡± I nodded as I answered her. ¡°In fact, a little more than half of the people in the world are like us in some way.¡±


    ¡°And, how many different types of people are there? I mean, I know there are werewolves and Vampires, but who else?¡± Wayne asked me without realizing that his words were a little rude. I let it slide though, he didn¡¯t know any better.


    ¡°Well, there are a lot. We break them down intorger categories like Shifters, Vampires, Magic Users, and Fae. However, there are a lot of subcategories, especially for the Shifters and Magic Users.¡±


    ¡°That is fascinating. Now, Reece, you are a werewolf, isn¡¯t that right?¡± He asked after I exined things to him.


    ¡°Yes, that is correct. I am a pure wolf, both my parents were wolves as well. We don¡¯t usually use the term werewolf though, because we don¡¯t behave like the stereotypical werewolf in the movies.¡±


    ¡°Oh, OK. So just wolves then. And Shifters in general. Now, Trinity, you are not a pure wolf, right?¡± Wayne moved on, not dwelling on the negative part of things.


    ¡°That is correct. When I was growing up, people thought that I was half human, because they didn¡¯t know who my father was, but then as time went on, we learned the truth. My father was a Warlock. And my mother, and consequently my entire family, wasn¡¯t pure wolf either. They are actually half wolf and half Fae.¡±


    ¡°So, they were all hybrids, and you Trinity, that makes you a tribrid.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Kelsey, that is correct.¡± I nodded as I answered her. ¡°I am not the only mixed breed among us though, so that isn¡¯t an issue. We believe in epting everyone, because ourmunity is so vast and diverse.¡±


    ¡°That is so amazing to hear. To know that you are all so inclusive and epting.¡± I could see genuine happiness in the eyes of the female host that was speaking with us. She really was happy to be hearing about all this positivity.


    We talked a little more about the ways that we lived. How we had families, careers, and did all the things that the humans did.


    ¡°I mean, think about it, if we didn¡¯t work with you and live among you, then there would be a lot less people in the world. We¡¯ve been your neighbors, your coworkers, your friends, and in some cases your family. We have been here for a long time. And we have never once tried to take over.¡±


    ¡°Never?¡± Wayne sounded a little skeptical about that. ¡°There has never, in all of history, been someone that tried to take over the world?¡±


    ¡°Alright, I can¡¯t say that. But humans aren¡¯t any different there. Look at Hitler, Stalin, and all the others that tried to rule the world. They were humans, and they were evil. As for our people though, when one got too big for their britches, he was dealt with from the beginning.¡±


    ¡°Dealt with?¡± Kelsey gasped. ¡°Y..you mean, you know.¡± She made a motion that meant that they were killed.


    ¡°In older times, yes. But that was how the humans did things as well. Now, we lock them up in a prison that strips them of all magic, they can¡¯t shift, they can¡¯t cast, they are as human there as it is possible to be. We don¡¯t believe in killing, not anymore. We evolved with the times just as the humans did.¡±


    ¡°OK, so you all do not hunt the humans?¡± Wayne restated what I had just told him, and he did so with a smile on his face to prove that he wasn¡¯t at all scared of either me or Reece.


    ¡°No, we do not hunt the humans. Not even the Vampires hunt them. They might make contracts with humans and use them for nourishment, but it is apletely painless process that is no different than donating blood. No one is harmed, and the humans are generouslypensated for it. However, most of the Vampires choose to get their nourishment from actual food, like you and I eat, or from animal blood. They do not require human blood for survival.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Kelsey sounded intensely interested in that topic as she leaned forward. ¡°I wonder, how-.¡± She stopped mid sentence and looked to the side of the stage. She had gotten a message through the earpiece that she was wearing. My sensitive ears picked up on it immediately though, so I already knew what she was hearing. ¡°Well, it appears that we have a caller that wants to discuss this topic with you a little more.¡± I could tell that she was not happy about this, but she had no choice but to follow along with the producer.


    ¡°Alright.¡± I sat up a little straighter and waited for the caller. ¡°I can answer their questions if they would like. Reece and I have absolutely nothing to hide.¡±


    ¡°I love that.¡± Wayne looked at the producer, clearly as displeased about the interruption as Kelsey had been. ¡°They are not going to hide anything from us right now. That sort of open honesty will do a lot for them and their cause.¡±


    ¡°I agree.¡± Kelsey nodded as she too prepared to allow the caller to speak. ¡°Alright then,. Are you there, caller? You can go ahead now, Trinity and Reece are ready for your question.¡± Her voice was calm, but there was an edge to her eyes that said she was angry at how things were going.


    ¡°Yeah, I want to know when exactly they stopped killing people? From what I hear, they are still hunting humans in droves. There are thousands of people that go missing every day, and I just know that they are behind it all. Why else would there be so many people getting killed?¡± The man¡¯s voice was angry and full of loathing. I knew that there would be people that talked about these things. And that tried to me us for all the negativity in the world. It was an unfortunate side effect of life. We would just have to deal with it. No matter what it was that life threw at us, we would make it through this time, and we would see a time when the humans and the supernatural lived in peace together.


    Taking a deep breath, I braced myself to deal with this man that was calling in to ask such a crude and outright false question. However annoyed it made me though, I needed to remain calm. I needed to make sure that I didn¡¯t let him get to me.

 Chapter 1088 - 1088 Chapter 73- Trinity – The First Interview Part 2 (VOLUME 6)

    1088 Chapter 73- Trinity ¨C The First Interview Part 2 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    There was utter silence in the studio after the man¡¯s question was spoken for us all to hear. I could tell that the others were curious about this as well, but the hosts, who were both human, were looking at me like they werepletely offended by the man that had spoken. They had been fully supportive of Reece and I from the moment that we had arrived here. And I knew that they were allies of ours.


    ¡°Trinity, I know that this is a factless and baseless usation that this man has hurled toward you with that question of his, but would you mind humoring him? I know that it would help a lot of people to settle their unease about you if you exined how things are with you all.¡± Kelsey leaned forward after she spoke and whispered with her hand covering her microphone. She wanted to make sure that no one would hear what she had to say. ¡°Tinley Fraiser is a friend of mine, and I know that you are good people. I support you twopletely. And so does Wayne.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± I whispered to her as she pulled away from me. ¡°And yes, Kelsey, I will answer his question. I know that this might help a lot of people with their apprehension about my kind.¡± I smiled at the camera. I tried my best, sweetest, and most innocent smile. I was sure that by the time that I was done, I looked no older than sixteen and that I appeared to be a pure and innocent angel.


    ¡°I can¡¯t wait to hear this exnation.¡± Wayne smiled at me. ¡°I know that this is going to be a wonderfully interesting piece of history that we never learned in school.¡± I smiled at him and nodded in agreement.


    ¡°It wasn¡¯t taught in your schools, Wayne, but there are a lot of things that we need to learn in our lives as supernatural beings. And one of those is the history of our people. As you know how the saying goes, those that ignore history are doomed to repeat it. We don¡¯t want to relive the dark ages where we were hunted by the humans, when we had less cooperation among our people and felt ostracized for just being ourselves. All we want is a world where we can all live harmoniously together.¡± I started the exnation and Reece picked up the thread seamlessly for me.


    ¡°There are things about history that no one wants to relive. And, unfortunately, there were times when our species were at odds. A time when humans knew of our existence and wanted to eradicate us. Back then, it was each group for themselves. The unification that we have had over thest twenty years has only served to strengthen our bonds. Our people are allies now, not enemies, and we want that with the humans as well.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Exactly.¡± I nodded at Reece as I continued to speak. ¡°Back in these dark times, when humans killed us and we returned the favor, there were lives lost all around. However, once we retreated to the shadows, turning ourselves into myths and legends, hiding ourselves from the people around us, there has been no rampant killings on either side. There would be a rogue human that managed to kill some of us, and likewise a rogue member of our society that killed humans as well. More than likely though, any killing that happened at the hands of our people was taking the lives of another of our people. Like humans, there used to be a lot of infighting with us as well.¡±


    ¡°Yes, it used to be quitemon for fights for power to break out in a pack and the men would fight to the death to gain control. That doesn¡¯t happen now, but it used to be amon thing.¡± Reece exined to them all.


    ¡°Now, about the missing people that you speak of sir, I can assure you that we are not responsible for it. However, I know that there is still arge human trafficking issue in almost every country in the world, including our own. And now that we do not need to hide as much, we can track them down a lot easier. I happen to know quite a few very skilled private investigators that I can put onto these cases. Not only that, but there are your typical runaways, as well as human murderers. There are a lot of exnations for these missing people but none of them have anything to do with our people.¡±


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t answer my question at all. You didn¡¯t say when you stopped killing humans.¡± The man nearly screeched over the line.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t I?¡± I tilted my head in confusion as I looked toward a monitor in the distance. ¡°I said that the killing of humans stopped generally around the dark ages. When there was a rogue among us, they were dealt with. We have even worked with humans over the years to stop these rogues. There was a man, a human man, that used to be quite good friends with some of my kind. He lived long ago and helped to keep the peace all over the world. His name was ric Jaegan.¡±


    ¡°Jaegan?¡± The man caught onto the name right away. ¡°Like those murderers from the summer?¡±


    ¡°Yes, he was their ancestor. However, an ancient species of demons from a version of Hell had infiltrated the family and bastardized their ancestor¡¯s memory. They turned them against my kind and made them kill my people.¡±


    ¡°Seems like that group had the best idea there is. You im that you are not killing people, but you¡¯re all just monsters.¡± The man¡¯s voice was filled with rage when he spoke, like he was mad that I stopped the Jaegan frompleting their mission.


    ¡°Sir, I ask you this one question, if we wanted to kill all the humans, then why haven¡¯t we?¡± I paused for a moment after asking this to let it sink in for him. ¡°We have been here with you all for millennia. If we were going to kill you all, if we wanted to rule the world, why wouldn¡¯t we have done it by now? Why wouldn¡¯t we have done it long before guns, tanks, and other advancements in military strategy had invented things that would hinder us? Why would we expose ourselves to you all if we were intent on ruling you all or killing you all? Wouldn¡¯t it be easier if we were to just kill you all before making you aware of us? We aren¡¯t here to hurt anyone at all. All we want is to live lives that aren¡¯t filled with secrecy and hiding. We want to make sure that our children aren¡¯t made to live in fear of doing or saying the wrong thing when out in the city with the humans.¡±


    ¡°HA!¡± The man¡¯s barkedugh was almost earsplitting. ¡°You im that your kids are afraid, but what about our kids? What are they going to do when they have to see monsters on a daily basis.¡±


    ¡°How will they know any difference?¡± Reece said calmly as he leaned forward next to me. ¡°We have been here all along. Do you think that just because you know we are there, you can suddenly see something that you didn¡¯t see before? We look like you, unless we have consciously changed forms. They won¡¯t see monsters. They will see the same people that have always been a part of their lives.¡±


    ¡°Th..th..they are monsters though. We will know that they are monsters.¡± The man was so flustered now. It was clear that he didn¡¯t know what to do or say at the moment.


    ¡°Do I look like a monster?¡± I asked the man. ¡°Can you tell that I am a wolf shifter? A Witch? A Fae? A Goddess? A Queen? Do I look any different than the people that you see on the street on any other given day? No, I don¡¯t. I am just as normal as you are sir, so there won¡¯t be any issues with the people of the world. This whole reveal was just so that we didn¡¯t have to keep living in the shadows. We want the world to know that we are here, that we¡¯re not going anywhere, and that we aren¡¯t dangerous.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t believe you. You¡¯re all monsters. You¡¯re all murderers. You¡¯re all-.¡± The line clicked off then and I saw a fake smile on Kelsey¡¯s face.


    ¡°Oh no, we seem to have been disconnected.¡± She had either ended the call, or an engineer behind the scenes had. I was d that they had. ¡°Well, now that the line is clear, let¡¯s take another caller. Miss Belinda Brock, you have a question for Trinity and Reece?¡±


    ¡°Well, less a question and just something that I want to say to them. I think you two are awesome. I am as human as theye, and I love the two of you. I always have. I have followed your marriage through the papers and magazines for years. I love your family and how happy you seem to be. I know that you are good people, you help so many people. My son went to college because of your schrship programs. And I think that you two are just beautiful. Reece, you are the most handsome man in the entire world. And Trinity, I have never seen a more beautiful woman than you. Neither of you are monsters. You are the most human people that I have ever seen. Actually, maybe it¡¯s because you aren¡¯t human, maybe that is why you are able to help so many people. You aren¡¯t affected by the same levels of greed and selfishness.¡±


    ¡°Aww, thank you Belinda.¡± I smiled into the camera so that she could see the smile for her. ¡°I am happy that you think that way. However, there are a lot of people in ourmunity that are greedy as well. We really are just like humans in so many ways. Some of us are generous and giving and the others are greedy and wouldn¡¯t help someone in need even if they were paid to do it. Like I said, we¡¯re more human than most people think. The only difference is that we look different at times.¡±


    ¡°Amazing.¡± Belinda spoke reverently into the phone. ¡°You are such amazing people.¡±


    Following that first call, there was a lot of support for Reece and I. Some people were apparently on the fence and wanted to ask some questions about us and our people, which we answered as best as we could. And there were a few more people like that first caller, though they didn¡¯tst on the line as long as he had.


    By the time that the interview was over, I had a feeling that we were a little closer to global understanding. We needed them to know that we weren¡¯t going to hurt anyone, and we weren¡¯t going to leave either. We were people. We had rights. And we just wanted to live in peace.


    After a very touching goodbye from Kelsey and Wayne, and a lot of the staff that was part of the show, Reece and I bid them all good day and started to leave. We left the same way that we had gotten there, only this time the magical door took us home rather than back to the top of the mountain. I would rather be home anyway, so that was no problem with me.


    It was still very early in the day, but I was exhausted. I was ready for this day to be over already, but I knew that I needed to be there for the kids when they got home. Instead of going to bed until the morning, I decided to just take a nap, which I desperately needed. Especially with how big the baby was getting already, and that I only had a little over two months until she got here, I was definitely starting to feel tired really easily.


    And this wasn¡¯t going to end anytime soon. We had a lot more interviews nned, and I would do them all. All the way up to the day that I delivered the baby if I had to. Whatever it took to protect my people and my family.

 Chapter 1089 - 1089 Chapter 74- Reagan – First Day Back (VOLUME 6)

    1089 Chapter 74- Reagan ¨C First Day Back (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reagan


    ~~


    The first day back after the winter break was a little nerve wracking. Of course, Rika and I had been on the news with our parents when the reveal had happened. We were putting ourselves out there for the world to see. It¡¯s a good thing that the people that ran the school were mostly super naturals like us. They weren¡¯t worried about having us in the school.


    I could only imagine how the others would fair if they had shown themselves on the news that day. Like Dominic and Vivian, Uncle Griffin¡¯s kids, they were in Ennd and going to Oxford. They would probably have a hard time if they had shown themselves on the news. If people knew what they were before going back to school, then they might be kicked out of school.


    Of course, with thews that my parents had secretly passed all over the world, that would have left the school open to awsuit and litigation, they would have still had to go through the fight for it all.


    No, I was really d that we went to a school that knew what we were and that wouldn¡¯t kick us out. Still, I noticed a lot of people looking at me funny when I walked onto campus with Levi, Luka, Elias, Cypress and Beech. They were looking at the others as well, wondering if they were like me or not.


    Some of the looks were filled with hatred and unease. They were the ones that most likely would boycott against us, and had probably lodgedints with the school. I am sure that there would be a lot of students and parents protesting our admission into the school here, but that didn¡¯t matter to me. Not right now anyway.


    Some of the other people that were looking at us were just mildly curious. I could tell that they were going to be the indifferent ones. They were going to think something like, oh hey, they¡¯re not human. And then that would be it. They wouldn¡¯t protest against us. They wouldn¡¯t want us out of the school. They wouldn¡¯t do anything at all. These were the ones that we wanted to see the most. Those that had an attitude that said if they don¡¯t bother us then I won¡¯t bother them.


    .....


    And,stly, the rest of the looks that we were getting were the truly unexpected ones. There were a lot of people, men and women alike, who all seemed to be staring at us with a sort of idol worship or starstruck look in their eyes. That was definitely not what I thought I would see today.


    What was making all of this worse though, was that these people seemed to be following us. Every time that one of us left a ss, we seemed to have a new entourage. And call me crazy, but some of these people didn¡¯t look like they went to school here at all. I mean, there were some women in that group behind me that were in their forties, not that older people couldn¡¯t go to university, but still it was umon.


    And when I looked at the group that was doggedly following my sister and her friends around, I knew that there were men in that group that weren¡¯t students here. I had seen some of those men at the shops around the mall, and others were businessmen that were still wearing their suits.


    ¡°What the hell is going on here?¡± I asked as I looked around the campus during lunch. Our entire group was seated together, strength in numbers you know.


    ¡°I am pretty sure that they are our fan clubs.¡± Rika said as she too looked at the men and women that were literally just watching us. ¡°Mom and Dad have worked hard to keep us out of the news since we were babies, but now we have a fan club that is following us around. Our pictures are going to wind up everywhere. There will likely be paparazzi as well. They won¡¯t make it up to the castle, but they will encroach on us here at school.¡± She bit into her sandwich that she bought from the shop beforeing out here.


    ¡°Yeah, I think that she¡¯s right.¡± Luka added as he took a bite of a decadent homemade pudding that he brought in his lunch box. He usually ate meals brought from home. He was a hybrid and had a different dietary requirement than his brother. ¡°If it makes any difference, they¡¯re not angry at us.¡±


    ¡°Reading their minds?¡± I asked him with augh as I ate the cheeseburger I had ordered. I had almost lost my appetite though, I was just eating out of habit.


    ¡°Not really. There are too many to read just one. However, I am getting a little from them, over the buzz of the group. And that blip that I am seeing is one of admiration and love. It¡¯s not real love though, more like idol love. How people love celebrities and all that.¡±


    ¡°But we¡¯re not celebrities.¡± Lyssa said softly as she looked around. I knew that she was still a little upset about her mate and the betrayal, but I knew that Uncle Shawn and Uncle Dietrich had done something to help lessen her pain. She was moving on, but she was still affected by it, just a little.


    ¡°We are now.¡± Alexa said as she looked at the group of men that were watching her and the other girls. ¡°The moment that the news showed that there were nonhumans in the world, and our parents were there during the reveal, showing what they really were, that was the end of our anonymity. We will be in the public¡¯s eyes until all of this dies down.¡±


    ¡°And what if it never dies down?¡± Elias asked as he was monitoring the entire situation. He was always there to watch over us, just like an older brother.


    ¡°Well, if that were to happen, then we will need to learn to live with it all. I mean, it¡¯s not different from what our parents have lived through.¡± Of course, my mom and dad were a little more in the public eye than the rest of theirs. And I knew that Rika and I would be there with them when we were old enough, but it was all happening now. There was no waiting period or anything. We had chosen to put ourselves into this situation, chosen to be a prominent part of the reveal, and we would deal with what happened now.


    While we spoke about this topic among ourselves, I saw that there were some people arriving across the campus. Most of these fans had found each other and started to group with each other. This new group, though, about six girls that all piled out of arge SUV in the parking lot nearby, had spotted us sitting there alone and started right toward us.


    ¡°REAGAN!¡± One of the girls screamed at me. ¡°REAGAN! OH MY GOD! THAT IS TOTALLY REAGAN! LOOK AT HIM! HE IS SO HOT!¡±


    ¡°Looks like you have a fan.¡± Leviughed as he bit into his personalrge pizza.


    ¡°OH MY GOD! LOOK! THERE ARE THE OTHERS! I SAW THEIR DADS ON TV! THEY LOOK JUST LIKE SHAWN! THOSE TWO THERE! THOSE ARE LEVI AND LUKA!¡± Another of the women screeched out when they saw who was next to me.


    ¡°LOOK AT THEM ALL! THEY ARE SO HOT!¡± Another squealed as they all walked swiftly toward us.


    ¡°OH MY GOODNESS! DO YOU THINK THAT THEY ARE ALL SUPER NATURALS? ARE THEY ALL NOT HUMAN? I SEE HIS SISTER, RIKA, SITTING OVER THERE! AND LOOK, THERE ARE ALEXANDRA AND ALYSSA! THE OTHERS MUST BE LIKE THEM!¡±


    ¡°EEEKK!¡± I heard another squeal as one of the girls toward the back got closer. ¡°I SEEN ELIAS! HE IS THEIR COUSIN! OH MY GOODNESS! THEY ARE ALL SUPER NATURALS! AND THEY ARE ALL SO HOT! EVEN THE GIRLS ARE HOT! THEY ARE SO BEAUTIFUL!¡±


    ¡°I think these ones are a little more excited than the others were.¡± Iughed as I looked at them. ¡°Should we head out?¡±


    ¡°Nah. Give them a show. All we¡¯re doing is eating. And we still have twenty minutes until you and I need to head out.¡± Luka said as he took another bite of his special lunch.


    ¡°SEE! THEY ARE ALL EATING REAL FOOD! EVEN THE ONES THAT MUST BE VAMPIRES! IT REALLY IS TRUE! THEY DON¡¯T DRINK BLOOD!¡±


    ¡°I WOULD LET THEM DRINK MY BLOOD!¡± One of the girls said way too loudly. It wasn¡¯t ament that she had intended only for her friends to hear, she wanted us to hear it as well. All I could do was roll my eyes and shake my head.


    ¡°This is a bit much, isn¡¯t it?¡± I heard Rika say from across the fountain.


    ¡°Yeah, but at least no one is getting hurt.¡±


    I had to say that, didn¡¯t I? One of the overly zealous girls made a break for it and started to run toward me and the others at the fountain.


    ¡°REAGAN! LUKA! LEVI! ALYSSA! ALEXANDRA! RIKA! ELIAS!¡± She was saying all the names that she knew, repeating them over and over again as she made her way toward us. ¡°I LOVE YOU! ALL OF YOU! I WANT TO BE ONE OF YOU!¡±


    While she was running, the girl wasn¡¯t watching where she was going. She ended up tripping over her own feet and would have gone sprawling into a row of parked bikes if I hadn¡¯t seen what was happening before it could actually happen. I was on my feet and over to her before she even knew what was happening. And of course, I caught the stupid girl before she could get hurt.


    ¡°Stop being so reckless.¡± I scolded her and saw the reverence in her eyes. She wasn¡¯t listening to a word that I was saying.


    ¡°You saved me.¡± She said in awe. ¡°You saved me.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have had to if you weren¡¯t running without watching where you were going. As I said before, stop being so reckless.¡±


    ¡°Y..y..yes.¡± She nodded, but I was sure that she still hadn¡¯t heard me. ¡°Y..y..you saved me.¡± She repeated those words again.


    ¡°Hahh. Just be more careful, OK?¡± I shook my head and sighed at her before I left her there.


    ¡°OH! EMM! GEEE! She squealed at the top of her lungs the moment that I walked away. ¡°HE! SAVED! ME! HE TOUCHED! ME! OH! EMM! GEEE! THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!¡±


    ¡°GIRL!¡± Another one squealed behind her. ¡°YOU ARE SO FUCKING LUCKY!¡± I just couldn¡¯t deal with their stupidity at the moment. I had tried my best not to yell at the girl for being so stupid as she ran toward me. I was done with my meal and just wanted to get out of here. The others did too, after that disy. We would make up anything that we missedter, we needed to head home for the time being.


    For some reason, I had a feeling that my parents were going to want to know what had happened. This whole fan group thing was going to be a big problem. And this was alling right after we had convinced them that we didn¡¯t need to be guarded at school like this. We were supposed to be fine because there were so many of us.


    However, I could see it now. There could be a group that came to the university. They could pretend to be fans of ours to make it so that we didn¡¯t pay them much attention at all. They could try to get close to us, but they could be some of those that would attack and riot. With all that had been happening in the world since the reveal had happened, I wasn¡¯t going to put anything past these humans. I would make sure that we were all safe, but I would be wary of them until all of this stuff had finally blown over.


    Hahh, just when I thought that things were going to be calm and peaceful for us when we were on campus. I guess I had been stupid and reckless as well. Oh well, I could fix that. I wouldn¡¯t let myself be so na?ve anymore.

 Chapter 1090 - 1090 Chapter 75- Reece – Nothing is the Same Anymore (VOLUME 6)

    1090 Chapter 75- Reece ¨C Nothing is the Same Anymore (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    We were all trying to live our lives like normal. We were attempting to go back to work, back to school, back to our normal daily grind. That was what we all wanted. That was the whole n from the beginning. However, that wasn¡¯t about to happen at all. Things just weren¡¯t the same for us anymore. And they were never likely to be the same again.


    Today, when I left the castle and tried to leave thepound to head to work, I saw that there were at least three hundred people that were waiting near the gates. They had to have been there when Reagan and Rika left as well. I was just d that most people didn¡¯t know about the other exit, the one that went towards Trinity Falls. That was where Talia, Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley left to go to school. It was still guarded though, as it should be.


    At the moment, I think that it is best if we bump up security around the entirepound. The people that lived in here were likely to be suspected as being not human. That was why they were swarming around here. I knew that it was mostly because this was where Trinity and I lived, that people knew that there had to be something up with us in here.


    The good thing is that they didn¡¯t know how many of our people lived in the city, or in Trinity Falls. Though, with a name that was actually after my Little Bunny, and the Queen of our people, it wouldn¡¯t be long until the people of the world started to suspect that it was connected with us.


    Yeah, I think that it is best overall to up the security around thepound and Trinity Falls. I needed to protect my people. It wasn¡¯t just my Little Bunny that was always thinking about the greater good and the people that we were meant to lead in this world. They had trusted us to get them all through this reveal, and that is what we intend to do. No matter what the setbacks were going to be.


    The ride into work, slowed by the difficulty getting through the gate, was mostly uneventful. I spent the time mostly thinking about how there were two sides that were crowding around the entrance to thepound. On the one side, holding up signs that I had expected to see, were the people that were protesting against Trinity and I. Their signs called us monsters and told us to leave and that we weren¡¯t weed here in their city, in their state, in their country. Hmph, where on earth do they think that we should go then?


    .....


    There was a side that was pr opposite to those people that were protesting us. They also held up signs, but they were different. Instead of telling us to get out and that we were monsters, these signs had hearts and pleas for attention. They were asking for us to make them our ves or something like that. It was a little too much for me.


    On top of the signs, there was the yelling. I tried to ignore it, but there was a lot of screaming, both positive and negative. Since I was in the car, I was able to drown them out and ignore what they were saying. All I needed to do was turn up the music that was ying as Noah and I rode toward the office.


    Once we got to the office though, things were a little different. There was a mass of people out there as well. And, unfortunately, there was no way for us to get into the parking garage. Those people had their cars and their bodies blocking the entrance entirely. This meant that we needed to park in the lot that was just off the street. I hadn¡¯t parked here in a long time, not since the garage was built.


    ¡°Looks like they¡¯ve effectively made it so that we need to walk past them.¡± Noah said as he looked at the mass of people.


    ¡°Yup.¡± I nodded as I parked the car. ¡°And there seems to be about three times as many people here as there were at thepound.¡±


    ¡°At least.¡± He agreed. ¡°Are you going to be OK?¡±


    ¡°What? You think that I am some baby¡¯s ass that can¡¯t make it through a group of protestors? Ha! I am not going to let them get to me. I will show by example that I am not going anywhere. I will keep my life as it has always been. And I will make sure that mypany prospers in the process.¡±


    ¡°I have no doubt about that.¡± He grinned and shook his head at me. ¡°Come on then, Reece. Let¡¯s get through that crowd.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, this is just going to be a part of everyday life for us now. At least until they understand that there isn¡¯t anything that is going to happen.¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t it grand?¡± He spoke Sarcastically as he opened his door. ¡°I can¡¯t wait to have to deal with them day in and day out. It¡¯s going to be so much fun.¡± He had a smile, but it was sardonic, to match his tone as he spoke.


    ¡°Come on, No No, let¡¯s get going.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t call me that.¡± He snapped at me, but with a hint ofughter.


    ¡°Come on, the affectionate name that all the kids have used for you fits your mood right about now. I need to use it. Besides, when you allowed the kids to call you that all those years ago, you opened this can of worms. I will use it whenever I see fit.¡± I was trying to lighten the mood, and I felt like I was doing a damn good job about it, if I do say so myself.


    ¡°I hate you.¡± He was kidding,ughing along with me as he pretended to growl the words at me.


    ¡°Aww, that¡¯s so sweet No No. I love you too, buddy.¡±


    Together, the two of us left the car behind and headed toward the office. Yes, I armed the car¡¯s rm. No, I didn¡¯t think that it was going to help. I was sure that if any of these people wanted to get into my car, they would have it fully looted before the rm could draw the attention of the police. It was fine though. I didn¡¯t keep anything personal in the car. That was just asking for trouble. Not to mention, it meant that I didn¡¯t need to worry in moments like this.


    ¡°Good morning to you all.¡± I spoke loudly so that the people who were chanting on both sides of the walkway into the door would hear me. Well, at least some of them would.


    ¡°REECE! OH MY GOODNESS, REECE! I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU REECE! TAKE ME AS A MISTRESS!¡±


    ¡°That is ttering, but I am happily married and devoted to my wife.¡± I smiled in the direction of the woman¡¯s voice, trying not to show that I was feeling a little less than forgiving with her outburst.


    ¡°HE IS SO DREAMY! AND SO DEVOTED! TRINITY IS A LUCKY WOMAN! OH MY GOD! I WANT A MAN LIKE REECE!¡±


    ¡°NOAH! NOAH! WE LOVE YOU NOAH!¡± Another voice was calling out to the man that was walking next to me.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Noah was blushing bright red, probably because he thought that I would be the sole focus of these fans that were here.


    ¡°DON¡¯T BLUSH YOU SMARMY BASTARD!¡± A man from the other side yelled at Noah. ¡°YOU THINK THAT YOU ARE HOT SHIT! YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A MURDERING MONSTER!¡±


    ¡°I assure you, sir, we are not monsters.¡± I told him calmly as we walked past him. ¡°We are just people, not that different from you. As you can see, we are on our way into the office so that we can get to work, at our jobs. This is a very normal and typical thing for people to do, isn¡¯t it?¡± I spoke a little condescending, but not so much that it would have gotten me in trouble with my Little Bunny if she had heard me.


    ¡°It is not!¡± The man growled at me, close enough now that he didn¡¯t have to shout at me. ¡°Not when your business is a sham that is only hiding your dirty dealings. You things make me sick. You are not people. You don¡¯t have the right to be called people.¡±


    ¡°I am sorry that you feel that way, Sir.¡± I shook my head with a sad note in my eyes. ¡°I wish that you would just ept that all we want in life is to live peacefully, like all the other people that we share this with.¡±


    ¡°FUCK YOU, MONSTER BOY!¡± The man screamed at me, his voice so loud that it hurt my ears. And after that he and the other protestors started to chant something in angry tones.


    ¡°DESTROY ALL THE MONSTERS! DESTROY ALL THE MONSTERS! DESTROY ALL THE MONSTERS!¡± While they chanted, the other group started to chant as well, something that was countering what the angry voices were saying.


    ¡°LONG LIVE THE SUPER NATURALS! LET THEM LIVE IN PEACE! LONG LIVE THE SUPER NATURALS! LET THEM LIVE IN PEACE! LONG LIVE THE SUPER NATURALS! LET THEM LIVE IN PEACE!¡± It was strange hearing them yell at each other as if they were fighting some sort of verbal war.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get inside.¡± I told Noah as I grabbed him by the elbow. ¡°We need to get to work.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but I doubt that we will be seeing any clients today.¡± He shook his head. There was no need to agree with him, he knew that he was right, and I knew it too.


    Throughout the morning, Noah and I dealt with video conference after video conference. We had a lot of clients that weren¡¯t human that wanted to deal with us more than before. We had some people that wanted to pull their support for ourpany, but they had been people that I hadn¡¯t really approved of over thest several years anyway, so I was happy to see them go. And then the remaining clients didn¡¯t call at all. I felt like these were the middle ground clients. They knew that we had made them money for decades, so they weren¡¯t inclined to leave us at all.


    Then there were the employees. Most of them weren¡¯t human, and the ones that were had been thoroughly vetted, without being told what we were. I didn¡¯t have to worry about them at all. They all opted to continue to work for us, but they wanted to know if they would be able to work from home for a while, until the protestors at the office were gone for good. They didn¡¯t want people to know what they were just yet. That was understandable. People didn¡¯t want to disclose their species because they didn¡¯t want their neighbors to turn on them.


    I agreed to let them all work from home for the time being. It was safer for them in the long run. Noah and I would go into the office everyday though. We would show solidarity and support for thepany, and that we weren¡¯t afraid of these people. We would make sure that the secretaries were OK as well, because they still needed toe into the office to maintain themunication lines between the employees and the clients.


    It was all different, and I wasn¡¯t sure when things were going to get back to normal for us all. But the thing that mattered to me was that my people were safe and sound. We all knew that the world was going to changest month, when we made the announcement. It was never going to go back to how it had been before, and we all epted that.


    When I finally made it home from work that night, after more calls and video conferences than I had been expecting, I learned about what had happened at the university. Reagan and Rika told us how they had the same types of people that had followed them to the campus. They were mostly the positive ones though. They had been eager to see them and to get close to them.


    Thankfully, I had raised my kids right. They and all their friends knew that it was possible that some of those ¡®fans¡¯ could be protestors that were infiltrating the ranks of the fans. They could be using the fan groups to get closer to the kids and hurt them.


    What got me though, was that they had known most of their names. Not just Reagan and Rika who were on the news with us, but the others as well. Their identities were already spreading, and that wasn¡¯t necessarily a good thing. Yeah, nothing was going to be the same anymore at all. And we all needed to be careful for the time being.


    NEW YORK TIMES- FRONT PAGE NEWS MONDAY JANUARY 7, 2041


    There might have been an absence of riots today, but that doesn¡¯t mean that all things were peaceful in the world today. All across the country, at ces that are known to have nonhuman residents, there were groups that had gathered in droves.


    Some of these people that gathered had traveled several hundred miles just to be where they knew they would be able to see a person that was ssified as a ¡®super natural being¡¯. Whether it was the poprity of these people, or on the other side of the spectrum, the disdain, that led these people to these locations, there were thousands that turned up at various locations.


    There were several people, both fans or supporters as well as protestors, that showed up in Waterton, California, location of the riotst week. Protestors were there to express their displeasure that there were a lot of nonhuman people in thatmunity, and how their like-minded fellows had beenbeled as terrorists. They didn¡¯t think that they should be listed as criminals because they hadn¡¯t intended to hurt any humans.


    On the opposite side of that spectrum, several people, all purportedly human, showed up in droves to support themunity that had stood together when their people had been targeted.


    Inarguably, thergest of all the groups had shown up in Colorado Springs, Colorado. No one truly expected anything else though, as this is where the supposed King and Queen of the Shifters and Vampires is reputed to reside.


    Groups of protestors and fans swarmed outside of a gatedmunity that is said to house the castle that this royal couple upies with their children. Those groups were nothing inparison to the ones that formed outside of the doors to Alpha Corp., the business that is owned and operated by Reece and Trinity Gray.


    Also noteworthy, there were several people that made their way onto the campus of UCCS. They were reportedly there to catch glimpses of the twins, Reagan and Rika Gray, son and daughter to Reece and Trinity Gray. There were no incidents reported, other than a fan that was running overzealously toward the group and tripped. It is said that Reagan Gray moved faster than humanly possible as he moved to catch the woman before she collided with objects that would have caused her bodily harm.


    It is safe to say, regardless of the opinions that people have on these nonhumans, that they are quite the hot topic. This reporter will be following their tale even further and will find out what there is to know about these people. If they are out there saving people when they are about to be hurt, then they can¡¯t be all bad.


    These fans made a point to remember, in excruciating detail, every single event that took ce while they were on the campus. Not once did these nonhumans threaten a single person on campus. They kept to themselves and helped others when they needed to. In a way, they were more human than most humans in this world.


    While it is best to let the rest of the world make up their own minds about these ¡®super natural beings¡¯, this reporter will be rooting for them to seed in their new ventures. And if you want to have a more in depth look into why these people are absolutely not a threat to us or our society, you will have all that and more in the series of articles that will being in next week¡¯s issues. Detailed ounts of the dealings and histories of the nonhumans that have been uncovered for you all to learn and make your own choice.


    This article has been written for the New York Times by Elijah Dalton of Manchester, New York.

 Chapter 1091 - 1091 Chapter 76- Making Plans (VOLUME 6)

    1091 Chapter 76- Making ns (VOLUME 6)


    THIRD PERSON POV ¨C THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE STORY


    The man was sitting in his chair, hunched over his work. He was known to the group around him as Pawster, a nickname given to him because he was a member of the organization known as PAWs. Pawster had liked the name of his group, Proud American Warriors, but that was before he had known about the werewolves and other monsters in the world. Now, though, it felt like the acronym was a p in their face. Those things, those monsters, they had paws. They had long and sharp teeth. They weren¡¯t fit to live in this world with people like him.


    The PAWs were just one of the groups that had been invited to take part in this war against the monsters. It was their job to kill as many of these nonhuman things as they could. There could not be as many as they were iming that there were, that was impossible. How could they outnumber the humans of the world? Pawster wasn¡¯t that gullible. He knew that if there were that many monsters in the world, they would have known about their existence much sooner. There would have been no way to hide it for that long.


    And if by some chance there really were that many people in the world that weren¡¯t human, well then, most of them had to be from other countries. Those backwater, disgusting nations that weren¡¯t civilized in the slightest. That was where they had to havee from. They were disgusting monsters that were nothing more than gutter trash from a gutter nation. That was what Pawster thought. That was how everyone in his group had thought of those people. If they weren¡¯t like them, then they were wrong. And wasn¡¯t that the way that the world was supposed to be?


    Pawster was one of only five members of the PAWs that hadn¡¯t been arrested that day when they stormed the stadium. He would have been there with them as well, if he was able to. Had he not been tied up with familial responsibilities, he would have joined his brothers as they attacked the monsters that dared to use their city as theirunching point for madness. Him and all the others had been furious that they weren¡¯t able to make it to the riot, but they vowed to be there for their brothers. They would get them out of that county jail, and they would bring them into the new mission, the one that Colonel was nning for them.


    Colonel was a genius of a man, and he was going to make sure that those things paid for what they were trying to do. He had found them all, one by one. He had located the remaining PAWs members as well as the members of the HOWLs (Heroes of the World¡¯s Law), the BARCs (Boys Against Radical Change), the VAMPs (Veterans Against Military Passivity), and many more. They had all been scattered across the country, but now they were together and working toward a new and better world. A world with no monsters, and no monster supporters.


    Colonel said that if the monsters and their supporters were destroyed, they would be able to live in a world that was pure and free of pollution. Everything wrong with the world was tied to the monsters that were living amongst the humans. The pollution, the overcrowding, unemployment andck of jobs, homelessness, all of it was because of those monsters stealing things from the humans that deserved it more than them.


    Pawster was in full agreement with Colonel when it came to what they needed to do. Blow them up. Kill them all. Rid the world of the monsters. Those disease infested beings that thought that they could be allowed to roam free among the pure humans of the world.


    Along with Pawster, he had his other PAWs members with him. They were just as devoted to Colonel as he and the other group¡¯s were. They knew that Colonel had the right idea and the tools to make it happen. Pawter, Pawton, Pawley, and Pawncho were the men that joined him from Colorado Springs.


    .....


    At the moment, the entire group was working in an abandoned military facility in the Southwestern corner of Nebraska. They were only about six or six and a half hours away from Colorado Springs. Far enough away to not be noticed, but close enough to follow through with their missions when they were ready.


    Likewise, the new group that they were working under, a collective of the many into one, was now known as the DOE, or the Destroyers of Evil. That is what those monsters were. They were evil. All of them. Even the ones that appeared to be children, they were all monsters.


    There was no such thing as an innocent monster, nor was there a child monster. These things had been here far too long for them to be children now. The ones that appeared to be young were obviously eternal and trying to corrupt the youth of the world. They were the ones that needed to be destroyed first.


    ¡°This ce here, Sir. I think that aside from the gated hell hole, we need to attack this ce.¡±


    ¡°Trinity Falls, hmm?¡± The Colonel was getting a report from a man that was from another group. Pawster didn¡¯t know who the man was, but he knew the sound of the Colonel¡¯s voice. ¡°I think you are right, Private.¡± The glorious Colonel addressed the man. Like Pawster, the man was a Private, a low rank nobody. That was going to change though. Pawster was twenty years old now, and he was ready to take the lead in these situations. He had been itching to take arger role in the PAWs, and he would do the same here in the DOE.


    ¡°I hear that the city was created less than twenty years ago. It was made right next to where the head monsters live, and it was even named after that monster bitch.¡± The Private was still talking while Pawster worked on the small bomb that had been assigned to him.


    These small bombs were going to be just the first phase of their ns. They were going to be nting them all over the country, to let the world know that they are serious about getting rid of those things. After these small warning bombs, if the monsters didn¡¯t take the warning and kill themselves or leave the country altogether, then the DOE would move onto more serious tactics. They would start killing the monsters whenever they came across them. And Colonel had a way of knowing who was a monster and who wasn¡¯t. He was a genius that hade to answer all the true American Warriors¡¯ prayers.


    ¡°Find out all that you can about thismunity, Private. How many residents live there and where they all moved from. What businesses they have there. If there are schools. I want to know it all, and I want it on my desk within the next six hours.¡±


    ¡°Yes Sir, Colonel Sir.¡± The man was saluting the Colonel, and Pawster had started to feel envious. He had not had the chance to talk directly with the Colonel since he had been recruited. That had been the only time that he had looked the glorious man in the eyes and spoken to him.


    Finishing one bomb and moving onto another one, Pawster started to devise a n of his own. He needed to do something that was going to get the Colonel¡¯s attention. He needed to get himself noticed so that he could be promoted to another rank. He had more to offer than just making these bombs for the boss. He had more that he was able to do. He was young, but he wasn¡¯t stupid. He had skills, he was smart, and he wasn¡¯t afraid to kill a monster, or a sympathizer.


    He had read about those fan groups that had started to swarm the ces that the monsters were known to be. The university that was in town, the one that he was attending before the news of these monsters had hit the air, he knew that there were people there that needed to be destroyed. All those people fawning over those things, and the things themselves.


    Perhaps that was where Pawster could make his debut and show his skills. He would leave a mark so big that the Colonel would have no choice but to promote him. He would see the Colonel face to face, just like that arrogant Private had just done. Pawster would be the one that was to talk to the greatest man that had even walked this.


    Ahh, if he was able to do it, Pawster would keep progressing until he was the Colonel¡¯s right hand man. They had all been in this group the same amount of time as the others. So why was it that there were men that were instantly given higher ranks? What made them better than Pawster and his crew? Nothing, that¡¯s what. The Colonel just didn¡¯t know about his skill. That was fine. Pawster would rectify that situation very soon.


    With a bit of a smile on his face Pawster started to work faster on the bombs that he was making. He was good at this part of the job, that was true, but there was more that he wanted to do.


    ¡°What are you smiling about, Pawster?¡± Another man, one of the BARCs, called out to him in a quiet voice. The man had been sitting next to Pawster, so he had noticed the change in him immediately.


    ¡°Nothing.¡± Pawster said as he attached the circuit board to his current project. ¡°I was just thinking about something, that was all.¡± He told him without giving away his n. He wasn¡¯t about to give a man from a different organization the opportunity to rise above him. If he was going to include anyone in this n, it would be the other members of the PAWs. However, he wasn¡¯t so sure he wanted to do that either. This was a mission for Pawster alone.


    As he saw it, if too many people joined in on the mission, they would get suspicious of them. Not only that, but Pawster was a student at the university, and that meant he was able to infiltrate with no issues at all. He wouldn¡¯t be suspected. He would be able to get close to the monsters with no trouble at all. He was the only one in this entire ce that would be able to pull off the wonderful show that he was nning in his head.


    While he continued to smile and to plot the deed that he was going to carry out as soon as he could, the other man kept staring at him. Pawster started to think that either this man wasn¡¯t as devoted to the cause as he was, or the man was some sort of pervert freak that had no right to be counted among them.


    None of that mattered to Pawster at the moment though. He had a lot to think about and a lot of nning to do. If he didn¡¯t do all of this just right, he was sure that he would be stopped before he could get to those things. Those monsters that called themselves people. Those devil creatures that thought that they could attend his school, his university. And, ahh, what a glorious n it was that was unfolding inside of Pawster¡¯s mind. He just knew that the Colonel was going to love it. He was going to pull Pawster to the front of the group and tell them all that he was now his most favored recruit. Yes, that was how it was all going to happen. He just knew it was.


    Another bomb was made. Another one started. How many was that now? Ten? Fifteen? No matter, Pawster was a bomb making machine, and he was going to make sure that he took some of them with him on his uing mission. They would just be the icing on top of the cake.

 Chapter 1092 - 1092 Chapter 77- Trinity – Sending Help (VOLUME 6)

    1092 Chapter 77- Trinity ¨C Sending Help (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Over thest couple of weeks reports of the supporters and protestors had beening in from all over the country. Hell, from all over the world. In Japan, where the werewolf that married into the royal family had been discovered there were people waiting outside of their doors. They had more supporters than they had rioters and protestors though. Most likely due to the fact that it was the royal family and there was nothing that could be done about them. Granted, the royals didn¡¯t actually run the country and were more of a figurehead, it wasn¡¯t like they could be fired from being the royal family.


    In most of Europe, where there seemed to be a lot more eptance than there was in most other parts of the world, they had very few rioters and protestors. That isn¡¯t to say that they didn¡¯t have their fair share of people that were against the revtion of the millennium, but they didn¡¯t have much destruction yet. They had people that gathered outside of capitol buildings and screamed obscenities, but they didn¡¯t have people being murdered or buildings destroyed. I loved that.


    In most of Asia there was either apathy or eptance. The rumors and legends there had never fully died down over the centuries. Most people fully believed that the ¡®creatures of the night¡¯ were real and that they lived among them. They weren¡¯t surprised to find out that it was all true. And because nothing had really shocked them, they went about their business as usual.


    There were some countries though, the ones that were more controlling than others, that had some incidents. That is, until they learned that the people in power had already taken steps to protect those nonhumans, then they stopped fighting them at all. Knowing that hurting a super natural was against thew had been enough to deter most of the citizen. I take it that they were just mostly afraid of being arrested and sent to prison. I could hazard a guess then, that the prisons they would go to were not at all pleasant.


    Africa, like most of Asia, hadn¡¯t had a lot of issues either. I know that this has more to do with the fact that myths and legends were more widely believed there than anywhere else. And not only that, but because the nonhumans were healthy and often powerful in the more impoverished parts of the world, they didn¡¯t have much to worry about there.


    The bulk of the issues came from the Americas. North America, Central America, and South America. However, I am not even going to put all the me on the others. Yes, South America had its own fair share of riots and people getting hurt, and I made sure to send people to help them as soon as I heard about it, they still were the ones that had the biggest problem. Those nations, while a mix of different statuses and states of development, didn¡¯t put as much focus on the issues as we did here in the United States.


    .....


    Yes, here in my own country, the ce that a lot of people call the greatest country in the world, that was where the most hate was concentrated. We were not feeling like we were in thend of the free or anything like that. And I was definitely not feeling like my country was all that great, not with all that was happening.


    There had been a riot the day that everything had been revealed. And there had been those bombings. A riot in Waterton, California, and then mostly just protests. Things had seemed to be settling down pretty quickly and had put us into a false sense of security. And I want to put a lot of emphasis on the word false. It was all an act, a mirage that was there just to distract us.


    About a week after Reece returned to work and the kids went back to school, there was a rise in small incidents. There wasn¡¯t a lot that was going on in the beginning. There had been trashed buildings when the members of a new group known as the DOE, or the Destroyers of Evil, had suspected our people to be. They were trying to narrow down who was part of ourmunity. Little did they know though, we were everywhere. We were all around them, and they would never be able to know it unless we told them who we were.


    Reece and I were still in danger though, and that was made evident when one of those crazy bastards tried to kill Reece in his own office. I will never forget the way that I felt when the call came through that day. Reece and Noah were OK. So was ire and the other secretaires that were there. No one had been hurt at all, but there had been a lot of damage to the building.


    There had been other small attacks as well. Nothing major just yet. The bombs that these people were sending seemed to be more of a warning than weapons. It was like they wanted us to know that they were there and that they had power.


    We were actively trying to find them though, they were our top priority at the moment. If we didn¡¯t find these people before they moved onto the next phase of their ns, then people might actually get hurt.


    Aside from the DOE, there were other groups to worry about. Other terrorist and supremacist groups that thought that they needed to put an end to the chaos of the world. They were attacking random people. Human and nonhuman alike were falling victim to these people, and they were the ones that we needed to send out help to.


    Reagan and Rika, always wanting to help, had been dispatched to a small town in Oregon that was seeing a rise in attacks from these supremacists. I think that the general consensus was that aside from Colorado Springs, the highest concentration of nonhumans would be found in small towns. Perhaps it was because they didn¡¯t ¡®see¡¯ these monsters in their ownmunities, so they must be in the other ones.


    Along with Reagan and Rika, we had sent Griffin and Juniper, as well as a dozen soldiers that would protect the people that were there. Yes, they arrived through a magical door, so there was no denying who they were. Yes, they received some opposition, but only from the supremacist group. Those that were residents of themunity had been getting harassed by those people for almost a week by the time that the twins got there, so they were happy that someone was going to help them.


    The local police of Wimette, Oregon were overwhelmed and trying their best, but they weren¡¯t able to take care of the situation on their own. The state police were busy with the bombings, and the FBI was stretched thin with all that they had to deal with. When we sent our reinforcements to them, just about everyone in the town, that was only about a third nonhuman, cheered in relief.


    Griffin and Juniper worked hard to help the people of themunity that had been harmed in the attacks. While the two of them did that, Reagan and Rika surrounded the supremacists with the soldiers and confronted them. A lot of them sneered at the twins and the others that were with them. They tried tosh out at them and hurt them, but barriers were erected to keep them in ce. It was a good thing that we had taken to teaching the twins more magic now that they were older. They were able to contain the situation with ease.


    And even though I know that this part might be a little wrong, we asked Juniper if she would be able to talk to those terrorists and change their minds about the people of the world. If she could remove whatever it was that had caused them to be filled with so much hate, then maybe they would be able to live peacefully with us all. When they got out of prison that is. They were still being arrested for their crimes.


    The supremacists were all arrested, by the local police of course. They were taken to the county jail, where all inmates were kept until they were tried and sentenced. And I won¡¯t go into detail, but the twins fortified the security while they were there, just to make sure that no one was able to escape that prison. It would be a shame if those human monsters had gotten away and were able to do all of this over again.


    Speaking of getting away, all of the men and women that attacked Waterton, California that time hadpletely disappeared. No one knew who they were or where they had gone. However, I was sure that they were all part of one group or another. They were still wreaking havoc all over the country.


    This was just the first time that we had sent out assistance to the othermunities around us. The first time that someone had contacted us and let us know what was going on, or we had seen it on the news as ongoing. And I knew that it wasn¡¯t going to be thest.


    Tomorrow is going to be my birthday. I was going to be thirty-nine tomorrow, and I didn¡¯t care at all. I was more focused on the events that were unfolding around me. At the moment, my personal issues weren¡¯t a priority. I wasn¡¯t going to let myself get distracted and end up letting someone get hurt. I couldn¡¯t afford that.


    THE OREGONIAN FRONT PAGE NEWS¨C SUNDAY JANUARY 27, 2041


    Last week¡¯s riots and attacks in Wimette have finallye to an end. And no, it wasn¡¯t the State Police, the FBI, the DOJ, the NSA, or any other government agency that stepped in to help the overwhelmed and understaffed police department that was having a hard time dealing with the issue. No, the people that stepped in and helped the poor citizens of Wimette were none other than the ¡®monsters¡¯ that the group were searching for.


    The group that attacked the poor, defenseless citizens of Wimette were terrorists. They were members of supremacist groups that have shifted from white supremacy to human supremacy. Actually, that is not nearly focused enough. They are now focused on white humans, and only the white humans. The so called monsters, and those that support them, are not weed. And of course, those that they hated before all of this started are still targets to their bigotry.


    On Friday, more than a dozen people arrived in Wimette via a magical door. This door was not just simr to the one that we all have seen in the videos from the reveal, it was identical to it. It had been created by none other than Shifter and Magic User Queen, Trinity Gray. And who was among those that were aiding the citizens that had been terrorized for several days? Well, Queen Trinity Gray¡¯s best friend, Juniper, doctor and magical healer, Griffin, and none other than Reagan and Rika Gray, twin children to Trinity and Reece Gray. There was no better group that could havee to the rescue of these people, by far they had the best rescue team in the world.


    Juniper, a world renowned psychiatrist and mental healer, was there to help with the mental suffering that these people had endured, while at the same time Dr. Griffin was there to heal any and all wounds instantly. He used his ability so thoroughly, that a woman who was previously confined to a wheelchair for thest ten years is now able to walk. And there were others there that were sick and healed by the miracle doctor.


    Standing on the front lines, facing the danger head on, the Gray twins, Reagan and Rika, took down the group that had destroyed so much in their rampage. Every single member of the group that was in Wimette were taken into custody and are awaiting their arraignment that will be taking ce tomorrow morning.


    All of the citizens of Wimette asked while being interviewed if they could make sure that a thank you was included in this article for the Gray family that sent help their way. They are making sure that a copy of this article is sent to their saviors, and they will forever give their thanks to the heroes that saved their lives.


    Thank you, Reagan and Rika Gray, thank you Trinity and Reece Gray, thank you Juniper, Griffin, and the guards that didn¡¯t give your names. The people of Oregon thank you for your help. You have the support of everyone in Wimette, and several others in this great state of ours. You are wee here at any time. Without you, we would have lost so many lives, innocent lives that didn¡¯t deserve to be interrupted. Innocent lives that deserve a chance at a future.


    This article has been written for The Oregonian by Ray Anne Campbell, a lifetime resident of Meridian, Oregon.

 Chapter 1093 - 1093 Chapter 78- The Dalton Series Part 1 (VOLUME 6)

    1093 Chapter 78- The Dalton Series Part 1 (VOLUME 6)


    This is a series of articles that were written by the reporter, Elijah Dalton, of the New York times. He had a special that featured the members of the super naturalmunity and the nonhumans that live among us. He researched in detail as much as he was able to about these people, and has done all that he could to provide that information to the world atrge.


    NEW YORK TIMES- PAGE 3 MONDAY JANUARY 14, 2041


    The term werewolf is not new to this world. It did note into existence when Reece and Trinity Gray appeared on a global broadcast to tell the world of their true origins and species. The word dates back for centuries.


    There are many forms of the word werewolf. Werwolf, weerwolf, werewulf, lycanthrope, luk¨¢nthr¨­pos, Vovkka, waer-?l, wira-wulfaz, and so many more. There is a word in nearly everynguage on the that means werewolf or wolf man. There are, likewise, legends from almost every culture that speak about men turning into wolves or other beasts. If the appearance of the Gray family and the people like them was a new phenomenon, then why would the stories date back until nearly the beginning of mankind?


    In the earliest of texts, there are stories of men that became animals. In cave paintings, there are depictions of men transforming into beasts of wolfish appearance. In hieroglyphics you can see images of men and women bing felines and wolves. These legends are not new, and yet there are people today that seem to think that these people are new to our world.


    The only thing that is new here, is the knowledge that they weren¡¯t just myths and legends, but real people that we see everyday. Celebrities, famous rich phnthropists, everyday people. These people have been here as long as we have. They have been living among us since the dawn of time.


    Recently, I watched an interview on Good Morning America with Trinity and Reece Gray. They received a call from a man that asked about when the monsters stopped killing people. This misguided soul wanted to me the Grays and theirmunity for all the people that go missing in the world. He forgets that humans can be the bigger monsters in this world.


    Now, when Trinity and Reece Gray gave their response, they spoke about the dark ages, back when we humansst knew about the creatures that went bump in the night. At that time, there was no unity among their people. They had ns and packs (groups of the animal shifters that are guided by a central figure known as an Alpha), but the various groups were all in it for themselves. One pack didn¡¯t help another. If a pack needed help from another, they had to sign a fealty treaty with them. And if you would believe it, there are legal records of these treaties that can be found in various European government systems, if you look deep enough, that is. They made these treaties as legally binding as possible.


    Now, what would happen when there was a treaty signed? Well, that weaker Alpha and his pack would receive protection and aid from the stronger pack. If the stronger Alpha had an enemy attacking his territory, then the sworn pack was called in to aid the other troops. It was a give and take situation, and it happened a lot throughout history. From what I gather, even twenty years ago they had fealty packs, not that there were wars among packs anymore, it was just a tradition that stayed on for generations.


    .....


    Also, I have looked into how things were between the humans and the super naturals during the dark ages. Of course, written records are hard toe by, but they are out there. There is a ce known as the Sentinelle, located in a former Abbey in France. They have an archive that is so extensive it would make any library in the world jealous. And these records indicate that the human to super natural death ratio from that time was one to four. For every human life that was killed during that time, four nonhumans had been killed. You can understand then, that the reason the super naturals fought back was self-preservation. They had no choice.


    All throughout history, I can find no record of any mass deaths that were actually directly linked to the nonhumanmunity of the world. There have been no mass Vampire killings in any vige, just diseases that took their toll on the people of the viges when most didn¡¯t understand how medicine and science worked. Vampires, who were known to the world at that time, were med because no one knew who else to me.


    There has been no mass deaths associated with werewolves, weretigers, werelions, werebears, witches, warlocks, the Fae, or any other group. There has, however, been plenty of records of their people suffering at the hands of humans.


    And before anyone starts bringing up the Salem Witch Trials, that wasn¡¯t even for the witches. It was a time in our history where people didn¡¯t understand that the world needed to change, and that science was not witchcraft. From what I could find, there were no actual magic users that died during that time. However, I am sure that all the witches and warlocks of the time lived in constant fear that they would be discovered.


    As you can all likely see, and agree with me, there has been nothing in history that has proven that we need to be scared of these people. They might not be human, but they are still people. They still love, get married, have children, and live normal lives. When ites to things like that, we are all the same.


    NEW YORK TIMES- PAGE 3 WEDNESDAY JANUARY 16, 2041


    Now, Reece and Trinity Gray are household names. They have been that way for longer than thest four weeks since they revealed what they were to the world. Reece was a billionaire yboy when he was just eighteen years old. His father died in an ident and he was forced to take over at a young age.


    Reece seeded in his duties though, while still attending university, he managed to make his business thrive and prosper. He not only ran thepany, but tripled its profits and revenue during his first two years in charge. And by the time that he was twenty-five, he was the richest man in the world.


    Now, that ident that killed Reece¡¯s father, I dug deeper into that incident. Knowing that he was not human, there had to be a reason that the man was not around for his son, right? Then again, I was sure that a werewolf would still die if he was in a truly horrific car ident, I had my doubts here. And I was right about it as well.


    Collin Gray had been a sessful businessman, a devoted husband, and a dedicated father. He had it all, just like his son does now. What he didn¡¯t have at the time though, was peace. Remember those fealty packs that I mentioned in myst article? Well, there were several of those that were sworn to the pack that Collin Gray was the Alpha of.


    Yes, not only did Reece Gray take over his father¡¯s business when he was only eighteen, he took over their pack as well. He was leading so much that if it had been me, I would have folded and copsed under the pressure. He didn¡¯t though, the young man thrived and pushed through it all.


    Now, there was an uprising while Collin Gray was the Alpha. He and his brother, along with some other members of their pack, went to confront the other pack that was causing issues. Apparently, that fealty pack wanted morend because they had lost a lot to other packs in other disputes.


    Collin, being the fair man that he was, tried to handle the issue civilly, but that wasn¡¯t what happened. He and his brother both died in that incident, leaving Reece and his cousin Riley with no fathers and to take over their packs at young ages.


    Here is where things get interesting though. Reece¡¯s mother and father were so in love with each other, so devoted to each other, that L Gray ended up falling into a catatonic state after her husband perished. Not only did Reece lose his father, but his mother as well. She was alive, but she was locked away in her own mind for seven years.


    It wasn¡¯t until Reece¡¯s mate, his future wife Trinity, snuck into his mother¡¯s room and spoke to her did the womane out of her shell and wake up. If that isn¡¯t a show of how deeply the werewolves can love someone, then I don¡¯t know what is. How can you call someone that is willing to help so many other people a monster? How can you call a woman that loved her husband so deeply that it very nearly destroyed her, a monster? That is just preposterous in my opinion. These people love, feel, bleed, and die just like we do, and they deserve our respect just like any other person on the.


    NEW YORK TIMES- PAGE 3 FRIDAY JANUARY 18, 2041


    How much love do Trinity and Reece Gray have to offer? Well, more than the average couple, that is for sure. They have embraced and epted all types of people in their lives. When their friend, E, met and mated with a human, they didn¡¯t ostracize her. They didn¡¯t kick her out of the pack. No, they weed her new beau with open arms. And when the man wanted to be one of them, they allowed it as well. The only person on this that can turn someone into a werewolf is Reece Gray, and he agreed to do this for only four people so far. Four people in twenty years.


    I have spoken to two of these people that have converted to being werewolves. They wanted to remain anonymous, so I will only be referring to them with their initials. B and R are from California and have known about the world of nonhumans for thest twenty years. They found out about them near the end of the year 2021. As it turns out, their best friends at the time, who I will call O and M, were not human. They were, in fact, members of the sea shifters. This would lead me to think that they were possibly merfolk. I have learned of their existence during my research as well.


    Now, B and R were human, but they epted their friends and their unconventional way of life. They even lived with them for a long time. The duo met Reece Gray at a swimming tournament where they learned that he wasn¡¯t human either. They went on to work for Reece Gray after university andter became werewolves. The reason for this was because they wanted to remain with O and M for a long time, they considered the other duo their brothers. Also, B and R were a couple that wanted a longer life together.


    This story with B and R, as well as O and M, have such a sentimental and emotional element to it that I can¡¯t help but want to root for them. They were a great duo and I was so happy to see that they were able to have this wonderful life together, and that they were so personally linked to Trinity and Reece Gray.


    Another thing about inclusivity that Trinity and Reece Gray show that a lot of others don¡¯t, is that they do not care about your sexual orientation. One of Trinity¡¯s close personal friends and guards is a man that is married to the Vampire King. They are a mated couple that was fated to be together, and will be together until the end of their days. O and M as well as their friends B and R that I mentioned earlier are also same sex couples. They are very weing and open people. They have so much love to give the world, their friends, and their children.


    At the moment, Trinity and Reece Gray have seven children. Twins Reagan and Rika. Talia, who was born a few yearster. Quadruplets Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley, who just turned eleven. And now another baby on the way that will bring them up to eight total children. It must be hard, but even with all that the power couple has going on in their lives, they are often seen out and about with their kids. They are very dedicated parents. And rumor has it that the children are very loved, well-adjusted, and very smart. They would have to be, growing up in such an amazing household.


    The whole moral and point of this article today is that, no matter who you are, this power couple will always be there for you. They help people through charities. They send low-ie children to college, at no cost to them. They are very giving people that want to do nothing more than live peacefully and make the world a better ce. Their love for life and people is only going to be an asset to us all, if we can just let them be themselves and go about their lives peacefully like they want to.

 Chapter 1094 - 1094 Chapter 79- The Dalton Series Part 2 (VOLUME 6)

    1094 Chapter 79- The Dalton Series Part 2 (VOLUME 6)


    This is a series of articles that were written by the reporter, Elijah Dalton, of the New York times. He had a special that featured the members of the super naturalmunity and the nonhumans that live among us. He researched in detail as much as he was able to about these people, and has done all that he could to provide that information to the world atrge.


    NEW YORK TIMES- PAGE 3 MONDAY JANUARY 21, 2041


    In today¡¯s article, I am going to speak about some notable members of themunity that is known as the ¡®super naturals¡¯ or the ¡®shadowmunity¡¯. There have been a lot of these people over the years, and they have gotten into some very prominent positions. Some of these people, who I have the full permission of, are extremely well respected and loved. These people have all reached out to me and offered to tell their story so that they can show their solidarity with their King and Queen that have been in the spotlight for a month now. And most of these people are no stranger to the spotlight at all.


    Keanu, the first that I will be mentioning, has been in the spotlight since thete neen eighties. As we all know, that was over fifty years ago. And given that, ording to his most recent biographical information, he was born in the year neen sixty-four. He would have been in his twenties when he started to act. And by now, he would be almost eighty years old.


    Now, there was an ¡®ident¡¯ that urred back in thirty-one. That was when Keanu, who still looked no older than thirty, if that, was supposedly killed. At the time of his ¡®death¡¯ Keanu would have been in histe sixties. However, this was all just for show. As we all likely remember, there was talk about how young he looked at all times. How he had to have had work done, but that wasn¡¯t how the down-to-earth Keanu was. He wouldn¡¯t have had surgery unless it was absolutely necessary. And then, not long after that, he ¡®died¡¯. Or did he?


    As it turns out, he is a part of thatmunity with Trinity and Reece Gray. However, contrary to some of the articles that started to surface in the early two thousands, Keanu is not a vampire. Actually, he is a Warlock. He has been a magic user for a long time, and they had already enjoyed longer life spans. He was actually born in the mid eighteen hundreds and has lived several lifetimes as different people. He loved his life as an actor though, and ns to return to it as soon as possible. Now that the world atrge knows about his people, he has nothing at all to hide. And he is thankful for his King and Queen for giving him this opportunity.


    Apparently, Keanu was getting quite bored of his istion that was required for him to wait until his ¡®son¡¯ started to take his ce in the world of movies. He is also wanting to start work on a new ¡®John Wick¡¯ movie and hopes that the directors will be open to identifying John as a Warlock, and exining that this is why the man has lived for so long and is so good at what he does. I for one cannot wait until the day that John Wick the Warlockes to theaters.


    There are others that are prominent as well. The current Prime Minister in the United Kingdom is a member of themunity. She had admitted that Trinity and Reece Gray had approached a lot of the prominent members of theirmunity to get assistance with securing the safety of their people. Miss Westmont was all too happy to help them, and has sessfully made it so that all nonhuman beings living in the United Kingdom have the same rights as the humans. They cannot be mistreated just because they are not human, no matter what species they are.


    The current Prince in Japan, Prince Hishahito, married a wolf shifter as I mentioned before. And the family and government there were all too happy to give the same rights to their nonhuman citizens. They believe that they are all people, just like the rest of us. And they will enjoy all the same aspects of life, as long as they arew abiding and tax paying citizens, they will not be persecuted. And since these people have been there for a long time, there is no reason to think that they would all of a sudden decide to stop being decent people.


    .....


    There are also several politicians here in our own country that are not human. They were elected to their office by their peers, many of them have been elected several times. There are senators, representatives, mayors, even governors. And these people have done amazing jobs, ording to their constituents. They have never had scandals, and they are willing to do what they need to in order to protect the American people. I will not release their names, as it is up to them if they want to expose themselves. I just want you all to know though, that if you can¡¯t tell already, then it doesn¡¯t matter, does it?


    There are also a lot of notable singers and musicians that are not human. Pink, who has been a big star and remains popr even now after forty years, is an eternal being from the Faemunity. Billie Eilish, Ed Sheeran, The Weeknd, and Rhianna are also members of Trinity and Reece Gray¡¯smunity. They are various shifters that gained their immortality when Trinity Gray herself took the essence and souls of three gods into her body.


    Also, Adele, Dua Lipa and Bruno Mars are all members of the Vampiremunity that is aligned with Trinity and Reece Gray¡¯smunity but is run by Dietrich and Shawn Conrad. There are others, I am sure of that, but these are the ones that have chosen to expose what they are in solidarity with their magnanimous rulers.


    As we can all see, there are several people that we have all known and loved for many, many years that are a part of thismunity. They are all around us, they have been here for a long time, and they aren¡¯t going anywhere. I for one am very happy to have the chance to know who these people are, and what it is that they can do for our world.


    NEW YORK TIMES- PAGE 3 WEDNESDAY JANUARY 23, 2041


    Today I want to talk about the good that the nonhumans have done for ourmunity atrge. And no, this isn¡¯t just more about the phnthropy that has been disyed by the Gray family time and time again. No, this goes above and beyond that.


    Did you know that some of the most important discoveries in history came at the hands of the nonhumanmunity? The discovery of penicillin, and therefore the saving of a lot of people that needed medication, came from a Scottish Warlock that focused on alchemy. This Warlock was none other than Alexander Fleming. He was a more advanced alchemist though, and he knew that it wasn¡¯t alchemy he was doing, but rather it was chemistry.


    In fact, Fleming had been around when Friedrich W?hler and Justus von Liebig discovered and exined functional groups and radicals in rtion to organic chemistry. These three men, big names in the historical scientificmunity, were all Warlocks and wanted to focus on more of the positives that research and study could have on the world.


    Not all of the discoveries and inventions were scientific in nature though. Notable inventor, and werewolf, George Washington Carver had done quite a number of amazing things in his lifetime. He helped to bring understanding about the depletion of soil nutrients into the world, and knew how to fix it. In his efforts though, there ended up being an abundance of less profitable crops, such as peanuts and soybeans. It was with peanuts that GWC would have some of his biggest advancement.


    In all, he developed more than 300 food, industrial andmercial products from peanuts, including milk, Worcestershire sauce, punches, cooking oils, sd oil, paper, cosmetics, soaps and wood stains. He also experimented with peanut-based medicines, such as antiseptics,xatives and goiter medications. It should be noted, however, that many of these suggestions or discoveries remained curiosities and did not find widespread applications.


    He did not, as people often say, invent peanut butter. That was actually a sad thing for me to learn when I did my research. That old myth was so powerful that it had been part of history for so long. Still, the man did a lot of good for the world, and if he had been an immortal at the time, I can imagine that he would still be inventing and researching to this day.


    There are other notable discoveries and inventions that came from people that were human, but these here should be enough to help you understand, they have never wanted to destroy humanity. They have helped us find cures for diseases, and they have found ways to fight soil depletion. If it weren¡¯t for these men, these nonhuman men, we might not have survived as a species. And it would be down to the super natural beings alone. In truth, we should be thanking them for all that they have done for us.


    NEW YORK TIMES- PAGE 3 FRIDAY JANUARY 25, 2041


    Lately, I have seen a lot of rumors and negativity go out into the media and on the inte about the nonhumans of the world. These ims are tantly false. And I want to tell you all that there is no good that wille from trying to disparage them.


    I do not mean to say that these nonhumans are going to retaliate against us or anything. No, that isn¡¯t like them at all. However, putting this negativity out there might have another effect. It might invigorate the wrong people.


    There are groups in this world, in this country, that are filled with rage and hate. And all those people need is a focal point. If we keep putting this misinformation out there for them all to see, they might find a ce to release that pent up energy of theirs.


    It has already started actually, but I am sure that the truly horrendous of those people have yet to get involved. So far, there has been little done other than minor bombings and threats. There have been some injuries, but nothing major. There have been entiremunities threatened, but they are still standing at this time.


    In fact, just today, several members of Trinity and Reece Gray¡¯smunity, including their own children, have gone out to Oregon to save some of these people that were suffering at the hands of these misguided people. They were able to diffuse the situation and help the local police arrest each and every member of the terrorist supremacy group that was attacking without provocation.


    These nonhuman individuals are showing once again just how wonderful they are, and how much they care about the world in general. Trinity and Reece Gray have even instilled these values in their children, Reagan and Rika. They are wonderful people that have grown into truly amazing adults. I apud them for all that they have done, and I thank them for being so caring and supportive of the humans that needed them the most.


    I am ending this series of articles here, but I want you all to know this. These people have ALWAYS been with us. They have lived in harmony with us since the beginning of humanity, and we have not been eradicated from the world yet. There is nothing to fear from them. They will not try to get rid of us. All they want is to live a life in peace that doesn¡¯t involve hiding who and what they are.


    Join me in weing them to the light, and thank them for being who and what they are. Without them, there would be far less beauty, entertainment, and happiness in the world. And without them, we might not be here either. Remember, they invented so many life saving things for us. We need them more than you know.


    I will be the first to say this here. Thank you, Trinity and Reece Gray. Thank you and everyone else that is in yourmunity. We wouldn¡¯t be the people that we are today if it wasn¡¯t for all of you. Thank you and all your ancestors for making this world a better ce for us all to live in. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, and I am sure the bottom of many more. This world would not be the same if it wasn¡¯t for you, your family, and all of the people that make up your wonderfulmunities. We are now and forever better people because you are in this world with us.


    This concludes the articles that were written for the New York Times by reporter Elijah Dalton. Thank you foring back week after week for more news about the nonhumanmunity.

 Chapter 1095 - 1095 Chapter 80- Reece – Birthday (VOLUME 6)

    1095 Chapter 80- Reece ¨C Birthday (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I knew that my Little Bunny didn¡¯t want to have a party. She was too focused on what was happening in the world at the moment, but I wanted to give her this special time. I knew that, with the kids celebrating with her, my Little Bunny was going to be able to rx and feel better. That was why, without telling her, I nned a special day with us and the kids.


    We hadn¡¯t been out of the house muchtely, aside from work and school for the kids, we had only been focusing on the work that we needed to do. I thought that it would be nice if we went out as a family. A special dinner, a rxing afternoon in town or in the mountains, something that had us together as a family, celebrating the woman that made our family a reality. This was what I thought would be the best for my wife, my mate, my one true love.


    When the morning started, we acted as if there was nothing at all that was going to happen. We pretended that it was just any other day, but that wasn¡¯t the truth. It was a Monday, and the kids technically had school, but I called them off already. The teachers, all a part of ourmunity, understood that the kids needed to be with their mother on this special day, even if we weren¡¯t having arge celebration like we have in the past.


    At breakfast, no one said or did anything that would let Trinity know that there was anything that was going on. The only thing that might have been a little different was when Zaley asked Trinity if we could all drive to school together. She wanted the twins there as well as Mommy and Daddy. She wanted to have the family together as much as possible today.


    ¡°I know that we¡¯re not doing anything for you today, Mommy, but I still want to spend time with you. Can you and Daddy drive us to school together with Reagan and Rika?¡± Please.¡±


    ¡°I think that would be OK.¡± My Little Bunny smiled at her and didn¡¯t suspect a thing. That was my girl. She had pulled that off splendidly. Now my Little Bunny wasn¡¯t going to suspect a thing. That meant that operation birthday was going to go off without a hitch.


    .....


    We all needed to get dressed, because we were leaving for the day. The kids had to put on their uniforms, but they had swapped the books in their backpacks with different clothes and shoes that they would change into when we got to where we needed to be for the first stop of the day.


    Given that it was still January, it was still cold out. We were all wearing the usual winter gear, even though we were able to forego that now that the cat was out of the bag. I think that we were just a little too used to pretending to be humans that we weren¡¯t able to drop the old habits. Not to mention, when ying in the snow, even we wolves liked to use gloves. We may not feel the cold like the humans did, but cold snow still made for cold hands.


    We all piled into one of therge SUVs that we had. It was one of the only vehicles that we had that would be big enough to carry all nine of us around. When we left the garage, I started toward the school, like I would normally do. My Little Bunny was none the wiser for what I was about to do, and that meant that the rest of this day was going to be a surprise for her.


    ¡°Where are you going?¡± The moment that I made a turn that was not expected, my Little Bunny knew right away.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± I told her calmly. ¡°This is the way that we need to go.¡±


    ¡°No, it¡¯s not. The school is that way Reece, you¡¯re heading into the mountains. This isn¡¯t funny, the kids need to go to school.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± I told her again as I turned toward the cabin that was our destination. It was one of the private cabins that we had for the family when we wanted to go skiing without having to go home afterwards. It wasn¡¯t a long drive, but it was a scenic one.


    ¡°Reece?¡± She looked at me with narrowed eyes as she finally guessed what was happening. ¡°You got the kids involved with your little scheme? How could you?¡±


    ¡°We wanted to, Mommy.¡± Zayden said in his sweet and innocent voice. That¡¯s it son, make Mommy forget about being mad at Daddy. I¡¯m counting on you.


    ¡°Yeah Mommy, we wanted to spend the day with you.¡± Zander said in a ¡®please don¡¯t be mad Mommy¡¯ tone and I could have kissed him right then and there.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be mad at Dad. We wanted to do this for you Mom. We know that there is a lot that is going on, but you¡¯re still our mother, and we still want to celebrate your birthday.¡± Talia came in for the kill and I could see the tension easing out of my Little Bunny rapidly.


    ¡°I know you guys meant well, but there is just so much that is going on. We need to be focusing on that right now.¡±


    ¡°You made sure that we had our birthday, Mommy. We need to make sure that you have yours as well. Besides, Daddy already called us out of school.¡± Zaley added another blow, but this one might backfire on me.


    ¡°Did he now?¡± She looked at me then, but there was a hint ofughter in my Little Bunny¡¯s eyes. ¡°Well, then I guess that we have no choice but to follow through with whatever n it is that you guys came up with. So, where are we going?¡± She finally calmed down, and I was starting to finally feel like I was going to avoid the wrath of the bunny, for now at least.


    When we arrived at the cabin, the kids rushed out first. They wanted to get inside to change their clothes. They needed to get ready for the day that we were going to spend with their mother for her birthday. Slowly, and apprehensively, I wrapped an arm around my Little Bunny¡¯s shoulders and guided her inside of the cabin.


    Now, I call this a cabin because of the style that it was built in, but it was not at all the little cabins that people usually have. This was a monstrous building that was at least five thousand square feet and would fit us allfortably. There was a luxury kitchen, all the modern amenities, and more than enough stuff to keep us upied if we wanted to just stay inside.


    I had also had the kitchen stocked for today, because we would be having lunch here today, before we went into town for dinner tonight. The day was being split between here in istion and out in the world among the masses. I knew that it would all work out for us though, my Little Bunny was no longer against celebrating, so she would be OK with that as well. I¡¯m sure of it.


    After the kids were dressed, and so was my Little Bunny and I, we headed out into the snow covered yard. We had a typical family day in the snow. We made snowmen and snow angels. Talia, the artist that she was, made a snow wolf that looked so much like Trinity that it was amazing. We had a snowball fight. We went sledding down the smaller hills. We hiked back up the mountain toward the cabin and saw the beauty of the winterndscape.


    When we got back to the cabin, we had a lunch that consisted of homemade pizzas, since the dough had already been prepped, it didn¡¯t take too long for us to make it. We ate our lunch in therge living room as we watched a movie as a family. After the pizza was gone, we also decided to have lots of junk food and hot chocte. It was a nice and rxing day.


    Once the movie was over, we moved onto ying several boardgames with the kids. It was something that they had asked for, and who were we to deny them when all they wanted was to spend time with their parents.


    Finally, at around seven that evening when we were all getting hungry again, we headed back toward town. It was time for us to have dinner in the same restaurant that my Little Bunny and I had our first ever date. This was a special ce for us, and I would never forget it. It also meant a lot because the ce was still here even after twenty years.


    The kids had been here before, but not often. It wasn¡¯t one of their favorites, and they knew thating here was usually something special for us. A lot of the same staff worked here as when we were here for our first day, back in December of two thousand and twenty. They knew us, of course, because they were part of our original pack and had been here when everything started to change.


    The meal was amazing, as it always was. And that kaleidoscope ceiling was still as unique and beautiful as it had ever been. They knew what today was, they had known it even before I had called to make the reservations for us, so there was a bit of a celebration at the restaurant as well. All of the staff hade out to sing to celebrate for my Little Bunny, and they had made her a wonderful cake for the night. I knew that she was enjoying herself, and that the kids were having a good night as well.


    After the dinner, we all headed to ate night movie. I knew how to make this easier and less stressful on my Little Bunny, so I had rented out the entire theater. We were watching the new romanticedy that hade outst month, the one that Trinity had not had the chance to see just yet. It was Christmas themed, but that was fine with us. We would watch the movie even if the holiday had alreadye and gone.


    There was absolutely nothing that had happened or gone wrong while we were out on this date with the kids. We had enjoyed a wonderful day with the family, and my Little Bunny was getting pampered the way that she needed to. She was already two thirds of the way through her six month pregnancy, and that meant that she was already starting to feel ufortable and miserable at time¡¯s. She needed this time to rest, rx, and take care of her mental health. She needed a day away from the worry of the world. Today, she was just Trinity Gray, wife, mother, and birthday girl.


    It waste when we got back home. I knew that my Little Bunny was probably a little upset about the fact that the quads were going to be sleepy in the morning, but they would manage. They were kids and they were resilient. One night of little sleep wasn¡¯t going to mess them up too much. And besides, if they were too tired, they could just miss one more day of school. It wasn¡¯t like it was that big of a deal. They were smart kids, and they would make up for any ss time and homework that they missed. I was certain of that.


    Reagan and I ended up needing to carry Zaley and Zachary up to their rooms. The other two, while sleepy, were still awake and able to walk. Talia and Rika took care of the two of them while Mommy just watched on and went to tuck them all into their beds and kiss them good night.


    With that, the night was over. Almost.

 Chapter 1096 - 1096 Chapter 81- Reece – Another Gift for My Little Bunny Part 1 (VOLUME 6) (MATURE)

    1096 Chapter 81- Reece ¨C Another Gift for My Little Bunny Part 1 (VOLUME 6) (MATURE)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I walked slowly up to the bedroom with my Little Bunny. I knew that she was thinking that she was about to go to bed as well, but that wasn¡¯t what I had in mind for her. It was her birthday, and pregnant or not, I was going to take care of my wife.


    I subtly guided Trinity into the bathroom. I was intending on starting this care package in there, and ending it in the bedroom. She didn¡¯t object when I took her in the bathroom though, she would likely want a shower after the long day that we had had. I wanted the shower myself, but I wanted my Little Bunny¡¯s sweet, supple body in my hands even more.


    I got the hot water started. I would have preferred a bath, but while pregnant, Trinity was not supposed to be in them for too long, and with what I had nned, I thought a shower would be best. It would end sooner and allow me to carry her to the bed that much sooner.


    While the water got hot, I hurried over to my Little Bunny. She was already starting to undress herself, but I wanted to be the one that did that for her.


    ¡°Let me.¡± I told her as I gently pushed her hands away.


    ¡°Why?¡± She asked me with her eyes narrowed.


    .....


    ¡°Because I love undressing you. It¡¯s like unwrapping a present that is better and better each time that I see it.¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t I the birthday girl here? Aren¡¯t I supposed to be unwrapping presents?¡±


    ¡°You can unwrap me all you want, sweetheart. I won¡¯t stop you.¡± I leaned forward as I spoke, and now I was close enough to press my lips to hers. ¡°Mmm. Your lips are always so delectable. I love kissing you.¡±


    ¡°Even now, after all these years?¡± She asked me, as if she were worried that twenty years was too much.


    ¡°More and more with each passing year. You only taste better as the time passes, Trinity. It¡¯s like you¡¯re a fine wine that gets better as it ages. Not that you will ever age, but you know what I mean.¡± Sheughed a little then, as she reached up to pull the tails of my shirt out of my cks.


    ¡°Yeah, I know what you mean. And you¡¯re just the same, Reece. You get better and better each and every time I touch you, kiss you, and taste you. I love it, just as much as I love you.¡±


    ¡°Uhhrrrrhhrrrr.¡± I growled low in my throat at her words. ¡°Keep talking like that, Little Bunny, and I will lose my control that I am struggling to hold onto.¡±


    ¡°Oooh, we can¡¯t have that happening now, can we?¡± She giggled as she undid the buttons on my shirt. ¡°I will hurry here, so you can clean me up in the shower.¡± She had already known that I was going to wash her entirely. I would do it twice. Once with soap and water, and once with my tongue and lips.


    The moment that we were both free of all of our clothes, I scooped my Little Bunny into my arms and hurried into the shower. The water was perfect, hot and steamy just like our night was going to be.


    I started with washing the woman that I loved so dearly. She wanted to be clean, and I wasn¡¯t going to deny her that. Although, it took me a little longer to wash her because she was simultaneously washing me. We were already a tangle of limbs, and we weren¡¯t even being intimate yet. I think that we were both just a little too eager to get this stage of the shower done. After we were both cleaned and the soap was washed away, we could start having our fun.


    ¡°Reece!¡± My Little Bunny called my name as she pressed her head against my chest. ¡°I want you, Reece.¡± Her words made me growl low in my throat. And when I spoke next, my voice was guttural and filled with need and desire.


    ¡°Trinity, you have no idea how badly I want you right now. It goes beyond wanting and more of a need. My body is craving you, my tongue is watering in anticipation of your sweet taste, and my palms are itching to touch and caress every inch of you.¡±


    ¡°Then get me out of this shower, Reece. Take me to bed right now.¡± She looked up at me then, the water falling from the shower sttering near her eyes and making her squint just a little. Even then, I could see the need and hunger in her eyes. I could feel the heat of her desire for me. I could smell the intensity of her wanton lust. And all of thatbined tightened me so much that I thought I would cry out and explode right then and there.


    I didn¡¯t hesitate. Trinity and I were cleaned and rinsed now, so there was no reason at all to stay in the shower another moment. I turned off the water and scooped my mate into my arms. I pressed her against my chest, but I still had the presence of mind to grab a towel. I didn¡¯t want the bed to be too wet when we were done.


    Having dried us somewhat while sprinting to the bed, I tossed the towel to the side and climbed into the middle of the extrarge bed with my sweet, tender mate pressed against me. I was alreadyying her down on the pillows when I pressed my lips to her. The kiss, which spoke of hunger, need, passion, and so much love, was the best thing that I had tasted in a long time. Every time that I kissed, touched, or made love to my Little Bunny was always better than thest time. Each and every time was better than the time before it.


    I was reluctant to break the kiss. My tongue was exploring her mouth, always searching for new and unexplored depths that I had not mapped out before, but still relishing in the familiar terrain that I knew so well. I wanted to see my love, I wanted to taste her and to touch her, but those lips of hers were like a magical drug for me. It was just so hard to break that habit and move on to something else.


    Forcing myself to release her lips, eliciting a strangled cry from her, I started by pressing my mouth to her jaw and making my way down and back toward her ear. I kissed and licked my way along her jaw until I was able to nip gently on her left earlobe. She cried out a little bit then, just a little pleasure pain that would speak volumes about what it was that we were going to be doing together soon enough.


    I couldn¡¯t help but suck gently on her neck. I hadn¡¯t left a true hickey on her neck in a long time, not with how prominent we both were in the world, but the desire was there. I held myself back though, I wasn¡¯t so far gone that I would lose all sense of self control. That wasn¡¯t something that I usually let myself do, because I would never forgive myself if I ever hurt my Little Bunny.


    Leaving that delicious and tender part of her neck behind, I kissed my way down to her cor bone and across her breasts. Itched my mouth onto the peak of her right breast at the same time that I pinched and squeezed with just a little too much zeal on her left breast. The result was the most delightful, and erotic cry of pleasure that I had ever heard. She arched into me, pressed her breast further into my mouth as I sucked andpped at her deliciousness. She was writhing beneath me now, the pleasure urging her on.


    Knowing that I couldn¡¯t y too much with her breasts at the moment, they would be too tender and sensitive with the presence of her pregnancy hormones, I moved on after just a little bit of teasing. That part of her was so yummy though, that it was hard for me to want to move on.


    There was plenty more to lick, kiss, and tease though. And I knew where all of my Little Bunny¡¯s tender and sensitive spots were. And I was nning on getting to all of them. I had all the time in the world and nothing was ever going to stop me from making sure that I gave my mate the best birthday in the world.


    I could tell that Trinity was trying to guide me to her core. She wanted me to give her that most special of all kisses, but I wasn¡¯t ready for that yet. I hadn¡¯t teased her enough yet. The more that I teased her, the sweeter that she became. The more that I yed with her, the more delicious that her core would be. I knew from experience that my sweet and tender Little Bunny¡¯s body would only weep for me more if I made her wait a little while longer.


    However, I had also learned that I couldn¡¯t make my little bunny wait too long, or she would take things into her own hands. This was a delicate bnce, and as long as I was making her feel good, then I was doing my job right. She would wait for me, as long as I didn¡¯t take too long.


    My Little Bunny had been through a lottely, so there was a lot of tension in her body. I needed to work on that right now as well. So, very slowly, I kissed and massaged my way down both of her arms, from shoulders to fingertips. She moaned and writhed the entire time that I massaged her.


    I couldn¡¯t be this close to my mates body, so intimate with her, and not caress the belly that was growing our next child. I always thought that my Little Bunny was the sexiest when she was pregnant. She glowed and radiated a sultry beauty that just drove me wild. I kissed, rubbed, and massaged that belly now, knowing that it would drive my sweet little Trinity wild.


    I would like to have massaged her back at the moment, I knew that she needed it, but if I made her move too much, she would grow angry at me and take things into her own hands. So, for that reason, I just moved onto her tender little toes and kissed and massaged my way up. This time it was from tips of the toes to the tops of her thighs. I made sure to get all of her tender spots that made her squirm for me.


    Now, the only ce left for me to tease and please was her core. I was where she wanted me this entire time, and I swear that I heard a sigh of relief slip from between her lips. I knew that she needed me. Hell, I needed her too. She wasn¡¯t the only one that had gone far too long without feeling the tender love of the other. We had been so busy, so caught up in life, that we had ended up neglecting each other. Well, not anymore.


    I was making up for lost time. I was showing my wife and mate just how much she meant to me right now, and how much she still turned me on. She wouldn¡¯t be able to do much more than scream soon, and that was alright with me. The more that she cried my name the better. The more that I had her panting for me, the more pleasurable this night was going to be for the both of us. I would see to it that Trinity and I were connected on a level that we had never been connected to before.

 Chapter 1097 - 1097 Chapter 82- Reece - Another Gift for My Little Bunny Part 2 (VOLUME 6) (MATURE)

    1097 Chapter 82- Reece ¨C Another Gift for My Little Bunny Part 2 (VOLUME 6) (MATURE)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Both Trinity and I were panting already. We had been through so much, and it was still just getting started. I was nothing if not thorough with the love that I shared with my Little Bunny. I always made sure that I gave her everything that I had, and that she didn¡¯t leave me wanting more. Not that she ever left me afterwards. That had happened all of one time in all these years that we had been together. And that time had been when I was young and stupid and snuck out of her room the first night that we made love. I was a moron then, and I have since learned from my massive mistake.


    Now, like any man should, I showed my love and devotion to the one and only person that I ever wanted to hold in my arms like this. I showed her how much she meant to me, not just sexually but in every way possible. I stayed with her. I held her. I protected her. And I made sure that she never had to worry or wonder about my feelings for her ever again. Never again since that one erroneous night of mine.


    Knowing that I was fully andpletely devoted to my Little Bunny, it was time that I showed her the physical manifestation of those deep and intense feelings of mine. I saw no reason to dy another moment.


    I was already at her dripping and delectable core. The heady scent that wasing off of her was just a more intense part of her scent. Warm apples, vani, and spices that made her smell like my own personal dessert. And on top of that, the winds of the thunderstorm that were filled with rain and ozone. She always smelled so delicious and exciting at the same time. And when you add the extra intensity that her pregnancy had caused for her scent, the addition of a little cream that was almost like vani ice cream on top of that apple pie, it made me want to inhale deeply while my eyes rolled into the back of my head. It was, in and simple, perfection of the purest kind.


    I couldn¡¯t hold back a single moment more. I needed to taste her. I needed to draw the vor of her, which so strongly matched that perfect scent of hers, into my mouth. I needed to taste those spicy and sweet apples, the creamy vani, and that electrifying excitement of the storm that always coursed through her. I needed it like I needed air to live. I needed it like it was the one and only drug that would keep me alive at the moment.


    Of course, knowing that I needed it so much, and that my Little Bunny needed me as much if not more, I decided not to dy any more. Ipped one long and slow swipe across her heated core. The movement made my Little Bunny¡¯s entire body squirm and arch at the same time. She also screamed and called out to me wordlessly. I knew that it was the pleasure, because of what I was doing to her and for her. And that knowledge made me grin so much that I would have appeared to be a loon, or an evil viin if anyone had seen me at that moment. No one could see me though, so I just continued on.


    .....


    Ipped again at her core, drawing that vor of her into my mouth and let it explode across my tongue. The pure delight of her, that intoxicating and ecstasy inducing vor that was my Little Bunny made my eyes roll into the back of my head and I reveled in the moment.


    I only let it go on for a moment though. I needed to keep going. I had work to do so that I could please my mate, and I was not at all the type of man that shirked his responsibilities. Especially not when it came to doing things for this woman right here.


    Ipped at her core again and against. I drew the juices of her desire and pleasure into my mouth and drank them down. Ipped at her as if she was giving me life sustaining fluids that would keep my heart beating forever, if only I kept on drawing from her.


    Soon though, justpping at her core was not enough for me. She might have still been enjoying every moment of it, but I wanted to feel and taste more of my Little Bunny. I needed to give her more, and take more from her at the same time.


    Reaching up with my left hand, I flicked a finger across her swollen and sensitive core, right there at the bundle of nerves that rest at the top of her slit. I almostughed when I did that, because the movement and quick jolt of pain made her scream in pleasure. And at the same time, she had reached down to grab two big fists full of my hair. She was trying to make me move my mouth back to her and continue pleasing her.


    Well, I couldn¡¯t deny my mate, wife, lover, queen, and Little Bunny now, could I? No, what she wanted, she got. And all that she wanted at the moment was pleasure and ecstasy from me. How could any man deny their woman, when what they desired most was the man himself.


    Delicately, I ced my lips on Trinity¡¯s core. I swirled my tongue around that bundle of nerves that sent little jolts of pleasurable electricity coursing through her body. That was a distraction though. What I was really doing, was positioning my hand in just the right ce so that I could slide my fingers inside of her in one smooth move.


    With my fingers hovering just before her opening, I prepared to make my move. At the same time, I slid my fingers deep inside of her, letting her wet and slick folds envelop them and squeeze them with gentle milking motions from her inner muscles. As my fingers slid in as far as they would go, I also pulled that bundle of her nerves into my mouth and sucked hard as I drew on her core with a fervent need.


    The result of this joint assault on my Little Bunny¡¯s tender core had her screaming so loud that it made my ears ring. She also pressed herself further into my mouth as she arched, once again. She wanted all that I could give her and more right now, and she wasn¡¯t afraid to use her body to tell me that.


    I started to create a driving rhythm with my fingers as I pumped them in and out of her again and again. All the while, I was continuing to lick, suck, and gently bite my way across her slit and those sensitive little nerves of her. I could already feel her body tightening around my fingers. She was getting closer and closer to her climax. Her first of the night. And who was I to make her wait?


    With a twist of my fingers, and particrly hard press of my tongue, I sent her over that edge. She convulsed and alternatively pressed herself against my mouth and pulled away from me. She wanted more, but she was also experiencing so much pleasure that her body wasn¡¯t sure if she could handle more. She didn¡¯t need to worry though, I was going to give her more, I just needed to change the way that I gave it to her.


    I kissed her gently on her core, pressing just my lips to her slit before I pulled away from her. She cried out from the loss when I was no longer there at her center. The cold air found her overheated skin, and she was lonely without me there to protect her. I wasn¡¯t gone for long though.


    Before she even had time to finish whimpering, I was pressing myself against her opening. I was harder than I could ever remember being in my entire life, but that was fine with me. Knowing that my mate had the ability to turn me into her love ve was like a dreame true for me.


    ¡°Trinity.¡± I whispered her name softly as I hovered over her. ¡°I love you so much.¡±


    ¡°R..R..R..Reece.¡± Her eyes were fluttering as she looked up at me. They were unfocused after the orgasm that had just racked through her body. ¡°Reece, I love you too. Oh Goddess, I love you so much.¡± Her needy smile almost made me lose control and ram into her right then and there. But I would never hurt her. That is one thing that I would never allow myself to do.


    Gently, with all the ferocity of a teddy bear, I slid into her heated and perfect body. She fit me like a glove. Her body and mine had been meant for each other, and there was no other woman that would ever feel this perfect, this right, when I slid inside of them. Not that I would ever test that theory out. I never wanted another woman than this perfect goddess that was beneath me at this very moment.


    I wanted to m into her again and again. I wanted to give her a hard and driving rhythm that was all carnal pleasure and nothing else. I couldn¡¯t do that though. I would hurt her, and in do so, I could hurt the baby. So, after sliding inside of her and reveling at the perfection of our union, I pulled her toward me and lifted her from the bed. I needed to change the way that we were positioned.


    It took a little bit of effort, but nothing that I couldn¡¯t handle. And after just a few moments, I was sitting on the bed with my back against the headboard. I had pushed the pillows to the side of me, positioning them so that at least one was under each of my Little Bunny¡¯s knees. This would lessen the strain on her body as she straddled me.


    ¡°Reece.¡± The tender and sweet smile on her face at that moment spoke volumes. She knew what I had done, why I had done that, and loved me that much more for it.


    Now that I knew my Little Bunny wouldn¡¯t be hurt while I was taking her, I gently gripped her hips and lifted her off of me ever so slowly. At the same time, I pressed my ass into the mattress so that I was pulling out of her. When just the tip of my quivering erection was still inside of her heated and throbbing core, I pressed back inside of her gently and slowly.


    I refused to be rough at the moment. Tender and sweet. That was what this moment needed. While she was still pregnant, that was all that I could do for her. Especially when she was this far along. It didn¡¯t matter though, tender and sweet, moving slowly, I was still able to give her all that she wanted and more.


    I pressed into her again and again. Slowly driving her up that peak of pleasure. She had wrapped her arms around me as I moved our bodies in unison. She pressed her cheek against mine, her arm around my neck in a tender and intimate embrace. The move also ttened her generous breasts against my chest, causing them to move up and down with each gently thrust on my body into hers.


    We were ttened against each other as much as possible, so the moment that she started to reach her climax again, I could feel it in every fiber of her being. And the intensity of that connection was so much more electrifying for me than it usually was. It instantly made it so that I wasn¡¯t able to hold on much longer.


    I needed to hold out a little longer though. I had to give my Little Bunny that ecstasy before I allowed myself to indulge in it. I just had to. It was a matter of pride for me.


    I thrust again. Once more. Half a dozen more times. And that was when she threw her head back, still pressed against me, and screamed inartictely. Her body clenched around mepletely. Her arms tightening around my neck at the same time that her core squeezed me for everyst drop that I had in me. And I wasn¡¯t able to hold on anymore. I bit down on her mark, where I had bitten her twenty years ago, and growled my pleasure into her flesh as I exploded inside of her.


    It was like the moment around us was frozen in time. It was pure pleasure for longer than I would have thought was possible at all. I just continued to hold my Little Bunny against me as I emptied myself in one spurt after another. Her scream had stopped, but she was now breathing raggedly. It was all so much that I didn¡¯t seem to notice, or care, that things were happening around us. Things that hadn¡¯t happened in a really, really long time. Things that I had nearly forgotten about.

 Chapter 1098 - 1098 Chapter 83- Trinity – A Visit to a Familiar Place (VOLUME 6)

    1098 Chapter 83- Trinity ¨C A Visit to a Familiar ce (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Reece and I had just shared the most intimate moment of our entire lives. Yes, we have been together several times. Yes, we have made love with each other hundreds and thousands of times before. None of that mattered though. This moment right here, the intensity, the closeness, just everything that anyone could think of and more, it was so much more intense than I had ever thought it was possible for love making to be.


    I wasn¡¯t upset though. Not one bit. Reece was the only man that I had ever been with. I would never, in my entire life, be with another man, and I was more than OK with that. With each new time that Reece and I were together, we learned new things about each other, deepened the love and respect for each other, and renewed our bond with each other.


    Still, this moment was so much more. I had felt something like this before. I couldn¡¯t remember when at the moment, but I knew that it had happened. I knew that there had been at least one time before when there was something extra, something more that wasn¡¯t usually a part of our intimacy.


    After I had screamed myself hoarse at the moment of climax, I let my head fall, once again, on Reece¡¯s shoulder. However, before I had pressed my cheek against his as I rested my chin on his shoulder. Now, I had less energy and was reduced to pressing my cheek against his shoulder as I panted and tried to catch my breath.


    I could still feel him inside of me, not as hard as before, but not quite back to normal either. This moment, this connection between us, it was like an added benefit that we got to share until we found the strength to disentangle our bodies. And I was more than happy to sit here on top of him forever, or as long as he would let me that is.


    ¡°Trinity?¡± I heard Reece whisper my name, but it didn¡¯t sound like his usual post sex voice. It was raspy, yes, but there was something else in it as well. There was a note that spoke of something more serious and demanding. Too bad I was feeling thoroughly drained and didn¡¯t want to pay that much attention.


    .....


    ¡°Yes, Reece?¡± I asked him in a sleepy and satisfied tone. This was my usual post sex voice, the one that said I didn¡¯t want to move until my bones became solid once more.


    ¡°I think you need to wake up a little more.¡± He said, his voice still serious and not at all sleepy like me. Shouldn¡¯t he be ready for bed? We had had a long day, and we had just had magical and mind blowing sex. It was time for us to give into the call of sleep and snuggle each other until the morning.


    ¡°Why? I just want to go to sleep.¡± I snuggled against him a little more, pressing my rounded belly against him and rubbing my cheek against his bare and sweaty shoulder.


    ¡°Trinity, sweetheart, you need to open your eyes. Look around you, Little Bunny, then you will know why I am saying that you need to wake up.¡±


    It took a moment for my mind to process the words. I didn¡¯t know what was going on, but I knew that I needed to get my mind, and my eyes, to work properly again. What Reece had just said, after it had fully passed through my foggy and sleepy brain, made my heart race like nothing else in the world could at the moment.


    I knew that Reece wasn¡¯t just talking about something small, like someone came into the room while we were embracing naked. For one thing, even if that wouldn¡¯t be a small thing to have happen, I knew that there was no one else there. I couldn¡¯t smell anyone, nor had I heard the door opening or footsteps in the hall or the room.


    For another thing, I couldn¡¯t smell anything at all, aside from Reece that is. His intoxicating scent that I had always loved. I smelled his warm melted chocte, steamy coffee, spicy cinnamon, and that refreshing scent of the forest after having been cleansed by the rain. It was a scent that always brought to mind the peaceful image of sitting on the porch of a cabin that was hidden deep in the woods and watching the leaves as thest of the raindrops dripped from the leaves. It was a peaceful image, but the scent of Reece was and has always been exciting to me. Funny how they were so contrasting.


    ¡°What are you talking about, Reece?¡± I asked him as I started to stir. The movements of my body were slow and exaggerated. It was so hard for me to get my body to cooperate with how intensely he had worn me out.


    ¡°Open your eyes, Little Bunny, please.¡± He was starting to sound a little panicked now, so I knew that I needed to oblige.


    After about ten more seconds, I managed to pry my eyes open. At first, it was too dark for me to see anything. Then I realized that I was still pressed against Reece¡¯s shoulder and that it wasn¡¯t really dark, I was just not able to see because he was blocking everything.


    Pulling my face away from Reece¡¯s body, and instantly feeling the cold of the night pressing against my flesh, I shivered involuntarily. Then it hit me. Why was I feeling the cold like that? We were in our room in the castle, weren¡¯t we? So, why was it cold?


    Then I focused my eyes and saw that we weren¡¯t actually in the castle. Not anymore. The ce that Reece and I were at at the moment was actually a seaside cliff that overlooked a dark and stormy sea. This was a scene that I had seen before, and I instantly remembered it.


    ¡°Why are we here? Wasn¡¯t this ce in the Fae realm?¡± I looked around us as I started to disentangle my body from Reece¡¯s.


    ¡°No, don¡¯t pull away from me. You¡¯re naked.¡± He pulled me closer. ¡°I don¡¯t want anyone to see you like this. Only I can see you naked.¡±


    ¡°And Griffin.¡± Iughed. ¡°And everyone else that helps with the delivery of the babies. Face it, sweetheart, a lot of people have seen my goods, whether I wanted them to or not.¡± Iughed at him.


    ¡°Don¡¯t remind me.¡± His eyes darkened and I saw a little bit of anger in his eyes. ¡°Still, you¡¯re naked Trinity, you can¡¯t get up right now.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve had your eyes open longer than I have, and you¡¯re going to tell me that you didn¡¯t see those.¡± I pointed toward the robes that were sitting next to us. ¡°They are the same ones that we wore thest time that the gods pulled us into this ce. Well, it was just Danu at that time, but still they are the same robes. Or they look to be the same ones.¡± I told him as I looked at the silky pieces of cloth. Reece¡¯s, which wasrger than mine, was gold and vibrant. And mine was the same color as Danu¡¯s dress when Ist saw her. It also had swirls of the gold and green that were the other elements. My main focus for magic had always been water and ice though, so the blue was my primary element.


    ¡°Yeah, they are the same.¡± Reece nodded. ¡°At least I think that they are.¡± He finally let me pull away from him, but he was already grabbing for my robe so that only the slightest bit of my breasts had been visible before he covered me once again. After he was sure that I was no longer exposed, Reece rose to his feet and pulled on his robe. He didn¡¯t care if someone saw his manhood swinging in the air, he just didn¡¯t want people to see my naked body.


    ¡°So, why do you think that we have been brought back here?¡± I asked Reece as I turned around the area and saw the world that was around us. I could still see the rolling green hills in the distance, but it was night time here now, so they looked a little more menacing. And that unforgiving sea was a little more ominous looking. I knew that it was just the quality of the light that had changed the way things look. It¡¯s always true though, the way that you see things, the light that you view them in, can determine the way that you feel about those things.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Reece said as he stepped behind me. ¡°Last time it was to talk to Danu, but she is inside of you now. Would we be here to talk to her if she is living inside of your soul now?¡±


    ¡°Well, to be fair, she isn¡¯t inside of me. Not really. She was reborn, and I just took the goddess essence inside of me. I took over that role of hers, being the guiding light of her people as she used to be.¡± I exined this to Reece as I instinctively walked toward the towering stones that were in the distance. ¡°Last time that we were here, these stones didn¡¯t exist. It was just the meadow, not the stones.¡±


    ¡°There are several of those stones though, do you think that they mean something?¡± Reece asked as he followed behind me, his fingers reaching for mine, he was determined that we stay together.


    ¡°Those stones represent the Gods and Goddess that have chosen to be reborn. Your people have done a lot for the original beings that brought this world into existence.¡± There was a voice that I had never heard before, and it was speaking to us from the shadows of those stones.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± I asked the man who was hiding from us.


    ¡°That is an impertinent way to speak to a God such as myself. Then again, you are a goddess yourself, so I guess that I cannot fault you.¡± The man, who sounded both serious and yful at the same time, spoke as he stepped forward.


    ¡°I am sorry if I was rude, but my question still stands.¡± I spoke with authority in my voice. I was a queen and a goddess after all, I had the right to speak like that.


    ¡°Don¡¯t get into a power struggle with me, young goddess. I am the king of gods, I will overrule you if I need to.¡± The way that the man was speaking sent a chill down my spine. I knew that what he was saying was true, even if I didn¡¯t know who he was just yet. He had power, that was for sure. And if he didn¡¯t like the way that I was talking to him, behaving, or even the way that I looked, then he would punish me.


    Just who could he be? What was it that he wanted with me? And why had he brought me here? These were just a few of the questions that surged through my mind as I contemted the situation that I had so unwittingly found myself in.


    I squeezed Reece¡¯s hand as he stood next to me. He knew, as much as I did, that we needed to be on our best behavior at the moment. This man, this god, whoever he was, he was a lot more powerful than either of us were. The presence before me was as old as time, it spoke of several millennia that radiated a fierce and exuberant power. I could also feel a sense of wisdom, understanding, and yfulness that wasing off of this man. Just who was he? And why had he brought us here at this time? What did he want? And were Reece and I going to be able to make it through this?

 Chapter 1099 - 1099 Chapter 84- Trinity - A Warning for the Future (VOLUME 6)

    1099 Chapter 84- Trinity ¨C A Warning for the Future (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    With Reece standing still and silent next to me, I watched the shadows where the man was standing. He still had note into the light, what little of it there was. I still didn¡¯t know who this man was or what he looked like. And that was starting to annoy me. Not that I could show my annoyance in anyway.


    ¡°Ha ha ha. Just calm down, young goddess.¡± The man¡¯sughter came to me a moment before he stepped into the light. ¡°I know that you are scared, and that you are slightly annoyed. Hey, it is not my fault that the conditions for drawing you and your lover into this world are most often met when you are in the height of coitus. Magic is what it is, and we most often must follow the rules that it has set forth before us. I know that this is not the first time that one of my kind has used that primal erotic magic to draw you in for a visit, and I do apologize for that. Still, it is not like I had much of a choice. And before you start worrying about itd, no, I did not watch. If I want to see a beautiful woman naked, I will take one of my own women to bed, I am notcking for the attention of such lovelydies.¡± There was that strange tone in his voice again. It was serious, yet it was also filled with a yful sort ofughter.


    How could someone be serious andughing at the same time? Shouldn¡¯t the two be mutually exclusive of the other. I mean, seriousness in and of itself means that one is not feeling yful and willing tough. The actual definition of seriousness is literally an attitude of gravity, solemnity, persistence, and earnestness toward something considered to be of importance. And likewise, yfulness is defined as the quality of being light-hearted or full of fun. Someone cannot, therefore, be serious and yful at the same time. It made no sense to me.


    The man, who was also finally able to be seen, was looking at Reece and I with eyes that were slightly narrowed as if he were watching us intently and intensely. However, there were alsough lines around his eyes as if he should be smiling. And indeed, he was smiling, yet when you blinked the smile became a stern expression. Each time you blinked, the look on his face seemed to change between the two.


    Getting past the strange expression on the man¡¯s face, I tried to focus on what he actually looked like. He appeared to be young, though I knew that he had to have been thousands and thousands of years old. His hair was a deep, jet ck that made him look young and powerful, but it was a little bit silvery around the edges that also gave him a distinguished look. His eyes, yful and narrowed at the same time, were a bright and shining green, like the rolling hills that were nearby. Well, how the hills would be if it were daytime, and the sun was brightening them to their most beatific beauty possible.


    The man¡¯s face was unlined, yet somehow, he looked to be weathered and wise. He had clearly traveled a lot, so much so that he was tanned and rugged looking, but there was not a single wrinkle or pock mark on his face. That was also understandable, because he was a god and that meant that he was eternal.


    .....


    It was sort of frustrating just to look at this man. He was so contradictory. He wasn¡¯t overly tall, definitely shorter than Reece, but his presence made him seem like he was ten feet tall. He wasn¡¯t muscr, but he had the air of a professional bodybuilder that would make most men fear him on sight. Not one thing about him was set in stone, and that made it so hard to focus on him.


    ¡°I can see that look in your eyes.¡± That strange yful seriousness again. ¡°I have seen it in the eyes of many people, mortal and immortal alike. It is because I am so hard to read.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s like everything about you is changing even as I look at you.¡± I told him honestly.


    ¡°That is not a bad way to put it. However, it is more that your perception of me is changing rather than my own appearance.¡± He exined, and this time there was a true smile on his face, no longer that strange double face. It made it a lot easier to look at him.


    Now, as I watched, it was like my mind was settling on one image of him. He was a man that was perhaps six feet tall. Hair was a dark gray that was between ck and white. He was athletic, strong but still thin. He was smiling and not at all upset at us. He looked like someone that I would have seen a million times on earth, just a normal man, if a little more handsome than the average man.


    ¡°Is that better?¡± He asked as he looked between Reece and I. It was like he was able to tell that we were no longer struggling to actually see him.


    ¡°Much.¡± We said at the same time.


    ¡°Good. Now we can move on. To answer your earlier question, young goddess, my name is Odin, I am the king of the gods. Mythology only puts me as the King of the Aesir tribe of deities, but that simply isn¡¯t the truth. I am the king of them all, chosen by my peers long ago.¡±


    ¡°Odin?¡± I said as I looked at him in awe. This truly was the most diverse of all gods. He was said to be the god of many things such as wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, victory, sorcery, poetry, frenzy, and the runic alphabet. He is also said to be a fickle trickster. So, I guess that is why he seemed to be so contradictory in the beginning. It is because he truly is too many things in one.


    ¡°Yes, young goddess, and I trust that you know at least a little about me. You are a smart one after all.¡± He wasn¡¯t being rude, just stating the obvious.


    ¡°Yes, I know who you are.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°Why have you brought us here, King Odin?¡± I decided to give him the respect that he deserved. I am, as he said, a young goddess, and that makes him my king. I may be a queen in my own right, but that doesn¡¯t mean that I do not have someone to answer to. And that man was now standing right in front of me.


    He grinned when I used his title with his name. I could tell that he had been waiting to see if I was going to be that respectful to him or not. He was testing me, and I had passed.


    ¡°I guess that is a good question, Trinity.¡± He waved his hand and a table with three chairs appeared before us. There were three goblets and three tes on the table as well. ¡°Have a seat and talk with me.¡± Odin was already sitting in thergest, and throne like, of the chairs at the table.


    Reece and I sat in the two smaller, yet still throne like, chairs that were left for us. They were extremelyfortable, and I could already feel the energy returning to me the moment that I sat in it. As I looked over the table, I saw that there was food on the tes, it was strange in appearance, but smelled amazing. The food was a weird golden color and shaped like grapes. The drink that was in the goblets was also golden, and slightly shiny.


    ¡°Eat. Drink. We have to have our strength.¡± Odin said as he sipped from his own goblet and popped a golden grape in his mouth.


    ¡°What is it?¡± I asked him as I plucked a grape, not on the stem, from my te.


    ¡°Something that the Greek actually got right. This is ambrosia.¡± He held up the grape. ¡°And that is nectar. The food and drink of the gods. It gives you power and strength.¡±


    ¡°Hmm.¡± I heard Reece murmur next to me as he popped a grape into his mouth. Of course, he would eat one before me. Always making sure that I was safe, even in a metaphysical world like this. ¡°It¡¯s good.¡± He smiled at me and gave me a look that said it was safe to eat. He was always the protector, wasn¡¯t he?


    ¡°Of course, it is, young god. You need to trust me more if this conversation is going to go anywhere at all.¡± I could hear a note ofughter in Odin¡¯s voice now, he was clearly enjoying himself.


    Reece and I ate a little of the food and sipped some of the golden beverage. Oddly enough, that nectar of the gods tasted like soda to me. To be exact, it tasted like seven up, one of my favorites at the moment.


    ¡°Mmm, that tastes like a chocte milkshake.¡± Reece said as he looked at the cup. That was when I realized that the drink probably tasted like either our favorite drink, or what we were craving at the moment.


    ¡°Now that you have had a little of the rations, it is time for us to talk.¡± Odin set his ss down. ¡°There is a reason that I have brought you here this evening. And I am sure that you might know what that reason is, if you think about it.¡±


    ¡°The issue that we have been facing in the world right now.¡± I said as I leaned back in thefortable chair. ¡°The recent reveal and the turmoil that has followed.¡±


    ¡°Good, then you are already on the same page as me, if only at the very top of it. Yes, young goddess, that is the reason behind my summoning you. As you might know, I am considered a bit of a wanderer. I have walked among the humans many times throughout history. I like to see what they are up to, and learn about how they are changing. What I have seentely though, it has disturbed me.¡±


    ¡°I thought that you didn¡¯t care about fairness and order?¡± I asked him, remembering the legends that I have heard about this man.


    ¡°I usually do not, but I care about whether or not there is a major issue that ising toward one of my own. You, young goddess, are one of my own. And the target of the mayhem that is facing the mortal realm is directed toward you and your mate there. You two are the ones that put yourselves front and center with this issue, so you are the face of the enemy for those people.¡±


    ¡°More of the supremacists that want to rid the world of our kind?¡± I asked him, knowing exactly what it is that those people wanted to have happen.


    ¡°Yes, more of them. Those people like to use gods such as myself as their inspiration and guiding light, but they know not what we stand for. I am not the kind of god that would stand for malicious destruction of society. War with no purpose is just chaos.¡±


    ¡°War, no matter the cause, is chaos, but war without a cause is pure evil.¡± I corrected him and saw the light of understanding in his eyes.


    ¡°Yes, that is a more apt exnation. These people are evil, and they won¡¯t stop at anything until they have put an end to you all. They do not believe you when you say that there are more of you than there are of them. They think this is purely a ploy of yours to keep the masses from revolting against you. They think that you are scared of what the ¡®superior power¡¯ would be able to do to you.¡±


    ¡°You have seen all of this?¡± I asked him with a voice that was strained and filled with fear.


    ¡°I have. And they are not going to wait much longer. Some of these enemies are powerful and can bring much destruction against you. You need to tread carefully. The events you have seen so far are nothingpared to what they will do to bring the world against you. You need to find them, expose them, and make sure that the world sees who the true monsters are.¡±


    ¡°I understand.¡± I nodded at Odin. ¡°We will do all that we can.¡±


    ¡°That is what I hoped to hear. And if you need me, Trinity, I will be here to offer you my assistance. I do not usually meddle in the affairs of the mortal realm, aside from my littler tricks and wandering journeys, but this is different. I cannot stand by and watch as they target my people, my kin. And make no mistake, Trinity, you are my kin now.¡± I felt a bond with the king of the gods as he looked at me then. It was almost as if a father or grandfather was looking protectively at their child.


    ¡°Thank you, Odin. I appreciate the warning, and the help. I will try to take care of it myself, but I will call on you if I need you.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡± He nodded at me then. ¡°The sustenance that you had here will fortify your powers and strengthen them in your realm. It was my little gift to you.¡±


    ¡°Th..that is very generous of you, Odin. Thank you.¡± Reece¡¯s voice shook a little. Neither he nor I thought that the food and drink would do anything to us out side of this dreamlike world.


    ¡°Go now, return to your home. I will be watching over you, as will your other kin. We protect our own, we always have, and we always will.¡±


    I smiled and nodded then, feeling much better about the situation that was at hand. I knew that there was nothing to worry about now. Whatever happened, it was all going to work out in the end. It had to. With the help of Odin, and the other gods, we wouldn¡¯t have to worry about anything for a while.

 Chapter 1100 - 1100 Chapter 85- Putting the Plan into Motion (VOLUME 6)

    1100 Chapter 85- Putting the n into Motion (VOLUME 6)


    **Third Person POV**


    Pawster had sessfully managed to get away from therger group. He, alone among the entire group, wanted to return to his sses at the university. He just didn¡¯t tell anyone that the real reason he wanted to return was so that he was able to put his n into motion.


    If he had told anyone of them that he was going to put his own n into motion, they would have stopped him. Either they would have wanted to be the leader of such a marvelous n so that they could get all the credit for it, or they would have told the boss, the Colonel, so that the entire team could be in on this plot of his.


    No, Pawster wasn¡¯t able to let that happen. He was going to use this momentous day as his way of getting promoted. He was going to prove himself to the Colonel so that he could work as his new right hand man. He would be the second inmand. He would give orders rather than take them. He would be the second most powerful man in the world, second only to the Colonel and all of his magnificent glory.


    Pawster wanted nothing more than to work with someone as awe inspiring and amazing as the Colonel was. He wanted to learn all that the Colonel had to teach him. And when he had absorbed all of that information, he would learn more from other sources so that he could eventually surpass the Colonel and be the leader of the world.


    In his mind, that was the way that the world needed to be. One united leader that was there to guide them all and show them the true way in life. They would get rid of the monsters and all of those others that didn¡¯t deserve to share this with them. They would whittle down the poption and make them a lot easier to control. And then, with that thinned out herd, it would be a breeze to make them do as the Colonel wanted them to. Or rather, what Pawster wanted them to do.


    With a gleeful smile on his face, Pawster had started preparing for his big day. He was living on the campus, so that made it a lot easier for him to move around the various ces that he needed to get to. He had a grand n, one that would paint those monsters as the true demonic creatures that they were.


    He left his dorm room, which he didn¡¯t share with anyone else, at around two in the morning. He needed to get into all these ces while there was no one else around that would be able to see him. He needed secrecy and anonymity while he performed these tasks.


    Silently, and without being seen by anyone, Pawster snuck out of his room and to the maintenance room on his floor. This was the first ce that he was going to put one of his little toys that he had brought with him. He reached into one of therge duffle bags that he had brought with him and took out the small explosive devices. They were all connected to a remote device that he could control with the push of a button.


    .....


    Each device, forty-five of them altogether, had their own little button, and he was going tobel them as he went. He wanted to make sure that he was able to watch them go off one by one when it was time. What was the point of doing this, if he didn¡¯t get the satisfaction of seeing the destruction for himself.


    The device that controlled the bombs had fifty buttons, but he was only able to get forty-five of them out of headquarters before he left. And they were all the small bombs, nothing that was going to destroy the entire campus. However, it would be enough to make a statement. And he was going to make sure that his entire team knew that it was him that was responsible for this momentous day.


    Room by room, Pawster moved through the dormitory that he lived in. He was putting a device in the maintenance room on each floor, hoping to make at least part of it copse from thebined stress in that part of the structure.


    He would ce a bomb and link it with the device that was in his hand. He would thenbel that button with where the bomb was located and then move onto the next one. This was a slow process, and that was why he was doing it in the dead of the night. He couldn¡¯t risk being caught while the entire campus was awake.


    There was a time when he felt like he was about to get caught. The night guard in his building was making their rounds, but he managed to hide in the maintenance room and wait for the man to get out of the way. Damn this school for caring about safety and having guards that protected people. It wouldn¡¯t help them in the end.


    There were other ces that Pawster wanted to ce the bombs, ces that held significance to him. He knew that those monsters like to hang out near the fountain. He knew that, if he did this at the right time, he would be able to blow them up along with several other ces on the campus.


    He ced four of his precious few bombs around the fountain, and four more in the bushes or under the benches that those things usually sat on. He wanted to make sure that he killed them all. That would make the Colonel truly proud of him. Eliminating some of the monsters that we knew upied this world. And not only that, but their deaths would significantly hurt the leader of those people. That was another motivating factor for Pawster.


    He started to ce the bombs in other parts of the campus now. He wanted to blow up the English department, as much of it as he could. The professor that he hadst semester had told him that his paper was the psychotic ramblings of a delusional madman. The professor had even suggested that he seek professional help. That man had to be part of that monster world, those people that want to destroy the humans. That had to be why he had turned up his nose to the brilliance of Pawster¡¯s words.


    There were girls that Pawster had asked out, pretty girls that should love a handsome and intelligent man such as him, but they had turned him down. Some of them had even gone as far as tough at him. Those girls, always sticking to the same routine just like those monsters that thought they ruled the world, they were going to pay.


    Knowing where those girls would be at the specific times of the day, Pawster ced the bombs in the buildings and rooms that he needed to destroy. He was a master at record keeping, and he had an impable memory, so nothing got by Pawster. He knew when and where these people were going to be because like most beings on this, they had routines. And routines could be learned and followed.


    After the revenge targets had been ced, Pawster decided that he should ce a few more random bombs. He put one in the chemistry department of the science building. That would lead to an even bigger explosion, once those chemicals were involved in the explosion. He ced one in the arts building, on the stage in the auditorium. They had refused to even consider the y that Pawster had written. Those plebeian fools. They didn¡¯t know what true genius was.


    It was almost daylight, and before long, there would be people milling about all over the campus. He still had six bombs to ce, but he needed to be more stealthy and careful with them. He needed to make sure that there was no chance at all that someone would stop him before he was able to follow through with his n.


    Needing to think about where to ce the other bombs, Pawster stopped by the cafeteria. He needed some breakfast, and a lot of coffee. He didn¡¯t want to lose his energy before it was even time to get started with the main show.


    ¡°Ahh. The fireworks will be amazing.¡± He said to himself as he slowly chewed on the breakfast sandwich that he had ordered for himself. ¡°If only I could wait until it was dark. Then the lights and pyrotechnics would be even more stunning. I can¡¯t do that though. I need to make sure that those things, those devilishly evil monstrosities are where they usually are. I need to follow through with my n today, while those things are eating their lunch together.¡±


    He was talking to himself, but no one was listening to him. No one ever paid him any attention when he was here on the campus. That was another reason why he didn¡¯t mind being a part of his new organization. At least when he was there, people actually saw him. They actually knew that he was a person, and a smart one at that. Here on campus though, he was invisible. And he didn¡¯t like being invisible.


    ¡°They will see me soon though. When they all learn who it was that was behind this momentous day, they will all see me. They will know me. And they will love me.¡± His slightly maniacalughter went unnoticed as he continued to eat. He ate, and he watched the people around him.


    He was thinking about who it was that needed to die along with the others that had wronged him. There were so many people here that were useless and worthless. Perhaps he should just pick random targets for the remaining six bombs. It¡¯s not like he could make a massive ssh with so few bombs left.


    He was beginning to think that perhaps he should head to the parking lot after breakfast and ce them there. The chain reaction might help to cause more destruction and get more attention.


    He was about to head over there, nning which cars would be the best options here, but he was stopped mid step. Those things, those creatures, were already here. They were on campus now, and that annoyed him. He should follow them and find out where they were going. If they had other friends here, other monsters that he didn¡¯t know about he could kill those people. Even if they weren¡¯t monsters, they would be monster lovers. And that would be just as bad.


    Anyone that helped the monsters, was friends with the monsters, and allowed the monsters to walk around freely, was a traitor to their race. They were the worst of the worst. They were even worse than the monsters themselves.


    The monsters had no choice but to be what they were. They were born that way. The others though, those humans that embraced them, weed them, and even acted as fans and worshippers of them all, those were disgusting people that were turning their back on humanity. And they deserved to be killed. Each and everyst one of them deserved to be struck dead where they stood.


    While Pawster was following those monsters, keeping his eyes peeled for those sphemous blood traitors that worshipped those vile monsters, he noticed something that was a little off. For some reason, one of those monsters had stopped and turned to face him. The thing, whatever manner of creature he was, was looking at him with an expression that didn¡¯t sit well with Pawster. What was it that he wanted? And why was he looking at him? The thing¡¯s silvery hair was unsettling as well. There was no reason for the thing to be staring at him like that.


    Not liking what was happening, Pawster turned and started to walk away. He could still feel that thing¡¯s eyes on his back though, and that made his skin crawl.

 Chapter 1101 - 1101 Chapter 86- Reagan – Like Any Other Day Part 1 (VOLUME 6)

    1101 Chapter 86- Reagan ¨C Like Any Other Day Part 1 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reagan


    ~~


    It was the beginning of February now. Literally, it was Friday the first. The start of a new month, but nothing had changed yet. Everything that had been happening for thest month and more was still going on. There was no change in the news this morning that spoke of a miraculous change in the world. There was no world peace. There was no surrender from those hate groups that were targeting our people. Nothing at all had changed. Nothing except for the date that is.


    I had noticed a change in my parents earlier this week. They were a little more eager to get things settled now than they had been on Monday. Yes, as a family we had taken the day off and celebrated my mom¡¯s birthday. That was something that we all felt was necessary. She may be the queen and the leader of our people, but she was still our mom, and she deserved to have a day to rx and rest.


    The day after that though, as if to make up for the lost time of the celebration, both Mom and Dad had started to focus on the political issues and those groups that seemed to hate us so much. They were working with such a fervor that I didn¡¯t know what to do at times.


    I thought that going about our business as usual, until we were asked to help out in another way, was probably for the best. Rika and I needed to finish school after all, if we were going to take over thepany or anything else that we had in mind.


    A lot of times, even when we didn¡¯t all have sses at the same time, we all went to school with the others. This morning I didn¡¯t have any sses, and neither did Luka, but Rika and Levi did. And so did several of the others. Luka and I had nned to do some research for the semester project that was recently assigned in our politics ss. It was something that we had to do independently, but that didn¡¯t mean that we couldn¡¯t do the research together. And that was why we didn¡¯t have any issue with going to the campus early.


    Of course, before I could head to the campus with Rika, we all needed to have breakfast together. Through all of the stuff that was going on, this was one thing that we always tried to do. We tried to be here and be consistent for the little kids. Even though Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley would all say that they weren¡¯t little kids anymore and that they should be treated with respect and like the ¡®grown ups¡¯ that they thought they were. These little consistencies in life gave us all a sense of stability that helped to make life that much easier.


    .....


    ¡°We can use Rawlynne¡¯s connection at the FBI to get more information on them.¡± I heard Dad whispering to Mom as they sat with their heads together.


    ¡°That might not be enough.¡± Mom said as she idly stirred her bowl full of sweet rice. ¡°We need toe at this from all angles.¡±


    ¡°Mom?¡± I called out to her, but she didn¡¯t seem to hear me.


    ¡°We need to involve as many agencies as we possibly can.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I know. But that isn¡¯t exactly easy at the moment.¡± Dad¡¯s eyes were uneasy when he responded.


    ¡°Dad?¡± I called, this time a little louder. It seemed that I got through to them this time because they jumped a little, startled back into the reality of the moment.


    ¡°Yeah, son?¡± Dad said as he looked at me.


    ¡°I think that it would be best if you were present for breakfast.¡± I looked at the quads who had been watching our parents as they had their secret conversation.


    It seemed that both Mom and Dad had forgotten where they were and what was going on around them. I could see the moment that they both blushed in embarrassment and looked around sheepishly. At times, they were so much alike that it was almost funny, and more than a little eerie. I just smiled at the way they were acting like kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar. They weren¡¯t supposed to be discussing ¡®business¡¯ at the breakfast table, and they knew it.


    ¡°Sorry, Reagan. Sorry, guys.¡± Mom smiled at us all and did her best to be present for the rest of the morning. She and Dad were just so busy right now that it was hard not to bring work into private life. Especially because work currently involved so much of our private lives.


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Mommy, we know that you are busy.¡± Zaley smiled and looked deep into Mom¡¯s eyes. ¡°We¡¯re sorry to pull you away from it.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t be.¡± Dad told her with a calm and loving tone. The look in his eyes was apologetic. ¡°We¡¯re with you guys now, and that¡¯s where we need to be. We will discuss workter. We are sorry for being distracted.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve been distracted for most of the week, did something happen?¡± Talia asked them, knowing that they were going to give us another excuse.


    ¡°No, nothing happened. We¡¯re just trying to stay ahead of things.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re lying.¡± Zaley said the words so tly and matter-of-factly that it took me by surprise.


    ¡°Huh?¡± I asked her with a shocked tone in my voice.


    ¡°I can feel it in your voice. You¡¯re lying. Why are you lying to us?¡± I could hear pain in Zaley¡¯s voice now.


    ¡°Zaley, sweetheart, we¡¯re not lying. Nothing happened. No one is hurt. There have been no new incidents. Nothing is wrong. We¡¯re just trying to stay in front of the issues as they might arise.¡± Mom did her best to exin this to her.


    ¡°Hmm. That one is true, but the other one was a lie. I don¡¯t know what happened though, so I can¡¯t say for sure.¡± Zaley seemed to drop the subject and went back to her food. ¡°By the way, you two are both happy and angrier than you used to be.¡± Sometimes, Zaley talked about things that didn¡¯t make sense to me. What was she trying to say? ¡°I just want you to be happy.¡±


    The rest of breakfast was less confusing, but no less awkward. I think that everyone was just trying to puzzle out what it was that Zaley had been talking about. She had been acting like she knew what Mom and Dad had been feeling, and other things as well. Was that possible? Could she really sense that?


    Given that Rika and I needed to get to school anyway, we offered to drive Talia and the quads to school that morning. It was amon thing for us to do anyway, so there was no reason to think that this was anything other than one of the typical and ordinary days. We talked about movies and what the kids wanted to do this weekend. It was Friday after all, so they were excited about the prospect of the next two days out of school.


    Talia, not as young and childish as the others, was nning on going to Sereia¡¯s this weekend. She had made friends with the girl pretty quickly, and her entire family was pretty nice to Talia. I could see why she liked it over there.


    Zachary, Zander and Zayden wanted to have a video game tournament, one that would involve bringing their best friends over and ying as two man teams to be the ultimate winners. It sounded epic and pretty fun.


    Zaley was hoping to go out somewhere with Breanna. She couldn¡¯t go without her guards, and of course Mom and Dad had to OK it. The thing is that she hardly ever wanted to go anywhere, so I was hoping that she was able to make it happen. I liked seeing how she was blossoming and opening up now that she had a close friend at school.


    Rika and I dropped the kids off at the school, waved to some of the parents and other kids that acted almost as awestruck as those human fans always did, and then went on our way. It was just me and my twin sister now, and we were usuallyfortable with the silence in the car. Today, though, we both felt the need to talk.


    ¡°Were Mom and Dad acting weird today, or was that just me?¡± Rika asked as I turned away from the school and toward the city.


    ¡°They were definitely acting weird, but what was that with Zaley?¡± I asked her, not sure how to process that part of the morning.


    ¡°I think I heard her and Breanna talking once before. Something about how she can sense emotions. She would know what everyone around her is feeling, and I am sure that is quite overwhelming.¡±


    ¡°Damn. That would be hard. No wonder she has a difficult time at school. All the other people around, I am sure that it is sensory overload for her.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡± Rika turned to face me and looked quite ufortable. ¡°I can¡¯t even begin to imagine what it is like to be Zaley. Then again, I can¡¯t say that Talia has it any better. I think that I am more than happy to be me, and there are things that I do that are weird as well.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re all weird.¡± Iughed at her. ¡°I think that is a requirement to be a member of our family.¡± We bothughed, but it didn¡¯tst long.


    ¡°Still, I am worried about Mom and Dad. Something had to have happened, but they don¡¯t want to tell us about it.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but they said that it wasn¡¯t an incident, and no one was hurt, so it can¡¯t be that bad.¡± I told her, remembering how that part was true ording to Zaley.


    ¡°Yes, and that¡¯s what is making this even more confusing for me. What would cause them to be so paranoid, if not for one of those incidents?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that I can¡¯t answer for you. Not right now anyway.¡±


    We talked all the way to the university. All the way up until I parked the car and could see the others getting out of their car. Levi and Luka, who usually drove separately from Alyssa and Alexandra, were already heading toward us. I guess today was their sisters¡¯ day to drop off the younger siblings. And seeing as the girls were pulling into the parking lot now, I would say that was a spot on assumption.


    ¡°Hey.¡± I called to Luka and Levi. ¡°What¡¯s up? How was your morning?¡±


    ¡°Making small talk this morning? Man, you must have had a messed up start to your day.¡± Lukaughed at me as he gave me a one armed hug. It was our typical greeting, and it was followed by one from his brother.


    ¡°Yeah, it was a little awkward, but nothing too bad.¡± I said as I stepped away from them. ¡°Are you ready to get moving?¡±


    ¡°Not yet, the trips aren¡¯t here yet.¡± Levi said as he looked toward the other end of the parking lot. The ¡®trips¡¯ referred to the triplets, Ashle, Beech and Cypress.


    ¡°Yeah, and Elias isn¡¯t here either. We need to wait for all of the others.¡± Luka said as he sat on the hood of his car. We always waited for the others when we knew that they were going to be here. And today, we were all supposed to be here.


    ¡°Yeah, better to wait.¡± I said as I sat on my own car.


    ¡°I¡¯m d that we brought your car today. I wouldn¡¯t want your butt imprint on my hood.¡± Rikaughed as she slid on top of the car next to me.


    ¡°Then why are you putting your butt on mine?¡± I narrowed my eyes yfully at her.


    ¡°Because you obviously don¡¯t care about putting butts on your car.¡± She wiggled her bottom as if she was getting as much of her butt on the hood as possible. It made us allugh. Even I wasughing when the triplets showed up, riding with Elias like they did sometimes. We were all here now, and that meant that we were able to head on in.

 Chapter 1102 - 1102 Chapter 87- Luka – Like Any Other Day Part 2 (VOLUME 6)

    1102 Chapter 87- Luka ¨C Like Any Other Day Part 2 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Luka


    ~~


    Levi and I were the first ones to get here to the campus today. Even though I didn¡¯t have a ss this early today, I was going to be studying with Reagan. There was a massive research project that we needed to prepare for. One that was worth like a million percent of our grade. And, smart as I am most of the time, I still felt like an idiot when it came to getting ready for a massive project like this. I always felt like a chicken with my head cut off. I was just waiting to drop dead because I was out of my league. Or at least, that was how I felt when I got started on these things.


    I had been brooding over my topic while we waited for the others to get there. Reagan and Rika, who had to drop off their younger siblings, arrived just before our sisters, who had also needed to drop the others off. Reagan and Rika, with all their siblings, only totaled eight, and they drove in one of those hybrid SUVs with a third row seat. It wasn¡¯t like the ones that our parents used for major operations, but it was big enough for them all.


    On the contrary, Levi, Lyssa, Alexa and I just didn¡¯t want to all ride together as one group most of the time. So, we took turns driving our younger siblings to school in the morning. And next year, we could make Luther and Fauna, our younger brother and sister, drive them to school for us. They will be in their freshmen year here at the university with us, and they would have to deal with all the scut work. That¡¯s how it went, right?


    While I thought about a million things at the same time, I tried to keep an eye out for the others. I always had an easy time of keeping my mind in a million different ces. It was like my mind worked differently. And even though my sister Alexa was a hybrid like me, she didn¡¯t seem to have the same thought process as I did. I knew that to the humans, I often looked as if I had ADHD or something. It was always spacing out and things like that. However, I wasn¡¯t really spacing out, it wasn¡¯t like that.


    In truth, it was like I was looking at and seeing things in a dozen different ways at the same time. I would just look tuned out at times because I was trying to process it all at the same time. I knew that I was still technically young and that I was still trying to learn how to manage to be me. Not even the humans knew how to be the best versions of themselves when they were only eighteen. Yeah, OK, I would be neen next month, along with Levi, Lyssa, and Alexa, but I was still only eighteen, and I was often still trying to figure things out.


    When Reagan and Rika got to the university, I talked to them, but it was also like I was still processing the other thoughts in my mind. Still, I was able to sense what was happening with Reagan. He always joked that I could read his mind, but it wasn¡¯t really like that. I just knew things based on the energy that people gave off. It was like I could sense things about them, things that others weren¡¯t attuned to. Alexa had this ability a little, but not as strong as I did.


    .....


    I knew instantly that Reagan and Rika had had a bad morning, or at least a strange one. They were both giving off such a strange vibe.


    ¡°Hey. What¡¯s up? How was your morning?¡± There was a strained sound in Reagan¡¯s voice that I was sure even he wasn¡¯t aware of.


    ¡°Making small talk this morning? Man, you must have had a messed up start to your day.¡± I joked back with him, because I didn¡¯t want to alert him to the aura or energy that he was emanating. I just gave him a one armed hug and went back to where I had been before.


    ¡°Yeah, it was a little awkward, but nothing too bad. Are you ready to get moving?¡± He started to answer, but that was all. He also didn¡¯t seem to be thinking clearly either.


    ¡°Not yet, the trips aren¡¯t here yet.¡± Levi reminded him.


    ¡°Yeah, and Elias isn¡¯t here either. We need to wait for all of the others.¡± I said as I scooted back to sit on the hood of my car.


    ¡°Yeah, better to wait.¡± Reagan nodded as he sat opposite of me, sliding on his hood as well.


    What followed was a funny conversation about butt prints and cars. We were allughing when the trips arrived with Elias. They had ridden in together and we were now able to get going. We were heading to our usual spot, which had never been encroached upon, even before people found out that we weren¡¯t human. That was pretty cool in my opinion.


    While we were walking toward the fountain and the benches around it that we always used, I noticed that there was a weird energy that was following us. I didn¡¯t know what it was at first, but then I realized that it was a man that was following behind us at a distance. He was following us ever since we had passed him a few moments ago.


    Why was he following us? Was he a fan of one of the twins? Or one of the rest of us maybe? No. He didn¡¯t seem like a fan. His energy was too wrong for that. He was filled with anger and resentment. The energy that wasing off of him was bitter and disgusting. It made me want to sneeze, even though it wasn¡¯t something that I was physically smelling.


    Deciding that I needed to get a scent on this man, just to be on the safe side, I inhaled deeply. I knew that even with this distance, I would be able to get a read on him. I wasn¡¯t as good as the wolves and felines when it came to somethings, but being a hybrid I was better at smelling than most people. And this man¡¯s scent hit me like a ton of bricks.


    The power of that smell was strong, but it was also wrong. There was something about it that shouldn¡¯t be there. Something that wasn¡¯t natural. And for someone that was all too clearly a human, there shouldn¡¯t be oddities about his smell.


    The hair on my neck and arms instantly bristled and stood on end. I was on edge, and I didn¡¯t know why. This man, whoever he was, he shouldn¡¯t be a threat to us, but somehow, I felt like he was. I felt like everyone around us needed to get out of here, and that something really bad was going to happen. And it would all be this man¡¯s fault.


    ¡°Luka?¡± Reagan called to me in a soft voice just as the man turned away from me. ¡°What is it? Is there something wrong?¡± He turned to look in the direction that I had been staring. The others had apparently noticed that I had stopped following them and was staring at something or someone in the distance.


    ¡°That guy there. The one with the duffle bag. He smells funny. And he feels weird.¡±


    ¡°Feels weird?¡± Levi asked me with a tone that had spoken more than the words did.


    ¡°Yes. His energy is strange. But the smell as well, that wasn¡¯t normal. Not for a guy like that.¡±


    ¡°What did he smell like?¡± Rika asked me with a soft tone. The man, looking over his shoulders, kept stopping to see if we were following him.


    ¡°He is a human, that was clear, but he smelled dangerous. And oddly enough, he is clean and well put together, but he smells like tar and motor oil. And almonds too. Those smells don¡¯t go together. Tar is used in construction. Motor oil obviously with cars. And almonds with cooks. They shouldn¡¯t be with him at the same time.¡±


    ¡°Wait a minute.¡± Reagan looked up, worry on his face. ¡°Remember that lessonst week. The one from Torin, the FBI agent they brought in to teach us. It was about bombs and detecting them. Nobels 808 smells like almonds. And C4 smells like tar and motor oil.¡± There was an intense look in Reagan¡¯s eyes now. He was ready to make a move if he needed to.


    ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± I said as I smacked myself in the head. ¡°I knew that there was something about those smells. Torin even brought them in for us to smell. She wanted us to be able to detect them if the situation ever arose.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, and it¡¯s a good thing too.¡± Rika said as she looked after the man. ¡°That man has a bomb on him. We need to get him before anyone gets hurt.¡±


    With a speed that no one on campus had ever seen before, the ten of us took off running in the direction of the man that had walked away from us. He hadn¡¯t seen using until thest second, and that was when he started to try and run. It was toote by then.


    We tackled the man to the ground, taking him down with an unceremonious yet all too present grace. There were a few screams that emitted from the students nearby, mostly the girls. And a few guys called out in worry.


    ¡°What the hell?¡±


    ¡°What are you doing?¡±


    ¡°Let him go.¡±


    We knew that we needed to protect these people. We had to keep them all safe. They were in danger if they stayed here.


    ¡°All of you get back.¡± I called out to them. I wasn¡¯t the one that was sitting on the suspect, that was Beech, since he was the one to get there first. ¡°This man has a bomb.¡±


    ¡°A bomb?¡± A girl asked in disbelief.


    ¡°LET ME GO!¡± The man pinned to the ground called out as he struggled to get free.


    ¡°We will show you.¡± Reagan said as he started to take the man¡¯s bag away from him.


    ¡°NO! GIVE THAT BACK! IT¡¯S NOT YOURS!¡± The others that were watching didn¡¯t make a move. They wanted to know if the im was true. And several of them were already recording it on their phones and other devices. ¡°THEY ATTACKED ME! DID YOU SEE THAT! THEY ATTACKED ME FOR NO REASON AT ALL!¡±


    ¡°Oh, we had a reason.¡± Reagan said as he pulled the zipper of the bag open. ¡°And here is that reason.¡± He showed the crowd the contents of the bag.


    There were half a dozen devices in the bag that couldn¡¯t be mistaken for anything other than what they were. They were bombs. They had all the necessaryponents to be a bomb, and the others, the humans, that were watching knew what they were immediately.


    Most of them started to scream and flee the scene. Others, a little more bold and brave than the ones that had fled the scene, stayed there to film the scene. They weren¡¯t going to miss an opportunity like this. This was exciting.


    ¡°How did you know?¡± One of the humans asked as Reagan started to empty the bags.


    ¡°We smelled them.¡± I told him honestly. ¡°We were taught what to look for so that we could prevent situations like this.¡± I knew that transparency was the best option right now. These videos would be all over the inte soon, and we needed it to go good for us.


    ¡°You smelled them? That is fucking cool.¡± One of the voices said, but we were more interested in what was going on with the bag.


    ¡°There is a device here with a lot of switches.¡± Reagan said. ¡°They arebeled with ces of other bombs. It has fifty buttons, but only thirty-nine of them arebeled.¡±


    ¡°Did he notbel the others, or did he only have forty-five to begin with?¡± Levi asked in a strained voice. He was nervous, as were the rest of us.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Reagan said as he looked down at the trapped man. ¡°How many bombs did you have?¡±


    ¡°FUCK YOU!¡± The man screamed at him. ¡°YOU WILL NEVER FIND THEM! AND WHEN THEY GO OFF, MANY WILL DIE!¡±


    ¡°Damn you!¡± Reagan snapped at him. ¡°How many bombs did you have to start with? Are there some that are not marked?¡±


    ¡°PISS OFF!¡± The man screamed again before he spat on the ground next to his head. He was an angry man, and I could sense the psychosis that was inside of him. He was crazy.


    ¡°We need to call the authorities.¡± Reagan said. ¡°Rika, call Mom and Dad. Levi, call Devon, I will call Rawlynne.¡±


    ¡°Devon? Rawlynne? And why your parents?¡± the man that was closest and still filming asked him in a curious tone.


    ¡°Our parents are the King and Queen of our people, they need to be notified of this attempt. And Devon is Captain Devon Scott with the Colorado Springs Police Department. Rawlynne is Director Rawlynne Otsana-Martin of the local FBI branch. We are contacting the proper authorities in this situation.¡±


    Somehow, Reagan had turned into some sort of leader that we had never seen before. He was smooth, wise, and in control. He and Rika were both so calm at the moment, and I was happy that they were here. They were keeping us grounded at the current moment.


    ¡°We need to do two things right now.¡± Reagan said as he looked around the campus. ¡°We need to evacuate the students and staff, and we need to find the other bombs. That is what Devon and Rawlynne would do if they were here already.¡±


    ¡°Then make your calls, then we split up.¡± I told him, urging him to call for the backup that we needed.


    The others nodded and made their calls. Rika told their parents what was happening, and that they needed to get to the campus right away. The more wolf noses that we had searching the better. We wouldn¡¯t miss a single bomb if that was the case. Devon and Rawlynne were also on their way, and would likely be here in minutes.


    ¡°Beech, can you stay here and hold onto him?¡± Reagan asked in a serious tone.


    ¡°Of course.¡± Our friend asked in a calm tone. ¡°He isn¡¯t a challenge for me.¡±


    ¡°GET OFF ME ASSHOLE!¡± The man fought against Beech again, but it was like the man hadn¡¯t moved at all. It didn¡¯t affect Beech in any way.


    ¡°Alright, that¡¯s good. Ashle, stay here with your brother. If you see anyone, tell them to leave the campus immediately. And keep an eye out for the others when they get here.¡±


    ¡°Will do.¡± She nodded in agreement with Reagan¡¯s words.


    ¡°The rest of us will split into groups and search for the bombs and start the evacuation. Rika, you and Lyssa team up, Alexa and Elias, Cypress and Levi, and I will go with Luka.¡±


    ¡°Got it.¡± Everyone nodded in agreement. ¡°Cypress and Levi, you two start to evacuate the student buildings. Alexa and Elias, you let the staff know what is happening, get security involved. Tell them that the FBI is already on the way.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± The others spoke in unison.


    ¡°The rest of us, we are going to go to all the ces listed on this device. Take a picture with your phones and get moving. We need to find all of these bombs and make sure that there is no one near them. Don¡¯t touch them though, that is for the bomb squad. Just evacuate the areas around them.¡±


    ¡°Will do.¡± Rika and Lyssa said as they nodded.


    This was it. We were about to head out and do our best to save these people. And of course, I was scared shitless. That didn¡¯t mean that I wouldn¡¯t do it though. I was brave, despite my fear I would do what needed to be done.

 Chapter 1103 - 1103 Chapter 88- Rika – Like Any Other Day Part 3 (VOLUME 6)

    1103 Chapter 88- Rika ¨C Like Any Other Day Part 3 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Rika


    ~~


    Our group split up then. We needed to head in different directions and protect the people of the campus. We had stumbled upon this man with explosives, and it was up to us to make sure that no one was hurt at all. This was our duty. This was our responsibility. At least, that was how the ten of us saw it. We wouldn¡¯t let someone do something so evil to innocent people. Not on our watch anyway.


    Lyssa and I were running toward the ces that were at the bottom of the list first. Reagan and Luka were starting at the top of the list, because some of those bombs were located on some ¡®boys only¡¯ floors of a dorm. They needed to be the ones to get in there and save the building and the people around them.


    I noticed that one of the ces that the man had put the bombs was near the fountain, where we were heading to kill time until ss started. That was when I knew that this was a targeted attack. And that the main targets were me, Reagan, and our friends and family that were here with us. That man, that monster, had wanted to kill us.


    Just thinking about that made my blood burn and boil in anger. I wasn¡¯t scared. I wasn¡¯t worried. I was pissed off. This man had tried to kill me, and that made me angrier than I have ever been before. If I wasn¡¯t a reasonable person, I would have hurt him for just thinking about hurting me and my family.


    Trying not to let him get to me, I hurried to where I needed to be. I had told Ashle about the bombs at the fountain, which was close to her. She said that she would confirm them and get the people in the immediate vicinity to leave the campus. She, being part Fae, had magic that would be able to convince the people around her to listen. I wasn¡¯t at all worried about her seeding. I knew that she would be able to handle it.


    Lyssa and I found a bomb that was near a group of pretty girls. The girls, not at all suspecting that something was wrong, got angry at me when I intruded on their conversation. However, when the bench they were sitting on was moved, they saw the bomb and the danger that they had been in.


    .....


    Their screams of terror echoed long and loud through the open air. Several students that were nearby stopped to look in our direction to see what was wrong.


    ¡°THERE¡¯S A BOMB!¡± One of the girls screamed in panic. That took a moment to settle into the ears of the other people, but the moment that it did, mass panic and hysteria started to ensue. Everyone was running away from the center of the campus and toward the parking lots and exits.


    It wasn¡¯t the mass exodus that we had hoped for, but at least it was getting the people out of the way. They wouldn¡¯t be in danger if they left. And even the clerks from the stores that were nearby were running out of their businesses. They didn¡¯t even take the time to lock up, they were all too worried about their lives. I didn¡¯t me any of them one bit.


    ¡°Come on, Lyssa.¡± I told her as we marked where the bomb was. ¡°We need to find more.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± She nodded at me, a firm line set on her mouth as she looked around seriously. ¡°We will find them all. And hopefully, no one will get hurt at all.¡±


    As we started to search out the bombs, and looking at the list of the locations, I could tell that there was something wrong. The thing is, the guy hadbeled where he had put all the bombs, but they weren¡¯t always the most coherent of words or locations. It was like some of the ces were only of some sort of significance to him and nothing else.


    It became clear to me that the asshat that was targeting us was just using us as a front. He was also targeting what appeared to be people or ces that had angered him. I didn¡¯t know who he was, or what his life was like, but I knew that not all of these locations on the list had to do with my people. Not specifically anyway.


    Lyssa and I had only found two bombs when we heard the sounds of the sirens in the distance. We had moved fast, and the fact that they were all here within two or three minutes was proof that they had taken us seriously. That was good, because this was a serious situation.


    ¡°Should we go and find the police? We can help them find the bombs while they are here.¡± Lyssa said as we ran toward the next bomb location.


    ¡°No, if we go to them first, they won¡¯t let us help. And not all of them are super naturals like us. They will not be able to find them, but they won¡¯t let us help them either.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure?¡± She looked perplexed.


    ¡°They aren¡¯t going to be like my parents.¡± I exined to her. ¡°Unless it was Uncle Devon, or Aunt Rawlynne herself, we wouldn¡¯t be allowed to help. And if we met anyone else first, they would force us away. We will do what we can right here and now.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± She nodded with conviction then, running along next to me with determination and knowing that we needed to keep moving.


    The sounds of the sirens didn¡¯t fade behind us. In fact, they only got louder. It almost seemed like every police officer and FBI agent within a fifty mile radius was flocking toward the campus. That too was understandable. They needed to make sure that something like a bombing didn¡¯t happen at a school, not even at a university. That would be devastating to the world, not just us here locally.


    I didn¡¯t stop, and neither did Lyssa. We found four more bombs before we ran into one of the cops that had arrived. It was Andrew Masterson, a detective at the local police department that had worked with Uncle Devon for a long time.


    ¡°Rika? Alyssa? What are you two doing here?¡± He asked us with worried eyes. ¡°There are bombs all over the ce.¡±


    ¡°We know.¡± I told him. ¡°We have found half a dozen of them already, and we have marked where they are. We have been evacuating the campus and exposing the bombs so that the bomb squad cane in and handle them.¡±


    ¡°Wow, you¡¯ve been busy.¡± Heughed lightheartedly. ¡°I saw your friend at the square. He was restraining the suspect until we got here.¡±


    ¡°Good. That was what he was told to do.¡± I told Andrew firmly. ¡°Come on, Lyssa and I will help you find the rest. We have a list of where he put them, but not all of them make sense at first. It¡¯s taking us a while to figure it all out.¡±


    ¡°Would it do me any good to tell you to leave it to the rest of us? You know, your parents are almost here.¡±


    ¡°Yes, we know, we called them. That doesn¡¯t change anything though. We are going to help you find these bombs. We were trained in scenting them out just recently. An FBI agent even brought the mostmon chemicals for us to smell. Given our sensitive noses, we are able to find them easily.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I know.¡± He nodded at us. ¡°I smelled the ones that were in the square. And if I can¡¯t make you stop, thene with me. At least you have an official police escort now.¡± Heughed and waved us on. This was good. We would be able to keep working and trying to find those bombs.


    There was the sound ofmotion in the distance. There were several more people still running off of the campus as it was still being evacuated. Clearly, there were some hold outs that didn¡¯t believe the story about the bombs until the police arrived on the scene.


    Now that it was a cop that was telling those people to run, they were more than willing to trust that the story was true and they were ready to leave. The only thing is, they were leaving in a screaming panic. They were afraid that they were about to be blown up at any moment, and that even one dyed second would result in either their death or extreme bodily harm.


    What I didn¡¯t get was, if they were afraid of the bombs, why didn¡¯t they believe the others that had told them about them? Why had they waited until the police had arrived on the scene? They had been warned before and had just dismissed it all as a hoax or something. That just showed how little faith the world had in the younger generation. Everything was a joke or a hoax to them all. That was their opinion apparently.


    Lyssa and I worked with Andrew to find three more bombs before we found the next police officer. This one was Uncle Devon, and he was apparently relieved to see us.


    ¡°Where the hell have you been?¡± He demanded of us. ¡°Where are your brothers?¡±


    ¡°They are looking for the bombs and evacuating people.¡± I told him honestly. ¡°We have a list-.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I know. A list of locations where the bombs are. We saw the device as well. We are finding them right now as well. There are two dozen wolf officers on the scene at the moment, and that isn¡¯t even ounting for the other species or the FBI. We have this covered. The two of you head back to the parking lot. Your parents are looking for you.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re not leaving.¡± I told him firmly.


    ¡°That wasn¡¯t a request, Rika.¡± Uncle Devon tried to use his position on the force to intimidate me into leaving, but I wasn¡¯t having it.


    ¡°And I wasn¡¯t making a politement. I am not leaving this search, Devon.¡± I didn¡¯t use the uncle title that was used out of closeness and respect rather than blood or marriage rtionship.


    ¡°Rika!¡± He growled my name, but I was stronger than he was. I put all of my anger into my words and responded to him in the same fashion.


    ¡°I am not leaving here, Devon.¡± I put every ounce of my anger and control into those words and saw the moment that he was forced to back down. He was clearly overwhelmed by my power, and subsequently turned to look away from me in deference.


    ¡°Fine.¡± He growled angrily. He wasn¡¯t at all happy about being overruled by a girl that he considered to be a ¡®pup¡¯. I wasn¡¯t to be looked down upon though, and I was going to make that clear here and now.


    In truth, in that moment of power that I showed to Uncle Devon, even Andrew turned to look away from me as if he was overwhelmed by the intensity of my power. And neither of them were able to look me in the eye for a little while. For the next ten minutes or so, they both just looked at my left ear or somewhere over my head. They weren¡¯t able to bring their eyes to my face.


    I had seen this happen before. I had watched my dad do it, as well as other Alphas. It was the way the lower ranks showed their deference to their Alphas. I wasn¡¯t the Alpha here, but it was nice to know that I had the power to get my way with these men here. They weren¡¯t going to be forcing me out of this search any time soon. Nope, not at all.


    In a way, that feeling that I got, that sense of power, was better than anything that I had ever felt before. It was exhrating.

 Chapter 1104 - 1104 Chapter 89- Beech – Like Any Other Day Part 4 (VOLUME 6)

    1104 Chapter 89- Beech ¨C Like Any Other Day Part 4 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Beech


    ~~


    From the moment that Luka had seen this guy, the one that had the bombs in his bag, I had known that something was wrong. That something was off. Unlike Luka, I can¡¯t sense that many things about people. However, I am able to read a situation better than most people. I think that it is just a preternatural gift that was given to me by the heavens when I was born. I especially can read the situation when there are people that are exceptionally close to me.


    The more familiar that I am with the people that I am with, the more that I know about the current situation. And that meant that the moment that Luka, who I am with all the time and had grown up with, felt that something was wrong, I too felt that something was wrong.


    This gift of mine wasn¡¯t that amazing, but it helped me to stay on top of the way that people felt and what was going on. I always knew what it was that people needed, often before they even knew it for themselves. It also helped to establish me as a reliable and trustworthy person, which I didn¡¯t feel I deserved, because it was granted to me supernaturally.


    At the moment though, having been the one that reached the man first, I was the one that was needed and the one that was trying to help. I was asked to hold this man down, while my sister and I waited for the police and others from our extended family to arrive.


    While I was sad that my brother and sister were here, involved in all of this drama, I was d that na and Rowan weren¡¯t here today. They didn¡¯t have a ss today, neither of them did, and that meant that they had stayed home while the rest of us were here. This worked out better in my opinion. They weren¡¯t in danger at the moment.


    Speaking of danger, while I held this man down, who was still struggling vainly against my hold, I watched my sister walk off toward the fountain, toward where we usually sat. I knew that they had seen on the detonator device that the man had ced bombs over there. Ashle was over there to locate those bombs and to clear out the people in the area that hadn¡¯t been smart enough to leave when the others ran away screaming.


    .....


    There were bouts of panic and calmness that were spreading over the campus. Some people were running away scared when they were told that there were bombs on the campus, but the others thought that it was all a hoax, so after the hysterical of the civilians had fled, the others would roll their eyes and continue about their day. I didn¡¯t know why those people weren¡¯t listening and leaving the campus. What was it going to take for them to understand?


    I was trying to read too many situations at once. I was focusing on my sister as she told everyone that came near us that there were bombs on the campus and they needed to leave. She was also fielding questions about why I was pinning a man to the ground, and whether or not I was being too rough with him. I wasn¡¯t, of course, I wasn¡¯t doing anything other than holding the man down. His face was uncovered, and he was able to breathe. I was just restraining him until the police arrived.


    It felt like a lot of time was passing, but I knew that it was just the way that it seemed. The situation that we were in just felt like it was dragging by and that the police were taking a long time to get here. There was just so much going on that it was overwhelming and made it harder for my mind to process andprehend it all quickly.


    ¡°What the hell are you doing?¡± A voice called out behind me as I focused my attention on the situational acuity that was by my sister rather than that of the area near me. I had never heard this voice before, but I knew that it was an angry man. That was all that came to my mind.


    ¡°Huh?¡± I spun my head around, looking for the person that had spoken. He was closer to me than I would have liked, I had heard that much when he spoke. And when I looked around, I saw that the man was barely five feet from me.


    The person that I was looking at was wearing a uniform for the university. And he was definitely pissed off.


    ¡°I said, what the hell are you doing?¡± The man¡¯s voice was deep and came out as a rumble that wasn¡¯t far off from a growl.


    ¡°I am detaining this man until the police arrive.¡± I told him. ¡°They are on their way and will be here soon.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t call the police to the campus, dumbass.¡± The man took a step closer to me and cut the distance between us in half. ¡°You contact campus security and then we make the determination whether or not we need to call the police.¡± He was pissed that we had superseded his chain ofmand.


    ¡°My apologies, but this situation is beyond the ability of mere campus security. We made the decision to contact the proper authorities immediately. The gravity of the situation demanded such swift actions. The local police as well as the FBI are on their way as we speak.¡±


    ¡°Now listen here, boy.¡± The man stepped again, now he was standing immediately next to me, and I could feel the energy that was vibrating off of him. Granted, I had already been able to feel it. ¡°You don¡¯t get to make that decision. And, what is it that is so important that you had to call the FBI?¡± At this moment, sensing a possible friend rather than foe, the bomber that was pinned beneath my hands started to call out to him for help.


    ¡°Help me! This crazy asshole tackled me to the ground and won¡¯t let me up.¡±


    ¡°Is that so?¡± The security guard asked as he lowered his head toward me.


    ¡°He is wanted for terrorist crimes. He will be arrested by the FBI when they arrive.¡± I spoke calmly, not at all letting thisrge and beefy man think that he was intimidating me.


    ¡°How about you get up and let me deal with that man. I will take him to the security office.¡± The guard grabbed me by the arm and attempted to pull me to my feet.


    I knew that I needed to stay put, so I just applied a little more tension to my muscles. I wasn¡¯t heavy, but I wasn¡¯t a wispy thin man either. I was a wolf, and that meant that I was strong and powerful. I was also part Fae, and there could be epic tales written about the unmoving Fae. We are an obstinate people, and it shows in our attitudes and strength. Consequently, the guard wasn¡¯t able to move me any more than the man pinned to the ground had been able to.


    The current situation was not at all to the guard¡¯s liking. He narrowed his eyes and looked at me defiantly. He was angry that someone had dared to defy him and try to do his job at the same time. He definitely didn¡¯t like me all that much.


    ¡°What the hell, boy? Why aren¡¯t you moving when I pull you?¡±


    ¡°Because I don¡¯t wish to be moved.¡± I looked up at him calmly. ¡°I am sorry, Sir, but I am staying in this position until the police and FBI arrive. That is the order that was given to me by my cousin and the prince.¡± In truth, Reagan and I were rted, however distantly. We shared the same blood of the Fae.


    ¡°Prince? What fucking prince?¡± The guard demanded of me, not believing a word that I was saying.


    ¡°The prince of the wolves and magic users. He is my cousin, and because I am half wolf, he is son to one of the sovereigns that guide my life.¡± I was just speaking the truth, but the guard wasn¡¯t happy.


    ¡°Oh, so you¡¯re one of those people.¡± The guard rolled his eyes. ¡°Listen, I don¡¯t care whether you people are here or not, but just because you aren¡¯t human, doesn¡¯t mean that you can do my job.¡±


    ¡°Again, I was not intending to do such a thing, but there simply wasn¡¯t time to wait.¡± I told him as inly as I could. ¡°The situation was an emergency. And the proper authorities will be here soon. I can already hear their sirens in the distance.¡± I tilted my head as I heard them, but clearly the guard didn¡¯t hear anything yet.


    ¡°Yeah, right.¡± The man shook his head. ¡°Get off that kid, now.¡± He tried to move me again.


    ¡°No, I cannot do that.¡±


    ¡°Hey, look at that, I can hear the sirens now too.¡± This came from the man that had been silently filming the scene around us. He had been here from the beginning, but he hadn¡¯t said much of anything, so I had let him fade into the background and ignored him. He had, however, been filming my entire encounter with the guard.


    ¡°What?¡± The guard said as he lifted his head.


    ¡°Hey, Beech was it, does anyone ever call you radar? You knew they wereing before we did.¡±


    ¡°No, they do not.¡± I answered him honestly, then I realized that he was just lightheartedly joking with me. ¡°I am always around better radar machines though. Most of my friends are full blooded wolves, so they are true to that name.¡± I smiled. I knew that I was speaking awkwardly, but that was normal for me. I was always a little on the shy and awkward side.


    ¡°That¡¯s funny. I think I like your sense of humor. Also, if you¡¯re only half wolf, what is the other half?¡± He asked me, the camera of his phone pointed directly at me now.


    ¡°I am half Fae. My mother is a Fae, and my father is a wolf. I am a mixed breed, also called a hybrid. There are several hybrids like myself in the world, we do not mind the difference that it causes, because all life is precious and special.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s beautiful, man.¡± The camera guy smiled at me. ¡°My name is Jared, it¡¯s nice to meet you.¡±


    ¡°The feeling is mutual, Jared.¡± I nodded at him with a smile and felt a small jolt that coursed through me. This was the most socializing that I had done outside of the people that were in my typical inner circle, and it felt good. Really good.¡±


    ¡°Have you been filming this whole time?¡± The guard asked the guy, finally realizing that there was a phone in the man¡¯s hand.


    ¡°Yeah. And I am not stopping until the cops make me leave. Considering that they are pulling in now, I am going to guess that it will be soon.¡±


    I followed the camera man¡¯s line of sight and saw that he was right. There were half a dozen vehicles speeding into the half filled parking lot as they started to skid to a halt. When the others had made their calls, they had told the authorities exactly where we were located, so they knew where toe right away.


    This was a good thing. I wouldn¡¯t need to keep holding this criminal to the ground any longer, and I definitely would not need to worry about the security guard and his anger any longer either.


    I felt a surge of relief when I saw Rawlynne and Jacksoning up the sidewalk, followed quickly by Devon. I knew these people well, and had grown up with them as a part of my life. They were just the people that I wanted to see right now. And soon, when they finally got here, I would feel the same relief at seeing Aunt Trinity and Uncle Reece. Finally, things were going to be under control.

 Chapter 1105 - 1105 Chapter 90- Reagan – Like Any Other Day Part 5 (VOLUME 6)

    1105 Chapter 90- Reagan ¨C Like Any Other Day Part 5 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reagan


    ~~


    Luka and I were making our way toward the dormitory that had been indicated on the detonation device that the bomber had in his possession. We needed to get all of the bombs that he had ced in that building. I knew that we weren¡¯t supposed to touch them, and that we should leave them in ce, but I couldn¡¯t do that. Not with the fact that there were so many people in the building at the time. I couldn¡¯t let them get hurt like that. I needed to save them. I didn¡¯t want a single person getting hurt today. Not because of that man¡¯s hatred for me and my people.


    There was a problem that I knew that we would be facing though. A problem that I knew was going to stop Luka and I from getting into the building right away. And that would cost us precious time that we didn¡¯t have at the moment. And that problem presented itself in the form of a locked door that led into the building.


    The moment that Luka and I made it to the dormitory, we both started to pound on the door and alert the staff that we needed their attention right away. A security that was on duty came over and opened the door, but he blocked our way inside, clearly unnerved by us already.


    ¡°Can I help you, boys?¡± There was annoyance and suspicion that filled the guard¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°We need to get inside right now. And you need to evacuate the building.¡± I told him frantically.


    ¡°Excuse me?¡± He looked at me with narrowed eyes, clearly not willing to believe a word that I had to say.


    .....


    ¡°There are several bombs in the building. The FBI and local police are on their way, but we need you to get out of here immediately.¡±


    ¡°Look boys, this is not a matter to be joking around about. You can get into serious trouble by making these false ims.¡± He tried to dismiss us, he even started to turn away from us so that he could go back to his chair and newspaper that had been upying him.


    ¡°This isn¡¯t a joke.¡± I shouted at him. ¡°We¡¯ve already apprehended the suspect and collected six of the bombs that he had in his possession. He has nted some of the others here in this building. You need to evacuate everyone in the building and get them off of campus. Get them to the parking lots on the other side of the quad.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t do that. Not without directmunication from the police department. If what you¡¯re saying is true, then why haven¡¯t they contacted me yet?¡± He narrowed his eyes, and I knew right then and there that I would need to force my way past the man. And I truly didn¡¯t want to do anything that would be seen as violent, not with so many security cameras on the campus. Someone would get a hold of them and give them to the media. So far, the most violent thing that any of us had done today, was tackle the would-be bomber to the ground. And that wasn¡¯t all that violent, not in the grand scheme of things.


    ¡°Listen to me.¡± I started to plead with him again, but that was also when Luka spoke up. His voice was calming and almost hypnotic. When I looked at him, I saw that his eyes had turned red rather than gray. He was using some of histent abilities to get us inside the building.


    ¡°Sir, please listen to reason. There are several bombs hidden in your building. The residents that are living in this hall are in danger. The staff is in danger. You are in danger. We are not evil or bad men, we are just trying to help. We want to find the bombs and take them out of the building. We are working with the police. We have permission from Captain Devon Scott of the Colorado Springs Police Department, and from Rawlynne Otsana-Martin of the FBI. They themselves are on their way here at this very moment, as are King Reece and Queen Trinity of the shifter and magical worlds. This is a massive event that will affect the world. We are just trying to be of assistance. We do not wish to have anyone hurt today. We do not want anyone to be hurt, maimed, or to lose their lives. Please, I implore you to believe me.¡±


    The soothing and hypnotic notes that were in Luka¡¯s voice seemed to be lulling the guard into a sense of trust and understanding. His eyes had zed over for a few moments while Luka had spoken, but now they were back to being sharp and on edge.


    ¡°There are really bombs in the building?¡± He asked Luka, a state of disbelief coloring his voice.


    ¡°Yes, and we intend to find them. We can trace them by their scent. With our extraordinary senses and abilities, we are able to locate the dangerous devices. If you would just let us in, please, we will spare the building from any damage whatsoever.¡± He was still speaking in that hypnotic way.


    ¡°Alright then, get in here and find them.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, and please, while we are working on that, I would like you to evacuate the students and staff from the building.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I will.¡± The guard nodded and started to head off in the other direction. However, he must have thought of something and turned back. ¡°Here, my keys. Just in case you need to get into a locked room. They will get you into any room in the building aside from the dorms themselves. The bombs aren¡¯t in the dorms, are they?¡± A look of fear in his eyes as he asked that told me that he sincerely hoped that they weren¡¯t.


    ¡°I do not believe so. I think that they are in the maintenance rooms.¡± Actually, we knew for a fact that they were in those rooms. These were most likely the first ce that the bomber had started his bomb nting, and had the most clear and coherent indicators for these ces. I felt bad for Rika and Lyssa though, because at the end of the list, where thest of the bombs were located, the maniac¡¯s locations became less and less clear.


    Taking the guards keys, Luka and I started toward the stairs at the end of the hall while the guard went to find his colleague. They were going to work together to clear the building of the students and staff. I hoped that they got them all out, but there was no reason that Luka and I couldn¡¯t help them as well.


    As we ran, Luka and I pounded on all the doors that we could and shouted in our loudest voices.


    ¡°GET OUT! THERE ARE BOMBS IN THE BUILDING! THIS IS NOT A JOKE OR A TEST! GET OUT! GET OUT! SAVE YOURSELVES!¡± We shouted these words repeatedly as we moved throughout the building.


    When we got to the first of the maintenance rooms that had been indicated, we used the keys to open the door. It wasn¡¯t hard to see the bomb, as the dumbass had literally just sat it in the middle of the room in in sight.


    ¡°There it is.¡± I told Luka. ¡°I will take it outside and put it somewhere safe. You move onto the next floor. I will be back as soon as I can.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I got it.¡± He nodded and started up the stairs toward the next room and the next bomb. I, on the other hand, headed back down the stairs toward the door and the day outside. I needed to make sure that there was no one able to get to these bombs while I was inside with Luka looking for the other bombs.


    Knowing what needed to be done, and having had lessons in magic that I could draw upon, I pulled magic toward me and made a barrier. This was an almost visible barrier that the others could see around me, but they weren¡¯t able to move in that area. Subconsciously, they should just avoid the area altogether.


    While I was outside, I saw the students that had exited the building recently. They were all looking back at the building with bewildered and confused faces. They weren¡¯t leaving though, and that was bad. They weren¡¯t safe there. They needed to get away from all the school buildings. All of them.


    ¡°MOVE IT!¡± I shouted at them. ¡°THERE ARE BOMBS IN THERE! THERE IS ONE RIGHT HERE, DAMMIT! GET OUT OF HERE!¡± I shouted at them, letting the full gravity of the situation fill my voice so that they could see that all of this was real and not just an evacuation drill for them. ¡°GO!¡±


    Finally, something about the way that I had spoken or the urgency in my voice had them all running. All of the people started to flee the scene, some of them screaming. I knew that I had scared them, but I needed them to be scared. I needed them to get to safety as soon as possible.


    When the students that were leaving the building now saw the others leaving, a lot of them screaming, they started to panic as well. They started to scream or cry out in fear and they hurriedly ran away.


    As I was running back into the building, I saw Lukaing down the stairs with another bomb. He was getting it out to safety, just like I had done.


    ¡°Put it there, in the barrier.¡± I told him, knowing that I had set it for him to be able to enter the area as well.


    ¡°Got it.¡± He said as he tossed the keys to me. ¡°Go get the next one.¡±


    ¡°Already on my way.¡± I told him as I caught the keys while running.


    We moved in this fashion for a little while, getting the bombs from all the floors and taking them outside. We told the students and staff to flee and get to the parking lots, and continued to work. The security guards, seeing the proof of what we had told them, had no more lingering doubts in their minds. And they didn¡¯t leave the building until they were reasonably sure that there were no more students left inside.


    After all the maintenance rooms were checked, Luka and I did one more search of the building. Most of the dorm rooms had been left open when the students had left them, so we were able to do a cursory check of them before moving on. For the doors that were closed, we just had to use our noses to see if we could smell any of the explosives on the other side. If we had been able to smell them, then we would break the door down and check for the bombs in there.


    In fact, there was only one room that smelled like the bombs, other than the storage rooms. And that was a single room on an upper floor. The room reeked of the bombs, and of the scent of the bomber. This was his room. He had stored those bombs in here until it was time to nt them around the campus.


    I made a note of the room number and left with Luka to the next location on the list. I knew that the police and FBI were here already, and that they would being to find us sometime soon. This situation that was so much more than just the two of us was about to be handed over to the people that were trained to handle it all. I knew that, and I epted that. I would return to the parking lot when I was asked to, and once I was there, I would talk to my parents about what had been happening here today. From there, I would work with them to do what needed to be done.

 Chapter 1106 - 1106 Chapter 91- Trinity – Like Any Other Day Part 6 (VOLUME 6)

    1106 Chapter 91- Trinity ¨C Like Any Other Day Part 6 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It wasn¡¯t long after the kids all left for school when this day had started to change. Reece and I, who had been working on trying to figure out more and more information on the nefarious people that were working against us, had never expected this to happen at all. I just couldn¡¯t believe it when I heard the news.


    Reece and I were in my office, the hub of all the activity whenever something major was happening in our world. Shawn, Dietrich, Shane, David, Vincent and Gabriel were all in there with us, as was also expected. They were the guards that had been with me since the beginning as well as the two most trusted people that hade along since Reece and I had met. They were the ones that I trusted the most, and I was forever thankful and appreciative of them.


    We were working on narrowing down a center of operations on the domestic terrorist group that was bombing various ces all over the country. They were targeting either our people, or people that openly supported us and protected us. They were hate groups that wanted to see only the pure humans ruling the world. Not that Reece and I ruled the world, it wasn¡¯t like that at all.


    We had discovered that the hub of this group was probably somewhere semi close to where we are now. They would want to be close to where the leaders of their enemies were, so that they could more easilyunch arge-scale attack against us. Still, we hadn¡¯t been able to narrow down where they were, or who they were.


    Yes, we knew the name of their outfit, they were the DOE. That didn¡¯t help us though, because for all that we could find, the DOE hadn¡¯t existed until Reece and I had revealed our people to the world. This was a new group, a new entity, that took shape for one sole purpose. And that purpose was the elimination of our people.


    That left us wondering whether or not they were abination of the other groups that had already existed, like PAWs? Or were they entirely new? We knew that more than seventy-five percent of the group PAWs had been apprehended. They were arrested after the attack on the stadium the day of the reveal. Their leaders, still proiming innocence, were locked in cells and awaiting their trials for terrorism.


    .....


    We had done a lot of research on these people, hours and hours, days and weeks¡¯ worth of it, not just since we had met Odin, but since it all began, and we were still nowhere near finding out who they were. We needed help. We needed someone that was on the inside, but there was no way to get a mole in there if we didn¡¯t know where they were.


    We weren¡¯t that deep into work, having only been at it for at most a half an hour. That was when we got a phone call, one that we hadn¡¯t been expecting.


    ¡°Rika?¡± I asked her as I answered the phone. The moment that I pressed the phone to my ear I sensed a dread and panic that hadn¡¯t been there before.


    ¡°Mom, we need you and Dad at the campus. And everyone else too.¡±


    ¡°What happened? What is going on?¡± There was an instantaneous tremor that went through the room. The others had heard the note of rm in Rika¡¯s voice and the resulting unease on my own.


    ¡°Th..there is a guy here. We have him pinned so he can¡¯t get away, b..b..but he had bombs. He had some on him, but he already put a lot of them around the school. We are going to look for the bombs. Reagan is calling Aunt Rawlynne already, and Levi is calling Uncle Devon.¡±


    ¡°Hold tight, Rika, we will be there soon. Don¡¯t do anything rash.¡±


    ¡°We will be fine, mom. We will see you when you get here.¡± I heard her voice. It was firm and not at all scared. Even when she stuttered earlier, I knew that it wasn¡¯t from fear. It was from the surge of adrenaline and energy that was coursing through her. Rika was strong, and definitely brave.


    ¡°Stay put, Rika. We will be there soon.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. See you soon.¡± She ended the call then, and I just knew that she wasn¡¯t going to be where she was right now when I got there. She wasn¡¯t going to stay put. She was going to go in search of those bombs. She was stubborn and thick headed at times, so I knew exactly what it was that she was going to do here. And, honestly, I wasn¡¯t even upset about it. This just showed me how proud I should be of her. She would always do what she thought was right, and she wouldn¡¯t let anything stop her. Determination would take her a long way in life.


    ¡°Trinity?¡± Reece called out to me. ¡°I didn¡¯t quite catch all of that. What is going on?¡± They had heard the sounds of the voices, but they hadn¡¯t caught all the words because my volume was nowhere near all the way up.


    ¡°There is a bomber at the university. The kids have apprehended him, but there are bombs nted in the buildings.¡± I was already on the move. I knew that I needed to get to the school as soon as I could.


    ¡°Wait, what?¡± Reece was on his feet now, calling after me. ¡°Did I just hear you properly?¡± he yelled after me.


    ¡°If you heard me say that there was a bomber at the university, then yes. We need to hurry,e on.¡±


    ¡°Wait just a moment, Trinity. How many bombs? Have they found them, or only suspect them? And we need to call Rawlynne and Devon. They need to know about this as well.¡±


    ¡°They already know.¡± I told him as I spun on my heels. ¡°They called them already. The kids are really on top of things right now. Hurry up and get moving. I want to be there as soon as possible.¡±


    ¡°Wait just a moment, Trinity. Please.¡± Vincent called out to me.


    ¡°What is it, Vincent?¡± I asked him as I spun to face the room once more.


    ¡°You need to get dressed.¡± He pointed it out to me. ¡°You aren¡¯t ready to leave the house just yet. And we can travel there via door once you are ready. Shane, David, the two of you can take an SUV to the school, just in case we need to have another mode of transportation when we get there.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, sure thing.¡± Shane nodded his head at Vincent¡¯s words. He was my Beta and second inmand after all, so he knew what he was doing. ¡°Trinity, once you and Reece are ready, the rest of us will head out. I will gather some materials that I think are necessary, and Gabriel will alert the staff of what is going on. Does that sound agreeable to you?¡± I hated that he was making light of all the things that I had forgotten in the heat of the moment.


    ¡°Yes, that is fine.¡± I nodded and made a door to my room. ¡°Reece,e on. Once we are ready, we will meet everyone back here in my office.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± Vincent nodded at me as Reece ran through the door to the room.


    Vincent was right. I hadn¡¯t gotten dressed this morning. Not really. The baby was making me feel ufortable at the moment, so I had preferred to stay in myfortable clothing. Now that I was heading to the university, and would be in the public eye, I needed to dress more modestly and professionally. Dammit.


    Reece and I dressed as quickly as possible. He had been dressed, but he put on a more professional looking suit as quickly as he could. Mostly, he hade along with me because I needed help buttoning or zipping whatever it was that I had chosen to wear. And since I was acting in an official capacity, it needed to be a nicer outfit for the time being. Ugh, that wasn¡¯t a pleasant thought, but I understood the reason so I dealt with it how I needed to.


    It took no more than five minutes or so for Reece and I to get dressed. After that we headed back down to my office, via magic door. I needed to take as little time as possible right now. There wasn¡¯t much time to waste here, and we had already wasted enough of it.


    It took three more minutes to get everyone to the office and ready to go. Vincent had gathered firearms, the PI badges that we all had, and our conceal carry permits that were given special exceptions for people acting in a legal capacity. He was trying to make sure that we were going as by the book as possible, and I loved him for that. He was an amazing help to me at all times.


    Secondster I stepped through the door with Reece, Vincent, Gabriel, Shawn and Dietrich. The others wereing by car and would be there at any moment. We had arrived near the front of the university, but that was a bit of a problem. I didn¡¯t know where themotion was taking ce, because I never got that information out of Rika.


    It wasn¡¯t hard to find it though. All that we had to do was follow the sound of the screams and the shouting and we were able to find out where the situation was taking ce. Then again, there was shouting all over the campus because of people fleeing the buildings.


    After the screams, I heard the sound of the sirens, and I noticed that they were near the parking lot that we usually dropped Reagan and Rika off at. When we actually drove them here, that is. Of course, that is where it would be taking ce. They hadn¡¯t even had the time to get to their first ss, they had barely even left the parking lot.


    Reece and I weren¡¯t the only ones that were running frantically when we knew where to go. Shawn and Dietrich, who also had kids here at the campus, were in a hurry to get to their kids and make sure that they were safe. They actually had twice as many kids, so they had more of a need to get to their kids than Reece and I did. It was only marginally more, but it was still there, at least in my mind.


    When we arrived at the parking lot, I saw that Devon and Rawlynne were just walking onto the scene. When I looked across the area, to where they were walking, I saw that Beech was kneeling on a man and holding him in ce. And behind him, Ashle was directing the panicked and frantic students where to go.

 Chapter 1107 - 1107 Chapter 92- Trinity – Like Any Other Day Part 7 (VOLUME 6)

    1107 Chapter 92- Trinity ¨C Like Any Other Day Part 7 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I ran, as fast as myrge baby belly would allow me to, until I got to where the others were. I saw the moment that Beech knew that we were there, and the relief that washed over him. He was d to be done with ying guard duty. He was looking ufortable and out of sorts, like he usually did when he had to interact with a lot of people that he didn¡¯t know. He was a shy boy, and often didn¡¯tmunicate well.


    ¡°Where are the others?¡± I asked the moment that we were all close enough to speak.


    ¡°They are searching for the bombs and evacuating the campus. They are doing their best, Aunt Trinity.¡±


    ¡°I know they are.¡± I looked at the buildings in the distance. ¡°We can take over from here though. We will get them and disarm the bombs.¡±


    ¡°I have a bomb squad on the way.¡± Devon said immediately. ¡°They will be here in just a few moments.¡±


    ¡°Ours has an ETA of approximately three minutes.¡± Rawlynne added. ¡°Having both teams working at the same time will be for the best.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Agreed.¡± Neither Devon nor Rawlynne fought over jurisdiction at the moment. They both knew that, given the circumstances, Rawlynne could overrule Devon and take over, but that would alienate half of thew enforcement agents that were here, and we needed them to work together.


    ¡°Well, whether the squads are here yet or not, we need to get the kids out of there and over here.¡± I told them. ¡°I want them all safe, just in case the bombs start going off.¡±


    ¡°Aunt Trinity?¡± Beech, still kneeling on the man, called out to me.


    ¡°I will take that suspect Beech, you can get up now.¡± Devon told him, wanting to relieve the boy of his burden.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Beech nodded at him and rose to his feet, pulling the bombing suspect with him. ¡°Now, Aunt Trinity, the others are searching for the bombs because they know where they are. Well, roughly.¡± It was at that moment when Beech indicated the device that was still on the ground. ¡°The suspect made a note of where he put bombs that he nted. However, he only listed thirty-nine locations, and he had six more bombs on him.¡± He grabbed a duffle bag that did indeed have more bombs in it. ¡°We don¡¯t know if he had more than the forty-five bombs though, because this device has room for fifty charges.¡± He, like the twins, had sat through the lessons on bombs that Torin had taught them justst week. Man, I am d that we brought someone in to show us what to look for. That was likely what saved the day here.


    ¡°We will thoroughly search the school, Beech, there is nothing to worry about.¡± Rawlynne told him calmly. ¡°Why don¡¯t you and Ashle go have a seat in the parking lot. We will search the school and make sure everyone is safe.¡±


    ¡°Who is that?¡± Devon asked as he saw another man standing nearby. Actually, he was a boy about Beech¡¯s age. I had a hard time seeing eighteen and neen year olds as anything more than just kids still, even if I had told myself a million times that they were adults and deserved respect. It was just a hard thing to get through my head at times like this.


    ¡°Oh, that is Jared. He is a human and he has witnessed everything that happened here in the quad since it started several minutes ago. In fact, he had filmed it all.¡± I noticed that Beech was speaking stiffly, like he usually did in public and ufortable situations. He was reaching his socialization limit for the day.


    ¡°Well, Jared, I appreciate you sticking around and making sure that nothing happened to Beech here, but please let us handle things from here. If you wouldn¡¯t mind going over there and giving your story to an officer, that would be much appreciated.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, sure thing. Take care, Beech.¡± Jared waved at him before walking away. He had continued to film even while Devon and Rawlynne were talking. He had gotten a lot of video and evidence of us, and I hoped that none of it was negative.


    Things started to move quickly. Devon, Rawlynne and several other agents and officers started to make their way onto the campus. There were some bombs that were close by, being monitored by an officer that was waiting for the bomb squad. The others were looking for the kids, doing more evacuating and searching for bombs.


    I think that a lot of people were feeling more confident about this day with the fact that the detonator was in our possession, but that isn¡¯t to say that this wasn¡¯t a decoy and that there wasn¡¯t another device nearby that could be used to set off the bombs. Not only that, but other frequencies, like cell phones, could be used to set off the bombs. There was just no telling when all the danger would be over with.


    While the others were searching the campus, Reece and I started to talk to the suspect. He refused to give his name and would only say the same things over and over again.


    ¡°YOU ARE ABOMINATIONS! YOU ARE NOT WORTHY TO WALK THIS PLANET! YOU ALL DESERVE TO DIE! YOU MONSTERS BROUGHT THIS ON YOURSELVES! ONE DAY SOON, JUSTICE SHALL PREVAIL AT THE HANDS OF THE COLONEL!¡±


    The words, while not at all cryptic, were still a mystery to us. How had we brought this upon ourselves? It was this man and his evilness that had decided to try to hurt innocent people. And we didn¡¯t know who this colonel was, so that didn¡¯t make sense to us at all. He was more or less, just a ranting lunatic at this point. Later though, when we were at the FBI office with Rawlynne, Reece and I would interview this man and work out of him who it was that he was working for.


    Reagan and Luka were the first to make it back to us. Levi and Cypress were next, along with a lot of the staff that were in the administration building. After them, Alexandra and Elias came walking in with a lot more students that had needed to evacuate. However, Rika and Alyssa still weren¡¯t here. They hadn¡¯t made it back to us yet.


    I was starting to get a little antsy and worried. Where were they? Why weren¡¯t they here by now? What could have happened? Had they even found her yet? So many questions and no answers for them at all.


    More and more of our people showed up to help as the minutes ticked by. Noah, Juniper, Paul, Cedar, Griffin, Lena, Trevor, Landon, Falina, Dad, Athair m¨°r, M¨®ra¨ª and Grandfather. They were all going to be helpful in mitigating these tough times. We needed to be careful that we didn¡¯t let anything bad happen to the students, and we needed to make sure that they were all OK, mentally and physically.


    The bomb squads were working their way through the locations that had confirmed bombs. They were disconnecting the charges from the explosives in as quick of a manner as possible. I heard from them that it was best that these were all simple and small devices, because it made deactivating them a lot easier than it could have been.


    Apparently, the bombs weren¡¯t very powerful, but the sheer number of them would have done massive damage to the campus. And the fact that several of them were found in one building, all in rooms that were stacked directly on top of each other, meant that the entire building could have copsed, with all the stress that it would have put on the structure when they detonated. Even if they were detonated one at a time, it could have been catastrophic.


    Finally, after thest of the bombs had been confirmed as found and they were just doing a final sweep of the campus, to make sure that there were no other devices that were unounted for, Rika and Alyssa came walking toward us with Devon and another detective, Andrew Masterson.


    ¡°Where have you been?¡± I scolded Rika the moment that I saw her. I knew that I shouldn¡¯t have yelled at her, but I was so worried and scared for her that I just couldn¡¯t help it.


    ¡°We were helping.¡± Rika said in a tone that implied that she didn¡¯t see a problem at all.


    ¡°I told you not to leave this spot, but yet when I got here you were nowhere to be seen.¡± My fear for her safety, so long unconfirmed, had left me feeling frazzled and scared. I also knew that a lot of this was the surging hormones inside of my pregnant body, they were making all the fears and worries worse.


    ¡°I was helping, Mom, that is what I am supposed to do.¡± Once again, Rika spoke as if there was no problem at all.


    ¡°You are my daughter, and your first job is to stay safe.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t do that Mom, my responsibilities lie with the people more than myself. I need to protect them.¡±


    ¡°Rika, I-.¡± I started to scold her again, but Reece put a hand on my shoulder to stop me.


    ¡°That is good of you, Rika. You have your heart in the right ce, and I know that you care a lot about your people. We will not fault you for that. It is just that your mother and I were worried about you. We were scared that something happened to you. It is possible that this man was not working alone. So, we started to fear that someone had gotten to you and Alyssa. That is all, sweetheart. That is what your mother is trying to tell you.¡±


    ¡°I know, Dad.¡± Rika nodded at him. ¡°I don¡¯t me Mom for being upset at all. She has a lot on her te, and she is dealing with all the hormones. That is not an easy thing to do. I am sorry for worrying the two of you though, that was not my intention. I just refused when Andrew and Uncle Devon told me toe back. I would not give up on the search. This is my school, my campus, my fellow students and friends. I couldn¡¯t let them get hurt. Not on my watch.¡±


    There was a power and heat that was radiating off of Rika at that moment. I knew that she was a good kid, and this was just another prime example of that. She was showing me right now that she was thinking about all the other students, human and supernatural alike. She was making sure that they were all out safe and that everyst bomb was found.


    ¡°I am sorry for yelling, Rika.¡± I felt horrible now. I hadn¡¯t intended to upset her, or anyone else. ¡°I was just so worried about you. And I know that Shawn and Dietrich were just as worried about Alyssa.¡± I said as I watched the two men in question embrace their daughter with all their love and strength.


    ¡°I know, Mom. I really do. And I am not upset at all. I know that you had a reason to be upset, but I made a decision to not stop. And I made Devon listen to me.¡±


    ¡°You made him?¡± Reece raised a brow and looked from Rika to Devon.


    ¡°Yes, she used her connection to you to overpower me.¡± Devon was blushing just a little. ¡°It was almost like a-.¡±


    ¡°Dominance?¡± Reece finished for him.


    ¡°Yeah, almost exactly like that.¡±


    ¡°Hmm.¡± Reece seemed to think about something but he didn¡¯t say anything else on the subject.


    ¡°I think that most of us can leave here. The students have been questioned while we searched the school, and most of them are being sent home. The campus is going to be closed for the next week to be on the safe side. Trinity, if you and Reece can join us at the office, I would appreciate it. The rest of you,¡± she primarily looked at the kids around us, ¡°you can all go home.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sure thing.¡± I nodded at her in agreement. ¡°Shawn, Dietrich, you can take your kids home and do whatever you need to. Shane, can you drive everyone else home?¡± I asked him, thanking Vincent with my eyes for having thought ahead and sending the SUV to the campus. Remembering Vincent though, I had one more thing to say. ¡°Vincent, you cane with us, if you don¡¯t mind.¡±


    ¡°Will do, Trinity.¡± Shane spoke calmly, even jovially while Vincent just nodded and smiled at me. ¡°We will keep everyone safe at home until you get back.¡± I knew that Shane was speaking in code. He was saying that they wouldn¡¯t let Reagan and Rika out of their sights until we got home. He was right in thinking that I wanted the kids to stay home, all of them. And they would likely be heading over to the other school to pick them up on the way home. Then again, they would need to make a separate trip, there wasn¡¯t enough room in the one car.


    Then again, it was past midday now, so it wasn¡¯t all that early for the kids to be getting out of school. They had at most an hour or so left in their day. Still, I wanted them all home and safe until Reece and I got back.

 Chapter 1108 - 1108 Chapter 93- Trinity – Interrogations Part 1 (VOLUME 6)

    1108 Chapter 93- Trinity ¨C Interrogations Part 1 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Vincent, Reece, and I went with Rawlynne and Devon to the FBI office. I knew why we were all going there. We were going to be interrogating the suspect and finding out what it was that he had done and why. And with Vincent along with us, we would have one of the living lie detectors with us. He wouldn¡¯t be able to lie to us.


    Thinking about lies made me remember this morning and the things that Zaley had said to us. She had said that she knew Reece and I were lying. And technically, we hadn¡¯t lied. Nothing had happened, nothing that was real anyway. Reece and I had just visited a God in the celestial realm, that was all. It wasn¡¯t really a lie, but she imed that it was. How had she known that we were hiding something from her and the others? We would have to talk about that allter, when Reece and I were done here.


    The suspect was taken to be booked by Jackson and Melita. The husband and wife duo was going to make sure that the asshole didn¡¯t get away with anything while Rawlynne and I talked with the others in her office. There had already been a lot that had happened today, and the day wasn¡¯t over yet. I just knew that, by the time that I got hometer, I was going to be exhausted. That was the benefit of being pregnant and busy.


    ¡°Trinity, did you or anyone else know that another attack wasing? There was no word at all about this?¡± She asked me about this in a tone that was disbelieving, and I knew why. For thest three bombings, no matter how small it was, we had gotten a tip from someone that called on a secure line. The number was blocked on the IDs for the phone, and it was untraceable. He never stayed on the line more than ten seconds, and that was not enough time to track a call. Still, he had called in and warned us before, but not this time.


    ¡°No.¡± I told her honestly as I thought about the warnings before. Maybe those had been a way to distract us and make us feelcent. Maybe they wanted us to rely on those warnings so that we wouldn¡¯t actively search for more bombs and bombers. That wasn¡¯t the case though, we were still trying to find the people responsible for all of this. We were hunting the DOE.


    ¡°So, no one called about this one. Do you think that they are part of the DOE, or are they another group entirely? Do we have another enemy to be worried about?¡±


    .....


    ¡°If I may?¡± Vincent spoke up, leaning forward in his chair as he faced Rawlynne.


    ¡°Go ahead, Vincent.¡± Rawlynne respected Vincent and appreciated his insights.


    ¡°The way the suspect has thus far behaved, and the initial impressions that the others had in his dorm room, and taking into ount the increasingly incoherent ways the manbeled the detonator, that all leads me to think that this man was acting alone. He is a man that feels like an outsider. Now, if he is a part of arger group, he likely feels alone and isted in that group. It seems to me that he was targeting people that he felt wronged him as well as the super naturals. He didn¡¯t seem to have a purpose here, other than being seen. Other than that, he was very sloppy and incoherent.¡±


    ¡°I agree.¡± Devon said as he stepped forward and nted a hip on Rawlynne¡¯s desk. ¡°Whoever this guy is, he is seeking attention. Maybe not ours, but someone¡¯s.¡±


    ¡°The Colonel¡¯s.¡± I said as I remembered some of his ramblings.


    ¡°Who?¡± More than one voice asked me in confusion.


    ¡°When he was being questioned earlier,¡± Reece took up the conversation. ¡°He mentioned someone that he referred to as the Colonel. It was someone that he seemed to have a lot of respect and regard for. If he is trying to impress someone, then it would be the Colonel.¡±


    ¡°So, is he in the military? Was this Colonel in the military? Are we looking for a connection to one or more of the armed forces?¡± There was a level of unease on Rawlynne¡¯s face at that. If these people were military, or even ex-military, then they would be very dangerous. And they might have ess to some weapons that would hurt a lot of people.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but we can find out.¡± Devon rose to his feet. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s not dy. Let¡¯s give our little attention seeker something that he so desperately wants.¡± His eyes were hard and narrowed, little slits of anger that would scare most normal people. Good thing none of us here were normal people.


    We made our way to the holding cell that the suspect was in. He hadn¡¯t yet told us his name, but we had recovered his identification from him when he was taken into custody. And while we were talking in Rawlynne¡¯s office, Jackson and Melita had prepared a small but thorough file on the man. Jackson¡¯s information gathering skills were second to none because of his added ability.


    The man that had attempted to bomb the school was named Gerald Ramie. He was twenty years old. His height was listed as six feet one inch, but that was definitely wrong. He was no taller than five foot ten. He had dark brown hair, normal looking brown eyes, an ordinary face. There was nothing at all that was extraordinary about him, other than his capacity for evil and anger. He was exceptionally filled with both of those.


    There was also something that said the man had returned a weekte for the new semester¡¯s sses, and that he hadn¡¯t stayed in his dorm over the break like he had initially intended to. The man was an only child whose mother passed away when he was seventeen. He didn¡¯t get along well with his father, and therefore didn¡¯t like going home. He was usually a background type of person. The kind that would fade into the background and go unnoticed if he didn¡¯t draw attention to himself.


    Well, Gerald Ramie had drawn attention to himself. Not just today, but on several other asions. He had severalints about him from girls at the campus. He was said to be creepy and stalkerish to the girls that he liked. They had to fileints to make him leave them alone. And I am guessing that these girls were at least a few of the delusional man¡¯s targets today. Remembering what Rika had said to Devon about the girls that were near the one bomb. They always frequented that location and were as regr in their schedule as it was possible to be.


    There was also a report from Gerald¡¯s English professor fromst semester. Apparently, Gerald had turned in an assignment that was more akin to the psychobabble of a sycophant on the verge of true cultist assimtion, that or the beginnings of a manifesto from a serial killer that wanted to change the world for the better. And this came before the reveal. He was unstable, and the professor suggested that he seek professional help.


    As it turns out, Gerald didn¡¯t take well to the words from the good professor, and he ended up putting his fist through the professor¡¯s office window. No one was hurt, not even Gerald, but the event had sufficiently scared the professor. Enough so that he refused to ever have him in his ss again.


    Now, with all the info on the bomber taken in, it was time for us to begin our questioning. He would answer our questions, and hopefully soon. The five of us entered the interrogation room, seeking to ask the questions that we needed the answers to the most.


    ¡°Good afternoon, Gerald.¡± I addressed him calmly and saw him flinch. It was either because I wasn¡¯t human, or because I used his name. He didn¡¯t speak though, he just looked at the table in front of him. ¡°I¡¯d like to talk to you, if you don¡¯t mind, Gerald.¡± I used his name again, and it was only there that he flinched, not just when I spoke to him. Yes, he was scared because we knew his name.


    ¡°You know something that I can deduce from the information that we have on you, Gerald?¡± I told him as I leaned forward. I don¡¯t know how I knew this fact about him, but I was going to use it anyway.


    ¡°What?¡± He practically spat the word at me.


    ¡°You are a member of that terrorist group, the PAWs. Isn¡¯t that right?¡± The other four looked at me like I was growing an extra head, but at the same time, Gerald looked a little more toward my eyes.


    ¡°Yeah, so what? They were all arrested. There were hardly any of us left.¡± He confirmed what I suspected.


    ¡°And after the PAWs, did you join the DOE?¡±


    ¡°Fuck you!¡± He spat at me, this time with actual phlegm. I didn¡¯t let it get close to me before I flung it away with magic.


    ¡°I take that as a yes. So, is this Colonel that you mentioned earlier the leader of the DOE?¡±


    ¡°Go to hell!¡± He spat once more, but without the loogie that had been in thest one. Thankfully.


    ¡°Another yes.¡± I nodded. ¡°You are being so helpful, Gerald.¡± He flinched once more. He hated me using his name, that was easy to see. ¡°You see Gerald, we want to talk to your Colonel. We want to know why he is attacking all of these ces.¡±


    ¡°WHY!?¡± He screamed at me. ¡°BECAUSE YOU MONSTERS ALL DESERVE TO DIE!¡± He was trying to stand, but he was cuffed to the chair and that didn¡¯t allow him to stand up.


    ¡°We are not monsters, Gerald. We are just people.¡±


    ¡°LIES!¡± He bellowed and attempted to cover his ears.


    ¡°Gerald?¡± Reece called out to him. ¡°Were there only forty-five bombs? Or were there fifty? Are there still some that are hidden somewhere?¡±


    ¡°Oh, you will never find them all.¡± Gerald grinned as he taunted Reece.


    ¡°He¡¯s lying.¡± Vincent said matter-of-factly.


    ¡°I AM NOT! I HAD FIFTY BOMBS!¡±


    ¡°Another lie. There are only those forty-five, I am sure of it.¡± Vincent sounded relieved.


    ¡°Do not call me a liar.¡± The man said. ¡°I will put you all in your ce when the other bombs explode tonight. They are on timers.¡±


    ¡°Lie.¡± Vincent said. ¡°You cannot get anything past me. I can see when you are lying.¡± The look that fell onto Gerald¡¯s face at that was one of pure fear.


    ¡°Impossible.¡±


    ¡°Quite possible. I was blessed by the Gods and granted certain abilities. You cannot lie to me. Now, I suggest you tell the truth, Gerald Ramie. We do not have all night.¡±


    ¡°I REFUSE TO SPEAK TO ANY OF YOU ANYMORE!¡± Gerald screamed and shut his mouth.


    ¡°You need to talk to us, Gerald. How else are we going to know why you did what you did? You don¡¯t want to know what the news will say about you if you don¡¯t talk. If you don¡¯t give your side of the story, then you will be dragged through the mud so much. I am sure that not even you want that to happen.¡± The man just looked at me, tight lipped. He was refusing to speak to me.


    I wasn¡¯t going to give up though. I knew that, one way or another, this man would talk to us. If we had to bring Juniper in here to make him talk or not, he was going to speak to us. He was going to tell us what he knew. And, hopefully, that information would lead us to the people that he was working with. There had to be someone, even if he was acting alone today, he hadn¡¯t gotten all those materials on his own. He had help somewhere, from someone.

 Chapter 1109 - 1109 Chapter 94- Trinity – Interrogations Part 2 (VOLUME 6)

    1109 Chapter 94- Trinity ¨C Interrogations Part 2 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I spent another thirty minutes talking to the man that was sitting in the holding room. I asked him repeatedly about the people that had helped him with these bombs. Where had he got the materials to make them? Why was he targeting the school? Who was he working with? Where their headquarters were? And so many more.


    I asked him all of these questions multiple times, but he still refused to speak. He was tight lipped and kept silent. That isn¡¯t to say that he was just brave enough to not speak. He was scared, that was easy to tell. And the more that we revealed that we knew about him, the more scared that he seemed to be.


    It just didn¡¯t matter though. Even with all that I had been able to deduce about him already, he still wasn¡¯t speaking. I knew that I needed a break though. I needed to get out of that room. I needed a breather before I went back to talking to that man.


    Even though I left the holding room, I didn¡¯t go far. I went to the observation room that was just on the other side of the wall. There was, of course, a two way mirror that connected the room. I would be able to see into the holding room still, but Gerald Ramie wouldn¡¯t be able to see me. I liked it that way. I wanted to make sure that I kept my eyes on him, even if I wasn¡¯t the one that was interviewing him at the moment.


    Reece didn¡¯t leave with me. And neither did Vincent. Rawlynne did, though. She also needed a break from that stalwart ass clown of a man. He was just so frustrating to deal with that neither of us wanted to be around him any longer.


    As we watched from the observation room, I saw Reece begin to talk to the suspect while Vincent and Devon watched on from the back wall. In all honesty, Vincent and Devon, being on the same wall as the mirror, almost felt like they were right next to Rawlynne and myself.


    .....


    What was strange though, was the tone that Reece took when he started to speak to that suspect. It was almost as if he was giving the man a chance to show that he was right. He sounded almost understanding, if that made any sense at all. What was he doing? What was happening?


    And what was even stranger, was that it seemed to be working. The man was almost instantly less guarded as he heard Reece¡¯s voice.


    ¡°I am sorry about that, you¡¯re probably a little overwhelmed right now.¡± He was sounding almost as if he was sorry about me and my interrogation tactics, yet I had seen him go harder at a suspect before. He was not usually known as a gentile when it came to interrogations.


    ¡°That woman is really your wife?¡± The man spoke in a soft and barely there voice. It was as if he knew that I was listening in on him and Reece, and he didn¡¯t want to let me hear him.


    ¡°Yes, that is my Trinity. She can be a bit brash at times.¡±


    ¡°That is an understatement.¡± The man spoke again, this time his voice was a little louder, and rising until it was normal with each word that passed through his lips. ¡°Women should not be allowed to do things like that. They do not have the right to question men. They belong at home, caring for children and making meals.¡±


    OH! MY! FUCKING! GODDESS! Did I just hear that man correctly? I am not really sure if I did. I mean, if that man said what I think he just did, then the term ass clown was entirely too meek for him. He needed something worse, something more intense, but I just couldn¡¯t think of something just yet. I would though, when the time was right, I would find the proper insult for him.


    ¡°Yeah, I agree.¡± Vincent said in a tough guy voice. ¡°It¡¯s hard having to see women in power.¡± He was such a bad liar that I knew the asshole had to have seen right through him. However, it appeared that the man was as blind as he was stupid, because he didn¡¯t notice how tant that lie wasing from Vincent.


    Finally, I understood what Reece and Vincent were doing here. They had seen, during the time that I had attempted to interview the man, that he was not going to speak to me, mainly because I was a woman. He was a pig as well as an asshole. No, that was insulting, pigs were better than him. Unless he was just a particrly nasty part of a pig, that would count for him.


    ¡°I feel sorry for you men. Having so many women around you that are in such powerful positions. It isn¡¯t right, but you three have to deal with it every single day. You should fight back. You should be more like us and fight against the injustices of the world.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but I fear that your group would have a thing or two against us.¡± Reece joked with augh.


    ¡°Yes, they would. And it won¡¯t be long before you perish. All the more reason for you three to stand up for yourselves now. You should make thest of your time worthwhile. I mean, you don¡¯t want to die while being a ve to a dumb bitch, do you?¡±


    I could see a twitch in Reece¡¯s shoulders, a tightness in his lips that was unmistakable. He was pissed. That was obvious. He was angry at the man that was saying such rude things about his mate, but he had to just grin and bear it, if he was going to get this man to speak to him.


    ¡°Yeah, you might be right. I mean, I used to be the Alpha. I was the man in charge. I was the one that captured her when she tried to run away. I was always the one with the power, until she became the Queen. That was when everything changed.¡± With that, Reece heaved a big fake sigh that wouldn¡¯t have passed even an off Broadway audition, not even an elementary school y audition.


    ¡°You should be the one in charge. Men are the ones that lead the world, it¡¯s a fact. That¡¯s why the Colonel won¡¯t let women into the ranks. They have no reason to fight. If a womanes to us wanting to help, they are sent to make uniforms, cook meals, and keep the headquarters clean. They are not to know a single thing about the mechanism that is the Colonel¡¯s a-.¡± He stopped there. He seemed toe to his senses, realizing that he was about to say something that he shouldn¡¯t. Dammit! I wanted to hear the rest of that. We needed all that info and more, if we were going to stop these people.


    ¡°Yes? What was that?¡± Reece prompted him. ¡°The Colonel¡¯s what?¡±


    ¡°Never mind about that.¡± He shook his head and tried to wave his hand in the air. He couldn¡¯t though, as he was handcuffed to the table. ¡°That isn¡¯t important right now. I don¡¯t want to talk about that. The Colonel has nothing to do with this.¡±


    ¡°Who is the Colonel though? Obviously, he is someone important, otherwise you wouldn¡¯t have mentioned him.¡± Reece tried to press him to speak more on the topic, not too hard but with a gentle tone and a nudge with his words.


    ¡°No. The Colonel doesn¡¯t have anything to do with this. He wasn¡¯t a part of this. I did this on my own. I made the bombs on my own. And I was the one that decided to target the school. This was all on me. It has nothing to do with the Colonel.¡±


    ¡°Why did you target the school though?¡± Reece asked him, the man was able to speak to him easily, that was good. And I felt like Reece was somehow making the man forget that he was not human. He was feelingfortable with Reece for the time being, and that helped a lot.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that obvious?¡± He asked as he rolled his eyes and shook his head. ¡°I targeted that school because I wanted to get rid of those things that go there. The school is infested with monsters. And the only thing to do with a monster, is to destroy it. I was doing the world a favor.¡±


    More tensing from Reece. More anger at this man that just so openly admitted that he was going to kill our children. He was the monster, not us. He was the one that would have taken innocent lives. He was not a person that should be allowed to walk the world freely. He was a threat to all of society.


    ¡°There were others targeted too. Why did you target more than just the monsters?¡± Despite the rage that must be burning inside of Reece, he was pushing through this interview as best as he could. He was much better at it than I would have been. I was about ready to jump through the ss and strangle the man for trying to hurt my family.


    ¡°The others that were targeted were suspected of either being monsters themselves, or sympathizers. We cannot stand humans that allow those things to impose on our lives. They shouldn¡¯t be allowed to live among us humans, we perfect creatures.¡±


    ¡°Is that so? Even with how long those people have already been here? I hear they¡¯ve been living among the humans for millennia now.¡±


    ¡°That is impossible. They cannot have gone unnoticed for so long. It is not fathomable, to have lived with things so monstrously hideous and not have known about it. I don¡¯t believe that lie for a second, and neither does the Colonel. They have to have been a recent thing, in thest decade or two at the most. Possibly some sort of alien invasion or something, I am not sure about that, but they aren¡¯t natural to this world.¡±


    This man was full on stupid crazy. He was an idiot that didn¡¯t know anything, he was just letting charismatic and powerful people fill his head with whatever ideals they wanted to. He was like a sponge that soaked up nothing but stupidity and insanity. In a way, I felt bad for people like him, so woefully misinformed about everything in life that they can¡¯t see what is right in front of them. They weren¡¯t open to the concepts of the truth and what was real. He was so blinded by the misinformation and the hate that it was ruining his life.


    ¡°I think that I am done talking now. The Colonel won¡¯t like me speaking to you more. He won¡¯t leave Benkel-.¡± He stopped mid sentence and then shook his head. ¡°He won¡¯t leave the headquarters for me. In fact, I am sure that he won¡¯t even know that I have been arrested. I am not particrly high up in the group. I was actually trying to gain his favor with this stunt of mine. As I said, I acted alone.¡±


    ¡°Though you got the bombs, or the materials for them, from the Colonel, isn¡¯t that right?¡± The man¡¯s eyes gave him away, but he didn¡¯t say anything at all. ¡°You¡¯re truly not going to answer me?¡± Reece asked him.


    ¡°No. I just remembered that you are the enemies. You are monsters, and I do not converse with monsters. You are good though, I will give you that. Your disguise is almost believable. I almost thought that you were truly human. You are not though, and that means that I cannot speak to you any longer. Leave me be.¡±


    This was not ideal, but we had gotten some good information from the man, whether he had known it or not. We would be able to work with some of that information. And we mighte back to talk to himter. At least we had something to discuss when we started to analyze things again.

 Chapter 1110 - 1110 Chapter 95- Reece – Where To Go from Here (VOLUME 6)

    1110 Chapter 95- Reece ¨C Where To Go from Here (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    There was a lot that we needed to discuss, and a lot of people that needed to be a part of that discussion. It wasn¡¯t just me, Trinity, and those of us that had been a part of or watched the interview take ce. We needed to make sure that the others were a part of this as well. They all needed to know what it was that was going on. They needed to know what we had learned.


    To be honest, it wasn¡¯t all that much that we learned, but there was something. We knew that this guy had been a part of the PAWs, before the majority of the group had been arrested for their attack on the stadium. We knew that this man acted alone, but he was a part of arger group. And this man, along with his whole group, had some messed up ideals that they wanted to force onto the world.


    Knowing that we needed to gather the others for this conversation, we all returned to the castle, and once again to my Little Bunny¡¯s office. It was, of course, the center location that we used for almost every meeting that we needed to have. It wasrge enough,fortable enough, and private enough. Therefore, it fits all of the requirements.


    I was still raging mad even as I walked into the office. I had to exercise every ounce of my self-control so that I wouldn¡¯t end up hurting that man earlier today. The man that had so openly talked about wanting to kill my children, and the children that I considered family. Some of them were family too, because Elias was there, and he is my nephew. Those kids, innocent in every conceivable way, didn¡¯t deserve what that monster was going to do to them.


    I knew that I wasn¡¯t the only one that was angry either. Vincent was pissed off because the man was going to kill the kids, and because he had insulted my Little Bunny. Yes, that pissed us both off, for different reasons though. For me, I was angered because she is my wife and mate, and I will not tolerate someone speaking like that about her. For Vincent, he is her faithful Beta, and he would not tolerate someone talking that way about his Queen. He was, in a sense, like another one of Trinity¡¯s big brothers. And a very protective one at that.


    Right now, I was sitting at the big desk that my tiny Little Bunny usually sat behind when working. I wasn¡¯t sitting alone though, I needed thefort of touch, and only the touch of my Little Bunny would do. So, I was sitting in Trinity¡¯srge throne-like chair with her positioned on myp. This contact, the touch and warmth of her in my arms, was helping me to keep the raging wolf inside of me under control.


    .....


    ¡°I think you all know why we are here.¡± My Little Bunny started to speak, looking out over all the attendees. It wasn¡¯t just the usual suspects here either, there were more. Of course there were Shawn, Dietrich, Shane, David, Vincent, and Gabriel, but there were others as well. Trevor, Gloriana, Valerian, Samuel, Wesley, Riley, Landon, Noah, Carter, Bryce, Jackson, Devon, Rawlynne, Paul, Cedar and Juniper. Honestly, the assembly was a little sexist, and even I could admit that, but these were the ones that we usually relied on. It wasn¡¯t nned that there were only three women other than my Little Bunny.


    ¡°Yeah, is this about what happened at the school earlier?¡± Shane spoke in that rarely heard serious tone of his. He knew that this wasn¡¯t a time to joke, and I was d that he was able to turn off his jokes when the situation warranted it.


    ¡°Yes, Shane, it does. More specifically, the interview of the would-be bomber.¡±


    ¡°Were there any more bombs? Did you get out of him if there were more than the forty-five or not?¡± This was a slightly angry and slightly panicked question from Shawn. He wanted to make sure that the kids would be safe when they went back to school.


    ¡°He imed that there were more, but that was a lie.¡± Vincent told him in a tone filled with confidence. ¡°He wanted us to be scared at the idea that there were more bombs that would go off after a certain amount of time. That was a lie though, he couldn¡¯t get past me with those poor attempts at intimidation.¡± Thest part was spoken just a little smugly. I thought that he might have deserved it.


    ¡°So, Trinity was able to make him talk?¡± Gloriana looked at her niece with love and admiration in her eyes.


    ¡°No.¡± I said almost immediately. ¡°He refused to speak to Trinity. However, she was able to tell him things that were all pretty much confirmed to be true. He is the type of man that thinks a woman is beneath him, so I needed to speak to him once Trinity left the room for a break.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Holy shit!¡±


    ¡°Damn!¡±


    ¡°Wow.¡± There were a lot of exmations at my revtion, but I didn¡¯t pay them any mind. They had heard me, they were just verbalizing their shock about it all.


    ¡°Anyway, after she left the room, I was able to get the man to talk a little. That is until he remembered that none of us in the room were human. That was when he mmed up and refused to talk at all.¡±


    ¡°Do you want me to take a crack at him?¡± Juniper asked with an evil smile on her face. She had helped us with some of the Jaegan, so we knew that she was able to make people talk.


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t think it will work this time.¡± I shook my head in defeat. ¡°He hates it when a woman is in a position of power or authority. He would likely refuse you. And, as you know, we are trying not to give humans a reason to fear us. Forcing a mental change on him would only make us look like controlling monsters in their eyes. No, we can¡¯t make him talk to you, but that doesn¡¯t mean that we have nothing at all.¡±


    There was silence for a few moments. They were all processing the words that I had just said. They were all a little on edge because of the events of the day, but they were also pissed that there was someone that was hitting us so close to home. We needed to do what we could to protect the city and the people here, human and nonhuman alike.


    ¡°Alright, so the man refused to speak to my Garin¨ªon [1], that is not pleasant, but we cannot do anything about it now. What was it that you managed to learn from him, Reece?¡± Valerian narrowed his eyes and looked at me seriously. ¡°You had to have learned something, or we wouldn¡¯t be here.¡±


    ¡°You are correct. There is a lot that we know about this man, even if he didn¡¯t confirm it all. We know that his name is Gerald Ramie. He is a student at the university, but he almost didn¡¯te back for this semester. sses had already started before he came back from wherever he was. And initially, he had nned to stay on campus for the holiday, which means that he changed his nsst minute. Like, the day of the reveal.¡±


    ¡°That makes sense. If he recognized Reagan and Rika from the news, then he would act hostilely. He would likely not want to return to the school because he was one of the extremists. And because most of his buddies were arrested, he would be too afraid to return without them at his back.¡± Samuel was speaking analytically as he proceeded to tell us what he had been thinking.


    ¡°I agree.¡± Wesley spoke next. ¡°If he was a lower ranking member of that group, the PAWs, then he would have panicked and not known what to do. Given that he appears to have had some sort of assistance with today¡¯s attempted bombing though, I am going to guess that he is no longer scared and alone.¡±


    ¡°You would be correct in that assumption.¡± My Little Bunny nodded at her dad and crossed her arms on myp. I could still feel the anger radiating off of her. She was pissed as well, for the same reasons that I was.


    ¡°Yes, he has another group now. He has been taken in by the DOE. I do not know if the DOE was an entity that worked in the shadows before the reveal, or if they were born of the unification of multiple extremist groups that wanted to form a more functioning army to fight us.¡± I added to what my Little Bunny had just told them.


    ¡°Army?¡± Valerian narrowed his eyes even more, he almost looked as if he was squinting at this point, but I knew that it was all born of his anger and curiosity.


    ¡°Yes. I think that they are trying to build an army toe after us. We already know that they consider us to be their enemies, that was known before today. However, we found out that the leader of the DOE is called ¡®Colonel¡¯ by the lower ranks. That was how Gerald referred to him anyway. And I have a feeling that Gerald idolizes this man. Most likely, today¡¯s attempted bombing was his attempt to impress the man and gain attention from him.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s one hell of a way to get someone¡¯s attention.¡± Shawn shook his head. ¡°Is he mentally unstable?¡±


    ¡°I believe so, yes.¡± I nodded as I thought back on the conversation that I had with the man, as well as remembering the things that we had learned about him prior to the interview. ¡°Even his professors advised that he seek mental help, so we¡¯re not the only ones that think he is mentally unbnced.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s a fucking nutcase, that was evident when he tried to bomb the school. We don¡¯t need to debate that fact.¡± Trevor crossed his arms and red at nothing in particr. ¡°In fact, that dumbass is in federal custody now, so there is no reason to be talking about him now at all. What we need to focus on is the rest of his buddies, and how we¡¯re going to stop them.¡±


    ¡°You are absolutely right, Trevor.¡± My Little Bunny looked at him thoughtfully as she slowly slid herself out of my arms and off of myp. ¡°In fact, there is something that Reece and I want to tell you guys. Something that I think will be just as important as talking about the DOE.¡±


    I knew what she was getting at. Only about half of the people in this room knew about this, about what my Little Bunny and I had experienced recently. And the ones that did know had been just as shocked by the events as we had been. I agreed with her though, they needed to know that there was something majoring, even if we didn¡¯t know what it was yet.


    Part of me wanted to tell them on behalf of my Little Bunny. And the other part of me just wanted to watch her and all the glory that was her in charge. I didn¡¯t know why people like Gerald Ramie and his ilk didn¡¯t want to see women in power. They had no idea how much of a turn on it was to see a woman that knew what she wanted and how to get it. Or a woman that knew what needed to be done, and was willing to make it happen at any cost. They were seriously missing out, and they would never understand just what this was like. That was fine with me though, those of us that knew how to treat a woman understood it, and that was all that mattered.

 Chapter 1111 - 1111 Chapter 96- Trinity – Something Big Is Coming (VOLUME 6)

    1111 Chapter 96- Trinity ¨C Something Big Is Coming (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I felt Reece¡¯s eyes boring into my back as I slid off of hisp. I knew that he still needed me, just as much as I needed him. However, I knew that I needed to be on my own as I told the others about this next part. There were some things in life that we needed to do by ourselves. If only to protect the other party.


    In truth, I was just worried that bringing up that night was just going to make Reece remember what had happened prior to the meeting. And if I was sitting on hisp, that memory might be a little too intense. I chose to slide off of hisp so that there was no issue with him and his physical state while I spoke to the others. That would be a little more than awkward.


    I took a few steps away from him as I looked at all the others. These people that were family to me either by blood, marriage, or the love that we shared for each other. I loved them all, and they loved me as well. I wanted to protect them as well as all the other people in my kingdom.


    No, that wasn¡¯t it. That wasn¡¯t all that I wanted to protect. I wanted to make sure that there was no one in this world that was going to get hurt because of the reveal. No innocent person should be harmed just because a selective group of people couldn¡¯t move past their hate or their nearsighted and misguided fundamentals. In other words, I wanted to protect the world, almost as if it were actually my responsibility.


    ¡°Trinity, what is it?¡± Dad called out to me with worry in his voice. He could tell that I was going to be talking about something serious if I had chosen to leave Reece¡¯s warm embrace.


    ¡°Well Dad, there is something that happened the night of my birthday that I need to tell you all about.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Are you sure that you want to talk about that?¡± Shane joked, but he only issued a short fakeugh as he knew that this wasn¡¯t the time for things like that.


    ¡°You know that isn¡¯t what I was talking about, Shane.¡± I pretended to admonish him. It was a defense mechanism for me as much as his humor had been for him. This was a tense situation for all of us, and today had been difficult for us all.


    ¡°I know.¡± He grinned. ¡°But it was still a fun moment, even if it was super short.¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± I smiled and nodded before I moved on. ¡°The night of my birthday, with magic swirling in the air around Reece and I, we were once again taken to the Celestial Realm.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± they all sat up and seemed instantly more intent on the words that I was saying, but it was Aunt Glory that spoke up. ¡°You haven¡¯t been taken there in a long time.¡±


    ¡°That is true. And the funny thing, Aunt Glory, is that we were taken to the same ce that Danu took us when we were in your kingdom. I thought that it was interesting to be returned to that ce, especially when the Goddess that had been there before is no longer living in that realm.¡± It looked to me like everyone was on the edge of their seats as they listened to what I had to say.


    ¡°So, if it wasn¡¯t Danu who took you there, who was it?¡± Riley asked as he literally sat on the edge of his seat. He and the others wouldn¡¯t let me go without telling them right away.


    ¡°Well, Reece and I met another God that day. A God that is supposed to be the leader of them all.¡±


    ¡°Leader of them all?¡± Dietrich asked as he too wondered who this mysterious God could have been. ¡°Who?¡±


    ¡°Come on, tell us already, Trin!¡± Juniper was losing her ability to be patient, and I nearlyughed at her frantic looking eyes. She was eager, that was for sure.


    ¡°We met Odin, who is apparently not just the King of one specific tribe of Norse Gods, but the King of all the Gods. He was chosen millennia ago, and now he is the one that leads them all. He came to meet with Reece and I. He is... different. He likes to travel the mortal realm and see what the humans are up to. He says that he usually doesn¡¯t get involved, and I believe that is true. However, he said that he couldn¡¯t stay out of thispletely, not this time.¡±


    ¡°Out of what?¡± Grandfather asked me, his voice tense and his jaw so tight that his mouth barely moved.


    ¡°Something ising. He didn¡¯t tell us what it was, but it has to do with those extremist groups. He said that one of the groups has the ability to bring great destruction upon us if we are not careful.¡±


    ¡°What kind of power could they have?¡± Dietrich¡¯s eyes were wondering, but there was the darkness of fear hiding in them as well.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, Dietrich, not yet.¡±


    ¡°Want my opinion?¡± Bryce called out from the middle of the group. He had been silent up to this point.


    ¡°Yes, what is it, Bryce?¡± I asked him, not sure if I was ready for what he had theorized.


    ¡°We are trying to figure out what sort of power it is that a human could have that would bring great destruction to us. Well, think about it. We live in modern times. It¡¯s not like they need magic or anything to fight us now. They have modern warfare at their disposal. And if they are creating an army, they would use an army¡¯s weapons. I believe that they will be using things like tanks, guns of various calibers, and even bombs. If they know where to send those bombs, they can wipe us out. If they don¡¯t know where to send them, they will just start bombing civilians.¡±


    ¡°They are already bombing them.¡± Reece pointed out to him, and I was inclined to say the same thing to him.


    ¡°Not those bombs. Those are nothing more than sparklers whenpared to the weapons that they could be using. I am talking about real bombs, a BLU-82, GBU-43, goliaths, cluster bombs, thermobaric bombs. If they are waging war against us, then they will fight it as a modern war. Not even we super naturals will survive if they decide to bomb the shit out of us.¡±


    The room went silent at Bryce¡¯s words. I don¡¯t think that any of us had thought about this before. Why hadn¡¯t we suspected that in the modern world, when fighting against the humans, they would use modern warfare? It most likely had to do with the fact that we were so used to the magical and fantastical element of the world that we wouldn¡¯t even dare to think about using such tactics in our own lives. And that led to a massive hole in our way of thinking.


    ¡°So, we need to focus on people that have the ability to procure those items. Then we have to hope that we can narrow it down to where these people might be and how to capture them.¡± I shuddered a little as I thought about it all. ¡°We have a lot of work to do, and I don¡¯t think that we have all that much time to waste here.¡±


    ¡°I agree.¡± Bryce, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair, spoke in a clipped tone of voice. He was not happy about the thoughts that he had had, but now that they were out in the open, we all knew that they were true.


    ¡°Do we have any idea where these people are? Where they might be hiding?¡± Noah was the next to speak. ¡°Do we know where to start the search?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, is there any evidence or clue that would point us in the right direction?¡± Paul¡¯s voice was strained as he thought about these things as well.


    ¡°Tell us that you have something, please, Trinity.¡± Cedar, feeling as angry about today as Reece and I were, begged me to give him something.


    ¡°We have a partial name of the city. The suspect stopped himself mid sentence, mid word actually, but we have a start. We suspect that they aren¡¯t that far from here, at the most a few hours away. They would want to be close enough tounch an attack, but far enough away so that they wouldn¡¯t rouse suspicion when they are working on their ns.¡±


    ¡°Alright, so what is this partial name?¡± Jackson asked eagerly. ¡°We will figure out which town it is, I know that we will.¡±


    ¡°While I was talking to the suspect earlier, he said, and I quote, ¡®I think that I am done talking now. The Colonel won¡¯t like me speaking to you more. He won¡¯t leave Benkel-¡®. That was where he left off. Now, I don¡¯t know what the rest of the city name is, but we can likely find it with that first part. How many cities within a few hours could start with something like Benkel?¡± Reece was already thinking more than he was focusing on the conversation.


    ¡°I agree, it shouldn¡¯t be that difficult to figure this out. And when we do, we will know where to go to arrest these monsters.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s funny.¡± Aunt Glory said with absolutely no humor in her voice.


    ¡°What is, Aunt Glory?¡± I asked her, needing her to rify.


    ¡°They call us monsters, but they are the ones that are intent on hurting people and destroying the world. Yes, we have all killed our fair share of people, but they were primarily during battles. It wasn¡¯t that we just killed people because we didn¡¯t like them. And, I admit, we have killed far less people since Trinity has taken over than we all did before then.¡±


    ¡°That is true.¡± Bryce nodded. ¡°You have brought more peace to our world, there are far less senseless deaths than there used to be in generations previous.¡±


    ¡°I agree.¡± Grandfather said as he stood up. ¡°The amount of in-fighting in packs and between other packs used to be so vast that there were deaths all the time. Look at what happened to Reece¡¯s father. However, with you at the helm, Trinity, you have brought more peace to the world. The packs get along better, the different species of shifters get along better, and even the magic users and shifters stopped fighting. And it is all because you were here to unite us all.¡±


    ¡°Almost all of us. I am not a vampire, so I can¡¯t say that I had any effect there.¡± Iughed as I made the joke. I needed to take the focus all my supposed bringing of world peace.


    ¡°No, you are not a vampire, Trinity, but I am.¡± Dietrich grinned at me. ¡°And with your alliance with me, you brought peace with us as well. The shifters stopped fighting us, not that it was a major thing anyway, but they didn¡¯t want to upset either of us because of our alliances. So, I would say that you had a hand in that as well.¡±


    ¡°Alright, can we stop talking about this? We have more important things to discuss.¡± I felt like blushing, but I was keeping it at bay with sheer force of will.


    ¡°Yeah, sure, no problem.¡± Vincentughed at me. ¡°But we will all still think it, because we all know it¡¯s true. And I know that with you at the lead, Trinity, we will be able to bring peace once again. This time with the humans on board as well.¡±


    We had to get off that topic, so I started to bring up the case again. We needed to narrow down where those people were hiding, and whether or not they were already getting their hands on those weapons of mass destruction. If they were, then we had to move even quicker than we already were. There was no time to waste at all.


    I divided up the work that needed to be done. Jackson and Rawlynne were going to look into the bombs and tanks. They needed to know if there was anyone that had recently bought one or moved one. They also needed to look into ck market connections that would deal with the buying and selling of military grade munitions.


    Civilians were not allowed to buy these munitions, but they somehow always managed to do it when they wanted to. As far as the tanks went, there were a lot of people that bought dmissioned tanks and restored their engines. They had had their firing mechanisms removed and disabled, so they wouldn¡¯t be able to hurt anyone with them. Usually, it was just rich military buffs that bought the tanks and used them for disy. They were mostly harmless.


    There were some people, however, that wanted them because of their destructive power. Even without a firing mechanism, they could crush their enemies, and their cars. So, they were still formidable. There was also the fact that if you looked hard enough, you could find someone that was willing to repair the tanks and install new firing mechanisms. And if they did that, then they would be capable of firing bombs and other devices at people, buildings, and cars.


    Yeah, there was a lot of work to do right now, and we were all needed for it. Still, Reece and I needed to spend some time with the kids, especially Reagan and Rika. And we knew that Noah, Cedar, Shawn, and Dietrich all needed to get home to be with their kids as well. The kids needed us, and in a way, we needed them too. We needed to make sure that they were all safe and doing OK.


    Yes, no one was hurt during the events that transpired today, but they had all gone through an emotional and terrifying situation. And that meant that they might not be OK. They would all handle this situation differently, and some of them might need us more than the others did. Reece and I called an end to the meeting and told the others to get to work in the morning. For tonight, they were all going home and hugging their kids. They were to take the time to be with their families and be happy that all of them made it home safe and sound. Just for tonight, we needed to be with family more than working. Tomorrow we would work, but tonight we reassure ourselves.

 Chapter 1112 - 1112 Chapter 97- Dire Times (VOLUME 6)

    1112 Chapter 97- Dire Times (VOLUME 6)


    **This chapter is going to be a collection of scenes and news articles that are opposing the Super Naturals of the world. These will be the opposite of the Dalton Series.**


    MONSTERS WALK AMONG US! ¨C An article that was written by Stanley Unger, a reporter with the Colorado Truth. Front page story from Monday January 14, 2041


    It is likely that by this point in time, everyone in the country, and most likely the world, knows about the event that happenedtest month. The event of course, is the one that took over the media for more than an hour and forced anyone that was looking at a screen to see monsters in their true form.


    It was not only a surprise but an outright terrifying shock to all of those people that were forced to endure that situation. There were some people, glorious men that will always fight for our freedoms, that decided to do something about the assault on our citizens.


    Those heroes, and make no mistake that is what they were, ended up being arrested for their attempt at saving and protecting the human race. Those men, members of a charitable and honorable group of phnthropists known as the Proud American Warriors (PAWs), were all arrested for their attempt to protect us all.


    This reporter can only specte that the monsters that revealed themselves in the news that day have already infiltrated the police department, and they were the ones that had them arrested. There were no crimesmitted by the PAWs that day, so their arrests and subsequent trials were all a ploy by these monsters to take away any and all threats that stand in their way.


    Now, why would they want to eliminate an honorable group like the PAWs? Well, that is a simple question that anyone could answer. Why would any monster want to eliminate the noble heroes of the world? They want to take over the world, and they don¡¯t want anyone to stand in their way.


    These monsters, the werewolves, vampires, witches, and whatever else there might be, they want to take over the world. And when that happens there is only one purpose that we humans will serve in life. We will be their food. We will be like cattle that are rounded up and kept only to be ughtered when the monsters need another meal.


    Do you want to see this happen? Neither does this reporter. And we are not alone. There are a lot of other people that feel the same way that we do. The DOE is a new group that is out there doing the good work to save us all. These proud and honorable men, members of the Destroyers of Evil, will see to it that we never have to be cattle in a cage for the monsters that no longer linger in the dark.


    .....


    There is no known way of contacting the DOE at this moment, but if we all give them our support in an as visible and public way as possible, I am sure that they will see it. They will know that we are thankful for them and hope that they seed. You can buy merchandise online to disy your support for the DOE.


    Buy and then fly a banner in honor of these heroes. And while you are on the site, make sure that you report the monsters that you know of. The DOE will destroy them and eliminate them from this world for you.


    BRING AN END TO THE MONSTERS THAT WALK AMONG US!


    Friday February 1, 2041 ¨C Interview with the Colonel of the DOE


    While Trinity and Reece are discussing the events of the day with the members of their inner circle, there is a live broadcast that none of them are aware of. This is a broadcast that is happening on a secure website and only viewable to those that have registered for, and been verified by, the site that it is being hosted on.


    This is a site that caters to people that either support or are a part of the extremist group known as the DOE. The membership, inparison to the world¡¯s poption, even just the poption of the United States of America, is rtively low. However, that does not deter these people in the least. They know that their numbers will grow as they continue to spread awareness for their cause. The people that are watching now will spread the video to others that they believe will support the cause, and in doing so they believe that they will eventually see a swell in their numbers.


    The video, as it is being watched by the man that is an actual member of the DOE, has only two participants. There is the host of the interview, a man known as Jeffrey Packard, and the interviewee, the Colonel. The Colonel¡¯s face was blurred out and his voice was distorted so that no one would be able to discern his true identity.


    Of course the Colonel would do this, he was a very prominent and recognizable figure in his office, and he couldn¡¯t let them see what it was that he was out there doing. At this point in time, the Colonel couldn¡¯t risk letting his true face be seen. He had to hide for a little while longer. Not that he thought what he was doing was wrong. It was just that he knew there were traitors in his life, in his own office, and he couldn¡¯t let them know that he was still fighting against these monsters.


    The DOE member that was watching the interview, having decided not to attend in person like the Colonel had wanted him to, started as if it were any other interview.


    ¡°Good evening,dies and gentlemen. I am sure that you all know who I am, your host for the next hour or so, Jeffrey Packard. This is a special episode of the Pack of Truths that I have for you all. I have with me a very special guest. We will call him by the name that he uses among the men that serve under him. This is the Colonel, leader of the DOE. Thank you for joining me, Colonel.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for having me.¡± The camera focused on the Colonel then, but you couldn¡¯t even see what his clothes looked like, they had himpletely blurred out. And his voice was deeper and different than the man was used to.


    ¡°As I am sure you all have noticed, the Colonel¡¯s appearance and voice have been hidden to allow for his anonymity. He wishes to stay anonymous because he fears retribution from the monsters and their supporters.¡±


    ¡°That is right, Jeff.¡± The Colonel responded to him, and the man watching the broadcast thought that he could see the Colonel nodding his head. ¡°There are so many people out there that have been brainwashed into thinking that the monsters are our friends. They have turned their back on the human race, and in doing so they have given power to those things.¡±


    ¡°So, you truly do believe that the super naturals are out to destroy us? You think that we are not safe with them around?¡± It was clear that Jeffrey Packard already knew and believed that as well, he was just setting the tone of the interview.


    ¡°Of course.¡± The Colonel¡¯s voice still conveyed his vehemence with those two words. ¡°Those monsters, those beasts, those things, they act like they are our friends and that they have been here forever, but that simply isn¡¯t true. They couldn¡¯t have been with us for that long and have gone unnoticed. For one thing, it has been less than twenty years that these people have been their eternal ages, so at most, they started to appear at that time, or when those people were born. However, considering that some people, like Samuel Whitton and others like him, reversed in age about fifteen years ago, give or take, I am sure that is when these things came to our world. They have infected a small amount of our poption, nowhere near the half or more that they would have us believe, but still enough to matter. These things most likely turned ordinary humans into whatever they are now, and that means that there is a chance that they could do this to more of us. They just need to feed first.¡±


    ¡°Feed on what?¡± Jeffrey Packard asked after the Colonel¡¯s semi incoherent rambling.


    ¡°On us. They have lived as they are now without needing to feed on a massive number of us at a time. However, they are running out of energy and need to refuel. So, they need to feed on us. And the best way to do that without causing mass hysteria is to enve the world¡¯s poption, but they wanted to gain our trust first. They thought that we would wee them with open arms and let them walk free.¡±


    ¡°How diabolical.¡± Jeffrey shook his head at the Colonel¡¯s words. ¡°How do we defend ourselves?¡±


    ¡°We need to rise up and fight against them. So many people are either epting those things or just not caring that they are there, including our government. If we don¡¯t stop them soon though, then it will be toote. They will get what it is that they want, and all life as we know it will cease to exist. It will be a world of chaos and death.¡±


    ¡°Oh my, we simply cannot allow that to happen.¡±


    ¡°No, we can¡¯t.¡± The Colonel¡¯s voice erupted like it was a bomb exploding from his lips. He was way too excited at the moment.


    ¡°What can we all do to help you, Colonel? What can the rest of America do to help the DOE?¡±


    ¡°They can join us. Fight with us. Take these monsters out before they can kill us. If you can¡¯t fight though, if you are not in military shape, or capable of being whipped into shape, then send us donations through this site. We will use those donations to fortify our army.¡±


    ¡°You have an army?¡± The host asked excitedly.


    ¡°Yes. We are gathering others like us, those with simr ideals, and bringing them on board. I believe that soon enough our numbers will be enough to take them on.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I do believe that you will achieve that goal of yours.¡±


    The man watched as a smile spread across the host¡¯s face. He was almost as lunatic as the Colonel was. His eyes were filled with a light that didn¡¯t seem to be reflecting anything in the room, and that felt like it was cold and evil.


    ¡°Now, Colonel, I know that you and your people have been sending messages of various types to the monsters in our country. You have bombed several ces, but they haven¡¯t been anything huge or destructive. Howe you are being so calm and rxed with those disys?¡±


    ¡°As you said before, Jeffrey, those are messages to the monsters and their supporters. It is just telling them that we have power, and we will use it if we have to. It is to make them scared. And I am sure that every single monster in this country has already fled their homes in the outlying states. They have returned to the home of their leaders.¡±


    ¡°You are referring to Trinity and Reece Gray, correct? They are the ones that led that illegal news broadcast.¡±


    ¡°Yes, the Grays are their leaders, and I am sure that they were the first of the monsters in our world. Once we are sure that everyst monster, or almost all of them, have returned to their homebase, we will attack them directly.¡± The Colonel was exining things to the host with an excitement that all but shined off of him.


    ¡°Wow, a direct assault. Do you think that you can get them all in one go? Will it be that easy?¡± It was evident that Jeffrey Packard was loving every second of this conversation.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know if it will be that easy or not, but we will find out. There is only one way to find out though. And regardless, even if they aren¡¯t all there, most of them will be. And after we destroy their home base, we will just need to kill off thest few stragglers.¡±


    ¡°Oh my, that sounds so exciting. I cannot wait to see thate to fruition. Do you have a set date for when this assault on the home base is going to take ce? I want to make sure that I tune in that day. Perhaps we can even be there to film it and broadcast it for the world to see your magnanimous act for all of society.¡±


    ¡°We do not have a date yet, Jeffrey, but when we do, I will make sure that you are one of the first to find out.¡± The man watching the broadcast saw the glee spread in the host¡¯s eyes. He knew that he was almost as crazy as the Colonel was. And he knew that he needed to do something to stop them both. This was going on for far too long. He had stayed cid for too long, following the Colonel¡¯s lead because he simply didn¡¯t know what else to do.


    The DOE member felt cold on the inside as he thought about what he needed to do. He also feared what would happen to him if anyone found out about the things that he was thinking. If anyone found out that he wasn¡¯t fully on board with the ideals that the Colonel had, he would be reported immediately. And then the Colonel would likely execute him for being a traitor.


    The Colonel used to be such a straightforward and respectable man, but now he was an entric that was highly unstable. The DOE member didn¡¯t know what he was going to do next, or who it was that he was going to target. He never wanted to hurt anyone, never wanted to bomb any buildings, or send any messages, but he couldn¡¯t refuse the Colonel. Refusal meant death, in and simple.


    The DOE man had seen it before. The Colonel, who used to hunt criminals and murderers so that they could be punished to the fullest extent of thew, was now no better than they were. He was a monster. He was a killer. He was a terrorist. And the DOE member knew that he had to do something, even if he was scaredpletely shitless.

 Chapter 1113 - 1113 Chapter 98- Trinity – Aftermath (VOLUME 6)

    1113 Chapter 98- Trinity ¨C Aftermath (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°Recently an interview was conducted with a man that called himself ¡®the Colonel¡¯ and imed that he was the leader of the DOE, the extremist group that is responsible for several bombings nationwide. During the interview reporter Vanessa Davies, of The Gazette, spoke with the man about a recent incident that took cest night, Friday February the first, two thousand and forty-one.¡±


    I was reading the story from the newspaper that had been delivered to the castle that morning. The kids were all in their rooms, and the rest of us had returned to my office to continue the work that we spoke aboutst night. Reagan and Rika, as well as the other legacies, were with us right now because they technically aren¡¯t kids anymore. And they had proven the day before that they were able to handle themselves in an intense situation.


    ¡°The interview was conductedte in the evening, after ¡®the Colonel¡¯ had learned of the events that took ce earlier in the day. In the interview, the man that ims to be leading this massive extremist group, takes ownership of the attempted bombing of the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs campus.¡±


    I paused for breath and looked briefly at the others as they watched me reading the article that was taking up a good chunk of the front page. After a brief pause, I continued to read aloud once more.


    ¡°The man is quoted as saying, ¡®Yes, we knew about the bombing attempt. This is something that we of the DOE take full responsibility for. And we demand the release of our valued member, Gerald Ramie. He has done nothing wrong¡¯. When asked why he doesn¡¯t think that attempted murder and destruction of property are not crimes, the Colonel replied with a chilling response.¡±


    I could see the anticipation in the eyes of everyone that was present and listening to the story. We were all trying our best to hide the anger that we were feeling, because we all knew that the anger wouldn¡¯t help with anything at all.


    .....


    ¡°¡®It is hard to think of killing a monster as a crime, it is no different than killing a mosquito that is trying to suck your blood¡¯. As chilling as those words were, the Colonel wasn¡¯t done there. ¡®The only difference between those monsters and a mosquito, is that one is bigger and harder to destroy. They are just as unpleasant and deserve to die. We humans cannot allow those things to walk among us. And as far as the university is concerned, it is infested with those things. Cleansing the university of all the monsters would be akin to performing a generous act of kindness for the world.''¡±


    I shivered at that. Not because I was scared or anything, and not because I was feeling cold. No, I shivered because the rage inside of me almost made me shift into my wolf form, and I had needed to physically settle my hackles if I was going to stay in my human form.


    ¡°Yes, you read that right. The man calling himself the Colonel believes that bombing a public university is an act of kindness to be given to the world as if it were charity or something along those lines. As spine tingling as that thought is, I am sure that this monster of a man has other hideous acts up his sleeves. And I am sure that the man that the FBI has in custody at the moment, will be tried and brought to justice. I just hope that they can get ¡®the Colonel¡¯ before he has the chance to cause some real damage to our people and our country. I hope that no harmes to the super naturals of the world as well. They are people, just like the rest of us are.¡±


    That was the end of the segment that dealt with the interview. The rest of the story, which continued on pages two through four, were all about the attempted bombing of the university, the suspect that had been arrested, and a list of other potential targets for the DOE. There was no reason to continue reading from the paper, so I set it aside.


    ¡°So, the Colonel is taking responsibility for the attempted bombing, even though we know for a fact that Ramie was working alone.¡± Vincent said with a scowl and narrowed eyes.


    ¡°One of his men was found out. He could have either abandoned him or stood behind him. I think he believes that taking credit for the actions would get him more followers and support.¡± Shawn said in a voice that was purposefully devoid of all emotion.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that it¡¯s working though.¡± Reagan said as he scrolled through an online forum that he was monitoring.


    ¡°What have you found?¡± I asked him, leaning forward with my elbows on the desk, and Reece¡¯s hands around my waist to keep me bnced.


    ¡°Well, it looks like there is a lot on here from people that were on the fence about where they stood in this debate. You know, the one about whether or not we are monsters. Anyway, a good number of these posts andments are condemning the Colonel and the DOE. There are even people on here that openly im to have hated us, and still don¡¯t particrly understand us, but they want nothing to do with the DOE anymore.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± David asked him.


    ¡°Well, this one here is a good example.¡± Reagan paused as he scrolled to the top of thement. ¡°It says here that the man had initially hated all the monsters because he didn¡¯t understand us. He wanted to be a member of the DOE and was looking at how to track them down. However, after the attempted bombing, and the fact that it was the ¡®monsters¡¯ that stopped the incident from happening, he can¡¯t stick with that way of thinking anymore. He says that he still doesn¡¯t understand what is happening in the world, but that he would rather meet one of us rather than a DOE member any day.¡±


    ¡°At least the Colonel¡¯s actions, and of course Ramie¡¯s, is having a slightly positive effect in the world. Those that find their actions reprehensible, are more willing to side with the nonhumans that stopped them frommitting such a heinous crime. I know that this isn¡¯t a poprity contest or anything, but having more humans epting of us, even if we¡¯re just the better alternative, is a positive in my eyes.¡± Reece said as he hugged me a little tighter.


    ¡°I agree.¡± I heard the sorrow in my voice. ¡°They might not exactly approve of us, but at least they would rather have us than the terrorists. It¡¯s a step in the right direction. And if we keep up the work that we have been doing, we might convince the rest that are on the fence to ept us as well.¡±


    ¡°Hey, I am just d that the humans are seeing the truth. We¡¯re not the monsters here, we never were.¡± Shane¡¯s voice was serious again, just like it was yesterday.


    ¡°Agreed.¡± Several voices called out in response.


    There was a lot that we needed to work on during this meeting. We needed to find out what city it was that Ramie had almost let slip yesterday. We needed to figure out who the Colonel was. We needed to figure out how to get a spy, or a mole, into the DOE so that they could send us back reports on what was happening in their ranks. And we needed to figure out what cataclysmic event the Colonel was nning. Or perhaps it was another person from another group that was nning the massive event that Odin had mentioned, and we were focusing all of our efforts on the wrong person. That wouldn¡¯t be good, but we didn¡¯t know what else to do for right now.


    Jackson wasn¡¯t here today, he were busy with the transfer of Ramie, as well as tracking down as much information as they could on the domestic terrorist and extremist groups that were active in this country. Rawlynne would be joining him after the meeting was over.


    We had all agreed yesterday that it would be a lot of help if we could get help from the other agencies, but we couldn¡¯t risk that just yet. We knew that the NSA waspromised, so they were out. Unless we could be certain that Dayton would be able to work without someone like Orson getting in his way.


    I was willing to take the risk though. If Dayton sensed any danger at all, he could alwayse to us for help. I would open a door for him to get him to safety, and we would hide him here in the castle. He wouldn¡¯te to any harm.


    For the time being though, Jackson and Rawlynne wanted to work within their own department. Although, they only had until the end of the day, otherwise I would contact Dayton for help. That was how pressed for time that we were. We couldn¡¯t let anything happen in the interim that we would have prevented if we had more help.


    When we all got to work in the office, we were focusing on the name of the city that Ramie had almost said. It had started with Benkel, and it was proving to be a quick search. There were a few cities in the country that had cities with names that started that way, but not all of them were that close to us.


    As I was looking over the list and the data that was given to Reece and I, I kepting back to the same one. There was a small town in the southeastern corner of Nebraska. It was called Benkelman and there were several reasons that it was perfect for the base of the DOE.


    For one thing, the DOE, like most other extremist groups, was founded on a principle of white supremacy. It¡¯s just that they wanted white human supremacy rather than just white. And it just so happens that the city of Benkelman, Nebraska was predominately white. In fact, ording to census data, they were ny-five point nine percent white. The other four point one percent were a mix of several races.


    Benkelman was also a small town, yet it was the county seat. And that meant that, small or not, it had more resources than others. And even if the DOE were living on the outskirts, or in a damned field and not in the actual city, they would be close enough to use that ce as the location of their headquarters.


    ¡°This has to be it.¡± I told Reece as Ipared some of the other possible locations with simr names. ¡°It fits all the requirements that we believe they are needing for their base of operations.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I agree.¡± I felt him nod as he pressed himself against my back. ¡°We need to check this ce out, see if we can find them.¡±


    ¡°Covertly, of course.¡± I told him. ¡°And we still need to figure out how to get someone on the inside of that group. That will be the next major thing that we need to do.¡±


    ¡°Well, if we find them, we can send someone in there that will be able to report back to us.¡±


    ¡°Reece.¡± I shook my head at his words, but I didn¡¯t turn to look at him. ¡°That would never work. First of all, the Colonel would want to know how they found the headquarters. He would know instantly that there was something wrong.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right.¡± He agreed without hesitation. ¡°Ugh, we need to figure this out.¡±


    As Reece and I sat there, quietly contemting things that needed to be done, and how to aplish them, there was a call that rang through the room. I hadn¡¯t paid much attention to it at first, it wasn¡¯t umon for someone to get a call after all. So, initially I ignored it and let someone else take care of it. It wasn¡¯t my cell phone, so I didn¡¯t need to do anything about it.

 Chapter 1114 - 1114 Chapter 99- Trinity – A Call (VOLUME 6)

    1114 Chapter 99- Trinity ¨C A Call (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The phone kept ringing again and again. No one was making a move to answer it at all. I thought about that for a moment, and finally looked up. It was at that moment that Vincent also looked at me with a curious expression on his face.


    ¡°Are you going to get that?¡± He asked as he referenced my office phone. I hadn¡¯t been thinking about it being thendline. Most people didn¡¯t call this number anymore. It was more of a requirement of old that I still had one in the office. It was a business number, and as long as Reece and I had a business, we needed this phone in the office.


    ¡°Who could be calling right now of all times?¡± I asked as I reached toward the phone and plucked it off of the cradle.


    The moment that the phone was in my hand, I put it to my ear and spoke my greeting. For some reason though, the entire process had me feeling nervous and worried. I just knew that something was up, and that this wasn¡¯t going to be a conversation that I had expected. Something was about to happen, something that was going to make or break the situation that we were in. I don¡¯t know how I knew that, but I did.


    ¡°Hello?¡± The greeting was quick but polite. No need to make the people think that I wasn¡¯t friendly.


    ¡°Mrs. Gray?¡± The man on the other end of the line spoke in a deep yet quiet voice.


    .....


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Mrs. Trinity Gray?¡± He asked for rification. I knew that I had never heard this man¡¯s voice before. He was someone that I wasn¡¯t familiar with, but he knew who I was. That meant that he had an unfair advantage over me.


    ¡°That¡¯s me. Might I ask who I have the pleasure of speaking with?¡± I needed to get some information from this man. I knew that he was being evasive though, and that he wouldn¡¯t answer me. At least he wouldn¡¯t answer me right away. He would wait until he was ready to disclose more to me.


    ¡°For now, you can call me Mr. Doe.¡±


    ¡°Doe?¡± I asked him, not at all missing the connection here. ¡°As in the DOE?¡± I could hear a slight edge to my voice. I had not at all been prepared to talk to one of these men right now.


    ¡°Yes, Mrs. Gray. I am in fact a member, but I didn¡¯t choose to be.¡± The man¡¯s voice was a little shaky. ¡°In fact, there is a man that I am sending to see you, he should be there soon. He is one of us as well, but he was never a part of it all. And we both have something to tell you.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re sending someone here?¡± I asked him. ¡°To my home?¡± I paused for a moment, not sure if I should ask him this next question. I needed to know though, so I stopped hesitating. ¡°You know where my home is?¡±


    ¡°A select few of us do, yes. And not just me and the man on his way to see you.¡±


    ¡°And who is this man that ising to visit me?¡± At that exact moment, there was a knock on the door to my office. I could smell that it was Peter, the head butler. He had been with Reece and I since the beginning.


    ¡°I do believe that he has arrived now, Mrs. Gray. Please, he is not there to do any harm. He is there to offer you assistance, as I am as well.¡±


    ¡°Hold on a moment, Mr. Doe.¡± I set the phone down and nodded to Vincent to have him open the door.


    ¡°Good afternoon, Queen Trinity.¡± Peter, always the one for the rules, bowed to me the moment that the door was open. ¡°There is a man that has arrived just now. He is asking to speak with you. He says that you are expecting him.¡±


    ¡°What is his name?¡± I asked him with a curious look. I was wondering if he had given a real name or if he was using a fake one as well.


    ¡°His name is Kirnd rke, he says that you should be expecting him.¡±


    I took a moment to look around the room. If he was here to nt a bomb in the building, then we would smell it immediately. He wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything to us either, because he was likely human, and we definitely were not. I wasn¡¯t worried about our safety here, but I was curious as to what it was that rke and Doe wanted from us.


    ¡°Please show him in, Peter.¡± I nodded at him.


    ¡°Very well.¡± He nodded and backed away from the room. I had thought that Peter would have to go and get the man, but he was already behind Peter, waiting toe into the office.


    I was starting to think that I would need to have a conversation with Peter about this. He shouldn¡¯t let someone into the castle without permission. Then again, he was a good judge of character. And he would have been able to sniff out if the man had a weapon or a bomb. He most likely thought that any human that came here would be an ally or friend, because there weren¡¯t many humans that were actually allowed into thepound.


    The man, Kirnd rke, stepped into the office as Peter stepped away from the door. I could see that he was more of a boy. He was no older than Reagan and Rika, that was for sure. And he looked infinitely more innocent and passive than they did. Was this man really a part of the DOE?


    ¡°Thank you for seeing me, Mrs. Gray.¡± The man lowered his head, but it wasn¡¯t in respect. This was a gesture that he was used to. He was a shy man, meek and weak, he was not the confrontational type. Another reason that Peter had been able to trust him. This man wouldn¡¯t do us harm, he would be too scared to do it.


    ¡°Well, I admit that I am curious, Mr. rke. Please,e in and have a seat. Your friend is currently on the phone with me.¡± I said as I picked up the receiver and pressed a button on the base for the phone. I put it on speaker and put the handset back into the cradle.


    ¡°Hello, Doe.¡± rke said to the man as he sat in the chair that was directly in front of me.


    ¡°d to see that you made it there, rke.¡± Mr. Doe said from his end of the phone. ¡°I am going to assume that I am on speaker phone now. And that it is more than just Mrs. Gray and Mr. rke that is in the room. I do not know how many more, so do not worry about that. Be that as it may though, I would like to introduce myself, sort of. You can call me Mr. Doe. I am the second inmand of the DOE, but I did not want to be a part of this organization. And neither did Mr. rke.¡±


    ¡°He is right.¡± rke said with a slight whimper in his voice. ¡°I was forced to be a part of the BARCs before they were absorbed into the DOE.¡±


    ¡°Absorbed?¡± I asked for rification on that statement.


    ¡°When the DOE was formed, our leader gathered all of these groups from the immediate area, and some from other parts of the country altogether. He has united them into one group with amon goal.¡±


    ¡°Got it.¡± I nodded as Mr. Doe exined it to me.


    ¡°I never wanted to be a part of this life.¡± rke lowered his head. ¡°My father, uncles, and brothers are all a part of the BARCs, or they were.¡± The man looked up at me, peering through thick eyshes as letting his dark brown hair fall into his eyes. The effect made it a little more difficult to see his eyes than it normally would have been. ¡°I couldn¡¯t tell them that though. I have never been a very strong individual. I mean, I am physically strong, but I am not the type to do things on my own. And I wasn¡¯t able to stand up to my family. I was forced to follow them, but I made sure that I didn¡¯t hurt anyone. I took part in protests, begrudgingly, but I never hurt anyone. I hate guns and violence of all forms. And I don¡¯t want to be a part of the DOE. My family is there, but I don¡¯t want to be. Mr. Doe is helping me to get away because he doesn¡¯t want to be there either.¡±


    ¡°You know, Mr. Doe,¡± Reece spoke up when rke was done with his exnation, ¡°I find it hard that you are the second inmand and you don¡¯t even want to be a part of the group. Did you have a change of heart or something?¡±


    ¡°Something like that.¡± Mr. Doe said from his side of the call. ¡°You see, the leader of the DOE is someone that I have known for a long time. And when the reveal happened, he just sort of lost it. He wanted to eliminate you all. I didn¡¯t say anything to the negative, because I had been working with him for a while before that. On a special project that he had been working on. He assumed, because I had been helping him before, that I would continue to think the same way that he does. At first, I was confused and angry about the reveal, so I went along with him. However, he is off his rocker, and I don¡¯t want to be a part of this anymore. I don¡¯t think that I ever truly did. I just couldn¡¯t go against him at the time. Now I am afraid to not go against him. If he is not stopped, I am sure that he will send the world into chaos. More than it already is.¡±


    ¡°So, what is it that you need from us?¡± Shane asked from across the room. If the new voice had thrown Mr. Doe off, he didn¡¯t reveal it at all.


    ¡°What I was thinking, no, what I was hoping for, is that we can work together. I need your help to stop the Colonel. I need your help to end this. And I am sure that you want this all to stop as well.¡±


    ¡°What? No, why would we want it stopped?¡± Shane¡¯s sarcastic voice rang out and was immediately followed by his brother¡¯s scolding tone.


    ¡°Shut up, moron.¡±


    ¡°You are right, Mr. Doe. We want to stop these attacks and we want to make sure that no one else is hurt, human or not.¡± I told him in a calm voice.


    ¡°I have seen that. You are not the monsters that he ims that you are. You are good people. It just took me and a lot of other people a while to see that. I am sorry for not putting a stop to this from the beginning.¡±


    ¡°There is nothing that we can do about the past, Mr. Doe, but we can change our future. If you are willing to work with us, then we will be willing to listen to what you have to say.¡±


    I felt a quickening of my heart at that. I knew that this was something that we needed to take care of, but that didn¡¯t mean that this wasn¡¯t a scary and unusual situation. Not that I was afraid, not really, but I was wary. And I believe that the others were as well.


    I looked around the room, at those that were a part of my team, and at rke and his meek face. This could be what we were looking for. This could be our big break. We would need to tread carefully, but we could handle that, if we really needed to.

 Chapter 1115 - 1115 Chapter 100- Trinity – A Partnership (VOLUME 6)

    1115 Chapter 100- Trinity ¨C A Partnership (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    ¡°Mrs. Gray, if you are open to the idea, I would like to discuss the opportunity that we have before us.¡± Mr. Doe¡¯s voice sounded hopeful as he called out from the phone that was sitting on my desk.


    ¡°Yes, Mr. Doe, I am very interested in knowing what it is that you have in mind. I wonder now, are you able toe for a meeting in person as well?¡± I would like to meet this man in person before I decide to put too much trust into him.


    ¡°I would have liked to havee with Mr. rke, Mrs. Gray, but I am unfortunately unable to get away. I have my job that I cannot leave, and since I work with the Colonel, I cannot get away without him knowing about it. At the current moment, I will be here and Mr. rke will be our go between.¡± The man¡¯s voice did sound as if he was filled with regret and remorse.


    ¡°Alright, but what is it that we have to do?¡± Vincent said as he stepped closer to me. He was putting himself near me because he was my right hand man. At least, that was what I thought he was doing. However, he leaned in closer to me and whispered to me so that the others, and definitely Mr. Doe, couldn¡¯t hear him. ¡°Kirnd rke seems to be telling the truth at the very least, but I have never been good with testing people over the phone. It works sometimes and others it doesn¡¯t. Still, I do not believe that Mr. Doe is trying to pull one over on us.¡±


    ¡°That is exactly what I believe as well, Vincent.¡± I whispered back at him. ¡°I don¡¯t know why, but I think that we need to trust them. This could be the break that we were looking for.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡± With that, he pulled away and stood behind my chair. He was assuming his position that he was supposed to be in at the moment.


    .....


    ¡°Alright, Mr. Doe. We cannot meet in person, I understand that. So, what is it that you have in mind? How can we help each other?¡±


    ¡°I believe that you would benefit from having inside information. And while Mr. rke and I will be doing our best to pass that information along to you, I think that you might have another idea in mind.¡± He was speaking as if he knew what I had already been thinking.


    ¡°You mean a mole.¡± Dietrich asked him from across the room.


    ¡°Precisely. And while Mr. rke and I would give you what information that we have, it might not be what you are looking for. I believe that you would see the benefit of having one of your own men infiltrate the DOE.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Reece said. ¡°Not to the infiltration, but to it only being one. They will need to have backup in case something happens to them.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Mr. Doe¡¯s voice sounded as if he understood what Reece was getting at. ¡°How many would you like to send?¡± I looked at Reece at that moment, wondering the same thing. How many would be the right amount? How many should we send into that ce to find out what we can about them?


    ¡°Minimum of two. I would prefer more though, five if we can manage it.¡±


    ¡°Five might be a little difficult. We will have to make convincing profiles for them, ones that will stand up to the most rigorous of background checks. It will be easier to have two or three rather than five. I will see what we can do.¡±


    ¡°I volunteer to go.¡± Shane was already on his feet. ¡°I want to help with this as much as possible.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± I said at the same time that Reece and Mr. Doe said.


    ¡°Excuse me?¡± Shane was offended, I think that it was the stranger¡¯s refusal that had upset him.


    ¡°I know your voice, and that means that I would know your face. You have been on the news with Mr. and Mrs. Gray. You have been seen with them before, and that means that you are not a viable option here.¡±


    ¡°He is right, Shane.¡± I told him in a calm voice.


    ¡°We will find others. Besides, you are meant to be here to guard Trinity.¡± Reece told himfortingly, but that just elicited a bark from Shane that made everyone turn to stare at him. And it had also made rke jump in fear.


    ¡°What is so funny?¡± Shawn asked him, his eyebrows raised.


    ¡°There is no one on this that needs to protect Trinity.¡± Shane grinned at me. ¡°She is the one that is protecting us. We¡¯re just there to deal with what she doesn¡¯t want to do.¡± Everyone in the room, and I do mean everyone, smiled at his words.


    ¡°Be that as it may, Shane, you need to stay here. We will send someone else.¡±


    ¡°I will go.¡± Landon said as he rose to his feet. ¡°I am not recognizable.¡±


    ¡°I will go too.¡± Trevor rose to his feet.


    ¡°You probably won¡¯t be a good fit. While you have the right look, you would be a little too tall for this job. They will likely think that something is up.¡±


    ¡°What about me?¡± Carter stepped forward. ¡°We all know that I have a knack for going undercover.¡± He was making a reference to what he used to do for our pack a long time ago. Not only that, but his ability that he has worked to perfect over the years has made him more chameleon-like than not. He can literally hide in in sight if he needs to.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°You would be good as well.¡±


    ¡°Should we send a woman?¡± Reece asked as he looked around the room at the few that we had to offer here.


    ¡°No.¡± Both rke and Mr. Doe said the word loudly and with vehemence.


    ¡°The Colonel would not allow a woman to get info in the ranks.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Juniper stood and stepped closer. ¡°But from what Gerald Ramie told Reece, the women are there. They are keeping house and might know more than the Colonel would like to admit.¡±


    ¡°What are you getting at?¡± Paul asked as he rose as well.


    ¡°Just that a woman going undercover might be a good idea. I can go there with them and infiltrate thedies of the group. I can find out what they know and we can see the information from all sides.¡±


    ¡°If you go then I go.¡± Paul wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. They were still so very much in love.


    ¡°Then that makes four.¡± Mr. Doe said from the other end of the call. ¡°I can make identities for the four of them and have them ready by the end of the day.¡±


    ¡°We can do that as well.¡± Rawlynne said defensively. ¡°I might have resources that you do not.¡±


    ¡°No offense, Agent Otsana, but I am sure that I have more tools at my disposal than you do. I will handle this and send it over to you this evening. If you are in agreement, then the four that you wish to infiltrate the DOE will leave with Mr. rke first thing in the morning.¡±


    ¡°Are you four OK with that?¡± I asked them, even though I would have liked to have just agreed with Mr. Doe right away.


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    ¡°No problem.¡±


    ¡°Sure thing.¡±


    ¡°No worries, Trin.¡± They all nodded and gave their assent.


    ¡°Alright, Mr. Doe, they will leave when the files are ready. What exactly are they supposed to do when they get there?¡±


    ¡°I will let them know about that when I send the filester. I will also tell you where the base of operations currently is. However, I am sure that it will be moving soon. The Colonel is getting increasingly more paranoid. I am sure that there will be a situationing to a head soon.¡±


    ¡°I think that you are right.¡± I agreed with him as I thought about what Odin had said.


    Perhaps Mr. Doe and rke were here to truly help us. Or maybe they were part of the problem that Odin had warned us about. I didn¡¯t know for sure, but I was hoping that they were part of the former. I would like to catch a break here at some point, and not having to worry about the possible end of the world, or whatever else could go wrong in this time of uncertainty, would be a great thing.


    I was willing to put my trust in these two men. They were the ones that sought me out. They were here to help us and, and they had asked for our help as well. This was a mutual thing between us. We would, with all hope, be able to see this through to the end and take out that entire group. And everyone that took part in the actual crimes, the bombings and other attacks, would be arrested. Others, like rke, would be free to go. He couldn¡¯t be the only one in the group that didn¡¯t want to participate.


    I was still lost in thought, writing things down as I went, when Vincent and Gabriel guided rke from the room. They were taking him to the front door and advising him where to stay for the time being. He wasn¡¯tfortable staying in the castle, but that was understandable. He was, however, staying with someone in thepound. He wasn¡¯t getting away from us, just not staying in the intimidating castle.


    Now that things were getting started, the rest of us started to talk about what was going to happen when Landon, Carter, Paul and Juniper left tomorrow. We needed to talk about what they should do if they were caught, and what it was that they should be keeping an eye out for. There was a lot that needed to be dealt with, and we only had one night to take care of this.


    Later that night, about eight in the evening, Mr. Doe called back and advised that the files were in the system. He asked that Rawlynne, or whoever would be doing the background checks, pull up the names that he had set for them. Landon was going in as Brandon Evans, Carter was now known as William Porter, Paul and Juniper were going in as Travis and Janelle Downs. Mr. Doe had used their real photographs and their real fingerprints. And, for the time being, there was no record of who they used to be. Those files were now hidden somehow.


    ¡°This is way advanced.¡± Rawlynne said as she looked at me. ¡°This is better than I would have been able to do.¡±


    ¡°Do you think that he works for aw enforcement agency?¡± Shane asked as he looked at the screens and the information that was disyed on them.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but we can¡¯t rule that out. Whoever he is, he is powerful, and that means that it is best to have him as an ally and not an enemy.¡± I was having the same thoughts that they were. There was no way that there was this level of information avable on these profiles if he wasn¡¯t in some sort ofw enforcement. Not only that, but he had known who they all were based on just their first names. And that meant that he knew a lot about me and Reece and the people that were around us.


    ¡°This is a little eerie.¡± Reece whispered as he looked over the information that was in the file.


    ¡°Agreed.¡± Several voices mirrored him as they tried to contemte what had just happened.


    This was done now though. And that meant that the others were able to leave in the morning with rke. They would be infiltrating the DOE and finding out all that they could. They had cell phones that were registered in other states, also courtesy of the mysterious Mr. Doe. And they had a means of contacting us if things went wrong. Other than that though, we needed to wait until they were able to set up a meeting like the one that Mr. Doe had done.


    Now it was just a waiting game. It was time for us to put our faith in these two men that hade to us for help. I knew that I needed to trust them, and I did, but that didn¡¯t mean that I wasn¡¯t at least a little bit leery of them. I was sending in my brother, my best friend who was like a sister to me, and her husband that was a brother by marriage to me, and one of Reece¡¯s best friends and pseudo brother.


    These were people that were close to us and important to us. And they were going into a dangerous situation. This was not going to be an easy time for any of us. We were all going to have to do our best though and just try to make it through until the end. Hopefully, we will be able to end this all very soon. The sooner the better.

 Chapter 1116 - 1116 Chapter 101- Carter – Going Undercover (VOLUME 6)

    1116 Chapter 101- Carter ¨C Going Undercover (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Carter


    ~~


    I knew one thing for certain. Emmalee wasn¡¯t going to be happy. I had made the offer to go undercover as soon as my sister mentioned that she needed someone to do so. I had done it as an instinctual thing. I have always been good at undercover jobs. I mean, if I wasn¡¯t, then I wouldn¡¯t have met Emmalee in the first ce. And not only that, but after my sister started to hand out Goddess gifts like they were candy on Halloween, I got even better at undercover jobs.


    I was able to blend in when I needed to, no one would be able to notice me if I didn¡¯t want them to. When I wasn¡¯t undercover and therefore not hiding, I was the type of person that stood out. I think that was why no one ever suspected me of the deceit that it took to hide in in sight. I was good at this kind of work.


    Still, I knew that my mate, my wife, the love of my life, was going to be angry, beyond angry. She was going to yell at me and ask why I had decided to volunteer for this opportunity. It wasn¡¯t like my sister didn¡¯t have other people at her disposal and all that.


    Yes, Trinity had more people that she could count on. She had more people than I could fucking count, but that didn¡¯t matter to me. She was my sister, my family, and my Queen. She needed me, and that was it. Not only that, but I hadn¡¯t done much to help my sister over the years. I have been busy with my own life. I had my pack, my wife, and my three kids CJ, Leeah, and Bryson. We were busy with life, but through all of this, I had still done my best to be there for my sister. I never left her hanging when there was a major incident, and I never would.


    And I knew that Emmalee was just as loyal to my sister. The two had bonded the first time that they had met, and they¡¯ve always been close. Even if it was just their weekly phone calls, that they still kept up on. Now though, it was more of Emmalee offering a sort of girl talk therapy for Trinity with all that has been going on. I tended not to stay in the room for those calls. Men shouldn¡¯t be privy to those types of talks.


    ¡°Hahh.¡± I sighed disheartened as I stepped through the door that my sister made for me. I needed to go home and pack my bags, and then to spend the rest of the night with my family before I went undercover for the first time in over fifteen years.


    .....


    I stepped through the door from my sister¡¯s office into my own office. It was the same as it always was, sleek, modern, and filled with contrasting whites and cks. The room was bright, but the furniture was ck. It was just how I wanted it. This room was familiar to me,fortable, a sort of sanctuary. And I was so tempted to just stay in here while I waited out the night. I couldn¡¯t do that though. It would be far too rude to my family.


    Taking another deep and rxing breath, I steadied myself and opened the door to my office. Just as I swung it in toward me, there was a blur that streaked in front of me.


    ¡°Dad!?¡± I heard Bryson¡¯s voice call out to me as he skidded to a halt. ¡°You¡¯re home!¡± He was turning around to face me as he started to run again. I knew what was about to happen. He may be eleven now, but he was an excitable and loving kid. The little bundle of energy that was my youngest son leapt toward me and threw his arms around my neck.


    ¡°Hey buddy.¡± I hugged him back before letting him swing himself around and position himself on my back.


    ¡°Onward steed! Mother says it is time for dinner.¡±


    ¡°Oh, so I made it in time. That¡¯s good.¡± I smiled as I started to pretend to gallop. I was d that I was here in time for the meal. I knew that they were eatingte because of me, but I didn¡¯t know that they hadn¡¯t gotten around to the actual meal yet. I felt bad about that, but I was also happy that I made it just in time.


    Galloping into the dining room with Bryson on my shoulders, I heard another happy voice, the one that I loved the most in the world.


    ¡°Carter, I didn¡¯t know you were back yet.¡± She had stopped in the middle of the doorway between the dining room and the kitchen.


    ¡°Mrs. Emmalee?¡± The chef called out to her, as he had obviously been trying toe through to this side. ¡°Is everything OK?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Henry, everything is fine. I was just surprised to see that Carter is home.¡±


    ¡°No worries on the meal, Ma¡¯am. There is more than enough prepared for him. Would you like me to set another ce for him. I can finish up in here for you. You can go and spend time with Mr. Carter.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Henry.¡± I called out to him and that got my Emmalee moving. She came over toward me as I slid Bryson off of my back and to the floor.


    ¡°Eww, don¡¯t kiss right now.¡± Leeah said as I pulled Emmalee into my arms.


    ¡°Hush, Lee. Dad¡¯s been busy with worktely, let them be happy together.¡± CJ said as he sat in his chair. ¡°Just because you¡¯re fourteen and think that all grownups are old losers, doesn¡¯t make it true.¡± Leeah was a teenager now, and she was going through a stage of rebellion that I had not been prepared for.


    ¡°Urgh.¡± She groaned disapprovingly as I ignored her request and kissed Emmalee lightly on the lips.


    ¡°Hey, Dad loves Mom, that is a good thing.¡± Bryson said a tone that showed he didn¡¯t quite understand his sister and her aversion to the kiss.


    ¡°Wait until you¡¯re older, brat. Then you can talk to me about this kind of thing.¡± Leeah rolled her eyes and took her seat while I justughed.


    ¡°You¡¯re only four years older than me, geez.¡± Bryson was frustrated as he took his seat.


    ¡°Come on guys, let¡¯s calm down and have a nice family dinner.¡± I told them as I sat in my seat at the head of the table.


    ¡°If I even have an appetite to eat now. Urk! I don¡¯t think I can hold anything down anymore.¡±


    ¡°Leeah!¡± Emmalee snapped at her. ¡°You¡¯re skating on thin ice, youngdy. That attitude of yours has been a little too muchtely.¡±


    ¡°I just don¡¯t want to see the PDA between you two. Is that so wrong?¡± Leeah took her fork and stabbed at the food on her te. ¡°I am a growing child, I am not supposed to be subjected to your pornography.¡±


    ¡°LEEAH!¡± Me, Emmalee, and CJ all yelled at her at the same time.


    ¡°What¡¯s pornography?¡± Bryson asked.


    ¡°None of your business.¡± I snapped a little more loudly than I intended to. ¡°And as for you youngdy, a chaste kiss with your mother is not pornography. You need to watch that mouth of yours or you will find yourself in trouble.¡±


    ¡°OK, fine, whatever.¡± She rolled her eyes again and popped the food into her mouth from the fork. I guess she wasn¡¯t too sick to eat after all.


    For a little while, the meal continued as it usually did, even Leeah¡¯s attitude had be the new normal around here. She had been this way since a little after her thirteenth birthday. It wasn¡¯t an overnight change when she became a teenager, but it happened eventually.


    After a little while, I felt that I needed to broach the subject of me leaving in the morning. I needed them to know that they weren¡¯t going to see me for a little while. I would call when I was able to, but it wouldn¡¯t be every day or anything like that. I was going to be undercover after all, so I couldn¡¯t be too obvious with it all.


    ¡°So, Emmalee, I uh¡­ I need to tell you something.¡± She looked up at me as she was almost done with the meal. I saw that CJ was also looking at me. He was neen now, and he was used to paying attention to everything around us. He was learning how to be a leader, and that meant listening to everything that you were able to.


    ¡°Well, what is it?¡± Emmelee¡¯s beautiful green eyes focused on me at that moment. She was beautiful, and so delicate looking. However, I knew that the fragility was a ruse, and that she was a true beast when she needed to be. And that was why there was a hard steely edge to the green of her eyes.


    ¡°Well, sweetheart, I have been asked to go undercover.¡± I didn¡¯t tell her that I had volunteered for it. I valued my life too much for her to know that part of the truth.


    ¡°Undercover? You haven¡¯t done that in a long time.¡± Her eyes were narrowed and a little darker now. ¡°Why would you be going undercover?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s the case with the DOE. They need someone on the inside.¡±


    ¡°But Aunt Trinity has a lot of other people that can go undercover.¡± CJ¡¯s eyes were narrowed as well. ¡°You¡¯re an Alpha of your own pack, you shouldn¡¯t be doing this.¡±


    ¡°I am also sworn to the crown, her brother, and the only person that she has ever gifted with a Goddess ability that is meant for going undercover. I am literally the best option for something like this.¡± I told him, and in turn told Emmalee as well.


    ¡°That is true.¡± CJ nodded as he agreed with me. ¡°Still, it¡¯s unusual. When are you leaving?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the thing. I am leaving tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°WHAT!¡± That was echoed by two people. Emmalee, of course, had cried out in shock when she heard the news, but the other hade from Leeah of all people.


    ¡°You can¡¯t go undercover so suddenly, Dad, that isn¡¯t right.¡±


    ¡°I admit, Leeah, I thought that you would be happy. You wouldn¡¯t see me kissing your mom anymore.¡± I spoke yfully, trying to take the seriousness out of the situation.


    ¡°That isn¡¯t the point here, Dad.¡± She snapped at me. ¡°You can¡¯t just leave.¡±


    ¡°I am already set and prepared to go. The contact in the DOE that we have has made a fake profile for me. It will make sure that I am able to assimte myself into their group with no issues at all.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t like this.¡± Emmalee shook her head. ¡°Not one bit.¡±


    ¡°I will be careful, sweetheart. I promise.¡± I took her hand and squeezed it firmly.


    ¡°Are you going to be a secret agent spy?¡± Bryson asked, talking with his mouth full as he did so.


    ¡°In a way, yes. I will be undercover like a secret agent.¡±


    ¡°That is so cool. Can you tell me all about it when you get home?¡± His eyes were shining and filled with wonder.


    ¡°Sure thing, buddy.¡± I ruffled his hair with a smile.


    ¡°Why so soon? Why do you have to leave tomorrow?¡± There was sadness in Emmalee¡¯s eyes then.


    ¡°It is just best if we leave sooner rather thanter.¡± I told her honestly. ¡°I am sorry, sweetheart, I know that you don¡¯t want me to leave, but I have to do this. I am the only one that can do this job, you know that as well as I do.


    ¡°I know.¡± She sniffled a little. ¡°I just really hate when things get this bad. Things are dangerous right now, Carter. And I don¡¯t know what is going to happen to us all.¡±


    ¡°I know, it¡¯s not a good situation for our people at the moment, but I am working on changing that. I want to help get rid of the DOE. I want to make the world safer for our people and the humans at the same time. That is the best oue here. Don¡¯t you want to know that your husband was a part of saving the world?¡±


    ¡°I would rather know that my husband was safe with his family.¡± I saw the redness in her eyes when she looked up to me then. ¡°Promise me that you will be safe, Carter. Promise me that no matter what happens, you won¡¯t do anything to get yourself hurt. I won¡¯t be able to handle it if I lost you.¡±


    ¡°I promise, sweetheart. I will not do anything to get hurt.¡± She leaned into me then, pressing her face against my chest. She was not having a good time of things at the moment. This was hard for her, for all of them.


    I spent the rest of the night with the family, even moody Leeah who seemed to want more to do with me than usual. In the morning, I was prepared to leave.

 Chapter 1117 - 1117 Chapter 102- Trinity – Sending Some Spies (VOLUME 6)

    1117 Chapter 102- Trinity ¨C Sending Some Spies (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The morning came all too quickly. I knew that Carter, Landon, Paul and Juniper were all going to be leaving as soon as we finalized a few things with rke and Mr. Doe. They were going to be out there on their own, no instructions or anything like that. They were supposed to just wing it. I knew that, and I trusted them to do what they needed to, but I was still worried about them.


    I was a bit of a nervous wreck when I went down to breakfast with Reece in the morning. I was worrying about all the things that could go wrong while they were gone, and what it was that I would do if they were to get hurt. How would I know that they needed me if they weren¡¯t able to contact me?


    Well, that wouldn¡¯t really happen, now would it. They could contact me mentally, like they could with so many other people. The kids in the pack and themunity atrge hadn¡¯t learned that skill yet, but they had. They would be able to tell me what they needed to whenever they needed to.


    Damn, I have been letting the humans influence me too muchtely. I waspletely forgetting that they would be able to report to me nightly and that they didn¡¯t need to get away. What the hell was the matter with me? And not only that, but if they were to somehow get hurt, they could just tell me where they were and then I would be able to open a door to them immediately. This wasn¡¯t that bad at all.


    I think that I perked up a little before breakfast even started, and by the time that I was done with the food, the kids didn¡¯t act like they had even suspected that anything was off. They wereughing and acting as casual as always. Well, aside from Reagan and Rika. They knew what was happening, so they had some slight reservations about the situation, just like I had.


    Finally, moving to my office and meeting the undercover spies before they left, I let them all see that I wasn¡¯t scared about this mission of theirs at all.


    .....


    ¡°You look to be happy.¡± Shawn said with wondering eyes as he looked me over. ¡°I thought that for sure you would be worried about them as they went undercover. I mean, your brother, your best friend and her husband, and a man that Reece considers to be a brother, they are all close to you.¡±


    ¡°Yes, but I know that Carter-, oh, uhm, I mean William Porter, Brandon Evans and Travis and Janelle Downs will all be just fine. There is nothing to worry about here. I mean, I was worried, until I thought about it a little more.¡±


    ¡°They are going to be in the enemy¡¯s camp, so to speak.¡± Athair m¨°r said in a serious tone. ¡°This is not something to take lightly.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I know. And I was probably more of a wreck than any of you are right now.¡±


    ¡°That is true.¡± Reece nodded as he swept me into his arms and hugged me from behind. ¡°She was so nervous and worried that she looked like she was going to cry and throw up at the same time.¡±


    ¡°Gee, thanks for that.¡± I rolled my eyes at his words. ¡°Anyway, I stopped worrying when I actually thought about it.¡±


    ¡°They are going to be in there with no phones at first. They are going to be among enemies, this is serious.¡± Dietrich spoke in a chastising tone as he tried to remind me of what I already knew.


    ¡°Yes, I know. But like me, you seem to have let the humans influence youtely. We have been worried about them and their way of lifetely, and we have all forgotten one crucial thing.¡±


    ¡°And what is that?¡± David asked in a quizzical tone.


    ¡°They can contact me mentally, any of us mentally. They are going to be safe, there is nothing to worry about. I mean,e on, we¡¯ve had this ability for almost twenty years, and still we forget sometimes. Isn¡¯t that funny?¡± I actually didugh at that, and I wasn¡¯t the only one either. The others started to join in my maniacal moment after a second until the room was filled withughter and we no longer worried about anything. Actually, it wasn¡¯t until rk and Peter were at the door that we stoppedughing. I knew that they thought I was crazy when they saw me, but I didn¡¯t care.


    ¡°Good morning to you, Mrs. Gray.¡± rke bowed his head in the same way that he saw Peter bowing to me.


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to bow, Mr. rke, you are not a part of my kingdom.¡±


    ¡°If it¡¯s alright with you, Mrs. Gray, I would rather just follow his lead. I don¡¯t want to offend someone. Also, you can just call me Kirk.¡±


    ¡°Alright, Kirk.¡± I nodded at him and epted his willingness to submit to a Queen that wasn¡¯t human. ¡°Now, if you are ready to go, I am sure that these four are quite prepared as well.¡±


    ¡°Of course, we will leave as soon as everyone is ready, however, might I ask what was so funny when we arrived?¡±


    ¡°It was nothing. I was just showing the others that we have absolutely no reason to be worried about them all going undercover. There were a few things that we were letting ourselves forget in the panic of the situation.¡±


    ¡°I am afraid that I do not follow you.¡± Kirk looked apprehensive as he spoke, I had a feeling that apprehensive was his normal.


    ¡°We have some abilities, given to the others when I acquired them myself. And one of them is the ability to speak with each other telepathically. We don¡¯t always use it, because just popping into someone¡¯s head is rude, and can interrupt some situations.¡± I left the end of that vague on purpose. He didn¡¯t need to know that I never wanted to be interrupted through a mental link when Reece and I were being intimate.


    ¡°Ahh, yes, I understand.¡± And it seemed that he did get the meaning of it.


    ¡°Not to mention, Kirk, I have the ability to open those doors. If someone were to be in trouble, if they needed a quick exit, then I would be able to take them away with a quick door. I don¡¯t think that we need to worry about any of them as they go undercover. And make sure that you also stay in contact with me. You are on our side, Kirk, and I don¡¯t want anything happening to you either.¡±


    ¡°I appreciate that, Mrs. Gray, but I am afraid that I will not be able to stay near them too much. I will have to answer to my family about my absence.¡± He looked terrified about the prospect.


    ¡°You know, Kirk, I sincerely wish that I could do something to help you.¡± I stepped closer to him as I spoke, and thest word was spoken as I grabbed onto his hand. He had flinched a little, but he didn¡¯t pull away. Although, I think that it was because he wasn¡¯t able to pull away.


    The moment that I took Kirk¡¯s hand in my own, I felt a jolt of power and magic that practically glued our hands together. There was a light blue light, so pale it was almost white, that red between us for a moment. It didn¡¯tst long, but it was enough to scare him.


    With eyes as wide as saucers, and a heart that was beating so hard and fast that people a floor above or below us probably heard it.


    ¡°Wh..what was that?¡± He asked me in a barely there voice.


    ¡°That was my wish being granted.¡± I told him with a smile. ¡°It was a simple bit of magic, nothing too much, but you will be able to talk to me mentally now as well. I ask that you use it if you need to. And I don¡¯t mean that you are dying, I mean if anything at all is threatening you. If you are about to be beaten by your family again, call me. Tell me where you are, with a description if you are in a hidden ce. And I wille and get you. I promise you, Kirk, I won¡¯t let anything happen to you.¡±


    ¡°R..really?¡± He was looking at me like a deer caught in the headlights of an approaching truck. He was shocked, worried, and more than a little frozen.


    ¡°Yes, Kirk, really. You are an ally of mine, and I don¡¯t let my people or my allies get hurt. Not if I can help it.¡±


    ¡°You truly are amazing, Mrs. Gray. I don¡¯t know what to say, or how I will ever be able to thank you.¡±


    ¡°Do not worry about it too much, Kirk. This is the least that I can do for you.¡±


    ¡°N..n..n..no, th..this is amazing. This is sp..sp..special.¡± He was trying not to cry as he spoke. He was not a man with a strong disposition, I couldn¡¯t understand why his family ever thought that he would make a good addition to the ranks of any extremist group.


    ¡°Just do your best, Kirk. Stay out of trouble, and let me know if you need me.¡±


    ¡°U..uh..uhm, Mrs. Gr..Gr..Gray, I..I uh, I have something that I need to tell you.¡± He looked sheepish and nervous, but a little more bold than he was a moment ago. ¡°Y..you know those c..c..calls that you got before? A..a..about the bombings?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± I nodded at him as I thought about them, and how helpful they had been in saving the people and buildings.


    ¡°W..w..well, I uhm, I was the one that was calling you. I used a voice changer and called when I was able to. M..M..Mr. Doe helped me as well. He wanted to make sure that no one was hurt.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Kirk. I am more grateful to you than you would ever know. And it was because you had been calling me that I was under the impression that Ramie was working alone. I hadn¡¯t gotten the warning call from you that time. I was hoping that it wasn¡¯t just the inside source that we seemed to have didn¡¯t change their mind. You have been a huge help to us all, Kirk. You are a good man.¡±


    ¡°Th..thank you.¡± He blushed crimson and I knew right then that he wasn¡¯t used to gettingpliments. His family obviously hadn¡¯t given him any in his life.


    I went over the information with Carter, Landon, Juniper, and Paul once more. We went over their files and their ages. They were obviously going to be younger than they actually were, because none of them looked to be in theirte thirties and early forties. They would be acting like people who had left jobs or universities that were filled with ¡®inhuman monsters¡¯ and wanted to get to some ce that was safe for them. That was why they had decided to join the DOE.


    And as a cover story for Kirk, Mr. Doe was going to make sure that everyone knew that he had sent him toe and get the new recruits. They were all supposed to be from Florida, nowhere near Colorado here. And, of course, Mr. Doe had made it so that there was a flight record for Kirk and the others, even though they had not flown here at all. He was very thorough when he needed to be. Almost too thorough that it was bordering on scary.


    I made sure that I talked to everyone individually before they left, it was the least that I could do. I loved them all so much, and I wanted to show them that.


    ¡°Trinity, will you and Reece keep an eye on the kids? My parents are going to help with Leaf and Willow, and na and Rowan are adults now, but still keep an eye on them for me. Especially na and Rowan. I don¡¯t want them to do anything dangerous or reckless.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that is reserved for you.¡± I smiled and hugged her. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Juniper, I will keep them safe. You don¡¯t need to worry about that at all.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Trinity. I appreciate that.¡±


    When Carter hugged me goodbye, there were no tears. He was smiling andughing. He was used to this kind of work.


    ¡°You might need to avoid Emmalee for a bit.¡± He chuckled as he pulled away from the hug.


    ¡°Why?¡± I narrowed my eyes at him.


    ¡°She thinks that you assigned me to this mission.¡±


    ¡°You, little sneak.¡± Iughed at him. ¡°You are such a coward.¡±


    ¡°Hey, she really is scary, Trinity. I just couldn¡¯t tell her the truth.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I get it.¡± Reeceughed and that made me roll my eyes at them both.

 Chapter 1118 - 1118 Chapter 103- Juniper – Undercover Part 1 (VOLUME 6)

    1118 Chapter 103- Juniper ¨C Undercover Part 1 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Juniper


    ~~


    When it was time to leave for the DOE headquarters, I wasn¡¯t nervous at all. I was confident that I would be able to do what I needed to. I knew that I would be able to maintain my cover story, and make everyone there think that I was Janelle Downs. And I knew that, even though I wouldn¡¯t be where the heart of the action was, I would be able to find out some very useful information.


    I knew that not everyone was as optimistic about my mission as I was, but I knew that there was a reason that I was needed for this mission. I would show them all that I was a vital part of this mission. I would prove to them that they needed me here. And for crying out fucking loud, I would make sure that Paul knew that I didn¡¯t need him to guard me every minute of the day.


    For one thing, he wouldn¡¯t be with me while we were at the DOE. Yeah, there might be times when we were together, but for the most part, ording to what Kirk had told us, even the married couples were kept separate for a majority of the time. This Colonel asshole was a real fucking dick when it came to women. I just knew that I was going to get along with him splendidly. If he would just let me be alone in the same room as him, I might be able to put an end to this whole thing before anything else started to happen.


    That wouldn¡¯t happen though, not with the way that the Colonel was reported to be. He wouldn¡¯t let any woman be alone with him unless they were proven to be quiet and meek. He needed them for physical attention and that was it. The moment that a woman started to have ideas around him, that was the end of their usefulness. It sounded so disgusting and primitive that it made me want to roll my eyes.


    I just couldn¡¯t believe that someone like that Colonel had the audacity to call us animals, beasts, and monsters when he treated people like that. I was surprised that there were any women in all of the DOE that would sleep with him. How they could stomach his bullshit was beyond me.


    Together, me, Paul, Carter and Landon traveled with Kirk from the airport that we magically arrived at via Trinity¡¯s door, to the DOE headquarters in Benkelman, Nebraska. We had been correct in assuming that this was the city that they had taken up residence. It was perfect for their needs because it had all that they wanted in a poption. Absolutely no super natural beings, and a pure white poption. It was as closed off from other influences as it was possible to be.


    .....


    The headquarters itself was underground. That was also something that I had anticipated. They couldn¡¯t be open about what they were doing. Or about the fact that there were more DOE members than there were citizens of the actual city. There literally were only six hundred and seventy-three people that lived in Benkelman, yet there were over seven hundred members of the DOE that were living in the underground caves that connected several basements on the outskirts of the city¡¯s limits.


    These basements, as Kirk had exined them, had been erged and connected back in the days between World War I and World War II. They were meant to act as new homes for the citizens if there were any bombs that were dropped near the area. They would live out their time in the underground if they needed to. That hadn¡¯t happened though, so most of them had gone to ruin.


    Over the first week after the announcement of the super naturals that were living among the humans, the Colonel hadmandeered these buildings that led to the entrances and exits to the underground system. The homes that they were in had been empty, so it didn¡¯t take much for him to acquire them.


    After the Colonel got the homes in his possession, they quickly worked on sprucing things up. And to the eyes of themunity atrge, there were only another dozen residents in their little part of the world. Just some people living in those four ess buildings. In truth though, there was far more than that.


    I followed the others into the first of the houses that was on a street in Benkelman. The street was just called Old 34, no suffix like road, street, avenue, or anything like that. Just Old 34, nothing else.


    The inside of the house was clean. It was clear that the women of the DOE were keeping things as clean and orderly as possible. There was no evidence that the ce had been empty for years. It looked like a well maintained family home now. And the yard was also very neat and orderly.


    I saw four people in the main part of the house, all curious as to who the neers with Kirk were. They eyed us suspiciously as we were taken to the stairs and down to the subterranean levels. I did my best to act like I didn¡¯t even notice them or their quizzical looks.


    Kirk was met at the bottom of the stairs by a man that I had never seen before. However, I did recognize his voice when he spoke.


    ¡°Thank you, Barnd.¡± Mr. Doe said as he looked us over.


    ¡°You are wee.¡± Kirk nodded. ¡°I brought them just as you asked me to.¡±


    ¡°Barnd?¡± A man about the same age as Kirk called out. ¡°Where have you been?¡± The man looked simr to him, like he was a brother or something like that. They both had brown eyes, of a simr shade, and they both had brown hair, but they looked like they werepletely different in every other way, and that all came down to the way they held themselves. The new man was a lot more confident than Kirk was.


    ¡°Barcley, what are you doing here? I thought that you had a mission toplete.¡±


    ¡°I got back this morning. Uncle Barcster said that he didn¡¯t know where you disappeared to.¡±


    ¡°Well, Dad wasn¡¯t aware of it. Mr. Doe asked me to fetch some new recruits for him.¡± Kirk looked over at the man that had greeted us at the bottom of the stairs.


    ¡°Indeed, I did.¡± He nodded. ¡°Thank you for bringing them here, Barnd. I will take them from here. Come to see meter, I will have you show them around and to their quarters.¡±


    ¡°Why did you bring a woman?¡± The man, Barcley, sneered the words at me.


    ¡°She was invited to join her husband.¡± Mr. Doe told him in a tone that didn¡¯t allow for arguments.


    ¡°Whatever.¡± Barcley stormed off, ignoring Mr. Doe and Kirk altogether.


    ¡°That man needs to check his attitude.¡± Mr. Doe shook his head. ¡°He is too much of a loose cannon.¡±


    ¡°My cousin has always been like that.¡± Kirk sighed. ¡°I will go and let my father know where I was. I am sure that he is angry with me.¡±


    ¡°Just tell him that you were on a mission for me, Barnd. That will clear it all up.¡± Mr. Doe patted the younger man on the shoulder before he walked away. ¡°You four, follow me. It¡¯s time to meet the Colonel.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± Carter said as he started to follow after Mr. Doe.


    We were led through the winding tunnels under the ground. It felt vaguely ustrophobic in the corridors, but the rooms wererge and seemed normal, if a little dark. When we reached arge door that was guarded by two men with guns, I was sure that we had reached the Colonel¡¯s office.


    ¡°Stand down.¡± Mr. Doe told them as they moved to step in front of us. ¡°They are with me.¡±


    ¡°Sir, the Colonel has said that he doesn¡¯t want-.¡± One of the guards started to protest, but Mr. Doe interrupted him immediately.


    ¡°I said stand down. Do you want to be on the receiving end of my anger?¡± the man visibly flinched at Mr. Doe¡¯s words.


    ¡°No, Sir.¡± He spoke in a voice that didn¡¯t betray his fear at all, but his eyes showed it clearly enough. He was terrified of the man known as Mr. Doe.


    Now that we had sessfully dealt with the guards at the door, Mr. Doe led us through the entryway and into the room beyond. It was indeed an office, and a veryrge one at that. It also looked like he had just recently moved into this space, like this part of the tunnel had been blocked off until just the other day.


    ¡°Ooh, what do we have here, Ashton?¡± The Colonel was clearly talking to Mr. Doe, so that was the first clue to his identity.


    ¡°I have brought some new recruits to meet you, Colonel.¡± Mr. Doe smiled at him and then looked over at the four of us that were waiting in the background. None of us flinched. None of us looked scared. None of us responded at all. We were as calm as we could be.


    ¡°I¡¯m impressed. They are not as scared of me as the others are. Where did you get these ones from?¡±


    ¡°They were part of a new independent group that I tracked down in Florida. They are very good at what they do, so I thought that they would make great additions to the team.¡±


    ¡°Well, all except for the woman. Women have no ce in war like this.¡± I felt my hackles bristling at the Colonel¡¯s words. I wanted to hit him, but I needed to maintain my silence.


    ¡°She is good at what she does. She has been supporting these three since they started out. She can join the otherdies.¡± Mr. Doe took the focus off of me and I was d, if the Colonel focused on me too much, he might sense my attitude toward him.


    Not only did I not want the Colonel to sense my hostility, but I didn¡¯t want him to know that I was using magic. I had been working slowly at manipting his perception of us. I wanted him to trust the guyspletely, enough to put them high up in the group. It would be a lot easier this way. I knew that I was going to be with the other women, that was fine, but these three needed to be part of the inner groups so that they knew what was going to happen in advance.


    ¡°They look capable, that is for sure.¡± The Colonel nodded in agreement with Mr. Doe. ¡°They are wee to join, permitting that they swear allegiance to me and me alone.¡±


    ¡°They already have.¡± Mr. Doe told him, the words sounded truthful, even though they were bold faced lies.


    ¡°Wonderful. Have someone set them up in the dormitory. Oh, and you.¡± Mr. Doe turned to look at me with narrowed eyes. ¡°The women are only permitted one night per week with their husbands. Be sure to follow that rule or you will be out of here. And I don¡¯t mean that you would be free to go. Once you join the DOE, you are in it for the rest of your life, one way or another.¡± The threat was in in his words. ¡®Comply or die¡¯. Well now, wasn¡¯t that just a pleasant thought? I wonder how many of his own recruits he had already killed, or that he nned on killing eventually. That wasn¡¯t aforting thought.


    ¡°Yes, Sir.¡± I nodded at him, not giving anything away.


    ¡°Very well then. Follow the rules that Ashton here gives you, and we won¡¯t have any problems at all.¡± The Colonel was more than a little unhinged. I couldn¡¯t believe that anyone in their right mind would follow that asshat around like he was a God. Then again, they probably weren¡¯t in their right mind, and that was the problem. They would have been as crazy as he was. And that was why Mr. Doe wanted to put an end to all of this nonsense.

 Chapter 1119 - 1119 Chapter 104- Juniper – Undercover Part 2 (VOLUME 6)

    1119 Chapter 104- Juniper ¨C Undercover Part 2 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Juniper


    ~~


    Mr. Doe guided us through the tunnels. If you added them all up, there were at least fifteen thousand square feet of underground rooms, and that didn¡¯t count the hallways that connected them all. This ce was huge, and probably a lot bigger than I even realized at the moment.


    There were dorms on opposite ends of the subterranean structure for the men and the women. There was also ten times the space for the men than there was for the women. The otherdies and I, maybe thirty in all, were all cramped into four rooms that weren¡¯t overlyrge, while the men hadrge spacious rooms with two to four men per room at most. Carter, Landon, and Paul were all put into one room together.


    There was a mess hall, a kitchen,mon rooms, work rooms, offices, meeting rooms, and of course bathrooms. There was electricity and running water, so there was nothing to worry about. And the heating down here wasn¡¯t that bad, all things considered, not that it would have bothered us. I was sure that we would be able to handle all of this without an issue.


    There were six other women in the dormitory room that I was staying in. There were five bunk beds in the room that we were sharing, and a trunk along the side of the room for all of our belongings. I was d that I didn¡¯t bring anything that was overly valuable. I was sure that it would go missing sooner rather thanter.


    ¡°Hi, wee to the green group.¡± A cheerful brte said as I stepped into the room ahead of Mr. Doe. She was already greeting me before he had said anything to the rest of the room.


    ¡°Hi.¡± I smiled and tried to look cheerful as well.


    .....


    ¡°Ladies, this is Janelle Downs, she hase here from Florida with her husband, Travis. They will be a part of the DOE from here on out.¡±


    ¡°Wee aboard.¡± A slightly older looking woman with bright blue eyes and silvery blonde hair stepped closer to me. ¡°I am Victoria, the leader of the green group. I will be in charge of your work schedule. If you y your cards right, you will be able to see your husband on a prearranged conjugal visit. If you break the rules though, you will have those privileges revoked. The rules here are simple and easy to follow, and you will find that you have a lot of down time when the men are busy. Don¡¯t worry about too much though, we will show you the ropes.¡± Vitoria smiled at me.


    ¡°Yeah, don¡¯t worry about anything. We will make sure that you settle in easily enough.¡± The brte squeaked at me. ¡°My name is Naomi, I came here with my family, so I don¡¯t have a man to visit with. You are so lucky.¡± The girl couldn¡¯t have been much older than na and Rowan, practically still a child, but she was sad that she didn¡¯t have a man to ¡®visit¡¯ with. That was just disturbing. And it really put things with the twins into perspective for me. I can¡¯t even think about them and that sort of rtionship right now. Nuh uh, no way, it¡¯s not going to happen for another hundred years.


    ¡°It¡¯s nice to meet you both. I promise that I will do my best to follow all of the rules.¡±


    ¡°That is all that we ask.¡± Victoria said as she nodded at my words. ¡°Come here, I will show you to your bunk and your trunk.¡± With that, Mr. Doe left the room and went back to wherever it was that he needed to be. I was fine without him. I wasn¡¯t afraid of what anyone person in this ce could do to me. The humans couldn¡¯t hurt me. And the nonhumans here wouldn¡¯t hurt me anyway. We were all good.


    I had the top bunk of the bed that was furthest from the door. I didn¡¯t have a bunkmate yet, but they assured me that someone would likely show up sooner orter. They were getting new recruits all the time. I was also introduced to the otherdies in the room with me. Aside from Naomi and Victoria there were Sylvia, Tiffany, Gwen, and Ca. I understood now why Mr. Doe had gone with a more normal name for me. Janelle might not be overlymon, but it was a normal name. Juniper though, was not normal, and that would make me stand out more with all these traditional names.


    Also, it was easy to see that all of thesedies had grown up in privilege. Meaning they were all upper middle ss or higher. And even then, they didn¡¯t mind taking care of the men and being ves to them, because this was the mindset that they had been raised with. They most likely didn¡¯t know any better because they were used to the caveman mentality of the men around them.


    This was just day one, but I was assimting as much as possible. I went around with Naomi and Victoria as they showed me where I was supposed to get my food, and when I was allowed to actually eat. The men, of course, took precedence over us weak females, so they ate first, and then the food was divided evenly among thedies. So, if we didn¡¯t cook enough food, then we didn¡¯t have enough food to eat. It was up to us to manage that part of the day.


    Chores also rotated, and not at the same schedule for everyone. It was best to keep everyone moving to new groups so that there was no conspiring. That was supposedly a rule that was insisted upon by the Colonel himself. He didn¡¯t trust women when they were inrge numbers like us, so we weren¡¯t allowed to form close friendships in the workce. We were allowed to talk and be friendly with our roommates, but that was all. If there was an incident though, then we were removed from the group.


    It wasn¡¯t hard to catch onto what was happening in the DOE. This was an extremist group that acted under rules not too dissimr from a cult. They wanted to control every aspect of the lives of their members, and there was to be no actions taken without permission, especially after the fiasco with Ramie. He had severely upset the Colonel, apparently, and had caused new rules to be given out.


    The Colonel acted as if Ramie was a valued and treasured part of the DOE when he was speaking to reporters and the ilk, but he had apparently been furious to learn that the dumbass had taken things into his own hands. ording to Naomi, who loved to gossip, the Colonel has been angry since he found out about the incident at the university.


    My jobs started off easily enough. All I had to do was cook and clean. And keep my mouth shut. I was not permitted to speak to one of the DOE men unless they spoke directly to me first. I was to stay out of their way and try not to be seen in the first ce. If a DOE man saw me without seeking out a woman, then I was failing at my job. That was fine with me, I needed to learn from thedies more than anything at all. And I was making use of my magic to keep them talking to me.


    In all actuality, I was hypnotizing thedies and making them talk to me. They wouldn¡¯t feel the desire to be quiet, and they wouldn¡¯t tell anyone that I was asking questions. Not only that, but with my sensitive senses, I could tell when someone was approaching long before they got to me, so I could silence the chatty women before they blew my cover.


    So far, I had learned that the Colonel was in a branch ofw enforcement, but thedies didn¡¯t know which one. His first name was Harrison, but that was all that any of them had gotten out of the others that knew who the Colonel was. Both the Colonel and Mr. Doe worked in the same office, which exined why Mr. Doe was more limited on what he was able to do. The Colonel would know if he was out of the office on work or not.


    The DOE came to be after the Colonel had found all the other extremist group leaders. He told them that he had extensive files on all of them in his office, and if they didn¡¯t join his DOE, then he would have them all arrested. However, if they joined the DOE with the Colonel, they would be able to continue their work in a protected group.


    The Colonel was using hisw enforcement connections to keep his band of criminals hidden from the others that were searching for them. He was protecting them all, because protecting them meant protecting himself.


    I also learned from thedies that the Colonel was an impotent man most of the time. Unless there was a lot of excitement leading up to an attack, or he was riding the high of the most recent attack, he usually couldn¡¯t get it up without some sort of assistance. On those exciting asions though, he could go through three or four women a night, and the lonely women, such as Naomi, always hoped that he would call on them. I felt sorry for those girls. They deserved better than that.


    I was starting to pry more into what thedies had heard from the men while they were working in the ¡®bunker¡¯, that was what they all called this ce. I wanted to know if they had heard of anyrge scale attacks that would be happening, and when they were due to take ce.


    Most of thedies didn¡¯t have specifics for anything, but they knew that the Colonel was nning something big. He was gathering troops and equipment at an rming rate, and he was definitely intending on attacking an enemy head on soon enough.


    It didn¡¯t take long for me to learn that the enemy he was focusing his attentions on was Trinity. He was going to ¡®take out¡¯ the leader of ¡®the inhuman bastards¡¯. Those were the words that they had used, and apparently the words that the Colonel had used as well.


    On my fifth day in the bunker, I found out that the Colonel would host a ¡®service¡¯ once a week. Every Wednesday evening he would gather everyone,dies included. The men would be in the front of the lecture hall, and thedies would be in the back behind a partition. I was sitting there with the otherdies when the madman started to deliver his sermon to the gathered group.


    I had to fight to keep my mouth shut, and the bile in my stomach. What I was listening to was nothing short of madness. The Colonel was preaching to his group, in true cult fashion. He was telling them all the horrible things about the super natural beings that lived among them. He was telling them false histories where we had tortured and sacrificed the humans to our Gods. It was usually the humans that had done the sacrificing, not us.


    During the preaching session, I heard the Colonel talking about himself as if he were the reincarnation of Christ, that he alone was there to save the world. He was going to eliminate all those that weren¡¯t worthy to live on ¡®his¡¯ earth. He was the new leader of the world, the rest of the world just didn¡¯t know that yet. He was going to take over. He was going to eliminate the threats that face their group, and then he would rise above them as a saintly king that would usher the world into a new order.


    I don¡¯t know how the others hadn¡¯t seen the man for what he truly was, psychotic. He was out of his damned mind, and he needed to be stopped as soon as possible. I was d that I had more to tell Trinity now, because in a day or two I was going to be making my first mental connection with her. And she definitely needed to know what it was that the Colonel had nned. Not just for our people, but for the world in general.


    This man needed to be stopped. He needed to be locked away in a mental institution with some really strong drugs to control that delusion of his. I don¡¯t know how he managed to be so high in his career if this is what was hiding in that head of his. I mean, how was it that no one had seen this in his eyes before? He was so far gone that it had to be visible to other people, didn¡¯t it? Or was this level of insanity so new that no one had seen iting?


    I didn¡¯t know the answer to thatst one, but I would find it out soon enough. I would get as many answers about the man as I could soon enough. And then we would stop him and save the world.

 Chapter 1120 - 1120 Chapter 105- Trinity – First Check In (VOLUME 6)

    1120 Chapter 105- Trinity ¨C First Check In (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    It had been a long week. I knew that the others had been told that they weren¡¯t to contact me too often, because they needed to keep from getting found out. Not only that, but they likely wouldn¡¯t find anything right away, so contacting me before the first week was up probably wouldn¡¯t be helpful at all.


    Still, I had just about worried myself crazy as I waited for them to call on that first scheduled check in. I had made sure that I was keeping an eye on Juniper and Paul¡¯s four children, and Landon¡¯s two children. I called Emmalee a couple of times as well, doing my best to make sure that my niece and nephews were doing OK without Carter. And to make sure that Emmalee wasn¡¯t having a hard time of things.


    I learned from Emmalee that Carter had indeed thrown me under the bus. He had told her that I had assigned him to this mission rather than admitting that he had volunteered for it. I didn¡¯t correct the situation either. I didn¡¯t want Emmalee to be angry at Carter for doing what he felt was necessary. Besides, he was doing it as a favor to me, so there was no reason to rat him out.


    She was a little upset with me in the beginning, but not enough to voice it to me. She just didn¡¯t like being away from her husband, and I didn¡¯t me her. I could imagine how it would be if Reece had volunteered to leave me. I wouldn¡¯t be too happy about it either.


    I got Emmalee calmed down though, and she was happy about the calls to check in on her. It just added more to our weekly conversations that we kept up on as the years waned onward. She was able to rte to me in a lot of ways, and she asked for advice when she needed things from me. I was more than happy to help with what I could.


    Finally, it was time for the others to contact me, and I was waiting in my office for the check-ins to begin. Prompt as always, Carter was the first to ¡®call me¡¯ through the mental link.


    .....


    ¡°Trinity?¡± He called out to me.


    ¡°Hello, Carter.¡± I replied quickly. ¡°How have you been?¡±


    ¡°I am fine. I assimte easily enough, as I usually do.¡± He sounded a little cocky, but he had a reason to. He truly was good at this part of his job. ¡°I have been put on the nning team. I haven¡¯t been given permission to make ns on my own, but I do have ess to all the information that they have at the moment.¡±


    ¡°That is good. Are they nning anything at the moment?¡±


    ¡°Yes, they a-.¡± There was an interruption to Carter¡¯s words then.


    ¡°Trinity?¡± Landon called out to me.


    ¡°Hello, Landon.¡± I spoke to him and Carter at the same time. ¡°You joined Carter and I just now. He was in the middle of saying something.¡±


    ¡°I am sorry. I do not have long to speak. I just wanted to check in and tell you that they are ramping up their production of explosives. And they are making them bigger. Rather than the small bombs that were at the university, these arerger and deadlier bombs that will take the space of an entire backpack. They are nning something major here.¡±


    ¡°That is not good.¡±


    ¡°What isn¡¯t good?¡± Carter said, able to hear me but not Landon.


    ¡°I need to get back now, Trinity. I am sorry. Paul and I are in the same department, he won¡¯t be calling in today. He is alright though, so do not worry.¡±


    ¡°Do what you need to do, Landon. I will work things out with Carter.¡±


    ¡°Work what out with me?¡± Carter sounded confused as he spoke. I heard the popping noise of the connection between Landon and I being cut off. ¡°Trinity?¡± Carter called for me.


    ¡°I am sorry Carter, Landon came in while you were speaking. I didn¡¯t hear thest of what you were saying.¡±


    ¡°That is fine, I can repeat it. However, can you first tell me what it was that he was talking about? I didn¡¯t hear his side of the conversation, just yours. I take it that something is going wrong? You said that something is not good.¡±


    ¡°Nothing is wrong at the moment. It is just that Landon and Paul, who both seem to be working in the bomb making department, are makingrger bombs than the ones that were at the university. These bombs will be more destructive, and deadly.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± There was a note of panic in his voice that didn¡¯t settle well with me.


    ¡°What is it, Carter?¡± I asked him, hoping that he would repeat what he had said earlier and exin why that news had been so hard for him to hear.


    ¡°Well, as I was saying before, Trinity, they are nning another attack. One that I thought would just be a message, like the ones before. I thought that the bombs would be the same ones that Ramie used at the university. However, now I am thinking that this will be more than just a message.¡±


    ¡°What do you know, Carter? What is happening?¡±


    ¡°There is a convention that is nned for the beginning of March. The DOE is targeting that convention.¡±


    ¡°What sort of convention is it?¡± I asked him, not sure if I wanted to know. Actually, I had a feeling that I already knew.


    ¡°A Super Natural Appreciation Convention. It¡¯s a giant fan party where people show their love for our people.¡± Just what I thought.


    ¡°So, they want to kill the people that support us and want to see us thrive.¡±


    ¡°Exactly. I thought that they were just going to scare them at first, but now I am not so certain. Now, I am sure that they want to eliminate them all. They are sending in a lot of DOE members that day. Most of them are just grunts that will be cing bombs, and they don¡¯t care if they die in the attack. That was what I didn¡¯t understand at first. I didn¡¯t think that there would be casualties.¡±


    ¡°This is definitely not good. Let me know where this convention is going to be, and we will send in guards to take care of the incident before it even gets started.¡±


    ¡°You know the location already, Trinity. It¡¯s being held at the same stadium we did the reveal at.¡± That was another reason for the DOE to target the convention. The location itself was deemed to be a supporter of us as well.


    While I was talking with Carter, I heard the crackle of another connection just a moment before Juniper spoke into the back of my mind.


    ¡°Trinity?¡± She called out to me.


    ¡°Hello, Juniper.¡± I nodded even though she couldn¡¯t see me.


    ¡°I will take my leave, Trinity. I will send you more details tomorrow. I want you to be fully prepared.¡±


    ¡°Goodbye, Carter. I will talk to you soon.¡±


    ¡°Did I interrupt?¡± Juniper asked, but she didn¡¯t sound like she was overly worried about it.


    ¡°No, he was just wrapping up. How have you been? Not being mistreated are you?¡±


    ¡°I have all those women under my spell, no need to worry. And the men don¡¯t see me unless I want them to. We are good.¡±


    ¡°I am d to hear that.¡± I felt a wave of relief wash over me at that. ¡°I was worried that they were being cruel to you.¡±


    ¡°No, I am fine, Trinity, you don¡¯t need to worry about me.¡±


    ¡°Alright. Well, in that case, what have you learned?¡±


    I started to listen to everything that Juniper had to tell me. She told me about the inner workings of the DOE, and how they functioned. She told me about thew enforcement connection that the Colonel had, and what his first name was. She and I bothughed when she told me that the asshole was limp when not excited by the violence. It wasn¡¯t funny really, but knowing that even his own dick was turning its back on him was hrious in my mind.


    I think that the most disturbing thing that Juniper had to tell me was the whole ¡®religion¡¯ that the Colonel was turning this all into. And how he was nning on using his disciples and devotees to take over the world. He was nning on turning himself into the leader of all mankind, no matter what it took. He would literally kill anyone that he had to just to be able to take over the collective people of the world. And he felt like he would be able to amass enough firepower to aplish this task for him.


    The second most disturbing thing was how he was nning on attacking me directly and, apparently, that was going to be sooner rather thanter. He was collecting weapons and recruits at an rming rate, or so the other women in the DOE had told Juniper.


    She truly had found out a lot of information for me. Some of it we already knew, but others were new to us. So far though, she didn¡¯t know anything about the attack on the convention, so thedies didn¡¯t have all the information. It was interesting though, to see what it was that the other side was missing out on.


    Juniper had been right to suggest going undercover as well. We were learning more about the group as a whole because we had someone on each side of the spectrum. I never would have gotten half of the information that I had now if it wasn¡¯t for Juniper. I was in her debt, once again.


    In true motherly fashion, Juniper asked how the kids were doing. They had all been so busy, and under near constant surveince, that she hadn¡¯t had the chance to contact them. In fact, she was needing to hurry up before someone suspected her of being something that she wasn¡¯t.


    I told her that the kids were fine, which was true, and that Reagan and Rika were making sure that na and Rowan were doing OK. She didn¡¯t need to worry about them with the twins watching after them at the university. I could sense the relief in her mind when she rxed just a little.


    ¡°Protect them for me, Trinity. I don¡¯t know what I would do if they got hurt.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Juniper. I will protect them. They will be just fine.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± And with that, the connection was cut. She had run out of time.


    I did my best to ry the information to the others after the update had been given to me. I needed them to know about the nned attack on the convention at the stadium. We needed to work out a n of action that would keep the humans safe without knowing that they had been in danger.


    We settled on sending in at least a dozen guards that were going to patrol the convention undercover. They would monitor things and step in only if they needed to. They would go in with the intent of finding the bombers and their devices. We needed to make sure that there were no casualties whatsoever.


    ¡°We got this.¡± Reece told me confidently as he put a consoling arm around my shoulders. ¡°No one will be hurt at all.¡± I sure hoped that he was right about that.


    I truly hoped that he was right about that. There was a lot that could happen, that could go wrong. As the queen and the goddess, I needed to do all that I could to protect my people. I looked up into Reece¡¯s eyes and saw that he was also feeling the same things that I was. That connection helped to settle a little of what was going on inside of me.

 Chapter 1121 - 1121 Chapter 106- Various – Super Natural Appreciation Convention Part 1 (VOLUME 6)

    1121 Chapter 106- Various ¨C Super Natural Appreciation Convention Part 1 (VOLUME 6)


    *** In these chapters, the POV will switch depending on who the main focus is. There will be views from Trinity and Reece¡¯s staff, convention attendees, and DOE infiltrators. There is a lot of information that is to be had in these chapters, but some fun as well. And as a result of the multiple POV, they will all be in a third person POV. ***


    When they heard about the convention that was going to be held in town, Jared Growding and his friends decided that they were going to crash it. They weren¡¯t like those people that had flocked to join the DOE or anything like that, but they just didn¡¯t see the appeal of those super natural people that were on the news.


    Jared, and his friends Katie, Torrance, Mikey and Lisa, didn¡¯t care that they were in the world and living among them. They didn¡¯t think that they should be hurt or stopped from doing anything that they wanted to do, that wasn¡¯t the reason behind this whole n that they had today.


    No, the whole reason that they were here was to mock those fanatics that were taking all of this a little too far. I mean, who the hell wanted to dress up like werewolves and other creatures of the night just because they found out that they were real? And, man, there sure were a lot of people that were dressed in costumes. They had to have put way too much time, effort, and money into those things. It was almost hard to tell if they were humans, or if they were some of the super naturals that were here to hide in in sight. Now, wouldn¡¯t that be some sort of messed up?


    How desperate for attention did they have to be if they were willing to cosy as themselves just to get the humans to love them more? That was just sheer desperation in Jared¡¯s opinion. They had to be some special kind of lonely to do something like that.


    Still, Jared thought that they would get some fun out of this trip to the convention. They were going to make fun of the groups of idiots, have some good food, and just enjoy the sheer craziness that was all around them. They nned to do some heckling, but that was about it. They weren¡¯t here to get physical or anything.


    ¡°Hell, Jared, you never know. We might learn something new. I mean, I doubt it, but you never know.¡± Mikey joked as they slid their passes over their necks and walked in through the doors.


    ¡°You know they say you should always learn something whenever you can. Like how to apply fur to your face so you can properly look like our neighbors.¡± Lisa joked as they walked shoulder to shoulder. Lisa had always crushed on Jared, but he never really liked her. It wasn¡¯t personal, she just didn¡¯t appeal to him in that way.


    ¡°Who knows.¡± Jared just shrugged and continued through the door and the chaos beyond.


    .....


    Well, that was what Jared thought it was going to be like. He thought that for sure there must be some sort of chaos in a ce that was packed with werewolf wannabes and vampire fangs that were obscuring the way that people talked. It was a little crazy, but not what they had thought that it would be.


    ¡°Holy shit! It¡¯s like a Comicon.¡± Torrance¡¯s jaw dropped in disbelief. He had been right. Jared was just thinking that same thing. He had enjoyed going to Comicon every year for thest decade, since he was thirteen and he was able to convince his parents that he should be allowed to go. He wasn¡¯t an otaku or anything, but he enjoyed his fandoms.


    ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± Katie was spinning in a circle as she looked around the room. ¡°This is like a Comicon for the super naturals. This is sick!¡±


    ¡°C..could it be that the super naturals are actually super cool?¡± Mikey asked as they walked further into the convention.


    ¡°Maybe.¡± Torrance agreed. ¡°This is awesome.


    Jared was inclined to agree with him. There were standees, cutouts, amazing imagery, food stalls, vendor stalls, and so much more. It had only been a little more than two months since the announcement of the super naturalmunity, and already there was this much fan memorabilia. That was just impressive. They had to have been nning this since the very beginning.


    ¡°You think that maybe some of these people knew about the nonhumans before the announcement?¡± Katie whispered in awe, trying to make sure that no one outside of their group overheard them.


    ¡°I doubt it. Fanatics can do a lot in a short amount of time.¡± Jared told her calmly. ¡°I mean, think about how the Comicon can get, this is amazing, but nowhere near that level. They just worked hard to get to this point. If they had known about the super naturals beforehand, they would have been able to make this all way better.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I agree.¡± Mikey wrapped an arm around Katie¡¯s shoulders. ¡°Let¡¯s have a look around. That food smells amazing.¡±


    They did just as Mikey suggested, looking around the convention and the various stalls that they had. They had food that was entirely super natural themed, and while delicious, despite the way it looked, Jared was sure that the nonhumans didn¡¯t eat off the wall foods like this. I mean, who ate full moon balls and crescent moon pies? They were just too themed and unnatural.


    Actually, that was something that he was learning about most of the nonhumans as he walked through the convention. The nonhumans were less prone to use technological advancement and gically modified foods. They would prefer all natural things to what the big corporations wanted to offer them. That sounded about right in his head.


    Little by little, as he was walking through the convention, Jared was starting to appreciate thismunity a lot more than he thought that he was going to. And not once did any of the five of them make fun of one of the costumes that they had seen. They weren¡¯t as corny as they had thought that they would be. OK, well, some of them still were, but most were amazing. Jared really had to give it to the people that had put so much effort into them.


    *~~!~~**~~!~~**~~!~~*


    When Queen Trinity had told Kiernan that she needed him for a mission, he was more than willing to help out. He had not been called upon personally since he had gone to scout the house that the Jaegan were suspected of using during the previous incidents. After that battle had ended, he had gone back to being a normal guard that had no additional duties.


    However, Queen Trinity knew that she was able to trust Kiernan, and he was ready to prove himself once more. He would do anything for hismunity. He wasn¡¯t a wolf like King Reece and Queen Trinity. He was a feline, and usually people thought that the felines were closed off and rude, but Kiernan wanted to prove them wrong. He wanted to show them that he was not like the housecats that people associated them with.


    Kiernan was walking through the convention, wading through all the humans that were here to show their love and support for hismunity. He wasn¡¯t here for pleasure though. ording to Queen Trinity, and the spies that they had sent into the DOE headquarters, there was an incident nned for this ce today.


    The DOE, those moronic humans that hated the nonhumanmunity with a passion, but yet oddly enough have all animal or super natural themed acronyms, were nning on bombing this convention at some point today. And Kiernan was here with fifteen other guards to search out the bombs and the attackers.


    They had arrived here long before the convention was due to begin, before the thing wasn¡¯t even set uppletely. Without all the other humans there to muddle the senses, they had done a thorough sweep of the stadium. They made sure that there were absolutely no bombs on the premises before the attendees arrived. So, if someone scented out the material for the bombs like Prince Luka and Prince Reagan did at the university, then they would also be finding the culprits behind the attack.


    It was easy to see that the convention was a hit with all the humans that showed up. Many of them were in costumes of different kinds. Kiernan had seen dozens of witches and warlocks that thankfully didn¡¯t have green skin. There were a lot of vampires that looked cool for Hollywood, but were nothing like King Dietrich and his people. And then there were all the werewolves. So many werewolves filled the stadium that it made Kiernan a little sad. A lot of the humans seemed to think that there weren¡¯t many other shifters in existence.


    Kiernan understood that the humans just hadn¡¯t seen much of the feline shifters like him, nor the bear shifters like Javier, that was here with him and the others. They weren¡¯t used to having so many other kinds of creatures to worry about or to think about. And he was not allowed to tell them about the others, because unless they had to, they weren¡¯t allowed to reveal themselves.


    However, perhaps Kiernan could just stop and talk to one of the werewolf people, the ones in the costumes, not the wolves that were here to investigate with him. He could ask their opinions on the other shifters of the world and get the discussion going. When they were talking to their friends about the different types and what they looked like, then maybe he would just slip away. It was an option. And he was nning on doing just that.


    ¡°Hi there.¡± A cute girl of about twenty called out to Kiernan as he was thinking about stopping to discuss the various shifters with the attendees.


    ¡°Hi.¡± He sounded nervous, his voice a little squeaky. He was more mouse than cat at the moment.


    ¡°I love your makeup. What type of super natural are you supposed to be?¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± At that moment, Kiernan realized that he had slightly lost control of himself. He reached up toward his face and felt the fur and other dimensional changes to his cheeks and mouth. ¡°O..o..oh, I uh, I am a feline shifter. I saw them on the news during the reveal and I had to dress as one of them. I thought that the cats were amazing.¡±


    ¡°Oh, that is so awesome. I love that. I can¡¯t believe that I chose toe as just a vampire now. I love cats.¡± She got closer to him and rubbed the fur on his cheeks. ¡°Wow, that feels so real.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha, yeah, I put a lot of effort into it. Thanks for thepliment.¡±


    ¡°My name is Selena, what¡¯s yours?¡± Kiernan didn¡¯t know why, but he was feeling a pull toward this woman. It was stronger and more powerful than he would have initially thought that it was capable of being. Then again, he might be wrong about what this feeling was.


    ¡°My name is Kiernan.¡± He gave his real name as he answered her, not even thinking about lying to her.


    ¡°Cool name. And I love the auburn hair. It looks so good on you. Are those contacts that you¡¯re wearing? Those yellow eyes are so sexy.¡± She was getting closer and closer to him with every word and he wanted nothing more than to let her touch him. She was all that he wanted at the moment.


    ¡°KIERNAN!¡± Javier called out to him.


    ¡°I..I got to go. My friends are looking for me.¡±


    ¡°Can I get your number?¡± She asked him seductively. She was at this convention, she had to like the super naturals, right? Maybe he could have a date or two with her.


    ¡°Y..yeah, s..sure.¡± He smiled through the stutter as he wrote his number on the paper that she held in her hand.


    ¡°Thanks, Kiernan, I¡¯ll call you.¡± She winked at him and he felt every muscle in his body contract almost instantly. Man, he was already falling for her and he barely knew her.


    He jogged over to Javier¡¯s side, his head still lost in the cloud of what might be.


    ¡°What the hell, man. You¡¯re not supposed to reveal yourself to the humans.¡± Javier motioned toward his face that was covered in rusty reddish orange fur and ck stripes.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to, man. I lost focus. Besides, they think it¡¯s just makeup, there is nothing to worry about.¡±


    ¡°Be d that it happened here and not out on the streets. Queen Trinity would not be happy about this.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, man. Now that I think about it, that girl was to me. I didn¡¯t lose my cool until I was near her and started to smell her.¡± He started to remember. He had smelled an intoxicating aroma that sent his heart into overdrive. He hadn¡¯t registered it for some time because he was too focused on work, but she was the reason that he lost hisposure.


    ¡°Why would she be the cause?¡± Javier crossed his arms at him and narrowed his eyes.


    ¡°I..I think that she is my mate, man. She affected me so strongly. And I know that she¡¯s human, that was clear as day. But she just had something extra, something that hit me like a ton of bricks.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I can see that.¡± Javierughed as he looked Kiernan up and down. ¡°Keep it in your pants for right now. We¡¯re at work for crying out loud. Talk to the pretty girlter.¡± Kiernan growled protectively and defensively when his friend mentioned the girl was pretty. ¡°Man, she really did get to you, didn¡¯t she?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Javier, I didn¡¯t mean that.¡± Kiernan was already wondering what was happening to him, but he wasn¡¯tpletely against it. It was vaguely frightening because it was out of his control, but he was still aware enough to be excited about it as well. This offered a strange new opportunity for him. And he wanted to explore it as much as he possibly could. Preferably with Selena and her gorgeous body spread before him. That thought made him drool.

 Chapter 1122 - 1122 Chapter 107- Various – Super Natural Appreciate Convention Part 2 (VOLUME 6)

    1122 Chapter 107- Various ¨C Super Natural Appreciate Convention Part 2 (VOLUME 6)


    *** In these chapters, the POV will switch depending on who the main focus is. There will be views from Trinity and Reece¡¯s staff, convention attendees, and DOE infiltrators. There is a lot of information that is to be had in these chapters, but some fun as well. And as a result of the multiple POV, they will all be in a third person POV. ***


    ¡°Look at them all.¡± Rowan whispered to his twin sister as they wove their way through the group of humans that were dressed as werewolves. ¡°They think that they are dressing like us, but that isn¡¯t true at all.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± na shook her head. ¡°The only Lycans in the world are Uncle Reece and Reagan. At least, as far as we know.¡± She was looking around in disbelief as much as Rowan had been. ¡°Why are we here, Row?¡± She asked him, leaning closer to his side as a group of excited cosyers ran by them. What made it so strange to her was the fact that these people were at least fifty, ording to the way that humans looked. Then again, the super naturals were dreadfully bad at judging ages for the humans. Not having someone of rtive age to properlypare them to.


    ¡°Holy hell! Did you see those people? They were ancient! What were they, three hundred or something?¡±


    Rowan had a harder time with ages than na did. He forgot, often, that humans didn¡¯t age like the super naturals did. He would see an old human and think they were centuries old. He wasn¡¯t the only one of their generation that thought like that as well, but na couldn¡¯t let it slide.


    ¡°They were not ancient, Row. They are humans. They are probably between the ages of forty and sixty. I would estimate closer to fifty just to be safe. You can¡¯t judge them on the people in our group.¡±


    ¡°No one in our group looks that old.¡± Rowan rolled his eyes at her. ¡°How can I not judge them like that?¡±


    ¡°Whatever.¡± She grabbed his arm and pulled him along. ¡°We need to stay hidden. I heard from Reagan that there are guards from the castle here. They are looking after things because Carter told them that there was going to be a bombing. I doubt it though, there is nothing going on here except the humans acting crazy.¡± na¡¯s eyes rolled again. She was only here because her brother wanted to be here. She would rather be shopping or with her friends.


    Then again, both of the twins were rebelling a little. Someone had to, Leaf and Willow were being far too calm with the fact that their parents had left on a mission without so much as asking if they were OK with it. That was not cool in the eyes of the twins, but they couldn¡¯tin either. Their parents were doing work for Aunt Trinity, and that was important.


    .....


    In a way, na just thought that they were rebelling because they were teenagers and because they weren¡¯t there at the university the day that the psycho with the bombs showed up. And by that, she meant that Rowan was rebelling and just dragging her along like he always did. She likes spending time with her brother though, something that usually made her friends call her strange.


    The two of them, hiding who they were from the humans and staying out of the way of the guards, wandered around the convention that was being held to honor people like them. They were having shows that depicted their histories, or what the humans thought their history was.


    ¡°Can you believe that they think we were actually born from wolves and people?¡± Rowan scoffed as they walked past a man that was telling them all about the mother wolf and father human that birthed the entire race of werewolves thousands and thousands of years ago.


    ¡°That¡¯s just in wrong. I mean, OK, we mate with humans, yes, but we¡¯re not in our animal forms when we do that.¡± na shuddered at the thought. ¡°How could they think those things?¡± That was actually insulting.


    na was happy to see that there were several others that were pointing out that what the man was saying just wasn¡¯t true. And like the people that were calling out his lies, na was very certain that the man just had some wildly inappropriate fantasies that were running wild now that he knew about the nonhumans of the world.


    ¡°Stay away from him, na.¡± Rowan pulled her arm and looked back at the sick minded man.


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to tell me twice.¡± She shuddered and kept moving.


    Some of the things that the people were saying were just not true. There was a seminar that someone was holding that talked all about how all the super naturals loved natural and healthy eating. They ate animal meat, but only the ones they hunted themselves. They preferred all natural remedies and produce so that they didn¡¯t have any of the chemicals in it. And they were trying to say that no true super natural would have a cell phone or aputer, because it was too high tech and unnatural.


    There was a group of people standing at the back, watching the seminar just like na and Rowan were. They seemed more like spectators than active participants though, like they weren¡¯t really into this whole convention thing.


    na noticed the one man right away. He had sandy blond hair that shined with golden brown highlights. His eyes, warm and inviting with their melting chocte texture, only strayed her way one time, but it was enough for her to be mesmerized for a moment. He was tall, but not overly so like Reagan and Uncle Reece. He was fit, but not like someone that worked out all the time. He looked like a rtively good guy, but she wasn¡¯t able to tell for sure because she wasn¡¯t close enough to him.


    When he did look at her, na smiled for the briefest of nces before he walked away with the group that he was with. She could tell that he was not with any of them, not in that way, but that they were just here as arge friend group. She wanted to follow him, but she didn¡¯t think that she should. She would need to let him go for now.


    ¡°Come on, na, let¡¯s see some more. That food smells good, and I want to have some.¡± Taking her hand, Rowan pulled her along after him and toward the stall.


    ¡°Be careful, idiot. There are guards all over the ce.¡± She snapped at him as they went for some food.


    ¡°She¡¯s right about that.¡± A voice sounded from behind them. ¡°And you two are not yet good enough at protecting yourselves to be here alone.¡± The voice was vaguely familiar, but na couldn¡¯t yet ce it. Especially because she was still facing away from the man. She wasn¡¯t ready to turn around and face him, and neither was Rowan.


    *~~!~~**~~!~~**~~!~~*


    Darius was more used to guarding people and buildings, not scouting out a location that needed to be saved from doomsday morons. He liked his job though, and he didn¡¯t mind the challenge of something new. The more that he did for work, the more that he grew, the better soldier that he would be. And he was all for being the best of the best.


    He was with several other men from the castle. Men that were not usually sent out on public missions. He knew exactly why too. He and the others that came with him were here because no one would recognize them. There was no chance at all that anyone here had seen any of them on TV or in pictures on the inte. They were easily able to infiltrate the group that was mixed in here.


    There was a lot that Darius was seeing as he moved among the groups of humans. However, the most noticeable was the fact that they all tended to dress up. Was this something that was normal? Or was it just for this asion? He had spent a lot of time among the humans of this world, and being a wolf meant that he wasn¡¯t isted like some of the other species, but he wasn¡¯t the most familiar with them.


    Darius had grown up in a small pack that stayed with themselves. He had not left his hometown at all until he was offered the chance to train with the royal family at the castle. And, since that day, the castle in Colorado had been his home. With all the changes that the world had seen over the years, he was more than happy to have things the way that they were. And try new things while he was at it.


    While walking among the crowd of humans, Darius noticed something that didn¡¯t seem right to him. He knew everyone that was here with him for the mission today. Henry, Oliver, Luke, Kiernan, Javier, Marcus, Tim, Quinten, Jessalee, Emelia, Langley, Tracey, Zita, Macy, and Heath. He knew their names, but more importantly, he knew their scents. And these scents that he was detecting right now weren¡¯t human, and they weren¡¯t the team that he was here with.


    There were other nonhumans here. Others that weren¡¯t supposed to be here. These were not scents that were around the castle often, but he knew them. They weremon enough at the home of the royal family that he knew them by name. And he knew that they weren¡¯t supposed to be anywhere near this part of the city today. All of the kids that attended the university were told to stay away from here.


    ¡°Rowan and na.¡± He growled their names softly as he started to look for the two people that shouldn¡¯t be here. ¡°What are you up to?¡±


    Darius was trying not to be too obvious as he started to hunt for his prey, not literally but figuratively. He needed to find those two kids, though they weren¡¯t kids anymore. And then, after he did find them, he would send them home. They might be grown now, but they were still the kids of people that were important to his King and Queen. He would need to find them and get them out of here before anything bad started to happen.


    Hopefully nothing happened, but Darius wasn¡¯t going to take that risk with such high priority members of hismunity. These kids, and that was what they were behaving like, didn¡¯t belong here right now. They needed to be more responsible than this. They needed to make sure that they didn¡¯t do anything stupid.


    For several minutes, Darius followed their trail as he tracked them through the stadium. He caught up to them while they were listening to a seminar from someone about healthy eating being linked to the super naturals. Maybe when it came to the Fae it was like that, but most of the other species out there enjoyed their food, and lots of it too. These humans were so far out of the loop that it wasn¡¯t even round anymore. Their loops were just a distant figment of their imagination. Damn, he wanted to call them stupid sometimes, but that would go against Queen Trinity¡¯s wishes.


    Darius saw na watching one of the humans that was in the distance. He wasn¡¯t paying any attention to her, nothing more than just a nce before he and his friends walked away, but that seemed to be enough for her. That was interesting. Did na like that boy? Did she know him from university? Darius didn¡¯t know the answers to those questions, and it piqued his interest.


    The twins were starting to walk away now, abandoning that seminar that made no sense to Darius. This was his chance. He could catch them and make them leave now that he was this close to them. They were on their way toward the food stalls that were ringing the entire stadium. Even Darius would have to admit that the food smelled delicious, and he was interested in some of it, but not at the moment. Not until after the danger was dealt with. And these kids were back home where they belonged.


    ¡°Come on, na, let¡¯s see some more. That food smells good, and I want to have some.¡± Practically dragging his sister by the arm, Rowan moved toward the closest food stall.


    ¡°Be careful,


    idiot. There are guards all over the ce.¡± na warned him as Darius got right behind the two of them. He took a deep breath, and then spoke in his signature deep gravelly voice.


    ¡°She¡¯s right about that.¡± There was a soft gasp that sounded as if it came from na the moment that she heard his voice. ¡°And you two are not yet good enough at protecting yourselves to be here alone.¡±


    Darius grinned before the two kids turned to look at him. Actually, it was more that Darius had spun them slowly to face him, their eyes opened wide in fear and shock when they looked at him.


    ¡°U..uh..uhm, h..h..hi.¡± Rowan stuttered out. ¡°H..h..how did you find us?¡±


    ¡°I smelled you.¡± Darius growled at them. ¡°You¡¯re too noticeable. And you know that you are not supposed to be here.¡± He was not angry with them, just not happy that he had this added part of his job. ¡°You were told to avoid the convention.¡±


    ¡°Yes, but there isn¡¯t anything that is going to happen. And we are bored of staying home.¡± Rowan nearly whined. ¡°We will be fine. I will protect na, you can go on your way now, uhm, uh.¡± Darius could tell that the kids didn¡¯t know his name, but they knew his voice and face.


    ¡°Darius.¡± He growled the name for them. ¡°And no, you cannot stay here. Would you rather that I called Queen Trinity and tell her that you were here?¡±


    ¡°NO!¡± They both shouted at the same time. ¡°DON¡¯T CALL AUNT TRINITY!¡±


    ¡°Then you need to leave.¡± He narrowed his eyes at them. ¡°This is not the time to be ying around.¡±


    ¡°Y..y..yes, OK.¡± na nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Row!¡± She tugged on his arm, but before they could leave his side, there was a loudmotion that erupted on the other side of the stadium, and suddenly, Darius could smell the faint scent of almonds, tar, and motor oil. The samebination of the bombs that were at the university.

 Chapter 1123 - 1123 Chapter 108- Various – Super Natural Appreciation Convention Part 3 (VOLUME 6)

    1123 Chapter 108- Various ¨C Super Natural Appreciation Convention Part 3 (VOLUME 6)


    *** In these chapters, the POV will switch depending on who the main focus is. There will be views from Trinity and Reece¡¯s staff, convention attendees, and DOE infiltrators. There is a lot of information that is to be had in these chapters, but some fun as well. And as a result of the multiple POV, they will all be in a third person POV. ***


    Camden Gaines didn¡¯t know why he was even at this convention. He didn¡¯t like the idea of the nonhumans that were in the world. He thought that having people that were monsters around them would make the world descend into chaos. He thought that things would be better off if they were gone. Or so he told himself.


    He knew that the people had been here for as long as he had, and most of them a lot longer. Camden was twenty-eight years old, and if you listened to the tabloids and other news outlets, Trinity Gray, Queen of these nonhuman people, was almost forty. She only looked twenty or twenty-two, give or take a year or two. And there were plenty more that were older than her.


    They had been here all along, since the dawn of time most likely. And the world, while far from perfect, wasn¡¯t going to hell in a hand basket yet. And he was pretty sure that the people that were ruining this world, weren¡¯t the super naturals. Nope, the humans were pretty good at doing those things on their own, they didn¡¯t need help from the nonhumanmunity.


    Still, he wasn¡¯t sure why he was here. He wasn¡¯t a sympathizer. He wasn¡¯t a supporter. At best he was on the fence and wondering which direction he needed to tip so that he could topple to one side. And that just about made up the entirety of Camden¡¯s issues for the day.


    He was trying his best to learn new things about the people that he now knew about, even if they were still the same people that he had known all this time. He had even found out through confidence with a coworker that he was friendly with that the man was a nonhuman. He was a warlock, someone that used magic. And in Camden¡¯s eyes, that was just something that was fictional.


    Not only that, but a lot of ¡®warlocks¡¯ in books, movies, and television were not nice people. They were the bad guys, and that made Camden start to wonder about his coworker. However, Bradly had been a good person, and maybe even a friend until the moment that Camden learned the truth about him.


    Since that day, that revtion from Bradly, Camden couldn¡¯t bring himself to be alone with the guy like he used to. He didn¡¯t tell anyone about the secret that he had learned, but he was still not sure what to do either.


    ¡°I just want to know what to do.¡± Camden sighed to himself as he left one seminar that was happening and started to search for another one. ¡°This whole convention would be better if they had some of the nonhumans here to help exin some things.¡±


    .....


    It had all been a little too confusing that day when they revealed it all online. Well, that had been where Camden had seen it. He had been ying a game on his phone when all of a sudden, this news bulletin came over his screen and he couldn¡¯t exit out of it. He and the entire world were practically forced to watch as the truth came out that day.


    ¡°Out of my way.¡± An angry sounding man was barreling through a group of people as he made his way through the gathered crowds. ¡°Move it, asshole.¡± The man had dark eyes and a scowl that could frighten little children.


    ¡°Watch it!¡± Someone snapped at him as he almost knocked them over.


    ¡°What is your problem, asshole?¡± A woman red after him.


    ¡°Hey!¡± A boy of about fourteen or fifteen fell to his bottom as the man continued on.


    ¡°What is wrong with him?¡± Someone asked as they helped the kid to his feet.


    Camden was watching them and knew that something was not right. He was trying to figure out what was different about this person. Was he not human? Was he one of the nonhumans that these people were here to idolize and worship? Was he angry that these people were misappropriating his people or whatever it is that they considered it? What was going on, Camden wished that he knew.


    The man wasing toward him, not looking like he was going to move at all. He was going to plow right into him if he didn¡¯t move. Camden wasn¡¯t going to let the guy hit him though, he wasn¡¯t that much of a pushover after all.


    ¡°Hey, move, he isn¡¯t going to stop.¡± Camden said as he stepped aside and warned the others that were near him.


    However, before Camden could even take a step, someone had gotten angry and reached for the man that was treating the people like they were his personal sidewalk or stepping stones.


    ¡°Hey, wait right there.¡± Arge man with fake wolf ears on his head grabbed the man¡¯s backpack that was slung over his shoulder. ¡°What do you think you¡¯re doing?¡±


    The man hadn¡¯t wanted to stop though, and the conflicting momentums caused the fabric that the wolfish man had grabbed to rip almost instantly. That was when all hell broke loose. Camden watched as a device slid part of the way out of the bag. A device that was instantly recognizable.


    ¡°He¡¯s got a bomb!¡± The man that had helped the kid to his feet yelled out in shock.


    Everyone that had heard the deration started to scream and run away as soon as they could. All except for Camden who seemed to be frozen in ce and the wolfish man that had grabbed onto the bag. He was either brave or too afraid to let go because the bomb might fall.


    ¡°What the hell is going on?¡± The wolfish man asked in a slightly higher pitch than before.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t it obvious?¡± The asshole with the backpack asked in a deadpan tone. ¡°We¡¯re going to get rid of all of you. All the nonhumans and all of their supporters.¡± The man must have been one of those DOE members that were on the news recently. They were a group that hated the super naturals and wanted to kill them all. They were also the type of people that would kill Camden on sight, just because he wasn¡¯t like them. Fuck!


    *~~!~~**~~!~~**~~!~~*


    Javier was not far from themotion when the screams rent the air. He heard the sounds of the altercation, specifically the man that was barreling through the crowd like a battering ram, and then the sounds of someone stopping him. Javier had been keeping an eye on him from a distance because he was making his way toward him and that gave him a good opportunity. He had a bad feeling about that man.


    ¡°He¡¯s got a bomb!¡± The shouted words had sent the people in the immediate area panicking and running in different directions for the exits. They wanted to get as far away from the man with the bomb as they possibly could.


    ¡°Shit!¡± Javier whispered under his breath. ¡°Now there will be a lot of panic and mass hysteria.¡± He was already running toward the scene when he saw that there were others making their way toward them as well.


    ¡°Hey, you!¡± Zita called out as she ran toward the scene. There were two humans that seemed to be frozen in ce with the potential bomber. One of them was holding onto the bag that the bomb was in, so it was best if he didn¡¯t move at all, but the other one was just standing there and watching the situation with open mouthed and wide eyed terror.


    ¡°Huh?¡± The man, finally, moved when he heard the slight hissing tone in the feline woman¡¯s voice.


    ¡°Watch out!¡± Zita was already jumping into the air and leaping over the man. At the same time, she caught something in the air that Javier had not yet seen. And as she did that, Emelia, a Falcon shifter that had partially shifted, the bird people¡¯s version of a Lycan form, swooped in and caught something else.


    At the next moment, Javier saw that both women had a backpack that was clutched tight to their chests. However, while Zita wasnding lightly on the ground, Emelia was flying a little higher, toward the rafters that were above the stadium floor. When he looked up, Javier saw that there were two people high on the rafter, running in opposite directions. Emelia was heading toward one of them, and Tim was going after the other. Tim was an Eagle Shifter that had really good eyesight.


    ¡°You¡¯re not getting away.¡± Tim snarled at him.


    ¡°I got this one.¡± Emelia did in fact have that man, as she swung her legs forward and gripped the back of his clothes with her long talons. This were-form of the bird people made it so that they had wings and talons, but were otherwise quite human looking. It made for an easy capture like this.


    ¡°Whoa!¡± The man that seemed to have been frozen called out when he saw the three saviors in action. He had watched Zita as she soared over him and caught the device before it hit the ground. ¡°Y..y..you saved me.¡± He was looking at her with envy and awe.


    ¡°That¡¯s why we¡¯re here.¡± Zita had partially changed, simr to what Kiernan had done earlier. She had feline features and her ws were out. ¡°You need to get out of here.¡±


    ¡°Y..you came here to save us?¡± The man looked like he wasn¡¯t able to think much at the moment.


    ¡°We got word that there might be an attack today, so we¡¯re here to save you humans. Please, get out of here, we will find the rest of the DOE members.¡±


    ¡°The DOE?¡± The man looked toward the would-be bomber that was just grinning maniacally.


    ¡°Our mission will see its end, even if it isn¡¯t today, it will happen soon enough.¡±


    ¡°Y..y..yeah, O..O..OK.¡± finally the man nodded and started to run away, but he stopped after just a moment to look back at Zita. ¡°Thank you. Y..y..you helped me more than you know today.¡± There was a smile on the man¡¯s face when he started to run away.


    ¡°I am d that I could help.¡± Zita¡¯s sweet looking face, even when feline, helped to break the barrier between her and the man. He gave the calmest look that he had worn yet before he ran away toward one of the exits.


    Javier saw that the man was gathering others that were staying behind as well. He was getting them out, but he didn¡¯t have to do that. They would do it soon, too. There were fifteen of them after all.


    ¡°Here, I will set these ones here.¡± Zita said as she pulled the man from Emelia¡¯s talons and set him next to the other man that she had taken from Tim right in front of Javier. ¡°You there, are you OK?¡± She asked the human that was holding onto the bag still.


    ¡°Yes. I just wanted to help out. He was being really rude to everyone else.¡±


    ¡°We will take it from here.¡± Javier grinned excitedly at the man. They all knew that we were here now, so there was no need to hide anymore. That had been Queen Trinity¡¯s rule. Hide while you can. Let the freak g fly when the cat was out of the bag. Well, Zita and Emelia had definitely let that cat out.


    With a look of pure excitement, Javier let his beast out of the bag as well. He wouldn¡¯t do this if he didn¡¯t have a bag stashed nearby with another set of clothes. However, since he did have those clothes on hand, he was able to shift into his full bear form.


    Once shifted, Javier towered over them all. He was twelve feet tall in this form, and he was more than a little intimidating. Even so, he was still nothing whenpared to his Alpha, Trevor. That was a bear that was a legend. He even managed to marry the Fae queen, talk about luck.


    ¡°Leave them with me, Zita, I will guard the prisoners.¡± Javier¡¯s voice was a true growl now, almost unintelligible. She understood him though, and so had the humans that were standing nearby.


    ¡°Sir.¡± Zita told the man holding the backpack. ¡°I will take the bag now. You can leave the stadium and get yourself to safety.¡±


    ¡°Y..y..yeah, OK.¡± The man was looking at Javier with eyes that were alight with joy. It was almost as if he had just seen Santa us on Christmas morning. ¡°Y..y..you are amazing. All of you.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re just here to help.¡± Zita winked at him. ¡°Go on now, let us do our job.¡±


    ¡°Yes, understood. Wow, this is awesome. I can¡¯t believe that I got to meet true supers. This is the best day of my life.¡± Therge man with the fake wolf ears ran from the building then, getting himself to safety.

 Chapter 1124 - 1124 Chapter 109- Various – Super Natural Appreciation Convention Part 4 (VOLUME 6)

    1124 Chapter 109- Various ¨C Super Natural Appreciation Convention Part 4 (VOLUME 6)


    *** In these chapters, the POV will switch depending on who the main focus is. There will be views from Trinity and Reece¡¯s staff, convention attendees, and DOE infiltrators. There is a lot of information that is to be had in these chapters, but some fun as well. And as a result of the multiple POV, they will all be in a third person POV. ***


    The moment that themotion started, Rowan and na both knew that they had messed up. The guards were not here just for protection, but because the tip was true. Those people from the DOE were really trying to bomb this ce. And they were doing it right now.


    ¡°Both of you get out of here.¡± Darius told them as he started to head in the direction of the noise, but he hesitated. He wasn¡¯t sure if he should leave them behind to fend for themselves. What if they didn¡¯t leave? What if the DOE recognized them and attacked them directly? There was a lot that could go wrong if he left them on their own, and he knew that.


    ¡°We can help you.¡± na said as she took a step toward him.


    ¡°I can¡¯t risk that.¡± Darius shook his head. ¡°You need to get out of here.¡±


    ¡°No!¡± Rowan said. ¡°Either let use with you or we will help elsewhere on our own. We are not ipetent, we can help you, Darius. I promise.¡± The boy was looking pleadingly at the man that was stuck in the middle of the situation. He wanted to keep the kids safe, but he couldn¡¯t let them go away on their own. This was a dilemma for him, and he wasn¡¯t sure what to do at the moment.


    It was just a brief pause though. Darius knew that he had to weigh the situation carefully, and that he really should not abandon the team that he was here with.


    ¡°Fine.¡± He growled at them. ¡°Come with me, but you do exactly what I tell you to, do you understand me?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± The twins spoke in unison.


    .....


    ¡°We won¡¯t let you down, Darius.¡± na¡¯s eyes were hard as steel and Rowan looked confident in his abilities.


    Together, Darius, na, and Rowan, all ran toward the sound of themotion. They knew that there was danger over there, but they weren¡¯t scared at all. And Darius had known that there were several lower ranking members of the DOE that were present for this attack.


    The thing is, they didn¡¯t know what sort of bombs they were using right now. If they were timebombs, remote detonation bombs, or some other type that they needed to worry about. They just knew that there were a lot of people still in this building and a lot of work that they needed to do.


    The three of them were on their way to where Javier and the others were when they heard the sound of more screaming. There was anothermotion to the left and yet another to the right.


    ¡°We will go this way, Darius. We will stick together ande back here the moment that everything is OK.¡± na exined to him calmly.


    ¡°No, we can¡¯t split up.¡± He growled at them, angry about the situation.


    ¡°We have no choice.¡± Rowan growled as well. The boy had a fierce tone to his voice that Darius hadn¡¯t nned on. If Darius was at all prone to blushing, he might have done so just then, showing his embarrassment at the momentary shock that he felt at the boy¡¯s tone. As it was, he had far too dark of aplexion to be given away that easily.


    ¡°Fine. Stay together and get back to my side as soon as possible.¡± He finally relented and split from the kids, running to the left and the sound of another potential bomber in that general area.


    Rowan and na, moving in perfect synchronization, the way that only twins can, moved in toward their target. Or better yet, targets. There were two men in this direction. They each held a backpack in front of them and wereughing maniacally at the frightened humans that were cowering before them.


    The twins knew that the bombs were in those backpacks, and that they looked huge as they strained against the fabric and canvas.


    ¡°You¡¯re all going to die. And there is nothing that you can do about it.¡± One of the psycho menughed at a scared teenage girl.


    ¡°You are all going to burn up to a crisp, like bacon.¡± Another crazy DOE man chuckled at them. ¡°Once these go off, you won¡¯t stand a chance.¡±


    ¡°Please, don¡¯t do this. Why are you targeting us?¡± A trembling fifteen year old girl begged the men.


    ¡°Because you all want to ept those abominations into our society. Those creatures that God never intended to exist.¡±


    ¡°Hey, asshole.¡± Rowan called out to get the speaker¡¯s attention.


    ¡°If the Gods never wanted us, then exin why they are very active in our lives?¡± na asked as she finished her brother¡¯s question.


    ¡°Where are the Gods when ites to your lives as humans?¡± Rowan continued.


    ¡°Seems to me, the Gods are a little fed up with your lot.¡± na added as the two would-be bombers turned to face them. That was what the twins had wanted, to get their attention off of the others so that they could get away.


    ¡°RUN NOW!¡± The twins told them as they leapt toward the bombers. Rowan had shifted into his wolf form, but na stayed human for this take down. She didn¡¯t have another set of clothes, and she didn¡¯t want to stay wolfy until she got hometer.


    ¡°Oh wow! We were saved by werewolves.¡± One of the girls said, still trembling, as she ran away. Once they were all to safety, Rowan and na wrestled the backpacks from the evil DOE assholes and dragged them back to where Darius was waiting. In Rowan¡¯s case, he was literally dragging the man that he had taken down, because he didn¡¯t have hands to carry him.


    ¡°I see you did well.¡± Darius said as he took the two bags from na and had her push the man that he had captured.


    The two men that na was escorting thought that they would be able to get away from her. They started to fight against her hands and run in opposite directions. That hadn¡¯t worked though, and they just ended up being pulled back so hard that their heads collided painfully. It was their own fault really, so na hadn¡¯t felt bad about it.


    ¡°You people think that girls are weak, huh?¡± She growled at them. ¡°Well, think again.¡± This time, she lifted the two men at the same time, literally carrying them to where Javier and the others were waiting with the men that they had captured.


    The moment that the firstmotion had erupted, all of the DOE members had started to initiate their n. They were working on trying to kill all of the nonhumans that were here, but also all of the sympathizers that were present. And those humans were the priority here, they were why they were working so hard at the moment.


    Three of the fifteen that were with Darius and the others went on to evacuate the building. Once the attendees knew that they weren¡¯t human, they were all more than willing to listen to them. They were all literally infatuated with the saviors that were ushering them out.


    While those guards got the humans out, which was taking a long time with the ten thousand or more attendees, the other dozen guards and two misced semi-royalty, the DOE members were hunted down.


    The DOE were all easy to spot, once they knew what to look for. They had not run out with the others, instead they all looked for stragglers that they could target and kill with their bombs. Not only that, but they all had the same backpack. The same sandy tan colored canvas bag with a bright green leather p and bottom. The straps were green as well, which were all loose enough so that the bombers would be able to throw them and run away.


    So far, the guards, along with na and Rowan, had captured a dozen DOE members, but there were still at least five hundred people that were running around in a panic, so there was no telling how many more there were until they saw them. They could be hiding in in sight.


    The screams were nearly constant now as the humans fled the convention through the nearest exits. They were doing their best to burst as many eardrums as they could in the process, though they hadn¡¯t known that was what they were doing. They were just trying to stay alive.


    The worst scream by far came from a group that was trapped near the moon snacks station. They had been hiding inside of the stand until one of the DOE found them.


    ¡°There you are.¡± An evil and pure crazy voice registered across the room. Kiernan knew what he needed to do the moment that he heard it too. He took off running in the direction that he had heard those screams, several othersing with him, hot on his heels.


    ¡°Please. No. Leave us alone.¡± There was a slightly familiar voice that Kiernan heard, but he couldn¡¯t ce it at the moment. He was still trying to process all that was going on and his mind was a little too busy.


    ¡°You¡¯re in the perfect ce. I just need to throw this and-.¡± The man was suiting actions to words. He had thrown the bomb toward the stand and that was when Kiernan knew that the bombs were likely set to detonate if they received too much of an impact on the ground. These bombs had to be modified versions of impact grenades. Shit! That wasn¡¯t good at all.


    Kiernan saw the DOE member already fleeing the scene. The bag was soaring through the air toward the half a dozen humans that were hiding in the stand. And sitting there among them, he saw a familiar face. There was Selena, the girl that he had met earlier that day. She had long, silky ck hair, exotic looking almond shaped hazel eyes, and aplexion that was several shades darker than his fair skin. He was instantly invigorated with the desire to protect that woman, to keep her safe.


    Shifting as quickly as he could, Kiernan, the man, disappeared and was reced with the tiger. He could run much quicker in this form, and he was a lot more sturdy.


    ¡°Kiernan?¡± Selena called his name, but he had to ignore her for the moment. He had to save her. He could talk to her after this was all over.


    Running as fast as he could, Kiernan collided with the bomb in midair. He had intended on catching it in his mouth, but he hadn¡¯t aimed properly. Together, Kiernan and the bomb flew at least forty feet past the booth andnded among a pile of other debris.


    The bomb exploded instantly when they hit the ground. Kiernan, who had managed to move slightly away from the deadly bag, was still quite close to it. He felt the surge of heat followed by the searing pain. He screamed long and loud in his cat form as the me spread across his body.


    ¡°Kiernan!?¡± Selena called out to him the same time that another voice called.


    ¡°Kiernan!¡± That one was Zita, his pack mate and friend. ¡°You moron!¡± She got to him as soon as the initial st subsided. She was already extinguishing his fur and putting out the mes that had burned his flesh. ¡°Are you OK?¡±


    ¡°I..I think so.¡± He was hurt, but he would live. It was more flesh wounds than anything at all. ¡°There was a lot of bang in that bomb, but not a lot of shrapnel.¡± He felt along his side and knew that the force of it had hurt him, but he wasn¡¯t as bad as he could have been. ¡°I will live. I am just really sore.¡±


    ¡°I will call Queen Trinity, have her send over Mr. Griffin. You need some healing.¡±


    ¡°K..Kiernan?¡± Selena, the human that had called out to him before, was walking slowly toward him. ¡°Y..you saved us. You saved me.¡±


    ¡°I am here to save all of you. But I especially wanted to save you, Selena.¡± There was a look in Zita¡¯s eyes when she looked between her pack mate and the human woman.


    ¡°He will be OK.¡± She assured the woman that was crying over Kiernan. ¡°We¡¯re going to call a doctor for him. A doctor for one of our kind.¡±


    ¡°S..so that fur, it wasn¡¯t makeup, was it?¡± Selena asked him, almost as if she was ignoring Zita.


    ¡°No, it was me. I had lost myposure for a little bit.¡±


    ¡°It was amazing. You are amazing.¡± She still only had eyes for the man that saved her life.


    ¡°Go on now, get out of here.¡± Emilia, the Falcon, hade over to usher them out. ¡°He will be fine, you can talk to himter. We need to capture the rest of the terrorists.¡±


    ¡°Yes, OK.¡± Finally, Selena seemed to understand. ¡°C..can I still call you, Kiernan?¡± She asked him hesitantly.


    ¡°I¡¯d like that.¡± His ego swelled as he looked at her. She still wanted him, even with himying there half burned to a crisp. And while he was still in his cat form. Wasn¡¯t that amazing?

 Chapter 1125 - 1125 Chapter 110- Various - Super Natural Appreciation Convention Part 5 (VOLUME 6)

    1125 Chapter 110- Various ¨C Super Natural Appreciation Convention Part 5 (VOLUME 6)


    *** In these chapters, the POV will switch depending on who the main focus is. There will be views from Trinity and Reece¡¯s staff, convention attendees, and DOE infiltrators. There is a lot of information that is to be had in these chapters, but some fun as well. And as a result of the multiple POV, they will all be in a third person POV. ***


    There was a lot happening at the moment, and Rowan didn¡¯t know how best to react to it. He hade here with the sole intention of just blowing off a little steam, having a good time, and seeing what it was that all the humans seemed to idolize about them. He hadn¡¯t understood why it was that they had felt the need to hold a convention in their honor.


    It wasn¡¯t like these humans had actually invited actual supernatural beings to attend this party of theirs, at least not to his knowledge. Then again, they might have invited them and just got no response back from any of them. How upsetting would that have been for the humans that were hosting the event?


    Rowan imagined that he could see the humans sending an invite to Aunt Trinity and Uncle Reece and expecting that they would jump at the opportunity to be worshiped or whatever. That seemed like something that at least a handful of these humans would have been thinking. Not all of them though. Some of them were a little more reasonable.


    When themotion started and Rowan, along with his sister, had insisted on staying to help Darius and the others, he had not expected that there would be so many DOE members here. So far, there had been thirteen of them found and captured, and thatst one had been really tricky.


    While Kiernan, in his tiger form, had ran directly toward the bomb, only to get hurt in the process, Darius and Rowan had chased after the bomber. Finally, Darius had shifted into his wolf form as well, and the two of them chased down the man as he tried to outrun the super naturals that were much stronger and faster than him.


    Rowan¡¯s wolf form was tawny colored with gray green eyes. His hair was dark, like his dad¡¯s, but his wolf took after his mom. He had always thought that this was strange, but he never questioned it. Darius¡¯s wolf was a rich dark chocte color. It suited the man perfectly. However, it was hard to tell as the two were running just which wolf wasrger. Even though Rowan was young, he was powerful.


    In fact, it was Rowan that had actually stopped the man that was running away. He had leapt forward and tackled him to the floor of the stadium, causing the human to sprawl beneath the giant wolfish paws.


    ¡°How many of you are there in total? How many more do we need to capture?¡± Rowan growled in his deep, rumbling wolfish voice.


    .....


    ¡°GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME, YOU MONSTER!¡± The man was struggling beneath Rowan, sobbing like a child that had just had a toy or cookie taken away from him. ¡°GET OFF OF ME!¡± His bawling voice was grating on the nerves.


    ¡°You are not getting away.¡± Darius told the man as he skidded to a halt next to Rowan and the bomber. ¡°You will be sentenced to the fullest extent of thew for your terrorist and hate crimes.¡±


    ¡°YOU HAVE NO AUTHORITY OVER ME!¡± The man shrieked and thrashed with his cheek pressed against the hard floor. ¡°GET OFF OF ME, YOU DISGUSTING MONSTER!¡±


    ¡°It is not polite to call us monsters.¡± na strolled over, still in her human form. ¡°We are not the ones that are trying to kill innocent people. We are not the ones that are bombing buildings and spreading fear. You are the monsters. You are the evil ones. We are just people that are trying to live our lives.¡±


    na had started to talk without thinking, but she meant every word that she was saying. She also had started without taking into ount that there were still people in the area, human people. She noticed them from the corner of her eye now, and she knew that they were filming her. She knew that she should stop talking, stop saying these things, but she couldn¡¯t help it. She feltpelled to do this, and she didn¡¯t care who saw it.


    ¡°YOU ARE HURTING ME! I AM INNOCENT! YOU CANNOT GET IN TROUBLE FOR KILLING MONSTERS OR MONSTER LOVERS! THESE PEOPLE HERE, AND YOU DISGUSTING INHUMAN CREATURES, YOU ARE NOT PEOPLE! YOU ALL DESERVE TO DIE! IF YOU ARE ALLOWED TO LIVE, THEN THE WORLD WILL BE DESTROYED!¡± The bomber¡¯s words sounded like delusional propaganda, and none of those that were nearby even understood why they would think those things.


    ¡°Why?¡± na asked before expanding on the single word question. ¡°Why do you think that we would destroy the world? We have been here, living among you all along. We don¡¯t want to hurt anyone. We don¡¯t want to destroy the world. All we want is to have a peaceful life without having to hide who and what we are. And, you know something, the only reason that we needed to tell you all about us now, was because someone was threatening to tell the world about us. They wanted to tell the world that we were monsters, just like you are trying to do. If we were monsters, wouldn¡¯t it be better not to tell you about us? Wouldn¡¯t it have been a lot easier to take over the world without you all knowing the truth? What you are saying makes no sense to me, sir. It¡¯s just not adding up in my mind.¡±


    ¡°THEN WHY ARE YOU ALL HERE!?¡± The bomber screamed in response to na¡¯s question. ¡°WHY COME TO THIS CONVENTION IF YOU ARE NOT BEASTS THAT ARE INTENT ON KILLING INNOCENT HUMANS?¡±


    ¡°Because we knew that people like you would use this convention as an excuse to kill people that do not hate us. I don¡¯t know why you have so much hate in your heart, but it saddens me. It breaks my heart when I see people that are socking in love that they feel the need to drag others down.¡± na crouched then, looking a little more directly into the bomber¡¯s eyes. ¡°I don¡¯t know if you were raised to hate or if someone hurt you and broke the part of you that is capable of loving others, but I truly do wish that you knew what love felt like. Love heals and hate kills. That is the simplest way that I can put it. A world cannot thrive and survive on hate. People, all types of people, need to set aside their differences and learn to understand each other. This goes for setting aside race, species, color, religion, all the things that make us different.¡±


    There were murmurs in the crowd as they listened to what na had to say. The humans were enthralled by her words, and so were the super naturals that were watching on. Still, na knew that she couldn¡¯t stop. She was being guided by something that was beyond her, something that knew more than she did.


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter what species we are, what color we are, where wee from, we all feel, we all love. If we all hurt, we all bleed. And when we bleed,¡± she paused and looked at her hand, ws extending, ¡°that blood is always the same color.¡± na drew her w across her palm and let the blood flow down to the ground. ¡°We feel pain. We bleed. We heal. None of that is any different for us than it is for humans. We fall in love. We get married. We have families. All of that is the same no matter where our ancestryes from.¡±


    The bomber, the human that had caused so much pain and despair, was looking at na¡¯s hand, and the blood dripping from it, with wide eyes. He looked as if he couldn¡¯t understand what was happening. She knew then that the man had not thought that her blood looked anything like his, that they were that closely rted.


    ¡°Do you know what makes us all different? Why are we the way that we are? Thousands of years ago, the Gods walked the Earth and mingled with the humans. They had followers and worshipers that were utterly devoted to them. Those that were the most devoted were given abilities that the other humans didn¡¯t have. The Gods altered those people, and when they had children, the gifts passed along to them. Generation after generation, our people continued to thrive in the shadows of the world. But do you see the one thing that binds us all?¡±


    ¡°What?¡± A random voice called from the crowd, causing na to look up in search of the speaker.


    ¡°We were all human at one point in time. The root of us all, it is the same. We were all human, every shifter, every vampire, even the Fae and the magic users, they all have a base element in humanity. Can we not just focus on what makes us the same and not what makes us different?¡±


    There were tears streaming down na¡¯s cheeks at that moment. She didn¡¯t want them to be seen, but there was nothing that she could do about it now. She was crying and all of these people were watching her.


    Even as na fought the urge to blush at her tears, there was something that surprised her more than anything else could have. The humans that were watching all started to apud and cheer her. They were all saying simr things as they called out in affirmation to her words.


    ¡°WE ARE ALL BROTHERS AND SISTERS!¡±


    ¡°WE MAY BE DIFFERENT, BUT WE ARE ALL THE SAME!¡±


    ¡°LOVE HEALS, HATE KILLS! THE SUPER NATURALS ARE JUST LIKE US!¡±


    ¡°UNITY NOT SEPARATION!¡±


    All of the super naturals that were gathered had been shocked by this outburst. However, they were standing in a group of supporters, so it shouldn¡¯t have been that much of a surprise to them all. na understood that the people that were here, the ones that had heard her speech, would do their best to spread this message to the others that weren¡¯t here. They would help to spread the love, and that was what they needed. More understanding, more awareness.


    Things started to settle not long after the speech that na had given. The man that Rowan was sitting on told them that there were eighteen total DOE members that hade that day, but they had only captured thirteen. The rest of those that were in attendance were checked and searched, but none of them had a bomb in their possession, nor did they smell like the bombs either. The other five that hade to the convention had to have escaped when the attendees had started to panic. Either they lost their nerve, or they knew that they would be captured. Either way, they weren¡¯t here at the moment.


    The police had also arrived during the time that na had been giving her speech. The entire situation inside of the stadium had taken less than ten minutes from start to finish, but it had felt like it had been hours since themotion had started. Barricades had been set up surrounding the stadium as the authorities arrived. The local police and FBI were once again working together to deal with the situation that had started so suddenly. They had been prepared in advance, because of the warning from Carter.


    The police had stopped as many witnesses from leaving as they were able to. With any luck, they would have been able to capture the other bombers that had fled the building. If they had ditched their bombs and tried to hide among the other attendees, they might think that they were able to get out of the situation without being detected.


    Rawlynne and Jackson were in charge of the situation though, and they were going to make sure that the search and interrogations were thorough. And that meant that the first sense that the officers and agents went in with, almost all of which were super natural, was smell. The bombs had distinct odors that even alert humans could smell when they knew what to look for. None of these people were going to escape if they had anything to do with the attack.


    Darius, who had not been sure if he had done the right thing by letting the twins stay, had started to feel much better about his decision after the speech that na had made. Yes, he was likely to get in trouble, because he just knew that the videos the humans had taken of her speech were going to make it online in a matter of minutes, if they weren¡¯t already there, but he thought that the words that she had said needed to be heard. She had said what they all needed to hear. She had spoken from the heart.

 Chapter 1126 - 1126 Chapter 111- Rawlynne – Super Natural Appreciation Convention Part 6 (VOLUME 6)

    1126 Chapter 111- Rawlynne ¨C Super Natural Appreciation Convention Part 6 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Rawlynne


    ~~


    The people that Trinity had sent undercover had reported back after their first week. They had told her that the DOE was nning an attack on a convention that was nned in the city. And ever since that warning came in, I had made it my mission to know everything that I could about that convention.


    The Super Natural Appreciation Convention was to be held Saturday March the second. It was to start at noon andst until ten in the evening. The convention had wanted to start sooner, but they had to wait until all of the repairs from the attack on the stadium were finished before they were able to reserve their date.


    Now, why was it that they were willing to wait longer to hold the convention that they were all eager to attend? That was simple and easily answered. They wanted the convention to be in the same ce that Trinity and the others had announced the existence of our kind. They wanted to feel that connection to us because that was the ce that we had been when the world was informed.


    I think that, in a way, the humans thought that the stadium was a ce of importance to our people, and that was not true at all. The stadium was just a convenient ce for Trinity and Reece to use because it was easy for the media to set up and it wasrge enough to show the things that were necessary to convince the world that it was all true.


    Now, diving deeper into the convention itself, I had learned that they were nning on costume contests, seminars, discussions, merchandise that people had made themselves, food, and so much more. It was like any other convention of its type, just all about the super naturals. That wasn¡¯t that hard to fathom, but it was a little embarrassing. Thinking about what it was that these people were going to talk about, and how it pertained to my life personally.


    I learned that the organizers of the event were local, and thrilled that the reveal had happened in their hometown. They felt more connected to the nonhumans of the world because the leaders were so geographically close to them. It was a littleical, but there were no ill intentions, so it didn¡¯t bother me at all.


    .....


    In truth, there wasn¡¯t much about the convention that gave me pause at all. It would go off without a hitch, if it wasn¡¯t for the DOE and their intended attack. And knowing that they did intend to attack the ce, I knew that I needed to do all that I could to protect those humans that attended the convention. And that led me to researching the stadium in great detail.


    I needed to know every alley and street that led up to the stadium like they were the lines on the back of my hand. I needed to know how to contain the area if and when the attack actually started. I needed to know where every entrance and exit was. How many rm systems there were. How the fire system worked. And the name of every employee that worked in the stadium.


    I would cross reference the employees that worked in the stadium with the list of staff members for the convention. If there were any names that stood out, meaning that were on the convention list but not the stadium list, that person would be hauled in for questioning and grilled about why and how they were going to work the event.


    Yes, there were vendors that would be involved in the situation that weren¡¯t part of the stadium staff, but they weren¡¯t excluded from scrutiny. I was going to be as thorough as I possibly could. No one was going to get in there if I could stop them. Well, no one from the DOE.


    I had thought that this was the most likely way of stopping all the potential bombers. I had thought that they would want to be on the inside and nt the bombs before the convention started. Although that had not been the case. And Trinity had even made sure of that, by having the guards sweep the stadium for bombs before the convention started.


    When the call finally came inter in the afternoon, I had already been pacing my office for several hours. We had not found a single DOE member in the preparation of the event, but I knew that they were going to make their appearance.


    I had wanted to be at the stadium and prepared to stop them before themotion had even started. That would likely put an end to all of this before anyone could get hurt. However, Trinity had forbidden it. She said that members of her castle guard would be more than sufficient.


    As Trinity had put it, Jackson and I were too recognizable. We had been in the media with her. People associated us with her. And anyone that was obviously a cop would set off the DOE before they had been found out. The guards, who would be doing their best to look like attendees for the event, would stand out a little less. I knew that she was right, but it still hadn¡¯t settled right with me.


    The call that came in said that there had been people seen with bombs. It was the call that we had been waiting for and yet dreading at the same time. Still, there had not been a single call about an actual explosion, so that was good. So far, no one was hurt and there was no damage. If it could stay like that, then this whole situation would end as favorably as possible.


    Jackson and I, along with everyone else that we had gathered for today, set out immediately. We were all set and ready to go in advance. All we needed to do was leave, and the same was true of the local police. That was how we had been able to start the roadblocks while we were still on our way to the stadium. No one was going to get away from us.


    When we got to the stadium, or as close as we could get in the cars, I saw that there were thousands of people milling about outside of the building. The humans had fled the stadium, but they hadn¡¯t gone far. It was that curious spectator disease that most people have. They wanted to see, so they weren¡¯t leaving.


    We started with the outside and made our way in. Dozens of FBI agents and police officers were dividing the people into groups and questioning them. Jackson and I, monitoring the situation and heading toward the heart of the crowd, listened to what was happening.


    ¡°What? No! Let go of me!¡± A man¡¯s panicked voice called out from nearby. I turned and saw Agent Collins apprehending a man that was carrying arge backpack.


    ¡°You are under arrest.¡± Collins said to the man in a stern voice before starting to cite the offense and reading him his Miranda rights. That man was undoubtedly a member of the DOE and one of the possible bombers.


    ¡°Shit!¡± I heard the curse as it drifted across the crowd. It was not much more than a whisper, but it was definitely filled with fear. When I looked up to see the man that had spoken, I saw a frightened human that was looking at the DOE member being arrested. He also had a backpack, one that was identical to the other man¡¯s bag.


    The moment that I saw him, the human saw me too. He knew that I understood what was happening and who he was. He was also a DOE member, one that had gotten outside of the stadium and thought that they were going to get away.


    ¡°STOP RIGHT THERE!¡± I yelled after the man just as he started to run.


    ¡°AHH!¡± He screamed as I started to chase him. The crowd was parting for him, not to help him, but so that they didn¡¯t get hurt. They all knew that there were likely still bombs in the area and they didn¡¯t want to die.


    Jackson and I both started to chase the man. I was following more directly while Jackson was circling around anding at him from the side. He would take the bomber by surprise while the human was focused on me. It was a good tactic.


    There was another problem though. When this man had started to run, so did three others. And that meant that there were at least five DOE members out here. I started after another target, letting Jackson take the first one that we chased. Andrew and Devon, of the local police department and the same pack that I was in, started to chase the men as well.


    I caught my suspect pretty quickly, Devon seemed on the verge of getting his as well, but the man that Andrew was after seemed so much farther away, and close to the barrier that we had set up. Hopefully, those that were blocking the perimeter would stop him before he slipped away. I wasn¡¯t able to pay attention though, I needed to cuff the man in front of me and take the bomb away from him.


    Once again, there was a need to have as many bomb squad technicians here as possible, because there was no telling just how many bombs there were or how they were to be detonated. These men could set them off remotely, or there could be another man that was nearby waiting to set them off.


    In the chaos of arresting the men that were outside, we learned that the guards were all still inside. Trinity was contacted as well, because one of the bombs had been detonated inside of the stadium, either before we arrived or during themotion. There was only one injury though, and that was a member of the guards that had done all that they could to protect the humans from the bombers.


    I was feeling confident about the situation already. We were containing this. There was minimal damage. And no humans had been hurt.


    ¡°Uhm, Ma¡¯am.¡± Someone called out to me, a tall and slender woman with hazel eyes and ck hair. ¡°I..I wanted to tell you something that I heard inside. The bombs, the ones that you have there,¡± she indicated the backpacks in the distance, ¡°they are impact bombs. They explode when they have a severe impact.¡± I narrowed my eyes for a moment and just looked at her with curiosity. ¡°I..I was there, inside the stadium, when one of them went off. Kiernan was hurt, but they said he will be OK.¡± She looked saddened now, like Kiernan was someone that she had previously known.


    ¡°Thank you for the information.¡± I nodded at her. ¡°And I am sure that he will be OK. We tend to heal quickly.¡± I assured her. ¡°Please, speak with the other agents there to clear yourself and get to safety. The situation still isn¡¯t fully under control.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Ma¡¯am.¡± She nodded at me before walking toward more of the agents in the background.


    By the time that I made it into the stadium, it seemed that things were as calm as could be. There were barely any people in there, and they were clearly not the bombers. There was some damage near the edge of the main floor, where Kiernan hadnded with the bomb that went off. He was stillying there, Griffin at his side with the healing magic flowing.


    There was a group of humans that were still gathered around, perhaps about a dozen or so. The guards were busy checking the building once more for bombs, DOE members, and anyone that had been injured. Those humans that were left all had their phones out though, and they were recording Griffin as he healed the tiger that wasying on the floor.


    ¡°Is everything secure?¡± A voice called out to me. It was Darius, one of the guards from the castle. He was standing with two people that I had not expected to see.


    ¡°Why are they here?¡± I pointed at na and Rowan. The boy was just wearing a pair of shorts and nothing else, which was odd. At least his sister was properly dressed.


    ¡°That¡¯s a long story.¡± The boy said with a smile. ¡°Is everything OK outside? There were five DOE members that made it out of the building.¡±


    ¡°We caught at least four of them. I need to check on the fifth.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± na smiled. ¡°All is well in here.¡±


    ¡°Seems like it.¡± I nodded. ¡°This is still going to make the news, and that was something that Trinity wanted to avoid.¡±


    ¡°It was unavoidable. One of the bombers seemed to have lost his cool. It went downhill from there. At least no humans were harmed, and that was Queen Trinity¡¯s main goal.¡± Darius exined. And at the mention of Trinity, a magical door started to glow in the distance. Trinity was on her way here at this very moment. With her here, things would definitely be under control.

 Chapter 1127 - 1127 Chapter 112- Trinity – Super Natural Appreciation Convention Part 7 (VOLUME 6)

    1127 Chapter 112- Trinity ¨C Super Natural Appreciation Convention Part 7 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I had hoped that the DOE would be caught before anything had happened. I had hoped that keeping the FBI out of the stadium would make that happen. No offense to Rawlynne and Jackson, or any of their other agents, but they stuck out like sore thumbs. And the same went for the local police. Devon¡¯s men were good at their jobs, but they screamed the word cop when you looked at them. And I didn¡¯t want to set off the DOE before they could be caught. No one knew what types of bombs they were bringing because they had been making several new ones at the headquarters.


    I guess that, in a way, things hadn¡¯t gone too bad. There hadn¡¯t been any civilian casualties or anything like that. The only injury that had been received by anyone was to one of my men. Kiernan had been very close to one of the bombs when it exploded. And the reason for that was because he had saved a group of humans that were the intended target.


    The DOE members were captured as well. Well, almost all of them were. From what I had been told, only one of them had managed to get away and that was because there was a small gap in the perimeter that had been set up. The men that were patrolling the area were walking in their lines around the area, but at different rates of speed, so they both had their backs turned when he slipped past them.


    The man continued to run with Andrew and now the two guards that were chasing him. The man was apparently very fast for a human, but the only reason they had actually gotten away from them, was because he had slipped onto a city bus that was at a corner nearby. By the time that they managed to stop the bus, needing police cars to g it down, the man had already gotten off. The bus had literally made one stop before it was gged down and stopped for inspection. That was all it took. The human had disappeared into the city.


    I had men trying to track down his scent, but he was likely moving toward the headquarters already. He wasn¡¯t going to be found, not in time. I gave up on him and decided to focus on the fact that we had gotten fourteen out of the fifteen.


    The damage to the stadium was minimal as well. That was good. With the damage that they had sustained the day of the reveal, I didn¡¯t want them to close down for more than they needed to. Considering that all the damage that they had sustained was, in a way, my fault.


    .....


    Reece and I had done all that we could to help the stadium and its staff during the time that they were under repair. We paid for the repairs, but on top of that, we paid the sries of all the staff that were forced to miss work during that time. I didn¡¯t want their lives to be affected by the chaos that had started because of me wanting to reveal us to the world.


    When I arrived on the scene at the stadium, just minutes after Griffin had gotten there to help Kiernan, I saw that things were fully under control. There was little that I could do, aside from scolding na and Rowan.


    ¡°na Summer Green and Rowan Winter Green, what the hell are you two doing here?¡± I had narrowed my eyes at them. I was their ¡®aunt¡¯ and their godmother. And on top of that, I was the Luna, the Queen, and just about anything other than their parents that would have authority over them.


    ¡°A..A..A..Aunt Trinity!?¡± They stuttered together as they practically trembled in fear at my tone and words.


    ¡°Don¡¯t Aunt Trinity me. What are you two doing here? You both know that you are not supposed to be in this part of the city today. I had made it a point to warn all of you about that fact, but you didn¡¯t listen to me, did you?¡±


    ¡°No, we didn¡¯t Aunt Trinity.¡± na lowered her head in shame.


    ¡°I am sorry, Aunt Trinity. It is my fault. I asked na toe with me.¡±


    ¡°And why did you want toe here in the first ce?¡± I used a stern tone as I asked them this.


    ¡°I..I was feeling upset and rebellious. I know that is no excuse, Aunt Trinity, and I am sorry.¡± Rowan was looking more apologetic than I had ever seen him before.


    ¡°Why, though?¡± I asked again, this time my tone was a little more soft than it had been a moment before.


    ¡°W..well, I am worried about my parents. I felt left out with everything that had been happeningtely. na and I haven¡¯t had much of a role in what is going on. I know that is our own fault, but I just didn¡¯t want to feel left out anymore. I..I wanted to be able to do something. And well, I..I thought that the attack was just something that you all thought was possible, not a guarantee. I am sorry. We were wrong.¡±


    ¡°You know Rowan, if you guys want to be given more responsibility in all that is happening, try being a little more mature. Pulling stunts like this are going to make people not trust you.¡±


    ¡°We understand.¡± They spoke in unison, their heads bowed and their eyes averted. They truly did understand what it was that I had meant.


    ¡°Do better from now on. That is all that I ask of you.¡± I sighed and let the scolding, that didn¡¯t feel much like a scolding, end at that. There were other things that required my attention.


    As much as I wanted to take an active role in all that was going on, I wasn¡¯t allowed to. Not only because I was a Queen that shouldn¡¯t ¡®get dirty¡¯ but because I was pregnant, and I was due in a matter of weeks. In all honesty, I could have the baby at any minute, so Reece was following me around like a worrywart that expected me to explode at any moment. I truly did love that man with all of my heart. Worrywart and all.


    Knowing that there was little that I could do at the moment, I decided that I should issue the first press release on the events that took ce today. The reporters had started to arrive just moments after the FBI and police were on the scene, having heard the callse over the scanners that they listened to when in search of a story.


    I knew that there were going to be reporters that were pro super naturals, and those that were against us. There would also be those that were on the fence. When I stepped outside and toward the gathered press hounds, I saw a familiar face that was in the front and waiting for me. Lana was with her camera man and prepared to provide our statement to the public.


    I was going to treat this statement as more of a press conference. I knew that the reporters would have questions and want to know about what had happened. They would want to know how and why we were here so quickly, and what it was that we had expected to happen. I had prepared for this in advance, so I wasn¡¯t worried about it at all.


    ¡°Can I have your attention, please?¡± I called out to the reporters, even though they were already all focused on me. This was to show them that I didn¡¯t presume to hold their interest so much. ¡°I know that you are all curious about what happened here today, so I would like to be the first to issue a statement, on behalf of my people.¡±


    ¡°You are not a member ofw enforcement, Mrs. Gray.¡± A man with an angry sneer called out to me. I had never seen him before, but I knew that he was anti super naturals.


    ¡°I am sorry, Sir, I do not know who you are.¡± I spoke calmly as I looked at him.


    ¡°My name is Nichs Fuller, I run a true news podcast that airs daily, and I also have a website where people could go to learn the truth about the world. I work in association with Jeffrey Packard, and I will not hide anything that you say from my listeners.¡±


    ¡°I would never ask you to. I only wish to get as much truth out there as possible. And you are right about what you said, Mr. Fuller. I am not a member ofw enforcement. However, I am the leader of mymunity, so I can issue a statement on their behalf.¡±


    Some mumbling followed what I had to say, several people seemed to jot things down in their notepads, though I had said nothing of note just yet. They were alling to their own conclusions already, and that was to be expected.


    ¡°Now, you all have heard some of the details already. Men were seen with bombs inside the stadium during a convention that was being held. This was a pro super naturals event that was being held for other humans that support my people. The event was peaceful and hurt no one.¡±


    ¡°If it was peaceful, then why did your people bomb them?¡± Fuller asked with another sneer, causing several people to start writing again.


    ¡°I assure you, Mr. Fuller, we did not attack this group.¡±


    ¡°Then why were you here?¡± Another man called from the back, but I could not see his face because he was hidden behind the others.


    ¡°We were aware of this event in advance. My people were here undercover to offer protection to the attendees of the event today.¡±


    ¡°Why did you feel the need to offer protection?¡± Lara asked in an eager and epting voice. She was helping to advance the correct information.


    ¡°Several times the members of extremist groups, such as the DOE and their ilk, have talked about the people that support the nonhumans. They have said that people like them need to be killed just the same as my people. We feared that extremist groups such as those would target an event that was being held by those supporters. We didn¡¯t wish for anyone to be hurt, so we decided to protect them in the shadows.¡±


    ¡°That is very honorable of you.¡± Lara offered, but Fuller spoke up almost immediately afterwards.


    ¡°If you were doing something good, then you would not have hidden it from them. You would have had no reason to do the ¡®protecting¡¯ from the shadows.¡±


    ¡°Respectfully, Mr. Fuller, I disagree. You see, this convention was for the humans to enjoy themselves. If they knew that we were there among them, it would have caused disorder and thrown off the schedule that so many people worked hard to prepare. We wanted to make sure that they all got to enjoy their event with no issue at all. That was our hope.¡±


    ¡°So, what changed your minds? Why did your monsters attack the humans that were here?¡± Fuller just wouldn¡¯t stop ming me, but this was expected.


    ¡°Again, Mr. Fuller, we did not attack them. In fact, one of my men was injured as he protected a group of humans who had been in danger. A member of the DOE had thrown a backpack bomb at them and intended to kill them. The man intercepted the bomb and was injured in the resulting explosion. And I am happy to report that he will make a full recovery, and the damage to the facility was minimal. I will be paying for all repairs as well.¡±


    ¡°Of course you will.¡± Fuller sneered. ¡°You think that the world will ept you because of your money.¡±


    ¡°No, I do not expect that, Mr. Fuller. I just feel bad that the stadium was attacked and damaged yet again. They do not deserve to have that happen because others have hate in their hearts.¡±


    ¡°Hate? Don¡¯t you mean fear? You are monsters that are out to murder the human poption.¡± Fuller was still going on and on about this topic. I knew that I should stop him, put an end to his tirade and rantings, but I didn¡¯t.


    In all honesty, I thought that if Fuller kept talking about these things, spewing the hate that he had inside of him, he would lose his credibility with the other reporters and the world in general. Especially after the truth of what happened was releasedter. I knew that there had been humans that filmed a lot of the events, and there was the CCTV footage from the stadium itself. There was more than enough proof that people would leak and sell to the press to prove that the super naturals had done nothing wrong. And letting Fuller dig his own grave would only help us out in the long run. Still, his ranting and ravingsted way longer than I had anticipated it to. He was definitely long winded, and full of nothing but a lot of hot air..

 Chapter 1128 - 1128 Chapter 113- Trinity – Super Natural Appreciation Convention Part 8 (VOLUME 6)

    1128 Chapter 113- Trinity ¨C Super Natural Appreciation Convention Part 8 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    By the time that Fuller seemed to have run himself dry, or is it better to say run out of hot gas, nearly every other reporter in the gathering were looking at the man like he was a three headed toad that had just entered a beautiful swan contest. Yeah, I know, a convoluted analogy, but it was what made sense to me in the moment, so it was what I thought of.


    I saw some of the others that had been borderline or even against us in the beginning of this press release, and they looked to have jumped ship and gonepletely to the pro super naturals side of the argument. And that was just with a few minutes of one crazy man showing his true colors.


    ¡°Are you finished now, Mr. Fuller?¡± I made sure that I spoke to him with nothing but respect and kindness. I wouldn¡¯t have someone taking a video of me being a bitch to someone in public. Not unless they invented a new camera that could record the thoughts that ran through someone¡¯s head, then I would be in trouble for sure.


    ¡°No, I am far from finished, you mongrel mutt of a monster.¡± The man narrowed his eyes and started to draw breath for another tirade.


    ¡°Yes, you are finished.¡± A man that was close to Fuller said as he stepped forward. This was a man that had a camera following him and recording the entire interaction. ¡°I have never been a big supporter of the nonhumans, but I will be damned if I will align myself with anyone that behaves as disgustingly rude as you. I would rather support the Werewolf Queen up there because she has only ever been respectful and polite, even in the face of the insults that people like you throw their way.¡± The man nced at me and then back toward the angry Fuller.


    ¡°You dare to take their side? You are just as bad as they are!¡±


    .....


    ¡°No, I am not. But you, Mr. Fuller, are no better than those clowns that are bombing buildings and targeting people because they happen to be different. News sh, dummy, the entire world is made up of people that are different.¡±


    ¡°I couldn¡¯t have put it better myself, Mr. Lewis.¡± Another man spoke. ¡°Sorry to interrupt, Queen Trinity, my name is Elijah Dalton, and I couldn¡¯t help but agree with myrade here.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Mr. Dalton.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°And you are Mr. Lewis?¡± I looked at the man that had spoken up first.


    ¡°Yes. My name is Harrington Lewis from channel two. I have never been a big supporter of your group, but I have never thought those things about yourmunity. I think that I was just opposed to the newness and the change of it all. I promise you, Mrs. Gray, no, Queen Trinity, that I will do my best to report nothing but the truth from now on.¡±


    ¡°I appreciate that, Mr. Lewis. If you would like an interview at some time, please, do not hesitate to contact my people. I will speak to you so that you can get the truth as we know it to be.¡±


    ¡°I am sorry? What was that?¡± Fullertched onto the words that I had said. ¡°The truth as you know it to be? That sounds like manipting the information.¡±


    ¡°No, Mr. Fuller, it is just how my people interpret the information that we have. You, and the others that are so vehemently against us will see it in a different light. You will hear us talk about peace and think of only war. You will hear us speak of eptance and tranquility, and think of only dominance and repression. It is not up to us to make you think a certain way, and it is your right as a person to think what you will, but that doesn¡¯t make what I say any less true.¡±


    ¡°Bullshit!¡± Fuller snapped at me and I knew that a lot of editors for TV were going to need to bleep that word out before they aired this informationter today. ¡°You don¡¯t want to get along with us, you want-.¡±


    ¡°OH, SHUT UP!¡± Several people yelled the words at the same time.


    ¡°Your schtick is getting old, Fuller. Shut up and get out of here before I ask one of those nice officers to arrest you.¡± Lewis growled at him, quite impressively if I do say so myself.


    ¡°I have broken nows.¡± Fuller snapped at him and straightened his spine. ¡°I cannot be arrested.¡±


    ¡°Really? There is a difference between freedom of speech and making outright threats and hate speech. Those are not protected under thew, as you should well know. And I am sure that some of those officers would like to know just what your connection to the DOE really is.¡± I saw the moment that fear shed through Fuller¡¯s eyes. And I knew that, whether it happened now orter, one of the officers or FBI agents would be questioning him about his ties with the terrorist organization. He was too closely rted to them in the ways that he spoke, and I knew that there had to be something linking the two together.


    ¡°You can¡¯t do that to me.¡± He started to protest, but the moment that an officer took a step closer to the reporters, oblivious to the conversation that we were having. ¡°A..a..anyway, I am leaving. I don¡¯t need to get information from that monster.¡± He red at me. ¡°I will contact the witnesses directly. They will tell me exactly what those things did to them. The other humans here, the ones that this thing,¡± he was pointing up at me with a shaking finger, ¡°tried to murder, they will tell me the truth.¡± He stormed off after his final little tirade. I was d to see him leave.


    ¡°I apologize for all reporters, Queen Trinity.¡± Harrington Lewis looked so somber as he lowered his head. ¡°I know that there are several in my profession that take things too far. We¡¯re supposed to remain impartial and nonjudgmental, but show me one reporter that doesn¡¯t take a side and I will eat my press badge.¡± Heughed, especially once he realized that his camera man was still filming him. ¡°We can¡¯t help it, Queen Trinity. We as people form our own opinions. We see the good and the bad in the world, and we think we know better than other people because we¡¯re the first to get the scoop. That doesn¡¯t give us the right to act like he did though. That was inappropriate and I want you to know that we¡¯re not all like him.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for the apology, Mr. Lewis, but I know that you¡¯re not all the same. I have met more like you than Mr. Fuller, and that gives me hope. Now, if it is OK with the rest of you, I would like to get on with this press release. It went a little off kilter there for a little while, but we are all adults, so I am sure that we can move past this.¡± I tried to smile, but at that moment, the baby chose to kick really hard, so I was sure that my face was a little more of a grimace.


    ¡°Are you alright, Queen Trinity?¡± Lara asked as she took a step forward.


    ¡°I am fine, Lara, thank you for asking. It is just the joys of being so close to my due date. However, we are not here to talk about the baby, maybe another time. For now, let us talk about what happened today, and the brave men and women that made sure that no one was harmed in this senseless attack.¡±


    With the willing participation from the reporters, I told them about what had happened. I fed them more of the story about us just wanting to protect the humans, we didn¡¯t tell them that we were tipped off about the attack, just that we had been worried about the safety of people that so openly supported us.


    There were questions that were asked about the bombs, the people that had been apprehended, and the victims of the day. Because the only injury was to a nonhuman, the day was considered a sess. Because there were no other bombs located in the building, and the one that the missing DOE member had been carrying was located outside the bus stop in the city, we felt a little safer, and more confident. No one was going to get hurt today. No one was going to die, contrary to the ns that the DOE had set for the day. Everything was going just fine. And I was more than happy to settle this with a simple broadcast.


    *~~!~~**~~!~~**~~!~~*


    ~~


    Carter


    ~~


    I had been waiting all day with bated breath. I was worried that there was going to be news that the bombs had sessfully been detonated and thousands of people were injured. I had been driving myself nuts all day with those worries as we all waited for the news toe on.


    We had sent fifteen people to the convention center. Or rather, the Colonel had sent them. I had nothing to do with these people, not really. I was undercover, that was all. However, the only way to truly seed in undercover work, was to appear as if you had assimtedpletely. And that was why when people talked to me about the DOE, I always used the term ¡®we¡¯. I needed to include myself in their way of thinking, whether I liked it or not.


    The Colonel was not expecting a report from any of the DOE grunts that he had selected for the mission. They were all disposable in his mind, and they were all people that he had intended to kill anyway. He didn¡¯t want these men to be a part of the army when it marched. And march it would, soon.


    ¡°The news should be covering it already.¡± The Colonel¡¯s usually calm voice was showing just how angry he was at the moment. Normally, he had a voice thatmanded authority, but was devoid of emotion. He always had an in control vibe to it that was not pleasant to an Alpha like me. I had hated this man from the minute I met him, but I was hiding it well.


    I watched the Colonel then, pacing the room from side to side. His posture, normally so straight that it looked like someone had shoved a pole up his ass, was a little crooked. Huh, it was good to know that even he was capable of being a little less than perfect.


    His eyes weren¡¯t perfect either, and that was unsettling. His usually emotionless, and very ordinary human brown eyes, were now filled with a degree of insanity that made my skin crawl. I felt like there were actual bugs that wereing off of him, microscopic bugs, that were crawling all over my body. And looking at him, I could see that he had been running his hand through his sandy blond hair in agitation, because it was no longer perfectly slicked back. It had several loose pieces that were swaying as he walked rapidly in his path.


    ¡°Perhaps the story will break on the evening news.¡± Mr. Doe told him. ¡°There is no need to wor-.¡± At that moment there was a news bulletin that came over the station that the TV was on.


    ¡°Finally!¡± The Colonel said as he stepped closer to therge screen that was mounted on the wall. ¡°How many were killed? How sessful were those idiots?¡±


    We all watched in various stages of curiosity. I was standing there with my breath held in dread. A bulletin meant that it was bad, right? Or maybe not.


    As we listened on, I learned that only one bomb had gone off, and only one super natural was injured. No humans had received a single injury during the attack. The attack had been thwarted by good Samaritan nonhumans that had wanted to guard the humans at the event.


    The Colonel was not happy about that news. He started to destroy everything that was in his office. Theputer, stacks of papers, everything that he could get his hands on were thrown around the room. Nothing was safe, but as of yet, he hadn¡¯t attacked a single person.


    The anger and tantrum went on for hours. The Colonel had gone to almost everyone, except for the women, and screamed at them about how this failure was their fault. The people that had failed were dead to him, and other things like that.


    About three hours after the news came on the air, there was amotion from near one of the entrances. A man came running into the room, saw the Colonel, and made a beeline for him.


    ¡°Sir! Those monsters knew we would be there. They were waiting for us.¡±


    ¡°YOU IDIOT!¡± The Colonel screamed at him as he charged toward him. ¡°You insignificant little pissant! How dare you fail me like that.¡±


    ¡°B..b..but Colonel, it was a -.¡± Whatever the man was about to say was a mystery. Just as he started to stutter out the words, the Colonel drew his gun in a quick fluid motion and shot the man in the head.


    ¡°Do you all see that?¡± The Colonel turned in a slow circle eyeing almost every awestruck face in the room. ¡°If anyone defies me, if anyone fails me, that is what will happen to you. I expect perfection from all of you, and I will have it. Is that understood?!¡± There was not a word spoken in response, but every head in the room nodded in agreement, even I nodded just to fit in with the crowd.


    This was not a good turn of events. That man was losing touch with his sanity by the second. He might even step up his ns to attack the pce and head there much sooner rather thanter. I had to warn Trinity, but I had to make sure that no one saw me staring off into space. I had to wait until I was alone to send the message. They had to know that the danger was getting closer.

 Chapter 1129 - 1129 Chapter 114- Trinity – Two Sides of the Story (VOLUME 6)

    1129 Chapter 114- Trinity ¨C Two Sides of the Story (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Just as I knew there would be, there were two different versions of the events being aired on the news and posted all over the inte. I was sure that even the newspapers tomorrow would be split. By that evening, when all the major newsworks were airing, we had several TVs tuned in to different stations at the same time. They were all muted and the captions were on so that the sound didn¡¯t drive us nuts.


    On most of the stations, there was a story that was either the truth or close to it. Even the stations that were usually in the middle of the road, not taking one side or the other, were telling the truth about who it was that had saved the day, and who the real viins were. That was actually a good thing, so more people would hear the same story, the real story.


    Still, there were always those that had their own agenda, or that just hated anything that wasn¡¯t like them, just like the extremists. The station that was most affiliated with people like Fuller was telling a story where Reece and I were personally at the stadium, trying to eat people and blow them up with magic. The way that they told it, there were no bombs at all, just our explosive magic.


    Some of the more conspiracy theorist sites online were using my pregnancy to sell things to the public. They imed that in a fit of blood lust, I was trying to murder all the humans and sacrifice them to my baby so that it could be born healthy and strong. And that my baby, an abomination that was not natural to this world at all, was going to be the birth of the antichrist. They were siting a whole bunch of supposed disasters that had taken ce since I had gotten pregnant, half of which happened before I was pregnant with Reeselynn, but the humans didn¡¯t know how long a wolf pregnancy was, so that wasn¡¯t their fault.


    Honestly, if they knew that we were only pregnant for six months, those people would call the baby even more of an antichrist that was a sure sign that all the humans were doomed to die a blood death on the very day that I delivered the baby. Seriously, those people could get creative with their bullshit stories, but it was annoying that they were using the baby as their fuel now.


    ¡°So, they think that a baby born to you would be a devil baby?¡± Shane asked as he read the article that was projected on the wall next to one of the TVs. ¡°Do they not realize that you have already given birth to seven children, and that this one is no different than the others?¡±


    .....


    ¡°Well, you know, those kids of ours weren¡¯t born, like the rest of us, they just appeared on the from outer space one day.¡± I rolled my eyes at another one of the conspiracy theories that people had about us.


    ¡°Right. And when was that supposed to be again? I forgot when and how we flew through the cosmos.¡± Shaneughed as he always did when these people¡¯s imaginations showed the levels of depravity that they were willing to drop to.


    ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t remember it either. It must have been before we were all born. You know, back when the humans flew here in another mothership as well.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re all aliens! WHOO!¡± Shane jokingly cheered. ¡°Anyway, at least things were settled easily enough earlier. It meant that there was not a lot of stress for you.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say that.¡± Reece said as he stiffened next to me. ¡°Had Trinity not barred me from joining her at the press release, I would have beaten that worthless asshole to a pulp.¡± He was currently grinding his left fist into his right palm, showing everyone just how he would pulverize him.


    ¡°And that is likely why she forbade you from going with her, my friend.¡± Dietrich pped a hand to Reece¡¯s shoulder and spoke in a soothing, if slightly amused, tone. ¡°Trinity is trying to make sure that the humans see us as friends and allies, not people to be feared.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, well, I am sure that the majority of the human poption would be happy if I ended Fuller, and others like him. They don¡¯t deserve to live.¡±


    ¡°Reece.¡± I snapped at him and saw him look up at me sheepishly.


    ¡°Trinity, Little Bunny, he insulted you. He said such horrible things about you.¡±


    ¡°And I will live.¡± I told him tly. ¡°And, more importantly, it was all on film. Those that are our allies will air his tirade and show it in as negative a light as possible. I have faith in people like Lara Timmons, Elijah Dalton, and Harrington Lewis. They will tell the truth, and they will make sure that the majority of the humans in this country know that he is a monster. We just need to be patient, Reece. We can endure the insults. It¡¯s much better to do that than to repair the damage from a violent outburst.¡±


    ¡°I know, Little Bunny, I really do. I just hate it when someone talks about you like that. And people like that,¡± he was pointing at the article about the impending demon baby, ¡°they are already saying hurtful things about our baby.¡±


    ¡°Reeselynn won¡¯t know anything about any of this. And when she is older, if she finds out that some morons thought that she was the antichrist, well then, we can dress her up as the devil for Halloween and all have a bigugh about it. We know the truth, Reece, we are the ones that can tell her what she needs to know. And I am not so weak spirited that the words of others will cut me and make me bleed. I know who and what I am, Reece, just like you do. And there are so many people in the world that agree with us as well.¡±


    I saw the way that Reece was looking at me then. He was giving me a face that said he was defeated by my words, but that he was also proud of me. He knew that I had beaten him, and there was nothing else that he was able to say about it.


    ¡°Awe, look at how cute that is.¡± Shane joked as he looked at Reece¡¯s face. ¡°She can disarm him that easily. Should we try it too, guys?¡±


    ¡°Do it and die, sparkle fingers.¡±


    ¡°Hey, that is not a nice thing to say about my lightning magic.¡± Shane pretended to be hurt by his words. ¡°I am offended by that, Reece.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡± The growled word was apanied by Reece putting his arms around my waist. ¡°I meant it to offend you, dumbass.¡±


    ¡°Rude.¡±


    In the middle of their squabble, a message popped up on theputer that had been disyed on the wall next to the TV. It was a message from Mr. Doe, instructing us to log into a site with the credentials that he had given in the message.


    The website was one that we had seen before, but we hadn¡¯t thought to monitor at the moment. I think that there was something that Mr. Doe wanted us to see that was extremely urgent. So, doing as he wanted, I pulled up the site and logged in.


    The moment that I was on the site, I was redirected to a video that was just starting over from the beginning. It had been a live broadcast, but now it was just a rey. I focused on what images there were, and the voices that were speaking.


    There was one man that was visible, a normal looking Caucasian American man with nondescript features. The other person waspletely blurred out. I could guess that his hair was light brown or sandy blond, but that was about all. Other than the fact that he was also Caucasian.


    The man that was blurred had his voice altered, but not properly. There were times when he was speaking too fast and frenzied for the voice changer to keep up with him.


    ¡°This is just a truly heinous and monstrous act. Those monsters not only attacked all of those humans that were at the convention today, people that we do not agree with but are humans just the same. But they then went and killed one of my DOE members. We are a peaceful folk. And yes, we would have sought to end the event, but we weren¡¯t out to murder anyone. Not anyone that has the right to share this with us.¡± His words were so contradictory that it was already giving me a headache. ¡°We never would have done what they did, though. We would not have gone about it this way.¡±


    ¡°What did they do, Colonel?¡± The man that was not blurred out, the leader of this site, Jeffrey Packard, asked the Colonel in a breathless exhtion.


    ¡°They murdered him.¡± The Colonel¡¯s hand must have pointed and the camera panned out.


    I saw that they were in some sort of underground cave, something that was much like the ce that Mr. Doe and Kirk had told us about. And lying there on the stone floor was a man with a bullet wound in his head.


    ¡°What the fuck!?¡± I spoke vehemently, but I wasn¡¯t the only one.


    ¡°He was clearly killed there. Look at the puddle of blood. Does he think that people are stupid? He is showing the world the body of someone that he killed, and he¡¯s ming it on us!¡±


    ¡°Shh!¡± David shushed Shane as he tried to listen.


    ¡°Oh my goodness.¡± Packard said as he looked at the body. He was even kneeling next to it, his feet in the blood. ¡°They murdered him by shooting him in the head. Those animals.¡±


    ¡°Fuck you.¡± Reece growled.


    ¡°I am seeking charges against them. They will be arrested. I have contacts. I will speak with them and have them arrested before the night is over.¡±


    ¡°Wait a minute.¡± Reece sat up a little straighter as he heard that voice, the Colonel¡¯s non altered words. ¡°I have heard that voice before.¡±


    ¡°I will do everything in my power to make sure that this Trinity Gray is charged and executed for this crime. She is a monster, and all of her people are just like her. They will pay. They will perish. I swear to you, I will have their heads for this.¡±


    ¡°ORSON!¡± Reece almost bellowed the word as he shot to his feet. ¡°I am sure of it. That is Orson, the NSA agent that was behind all of this. He is the man that tried to expose us. The one that was investigating us. Trinity, the leader of the DOE, is a member of the NSA.¡± There was a small amount of fear and a shit ton of anger filling his eyes at that revtion. ¡°I am sure of it.¡± He said before I had the chance to question his certainty.


    ¡°Well, we will have to double check to make sure, but if you are right, then he needs to be stopped. He has a lot of power in his position, and he coulde after us before the others have a chance to see that he is lying.¡±


    ¡°I will look into this.¡± Rawlynne said as she stepped backward away from the wall and the video that was still ying in the background.


    ¡°I will give Dayton a call. He works for the NSA.¡± Reece said as he turned toward my desk. ¡°Dammit, I never would have guessed that the DOE wasing at us with this kind of force, with a man like Orson leading them.¡±


    ¡°This just went from bad to worse.¡± Dietrich shook his head.


    ¡°If he is angry that his attack failed, it might make him step up his ns. He might not be willing to y his long game anymore.¡± Shawn added.


    ¡°Ya think?¡± Shane asked. ¡°He sounds like he and reality had a falling out a long time ago. He is fucking nuts, with a capital F and N. Damn, this isn¡¯t good.¡± Shane was shaking his head in disbelief, a move that we all unconsciously mimicked.

 Chapter 1130 - 1130 Chapter 115- Trinity – Warning (VOLUME 6)

    1130 Chapter 115- Trinity ¨C Warning (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    Without much of a conscious effort, I was already reaching toward my phone. I needed to call Dayton immediately. I knew that it waste, but this was something that I had to do. I needed to know what he could tell me about this situation. I needed to know what could be done to stop that psychopath. Especially now that we knew who he was.


    The phone rang three times before it was answered. I could tell that Dayton hadn¡¯t been sleeping, but he still had not expected the call that he was getting.


    ¡°Hello?¡± He asked apprehensively. Most likely, he was wondering if the caller id on the phone was telling him the truth or not.


    ¡°Hello Dayton, it¡¯s Trinity Gray.¡± I had no time to waste here, so I was getting straight into things. ¡°We have a problem, and we need your help.¡±


    ¡°Wh..what is it, Queen Trinity? How can I help? I am at your disposal.¡± I had already known that he was a good man, this was just cementing that fact for me.


    ¡°We received some disturbing news today, something that was far worse than the attack on the stadium.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Worse?¡± He sounded disbelieving. ¡°What could possibly be worse?¡±


    ¡°Well, for one thing, the leader of the DOE is going on an extremist site and iming that we murdered one of his members, who was clearly killed in that room that he had the video filmed in. And, secondly, that leader of the DOE is none other than Harrison Orson.¡±


    ¡°Orson?¡± His voice rose several octaves as he said that one word. He had known that Orson didn¡¯t like us, but I believe that, like us, he didn¡¯t think Orson was capable of such heinous acts. ¡°How do you know that it is him? It¡¯s not that I do not believe you, but if I am going to go to my superiors with this, I need to be able to site the source of the information.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I know. And I will send you the proof for it in a moment. We were sent a video of Orson going on that show that is on a protected site. The leader of the DOE was on there, but he was blurred out. He also had his voice altered.¡±


    ¡°Then there is no proof.¡± Dayton interrupted me and I was momentarily annoyed with him. After a moment though, I moved on and just continued to speak.


    ¡°The thing is though, he kept speaking too loud and fast for the voice modtor to work properly, and several times it was his voice that came through. Not only that, but we have people undercover in the DOE. They aren¡¯t usually close to the Colonel, as he calls himself, but they have seen him. We have gotten a description of him, and it does seem to fit him. It was Reece though, who has had the most direct contact with him, who recognized his voice. We know it is him. And now he is going to try and use his position within the NSA to file murder charges against us. We need him stopped.¡±


    ¡°I will do what I can in the morning. There isn¡¯t anyone there right now. And Orson has been away on assignment for a while, or supposedly on assignment. I don¡¯t know really, because no one knows anything about the work that he has been doing.¡±


    ¡°No, we need this started tonight, Dayton. He is not going to let this go. He is losing his mind. He sees us as personal enemies of his. And not only that, Dayton, but he is amassing an army. And we are sure that he is using contacts to acquire weapons like bombs and tanks. We already know that he had been building a shit ton of bombs. We can¡¯t let this be. He is dangerous, Dayton. It needs to be dealt with tonight.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± He answered. ¡°I will head in now. I will call my superiors and have them meet me there. They need to know about this. Email me that link you have, so they can see the video as well. We will stop him, Queen Trinity, I promise.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Dayton. I will wait up for you to call me back with an update. Let me know as soon as you know what is going to happen.


    ¡°I will, Queen Trinity. Just wait a little while. This won¡¯t take too much longer.¡±


    The call disconnected at that, nketing the room in a silence that was so thick and strong that it felt like I would never hear anything again. It was all in my head though, because I knew that I could hear the hearts beating and the steady breathing of everyone that was gathered around me. It was just that it felt so all epassing, so it had tricked my mind into believing it.


    While I was distracted, there was a buzzing in my head that I almost ignored, but when the voice sounded just a momentter, I wasn¡¯t able to ignore it. Well, not only that, but I yelped in surprise and made everyone, especially Reece, look at me in a panic.


    ¡°Trinity.¡± It was Carter, calling me in a panicked tone of voice. He sounded almost as frantic and worried as I felt.


    ¡°Carter, you scared the crap out of me.¡±


    ¡°Did you not sense the calling?¡± He sounded perplexed, even though we both knew that he didn¡¯t have the time for this.


    ¡°Yes, but I was distracted. We just got off of a call with Agent Dayton Long of the NSA.¡±


    ¡°The NSA? Is something wrong? Did something happen there?¡± He was worried about me, despite what it was that he was going through on his end of things.


    ¡°You mean aside from the attack at the stadium? Yeah, we were sent a video by Mr. Doe from the DOE.¡±


    ¡°So, you saw the video then.¡± His voice instantly tightened and became harder to understand. It was funny how this happened even in the mind. He wasn¡¯t physically talking, but all the same nuances were there.


    ¡°Yes. He is iming that we killed that man, which is ridiculous. He is surrounded by blood in the video, so he was clearly killed there.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I watched him kill him. He just pulled his gun and shot him without hesitation. No one even saw iting. He was angry that the men hadn¡¯t seeded in murdering all of the humans and nonhumans that were present at the convention. He is losing his mind more and more, Trinity. He is truly unhinged.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I know. And we know who he is. Who he really is.¡±


    ¡°You do? All I have gotten so far is a first name, and that isn¡¯t much to go off of.¡±


    ¡°Let me guess, that first name is Harrison?¡± I asked him and heard an actual gasp, how someone gasped mentally I didn¡¯t know, but we were able to do it.


    ¡°Yes. How did you know?¡±


    ¡°He is the NSA agent that was investigating us. The one that wanted to reveal us to the world. He was the reason that we had to go through with the reveal in the first ce.¡±


    ¡°Shit!¡± I could hear the disbelief in his voice, but also the note that it all made sense. ¡°No wonder he said he had connections inw enforcement. He is the damned connection. He is going to try and spearhead a murder investigation against you. He is seeing that an attack like the one on the stadium isn¡¯t going to work, so he is trying to attack you personally. This is not good, Trinity. Not good at all.¡±


    ¡°I know, we already have someone on it. We are getting the NSA involved so that they can stop Orson. I don¡¯t know if he will be heading straight there or not, but they will be there, hopefully.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± I could almost see Carter shaking his head as he responded to me. ¡°The Colonel left a couple of hours ago, right after the broadcast. I wanted to call you sooner, but I wasn¡¯t able to get away. There were people that were constantly around me because of the murder. Though they don¡¯t see it as murder. They called it a punishment, like the dude can get up from it after he¡¯s done sleeping it off. These people are all nuts, Trinity. Aside from Mr. Doe and Kirk, I haven¡¯t found a single one of them that wasn¡¯t absolutely batshit crazy.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s unfortunate, but they brought this on themselves. We will need to make sure that they are all arrested for their part they yed in all of this. I won¡¯t let any of them slide if they are still a danger to the world.¡±


    ¡°I know, Trin, I know.¡± There was sadness in Carter¡¯s voice now. He hated that so much hate was around him. He was a man that usually emanated calm, so this had to be difficult for him.


    ¡°We will get you out of there soon, Carter, you and all the others. I want you, Juniper, Paul, Landon, Kirk, and Mr. Doe ready to go when I give you the word, even if you have to leave your things behind.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s probably best that we leave here soon. Things are getting worse, Trinity. And I just know that he is going to make a direct attack on the city soon. Trinity, he has been making more and more ns for when he is going to directly attack his enemy. He is keeping those ns secret, no one is allowed to see them, not even Mr. Doe. But I know that it is going to happen sooner rather thanter.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for that information, Carter. I will need to tell Dayton about that. They need to take Orson into custody immediately. There is no time to waste.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡± I imagined his nodding again before a brief sh of panic. ¡°I need to go. There are people looking for me. I will contact you again as soon as I can. Be safe, Trinity. And let me know what happens.¡±


    ¡°I will.¡± I nodded as well, not sure if he could sense it like I was able to.


    ¡°Trinity?¡± Reece called out to me. Once they had all known that it was Carter that had surprised me, they had settled down somewhat. Still, they were nervous about the entire situation. There had been a lot that had happened today, far too much for my liking.


    ¡°We need to call Dayton again. He needs to know that Orson is on his way to the office. He will try to get things moving against us before the night is over.¡±


    I moved to sit at my desk. I still had to make a call, but I was starting to feel ufortable. All of this stress was making the baby ufortable, and the pressure was quite painful. I didn¡¯t like that we were up against so much in such an unexpected way. Especially when it was making me feel some physical pain because of it.


    ¡°Queen Trinity?¡± I heard Dayton¡¯s voice after only half a ring.


    ¡°Dayton, I heard from one of the undercovers that we have in the DOE. Orson is on his way into the office right now. He is going to try and move things along as quickly as he can.¡±


    ¡°He is on his way here right now?¡± Dayton sounded worried. ¡°I am here already, and my superior is here with me. We will stop him, Queen Trinity, I promise. He won¡¯t make it out of here.¡± There was a sound on the other end of the line followed by a brief pause. ¡°I need to go, Queen Trinity. I am sorry. I will call with an updateter.¡± The line went dead and I was left in silence once more.


    ¡°Dammit.¡± I swore, not because of what happened on the phone, but because I was now left waiting for information.


    ¡°Trinity?¡± Dietrich asked. ¡°What happened?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I will find outter, I guess.¡± I set my phone down and went to cross my arms over my abdomen. ¡°Ahh.¡± I cried out as the baby stretched.


    ¡°Are you OK?¡± Reece, Vincent, and Gabriel all called out at the same time.


    ¡°Yes, just a lot of stress today.¡± I sighed as I sat up straighter. ¡°There isn¡¯t much more we can do until Dayton calls back. I am going to go take a bath to rx. I will call you if Dayton has any news, if not, I will see you all in here tomorrow morning.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure?¡± Dietrich looked at me worriedly now.


    ¡°Yes. I am sure. All of you can head home for now. Go see your families. I will see youter. Reece, will youe with me?¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± He gave me a smile, even though I could see the worry in his eyes. ¡°Want me to carry you?¡±


    ¡°No, I can still walk.¡± I shook my head. ¡°But let¡¯s take a door, so that it¡¯s a shorter walk.¡± I gave him a forced smile that he saw through immediately.

 Chapter 1131 - 1131 Chapter 116- Reece – Unexpected (VOLUME 6)

    1131 Chapter 116- Reece ¨C Unexpected (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    Trinity was acting strange. I knew that she was, but I didn¡¯t look into it too much. She had been through a lot today. Her body was stressed to its breaking point with the emotionally charged situations, the drama, and the pregnancy. She was going through a lot, and all I could do was be there for her. There was literally nothing else in this world that I was able to do than just be there at her side and wait for her to tell me what she needed from me.


    It was annoying as all fucking hell, but that was how it was. She was my wife, my mate, my partner, and my biggest job was just to be there for her. To help her in any way that I could. To be strong for her. And to be there when she needed to lean on me.


    If I was the old me, the one that I was when we were first together, I would have insisted on her going to the hospital and getting checked out by Griffin. I would have not let up until she was safe and sound in the care of people that could tell me one hundred percent that she was alright and that there was nothing wrong.


    Hell, past experience would even dictate that I do just that, with all the problems with the pregnancy for the twins and the quads, there was a lot that terrified me. However, this was not a multiples pregnancy. And nothing at all had gone wrong when Trinity was pregnant with Talia, so I needed to think of it more along those lines than anything else.


    ¡°Do you want me to get the bathwater ready?¡± I asked my Little Bunny the moment that we walked through the door into our room. It was a magical door, and we had literally juste from the office several floors below us.


    ¡°Yes, if you don¡¯t mind.¡± She smiled at me and pressed her cheek against my chest where she was leaning close to me. ¡°I will get somethingfortable to wear after I get out of the water. Remember, don¡¯t make the water too hot, even if I could use a nice hot soak.¡±


    .....


    ¡°I know.¡± I leaned down and kissed her cheek. ¡°Don¡¯t take too long, we can take a bath together.¡±


    ¡°That sounds nice.¡± She sighed. ¡°I want to feel your arms holding me right now.¡± She started to step away from me before speaking again. ¡°I will get clothes for you as well. Go, get the water ready. And we can wash in the shower first, so the bath can just be a rxing soak.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡±


    As my Little Bunny went to the closet to get the clothes for the both of us, I went first to the tub to let it start filling with water. I was going to set the temperature of the water so that it would be just right when we got into it after the quick shower. Then, while that filled, I stepped over to the shower and let the water start its icy spray. By the time my Little Bunny was in here with me, it would be the perfect temperature.


    This wasn¡¯t going to be a physically intimate night, Trinity was far too pregnant for that at the moment, but I intended to make sure that it was spiritually and emotionally intimate. My Little Bunny needed me right now. She needed to know that I was here for her, that my strength was hers, my love was hers, and that my heart already beat inside of her own chest.


    I stripped my clothes off quickly and threw them in the hamper in the corner of the room. When the door opened a momentter, I saw that my Little Bunny was walking toward me, also naked. She had stripped her clothes off while she was in the bedroom, most likely depositing them in the other hamper.


    ¡°That¡¯s a nice sight.¡± She smirked and looked me up and down. ¡°Too bad I can¡¯t y with my toys right now.¡± The heat in her eyes told me that she wanted to y more than she was letting on.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, sweetheart. We can y soon enough.¡± I practically purred the words for her as I held a hand out for her.


    ¡°Hold your horses there, Speedy. I need to set these over there first.¡± She indicated the clothes that we would be wearing to bed.


    I watched my Little Bunny as she walked toward the sink and the counter that surrounded it. Well, walking was the wrong word. She waddled more than anything. It was so adorable, but I couldn¡¯t tell her that. She was self-conscious about the waddling. She thought it meant that she was too big. Not fat, she would never say that to me again. But she thought that it meant that she was too pregnant to walk anymore, as she had been with the quads and almost with the twins. Then again, she was on bedrest for most of those pregnancies, so she wasn¡¯t walking anyway.


    As my Little Bunny turned to face me, walking toward the shower and my waiting arms, I saw more of the belly that had caused the waddle. It was perfectly rounded and beautiful. Recently, the baby had been high and looked like a basketball had been stuck under Trinity¡¯s shirt. Now though, the baby must have dropped a little, because she was sitting low and likely pressing on my Little Bunny¡¯s hips. No wonder she was ufortable. The baby was telling her that it wouldn¡¯t be long until delivery now. Maybe a week or two at most. In time for our anniversary most likely. Our twentieth wedding anniversary. Who would have thought that it woulde so soon?


    Finally, my Little Bunny was at my side. I wrapped my arms around her and helped her into the shower. She didn¡¯t often let me do these things for her, she wanted to remain independent while she was pregnant, it was something that made her feel strong and happy. Right now though, she was willing to let me do more, she truly was tired, wasn¡¯t she?


    We washed quickly. I didn¡¯t want to let the bath get too cold after all. Then again, we could always warm it up with more water, or Trinity¡¯s magic. Still, washing quicker meant sitting with her on myp that much sooner. And I would prefer things that way. I wanted to hold her against my chest and just sit there in the water, rxing andforting her.


    I washed her entire body, paying close attention to her belly that was carrying our baby. I loved all of my children, and I loved that Trinity was pregnant again. This was going to be another happy year for us, after we finished with all this stuff that Orson was doing. After we settled all of that, we would be able to live happily as a family once again.


    After I rinsed off my Little Bunny, I helped her out of the shower and lifted her into my arms. Gripping her with one arm, I grabbed a handful of towels and dropped them next to the tub, this way she wouldn¡¯t get chilly when we got out.


    Still holding her in my arms, I stepped into the tub and settled into the contoured side that was perfectly fitted for my body. I turned my Little Bunny so that she was facing away from me and settled her onto myp. Her belly kept her afloat, unless I pulled her back down. And her breasts, filled with milk, were also floating a little.


    I wanted her against me though, so I pulled her into more of a sitting position, pressing her back fully against my chest and abdomen. Then, with my arms wrapped around her, I held her in ce, almost as if she were my prisoner there in the tub.


    We talked a little, but not about what was happening in the world at the moment. We didn¡¯t mention Orson or anything to do with the DOE. Instead, we talked about our uing anniversary and what we nned to do together and with the family. We talked about the kids and what they were up to. We talked about the future. Not once did we mention the stuff that had to do with the current crisis, and that was a wonderful feeling. Getting away from it for at least a little while.


    Once in a while, while we were talking, Trinity would hiss in pain. I would feel what seemed like a kick from the baby, so I just assumed that this was all that it was. There was no reason for me to suspect anything else. At least, not at first.


    After about fifteen minutes or so, Trinity was hissing almost constantly. It was like the pain from the kicks were getting stronger. I could even feel the slight changes in her belly when they came.


    ¡°Trinity, sweetheart, are you OK?¡±


    ¡°The baby is just really active right now.¡± She said through gritted teeth. ¡°She is not happy with all the stress that Mommy has been undertely.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure that is all that it is?¡± I was getting worried, and I didn¡¯t know if I should call Griffin or not.


    ¡°Yeah, I am sure that¡¯s all it is. It¡¯s just a little pain, nothing that I felt when I was having Talia. Then again, I hadn¡¯t realized I was having contractions until after my water broke. That was how it was with the twins and Talia.¡± Sheughed reminiscently, and that just sent a wave of dread through me.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get out of the water. I want to call Griffin, just to be on the safe side.¡±


    ¡°Alright, fine.¡± She said, sliding off of me and hissing again.


    I helped my Little Bunny out of the water and set her gingerly on her feet. Handing her a towel, I started toward the sink and the clothes that she had brought with us. I needed to get dressed as well, if I was going to call Griffin here.


    I dried myself as I was walking, and in a matter of seconds, I had my pants on. I skipped the boxers and the shirt, I was aiming for expedience, not style orfort. The moment that I turned to face my Little Bunny again, she cried out, louder than before.


    ¡°Ahh!¡± Then followed that up with something else. ¡°Uh oh.¡±


    ¡°Uh oh? What uh oh? What happened?¡±


    ¡°M..my water just broke.¡± She turned to look at me and I saw the shock in her eyes. ¡°Reece, the baby ising.¡±


    ¡°Shit!¡±


    I ran to her side and pulled her into my arms. Her clothes fell to the floor and most likely were already soaked.


    ¡°I will sit you in the bed, then I will call Griffin. Do you think that you can make a door at the moment?¡± I asked her, but a contraction hit her hard.


    ¡°AHHH! I don¡¯t think so.¡± She turned the scream into the beginning of the I, it was hard to hear, knowing that she was in pain.


    ¡°Then he needs to hurry.¡± I had the sense of mine to throw the towels down on the bed. We could get new sheets and a new mattresses, but if I could just keep things cleaner while my Little Bunny was in the bed, she wouldn¡¯t need to worry abouting back into the bed right away.


    Trinity wasying on the bed, screaming in pain. I knew that time was short and that I barely had the time to spare for the call to Griffin, but he needed to get here as soon as possible.


    ¡°Hello?¡± He said as he answered the phone, sleep fogging his voice.


    ¡°Griffin, I need you here now.¡± There was an edge of panic in my voice.


    ¡°I need you here now. Trinity is inbor. Her water just broke. She¡¯s having contractions. We won¡¯t make it to the hospital.¡± I exined it to him as calmly as I could, but I knew that I likely sounded like a scaredy cat. I didn¡¯t know what to do. This wasn¡¯t my forte here.


    ¡°Shit!¡± I heard him getting up out of the bed on his end of the line and a voice calling out for him.


    ¡°Griffin, honey, what¡¯s wrong?¡± It was Lana, his wife.


    ¡°Trinity is inbor. Her water broke at the castle. They won¡¯t make it to the hospital.¡±


    ¡°Let me get dressed, I wille with you.¡± She was moving as well.


    ¡°Reece, can she open a door for us?¡± He asked as Trinity screamed in pain in the background.


    ¡°GGRRRAAAHHHH!¡±


    ¡°No, she can¡¯t. She is in too much pain.¡±


    ¡°Damn.¡± He swore as the sound of clothes moving in a closet filled the other end of the call. ¡°We will hurry. We¡¯re not far, as you know. If Trinity needs to push before we get there, then you need to step up and deliver that baby, Reece.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t, Griffin. I don¡¯t know what to do.¡± I was feeling more than panicked now. I was fucking terrified. ¡°I can¡¯t do that, Griffin.¡±


    ¡°You can, Reece, and you will.¡± He practically growled at me on the phone, being more fierce andmanding than any man in ourmunity had the right to be. It was working though. It was getting through to me and opening my mind. The fog of fear and panic was subsiding and allowing me to think, to listen.


    ¡°Griffin?¡± I said his name questioningly and he understood it for what it was.


    ¡°Get towels, Reece, to wrap the baby in. You don¡¯t need to cut the cord, I will do that when I get there, I won¡¯t be long. She¡¯s delivered naturally before, so she will know the feeling of it all. Just coach her to breathe and try not to push. If the baby starts toe out on its own, meaning she is crowning, then she will have to push, no matter what.¡±


    ¡°Dammit, Griffin, this is scary as hell.¡±


    ¡°I know, Reece, but you can do it. You won¡¯t be the first father in the world to deliver a baby, and you won¡¯t be thest.¡±

 Chapter 1132 - 1132 Chapter 117- Reece - Welcome to the World, Reeselynn (VOLUME 6)

    1132 Chapter 117- Reece ¨C Wee to the World, Reeselynn (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    I felt my heartrate quickening as Trinity screamed again. The screams wereing fast now, and that wasn¡¯t a good sign. I knew that this meant that she was getting close to delivering.


    ¡°Tell me the rest of what I need to do.¡± I spoke frantically into the phone as Trinity cried out almost intelligibly.


    ¡°RREEEECCEE!¡± My name was a simultaneous hiss and scream of pain.


    I listened for a few more moments, letting Griffin tell me all that I needed to know about delivering the baby. It was vital information that I desperately needed, but I didn¡¯t want to take the time to sit here and listen to it. I needed to get to my Little Bunny. I needed to be by her side. I had to help her.


    After what felt like an hour, but ording to the phone screen was only four minutes and twenty-seven seconds, I ended the call with Griffin and ran to my Little Bunny. She wasying back, propped against the pillows for support.


    ¡°Reece.¡± She called my name again as she sought to take my hand. ¡°Is Griffin on his way?¡±


    .....


    ¡°Yes, sweetheart. And Lana too. They will be here soon.¡± She was sweating from the pain, the drips narrowly avoiding her eyes as they ran down the sides of her face.


    ¡°They need to hurry. The baby wants out, now.¡± She had her teeth mped now, another contraction, but she was talking through it.


    ¡°You need to breathe steadily, Trinity. Come on, Little Bunny, you know what to do.¡± I started to coach her like Griffin had told me to. I had been there for her deliveries before, so I knew how to coach her with the breathing. I was used to this part, and it was something that I could do.


    ¡°It¡¯s too hard to breathe right now.¡± She hissed through her clenched teeth and threw her head back. ¡°Oh goddess, Reece, I think she¡¯sing now.¡±


    ¡°Trinity?¡± I opened my eyes wide and stared at her with disbelief. ¡°Let me check. Let me see if I can see her head.¡±


    I did what Griffin had instructed me to. I lifted and spread Trinity¡¯s legs a little and looked between them. Sure enough, I could see the top of the baby¡¯s head. It was covered in muck, like all babies were when they were born, but it was very clearly my daughter¡¯s head.


    ¡°She¡¯sing, Trinity.¡± I told her as I tried to steel my nerves. My Little Bunny needed me right now, and my daughter needed me too.


    This was going to be an interesting story to tell the otherster. Reeselynn wanted to be here so badly that she was willing to have her daddy deliver her in ce of the doctor. I guess she was going to be daddy¡¯s little girl in more than one way.


    ¡°Lean back a little, Trinity. Slide your bottom down so that you can push easier.¡± I was getting her positioned as quickly as I could, making sure to keep the towels beneath her at all times. ¡°Shit. I need more towels. Hold on, Trinity. Do not push. Wait for me to get back.¡± I kept moving my hands in a ¡®stop¡¯ gesture as I hurried from the bed and into the bathroom.


    I was still in panic mode, no matter what the false fa?ade made people think. And that was why when I was in the bathroom, I grabbed at least eight towels. Eightrge towels for one little baby girl. Oh well, it didn¡¯t matter. I needed to hurry.


    Once back in the room, I stuffed two more of the towels under my Little Bunny¡¯s bottom and legs. I wanted to make sure that the bed was clean for her to sleep in tonight. The baby wasing now, and the doctor wasing as well. There was no need to go to the hospital if this was all happening right now. And that meant that I needed to make sure that my Little Bunny was able to sleep in this bed tonight. We could have it changed tomorrow if we needed to, but she was sleeping here tonight, after the towels were removed of course.


    ¡°Alright Little Bunny, you can start to push now.¡± I told her after I helped her to position her legs. ¡°I will press on your leg here, but you will need to pull back on the other one. Hook your hands behind your knees, OK.¡±


    ¡°Ahh! Reece, it hurts.¡±


    ¡°I know, sweetheart, I know.¡± I used a soothing tone to help her calm down. ¡°It¡¯s OK, Trinity. You will be OK.¡±


    ¡°Ahh!¡± She cried out with another contraction.


    ¡°Push, Trinity! You need to push now. For a count of ten, remember.¡± I told her as I put pressure on her right leg and helped her bear down. ¡°One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten.¡±


    ¡°Ppooowwhh.¡± With a strong exhtion, my Little Bunny stopped the push and rxed just a little.


    ¡°That was good, Trinity. Really good.¡± I was watching between her legs and saw that the baby¡¯s head was almost out. ¡°Come on, one more push on the next contraction.¡±


    ¡°AHH!¡± She cried out and indicated when I needed to press down on her leg and count for her.


    ¡°Come on, that¡¯s it. Push, Trinity. Push. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten.¡±


    ¡°Ppooowwhh.¡± She exhaled again, and at the same time, there was almost an audible popping sound. The baby¡¯s head was out.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s almost here.¡± I cried out happily. ¡°Let me pull her now. One more small push, Trinity. Come on.¡±


    She pushed once more, short and quick, as I gripped my little girl around the shoulders and pulled her gently out of her mother. She came easily with another small rush of water.


    ¡°You did it, Trinity. She¡¯s here.¡±


    ¡°REECE!¡± There was a frantic sound outside the door. It was Vincent, who must have been running here with Griffin in tow.


    ¡°Come on in.¡± I yelled to him even as I grabbed one towel and threw it over Trinity¡¯s chest and then another towel for the baby.


    I looked at the clock that was on the table next to the bed. It read twelve o¡¯ two in the morning.


    ¡°Just after midnight.¡± I told my Little Bunny as I looked at her. ¡°March the third at twelve oh two in the morning.¡± I leaned forward and kissed her sweaty brow. ¡°I am proud of you, sweetheart.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m proud of you, Reece.¡± She said as Vincent, Griffin, and Lana came running into the room.


    ¡°Did we make it in time?¡± Griffin asked.


    ¡°She got here literally right before I heard Vincent call out on the stairs. She is fine, but she hasn¡¯t cried yet.¡±


    ¡°Let me check her.¡± Griffin said.


    ¡°I will help Trinity with the afterbirth.¡± Lana said.


    ¡°Reece? Trinity?¡± Vincent asked in shock as he looked around the room.


    ¡°There was no time to tell anyone, Vincent. Reece barely had the time to call Griffin.¡± My Little Bunny¡¯s face was all smiles and serenity now that the pain was gone.


    ¡°Yes. We hurried here as quickly as we could. I am just d that we were in our apartment here in the castle.¡±


    ¡°You were?¡± Trinity asked him. ¡°Since when?¡±


    ¡°You were getting closer to delivering. I knew that it could happen any time now. I hoped that we would be able to run here before Reece had to deliver her though. At least he seems to have done well. The baby is just fine. She is breathing, just not crying.¡±


    ¡°Is that bad, though?¡± Vincent asked as he looked at the baby in Griffin¡¯s arms.


    ¡°Not really. Not with super natural babies. It happens, mostly with the magical folk. Vincent, I have a baby scale in the nursery downstairs, will you please fetch that for me. We need to weigh the baby.¡±


    ¡°Y..yeah, sure.¡± He nodded.


    ¡°Also, Trinity is about to deliver the afterbirth.¡± Lana said matter-of-factly.


    ¡°Got it.¡± Vincent ran for the room and took about five minutes just to get the scale. He didn¡¯t want to be there when his Queen and boss, and honorary sister, delivered the afterbirth for the baby.


    Things were settling down a little now. The baby had been weighed, five pounds and ten ounces. She was eighteen inches long. She had a small amount of reddish gold hair that was shining in the light of the room. Her squished little face reminded me more of the picture I had seen of Trinity¡¯s mom, although hers wasn¡¯t exactly squished. Still, she didn¡¯t really look like me or Trinity, not really.


    ¡°Hello there, baby girl.¡± Trinity was cooing when she was finally able to hold the baby. She had been cleaned up, the towels from the delivery taken away and disposed of, and a loose fitting nursing nightgown was pulled over my Little Bunny to cover her. All was going well. The baby was sleeping soundly, not making a noise at all.


    ¡°She is so precious.¡± I said as I sat next to Trinity and the baby, leaning over so that I was close enough to them for my own liking. ¡°Wee to the world, Reeselynn Octavia Gray.¡±


    ¡°Wee, sweet girl. You were in a hurry, weren¡¯t you?¡± Trinity kissed the baby¡¯s head. She had been cleaned by Griffin already, so there was no mess now. I leaned in as well and left a kiss next to the one that my Little Bunny had given her, then I leaned over and kissed my Little Bunny herself.


    ¡°You did great, sweetheart.¡±


    ¡°So did you.¡± She kissed me again, soft and gentle. ¡°Though, we need to wake the others. I am sure that they will be upset if they have to wait until the morning to see their sister.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re probably right.¡±


    Being as helpful as ever, Vincent ran out of the room and down to the floor below. We could barely hear any sounding from down there, but I knew that he was waking them all and telling them toe up to the bedroom.


    ¡°What is going on?¡± Talia asked sleepily as they all came toward the room.


    ¡°Are Mom and Dad, OK?¡± Reagan asked, his voice a little more alert, but still thick with sleep.


    ¡°They are fine.¡± Vincent¡¯s voice was calm, and it was clear that he hadn¡¯t told them about the baby.


    Trinity waited until they were all in the doorway before she spoke. I saw the grin on her face and had known that it wasing. Now, with all seven kids looking groggily into the room, my Little Bunny said just one word.


    ¡°Surprise!¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°When?¡±


    ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°Mommy?¡±


    ¡°Awesome.¡± They all had their own reaction as they stood there for a moment. They were only frozen for a minute though, because after the initial shock wore off, they all rushed toward the bed and the baby that was in their mother¡¯s arms.


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you wake us up before?¡± Rika asked as she pressed a gentle finger to the baby¡¯s cheek.


    ¡°There was no time.¡± I told her. ¡°Even Griffin didn¡¯t get here in time. I had to deliver the baby myself.¡±


    ¡°You? Seriously?¡± Reagan looked at me with astonishment.


    ¡°Hey! I resent that!¡± I said in mock annoyance. ¡°But yes, me. Reeselynn wanted to be here sooner rather thanter. It was just the two of us in here when she made her debut to the world. Just after midnight too, so her birthday is the third.¡±


    ¡°Awesome, that is really cool.¡± Talia sat on the edge of the bed.


    ¡°So, she really came tonight.¡± Zaley asked as she leaned in toward the baby. ¡°Hi there, Reeselynn. I¡¯m your big sister, Zaley.¡±


    ¡°And I¡¯m your brother, Zayden.¡±


    ¡°Come to me when you need something, Reeselynn, I¡¯m your best big brother, Zachary.¡±


    ¡°I think he means that I am the bestest big brother, Zander.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re both wrong.¡± Reagan said. ¡°Cause big brother Reagan is the best of them all.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Let them fight that out, girls.¡± Rika said as sheughed with her sisters. ¡°The three of us all know that we are all the best. As long as she has the three of us, she will never have to worry about anything.¡±


    ¡°Yup.¡± Talia nodded with a smile.


    ¡°Agreed.¡± Zaley rolled her eyes and shook her head at her brothers.


    The kids took turns holding the baby for a few minutes each. Then, when Reeselynn started to cry and needed to be fed, the seven of them went back down the stairs and to bed. They all wanted to stay and spend time with the baby, but they knew that we needed to take care of things for the time being.


    This was going to be a first, in my opinion. When the quads were born, the twins were only eight. Now, the next youngest set of the kids, the quads, were eleven. All seven of the other kids were old enough to help out if they wanted to. Not that there was enough work for the seven of them, but they would be able to help out if they wanted to. Reeselynn was lucky really, to have so many siblings that already loved her so much. She was going to be blessed as the days went on.

 Chapter 1133 - 1133 Chapter 118- Special Agent Dayton Long – Addressing the Problem (VOLUME 6)

    1133 Chapter 118- Special Agent Dayton Long ¨C Addressing the Problem (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Dayton


    ~~


    The moment that Queen Trinity had called me, I bolted out of my bed and prepared for whatever it was that needed my attention. Queen Trinity was not the type to just call me for anything random. In fact, she had never called me before. And even though I had not been sleeping at the time of the call, I still felt like there was a fog in my brain when I saw the number and name on the caller id.


    ¡°Hello?¡± I could hear the skepticism and disbelief in my own voice as I gave the greeting to the mysterious caller. It couldn¡¯t really be her. Could it?


    ¡°Hello Dayton, it¡¯s Trinity Gray.¡± At that moment, my heart started to race so fast that it was probably making a noise very much like that of a humming bird¡¯s wings. This had to be bad, that was the only excuse that my brain coulde up with. ¡°We have a problem, and we need your help.¡± I knew it. Something had happened. Something was going on in our world, and that of the humans, that was not good at all.


    ¡°Wh..what is it, Queen Trinity? How can I help? I am at your disposal.¡± As I spoke quaveringly, I hurried to gather my thoughts and get somewhere that would be a little more conducive to note taking. I was sure that I would end up with a list of things to do.


    ¡°We received some disturbing news today, something that was far worse than the attack on the stadium.¡± I had known about the attack on the stadium. I had been told about it in advance, but there was little I could do about it without revealing what I was. And if I did that, then I would cause people to wonder which side I was working for. I couldn¡¯t have that, not with people that were clearly against the nonhumans in my very own office.


    ¡°Worse? What could possibly be worse?¡± Different scenarios danced in my mind, but they were all woefully inadequate. I knew that for a fact.


    .....


    ¡°Well, for one thing, the leader of the DOE is going on an extremist site and iming that we murdered one of his members, that was clearly killed in that room that he had the video filmed in. And secondly, that leader of the DOE is none other than Harrison Orson.¡±


    There was a ringing in my ear at that. Orson? The Harrison Orson? The man that had spearheaded the investigation into my people and tried to act like Queen Trinity and King Reece were criminals? That Orson? I couldn¡¯t believe it.


    ¡°Orson?¡± My voice squeaked a little high on that word. ¡°How do you know that it is him? It¡¯s not that I do not believe you, but if I am going to go to my superiors with this, I need to be able to site the source of the information.¡± I was making notes already, but they weren¡¯t what I had expected when I had grabbed the pad from my desk.


    I listened to Queen Trinity tell me about a video that they had been sent. She exined that the site was protected but they had gotten ess to it through the sender of the email. However, she told me that the video was blurred out and their voice was altered. That would mean that there was no proof, something that I pointed out to her immediately. I just couldn¡¯t believe that Orson would, could, be the leader of the DOE.


    ¡°Then there is no proof.¡± I had interrupted her in my haste and almost instantly regretted it. I heard the annoyance on her end of the line. It was almost as if I was already able to see my end staring me in the face.


    ¡°The thing is, though,¡± she continued after just a quick annoyed huff. From there she went on to exin more in detail, all the while I was taking notes on the video that she had seen.


    ¡°I will do what I can in the morning. There isn¡¯t anyone there right now. And Orson has been away on assignment for a while, or supposedly on assignment. I don¡¯t know really, because no one knows anything about the work that he has been doing.¡± I sounded like I was rambling. Hell, I was rambling. There was so much that needed to be done, but it all seemed so surreal.


    ¡°No, we need this started tonight, Dayton.¡± She snapped at me almost angrily. ¡°He is not going to let this go. He is losing his mind. He sees us as personal enemies of his. And not only that, Dayton, but he is amassing an army. And we are sure that he is using contacts to acquire weapons like bombs and tanks. We already know that he had been building a shit ton of bombs. We can¡¯t let this be. He is dangerous, Dayton. It needs to be dealt with tonight.¡± An army? He wanted an army? But why?


    ¡°Alright. I will head in now. I will call my superiors and have them meet me there. They need to know about this. Email me that link you have, so they can see the video as well. We will stop him, Queen Trinity, I promise.¡± My heart had gone from moving so fast that it was humming to barely beating at all. I felt almost dead on the inside after hearing all that she had to say.


    ¡°Thank you, Dayton. I will wait up for you to call me back with an update. Let me know as soon as you know what is going to happen.


    ¡°I will, Queen Trinity. Just wait a little while longer. This won¡¯t take too much longer.¡± I tried to sound reassuring, not just for her benefit but for mine as well. I needed the fortitude that it would give me.


    On my way out of the door, before I was even in my car, I called my superior at home. They were used tote night calls like this with our line of work, but that didn¡¯t mean that they were happy about it.


    ¡°What is it, Long?¡± Director Glick asked me in an angry tone of voice.


    ¡°Sir, there is a problem that warrants our attention.¡± I know that my voice was tight and that I sounded angry to him. I hoped that he didn¡¯t hold that against me.


    ¡°That is for me to decide, Long. Now, what is it?¡±


    ¡°Sir, I have reason to believe that Agent Orson has been engaging in illegal activity.¡±


    ¡°Orson?¡± He sounded much more interested and alert at the mention of one of the more senior agents in our office.


    ¡°Yes Sir, I have reason to believe that Agent Orson is in fact the leader of the DOE.¡±


    ¡°The Destroyers of Evil? Are you serious?¡± I could hear him moving in the background. ¡°What makes you think that Orson is at all associated with those terrorists?¡±


    ¡°Well Sir, aside from the fact that Orson himself was running the case against the nonhumans, and that he was furious when you forced him to stop his investigation into them, I was tipped off recently. I am on my way to the office to review video evidence that will incriminate him.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re serious?¡± He asked me in a tone that said that he hadn¡¯t fully believed me at first. ¡°You really think that Orson is the leader of the DOE.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t at first, Sir, but the tipster made some very valid arguments. I know that it iste and that you would prefer to be home with your family, but we cannot ignore this. I ask that you please meet me at the office. We can figure this out together.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I understand. I will be there in five minutes. You are lucky that I am close enough to the office to make sure that I do not need tomute.¡± He groaned unhappily. ¡°This better be worth my time, Long¡±


    ¡°It will, Sir, I promise you.¡± I assured him just before he ended the call.


    A little over five minutester, Director Glick and I were pulling into the parking garage at the same time. He saw me and motioned me to park closer to him, not in my usual space that was assigned to me.


    ¡°I will tell them that I gave you permission.¡± He said as we hurried into the building and into the elevator. ¡°Now, tell me everything.¡± His eyes were hard as ice when he looked at me, the frosty blue color actually felt like needles that were piercing me. His steel gray hair should have made him look old, but there were no lines on his face that made him look old. He had aged very well for a human.


    ¡°Well, Sir,¡± I took a steadying breath and looked back into his icy stare, ¡°I am not human.¡± That was the first time that I had told him that, but he didn¡¯t look phased. He was the director for a reason. I went on to exin to him about the call from Queen Trinity and what had happened.


    ¡°Did you tip the Grays off to the investigation that Orson was doing into their life?¡± He spoke so calmly and evenly that I didn¡¯t know if he was angry with me or not.


    ¡°I did.¡± Honesty was the only way here. He would know that I was lying if I denied it. ¡°She is my Queen, and they are not bad people. I had to warn them, but I gave them no other information. Just that they were being investigated. Orson contacted them as well, so he had made them aware of it.¡±


    ¡°I see.¡± He nodded as we entered the office. ¡°I can see why you feltpelled to tell them, and as long as you didn¡¯t share ssified information, then you technically did nothing wrong. I know that Orson tried to use psychological tactics against them, so he told them that he was investigating them. It was in his reports after all.¡± He opened the door to his office and motioned me to follow him. ¡°Moving on, show me this proof that you had.¡± I was d that the email was waiting for me in my inbox. It was sent from Queen Trinity, or someone in her immediate staff.


    Director Glick and I watched the video that was posted on that extremist site. The man was blurred, as Queen Trinity had said he would be, but the voice changer couldn¡¯t always keep up with him. His true voice made it through frequently.


    ¡°That does sound very much like Orson, doesn¡¯t it?¡± Director Glick was shaking his head. ¡°I cannot believe that he is doing this. That man that isying on the ground there was obviously killed there in that room.¡± He pointed at the screen. ¡°And, look, his gun is still sitting on the table. He clearly killed him and is trying to pull strings in our agency to charge someone else with the man¡¯s murder.¡±


    Both Director Glick and I were in a state of disbelief. The level of insanity that was evident in those unhinged ramblings showed me just what type of person that Orson truly was. He was a monster, and a murderer. And if he truly was the leader of the DOE, as it was now almost definitely true that he was, then he was a terrorist as well. He was bombing these ces like the school and the stadium. He was trying to cause chaos and ruin.


    Lost in thought about what it was that had been happening, I remembered the case that Orson was supposed to be on. He had left not long after the reveal and had barely been back since.


    ¡°Sir?¡± I turned to look at Director Glick with worry thickening my voice. ¡°Where is Orson? Where has he been for thest two months? He has barely been in the officetely, and he has at least half a dozen other agents with him. What are they doing?¡±


    ¡°They were supposed to be investigating the DOE.¡± Director Glick sighed in defeat. ¡°He had asked to head up an investigation for us and there had been no reason for me to say no. He is a top notch agent. Or he used to be. Now, I am not sure what to call him.¡± There was worry and concern in the Director¡¯s eyes when he spoke. ¡°He has been trying to infiltrate the group since the beginning of January. That was what he was supposed to be doing anyway. Now I see that he was just using this as a way of running things from the shadows. And he took my other agents with him.¡± A dark and steely glint filled his eyes. ¡°If they¡¯re all a part of this, then I will have all of their asses in a vice for this. They will not get away with this.¡±


    ¡°We will make sure that all guilty parties pay, Sir. We need to protect the people of-.¡± I stopped in mid sentence when my phone started to ring. This was the second time tonight that I saw this name and number appear on my screen, and it was still hard to believe.


    ¡°Queen Trinity?¡± I answered in a little bit of a panic after only half a ring. This must be urgent if she was calling me again. And I was not worried about Director Glick hearing me address her formally. He knew who she was to me.


    ¡°Dayton, I heard from one of the undercovers that we have in the DOE. Orson is on his way into the office right now. He is going to try and move things along as quickly as he can.¡± There was a buzzing sound in my ear, but I knew that it wasing from my head directly. Orson was on his way here right now. He was going to try and do something right away.


    ¡°He is on his way here right now?¡± My voice shook a little as I asked that. I knew that things were about to go from bad to worse. ¡°I am here already, and my superior is here with me. We will stop him, Queen Trinity, I promise. He won¡¯t make it out of here.¡± At that moment I looked up into the pit beyond the office windows. The pit was where we all had our desks, and there was someoneing in from the elevator. ¡°I need to go, Queen Trinity. I am sorry. I will call with an updateter.¡± I was pretty sure I knew who it was that had just gotten here, and without a doubt, Director Glick knew it as well.


    There was a thickening in the tension in the air. An atmosphere of apprehension and dread that was heightened by the understanding that this was actually beneficial. We could take Orson into custody. We could stop him here and now. This would all be over and then we would just need to find the rest of his men, and the missing agents.


    Well, that was assuming that Orson was alone. If the others were with him, and supported his crazy mission, then we might be outnumbered. They might get away, or better yet, they might capture us instead. There was a lot to think about here, but I was sure of one thing, the rest of the NSA was soon going to know exactly what Orson was up to.

 Chapter 1134 - 1134 Chapter 119- The Colonel – Enemies Everywhere (VOLUME 6)

    1134 Chapter 119- The Colonel ¨C Enemies Everywhere (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    The Colonel


    ~~


    I had spent most of the day pacing through those damned underground corridors. Those caves that were so convenient for me and my men to use. I didn¡¯t need to worry about anyone asking about why there were so many people milling about as I amassed more of an army. I needed to have an army, as big of one as I possibly could. I couldn¡¯t wage war against the monsters if I didn¡¯t have an army.


    The next stage in my ce was to go into effect today. I was supposed to be making a sizable dent into themunity of species traitors that were attending that damned convention. Those people, those sorry excuses for human beings, they were actually celebrating those beasts that wanted to walk among us. They wanted to worship them and wee them to be themselves in the light.


    Those people, those traitors, thought that there was nothing wrong with someone walking around with furry faces or vampire fangs. They wanted them to have tails and to look like those stupid cosyers that were ruining society. Those worthless drags on society. They all needed to die. Each and every one of them. The monsters and everyone that supported them were already dead, they just didn¡¯t know it yet.


    Actually, they were marked for death. They would soon get what wasing to them. They were going to die at either my hands or one of my loyal followers. Yes, my followers, my army of monster hunters. They were so devoted to me. They did everything that I told them to.


    They understood the truth that I gave to them weekly. They listened to all my words so enraptured by what I had to say and how true it all was. And they never questioned a single one of my orders. It was good to be king. And one day, it wouldn¡¯t just be pretend. I would be the king of the world. I would rise to the top after I eradicated all of those things from the.


    For right now though, there was a lot that I needed to focus on. I was more focused on the news that was going to being from the stadium soon. I had sent a lot of my more disposal disciples to eliminate those monster loving morons. They all had more powerful bombs than we had been using before. This was supposed to be the first true deration to the world. I needed them to know that we were serious.


    .....


    When they all detonated those bombs at the same time, the entire stadium woulde down. Everyone there would perish either in the initial attack or the aftermath of it all. No one would make it out of there alive, not even the men that I had sent there. That was fine with me though, they weren¡¯t good for much else than fodder to be used at my discretion.


    The only problem at the moment was that the bombs should have gone off by now. The news should have been busily reporting about the attack on those humans. They would know that it was rted to the monsters and that it was their fault. They would me the monsters and turn themunity against them. I just knew that they would. It was how I had nned it to happen after all.


    When too much time had passed, my second inmand tried to console me. I wanted to smack him the moment that he opened his mouth.


    ¡°Perhaps the story will break on the evening news. There is no need to wor-.¡± At that moment there was a news bulletin that came over the station that the TV was on.


    ¡°Finally!¡± I felt a surge of excitement as I rushed toward the TV. ¡°How many were killed? How sessful were those idiots?¡±


    I was watching with evident glee when the news station started to report on the tragedy. Only my glee turned quickly to rage. There had been only one bomb that had gone off. And not a single monster lover was hurt. One monster was slightly hurt in the explosion, but that was it. He was already on the mend ording to the news.


    The moment that the news was done reporting on the events at the stadium, I felt like I was being pulled under the water. Only there was no water. Something was sucking me in. Something that felt so much more powerful than I was. Something that was pleasant andforting for me.


    I had only blinked my eyes, that was all, but something had happened during that blink. The room that functioned as my office was destroyed. All of theputer equipment, the maps, every file, anything and everything in my office was destroyedpletely. What the hell had happened? And why had so much time passed in just one blink? I swear the clock was reading almost three hourster.


    At that moment, someone came running into the room. He was breathing heavily and panicking. I recognized him immediately. Vampion, one of the stupid brain dead minions that I had sent to the stadium. That wasn¡¯t his real name, it was his code name. I didn¡¯t even remember his real name anymore, not that it mattered.


    ¡°Sir! Those monsters knew we would be there. They were waiting for us.¡± The words barely registered in my mind. I knew that I should pay attention to what he was saying, but I was too focused on the fact that he hade back alive.


    ¡°YOU, IDIOT!¡± I screamed at him without even realizing that I was moving. ¡°You insignificant little pissant! How dare you fail me like that?!¡±


    ¡°B..b..but Colonel, it was a -.¡± Whatever the man was about to say was a mystery to me. The next thing that I knew, he wasying on the floor with a hole in his head. When had that happened? How had that happened? And why was the gun in my hand? Oh, well. I had to tell the others something at the same time.


    ¡°Do you all see that? If anyone defies me, if anyone fails me, that is what will happen to you. I expect perfection from all of you, and I will have it. Is that understood?¡± Someone had shot the man dead because of his horrendous fuck up. Good, he deserved to die.


    I knew that I needed to tell the world about what had happened. That it was the monsters that were responsible for the attack. And that they were the ones that had killed Vampion. He wasn¡¯t killed by one of my men. No, that wasn¡¯t it. He was murdered and sent back here. He had to have been dead when he got here. They just reanimated his corpse or something. Yeah, that was it.


    I called up a good friend of mine, another man that believed the same things as I did. That all those monsters needed to be wiped off the face of the Earth. They didn¡¯t deserve to live here with us. They were ruining our. Global Warming was probably their fault as well. Everything wrong with the Earth was their fault. I was sure of that.


    I didn¡¯t even remember giving my speech to the camera. I just remember the congrattions that Packard was heaping on me for having delivered such an enthusiastic and passionate speech. I knew one thing though. I had to get to the office. I had to get back there and get an arrest warrant. Trinity Gray was a murderer. She needed to be taken into custody as soon as possible. I needed to get to Denver. There was no time to waste. I had to move.


    I was out of my office without having any memory of actually leaving it. I was racing through the corridors of the tunnels with other DOE members chasing after me.


    ¡°Colonel? Colonel, what is happening?¡± They were hounding me and pestering me about what was going on. ¡°Colonel?¡±


    ¡°Traitors!¡± I screamed at them and the next thing that I knew, one of them was sitting against the wall with blood pouring out of his shoulder. He had been shot, just like Vampion. That witch, Trinity Gray, she was still injuring my people from where she was.


    I stuffed my gun back in its holster, not even remembering when I had pulled it out again. I needed to hurry, before that wicked witch killed anymore of my men. I needed to get to the office.


    ¡°Hmm.¡± I said to myself as I pulled the door to my Jeep shut. ¡°I should have taken Dn with me.¡± I shook my head as I pulled away from the house that hid the entrance. ¡°Oh well. He can meet me there. He will know where I am going.¡±


    I drove to an airfield that had a helicopter waiting for me. This was the pilot that had taken us where we had needed to go. He was the reason that my minions had made it into the stadium in the first ce. Now he was taking me to Denver, to the helipad that was on top of the NSA building.


    I don¡¯t even remember the ride to the city. I just knew that when I got out of the chopper on top of the building, the pilot looked relieved to see me go. What was wrong? Was he worried that I was going to be assassinated in his bird? He had nothing to worry about. That monster bitch, Trinity Gray, was not able to get to me. I was invincible. Nothing and no one could take me down. And I would soon prove that to all of them.


    ¡°Stick around.¡± I eyed the pilot. I didn¡¯t want his fear making him leave too soon. ¡°I will be back after I get an arrest warrant.¡±


    ¡°Y..y..yeah, s..s..sure thing.¡± He nodded apprehensively. Damn that dirty monstrous witch bitch, Trinity Gray, she was scaring my pilot.


    Now, just to make it down to my desk and get the proper documents. I could rouse a judge from bed over the phone and fax him the paperwork that I needed. I had men in my pocket too, that shape shifting slut bag, Trinity Gray, wasn¡¯t the only person that was able to get approval from high powered people. I would have her arrested before the night was over. She would see. She would never get the drop on someone like me. I was smarter than she was, and I didn¡¯t resort to dirty little tricks like magical shootings. I was an honest man that faced my problems head on.


    From helicopter to stairs, down one floor from the roof to the elevator, into the elevator and down to the floor that housed my office. This was all done in what seemed like the blink of an eye. I didn¡¯t even remember walking down a single step. I just sort of appeared in the office and was facing the familiar room.


    ¡°Ahh, it¡¯s good to be back in here.¡± I sighed in relief. ¡°Now, let¡¯s get that paperwork going.¡±


    ¡°Orson?¡± I heard a voice that I had not been expecting. The office should have been deserted. The agents that were working on important assignments were mostly in the field. There should be no one here, but he was here. And so was another asshole that was behind him.


    ¡°Hello, Director.¡± I smiled at the man in the lead. Behind him was that rat nosed ass kisser, Dayton Long. He was the only one that wanted to have me stop my investigation into Trinity Gray and Reece Gray. He was probably a traitor and supported them.


    ¡°What are you doing here?¡± Glick asked me as he thought that he could lord authority over me. I had to pretend that he was superior to me, for the time being. Soon though, I would be the king of the world, and he would be just another minion of mine. He would have to do everything that I told him to, or perish as a consequence.


    ¡°What else would I be doing here? I am working. I found evidence that Trinity Gray, that monst-, the leader of the nonhumans murdered a man earlier. And she tried to kill another as well. She used her magic to kill the man from afar.¡±


    ¡°Orson.¡± Glick edged closer toward me, Long going around me like he was trying to corner me.


    ¡°What?¡± I gave them as calm of a smile as I could. I was innocent, there was nothing for them to hold over me.


    ¡°Why did you do it, Orson? Why did you create the DOE? What possessed you to bomb those ces and attempt to kill all those people?¡± A darkness filled my field of vision again, but this time I remained aware of what happened when things went dark. I let my true self out, and that part of me was in control.


    ¡°Why? Those fucking monsters deserve to die. And anyone that supports them as well.¡± I spat the words at them like they were poison in my mouth.


    ¡°You need toe with me, Orson.¡± Glick took a step toward me. ¡°We will talk this out.¡±


    ¡°Fuck you!¡± I screamed. ¡°You will not stop me or my mission.¡±


    I was running toward the elevator. I needed to get back to the roof. Already I was calling the pilot, telling him to get the thing running again. I needed to get out of here right away. The monsters were here as well. They had infiltrated the office. They were after me.


    When I made it to the roof, the chopper was already producing enough wind to almost push me away. I ran as hard as I could and leapt in through the open door as the asshole, Long, came crashing onto the roof. How had he caught up to me so quickly? That bastard.


    ¡°Fly!¡± I roared at the pilot. ¡°Get me back to the hideout.¡±


    As he flew away from the building, I called Dn, my second inmand. I needed to tell them that I was on my way back, and that the NSA had been corrupted.


    ¡°Colonel?¡± He answered almost immediately. ¡°What is going on?¡±


    ¡°They got into the office. The NSA has fallen. We need to gather our supplies and advance our ns as soon as we can.¡±


    ¡°They took over the NSA? What about the other agents? What happened to-.¡± There was a loud explosion on the other end of the call and Dn started to scream in pain. ¡°AHH!¡± More sounds of distress and chaos erupted.


    ¡°Dn?¡± I called him in a panic. ¡°What is happening?¡±


    ¡°They are attacking the tunnels. We need to get the army out. We need to make them leave.¡±


    ¡°I will send them a notice. They can head to the caves in the mountain for the time being.¡±


    ¡°I will guide them. I will not let you do-.¡± He was cut off midsentence.


    ¡°Dn?¡± I called for him but got no answer. ¡°DOLAN!?¡± I called him again and again, but there were just the sounds of scuffles and chaos. Dn was gone. ¡°Shit!¡± I ended the call and sent word to the DOE to head to the mountains. They needed to hurry. They would need to run for a long time, but they would get there eventually. They were my soldiers, and I needed as many of them as I could get. We needed to prepare for battle. We would make our move soon.

 Chapter 1135 - 1135 Chapter 120- Trinity – A Lot Happening at Once (VOLUME 6)

    1135 Chapter 120- Trinity ¨C A Lot Happening at Once (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After the kids went back to bed, Reece and I were sitting with Reeselynn. She had eaten and was now sound asleep. Griffin and Lana had finished all of their exams and filled out all the paperwork. It was just the three of us now, and that was fine with me. I needed to let all of this sink in.


    Reeselynn wasn¡¯t supposed to be here yet. She wasn¡¯t due for a few more weeks, but she came early. And not because I was having multiple. Probably, she came early because of the stress that I had been under. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if that was the case. She was fine though, so all was good. She was healthy, and so was I.


    ¡°Are you ready for some sleep?¡± Reece asked me as heid the baby down in a bass that he brought from the nursery below.


    ¡°I want to say yes, but I am a little too excited to sleep right now. I think that I would rather just look at her for a little while.¡±


    ¡°I can give you a shoulder massage. That might rx you enough to sleep.¡± Reece was moving toward me on the bed now. The sheets had been changed, even though the towels that he put down had kept everything clean. It was still for the best. At least the mattress hadn¡¯t needed to be changed as well. I wasn¡¯t tired, but I still didn¡¯t want to walk yet. I would heal soon, but it wasn¡¯t like I was willing to dance and leap about already.


    ¡°Hmm. That sounds like a good idea to me.¡± I said after mulling it over for just a moment. ¡°Come here, Reece.¡± I held my hands out to him and let him take me into his arms.


    .....


    ¡°dly.¡± He was already moving me so that I would be positioned between his thighs. He wanted to support my weight and hold me up so that my body didn¡¯t need to do anything at the moment.


    Just after Reece put his hands on my shoulders, I got a mental call from Carter. He was panicking a little.


    ¡°Trinity!?¡± He sounded scared.


    ¡°Hello, Carter.¡± I spoke calmly.


    ¡°Oh thank the goddess, I tried to reach you earlier, but I couldn¡¯t get through. I thought that something had happened to you.¡±


    ¡°In a way it did.¡± I said jokingly as Reece continued the massage unaware of the conversation I was having.


    ¡°What?¡± More panic in Carter¡¯s voice. ¡°What happened?¡±


    ¡°Your niece decided that she didn¡¯t want to wait any longer. She was born right after midnight.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± This was another form of panic, one that was filled with joy as well.


    ¡°I haven¡¯t told the rest of the family. I delivered her at home, she made such a speedy entrance into the world. I will call them in the morning. Anyway, what happened? Is everything OK there?¡±


    ¡°It is fine now, but I had to make a decision without you. The Colonel went to Denver, as I told you, but he ended up shooting another DOE recruit. I hadn¡¯t known about that one earlier. Anyway, he was found out at the NSA office. They tried to arrest him I think, but he got away.¡±


    ¡°Well, that sucks.¡± I said in a dejected tone. ¡°What happened after that?¡±


    ¡°He was headed back to the tunnels, but Mr. Doe and I enacted a n. We made him think that we were under attack. The other DOE members believed it as well. He thinks that Mr. Doe is dead, and we all managed to get out of there.¡±


    ¡°Where are the other DOE members?¡±


    ¡°We couldn¡¯t apprehend them Trinity, there were too many of them. My priority was, first and foremost, to save our people. I got Mr. Doe and Kirk out as well, but no one else.¡±


    ¡°I understand.¡± I mentally nodded at his words, not letting Reece know that I was talking to him yet.


    ¡°The others are likely going to regroup with the Colonel somewhere. And, Trinity, he said something about moving up the n even more. I know that he is going to try to attack the city. And he is going to do it soon.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I figured as much. Do you need me to open a door for you all? I can bring you back to the castle right now.¡±


    ¡°Yes, please.¡±


    ¡°Hold on a moment.¡± I sat up a little, pulling away from Reece as I did so.


    ¡°Little Bunny?¡± He sounded shocked by my sudden movement.


    ¡°I got a call from Carter. The DOE is in panic mode. The Colonel escaped from Dayton at the office, and they are nning to attack the city sooner. Carter and the others got out safely by making the Colonel think that Mr. Doe was killed. I am guessing that they will assume Kirk is dead as well.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± The amount that his face fell at that news wasical. He looked like a cartoon character or something.


    ¡°I am opening a door for them. Then I will have Vincent take Mr. Doe and Kirk to a room to stay for the night. In the morning, we will talk about what to do next.¡±


    ¡°Trinity, you just had a baby. You can¡¯t be going to meetings like that. I will handle it.¡±


    ¡°I had a baby, Reece, but I am still the Queen around here. And I will not abandon my people. I will be there, and you will not try to stop me.¡± I let anger fill my voice. He grunted in frustration but didn¡¯t say anything else. ¡°Now, if you¡¯ll excuse me, I have a door to open.¡±


    I hesitated for a moment before I made the door. I realized that I needed to know where Carter and the others were before I opened the door.


    ¡°Carter?¡± I called him mentally.


    ¡°Yes?¡± He answered in a tone that was trying not tough. I think that I had left the connection open during my talk with Reece. He had heard me assert my dominance. ¡°Where are you?¡± He proceeded to give me details of the building they were in, the address and a physical description of it as well. Once I knew where they were, I started the process of making the door.


    Within a moment, Carter, Juniper, Paul, Landon, Kirk, and Mr. Doe were entering the room. Reece had obviously called Vincent while I made the door, because he knocked gently as the others came into the room.


    ¡°Come in.¡± Reece called out to them, and Paulughed.


    ¡°A littlete for the permission, isn¡¯t it?¡± He said as Vincent entered the room. ¡°Oh, so it was for him, not us. Now I feel unweed.¡±


    ¡°Shut up, Paul.¡± Juniper was obviously not in the greatest of moods. ¡°Wait a minute!¡± She looked around the room. ¡°Trinity!¡± She whisper screamed my name in a state of shock. ¡°You had the baby?!¡±


    ¡°Just after midnight, right here at home.¡±


    ¡°Oh my goddess!¡±


    ¡°Congrats, Trinity.¡± Paul said.


    ¡°Congrattions to you both.¡± Landon smiled.


    ¡°She is beautiful.¡± Mr. Doe said while looking embarrassed. ¡°I am sorry for intruding on this moment.¡±


    ¡°It is fine. We understand that things happen, and I am happy that you all made it out alive. We will figure out what to do in the morning. In the meantime, we will have someone looking for Orson.¡±


    ¡°So, you know that the Colonel is Agent Orson?¡± Mr. Doe lookedpletely calm, except for his eyes.


    ¡°I do.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°And since you said you work with him, Mr. Doe, I am guessing that you are an agent as well.¡±


    ¡°My name is Dn West, and I was a member of the team that was investigating you before. As I said, at the time, I didn¡¯t understand anything about this. Neither did the others. Agent Austin, Agent Lakewood, Agent Conners, and Agent Tiller were right there with me. The only problem is, they seem to have boughtpletely into the insanity that Orson is spewing. They are his loyal subjects. I couldn¡¯t let them hurt anyone though, and that was why Kirk and I were working to give you details about the bombings in advance. We wanted to save people.¡± He hung his head in shame.


    ¡°I understand, Dn.¡± I spoke to him calmly, not at all upset with him. ¡°You were confused and thrust into a situation that you were not prepared for. The main thing here is that you are a good person, and you have not been a part of the violence. The same goes for you, Kirk. And because of the help that you gave us, I will forever be grateful.¡±


    ¡°We all will.¡± Vincent said, speaking for the first time sinceing into the room.


    ¡°Now, if you would like, Vincent here will show you to some rooms that you can sleep in for the night. If you have anything that you need to tell me before the morning, please tell Vincent. I wish to spend the rest of the night sleeping and resting. As you can all guess, I am a little exhausted.¡± And in truth, the fatigue really was hitting me now.


    ¡°Understood.¡± Dn and Kirk both said that one word at the same time before they followed Vincent and the others out of the room.


    ¡°I will be back to meet my niece in the morning.¡± Carter said with a grin.


    ¡°Not without me, you won¡¯t.¡± Juniper snapped at him.


    ¡°We will all be back.¡± Landon said as he looked at Reece, his spiritual brother.


    ¡°Sounds good.¡± I felt happy and loved at their words.


    ¡°Ready for sleep?¡± Reece asked me as the door to the room closed.


    ¡°Yes.¡± I nodded and settled against him. ¡°But I don¡¯t want toy all the way back. I am still a little sore.¡±


    ¡°I will be your pillow.¡± His loving voice caressed my cheek as he adjusted a little and pulled me against him. ¡°Pillow and nket.¡±


    ¡°That works for me.¡± I was just settling into his chest when there was another frantic call inside of my head.


    ¡°Queen Trinity!¡± I recognized Dayton¡¯s voice immediately. ¡°I am sorry to call you like this. I know that I do not have permission to do so, but your phone has been going to voicemail for thest couple of hours.¡±


    ¡°Dayton?¡± I said the name out loud as I sat up.


    ¡°What?¡± Reece said as Dayton confirmed in my head.


    ¡°Yes, Queen Trinity.¡± I knew that Reece needed to know what was going on, so I spoke out loud again.


    ¡°I just spoke with the people that I had undercover in the DOE, and two of their members that have been working for us since the beginning.¡± I wanted to make sure that no one pointed a finger at themter. They were my agents, or that is what the rest of the NSA would think.


    ¡°You did?¡±


    ¡°Yes, the undercovers are with me again. The DOE headquarters has been abandoned.¡±


    ¡°Yes, we know.¡± He sighed. ¡°We followed after Orson after he left here. Hended near the city of Benkelman, Nebraska. And then he hopped into another vehicle to escape. The pilot of the helicopter told us everything that he knew though.¡±


    ¡°Did he now?¡± I sighed in exhaustion. ¡°I think that we need to talk in person.¡±


    ¡°I cane now, Queen Trinity. As you said, we need to talk about this. And I have my superior, Director Glick. He is willing to help us even though he is a human. Shall wee over now?¡±


    ¡°Give me a couple of hours, Dayton. I have had a very eventful night. Be here at eight in the morning, alright? Gather as much information as you can until then. And get a nap. We will have another busy day.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Queen Trinity. We will see you then.¡± He disconnected the call between our minds and the peace settled around me again.


    ¡°Moremotion?¡± Reece asked as he hugged me tight.


    ¡°Yes, but it can wait. We need some rest.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡± He snuggled against my back and soothed the tension that was creasing my forehead. ¡°Shh. It¡¯s OK, Little Bunny. I am here, I will take care of you. Ande morning, you can take care of everything else.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± I sighed, the exhaustion almost overtaking me. ¡°It¡¯s going to get even busier tomorrow. Not only do we have a new baby, but I need to tell our families about the baby, and we need to figure out what to do about Orson. It¡¯s like everything that could happen or go wrong, decided to do it all at once. And now, for the first time in a long time, I am starting to feel truly overwhelmed.¡± I trembled for just a moment. ¡°So much is happening all at once, Reece.¡±


    ¡°Shh. It¡¯s OK, Little Bunny. We are together, and together we can do anything. We can even handle this. I know that we can. Together, you and I are unstoppable, there is no obstacle that we can¡¯t ovee.¡±


    ¡°Dramatic much?¡± I barely got the words out, and myugh never did make it. I was drifting off to sleep.


    .....


    ¡°But it made you smile.¡± He kissed my cheek. ¡°Sleep now, Little Bunny. I will hold you until the morning.¡± That was thest thing that I remembered until Reeselynn¡¯s cries woke me a little whileter.

 Chapter 1136 - 1136 Chapter 121- Various – Surprise Part 1 (VOLUME 6)

    1136 Chapter 121- Various ¨C Surprise Part 1 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Wesley Whitton


    ~~


    The sound of the rm trilling woke me with a start. I wasn¡¯t prepared for it though, it felt too early for the sound to be ring into the dark room.


    ¡°Why is the rm even on?¡± I grumbled as I reached for the clock on the bedside table. I was very old school, and my youngest daughter is always pointing that out to me. I still used an actual rm clock. Although, it was quite a bit more advanced than the ones that they used to have.


    ¡°Answer that.¡± Eve told me as I pressed the snooze button repeatedly.


    ¡°The rm isn¡¯t snoozing.¡± I told her, still half asleep and groggy.


    ¡°It¡¯s not the rm, you dolt. It¡¯s your phone.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± I woke a little more at the sound of her words. ¡°What time is it anyway?¡± I looked at the clock that I was trying to snooze and saw that it was a quarter to five in the morning. ¡°Who is calling us this early?¡± I reached for the phone even as I spoke, Eve sitting up in the bed as I did so.


    .....


    ¡°Answer it quickly, Wes. It might be from Trinity, about all that stuff that has been happening.¡± She suddenly looked very scared. I didn¡¯t me her. There was a lot that had happened recently, and it was all falling on the shoulders of our Trinity. I was worried about her too.


    I looked at the phone screen, processing the name on the caller id even as I swiped my finger across the screen and answered the call. The caller was Reece. And that meant that something had happened. Something big.


    ¡°Hello?¡± I asked him in a tone that gave away my fears already.


    ¡°Wesley, you and Eve need toe here right away.¡± He sounded hyped up, not angry or upset, but just excited about something. What was happening? This had to be about those bombing and that DOE group.


    ¡°To Trinity¡¯s office?¡± I asked him as I was already getting out of bed. Eve, having heard what Reece had said, was already ahead of me. She was pulling clothes from the closet for the both of us.


    ¡°No, to the tower. Bring Olivia too, this is important.¡±


    ¡°Bring Olivia?¡± I was worried now. Were the DOE breaching thepound? Were we not safe here? What was happening?


    ¡°I have more calls to make, I need to go. I will see you soon.¡±


    ¡°Reece?¡± I called his name even as the call ended. This wasn¡¯t good. It wasn¡¯t good at all.


    *~~!~~**~~!~~**~~!~~*


    ~~


    Noah


    ~~


    I was used to being woken in the middle of the night. With all the issues that I have helped Reece and my sister with throughout the years, it was something that I had grown ustomed to. So, when my phone rang just a little before five in the morning, I was awake and alert in an instant. I had even answered the call before my beautiful Nikki had been roused from her slumber by the phone.


    ¡°Hello?¡± I asked in a whisper. I had seen that it was Reece, exactly who I would have expected to be calling me this early in the morning.


    ¡°Noah, I need you toe to the tower as soon as possible. Bring Nikki with you as well.¡±


    ¡°Nikki?¡± This was not what I was expecting. ¡°What has happened, Reece? Is there a problem?¡±


    ¡°I need to make another call, just hurry, please.¡± He said as the call disconnected almost immediately.


    ¡°What is going on?¡± I looked at the phone in disbelief. If he wanted me to bring Nikki, then there had to be a problem. Maybe there was an impending attack. But if I was bringing Nikki, shouldn¡¯t I bring the kids as well? I mean, Elias was old enough to protect himself, but I still had Nina and Grayson to worry about. ¡°Nikki, sweetheart.¡± I shook her shoulder, resigning myself to the fact that I needed to take her and probably the kids as well, with me to the castle. ¡°Nikki, you need to wake up.¡±


    *~~!~~**~~!~~**~~!~~*


    ~~


    Emmalee


    ~~


    ¡°Hmm. Hello?¡± I groaned into the phone as it woke me up from a sound sleep.


    ¡°Emmalee.¡± It was Carter, his voice instantly waking me up and driving away all of the sleepiness from my mind and eyes.


    ¡°Carter? Baby is that really you? I thought that you wouldn¡¯t be able to call for a while.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m back in Colorado Springs now. I need you and the kids to get ready toe to the castle. Can you get them up and ready soon? Trinity will open a door for you in a few minutes.¡±


    ¡°Right now?¡± I felt the panic start to spread through me at the words that he had just told me. He wanted us to get up and leave right now. What could possibly have happened? What did we need to do to protect ourselves and the children?


    ¡°Yes, sweetheart, right now. I will see you when you get here, OK?¡± I looked at the clock and saw that it was a quarter to five in the morning. It was so early. Something truly bad had to be happening right now. I just knew it.


    ¡°We will be ready soon. I will get the kids awake and tell them to get dressed. You know that Leah will take a while though.¡±


    ¡°Tell her that she doesn¡¯t have that much time to get ready, and that I said to hurry. Trinity needs to see us all together soon.¡±


    ¡°I understand. I will get them ready to go. Can you have the door ready in ten minutes?¡±


    ¡°Sure thing. See you soon, sweetheart. I¡¯ve missed you, and I can¡¯t wait to see you.¡±


    ¡°Even if it means making Leah yell at us again.¡± Iughed despite the tense situation.


    ¡°Yes, even if it makes her yell at us again, I need to feel your lips as I kiss you, sweetheart. I missed you so much.¡±


    ¡°I missed you too, Carter.¡± I felt the swelling in my heart. He was the true love of my life. And he always would be.


    *~~!~~**~~!~~**~~!~~*


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I knew that Carter was out in the hall waiting for the others to get here. I also knew that he and Reece hadn¡¯t told the others why they wereing here. It was a bit of a trick, I knew this, but I wanted the baby to be a surprise. She had surprised Reece and I after all, so she should be a surprise to the others as well.


    While I waited, I held Reeselynn in my arms. I could hardly take my eyes off of her face. She was so beautiful. All of my babies were beautiful though, each and every one of them. It¡¯s just that Reeselynn was the first baby in such a long time, so it had been a while since I got to just sit there and stare at my baby¡¯s face.


    I started to hear amotion in the hall. I had opened the door for Emmalee to get here, but everyone else was already local, so they could get here on their own. I was still a little weak from the delivery, so I didn¡¯t want to open too many doors at the moment. It was tiring when you were not fully rested. If it was a normal situation, I could have opened a thousand doors and it wouldn¡¯t have been a problem, but not right now. I was still weak and tired.


    ¡°Carter, what is going on?¡± I heard Noah¡¯s voice. He was probably upset that his younger brother was here before him.


    ¡°Yes, Carter, what is going on?¡± That was Grandfather, he had been called by Reece earlier as well. He and L would be there together, and they would probably have Ivy with them as well. Ivy was little Reeselynn¡¯s Aunt. Even though Grandfather was her father, and that technically made her my aunt, we opted to forgo that part of the family dynamic and just view Ivy as my sister inw. That was a little less confusing to everyone involved.


    ¡°I am worried about Trinity, what has happened?¡± This was Mom, her worried voice both softer and louder than the others. That was just how she was though. ¡°Did something happen to Trinity? What about the baby?¡±


    ¡°Everyone is almost here, then we will go in.¡± Carter¡¯s voice was calm, but he was putting on an air of worry and unease. That little sneak. The others were going to be so mad at him for this.


    ¡°Who else ising?¡± Dad asked with a tense voice.


    ¡°Just them.¡± Carter said. I am guessing that thest ones got there, it would have been Emmaleeing through the door with the kids. I could feel the slight shift in my magic as they all passed through that metaphysical space.


    ¡°Carter!¡± Emmalee¡¯s voice was filled with worry.


    ¡°DAD!¡± Bryson called out to him. They were likely hugging him.


    ¡°Ugh! Too much sappiness for me.¡± Leah, my overly dramatic niece, sounded like she was annoyed at them.


    ¡°We¡¯re all here now, can we know what is happening?¡± L asked with a strained voice.


    ¡°I will take you inside now.¡± I heard Carter say to the others. I lifted my eyes for a moment and looked at Reece. He was grinning. Knowing that this was a bit of a dirty trick, but we had a busy day, and most of these people needed to be here for all of the meetings anyway. So, this was just an expedient thing to do. Hmm. I would need to open doors for Aunt Glory, Trevor, and Athair m¨°r as well. They needed to be hereter, and to see the baby.


    The door to the living room opened quickly. The others were probably trying to rush past Carter to see what was going on. The group surged into and looked around the room to find me. I saw that my mom was the one in the lead. She was always the type to worry about me, so I wasn¡¯t surprised about this, not in the least.


    ¡°Trinity, what is wrong? What hap-.¡± She stopped in midsentence, seeing the baby that was resting in my arms. She hesitated for less than half of a second before she continued. ¡°EEEEEEEEEEEE!¡± She squealed in one long and high-pitched tone. The sound made the baby sleeping in my arms begin to stir, but she didn¡¯t cry yet. She was just getting close to it.


    ¡°Shh.¡± I grinned and shushed her with augh. ¡°You will wake her up.¡±


    ¡°Trinity Faith Whitton Gray! Why are you here and not in the hospital?!¡± My mom reprimanded me.


    ¡°Because she was born here.¡± I told her calmly. ¡°She didn¡¯t even want to wait for Griffin to get here.¡±


    ¡°So, Griffin didn¡¯t deliver her?¡± Noah asked, looking at the baby in my arms with a tender smile. He was a true family man. He loved all of his kids and his nieces and nephews.


    ¡°No, Griffin wasn¡¯t here yet.¡± Reece told him calmly. ¡°I delivered her for Trinity.¡±


    ¡°HAHAHAHA!¡± Several of our family membersughed when they heard Reece¡¯s words.


    ¡°What the hell?¡± Reece red specifically at Noah as heughed at him.


    ¡°Come on, Reece. You expect us to believe that you, the man that tried to leave the room repeatedly when Reagan and Rika were born, and the man that almost passed out when the quads were born, delivered a baby? That is just not usible. Someone else had to have done it.¡±


    ¡°Trinity, please clear this up for me.¡± Reece crossed his arms over his chest and red at one of his best friends and beta.


    ¡°He is telling the truth.¡± I told them all with a smile on my face. ¡°Reece and I had been getting ready for bed, I wanted to take a lukewarm bath to help me rx, but I started to feel odd. As soon as I got out of the tub, my water broke. Things progressed very quickly from there. Reeselynn truly didn¡¯t want to wait. She was ready to make her debut, and the only other person there was Reece. He called Griffin, who was on his way, but Reece was the one that had to deliver the baby. He did a good job too. He stayed calm and took care of everything that he needed to. It went really well.¡± I smiled at Reece to show him how proud that I was of him.


    ¡°Wow, Reece, I am impressed.¡± Noah pped him on the back. ¡°And congrats.¡± He was smiling now. No one, thankfully, was ming any of us for the prank that we yed on them about the emergency that was supposed to be taking ce.


    Mom, the first to notice the baby, asked if she could hold her newest grandbaby. Having no reason to say no, aside from wanting to feel herforting weight in my arms a little longer, I handed over the small, swaddled little bundle.


    ¡°Oh, look at her.¡± Mom cooed as she sat next to me. Dad took the seat next to her, and Olivia knelt on the floor in front of her.


    ¡°She is so pretty.¡± My little sister cooed as well while Ivy sat next to her on the floor and stroked her cheek softly.


    ¡°Do you know who she looks like to me?¡± Dad said while the others who hadn¡¯t seen her face closely took their seats around the room.


    ¡°Who?¡± Carter asked, having only nced at her a few times so far.


    .....


    ¡°My sister, Lily. She makes me think of her so much. She had a reddish tint to her brown hair as well.¡±


    ¡°Yes, but there was nothing golden about her hair. She was a reddish brown from birth.¡± Grandfather said as he stepped up behind the sofa. He was looking down into the little baby¡¯s face and I could see the tears in his eyes. ¡°I think she gets the golden from you, sweetheart.¡± He looked up at L. ¡°That is the element to your hair that we all adore so much.¡±


    ¡°So, she is a mixture of both of our mothers?¡± Reece asked as he pulled me closer to his side.


    ¡°She seems to be.¡± Grandfather almost sobbed as he spoke. ¡°Eve, can I hold her?¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± She agreed and let my grandfather hold his great granddaughter without hesitation.


    Grandfather moved to sit in a chair that was to the side of the couch that I was sitting on. He hadn¡¯t taken his eyes off of the baby since Mom had handed her to him. He was smiling and there were tears slowly streaming down his face.


    ¡°She looks so much like Lily did the day that she was born. The same nose, the same little cheeks, the same shape to her lips. I will never forget that day. I can¡¯t believe how closely she resembles your mother, Trinity. It¡¯s so uncanny, but also wonderful. She is a beautiful baby.¡±


    ¡°I know she is, Grandfather.¡± I smiled at him and walked over to hug him. I knew that he had missed my mother for many years now, and this must be an exceptionally hard moment for him to deal with.


    The rest of the family took their turns with the baby, even Ivy and Oliva. They all wanted to see her face and look at how much she resembled her biological grandmother. They all seemed to be thoroughly captured by the little girl immediately. And soon enough, when the kids came down for the day, we were all together as a family.


    Reece and I had a lot to do in the morning and afternoon, but we were going to eat breakfast with everyone before we left. Then, when it was time for the meeting to start, Mom and L were going to watch the baby while we went to one of therger conference rooms. My office was just not big enough for all the people that we were going to be having with us today. This was a major talk that we needed to have, so I was inviting everyone to join us.


    Of course, this meant that I was going to need to make a few more doors. And in my already exhausted state, that might be a little difficult. Oh well, I would manage. There was a lot that a Queen like me needed to do, and simply being tired wasn¡¯t an excuse for us to not do what I needed to. Doors were easy, and there weren¡¯t going to be too many more doors. Just a couple.


    At least I would have the delicious food from the breakfast that Abigail made for me to give me some energy. She had made a special meal that was filled with lots of protein to give me strength and keep my body running. I loved her for that, she was always taking care of me and the others.

 Chapter 1137 - 1137 Chapter 122- Various – Surprise Part 2 (VOLUME 6)

    1137 Chapter 122- Various ¨C Surprise Part 2 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Vincent


    ~~


    Well, that had been an eventful night. Who would have thought that Trinity would go to her room and almost immediately have the baby? I mean, when Griffin and Lana came running into the tower and storming toward the stairs, I almost had a heart attack. I thought that Reece had called him because something was wrong. Never in my wildest dreams would I think that Trinity had had the baby.


    It was an amazing surprise though. And I was happy that Trinity and the baby were doing well. And that Reece was there for them. I would have had a hard time delivering the baby if it had been me. I was Trinity¡¯s Beta and right hand man, I would have done it if I had to, bute on. That would have been a bit too much of my boss to see. Not that I haven¡¯t seen her naked before, but that isn¡¯t the point here. I wasn¡¯t Reece, I wasn¡¯t supposed to be doing that. It wasn¡¯t appropriate.


    After things settled down, and I was leading the others out of the room to where they were going to sleep for the night, I was able to finally rx and settle down a little. Everyone was tired and exhausted after all that had happened that night, and all I wanted was to crawl into bed with Heather and sleep for a little while. I needed that right now.


    ¡°You were workingte.¡± Heather said as I slid into bed next to her. She had woken up the moment the door had opened, she was a light sleeper. ¡°Was it a busy night?¡±


    ¡°Very.¡± I told her as I snuggled up close to her, my chest pressed against her back. ¡°Aside from that bombing at the stadium, Trinity had the baby.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± She opened her eyes wide as she turned to face me, almost hitting my nose with her cheek. ¡°She had the baby?¡±


    .....


    ¡°Yes, in her room. Reece had to deliver her. Apparently, her water broke and then I guess that things progressed quickly from there.¡±


    ¡°Oh my goodness, that is amazing. I can¡¯t believe she had the baby. I have to go and see her soon.¡± She was already grinning. ¡°I miss having babies around.¡± She sounded almost sad as she said that.


    ¡°Really?¡± She hadn¡¯t mentioned wanting another baby recently, but I guess that she would want more. We were immortal now, and there was nothing stopping us. Not to mention, the twins were our youngest, and they were already in college. We had no kids here at home with us. ¡°Should we make one then?¡± I smiled and kissed her softly yet passionately.


    ¡°Oooh, really?¡± she looked at me with excitement after breaking the kiss. ¡°I would love to have another with you, Vincent. You¡¯re such a wonderful father.¡±


    ¡°And you¡¯re a great mother.¡±


    I decided that I didn¡¯t need that much sleep tonight. I had to give my wife what she wanted. Even if it didn¡¯t happen right then and there, I would give it to her soon enough.


    After I thoroughly pleased my wife, I drifted off to sleep for a little while. I only got about three hours of sleep, if that, but I would be fine. Trinity would be running on less sleep than that for a while, as long as the baby was there to wake her up repeatedly. If she could do it, then so could I.


    I showered quickly in the morning, letting Heather sleep on in the bed. The shower was cold, to help me wake up a little more. After that, I dried off, dressed, and left the room. I ate a quick breakfast that I pulled from the fridge and heated in the microwave. I don¡¯t even know what it was really, I ate it too fast.


    Coffee was the most important thing right now. I needed some that was truly strong. And that had brewed while I scarfed down the mystery food from the fridge. The first drink of it was strong and bitter, but the heat of it was giving me new life as I hurried toward the door. Another busy and long day awaited me, and I had to hurry.


    By the time that I got to the tower, Trinity and Reece had already had a visit from all of their family. They were all still there in the tower, talking and having breakfast.


    ¡°Vincent, good morning.¡± Trinity called to me. ¡°The others should be here soon too. I will head down to the office now. We¡¯re going to be meeting in one of the conference rooms when it all starts though.¡±


    ¡°I will get the others as theye in, don¡¯t worry. Wait here for Shawn and the others, OK.¡± She didn¡¯t look surprised by what I said, she just nodded and agreed silently.


    When I rushed from the room, I hurried to Trinity¡¯s office that was a few floors lower. I saw that the others were actually already arriving. They would have waited in the office until Trinity arrived, but I had other ns in mind. They didn¡¯t know aboutst night, but they would soon enough.


    ¡°Hey!¡± I called out to them.


    ¡°Hey, Vincent.¡± Shawn waved and continued to move toward the office.


    ¡°Wait!¡± I deliberately made my face look worried as I spoke again. ¡°You need to head upstairs right away. You need to go see Trinity right this minute.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Dietrich looked worried now. ¡°Did something happen?¡±


    ¡°Yes. And you need to go now.¡± I didn¡¯t lie, not technically.


    ¡°Shit!¡± Shane was the first to respond.


    ¡°Oh, no.¡± David started to run toward the elevator and press the call button. It was already on the floor though, because I had juste down in it.


    I rode up to the tower with them, pressing the button for the floor with the living room. I could see the tension in all of them as we got closer to Trinity and Reece. And when they sensed all the other people that were already there, they started to get even more worried.


    *~~!~~**~~!~~**~~!~~*


    ~~


    Dietrich


    ~~


    I was worried from the moment that Vincent said that something had happened. We were all worried about Trinityst night. She didn¡¯t seem to be doing very good at all. And if something happened to her, it would fall on all of us that didn¡¯t notice what was happening.


    While I technically was not one of Trinity¡¯s guards, I was always working as one. My mate and husband was her guard, and I wanted to protect Trinity as well. If it wasn¡¯t for her, then I wouldn¡¯t have anything in this world. I would never have met Shawn. I wouldn¡¯t have my children. I would still be in Germany, lost and lonely. I owed everything in my life to Trinity and Reece, and I wanted to be there for them. And mostly, I just wanted to be with my Shawn as much as possible.


    When the elevator got closer to the floor that Trinity was on, I could sense a lot more people. There were probably around two dozen people there, give or take a little. If there were that many people in the tower at this early hour, then there had to be something major happening. The problem is, I didn¡¯t know what it was.


    I started to panic. To fear the worst. Trinity had had some painsst night. We all thought that they were just caused by stress and exhaustion, but maybe it was something else. Maybe there was something wrong with the baby, with Reeselynn. Oh please, goddess, don¡¯t let that be the case. I couldn¡¯t handle it if there were more children that were hurt with all of this that is going on.


    When the elevator stopped, the five of us hurried off the elevator and toward the door that led to the living room. That was where thergest group of people on the floor were located at. David, the fastest of us all, got to the door first and opened it in a panic. He seemed to be looking around the room to where Trinity was.


    The rest of us were on his heels as he ran into the room. We needed to know what was going on. Why were there so many people in the room? And what were we going to do from here on out?


    ¡°Trinity?¡± David said as he stopped in front of us all. Shawn and I had to move to the side to go around him.


    ¡°Trinity?¡± I said her name as well, looking for her in the crowd of her family. It looked like they were all there, every single member of her biological family. Well, aside from Gloriana and Valerian. They were the only ones that were missing from the usual group.


    ¡°Hey guys.¡± Trinity¡¯s voice was so calm that it almost threw me through a loop. It wasn¡¯t until I looked down and saw her mostly t belly that I noticed that something had changed.


    ¡°Y..you had the baby.¡± Shawn was the first to say this as he looked at her. ¡°You had the babyst night.¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± She nodded and then exined to us that Reece had to deliver the baby because she went intobor and the baby came extremely fast.


    ¡°Fuck you, Vincent.¡± Shane said as he spun and looked at the man that had called us up here.


    ¡°What? I said that something happened, I didn¡¯t say what it was. This is major. And Trinity had something else to tell you anyway.¡±


    ¡°That was a mean trick.¡± David hung his head, but the look on his face was one of relief. ¡°I thought that something had happened to Trinity or the baby. You made me really worried.¡±


    ¡°I am sorry, but to be fair, Griffin did that to mest night. He came running into the tower when Trinity was supposed to be in bed. And Reece hadn¡¯t called me to let me know what was happening, so I was scared as I ran up the stairs. Everything was fine, of course, but it still scared the hell out of me.¡±


    ¡°So, you decided to scare us in turn?¡± Shawn asked him, his eyes narrowed.


    ¡°I am sorry, I didn¡¯t really mean to scare you. It¡¯s a good surprise though, isn¡¯t it? The baby is here, and she is healthy. This is a day to celebrate. March the third will be an important day to the wholemunity soon enough. And she is quite beautiful.¡± I nodded at the words that he was saying. This was definitely a positive and good surprisepared to what I had been expecting.


    ¡°I am very d that it is this type of surprise, and not something that would be considered bad.¡± Turning back to Trinity and Reece, with the baby being held between them as they faced us. ¡°Congrattions. This is quite the wonderful news.¡±


    ¡°It was a shock to me as well.¡± Trinity said with a smile. ¡°She was definitely eager toe into the worldst night.¡±


    The five of us, Vincent the practical jokester of the day included, moved to greet the baby. She was precious, as most babies were. And I could feel a longing inside of me, something that I had not felt in a little while. I loved family, and I loved raising children with my Shawn. I wondered what he would think if I told him what I was feeling.


    A little whileter, before Trinity was due to head down to the conference room, we were once again heading to the elevator. We were going to be letting the others know where to go when they arrived for the meeting at eight. As I walked, I looked over at my Shawn, and at the longing look in his eyes.


    ¡°You are so easy to read, Geliebte.¡± I leaned in to whisper into his ear.


    ¡°Huh?¡± He was startled a little. ¡°What are you talking about?¡± He tried to y innocent, but he was blushing profusely as he looked at me.


    ¡°I know what you are thinking. What you are wanting.¡±


    ¡°I am not thinking about anything.¡± He tried to deny it. ¡°I don¡¯t want anything.¡±


    ¡°So, seeing the little one, Reeselynn, didn¡¯t make you want to add more children to our ever expanding family?¡± I asked him in a tone that was filled with knowing.


    ¡°I..I..I don¡¯t know what you are talking about.¡± He still tried to deny it.


    ¡°It is alright, Liebe. I want to add to the family as well. I have for a while now. And soon, we will only have Ember and Bret at home. It will be so lonely when the others are gone. Don¡¯t you want to add more children?¡±


    ¡°Are you serious?¡± I saw the excitement blossoming in his eyes as we whispered to each other.


    ¡°Yes, my love. I think that it is about time that we had more. There are plenty of children in need out there. We need to give some of them homes.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Dietrich.¡± He stopped me then, when he threw his arms around my shoulders and hugged me tightly. ¡°Thank you so much.¡±


    ¡°You do not need to thank me, Liebe, I want to do this too.¡± I hugged him back and tried to act like none of the others could see or hear us. This was a private matter between the two of us.

 Chapter 1138 - 1138 Chapter 123- Trinity – What to do About the Colonel Part 1 (VOLUME 6)

    1138 Chapter 123- Trinity ¨C What to do About the Colonel Part 1 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I left the baby with my mom and Reece¡¯s mom. They, along with the kids, would watch over her. It also gave them the time to bond with her that they had wanted. They needed to focus on her during this time, which gave me the chance to do what I needed to do. And, right now, until it was time to feed the baby again, I needed to focus on the meeting and what we were going to be doing next.


    I knew that the others were waiting on me when I arrived with Reece. There was a reason for this though. There were still some people among the group that didn¡¯t know about the baby being born in the middle of the night. They needed to find out about it now, and what can I say. I have a bit of ir for the dramatic. I thought that it would be interesting to just walk in and suddenly be several inches smaller.


    Thanks to my shifter metabolism, I was also able to walk, and the puffy pouch thates with having a baby, was already receding. By the time the day was over, it would almost be impossible to tell that I was pregnant just yesterday. And within two or three days, I would be almost back to normal, aside from the swollen, milk filled breasts. That was the only thing to get bigger after delivery rather than smaller.


    We were using a conference room today, there were far too many people that would be attending this meeting with us, and my office, whilerge, just wouldn¡¯t cut it. I thought that people would be morefortable with a little more room to spread out. And there would be ample seating in there as well.


    My guards were already in the room, and so was my dad and Grandfather. The kids were in there as well. Despite the fact that Reeselynn was just born, Reagan and Rika chose to focus on the issue at hand. They would see her againter. This was their choice to make, so I wasn¡¯t going to deny them.


    ¡°Good morning.¡± I said as I walked into the room ahead of Reece. I was standing in front of him, wearing clothes that weren¡¯t tight, but that definitely showed that I was no longer pregnant. ¡°We have a lot to-.¡±


    .....


    ¡°WHAT THE HELL!¡± I heard Trevor¡¯s voice call out to me, interrupting what I had just been saying.


    ¡°Is there a problem, Trevor?¡± I looked at him with a smirk, knowing full well what the problem was.


    ¡°I would say so. Where the hell is the baby!?¡± He was looking from my belly to my eyes and then to Reece. It was a circuit that he waspleting with his wide and stunned eyes.


    ¡°Oh, she is upstairs.¡±


    ¡°Y..you had the baby?¡± Aunt Glory asked in a stunned voice.


    ¡°Yes, this morning, just past midnight. She was a little eager to make her appearance.¡± I was acting like there was nothing at all wrong with what was going on. I moved toward my chair, but the others were taking up the issue.


    ¡°S..so Queen Trinity had the babyst night?¡± Dn asked and looked at the others in confusion. ¡°She had the babyst night and is already here, back to work?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Dn. There is no time to waste here. We need to keep things moving along. I understand that this is not the conventional way to do things. And had this happened during any other time in our lives, I would have taken time off to spend with my baby. As it is, though, there is just too much that is happening in the world right now. If I don¡¯t take care of all of this, then there is no future for me or my baby. Don¡¯t worry though, I am fine and so is she. We¡¯re all healthy and doing well.¡±


    ¡°Where is the baby?¡± Kirk asked, looking around as if he thought that she was there with us.


    ¡°She is with family at the moment. I wanted to talk about the different things that were important to us all, and to the issue at hand. We need to find Orson, and we need to put an end to this war that he is trying to wage.¡±


    ¡°I agree.¡± Athair m¨°r rose to his feet and nodded at me. ¡°Once that is all done, I will go with Trinity to see my great, great, great, great granddaughter.¡±


    ¡°Your what? How many greats was that? Wh..what is going on here?¡± Kirk, who had so recently looked excited about the baby, was looking at Athair m¨°r with eyes that said it all. He couldn¡¯t believe what he had heard, and was wondering how old Athair m¨°r really was.


    ¡°Son, I am one of the original three Fae, me and my sister here are two of the triplets born directly from the mother, Danu. I am over three thousand years old. And Trinity is one of my descendants.¡±


    ¡°Wow.¡± That was all that Dn had to say, Kirk on the other hand, seemed to be stunned into silence.


    I took a seat at the head of the table, Reece next to me in an equal position. The guards standing behind me in the formation that they usually took when protecting me in a meeting. It was time to start this discussion.


    ¡°Alright, by now we all must know what happened, but if not, allow me to recap.¡± I proceeded to bring them all up to speed on the attack and bombing of the stadium the day before. The DOE member that got away. The show that was sent to us by Dn. And the conversation that I had had with Dayton. They knew that the NSA knew about Orson now, so they would be looking for him as well. It was unlikely that Orson would be able to attack us directly, with so many people searching for him. Still, I wouldn¡¯t take any chances. I wanted to make sure that he was captured before anyone else was able to be hurt.


    ¡°So much happened in just one day.¡± Aunt Glory said as she shook her head.


    ¡°That mad man is really trying to me that man¡¯s death on you? He thinks that anyone will believe that?¡± Athair m¨°r spoke next, his voice sad and filled with pain. ¡°Anyone that watches the video would see the truth. You said that the blood was pooled around him. They can¡¯t believe a word that Orson is saying.¡±


    ¡°Whether they believe it or not isn¡¯t the problem, Athair m¨°r.¡± I looked at him with saddened eyes. ¡°There are people out there that do not need a reason to hate us. They want to hate us and are just looking for some sort of justification.¡± This seemed to strike a chord with several of them. And I saw that Dn looked a little ufortable. He had joined Orson when he started the DOE because he wasn¡¯t sure what else he was supposed to do about the news of us nonhumans.


    It was clear that this ufortable situation was getting to Dn. And there seemed to be something that he wanted to say as well. I think that he was just wary of interrupting us in the middle of the conversation. He was human, and we weren¡¯t.


    ¡°Dn.¡± I called out to him. ¡°Is there something the matter?¡±


    ¡°I am sorry, Queen Trinity. I didn¡¯t want to interrupt you, but I think I might know where Orson fled to after the incident at the tunnels.¡±


    ¡°Do not be afraid to tell me what you need to, Dn. We¡¯re different species, but we¡¯re all still people.¡±


    ¡°I know, but, I mean, you¡¯re a Queen.¡±


    ¡°And Queens need to know what is going on.¡±


    ¡°Not in other countries.¡± He and Kirk said at the same time.


    ¡°Fine, this Queen needs to know what is going on. I lead my people, gentlemen. I fight alongside them, and I advocate on their behalf. I don¡¯t let them face these things on their own. That isn¡¯t the right thing to do.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re quite amazing, Queen Trinity. Did you know that?¡± Kirk looked as if he was watching some sort of superhero at work. His eyes were lit up and shining brightly.


    ¡°I appreciate the confidence.¡± I nodded at him. ¡°Now, Dn, if you know something, please tell me what it is.¡±


    ¡°Well, there was a backup location. The tunnels that we were in before were just one of the ces that Orson had prepared. About fifteen miles or so away from the city of Benkelman, Nebraska, there are some caves that we found. They are hidden in the mountains and hard to find, but we scouted them out. There were emergency provisions there as well, so they would be able to hide out for a little while.¡±


    ¡°You know where these caves are?¡± I asked as the door to the room opened quietly. Talia wasing in, Reeselynn in her arms. She told me telepathically that the baby was hungry and needed me.


    ¡°I..I do.¡± Dn stuttered a little when he saw the interruption. He didn¡¯t know where they were.


    ¡°That is good.¡± I took the baby, smiled into her face, but didn¡¯t stop talking. Not even when I started to reach toward the fastening of the maternity bra I was wearing. I was about to feed the baby without a care in the world.


    Reece growled a little, Shawn draped a nket over my shoulder, and Dn and Kirk seemed to gasp in surprise.


    ¡°Trinity?¡± Reece snapped at me.


    ¡°What?¡± I asked him, not even looking up as I positioned the baby for her meal. It had been a long time, but this was something that you never forgot how to do.


    ¡°Everyone here could see you.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t mind.¡± I told him, not letting it bother me.


    ¡°Of course you don¡¯t.¡± He sighed in exasperation. ¡°Cover up first next time, OK.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t even cover up, Shawn did that for me. I hadn¡¯t even thought that he was prepared for this.¡±


    ¡°We all were.¡± Shawn said with a smile. At that, I turned to the others and saw them all pull out a small nket. They were ready to cover me when I needed it.


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°No problem.¡± Shane nodded. ¡°By the way, I think Reece¡¯s head just exploded.¡± He was almost right. His face was just really red.


    ¡°Calm down, sweetheart. I am just feeding our daughter. It¡¯s all perfectly natural.¡±


    ¡°I know that it is.¡± He sighed. ¡°But there are people here that do not need to see your breasts.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re just too territorial.¡± Iughed at him. ¡°Everyone is fine except for you. Now, let¡¯s get back to the meeting. Where were we?¡±


    ¡°Those caves that that man there was talking about.¡± Talia said as she pulled another chair closer and sat next to me.


    ¡°Dn, Kirk, this is my daughter, Talia. She is almost sixteen, a senior in high school, and the future Goddess of the underworld.¡±


    ¡°Th..th..the underworld?¡± Kirk really liked to stammer a lot, didn¡¯t he? This was a little funny, but it made him kind of cute in a way.


    ¡°Yes, I was chosen to be the recement when I was four.¡±


    ¡°S..so you will be the new Satan? Lucifer? Beelzebub? Hades?¡±


    ¡°You are listing multiple people there. I will take over for all the current Gods of the underworld when I am older.¡± Talia exined to the stuttering Kirk.


    ¡°Multiple? Y..you know these people?¡± It seemed like he still couldn¡¯t believe this.


    ¡°Yes. Hades, Lucifer, Satan, they are some of my closest friends and mentors.¡±


    ¡°This is unbelievable.¡± Dnughed sardonically. It was a way to break the tension in the room, and we were all thankful for it.


    I had a feeling that if things kept on going the way that they were, Kirk was going to end up with a bit of a headache, and aplex of some sort.

 Chapter 1139 - 1139 Chapter 124- Trinity - What to do About the Colonel Part 2 (VOLUME 6)

    1139 Chapter 124- Trinity ¨C What to do About the Colonel Part 2 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    The meeting was getting off topic. With all the talk about Talia and the Gods of The Underworld, and me feeding Reeselynn, we had strayed a little too far from where we were supposed to be at the moment. I knew that I needed to bring us all back to the topic at hand though, we had a lot to do, a lot to discuss, and not a lot of time to figure all of this out.


    ¡°Dn?¡± I called out to him, knowing where it was that I wanted to start with this next part of the conversation.


    ¡°Yes, Queen Trinity?¡± He was speaking to me respectfully, like he was a part of my people as well. I didn¡¯t know if it was out of respect or fear though, and I don¡¯t really know if I will ever find out.


    ¡°You said you know where these caves are, the ones that Orson might have gone to. Could you give me coordinates, or an urate description as to where they are? I can open a door and have someone go there to investigate it.¡±


    ¡°I can tell you, but I don¡¯t know if that is a good idea. The caves are rigged with booby traps. I don¡¯t even know where all of them are. I don¡¯t want someone going and getting hurt.¡± He looked wary and on edge. I could tell that he was telling the truth though, so I had no reason not to heed the warning that he was giving me.


    ¡°That is unfortunate.¡± I rocked the baby in my arms a little as I fed her. ¡°Do you have any other suggestions?¡± I asked, but the answer didn¡¯te from Dn. Instead, it came from Talia who was sitting next to me at the head of the table.


    .....


    ¡°I can go.¡± Her words were met with an immediate no from three of the people that were in the room.


    ¡°Hell no!¡± Reece snarled.


    ¡°I forbid it.¡± Alexio¡¯s voice was nearly as deep as Reece¡¯s when he growled those words.


    ¡°Talia, you cannot do that. It¡¯s too dangerous.¡± The more soft spoken Rudy said in as calm of a voice as he could manage in his panic.


    ¡°I am not talking about taking a magical door there. You¡¯re all being so ridiculous. I have been working with Mr. Amadeus. I have practiced more with my soul projection sincest year. I can send my soul there, look around and see what is going on. Even if the ce was crawling with DOE soldiers, they wouldn¡¯t know that I was there at all.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Alexio was the first to say anything after what Talia said. I think part of that had been the reprimand she had given him, though it hadn¡¯t appeared as a reprimand to most of the people present. ¡°As long as you are not nning to go there physically, I have no issue. I am your guard, Talia, and I cannot allow you to put yourself into such a dangerous position.¡±


    ¡°Does the future Goddess of the underworld really need a bodyguard?¡± Kirk asked, almost taking us off topic again.


    ¡°She does when he is a Demon that will be looking after her in The Underworld.¡± I spoke matter-of-factly and saw the recognition in the man¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°A..a..a..a D..D..D..Demon?¡±


    ¡°The Demons are nothing like how Hollywood and literature make them out to be. They are not evil. They are more like the keepers of The Underworld. The true Demons were actually an ancient species of people that were akin to the Gods.¡± Talia started to exin to him, but we didn¡¯t have the time for this right now.


    ¡°Give him a history lessonter, Talia. We have too much work to do at the moment.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± She dropped the subject, but I could tell that Kirk was hanging on her every word. He was definitely more than a little interested in our people. Hopefully, it stayed positive as time went on.


    Sensing that Reeselynn was getting closer to being done with her feeding, I shifted her to my other side, taking the nket with her as I did. I liked to feed evenly, so that I didn¡¯t feel lopsided. This was how I had done things when Talia was a baby. After she was repositioned, I moved on. It had only been a second or two, so it hadn¡¯t dyed the conversation at all.


    ¡°Talia, when will you be able to do the projection?¡± This was something that we needed to do as soon as possible.


    ¡°I can do it now. I have gotten really good at ittely. Mr. Amadeus is a good teacher. I have managed to project my soul and investigate the mountains. I don¡¯t spy on people though. If they happen to be where I am in the projection, I leave right away. I don¡¯t want to hear anything private. Mostly, I nt something ahead of time for me to find, or Mr. Amadeus will. I will find it and see what is around that location. It¡¯s actually really peaceful and rxing. I like the feeling of soul projecting, because I feel lighter and calmer after the fact.¡± She looked happy as she was telling me all of this. In a way, it made me feel immensely proud of her. She had been working so hard on her abilities and her studies. She was such a smart girl.


    ¡°If you can do it now, then we can get ready for that. Also, I want to call Crawford, Eldrige, Leelin, and all the other powerful Witches and Warlocks that we have at our disposal.¡±


    ¡°Why do you need them?¡± Athair m¨°r asked with his head tilted.


    ¡°I need them as well as you, Aunt Glory, and all the best Fae magicians. We are going to erect a barrier around the city.¡±


    ¡°What kind of barrier?¡± He asked, finally understanding what was about to happen.


    ¡°Well, I can¡¯t use a barrier that will keep everyone out of the city, or everyone in. We need to make this barrier special. It needs to have a way to alert us if a specific persones into the city. We will have a notification device that will tell us when hees near. I know that, when ites down to everything, Orson is going to try to attack us here, at the castle. We need to protect ourselves, the citizens in thepound, and the citizens that live in neighboring Trinity Falls. He will definitely put those two together and know that they are all super naturals.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I agree.¡± Aunt Glory said in her soft and sweet voice. ¡°We need to protect all of our people. We have a lot of Fae that are living in Trinity Falls. They came here so that they could have more freedom in the world, we need to protect that for them now.¡±


    ¡°Agreed. I am sorry, sincerely, to all of you. This whole reveal was my fault.¡±


    ¡°No. It wasn¡¯t your fault, Queen Trinity.¡± Dn hung his head in shame. ¡°It was Orson, and the rest of us. We were investigating you. We knew that something was off with all of you, and Orson wanted to expose you. I didn¡¯t stop him, and I should have. You did what you needed to. If you hadn¡¯t revealed yourselves first, then you likely would have ended up being persecuted even more. The world would have been unprepared for all of you. All of your people would have been treated as viins. What you did was for the best, and I apud you for knowing that from the beginning. You did the right thing.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Dn. I appreciate that.¡± Having him, a human, tell me that it was the best course of action, helped to settle some of the guilt that I had been carrying around. And add to that the fact that he used to be against us, that made the whole thing even more ttering andforting.


    ¡°Alright, moving on,¡± Reece cleared his throat and brought us back once again, ¡°Talia, you can project your soul that easily? And you can do it right now? Is there anything that you need before we start?¡±


    ¡°Just afortable ce to sit ory down. My body doesn¡¯t exactly work when my soul leaves it. It would be best for me all around if I had a ce to be protected.¡±


    ¡°I can get you a pillow, Talia, you cany here next to me.¡± Alexio was already on his feet.


    ¡°I will get the pillow, you stay here.¡± Rudy was already running out of the office. He was the more subservient of the two. In a way, it was like he knew that he wasn¡¯t, and never would be, Talia¡¯s primary guard. Alexio was the one that took over and handled almost everything, he had done that since she was little. He knew that he was caring for their future Queen, and he was determined to make sure that things were as perfect as possible.


    ¡°Alright, while he is doing that, I will call the others and tell them to be ready. They can get ready toe here after Talia is done with soul projection. I do not want to dy that at all. It¡¯s best to know as much as we possibly can right now. Then we will work on the defense of the city. We want to make sure that no one gets hurt. No humans and no super naturals.¡±


    ¡°That is something that I admire about you, Queen Trinity.¡± This time when he spoke, Dn rose to his feet.


    ¡°I am sorry, what is?¡± I was confused about his words, but I didn¡¯t look at him too much at that moment. Reeselynn was finished with her meal, so I had to take care of her for a moment. It only took a second to get my shirt back into position, then I ced the nket over my left shoulder and side of my chest so that I could burp her and cradle her. I hadn¡¯t had much time with her, and as a mother to a new baby, I wanted this bonding time. Even with her being done with the meal, I likely wouldn¡¯t hand her off to someone for a while. Not now that she was here in my arms again. I loved her, I loved all of my children, and nothing beat snuggling with them and feeling that closeness to them.


    ¡°The way that you want to protect everyone. You want to make sure that no one at all is hurt. No humans and no super naturals. You¡¯re not just concerned about your people, but about all the people in the world. That is a wonderful thing, Queen Trinity. I hope you know that. You are exceptionally amazing in many ways, but if I had to assign a trait that makes you go above and beyond what anyone was to ever expect, this would be it.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Dn. That is quite ttering.¡± I gave him a kind smile. ¡°Now, there is something that I would like you to do. Don¡¯t worry, it isn¡¯t anything bad.¡±


    ¡°Of course, just let me know how I may help.¡±


    ¡°Call Dayton, and have hime here to the meeting with us all. And your boss too, the director that was there with himst night. I think that a united front against Orson will be our best option here.¡±


    ¡°Understood. I will call them right away.¡± He was already on his feet, heading toward the door as another set of footsteps came running back toward us. It was Rudy, I had already picked up on his scent.


    ¡°It seems that we can get started soon.¡± I rose to my feet, still cradling Reeselynn in my arms. I was a Queen with magic, I was more than capable of carrying her and working at the same time. That is likely why the others didn¡¯t step in to take her from me. ¡°I will call Leelin and Crawford to have them get ready. Athair m¨°r, can you contact the Fae Magician? After I make the call to Crawford, he can contact the others for me. I want everyone that is going to help ready to leave in an hour. We need to get a move on with this barrier.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I will call them now.¡± Athair m¨°r nodded. ¡°We will make sure that the barrier is perfect, Trinity. There is nothing to worry about.¡±


    Dn stepped out of the room and started to make his call. At the same time, Athair m¨°r stepped to the corner next to the window and began contacting the people that were on his list. Me, I wasn¡¯t able to connect mentally to the Witches and Warlocks like I could the Shifters, it wasn¡¯t as effective. So, I pulled my phone from my pocket and pressed the button to call the leader of the Aerie Convento. The council of the Witches and Warlocks was still running strong in their mansion in the mountains. They would be willing to help, of that I was sure. They had no reason to say no to their Queen after all.

 Chapter 1140 - 1140 Chapter 125- Talia – Soul Projection Part 1 (VOLUME 6)

    1140 Chapter 125- Talia ¨C Soul Projection Part 1 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    When I had brought my new baby sister to my mom, I hadn¡¯t thought that I would get wrapped up in the meeting that was going on. Reagan and Rika were already in the meeting, sitting quietly in the back with the other kids that were over eighteen. I had seen them, Alyssa, Alexandria, Rowan, na, Cypress, Beech, Ashle, Elias, they were all there, and they were looking at me with wide eyes.


    I didn¡¯t expect to offer the assistance like I had. It was just something that I was able to do, so I knew that I needed to help my parents out. Thankfully, when I looked at my siblings, I didn¡¯t see any animosity in their eyes. Actually, the looks in their eyes were quite surprising to me.


    When I looked at my sister and brother, and all the others that happened to have their eyes trained on me, they looked impressed and a little envious. They looked like they were happy for me to be included the way that I was, and that they wanted to be up there with me, showing how powerful they were.


    While my mom was calling the Warlocks and Witches that she wanted to help us, and the others were making their calls as well, I was about to head over to where my guards, Alexio and Rudy were. I was intercepted though. As I walked from the head of the table to where my guards were, Reagan and Rika, and all the others, rushed to me in a frenzy.


    ¡°Talia?¡± Rika said with a smile as she hugged me. ¡°You¡¯re going to get to help mom out so much. I am so jealous of you.¡± She said jealous, but she looked more excited. They all did.


    ¡°We are leagues behind you, Talia. You¡¯ve done so much for the kingdom already. Don¡¯t worry, we n to carry our weight soon enough.¡± na smiled at me. ¡°You¡¯re amazing though. I mean, who knew that you could do something like soul projecting? Then again, that was how you were telling the future while we were all dealing with the Jaegan.¡± She noted with a smile. ¡°You¡¯re awesome, little cuz.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Thank you, na.¡±


    She had hugged me while she was praising me, so I felt the need to be extra polite. I was feeling a little overwhelmed though. I had thought that the older kids weren¡¯t too happy about me and all the work that I had done for my parents over thest several months. However, it would seem that I was wrong. They were happy for me. They were treating me like I was someone to look up to, to aspire to be like. That was strange to me as well, since they were all older than I was.


    ¡°We¡¯re going to pay close attention while you are soul projecting. Maybe it¡¯s possible that more people could learn it too.¡± Cypress told me with a grin.


    ¡°I guess that it¡¯s possible. Mr. Amadeus said that it has been done in the past, but I don¡¯t know much about those people. I know that I have an affinity for soul magic though.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I know.¡±


    Cypress started to get hyper at that. He went on a big spiel about how I had ripped the soul out of the leader of the Ancient Ones. That had been a moment with mixed emotions for me. I had just seen my dad and Alexio get hurt and nearly die. I had a lot of rage and anger that coursed through me, and I had no other choice but to do everything that I could to end that fight. He didn¡¯t seem willing to listen to that though, he was insisting that it was the greatest feat in the world.


    ¡°No, I know that it was hard for you, but you were still amazing. You are the reason that we won that fight, and now you¡¯re helping out again.¡± He was still talking so excitedly, and all I wanted to do was get over to Alexio and Rudy. They were waiting for me.


    I think that Alexio had sensed my emotions about the situation. He stood, called out to me in a loud and booming voice that cut off what Cypress was about to say next.


    ¡°Talia, you should hurry over here. We need to get ready.¡± I saw the look in his eyes. It was half anger and half worry. He knew that I was notfortable with them surrounding me and he was trying to protect me. Mostly, it wasn¡¯t the people that made me feel strange, it was the adoration. They were praising me for something that I had done, and I didn¡¯t know how to respond to that. I guess I had more insecurities than I realized.


    Taking the out that Alexio had given me, I celebrated on the inside and hurried away from the others.


    ¡°Sorry, I have to get ready. Thank you though, I am d that you¡¯re not angry with me.¡± I gave them a smile and rushed away. Still, I heard them behind me, Cypress and Ashle sounded surprised.


    ¡°Angry? Why would we be angry?¡± Cypress asked in a confused tone.


    ¡°I think that she is worried that we are jealous of her, envious really, and that we wish it was us getting to do more. We may want more to do here, but in a way, I am d to have been spared. The things that Talia has been through are not easy tasks. She¡¯s seen things that would give any of us nightmares.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, she is really amazing, but I am not in a hurry to do everything that she has done. I am willing to train more and prepare myself for that time. I am not ready yet, but I will be someday.¡±


    I felt a little more empowered after hearing that. Maybe I didn¡¯t need to be so worried about this after all. Everything was fine, and they weren¡¯t angry with me for having more work than they did.


    ¡°Are you alright, Talia?¡± Alexio asked when I was standing right in front of him.


    ¡°Yes, I am.¡± I smiled and nodded. ¡°I was a little overwhelmed when they all circled me, even though I have grown up with them all, but I am OK. Thank you though, you helped me by calling me over.¡±


    ¡°Of course. I could tell that you were distressed.¡± He was looking at me then, right into my eyes. He was seeing me for who I really was.


    ¡°Thank you, Lex.¡± I felt like hugging him for that consideration, but that would have been out of ce. I had no real reason to hug him right now. So, I just moved on and sat in the chair next to his. He didn¡¯t say anything else about the moment, taking his original seat and pulling me closer as he always did. We weren¡¯t in danger at the moment, but he was always protecting me.


    Just then, my mom came back from her calls. Athair m¨°r had already returned to his seat and that human man, Dn, was sitting once again as well.


    ¡°The Warlocks and Witches will be here in one hour, I will open a door for them.¡±


    ¡°The Magicians are getting ready, if you can open a door for them as well, they will be here when you need them.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good. Dn, send a message to Dayton, tell him that I will open the door when I am ready for them. They can leave from the Director¡¯s office.¡± My mom started to direct them on what to do. She was always so poised andposed, even when she just had a baby less than twelve hours ago and she was holding that baby in front of everyone here. It was like she was some sort of super woman.


    ¡°Will do.¡± That was all that Dn had to say, but I didn¡¯t me him.


    I watched on as my mom returned to her seat next to my dad. She was holding little Reeselynn in her arms as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Honestly, I think she was gaining some sort offort from having the baby with her. I didn¡¯t me her, these were tense times, and we all needed something to calm us down during it all.


    ¡°Talia, sweetheart, are you ready to project your soul?¡± Mom asked in a calm and motherly tone. She was trying not to scare me, but I wasn¡¯t afraid, not of this.


    ¡°Yes, I am ready. I will do my best to send back real time updates to you, but that is a little more difficult than just getting there and looking around.¡±


    ¡°Real time updates?¡± Alexio asked from next to me.


    ¡°By that I mean that I will try to speak to you all while I am projecting my soul, it¡¯s hard to do though. I won¡¯t have a soul in my body that is conscious, so it will be a little hard to make my body respond tomands. I¡¯m working on it though. Real time information is needed in times like this.¡±


    ¡°Just do what you can.¡± Dad was speaking to me encouragingly. I knew that both of my parents were worried about me, and the same went for almost everyone else in the room.


    ¡°Will do.¡±


    I let Lex help me get ready for the projection. He actually put the pillow on the table and helped me toy on top of that, so that everyone could see me when I was going to be out of myself.


    ¡°Mr. Dn?¡± I called out to the man.


    ¡°Yes?¡± He was shocked by the address I gave him.


    ¡°Please tell me where those caves are. I need to know so that I am not running around and looking for them.¡±


    ¡°Oh, yes.¡± He nodded at me and started to describe where they were. They were in the foothills of the mountains that weren¡¯t too far from where they had been stationed before. He described the entrance and the approximate location of where they were. I was pretty sure that I would have been able to find it with no problem.


    Laying on the table, I rested my head on the pillow. Lex, being the kind guard that he was, took hisrge leather jacket and draped it over me. He was so much bigger than I was that it was like a nket.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± I smiled at him, but he just nodded in return.


    Now that I wasying on the table, I closed my eyes and started to think about the process of soul projecting. I had to clear my mind of anything and everything that wasn¡¯t part of my task at hand. I had to feel myself letting go of my material and physical being. I had to free my soul from the confines of my mortal body.


    That was the easy part. I was used to this process, even though it was a bit more difficult with a room full of people watching me. I managed it though, and I could feel that telltale sign of my souling free of my body.


    Now that I was about to leave the vessel, it was time for me to travel rapidly to where I needed to be. I thought hard about the caves that I needed to go to. I pictured the entrance that Mr. Dn had described to me. I recited the coordinates in my mind. And finally, when I was sure that I was going to end up where I wanted to be, I let my soul soar through the cosmos and to the location that awaited me.


    This was always an interesting process, all things considered. I could feel my soul flying over thend, and when I opened my eyes, I saw the scenery shing past me like it was moving at hyper speed.


    I always thought that I was moving too fast, going too far, and that I would overshoot my destination. Every time that I had traveled like this, it was the same. It was like the blurs were shing past me so quickly that I would wind up on the moon if I wasn¡¯t careful.


    I could see the castle, then the city flying by. The scenery was still familiar, even if it was a blur. This part of the journey was familiar to me already. I had seen these things in my previous excursions, so I was used to watching these things sh past me. It was when I was out of the city, flying northeast, that things started to change a little.


    I watched as cities, houses, trees, cars and so much more zoomed by in a blur that made it so that all I could see was a streaky, vaguely shaped blur. The first few times that I had flown through the air as just a soul like this, it had made me feel nauseated, but that was all in my mind. A soul can¡¯t get sick, only the mortal body. I was fine, and when I realized that, I started to worry less. Now, I was just fine with traveling like this, no matter the distance that I would travel.

 Chapter 1141 - 1141 Chapter 126- Talia – Soul Projecting Part 2 (VOLUME 6)

    1141 Chapter 126- Talia ¨C Soul Projecting Part 2 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Talia


    ~~


    Finally, my flight through the blurry cosmos came to an end. I didn¡¯tnd, not really. I just sort of came to a stop and stood in front of the ce that I had been intending to go. This was how it usually went when I traveled long distances. If I didn¡¯t have a destination in mind, I would have had to walk the entire way. And that was fine when I was just exploring the forest around the castle. It was not good when you needed to travel hundreds of miles away.


    The ce that I was facing looked a lot like what Mr. Dn had described. I could see the opening to the caves in the distance, mostly hidden behind arge boulder that had been pushed in front of it. I could tell that this wasn¡¯t where the boulder had been before.


    In my honest opinion, that man, Orson, was an idiot. It was tantly obvious that this ce had been used recently, and that the boulder had been moved at least fifty feet. The trail that it left on the ground was easy to see, and I just couldn¡¯t imagine what they were thinking, if they were even thinking at all.


    ¡°I am here.¡± I said out loud, hoping that my body was responding to my soul. ¡°I see where they moved the boulder to block the entrance. It was easy to see.¡± Of course, I wouldn¡¯t be able to hear the others back at the castle. That would have been impossible. ¡°I am going to go inside now, to see if they are still there.¡±


    There was no need to hesitate or take things slow. I knew that there was almost no human in the world that could detect me. There were some though, that I knew for a fact, but they were rare. Like that Dr. Brown from California. She had seen me take the soul out of a corpse, and she had seen the soul. She had the gift of sight. I was sure that she would have been able to see me. However, there weren¡¯t many that could do it.


    The boulder was only partially blocking the opening to the cave, and even though I could have walked through the boulder, I didn¡¯t like doing that. Instead, I moved in a way that would have allowed me to fit through the space between the cave wall and the boulder. It was morefortable for me that way. Mentally at least.


    .....


    The first thing that I noticed on the ground was hundreds of sets of footprints. The second thing that I noticed on the ground, was about six dead bodies that were scattered not far from the entrance. The blood had long since soaked into the ground, they had definitely been dead for a while.


    ¡°What the hell?¡± I looked at the bodies in shock and disgust. ¡°There are six dead bodies here at the cave entrance. They look like they were shot in the back as they were running away. Why would that man, Orson, do this to his own people? Does he have no respect for them at all?¡± My heart ached for these people. They might not deserve my pity, but they didn¡¯t deserve to be shot in the back that way either. They had been running away from someone or something when they were killed.


    I had to step past them, and even though I knew that the blood on the ground wouldn¡¯t affect me, not usually, I made sure that I stepped around it. I had been on a soul projectingst year, when the Jaegan sent the vision to me. At that time, I hade back covered in blood and needed to be taken to the shower by Alexio. I hadn¡¯t been able to stop screaming in fear at that time. I was inplete shock.


    Yes, it was best to avoid the blood, just to be on the safe side. Stepping past the dead bodies and the blood, I walked further inside the caves. The ce seemed to be deserted. There were no people, no furniture, no sign that they were using this ce for anything at all. Aside from the footprints and the dead bodies, there was no sign of actual usage of the cave at all.


    Still, I needed to keep looking. I had to see if they left anything behind. There had to be proof of something. This couldn¡¯t all be for nothing.


    ¡°I am searching the rest of the cave now. I will make sure that I don¡¯t miss anything. If there is something here, I will find it.¡± I was narrating what I was doing for the benefit of the others. At least I hoped that it was for their benefit. I didn¡¯t know if they were able to hear me or not.


    ¡°The main part of the cave, the big open cavern past the entry tunnel, ispletely empty. There is nothing here, not even a scrap of paper or shred of clothing. I am going to follow the other tunnels now.¡± I told them and magically, I was able to see even in the dark. That was something that I always found to be helpful. Ever since Mr. Amadeus taught me this trick, I use it to light up the dark for me when I am on these excursions of mine.


    There looked to be four tunnels that branched off from the main cavern. I started on the far left, nning to make my way to the right. The first tunnel led to a small rounded cavern that was barely big enough for me to turn around in, there was nothing and no one hiding in there.


    Moving on toward the next tunnel in line, I saw that this one was longer with two branches on either side. The left branch ended in a dead end,, while the right one circled back around to the main cavern. It was the third tunnel that branched off from the main cavern.


    There was only one tunnel left for me to search. I wasn¡¯t going to hold my breath though. This ce was not that big. Then again, how did they get so many people in here if it wasn¡¯t that big? I knew that the DOE had hundreds if not thousands of members, how did they all fit in here?


    The fourth and final tunnel was longer and led much further in. I followed it for at least fifty feet before it branched out into arger opening than the original cavern. This part of the cave was huge and, forck of a better word, cavernous. The ce would have had no problem fitting at least a thousand people. There were natural formations all around that made for seats as well. It was quite the amazing find, but not the mostfortable.


    I searched the entire cavern that I was in now, there were only two other tunnels that led off of this space. And there was evidence that the others had been here as well. For one thing, I saw two more dead bodies. That man must have shot them here before the others started to run away from him. They had run from here through the tunnels toward the opening, but they hadn¡¯t made it in time. He had got to them, and he had killed them all.


    ¡°Eight total dead so far. There is blood all over this room as well. Whatever happened, the man went crazy. He is clearly not in his right mind.¡± I told the others back at the castle. ¡°He kills people without thinking about it, that is a dangerous man.¡±


    I knew that I needed to check the two tunnels that led off this cavern, but I needed to check every detail here as well. I needed to make sure that I didn¡¯t miss anything at all. I looked at the ground, the ceiling of the cave, the walls, everything, but there was nothing to see.


    The first tunnel that I checked, also to the left, ended in a small area like the other one that I had found. It was another dead end, but they had used it for theirtrine. For however long they had been here, the people had pissed and shit in this tiny little area. I was immensely happy that I could block my senses when I was just my soul. Otherwise, with my heightened wolf senses, I might have vomited when the stench hit me. As it was, I shut off my second shot of smell the moment that the smell became noticeable.


    The other tunnel that led off from this area was short and opened into a moderate sized space. This was the first piece of furniture that I had seen in here. That and a battery powered light that was almost deadying on its side. This area had been set up to look much like an office. There was a map on the wall and a desk in the middle of the ¡®room¡¯.


    I walked toward the desk, but there were no papers there. They hadn¡¯t been here long enough for that. Walking to the cave wall where there was a map, I saw that there was a red dot that clearly marked Colorado Springs. And all around it, there were stab and sh marks. Written above the red dot and shes were red letters that were written in a very unstable hand. ¡®SOON¡¯ was written in what looked like blood. It wasn¡¯t the red of the marker that had dotted the city, this was blood that the deranged Orson had gotten from the men that he had killed.


    The sight of the map on the wall made my blood run cold. Seeing it made me feel like the man was still here in this cave, his knife and gun still in hand. And I could imagine that he was snarling and frothing at the mouth. He would look feral, rabid, and very crazy. He would have pale and sallow skin, wiry hair, and just the sight of him would scare little children. I could see it all clearly in my mind¡¯s eye, even though he wasn¡¯t here. He was that crazy, and he was after my people, my family, my city.


    ¡°We need to stop him, Mom. We can¡¯t let him do whatever it is that he is nning.¡±


    I knew that my time here in the cave was done. I needed to go home. I had to get out of there and back to my body. I closed my eyes again and reached out ethereally. I reached for my body and sensed it in the distance. No matter how far away from my body I would travel, I could always find home because the body calls for the soul.


    Feeling that strong connection to my body, I let it pull me back like a rubber band snapping into ce. Traveling home was always quicker than going somewhere else. It was almost instantaneous. I barely needed to see any of those dizzying blurs that always seemed so disconcerting when traveling to a different location. This was like just waking up from a dream, it was that fast.


    ¡°Talia?¡± I heard Alexio call out to me as I opened my eyes.


    ¡°I am back, Lex. There is nothing to worry about.¡± The relief was clear in his eyes when he heard me speak. ¡°Were you all able to hear me? Did you hear about what I found?¡± I asked as Rudy helped me into a sitting position.


    I could tell already, judging by the looks on their faces. They had all heard what I said. They all seemed to be somber and worried. They knew what was happening already. Still, Mom answered me.


    ¡°We heard.¡± Her voice was thick and filled with worry. ¡°That man is unstable. I don¡¯t know why he is the way that he is, but I have a hard time believing that it is just because of us. I mean, how could all of thise about just because we¡¯re not human? How could this set him off so much? How?¡± I knew how she felt. I was the one that had been there, I was the one that had seen what he had done. I knew for myself that he was insane and that he was after us.


    Mom knew it too though. She was the one that had been dealing with this man since he started to threaten usst year. He was the reason for everything that was happening. If only he had let it go, if he hadn¡¯t threatened us after the Jaegan incident, then we would all be fine. No, he was definitely unstable and needed to be dealt with.


    ¡°Mom?¡± I called out to her, hoping to settle her nerves a little.


    ¡°Yes, sweetheart?¡± She gave me a smile and tried to hide what she was really thinking. Those that weren¡¯t used to her expressions might have been fooled, but I wasn¡¯t.


    ¡°We will get him. I know that we will. We won¡¯t let him hurt anyone else. I will help you. We will all help you.¡± I made the solemn promise to her, knowing that I needed to follow through with it no matter what.

 Chapter 1142 - 1142 Chapter 127- Trinity – What to do About the Colonel Part 3 (VOLUME 6)

    1142 Chapter 127- Trinity ¨C What to do About the Colonel Part 3 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I had listened in on Talia¡¯s soul projection. We had all listened in. We had heard what she said about the boulder that had obviously been moved in an attempt to conceal the cave. She had told us about the dead bodies that were gathered at the entrance of the cave. They had been killed while trying to run away and save themselves. We heard all the details about the ce that she had gone to. All the details.


    The most ominous by far was the office that the man had set up there. He had only had them create this one room. That office for him with a desk and a map that showed Colorado Springs. And that map had been disfigured and mangled by the Colonel after what had happened at the NSA office and the other tunnels the night before. He had lost his mind, more than he had already lost it.


    We weren¡¯t just dealing with a man anymore. We were dealing with a human monster. A man that had no problem killing his own people because he was angry at us, at me. He was the worst sort of man that I could think of. A man that felt like nothing could stop him and that he had nothing to lose. He hadpletely lost touch with reality.


    No, what was worse, he was inventing his own reality to make it fit his delusions. He was so far gone that there was no way to reason with him. He would do anything that he needed to do just so that he could stop us. He treated us like we were an active and hostile threat, when all we¡¯ve ever done is try to help people and live our lives. To him, we were monsters, enemies, demons that needed to be erased from existence. And just hearing about what he had done was making it that much worse.


    ¡°We will get him. I know that we will. We won¡¯t let him hurt anyone else. I will help you. We will all help you.¡± Hearing those words from Talia as she looked across the room at me made my heart want to smile. Knowing that she, and everyone else in the room, were willing to help me stop this mad man made things a lot easier for me. I knew that I needed to do all that I could to protect the people of this city.


    I knew that the Colonel, Harrison Orson, was going to target the city. I didn¡¯t know if he was going to target the entire city, or just parts of it. Was heing after the castle and thepound? Or was he going to try to drop a nuke on us or something? I didn¡¯t know what he was capable of, and that was what made him that much more frightening.


    .....


    ¡°I know you will, baby girl.¡± I gave Talia the smile that I always did, but this time I meant it. This time I felt better about what was going to happen. I had her, Reece, my guards, and all the rest of the people in this room to help me. And on top of that, I had billions of people in mymunity that would be willing to put an end to the bloodshed and hatred. They were there for me, just as I was there for them.


    ¡°We don¡¯t have time to waste.¡± Athair m¨°r rose from his seat at the table. ¡°We should bring the others here now. It¡¯s been nearly an hour after all.¡± He looked at his watch and I moved to do the same. Then I remember that I was holding Reeselynn, still sleeping, in my arms. Seeing her tiny, peaceful face made me know even more, I had to stop that man. I had to protect my people and my family. I had to protect this tiny little baby, and all the other tiny babies in this city.


    ¡°Yes, I agree. I will open the doors now.¡± I rose to my feet and handed Reeselynn off to Reece. He looked at her tiny little face, with a smile on his as he bonded with her. He was already so in love with her, even though it hadn¡¯t been that long since she was born, and he hadn¡¯t held her too much. He still loved that tiny baby just as much as I did.


    I didn¡¯t hesitate now that I was on my feet. I conjured the three doors at the same time. I opened them to the ces that I knew the others would be. The Warlocks and Witches were all waiting at the main hall in the Aerie Conveto. The Fae were waiting in the square outside of their castle. And Dayton was in his director¡¯s office in the NSA building. We had researched them enough when all of this startedst year, that I already knew the entirey of thend. I knew where everything was without even having to think about it.


    Within seconds, the doors had materialized and were glowing in the room. They were so bright that they made the previously well-lit room seem dim byparison. Not that it mattered, it would all go back to normal soon enough.


    The first door opened immediately. Coming through that side were the magic users that Crawford had assembled to help me. The second door opened but no one came through it at first. The third door openedst, but people flooded through in groups of two. The Fae.


    ¡°What the hell!? I have seen these on TV before, but this is insane.¡± I heard a man¡¯s voice from the other side of the middle door. This was the one that went to the NSA office.


    ¡°It¡¯s OK, Director Glick. Queen Trinity opened the door so that we could travel to her office without needing to drive. This is much quicker.¡± Dayton was doing his best to settle the man¡¯s nerves.


    ¡°Good morning, Director Glick.¡± Dn called toward the door. ¡°It is OK. I traveled through the doorst night. It doesn¡¯t hurt at all.¡±


    ¡°West!?¡± Director Glick called out toward the door. ¡°You can hear me?¡±


    ¡°We all can, Sir.¡± Dn told him. ¡°Come on through. We have a lot to discuss with you.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, yeah, I know. This is just so strange. I am not refusing toe over, I am just worried, that is all.¡±


    ¡°Please do not be worried, Director Glick.¡± I spoke to him calmly. ¡°We have learned some things that we need to discuss with you. Please, step through and let us talk face to face.¡±


    ¡°Is that Trinity Gray?¡± He asked, not sure if he was hearing me properly.


    ¡°Yes. Please, step through so that we can close the door on this side. I will open another one to take you back to your officeter.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± He sounded a little calmer now at least. ¡°I aming through.¡±


    When he and Dayton stepped into the office, the other two doors had disappeared. Theirs was thest one at the time. They walked through at the same time and that was when I saw the look on Director Glick¡¯s face. He could tell that he was surrounded by people that weren¡¯t human.


    ¡°Good morning, Director Glick.¡± I held my hand out to him and was polite, but my face was showing the magnitude of what had happened earlier. I was sure that he thought that I was angry with him, but to his credit he didn¡¯t react to it at all.


    ¡°Good morning, Mrs. Gray.¡±


    ¡°Please, take a seat at the table. We have a lot that we need to go over.¡±


    ¡°You said that already. I will admit that I am curious to know what you mean.¡±


    ¡°We have more information about Harrison Orson, the man that calls himself the Colonel.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I have been brought up to speed by Agent Long recently. I know that he is the one behind the DOE. And that he killed that man in the videost night. He is clearly running rogue and a danger to others.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s killed more people.¡± Talia told him as she slid off the table and into her seat. ¡°There are at least eight more that he killedst night.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry youngdy, who are you?¡±


    ¡°That is my daughter, Talia. She has a rather unique ability that allowed her to check on a few things for us.¡±


    ¡°An ability?¡±


    ¡°Yes. She has been perfecting it recently. She can project her soul and see other locations. She used the ability to check out the caves that Dn told us about. He said they were Orson¡¯s backup location. However, they seem to have fled from there already. They¡¯ve moved onto another ce.¡±


    ¡°And you believe that he killed eight more people?¡± Director Glick didn¡¯t look convinced yet.


    ¡°I know that he did.¡± Talia told him. ¡°I saw their bodies, their blood soaking into the ground. He shot six of them as they were running away.¡±


    ¡°My God.¡± The director seemed truly appalled. ¡°I didn¡¯t know that Orson was this far gone when he took over the search for the DOE. Nor did I think that he was the one that started the whole thing. And as for you!¡± He turned to face Dn at that moment. ¡°You joined him. You and the others.¡±


    ¡°The others were a part of it from the beginning. I mostly followed Orson because I didn¡¯t know what else to do. Immediately though, I knew that he was off his rocker and that he needed to be stopped. I am sorry, Sir. I know that I should have stopped him and contacted you sooner. I just couldn¡¯t though. He was bing crazier and crazier by the minute. I felt like if I did anything to stop him, he would kill me. I did enlist the help of Queen Trinity here. I asked for her assistance, knowing that her people wouldn¡¯t be as easily killed.¡±


    ¡°So, you knew that he was crazy? That he was capable of killing people?¡±


    ¡°Yes Sir, I am sorry that I didn¡¯t stop him sooner.¡±


    ¡°You will face disciplinary action over this, West.¡± Glick looked at him angrily. ¡°Still, you did try to rectify the situation. That will go in your favor. If we can stop Orson before he does anything too serious, you might not be fired. You will be sanctioned though. And you will have this in your record for the rest of your career.¡±


    ¡°I understand.¡± Dn took the words as a statement of fact. He knew that he was going to get in trouble, so there was no need to argue. That showed that he took responsibility for his actions. That spoke a lot about the type of man that he was, and I was happy to know him because of that.


    The neers sat at the table and looked up at the head of the table, where Reece and I were now sitting with Reeselynn in her daddy¡¯s arms. She hadn¡¯t been taken away yet, and she wouldn¡¯t be for a little while still. We needed her. Not for the meeting, but Reece and I needed her with us.


    Over the next few minutes, I exined to Dayton, Glick, and the others what had been happening. I told them about the man that was behind all of this and what he was nning on doing. I exined to them what I wanted to do so that we could protect the people of the city. I exined how the city seems to be the target of whatever attack that Orson was nning. We knew that he wasing, we just didn¡¯t know when.


    Understandably, the magic users and Fae immediately agreed to help me with the barrier. And after asking several questions about whether or not this barrier would stop people froming and going in the city. After I settled his worries, telling him that it would not stop people from moving around the city, or in and out of the city, he seemed to settle down about the issue.


    ¡°As long as the people won¡¯t be affected by this barrier, I don¡¯t think that I have a problem with it. I am not the highest authority in thend though, so there might be others that take it up with youter.¡±


    ¡°I am not worried, Director Glick.¡± I told him calmly. ¡°The barrier will be invisible. We don¡¯t want anyone to know that it is there. They will not see it and they will not feel it. The whole purpose is to let me know when Harrison Orson enters the city.¡±


    ¡°I can understand that. It would be helpful to know when such a dangerous enemy was nearby. I envy you for having that ability.¡± He smirked, almost as if he were thinking wistfully about a life with magical abilities.


    ¡°I hope that we can count on you, Director Glick. I would like for you to stand united with us when we face Orson. I know that if he saw that he had no other options, he might be desperate enough to do something truly bad, but if we are all there together, we might be able to stop him. That is my hope anyway.¡± I was giving him my most sincere voice, letting him know that I waspletely serious about this situation. I hoped that it was working.


    ¡°I can understand that, Mrs. Gray. I also agree that we need to approach him together. We need to stop him, and if we know where he is going, then we need to be there before he is. So, to answer your question, yes, you can count on me to be there with you. I am willing to work with you. On one condition though.¡± He paused and gave me a knowing look. ¡°I need to be involved in everything that is happening from here on out. I will be present when that barrier goes into effect. And I will set up shop nearby so that I can monitor the situation. We will all work together to stop ourmon enemy.¡±


    ¡°That is fine with me. We want to put an end to this as soon as we can. And we can offer you a space here at the castle. We have more than enough room.¡±


    ¡°That will work for me. I will head back to the office and to my home for some clothes. Long, West, you two are working with me on this. We will stop this madman that tarnished our good reputation.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Sir.¡± The two men said at the same time.


    With all of that set in stone, it was time for us to move on. We needed to get the barrier started. We needed to have the three new NSA additions to the team gather their things from Denver, and we needed to find Harrison Orson. He was out there somewhere, and the sooner we found him and stopped him, the better. There would be less bloodshed when he was captured and ced behind bars. The humans and the super naturals alike would be safer with him out of the picture.


    This was alling down to the wire. I knew that it wouldn¡¯t be too much longer before it all came to the final showdown, wherever and whenever that might be, it was going to be happening soon. Looking at Reeselynn once more as she slept in Reece¡¯s arm, I was once again reminded of how much I needed to protect in this world.

 Chapter 1143 - 1143 Chapter 128- Reagan – The Future (VOLUME 6)

    1143 Chapter 128- Reagan ¨C The Future (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reagan


    ~~


    Well, that was an exciting meeting. Mom, Dad, Talia, the director from that NSA office showing up, so much had happened, and it hadn¡¯t even been that long of a meeting. At most two hours, if that. It is over now though, and time for us to move on.


    Mom was going to be going with the other magic users and Fae to put up a barrier around the city. Dad was, of course, going with her. And that meant that little Reeselynn was going to be here with us. Nona and L were here as well, but as the older siblings, I know that Rika and I could handle things. We had been just fine with the quads when they were younger. Granted, we were only eight when they were born. Now we were neen and a lot more mature and responsible.


    I was sitting with the baby in the living room, looking down at her face and the peacefulness that she seemed to emanate. I knew that I was being sentimental, but I didn¡¯t care there was just something about her, something that was so calm and perfect.


    ¡°Hey, what are you doing?¡± Rika asked as she came into the room. I had sensed hering, so she hadn¡¯t surprised me at all.


    ¡°Just looking at her face. She is so calming and serene. Do you think it¡¯s like an innate ability of hers or something?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. It¡¯s been a while since we were around babies like this. And even then, we were too young to sense something like this. It could just be a baby thing.¡±


    .....


    ¡°Maybe.¡± I nodded my head at her words, still looking at the sleeping baby. ¡°Do you ever think about it?¡±


    ¡°It? And what would that be, knucklehead? I can¡¯t read minds, so iplete sentences are not going to cut it with me.¡± Sheughed at me, and I realized that I hadn¡¯t finished my thoughts properly.


    ¡°Do you ever think about the future? Who our mates will be. What our children will be like. What life in general will be like. Do you ever think about those things?¡±


    ¡°Sometimes.¡± She admitted, causing me to look up into her face. She was my sister, my twin, I had shared the womb with her, and therefore I knew pretty much all there was to know about her. And it also meant that I could tell when she was upset, like she was now.


    ¡°What is wrong?¡± I asked her, not knowing why she was so sad all of a sudden.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. It¡¯s hard to say. I mean, when everything started in the fall, when we started at the university, I thought that I had met my mate. The way that the stuff with Clovio was going, I thought for sure that he was my mate. And there was something about that time, with all that was happening, that made me feel like my wolf was recognizing my mate. Still, she never told me for sure that I actually had met them. I don¡¯t know why, but it¡¯s like my wolf has been silent, like she¡¯s been ignoring me or something.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± I thought about it, about my wolf. ¡°I don¡¯t talk to mine, not really, but I know that he is there. I know that he is looking for his mate and that we will find her when the time is right. He doesn¡¯t ignore me though. He is there, always present at the back of my mind.¡± I exined to her what it was like with my wolf.


    ¡°Oh, I know what you mean. And I can sense mine as well, but it¡¯s like her presence is lessened. Even when I shift, it¡¯s like she isn¡¯t all the way there. I don¡¯t know why, but my wolf has been ignoring metely. For a while really.¡±


    ¡°When did it start?¡± I asked her, curious to know how long she had been losing touch with her wolf.


    ¡°I don¡¯t really know. I think since right before we turned eighteen.¡±


    ¡°Over a year! Rika!¡± I couldn¡¯t believe what I was hearing. ¡°You¡¯ve been losing touch with your wolf for over a year? How could you keep that a secret?¡±


    ¡°She isn¡¯t gone. And I can still shift, so I know that she is there. It¡¯s not like I am losing touch with her. It¡¯s more like she has gone silent on me. I haven¡¯t heard her much over thest year or so. And I didn¡¯t tell anyone because I didn¡¯t want to make Mom and Dad worry about me. So please, Reagan, don¡¯t tell them.¡±


    ¡°Rika, this isn¡¯t good. You need to find out why she is ignoring you. You need to reconnect with your wolf.¡± I felt like it was me that was being affected by this, not her. I didn¡¯t like thinking that my sister was suffering like this. What was I going to do to help her? I was the older brother here, so it was up to me to fix this.


    ¡°I know.¡± She nodded at me. ¡°I will do what I can to reconnect with her, I promise. Only, I am going to wait until this whole issue is over. I don¡¯t want to be a bother while we have this issue with the DOE and that Orson guy. I will figure it all out soon, Reagan. I promise you.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯d better.¡± I narrowed my eyes at her before I looked back down at the baby in my arms. At least I didn¡¯t have to worry about Reeselynn at the moment. She wasn¡¯t going to have these troubles for a long time.


    While I was looking at the baby, Rika had been looking at me. She spoke after a long silence as well, not really startling me, but making me look up at her in shock, nheless.


    ¡°What about you?¡± That had been all that she said, but it took me by surprise.


    ¡°What do you mean, what about me?¡± I asked her, not sure what she was getting at.


    ¡°Do you think about those things? The future? Mates? Families? All that other stuff. You asked me about it, but you never said anything about it.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, you took me by surprise with yourment about not sensing your wolf. And, to be honest, yeah, I think about it a lot. I mean, we¡¯re the same age Mom was when she married Dad, so that means that you might find your mate really soon.¡±


    ¡°You too.¡± She pointed it out to me. ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t you find her now?¡±


    ¡°Well, Dad was older than Mom by a few years. I might have to wait until I am closer to his age for it to happen.¡±


    ¡°Does that make you sad?¡± She asked, and I didn¡¯t know how to answer that.


    ¡°Yes, and no.¡± I looked at her. I gave her my full attention. ¡°I want my mate, I know that it will make me happy to find her, but I don¡¯t think that I will be lonely without her. Not at the moment anyway. I know that I have time. And that she is out there. There is no reason for me to think that I will be alone forever.¡±


    ¡°Well, you could be like Uncle Dietrich. He was alone for over five hundred years before he met Uncle Shawn.¡±


    ¡°Ugh, don¡¯t tell me that.¡± I groaned at the words that Rika had just said. I didn¡¯t want to wait five hundred years to meet my mate.


    ¡°You know that if you did have to wait that long, like Uncle Dietrich did, you would just love her that much more. Whoever she will be, I know that she will be a lucky girl. You¡¯re a good guy, Reagan. I should know, I used to share a womb, and a bathtub with you.¡±


    ¡°Shush.¡± I made a face at her. ¡°I do not need to hear about that.¡± I pretended like it was a horrible memory for me. In reality, I remembered when we were toddlers too, and how we would always take a bath together. It was something that we had to argue with Mom and Dad with far too often. They wanted to stop them when we were three, but we held out for another year, bathing together until we were four.


    ¡°I know that waiting five hundred years seems like a long time, but the point here is that we are looking for our true loves. The other halves of our souls. We don¡¯t want to rush that and think that the wrong person is the one for us. Trust me, I know how that can feel.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± I looked at her tenderly, remembering the heartache she had felt before. I didn¡¯t want to see my sister suffering like that, never again.


    ¡°Besides, Reagan, I know that you won¡¯t take that long to find your mate. You¡¯re already halfway to the perfect man for whoever she is.¡±


    ¡°Halfway?¡± I narrowed my eyes at her.


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re clearly going to be a doting dad. Now you just need to grow a handsome face.¡±


    ¡°Hey!¡± I would have done something, given her a noogie, punched her arm, something, but I was holding Reeselynn and couldn¡¯t do that even if I wanted to. She justughed though, thinking that it was funny.


    ¡°Yeah, no wonder your wolf is ignoring you. You¡¯re such a child.¡± I joked with her.


    ¡°Yup, we both are. So don¡¯t rush it too much, bro. We will find them when the time is right.¡± She looked at me then with the baby in my arms. ¡°Besides, no offense to mom or anything, but I want to finish school before I have a baby.¡±


    ¡°She finished school, it was just amid running a kingdom and raising us.¡±


    ¡°Yes, and it was hard on her. I don¡¯t want that. I want to be done with school before I have a baby.¡±


    ¡°Understandable. I don¡¯t want to put my mate through that as well. I want her to do what is best for her.¡±


    ¡°Heh. Maybe you¡¯re at least seventy-five percent to being the perfect mate for your future girl. You¡¯ve got a good head on your shoulders.¡±


    ¡°Hardy har har.¡± I red at her. ¡°You¡¯re a damned riot today.¡±


    ¡°Watch your mouth, potty face. You¡¯ll corrupt our sweet little sister before she¡¯s even a day old.¡±


    ¡°Sometimes you really annoy me, you know that?¡± I narrowed my eyes at her, holding back the bulk of the stuff I wanted to say to her.


    ¡°Yes, I know this. That¡¯s because I am your twin and I know all your dirty little secrets.¡± She winked at me then and ran from the room. She was annoying at times, but I did love that moron. I had no other choice really, she was my twin.


    After Rika left the room, I looked at Reeselynn once more. I stared at her face, the softness of her cheeks, the soft golden red hair that covered the top of her head. She was perfect in every way.


    ¡°You know what, Reeselynn? I don¡¯t think that I would mind being a father. Whenever I meet my mate, we will have a family. When she is ready, of course. I don¡¯t want to rush her or anything.¡± Still, the idea of holding a baby that was mine, not just my little sister, brought a sense of pride to me that I had never felt before. ¡°You know what else, little sister? I am going to do my best to help take care of you. That way, when I be a daddy, I will know what I need to do. You¡¯re going to be my training baby. And you will be so spoiled by me, yes you will.¡± I whispered to the little baby in my arms, happy that no one was around to hear me saying those words. They were a little embarrassing.

 Chapter 1144 - 1144 Chapter 129- Trinity – The Barrier (VOLUME 6)

    1144 Chapter 129- Trinity ¨C The Barrier (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    After leaving the baby with Reagan, and giving instructions on what and how much to feed her, Reece and I left the castle with everyone that was going to be helping us erect the barrier. We needed to protect everyone that was in Colorado Springs and Trinity Falls.


    We knew that it would be a little too hard to put the barrier around the entire city. Not that it was toorge of a space, but that it would be hard to work with the humans all around us. So, we decided to go a little further away from town, in the empty space that was outside the city. The more in the middle of nowhere that we were, the less likely we were to be stopped by the humans and having them ask what it was that we were doing.


    I went with Director Glick, Dn, and Dayton, they were there to monitor what was happening. Reece went with Athair m¨°r and Aunt Glory, keeping them safe even though they were both powerful in their own right. The rest spread out in groups of twos and threes until we were able to form a rough circle around the two cities in question. We would keep all these people safe, no matter what was to happen.


    I started the barrier. As the one that was going to be the main user of the alert tool, I had to be the one to pour the most magic into it. Not only that, but I had more magic than most of them, so I was going to be pouring the most into it.


    They all knew the process and would start when they noticed my magic spreading around the perimeter. I was using them as markers as to where to send the magic into the distance. That was why they had spread out the way that they had.


    I didn¡¯t need to chant anything, I just needed to imagine what I was wanting to do. Most of my magic had improved over thest twenty years, and it was a lot easier to cast now than it had been in the beginning. I poured the magic into the line that the others had formed and instantly felt it starting to spread out.


    .....


    I could see the line in my mind. The map that I was making with the magic. It was forming like a picture drawn on paper. My mind¡¯s eye was following it so perfectly. I felt the moment that I got to Reece, Aunt Glory, and Athair m¨°r. Their presence felt so strong and powerful to me. I knew the moment that I reached them and started to draw the line to the next set of magic users.


    It took me perhaps ten minutes. A long time in the grand scheme of things, but not too long when you think about how far the magic needed to spread. Soon enough though, I was sensing myself with my magic,ing back up on where I started and closing the circle that I formed around the entire perimeter.


    Now that the basic line of the barrier was in ce, it was time for the others to get to work. Director Glick, having his phone on a conference call with the others, was waiting for my signal. He was going to tell them when it was time to begin.


    ¡°Now.¡± I told him the moment that the magic connected to itself, forming the circle.


    ¡°Trinity says it¡¯s time.¡± He spoke into the phone, telling the others to begin.


    I sensed the moment that they all started to pour their magic into the barrier. I could tell that they were adding their own brand of magic to the perimeter. It started to tingle and shimmer, but only faintly. It wasn¡¯t enough for Dn and Director Glick to see it, but I was sure that Dayton, with his heightened senses, could see that soft shimmer that meant that magic was in the air.


    It took even longer for the others to put their magic into the barrier and fill it with the spell that I had taught them. They needed to weave it perfectly with the base that I had already put forth. This part took at least thirty minutes of just standing there and waiting for the magic to be filled.


    Finally, after they had finished their task, it was time for me to do one more thing. I had to tie it all off, to bind the magic together and close the circle. I thought about the way that I wanted to be notified. I had a gold coin in my pocket, something that I would not spend, that actually had no mary value. It was a trinket I had gotten years before, and it was perfect to use for this purpose. I bound that coin to the magic in the barrier. I made sure that the moment that Orson crossed into the city at any point, I would be alerted right away. And not only that, but I would know instantly where he was. This was my little trick that I was adding to the whole thing.


    All in all, it took nearly an hour for the whole barrier to be set into ce. When it was done, there was a faint, yet audible, sound ofpletion. It sounded something like ¡®Schlink¡¯. A partially metallic sound of something falling into ce. I didn¡¯t know how else to describe it.


    ¡°Is that it?¡± Director Glick asked. He had heard the sound too, so he knew that it had finished.


    ¡°Yes. The barrier is finished.¡± I told him calmly, but I was starting to feel tired.


    ¡°And it won¡¯t stop people froming and going?¡± He asked, looking around and not seeing the barrier at all.


    ¡°No, it won¡¯t stop people. It isn¡¯t a solid or physical barrier. You can test it out if you want.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t even see it.¡± He said, admitting that there was a problem with testing it.


    ¡°I know, but walk five feet to your left and you will be past the barrier.¡± I told him, pointing in that direction.


    ¡°Alright.¡± He nodded and took the steps that I indicated. He wasn¡¯t stopped or hindered at all. ¡°I couldn¡¯t even feel the barrier. So, I guess that you¡¯re right. It won¡¯t stop people at all.¡±


    ¡°As I had said before. It will not stop anyone, just think of it as a giant rm system. And it¡¯s set to only go off when Orsones into the city.¡±


    ¡°Well, I have no reason to doubt you now, do I?¡± He grinned as he said that. ¡°You¡¯re quite special, Trinity Gray.¡±


    ¡°I am a lot of things, Director Glick, and right now what I am is exhausted.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t me you. After hearing that you just delivered that baby this morning and you¡¯re already out here erecting these magical barriers. You are making me tired just thinking about it.¡± He shook his head. ¡°Let¡¯s get that husband of yours over here and we can get you home.¡±


    ¡°I am already here.¡± Reece said as he ran up to me. ¡°I can sense how tired you are, Little Bunny. You need some rest.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± I smiled up at him. ¡°I put a lot into that barrier. I need to get home, feed the baby, and then go take a nap.¡±


    ¡°Yes, let¡¯s do that.¡± Reece swung me up into his arms. ¡°Come on now, sweetheart. I will carry you. Open a door, we will head home right now.¡± I did as he said, allowing all the others that were nearby to take the door with us. We ended up in the living room of the Royal Tower. I knew that this would result in the NSA being in my home, but I didn¡¯t care. I needed some sleep. And Dn had been there the night before, so there was no reason not to take them now.


    ¡°Mom?¡± Reagan was sitting in the living room, Reeselynn in his arms. ¡°Are you OK? You look so tired.¡±


    ¡°I am tired.¡± I smiled at him and the baby. ¡°I used a lot of magic today. I want to take a nap, but I will feed the baby first. Did she eat while I was gone?¡±


    ¡°No, I was just about to feed her, actually.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good. It means that I can nurse her.¡± I smiled at the little baby. ¡°Come here, Reeselynn.¡± Reagan handed her over.


    ¡°She was good, she didn¡¯t cry at all while you were away.¡±


    ¡°That means that she felt safe with her big brother.¡± I leaned away from Reece a little, still in his arms, and hugged my son. I didn¡¯t do this often enough, I forgot how much I liked hugging him.


    ¡°I am d that she is alreadyfortable with me.¡± He smiled down at the baby and I knew that he was happy that she was here. ¡°Go get some sleep, Mom. We will be fine down here for the time being.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Reagan.¡± He kissed my cheek before Reece carried me away. He was a good boy. I was so very proud of him.


    I let Reece carry me to our room. He took the stairs rather than a magical door so that he could spend that much more time carrying me. He was carrying me and the baby at the same time, so it was even more special for him.


    ¡°Here we are.¡± He said as he set me on the bed that we shared, the one where the baby was born not even twelve hours ago yet. To think about how much had happened in thest several hours. By the time that I was finished feeding the baby and drifting off to sleep, that was about when I was going to hit the twelve hour mark since delivering the baby. It had already been a long and exhausting day, but I was happy with all that had happened so far. We had aplished a lot, and we would do more after I took a nap.


    Iid in the bed with the baby, propping her up on a feeding pillow and nursing her so that she was no longer hungry. She was already a good eater. Latching was already perfect for her. That was good, it meant that she was going to get all the nourishment that she needed.


    ¡°I can¡¯t believe how easily it alles back.¡± Reece said as heid with his arm wrapped around me. Cradling me while I cradled the baby.


    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± I asked him with a note of curiosity.


    ¡°How much we forget after they aren¡¯t babies anymore. And then how quickly ites back after the next one is born.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s a little funny, isn¡¯t it? I am d though. I would know how to take care of our babies no matter what happens.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± He nodded at me. ¡°And I will be able to do the same. It¡¯s just surreal.¡± He pulled me closer against his chest as he spoke. ¡°I like how our family has grown over the years, Trinity. It¡¯s practically perfect.¡±


    ¡°I think that it is perfect.¡± I told him. ¡°I love all the kids, but I think, at least for a long time, Reeselynn will be thest to join the family. We need to focus on the family that we have now. And the futures that they are building for themselves.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s fine. We¡¯re immortal after all. We can have another one in a hundred years. There is no reason to rush things.¡± He didn¡¯tugh at all. He was serious. And that was just another reason that I loved him so much.


    I don¡¯t remember when I started to drift off to sleep. I just remember Reece taking the baby from my arms, setting her in the bass, and then climbing back into the bed with me. He was snuggling close, ready to take a nap with me. That also made me happy. I loved when he held me while I slept.

 Chapter 1145 - 1145 Chapter 130- Reece – Scouting for Trouble (VOLUME 6)

    1145 Chapter 130- Reece ¨C Scouting for Trouble (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Reece


    ~~


    A lot had happenedtely. The attack at the stadium, the meeting after, Trinity going intobor and me delivering Reeselynn, putting a barrier around Colorado Springs and Trinity Falls. So much had been going on, and so much more was toe. I knew that my Little Bunny needed to rest, but she was pushing through.


    She had taken her naps when she desperately needed them, that was for sure. Like the day that she put the barrier up. That was three days ago now, and she had gathered her strength back already. She bounced back after having Reeselynn way quicker than with any of the others. Probably because there was so much that needed to be done. We were too busy for her to take time off.


    The barrier was up though, and we were actively looking for the man that was causing us all this trouble. The NSA, the FBI, and all of our people were looking for that man. And we would find him soon. He wouldn¡¯t be able to hide from us much longer.


    We had scouts out in as many areas as we could get them to. We knew that Orson was here in the States. He hadn¡¯t left to go somewhere else, because we were his end goal. He wanted to attack us, to kill us. He wouldn¡¯t leave for that.


    Not to mention, every airport in the country had been put on alert for him. They had his photo and anythinging through their system with his face on it would g a national alert. He would be treated like the highest level terrorist that there was. And that is because he was a terrorist. He was a domestic terrorist that wanted to kill as many people as possible. And if he ever managed to kill them here, he would set his sights on those in other nations.


    At the current moment, I was trying to figure out how to make my mate, my Little Bunny, take some time off. We would find Orson, we would stop him, and we would make sure that no one else got hurt.


    .....


    ¡°Trinity, sweetheart, Little Bunny, you need your rest. Your body has been through a lot.¡± I was pleading with her as she fed the baby in her office. She had spent a lot of time in her office since the baby was born. There was even a bass in there now.


    ¡°Reece, I will take time off when this is all over. I can¡¯t afford to leave now. I have to be there for my people, my family, and for Reeselynn. I know that doesn¡¯t sound right to you, but if I don¡¯t see this through to the end, then there might not be a future for any of us, including Reeselynn. I need to do this Reece. And my body is just fine.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re tired.¡± I ran both of my hands through my hair as I argued with her.


    ¡°Not anymore. I am good now. I was tired the first day, but I used a lot of magic and delivered a baby. Now though, I have taken plenty of naps and I have Reeselynn here to keep me energized. Don¡¯t worry, Reece. I am not tired anymore.¡± She was shuffling through the papers on her desk as she spoke. ¡°What are the scouts looking into now?¡± She knew who we had in the field, but their work was ever changing depending on where they were.


    ¡°I have most of them looking into the ck markets that Glick told us about.¡± The NSA Director that hade to stay with us recently was being very helpful. He had a lot of resources, so with his help along with Rawlynne and Jackson¡¯s help, we were able to find out a lot more than we had before.


    ¡°Have they found out anything yet?¡±


    ¡°Some have seen him, but most turned him away. It¡¯s not easy to procure tanks and things like that. So, the smaller operations are not even taking him seriously.¡± I told her, remembering what it was that was reported to me that morning. It was why I hade to her office to see her in the first ce. It¡¯s just that when I saw her in here, working with the baby right next to her, I felt a pang of regret. I wished that things weren¡¯t like this right now, that my mate and baby were resting upstairs in the bed or the living room, not working here in the office.


    ¡°So, there is no new information.¡± She said as she looked over the paperwork that she had.


    ¡°Yes, and no. We know some of the people that he has gone to see. So, we can partially track where he has been. He isn¡¯t that far from here though, and that is what worries me. He might decide to just make a detour here with whatever it is that he has at the moment. We don¡¯t even know how many people are left in his group. They might be dropping like flies with how frustrated he seems.¡±


    ¡°Frustrated?¡± Trinity asked in a worried tone.


    ¡°Yeah, the scouts say the people that they have talked to about Orson say that he is angry and pissed off. He is upset that he can¡¯t get his hands on the items that he needs. He wants tanks, missiles, and any other heavy artillery that he can get his hands on, but he is failing, repeatedly. If this keeps up, he just might kill his entire army. While that isn¡¯t ideal, it makes for less people that will attack the city.¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t ideal?¡± my Little Bunny¡¯s eyes opened wide then narrowed to slits. ¡°That isn¡¯t the term that I would use, Reece. Not ideal would be them showing up with a few dozen trucks filled with people carrying rifles and homemade bombs. Orson killing his entire army in a fit of rage is a catastrophe.¡±


    ¡°I know, Trinity. I know. I didn¡¯t mean it that way. I was just saying, it would be easier in the long run if he did kill them. It saves us the hassle.¡±


    ¡°We won¡¯t be killing the humans, Reece. Not unless we absolutely have to. We will be arresting them and sending them to prison where they belong.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I know.¡± I hung my head in shame. My Little Bunny had that ability, to make me regret what I said in an instant. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean it the way that it sounded. I am sorry.¡±


    ¡°I know that you are. You¡¯re just tense and upset because you think that I am pushing myself. I am not though. I am just fine, Reece. I promise you.¡±


    ¡°I hope so.¡± I looked at her worriedly. I didn¡¯t want anything bad to happen to her. I wouldn¡¯t be able to handle that.


    ¡°I am fine, Reece. What we need to worry about, and to focus on right now, is Orson and when he is going to arrive. We need to stop him. I need to stop him.¡±


    Ahh, here ites again. I knew that this was going to get me in trouble again, but I didn¡¯t care. I was going to say it again, even if I knew that I already smelled her anger frothing up from this argument once again.


    ¡°Trinity, sweetheart, Little Bunny, you need to stay here. If and when Orson shows up, you need to stay here with Reeselynn and the kids. I need you here, safe and sound.¡± I was telling her this once again, but I knew that she was not going to listen to me.


    ¡°Reece.¡± Her voice was already deepening. She was not happy with me.


    ¡°Trinity!¡± I countered, letting her know that I wasn¡¯t happy either.


    ¡°We have been through this before, Reece. Not just now but in the past as well. I am the Queen. I am the leader of my people. And I will be the one that fights on their behalf. I don¡¯t send people to battle without fighting at their side. I am not going to sit out this time. Besides, I am a shifter, Witch, and a Fae, what can a human do to me?¡± I couldn¡¯t believe what she was saying to me.


    ¡°What can a human do?¡± I asked her, remembering all the dead super naturals fromst year. ¡°Do you not remember all the murders that the Jaeganmitted? How many of our people were killed by humans?¡±


    ¡°They weren¡¯t normal humans. They were enhanced by the blood of ancient beings. They had an advantage. And they were able to use runes. Trust me when I tell you this, Reece, Agent Harrison Orson of the NSA cannot use runes and he is not at all enhanced by an ancient being. He is human through and through.¡±


    ¡°And you know that you can guarantee that statement? How is that?¡±


    ¡°He wasn¡¯t enhanced before, and he hates anything not human so much, that he wouldn¡¯t ask them for help now. Trust me, Reece, he is as human as it gets.¡± She looked back at her desk and at the papers that were waiting for her there. ¡°I will be fine, Reece, and I will be joining in the battle.¡±


    ¡°What if heunches a nuke? Huh? Can you survive that?¡± I countered with the only argument that I had left in me.


    ¡°Well, Reece, if the madman drops a nuke on the city, then none of us are likely to survive, so it wouldn¡¯t matter if I died at your side or at home. So, no matter what happens, I am going to be there. I will fight that man, bring an end to his delusional reign of terror, and bring peace to the world once more. It might not be the world peace that we all dream of, but I can hope for something that is better than it has been.¡± She didn¡¯t even have the decency to give me this part of the argument. How was I supposed to win against her?


    ¡°Trinity Faith Gray, I forbid you froming to the fight. I forbid you from putting yourself in danger that way.¡±


    I knew that I had fucked up the moment that the words were out of my mouth. I knew it, and yet I wasn¡¯t able to stop myself. I was just too worried about her, and I wanted her to stay here, to be safe. I didn¡¯t mean to shove my foot in my mouth up to my knee.


    I could see the anger that was rising in my Little Bunny. She was standing as it rose, as if the anger was what pushed her into a standing position and it alone was supporting her. Though it was more than strong enough to hold her up at the moment.


    ¡°What did you say to me?¡± She spoke through her clenched teeth and lips that barely moved.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t mean it, Little Bunny. I swear.¡± I tried to back pedal, but it was toote.


    ¡°It sounded to me like you were forbidding me from doing something.¡± Her blue eyes sharpened into daggers as she pierced me with them. ¡°Reece Emerson Gray, you know damned well that it is not going to work when you forbid me from doing something. I will be there to fight that man. I will be there to put an end to this war. These are my people. They need me. And I will see it through. I will do what I need to do, and you know damned well that forbidding me to do it will only result in pissing me off.¡±


    ¡°I know, sweetheart, I know. And I am sorry. I didn¡¯t mean it. I know that you want to be there, that you feel the need to be there. But can¡¯t you see it from my point of view, sweetheart? I want to protect you. I need to protect you. And I don¡¯t want you to get hurt.¡±


    ¡°I understand that, Reece. I really do. But I will be there. I will end this fight. And I will not get hurt. If you want to protect me, then do it there, wherever that might be. Protect me in real time, don¡¯t try to hide me away.¡±


    ¡°Hahh.¡± I sighed, a little too loudly and dramatically. I was trying my best to dispel the tension that had filled the room. ¡°Alright. Fine. I will protect you there, on the field. And I will make sure that nothing happens to you at all. I can¡¯t lose you, baby. I just can¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°And you won¡¯t, Reece. I promise you. I will be fine, you will be fine. Well all will make it home safe and sound.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯d better. If we don¡¯t, then I will call you a liar for the rest of time.¡± I pretended to scoff at her.


    ¡°I think that you need to be the one scouting for trouble. Here. In this very room.¡± Sheughed at me. ¡°You¡¯re dangerously close to getting in trouble.¡± Theughter told me that it was all good, that she was ready to move beyond this, as long as I didn¡¯t bring it up again.


    Dammit! She always won.

 Chapter 1146 - 1146 Chapter 131- The Colonel – Gathering Munitions (VOLUME 6)

    1146 Chapter 131- The Colonel ¨C Gathering Munitions (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    The Colonel Harrison Orson


    ~~


    Those bastards. Those inhuman scoundrel bastards. They had found my private base. They had infiltrated it and killed my second inmand. They had copsed part of the tunnels and killed Dn West and a couple of the other recruits that had been brought to me. That one recruit, William Porter that had just joined us, he had been a wonderful asset already. He was so smart and talented, but they took him from me as well.


    William Porter and Dn West were both worth more than any other lowly piece of trash that joined the DOE recently. Even that walking waste, Kirnd rk, the one that went by the name of Barnd because he was part of the original BARC team, he was better than most of these worthless pieces of trash.


    So many of the newbies were a waste of my time and resources. I had to thin the ranks a little when I got to the cave that they had moved to. Some of those that were the worst of them all needed to die, so I let the darkness creep out of its recesses and take care of them. This time though, I didn¡¯t lose track of what was happening. This time, I remained aware of what I was doing the entire time.


    That darkness was my rage, my anger, my power. And I was going to use it to destroy those monsters. They think that they can make a fool out of me. I will show them. I will show the entire world. If they would have just let things be the way that they were, then I wouldn¡¯t have pursued this so much. If they hadn¡¯t preempted my reveal of them to the world, then I wouldn¡¯t have tried to destroy them so much. The people would have hated them and they would have already been destroyed.


    No, they had to get rights secured by the governments of the world and then they revealed themselves to be the fucking friends to the universe. Half the people in the world now thought that they were the greatest things to walk the earth. Still, there were people that thought like me, that hated those things for what they were.


    I would end them. I would end them all. Now that I pruned the hedges of the DOE once more, pruning off at least a dozen branches that didn¡¯t need to be here anymore, I was able to start work on what I needed once more.


    .....


    Half of the dead bodies remained in the cave, the others were scattered as I made my way across the state to another shelter that I had secured. This one only I knew about, so no one else was likely to be there. I didn¡¯t have to worry about who might have ratted me out and betrayed me. Like that asshole, Dayton Long. He was a piece of scum, working against me with the Director. Now I had to be even more careful when I was trying to get my firepower.


    I still had nearly a thousand members of the DOE, but I didn¡¯t know how easily I could transport them all now. Not with West being gone and my entire operation beingpromised. Dammit! There had to have been a traitor in my army. There was someone in there that was feeding information to the monster¡¯s Queen. She sent her people to get me, to kill me.


    Fuck her! I wouldn¡¯t go down that easily. I wouldn¡¯t let her beat me. I was going to be king. Not just one small part of the world either. I was going to be the king of the world. Yes, that was what I was going to be. I would kill the monster queen and all of her little minions, then I would slowly take over the world. And there was nothing that anyone could do to stop me. Not as long as I continued to recruit more people to my army. I would be able to fight them off no matter what.


    For now though, I needed weapons, I needed ammo, I needed munitions to fight against the monsters. I knew where they were. I knew where their base of operations was. I would go there, right to where they were. I would take the fight to their front door and take them by surprise. They would die almost instantly and then I would be the hero of the century, the millennium, of all history. Yes, that was what would happen.


    I had a list of sellers that could possibly get me what I needed. Some of them might have it on hand already, others might not. The only thing is, not all of these sellers were true allies. Some of them were just army buffs, others were on the wrong side of the fight. It was going to be an intense time while I tried to track down what I needed.


    What I truly wanted were my tanks. I wanted them back. I needed them. I had recruited some experts that had fixed the firing mechanisms and made it so that they were once again capable of firing missiles and other firepower. They would have been the best option.


    Everyone knew that the monster bitch Queen, Trinity Gray, was part Fae. And all Fae legends talk about how they cannot touch or manipte most forms of metal. That meant that as long as I was inside of a vehicle like a tank, then I was safe from that evil bitch. I would be able to destroy her, and she wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything to me.


    My tanks were still there in Benkelman though. And now the NSA was crawling all over the scene. After leaving the cave that morning, I had sent some scouts to the tunnels in Benkelman to see what the situation was like. There were NSA search teams all over the ce. And not only that, but they had also found the caves. They knew about the dead bodies, and they were likely to try and pin them on me.


    Yes, technically I had killed them, but it wasn¡¯t my fault. They were worthless. They had no purpose to add to my team. Why should I keep them around? And this is war, you don¡¯t let your enemies live, and you don¡¯t just fire a soldier. They would flip sides and give secrets to the enemies. No, I had to kill them, it was the only way that you could make it through a situation like that.


    I was starting over from square one. I wasn¡¯t able to get tanks, not really, but I had other options. And I had a lot of people willing to help me. Not all by choice, but they were willing to do what needed to be done, to preserve their own safety. Still, I was slowly rebuilding the stock that those monsters stole from me.


    The first new thing that I got to rece my actual tanks was the Wiesel 2 Argus Scout Tankette. It wasn¡¯t a full tank, but it was going to be able to function the way that I wanted it to. I was making sure that it held at least two men and a lot of ammo.


    To go along with the Wiesel, I also managed to get my hands on three American T17E1 Staghound armored cars from World War II. Those were going to help a lot, and they packed a pretty big punch when it came to firing capabilities. I also procured two reconnaissance vehicles that were the United States Army M1127. They were faster, lightly armored, but still packed with autocannons. They would devastate those monsters easily. Andstly, I got three Bulgarian M1117, which were American made in all truth. These were meant for crowd control and equipped with machine guns. They were going to be fun little toys for me to use.


    I had managed to recover a good amount of the firearms that I had stashed away for the battle that I knew wasing. I knew that something was going to go wrong, so I had refused to put it all in one ce. I had just known that something was going to go wrong and that I needed to be prepared for anything.


    Slowly and steadily, things wereing back together. I wasn¡¯t done building my army¡¯s supplies back up yet, but I was getting there. And before long, I would march on that evil bitch¡¯s home and knock it over like it was nothing more than a pile of building blocks. I would see to it that the wretched piece of trash burned to death with her lover and their entire worthless family.


    I could see it all now. The burning and screaming monsters. The smell of their charring flesh. The heat from the mes that melted their skin from their bones. It was all so glorious, so perfect, that it made me smile and the rage in the back of my mind smolder with excitement and eagerness, ready to be set loose on the unsuspecting masses.


    Soon, it wasing soon. I would end them all. I would rule the world. I would see my dreamse true. Soon, very soon. Just a little more to go. I needed more guns, more ammo, more soldiers, more to fight the monsters. I needed to make sure that I had enough to kill them all in one go. I was almost there. Almost there. So very close.

 Chapter 1147 Chapter 132- The Colonel – Instruction from the General (VOLUME 6)

    1147 Chapter 132- The Colonel ¨C Instruction from the General (VOLUME 6) ~~


    The Colonel Harrison Orson


    ~~


    I had the guns. I had the vehicles. I had the men. And, unfortunately, I had plenty of women as well. I had an army, albeit a small one. There was almost nothing else that I needed before I was able tounch my attack.


    The only thing that I needed to work on now was when I was going tounch the attack on those people. No, on those things. They were not worthy of being called people. They were disgusting monsters that turned into different creatures of the night. They were the stuff of nightmares and Hollywood horror movies.


    Yes, over the years, people had romanticized those ''things'' in books, movies, and television, but they were not worthy of being called people. They were gross, disgusting, and needed to be exterminated. And that was where I came in.


    I was going to be the exterminator. I was going to rid the world of the infestation that had taken root under our noses. I was going to see to it that they were gone for good. Then I would lead the people. I would change the world into what it needed to be.


    I would create a new world order. A new kingdom that rose above all the others. It would be a military state, one that was governed by me and made to cooperate. We would always be at the ready for another war, another battle, and anyone that couldn''t cut it would be pruned from the garden. I had no patience for people that were weak and useless.


    "You''re doing well, Colonel." I heard the voice say from nearby. I had heard this voice before, but it was always in the back of my mind. I had never heard it so clearly before. "Are you really there?" I had a feeling I knew who it was, but I wasn''t sure. Not until I heard them more, what they sounded like and what they had to say.


    "Yes, it is me. Look over here." The voice called from near the wall. I rose to my feet and stepped closer to where the voice was. It seemed to me like the man that was talking, in that deep and familiar tone, wasing from the corner.


    The only thing in the corner was a standing mirror. Why was that in here? I hadn''t asked for it to be put in here when I set up these quarters. I hadn''t ever had a reason for a standing mirror like this. Still, that was where the voice wasing from.


    "Over here, Colonel." The voice,manding and strong, seemed like it wasing from the mirror itself. "Come here, soldier."


    "I am not just a soldier." I told the voice as I stepped in front of the mirror. "I am the Colonel around here. I am in charge."


    "Oh yes, I know that you are." The voice was not condescending, but it was acting as if it were a higher rank than I was. Not in my army, I was the highest authority.


    "Who are you? Why are you here? What do you want?" There was so much about this voice that I wanted to know. So much that I wanted to ask.


    "Who am I? Are you telling me that you don''t know? You haven''t figured it out yet?" The voice, a little mocking now, chuckled as it spoke.


    At that moment, I stepped in front of the mirror. The person that was looking back at me was familiar, but I still didn''t know who they were. Not right away. I saw his hair, military short and sandy colored and knew that I had seen it before, but I wasn''t able to put my finger on it. His eyes, a warm and intense brown, very human and normal looking but also conveying authority, were looking me right in the eyes. He stood tall and straight, a proud man with a proper military background.


    He was wearing a uniform, one that I knew that I had never seen before. It was green with plenty of medals and badges on it. He looked regal and important. He looked very much like the leader that I intended to be.


    "Do you know who I am now, Colonel?" He asked me, a smirk ying at the corner of his lips.


    "You are the General. You are the man that I want to be." I smiled at him. "Are you here to tell me that I will achieve my goals? That I will be the king and general of my new world order?"


    "If you can aplish what you want to Colonel, then all is possible." His eyes, wide and filled with energy, seemed to be boring into my soul as he looked at me. "That monster bitch is all that stands in our way. She is the reason that our investigation was canceled. She is the reason why we lost face in the office. She is the reason that we have fallen so low with our peers. They will see, though. They will all see what it is that we wanted to show them." "Yes, they will see. They will understand that all we were trying to do was save them. Those things, those monsters, they were the reason for all those murders. The ones that killed them, the Jaegan, they were in the right. They were doing our work before we even knew what our work was." There was a burning intensity inside of me. I knew that it was him, the General, empowering me with his support.


    "Exactly. Now we must continue that work. We must show the world what is possible, without all those things polluting it. When we kill them all off, there will be a vacuum of power. So many positions will need to be filled, and only you can do it, Colonel. You need to win this battle and ascend to your new position. You need to be General Orson. That is the only way to make our dreamse true." He was right. I needed to ascend. I needed to raise my ranks.


    "But how will I do that? How can I guarantee my victory?" I felt a small slip in the connection between the General in the mirror and myself. I knew that he was me, but he wasn''t the me now. He was the me that I wanted to be. He was the me that I needed to be.


    "You need to attack. You need to take them by surprise and attack them with all that you have. They will not see iting, and they will all perish instantly." He seemed so confident and powerful that it was hard to see how he could be wrong.


    "And if they manage to somehow make it through the next attack? If I cannot eliminate them in one go? What do I do then?" I needed more from him though. I needed to know what to do. I needed him to tell me what to do.


    "Then you need to step it up. You have one more option if the munitions you have at hand do not seed." There was a glint in his eyes, a shining little light that told me that he had an ace up his uniformed sleeve.


    "One more?" I asked the General, wondering what it was that he was talking about. "You will need to break into one of the most guarded offices in the country, but I am sure that you know what I am talking about. And with the army at yourmand, you can do anything that you set your mind to. I believe in you, Colonel."


    Break into a highly guarded office for an ace in the hole? There was only one thing that he could be talking about. He was telling me that I needed to get into themand office andunch a missile. A nuke to be exact. I could do without this part of the country, if it meant destroying all of those things that were trying to infest my world and stop me from reaching my true potential.


    "I understand, General. I know what I must do. If this next attack does not work, then I will make sure that Iunch the bomb. Humans will perish with them, but they will be a necessary sacrifice for the greater good. I will rebuild this part of the world after the radiation settles, and it will never again be tainted with the disgusting monsters that inhabit it now."


    "That''s it. You do understand, Colonel. You can take care of this. You know what to do." There was a small amount ofughter that filled the room. I wasn''t sure if it wasing from me or the General, but I knew that it was in support of the ns that I was making. No, that we were making. The General was the future me, but he wasn''t me yet. He was there, in the mirror, offering me his guidance so that I could be the man that I needed to be. He was going to show me the way, so that I could one day be him.


    I could feel the pride and the sense of aplishment already. The General was happy with me, and he was going to show me how to be even better. He wanted to see me as the new world leader. He wanted to see the new regime as much as I did, and that made me feel like there was nothing that could stop me.


    *~~!~~**~~!~~**~~!~~*


    ~~


    DOE GRUNT/VAMPARD


    ~~


    I was asked to take a file to the Colonel. We had just managed to absorb another group into the DOE army. We were preparing for the attack that wasing up, the one where we were supposed to be destroying the hive Queen. We were almost set and ready to go, but there was just a little more that we needed to do.


    This new group, the Loyal Army of Minutemen, Bombers, and Snipers, or LAMBS, was a highly skilled set of warriors that had honed their craft over thest several years. They weren''t exactly against those super natural pieces of shit, but they were willing to join our fight because they wanted to put their skills to good use.


    08:23


    When I had approached the Colonel''s office, I heard two voicesing from the room beyond the door. One of the voices was definitely the Colonel''s, but the other seemed a little gruffer and sterner. And that was saying something because the Colonel was a very stern and angry man as it was.


    The door to the office was cracked open, not quitetched all the way, so I was able to peek into the room. I saw that the Colonel was actually alone in the room. He was standing in the corner directly opposite of me, looking into the mirror that one of the women had put in there for him. They had thought that he would want to make sure that his new DOE uniform that he hadmissioned was fitting him properly and to admire the way that it looked on himself.


    The second voice, the one that was not quite the Colonel''s, was actuallying from him. I hadn''t thought that it was him because he was changing the tone and timber of his voice, but it was him alright. He was talking to himself as he looked into the mirror.


    "That''s it. You do understand, Colonel. You can take care of this. You know what to do." He was encouraging himself as he spoke in the other voice. I thought that it was quite strange, and it actually scared me a little. What was the Colonel doing? Why was he talking to himself?


    Before I had the answer to what I was asking myself, the Colonel called from the other side of the door.


    "WHO''S THERE!?"


    "Excuse me, Colonel, I have brought a file for you." I had to fight not to stammer and show how scared I was of the man that had called out to me.


    "GET IN HERE AND GIVE IT TO ME THEN, SOLDIER. DO NOT JUST STAND THERE!" I was frightened by what the Colonel had been doing, and by that tone in his voice. He was acting differently than he had when I originally joined the DOE. He was acting unstable and unpredictable.


    "H..here you are, Sir." I stepped into the office and held the file out to him.


    "Were you spying on me?" The Colonel''s eyes narrowed as he took the file from me.


    "No, Sir, not at all. I just arrived when you called out to me. I hadn''t had the chance to knock yet." He narrowed his eyes at my words, I could tell that he didn''t believe me. It was the truth though. I had just arrived. I hadn''t spied on him. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    "You are part of the VAMPs, correct?" He knew who I was. He knew who everyone in the group was once they had been there for a week at the least.


    "Y..yes, Sir, I am."


    "Pity, your team seemed promising." He spoke calmly, almost as if he were dismissive and about to let things go, but I still didn''t trust him. And I had good reason to. I never even saw him going for the gun, he hadn''t lifted it at all. He shot from hip height, the loud reverberating sound filling the room the moment that I felt the pain searing through my chest.


    "S..S..S..Sir?" I stuttered out the word as I fell to my knees. I knew that I was already dead. He had killed me, and my mind was just trying to catch up to my body as I slumped to the ground. "That is what you get for spying on me and the General!" He said as he stooped over me. "You should never spy on your superior officers andmanders. I am the highest authority in this army, in the world, and I will not tolerate people spying on me. I will kill anyone that breaks these rules." There was angry spittle flying from his mouth as he spoke these words with vehemence. "I..I..I..I didn''t." I said the words with myst breath. It was at that moment that everything around me went dark.

 Chapter 1148 Chapter 133- Trinity – Unrest Part 1 (VOLUME 6)

    1148 Chapter 133- Trinity ¨C Unrest Part 1 (VOLUME 6)


    ~~


    Trinity


    ~~


    I couldn''t believe that Reeselynn was already a week old. Well almost. She was six days old. It was now Saturday the ninth of March. I was feeding the baby in the living room while the others still slept. Reece was even still in bed at the moment. There was a lot that could be said about having this moment alone with the baby. Just her and I here in the room all alone.


    I had known when she woke me up at five that I wouldn''t be able to get back to sleep, so I popped through a magical door and down to the living room before she could wake her daddy. Her cries were soft and quiet anyway, so she hadn''t been that loud yet.


    "There you go." I said as I popped her off my nipple and switched her to the other side. "There you go, sweetheart." Shetched on again and started to suckle once more. She had been a good eater since the first feeding. And she was still going strong ever since.


    "Hey, why didn''t you wake me?" Reece asked as he came off of the elevator. "Because you needed your sleep." I told him quietly as I watched the nursing baby. "You need your sleep too, mine isn''t more important than yours." He sat next to me on the couch and watched me. "Well, when you grow boobs to feed the baby, then you can nurse her. Until then, this is my job."


    "Ha ha ha." Heughed sardonically at my words. "Sorry, I will give her a bottle, not a booby. I can''t breastfeed her."


    "And that is why I didn''t wake you. You know that I like to breastfeed them as much as possible. It''s good for them."


    "I know that it is." He said, not at all acting offended or angry. "But remember when the twins were born. You were trying to do everything and needed help. You need to let others help as well. Reeselynn will eat from breast and bottle. She hasn''t been picky. So, if you need some more sleep, I will take care of her. She will be just fine with her daddy and either form or breastmilk."


    "I know." What he was saying was true, but it didn''t matter to me. I wanted to do this, so that was what I nned on doing. "I will do what I can though Reece, and I will ask for help when I need it."


    "Why are you two arguing already?" Reagan asked as he came into the living room. "You know, it''s what woke me up."


    "Ha ha ha, very funny." I looked up at him. "You know that it couldn''t, not with how this ce is built."


    "Hmm, I wonder." He looked slyly at me. "I just woke up though, and I was hungry. Also, I thought that I would find you in here feeding my little sister." He had be such a doting big brother already. I loved seeing him with the baby.


    "Well, I just finished feeding her. We can get some breakfast. Let the others sleep a little longer."


    "Sounds good to me." He said as he took the baby to pat her back. He was going to burp her for me. "Come on, little one." "Is it just me, or is he practicing how to be a dad?" Reece asked as he watched Reagan leave the room. "I think that he is just trying to be a good big brother to his sister, that''s all. Don''t make more out of it than there is." I told Reece as he helped me to my feet.


    "Maybe."


    Together we went to the dining room and got something to eat. The others didn''t wake up until closer to eight and nine that morning. Talia, the night owl, slept until ten, but I didn''t mind. It was the weekend after all.


    This seemed like it was going to be a peaceful day. We hadn''t heard much from the scoutstely, so there was little to worry about. And the morning was dawning bright and beautiful. The weather was even really mild and nice. It truly seemed like we were just going to be able to rx in the sunroom and have a nice peaceful day. That is until the phone call came in. "Hello?" I answered the call from Devon without thinking much about it. If there was something that was going to happen with Orson, we would get a call from Glick, Rawlynne, or Jackson. The locals wouldn''t be the first to know about it. So therefore, this couldn''t be that major.


    "Hey, Trinity." His voice was a little tense and that made me sit up straighter on the couch.


    "What''s the matter, Devon?" I asked immediately. Clearly, there was something wrong. "I just got word that there is some sort of demonstration. Apparently, there are pro super natural supporters and anti super natural rioters picketing against each other at the stadium."


    "The stadium? Why there?" I was confused by the fact that, once again, the stadium was being targeted by these people. "Well, apparently, the anti super natural elitists of the world think that the stadium is linked to you because that was where you revealed us to the world. They seem to think that the whole ce has some big significance to us. Especially after that support group held their convention there as well. They think that we set the whole thing up because of that." I could hear what Devon was telling me, but I wasn''t really able to process it at the moment. This was all just insane to me. I didn''t know what was going on. Why were they trying to associate that ce to us? And why were they even picketing in the first ce? What the heck was going on here?


    "How bad is it, Devon?" I asked as I got to my feet. I needed to go, I knew that already, and I wasn''t the only one that was going there. Reece and the others would be with me. We were needing to settle these things and set the record straight.


    08:24


    "They''re both staying on their side of the barriers right now, but I am sure that they will be crossing it soon. The antis are hurling slurs and hate speech to the super natural supporters, and they''re not liking it all that much. I am afraid that it is going to break out into a fight soon."


    "Hahh." I sighed and tried not to let this get to me. "The most that I can do is try to keep the peace. The antis will have us to focus on, and they will leave the supporters alone. And the same for the supporters. I know that it isn''t much, but we will be there to do what we can soon."


    "I appreciate that, Trinity, I really do. I know that you will be able to make a difference, even if it is just a small one." n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "I know, Devon, I know. A lot of the issues are resulting from me anyway. They want to see Reece and I, even the antis want to see us. They think that we are the antichrists and all that. We will be there soon, Devon. I know that even a little bit of help will make a world of difference."


    "That it will. We will see you at the stadium soon." He hung up the phone as I headed toward the elevator. I needed to get dressed, and so did Reece, Reagan, and Rika. We were all heading to the stadium. Talia could stay here with the baby and the younger kids. I would ask that my mom and L came to help them out a little. I didn''t know how long I was going to be gone.


    Within ten minutes we were all ready to go. I met them all back in the living room, along with all the guards and the rest of the inner circle. Trevor, Aunt Glory, Athair m¨°r, Grandfather, all of them and the others were going with us to make sure that we convinced the humans to calm down and stop their bickering. I just wanted them to get along and stop spreading hate of any kind.


    We took a magic door to the stadium. It would guarantee that the humans knew who we were. I was the only person that could make those doors after all. At least to their knowledge. And they would see me the moment that we walked through to the other side.


    "WITCH!" I heard a man shout the moment that he saw me. "WITCH! MONSTER! DEMON BITCH FROM HELL!"


    "Now you''re just being rude. Demons and Witches are two very different things." I said nonchntly. "Now, why is it that you''ve alle here to start fighting?" I spoke to the anti super naturals like they were kindergarteners that were misbehaving.


    "YOU MONSTERS ARE RUINING OUR PLANET!"


    "THEY HAVE BEEN HERE AS LONG AS WE HAVE!" One of the supporters yelled in response to that and the screaming match started all over again.


    "STOP!" I yelled louder than they did. "You all need to stop!" I called out after they settled a little.


    "WHY SHOULD WE!?" One of the antis screamed at me. "YOU ARE ABOMINATIONS THAT HAVE COME TO OUR WORLD TO DESTROY US ALL!"


    "Do you know how woefully misinformed you are?" Elijah Dalton, reporter and friend, said as he came walking up with Lara, our other reporter friend. "They haven''t just recently gotten here. They''ve been with us all along. We have all lived together for millennia. You just didn''t know it."


    "LIES!" Several antis yelled at the same time. "THEY HAVE ONLY RECENTLY ARRIVED!" "We''ve been here all along." I assured them. "I have lived here my entire life, and I am almost forty."


    "YOU ARE A MONSTER BITCH!"


    "TRINITY, YOU ARE SO AMAZING!" There were conflicting yellsing from the two groups. They were calling out their hate and support at the same time. "They''ve been here, even I have made stories about them in the past. They are not new, they have been here all along. And they are not a threat. If they were, wouldn''t they have destroyed us humans centuries ago?" Lara was fighting backughter as she spoke. "You need to settle down, people. They are not our enemies."


    I watched on as the police just stood there, the picketers weren''t breaking thew, not yet anyway. And that was why Devon had called me. He wanted me to help them because they weren''t able to take action against them just yet. If I could keep things from getting out of hand, then that would help them in the long run.


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